It's not easy being three

I've been trying to write this post about Amelia, ever since her third birthday two three almost four months ago now.  It's hard to know where to start with this girl.  She simultaneously brings me joy and frustrates me to no end.  I suppose that's just part of being three.  And a girl.  And the middle child.

She has a hard time remembering that people can't read her mind.  She's not a great communicator, but not because she lacks the vocabulary.  Often, she bursts into tears, seemingly out of no where.  When we finally get her to tell us what's wrong, it's usually something like, "I thought you were going to get me a glass of water!"

She cries and melts down less often these days. Jeff has been really great at helping her develop some coping mechanisms - the biggest one being a request for her "calm down" music (Neil Young's Harvest).  Over the last year, she's gone from being a complete and total mama's girl, to actually preferring Daddy sometimes.

Quite unlike Marley, she completely clams up if an adult talks to her.  At her three-year doctor's appointment, she barely said two words to the doctor!  Being the center of attention makes her very uncomfortable.  She actually reminds me a lot of myself as a child.  Maybe that's why she can drive me so crazy!

Here's a little more about 3-year-old Amelia:

*Height: 38" (70th percentile) 

*Weight: 31.5 lbs (58th percentile)

*She can recognize many letters and numbers, and can even write a few, including her name.
*She's getting faster on her balance bike, but bike riding is still not her favorite thing to do.

*She has a big imagination, and is a great story teller.  She enjoys putting on "shows" with her toys for Marley, when she should be falling asleep.

*She loves reading, and will happily page through book after book on her own.  Though, she also loves being read to.

*She is independent.  She wants to do things herself, even when she can't (frustration from this brings her to tears often).  I think I've been allowed to pick out her clothes a handful of times over the last year.

*She loves to play with and take care of her baby brother.  She always sets aside little bites of food for him from her plate.  She gives him his binky when he cries in the car, and offers soothing words ("It's okay, Buddy.") She gives him lots of cuddles and hugs, often not in the most gentle way, and loves to make him laugh.

*She loves to play with her big brother.  They usually come out of their room in the morning with well-formed plans of what they're going to play.  Some of their favorite things to do together are dress up, build (legos, magna-tiles, etc), and draw.

*She's as stubborn as ever, and really likes things to go according to her plan.
*She love to play alone.  She can spend hours in front of her dollhouse, making up stories by herself.

*She is so creative.  She thinks of the most interesting names for her toys (like Ohkoh the cat), her stories (The Nightmare of Soulser is my favorite), and herself (Princess Crusto, among others).

*She loves to help out around the house. Whenever I'm cleaning or picking up, she joins in, usually without even being asked.  Marley is becoming quite spoiled, having Amelia picking up after him all the time!
*She isn't the most adventurous eater, but she'll usually try new things with some encouragement from Marley. She went through a brief stage (I think it's over, thankfully!) of dumping food/drinks that she wasn't happy with on the floor. Her favorite food is cheese, cheese, and more cheese!

*She still wears diapers at night, but is getting more and more reliable on the potty during the day.
*She no longer naps, but sleeps in her own bed for 11-12 hours a night.  She occasionally (about once a week) wakes up crying in the middle of the night.  Usually she's had a bad dream, and will fall back asleep fairly quickly.

*She has trouble saying a few sounds.  Her 'R' comes out sounding more like a 'Y'.  So, Marley=My-way, shorts=soits, fork=foik, and my favorite: sorry=sigh-wee.  It's freakin' adorable.
*She loves going to school, and highly values direction-following.

*She's an intrepid explorer, with very few fears.  She recently offered to accompany Marley down to the basement to protect him because he was scared.

*For her birthday, we took her to Red Robin downtown on the waterfront.  Then, rode the ferris wheel for the first time.

 I could say so much more about Amelia, but I need to end this post before she turns four.  So, there you go!

Double Digits!

Yikes!  Time flies when you're enjoying a busy summer with three kids!  Well, big news: Samuel is officially crawling.  He's been doing an army crawl for a while now, then he started alternating between belly and knee crawling.  Just this week, he's started crawling on his hands and knees all the time.  He has eight teeth, all of which came in by 9 months.  We haven't seen any new teeth this month, so I think we're due for an explosion soon.  He's really good at feeding himself, and eats everything we eat (yes, everything).  In fact, he gets really mad when he sees someone eating something that he doesn't have.  He much prefers the big kids' toys to his own.  He loves to play games like stick-out-your-tongue-at-each-other, pass-the-toy-back-and-forth, knock-down-the-block-tower, and fetch (he throws, we retrieve).  He can clap his hands, and sign "more" (though it's possible he's just clapping for his food).  We're pretty sure he knows who he's talking to when he says "Mama" and "Dada".   At his 9 month appointment, he measured in the 65th percentile for height, the 98th percentile for weight (!), and the 62nd percentile for head circumference. Here are my adorable 9 and 10 month old babies.

Samuel: 9 mon, 25 lbs, 28.5 in

Amelia: 9 mon, 19 lbs 2 oz, 28.5 in

Marley: 9 mon, 18 lbs 5 oz, 27.5 in

Samuel: 10 mon, 26 lbs, 29 in

Amelia: 10 mon, 20.5 lbs, 29 in

Marley: 10 mon, 19.5 lbs, 28 in

8 months old (with videos!)

I really love this age.  Sam is not yet crawling.  He's still content to ride along in the carrier. He still easily falls asleep in my arms.  And he is so, SO adorable!

Samuel: 22lbs 8oz, 28.25"

Amelia: 18lbs 12oz, 27.25"

Marley: 17lbs 2oz, 27"

And now for the videos!!



He can't get down from (or up to) sitting on his own, yet.  I mean, he can, but it involves falling on his face, so I usually just help him:)



Playing one of his favorite games!



I love that there are tons of "floor raspberries" videos that YouTube recommends after you watch this one.  Apparently, this is a common thing among babies this age.



Okay, one more. You might want to turn your volume down for this one.

Wipin' butts and takin' names

Jeff gets back tonight, and I only had one nervous breakdown while he was gone. Yes, I realize there's still time, but I'll count that as a success. Hooray! AND the house has been thoroughly de-sick-ified. HUGE hooray! Thanks for all the well-wishes. I think we are all better now - just in time for summer!

ETA: Oh, right. So, as the parent of three young children, I've recently been thinking about the massive amount of time I spend wiping butts.

Baby butts: Wiping baby butts is the most time-intensive. Generally, there are multiple poops each day. Plus, there are poopy diapers to deal with afterward.

Potty-training butts: During this stage the actual wiping gets easier (usually), but a lot of time is spent waiting for the poop's arrival. And when there's a miss...just, yuck.

Big kid butts: We're SO close to being completely potty-independent now. But five year-olds still need help wiping, and the learning process is a bit...messy.

So, by my calculation*, I spend roughly 65% of my day taking care of the potty needs of others.

*I didn't actually do any sort of calculation. This number may be a little off.

Enjoy some random photos!

Crappy Father's Day!

Marley was the first to get hit.  Last weekend he threw up in the car on the way home from Nai Nai and Grandpa Boston's house.  We thought he was just car sick.  Then he threw up every hour all night long.  Jeff earned his Daddy stripes by "sleeping" in a chair in the living room and holding a bucket under Marley's head each time he needed to hurl.

We managed to have a somewhat normal week, even making it out to see a Mariner's game one evening!  Then, it was Amelia's turn.  Poor girl came out of her room at one o'clock in the morning, covered in puke.  Jeff headed back to the chair to be the official bucket holder.  Sam and I stayed quarantined in our room, hoping that it would pass us by.

No such luck.  By Saturday night, we were all violently ill.  Except Marley.  He was fully recovered.  And full of energy.  Since no one else had an appetite, he figured he should get to have whatever he wanted for dinner.  He requested Huevos Rancheros.  He got a bowl of cereal.

There was no breakfast in bed or fun family outing for us on Father's Day.  Jeff and I took turns cleaning up poop and puke off of everything and everyone in the house.  I have never done so much laundry in my life.  Seriously, being this sick is terrible under any circumstances.  But, with both of us basically unable to function and still having to take care of Projectile Vomit Baby, Diarrhea Girl, and Super Peppy Boy, it's amazing we all survived!

Well, at least we have so far.  I'm really hoping the worst is behind us because Jeff is out of town at a conference for the rest of the week.  Wish me luck!  I'm also hoping he orders himself breakfast in bed one day to make up for the plain piece of toast and watered down apple juice he got for Father's Day.

And here's what the kids had to say about their dad earlier in the week, during happier times.

Marley: "My dad makes blueberry pancakes for breakfast.  He plays Mario with me.  We went to the baseball game and he got me a bag of peanuts and it was really yummy.  I love my dad because he loves me.  And I love that he is the best dad ever.  And that is the end of my story."

Amelia: "I love to play with my dad and I love when he sits next to me when we're eating dinner.  And when he gives me Rice Krispies for breakfast and all that stuff.  When I'm sad, daddy plays my special calm down music for me.  Marley says it's sleep music, but I say it's calm down music."

Sam: "Da-Da-Da-Da-Da-Da-Da-Da!"

Edit: Here are a few photos from the game. Check out the awesome 2nd row seats Jeff scored for us!

Seven Months (already!)

I'm desperately trying to stay on top of my record keeping here at Franklin Forum Central.  I'm not succeeding.  If only I could outsource the blog.  Oh well, here are my sweet seven month olds, anyway.  Enjoy!

Samuel - 22 lbs

Amelia - 18 lbs

Marley - 15 lbs

Six Months

Sam, at 6 months, is a blur of activity. Seriously. For a baby that is not yet crawling, he sure moves a lot! I tried to take his picture on his 6 month 'birthday' in April and got these.

Then, I tried to capture him a week or so later and got these. Still blurry. Oh well, I guess night time iPhone photo shoots are not the best:)

At any rate, he's a bundle of energy and growing like a weed.  A weed, I tell you!  Here's a little about 6 month old Samuel.
*Can sit well, unassisted. Can't yet get to sitting on his own, though.
*Can roll both ways and get around a room pretty quickly just by rolling.
*Is very grabby and tries REALLY hard to get his hands on anything within reach (or just out of it).
*Hair is probably his favorite thing to grab, especially his sister's.
*Is extremely entertained by peek-a-boo.  Especially loves the elaborate version where Marley sneaks around, crawling under furniture and such, so he can pop up unexpectedly and yell peek-a-boo at Sam.
*Thinks his siblings are hilarious.
*Has the greatest, most wonderful sounding laugh.
*Likes to empty containers.
*Has two little teeth on the bottom.
*Enjoys feeding himself sweet potatoes, apple sauce, yogurt, prunes, chicken, asparagus, carrots, and more!

Sam loved the tofu soup (among other things) at Dim Sum.

*Weighed over 20 lbs and was 28" tall (90th percentile!) at 6 months. (Here's Marley and Amelia)
*Wears 12 month size clothing.
*Has rolls, upon rolls, upon rolls.
*Drools a lot.
*Is beginning to be interested in books (for more than just eating them).
*Sleeps next to us (mostly) in his sidecarred crib.
*Wakes up 2-3 times during the night to nurse.
*Easily takes a bottle.
*Loves his binky, and almost always needs it to fall asleep.
*Plays alone happily for extended periods of time.
*Cries and fusses when he's tired.
*Babbles da-da, ba-ba, and ma-ma.
*Is very social and likes to be noticed. Almost always smiles back when someone talks to him.
*Is a pretty laid back, patient guy.