May

Husband had to go on a work trip to Hawaii.  Needless to say, we’ve heckled him so much about it.  I’m pretty sure he actually did work most the time and didn’t get to play much.  But he and grandpa brought home great stuff for everyone.  They picked out pearl necklaces for me and the girls, brought home chocolate covered macadamia nuts, found a great Hawaiian print outfit for Z and shipped home a case of fresh Maui pineapple.  We ate four of them the first night.  Okay, mostly me.  I ate most of the four pineapple.

Husband got to go birthday boarding and had a blast.  The snow was surprisingly good for spring snow and he and his best friend had a great time.

For his actual birthday, he was gone on a business trip.  So we celebrate the next day.  The girls helped me make him breakfast in bed and took him on a treasure hunt of clues.  The clues led him to his gifts.  We picked out a fancy M&M dispenser for his desk at work and a variety of gourmet popcorns.  That night we had his birthday dinner with chicken parmesan and reese’s cheesecake.  The girls decided they liked making the cheesecake more than they liked eating it.

That weekend, Grandpa took us out for Husband’s birthday.  In tradition, we went to Braza Grill.  The girls loved everything about it, especially the unique serving style and the pineapple.  The food was amazing!

May turned into a busy birthday month.  The next weekend, the girls attended three birthday parties in one day.  At a neighbor’s birthday they made light sabers and had an epic backyard battle including waterballoons.  The BB8 cake was incredible and lavishly and creatively decorated.  A went to a party at a tumbling gym and spent most the time hurling herself into the foam pit.  And we attended a pirate party in the park, digging for gold doubloons in the sandbox and eating cupcakes.  Such lucky little girls.

A lost more teeth!  A few weeks before, she fell off a counter and smacked her face.  Her top two teeth were loose and bleeding but seemed to firm back in.  But a week later she collided with E and it knocked one of them right out.  The second fell out the next morning.  And then two weeks later she lost yet another one while eating!  She has three more that will fall out in the next few weeks and her toothless grin is super cute.

We went to the Safety Fair.  Husband was out of town so I was a little nervous about juggling the four kids but we did great.  I took L and A to the starting line for their race.  They registered awhile back and have been tracking “active hours” to meet the 25 hours requirement.  Then the race was 1.2 miles to complete their “marathon challenge”.  They joined their groups while E, Z and I headed for the finish line party.  While waiting E jumped on the bounce house giggling and laughing.  Then she raced off to the giant inflatable slide that was shaped like a shark.  She came barreling down with huge eyes and declared it way too scary and too fast.  Yet five minutes later, she begged to go again.  She climbed to the top and chickened out.  Unfortunately kids kept coming up and climbing over her.  Soon she was huddled in a corner at the top, bawling her eyes out and unable to come down.  So I asked a friend to hold Z while I climbed up and collected my sad girl.  She agreed to sit on my lap with her eyes closed while we went down the slide.  I agree—way too fast.  Luckily, the big girls arrived soon full of happy energy. We cheered them through the finish and they collected their shirts and medals.  Then we visited several of the booths playing mini games and collecting free stuff.

Poor L had a rough few days.  She’s had some little bumps on her skin that wouldn’t go away and suddenly flared up enough to be bothersome.  So I took her to a dermatologist who diagnosed them as skin molluskum.   It’s apparently viral so we’re being careful to keep it from spreading and trying to be patient with the healing process.  Unfortunately they do itch and catch on her clothes.  Plus she’s already a fairly self-conscious child and this has been rough on her.  They’re not visible in most of her play clothes but she’s still having a hard time.  Watching my kids struggling for whatever reason is the hardest part of being a mom.

Z hit his two month mark.  He's growing incredibly fast, 97 percentile for height and 94 percentile for weight, meaning he is already the size of an average four month old baby.  This of course breaks my heart.  So grateful he's growing and healthy but it's speeding by way too fast.  His schedule is still pretty unpredictable but mostly because he's always on the go.  Our schedule changes every day with the girls' activities and we do our best to keep up.  At night he typically sleeps 4-6 hours and then 1-2 hour stretches after that.  After checking in with the doc and visiting a lactation specialist we are doing better with nursing.  Simply put, he's a lazy nurser with a shallow latch and it's taken some time for us to make it work.  But his weight gain is great so no concerns.  He goes to bed great and sleeps well in his cradle now.  As it gets closer to morning he wants to sleep with me though so we usually cuddle him in our bed for his last stretch of sleep.  And he started smiling!  His face is SO expressive and fun to watch.  He is master of the furrowed brow and has a great one-eyebrow-up skeptical look.  But my favorite has been the sweet spontaneous smiles, especially when nursing.  Just past his two month part, he started smiling social and its a whole-body-light-up-the-world beaming smile.  He's cooing and making noise.  He loves to have a conversation and will go back and forth with "oo" and "ah" sounds.  He loves bathtime and we usually take our time letting him lounge just running the warm water over him.  And of course, all three girls are crazy about him.  They argue over who gets to bathe him and insist on getting a turn holding him every day.  the novelty is slowing wearing down, mostly for L because she's so busy and E because she has such a short attention span.  But A still begs every day to hold him and is such an incredible help to me.  I teased her that she's the magic to get him calm as she's been able to soothe his cries several times.  She loves the nickname and tells him "don't worry little brother, magic is here, I'm here" as she picks him up and loves him.  His skin is perfect, his eyes are so blue and wise, his hair is silky soft and he's got a strong grip.  I can't get enough of this incredible kid.

And now full speed ahead through the end of school and into summer!