Four years old

Four years ago at 9:04 this morning, I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. She arrived so quickly that I hardly had time to think. Since then, I have just been trying to keep up with her. She is sassy and smart and oh-so-headstrong. There are times when I am positive that I am looking in the mirror and it's a little scary. She can be very demanding, but can love you so fiercely that sometimes it physically hurts. I love her with all my heart and I can't imagine life without her. Happy Birthday my sweet Hannah!

Look what I can do now!

My goodness, it has been a busy few weeks around here! Between family and church, Chad and I are running in every direction right now. Here are some updates on the youngest family member.

Pop Pop and Nana sent a special gift for Miss Rebecca last week. It's an Elmo doll that talks and sings to her. This toy is absolutely amazing and she enjoys listening to him and watching all his movements. Here was her first introduction to Elmo.



And this was her reaction to his stories. She was incredibly excited!



Little Miss learned to sit up last week. Here are two of her smiley pictures. She is just so proud of herself!

And this is her latest accomplishment. Look out world because I think I have an over-achiever in my house!

She has also expanded her food selection. It now includes rice cereal, carrots, sweet potatoes, and sweet peas. She is a very enthusiastic eater (like her mommy) and gets a little grumpy if I miss one of her meals. It's not like she won't survive without a meal or two. At 17-1/2 pounds, the girl is doing just fine!

Chow Time

We're putting our high chair to good use again! My memory is very foggy, but a big thank you to whoever got us that because it has had hours of loving from our kids and kids of friends and family. Rebecca joined the club last Tuesday with rice cereal. She added carrots to her palate today. Rice cereal was readily accepted if I used my frozen milk, but was summarily dismissed if I used formula. Carrots got a big wide mouth! I'll have to try to get some pictures of that tonight.

Video of first bite.

She seemed to like it.

But Mommy was better at opening her mouth wide.

Not the award I was looking for

I put Zach down for his nap on Monday afternoon, relishing the few minutes I would have by myself while the kiddos took a siesta. Zach was very excited to play with his cars and I thought he probably wasn't going to sleep during his down time. I got busy working on MOPS stuff and then I heard a huge THUMP in Zach's room followed by loud hollering in the moniter. I went up to find him holding his head. As I looked around the room, I guessed that he had been climbing on his big red wagon again and fell off of it, knocking his head in the process. I ordered him to bed to take a nap. He was still holding his head and I scolded him that he wouldn't be hurting if he didn't climb all over everything. Pointless, I know. Boys will be boys.

So he went to sleep for about two hours. When he got up, I gave him a snack and we leisurely went outside to play. After about an hour of playing, I got close to his head and realized there was blood clumped in his hair. On closer inspection, I saw LOTS of dried blood. We hustled inside where I cleaned the wound. He apparently nicked his head on something sharp during that big fall and he has a half inch cut. It had bled all during naptime, draining down the back of his head and onto his sheets (which came out blissfully clean last night).

I'm always telling my kids not to whine to me unless there is blood. So there is finally blood and I totally dismissed my kid's pain and then didn't even notice the cut for a few hours. I officially earned the Bad Parent of the Day award yesterday. Ugh.

He said WHAT?

Zach is doing so well with his speech therapy. I was very pleased on Friday when the therapist praised his progress. He still has a long way to go but it is so nice to be able to understand him and communicate with him. There is one speech item that I sincerely hope clears up soon. He tends to replace the "t" sound with an "f" sound on some words. Now on the word "train" it really sounds cute when he says "frain." A problem arises, however, when he begins playing with his cars and trucks. Do you see where this is headed? Yes, he will loudly proclaim that he is playing with his "fruck," but the "r" is very quiet. It took me two full days of observing and communicating with him before I could translate the word. It probably took me so long because I was too mortified to totally focus.

So now I feel like I have to take him to church tomorrow with a disclaimer. I would like to think that everyone at church will miraculously understand him or that his speech will clear up overnight or at least that they will know that such a word is not uttered in our home . . . All I can do is sigh and remember the phrase "This too shall pass." Lord give me strength until it does!

Cousins #2

Amy captured this moment on her phone today. Isn't this so sweet!!

Cousins

Aunt Amy and the kiddos came over for an impromtu play day this morning. It was so beautiful that we played outside the whole time and even had a picnic lunch on the back porch. For dessert the kids had a freezer pop.

Here they are lined up eating dessert.



Zach has taken to saying "cheese" every time he sees a camera aimed at him!



They played on the glider over and over. Sometimes Amy pushed, sometimes one of the kids pushed. Between that and the sandbox, they just wore themselves out!



Here is a video of the kids on the glider. They made this sound for a long time before I grabbed the camera. I love that they get to grow up so close to family. It is a wonderful blessing that I wish I had been able to enjoy as a child.

Big Boy Room

We finally got Zachary's room just about finished! Daddy did a fantastic job painting the room a week ago and we got the room rearranged throughout the week. I walked into his room towards the end of the first nap he took in the room and got to watch him open his eyes. He looked at the wall, pointed, and said "Bue, bue." Then his eyes rolled back and he went back to sleep. It was so precious! Tonight when I tucked him in I reassured him (he is afraid of the dark right now) that he was in Zachary's Blue Room. He grinned at me and said "Yes!"

Here is his bookcase and lamp. The bookcase is part of the bedroom suite he will inherit. It belonged to his Daddy and his Pop Pop.



Here is another view of the bookcase. I bought the lamp for him when he was a baby and the accents match the walls perfectly!



He has John Deere bedding. (Thank you Nana & Pop Pop!) The walls match one of the blues in the curtains. The bed is also part of the special set.



The wall hanging was a baby quilt I got at a Women's Ministry auction last year. I couldn't believe that it matched perfectly! The dresser will go to one of the girls one day.



This was the toy sorter we had in the living room, but it also matched Zach's room perfectly so it got moved up. I cross-stitched a 1928 fire engine many years ago. It is going to be framed and will go on this empty wall.

We are adding color to our bland home one room at a time. Our next project will be a partial fence on the east side of the house. Then we will be painting the play room. Wait until you see the colors I found. I am so excited!

Happy Moments

Just to assure everyone that life in the Smith household is not all yucky, I wanted to share some happy moments from the past week.

"If I stare at it long enough, this passy will jump back in my mouth."


"Cheese!"


Posing for the camera . . .


Tummy time!


Stud muffin Zach napping in his newly souped up John Deere room.


It's feeding time on the Ponderosa . . .

R..S..V

It was not the diagnosis I was expecting.

When Hannah got sick over a week ago, it resembled a cold and it passed rather quickly except for the cough which is just about gone. When she passed it on to Zach, he took it harder. He still has a heavy duty cold with a terrific smoker's cough.

Here was Hannah at her lowest last week.

So then when they both passed the yucky stuff on to Rebecca, I was a little worried. But I never expected it to escalate like it did last night. The poor little thing could hardly breathe and I slept upright holding her for much of the night. But by this morning I was sure she had croup. I called the on call nurse early this morning and she said probably upper respiratory infection or possibly pneumonia. So I called the doctor ASAP and got us a 9:10 appointment.

The doctor checked her and gave his initial diagnosis - RSV. That's short for Respiratory Synctial Virus and can lead to pneumonia, especially in infants. They did a nose swap to confirm and it came back positive. The doctor said Hannah and Zach probably had/have it but it looks like a cold in older kids. So I have entered the new world of breathing treatments. Here are some pictures Chad took of Rebecca's first treatment at the doctor's office.

She did remarkably well and actually fell asleep! I will do these treatments for four days. She is also on some medication to help prevent asthma since her daddy had it as a child.

Other than that, Mommy is recovering from the worst migraine in my recorded history and Daddy has been a little under the weather with some unknown microscopic invader for the last few weeks.

Beware of the Smith household all ye wandering souls!