The little laugher

Edith saw the funniest thing in her life last week--the neighbor's dog Oscar barking.  We were sitting in the grass and Oscar wanted to see Edith because apparently he loves babies.  He licked her toes and barked.  She starting laughing a big belly laugh.  It was very cute!  Every time he barked she would laugh.  When he stopped barking she would stop laughing.  Oscar barked at her today but the joke was over and she wasn't amused.  You never know what is going to make this kid happy from day to day.  One thing that has been pretty consistent in pleasing her is watching the big girls jump on the trampoline.  She sits in her bouncer seat in the basement and squeals at the girls.  Ben and I even got to play a little ping pong while that was going on.  The other thing that usually works is if I am constantly holding her and looking at her.

Nora's big day

Nora was feeling sad because Alena and Daddy were spending the night at Camp Wapsi.  We decided to find some fun things to do with Edith, Nora, and me.  We went to the Eco Fest in NewBo and did a couple of crafts and listened to music.  Then we went to Washington High School and Playtime Poppy's "Harold and the Purple Crayon."  Edith slept through the beginning of the play but woke up halfway through it.  She was squealing with excitement.  There were a lot of special effects and Nora and I both agreed it was really good.  We then went to Dairy Queen and got ice cream.  One of her preschool friends was there and we went across the street with him to play at the playground after eating. Nora had Edith sit on her lap and they went down the slide together many times. After supper she went for a scooter ride and then we watched Full House before bed.  She said it was the most fun day ever.

Nora turns 5

Nora's birthday was on Wednesday.  She had the day off of preschool so she spent the day with me.  Aunt Kristina came over and helped her frost pink cupcakes to bring to preschool the next day.  We roasted hotdogs over the fire pit.  She ate 3 cupcakes before we realized it.  Nora celebrated her fifth birthday again on Saturday.  It was also Grandma Diane's birthday!  Nora had a butterfly funfetti cake and Grandma had a lemon meringue pie.  The weather has been so beautiful all month so the cousins all ate in the playhouse that we set up this week.  A couple of the big gifts were a scooter from Grandma and Grandpa Ossman, a stomp rocket from us, and a wubble from the Cahalans.

Edith is 4 months old

In honor of turning 4 months old, Edith slept for 7 hours straight!  I fear it might be a fluke, but it was the best night of sleep in my life.  She is continuing her nap strike at Connie's.  Hopefully she figures it out soon!  Her saving grace is that she is not stingy with a smile.  Everyone who sees her has to comment on how cute she is, and then of course she will smile at them to prove that it is true.  Other four month achievements: Edith loves chewing on hair and fabric.  When she has her blanket in her car seat she will pull it up and chew on it.  She loves pulling my hair and sticking it in her mouth as well. All of this chewing contributes to large amounts of drool at all times.  She is a great roller from front to back.  She hasn't yet rolled the other way, but it looks like she would be able to if she really wanted to.  Her balance is really good and she can sit well with support.  Edith loves standing over all else.  Sometimes when she is grumping if you pull her to standing she will smile.  Put her back down on the floor and she will get angry again.  She is a super pooper.  When she is getting her diaper changed, she will wait until the dirty one is off before pooping all over a changing pad, her outfit, your hand, or a clean diaper.  This is much more humorous when it doesn't happen at 3 am.  She just switched to wearing a size 2 diaper and 3-6 month clothes.  Edith checked out well at the doctor.  She is 24 1/4 inches (30%), 13 lbs (19%), and 42.3cm head (87%).

Alena was stalling going to bed.  Edith didn't mind because her big sister read books to her and played with her.  I didn't mind for the same reason!

                

Easter

We spent Saturday night at Grandma and Grandpa Ossman's house so the kids could have an Easter egg hunt with the Pennimans.  Sure enough, the Easter bunny found us in our new location and brought lots of candy!  The kids all got a new outfit and a toy as well.  They ate half of a bag of jelly beans for breakfast.  The theme of the weekend was eating.  Saturday we had a delicious meal of salmon, salad, and vegetables.  Kristina made hot crossed buns for brunch the next morning.

At 3pm we went to the Jensens'.  As soon as we walked in the door the Cahalan's were racing to get outside to hunt eggs.  Each one of the kids got a new Beanie Boo with crazy hair.  Edith loves her new Beanie.  I was upstairs with Nora last night and I heard screeching sounds.  Ben later told me it was Edith super excited by grabbing its hair and sticking it in her mouth.  She loves to stick hair in her mouth.  She always tries to get mine, and the other day she got a good handful of Nora's.  Nora was a pretty good sport about it despite the fact that Edith kept some of it!

Nora really does like Peeps!

First week of daycare

All of the girls started something new last week.  Alena is now walking home from school with her friend Harper two days a week.  It went well the first week--the girls did their homework, had a snack, and then went over to the neighbor's house to jump on the trampoline.

 Nora started wrap-around care at St. Matthews.  The first day was a little rough.  They have quiet time after lunch where the kids have to lay on their cots.  Nora hasn't taken a nap in over 2 years.  She said laying there made her miss mommy and daddy and water came out of her eyes (no, she insisted she wasn't crying.)  I felt so bad, but I reiterated with her teacher that she doesn't take naps and now she only has to lay down for 20 minutes.  Then she gets to read books or get up and play in another room.  One afternoon there were baby chicks to pet!  Nora's favorite part seems to be that she gets to eat lunch at school.  She tried baked beans and said they weren't too bad. She ate pineapple and carrot sticks.  She had the best meatballs ever on day and said she ate 6 of them!  This is pretty impressive for Nora.  Now she claims she likes daycare better than preschool.  As an update, the second week she fell asleep two days.  I couldn't believe it!

Edith started going to an in home daycare.  She is going two days a week to Connie's.  Connie watches two 2 year old kids so we hoped Edith would get plenty of attention and hopefully be exposed to less sickness.  The first day she refused to take the bottle at first.  Connie called Ben and he told her to heat the milk up extra warm.  After that there was no problem.  She loved watching the other kids and has been playing a little in an exersaucer.  She is also enjoying being held a lot.  Now she just has to master taking better naps!  When there is any excitement she doesn't like to miss out.

Beauty shop

Alena likes when Grandma Diane puts hot rollers in her hair.  Nora had her hair done this time too.  They were looking pretty good!  Grandma also taught Alena how to weave the edges of fleece blankets that she was making for the church.  Alena finished two blankets while watching tv and did a great job.  She loves crafting with Grandma and has done some sewing on the sewing machine as well.  I think she can sew a pillow better than I can!

Spring break in Minnesota

Thursday morning we went to Minnesota to meet Otto and play with all of the cousins.  It was a pretty good trip up.  Edith continues to love her car seat.  For 30 minutes, she quietly looked around until she fell asleep for almost 3 hours.  She really is a good traveling baby.  It was her first overnight trip.  We stayed three nights and she slept just as well as she does at home. 

The day we arrived happened to be Aunt Julianne's birthday, so Angela prepared a taco salad meal with a cake for dessert.  Little Otto loves to sleep.  We didn't get to see much of his eyes, which reminded us of Alena when she was a baby! 

Friday we got to see Julianne and Sam's new house for the first time.  Julianne already has it looking good despite only living there for a few months.  It is in Minneapolis and is closer to her in-laws. The Pennimans were at school and the toddlers needed to nap, so then we went to the Como Zoo.  Edith and I walked around the conservatory and enjoyed the warm, humid air while Ben took the big girls around to see the animals.

That evening we went to a pool.  Aunt Julianne managed to find Alice's old swim suit which fit Edith well.  It was her first time swimming.  It was so loud in there that she didn't look like she knew what to think.  She seemed to like it well enough, but her favorite part was when I took her to the shower to rinse off at the end.  The pool was shallow enough for Nora, Nina, and Alice to walk around and slide down the little slide in the middle.  They had a ton of fun!

Lily, Alena, Finn, and Nora made a spa in the bathroom.  They all put on their swimsuits and soaked in the tub.  Lily later did the girls' hair while Finn got to guard the door.  They also prepared a very elaborate play that had Native Americans and many battles.  It was another nice trip visiting the cousins.  We really only see the girls at meals and bedtime they are so involved with playing and it ends up being pretty relaxing.

New babies

Two new cousins joined the family this month.  Otto Dean Hostetler was born on the 11th weighing in at 8 lbs, 6 oz.  Miles Vernon Mitchell Cahalan was 7 lbs and was born on the 16th.

On Monday of spring break we had the Cahalans over to play.  Sadie went scouting around and found Nora's candy stash in her "jewelry box" (the little armoire built by Grandpa Ed for dress up costumes.) The other girls were all out collecting pellets for the ball family.  Ever since we moved into our new house the girls have been collecting balls the size off bb's.  We think maybe the neighbor has a pellet gun.  The balls come in different colors and the girls assign family rolls based off of the color.  The funniest one is the dirty white one has been labeled the grandpa.  They have built houses, beds, trampolines, and swimming pools for the family.  Anyway, when the bigger girls saw Sadie with a sucker, the ball family was forgotten.  Alena got down yet another candy stash (one I didn't even know about) and let everyone pick a sucker to enjoy. 

Good thing they came over on Monday, because Miles was born on Wednesday!  We all went to Mercy Hospital Wednesday evening to meet him before we left the next morning.  We were surprised to see him sporting strawberry blond hair!

Daddy goes on a trip

Daddy went to Houston, Texas for 6 days for a convention for work.  Right before he left, I started running a fever and had a sore throat.  I was feeling a little better, but the second day he was gone, I lost my voice!  The girls were at Grandma Diane's house for the day and we stayed for supper.  Alena was nice enough to read the bedtime story for the night.  The next day my voice was back a little. The weather was beautiful and the big girls played outside with Rowan having a squirt bottle fight. All of the girls were great the whole time Daddy was gone.  I was also lucky enough to get more help from Grandma Dee and Grandpa Ed.  Grandpa Ed had Nora collect sticks from around the yard and Monday night we had a hot dog roast with s'mores.  The grandparents stayed two nights to help out, and Daddy finally came back Tuesday after bedtime.  We were really happy to see him and he was happy to be home!

Nora wore Daddy's Star Wars socks while he was gone.  The girls built a robot out of Legos.  Edith got a little relaxing in between kisses from Grandma.  Daddy showed off his pictures from his trip.  He fed a stingray and saw a white tiger!

Three months old

Edith is more fun each month.  Now that she is three she can grab her foot, roll over consistently from front to back, and pull my hair!  She still is ready with a smile and has laughed a couple of times.  She is going to bed around 9 and gets up one or two times a night.  Inevitably in the middle of the night when I change her diaper she immediately poops in the clean one so I have to do it all over again.  It doesn't matter how long I wait to put the fresh one on.  Quite the little jokester! She just tried out sitting in the bumbo.  She didn't really care for it.  The sad development is her hair spike no longer spikes up!  We miss that cute little style.

Visiting Great Grandpa

Great Grandpa Harold and a bunch of cute girls.  It is the end of February and no coats!

More birthday celebrations for Daddy?

This weekend we went down to Washington to visit Great Grandpa Harold.  He met Edith for the first time.  Then we went to Dino's and ate pizza with Grandma Dee and Grandpa Ed.  The girls then played at Sunset Park, Daddy and I went down the Rocket Slide, Grandpa Ed gave Alena a new fox fur for her fur collection, he made a lot of maple syrup, and then we had a birthday mandarin orange cake.  Whew!  We love the hair that is always sticking straight up on Edith's head!

Daddy's birthday and back to work

It was a big weekend for Edith!  Saturday morning we were eating pumpkin waffles.  Edith was still refusing to take a bottle and we were really getting down to crunch time with me starting work in 2 days.  We had a bottle out and I looked over at the maple syrup and figured it wouldn't hurt to try to use it to coax her to eat.  We poured syrup on the nipple and Edith licked it all off.  Soon she was sucking from the bottle with no problems!  Subsequent bottles did not require syrup.  Now she is a pro, but prefers the fancy bottle brand Nuby; no Wal-Mart special for this little one!

Sunday was Daddy's birthday.  We had strawberry pie made by Grandma Diane to celebrate.  Alena helped pull together a surprise for him.  We all put on our Star Wars shirts and took a family picture.

Monday was my first day back to work.  It went pretty well.  Daddy took two days off work to help with the transition.  He reports that everyone did well.  He even had some pretty flowers delivered to my desk.  Kate had everyone clean the lab so it looked good upon my return and I enjoyed meeting Erin for lunch.  It was relaxing to eat lunch with a friend and not have to be responsible for any kids, but I was happy to come home at the end of the day (to a great supper made by Daddy.) It is pretty amazing that my 12 weeks are up already!  Edith has changed a lot in that time!

Ah goo

Edith has her grumpy times, but she is definitely the most talkative of our babies.  She loves to make a gurgling noise while cooing at whoever will look at her and talk back.  She also loves to smile at her family.  Daddy will make her laugh by rubbing his head on her belly.  All three girls have loved that trick! Edith is also rolling over from front to back consistently.  She can really get her head up when she is on her belly.  And Nora is still rolling her over.  Bedtime is still a little challenging.  She seems to need to scream a little before settling down for the night.  She has been going to sleep around 9 or 10 and wakes up 4-5 hours later to eat.  Lots of times she is up for the morning at 6 and goes down for a nap in her car seat after I make the rounds dropping off the other girls.  She loves that car seat!  Now she frequently stays awake while we are out.  I carry her in her seat into the house and then she falls asleep.  She just doesn't want to miss any of the excitement of the car ride.

Poor Jones never catches a break!