Happy Birthday to Me, early morning style!

So today is my birthday and the third person to wish me a Happy Birthday (first Scott's sister Cay facebook'd me at 12am her time - East Coast - and then Scott kissed me goodnight just after midnight) was Caroline crying in her crib at 12:45 am. And gave me my first birthday present of the day - her first tooth! I totally understand why she was crying - and I'm so lucky - with her, there's always a reason, always! I'll try to get a picture of it, when it's a little more prominent. I'm so relieved we'll be going to her 9 mo. appt. with a tooth.

Ben's Thanksgiving Program

Here's a link to the 5 minute video from Ben's Thanksgiving Program that was today. He was a Pilgrim, and they sang songs like "This Land is Your Land", "God Bless America", "Turkey in the Brown Straw", and "I'm Very Very Thankful". It was sweet. The video is on You Tube - it was too long to upload here.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFUcLb30PaU

If you can't view it, let me know and I'll "invite" you. Here's a couple of pictures from the morning as well. Ben was VERY serious during the entire program, and barely cracked a smile at all......that's not like him at all, and I was stunned that he didn't try to charm the audience. But I think he gets shy in large crowds, and plus he was concentrating very hard on all of the words that he had to remember. It was a cute program. Afterwards, we ate a Thanksgiving feast with him, and it was delicious!

And She's Off!

Caroline has been trying so hard to crawl for the last couple of weeks, and just over the weekend, she started putting all of the steps together, and today I was able to capture her most successful crawling yet. She wanted Mommy's hair clip which was strategically placed out of her reach. And she got it!

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.

First Swing

Here is a video of Caroline at Candy Cane Park, swinging in a baby swing for the first time. Those of us that know her well wouldn't have expected any other reaction. She LOVES motion!

Here are a couple of pictures of her playing in her room - she has a purse with money and lipstick that she enjoys mouthing on. It's never too early for a girl to learn how to apply lipstick.

The end of summer!

Well, I didn't blog much this summer.....didn't have as much spare time as I thought I would either! Caroline is growing right along - at her 4 mo. check up, she weighed 14 lbs, 4 oz, and was 25.5 inches long - just above average on both counts. I took her in a week ago, and she was up to 15 lbs, 5 oz, so she's gaining about a pound a month. She's just moving into 9 mo clothing (also known as 6-12 mo size). She's eating rice cereal once a day, in addition to about 6 other meals from the milk truck known as Mommy (she still licks her lips every time she sees me). We'll be moving up to 2 rice cereals a day in another week or so, and after that (once she's 6 mo.), we might start our branching out to the yellow foods (fruits, veggies). This is my least favorite phase of child food, but at least it's fairly brief. No teeth yet, but I expect to see them in the next month (if her drooling and her brothers' histories are any indication). She's starting to hold a sitting position for 10-15 seconds at a time, which she's very proud of. She's also FINALLY napping consistently during the day - about an hour for her morning nap and about 1.5-2 hours for the afternoon. And going to bed around 7-8pm.
Ben had his 4th birthday this summer, and he had ANOTHER water/train themed birthday. He requested the same train cake as last year (although I did try to make a better mountain - this time out of rice krispie treats, instead of last year's cupcakes). We rented a 3-in-1 inflatable (bouncer, wall climb, slide), and he loved having that on our driveway. He had LOTS of friends come, and they just played and played, and ate. He has wonderful friends, and teachers, and family! He also had his 4 year check up and got FOUR shots (he was really dreading it, but was actually very brave and got to go to Incredible Pizza afterwards with Daddy). He is 42 lbs, and 42 inches - which is very tall, but average weight. He eats all the time, but doesn't gain a lot - don't we all wish for that metabolism? He's really into pretend play right now - all last week he was pretending to have a Christmas Celebration; this week it's a Boat Show. It's always something, and he'll persuade ANYONE to play along with him, and actually gets quite bossy about it. He's enjoying books more and more, though he still claims to be uninterested in letters and reading, but at least he enjoys being read TO. That's the fun part for us anyway.
Jake is starting 2nd grade, and has lost 5 teeth. He's read the first two Harry Potter books this month alone, and is well into the 3rd. He went to Camp Cho-Yeh again this year and didn't want to leave. Lucy and our neighbor Taylor were there, and he met some new friends as well. He's exceptionally tall, and proportional weightwise, and is just a big kid. He and Ben fought quite a bit this summer, with Jake exercising his antagonizing muscle and Ben flexing his physical muscle back. But they survived!
We did quite a bit this summer - went to Lake LBJ for the annual retreat with Scott's family, drove to Plano for a visit with Mark and Hanna (who are expecting my first nephew in January!), went to Austin a few times, took a family trip to Colorado in August, participated in Vacation Bible School, and took swim lessons. And Caroline just grew and giggled and grew and giggled.
Here are some pictures from the summer:

Jake and his 2nd grade teacher, Mrs. Williams

Jake on the first day of school

Jake and Ben on Pikes Peak

Ben and I in Boulder at the Lazy Dog Grill

Scott and Jake at the Lazy Dog Grill

Caroline and I on her first flight

Family picture on the Georgetown Loop Train

Caroline napping on Papa

Jake is a Rock Band drumming fiend!

Picking up Jake at Cho Yeh

Jake and Lucy at Cho Yeh

Ben and his birthday tongue

All three grandmas at Ben's birthday

Singing Happy Birthday to Ben!

Sleeping Beauty

Playing au naturel

Faux hawk

Swimming at Granite Shoals

Jake, Ben, the 3 Davis boys, and Adam

Fun at Granite Shoals with glow in the dark sticks