Let me apologize…

I am so sorry that I have neglected you, oh blog of mine.

So much has happened and so much time

Has passed without me giving you any news

Of what is going on with my little brood.

So please forgive me in this new year

And accept my promise that I will to you be dear

In two thousand ten, I’ll try once a week,

I will write to you and those who come to seek.

So this is going to be a lot of catching up. I’ve been taking pictures, just haven’t found the time to save them on one computer and transfer the good ones to this computer, etc, etc. I could give you a zillion excuses, but I'll spare you.

Sweet Jenna

I think I mentioned, at least to some of you, that Jenna got professional shots done when she was four months old. Here are some of the best ones.

I think I also mentioned in my last post that Jenna is still not consistently sleeping through the night. Here’s a no-so-brief history of her sleeping habits the last few months – we started her in the miracle blanket in the pack-n-play which was set up in the study so that it was far enough away that we didn’t hear her every move, but close enough that I could get to her quickly when she woke up during the night. We moved her upstairs in the pack-n-play after that and then she figured out how to roll over onto her tummy, even while wrapped in the “straight jacket.” So I took away the miracle blanket, but of course, she doesn’t like sleeping on her tummy and would roll herself over and then scream until I put her back onto her back. This was probably around 4 months old – since we were still having trouble with reflux (and still are) and Jenna always took great naps in her carseat, I decided to wrap her in the blanket and strap her into the carseat at night. This ensured she couldn’t go anywhere and also kept her nice and warm since it was getting pretty cold here at night.

By the way, I can’t tell you how many different places she has slept in that carseat now…her bedroom is right by Hunter’s and just upstairs from us, so she was waking us all up during the night, which was why I tried the gameroom since it’s far from everyone and I could just listen to the monitor. But the gameroom is bitterly cold when it’s as cold outside as it has been lately, so she’s now in her carseat in the pack-n-play in the guest bedroom, where the heater works nicely and no one can really hear her if she starts crying during the night, except me of course, with the monitor.

Well, I was content with only getting up once during the night with Jenna, but it was getting a little old and I was anxious to see what would happen when I started back at work – she continued to wake up between 2:30 and 3:30 every morning. So I took the blanket away last week, but still have her sleeping in the carseat in the guest bedroom, and she seems to be able to get her fingers into her mouth or something that is soothing her back to sleep when she wakes up. So for a couple of days last week, and this morning, she woke up around 5:15 for her breakfast and then she goes back to sleep until I’m ready to get her up around 7:30 (or later on the weekends).

Oh, and here’s a picture of her when she had just started finding her thumb when she sleeps. Apparently, at school, this is how she sleeps for all her naps, and I think she slept like this today for one of her naps as well since her carseat cover was in the washing machine.

I have a lot of cute videos of Jenna too – will have to put them together tomorrow though. She laughs at almost anything. She adores her big brother. I forgot how much fun 5-6 month-old babies can be. Something new every day – new consonants, longer periods on her tummy with those feet kicking like crazy (she’ll be crawling in a month or so, I predict), almost sitting up by herself, rolling all over the place…it’s so much fun.

Here are some random Jenna pictures from December – I think the onesie in the first two says it all…

Mr. Hunter

Most of the pics I have of Hunter are related to Christmas, which will come in another post, I think, since it’s almost my bedtime. But I do have some that aren’t completely Christmas.

This first picture is proof that my kid is from Mars…that is a rice cake he’s eating. He won’t eat 70% of what I put in front of him, but when Mommy was eating a rice cake “burger” (aka black bean frozen patty in between two rice cakes), he decided he wanted to try one and LOVED it. I haven’t bought another pack yet, but he probably ate 40% of my rice cakes in about a 30 hour span. He wanted them for every meal and snack…silly boy.

The week before Christmas, my wonderful neighbor, Kristi, had a pajama playdate at her house, and Santa’s elves showed up to play games with the kids and sing songs. It was such a fun time for the kids (and the moms, of course). Here are a few shots from that morning.

And looking at those pictures reminds me….scroll back up to the rice cake picture. Note the MUCH shorter haircut. I had forgotten how long Hunter’s hair had gotten and Mommy CHOPPED it off right before Christmas. I won’t go into the details, but it was a mistake and is finally starting to look cute again (a month later). To say the least, I will not be using clippers on Hunter’s hair EVER again. :)

My Creative Side

The same neighbor mentioned above, Kristi, is incredibly creative. She is a scrapbook master and I really wish I had the time and energy to do some of the wonderful things she does. She had a “make a plate” party in December (maybe it was even late November?) where her friend brought all her stamps and inks that she sells (I will have to get her link to post here – I’m sure I have it somewhere), and we got to stamp away on templates that she then sends away to make plates and bowls with. I ended up going to two of these parties because I had so much fun making the girls’ bowls that I had to make some for my nephews. Funny thing is, even though I specifically unwrapped the girls’ bowls so that I could take pictures of them, apparently I forgot to take pics and just wrapped them back up and put them under the tree??? So, aunts and uncles, if you don’t mind and can take pictures of the girls’ bowls and email to me, that would be super.

Here are the boys’ and Jenna’s. Hunter didn’t get one as I ran out of time (and Jenna was with me and wasn’t happy about me trying to make her sleep at a stranger’s house).

More tomorrow, I promise!!