When I'm an adult....

Logan: "Mom, one day when I'm an adult, I'm going to buy Venice whatever she wants."

Me: "Oh, that's sweet."

Logan: "Well I'll be a billionaire because I'll have the lemonade stand, and a restaurant and a store."

Honey I tried to clean today.....

But Logan had to get to school.... and then Sylvie slept in braids so her hair would be wavy and she was so worried the waves were falling out that I had to fix it a few times through the morning....and then I had to make breakfast...and feed us and the baby.....can't forget coffee and a shower so I could survive the rest of the day....

And then there was the long moonsand playing session. Yellow moon sand waffles and itty bitty strawberries had to be "eaten" I wore the baby so I could make lunch and get some dishes emptied from the dishwasher. She did nap- after she made a huge poop in the first cloth diaper I ever put on her. So I had to figure that all out and wow it came clean- woohoo! And then we had to get ready for kindergarten with a dramatic 6 year old so we all know how that can drag on.

First I played with her, really enjoyed our time together. And when I got done the baby just wanted to nurse and nurse and my eyes..... were...... getting...... droopy. So I slept on the couch sitting up with her in my arms because before you know it she'll be tooooo big for that! And then she wanted to nurse and nurse and now she doesn't want me to put her down. And the Ash Wednesday mass in in a few minutes and I'll pick up Logan from the mass. And then Sylvie will get home from Ballet with grandma. And I'm sure there will be hair drama or at least a whole buncha hungry people to feed.

So honey, the house isn't clean. But there's a HUGE smile in my heart today because I did all the right things. Played with them, made them food, held them and showed them what's important in our faith. And tonight we'll have grilled cheese instead of something in the crock pot, but it's okay we'll all be together. On top of the sticky floor. And climbing over legos.

Sylvie met the Tooth Fairy!

Last night Sylvie lost a tooth and this morning she had an adventure to share with us!

Told by Sylvie in Sylvie's voice:

I saw the Tooth Fairy last night! She was flying around and I saw her. She was blue and pink with long hair like Rapunzel. She threw the "Forget Me" dust on me but I caught some. So I threw some back at her and she got confused and went into Logan's room.

Logan: "My room?! Wow. You should draw a picture of her."

Sylvie: "I told you I would play a trick on her..."

Wow. Dr. Phil Dr. Sears and High Needs Child

I love when a tv show strikes a chord and you can raise your hand and say "me me that's me!" Miss Sylvie has been intense not so much that first year but in all the later years. At 5 1/2 years I noticed a maturity that was much-needed and we haven't had too many needy days since. Maybe a baby sister was what Sylvie needed. Who knows, only God knows what she needed on this life journey.

I think she was needy from birth but since we are so attachment focused she got what she wanted to satisfy those needs. So today on Dr. Phil they had a mom who has one of those 3 year olds who screams. Yeah, that would be Sylvie circa age 3! She was so intense and you just knew certain things would set her off. You know, like "mommy is going for a bike ride...." she would freak out the whole time and I would come home to a frazzled Jorge who had promised the kid everything including the kitchen sink if she would just. stop. screaming.

On the Dr. Phil show they went over different tactics that didn't work for a high-needs child (aka Sylvie) and that the one thing that would work was mirroring joy. Holy smokes I remember the day I decided. No matter what, I was only going to be happy, loving and not mad. I was going to tell her over and over that I know she was wearing her angries but that Mommy loved her no matter what and was not angry. And what can we do to get you through the angries to the lovelies and do it together. I don't think it was some miracle solution for my screaming toddler but it sure restored my sanity. And my relationship with my daughter.

I have a friend who has an almost-teen. She and I would talk because our daughters were the same. When I spoke with her about my tactics they were also her tactics and here she was years later fighting the same battles. So I decided that wasn't going to work. And you know what, the alternate worked. Mirroring Joy. What a concept.

She is a beautiful complex wonderful 6 year old who sees the world for what it is. She cuts to the chase and can sum up a situation in a moment. If I had to guess which of my 3 would be president someday, it would be her. She has drive like no other. Logan will be too busy fighting for world peace to deal with politics. And Venice, at this young age of 2 months I'm guessing something quiet and sensitive like a concert pianist. I can dream. If they are happy, I'm good.

A memory from Sylvie circa age 2 or 3. We went to Alexis and Marco's house with Kimi. They had a dress-up box. Basically Sylvie went along following the kids in whatever they did and either collected the best of the dolls, trucks, game pieces, etc. for her own, or demanded to wear the dress up that she chose as "best." There was not Team, only I. Then came time for me to leave and get Logan from preschool. That would require removing a dress-up costume from Sylvie. There were tears, then screaming, and then it got physical. While trying to remove said dress and put her new one one, the other moms are looking with wide eyes wondering if this is all worth it. Oh yes it was because gosh darn it, she has stolen a mermaid doll from the last playdate, we were not about to start collecting other people's possessions! So here I am begging, pleading, reasoning and arm-wrestling my little one. To no avail. So I carried her out. In her underwear. Screaming. And wrestled her into the carseat. In her underwear. To get Logan from preschool. I don't think the teachers dared to say anything at the pickup. There was no joy that day.

At one point I figured out how to deal with this chickie monkey and I think instead of teaching her limits I realized I needed to teach her Unconditional Love. At first things turned around for me. I enjoyed parenting her more. I had less teary nights that would send Logan running to be upset alone. We just dealt with it all together. And we still do.

I'm writing this down because who knows how Venice will be as a child and if she takes after Sylvie I'll want a road map. Here it is. Mirror Joy. And Unconditional Love. And the rest will fall into Place.

Christening Gown

Lock-in

Logan: "What if school really went til midnight and you had to pick us up then?"

Logan: "Kids would miss their parents. And Venice would be asleep when we got home." (smart kid!)

Me: "What if you had a lock-in like at Flying High Gym where you could be with all the kids from school but you got to do whatever you want, what would you do?"

Logan: "I would read the books."

Sylvie: "I would steal the books."

Oh My this girl has got some spunk on her!

Pregnant for a year....

Way back during Logan's pregnancy I read Dr. Sears Baby Book and it opened my eyes to attachment parenting. I have re-read pieces of it and love some of the ideas of parenting this way. I love raising my toddlers by involving them in daily life. With my babies I love wearing them and moving about making dinner, or holding Venice on my boppy and playing with Sylvie.

I love the idea that you are pregnant for a year. For the first 3 months outside mom baby is figuring things out and needs mom to help out. Knowing this makes me okay with holding her more, sleeping upright sometimes with her in my arms. This week she is 8 weeks old and growing so much. She is more in tune with us and our rhythms, and voices of Jorge, Logan and Sylvie. She is moving away from only mom can do, to being happy with dad. And more independence. She slept in her rock and play all night last night! I feel like we are seeing the end of 3 months and its exciting to see what is next but also sad to see the newborn phase coming to a close.

I love that she still falls asleep drunk on milk almost every time I nurse her.

I love how she rubs her head into me, burying herself.

I love when she sucks on her binky, smiles wide and coos at her toy bird.

I love how her legs pop up during diaper changes, and she stretches her arms up and arches her back when she is waking after a long nap.

I love the way I have been able to bond with my babies and having the ability to nurse them, providing nourishment and soothing, and that I have time to hold them, kiss them and love on them. I love that I've shared it all with Jorge, then Logan and Sylvie. What a blessing it has been to have this girl in my life.

Don't Blink....

I'm holding Venice on my chest, on the boppy. She's all curled up and warm and calm as she listens to my heartbeat. I just want to cry thinking about how quickly time flies and moves this little being into a real person, a real personality and a "big kid." This is such a luxury to get a chance to do it all over again....just one last time to taste newborn toes, smell newborn skin, get those gummy smiles and fall in love all over again.

And bonus that I get to see my kids fall head over heels for this newbie as well. Sylvie is so in love with her sister she just cannot get over it, and tries to find words to express how excited she is about her sister. Consistently through the pregnancy she said "why did you want another baby...." and I tried to explain how in love I am with her and Logan and that I was so excited to make a new person that would join us. And in the car the other day while she was having trouble expressing just how much she loved Venice already I told her "Sylvie, now YOU know why I wanted another baby. It's the most exciting thing to make a new person and love them so much and you just met them."

Venice, thank you for joining our family. You have brought us SO much joy in your 7 short weeks!

Cellphone Speak....without the phone

Logan told me....

LOL stands for 'Laugh out Loud'

he proclaimed "Oh Ehm Gee!" (oh my god)

and he said "Mom, want to know what SOL stands for?" Well, since in my world it has meant 'Sh*t out of Luck' I was curious what he was going to say and he said "Shouting Out Loud." Phew!

Who let this boy get so big?! It's scary to let them out in the world under the influence of ...gasp.... other 8 year olds!

Christmas!!!!

So, how didi we survive the holidays with a newborn? Well!

We made Christmas cookies!

From a very simple mix. And the rolling pin hung out on the counter for a week.

We gave the teachers the perfect gifts!

Somehow Sylvie's came back home and Logan gave a gift card to the family restaurant to the teacher on accident.

We put up a christmas tree.

Jorge gets all the credit for puling this one off.

We had a great collection of gifts to give.

We did almost all of our shopping online and there were definitely last-minute gifts purchased.

We made it to church.

Jorge and I each were nodding off at different times.

We had an impressive table spread and a clean house on the 24th.

The kids basically watched tv while Jorge cleaned and the baby hung out attached to me for hours on end.. He got everything in one glorious trip to Whole Foods.

Santa came! Santa Came! SANTA CAME! And there was joy in this home and thats all that mattered.

January

Let it be known that this year wher Sylvie turned 6 there was no snow on the ground and we played at the park in sweatshirts!

And this November when Logan turned 8 it snowed big fluffy flakes that stuck around for awhile. Backwards weather rocks! I am 6 weeks postpartum and took a bike ride on the trail!

Music Musings

When I had Logan as an infant he was a pretty fussy little thing, he had silent reflux. So sleep was minimal for a lot of months. At some point I remember getting into the habit of bringing him downstairs, turning on the stereo with my toe, and rocking him til he went to sleep. Music of choice was usually Sarah McLachlan, Irish melodies, something soft, quiet and uplifting. My music to make me happy that seemed to make him happy as well.

With Sylvie, music around the house was often Baby Einstein, kids music, things that appealed to Logan. I know when she had her fussy evenings I would play Mozart on our stereo- LOUD. Jorge discovered that trick for Logan one night and it seemed to work well for baby Sylvie.

Now with Venice, Sylvie is the music lover of the house. When we switched the rooms we got Logan a tv (his was pre-HD or whatever it was that means it doesnt' work any longer) and we decided to get Sylvie a stereo. Not just a little radio, a real stereo. It makes her so happy! She loves to put on some cd's, jump on her bed and dance away to the music. The choice of artists is more modern- Lady Gaga type music. Dance music. So one of our routines in the mornings is to get Venice down to sleep in her swing, and we head upstairs. I hop in the shower and she dances away to her music. It struck me how happy and upbeat I feel, energized by the music and it really starts my day right. I love that my Sylvie brings sunshine to my day like this. One more reason to love having "big kids" when you have a baby:) Love this "spunk" on this little lady!

cutie pie

Introducing Venice Soleil......

Let’s see if I can sit down and write out the story of how Venice came into the world. It was Tuesday, November 22 and the day I had predicted all along that she would arrive. The last days of pregnancy were rough. I was accepting a lot of help, very cranky. Mix it up with a need to clean everything, obsess about the kids lunches and such for school, and tying up loose ends. And impatience. Baby was crazy moving, you could see her from the outside and my hips would randomly separate. Nothing was comfy- sitting, standing, sleeping, I had a cold and was pretty miserable.

So my mom came to watch the kids and I headed off to my 10 am appointment. The ultrasound technician found her head down, quiet, not moving much, good heartbeat. We were at “failing” the biophysical pretty quickly so I figured I’d head over to the non-stress test and she’d start jumping. Instead they sent me to the hospital. I called Mom and Jorge saying no rush yet, it was probably just going to be a false alarm like last week. Nope! Dr. L was at Triage and saying “we’re going to deliver her today.” They hooked me up to monitors and initially they were going to wait a few hours to let my breakfast settle. So Jorge headed home to grab the bags, Mom pulled the kids together and the plan was for Lilia to pick them up at 4:30.

Well there was a change and Dr. L had to attend a complex cesarean, so Dr. C was called in. He said the baby had only passed the biophysical by a bit and was pretty quiet on the monitors so if we could get Jorge there in the next hour, I would be first before a bunch of scheduled procedures. Craziness!

Jorge made it in time and they had me prepped and iv’d for surgery. Of course they blew a few veins and things had to sign a second set of consent forms for the change in doctor. The anesthesiologist was good but it took him 3 times to get the spinal in and it was painful. They switched nurses to a second nurse that helped me pose a bit better. It’s hard to bend forward when your belly is in the way! Once that was in things were better. Except for the cold that allowed me only to face one direction and I was so stuffy I was having a hard time hearing. I felt the strong pressure on my chest of not being able to breathe but it was short-lived thank-goodness! No nausea during the procedure but I was nervous. It felt like a very long time before they got the baby out.

She arrived at 2:30 and Jorge got to go to the nursery with her. The rest of the surgery was slow and apparently I had a good amount of scar tissue. They used glue on the top layer, so that was good. The immediate recovery was rough, I felt unsettled and shaky and weird, but by the time I got to my room I was feeling better. Jorge had taken photos and showed me on the ipad during recovery so that helped and we picked a photo to share on Facebook as our announcement. It helped distract and pass the time.

We had a lot of visitors pretty quickly and I must have been out of it because I don’t remember the first moments in the room with the baby, something I had been worried about all along! The kids got to be with us and Sylvie took awhile to warm up. Logan was cute and excited and held her. My dad got to come in right away but didn’t meet the baby til the next day. He met up with my mom and took over the dog and she came in to hold the baby right away.

She was pretty sleepy but a good baby. Didn’t love her bassinet, but did let us put her in it some of the time. Nursed quite a bit and then would sleep for too long. It was hard to wake her up to eat! She had a test for jaundice and an echocardiogram for a hole in her heart. Both came up okay, but it took awhile to get released on the third day (Thanksgiving) waiting for the results.

All in all, a good birth experience. The things I worried about went as well as I could have hoped. And Jorge was really a great help in the room.

Loganisms....

Logan likes to chat about Pokemon ad nauseum so it was a fun change of pace to have a neat conversation with him on the way home from the dentist....

He was talking about how he calmed Venice down and I said "Logan, you are a good helper person. I'm sure you will help people in your life."

Logan: "I'll bet God gave me that as my gift."

Me: "What gift?"

Logan: "The desire to help others."

So true Logan , and I'm loving the increased vocabulary!

Logan: "I'm going to go to Mexico. Did you know water is only 10 cents there? When I'm an adult I'm going to go to Mexico in my Teleporter Portal and bring Legos there. I will give the legos free to kids that don't have toys."

Me: "Logan, how will you get a teleporter?"

Logan: "I'll build one. Out of Lego's and mechanical stuff."

He also has a new obsession with the military, especially the Marines. He said he wants to create armies of Lego guys especially a Marine collection.

Size of a Watermelon

"Mom do you HAVE to have that baby in 8 days?" "Yes!" Woohooooooooooooo!

Just laughing at my Sylvie. She's so excited for all this waiting to be over. She wants to meet her sister, count on mom to be the one to come get her from school, and have a few nights at grandmas house that she just can't contain herself.

She wrote me a letter today (had my son write some of it)

"Mom, I am so happy you are going to have the baby."

"She is the size of a watermelon now, so it's time for her to come....."

When we first announced the pregnancy I followed a chart of about how big the baby was compared to produce. So she asked me almost daily for 9 months "how much longer til she is the size of a watermelon?" We even have a countdown chart with watermelon slices. One slice left!

Entrepreneur

I love the way each of my children look at the world. Logan has big plans to make money. His current favorite is the elusive lemonade stand where he thinks he can make a lot of money, you know, like $15. So this is Logan's dream. Start with a lemonade stand. And someday open a business where he sells legos and healthy food. He will even let me work there. And they will be closed on Sundays. So he can take care of his 4 dogs on Sundays.

So Sylvie, not to be outdone, has her own idea. She would like to be a "ringer" aka a cashier. "Mom I would like to own my own store." "What would you sell?" "Cabinets. I would charge 100,000 for them." "That's a good idea, then you don't have to sell very many to make a lot of money." "Yeah, then I would have more money than Logan." "Sylvie, if you do that, you'll have more money than me!" "Perfect." A girl knows how to make money, and she knows how to spend it. I see her future already.

Mom! Best Breakfast Ever!

34 weeks pregnant me gets up, waddles into the kitchen, considers making muffins from a box, remembers we're out of muffin cups, waddles over to the computer and figures breakfast will be yogurts and cereal.

Sylvie (30 minutes later): "Uhm, Mom, aren't you forgetting something?"

Me: "What"

Sylvie: "Breakfast?!" Apparently she was hungry because she's not a breakfast person at all!

So I get up, make biscuits (from a can), bacon, OJ and scrambled eggs. Nothing too hard, and with the smells wafting, we were all ready for breakfast by the time it was ready.

Logan, after breakfast "Mom, that was the best breakfast ever! The honey was PURE!"

Silly little man!

Daily Conversations

Logan: "When I grow up, my house will be little on the outside but big on the inside. I will have robots that do everything. They will make me slushies, etc......I will have a genie and I will wish......What would you wish for mom if you had 3 wishes?" ad nauseum. At least it's a change from "when I grow up my whole house will be filled with dogs......." He's very into his home in the future!

Sylvie: "Mom, I had a lot of dreams last night. I dreamt that the baby was here. I dreamt that we had a sleepover at Abuelita's house but it wasn't exactly like her house....I dreamt that there was a snowstorm." She's very into her dreams and also into reassuring you that whatever you want to be true is true. Like Logan wanted to know if there was a Frankenstein gummy treat in the new gummies we bought. No, of course there wasn't, but she was quick to agree and get all excited for him!

Sylvie's also writing the letters they are learning in school but doesn't quite have them down as to what they are called. Like if you say "what letter is this?" she'll probably guess "T" but if you spell out a word she'll most likely write it correctly and sits and writes all the letters on paper. I think she'll get past this quickly and be letter-crazy before you know it. I'm really really really happy she's in a good kindergarten. The preschool drama we had last year seems to have entered her classroom in her relationship with one friend, but we talk about it alot and how people can be moody and fickle and she's also making other friends. There were two "best friends" that caused her a lot of heartache last year in her school and the two girls are attending the same catholic school this year for full-day kindergarten. Sylvie's in half-day at the public school next door. I'm really happy we made this choice, and while I think she gets a bit bored and ready by the time kindergarten starts, and it would be easier to do one less drop-off with the baby coming, I think this was a good decision for her.

:)

Just flashing back to Baby Sylvie and how itty bitty she was. I can't wait!!!!!