Doctor Visit

Today was Mango's 2 month doctor appointment, the one with all the shots :( When they weighed her, I was actually surprised because I thought she was such a big baby, but she's 60th percentile for height and only 30th percentile for weight. So she's actually a skinny little thing. Wouldn't know it to look at her though. She is chubbers! It's funny because Strawberry was 50th percentile for both height and weight, but wore 0-3 month clothes until she was at least 4 months, but Mango is already wearing 3-6 month clothes. Weird. Maybe they shrunk the baby clothes. I really thought she was going to be over the 75th percentile for both height and weight. Her head was about 25th percentile. Anyway, this is all stuff only a mom cares about, hey?

She did pretty well with the shots. She cried for about 5 minutes and then went to sleep. Strawberry cried for the rest of the day with her 2 month shots and Apple cried for 1 minute then was fine for the rest of the day. It's really fascinating to compare how all my kids are different. Mango has definitely been the fussiest. She doesn't cry uncontrollably, but she knows what she wants and isn't very patient. She's pretty loud. A lot of times, she sort of sounds like a little bird. She's got a really cute cry. At least it isn't annoying. :) And she doesn't like being put down. She does, however, sleep at night very well and stays asleep in her crib. She is also the only one to absolutely reject bottles and pacifiers, which is probably why she is the fussiest because we can't just stick the plug in. Anyway, she's a great baby and we love her like crazy.

Luke left for Japan this morning and will be gone until Thursday night. Strawberry was very upset. We keep forgetting to tell her about this stuff until the last minute. She has not been doing well with his absences so far. She really is a daddy's girl and it is tough for her to be without him. I remember the first time he left, in 2003 when she was just a year old. She was devastated about it even then. Every time someone came to the front door, she would run to it and call his name, but it was never him and she would come to me and cry. It's a little bit frustrating for me though because I miss him too, but I don't get to wander around sobbing about it because I've got three little girls to take care of and it just isn't fair that they get to mope and I don't. This deployment is going to be especially hard because I'm doing it on my own this time. Before, I was living with Mom and Dad and so there was an extra set of back-up parents so I actually could mope and be depressed and my little ones wouldn't be neglected. Plus, I had a job to distract me from how sad I was. Oh well. I guess it's time for me to toughen up anyway. :)

On a happy note, we split the girls up into their own rooms this past week. They were driving each other and us crazy sharing a room and since we have a whopping 4 bedrooms now, we decided that they could have their own rooms. We moved the computer and bookshelves into Mango's room and the treadmill into the garage. We let the girls decorate their walls with vinyl stickers and it turned out really cute. They have these adorable night lights at IKEA that are ladybugs and flowers. It's going well so far except we're getting, "This is my room. GET OUT!" a little too often. I just can't wait until Mango is old enough to fight too. :p

Blessing Day

Mango was blessed this past Sunday by her daddy. It was a beautiful blessing and there was a wonderful spirit there. She did, of course, cry through most of it, but Luke did a great job of ignoring her. He said she probably wouldn't have cried if he could have just held her the way he normally does, but the other guys started bouncing her and it was startling her. Oh well. :) Grandma and Grandpa Cowley were able to come down to meet our little princess and to play with our other princesses. It was a really fun weekend.

For Mike

The girls all wanted to be fairies this year which turned out crazy cute. Strawberry was Silvermist, Mango was Tinkerbell, and Apple was a purple fairy because purple is her favorite color. They had more fun getting dressed up than actually trick-or-treating, I think. The base had this Haunted Swamp thing we went to the day before which had a "scaredy-cat hour" for little kids. It was still terrifying and had freaked out Apple pretty badly, so I was a little nervous that running around in the dark with people in costumes would make her nervous, but she had a blast. We actually didn't get that much candy because we started late and you could only trick-or-treat on the base until 7:00. But even with the little candy she had, Strawberry was still willing to share. After 7:00, we had left the candy bowl outside just in case there were any stragglers and after the bowl was emptied, Strawberry took about 10 pieces of candy out of her own bag and put it in the bowl for others. Isn't that sweet? We had her take it back though. We are going to have to take pictures of Mango in a few more months when the costume actually fits her. :)

Two months old

Today is Mango's 2 month birthday, and what better way to celebrate than getting pictures in her birthday suit? She loves her birthday suit. :) Now that she's two she can stay awake for longer than half an hour at a time, hold her head up better, wiggle all over the place, smile enormously, drink fast, and spin circles in her crib. Not a shabby list, hey?

Want to See Something Cute?

Baby sneezes are one of my favorite things in the world. I'm way happy I caught this one.

Finally Caught One

I've been trying to catch a smile from Mango for a while now and had been unsuccessful. It was driving me crazy. It seems like it was always nighttime that she was grinning and the lights the camera flashed to focus before the picture would always startle her and wipe the smile right off her face. The other night was the same and I was really frustrated that I wasn't getting these pretty smiles. Luke laid down and put Mango up on his knees. I told him that she was too little and she would hate it and would end up throwing up on him, but as if just to prove me wrong, she started beaming at him and I ended up with this adorable picture. Yay! The other pictures were cute too though, hey? So worth the frustration.

Just FYI, we are going to bless Autumn the first Sunday in November (the 1st) so anyone who wants to come is invited, just let me know. But we'll be seeing many of you soon anyway, so absolutely no big deal. There will be plenty of opportunities to kiss these chubby cheeks. Of course, with flu season going, I may not let anyone near my little punkin. :)

Our First Hike

We went for our first hike with Mango on Columbus day. It was soooo nice to get out. I mean, I walk Strawberry to school every day which is a half mile away, but we walk along a busy road dodging doggie poo so it isn't exactly communing with nature. There is a state park about 20 minutes from here right along the coast. Right now everything is brown and dry, but I bet in the springtime it will be gorgeous. But holy $8 for parking for a 2 hour hike. We need to get a season pass. It was the perfect day for it and we all had lots of fun. Mango thought the wind was pretty cool, but she slept most of the time.

Strawberry Cut Off Her Hair and Other Occurrences

Strawberry has been begging me forever to let her cut off all her hair. I resisted because I loved her long hair, but she was very determined. So last weekend she and I went for a girls day and left Luke home with the babies. Although I was sad to see her hair go, the new do is definitely cute on her. It made her look taller and skinnier and older, but I don't know if that's because of the haircut or if one change made me notice more changes. I got my usual "new mom" haircut (chop about 6 inches) and went a little darker. Goodbye grays! It was funny because I felt totally guilty about leaving Luke home with Mango and Strawberry for 3 whole hours until I realized--he's the dad and he is perfectly capable. It's his job for goodness sake and he leaves me home with them 5 days a week. So why on earth would I feel guilty. I guess it was just separation anxiety. Usually Mango and I are stuck like glue. As my mom said, "She's a high-maintenance baby." :) She loves it when Luke holds her like this. Can you believe how chubbo those cheeks are?

We finally made it back to church this last Sunday as well. I don't know why I took pictures after she was buckled because you can't see her beautiful little dress. The carseat is definitely not her favorite place to be.

And since we can't leave out Apple, here she is after dressing herself for a hike. Love it. :)

Strawberry Turns 7

It was so not a year ago that I was writing about Strawberry turning six, was it? We need to have a nice boring year that goes by slowly. Since Luke missed her birthday (again-he's missed 3 so far), she got to have a spread-out celebration. We had a party on her actual birthday with Grandma where she had a devil's food cake and a few presents. She said that the best present she got was her new little sister. Awww. She's actually very good with Autumn and can calm her down when she's a little fussy. It's sweet.

On Saturday, we had her birthday party at the park with her friends. She had asked for a ladybug cake which I thought I would never be able to find, but it turned out Vons had a ladybug/butterfly cake which was perfect. The party turned out to be a Star Wars/Hello Kitty party because she invited boys and girls and those are her two favorite things. It was fun. They mostly played by themselves until there was a little too much drama and I had to step in and make them play animal charades. Sparks definitely fly when you get 4 very determined little girls together who all want to be in charge. Apple stuck with the boys who just dug in the sandbox.

Finally, Luke's present to Strawberry was to take her to the movies to see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. She's been dying to see it because meatballs are her very favorite food. She said it was amazing. Anyway, she had a fun birthday week and is excited to be getting bigger. Especially since she gets a raise in her allowance. :)

We're a Family Again

Luke made it home on Tuesday. He was in the first group to come home which was very nice. He'd been gone long enough. It felt like he had been gone for months because he had been home for such a short time and it was such a blur of new baby and hospital and getting ready to leave again. He was so dirty. It was caked into his hair and eyebrows and pores. He'd been washing up with baby wipes for 2 1/2 weeks and they just don't cut it. He actually wasn't that stinky until he took off his boots and then I had to leave the room because the fumes were too much. :) He said that his battalion had rocked the training and should have been able to come home a lot sooner, but the guys in charge kept torturing them anyway. It was extremely hot, up over 110 on some days and sleep was hard to come by. It was a really good opportunity to get to know the people he will be working with who seem like good guys. He was actually working with a guy named Lieutenant Cali which made things confusing sometimes. Anyway, we're glad he's home. Our house had been too girly and we needed some maleness around. The cars need fixing and the backyard needs grooming and diapers need changing. He said that Mango has definitely grown and isn't a newborn anymore and even Apple changed over the time he was gone. Apple and Strawberry enjoyed playing with the "toys" he brought home. :) We are very happy he's home with us.