Susie's Leaning Tower of Chocolate for 2012 December

Clearly I haven't left the house in too long because I found myself missing Sandeep this morning. I didn't have many other people to talk to in India, but at least he was someone. He was pretty funny sometimes, too.

I'm feeling more newborn-trapped than newborn-rested staying home at this point. I'm sure after a couple times of dragging all three kids somewhere, I'll be over it. But in the meantime, I'm feeling lonely.

Today we resumed our Sunday morning walk around the lake/feed the ducks outing. We ran into a family with a little girl wearing the same shirt Maggie had on. We noticed it and waited for Maggie to notice. They looked at each other, then ran in opposite directions. Maggie ran up and grabbed my hand saying, "I love you! I know! I'm ready to go to the car! Let's go to the car! I love you, mommy!" etc etc as we kept on walking. John and I couldn't stop laughing. Her cheeks were pink and she was holding on to me so adorably. She calmed down after a few minutes and said, "That were a coincidence." Yes, it was.

Sienna had a two week appointment this morning. She gained 11 ounces in the last 9 days and is now 8 1/2 pounds! She's just a happy little eater, I guess. She's been sleeping about 4 1/2 hours at night.

Today is also John's first day back at work (not that he wasn't working at home last week). He got the kids breakfast and settled watching a show before he left this morning, so I was still able to sleep in. Sienna was actually a good sleeper last night, but I was ridiculously unable to go back to sleep after her 4:30 feeding. Ugh.

Anyway. I bought some newborn sized clothes and now she has clothes that fit and I got her dressed. See the latest cuteness on our picture blog.

Maggie very helpfully picked out clothes for Dalton this morning. She picked out his church pants which was fine except they are too short and too big on the waist. I finally sent him upstairs to change this afternoon because they kept falling off. He came down wearing his pajama pants, inside out.

Maggie and I laughed so hard! Then she said, "remember when we were in Utah and I hit my head and you said "we're going to go to Ember's house" but you said "we're going to go to" and Dalton said, "bum!" really fast?". Yes, I do remember. I said, "I can't believe you remember that" and she said, "I'm so smart!"

My darling baby only woke up once last night and is still asleep (a product of eating every 2 hours during the day yesterday, probably). I'd be a lot happier about this if she'd eaten on both sides the time she did wake up, but I'll take what I can get.

Last night was the ward Christmas party, luau themed. Dalton is just thrilled with the plastic lei he brought home.

John is going out of town today, as he likes to do when we have newborn babies at home. The good news is, if I survive being alone with three kid for four days, I will be rewarded with a visit from my sister. Yay for sisters! In the meantime, I hope Sienna keeps sleeping like this because I am already exhausted.

Argh. I had to pick Maggie up from school because she wouldn't stop coughing. The health clerk also noted a "fever" of 99.1 and dark circles under her eyes (uh, she always looks like that). And Maggie says she feels sick, by which she means she is coughing. Dalton and I had made it to Walmart but had to turn around and go get her. It took two other attempts to get to Walmart- I left my bags in the car, then forgot to make the return I went there to do. Now we are waiting not-so-patiently for the doctor. I never thought I'd hear Maggie say, "I want the doctor."

John: Sienna slept through the night!
Me: No, she didn't.
John: Oh. I slept through the night!

Maybe a 12-hour Disneyland trip wasn't a brilliant idea less than 4 weeks after having a baby, and with said less-than-4-week-old baby, but we had an awesome time yesterday. John wasn't feeling great, but was happy to watch the smaller kids while Rachel and I took Maggie on some of the roller coasters. He also scoped us out a seat for the Christmas parade. Sienna did great for a baby who's basically sat at home, or hidden in her car seat for the past few weeks. She made heads turn wherever she went - we literally saw lines of people turn and stare at her and murmur in adoration as we walked past.

Once the kids got tired, John took them home and Rachel and I stayed with Sienna. We did a few more rides, though it was very crowded at that point, and just hung out. It was kind of amazing to outnumber the kids. We took turns carrying Sienna and complaining about our feet hurting. We were both completely exhausted by the time we got home, before 9.

Most of all, it was great to hang out with my sister. The kids love "Auntie Reechel" and the feeling's mutual. This is a really fun Christmas season, considering we're just hanging out at home!

Also, baby girl smiled at her Daddy this morning!

Apparently, Maggie thought she had gymnastics today. She told John and Rachel that, and they assumed it to be true. After school she asked me if I brought a snack. I said, "no, we're going home." When we pulled into the garage she said, "Am I going to be late for gymnastics?" Uh, no, you have three weeks!

She told me a while ago that Tuesdays were her favorite day of the week because she had gymnastics, so I told her gymnastics would be on Mondays starting in January. She's got the days of the week down, but not the months. Poor thing. Hopefully when she sees how the quality of her gymnastics experience has improved (I signed the kids up at an actual gymnastics place), she'll forgive me for taking the month of December off. At least she's excited!

From Rachel, since she doesn't blog herself anymore.

Maggie: No matter. I'll do it myself

Dalton: strums piano. begins singing. Rudolph the red nosed reindeer!

Me: Dalton, look at that doggie.
Dalton: I know.

Dalton: Hey mommy. I mean, Hey Aunt Rachel.

Dalton: You're a mean one, Mrs Aunt Rachel

Got my first baby smiles. She smiled at Daddy ages ago. Nothing like a baby smile to brighten up your day!

You might have thought that with a November birthday, Sienna would have made it more than a month without seeing the ocean. Not so. John had the brilliant idea to take advantage of a warm Winter Break day and do a beach trip. Today seemed warm enough, so off we went to Newport Beach. We had a great time. Other than a few toe dips, we mostly played in the sand. Maggie hunted for shells, Dalton threw sand, and John started a giant hole, which ended up nearly as deep as Dalton is tall.

Sienna seemed to enjoy her first trip to the beach, or at least she didn't hate it. She slept, looked around, nursed, slept. The same things she does at home. It was in the low 60s. The kids wore shorts. We all got a little pink (except Sienna who was mostly covered). And we had plenty of time to play at the playground after.

M: That was a really fun lake.
Me and John: ...
Me: Maggie, that was the Pacific Ocean.
John: It's the biggest ocean in the world.

Yesterday, John took the kids to the church for our assigned cleaning day. When he got home he said he was still in cleaning mode do he went to it. I took Sienna on a serious grocery shopping trip. He was cleaning the kitchen floor when I left and the bathrooms when I came home. He also washed my car after the each trip, since we made the mistake of parking under a fruit tree. Yay!

M: What's your phone number?
Me: What do you think it is? ... That's it! How did you know?
M: I used my brain.

Me: I have a sister and a brother, just like you! Do you know who they are?
M: Aunt Rachel and Uncle Leonard!
Me: Daddy has TWO brothers and TWO sisters. Do you know who they are?
M: Joel and Leah and Grandma and Grandpa.

On Christmas Eve, Rachel watched Maggie and Dalton while John, Leonard and I took Sienna to her first movie, The Hobbit. She was so well-behaved! She nursed, took a long nap, nursed again (it was a long movie).

I really liked the movie, even though it's been far too long since I read the book. Some of the songs were really fun and well-performed and I thought the actor who played Bilbo did a great job.

After lunch, we all went to the park and to put our feet in the hot tub. The kids ended up taking their clothes off and swimming in their underwear. It was all fun and games until Dalton fell of a step and John had to get in with his clothes on and rescue him.

Santa came (though it's 5:45 am and the kids don't know it yet). He was smart enough to preassemble gifts before dropping them off at our house, unlike many other parents I see posting on Facebook. Of course, our kids aren't snoopers, so we're allowed to get away with some things other parents may not be.

Looking forward to the bustle of a Christmas morning with two kids who know what's going on. And maybe getting another hour's sleep first.

What a lovely Christmas that ended with snuggling my lovely baby. I guess it started that way, too. Maggie got into bed with us (both the kids are sleeping on the floor in our room while Leonard and Rachel are here) at 7:30 and played Angry Birds with John for an hour before even asking to go downstairs. And it wasn't presents she was after when she did ask - it was breakfast.

It took the kids a while to notice their scooters because Santa left them in the entry way and they were busy being amazed at the bulging stockings and the presents that had multiplied under the tree (we had to wrap half the stocking stuffers, as always). Maggie acted embarrassed and shy, I guess that Santa had actually given her what she wanted. After a few rides around the kitchen, the kids got busy with their stockings. They had treats, toothbrushes (and socks and clippies, which Maggie also asked Santa for) but not too much "stuff".

We had a yummy breakfast, premade by Leonard the night before, then dug into the presents. We made the mistake of not labeling some of them, which added to the fun (some of the stocking stuffers were misplaced as well). Rachel brought tons of books for the kids, including some sticker books, dinosaur books, and London taxi and London bus books, and a London underground train for Dalton. Leonard bought both of the kids shirts at the natural history museum. A PINK dinosaur shirt! Dalton's glows in the dark. Very cool. We got the kids Disney prints to hang above their beds. Maggie got Winnie-the-Pooh and Dalton got Dumbo, although Maggie says she likes Dalton's better. They also got Angry Birds shirts, a train tunnel for their train set,and some other miscellany. We tried not to buy them too much, and I think we succeeded, for once.

I got a long-sleeved shirt I love, new socks I needed, a cute little penguin purse, fancy sea salt, lots of candy, Amazon Mom membership, and really, super awesome, big, soft TOWELS. I think John is a bit embarrassed to have gotten me such an unromantic gift as towels, but they are exactly what I wanted and I LOVE them.

Sienna did not get a single Christmas present and she didn't seem to mind one bit.

We went swimming in the afternoon, since our trip to the hot tub yesterday was such a success. The kids played in the kiddie pool for nearly an hour, then we headed to the hot tub until Sienna woke up. I love California.

What a crazy day. Sienna only woke up once last night, yay. Tyler and Tasha et al came down to visit. We planned on going to the Great Park but it was raining and everything was closed. We still had a nice visit. Until Maggie broke my mom's torchiere lamp. Ugh. I drove Rachel and Leonard to their respective airports. In between, Leonard and I (and Sienna) had a nice dinner together. Came home to a quiet, clean house. Amazing. We'll see how long until my kids seem riled up and noisy again. At least 10 hours.

I think I'm ready to find the new normal with 3 kids. I've hardly done any work this month, and things at home are always slipping (Thanks to John for stepping up and taking care of lots of it). Once I make it to Disneyland by myself with all three, I think we'll be there.

They said there's nothing better than this but there's something better for me.
What's that?
I'd rather be running around at the park!

Baby girl is 6 weeks today! She is smiling more and more - she smiled at Mickey Mouse today. She doesn't make great eye contact, but if you can get her to look at you, chances are you'll get a smile now. She has basically no schedule during the day, but sleeps 4-7 hours at a time at night. We didn't have any trouble with night vs. day. She is a great sleeper at night and goes right back to bed after nursing, other than just a few times in her life.

She doesn't have the amazing head support the other two had (especially Maggie) and is pretty wobbly still. Her hair is growing in and is so soft and adorable. She fits in her 0-3 clothes, for the most part (now that we finally bought her some - Auntie Rachel bought everything that said "I love Auntie" at Carter's).

She's not particularly interested in the world, and doesn't nurse well outside of the house. I forget that I may be a breastfeeding expert, but she's only been doing it for a couple weeks. But she's slowly waking up and seeing what's around here. Maggie loves to shower her with attention and Sienna usually loves it. She rewarded Maggie with a smile today, while they were sharing the stroller at Disneyland.

We went to Disneyland today. It was really crowded, but it must have been more of an adult crowd (which makes sense) because the adult rides were SO long and the kiddie rides weren't too bad. We went on Dumbo, the carousel, Casey Jr, and one last shot at it's a small world holiday. Then we took the train to New Orleans and had some Mickey beignets. We went on Pirates, the Haunted Mansion (also last shot for the holiday version - and we were smart and got fast passes), and Winnie-the-Pooh.

The kids each got a $5 gift card in their stockings, to pick out a treat. Dalton got a Mickey cake pop. I let the kids pay for their treats with their gift cards. He clearly knew it was his, but when we got it out after lunch, he walked around sharing bites with all of us, so generously. It was delicious, too! Maggie got an M&M covered chocolate caramel pretzel rod, which we saved for after dinner.

We went to the Jingle Jangle Jamboree where the kids got reindeer masks to color and we saw Mickey Santa. I'm really pleased with the picture we got of all of us. Mickey made time to get down and say hi to Sienna and got her to smile at him. I love that the characters take time to make your kid's day.

After dinner and baths, John got out a selection of movies we hadn't seen recently (so the adults didn't get bored) and let the kids pick. I made popcorn and got out the sleeping bag. They snuggled and colored their reindeer masks from Disneyland while we watched Ice Age.

After the movie, I sent Maggie upstairs to get her drum to make noise for New Year's. She came down with the drum, the xylophone, and the leis from the ward Christmas party. The kids got ready, we counted down from ten and they made their noise. Then we brushed teeth and went to bed. Yes, it was only 8:20, but they don't know the difference and we did let them stay up quite a bit after bedtime!

2012 started on a low note. We'd recently found out about my miscarriage, and I had surgery on the 9th. Our kids were sick the entire month of January. John's back and health problems started in March and continue still. Dalton got stitches. Maggie cracked her head open and got a staple.

Topping the list of good things that happened this year is Sienna. She's awesome, just the perfect little addition to our family. Next come the hilarious things Maggie and Dalton did and said this year. Those kids are so funny! Moving back to California was pretty great. We love our new house, location, ward, school etc. And, you know, Disneyland.

Not as much travelling as 2011 (hah!) but we did some. Two trips to California (Disneyland!), plus the move which included a stay in Las Vegas. We went to Moab - Arches and Dead Horse Point. Los Osos twice. Lots of SLC staycation stuff (CA staycation will begin when our Disney passes expire). And 50 trips to Disneyland. Fifty.

Some favorite memories:
Maggie saving our flip flops from the wrath of the Pacific Ocean.
Space Camp for Maggie and staycation for Dalton
Riding a surrey at Newport Beach
Maggie swimmingunder water for the first time
Dancin' with Disney (and Kyli!)
Olympic rythmic dancing
Mickey's Halloween Party