Love it when you call me Big Papa

My dad came to Utah for Memorial Day weekend. The purpose of the visit was to attend a Williams (his mother's family) reunion, but he stayed at our house. He both cooked and bought multiple meals and did my grocery shopping for me. It was so nice.

On Saturday we ended up all going to the reunion. We woke up feeling good so we headed up to good old Malad-- where Idaho begins. I got to meet many relatives for the first time, as well as see several closer relatives I haven't talked to for a while and introduce Camille. Can you spot us in the picture above? That's most of the people who attended. Below is my grandma and her descendants who attended. Sadie was out on the bounce house so we didn't force her to come for pictures. What you can't see is that it was about 85 degrees in the high school.

On Sunday we went to my cousin Amanda's mission farewell. After we got home and had some dinner I made Papa and the older girls take some pictures. 

For Elise, these pictures are amazing. She usually gets angry and refuses to sit still when I ask for pictures. The fact that she is half smiling is a miracle. 

Month Numero Uno

Camille is 1 month old. You can tell I am starting to feel decent because I am blogging again. I enjoyed looking back at my monthly posts about Elise so I am doing it again. This time the pictures will be taken on the adorable blanket made for Camille by Mimi. I had been looking for a soft blanket for Millie the last few months of my pregnancy (each of my other girls have a special "blankie" they still sleep with), but I never found one. So glad I didn't because this one is perfect- cute and colorful on one side and minky soft on the other. 

 Camille still sleeps most of the day away. She is probably awake 4 to 6 hours total each day. Much more than Sadie was, but less than Elise. (I just have to compare my kids and now I have 3 to compare- even more fun!) The girls constantly ask me when she is going to wake up. We have a theory that Camille mostly sleeps during the day because she doesn't want to deal with the reality that is her two crazy older sisters. She usually has her most wakeful hours between 8 pm and midnight.

She is getting more and more cute, but she still looks like a turtle to us. All of our newborns have kind of looked like turtles. I think she is going to be a blonde. Her eye brows and lashes are both blonde. The short hair she does have looks blonde in the light. She will definitely have light eyes, can't tell if they'll be blue or green yet. Millie has long fingers and toes, and you can see those long chicken legs in the pictures. Her thighs are finally starting to add some fat. She is up to about 8 1/2 pounds. She gets 3-6 ounces of formula a day on top of nursing, which has really helped her chub up. Each week I say I am going to give up on nursing but then I don't. Nursing is really not my favorite. 

Sadie and Elise are constantly all over Millie. Like sitting right on top of her. She has never cried about it. In fact, the only things she cries about so far are being hungry and getting her nails clipped. Daniel found Elise trying to climb into Camille's bassinet with her the other night. Definitely not enough room for 2 in there. By the way, Camille is the loudest sleeper ever. Grunty Mcgee is her nighttime name. She generally does one longer 4-6 hour stretch of sleep at the beginning of the night and then wakes up every 3 hours to eat after that. 

Camille takes a pacifier but can't hold onto it very well in her mouth. Constantly putting it back in is super annoying so we don't really give her a pacifier yet. Maybe in the coming months. She still scratches/punches herself in the face frequently. She gives us lots of smiles and we have heard her "coo" a few times, but they were all inadvertent, I am sure. 

Official 1 Month Photo:

Family of 5

 We have now been a family of 5 for a month. Crazy. 

We have a quiet few days between visitors and our trip to Boston so I have some time to reflect. Life doesn't feel too different. I would guess that's what happens with each additional child you have. Of course we have an entirely new family member, but it really just feels like life is the same, but a little busier. Camille has been sleeping much better, which is my main concern. It seems to be the thing I blog about most when I have babies. 

I guess I don't know what I am trying to say. Life is good.

Here are some cute pictures. First, Camille frequently falls asleep mid-stretch with one hand up. Second, two twinners hanging out together.

Preschool Grad

Well, she did it: Sadie survived the grueling "Tater Tot" year at Kid's Village to become a certified preschool graduate. Sadie really enjoyed preschool this year. Her teachers were all great. We were constantly amazed at how much she learned. 

 There was a short musical program with multiple patriotic songs, complete with hand actions. 

 Camille was not impressed. Elise played in the back and occasionally yelled things to Sadie. 

 Following the music each child walked down the aisle as their name was called. They stood under a big balloon arch and then threw their caps together (picture above on the right). Sadie immediately ripped off her gown, telling us it was itchy. We got no posed pictures in her graduation garb. 

 She happily posed with her teachers- Miss Valerie and Miss Robin were her main teachers. We went around to each of the classrooms (they have separate rooms for music, art, geography, science and kitchen) where we picked up some of her work from the year. In the science classroom they had done an "experiment" regarding their weight and height. We learned that Sadie was the second biggest student for both measurements. 

We are looking forward to the summer off. Sadie is mad that Kindergarten is every day, instead of 3 days a week like her preschool was. 

Biggest Sister

Sadie is thrilled to be the "biggest sister". She asks to hold Camille all the time. Now that Millie is getting a bottle or two each day Sadie wants to feed them to her, but she gets burned out after a couple minutes and "lets" me finish the job. Sadie is usually happy to fetch a diaper or lay by Camille during tummy time. This morning we played pretend that she was the mom, I was the big sister, and Elise was the middle sister. Pretty much real life except she was in charge instead of me.

Becoming the biggest sister has not come without it's bumps. Behavior has been very inconsistent. Sadie has bit Elise 3 times in the past month, with the most recent bite leaving a bruise on Elise's cheek. We have no idea where this came from, but it's kind of funny because the last person she bit was Elise, when Elise was a newborn. 

Mimi

As I was nearing the end of my rope with Camille sleeping worse and worse at night, Mimi arrived from Texas. She was just what we all needed. She made meals, took turns with a fussy Camille at all hours of the night, cleaned our whole house, and kept the bigger girls occupied. It was amazing. I thought we wouldn't need too much help since Daniel hasn't been working a lot, but I just sat back and let Carolyn pretty much take care of everything.

During her visit we had our busiest week yet. 

First up was Camille's 2 week and Elise's 3 year check up. At this point I was thinking/hoping that Camille needed more food, and this was the reason for her terrible sleeping. She weighed in at only 7 lbs 4 ounces, so still 3 ounces from her birth weight. I was kind of relieved that there might be a reason for her bad sleeping and not just that she had her days and nights mixed up. Camille is 21 inches, which made her 90th percentile for height and 20th percentile for weight at 2 weeks old.  We have been supplementing with formula and she is definitely adding some ounces now. 

Side note: even though it seemed like a good idea to schedule these appointments together so I didn't have to make 2 trips, it was terrible. Camille needed to eat and Elise was climbing all over everything. When we left they offered to make Camille's 2 month and Sadie's 5 year appointments at the same time and I said "NO WAY". Especially with Sadie having to get her Kindergarten shots that she has been terrified about for months. 

Another big event was Sadie's dance recital and the multiple 2 hour practices leading up to it. 

The recital was two nights and I felt like we needed to be there both nights in case Sadie got super anxious and cried (like she frequently does). She did great both nights, although on the first night she went the wrong way at one point and she has still not forgiven herself about it. I am so proud of her for working hard to learn the dances and then performing them really well. 

We went to dinner at Ron and Lani's house and Camille got to meet some of her relatives from Carolyn's family. Sadie got to play with her beloved cousin Jack, who she hasn't actually played with a ton, but she always asks about him.

We started to get Camille awake more during the day. 

We also attended the homecoming of my cousin Karen, who just got back from her LDS mission in Thailand. Sadie couldn't remember exactly who Karen was but once she saw her she gave her a big hug. We introduced Camille to the extended family that was there. 

Mimi took the girls to the park a few times. She brought them to a new park with a purple dinosaur, which they now talk about every day. 

 

Mimi left yesterday and we are all sad about it. My girls are infinitely more bored with me running the show at home. Camille had another difficult night last night. She is missing her Mimi. 

Can't wait to see you again in August!!

Reality

So around Camille's 1 week birthday things got a little more real. Sadie and Elise started to get annoyed at how much time and attention Camille was taking. The whining and tantrums from them increased substantially. The weather took a dive so we were cooped up inside. Daniel needed to go to work more. The exhaustion of a newborn set in. I had multiple delirious nights of a wide awake Camille. 

 Asleep during the day....

 And wide awake at midnight!

Some cuteness from the big girls. Putting on tacky make-up together. 

A rare spell of awake time while the sun was up

 But then it was right back to sleeping

So Long Salazars

Three days after bringing Camille home from the hospital Hillary and Ben moved out. It was a fairly hectic few days. Both of us were dealing with really busy things- us with a newborn and them with moving- but neither could really help each other. So we co-existed in our house while both concentrating our respective busy things. 

Following those busy days, on Saturday morning the Salazars brought breakfast over and we had a relaxed morning. It was a nice ending to the 9 months we cohabitated. Before they moved in with us I pictured they would live in our basement and we would hang out constantly. It turned out that we were all very busy with essentially opposite schedules so it frequently felt like we'd go a while without even really interacting besides Hillary babysitting two mornings a week. 

We are going to miss the Salazars a whole bunch. Sadie frequently got confused this year when trying to describe who was in her family. Hillary and Ben were often included. in drawings of our immediate family. She knew they were relatives but the fact that they lived in our house made her think there was something extra there.

 It really is the end of an era. Hillary arrived in Utah as a BYU freshman 1 month after Sadie was born. She has spent countless hours watching my kids over the past 5 years. She and I have become good friends, when we didn't know each other very much before. 

We love you, Ben & Hillary. We hope Detroit is more than you could ever dream of! 

Home Again

The first week we were home was great. Sadie and Elise were so excited about Camille. The weather was amazing. Most days were spent with the girls running in and out from our backyard and Daniel working to get our yard looking like people actually live in our house. I laid on the couch and kept Camille fed with clean diapers. Things felt good. I was tired but happy to have Camille here and healthy.
Enjoy a bunch of pictures.