We’ve had a few very busy weeks IRL in these parts. Jordi ended his previous job and started a new one, after taking a week off inbetween to do things like build the bunk beds and other house hold chores. Then our computer got infected with a virus, and has  some motherboard trouble. But that was while Jordi was gone for 11 days starting his new job in sunny California. Yep, me, three kids, four cats, and 11 days no husband. We made it through, my parents joined us a few days, and with fantastic luck no one got sick. We’ve now finally got the computer on the mend, almost fixed up, although that motherboard issue could take us down anytime again.

Close readers may have a good guess of where Jordi now works!

The last thing I need to do is get my monitor calibrated again, because right now the ‘correct’ pictures make everyone look like they have a bad spray tan.

They are certainly creative, this was them in a boat. Ewan makes the motor noises.

Fifteen seconds later, two of them were pushing to get into my lap when they realized I was looking at something on the computer. Nice while it lasted.

Well no point in even pretending I’m close to a 7 month update now. Let’s just make this an official 7.5 month update. I don’t feel like he even did a ton of changing from month 6 to 7 even, but in the last two weeks lots to talk about! In his 7th month he mostly worked on learning to crawl better and faster, enjoying his ability to move around.

In the last few weeks though he’s made some major new brain connections. He now understands where he is not allowed to go (the bathroom, the kitchen) and tries to sneak his way into them by being stealthy. He also likes to pretend he’s just going to play with the gear magnets on the fridge, and then make a break for the cat food, litter or water dish when he thinks we aren’t looking. He also knows that if he wants my attention he can go for the cord under my desk that I haven’t figured out how to babyproof yet. It doesn’t hang down, and I need one thing to be plugged in there for all the computer stuff. The toilet is a toy right? it even sounds like TOY-let yes?

He loves to be going around exploring, either at home, my parents house, the library and the science museum. Today at the museum he had an employee just sitting with him bringing him item after item to touch and explore, like shells, sponges, bones, and pillows of different textures. He’s very rewarding with his smiles. If he’s feeling unsure though he’s all mamas boy. He mostly likes to hit things together or put them in his mouth. He also loves his sisters and see what they’re up to and if he can get his hands onto it. He does not understand too well that they are also my children and deserving of my attention. Unless he’s nursing, he does not like me reading to the girls, especially if they are in my lap. He just throws a fit that he is not the one in my lap and looks really pitiful, Josie will generally give in, Celia won’t. He does love to take a nice morning nap while nursing as I read to the girls though. You should imagine the scene with him on my lap on a pillow, one girl on each side of me, plus George the 19 lb cat trying to find a place to sit on my lap and usually one of the girls at the same time. Yesterday George gave Ewan’s head a complete bath during reading time to show how much he loves us.

Just in the last couple of days Ewan’s finally started to eat a tiny bit of food. He had mostly been refusing it previously so I have barely even been trying. Now he’ll swallow a few bites, broccoli is a favorite and banana and black beans have also been enjoyed. Avocado a little, just in case you thought we only fed him foods that start with B. He still nurses all night long and cuddles.

No idea how much he weights or how long he is, but he’s getting bigger and chunky too. He’s solidly wearing 12 month clothes, with a few 9 month clothes hanging around still. Tooth number 6 is about to make it’s arrival! We have also been battling major rash as he poops all morning long and frequently throughout the day too if anyone has any brilliant suggestions. He also just bit my shoulder tonight to get my attention for the first time, so that’s a not so fun strategy he’s trying out, let’s hope he learns quickly that it does not work.

Physically he’s close to walking. He can stand for several seconds before slowly lowering himself to the ground. He can pull up to standing on pretty much anything, including a flat wall. He does a bit of cruising, but mostly just drops back down to crawling to get around any significant distance.

Today we had to sadly say goodbye to Kaya. She along with her sister Ezzy were the first babies Jordi and I had. I found them on petfinder over Christmas just before Jordi was moving to Boston and we were getting our first apartment together in Cambridge. They were already two years old and not fixed yet, and were not used to using a litter box. We went to visit the cats at the shelter straight from picking him up at the airport for his approval. Then we got the cats two days later once we finally got into our new place and had a mattress to sleep on! It took us a while to tell the difference between the two tiny lightweight cats. They seemed so similar, and they are, although now I can spot the differences a mile away. Thankfully they adjusted well, and we learned who was who so we didn’t have to keep the collars on anymore since they were indoor cats. They both gained weight and thrived. Kaya came to us with a broken tail, sliced ear and a funky colored eye, signs of some tough times before. She was decidedly a daddy’s girl. Throughout the years she’s been faithfully with us, loving the move to our bigger current space.

Kaya

After the kids were born though, and Fred and George arrived and got huge, Kaya was not pleased living with us anymore. She was half the size of the big boys, and very sensitive. So when they chased her, she ran and screamed. Can’t really explain ‘just ignore the bullies’ to a cat. So then while Kaya had the run of the house during the day, she stayed in the bathroom at night so have some peace and rest. Once my parents cats had all died, they offered to take Kaya and we accepted. Kaya has lived at their house now for a few years very happily, monitoring their daily showering, reminding them to feed her and to go to bed. They’ve taken good care of our grumpy girl, who will literally bite (or swat) the hand that feeds her if you put it in front of her face the wrong way. Just make sure to use the other hand so you don’t put it in front of her mouth.

In the end, she’s always had a bad stomach of sorts for a long time now although we’re not sure quite why. Test results pointed to GI cancer but beyond trying some treatment that failed, there was no need to put her through more testing for just more bad news. We were glad to get to give her a peaceful cuddling goodbye in her own home. She will be missed.

A few weeks ago we got to enjoy our regular mid-winter weekend  break with our lovely neighbors! We head down to the cape codder resort and enjoy a weekend of swimming, eating, sleeping and more swimming. Our trip down was nicely uneventful with Celia and Ewan sleeping most of the way, so we didn’t stop. We had picked Josie up right after school and made it down there by 4pm. After setting up the room it was 5 and so we headed out for an early dinner to Olive Garden which Josie and Celia thought was absolutely fantastic. Jordi and I were generally reminded as to why we don’t go to the olive garden. After dinner we went home for a late swim in the pool before bed. Christina and family arrived after our kids were already in bed, trying to avoid sleeping.

The next morning we were up early and after a quick breakfast provided by Dunkies, we headed over to the pool, where I cruelly force my children to take pictures for 3 minutes once during the entire weekend.

But I must say I do always love the bright unidirectional light plus white sheets that the lovely beds provide for us and take advantage! My kids all have new headshots from this weekend for our walls!

Ewan, playing with some swag.

After our morning swim, we head back to the room and get ready for lunch at Not Your Average Joes and check out the carousel at the mall. We’ve got this trip down to a routine at this point, and despite efforts to change it, it turns out not too much is open on the cape this time of year and so it just stays low-key.

After lunch we have a rest back at the hotel before more swimming. This is the first trip Josie’s been tall enough to try the slides at the pool, and she was super brave and decided to try them! She can’t swim yet but she managed to get her feet down at the bottom of the slides and did them again and again and again. It was so much fun to see her try something new and out of her comfort zone.

Celia had a blast all over the pool with her floaties but she tuckered out quicker than usual. Ewan enjoyed his first time in a pool in a while and liked to splash himself while walking around in the pool. He found it fascinating and exhausting.

Later we went out to dinner at a Thai restaurant that with all 9 of us we take over almost half the restaurant. But it is oh so tasty and nice and cheap too. Josie and Celia were both a little under the weather as it seems someone always has to be when we’re down there. It’s the time of year for colds for everyone! After dinner we went out to roast marshmallows around the bonfire (in the background below is the wave pool).

The next morning we eat, swim and pack up again before heading home. We took a detour and visited IKEA and Jordan’s furniture to try to figure out how to shift up the girls bedroom and didn’t make it home till late. Overall though it was a great trip and so much fun to see them all enjoy themselves.

They like to hang out at the gate, maybe they’re hungry?

Being a bit behind, Celia has now turned 3 and one third years old! She has taken a delightful turn from being 2 and now is three and has a bit more self control, moderation and patience. A bit anyway. She is still a super big ball of energy and love and hams it up for the camera for me with lots of emotion. Lots of emotion is always her thing actually! Lots of love, and lots of intensity. Winter has been tough being inside all the time, she’s missing out on riding her bike and playing in the sand. We are trying to get out more into the snow when it’s available but with the early darkness and school there isn’t a ton of time to be out there.

One of Celia’s most requested activities when she gets to pick are board games. She plays high-ho cherry oh, sequence for kids, busytown, plus uno and go fish as well as others I’m not remembering right now. She’s gotten the hang of counting out spaces and following the rules. We’re still working on being a good sport when losing, but she actually wins a good percentage of the time, at least when there’s a good amount of luck involved.

Academically she’s doing fantastically learning her letters and numbers. She can recognize most of the letters, definitely the most common ones. She also knows the numbers up to 20. Beyond that has been a challenge so far, we’ve been using the ‘i have, who has’ games with her that they do in Josie’s classroom. (Yes I take the Kindergarten work and use it on my three year old, more on that later) She ‘reads’ us books, like Red Hat, Green Hat and other things she’s memorized. She also wants me to make her ‘homework’ which involves tracing letters and words that I print out from the computer. She’s very good with her horizontal, vertical lines and circles, but the slants come out straight unless she’s tracing right on something.

Most every morning she’ll ask me if today is a gymnastics day. She loves her gymnastics classes and is progressing well in them. Wearing a leotard is mandatory, even in the local rec classes, she pretty much refused to do class the one day she didn’t have a leotard to wear. She says her favorite is the beam and being up high. She doesn’t get that from me.

As for her siblings. She’s been known to hug Ewan so hard he spits up all the food he just ate. She always wants to help out with him as well, bringing me diapers and toys. At the same time she can verbalize that she’s mad and jealous of him, all perfectly normal. It’s tough being a middle child I think. She loves Josie but gets a bit sick of being bossed around. She’s doing better standing up for herself lately and changing the games, but for now Celia always insists on being the baby and making Josie be the mommy. I’ve got my ears peeled for when she’ll allow a role reversal at playtime. Josie is definitely her favorite playmate though.

• Size/weight: 4T’s, 33lbs
• Favorite foods: cheese, tomatoes, pasta
• Favorite toy: dress up and pretend
• Favorite book: Arthur series
• Favorite activity: playing pretend
• Sleeping: bedtime ~7:45; gets up about 6:30
• New skill: memorizing books, using her words when she’s upset
• Teeth: holding steady with all 20
• Literacy: reading us books that she’s memorized

At six months we let the kids start eating! Ewan has been no exception, except that he isn’t particularly interested. He’s taken each food and tried a small bite, but really has barely swallowed anything. Broccoli has been the most liked so far, he’s taken a few bites. But mostly he just wiggles the food around before throwing or dropping it on the floor. He’s got the fine manual control even to pick up peas. We’ve tried sweet potatos, carrots, broccoli, peas and bananas so far.

Compare to last years shot.

A bit over a week ago we celebrated Jordi’s birthday! Now before the kids were born Jordi used to go regularly rock climbing with a friend and he enjoyed it. Then we had kids, and him spending an entire weekend morning disappearing and then being super-tired after wasn’t exactly working for us, and his friend moved away. But no more! The girls wanted to give Jordi a chance to go rock climbing with them for his birthday. So on his birthday morning we went to Quebrada and then off we went to the local rock climbing wall. Where it was strangely super-parked up. We went inside and found out that they were having a competition and were all disappointed. But Jordi took the girls in to show them the walls and the competition, where he found out that they were only using the bouldering walls and that the climbing walls were completely empty. So it was even better than normal actually! They had a few self-belay setups as well that would retract the line automatically so Jordi could climb too. We all had a good time, Ewan was napping and then watching from my back. Josie made it almost up the whole wall! Celia enjoyed giving it a go too.

Then we hit up Costco for a cheap nearby pizza lunch. We relaxed in the afternoon for a while before going out to dinner in Davis Square with my parents at a burger place before returning home for some yummy ice cream cake. Happy late birthday Jordi!