4 Generations of Anne

4 Generations of firstborn daughters

Patricia Anne Denson 70
Linda Anne Denson 48
Crystal Anne Dahlstrom(Denson) 29
Ellison Anne Dahlstrom 6months

Wow, writing out our ages just made me feel really old. My mom had me when she was 18, grandma had my mom (her 3rd child) when she was 22. I can't imagine having 4 kids by the time I was 24! You sure are a superwoman, grandma! I'm so thankful that i have my mom and grandma in my life, and that they are so young and spunky! Today was a great mother's day!

6 months already!

miss ellie is 6 months. it seems like yesterday she was a teeny little newborn. she's such a good baby. she loves her big "protectors" like crazy. every morning around 6:30 or 7am she wakes up, we snuggle and coo at eachother, then i ask her if she wants to go see the bubbas, and she flails all around excitedly. it's super cute. whenever she fusses, one boy or both are right at her side ready with the slapstick trying to make her happy. she's only belly laughed for me or jason a few times, but always yuks it up over something the boys are doing.

this is the longest i've ever been able to breastfeed a baby. YAY for not having to work this time around! we've been doing rice cereal every now and then for about a month or so, but in the past 2 weeks she's tried apples and peas and she's already a pro! i also started giving her a sippy cup of water to practice with. she got the hang of that on the first try, too! such a baby genius!

she still won't take a pacifier. instead she sucks on her blanket, burpcloth or one of the many doilies my grandma has made for her. she loves to be able to stick her fingers through the holes of the doilies, so that's our go-to when she really needs comforting. she's also a little outside girl. if she's fussy, i can take her outside, even if it's just on the porch to play with the windchime. she's an explorer.

ellie has yet to sleep through the night. there's been one or two really good nights since she's been born. we've got a good routine, though so it's not totally miserable. i wake up with her at night every night and on the weekends, i get to sleep in a bit. i know it's all up to me to train her, but when she wakes up in the middle of the night i tend to not be thinking in terms of the long run. maybe she'll sleep through the night when we finally move her to her own room. which probably won't happen b/c i don't want to sleepwalk up and down stairs a hundred times in a night. oh well. someday.

ellie is starting to sit up on her own. she's able to get up on her knees, but never stays long enough to figure out what she can do with them. and just today i caught her pushing her belly up off the floor with her arms. she's going to be crawling so soon. time to babyproof! she's a rolling champ and can turn her body while on her belly to face a new direction.

we had ellie's 6 month well baby this week. she's a whoppin' 18 lbs(90%) and is 26" tall (55%) she's following her big brother boomer's stats.

ellie of course loves daddy and the bubbas and lets them know it all the time, but she's still a mama's girl. i SO love it. i know it won't last forever so i bask in it every chance i get! she thinks new people are interesting as long as mama is right there in her sight. she is totally in awe of one of the office girls at jaxon's school. she lights up everyday when she sees her. it's super cute to see. if she reaches out to grab your face it means she really likes you. it's like her little baby hug and it's so sweet.

i'm so excited with every new thing my sweet baby girl learns and love to watch her grow. don't get me wrong, if i could stop time, you know i would! she may be our last baby, so i'm in no hurry at all for her to grow up.

sounds silly, but...

so jason has been gone all week at a work training in shelton. i feel like giving props to all the single parents out there. i only did it "alone" for 3 days, but i'm exhausted. i can't wait for a long nap or sleeping in on saturday!

it's always a growing experience for me, though. i feel empowered when i've conquered a fear, like staying home alone overnight. i have a way of letting my mind wander and i always freak myself out. too many scary movies when i was too young to watch them and playing "bloody mary" in mirrors with ginna! i'm always SURE someone is going to grab my legs from under the bed, and it's awfully hard to avoid standing by the bed in the dark when you have a baby who wakes up seven thousand times a night to nurse!

i also made it until this morning without raising my voice to the boys! this is a miracle! usually by the time jason gets home everyday it's his turn to discipline because i'm about ready to lose my cool!

i hate to be without my husband at all, let alone nearly a week. but, the boys have been amazing little helpers, and i'm really proud of myself for getting through it!!

jaxon's seperation anxiety

so we separated the boys' bunkbeds today while jax was at school. we thought he'd be excited when he saw it, but obviously that was not the case!

ellie:sleep warrior

so this little one decided to have her longest stretch of sleep ever (9 hrs) on a night that i couldn't seem to sleep at all! i actually had to wake her up to feed her because i was starting to hurt. she burped, was changed and put back into her crib all while sleeping, which never happens. i really hope she starts adding this good sleep to her routine. for the past few weeks she's gone back to waking up every two hours, and it was getting tiring for sure. her longest stretch of sleep before this one was only 6 hours and that was when she was just a few weeks old!

*side note: i wish when talking about a baby that doesn't sleep well, people wouldn't share a story of a child they knew that slept through the night at a few weeks old. it doesn't add anything good to the conversation!

St. Patty's Day Playdate

today we had a playdate scheduled for after school with the "crew". i went a little crazy with the green snacks, celery, cucumber and broccoli with green dip, green apples, green grapes, kiwi, and lime jello. the kids had lots of fun making green glasses decorated with shamrocks and of course playing in the boys' room and outside on the jeep. and of course we were all decked out in green...










they couldn't help themselves. after all... she IS part irish!

TOOTH

jaxon had a wiggly tooth for about 2 weeks. we kept trying to get him to wiggle it and bite food with it, so it'd fall out on his own.

he's much to careful of a boy for any of that, and his permanent tooth was already growing in behind the wiggly one, so we had to take measures into our own hands. daddy yanked it out, and it was pretty traumatic for our sweet boy. we're pretty sure it's the last time he'll ever let us touch a loose tooth. we lost our first tooth fairy pillow at the dentist last week, so we had to scramble to make a new one at 8:30 on a school night. luckily i'm a crafty mama and whipped one up in no time...

the tooth fairy remembered she had more work to do as she was getting into bed. phew, close call! this kid was so thrilled when he found his gold dollar coin inside is tooth fairy pillow, he smiled his cute new smile all morning!