Ammon's last day to be 0.

What a difference a year makes!! 

For some reason I have this idea with each baby that 

he (or she) is going to stay a baby forever. 

And then--BLINK! 

Tomorrow Ammon turns one. I look at him and wonder how he ever fit inside of me.

Just like I look at Logan, Madison, and Grant and wonder the same thing.

Ammon is walking almost everywhere. 

He's figured out how to stand without holding on to anything.

He is nursing twice a day. I think we could easily go down to one, or maybe none at all.

But for all I know this will be the last time I will ever nurse a baby.

And call me crazy, but the thought is really sad. 

So I'm hanging on to that last feeding. 

Ammon can wave, clap, blow kisses, say "MOM" and "DA" and "HI."

He looks really cute when he pulls his head down to the side to get your attention.

It's not so cute when he screams to get your attention.

His hair is wild. It's got the electrocuted, static-cling look all the time.

It's actually pretty cute.

So here he is on his last day to be 0. See the blue on his hands and the books missing on the shelf? Some of his favorite things to do include finding markers, pulling the tops off, and writing all over himself. And pulling books out of the shelves. Lucky boy's got lots of book to pull out and some brothers and sisters who spoil him by hiding markers all over the house. 

Shoe Tying

A few months ago I bought Madison some sneakers with shoelaces. In other words, it was time to learn how to tie. I gave Joe the assignment because I had previously been unsuccessful.

About 5 minutes later (or less) he said, "Good job! You are a fast learner." I abruptly turned around and said, "What? She can do it already? Impossible." Madison showed me her new skill, and I thought, "Wow! Joe is a good teacher!" I praised her and Joe for their good work.

Then Madison pulls me into the kitchen and whispers into my ear, "Don't tell Dad, but I already knew how."

Bittersweet

6 Month-a-roos

Now I normally wait until 6 months to even think about giving the baby solids. . . but this boy is growing up faster than the others did. He's got 2 teeth (and another one can't decide), he's crawling and pulling himself up (although he hasn't mastered a stand yet). And the boy gets mad if we don't share food with him! So at about 5 1/2 months we started introducing a little bit of food. We've let him taste too many things to make an exclusive list, but these are main foods he has tried so far:

• rice cereal
• oatmeal cereal
• peas
• bananas
• apple sauce
• pumpkin

Ammon also likes to chew on our pizza crusts, brownie crumbs, and other miscellaneous taste-tests of whatever we are willing to give him.

We started feeding him solids at dinner-time every other day, but the last few days he has been eating a small bowl of solids at pretty much every meal. The kids think it is fun to feed him--even if it does mean a little extra mess to clean up.

He's also been getting extra giggly and smiley. Maybe because he is getting into everything. He especially likes Grant's flip flops (don't worry, I take them away) and paper (mainly in the form of books). He likes to play peek-a-boo, and our newest tradition is a round or two of peek-a-book with the blanket when he gets put in his bed. This also seems to help to keep him from crying when he realizes that he is getting put into bed. :)

On another note, the Fall and Halloween decorations are up, hooray! Logan informed me that he was worried I wouldn't keep my promise (I've been telling him for the past few days that we would put them up), so whew! I am a lady of my word. Grant stuffed a huge brownie in his mouth when I wasn't looking, and before he had eaten his food, so I actually stuck my hand in his mouth full of teeth and pulled it out and threw it away. It isn't my most pleasant memory. Grant's finger also warrants a picture because it looks pretty spooky. You can see under half his fingernail, which is all black and gruesome, and it will surely fall of in the next little while. Joe went out to dinner with a guy from UT, so I made a teriyaki-chicken stir-fry with ramen noodles. It wasn't that bad, but the thought of it makes me shudder. Also, I was really faithful in doing couch to 5k for 2 weeks, but then I missed 2 weeks. Oops.

a week in review

a little crawl

a push-up or two

and now I will sit down for you!

Sadly, I never got the gorilla/tri-pod I'm-sitting-but-gonna'-fall-over picture. :( Seriously, I can't keep up with the boy! He's also been awesome about taking a long nap for me after lunch--the same time Grant does. It's wonderful.

Ammon is entertaining himself for longer periods of time. Today he crawled/scooted all over the bedroom for an hour looking for things to gnaw on. The kids have been pretty good at keep little toys off of the floor. . . although he did get hold of a Star Wars coloring book and chewed the cover off.

I should mention that last Sunday Joe took Grant to the E.R. for a smashed finger. It looked really bad, and we'd had some experience with smashed fingers (Madi smashed hers off), so we decided to be safe. They took some x-rays and said he was fine. . . and we felt kind of dumb because by the time we got home it was looking a ton better. It still looks bad. . . his fingernail will definitely fall off, and an inch of his finger is horribly bruised and scabbed over, but not E.R. worthy, for sure. He did, for the first time in his life, ask for a band-aid. Ah well. I'm trying not to think about it.

What else. . . do you want to help me come up with ideas for the fire mantel? We had fire places in the last 2 places we've lived, and I thought we did ok, but this one has a curved recessed area above the fire place, and I hate it! Even if I could fit a small picture/mirror in there I wouldn't want to because I think it looks dumb. Every other room in the house looks somewhat put together and ok, but I have been avoiding this room because of the lack of furniture and the fire mantel! So right now the whole room looks crummy, but I am itching to get it put together because I want to pull out my fall decorations (like the one on the left of the mantel in the pic). I need help!!

*I think Grant got the camera and smudged the lens because all of the pictures are coming out blurry. Or it could be because I spent 30 minutes pushing buttons on the camera and wondering just what those buttons did. . .and now I don't know how to undo everything. Oops. Also, do you see how you can see Ammon's reflection on the floor. . .pretty cool. Maybe my floor is cleaner than I thought. ;)

No Not Yet!

Yesterday Ammon started practicing his crawl. He's not fast yet, but I know that in a very short time he will be faster than I am. I'm cheering him on, "You can do it! Yay!" and saying, "just wait another month!" all at the same time.

I'm not ready for it. . . emotionally! It really does seem like time goes faster with each baby. When Logan was this age we would go to the playground and I would put him on my lap while we went down the slides. I would watch the big kids and get excited for the day that he could actually play and be more excited about going down the slide than I was. I thought I had all this time ahead of me--not just for Logan, but to be pregnant and to go through all the stages many times over. Now, I can't see into the future, but I don't see many more babies, if any, in ours. Definitely not four more. . . so I'd be content if time could slow down and I could just savor what time I have--with each of my children.

So yesterday I saw Ammon scooting around, and then I found the book, What to Expect the First Year while I was unpacking. I haven't looked at that book for a good while because I think I kind of already know what to expect. But just for fun I decided to check out the 5 and 6 month section. I *almost* started crying because for some reason reading it made me think my baby wasn't a baby any more but a kid. . . and then those kids grow up to be adults. My mom would say I'm being like the three sillies and thinking about things I don't need to worry about.

Here is what is good about growing up:

Ammon (5 mos)--Sleeps through the night. Usually goes to sleep on his own. Can entertain himself for 10-20 minutes. Smiles and giggles.

Grant (3)--Pure joy to talk to. Says cute things. Can go to the bathroom by himself (minus a little help wiping). Can get dressed by himself (although it might be backwards). Has some reasoning skills, but is a little stubborn. Eats pretty well, but not always. Plays well with older children and children his own age (struggles with younger children and children who don't follow the rules--bossy pants).

Madison (6)--can get up by herself, get dressed, make beds--she can do a lot by herself. She helps around the house. She can follow directions (if she chooses to). Her reasoning skills are ok. Can carry an interesting conversation. Plays well with others.

Logan (almost 8)--can do almost everything for himself. Even better, he can do an awful lot for me. He helps a lot. His reasoning skills are awesome. He doesn't complain about what he has to eat. He can come up with solutions to problems. He doesn't need a lot of help to do his homework. Very good at conversing and playing with others.

I don't know what I'm scared of. Growing up is good. Can you imagine having a newborn every day of your life? We want them to become independent--we'd all be miserable if they didn't. And five months--he's still a baby, right? I have many more baby days to enjoy!

Oh. . .and two more reasons I LOVE this new house: bathtubs and CARPET! Much better for the new crawler.

Note to self:

Today Grant started pulling himself into sitting position.  He crawls everywhere and gets into everything (he especially likes to get under the table and search for Madison's and Logan's leftovers. Ick!).  

More pictures and updates to come soon.

TROUBLE

I've seen what I've seen and I saw it.

Grant has been rolling around, turning around in circles, and pushing himself backwards.  But today I saw him eye an important piece of paper that shouldn't be on the floor, then he pulled his chubby legs close to his body, picked up his chest and pushed himself to the paper.  YIKES! Freak accident?  Maybe.  He can't (I don't think) get into the average crawling position, yet, but he's figuring out how to get where he wants.  double YIKES!  Madison actually army crawled until she was almost 1 (probably because our apt. had ouchy utility carpet).  And I'm excited, but not so much.  Because with Logan, I just had to make sure I didn't leave things out that he could reach in any possible way.  With Madison, Logan was still kind of in the same stage, so no big adjustments needed to be made.  But now my kiddos play with legos, Barbie shoes, and I've forgotten what it's like to have a baby who spots things like important papers and would, for some crazy reason, prefer that over the fun toys sitting right in front of him.  AGHHHHH!  and at the same time, YAY!

We're Going to the Doctor...

Well, Grant and Madi went yesterday for checkups, and Logan goes today for a hearing and vision test that he needs for preschool.  The stats are.....

Madison: 31 lb, 38 in.  (90% height, 30% weight, 3% together).  She's a healthy, tall, skinny girl.  

Grant: 16 lb 10 oz! and 27 1/2 in.  (90th height, 75% weight, 50% together).  He's healthy as well. 

Madison and Grant were great patients.  Madison answered all her questions, Grant smiled at the dr. as she checked him out.  Here's the best part, though.  Madison had to get 1 shot to complete the Hep (b?) shot she got in Utah--which isn't a routine vaccination here in Ohio.  She screamed and screamed.  I had to hold her while she wiggled.  Grant?  Three shots.  The first one he kind of whimpered for a second, then smiled.  He just looked at me for the next two (heartbreaking, I know) and let out a soft, sad sound.  As soon as I picked him up he was a smiley, happy boy again.  I'm not sure who was more surprised, the nurse or me!