Wordless Wednesday

8 months!

Well, it's that day of the month again....Today is the 4th and Sissy, that means you are 8 months old!

"What?!"

 I know right? I can barely believe it myself! But it's true, you are officially an 8 month old. That means just four more months til your BIG birthday! Would you believe that I'm already planning it? That I already have the cake pan and the shirt you will wear? It is true, I'm on it!

So what are you like at EIGHT months you ask? Well, you are a ball of energy! You are here, there and everywhere. You crawl like it's no body's business; belly fully off of the floor and you go wherever you want to. Now that you can stand, you get yourself into a lot more trouble...

 Honestly size-wise, you're the same. You are definitely eating more than you used to; table foods and still the occasional puree {applesauce, bananas & oatmeal} but I think you've offset your eating by all your crawling and I doubt you've gained much. At 8 months you:

-are in 9 or 12 months...both sizes in Carter's clothing fit you well
-are still in size 4 diapers
-don't usually wear shoes but the ones you have are size 6-12mos Robeeze
-are not sleeping through the night at all. In face you usually wake 2-3 times so we are co-sleeping. This way you get to eat whenever you want and the rest of the family still gets decent sleep. Honestly I would try to break you of this habit but you nursing so often helps keep my endometriosis from flaring so it's win-win at this point.
-will finally drink from a sippy cup! only those with straws but i still think that's pretty good ;)
-say both "mama" and "dada" though you don't seem to say it directly to us

-are starting to really interact with your brothers. you chew on their cars while they are playing with them and you follow them all over the house from room to room

Can you guess who?

Every one thinks that Sissy looks like one of her brothers...but which brother is debatable! Some people say "her smile is just like Bubba's'' some say ''oh her eyes are likes Pooks'' others say that she is ''Peanut's mini-me". Well....can you guess who is bearing the striking resemblance below?

 

Leave your answer in the comment section...winner gets....well, nothing but the peace of mind of knowing you're awesome :D

Self-feeding and slurping through a straw

Yep, another video of Miss Sweetcheeks....she will be 8 months old in a few days but has already mastered her pincher grasp and drinking through a straw. Now, this is mildly ironic since I couldn't even get her to eat baby food pureed until she was 7 months old. Sissy won't take a sippy cup, a bottle or even a pacifier but she loves to drink water from her straw cups. I giggled when I bought them because they are "Stage 4" cups for kids over the age of two. Just further proof that she will do what she wants, when she wants!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

being *that* mom

Sometimes I look back on my life before children and I laugh at how naive I was. I was so sure that I was going to be this wonderful, calm Mom who was full of Zen and never yelled, who was very go-with-the-flow and I was of course going to have these Angel children who didn't yell and hit but were polite and had wonderful manners. I was going to be the young {white} version of Claire Huxtable. I would be able to turn my nose up at those screaming kids in the super market... I mean geez, who cannot handle their own children?

Maybe I just interrupt myself and say, okay I wasn't naive, I was down right stupid.

I mean seriously, these are not pets. They are children. Tiny people with their own thoughts, feelings, actions and DNA. They have their own wants and desires and their own personalities with unique traits that are all their own. They can't be molded into what I want, they are their own person.

But still, I think I handle my kids quite well. After all I do have four children in less than five years, three of which are boys. We've only had one split lip, only one broken bone, no stitches, no 911 calls and only one poison control call.  Up until recently, I thought I was doing pretty damn good. Not Claire Huxtable but not too far off.

Then sweet Sissy came along. Finally our family was complete and how lucky were we that we were blessed with a little girl. At first, I rocked the whole ''mom to four kids'' thing. I mean Sissy was sleeping through the night by like, two months old. I was getting a full nights sleep, I was super busy keeping up with preschool and playdates and a newborn and I handled it well.

For awhile.

Now, I am home with all four kids, all day long. There was no preschool program here that I could put both of the older boys in that was anywhere near our price range (hello I am not paying $250/month for 2 day a week preschool). I had the idea that I would go back to the home-school route and plan lessons and activities to keep them busy and learning. It's a great theory but very hard to actually do. Afterall I have a baby girl who doesn't take a morning nap and a very active 2.5yr old who could care less about preschool. I have laundry piles that quickly turn to mountains. I have dishes that fill the dishwasher to ''full load'' status daily. I average about 7 hours asleep at night but I am usually woke 2-3 times by various kids. Whether it's to breastfeed or to change sheets after or an accident or to remind Peanut for the 4,302nd time that he cannot get up at 3:30am.  I have to go grocery shopping for the 3 starving boys and the hubs. I barely have time to blog (which I love) let alone scour the internet for crafty projects for the under 5 set.

I have quickly morphed from a Claire Huxtable wannabe, to a full on twin of Lois from Malcolm in the middle.

If you've never seen the show, you tube it. But poor Lois have FIVE boys and spends her days screaming, cleaning and chasing boys. Much like, yours truly.

I never imagined that I would yell so much. And it's not like I'm yelling because I'm just pissed off (although sometimes I am) I have to hell just so everyone can hear me. I yell to get their shoes on, I yell for them to clean up. Some of the things I yell, I would never even imagine saying. I mean, I can't make these things up. I say things like ''We do not ride on your sister'', "The sofa is not a trampoline", "Get out of that doggy door!" or "S'mores are not for breakfast".  We go through a bottle of soap every WEEK in the boys' bathroom...not because they are so hygienic but because they play with the bubbles. They play with their food, their sister's food, dirt, bugs, you name it and they'll play with it. Bathtime went from being enjoyable to a nightmare. Bedtime is ugly. I mean we get them in bed at 8pm and by 10pm, one of them is still up. While they aren't yet daring each other to jump off the roof...I see that day coming.

I know that I am blessed having four healthy children and I thank God for them everyday. But Mama is tired. Daddy is exhausted. I just want them to listen. And I will be the first to admit that screaming doesn't even work. But it's like I think that if I can just yell loud enough, maybe it will get through to them.

(I'll let you in on a secret...it doesn't).