Halloween Oz

Cynthia and I were talking about Halloween costumes and discovered that members of both of our families had independently suggested doing the Wizard of Oz.  So, we decided we would have both our families do the theme together.  We figured there were plenty of characters to choose from.  When we pitched the idea some were for it and some were not.  We let them choose who they wanted to be.  We did have to sell some of the characters to them.  It was fun to watch them get excited as it got closer to Halloween.  There were many impromptu plays with the kids acting out their parts from the Wizard of Oz.  Brayden impressed us by playing many parts and showing them how to do their part.  He did an impressive Wicked Witch of the West.  It was a lot of fun putting the costume ideas all together.  We wish that we had more places to show off our costumes.  All that work and we only used them for a few hours at the church Halloween party.

Here is the list of characters
Mauren and Cynthia - people from the Emerald City
Matt - the Wizard of Oz
Kristel - Wicked Witch of the East
Gabriela - Wicked Witch of the West
Asher - flying monkey
David - Cowardly Lion
Kylee - Scarecrow
Brayden - Tin Man
Natalia - Dorothy
Julia - Glenda the Good Witch
Blake - Munchkin (Lollipop guild)
Katia - Flower Munchkin
Analisa - Ballerina Munchkin
Tatiana - Mime (non-participant)

Asher did not cooperate with taking pictures on Halloween.  I put him in his Halloween outfit to take some pictures of his cute flying monkey costume on January 12, 2014 when he was 4 1/2 months old.

Asher 1 Month

September 23 - October 22

Asher has been pretty good about having a good stretch of sleep at night.  He will go 6-7 hours between feedings and then goes back to sleep and does another 3-4 hours.  That means he is usually asleep when I get the kids up and help them get ready for school.  He can stay sleeping because the bus stop is our driveway and I just have to step outside our door to get them on the bus.  Kylee also rides the bus, so by 7:20 it is just Asher and I until the young kids come home at 3:20.  I have been able to enjoy this first month with Asher because I don't have any commitments during the day.  I can hang out and hold him.  He makes a lot of faces, and tends to have a stressed out look on his face often.  He makes lots of noises, especially when he sleeps.  He is the noisiest of all my children.  He will smile in the morning when I talk to him.

We turned on the vacuum while Gabbi took his 1 month pictures, so it would calm him down.
He is fussy during the day  and sleeps well at night.  I am enjoying getting to spend time holding him and rocking him during the day while the other kids are at school.  He takes a lot of naps in my arms.

1 month - starting to try to "talk", occasional smiles
6 weeks - talking and trying to get hands to mouth
8 weeks - starting to suck on knuckle and prefers it more than pacifier
8 weeks - lots of "talking" and interaction
He keeps his fists closed and sucks on them, so they get really stinky.  Brayden held the baby for the first time since the hospital when he was 6 weeks old, he is nervous to drop him.

 

School pictures

I don't think we have ever really been happy with school pictures.  You never know how they are going to turn out.  This year somebody in our ward was offering to take "school pictures" outside at a middle school for $10 per child, so we could not pass it up.  We were so happy with how well they turned out.  She did such a great job and it only took about 5-10 minutes per child.  

We did not purchase the official school pictures because we already had good ones, but here are the proofs.

corn maize

We decided to go to the South Texas Corn Maize in Hondo, Texas and we told the kids that in order for us to go they needed to get their chores done by a certain time.  Kylee was not very motivated to go because we didn't know at first if the Herrera's would be coming.  She is generally only motivated by friends and cousins, so she didn't really try to get her chores done in time.  Brayden got his stuff done in time but debated whether he wanted to go or not.  He ended up going and Kylee was left home alone to get her stuff done. We got phone calls from Kylee during the maze asking when we were coming back.  She didn't appreciate being home 4 hours waiting for us to get back.   

We had tried going the weekend before, on the first day it opened because it was military appreciation day, but it had rained out.  They ended up honoring the military appreciation day the next weekend.  It was a cloudy day, but it wasn't really supposed to rain.   Cynthia and some of her kids went with us.

We made it through the first half with a few sprinkles, so we decided to do the 2nd maze.  When we were in the 2nd half it started to pour.  The baby was covered with a blanket and slept through the deluge unphased.  We were trying to get through quickly because we were getting wet.  It was a little difficult work as mud and straw laid along the path caked to our shoes.

Asher birth-1month

August 23-September 22

Kylee likes holding him as long as he is not going to burp, spit up, or poop his diaper.
Brayden is scared to hold him.  He is afraid he is going to accidentally drop or hurt him.  He always says he is so cute.  He will say "you are doing it again. You are being so cute"  He also says his feet are so soft and is always asking to feel them.
Julia likes to check on the baby.  She likes to watch him and is always willing to do anything to help him.
Blake covers his eyes when we are changing his diaper, and he says, "sh sh sh" when he is crying because he is trying to get him to be happy.

My Mom stayed from Thursday morning August 22nd to the next Thursday the 29th.  She helped with making meals, doing laundry, and took the baby so I could take naps.

Matt's Mom came the next  week. She came on Sunday the 1st of September and left on Saturday the 7th.   She helped stay with me on Monday while Matt went to Six Flags with the kids.  She also helped all week with getting the kids up and ready for school and after school helped them get their homework done.  She was able to drive me on Wednesday to Wilford Hall to see the Lactation Consultant and then again on Friday for Asher's 2 week appointment. At his two week appointment he had already grown, he was 9 lbs. 9 oz.  and 21 in.  It was so nice to have family here for 2 weeks to help out with  the adjustment of a new baby in the house.

Early on Asher did pretty well with sleeping.  A little after  he was a week old he would do a 5 or 6 hour stretch between feedings at night.  I felt OK with letting him go that long because he would nurse a lot right before bed.  He had a  little bit of difficulty latching on and nursing on the right side in the hospital.  I had some nurses give advice and try to help him out.  He was doing pretty well until he decided to be picky and only started nursing on the left side when he was a week old.  He didn't want to latch on so I went to the Lactation consultant for help.  She gave some advice and was very encouraging, but he still didn't latch on well on the right side until the Sunday.  It was a total of a week that I had to pump to keep the milk up while trying to get him to nurse on that side.  I was so happy when he finally started again.  It made nursing him a lot easier.

Asher had his first  bath  on Sep 9th.  He was not happy at all and let us know because he screamed and screamed.  Subsequent baths got better.  He fussed only a little bit the next one and the following he enjoyed and hung out.

A few more fun facts about Asher
*Asher is a grunter, he makes lots of noises as he sleeps.

*Asher tracks well with his eyes (Matt tests him).  He usually has a concerned look, or looks like he is concentrating  or stressed out.
*Asher has lots of toe jam.  He also keeps his fists closed and has lots of lint in his fingers.
*He calms down on the diaper changer.

Matt was really sick coughing and sneezing when Asher was born.  He wore a surgical mask in the hospital room, but we were worried Asher would get sick.  He never did, but we did have him sleep in his car seat or bouncer the 1st month to make sure he could breathe fine.

Kylee's Birthday

Kylee turned 13 so Matt decided to do a cake based on a Caldwell family joke from his childhood.  When he was 10 his family lived in Seoul, Korea in a military neighborhood with a playground between the apartment buildings.   He and his siblings would talk about the mean older teenagers on the playground, which his 4 year-old brother, Ben, would hear.  One day his mother came downstairs to find Benjamin huddled on top of the kitchen table crying.  When she asked him what was the matter, he sobbed, "There's a TEENAGER under the table!"  In his mind a "teenager" was some kind of monster. 

Kylee was about to become one of these monsters, so he decided to make a "teenager under the table".  As Kylee tried to figure out what the cake was, she was initially offended thinking she was being called a monster.  But when she figured it out she was pretty happy with it.  We celebrated with the cousins and our friends the Speirs who live up the street happened to stop by just in time to sing happy birthday to Kylee.  

Labor Day weekend six flags

A little over a week after Asher was born, Matt took the kids to Six Flags with the Herreras and Uncle Carlos to have some fun.  They went on both Saturday and Monday.  Grandma Mindy stayed home with me to help with Asher.