Felix at Five Months

There’s been some serious neglect of this blog for a while now.  Not because there’s nothing happening here, of course.  BUT.  I have some cute photos today!  I know that’s important. 

Felix turned five months old last Friday.  Um.  What?  How?  Yeah.  But it’s true.  And everyone LOVES Felix to a degree that sometimes leaves him little room to breathe.  “Give him some space!” is something very often repeated around our house.  This baby is LOVED, and it is an ACTION VERB. 

But don’t let those somewhat goofy expressions on his sweet little face fool you:  He loves to be loved.  He doesn’t love to be overly squished, but his squeal of delight and his wide smile are in play often around here, and his siblings elicit both from him regularly.  He loves his family RIGHT BACK.  And he’ll pull their hair and bite their fingers to prove it.  No, he really will.  He’s not trying to hurt anyone, but he is teething. 

Seriously, who could resist this little bundle of cute sweetness?  Do you see the two bottom teeth?  He got those right before four months, because a four month old baby really does need teeth for all the…Wait.  Why does a four month old baby need teeth?  He doesn’t.  Huh. 

He has perfected both rolling from back to front and from front to back.  And he’s begun to realize that he can move himself about on the floor by scooching backwards or by rolling.  It’s not a terribly precise method of travel, but it does change the scenery. 

Here he’s squealing with delight into the quilt that his godmother made for him.  I know.  Totally awesome. 

Look at that guy! 

At his five month appointment (which should have been his four month appointment, but I was sick, so it got delayed), he demonstrated both his great skill at growing (21 lb, 10 oz, 28 inches (6.5 inch length gain since birth!)) and his skill at switching hands with things, although he’s not necessarily expected to do that for another couple of months.  See him looking all humble up there?

Here he demonstrates that he can push himself up and is starting to think about crawling. 

Felix is such a happy guy.  He didn’t enjoy his brief stint with a cold last week, but even then he managed smiles for everyone.  He doesn’t complain in the car.  Ever.  I’ve had babies who complained in the car every time and others ones who’ve complained intermittently, but I don’t know that I’ve ever heard him complain in the car.

Of course, he doesn’t complain out of the car much, either. 

We love Felix and are so glad he’s here!

Halloween

Our crew had a couple of low-grade fevers, but that did not dampen their costume enthusiasm.  It did rearrange our Halloween schedule so that we weren’t coming into contact with as many people.  However, we managed to have a fun Halloween, despite fevers.

Naomi, the squirrel.  (Costumes are all made by Grandma Ellie.  Thank goodness!  I’m not sure I could have pulled off a squirrel, but this one even has a really awesome tail.)

Simmo Baggins, the Hobbit.  His knife and scabbard were provided by his oldest sister. 

 

Eilonwy.  Did I spell that right?  She’s a princess from the Lloyd Alexander book series.  The bauble was made in a joint effort by Hannah and Michael and really glows!  Two different colors! 

Elsa, the princess from Frozen.  She’s actually quite a happy princess, but in this picture she’s trying to get her special Elsa fingernails into the photo.  Here’s a better shot:

These were an inspired gift from Aunt Barbie. 

Felix went as a cute baby this year.  I think he’s pretty believable, and he wore his costume ALL DAY…dedication to the craft, you know.  He also had his special outfit with jack o’lanterns on it. 

 

Felix is baptized!

Tessisms

Or should I say Elsaisms?  Tess corrects us nearly every time we call her anything but Elsa.  She’s sometimes Princess Elsa, sometimes Elsa the pink bunny, sometimes Elsa the pink zebra and almost never Tess. 

Yesterday she came into the room and told me she was Elsa the Unicorn.  A few minutes later, I told the kids we were ordering from the teriyaki place for dinner. 

Tess:  Unicorns like chicken katsu. 

7QT: School, work, babies, groceries, 3!

New baby and health issues have claimed most of my posting time in the past 2 1/2 months, but I’m going to try to get some quick takes in here, joining Jen.
1. 

It’s my belief that life would be happier if each homeschool were issued a young and happy baby.  Heck, each school.  Maybe even each workplace.  Felix is like some kind of anti-cranky drug.  Whoever starts showing signs of crankiness gets assigned to talk to or hold Felix.  It’s almost impossible to be cranky with that sweetness smiling up at you. 

2.  Part of our homeschool morning this year is manners practice.  MAYBE I’ve noticed a bit of…need…for this study, or maybe it’s just that good manners are a great asset to anyone.  In any case, we're working on telephone etiquette, and I’m teaching the kids to say, “She’s not available,” when appropriate, hoping to ward off the nearly inevitable, “She’s going potty.”  We’ll see if I can do it.  At any rate, I “called” each of the three older kids in turn, having them practice their mad skeelz.  Then Tess wanted a turn, so I called her, too.  When I asked if I could speak with Monica, she answered, “She’s not invisible right now.” 

3.  Shortage of butter knives?  Ask your 5-6 year old where they are.  “Well, I only have one right now.”  Yeah.

4.  Michael went back to work this week.  Tess seems to realize he’s gone about halfway through the afternoon:  “Where’s Dad?”  She also asks, “Why?” when I tell her he’s at work, and doesn’t think that “supporting his family” constitutes a reasonable excuse for being gone all day.

5.  There are any number of new-baby things I’d forgotten, such as the way that grocery shopping takes on both importance and impossibility rarely seen together.  I REALLY have to get to the grocery store…with a baby.  Okay, maybe we can hold on until the weekend.  Hmm.  Bonus points added because it’s pretty much impossible for me to carry that baby in a sling or pack at the moment because my incisions are still healing, AND he’s 17+ pounds at 2 1/2 months, so it’s not easy to just tuck him into my arm and go to town.  SO…evening and weekend runs it is! 

6.  Of course, a little chat with Felix makes even having only dried beans and tortilla chips in the house seem like a small and silly problem.  (No, no!  I’m exaggerating!  There’s plenty of food for us here.  Don’t worry.)

7.  Tess turned 3!  Okay, absolutely unbelievable.  She helped Hannah make her cake:

She’s settling down into life with a baby brother – whom she adores – and seems to be doing a lot better now that I’m up and about more.  She has been experimenting with some…interesting…wardrobe choices lately, and is the only one of my girls who changes clothes multiple times a day.  “Um.  I think I need a new dress.”  Headbands are in favor at the moment, or the lamb costume head piece (see photo above).  She also like to have an Elsa braid, but if it’s not PERFECT, according to her somewhat random-seeming criteria, she will immediately take it down and ask you to redo it.  She’s sweet and funny and keeps us all laughing or guessing or on our toes. 

Felix is 2 months old!

And he weighs 17.2 lbs!

He’s very interactive these days, smiling and cooing a whole bunch.  He started a bit of a laugh last night, too!  So sweet. 

Answer Me This: Summer, Pie, Sleep, Libraries

Kendra's asking questions again this week! 

1. What do you still want to do this summer?

Well, I started the summer (truly, it was June 21) by giving birth. From there, my summer plans changed quite a bit, so I've spent most of the summer since then recovering from the endometritis and sepsis that followed.  Technically, I have a huge list of things I still want to do this summer, because I haven't gotten to do really any of the things I thought I'd be doing.

But, realistically what I still want to do this summer is get my gall bladder out. I normally am not a fan of the idea of surgery, but I've had three gall bladder attacks this summer (gall stones probably developed because I lost a lot of weight suddenly in the ICU), and I really WANT this thing out.  And guess what?  That's what I get!  Then I want to recover some more and be well enough to spend some time outdoors for longer than a few minutes before the rain starts again.  I know, I know!  Ambitious!

2.  What's your favorite kind of pie?

Oh, pie.  Mmmm.  I think my favorite is raspberry rhubarb, which I discovered because Hannah and Naomi sell pie as a fundraiser for their AHG troop.  And oh man are those pies good!  But raspberry rhubarb is the best.  I really like most fruit pies.  Pumpkin and pecan -- good, but not up there with the fruit pies. 

3.  How much sleep do you need each day?  How much do you get?

I think I need 7 or 8 hours. Before Felix came, I was getting that mostly at night, with a nap of 30-60 minutes during the day.  After Felix came, I spent some time in the hospital, running some major fevers in the night in the ICU, which = sleeping in naps stolen during the day. After I got home, I spent most of my time in bed, sleeping a lot of that.  Now that I'm much more recovered, I'm actually sleeping pretty well -- Felix is a great sleeper at night! -- and occasionally I'll still nap during the day.

I find that if I get consistently less sleep than I need, I have to frequent the Sacrament of Confession far more and my family doesn't like to be around me.  So I make sleep a priority for me, and I also prioritize everyone else in the family getting sleep, too.  Nothing like lost sleep to really fray the edges, ya know?

4.  Do you prefer to swim in a pool, lake, river, or ocean?

Pool or lake.  I don't really prefer working against the waves or the current when I swim.  I actually prefer lake over pool, too.  I'm not sure exactly why except that I often lean towards the more natural experience -- like I prefer hiking in the woods to walking in a neighborhood. 

5.  Do you know any poems by heart?

Yes.  And I'm often surprised at how they come back after years.  We'll be doing more poetry memorization this school year, too (I hope), so I'll probably have more by this time next year.

6.  Do you use the public library?

Do I!  Yes.  The kids consider a trip to the library as one of the best outings EVER.  Which is fine with me, although I sadly can't just turn them loose and let them choose whatever they lay their hands on.  Also, I LOVE that I can put books on hold download audiobooks and books for my Kindle from the comfort of my own home whenever I have time to be on the computer.  I love to read, but I don't want to own every book I read...LIBRARY!