X Ray

As if the Monson clan did not have enough excitement on our hands with having a new bundle of joy added to the mix. The first full week that I took off to be home with Katie and Spencer everyone got sick...Julia came home early from school with a stomachache (we are pretty sure she was faking since she had a big smile on her face when I picked her up, apparently I did the same thing when I was her age...no surprise since she is me), Alexa got a fever and threw up all over the floor and Savanna had to go to the doctors for an ear infection, inflamed nose from allergies and a cough that just would not go away. Savanna also had to get her first chest x-rays to screen for asthma, which came back positive for slight asthma. 

Even though she did not like wearing the Looney Toon gown, because it didn't match her skirt and wasn't very cute (her words not mine), Savanna was a brave little trooper. I would say that her smile makes up for any cuteness lost from wearing a hospital gown, what do you think?

The Whole Tooth and Nothing but the Tooth

As parents we have the ability to make moments in our children's life very magical, unfortunately those moments flutter by so quickly that sometimes it is hard to catch them or even keep up with them. 

The other day Savanna enthusiastically shared the fact that her second tooth was getting very wiggly and requested everyone within the sound of her voice and sight of her eyes to feel how loose it was. After checking it one night and seeing how loose it was I asked if she wanted mommy to pull it out. Her response was not to worry about it, her AMAZING teacher Ms. Lovato would be pulling it out at school for her. The next day Katie went to pick Savanna up from school, but Vanna had showed Ms. Lovato the wrong tooth early that day and was not convinced that it was ready to be pulled out. Once the correct tooth was identified Ms. Lovato took no time at all to grab a tissue and yank that sucker right out. Sure enough Ms. Lovato came through as promised, unlike the tooth fairy who did not come through that night (here's the fleeting moment). 

The next morning I woke up realizing that the tooth fairy had not visited our toothless princess and wasn't sure how to approach the topic. I found a very forlorn Savanna in Julia's room where I also found a very intent Julia writing feverishly in her journal, no doubt about the non-existing tooth fairy that did not visit her sister. 

After talking to Savanna about it and how it made her feel I convinced her to write a note to the tooth fairy and to leave it along with her tooth under her pillow before she left for school. The note went something like this:

"Dear Tooth Fairy,

Why didn't you pick up my tooth and leave me money?

Sincerely,

Savanna"

Simple and to the point. Well it turned out that the Tooth Fairy did arrive while Vanna was at school. After receiving the upsetting note from Savanna the Tooth Fairy left her $3 (instead of the normal $1) for her tooth and a glittery coated note explaining the reason for the delay.

Savanna's faith in the Tooth Fairy had been redeemed and after seeing the letter with her own eyes I think Julia's may have been restored as well with her surprised statement, "Wow, maybe the Tooth Fairy is real." This coming from the girl that was upset because we did not have time after our Prescott stay-cation to dye Easter eggs the day before Easter for the Easter Bunny to hide. Go figure.

Later that day Vanna wrote this note to the Tooth Fairy:

Thank goodness for redeeming second chances and these

 magical moments for our magical kids. We love them!

He's Here!!

Spencer made it! At 1:50 pm on April 18th, weighing in at 7 lb 13.6 oz. and spanning 21 whole inches.

I spent 9 months of pregnancy hoping against hope that my body would (for once!) go into labor on its own, when I finally resigned myself to the fact that I would need to be induced yet again. The date was set and I was feeling content, despite the fact that my induction time was set for 4 in the morning.

Imagine my surprise, then, when my water started leaking at 6:30 in the morning the day BEFORE I thought I would be having Spencer. (This is not how my body functions. I was completely astounded.) Despite the signs, I was convinced that we would get to the hospital and be sent home. After all, my history suggests that this phenomenon does not happen to me. Imagine my further surprise, then, when we were pulling off the freeway on our way to the hospital around 9 am and my water completely broke. Again, this does not happen to me. My water has never broken on its own, and never outside of a controlled environment, i.e., the hospital!

By 9:15 I was getting in some Solitaire on my phone and waiting to be put into an actual room.

By 10:15 I was in said room...

By 12, my epidural was in full swing...

And by 1:20 I was at a ten and being told not to push until the doctor got there.

(Craig took a picture of the 10 on the clock because I was not in

 the mood to hold up ten fingers for a photo. Sorry to disappoint, folks.)

By 2:00, the cutest boy ever was placed in my arms and I was thinking 

to myself, "how on earth were we ever so scared of having a little boy??"

One second with Spencer Lee and we were smitten beyond words with our tiny, beautiful prince.

Validation

Tonight, Craig and I got a dose of some good old-fashioned validation in the form of homemade cards from the girls. I don't know about you, but I'm all about these intermittent messages that hint to us that we aren't completely screwing up our children. It's nice to know that some of the love we send out to them somehow gets absorbed and bounced right back every now and again.

From Julia:

From Savanna:

Tooth Story

Miss Savanna finally lost her first tooth. It seemed a little late in coming, because Julia had already lost her two bottom teeth before she even started kindergarten, and Vanna has gotten through almost the whole school year with nary a wiggle. Well, her day finally came, and it just happened to be while we were out of town for the weekend. Lucky for us, the Tooth Fairy travels! 

Savanna, unlike my sweet, squeamish, oldest child, was all excited about me yanking the tooth out for her. (Might I add that she gets her non-squeamishness from me?) In fact, we were both so ready to get that bad boy yanked out that we Craig had to remind us that we needed a before picture...so we paused accordingly and then got down to business.

Before

During

After

We even found this convenient shower cap envelope in the bathroom for Savanna to put the tooth in so that it didn't get lost under the pillow; the Tooth Fairy recognized the genius and used the same envelope for Savanna's money. Great minds think alike, I suppose.

Water Camera

When I was a kid, I was under the mistaken impression (thanks to my procrastinator parents) that rolls of film took about a year to develop. Imagine my surprise when I got my first camera and discovered that pictures could actually be developed in as little as an hour. A whole new world opened up to me!

Well, I'll own that I got at least a portion of that procrastinator gene, which is probably why Craig found an underwater camera in our swim bag that has been sitting there since last summer. Since he happened to be in a go-getter mood himself (he is something of a procrastinator as well, though we can't trace it directly back to his parents) he took the camera in before work a few days ago to get the pictures developed. (Is that even the word for it anymore? Or do we just say "printed" now? I'm so behind, people.)

Out of 22 pictures, there were about 4 good ones:

The rest were random, wasted pictures that the girls took of empty water, sky, and the occasional shot of the television in my mom and dad's living room:

(this one did get half a point for cuteness but was ultimately marked down for being so blurry)

These digital camera-age kids have no idea that there is such thing as not being able to go back and erase a dumb picture that you don't want.

Unfortunately, we (read: Craig) probably won't learn our lesson and will end up buying yet another way-too-expensive underwater camera this summer, to be promptly developed in the spring of 2014.

(So stay tuned.)

Savanna the Super

Our little superstar Savanna got picked to be the Super Student in her class for the month of March. Needless to say, we are so proud of her for working so hard in kindergarten, and making so much academic progress, but truly we are proud of her for everything else she is, too: a loving sister, a helpful and snuggly daughter, and a sweet, kind friend. It was great to have a reason to celebrate all of her freckly, squinty-eyed, adorable wonderfulness.

Vanna and the wonderful Ms. Lovato

Cutie Head with her medal of honor

Tattoo-head cheering her sister on

The award ceremony happened on Julia's birthday, who was probably more

 interested in one of her birthday presents than in her sister's award...

Totally whooped on Daddy

Can I tell you how comfortable it was to sit on the ground with my 8 months pregnant self?

Enjoying her donut afterwards...until she got to that gross part in the middle

Proud Daddy

Goofy Heads

We're so amazed by you, little Munchiekin!

If the Shoe Fits...

Yes, I live here. And yes, there are so many of them I don't know what to do.

It must be time to add another one to the mix...

3 Weeks To Go and Not a Nest in Sight...

"A robin feathering her nest
Has very little time to rest
While gathering her bits of twine and twig.
Though quite intent in her pursuit
She has a merry tune to toot
She knows a song will move the job along..."

I'll be honest with you, one of my favorite parts about the end of pregnancy (aside from the fact that the baby is supposed to be arriving soon, of course) has to do with the nesting stage. You know, that fluke of a time when you have an inexplicable increase in energy and start getting lots of random things around the house done in preparation for the new baby? In pregnancies past, it has inevitably been my most productive time--not that I've necessarily cleaned particularly well during this time, but I sure have organized the heck out of some closets. (Just ask Alexa--she was quite impressed when we brought her home from the hospital.)

Well, friends, unless this magical ability to clean and organize beyond my current capabilities surfaces soon, (the chances of which are virtually nil) I'm pretty sure the nesting boat has set sail and left me panting inexplicably at the dock. It has me feeling a little sad. And, did I mention, out of breath? (Okay, I was already out of breath anyway.) Instead of actually doing anything extra, all of my physical powers (the likes of which are also virtually nil) are all going towards the basics: getting kids up and off to school, packing lunches, washing and folding laundry, grocery shopping, sweeping, vacuuming, meal preparing, and scrubbing the occasional toilet. That's it. Any nesting I'd like to do takes place only in my head, not unlike the way that, as a kid, I used to imagine cleaning my room on a Saturday morning from the comfort of my own bed. I literally sit and look around and pine about all the great things I'd like to get done, and have no energy whatsoever with which to do them.

The fact that, this pregnancy, I am older, have more kids, (two of whom are in school), and I am getting a lot less sleep, all serve to explain my inability to nest like a proper pregnant lady, but knowing those things just really fails to make me feel any better. All I want to do is randomly organize the heck out of something, and yet I fear passing out midway through. And, in my heart of hearts, though I (very much) long to not be pregnant anymore, I know that I am months and months away from my energy levels returning to any semblance of normalcy. Maybe my nesting days are just gone for good.

But alas, life goes on and I will just have to comfort myself with the fact that I'll have plenty of crap to organize at a later time in my life.

In the meantime, this picture should give you an idea of why I can't move a laundry basket across the room without Craig assuming (from the other room) that I am on the exercise bike...