Five-Month-Old Clara

Even in the week after I posted her four-month update, Clara gained new skills and abilities. It's fun to see her wake up to the world around her more and more . . . but I'm also sad to see her grow so quickly! I want to keep her a little baby a while longer.

Clara is developing dexterity, too: she likes to grab. She has clearly started batting at and grabbing for all sorts of things--our faces, a colorful ball, a toy, the bird on her car seat. The kids (girls especially) don't like her tendency to grab their hair when they give an over-zealous hug. A couple weeks ago, Clara rolled herself over on the floor and grabbed a Duplo truck that the kids left out. Pretty soon she'll be the terror of the living room!

She loves to sit on Jer's or my lap during dinnertime to watch the goings-on, but I have to keep an eye on her now. She's almost pulled my plate off the table or stuck her hand in the butter. She also seems more interested in what we're eating. In a month or so she'll get her first taste of it.

While Clara still hasn't quite rolled from back to belly (almost, but her hand in her mouth stopped her), she continues to roll from belly to back quite often. Now she's also started doing an inchworm move, pushing her face into the floor and bum into the air in order to inch forward towards unexplored territory.

See that bum in the air? She's on the move!

Clara laughs readily and enjoys peek-a-boo games now. She's clearly ticklish under her arms and on her chest. She kicks excitedly when we talk and laugh with her, or stiffens her legs and sticks her little toes in the air.

She gurgles and "talks" in various sounds but is not quite babbling yet (no clear "bababa" or whatever). But she has started growling! Like her brother before her, she can make quite the racket with her funny, happy growl. Sometimes she likes to wake up at 4 a.m. and growl in bed just to pass the time . . . and ensure an audience of wakeful parents (or at least Mama--Daddy usually sleeps through any noise Clara makes).

She widens her eyes every time she sees the little light on the camera

Clara's ability to fall asleep anywhere and sleep through most things is abating, as I knew it would. She gets cranky and cries when tired and needs relative quiet to go down for naps. Generally she takes a morning and afternoon nap, and sometimes a third one somewhere in there if either the morning or afternoon nap wasn't long enough. I've been putting her to bed for the night at about 7 p.m. Unfortunately she's regressed in nighttime sleep and has been waking at midnight, around 3 a.m., and again around 5 or 6 a.m. I think it's about time to move her out of our room.

Teething might have something to do with her sleep regression and the crankiness that seems more than her past norm. (She wants to be held a lot!) She lunges at my hand to gnaw on it when I'm holding her. Other times she stuffs her hands in her mouth or chews on an individual finger or two. And of course, she's drooling. I haven't felt any teeth cutting through the gum yet, though.

Sweethearts!

I love seeing Clara's interest in her siblings--and their interest in her. Lydia calls her "sweetie-heart" and "little one." Both girls like to reprimand Clara when they think she's being "naughty." ("No no, Sweetie! We don't pull hair!" I've often overheard.) I constantly have to monitor the big kids when Clara is in her rock'n'play--everyone wants to hang all over it to make her smile! When I call one of the girls away from Clara to do something, they protest, "But Mom, Flara will cry! Flara wants to see me!"

 Abby and Clara

Josiah is her most ardent admirer, I think. He is just thrilled with her and wants everyone to see everything she does. "Look! Twara's smilin' at me!" he says excitedly every day. He sings to her (Patch the Pirate's "Jonah" most often), does silly faces for her, dances in front of her, holds her hand, hugs and kisses her, and begs to hold her often. She loves to watch him and rewards him with lots of smiles and "talking" and laughter.

Clara's laugh is contagious. Everyone wants to keep her laughing once she starts! The other day Hannah held her on each sibling's shoulders by turn, and they gave her a ride. She giggled and laughed, and they wanted to do it over and over! It was such fun to watch . . .

 Abby with Clara

 Lydia with Clara

Four-month-old Clara

Our sweetheart Clara is no longer a tiny blob of a baby!

She continues to love people, and when she's sitting in bouncy seat or rock'n'play, she gets obviously excited if she thinks someone might pick her up. Josiah often keeps her happy by looking at her, talking to her, and generally being within her line of sight. If I ask him to move back or do something else, he says, "But Mom, Twara will be sad! She wants to see me!" Lydia and Abby like to check in on her but don't persevere in entertaining her.

Clara is moving more. She has rolled over many times front-to-back, and nearly gotten over back-to-belly (kept from a complete roll by her fist stuck in her mouth). When she does tummy time on the floor, she often rotates herself, and has sometimes gone 180 degrees. She kicks and waves her arms in excitement when happy, and she seldom lays her head on my shoulder anymore--she wants to be up and looking! She has also started "climbing" my stomach when I hold her, poking her toes in an attempt to summit my shoulder. She cranes her head to look at interesting things (like the pictures on our fridge).

Haha . . . poor girl :) (Also, can you tell she's outgrowing her clothes?)

Like her sisters, she is a fanatic about sucking on her fingers or hands. She hasn't yet shown a preference for a thumb, but she often gets a thumb or one or two fingers in. Sometimes she just goes whole hog for an entire fist (or two). She's drooling now, but hasn't any teeth to show yet--I don't expect them for a while.

Josiah took this picture

While she makes more noise now, she's still a very content and mellow baby. She goes with the flow (for the most part). I can even do dinner prep most evenings with minimal fussing from her, as long as she's in her bouncy seat watching me in the kitchen. A couple weeks ago she started laughing full, real laughs--not just little squeals, but true giggles and peals of laughter. I think she's ticklish under the arms.

Her nighttime sleep has not been wonderful of late. She had been doing regular 6-7 hour stretches, with a few nights of 8 or so hours. Unfortunately she has done her longer stretch at the beginning of the night recently, going down about 8 p.m. and waking around midnight or 1 a.m. to nurse--which means I usually miss out on sleeping a couple of those hours. Then she's been waking again at least once before morning, and some nights it's been several times. I don't know if it's teething, growth spurt, or what. Mostly she goes back down without too much trouble, but the multiple wakings have been wearing on me.

At her four-month check last week, Clara weighed 13.8 lbs and measured 24.75 inches. For comparison, here is my post on my four-month-old twins in 2013. They were actually over four months (almost five) when I posted that, but they both weighed more than Clara does now. Perhaps she'll be our smallest one? She's hanging around the 50th percentile for weight but has gained in height (if you want to trust the fairly inaccurate measuring system of the doctor's office staff)--63rd percentile now (up from around the 50th). She has outgrown her 3-month clothing and fits nicely into most 3-6 month stuff (and some 6-9).

Clara brightens our lives and is certainly a popular member of the family!

The four, youngest to oldest

Naptime Musing on Naps

I've only heard the tumble of clothes in the dryer and the whirl of our ceiling fans for the last 15 minutes--and this is a wondrous thing! Today perhaps all three will sleep* . . . unlike yesterday, or the day before, or many before that.

Why would anyone think such antics would wear her out enough for a nap?!

Actually, upon reflection, I'm surprised and grateful for the long stretches of good naps the girls have had since they learned to climb out of their cribs last summer (around 16-17 months of age).

Josiah takes a Mom-imposed "rest time/quiet time," which is sometimes neither restful nor quiet, but at least intended to be such. He's supposed to sit on his mattress in our room and read his books quietly. He successfully does this at least for a period of time, unless he's particularly ornery on a given day. (Then he calls to me every five minutes to see if it's time to wake up yet--or he kicks the walls/closet door--or he climbs up my dresser to check out the contents on top--or he ties things up with his blanket--etc.)

I'm thankful that we've instituted and stuck to this routine. The many days he stays relatively quiet in the room and looks at books are worth the days of struggle. And sometimes he actually does fall asleep and is much pleasanter in the evening (though he often is awake till 9:30 that night)!

Lydia

But back to the girls. We've had periods of difficulty. As with most any mothering challenge, when they resist naps a few days in a row, I start to panic and despair: "Why won't they nap??? I can't spend every day sitting outside their door for hours on end!!! How will I ever cook dinner again??? How will I ever do laundry?? I didn't even get to eat lunch and I'm starving!! I'm going crazy and I can't stand it and this is terrible and it will last FOREVER!!!"

Then I remember that we've been through such stages before (with lots of other sorts of parenting difficulties, too), and thankfully, each stage has never lasted eternally. (I certainly gain some eternal value from persevering, praying, and practicing patience, though.)

Abby

The recent nap strikes have persisted long enough that I think this may not just be a stage, unfortunately. Since May I can no longer expect both girls to fall asleep in a reasonable amount of time (30-45 min.) each afternoon. Sometimes they play off each other and neither naps (like yesterday).

I check on them every few minutes to ensure misbehavior isn't getting out of hand (see below--I've wisened up from weeks of dealing with naughtiness!). Sometimes one twin falls asleep (and thankfully is pretty dead to the world for about an hour), but Sister stays up talking, playing, singing, reading, yelling, and attempting any number of shenanigans. Lately Abby has most often been the wakeful sister.

Lydia 

Abby

What do they do instead of napping? They come up with a surprising number of entertaining alternatives to just giving up and going to sleep . . .

Lydia

1. They yell each other's names back and forth.

2. They balance on the top of the crib rails and give each other tips and encouragement in their gymnastic feats. (I discovered them doing this one day: "Like this, Abby!" "Like this, Li-ya! Look at me!"

3. They remove their diapers and pee all over their beds.

4. They remove their diapers and poop all over their beds.

5. One twin joins another in her bed, and they make a party of removing diapers and peeing all over the bed.

6. Then they attempt clean-up by pulling out three containers of wipes and strewing them over the bed and wiping each other's bums.

"Sugar and spice and everything nice"--right?

7. They gnaw on books and spit out the little bits of cardboard, then complain their bed is "dirty."

8. They throw all their books out of bed and then wail that they don't have any.

9. They scream to be covered up . . . over and over and over and over and over again.

10. They scream because Baby-doll or Kitty or Baby Monkey or Doggie isn't covered up and MUST be covered properly for peace to reign.

11. They cry because Froggie isn't lying on his back like he should be in order to sleep.

Lydia

12. They pull out all the stashed diapers from their packages and strew them across the floor.

13. They climb atop a dresser and pull all of Josiah's clothes out of his drawers and pile them in their cribs.

14. They "read" loudly to Baby-doll and stuffed animals.

15. Baby-doll "poops" and needs to be changed.

16. They shove all their books down the crack between the crib-railing and the wall and cry because they can't retrieve them. (Neither can Mama without crawling under the crib to the far reaches of the corners.)

17. They stand on the windowsill behind the blinds and watch the neighbor's yard for any interesting activities.

18. They jump in bed . . . and sometimes bump their heads and need kisses, or bite their lips and need band-aids.

Lydia

19. They eke out a little pee-pee so that they MUST be changed in order to fall asleep.

20. They hang by knees over the crib rail and need rescuing.

21. They change each other's diapers.

22. They strip off their clothes.

23. They pull out all the reserved, too-big shoes from the closet and try them on.

24. They pour out their water cups all over their sheets and then yell because their beds are wet. (They are no longer allowed sippy-cups in bed during naptime!)

25. They kick the walls and dressers within reach from their cribs, sometimes ending up with a foot stuck in between the crib rails--at which point they yell desperately for Mama.

Abby

This past week I resorted to bribery: if they stay in their beds during naptime, they each get a few raisins when I let them get up. While we haven't had 100% success rate, this trick has worked surprisingly well. It also helps reduce the scrapes they get into and the resultant discipline, since they're mostly staying in bed (even if they're not very quiet about it). It's nice to see their budding of logical thought, too!

*Or not. Josiah's longer period of quietness deceived me. He's still very much awake and has taken two bathroom trips in the course of my writing this blog post.

Just Another Day at Home

Betwixt the exotic vacation picture-posts (ha--nothing like my friend Alie's!), here's some photo documentary of the three housebound, half-naked hooligans in August--and some half-baked commentary to accompany it . . .

 Does it get any cuter than this?!

 Abby the contemplative, diapered hipster (glasses would really complete the look)

We've had a tough couple weeks since returning from Michigan. I steeled myself for and prayed about the transition back to home life, knowing the children (and I) would miss the relatives, expansive outdoors, entertainment, exercise, novel toys, Daddy, cool weather. And we have.

Lydia and Abby got sick soon after we came home, so along with hot weather, that's kept us pretty housebound. Our yard is currently infested with mosquitoes, and even early mornings are hot and humid, so we haven't done lots of outdoor play here at home. I'm looking forward to getting the kids out on some playdates and to the "pirate ship" indoor playground once the noses stop running!

While we're stuck at home in the heat, I try to keep everyone occupied with some "scheduled/organized" activities (i.e., book time, puzzle time, music time, story-reading, etc.), toy rotation, and indoor active play like dancing or running after balls or "skating" in circles on the rug. (Josiah actually came up with this one in imitation of Davey from Davey and Goliath--he has an entire routine of skating, falling through the ice, losing his skate, needing a sister to pull him out, etc. It's pretty dramatic and the girls love to be part of it--most of the time.)

The girls and Josiah love to do puzzles and have gotten pretty good at the ones we have! Maybe soon the girls will graduate to actual jigsaw puzzles, not just the picture or shape-matching peg puzzles? They desperately want to try their hands at Josiah's more advanced puzzles every chance they get (preferably when sitting in his seat).

 Abby still loves dolls

 Josiah gives a "smile" for the camera with his block puzzle from Grandma

 Abby working on the fish puzzle from Great-grandma Golda (they love this one!)

I've tried to get us into a decent routine for these days at home, but it's a work in progress. My particular challenge is reworking naptime and figuring out how to do what is needful without the reprieve of the girls' morning nap. Their fine-tuned ability to climb out of the cribs really killed it. Now they're just not tired enough twice a day to eventually stay in bed, not even if I stand guard outside the door for the entirety of naptime and foil every escape attempt (which is not my idea of a successful naptime anyway).

 Lydia wears the hat

 My big boy

It's hard to be cooped up, and it's hard to be a good mom to energetic, cooped-up kids! So we plug through August and welcome September because it gives me hope that we might see cooler weather one day . . .