Bed Diving and Other "Nash"ional Pastimes

Long ago we established that Nash is the best baby that ever was. I don't think my other kids will be offended one day because it's an unanimous feeling. Nash is the cutest, sweetest baby EVER. And now that the cutest baby ever is one, there are expectations. Expectations that he will sleep in beyond 6 AM and then there's the walking. Oh, walking why do you torment me so?

Since Nash still has been waking up at the crack of dawn, he gets a bottle instead of breakfast to hold him over until we make it down to the kitchen at 7:30-8:00. I like to think of it as a bottle full of laziness. I suppose if he turns two and is still waking up at 6, then we'll have to get up and make him something to eat, but for now, bottle it is.

I took the above picture to remind us of this handy trick Nash learned one early morning out of desperation. About two months ago Nash was laying on the changing table screaming for his morning bottle when I propped a pillow under his head and shoved the bottle in his mouth. I wrapped his hands around it and amazingly, he held it himself!

I know this doesn't sound very amazing because a lot of babies do this much earlier on in their baby careers, but this is a real treat for Mark and I. Low and behold if we change him slowly enough and stand next to him for a few minutes that bottle is as good as gone. That means gone are the days of "dinner and a show". It was not fun to be woken early by a hungry baby who wanted to be entertained in the dark. Now only if we could get him to sleep until it's light out, then we'd be in business!

When Nash is ready to sleep and we carry him to his crib he leans out of our arms and all but jumps into his crib. As I'm bending down to pick out a pacifier for him, he dives head first in the crib giggling his "Dr. Evil" laugh and burying his face in the mattress. He's getting stronger and it's hard for me to hold on to him when he's so determined. I hope he doesn't break his spine in the near future.

When Nash isn't checking to make sure all the baby locks are engaged, he's pulling up on everything. He's grabbing the papers off the side of the fridge and opening the overhead drawers in the kitchen. I dread the day he's tall enough to cherry pick off the table. If all this standing and mischief looked like it was turning into walking I'd be okay with that. Anyone whose had a mobile, but non-walking baby in the spring and summer can tell you that it's no fun at all to be outside with them. Being restrained in a stroller, swing or backpack carrier only lasts so long before they want down. I don't care if Nash gets dirty necessarily (it's bath season after all!), but Nash's pants/knees don't really like it when he wants to crawl around on the driveway or the damp spring grass. His mother doesn't like it either. :)

I don't foresee Nash walking anytime soon at all. He walks along furniture, but if there's any "risk" involved like moving from one thing to the next, he falls down for the comfort of being close to the ground. Patience is not my strongest personality trait and since we're constantly outside, it's a real pain in the neck. I can handle the early rising, the mischief, his one bottle a day and even the missed naps (yes, it's beginning already!), but just hurry up and walk for the love of all that's good and Holy. It's safe to say that when Nash walks, you'll know about it ASAP.

The Marrying Kind

Luke and I had a funny conversation this afternoon about marriage. We were both in the office, me answering emails and Luke playing a computer game, when Luke started commenting on how peaceful it was just the two of us. This is how our conversation went...

Luke: Mom, are you married?
Me: Yes, I'm married to dad.
Luke: What does it mean to be married?
Me: It means you promise before God that you'll love someone forever.
Luke: I want to marry you.
Me: Well, I'm already married.
Luke: Can you only be married one time?
Me: (not wanting to go THERE I replied the following) Yes, only once.
Luke: sighing...but I want to you marry you and I'll love you forever. (Be still my heart!)
Me: You'll find a nice girl to marry someday.
Luke: But you're much better.
Me: I know (how's that for modesty!) but I'm already married to dad.
Luke: Oh.
Me: I love you too, Luke.

Every mother wants to hear that her son loves her the best. I know it won't always be that way and I pray that someone will love him as much as I do one day.

Bath Season

It's a strange year to be wearing shorts and even bathing suits in the month of March, but with the fresh air and green grass comes dirt. Lots of dirt. Dirt actually makes me happy because I love for my kids to spend as much time outside as possible. The only downside of coming out of a short winter is that daily baths have resumed.

When we had one kid and even two possibly, we washed the heck out of those kids everyday. Now 4 kids later, they get baths every other day if no one got too sweaty too dirty. In welcoming spring, we welcome daily baths. It's a fair trade in my mind.

Our woods have come back to life in what seems like overnight. Next to purple and teal, green is my 3rd favorite color.

The kids take turns pushing Nash on the swing. He is our resident celebrity and everyone wants a piece of him. I love this picture of Stella pushing Nash in her mismatched pajamas. That's her favorite rest time trick.

Besides the Jesus Love Me shirt and the missing teeth, I was hoping to capture the dirt on Brooke's face. It's a sign of kids who play hard and who've had lots of fun.

Because I need one more project, I decided we needed a garden. After having a garden for 3 years at our old house, it only seems right that we'd continue the tradition here. I am taking on a much smaller plot to tend so I think it shouldn't be too overwhelming. The kids are super excited. Here I am digging up the landscaping to make room for veggies. I felt a little badly about pulling up perfectly good plants, but it's our house now and we can do what we want. I'm the mom and I said so.

Luke found a snail!

Stella found a bug and hopped right out of the garden as quickly as she could. This face cracks me up, but it drives Brooke crazy. Brooke gets this disgusted look on her face and says, "Stella is so phony!"

Poor non walking Nashy Boy. I was hoping beyond hope that Nash would walk shortly after his first birthday kind of like Stella who walked right as she turned 14 months old. Right now it doesn't seem like he's on track for that at all. I keep telling myself that the worst case scenario would be August since that's when he'd turn 17 months and that's how old Luke was when he walked ridiculously late. I need to stop because that thought makes my stomach hurt.

Crawling babies, cement, and dirt do not play well together which is why Nash was confined to the swing while we were tending to our future garden. Someone forgot to give him a push so he grabbed the swing to entertain himself. Get up and walk, boy!

After Stella got over the bug, she was bothered by the dirt that supposedly got in her shirt. She took her shirt off and then continued to dig. I told her that we don't live in Kentucky anymore so a shirt is required. She didn't get it, but I did get a chuckle out of Mark.

I washed the winter coats and snow apparel and they are safely stored back in the basement where, Lord willing, we won't need them until the end of this year. We're looking forward to many days playing hard and getting dirty. A bath is a small price to pay for so much fun.

March Madness

Here's a collection of random photos from the month of March. I can't believe we'll be starting April in about a week. That's just madness!

{Above} Brooke served Luke breakfast in bed "like a king" one morning. Luke was in his glory as you can see.

Nash crawling around the kitchen. He's a permanent fixture while I'm cooking. Sometimes he's pawing at my ankles. It's a lot of fun.

This is the picture I took of the moon one day before the full moon. I didn't edit this photo at all because I couldn't see how I could improve it. And to think this picture doesn't do the real thing justice.

Mark installed yet another baby gate in the doorway of our office. No more running to get Nashy Boy out of the cords.

I've Been Spoted!

I was trying to capture Nash quietly enjoying this book, but that didn't last long as you can see in the following pictures. Enjoy!

Who can resist that face? As Stella would say, "Nash, you the best."

What You Say??!!

The only way to describe Stella in a nutshell is to say that she's a girl who blazes her own trail. Her pretty face and impish smile covers a multitude of her sins. On one hand she's a thief, stealing things from the kids' rooms. She instigates trouble when she's bored and thinks nothing of running up to Brooke or Luke and taking something of theirs just for sport.

On the other hand, Stella is very sweet. She's a comforter and she's very in tune with people's emotions. When I'm concentrating on something she'll ask me "Mama, are you sad?" just because I have serious or far off look in my eyes. She gets tickled over small things and when she's really excited, she squeaks in the most high pitched voice that's barely audible to humans. It's hilarious.

Here's a list of some of this odd bird's current behaviors:

*At rest time since she obviously does not sleep, so she empties her drawers and will change into a pair of pajamas.

*If she gets sent to her room for bad behavior (which means she is locked in or else she'll escape and steal things) she sometimes wrecks her room. In her 3 year old mind, her ultimate act of defiance includes emptying all the play kitchen accessories all over the floor, clearing the books from her shelf and spreading her doll house stuff all over her bedroom floor. It's not pretty.

* For weeks now she's been taking off her night time pull-up and sleeping in her underwear. Interestingly enough, she's dry in the morning. I suppose we're a little slow because she has been trying to tell us for weeks she didn't need the pull-ups anyway.

*Did you notice Sister Sue's hair growing? A few weeks ago at breakfast Stella was dramatically brushing her hair out of her eyes with this exasperated expression when I noticed that her hair had actually grown. Now she really does need hair accessories to keep the hair out of her eyes. There's part of me that worries that she'll cut it if it bothers her too much. You just never know with her.

*Other exciting news is that her speech has improved dramatically in the last 3 months. It's funny to hear her say things like "actually" when she starts a sentence or anything that begins with a "S". Example: "I want to 'wim in the pool." or "Push me on the 'wing, please." She now speaks in full sentences, a lot. There are some occasions where I feel as though my ears will bleed from all her rambling. Two of her most used phrases are "Wuke (Luke) not being kind." and "What you say?" I love this time in her speech development because she can't really say the letter "r" very well and then she'll say things like "fip fops" for flip flops. It's really cute, especially when she's mad. :)

*Stella is the best eater. Besides her not wanting to stay in her seat at mealtimes, she complains the least about what's being served. She eats right away, gets the job done, and then is ready to get up from the table. It's a breath of fresh air after eating at the table with Luke who likes to wait at least 15 minutes before he even begins eating.

*We lock her in her room at night when we put her to bed because she won't stay in her room. Before Mark and I go to bed we check on her and as of late, we unlock her door since she's not roaming the halls at all hours of the night. It is such a treat to check on her around 11 PM because we just never know what we'll find. Sometimes she's naked or sleeping with an opened tube of toothpaste. Stella usually has a pile of books and sometimes dress up shoes or pajamas she's changed out of. She's like a box of chocolates.

*She's so loud about everything and I suppose I can't fault her for that since she does want to be heard over the din of the others. With 5 other people in the family, I suppose she has to be loud by necessity.

In a lot of ways I feel sorry for Stella. She's not a baby anymore, but barely a preschooler. We are so focused on getting our school work finished and keeping Nash out of trouble that we shoo her away to go play. When Brooke and Luke were her age we just played. I suppose there are pros and cons to having older siblings and being shuffled along is just par for the course. I'm excited to see what kind of girl she grows up to be. For now I'll savor every time she says, "Mama, you the best."

Saturday Art Class

Anyone who home schools and has art class on a regular basis probably doesn't school more than one kid, have a baby, doesn't do 8 to 10 loads of laundry a week or doesn't cook a thing. I wish I had more energy for arts and crafts, but the reality is that I don't have the time or the motivation. Today my good intentions became a reality because Brooke found one of the many art books on our book shelf and asked me if we could do a project. Enter the color wheel and channeling Jackson Pollack.

I tend to do these crazy projects when Mark is away. Crafts make him grumpy and having a grumpy helper isn't really that helpful, so we craft when he's not home. This project might have sent him over the edge.

Through divine intervention Stella had to be sent inside for persistent crying and whining. Thanks to my mom being with us that wasn't a major glitch. Looking back on our morning, that was the best case scenario for sure.

Brooke and Luke were thrilled and besides blowing though brand new bottles of paint, it was pretty painless.

Our driveway will recover with the next rain and we'll have masterpieces to enjoy forever or until I throw them away when the kids aren't looking. I'm mean like that.

After "action painting" (that's the official term for this very abstract art) we moved on to rock painting. Luke got a book at the library yesterday and I figured why we had the paint out, we might as well go for broke.

After 3 hours of painting, I pulled the plug when the paint started appearing more on the table and on their skin than on the rocks. They're going to be pretty exhausted because after painting Mark took them to the park for a couple of hours. Can you say early to bed tonight? :)

Five Teeth and Counting

Right now I wish I was napping. It's Saturday afternoon, Mark took the older 2 kids to the park and that means that it's "rest time" here for Nash and Stella. I realize after one four day trip and Nash's two missed afternoon naps later, that I am able to enjoy and appreciate him when he sleeps when he's supposed to. That might make me a bad mother, but if nothing else, I'm honest.

If you were around when Stella was a baby, I blogged constantly about how she didn't sleep. With Nash you haven't had to put up with that nonsense because up until recently, he always napped when he needed to. That's why he's been my favorite baby. Sleep=happiness.

Mark came home from work this afternoon and I told him that if Nash stops napping in the afternoons at one year old, I'm running away. I could tell by the look on Brooke and Luke's face that they didn't know I was kidding. If this keeps up I might be serious.


Before I go on to update about our Nashy Boy, I feel like I need to address the elephant in Nash's life which is the rash that's still present on his face. It's an allergy and we had lab work to prove it. It is a very frustrating work in progress.

I thought originally that he was allergic to the almond flour in our baked goods. Then we thought it was our laundry soap because after we rewashed his clothes in a different detergent, the rash got significantly better. Today it seems like it's flaring up again. I feel like beating my head up against a wall would be more productive. Ugh.

The short of it is that we're going to take him for allergy treatments and keep a careful watch on his diet to see if we notice any correlation between what we're feeding him and the intensity of the rash. It's frustrating and likely will take a long time, so don't be shocked when it lingers for a while. We are working on it. For now, only Photoshop can help me.

Now that I've moaned and groaned, I'm going to move on to Nash's newest "tricks". Keep in mind he's had no formal training, so keep your expectations low. :)

*He currently has 5 teeth total, but is working on another 3 as we speak. I'm hoping his nap situation is some how linked to the teeth situation. I have no evidence to back this up what so ever, I'm just desperate. I've heard (and experienced) our babies having trouble sleeping at night, the nap thing seems like a stretch.

*Days after Nash turned one he started drinking from a straw. I've found this skill to be extremely helpful especially if we're in a situation where a sippy cup isn't available. If nothing else, it's just cute.

*I've also noticed that Nash seems to be too busy focusing his attention on trying to get into things that are off limits to play with his toys. We have toys thrown about our living room so you would think that he plays with them, but he doesn't. He takes them out of the basket, chucks them aside and then heads for the nearest door or gate that is ajar.

*It seems that there is a lot of singing that goes on in our house. None of us are very good singers, but with our home school group, Classical Conversations, we learn to memorize by singing so someone is usually singing something. (We're on to the U.S. Presidents and we've got them memorized up until President McKinley.) I might not have paid much attention to the singing except when Nash hears someone sing, he starts clapping. It's the cutest thing next to his giggle that bubbles up from his belly when he's happy.

*Nash has also transitioned to a mostly table food diet. We still give him a bottle in the morning (and sometimes before bed) because it's easier than real breakfast at the moment, but it won't be long until that's gone too. Where did my baby go? Nash will eat anything we give him. Just like the rest of us, he doesn't eat grains, but we do give him fruit, meat, veggies, and some dairy. I am still making him a little baby food simply because he can't always eat the veggies the way I prepare them for everyone else.

*My least favorite of his new tricks (right behind the missed naps of course) has to do with his sleep schedule. Go figure! We've been putting him to be between 7 and 7:30 then he rolls around and talks to himself for up to an hour before falling asleep. Praise God he sleeps all night long, but then he usually wakes up in the 6 o'clock hour. I am not a morning person so this doesn't work for me at all.

The nice thing about Nash is that he will roll around and talk to himself for a little while so I can either lay there and pretend that I'm going to go back to sleep or choose to jump in the shower before I get him up.

FYI: He still sleeps in one of the two closets in our bedroom. It's very convenient to not have to shush the older kids all day while he's sleeping and I like that I don't have to run down the hall should he need attention in the middle of the night. I also like looking at him before I go to sleep. He's my adorable little belly sleeper. I plan on keeping him there until he can get up and walk out of the closet himself. Isn't that what you're supposed to do with last babies? Give them a bottle until they are 2, and keep them in crib with their pacifiers until 4 and baby them unnecessarily because they are your last baby. :)

I'll pull the plug and wrap this rambling post up. I think my last baby actually fell asleep. Now only if my 3 year old would nap, then I could be snoozing too. I suppose I'll be another one of those people that say they'll sleep when they're dead.

The Gang's All Here

We had a fun time playing in the basement the other day. Nash was getting restless upstairs because all his plans to get into trouble were foiled, so I decided to take him downstairs for a change of pace. Word spread like wild fire that an adult would be present on the lower level so they all came flocking. The kids had a great time and it was so fun to see them all really playing together for the first time.

Nash was the guest of honor and everyone wanted a turn to push him first. After the power struggle was settled, everyone got a turn, but Nash definitely won. They pushed him for about 30 minutes and he couldn't be happier.

I love having a fast camera to capture facial expressions like this...

and this.

If Nash's facial expressions weren't comic relief enough, Stella took the cake when it was her turn and she insisted on pushing Nash (or "Nath" as she says) with flippers on. That's one "special" family we have. :)

Memory Lane

It's hard to believe it's our one year anniversary of just about everything. We'll maybe not everything, but of our new house and our Nashy Boy. There's a good possibility you're tired of hearing me say how much I love our home, but I do! It's perfect for us and I feel so blessed to live in it.

Last year, we unpacked all of our belongings in one week's time. Three kids, a pregnant lady, Mark and my mom and my mother-in-law running errands. I can only say that God gave us all super human strength and energy to get the job done in the short amount of time we did.

This is what I looked like a year ago. This shirt makes me laugh because Mark hated it and I loved it. It's gray and stripped. What's not to love? If it's the horizontal stripes that bother him, nothing would make me look slim at 38 weeks pregnant. My back hurts just looking at this picture. So glad to be past that!

But then you get to this baby and oh, how my heart breaks that time has moved so quickly!

Welcoming Nash was a little "involved" (what can I really say after 10 units of blood and a hysterectomy later?), but it was amazing to see God heal me and get me home after only 4 days in the hospital.

Mark was a good documenter (is that even a word?) of the whole event. Props to the camera man!

Every bit was worth it for our Nashy Boy. He is so easy to love and so fun to be around that the kids say all the time how much they love him. I'd do it again in a heart beat which is why I don't have a uterus. You can sleep easy, Mom. :)

This is one of my favorite pictures of Nash's early days. I love the round face of a baby who's getting plenty to eat and the peaceful look of his smile. Why do they have to grow? I suppose when I'm 70 I wouldn't want to still be changing his diapers, but maybe I'll be lucky enough to occasionally change my grand kids' diapers. I better slow down there, I don't usually look ahead like that and I might hurt myself. :)

If I could only bottle up the sweetness, it would help in a year from now when I want to tear my hair out. This is how we got into the predicament we're in because we fell for the sweet baby smiles and silliness and then I got pregnant and turned around and realized a little too late that two year olds aren't as easy as opinionless babies. But what does it matter? We love them just the same, except when we have favorites. :)

Score!

I can't believe I've waited so long to tell you this, but I have a new love in my life. We went crazy and bought a sectional sofa with part of our tax return. You can only know how much this means to me if you've A.) Seen the random faded spots on old sofa or B.) You've been one of the unfortunate souls whom straightened the slipcover I hid the faded spots under. Unless you have a custom slipcover, cheap slipcovers and children do not mix.

Not only is our new sofa pretty to look at, it actually seats our whole family and fills up our living room so much nicer than our smaller newlywed couch did. 10 years was a good run, but now we've banished it to the basement I'm so happy that I don't have to look at or fix that silly slipcover every day.

Yes, and that square coffee table you see there is from IKEA ...for $29.99. Even if the kids break it in a year, I figure it's still a bargain. It fits perfectly and I love it.

What I love even more is that now when I'm expecting company, I'm not scrambling to tidy the couch up and yelling at the kids to stay off of it until our guests arrive. That's hypothetical of course, because I only yell on special occasions. :)

Almost 50 Pounds Later

I've blogged often about how much better I feel not eating grains. I've think I've also mentioned that I lost 15 pounds as well. I reported back in December that Mark lost 30 pounds by going "paleo", but what's really exciting is that he's down close to 20 more! Two pant sizes smaller and tons of energy later, I can hardly recognize the man who calls himself my husband.

Mark asked me a few weeks ago if I felt more attracted to him now that he's slimmer. A loaded question for sure! He told me he wouldn't be offended by my answer (right), but since he once told me when I was pregnant that I had fat arms, I felt comfortable being honest. :) I told him that it wasn't the extra weight that was unattractive, it was watching him on a gluttonous rampage eating crap by the handfuls that was unattractive. Granted last year with bed rest, moving, and a new baby, things were really stressful for him. I understand that he dealt with that stress by eating and sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do to get by.

I'm so glad we're past all that and I'm glad that Mark feels like he's back in control of eating. Since he's cut out grains he tells me that he hardly eats anything while he's at work. He's simply not hungry and so he gets away with eating one meal and a snack usually. Who knew eating lots of meat and veggies would be equated with saving money?

Mark has now embarked on another round of P90x to get his muscles back in shape again. This go around he's modifying the program and only doing the weight lifting days and leaving out the intense cardio which is fitting with the Paleo way of doing things. Where his shirt used to be dripping with sweat within the first 15 minutes, he now hardly sweats at all! He's also noticing that he has more strength and is progressing much faster even though he hasn't worked out in a while. I admire his commitment and determination. In fact, I wish he could throw some of that my way. :) I'm still very tired even when I get adequate sleep, so physically, I'm not ready to jump back on the exercise ship just yet. Hopefully, in time, I'll get my mojo back too. Until then, I'll just admire Mark's biceps and calves from the couch.

A Little Party

Birthday parties for one year olds are never very exciting because babies just don't know what all the fuss is about. Just like the older three kids, Nash napped through the majority of our little family birthday party we had for him on Sunday afternoon.

Since we are a grain free family, I would have had to make up a grain free cake with either almond flour or coconut flour, but I decided not to make a cake at all. I know, a birthday party without a cake is almost un-American.

The rash on Nash's face turned out not to be a fungus or a bacteria, but an allergy instead. An allergy to what? We're not entirely sure, but one theory is that Nash is allergic to the almond flour baked goods I make. Babies aren't supposed to have nuts anyway and I just didn't really think that one through. I decided to keep it simple and stick with the ice cream. Mark's mom brought over the good stuff, Graeter's. I didn't hear one complaint. :)

Since we have a million and one toys already, Nash got a baby gate to keep him out of our office and money for a pair of shoes from Stride Rite. I took Brooke and Luke to the store, Once Upon a Child and let them pick out whatever they wanted to give Nash for his birthday. It was awesome because I didn't have to tell them to pick something else because what they wanted was too expensive. It was better than the dollar store because they picked out a Little Tykes piano (Luke) and Brooke picked out a moving, musical caterpillar. I picked one out for Stella since she wasn't there, but she didn't seem to care.

I find it almost physically painful that Nash is turning one in less than a week. He's so precious and fun and we all love him to pieces. No party, no matter how grand, would be enough to show Nash just how loved he is.