Sleeping like a baby

"Whoever said 'sleeping like a baby' obviously never had one"

                       

This is the little culprit herself.  I haven't been able to coerce a confession out of her yet, but I'm highly suspicious that the reason she is smirking here in her sleep is because it is THE MIDDLE OF THE DAY.  Surely she's chuckling to herself at the irony of being up all night and sleeping "like a baby" during the day.

Family of 5

Scarlett (pokes Mia in the eye): Eyes!

Shannon:  Scarlett - don't poke her in the eye! Touch the top of her head instead.

Scarlett (pokes Mia in the eye): Eyes!  

Shannon: Ahh! Don't poke her eyes! (Decides not to put Mia on the floor if the kids are awake.)

So we have a budding photographer in our house.  As I'm sure you can all see, even though most pics are of himself, he's pretty much on his way to fame for the photography. We just need to get him to work on his vantage point a little....

Ode to Nathan

The only time Nathan takes a nap anymore is when he falls asleep somewhere random.  My favorite, though, is when he crawls up onto my lap and falls asleep (reason #1 I love my 3 year old).

Reason #2 I love my 3 year old: Pillows make a great blanket
No, we didn't take our 3 year old to glamour shots.  He's actually sliding down a big blue tube slide at the park.  

3 car seats in the back seat

Meet Mia Jane Stoker

Born 11/21/08 at 1:37 PM

5 pounds exactly

19 1/4 inches long

R is for...

Nathan (hands me my contact case): What is 'R' for?

Shan: It's for Right eye

Nathan: No, I think it's for "Arrrgh matey"

F is for...

Shan: I think over the last week or so my face has started looking fat

Brig: You aren't retaining water are you?

Shan: No, and my blood pressure is still low

Brig: So you are just retaining fat?

34 weeks and counting

A belly shot...this is so you can imagine the following pictures inside my rapidly growing belly.

To get the full effect, imagine this as an action shot with her kicking and wiggling like crazy. At my last ultrasound (on Friday) I told the ultrasonographer that she didn't didn't have to tell me where everything was, because I could tell: feet in my right hip, bottom wiggling around the left side of my belly, head down, with an occasional hand sweeping around.  I was right. The ultrasonographer told me she seemed feisty.  I agree.
I guess she has some hair already, too.

Current stats: weight 4 lbs 10 oz (17 percentile).  They are guessing she'll be about 6 1/2 pounds or so at birth.  I still outweigh Brig.

On the 3rd day of Halloween....October 31st

This morning when I asked Nathan if he knew what day it was, he said, "what?" I told him it was Halloween and he laughed and excitedly asked, "Again?"  Yes, we've done a lot of Halloween activities in the last little while, but today is OFFICIALLY the last day of Halloween at the Stoker house.

Ready
Set

Go!!!

Nathan held Scarlett's hand almost the whole time......

......until we got to a house.  Then Nathan wanted to stay back by Mom and Dad and Scarlett wanted to run up to the door and knock, and knock, and knock until someone answered
We ran into our good friends Makayla and Declan while we were out
Then it was off to a Halloween Party for all of us!

On the 2nd Day of Halloween...October 30th

Carving pumpkins

....eating pumpkins

....posing punkins. If you look closely you might be able to tell that Nathan's is a "pumpkin pumpkin" and Scarlett's is a "kitty pumpkin"
....and the astronaut and "tat tat meow" trunk-or-treating at the ward carnival

Just the beginning of Halloween

The skeletons in their PJs. You might be able to tell that I had to wake Scarlett for this photo
Halloween isn't complete without baking and decorating sugar cookies...
Scarlett was definitely into the cookie making
After I made the frosting I divided it into three bowls: one for orange, one for green, and one for yellow colored icing.  Nathan said, "OK. I want the blue bowl." Not meaning that he wanted some blue frosting, meaning that he thought I was dividing the frosting to eat out of bowls like a bowl of cereal....
My sister drove down from Philadelphia with her 3 girls (the youngest only 5 weeks old!)...we had lots of fun at the pumpkin patch
Scarlett giggled the whole time she fed the goats. Nathan refused to even try. I'm pretty sure I saw Scarlett pick up some corn from the mud-trampled ground and eat it herself. It probably fell out of the goat's mouth. 

Prayers

As anyone with kids probably knows, prayers are always a work in progress.  Nathan usually does a fairly good job, with a few reminders every once in a while.  But tonight as he was saying family prayers before bed, right in the middle of the prayer, he started talking gibberish.  Not just mumbling (which he sometimes does), but intelligible gibberish like "oh da la be fo ga ro me." He kept at it for quite a while.  Brig and I looked at each other and we both had a look on our faces like, "Great. Now he's being silly during prayers." He finished, and we both looked at him. Brig asked, "Was that a real prayer, Nathan?"  Nathan replied, "Yeah. It was in Spanish."

Side note: We have a Spanish group that meets with us at church and sometimes Brigham takes Nathan to the spanish baptisms.  He always has to explain why they are talking funny.

A mind of its own

Lately Nathan's tummy has been telling him lots of things.  At first he would just tell me that his tummy was telling him that he was hungry.  That seemed to make sense.  Now, however, it seems his stomach has developed a mind of its own since at least once a day he tells me that his tummy told him that he does/does not want to do something.  For example, "My tummy is telling me that I want to go to the mall!"  or "My tummy is telling me that I need you to read me a story right now!" or "My tummy is not telling me that I want dinner."  Now I know I've asked him if his tummy is feeling hungry, but I have never asked him if his tummy feels like going shopping.

Names for the Martian Baby

OK, so it is probably about time to be thinking for new names for baby #3.  It looks like she'll be either Mia (Brig likes) or Claire (I like).  Any votes?

Funny side note: Brig and I both like the names Violet and Ruby, but since we already have a Scarlett, they are about as likely a choice as Martian.  

Big Difference

Nathan (in the bathroom, going potty): "Dad! Dad! Come here! I need help! I have a booger on my finger! Get if off!"

Brigham: "OK." Goes into the bathroom, wipes the booger off Nathan's finger (with his bare hands?!!)

Nathan: "Oh, wait. I mean it's poo."

The Martian baby at 27 weeks

Maybe we should stop referring to our unborn child as "the Martian baby", but since we don't really have another name picked out yet, and Nathan is pretty insistent that this baby IS the Martian baby, it will have to do for now.

 (Side note: Other names Nathan has suggested include: "Two", "Einstein", "Balooga", and "2S45" but by far the most common name he suggests is "Martian".  He always refers to this baby as "the Martian baby." For example if I tell him something is for the new baby in my tummy he'll say, "Oh, it's for the Martian baby?")

 Anyway, I had an MD appointment about a week ago and here are the stats:  The little Martian weighs approximately 2 lbs 5 oz (51 percentile) and appears very healthy.  We were especially excited to hear how much she weighs because Nathan, born at 29 weeks, weighed 2 lbs 1/2 oz (he was a little growth-restricted from the pre-eclampsia).  Another weight measurement that is not so exciting: Shannon now officially weighs more than Brigham.  Hummmm . . . .maybe I should think twice before opening a bag of chocolate chips without the intention of making cookies.....

By the way, this picture of a "martian baby" freaks me out, but Brigham thinks it's hilarious.  Sure hope my little Martian baby doesn't come out looking like this.

More Camping

OK, so it's been a while since we went camping, but it's been a while since I've posted!  About a month ago we went camping with some friends from dental school.  2 kids and 2 adults in a 3 man tent -- we had a great time anyway (sleep is over-rated while camping?).  The best part was the hike.  We hiked to a double waterfall....You can see Brigham sliding down the 2nd waterfall into a big pool.  I opted out of the sliding mostly because the water was FREEZING! Nathan and Scarlett didn't seem to mind, though.

Camping

Scarlett at 1 year

Scarlett at 1 year

Weight: 18 lbs 2 oz (10 percentile)

Height: 50 percentile (forgot to ask what it was exactly)

Head: 50 percentile

She is almost walking on her own.  She's taken 1 step by herself and will stand for a few seconds.  She is always climbing up the stairs, and thinks it is hilarious if you chase her and pull her down off the stairs.  

Words: Uh-oh, Momma, Dadda, All done!, yes, more (baby-signs that one), milk (baby-sign), shakes her head "no".  She can show you on one finger how old she is if you ask her.  She says "Hello"to the telephone, "Hi" to people and waves when they say "hi."  She says, "Bye-bye" and waves when someone leaves. Then she also repeats all kinds of things....in fact, she'll repeat almost anything you say.  She'll also answer, "what does a fish say?" "What does a pig say?"  The other day I told Nathan to tell his daddy happy birthday, and Scarlett chimed in, "Happy Birthday!" She tries to sing along to music in the car and chatters/babbles constantly. Brig and I are both pretty certain that once she really figures out how to talk, she won't stop.  The doctor tried to convince me that having a chatter-box is a good thing.....I guess we'll see.   

Happy Birthday Brig and Scarlett

Here are some pics from Brig's 30th and Scarlett's 1st Birthday party....we had a great time with lots of friends, 2 cakes, and 4 different kinds of homemade ice cream.  

Scarlett loved her presents.  She was so sweet with the doll, immediately giving it a hug and a kiss.  She also loves to ride her new horse.  

Brig liked his gifts too (Nintendo Wii). (Pictures still to come)

Oh, and I took Scarlett to get her 1 year old pictures the other day.  We got some cute pics of the kids together.