Little sister
Big sister
#2
Giant blue eyes
Mile-long lashes
Gorgeous
Independent
Loud
Incredible
Playful
Creative
Infuriating
Aggravating
Lovable beyond belief
Squeezable
Kissable
Cheeks
Little snaggle teeth
Adorable lisp
Nigh-Night the Monkey
Princesses
Tinies
Running
Jumping
Marching
Twirling
“I love you, Mama.” (showing me “I love you” in sign language)
“Pinky promise I’ll love you forever.”
Almost 3 (!?!)
Lana Marie
Della started K5 last Tuesday, and it’s the real thing, folks. All-day school. Wow.
Just like last year, I had no idea how I was going to bear having her at school, let alone for the full day now. The night before the first day, I was a complete wreck. I couldn’t focus my mind – get her backpack ready, get her dress out for the day, get her snack in her backpack, make her lunch, figure out what time to get up so that I was able to get ready before anyone else needed me, how to get us all to school on time, where to go now that she goes in the doors in the back of the school with all the other kids, how to survive the back of the school with all the other kids.
I asked her as we were waiting in line that morning if she was getting nervous because she had gotten really quiet and I could tell she was looking around at all the chaos, trying to take it in, but she said no, just excited. I’m glad one of us was, because I still wasn’t even sure we were in the right line! I couldn’t see her teacher for all the seemingly millions of parents and kids back there. Then when she walked up the steps and that giant building swallowed her up, I thought I was going to lose my mind.
But thankfully, as usual, she put my mama heart at ease at the end of the day when she chattered the entire walk home, telling me everything they did, step by step. She had walked out the door after school that first day looking like a little zombie with a panda sticker on her forehead, and she was very proud to show it to me when she was dismissed from her line. What’s the sticker for? I asked. For sleeping so well at rest time! Coincidentally, that was her favorite part of the day and continues to be thus far. I think she’s secretly happy she gets to take a nap again.
As I was tucking her in that night after her first full day of school, she was saying how much she liked her teacher, and, as if she were telling someone else how much they’d like her, too, she said, “Mrs. Murphy is the best. You’d just be amazed by her.”
I hope you feel that way about all your teachers, peanut. And I hope the excitement with which you’ve embraced kindergarten is something you’ll carry with you through all of your school days. I love you so much, sweetheart, and Daddy and I could absolutely not be prouder of our big kindergartner!
Morrison doesn’t have his next well check until 4 months, so this will just be a brief update post.
He turned 3 months on Monday, August 31, and he’s turning into the smiliest little guy. You can almost always get him to smile and coo or gurgle at you, and I love that. He tells me lots of stories.
He is back to being exclusively breastfed, as our experiment with a bottle of formula at bedtime ended when the sample tub was gone. It wasn’t really doing anything consistently, so I went back to nursing him at bedtime and there’s been no difference. So at least we don’t have to spend money on that right now.
With Della’s full-day school starting this week, his naps have had to shift slightly. We walk to school at 7:45, and he usually doesn’t fall asleep until the walk home. Unfortunately, this means he only naps for maybe 10-15 minutes as we mosey, because he almost always wakes up as soon as we get home and the stroller stops moving. Then I try to keep him up the rest of the morning so he’ll take a good early afternoon nap at the same time as Lana. I’ll feed him and put him down as close to 11-11:30 as I can, then he’ll pretty much sleep the entire afternoon until it’s time to walk to pick Della up at 2:45. If he’s not up, I’ll wake him around 2:15 to eat and change him before we leave. His evening nap has become hit or miss; so if he doesn’t take one, bedtime is a little earlier, between 7-8, and if he does take one, it’s more his usual between 9-10.
He’s been doing a great job sleeping on his stomach, even sleeping 9 hours on it the other night! It was so hot earlier this week that I couldn’t bear to swaddle him, and I knew his flailing helicopter arms would keep waking him. So we put him on his stomach for bed the next night, too, and those were 2 of his longest stretches of night sleep yet. See. 😉
He’s pretty much graduated from all of his 3 month clothes and is now wearing 3-6 and some 6 months. Diapers are now size 2. Where is my tiny little baby going??
And as much as I hate them, I have started giving him a pacifier here and there. They definitely help babies calm down, and he, especially, will conk out practically within seconds of sucking on it when he’s just incredibly tired and won’t stop crying. I never use it at bedtime or during the night (except to keep him quiet while i’m changing him before a middle-of-the-night feeding), only during the day. So hopefully he won’t become overly attached to it and we’ll get some silence when he’s sleepy. Even though his hands are constantly at or in his mouth, he hasn’t quite mastered the art of thumb sucking to calm himself on his own yet. Plus we got a new kind that I’m excited to use because our pediatrician said that round blue kind is really bad for their mouth formation. I love their cute designs and I think it’s so adorable when he has his little plug in his mouth.
So, in a nutshell, there’s our happy little man. I just love you to the stars and back, my sweet boy! (and yes, i said stars instead of moon on purpose, because that’s a bigger distance to fill with more love. duh)
The Goonies comparison shot – left to right: Della, Lana, Morrison. Here I think they all look extremely different.
