Lil' Mischief Maker

Everyone thinks Hollyn is so sweet and so quiet.  Man is this the biggest con in history.  Hollyn gives us a run for our money to be sure.  She makes bigger messes and tampers with more stuff than either Brennan or Asher combined.  Seems that way, anyway.

Lately her thing is that she can climb out of her crib.  She'd done it on a few select occasions for the past several months, but now it's habitual.  It's ruined nap time because she can play/escape/etc.  We had a really long day on Saturday.  We all attended cub scout camp from 9am until 2pm.  Upon arriving home Brian and I had to prepare for the missionaries to come for dinner - so food prep, cooking, cleaning, and errands to borrow eating, and such.  Hollyn was put down for a late nap right away but as she kept leaving her room, we put a baby-gate up in front of her door.  That kept her more or less corralled, but she never did sleep.  She just stood at her gate chatting, and ultimately throwing like everything in her room over the gate into the hallway. *sigh*

So she hadn't had a nap that day.  That night, she again took a while to go to bed since she wouldn't stay in it.  Eventually things got quiet.  But at 1am that night I was sound asleep when I was awakened by our bedroom door being shut.  I jumped up to investigate and in the darkness ran into Hollyn returning back up the stairs. "Hiiiiiiiii Mom!"  Ugh.  So I put her back into bed and put the gate back up.  She had pushed it out of her doorway.  *sigh again*.

Two hours later when Kieran woke up I peeked across the hall just to see.  Her gate was still up though her door was open.  I stood there for several seconds thinking to myself that it sort of looked like something may be there at the gate.  It was still quite dark at 3am.  So I moved towards her door and sure enough a little body scrambled back to hide in her room.  *sigh yet again!*  At that point I moved the child's door lock from the bathroom to the inside of her room.  I couldn't sleep if I was wondering if she was wandering around the house.  I have no idea how much sleep she actually got that night.  I know I missed a lot because of her.

7-5-13

O.k.  Kelly mentioned not seeing a video that I'd posted below the picture.  I can see it just fine.  Brian tried on his tablet and it said he needed a plug in.  So I posted a second one.  Let me know if it's not viewable either.


Well the good news is, I'll never have to worry about Hollyn doing crazy stunts like crossing bridges like this.

1 Month Down

I don’t feel like rearranging the pics, so we’re going backwards in time…
On Friday the day after 4th of July, Brian suggested a family picnic at a park we’ve never been to in Albany.  Such a great park!  The kids basically ignored the playground but loved the creek flowing through.  It was full of ducks and even a lot of cute little ducklings.  I wanted to pet one so bad!



On Independence day I took the kids (yes, all 4!) to watch the city’s parade.  Short, but sweet.  The best part is gathering all the candy.   I got this picture of the kids, then chided Brennan for looking so unhappy.  So he gave me this one below.



And Kieran.  Sweet, sweet Kieran.  I can’t believe it’s been a month already.  Tomorrow he’ll be 5 weeks in fact.  Kieran’s gaining predictability.  Currently, he sleeps 3-4 hours at a time at night and usually goes back to sleep after eating.  He takes a nice solid morning nap allowing me to shower and what not.  And he’s also predictably fussy at night from about 8-11pm.  My other kids did this too.  I’m not sure why.  I wouldn’t say he has colic per se, but it’s definitely regular fussiness.  Since it’s supposed to peak around 6 weeks of age, I can handle it for another week or two.  It’s tiring to spend those hours trying to keep him happy-ish and not full-out crying, but at least he isn’t full-out-crying/nothing-you-can-do-about-it.

In the mornings between his last night sleep and next nap is his happiest.  And boy is he happy.  I kid you not, he started smiling around 2 weeks old.  Asher did the same.  It’s the most precious thing.  He looks into our faces and his eyes light up and he flashes a small smile.  I’ve noticed that he loves to watch my eyebrows especially.  With my dark-haired brows offering a big contrast to my light skin, I exaggerate my movements and Kieran is just enthralled.  Today he gave a sound that almost sounded like a baby’s laugh as he watched my eyebrows and gave an early smile.
Kieran’s acne may be clearing up a little.  I’m trying some different things.  Poor baby.  His teen years will probably be every awkward if baby acne has any relation to later acne.



Everybody always asks who Kieran looks like.  The answer is: Brennan.  And Asher.  And Hollyn.  My goodness but our babies do all have “a look”.  See if you can guess who's who.  The ever changing assortment of furniture may help ;-)

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He Knew It!

I can NOT wait to tell Asher's future children all about their Dad as a child.  He is truly one of the most imaginative and funny children I have ever met.  Currently, Asher is convinced that he's the Hulk.  Because one day he pulled apart an adjustable curtain rod, separating the two poles.  He realized then that he can "break metal" which naturally means he's the Hulk I guess. ;-)  Most of his conversations these days revolve around his new-found identity.  And he's extra glad that "Kieran is another word for Batman" because now he doesn't have to be the only superhero in the family.

This little gem came about while I was feeding Kieran.  Asher was hanging out with me and admiring himself in the mirror when he suddenly turned around excitedly and exclaimed that he'd seen some green!  He pointed to a spot above his lip where apparently he'd discovered the color's appearance.  He was so excited.  Yeah, this clip is coming out to show his children some day. :-)