Happy Monday

4 Months

Livi Ray,

You’re just a breath of fresh air around here. I think your smile gets bigger as you get bigger! You learned a new trick the other day, you can sit in your Bumbo seat now and you love it! You are trying so hard to crawl already. When you are on your tummy, you draw your knees up and push just as hard as you can. It doesn’t take you long to get off your blanket and on to the carpet now! My baby, you are still just along for the ride in this crazy old family. I LOVE YOU BIG!

Toes and Cellulite

Hers found her toes yesterday. She’s growing up so fast, so very fast. She’s 4 days away from turning 4 months old and still is just the sweetest thing. She did keep me up last night for quite awhile though. The most aggravating part was that she wasn’t being so aggravating, she was being cute. She was laughing and cooing in the middle of the night.

We’ve all had a nasty little cold virus the last few days and poor Livi here had her first bout with the runs. Which gave her her first bout with some horrible diaper rash. She has made some of the most pitiful sounds eveR, makes me want to cry. I’ve been letting her air dry a few times a day and last night her tiny hiney was just so cute I couldn’t resist. This is the only time cellulite is cute on a lady’s backside!

She’s still the main attraction around here and her Bubba was serenading her with his harmomnica because when ever he’d play it, she’d smile at him BIG and he thought he was the cat’s meow. Her smile has that effect on people!

Award winning smile

She watched her first Baby Einstein today and loooved it! Those movies are a mystery to me. Their such simple yet such captivating things. Even James Audrey still love to watch them. Funny.

She loves to lay in her bed and play and this morning, as usual, she was all smiles. We should of named her Smiley!

Doesn’t this picture make you want to talk to the computer screen? Go ahead, do it. She wont tell.

The average man

I have spoken a few times about how Audrey adores her baby sister and always jumps at the chance to help me out with her. Whenever Olivia is in her swing or bouncy seat and she starts fussing all I have to say is “Audrey, talk to Olivia please” and she plops down in front of her and starts chatting away making Olivia forget about whatever it was she was upset about! How nice is that? And lately, if Audrey is doing something like eating breakfast or whatever and Olivia starts fussing, Audrey will say “Talk to Olibia, Bubba.” (She’s already delegating!) James usually doesn’t do it though. Not because he doesn’t like to (he does) but because he is usually focused on something else and doesn’t hear Audrey or the baby. Who does this represent? Yep. The average man.

James and Audrey have always been held true to the male and female design. And the older they get the funnier it gets to watch. Especially with the baby. Audrey constantly (and I mean constantly) tells me “Mama, Olibia is so CUTE!” Audrey always kisses her on the feet. Probably 100 times a day she does this and she can hardly contain herself sometimes. Audrey loves to sit and just talk to Olivia. She will stop playing to sit down and talk to her, unsolicited by me. She loves to pick out Olivia’s clothes for the day and will sometimes talk in a silly, high pitched voice saying “Olibia!! Don’t fuss! Why you fussin?” Wonder where she’s heard that?!

James on the other hand really could care less. I mean, he loves her and any time someone at church says “I just want to take this baby home with me” he gets protective and politely tells them they canNOT take his baby sister. And he does love to make her smile at him and hold her on occasion but most of the time he’s content to sit back and let the women take care of her. Put my 3 children in a room together with the television on or some other activity to do and let the baby start crying. Who will immediately jump up and see what’s wrong? I’ve seen it happen. And I’ve thought a few times to myself that Audrey could totally take care of them. All I need to do is teach her how to fix a bottle and we’d be set. Just kidding about that last part. Sort of.

Seriously though, the dynamic between James and Audrey sometimes is like a married couple. While we were at my daddy’s a few weeks ago he and Nelda ( through no fault of their own) brought this to light for me. Nelda wasn’t there the first 2 days we were so when she did get there and she finally got her hands on Olivia she was excited! She said to my daddy one time( in that voice that all women use when talking about sweet little babies) “Samuel, isn’t she the sweetest thing eveR?! Couldn’t you just squeeze the stuffing out of her she’s so sweet?!” My daddy’s reply was hilarious! He had this kind of sheepish look on his face (I think he was concerned about maybe offending me) and he said “Well, not really. I mean I do love her and do think she is so cute but I just don’t feel as strongly as you I guess.” Bahahaha! He sumed it up pretty good I think!

And Jon does the same, pretty much. I’ll be down on the floor at night laying with Olivia talking to her and just watching her explore all the things around her and will say “Jon, she’s just so cute! You should see her.” I usually have to say it about 5 times before he either hears me and wants to see or understands that unless he gets on the floor with us, I’m not going hush!

Pointers

Some of you may have read the short version of this story on facebook. My apologies for the rerun! 

Recently I caught my son red handed giving his sister pointers on how to be more sneaky. I was pulling a double shift that day (all day and night by myself) and was a little distracted by the end of it. I was focused on getting their supper on the table so that they could eat, take a bath and get in the bed! Audrey kept asking for chips and I kept saying no, not realizing there was a bag out on the counter. I then heard a rustling sound and turned around to see Audrey with her hand in the chip bag. I didn’t even say anything (guess I have perfected my death glare) and she ran out of the kitchen sobbing. She perched right outside the kitchen door quietly sobbing and telling James she was gonna get in trouble.

Soon they made their way into the living room all the while Audrey was crying telling James how she was gonna be in trouble. She climbed up on the love seat and James got on his knees in front of her. I walked into the dining room at the exact moment he was looking up at her and saying “Audge, when mama tells me not to get chips I get chips and go into the play room and eat them.” I could hardly believe my ears. It was infuriating and hilarious all at the same time. I just stood there trying out my best poker face, staring a hole thru him till he looked over and saw me. He had the deer in headlights look for about 2 seconds then quickly said “Mama I told Audrey how when you tell me not to get chips I get chips and eat them in the play room. But I’m not gonna do that any more. Really.”

All I can say is I am so thankful that I am not a single parent and that his father is around a lot of the time to help out during these exasperating situations. James and Audrey have been tag teaming us from the moment their tiny bodies were born into this world. It’s getting trickier now that they are older. With infants screaming at you all the time you loose your sanity in a different way than with preschoolers working together to try and outsmart you.

Did you know?

Did you know that I can:

Roll from tummy to back

Scoot all the way around

Grab my toys hanging from my  bouncy seat

Laugh at my siblings

Bounce myself in the bouncy seat. Not like my cousin Michael though!

Talk myself to sleep

Make my Mama and Daddy feel like they are the most special people in the world!

I naw on my fists something fierce and drool like a baby but I wont take a pappy even though my Mama thinks I should. I think she just wants me to because it’s a sweet memory for her of my brother and sister.
Whatever. I’m still not going to put that strange tasting/feeling thing in my mouth. Makes me gag.