A Perfect Day

My sister and I agree on what makes a perfect birthday and that is just what I had on Friday.

-I started out the day with a great work-out, X style

-Had a yummy pancake breakfast

-Shopped at three different stores with only one child

-Pizza and cake with the family

-Happy helpers to set the table and put the candles in

-A rip-roaring game of Chutes and Ladders

-A great movie with the hubby (Australia)

Of course it's always nice to receive phone calls, emails, and cards from friends and family from far away. Thanks everyone!

We had some nice warm days during the week of my birthday. (55 degrees is warm to us right now!)

Victoria's view of us.

These were hats from the Relief Society b-day celebration the night before. Aren't they lovely?

9 Months

At his 9 months check-up Austin was 19.4 pounds (25th percentile), 28 3/4 inches (50-75th) and in the 50th percentile for his head. So he's going down in weight, though he still seems huge to me, but I guess that's mostly because he's a boy and Victoria was in the 5-10th percentile at this time and Karissa was in the 15th.

It's also strange to me that he's not crawling yet, since his sisters both were by this time. First I was thinking that he's not strong enough yet in his upper body since he never liked being on his tummy, but I have seen him go into a plank position many times lately. (He was in the plank position in order to avoid being on his tummy, so he just lifted up his whole body with his arms.) His preferred position now is standing. I have to actually bend his legs so that he will sit now, but he his happiest when standing, with support, of course. I'm beginning to think he will walk before he crawls, but I don't know how I feel about that. They say it's best for babies to crawl first. I guess he'll just do what's best for him, since I have given him plenty of opportunities to crawl, or at least he hasn't been stuck in some toy, since he could sit on his own. So we will see what happens!

He currently loves anything that makes "white" noise. We have three vacuums and he loves all of them and cries when I turn them off. He actually tries to help vacuum with the smaller one. Today he tried to mop, too. Last week I made curtains for our slider-door and he loved the sound of the sewing machine, which made making them easy for me since he just sat there laughing and bouncing every time I pressed the pedal.

The past few days he's been saying "Ahth, ahth, ahth!" He was doing that at the end of Primary today when he was with me and all the kids watched him instead of the Bishop.

He loves to go into the basement where all the toys are. Whenever we start going down the stairs, he'll kick his legs in anticipation of the wonders in "toyland".

Here are his teeth. BTW, he is the most ticklish baby ever, especially on his ribs!

Here he is helping me vacuum.

Yesterday, we went ice skating as a family at the ice skating rink where the gold and silver medalists for ice dancing practice. Victoria has been wanting to go ice skating since before the Olympics started. We decided to go yesterday since Jason has off class for mid-winter break. It turned out to be the perfect day to go. It was free, minus skate rentals, in honor of the Olympians, and they gave out little medals! Victoria did very well, considering she went one other time when she was 3. Karissa did okay, but she'll do better when she's older. Victoria definitely wants to go again!

A Few Good Things

I turned out to be way sicker than I originally thought I would be and after about a week without eating much, I am finally back on track again, sort of. (I've gained back 4 of the 9 pounds I lost.) On the bright side of things, a few good things came from this week.

-Austin is eating more solids now since he had no choice when my milk was sparce (he actually prefers baby food to table food, which is odd for my family)

- Karissa has been waking up after 7, on average. Hopefully when I wake up early to do my workouts again she'll keep that up

- Karissa is potty trained!! Staying home all week made that easy!

Here she is with her potty chart all filled out and her Dora and Boots bath toys, which were her rewards.

What's Up With February?

Last year at this time we were battling the stomach flu. Luckily this year it's not near as bad, but we have had it this week. It's mostly been Victoria, but Karissa and I have had touches of it too. Right now I feel like I have a brick sitting in my stomach. And I must say that trying to get over this while nursing is not the most fun thing to do.....

Growing Up

A couple of weeks ago, Victoria came home from school saying, "Sister Maisano (the car pool mother for that day) said that if I don't suck my thumb for a whole month, she'll buy me a candy bar!" It was for a week, rather than a month, but Victoria was a little mixed up. She told Jason it was for a year! I told her I would buy her one too, if she could do it. She was all excited and did pretty well resisting her thumb. When the week was almost up, I made Karissa a potty sticker chart since she was showing interest there again. Victoria decided to make herself a "thumb-sucking" chart, which went way past the original week, but she had no idea. She filled up her chart on Thursday and got to pick out something with me in the morning (she chose Starburts) and Sister Maisano bought her a Kit-Kat that day. The best thing was she shared her Starbursts with Karissa and her car pool friends, as well as her Kit-Kat with Karissa. Grandma Pat said she'd give Victoria a candy bar too when she sees her at Easter.

Karissa is still working on her potty chart, but is doing pretty well. She picked out a bathtub Dora doll for her prize. She gives the scripture and prayer in Primary today for the first time. We're keeping it simple, John 14:15. She's the absolute youngest in Primary and it shows, but at least I'm the secretary in there and she can sit with me. She does well during class time.

Here's Victoria with her chart and candy.

Lately Victoria has been making her bed on her own , without being asked! She enjoys making it just perfect. She gets her bed-making skills from Jason and must have inherited some from my Grandma Carrie!

Happy Valentine's Day!

So Blessed

So my angel baby has had the fussiest two days ever in his entire 8 month existence yesterday and today. I'm still not quite sure what is wrong. He has a small fever, but he's also teething and is slightly congested. That's probably all it is, so I'm not too worried. It just makes me sad to see him fussy, which he never is. Mostly, though, I've been feeling blessed today. One of my cousins just had a baby who caught pneumonia soon after birth and has some other complications. It tacks up to the list of people I know who have had babies since I had Austin who have had huge complications either during birth, or right after with the baby. I also know a couple of people with huger-than-the-average problems during their pregnancy. I think everyone I know who has had a baby since I had Austin is on this "list". It makes me sooo grateful for my pretty simple pregnancies and labors. Other than the MTHFR mutation, which is under control and really only affected me with my miscarriages, a couple of kidney problems, the usual vomiting fest during the earlier days of my pregnancies, and the fact that I have to be souped up on Pitocin to get the babies out of me, everything has been pretty normal. Karissa's labor had a couple of other small complications, but nothing was too bad. I just feel so blessed. Those of you who have had a baby since Austin, all have beautiful babies and I think they're all perfectly healthy now, but I'm sorry you had a rough pregnancy or labor and delivery. Hopefully, it will go better for you next time!

8 Months and Still an Angel

Austin hit his eight month point this week. As I've said before, where has all the time gone?! His angelic personality still surprises me. He's always just so happy to be playing on his own on the floor or watching the commotion going on around him. Of course he does get plenty of attention as well from us all. Karissa enjoys playing peek-a-boo with him now and Victoria still loves to cradle him like a newborn. He is very entertained by Karissa's tantrums or when she is just crying; it makes him laugh. Tickling him makes him laugh too, and let me tell you that he is the most ticklish baby I've ever seen! He has got one of his fangs coming in now, so maybe he'll look like Dracula like Victoria did for a while.

He is not crawling yet, but I've noticed him reaching farther for things, so one of these days he's just going to reach until he realizes he can move. I'm in no hurry to have him crawl, though, as long as he does it sometime before he walks, which I'm sure will be the case.

The best part is that he's been taking only one really long nap, from around noon to 3, instead of 2 shorter naps, which his sisters were doing still at this age. It makes going places and getting things done at home, so much easier! He goes to bed between 7 and 9 and has been sleeping the whole 12 hours through the night (except for the last two nights, actually). This was especially helpful this week since I started P90X* (an intense fitness program) and I need to wake up earlier to fit it in.

Here's my cute boy in his bouncy car.


*Speaking of P90X, I've had to bump up my caloric intake in order to feel good, maintain my body weight, and produce enough milk for Austin. Check out what I ate one day:

breakfast:
banana
two scrambled eggs
two whole wheat pancakes
cup of oj

snack
pineapple

lunch
bean and cheese burrito with salsa
dried figs
pear
one chicken nugget ( left-over from Karissa)

snack
two rice cakes with pb
cup of yogurt with banana
grapes

dinner
pulled pork sandwich
rice pilaf
a drink called Green Goo (Derek's recipe) which contains 1 1/2 c, spinach, 1 c kale, 1 cucumber, 1 pepper, 1 banana, and juice

dessert
cereal (I wouldn't normally bypass a real sweet, but Victoria poured it and then left it, so I just ate that instead)

And tons of water b/c I'm sooo thirsty!

I feel like a teenage boy, except for they wouldn't drink that green goo!