Firecrackers

Here are my favorites from the 4th of July:

Sophie, Noah and Elizabeth at the Marietta parade



Two hot babies and one sweaty big sis...and it was only 10 am!



Noah took this picture of me, Kathleen and Sophie at the fireworks. Not bad for a 4 yr old!

And my favorite of the bunch:

Keeping Busy

Things are moving at warp speed in the Gould household, both Michael and Emily are crawling with gusto now, and leaving them for a second can prove dangerous. Michael espescially loves to crawl to danger, if there is an outlet or lamp cord available, he is all over it. Emily seems more discerning, but maybe that is because she is able to sit up. She is content to sit on the floor and play with toys, her hands, a shoe, whatever she can find, for 20 minutes at a time. (This is a GREAT trait, one Sophie had as an infant and still has) She will crawl if she needs to, but only if that warrants her moving to something more interesting. To Michael, EVERYTHING is interesting! It has been a lot of fun to watch them over the past couple of weeks, the personalities are really starting to show. Michael sometimes cries when I leave the room, and will make his way from the family room into the kitchen to find me. Neither Sophie or Emily did/does that, so this is a new one for me.

Sophie is doing great also. Last week she attended Vacation Bible School. This was her first year, and she really enjoyed it. The theme was "Treasure Seekers" and each day they uncovered more treasure. We were given a CD the first day, and the last day they had a little program of all the songs, with the kids doing all the hand motions. It was very cute. After a week, I have the entire CD memorized. Does singing it all the way through count as Sunday attendance at Mass??
She comes out with the funniest questions at times. Last week, she told me lots of things about God, since she was going to VBS. "Mom, you are God's treasure, did you know that?" I walked into the family room to find her talking to Emily: "Emily you are so sweet and precious, such a treasure and I will always remember you." It's like all the little bits and pieces she heard during the morning come out when she gets home. Today she asked me, "Mom, who do you think will marry me? Do you think Elizabeth will?" Usually she talks about marrying Noah, so this is a new twist. When the babies were asleep this afternoon I was working in the kitchen while Sophie colored. I was scooping out and mashing avocados for Michael and Emily and also some for guacamole. Sophie wanted to help with the mashing, but they were too slippery for her. She ended up playing with the pits and the skins, making up a long involved story about how the pits were eggs, and the skins were the nests, they had to hatch, etc. This kept her busy for no less than 30 minutes. She even asked me for a dishcloth so she could wipe the "abacabo" off the pits. Who needs toys when you have produce available?? Here are some recent photos, I know I am putting a lot in here, it's just hard to choose!

Here's Michael doing Yoga in his high chair:

The babies "playing" together:

The girls in green; Sophie loved putting that hat on Emily, and surprisingly, Emily kept it on:

Michael getting a bath from Grandma Maier:

Sophie and Noah at their swim lesson:

As I am typing this entry and downloading the pictures, I am also watching a show on TLC about a family with a set of 5 year old twin girls and 16 month old sextuplets.....3 boys and 3 girls. Yes, that's 8 children under the age of 6. And I thought grocery shopping with my 3 was a challenge!

Damn Peach

So, what's the point of getting your 8 mth old son to try a tiny bit of really ripe peach, when all it does is gag him, causing him to throw up the entire dinner you just fed him, including the bottle from an hour ago. Now you have to give him another bath, put the high chair cover in the washing machine, and try to get the vomit smell out of the high chair straps. This is very distressing to Sophie because now her "tesert" (desert) is delayed. Sweet Emily, ever my patient one, sits quietly playing in her high chair and watches all the commotion.

But now is the best part of the day....7:20 pm and all three are fed, bathed and asleep. How relaxing to read the Sunday paper while eating a child-free meal.

Two Crawlers and Other News

Fourth of July was a lot of fun. We went to the Marietta Parade in the morning. The kids enjoyed it, but it was very hot. Luckily, it only lasted an hour. I am not a panicky mother, but I was starting to get concerned for Michael and Emily. My friend Rebekah helped me feed them their bottles early, we thought they needed the extra fluid, and we were right, they sucked them right down.

Kathleen and Noah came with us to see the Fireworks, and he and Sophie had a great time. Our church has a picnic on their grounds, and the Roswell Fireworks are visible later in the evening. Sophie and Noah got their faces painted, tried dancing to the "YMCA", and even got to eat snow cones. They also played endless games of "soccer" and their own special version of tag. This was Noah's first year at the Fireworks, and the look of amazement on his face was priceless.

The big news is that Michael and Emily are now crawling...and even though it looked as if Emily would be more proficient since she has been trying for weeks, Michael is all of a sudden in the lead. He does the "army" crawl, on his forearms, scooting his legs behind him. He seems to have caught on quite quickly, and is surprising us all with his speed. Emily does the standard crawl, up on all fours. She is more coordinated, but Michael is much faster. The race each other all the time, it is pretty funny to watch. Michael also now has his second tooth, right next to the first one.

Here are my most recent pics, from right before the Fourth.

It looks like Emily was caught in the act; guess she will like Rachael as much as Sophie and I do.

Sophie (in her pj's) models the kerchief that Aunt Mary sent for Valentine's Day.

Here is the first of many paper chains Sophie made while stuck inside all last weekend with her fever. It kept her so busy; how can you go wrong with scissors, paper, markers and tape??

Mr. Smileyhead. Note the soaking wet drool bib, we go through at least 2-3 a day!

Summer Ears

Well, it was a worthwhile trip to the pediatrician this afternoon. Sophie had no fever when we got there....why does that always happen? But as soon as Dr. Leonard looked in her right ear, she exclaimed" Yikes, Mom take a peek in here!" (I actually do like it when they let me look through the otoscope, it is pretty cool to see all the way to the eardrum.) She has a case of swimmer's ear, which we are very familiar with; last summer she had it so much we had to get custom earplugs made for her to wear while swimming or bathing. This is her first case this summer, so we are doing much better. They also did a throat culture for Strep, and that came back negative. Sophie's worst fear was that she would have to miss the parade and/or fireworks tomorrow, but we will be able to go to both as planned.

When being taken back to the exam room, the nurse stopped at the scale to weigh her. There is a measuring gauge there as well, but she didn't measure her. On our way out, Sophie ran ahead of me to it and said, "Mommy, can you weigh my head now?" I was a bit confused until I realized she was standing against the gauge, and wanted me to lower the level down to her head to see how tall she was. I guess when you are 4 1/2, that is getting your head weighed. For the record, she weighs 40 lbs., and is 45 inches tall.

The LLLOONNGG Weekend

Sophie has had a fever since Friday afternoon. Not high enough to panic, but high enough to make her feel lethargic and grumpy. High enough for her to get to sleep with Mom and Dad, have her favorite chewable Tylenols, and skip Mass on Sunday. I have held off on going to the pediatrician, because really, what will they say? Yes, she has a fever, but no other symptoms, except for a green runny nose. This morning she seemed much better and had a normal temp. But after lunch it is up again. So I did call and make an appnt.....the earliest we could get is for 4pm today. I love our pediatrician, but hate that they are over at Scottish Rite. I plan on getting there by 3:30 so maybe we can get in and out. At least now we have a reason to leave the house!