Vital Stats - two months

Little Charlotte - still little, but gaining in percentile!

At the two-month check-up she was 10 lbs. 13 oz. (up from 6 lbs. 1 oz. at birth) and 22 1/4 inches long. She's now 50th percentile for height and weight. Her eyes are still blue and her little legs are starting to get a little fat on them! Her feet are still really tiny - her toes are like little corn nibblets. Her fingers are so long that when she tries to find her thumb and does actually get it in her mouth, she gags herself. It's pathetic.

Now to get this off my chest. What is up with the books saying that "sleeping through the night" is when the baby sleeps five hours in a row? Who has ever woken up feeling grrrrreat after a measly five hours? Heck, Charlotte was sleeping five hours at night at like, one week. So, now we're getting more like seven to eight hours straight, which I say is more like sleeping through the night; however, personally, I would prefer a solid twelve hours. :)

Things Charlotte has done in these two months:

• learned to hold up her own noggin, when she's not too tired
• started smiling, especially at her brothers and sister and perfect strangers. Not so much for Mom.
• began tracking objects with her eyes
• become enthralled with ceiling fans (who needs expensive baby gyms and other toys?)
• put herself to sleep (only after we put her in the "baby straightjacket")
• outgrown an outfit!
• had her first round of shots (she was not impressed)

I was thinking about our doctor visits and how, because our pediatrician only works part-time and books up quickly, there were six of us in the exam room at Charlotte's well-baby visit: the doctor, me, Charlotte, and her three siblings. I do not recommend this. Alas, it was unavoidable, though. Then, I got to thinking about upcoming doctor appointments:

• Mitchell's 2-year in October
• Charlotte's 4-month in November
• Jack's 7-year in December
• Charlotte's 6-month in January
• Holly Grace's 5-year in February
• Charlotte's 9-month in April.

Throw in a group visit for flu shots sometime this fall and a couple of sick visits and I should probably be awarded my own special parking space and entrance at the doctor's office. Sheesh. The flu shot visit is always the most fun, by the way. I've never been so embarrassed by my kids' behavior as I was last year. I'll keep you posted.

New photos and an account of Mitchell's "bean encounter" to come as time permits. It's hard when you have four kids and your husband is out of town. It took me 1 hour and 20 minutes to make my easy 5-minute meat-loaf today. It was a good thing I started to put it together at 3 p.m. We were actually able to eat it at 5:30! :)

How to Insure that Everyone Sleeps Late

So, we had a rather late evening (for us) yesterday. It was Labor Day and we spent the entire day at some friends' house. We took John's rapidly-becoming-famous ribs over for lunch. The plan was to eat and swim and hang out. But, after a double-digit number of days of triple-digit weather, thankfully, it rained. And rained. And rained some more. We could not have been more thankful. So we fed the kids (their two and our three) hot dogs (why waste fabulous ribs on kids who won't appreciate them?) and sent them upstairs to play. Our friends turned on the pool heater so that maybe the kids could swim. It wasn't a thunderstorm, just a slow, steady rain.

Well, we ended up all swimming. In the rain. And it was GREAT! We even brought little Charlotte out into the hot tub with us. We don't even have a swimsuit for her (do they even make them in 0-3 month size?) so she just chilled out in a swim diaper. She loved it, by the way. We didn't keep her in too long, though. It was pretty warm in the hot tub. After I got her dressed again, we put her in the infant carrier with a giant golf umbrella over her on the deck. She was perfectly content!

Anyway, we had dinner with our friends, too, then we let the kids stay up far, far too late while we visited downstairs. Mitchell, of course, was asleep in the pack-n-play, but the other kids were upstairs playing. We finally got them home and in bed about 10 p.m. Jack was upset with John because he didn't read to him (Oh, the horror, the abuse!).

So, here's how to make sure, in a house with four children, that everyone sleeps as late as humanly possible:

1. Wake up early (6 a.m.) and realize that the baby slept all night!

2. Feed the baby when she wakes up at 6:30.

3. Decide to go ahead and get the baby dressed; undress the baby before you've even finished snapping the outfit up because she just spit up all over it. Redress baby and lay her down by Daddy in the bed.

4. Check email and favorite blogs.

5. Intercept 4 year-old as she's coming down the stairs with her blanket, upset because she's left her favorite bracelet at friends' house last night. Remind her to use her "whisper voice" so she won't wake up the rest of the family. Lay down on the couch with her since it's only 7 a.m. and you know she's still tired.

6. Carefully remove your arm from under (miraculously) sleeping 4 year-old's head because 23 month-old is calling you from his crib. ("Mom-may! Mom-may!)

7. Enter 23 month-old's room and pull out all the tricks to try to keep him in his room so that he won't wake up the rest of the household. Ask the now-awake Daddy to bring yogurt into the 23 month-old's room to buy more time.

8. Send 23 month-old to the shower with Daddy to keep him out of the living room. Resort to covering his mouth with your hand when he screams a bloodcurdling scream because he doesn't want to put his diaper back on after the shower.

9. Realize that 4-year old is now awake, but 2 month-old is now asleep. Head to the kitchen to get breakfast and try to keep kids quiet so as not to wake 6 year-old and 2-month old.

10. Jump through hoops to keep kids quiet ("Do you want this? How about this? Oh, this Thomas the Tank Engine cup? Milk or water, your highness?")

11. Sneak upstairs to check on 6 year-old.

12. Realize that 6 year-old has been awake and playing K'Nex in his room for at least 1/2 hour.

13. Resolve to never keep kids up past bedtime again.

This is a great way to watch TV

Reminds me of that scene from Notting Hill.

The Third Child

I realized today that poor Mitchell is so neglected on the blog. It's basically because he naps three hours a day, he's not a new baby, and he's not starting anything new right now (in terms of school, activities, etc.). But, he is starting so many new things! Here, I gave him a spoon and container of yogurt just to see if he could feed it to himself without making a huge mess. And you know what? He's probably a more tidy eater than Jack and Holly Grace both!And if you're having trouble being a tidy eater with a spoon, you can always just drink your yogurt.

Guess what's growing in our backyard?

All that work that we put into our garden ... and this is what we find growing in the backyard (not in the garden!).

Yep, that's right! It's a teeny tiny watermelon! Last summer, when our house was still under construction, we brought a watermelon out one evening. We paid no attention to where the seeds landed. Well, a couple of weeks ago, a little plant appeared in the middle of the dirt that we like to call "the backyard". (We haven't laid sod yet because of the watering restrictions due to the drought.) I thought it looked suspiciously like some of the vines growing in our garden and left it there. Sure enough, baby watermelons have begun appearing! We wonder if they'll be worth eating! Any tips out there on growing watermelon?

Week of Firsts

We had a big week around our house last week. Jack had his first day of first grade. The workload is significantly greater this year than last. There was a lot of coloring (I didn't realize how much!) in kindergarten. Not so much in first grade! Which is nice, because Jack wasn't a huge fan of the coloring, anyway. Jack really likes his teacher and I think we're going to have a great year.

Holly Grace had her first dance class. It's a 45 minute combo class - tap, ballet and tumbling each for 15 minutes. There are six little girls (all 4-5 years old) in her class and they couldn't be cuter. Those tap shoes are the shiniest I've ever seen!

Charlotte learned to smile last week, although I couldn't have been lucky enough to capture it on film. She's not making a big habit of smiling yet, either, but we see one every now and then.

Big Promotion

Jack tested for and was promoted to Yellow Belt at TaeKwonDo last week. He is very proud of his accomplishment. This is him with his teacher after the awards ceremony.

New photos

I took some B&W photos of Charlotte today. Here are a few of my favorites.

Gaining

Charlotte was 8 lbs. 6 oz. at four weeks (up from 6 lb. 13 oz. at 2 weeks). And, her cord finally fell off at exactly one month old. I thought she was going to go to Kindergarten with that thing on her tummy. Ick.

Last night she slept from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m.! Grandma (from Kentucky) and Uncles James and Matthew are in town, though, so I didn't go right to bed at 10 after she ate. Rats. I missed out on seven straight hours of sleep.

Lots of Hot Air

So John is home on paternity leave (thank you, Capital One) and Jack and Holly Grace spent the better part of an hour trying to make a hot-air balloon out of K'Nex, a plastic bag from SuperTarget and a blow-dryer. John took pity on them and helped them make one that would be more inclined to fly out of a Chick-fil-A cup lid, fishing line, birthday candles and a produce bag. So we get set to light the candles ... Jack and I are holding the edges of the bag out and John is reaching under with the lighter. He lights all four of them, then a little four-year-old voice begins singing, "Happy birthday to you ... happy birthday to you ..." It was hilarious!

"But did it fly?" you ask. Well, not exactly. At first. But it did stand up straight as it filled with hot air.

Then John decided to ditch the lid and candles and just hold the lighters under the bag.

Oh, here it goes!


Ladies and Gentlemen, we have lift-off!

My children and I are so lucky to have this man in our lives.

Meatloaf Part II

Years ago, when I had just moved out on my own to a micro-house in Kress, Texas, I called my mom to get her recipe for meatloaf. The conversation went something like this:

Me: "I need your recipe for meatloaf"
Mom: "Okay, sure. Just mix your ground beef with an egg and some crackers in a bowl-"
Me: "Wait, how much ground beef? How many crackers?"
Mom: "As much as you have - probably about a pound. Crackers - I don't know - 20 or so? Not quite a whole row of saltines."
Me: "Okay, mix it how?"
Mom: "Just smush it up with your hands and shape it into a loaf"

and on and on this went. Till we got to the best part.

Me: "Okay how long do I bake it?"
Mom: "Well, gosh, Crissy. I don't know ... until it's done!"

So, here it is, the recipe as I've made it for over ten years now and as my mom has made it since my childhood. It's different in that the sauce is separate, not mixed in with the beef. It's easily doubled and I usually double it to feed our family. Also, if you double it, you obviously stand a much greater chance of having leftovers, and therefore, meatloaf sandwiches the next day.

Meatloaf
1 pound ground beef
20 saltine crackers (in a pinch you can use bread crumbs)
1 egg

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Crumble up the crackers and smush all three ingredients together in a bowl. This is a great job for your kids if you have the patience of a saint and don't mind them (and your countertops) getting a little messy. Add salt and pepper if you like. Form the mixture into the shape of a loaf. Place in a 9 x 13 pan and bake at 400 degrees until done. :) It usually takes about 30 minutes for a 1 lb. loaf; 45 minutes or longer for a 2 lb. loaf. I try to make the 2 lb. loaves thinner so they take less time. You will know it's done if it's not pink when you cut into the center. Unless you like your meatloaf rare. Then it's done when it IS pink in the center. But I don't know of anyone who likes their meatloaf rare.

While the meatloaf is cooking, make the sauce.

Sauce
1/3 med. size bell pepper
1/3 onion
1 small can of tomato sauce

Chop the bell pepper and onion into whatever size pieces you like. I generally chop them pretty large so that, on the off chance that one of the kids actually wants sauce (most of the time they don't), they can pick out the chunks. Saute the onion and pepper on medium heat in butter, margarine, vegetable oil, or olive oil in a small saucepan. If you have some fresh garlic, you can throw that in, too. When the onion and pepper are crisp-tender, add the tomato sauce and heat through.

I don't know why all three of my kids love meatloaf, but they do. The older ones don't care for the sauce, though - they like it dry. Good luck!

Why I Love Meatloaf

1. Six ingredients total - and I almost always have them on hand
2. My kids love it. I mean, [fighting for the last piece] love it
3. No crumbs, no mess, no spills. I don't have to sweep under the table when they're done eating.

Can this be normal? We're talking meatloaf here! Let me know if you want the recipe. Perhaps it can work miracles in your house, too.

24

Okay, are we the only people out there who haven't watched this show? John added it to our Netflix queue and we got the first four episodes about two weeks ago. We started watching it and became totally addicted! If you don't know what 24 is, it's a TV show that chronicles the events of one day in the life of Federal Agent Jack Bauer, starting at midnight and continuing for 24 episodes (one for each hour of the day) . So we finished all 24 episodes (it took us almost two weeks to watch them all, after the kids were in bed each night), and John said, "Do you think Season Two is out on DVD yet? Or was last year the first year of the show?" So those of you who watch 24 are laughing out loud right now. Yes, we realized that the first season of the show was actually in 2001 when we finally looked at the DVD case and saw when it was recorded. Okay, so we're losers. But now, the pressure! We have, like, 4 more years worth of 24s to watch! That's almost a hundred hours of television!

But here's the real kicker ... John is always annoyed with me when I don't want to "commit" to watching a movie, yet I have no problem sitting down and watching two episodes of my favorite TV shows that we have on TiVo. Still two hours, just not a movie. Why is this? Why can't I commit to watching a movie? We can't figure it out. But I don't have any problem at all committing to watching twenty-four hours of programming. Maybe because it's broken up into small one-hour episodes? It's crazy.

So, we won't spoil it for those of you who have not seen the first season of 24, but, my gosh, what a twist at the end!!! We are still reeling over it!

A New Woman

Wow, I feel like a new woman today. I fed Charlotte early (9:30 p.m.) last night and then we went to bed at 10:00! I woke up briefly at 11:00 because she was "gritching" around in the bassinet, but she went back to sleep, thankfully. I was just up once at 3 a.m. for a little bit to feed her, then she went right back to sleep. John and I were both up at 6 a.m. (it's trash day!) and I actually got a shower before I had to feed her! Mitchell and Jack slept in (till about 7:30) and Holly Grace actually woke up in a great mood.

We have an appointment with a pediatric dermatologist today for Mitchell and I will be braving a doctor visit with four kids by myself today. This should be interesting. I'm sure I'll be packing lots of snacks to keep little mouths busy.

Have I Ever Been This Busy?

A whole week has passed and I survived! We were home alone on Monday and Tuesday (the four kids and I), then John was home with us the rest of the week. Although having him home didn't really "count" because of his little surgery on Wednesday and subsequent recovery. Yes, folks, it's official. We are not going to have any more children. John sent an email to his classmates from the Air Force Academy that said, "Charlotte Ivey was born 2 weeks ago and is doing well. For those of you keeping score at home, that is Lodmell child #4. This will be the last edition of Lodmell children. The production line is being disassembled tomorrow. Wish me luck!"

I have to say I'm a little sad. I sure do love having a tiny baby. I love giving birth and being in the hospital and picking a name. I love the smell of a freshly bathed baby and I love baby noises. I love nursing a baby and rocking a baby and watching a sleeping baby. But one thing I do NOT love is being pregnant. I can't even count the number of times during this last pregnancy I said, "I am so done. I am NOT doing this again." So, four is a good number. This is a good place to stop ... our family is complete.

So, after telling, oh, about a hundred or more people who have asked, "Oh, she sleeps great - she only wakes up once during the night to nurse then she goes right back to sleep!" Charlotte made a liar out of me. Last night I was up from 2 a.m. to 5 a.m. Let's back up. I usually try to make her have some "awake" time in the evening. But yesterday we went to church and she just slept in the infant carrier from 4:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. Then I woke her up and fed her and she went right back to sleep until I woke her up and fed her again at 10 p.m. I should have known that I was in for a long night. Because when she woke up at 2 a.m., she thought it was time to be awake! If the lamp was on, it was all good, but as soon as I would turn the lamp off, she would get mad! She finally ended up falling asleep on my chest about 5 a.m. I think I feel a nap coming on this afternoon.

Tomorrow we have an appointment with a pediatric dermatologist for Mitchell. It's not a big deal, except for the fact that all four children will be going with me. This should be interesting.

Here's a new picture of Charlotte. It amazes me how much she has changed in just one week.

Home Alone

Today is our first day home alone (just the four kids and me). Grammy and PawPaw left yesterday and boy, are they missed! We're doing okay, though. We may even try to go somewhere (SuperTarget) to help the day pass a little more quickly.

Charlotte is actually starting to fit into some 0-3 mo. clothes. Thank goodness! I only had a couple of things that fit her, so we were doing a lot of baby laundry in Method detergent!

She's alert a lot more these days - just looking around with her big blue eyes. We are all enamored with her! Mitchell likes to surround her with toys when she is in a bouncy seat or in her car seat.

2-week visit

We went for Charlotte's two-week appointment today. She gained 13 ounces in 7 days - she's now up to 6 lbs. 13 oz. The doctor said that it's fine to let her sleep until she wakes up during the night since she's gaining weight so well ... which is good because that's what I've been letting her do! She generally eats at 10 p.m., 3:30 a.m., and then 7 a.m. I consider myself very lucky to only be getting up once at night.

We are using a Miracle Blanket with Charlotte and it's awesome. I've never been able to swaddle a baby this well. We highly recommend it, since it's like a little straight-jacket!

The Dairy

The other night I was nursing Charlotte and Holly Grace wanted to hold her. She said to me, "Can I hold baby Charlotte after she's done milking?" Moo.

Hospital pics

Charlotte and Mitchell. He calls her "My Baby" - never "Charlotte".

Holly Grace kissing Charlotte's tiny fingers

Jack and baby sister

First Doctor Visit

Charlotte was down to 5 pounds, 10 ounces when we left the hospital. Today she is up to 6 pounds even, just three days later! Hooray for our good little eater.