Goldilocks and the 5 Bears

Isla wanted to tell me a story a few nights ago. She takes creative license with the classics to make them her own. This night it was Goldilocks and the 5 Bears. There was Poppa Bear, Momma Bear, Baby Bear, Puppy Bear, and an extra little Baby Bear who was staying with the Bear Family for awhile cause it's momma and daddy couldn't take care of it right now.

Anxiously awaiting more feet

When Isla was born I was overwhelmed by feelings when I'd look at her--pretty much every feeling imaginable. One of the things that always struck me was the awareness of how vulnerable she was and how there are people that could hurt someone so innocent.

Fast forward to our adoption journey. We dismissed the idea of trying to adopt through the foster system--too many unknowns and too much heartbreak.  Perhaps we could provide respite care for families we know that foster.

Then Sierra was born. Those feelings I had when Isla was born were back. And this time I knew how many foster families there are in our area and how many kids in care. And this time I realized it's not okay that there are kids in our community that don't have a safe place to stay. But we had reasons for not fostering--we just had a baby, another car seat won't fit in our car.... But we were going to adopt last year right before Sierra was due. One day I realized that my excuses were all convenience issues. And our convenience is not more important than a child having a safe place to stay.

So we talked. We prayed. We completed the foster parent classes. Now we wait for paperwork to be finished and wait for two more feet. 

Slacking...

Wow! I haven't posted in a long time! I haven't even had a chance to read the blogs I follow and I just discovered my blogger app was missing from my phone--someone deleted a couple apps recently when she was rearranging the icons on my phone. I'll try and sit down and write a post soon if someone will start napping for more than 30 minutes a pop.  For now, here are some pics!

Gggrrr--twice now I've tried to publish this and I go back and it's still a draft! Here's hoping third time is the charm!

A Day In My Life....Or What I Tried To Eat Yesterday

A photo-ocumentary by Sierra

Hi....I'm Sierra. WHOA--close-up on that selfie. Looking a little blurry. Oh well, Momma turned over the blog to me today and let me pick my topic. So here we go....these are the things I tried to eat yesterday.

A chair cushion and the leg of my play mobile. 

Toys. BORING!

Momma's toe. WHOA--she needs a pedi STAT! She never lets me get a good taste of that. Maybe she would after a nice pedi.

Speckles's tail. Blech. I don't get the whole "hair of the dog" thing.

The leg of Sissy's easel. 

That's momma's thumb. Actually, any part of her hand I can get in my mouth is good. She doesn't let me do that anymore since I have these two hard things in my mouth.

I also gave Momma a big, wet, sloppy kiss yesterday. She went for the cheek and I turned. HAHAHA! I love my Momma. I was playing in the floor yesterday, crawled over to her, let us a fuss for her to pick me up (she's getting trained pretty good about that), put my head on her shoulder and went right to sleep.

But back to the things I like to put in my mouth. Momma and Daddy BOTH get all worked up when I try to put those long things in my mouth....what do they call them? Cords? I like cords. They try to hide them and put things in front of them, but I can find them. I took the one out of Momma's computer and put it in my mouth the other day--she got really excited about that. They moved my bed out from the wall cause I was trying to get the one to that camera thing they spy on me with. Gotta keep them on their toes.

Well, time to get take a nap. Later peeps!
Sierra

Sweet baby...

I hate when I realize that things I've written never publish on here. This is from a couple weeks ago. Isla has her glasses now and Sierra is finally starting to sleep better.....

Sierra isn't sleeping through the night yet but she's the easiest baby to put to bed. When she's tired and fussy, she usually wants to be put in her bed.  Occasionally she'll want to cuddle. When she's ready to sleep, she flips on her belly, pulls her arms in at her sides and pulls her knees in, pushing her butt up in the air.

My sweet big girl has to get glasses. She failed her 3 year old screen but was just "borderline" for needing glasses last year so the doctor recommended waiting and seeing. This year the doctor said glasses.  Hopefully she'll outgrow it (she's farsighted). Right now she's excited. Here are the glasses she picked out. She said she wanted pink sparkly glasses but fell in love with these--pink, no sparkles. I think I'm going to have a friend of mine add some bling for her!

Another pair she tried on...

And some of this year's "vintage" pictures from school.

A true princess...

We took Isla to a princess festival in Logan, UT yesterday. There were lots of princesses running around, doing skits, teaching lessons about cleaning up after yourself, finishing what you start, etc.

Today we were at a park playing and Isla was very patiently waiting her turn for the tire swing and I told her we were going to have to leave soon. 

"But I haven't had a turn."

" I know but sometimes people are kinda rude and take a real long time with things and don't share. What can we do?"

She kept playing in her swing a few minutes.

"Momma, can we ask them for a turn?"

"YOU can ask them if they'll let you have a turn."

She got off her swing and went to the tire swing with two bigger girls. I could barely hear her so I told her she had to step closer and speak up.

"You've been on here a long time and I'd like to have a turn too. Can I have a turn?"

"Don't forget to say please."

"Please?"

The two older sisters said sure and got off the swing and headed to their mom and grandpa. I heard their mother thank them for sharing as Isla called out "thank you."

Isla started to swing and then stopped and said "A true princess is always thinking of new ideas."

After playing a few minutes, she commented about it being fun to play alone sometimes and fun to play with others sometimes. A little girl about her size had been playing on the swing next to us and now she was walking around. I asked Isla if she saw anyone who might like to play too and what she should do.

"Invite her to join me!"

She asked the other little girl to join us and I pushed them both on the tire swing for several minutes, listening to an interesting conversation about Disney World (both had been), Cinderella (she had a Cinderella doll but lost one of the glass slippers--the girls didn't see the irony I did), swimming suits, vacations, and other 4 year old topics.  They were fast friends until Isla suddenly realized she'd spun too much and was about to get sick. We thanked our new friend and I carried Isla out of the park. The girl's mom headed her way and thanked Isla for playing and me for pushing them. A very fun park visit!

My babes...

The week in pics...

I've been working on some home improvement projects. And trying to organize my craft stuff and my new Wildtree business. 

THAT explains it!

Apparently adults have their arms on backwards. That's why Isla's right is my left and her left is my right. 

Time, flowing like a river....

For some reason I can't seem to find the time to write any updates about how smart and funny my girls are. I'm trying to enjoy it before these times are gone. Life with our 4 year old is very trying--she keeps her listening ears off more than on but then she "gets" things we have no idea when or where she heard. Her language skills are amazing and she's continuously asking us what words mean and saying things in ways atypical of a 4 year old.

And Sierra is my happy baby these days. She wakes up in the morning and lays in bed laughing and talking for 10-15 minutes before calling for us--she has her communication skills also. She loves being talked to, especially by her big sister. I think I'm going to have another chatterbox! That's ok, I was recently reading how language skills at 2-4 years are a huge predictor of academic success later.

I'm not sure where the days are flying off to. I know I'm going to blink and they'll be in school, then grown. But for now, here are my girls.

And I kinda like the wonky pic placement so I'll keep it.

Picture pages, picture pages...

Two months!

Wow! Baby girl is two months old! Sierra, you are sunshine. The past days have been a little rough--you're supposed to be in a developmental leap so maybe that's it. I've seen so many changes just this week. You're more aware of everyone, love Isla talking to you, especially when she shows you that baby in the mirror, you seem to focus on faces better, you're laughing, and you've discovered you have a voice and are learning how that works.

Isla loves Sierra and is starting to be able to be entertained. Dance class started this week so she has a new hobby and looked so sweet in her outfit. Oh, and has been eagerly awaiting Valentine's Day!

Love my baby girls!

The best pic...

is the one the photographer took of P and Isla at the dance. I'll post it when I get a copy. Here's the one I took before they left. Check out the grin on that girl!

I'm going to get her a photo album just for her Daddy/Daughter pics. 💗💗💗

Pics as promised

Tidbits

It's been a long winter so far--ice, sleet, snow, frigid temps. Between the weather, taking it easy to keep my blood pressure down before Sierra was born, Sierra's being born, recovering from a C-section, having a newborn, and Isla being sick....I've spent much more time at home the past 2 1/2 months than I ever have. I was actually looking forward to going back to work this week. Of course Mother Nature had other plans and left us with a layer of ice Tuesday that kept me from going back Wednesday but my mom came over Thursday so I could go in for most of the day. Then last night our basement flooded from the water from our water heater so Friday isn't going as planned either. Plus the university is still closed because of the ice so Isla's preschool is closed. Right now I'm waiting for the repairman to come back with our water heater so I can shower and go to work. If I'd known everything was going to be able to be fixed this morning, mom could have stayed here with the girls and the repairman and I could have gone to the gym to shower and gone on to work. But we didn't know so mom took the girls to her house and I'm here. Might as well update the neglected diary of our lives.

Sierra has always smiled at us (not just gas!) but now she's doing so responsively. She loves Isla talking to her and gives her the most beautiful smiles in return. Isla asked the other day what Sierra's name will be when she grows up. "You know, her other name." I had a hard time convincing her that her name will always be Sierra. She said she wants to call her Rosie (like grandma does).

Sierra is still waking up frequently at night to eat. The past few nights, she's slept 4 hours, then 3 hours, then 2 hours, taking most of a 3 ounce bottle each time she wakes up. The last wake up is usually around 4 and it's hard to get her back to sleep before she's up for the day around 6. She'll take a 4 ounce bottle some time in the morning, then 3 ounces every 2-3 hours through the day. She's staying awake more during the day most days, although she still has some days that she seems to sleep all day. Guess it's tiring growing so big. She has her 2 month check up and shots in about 10 days so we'll see how big she is then. I've been reading about people whose babies are 4 and 5 pounds over birth weight by their 2 month appointment. Sierra hasn't grown that much, but she's definitely doing better with weight gain than her sister did. Momma is much less stressed. My guess is that she'll be about 9 1/2 pounds at her 2 month check up.

It's just amazing to hear Isla talk these days. She's always been so verbal and talks constantly but the things she's saying floor me sometimes. One day this week she told me I worry too much. Yesterday she wanted me to help her color her Valentine for grandma and I told her she could do it. "But she's YOUR mom." She has an imaginary family of cats. The mom is Sing-along Seraphina and went to the gym with us yesterday. The dad and the babies stayed home because the babies are so small they'd get stepped on.

Isla is so loving to Sierra. Not always at convenient times, but I'm not going to tell her not to hug and love her on baby sister. Isla's had a cough off and on since Sierra was born so we often keep kisses to the top of Sierra's head, but Isla is good with that.

Isla is going to be a planner--she sees me making lists and makes her own lists. She was planning a hoedown a few months ago. That one didn't happen although the Daddy Daughter Dance P took her to the other day at one of the local churches was a barn dance so she got to go to a hoedown. I'll post some picks of her in her cowgirl outfit. Last week P came home and she started telling him about the sleepover with 12 friends she's planning. He wasn't sure if this was something momma was on board with our not (NO!) so he was being very cautious in talking to her about it.

Isla and I have been to see Frozen 3 times. (I've never seen a movie 3 times in the theater--there are only a few I've seen twice in theater. P said he's never even seen a movie 3 times in the theater!) We went with daddy, then grandma, then we took A when she came to visit. I bought the soundtrack so the past week Isla and I have been having cuddle times listening to the music. She's starting to pick up the lyrics and likes talking about what was happening in the movie for each song. She remembers parts of the movie better than I do!

There are things everyday I want to write about, but finding the time is hard. Hopefully I can do better with it and actually get those pictures posted!