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“When I grow up…”

Therese some sweet ideas of how things are going to be in when she grows up. For instance, she’s going to buy candy whenever she goes to the store. “And if God wants to me to have children, I’m going to let them have candy and dessert everyday.” Is that so? I’d be happy to give your children candy and dessert too then.

“Mom, when I grow up Gianna is going to live with me. And we’re going to live down the street and you can come to dinner at our house every night. But only if I don’t go to the convent and become a sister.” I like the sound of that.

“When I’m 20, we’re going to go to Jerusalem and Rome.” I like that too. Better start saving for that one especially if you’re going to be an artist.

I love you, Therese!

Crawling outside the box

Cecilia is a funny baby. She definitely gets the award for thinking outside the box–or should I say “crawling” outside the box. She still hasn’t mastered crawling forward, but she’s resourceful and can still get where she needs to go in her own way. Today, She was sitting down on the floor and I had a toy in front of her that she couldn’t reach. She reaches forward and gets into a crawling position. Then she moves her hand forward, but couldn’t figure out to get her knees forward. So she lays down on her tummy, turns on her back, and pushes out on her feet to move forward. Then she turns back around on her belly and her toy’s in arms reach. And she didn’t do this just once, she did this twice!

On a side note, she cut her lateral incisors on the top. She has not had a restful night’s sleep in few day. Two days ago she was screaming her sweet little head off from 11p.m.to 1 a.m. So she now has a total of 4 teeth: her two bottom central incisors and her 2 top lateral incisors. With our previous children, their central incisors all came in before the lateral ones.

Take your work to daughter day

We like when Adam gets to work from home. Here he is showing Muffin something very interesting …uhh… what was that, dear? The cursor?

Cecilia at 9 months

We had our 9 month well check for Cecilia today. She’s growing fast. It must be that hollow leg that she insists on filling at meal times. She weighed in at 18 lbs 4 oz and measured 28 inches in length.

The last two months I’ve been working diligently in establishing good sleeping habits for her. After reading “The No Cry Sleep Solution,” for the third time in 4 years, I started getting her back to two consistent naps a day and a regular bed time. It worked wonders for longer sleep at night and she’s sleeping well in her crib instead of next to me in bed.

Since she started solids, I had been making her baby food. Last month I introduced yogurt and started making yogurt again just for her. I’m still balancing breastfeeding and bottle feeding. I’d like to think I’m more confident supplementing than I was with Gianna when she was this age.

Her floor mobility has increased. She has mastered backward crawling and rolling. Her forward crawling not so much. But that could be because she has 3 older siblings who like to bring her things when she can’t reach. Or when no one is around to give her something she just sticks that thumb into her mouth and she’s happy as a clam.

She’s our first full thumb sucker–more so than any of the other kids and quite a bit earlier. I was told by our pediatrician that she wouldn’t go to college sucking her thumb. I’m going to hold him to that!

The last 2-3 weeks she’s been a wee chatty at Mass. So we’ve had to take her out. She’s not crying–unless Fulton is messing with her– she just has a lot to say. It’s funny when Adam holds her at Mass, the other three kids are fighting over who’s going to sit on my lap. Usually Therese concedes and Fulton and Gianna are duking it out.

Cecilia’s still the happiest child we’ve ever had. Her smiles are contagious and it’s the first thing people notice about her–even strangers. Her cute smiley-ness is easily the biggest distraction to others at Mass. And it never ceases to amaze me how this is little angel can bring so much joy to people.

Swimming

One of my big goals this summer is to get our kids comfortable with the water and swimming. Today was the last day of our first session of swim lessons. We’ve been at the pool everyday for the last two weeks. If you have followed the saga on Facebook, you know that it started off a little rough and tumbled.

Therese’s success I largely attribute to Mrs. Cey taking us to the pool in Houston and working with her the day before we started lessons. It also helped to see her best friend swimming quite well. So she took to the water and the lessons immediately. Although she told us she would NEVER put her head under water, by last weekend she was showing her dad just what she could do. Today she practiced trying to swim to me on her own.

Fulton on the other hand was a completely different story. He didn’t want to have anything to do with swim lessons from day one. He would not go in the water that was deeper than his knees. He sinned all kinds of ways against the 4th commandment when I tried to carry him into the water and made quite a bit of noise. He wouldn’t even practice kicking in the water with the swim instructor. When the kids were holding on the edge of the pool to practice kicking, 3/4 of his body was out of the water. Only from his knees down got wet. On Monday he got into quite a bit of trouble for his behavior at home. So we put him in blackout from his toys and treats until he did better at swim class. Tuesday there was little improvement but he started taking a liking to using the kickboard–but still in blackout. Then Therese wanted to make cupcakes and Fulton couldn’t have one–unless he went into the water with their swim instructor. The way to a little man is through his stomach. Yesterday he did it! Today he was so excited and kept wanting to swim with the instructor. I only wish he had this enthusiasm last week.

Muffin started parroting Fulton’s fear but when we took the kids swimming last weekend, she enjoyed going swimming with Adam or I. I wish she could be in the classes but she’s still too young. Cecilia also likes the water. But who wouldn’t like kicking back and floating in a little baby tube. It’s funny to see her little legs crossed at the ankles while she’s reclining watching all the other kids.

I started out last week wondering how on earth I was going to manage taking 4 kids to the pool. My learning curve has been exponential and it was good I had Mrs. Cey to give me some tips when we were in Houston. I’m very thankful that our pool has a beach style entry for the kids area that goes to only 3 feet deep. We’ve been going in the mornings from10:30 to noon. For the last couple of days, I put Cecilia to nap at the pool. That worked SO well. I was able to work with the other three kids while she napped. Today I felt I had my own little class. Therese was trying to swim to me. Fulton and Gianna were jumping to me and I was taking them around to practice kicking. It almost looked like I had it together!  OH! And don’t forget the cool pool snacks. Today we went to get a couple of kickboards (at Wal-Mart after searching all over town for something without an obnoxious cartoon character like DORA and Sponge Bob) and a few more pool toys. Now, I just need more sunblock. All the kids and Adam have swim shirts. My girls are the most modestly dressed at the pool. (Thanks to Costco! I *heart* Costco.) I, however, am starting to look Mexican again. I haven’t been this dark in 10 years–and it’s only mid-June!