My Boy

Loumy is always doing little things that completely amaze me. His prayers are always so sincere. I will often come in to tuck him in at night and will find him kneeling on his bed, saying his personal prayers. We take turns saying the family prayer at night before bed. Last night was his turn. I'd been a little stressed the past few days because the kids have been fighting SO much. That is my least favorite thing in the world, I think. Anyway, Loumy's prayers are always good and heartfelt but he's never used this particular language or pleaded with the Lord in this way:

"and please...I really, really, REALLY, with all my heart and with all my might, pray that we can be a stronger family and more kind to each other."

With all my heart and all my might? Did I mention that he is six. I adore this kid.

Four Weeks Old

My little, baby, angel Lila Pearl is already almost a month old. Isn't she beautiful?
And look how friendly she is!

What a miracle and blessing it is to have her in our lives. I am just so in love with her!

She is so long and thin! We just started supplementing with some formula because my colitis has really flared up and she will eat for about an hour and then still be ravenous, so I think that my milk is probably not super nutritious right now. Maybe if I'm able to get myself feeling better then I'll be able to absorb more nutrients and make better food for her. Or I might need to stop making food for her if I want to get myself feeling better. We'll see. She seems to be happy to have her belly full from a bottle--though she only drinks about 2 ounces at a time, maybe 3 if she's really REALLY hungry. I'm still hoping to breast feed as long as possible, but we'll see how it goes.

Lila rarely cries. She whimpers a little. But she usually gives plenty of warning that she wants to be cared for before she wails. She has never been inconsolable. If she's crying she wants to be near me, fed, or changed. Do that and she'll be happy to stop. How nice is that? She doesn't like having her diaper changed, but she likes a dirty diaper even less. She doesn't sleep for very long. The longest period of sleep I've had since she was born was three hours. I'm very tired. But I try to remain positive because I know this period will not last long. She will usually start out sleeping in her cradle next to our bed, but she definitely doesn't sleep as well when she can't smell me, so she spends a lot of time in bed with us. I love having her sleep on my chest. I like to place my hands on either side of her tiny abdomen to feel it expanding and contracting as she sleeps. These are views I don't ever want to forget:

The biggest blessing to me personally right now is that I'm experiencing no post-partum depression. Any anxiety I feel is related to sleep deprivation and the work and patience required to care for five little people. This is such a blessing because I can truly enjoy all of the little things that should be enjoyed about a newborn. Just staring at little eyelashes, letting a tiny hand clasp my finger, smelling Lila's head after a bath, etc. Those things fill me with joy. When you are having pp depression, you want to feel that joy but you can't and that stinks and also makes you feel guilty because you have this beautiful child and you are so in love with her but your brain isn't right and you cry all the time and you know you should be happy...so...anyway...I have some physical issues but I will take those over mental any day!

What a miracle and a blessing it is that the Lord let us have this little one.

Here she is on Easter Sunday:

Oh...and I'm pretty sure her eyes are going blue!

Photography Problems

Dear Sister Amy,

Could you please come to Texas and help me? I can't take a decent picture to save my life. And look at my babies! I need good photos of them and I have a good camera. What is wrong with me??? The lighting is terrible. The photos aren't sharp. Ugh. Help me.

Love,

Sister

The Girls' Acting Debut

Last weekend String Cheese and Deedle debuted in their first ever theatrical productions. Our city has a local, volunteer, free, acting group for children. About two months ago the girls tried out (thanks to Catherine for telling us about it) and each got parts. Luckily all 60 - 70 kids who tried out got a part because the production was a group of four short plays. They were nice, little plays with moral-character-building-messages, written by a woman named Judy Truesdell. SC played a student by the name of Jane in, "You Don't Love Me." Our favorite neighbor with her same name is in this picture to her right. She was student "Sarah". They each had one line. :)Apparently I had no idea what settings to use to be able to get a photo from the dark audience (or anywhere else). So, we have nothing but terrible light and blurriness, but my girls are darling all the same. Here is SC in her costume of choice (check out her new cowgirl boots!):
Deedle was a part of the "Spider Chorus" in "What a Tangled Web We Weave". She is in the middle on the back row.




The theatre is not exactly "my thing". So, I can't say that I just loved the experience. But, my mother is quite a talented actress (in truth!). And I am really proud of the girls. They did great at the rehearsals and practices. Deedle's song was really hard to learn and I thought she would begin to complain, but turns out she loved it. While SC enjoyed learning more about acting and being a part of the show, her interest in soccer and other sports seems to be waning. We're a bit surprised because she was doing so well on her soccer teams before we left Utah. We aren't giving up yet, but its good for her to experience other things in which she might enjoy participating. The acting group is going to put on The Wizard of Oz this summer and both girls are hoping to land some kind of part. I guess we'll see how it goes.

"You are in Texas Now. You Love football. You just don't know it yet."

While running around at the park this week, Loumy came by the bench where I was sitting and said: Boys are crazier than girls! But girls are smarter than boys.
Me: What would make you say that?
Loumy: Because (he shrugs and gives me a huge smile as he turns to run up a slide), boys do a lot more dumber things!

Hm...was all I thought to myself. Should I analyze this statement? Correct him? Agree with him? I said nothing and just let him play. I am not saying that girls are always smarter than boys, but...in general...boys do seem to do a lot more dumber things. One of those dumb things is play football. Its such a dangerous sport. But maybe I am the dumb one because I signed my son up to play it.

Ever since Chancho moved to Dallas, Loumy has been asking if he was going to get to play football once he got here. Chanch did some research and found out that the local Baptist league (called Upward) had a league in the spring and told Loumy about it. He was SO excited! Well, games have started and he is still SUPER enthusiastic. It is flag football, so not nearly so dangerous as it could...or should I say "will"...be.

Chancho took Loumy on the first night for evaluations (which Chancho insists were "try-outs" and that they were set up and run like the kids were trying to get into the NFL, but I think they just wanted to see how much the kids knew so they could make the teams even). Anyway, they told him they'd teach our boy, "a little about football and a little about Jesus." What's not to like about that?

I think Loumy is destined to be a very good athlete. Here are some of the reasons why:
1. He is naturally very athletic, agile, and coordinated.
2. He loves anything that has to do with athletics. He would like us to get him involved in every single sport that is available to man. For now football and soccer keep us plenty busy.
3. He takes the sport very seriously. He listens to the coaches and really wants to do things exactly how they tell him to do it because he knows he will be a better player.
4. During games, he keeps a game face on and is very intent, most of the time, yet he is not overly competitive. He wants really bad to win, but never does he want to see another person lose. That breaks his sweet little heart. I'm sure some of that will change as he enters puberty (I'm guessing).
5. He is able to read situations in a very mature manner--much as he is able to read the social situations around him and respond in a very mature manner, he is able to see what is happening all around him on the field and naturally seems to know how to respond to that situation.
6. He is already becoming a leader on the field and knows how to coach and encourage team members, yet is not bossy.
7. He's very kind and everybody likes him, yet he just kicks their little tails on the field. But is still nice.

Here are a few photos from his game last week. They are pretty terrible photos, but they're what I got.

Here he is playing defense. He had two good "tackles". I was unable to attend his game this morning but he called me and left me a voice message. He was very jubilant in the message and told me he'd scored two touchdowns and "I was a flag pulling machine. At least, well, that is what Dad said I should tell you that I was." Later, when I asked him about how many tackles he'd had, he shrugged and said, "Like ten or something." Chancho nodded his head and said, "At least."

Here he is running the ball. He's got it:
Now he tucks it under his arm, just like he told me his coach showed him:
He's headed towards the end zone. He weaved in and out of several players by this point:He's almost there:Here you can only see his leg, but you can tell by the referee and his teammate that it was a touchdown:

The Texans take their football VERY seriously. All elements of the game are encouraged very early on, including the cheering. These little ones come and cheer at the games, but they just cheer for "Upward" so they are encouraging both teams. Football, cheering, and Jesus on a Saturday morning. We must be in Texas!

The Newborn Sling

I have mentioned having baby Lila in a sling in a past blog post and a few of you have asked what kind of sling I use. If you didn't ask, you might not be interested at all in this post.

Anyway...this is the essential newborn sling. It is a piece of knit, stretchy fabric, 18 feet long and about 18 inches wide. I used one with Finn, as well, and it is awesome. Some people will use this sling for many months. There are lots of ways you can position your baby and even up to toddler. For me I really only used it for a couple of months, during the time that the baby wants to be swaddled a lot, then I prefer a back pack if I need to have my hands free and carry them at the same time. As you know, babies typically love to be swaddled and held. Lila wants to be against my chest most of the day and is pretty much always happy if she is snuggled against me. Finn was the same. So, this sling is really great! My cute niece, Jessica, wanted to give one to a friend when Finn was a baby so I had her come over to model the instructions. They are pretty self-explanatory.

The first step is to find the middle of the fabric. I keep telling myself I'm going to sew a little something at the middle to mark that point, but I keep forgetting to do that.

Anyway, position the middle of the fabric across your middle like this:
Take it around your back, cross it, and bring the ends up over your shoulders:

Take your two ends (or straps) down and tuck them under the front "belt" portion of the sling:

Cross them and tie them around your back:


Now you are done tying the sling. Next is to put the baby in. There are several ways to do this, but this is best for a newborn:

Insert baby (haha) into sling by positioning head in one side of sling...

Then legs and rest of body in the other side of sling and adjust baby until s/he's comfortable.
Next, lift up the front belt portion of sling over baby to keep her secure.

There you go!

Happy as can be!
You can also position baby in more of a sitting position.

Oh, and if you have too much stress on your neck, you can adjust the "straps" to be more spread out like this:Yesterday I wore baby in the sling while we went for a walk (pushed Finn in jog stroller), had a feeding (I sat in the backyard and got some sun on my legs while she ate and Finn jumped on the trampoline), folded 3 loads of laundry, did a load of dishes, and read a story to Finn. Oh, and she's in the sling right now while I blog. Pretty handy, huh?

Two Weeks and Two Years

How does a little child go from this...


To something like this...


...seemingly overnight?

Finn is such an awesome kid. This week he already seems pretty much back to his regular, jolly, dear self. Hurray!

He recently had his two-year well child check. He weighs 30.5 pounds and is 34.5 inches tall. I hope, again, that the doctor theory which says a child's full grown height is double his two-year-old-height is wrong. That would make him only 5'9". No offense to any guys that are 5'9", but if this predictor is correct, SC will be 6'1". Deedle will be 6'2", Loumy will be 5'8" and Finn will be 5'9". Typically a girl appreciates not being quite so tall and a boy appreciates an added measure of height. Especially boys like Loumy who love sports SO much. Soccer its okay to be 5'8", other sports you're going to need more height, most likely, to be able to go very far. That's okay. We'll just see. Loumy and Finn both had rough starts so maybe those predictions won't be accurate. Doesn't matter. Just interesting. Oh, this is interesting, too, although not surprising...Finn's height is in the 50%, his weigh is about the 82%, and his head size...90% :)

Here is a pic of Finn with his beloved "lotient". He doesn't like ending words with an "n" so he addes a "t" or "ce" sound. Aunt Allison is "Allisince".
This picture will be saved for blackmail purposes. Finn insisted on undoing his pjs to feed the baby. Here are a few pics of my two babies together.