Cameron Turns 3!

My little guy is getting so big and I will admit I am a bit sad. The past three years have gone so fast and before I know it he is going to be a teenager. This year Cam's b-day was very low key since Avery was born just three days before. Nana was super nice and bought us an extremly delish cake. We had a small celebration dinner, he blew out candles and then opened his meticulously decorated presents.

Cameron is such and fun guy. He is always making us laugh with his witty comments and funny faces. He is outgoing and friendly to everyone we meet. Being the only boy in the family, he is well aquainted with Hannah Montana, Barbies and Taylor Swift. He loves to dance to music with the girls and thinks it is fun to dress up. Partly because it is fun and partly because his Dad reacts so funny to it. I am happy to say our neighbor gave us some play power tools and tool belt and he now loves those for dress up.

Cameron pulling the tarp off his new Cars bike. He was really excited and is already a great little rider.

What would you do without sisters to help you open and inspect your presents.

Avery

A friend of mine took some incredible pics of little Avery last week. She was amazing to watch in action! Head over to her blog to check them out. jennipricephotography.blogspot.com
Thanks again Jenni!

Flying Solo

Eric went back to work on Monday so my sister came down to help me. It was great. She met Natalie at the bus, got the kids a snack and then took them outside to jump on the tramp. Tuesday both my sisters offered to come and help with the kids, but Monday was pretty smooth so I told them not to worry. Famous last words.

Cameron has learned that when I am feeding Avery he can get away with more. During lunch he squeezed his juice box all over the kitchen floor. Outside he pulled the just about to bloom peonies off. On the tramp he would lean against the net like a WWF wrestler and the fling himself at the girls. When he was supposed to be having a nap I discovered he had gone to the bathroom in his pants, and not just potty. So I put him in the tub, started laundry, cleaned his floor and then picked up the mess in the bathroom. That was not fun and I didn't even attempt to salvage the underpants. Nope they went strait out to the garbage.

Ella fell down on the patio and cut her knee up pretty well. About 5:30 I am feeding Avery and every 30 seconds or so one of the three declares in a desperate voice, "I'm hungry!" Which is understandable because it has been maybe 2 hours since they had a snack. I assure them that Dad will be home soon or that I am almost done feeding Avery. Ella asks me when my stomach is going to be flat again because it has been along time since Avery was born. There is a boost to the old self-esteem right there.

Yes it was an adventurous day. Lets hope today is a little less eventful.

Avery May

I know it has taken me way too long to get this up. Here are a few quick shots of Avery. She was born Monday, May 3rd at 3:30pm. She was 9lbs 1oz (a big thanks to my doctor for inducing me!) and 21 1/2 inches long. She has some dark hair and seems to have a little of all of her siblings mixed in. We chose Avery because we like it and May was my Grandma's middle name.

Look at that cute double chin!

Her first bath. The nurse went a little crazy with the bubbles.

The kids all LOVE Avery and always want to hold her. Natalie is sure it isn't fair that she has to go to school for 7 hours and Cameron and Ella get to stay home and hold Avery all day!

No Room at the Inn

I went to be early so I could wake up before the sun to get ready for the big day. Eric comes in after I finish drying my hair to tell me that the hospital just called and they are full. I was disappointed but he said they would call back when the day charge nurse got in. So I went back to bed.

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Natalie came in a little after 6 and asked where Grandma was. She was really disappointed when I broke the news to her. Then Ella came in. More disappointment. We got Natalie off to school and waited. Waited. Waited some more. And still waited. Finally at 10:00 I called the hospital to check on things. They finally had some births, but wouldn't have a room for a few more hours. Around 1:00 my doctor's nurse calls and to deliver the news. My induction has been pushed to Monday morning. We are all a little disappointed, but what can you do. But really don't they know it isn't nice to do this to a lady who is 9 months pregnant!

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We are all keeping our fingers crossed for Monday.

Tomorrow is the day....

...so today I am getting all the last minute stuff done. Laundry, grocery shopping, cleaning, organizing, prepping the kids and going to bed early! I check in tomorrow at 6am to start my induction.

After my appointment on Monday I am really hoping that this induction works and they don't have to end up doing a c-section. Even though I had just gone to the doctor on Thursday she wanted me to come in so she could see if I had made any progress. Well turns out she was stuck at the hospital so I had to see another doctor. Not really the way I like to meet someone for the first time. So I am sitting in the exam room with this little blue sheet crossing my fingers it won't be the good looking young doctor. Then there is a knock at the door. No such luck. In walks good looking young doctor. To his surprise I was showing no signs of having a baby soon. Seems that even with my baby being plenty big, my body seems to want to hold on to being pregnant. Which is the complete opposite of how I feel.

"This is your fourth?"

Yes I respond.

"And she is inducing you on Friday?"

Again a yes. And then I add, "We don't want a ten pound baby"

Lets just say I didn't feel a whole lot of confidence after my meeting with the good looking doctor.

Everyone is ready to meet this little girl and I am ready to be done being pregnant.

Keeping Each Other Safe

Natalie tends to have a lot of nightmares. Well, some nightmares and a LOT of nights being scared she is going to have nightmares. She has never told me what these are about. One way that we have helped to ease the anxiety of having a nightmare is to lay by her for a few minutes each night.

Ella hasn't really had too many nightmares and it used to be that when she did she didn't want you to comfort her. If she would wake up screaming in the middle of the night and I would go in to her room, she would just yell at me to go away. About a week ago she did come into our room and say she had a bad dream. I took her back to bed, rubbed her back from a few minutes and reassured her it was just a dream. After coming in two more times because she kept having the dream I had her climb into bed with us. Believe me this is not the easiest sleeping arrangement right now considering the size of my baby belly.

The next morning I asked Ella about her dream. She said, "Natalie got a green frog sickness. Then she touched your arms and they turned into frog arms. Then she touched Dad's feet and they turned into frog feet. Then she touched Bud's (Cameron) head and it turned into a frog head". She remembered the dream so clearly and was still upset about it. When I took her to school the next day I noticed that they were learning about frogs.

It seems that some nights the girls decided that they will be safe from bad dreams if they sleep in the same bed.