Don't throw the baby out w/the bath water!

I can't put very much water in her bathtub right now because she has been flipping onto her belly and wanting to stay there and play. She likes to pick the washcloth up and suck on it. Ewww!

Here she is getting ready to "dive" in....











......in.......

















....success!

CORRECTION!!! Justin's b-day is 12/8 not 12/6.

Happy 5 month Birthday Ilwy and almost 2 years Jutin

Thats how Justin says his and her name. Actually, her 5 month mark was yesterday. Well, she is officially rolling all which ways now. I knew she was because she wouldn't be where I put her, but I hadn't seen her do more than a single roll. This past week has been full of back to fronts and front to backs and wiggles and squirming to get ahold of something she sees or just "taste" whatever is close. Neither of the boys were army crawlers, but I wonder if she will be. Her back end just wants to get up and go, but the front hasn't figured it out yet. During the last bath she had, she rolled onto her belly the entire time, each time taking in water through the mouth and nose. The boys both did that 1 time and never again after that. She must have a harder time learning some lessons.

Justin will be 2 on the 6th, and he is all boy. He always has bumps and bruises and scrapes and ouwies. He can count to 10, he is trying to learn colors (He seems to have "ilber" down really good. That would be because of the silver balls on the tree.). He is doing ok with shapes, altho octagon is his favorite to say. He sings along to a lot of the songs we sing regularly, and when Austin says prayer at breakfast and lunch, he chimes in. He seems to be interested in taking off his diaper to sit on the big potty, but not interested in making anything happen.

Confessions of a shopaholic

I need help. I mean REAL help. I need a 12 step program. I need to cancel my Sunday paper and throw away the grocery store ads before I even open them. It's just that when I see them in the ads "On Sale" and I happen to have coupons for them, I buy them. Lots of them. I mean, really, LOTS of them. It's the thrill of how cheap I can get them. We can't even eat anywhere close to what I buy. I don't even like most of them. But I buy them anyway. The ones I do like I REALLY like. And a couple I actually cook with. I will be giving LOTS away as gag Christmas gifts. It's a disease. It's a silly disease, but a disease none the less. I think it stems from us kids not having them around when we were growing up. Mom had them, but they were yucky ones. Yes, I am speaking of boxes of cereal. I bought 24 more tonight. I already had about that many, not including the additional 10 I had set aside for Christmas gifts.

Clarification....the golf ball was under my lower back but NOT in my pants. Thank you.

First laughs, Found fingers, Finally mobile?, Finally sentences, and a Golf ball

Lily began laughing out-loud , for the first time, a couple of weekends ago. Matt was making faces at her while she was lying on the bed. (I believe that is the same way Austin began laughing out loud.) This past Saturday night I caught her staring down her fingers, for the first time, as if they were little aliens. That always cracks me up. (Side bar: Austin said to me the other night, "Mommy, do you crack me up?") Anyway, Lily started rolling from her back to her right side yesterday. Still just 1 roll 1 time.....I thought.....until today when I laid her on the floor, head facing the kitchen, between the living room and the kitchen. (I have found that if I turn the hall light on she sorta hangs out there for a bit w/o fussing.) We sat down to eat dinner and I would glance over at her just to see what she was doing. (I can't talk to her too much or watch her too long if she is watching me because then she tends to start crying.) At one point when I looked at her, she was gone. Part way down the hall, head facing down the hall, on her belly. I have no idea how she did it. She was wriggling a lot. But while I watched her for several minutes, she didn't actually get anywhere. So, did she roll several times to get there? Did she wriggle around just enough to push herself there? Got me.

Justin has been talking in longer sentences for the past couple of weeks, and answering with the right words to certain situations. For instance, when I call his name now, instead of coming to me he answers back "What?" When I tell him to do something, or not to do something, he asks "Why?" And, 2 days ago I was pretty sure he was trying to tattle-tale on Austin, due to the words that I understood in his very long sentence "Austin.......Justin....." and the ever-popular tattle-tale pitch in his voice. That was confirmed when the very next day he came to me crying and very clearly said, "Austin pushed Justin down." Oh boy, here we go!

A few nights ago when I was in bed for the night, in between Lily and Justin, I was reading something. As I lay there for awhile, I was a little preoccupied with a slightly uncomfortable feeling in my lower back. I assumed it was just the tag and seam of my pants being in a jumbled mess. When I was certain the kids were asleep, I got up to do some work, as I often do. I reached back to fix my pants when what do you think I found? Yes, a golf ball. Thank you Justin.

From the freezer to freezing.

That's me with my head in the freezer, using my hair dryer to defrost our "frost free" freezer, sitting on a cooler full of frozen food, holding what soon became a sleeping baby. The picture says it all.











A very cool zoo pic from this past Monday, the warmest day of the week (the news said). I froze, and the ENTIRE rest of the week was nicer than Monday. Thank you God for a family day at the zoo .

Lily at 4 months

She weighed in at 14#9oz and she was 25" long. The Dr. took notice of her extremely sculpted abs as she watched her do stomach crunches during her check up (that's what she looks like she is doing as she raises her head up as far as she can while lying flat on her back).

Fall fun and a Lily update

Fall (summer?) fun today in the dry leaves. I wish I had planned to take pics. I could have coordinated outfits, weeded the mulch beds, repainted the house, and fixed the dent(s) in the van.

Ready......(I made 2 piles so they wouldn't be fighting over who messed up who's leaves).....












Set..........















Jump!!!! (Yoo hoo, Justin, you were suppose to jump!)















Close enough.















Austin had some really fun jump shots. Now, if we only had a better camera and picture taker.....
































































Awwwwww, my beautiful babies! Thank you God for these precious children!! 10/30/09











Lily stuff. Again, not sure how much of this will be repetitious, but here goes: During her 3rd month there have been quite a few developments. Most recently was yesterday when she began rolling from back to belly. Altho all the kids have done it a few times at less than 1 month old, under 2 months, and such, none of them will do it on the floor, only on our bed while trying to find me to nurse. So I don't count the early times. She is very close to laughing out loud when she is happy or excited. Right now she will do it with some prompting. I had to take her out of her bath sling and let her lay down in her bath tub because she has gotten to big. Now she flops around like a fish out of water, and I am usually soaked, and so is the floor. She is grabbing lots of things: my hair, anybody's fingers, clothes, reading material, and toys. She still licks everything. It cracks me up (unless it's something I didn't know she licked/soaked and I touched it unexpectedly....yuck!). She definitely knows when I am around and if I walk out of the room, she makes sure we ALL hear her protests. She has lots of new soft hair (it seems like a lot when she was down to almost nothing on top), and lots and lots of baby talking.


Lily w/Justin at 3.5 months old.













Lily w/Austin at 2.75 months old.










Lily looking a deer in headlights at 2.75 months old.










Lily asleep in front carrier at zoo at 2.5 months old. She was holding her head up pretty well, so I decided to put her facing out, which she prefers. It just looked funny when she fell asleep.












Our little Buckeye Lily at 2.5 months old.

BFF'S

Lydia at 7.5 months and Lily at 3.5 months at COSI.

"Girl, you have a boogie on your nose!"











"I'll take that binkie and raise you a dirty diaper!"

Just call me a copy cat.

Another guessing game, altho only half as many to choose from as my
BFF :)

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The things kids (and daddy's) say....

Recent quotes from Austin:
"She's holding my breath." He was letting me know that he was done holding Lily.

"In a couple of 'while's?" That's how he tends to quantify time right now.

"He broke my feelings." He told me as he was sobbing. I finally managed to figure out that Justin had hit him.

Austin sobbing and saying "My leg hurts." And I ask what happened and he said "Justin did it." And I asked him how Justin hurt him and he said "With his bones." Come to find out Justin jumped on Austin and Justin's elbow came into painful contact with Austin's chin bone.

Recent quotes from daddy:
Matt yelling at Austin because Austin has Justin pinned to the ground with his arms around Justin's neck, "Austin! I told you to NEVER put your arms around someone's neck! You always have to have an arm too." huh?

Matt yelling at Justin for punching Austin in the side of the head a couple of times, "Justin! No hitting!! You don't have any gloves on!" huh?

I am SOOOOOO behind!

I hope none of these are duplicates!

One of the boys (I believe Justin) w/his foot across Lily, sleeping, when she was only a couple of days old. I knew it was a sign of things to come!










Lily's first bath at 6 days old.








Aunt Therese bought this "My first 4th of July" onesie for Lily, and when she was 6 days old we got a 4th of July Ty Beenie baby at an event we attended....how appropriate!













Our family and Matt's sister Therese and her daughter Savannah went to the Ohio State Fair one night. This is just 1 picture of Austin & Savannah riding one of many rides that night. Matt went on several w/them. The kids had a BLAST!











The boys were pretending to be crocodiles. Grandma Paula says they aren't going to be very happy w/me when they see these pics in the years to come.













COSI
Justin is a structural engineer in the making! Look at that bridge!













OK, maybe not.











Justin was fascinated w/putting balls up in the air, and they stayed there. He played at that spot for a long time.













BFF'S FOREVER!!!!! It's Lydia on the left and Lily on the right, or is it the other way around? No matter, they each get called the others name often, even in their own homes!










Sadly, this was the first and last time the boys were in our little baby pool this year, in AUGUST!











This was just last weekend at a birthday pool party. The boys had a blast playing in this kids pool.











How cute! Not posed!!












Imagine seeing this guy in your backyard! In the city! Sadly, he couldn't fly away w/the squirrel, so after making sure it was good and dead, he left it under a pine tree and flew away.

Lily update

She will be 6 weeks old tomorrow. Wow how time flies! She is gaining weight with NO problem, as did her brothers (at 25 days old she weighed in at 10#15 oz.). her 1 month b-day she smiled at me while watching me and in reaction to me talking to her. The 4-5 week mark turned out to be pretty big: following you with her eyes, laying on her belly for 5 min. with her head up the whole time and no crying (neither of her brothers would go on their belly for this length of time let alone w/o crying), staying awake longer and just hanging out in her bouncy seat or swing WITHOUT crying, and lots of baby talking/cooing. I just LOVE those sounds! Especially with 2 talkative boys, I can appreciate the cooing even more. I will try to post some new pics soon. The biggest difference is she has less hair than when she was born. She is losing it from the front back, just like Justin did. Austin was the only one born w/more hair and didn't lose any of it except a small patch on one side. If she wasn't in girly clothes she would look more like her bothers. As far as the results from her follow-up PKU goes, in 1 hour I found out she has a small degree of Galactosimia (sp?) and would need further testing done by a geneticist, we would need tested by the geneticist, she might have to have my milk supplemented w/soy milk, she and us didn't need to be seen by a geneticist because her percentage was so low that she would lead a completely normal life w/her 1 recessive gene functioning at 75% and only Matt or I carried the recessive gene so we wouldn't ever have a child w/full Galactosimia....any questions? Whew! Thank you Lord that it turned out the way it did.

Kiddie updates

The boys at COSI with daddy recently (while mommy was at Children's with Lily.) .












Lily at 2 weeks old.











Lily is 3.5 weeks old. At 9 days old she weighed 9#4oz and at 18 days old she weighed 10#3oz. She needed to have blood drawn at Children's as a follow up to her PKU test. We STILL don't have those results! At 5 days old she was watching my face while I was talking to mom, and she got the biggest smile on her face. Then, 2 days later in church she did the same thing. At 2 weeks old she started hitting her toy giraffe rattle that hangs from her vibrating chair. And yesterday I caught hr staring down her fist. She was EXTREMELY fussy her 2nd and 3rd week so the midwives suggested I remove dairy from my diet. Ever since she has been much much calmer. Not fuss-free, but calmer. We don't have several times during the day where she has outbursts that last an hour plus, and at night we don't have 2-3 hours of crying. Hope its really the diary removal since I am dying for a glass of milk or a bowl of cereal. I tried the soy milk on my cereal.....that lasted 2-3 bowls.

Justin is doing better w/his new sister. He started asking to hold her about 1 week ago. He still has screaming fits when he can't nurse on demand, but the duration is getting shorter (I think). I think he is cutting his last 4 molars because he has been shoving all 4 fingers as far back into his mouth as he can and biting down. He is also biting furniture, toys, and occasionally his brother and daddy. He is talking a lot more and much better. Probably the cutest thing he does right now is stress his T's at the end of a word. Don't know why or where it came from, but its funny. A couple of weeks ago he got his first shots in his legs and he was pretty sore. He walked hunched over and wouldn't bend w/his knees to pick things up. Very sad to watch.

Austin has gown 4.5 inches in 1 year. Doesn't resemble a 3 year old in height. Watch him have a fit over something and he reminds you of a 1 year old! He seems very interested all of a sudden in learning school things: letters, numbers, counting, etc. He keeps asking me if he is going to go to school, and can I start teaching him now. I can only hope and pray that kind of enthusiasm lasts the next 15 years!

Cookies, Cousin's, and Grandpa

Grandma Sue and Austin making cookies......they were delicious!!!






















Cousin Sabrina (1 month old) came to visit her new cousin Lily. awwwwwww!















Grandpa Fritz holding Lily for the 1st time. Much earlier than normal for him. He prefers to wait until he can't break them.

Lily Renee' Bauer makes her debut!

Lily was born July 4th at 9am at home in water, just like her 2 brothers. They were both there and eager to play in the water and throw things in the water, as well as give mommy some encouraging hugs, kisses, and words of advice. Austin said to me several times, "Just breath mommy," and "Don't cry mommy, just pray to God." Lily was 7#14oz, 19.5" long, and I think she looks like Justin did when he was born.

More birth details: My contractions started at 3:30am and were 10 min. apart and 45 sec. long. After 1 hour, went out to the couch to continue watching time and length. I wasn't sure this was the real thing. After 2 hours of this, Matt came, got an update from me, and then asked if it was safe for him to go to the bathroom (you would have to know story of Justin's birth to appreciate that question.). I decided to call 1 of the midwives to see if she would be willing to come check me and give me her professional opinion. I didn't want to call everyone over if it wasn't the real thing and ruin anyone's 4th. After she got here at 6:30am and checked me, my contractions immediately started coming every 5 min. It was decided to call everyone else. Matt had already started filling up the tub w/water. By the time Lily arrived, the water had just gotten warm enough for her to be born into it. My water hadn't broken, so as I was pushing it felt like trying to birth a water balloon. Matt was able to help deliver her, which he hadn't been able to do with the other 2.

Altho water birth is far from pain free, I can't imagine it any other way.