Midnight Adventures

So, not last night, but the night before we had some interesting goings on around here. Ryker had gone down for a nap the afternoon prior and he would go to sleep. I went in there and scolded him and left. Meanwhile, Raelin was in her room resting (AKA playing quietly with toys) A while later I heard playing noises from Ryker's room so I went and barged in to scold him again and make him lie down. Unfortunately, he was asleep after all, right behind the door. So when I marched in, I whacked him with the door and woke him up. I felt SO bad! It was Raelin that was making all the noise! So I tried to help Ryker go back to sleep, but he wouldn't. So I told him that even though it was my fault he got woken up, he still needed to be on his best behavior or he was going to his room. He turns into a terror when he's tired, as I'm sure you all know by now. He wasn't on his best behavior for long and he ended up in his room by about 5:30, at which time he fell asleep. We didn't bother waking him up for dinner or anything and we just hoped he'd sleep through the night.

At about 4:30 in the morning he was up. And shortly after that, Raelin was up too! And dressed in her Snow White dress. I thought, "Oh, great. She is SO not a morning person. Getting ready for school is going to suck." We kept telling them to go to bed, but they wouldn't. Finally at about 5:30 I was able to drag myself out of bed because they were getting too loud. I went into Raelin's room and found her mattress halfway on the floor and halfway on the box springs (they like to do that to make a slide) and her headboard on top of that. I startd fussing at them about how they aren't supposed to do that and Raelin said, "We had to do it to catch the mousie. Do you want to see it?" I said, "No! I don't want to see your mousie; I want you to go to bed! It's the middle of the night!" Then it started to register what she'd said. I started looking at what they were playing with in Raelin's pony castle, hoping to see one of their stuffed mice. And there on the castle runway sat a real, live mouse!This is not THE mouse, just a generic mouse picture--I didn't think to get the camera at 5:30 in the morning.

I said, "WHERE DID YOU GET THAT!?" Raelin said, "Motors (the cat) brought it to me. It bit me but it didn't even hurt!" Oh, good, it bites. I told them to go wash their hands with soap and I took the mouse downstairs to throw it back outside. Ryker saw where I was headed and started to cry, "Don't throw our mousie outside! It will die!" Then I turned and saw Motors at the bookshelf downstairs with ANOTHER mouse cornered! How in the world did she sneak TWO mice into the house!? I looked to the back door and it was wide open! Brice had opened it before he came to bed, called the cat, and then started turning out lights. He came to bed having forgotten that he'd opened the door for the kitty, so she spent the night hunting and sharing her spoils with the kids. Oh, how sweet! NOT!

This is the perfect evil kitty picture for this post!

Catching up--a lot!

I haven't put anything new on here in a long time, so be prepared for lots of stories and lots of pictures!

Ummm... Where do I start? There's so much, I'm not sure if I can remember it all. Well, Alaina is just a joy to have around and she's just... well... she just fits. I don't know how else to describe it. Sometimes it's weird that I have three kids--it makes me feel old. But it feels good at the same time. Like our family was getting behind on its growth and now we're back to where we should be.

I hadn't realized just how yellow she was until she wasn't yellow anymore. I mean, I knew she was pretty yellow, but I didn't think any more so than the other kids had been. But wow! She sure was yellow! She didn't pass the bilirubin test at the hospital so they had us go for a check up on that two days later and she was okay. But she stayed yellow for a long time afterwards. Lots of people asked about her bilirubin. With Ryker, people just commented on how red he was. He was a little red monkey!

I am an evil and sinister parent and I love to collect pictures of my kids when they are upset. I just think sad faces are adorable! I told you I was sinister. But look at this face! How can you not love it...

She's only a few days old in these pictures and we were pretty amazed at how strong she was from the very beginning. She was by far the wiggliest kid I've had while she was in the womb and I guess all that working out paid off.

She's just so little! I love her littleness. It's my favorite!
I had thought (did I say this already in a previous post? I must be losing brain cells at an astonishing rate!) Alaina would be our last biological baby. We plan to adopt one or two down the road when Brice is into his career. But after having Alaina around and enjoying her so much, I just don't want her to be the last newborn in our home (our adopted kids will be toddlers when we get them, about 3 or 4 years old). So as much as I don't ever want to be pregnant again, I can't bear the thought of never having such a precious little baby of my own again. Alaina is the first of the three kids that I've really gotten to enjoy so completely. With the other kids, the adjustment period was hard (Ryker--two kids REALLY close in age, just moved to a new state, dirt poor, husband MIA because he was busy working himself to death to pay the bills) or overwhelming (Raelin) though not in a bad way, just in an "I can't fathom what this all means and all the implications of it" way. With our little Alaina, though, it has just been bliss. We're busy with school and I wish I had more time to spend with her, but I honestly coudn't care less about school right now (fortunately my classes are not too demanding and I can afford not to care too much). I just enjoy all the time I do get to spend holding her and loving her and try to hang on to her littleness as much as I can. She's already getting so much bigger than she was! :(
This was Alaina's first going to church outfit, compliments of my sister and her hubby. Isn't it cute!
Alaina's really not a fan of baths. Can you tell? Like I said, I collect sad-face pictures. But she does like showers. Until it's time to get out... She HATES to be cold. Girl after my own heart!


Brice's mom and sister came to visit at the beginning of February and the kids had a great time! They love to do projects with Mimi and they had a great time playing with their cousin, Jordan.
Raelin was putting stick pretzels in her mouth so that one end was on her tongue and the other on the roof of her mouth to see how wide she could open it.

We went to Jumpin Jacks to play one day and the kids and Brice had a great time running and climbing and jumping. For once, no one scolded Ryker for being loud and wild.
While Brice's mom and sister were here, we blessed Alaina (in the Mormon religion, babies are given a name and a blessing, typically by their fathers. A name by which they will be known and a blessing to help them on their road through life.) Brice gave her the blessing and it was beautiful! We had family and several friends in attendance and it was a special day for our girl.

My grandma also came out and was excited to get a four generation picture. She sure loves all her grandbabies! She flew out just for the weekend to be here for Alaina's blessing. It was so good to see her and visit with her.

My mom made this blessing dress for us when Raelin was a baby. Traditionally, you use the same white dress or suit (depending on gender) for all your babies, so we carried on the tradition. Pretty dress, huh.
The torture starts young. This one is known as smushy face or squishy face; I'd say this is more of a smushy face:

Aurora and Jordan (Brice's sister and her son)

We went for a walk and the kids found a little nerf gun and a few darts. So Brice started playing shoot 'em up games with the kids.
While awaiting her turn with the nerf gun, Raelin used a stick for her gun. She said to Brice, "Stick 'em up!" To which Brice responded:
And then Raelin shot him! Brice laughed and said, "Hey!! You're not supposed to shoot if I put my hands up!" So Raelin shot him some more.
And Ryker tried to shoot me, the one with the camera and the baby. But I still won! I'm amazingly agile for a postpartum mommy.
Jordan doesn't like to get dirty. Uncle Brice must have gotten him dirty. Uncle Brice LOVES dirt!

I almost got a great picture! Rats!

Uh oh! Brice's getting ganged up on!

The kids with their Mimi!

Hmm, not such a good idea, kids. But it makes for a good picture!


I told you Alaina was strong. I put her on this little mat with her chest and shoulders across the bolster thingy. A few minutes later she had kicked and wriggled herself over the top until she got high-centered.

And this, I think, is my favorite picture of the bunch. I love those bright eyes and little baby feet. Just relaxing in her big sister's lap!

Addendum

So...To add to the Saga of Ryker, I was sitting here at the computer (I do that WAY too much lately) and I looked over to see him with the lid off the Carmex jar and his tongue in the jar! "Gross!!!" I said. He replied, "Yummy!" Oh, he cracks me up!

To clarify, the shirt wiping thing does drive me nuts and the falling out of the chair thing I just don't understand and I was wondering if that was normal, but the rest of it from the last post I expect from a little boy and lots of it are some of the things I love about the kid! I think I sounded like I was complaining, but I didn't mean to complain. He's just a boy through and through and I love his guts (to which he always replies, "I love your butts!")!

Three-year-old Boys

So, does anyone else have a three-year-old son that for some reason can't manage to sit in a chair? Mine keeps falling out! I can't figure it out! I mean, really, how hard is it to SIT IN A CHAIR!? Is this some special skill that some people just never master? Or is there just something wrong with my son that makes him spontaneously fall off the chair and crash headlong onto the floor? And it's not like he falls and lands on his feet. Oh, no, he crashes and burns and ends up in a crumpled heap. It seriously happens every single day at least once. Sometimes he gets hurt; sometimes not. But every time I look at him and think, "What is WRONG with him?"

And do your three-year-olds run around your houses like chimpanzees? Or just mine? Do your three-year-olds do the pee-pee dance until you actually have to tell them to go to the bathroom? Do your three-year-olds turn everything they touch into a sword or a gun or some other kind of weapon? Does your three-year-old spill everything he touches? Does your three-year-old wipe EVERYTHING on his shirt? Oh, this drives me batty! No matter how many times I tell him not to or how many napkins are in front of him, he ALWAYS wipes his food-encrusted mouth and his snotty nose and his grimy hands on his shirt! Anyone else suffering from this syndrome?

But I'll bet your three-year-old has never said, "Mommy, I want to listen to Dr. Laura!"

Gotta love those three-year-olds...

Things I LOVE about this baby

Wait, first, I created a new blog to give updates on the diaper free thing so that those of you uninterested in reading about poop and pee habits of the baby will be spared. There's a link at the top of the blog list in the sidebar--Alaina's diaper free adventures

Okay, now things I love about this baby!

1. Cuddles!
2. Hiccup squeaks
3. Long flipper feet
4. Tiny hips
5. Swallowing squeaks when she nurses
6. How tiny she is
7. Soft baby skin
8. That she always wants to be held
9. Funny faces
10. Her name

Okay, just one more, I promise

Some of you know about the diaper-free concept we've been planning on trying. I think I'll start a new blog to post updates about this since not everyone wants to hear about baby bowel movements, but for this first one, I'll just give you the overview and the first update. The idea is that no animal poops or pees where it lives and humans are no different. Babies don't want to mess on themselves and they can actually hold it for a very short amount of time until provided with an appropriate place to go. They also give cues that they need to go just like they do to tell you that they are hungry, tired, need to be burped, want to be held, etc. We just don't tune into those cues and the baby is taught to ignore those signals and not to try to hold it, but to just go whenever and to go on themselves in their diaper. Then they get to be about 2 and we start to tell them that it's yucky and bad and their body has to relearn to pay attention to a sensation they've been taught to ignore. When I heard about this idea, the pieces of the puzzle just fit for me. I had always been bothered by the idea that there would be a shame component to potty training, or that kids needed to be "ready," whatever that means, or that they couldn't possibly use the potty until they were older than 2. I hated the power struggle that potty training brought with it and I abhor cleaning poop off the carpet and out of clothes. I would just get angry with the child and it would damage not only the potty training efforts, but the relationship. So I got Brice on board with this diaper-free thing and I hope it works! I figure you either invest the time now, with a docile infant or later with a willful toddler. I'd rather do it now.

How it works:
You watch for the baby's cues (what's one more cue when you are already tuned into learning so many others?) and try to make a "catch" if you can. But really the catch is secondary to just noticing cues. You also issue a cue when you notice them going, whether you catch it or not. That way you can get them to go before you get in the car or something like that. The idea is that, never having learned to ignore the signals, the baby is always aware of needing to go and will always go somewhere appropriate because going in a diaper has never been an "appropriate" spot. Why would it be? It makes no sense. By the time the baby is mobile, they will take themselves to their potty, and by the time they can get their pants up and down they will be going independently!

Our first try:
So since Alaina was born, I've been trying to just pay attention and see if I can notice any cues. I found that I almost always know when she has to poop. She didn't really pee much at all until yesterday, and the one time she did was when Brice was changing her diaper--ever wonder why boys always pee when their diaper comes off? This philosophy suggests that it's because they don't want to pee on themselves, not because of cold air or whatever other reasons are typically given. Anyway, last night I decided to really give it a try. I laid her down on some rubber sheets and prefold diapers and worked on homework while paying attention to her activity level. At one point I thought she might have to go, so I held her over a tupperware (don't worry; they're labeled and won't get mixed in with the regular ones!), but she cried and kicked so I put her back down. But she kept fussing so I went and picked her up and she had peed! I was right! I just didn't wait long enough. I changed her and put her back down, dry. A while later she started to get restless again so I held her over the tupperware and after about 30 seconds or so, she went! Our first catch! This might actually work! Wish us luck!

The name game

Alaina's name. We always get asked about our kids names and it's been no different with Alaina's. It's kind of fun to tell our kids' name stories, so here's Alaina's:

My brother Jesse moved back home in September from Hawaii, where he'd been living for the past couple of years. We were still stumped on a name for the baby, so I asked him to make me a list of Hawaiian names he liked. One of the names was Kalani and I kind of liked that, but it wasn't quite right. So I toyed with it until I had Kalaina and Brice and I both liked that name, but it sounded a little to hard with that K at the beginning for it to be perfect. Oh, I was also looking for a K name and I would pair it with a T middle name so that we could call her Katie for a nickname. Silly, I know, but that's what I wanted. Anyway, I dropped the K on Kalaina and had Alaina, which I liked also, but then I didn't have the Katie option. Until one day Ryker was playing and he started saying something about Katherine. I wasn't sure where he'd heard it or what he was referencing, but I liked it as a middle name to go with Alaina and it would give us the Katie option. Perfect! As soon as I said it out loud, I was pretty sure we had a winner. So I called Brice and asked him what he thought and he liked it too, so our baby had a name. We still considered Kalaina for a while but I only liked it some of the time. Incidentally, I had a friend growing up in Canoga Park named Alaina (that's probably where I got the spelling) that I got to know again when we both ended up at USU. She found me yet again online just a few days after we decided on the name! Coincidence?