Playtime

Carson is really a buff little dude.  His neck is getting really strong and he doesn't flop around much at all.  We did some tummy time and he was trying really hard to roll over.  Not quite time for that yet (thank goodness he's growing up TOO fast).  Kayda and Dillon actually got down on the floor with us and played.  They don't really understand the idea that he can see better if they aren't RIGHT in his face but they're playing with him so that's ok. 

I know that it's a little early for this, considering he's not even 8 weeks yet but Carson LOVES to stand up.  You can actually just hold his little hands and he'll stand up.  So I decided that maybe I'd see what he thought of the exersaucer.  So Kayda, Dillon and I dug out all the pieces and got it all cleaned up.  They chose which pieces to put in and we waited for Carson to wake up from his nap.  When he finally did (Kayda and Dillon played with it the enitre 45 minutes until he woke up) I rolled up a blanket to wrap around him (he tends to flex his back suddenly and flop back so we were avoiding injury) and stuck him in.  Check it out!

 You can see his little feet touching the bottom in this one.  I can't believe how BIG he is!

Kayda and Dillon sat and played with him for the 5 minutes that he lasted in it... then continued to play with it after he got out.  I had some pictures with all three but none of them turned out, I'll have to try again next time!

On another note, Carson is SUCH a smiley baby now!  He'll just lay there and grin at me and he loves sing along songs where I move his hands for him, though "If you're happy and you know it" is his favorite.

Carson's Smile!!!

I got it!!! Kind of.  Considering I couldn't look through the camera because I was next to it smiling at Carson and talking to him I think I did pretty darn good!  Isn't he SO adorable!  I LOVE it!

Just to document

Carson is turning into such a smiley baby!  The last few days he has been smiling a LOT.  He was smiling at Daddy and we were trying desperately to catch it but he wasn't cooperating.  He's cute even when he's not smiling though so it's ok!

He likes to nap in the high chair.  If you look close he was on the tail end of a sleepy smile!  He still sleeps most of the day and he is starting to do well at night.  He'll go 5-6 hours between eating the first portion (though he only really sleeps about 4 of that), then he'll go another 3-4 between and then he'll sleep until I wake him up to start the day!  He is also getting really good at controlling his head, he can turn it when he's tracking something, he loves to stand up (with help of course) and he LOVES baths and showers.  He falls asleep whenever he is in the front carrier, more easily than when he's in the car even (Kayda and Dillon fell asleep very easily in the car so I thought that was interesting). 

Dillon has a tendency to wink at people when we ask him to smile so this time I just asked him to wink.  I think he should be a pirate for halloween.  Argh!

Kayda wasn't much in the mood to have her picture taken but I wanted to get a picture of her ringlets!  Any time her hair gets wet and isn't brushed afterward these beautiful curls form.  I don't know how long that will happen so I HAD to get it while I was thinking about it. 

From what I can tell the kids are enjoying preschool.  They come home and sing the songs they're learning and dance.  Kayda has also been reciting her September poem. 

"It's September for a while, after a while crocodile, down the chicken soupy nile, paddle once, paddle twice, paddle chicken soup with rice." 

No it doesn't make sense to me either, but apparently there is a "chicken soup" poem for each month that they will be learning.

Home sweet home!

Today is one of those "feeling grateful" kind of days.  After Kayda was born I went back to work after winterbreak, right about 6 weeks.  After Dillon was born I went back to work at 7 weeks.  Now, here I am, Carson is 6 weeks old today.  If I was still working I would've headed back to work today. 

I was fortunate, Grandma G was able and willing to watch Kayda and Dillon for me while I worked.  I knew they were with someone that loved them and would have the same rules for them that I have.  I had the summers off with them and the school year after Dillon was born I even got to be part time.  So I only missed a few hours a day with them. But I still missed them and  I missed a lot of their "firsts". 

Last school year I was finally able to be home with my babies!  I got to be with them ALL the time and I was very happy once we decided to have another baby that I wouldn't have to be pregnant, extrememly sick and dealing with a class full of high school kids.  With both Kayda and Dillon I often had to run to the bathroom in the middle of class because I was so sick. 

Now here I am, my second year as a stay at home mom with another sweet baby.  I get to be here for ALL of Carson's "firsts", I get to see them with my own eyes and not just hear about them.  I get to be with Kayda and Dillon for their first days of school, go help in their class, be there to pick them up and hear all about their days.  I get to be here loving my children the best I know how every day.  I'd love to be a "super mom" and have happy, healthy, well loved kids AND a shiny clean house but for now I'll have to settle for the "happy, healthy, well loved" part. 

It is impossible to express how grateful I am that my husband is able to support our family and how happy it makes me to be home. 

And just because I can, here are some more pictures of the three WONDERFUL children that I love SO much.  That I get to devote all my time and energy to.

Carson smiled!!!

Carson is 5 weeks 1 day old, and today he smiled at me on purpose!  I was talking with him and as usual had a huge stupid grin on my face.  He flashed a smile at me and of course I went nuts and then he really started wroking.  He got his left side into a smile, and held it there for a few seconds and then low and behold he got the right side up too!  I'm not expecting them to be a regular thing yet but...he SMILED at me on PURPOSE!  This is so exciting to me!  I LOVE their little baby smiles!

Preschool!

This is Dillon's first year of preschool and Kayda's second (though it's her first at this school).  Kayda has been rearing to go since we bought clothes a few weeks ago.  Dillon has been on the fence about the whole thing which surprised me because he LOVED when we would stay with Kayda at prsechool last year.  We're figuring out our mornings, they are adjusting to waking up and going to bed an hour earlier.  We started last Wednesday night and they're doing really well with it!  They choose their clothes before we go to bed so when we get up they just have to put them on and eat. 

Today Daddy and I brought them to preschool since it was the first day. Here we are on our way, you can even see Daddy in the suburban behind us!

 

 Off to the races!

 One of the things I like so far about this preschool is that there is only the ONE group so EVERYTHING in it is personalized for them.  You don't look around the room and see four different clusters of names.  Each kid has a coat hook assigned to them (which had their name tags on them today), there is an apple tree where there are apples with each kids names on it, there's a birthday wall with their names sorted by the month of the birthday... and it goes on. 

 Their activity while kids were floating in was playdough!  Kayda took off to yellow and Dillon wandered over to the blue.  It's funny that it worked out so that the "yellow" table had almost all girls and the "blue" table was ALL boys.  Kayda later moved to the green table. 

 Kayda dove right in but Dillon was playing shy a little bit.  Which is NOT at all the usual behavior for him.  He had Daddy very concerned that he wasn't comfortable and wasn't going to enjoy preschool.  I was ready to head out, I was pretty confident that they would be just fine.  Daddy wanted to stand in the doorway for a little longer so Carson and I took off and Daddy stayed to watch.  Gotta love a protective Daddy who loves his kids SO much!

 They did a GREAT job at preschool the teacher was very impressed.  They even managed to stay sitting on the rug where they wait for mom or dad until the teacher said their names (they knew I'd been standing there for several minutes).  Their art today was a "Kissing hand" apparently it's a book about a raccoon that was scared to go to school.  Kayda was very excited to tell me all about the book and Dillon wanted to show me how a "kissing hand" worked.  (You kiss your hand and put it on your heart whenever you miss your mom)

Proof that Carson and I were there!

What a good big brother!

If you know Dillon you know he has a blanky that he loves.  He carries it almost everywhere (though I can get him to leave it behind fortunately).  He snuggles it, he SMELLS it, and he sleeps with it.  It is his security blanket and it helps him when he's crabby, not feeling good or just in a snuggly mood. 

This morning I had Carson in the highchair while I was making breakfast for Kayda and Dillon.  Carson already had a blanket but Dillon came in and wanted Carson to use HIS special green blanky that he LOVES so much.  So we tucked it over Carson's feet. 

Not the best picture, at some point I'll get the flash fixed so 2/3 of the pictures don't come out blurry.  What a sweet, loving, wonderful big brother!  I think he has adjusted well to the role!

Preschool open house!

Today was the preschool open house.  The kids have really been looking forward to preschool starting, unfortunately this wasn't really class...  it was just a time to meet the teachers and poke around the class a little bit.  I think it's purpose is to ease kids' anxiety about going to preschool, not really something my kids need!  But we went anyway, they had fun poking around at the toys and such.  Kayda was upset last year when I told her she wouldn't be going back to her old preschool.  Once we got closer to starting this year that has pretty much gone away.  I'm an overly picky mom and her old preschool was just NOT holding up to my standards! 

I tried to get some pictures of them before going but they kept making their horses "talk" so I couldn't get any good ones. 

 Here are some pictures at the class, it's three rooms!  Dillon will be in the 3 year old class with Miss Donna, it's the "bumblebee" class.  Kayda will be in the 4 year old class with Miss Brenda, they're the "frogs".  They will have some time together for free play but the two classes split up for "academics".  I was excited to hear that they made the distinction and actually have structured learning time as opposed to being more of a play group.  Hopefully they will make some new friends!  The first day is next week, then Carson and I will have 2.5 hours of bonding time just the two of us, though I'm going to miss my big kids!

Carson

I spend so much time just snuggling him that I don't get as many pictures as I have of Kayda and Dillon.  Definitley something I need to work on!  But here are a few I have gotten.  He already seems like he is growing too quickly. 

Some random things about Carson:

His neck is really strong and he'll already push up with his arms when he's laying on your chest.  He's not quite strong enough to do it when he's on his tummy on the floor.

He still spends most of his time sleeping though he'll have a few good hours awake over the course of the day. 

He absolutely LOVES showers.  That is my preferred way to clean him, he actually hasn't experienced a bath yet.  The other day he was crying and having a really hard time after his nap.  I decided he needed to get washed so I laid him on the bed and turned on the shower.  The moment he heard it he settled right down.  He just hunkers right down in my arms and lets me move him however I need to in order to clean him.  He doesn't even get upset if I let the water run over his face.  He just kind of blinks and stares at me. 

He only really cries if he's tired or wants to eat.  Usually if he's awake he's happy.

He loves the front carrier.  Every time I have him in it, usually when we're shopping, he falls asleep and stays asleep.  He had his first stroller ride last Sunday and he enjoyed it for little while, but once he wanted to be done boy did we know it!

Carson isn't much of a swing baby, he can only handle it for about 20 minutes. He actually prefers the high chair. He will actually fall asleep in it while I'm working in the kitchen.



Motorcycle rides!

Kayda and Dillon are fascinated by motorcycles, firetrucks and semi-trucks.  When we're driving they point them out wherever they see them!  Fortunately for them Papa H has his motorcycle endorsement and has rented a bike to go out riding tomorrow (His bike needs to be fixed or they'd be riding that one).  Today we went over to a local highschool parking lot so Daddy could practice riding.

Then Papa came by our house to give Kayda and Dillon rides.  He took each of them around the loop in our neighborhood and they LOVED it.  Kayda spent the whole time going "Woohoo!" repeatedly.  Dillon was even brave enough to let go of Papa with one hand and wave!  It amazes me how fearless our children are!

Carson was awake when Daddy was riding, fell asleep with the motorcycle driving close by and stayed asleep the rest of the time.  I wish I could sleep through that noise!!!

Kayda ties her own shoes!!!

Last  weekend I bought Kayda some shoes, I told her "You can only get these shoes if you learn to tie them yourself".  Well, she took that to heart.  She has gotten frustrated sometimes over the last week but she kept working at it.  (She learned from whistling that you have to practice and practice and practice until you learn to do it).  Today, for the first time Kayda tied her shoes with absolutely NO help, nobody was even sitting near her to help her.  She did it entirely on her own, BOTH of them!!!

Apparently this is her "I tied my own shoes" pose.  Dillon wanted ot be in the picture too.