Summer Catch Up: Boating

Is it really October already? I haven't posted hardly any of our pictures from summer yet. How did that happen? I think maybe I will do a few "summer catch up" posts this week.

While we were on one of our little Redding excursions we decided to take the kids out on the boat. Steven had never been, and it had been a while for Elise. Chris and I both skied and wake boarded, and man did I hurt the next few days after that. I'm pretty sure I hadn't done either since before Elise was born, so it was fun to give it a go again. Elise and Steven both went tubing with Chris. Elise was all about slow and steady, but Steven was a little speed demon. I guess that shouldn't surprise me, but it did make me a little nervous. He kept putting his thumb up for "Faster Papa, faster!" They both had a great time, and Cameron had fun hanging out at home with Nana. Thanks Mom!

Dancing Diva

Elise is loving her ballet class. It is a ballet/tumbling class until December and then it will become a ballet/tap class for the second half of the year. She is having fun trying to learn to do a cartwheel right now. Her favorite part of ballet is when the teacher gives them each a scarf and lets them dance freestyle to the music while she sets up the mats to switch to tumbling. And she is having a lot of fun practicing at home with a ribbon. Don't tell Chris, but she has even gotten Steven to ribbon dance with her. Of course he does it Steven style, with no shirt and a toy gun holster which you may recognize as part of his Woody costume he refused to wear last year.

So Sleepy!

I have a bunch of pictures I have been wanting to post, and as I was looking through them I realized that there was a theme. A lot of them are sleep related. It was a very rough week last week that didn't involve much sleep, so I think maybe I am daydreaming of sleep a little bit too much with all of these sleepy pictures.

Like father, like son..... Chris and Steven taking a nap on the floor in front of the TV.

I just love it when these two take a nap at the same time. Who couldn't use a little free time (maybe for a quick nap myself)?Cameron has decided he doesn't like napping, so he just gets cranky and cries until he finally falls asleep. The other day I was doing dishes and Chris brought him down crying and said he couldn't get him to sleep and he needed to do a few things so he set him in the high chair. It got quiet and I thought Chris took him back upstairs with him, but I looked over and he had just completely collapsed and gone to sleep in the chair.

Little Ballerina

Elise starts ballet today and she can't wait! I hope it is as fun as she is convinced it is going to be.

I May Have Been Wrong

I was thinking that Cameron was for sure the chunkiest 3 month old ever, but as I was looking back at some pictures of Elise at 3 months I decided I may have been wrong. It is a toss up who was chunkier. Here are a couple of pictures of each. Are there any votes for who weighed the most at 3 months? I'm actually not sure what the answer is, I will have to look in Elise's baby book to see just how much she weighed at 3 months to decide who was bigger.

And just for fun, another look at my two chunkers plus a picture of Steven at three months. He was definitely not even in the running for biggest three month old around, but he was cute and it is fun to look at all of their pictures and compare how they looked at a certain age.

I Think She's Convinced

Elise was not too excited about having to wear a uniform to Kindergarten. I think the main strike against them was that they didn't include any pink. I tried to convince her that uniforms would be fun and told her she could wear her second favorite color, red. She wanted none of it. This morning it was a little chilly so I pulled out a new jacket I had picked up a while back. She saw the red bows on the coat and told me it was her favorite jacket ever. She immediately began singing a made up song about how she loved cute uniforms that she got to wear to school. I guess I should have pulled out the jacket to start with :-). The weather has warmed up a bit this afternoon, but I'd be willing to bet that when I pick her up in fifteen minutes she will still be wearing that jacket. What do you think?

He Sleeps Where?

Yep, Cameron sleeps in our closet. I sort of mentioned this in a previous post and I've had a few people ask about it, so I thought I would explain. The plan is that he and Steven will eventually share a room, but since Steven is not such a great sleeper I am afraid he will wake Cameron up at night. We originally had his portacrib next to our bed, but Steven comes into our room at night when he wakes up at night, and besides that Cameron is sort of a loud sleeper and was constantly waking us up even when he was sleeping. So one day I was cleaning out my closet and it dawned on me that there was totally room for a portacrib in there. And it has more windows than many full size bedrooms so you shouldn't feel to badly for him. The only bummer is that once he is asleep it is a pain if we need something out of the closet, but other than that it works great. I think we will try moving him in with Steven in a few months to see how it goes, but for now this is great. Here is a picture of Cameron sleeping in the closet, and a few of the windows in his "room" so you don't feel too sorry for him!

How cute are these kids?

I may be a little biased, but I am pretty sure that these are three of the cutest kids around.



And this one slept 12 1/2 hours last night. At 6:30 Chris went in the closet to check on him (yep, he sleeps in the closet - maybe that's a subject for another post!) and he was laying there awake and happy and not making any noise at all. What a good boy he is.

Just a quick sidenote, this morning Elise told me she needs "a day off" and let me know that she would be watching TV all day long. I told her she would defintely not spend the entire day watching TV, so she decided that maybe she would add a little dancing into her day as well. I guess Kindergarten can tire a girl out. It's a good thing she has clear until Tuesday to rest up!

Happy Birthday, Elise!

Happy Birthday to our little drama girl, Elise. We love you!

Elise is such a fun girl to be around. She loves to sing, dance, and is always so full of energy. Unless, of course, you ask her to do something she doesn't want to. Then she is very quick to give us her favorite excuse which is that she is "too tired."

Steven follows her around and copies everything she does, and I'm pretty sure he thinks the whole world revolves around her. Elise is a great big sister to him. When we drop her off at Kindergarten in the morning Elise holds his hand on the playground and takes him with her to do whatever she is doing. When she was playing with a couple of friends one day at our house I heard them tell Steven he couldn't play, and she was quick to tell them that he could too play, and if they didn't let him then she wasn't going to play either.

She can be a little dramatic, but she always makes us laugh. Just today after school she said to me, "Oh good, I feel like I'm having a good birthday now. Earlier I wasn't feeling like I was having a good birthday." When I asked her why she wasn't having a good birthday she told me it was because somebody cut in front of her in line at school so she was crying. I, of course, trying not to encourage so much of the drama, told her that we don't cry at school unless we are hurt. I told her that someone cutting in line was a silly reason to cry, and she should just let things go sometimes. She looked at me very seriously and said, "But Mom, I was hurt! I was hurt in the feelings!" She is a laugh a minute and always good entertainment to have around.

She is a little overly sensitive and her feelings are sometimes too easily hurt, but she is also a very empathetic person and always wants to make sure everyone else is feeling okay. She gets very upset at school if kids call someone by a nickname they don't like or leave someone out.

It amazes me how fast she is growing up and what a big girl she is becoming. We love you Elise!

Reason to Celebrate!

If your thinking my reason to celebrate is that it is my first born's birthday today, you would be wrong. Obviously we will be celebrating her birthday, but the real reason for me to celebrate today is that these two champs both slept clear through the night last night!

One was up at 5:00am and the other was up at 5:30 am this morning, but if they'll sleep through the whole night, I'll take it. It was Cameron's first time ever - way to go Cameron! And as for Mr. Steven, well it was probably only his 15th or 20th time ever. For being almost three that is not very many times, but I'm thankful he chose to do it on a night that coordinated with his little brother so his mom could get some real sleep! Maybe they're turning over a new leaf!

First Day of Kindergarten

Elise started Kindergarten this week. She was so excited and wondered why all the parents were hanging around and why her mom wasn't leaving yet. I, on the other hand, was surprised that I was actually fighting back tears. Now that she has been going a few days I am fine, but there is a big difference between 9 hours a week of preschool and 30 hours a week of Kindergarten. Steven and I both miss her while she is gone. I was a little nervous about her making friends since I didn't think she would know anyone in her class. However it turned out that a little boy from her preschool class was also in her Kindergarten class. When she was playing in the yard before school started the first day, she and another little girl noticed that they were twins and were so excited that they were immediately friends. Granted, they wear uniforms so being twins was not that unlikely, but they thought it was very cool none the less. So far she has really enjoyed the whole Kindergarten experience. And one fun thing is that her school is literally a 3 minute walk from our front door so we get to walk to and from school each day. And I have to admit, I may have gone out of my way to drive by the school two or ten times on the first day just to see if I could get a glimpse of her on the playground, but I never managed to catch her.

Elise in front of Mrs. Platt's room before school on the first day. This is where they hang their backpacks each day.Inside the classroom on the mat next to her "twin." They both had pigtails and everything.

In front of our house with her brothers before school:Sporting her new Kindergarten backpack and lunchbox:

Not without an owner!

We went to Redding to visit my parents this last week and had a great time. While we were there Chris and I took a day and a half long excursion over to the Redwoods on the coast and my parents watched the kiddos. We had a great time and I'm pretty sure Elise and Steven had a good time being spoiled by Nana and Papa also. My mom said that she was putting Elise and Steven to bed that night and she remembered something she needed to tell my dad. He was out in the front room with Cameron so she got up and started walking out there. Elise asked her where she was going and she told her she was going to talk to Papa. I guess Elise said to her with hands on hips, "Now wait just a minute Nana, we do NOT go to sleep without an owner laying next to us." My mom said she was trying really hard not to laugh and asked her, "What do you mean, "an owner." Elise said, "You know, like a big person!" Sometimes this kid just cracks me up!

I Spy...

Have you ever seen those I Spy books where you have to find something hidden in the picture? Well, I've got one of those for you. Can you find what is hiding in the tree in our front yard?

In what would normally be a very quiet Sunday afternoon on our street, there were police out and about with guns drawn, cars full of lookie loos driving up and down the street, and the neighbors were all gathered outside. The cause of it all was this cute little baby bear who climbed up the tree in front like you or I would walk up and down the street. It seriously scaled it in no time flat:

It also dumped over the trash cans on our back porch. This happens to be where I first spotted the bear. I was in the kitchen getting Steven a snack when I heard a bit of noise out back. I walked to the back door and looked out the window to see a bear not 5 feet away from where I stood.

It hauled trash bags all over the yard:

And then it climbed the tree in front, which is where animal control found it. They were shooting bean bags at it to scare it away, but the police were right behind them with rifles drawn and ready to go. Scary! It scampered up the street and animal control and the police left. Not twenty minutes later we saw it again in our neighbors tree, and soon after that the Mama bear came walking up the sidewalk. My kids thought it was great fun, but I don't think I will be letting them out in the yard to play by themselves for some time.

How do you know when you've had a bad night?

You know you've had a bad night when you wake up in the morning (at 5am, by the way) to see this in your bed:...and these on the floor right next to your bed:

... and you have a very vague recollection of actually saying the words "shut up" to your newborn at some point during the night. It was more under my breath out of frustration than actually directed at him, but still. Good thing he doesn't know yet that those are not nice words. I also sort of recall telling Steven, "Go away, Steven." Oh well, I'm sure it was deserved, and he woke up on my floor this morning so I guess it didn't affect him too much. Yep, fun times at the Miller household last night and one very grouchy mom this morning.

New posts coming soon.... I hope!

We have had a very busy and very fun summer. With a new baby, I just have not had much time to post anything on the blog. I just noticed it has been over a month since my last post! I guess I have some catching up to do. The biggest change that has happened is this little guy:He's not little anymore! He is growing so fast I can't believe it. He has become a little fatty, and is starting to smile a lot. He is wearing size 2 diapers and is about to burst out of his size 0-3 month clothing. He weighs about 13 lbs., although I will have more official stats after I take him to the doctor next week. Elise and Steven are loving him more and more all the time. He is still such a cutie, but he doesn't even look like the same baby I gave birth to! It is so fun to see him grow and all of the changes he is going through, but at the same time I feel a little sad that he is not the same sweet little 6 lb newborn.