This Crazy Life

So I've decided to write a blog post. It's been a while, and I should write something to capture this moment or phase in our life. I have a ton to say, and yet not too much to say at the same time. Everyone is doing well. Daniel started kindergarten in August. He's doing great and growing like a weed. I feel like every time I look at him, he needs new pants. We are still adjusting to having two schools, two drop offs, etc. We are very happy with his school and can't wait to be a bigger part of that community. Christopher will be four next month, and is just starting to wear 4T clothes which led me to the discovery that Daniel did not leave one pair of jeans without holes in the knees. Christopher likes to dress (I'll just leave it at that), and does not like wearing the pants with holes in the knees. I guess I'll be restocking the 4T jean selection. John is a wonderful baby. He's cute, giggly, loves his brothers, and loves to eat.

Matt and I both have great things going on at work. Well, I guess great would be debatable. Matt has enough work to keep him working from the wee hours of the morning to the late night hours almost every day. This was a good week. He was home for dinner and bed two nights in a row! I'll just forget about the part where he leaves for the airport at 3 or 4 am tomorrow and gets home just before midnight. My work is busy enough to keep me at the office 10 or 15 minutes longer than I plan on each day ;) That's a busy I can live with.

I can tell that life is moving really quickly these days. It makes me long for those laid back summer days where the most important part of the day was visiting with the neighbors. My boys remind me daily about the important things. Daniel and Christopher have made decorating the house a personal challenge. They have done most of the tree ornaments so far and not too bad of a job either. I might just let them have at it and get it finished. They remember little stories about each ornament and love discussing each one as they put them up. They are very interested in all of our Advent related things, too. They would play with the Nativity set as much as I would let them, but it's difficult to let go on that one. They race out of bed to do the Advent calendar, and our Christmas Angel is a hit. The Angel was named John. John the Angel has long blonde hair and is wearing a dress.

Alright, if I'm going to take on the morning solo, I better get to the pictures quickly.

John just started sitting here.

What a cutie!

Daniel is into helping!

Thanks Gigi! Yummy!

All three boys in one shot!

Mom and Dad came for a great visit.

This was a really cold game!

John loves to eat!

Six months old!

Daniel's first fundraiser. "I'm selling a fundraiser."

All firemen like coleslaw, right?

Six Fun Things

On Friday Christopher, John, and I had to run a lot of errands. I've started working four shorter days a week instead of three longer days, so much of my errand running happens on Friday morning. Our errands consisted of the bank, yoga, the cobbler, church, and the park. I have a loose definition of errands, but whatever. At first, Christopher had decided that about half of the errands were boring and half were fun. After discussing the idea with himself for a few minutes, he decided that all the errands could be fun. I'm pretty sure he decided to take the optimistic viewpoint and he knew that if they were fun, he would have a better day. I hope he maintains the ability to see the upside of situations even when he's stuck in the car running errands all day.

I Think I Have a Problem

So remember a few posts ago when I claimed that I never forget appointments and things like that. Well, having three kids may have pushed me into the realm of sometimes gets things done, sometimes does not. You see, Saturday evening was our godson's birthday party, and Matt and I had decided it was best if he took the big boys to the party. Well, at least that was what we discussed in my mind. I found out about five minutes before he was going to leave that his, nonverbalized, response to my idea (instruction) about taking the boys to the party was, "What do you think, I'm crazy?" So needless to say I was in full Saturday work attire when I found out that I was going to the birthday party and leaving in five minutes. Thank goodness it does not take me long to go from errand running to partying outfits. Matt and I were both totally honestly believing in our perspectives so much that all we could do was laugh about the situation all evening long and a bit into the next day. I hope this is just part of the learning curve and not a sign of how things will be from now until forever. Only time will tell. Until then I think Outlook appointments with very clear instructions will have to suffice.

A Fatherly Moment

"It's time you learn about Oreo's and milk..."

Kindergarten

Kindergarten has been an exciting time for all of us. It seems like Daniel is doing well, but I'm not really sure. He doesn't share so much. My first impression is that he is meticulously cataloging everything about his class and school and doesn't have enough energy left to tell us about it at the end of the day. His favorite subjects are gym and music. He comes home singing new songs with hand motions after each music class. After gym class, I find him doing switchbacks on his bed telling me that he is exercising because exercise is healthy and makes you live longer. I also get a report of the number of recesses they have each day. Other than that, I have to ask carefully crafted questions to glean morsels of information about anything else going on. I remember this same feeling for the time between Daniel entering the preschool classroom at their daycare and Christopher. I learned more in the first two weeks Christopher was in the class than I had in the 20 months previously Daniel had been there. I was blissfully unaware that I needed to know anything at that time, but now, I'm keenly interested in what is going on in Daniel's class.

 

One of the things that raises a bit of concern in my mind is the fact that Daniel usually has a nearly full lunchbox when he gets picked up. He's maybe eaten half a sandwich and his yogurt. I guess he's not very hungry? We also signed him up for milk everyday. It's the most economical thing I've come across yet, $20 for the entire school year! However, Daniel's sense of economy with the milk is a little concerning. He likes to bring home the leftovers in his lunchbox. I'm sure you can imagine what an opened milk carton does to a lunchbox by the time it gets home.

 

Daniel was described by his aunt when he was only a couple months old as slow to warm up. I would say that's still holding true. It's difficult to say exactly how long slow takes.

 



Catching Up and Just Beginning

It's been a big week here, but I can't get started with that until I catch you up on the rest of our summer. Shortly after the baptism, the boys and I headed to my family's cottage in Amherst Shore, Nova Scotia. My Dad joined us for the trip up there, and I was so thankful to have him along. I was lucky enough to spend five weeks at the shore! Matt was able to join us for the last two weeks.

During my time there, I was able to really relax. Life there is simpler and a bit more work at the same time. We lived in a 1000 sq ft cottage with no air conditioner or heating, clothes washer or dishwasher. It does have two fridges (one for beer!) and it has a wonderful woman who lives down the street and is superb at laundry (my mother!). I didn't have a car, but was loaned one regularly from my parents and had the privledge of borrowing my grandparents golf cart for the whole summer to boot. Just imagine, me with John in the front carrier, the boys perched on the back ready to go to wherever we needed to. This was a nearly daily trek. I particularly liked the evening I debated whether taking John to book club in the golf cart was better if he was in the carrier or the car seat. Seriously, a car seat on the floor of the golf cart? At least I remembered the saran wrap to cover my wine glass for the evening. Somehow it was quite easy to be at the cottage. Our days were full of playtime, mealtime, and beach time. Our evenings were full of family dinners and visiting. I really miss the non-distracted quality time that you get at the shore. I was so checked out of real life that I actually missed more than one appointment in my last week there. And it wasn't that "I'm going to skip this, but feel extremely guilty," it was "I missed something the day before yesterday and just realized it now" sort of thing. If you know me, you know that I don't miss much.

The boys had a wonderful time at the beach as well. It was kids being kids, running with the pack, and loving life for five weeks. They have never been dirtier or happier. Christopher is still catching up on sleep and food. I've never seen my children eat so much. Afternoon would come and the eating would begin. John was happy to come along for the fun in the carrier or the stroller. Other than being an extremely regular day eater, he is a pretty low maintenance baby.

So now we are back in Wisconsin. We just got back a week ago, and since then I returned to work, the little boys are at daycare, and Daniel started kindergarten. It's been a huge week! I might be caught up, but I'm still not quite sure. Thankfully Matt is still enjoying his time off for paternity leave. I could not have done this otherwise. He's been doing lots of shopping, form filling out, and driving. Not quite sure what's going to happen next week when he goes back to work, but that must just be what life's like with three kids. You don't quite have a plan, but you know it will work out. My body is starting to hurt from spending too many hours sitting at a desk instead of walking and carrying kids to and from the beach. Thankfully I'm still receiving tons of veggies from our CSA. It's a nice reminder of my parents bountiful garden but does not come with the hours of kid entertainment.

So after getting very settled into our shore life, and having to rudely return to normal life, I must say that the things I've noticed being the most different are how much life gets in the way of life, how much I cheat people of real time and interactions, and how little I get to be active.

Here I am two weeks later trying to get this post completed and ready to share. I still think that my lessons of the summer hold true, but I'm finding pockets of time to enjoy people for their present company (and forget about everything else that needs to be/should be done and time to exercise (too bad it has to be scheduled now.) Also, after feeling like I have entirely too much stuff taking up space in my house since returning, I've decided that I'm right and have started purging. It feels great!

It's Been a Month Already! Time to Banish Original Sin.

John was baptized last weekend. We had a wonderful celebration with family and friends. I was quite pleased that we made it to mass on time, and I managed to have everything we needed for our lunch afterwards. Well, except dessert plates, but the Christmas ones worked just fine. Thank goodness we had Aunt Kelly around to help out! She was key in the handful of last minute grocery store trips. I was also super thankful that the Lee's brought the beverages. They added a nice element to the day.

 

We really missed Msgr. Heier during the baptism ceremony. He was our pastor who baptized the other two boys who couldn't do the baptism because he is deployed as a military Chaplin. He is also moving to a new parish upon his return. The substitute priest did his best, but it was basically mass chaos during the baptism. No one could hear him. They also rushed the start of the ceremony, so the 7-month-old next to us didn't have time to eat. We were all painfully aware of this during the baptism. I felt so badly for his mother. I've been in her shoes. There were also about twice as many children watching the baptisms as there were adults. The kids were not misbehaved, there was just a lot of movement in the audience :)

 

Despite all this, John was an angel for the baptism and I just kept reflecting on Monsignor's trademark baptism messages to keep in mind the meaning of the day. First, that these babies are prefect in the moments after their baptism and they represent what perfect is. Second, he always discusses the smell of the chrism oil that is used in the sacrament, and each time I smelled that balsam scent on John's forehead, I was reminded of what we celebrated that day.

 

I'm hoping to have pictures of John's smile in my next post. We have started getting real smiles, but nothing long enough to get a picture of yet.

 

With his godmother, Kelly.

John with his parents and godparents, Charlie and Kelly.

It was a beautiful day for a party!

Party preparations - key lime pie!

The big brothers.

The budding chef ready to squeeze and measure the limes...

Flowers from Gigi and Grampy! They are still looking and smelling beautiful!

I figured white was appropriate for the day.

Three Weeks Old

It's hard to believe that John is already three weeks old. We are settling in nicely as a family, and I must admit that I really like having three kids. It's a little crazy at times, but it's also really fun. I guess it helps that after three kids, recovering from delivery is a bit easier and all the new things that come along with a baby are old hat. I was looking back at some old pictures from when Daniel and Christopher were babies and I realized that John has already grown out of clothes that Christopher was wearing at four months! Christopher really was a tiny one for such a long time. Now he feels huge to me. I'll find myself trying to lift him only to discover that he weighs a little too much for me these days. We have an exciting weekend coming up with Aunt Kelly coming in town for John's baptism on Sunday! Hopefully the weather will clear up by then. On this longest day of the year, the sun is just starting to peek out and it's 2:45 pm.

Matt and the three boys on Father's Day.

Christopher holding John for the first time.

Today's picture with the beautiful blanket made by Aunt Katie!