New House

Ok, let's see. In order to catch up completely.... we sold our house in a mere 5 weeks. The buyer wanted to move in at the end of the month. We managed to talk her into two more weeks for us to pack and we began to look at houses. Long story short, we found a fantastic ranch in Finneytown. A mere 5 minutes from church, a wooded backyard with no chance of development, the sweetest little old couple who were so sad to part with their dream home (both of whom are authors and thrilled it's going to an English teacher) and a master bedroom with its own bath:)!! Poor cousin Kim who is staying with us while she subs to get into a school district had to move twice in 2 months (although she had decisively less stuff than the rest of us:)
A wonderful crew of friends and family helped us move everything. And as it turns out... we have a ton and I mean a TON of stuff. I really didn't think we did as we lived in a little house by the tracks, but apparently we were just good at hiding all our stuff. We have filled the bigger house- no problem!
The girls are doing well with the move. Since we still see all their same friends, it's not quite so tramatic for them. Suzy is doing great. She is the happiest and most contented baby ever. She still has Daddy's beautiful blue eyes.
We got to meet Ezra for the first time last week. Jeff and Lee and Ezra all came in from Portland. He is a handsome devil and he likes ME!! he did warm up to Uncle Mike, but Aunt Angie didn't require warming up to. It was great. He and Suzy spent some good time chatting and looking quite adorable.
here's a couple pics.....

Adventures in leaving the house

Yesterday I decided to leave the house. With all 3 kids. By myself. To shop at the mall. It was our first adventure of the sort since Suzy was born. I prepared the diaper bag, packed up the children and the front pack for Suzy and we were off. Chick fil-a called to us for lunch so we got some nuggets and fruit and I distributed food all around and sat down to eat a warm meal. "Momma, I have to pee". "me too". um, well, we can't pee because there's no one to take you to the bathroom.... we can't leave the food, you can't go alone, can you hold it till we eat? "nope" and the dancing began. ok great. I packed up all the food again and off we head to the bathroom. I cannot bring myself to set down the food on the bathroom counter, so I have a baby strapped to the front of me and a bag of food in one hand while trying to heave the children up one at a time to wash their hands. ok, finished in the bathroom, off to redistribute food and eat cold chicken. Well, at least Gymboree is having a sale and I've got store credit.
God bless the people who installed the little TV in Gymboree, as I get to shop in peaceful bliss for 30 minutes. I am at the counter to check out when my adorable baby (who has been admired repeatedly by the woman helping me) emits a very loud sound. The sound that a mother dreads to hear when she knows her child has not pooped for three days. The woman and I laugh and remark how funny babies are. Then something drips on my toe. UMMMMM...
Suddenly my baby is a little less adorable to the salesclerk. "Do you have any tissues or anything behind the counter?" the woman hands me 11 paper towels. It is not enough. Fortuneately they have a bathroom at the Gymboree where few get to go, but a leaky baby is a free pass. we dripped our way through the store and into the bathroom, where I discovered that miraculously, I was unscathed save my toes. Suzy however had a completely yellow leg. I cleaned her off best I could and we paid our 8 dollars left after the credit and high tailed it home. I do think leaving the house is a bit more risky than it used to be.

First Time Parent

So my youngest daughter was running a very low fever for a week. ok, it was 99 something. varying a little bit here and there but pretty much solidly in the not yet 100 range. well, for us that is a little fever as all four of the older becksforts tend to run around 97 something. So I finally decide I should call the doctor to see if it's something I should be concerned about because it had been a whole week. The doctor promptly conveys to me that I should quit taking her temperature. It's hot outside.

Bumboland

Well, we have joined our cousin Ezra in the joy of Bumboland. Suzy just loves her Bumbo too! and so does mom, as her arms are free and her child is happy to watch whatever is going on in the room. It's like always having a front row seat for the twin show.
We are so blessed, Suzy is such an easy going baby. She's a big smiler and loves to chat. She will fit right into this Becksfort clan of chatterbox ladies and their main fella.

Rocket Ship

The girls have a new game. It is immensely fun to watch. They play rocket ship (or boat, but usually rocket ship) by spreading out a blanket on the floor (1-2-3-4-5 Spread!) and then jumping on the blanket and pulling some up over their laps (strapped in to be safe!) and then placing pants upon their heads (Helmets on! so we can be safe!) They usually zoom off to rescue their stuffed animals or an obliging grandparent. Sometimes there is mutiny onboard as one of the rescuers tries to steal more than their share of blanket for a pretend nap (This is not a sleeping boat Ali!)

Suzy's Poop

So here's the thing... Suzy poops permanent ink. Bright yellow permanent ink. With just a hint of orange to it.

She has blown out of every diaper she's worn for the past week. The diaper will not contain her.

Something in my child is grabbing ahold of something in the fabric of her clothing and refusing to let go. It is really quite frustrating. Especially when the poop occurs and immediately the poopy-clothing is ripped from her body and treated with stain-fighting chemicals and then appropriately placed into a load of laundry that was just started (there was no delay). Despite the immediacy of treatment and cleaning, the stain had already set.... HOW?

So if you see a small baby with gold-stained clothes or ones that look as though they may have been recently dyed deep yellow by her parents, you will know that Suzy has struck again and rather than fight the stain, mom and dad have just accepted defeat and gone to the laundry aisle of the local grocery and bought out all the appropriate shade of dye.

Little Mirror

Life with Suzy is wonderful. I can say that because Mike is still home on Summer break. The breastfeeding is finally going well, and I'm starting to appreciate the benefits of not fixing bottles more than the nervousness of not knowing if she's eating enough and all that. We called a realtor today. We finally finished all our home improvement projects yesterday, so that's only fitting. He's coming on Monday, so that gives us 2 days to clean the house. The more children we have, the more I revert back to my natural state of sloppiness. As an adult, I have managed to create a facade of order to my home, but this order takes time and I prefer to use what little energy I have these days on my kids. The hard thing is trying to tell your kids to clean up after themselves when 1/2 the mess is from the adults. At least cleaning is a family affair. The funny thing is that Ali and I work quite well in this environment. I remember quite clearly my father saying to me as a child "how can you find anything in here?"- refering to my room. Today I saw Ali say to Jilli, "We need to get the babies' blankets" and promptly crawl under her bed and retrieve two "blankets" (scarves) from the mass of items which have been stuffed under there. It was like looking in a little mirror. We just have a different type of organization.
Our talk about keeping her room clean (which I imagine will be as futile as my mother's talk with me) will at least not contain the phrase "how can you find anything in here", but probably more of "you need to have a path to walk" or "this is your side of the room, keep your stuff off your sister's".

Suzanne Elaine (ie baby Suzy)

She's here, she's wonderful. we're sleeping, will blog more after the jaundice is gone and we're recovered from our colds. It's been a crazy first couple of weeks.

The RunAway Pancake

The girls have a new favorite book and it comes with its own catchy song. John Lithgow is a brilliant man and the girls love his song, I hope that it is as easy to get out of my head as it has been to consume it. The good news is that the girlies have been very accepting of our limits to the book and song because they can always play ballerina. Or "bounce arena" as the girls call it. It involves kicking your legs and running in circles. The only hazard from the new game seems to be getting your sucker caught in your sister's hair. (It's been an interesting night) so as we continue to wait for Suzy's arrival, it's great to have such fantastic built-in entertainment around the house. I can only imagine how entertaining life will be with three.

The seats don't fit

Ok, so since I'm due in about 2 1/2 weeks, I guess it's time to start getting the house ready for Suzy to arrive. God bless those good parents who read their kids books about being big sisters and talk them through the whole process, our kids are just going to get their sister dropped in their laps. It occurred to us the other day that perhaps we had not prepped them enough when Jilli was talking about visiting Suzy at her house when she comes out. The look on her face was quite thoughtful when we explained that Suzy was going to live with us. Oops, and just when you feel like you're getting the hang of this parenting thing. So we decided it's time to put up the bassinett and get Suzy's car seat into the Jeep and all those little details that say "Hey, these people are going to have a baby soon!" vs the current "Hey, these people have had a tornado go through their house". This would be the time that our big carseat plan fell apart. Even my husband, whom we all know would knock the world off its axis for his pregnant wife should she request it, could not cram all three carseats into the back of the Jeep. Fortuneately they fit in the car, but I don't really fit in the car at this point, so I guess the girls will have a crash course in not probing the baby while mama drives after Suzy comes out and we can all fit in the car.

It's a Girl!!

Joy of Joys, we get another girlie! We were a little nervous that Jilli would be upset, as she had us all convinced it was a boy. She accepted the news with an "oh, ok" and that was that. Now she's having a baby sister.
Even more fun news... my sister is having another girl at the end of June. So Leanne is due in March, me in May, and my sis in June. Oh the busy, busy grandparents.
Last night was the first time in a long time we left the girls with a babysitter. Mike and I went to a valentine's dance with some friends, which was fun, in it's own special memory kind of way. (not that there was any dancing, or even romantic music) Jilli didn't do too well with our leaving. It was really hard because she could say things like "I don't want you to leave" and "please can I come with you". Just broke our hearts!! In reality of course she was fine after a while, but the knowledge of reality and the tug of a mom's heartstrings are not related at all:). Sam (our babysitter) told us when we got home that Ali would look at Jilli (while she was still crying) and say "I think she's still crying". This morning when we asked the girls if they had fun, they said yes. and jilli added, "I cried for you. I said 'wah, wah, where did you go?' and then I ate my pizza".
Today, sadly Jilli is running a little fever, so we are going to stay home from church and watch the olympics and rest. Jilli did crawl in bed with us last night for the first time. She curled up next to me and I fell asleep again for a few minutes. She has some congestion so was having a hard time sleeping, but she laid very still and rested, and tromped happily back to her own bed when I told her it was time. It was the perfect snuggle time (I needed) to comfort her after having left her in such a sad state earlier in the evening.