4 months

Max is now around 4 months old.  I was getting him out of a bath and the light from the window was just begging me to take some pics as he was kicking and cooing with a big smile on his face.  I run downstairs to get my camera bag and snap away.

He is very active, this boy!  He is always moving something around or swatting at things.  He is learning how to use his body, for sure.

I love pictures of baby feet - so precious.  I get too impatient to get a good picture of them, but I tried again and this was the best one I could get. 

As I was fiddling around, I noticed my portrait lens stopped working - auto focusing.  Very sad.  I loved that lens.  Why isn't it working?  I may have to get another one.

Max just had his 4 month well visit at the doctor's and he's grown 3 inches and is in the 90% for height.  He is growing, that's for sure!  He's in the 25% for weight.  He's leaning out already.  I wonder if he'll continue to grow tall or slow down and start scoring low on the growth chart like his siblings?

His giggles are so much fun to listen to.  He's got a great laugh.  We all spend so much time trying to make him laugh because it's so darn cute. 

I will start to feed him solids soon.  I used to be so eager to start, but I'm waiting till, perhaps, 5 months or he hits 15 lbs first.  I also have to dust off the ol' high chair.

Max also got his first cold this past month.  Thank God it wasn't a horrible one.  He developed a really flemmy cough and was a bit drippy, but he was happy through it all.  I'm surprised he didn't get sick sooner since there's been some kind of virus circulating our house this entire school year!

He is quite the drooler too!  Not too sure if that's because of teething, the cold or just the way he is. 

Max's hair is also getting quite long.  He already needs a haircut.  Can't see it in the picture but I'll make sure to get some of that in here soon!  Most people comment on how much hair he has.  It makes him look like a little man.

Anyway, off to make some lunch for the kiddos!

Mommy Disease

I was reading my Facebook news feed when I came upon this cartoon. Although, I can relate to this cartoon and think it's funny, I actually had a doctor give me the same diagnosis! I thought that was more funny.

Last year, I had brought my 5 kids to the Zoo all by myself and I decided on carrying my 20 lb daughter all over the Zoo rather than lug a stroller around. The next morning, I woke up with a tingling pain going down my right arm. This progressively turned into a real pain in the neck, literally! This lasted a long time and I started to get worried because it got so bad that I started having breathing issues. After trying a chiropractor, I ended up seeing my doctor who ordered physical therapy. I went to PT and it didn't make the pains and breathing issues go away. I went back to my doctor who then ordered me to go see an Orthopedic doctor - ok. I went to this orthopedic doctor who made me take some x-rays. He looked at them really quickly and made me do certain motions with my arms and back and I seemed to have normal mobility and nothing seemed broken or strained. He just looked at me and said I had Mommy Disease and what I was feeling would go away once I stopped having children or they were all grown up. Really? Then he mocked me and laughed at me when he thought I may have something more serious, such as cancer! Anyway, I left that appointment annoyed at the doctor for sort of dismissing my concerns and also pondering the wear and tear of having kids on my body. Really? Could having 5 kids really do this to my body? What will 6 do?

Turns out that massage therapy did the trick. I think it's amazing that our muscles can cause so much trouble and make us feel so uncomfortable for that long! Take care of yourselves, Mommies!
 

CT/NY

For our next trip, we took the kids with us to Greenwich, CT and then to New York City! 

The first thing I think of when I hear Greenwich, CT are big houses.  I was hoping to visit some really nice neighborhoods and get a feel of how New Englanders live! 

We arrived on a Thursday evening.  The next day, after Coach came back from a morning of clinics, we headed off to the Greenwich Audubon.  Unfortunately, the Nature Center was closed and we ended up just walking around a bit, because of all the snow and ice, but the drive to and from the Audubon was a really nice neighborhood and we were able to see a bunch of New England style homes that made me want to knock on the door and help myself to a snuggle on the couch with a warm blanket in front of the fire.

After being outside for a little bit, my kids kept wanting to go back to the hotel to go swimming in the pool.  This was the highlight of their time in Greenwich.





After the clinic was over we headed over to New York City.  Since the weather called for rain the whole day, we decided on doing the Children's Museum in Manhattan.  I was curious as to how we would manage 6 kids through the streets of NYC.  Not to mention parking our big white 12 passenger van. 

We found the Children's Museum and a parking garage, but our van was too tall to park in it.  So we spent time combing the streets for parking.  Eventually, we found a parking space about a mile away from the the museum.  The kids didn't mind walking in the rain.  I definitely don't mind walking in the rain, but you put 6 kids in the mix - I get a bit more tense about it.  I attached Max to me and off we went!

As we approached the museum, I noticed a coffee shop place that instantly looked familiar to me.  The first thought in my head was it looked like the coffee shop in the movie, You've Got Mail.  You know, the place they decided to meet?  I kept staring at it and as I got closer, I saw pictures from the movie in front of the shop.  I have watched that movie enough times to know what I was looking at!  I took a very blurry shot of that coffee shop with my phone.

We got into line to enter the Children's Museum.  The place was crowded since everyone wanted to be indoors out of the rain.  There were five floors of activities - all crowded with people.  I get a bit nervous about losing track of my 6 kids and losing one.  It was also getting very hot so every one's jacket came off and we stuffed them all into a sweatshirt that we ended up dragging around.  Joe had to run back to the meter to feed it every two hours.

It seems my older kids are getting too old for these museums.  They were slowly getting bored, except for the little ones.  We were killing some time since we were going to walk around the block to Holy Trinity Church to hit the vigil Mass.  I was happy to leave the museum and head over to the peace and silence of the church.  Joe had to run back to the meter again and feed it before Mass. 

In the middle of Mass, Max decided to have an explosive diaper which ended up soaking through his clothes - blech!  There was no place to change his diaper, so I had to wait till Mass was over.  I had to hold him a certain way the whole time so I didn't get it all over me.  Joe ran once more back to the car, this time to drive it back to pick us up.  As we waited outside, the priest commented how rare it was to see 6 kids walking the streets of NYC! 

I was very thankful to see Joe pulling up to the curb to pick us up!  Our next stop was to check into our hotel.

We stayed at the Double Tree hotel near Times Square.  By this time it was dark and the neon lights were bright.  Immediately, you could feel as if the city just woke up!  I've been to New York before and like most cities, there is an excitement, perhaps energy, in the air. 

We parked our van in the garage across the street from the hotel.  The hotel was really nice however the room was so tiny!  We fit all 8 of us in there - snug but comfy.

We set out that evening to find some dinner.  We walked around a bit and found a pizza place the size of my bedroom closet.  It was mainly for delivery but we decided to eat there.



I love NY style pizza - yum.

 Right before leaving the hotel, my son said his stomach hurt.  My boys always complain of stomach aches and I didn't really think much of it.  I noticed he didn't eat much pizza.  He still seemed in good spirits nonetheless.  We were all looking forward to getting some ice cream around the corner from the pizza place.  Since we all gave up sweets for Lent, this was going to be fantastic!  We all chose our flavors and ate happily - even Patrick.  He chose chocolate ice cream on a sugar cone.  He seemed happy and ate all of his ice cream.

We walked back to our hotel and got ready for bed.  Patrick's stomach was still bothering him and he laid on the bed to rest.  I decided to go take my hot shower and unwind!  With such a small room, the bathroom seemed like a great escape.  As the hot water poured and the steam filled the room, I let out a deep sigh of relaxation when the door flies open and see my son vomit all over the carpet, the tile and then into the toilet - all chocolate ice cream...blech!

Poor little guy.  Coach and I just stared at the mess on the floor wondering what we would use to clean everything up with.  After cleaning up Patrick and putting him to bed we used a lot of tissues and toilet paper, but had to resort to using the white towels to clean up the bigger messes.  I hopped back into the shower and started to rinse off all the towels we used.  I was trying desperately to get all the vomit off the towels in the hot water.  I was not successful, unfortunately.  I cleaned myself up and went to bed hoping I wasn't going to get sick, too.

The next day, Patrick was feeling back to normal and we pressed on into Times Square looking for some breakfast.  We ended up eating at a place called Roxy's.  Then we headed towards the Empire State Building so we could climb to the top and check out the view.  We did a lot of walking but no complaints from the kids.  What troopers!

I wish I had more time in NYC to take pictures.  I was just too distracted to take shots.

The Empire State Building was not what I expected.  I watched Sleepless in Seattle and thought it was a simple elevator ride up to the top floor - nope!  You got to go through a maze of ropes that lead you to different places to pay for tickets, to see the exhibits on the history of the Empire State building and then took a few elevators rides to get to the top, but once you were up there, it was really a cool sight!  NYC looked so small to me, but so packed with so many buildings and people.  Crowded is what came to mind. 

My kids wanted to go to the Statue of Liberty, but because of a past storm that went through the city, the Statue of Liberty was closed until repairs were done.  So, we went to a place called Battery Park and got a view Lady Liberty there.

 

Parking was an issue, so the three oldest and I took a quick walk over and hung out for a bit.

 

 

On the way, we also got to see Freedom Tower.  The last time we were in NYC we visited Ground Zero and now there is a beautiful building that looks like it's almost completed.  It's standing tall and proud in the spot where the twin towers were.  We weren't able to stop by the memorial, but perhaps we'll come back one day and visit it.

 



 

 

I like New York and I wish I could have spent more time there.  It was such a short trip and there is so much more to do.  The hustle and bustle of NYC is still a little much for me especially when you add 6 kids to the mix.  Perhaps, a visit back with just adults?

Denver

It is football clinic time of year again!  If you don't recall, it's when Coach broadens his knowledge of football by attending clinics.  These clinics are offered in many different parts of the U.S. and we take advantage of these opportunities to go on one trip together by ourselves - make it a mini-getaway, mix business with some pleasure and add a little 2.5 month old baby into the mix as well.  We must take little Max with us since he needs to eat, right?

This year we chose Denver, CO as our destination.  The last time I was in Denver was for World Youth Day.  I remember really liking the city and wanted to return.  I also know from reading Facebook, that my friends that live there love it.  It's another state with a lot of beautiful outdoorsy stuff to do and to see.

This trip began the day after Lent  - no TV, no sweets, no alcohol.  Also, we left on Valentine's day.  Not that it's a big deal because Valentine's day is every day in the Patterson house, right?

I didn't take a lot of pictures of this trip again.  It's pretty tough to take photos when you're cuddling a little baby - all the time!  I was pretty nervous about the plane ride because Max is a little harder to soothe when he cries compared to my other babies.  I didn't want to make national news being kicked off the plane due to an inconsolable baby. 

We survived the plane ride, but it was a long 4 hours sitting in a cramped seat with a little one.  I couldn't watch the movie being played to pass the time nor could I read comfortably either.  I did try, but I also got annoyed with the author of the book and had to put it away.  My flying buddy seemed to be very productive on his lap top next to me.  Max and I were able to get some sleep - Max more than I.

We picked up our rental car and zipped off to our hotel which was about 15 minutes away from downtown Denver.  We stayed at a really nice hotel, wish I could have shown you with my camera!  We were pretty tired and went from getting dinner out, to celebrate Valentine's day, to just eating at the hotel which ended up being a great dinner!  No wait, no crowds, great service and yummy food.  We even got some chocolate covered strawberries, on the house, from the waiter.  We went ahead and ate the chocolate part - it was given to us, we didn't ask for it and it was Valentine's day!  Max cooperated and slept through dinner. 

All of a sudden, I felt really tired!  It just hit me like a brick!  I was feeling the time difference - uggh!  A bit tough in the evening, but when you end up in the Fitness Center at 6 a.m. wide awake and ready to get a workout - jet lag seems to come in handy.  Here I would insert a picture of the treadmill - way cool.  It was a nifty machine to use with all these cool features to make it the best jogging experience.  Meaning, while I was walking/jogging, I spent time pressing numerous buttons to figure out how to use everything, thus the time flew by.  Also, since I forgot my accessories for my iPhone, I felt I could walk/jog until my phone had a full battery!

After working out, Max was still sleeping, Joe went to his clinic and I enjoyed a very long, long hot shower.  Max and I hung out in our room for a while until it was time to go meet a really good friend of mine that I went to high school with.  She now lives in Denver with her husband and three kids.  I'd insert a picture here, too if I had taken some.  We had a good time catching up with each other.  She also gave me some ideas as to where we could go while in Denver.

When Joe & I met up later that day we decided to get dinner downtown.  We had heard about the 16th Street Mall with shops and restaurants.  This is where I started to take pictures.

We parked near the Clock Tower.  I started just taking pictures of things I saw without a thought since I didn't want to go home with nothing! 

I was reading the tourist guide at the hotel and decided that going to the 16th Street Mall was a good place to start to get a flavor of the city.  It was cold - we walked toward Denver's Capitol looking for places to eat.  It was Friday, so we were looking for seafood.  I also felt like Mexican food and found a little place called Diego's.  Food was ok.

We headed back to the hotel and plotted out our plans for the next day.  My friend had recommended going a place called Garden of the Gods out near Colorado Springs.  It seemed like a great idea since we wanted to see more of the outdoorsy stuff rather than the city itself. 

Garden of the Gods is National Park that has these amazing rock formations made of red and white limestone that came out east of the Rocky Mountains.  My friend said it was just really beautiful to see.  We left before noon and enjoyed a beautiful drive through Colorado Springs.  We were blessed with such perfect weather.  It was 60 degrees with blue skies!

We stopped to get a good look at those mountains.  I'm assuming those are the part of the Rocky Mountains?  Absolutely beautiful!  I don't get to see something like this every day.

 
I was so excited when we drove up, because I was certain I was going to enjoy this.  We headed to the Nature Center first to see what info we could get there.  I took a picture of the rock formations from afar.  We skipped the movie, but watched a small portion of an animal presentation geared towards kids.  I was wishing my kids were with me since they love animals. 

While at the Nature Center, we saw a celebrity sighting!  How exciting!  It was Smoky the Bear!  We got a picture taken with him.  I dig him in those jeans!

I was immediately drawn to the contrast in colors.  The sky was so blue and the rocks were so vibrant red - stunning.  I took a lot of pictures.

Do you see the little guy rock climbing on the right?

I stood there watching this guy climb.  It was like watching paint dry.  I kept wondering how rock climbing worked.  Look at this picture.  How did this guy get the ropes to stick to the rock like that?  He had to climb there to get them on, right?  Why put them on if you can climb without the ropes?  Did he shoot a gun of some sort that would fling some sort of hooks into the rock?  Wouldn't that hurt the rock?  If rock climbing happened all the time, wouldn't we see a bunch of man-made holes in the rocks?  How could that be allowed?  How would you get them off and then get down the mountain?  It looked like the guy was climbing up, but didn't he just come from that direction?  I didn't get it.  What if those rope hook thingies didn't hold you securely?  Hmph...  I guess I could read up on rock climbing.  I didn't stick around to find out how he did everything.

We did a little rock climbing of our own until we saw this...

Joe quickly climbed down the rock.  Joe didn't need any of the fancy gear, he's just very talented.  Almost made it to the top, too ;-)

This looked like shark fin, right? 

So neat!  Joe was telling me how he wanted to see the Balancing Rock.  The what?  Where did he hear of that.  He saw a picture of it at the Nature Center while I was in the bathroom.  I immediately thought of  a balancing rock in my head.  I've seen a picture of it, too - but where?  Not from the Nature Center, but from the Disney movie, Cars.  So, as we drove around following the signs to the Balancing Rock, I kept thinking of the movie Cars and expected it to look like this.




It ended up looking like this.

There were so many neat hiking paths and rock formations to see, but we didn't have time to do it all. 

I asked Joe to move the rock over so I could get a picture of the view behind it. 

See, the view was definitely worth it.  Don't worry, Joe put the rock back.

Thanks again to my friend who suggested Garden of the Gods!

Ooops, one more picture.

Oh, another one.  They are all beginning to look alike.

We left very satisfied and headed towards Denver to go to a vigil Mass downtown.  Afterwards, we met with one of Joe's coach's (also attending the clinic) friends who own a restaurant in Denver.  Forgive me, I forget the name of the restaurant right now.  I can't even tell you what part of Denver it was in, but it was a really quaint and snug part of town.  That's how I would describe it, anyway.  This restaurant had a fire pit outside and a lot of lively people inside.  It was busy, full and seemed like a great place to gather and eat.  The owners of the restaurant were so friendly and made us feel like special guests.  They ordered all this yummy food which were all your normal sports bar kinda food, but had such a unique and modern twist to them.  All done really well, too.  All exciting for me since I'm such a food lovin' kinda person.  Joe was in heaven because the owner had such a love and knowledge of beer not to mention a beer cellar in the back of the restaurant.  He shared his favorites with Joe and brought him to the cellar.  Joe was like a little kid at the candy store.  All in all, a great evening.

We were up early the next day to make it to the airport.  This was the sun rising.  We don't get sun rises like this in DC. 

I'd be happy to wake up to this every morning.

We were very pleased with our trip to Denver. I know there is a lot more to see and do.  Looking forward to visiting again.

Maximilian

This is my Max.  He is now 2 months and 3 weeks old.  He is doing really well and growing fast!  I find it amusing how time slows down the weeks before birth and then speeds up once they are born! 

I've had 6 kids and with each one comes a new personality to discover.  I have been enjoying getting to know my little guy.  Once he was born and put into my arms, he seemed very content and took to nursing like a champ!  The second day, however was a different story.  He went from being content to not content!  He kept crying and crying and when he didn't want to nurse, I tried carrying him in all different positions, changing diapers, walking him, etc...all my bag of tricks of soothing a baby were empty - I wanted to put him back into my belly.  When he did stop crying and took to nursing and fell asleep - he was just exhausted and so was I!  I started to worry.  I kept thinking there was something wrong.  I didn't recall it being this difficult the first 5 times - perhaps, Anne but I shrugged that off because of being a first-time mom.

I kept asking about colicky babies from all these mothers with experience.  I started reading about it on Babycenter.com.  I started preparing myself!  However, as time went by Max turned into a baby that could be soothed by just being held or nursed.  THIS, I'm familiar with.  Max still leans on the side of crying a bit more than what I'm used to, but I'll take it.  Bring it on! 

Max is now smiling a lot.  I can just sit in front of him forever just trying to make him smile because it just melts my heart... and keeps him from crying ;-).  Anne and I spend time every day just trying to get his first giggle out of him which just happened the other day.  It was a short but definite giggle!  Wee hoo!

Max is my biggest baby so far.  He is growing fast, but we'll see if he will continue this trend or slow down and take more the Patterson trend which is dwindling off the growth chart somewhere in the 5th percentile?

Max is thriving!  I look forward to watching him grow and learn!

Pro-Life March 2013

My family and I attended the Pro-Life March in DC.  We weren't sure if we were going to make it or not, but schedules worked out and we were all able to go together.  I took the kids out of school (they were being released early anyway, snow) and we met up with Joe at home.

In the morning, I spent my time picking all the warm fuzzy clothes out of all the unfolded clean laundry.  I'm so behind in laundry!  I wanted to make sure the kids were very warm since it was going to be frigid outside.  There was snow in the forecast which I was excited about!  I also had to gather all the gloves, scarves and hats that always seem unmatched and in different parts of the house.

I was most worried about Max, but he had his car seat and layers of blankies to keep him warm along with the stroller's umbrella tops to shield wind and snow.  Do you see his eyelashes coming in?  I hope they are as long and lush as his siblings'.  Mine seem non-existent.

We decided to take the metro instead of driving into DC.  The kids love taking the metro.

I'm always scared of losing one of the little ones in the shuffling in and out of the trains. 

Kids enjoyed riding the metro and reading the map while keeping track of the stops till ours arrived.  My kids wanted to stand up and hang on to one of the poles rather than sit.  I wasn't so keen on that but Joe convinced me that I was being a kill-joy, perhaps.  They did fine standing up during the ride.

We arrived at our stop and walked to the March. 

There were so many people.  I keep hearing differently about the actual number of people marching, from 500,000 to 750,000.  How does one really know?

We had family we trying to meet up with, but weren't able to find them or get in touch.

Bernadette was warm, but since she wasn't walking she got really cold.  I should have brought a blanket.

 

We eventually jumped in the march and walked to the Supreme Court.  It was really cool to read all the signs and march for LIFE with others who traveled from so many other parts of the country. 

It started snowing while we were marching and it made it even more beautiful - and cold.

We reached the Supreme Court said a few prayers and left.  We headed towards Union Station to catch the metro home.  As we were walking away, I spotted Franciscan University's banner!  That's where I went to college. 

The kids spotted a frozen pond and we stopped to take a look at it.  At this point, the kids' feet and fingers were frozen.  We made it to Union Station and hopped onto the metro.  We defrosted all the way home.  The kids had smiles on their faces despite the long march and cold weather. 

"It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish." - Mother Theresa

Potty Training

Guess who is potty training?

Yes, it's Bernadette.  She just turned 3 and I'm being ambitious and starting now rather than close to 4.  I loath potty training and would rather change diapers.  However, once it's done, it's great.

I've been changing diapers for almost 10 years now.  I've potty trained 4 children and each of them were different.  I've talked to other mothers and some have told me it only took their 3 year old 3 days to learn to use the potty.  Really?  I have not had that experience. 

Potty training brings out the worst in me.  Beware - it sucks the patience out of me.  I know I wasn't easy to be trained, myself.  I actually have memories of having many accidents, so I must have graduated late from Potty School.  I remember, now, how my parents didn't enjoy it either.  It's payback!

I never liked the word "potty".  Ever since I was a kid and a teacher would ask me, "Do you want to use the potty?"  I just cringed at the word.  That word wasn't used in my house.  It was called the toilet or the bathroom.  Who came up with potty?  However, I am using the word now with my kids. 

I also wonder if it is really necessary to use the Baby Bjorne potty seat.  I've always started with it, but I transition to the toilet soon after they kinda get used to the potty seat.  I don't like cleaning the potty seat.

Also, it's about this time that some of my kids all of a sudden don't like to go #2.  They start to hide from you and then you find yourself begging them to go because it's been almost a week since they last went.  This happened with two of my kids.  I don't like that! 

Perhaps, it's me?  Does my impatience delay the process?  Do my kids sense my negative energy?  This is my purgatory - suck it up, Jana!  Put a smile on your face and get it done.

I had high hopes for Bernadette because she is very aware of her plumbing.  However, she hasn't caught on as quickly as I was hoping, but she's very cheerful through it all.  It is contagious - perhaps, this will be a quick training and I'll have only one kid in diapers?

Wish us luck!

You know, I just remembered my grandmother asking me if I had to "jingle".  LOL!!  I didn't like that either.  I pondered how that word came to be used for going #1.  I came up with nothing.  I'm using "#1" in this post rather than what it is.  Hmph...