Take a Shine to #9

It feels like Camille has been a part of our family much longer than I was pregnant with her. She has made the transition to 3 kids mostly a delight. I have heard that having 3 kids is much harder than 2 but that hasn't been true for us. (Transitioning from 1 kid to 2 was the hardest few month of my life) Being pregnant was 10x harder than having Camille here with us and my pregnancy didn't even compare to most other women.

There haven't been any major changes since the 8 month mark.

She is still somewhat tall and skinny. At her 6 month well-child visit I was nursing exclusively and I was convinced once she stopped nursing she'd jump up in the weight charts. It's not a concern at all, but our other kids weights are pretty much always 50th percentile so it surprises me.

Her schedule is still the same as long as she is feeling good. Four bottles and 3 servings of baby food.

She has figured out how to eat small puffs without gagging and now she is all about the baby puffs. She would eat half a container in one sitting if I gave it to her.
She babbles a little more.
A lot less poop blowouts. I think the crackers and puffs are helping with that.

Not crawling yet, but gets on her hands and knees and rocks, which inevitably scoots her backwards, which she doesn't like. She can rotate really fast on her tummy.

She can also rotate while sitting up. She does it in small, subtle movements, but she gets herself all the way around while sitting up.

She tries to take things from Sadie and Elise. It makes me laugh so hard when she is successful because it always surprises them. It doesn't make me laugh as hard when she grabs stuff while I am holding her. Example: an open container of formula nearly all dumped on the counter.

She likes it when Sadie carries her around. It makes us nervous because it looks like Sadie could drop her at any second, but Mills loves it.

Elise has started playing with her more. Lou always starts off with good intentions but then gets frustrated with Camille, takes the toy away, and makes Millie cry. The other day the girls got in a fight over playing with Camille and Elise was yelling, "but I am using her! I am using her!" Glad to know they think of her as an object.

Millie spent the past few weeks sick. As I mentioned, when we got back from San Francisco we found out she has double ear infections and RSV. From what I understand RSV is a bad cold that a baby has a hard time fighting off and it frequently causes breathing issues. Camille had some minor breathing issues, but nothing huge. I know it can be much, much worse than Millie had.

After some antibiotics and regular Tylenol for a recurring fever she is on the mend. It took her 6 days to get her appetite and content disposition back, but she is mostly back to normal. Most days I really wasn't sure what to do to cheer her up so one day I took selfies of her crying and then showed them to her. And it actually worked.

Officially 9 months:

Museum of Natural Curiosity

On a rare somewhat healthy day in January we joined the Sullivans at the Museum of Natural Curiosity. I had heard great things about it and it did not disappoint. We would love to go back some day. I felt like we didn't come close to covering most of it.

The exhibit on motion captured our attention for a while, especially the spinning table. We also spent a lot of time in the playground area, but I didn't take any pictures.

Water world was not a hit. My girls did not want to get wet. While Quinn splashed around Elise played with the earthquake simulation activity repeatedly and shooed away any other interested kids.

Sadie and Claire worked together to create a wind turbine.

 And finally, Quinny and Leesie (as Quinn calls her) played in the flourescent sand. 

Overall analysis: Cool museum. We miss the Sullivans living next door.

Marvelous Mimi

Mimi came to visit and then stay with our kids so I could travel with the team for a few days. She took care of all 3 kids alone. She was still recovering from a stomach flu. And Camille was sick the whole time. You may be jealous of how great Carolyn is and if you aren't, you probably should be. It was just 6 months ago that she watched the older girls while we took off to Spain for 2 weeks. Carolyn and I were texting a month ago about how she might come visit and then I looked at the dates of Daniel's trips and everything fell into place. She would come for 10 days and we would be gone for 4 of them. 

The girls were very excited the morning we picked Mimi up from the airport. We had to wait in the park and wait lot for a little bit while Carolyn got her bags and Elise was so anxious that she finally declared "Mimi is never coming!". We had lunch at Kneader's that afternoon and then got together with the Blood extended family for dinner that evening. The girls were very excited to show Mimi their new toys and even persuaded her to jump with them. 

Saturday was spent at Daniel's game. Camille really wanted Sadie's lollipop and was happy to chew on the other end. 

Daniel was taking extraordinarily long after his game due to some game film issues so the girls relaxed and reclined in the team room with some snacks and some Dora.

On Sunday we went to church where I taught Relief Society and Camille started acting fussy. She had had a cough for a week or so and I really thought she was almost over it. Should have known by the fussing that she was getting worse. Unfortunately, Carolyn spent Sunday night and Monday with a stomach flu. We tried to give her space so she could recover and none of the kids would get sick. 

Monday night we had tickets to see the ice castles in Midway. We were all so sad Mimi couldn't go with us, but we invited one of Sadie's friends instead. They have intricate ice structures with lights and fire elements that change with the music. We also went down some ice slides. 

The structures were amazing, but the girls' favorite part was meeting Anna and Elsa. Sadie had asked if Elsa would be there and we told her no, so she was overjoyed when she spotted her. Elise really really wanted to see Toothless from How to Train a Dragon, but alas, he was not to be found. 

After about an hour Camille freaked out and started screaming. Daniel took her to the car while I navigated the crowds with the other 3 girls. Later Daniel called saying Millie was vacillating between hysterical screaming and coughing up her food, so we called it a night. Again, we should have known she wasn't feeling well but we thought it may just be that she was freezing.

We laid low over the next little while to let everyone recover from illnesses. I kept thinking Millie would get past her cough. 

Daniel and I were in San Francisco from Wednesday through early Sunday. Carolyn kept us updated on the fun stuff they were doing, like putting together a new lego set, eating pancake pops, and making Valentine shirts. Please check out Lou's face in these pictures. 

On Saturday Carolyn let us know that Millie seemed to be really not feeling well. She wouldn't eat much and she was crying on and off. When I went to get her up Sunday morning Camille just laid there and looked at me without moving at all. It was freaky. She had a fever and no energy and wouldn't let food anywhere near her. When I finally got her to eat a tiny bit she coughed it all back up. I took her to instacare where we found out she had two ear infections and RSV. She laid around Sunday and Monday, gradually eating a little more.

On Monday Carolyn did laundry, got the girls dressed and cleaned the basement while I sat around with Millie. We had some sad girls after we dropped her off at the airport. Elise fell asleep and missed the official airport good-bye so she was very upset when we got home.

Til next time, Mimi! 

1 Month in 1 Post

One word to sum up January: sickness

We had two separate colds run their way through all of us as well as a stomach bug. At least 1 person was sick every day. I have never experienced this. I guess Sadie is exposed to lots more germs at schools and now that we have another kid that's just one more person to nurse through illness.

I am dumping all the miscellaneous pictures from January into this post.

Magnatiles

 Beautiful Utah. There is almost no snow left on the mountains now due to a super warm winter.

 Last day of gymnastics. Sadie wants to do karate now.

Another item Lou shoved up her nose.

Front hall dance stage with a happy spectator

Some bargain shopping

The most photogenic child there ever was.

Cuteness overload

During one of our trips to the doctor I had them freeze 2 warts on Sadie's foot. Figured while we were there for her never-ending cough might as well treat the warts too.

Basketball and more basketball. One game they had the team sign autographs afterwards and Sadie "helped" Kylie. The players are all great with our kids. 

Sadie doing the bedtime reading. I hope she can take over more and more of it. Also, note the humidifier in the background. We've had those running in the kids rooms all month.

During this month of illness the jungle jumparoo has been amazing. The girls can get lots of energy out and do a cool move or two.