Lacy's Birthday Interview

My name is: Lacy
I am 7 years old.
I am ____ inches tall and I weigh ___ pounds.  (still need to do this!)
My favorite color is black.
My favorite book is one with the main character of Lacy (we can't remember the book name)
My favorite show is Wild Kratts
My favorite food is cake
I want to be a scientist when I grow up.
My favorite subject at school is reading.
The music I like best is the music I learn at school.
My favorite thing I did last year was meeting my teacher
This year I hope I will watch TV at lunch again.
My favorite place to go is school.
My favorite thing to do is draw.
My favorite animal is every animal.
My favorite thing to do with Rose is play on my bed.
My favorite thing to do with Uriah is help him climb up my ladder.
My favorite thing to do with daddy is go to the little store and eat candy.
My favorite thing to do with mommy is go to the fair and sit in the ferris wheel.

Rose's Birthday Interview

My name is:  Rose
I am 5 years old.
I am 43 1/4 inches tall and I weigh 40 pounds.
My favorite color is purple and blue.
My favorite book is Pink Pajamas
My favorite show is Dora
My favorite food is spaghetti.
I want to be a doctor when I grow up.
My favorite subject at school is bringing muffins and cupcakes too.
The music I like best is violin.
My favorite thing I did last year was play soccer.
This year I hope I will make necklaces.
My favorite place to go is school.
My favorite thing to do is get balloons.
My favorite animal is horses.
My favorite thing to do with Lacy is play school and house.
My favorite thing to do with Uriah is snuggle with him.
My favorite thing to do with daddy is go to the little store.
My favorite thing to do with mommy is go the doctors and get a shot.

So how's the nightweaning going?

Well, it's going great!  Uriah was very unhappy at the idea of nightweaning.  At first.  The first several days were very, very hard, especially once I stopped nursing him at night altogether (night 4 and later).  I almost threw in the towel at one point.  Almost.  I think I was on night 5 or 6, and my lovely friends and family convinced me to keep on trying.  Guess what?  It got easier after that!  Uriah still wakes up at about 12:30 every night, but it takes about 2 minutes to get him back to sleep now, and I don't have to get out of bed or even hold him.  I just shush him (he likes the white noise), push down on the bed a little so he jiggles a bit, and maybe say a few soft gentle words while patting him, and he falls back asleep.  This would not have been possible a few weeks ago!  I am so happy that the nightweaning has worked!  I didn't follow Dr. Gordon's plan to a T this time, as I did with Rose, because Uriah was about 6 months younger than Rose when I nightweaned her.  I stayed on phase 2 for a couple of additional days, and we naturally and easily transitioned to phase 3 a few days later.

Nightweaning part 2

So I noticed a little bit of discoloration on Uriah's teeth recently.  I'm so frustrated.  I've been doing everything "right" this time- little sugar, hardly ever any juice (maybe 1-2x a month), teeth get brushed very well daily with no-fluoride toothpaste, but he also gets fluoride supplements every day. The theory is, if teeth are brushed well, breastmilk on the teeth does not cause cavities.  There is actually a dentist who has done extensive research on this matter and has come to that conclusion.  I'm starting to doubt that now because all 3 of my kids have had some amount of decay on their front top teeth. It may be somewhat genetic though, since I know plenty of other people who have much worse oral hygiene habits that have kids with perfectly beautiful and healthy teeth. I guess I have to be extra careful with my children to prevent this from happening.

So I decided that nightweaning is necessary to stop some of the decay.  I have a very fast letdown, and we cosleep, so I think some of the milk actually is pooling up in his mouth causing the decay.  I didn't nightwean Rose until she was older, and Lacy nightweaned out of necessity because I was pregnant with Rose, so her damage was less severe .  Uriah is 14 months now and perfectly capable of nightweaning.  It's a hard process though.  I decided to start it last night.

The first night is really hard because they've never had to be forced to do without nursing at night before.  You do allow them some nursing (2-3 minutes) but not to where they fall asleep again.  And this really upset Uriah.  REALLY upset him.  He woke up at 11:45 last night and cried and screamed and fought until 1:15 when I finally was able to lay down with him.  He woke up again maybe twice more, but it was easier to get him back to sleep then.  He woke up happy and smiling this morning, so no harm done!  We've just got to get through 9 more days of this.

Quack Quack by Louise Rupnik

I thought it would be fun to review Uriah's favorite book!  Quack Quack is a touch and feel book for babies, and Uriah absolutely loves it!

There are photographs of various animals in this book with little patches for baby to feel.  Uriah doesn't just feel these patches.  He bites them.  I guess this book is Uriah approved!  This is the only book that he'll sit all the way through.  He loves it!  He's not quite 14 months and I try to read a few books to him every day, but he usually gets bored halfway through the book.  

This is a good one for little babies because it's not too long and they like patting (or biting!) the animals in the book.

Sick

For the last week and a half.  Hoo boy this is fun.  Everyone else has already gone through it (and still have lingering symptoms- thank goodness the boy is still nursing because he can't keep anything down but mama milk) and finally today I notice a little drip from the nose.  Perfect.  Well, maybe hubby can pamper me for a couple of days while I recover.  Lacy has already missed 4 full days and 2 half days of school AND two violin lessons.  We are managing to get practice in most of the time, though.  Hopefully by this Thursday she will be 100% better and ready to fiddle again!

And I always start getting smug in late February that we didn't get sick this winter.  And then we get sick in March.  Never fails.  I'll stop being smug about our health next year.  If I remember.

The Monster Princess

Tonight we tried something the girls picked out from the library yesterday.  The Monster Princess, by D.J. MacHale, ended up in my bag from the new picture book section.  

Did you ever wish to be a princess?  Lala, the Rugabee, did.  A Rugabee is a type of monster that lives underground and collects a special kind of nut.  But Lala, a very talented and popular Rugabee, wanted to be a princess and live above ground and dance!

One day, she ventures into the castle and finds the princesses' room, where she tries on their dresses.  At first they are afraid, but they end up ridiculing her in public, which really hurts Lala's feelings.

When I opened this book and realized it was a rhyming book, I silently groaned to myself.  I am not a fan of rhyming books.  I've never really liked poetry (sorry, Mom, it's true, but I'll still recite poetry for your birthday) so rhyming books usually have a groan-inducing eyeball-rolling effect on me.  But The Monster Princess was actually not obnoxious rhyming, so it's one I could read again!  Most rhyming books aren't very cleaver and they try too hard.  I didn't feel like that with The Monster Princess.  The girls enjoyed reading it with me, so I officially declare that The Monster Princess will be renewed 3 weeks from now!  Unless, of course, somebody has a hold on it already.