Three Months of Vivi

Vivienne had quite the month for an infant. 

• She got to tag along on quite a few soccer practices and games. She did pretty well for the most part but there were some windy days on the fields that weren't her favorite. 
• She went on her first road trip and vacation and was an angel baby the whole time. She was a great traveler and slept better than some of her siblings at night. (It's always sad when your baby sleeps through the night but older children wake you up.)

• Vivi and Porter got to spend some time together and we learned that Porter would really like to play with Vivi. Any time he got the chance he was making a beeline for her. I think they're going to be great friends. 

• She's started cooing a lot and at the end of the month she had a great belly laugh. Let it be known that I was the one that got her to laugh...
• She is starting to discover her hands and loves looking at them and trying to shove a whole fist into her mouth. 

• She's becoming more aware of her surroundings so her siblings love to set things up to keep her happy. Who needs baby toys when your brothers and sisters can set up books for you to look at. 

• She's a favorite around here and everyone wants to hold her and snuggle with her.

• She still is doing great at night and one night slept 10 hours straight! I'm trying to enjoy it while I can because I'm sure it isn't going to last. She still isn't a great napper but every once in a while I can get at least one good nap out of her. I'm still able to get her to sleep in bed with me in the morning sometimes and I just love those snuggles. 

• She loves to be naked. Diaper changes make her so happy and she likes just hanging out in her diaper. 
• She is still a big spitter upper, but it doesn't seem to upset her as much now, so I'm still trying to avoid milk. Any time I'm tempted with dairy I try to think about how much happier she has been and that helps. But I really hope I can start eating ice cream and cheese and cheesecake and so many other desserts soon. 

Another Year for Eliza

 Eliza was lucky enough to have her birthday on Memorial Day this year so we made the whole day a party. The Hilton's and Aunt Heather even came to celebrate with us. Because I'm trying not to eat dairy, I convinced Eliza that a cookies and creme cake would be the best. (Thank you Oreos for being dairy free) Eliza was excited to get to be the only one to help make and decorate the cake. Usually any baking involves all of the kids taking turns but I only have the Birthday child help with their cake. It makes it more special. 

She loved helping pipe the frosting on the top and putting the Oreos on. 

Mariah, Chet and Austin each got her a little gift. Mariah got bubbles, Austin gave her a candy bar and Chet got her gum. Those have probably been her favorite gifts. 

After Eliza finished opening her presents, everyone pampered the "princess" in her new dress. 

This kids had fun playing hard all day and right before dinner we went down to the Welcome Home Soldier Monument and discussed with the children why we celebrate Memorial Day. It's so wonderful to have such a great place to teach our children about the sacrifices that have been made for our freedom. 

And here is Eliza's first official birthday interview:

Mom: What is your favorite color?

Eliza: I love purple (she is wearing one of her favorite shirts that is worn out, stained, and...purple)

Mom: What is your favorite food?
Eliza: Hot dogs

Mom: What is your favorite animal?
Eliza: Horses

I just love this picture of her with Gus

Mom: What is your favorite book?
Eliza: Harry Potter (Oh the influence of older siblings)

Mom: What is your favorite movie?
Eliza: Where he was like, "Oh, I got a hot dog and bun." (Pretty sure her favorite movie is whatever I let her watch.) 

              

Mom: What is your favorite song?

Eliza: I love to See the Temple

Mom: Who is your scripture hero?
Eliza: Jesus

Here she is putting on the Armor of God

Mom: What is your favorite dessert?
Eliza: Ice Cream

Mom: What do you like to do for fun? 
Eliza: I like to play. (Her real favorite thing is to follow me everywhere talking my ear off and insisting on doing whatever I am doing.)

 

Mom: What is your favorite thing to do with Mom?
Eliza: I like to cook

This cupcake shirt is another favorite. She lets me know that I need to do laundry once her purple shirt and cupcake shirt are dirty. It doesn't matter if she has other clean shirts. 

This was taken about the time the cupcake shirt obsession began.

Mom: What is your favorite thing to do with Dad?
Eliza: I like to work with him 

Eliza drew this picture of Tanner and I. I think it depicts our relationship accurately. Even the look of discomfort on Tanner's face...

Mom: What is your favorite thing to do with Mariah?
Eliza: I like to play Halloween. (Mariah is so great playing with Eliza. She thinks up all kinds of fun things to do with her: spa days for their dolls, dressing up, restaurant, taking care of their babies and more.)

Mom: What is your favorite thing to do with Chet?

Eliza: I like to make cars. (Chet loves to make different things for Eliza. The other day he worked hard in the garage hammering wood together and proudly brought it in and told Eliza it was a bed for her dolls.)

Mom: What is your favorite thing to do with Austin? 

Eliza: play with dinosaurs (Austin and Eliza have a lot of clashes, but when they do play together well it is real sweet and enjoyable.) 

Mom: What is your favorite thing to do with Vivi? 

Eliza: I like to hold her. 

Eliza has been so good with Vivienne. There has definitely been some angst with a new sibling but she's never directed her anger towards Vivi. She loves to hold her, talk with her and read books to her. 

Mom: Who is your best friend?

Eliza: My Aunt and Uncle (She has many amazing Aunts and Uncles so they can all just assume she is talking about them)

I would say that Jack (or Jacky-Tacky, as Eliza sometimes calls him) would be her best friend. They are the cutest together. 

Mom: What do you want to be when you grow up?
Eliza: I want to be a mom. 

She's already getting lots of practice in. 

Eliza says so many adorable things so this is going to get long and some of them happened almost a year ago but they must be documented. 

She used to call movies "boovies". While driving she likes to call out the things she sees, "I see a racoom! I see a wabbit! I see a kicket!" For thirsty she says "cursty". Hip-possum for Hippopotamus. She loved saying she could do things "easy peasy". "I ate it all all" is another common things she says. Eliza "yikes bamatoes" too. 

Right after she turned two she started commenting more on what I would read to her. She would talk about the characters: "He's sad, he needs his mommy. I hold him and tell him, it's ok and rock him" Or if someone was sleeping, "I wake him up!" 

During the winter she found her swimming suit and loved to get in it and tell us, "Did you know I hab a simming pool at my house? You want to come sim at my pool? I have a kitty cat in my pool." 

She still loves her babies and use to ask us, "Isn't my baby so tute?" but after we brought Vivi home she told me, "Mom, I want to throw my baby away." I asked her if it was because the doll wasn't as cute and fun as Vivi and she said yes. Then I told her that she should probably keep her baby dolls in case she changes her mind. She agreed. 

Eliza is the most strong-willed child we have had. She determines what she will wear and I am lucky if I can even run a brush through her hair. The girl does it all herself. And so she usually looks like a two year old dressed her and did her hair...because that is what actually happened. I just have to swallow my pride. She has a lot of clothes but cycles about four outfits each week. It was so fun to have a small say in what she wore on vacation...even though she still found a way to change things up. There was one dress that she would never wear, until it got too small for her. Now it's a favorite. Once she decided she wanted to wear dresses most days I thought some short kick pants would be good to wear under the dresses. Now she won't wear dresses but wears the tiny little shorts with t-shirts. You just can't win with that girl. 

Here she is "fixing" her hair and then sporting a nice combover she did on herself.

She went through a phase where a shirt with a ruffle at the bottom was her "ballerina shirt". No pants could be worn with it, and a tutu wouldn't work either. It could only be that shirt and undies. I wasn't sad when the shirt got too small. 

Whenever I turn on music she has to put a dress on to dance in. If she already has a dress on she still must change into another one. She usually goes through at least three outfits a day. 

She loves sitting on the counter while I do my makeup. I let her "do her makeup" with some of my brushes. That must always be followed with some chapstick. She tells me how when she's a mom she'll wear makeup. 

She's already got the awkward open-mouth down. 

Eliza does not like nicknames. It causes her great distress if I call her "baby" or "sister". "I not a baby! I a princess girl!"

Eliza decided she was going to stop wearing diapers around December. It was the earliest I have ever potty trained a child but she gave me no choice. She figured it out quickly and does pretty well. She loves to tell us "give me my pivacies (privacy)" when she is going to the bathroom. 

One day the kids were talking about what mom and dad's names were and Eliza said, "Dad's name is daddy...dad Cosswey." 

We went to a friend's Baptism and Eliza was ready to get baptized right then and there. She kept begging to go back to the font. "I get baptized in the water!" For weeks after that she would say, "When I'm 8 I get baptized." 

While stroking my face, "I love you...both of us love you. Can I touch your teefes (teeth)?"

She went through a phase where she pretended there was a monkey that was sneaking around our house. She would get herself so worked up that she actually would be scared. "Shhh! Dere's a Monkey!" 

I try to teach my kids to pay attention to what their stomach tells them while they are eating, or if they need to go to the bathroom. Apparently Eliza's stomach tells her more than just that, "My tummy says I don't clean up."

Eliza loves the Beatrix Potter books. One day she was holding a doll blankie and told Mariah, "Thats my pocket handkin!"

After spinning and getting dizzy Eliza stumbled over to me and said, "Mom hold me! You're falling!"

Eliza loves her dad, but come bedtime, if I'm there, she insists on me being the one to get her ready for bed. One night as I was tucking her in she gave me a big hug and said, "you're my best friend!"

Eliza has great older siblings that are already helping her to make good habits. Many mornings after breakfast she will ask me, "Mom, what's my chore?" She loves to feel like she is helping out. 

She loves to make up all kinds of crazy stories, much to the horror of her siblings. "Mom! She keeps telling lies!" Gus often gets blamed for all kinds of things, "I didn't kick my covers off, Gus came in in the night and scratched them off." Someday it's going to get her in trouble because I never know what is truth or her imagination. 

After a rough couple days with Eliza, I said, "I need a vacation." Without missing a beat Eliza said, "From me!" Yep...

One day the kids decided to give Eliza a spa day. They made "flower water" for her to soak her feet in, Mariah painted her nails, Chet fixed her hair, and Austin picked out an outfit for her to wear for her ball.

Here they are, dancing the night away. Eliza loved all the attention. 

She stopped taking naps a couple months before Vivi was born but every so often she'll fall asleep. And I try my hardest to keep her asleep just for the break I get. 

Lately she's loved taping pieces of paper together or taping up papers that she has "written" on. (She just writes M's over and over again, and then she asks me to read them. She gets really disgusted when I don't read what she has written correctly.) Whenever she finds yarn she cuts long pieces and asks me to tie them to different things or she uses the hole punch to make holes in paper and then haves me tie yarn to the holes. It keeps her busy but also keeps me busy...so I don't know if it's really worth it. 

We like to think that this strong personality of hers is going to make her a great person someday. As long as we channel it into the right things. She is learning and does try to be her best self. She adds a whole new dimension to our family that we didn't know we needed but couldn't do without. We sure love our Eliza Ann!

Beach Trip

Tanner has been dreaming about a trip to the Atlantic Ocean with the family for years. After hearing that Baydon had vacation days that needed to be used before a certain date, we decided it was the perfect time to go. Tanner let his family know what the plan was and extended an invitation to anyone who wanted to join, somewhat jokingly. But Aunt Natalie took him up on it. She flew in on Friday and was able to be at Mariah and Chet's last soccer game. We woke up bright and early the next day and headed for Morgantown. Even though it was a few hours out of the way we knew we wanted to stop off and spend Sunday there. The Daugherty's were wonderful hosts and spoiled us.  

I wanted to take our kids to one of our favorite places, Coopers Rock. They had a blast hiking under the overlook and exploring. Austin even said, "Mom, I want to move back to West Virginia." 

We also got to attend church in our old ward and it was so wonderful seeing all of our dear friends. The Fidler's, who also homeschooled and did a lot with us, came to see us even though they had moved out of the ward. I wish we would have had more time to visit with everyone and see those who weren't there but it was still special. 

While we were driving there Mariah was telling us everything she remembered about West Virginia and it wasn't very much. But it was fun to see it come back once she was there. She had one friend, Weston, who was in the other ward and she was able to see him for a minute and it was so cute to see how excited they were to see each other. We are so grateful for all the wonderful friends we made while in West Virginia. 

Monday morning we woke up bright and early and headed for Greensboro. The drive was going to be less than half of what we had done on Saturday but after two kids were car sick and threw up, it felt a lot longer. We have now learned that if Eliza says her throat hurts then we better be handing back something to puke in quick. luckily Chet is a pro at not getting throw up everywhere. And he got to ride in the middle for the rest of the drive.

We arrived in Greensboro in mostly good spirits (I was pretty grumpy but I was able to bounce back, amazing what fresh air will do for ya). Baydon's parents are always so welcoming and make us feel so special. The kids were all happy to be out of the car and with their cousins eating pizza outside. The adults were visiting when someone asked, "Where is Eliza? Where is Jack?" We began to casually look for them but as the minutes passed, panic began to set in. The Hiltons have a large house so I kept thinking they were off playing in a random room. They also live on a fairly big lot so a lot of people were searching the property and the barn. 

Once we realized they weren't there, Baydon's sister started down the street. A neighbor asked if she was looking for some children and directed her a few houses down. By this point I was following with Vivi sleeping in my arms. I walked up to the house to see two police cars, Emily holding Eliza and a policeman holding Jack. Jack was as happy as could be, but Eliza was very solemn and trying really hard to hold back the tears. The man who had called the police said he was working on his truck when he heard crying and saw Eliza and Jack standing on the corner. His wife gave them fruit snacks while they waited for the police. Brittany and I sheepishly gave the police our information and quickly walked home. 

According to Eliza, she and Jack didn't want to sit on the hard ground and were looking for somewhere to sit. And then they couldn't figure out which house was theirs and just kept wandering around until they started crying. We are so grateful that someone heard them and they were safe. And we made sure the two year olds were always supervised after that. Just another instance of "that will never happen to me" and then it does. I'm really kicking myself for all the times I have judged other parents...karma karma karma. 

That night we had a campfire and cooked hotdogs and s'mores. 

The next morning we headed out for Myrtle Beach. Chet had some fun taking pictures with Vivi. 

Obviously she was thrilled...

This one is my favorite. Chet is pretending like his sucker is a microphone and he is serenading Vivi. She has the annoyed look down. 

We finally arrived. The kids tried their hardest to be patient while we decided whether we should head straight to the beach or check in first. We decided to check in and learned that pictures can leave out a multitude of dirt and grime. Poor Porter didn't get to do much crawling and we were grateful that we had packed sleeping bags so we could take the comforters off the beds. 

Porter got to eat a lot of sand. At one point Baydon buried him from the waist down to keep him from getting away. 

Austin wouldn't get within feet of the water without his goggles. Did he ever get his head wet? No, no he did not. But he was prepared.

The next morning we woke up early (not as early as Tanner, he took a walk on the beach as the sun rose) and headed to the beach again. There were so many little clams popping up, just like in the Pixar short Piper. I was probably the most excited about it but the kids watched for a little while. The big kids spent most of their time in the water. They tried boogie boarding and just had fun getting pummeled by the waves. I went in for a while but decided I had been beaten enough after about 15 minutes. 

Eliza and Jack stayed busy playing in the sand and collecting buckets of water and shells. Tanner played a little soccer with them and they were so cute running their little hearts out. 

Vivi spent her time enjoying the shade of our beach tent and sleeping. It wasn't too hot of a day so the babies were able to stay comfortable. 

There weren't very many people at the beach in the morning, but right about the time we were eating our picnic lunch, a mass of college-age kids (yes, I feel that I am old enough to now call them that) showed up. There was a whole stretch of beach that they could have congregated to, but for some reason they decided our little spot would be the perfect place to completely surround. There must have been at least a hundred of them. We decided it was time to go when it got difficult to keep track of our children. And they were becoming more aware of the bare bum cheeks on display. Really though, those swim suit bottoms can't be comfortable. How do they sit on the sand? Tanner pointed out that at least the trend hasn't carried on to the men...which is something to be grateful for.

The best part about the place we stayed was the pool. The kids weren't even sad about leaving the beach because we headed right there. That also meant we were able to rinse off the pounds of sand we all were taking with us. 

The pool was perfect. There were maybe two other families there when we arrived and there was lots of shade to sit in. Nothing was deeper than about 3 feet so the kids were able to have a blast. 

There was a lazy river

and zero entry

and water slides and a splash zone playground thing (pretty sure thats the technical term). 

We were so vigilant at putting sunscreen on at the beach but didn't do as well once we got to the pool. Some of the kids got burnt...yet another thing that I have judged parents for, when will I ever learn? Mariah ended up with blisters on her lips and for a couple days I kept thinking she was sad but then she would remind me that it just hurt to smile. Poor thing. 

The next day we woke up and went to a Nike store so we could use our awesome discount (thanks DJ) and then went out to eat. The place was called The Grumpy Monk and if you're ever in Myrtle Beach you should go. The staff were so great and the food was delicious. I know our waiter's heart must have sank a little when he saw our crew come in, but our kids were so well behaved. 

As we were driving home Brittany called and asked us if we had passed a certain exit. I told her to wait so I could see what the next exit was, and it ended up being the one she wanted us to take so we could check out a roadside store that sold fresh strawberries, ice cream and strawberry shortcake. The timing was perfect. 

Here I am, trying to be happy even though I'm not eating dairy, surrounded by people eating ice cream. 

I love this sequence of pictures Natalie got of Eliza losing her cone. She handled it surprisingly well.

Austin had a pretty good chocolate goatee...

We stayed one more night at the Hilton's and then left bright and early Saturday morning for St. Louis to see Aunt Heather. This was the last long drive and there were moments when I swore we would never ever go on a vacation again. But we finally made it. After dropping the kids and I off at the hotel, Tanner took Natalie to Heather's place. The kids enjoyed watching some college softball while I bathed Eliza and Vivi. 

The next morning we played at a park and then met up with Heather and Natalie at an Indian restaurant. The food was good and the staff were so kind. At the end of school, Mariah and Chet had been encouraged to try something from another culture so we were happy to help them with that. Even though we eat Tikka Masala and Naan bread pretty often and that is what they ordered. Baby steps...

After lunch we headed to Laumeier Park to meet up with Brittany and Baydon. The kids had fun running from one exhibit to the next while the adults discussed their favorite (and not so favorite) works of art. 

Love the way Eliza is looking at Heather in this picture. 

We then went to Aunt Heather's apartment and ate some ice cream and played with the kittens. Brittany and Baydon's family were staying the night there with Heather and Natalie but we left around 5 for the last drive of the trip. The youngest three slept most of the way home and Mariah and Chet were nice and quiet. It was my favorite part of the drive. I felt so relaxed and free. 

Though we were exhausted and there were mountains of sandy laundry waiting for me to tackle, it was so fun to go on an adventure as a family. I'm not planning any long road trips anytime soon, but Tanner may be able to convince me eventually...