I'm also stressed because I start work in 2 weeks. Ack. I am having such a wonderful time here on maternity leave. This really is like never never land! Since I am still being partially paid, we have no money problems and with it being nice outside I taking care of the kids is relatively easy. I mean, it's never "easy" but I don't have to rely on things like play-gym to get them out of the house and exercising. We're going to bed at 9:30 and getting up at 8! Tough life! (smile) Pumpkin becomes more self sufficient every day - as long as Kenny is around I can pretty much let the two of them alone and they amuse each other. Kenny gets home about 6 and the ice cream man shows up after that - so we all get ice cream and the kids play in the backyard until about 8:30. Then we walk around the cul-de-sac once or twice as a family (yes we are really queer. I don't care.) It has been a fabulous summer. So I'm quite torn over returning to work. But, I also know that come Nov. when it's miserable all day and dark at 6 that I will love going to work! Stealth Baby will be in the nursery where the child:caregiver ratio is 4:1. Precious will be moving to the twos class where the ratio is 8:1 (ACK!) So I'm rather unhappy about that. I don't exactly know what to do because Pumpkin just loves his teacher and his two best friends at Little Lambs, so I don't want to move him. And I'm pleased with the nursery. But I am seriously not happy with that 8:1 ratio! But having the kids in different daycare would be really yucky too.

Hubby now has the motorcycle running. This is the love of his life. So I am trying hard to give him free time to work on it - like I took the kids (by myself! ) to a friends convalidation ceremony and then to their little house party. So Hubby and his friend Waddic took the carburetor apart down to near molecules. However now the back brake doesn't work - but he has ridden around the neighborhood so we're getting somewhere. Precious LOVES his helmet! You should see her in it! She teeters around in it looking like a 2-foot high alien, then she flips the face visor up and says, "Here I am!" Man, it is hysterical! She looks like the barest wind would topple her over.

Stealth Baby has recently passed some wonderful stages of development. As you may remember Stealth Baby first rolled over on June 17 - however I didn't see it as I was changing Precious's diaper. I think he may have grabbed the cross bar of his bouncy gym somewhat by accident and pulled himself over. Anyway, he rolled over and was yelling on his stomach for a bit while I changed a diaper. Needless to say that little adventure scared him off even trying for some time!! So on July 6 - the day we got home from the 2 week baptism vacation - Stealth Baby begins rolling over at 6am! So he'd roll over, scream. I'd roll him back over. He'd nearly immediately roll over again and begin fussing. Meanwhile I'm trying to sleep earnestly praying to god that he will quit finding this amusing and go back to sleep as well. Argh!! Happily, he is no longer mad at being on his stomach, which is a good thing because he now rolls over constantly. On July 13 Stealth Baby began reaching for things held above him. Before that he would make some half hearted attempts or wave his arms around, but now he has enough control to really reach. He's still getting the hang of the grabbing parts. It's like not all his fingers totally follow his mind's directions yet. You can actually see the intensity in his eyes. He's been grabbing at his feet for awhile now. I must do a poor job of cutting his finger nails because he has all this little nicks and scratches along his ankles. He's even managed to grab his toes and bring them into his mouth to suck on. You should see the look on his face when he does grab something - right into the mouth. He just attacks things! He is SO totally teething, so he has to wear a bib constantly since he drenches everything.

We are having some "issues" with sleeping. See, Stealth Baby is now too big for the bassinet. When I put him down and he does his "sproing" (Christ-like arm position) reflex, his arms hit the side of the bassinet - so as he rolls around trying to find a comfortable position he can't and he wakes himself up. (Sounds like Precious, 'eh?) Precious was the same way, but she found her thumb at about now and that saved us. Stealth Baby has found his thumb but only rarely uses it to get himself back to sleep. So what is happening is I put him to bed around 9 and he sleeps in the carseat until maybe 3:30 or 4. He wakes up and then refuses to go back to sleep in the car seat. So he ends up in bed with me. Which means I don't get good sleep. Hubby and I tried putting him to sleep in his own crib in Precious's room, which was a HUGE disaster. Precious is a light sleeper so even though we had the monitor on, Stealth Baby getting up disturbed her sleep. So when I tried to put him back to sleep in the crib his stirring about trying to find his thumb woke Precious up. Argh! So Stealth Baby's up and crying and Precious is screaming and Hubby is a log and is sleeping though all of this! So I got hot, frustrated and unhappy! SO then I couldn't get back to sleep and was up for hours! Also, I worry that I am not allowing Stealth Baby to learn methods to put himself back to sleep. With him right next to me in the carseat I wake up almost the minute he starts stirring. Now, neither Pumpkin or Precious was sleeping through the night at 4 months, or even 6 months, and I don't particularly want Stealth Baby to start sleeping through the night either. I just want him to sleep in his own bed. So we may move the crib into our room at the foot of our bed. (Which will be a tight fit with the king bed and all.) The other two children started sleeping though the night beautifully on their own, so I'd like to replicate that experience.

Stealth Baby is a total water baby! He LOVES water!! Being a total dork I left the baby bathtub and Mom's house, and Stealth Baby is WAY too big to fit in the sink. With no other option I've been putting him in the big tub - which he loves. If Precious is in there she wants to "help"; which means pour huge amts of baby soap on him, place a wet washcloth over his face, pour cups full of water over his head and other misplaced acts of love. Generally I place my hand under his head and let him lie/float in the water. You should see his joy! He flaps his arms and kicks his feet and has a wonderful time.

It is truly mind boggling how different my children are. Precious is so much more observant and aware of things then Pumpkin ever was. For example, Precious interacts with Stealth Baby on a daily basis. She wants to hold him, or when he cries she gets concerned and will say things like, "Baby crying!!" Or if he cries she may also start. However, the NEATEST thing is that she and Stealth Baby already seem to get along! Two days ago (July 16) Stealth Baby is in his bouncy seat downstairs and I hear him giggling away and also hear Precious laughing. I come downstairs and Pumpkin and Precious are jumping off the arm of the couch into a big pile of pillows. (Why was I upstairs? I don't know.) Stealth Baby thought this was the most hysterical thing he's seen in his 4 short months! He's just delighted by this. And he seemed to laugh harder when Precious jumped then when Pumpkin jumped?! So then last night the whole family is on it's way to Price Club. Pumpkin and Precious are in the far back, Stealth Baby and an empty seat are the middle row, with Hubby and I in the front. Again I hear Precious and Stealth Baby giggling away. So I turn around and there is Precious leaning as far over as she can in her seat making faces at Stealth Baby! So the two of them are having their own party there in the back seat! WOW! They were entertaining each other! It was so neat!

Precious is just so amazing. Everything Pumpkin can do, she thinks she can do! She is an amazing absorbent sponge of a child. OK, so she sees Pumpkin on the 'big boy' swing, so now she want to sit on the big boy swing. So, it took what? Two months for our swing set to become too small?! (Pumpkin, Kenny & Precious now all need big swings) So Hubby is now going to buy another 'big boy' swing for Precious (making 3 on the swing set) and then put the baby swing (for Stealth Baby) and hook it up under the deck. Anyway, she is already trying to swing! She's not particularly rhythmic about pumping her legs at the correct time, but darn is she trying! And she knows to lean back. So once you give her a (teeny tiny itsy bitsy) push she can keep herself moving back and forth for quite some time. This started on July 17.

If possible Precious's tantrums are getting worse. I guess she feels much of her world is out of her control, so she reacts very strongly to things she feels should be in her control. She always was a screamer, but it seemed more a reaction to things and was of the "EEEooooEEEooo" variety. Now, we'll say something and she'll get a very cross look on her face and scream "NO!" Then, with her brows way down and an angry determined look on her face she'll scream in obviously aggravated short bursts. It's funny in a way, but loud and unacceptable. I'm not sure how to break her of this! She doesn't scream at daycare, so obviously good things go her way ONLY at home.

Precious's verbal skills are pretty funny. We implore her to use words ("Say, 'I want to go' Precious, don't scream" or "Precious, say 'help me.'") Of course she has learned none of those things. What she says is, "You SHARE!!" always screamed at Pumpkin when he has something she wants, or "Me FIRST!" or "My Turn!" She is now taking great joy in telling me "I beat mommy!", even if she hasn't. The other night she didn't want to go to bed so she sat crying in the crib saying, "Scooby doo Mommy! Scooby doo!" She can say her ABCs (not knowing they are letters - she thinks lmnop is one word) and count to 4. She can sing a ton of nursery rhymes. So she's a verbal child, just not in any useful ways! And she still always screams or grunts first - even if she knows the words for what she is saying! Frustrating!!

Her favorite book at the moment is Winne-The-Pooh's Nursery Rhymes. (My dad's aunt gave this to me, how funny) Of course I can't stand this book because it isn't even a story, but nursery rhymes. So one page is "Row Your Boat" and another Ba Ba Black Sheep etc. But she just loves this book and demands to read it every evening. On the plus side I now know all nusery songs known to man. Between this book, Mary's Silly Songs tape, and Barney, I have an amazing song list. She loves Itsy Bisty Spider - and how she tells me she wants me to sing it is she starts trying to move my hands. Isn't that neat?

PS, she is still very much into removing her clothes. Which is REALLY frustrating to me.

Whenever we drive somewhere Pumpkin and I take turns singing songs. It's been a lot of fun. He only knows parts of some songs so when it's my turn I'll ask him what song he wants me to sing - and he'll say, "the one with the mouse!" So I'll start with "3 blind mice" and he'll yell, "No! The mouse runs down the clock" meaning he wants Hickory Dickory Dock". So all day long I'll be humming "did you every see a laddie" (When I go out of my mind, this will be the reason) He mainly sings ABC or Brother Hubby - he's more keen on me singing lots of different songs.

Pumpkin is still reading Morris the Moose Goes to School. He knows the word Fish and the word Candy. I haven't figured out if he actually knows to read the words, or if he just knows the story so well that he can tell where they appear. But it's really neat to read it to him. While I read it I talk a bit about school, even though he still has two years before he goes to first grade. He still has to ask what is going on in the middle of every page, and says 'why' about ten million times a day.

Pumpkin is back into playing baby doctor again. We have this steering wheel contraption that has a horn and a key you can turn and the stick for a turn signal. It has a suction cup on the bottom - the idea is to stick it to like the high chair tray. Anyway, Pumpkin uses this to hear the baby's heartbeat. It was so funny - yesterday he remembered something about the cream that is supposed to go on. I think I am going to buy him a fake doctor's kit - well, all he needs probably is a stethoscope. Yesterday I had 3 babies! (Smile) He still has no idea where they come from - they just magically pop out. It doesn't seem to bother him not to know.