Mr. Rhode

My baby is eight months old already! Time really flies... it is especially apparent when you find yourself scheduling your son's six month check up two months past due. But the stats are in. Rhode is 20 1/2 lbs. (the doctor added, 'wow already 20 lbs. at six months!' 'Eight months' I reminded her. She seemed less impressed.) And he is 28 inches long. Which puts him at 60th percentile for height and weight. 60th? Seriously where did this kid come from?

Oh and side note, Scarlet is down to 95th percentile at 36 1/2 inches and 37 1/2 lbs. Way to make it on the charts with the normal kids! We're very proud.

Rhode has had a pretty miserable cold for the past two weeks. Poor guy had his nose wiped so many times it started to crack and bleed. He wasn't complaining too much though and I had the same cold so I wasn't that concerned. We were going in for a well check anyway. Well, turns out he has an ear infection. Stack that up on one of my many great mom moments. But 7 days of antibiotics later, still not breathing so well through his nose. Poor kid.

He is finally rolling over regularly and is starting to think that mobility might be something he might enjoy. But a severe momma loving phase has kicked in so I get to either let him happily climb around my lap all day or set him down with a group of toys and dash out of the room. If I escape before he sees me I get a few minutes of happy play time until A - He sees me B - he realizes he is alone or, my personal favorite, C - Scarlet attacks him in one way or another. I know I really shouldn't wish for crawling but at this point I think it might buy me some freedom. So crawl child, crawl like the wind!

Still no teeth. My dental friends promise me that children are always born with teeth. We'll see about that...

My favorite thing about Rhode is how much he looks like his dad as a baby. It's crazy. I wonder sometimes if my mother in law looks at him and feels like she has her baby again.

Baby Jon -

Baby Rhode -

We'll Call Her... Quirky

Some new things about Scarlet -

It took her a few months but Scarlet has finally discovered the joy of dressing up. My mom bought her a tinkerbell dress (or pink-o-ball according to Scarlet, she is going through a big tinkerbell loving phase) and a leotard with connecting tutu. She now asks me several times a day to help her wiggle into them.



A friend was mocking me for keeping her clothes on for dress up time, and the mocking was probably deserved. But I just keep thinking of all the years I have ahead of clothes strewn around the house when children learn to play dress up on their own and I figure the more time I can get out of this look, the better.

We were in Utah last weekend to film the Today's Generation dance competition at Lagoon. Scarlet had an absolutely wonderful time riding all the rides. The best part was she is already over 36" so there were a huge group of rides she was allowed to go on. She was the only kid still in diapers in a few of the lines. I could see a few parent's looks as she bent over to pick something up. The look that says 'you haven't potty trained your 4 year old yet?" as I retort back silently, 'she's two, and we're working on it, thank you."

While we were there we were able to meet up with Jon's parents. We haven't seen them since Thanksgiving and my mother in law has been storing up gifts for us from every holiday.
Scarlet got gifts for Christmas, Valentines Day, Easter, and her birthday which included several books, tons of cute hair bows, an ice skating Minnie mouse and a fun train set.

Now our only problem is we can't seem to convince her that maybe we shouldn't wear the Santa hat outside on a 100 degree day in May.


'But mom, when my head gets too hot, I've got these handy dandy sprinklers in the backyard that cool me down nice and quick!'

Yeah, that's normal.

I got a new set of pots for my kitchen and some new cooking utencils for Christmas plus some new dish towels for my birthday. They are all MUCH needed items!

Jon got a karaoke machine for Christmas. Oh my goodness I can't get him to do anything all day long. He rushes home from work, plugs in the mic, and serenades us with the hits of the 70's and 80's all day long. Ha ha ha, I can't even keep a straight face as I write that! Ok, it hasn't made its way out of the box yet, but I know deep down inside he is waiting for some house time all to himself so he can belt a few tunes.

More on Rhode coming soon...

Triplets

"Your kids look like they are all the same age!" "Wow, are you a glutton for punishment or what?" "I'm sorry, I'm not laughing at you." These were a few of the many comments I got from strangers during my week with triplets. Owen and Kate came over Wednesday night and stayed until Sunday morning while Sam and Kyle has some much deserved alone time in NYC.



I will preface my report of our week together by saying it was actually not nearly as crazy as I thought it would be. Sure, it was a LOT of diapers and a lot of hungry mouths, but when you're two years old the world is a better place when you have playmates. Most of the morning and afternoon were filled with giggling. And there was at least an hour, sometimes two every day when all children were asleep.



With that said, Thursday morning started at about 7 a.m. when I heard Kate say, "up..Up...UP!" until Owen joined her and was also ready to start the day. Scarlet soon joined them in their awakening. Even Rhode joined the party and before I knew it, the day had begun.



I knew the key to success would be a good nap so we headed out to the park to tire them out. We had a picnic lunch and they ran to their hearts content for over an hour. Sure occasionally, one child would decide it would be way more fun to just throw sand and another would claim a stranger's ball as their own. But my mission was accomplished and they all fell into bed exhausted and slept for a good three hours.



We have a Carvel ice cream across the street. I have never been there but that night they were offering free iceburgs. I had no idea was an iceburg was but hey, free frozen treat, I am in. Jon was home by then so we were feeling brave enough to make the journey on foot. That may seem crazy but have you ever tried loading four children in and out car seats? I am pretty sure we saved time. We were crossing the street when a man rolled down his car window and shouted "are you a glutton for punishment or what?" "Seriously," I responeded as Jon and I, with a child in each arm, made our way across the street.



Turns out iceburgs are like blended root beer floats that they add soft serve ice cream to. Delicious. Jon and I got the root beer and the kids got orange soda flavored. We all sat outside and enjoyed our treat. A few minutes later I got the, "I'm sorry, I'm not laughing at you" comment from the woman sitting next to us. By that point, Scarlet had tried to take a bite of the ice cream part, but the whole chunk came out with her spoon and ended up on the bench next to her. Owen was having a hard time keeping the ice cream on the spoon long enough to get it to his mouth. Consequentially, more of it was on the table than in his stomach. Jon grabbed some straws, which Owen decided would be much more fun as a spoon alternate than as something that stayed in the drink. Rhode was trying with all his little might to get some of whatever everyone was having, almost spilling the entire contents of my cup on my lap multiple times until I finally gave in and fed him some. Who could blame the woman for chuckling at the sight of us. Best part about Kate and Owen? They don't finish things. Scarlet's was licked clean but I got to finish both Kate and Owens. Totally worth it.



We spent Friday at the house with plenty of time spent outside.





Thank goodness for Jon, who after a full day of work still has the energy to come home and wear out children.

We were in need of another energy burning activity on Saturday so we headed back out to the park to feed the ducks. The minute I mentioned ducks, all three of them were dancing around my feet begging to head out the door.

They were having the best of times... until we ran out of bread. Who knew they would decide that some ducks needed a whole slice of bread to themselves?

Rhode was amused by the whole thing to say the least.

Then we enjoyed another picnic on the grass. Notice all the outdoor eating? Brilliant on my part. Spills matter so little outside.

After another good nap, Jon took them outside again (he really is the greatest) and made up a new game with them. I don't know if he gave it a title but I am going to call it, "How wet can you get without a pool?" Owen wasn't a fan...

but Kate and Scarlet caught on quickly.

Seriously Sam, this little girl of yours is so pretty!

We ate dinner soon after and halfway through our meal our neighbors decided the neighborhood had a little too much peace and quiet going on. At least it led to this footage.


Sam and Kyle were supposed to fly in late Saturday night but they were goofing around so much they didn't even bother to make their plane thus ruining our Sunday morning while we waited for them to finally get home!

Ha ha, not really. I actually think it was good for Scarlet that they stuck around so they didn't just disappear on her. She has asked me all day, "Mom, where are my friends?" "Mom, where's Owen?" "Mom, is Kate sleeping?". She is convinced I am hiding them somewhere and will pull them out to play with if she asks frequently enough.

A Moses Lake Break

The babies and I spent a wonderful week in Moses Lake. As others have commented, it is hard to remember to take pictures in your hometown. So here are my pictureless highlights...


- I have faced my fear and conquered it! I can make a plane trip with both children by myself. It was not the easiest thing I have ever done. Especially since I'm way too cheap to pay to check bags. So in addition to the two children I also got to tote along my backpack and two rolling suitcases. Let's just give a quick shout out to the kindness of strangers... and bulky two year olds able to wheel their own bags all the way through McCarran airport while yelling "come on mom!"

- Scarlet was finally nice to my family! She knew everyone by name including Grandma (or Jamma). She was devastated when her aunts and uncles had to go to school, especially Kendall and Bryan. I think they might actually miss having her around this time!

- My mom actually got Rhode to take a bottle. Aaah the smell of freedom... lasted about ten minutes. Then came the spit up, the upset stomach, and some disturbing looking poop. Did you know that baby formula has soy in it? So far they all seem to. So close!

- Kylie looked so fabulous in Junior Miss! Her talent might be the most adorable number I have ever seen. If you haven't seen it yet, go check out my mom's blog. She was awesome.

- Also reaching the level of awesome this weekend was Brad. The homecoming talk of champions! I let Scarlet run absolutely wild while other people tended to Rhode and just enjoyed every word he spoke.

- Kylie and I fulfilled one of my mom's "life checklist" items by singing in Sacrament meeting. It was not the easiest of tasks since we are most definitely a family of altos. Kylie somehow convinced me that my poor attempts at a high D were not that bad so I took the high road, literally. It was a pretty smooth performance, that is until a fly decided to dive bomb towards my face halfway into the number. It was large, very black and traveling at such a high velocity it was hard for me to tell if it was a fly or a bee. Either way, I not so gracefully dodged to avoid it. But the number continued, and thankfully ended shortly after.

I don't think I ever thought I would say this when I was younger, but I really do love a trip to Moses Lake.

Back it up

Rewind a few weeks back to General Conference weekend. The two foreign exchange students living with my parents this year and one of their exchange friends came down to see Vegas for a week. The girls we lovingly refer to as the "fes's" wandered the strip and spent money like it was going out of style. By the time the weekend had come, they were tapped out. So when we offered to take them with us to hang out in a cabin in Utah, they jumped on the chance to not bankrupt their parents further.

Our friends, the Larkins, invited us to spend the Conference weekend at their cabin in Pine Valley. The Stouts came as well, and both families arrived a few hours before we did. We had plans to watch talks while the kids enjoyed a little Spring air outside. Oh the best laid plans...

The sun was going down as we got closer to our destination. Then, the snow began to fall. And fall. And fall.

And before we knew it, the sun was gone and our tires were spinning. Jon and the three fes's got out into the snow (after one traded her flip flops for my tennis shoes) and we gave the best effort four girls and one guy can do to get the truck moving again but it wasn't happening. Jon trekked ahead to see how far away from the house we really were, luckily it wasn't too far. Now remember, I don't have shoes on at the point. So Jon took the fes's and Scarlet up to the house while Rhode and I chilled out in the truck.. in the snow... in the dark. I took this picture to commemorate what may have been, if horror movies really reflect reality, our last moments on earth.

But, the men came back to save us and we all made it to the cabin to thaw and refuel.

The next day, it finally hit me I had not packed for snow weather. Scarlet was begging me to go play outside. All I had for her was a light jacket, stretch pants, velcro open top shoes, a thin pair of cotton gloves and a scarf she had grabbed and stuffed into the bag. She had to wear my hat. I thought she wouldn't last more than a minute outside before she froze. Not so.

By the end of the weekend, most of the snow was gone. Hard to tell if it was because the sun came out and melted it or if Scarlet just ate it all.

We had a great time chatting, eating way too much food, listening to the prophets and apostles and occasionally checking on the kids.

And a true shout out needs to go to the three girls who cut their Vegas vacation short to be stuck in the snow with old people and loud kids. I laugh inside when they claim they had a good time... what good sports.

Easter Weekend

I had a few realizations this weekend.

First, it really doesn't take a kid long to realize that finding Easter eggs is a pretty awesome activity. Now, days later, Scarlet is still searching through our house every morning for "candy" eggs.

Second, being the oldest kid would really be the most awesome thing in the world... if only we could remember all of the great things we got to do when we were the only ones around to do it.

All of the Easter egg hunts I remember as a kid involved me being the 'grown up' one and making sure all my brothers and sisters found a fair amount of eggs. But now I realize there was probably at least one year when I was the only one old enough to hunt. Scarlet had to whole house to herself to find eggs at whatever pace she deemed reasonable. It makes me happy to think that maybe I once had the same experience. It also makes me happy that I can blog about it now and when Scarlet complains in years to come, I have documented proof that she once had the world all to herself.

We started our Easter festivities at the Bass Pro Shops. They hid plastic eggs around the store. When you turned in five you got to spin a wheel for prizes or candy.

They also had free pictures with the Easter bunny. When I suggested the idea to Scarlet I saw the most terrified expression I had ever seen. I had to agree the 6 foot bunny was a little creepy looking so I avoided that traumatizing situation. We stuck with egg hunting.

What is better than one cute Easter basket? That would be two cute Easter baskets.

That night we held our second annual Easter barbecue/egg decorating party. We grilled some mean burgers, even threw on a little london broil (an Earl classic) and made some seriously bright Easter eggs. I don't know what we did to that dye but we had some great color going on.

Sunday morning, both kids woke up within minutes of each other so we all headed downstairs together and the hunting ensued.

We hid the real eggs outside, just in case one wasn't found. Hidden inside the house were plastic eggs filled with various treats. When she opened one with a bouncy ball or a bendy rabbit, she would scream in delight, throw it in the basket and continue her quest. We could always tell when she found an egg with jelly beans inside because we wouldn't hear anything for a few minutes while she poured them all in her mouth and chewed them up.

Rhode watched from the couch, eggless and Easter basketless. So while Scarlet will read this entry in later years and marvel at all the fun and enjoyment we planned just for her, Rhode will be left to think, 'wow you guys really ignored me that first year of life didn't you?' Yes, yes we did.

After a quick nap, it was time to get ready to church. Scarlet is not a fan of the curling iron. I haven't even burned her yet and she is already freaking out about it. I have to catch myself from saying, 'wait until you have a red mark across your forehead or at the bottom of your neck, then you can be afraid of the curling iron!' Either way, it wasn't going to stop me from having adorable curled Easter hair on my little girl. After Jon took this picture I had another realization...

I told myself a thousand times as a kid that I was not going to torture my children in an attempt for cute hair. I have a very sensitive head. I still just have to grit my teeth and will my eyes not to water when I get a hair cut. But turns out, I was wrong. Tears or not, those curly pig tails were going in.

It didn't take her too long to forgive me.

Then, the required photo shoot.

Happy Easter

Don't worry mom, I got this

Turns out, mom doesn't always know best. Sometimes the two year old knows better.

See, I thought Rhode was full. But while I went to fetch a towel to clean him up, Scarlet decided otherwise.




The real question is why we bothered to help feed Rhode in the first place. He obviously has things under control.