clones

everyone always tells me how much our kids look alike. i guess that's bound to happen when you and your husband look like siblings.

stella looks the most different. here is another one of chloe where she looks like fred:

fred stats

working out

length: 26 1/4" - 50%

weight: 17 lbs. 7 oz. - 50%

head circ: 44.9 - 75%

i took fred in for his 6 month check-up and the pediatrician told me he had an ear infection. i had no idea. that's how good he is.

couch dreams

about a week after our first visit to the gunn residence stella told me she wanted a couch (lia has one). she didn't want it for her birthday but was willing to wait 7 months longer for Christmas.

6 months old

time flies when you're not getting sleep.

my favorite stage with the girls was when they were 5/6 months old and could sit and play with toys around them but not go anywhere. fred has skipped that stage. he doesn't sit up but he gets around. he's mastered the commando crawl. he can get anywhere he wants to go. i'm not excited to start blocking off stairs. i pulled some soggy paper out of his mouth today. i guess i better start vacuuming again.

side note: chocolate is still a no-go. i had 3--ok, 4 milano cookies with chocolate in the middle. fred woke up every two hours. :(

also, this blog will soon be bombarded by video clips. we've almost figured out how to get them off our camera. we've got singing, dancing, bathing, laughing, crawling and more!

click on the first picture to enlarge to see his tooth and little alfalfa hair in the back (we'll take what we can get).

a few have asked

click on picture to enlarge:

we have really great friends. i just wish we could get together more often. we look forward to seeing rob, rowe and sid next month. please move back soon everyone so we can take trips to maple canyon, moab, city of rocks, st. george again.

bad rap

i'm afraid the sleep deprived post gave fred a bad rap so i'm here to make it clear just how good he is. he is such a happy, easy baby. i'll use our trip to colorado as an example. a couple of weekends ago we drove to aspen for the x-games. during the six hour drive there fred cried for maybe two minutes. we checked in at our hotel then went to the slopes to watch torah and the half pipe competition for a few hours. he slept in the sling a bit and didn't fuss until i yelled, "go torah!" that made him cry and when he didn't calm down as easily as usual i realized that it had been a long time since he had eaten. but the competition wasn't over yet so i stuck the pacifier in his mouth for another half hour. then the roxy reps took us out for sushi. i fed fred in the restaurant then put him in his carseat with his pacifier and mr. ed and he went to sleep. in a crowded noisy restaurant. (he does this at church too.) we didn't get to the hotel until about one a.m. and i finally changed his diaper after 9 hours (if its yellow let it mellow). on the ride back to utah he cried about five minutes.
torah's silver medal run:

and to up-date you on his sleep habits--things are MUCH better. he's been sleeping 3, 4, 5, and once even 6 hours at a time. the gripe water did not work. i've been giving him the probiotic but don't know if its doing anything. the only thing that absolutely works is cutting things out of my diet. i also let him cry it out during nap time. and he's been eating a lot of baby food. this might be a factor, i don't know. it may be a combination of things: learning to get back to sleep on his own, getting older and being able to pass gas easier, getting a stronger stomache. we've had almost a week of really good sleeping so of course i'm going to start trying the "problem" foods again. just a little. like maybe some chocolate.

quite the memory

chloe: mom, i can say the pledge allegiance

me: ok, let's hear it

chloe: (pause.....) uh, i can't remember how it starts.

me: i pledge allegiance.

chloe: oh, yeah.

and then she recited the whole thing.

love that boy

love that boy

like a rabbit loves to run

i said i love that boy

like a rabbit loves to run

love to call him in the morning

love to call him

"hey there son!"

--walter dean myers

fred got his first tooth last weekend. how fast they grow.

thanks for the hat aunt cyndi.

photo by chloe

stella

fred is currently the star of our family. he is new and exciting and full of 'firsts'. he is also innocent and doesn't back-talk. but i figure i should post about the other kids once in awhile. so....here's stella kate: nicknames: stella bella, stella bo bella, stellars, stelly
her favorite thing to eat (by far) is wheat thins. her favorite cereal is frosted mini wheats.
she has a mind of her own. you cannot force her to do anything. bribes and threats don't work. she will only do something when she decides she wants to do it. she will be 3 in may but still doesn't know her colors. except pink. and she isn't potty trained. she has no interest. i've tried making it fun and exciting and offering rewards. she doesn't care.

time out on the washer and dryer:we don't always understand her and she gets frustrated when we guess wrong. we just need to remember that b=d, y=r, d=j, etc. as in:
do you like my hay (hair)?
good dob beddas! (good job fredders)
she also makes common toddler grammatical errors like:
our snowman lost him's head.she is a little pack-rat. she loves to carry around purses and bags and fill them with insignificant stuff. when we were getting pictures taken jordan and i told her to smile pretty. she got mad, "i AM smile pretty!" and then she pouted because her feelings were hurt. someone should have told chloe to smile pretty because that is not:
stella's answer to every question is, "um, two an' half." i'm assuming that chloe taught her the importance of the 'half' part. she's almost three, you would think she'd know the answer to the quesion, "what's your name?" but she she doesn't. it's 2 1/2. what's your favorite color? 2 1/2. and how are you little girl? 2 1/2.

she loves fred and sings 'twinkle little star' whenever he cries. i've been trying to sleep train him so i've been letting him cry it out. but i keep finding stella by his crib singing to him. except the louder he cries the louder she sings and it becomes shouting.

she is very loving and affectionate. she also hits, scratches and pinches a lot.

she has very little hair. (picture above was taken on her 1st birthday.) we have only trimmed her mullet.

we love stella!

the end. now back to fred.