Happy, Crawling Girl

With all of our kids, I have felt like they were all pretty good and happy babies.  My parents have always told me that I was their "happy baby", but I always wondered if it was because I was the youngest and their memories of me were the best.  After I gave birth to Scarlett, it seemed like she was a pretty content little thing from the get-go.  I felt like the Lord had really blessed her and me because she was so easy during the transition from the U.S. to Japan over the Summer and Fall.  Now that she is going on 7 1/2 months, I just can't get over what a happy baby she is.  It takes almost no effort at all to get a smile from her.  For the first 6 months, when I would go lay her down for bed, she would tuck her little arms underneath her body and she would almost never cry.  She is a lot more active now, so sometimes it takes her a little while to relax to go to sleep, but even still, she is a really good sleeper.  A lot of people that meet her and hold her always seem to say afterwards, "she is just a really happy baby, isn't she?"  I can tell she is going to be really social and she seems to really enjoy interacting with anyone and everyone around her.  All my kids have pretty much been that way.

Scarlett loves her brothers and sister, and when the boys get home from school and she sees them, she likes to rapidly start kicking her legs out of her sheer excitement.  She just started crawling and she seems pretty determined to get it down so that she can start exploring more.  Her personality reminds me a lot of Clark's at this age.  We all love her to pieces, even when she spits up all down the front of her AND me.  Twice.

President's Day Out

Tanner had President's Day off from work, but the boys still had school, so we took the girls out for a stroll in the Azabu-Juban neighborhood.  It has some cute streets and a playground.  We ate lunch at "Eat More Greens", which is a Vegan cafe.  It was pretty good, and then we went and played at the playground, and then we had to hit the French Bakery on the way back to the Metro station.  The weather is getting a little warmer so it is starting to feel like eventually winter will end!  It is fun to have some time out with just the little girls!

Andrew Loses 2nd Tooth...sort of

Andrew lost his second tooth tonight!  I was interested to see how this one was going to come out since it is his fused tooth.  The weird part is that I thought when he lost that tooth, the huge whole thing was going to come out all at once, but apparently they have separate roots, so it actually broke off where it looks like it was fused, so just a tiny little part came out.  Luckily, the Dentist predicted correctly that his permanent teeth would not be fused, so that's good!  The other side of the fused tooth is now also almost ready to come out...so it looks like he will have another visit from the tooth fairy soon!

Andrew's 7th Birthday Celebration

Tanner was out of town for Andrew's birthday, so we waited until he came home to celebrate.  Andrew once again requested a rainbow cake, but I secretly decided to up the ante and surprise him by filling the center of his cake with M&Ms...because there wasn't enough sugar or artificial flavoring already going on in this thing.  He loved it, and we had fun together as a family playing his favorite games on Wii.  Happy Birthday, Andrew!!

Bed Rest

I have now been in the hospital since Monday, June 23rd on bed rest. My doctor didn't like my blood pressure readings (shocker) and I had started to have headaches and be short of breath. Everything with baby Scarlett looks great though. Once again it's just my body that can't seem to handle late stage pregnancy very well. Tanner is holding down the fort well with the kids at the hotel around the corner and they came and visited me on Wednesday and will come tonight to hang out with me during dinner. The kids have been really cute about me having to be in the hospital. Audrey keeps saying "Mom, when is Scarlett coming? You are taking forever to come home from the hospital!" She has kissed my belly everyday for about the last 3 weeks in anticipation for her little sister to arrive. The boys are really excited too, and I am so looking forward to watching them all interact with her in their own way.

Last night, Melanie was able to come and visit me and she brought two beautiful bouquets of flowers from herself and Tricia. They really brightened up my room!! The hydrangeas remind me of Tricia's house and the others remind me of Florida. We had a great time chatting and the nurses on the floor got confused at one point thinking Melanie was a patient!

While I wouldn't necessarily recommend bed rest, I do think it has been good for my body to be forced to take it easy. If I had to be here longer, I think I would go crazy...but my doctor told me this morning they are planning to induce me on Monday unless she comes on her own this weekend. I was super excited to hear that news! I will be just under 38 weeks. Audrey came at 36 on her own and Andrew was induced at 37 so I am getting antsy! I am grateful for supportive family and friends, and great doctors and nurses. The countdown is on!

 

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Designer Onesies

Melanie's boys were able to come and spend the day with us at our hotel so that she could go to her medical appointments in D.C. We had a great time and they boys had fun playing Legos, games, and watching movies together. At one point I busted out a gift I had been given at my baby shower. It was a packet of 6 white Onsies and fabric markers so that my kids could design their own onesie for their sister. I knew only Clark would be interested in this activity but I thought Truman, Elliott, and Nolan would like to do it as well. It was so fun watching them each design their own for their respective baby sister. Lots of rainbows, flowers, and suns!

 

 

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1st Day of Kindergarten

Andrew was very excited to finally get to go to "the big school" with Clark.  There was only one thing he was worried about...that it might be such a long day and he might want to take a nap because he might get tired.  Andrew is a little quieter, a little more pensive, and a little more steady in his outward display of his emotions.  In short, Clark is like me, and Andrew is like Tanner.  My friends and I stood around a kitchen island while Clark and Andrew were eating a bowl of cereal and my friends were peppering them both with questions.  Clark was super chatty and just full of detail and emotion, and every time Andrew got asked a question, he answered it, but it was short, quick, and to the point with little fanfare.  We thought the difference was so stark and so funny and at one point my friend exclaimed, "this is just like having a conversation with Tanner and Cherylyn!" So true.

 I didn't worry as much about Andrew going to school as Clark...not being the oldest, he has the advantage of seeing his older brother in action and knowing what to expect.  I had fun getting my boys up together this morning.  In years past, Andrew would usually sleep in and wake up after Clark had already left for school.  They had fun eating breakfast together with Clark telling him some of the rules of school and how the worst thing that could happen to anyone at the school is to get sent to the principals office so don't do this, that, and this other thing.  Andrew walked out to get on the bus as if this is what he does every day, except that he stopped before he stepped on, turned around, and gave me a wave.

Because we live across the street from the school, I ran over to the school to meet the bus, and because of traffic, etc., I beat them by a few minutes and so I was able to get some pictures of them getting off the bus.   Clark was explaining more rules about how until 7:20am, everyone has to hang out in a designated area behind a yellow line, "just like at the airport where they check our passports...remember mom??"  Clark walked Andrew down to his class and I followed behind my two little towheads.  That was the one part that got me a little emotional was seeing both of them walk down the school halls together.  Andrew found his classroom, Clark said bye and rushed off to meet up with his friends, Andrew pulled the door open, gave me another wave and a "bye mom!" and he was good to go.

I spent the rest of the day playing with Audrey.  We went swimming at the club, she hung out on the tennis court while I had my lesson and she made sure to tell me to "be careful" every time I hit the ball in the net.  Hilarious.  We had such a fun time together, just us girls, but we were also excited to see the boys get off the school bus this afternoon and hear about their day.  The first thing Andrew said to me after he ran up to me was "Mom, it was so fun, I didn't even get TIRED!"  He already has a "best buddy" that he met today, and is excited for more fun tomorrow.  Yahoo for school!

1st Day of 2nd Grade

Clark started school today and he was pretty excited to go.  His teacher this year is Ms. Tseng and we have heard nothing but wonderful things about her.  Clark and I got up together at 6:15am, and while he got dressed, I went down and made him his favorite breakfast:  Eggs, Bacon, and Toast with milk to drink.  He ate it on the "Special" plate and was ready to go meet up outside with his best friend Annie before they had to get on the bus.  I made him take some pictures, and every year it surprises me how much he has grown up.  Sometimes it is difficult to notice the changes when you are doing the parenting thing day in and day out 24/7, but I think that is why I like specific milestone days like the first day of school, because it is easier to compare how they were last year on the same day to how they are now and see the growth.

Sometimes I worry about Clark on days like today because he is so much like me.  I remember times  while growing up building up specific events in my head, and then when they didn't turn out quite like I imagined or if I ended up having a bad experience when I was expecting or had planned for a good one, it would really do a number on me emotionally.  I don't know, maybe everyone is like that...but I see that part of myself in him a lot.  However, he got off the bus this afternoon all smiles and had nothing but good things to say about his teacher and school.

I had written him a love note and drew a funny picture on it and put it in his lunch box.  I thought it was weird for him that he didn't mention it at all, and when I brought it up, he was like uh, yeah that was funny.  I finally learned why as I was tucking him and Andrew into bed tonight, and I said "I am glad you had a good day today."  He said "Yeah, it was good, except when a couple of kids stole my note from you and started laughing at me because of what it said...but it was my own fault, I should have just kept the note to myself and not shown it to anyone...I had only wanted them to see the funny picture you drew."  I almost burst into tears, I felt so bad.  I am not sure if this was the best parenting moment for me (aka no judging), but I said to him "you know why those kids were laughing at my love note to you?" and he said "Why?" and I said "Because maybe they were wishing their mom had written a love note to them in their lunch today." He said "Do you know that because you learned that at Mom school?" And I said "You Betcha."  I asked him if he wanted any more notes or not from me, and he said "I will like any notes you want to put in my lunch any day you want to send them, Mom."  One of the many reasons this experience was so precious to me, is because I realized that if this had happened to Clark a year or two ago, this incident would have probably caused a royal meltdown at school, but it didn't now, and he said he just grabbed the paper back and shoved it into his lunch box even though people were still asking to see it.  I am just happy that at least today, Clark handled himself well through an unpleasant experience that should have been a pleasant one...and really experiences like this are at least half the battle of life, right?

Dancing Girl: Part 2

So we have now gone to Ballet class 4 times and Audrey refuses to dance every time.  She likes to watch the other girls dancing, but she WILL NOT get up and do it with the rest of the class.  Finally on the fourth time, I told her we couldn't just sit there, and it was time to go home.  She was okay with this until about half way home, she realized what she had done and started bawling.  Later, in her broken 2/3 year old English, she told me "I like dancing, but girls scare me."  I thought that was hilarious.

Anyway, we are taking a break, and I am thinking about trying to start her in another class maybe after the summer to see if she is ready...but who needs class when you have Barbie and the Twelve Dancing Princesses??? Try to watch her and the screen at the same time...it is kind of ridiculous a) how many times she must have watched this show and b) that she has pretty much memorized all the moves.  I like how she uses the entertainment center as her bar.

Like Mother Like Son: Part 2

So as if the lost shoe episode wasn't evidence enough of how much Clark is like me, we had another fun little experience today that took me down memory lane from my days of yore.

Ahem...another story my family likes to torment me with is about when I was about Clark's age (I know I knew how to read!), my parents bought me a new pair of shoes.  When I got them home, I was in the bathroom putting them on, and when I looked back into the box, there was an extra little present in there...just for me!  Except that when I picked it up, the outside packaging read "Do Not Eat".  I remember actually having the thought that I really could eat it, but whoever put that little treat in there probably just wanted me to ask my mom and dad first.  I felt the little pouch and I thought for sure it was Pop Rocks.  Score!    Yeah right I was going to bother to ask mom and dad...these were my Pop Rocks and no one else was going to eat them but me!  So I opened them and tried a couple.  They didn't taste like Pop Rocks, and I immediately had this feeling of dread and fear wash over my whole body.  WHAT THE HECK WAS I THINKING???!!!  It said "DO NOT EAT"!!!

Of course I quickly ran and found my mom and confessed what I had done, and I remember she gave me this look like "You CAN read, can't you?"  My little 6 or 7 year old brain couldn't fully express why I had done what I did, but I just knew I needed my mom to make it better...fast.  I don't know if she called Poison Control or not, but thankfully, I did not die, and I learned the important lesson that if something says "Do Not Eat" on it, it probably means that it is more likely to be ummmm...Silica Gel and not some awesome candy like Pop Rocks.

Just in case any of you are interested...Silica Gel really isn't harmful to eat.  

Moving on...ohhhhh almost 25 years later...Clark asks to go over to a friends house after school.  That friend lives in our neighborhood like 6 houses down.  He had only been gone for about 10 minutes and I was on the phone upstairs when suddenly I hear the friends mom downstairs calling my name...in THAT tone.  You know, the one where you immediately drop the phone and run (more like trip and fall) down the stairs because you think your kid must be bleeding something fierce?  Yeah, that one.  When I got downstairs however, Clark was teary eyed, but there was no blood that I could see.  My brain then immediately thought he must have done something horrible to someone else, but before I could get out the words "WHAT DID YOU DO!?!?"  My neighbor starts frantically telling me about how Clark came over and she heard the boys in the kitchen getting snacks when she heard her 10 year old say "No Clark, don't eat the crystals!"  She jumped up and ran in just in time to see Clark take a bite and swallow some  home grown science kit crystals they had made.  All she knew was that it had chemicals in it and they used gloves when they were mixing it all together so she was kind of freaking out a bit about what Clark had just ingested.  I looked down at the remnants of the piece of crystal she was holding and then I looked at Clark and said "Why did you eat this??!"  He responded "I thought it looked like a cookie with sugar candy on top".  And then he burst into tears.  We quickly got online and found the instruction booklet for this particular science crystal kit and sure enough it said "May be harmful if ingested or misused.  If ingested, contact your physician immediately".  Well, that didn't sound good.  So I quickly got the guts to call Poison Control and the man was very nice and let me know that Ammonium Phospate MonoBasic is apparently not dangerous at all in those quantities.

So my child will live.  Bonus!

As soon as it was all over and we had decompressed, I asked Clark what he learned from the experience and he said in true boy fashion "DO NOT EAT that!"  We had to flesh that out a little bit and talk about how you never just eat something without asking when you are at a friends house, and in addition, if you are not quite sure what something is, don't eat it until you find out exactly what it is.  I was more annoyed at his manners than anything else, but how could I, Silica Gel girl, be really mad in this instance?  I couldn't, not if I didn't want to be a hypocrite anyway.  I want to tell Clark my Silica Gel story...but I know what will happen...he will say something awesome like "What the heck mom?  Why would you EVER eat something that says DO NOT EAT all over it?"

And I am just not sure if I can take that kind of judgment from my 7 year old.