Who's a happy baby?

Who's a happy baby?

This girl!

Sleepy Time

I've been spending time lately adding labels to old posts. Random fact: there are over 300 posts for this blog. Since we aren't posting nearly as often as we used to, that may be surprising. In fact, I'm sure people don't drop by to get updates very often anymore. That's okay, it's for the kids.

In going through the old posts, I found several where Chris mentioned Xander having a 'witching hour' where he'd scream through the evening. Yikes, I remember that it took work to calm Xander down but I'd repressed just how bad it was.

Hannah has not been like that. While pregnant I would joke (and secretly dread) that this third child would be the colicy baby, the one who would scream for hours for no reason that we could think of.

So far I couldn't have been more wrong. Hannah is an awesome baby. She is two months now. She does not spend much time crying but will look around quietly or spend time wiggling and flailing her limbs about. When she does cry, just picking her up usually works but spending a few minutes walking with her always calms her.

In the evening she will get somewhat fussy but I figured out what to do. Just lay her on the floor and let her wiggle until she falls asleep. Seriously. Then when I am ready for bed, I will bring her up to her room, sit in the rocking chair for a little while if she has woken up, then put her to bed and walk away. It's just that easy!

I really hope I'm not jinxing this by writing about it.

She's finally getting to a point of sleeping for four hours a stretch. A couple nights ago there was SIX entire hours of uninterrupted sleep. Seriously, it was better than having an energy drink.

I'm not sure if this is just Hannah's nature, to be laid back and relaxed. Or maybe it's that Chris and I know what we're doing this time around and we are more laid back and relaxed. Either way, I'll take it.

Push comes to Shove

There are two reasons we have this blog. One is so that friends and family who don't get to see the kids regularly can still keep up with what is going on and see how the kids are doing. The other reason is the blog is like a baby book where we keep track of milestones and events for each child.

With that second reason in mind, sometimes I hesitate in writing about an event. Xander's first fall down the stairs that resulted in his first trip to the ER is missing. Also missing is the picture of Xander stark naked and covered head to toe in lotion. So should I tell you about Xander hitting kids at school? I will, though it's not an event to be proud of.

While picking up Xander from Pre-Kindergarten on Monday, the teacher held me back to talk to me. She said that she has talked to Xander about keeping his hands to himself on repeated occasions. He's had to spend time on the Thinking Chair for pushing kids. On Monday he punched a student.

Yikes, not something a parent wants to or expects to hear. And it's surprising because Xander always talks about how he loves his classmates and he often gives them hugs when he gets to school or leaves.

I asked him questions to figure out what happened. Xander said that the other student was looking at him and was too close so Xander pushed him. I asked if he apologized (he did) and we talked about other ways he could have handled it (asking the student to stop or just walk away). After a quiet ride to pick up his sisters Xander broke down into sniffles saying he was disappointed in himself for hitting someone.

That evening Xander had to tell Dad what happened. Chris and I decided that as punishment Xander was having his Legos taken away for a week and would not be allowed on the Jumpstart website for a week. He is dealing with it pretty well (although he keeps asking me to play on the website so he can watch).

The next day I was going to mention the punch to the other student's mother but did not see her before school. After school I saw her as we both picked up our kids. Xander was too quick for me though, he ran up to the student, told him he loved him and gave him a big hug. They laughed and ran along to their cars. So I'm assuming there is no lasting bitterness there.

Jaw of Steel

I went out on Saturday night for a couple hours and some neighbors were nice enough to watch Xander and Josie (Hannah was my co-pilot). I picked the kids up at 8, which is their bedtime, and walked them home. When we arrived, Josie asked for water. At this point Hannah began to cry, so I quickly grabbed a glass, filled it and handed it to Josie. I began to head upstairs when there was an odd noise followed by Josie howling.

I set Hannah down to cry and flew back to Josie. She was standing in the same spot sobbing and holding a broken glass. I took it away from her, tossed the couple chunks of glass I saw into it and looked Josie over. No blood, so far so good.

"Josie, are you hurt?"
"Noooooooo." (continues sobbing)
"Did you have an accident?"
"Yes." (starting to calm down)
"Did you drop the glass?"
"No."
*insert dawning comprehension*
"Josie, does anything hurt?"
"Yes."
"Where, what hurts?"
Josie points to her mouth.
"Josie did you bite the glass?"
"Uh-huh."


I had her open her mouth to look inside, but still no blood. I keep inquiring and Josie says there is something in her mouth. I try not to freak out (there's no blood, there's no blood, how bad can it be) and began to fish around in her mouth. At one point I see it - a small piece of glass, smaller than a pencil eraser, sitting down by her gums. But I can't get it.

Then it disappears.

Oops.

Josie had calmed down by that point so I put her to bed and called my mom, because moms always know what to do (with the exception of me, apparently). She suggested I call the doctor.

I called the doctor's office and he was kind enough to return my call at 8:30 on a Saturday night. He hemmed and hawwed just like I did. Josie swallowed a piece of broken glass but there was no sign of trauma or blood despite several minutes of prodding it around in her mouth. We decided that if she complained the next day I would take her to the emergency room for x-rays.

Fortunately she seems okay.

So your lesson today is to not give a two year old a glass, especially a glass that was given to your grandmother for her bridal shower 50+ years ago. Oops, indeed.

6 Weeks and One Cold

Hannah is six weeks now. It's hard to believe that it's only been a month and a half since she was born, it feels like she has been part of our family for a lot longer than that.


Her one month appointment went well. The doctor seemed impressed with her health and there were no concerns.

Weight: 10 pounds, 5 ounces
Height 22.5 inches
Head: 14.75 inches


Xander and Josie still love Hannah, so much so that they shared their colds with her. So there were a few nights of rough sleep and holding her while she felt miserable and couldn't breath. It cleared up surprisingly quickly, actually. I'm used to colds lasting weeks with the kids. The hardest part was using saline spray in her nose and sucking out the snot. She threw some big screaming fits when I did that. I did have her sleeping in her bouncy seat at night, that seemed to help her get more sleep than in the crib.


Now that Hannah is better, she's working on growing way too fast. She is doing well at holding her head up. She has 'spaz time' when I set her down where she flails all of her limbs about. Her eye sight is getting better and she is following shapes that walk past her. And she is smiling at people a lot. I'm pretty sure it's not gas because she smiles when her eyes are open and someone is leaning over to look at her. It lights up her whole face and I can't wait to get pictures of Hannah's smiles.

And for those of you who don't live in the Midwest or Eastern US, we had quite the heat wave this past week, 80s for three days in March. I was rather frustrated because all of the 3 month girl clothes we had from Josie were summer clothes and are currently stored in the attic. Who knew we would need them? I made do with onesies on Hannah but eyeballed the attic door more than once. If Chris were around (he's currently in France) he may have had to head up there, so he lucked out.

False Advertising

Chris took a trip to France late last fall for work and returned with souvenirs for the kids. This time he came back with long sleeved shirts with French phrases.

Josie's was a cream shirt with children wearing shirts that spelled out a phrase. I think it translated to "We are friends." I am going with what Chris told me because I know not a lick of French.

Xander's shirt is pictured here and I was told it translates to something like "I don't like school."

When Chris returned from France's house (where Xander thought his dad was staying) he gave the kids their shirts and told them what they meant. Xander had a look of disbelief and tried to argue that he DID like school. Chris tried to explain that it was a joke and of course Xander likes school. (Chris later told me that he couldn't find another shirt for Xander with French on it and had to settle on this one.)

Xander was having none of this 'joke' shirt. He has worn it a grand total of three times. Two of those times it was the last clean shirt he had.

This past week he was down to this shirt as his last clean shirt and he was nearly in tears about having to wear it. So I pointed out that he had clean shirts in his closet that he could wear, his nice shirts that he wears to church. He immediately brightened up and picked out a polo to wear. He picked shirts out of the closet for the next two days.

So I had a little talk with him that Dad bought him the French shirt and it would mean a lot to Dad if Xander would wear it again. Xander agreed that he would wear it one more time. The next morning he woke up and picked that shirt to wear and when I complimented it he reminded me that it was his last time wearing it.

I take comfort in the fact that he's nearly outgrown it anyway.

Facts about Hannah

In the grand tradition of our children, here are some fun facts about Hannah. Does making a 'fun facts' list three times count as a grand tradition?

Josie is an Aquarius (the water carrier):

Friendly and humanitarian
Honest and loyal
Original and inventive
Independent and intellectual

Hannah's birthstone is the amethyst.

She was born on a Saturday.

Saturday's child works hard for her living.

Hannah's birth flower is a violet.

According to the Chinese zodiac, Hannah is born during the year of the Water Dragon.

Water calms the Dragon’s fire. Water Dragons are able to see things from other points of view. They don’t have the need to always be right. Their decisions, if well-researched, are usually better since they allow others to become involved.

Hannah is in the bible as the mother of the prophet Samuel.

Hannah means "grace".

Hope was one of my top choices for her name. Chris and I compromised to have Hope as a middle name.

So far we have heard the nicknames of 'Triple H' and 'H Cubed'. We have also been accused of naming Hannah after Han Solo.

Hannah's name is a palindrome, meaning it is the same spelling forward or backward. Her birthday 2/11/12 is also a palindrome.

Hannah has a birthmark on the back of her head in the same spot that her father, brother and sister all have birthmarks.