Larger Than Life

Nathalie has a huge personality. If you've ever spent any time interacting with her, you'll know that she has her own opinion...and she'll let you know it! She is very strong-willed, stubborn, into everything. She's very smart, funny and talks like a 4 yr old. She is the antagonist to a lot of Emily's tantrums.
For example, yesterday we were driving somewhere. I keep some books on the back row between Nathalie and Emily. Nathalie was looking at a book that Emily wanted. Emily was getting more and more upset that Nathalie wasn't sharing. I told Emily to take 4 deep breaths and then we'd talk about the book. Emily started breathing and Nathalie, in true Nathalie spirit, threw the book up between Matt's and my seat. Then she yelled at Emily, "Now you can't have the book either, EVER!"

Her nickname is Nan. It started when Nathalie was a baby and Emily couldn't say her name. Emily called her "Nani", which evolved for a short time into "Nanners" when Nathalie went through a banana-loving phase. Now it's just "Nan."

Three days ago Matt was sitting in the living room doing homework. Nathalie and I were in the kitchen and Nathalie was getting into everything. She finally grabbed the knife sharpener and told me, "I'm going to go kill Nephi!" A little desperate to get her out of the kitchen I said, "Okay, go kill Nephi. He's sitting in there!" and pointed to the living room. Nathalie ran into the living, "sword" out, went up to Matt and announced, "Nephi! I'm going to kill you!" Matt put on a sad face. Nathalie leaned it and whispered, "It's okay. It won't hurt."

Nathalie is just absolutely filled with life. She has such a personality that she can't keep it in. She frustrates me to no end, but she also makes me laugh every other minute. I sometimes think of her as my "joy child" because her joy starting around 7 months old is what brought me out of post-partum depression. True to her name, Nathalie brings life and joy to everyone around her.

Larger Than Life

Little ray of sunshine

Charlotte is 6 months. She weighed in at 15 lbs 14 oz and is almost 27 inches long. She is right on track developmentally She is adored by everyone around her. In the blessing Matt gave her as a baby, he mentioned that she would be loved and supported by all her friends and family. That is such the truth. There is so much love surrounding this little girl that sometimes it's almost palpable to me.

Charlotte has probably been my neediest baby. She only likes to nurse although she will take a bottle occasionally, she doesn't want to be put down and she hates to be left alone. And yet....she and I have bonded in a way that took so much longer with the other two girls. I've never been so happy to have a baby before. I love having her around. I still (6 months later!) stare at her while she's sleeping, play with her when I should be doing other things. She loves her sisters and desperately wants to be running around with her crazy sisters. She doesn't like to sit still AT ALL! She can almost crawl and just wants to be standing.

And yet she loves to cuddle with me. She is content to be kissed and cuddled and held all day. She is so sweet. It's hard to explain but you can feel that as much as she is loved by others, she has a lot of love to give too. It has been such a joy with her the last few months. I can't imagine life without her at all.

Any ideas?

We had a bit of sick household this last weekend. I had the flu-- the feverish, chilled, headachey kind. Charlotte and Nathalie were and still are completely congested.

Anyway, the point is, because of being sick Charlotte has been really clingy. So clingy that she starts crying when Matt holds her. So clingy that I can't even put her down. Benadryl (yes, she's 6 months) doesn't seem to make a difference to her ability to sleep or breathe. She won't take a bottle at all, which she had been taking one before bed previous to getting the cold.

I don't know what to do! I've never nursed a child exclusively this long before but Charlotte won't take a bottle. I'm taking fenugreek daily to keep my supply up. I can't go anywhere after 7:30 (her bedtime) and she often wakes up several times a night, often 2 times before 11 where I have to go in and nurse her.

Is this normal? Is it just the cold? How do I get her to start taking a bottle once a day regularly? I just don't know what's normal for a baby that's EBF.

Also, Nathalie fight sleep every night.... for 2 hours. We just put her to bed AGAIN. We put her in bed at 8pm tonight. How do I get her to sleep? It doesn't matter to Nathalie how long we sing, read books or cuddle. We even gave her Benadryl for her cold and she's still up.

Parenting is so confusing! Who's the genius out there that has the answers to my questions?

UPDATE: I decided to give Charlotte what she wants until her cold is gone. We slept together last night and while it wasn't ideal, we both got a lot more sleep. She also gets her shots tomorrow (poor little girl! What a rough week!) so it'll be a few more nights before we're out of the woods. And you were right: I need to crack down with Nathalie. I always feel bad locking their door or being mean, but 10pm is just way too late. It just breaks my heart to hear Nathalie cry because her door is locked. Nathalie needs some special attention lately. She's kind of getting lost in the shuffle.

Family, family

Thanks for all your responses! I think it's so important to realize that we need each other. Motherhood is a job I wouldn't trade for anything else, but sometimes it can get a bit lonely. So the next time you have a hard day (or month, or year) remember that there is another mom who knows exactly how you feel. Reach out to those other moms. It'll probably turn out that they need you as much as you need them.

So...last week my mom and "little" brother came to visit!! The last time I saw my bro he was a tad shorter than me. This time he was as tall as Matt!! We had a blast and Uncle B was a favorite with my girls. Well, Charlotte liked my mom more but that's probably because Uncle B was a little nervous holding such a squirmer.

We had so much fun with them. We went swimming at their hotel the last night. Emily is a COMPLETE fish. She was all over that pool.


We went to the park. I adore Nathalie's face here. Nathalie is not quite as adventurous and athletic as Emily is, so she was thrilled but a little nervous to be hanging by herself.

My grandfather came to visit us, just for a day. Nathalie was SO disappointed because she thought that when I said, "my grandpa is here" that it was her grandpa, my dad. There were some tears but she decided to check my grandpa out a little later anyway.

We picked apples and made apple cider with our very own apple cider press (video to come in the next psot). We made the cider press ourself and the cider turned out delish. Mmmmmm.....

My brother conquered the apple orchard.

Nathalie was my brother's little buddy. She can't wait to see him at Christmas.

My bro and Emily played Rapunzel. Sometimes my bro was Rapunzel....but I didn't say it.

We went to COSI. Emily is posing on top of a hill here! Don't you love that? She's hilarious.

My mom loved on my little baby. Who wouldn't want to? Charlotte is freaking adorable. My mom is awesome with babies too and Charlotte loved her. Charlotte is mobile now. She uses a combination of rolling, the inch-worm and the army crawl to get where she wants to go, albeit slowly. No, she's not 6 months yet. I think I'm in for trouble!

There was this awesome baby water table at COSI. The kids LOVED it, including Charlotte. I thought the water was a bit cold for babies but they didn't care!

All in all we had a super busy but awesome week. My mom took over my laundry (thank you a million times!!) because I really dislike laundry. She also organized the piles in my basement so I actually can walk down there. She took Emily to school, helped make lunches, read lots of books to the girlies and we had a blast. My brother was a gem and SO patient with the little ones, especially Nathalie (who woke him up every morning).

Counting down until Christmas!

We all want to be good mothers. When we look at our responsibilities with purpose, we love our jobs, even if we are submerged under loads of grass-stained laundry and piles of casserole-encrusted dishes. Mothering is an education all in itself, only the credits we accumulate are eternal.

This ain't fer sissies

People don't talk about the craziness of motherhood. Nobody mentions the days where you want to scream, cry and run around like a psycho. Nobody mentions the days wher your 4 yr old acts like a teenager and it takes all your patience to be loving and understanding.
Nobody talks about the days where your children are exhausted because one of Daddy's projects kept them up really late the night before. Where they eat cake or cold leftovers for lunch, sitting on the floor of the kitchen. No one mentions the days where cereal is served for dinner with powdered milk because Mom hasn't had time to go to the store and it's either that or a can of beans.

No one mentions the days where you want to get in the car and drive away, except that you wouldn't have anything to listen to since your 4 yr old "washed" your iPod and your 2 yr old stuck something in the cd player so it doesn't work. No one talks about having your baby scream bloody murder every single time you put her in the carseat so that simply driving around the block is torture.

No one talks about the days where you are exhausted from being up all night with puking children and a crying baby while your husband works. No one says how hard it is to keep going when there is no one to fall back on. No one talks about how much your shoulders hurt after you've been holding your baby all day because she cries every time you put her down.

No one explains how much patience it takes to comfort crying children multiple times each hour. Or hour you wish, just for a moment, that you could plan out your next quilt or go for a run, but you can't even go to the bathroom without a child coming running, crying, "Mommy!!"

No one says how hard it is to keep life going when work, your bed, church and school see your husband for an entire week. You don't even get to sleep with the man, much less talk to him.

How come now one talks about these things? We're all in the same boat! So here's what I would like. Please post a comment of one of your most horrible days as a parent. Let's briefly unite and realize that we're all in this same craziness together. We may not talk about it, but we're struggling with the same things at the same time. Let's not struggle alone, just for a moment.

(P.S. All of these things are examples from my life. Thankfully however, not all of them happened at the same time.

P.P.S. These are some seriously adorable pictures of my girls. )

School Girl

Matt and I really debated when and where to send Emily to preschool. We knew she needed some kind of outlet this year, but weren't sure if it needed to be only a few times a week or every day. In the end all our reasons for preschool pointed toward a public preschool which is 4 full days a week.
I was so worried that it would be too much for her. I shouldn't have worried! Emily is thriving. She loves school, she loves her teachers, she is doing better behaviorally, she has learned all the songs and things they do. As for our family, I am much less stressed, she is much less bored and she and I don't have so many conflicts at home. She just adores preschool.

I can't believe how big she's getting! She loves her princess lunch box, which she picked out. She wears something pink nearly every day, and most days her outfit is different shades of pink. I sure love this little school girl. It is wonderful to see her so happy!

Capper

So, we had a bad week. Not a terrible week, or a week where I threw in the towel and we ate hot dogs every day (though we did have them one day). And the kids weren't too crazy, it was mostly just things going wrong. But you know what Emily said to me tonight?

"Mom, you're the best mom ever."

Oh yeah. Your heart just melted.