Futsal

Futsal is indoor soccer, played in the gym. 5 on five. No goalie, no hands, no kicks higher than the waist. Awesome cardio (like basketball, but requires less skill), and really, really fun. I highly recommend it..

One Month and Easters

McKay's first month (now six weeks) of life has been full of cold, miserable weather and LOTS of hours spent indoors. He has avoided all the sickness that we have had so far, and for that I couldn't be more grateful. He has had a little snotty nose, but it seems to be getting better, and it never really bothered him that much.

He is a very gassy little guy, and he stinks! Mostly, though, he doesn't act like it bothers him too much.

He only poops about every other day (besides little squirts) and then they are HUGE and get everywhere.

He still has the baby acne, although it looks a touch better than it did last week.

He is doing a lot better at night. He sleeps 3 hours at a time (mostly in his bed) and usually goes right back to sleep. Last night he slept 4 hours, from 11:15-3:15, which was encouraging for me. And usually he ends up in bed with me after the second night feeding (5 or 6 am).

He is doing a little better during the day at not needing to be held constantly, meaning I can sometimes get 15-30 minutes of good behavior at a time. BUT, I still have to hold him MOST of the time. Everything I do takes 3 times as long (it took me an entire day to get the laundry done and the house vacuumed), and some things just don't get done at all.

There are many, many, MANY moments of mass chaos and I think I'll lose my mind (and I admit, my patience is running thin most of the time). Someone is always crying. But I have realized that when the sun comes out (and it seems it has been out only RARELY lately), everything seems better. Please, oh please, can Spring come and stay?

This is pretty much my life right here.

Here is is one month pic. You can see he was not too thrilled that I took off his clothes and put him down. Typical.

This shirt is from Old Navy and says St Patrick's Day 2011--McKay's birthday. How could I resist?


He is holding his head up really well and coos and smiles at us all the time. My milk has started dwindling already, so I'm taking Fenugreek and giving him a little bit of formula if he doesn't seem satisfied after a feeding. I think that's why he slept 4 hours last night--I got him full!


Carter loves him, but has no idea how to be gentle. He tries to say "baby," but it comes out "daydee." I got a good pic of Carter going in to touch McKay and Jeff reaching out to stop him. Ha ha.

We also had Easters. Not much to be said (McKay is screaming on my lap, so this will be short). Dyeing eggs was fun, but SUCH a mess. And I need to have a little more patience before we try this again.


And the kids all got new clothes (except McKay, who didn't go anywhere near the church building anyway).

Pre Easter

I have to admit, five kids is kind of kicking my butt. It's hard. And if the spring doesn't get here soon (it IS April 25th, after all), I might just lose my mind.

Last week, our stake started Futsal. I really wanted to go play, but Jeff told me he wasn't going to be home. I can't tell you how disappointing that was. It was Thursday, after all, and I had been out of the house three times (once to take Damon to school and twice to get the mail). I really needed to get out. And Jeff obviously could sense that. He canceled his plans and I got to go play. I'm just now starting to get over the extreme soreness that caused my muscles. But it felt so good to have my lungs burn again.

I have much more to write about Easter and other happenings, but I wanted to post these pictures from last week first. I wanted to get a picture of Damon in his suit before he turns 9, and so I finally just took some. These are my favorites.

Love that you can see the Y over his shoulder.

Awesome smile.

I think this is the one I am going to have blown up for the wall. I know that the snow on the mountains give away the fact that it was not actually summer, but maybe no one will care about that. :)

The girls got two new dresses for Easter (thanks to Old Navy's awesome deals) and they wanted a couple pictures taken of them, too.

And Carter wasn't going to church, so he wasn't dressed, but he came out for the photo shoot, too. He mostly just wanted to get in the way, but I got this cute shot of him.

This is proof that he doesn't cry ALL the time. Note to self.

And two things I wanted to remember about Kyla:

1. Carter was wearing overalls one day and Kyla said, "I love Carter's underdogs." I think I like even better.

2. One morning, she was in a bad mood and refused to "read" her verse in the scriptures. Later that day, she came to me, very concerned, and said, "Am I on Satan's team because I didn't read my scriptures today?" She was happy to learn that no one under 8 can be on "Satan's team," and that she could read her scriptures the next day.

First Photo Shoot

McKay is now a month old. And these pics are from when he was 5 days old. I wanted Jeff to edit them (and he still will), but here are a few of my favorites. I'm no profesh, but at least baby #5 isn't completely neglected.

Almost bath time

Kyla is typically a very agreeable child. Except when she's not. Then my life becomes a whole lot more difficult. This particular day at my mom's house, I took the three little kids (plus Kenya) inside to get them ready for bed and put them in the bath. Carter was crying (surprise, surprise), and Kyla was also incredibly whiny. I tried to capture the chaos on my phone, but it doesn't do the crying justice. I did, however, catch a funny moment when Kyla's tattling on Kenya didn't receive the expected response.

Mom's Camera

I'm down here in St. George without my own camera, but have been helping my mom get all the pics off of her camera onto the computer. I found several I wanted to have for myself, so here they are:

These are some of my besties from high school. We all got together in December to eat, laugh, reminisce and share birthing stories. I love these girls (and all Hookers who weren't there).

These are a few from when my mom was helping, after McKay was born. Carter has complete sympathy from her, so she made sure he was well fed.

Damon had a great time putting together a volcano. We watched it "erupt" (baking soda and vinegar) a few times.

And here are a few from McKay's bath the other night. He really loved it.

One day this week, McKay was really grouchy. And he's not usually like that. But he cried a lot and acted like he was in pain. He has always been a gassy little guy, and he didn't seem any more gassy than usual, but we just didn't know what else to think.

I was getting him ready for bed and I noticed that his right nipple was still red (it had been that morning) and harder than the left nipple, which was also hard. My mom wondered if it were possible for babies to get a plugged duct so we googled it. Turns out they can. And so we spent the next hour or so putting warm wash cloths on his chest. By morning, the redness was gone and it was much less swollen. And he has been so much happier. Phew! I'm glad we figured that out. Swollen nipples, coupled with the baby acne that covers his cheek, and I think it's safe to say he has entered his "12 year old girl" phase for the first, and hopefully ONLY, time of his life.

St. George has treated us well, with gorgeous sunny days. Jeff, Damon and Allie have been in Arizona with the Trapnell's for spring break, and I won't be surprised if they come back a nice darker shade of white from all their time in the sun. I'm trying my best to convince this weather to come back to Orem with me when we go. We sure need some sunshine up there!

Adjustment

So, people ask me, "How are the kids adjusting to the new baby?" Here's how:

DAMON

He's been through this before. He just carries on as if nothing has changed. But he doesn't like the crying and wants me to "fix it." But he's at school most of the time, so nothing has really changed. He likes to hold McKay, for a few minutes at a time, and then he's done and on his way.

This is the only recent picture I have of Damon. He has taken advantage of my need to sleep a little more in the morning by helping himself to Cap'N Crunch one day. He knows that's only for Saturday, but I was taking too long and he decided to take care of himself. But I guess I'm the only one to blame for that...

ALLIE

Allie is very helpful. She will hold McKay for a much longer period of time when I need to do things like clean up breakfast. She will get me things that I need and loves to talk about her new brother. Her life is basically unchanged as well, as she is in school half a day. She still talks non stop (telling me stories about kids in her class) and sounds out words when she talks ("mom, can I have some t-OHHHH-st?"). Recently, she has become a bit obsessed with laundry baskets. She called it her "parade." I found her asleep in her "float" two nights in a row.



KYLA

She is still hanging on to her cold, so she hasn't been able to hold McKay without a mask on. She has kept her distance. I'm sure part of it is because I have been telling her to stay away, but part of it is because she also sees it as an opportunity to do what she wants to do. She has gotten to spend more time doing her "three fun things"--playing the computer, watching kids shows, and playing my phone. One day she asked if I would look at the Waldo book with her on the couch and after about 10 minutes I started falling asleep. Later that night, she reminded me, "you fell asleep when we looked at the Waldo book, so can we do that again?"

She is really in an anti-pants phase right now. She wants to wear skirts every day (even to bed, with a jammie shirt) and still doesn't want to wear shoes or a jacket. And, yeah, it's still cold.

She wants her hair in a whole ponytail (because my mom would do it for her, even knowing it won't stay in for more than a couple hours) and tells me I should be able to do it. She hasn't acted like having the baby has changed her that much, but she has been less obedient and more obstinate since my mom left. She will tell me "no" flat out, and refuses to do things she doesn't want to do. I'm hoping that's part of her adjustment phase and that she'll be able to get over that soon.

CARTER

He has definitely had the hardest time adjusting. Understandably. But he is hard, flat out. He is so needy. He walks around the house crying, signing "eat," and then throwing fits when I won't constantly feed him. He cries a lot. I even had the doctor check his ears yesterday at McKay's appointment to see if there was a reason for his grouchiness. Nope, he's just ornery. Not all of the time, but a lot. He doesn't take it out on the baby (he mostly gets giddy whenever I let him get within 5 feet of McKay), but he takes it out on me. He loves to get into the cup drawer (he has for a few months now) and throw them on the floor.

He has also learned that he can throw things off the "deck" upstairs.

On the few warm days we had last week, we played outside, which makes a big difference in Carter's mood. He loves to be outside, eating dirt, throwing rocks, climbing on the trampoline...I know that once we can spend time outside every day, his life will be easier. He will be less bored and (hopefully) less hungry and LESS WHINY!

MCKAY

McKay is such a sweet baby. He has yet to be really fussy (although he has his moments). He has been sleeping better at night (3 hours at a time sometimes), and spending more and more time in his bed (although still several hours snuggled up with me, especially when he's gassy).

Every morning this week he has spent about 30 minutes in his swing (usually awake and calmly looking around) while I shower and get ready for the day. That's helpful.


BUT, he loves to be held. I can't put him down during the day for very long. I always try, once he has been fed and is sleeping, to put him in his bed. But he doesn't last very long. Maybe 5 minutes before I have to go pick him up. If he's being held, he's happy. That's just not the most convenient thing for me to do. And if he's fussy, Jeff doesn't want to hold him at all (he said to Damon, "I can't stand babies." Later he amended that statement and said, "I can't stand CRYING babies," but I know how he feels. He just isn't a baby dad).

I love holding him. Especially when he looks at me and smiles (which he did when I talked to him about his new cousin, Ella, and his angel brother, Chance). He seems to focus right on me, although I'm sure I'm blurry, and stares.

He weighed 9 lbs yesterday and was 21 1/2 inches long (an increase of 13 ounces and an inch and a half from birth), so he's growing well. He still doesn't like to open his mouth very wide when he nurses, but my body has adjusted for the most part and it isn't TOO painful. He rarely spits up and a lot of times I hear him swallow it back down (gross). He also doesn't burp all that often, but does get gassy later. Maybe I need to spend more time burping him. Yeah, I don't see that happening.

He has finally started going out in the car. To the doctor's office and to grandma's house. He doesn't love the car, but also doesn't seem to really hate it. He'll cry, but then he'll settle down. We'll see as he gets older what his true feelings are.


I am constantly amazed by how much I love him. Even when I'm tired and there are a MILLION things I need to do around the house, I still love picking him up and snuggling with him. I am really trying to enjoy him, as I feel like he is definitely my last baby. I feel like our family is complete. And I feel like I would lose my ever-loving mind if I even thought about having any more.


A little blurry from my phone, but how lucky am I? This little love is all mine. :)