wyatt ace

just to top today off, our newest nephew, wyatt ace, was born very early this morning - 12:49am to be exact.  the crazy part?  i woke up at exactly 12:49am for no obvious reason!  even cooler - i had sent a text to his mom predicting a large, dark haired, boy (they didn't know what they were having) this week.  i had also dreamed that he would be late, but he was born on his due date. 

welcome to the family, wyatt!  you make the 10th grandchild for my parents in 5 years, 4 months.  you also kept the streak of girl, then boys for each family.  we can't wait to meet you next year on our trip to florida.  you are already loved.  love, aunt michelle.

jude (2), annabell (5), wyatt and ford (4).

boo at the zoo

madelyn and i raced home from the ballet so that we could get the boys and head to "boo at the zoo"! (we also raced home because i needed to feed manning - i wasn't expecting to be gone quite so long - he was in better shape than i was though.)  the kids have been very excited about wearing their costumes.  once everyone was dressed, we loaded up spider-man, doc mcstuffins, jake (of the neverland pirates) and a "peek-a-pooh" dressed manning and headed to the zoo.

we went to "boo at the zoo" last year and had a good time.  we were a little worried because the forecast was calling for rain - and it had been raining off and on all day - but we had a lovely evening.  the boys had fallen asleep on the ride over.  it left mason ready to go and maddux ready to go to bed.  maddux barely left the stroller and did not understand the whole "trick-or-treat" thing until the very last stop (of about 9).

spider-man flexing his muscles while he climbs the walls.

jake on the rope bridge

jake climbing the ramp to the pirate boat (this was one of the few times he left the stroller)

a rare photo of matt and me

maddux either was too tired to care or pulled down his head scarf as a sleep mask on the way home.  either way, he was one tired pirate.

we are expecting to get a lot of use from the costumes this week but we will see how energized mommy is to make it happen.  we might skip a few events...  even missing some, this should be a fairly busy week for us.  love.

girls afternoon out

madelyn and i got dressed up for a 'girls' afternoon'.  the plan was lunch, shopping and then a surprise for madelyn - the ballet!  they were putting on a "director's choice" show for about half the price of normal tickets and i had a buy one, get one coupon which made for a very affordable outing.

i didn't get a picture of us together from our last 'special' day so i made sure to get one before we left today.  mason really wanted to be in the picture too and then maddux came running up the stairs because he is not one to miss out on a picture opportunity.

madelyn chose mcdonalds for lunch.  it wasn't my first choice, but we had a nice time.  madelyn also suggested that we get ice cream since it was "just us". i usually don't have to be asked twice about desert.  i try to limit it for the kids though but we were out to have fun today.  she had a peppermint mcflurry and i had an iced coffee (mommy was feeling a little tired).

next we went over to target because all of madelyn's pants (except a few pairs of jeans we bought right before school started) end about 4 inches above her ankles and it has been getting colder.  she doesn't see the need for long pants but i am just waiting for a note about dressing her warmer (believe me, i try).  we picked up a few items of clothing and they were all pink!  when i pointed that out, she put back a pink pair of pants for a more neutral gray.  it has taken a lot of work to get her to appreciate the value of neutrals and solids in a wardrobe (i.e.  you can wear lots of necklaces if your shirt is plain).

and now off to the ballet!  we were fairly early because i am obsessive about being late for things and i wasn't totally sure where it was.  surprisingly, the location was not shown on the tickets so i had to call the ballet company to find out where to go.  we made it to the historic theater and madelyn was very excited.  she kept saying that it looked like belle's castle (from beauty and the beast).  it really was lovely and not too large. 

we were in the seventh row, center and had a great view of the dancers.  the company is high school and under and they were excellent!  we were sitting next to one of the performer's mom who was telling another lady about all of the sacrifices it has taken for her daughter to be with the company and how extensively they practice. let's just say, you have to really want it. 

it was a "director's choice" performance so there were lots of costume changes which both helped and hurt keeping madelyn's attention - the breaks between pieces were fairly lengthy at times but there was something new to see when they came back.  there were nine pieces and i vastly underestimated how long the show would be.  i assumed that it would be a shorter performance because of the price and the nature of the 'sampling' format.  nope.  it was almost 2-1/2 hours!  madelyn did a great job and seemed to really enjoy it.  there was a good variety of styles including one with all boys in sleeping bags that was comedic.

madelyn told me that she had a great time and would have come with me even if she didn't want to so that i wouldn't be lonely.  i think we will be checking out more arts in the future.  love.

turns and teeth

manning is flipping over a lot in his crib (and, well, everywhere).  the problem with turning over so much in the crib is that he gets tangled up in the bars.  yesterday, i had to put my hand on his side until he fell asleep at nap time because he kept flipping over and getting his legs tangled up.  and he flips to his stomach almost immediately every time i put him on his back.

madelyn used to get tangled up a lot too.  just another way these two have been very similar.  i am tempted to get the bumper out (this is how we helped madelyn) but i want to discuss with his pediatrician first.

and he got his second tooth today!  they have all had a quickly following second tooth so we weren't very surprised.  love.

4-month-old manning

here are some other updates on manning.

- he has been sleeping through the night again for about a week now!  (enter cartwheels)

- he is doing really great with solids.  we are up to two meals a day of about 2-4 oz.  he has had sweet potatoes, avocado, bananas and mango in addition to oatmeal cereal. 

- the solids seem to be getting his digestive track going more frequently, but he still goes only once or twice a week.

- he is starting to roll across the room and get up on his knees.  it seems like he is really anxious to get moving.

- he doesn't spit up quite as frequently as he used to, but it has picked up with the teeth cutting (all of the other kids did the same thing when cutting teeth).

- he is the only one of our kids that has woken up happy this consistently.  it probably has something to do with the fact that he is also the only one who doesn't need to eat the second he wakes up.

- with more feeding options, i have a lot more freedom!  matt was able to put him down without a bottle when i was at mops this week and i even got to sleep in on saturday (well, until brad called to tell me about wyatt, but that was worth getting up for).

- he takes two or three naps a day.  the morning nap is the least consistent.  it can be from 20 minutes to 3 hours and being home or not does not influence this.  in the afternoon he naps from 1 to 4 or 4:30, generally, and if the morning nap was short, he will take another short nap between 5 and 6 in the swing.

- and i mentioned in another post about getting tangled in the crib bars.  he is a rolly guy.  thankfully, we haven't had a lot of the 'getting stuck' mid-roll arm flailing in the crib and rarely on the floor.

- manning is wearing a size 3 diaper and 6 and 9 month clothes (although i think we are going to be getting out the 12 month sleepers very soon).

manning is just a happy little (big) guy!  we love him so.  love.

mops crafts

have i mentioned that i am the craft person this year for my mops group?  why?  because i need something else to do - of course!  really, they needed someone and i can dabble in 'craftiness' (and i know how to use the internet).  since i found several ideas in other blogs where the author is involved in mops crafts, i thought that i would post what we do each month here.  if any of you have adult craft ideas (think simple and inexpensive), please let me know!  love.

september - monogrammed totes
stenciled doily and letter with fabric paint

october - no-slip bookmarks
a length of ribbon, a hair rubber band and a button

manning's first tooth

and we have our last 'first tooth'! you can only sort of see it in the last picture, but i thought that he was cute in the other two. he loves having his gums rubbed and trying to pull his lip down for the picture kept making him laugh and smile. hopefully, he won't be a biter. love.