gotcha!

Finally! I caught Cassidy smiling on camera! She's even starting to laugh a little but it'll take me awhile to catch that on camera too.

How lucky are we???!!!

After working a long shift, my mother-in-law brought over homemade soup and chocolate for the girls! (And me too!) Dan and I are always wondering how we'll ever pay back his parents for the wonderful things they do for our family.

A good nap day!

The girls don't nap much anymore but they've been getting up early and they're a little sick so I really wanted them to nap today. Plus I like having the time to myself! I took them to a drop in gym time at a community centre to get out all their energy so they'd be tired enough for a nap. My plan worked and the girls both napped for about 2 hours! And as an added bonus Cassidy had a little nap in that time too. I wish I had gotten lots of cleaning done but alas I'm just not efficient these days.

Lexie at 6-7 weeks

Lexie's newborn phase is much more of a blur because I was more tired and of course had Olivia to look after too. I remember how at 6 weeks I thought "okay, good, Olivia was sleeping through the night so now you sleep through the night." First of all, a baby "sleeping through the night" is actually much shorter than what an adult would consider sleeping through. Olivia would sleep from 11pm-5am. I kept hoping and praying each night that this would be the night Lexie slept through. She was not a good sleeper. It would take us at least a couple hours to get her to sleep in her crib. And then she would be awake every 2-3 hours after that. Night after night after night.....you get my point.

But during the day she was an angel. So sweet, and quiet and calm. She tried to make up for it with her smiles and giggles. It took many months before Lexie actually slept through the night.

On a side note, it is really hard to find pictures of Lexie all by herself!

Olivia at 6-7 weeks

This is Olivia at about 6 or 7 weeks. It's hard to remember her that young! Since then I've had 2 more babes and many sleepless nights. My poor memory- I used to have such a great memory. I do remember how different it was when it was just one baby. When she started to fuss I was there quickly. No matter if I was in the middle of eating or doing something, I would stop. It also meant days of no showering, very little eating or resting and just generally forgetting about myself. But Olivia was such a great sleeper. When I moved her from the bassinet to the crib at 6 weeks she started to sleep 6 hours straight.
Tomorrow I'll remember Lexie at 6-7 weeks.

So Proud of Myself!

Notice anything different about my blog? I made it more pretty! All by myself too. And all on about a total of 4 hours sleep.....not consecutive...TOTAL!

Sisters

Olivia: (in a mad voice) I don't like you Lexie. I only like Cassidy.

Lexie: (in her sweet little voice) I like you Olivia.

Awww....Lexie got a big hug from me.

Sleeping like a baby....

look how peaceful Cassidy looks sleeping! But seriously, who came up with that saying? I don't think they could have had their own child. Babies are noisy sleepers and they wake to feed alot. Babies get into sleeping patterns but they're totally unpredictable. Cassidy has a general sleep pattern- her first stretch starts between 8pm & midnight and usually lasts about 3-4 hours. After that waking she goes 2 hours, then in the early morning it's pretty hard to get her back to sleep in her crib. She has no problem sleeping in my arms though!

Last night was I hope the first in a new sleeping pattern. I put her in her crib at 10:30 and she slept through until 4:45am! Woo hoo! This is a huge deal. We'll see what tonight brings...

Smiles, smiles and more smiles!

Cassidy has been smiling more and more from about 5 weeks. I have been trying to capture it on film and I finally did today! Cassidy was in the swing and Lexie was taking care of her and talking to her. (Lexie has been getting most of the smiles from Cassidy- maybe even the same amount as mommy!) This is the tail end of a bug grin that Lexie got!

Ballerinas and princesses

With 3 girls this is what life is about: ballerinas and princesses and all things pretty. Sunday is a day of church and ballet. So today the girls picked out these matching dresses to wear to church. They would wear dresses all the time...wait, they do wear dresses all the time now.

Church was good today. Lexie was well behaved and Olivia was fairly well behaved. She just can't stop talking! and then at the end she kept asking for a treat. I admit we have bribed her to be quiet in church but we've stopped doing that. It was getting expensive going to Starbucks every Sunday.

Cassidy's first trip to the U.S.

Cassidy is already growing out of sleepers. (I'll have to weigh her and measure her again but she's somewhere around 11lbs.) She's currently wearing sleepers in the 6 month size but since they've been through 2 girls they're fitting pretty small. I mentioned this to Dan and he brought up Carter's. Carter's- it is one of my favourite places to shop. Of course I was all over that idea. I knew that our trip could have been a disaster with Cassidy being so small and still nursing often but thank you God it was one of our best and easiest trips yet. We left our house at 6:30am and waited about 10 mins at the border. Then we made our usual stop at the McDonald's with the Play Palace. This was the highlight of the trip for the girls. We hit Target, Costco and then the outlets. We know the outlets so well now that we are pretty efficient. I totally restrained myself at Carter's and Gymbo and came away with what I needed. We made it back to the border by 2:45 and were home by 3:35. All in all a very good day. I'm already planning a trip back but it will have to be more than 2 days so we can bring back alot!

My Moby

This is the view from my Moby. I love my Moby. It's basically a long piece of material that you wrap around yourself so you can carry baby around. It has been a lifesaver!!! Especially since I lost my baby bjorn. (It'll surface somewhere I'm sure. Maybe in time for my brother & Bern or Dan's sister to use it???) I'm able to carry Cassidy around on my chest and do things with both hands. Doing things one handed with baby in the other arm is super tricky. I've gotten really good at it and still have to do it occasionally but I'd rather not.

And Cassidy loves it too!

Ikea

I love Ikea! I took the girls there today and we had so much fun! Olivia actually said it was the best day ever. Of course, she does say that alot. There are so many gadgets there for the girls to play with. Their favourite was the pets section. After shopping we went upstairs to the restaurant. For $7.32 we all ate and had a drink.

I have to admit it was really beautiful and sunny. I could have taken the girls to the park and I do feel guilty about it. But Olivia's closet is as mess and her shoes are all over the floor. I had to go and buy a shoe organizer. Cassidy got one too. Even though she doesn't walk and mostly wears sleepers she does have a lot of shoes too.

Olivia, Lexie and Cassidy

I thought I'd start this to share what's going on with the girls and also to help me remember what life was like with 3 kids under 5.

It's been 6 weeks since Cassidy was born. 42 sleepless nights. 42 days with 3 kids. We're doing well, especially considering Dan works late 2 nights a week. I'm really enjoying this phase with Cassidy because I know she'll be my last baby. That's right, we're done. Finished. Family completed. No, we do not feel the need to try for a boy. Life with our 3 girls will be full and rich enough.

So what's new with us all you ask?

Olivia- she's reading. I'm amazed at the words she can read. Words that aren't high frequency. I'm going to go online and find the Dolch lists of words and see where she is. In May we've got a parent meeting at her future school, where we'll order her uniform.

Lexie- she is being so mischevious lately! She'll do something naughty and just smile. It's so obvious when she's done something naughty. She's also trying to read. She knows many of the letters and some of their sounds.

Cassidy- she's awake more but not always happy about it. Her long stretch of sleep at night is about 4 hours. I got 5 hours once but that was it.

Dan- lucky Dan is getting lots of sleep so please don't pity him. He's finding it lots of work to have 3 but I keep telling him that's b/c he had it so easy with the first two.

me- now that I've got 3 girls I'm still shopping! I just bought them matching shirts for the summer. I'm about 15lbs away from my pre-pregnancy weight but 25 lbs away from where I'd like to be again.