Father's Day 2022

Father's Day this year wasn't as exciting as other years. I felt really bad, but Pierce is just SO needy so I have to rely on Larry doing most of the girls care as possible. In fact, I had asked him last week what he'd like to do and his response was "what are my options?" Haha. 

I did try and do my best to make sure he had a good day. For starters I found out one of our favorite comedians, Bill Burr, is coming to Utah in December. I figured Pierce would be 8/8.5 months by that point and should be a lot easier to watch. I asked my mom if she'd be willing to come by to watch the kids that night (and by watch, I mean put them to bed and just relax to make sure the house doesn't burn down and just watch TV...easiest babysitting job ever). She was more than happy to say yes, so I decided to buy tickets and make that part of his gift. It's not for a while, but I think that might be the most exciting part of his day haha.

I will say figuring out how to buy tickets to events is much more difficult than it used to be. I haven't gone to anything that's been in a big stadium like this in a very, very long time. I was trying to figure out the whole pre-sale tickets thing, that was super complicated (why are there 8 options if only 1 works??). I'm glad we were able to figure it out, we got some pretty decent seats and within my dad's day budget so score!

I decided he needed something to open on the day so I had the 2 older girls help pick out some funny shirts he'd like. I had about 4 or 5 options in my  Amazon cart and I showed it to them and had them each pick one. Cara picked one that said "Supper Daddio" in the Super Mario type text (perfect because they play Mario together all the time). Gwen picked out one that had a bunch of Marvel superheroes on it and said "Daddy you are as incredible as The Hulk, as amazing as Spider-Man, as mighty as Thor, as smart as Iron Man, and as honorable as Captain America. You are our Super Hero" I thought it was too awesome! I told them they had to keep it quiet until we could give it to him, but as soon as we left the office Gwen shouts out "Dad we just got you-" and I had to shush her right away. Figures, the 3 year old would want to spill the beans! Haha

During the day I made sure to acknowledge all the great things he does on the regular and the great things he did that day and how amazing he is. I made sure to tell him how much I love him and appreciate him helping me out and keeping me sane. I promised him next year we'd be able to do the holidays right. I asked him what he would've liked to do this year, if he had a choice. He said he probably would've liked a day in Wendover. I told him next year he could probably do that and maybe in a couple years we can have my mom watch the kids and do a trip together (we haven't been together in so long and we always have so much fun when we go). 

Anyways, the day wasn't the most exciting, but he's such an amazing guy to cater to us even on his special day. We love him and how silly he is. We love how strong he is and how great he is at being a good example for our kids. I look forward to seeing how having such a playful, involved dad impacts our kids. We both didn't have that much growing up so we love the idea that our kids will have two parents that actually want to be in their lives! 

We love you SLP!!

Lucy is 2

Our littlest girlie is now 2 years old! When I think of how she was as a baby I never thought she'd be like how she is now. Sure, she loves being held, loves snuggling, and is still a bit needy, but for the most part she loves playing independently and is sleeping so good (Larry wants to take away her binky, which makes me a bit nervous for how her sleep will change).

Unfortunately, her party did not turn out as great as I had hoped and expected. My plan was to do a princess party in the park with some face painting. It sounded like SO much fun! Unfortunately, trying to book a princess party was really difficult. We booked a pavilion at the South Jordan City Park (figuring that was good middle ground for everyone) and that was fine, but since it was booked for every Saturday in June we had to do the party on a Sunday and the princess party places seemed to not work that day (even though it was never mentioned on their page...boo!). Really there were only 2 good options for us, one didn't work on the Sunday and the other didn't respond to our request (or didn't contact me back).  I tried looking at other entertainment options (including trying to find a bubble artist), but nothing worked out. We realized we weren't going to have that many kids come to the party so we decided to just make it a family day in the park and whoever showed up, showed up. We brought a bubble machine with bubbles and silly string to kind of make it more fun...hopefully.

We also ordered a cake and a sandwich platter from the grocery store, but when I went to go pick them up, they only had the cake. The deli couldn't find our order or any platters were made yet and just mentioned his manager was somewhere around. He said he could try and make another one if I wanted to wait, but I was running late and didn't feel like waiting longer. I just grabbed some meat and cheese from the counter, a thing of hawaiian rolls. We already had some chips and drinks that we picked up earlier that were sitting in a cooler in our car.

We got to the park almost an hour late (queue my blood pressure going SO up because I HATE being late!) and almost everyone was already there. The day ended up being SO windy we couldn't set up the bubbles or have the kids play with silly string. We let the kids play while we visited a bit. Then we hurried and ate (unfortunately, I didn't grab enough rolls...I feel so bad), sang happy birthday and ate some cake, then opened presents. After that we visited some more and let the kids play around for a while. 

A couple adorable things to note were that Lucy loved playing with Nana (my mom) and I know that makes her heart just melt that she's no longer too shy around her. Also, Gwen started picking up trash and I just swell with pride when I see my girls clean things and knowing that's the right thing to do. Cara was so excited to play with Lilly until the dolls came out and then she wanted to play with all those haha. Pierce wouldn't nap for anything. He just seemed so over stimulated with the wind and all the people wanting to look at him. Also, we probably could've avoided paying for that pavilion, no one else was there and it was so empty. Plus our name wasn't even on it to say it was booked for the day, but oh well.

After a couple hours, we all started heading home. We ended up having more people show up than I expected, she got lots of good presents, and she loved the cake and the toys on the cake so it was a win for her. I feel bad it wasn't as good as the other parties have been, but I remembered Cara's 3rd birthday was right as the pandemic started so we didn't even go anywhere for her birthday so I guess each kid has to have one birthday that just isn't the greatest. Luckily, Lucy won't remember this one and she was all smiles so to her it was a good birthday and party. 

Happy Birthday to our Lucy Lou! She's got such a silly smile and loves being a little mama (which is such a surprise to me). She loves cuddling, being held, and playing with babies or stuffed animals. I love how she loves to hold our hands when we are out and about. I love her strawberry blond hair. I love her scrunched nose when she laughs. I love her crooked teeth, they are so cute! I love how she's our tiny little one and how she runs (always moving her left arm like crazy, but her right arm she'll keep still haha). I love watching her play on her own and she's VERY opinionated when others play with her (she'll screech so loudly if someone is in her space and she doesn't want them there). I love how she says her words when Larry does flash cards with her (it always surprises me how many she knows already!). I absolutely love that she knows her ABCs already and she's SO much smarter than I realize most of the time. And I love that she will call out when she farts and then when we ask her what she should say she has the cutest little "'scuse me" voice. I also love how she says "pease" when saying please haha. I also love that she loves to wear sunglasses. She's seriously at the cutest stage ever now and I'm excited to see how her personality develops even more as she gets older.

Pierce is TWO Months!

 I am TWO months old!

I like: snuggling all the time (especially in the morning), my hands (when I can get them to my mouth), bath time, when dad waggles his tongue at me, when we do the bedtime routine, the turtle on his chair and elephant on his play mat

ALL about the snuggles!

My first baby to actually like the wrap

I dislike: being put down to sleep, night time diaper changes, gas...the usual

I am now: He fits in size 3 clothes, but I'm keeping him in 0-3 for as long as I can (we only have a few of those outfits for him anyways, so might as well get good use out of them). He's in size 1 diapers, but almost just barely. At his 2 month checkup he was 12 lbs 8 oz (WAY more than the girls were at that age) and 23 in long. He jumped from the 50th percentile to the almost 70th percentile on both of those. Head is still around 80th percentile, so right on track with his sisters haha.

A Typical Day looks like: Usually sleeping in bed with mom, we get up around 7:30/7:40 (depending on the day). I'll nurse him and then bring him downstairs. The older girls are already up so I leave Pierce with dad while I get Lucy out of bed. I make everyone cereal and eat real quick. Then I go upstairs to get ready and throw down clothes for everyone who needs them. Tuesday and Thursdays Cara has school so I'll let daddy get Lucy and Gwen fed while I take her. Then I rush back to hurry and eat and get ready. 

All my little loves wearing the same onesie
Cara, Gwen, Lucy, and Pierce

He'll usually nap around 9/9:30 till 11 ish. Then I nurse him and let him play while I get things done (shower, bathroom, lunch, laundry, etc. etc.). Around 12:30 we put the girls down and I'll nurse Pierce to sleep and just hold/rock him. If Cara is at school I'll watch a movie during this time. If she's not at school I'll hang with her (as long as Pierce is sleeping good. If not, I'll head up to the guest room to try and get him to sleep). The sleep is off and on, usually, until around 1 ish. I'll have to nurse him again to extend the nap and he'll sleep REALLY well until 3. After that it's kind of a guessing game. We typically nurse every 2-3 hours during the day. I just try and make sure naps line up so that his last one is around 6 so he'll nap/nurse until 6:30. I then leave him with dad while I go get ready for bed (I'll fill out his log for the last 24 hours, have a last snack, fill up my waters, get changed, get clothes picked out for the next day, if there's laundry that needs to be done I'll put that in the washer on a delay to start the next morning, I'll brush my teeth, go to the bathroom, etc.). Then go down and hang with everyone until it's time to get Pierce ready for bed. He LOVES the bedtime routine. If it's not bath night I do booger sucker, change his diaper, put on diaper rash cream, give him gas drops, lotion, and pajamas. Then it's upstairs to put on the owlet, swaddle, and nurse/burp until he goes down for the night (this can take a few tries). Sundays and Thursdays we start with a bath, but same routine. 

This Month: He started spitting up more, which had me nervous after my experience with Lucy, but luckily his isn't as bad as hers (nowhere near, really). We started getting into more of a routine, luckily, which I love! However, the 5 and 8 week leaps REALLY threw things off. I was used to the 5 week one, but not the 8 week so I started to have a couple breakdowns with that. 

Around 5.5 weeks I decided we should start putting him down in the bassinet for the first part of the night because I felt the middle of the night wake up when Larry brought him up to me was starting to throw things off. I was SO nervous the first night (I was stressing so much I kept crying, even when I knew it was the best decision, I just wasn't sure what to expect and if I'd start to lose sleep...I really enjoyed the big chunk I got). The first night was rough, but I feel that was because I was stressing so much. He actually didn't sleep too bad and by the next night it went pretty smoothly so I'm glad that transition hasn't been too bad (although I still go to bed once he's down since his nights are still wonky, especially after his first wake up). I actually feel like I get better sleep, somehow. 

I feel Pierce is going to end up a finger sucker, he LOVES putting them in his mouth when he's awake. It's pretty cute. It's also cute how much he seems to love the bedtime routine. He'll be SO fussy and then the second I start it he'll calm down and give me small smiles. I LOVE it (Lucy always cried hard at bedtime and it would stress me out, so seeing smiles when realizing it's sleeping time makes me happy).

Update on last month's goals:

• Get him to take a binky more: Yeah, no. He just straight out refuses to take one. Not sure if it's a good or bad thing (although I do stress how he'll nap once I'm at work if he won't take one).
  
  
• Do more tummy time: Eh....this needs to be worked on more. I'm SO bad at it.
  
  
• Bassinet sleeping: Done! He goes does pretty well. Some nights we've had a false start, but he's good.
  
  
• Read more to him: Yeah...haven't done this at all. I'll add it to my next month goals.

Goals for next month:

• Figure out how to get him to sleep on his own! And lengthen the morning wake up (from 6 to closer to 8)
  
  
• Figure out a good gas solution to help him sleep at night
  
  
• Read to him!
  
  
• Tummy Time