Mercurial

"If you chance to meet a frown, do not let it stay;"

"Quickly turn it upside down, and smile that frown away."

It works, I swear. I sing this song whenever Elliot is in one of his frequent moods: angry face, pointer on, accusing me of not being "reasonable." But then I start singing this song, and he really does switch like this. On, off goes his mood. I know it won't last forever, but I'm going to use this trick as long as I can. So help me.

Keys!!

Our new house has something our other house did not: locks on the doors. At first, I thought this was great; I could lock Elliot in his bedroom at naptime so he would actually take a nap. And that has helped me, I'll admit.

But then, Elliot discovered that he, too, can lock doors. He takes great joy in locking people (especially Dottie) in and out of places. I will often go upstairs to discover every room locked. Just now, he fell for his own trick. He locked himself out of the bathroom, and he couldn't get in. Maybe this is why he has been peeing his pants nonstop?

Dottie, for her own protection, has discovered various keys to get the doors unlocked. She first started with her hair clips. I thought, "Oh, this is good. Now when Elliot locks her in a room, she can get out." But she started giving him the keys, too. So I would put him down for a nap, and the next thing I know, he's out of his room. He now throws a fit if I put him down and he can't sleep with a "key."

Joe and I have since confiscated all hair clip keys. But my kids have gotten creative. They realized you can use kitchen knives as keys, pennies and keys, and the latest, craft sticks. So here they are, showing their keys:

Demonstrating how it works:

And the true artist always unlocks with his mouth open.

Hungry Ruby

So, Ruby's been really hungry lately. I feel like I've been nursing her every hour. She still sleeps most of the night, but has been waking up at 4 am to nurse the past few nights. And whenever she sees me, she opens her mouth wide and tries to nurse my face, my arm, whatever is in reach.

Also, she has been VERY interested in food. Whenever she sees food or us eating, she makes a nursy face like she's trying to eat the food.

So even though I hate the baby food stage and generally try to put it off as long as possible, I don't want my child to starve. She's clearly telling me she's hungry.

Here's the first baby food experience:

"Aren't I cool in the high chair?"
"This is not what I signed up for."
"I'm thoroughly disappointed."

"Oh no! Not again!"

"Please make it stop!"

And then I nursed her. She realized how much better breast milk is than rice cereal. That's right, Ruby. Let's stay this way for another month.

Lost Teeth!

Isn't this an excellent picture? Tooth holes still bleeding, and she had strep. But we had to document her first teeth being lost.

South Padre Island: Land of Hospitality

Our trip to the beach was paradise. The temperature outside never dipped below 80, and never went past 90. And the water? Well, one morning we went for a dip at 7:30 am, and it was still quite warm. Needless to say, before we leave Texas, we'll be returning to South Padre Island.

We went exploring our last night and came across uninhabited beach and sand dunes. So of course we had to get out of the car and explore.

The kids' favorite thing at the beach? The little clams in the sand that would pop out when the tide came in, and then burrowed back in the sand. Dottie would take handfuls of them and smash them back in the sand, yelling, "Hibernate, hibernate!"

So, my son has sleeping problems. Going to a hotel with him is not a fun time. He kicked Joe out of the bed the first night and cried on and off for a few hours, waking up Ruby. So, the second night, we made a bed for him by pushing together an armchair and footstool. And amazingly enough, he slept through the night. So here's the kids, nice and sunburned, on Elliot's "bed."

Now for the title, "Land of Hospitality." People were so nice to us there. The first night, we went out to a seafood restaurant. After the meal, Joe asked if they had a military discount, which many restaurants do. The waitress went to check, came back and said, "My boss saw you holding your baby girl all through dinner, so for you, 15%." Now that was nice. But my next story will blow you away.

We went to an Italian restaurant. My kids were not horrible, but their usual rambunctious selves: Dottie didn't want dressing on her pre-dressed salad, Elliot didn't want to be pushed in at the table, Ruby had her wild yeller on because she was getting hungry and tired, the kids had to go to the bathroom multiple times, and finally, Dottie dumped her cup of water all over the table. Pretty typical dinner at a restaurant for us, honestly. So, after I got done eating, I took Ruby to the car to nurse while Joe finished feeding the kids. He comes out to the car and tells me, "Someone paid our bill!" I was astonished! When Joe went to pay, the waiter informed him that someone covered our meal! And we even ordered dessert, which almost never happens.

So we felt really blessed. That was seriously so generous of someone. I'm hoping it was because they remembered what it was like to have a young family, and not because they felt sorry for us or just wanted us out of the restaurant. Anyway. We're going to pay it forward someday when we're "loaded" enough to pay for a young family's meal.

Dottie turns 6!

That's right, this crazy little girl of mine is now 6! Yes, that's a slip on her head. She's taken a keen interest in weddings since all of the weddings last summer.

I said last June that I didn't want her to grow past the age of5, but I've since decided that 6 is the perfect age where she should stop growing. She's so smart, helpful, inquisitive, funny, and she's been getting along great with Elliot since school has finished. Yet, she's still very innocent. I want her to keep her innocence, so no more growing, Dottie!
This is an example of her getting along with Elliot. They sat together for about an hour this morning watching TV while I got things done around the house. This is a new and exciting development in their relationship for me. Not that they don't fight; it's just become less frequent, and mostly one-ended (Elliot attacking Dottie).
Dottie wanted a pool party, so we went over to the housing office's pool and had a few friends come. It was great; short and sweet, because then, we celebrated my birthday. We celebrated Dottie's birthday on mine because it was my parents' last day in town, and we wanted them there for her party. My birthday consisted of going to Maggiano's, which led into a late night for the kids with Ruby crying all the way home. It was probably too long of a day for her. But it was still good food for me!

Dottie's Tinkerbell cake.

And the kids!

Happy Birthday, my sweet girl!

Ruby's Blessing

Oh my. I am so behind on posting. Here's what we've been doing: my parents came, Ruby was blessed, Dottie turned 6, I turned . . . 20, the following week we went to South Padre Island, and here we are, with none of it documented. I'll try to keep it short and sweet, but some things need to be recorded for posterity's sake. For full documentation of my parents' trip, visit facebook. I put my mom's album on my page.

I think I've mentioned I love this baby. But I really really love her. She's such a joy. She's always happy, and sleeps often. She started sleeping 12 hours at night a few weeks ago. 12 hours! I've never had a baby do that so young. And Elliot still doesn't sleep 12 hours at night. Maybe he should start taking lessons from Ruby. It's all because of the thumbsucking.

She wore the same dress that my mom, me, and Dottie wore for our blessings.

Joe had a concert later that day for Memorial Day. Here we are!