Day 11-14

Wednesday
Joseph had more work meetings today than most days so I planned a chill day. We watched Frozen 2 that morning with a special snack. Then we played with shaving cream (a plea from Ashton this whole time) and made a gigantic floor map.

Tanner thinks this one segment in the movie is just hilarious and laughs so hard during it. I find it to be my favorite part of the movie just for this reason.

Thursday

Ashton's piano teacher switched to online piano lessons this week. It went well except for the slight delay in sound. So the teacher would start counting on a piece and that would mess up Ashton's counting. But we survived.

I found Gemma soaking up "me time" away from her siblings. When she was done, all the cars/vehicles were lined up just the way she wanted them.

Friday

Gemma had her 2 year old doctor appointment Friday morning. If there is one thing Gemma hates more than anything, it's medical personnel. Dentists, doctors, anyone wearing scrubs, etc. and Gemma screams. We prepped her for this appointment and it actually went okay. She only screamed when the nurse got her height and weight. Then, she fussed a little during the doctor's examination. Otherwise, we brought lots of toys and played in the room for a while. I had no questions or concerns with Gemma so she is just fine. She got a shot and I totally just let the nurse surprise her with it. I held her on my lap and held her head towards me. The nurse just stuck her with the shot and it was done. No drama or build up. And Gemma was done crying about 1.2 seconds later.

Ashton finished all her schoolwork finally. We hit the ground running at the beginning of the week but then lagged behind in the middle of the week.

Saturday

No construction work today! We could lay around in our pajamas and relax a little more. The workers arrive between 8 and 9am, which is typically fine. Except Lydia likes to sleep in and so do I with Joseph home. I was excited to have two days of no noise and tools around.

After our morning chores, we got the kiddie pools out in the backyard and let the kids play in them for a while. They loved it and it was a nice change of scenery from indoors. Joseph took Gemma up to clean the church quickly while the older kids and I played Racko. We spent time making cards and writing letters to people. We ended the night with some house tag.

Gemma is Two!

Gemma is now two years old! We celebrated a couple days early as my parents were visiting. She enjoyed her special day with Papa and Nana.

Here's some favorites for our two year old!

Favorite book: Daniel Tiger books or Pout Pout Fish. She has a lot of favorites actually and really enjoys reading books. For her birthday, she got a few new books and those have become her favorites at nap and bedtime.

Favorite toy: Her babies. She has three baby dolls that are all naked and she loves them. She sleeps with all three and must have them in order to sleep. Gemma will often have at least one in the baby swing outside and in the toy stroller inside.

Favorite word: Gemma talks so much. She speaks in 3-4 word sentences most of the time.

Favorite show: Daniel Tiger. She won't sit for much but if we put on a Daniel Tiger show, she will sit for 23 minutes.

Favorite Outing: HEB hands down. She loves HEB. She even starts singing the ABCs when she says, "H-E-B-A-B-C..."

Favorite food: Milk. Gemma still loves her milk and demands it most of the day.

Favorite activity: Playing with her toys. She is pretty possessive of what is her's and who plays with it.

Height: 33 inches

Weight: 28 pounds

She loves taking pictures with my phone so I get about 200 of these.

Days 8-10

Sunday

We did church at home again. Ashton and Tanner gave talks on the scriptures and the commandments, respectively. Then, we learned about the olive tree in Jacob 5 and did singing time again. The kids enjoyed church. We had a typical Sunday at home after that.

Monday

Our master bathroom remodel started this day. It was demo day. This has some pros and cons. Pro is the kids watched the demo from our bed. Con was that it was LOUD! Lydia typically naps in our closet off the bathroom. So for the next two weeks, she's napping upstairs. She doesn't seem to love it as her naps got shorter. But she's still sleeping decently. Gemma's room is right above the bathroom so she falls asleep amid the noise but wakes up after a short nap. I keep telling myself this too shall pass.

Tuesday

Tuesday was stressful and I think I finally lost it for the first time. Houston announced a stay home order today. It begins tonight at midnight. The bathroom remodel had a small hiccup and I had to re-plan a few parts at the last minute, which is always stressful but even more when you also have four kids to take care of. We had to run to a store to pick out countertops before they close their doors with the Houston lockdown order and the store is a thirty minute drive one way. Then it was one kid down for a nap, one kid up from a nap kind of afternoon so I didn't get my typical "break." And then we ran out of milk so had to run to HEB at the last minute (they close early now) and the store was out of a ton of stuff again. Thankfully, they had milk but not much else and I hadn't gone grocery shopping in a while. So I grabbed what I could and we will rely on our freezer stash for the next ten days. I was very happy to end the day.

The highlight of Tuesday was our school did a teacher car parade through a few neighborhoods. About 30 cars came through our neighborhood and down our street. Ashton was able to see her kindergarten teacher as well as a few other teachers she knows. Then Tanner got to see his speech therapist who he loves. It made our kids so happy to see their teachers. It was the closest "socializing" we'd done in a while just by seeing people drive down our street.

An impromptu car garage

They found some caterpillars and made a home for them. Unfortunately, this broke two days later due to a child who was determined not to listen to my warning of "this will break if you move it."

Day 7

We are closing out our first week staying around town/home. Ashton's school announced earlier this week that they are closed until at least April 10. I'm guessing even longer. We'll see how bad Houston gets hit by the virus. So we have at least three more weeks of this.

Today, we did our weekly chores and then I took Ashton to pick out countertops for our bathroom. They played with neighbors again. We are trying diligently to just stay around the house. Last week, I was more adventurous but as the numbers rise, I feel more obligated to stay home. Now we will only go out for piano lessons (as long as they keep going) and the grocery store.

Lydia at 2 Months

Weight: 13.5 lbs. Clearly the pumping/bottle is working. She's now four pounds more than birth weight. Weighs the same as Tanner at 2 months but started a pound heavier at birth.

Height: 23 inches, shorter than I thought. But we'll see if she has a growth spurt in the next few weeks to catch up

Clothing Size: 0-3 months for maybe another week. Some things are getting tight. I should probably move her up before the contractor starts on our bathroom so I don't have to find a box of clothes while they're working.

Daily Schedule: Lydia seems to be a good napper/sleeper. She falls asleep easily and stays asleep for naps. I can't remember when the 45 minute naps start like our other kids did but so far, she isn't showing signs of that. She's awake for about an hour and then naps for 1-3 hours. At night, she's up once, maybe twice and goes right back to sleep after eating a few ounces. She doesn't have a set wake up time or bedtime and I'm grateful I can let her sleep until whenever. With no school, we don't have to rush off anywhere in the morning.

Special Outings: With the quarantine, she hasn't really gone anywhere special now.

Firsts: Smile is definitely there. Slept through the night (9-7am) one time too. She also met Grandma Wilcox and Papa and Nana.

Eating: She continues to take a bottle like a champ. Lydia eats about 4-5 ounces every 3-4ish hours. And about 2-3 ounces at night.

Sibling love: Gemma is probably Lydia's biggest fan. Gemma loves to see if Lydia has bubbles in her mouth. Gemma often goes around saying, "Oh Lydia." Gemma wishes she could feed Lydia and claims, "I DO IT!" Ashton and Tanner can't wait for Lydia to laugh and interact more with them. But they still enjoy seeing Lydia and checking on her.


Monthly Pictures:

My terrible attempt at a smiling picture while holding her.

Day 5 and 6

March 19
We hung out around the house again today. We had our bathroom contractor come out for a while to drop off materials and go over our design again. Our bathroom remodel starts next Monday.

March 20
Lydia had her two month old check up that morning so I took her to that. I asked the doctor how worried I should be. His response matched exactly what I've been thinking. With Lydia (and the other kids), our bigger concern is still getting the flu or RSV. Especially for Lydia.

Joseph did "school" with Ashton while I was gone and caught up on her Spanish studies. It's fun to see how much she really knows and can read. Her teacher told me to challenge her some in math because she can do all the requirements. So we've had fun coming up with math activities.

Joseph took the big kids to pick up school lunch again while Lydia napped. We played outside with the neighbor kids again in the afternoon. Until they tell us otherwise, we will keep doing that. I figure it's the same kids every day so there's minimal risk, right?

Day 4

March 18
We decided to actually stay home today. When my parents came to visit, we spent time getting our front garden beds done. We got one done and needed to do the other. We spent the day working on this project. With a newborn plus 3 more kids, a house project seems to take forever. But we're at a spot right now where that's not such a bad thing. We can really slow down and take our time as we have no where to go. We got all the plastic and mulch laid down. The last step is to go get the plants.

The kids played with the neighborhood kids again for most of the morning. We did venture out and pick up school lunch at the drive-thru location. The kids thought this was super cool since they got chocolate milk. I think we'll try and go once a week or so as an outing.

For school, Ashton continued working on her work from her teacher. She's writing a spring break book in Spanish and then did her math program in Spanish. I am very grateful that Joseph speaks Spanish. I don't think I could keep up with her Spanish as I would need to rely on Google Translate.

Later that night, the big kids and I went for a neighborhood walk. It was a beautiful night out and we couldn't pass on that. We found the helicopter/spinner leaves and the kids played with those for a long time.