Happy Thanksgiving

The Automatic Lock Controversy

Similiar story, different day, different kid. This time it wasn't me who locked the doors, and it was Teagan who was stuck in his car seat.

I went to the gas station this afternoon, intending to jump out, get some gas, and go on my merry way. So I pull up, turn the car off and get out. Little Miss Tatum asks if she can get out. I say no, and shut the door. Not locking it, because who does that while they are pumping gas?

I have an obstinate 5 yr old though.

Sure enough, not more than 2 minutes later, who do you suppose is climbing out of the front seat?

She opens the driver door, says "I got out", grinning, of course. Then hops to the ground, shuts the door and........ CLICK!!! There went those damn automatic locks again. I assume she must have hit the button while she was leaning on the door's arm rest to get out, because I know it didn't click when I got out.

Teagan, unfortunately, has not mastered the art of extracating himself from his car seat. So, he was left alone, in the locked van, with my keys and cell phone, while I had to explain to the clerk that I needed to use his phone because somebody locked her brother in the car.

Bobby was none too happy since I was 25-30 minutes away and he had just put Tess down for a nap. It might have been faster to call the police, but I wasn't calling them and looking like idiot Mom again.

So, Tatum and I stood out in the cold, freezing our ears off, while Teagan sat in the warm van munching on chicken nuggets and fries. He didn't seem to mind at all.

Needless to say, he was the only one who was spoiled with a blue raspberry slushie from Target half an hour later, while Tatum was sent home with Daddy.

15 weeks

Okay, Tess is actually 14 weeks in this one, but the hair just cracks me up. These are 15 week shots.

She is playing with more toys now, although she tends to whack herself in the face with them, since she has a fascination with eating her hands.

Check out the cheeks on this girl. Don't you just want to pinch them?

Cheap help

Our dishwasher bit the dust a couple weeks ago, so we've been washing dishes by hand since then and letting them dry in our under counter dish drainer. One day, the little people decided they wanted to help.

Teagan seemed to end up with more water on his shirt, than in the sink.

While it is cheaper than buying a new dishwasher, I can't guarantee it will help the water bill at all.

And yeah, the cat food is on the counter. Buddy doesn't agree that she should be on a diet, so when she is in the house, she steals Chewie's food. He's not too happy about that.

R U ready

For some football?!?!The boys went with Aunt Krista to the Bengals game on Sunday. Despite freezing their butts off, they had a good time. Check out her blog for the shenanigans.

Darn. I keep forgetting how many kids I have. The OLDER boys went to the game.

Back from the dead

Well, not the dead, but homework hell at least. I finished the hellatious essay I have been putting off. Honestly, it wasn't that terrible. I am just a major procrastinator. Now, that it is done and out of the way, ah, a weight has lifted. Only 4 more weeks of this term.

So, on to the shots of Tess. She had a bad night last Monday and I thought our sleeping through the night days were over. Luckily, it was just a tummy ache and she was back to her regular schedule the next night. She is 13 weeks old today, and I imagine, up to about 12 pounds. She's feeling a little heftier to me. It kind of sucks though because she is in between sizes. Don't I know the feeling? :op I've brought out all her 3-6 month clothes, but she's not quite out of the 0-3 stuff. Which translates to, there is a whole lot of baby clothes piled up in my room.

What is that in her mouth?

Moving in for a closer look....

Ah yes, it's that thumb she loves. Actually, she loves her left thumb. I'll be! My girl is ambidextrous. Notice the defensive wounds on her little nose. Apparently her fingernails got in a fight with her nose. Maybe to settle the dispute, the left thumb is not allowed in anymore so the right thumb had to pick up the slack. Hmm...... What? No, I don't get out much.

Professional Pics

We had a photographer come to the house to take some pics of Tess when she was 3 weeks old. Here are a few to preview. If you want to see more, click here .

I love this photographer. She also took the pics of Tatum and Teagan last year. You can see those here towards the top of the page. Click through the pages to see her other work. If you're local, you can get her contact info here.

3 months

Tess is 3 months old! I think we are on day 5 or 6 of sleeping through the night, which is just weird for me. But if this is a trend that wants to continue, I'll accept it. I know it may not be such a big deal to some, but this is the first time I have had a baby just fall into a schedule. Pretty sad, considering I've done this 4 times before.
I co-slept with the rest of them. Tatum demanded it from birth on, so I didn't even try the crib with Teagan. I assumed Tess would be a co sleeper too since her early days were similar to Tatum's demeanor. But she has morphed into a mellow little person, much more reminicent of Travis's early days.

Don't feel bad if you get confused when I throw out alot of names. I get confused sometimes too. She is starting to play with toys now, and smiling and laughing more. Unless the camera is around. Then she just stops to stare.

Master of the Rings

Teagan is still loving little sis. We'll see how he feels in another year when she is swiping his toys. But for now, he says things like, Tess is cute. She smiled at me! I yike Tess.

Tatum still wants to hold Tess all the time, at least until she cries.

Unless, of course, she is passed out on the couch.

Day 3

Last night was the third night of 8 hours of sleep for Tess. I don't know how we got her on a schedule. But I like it! I nursed her, then laid her down in her bed. She fussed for half a second, found her thumb, then promptly fell asleep. Pretty cool, huh?

Bullets

To update you on school:

• I'm on week 4 of this term.
• I've been putting off my health history assignment for my assessment class.
• I finally did it. It took me 3 hours, but it's done.
• I love it when things are done. So far, I have a 98% in Physical Assessment. Not sure about Communications because she doesn't post the grades.
• Turned in the final draft of my expressive essay for communications.
• Moving onto my argumentative essay.
• Only 7 more weeks to go.

• Tatum and Teagan like each other, sometimes.
• I caught them watching TV like this.
• Right now, they are fighting.
• Tess found her thumb.
• She loves it.
  

12 weeks

We had a bit of an adventure yesterday. Tess and I were on our way to a baby shower, when we stopped by Target for a baby gift. I have those goofy automatic locks on my van. You know, the ones with the lock button on your keys. I pushed the lock button on my way into the store but didn't hear it click. I didn't pay too much attention to it, but I'm sure you can guess where this is going. When I came back out, I noticed that the side door hadn't slid completely shut, hence, it didn't lock. Not thinking this might mean that it still wanted to lock since I had pushed the button 20 minutes before, I stuck the diaper bag, with my keys and cell phone in it, between the seats, snapped Tess's carseat in, slid the door shut and........click! Instantly, the doors locked. And immediately, I freaked out, which is why I can't understand how parents can forget their kids in the car. Anyway, since my cell phone was in the now locked van, I had to run back into the store to ask for help. I'm not sure how the lady understood me as I was near hyperventilating when I sobbed something like "Can I use the phone? I locked my baby in the car."

She told me to go wait back outside and she would call for help. One of their security guards came to wait with me until the police came. Luckily, it was the only 70 degree day in NOVEMBER! Unfortunately, not paying attention to the weather, I dressed her in fleece. She was amazingly calm, stuck there in her carseat, in an unmoving, hot van. Normally, if we're not rolling, she's not happy. But yesterday was a particularly good day for her. Good thing, because Mom wasn't calm at all, especially when I noticed she was starting to sweat while waiting for the cop to mosey his way on out of his car to fiddle with my lock. Of course, they make you sign a release, which is understandable, but I was very near the "let's just break a window, could you hurry the hell up, that's my baby in there" stage.

After 20 minutes of sweating, she was rescued, and none the worse for wear. We went on to the baby shower where she was promptly held and coddled by "aunt" Missy, then passed around for more spoiling. I think she rather enjoyed it.

Moral of the story. Have keys in hand before shutting your baby in the car. Five kids and this is the first time I've locked one of them in there.

Bouncing

Took the kids to Bounce U this weekend for their open bounce, really early in the morning. No wonder they say jammies welcome.

Everybody liked the ball blaster.

This is one of the bounce pros helping Teagan climbed through an insanely tall web of stretchy, elastic cords. Tatum went up a few times and said it was pretty hard.

Travis was pretty good at shooting hoops.

Maybe we should have thought about basketball for him.

I know, my camera doesn't do action shots well, but I thought they were cool anyway.