Post nap nap

Sometimes a boy just needs a little more nap after his nap.

And the stockings were hung

For the last several years, I have searched for the perfect Christmas stockings for our family to replace the motley assortment we've been using.  Our current collection includes some from my childhood, which are of course awesome, but then also a few that I sewed (badly), a few from Target that I embellished (badly), and at least one that I am pretty sure is an old sock of my dad's.  Every Christmas season, I spend hours trolling websites and sometimes even in-person shopping for the perfect stockings but I've never found them. Or so I thought.

Today, I realized with a start that Max doesn't have any stocking at all.  I went to order him one quickly online, and I miraculously found the perfect stockings, and ordered not just one for Max, but five lovely, matching, monogrammed stockings for our whole family.

Why was it so easy this year?  Had I really just not found the right stockings in all my searching in the past?  That's what I thought but I was wrong.  I realized that I found the stockings because this year we have Max.  I could never pull the trigger in past years because I must have known on some level that whatever set of 4 I got would be wrong. Because this family was going to need 5 stockings to hang by the chimney with care.  So only this year was I ready to make this all-important purchase.

So thanks, Maxy, for making our family complete.  And for helping me finally cross that item off my to-do list after many many years!!  You'll get an extra treat in your stocking for that.

Elf baby, Christmas 2014

Pre and Post

Dash has looked forward to getting his face painted like the Grinch at the Santa Train for months. He does make a pretty cute, and very un-Grinchy, Grinch.

Big boy in a cart

First time for Max in a shopping cart! He predictably charmed everyone in the store.

Dash art

Dash has not been nearly as interested in writing or drawing as Ella to date, so it is especially fun lately to see him starting to create more (and super sweet to see the sibling collaboration).

She is always right

A few days ago, the kids and I were coming up with silly laws, and Ella told us that a real law in Alaska is that it is against the law to look at a moose from an airplane.  Dash thought this was pretty funny, and a few days later when we were FaceTiming with my sister (who lives in Alaska), he asked her if this law was true.  Aunt Bebe laughed and told him that Ella is good at making up funny stories but the law isn't real.  

When Ella got home from school later that day, Dash told her that Aunt Bebe said the moose law isn't true.  Ella go very indignant and ran out of the room.  She came back a few minutes later and showed us this page in a book she just read:

Well, then, Ella was right.  As she usually is.  Aunt Bebe and Uncle Joel later sent further explanation that it is illegal to look for moose from an airplane for hunting purposes, i.e., you can't go on a fly-in hunting trip and scout for moose in the plane and then shoot them the same day, because it's considered too easy and unsportsmanlike.

Ella was relieved that we believed her about this law.  And Dash was relieved that Aunt Bebe has never broken this law.

My big girl

I look at this girl sometimes and can't believe how big she has gotten. Here she is after school yesterday in one of her fabulous Ella outfits,  barely able to keep still for a picture because she is bubbling over with fun stuff to report from school. I love this first grader more than Mommy loves chocolate cake (that's an Ella-ism).

Football buddies

Josh had two buddies to watch football with him this weekend although it's questionable how much football was actually watched.

Costumes, pipe cleaner, and little tree

A few years ago, we started the tradition of buying a small Christmas tree for the kids to decorate with some ornaments that are special to them (i.e. less breakable than those on our big tree).  I've come to love this sweet little tree that is always kind of lopsided in the ornament placement but holds so many sweet things the kids have made and collected.

I had a hard time getting good pictures of their tree decorating this year since they wanted the tree in their room which is both crowded and very bright on a sunny day.  Despite the poor technical merit of the pictures, they really make me smile because they capture the moment so perfectly.

There's Dash wearing his Flash costume.  These days, Dash puts on a superhero costume more days than not and it's just such a marker of this very spot in time for my sweet almost-four-year-old boy. Normal life is way more fun in a costume!

Not to be outdone, Ella has on a tutu that is 4 sizes too small for her but that she insists on wearing regularly.  In the box of their ornaments, she found a star that she made somewhere out of pipe cleaners and beads, but it didn't have any way to be hung on the tree.  Totally undaunted, she casually opened up one of the drawers in her bedroom, pulled out a spare pipe cleaner, and wired that star onto the top of the tree.  I love that she has a stash of pipe cleaners in her room!

And I love how much they love their little tree!

Perfectly Max

Sometimes a picture captures just exactly what my kids look like.  Here is the real Max... spiky hair, red cheeks, curious eyes, and so darn squeezable I might just have to go wake him up and hug him (just kidding, Josh!).

Still little

Often times I look at Max and think he is getting way too big too fast. But when I found him "dancing" with Ella this morning, I could see just how little and precious my baby still is.

Reading

Ella will read anywhere and anytime she can.  She is often that kid coming down the stairs at a glacial pace as she keeps reading, or lingering over breakfast reading a cookbook, or as I found her yesterday, sitting in a tree in the front yard reading a book.

Bounty Hunter

Me:  Dash, what are you doing?

Dash:  I'm a bounty hunter!

Me:  Where did you learn about bounty hunters?

Dash: Star Wars

He has never seen Star Wars.

Le sigh.

Overheard

Ella and I were talking about her day at school today and how the AIG (academically or intellectually gifted) teacher had come to her room to do a project today.

Ella:  Mrs. S, you know her?  She's growing babies.  Twins, I think?

Me: That's so exciting!

Ella:  They are coming in February.  Or maybe March.  And they are named Anna, and, um, Claire?  Anna and something.

Me:  How do you know all this?

Ella:  <looking a little coy> Well, sometimes, when the grown-ups are talking at school, they think I'm not listening.... but I am.

Ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma

I laid in bed early this morning for a good thirty minutes listening to Max full-on babble ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma over and over again.  Ella's first word was Dada and Dash's was ball, but, Max?  This kid's gonna be all mine.

Field hockey

Last week during Ella's dance class, I took the boys for a walk. Since we were right next to Duke, we walked over to campus and came upon the ACC Women's Field Hockey Tournament.  Dash loves any and all sports so we of course stopped to check out the scene. Without buying a ticket, we could easily see the field, watch the players warm up, and hear the music and announcer.  In typical Dash fashion, he asked a hundred questions about everything he saw,  danced along to the warmup music in his little white boy way, and then started chatting up the Duke players who were waiting for their match later in the day.  Several of them asked him if liked field hockey, and he very earnestly cocked his head to the side and said "Well, it's my first game."  I think some of the girls were ready to take him onto the team bus and keep him forever.

Dash, being Dash

Dash always brings his unique style to situations.  Lunch out wasn't quite right with just the eye patch and SuperMan shirt, but Ella's headband made it perfect.

There are 4....

"Mommy, look! There are one, two, three, four penises!"

Owl girls

I can't say no when my girl picks out matching outfits for us.

Thursday work

Ella's teacher always has a small activity for the students to work on when they arrive at school and are waiting for the start bell to ring.  I can't remember all of them but they are something like "Tune up Tuesday" (a chance to do one or two targeted math problems), "Word Search Wednesday", and "Think outside the box Thursday" when they are given a shape or form, and asked to make a picture around it.  Ella's teacher tells me this is her favorite activity of the week because it is so much fun to see what the kids come up with.  Ella brought home a few examples recently. The first is sweet and creative.  The second, well, you be the judge.

The perfect picture

This picture of Max goes in my file of most favorites.  I love his sweet profile and the fall light and the hand-me-down-from-big-bro hat.  I really really love this jolly baby.  Six months old already! Naturally, Ella is already planning his first birthday party...

Ella in her own (fabulous) words

Best way to greet the morning....

... Have your big brother and big sister join you in your crib.  Max cackled with happiness when they piled in and sat him up for some sibling songs and chit chat.  Love these three so much.

Afternoon

We don't have nearly enough quiet afternoons at home, but today the kids and I took advantage of having no obligations and the beautiful fall weather to play outside together.  As always, the personality of each kid shone through.

Exhibit A:  Ella.  Always cold.  Always climbing (she's in the back of the pick-up truck).

Exhibit B:  Dash.  Always moving.  Loving basketball.  Making great shapes with his body.  And look - he can get the ball in the hoop much of the time!

Exhibit C:  Max.  Just chilling.  So what if it's kind of cool outside and he's forced to sit in a stroller in the driveway and watch the rest of us play?  He played with his toys for awhile and then fell asleep.  What an amazing baby.

Goal setting

Young Max has finally achieved something we have watched him try in vain to accomplish for many weeks.  Tonight he managed to get his toes all the way IN his mouth.  Way to set a goal and work towards it, buddy.

Sitting baby

It dawned on me AFTER I took a series of pictures of Max sitting in the front yard that... HE CAN SIT!  I kind of knew he could sit.  He does it sometimes inside, usually with the support of several pillows.  And I probably wouldn't test him on a hard surface yet.  But he very cheerfully sat unsupported in the grass while I took several dozen pictures and only fell over at the very end.  And that was after a mosquito landed on his head so he might have just been mad.

Where does the time go?  Wasn't he just born?

One day old.... seems like yesterday

Can't believe he's 5 months old this week

The good pictures

I ran into a friend recently at the JCC who asked me how in the world I manage to capture such "perfect" pictures of my kids.  I laughed and told him that I have a few secrets.  One is to take 100 pictures and only post the best few - very few!  And the second is to ask the kids to be outright silly in some pictures so they get it out of their systems.  And the third is to have some silly sayings that make them smile and laugh using their real expressions instead of saying just "smile" and getting their contorted, contrived, and frankly rather frightening fake smiles.  My current weapon to produce real grins is to say "Don't think about my butt!"  This is apparently really funny to them and usually results in a genuine grin.  Of course, this begs the question of what, exactly, is just so funny about my butt.

So for example.... the picture that went to Facebook looks like this (my beautiful happy boy on the beach):

But first I had to endure this (Dash's fake smile results in closed eyes 100% of the time):

And this (purposeful silliness):

And then I told my friend that some days I just get nothing but crummy pictures.  And I remind myself that in 20 years what feels like a crappy set of photos to me today will be a precious reminder of a time when these little people were small.  So I just keep taking the pictures and hope for a few gems that really capture who they are in this moment.

Penny a pinecone

We told the kids we'd pay them a penny for every pinecone they pick up in the yard, and they got to 262 pinecones before they decided it wasn't fun anymore.  Glad we said a penny and not a dime!  Since I can't find the time to do yardwork, I'm glad they can.

Return to running

This morning. I returned to running after a very long pregnancy and post-partum hiatus.  As I remembered from the first two babies, finding a chance to run requires a nearly impossible golden moment of childcare availability, sufficient energy to get myself going, light in the sky, and the all-important empty boobs.  For this week, I think I have a plan in place that will work, but as the seasons change, it will be a moving target.  I'm determined to get back out there and to run a race in the spring, so here we go!  Day one, success!

A teeny, tiny space

Both Dash and Ella are obsessed with the idea of our family being together in a "teeny, tiny space" and get very excited whenever they notice that we're all together in close proximity.  It often starts as a hug between two family members that they quickly turn into a massive family hug.  Sometimes it happens when we all end up in one of our (tiny) bathrooms trying to get everyone ready to go.  Sometimes it happens when we pile in to read books in our bed.  They always notice when we're all together and then reach out to make sure that they can touch everyone at once, and then proclaim "It's our whole family in a teeny tiny space!" Their excitement at all of us being together in a "teeny tiny space" is super endearing and will be a good one to remind them about someday when maybe all of us being squeezed in together isn't so much fun.  I can already hear the teenage groans on a future road trip but it will make Josh and I laugh for sure, 

The blur

This picture captures a typical interaction between the three kids pretty darn well.  Ella is sweet and smothering in her love for Max while Dash is pretty much a whirling dervish but always close by.  Max alternates between looking mildly concerned (as here) or laughing out loud at the craziness of being baby number three. 

Empty Living Room

In our new house, we have lots of space.  In fact, we now have three living areas which is a big step up from our old house that had only one.  However, with that one living room came only one couch, so we have a lot of empty spaces in the new place.  I'm reclaiming the big front living room as soon as all the furniture comes in, but for now, the kids are relishing the big empty space for legos, dancing, and playing cars.

  

This is how we do it

Some nights - and I mean only some - the dinner cooking hour goes smoothly and we make it to 5:45 with a) dinner on the table, and b) nobody (including myself) crying.  Currently, that magic seems to happen when the big kids are doing watercolors and Max is gnawing on the toys in the exersaucer.  I suspect these variables will change a lot in the coming weeks and months, but for now, I'm glad for a recipe that works at the witching hour.

The Double BOB

I have found that, much to my annoyance, a lot of our baby gear made it through two kids pretty well but has reached the end of its useful life before baby number three can really enjoy/use it.  Max has gotten a new video monitor, a new carseat, a new baby swing, and now a new BOB stroller, because version one of all of these products didn't survive the abuse heaped on them with the first two kids.

Until we gave away our old BOB on Freecycle (and for what it's worth, that stroller is a beast and served us incredibly well.  But six years of constant use, many many beach trips, and living outside at our old house for several years took a toll.  A more resourceful family than ours could have updated some of the parts and extended its use.  We are not those resourceful people), we had the old and the new available for our evening family walks.  The boys were quite cute in BOB v1 and BOB v2.  Their big sis is a cutie, too.

Wide eyes

I don't know why people remark on Max's wide eyes all the time.  I mean, it's not like he looks like this all the time.  Except that he does.

The Banjo

Dash loves music.  He loves to sing the songs from Frozen, listen to cds in the car, play our piano, and recently play his "banjo".   One of his preschool teachers last year and at camp this summer was a big music lover, and she helped the kids make instruments out of scrap materials.  Dash's banjo, made from a big cardboard tube, a lab tube of some kind filled with bells and other bits (to make shaking sounds), and some big rubber bands as strings, has been by far his most enjoyed item of the summer.  Most of the time, the creations from school come home, sit in a pile or on a table for awhile, and eventually get swept into the trash, or if I am feeling generous, a memory box to be saved for posterity.  The banjo, though, gets daily use even now, weeks after he made it.  Dash has been talking about Santa bringing him a ukulele this year, so maybe the banjo can hang on until then.

Four months old!

Baby Max turned 4 months old this week, and I am trying SO hard to document his early life at least to some degree, mostly because it is so much fun to go back with Ella and Dash to look at their baby pictures and talk about their milestones, and also because I know how much I will forget.  So if the Internet is forever, I better write something about Max on here.

So... four months old on August 22!  Ella helped me with his four month photo shoot, and as a result, in most of the pictures, he is looking to the side (wherever she was).  He also managed to pitch to the side and then get blue bear in his mouth at one point which he seemed to quite like.

Max is very physical, more so than Ella or Dash.  He love to stand on our laps and is really trying hard to sit up.  When he is reclined on a pillow, he does these little baby crunches, trying to get his torso off the ground.  He has managed to flip himself once from his front to his back but he isn't doing it regularly yet.  He loves to play in the Exersaucer and under the playmat where he is getting really good at grabbing the toys and putting them in his mouth.  He also loves to chew on his own hands which is making picture-taking increasingly difficult.

Max loves to talk and given the chance (which happens far too infrequently, poor third baby) he will have a conversation back and forth with us of "oohs" and "goos" and "ehhhs".  He also has a cat-like screech he likes to make which my parents say is reminiscent of one of my favorite sounds to make as a baby.  Genetics are weird.  Mostly he can't get a word in edgewise with Ella and Dash around.

He has a fast smile, and he rewards us with it very frequently.  The whole shape and look of his face changes when he smiles.  He has dimples on both sides and a super wide grin.  He is smart enough to know to always give his mama a big smile when she comes in the room, but if I'm being fair, he'll grin at most people.  Ella and Dash are two of his favorite people to smile at.

Did I mention he likes to pull hair? It's ponytails for me for the foreseeable future.  Ella, too, if she's smart.

Max also has a great laugh, somewhere between a squeak and a chortle and a squeal.  Ella made him giggle over and over by showing him a birdy toy with a mirror inside and opening it up and saying "Surprise!"  I got him going by dropping a toy and shaking my arms and saying "Where did it GO?"

By some miracle, he has followed the Cohen baby tradition of being a really good sleeper.  Baby sleep remains a mystery to me, but I will take the good when I can get it.  These days he goes to bed sometime in the 7:30-8:00 range after a bath (which he loves), a book or two (when we remember), and a good feeding (I still try to do it while watching TV but those days are numbered since he is getting much more interested in the world around him when he is nursing).  Most nights he wakes up only once to eat.  That time is super variable, sometimes 1 am and sometimes 5 am.  He mostly puts himself back to sleep very easily at night, and is up in the morning with the rest of the family around 7 am.  Ella loves to be the one to get him up and unwrap him from his swaddle.

He is napping in his crib now which was a transition we had to make from the baby swing.  He mostly took it in stride although there were several weeks of only 30 minute naps when we started in the crib.  Lately, he has been napping closer to an hour, once for three hours (!!!), and is generally pretty happy about going down for a nap without much fanfare.  He has no real schedule for his naps, but maybe with the summer mayhem ending and the school year starting, we'll find a schedule that allows him to nap in his crib in between school drop-offs and pick-ups.  We still spend much of the weekend out and about, letting him catch naps in the car or stroller, but I suspect those days are numbered, too.  I seem to recall a period of "baby jail" where we needed to be at home, a lot, for morning and afternoon and early evening naps.

Max has a lot of nicknames including Maxy, Maxi Taxi, Maxers, Maxersons, Bubbins, Maxnificent, The Baby.  The best ones are the ones we use and the kids repeat in the same tone of voice we use.  Ella's "Maaaa-xxxxyyyy" in her high, sing-song voice is priceless.

We'll find out how big he is at his 4 month doctor's appointment next week but he was just shy of 15 pounds a few weeks ago.  He definitely feels like the biggest Cohen baby at this stage.  His hydronephrosis (ie excess fluid in his kidneys, detected pre-natally) still hasn't resolved on its own but we're continuing a watch-and-wait program with ultrasounds every few months.  We hope it will resolve on its own one of these visits but at least the ultrasounds are non-invasive (and he brings a lot of cheer to the ultrasound techs every time we visit!).

Mostly we love this baby to the moon and back, and we are thankful every single day for his health, his laid-back and happy demeanor, and the gift of being his parents.

End of summer lunch dates

I took each of the big kids out to lunch this week to celebrate the end of summer.  I let them pick the restaurant and have whatever they wanted.  Predictably, few fruits and vegetables (as in none) were part of their selections.

Dash wanted a biscuit and a donut so we went to Rise.  I managed to convince him to have bacon and cheese on his biscuit so at least there was a little bit of protein involved.  He was very excited to pick out a donut, and he excitedly chose a cinnamon twist ("because it has cim-a-non AND sugar, mommy!  And that is better than just cim-a-non by itself").

As he ate it, he said "Hey, Mommy!  This donut looks like a challah because it is braided and twisty!  It also looks like a brain!"

Ella got an additional treat as I promised her we could pick out a new dress for the first day of school.  We somehow ended up with three new dresses, followed by a lunch of cheeseburgers and french fries (topped off with a donut).  For a girl who can take nearly an hour to eat her fruit at breakfast, the speed at which she can inhale a hamburger is pretty impressive.