All About the 5 Year Old Dallin

 Dallin likes to say that now that he is five he can...  Well he can do a lot of things.  He recently learned how to read, is a green belt in TawKwonDo, is a fantastic eater, is an encyclopedia of knowledge about alligators and snakes (really any dangerous animal), is a great bike rider, and a great climber.

He will probably make a great stunt man one day or a clown.  He loves to make people laugh and uses his tricks (rolling on the ground, pretending to fall down etc) to make his audience (i.e. Gavin) laugh. Dallin does get into a lot of mischief and a lot of time it is because he is seeking attention. For example, while having a talk with him about an incident, I let him know no one was laughing at his behavior.  He then asked, "Did you almost laugh?" 

"No" 

"Did Daddy almost laugh?" 

"No." 

"Did Grandma and Grandpa almost laugh?" 

"No."

So apparently no matter what I say, the behavior would have been fine if we had almost laughed.

Dallin has the most caring heart.  If someone in preschool is sad or left out, he will be the first to befriend them.  Dallin was meant to be the oldest child.  He is full of unconditional love and doesn't pay attention to differences.  He is a great brother to Gavin and Lili. When we told him Lili was coming to our family, he asked if she was going to be peach like him or brown like Gavin.  This is the only time he has asked about skin color.  It just doesn't matter to him.  Gavin and Lili are his siblings, end of story.  

The other reason he was meant to come to our family first is because he can be a very difficult child to parent. Between his high energy, struggles with focusing, and his impulsive behavior, we are talking about consequences (both good and bad) a lot.  He is the gift though that came after all the heartache and pleading to God for just one child.  I became a mom with him and the hole in my heart started mending.  On those hard days, I am reminded the privilege and honor it was given to me to be his mom.  I hope I can live up to that honor.

Climbing on playground equipment isn't good enough for Dallin any more.  He is finding new challenges all the time like climbing the front of the fridge

or the roof.  We have water totes on the side of the house and he figured out how to climb it.  Zane and I really need to think, "What will Dallin do with this" before we set anything up.  I firmly believe that the only reason Dallin hasn't broken any bones is because his birth mom (who passed away a few years ago) is watching over him.  She has her work cut out for her.

Dallin is a very healthy eater (he likes his candy too of course) but he loves green smoothies (usually asking for seconds) and will eat salads.

Since Lili joined our family, Dallin has become more responsible and his sister sure brings out his super sweet side.

When Dallin was born, our lives changed dramatically.  These have been the best five years.

Silly Boys Who Love Their Sister

 Dallin and Gavin are silly.  Dallin's goal in life is to make everyone laugh.  Gavin finds Dallin the funniest person in the world and likes to copy everything he does.  The combination makes for two very silly boys.  These silly boys love their sister.

Playing Pat-A-Cake

 Dallin is more than happy to take a turn at feeding.

Gavin asks every night if Lili can sleep with him. 

Dallin snuck in too

 Both boys have no sense of personal space.

Lili is so patient with them!

Dentist Visit

This is not a brilliant blog post.  I just happened to think Gavin was so cute at the dentist office that I had to record it for posterity sake.  He has always been so scared and really only went to the dentist in the past to observe and get comfortable.  Maybe it is having a new baby in the home, but all of sudden Gavin seems like such a big boy!

He handled the x-rays,

loved the sunglasses,

and did a great job during the cleaning.

Dallin's a pro and a great example to Gavin.

 

Teeth are kind of a big deal to me.  I have only had one cavity (and I'm still not happy with that dentist) so I'm glad my boys are fine at the dentist.  They even let me floss their teeth!

Showering Lili (and me) With Love

 My sister Haley and lots of friends threw a baby shower so that everyone could meet Lili.

There was lots of pink

 Lots of food

Lots of frills

And lots of fun accessories (very different from a boy shower)

Lili enjoyed being held by all my friends and I enjoyed visiting, eating, and showing off my sweet little girl.

Thank you to all my friends and family for making us feel special!

Family of Five- The Real Story

 Zane and I are enjoying our sweet Lili, but lets face it, adding another child in our family makes things busy and crazy.  In hind sight, I'm glad we were in Utah as long as we were because it made Lili's first month with us easier.  If we had been home, Zane would have been in the office working instead of working from home and I would have felt pressure to try to keep our lives as normal as possible in the Christmas season doing all our traditions and most likely wearing myself out.  Instead, being in Utah gave us a break and time to enjoy our little girl.

January was a whole different story though.  Zane went back to work and of course busy season started.  This meant I did dinner and bedtime by myself and tried to support a husband who was very stressed out.  I think I may have been more supportive in years past.  Thank goodness Zane is so patient with me.  Poor guy would come home from his 12-14 hour day exhausted and then run around the house trying to figure out how to best help me (I just can't seem to stay on top of washing bottles and laundry!)

 I decided to start my preschool up again for two reasons.  Lili was doing great and slept a lot and the boys were bored and driving me bonkers since the weather/Lili kept us in doors.  Lili has been an angel all through preschool and between my helper (I pay a home school girl to help me teach) and myself, we are able to keep Lili away from the kids and potential illnesses.  The problem with preschool is it makes me busy.  At night when I finally get the kids to bed and am ready to crash, I have to clean the house instead to get ready for the next day.

Overall, Lili is a great baby, but she doesn't like the car seat, swing, or bouncer.  She sleeps a lot, but when she is awake, she can't be put down.  (She also can't be put down because her brothers will be all over her.)  Thank goodness for my Moby wrap.  It keeps Lili up right and from spitting up and protects her from her brothers who want to hug her, touch her, hold her, carry her....

 One thing I have learned is to involve the boys in taking care of Lili.  They also wanted wraps!

I attempted one outing with all three kids in January.  Dallin started TaeKwonDo again.  Our first class ended like this: Lili screaming in the carseat while spitting up, I'm trying to comfort her and get her comfortable so we can leave, Dallin running around crazy, and Gavin sneaking out and running around in the parking lot (luckily it was empty.)  I got plenty of stares that day.  Feeling like a failure, I decided to take the kids for a walk.  I felt like I could be successful in this endeavor.  The weather had finally turned beautiful (this is why we live where we live...for the beautiful winters).  Our walk to the park was successful besides the fact that the boys kept wondering why all the other moms brought lunches and snacks for their kids.  Lets face it, if I stopped to pack lunches, it would have taken me an hour and we would have never left the house.  (That is something else about having a third.  I'm late to everything!)  So besides the no lunches thing, taking walks is something I can do.

 

 With Lili coming, Dallin has actually matured in lots of ways.  He is a great helper and very in tune with Lili.  He will be the first to run into her room to put paci in when she is crying.  I use to fight Dallin with doing simple things by himself (getting dressed etc) because he liked the attention of pretending he couldn't do things and having me help him.  He keeps surprising me by being more independent.  He is still wild and full of energy so again thank goodness for the nice weather so he can ride his bike.  After asking me to do something for him and my reply of not right now because Lili is crying, he said, "Mom, babies are hard huh."  I just hope he remembers that until he is married!

While I was trying to hurry and fix lunch so that the boys were occupied while I fed Lili, Dallin decided he didn't want to hear Lili cry anymore and took matters in his own hands.  He didn't want to sit and hold the bottle, so he got creative.

Gavin loves, loves Luli.  He talks about her constantly and wants to be where ever she is.  He also is full swing in his terrible twos.  He loves to yell "no" all the time and throw some great temper tantrums.  Gavin thinks he is the Hulk and likes to tackle anyone.  He also decided that he no longer will be the little kid that gets picked on and is fighting back (this is a great thing but a surprise to Dallin and his cousin Carter).  While in Utah, Gavin started having poopy diapers.  After not having to change his poopy diapers for six months, I didn't want to start so we attempted potty training again in January.  Having a new baby and potty training probably wasn't the easiest thing, but this time around Gavin was ready and he is now potty trained! 

Tummy Time is a favorite for the boys.  Gavin carries around the blanket announcing it is tummy time multiple times a day.

Gavin trying to hold Lili's hand and laying on her while she is eating.  I'm sure she is constantly thinking, "Leave me in peace!"

Looking back over January, I realized I was pretty cranky.  I would wake up exhausted every morning to two boys with 12 hours of sleep jumping all over me.  It really bothered me that I couldn't stay on top of the laundry (Lili's laundry is crazy because she spits up so much), cleaning, and the dishes.  There was a constant battle of Lili's asleep so I could pick up the house or take the boys outside.  It should be an easy decision but dinner has to be made, clothes washed, and bottles cleaned.  Then there is the guilt of not spending enough time with the boys and not spending enough time holding Lili.

To sum up January, having three kids is hard.

February though is quite different.  First I decided to work really hard to not be cranky.  I realized that Zane never worked a Saturday throughout January which is a first in 8 years.  I should have been really grateful for that.  This goal is going well since Zane is also not working nearly as much right now for a busy season (another first in eight years) and is home in time to help put the kids to bed.  Lili doesn't seem to be in as much pain when she eats and spits up and actually liked her swing the other day.  I'm also getting a little more sleep at night and trying to exercise a couple of times a week (I stopped all exercise back in November when we found out about Lili and life got crazy.  Exercise makes me feel good so I really shouldn't drop it.) 

I think I will survive having three kids.

The boys behaved for this picture.  Normally when I'm feeding, one kid is trying to climb my back and another is trying to feed Lili/ hold her hand/bug her in some way.

Liliane at Two Months

 Lili at two months is a sweet, calm baby who has everyone wrapped around her fingers.  If she is crying, there is a race to her room to see who can put paci in her mouth.  Gavin uses Lili (or Luli as he calls her) as his excuse every night why he can't go to bed.  She must need at least one more kiss from him.  If I'm feeding Lili on my rocking chair, then I will have three children squished on me.  Everyone wants to be involved (I need to get a picture of this but of course it happens when we are alone).  Tummy time is also a group effort and I'm sure Lili is thinking, "Just give me some space!" or maybe she likes all the attention.  Either way, she is thriving.  Lili struggled with acid reflux, lots of spit up, and digestion problems which all affected her sleeping since birth.  The last few weeks we have seen some great improvements.  She no longer screams when she spits up and we were finally able to drop one feed at night! Lili is a great sleeper and only has a fussy time between 9 and midnight (sometimes longer).  We wish we could get her to bed a little earlier for our sakes, but she is such a good baby, I  won't complain.  Lili is now on regular formula.

2 Month Stats (still not on the charts, but close!):
Height- 19 1/2 inches (she was 15 inches at birth) 
Weight- 8 pounds 4 ounces (4 lbs, 3 oz at birth)
Head- on the chart at 10%

I have been told I need more pictures of Lili, so here they are!

Lili at 2 months

 Compared to Lili as a newborn (4 lbs).

 

1 Month (almost 6 pounds)

Dressed for church- doesn't she look stunning in white!

 Lili can actually roll over from her front to back (protege?).  Here the boys are trying to encourage her to do it.  

Taking walks- Thank goodness the weather is so wonderful right now so that we can get out of the house!

Lili's curly hair- Since birth her hair always turned curly when wet, but now it is staying curly all the time.  Everyone always asks if Lili's hair will look like Gavin's.  Gavin had straight hair until he was 4-5 months old.  His hair fell out and came in curly.

 Dressed for church (post babyshower)- notice the cute accessories!  This is a 3 month dress so it makes Lili look bigger than she is (in a good way:) I keep saying she is chunky but really it is just her cheeks.  Her body still doesn't fill out newborn sleep and plays.

Caught mid yawn

 Our cute Luli (Gavin's favorite phrase.  If you tell Gavin he is cute, he will tell you no, Luli cute.)