It's a jungle out there!

Callie got a big box of toy animal figurines in the mail from GiJu. They are mostly jungle animals but we put them all in the farm anyways. She enjoys matching them up, making families with mommies and babies and daddies too. She tries to get D to play with her too. One day when he actually can I'm sure she won't want him to anymore. That's the way things are with Callie.

Sunday Morning sibling love

Pumpkin Patch

In 92 degree sunny weather we went to the pumpkin patch today. I typically think cool fall breeze and needing a jacket and hot apple cider. Instead I was sweating and hoping for a glass of ice water. Either way we still had some fun. We couldn't stay too long as Diego was tired, hot and cranky. You can see him crying in the tractor ride photo. Very typical photo of me and the kids ;) we tried to get a photo of the three kids but Diego tipped over after the only one we took and scratched his face in the hay and that was the end of that attempt as it ruined his cooperation. Callie got to play in the pumpkins, feed the goats and chickens and ride the tractor ride. We just took home one small pumpkin for now as it's too hot to put one on the steps and I know we will go back. She is already asking to go to the other one with the train and to bring daddy an Papa and Tio next time. I thought this one had the train so I made the mistake of telling her on the way there, luckily she was happy enough with the tractor ride.

Fixing the plumbing with PaPa

Last night and all morning today was dedicated to fixing my kitchen sink. I decided to put in a reverse osmosis water filtering system but when I went to install it I realized my current faucet was leaking and corroded. It was also causing mold to grow under my sink! So the faucet and sink had to be repaired before I put in the new water filtration system. I tried removing the faucet myself thinking I could do it but failed and called Enrique for some help. Big did I ever need that help. The faucet was so difficult to remove we ended up sawing through the pipe and cutting the water lines I remove it! Then my water inlet valves are so old I need special adapters to hook it up. Phew it was a lot of hard work but it's finally done. The process was slowed down by "helper Callie" who wanted to be involved in every step. She was under the sink handing tools and measuring and helping PaPa. While she was very cute it really was slowing us down but PaPa was extremely patient and let her help when she could. I'll have to take a finished photo of our new sink faucet and new filtered water faucet but for now I'll leave you with photos of Papa and Callie fixing the sink. A BIG thank you to PaPa Rique for helping us solve this big problem.

Tonight we also celebrated Tio Christians birthday and went out to dinner. Callie insisted we wrap his present in the Disney Princesses gift bag instead of the plain blue one so that made for an interesting opening for Christian. Then Callie took her princess bag back. Oh Callie..

And just for proof, one photo of Diego's first meal yesterday. Today he ate quite a bit more oatmeal then yesterday so hopefully he starts to get the hang of this quick.

Five Months Old

Yesterday Diego turned five months old. It's been a long five months and I had hoped that we would be closer to a happy point in our lives. Diego still cries a lot, mostly because he is over tired and he just can't learn to fall asleep. We have been doing cry it out and he does go to sleep but it takes him awhile and he can't put himself back to sleep if he wakes up. He still wakes up quite frequently at night, more than 4 times a night, on average probably about 6 in 9 hours. It's pretty exhausting. Besides that his nap routine has taken a turn for the worse and he wakes up after only 30 minutes. I try to put him back to sleep but not always successfully. His reflux seems better so I don't know why he still cries so much, but I am so ready for the happy baby time to start.

Things have been so busy that we just started solids today. His first food was oatmeal and he didn't like it at all. We just did a few small spoonfuls for taste and then called it quits til tomorrow.

So what can Diego do at five months? Besides having fabulous screaming lungs you mean..he's actually crying while I write this. Just one hour after falling asleep he is awake crying. He rolls himself over and then is pissed and screams because he can't roll back. But he gets so mad that even if you roll him back he rolls back over. It's such a battle.

So what can he do? Hmm well he is not as advanced as Callie was, sorry Diego but you are no matched for advanced Callie and Ford too. He can roll from tummy to back and is pretty good at it. Unfortunately that means he doesn't get too much tummy time because he just rolls himself over. He can't lift his chest up off the surface on his arms and I think it's because he is weak from not spending enough time on his belly. He can hold his head up well but can't really prob sit or sit without support. You wouldn't guess it from the photos as I took them sitting in a boppy and had him wear overalls because they are the secret weapon to advanced sitting ;) I know this through the trials of many kids at work learning to sit. Diego enjoys standing with help and can take all his weight for some time if you help him balance. He also enjoys playing in his jumper. Since his legs are long he actually reaches and can stand there. He is just getting accurate with his hands and is starting to play with small parts of toys and explore them. Most toys go straight in the mouth. Still no actual teeth, but lots of teething and drooling and two little numbs on the bottom front are making their way in. I would bet in the next 2 weeks we will see a tooth.

He enjoys being tickled and has quite a laugh. He also likes to be played peek a boo with or any other silly faces and funny sounds. Callie always seems to get a smile out of him even though I think he is terrified of her. Diego is a mom as boy who prefers to always be at the boob, especially while sleeping. His favorite spot is laying right next to me facing me with his. Head smooshed on my chest even if he isn't eating.

He is just moving into 6 month old clothes. Some 3 month onesies still fit but anything that's a sleeper needs to be 6 months as he is much longer than wide. When I look back at Callie at 5 months she was much chunkier! Diego can babble a bit and loves to make spitting raspberries when he is mad and also just for fun.

Here's to five months and hoping we all get some sleep and less crying soon although I'm not counting my chickens as I just have a feeling it will be awhile longer.

How about that drool?!

Comb over!

I tried to get a shot laying on his belly but he decided to just roll over instead.

Don't tell me...

As soon as I thought Callie had recovered from her illness she starts puking again today. :( her pediatrician wanted to see her since it was a big gap in the puking episodes just to be sure. She looks good so it's likely just a virus but we sent out a urine sample to be sure she doesn't have a uti. Callie thought peeing in a cup was really fun, go figure...unfortunately this virus return means we can't go on our planned outing to the Hulabaloo dance and music kid time at the winery which would have been a win win for me and Callie. Guess we will have to wait until next month. Diego turned 5 months today but I can't even attempt that post after today, so we will pretend its tomorrow. Hopefully Callie is doing better tomorrow and we can put this all behind us.

In the meantime on a happier note, here is a video clip of happier days...

Callie somehow took to this popular song on the radio Don't Tell Em. It says don't tell me like 5 or 6 times in a row and she sings this while putting up her one finger and bobbing her head. Usually she doesn't like the radio and asks for her own music CDs but when this song comes on she sings. She also recognizes it from the very beginning of the song. I keep trying to get her singing but she doesn't want to be recorded. I did get her to dance this past weekend, but it was the instrumental because we couldn't find the radio edit and the real song has a lot of bad words. I'll get her on video at some point because it's way to funny to not have documented.

Busy Wednesday

Callie is finally back to her regular self, well almost. She's crabbier than usual and not eating up to her typical amount but overall much better. She is headed back to school tomorrow.

Today we had a doctors appointment for Diego's last 4 month old vaccine. Then went grocery shopping and Callie played on the bubble wrap that the water system was packed in which was a lot of fun but quite noisy. In the afternoon went to Lowes to get a new kitchen faucet and some supplies for installing my new reverse osmosis water filtration system. Callie loved the sample bathtubs and toilets. I had to tell her more than one the toilets done work they are just to look at! And lastly on the way home stopped to feed the ducks. Callie wanted to eat the stale bread and cried when we fed it all the the ducks as she wanted some. Oh Callie....It was a jam packed day but we had a lot to do after a few days of resting and recovering.

C