Boston 2014: The calm before the family storm

We got to my parents house by 1 AM on December 26. The Gessells and Salazars were the only other John children in Boston so we got to spend a couple quieter days before the rest of the family arrived.

 The minute we got settled down to bed that first night Sadie started coughing again. I didn't want her to keep the other girls up so I took her to the family room to sleep. She was scared to be left alone so I ended up laying next to her until 5 AM and then climbing into my bed upstairs until 8 AM. Sadie still managed to rise bright and early, but she was greeted by Nana and Papa instead of forcing me to get up.

Later that morning Hillary and Ben took Sadie and Elise to the Disney Store to pick out their Christmas presents. They selected beautiful dress-ups to wear to Disney on Ice. When they got home we all headed downtown for the big show. The arena was much smaller than the one in Utah, so most of the seats were close to the action 

The girls (and women) were captivated the entire 2 hours. Disney on Ice is totally worth the money. Granted, we go once a year or every other year and pay about $15 per ticket, so we aren't spending loads of money on it. 

 Elise waved furiously at all the Toy Story characters. It was adorable.

 Mills was her usual agreeable self. 

On Saturday morning the Vieira family drove out to see us. It was wonderful to catch up with them. We have each added two more kids since we last got together in 2010. The kids played well and we chatted for a couple hours. Kim and I have been friends for almost 20 years.

That afternoon we walked over to my elementary school playground. It was a balmy 55 degrees so my kids insisted coats needed to come off. While there we also said hi to another one of my childhood friends, Katherine, whose parents live next to the school. I had hoped to see more friends during my trip but since my kids all took turns being sick and we were busy with family, I never ended up making it happen.

Sadie has definitely gotten both stronger and more courageous in the past 6 months. She went across higher monkey bars several times and slid down the fireman's pole repeatedly (something she was too scared to do last summer). She insisted I take pictures to send Daniel.

 We arrived home just as Addy woke up from her nap. Sadie opted to stay outside and help Ben change the oil on my parent's cars.

It was very fun to see my kids interact with Hillary and Ben. I didn't realize how much I missed them until we saw them again. They were so great with the girls and helped me a lot with them during the trip. 

Next up: the rest of the family arrives and the craziness really begins!

Merry Christmas, Ya Filthy Animal

Christmas stuff was all wrapped and ready by 9 PM on Christmas Eve. I had planned on doing packing for our trip but Sadie woke up with a fever and hacking up a lung at 9:30 PM. I ended up taking care of her and sleeping in our bed with her all night while Daniel slept on the couch. Santa was so quiet he didn't even wake Daniel up.

 We were all very excited to wake up on Christmas and find that Santa had visited us. Elise could see down into our front room and was shouting out all the presents so we quickly snapped a photo and let the girls head  sprint down to check everything out. We got some great presents- a rocking horse, a barbie house, a jungle jumparoo, lots of lego friends, and more. As usual I cut back on the presents we bought but it was still too much since they get presents from cousins and grandparents.

 We spent a few hours opening and playing with presents. We also had lots of tantrums and crying over nonsensical items.

 All of the sudden around 11 AM I went into panic mode and realized I had everything left to pack for our flight to Boston later that day. I am a very methodical, AKA slow, packer and I just couldn't use my normal methods. I was running around the house like a crazy person trying to get everyone packed and ready. Daniel also had a migraine and was attempting to be as helpful as possible. We skyped with my brother Matt on his mission and I ran in to yell hello with my panic mode face on fulldisplay and then said goodbye since we'd be seeing everyone (including Matt) in a few days. 

 All the kids fell asleep on the way to the airport. Some of my stress earlier in the day may have been the anticipation of the 5 hour flight by myself with 3 kids, but they were almost perfect angels. I would rarely use those words to describe my kids, but they really were. We sat on the runway for 2 hours in Utah waiting to take off. Had to get de-iced twice. My girls asked a few times if we were almost there and I had to tell them we were still on the ground. But then they just watched movies on the iPad and slept until we landed safely in Boston.  

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The Season of Perpetual Hope

We tried to squeeze in a few more fun things in the week leading up to Christmas. 

We got a tiny bit of snow and the girls excitedly loaded on the snow gear. They threw snowballs at the window for a good 20 minutes. Apparently even though they weren't actually hitting me it was still hilarious. 

 I took the girls to visit Santa by myself because there just wasn't a time Daniel could be home to go with us. It turned out well. We went early enough there was hardly any line and it started to get dark as we left so the lights looked even prettier. I didn't attempt to sit Camille on his lap with them. She stayed warm in the stroller. 

Sadie excitedly played with the new magnetic nativity Mimi sent us. 

I spent a few hours finishing up the present wrapping and the girls' anticipation and excitement levels reached an all-time high. I love Christmas with kids.

I also did tons of laundry in preparation for our trip to Boston.

Party Time, Excellent

The week before Christmas I decided it would be fun to have a little Christmas party on December 23rd for the girls Sadie's age in our neighborhood. We also invited a couple girls Elise's age. I figured most people would be out of town anyway so it would be low-key and small. Turns out nearly all the girls could come. So I had 11 girls, including mine. It was fun and chaotic.

 I made a ton of sugar cookies and cream cheese frosting a few days beforehand. The morning of I came up with this "healthy" reindeer snack. A lot of the girls just ate the chocolate chip eyes and m&m nose off and called it good.

The special part of the party was the glitter toes done by a friend of a friend. This poor woman insisted that the tiny chair was comfortable. She was in it for 3 1/2 hours doing little girls nails! She is a saint, especially considering she hardly charged me anything. 

 We also did a couple dance games which the girls got a tad too competitive with. I heard a few declarations of "I don't even care any more" and defensive "who cares", as well as some tears when they got eliminated. Luckily the prizes were just little goody bags that Sadie and I had put together and everyone got the same thing.

The girls ended up just playing with our toys in the basement for a solid hour of the party. I planned for the cookie decorating to take a lot longer than 10 minutes. Many of the girls did a few rounds of cookie decorating. That blurry photo is Elise's cookie with an entire container of red sprinkles on top. I just took the plate and dumped the loose sprinkles back into the shaker.

A fun party, but I don't know if I will attempt a party that large by myself again. The girls in our neighborhood are very sweet and it's fun to have so many. The worst behaved kids at the party were my own, as it should be. 

Daniel got home halfway through the party. He promptly went outside and mowed the lawn. He stayed outside until all the little girls were gone. It worked out well because we got a bunch of snow 2 days later.

Eight is Great

Millie is 2/3 of the way done with her first year of life. 

We were still in Boston for the big day so we are a little late with this.

 When I tried to take these pictures she kept rolling to her stomach so I got a lot like the one below.

 This girl has yet to do one imperfect thing in her whole life. At least, her charm is so strong that she makes me immediately forget anything imperfect she may do. 

 One thing she can't erase from my memory is the fact that she now has 1+ blowout per day. I don't get it. And these aren't just a little poop out the leg. These are up the back, up the front, down both legs, etc.  I have thrown away several onesies and even one pair of tights (we were away from home and I wasn't storing tights with poop all the way to the toes in the car). I am sure you are all upset I don't have pictures. 

Anyone have any diapers that are especially good for containing poop? I thought moving to size 3 diapers would help, but no dice. My other kids never had this problem. In fact, Sadie never once had a blowout. I think she may have been constipated her whole baby life. I sometimes wish Camille would get more constipated. 

 I love this sisterly love. I also love Camille's folded ear. Those ears are great.

This month Camille has improved her clapping even more. World's best baby clapper. It now seems to be second nature for her. If I ever have to wake her up from a nap early her first instinct is panicked clapping. Hilarious. 

She also sits up completely on her own.

Before we went to Boston Millie had settled into a schedule of 4, 6-ounce bottles per day and 3 containers of baby food, along with 2 naps and 12 hours of sleep at night, but everything has been off since our trip. I am hoping to get back to it soon.

Camille has also graduated to the high chair. We had a good run with the Bumbo but the huge tray is so nice.

We started giving her those baby puffs and she has thrown up immediately every time she eats them. She enjoys the taste and then hastily swallows them, which makes her throw up. She can handle graham crackers, ritz crackers, and those little baby Cheeto-like things (anyone know what they are called?).

I expected her top teeth to break through all month. She drools constantly and chews on everything. One night I couldn't get her to stop chewing on the table at the restaurant. She rejected toy after toy in favor of a public table.

 Camille tolerates all sorts of harassment from her sisters. 

Sadie has taken to forcing Mills to "walk" around the house. She remembers her cousin Addy doing this and really wants Millie to do this as well. The problem is that Camille couldn't care less about trying to move in a walking motion. Instead, Sadie drags her around. 

Elise has gotten less and less gentle with Camille. It's like once Camille hit the 15 pound mark Elise decided it was go time. She lays on her, pushes her over when she is sitting and just roughs her up in general. Millie cries sometimes, other times she ignores her. 

 This pic below depicts Camille's life any time we are out of the house. She generally stays in her car seat happily. She has started to express some displeasure at being in her seat if she isn't moving. As long as I am pushing the stroller she is happy, but if I put her on the floor somewhere (like Daniel's games) her max is about half hour.  

Official 8 month photo. Check out those bottom chompers