Playdate with Anna Vera

On the morning of Halloween, Caroline and I headed down to The Woodlands to visit my friend Anna Klara and her baby girl Anna Vera, who was born two months after Caroline. Anna Klara was the high school math teacher at the Juvenile Justice Discipline program for Conroe ISD (a step above where I teach at the Discipline Alternative Education Program). She and I have enjoyed each other's company at professional development workshops, staff meetings, and were both pregnant during the same school year. We got together with the girls when I was still on maternity leave, and throughout the summer. She stays home with her daughter now, but we'd been trying to get together and let the babies see each other, and Saturday worked out perfectly. Anna Vera was born 6 weeks early, so she technically would have been over 3 mos. younger than Caroline, but she holds her own. These are some pictures from our play time together. It was looking very civilized and sweet, until Miss Dominator took matters into her own hands (or mouth!).

Enjoying the civilized activity of chewing on the same toys

Looking at the mommies making silly sounds to get their attention.

Caroline gives kisses now - with tongue - slimy!

Poor Anna Vera didn't know what she was getting into when she rolled forward.

A Package from Grandma

These were waiting for the boys in a package from Grandma that arrived on our doorstep this afternoon via UPS. They loved all of their little treats (and Caroline loved her ruffled jeans and her new finger puppet book!). Caroline even got in on the glasses action, although she got so excited about them that she wouldn't sit still for the picture. But also, I had to include this video of Ben riding his little bike down the sidewalk - he gets going and I think the adrenaline starts pumping, and he just tunes us out. This video shows a "legal" version of that, whereas earlier this week, he proceeded to go down the driveway, INTO the street, and down the middle of the street, while Scott ran after him, chasing the Big Wheel and Ben while in flipflops. Needless to say, Ben spent some time in his room after that little escapade.

Crazy Halloween glasses from Grandma in the mail

Caroline wanted to try them on for size!

Catching a Break, I mean, Breath

Well, we've had an eventful month! Well, actually a couple of months........the car was totaled at the beginning of August. We had a bout of lice on the two boys and Scott that resulted in a lot of work cleaning and combing, and treatments for the whole family. Four of the five of us just spent the last week with swine flu. Ben has bronchitis as a result of the flu. And now, Ben has lice again. At first, I thought, "Why can't we catch a break?". But that's not a very healthy attitude, nor is it really true. It may seem, at first, like we've been handed a string of nasty blows, but really, in the grand scheme of things, these events are little, and we have emerged from them virtually unscathed. I've been reading a lot of other families' blogs over the last several months, and am convinced that we have been blessed with, frankly, more than we deserve. Yes, we had a car accident that resulted in the temporary loss of a vehicle, but we survived an accident where we were hit by someone going 60mph, and we walked away with nary a bruise or scrape. How miraculous! Yes, we faced (and are facing!) head lice, and that is disgusting and frustrating and somewhat embarrassing, but it's a small little blip on the health radar, and could have been something much bigger and scarier for my kids. Same goes for swine flu. Despite its big, bad name, and the hysteria that has surrounded it for months, it wasn't the worst thing in the world. Jake had pneumonia at 18 mos. that was much scarier. Ben had croup where we felt like he couldn't breathe - that was scary. The swine flu was inconvenient, at times uncomfortable for those of us with high fevers and bad coughs, but it has passed fairly quickly and without any residual damage. Families all over are going through and have gone through things that have altered the composition of their families, and are scarring, and have lasting emotional and mental impact. Swine flu, schwine flu, I say, compared to the alternatives. Thank God that he gave us a car wreck, lice, and swine flu. I'll take that anyday over the other things that are lurking out there. I've decided that it is selfish and in extremely poor taste to lament about how "bad" our luck has been lately. The opposite is quite true. These babies live in a blessed house!

Some Winners

I had to share some really sweet pictures of Caroline that actually DO show her smiling!

Portraits and Fundraiser

If anyone wants to see the 6 mo portraits we got taken of Caroline today, or a few of all three of them, visit my blog at:
http://threecummings.blogspot.com/

Also, I sent out emails today to those of you who have ordered in the past letting you know about Jake's school's fall fundraiser, so be sure not to delete that email from Great American if you would like to order. Thanks! I'll write a better post later!

6 Mo Portrait and Trio Proofs

We had an OKAY photo session today. It was just Penneys - nothing fancy - and definitely you get what you pay for, but I think we got some decent shots. None that I'm in love with, but I was under the gun by my mother, and had to get them done where we could afford to. So, this is what we got:

6 Mo. Appt

Caroline had her 6 mo. dr. appt. today and it went well. She was:

26.25 inches

16 lbs, 6 oz.

and her head is 85% in circumference.

She got 2 shots, and we talked about her sensitivity to food (broke out in a rash after being fed squash - which was her first non-rice cereal food). He prescribed a steroid cream for her eczema, and we're going to lay off the squash for a while. We'll try sweet potatoes next.

She's just been delightful lately - sleeping well at night (is ALWAYS down for the count by 7pm and usually sleeps until 8am the next morning, with one meal in the early morning). She's taking two naps per day....and still nurses 5-6 times and gets rice cereal 2-3 times.

She's sitting up really well, and rolling around a bunch. I think we're going to lower her crib, because I'm anticipating her being able to pull herself up into a sitting position pretty soon and I want to beat her to it!

She's just an angel baby, and we love her SO SO much! So do her brothers!

For Mom

This is mainly for my mom who wanted to see these. This is Caroline in the little outfit with the kerchief hat that she bought for her, and then a picture of her with her first little ponytail, and a video. I'll post a more extensive update next week after her 6 mo. checkup.