Update on the (3!) kiddos

Alex is 3 1/2 now.  He talks all the time, and asks lots of questions. It has been a challenging year, as he really knows how to push my buttons and wear me down.  I think things will be better for us once I get a better handle on discipline (see previous post).  He has a great imagination and finds lots of uses for his toys.  His favorite thing right now is space and rockets.

I found these questions on another blog.  You are supposed to ask them the questions every year to see how their answers change over the years.  Fun!

1. What is your favorite color?   Red
2. What is your favorite toy?  Rocket
3. What is your favorite fruit?  Orange
4. What is your favorite tv show? Rocket (?)
5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch?  Lunchables
6. What is your favorite thing to wear?  Airplane Shirt
7. What is your favorite game?  Football
8. What is your favorite snack?  Newtons
9. What is your favorite animal?  T-Rex and Giraffe
10. What is your favorite song?  Yankee Doodle
11. What is your favorite book?  Space Book
12. What is your favorite cereal?  Carmel cereal (Dulce de leche cheerios)
13. What is your favorite thing to do outside?  Baseball
14. What is your favorite holiday?  Christmas
15. What do you like to take to bed with you at night?  Giraffe, Rhino, T-Rex
16. What is your favorite thing for breakfast?  Waffles
17. What do you want for dinner on your birthday?  A special cheesecake
18. What do you want to be when you grow up?  Big like daddy

Miss Mary will be 2 next month (Yikes, better start the planning!) She is mommy's little helper, and loves to assist with changing Lucy's diapers and bringing me her blanket or pacifier.  She pats her head and says, "It's ok." whenever she cries, and loves to give her hugs and kisses.  If I am busy with Lucy, she loves to follow her big brother around and copy and everything he says and does.  It is so funny.  She is becoming more independent every day and won't let me put her clothes on in the morning without throwing a fit.  I think she will be ready to start potty training a lot earlier than little Alex, and I plan to start right after she turns 2.  

Our little Lulu is doing great.  She is 8 weeks old now, and growing quickly.  She had a little jaundice at the hospital, and it increased the first few days we were home, so she had to be under some special lights for a few days. 

She was very sleepy for the first several days and I had to wake her up to feed her.  She also had her days and nights mixed up for a couple of weeks, which was exhausting.  Now things are better, and the last several nights she has been sleeping about 6 hours straight.  I doubt it will last though.  I remember Mary did that for a few months and then she starting waking every 2-3 hours again.  So I will enjoy the long stretches of sleep while I can!

 

She is a really good baby, and is easily consoled.  She is looking around more now, and probably wonders about the two little people that cause all sorts of racket while she is trying to sleep!

1st bath :)

We can't decide who she looks like, but in a lot of pictures, like this one, she kind of looks like little Alex did at this age.

We celebrated St. Lucy's feast day on Dec. 13th by having pudding cups with raspberry eyeballs :)

These two are such buddies (most of time), and I am glad they have each other to play with when I am busy with Lucy.

My pretty girl still doesn't have much hair, but at least she is starting to leave her headbands on :)

Goals for 2013

Things I want to work on in 2013:

Healthier Lifestyle

I say this all the time, but I really want to start eating better and exercising.  Now that I am home full-time, I really have no excuse.  I plan to start slowly with the workout stuff, maybe 2x a week.  Then I can increase it if I can manage that.  I'd like to do some cardio and weight training at home while the kids are sleeping, and them go to gym at least 1x/week (I hate that I have a gym membership that I never use).  I am making a weekly schedule to try and help me organize my day, and I am hoping if it is on the schedule, I'll actually do it :)

I also want to plan healthier meals for my family.  We are in such a rut right now, having the same stuff all the time.  I'd like to try and plan out meals for 2 weeks at a time or maybe a month.  And I have got to get the kiddos to eat more than chicken nuggets, corn dogs, mac and cheese and peanut butter sandwiches.  At the very least, I need to make more smoothies for them so I can hide some veggies in there :)  At least they will happily munch on carrots!

Discipline

One area I lack big time is discipline.  I think the kids get away with too much because I am not consistent.   I make threats I don't follow through on, so they don't believe anything I say.  It's harder now with a baby because I can't get up as readily to go check on them when I am nursing Lucy.  I feel like I have to lock us all in a room when I am feeding her so that I don't find items in the toilet or a container of breadcrumbs spilled everywhere (my find this morning).  I saw a title of a book recently called "I Was a Really Good Mom Before I Had Kids" and that is kind of how I feel.  I had all these ideals before having kids-- no bribing, no eating on the furniture etc, and I feel like I do the opposite a lot of the time.  There are plenty of day when I am less than pleased with myself, and I immediately regret it when I notice myself yelling at my sweet children.  Right now I am reading "Parenting With Grace: The Catholic Parents Guide to Raising Almost Perfect Kids".  I just started, but am really enjoying it so far.  I am hoping it will give me the motivation and guidance I need to be more consistent, patient and loving. 

Celebrating Feast Days

I think I'm a pretty on-the-ball mom most of the time when it comes to organization and efficiency, but I have a hard time remembering feast days and celebrating them.  My plan is to look at the Church calendar a month in advance and plan out some things we can do as a family--a craft, a recipe, or even simply reading a story about the saint after dinner.

And also more picture and video taking, more blogging, and really being present (cutting down on phone and computer time) and enjoying my family!

Happy New Year!!

Lucy's Baptism

Our precious baby girl was baptized on Dec. 30th-- her one month birthday, and the Feast of the Holy Family.  What a perfect day to welcome her into the family of Christ!

It was great to have the Christmas decorations in the background :)

Lucy's godparents, Ron and Leah.  Their baby boy is just 3 weeks older than Lucy :)

Advent/Christmas 2012

Dec 6th- The Feast of St. Nicholas.  Actually celebrated a few days later because we forgot to buy candy for the shoes.  But hey, they are too young to notice :)

We started the Jesse Tree tradition this year.  I found a website with scripture verses and symbol ideas, printed out some clip art pictures and made our own ornaments and tree.  Each night the kids had fun putting the symbol on the tree as we learned about important figures in the genealogy of Jesus.  

The completed tree

Our stockings.  The two in the middle are the ones my mom made for Alex and Mary.  So beautiful!

Pictures from Christmas Eve at Uncle Tom and Aunt Bambi's house.  Poor Alex was sick with a cold, and had to stay home.  I was also feeling nauseous on and off all day :(  Luckily we were feeling (mostly) better for Christmas the next day. 

Christmas morning, opening their stockings.

We decided we aren't really going to "do" the whole Santa thing.  The kids know about him, as ubiquitous as he is, but we aren't going to tell them that he is a real person that flies in a sleigh and brings them gifts.  He will just be more of a character, like Elmo or Barney.  We want to talk a lot about St. Nicholas and that Santa is the world’s view of him, a fairy tale based on a real saint that people made up to have fun.   Alex thought maybe we could tell them that it is the Holy Spirit that brings them gifts.  This "myth" can then be explained later on, not so much as a lie, but something that has two meanings.  For example, it is the Holy Spirit filling our hearts that inspired us to give these gifts generously without ask for anything in return -- an act of charity. We don't want them to miss out on the "magic" of Christmas, but want their hearts and minds focused on Christ, and what is more magical than God becoming a tiny baby?

We are also doing the "Three Wiseman Gifts".  Each child will just get three gifts from us on Christmas, just like baby Jesus.   The "gold" gift is the big gift, something the child really wants. The "frankincense" gift is something for their spiritual life, to help them grow in faith.  The "myrrh" gift is something for the body.  I have also read about people doing one of the three gifts as an "experience" gift, which would be a special trip or outing for this child.  That might be fun to do in the future!

Alex got space shuttle toy, a crucifix for his room (hasn't arrived yet, on back order) and body paints for the bath.  Mary got a baby doll, a rosary, and bath paints.  We didn't get poor Lucy anything, but she got plenty of gifts from extended family!

Opening more presents at my parents house...

And having brunch and opening even MORE presents at Uncle Mike and Aunt Cindy's house.

My poor Mer-Bear was pooped and feel asleep on the way home. 

We all spent the afternoon recovering and had taco pie for dinner and cake for dessert!  Happy birthday, Jesus!