Five Months

Our little blue eyed girl is five months old! She is still incredibly happy and easygoing, although she still lets her dissatisfaction be known if she gets hungry, tired, spends too long on her tummy, or is stuck in the car seat for too long.

We are still breastfeeding on demand, but will probably start introducing foods when she hits six months. She automatically flips onto her tummy when you lay her on her back, although she hasn't quite mastered rolling back over to her back when she gets sick of it. Instead she just screams at us until someone either flips her back or picks her up. She can sit up for a few seconds by herself and she loves the new playmat we got her and bouncing in her bouncer. She's also pushing up tall on her forearms when she is on her tummy and starting to pull her knees under her.

She is still sleeping with us, and sleep is about the same. She wakes up once during the night and then in the early morning hours, although lately when she wakes up around 5:30am she wants to stay up, which mama doesn't love

This month she had two big firsts: her first airplane ride, and her first time being sick. She did amazing on the airplane, both ways. she slept pretty much the whole time, fussed only a little bit, and was easily comforted by nursing. But on our last day of vacation we noticed she was being fussy and we realized she was running a low fever of 101. It came down pretty easily with Tylenol, but you could tell she didn't feel great. By the next day, when we flew home, I started seeing the telltale spots, and sure enough when I took her to the Dr. Monday she was diagnosed with Hand/foot/mouth. All of our kids have had it, and thankfully none of them have ever had  really bad case, her included. The worst part, besides them being uncomfortable, is that it is super contagious and so we have been pretty much quarantined since we got home from vacation. Luckily she seems to be pretty much over it now, and no one else seems to have picked it up.

Anyway, she is pretty much still the sweetest little thing ever and she gets prettier by the day. We are loving watching her personality develop and I love seeing how she has her brothers and her Daddy wrapped around her little finger!

Happy five month, baby girl!

Madison trip 2018

So, you all know we have our annual cousin/family trip every year where my sister and her family come and visit us, and that it's one of my favorite time of the year. Well, this year we decided it was our time to hop on a plane with all four of our kids and go visit them in Wisconsin. To say the kids were excited is an understatement.... they had literally been asking me how many days until the trip since January, and last week it was finally time to head to the airport!

(He was so excited!)

The flight actually went amazingly well. C slept pretty much the entire time and the boys took turns on the iPad and the kindle. There were no fight or tantrums and S and I were feeling pretty proud as the plane landed. And the, as we were waiting to de-board, R puked everywhere. So then we were that family with the puke covered kid. But we pulled it together, stripped him down, cleaned him up, and went on our way.

The first part of our trip was just having out in Madison. Sunday was Father's Day so we let the guys have a "guy's day" and my sister, mom and me took all the kids to a local splash pad. It was so nice to be outside in the middle of summer and not dying in 120 degree heat, and the kids had a blast and also tired themselves out!

We also had to take the kids ice skating, since that is a foreign concept to our kids. One of their cousins plays on a hockey team and we also got to see one of his games. It was pretty impressive. I think L, R and I made it around the ring about four times before we threw in the towel, and L2 refused to even put on skates!

Mid week we went up to the "River House", a cute little cabin in the woods that my sister, her husband and our parents own jointly. It was adorable, and so green, but the bugs were Killer! C and I stayed inside for the most part since she is too little for bug spray and because..... well, because I don't like bugs!

(braving the outside for a few moments!)

And everyone took turns holding her on the screened in porch, so it was kind of like she was outside!

But really, most of the trip was spent sitting on the front porch, enjoy the beautiful weather, drinking cold beers and spending much needed time with family. 

And napping.....

But really, my sister lives in an awesome little neighborhood and the kids got out scooters and bikes and went up and down the street while they made memories that I hope will stay with them forever. Don't get me wrong, they also spent a lot of time enconssed in the basement playing video games, all of them taking advantage of the fact that all of us adults enjoyed the peace and quiet and were giving them a lot more leeway than normal.

Our last day took us to their downtown Farmer's market, where I fell even more in love with this amazingly progressive city. Seriously, I felt like I had found my people walking around there! We walked around with the kids and got some goodies and then my mom, sister, niece and I spent some time shopping.

It was the perfect trip and I'm so glad we were able to pull it together this year. Traveling with four kids is no joke, but it was worth every second of insanity. We all can't wait to go back!

See you next time, Madison!