Epiphanies

J, you now roll over easily. You giggle spontaneously and without any prompting. You love laughing with C. He does all sorts of things to make you laugh like popping up out of nowhere. You have two front bottom teeth peeking out so you’re drooling quite a lot now. You like your formula warm but you prefer nursing over everything else. You play with your exersaucer spinning toy quite aggressively. You really like it. You love playing with the keyboard. You love me singing to you. I think you’re musically inclined. You still don’t have much hair. You love paper products, always reaching for them. You love the tv remote. You’re intently interested in the world around you. You take it all in and get bored if your scenery remains the same. You love watching your brothers play around. You love the outdoors. You don’t mind being held by everyone. You like putting everything in your mouth. You are just adorable and I love you.

Today was C’s last swimming lesson. I’m going to try hard to take him swimming though. We bought a Body Glove water baby carrier so that I or Dh could hold J in it while in the water. That way C won’t drown since I’ll be in the pool with him. I want Dh to try it first though before I do.

Anyway, J decided to gift me with a poo diaper at the swimming lesson for the first time. I’ve made it these last three months without having to change his diaper so I thought I was home free. Sadly not. And they were fixing the women’s bathroom so I had to change him in the men’s room. The diaper changing station was made for giants (slight exaggeration) but it was seriously hard for me to reach. It was placed way too high for me. Wth is that about? Do men really need the table to be that high? I’m seriously considering buying the diaperbridge except I think it’s for smaller babies and J is getting bigger by the day. It’s a great idea. I don’t know if we’d use it much. I can really just go change him in the car. I think if it worked in a plane, it would be awesome. Planes are a pain and a half for changing diapers.

We made up for Sunday night’s lack of family night by playing cadoo tonight. I also solved the mystery of those random cadoo boxes that were lying around. Apparently we got them as a Burger King kid’s meal promotion. We ended up buying cadoo ($7.99 price cut at Target) since my SIL thought it was a good game. We had fun. C still needs a little help (4 yo) but I think with practice he will get the hang of it. I think he’s not exactly familiar with it and so feels trepidation about doing things. I think it’s not that he can’t do it but that he’s afraid to do the wrong thing for fear of looking stupid. I need to train him out of that. B was nice tonight. He was very helpful in trying to figure out for everyone their best move. He wasn’t a cutthroat about it – hope he stays like that. It’s a good trait to have not to be so hung up on winning. It’s still disappointing to lose but letting it go and moving on leads to inner peace *cough*.

Dh has this thing about leaving the heads on the shrimp. Not sure if he’s trying to divest the kids of their fear of shrimp heads or simply scare the bejesus out of them. Think C didn’t want to have to hurt these little animals that still have heads. Anyway, they’re finally getting used to it and have managed to behead the shrimps all by themselves. Not eat the heads, just behead them. Just goes to show you: tough love works with beheading shrimp heads. They didn’t like the taste of the heads so doubt they’ll ever eat the heads (me included).

I also learned something new. Dh taught me how to eat the meat inside the shelled part next to the shrimp tails. It’s all in the way you hold the tail. You hold one part of the tail (don’t squeeze), and pull it out. It comes out easily.

C: “One day I’ll be a professional.”

Me: “A professional what?”

C: “A professional.”

Me: “Do you know what a professional is?”

C: “A professional is someone who eats mushrooms, shrimp heads and shrimp tails.”

Me: “Ah.” Too cute.

Took C swimming yesterday again. His swimming seems a bit worse. Not sure if it’s because he’s bored with the lessons. I think he wasn’t concentrating. I’m going to have to make sure he practices during the summer. Michelle brought her daughter’s Fisher Price Kid-Tough Digital Camera. I wanted to buy it but I wasn’t sure how well it worked. She told me she got one at Walmart and it was defective. She also said that her daughters were constantly asking her to pose and that got a bit old after awhile. It’s a bit pricey but it might be worth it because my kids are pretty rough with things and are always dropping stuff. The screen for looking at the pics you took is horrible. Can barely see anything. But the casing is tough. She says the pics are decent but a lot are blurry. Wish it were cheaper. I think I might let B have the canon s400 since we aren’t using it anyway since it’s a bit unreliable. But he’s constantly dropping the game boy. Argh decisions. I think they would get a kick out of taking pics.

M also recced going to Oak Canyon Nature Center. It’s free and it has shells where kids can go inside and experience how it feels like to be for example a turtle.  We’ll definitely do it.

We went to get pizza at Round Table after Dh got back from work. Was sooo windy. We ordered garlic with cheese. I think I’ll bypass the cheese one next time. Could barely taste the garlic.

Today is friday the 13th. Dh is going to play poker with his buds tonight. I might go rent a movie at Blockbusters for the kids. Depends how tired I am by the end of the day.

Practicing multiplication with B really helps. The difference is amazing from before practicing and after. It’s rewarding to feel all that time spent actually works. I’ve been making him write little essays during his spring break. I confess it’s really for me to have some insight into how he feels and thinks about things rather than any attempt to improve his writing. I really ought to pick up some books on how to help improve his writing. It’s hard to figure out how to teach him that since he’s so young. I’m not sure how “strict” to be or should I just be supportive and encouraging. Not sure how the latter would really fly in terms of learning how to write better.

B really helps me out a lot. C tries but he’s still too young. It’s so much easier when I have them helping me out while I take care of the baby. They help me with laundry, with putting away dishes, with picking up stuff, with washing the dog, with sweeping the backyard, feeding the dog, walking the dog, groceries. If only I could get them to help me with cleaning the bathroom

Over the summer, I’m going to venture into cooking territory with B. I’ve already thought about the whole cooking pasta stuff. I may not let him turn on the flames but mixing the stuff, prepping and showing him boiling water might be cool.

J, you are three months old today. I feel somewhat bereft when you’re not with me. I feel like we’ve been together forever. I love how you so intently look at me. I love how you turn your head at the sound of my voice. I love how you smile when I coo your name. I love when you let out a loud burp when we are just sitting together chilling. I love how you bat your cute tiny hands at me. I love the size of your hands (your nails grow so long in just a week).

I love your good nature. You’re pretty easy to take care of. You usually stop crying when one of your needs are taken care of: hunger, sleepy, need a diaper change, you need to burp or you need to let out some gas/poop, or you need a change of scenery. There is never a time when you are inconsolable and I love that about you.

Your brothers love and adore you. They always want to touch and kiss you. I know they will dote on you.

You sleep between us at night so that I can nurse you without getting up out of bed and so daddy can burp you while being 90% asleep. You pretty much sleep through the night although some nights you like to wake up for one feeding. Those are the nights when you sleep in for the night at 10pm.

You get bored pretty easily – you won’t even sit in your cute aquarium swing for more than ten minutes. You need a change of location every so often and then you are happy as a clam. I love how when you suddenly spit up a little during a cry for attention, you’re outraged as if it was my fault you were interrupted. You’re so cute when you’re mesmerized by the lights.

I love how you are content to lie on the dinner table while we have dinner around you. It’s like we are all having dinner together.

You are wearing a size 2 Pampers swaddler. You’re starting to lose your light brown fuzzily soft baby hair. I love your long eyelashes and your adorable toothless smiles. You hold up your head pretty well now. You make cute little nasally sounds. I love how you coo back at me and how cutely you babble.  I love you and happy third month birthday.