growing up

We set up a "big boy" bed for Ethan today--a twin we're borrowing from Brett's mom. He's experimenting with his new getting-out-of-bed freedom. Tonight after I left the room, he was quiet for about 5 min, then I heard his door open. He came over to me and said, "Ethan had a good nap!" Ha. I'm a little worried about how early he's going to get up tomorrow. We may be setting the crib back up and leaving him in that until he's 8 or so.

rayen!

I decided Saturday night that I was going to stop jumping up at every peep Rayen made to feed her during the night. She went from eating at 9pm, 3am, 6am, and 9am to eating at 9pm and then 6am on Saturday night and then 9pm and 7:30am this morning! Whew! It's funny how Mama always causes the problems. She's been ready to sleep through the night for a while, I think.
She loves to be bundled, swaddled, hugged, slung, and held. Ethan hated to be swaddled after about one week--it seems that Brett finally has someone who wants to cuddle as much as he does!
She loves watching Ethan. If I have her sitting on my lap, she'll turn her head to follow him as he moves all around the room. She smiles at him and keeps her eyes on him all the time. (Although I think part of the keeping her eyes on him is for defensive reasons. He can be pretty rough with his hugs and pats and when he helps put her pacifier into her mouth.)

Ethan loves her too. He tells her stories and sings songs and helps hand me things I need while I'm nursing. Such a sweetie.
We're not quite to any kind of real routine with her, but we are getting to have a good family rhythm with our new addition. Everyone is settling down and most importantly, I am much less hysterical and hormonal! I think that's the biggest reason why everyone is settling down.
PS. Ellie is now wearing 3-month-old clothes. What a fatty!

a few pictures

We were eating donuts for breakfast one morning and Ethan says, "Take a picture!" So I did. We have donuts a lot. So much that he calls Smiths "the donut store". Yum.
He loves to ride the train at the zoo.
Here's one of the sweet baby. She's getting so big!
I love the weird things they do before they can control their arms and hands.

back to work?

I did an hour and a half sub job at SLCC today. It was really nice. I enjoy working. However, I also enjoy staying home with my babies. I wish I could stay home AND work. And then as I was driving home after only 25 min because the job got done early to take a nap because both babies were asleep, I realized once more that I do have both. I have the perfect job that enables me to be an involved mom and a satisfied professional. I love it!

the farm

I've been feeling a little more like a human being (except just before mealtimes), so we've been doing fun outings. And look at me, already blogging about it.

We went down to visit my grandparents on The Farm yesterday. Mom and Amy came too. Ethan loved to see the cows and horses! He's been talking about the "giant bull, looking and turning" ever since.

Grandpa Esplin picked him up and Ethan got to pet Blaze. Very exciting!


And Ellie got to meet Grandma and Grandpa while we were there, too. Hopefully we'll get to go down again soon!

two too many children (and cats)

Rayen won't stop screaming unless she's latched onto me, Cordelia barfs up the 2 biggest hairballs I've ever seen, Ethan steps in the hairball barf in his last pair of clean socks. And all right at dinnertime when I am so hungry I can't cope with anything. It is so small and so big and all I can do is laugh because I'm too exhausted to cry.

-sigh- Tomorrow is another day with no mistakes in it yet.