September

These months pass so quickly! Seriously, where does the time go?

September was a fun, not too crazy month. I took Ellowyn in for her 6 month checkup on the 15th and then totally forgot to blog about her 6-month milestones...and she's a day away from turning 7 months old. Better late then never, I guess. Here's what she's been up to from 5 months up until now:

*She is crawling (5 1/2 months)
*She is sitting (5 month)
*She can almost fully sit from the crawling position.

*She's trying so hard to stand, using objects and furniture.

*She's saying LOTS of "DaDa"s. She rarely says "Mama", usually only when she's sad or scared.
*She LOVES giving kisses, and gives Mommy lots of them. She opens up wide and leans in for a nice, wet kiss. She loves to occasionally kiss her toys, too. Sometimes, she'll even kiss Daddy. ;)
*She is so easily amused, she will laugh at just about anything.

*She gives gigantic, cheesy grins when she's excited. She scrunches up her face (like Mommy did as a baby) and curls up her tongue, and even snorts excitedly. It's so adorable!

*Like Daniel and Daddy, she's SUPER ticklish.
*She's a definite mommy's girl. She won't be held by anyone at anytime except Mommy. She won't even let Daddy hold her without freaking out. She's ok if the holder is in the other room out of eyeshot and earshot of Mommy, but once she sees, or even hears, Mommy, it's over.
*BUT, she does love her brother and sister. So much. And they adore her.

*She loves to chase Diana and Daniel around the house on her hands and knees. She tries so hard to keep up with them and what they're doing.

*She enjoys her walker and the fact that she can more quickly get to Mommy, or Diana and Daniel, in it.

(chasing Mommy in the walker...yes, I pick her up when she cries like this)

*She still suffers from major acid reflux, despite her now taking medication for it. Some days it really gets me and Mike down, but we try hard to stay positive and remember that it will end eventually, just like it did with Daniel.
*She's a ravenous beast...she's now on 3 solid-food meals a day, a few snacks, and several nursings throughout the day, and yet she always acts like she's starving. Trust me, she eats a ton.
*She's NOT a picky eater. She will literally eat anything you give her. Anything. (Though, she did try lemon the other day, and it made her cry..so maybe she'll eat ALMOST anything).
*She still doesn't have any teeth, though she drools and gnaws on things like crazy.
*She still has light brownish eyes with a blue ring around the outside. I'm still curious to see what they'll change to as she gets older.
*Her hair is still a light brown/dirty blonde color.
*She loves to suck her thumb, chew on her toes (and anything else she can get in her mouth), and has learned that she loves to chew on binkies.
*She can feed herself crackers and cookies, though she is still a bit clumsy about it.

*She loves to gab and make lots of noises...she reminds me so much of Diana. Those two will be great friends and sisters as they grow.
*Like her siblings, she LOVES music. She even kind of loves movies, though, like Daniel, she'd rather be playing most of the time.
*She HATES being put in her car seat and will always make a scene about it (but she does love car rides).

*She loves being outside. I know if I can't get her to calm down inside, all I have to do is take her outside and sit on the swing with her. That will usually calm her down for a little while.
*She's still a diva and a drama queen, but we wouldn't have her any other way!

Her Stats (@ 6 months old):

*Weight: 13.4 lbs (~9th percentile)
*Height: 24.75 inches (~23rd percentile)

So, she's small, but oh-so-cute!!

The end of September also saw us potty training Daniel. Woohoo!! The weekend of the 20th, I was determined to potty train Daniel. Since Mike was going to be gone all day that Saturday doing a work move, I saw it as the perfect opportunity to potty train my almost 2 1/2 year old. He was the same age as Diana was when we potty trained her, and I was sick of changing his diapers, so I went for it. I bought him Cars undies, a new Cars potty, lots of juice, everything. And it bombed..so bad. The whole day, no matter what I tried, he didn't pee in the potty. Not even once. Finally, I gave up, and decided that this was something Mike was going to have to teach him. Less than a week later, a day after Daniel caught himself a nice cold (that he so lovingly spread to the rest of us), we were sitting down to lunch when Daniel grabs his diaper and says "*gasp* Potty!" I rolled my eyes and said, annoyed, "Did you poop?" I was just about to eat, and he always seems to poop RIGHT before I eat, so that I either have to smell it while I quickly consume my meal, or I'm forced to change it before I can eat. Either way, yuck! So, I take him and open up his diaper, only to find it empty - and dry. I quickly took it off and told him to run and sit on the potty. And..SUCCESS! Something clicked in that little busy brain of his and he never looked back. He had a good handful of accidents along the way (even today he had 2 because he was too busy playing that he peed before he could get to the bathroom), but he's also done so great; pooping on the potty with no issues, having dry nights and dry naps, and he even had a totally accident-free day on Saturday, despite us having an ultra-busy day with Mike's family in town. It's been a crazy, kind of stressful journey that's not quite over yet, but it's been so worth it for him to finally leave diapers behind for good.

(Always messy)

Diana's been doing great with preschool, though some days are a challenge for her...and me. She's a sweet girl, but she deals with a lot mentally (ADD and such), and it exhibits emotionally. I feel for her, and wish in the heat of the moment I'd be more compassionate, but sadly, as I deal with ADD and Social & General Anxiety Disorders, among other things, I find myself being hard on her. But, I'm trying. And, as I've found myself being more patient (despite my head feeling like it's going to explode), I see her slowly learning and improving herself. She needs patience, time, and one-on-one attention to learn, and that's hard for me, but I remember when I was a kid, until I was medicated, how hard it was for me to learn, to focus, to pay attention long enough to grasp a concept. So, I get where she's coming from. It's just hard to turn those understandings into compassionate actions in the heat of the moment. But again, I'm trying.
Like I said, she really is learning a lot. She's a little bookworm and just loves to read. We're working on her sight words to prepare her for kindergarten, and she has learned so many along the way. I wouldn't be surprised if she was reading short books by the time she got into kindergarten.

She's learning how to add and subtract, and I love seeing the little wheels in her head turn as she tries to solve the simple problems I give her, and then to see her joy and her eyes light up as she solves each equation.
We're refining her ability to write her letters and numbers, as she still is inclined to write many of them backward or upside down.

She loves to spell and write her first and last name, and the first names of her siblings, too. She loves to write letters to her cousins, aunts, and grandmas, and gets very excited when someone writes her back. Nothing brings her more joy than receiving something in the mail. What's sad is that she very rarely gets anything.

She knows all her letter sounds (including hard and soft, long and short versions of letters, and even letter combos like "ch"). She loves practicing these, and I know they'll help her excel when it comes to reading.

She learned all her days of the week and months of the year last year, but we go over them every day as practice, and she loves to recite them. We made up monthly calendars, and she loves to see what day it is each day and cross off the old days as they pass.

She knows the Pledge of Allegiance by heart and loves to recite it often.

(She wanted to vacuum the stairs to earn points  --enough points = toy--, so I let her, and by the time she got to the top, just a couple of steps away, she began bawling and saying she was tired, but she pushed forward through her sobs and finished the job. Looking at this picture makes me want to cry every time.)

Above all, she's a sweet, hard working, compassionate little girl. She always wants to make sure everyone is ok, everyone is happy, everyone is taken care of and has what they want, everyone has a special letter or a special gift to make their day. She's always thinking of others, and it's so fun and rewarding to see her serve others on her own.

God saved these amazing, sweet, selfless spirits for this evil time in the world, to send them here to fight for his cause and love one another when the rest of us aren't strong enough to, and it's so apparent to me as I watch my children, even at this small age, interact with others.

Diana has an amazing, strong testimony, and I feel so incredibly blessed that my Heavenly Father let her come to me and be a part of my family. She's a wonderful sister, an amazing daughter, a loyal, loving friend, and so much more. I love her and all my children so very much, even on the days they drive me crazy!

That's the gist for this past month..I'm sure I'll have a lot more exciting stuff to report on for October next month, as we have a lot coming up (birthdays, Halloween, etc). Until next month!

August

I know August isn't quite over yet, but I felt like sharing some thoughts and happenings from this past month or two. Life gets going and passes me by, and then a day hits where I think "I need to write all this down so I don't forget.", and I know in those moments that I need to stop and catalog the little things that have been occurring.

Diana is in her last year of preschool. In one year from now, she'll be starting kindergarten and 13 uninterrupted years of real schooling, and that totally freaks me out. Seriously. I've loved having her home these past 4 years. Yes, some days are totally crazy and it's not even noon and I think "How am I going to make it to bed time??", but even on those days, I'm so thankful for my crazy kids. Today was one of those days, but even through the tears and frustration, again, I'm so glad I get to be home with my kids..I wouldn't trade it for all the prestige and money a career could possibly offer. To me, nothing is more rewarding than staying home with my kids. Is it hard? Heck yes!! Is it for everyone? Nope! Is is rewarding and fulfilling? Absolutely, no doubt about it. Again, I know everyone doesn't feel the same way, but I'm glad that, feeling the way I do, I am able to stay home and raise my kids and care for my home. I'm so grateful I've got an awesome, amazing, spectacular husband who busts his butt at his job to support us, all on his own, so I can stay home with our kids. AND, he was able to fully support us on his own, working full time, while also doing school full time for the past 3 1/2 years as he completed his Bachelor's and Master's Degrees. I'm totally proud of him and don't think I'll ever get tired of bragging about him and his awesomeness!! :)

But back to Diana..it makes me sad to think next year is the end of our days of no school. Last year she did preschool two days a week, and that was a good practice course, and honestly it was kind of hard. I know she had fun, but it was difficult letting her go for those few hours, twice a week. I know people look at me like I'm an alien when I say things like that, they think I've got some weird over-attachment to my kids since I don't relish in the thought of leaving them behind regularly in exchange for a girl's night out or date with my husband (although a date with my husband does sound divine..), but the fact of the matter is, all my life I've wanted to be a mom, that was what I wanted to be when I grew up, and honestly, it's the best "career" I could ever have. Call me a workaholic, if you will. I love my job. And Diana was the one that started that for me, and it's bittersweet to see those carefree years with her come to an end. I know she'll love school. She's smart, super-social, and eager to learn. The one who'll have a hard time is me, though I know Daniel and Ellowyn will miss having her around all the time, too. I'm not looking forward to the change. Luckily, I still have one year left with her being around all day, and I've taken full advantage of that by doing home-school preschool with her this year. Mike insisted that she needed preschool again, he wants her overly ready for school and to have every advantage when she starts, so I figured I could kill two birds with one stone by teaching her at home. So far, so good. And, since I'm teaching her, I have Daniel join us and I've been teaching him, too. I teach him at his own pace and he seems to just love the one on one and group learning time.

(My helpful little sweetheart)

Diana is getting so big, it's sad. She's a sassy little diva, but I love her to bits. Like I tell everyone, she's like a 3-foot teenager, and it's so true, it's almost scary. But, she's incredibly smart and loves unconditionally. She's a perfect "Second Mommy", as Mike says, and loves to boss around and dote on Daniel and Ellowyn. She loves to mimic me, though I do admit sometimes it gets to be too much. But, I love her and I love that she loves me and wants to be like me...I'm by no means a perfect mom, and that, to me, is the ultimate show of love from her. She loves to bake and to help mommy clean, she loves to sing and dance, she loves to tell stories and care for everyone, and she loves her brother and sister with all her heart. Most of all, though, she loves her Daddy. He's her hero and he absolutely adores her. When he snuggles with her and shows her love and compassion while teaching and correcting her, it completely melts my heart. He has more unconditional fatherly love and concern for her than I've ever seen anyone have for anyone. He's a wonderful daddy and the one she needs. He's so good to all of our kids, and I'm so lucky to have him!!

(Our home-school preschool)

Daniel, that boy...he's a handful! But boy, is he a-freaking-dorable! Every time I want to get mad at him over something he's done (drawn all over the walls, spit his entire plate of chewed up food ALL over the floors, table, and chairs, gotten into the dirt and poured it all over his head, body, and in his diaper, jumped on and off the couch a billion+ times after I've begged him to stop, etc), he looks up at me from the top of his giant, brown eyes and gives me the saddest boo-boo lip he can muster, and it takes every ounce of my willpower to not give him hugs and kisses and laugh. He can work it, and it's dangerous! Ladies, look out!

He's learning so much lately. Like I said, he's doing school with Diana, and he's picking up what he's being taught pretty well. He seems a little further behind that Diana was at his age, but not by much. So, we're trying to make up for that lost knowledge through our preschooling. He's definitely like a little sponge, and it's so fun to watch him learn and converse and express his thoughts, feelings, and wants through words. His latest phrase (which I love to hear because it sounds so cute coming out of his mouth) is, "I don't want to!" He says it so clearly and perfectly that it's actually adorable, even when he's screaming it. He loves to say prayers and read scriptures along with us at night. He loves to talk to us and to share his thoughts, or to just tattle on his older sister. :)

(He HATES having his picture taken when he's in a bad mood)

He's definitely a boy...he loves cars and trucks, and is always carrying as many as humanly possible with him at all times. He loves to loudly imitate car noises and race his cars throughout the house (or any house he's in), including on walls, tables, counter tops, floors, stairs, stair rails, etc. If he can reach it, he's racing his cars on it. He loves dirt and mud and is happiest when he's completely filthy. He loves the outdoors and would spend his entire day, every day, outdoors if he could. He loves to look at, pick up, and squish bugs. He loves to run, jump, scream, and wrestle. He thinks it's funny to cause pain and even funnier to get Diana angry enough that she causes HIM pain. He's a mischief maker and does his best to push the limits every second of every day, seeing just how much he can get away with before I lose it. Seriously, he's a handful and completely exhausting, but I absolutely love and adore him and can't get enough of my little man! Seriously, even when he's being naughty (which is often), I can't help but smile at him and want to give him big, squeezy hugs. Little stinker!!

Ellowyn, oh man, that little girl is a beauty! What a sweet, happy, beautiful little girl! She's got big, dark puppy-dog eyes like Daniel and beautiful mega-lashes that scream girly-girl. She's got the sweetest, most infectious smile ever and gets so excited over everything. But, in true girl fashion, and like her big sister, she's a serious diva and is not afraid to show it. She has to be held all the time, and has to be held while the holder is standing. And she won't let just anyone hold her, she has a very small group of people that she will allow to hold her without acting like you're sawing off her legs. Her absolute favorite people are her mommy (naturally), her daddy, Auntie Debra, and Auntie Tasha. I know she loves Deb because she looks, sounds, and behaves so much like me, so she's like Ellowyn's mommy-double. Plus, Debra is loads of fun! She's got 5 crazy kiddos of her own, so she knows how to be a great mommy, and Ellowyn can definitely sense it! ;)  And she absolutely adores Tasha. I mean ADORES. We went on vacation to St George a week ago with Mike's family. While we were there, Ellowyn was held the entire time, and mostly by sweet Tasha. And Ellowyn was IN HEAVEN. She actually got to the point where Tasha has become like another mommy for her (like Debra...Deb is her second Downer-Mommy, Tasha is her second Steadman-Mommy!). While on vacation, Mike and I decided to go grab a quick dessert to celebrate our anniversary (a couple of days late..we went up to St George on our actual anniversary and were unable to go out that night), and for the very first time, I left Ellowyn behind with someone else (as we knew we wouldn't be gone more than 15-20 minutes). Well, my mother-in-law said Ellowyn cried and screamed the entire time we were gone, naturally. Tasha and Steve had been out on a mini-date at the same time as us, and got back just as we did, but made it back into the condo where we were staying first. My mother-in-law said as soon as she saw Tasha walk in, she immediately stopped crying and started to smile. That, right there is amazing, pure love. I love that she loves Tasha so much, it is the sweetest thing, and a total testament to me of the awesome, Christ-like love that a child possesses.

(Ellowyn attempting to crawl at about 5 month, 1 week old)

(Ellowyn pretty much crawling a few days later)

Ellowyn is growing like a weed, too! She's been sitting up on her own, she's crawling (She does everything minus move her arms. She'll move her knees but then collapse because she hasn't figured out the moving-her-arms part of crawling), and she's working on sitting from the crawling position..and she's not yet 5 1/2 months old! She's crazy!! My other kids were totally disinterested in crawling until they were a month or so away from walking (both older ones walked at 9 months), but then they only learned to crawl so they could crawl over to things, stand up, and try to walk. It's so weird having a baby crawl so much earlier that my other kids, and earlier than the age that babies usually crawl at...I think this means big trouble for me. Oh, boy.

(One of her favorite ways to fall asleep..hand in her hair, sucking her thumb)

I know so much more has been going on, but that's been a good, long sum-up of our lives around here lately. Like I said before, I love these three crazy kids, and wouldn't trade my chance to raise them at home all day for anything!

Ellowyn - 4 months

Ellowyn turned 4 months old back on the 7th, and I took her in for her 4-month check-up this past Wednesday, the 16th. Here are her stats:

• Height: 24.5" (42%)
• Weight: 12.6 lbs (13%)
• Head: 16" (46%)
• Height to Weight: 10%

So, to make it simple, she's petite like Daniel. Diana is probably the "biggest" out of my three as far as percentiles go, and even she is below average, so my kids are all just small. Nothing bad about that!

Ellowyn's slowed down a bit in her growth, but with all her spitting up, and the fact that Daniel was the same way, I'm not too surprised. She's still a healthy size, and with Diana and Daniel being smaller, her doctor isn't concerned. Again, just small kids.

Ellowyn has changed quite a bit lately...

• She's babbling and cooing so much. She reminds me of how Diana was as a baby (and still now) - chatty chatty chatty. I love it, it's so cute!
• She's rolling from back to stomach, and she started doing this shortly before she turned 4 months (about a week or so before). Daniel also started his rolling over with back to stomach. Diana is the only one out of my three that went stomach to back first. 
• She LOVES being on her tummy, even though it makes her spit up most of the time, and will only sleep on her tummy. I always place her on her back to sleep, but she will always (even in her sleep) roll over onto her tummy.
• We started oatmeal and "solids" a couple of weeks ago. I give her just 1-1 1/2 Tbsps of Oatmeal & about 1 tsp of some type of fruit (so far we've tried prunes, apples, bananas, and mangoes) mixed with breast milk before bed and nurse her afterward to top her off and she now sleeps up to 12-13 hours STRAIGHT each night. Since we started the solid foods, there have only been 3 nights where she's woken up in the middle of the night to eat. It's been amazing!

• Before we started solids, she was having issues with bowel movements (gross, I know). She was only going once a week at the most, and we were resorting to giving her suppositories to get her going, as she seemed uncomfortable and agitated in between bowel movements. Her doctor suggested probiotics, and though they're pretty pricey, we tried them out, and BOOM! Problem solved. I was worried that she may have been not going as often because she wasn't getting enough to eat, so we started her on solids shortly thereafter. That seemed to help out, too.
• She STILL eats every two hours (except at night). I check my milk from time to time to make sure I don't have the issue I had with Daniel, and everything seems fine...she just seems to have a crazy fast metabolism, much like the other kids.
• She still spits up like crazy, but after going through all this with Daniel, it's kind of no big deal now.
• She's a mover, which probably explains her crazy fast metabolism. She loves to move around as much as possible, and I can tell she's going to be a LOT like Daniel once she gets mobile. Oh, dear.
• She loves to be in the standing position, so we bought her a walker a week or two ago. She LOVES that thing, and can move around in it a little bit, as her feet can almost completely make contact with the floor.

• She it already doing baby push-ups, lifting herself up off the floor with her arms. I think she may be an early crawler. 
• She loves to look at herself (and Mommy!) in the mirror.
• She loves being talked too and is eager to share her smile with anyone who will chat with her.
• She responds to her name (and nicknames) now, and we can sometimes get her to look at the person who's name we say. (ie, "Where's Diana?", she looks at Diana)
• She has major stranger-danger, and if Mommy's around she doesn't want ANYONE else to hold her, not even Daddy.
• She loves being sung to.
• She loves watching TV, like my other kids (oh, boy).

• She loves taking showers with Mommy every night, though Mommy is trying to transition her into taking baths by herself every night, like her siblings do. So far, it's going ok, but sometimes Mommy gets too lazy and just takes Ellowyn into the shower with her (don't judge me for my laziness).
• She likes to go for rides in the car.
• She LOVES being held. Sometimes, she loves being in her walker, sometimes likes being on the floor on her tummy or in her swing, but mostly wants to be held, and she's not afraid to let you know.

• She loves being outside, like my other kids. It's just too bad it's usually SO HOT out, so we can only be out there in the  mornings or evenings, and only for a certain amount of time.

• She still LOVES her brother and sister, and loves all the attention they give her.

• She loves kisses and will open up wide when she wants you to give her a kiss or when you go in to give her a kiss.
• She LOVES putting things in her mouth, like her hands, her feet, my hair....anything she can get her hands on, it goes right in her mouth.

• She loves to grab EVERYTHING. Put it within her reach and she's going to grab it.
• She loves loves loves sucking her thumb!

• She's got big, beautiful eyes, just like her siblings!
• Her eye color is still indeterminate. Her eyes are a light-medium brown in the middle with dark blue around the edges. So kind of a dark hazel color for now. I'll be interested to see how they change as she gets older. 

• She has beautiful long eyelashes, and prominent veins/birthmarks on her upper eyelids (like Diana had) that make it look like she's wearing purple-pinkish eye shadow.
• She has ears just like her Daddy.
• She still has some hair, and it's still brown, though it is lightening up and thinning out.
• She's got a strong personality and can be a bit of a drama queen, but that's nothing I'm not used to. ;)

I love this sweet little ball of energy and can't believe how quickly she's growing!!