oh, just about everything

Iris can...

• ba like a sheep
• roar like a lion
• indicate who she wants by saying "ma ma" or "da da" 
• sign: nurse, pick me up, all done, more, feed me
• she's actually starting to walk more
• make a "cheese" face when she smiles for the camera - although I've never captured it properly. It involves her scrunching up her eyes and nose, and opening mouth for a giant smile. 



Super Cheese Face: head kicked back, face scrunched up, mouth big.

• clap, keep rhythm on her legs, and shake eggs to rhythm
• get whatever she wants whenever she wants it
• not sleep through the night yet. =(

I actually went into her room the other night and gave her a pep talk. it went like this, "I know you like to wake up and cry and then nurse back to sleep, but we're gonna be all done with that. I'll come in here and hold you, but you can nurse in the daytime." It amazingly seemed to help and for the rest of that night, and last night she enjoyed snuggling instead of nursing. This has cut down our nighttime visits from hour long snoozes on the mattress in her room to 2 minute cuddles. We'll see if it helps.

Inspecting the bath tub

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Clark is pretty amazing. Almost 3 is a cool age, he's smart and remembers stuff, and makes things up.

The other day I said, "Clark tell me a story" This was his story.
"Once upon a time......
there was a bad guy....
and he stole our pig....
wait, he was a good guy......
there were two good guys.....
and they went in their car...."
(and he drives his car off of a cup onto the counter in a big downward swoop)
"and bbbrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr (engine noises) ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh (screaming noises)
down
the end"

he's very creative.

We are reading Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingels Wilder. We read a chapter a day. I'd like to get the activity book from the library and do an activity for each chapter. The first chapter was about killing the farm animals to have meat for winter, the second chapter is about killing wild animals to have food for winter. The third chapter is about cleaning Pa's gun. Then Christmas, then how boring Sundays are, then a story about 2 bear encounters.  I'm enjoying it.  I think Clark likes the cuddles best.

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Well, we definitely have a gluten problem of some sort, and I'm bringing the kids to a specialist tomorrow. I've been glutenating them for the past few weeks.

little Iris rash from "cross contamination" - things that said, "made in a facility that also processes wheat"

the following week after having many things that were contaminated, and a few bites of gluten

and now after having cake and donuts and croissants.

this is Clark.

this is Clark too. =(

They are pooping more frequently, and covered in rashes.  It stinks, but we are enjoying all sorts of previously terrifying foods like cake, croissants, and we went to Dunkin Donuts!  I hope we get some good samples for the testing. I'll keep you updated about any outcomes.

Tom and I are also feeling "foggy" and tired this week, almost like a hangover, and having more tummy troubles. Boo this stinks!  We are all looking forward to being gluten free again, and eating our healthy diet of vegetables, fruit and meat!

Iris, you're doing it wrong.

 Here are the cuties, Clark is being Precious and Iris is being Adorable - just as they are named.

I get what I want.

Milestones

Iris has her 3rd tooth. She ate her first shrimp last night. We are trying to keep her from eating grains, but she eats lots of chips and rice off of the floor. She remains completely awesome. She wakes about twice at night, sometimes zero, sometimes 4, when she's sick. She can walk if you hold her hands. Yesterday she climbed the stairs at my friend's house in the 2 minutes it took me to turn my back to change Clark's diaper. Yes, she is my danger girl. She babbles her own little baby language and doesn't do any baby signs. She does shake her head sometimes to say no, but that one she made up herself. She adores all of us, as she should. She loves dogs and laughs uncontrollably in their presence.

Clark has 20 teeth. He eats everything except for gluten, and whatever else he doesn't want to eat. If it was up to him, all meals would involve cake, candy, cookies, chocolate, Brussel sprouts, carrots or peas. He asks if everything is "gluten free" and revels in things that are. When we were going through the halloween candy, Tom let Iris chew on a bag of Skittles. Clark told her, "that's gluten free, Iris." it was super cute. He loves Iris and involves her in almost everything. He does not like it when he is sitting or standing on a chair and she cruises over. In those circumstances he pushes her. He also likes to roll on her, but I think he thinks its loving and a fun game. She does not always agree. He steals her walker all of the time and calls it his bulldozer. He loves trucks, firetrucks, tractors, construction equipment, rockets, airplanes, helicopters, machines of any sort. He is taking a soccer class this fall with his friend, Will Clark (born 4 days after him to Katie Noonan). It is a little over his head, but it is for all of the kids too. Maybe we'll try again next year. He loves his friends, especially Owen Farmer, who he asks about all of the time. Anytime we get in the car or I talk on the phone he hopefully says, "Owen?" He likes painting, glueing things, cooking with me - especially pouring and mixing. He pulls the chair all over the house to be able to reach things that we've put out of his reach. He has an imagination now and is always talking about monsters. He isn't afraid of them, sometimes we hide from the monsters and jump out to scare them. He is at an incredibly fun age. We go to the playground every day. He loves the swings - still, and is a great climber. He is able to play games with the other kids in the park, and I especially like it when they chase each other! He's very polite and says "thank you" unprompted most of the time, "your welcome" when someone says thank you to him. I wish he would always say "please" instead of whining, but he doesn't. Hmmmmm....... He has a guitar toy and loves to dance around with it while listening to music. He has a career in the Rock arts in the future. He loves to dance, then slam the guitar on the ground, and then roll around. He is awesome. I have zero clue where he got that.

I have 27 teeth. I have my most profound thoughts about life, children, motherhood, faith and family when we are walking in our nearby woods (Rock Creek). I always hope to come home and write a blog about it but never do. I ran a 10K in 1 hour 9 minutes and 36 seconds. I stopped to tie my shoe and use a port a potty in that time. I am amazing. It was an incredible race. I should write about it one day, but not today. I am taking ballet which is offered by our city and I love it. I hope I can take it forever, but it will depend on my work/teaching schedule. I am working with friends Kathryn and Sarah to make a co-op preschool for our kids, its fun. I am co-leading the moms group at our church with a program called Play and Pray. Its a playgroup with prayer, just like it sounds. We meet once a month and love it. I've got a number of parenting groups on facebook that I'm coordinating. I'm teaching childbirth stuff and starting to take Doula clients. I've been to two births so far and I like it. I continue to love Tom, Clark and Iris, which is perhaps the most important thing I do.

Tom has 28 teeth. He will turn 35 this weekend and is very excited about this landmark birthday. He recently had sinus surgery. His mom came out to help us through it, watching the kids while I went to the hospital and to appointments with him. Thank God she was here. He likes work and is doing his big neuroscience conference next week. He's excited to be planning a big road trip for us. We will be driving down to Louisiana for Thanksgiving! He was in a triathlon at the beginning of October and got 1st place in Swimming, 15th overall. Isn't that awesome?!?! He really kicked its butt! He likes his job still, but I think we all secretly want to move further South. So, keep that in mind when searching the government classifieds for neuroscience jobs. ;-) (if any NEI people are reading this, its just a fantasy, and we aren't really ever moving, so don't worry).

That's all I can think of now. Thanks for listening! =)