Noella's New Do

Miss Noella got her first real haircut when we returned from New York.  I had been wanting to take her somewhere for a while, as my skills were clearly not sufficient.  The final push came after our 17 hour car ride, when she managed to twirl her hair into knots that I absolutely could not get out.  So, the next day at 9 am we were at Great Clips.  The thing that amazes me is that somehow cutting her hair short has made it actually lie flat (or at least flatter than ever before), rather than sticking up or out all of the time.  She looks very grown up!

 The kids all went to daycare when we got back, so I could begin to recover from a month away and prep for the semester as well as a conference paper that I have to present in (gulp) a few weeks.  Everyone is having a great time.  Noella is back in charge of the Turtle classroom, telling all of the rules to her new friends that moved up over the summer.  Mariel is clear that she is ONLY in the All Stars until Kindergarden starts, and that she really does not have to do things like nap. 

And Holden, while he might not have known what to expect (as can be seen above), has been doing great.  He does not nap too well there, but that means he sleeps very well at night when he gets home!  He eats like a champ and coos and smiles at whoever wants to talk to him.  They just got a Moby Wrap in the classroom and have been experimenting with wearing him around.  One teacher has confessed that she may be spoiling him, but I sure don't mind! 

Still Here (or at least somewhere)
We have not fallen off of the face of the earth.  The kids and I are in upstate NY on Lake Ontario, enjoying a much cooler summer and many more family visitors than we would have seen in St. Louis.  It has been a busy two weeks, made more so by the addition of the baby to our usual family vacation. 
He is now two months old- here is the official picture:

(Note-It is a puffalump body-double- My mom has her own here)

Here are some of the things keeping us busy:

Seeing our relatives

Boating

Swimming

Fishing

Tubing behind the boat

Laundry

Picking wild berries

Picking wild flowers

Walking the dogs

Washing the dogs (particularly Hudson, who enjoys rolling in goose poop)

More laundry

Visiting with friends and their many children

The county fair (hooray!)

The Can-Am (Canadian American) parade

Bike riding

Walking and running

Laundry again

Nursing

Refereeing between the girls

Feeding my kids and eating

Potty training

(do I need to mention the laundry?)

Loving every minute of being here

Things that we (or at least I) have not been doing:

Sleeping more than 4 1/2 hours in a row

Work on my conference paper for next month

Watching the single Netflix movie that I brought from St Louis

Taking pictures

Wanting to be anywhere else in the world

Happy summer

Assorted events in Holden's first 6 weeks

Here is a run down of some recent and not so recent events. 

Not so recent:

Early baby baths at about a week and a half old.

First "playdate" at 10 days old.  It mainly involved sleeping for the babies.

His first trip to the zoo:

 Some sisters were more interested in having their picture taken than others...

 (you may note that many of these firsts seem to involve being asleep in his stroller)

And the most recent event: A "Sip and See" Party in Holden's honor, held at our neighbor's house last night.  Lots of sips, delicious food, and generous gifts of lots of diapers and wipes. 

 There were even monogrammed cookies!

 We look good together, don't we?

Mariel also had her first week of summer camp: Princess Camp at a local community center.  Their "coronation" was on Friday, and involved a crowning and recital.  The Princesses lined up for their performance...

There was choreography, although the girls did appear at times to be doing their own dances (or, in the case of one princess, laying on the floor).

Here is Mariel receiving her crown, which she designed herself.

Anne and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day (although it is getting better)

I think that I could rewrite the book today.  It was a long morning.  It started off well enough (depending on when the "day" begins, it could have been at 12:30, 3, or 4:30, when I got up with the baby), coffee and oatmeal before the girls got up.  My potty training Noella went right on the potty, and then 20 minutes later pooped in her underwear.  Into the car we went, to discover a cracked windshield.  We got Mariel to Princess Camp (her summer activity of the week), then stopped at the grocery store, when Noella managed to find Mariel's water bottle and dump it all over herself.  Screaming baby in tow, we stopped at the store bathroom for a try, then did our quick grocery run. On our way home... she peed in her car seat.  Nice big puddle.  We stripped on the porch, got the groceries inside, got Noella new clothes, changed the baby, did a few things before running out to get Mariel.  Of course Noella went on the potty again before leaving the house, and on our way home from camp she still peed in her car seat yet again. More puddling action (glad for leather seats!), another strip act on the front porch, a bathtub quickly piling up with clothes and car seat parts.
(Note that our daily routine involves sitting on the potty about every 30 minutes.  And that she has been totally dry except for when she sleeps for days.  And that Mariel just watched the Potty Training Success DVD yesterday and has been offering lots of helpful pointers today, such as "Potties go WHOOSH when they flush, Noella")
Did I mention that Mariel announced that she had another bloody nose right around this time?  She got one last week- this was the same.  She looks up and the lower half of her face is covered in blood.  It stops immediately (Thank goodness!), but it is both alarming and spectacular to see.
The windshield man arrived and took out my windshield, only  to discover that the replacement windshield he had put in the back of his truck had cracked... so off he went again.  While on the front porch I opened the mail and discovered that my health insurance had rejected the $5000 bill from the hospital because of a failure to precertify the stay (I called twice prior to having the baby to be told that I did not need to precertify for childbirth).  Gasp.
Inside to feed the girls some lunch (with several trips to the potty for Noella) and nurse the baby.  As I ferry their dishes to the table our cranky baby starts grunting and straining.... and Mariel's eyes open wide.  "Mom... your leg...." Noella smiles "Cutie Pie's pooping again!"  as it shoots down his leg, down my leg, and pools on the kitchen floor.  Sigh.  Our Lysol and washing machine are getting a workout today.
Post lunch- much better.  Windshield is fixed, Noella is napping (in a pull up), Holden is napping (after a bath and fresh clothes), laundry is in, car is disinfected.  Health insurance customer service agent agrees with me and has sent my bill back for review, and assures me that it should be cleared up in 7-10 days.  Mariel and I ate two big bowls of popcorn and played a game of Fancy Nancy dress up, so things are looking up.  I hope.
So I don't think that I will need to move to Australia.

One Month Old
Holden weighed in at 11 lbs 4 oz this morning and was 22 1/4 inches.  He is following in the footsteps (and extra chins) of Noella as an infant. Here is the traditional monthly picture, although since Holden was not too interested in posing for me I have included two.

Holden is generally a good baby and (thankfully) takes substantial naps during the day, which frees up my hands to deal with the girls a lot.  He obviously eats well, and he is starting to take more interest in the world around him.  Ceiling fans and being outside are usually good entertainment.  He does OK at night, although both Patrick and I would love a bit more sleep.  The good thing about the third child is that we are relatively resigned to exhaustion, and also have reasonable hope that we will sleep again... someday...