Lake meets Toby

We are now down to one puppy since Meredith's puppy Sammy "ran away." Here's the short story. Hannah begged and begged for a small puppy she could hold. Josh was completely set against it. Then the big softie decided to get her a puppy and why not get one for Merdi also. So, Santa delivered two puppies to our door on Christmas Eve. We are no match for two puppies. I felt bad because they are supposed to be indoor dogs, but whenever they were together, they did nothing but play fight and chase each other around the house. It was difficult to housebreak them because they were constantly running abound and being overly hyper. I noticed that neither girl was playing with their dog, so we decided to look for a new home for Sammy. I had a friend whose mom really wanted a small lap dog and was more than happy to take Sammy. Meredith took it really well. She looked for Sammy for about 30 minutes and then all was well. Now Toby is an indoor/outdoor dog and both girls are playing with him. They call him the family dog. He has been so good and you can tell he is so much happier having human attention.

Back to Work

I started back to work last week, so it has been hard to find time to post. The transition wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be though. Lake has a great babysitter, so that makes it so much easier. We have finally found a routine that seems to be working. Lake turned two months old on Sunday. I can't believe how fast the time has gone. He is starting to hold his head up for longer periods of time and always has a smile for his mom. He is still waking up during the night, but so did the girls at this age. At least it isn't every two hours anymore. The girls are still in love with him. I can't believe how much easier it has been having Hannah to help. She is the best big sister to him. When I pick him up from the babysitter he always has a big smile for her. So many people told us how hard three kids would be, but actually it hasn't been much different. The only real noticeable difference is the lack of time to be able to do personal things like blog, scrapbook, etc. Meredith is now 31/2. She is the cutest thing, but is quite the handful. Our kids never hit the terrible twos, but holy threes. Something about talking back just drives me crazy. She is also Miss Independent and wants to do things that are not possible for her to do by herself. She is really enjoying preschool. Her teacher informed Josh that she is the only child who nurses her babydolls at school. Just pulls up her shirt and pretends. I call it being resourceful. You never have to look for a bottle that way. Hannah is doing great in 2nd grade. She has a wonderful teacher and I think that makes all of the difference. She is at that age where she doesn't like any of her clothes that I pick out, yet will pick out an outfit that doesn't match at all. She doesn't like for any attention to be drawn to her in any way. Here are some pictures from the last two weeks. We'll have lots of Halloween pictures soon.

Check out this great smile!
Meredith loves her little brother!
Kitten for a day. Kind of like rent a kitten. It just

showed up in our garage, so we let Meredith play with it for a couple of hours.

Go Bulldogs!

Truman's Homecoming was this past weekend. We went to the parade on Saturday. The weather was really nice. I remember homecomings past when we had on hats, gloves and coats. Nothing really new to say about the parade. Same parade pretty much every year, just a different theme. The girls really liked the bands when they came by. Something new this year was that no one could throw candy from the floats. Instead, people come by and put it in the kids bags. Kind of takes the fun out of scrambling for candy, but I understand the reasoning behind it.

Lake Turns Six Weeks

Family Visit

Two of my sisters came to visit this past weekend. It was so nice to see family and just be able to relax. It was also a great excuse to go shoppping and out to eat. You never realize how limited your choices are in Kirksville until you try to take others out to eat. While Ruby Tuesdays may be exciting to us, it certainly is not all of the rage in St. Louis. So of course, dinner was at Pagliai's and breakfast was at Pancake City. Might as well break out the fine china for family.

My girls worship their aunts. They always have so much fun. They make me miss being young and carefree. It's not like I can really go out and jump on the trampoline when there is laundry and dinner to cook, besides entertaining a month old baby who wants to be held at all times. They also always look so good. Highlighted hair, in-style clothes, etc. Makes me miss St. Louis.

Jamie and Julie loved holding Lake and it was nice to have a break every once in a while. I actually ate with two hands when we went out to eat. They carried the car seat for me everywhere we went. I could really do the "nanny" thing. Also got to visit some great antique stores. Hopefully this visit got the "baby urge" going with Jamie (hint, hint).

Uncle Jeff came over to visit also. He is like a human jungle gym to the girls. Poor guy never gets to just visit. He looks so cute holding Lake. He would make such an awesome dad. I just realized how bad this picture looks with the cute little purse sitting next to him. He might kill me for this one.

Seriously, no one has played this game for years, but as soon as my sisters arrive, the board games come out. Makes me feel like such an inferior mom. I read with the girls, does that count?

Hannah's New Bed

Ok, so miracles do happen. Hannah has not slept in her own bed since she was born, although this is no fault of her own. Before we had kids, we always said they wouldn't sleep with us. I remember thinking our friends had strange beliefs because their kids slept with them. Then we had kids of our own and of course they slept with us. Sort of like when you go to Wal-Mart before you have kids and wonder why a mom can't handle her child who is screaming. Then you have a child of your own and understand completely. Anyway, Hannah has been begging for a loft bed. We told her she could have one when she started sleeping by herself. When Lake was born, Hannah started sleeping on the floor of our room. We thought this was a big step. Then some friends of ours offered us their loft bed because their daughter didn't like it (Thanks Bartigs!). Hannah has slept in her own bed since the loft went up. Meredith then decided that she should sleep in her own bed too. Now, you would think we would start Lake out in his own bed so we don't have this battle again, but we are gluttons for punishment I guess.

Pumpkin Patch

The corn maze. It was really long and cut in
the shape of a train, which could only be seen
on an aerial shot. LaPlata is known for its train stations.




We went to the Pumpkin Patch this past weekend with our family and Josh's sister and her two kids. They had a really neat corn maze, but the kids got scared half-way through, so we took a short cut out. There was also a haystack maze, bounce house, corn cannon and hay ride. The kids had fun, but the adults realized that the pumpkin patch really is meant for entertainment of kids. It just doesn't have the same appeal anymore. 80 degree weather probably didn't help much either. The kids were pretty worn out though, which makes any event worth it.

Splish Splash

It's amazing the things that change with your third child. With Hannah, we had two different types of bathtubs that could grow with you. Meredith used them second hand and poor Lake gets his sister's lap. The girls take turns holding Lake while we wash him. They want to take a bath every night just for the opportunity to hold him in the water. It just didn't seem worth the effort to buy a baby bathtub that he would outgrow in a couple of months when you have two girls who can hold him for you.

Lake Turns Three Weeks Old

I can't believe that Lake is already three weeks old. Time is going by so fast. Yesterday was his actual due date, but that is hard to imagine. He is growing by leaps and bounds and is becoming so much more alert. He sleeps less and is really beginning to focus on your face when you talk or sing to him. The girls are falling more in love with him everyday. We are working on putting him down more and getting him to take a bottle now and then, so that our transition to the babysitter goes well.

Rollerblading

Here's a shout out to Monica and Julie. Do you remember our rollerblading days? I doubt I could even do it anymore. When I watch Hannah, it doesn't even look fun. The streets are rough and it looks like your ankles should hurt.