Niall's photoshoot

You can view the whole set, but you have to be my friend on Flickr. I have our photos set to private, just for my sanity. It's easy to join, and all you have to do is ask me to be your friend.

Anyway, we did our photoshoot. I need a lot more practice before I can do a white shirt well. These are indoors, natural (not great) light, fleece blanket backdrop. They're all tight in because our blanket was kind of small. These are some of the best ones.

That's my guy!
The full shoot is here. Let me know if you need help seeing it.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/45427621@N00/sets/72157622969920292/

My Niall is 5!

He was 9lbs when he was born. We were shocked! But looking back, it shouldn't have been that big of a surprise...

Everyone fell in love with him right away. Rowan couldn't keep away from him.

And then he started to grow. And Grow. And Grow! He outgrew his carseat at 2 months old.

By 6 months old he was giving the Michelin Man a run for his money.

He learned to climb

He learned to pick strawberries

And he learned where we kept the powder.

Niall taught us that some baby gates are useless, and that the parenting handbook should either include lessons on toilet anatomy or the number of a good plumber.
And oh ya, there was that sharpie incident, and my engagement went missing (forever) and that time he broke the camera, and, and and...

All those times with the yarn...

And the fuzzy hair

And the makeup

And the constant, endless, always getting in to things he's not supposed to be getting in to

And now he's a big brother, too, and you couldn't find a guy who loves his baby sister more.

He's my Niall. My darling sweetheart. The reason I had to bolt the bookcases to the walls and the number for poison control is on the fridge. The guy who keeps us on our toes, keeps us guessing, and always, always keeps us laughing.

Our lives wouldn't be the same without him. I'm so glad he's ours!
Happy Birthday, Niall James!

This time, I win

Rowan's shoelaces have been a constant thorn in our sides. He can tie, but he's not very good at it and they're always loose. So they always come undone. This wouldn't be so bad, but he doesn't care if they're undone so they're always flopping around and getting ripped up.
I had an idea to fix it. One piece of elastic, thread it through, and sew the ends together.
Sha-zam. Done. Issue solved. It's been a week and they're holding up just fine.

Not Friday at all

I fell off that train a while ago. Enjoy!

okay then. gift ideas

I'm looking at you, Kim. pesterer. ;)

Rowan is getting a leapfrog didg for Christmas. It has the Indiana Jones game. Any other game would be great.
Niall is getting a leapfog TAG for his birthday. It comes with The Cat in the Hat. Any other book would be great.
Eleri is a baby. She wants whatever the boys have and nothing she has. She wears clothing in the 12 months size range. She loves the hotwheels monster trucks.

I'm still trying to think of other things.

When you get your Christmas card

When you get your Christmas card, and it's so cute and might be missing the actual text (I have no idea if I did it right when I ordered it) just take a minute and consider what it takes to get a picture like this:

Aren't they sweet? Pixie gives it thumbs up.

Because most of the pictures look like this:

Hooray for digital cameras!
and a very Merry Christmas to you (early)
from the Davis Family.

Halloween! Lots of pictures!

Okay! We've been working on these costumes for a little while. Rowan's took some assembling of parts. Niall's took some sewing. And Eleri's came on eBay. (I couldn't resist getting such a cute little thing for less than I'd spend in fabric to make it!)
So here you go!

First, Indiana Jones!

You can't see it, but his bag is filled with important archaeological artifacts. We decided to go without a jacket, since it was 80 degrees. Thanks NC! I also took more than one pic, but he's standing the same way in all of them.

Next up, Peter Pan!

Peter pan is sporting a felt outfit, and I even figured out how to make pointy shoe covers. His sword is tinfoil and cardboard, and is very dangerous and pokey. Captain Hook, be warned!

And finally, our Pixie!

What else could she be? She went trick or treating for the first time, but didn't get any loot. Her sole goal was to spread the cuteness across the neighborhood. Mission accomplished!

Here's the whole gang together. Two pics. Merge them in your head into something where they're all looking at the camera at the same time and no one is making a face, okay?

It is seriously hard to get a picture of all three of them, and we were under time constraints. Candy was calling.

So there you go! Our Halloween ghoulies this year. No one wanted to be scary. I'm sure that will come with age.

Yum!

Somebody liked her first taste of chocolate cake!

Happy Birthday Eleri!

Somebody is one year old today!

She got a dolly, an outfit that I made with the help of a friend, a hair clip that I made, some diapers and a white noise machine.

This year has been full of joy and hair. Devoid of dairy, but full of joy. and hair.

It's hard to believe that she's already a year old. I still vividly remember having her, that tiny tiny baby in the hospital. She's not all that much bigger now, but she is so sweet, and so much fun. She adores her brothers, and plots ways to get her hands on cords and hotwheels cars. She's doing much better with eating solid food, and loves red beans and rice. She is very, very loved, and is our Pixie Princess. I'm so glad she came to live with us!
But I don't understand... How did she go from this:

to this:

so quickly? Someone invent a time machine! These kids grow up much too fast!

Friday Flick - one day late

We've started trying to convince Eleri to nap for a reasonable amount of time in her crib. She was napping there, but only for 20-30 minutes at a time. I kept reading that they have to learn to fall asleep there if they're going to sleep for longer, so instead of rocking her all the way to sleep, I rocked her to drowsy and put her in.
She did NOT approve. She would NOT lie down. Poor thing was so tired, but soooo stubborn!



Every time I tried to lay her down, she'd get mad, and sit right back up again and do this. So I ended up swaddling her and she napped for a little while. Then this morning I swaddled her at the beginning, and she slept for 90 minutes. She was probably worn out from all her protest sit/sleeping.

Cue dramatic music

BUM BUM BUM!

We are in the midst of teething. It is going well. There is less sleeping than I'd like, and more fussing than usual, but compared to life without the amber necklace this is a cakewalk. I really wish I'd known about those things when Rowan was a baby.
So, someone decided to not have any teeth until she was 11 months old. And then she decided to get them all at once! She's popped 3 teeth in the past two weeks, and I believe there are more on the horizon. I present to you (crusty nose, random hair and all):

Two front teeth!

And on the bottom (accompanied by crusty black bean face):

In more tooth news, one of Rowan's two front teeth is loose. No pictures of that yet. We'll post a pic when it falls out.
In other news, the swine flu is going well. We are BIG fans of Tamiflu. No one else has started running a fever, so I'm hoping we're good. And yes, we will still be getting vaccinated. We have limp lungs around these parts. It's better to be proactive.

How much hair can you grow in a year?

A lot!

Thoughts

I posted this over the weekend on the Soggy Granola forum I'm a member of. It got a pretty big response, so I figured I'd put it out here for the rest of the world. Just some things I've been struggling with lately...
------------------

I posted a few days ago about missing having an uncomplicated life.
Remember when it used to be the usual to sleep in on the weekends? When the only one affected by your decisions was yourself, and maybe your significant other?
I was missing that. It's hard to have a family. It's a lot of joy, but it's a lot of work, too.

Part of what brought that on is that I'm in a much different place from most of my college friends. One of them is getting married next weekend, and I'm going to miss the wedding because of things outside of my control. She was in my wedding, and I really wanted to go. All the rest of our college friends will be there. Only two others have any children at all, and both of them have 1 infant... So, just a different phase of life.
I was missing when it was just me and John, and we could pick up and go and gallivant all over the country. It's hard having that feeling when you can't run away from it all, and you don't really want to, but having all these people counting on you and depending on you all the time is wearing, too.

I was envious of my friends who are just starting out, when everything is fresh and new. Or even the ones who are still dating. Beginnings are exciting.

But then I was thinking more. You know, all the exciting of beginnings and all, that all wears off. And even my friends who are just getting married and starting out are going to have to do the drudgery of cleaning the sink out and folding socks. They might be able to get their laundry done in one day instead of it taking all week, but they still have to do it.

And maybe they are trying to get where we are. Maybe they want the house and the kids and the dog. Maybe they even want the minivan. So while I'm fondly remembering where they are, they could be looking at what I have and wanting it, too.

What I have right now is hard. It's incredibly hard having small children constantly demanding pieces of yourself. But it's wonderful. It's so wonderful having these beautiful people as a part of my life every single day, and being there creating memories so that when they're adults they can say, "remember that time when..."

So I thought I'd write it here. Because I think a lot of us have these feelings from time to time, and it helps to see that someone else has these same thoughts. And this might not even coherent, because I've been interrupted so many times in the writing it... to send the boys to their room for picking up the baby, to appreciate John coming to stick his face on my neck and tell me that he loved me, to hold the baby for a game of "I'm gonna get you," to listen to Niall singing "Whistling in the Dark..."

So even getting my thoughts out is hard to manage some days. And isn't that a wonderful blessing?

Guess what?

Knock knock.

Who's there?
Interrupting pig
Interrupting pig wh...
OINK!

Yep. The boy has the swine flu.
We have a call into the compounding pharmacy to get some tamiflu for him. Everyone else is out. He has his fall break this week, too.

Ah well. We'll get through it. His fever is down with ibuprofen and Tylenol.

As requested

We've been a bit busy around here lately. See Rowan's Odyssey for details on that.
Mom's been asking for some pictures that show Eleri's hair off. It's such a strange color for a baby.
So, as requested, hair pictures:

What did you do this weekend?

I painted my giraffe.

ya ya

I know. I've not been posting. See the picture of the baby below? All that cuteness comes with a price.
Someone only naps for 20-30 minutes at a time. Someone is also up every hour all night long.
Someone is starting baby sleep camp today.
If you know me, you know I'm against making a baby "cry it out" alone. What, exactly, is IT? Their need for you? Their wet diaper? Their fear of the boogy man?
I am not, however, against rocking a baby who is crying at me because I'm providing a different level of comfort from the one she's accustomed to.
I've been trying the No Cry Sleep Solution. It worked great for Niall. Not so much now. We're going to be doing the Acceptable Level of Crying but Mommy Is Still Here With You Sleep Solution. And Daddy might be there, or he might flee to the couch. But no one is getting up at 1:12, 2:26, 3:12.... again. Got it?
I started blogging about the family waaaaay back when Niall wasn't sleeping and I was trying to get a handle on things. So the lack of sleeping baby isn't all bad - it started me keeping a family blog, which I then merged with this blog. So there.
But I'd like to request a 5 hour block of sleep now. Considering the bladder issues of late pregnancy, it's been over a year since I've had that. So it would be nice to have. Please and thank you.

More portrait work

Still working on learning, but I'm getting better!