A Couple of Milestones

2 big milestones to report!

1.  Daphne smiled today!!  She smiled in response to Kevin, but I saw it too!  Then she just kept smiling over and over for a couple of minutes.  Sadly, the camera was no where near us! 

2.  Daphne went almost 6 hours between her nighttime feedings last night!!  I'm sure this isn't permanent, but it was great getting a little extra sleep.  I actually woke up before her (Lucy was crying out) and couldn't fall back asleep, but I still got a solid 5 hours!!

1 month old

I can't hardly believe it, but Daphne is already 1 month old!!  She seems to be a really good baby!  She is finally awake about every 3 hours to eat (about once a day I have to wake her) and is eating really well!  Her little cheeks have filled out and she is just a little more solid.  She certainly prefers to be upright when held - either sitting in a lap or up on a shoulder.  Unless she is sleepy, she does not want to be cradled.  

Her nighttime sleeping is okay.  We have had a rough couple of nights with her crying quite a bit between feedings.  I bought a swaddle me blanket because she sleeps better if she is swaddled.  The regular blankets just were cutting it anymore because she could wiggle free.

She doesn't love the pacifier - sometimes she wants it when she is trying to sleep.  She did suck her thumb today!  Gasp!  Not her fingers like Norah and Lucy, but her thumb.  I do intend to encourage the paci since it is clearly not easy to break the finger/thumb sucking habit.  

She already seems to enjoy watching her big sisters run around.  She follows them with her eyes and kicks her legs in excitement.  

Homeschooling Update

We are making a few changes to our homeschool schedule.  I mentioned here that we were finishing up the curriculum that we had been using and I was reading/researching other curriculums and methods of teaching.  

Our new schedule looks like this (with much flexibility worked into it)

Our morning Read-Aloud is for both girls and will consist of Bible stories, favorites, library picks, and/or phonological awareness books.  The afternoon Read-Aloud will be for Norah (assuming Lucy continues to nap).  She will read to me and I will read to her.  We will have one chapter book that I will read from - the content will vary.

I have debated what to use for a math curriculum, but for now I decided to make math time more of a free time.  I have a shelf in the basement that has become our life skills/math shelf. 

Each shelf has a different activity (I also intend on rotating activities with other things we have).  For the 30 minutes of math time, the girls can pick and choose what activities they want to do.  If they tend to gravitate towards the same thing each day, I will encourage them to choose something else.  Some of our math manipulatives and life skills activities currently on the shelf include: Counting bears with activity cards that I downloaded from here, pattern blocks and pictures that I also downloaded from here, money with picture cards,

 geometric solids, unifix cubes, bottles and lids (for screwing and unscrewing), number puzzles, egg carton with tongs and pom poms, shape sorter, number puzzles, and Hi Ho Cherrio.

Norah's Spanish lesson involves her playing Foreign Language Friends and then doing and extended activity related to the vocabulary she has learned.

For art we are going to learn about an artist or a specific piece of artwork.  She will try to imitate some the art we study.

Music is going to be kept as simple as possible.  The girls will listen to various types of music by a variety of musicians.  That may happen while they color, eat a snack or just while they are playing.  

Of course, with me having Daphne, we haven't been baking/cooking.  I am hoping to get back into that but for now Norah and Lucy will alternate every other week.

We having slowing started doing some of these various activities, but just randomly.  Next week I am hoping to get into a normal routine.  

Dancing to the Music

Mosaics

We are trying to get back into the swing of things - when it comes to school.  To ease us back in we mostly did Valentine's activities.  We read Saint Valentine by Robert Sabuda.  The pictures in the book are beautiful paper mosaics.  

Norah made a heart mosaic.  Although very simple, this activity was a huge hit.  What 4 year old doesn't love glue and paper?

7-Day Free Trial

Foreign Language Friends is offering a 7-day free trial!!  Check it out!

Also, check out this review!

Pray for Little Tess

Although Tess is not someone I know personally, her story touches my heart because she reminds me of Norah.  Tess' mommy was a year older than me in school and her family (like mine) has lived in Morton forever!  Our parents went to school together (as with Libby and I, not the same class, but you still know everyone) and her aunt, uncle and cousins go to my parents church.  Tess has stage 4 cancer and is at St. Jude in Memphis right now.  Please read her story and pray for little Tess.  

Comparison Pictures

Here is a picture of Norah's crazy hair and Daphne's crazy hair.  The only difference is that Norah is about 6 weeks old and Daphne is only 3 weeks old.  Daphne's hair is darker, thicker and longer at an earlier age.  I can only hope that it lays down sooner than Norah's did!!  

Now for comparing all 3 girls at the same age:

Norah

Lucy

Daphne

Meeting Landon

On Tuesday evening our friends, Dave and Kelsey, came over so we could meet their little guy, Landon.  Landon was all snuggles for me - so sweet!!  He and Daphne are 3 days apart.  It was fun being pregnant with Kelsey and having a babies close together.  We look forward to lots of playtime with Landon!  

Here we are, Kelsey holding Daphne and I am holding Landon!

My New Diaper Bag!!!

My parents bought us a new diaper bag!  We ordered it from Bags by Jill.  She is a friend of Nicole's from Effingham and I have had my eye on a bag ever since Nicole got hers.  I received the bag in the mail yesterday and I LOVE it!  It is so roomy, has lots of pockets and we picked the fabric and ribbon!!!!  Check out her bags - she does an amazing job!!!  I'll post a picture of mine later - when I get the chance!!

*Thanks, Jill, for the pics!

We Did It!

Yesterday was my first full day alone with all three girls.  It actually went fairly well.  There were a couple of moments when I was feeding Daphne, and the big girls were downstairs playing/fighting.  Luckily, they were able to work things out without me intervening.  Daphne and Lucy napped at the same time - yes, that's right Lucy actually napped!!!!!  Norah watched Cinderella in our bed while I dosed off for a little while.  

So far, things are going well so far.  Daphne is napping in her bed - which is great!  The girls and I did a light bright picture, read some books and made some jello (for a color mixing project later).  I also was able to get some laundry going.  Even if the rest of the day is chaos - atleast we accomplished a couple of things.  

I want to get back into the groove of doing school with Norah, but the basement is a disaster!  My mom is coming later today for a couple of days, so I am hoping she can help me make sense of the mess so we have a place to have school next week!  I am going to aim for 3 days.  We'll see.  

Whew!

Hard to believe that we are 2 weeks in already.  So much to post about -  but my brain is in zombie mode so this will not be the most organized post ever.

Daphne is doing well - though not gaining weight as quickly as the doctor would like so we will be back in a week for a weight check.  She is a decent eater when she is awake enough for a full feeding.  That's the trouble, though, she does not want to wake up to eat.  The last 2 days have actually been better and Kevin gave her a bottle last night so I could go to bed a little earlier.  She actually drank 3 ounces and then went 5 hours between the next feeding!  I think we will stick with a bedtime bottle for a while so I can get an extra hour or 2 before the next feeding.  

Kevin and the girls went to church without us this morning.  We typically try to avoid too many public places for the first month or so of life.  Norah was about 5 weeks when she got sick for the first time and we have been doing breathing treatments basically ever since!  Whether or not getting sick so early affected her breathing issues or not, I don't know, but I am not willing to take a chance on that.  Probably next week, Kevin will go to church on Saturday night and I will take the girls on Sunday - that's how we did it for a few weeks when Lucy was a baby.  

  Lucy has officially become a middle child.  She just seems out of sorts.  I'm sure having grandparents here for 10 days and having NO routine hasn't helped, but, wow, that girl is giving us a run for our money.  She isn't sleeping well - naps or nighttime!  She is waking up at

 the crack of dawn - often before Daphne is even up.  She screams if we try to take her back to bed - waking Norah, of course.  Any suggestions on getting her to stay in bed are welcome!!!!  She spends most of the day crying or whining about  being tired, yet somehow is able to keep herself awake all of naptime.

I have homeschool stuff to post - mostly for my own sake of getting thoughts together, but I will do that in a separate post.  

Now for a few pics (I know I am a few days behind on my photo blog - I  have the pics, just haven't posted them).

I need to try to get a good picture of Daphne's hair and post it next to a picture of Norah at the same age.  For those of you who knew Norah as a baby and were thoroughly amused by her hair, I think Daphne's is going to be the same.  Not even kidding - Norah's hair stuck straight up for the first 3 or 4 months of her life.  It was long, too - not just 1/2 inch or so.  She had about 2 to 3 inches standing end to end.  Every where we went random people would comment, "Oh!  Look at that hair!"