Four Month Old Esther

• At Esther's four month checkup she weighed 12 lbs. 10 oz. and was 24 inches tall.
• Esther is a calm, happy girl. She smiles a lot--her smile is big and open-mouthed. She still doesn't do what I would call a real laugh but she definitely makes sounds to let you know she's excited about something.
• Esther can carry her side of a conversation. I love talking to her and hearing her little coos in return. She is quite expressive.
• Esther's favorite toy is her Infantino frog. (Austin had one, too, which he practially wore out from chewing on it so it's nice that Esther was given one of her own.) It's one of the few things that she can manipulate into her mouth--lightweight enough to pick up yet lots of convenient parts to get a grip on.
• Esther tolerates tummy time in short spurts but then starts complaining. Consequently I probably don't give her enough time on her belly--she is nowhere near rolling over. Perhaps she's destined to be a late roller/sitter/crawler like her big brother.
• When you carry Esther upright against your body, she wraps her arm around your shoulder and holds on pretty tight. I love this.
• Esther became really good at falling asleep this month. She goes down at night around the same time as Austin and falls asleep within minutes if not seconds. She falls asleep pretty quickly for naps, too.
• Esther is not quite so good at staying asleep, especially at night. She has been waking up twice at night to be nursed all month. At least one of those feedings is really short so I know it's more for comfort than nutrition, but we're not quite ready to let her cry it out yet. (Just picking her up and comforting her doesn't do much.)
• Esther usually takes four naps a day. Most naps are an hour long but occasionally we hit the jackpot and get a two hour nap or longer. How or why those long ones happen is a mystery to me.
• Esther still doesn't take a bottle very well. That is frustrating to me because it makes going out in the evening difficult. (For our church small group, my book group, etc.) We have tried different bottles, different positions, distractions, no distractions...doesn't seem to make much difference. She likes her mommy best.
• Esther is growing up too quickly. Of course. I will probably write this every month.

Halloween (Updated)

Austin loves Bob the Builder. (or "Bob da ba-da," as he says.) It's an unusual day if he hasn't asked to watch a Bob video by 9am. (I don't always say yes, but he asks.) So of course that's what he was for Halloween. We gave him the toolset this afternoon, kind of an early Christmas present so his costume would be properly accessorized.

The bucket is filled with tools. By the end of the evening it had a bit of candy, too. Austin was unusually willing to eat a good dinner tonight when candy consumption was on the line. :)

Esther was a ladybug. My nickname for her is Esther Bug so I really wanted her to be one this year. I didn't find an appropriately cheap/tiny storebought costume so I got (slightly) crafty and made my own. Considering that she wore it for about five minutes, it was a wise choice. She cooperated by laying on her tummy happily while I took pictures.

When I first posted this I forgot to include a picture of Zach in his costume. We made it for the Tubaphonium's performance of Frankentuba, in which all the studio members dressed up. Pretty awesome, if we do say so ourselves.

Occupying Austin

Things Austin really likes to play with right now

1. "puzzy piece" (puzzle pieces)--not necessarily putting the pieces in the puzzle boards, but putting them in his shopping cart and dumping them out. Again and again and again.
2. crayons--again, putting them in the ziploc bag and dumping them out. Coloring would be so ordinary.
3. my salad spinner--He asked to get this out of the cabinet this morning. In several sessions, he has played with it for at least an hour. And it's not even 10:00 yet.
4. socks--baby socks fit so conveniently into his little basketball hoop.

Who can understand the mind of a two-year-old? I sure love this one, though.

And the secret ingredient is...

Admit it. Somewhere in your kitchen or pantry, there is an ingredient tucked away that has been there a Long Time. You bought it with the best of intentions. You were going to make something healthy/delicious/exciting. But you didn't, and the ingredient is still there.

For me, that ingredient is chickpeas. A bag of uncooked chickpeas, to be specific. I don't even remember why I bought it. A desire to make hummus, perhaps? Maybe it was on sale? Who knows. But this week I decided enough is enough. It's time to cook with chickpeas.

Allrecipes.com (the best recipe site out there, in my opinion) has a handy feature where you can put in ingredients you want and ingredients you don't want in a recipe. Input chickpeas: yes, tahini: no (to avoid getting 3000 hummus recipes) and I came up with a bunch of tasty-sounding stuff. I feel a little bit like I'm on Iron Chef! Mr. Chairman, here is what I have to offer. (Note: I cooked the raw chickpeas according to the package directions before making any of the stuff below.)

Dish 1: Roasted Chickpeas

I followed one reviewer's advice and dry roasted the chickpeas instead of using oil. Not sure that was a good idea. Or maybe I just didn't roast them long enough. They came out a bit soft, not crispy, and they were pretty bland--seasoning didn't stick to them. I would be willing to try this again using oil.

Dish 2: Quinoa with Chickpeas and Tomatoes

I had all the ingredients on hand for this (gotta love that), except that I had to sub lemon juice for lime juice and I chose to use garlic powder instead of raw garlic. Oh, and I left out the cumin--it just didn't sound like a cumin-y dish to me. The results: very tasty. I ate is as a side dish for lunch but it was so filling that it could stand on its own. Zach loved it, too (he took some to school for his own lunch) and commented that it would be tasty with some feta thrown in.

Dish 3: Garbanzo Bean Chocolate Cake

This was not actually part of my original chickpea recipe search; rather, I found it when I was looking for a dessert to make for a friend whose son eats gluten-free. I made a cake for myself first to make sure it was tasty. (Gotta love a good excuse to make a cake.) It was pretty yummy, not to mention easy. And much higher in protein than your average chocolate cake.

Thanks to my two cakes, I ran out of chickpeas before trying the final recipe I wanted to make, Chickpea and Pasta Soup. I will get around to it someday. Perhaps next time I make a rash purchase of a bag of raw beans. :)

Little Bit of Learning

Austin and I did a shape sorting project this morning. He did a good job putting each shape in the correct place and loved gluing the pieces down. (It was his first experience with a glue stick. That aspect went better than I expected.) He is so proud of the finished product! Several times today he has pointed to it and said "Done!" (as in, Look what I've done!) It's so true; kids are learning sponges. I love being able to help him learn stuff like this.

A Conversation with Esther

I'll admit, I have not taken as many videos or photos of Esther as I would like. Grabbing the camera is just not at the top of your mind when you have a two year old running around, no matter how adorable Esther might be at any given moment. Every parent of multiple children out there knows what I mean.

But today while Austin napped, the camera was nearby and Esther got a few minutes alone in the spotlight. Nothing particularly special happened but I know her grandparents will love this so I decided to post it. Sorry this doesn't happen more often, baby girl.

Sweet Brother

While we were playing upstairs with the kids after dinner, Austin suddenly left the room. We heard him going down the stairs saying "right back." Then...

This was totally unprompted. Austin is so sweet to his little sister! (Okay, so he probably knew this would also get some attention from Mommy and Daddy, but still.) And if you can't tell in the video, the basket of toys is on the third or fourth step. He started carrying the whole thing but apparently decided it would be better to take the toys a few at a time. I just love this little boy!

Monday Morning Prayer

Thank you, Father, for turning an exhausted Sunday night mommy into a refreshed Monday morning mommy. Thank you for being there when I come to the end of myself.
Thank you for giving me so much joy in being a mother today. Thank you for all the spontaneous hugs, kisses, giggles, and smiles I've received.
Thank you for growing my baby boy into a loving, caring big brother. Thank you for a little girl who already looks up to her big brother.
Thank you for rearranging my priorities. Thank you for giving me eyes to see that kicking a ball in the backyard is more important than today's to-do list, that playing peekaboo is more important than having a spotless house.
Thank you for all the patience and strength you give me...and for teaching me lessons in my impatient and weak moments.
Thank you, Father, for all the blessings of this Monday morning.

Reading to Esther

Here is the video of Austin reading to Esther that I mentioned in my last post. The story is David and Goliath, in case you're wondering. Esther is a good listener, don't you think?

Three Month Old Esther

• No official stats from the doctor's office this month but according to Wii Fit Plus Esther weighs around 11 1/2 pounds.
• She must be getting longer, too, because I have had to move her up to 3-6 month sleepers. Most of her 0-3 month daytime clothes still fit, but there's something about wearing cloth diapers with pajamas...she just needs more room.
• Esther's beautiful eyes are still dark blue. Perhaps for good?
• I no longer think Esther looks like a newborn. She doesn't make so many scrunchy newborn faces anymore. Sigh. But now she makes a whole new set of adorable faces.
• Esther is a smiley baby now. Sometimes she smiles when I come to get her out of bed. You melt my heart, little one! No real giggles yet, but she makes cute breathy sounds that will turn into laughs soon, I bet. She also coos a lot. Sometimes I swear she's saying "uh-huh" when I ask her a question.
• Esther eats 6-7 times a day. She is such a fast nurser! That is quite helpful, with a two year old to keep track of. Bottles are a different story. She'll take one, reluctantly, but is pretty slow. No way to know for sure, but I think she eats significantly less from a bottle than when she nurses.
• If she is awake, Esther usually sits in her bouncy seat in the corner of the dining room while we eat meals. She spends most of her time watching me. At the risk of sounding conceited, I must admit that I love this. I think she loves her mommy.
• Esther definitely hit a few rough patches, sleepwise, this month. For a few weeks we were enduring 3-4 hour crying spells as we attempted to put her to bed, at least a few times a week. That does not bring out the best in me, as Zach can attest. (Sorry again, honey.) I think that is behind us now, though. We have been trying to teach her to put herself to sleep with a gentle sort of "cry it out" plan that involves periodic visits to comfort her after 5, then 10, then 15 minutes. Most of the time she falls asleep during the 10 minute interval, which means within 15 minutes of being put down. Then she usually wakes up to eat once during the night.
• Esther can hold onto things like her little toy keys now, if you help her grab them. (And by help, I mean wrap her fingers around them.) But then she'll hold on for awhile.
• Esther pays lots of attention to Austin when he's nearby. She turns her head to see what he's doing. (No wonder, he's usually the most exciting thing in the room.) I have an adorable video of Austin "reading" to Esther while she just gazes up at him. But that's another post, hopefully coming soon.

Blessings all Around

Austin, Esther, and I all caught a cold this week, so naturally there has been a lot of sneezing in our house. Yesterday morning Austin started saying "bless you" to himself after sneezing. By evening he seemed to realize that something wasn't quite right with his pronouns; I overheard him sneezing and then saying "bless Au-tin!"

Pink Lady

Oh no!

I was unloading the dishwasher this morning when I heard the sound of a plastic bowl hitting the floor, with a little voice saying "Oh no, da mok fall!"

Well, as you can see it was a bit more than milk that fell. Luckily Austin had already finished about half his cereal when the accident occurred. He was quite upset so I got him more cereal and cleaned up the mess. Then I went back to the kitchen to resume my task. Minutes later I turned around and Austin had somehow dumped the second bowl of cereal in his booster seat. (I'm thinking his little plastic bowls scoot across the table much too easily as he tries to get a spoonful, perhaps?) Anyway...another cleanup. And it wasn't even 7am yet! Did I mention that in the middle of all this Esther woke up and started crying from upstairs? Sheesh.

But...God works all things together for good to those who love Him. I was aware in the midst of this that here was an opportunity to be patient and loving to my young son, and with His help I think I was.

But maybe we'll have toast for breakfast tomorrow...

Scary Morning

Austin had a seizure this morning. Let me assure you right off that he is fine now, but it was terrifying as it happened. Austin woke up a few times in the night coughing, and by morning had a runny nose so we thought he just had a cold. He felt slightly warm but was playing and eating more or less normally so we weren't worried. But just before lunchtime Zach laid him down to change his diaper and the seizure started. He yelled to me to call 911. By the time I got off the phone with the dispatcher, the seizure was over but an ambulance came and took us to the ER. The doctor there diagnosed it right away as a febrile seizure, one brought on by a fever. We thought that sort of thing only happened with really high fevers. Austin's was only 101.7 but apparently the seizures happen when fevers spike suddenly. They gave him Motrin and monitored him for awhile to make sure the fever went down, then sent us home. He has an ear infection, it turns out, so he's also on an antibiotic to take care of that.

So...not fun. Poor little guy, he was exhausted, scared, and not feeling well at the hospital and cried most of the time he was awake; thank goodness he was able to fall asleep and nap next to me for awhile. He had monitors strapped to his chest and a pulse-oxymeter on his toe. (Strangely familiar...) Now that he's home, though, he is obviously feeling better. He's upstairs playing right now.

We have since learned that febrile seizures are genetic and quite a few people on Zach's side of the family have had them. Austin may be prone to them for the next few years so we will need to monitor any fever he gets and control it with tylenol or motrin. Scarily, though, the seizures can happen when a fever initially starts; you don't necessarily get a warning. We are just praying that he will not have any more of them.

I just have to mention the kindness of God on display in this situation, though. If one of my children had to have a seizure, the circumstances couldn't have been any more ideal. Most days at 11:30 in the morning I would be by myself with two kids and dealing with this alone would have been horrible. But Fridays Zach comes home early, and this particular Friday my in-laws are in town, including my nurse MIL. She knew what to do with Austin while we was seizing, and she, Bill, and Heath were here to take care of Esther while Zach and I went to the hospital. I am so thankful.

SwaddleMe Fail