Poor Spoiled Baby

Not surprisingly, Paisley is by far my most spoiled little thing. Probably has a lot to do with being 5 1/2 years younger than Jade, me having more patience, and also she could quite possibly be our last. I really hope she's not, but the fact I have such a hard time getting pregnant (once I'm pregnant, I'm golden though!), she really could be the last little one in our family. So I tend to spoil her. And let's face it....spoiled babies can be rotten. =) Paisley is no exception. She's a little stinker. And so smart about it, too. Well, we're on our way to kicking one bad habit in the butt....bedtime. Paisley likes being rocked to sleep. She loves being nursed to sleep. She'd prefer to sleep on me or David than in her crib. And she insists every night that she's first nursed to sleep, then when placed in her crib she instantly wakes up and insists on then being rocked back to sleep. And if you dare place her in her crib while she's conked out, she'll let you know that that is definately NOT okay with her. We've had some pretty late nights lately and I'm fed up with it. So last night we tried something new. I didn't nurse her to sleep. I gave her a sippy till she didn't want it and was sleepy. Then I put her in the crib wide awake (which induced ear-piercing screams btw), told her goodnight, and walked out the door. And she screamed. So 3 minutes later I went back in, laid her back down (she was standing up holding onto the crib rail and just screaming like someone was killing her!), told her to go to sleep, and walked back out. And she screamed. 5 minutes later I do exactly the same thing. And so does she. 10 minutes now, do it all again, and guess what....she stops screaming and lays there and just whimpers. And by the time I was going to go back in to check on her, she was asleep. Paisley finally re-figured out how to put herself to sleep. And she did it all night long, too. Recently, she'd wake up every few hours, realize I'm nowhere to be found, and scream. Last night, I heard her wake up 3 times, squawk, and then silence. She had put herself back to sleep each time. She slept like a well-trained baby until 6am which is her normal wake-up time. And she was cheerful and happy to see me. I did the same thing a bit ago for naptime. She cried for 3 minutes and was out. Hooray for Paisley! And hooray for me! Hahaha! Hopefully we can get her back to how she was a few months ago before she figured out how to train us!

Gross, Gross, Gross!!!

I decided this morning that I have the grossest baby in the world. Yep. You read that right. The grossest. I'll tell you why and then you will definately agree with me! This morning I was busily sewing the last princess dress for Jade's b-day (her party is Saturday!). Paisley was being cheerful and playing nicely on the floor exploring her room, my room, the playroom, and the hallway. Every couple minutes she crawled over to me, stood up using the sewing bench, tapped my back, smiled at me, and then went back to exploring. Well, the last time this happened, I noticed she was eating something. Thinking it was cat food yet again, I reached in with my finger to sweep it out. It was not cat food. No. I wish it was. But no. Miss Paisley found a small pice of cat poo in her exploring and decided it was lunch. NASTY!!! The child who refuses bananas actually found cat poo yummy enough to chew on. Absolutely disgusting. Now do you agree with me?? After a quick phone call to my dad, my fears of her dying of some horrible cat poo induced disease were put to rest. Luckily our cats are strictly indoor only so they are very clean and parasite free. The very worst that could happen is she could have some diarhea. Phew! So at least my gross baby won't die any time soon.....

PS - And yes, I have searched the house for random poo that for one reason or another didn't quite make it into the litter box. There wasn't any anywhere. So I'm not sure where she found it....but she won't be finding any more. Kids and their taste buds = WEIRD!!!

Just One Thought

I really love being a mom. Even on days when my girls absolutely drive me insane....on purpose. I still wouldn't trade my life for anything in the whole world.

Yes, Another

Hmmm....I realize I have a lot of posts about Paisley. But it's only because she's a baby and does new things almost every day. Plus, she's home with me all day so she's just more available than Amber and Jade for pictures. It doesn't help that Amber and Jade don't really do anything out of the ordinary on a regular basis. They go to school, come home, and then Jade usually watches cartoons or colors and Amber always wants to play Mario on the Wii. Boring. So....that's why I'm writing yet another blog about Paisley. Since she has a couple teeth now, I've been encouraging her self-feeding and chewing skills. Tonight at dinner she wasn't very interested in applesauce so I gave her a few chunks of broccoli and zucchini to work on. She LOVED it!! And she did a really good job eating them, too. Didn't choke even once! For dessert I gave her a frozen Thin Mint. And man she went to town on it! After bath and jamas, she wanted to play on my bed with Milo. And Milo was apparently in a "torture me" kinda mood and let her play with him. What a nice kitty!

A Beautiful Day

Yesterday was such a gorgeous day! Paisley and I ran errands in the morning after I worked feverishly (for an hour anyways) on Jade's b-day surprise. I'm making her new princess dresses. Snow White, Cinderella, and Rapunzel. Rapunzel is fun cause she has a tall princess hat with a long braid coming out the bottom. Oh...and I now have 1 1/2 weeks left. And I'm maybe halfway done with Rapunzel. Hmmm..... It's hard to sew only when the girls aren't around. So anyways, after errands, Paisley took a nice long nap during which I cleaned the kitchen and hand vacuumed the family room. I say hand vacuumed because my vacuum is out of commision and I have not picked up a new one yet. The girls came home from school, had a snack, and went out to play in the backyard. I asked them to leave the backdoor open cause it was so nice outside. Paisley really enjoyed watching them through the screen. Then after dinner, we went out to the front yard. Amber and David played some basketball and Jade rode her bike and scooter. It was beautiful. =)Happy baby!

Sitting with Mom. See how she's pulling my hair (look in her right hand)? This is why I usually have my hair back in a ponytail..... It hurts!

Amber playing with her dad. Jade riding her bike.

She's tired and ready to go in. You can tell cause she's sucking on her hand. She sucks on random things when's she wants to nurse.

Spring Is Here!

Hooray for SPRING!!! We've been having a ton of rain lately (I found out I have my cousin Jasmine to thank. Thanks, Jaz!) and the grass, well weeds for the moment, have grown quite a bit! Amber and Jade were really wild yesterday after school so I kicked them out and told them to build grass (weed) houses for their horses. After about 10min of listening to them complain about being bored, there was suddenly silence. I waited a good 1/2 hour in order to not disturb them to go check out how they were doing. They were having so much fun flattening patches of grass (weeds) for their horses. It reminded me of my childhood days playing in the tall grass (weeds) in my neighborhood. I used to love making "rooms" to lay in and stare at the blue sky in my own quiet space. And if a friend was handy, we'd bring out my trolls or ponies and build them grass houses. I told this to Amber and she looked at me like she didn't believe me at all. When I was done telling her, she said, "Mom, my imagination isn't good enough to pretend you were a kid once." Thanks, Amber. You give me such a boost of self esteem.... =)

Dinner At Our Place

Paisley got pretty insistant today about feeding herself dinner. And believe it or not...she actually got quite a bit into her mouth! Yay, Paisley! =)

Checking out dinner (it's chicken, lentils, carrots, and sweet potatoes in case you're wondering...)

Yes, I did help her get some on the spoon, but she got the spoon in her mouth on her own!

And..... the spoon got away from her. Hahahaha!

This is after she threw her spoon at the cat. Silly baby!

6 (Almost 7) Month Stats

Today was doctor visit day for Miss Paisley-Pie. She was such a squirmy little thing. She kept trying to crawl away from the doctor and nurse when they were checking her ears and body. Paisley only got 2 shots today and only cried for maybe 5sec tops.
15lbs = 10%
26.5in = 50%
I sure love this little one! Her newest trick is pulling herself standing using the furniture and trying to walk along it. This usually ends with her falling over backwards and wacking her head on the floor....but it sure doesn't stop her from trying again a second later! Paisley also ADORES her older sisters (especially Amber) and also enjoys chasing the kitties around the house. They're quickly learning to avoid her if they don't want their ears and tails ripped off! Surprisingly enough, sometimes they actually let her catch them and lay there while she chews on cat fur.

Paisley Having Fun

David's Grand Plan

Today David's big idea was to go to the Phoenix Swap Meet. After he dropped the kitties off to get fixed, he came home and we all got ready to go. It seemed like a good plan....go walk around the swap meet for awhile, have lunch there, buy the girls some ultra cheap junk, go pick up kitties, and head home. Unfortunately.....it was pouring today. And we left the house without double checking outfit choices. We got to the swap meet and then noticed the girls were wearing warm weather clothes and flips. Hmmm....well that was obviously not gonna work. Luckily Paisley was dressed appropriately (her mother has good sense in clothes for babies) and we brought her blanket to keep her warm. And also luckily, Amber and Jade had jackets in the car. The first thing we did was find shoes for Amber and Jade. We let them pick out a pair of tennies each to keep their feet dry since the swap meet is not completely covered and there were huge puddles everywhere. After walking around for awhile, I noticed poor Paisley kept gettingdripped on so I took her out of the stroller, wrapped her up, and carried her. She was happy with that decision. For lunch the girls had corn dogs, I had a BLT, David had something with fries (a hamburger maybe?), and Paisley ate a few fries, too. We bought Amber and Jade each a bracelet, hair pretty, and sunglasses. David also got a pair for himself. Paisley thought it was fun to try them on. We ended up having fun despite the cold, wet rain.

Yeah...those are the ones Amber chose. She says they're so when she wants to pretend she's a grandma or "a weird mommy", she has a good prop. I love that girl. =)

She looks like a bug....

Featuring.....Jade - the invalid!

Cute girls on our way to pick up the kitties.

Paisley playing after her bath tonight. Yeah...I am that quick. =p She's actually playing on the floor right next to me while Amber and Jade are fighting in the shower.

Family Fun Day

Yesterday was a GREAT day. We kept the girls out of school and had a very very fun family day. It started with checking our bank account and we got our tax return. Yay! David and I had already talked about what we need and want to do with the money so we already had a plan. I got us all caught up on all our bills, paid off 2 cards, put $$ in savings, and David picked out a second car. It's a fun car. His car for school and work. He drives all over the west valley and puts a ton of miles on our family car, so he needed something with much better gas mileage and low miles so it would hopefully stay out of the repair shops for awhile. We had decided a few weeks ago that this is what we would do and since then, he's been addicted to Craigslist searching for his perfect car. And he found it! He bought a 1998 Saab 900SE Convertible with a 2.0L Turbo engine (whatever that means....). It only has 65,000 original miles on it, leather interior, 6-disc CD changer, power seats, windows, locks, convertible top, and seat warmers. Oh...did I mention it's convertible?? So cool. It's a greenish-gold color with a black top and interior. Plus, we got it for over $2000 less than KBB values it for private party. And it's FAST!

After checking the car out, we headed to McD's for lunch and then to Castles n' Coasters for miniature golf while the owner got the emission testing, licensing, registration crap done. Jade decided she didn't want to play, but had fun being the ball carrier for us. Amber had a lot of fun and even did pretty well on some holes. Unfortunately I left my camera at home cause sometimes I'm a little bit retarded. But it was fun anyways. Paisley enjoyed being outside in her stroller eating crackers and watching the girls run around the place. And the weather was GORGEOUS!! After golf, the car was ready so we swung by and dropped David off. He went and did his job and I took the girls to see Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Amber and Jade really liked it. I thought it was okay if you never read the book....which I have. Ummm....they got the characters names right and the storyline was loosely there..... It's no Harry Potter or Twilight though as far as accuracy goes. Paisley was a pill by this point as she had no nap....but only slept for maybe 10 min total. Which means a TON of squirming! Oh...and she had a hugs smelly poo. And she puked all over me. Then she rubbed her hands in it and wiped it on my face. Nice. Thanks Paisley! After the movie, we met David at home so I could clean up and then we went out to dinner. We were planning on Olive Garden cause it's my favorite, but the wait was over an hour! Forget that! So we went to Chili's and got a table instantly. Paisley was fine in her high chair as long as I gave her crackers to eat and coasters to play with. When my food came though, that's what she wanted. Really bad. So I shared my mashed potatoes with her and couldn't feed her fast enough. Jade ate her whole dinner completely all gone (which is a rarity....) and Amber almost finished hers but had a headache cause she was tired. We went home, the girls had ice cream, and they all went to bed while I got to drive Dave's new car to Fry's. Fun, fun, fun. And I didn't have to yell at the girls to stop talking and go to sleep a single time! Today David got up early and took the kittens Milo and Tiny to get fixed. I found a free mobile clinic in Phoenix so David had to get there early as it's first come, first serve with limited space. Luckily he got there in time..... And since I made him get up early on a Saturday to take them....he gets to choose today's activities.

Here's some pictures of the rooms I finally got around to finishing and cleaning. Amber and Jade's room. I painted the walls a nice cream color, repainted their old blue desk a fresh apple green and used the same paint on an old wall shelf of mine. Put up curtains, pictures, and wall stickers, and viola! Amber's bed is the one with the giant pink horse. Go figure!Jade's bed. I still need to find matching bedding for them....but it's pretty low on the list at this point.The other side of the room....obviously. =)

Paisley Pie's room. Sorry about the toys, she doesn't know how to pick them up yet. Haha!Do you like her pink poodle rocker?? David found it at my favorite used children's store. =)

I vaguely remember posting a pic of the playroom....but I don't really remember, so here it is again just in case.
My funny babyShe blinks about every time she even sees the camera. It doesn't even need to flash. She just starts blinking like crazy. Like she knows it's coming.

You Know It's Time....

To lower the crib when you're greeted in the morning by this cute face.....

Schoolyard Fun

I took the girls to play at the school yesterday right after they came home from school. Hahaha. I would have just met them there, but Paisley was still sleeping so we waited till she woke up to go. Amber and Jade had a blast showing me all the tricks they've learned this year. I was surprised to learn that both of them can make it across the monkeybars now. And apparently Amber spends a lot of time hanging on things. What a monkey! Paisley enjoyed watching them while eating her star crackers and hanging out in her stroller. Not a peep of complaint from that one. =)