Apparently Eve is not an outdoorsy sort of
girl. The few times I’ve been able to get her outside this
spring she has been less than pleased. God forbid I put her
feet (shoed feet, not bare) on the ground and she’ll start
SCREAMING! Today was beautiful and warm and we made it out late
this afternoon, Eve scowling the whole time. I put her down
once or twice, put her in the swing, tried to get her to walk,
and made every effort to show her how the yard could be fun —
but she wailed like she was walking on hot coals. She loves
walking and wearing her shoes inside, so it’s not a pain thing.
We’re going to have to work on this though, because I can’t get
much gardening and yard work done with her in my arms. Maybe
she needs a trip to the country :)

We are spending lots of money on medical
expenses this year! This morning we added to that with an
emergency visit to a pediatric dentist. Lex and our 3yr old
were playing happily then somehow his chin collided with her
head, resulting in a lot of blood from his mouth and a loose
tooth. Luckily she’s ok! Alan came home quickly to watch the
girls while I took Lex to a new dentist who was very nice and
said the tooth is probably just “bruised” (he had some fancy
medical term that I don’t remember) but may potentially be
broken. We will be going back tomorrow as a family so I can
hold his body while Alan holds his head and the dentist takes
x-rays. We tried today, but Lex was none too keen to sit still
for me. I hope it heals and doesn’t fall out! The 3yr old was
very excited that Lex has a loose tooth and was telling him
that the tooth fairy will come and give him a coin soon. We’ll
see!

Today feels like a new start on life. It’s
a beautiful, sunny day, and my first day with no extra kids
(though I still have some this T/TH). Lex and Eve are both
happier and more mellow than they have been in a very long
time. Eve is one now and walking everywhere! It just feels like
spring in many different ways. I’m happy.

We had Eve’s 1st Birthday party this
weekend. It was great! There were tons of people in my tiny
house, but more fun is that there were tons of kids. I think
they were 3 months to 7 years all running (or being carried)
around the house. We had so much fun. Here are the pictures (in
a very mixed up order):

Eve's 1st Birthday

Thanks to everyone who made it over to help us celebrate
Eve’s birthday!

Lex has been experimenting with what he
calls us these days. When he was a baby it was “mamma” and
“dadda,” like most babies. For quite awhile it’s been “mommy”
and “daddy.” Then, a few days ago, Alan became “dad.” We joked
about it and yesterday I became “mom.” This morning, for a few
hours, I was “Tessa” as in “Oh, there you are Tessa.” :) It was
funny. I think it’s because we had a full house today and the
little girl calls me by name a lot. Lex decided he wanted to
try it too. Apparently he didn’t like it (or just forgot)
because I was “mommy” again by this afternoon :)

Speaking of full house, I had two small scares
today. At nap time I had the toddlers in bed and I was feeding
the babies when I heard Lex making noise upstairs. Based on the
amount of movement and high pitch to his voice I was guessing
he had a dirty diaper. Both babies were fussing though, so I
decided to finish with them first. After a few minutes he came
to the top of the stairs and started calling me, saying he had
a dirty diaper. I went up to change him and found him
completely naked at the top of the stairs, Huggies Overnight
diaper in hand. Ack!! In his room I found all of his clothes
and his diaper (very fortunately it was just wet!) on the
changing table. He had soaked through his pants and decided to
take matters into his own hands. I was soooo relieved to find
the diaper just wet. I’ve heard about disasters of this sort
before and did not want one of my own!

The other, more important scare of the day was in the
afternoon. I was doing a round of diaper changes (5 kids today,
all in diapers) and I came back into the living room after a
few minutes and had an instant feel that something was wrong.
Quick scan showed no baby gate on the stairs, no Eve to be
found, and then I heard noise upstairs. I ran up and found her
standing in the bathroom throwing toys into the tub!! Guess she
wanted a bath. I was freaked out though and really have to be
more careful about keeping that lower baby gate in place!

I guess it counts as a good day when
you go through three names and two scares and everyone comes
out safe and sound (and clean!).

We went in for Eve’s 1yr well child visit
today. She certainly is a well child, and she decided to show
of her walking skills to the doctor! She weighed in at 19lbs
9oz (and for those of you keeping score, yes that is 3oz less
than last time) and 29″ (.25″ less than last time, but I’m sure
that was just margin of error!) The doc was mildly concerned
that she hadn’t gained weight or height, but said it’s probably
ok since she got very mobile during that period. He did ask us
to come in for a 15mo check up, just to make sure she’s gained
a few pounds by then. Who knew lack of weight gain could ever
be a problem in this family? Guess who’s getting chocolate cake
this weekend!! :)

I also brought Lex along for a quick
check up because he’s had a fever for the past 24hrs and been
pretty miserable when not hepped up on the Tylenol. We were up
last night every 1/2hr for most of the night. It was awful.
Apparently his ears and lungs are ok though, so the doctor said
keep doing what we’re doing and see if it gets better. Fun,
fun. Hopefully he does get better soon!

Here is a little video of Lex using the
computer. He gets so excited :) We ended up moving him to the
floor so he has more room for the mouse. On the couch he was
running it under his legs, up the arm, and all around :)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFOQbEgd3MM]

She’s soooo close! I think all she’s
lacking is confidence. She can walk from the stove to the
fridge, or follow me across the dining room. She likes to
cruise around holding on to things, but when she really wants
to get there she drops to her hands and knees. She is a super
speedy crawler, so maybe she’s lacking confidence or maybe she
just has no patience for the slowness of walking :) Either way,
she’s super cute :)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veCM0M-D5mY]

And another month. Happy April!! It’s
almost 60 around here, like spring may actually make it to
Vermont. Yay!

We spent Eve’s 1st
birthday with relatively little fanfare. Lex was in an
annoyingly aggressive mood and spent the day running around,
crashing into me, knocking things over, and bopping the babies
on the head. Eve was in a very fussy mood (she’s been like that
a lot lately) and spent much of the day with her head on the
floor crying (whenever Lex bopped her, or bumped her, or she
saw me but I couldn’t pick her up, or who knows why else).
Daycare baby was also fussy and took very short naps. Through
all that Lex and I were able to bake her a super delicious
carrot cake (Carrot Cake Supreme, says my mom’s recipe) and we
had a little singing and cake then an early bedtime. Lex got no
cake (a so-sad from earlier in the day) and didn’t seem too
upset. Eve was a little overwhelmed by the big cake, but
happily ate the small piece I cut for her. I think the real
fanfare will be Saturday :)

My T/TH daycare toddler
will be going to preschool full-time in two weeks, so I’ll be
stopping all together instead of switching to part-time. I had
mixed feelings on the part-time thing anyway. Part of me
thought it would be the perfect compromise, but part of me is
just ready to be done. It was nice (and weak on my part) that
she made the decision for me. Now let’s all hope I made the
right decision in the first place!