12 months

salsa, today is your 1st birthday!

we have had so much fun celebrating you today!  i will save the details (and oodles of pictures) of your party for another post because i want to talk about all the ways you have changed in the past month.  you have been so fun lately!  i really feel like you are understanding more and more and even communicating back to us a few things.

you love puppy dogs (and really all animals) and when we ask you, "did you hear the puppy dog?" you always look out the window in the direction of our neighbor's dog.  you also love looking at animal books and when we say "the cow says moo," you moo back.  it is so cute.  you still babble a bunch and you will try and imitate the sounds we make.

your favorite things right now are books, your farm, and balls.  you will pull a book off your shelf and fuss until we sit there and open it to read to you.  when you see us do this you get so excited and you love looking at the pictures and turning the pages.  you have been playing with your farm set a lot, feeding the horse apples and the cow hay.  you also love playing with balls.  you will bounce them on the floor and roll them to me.  you also love to walk around holding our hands and kick the ball across the room.  i am amazed that you have the coordination to do this already.

you are FINALLY sleeping better.  there are MAJOR hallelujahs going on in this house over this!  there have been a handful of days where you don't make a peep all night and then a few others where you wake up crying but eventually soothe yourself back to sleep.  and in just the past few days you've been taking longer naps.  like 1.5 hour naps.  i was worried something was wrong but your dad just reminded that THIS is normal...you finally sleeping.  i feel like a new woman, ha, ha!

you are eating a ton of food.  your appetite has really increased but your openness to trying new things has not.  you love to eat yogurt for breakfast and then will snack on a blueberry muffin or cheerios.  for lunch, you eat bananas mixed with some other secret food that you would not eat by itself (like a meat or green veggie) or sweet potatoes or avocados.  for dinner you still prefer a BIG bowl of oatmeal mixed with a fruit and usually some cheerios too.  you are still nursing 4 times a day and i am so proud that we have made it for a whole year!

our daily routine now that your brothers are back to school is something like this:  wake up and nurse, breakfast with the boys before they leave with dad in the morning, play time, go for a walk in the neighborhood, play time, naptime, wake up and nurse, run our errands, come back and eat lunch, go down for an afternoon nap, wake and nurse, go get the boys at school, playtime, dinner, bathtime, nurse and bedtime.

you love walking and have taken a few steps on your own on numerous occasions.  your first steps were on august 8.  you still love being outside and you like to walk in the grass and swing on our new swingset.  you have quickly figured out how to climb up our steps so we have to be very diligent in watching you because you are fast!  you still love taking baths, going to the waterpark and getting splashed.  you have no fear of the water!  you stick your feet up on the table and on the tray of your stroller every time without fail.  you do not like being in your carseat when your brothers are not in the backseat with you.  you will play peek a boo and lay down in the floor to pretend you are asleep.  you rub your eyes when i turn on your sound machine and you will snuggle up to me for one last hug before i put you in your crib.  you love to brush your teeth and you will sit still and let me brush. then you will take your turn and i eventually have to take the toothbrush away because you would never give it up.  your 6 little teeth are so cute. 

i'm not sure if i will continue documenting all your new accomplishments each month but i have surely enjoyed doing it for your first year.  you are such a gift to our family and we are so thankful for your life (and cute little smile!).

dear salsa...

dear salsa,

it is the eve of your first birthday and i wanted to write you a love letter.  it was this time at night one year ago that i first felt a tiny contraction and i knew you were on your way.  we were so eager to meet you, especially since you were well past due. 

salsa, you are my miracle baby.  let me tell you a secret.  i never thought i would have a third baby, so when i found out i was pregnant i was so happy despite the morning sickness.  then we received the phone call that took my breath away.  the ultrasound revealed something funny and we needed to see a special doctor.  i was so scared that the baby i had always dreamed of was going to be taken away.  but the Lord made you special and protected your life.

salsa, you have made so many of my dreams come true.  i dreamed of having a baby outside of the hospital with a midwife and despite your health complications, that dream came true. 

i dreamed of successfully breastfeeding a baby since this did not go so well with your brothers.  i knew from experience that you would be great regardless of our success, but we did it!  you are turning one and you have been exclusively breastfeeding since you were 4 months old.  you were taking a bottle of formula at night for the extra calories but then one day you decided you would not take a bottle anymore.  snuggling with you while you nurse is one of my favorite things ever.  my breastfeeding dream came true. 

i dreamed of having a baby naturally without the use of drugs and while this was not easy, your dad was a great support and we did it.  your birth was the most amazing experience of our lives.  you were born into the water and you were so calm.  we couldn't believe how content and alert you were.

i've learned so much having you as my third baby and as an older and hopefully wiser mom.  i've learned that there is no such thing as spoiling a baby.  it's okay (and good!) to carry you around in my boba baby carrier.  it has not made you a baby that never wants to be put down.  i am not your pacifier...i am your comforter, your nurturer, your safe and secure place.  and i love that.  even if it's not convenient.  i know how fleeting each stage is so with the Lord's help, i've looked at each stage with different eyes this time around, especially the hard stuff because i know from experience that it is only a season and will be gone in a flash.  i've learned it's okay to nurse in public and we have nursed just about everywhere.  and it's not weird or inappropriate. 

salsa, you remind me of the simple joys in life as you discover and marvel at new things.  you challenge me to evaluate and reevaluate my parenting.  your health reminds me to be thankful to God for all things.  salsa, i am so glad you have launched me onto this road of parenting a little one yet again.  you have completed our family, grown our faith and keep us on our toes. 

i love you.
mom

1st day of school 2014

here we come 5th and 3rd grades!

summer 2014 is over and we are on to another school year.  burrito is now in logic school and in a different building than noodle.  he is getting so grown up! ugh!  i love, love, love noodle's teacher and am so excited for his year in 3rd grade.  he is such a good student and a sweet spirit.  i'm thinking 5th grade will be a pivotal year for burrito.  school gets pretty serious so i'm expecting some growing pains and praying for grace.  walking them to school today reminded me of how grateful and thankful i am (or should be!) that they have this opportunity to attend a private, Christian and classical school where i really do feel i am able to partner with their teachers in the education of my boys.  it is a gift.

and just for fun and because i love being nostalgic, i thought i would include past pictures of the first days of school.

Pre-K

Kindergarten

1st and Pre-K

2nd and Kindergarten

3rd and 1st grades

4th and 2nd grades

5th and 3rd grades

11 months!

look close and you can see those little teeth up top poking in!

salsa you are 11 months today!  you are changing SO much that i feel like you are a new child each day!  lots of people are commenting on your hair as of late so i think you are finally getting enough now to notice.  you are my baldest baby of the three but you have beautiful blonde hair coming in nicely now.  you also have FOUR new teeth!  all four of your upper front teeth are poking in all at the same time which has made life a little more interesting lately.  you are constantly eating your hands, poor buddy.  you are going to look so big and so different once they are in all the way.

you are saying lots of sounds and you have found your screaming voice.  you scream when you're excited and you scream when you're mad.  i really should say screech because it is so loud and high pitched.  we all shrink in embarrassment when you choose to do this in a store.  i've never had a screamer before so this is new territory for me.  you say "uh", "da da" and "na na" a lot.  for awhile you would say "uh" for noodle and "na na" for burrito which was so funny to us.  you laugh a lot at all our silly antics.  when we ask you where the light is, you will look up at the light and when you crawl towards a "no no" you look back and grin to see what we are going to do.  you are such a stinker already!

you are exploring new foods but you definitely have likes and dislikes and there's not much in between.  you are now eating breads and muffins, you've tried bananas, avocados, cheese, and pasta but you are not a fan of those just yet.  i can hide just about anything in bananas and you will gobble it up.  you love eating puffs and cheerios.  we are still working on drinking out of a sippy cup.  you still nurse about four times a day and i am so thankful this has worked out for us.  you always pick up your food with your left hand so we are all wondering if you will be a leftie.

you are on the move!  you are pulling up on everything and cruising around your room with your little walker.  you love to hold our hands and walk all over the house.  you pull up and sit down and then hit repeat.  you like to pull all of the books off of your bookshelf.  your favorite toys are your car that you pretend to drive and your learning home.  you love the touch and feel books and will even try to eat the hair on the lion.  you love to knock over towers we build with blocks.  you also love your school bus and will crawl all over the house dragging it around with you.  you still choose to do the army crawl even though you know how to crawl the normal way now.  you sit up and lay down easily and it was a shock to see you standing up in your crib a few weeks ago for the first time.  you are all boy and love to rough house.  i will swing you around and pretend to "throw you in the floor" and you just grin and giggle.  you still love the water so bath time is always a hit and you have loved our trips to the water park.  we didn't know what to expect but we can go for about 4 hours and you love every second of it.

sleeping is still a challenge and we are still trying to figure out the best ways to help you.  you are now napping in your crib and have learned to soothe yourself to sleep after crying for just a bit.  your cry is so pathetic though it still breaks my heart.  i am so glad that you are napping better but now your sleep at night is not so great.  we've given you a little stuffed elephant to snuggle with that we've named "eggbert" in hopes that having a "lovey" will help you.

you are such a sweet addition to our family and it is fun to watch each member of our family care for you in their own way.  burrito is on high alert when you are pulling up on things because he does not want you to fall and get hurt.  noodle plays real sweetly with you and you love to stare at him while we are eating at the table.  daddy will lay on the ground and you will crawl all over him and you seem the most content to play on your own when he is sitting in your room.  i love our sweet nursing times and our walks through our new neighborhood.  it is so fun to me to watch you take in the world.  you are growing up my little man and i am so blessed to witness it!

10 months!

my little salsa baby you are growing up!  10 months! ahhh!

what a big month we have had!  we are in our new house!  i love to imagine what it will be like watching you grow up in this house.  you have loved exploring all the nooks and crannies in this place and because we now have stairs, we have been extra vigilant watching you scoot around until we install our baby gates.

you are still army crawling everywhere and getting faster at this.  you can go from sitting up to crawling with ease now and you are learning how to go from crawling to sitting up.  you ram your head and use it to force your body up.  it cracks us up!  your head size is in the 84th percentile and so we laugh that this is a good use of your huge head!  you want to pull up on us all the time but you haven't quite figured out how to do this and cruise on the furniture yet.  i am not worried and in no hurry for this, ha ha!

you have also figured out how to hold our hands and walk and you love to do this.  it is so funny to watch you go and sometimes you go so fast it is like you are running!  your brother burrito did not walk alone until 13 months but your brother noodle was walking at 10 months.  it is fun to wonder at what age you will figure this out.

you are talking a lot now and making new sounds and syllables everyday.  there's not a day that goes by that we don't laugh at something you say now.  and to think i was worried that you were such a quiet baby...boy has that changed!

you are still chowing down on food but you have your definite favorites and green vegetables are not one of them!  the big change this month is you have mastered eating the fruit puffs.  you can grab them and get them in your mouth and gum them to death.  and you love them!  we are thankful to have this little snack to keep you interested and happy while we are out running errands or trying to fix dinner.

sleep...oh the elusive sleep.  i will say that we have had a lot of change in our lives the past couple of months but one thing has not changed and that is you being a lousy sleeper.  that's right, i said it.  i miss sleep.  the pediatrician thinks it's normal though so i will keep trudging along but my gray hairs and bags beneath my eyes are growing and have your name written all over them!  i know that this is just a season (though too long of a season if you ask me!) and one day (maybe) i will look back and miss this (maybe).

your favorites still include bath time and we even had the opportunity to visit a water park this past week and you loved it!  we were there for 4 hours and you were happy as a peach.  you love splashing and moving in the water and we were all so thankful that you did so well.  your favorite toy is a drum set we got you because you love to beat on anything and everything!  you will scoot through the house with a drum stick in your hand banging on the floors, the walls and the doors.  you are sitting in your big high chair at the table and it is so sweet to eat at the table as a family of 5!  you still adore your big brothers and love to watch them be crazy.  you are all boy already and love to wrestle in the floor with dad.

salsa we are still so thankful for you great health even though God made you special with backwards organs.  it is so fun to watch you grow and learn!

summer fun

while we are crashing at my parents' house, we are also watching my 4 year old nephew, known here on the blog as porkchop.  it has been interesting to imagine what life would be like with 4 boys.  having one more kid really doesn't seem any different except for the noise level.  it seems like that goes up exponentially with each child added.  we've also enjoyed getting comments while out with four boys.  we've had more than one person tell us we need to try for a 5th to get a girl, ha, ha!  trust me, i would have another boy.  and we are not trying for a 4th or a 5th!

nonetheless, we have had fun running around with 4 boys and making the most of our time in limbo between houses.  we took the boys to the museum.  they had so much fun building and exploring and we even caught a little show at the planetarium.

this is a piece from tower 1 from the twin towers.  very sobering to see.

the next day we took a trip to a local park.  it was fun even for salsa because it was a handicapped accessible park and we rolled him around in the stroller everywhere.  he finally is okay with the swings and did that too.

then the next day we went to the zoo.  i LOVE the zoo.  this was salsa's first trip so that made me love it even more.  all 4 boys had a blast and it was such a good day.  the zoo has an exhibit right now with these giant robotic bugs so the boys had fun looking for all those.  we've discovered that salsa really loves animals and he grunts and talks to them and was so cute talking to all the animals at the zoo.

trying to fit in some summer fun before the next round of moving madness hits!

moving out day

last thursday was move out day for us and it was a little bittersweet.  and exhausting.  this was our happy picture taken at around 7:30am.  we fell into bed that night at 11:00, only for salsa to wake up at 11:30, 2:30 and 5:30.  um, he doesn't adjust well to change. 

we can't move into our new house for a couple of weeks so we packed up ALL our stuff and moved it to my parents' house about 40 minutes away.  they are saints to let us crash their house for 2 weeks with all of our stuff. and with 3 boys. and with a baby that doesn't sleep.

and the real sad part was we had to get up early and go back to our house to clean before handing over the keys to the new owner.  i had to take one last picture of the boys outside the front of our house.  burrito was 3 and noodle was 1 when we moved here and salsa will never remember this house.  sniff, sniff.

i thought this was a really funny picture of salsa in front of our huge uhaul.  i was convinced that after already having made several trips to my parents' house with stuff, that this truck would definitely hold the remainder of our things.  i was wrong!  john and my dad had to go back a second time that day to get the rest of our stuff while my mom and i set up camp and got the boys ready for bed.

it's been a little rough being in close quarters with all of our stuff packed up and a baby that doesn't sleep and now has a cold.  there were a few moments this past week where i found myself crying out to Jesus for help and wanting to run away, ha, ha, but the past few days have been better and we are only a week away from being in our new house.  this is the new rutherford casa!

we can't wait to have everyone over (just as long as you help us move a box!).