My wrist really hurts. I realize that’s not a super good reason to be almost 3 weeks behind in posting, but when you add “typing is painful” to “I could be napping right now” and “WHY ARE MY CHILDREN SO LOUD” it means blogging is really low on my to-do list.

Sunday:

I bought an actual nursing shirt that I don’t hate

PASSED OUT

Dinner helpers

Monday:

Skeptical baby is still very skeptical

Linc stole my phone to take pictures of his favorite thing

Tiny Batman

Tuesday:

Shopping

These were not good

Nope. Did not watch.

Wednesday:

Good morning ducks

In progress

When it’s almost 60 degrees we go for a walk

Thursday:

Evan brushing his sister’s hair before school

Sad baby is calmed by looking at himself on my phone

OH NO WHERE IS LINCOLN I CANT FIND HIM

Friday:

Being kind to kitty

Being kind to brother

Being kind to mama

Saturday:

Fish-tac-toe with the scuba divers

Bye! Have a good trip!

Super Linc is Super Sleepy

My baby just woke from a deep sleep screaming as if someone stabbed him with a needle, so I guess I won’t be a) catching up on the next post or b) taking that nap I wanted. Fingers crossed he doesn’t cry for the rest of the day.

(Lincoln 4 Months, Caroline 4 Months)

Finnegan had his 4-month checkup today on his actual fourth monthday. The nurse asked if I had a guess on his weight, and I said “Oh geeze, he’s really chubby. Probably 18 pounds.” Then I sat him on the scale and it said…exactly 18 pounds. That’s almost four pounds more than his 2-month check-up. He’s not technically off the charts yet and still on the normal curve considering he was huge at birth too, but he’s only average for height so the chunk is real. He comes by it honestly too, because he nurses so much. SO MUCH.

The combination of cold weather, his tendency to spit up after eating, and a 2-year-old brother who often runs away in public means poor Finn doesn’t get out as much as I would like. We’re homebodies right now. Pretty soon we’ll master nursing while babywearing (he just needs to be a tiny bit taller) and hopefully he won’t throw up on my so often and then we’ll go on a lot more adventures. For now most of his social life is his siblings and trips to Target. Which is most of MY social life as well.

Finn is wearing size 3 diapers but when this box runs out we’ll buy size 4s. He’s far too big for any 3 months clothes and almost too big for 6 month clothes. Most of his pajamas are actually 12-18 month sized because we roll the cuffs. His head is also too big for all the cute baby hats I bought so he got a nice new toddler sized winter hat from his sister for Christmas. He’s tall enough now that his feet touch the bottom of the Circle of Neglect (aka the exersaucer) flatly, so he’s started to spin himself around a little bit. It’s such a nice baby holding device when I am simply no longer capable of holding him myself. Not that I might holding him most of the time. The days when he just wants to nurse and sleep and nurse and I can sit on the couch without feeling any guilt for not getting house stuff done is going to end sooner rather than later.

He’s my last baby, and as last babies go, he’s doing an excellent job of making me both love having a baby and also being glad I won’t ever have to go through all the newborn stuff again.

Likes: Biting things, music, tickles, cuddles, smiling, meeting new people, nursies, his siblings, mommy, daddy, the baby swing, being awake at night, socks, being carried around everywhere, the exersaucer, his blankie, standing up.

Dislikes: Shots, teething, bad dreams, being alone.

The band-aids are from today’s shots, which happened only an hour before the photos so I didn’t want to yank them off. Besides, they match his 4 month sticker! The ankle marks are because his legs are too chubby for 2T socks.

4 Month Milestones 

Mastered Skills (most kids can do)
Smiles, laughs – He loves to do both
Can bear weight on legs – One of his favorite activities
Coos when you talk to him – He’s very vocal when he’s happy, lots of squealing

Emerging Skills (half of kids can do)
Can grasp a toy – Yes, but often drops them. He’s working towards being able to hold things in his mouth.
Rolls over, from tummy to back – Yes, pretty reliably now

Advanced Skills (a few kids can do)
Imitates sounds: “baba,” “dada” – No, just coos and giggles and loud noises
Cuts first tooth – TWO BOTTOM TEETH. But how is this a skill?
May be ready for solid foods – No one advises solids at 4 months anymore. He’s all milk.

Ever since Caroline was born, I have dreamed of the day I get to give her an American Girl doll. If you were a little girl at any point in the 90’s, you probably understand (My husband completely does not understand. “Don’t be disappointed if she doesn’t love these dolls as much as you do,” he said to me. HAHA AS IF.) In those days, they were made by The Pleasant Company and were completely unlike any other toy I had ever seen. They were beautiful. They had the most amazing clothes. They all had tiny tea sets or picnic baskets or ice cream parlors. And everything cost one million dollars. Or at least it felt like it did.

When I was 7 or 8 my parents and grandparents teamed up to make my sister and I American Girl dolls. They bought blonde 18-inch baby dolls, purchased a few tiny accessories that couldn’t be easily replicated, and then hand-made everything else we needed for our own Kirstens. They did the braids. They made beds with tiny mattresses and quilts. And my grandmother sewed me a child-sized version of Kirsten’s pink checked dress because there was nothing in the world I wanted more than to be a Swedish pioneer girl, even if that meant my best friend might die of cholera. I still remember finding our boxes with the dolls under our Christmas tree.

Eventually, I got a “real” Samantha doll and several of her outfits. I treasured her until the day I accidentally pulled her leg off trying to get her into a pair of tights, then I gently put her away and thought “some day I’ll send her to the doll hospital”. I still have all of it, both the Kirsten and the Samantha and the clothes and accessories and the bed and the box. It’s been in Caroline’s closet for years. So I decided THIS year, when she turned 6, would be the year of the American Girl. I would stop hiding the catalogs when they came (because of course I get the catalog) and we would look through and talk about how pretty everything was. I would buy her a doll, then ask for my family to sponsor a gift card so we could go to the store and do some dream shopping. We could get tea and ice cream in the American Girl Cafe where your doll gets a special seat and her own cup and everything would be so pink and so sparkly and she would look back on this birthday as the best birthday of her childhood.

But I had a baby 3 months ago, who I can’t really leave for long enough to do a girl’s trip to Boston. So I needed to bring my baby with me. But I didn’t want a crying baby to disrupt our trip so I talked E into bringing everyone so he could watch the boys while Caroline and I did our special birthday stuff and then Finn would be close enough to nurse if he needed. In my head, it was a great plan.

In reality, it was a terrible plan because there was no plan. We left late. No one ate anything. We ended up with all of us standing in the middle of the American Girl store while Linc threw a tantrum, the hungry baby cried, Evan leaned against things because he was bored and I wondered how I could have even thought this was a good idea. Caroline picked out a couple things and we left. No tea, no magical mother-daughter time, no wandering around for an hour looking at every tiny detail for the dolls.

By the time we got home, I felt like I had genuinely ruined Caroline’s birthday. She would never look back on the day she got her first American Girl doll and think about how magical it was.

But the truth is 6-year-olds don’t internalize everything the way adults do. Caroline was so excited to play with her doll and to dress her up in all her new clothes she barely noticed how grumpy I was. So I pulled myself together and asked her if she wanted to run some errands with me, one-on-one. “Yes! A girl date! I love girl dates!” she said. We went to Target for diapers and toothpaste. We wandered around for an hour with our Starbucks (hot cocoa and a cake pop for her, the hugest peppermint mocha frapp ever for me), looking at Christmas decorations, checking out the stuff in the dollar spot, and picking up small presents she could give her brothers for Christmas. She brought her American Girl doll and they rode in the cart together, singing a made up song and telling every person who smiled at her that it was her birthday.

I have always struggled with keeping my expectations in the realm of reality and adjusting when things didn’t work out exactly as I had imagined. Going with the flow is not my specialty. Enjoying the moment if the moment isn’t the moment I had planned.

I’m working on it.

Merry Christmas! Happy Everything! My parents left today after spending a few days celebrating the holiday with us. I took too many pictures of some things and none at all of others (why didn’t I take a picture before we went to church? No idea.) but the baby took a nice nap today so I had time to cull and edit what I got, so here’s our Christmas weekend in photos.

My mom has worked at Target forever. Almost 20 years, I think. She got me a job at her store when I was 15, then I opened 3 stores in South Carolina when I was in college, worked at another when we were stationed in Virginia Beach, and started working for our district office until we were moved here to Connecticut. So we both love Target way, way too much. One of her co-workers makes and designs shirts, so these were a very appropriate gift. They say “Dear Santa, Just take me to Target”.

Christmas Eve, ready for Santa!

Christmas Morning!

I really, really, REALLY tried to go with useful and wanted over quantity this year. Santa brought the big kids new kid Kindle Fires plus a few small things on their list (Caroline asked for socks and notebooks, Evan asked for a laser gun and Legos, so that was pretty easy). From us they got some clothes and lots of books. Extended family did a great job with thoughtful, fun things the kids have been playing with intently. We’re doing one more mini-Christmas when my in-laws visit in a few days.

I hope you and yours had a beautiful and merry holiday too! We’re going to treat the rest of winter break as extended Christmas, so more matching jammies to come!

Today, my one and only baby girl turns SIX. She has grown both physically (why are all her dresses too short?!) and mentally (she’s already surpassed first grade reading and it’s not even half way through the year) SO much in the last year I’m often shocked when I remember she’s ONLY six. And then she has a rough, long, very tired day where she can barely make it to dinner without collapsing in tears and I remember she’s a tiny child and sometimes she just needs cuddles. She is delightful company, an amazing help around the house and with the baby, a budding chef and kind to people and animals. I could not be more proud of my Caroline.

After you turn 5 you don’t get a huge party anymore, but you do get a family fun birthday weekend. We did some shopping, some Caroline-chosen meals, a girl date with Starbucks, and she took cupcakes to school to celebrate. She said it was the best weekend ever.

It only took one take to do our birthday question video this year. (Links to previous year’s videos: 5 years old, 4 years old, 3 years old) No explanations needed, she’s got this under control:

If you’d like to waste time today and/or take a trip down “Suzanne spends way too much time and money on birthday party” Lane, here are some helpful links:

First Birthday Party (Winter sparkle wonderland)

Second Birthday Party (Winter woodland fairies)

Third Birthday Party (Princess party)

Fourth Birthday Party (Mermaid party)

Fifth Birthday Party (Nutcracker ballet party – my FAVORITE)