Hopeful Hero

She is our talker. She LOVES to talk! I can't decide if I'm excited to hear what she's saying when she can actually talk, or if I'm scared of how much talking she's going to do. A little bit of both.

Farewell, Old Steed

We sold our car, Sir Lancealittle the Secretive Elephant. He has served us well, but we outgrew him. We just couldn't put three car seats in the back row of Lance. Yesterday, when our friends came to purchase him from us, Peaceful Hero started crying when I handed over the keys and they drove away in our old car. "Why they take Lance. Lance not live with them. Lance live with us. I miss Lance." Then I pointed out that he has not ridden in Lance since we got Vic (Victory the Adventurous Nine-banded armadillo). He was satisfied, "Oh yes. They not take Bic. I love Bic. Bic live with us. Bic my car."

Ready

"I ready for Nursery." Peaceful Hero is dressed and ready. Nursery requires safety goggles.

Temporary

In our family, there are temporary things, and there are lasting things.

Temporary: Honey's and Grandma's visits. 

Lasting: Their love.

Temporary: Papa's beard.

Lasting: A love of Costumes and dressing up.
Peaceful Hero: Darth Vader says "Kohl Pah, WHAT?!"

Temporary: Sleep Depredation

Lasting: Family love.

Temporary: Late night feedings and no sleep. It's been really hard the past week and a half. Hopeful Hero decides it's time to be awake and interacting with Mom from 5 pm, until 11-2am ish. We try all our methods to get her to sleep and it doesn't take. (Last night was A LOT better. She actually slept during that time.) It's nice to know that this will take care of itself within a few months, and that as long as we keep trying, she will get it together as she gets older.

Lasting: Hopeful Hero's smiles. She gives them frequently and they light up our world.

Screen Free

Since Tuesday night--so really, since Wednesday, I've been screen free as long as the boys are up. It's been hard, but after a few days, I really like it. I think we are going to do a lot less screen time, once it's ok to turn on the computer with them around.

Why are we screen free? It was not by my choice. No. Tuesday night---I'm feeding Hopeful Hero upstairs and five minutes later Bug Hero comes home. He gets upset. The tone of his voice is holding-on-to-my-temper-by-the-skin-of-my-teeth. So whatever happened in those five minutes was bad. Very Bad.

Turns out that Peaceful Hero was holding a "smoking gun." He had the white out dispenser  that his Brother, Friendly Hero had given him. Right after FH put white out tape all over the computer monitor. Yeah. We had white out on our computer screen. Sounds like a bad joke.

We got it off, but the boys haven't gotten to watch movies, watch Cello Wars, or Misty Mountains or anything else on the computer. There are still two days left in their sentence.

As a side note, both Peaceful Hero and Friendly Hero have learned the words to Misty Mountains. That song rocks, and is even cooler with a two year old singing it. If we can get them to sing it for the camera, I'll totally share. Because it's precious. 

Then on Wednesday, the two culprits decided to play with Mom's spices while she was nursing downstairs this time. (I don't leave them alone now.) They dumped out four bottles and played with them on the table. They got in trouble for that too.

The one question I have. How do you keep two active, curious little boys out of trouble while you feed a little, hungry sister? 

Hopeful Hero!

Important Update: We are stapleless! It was easy, Peaceful Hero was awesome about it! And now we are back to playing outside at the playground.  And yesterday, when we weighed Hopeful hero--she had gained 7 ounces! Just as she should, and following the family pattern!

And now, on to how adorable my baby is! Because my vanity is in my ability to make adorable babies! These pictures were all taken by my talented friend over at http://www.heidijensenphotography.com/ 

Hopeful Hero loves to smile, usually they are sleepy smiles that follow a great burp, but occasionally they line up when I tell her that I love her.

 A finger sucker! Both of these pictures are in her blessing dress, that her grandmother made for her. We are so lucky to have talented relatives.

The family of supers! I really love Peaceful Hero's face in this one. He just cracks me up!

 We weren't sure if she was crying or yawning.

 And here is one with her hands right by her checks. She loves to put them there--I think she realizes how cute it makes her!

We are grateful she is here and she is healthy and growing. She is littler than her brothers, but I have a feeling she will still be able to keep up with them!

An Update on Heros

 First off: We absolutely loved General Conference this weekend! It was a spiritual feast and a great way to end the week! At this point I don't have a favorite talk, but I loved the spirit and the focus on family and parenting. I also loved hearing the Prophets speak to us. This is one of my favorite weekends of the year.

And the boys are doing better about paying attention. At various moments in the conference, Friendly Hero would pipe up, "He's talking about the resurrection! I hear him talking about Jesus!" And then Peaceful Hero would pipe up, "Who Dat? Dat President Monson?" And when we told him no, "Why?"

We still had toys and snacks and lots of fun. We're not expecting perfection, but it's fun to see them learn and grow in their testimonies. By the way, their Easter outfits are adorable! Thank you Honey!

So speaking of Easter, we dyed eggs, and had a small egg hunt on Saturday. The boys loved it! 

Peaceful Hero keeps asking for more Easter! He then clarifies and asks for another Egg!  Friendly Hero can tell you the story of Easter, but I'm not sure he understands it all. Ever since we started telling him the story, he gets worried that he's going to die and go to Heaven, without us. If we all go together, then he's okay. But in his prayers, he has started asking Heavenly Father to bless Jesus as he is dead so he comes back to life on Easter. I love his testimony and he loves to tell everyone that Jesus comes back!

This week was kind of stressful. And by kind of, I mean medically stuff filled and emotionally draining. First off, we went to the doctor's for a weight check for Hopeful Hero, on Monday. I knew she was still small on Easter. She had just cleared up her jaundice, which for both of the boys, they didn't get back to their birth weight or start thriving until it was cleared up. Friendly Hero's was a lot more severe, and more stressful. But the doctor's here didn't see him. Peaceful Hero didn't cause worry, because he was eight pounds. Hopeful Hero, the nurses started freaking out that she was still 6 lbs 4 ozs. Her birth weight was 6 lbs 14 oz. They started talking about needing a lactation consultation, and other interventions. One nurse even asked in disbelief if my milk was in, or if she was having the correct number of poopy and wet diapers. (Hello! It is!) I was getting the vibe that she didn't trust me when I told her that she was following the pattern of my other children. The doctor wasn't as worried as the nurses, but he was concerned. So we went to a lactation consultation, and everything is fine. I decided that I would squeeze in an extra feeding every day, and wake her up frequently during the day--I refuse to wake her up at night. So instead of feeding her 8 times a day, I've been feeding her 9 times a day. And by Tuesday, she was starting to feel heavier. (Right when I knew she would.) We go back for another weight check tomorrow, but Bug Hero and I both feel that she's close to 7 lbs, if not over it. This week would have seemed busy if that was the only thing, because I'm spending close to 6 or 7 hours during the day feeding a baby.

But she's totally worth it. This is my favorite gown of hers right now. I love the puffed sleeves and the gathering on them. So much fun to have ruffles and puffed sleeves!

Tuesday, we were out at the playground and enjoying the warmer weather and the sun. I am getting the boys ready to go back inside, when the Peaceful Hero starts screaming and all the other parents at the playground start running towards me. The Peaceful Hero, who is also the climbing or adventurous hero, had climbed up the tall slide at the playground, and fell backwards off of it three quarters of the way from the ground. He fell backwards and landed on his back from about 10 feet high. His head was bleeding profusely  For a horrible accident to happen, it really was great timing--because someone took care of Friendly Hero, someone else took my monitor to listen for Hopeful Hero, one dad was home to give Peaceful Hero a blessing, two other people got first aid kits. Once we got down to the scalp, we realized he would need stitches. So another mom came with me to hold pressure on his head. Four hours later, he is the proud owner of three staples in his booboo. He's fine, no lasting harm. He's most upset that I'm not letting him play in the sandbox until it's healed--I don't want to be cleaning sand out of it.

The last person that needs an update: The Bug Hero. He sported facial hair this week, because he had eye surgery last week. He got a pinguicula removed. That's a fancy word for a callus on his eye that caused irritation and redness. So he no longer has a red eye!

Math Hero: I'm keeping up with everyone. I look forward to a less medically busy week next week. We are still having fun and enjoying everyone's company. The next update I will do will have pictures of the Hopeful Hero's newborn photo shoot. I love sharing them with people, and knowing that I make adorable babies.