Nap Time

I have been very luck since Little Ninja's birth as most days, Eerika and he have napped at the same time. This means that on many days, I have napped as well.

Eerika at 3 years and 10 months still rocks at napping. It is such a blessing and continues to be a special time for us to snuggle.

Spelling Bee

Saku competed in Mesquite's spelling bee today. He won his class' spelling bee so he presented his class in the school wide spelling bee. We got the list of the words last week and practiced on and off. I was impressed how many of the words he could very confidently spell. However, we were a bit distracted with Little Ninja and we really didn't practice as much as I think we would have under other circumstances. 

This morning we were all nervous. Right before they called Saku up, he said "I am so nervous". We said a quick prayer and I almost got emotional as I prayed that Saku could be brave, remember the words he had practiced and be happy no matter what.  It is not easy to see your five year old compete in something. He was handed a water bottle as they waited for the bee to start. I wish we had pictures but they weren't allowed. 

They drew numbers for the order of which they would be spelling words and Saku happened to be the first one. They did one round of practice and Saku spelled "the" in a nice and clear voice.

Saku made it through five rounds and the sixth round's word was  "pretty". Unfortunately he spelled it P-R-I-T-T-Y and he was out. 

He was so sad. Troy had been allowed to sit next to him so Saku quickly climbed onto his lap and sobbed. It was not a surprising reaction as he is sensitive to failure and he really wanted the trophy.

I am very proud of him. It is cool to see your child accomplish something like this, but more so, I loved the fact that he really practiced hard.

To cheer Saku up, Eerika and I bought a balloon for him and a donut that waited for him in the car after we picked him up from school. By the afternoon, there was no evidence of sadness for his third place in the spelling bee.

Now we know what to expect and we can prepare for next year:)

Week 3 of Little Ninja

Little Ninja was 9 lbs and 10 oz at three week check up and had grown to be 21.5 inches long. 

He sleeps half the night in his bassinet and then he ends up sleeping next to me in the early morning hours. 

He likes to take showers.

He has the loudest man burps.

He still poops every time he eats.

He smiled and made a cooing sound for the first time on Sunday November 16th.

He calms down with isi very well. I have started to call Troy "the baby whisperer".

Getting Perspective

I find it difficult to truly put down my thoughts and feelings.  I want my writing to be authentic and to depict the life that we live and the triumphs as well as the struggles that we go through. However, it can be difficult to write about the awesome things without sounding prideful and it is hard to honestly  write about the hard every day situations without sounding like a whiner or a complainer. And since there are some people how read my blog, I honestly don't want to be judged. However, I have noticed that as I go back through the blog posts from the past five plus years, it is so good to read about the mundane challenges and little bits of pure happiness that I have written down. 

On Tuesday night, I was reading a book of short stories of motherhood and I can't even remember the exact story or idea, but I clicked in my head that I had too high of expectations for now. Because Little Ninja was a sleepy baby and slept "really well" for a newborn, in my head I was thinking that he would start sleeping huge chunks of time by now. Maybe because it feels like he has been with us for so long, but I somehow forgot that he is still a newborn. He is only three weeks old. Maybe because we went back to church five days after his birth, I feel like we have been back to "regular life" for a long time and I feel like I should be more productive. So I would look at the clutter around my house because it is hard to pick up things when you are holding a baby and feel stressed.  Maybe because he was such a sweet quiet baby for the first two weeks, I felt a selfish feeling of alarm as he had a fussy weekend and I thought "oh please don't be hard baby". And I didn't honestly think of it because I can't handle a hard baby, I am okay with a baby who cries and needs to be held. However, I selfishly was thinking how it would reflect on me to have a "hard baby"; especially, after we had told people what an angel baby he had been. And I didn't want someone to label him as a "difficult baby". I get defensive like that when it comes to my children. Selfishly, I wanted to be the awesome wife who doesn't wake up her husband to help with the baby. And while I am sure Troy enjoyed the many nights that he wasn't up, I realize I don't do any service by being a martyr if we do have a rough night. And I realized how I need to be more patient with Saku and Eerika. They have adjusted to Little Ninja so well, and they deserve my patience and benefit of the doubt when it comes to their actions. 

Something that Tuesday night just made me have a moment of realization that my life right now is beautiful and awesome. So last night at 2 am, I was holding Little Ninja and inhaling his baby smell, his head smells delicious and his breath is awful, I felt so grateful. I felt grateful for him. I felt grateful for Troy who has offered many times to get up and help during the night. I felt grateful for the kids who were sound asleep. I felt grateful for my healthy body, the ability to nurse Little Ninja without problems, and the fact that I will be running and hopefully running fast very soon. 

Another blessing has been Troy's wisdom. I don't say that in a sarcastic way. He reminded me how important it was to swaddle Little Ninja. Though he slept fine without being swaddled or being loosely swaddled, he sleeps much better when he is swaddled very tight. Because he is not as consumed with Little Ninja, he has better perspective on things and reminds me that Little Ninja, just like my other two kids, is not a reflection on me as a mom.  When I can separate that in my head, I am much more patient and tolerant and loving. 

Of course, it is much easier to have a good perspective as Little Ninja is sleeping on his own and the kids are happily playing in the backyard. Plus I have had two nights of good sleep, which right now means that Little Ninja slept three hours in a row, nursed and went right back to sleep. 

Saku and Eerika love coloring, drawing and cutting things. They often spend an hour or more doing this in the afternoons. 

Sibling Love

During the first two weeks, Little Ninja was very sleepy and therefore, he didn't seem to notice the poking, holding, and touching that his siblings like to subject him to, especially Eerika. Now that he is more alert and we try to have some sort of a schedule, a term that is used very loosely here, he isn't as much of a fan of the "I am in your face" attention that Saku and Eerika sometimes give him. These pictures from yesterday demonstrate his tolerance for Eerika's affection.

"Oh there is a finger in my eye, but I am ok."

"I she still there?"

"I am wishing that she would give me some space"

"Not another one!!"

"She just doesn't listen."

The last documented belly pictures at 37 weeks

I took these pictures at 37 weeks. Man, it was a big belly. And now it is gone:) I don't miss it, but I am grateful that I had such a healthy pregnancy and that Little Ninja arrived without problems.

If/when I am pregnant again, I will want to remember the fact that I felt so huge and it stressed me out, but now I can wear three of my regular jeans and while I am flabby in the belly, I feel great and will be wearing rest of my own clothes in the weeks to come. When I get so big, it makes me doubt the fact that I will get in shape and I get self conscious about it, but I honestly feel like I am getting back to my own size the quickest this time around. 

Thankful for the Restful Sunday

Today was a much needed rest. Yesterday I came down with a bad head cold, Eerika had a fever and Little Ninja had a  rough night with a stuffed nose. 

While I feel like I have had a good perspective and attitude about middle of the night awakenings, last night, probably due to my old state, I felt little despair. Things truly do look worse in the middle of the night in the dark. Poor Little Ninja was unhappy around 1 am and I couldn't get him to settle down.  Troy came to my rescue and I was able to get some sleep. 

After a nice long shower with Isi, Little Ninja felt much better and he had a great day of very little crying. I took a long nap while Eerika napped and Little Ninja napped in isi's arms. I went on a walk in the sunshine while pushing Little Ninja in the bassinet stroller and I felt my spirits lift up. 

While I had a bit of a freak out about how hard it is to have a baby, yes I had forgotten and yes, most of the time Little Ninja is not very demanding. But little babies are demanding. Troy gave me some perspective and reminded me that I didn't have to take it all on myself and that he was on my team. He really has been so helpful with Little Ninja. We have a little arrangement where I take care of the night time wakefulness and he gets on duty at 5 am so I can get at least an hour of "care free" sleep. 

Due to the rough night, we had apple pie for breakfast. Saku first didn't believe me when I said that was on the menu for breakfast. 

Eerika wasn't too happy about the fact that she wasn't "allowed" to touch Little Ninja due to her fever. And for some reason, Saku asked to hold Little Ninja multiple times today.

We have to get a passport for Little Ninja for our trip in five weeks, so we took some passport pictures. We got very lucky to get such a cute picture of him as he still doesn't spend that much time with eyes open and definitely not looking straight at the camera!