Tuesday, July 26, 2011

A pampered baby

Yesterday as we were cleaning the girl's room I took advantage of some killer light while Charly and Piper took advantage of an eager to be dolled up Winnie.

Here she is just bee-bopping in her new chair. Winnie is pretty hard to resist when she looks this cute, I was actually thinking of putting some bows in her hair myself...although it never would have looked as cute as her sisters did.
Piper, "Hold still Winnie, we got you"
Charly, "now for a few small adjustments...."

(If you click on the picture you may notice the cutesy drawings Charly has done on her hands, along with her multi colored paint job on her nails. I love the details that encompass a little girl's daily activities.
P-E-R-F-E-C-T!!
Now pose with your stylists, that's a good girl.
Winnie, "playing dress up is exhausting, would one of you mind letting me lean on you?"


And now for a little hug fest on the floor after the exhausting makeover.  I literally almost ate them up after witnessing this love fest.


And for dessert we are serving........FEET!!

Friday, July 22, 2011

Socially awkward...purely fiction

Remember that time when Sally came over two years ago when we wrote that EPIC(click here) blog post?

This will be sooo much better than that!

With the two years that has passed, our brood of children has grown by one and the other five have bonded as their mothers need for ridiculous blogging has spun out of control. 

It has been unclear as to whether or not the kids would have the same relationship as their parents, one filled with laughter and tons of fun memories, until a fateful day in July where we almost lost it all to those more privileged than us.


*Flashback*

Not so long ago we peasants were fortunate enough to hitch a ride, and also a free ticket to a little place we like to call Sea World. It's a place where whales, dolphins and maniacs roam freely.

Despite the heat being a whopping 150 degrees outside our spirits were high. Halfway into the day we were enticed to settle down for quick diving show when we smelled remnants of fresh fish, dolphin excrement and frozen lemonade. It was really a bad idea from the start. What were we thinking? To take part of such an event and sit in the third row splash zone is just unheard of in the peasant community.  It's really miraculous that our shirtless children did not get spotted and kicked out of such a prestigious event. Luckily we were able to document it with this photo.
All was swell, until, it wasn't.

As you can see we were sitting behind very, very, respectable and privileged folk. I believe the clip in this ladies hair to be sculpted from wood taken from the honorable George Washington's leg. Oh how lucky to be in the row ahead of us, holding such regard for American history.

Whilst Sally and Renée (names have not been made up to protect peasant identity) sat rather loudly discussing the joys of churning butter, a rather foul sound came from directly in front of us. Was this really happening? The more privileged, talking to us?! It couldn't be. Certainly not.

But, oh, it was!

We would both like to have fond memories of this moment, however, the wood wearing potty mouth had us drowning in language unsuitable for even the lowest of lowlanders. You see, our provincial lifestyle brought us up to believe that when you are in an arena with loud music and laughter and joy everywhere that it is acceptable to use outside voices. How dare we. Our lesson is learned, for we had no idea such behavior was intolerable to those of higher society.  Lucky for us, we had a protector.

His name has been held back to protect his nobleness.  I am shocked to be sitting here, still married to the man in the beige hat. For his actions have demonstrated that we peasants stick together and the morals we share are evident when an intruder, even when of high society, throws trash out their mouths towards ANY of us. We will stick together as two families and have decided to become one. Our children are betrothed to each other, as presented in the following symbolic photos.
Poor little, saddened Layla must wait until a Campbell son is born to complete the union of the two families.
However, the friendship between these two is one of "Sally and Renée" and is believed to be one with lasting qualities.
In order to prepare for such a horrific event in the future, we have decided to make Isaiah a noble knight in our peasant world. It is customary for the knight to take pictures where two girls are making him smile and one where he is surrounded by three girls for training purposes.
When he becomes the protector of our united families the beige hat will likely be passed on to his noble peasant head.

Until then, it shall be known, these kids are walking away from the idea that their mothers would take such abuse in the future.

Saturday, July 16, 2011

It's fun to eat!

Nate and I consider ourselves pretty experienced when it comes to feeding babies but nothing in the past has prepared us for the joys of feeding Winnie. Both Charly and Piper were late when it came to eating, Charly about a year and Piper was a whopping 2 years old when she started eating food other than my milk. And even then, they both started off slowly. It is a whole other experience when feeding a six month old, and can I say, a very exciting one! She literally wants to eat something at every meal ,which she then chases with a warm milk shake, lol.

Her favorites so far seem to be anything we give her, avocado, watermelon, banana, squash, beans, peas you name it she eats it. She hasn't once had a reaction like Piper used to.

Feeding Winnie is a family activity!
There she goes making the adorable stink face.....
I love that my little helpers even picked up how to clean her face with the spoon after each bite.
The really cool thing about Winnie eating is that it makes the whole elimination communication thing a lot easier. Her first poop after eating food was accompanied by a distinct poop face. It has been nearly 2.5 weeks since she has pooped in a diaper. How cool is that?!! 

Just so no one is confused, I am not potty training her, more of me just noticing when she is about to go poop and moving her to a more comfortable place, the toilet, to do it other than in her pants. She told me in her sweet, vanilla frosting breath that she really appreciates me noticing and looking for her "poop cue". Now if only I could fine her pee cues.....

In other very exciting news, Charly is officially swimming!! After dinner last night we went swimming and after about two weeks of dog paddling, Charly finally gave in and tried to swim with her face under water. Much to her surprise it actually was easier to do it this way. Nate and I are very proud parents to see her reach this milestone. Much credit is due to Nate for patiently teaching her techniques to get her there. While most people know I am a great swimmer, I definitely lack in the patience area, so teaching her to swim has certainly been a team effort. We still are working with Piper and I'm confident she will be swimming by the end of summer. 

Winnie is there for the ride and LOVES being in the water. Not surprised! I finally am getting lots of use from my water sling I bought when Charly was a baby.

We are super grateful to have neighbors that trust us enough to have free access to their pool, what a blessing!

"Dealer"

I never thought there would come a time in my life when I referred to myself as a dealer but I have reached a point where I can accept the fact that I am literally walking around with a baby on my hip which I believe to bring more happiness than even the best of drugs. I will freely give anyone a sample of some Winnie Love, just look at her, she is bound to make you happy!

As Winnie approaches 8 months I thought surely the newness of having a baby around would wear off with Charly and Piper, but they are just as in love with her as they were when she was first born. Actually I think they are even MORE in love now. It's so heart warming watching Charly and Piper smell Winnie and kiss and snuggle her like, they too, can't get enough of her.  Even as I type this, I want to stop just so I could squeeze her cute little face. 

Speaking of cute faces, she has a new one, we call it the stink face! The stink face was born when Piper was trying to make her laugh a couple of days ago at my mom's house and it stuck, she will make it at the funniest of times and we love it!
This look is similar, but not to be confused with, the "poop face".  

She has so many similarities to her big sis Charly. 

Like Charly, Winnie sure does make us work hard for those smiley shots.