Wednesday, January 25, 2012

7 months

Dearest Olivia,

I can hardly believe my newborn little Junebug is 7 months old already! Gone are the days where you just sit quietly in our arms without moving. No, if we are sitting down you are constantly squirming and turning  trying to grab at stuff or get down. Just within the last week you have mastered crawling and can now do it on any surface at lightning speed. And in the mornings you only eat half a bottle before you have to get down and play for a little while and then finish. You have also mastered the art of sitting up with out toppling over. You can go from down to up and up to down easy peasy. You are also getting tougher by the day. I just watched you fall over on the rug and bump your head and you didn’t make a peep. You just got right back up. Speaking of mastering skills, just within the last 2 days you have mastered pulling up onto your feet. You’re still a little wobbly on those so I have to be right beside you to catch you because that’s a long way down for your little noggin head!


You rock back and forth in a ryhtmatic motion when music comes on your piano or the little pig that you used to be afraid of comes on and starts dancing. You are still the happiest baby in the world and you think James and Audrey (especially James) are the funniest things in the world. You practically jump out of my arms when you first see them in the mornings!



Your sleep pattern has been interrupted and that’s a little disappointing. You were doing so good! From 6 weeks to 4 months, 5 out of 7 nights you were sleeping from 8:30-6:30. A simply dreamy sleep pattern for a newborn and her mother!! Then 4 months came and that minor detail went out the window. You went from 5 out of 7 nights to 1 night every other week but you were only waking once. This month has been the worst I must say. You’ve started waking up at 11:30 crying out in your sleep but will usually settle back down with a simple pat down on your back. Then you might wake up again at 1:30 and pat back down and then wake up between 3 and 4 for a bottle. Then you are back up between 6:30 and 7. I was a little disturbed by all this and decided to see what I could do to jog my memory and help you (and therefore help me!) get back to sleeping better at night. Well, I was reminded that there are 3 reasons for a baby’s sleep pattern getting disrupted and you are currently experiencing all 3 of them: 1. Mastering new motor skills (and you have mastered 3 in the last month) 2. Teething (which you are definitely doing and I check every day for a little white cap with out any luck) 3. Separation anxiety (you are most positively experiencing this one! You freak out every time I leave a room and at night cry when your daddy takes you which hurts his feelings in the deepest way!) I started giving you some Motrin and orajel at night before you go to bed and for the last 2 nights that has seemed to help you stay settled at least until 3:00.


You are still our favorite little thing to play with around here, no matter how much sleep you cause us, I mean ME, to loose!! And by the way, your sister is in love with your feet. We think she has developed a little foot fetish thanks to your adorable little tootsies! If you have a footed outfit on she just about can’t stand not being able to kiss your bare feet and the minute I take it off you she appears out of no where and starts “making out” with your feet! She will put her self in the strangest positions to be able to get at your feet. It’s hilarious and at times can be a little embarrassing. Ha!
Love you to the moon and back my darling.






Thursday, January 19, 2012

The sound of silence

That song has been floating around in my head all week long. It’s been so quiet around here and it’s been nice. I haven’t had to tell any one to shush or to not run down the hall because the baby is sleeping or put any one in time out or give any swats to any behinds. Or hear any dramatic crying fits or trip over any one in the kitchen or listen to any one complain or whine or scream or tattle on each other. There’s been nobody asking me for a snack every minute of the day. I have been able to go to the bathroom with out any one following me and talking to me through the door the entire time. I haven’t had to pick up any toilet paper from off the floor or answer a bajillion questions in a days time. There’s been no fights to break up or children to go find because they have been unusually quiet for 5 minutes. Bath time has been full of small splashes and giggles, no screaming that the water isn't hot enough or that the shampoo got in someones eyes or that someones hair is being brushed to fast and to hard. The sound of silence has been quite enjoyable.


At the same time, that silence has gotten awfully loud. Each evening I have stated that it’s awfully quiet around here and Jon has agreed. Too quiet, really. There has been nobody to say they love us or that we are the best mom and dad because we let them have Coke. There’s been no delightful squeals from playing chase or wrestling in the evenings. No princesses and super hero's or moms and their puppies prancing around. No seeing excited little faces jumping into the pool for swimming lessons or beautiful ballerinas practicing their steps for their end of the year recital. No body to kiss on Olivia’s feet while I am trying to walk around. No story time. Nobody to ask if it’s arts and crats time yet. No super time conversations with happy little children. No hugs, no squeezes, no little hands to hold while crossing the street or parking lot. No beautiful smiles to see or emphatic little voices to hear. And no bedtime songs.


I am heading to Middle Georgia in a few hours to pick up our loudest noise makers and I can hardly wait to see my little loves! I miss them. Jon misses them. And Olivia misses them. But best of all, they miss us and are ready to come home!!! It’s been a very productive week and I am thankful for all that I was able to accomplish. Our home feels really “clean” again and it was nice to have this time to regroup. But I am glad the time is up and that all my chicks will be back in the hen house by tomorrow at bed time. The good Lord willin!

Monday, January 16, 2012

It’s a "Holiday"

Jon had a preaching appointment in the Birmingham area yesterday so James and Audrey went with him to get in some time with my daddy and step mom and will be staying over for a few days! It was just Olivia and I here at the homestead for Saturday and Sunday and I must be honest and say that it was the best weekend I had had in a long time. I did some straightening after they left on Saturday and did absolutely nothing yesterday but go to church and then come home and camp out on the couch watching HGTV and Pinteresting. Oh and I played with Olivia. A lot! While I will miss Thing 1 and Thing 2 for the next 3 days, I have a great vision for how I will spend my 3 days virtually child free because lets face it, after you go from 3 kids to 1 kid in the house, you barely know the 1 kid is there!
Here is a peek at 2 things I plan to accomplish:

Cleaning out the vent in J and A’s room...


And cleaning windows, especially the one in the kitchen. Please do not let the beautiful blue rocking bench distract you from the tiny white thing directly above the bench on the window in the picture. Give you 3 guesses as to what that actually is...




So here’s what I plan on looking like for the next 3 days




And this. Although, I doubt I will look this cute!!


Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Back to Wednesday's

Olivia is changing every day. I walked into her room yesterday morning and found this




She’s trying to sit up more and more on her own now and is crawling faster and better every day. While we were cleaning up James and Audrey’s room today she crawled the length of it and found every small piece of trash on her way! I don’t know if I have mentioned it on here or not but she is a taggie. She loves tags and if something has a tag on it, she will find it. She’d rather play with the tag on something than the actual toy and while she was in the twins’ room she saw the tag on James’ comforter and crawled over to it. She also tried to eat the electric bill today.


She thinks James is hilarious! She gets so excited when she sees either one of them but she tries to jump out of my arms and starts laughing when she sees him. And he can make her laugh like no body else can! It’s the cutest thing eVer and I have managed to catch on video but still have issues loading it on blogger. It’s so funny to watch and listen to the twins talk about Olivia these days. They still love her to pieces but they do not like for her to get a hold of their stuff. She gets it wet and they think that is so gross! She put something of Audrey’s in her mouth the other day and Audrey snatched it away and said “No no Livi. Don’t lick my stuff!” I told her it was okay, that it was just baby kisses and she said “But it’s not nice for babies to lick other people’s stuff.”

Friday, January 6, 2012

Greens

Olivia tried her first vegetable last night, sweet peas, and she loved them!! I was shocked to see how much she liked them on her first try! And she sat in her high chair for the first time last night and loved that too! Could someone please tell me when she got so big? It’s just not fair. She tried a few yogurt melts this morning along with a little blueberries and apples mixed in with her rice cereal and loved all of them! I have high hopes that she will be as good of an eater as her older brother and sister were/still are. There were quite a few specific things that I was going to write about this morning but just as soon as I opened the laptop my mind went blank as to what the other things were. That’s a little annoying. Maybe I’ll try again tomorrow. They were pretty important. At least they seemed like they were.







It was fun watching her play with/eat the yogurt bites! She would look at it, scratch at it then try to pick it up and put it in her mouth. She would just get a taste of it before it would fall off her fingers so it got kinda sticky eventually and would stick to her fingers and she couldn’t figure out how to get it off.



And I made this delicious broccoli cheddar soup last night (along with a juicy ribeye and yeast rolls) and wanted to share it. It was very easy and I learned a valuable lesson: the fill liquid to here line on a food processor, it's there for a reason!!! But seriously, everyone including the kids loved the soup!!


Ingredients
1 tablespoon melted butter
1/2 medium chopped onion
1/4 cup melted butter
1/4 cup flour
2 1/2 cups half-and-half (I used regular milk)
4 cups chicken stock (I used bullion cubes)
1 lb. (16 oz.) fresh or frozen broccoli florets
1 cup grated carrot
Kosher salt and freshly grated pepper, to taste
1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
8 ounces grated sharp cheddar cheese

Directions
Melt butter in a large pot over medium-high heat, and sauté onion until soft, about 3 minutes. Add additional butter and flour, whisking for 3-5 minutes to create a roux. Whisk while adding the half-and-half and chicken stock. Simmer for 20 minutes.

Stir in the broccoli florets and grated carrot. Add salt, pepper and nutmeg. Simmer over low heat for 30-35 minutes.

Remove soup from heat and pulse with an immersion blender until smooth. Or, puree the soup in batches in a food processor until smooth, adding mixture back to the pot.

Return pot to low heat and stir in cheddar cheese. Simmer for 10 minutes, and serve.

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

6 Months

Olivia Ray,

You turned 6 months while we were in New Orleans for Christmas so that’s why I am really late posting this. I know I say this every time but it’s true; you are such a joy to be around. You are always smiling or laughing or cooing. You charm the socks off of everyone you come in contact with and let me tell you honey, your aunt’s and uncle’s and cousin’s went nutso over you during Christmas. You were a hit in the country, everybody and their grandma (pun intended!) wanted to get their hands on you. But Aunt Ashely was the baby hog out there and she wasn’t ashamed to admit it either!



 On our trip you handled the crowds and the constant loud noises wonderfully. The car rides, not so much. On the trip from Nanny B’s to Grandaddy and Nonie’s you rode in the car with me, Aunt Betsy, Samuel, Hannah and Audrey. We realized all too late it was a mistake to put you and Samuel in the same car!! Every time you would start to drift off to sleep Samuel would yell at the t.v. from excitement and scare you half to death. You cried basically the entire 4 hours to Birmingham! But me despite the crying Hannah and Audrey and me and Aunt Bets had fun!



The trip from Grandaddy and Nonie’s to SuSu and PawPaw’s went a lot better. It was during the day and you were in between James and Audrey in the back of daddy’s truck so any time you started to get upset they were right there to entertain you!

You went to your first teddy bear tea thanks to SuSu but I don’t think you were all that impressed!





You had your first Christmas morning and really loved your baby grand piano that Santa brought. You especially love to look at the sunshine face on it. It makes you all excited!!



You spent your first night in the country house out in Mississippi and you kept everyone awake that had the priviledge of sharing a room with you that night. But made everyone forgive you the next morning by flashing that big toothless grin at us!



Since Christmas day was on a Sunday this year all us “Mozingo’s” had to leave the country on Christmas Eve to be at our different church’s on Sunday morning. Your daddy had to go back to Georgia and instead of making the long trip there and back again for the New Year’s eve meeting, James and Audrey went back to New Orleans and you and I went to Hattiesburg so we wouldn’t have to make any more long car trips until it was time for us to come back to Georgia for good. We stayed at Nenie’s for a few days and then moved over to Aunt Becky’s where she and your cousin’s spoiled you every second they got!




 Even though you didn’t start crawling while we were there, I think watching your cousin Michael helped you out because I can say that now you are officially crawling! You will crawl a few steps, then flatten out, then draw your knees up and crawl a few more steps. And last night I watched you roll over and sit up all by yourself! I must admit that I slacked off during the holidays on your baby food but picked it back up this week. You love peaches and banana’s mixed with rice cereal. We are going to start vegetables tomorrow.


It will be interesting to see which hand becomes your dominant one. I have noticed you grab things with your left hand a lot and to investigate things you scratch it with your tiny little fingers. It’s so cute! We went for your 6 month well check today and you: weigh 16 lbs and 12 oz and are 25 1/4 inches long. 52% for weight and 24% for height. Doc says you are growing perfectly but have and I quote “a slight excess of weight for your height.” Chunky monkey and your thunder thighs!! Oh and every time he mentions your height, he makes a crack about mine. Sorry, sweetie but that’s just one more thing you got from your old mama! You are still my little ray of sunshine and I swear time is passing even faster with you than it did with your brother and sister. I love you to the moon and back, darling.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

A New Year

There are so many things swirling around in my head at the moment. So many stories and funny little quips that I want to tell but I just don’t have the time right now. Our home is currently undergoing the usual recovery from Christmas that most households experience the first week of January.

We made it back from our 2 week vacation tired but satisfied. From the very beginning of our journey to the very last we were filled to over flowing with joy and love in our hearts being able to spend this time with those that we hold nearest and dearest to our hearts: our family. All of them. Both sides combined it’s A LOT of family to love but we do! I have tons of pictures to share but I am just going to share a few of my favorites from the trip today. Remember now, I said only a few of my favorites!