To Do Lists

I like to make lists. It calms my anxiety and makes me feel like I have a plan.

Ben has yet to embrace my list making ways and feels no need to make a list about anything. I've always wanted him to be more into my obsessive need for lists.

Much to my joy and delight, Connor has started to make lists of things he needs to do. Here is his current to do list.

1. Make a pillow land.
2. Clean my room.
3. Get a green light.
4. Help Mom take care of her Pyrex.

Hooray! Now we can obsess about things together.

Cowgirl boots.

Little girls should have cowgirl boots. Don't you think?

I didn't really think about this at all until Sophia put on some shoes to go outside today and then it was suddenly very clear.

The only thing that could make this outfit more cute (and maybe more awkward) would be a pair of cowgirl boots instead of this winter boots.

Now that I think about it, I'll bet Connor would be pretty handsome in a pair of cowboy boots himself.

Don't you agree?

More Pyrex

Ben sold some games and let me have the money from the sales to buy more Pyrex. I think it is a true testament to how awesome our marriage is that he uses his hobby to help fund my new hobby.

He also bought me the Unofficial Everything Pyrex guide. So now I kind of even have a clue what I am looking for.

Here are some of my latest pickups.

Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, and Contemplative.

Elinor is working on her many and various faces. She has mastered quite a few of them already.

 She is really thinking in this one. 

 A hint of a smile. 

You'd be grumpy too if you got your first gash and it wasn't from you. 

A much needed nap after the hard work of being a baby. 

In One Week

In one week we will find out for sure where Ben is going on vicarage. I am only extremely excited about this. In my great tradition of making lists, I already have twenty different things I need to do as soon as we find out where we are going. 

Doctors, Dance, Preschool, Regular School, Dentists, Stores, Insurance, Zoos, Museums....

I am trying not to be a major freaked out nerd about all this, but it kind of goes against my very nature. 

This is me, not obsessing. Are you buying it?

Deep burning questions.

I don't recommend watching a movie with Connor. Ever. Unless you are one of those people that likes to be asked five billion questions during a movie, in which case you would really enjoy the Connor movie experience.

Here are some of my favorite questions from the past couple of movies we have watched as a family.

While watching Harry Potter:

1. What do you think Hermione is most afraid of in the whole world?
2. If Harry Potter didn't have an owl as a pet, what kind of pet do you think he would have?
3. Do you think Ron ever got a new pet since his rat was evil and what kind of pet do you think he would have gotten?
4. What do you think Ron and Hermione think about when they see a dementor?
5. Why do you think that Harry Potter's Aunt and Uncle don't like wizards?

While watching Toy Story 3:

1. What would Andy's mom have thrown away if he didn't have an apple core on his desk?
2. How do you think Barbie trained at home to beat Ken?
3. What do you think would happen in Woody didn't like the dog, Buster?
4. What do you think that Big Baby is thinking about when he looks at the moon like that?

Like many of Connor's deep burning questions, I have no idea what the answer is. The problem is that when I do speculate and provide an answer then I must defend my answer...my answer that is entirely made up. 

If you, however, have any insight and wish to discuss any of these questions in depth with a six year old, let me know and I'll send Connor your way. 

The best plans

I had a lot of amazing plans for all the things I was going to do while on maternity leave. This maternity leave is a little bit different because I am also watching Sophia. Since I am going to stay at home during Ben's vicarage, I figured there was no time like the present to start watching the kids.

One of the things I was going to do during my leave was to write way more blog posts. Funny, insightful, and amazing blog posts. I obviously haven't been doing much of that.

Even though I haven't packed up half our house in preparation for vicarage yet (on the list of things I was supposed to do) and even though the house is still slightly messy (I am still playing the I just had a baby two weeks ago card), I have accomplished a few things.

 Connor proudly lost two teeth. I traded them out for some presidential dollar coins. 

 I've spent plenty of quality time holding my two little girls and even occasionally getting a nap of my own with them. 

 I've made lots of PB&J sandwiches for this little turkey. We've also worked on not trying to lay on the baby, not bugging our brother, saying please and thank you, and not sassing our mom. 

I've watched Elnor sleep. Somebody needs to watch her sleep, don't you think? We've also had plenty of mom and baby cuddle time. Ben and I think we'll keep her. 

I've also watched Toy Story 3 about a million times. It is Sophia's movie of choice any time I let her watch a movie. On the plus side, my daughter can now sing every song from the movie. One of those songs is Freak Out, so that may negate some of the positive singing. 

I still have four weeks to do all that other stuff on my list. I am sure I'll get to at least some of it. Maybe. 

At last.

Connor has been dreaming of a certain moment for a long time. In his mind, this moment would be spectacular. It would enable him to do something that he had never been able to do before.

Things like....sticking his tongue between his teeth. 

He says that the going rate for a tooth these days is $1.00. I told him we'll see how generous I'm feeling in the middle of the night. 

And then there were five.

It is taking me a while to wrap my mind around the fact that there are five us of now. Elinor has joined the Ockree ranks and we are all adjusting to her presence.

Elinor actually let me get fairly decent sleep on my first night home and just woke up every two hours to eat. Last night, however, she was more on a every half an hour kind of schedule. Since the best way to get rid of her jaundice is for her to flush out her system, we kind of had to go with it. I am pretty tired, but it will be worth it to stay out of the hospital. 

The thing that I am liking the least right now is that because of her jaundice, Elinor is on a biliblanket. This means that she has to be on a plugged in light which is frustrating. We don't have the freedom to move from room to room with her without stopping, unplugging her light, and moving all the equipment to a new room. On the plus side this encourages me to not do too much and to just sit and hold Elinor as much as possible. I even occasionally let Ben hold her.

The best moments (and sometimes the most challenging) have been the moments with the kids. They both have done very well with her for the most part.

Connor is a little bit of a mother hen. He is always trying to keep Sophia away from Elinor for her protection. This in turn makes Sophia angry and more determined to get at the baby, which then causes a mini wrestling match right by our brand new baby. And this always seems to happen in the car and really makes me want a minivan. Connor is also forever fussing over Elinor, adjusting her blanket, playing music for her, offering to hold her, and wanting to be near her. 

Sophia is very interested in Elinor, but doesn't have much respect for her 30 lbs compared to Elinor's 6 lbs. This leads to may instances of Sophia trying to affectionately lay her head on Elinor, or give her a giant bear hug, or jump on her, or just try to kill her in general. 

There, of course, have been many cute moments as well. The cutest Connor moment was when he told Elinor "You are so cute that I could just eat you up with love!" The cutest Sophia moment was when she kissed Elinor good night for the first time. 

We are getting used to our new normal. It will be an adjustment, but it will be an adjustment we can handle. There will be hard times, challenges, good times, laughter, tears, and joy.

Ah....life. 

Welcome to the World.

Welcome to the world Elinor Claire Ockree

6lbs, 6oz, 20 inches long

Born at 9:18 am on April 2, 2012

The best part of all....................she only made me push 3 times. Looks like someone is gunning for favorite child status.