Weeks 8 through 14

I blinked. I swear that's what it feels like. It truly feels like I blinked and now Sam is already three months old and in daycare and I'm back at work. The first day back has gotten easier with each baby and with Sam I cried for only a few moments in the daycare parking lot on the first day. After that it's just been a whirlwind of getting kids dressed and ourselves ready and out of the door on time.

Sam is already rolling over - sporadically - which feels entirely too soon. Overall she's just a happy and easygoing baby. She's not quite sleeping through the night yet, but she's only waking up once in the middle of the night and then again between 4:00 and 6:00 AM, which works out with our work schedule.

This kid also has such great head/neck control. When she's laying on her back she looks like she's trying to do a sit up and really she prefers sitting upright and facing out if we're holding her. For Christmas she got an insert for our highchair so now she can sit at the dinner table with us and she loves it.

My favorite part of the day is still pick up time. Everyone is always all smiles and it just melts my heart.

Weeks 1 through 7

Life with four. The days literally fly by. I'm in slight denial that I only have five weeks left of my leave and I'm trying to soak up as much as I can while I'm still home. I remember being frustrated and exhausted and napping all of the time when I was home with Stasa and Lexi and even a bit with Tommy. But this time I've only napped a handful of times and that was all within the first couple of weeks and when Samantha's up all night, like last night, I've been calm - tired, yes - but just accepting the fact that she's going to be awake for awhile and so I migrate to the living room and watch television while I walk her around the house or nurse her until she falls asleep.

Now that we're days away from Thanksgiving I finally got serious about the holidays and actually have advantage of being alone with the baby to shop. I was happy to announce last night that I'm nearly finished - I just need stocking stuffers for the kids and Tom and some gifts for family. Tom and I are also going to be canning jams and jellies again this year and I've been scouring Pinterest for new recipes.

Now that Thanksgiving break is in full swing I need to pull myself together, straighten up the house and find something to do with Stasa...maybe bake a pie or two!

Here's the littlest lady's first seven weeks.

42, 43, 44 Weeks Old

Little man is just so awesome right now. He's cruising and crawling everywhere and literally gets into everything. You can not turn your back on him for one second without him tearing something apart. Yesterday was a snow day so all of the kids were home while we attempted work, thankfully the girls played somewhat quietly while Tommy napped so we got a huge chunk of actual work time in. Wait, where was I? Oh, right. Tommy and destroying things. Don't turn your back on him. So, yesterday we were all home and the kids were all in the living room having a morning snack and I took like two seconds to step into our office, which is within sight of the living room and within that time Tommy emptied the majority of a tissue box. Two seconds and tissues were all over the place. And then HE was mad at ME for taking them away. Mean mama.

Even with the destructiveness I still love this age. He's into everything, but he's figuring things out by himself because he's into everything. I don't think I can say it enough, but he plays with things so differently than the girls did. Almost everything winds up as some sort of mallet or drumstick to bang on just about anything.

Now he's 10 months old and will soon be a whole year, which is just crazy talk. Little man is standing by himself when he wants to, but I kind of doubt he'll be walking anytime soon as he doesn't really trust the whole standing on two feet without holding on thing. Silly boy.

41 Weeks Old

This week both girls wanted in on the weekly pictures, but with their own bears and not with the llama.

38, 39, 40 Weeks Old and some 9 Month Stats

My baby is already nine months old. I know I say this with every milestone and monthday, but seriously. How is he already nine months old? He's now been an outside baby longer than he was inside.

Tommy is still the happiest baby I know. He's cruising everywhere and holds on with just one hand, but isn't quite ready to try standing on his own. He crawls insanely fast and gets into things the girls had zero interest in. And now he's reached that "fun" age where I say no and he laughs hysterically and does the thing anyway. He basically eats whatever we eat now, which has made meals so much easier, though the little man can make a giant mess when he eats and often winds up in the sink for a quick bath.


He's still in nine month clothing, but he's slowly busting out of them. Before his well check I guessed that he would be pretty high on the height charts and somewhere around 20 pounds - at least that's what he feels like when I carry him. His official nine month stats:
Weight: 20lbs 7oz, 64th percentile
Height: 29 3/4", 94th percentile
Head: 18 1/4", 85th percentile

Our little man is just getting bigger and bigger and before we know it he'll be ONE.

34 and 35 Weeks Old

Somewhere between 29 weeks and 34 weeks old...oops

Life got way too hectic recently and I think I missed a couple of weekly shots. :( Here are the most recent ones. He's already 34 weeks old and will be 8 months old right after Christmas.



Tommy is all over the place and into absolutely everything. He crawls at lightning speed and is pulling up, too, so nothing is safe. He swipes everything and immediately tucks it in his mouth. He's still the happiest baby I know. In fact, as I type this he's crawling around grabbing things off of the couch and laughing...and he got his flu shot this afternoon, too. Happy kid.

29 Weeks Old

The girls are so insistent on being a part of Tommy's weekly pictures. They get really upset when I ask for JUST ONE SHOT of him. I usually wind up taking a picture or two or twenty of them with him before they move on and let me snap one of just him and his bear. And even in this week's picture you can see Lexi walking in with her baby. Tommy just doesn't care who's in his picture. He loves his sisters so much and lights up when they call his name.

November flew by so fast and even this weekly picture is already a week overdue (he's on his way to 31 weeks old). Right before Thanksgiving someone asked me how old he was and I started to respond "six months" but then caught myself and realized that he was actually already seven months old.

He's also flying through developments - crawling, self-feeding, PULLING UP(!). I'm still waiting for the best development - sleeping through the night. That would be a Christmas miracle. Despite the fact that he likes to wake up once or twice a night, he's a pretty easy baby. He's still such a cuddlebug and is so mellow. Now that he can move he wants to go everywhere. In the mornings the kids usually convene in the playroom while they get ready for the day and Tommy takes advantage of all of the open doors and sneaks into his sisters' rooms. Quiet as a mouse he crawls in and starts exploring without them knowing. Sneaky little boy.

27 and 28 Weeks Old

26 weeks old and 6 month stats

Oh, boo boo. I really need to start taking these weekly pictures earlier in the day when he's happy and not right before bedtime. Mom fail.

So much has happened this past month that it's been hard to keep track of it all. Tommy started solid foods, and loves them, really loves them. He gets upset when he finishes a meal, but I know there's no way his little stomach could hold any more food than what we gave him. He also loves sitting at the dinner table with us and happily smiles and coos at everyone. So far he's had avocado, banana, cereal, plums, pears, peaches, sweet potato, a couple of winter squashes, and mango. Up next are the green veggies and adding in some herbs. I'm thinking that we may just puree whatever we're having for dinner (but not meats) and then just feed him that. I gave him a bite of my skillet potatoes the other day and he loved them - spices and all.



Tommy also started sitting up on his own and is army crawling all over the place. I was putting Stasa's hair up this morning and had the tv remote on the floor next to me and all of a sudden Tommy was by my side swiping at the remote. He slugs his body across the floor fast. He gets up on his knees and rocks, but hasn't quite figured out how to crawl, so he resorts to moving like a slug.



He's been drooling up a storm and a couple of weeks ago I felt something sharp in his mouth and poked around and discovered two teeth buds emerging. They've finally fully popped through his gums and the doctor checked his upper gums and said we've got awhile before those come in.

We took him for his six month well check this week and the doc said he looks great. His stats are so close to Lexi's and Stasa's at that age. He wound up getting all but one vaccination and his flu shot. The one vaccine will be delayed since we opted to get the flu shot.

	Weight	Height
Tommy	16 lbs 5 oz	27.5”
Lexi	16 lbs 3 oz	27”
Stasa	16 lbs 10 oz	26.5”

22, 23, 24, 25 Weeks Old

Whoa, I'm behind on blogging. Let's catch up, shall we? Watch my baby grow...and cry.

21 Weeks Old, and so happy about it

Such a *terrific* picture of all three. Best yet.

20 Weeks Old

18 and 19 Weeks Old

17 Weeks Old, belated