Turning four months old this week!!

It has almost been four months since I have been outnumbered 4 to 1. This weekend after attending our nieces' dance competition, Keith thanked me once again for birthing boys. :) My boys are my world. They are so much fun and for a very girly girl, I love what they teach me, even if they all have longer eyelashes than I do! Seriously?!

As you can see, Little Leo no longer has hair. This week as I brushed his beloved top locks (Keith had already buzzed the lower ones) lots of hair came out in the comb. He began to look quite ridiculous, so tonight I cut the rest. I am not a lover of the baby mullet and when the hair begins to bald, off it goes! I was pretty sad about cutting this little guy's hair. I considered saving the clippings in a jar or something, but decided that was creepy and so after shedding some 'my baby is getting big' tears, I threw the hair into black beauty. That little boy has some white hair under there! He looks A TON like Mr. Benson now.
My Little Leo is still sick, but on the mend I hope. This is the first time we have ever experienced a sick baby and it is so sad. Leo looks so pathetic all the time and his facial expression always seems to read 'Help me.' Luckily as a sick baby, he mostly wants to sleep. He sleeps and sleeps and sleeps, which is pretty much what he does anyway. :) Here is his current schedule (FYI, I may or may not be a scheduling freak):

7:00 am Wake Up, Eat
8:00 am Go back to bed
10:30 am Wake Up, Eat, Bath
11:30 am Snooze (I am trying to get rid of this nap, but he seems to still want to take one every day)
12:15 pm Wake Up
1:15 pm Eat and Back to bed!
4:00 Wake Up, Eat
5:45 Back to bed again . . .
6:30 Wake Up
7:45 Eat his last meal of the day and head back to bed!

So, he is eating five times a day and taking four naps. I always think it is so funny that they sleep for 12 hours at night, wake up for an hour and then go back to sleep! Leo handles bumps and changes in his schedule very well-and there are often bumps and changes due to older brothers and a busy mom.
Leo weighed in at 12 lbs, 10 oz at his recent Dr. visit. . . my smallest at this age by almost 3 pounds! I have never had very many 3-6 months clothes because both Benson and Griffin grew out of them by four months! I am pretty happy about him deciding to stay small. A few cute things about Leo are:

He loves to get his diaper changed, he always gives his biggest grins when you are changing him.
He always holds his hands together-see above picture. It is really adorable.
He is a finger sucker and doesn't really take the binkie well.
Santa gave him a cute little stuffed toy that lights up and plays a few minutes of music and he loves it. It puts him to bed at each nap and at nighttime-he can't touch it because he is wrapped so tight.
He now kicks like crazy when you put him in the bath.
He likes to stand, but loves to snuggle too. He doesn't push away at all, he just melts right into you.
It is very very rare if he makes any noise in the car at all. He loves riding in the car. When I drove to and from Boise, he didn't make one noise. 12 hours in the car-not one noise-I am a lucky mama.
He now takes a bottle, which is a nice option for mom.
He is a sweet, calm, happy baby that has learned how to laugh. We just love our Baby Leo!

Our week . . .

Here is a list of wonderful things that have happened in the past week:

• Adult Prom: Keith got us tickets to the Wicked Divas Symphony (you had no idea we were so cultured did you?) for Valentine's Day. We stayed in the beloved Kimball in downtown SLC and brought Mari and Garret along to watch our kiddos. It was the first time we left Leo-only for two hours-and the show was amazing. We stayed the night with The Bears (aka Marebear and Garebear) and had a great time. Yeah for adult prom!
• I made homemade baby food for Baby Leo-applesauce. It was a fun little project. I despise the baby food stage. Baby food=expensive, messy, gross etc. Making it myself made me feel all domestic, I love that.
  
• Leo tried the applesauce. He kinda liked it. Benson and Griffin liked it more. I have 15 frozen serving of baby food applesauce in my freezer now for future use, YES!
  
• Baby Leo learned how to take a bottle (on the first try, he is a baby genius). He was more of a fan of rice cereal and breastmilk than the applesauce.
• Baby Leo got a special healing priesthood blessing that provided a miracle.
• Leo got an antibiotic (nothing is better than taking your child to the Dr.'s office and leaving with a prescription).
  

(photo by Benson)

(I swear we aren't this scary in real life, this is the only picture we took)

Here is a list of not my favorite things that happened this week:

• Leo got an ear infection
• Leo cried . . . a lot (well, for Leo it was)
• Momma held Leo . . . a lot
• Leo coughed and coughed and coughed and is still coughing
• The house got messier and messier and messier
• The television parented my older children (woops)
• Benson had several 4 year old meltdowns and obstinate moments. Age 4 is not my friend.
• Cereal has been a meal staple around here.
• I emptied my dishwasher and filled it at the same time (see messy house comment above).
• Lots of pumping (TMI? sorry). Leo isn't eating so well.
• Lots of saline solution in the nose
• Lots of spitting up
• Way too many loads of laundry covered in boogers and puke and medicine.
  
• Lots of rockabyes (not sure how to spell that one, but that's what my kids call it). Although I like to sing and rock with my boys (who doesn't?), I am so over singing the wheels on the bus. Why can't I sing Broadway show tunes?
  

A few things that did not happen at all this week:

• Effective parenting
• Mopping (my floor upstairs looks like a dirty toilet). Sweet.
  
• Good sleep. Leo has slept surprisingly well, but I am one worried momma and can't sleep. at night. I am a zombie all day though and can fall asleep if I sit down for too long.
  
• An organized playroom. We recently inherited some shelves and organizers from some friends and I had every intention of making a playroom that you could actually walk into without tripping over a truck or transformer.

(Example of my effective parenting-Benson playing with my new camera by taking a picture of Griffin and me being too tired to care or discipline)

Let's hope this next week is more successful. I think I will begin by mopping the toilet, I mean floor.

Trying to be a good mom

I have been trying super hard to enjoy motherhood lately. I think in general I enjoy it, but I really want to LOVE it every day. I have recently added "please give me patience and control" in my daily (sometimes hourly/minutely. . . yes I know minutely is not a word) prayers and I have received some tender mercies from a very kind Heavenly Father. Who cares if it takes us 10 minutes to get loaded into the car? Or that Benson puts his socks on upside down every time? Or that perfect angel baby decided spitting up every now and then is okay? Or that Griffin really likes to urinate all over the back of the toilet?

Most days I wish I could freeze my children at their current ages, build a house in a cave and keep them there all to myself forever. Especially Leo, babies just grow too dang fast (Look, Leo can hold stuff in his hands already). I even taught Leo how to take a bottle this week. He did it no problem . . . unbelievable.

In my efforts to become a better mother, I discovered you must have a pass to a museum of some sorts. I did not know this. If I am being honest, I find museums very BORING. Once at the Smithsonian (I can't remember which one) my younger siblings and I almost killed each other with boredom. I blame my extreme immaturity for my museum dislike. My kids like it though, so like a good mom I take them and let them learn. I think Benson's favorite part is the computer games.

They both love the Science Experiments Room. I love this room too, because it has a big comfortable chair in it.

This next photo is hilarious. Like a good mother, I asked my children if they needed to go potty before we started our museum tour and like normal children they said no. At this point, Benson realized that was a mistake.

After a much needed bathroom break/test on my motherly patience, I made them come back for another dinosaur picture, but I am a horrible photographer and forgot to include the dinosaur in the picture. I said better mom-not photographer.

Some days we stay home all day and dream of Spring. We play fun imaginative games (and by we-I mean Benson and Griffin). Their current favorite is one is the baby and one is the mom or dad.

I actually played in this particular one. Griffin sits in the bumbo and says "wah-wah-wah."

And some days we don't get dressed until late afternoon, and we watch movies and snuggle while the entire house is covered in legos and trains and shoes and socks and cars and the list goes on and on . . .

But we almost always get dressed and the house cleaned before our daddy comes home. I do practice Dr. Laura's wife principles after all. Haven't read Dr. Laura's book on the proper feeding of your hubby? You are missing out my friends. She is a genius.

Side note: I may or may not have forced my family to see the Justin Bieber movie yesterday. It may or may not be my most favorite movie ever. Remember my problem with immaturity?

Lovers Day!

Not really in the blogging mood lately . . . (photo by Benson)

But I did have a good Valemtine's Day (as my kids would say, don't you love the way kids switch around m and n? . . . like when Benson dances and says, "Hey, do you like my noves?" instead of moves) Anyway . . . Benson made us some Valentines in Primary that told his dad and I how much he loves us. He thanked his dad for playing sports with him and drew a picture of them, you guessed it, playing sports. He thanked me for teaching him how to pray and drew a picture of us hugging. Truth be told, I am pretty sure his primary teacher drew the pictures.

Griffin spent Valemtine's Day on the toilet. He has been awesomely sick for the past week with a very stuffy nose and decided to add what he affectionately calls 'Gribbey's toots' to the mix this weekend while my parents were here. The best part about a sick Griff is a snuggly Griff. All he wants to do is hug when he is sick and I love it.

I always say that every day is Valentine's Day around here. We never have a shortage of chocolate treats and I love you's. I am assuming that will change when I have three large smelly teenage boys in ten years. Yikes.

I spent Love Day doing the same thing I always do, cooing and cuddling my latest creation . . .

My favorite thing to tell people is, "Come and hold my baby. I promise he will heal your heart." Seriously, feeling sad? That offer stands to anyone. Leo is a magic baby. He could make anyone feel good.

We went grocery shopping as a family for Heart's Day. We always go grocery shopping as a whole family, Keith loves to shop . . . probably his best quality. :) We let the kids buy whatever they wanted, oh wait, we always let them do that. I guess in order for holidays to be special, I should make all the other days of the year less exciting . . . I think I will keep it the way it is now.

By the way . . . Keith and I plan to celebrate alone this weekend with tickets to the symphony, aka my favorite thing ever, Adult Prom!!!!!!!!!!!!