Scrub a dub dub

This, then, is the main goal of my days. To keep Oliver clean, dry, and fed, and to keep myself clean, dry, and fed. To the uninitiated, this can seem trite, but to those who've been there, you know I am not being facetious. I speak truth.

Take last Sunday, for example. The rest of the family was at church, and during the three hours they were gone, I spent the majority of that time getting Oliver and me Clean, Dry and Fed. There was a point at which I thought we'd done it (and only 90 minutes after we'd started the process!)... at which point Oliver decided it would be fun to start all over again, so he spit up all over me and him and the Boppy, too, just for good measure.

How else is an infant supposed to tell you he wants you to change his outfit? (and yours as well?) :)

And now, for a change of pace...

Presenting Matt Palmer's "Just Dance" video!

You Tube finally allowed the music to be played! For those of you who don't know, Matt is my younger brother, who is now serving a full-time mission in Japan. And he still grooves. Cameos by Mom, Dad, Whitney, and of course, my favorite, the white-haired Brother Hortin with his signature pointing-at-an-angle dance move. ENJOY!

Where's Oliver???

Why child #4 isn't as hard as Child #1:

I have Lizzie to help!

Confession

We are trying to help our older three adjust to having a newborn, so we decided to have a special Family Home Evening last Monday night. I pulled out the old baby books for each of them so they could see how small they used to be and how much attention they had when they were Oliver's age.
We started with Lizzie's book - it was thick and full of pictures and clever layouts, the pictures continuing through her toddlerhood. Eli was next with a substantial book of his own, but the pictures ended when he was a few months old.
We then pulled out Ivy's book.
We opened it.
It had been filled out with the facts - mother, father, story of the day you were born, how we decided on your name.
Then... nothing. We thumbed quickly through the pages to make sure...
Not a single picture pasted anywhere.
We distracted Ivy with "Let's eat some brownies!" and we put them to bed before she had a chance to say too much...
Monday night found me frantically assembling some baby book pages with a glue stick and Ivy's baby pictures. How did I completely forget that I hadn't put any pictures in Ivy's baby book? Not having a baby book is one thing, but to think all along that I had one for Ivy and then to find out 4 years later that it's actually blank, that's pathetic!

6 Days old

Reading Buddies

Baby Oliver, Four Days Old

Little Mother

After Ivy got over the horror of what "nursing the baby" actually means, she embraced the concept whole-heartedly. Boppy (a travel pillow) and all.

The Stewart Fro Lives On

Baby Rocket Has Arrived!

Oliver James Stewart came today at 1:09 am in the morning! He was 7 pounds 11 ounces, 20.5 inches and is a beautiful boy! :)

Baby Rocket blasted off (or out!) at 1:09am this morning. 7 lbs 11 oz. 20.5" long. Mom and baby are healthy and doing well!

Eli the Entrepeneur

Eli set up another sidewalk stand today.

What's he selling? Paper Airplanes. Two Styles: the Pippit and the Swallow.

How Much? $1 per Pippit, $2 per Swallow

Also, you get to watch the master make them right in front of you.

He told me all this while running in and outside gathering materials. After a half hour or so, I reached into my wallet to get the obligatory dollar and went outside to what I thought would be my lonely businessman with overpriced merchandise.

Well, business was booming. He'd just received an order from neighborhood-kid Sophie for 2 Swallows and a Pippit. Another little boy was verbally oohing and ahhing as Eli expertly folded, cut and creased a white paper into formation with the skill of a Kabuki chef. He already had Eight Bucks in the tupperware that was sitting on the piano bench. I slipped my dollar bill back in my pocket.

We've come a long way from selling Invisible Brownies!

Reflections Contest

Both our kids wanted to enter the Reflections Art contest this year, Theme: "Beauty Is..." Eli worked on his picture of an elephant and said in his Artistic Statement: "This is an elephant with jewels and I think it's beautiful!"
Lizzie wrote a poem for the occasion. Take a second to read through it below. It really is beautiful. They are both going on to the state level!

BEAUTY IS ...

Beauty is the wedding horse,
So white and clean and quick,
Beauty is the spiders' web,
That catches flea and tick.
Beauty is the Redwood Tree,
So strong and tall and proud,
Beauty is the singers' voice,
That's pretty, smooth and loud.
Beauty is the yellow sun,
So calm and light and bright,
Beauty is the moon and stars,
That shineth every night.
Beauty is the twinkling eye,
Of Santa in the snow,
Beauty is the light of learning,
To live and laugh and grow.
Beauty is when Christmas comes,
So joyful, beamed and bright,
Beauty is the roller coaster,
Right before your sight.
Beauty is the White-Tailed Deer,
That runneth o'er the plains,
Beauty is the railroad tracks,
That lead the crossing trains.
Beauty is the flower stem,
That holds the petals proud,
Beauty is the fresh-baked bread,
That gathers largest crowd.
Beauty is the ladybug
Splattered with jets of black,
Beauty is containers,
Like a box, or cup, or sack.
Beauty is the dreamy sleep,
That quickly snaps the night,
Beauty is the cruiser's rudder,
That turns it left and right.
Beauty is the army ants;
They all crunch through the leaves,
Beauty is the gold and silver,
Stolen by black-eyed thieves.
Beauty is the loosened dirt,
Cramped with worms and bugs,
Beauty is the Apple Cider,
Poured into steamy mugs.
Beauty is the fragile leaf,
That falls come every season,
Beauty is the poems wrote,
That rhyme, don't care what reason.
Beauty is the new born baby,
Cradled in a crib,
Beauty is the baby milk,
That spills upon the bib.
Beauty is the cute designs,
Like polka-dots, or squiggles,
Beauty is the happiness,
Including talks, or smiles, or giggles.
Beauty is scarlet fox,
That brushes through the wood,
Beauty is the fresh-cleaned chimney;
You never thought you could.
Beauty is the yummy food,
Fresh-cooked for you every night,
Even though you thinks it's not ...
Beauty's everything in sight.

Launching the Rocket

G&G Palmer gave the kids a model rocket for Christmas, and since we had the day open, and it was a gorgeous one, we decided to make it and launch it: Afterwards, I had the thought that maybe this rocket launching would inspire another who has gone by the nickname "Rocket" to launch himself into our family!! :)

Baby's room is almost done...

...all it needs is a BABY! :)

Christmas with the Palmers!

Reindeer Run & a New Mattress

Back in December, on the 19th, our family participated in the Reindeer Run in Tempe. When I say "our family participated," what I mean is that Lizzie, Eli and Adam ran, I took pictures, Ivy cheered. We made our kids run the full 5 Kilometers, in the hopes that we would actually find the limit to their energy levels. None of this sissy "Kids Fun Run" 1 mile stuff for them.

We met the Andrews there - here's all the runners before the race!

Coming in for the finish at 40 minutes! Lizzie ran the whole way. Eli sprinted and walked. And balance-beamed on curbs and jumped over rails and zig-zagged around the trail the whole way.

Ivy gets to talk to Santa:
It was right about here that I overheard Ivy and Santa's conversation. Let me share with you what I heard:

Santa: What's your name?

Ivy: Ivy

Santa: Have you been a good girl this year?

Ivy: {Smile and Nod}

Santa: Do you keep your room clean and help your mom?

Ivy: {Smile and Nod}

Santa: What do you want for Christmas, Ivy?

Ivy: A New Mattress

Santa: What??

Ivy: A New Mattress.

It was at this point that I whisked my daughter away from Santa Claus. I didn't realize that Ivy had changed her Christmas request to "a new mattress" but I understood why:

We'd been rearranging the kids' bedrooms all month to prepare for the arrival of the baby. Earlier that week, we'd had a scary incident - a table lamp had been left on, directly on top of Ivy's bed. When we found it two hours later, it had singed the sheet into a perfect black circle. When I lifted the sheet up, it revealed that the mattress too had been singed. Ivy watched in horror as I got a spoon and scooped out the black burned part of her mattress. It looked like a cupholder had been inserted into the mattress.

Ivy was rightly traumatized. We flipped the mattress over and put on fresh, unburnt sheets, but she cried when we tried to put her to bed for three nights in a row. Then we thought she was over it.

Until her encounter with Santa. But, I convinced myself that maybe it wasn't that weird for a 4-yr old to ask for a new mattress and we went off to watch the race start.

While we were waiting for the runners to return, Ivy found Santa again. She wanted to say hi. I agreed.

Santa didn't remember Ivy. He went through the same drill as before, and when he got to the part about what she would like for Christmas, Ivy's answer was the same,

"A New Mattress."

The lightbulb went on for Santa, "Oh, I remember you. Don't you want a Barbie or something?"

At this point, I felt I needed to intervene..."You see, her mattress was accidently burned this week when a lamp was left on..." I started, but then never finished because I realized that the words coming out of my mouth were making Santa look at me with a look of pity and concern - pity that we were such a W.T. family and concern that I was obviously bringing a new child into this pathetic situation where all our 4-year old girl wanted for Christmas was A New Mattress!

Well, Santa must have forgiven us, because lo and behold, on Christmas morning, Ivy got a very nice pillow-top New Mattress with a big red bow on it. And the best part is, she didn't even notice it next to the new baby doll and crib he also brought for her.

2 excerpts from concert weekend:

Eli's moment of Glory:

group shot:

more later...!