Oobly-Woobly

Baby Violet is now 11 weeks old. Eleven weeks! Still not three months for another two weeks. Not sure how that works, but I'll take it. ;-)




She is big! Almost 15 pounds big. These photos were taken two weeks ago (by my mama) and I think Violet has gained 3 pounds since then. I, on the other hand, have lost about 8 pounds since these pics were taken, but that is a story for another day... :-)




She is the sweetest, smiliest (always smiling and laughing) baby ever. She loves "talking" to us. She loves people and being held, and is just the greatest joy to everyone around her.



When she wakes up in the middle of the night, she doesn't cry. She just kinda looks at ya, and starts talking to herself. She sleeps in our room, so I always know right when she wakes up, and I can get right to her and feed her. But I wonder what she would do if she were in a different bedroom? Would she cry or just talk to herself all night? I don't know!



She is a very babied baby. There is no shortage of love for this girl. No shortage at all. Ginger is always saying to her, "You are my ooobly-wooobly best baby sister in the whole ooobly-woobly world." Paprika is always wanting to show Violet off to her friends at school. "Have you seen my baby sister? Isn't she beautiful? Isn't she just amazing? Look at her!"

Yes, she is oobly-woobly and one amazing baby. I am so grateful for her every moment of my life. I can't believe less than three months ago, I was at this very park pregnant with "Pavenzia" and now my days are filled with moments of looking at her sweet face. She is such a miracle to me...

A Little Piece of Heaven

This week has been hard...on me. Whenever life seems too overwhelming, I go to my happy place. And if I can't get there physically, I go there in my mind.

The first weekend my mom was here, we went to the cove. My cove. My happy place.



It's my little slice of Heaven on Earth...and on days where it seems like all I do is fight fires and narrowly avoid catastrophe, it's good to remember our peaceful, lazy afternoons at the Cove. ;-)



Pictures like this one make me forget about Monday...when Ginger refused to take a nap, scaled the walls of her crib, and the fell asleep in Paprika's bed with no diaper on...and well, you can guess what happened next... Lots of laundry. ;-)



On that note, I will leave you with our pretty beach pictures. In my mind, when I'm dealing with the minor catastrophes of everyday, that's where I'll be! :-)








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A Sweet Day at Gentle Barn!

We took the girls to Gentle Barn today. I have wanted to go forever and a day, and it has always seemed too far to drive. Well, this weekend we just decided to go "to the farm" - no matter the distance. I wish I would have gone years ago because it took less than an hour to get there...no traffic!

Gentle Barn is a sanctuary for abused animals, often rescued from the most terrible situations. During the week, they allow at-risk kids and special needs kids to come and interact with the animals. On the weekends, it is open to the public...thank goodness, because we got to go!

The girls loved brushing the cows. This one is named Buttercup:



I even got to hug a cow. This one is named Buddah. Such a sweetie!



We petted the horses, which was Ginger's favorite part of the trip. She fed an entire bag of carrots to all the horses there (about 15 horses total). She was scared at first, but then so brave.



We didn't get many pictures of the big girls feeding the horses because we were too busy managing Ginger and Paprika and making sure that they didn't get their fingers eaten off by accident! ;-)



It was really sweet to see the horses, who had been so abused in their previous lives being so trusting and sweet with us.



The chickens were a big highlight...I think because they are so small, they are less intimidating to the girls.



Paprika loves the chickens best of all. She likes to follow them around and talk to them. She spent quite a lot of time with the chickens.



It very much reminded me of this special day when Paprika had just turned two years old. Do you remember this blog post?! :-) What do you dream about, chicken? I will never forget it. Ha!



The girls were so excited about seeing a peacock up close. Ginger had to tell the peacock how she has a peacock (Halloween) costume at home. Why, yes, she does!



The girls thought this was soooo funny. Mr. M had to hold them up behind there because they were too short. Good job, babe!



And the girls even got to pet an emu. The emu was actually a lot nicer than she looks. Haha.



It was just a great day. I was especially proud of Ginger today because she wore clothes and shoes the whole time we were there. ;-) All three girls were actually amazing the whole trip, and it was just a really fun and special time. I am so glad we made the trip, and we're already talking about our next trip back. Success!

New Puppy!

Daisy is now 9 months old. I can't believe we've had her for seven months. She's gotten so big so fast. This is one of my favorite pictures of her from when she was itty bitty:



This one is also a fave:



Considering she's never had a haircut, we thought it was high time. Daisy had her salon treatment this morning, and she looks like a whole new puppy! Eeek! (And she also looks about half her size! Ha!)

She looks even cuter in person, I swear. We snapped this picture when we got home from the groomer's (and after she'd already had a bowl of water- that's why her mouth is all wet).



We took her to a cute mom and pop place locally, and they gave her the royal treatment. The groomer said she was the best dog, and was super cooperative. Daisy loves baths, so I am not surprised!

She is so soft and cuddly, I can hardly stand it.

I am a sucker for a make-over, so here are her "Before" photos:





And one more time, her "After" picture:



Needless to say, I now see the importance of properly grooming a long haired, fluffly Goldendoodle like Daisy. ;-) I am also happy that a lot of her fur is now at the groomer's, which means, hopefully, a lot less of it will end up in my vacuum! Haha.

Grammy Time!

My mom has been here for the past two weeks and the time has just flown by. She leaves on Saturday - how can that be? Didn't she just get here?! She was so excited to meet her newest Grandbaby. So sweet! I need to dig out all the pictures of my mom with the girls when they were babies. I am so glad she came out from Indiana...thankfully, airplanes make the miles shorter.



We have been holding down the fort with Mr. M gone working on a movie. (I wish I could say what it is because I am so proud of him...but I'm not sure if he wants me to say, so I'm just going to keep my mouth shut). He comes home on the weekends, and sometimes for one evening during the week.

We are always so happy when he comes home, but even more so now that he's gone so much. It's like Christmas whenever he comes home, and the girls start talking about him coming back the second he leaves. They love their daddy so much (as Ginger would say!)



Ginger still isn't wearing clothes. Those pics from that last post were taken at Christmas when she was still wearing dresses. Ha! I have just gotten used to taking her out in public just like this. It's just not worth the battle. Plus, isn't that one perk of living in Southern California? Summertime temperatures in January. So, I'm just going with it.

I got the girls Cardboard Houses (you can draw on them and decorate them yourself) as Christmas presents. But then, the night before Christmas, I decided they had too many presents and to save this one for Easter or Valentine's Day. Well, with Mr. M being gone so much, I have been really stretching myself to find fun things for us to do at home...and in a fit of desperation, I got the house out! So, it ended up being a surprise present for no particular reason whatsoever. But the girls loved it, and now we have a house inside our house! It's been used for everything from a nap den to a toy box...seriously, the way Ginger has "furnished" it, it could appear on an episode of Hoarders. ;-)



Ginger is now getting a nap every day. She is so happy when she's had a nap, and so not happy on the days she doesn't nap. The downside is that even a two hour (or less) nap will cause her to be awake until the wee hours of the night. She is not falling asleep now until after 1am, and then she wakes up at 6am and runs into my bedroom and wakes up me and the baby. Well, that is not so fun. But, I am taking the tradeoff of her being happy and up all night over her sleeping more at night and being cranky.

Once she started napping, she went back to being her old self...that ball of of joy and energy that infuses happiness in everyone around her. Ginger is so loving, fun, and amazing. I think if I had 1/10th the energy she has, I could run marathons every afternoon. She is like the sun.



Paprika has really come into her own as the big big sister of the house. She's so inclusive of her little sisters. She and Ginger are thick as thieves. She's always asking me when Violet will be big enough to play with them and go to school with her.

I enrolled Paprika in three extracurricular classes for the spring. She'll be doing ceramics, an art class, and a science class. I am hoping to get her back in swimming lessons in the spring, but right now the pool where we take lessons is closed for the winter. Boo! It's an outdoor pool, so I sorta understand. But seriously, it's the same temperature here year-round, so I just wonder what the logic is in closing the pool?!

Anyway, we are having a lot of fun hanging out around the house together and doing homeschool type stuff afterschool. Paprika is now reading phenomenally well. I can't believe she'll be in kindergarten next year, and already I would say she is reading at about a second grade level. She is getting so much more confident in her reading, and my hope is that by the time school starts in the Fall, she'll have a lot more confidence in the classroom. She is so smart and knows so much, but in the classroom she is so quiet that her voice gets lost.

At home, it's a different story. Ha! :-)



Baby Violet is growing so much every day. She seems to go through sleeping phases. One day the girls will keep her up all day and she'll sleep hardly at all. I will get Violet to sleep, and then the big girls will run in the room to tell me something and wake her up. Or I'll get her to sleep, and then we have to go drop or pick Paprika off at school. Just stuff like that. So then the next day, Violet will be so exhausted, she'll really sleep the day away.

I basically hold her all the time. I have done this with all my girls- hold them pretty much every second of their lives as babies. It makes them not like to ever be put down, of course. But it's just how I parent, and I love knowing that I held them every chance I could. But it also gets exhausting because at some point they learn never to be put down, and well...then it makes it hard to do things like dishes and laundry, and all the million things you have to do when you're raising three small children. :-) Even so, I can't help but hold her all the time...



Health-wise, I am doing so much better. I will probably write a post about it soon, but I am just so grateful to be feeling as good as I am now. My pelvis is about 90% healed. I still have a lot of pain sometimes, but it's miles better than it was after birth when I couldn't walk without being in excruciating pain. Health is one of those things that we take for granted until we don't have it anymore. I am just so grateful every day to be able to walk (mostly) pain-free.

I have made a bunch of goals for myself this year, and that gives me so much hope. After Violet was born, I had a period of feeling very blue. I think it was a combinaton of me being in so much physical pain, Mr. M's work schedule, and the responsibilities of home life. I am feeling so much better now than I was. I think that has a lot to do with the goals I set for myself, the expectations I have set (I've considerably lowered my expectations - ha!), and just taking better care of myself. I need to write a few posts about it, just to clear my head and remind myself in future years of how far I've come.



In other (lighter) news, this weekend Daisy is going in for her first salon treatment. :-)



When Mr. M was home more, Daisy got baths much more often. Now she barely gets brushed. It's so bad, I know! But that goes with my whole "lowered expectations" thing. Haha. So, this weekend, I have made her a full-service grooming appointment. Hair, nails, the whole nine yards. I will be sure to post some Before/After photos. :-) She deserves it. I can't wait to see the results!



Have a wonderful weekend! :-)

Two Months!

Dear Violet,

You are two months old now. Two months! You are such a dream come true. One thing is for sure...you are a definite mama's girl. No matter where you are, if I am there, all is right in the world. You are the sweetest baby. Even though my mom is here this week and it gives me a lot more freedom, I still take you everywhere with me. It's just so much easier to take you than have you away from me. Last week I took you with me to get my haircut. This week I took you with me to get my pedicure. You are learning about girl stuff from an early age! ;-) You even got to go on a few dates with me and your dad. Lucky girl!

You have started to giggle and laugh, and try to talk to us! It is the best feeling watching you smile. It melts my heart completely.



You are so strong, and want to hold yourself up. We think you are trying to catch up to your big sisters. You love it when they talk to you and play with you. It is crazy to think that a year from now you'll be running after them, but right now you are 100% cuddle!

I don't have your two month stats yet b/c your "two month doctor's visit" isn't for another week (I procrastinated on the appointment and by the time I called, it was a one month wait for a well-check visit). But, just from looking at you, I would say you are well fed and growing! You are bursting out of all your 0-3 month clothes (the clothes you were swimming in at birth!) You easily fit into 3-6 month outfits, and look pretty darn cute in them, too!

You love love love to eat (errr...drink). I made a lot of changes to my diet (since you're nursing), and it's made such a huge difference. I cut out all dairy and meat products, and a few other things (broccoli) - and overnight your fussiness totally went away. Amazing. You're really so happy pretty much all the time now as long as I am the one holding you. Anybody else will get a lot of screaming. You're a girl who knows what you want!

I love you so much, and cannot imagine a day without you in it. You are just perfect, perfect to me. And I feel so honored to be your mama.

Love,
Mom