These Days

A couple weeks ago Bert set up the sprinkler and let the kids run around for awhile one afternoon. We've been trying to get in a few more summer activities before this summer closes out, and you better believe that Abby will absolutely be right in mix next summer.  

The Friday before Labor day we went down to Toccoa about lunch so that Bert could spend the afternoon helping my dad lay sod in their front yard.  

Here is a picture of Mimi and the littles watching all the action outside.  

This girl was such a huge help!  Bert said that she helped basically all afternoon without complaining or wanting to stop.  We were proud of her.  

Jacob got there after naps and they enjoyed helping together with a little playing thrown in.  

I mentioned in another post that we moved Emily into Hannah and Claire's room.  It's going really well so far.  We're eventually going to put up bunk beds, but we're happy with the arrangement for now.  

Sweet girls!  

About a week after Emily started 1st grade we were having dinner one night and she said "We saw the adorable kindergartners today.  They were so cute!  They are this tall (holding up her hand level with her waist to show us how tall they were)."  Apparently she feels older and taller than she really is.  :) 

Daddy got his girls to help him wash the van last weekend.  They had fun!  

My baby's getting big.  

Several weeks ago we started having a Family Bible Time each night that we are home together.  Bert reads a Bible story and then we usually sing a song and pray together.  It's not long, but we all enjoy it and it's a great way to end the day!  

Our fall activities are back in full swing!  Emily and Hannah both started dance class.  Their classes are back to back on Monday evening...Hannah, then Emily.  Emily's usually able to get most of her homework for the week done while Hannah's in class and then we just have a late supper.  Our church's AWANA program has started back for the kids on Wednesday nights.  Emily is in Sparks and Hannah's in Cubbies and they're both having such a great time, learning so much, and making new friends.  We're so thankful for their teachers and their investment in our girls' lives.   

Emily had her first school project due last week.  It was a timeline of her life.  She did a great job on it!  

"Wacky Wednesday"  was for sure a highlight of her week.  She is showing you her colorful nails in the picture below.  

She was especially proud of her wacky hair. 

Claire and I are enjoying our mornings together when E and H are at school and A is napping.  It's feeling so great outside in the mornings we can't help but spend time out there.  

Walked in the kitchen to find Hannah attacking Abby with a kiss.  Abs doesn't seem to mind. 

One night a few weeks ago Claire woke up in the middle of the night and as I was walking her back to bed I noticed the playroom light on.  I was surprised because Bert turns off lights and locks doors when we go to bed each night and he pretty much never misses one.  He makes jokes often about me leaving too many lights on throughout the day/evening (I like light), so the next morning I made sure to mention to him that he forgot to turn off the playroom light the night before.  He said he did not forget, but mentioned that a few nights before when he had gone to bed before me (one of about 5 times in our marriage....we like to go to bed at the same time) that I had left the playroom and kitchen light on that night.  I told him I did not, and that's when I realized that one of our kids was getting up in the middle of the night.  It was either Emily or Hannah as Claire can't yet reach the light switch and Abby can't yet walk or reach the switch.  My first guess was definitely Hannah.  I asked her if she was getting up in the middle of the night and turning on lights and she smiled sheepishly and said "yes, I was scared."  It made Bert and I laugh that we both thought it was the other and it was Hannah Beth all along.  Stinker.:)  

One of our kids was scared of the vacuum, and I can't remember which one, but Abby is definitely not scared.  She is attracted to it like a magnet.  She chases it around the room and wants to touch it, which makes vacuuming a slow process.  

I've been wanting a new kitchen table for awhile now.  The one we had was a small square table and we couldn't all fit around it without one of us having to sit on the corner and put our legs around the leg of the table.  I found this round pedestal table at a Greenville consignment sale that I went to in August.  I was soooo excited!  It was a great price, came with 6 chairs and has a leaf that we can put in when needed. Sitting around the dinner table with my family is my favorite time of my day most every day. I know it's a small thing, but I'm thankful for this table and I pray that we have many God honoring conversations around it.  

One day last week Bert and I were getting the big girls ready for bed and had left Abby in the living room floor with some toys.  When Bert popped his head back in to check on her he found her like this. She's started pulling up on things (couch, exersancer, chair ) by herself the same week she started crawling. I don't think she's going to be satisfied crawling for long.  

Claire is really enunciating a few of her words these days.  She says Aa-B-Gail and Em-ma-lee and it's the cutest!  She also calls a quesadilla a "case-of-dea" which makes me smile.  If she says something and you don't quite understand her, best of luck to you if you try repeating the word back to her!  She's got very little tolerance for not being understood and will get mad the first time you repeat back the wrong word. Ha!  It is soooo hard not to laugh when she grunts/growls in frustration at your misunderstanding.  She's a feisty little thing for sure.  

Just look at this sweet face.   Good gracious they change so much in the first year.  

A couple weeks ago Emily and I went to an event at her school and I met another mom while I was there. While we were watching our kids play on the playground she asked if I have any other kids and I told her I have 4 and Emily's my oldest.  I wish I could have taken a picture of her facial expression. She said "THAT's your oldest?" while pointing to Emily. It made me chuckle, but I understand. Emily did look little running around on that playground.  And she is little.  Sometimes I forget, but it was a good reminder to me that they are all FOUR so little still. Some days feel so long, but it's not hard to see that the years are flying by.  And I may be relieved to get everyone tucked into bed at night, but I love having our kids so close in age, and I'm loving the little years.  They're for sure going to go by too fast. 

Hannah Starts Dance

Hannah's been excited about starting dance class for what seems like years. The day finally arrived and it didn't disappoint.  

She's taking a ballet/tap class and her teacher is Mrs. Sarah.  They have a sweet little class!  She's the 3rd from the left in the picture below. 

We love this cute little ballerina!  

Have a fun dance year, Hannah Beth!!  

Abby - 6 Months

Our littlest baby turned 6 months old last week.  She's getting big so fast.  This past Saturday morning we were all 6 in the living room together.  Bert and I were on the couch and all four girls were sitting on the floor together.  The older 3 girls were watching a show and Abby was sitting beside them on the floor playing with some toys.  It was the first time Abby looked like "one of them" -- a little girl instead of a baby.  It was a little startling, but very sweet.  

Abby had her 6 month check up last week and she weighed 16lbs and 3 oz and was in the 53rd percentile for her weight.  She was 25 inches long and in the 22nd percentile for her height.  She's still our petite baby, comparatively.  

Abby started waking up earlier about 3 or 4 weeks ago.  She's been waking up between 6 and 6:30 most days.  Sometimes she'll sleep until 6:45ish, but that's not typical...yet.  There have been several days when she's woken up at 5 and not gone back to sleep until her mid morning nap.  Up until about 5 days ago we were putting her down about 9 or 9:30. Since she had started waking up earlier, I thought if I kept her up a little later maybe that would help. It didn't. Her pediatrician told me at the appointment that maybe Abby's just missing a sleep cycle and said she thought we should try to move her bed time back to 7:30 or 8 and see if that helps.  Sooooo, we did that a couple nights ago and so far so good.  Now she's going to bed closer to 8 and she's still sleeping until between 6 and 6:30, and even till 7:00 a couple times.  I'm totally fine with the 6 :30 time, but 5 is a bit early for me, so hopefully she'll quit waking up before the sun comes up and settle into a new (better!) routine.

I said in an earlier blog post that we had moved Emily into Abby's room and were letting Claire and Hannah share a room.  Well, after about 3 weeks of Abby waking Emily up early (not every day, but enough) we decided Abby needed her own room, so we moved Emily in with Hannah and Claire.  It's working well so far and the big girls love all sharing a room.  

Abby's a super light sleeper....the lightest sleeper we've had.

She naps 2 or 3 times a day, usually 3.  She sleeps in her room, in her crib, in her sleep sack with a sound machine on.  She nurses 5 times a day.  

She loves sitting up and strongly prefers that to laying down.  She can sit up by herself from the laying down position, and usually does as soon as you lay her down. We've been impressed with her sitting abilities. With the other three, we had to put pillows behind them for a few weeks when they first learned to sit, but Abby's been pretty steady from day one. 

She's also starting to crawl.  She'll crawl halfway across a room now to get to something she wants.  I can't imagine it will be long before she's crawling all over the house.  The other day Bert was laying on the floor with her and she pulled up on him to the standing position 3 times.  She'll climb out of her bumbo unassisted within 10 seconds of putting her in it, so we don't put her in it anymore.  She's a very busy, active little thing.  

Mosquitoes are crazy attracted to her.  She hasn't really be outside much in the evening except to go to or from the car and she has gotten sooooo many bites over the last several weeks.  It's truly crazy. Hopefully the mosquitoes will move on out soon and leave my baby alone.  

She still likes her exersaucer, but she's happiest while playing on the floor with toys.  

She's eaten rice cereal, green beans and carrots.  She really likes the green beans and carrots and tolerates the rice cereal.  We're introducing another food about every 4 days or so.  If she likes green beans she'll think she hit the jack pot when we get to fruits.  :) 

She's having a little separation anxiety from me right now.  Over the last couple weeks at church the nursery workers have had to text me to come calm her down more often than not.  Even when she's not in the nursery, if someone else is holding her and I walk into the room she usually starts crying.  She looooves her Mama and her Mama loves her.  It's nice to be wanted, but I wouldn't be opposed to her not giving the nursery workers such a hard time.  :) 

The picture below was taken about 10 minutes after the picture above.  I just wanted to keep it real.  

Happy 6 months Abby Doodle!  You are a precious gift from God and we're so thankful you're on Team Watts! 

Labor Day Lake Life

We had a fun time at the lake over Labor Day weekend!  Bert preached Sunday morning so he, Abby and I came back for church on Sunday, but other than that we just relaxed at the lake and enjoyed one of our last summer weekends.  

The kids had lots of fun cousin time.  They watched movies and made forts and played in the water, on the jet skis, and on the screened in porch.   

"The biggest fort ever."  

Look at those cute girls ready for a boat ride. This boat is getting on up there in age and is not the most reliable piece of machinery, but it had worked for my brother the weekend before so we were planning on taking it out for a spin, but the battery had died and it was a no go.  The girls didn't mind though.  They were having too much fun with everything else to notice.  

Uncle Jimmy (my mom's brother) has a house a couple houses down from the lake cabin and they were there last weekend too.  He came by on his boat and took the kids on tubing rides and let them ride the yellow board. Emily and Claire wanted Bert to ride with them on their first tube ride.  

Emily and Jacob asked if they could ride the tube together.  Jacob fell off before the boat even really started going, but after he got back on they were set and ready and had a fun time!  

Hannah didn't want to ride the tube or the jet ski, which was totally fine with us.  On Monday afternoon, about an hour before we started packing up to come home, Hannah decided that she believed she would like to ride the jet ski.  She loved it and ended up getting to go on 3 separate rides during that last hour before we headed up.  It takes her a little while to warm up to things, but once she does she's good to go.  

Her real love all weekend was just playing in the water.  She was literally as happy as a lark just swimming, floating on her back, enjoying the waves, playing on the floats and jumping off the dock. If she was in the water, her cute little face looked like this in the picture below.  

The famous "yellow board" has been around our family for quite awhile.  Me and my cousins and siblings all rode it when we were growing up and most of us are in our 30's.  It was so fun to get to see my kids do something that I have such great memories of.  

The kids started off laying down, holding on to the handle that is attached to the yellow board.  Once the boat starts going they move to their knees and then stand up, all while holding on.  It takes a little coordination and they all did awesome!  

The yellow board has handles on the side so that an adult can drag along behind them until they are steady and comfortable, then the adult just lets go.  

You can see Bert in the background of this picture swimming back to the dock after he had let Hannah go.  We were so proud of our Hannah Beth for wanting to try it and for doing such an awesome job!  

On Emily's first time riding the yellow board you would have thought she'd done it many times before.  She was so comfortable and excited out there.  

After that first time, she didn't need/want anyone in the water with her when she was getting started.  

Looking like a pro yellow boarder :)....she'll be ready to ski next summer!

Bert and I think Abby looks soooo much like Hannah at this age.  

This big girl's favorite thing of the weekend was the jet ski and she liked climbing in this little raft. She also loved the tube and asked to ride the yellow board, but we thought we should wait until next summer.  She doesn't want to let those sisters do something without her.  

Papa loves to do lots of things with the grandkids....reading books, tickling, rocking to sleep, taking them on boat and jet ski rides just to name a few, but getting in the water isn't his favorite activity. He's happy to be down at the dock with us, but would just rather not be wet/cold.  Ha!  I guess your grandkids can get you to do most anything because Emily talked him into getting in the water with her. True love.  

I loved this picture of Emily jumping off the back of the boat. She looks like the happy, carefree, precious little 6 year old that she is. 

Abby enjoyed floating in the water with Mommy the couple times she got to get in.  She wanted to be standing on me the whole time though.  I'm sure, this was to help her keep tabs on her sisters.  She watches them like a hawk.  

We had a fun weekend at the lake and we were thankful we got to go back down for one more weekend before the weather starts to get cooler in the next few weeks! We'll miss summer, but looking forward to fall!  

Potty Training - Claire Style

I potty trained Emily and Hannah both at about 2 1/2 and I had planned to do the same for Claire.....the plan was to potty train her in early summer, but when early summer came around I just wasn't ready.  I even set a date (we do the 3-day potty training method and love it) but two days before we were set to start I sent Bert a text saying we I needed to postpone.  Having 4 kids at their ages keeps me busy.  I wouldn't trade it for anything, but sometimes I feel like I don't have time to go to the bathroom myself, much less teach someone else to.  

After we took our last summer trip I decided it was time.  I set a date and Bert was able to be there with us all of the first day (which is the hardest day) but then had several commitments later in the weekend.  My mom came over to help while he was gone so one of us could stay focused on Claire for a full three days.  

We hadn't talked to her much about it until the morning we were ready to start.  Bert got a picture of me telling her what we were going to do that day just before we threw away her diapers and put panties on her for the first time. (Note her dress-up heels in the picture! Little cutie.)

A pic of us just before the adventure began.:)  

At first she kept wanting to take her panties off.  She didn't like them on, so I was just trying to distract her.  She helped me wash the morning dishes, which is a favorite activity any day.  

We played with Play-Doh for a long time that morning.  The entire 3 days we gave her drink after drink.  Whatever she would drink, as long as she was drinking lots.  We wanted to give her as many opportunities as possible to learn to tell us when she needs to go.  Every day she improved (on days 2 and 3 she would often start to go in her panties just a little and then catch herself), but it wasn't until the 4th day that she started having no wet accidents.  Go Claire Bear!

We also read lots and lots of books. We were doing one-on-one activities where we could help her to keep drinking while also paying attention to her cues.  Every time she used the potty she got one M&M.  This girl has a sweet tooth and loved that part of the training.  She called them "gums" for some reason.  If we forgot to give her one she would start hollering in a panicked voice "I need my gums!!"  

She's still having trouble going poopy in the potty.  I'm not sure if she's scared or just being stubborn. We have a poopy chart (sticker for each time and a prize after so many stickers) and have promised exciting things if she'll go in the potty, but so far she hasn't cared.  She goes at the same time each day, although since she's started potty training she sometimes skips a day or two, but she'll still go at the same time of day each time.  I just have to keep a really close eye on her during that hour or so (it just happens to be during rest time each day) so that if I see her starting to go in her panties I run her to the potty.  It's special.  Hopefully she'll master that skill quickly.  

We're putting pull ups ("night time panties") on her at night, but not any other time of the day.  Emily wore pull ups at night for 5 months and Hannah wore them at night for 1 week.  Every kid is different and that's fine with me.  I'm happy as long as I don't have to wash her sheets every morning.  \

Bert took a nap with her one afternoon during the 3 days because she was soooo tired, but wouldn't be still long enough to fall asleep.  I think he enjoyed it more than she did.  

She called her potty seat her "potty train" and she would get very offended, especially the first couple days, if one of her sisters moved her "potty train" off the seat so that they could use the bathroom. She'd say "who moved my potty train?!" with her brows furrowed and a frown on her face.  Ha! 

She doesn't have it down perfectly yet, but I'm going to call it a success because she is so close and we now only have one kid in diapers.  Two down, one more almost down, and one to go!  Whew.