Bebe Shooz

I love it when my mom comes to visit. She gets me out of my usual routine and helps me get interested in the types of activities I used to do in my life before 6 kids.

While she was here a couple weeks ago, we went to Piper's Quilts in Sugarhouse. They have some awesome quilts and knitting projects. They also offer free knitting classes on Tuesday nights if you buy your supplies there. They had some absolutely darling wool felt baby booties that inspired us.

So we bought the pattern . . .

. . . gathered supplies, . . .

. . . and began creating.

They turned out beautiful, if I do say so myself.

And they were made to match 3 of her outfits perfectly

The only thing left to do on them is to cut the scalloped edge on the sole. The only place I can find scalloped fabric scissors is on Ebay, but so far, I haven't won an auction. Apparently, they're in high demand.

She'll just have to wear them as is until I can buy or borrow the scissors.

And how did I find the time for this project?

Because Leah is on the bottle and the other kids are thrilled to feed her, I have a little time for myself.

The fattening up process is going well. Leah has gained 2 pounds in the past 3 weeks and is back on the growth chart. YAY!

Some Recent Sam-isms

This boy, approaching 3, has decided to re-visit his terrible twos with a vengeance, and he's taking the whole family along for the ride. Our days are not complete without a knock-down, drag-out screamfest courtesy of Sam. I'm doing my best to focus on the things he does that make me laugh rather than the ones that make me want to rip out my hair. In that spirit, here are some recent Sam-isms.

As he's doing something he KNOWS he's not supposed to do, such as fitting his entire body into the highest shelf of the flimsy, rickety bookcase, "Mom, I in trouble? I in trouble, Mom?" Is this boy crying out for attention or what!?

Standing on the "stoodle" and sweeping everything in reach with the broom while singing, "IRON Man, Iron man, iron man . . . I the Iron Man Cleaner." Every mom should have one of those.

Again, standing on the kitchen "stoodle," (his favorite perch), as he turns in circles on it, "Mom, I be careful not to fall. If I fall, I be very very sad." You and me both, Sam.

"Mom, don't say go to bed. Say, 'Okay,' Mom." I think he's practicing self-fulfilling prophecy. Either that or hypnosis.

"Mom, can I have some cereal? Mom, say sure like this - 'SHOOOORR.' Kay, Mom?" He likes his cereal in a white bowl with a white spoon and white milk. Hmmmm.

Who needs toys? Sam takes the dustpan and walks slowly back and forth across the kitchen saying, "Beep, beep, beep, beep . . . I a loader." You name it (loader, backhoe, crane, forklift . . .); he can be ANY construction vehicle using various utensils from my kitchen as props.

"Dat one's my tow-truck-bwack-Mater. My Mater has a bwack hook."

He came to me with a hurt finger, and I told him that washing it would make it feel better (cold water, clean fingers, etc). He stood up at the sink washing his finger and repeating, "Washing it will make it feel better. Washing it will make it feel better . . . Actually, it doesn't feel better."

With a very pleased-with-himself smirk on his face and in his voice, "Mom, guess what my bum did?" Given that he's all boy, it took me a ridiculously long time to figure out what his bum had done. Any guesses?

"Dat's Weah an Me. She's so cute."

Penguin Avocado

"Happy are those who dream dreams and are ready to pay the price to make them come true."

My mom seems like a pretty normal person when you meet her, but she is a little bit of a freak. If you ever hear her say the words, "Listen to this dream I had . . . ," stick around. She has the weirdest dreams I have ever heard of, and she remembers them vividly and in detail. Of course, if you scare easily, you might want to run the other way.

My favorite: she had a gingerbread baby. Everything was great until she tried to give him a bath. Hahaha. It still makes me laugh.

My new favorite (Martha's exact words from an email): "So this is the latest. I was having a dinner party and needed to put the avocado on the salad.

I peeled the skin off of it and it was now a penguin avocado, but it was alive and cuddly. I took it to the table to slice it and had a nice sharp knife, but I couldn't do it. It was just too cute to cut up.

So I put a blanket on it like the kind Leah wears that zip up but don't have legs. I figured, why not, he just waddles back and forth anyway and the blanket will keep him warm since I guess I removed all the feathers when I peeled him.

Sure enough he just waddled away when I set him down. He waddled over to some kids who were sitting on the floor playing and I guess he tripped and I had zipped his flippers inside the blanket so he couldn't catch himself. So when he fell he squashed and I made him into guacamole [waste not, want not]."

I wonder what the price would be to make that one come true. Let's please not try it!

No Batteries Required

I was a little slow to replace the batteries
in Leah's vibrating seat.



Being the self-sufficient 6th child that she is, she figured out a work-around.

Nursing Update

A month ago, we found out that Leah's weight had fallen from the 25th to the 10th percentile. Since then, we've been trying to supplement her with a little formula, but she is a STUBBORN baby. She has absolutely refused the bottle. We tried different nipples, different formulas, different people trying to feed her, but she just screamed and screamed until, after about half an hour of trying, we gave up. I even tried dipping the bottle nipple into Karo syrup. That worked for about 5 seconds before we had to dip it again. By about the 5th time we dipped the bottle, she learned to stick her tongue out to get the syrup while refusing to open her mouth. She looks hilarous with her gums clamped furiously closed. So while the syrup trick didn't work, at least it entertained us.

After a couple weeks of this, I didn't push it so hard thinking that if she were hungry, she would eat, right? Wrong.

She had her 4 month checkup on Tuesday and has fallen completely off the growth chart. In the past month, she has only gained 3 ounces (about 1/8 of what she should have gained)! The doctor said she doesn't act overly hungry because she has gotten used to a small amount of food, and we need to get her used to eating more. Since she is so bottle resistant, I have to wean her completely (yes, I cried).

He gave me a couple suggestions for getting her to take a bottle. The hard one would have been for me to leave for a couple of days so she couldn't even hear my voice, and for Steve to tough it out until she got hungry enough to take the bottle from him.

Luckily, she is doing well with the easier solution. Doc suggested mixing her formula up with some apple juice to make it more sweet and tempting. Genius! Steve tried it first using a bottle that is supposed to be about as close to nursing as you can get. She fussed a little bit, but once she caught the flavor of the sweetened stuff, she did great. She'll even take the bottle from me. We're gradually decreasing the juice until she'll take the formula straight. I've got her down to about 1/4 juice, but she's still refusing the bottle when I try to give her straight formula. I'm nursing her, too, but as we feed her more and her stomach stretches, I can tell it's not going to last long - stupid thyroid.

She's skinny, but I don't think she's quite as bad as Sam was. I won't know for sure until I gain a more distant perspective a few months from now. We jerry-rigged our postage scale with a basket and weighed her on Friday. She gained 5 ounces in just 3 days (and that was in a dry diaper before she ate!)

Rock-A-Bye Baby

When I was pregnant with Sam, I asked Steve if he'd build me a cradle.

He said that if I gathered all the supplies, he'd build it. He thought that'd be the end of that. Oh ye of little faith . . .

Many frustrating months, a few tears and another baby later, the cradle is finally finished. And yay!! Leah still fits!

We figure she's so small that we can still get a good month or two of use out of it.

I love the little key that fits in the side to keep it from swinging. Let's keep our fingers crossed that Sam doesn't make off with it and banish it forever to the black hole of my house.

It took a lot more time than either of us anticipated, but Steve did a great job! Leah thinks so, too.

Battle of the Button Pushers

The Ocean Wonders Aquarium is my favorite baby toy. We lay Leah down in bed and turn it on. She immediately rolls over to see the soft, soothing lights and bubbles. And then she goes to SLEEP.

It also comes with a remote control button. It's a good idea to keep it in your nightstand drawer or another convenient-from-bed location. So if you're ever lying in bed, and the baby (who still sleeps in your room) rolls and kicks the button on the toy and turns on the soft, soothing music and lights, you can push your remote button without ever having to get out of bed. If she happens to do this ALL NIGHT LONG, you can continue to sleep with the remote in your hand playing Battle of the Button Pushers every few minutes ALL. NIGHT. LONG.

Also, when you drag your tired body out of bed in the morning, try to remember that there is an off switch on the back of the toy so that you can kick yourself . . .

. . . as you yawn ALL DAY LONG.

It's a good thing she's cute.

For my birthday, which is today, we were going to go see a movie tonight (a rare occurrence), but not after the night I just had. I'd never be able to stay awake.

Anna Is a Champ

Anna is my hero.

The other night, she was holding the baby when Leah started to vomit. I'm not talking about a little spit-up. I'm talking about what seemed like a gallon. It was probably only about half a bottle's worth, but when it's spewing out all over the place, it sure seems like a lot more.

Anna was an absolute champ. She didn't even flinch, just kept calmly holding the baby and soothing her while she puked over and over again all over Anna's entire front. She's 15 years old and handled it better than most adults would! Leah agrees; she layed her head back down without crying a bit and went right back to sleep as soon as the puking stopped.

Nursing and Hypothyroidism

I've always loved nursing my babies. It's free, it's easily portable, it doesn't require refrigeration, it forces you to sit down and rest a few times a day, it promotes excellent bonding time, it's something only I can do, etc. And the baby always looks so sweet and happy while she's nursing.

I never had any trouble nursing until Sam. He was doing fine, and then sometime between 2 and 4 months, he quit thriving. The poor little guy was a skeleton, but since all of my babies have been on the small side, and I was so used to the way he looked, I didn't realize how horribly skinny he was.

He was my 5th baby, and I'd never had any trouble nursing before. So even though he was a fussy, difficult baby who always wanted to nurse, it never occurred to me that he might not be getting enough to eat. My mom and Liz even teamed up and called together to stage a sort of intervention. They both told me over and over that he looked sickly, and it made me so mad. I insisted that he was just skinny like Anna was.

Poor Skinny Sam

When I took him to the doctor a week later for his 4 month checkup, I found out he only weighed 10 pounds and had fallen quite a ways below the growth chart. I started supplementing him, and he immediately turned into a completely different baby - happy and thriving. Apparently, when your thyroid is messed up, your body might not produce enough milk. Good to know! It broke my heart to realize that I'd been starving him. I felt terrible, especially when I looked back at pictures and could see how skinny he was.

Look at his ribs! How could I have possibly missed that?!

Needless to say, we've been watching Leah closely. She's just over 3 months old now. She's small, but all my kids have been, and she hasn't seemed overly hungry. I've been drinking plenty of water and taking breastfeeding supplements. So far, so good, right?

But for the past couple of days, she's been really fussy, so I took her to the doctor just to be sure. It turns out that she's starting to fall on the growth chart. For the past month, she's only been gaining about 1/4 pound per week (half what she should). I was hoping that by testing it every few weeks, we could keep my thyroid in check, and I could nurse my last baby for more than a few months. It makes me sad, but a happy healthy baby is much more important. We're going to nip this in the bud and see if we can catch her up to this chubbo. And I refuse to be sad about it! Sniff.

Leah's Blessing

We had an awesome day on Sunday. It was Leah's blessing day, and we were so happy to be able to bless her in California with most of our family there. She's the last grandbaby on Steve's side of the family and named for his mom, so it was especially nice that she could be there.

I love her beautiful dress.

I love that Steve sincerely enjoyed ironing her beautiful dress.

It warmed my heart to see him take pleasure in such a sweet and simple thing for his last daughter. With our oldest child already 15, we've learned to try to appreciate and savor the quick, tender moments. That's not always easy to do, especially at 3 a.m., but at least we try.

Steve gave her a very sweet blessing that I had to concentrate hard to hear because Leah cried the whole time. Nana (Martha) took the blessing down in shorthand that she learned way back in the olden days. In the circle were Daddy Steve, Grandpa Steve, Uncle Steve, Dave, Brad, Scott, Chris, and Erin Butler. Later, Steve (Daddy Steve) and Brad were laughing about how high they were bouncing her to try and soothe her. They had her lifted up to almost head level, 5-6 feet above the floor, and her feet were higher than her head. Of course, no one else could see that because she was inside the circle they made around her. Steve wanted to pause in the blessing to direct them to bring her down a little, especially the feet end. That must have been a powerful distraction for him, but he soldiered through without a hitch.

We had all the family over to my mom's house afterwards for dinner and were able to get some beautiful pictures of Leah with her cousin, Will, in their blessing outfits.

Sam calls them Weah and Weahll.

The best part is that the whole family from both sides was in the same place at the same time, so we didn't have to run ourselves ragged trying to see everyone. It was my favorite day of this whole Christmas season!