April

Another month of spring and we are loving it...outdoors as much as we can, the boys are loving the signs of new growth all around and of course, we love seeing the Texas bluebonnets!

Little Miss Kate...what a doll! She's such a happy baby for us! She is growing and playing and having a good time, and we are loving watching it all, though it really does go so fast! As you can see, she's sitting up very well now, and loves chewing on things, though still no sign of any teeth at all. She can get on her hands and knees, but no signs that she'll be crawling any time soon either - that's ok!

By 1-2 weeks into being at daycare, things started to get quite a bit better. She is certainly more comfortable with her teachers, she stays very busy playing and she takes 1-2 naps while she's there. Though I get the impression she's a hard one to soothe to sleep without waking up the other babies. She's always been hard to get to sleep when she's being held or what not, she's much better in her own crib, but she's apparently a little too noisy when they try that at daycare. She is also getting more comfortable being at Grandma's house in the afternoons before Mommy and Daddy get home. We are happy she and her brothers are getting to spend more time with them this year too! She comes home tired, but she's pretty happy regardless. And as soon as she sees Mommy, well, let's just say she doesn't let us spend much more time apart on those days!

Kate has demonstrated another way of showing her affection, and trust, towards those she loves it seems. While holding her, at times, she'll lay her head down onto our shoulder, so that she's still looking out, but still snuggling with us. I don't know why, but I really feel like it's her telling us she trusts us...I just love it!

She is starting to have some pretty cute and fun 'party tricks' that keep us entertained. She still loves to shake her head side to side as if saying No. That's a big favorite with Noah and Daddy. She is making more sounds, specifically a clicking type sound with her tongue, so that's fun too. She's found a high pitched squeal to share with us too, they are usually from excitement rather than screaming, so like them (for now!) She has started to 'stand' on our hip bones when we are holding her, pushing herself out and away from us, kind of as if she's going to climb up, but she just wants to stand - I guess she likes the view from out there! She also likes to 'wave' her hands around, kind of like making circles with her hands only... I tell her she thinks she's practicing her princess wave, working her wrist wave action!

This girl still loves her bath time, and this month we switched to using the bath chair instead of the bath sling. It's almost like a bath version of a booster seat, so she can't fall over or move around, but still gets to sit up in the water. She likes it, though she spends lots of her time hanging over the edge to reach the water...so funny! She loves to splash, that's for sure! She gets excited just when we turn the water on - she knows what's coming!

She is still liking to eat solid foods, though we are still going slow with it to make sure her belly stays happy. She has started to feed herself the Mum Mum crackers and she really likes that...she seems to like different textures, as if she gets bored of the pureed and wants something different and then she's eat some more. She's taking 2-3 naps a day, and they are pretty decent. It seems it she sleeps for more than 1 hour in the AM, the PM nap will be quite short, but if less than an hour in the AM, we usually get a pretty good long PM nap. Her night sleeping is all over the place...she's still usually only up once a night, but it could be any where from 2:30-6 that she wakes up, so Mommy feels like she's in a chronic state of sleep deprivation...this too shall pass! She's a sweet little girl when she nurses though, which is probably why I'm not forcing too much...she'll just smile and sigh with contentment at times while nursing - I don't think anything fills my heart more than that...just absolutely love it!

Noah, as you can see, is getting more comfortable with his sister and we have caught him several times trying to move her, or smothering her with his love in ways that are just a little too rough. He loves to pull her onto himself, which isn't all bad, but it's the getting her off that can be dangerous! I catch them alot with Kate sitting up and Noah laying down between her feet and looking up at her, they just giggle! Those two are going to be quite the pair to watch!

They both are very good brothers...Drew is very loving and doting on Kate, Noah tends to be a bit more of the entertainer, but she loves them both. Though secretly, I think Kate perks up more when Noah is around for now. I think she knows he more likely to be goofy, whereas Drew will care for her very sweetly, but is less likely to put on a show for her I guess. We'll enjoy watching those relationships grow and change over the years!

This might be the only time all 3 of them will be in the bath at once...this wasn't planned, but the boys couldn't help themselves that night, they just climbed right in with Kate...so cute!

We had a special visitor this month...cousin Jacob got to spend the night on a school night and spend the day with us as a help to his family. The boys loved having him and we even let Drew play hooky from school to have some special cousin play. They were sad Luke couldn't be there to join them, but I don't think they had any problems having fun together! Getting them to sleep, well, that's another story!

Oh, my Noah! What a zany boy he is! As I look at these pictures that I captured this month, it just confirms our sense that he is a kid that just will not fit the mold. He will take hours of his day to line things up just so and then work to reorganize them. He's such a goof! Maybe that's what he gets from me...a little bit of OCD and rebellion. But otherwise, he must be more like Matthew in temperament or personality because we don't clash nearly as much...but the trouble maker in him, that might be from me! :) He really was excited about Easter this year, mostly the Easter bunny. But he was funny about some things, I think getting him confused with Santa maybe, saying that the bunny wouldn't come if we looked for him...silly kid! A funny story this month, as we were going to communion one Sunday, Noah was with Mommy and Kate and as we got to the cups of wine, he very loudly asked/demanded: "I want a drink too!" Oh, it was hilarious! I'm so glad we go to a church where moments like that are allowed without feeling shame! :)

It was a rough month with drop offs at school this month. It seemed to get better, and then a whole lot worse. And then it got really bad, to the point that Mommy just felt awful everyday she had to go to work because looking back at him as I left his classroom, he looked absolutely crushed in spirit. It was just so sad. So this month we decided he will finish his time at Sonshine and switch to Redeemer as soon as Redeemer starts their summer program, 3 weeks earlier than the 'end of year' at Sonshine. I just couldn't take it anymore. Ever since then, he's being asking if it's summer yet...he can't wait!

Noah has been doing much better with potty training this month, though we still have accidents every now and then, but we are seeing some definite progress being made, so that's been great. He's been really bad about getting in and out of bed lots at bedtime and even middle of the night, saying he's going to cry because he's scared or just some other random excuse to get to see us more...sweet, but also so frustrating.

Both boys have been more entertained with games and such this month, and they are also showing an increased interest in bugs too. So we've had fun exploring more of that type of play with them. They have had fun with indoor tents and bug catchers and all sorts of board games...it's been fun!

One evening all 3 boys had a super fun evening looking at some of their animal magazines, and then amazing Dad that he is, created an animal racing game where they raced acting as different animals would move...it was just such an awesome night and so fun to see everyone having a great time together. It's what you expect to happen all the time before you have kids and then you realize that's not reality, so when it does happen, oh, how glorious!

This year there was a Family Day at Lockheed and we were able to go, all 5 of us. It's a big deal because of all the security stuff that has be locked up and letting thousands of people into a place that has security clearances and such. You can't take your cell phones, no cameras, or anything like that. But they did a really nice job - lots of freebies, food, music and of course the boys loved to see the jets! We didn't realize how much walking there was going to be and the boys got really tired pretty quickly (it was pretty hot that day). So we took a rest break and then we were about 200 yards from Matthew's desk and they started clearing everyone out. I felt SO BAD! I know Matthew really wanted the boys to see his desk, where he sits, that he has some of their pictures up, etc and we missed it by 200 yards, and it will be another 10 years before we get the opportunity to go again... I still feel so guilty thinking about it. Ugh! But, it was still fun for Matthew to show off his workplace to us - we are so proud of him and all the work he does!

Drew and Daddy finished up their soccer season this month. They did such a great job, I'm so proud of both of them! They both had lots of fun, Drew learned alot and had a great attitude almost the whole time, and Matthew went out of his comfort zone (being more outgoing that is, he's completely comfortable with soccer of course! :)) and did an awesome job coaching - the kids all had a great time! He's already agreed to coaching again next season for Drew AND Noah's teams! Fun!!!

Drew has really been into Ninjago legos lately. Pretty sure he learned about them from some kids at school because we had never even heard about them. But he's now completely focused on it... it is a story line of Ninja warriors of sorts, but all in legos. Anyway, he spends so much time playing in that 'world'! The Easter bunny was very generous this year, and brought some Ninjago toys... Drew's reaction: "I guess the Easter Bunny knows exactly what we want!" :)

Drew has backed off of playing video games as much lately for some reason that I'm not opposing. But he has started enjoying some different Wii games that I'm much more comfortable with... the Just Dance games and the Wii Sports - we can have lots of fun with those! :) It's fun to watch the boys try to keep up with the dance moves... :)!

Look at how big this girl is getting! She's such a sweetie!