Thomas: Breastfeeding Advocate at Age 7

This story is much more amusing if you read it first and then look at the picture, so resist the urge to scroll down and see it before you get done reading.

We all know that breastfeeding is best.  We also know that as a culture, a lot of kids don’t get exposed to the idea of breastfeeding until they hit the age where they have some sort of formalized sex education.  By then it sounds as weird and private as sex does.

Not so with my Thomas.  Having two younger siblings back to back that were attached to me during an age when he can remember and talk about it has completely normalized breasts as a feeding mechanism for him.  While he understands that they aren’t something to be paraded around exposed, he also doesn’t run (or get run) from the room when mine are being utilized in their most functional manner either.  In fact he’s recently had to be taught that unless he owns the breasts, he doesn’t get to offer them up as an option to little Daniel.

Now on to the cute story. 

So Thomas and his friend we drive to school every morning were in the back of the van looking at a National Geographic magazine making up silly songs about it. I’m listening and I hear:

Friend: Oh oh oh. I’m naked. With my bootay.

Thomas: (interrupting) That’s not a butt. It’s a breast.

Friend: What’s he doing with a boobie?

Thomas: (sighs) It’s called nursing. (said nice and slowly and clearly and it sounded like there was an eye roll involved) It’s completely normal. Babies drink milk from their mommies. Lots of babies nurse. Daniel (my 18mo) nurses. It’s not something to make fun of.

Friend: Um. Ok….Oh oh oh. I’m snuggling. With my boobie. Drinking my milk.

I’m not sure if he got the message or not, but I have to give Thomas points for trying! 

And for your viewing pleasure and amusement, here is the picture they were discussing:

Nope.  It wasn’t one of those tribal pictures at all!

Dear Evil Microbe,

I don’t recall inviting you to visit with us this Christmas, but thank you for volunteering to spend your time with us. I really appreciate how you kept my youngest up all night long heaving and creating extra laundry for us. It was very thoughtful of you to cause my middle child to become a lethargic whiny mess all day long yesterday. The fever late in the evening after we thought you had left her was an unexpected extra bonus as are the numerous soupy diapers we have had the honor of changing throughout the day today.
 
I want to especially thank you for your most recent gesture regarding my mother. She has enjoyed your visit so much that she has chosen to stay here with you instead of going to go visit her 6 week old granddaughter.

I am looking forward to calling several extended family members to inform them of your presence in my house and figuring out how to manage the large volume of food in the refrigerator that was intended for them. Seven people can manage to consume the amount of food it takes to feed 15. I suppose that is why you helped us make the decision to stay home to eat it all rather than go visit my sister and her family.

I must say that I am a bit miffed that you have neglected to share your love with myself, my husband, and my oldest son. I suppose you have just been too busy with the others to bother with us so far. Perhaps you are simply wanting to surprise us on Christmas?

Once again, thank you for choosing to spend your precious time with my family during this busy Christmas time. I know you are busy and made a special effort to be with us right at this moment.
Sincerely,
Your Gracious Hostess

Gloria’s Newest Dresses

In my quest to come up with a long sleeved dress for Gloria for the chilly weather, I came across a tutorial for a short sleeved peasant shirt.  I made a short sleeved one, then a long sleeved one, then another long sleeved one that was a bit too narrow, so I turned it into a dress for Little Miss Kinley Jo, the daughter of one of Michael’s co-workers, who is about 18 months younger than Gloria.  This is how it turned out.

The fabric is “patchwork” so, no, I didn’t sew a bazillion squares together to make this.  It was in the remnants bin at Wal-mart and looked fallish. 

After that, I took 2 yards of fabric that was originally intended to be part of my quilt that Mom made us.  It just didn’t quite fit in right with the other fabrics I had selected so we left it out.  I basically did the same thing with this one I did with Kinley’s.  I just did the sleeves a little differently and added about 5.75 yards of eyelet lace to the bottom tier and sleeves.  Gloria sees it and asks to put it on so she can “dance her dress.”  She has learned to twirl in it!

And to get a better idea of just how much fabric is around the bottom:

It hasn’t been washed yet.  It probably won’t ever stand up like this again!

Then this little girl from church showed up in a short sleeved peasant dress much like this next one.  I picked out some fabric that looked fallish and did long sleeves and this is what turned out.

It looks much cuter on the toddler than in the picture.  She’ll be wearing it tomorrow for Thanksgiving and I will try to get a good action shot of her filling it up.

And lastly, I fell in love with this Christmas fabric.  By the time I had decided exactly which fabric to pair it up with, it was time to feed the toddlers and get them in bed for a nap, so I did a really quick guestimation of how much of each fabric I wanted.  With the odd amounts I had cut, the dress practically made itself.  It’s hard to tell from the picture, but the fabric with red on green had a bit of metallic gold thread in the design that gives it a bit of sparkle.  I haven’t tried it on her with the red ribbon around the waist yet.  It may be too thin, but I sure like the way it looks on the hanger.

I have one last style kicking around in my head that I would like to sew up this season in a fabric I saw while picking out the Christmas fabric.  Then, I promise, I’ll be done with dresses.  Until summer.

Helaina!

I am feeling a bit guilty that I am just getting around to posting about my darling little niece’s arrival, but I’d rather spend time visiting her than blogging about it.
Helaina Nicole Martin arrived on Thursday, November 12, at 10:16 am weighing in at 8 pounds 13 ounces and 21.5 inches long. I am so stinking proud of Valerie. Her water broke around midnight, so she and Kane headed to the hospital since they were scheduled for an induction that morning anyway and there was some question about how clear the amniotic fluid was. They got Valerie started on the pitocin drip. It is my understanding she was at 4 cm and a couple hours later, asked for an epi, got it, got checked again and she was at 10cm already and ready to push. She got a little rest while the medical teams for the actual delivery got in gear then pushed for about an hour before Helaina was born. Whoohoo!
We went to go visit her the Saturday after she was born and then again the next weekend. She nurses like a champ and is growing like a weed. They were monitoring her bilirubin there for a bit, but as soon as Val’s milk came in, that all fixed itself. She has this lovely pointy chin just like her mother and her coloring reminds me of her father. She makes those sweet little newborn noises and when she cries I have to resist the urge to go love on her and nurse her. I think she may have been put down once or twice in her life so far because everybody loves holding her.
She already has definite moods and lets us all know when she is unhappy. She likes to be snuggled up tight and squeezed when she’s held. Diaper changes are pretty noisy since she protests having herself embarrassed and put into such an unladylike position. She reminds me of an accordion when she cries as she vocalizes on both the exhale and the inhale. It’s very easy to tell when she’s eating as well, since she makes sweet little vocalizations with every gulp and breath. Valerie says she sounds like a chicken.
Thomas got a big kick out of holding Helaina in his lap. I’m not sure why, but he has the tendency to put her butt higher than her head. He’s very gentle with her and enjoys loving on her. And then he’s off to play with his siblings or uncle who can run around and wrestle with him.
Daniel has come up several times while I am holding Helaina and pronounced her a baby. He hangs around looking at her without touching as though he wants to interact with her but isn’t quite sure how. When invited to hug her he gets all tickled looking, grin, leans in with a big “oo-wee,” and walks off looking quite pleased with himself.
Gloria merely informs us of when Helaina is crying and tells us to fix it. She doesn’t seem to have much interest in getting too involved with her at this age. I have a feeling that once Helaina starts smiling and laughing that Gloria will spend a great deal of time figuring out how to entertain her and keep those smiles and laughs coming.
Michael has gotten to hold her several times during our visits. He enjoys being able to hand her off when she has a dirty diaper or needs to eat and gets to enjoy the sweet, snuggly, sleepy Helaina.
I have had the pleasure of burping, rocking, snuggling, and even “slinging” little Helaina during lunch. For those of you not familiar with the term, “slinging” simply refers to carrying the baby in a sling type baby carrier. Slings are lovely, simple contraptions that snuggle baby up close to Mommy. There are numerous positions that you can use from the cradle position where they feel all swaddled up to sitting up to riding on the hip. I found it extremely comforting for my little ones when they were newborns. They felt secure and swaddled, and the motion of me walking around doing daily chores helped to rock them to sleep and keep them content. There was much less fussing when they were in the sling.
Back to Helaina! I will have to take pictures this Thanksgiving while I am here. I am terrible about forgetting to grab my camera. I prefer to enjoy the moment I am in rather than spend them all behind a camera and miss out!

Halloween!

I am aware that it has come and gone. Nevertheless, the cuteness must be shared. (Thomas was at his father’s this year, so we don’t have pictures of that.)
As many of you probably know, Gloria is in LUV with Tinkerbelle, so it was only logical for her to dress up as this fairy. At first, Daniel was to be a lost boy, but I got over the size differences and just had him be Peter Pan.

Peter Pan:
I found a peasant top tutorial online and modified it by replacing the elastic around the neck with a drawstring and cutting a short slit down the center front to make it look more “pannish” and less girlie. His pants were fleece pants from a pattern I use regularly for both kiddos. I guessed at the measurements for the hat, made out of the same fleece as the pants, and came up with something fairly presentable. I got lazy with the belt and just cut a length of brown fleece and tied it. I am truly proud of his little elf shoes. Again, I modified a pattern I found online to make some cute, pointy, soft soled elf shoes that fit Daniel for about a week before he outgrew them. (Good thing I made them close to Halloween!)

Tinkerbelle:
This turned out practically elegant. They had this lovely shade of green satiny fabric on sale at Hancock’s the day I went looking. I took the standard jumper I use for many of Gloria’s dresses and just cut the bottom jagged and lined the entire thing because the idea of hemming the bottom just boggled my mind. Daddy insisted on bloomers, so those were added from the same fabric. There was just enough after that to make her some sweet little slippers (same pattern minus pointy toes). The wings were in a bag of dress up clothes a friend handed down to Gloria. Whew! No stressing over bent hangers.

The day before Halloween we took a little trip to see Daddy at work all dressed up. There is a neat area with some ferns under the trees that just seemed perfect for little fairies and elves.

Exploring the Ferns

More Tink

Tink in the Ferns (I absolutely adore this one!)

Peter Pan with no hat

Lookin for his shadow? (maybe his hat!)

Ta Da

Ta Da Again (And the only decent shot of Tink’s wings)

Tink spent a good while having to sit still while her mother configured her hair into the traditional Tink pouf-bun the best she could with that baby fine hair.

Peter Pan was ready to go! He even wore his hat-for a few minutes.

This picture is fuzzy, but Daniel is smiling, you can see Gloria’s do, and the neat pumpkins Michael carved are visible.

This next one just cracks me up. The look on Daniel’s face, the position of the kids’ pumpkins, the pose just all look so funny to me.

Halloween evening was a little bit chilly, so we added a white turtleneck and fleece pants. And no, no socks. Those little slippers are lined with more white fleece.

Another view of that topknot.

Evil Tinkerbelle, shooting me with her magic stick.

Enjoying his candy
 

Finally smiling for the camera on purpose!
 

Da Cruise Pictures-Part 2 Cozumel

We spent approximately 8 hours in Cozumel.  Only about 5 of that was on the land though.  The rest of that time was spent on the Holiday.

The view from the ship:

Two other cruise ships docked close to us:

The gorgeous blue water:

On the island, we visited "Discover Mexico" where they had all of these really neat scaled down models of the various ruins throughout the country.

Then some colonial models:

And modern day architecture:

Then some evil mystery bug bit/stung Thomas:

But he was brave and let an iguana sit on his shoulders in spite of his injury.

Then we went to Chankanaab park to eat lunch and swim.  (Had to look at the picture to spell it!)

The "lagoon"

Complete with cool coral formations:

Before swimming, we ate lunch:

And complained about the heat

And enjoyed the view

And listened to the local musicians serenade Gloria

Then we went SWIMMING!

Daniel, Michael, and Thomas all went swimming, too, but we didn’t have enough hands to hold everyone and a camera at the same time!

Then we went back to the ship and crashed!

Da Cruise Pictures-Part 1 on the Ship

Five days and four nights of nonstop eating, sleeping, swimming, sliding, and ponytail dancing head bobbing music!

We "set sail" from Mobile, AL on Carnival’s Holiday.  I think it’s the smallest one they have.  Here are some pictures from the Mobile docks:

The marine police munched on pizza from the galley while they waited for us to get under way.

The view of the bow with all the interesting winches, pulleys, and lines.

The view down the stairwell through the hanging sculpture.

Thomas’ favorite place on the ship was the big water slide.

Here he is going down it.  He’s the little dark spot at the bottom of the slide.

Gloria liked the pool ok, but really enjoyed the music of our steel drum player:

There was a little play set next to the kiddie pool.  Gloria loved her "house"

and spent a ridiculous amount of time sliding.

She also enjoyed playing by the pool.  She took many showers

and hopped around like a frog.

Meanwhile, Thomas went trolling for little bits of trash using his trusty swim goggles.

He managed to find numerous pieces of paper which looked to be a shredded twenty dollar bill.

He tried to get Gloria into it,

but she preferred to play chase with him in the pool.

Daddy and Daniel catching the wind in their hair:

Down in the shade.

We did so much more, but I am not a shutterbug and prefer dong the action rather than hanging out behind the camera photographing it.

A Cute Toddler in a Cute Outfit

Yup.  Gratuitous Gloria shots.  Outfit by Grandma.  Smiles complements of smarties.

It’s amazing how a camera shy girl can become a super model as soon as candy comes into play!

The Day After

So this morning, the day after the party, Thomas got up at 6am, got fully dressed and then came to snuggle in the bed with us.  At about 7:30 this is what my bed looked like.

The boys were sound asleep and Gloria was saying, “Please, wake up, Thomas, please.  Pretty please.”

Daniel is One!

Ok.  So he’s BEEN one, but I’m catching up after being sucked into facebook.  It’s worse than going to Walmart!

The day he turned one we snapped a few cute photos of him in his high chair enjoying an Oreo.

Such a sweet face 

This Oreo is pretty good!

Cheese!

Camera ham!

Sunday afternoon/evening we had a family celebration.  Kane and Valerie and DeNiece came over from Georgia to participate.  Michael and Gilah also came.  Thomas was at his father’s and managed to get there after the cake and midway through the presents.

We had a yummy spaghetti dinner that Daniel obviously enjoyed.

The cake.  Makes me think of Pinnochio.

He was a little unsure of how to eat the cake at first.

But decided it tasted pretty good.

And then got down to the business of SQUISHING it.

And stuffing his face.

And trying to figure out how to get it off his fingers.  (Thank goodness he didn’t decide to flap!)

And hamming it up for the camera.

By the time he was done the yellow and blue cake had turned into teal mush.  (Michael has a good picture of this.)

We then spent some time helping him to open his gifts.  (All of these pictures are on Michael’s camera.  Hint, hint, Michael.)

It’s hard to believe my babiest boy is one already.  He takes a few unassisted steps here and there, but prefers the security of a push walker so that he can go, go, go!  He talks a lot and likes to smile at us on purpose.  He whispers "hi" and grins, says "diap’n" for diaper, says "bye" right after we’ve left, and gives some of the best hugs and kisses these days.  He’s night weaned from 11pm-5am.  Sometimes he even makes it longer with minimal fussing.  He has a strong temper and a loud scream to go with it.  He wants to do everything Gloria does, much to her dismay.  I find the urge to buy 2 of everything to minimize the noisy disagreements that happen, but I don’t really think Daniel needs his own Tinkerbell doll and My Little Ponies!

This last year has been amazing to watch Daniel grow and become part of the family.  His older siblings love him to pieces in spite of all their spats.  He and Thomas have special games they play where they fall down together.  Gloria and Daniel go racing around the house with their push walkers hollering and laughing. 

Life in the Blue House is good!