Stella is now 5 weeks old and sleeping through the night like a champ! She slept 8.5 hours last night!!! She doesn't do this every night, but she goes 6 hours (minimum) each night and last night was the longest she's slept in one stretch since birth. It was glorious! Titus usually gets up between 5-6am and asks Mark (if he's not already left for work) or me to rock him, and then he goes back to bed until 8 or 9am. Marcus could sleep all day if we let him. He typically wakes up between 9-10am. Now before you start judging us as bad parents for letting them sleep so late, know that the boys do go to bed later than most kids their age. But that's the joy of staying home and not having anywhere we HAVE to be each day. I'm grateful for this freedom and can usually get a lot done between 6-9am each morning when the children are still asleep.
Notables for Stella: she does NOT like a dirty diaper and will fuss until changed, she likes warm baths and even has taken a few showers with us, both of which she didn't make a peep of displeasure, and tummy time is not her favorite thing, but she tolerates it better when one (or both) of the boys lays beside and talks to her. Titus will say, "hi deh-wah!" Marcus is her protector and tends to her every cry. If we are letting her cry it out to go to sleep, he'll say, "have you started the timer?" She typically stops crying right before the timer goes off, so he wants to be sure we turned it on so he doesn't have to hear her cry long. She's great in the car, is awake more each day, but has yet to give us a good hearty smile yet. She grins in her sleep and smiles through her eyes, but hasn't quite let out a big ol' grin yet. Any day now...
Finally, the boys are doing well, enjoying the dog days of summer, having water balloon fights with their daddy, playing ball daily, and writing on the driveway with chalk when it's not raining. When given the chance, they love going to the pool or playing in water of any type. We are gearing up for school in early September and both boys seem to be excited about it. With Marcus already being able to read, he'll be doing a kindergarten/first grade mix of studies while Titus will be doing standard pre-school activities where he learns colors, shapes, and recognizes letters/numbers. I am meeting with a homeschool veteran and mother of five (three of whom have graduated or area attending large universities now) next week to help me plan for our school year and make sure I'm covering everything. I'm definitely excited about it all, but I have a lot of work in front of me. If we're going to do this whole homeschool thing, I want to do it right and do it well.
Ok, that's all that the children will allow me to type for now. Stella is so over doing tummy-time, Titus is waking up from his nap, and Marcus is begging to watch baseball highlights on my phone. Kids these days...
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| Super Brother! Holding Stella (who was now asleep) and reading a book to Titus. |
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| Just because many of you ask, here are our nephews Hunter and Tyson. They turned 2 in June and are doing wonderful. They are rambunctious and fun little fellas! |
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| Many sweet friends who have given gifts for Stella have also given the boys gifts, too. How thoughtful! |
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| Can you see her barefoot sandals? |
