a wonderful Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. To backtrack a little, Mom and Mammaw arrived on the 19th and we had a few days of time to hang out together before it got too crazy.
However, the one downside is that everybody in the house got a cold. No fun at all. We think Delaney had it first and it went from her to Zap to me to Dash to my mom then to Mammaw. Mom and I are still suffering with it and I've pretty much lost my voice at this point. No fun at all.
But Thanksgiving was great. I think we had about thirteen guests here. We got our turkey at Lattin's, the cider mill a few minutes from our house, and it was so tasty. We ran into a little situation where we thought we could cook it on the rotisserie but the turkey was too big so we had to toss it in the oven and hope for the best.
It turned out really juicy and delicious. We did have to rearrange the baking time of other dishes to compensate but we all ate a wonderful dinner and reflected on our very many blessings this past year.
Here's Delaney enjoying some of our cranberry sauce, made from scratch :)

Here's Dash with his Nana (my mom).

Here's Delaney with her Grandma (Zap's mom).

Zap and his dad, Jerry, carving the ham. A yummy ham by the way...

I know you don't want to think about it, but..

Christmas is on its way. And I know that when I was a kid, I enjoyed seeing how many presents were under the tree with my name on them. I want to pass on that excitement to our kids, but I also want to pass on a sense of gratitude. Plus, I really want the gifts they receive to be appropriate and items that, as a family, we are comfortable having in our home.
I recently read So Sexy, So Soon (http://www.amazon.com/So-Sexy-Soon-Sexualized-Childhood/dp/0345505077/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1258699048&sr=1-1) and it really opened my eyes to everything around our day to day world that influences our children.
Here's my intentions I'd like to start after reading the book.
Number One: I'd like to try for a commercial free childhood - or as long as I can get it. Research shows that children do not understand commercials and what they're about until around the age of 8. They don't understand that the people in the ads are paid to look happy about the product. They don't understand why they want to eat at McDonald's; they just know that they see the "golden arches" on TV (which is my one grump with Sesame Street; McDonald's is a sponsor)

Number Two: I want to keep my little girl looking like a little girl as long as possible. This means no revealing clothes, no characters on the clothes, no glitter jeans, etc. I'm going to think about if the clothing draws attention to her body or to her face.

Number Three: I want the toys that she is given or that she receives to be imagination needed, open-ended play toys. Play kitchens, stacking blocks, puzzles, etc. I'd like to stay away from characters (Sesame Street excluded as she is in love with Elmo) as long as possible. I want her and Dash to be able to create their play, stories, and activities.

I realize that these are really lofty goals but I think that if I can achieve 80-90% of it, I will be really proud.

I also have a few ideas on how to work on gratitude for gifts..more on that later :)

it's been a week

since I last updated.
We haven't been up to a whole lot. We had a nice relaxing weekend with not too much on our agenda. We picked up the house a little to get it ready for Mammaw and Mom's visits.
We (everybody except Dash) got our swine flu shots (or nasal mists in our case). That was a little rough. Zap and I both had minor colds and Delaney had a really hard day the next day. She just doesn't handle shots well. She didn't sleep the night she got it and she threw a pretty bad tantrum going down for her nap the next day. She only slept an hour then and woke up pretty much still in the tantrum. She is just not my sweet baby when she feels like that.
I think its having the new chemicals in her body and the way they make her feel. I also think that she's been trying to cut her eye teeth now for a few months and the shot seemed to make it a little worse.

Well, they're up to start their day, so I better get them. Today's going to be a little easier than yesterday. I feel it already :)

a moment of attitude adjustment

For those of you that don't facebook, I have to share this story.
I had taken Delaney to toddler time at the library this Tuesday and as I was leaving I was carrying her on my back in the carrier. I was also carrying Dash in his carseat on my right arm and our diaper bag on my left arm. Also on my left arm was our library book bag which was filled with books (15 to be exact; I'm not sure why we need to get so many but we do).
A lady was getting out of her car as I was walking to mine and she yelled at me "They should give you an award for that" and at first I kind of chuckled and thought "yup, someone should". But then about a minute later, it hit me.
I have three people that give me awards daily. Zap gives me affection, praise, help, and so much more partly because he thinks I'm doing a good job. And then every giggle, laugh, smile, hug, kiss, new word, and sweet look from Delaney and Dash are my rewards for doing this job.
Since then I've just kind of had a new outlook on my day to day life with these guys. I'm not as frazzled; I feel like "yup, it's hard work and stressful, but look what you're getting out of it". Seeing that has helped me.

P.S. There's 2 new posts tonight, so scroll down for the next one - it has pictures!

a post for my memory

I know that in a few months or years, I'm not going to remember all the adorable things these babies do, so I like to put it here. Then, you guys get to read it and I get to remember it.
Delaney has been carrying her lovey blanket and a stuffed puppy I got her while I was in Memphis everywhere. And I mean, everywhere. She's been able to exchange the binky for these comfort pieces, so I don't mind. What I do mind is that the blanket she carries with her is huge. I think it's nearly as big as she is. I'm contemplating cutting it down and seeing if she will still use it, but it is always with her.

She's calling for Edgar to come get her up from her nap. I'm not sure how effective he'll be at changing diapers (believe me, if I thought I could put him to work I would), so I'll have to go pick up the slack on this one.

Her other thing is calling for her best buddy, Emma, after her nap or when she's trying to fall asleep. She absolutely adores Emma and they have such fun together. Sometimes out of the blue during the day she'll call for Emma to play with her. I usually tell her that Emma is "night-night". I joke that by now she must think that Emma sleeps all the time.

She's learned to go to the pantry and get her animal cracker/cookies out by herself.

She's always learning new words; it's amazing. Tonight we all went to Costco together and we asked her if she wanted to go to Costco and she said "dosko?"; we asked her what she does at Costco and she said "eat". Yup, you do, especially when Papa takes you.

She loves to "color" (or "dulo" as she says) and we bought some brown mailing paper rolls and put those on the table and let her go to town. So far, we've only had one wall coloring incident.

Lately she's become very attached to me (not that I'm complaining). She has been copying my sweeping and cooking. She wants me to put her to bed every night and sometimes just wants me to hold her. I think I'll always remember how since she was little she liked to play with her hair at night and she enjoys actually brushing it down over her eyes or twirling the hair on the crown of her head. If she can, she likes to take my hair and brush it over her eyes.

Last one, and this one is so cute it made me tear up. I was putting her to bed and wearing my nursing tank top. She puts her hand down my shirt and says "boo" and I tell her yes, that's how Dash gets his milk. She then pets the "boo", pulls my shirt down lower and says "tiss??" (or "kiss?). I couldn't figure out why she wanted to kiss my "boo", but finally I figured out that she thinks that Dash is kissing my "boo" when he's eating.

I'm going to finish up with some pictures of these cute babies.

This was taken at Shilter Farms, a pumpkin and tree farm not too far from us.

Delaney had asked to hold Dash. What I love about this picture is her eyes. That's the face I sometimes get when she's being a little naughty.

Dash in his puppy costume for Halloween. The sad part was that it was too little and he didn't wear it and ended up giving it to his friend, Bridger, who is about four weeks younger.

Scooping out pumpkin guts!

The cutest little man in the whole entire world. To me, He looks just like Zap in this picture.

he giggles

Well, of course he does, Mama.
I've been anxiously awaiting Dash's first giggle. I remembered that Delaney giggled for the first time while she and I were in Savannah GA visiting my mom and grandmother. I know I really shouldn't compare, but I knew we had to be getting close to his giggle.
He did it yesterday, which Zap and Delaney were out walking Edgar. It was seriously one of the the cutest things I've ever heard. It's not a belly laugh; more like a "heh, heh" laugh.
So I understand that they aren't the same, but for some bizarre reason, I'm surprised by everything that is different between them.
I've been recovering from a cold the last few days and Zap has been taking excellent care of me and the babies. I'm finally feeling like my old self and we're going to get back to our normal schedule this week.

Dash is 3 months old!

He officially hit three months on Halloween, but here's his update!

He is in size 2 diapers and has been for a week or two. I don't have an exact weight on him, but I know he's over 13 pounds now! He was in the 80th percentile for his weight at his three month checkup.

During the day, he continues to nurse every two hours or less. He's still a great nurser and is starting to be more alert when nursing, which is sweet.

He's been sleeping through the night most nights. Last night in fact, he nursed at 6:30pm and then woke up at 3:00 AM!! And again at 6AM. We are really loving the sleep. He sleeps in his crib entirely now, which is really nice. Zap is his sleep guru and he puts him to bed.
He's also now in just a body swaddle; his legs are not in the swaddle.
He prefers to be held most of the day but is starting to do more floor, tummy, and swing time.
Just in the last few days we have noticed he is more alert and chatty. He loves when we say "Are YOU the baby???" and pretty much any singing.

He smells like a baby now, not a newborn. The deep blue in his eyes is going away and somedays there is more green and some days more brown. His hair is still very dark and curly after it is washed.

He is never "squeaky" anymore when he's breathing, so he completely outgrew that.

Delaney is doing well with him. Just tonight, she hit him a little and got sent straight to time out; after she apologized to him and gave him a kiss (on his toes).

In other news, we had a great time with Aunt Brenna here. We did the Cider Mill, took trips up to Seattle, had two girls nights out (so much fun) and Brenna got her baby holding time in.

I PROMISE pictures soon!