You thought I was kidding

In case you doubted, I went ahead and scrapped her 4 month page to capture her cuteness of grabbing her toes. I am a few days early for the 4 month (!) mark, but this is the thing I want to remember and share with her about this time in her life. She's already "outgrowing" the phase, moving on to more exciting things like rolling. When she wakes, I'm starting to hear her banging around on the aquarium, even starting the music with her feet. At least I know what all the banging is this time. We didn't know what to think the first time we heard Miles playing with it!

I added this photo to the album of old scans - me at about her age. Guess she comes by it naturally.

Miles has been doing great - he wore underpants all week long! We had a few #2 accidents - boy, are those fun. He said after the first one, "I don't like the way that feels" but still has not gone on the potty. Not sure what it will take, I feel like we've promised everything: new tools, a trip to get ice cream, special snacks, and a Diego spinning toothbrush is the latest bribe. Still no go. Not sure what to do! But he'll stay dry in the underpants, so we're not going back to Pull-Ups except at night. Although most mornings he wakes up dry, so we may try underpants at bedtime soon.

We're less than two months away from his big 3rd birthday and we've already started talking about it. One of my magazines had a birthday issue and he picked out THE cake that he wants... surprisingly he did NOT want the excavator cake. So now we'll be figuring out the rest of the event based on his must-have cake. Stay tuned....

What they did

Here are some of the laughs from their evening without mom.

Saturdays are HARD

Wayne did quite a bit of clean-up in the yard and she practiced her rollovers a few times. Maybe that's why they're so sleepy! And Miles was napping at this point. What was I thinking? I should have been napping too!

But I was getting ready for a baby shower for my friend Chrissy. It was lots of fun and I didn't even get a call from Wayne. He had to manage the witching hour and get both kids down all by himself. He did great and got some cute video of the kids that I'll post next. I missed her bedtime feeding and pumped when I got home. Today I missed the late afternoon feeding because of an outing with Miles (more on this next) so I needed to pump when I got home. The "mechanics" of nursing require that you pump as close to the same time that you're missing a feeding in order to maintain your milk supply. That's why Will Farrell carried a pump to the Golden Globes last year, and why it's really easier to take her on vacation with us (thanks anyway, mom). Anyway, I started to pump with her playing beside me and she did NOT like it! She knew there was milk and thought there was no reason it should just end up in a bottle. I got to see some of the fiery redhead, uh-oh!

Miles had a BIG BOY day today. We've been working really hard on using the potty and have been wearing underpants for long portions of the day at home. Today we went on an outing and he wore underpants! Miles and I went to Target to pick out some more underpants. He chose Diego ones and was so proud to show the cashier.

We've been trying a new tactic that I read about in Making the Terrible Twos Terrific. Dr. B. (his pediatrician) has "told us" that Miles is a big boy and can go to the potty all by himself. Dr. B. gave us a bell that goes off throughout the day to remind Miles to go do his thing. If he needs our help he can call us. And he does... he can go, pull off his pants, use either potty - but he usually picks the Diego potty, which includes emptying and rinsing the bowl in his routine - and wash his hands all on his own. He sometimes needs help getting back into his pants, but other than that he's self sufficient. That's not saying that he always does it on his own, but he can. We'll try a couple more days at home in underpants and I ask his teacher before I send him to school in underwear, but it shouldn't be long now! We all so proud of him.

Please keep our friend Courtney in your prayers this week... they are going to welcome their new daughter and bring her home. Such a blessing. What an exciting time!!

And finally, I've been going through old albums and scanned some photos that I want to make sure to have - ones with my grandparents and even great-grandparents in them. Tiffany, there are some great ones of you! If you don't have these, let me know and I'll mail them to you too. Here for your viewing pleasure: the 1970s. (click on this picture to see all of them.)

Old Photo Scans

This is what she does:

Holds onto her toes. All day long. In fact, I have to swaddle her body at naptime or she'd be playing with her feet and never go to sleep! Silly girl.









This is what he does:



GOOF. BALL.

Rollin' Rollin' Rollin'

Here we go... mobility! This morning Audrey officially rolled over. Yes it was the "easy" way, from tummy to back, but she's getting there. She can get fully up to her side from her back, so I don't think it will be long until she's flip-flopping like a politician!

And this is a fine example of why I'm so glad I keep this blog... I couldn't remember when Miles rolled over and my notes from that time are sketchy. I have a note that he rolled over in January, so almost 5 months old. If she gets the back-to-front roll soon it will be before she's 4 months old. Already trying to one-up big brother!

Old School Lullaby!

How fun is this! This site lets you make a mix tape like the good old days. I put together some of my favorite bedtime tunes for the kiddos, enjoy!

who is this child?

Miles had Wayne and me exchanging glances filled with shock and amazement all evening. After a day filled with the usual mealtime tantrums and some general ongoing pouting he joined us for dinner, ate our food, tried new things. And liked them. Wait. I need to compose myself after uttering that. Okay. So Wayne had decided to grill some steaks we'd thawed, some shrimp in a new sauce and we threw on the chicken that was in the fridge since the grill was hot. We also roasted potatoes and carrots, and since the oven was hot I made cookies - just break and bake, don't get excited.

Miles was very busy playing with toys, filling up Chelsea's crate with cars and planes, just generally having fun. Audrey was taking her 3rd nap of the day. We called him to dinner. He said, "no, I'm playing." I told Wayne that he (Wayne) could have a cookie if he ate his dinner. As planned, Miles overheard and said, "I want a cookie!" I told him he'd have to eat, so he came to the table without a fuss. (wow) He looked at his plate and started to say I don't want that and I reminded him about the cookies. He ate a potato. He initially said he liked it, but then spit it out. We had seasoned them with pepper, so maybe he got a hot spot. But he got points for tasting it! (Wow) I had only put chicken on his plate, figuring he wouldn't want steak or shrimp, but we offered him bites of ours. He said no to the shrimp but ate the steak. Halfway through chewing he opened his mouth, pointed inside and said, "I Like this!" (WOW) He then ate many more bites of steak, all the chicken I'd given him and even a big bite peas (required for the cookie.) And he was pleasant and charming the whole time!

3 months old

Thank you for all of your confessions support after my traumatic maiming of the infant child. She somehow survived the night and even smiled the next day, which was good as we had her 3 month portraits taken that morning. I was hoping to possibly get an e-mailed sneak peek from the session to share, but since Garvey is busy getting ready to go sailing with my dad he hasn't [hint hint ;)]. She did great and we got lots of beautiful portraits to try and pick from.

Her first three months have flown by. I know with Miles the time seemed much more relaxed. Now with a very energetic kid running, jumping, spinning, galloping around getting into monkey business I don't think I could remember the definition of relaxed, lazy days with a baby. He's going to school 3 days a week in the summer, so hopefully I can dedicate some more attention to Audrey. [She's napping, so I'm only neglecting housework while I blog now.]

I'm trying to keep track of what she's been doing because it changes so fast. She can already sit while supported really well and has started rolling onto her side a lot. A couple of times this week she's worked herself around 360 degrees while laying on her back. She likes grabbing her toes and is often holding her fists out in a driving pose. She's quite chatty, I'm trying to get a video of her jabbering away to share. Oh and she is sucking on her fingers and drooling like mad... could it be teeth already?

And finally... big congrats to our friends Amy & Jason... they're expecting!

Happy Days

We're celebrating two big days this week, Wayne's birthday was Saturday and Audrey hits 3 months on Tuesday. Yippee! Miles loves birthdays, in fact any gathering of many people is called a Birthday party, regardless of the true nature of the event. (Example: a memorial day cookout with the Loebner's = "Eileen's Birthday Party".) He was super excited about daddy's cake: an Oreo cookie pie. Miles made sure we knew by telling us "I like birthday cake!" and "I got a big ol' piece!" I forgot to look at the clock when we pulled out the cake and realized as we scarfed down the deliciousness that it was exactly 10 minutes before Miles's dinner time. Oops. So he held on and waited up for us to grill out burgers and enjoyed his dinner with all of us.

YaYa and B had come for the day so Wayne and I could make it to Indy 4. It was enjoyable, but I'm glad my expectations weren't too high! Friday night's movie, however, was fantastic. It's not often you see a theater filled to capacity with women all dressed up to the heels. And this was a huge theater - at least 800 seats in ours and it played on another screen too!

{These photos of her are from 1 week old and today, 13 weeks old.}

So now I must use the blog as therapy and admit to my mother-of-the-year moments today. Miles almost drank his own pee and I clipped the tip of Audrey's thumb during a manicure. Let the flogging begin. First Miles. We got a Diego potty seat hoping that by sitting securely on the floor he'd be more inclined to do #2 there. He hasn't done that yet, but he has been jumping up to go pee and that's a new development. He saw me pour and flush the first time and later was with Wayne and I saw him (Miles) lift the cup - I thought to the potty but he moved it toward his face. NOOOOOOOOO!!!!! I think I scared him with my shriek from down the hall. Audrey's mishap was much less dramatic but still terrible to see those little eyes welling up. I'm about to cry thinking about it! And it was just before bath and bed time too. Poor little thing. I'm off to drown my sorrows in some iced tea - did you know June is National Iced Tea Month? Too bad we finished that pie, I could use a slice of that too.