Man of the House and Isla's hands

It's been a good morning. My wonderful hubby made us a delicious breakfast of bacon, eggs, and biscuits, we had a lovely morning conversation with Isla (who's now napping), and Daddy and Cash are chillin' on the couch watching Star Wars Episode V while playing with his Star Wars ships. Cash is enjoying pointing out all of the parts he has on his ship that are the same as the ones in the movie. When Mason or I try to talk during the action scenes, Cash is quick to shush us. He's quite engrossed.

Yesterday as I was in my room getting dressed, Cash came sauntering in and said, "It's a good thing I'm a strong man, Mama." Wondering what he was thinking about, I asked why. "Because I'm man of the house while Daddy is working, Mama," he replied oh so matter-of-factly. It IS a good thing I have such a strong little guy... I love how his mind works. He's so full of imagination and remembers so much. When Mason came home and I told him what Cash had said, he told me that last night when he was putting him to bed he had told him that Cash was man of the house when Daddy was gone and that he had to take care of Isla and me. Cash took his responsibility very seriously... he talked all day about how he was keeping us safe and how he was such a strong man. Sweet guy.

First thing yesterday morning he wanted to go check on his baby since she was still in her bed...

He's not always a little sweetheart, though. He's always been super-sweet with Isla, but we've noticed him acting out in other ways sometimes... he seems to cry a lot easier at times and will throw little fits with obviously fake crying over very small things. Part of that I know is him just being a three year old, but it's seemed to peak here lately. I think part of it is attention-seeking since Isla can be demanding at times with her needs. He's never been aggressive or shown resentment towards Isla herself though, so I'd much rather deal with the behavior issues than hostility towards his baby sister. We're trying to be patient with him and give him extra positive reinforcement for good behavior, and most days that works pretty well.


Isla is growing so incredibly fast... she's 11 1/2 weeks old and wearing six month size clothes! Her head control is getting so much better every day and she enjoys sitting up in her bumbo chair. We never had one of those when Cash was a baby, but I love it now! I had her sitting in it yesterday as I did laundry and she had the best time playing with her little zebra. I had it propped where she could see it good, and I looked over one minute and she was using her little hand to reach for it! She reached over and grabbed his nose and sort of threw him - she seemed to surprise herself that she touched it.

I love her little look of "hmmmm... What just happened here?" Right after this she looked up at me and yelled. Silly girl!



She has some of the cutest little faces - a lot of them really similar to the ones Cash used to make.

It's so neat to watch her... it amazes me how alike she and Cash are and yet how different they are. The newborn phase was so much easier this time around since we (at least sort of) knew what to expect and didn't feel so much like rookies. Just the little things like knowing that a simple burp or changing a wet diaper can hush ear piercing screams, or how to cuddle her or swaddle her to get her to sleep better. There are differences though... Cash used to nurse for at LEAST 15-20 minutes each feeding, where Isla knows how to chug and only nurses for 5-6 minutes each time and empties me out just as efficiently (and obviously doesn't have a problem gaining weight!). Cash didn't care if he was wet or dirty and was perfectly content to sit in a wet diaper and not cry about it - we always had to check him to know if he was wet or dirty since he wouldn't let us know. Not Isla. Her diaper can be slightly wet during the day and she'll make sure we know about it. Cash hated getting his diaper changed, and would cry most of the time, Isla seems to love getting hers changed and will grin and coo the whole time. Cash HATED baths and getting baby lotion put on, Isla LOVES it. She can be tired and fussy and crying like crazy and I'll take her in the bathroom and start her bath water and she's instantly silent with a content look and will then coo and sigh through the whole bath process, even through drying off and lotion.

Cash insists I need to be a princess that needs rescuing, so I must go... Obi-Wan and his space ships are chasing off the bad guy (aka Daddy) and coming to my aid.