The trouble with paridise

You know that sweet adorable baby I was just talking about?  Well, I was wrong.  Yes, she smiles, is incredibly cute and has an easy laid back personality (for a baby), but she just crawled under the coffee table.  Yep, honeymoon OVER.  Just one week shy of turning 5 months and the little bugger can get away from me.  This is what I get for telling everyone how great she is. 
My new plan for Rue is to make sure she is buckled, strapped or otherwise tied down in one baby apparatus or another until she turns one or two. 

Always smiling

Rue most know that I need a break.  That another child like Elsie might just do me in, because this baby is EASY.  Keep her clean, fed and clothed (yes she hates to be naked), and this baby just smiles. 

and smiles

and smiles.

She's getting close to five months and I am getting nervous.  She pushes herself along the floor with her legs and has managed to get fairly far.  Over the last week she has really started getting herself up and it looks like the crawl isn't far off, so the honeymoon period may end soon.  Please no.

Baby baptism

Baby Baptisms are so much fun.  It's their first debut,  announcing they here, and claiming their place in Gods heart and the families.  Rue did great at her baptism, crying when wet and sleeping the rest of the time.  One of the best parts of the baptism was when Elsie yelled, "Happy Day," while we are all standing up at the alter.  Annie was a very proud big sister and lit the baptismal candle during the service.  I can't believe what an incredible big sister she has become. 

Two

During my absence Elsie had a birthday.  She is TWO!  and a really wild two at that. 

 We celebrated with banana cupcakes, because at the time all Elsie wanted to eat was banana.   She has thankfully ended her banana phase and is now eating eggs faster than our chickens can lay them.

It seems the second she blew out those candles something in her clicked.  She is no longer a baby.  Declaring to her dad, "I smart," she no longer takes no for an answer.  Still my happy little dancer, she is now needing more challenge and stimulation.  Translate that and you come to the conclusion, she is way smarter than me.  I am no match for this kid and find myself constantly struggling to keep her involved in some task.  The alternative is destruction.  This child has an incredible knack for annihilation  (see previous post on soup, and that was only in a few minutes).  She wants to build and climb and be in everything.   She has more force in her than any kid I've ever met.  She may always be a challenge, but she is the best challenge I could ask for.

Ouch!

Life with three littles and a crazy house has finally caught up with me.  Doing to much is what I excel at.  Slowing down is not something I'm good at.  This last week I had to slow down.  Way down, to the point that I couldn't even pick up my kids or move my head.  Turns out ignoring the literal pain in my neck was not such a good idea.  I ended up with a herniated disk at C7, and a kind of pain I was not familiar with.  I would take natural childbirth over a herniated disk any day. Especially since I get a baby in the end. 
So I lost track of blogging once again, but with good reason, and I am back at it now.  My neck is recovering a lot faster than we thought and I'm able to pick up Rue.  Elsie is a bit tricky, due her size and tendency to thrash around wildly.  We snuggle on the sofa now.
In case your wondering I did not go to the hospital, but this was probably the closest I ever got.  Their options were Pain killers, muscle relaxers or steroids, all of which are very suspect to me, especially while nursing.  So I turned to a friend who is possibly the most ingenious massage therapist I've ever known.  Aside from his incredible fiddling skills, he knows more about the human body than anyone.  He was able to stop the pain within 2 minutes of laying on his table and is  slowly putting me back together.

Before all this neck stuff I had some posts to put up.  My favorite being our trip to the Sculpture park.
Elsie and I pulled Annie from school and took on an adventure.  Annie was very concerned that missing school was a bad idea.  Sadly her mom is a little crazy and thinks that being outdoors is equally as important as school.  The girls had a blast playing on all the works of art and Annie found a new favorite place.

 Standing in my favorite sculpture from when I was little, someone put a heart in the middle.

Annie thought the heart was just for her.

On our way back to the car Annie made a friend.  It was the perfect ending to our adventure. 

Soup

Tonight was one of those nights when you don't realize it but you've lost track of one of your kids and yes, she's doing something terrible.  I was upstairs tending to the screaming baby, and Jon was feeding the dogs, and we each thought the other was watching Elsie.  Left alone for a total of maybe 5 minutes, Elsie did this...

 "Eggy soup, with lemon, for my tea party."

Jon found her after she had cracked close to a dozen eggs. Some into my salt bowl for soup, and the rest onto the floor.  Proud as a peacock, she had covered my kitchen island in raw egg.  Way to go wild one. Perhaps next time you could make soup with something less slimy.

Birth

    Eleanor Ruth, was born when it was dark outside.  I'd never had a baby at night.  I tell my babies not to come at night, because I don't like the dark.  Rue did not listen, and I did not feel like arguing with her once she made it known she was ready.  Annie, I argued with, not intentionally, but it was dark and I was scared.  Annie was my first.  We argued for a total of 15 hours, and I exhausted myself and her.   So I didn't fight Rue, I thought about it for a while.  Then I began to feel that exhaustion, that only comes during birth, creeping up on me after only a few hours.   It's amazing how quickly the physical memories come flooding in.  Nothing in life feels like birth.  There is no equivalent of pain or joy. So I gave up waiting on the sun to rise, and she was born at 5 am.
    I used to wonder if there is any meaning to a child born at night verses the day.  Will they sleep better or worse, will they be difficult or easy?   Does an easy birth signify an easy child?   I've decided none of it matters.  God has formed this child the way he sees fit, the way he wants her to be, and to arrive on his schedule (oh the never ending struggle of surrender). I still like having my babies during the day.

Rue's birth was relatively quick, to which I credit being in better health.  With each birth I get better at nutrition and preparing my body for birth.  I walk further and further away from what doctors tell me is right and I feel stronger with each step.  Conventional nutrition and supplements have never helped me in the past and with this pregnancy I forsook them altogether.  I threw out the prenatal vitamins, the fortified orange juice, the rules on dairy and seafood.  I embraced my herbs and vegetable juices.  I dined on raw oysters, eggs and liver (yes all raw).  And in return I felt stronger, healthier and less plagued by the physical strains of pregnancy.
     My hope is that all this will give Rue a better start in life.  A healthier beginning then I was given.
So far she's doing great.  Rolling over and causing trouble for me already.  Here's hoping this one doesn't start crawling at 5 months.  It doesn't look good, but maybe, just maybe she will take pity on me.  Unlike her older sisters who thought crawling at 5 months was cute and walking at 9 months was a great idea. 
Rue's birth was Jon's first.  Yes, we have three kids now, but we didn't know each other when I had Annie and he went for a walk around the block when Elsie was born.  So Rue was his first birth.  Yes, I now have a handful of birth videos with Jon's running commentary going on in the background.  And yes, he loves to show them to people.  It got a little weird when he started showing them to people outside our family, and they are now on lock down.