Mystery Solved

The lost is now found!

For nearly a month, I have been searching for some missing Christmas presents. We made a whirlwind trip to Arkansas the weekend after Christmas. We left our house at 10 am on Saturday and returned home around 10 pm on Sunday. In that 36 hours, we had three different Christmases in two different towns. In all the unpacking and repacking of our stuff, several items went missing. Seth's brand new sippy cup, a bib, and a little lion chime that we gave him were missing, along with the pot to the Pampered Chef micro cooker that I received. The lid to the micro cooker made it home but the actual pot was MIA. I called all over Arkansas (well maybe just my mother in law, sister in law, my sister, and my mom) and the items were no where to be found. I searched high and low around here. The items had disappeared into thin air.

Yesterday, I was getting my nephew's birthday present together to be mailed and I found all the missing items in our stash of birthday presents we bought on our way to Arkansas for Christmas. We stopped at the mall in Texarkana on the way to Arkansas because I had to get a gift for Seth for one of our get togethers. While I was shopping, Kevin took the boys to KB Toys. The store was in the process of going out of business and everything was 50% off. After looking through the store, we decided it would be worth it to buy up a few things to have when we get invited to birthday parties and for our own boys' birthdays. When we got home, I stored the bags in our hiding place so a certain red head wouldn't see the Star War stuff that we got him. When I put the bags up I assumed that the bags just had the toys we bought at KB Toys in them. I never once thought about looking through those bags for the missing items.

Kevin told me all along that he remembered seeing all the missing items but he couldn't remember what he did with them when he was packing us up to leave. Why he untied those bags to stuff those few things in, I will never know. I am just glad to know where they are now!

I didn't think the pjs would fit

Seth in his Christmas Pjs

When Seth was in the hospital, my mom or my mother in law and I would have to pass a little time each afternoon before we could go pick up the two older boys from daycare. Seth's last feeding during the day shift and the boys nap time at daycare overlapped so we usually spent that 30-45 minutes running errands. One day, my mom and I went to Kohls to look for Eli and Luke an Easter outfit. On the clearance rack, I found a pair of Christmas pjs. The pjs were a size 12 months and looked HUGE. I thought there was no way my 4 lb 13 oz baby would be big enough to wear the two tone green stripped pjs. They were marked $6 so after debating with my mom if Seth would be THAT big at Christmas, I decided to go ahead and buy them. I thought even if he isn't that big I could save them and give them as a baby gift. After all, I was only going to be out $6 so it wasn't that big of a deal. I got even more excited about buying the pjs when they unexpectedly rang up for $4 at the register!! I hung the pjs in his closet and kept wondering as the months passed if they would fit. As you can tell from the above picture, Seth was just the right size for the bargain Christmas pjs! He turned 10 months old on New Year's Day. I had to take him to the doctor for his second flu shot on the 2nd of January. They weighed him with his clothes on and he weighed 20 lbs. Here are a few things that are new with Baby Sefy, as his big brothers call him.

• Teeth - He now has four teeth- two on the top and two on the bottom. He likes to try out his new teeth by biting on things. This would not be so bad if I wasn't still nursing. OUCH! OUCH! OUCH!
  
• Sitting alone - Seth started sitting up with out support around Thanksgiving. Just give him something to play with and he will be in the same spot you left him -- that is unless a certain big brother decides that Seth needs to lay down. You never know what Luke is going to do when he "helps" Seth.
  
• Crawling/Scooting - Seth is not crawling but he is trying to figure out how to scoot to what he wants. Most of the time, he reaches his hands and kicks his legs so hard that he gets off balance and ends up on his back. So he rolls over and tries again.
  
• Talking - He is still saying Dada in a sweet tone and with excitement. He says something that sounds like Hi/Hey but not all the time. So I am not sure if it is actually just sounds or a word. In the last Seth update, I said that he didn't say Momma. Well maybe that wasn't exactly true. I have decided that he is indeed calling me but it isn't the sweet tone I prefer. When he gets aggravated and upset, a fussy, whinny "Ma Ma Ma" can be heard. I would much rather hear a sweet loving tone of Momma but I will take the whinny Ma Ma for now and we will work on tone and attitude later.
  
• Eating - Around the first part of November, Seth decided that he would start eating solid food better. I guess he decided that I wasn't going to give up. He enjoys eating solid food now. To save a little money, I am making his baby food. Don't worry, I am not going green or getting all earthy on you, I am just trying to keep a little green in our checking account! I found a website that has lots of information and recipes on how to make baby food. He is exploring a lot more food than his brothers did. He has tried rice cereal, oatmeal, bananas, applesauce, pears, pumpkin, carrots, sweet potatoes, avocado, green beans, peas, lima beans, cauliflower, broccoli, eggplant, and butternut squash. I am starting to add some flavoring to his food. I have only tried garlic powder but I plan to add more soon. Lima beans win the award for the most yucky face made and avocados come in second. As you can tell from his orange tinted face in the picture he enjoys his veggies rich in vitamin A!
  
• Sleeping - At his 9 mo. well visit, he was still waking up and wanting to eat during the night. Dr. Delisi told me that he should be sleeping through the night without being fed. His stomach was big enough to go at least 8 hours without eating. He suggested that I just let him cry it out instead of jumping up and feeding him. He thought Seth had grown accustomed to eating during the night and was waking up just out of habit. Dr. D said that he and his wife also had the same problem with the last two or three kids that they had . (They have seven or eight and with another one on the way!) It took a couple of weeks but he is finally sleeping through the night! He is also going to bed a little earlier too!
  
• Clapping - Seth has just started trying to clap his hands. He hasn't mastered it completely but he is so cute trying. Give him a couple more days and he will have it down pat!
• Signing - Seth is taking after his cousin Karis by using sign language. He isn't using correct sign language by any means, but he lets us know when he is ready for a bite. He opens and closes his right hand when he is ready for another bite. It is like he is saying "Give me more". It is funny to watch his hand stop moving while he is eating and as soon as he swallows he starts motioning for more.
  
  

We look forward to celebrating Seth's first birthday in a few weeks. Wow, how time flies when you have three active boys!