1st Day of School

The girls started back to school this past week and I'm not quite sure who was more excited, the girls or me!!! We have had a crazy summer between moving, building and Paige being born. So for me, having them start back to school has brought back a much needed normal routine to my life!

Dropping them off for the first day was very strange for me, as this is where I went to grade school. My parents also moved to Dyersville from Dubuque when I was in Kindergarten, so all of this seems very familiar!

Anyway, Lauren started 1st grade and Reese is in Pre-school. They were both very excited to start school. Lauren's teacher is Mrs. Gleason and Reese's is Mrs. Riniker.

We also had another big milestone this week...Paige turned 4 months old! This was a very bittersweet milestone for me. 4 months ago when she was born, going back to work was an entire summer of fun away. Well, summer is now over, Paige is 4 months old, and I have to go back to work in 2 weeks....sigh! I am so grateful to have had this extra time w/ her and the girls, but it is only going to make leaving her that much harder!

She had her 4 month check up last week and did great! She weighed 13 lbs, 15 oz (70%) and was 25 1/4 inches long (90%), following right along the same path as her big sisters.

She is still an amazing baby, sleeping like a champ. Although last week she came down w/ a nasty head cold. I finally took her in yesterday cause the poor thing just looked terrible. I felt so bad for her. Ends up she has her first ear infection.

She will smile at anyone that makes eye contact w/ her. Even last night sitting at the pharmacy waiting for her medicine, she had 4 sick people smiling from ear to ear! About the only time she screams bloody murder is when she's hungry. And it seems she goes from this smiley, happy baby to Ethiopian starvation in a matter of seconds, it's kinda funny!

She still loves her swing, although her toes are starting to hang off the end a bit. I'm seriously not sure what I'm going to do w/ myself when she outgrows that thing. That is the only place she will lay by herself. She does like her exer-saucer, but only for about 15 minutes at a time. And she HATES laying on the floor. Will scream the second you put her there. (She might be a little spoiled...good luck daycare!)

As you'll see, she's still a happy little baby, full of smiles....breaks my heart to see how fast she's growing!

As a side note, I wanted to document a pic of Lauren at this age. Everyone says they either don't know who Paige looks like, or that she looks like Troy. I have said from day one that she is a spitting image of Lauren w/ blue eyes and white skin. Here is a pic of Lauren at 4 months old. You might not agree, but I think she looks alot like Lo Lo!!

Boo Bats!

We officially started our move to Dyersville Monday. Mom and dad were going to be gone on vacation all week, so we thought it would be alot easier to invade their home w/o them present! After a long day of attempting to organize complete unorganization (if that's a word), with 2 girls a bit confused about life and a baby so off her schedule she didn't know if she was coming or going, this mom was TIRED!

The girls are sleeping upstairs in my brothers old room and Paige is in my old room. With the girls upstairs, I refuse to sleep in the basement bedroom so I'm camping out in my parents bedroom. Kinda weird, but this is life as we know it for the next few months. Troy refuses to sleep in there (can't say I blame him, it is kinda weird), so for the next few months, he'll be camping out in the basement.

So it's our first night in our "new" home and after a long day all I can think about is sleep. I finally get to bed about 11ish and as soon as my head hit the pillow I think I was out. Little did I know that this tired mom was only going to be getting about 3 good hours of sleep that night.

It's 2 am. I'm fast asleep. All of a sudden I hear something hit the window followed by the sound of wind. My initial thought was more storms. So I tried to roll over and fall back asleep.

It took me about 1 minute to realize that the so called "storm" I thought was outside, was actually INSIDE MY BEDROOM!

I had left the hall light on incase the girls needed to go potty, and just enough light was shining into the bedroom that when I opened up my eyes, I shit you not, a BAT flying around in circles directly over my bed!

So there I am, 31 years old, married mother of 3, laying in my parents bed w/ the sheets up over my head like a scared little school girl. I had no idea what to do. I tried to reach for my phone to call Troy in the basement but I couldn't reach it. After about 3 minutes of laying there crapping my pants, I finally decided to make a run for it.

I slithered out of bed to the ground and crawled as fast as this body would go. I slammed the door behind me and ran to the basement to get Troy. I turned on the light and screamed, "OMG there's a bat in the bedroom!" To which his response was, "Jen, there is not a bat in the house. Go....to....bed!" (My hero!)

After assuring him it would be pretty stupid for me to make something like this up at 2 IN THE MORNING, he slowly got up, looked for a pair of shorts, scratched a bit here and there, and went to the bathroom. He took his jolly ole time coming to my rescue, but finally made it upstairs to the bedroom door. He opened it up a bit, turned on the light, looked in and yelled, "Holy shit, there is a bat in there!"

REALLY!

Over the course of the next 10 minutes, looking back on, are pretty hilarious. Troy's strutting around the house, trying to muster up the courage to get his manly self into the room to "deal w/ the situation". He puts on my dads coat, wraps a scarf around his neck, puts another scarf over his head and in he goes w/ tennis racket in hand.

And this is what I hear:

WHIFF ....... "Damn it"
WHIFF again ........ "Damn it"
WHIFF ...........again......... "God Damn it"

Bam Bam Bam.......THUD! THUD! THUD!

Me:
"OMG...Did ya get him? Troy.....TROY? Did ya get him?"

Troy:
"Well, I'm not in here for my health Jen! Yes, I got him!"

I have yet to step foot in my parents bedroom. I have since been sleeping on the couch in the living room! Sigh! What a great way to start our Dyersville adventure!

Take Me Out To The Ballgame!

Let me start by saying this trip to St. Louis was well overdue. We haven't been down to visit Eric and Di since Chloe's baptism (she's 4 now!). But I do know this, judging by the amount of fun had, this will definitely be an annual trip from now on! As much as I enjoy the simplicity of our small town life, there's so much to do w/ the kids in the bigger cities. If my self diagnosed road rage disorder weren't one of the worst cases doctors have seen since the Flintstones, I think I might like that big city stuff!



The girls had a blast and surprisingly did amazing on the 6 hour car ride. I was anticipating 6 of the most painful hours of my life because Reese struggles sometimes on our trips to Dyersville which only takes 25 minutes. Paige yet again proved to be the best baby known to man by sleeping and cooing 5 out of the 6 hours of the trip both ways.



We got in late Friday night and just hung out. Ben, Lauren, Reese and Chloe don't get many chances to play together due to the distance, so we just let them play. On Saturday, we woke up and went to Grants Farm. Eric's house is w/in walking distance.

The girls favorite part of Grants farm was feeding the baby goats. As you approach these cute little creatures, you quickly come to realize these sweet looking babies are more like vulchers, anxiously waiting to attack sweet innocent children at an attempt at 2 ounces of milk! Even the sign before entering the gates state, "Warning: Goats may be aggressive!" Slight understatement!

Here is a pic of the girls before the got up the courage to enter the gates of mass ciaos!

And here are pictures of the kids after they entered the gates....ha! All I heard was Reese laughing hysterically saying, "DAD....HELP!"

Our second adventure for the weekend was the girls first professional baseball game....and they loved it! Since it was their first game, I wanted them to truly experience everything, so I caved and bought them St. Louis Cardinal t-shirts (to which my husband almost divorced me over!) Rest assured, we reminded the girls over and over again, we only where these ugly shirts ONCE a year when we come to visit Uncle Eric in St. Louis! Go Cubbies!!!

I was a little apprehensive taking Paige to the game but she did great. She was asleep when we got there and slept through the 6th inning.

Heck w/ those Budweiser Clydesdales, THIS is the new face of Bud!

This was the last pic of the night. We took this one as we were leaving the stadium. Think the girls had a good time?

Thanks Eric and Di for a great weekend. We can't wait until next year!

Month Three

Another month has already slipped away. Thank god I took extra time off work, or Monday would be my first day back. Part of me is so thankful for this extra time off. But another part of me is thinking this was a very bad idea, because it is going to make leaving her that much more difficult.




3 months into her life and Paige is still proving to be our best baby yet. She continues to sleep through the night, going to bed anywhere between 9 and 10. And waking up between 6 and 7. She's developed a bit of a fussy time from 5-8 pm, but the rest of the day she's pretty good. She still loves to be talked to and had developed an infatuation w/ her hands. They are constantly in her mouth. I'm afraid I'm going to have a finger sucker...boo! It took me about 20 tries to get a picture of her this month cause she always had her fingers in her mouth. And the ones I got weren't very good, but they are just going to have to work.

Lauren has turned into my live in babysitter. She loves taking care of Paige, but has started testing the boundaries of what she should and shouldn't be doing w/ her. She loves to feed her, but tried the other day to walk around and burb her like I do. Much to my surprise, she did a great job and held her very securely, but I asked her to sit down w/ her until she gets a little older, just in case something would happen. She agreed. Reese's feeding periods usually last about 20-45 seconds, then she's done.

Life with three continues to be a bit twazy on a daily basis. But it's a good twazy. I think part of the reason Paige is such a good baby is because she's been forced to be on the go since the day she was born. Between softball games, soccer games, swim lessons, doctor appointments and running errand after errand picking out stuff for the house, she's just learned to go w/ the flow. We are so blessed to have her. I'm 99.9% sure she's completed our family! (Unless I can figure out how to guarantee #4 being a boy, I'm pretty sure we're done!)

Accident Prone

When I was growing up, I remember my mom always telling people I was accident prone. I never really knew what that meant until my second daughter was born. There seriously could be a single patch of poison ivy in an entire forest and she would find it! Not only would she find it, she's figure out a way to trip and roll around in it from head to toe!


If you don't remember, last November right before Thanksgiving, we had our first trip to the ER. Reese tripped over Lauren's foot and sliced her head open on the corner of my hutch. It was one of those screams that raises the hair on your arms. She ended up w/ 6 stitches in her forehead. And to say that she milked that situation for all it was worth would be an small understatement!

Well, last Thursday, and another milking opportunity presented itself to my darling middle child. The girls were outside playing basketball. It was 8:30 pm. Baths finished and jammies on. It had been a long day. Troy spent the whole day at the house and I had a crazy day of swim lessons, doc appointments and soccer. Looking back, we all should have just gone to bed, but it was such a nice night out, the girls wanted to go out and play a little longer.

No more than 3 minutes after they got out there, a scream that brought neighbors out from their houses came from Reese mouth. Initial reaction, god please don't let it be her teeth or eyes. I rushed outside and she's limping on her foot w/ blood coming out from underneath......glass!

After about 5 minutes of what our neighbors might think was terrorist torture going on in our house, we came to the realization that she was NOT going to let us get this piece of glass out of her foot so Troy rushed to her Acute Care, hoping we'd make it before 9 (when they close) so we could avoid another $800 ER visit!

It took 5 grown adults to hold her down while they gave her a shot to numb her foot so the doc could take out the glass. A couple of ex-rays and a lolli pop later, she had calmed down enough to let the doc wrap up her foot and luckily, she didn't need stitches. By the time she got home, I'm pretty sure the pain had subsided, cause she was pretty darn proud of her "cast" as she called it!

Stressful Memories...

Why is it that the object of trying to capture one professional picture your family has to be one of the most stressful tasks known to man? The concept isn't that hard, really. Sit, say cheese, capture picture. All in all, it should take about 15 minutes. But with 8 kids under the age of 9 and one child that crosses his eyes and sticks out his tongue each time the camera clicks, trying to capture this one moment in time seemed to take an eternity!

My good friend Jenny came out to the cabin this weekend to try to get pics of the Steger family. And while she did capture many good pics, she definitely earned her money w/ this family. While she was taking the pics, she didn't notice my nephew Ben attempting to sabotage every single picture, but upon editing, realized the comedy that lay before her! Note below the little boy in the blue shirt....

Luckily, Ben did choose to smile for one family picture and many others.....

8 Weeks Old....a week late!

Hard to believe already, but Paige turned 8 weeks old (last week). At her 8 week check up, the doc gave her a clean bill of health saying she looked like a perfect little girl. (I couldn't help but agreed!)

She weighed 11 lbs, 3 oz....gaining just over 3 lbs since she was born. And measured 23 1/2 inches long....growing 2 1/2 inches. She's eating 4 oz at a time, eating every 3-4 hours. And the only time she screams bloody murder is when she's hungry.

She is by far our best sleeper, sleeping literally through the night since she's been born. She got a head cold and struggled sleeping for about 2 weeks, but once that was gone she was back to sleeping 6-8 hours. She has spoiled us rotten at night.

She still won't take a binki, which kills me, but is a great baby so I shouldn't complain. I'm just not use to babies that aren't addicted to their binki's. The thing was like baby crack for Lauren & Reese so it just feels strange that she won't take it.

She is a very happy baby and loves to be talked to. As soon as she makes eye contact w/ you she is smiles from ear to ear. Lauren nicknamed her Smiley and it fits perfectly, as you'll see in her picture below. I nicknamed her Fidget, cause the kid does not sit still unless she's sleeping. Every limb on her body is constantly moving when she's awake. She fidgets the most when Lauren and Reese talk to her. It's so cute. I don't want her to grow up, but I'm excited to see her start interacting w/ the girls.

She loves her swing. I'm not quite sure I'd be able to get through the day w/o that thing. That is the only place she will sit, awake, w/o being held. She will sit in that swing for hours just laughing, cooing and smiling. Not sure what's making her so happy in there, but it works for me.

She just started cooing this week and it melts my heart. She has been trying so hard for about 2 weeks but nothing would come out. It was funny to watch. A couple times she would be trying so hard that a big ole squeal would come out and scare the bejesus out of her! It was hilarious.

I love having a baby in the house again. But life w/ three has made me late for everything! Before Miss Paige came along, we had it pretty easy w/ a 6 & 4 year old in the house. Picking up and going was a piece of cake. But since she's been born, I don't think I've been on time for a single thing! I totally forgot the prep work it took to just simply run to Walmart! A couple weeks ago I took all 3 girls to my cousin's softball game. We got there and Lauren got out of the car, I got Paige out of the car, then Reese got out of the car and said, "Mom, where's my shoes?" So we sported a Shoeless Joe Jackson look for the Beckman softball game! (All of the moms there appreciated my frustration!)

I kid you not, the next day I took the girls out to the farm. Reese got out of the van, I got Paige out of the van, then Lauren got out of the van and said, "Mom, where's my shoes?" ARE YOU KIDDING ME!

So now, the last thing I say before we leave the house is, "DOES EVERYBODY HAVE A PAIR OF SHOES ON???"

Ok, that's probably enough for now. I have to get some laundry done anyway. Enjoy my smiley!