"...And To All A Good Night"

I grew up celebrating Christmas on Christmas Eve, and that's still what we do, so Friday was our big day. Started out by making the big Christmas dinner (which we ate at lunchtime because it just worked out better). I let the girls have real champagne glasses for their sparkling cider and they thought that was pretty cool. After lunch, Sedona took a nap while Sierra made her cookies for Santa. I let each girl make her own batch of cookies and she got to pick what she wanted to make. Sierra insisted on making mint chocolate chocolate chip and she did just about all of it herself. cracking eggslearning a little about fractions while searching for the right measuring cupMelting and mixing in chocolate for the first time

When Sedona woke up, it was her turn to make cookies. She picked pumpkin cookies. I didn't get as many pictures of her because she needed a little more help. I was pretty proud of her--at the end, everything was mixed up and she looked in the bowl, then picked up a bag of chocolate chips and said, "it needs some of this in there. He likes chocolate". I told her never be afraid to change a recipe and we dumped a healthy handful in.Cracking an egg all by herself. Didn't even get any shells in there!Adding the flour

Once cookies were made, it was time for presents. It should've been dinner time, but we completely forgot to feed our children (and no, I'm not joking), yay us!
Plotting their attack
Sedona opened this present and inside, it was wrapped in construction paper that was taped together. She got all excited and yelled, "Tape!!! I got tape!!!!"
Princess Sierra
Secora couldn't wait to open her presents
No, really, she was totally enthralled
Sedona finally got a pillow pet of her own
Sierra was very excited about getting Despicable Me
Sedona opening a new baby doll
Sedona working hard on her new computer
Walking around with her favorite new toys

Leaving milk and cookies for Santa

No pictures of them getting their stockings because I haven't uploaded them yet. We had cinnamon rolls for breakfast and spent the day playing with new toys, watching movies and eating leftovers!

Now it's time to get ready for another week! Long Christmas breaks might be the only thing I miss about grad school!!

The Best Christmas Gift

Santa got a little confused and dropped off my Christmas present 6 weeks ago. Still fits in a stocking though ;-)
We always celebrate on Christmas Eve, so we're gearing up for a big day around here tomorrow!

Beware of Bears

I have this theory. Okay, it's not really my theory. It's something I heard from someone else years ago (when I was working at WIC, I think, but I'm honestly not sure). But the theory makes sense to me.

Babies don't want to be put down because they're afraid a bear might eat them.

Hear me out.

It's not at all advantageous for babies to be content with being left alone. In certain times and certain parts of the world, the babies left alone could very well be snatched by predators. MY baby has no clue that she's safe in our house. She just has a hard-wired instinct that being alone is very much NOT okay. And that's not a ridiculous idea for her to have. I would never leave her alone in the woods in bear country, because, you know, a bear really might eat her. To go along with this theory, is the other idea that it is distressing to hear a baby cry. Literally, on a physical level, it raises the stress your body experiences. This too, makes perfect sense. A baby's cry is SUPPOSED to be stressful. As parents, we're SUPPOSED to want it to stop (in some way that also preserves the baby, of course). So yes, I carry Secora around A LOT. Yes, I nurse her "on demand" (I think "on cue" is a more accurate term) and provide non-nutritive sucking after she eats. Yes, I let her sleep next to me (with appropriate safety precautions) as millions of babies all over the world have done for thousands of years. And no, she's not spoiled. Babies don't spoil, food does. Babies don't have any wants that are not also needs. They aren't crying for ice cream or a ride on the ferris wheel. They aren't screaming in the store for the latest new toy. They are asking for food, a clean bottom and safety in the only way they know how. These are all needs that deserve to be met.

It only takes about a year for them to realize that, in fact, they will NOT be eaten by a bear if they are in a different room at night. And a year is an exceedingly short time in this very sweet season of life.

So for now, I'll protect Secora from the bears.
After all, just this week, Sierra got wide-eyed in the meat section of the local grocery store and quietly asked, "Are those baby back ribs REALLY made from babies?!?" So maybe she's right about needing constant protection.

One Month!!

An old high school friend does these fabulous update posts and takes pictures of her kids with a sign saying their age. It seemed like a great idea to me because sometimes the pictures get mixed up and you forget when they were taken, but if the date is in the picture, no problem! So, I'm stealing her idea and going to start updates on Secora.

I can't believe Secora is already one month old! I would list all the fabulous things she's learned how to do, but she's still in that bump on a log stage, so it's a rather short list! I put her on my baby scale and she's already a hefty 9#6oz, so I guess her biggest achievement is eating. She still rarely cries. She wakes every 2 hours like clockwork at night, but she sleeps with us and nurses well laying down, so we only have to actually get up when she needs a diaper. Her tear ducts were blocked and the left one has opened up, but not the right (Sedona had that too, it's not a big deal and almost always opens on its own). She doesn't like baths, but does like her hair washed. She still has those newborn gray-blue eyes. She still sleeps a lot of the day, but is starting to have some "quiet alert" times.

The postpartum hypertension I developed after she was born (that was a surprise) has cleared up and I'm already back down to pre-pregnancy weight despite having put on an average of 2.5 pounds a week for the last 3 months (a side effect of hyperemesis gravidarum...I had a sizable deficit to make up). I'm making up for all the nesting I couldn't do when I was pregnant and she's happy to snuggle down in the moby wrap and come along for the ride.

Our only problem is finding a way to share her between all of us. Everyone wants to cuddle the baby!
Add photo shoots to her list of dislikes

Tree Trimmin'

Last weekend was tree decoratin' time in the Hill household! Secora can't help, so she cheered from the sidelines. This was her inaugural ride in the same swing we used with Sierra Here's Sierra in it, for comparison's sake Secora promptly fell asleep and the rest of the family set about decorating the tree In no time at all, it was all done. You may notice areas where 3 or 4 ornaments are clustered together on one branch. That's because we gave the girls free reign and Sedona seemed to think they would get lonely if they were each on their own branch And you'll also notice the patch of blue lights at the top of the tree. That's what happens when momma's nursing and daddy takes over light duties (I'm pretty sure this is the first year he's done it since we had kids). Whatever. The kids like it and it's unique. Since these pictures were taken, we've also added count down chains. The girls each made their own out of construction paper (how is it a 3 year can go through an entire glue stick on one tiny project??) and draped them on the tree like tinsel.

Oh, and my brother-in-law's already fussed at me about hemming those curtains (in a loving way ;-) I'm working on it. I aim to have them all above the heaters before the weekend's over!

The Hill Girls

As soon as a new baby is born, the "who do they look like?" game begins. To make it easier on everyone, I finally got around to putting all the girl's baby pictures side by side. They are in order here, Sierra, Sedona, then Secora. They are all 1-2 days old in these pics too. For the record, everyone (us included) thought Sierra looked like Josh as a baby and she's now a carbon copy of me.

I think Secora looks more like Sierra. The biggest difference though is that she has a lot less hair and A LOT lighter hair than the girls did. She's also more pale than they are. I think she may end up being even more blonde than Sedona.

Baby's First Thanksgiving

I'm behind on posting and there's quite a lot to report, so we'll back up and start at the beginning.

Things worked out so that we were set to start our trip back last Friday. That means we got to spend Thanksgiving with my parents. They were kind enough to cook dinner and have the crazy Hill girls invade their house for the day. They even kept the big girls so Josh and I could go see Harry Potter after dinner.

Secora's first order of business was sneaking a turkey leg off the table:
We shouldn't have been surprised, Sierra tried the same thing at her first Thanksgiving (she was a month older at Thanksgiving than Secora was):

After dinner, my parents asked the girls if they wanted to pull the wishbone. I'm a slacker mom...my kids had no idea what a wishbone was or why they would want to pull it apart. Further more, the wishbone was already broken, so we had to rig the contest and give Sedona the broken side (because let's face it, she's still too young to really "get it" anyway). They seemed excited and ready to go:
But it turns out Sedona didn't understand the concept, so she just kept letting go when Sierra pulled: And Sierra thought she had to say her wish out loud, so she shouted "I wish for my own house! I wish for my own house!" (and yes, she meant HER own house, without parents around...)

All in all, it was a fun day!

3 Weeks, 7 States

This precious little girl is not quite 3 weeks old and has already seen 7 states. She passed her inaugural road trip with flying colors. That might have a little something to do with the fact that we've got this parenting thing down. Or, at least, parenting babies. I'm not bragging or anything, it's simple fact...third time's a charm. We were flailing idiots when poor Sierra was born. Sedona had a little easier time and benefited from what Sierra taught us. But Secora? She has no worries, and it shows. I think I've heard the child cry about 10 times in the last 3 weeks. She hangs out with mom all day and I enjoy it rather than trying to get away from her because I truly appreciate how fast this time will fly. She merely has to open her mouth and if it's been more than an hour since her last nursing, she gets fed (less than an hour? It's the pacifier for you! Because I now understand about non-nutritive sucking and that my baby that is gaining half a pound a week really is getting plenty to eat and needs more sucking time, not more calories). We can spot (or, rather, smell) a dirty diaper from a mile away and change it without getting peed or pooped on. Waking up every 3 hours is no biggie (because we've done the waking up every hour thing and also, frankly, because we're so sleep deprived from the last 6 years that it just seems like our natural state now). All in all, this baby thing is a breeze now and should we ever start to forget that, there's always some other kid throwing a fit to remind us that this really is the easiest stage of parenting.

"Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice"

I keep starting blog posts, then I don't finish them. They're stacking up in my saved folder, maybe I'll get them out eventually.

For now though, I'm spending a lot of time holding a tiny bundle of perfection. Secora had her first check up with the doctor (the midwife also examines her regularly) and she's doing just fine. She right around 7.5 pounds now..her weight loss stayed well withing normal limits and she's started gaining again. Her next weight check will be this afternoon.

I'm also thinking a lot about the nesting I'd like to do when I get home. I have an almost insatiable urge to sew and preserve food. Preparing for winter, I suppose.

Secora Yvonne

As I said yesterday, baby girl #3 made her grand entrance yesterday morning. Since it's the name that was driving everyone crazy, we'll start there. We finally settled on Secora Yvonne a little while after she was born. Her middle name was a toss-up between Yvonne and Arlene (or Darlene, or Carlene). Arlene would have been a tribute to Arlene Blum, who led the first all female team of climbers up Annapurna and is also a scientist. Yvonne is a nod to Yvon Chouinard, and once I found out Yvonne means archer (it is archery that brought Josh to Texas A&M, where we met), that sealed the deal. This also caries on the tradition of tipping our hat specifically to people important in Yosemite climbing history.

Secora is just a name we liked. I happened upon the Japanese version, Sakura, and liked the sound. It is actually a name, just very very rare (it's much more common as a last name). Until she was born, there was a possibility she could've been Savannah instead (so you did make fun of it Carolyn!! LOL), which I LOVED, but I just couldn't commit to once I found out how popular it is.

She is doing well and her big sisters are over the moon. Momma and Daddy ended up pretty much being awake for about 38 hours straight for labor and delivery and the aftermath (that whole "nap when the baby naps" thing doesn't apply when you have other children running around!), so 9pm is suddenly seeming WAY late for my bedtime!!