little Noelle at 4 months

Little Noelle had her 4 month well check this morning. It was a relaxing visit, Rob met me at the clinic and played with Dallas and Emily in the reception area. I had plans for them this morning, but they were foiled by the 2 hour delay for the schools.

Noelle is still growing great.
She weighs 13 lbs on the button, and is 23.5" long. I remembered to ask the Dr.'s opinion on what her eye color might end up, his guess was hazel. He said they would probably be brown by this point if they were going to be brown as that is a dominate gene. Although they are blue some days, they are not as light as the siblings, we were going to guess hazel too!

When we got home, I put Noelle to sleep, her appt. was prime napping time. I got Dallas and Emily bundled up in their snow gear and headed out to play/shovel/ride the sled I pulled.
Dallas wouldn't keep his mittens on, and got very cold hands. It was a lot of fun, and we were out for longer than I expected, but getting them dressed and undressed is sure a chore. I am totally wishing for a mud room. There are currently 4 pairs of snow pants, coats, boots, hats and gloves strewn about everywhere, plus dirty snow water on the floor.

He loves his Buzzy PJ's, this is the second time he has spent all day in them!
Look at her cuteness

Em's first payday. She got a lesson on giving, saving and spending, and decorated three envelopes for her system

In other news

- Noelle has croup

- Dallas and Em both had fevers 1 day each this week

- Rob and I have had the same head cold the last couple of days

- taking three kids to the Dr. is harder than most of my workouts, they shouldn't even accept seeing family's with kids under 3 in the afternoon

- Emily earned her first commission this week after completing her first week of work

- I haven't had to clear the table or wipe it down this week, or put away her clothes or her brothers!

- Robert completed week one of his new gigs, he hit a few snags with the sound absorption in his office, but he now has that figured out

- Emily has two loose teeth! how can that be, it makes me want to freeze time

- the night that followed the post that Noelle won't sleep, ironically had us up from 1 -5:00 am for Dallas, Noelle slept 3 hours at a time

- we invested some Christmas "fun" money into a PSP3 move, it is fun, looking forward to playing with Rob more often

Little Blue Truck

Dallas (2 yr) and mommy reading Little Blue Truck

mom jeans, do you wear them or do they wear you?

I found this article crazy funny and enlightening, as I am working off the last 10lb of Noelle weight so I can get into all my jeans. I don't usually read this blog, but catch it now and again. These women did a great study, with pictures on "mom jeans" how and where those back pockets should be placed. It is a must read! (not saying I know anyone who wears their jeans this way, just think it is good info!) Now who wants to come over and take pictures of my butt in jeans so I can see them objectively?

Blog on mom jeans and avoiding the dreaded long butt look

little Noelle and my need for REM sleep

A question for all of you mamma's. Noelle has been waking every 1.5 - 2 hours a night for the last week or so. This is really not working out for me so well. I have read that at four months they go through a little sleep disruption, I guess this might be it.
I feel like I need a new plan of attack. As they say the only consistency is my inconsistency! Do I go to her every 1.5 hour, do I stick her paci back in, do I feed her each time? One of the problems is she seems to be getting out of her swaddle. She often gets at least one arm out if not both, and then bats her head with them, sometimes putting them in her mouth, which I think she does find soothing. I would like to drop the swaddle now or soon, I really don't want to invest in some fancy swaddle garments.
She has never slept through the night nor do I expect her too, although if she did I wouldn't argue. She does usually sleep 3-5 hours the first time being put down and then wake 1 or 2 times a night.

She is a pretty good napper during the day, she has just developed a fairly good morning nap where she will sleep 1.5 hours, and then naps in the afternoon a couple of times.

Soooooo, what to do. I need a plan, and need to stick to it. How do I break the swaddle habit?

HELP!

Our train Engineer
Rob's cousin is also following his dreams, his recently published book, he did the artwork, order here

Dallas is steering and Emily is running the gas, safe?

Fun to make a potholder with Em, did we all do these as kids, a classic!

sisters

lately on my mind

Emily woke up a couple nights ago wanting a new shirt, her pj top was to wet. She drooled herself awake, so cute!

Dallas is really into books, he wants to read "Little Blue Truck" over and over. If you pause at the right spots he will say "beep" and "moo", but he uses "moo" for all the animals!

I puked myself into the New Year. Embarrassingly enough it started in the driveway of our friends house. No one else has gotten sick which is great, and I am down 5 lbs, great way to start 2011

Rob has started his new gigs, figuring out how to make an office have ample sound absorption figures to be harder than we thought

Noelle is also a drooly little girl, I think it is because she spends more time sitting or standing so her mouth is draining South. She is quite the fashionista as the droolyness gets her 3 or 4 outfits a day