A Cave for a Baby...

"Mom!  Come check out the cave I made for Tate so he can stay asleep!" -Ada

(There's a baby in that mound of pillows.  He's breathing, I checked as I dismantled the rubble.)

It's 9:00 pm...

... and I have two snoring men in my bed. Go ahead. Be jealous.

Sister's Gate

Dax has figured out how to get the child proof door knob cover off of his door- which is a serious bummer at 6 am every morning when he's already in bull-in-a-china-shop mode upstairs!

He typically barges straight into Ada's room and plays with her vet set (which I bought him an even cooler one, but he still prefers hers) and dress up clothes. It wakes her up, irritates her, and gets the day started on an annoying foot. He also never allows her to go in there for some down time at any point in the day- and I totally understand that need for a break.

So we got Ada a gate for her door- and she is so thrilled you'd think it was Christmas!!! She can operate it, Dax cannot.... Yet :)

Tate Face- 4 am

Tate's not the worlds greatest sleeper- mostly I put him in bed with us and just nurse him back to sleep as soon as he starts to stir. But he's going through a growth spurt right now, so he's starving and wants to eat 7 course meals all day and night! So we were up a lot last night.... Not that I mind, bc I get to talk to this sweet face! AND he gave me two BIG almost-intentional smiles last night! I think we're close to a real genuine smile, and I can't wait! I'm dedicating every spare moment (all 4 of them) trying to coax one out of him :)

Internal Monologue: Mother of a Carseat Hater

My name is Alicia, and my 4 week old infant passionately hates his carseat.  

This is my thought process every.single.car ride.

Me: OK, I just nursed you in the front seat, you should be full and sleepy.  Surely you're going to pass right out.  Let me just gingerly place you in this carseat.  (First buckle- click.)  Good boy, only two more clicks to go.  (Second buckle- click.)  Nice.  (Third buckle- click.)

Baby: bottom lip quivers.

Me: hastily crawls backwards out of backseat to start car. This reminds me of Pavlov's Dogs.  Except babies and clicks instead of dogs and whistles.

Baby: begins the quick-short-cough-fuss. A-HA! A-HA! HA! HA!

Me: Just hold tight baby, mommy's going to get this car going and lull you to sleep.  Peels out of driveway.

Baby: cough-fuss becomes a whine-cry.  Waaah!  Waaah!

Me: typically where I accept the impending scream fest and whimper a little.

Baby: officially wailing.  WAAAAAAHH!  WAAAAAAHH!

Me: Maybe you're hot? Let me turn this air on full blast.

Baby: Waaaaaahhhh!

Me: turns around adjusting air vents and removing baby's socks. Also places hand in air to check airflow to backseat.

Baby: WAAAAAH!

Me: It's ok sweet boy!  Mommy and Sister and Brother are here for you!

2 year old brother: SHUSH TATE!  Pokes baby's cheek.

Baby: WAAAAAH!

Me: Oh no.  Oh no.  A red light.  Maybe if I just ease off of the gas and coast it'll turn green.  THINK FAST- turns into gas station parking lot to avoid stopping.

Baby: WAAAHH!

Me: Crap!  Oncoming traffic!  Peels out into available lane.

Baby: WAAAHH!

Slow driver: driving slow

Me: GET A MOVE ON IT, GRANNY! Doesn't she understand what I'm going through, here??

Me: passes at first opportunity, cranes neck for a visual on slow driver.

Me: OMG!  You're texting and driving!  I HATE YOU! YOU ASS HAT!

Me: Did I just say "ass hat" out loud?

2 year old brother: Ass Hat!

Baby: WAAHH!

Me: Maybe if I rub your forehead and hair...

Me: cranes around to rub forehead and hair.

Baby: WAAAHH!!

Me: OMG, did I poke your eye?  I poked your eye.

Baby: WAAAHH!!

Me: Can this incessant crying cause long term damage to your mental health?

Baby: WAAAHH!!

Me: What if you're Autistic???? 

Baby: WAAAHH!!

Me: I'm having chest pains. 

Reckless driver: recklessly cuts me off.

Me: YOU TOOL FACE! 

Baby: WAAAHHH!

Me: Maybe you'll take your pacifier this time??

Me: cranes around holding pacifier in baby's mouth.

Baby: crying weakens.

Me: ....

Baby: cluck.cluck.cluck.

Me: What is that noise!?!?!?  Did I smother the baby!?

Baby: cluck.cluck.cluck.

Me: The baby's sucking!  The baby's sucking his paci.

Baby: cluck.       cluck.                cluck.

Me: I think the baby's drifting off!

2 year old brother: PLAY WITH TATE'S TOYS!  (spins loud rattle ball on baby's useless carseat toy)

Baby: WAAAHH!!

Me: spanks 2 year old's shoe, because that is all I can reach.

Me: involuntarily zones out.  Mentally creates rough draft for this very blog post.

Baby: WAAHH!!

Me: Thank God, we're almost home.

Baby: waaahhh....... crying weakens.

4 year old sister: Mommy, can I hold Tate's hand to help him feel better?

Me: IF ANYONE TOUCHES THE BABY YOU GET THE SPANKING SPOON!

Me: rips onto our street.

Baby: silence.

Baby: snoring.

Me: Of course.  

Me: pulls in the garage and takes this picture:

Me: removes teary-eyed, sweet face, chubby bunny out of his carseat and takes this picture:

Me: herds everyone inside and begins countdown until Daddy gets home from work.

Tate- 3 weeks

Tate's 3 weeks old, and will turn 4 weeks tomorrow! Say it ain't so!!! He is so absolutely precious- here are some cute pictures of him over the last week :)

Dax and Tate- First Easters

Tate wore Dax's first Easter polo-onesie to Easter himself this Sunday.  I have more pictures of Easter 2013- but am running out of time to blog today and wanted to post this before I forgot!  :)

Dax- 2011 (5 weeks old)

Tate- 2013 (almost 4 weeks old)

Girl's Afternoon Out!

I have been craving some alone time with my girl- she's not necessarily struggling with the new baby, but everyone's dynamics have been thrown off, and she and I have been butting heads a little bit.  I've been kind of hard on her, and she's been doing lots of boundary pushing to get some sort of attention.  So, we headed out for a Girl's Afternoon (+ Tate, who I can't really leave yet!  But he's just a little lump and doesn't intrude much).

We stopped at the fabric store, then went to the drug store to get some hair accessories and nail polish for mani/pedis, and then Jason's Deli per Ada's request.  We had a blast!

Such a scary and gross picture of me- but the bulk of our time at Jason's Deli was spent taking pictures of each other with my phone and playing tic-tac-toe. So I'm including this for the memory. :)  I'm holding her raccoon TreeTop.

Then that night we were going to do mani/pedis, but she REALLY wanted to color instead (which you can't do with wet nails, duh!)- so I braided her hair into 4 french braids while she colored so she would have super curly hair the next day!

Here are some pictures of her waves the next morning.  She loved it!

The Three Dowell Babes- 3 weeks

I have these pictures of Ada and Dax at 3 weeks old blown up obnoxiously large and displayed in my house- and I knew I wanted to do the same with Tate.  We didn't quite get his photoshoot in during his 3rd week of life, but we managed to squeeze it in at 4 weeks 2 days.  :)  Close enough, right!?  I love that Ada and Dax's capture their little personalities- I wonder if Tate's do, too?

Here are my precious babes-

2008- Ada Grace Dowell (my creative thinker, sweet hearted, bow loving girl)-

2011- Dax Christian Dowell (my mischievous, hilarious, fun loving boy)-

2013- Tate Anders Dowell (my sweet baby #3)-

Tate-

Tate-

And I HAVE to include these.  This first outtake is of Ada.  This picture LITERALLY made me WET. MY. PANTS.  Ask my mom, she was there.  

I peed myself I was laughing so hard.  

Huge wet spot on the carpet. 

Not the baby.  Not the dog. 

Me.

And this one of Tate today reminded me of Ada's!

Tate- 3 weeks

Tate's 3 weeks old, and will turn 4 weeks tomorrow! Say it ain't so!!! He is so absolutely precious- here are some cute pictures of him over the last week :)