6 months

Maggie is officially 6 months old.  We have made it 6 months.  We have made it through sleepless nights, endless crying, an eye infection, thrush, a 4 day stretch of no poop, and her first cold.  She is rolling over, can sit on her own, and is eating rice cereal, fruits, and veggies.  She sleeps through the night, and on the rare occassion that she does wake up, all she wants is her diaper changed.  On the other side of that, she doesn't nap very well.  She doesn't take a pacifier which makes it difficult when she has a hard time falling asleep.  She loves Izzy and is very curious about the dogs. 


Maggie was 7lbs 4oz and 19 inches long on May 12, 2009.  On November 12, 2009 she was 20lbs 11oz and 28 inches long.  I packed away the 3-6 month clothes pretty much before she wore them and I have a feeling I will be packing away the 6-9 month clothes pretty soon.  She is already in 9-12 month sleepers but most everything else in the 6-9 month range will fit.  Socks are a different story.  Her chubby legs and feet are not made for socks.  The socks either cut into her legs or fall off.  I have no doubt that the chubby will melt away once she figures out how to crawl.  She will be following Izzy everywhere, and Izzy doesn't walk!

She has her moments where she cries and cries and screams and cries.  And in those moments we walk, and bounce, and sway, and walk.  It is also in those moments that I realize how quickly she is growing up and how much she has changed in the past 6 months.  The next 6 months will give way to teeth, crawling, walking, and finger foods.  These first 6 months have gone by so fast, I'm just glad I have a camera to capture the moments.

The Trouble with Three

Let's focus on Izzy for a moment. Izzy is three. This means we have been through the age of two. Anyone who says "terrible two's" must not have been paying attention when their child reached the age of three. If 2 is terrible then 3 is a NIGHTMARE! Oh my goodness....

This week has been rough on me. I'm exhausted, physically, emotionally, mentally. Izzy is wearing me out. As my mom said this morning, we have taught her to walk, to talk, to eat; now it is time to instill discipline.

She is very smart (of course all mother's would say that about their children,) very loving, very independent. She wants to do everything by herself. "I'll do it," is her favorite thing right now. And for the most part I'll let her try unless it is something that is going to hurt her. This entire week she has pretty much refused to eat dinner. We are constantly telling her to eat... "eat, Izzy," "take a bite, Izzy," "pay attention and eat, Izzy," etc. I have probably spent an extra 20 minutes each night this week at the table with her trying my best to get her to eat something. On some days she has a late lunch and I'm prepared for her refusal of food. However, on the days where I know that she had an early lunch or didn't eat much lunch at all I'm not as willing to let her off the hook easily. Everything I've read says not to force your kids to clean their plates or force them to eat. They eat to survive at this age. They will eat when they are hungry. I'm ok with that logic, but she seems to be taking it to the extreme! Maybe I will start making her broccoli and cheese every night for dinner since I know she likes that.

Since we really only get a few hours with the girls in the evenings, if dinner doesn't go well it tends to carry on through the rest of the night. Wednesday night she decided to fling her food across the table so I got her down and made her sit on the stairs while I cleaned up the kitchen. When I let her get up I told her to get a quiet toy or book and sit on the couch. For the next thirty minutes she took her sweet time looking through her toy box "trying" to find something. When I finally took her up to bed she refused to brush her teeth and then decided to run away from me when we were changing her clothes. At that point I left the room and made her get dressed by her self. She put her pants on backward and couldn't button her shirt. So I helped her fix it and then we read a Bearenstein Bear's, Bedtime Battle. Too true!

Last night, after another bad dinner performance, I took her upstairs for a bath. She started things off on the wrong foot when she decided to play with the floor length mirror, which she *knows* not to play with. She came in the bathroom, where I already had the water running in the tub, and wouldn't cooperate with getting undressed. So after 3 attempts, I cancelled the bath, put her jammies on and made her go back downstairs. Luke eventually took her back up to bed where another battle ensued over brushing her teeth and going potty. She did not get a story.

Other things that happened this week... she threw a stuffed animal into the blinds in her bedroom, she continues to take toys from Maggie, she has become very very bossy.

I know she is 3. I know she is testing the limits. I hope this is just a phase. I try to be patient with her, I try to turn each "bad" thing into a learning lesson and explain to her why it is bad. I hate making her cry. I hate being "mean" to her. I hate that I feel like I don't know what I'm doing. I would rather talk to her and work things out than to yell at her and threaten to take things away or send her to bed. I want her to be able to know right from wrong and that the things she does or doesn't do have consequences. Is 3 too early to try and make her understand that stuff? Is this a sign of underlying things to come? Maybe I've spoiled her too much. Maybe I'm not there enough for her and she doesn't know how to express that? Maybe this is a delayed reaction to Maggie being thrown in the mix. What ever it is, I hope we all make it through with our sanity.

Boo

Trick-or-treat night is usually stressful for me.  The past few years I have had to rush home, pick up Izzy, get her home and dressed for beggar's night and maybe shove some food in her before heading out.  I remember last year I wanted to put some make up on her and simply ran out of time.  She didn't know any different, so no harm done.  This year was a treat for me.  I stayed home with the girls, got to drop off and pick up Izzy for school, and had plenty of time to get them both ready for trick-or-treat.

Izzy got to wear her costume to school on Thursday.  When she came downstairs to eat breakfast her costume was sitting there on the couch. She didn't want to eat her pancake, but had a little anyway and then wanted down so she could dress up.  She couldn't wait to spin, just like a princess.  We went to mom & dad's first so they could see Izzy in her costume and watch Maggie while I dropped Izzy off for school.  There are only 8 kids in her class, 6 are boys.  The other girl was also Snow White; she had a totally different get-up, floor length, paler colors, much more poofy sleeves.  I thought Izzy would be upset that she wasn't the only Snow White in town, but she didn't seem to care too much.  When I went back to pick her up she started crying because she wanted this other little girl's crown and I think possible her purse too.  I had to explain that those were a part of her costume and Izzy wouldn't like it if someone tried to take her crown. The teachers had made goodie bags to take home, so that took Izzy's mind off of this other girl's accessories.

We had a relaxing day at home for the rest of the day.  Luke took off 1/2 of the day to attend a funeral and then came home, so we had a spur of the moment "free" day with the kids.  Maggie did her usual of not wanting to nap.  She finally took a bottle and fell asleep around 5:30... trick-or-treat started at 6.  I tried to sneak her costume on her while she slept, but instead scared the crap out of her as she woke up and all she saw was the green of her costume.

Here they are... Snow White and her Pea Pod.  First, Izzy explains the finer points of trick-or-treat to Maggie, then they both look up after agreeing on a plan of action...

Luke took Izzy and Maggie to a few houses and then came back to drop Maggie off.  She is a bit much to carry around for long distances!  Izzy went to a few more house, via her wagon, and then came home with a bag full of goodies.  We ended the night like we do every year, with a trip to Jersey to see their cousins.  Henry was tired from being at school all day and tirck-or-treating all night, so we didn't see too much of him.  Laney was on a sugar high for sure and Luke was feeding off of that!  Will was down for the count, sleeping with daddy.  Unfortunately we didn't get to see any of them in their costumes, but it was already late and probably bed time for all of them!

In other news...  Maggie is rolling over now.  Mostly back to belly in both directions (left and right.)  She will roll from her belly to her back, but I think that is sometimes from the momentum of rolling over in the first place.  She has successfully had green beans, peas, and squash.  Izzy continues to eat like a bird and I think if it were up to her she would skip dinner completely and just have a bed time snack.  She has started to become a little more possessive with "her" toys and I'm always reminding her that she has to share with her sister, forever, for the rest of her life she has to share!

Now that November is here, I can look forward to Thanksgiving Day.  I don't know why, but that day is one of my favorites!  I can't wait for the Macy's parade, food, family and fun.  I WILL NOT be shopping the day after.  I tried that last year, and no thanks!  I am not pushy enough to do that ever again.

And last, let us not forget that Terry's birthday is Friday!  He will be starting his last year in his 20s.