A Scene from the Bedroom

It is 4 am.  I am roused from my slumber by a naked three-year-old, who is standing over me in bed.

ATHENA: Mom, can you help me put my underwear back on?

After a little wrangling, this task is accomplished.  The three-year-old nestles herself between me and her father.  Now awake, I get up to go to the bathroom and then insinuate myself back into the family bed (between the three-year-old and the blissfully sleeping infant).  The relevant question occurs to me.

ME: Athena, why were your undies off?
ATHENA: Because I couldn't get them back on.
ME: Okay, but why did you have them off?
ATHENA: Because... I was trying to put them back on, but it was... (she pauses and then enunciates) difficult.

Caleb is also awake by now, and we are both trying (not too successfully) to stifle our laughter.  I try to think of another way to phrase my question, but my mind is still sleepy.

ME: I see.  But I'm trying to understand why you took your undies off in the first place.
ATHENA: Because... I wanted you to put them back on.

Parents are both laughing out loud now.  I ask the child if she's ever considered putting crab apples in her cheeks.  "What?" she asks.  "It's a literary reference," I tell her. "What?" she asks again.  "I love you," I tell her.

Upon a bit of follow-up questioning, she reveals that while she DID go potty before her bath at bedtime, her bed is somehow wet, and that this is why she needed to change her underwear.  Mystery solved, we all go back to sleep.

Spring Hike

With the kids on Spring Break this week and me still mostly on maternity leave, today the three girls and I went on an almost 5 mile, 4 hour hike.  We hiked from the top of Vassar Dr up to NCAR, had a picnic at the top of the hill... 

and then walked through NCAR and down the back of the mesa to the Skunk Canyon trail and back around.  Athena started drooping up behind NCAR before we started making our way down, but a well-timed promise of frozen yogurt was all it took to energize her for another 2+ miles!  Mazie was a huge help, holding Athena's hand most of the way down.  The two of them were calling each other their "bestie sisters" -- anytime we would stop (which was a lot) they would do a little "bestie sister" cheer and then hold hands and continue walking.  

So proud of them and really excited that they're old enough to do long hikes!  Before we know it Zae will be trotting along next to them.

Mazie's First Grade Concert

On March 19th we were entertained by a first grade concert at Mazie's school.  Pretty darn cute.

She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain

This Land is Your Land

La Raspa (Mexican Hat Dance)

Athena Can't Hear

While Athena's handled her transition to middle child fairly well overall, she's three and has been asserting her independence and strong will on a regular basis.  A few weeks ago I was getting really frustrated with her for ignoring me -- I would ask her to do something like put on her shoes or brush her teeth and she just wouldn't respond.  Then I noticed her saying "What?" a lot, and eventually it occurred to me that maybe she actually wasn't hearing me very well.  So I took her to the audiologist and it turns out she does have some mild (and thankfully temporary) hearing loss due to a combination of wax and possibly fluid in her ears.  She and Mazie both had ear infections shortly after Zae was born, so this is probably a lingering effect of that.  The doctor referred us to the head and neck surgery department to get her ears flushed out, but unfortunately I couldn't get an appointment until the end of April, so for now we're all just talking louder and trying to be patient with her!  

The Zaeby is almost 2 months old...

And she continues to be perfect.  Smiling more and more, tracking people and toys with her eyes, and getting chubbier and stronger all the time!  Her checkup is next week so I'll update her stats then.

Of all the gifts she's given us, one that I'm very grateful for is her incredible sleeping skills.  Last night she set a record, sleeping from about 10:30 pm until 6:30 am in her co-sleeper next to our bed.  While that was an especially long stretch, she's been doing 5-6 hours pretty consistently every night, and then she wakes up and nurses and goes right back to sleep until we all get up in the morning.  As a third time Mama I'm very aware that these things can change at any time, so for now I'm just grateful to be an unusually well rested mother of a 2 month old!

Smile!

Just like her sisters, Zae started to smile right around her one month birthday.  She's still sleeping most of the day (and continues to sleep great at night, too), but has gotten more interactive during her awake periods.  Definitely a dream baby.

Family of Five

Time flies... it's already been nearly 4 weeks since Zae arrived and made us into a family of five!  She has spent most of her first four weeks sleeping, but in the past week or so she has started spending a little more time awake.  Here's a video from last night.  Third time around, and I'm still surprised at how captivating it is to watch a baby do basically nothing... stretching, yawning, sleeping, moving arms and legs, making funny faces.  Endlessly entertaining.

Zae has been an incredibly easy baby so far.  Breastfeeding was a little painful for the first week or so, but since then it's gotten better and she's eating well.  At her two week check-up, she was up to 7 lbs 14.5 oz, so 10 oz above birthweight.  She's also been sleeping really well.  She was up a lot her very first night, but pretty much every night since then she's slept for 3-4 hours at a time, meaning that I've had to wake up once or twice during the night to feed her, leaving me surprisingly well rested for a mother of a newborn.  I started pumping milk and introducing a bottle this week -- Zae has had no problem with this new way of eating, and her big sisters have enjoyed being the ones to feed her.

Zae's big sisters adore her and give her lots of love.  Athena's love takes the form of lots of grabbing and holding and kissing -- she hasn't really grasped the concept of personal space, or of leaving the baby alone while she's sleeping.  In general, Athena's 3 year old big feelings and strong opinions about how things should be have been a little challenging recently, and we're trying to figure out how to give our middle child the attention and support she needs.

Meanwhile, Mazie is more restrained this time around and also more able to help with changing diapers and even carrying the baby around a little.  In other Mazie news, she lost her first tooth this week!  She was the second to last kid in her first grade class to reach this milestone, so she was VERY excited.  She wrote the tooth fairy a note asking what she did with all the teeth... the tooth fairy responded that she couldn't reveal that secret, but if Mazie writes another note with some guesses the next time she loses a tooth, the tooth fairy might let her know if any of her guesses are close to the mark.