Drew Being Drew

He's getting so big. He's in the saucer already. Soon he'll be eating baby food. Then crawling. Walking. Antagonizing his siblings. Slow....down....baby. Except for the sleeping through the night part. That can come any time you feel like it.

People always say he looks like Emma. What do you think?

Drew's not so sure about that.

How about now?

What a Weekend

I really enjoyed my weekend. It had the best of everything--a date with my husband, shopping, time with family, a special holiday, and SLEEP!

Friday night we borrowed Chelsea from the Todd and Amber Earnest clan to come babysit for us. We wanted to go out to a nice dinner and since Drew is such a handful, I was only willing to leave him with family. Thanks Chels! We went out to Fleming's Steakhouse where we had the most delicious steaks you can imagine, followed by red velvet cake and chocolate dipped strawberries for two. It was... amazing.

Saturday we drove down to IKEA and got some fun little things for around the house. I love that store.

Sunday was, of course, Valentine's Day. Marcus got me a sweet bracelet and these gorgeous roses.

They've opened up just beautifully.

I got him a bunch of his favorite foods and a new video game to play. The kids also enjoyed their treats.

But the thing I liked best about this weekend is this: I finally started getting some sleep! After much thought and discussion, we decided to make Drew go pacifier-free. We are on Day 3, and he has slept through the night twice, plus one night with two short wakings. He goes down for his naps within five minutes, too. It will take me awhile to catch up on 4 months with little sleep, but I already feel SO MUCH BETTER!

I don't know if this week can live up to my weekend, but I'm looking forward to good things ahead.

Emma's First Dance Class

We signed Emma up for her very first dance class at a local studio. They are halfway through their season, so she has some catching up to do, but she LOVES it and is so excited. The class is 2 hours once a week, and they learn ballet, tap, tumbling, and hip-hop.

She is so enthusiastic and was willing to try everything the class did, even though she doesn't know any of the moves yet. Here is a video of her trying one of the routines the class performed for the parents. It cracks us up every time.

4 Months

Before I get to Drew, if you're looking for something fun to do in your daughter's hair for Valentine's Day, go to Babes in Hairland or The Story of a Princess and her Hair for some fun do's. Here's one I tried on Emma today (don't mind the flyaways- she had been running around outside all morning)

Okay, now on to the star of the show: Drew is 4 months old today.

During the day, he is sure a lot of fun! His brother and sister can't get enough of him

Some people think he's huge- even though his percentiles are just about average for his age. I think it's the cheeks.

He's entering my favorite stage- big enough to play with toys, be a little more independent, fascinated with the world around him, but NOT MOBILE.

We love our Drool-y Drew.

An Unwelcome Visitor

Things have been tough here at the Earnest household over the last month. The root of the problem was a nasty winter cold, which all three children got within days of each other. It lingered in each one of them, so they were all at varying stages of sickness at once. Emma and Drew both got fevers, Emma and Kyle had the "faucet-nose" syndrome, and all of them had a nasty cough that has lasted for weeks. Drew, being a natural grump, had the hardest time dealing with it, as this was his first cold. I don't think he had a clue what was happening to him, and he was very vocal about his dislike for our little visiting virus. But we trudged through life with sickness, staying home as much as was possible without going insane, and finally resumed normal life.

Except, the sickness caused one teensy little problem. Drew stopped sleeping.

I've posted before about what a difficult sleeper he has been. I also posted how we'd turned a corner, and he was sleeping for 4-6 hours at night before waking. Well, that has flown right out the window.

I'm not going to whine about it too much- I'll just say that he was waking every 45 minutes to an hour (all....night....long....) for over a week while he was sick, and now he is still waking 4-5 times a night, even though he is only waking to feed once. I have read everything I can think of about sleep and tried lots of things to "fix" his sleep problem, but NO ONE seems to have this problem at this age. Any ideas?

So anyway, while we were home recuperating from illness, I took the opportunity to make some Valentine's Day decorations. I didn't have anything, so it was fun scouring the web for ideas.

The kids and I made this fun craft, found here (though I never found a frame for it):

I Modge-Podged these letters from Joann's, which idea I found at My Little Gems:

I made a "Be Mine" banner with scrapbook paper, modeled after this one at Jamie's Digital Designs (hers is way cuter! And, this is a terrible picture)

And finally, I designed and stitched this pillow.

I have more things I want to do, but I think they'll have to wait until next year, as Valentine's Day is quickly approaching. File them in my "Things I want to make" folder, which is sadly, getting larger and larger as time goes by.

Need I say More?