Laughter

I'm entering my first photo contest over at Trendy Treehouse.  I'm a little nervous because there are some amazing photos over there each week but I'm giving it a shot.

This weeks theme is "Laughter"  

There is nothing better than the sound of a house full of giggles and my little Parker laughs from his head to his toes.  For some reason the slurp of his sister's popsicle was sending him into giggling fits in this picture.

You can view other entries and even vote for us if you want :) by clicking here...

Mommy Life part 2

I'm behind in blogging again and I have 10 different posts whirling around in my head that I haven't had time to sit down and type so let's see if I can stay on one topic...

I feel like I'm entering a new phase in Mommy Life.

Sawyer is rapidly changing from my baby to a wannabe big kid and his latest feat is dropping his morning feeding.  He is my only baby that I have been able to solely nurse (bottle fed Ashlyn, pumped to feed P and M) and I have cherished every minute of it.

Okay maybe not every minute, a few of those nursing-every-hour nights, in my delusional state, I think I may have been willing my husband to lactate so he could take over.  But for the most part I have loved nursing this time around and am very sad to say that I dropped his morning feeding AND HE DID NOT EVEN NOTICE.

I kept waiting for him to climb on my lap and try to cuddle or whine for me or SOMETHING but nothing.  He was completely fine and toddled around as usual after the Crazies, not needing me a bit.  Of course I'm thrilled that he is weaning easily and am not so nervous about taking out his nighttime feeding some time soon but he is my baby.  Could he just pretend like he needs me a little?

So to counteract my weaning weepiness I decided to do the fitness test for P.90X with my husband, assuming I would fail miserably due to years of sacrificing my body to fertility treatments, pregnancy, bedrest, hospitalizations, surgeries, etc.

I figured I would do the test, prove I was beyond out of shape, and continue on my road of beginners yoga whenever I could manage to stay awake to get a session in.  BUT something crazy happened.

I passed the fitness test.

The further we got into the test the more excited I got that I might truly be a living, breathing, fulling functioning person.  Mark and I had fun pushing each other through the challenges and spent the rest of naptime plotting our path to looking like the people on the video.

Now, I am two days into the program and regardless of the fact that I could barely lift my children, tie my shoes or get my sports bra on today I feel great.  For the first time in YEARS I am doing something for me.  I'm actually feeling a little weird blogging about it because I'm not sure that I have ever spent five minutes here talking completely about myself.

I have heard people talk about this thing called "taking time for yourself" but I have sort of laughed it off and buried myself in taking care of my kids vowing to not miss a second of anything because I have learned the painful reality of how quickly those moments can be taken away.

I think taking a step to do something for me made me realize how much I need to do this and how much I have needed to do this for a long time.  I'm sure the whole exercise/serotonin boost is not hurting me either :)

So this was a lot of serious change for one weekend.  I can now have a margarita after Sawyers bedtime feed AND I found something to do just for me.  I actually worked out yesterday morning while Mark got the kids up instead of feeling I had to be crazy super mom getting them up myself AND I even bought workout clothes AND went shoe shopping for me yesterday.  Who in the world am I??

"Moooooommmmmmmyyyyyyyyy" (Parker)


"Moooom" (Ashlyn)


Nevermind, I remember.

"Mooooom" (Ashlyn again)


"MOOOOOOMMMMMMMMYYYYYYY" (and Parker again)


Naptime is over, Ashlyn can't find something, the dryer just buzzed and I have no idea what I am cooking for dinner.

But I AM looking forward to my "me" hour tomorrow.

I may update my P.90 status on here every once in a while just incase anyone is interested in whether or not I actually stick with it.  Don't expect to see any before and after photos though.  We took the "befores" on Saturday and they were not pretty.   Seeing them made me want to try that spray tan stuff, oh and teeth whitening too.   Okay I'll stop now, I will never have that much free time and naptime is way past over.

Me time is going to my head.

Here are some pics of Parker and McKenna so I don't feel guilty blogging about myself (I think they may become a trapeze act in the circus someday because they spend their whole time swinging trying to hold hands)...

 

Mutiny

You know those days where you feel totally on top of everything?  

You get to shower and brush your teeth before noon, come up with enough activities to keep your children from tearing apart the house and each other and even have dinner in the oven?

This is NOT one of those days.  

The kids have declared mutiny on their mother.  

There has been more trouble caused, messes made and kids crying than I could possibly tend to, clean up and settle down in one day.  I was wondering how exactly it got to this point today and then I remembered.

Here is just a small piece of the morning drama...

Sawyer woke up from his morning nap covered in a gag-worthy mess.

While mopping him up McKenna sauntered by stirring a glass full of water with the television remote. (spot clean the baby with wipes, leave the rest in pursuit of the glass and remote)

As McKenna cried over the loss of her concoction I heard the toilet flushing and found Parker "cleaning" the floor with a toilet brush. (grab the brush, throw it in the sink, make mental note to clean the floor and the sink)

By now it was lunch time, I herded everyone downstairs, Parker tripped on the gait (crying) so I put  Sawyer down (2 crying) and consoled Parker while McKenna's declared she was getting a freeze pop.  "No freeze pops, McKenna" (and 3 crying).

In desperation I gave them each an empty two liter and a stack of plastic cups and tried to find something to feed them before the next disaster hit.  The two liters were not a hit. (couch cushions flew, the baby tried to get outside, McKenna found a new outfit from the dirty clothes)

We made it to lunch and while everyone was strapped in and eating massaging their food into the table McKenna's doctor called and as I moved further and further from my screeching, squealing, whining children so that I could decipher a portion of the doctor's instructions I was fully aware that the fate of my kitchen worsened the further I got from my children.  

I ended the call as quickly as I could and returned to find that no one had broken out of their chairs because they were too busy launching chewed up food onto the floor.  I let everyone free and began to assess the damage.

Without too much more destruction we made it to nap time and just as I shut their door, in my deep breathe of relief I took in an eye-watering smell and remembered Sawyer's naptime mess that for some reason I had never been able to clean up.

Before I get them after nap I may give them a little while to chat, hopefully they will decide that the morning mutiny was enough and they will go easy on me for the afternoon.

Funnies

The kids are growing like crazy.
Sawyer is walking like a champ,

Ashlyn is starting high school in one week (my heart is beating faster just typing those words) and Parker and McKenna are changing from my little toddlers into miniature little adults squished into almost 3 year-old bodies.

I know everyone thinks that their children are hilarious so I will just join the club and share a few recent quotes from the Crazies.

Me- Parker, tell Sawyer sorry for hitting him in the head
Parker (looking at me very seriously and whispering)- I am not talking right now.

Me- Please be quiet Parker
Parker- That's no way to talk to your sweetie.

Parker- Kenna come get in your chair
McKenna- I do not like Kenna, it is McKenna for you Parker.

Potty quotes:

This morning after going way past his threshold for holding it, I made Parker go sit on the potty.
He jumped up after a second, said he didn't have to go and headed on his way.
I explained that he needed to go on the potty or he would wet his big kid pants and he explained back-
In two minutes I will pee in my pants.


Me- Parker, did you wet your pants?
Parker- Not yet.


Me- If you go poop on the potty I will give you a BIG treat, what do you what?
Parker- An elephant.

That's all I've got for now.
I know there are a million more but I have not been writing them down which I'm sure I will regret forever especially since I am still waiting for the day when I regain all of those brain cells I seem to have lost after childbirth.

Everyone

We braved our first weekend away with the little ones and I'm here, not as sleep deprived as I thought I would be, to blog about it.  The kids had a great time and aside from the car ride there, okay, and the car ride home, things went incredibly smooth.  Oh and as an extra little thank you to the people who allowed us to use their cottage Mark spent part of our last day there tightening all of their cabinet fixtures, door knobs, window latches and towel racks.  Of course none of them were loose before we Parker got there.

The weekend was the first time in years that my entire extended family was together in one place.  It was so good to see everyone but bittersweet for me as so much of life is these days.  The last time we attended a family reunion I was happily pregnant with triplets and had found out we were having two girls and a boy.  We announced what we were having to the whole family and were greeted with lots of cheers and I think you should name one after me's.  It was a great time in our lives and returning to the same place reminds me of what different people we are now and how much life has changed.  We have five amazing children but one will never be at the famous family reunion, or go kayaking in the lake with her Daddy and uncles, or climb from bed to bed to bed with her siblings, talking her Mommy's ears off because sleeping in a cabin is just beyond exciting when you are two.

And hardest of all?  I will never hear "my whole family" with out feeling a twinge of pain because Hadley will always be missing and, for me, our family will never be whole.  Words like "everyone" and "all of us" carry so much more significance for me now because I long for the completeness they bring.

When I see the latest version of our huge family picture I will laugh with everyone else at the amazing feat of getting our crazy bunch in one shot but my eyes will find a spot where my little daughter should be standing and then the picture will blur with tears.  I will remind myself though, that she was there because I brought her.  

Her memory was packed carefully for the trip, right inside my heart.

Next to Hadley's tree that Nana and Papa planted at the cottage

Just one of those days

Clean up in aisle 3

These little shopping carts are a great idea,

for someone else's children.

In a moment of temporary insanity I decided not only to take all of the kids to the grocery store but to let Parker and McKenna push their own carts instead of strapping everyone down like any clear-headed mom would have done.

I took the picture above after about 30 seconds in the store (notice the empty carts and the fact that I had a hand to snap a picture).  About 5 seconds later Parker took a quick right and decided we need a lime from the bottom of a fruit display.
Clean up in produce


Once I got them untangled from the limes and somewhat facing the same direction I made a beeline for the few items we needed but could not, for some reason, get us all moving in a straight line. (This, of course, was what I pictured when I decided to let them push carts.  Me, pushing Sawyer with Ashlyn helping to get the groceries while the Crazies followed happily behind us in a single file line, happily giggling every time we set something in their cart.  Delusional, I know.)

Anyway, I quickly gave up on getting in front of them and just did damage control from behind.  Before I could blink or actually shop, Parker was helping himself to a box of macaroni and cheese
clean up in aisle 3
and McKenna was turning down the next aisle carrying a foot long pre-wrapped sausage and a can of spray cheese.

My next strategy was just to get out.  I sent Ashlyn ahead of us to look for an empty aisle for us to go down so we did not continue to hold up traffic and just kept repeating "follow Sissy, follow Sissy, follow Sissy" until I was blue in the face.  Eventually I spotted a basket of suckers near the checkout, told Ashlyn to go pick a few up and wave them at us (she looked at me like I was insane but nothing could make more of a scene than we already had so she obliged).

With Ashlyn waving us to the finish line, the kids followed the sugar bribe and we made it to the checkout.  Parker unloaded launched the items from his cart onto the conveyor
clean up at check out
McKenna chanted "open the sucker, open the sucker," Ashlyn asked for every snack within view, I payed and we got out of there.

I swear I heard a cheer break out as the automatic doors shut behind us.

Back to grocery shopping at midnight I guess.  Now that they had a taste of grocery store freedom I will never be able to strap them in a cart again.

And we're off

See those little two little diaper-butt kids?  

They are both well on their way to potty training.

Parker is doing GREAT but Ms. McKenna is giving us a run for our money as usual.  

I swear she can hold it for longer than humanly possible.  

Usually after she has been dry for about 5 hours or so Mark or I will relent and sit with her in the bathroom where she will stay, on her potty, just staring at us as we wait for her to go.  Sooner or later we will give up, or feel the need to do something other than sit on a slate floor eye-to-eye with the poster child for stubborn, and head out of the bathroom.  About five minutes after the face-off is over she will either pee on the floor or ask for a diaper, pee in it then take it off.  Smart, isn't she??

Today, for the first time, she ran to the bathroom yelling "Kenna's going pee-pee" and came out proudly carrying the potty seat with about two drops of pee in it.  Just as I was explaining to her that she needed to sit back down and finish going I saw her shorts and realized that she sat on the potty while wearing her shorts and underwear.  At least she headed there on her own though, right??

Parker seems to be well on his way but I think McKenna is going to need the 3 day intensive program that I have heard such great things about.  Either way the diaper days are coming to an end for my little preemies.  As much as I am happy about this I have a few scenarios that I am dreading and would love some tips from anyone who has/had more little ones than arms at one time...

1. Shopping anywhere.  How in the world am I going to manage a public restroom when I am lucky to find a place that has a cart to fit them all in?

2. Driving anywhere.  Again, I can't imagine stopping to schlep them all inside a fast food place/gas station/anywhere yucky to use a bathroom.  I can bring the potty seat with us everywhere but what do I do with whatever ends up inside it?

I'm hoping for some good tips so we are not stuck inside until all of my kids are big enough to not fall through the seat of a big potty.

Thanks in advance and sorry for all of the potty talk for anyone who is not remotely interested.  I promise, even though this is all very exciting, it will not be my only blog topic for the next few weeks.

Once upon a time

I met the most amazing man...

and he asked me to marry him.

We had three beautiful babies

and then one more

and we sailed floated off into the sunset to live our happily ever after.

Happy Anniversary Mark,
I love you more than the day we said I do and can't wait for the rest of our story.

We're baack

Mark is back to work.
The kids are back to my schedule.
And I am back to blogging.

I hope I didn't lose too many readers due to my slacking off during the month of July.

Since I know Mark is missing the kids like crazy and I have lots of family going through picture withdrawals I though I would post our day in pictures today.

Breakfast time

As soon as I made a move for the camera Sawyer decided he was feeding himself and yes, McKenna is wearing a pajama shirt AND a dress on backwards with her head and arm both through the same hole.  Under that she is wearing a ruffly skirt, pajama shorts and a pair of skorts.  I had to adjust the straps in her booster chair to fit it all in.

Parker showing off his latest boo boo, a centimeter long scratch that he is obsessed with 

Playtime

Parker and McKenna taking "Penny" and "Hippy" to school via the fish.

And that's it, 9 a.m. and my dream of a day in pictures is over.

This is as far as I got before the novelty of being home with just Mommy again wore off and I remembered just how busy I am when Mark is at work.  

Soon after this shot Parker broke into the corner cupboard for McKenna who promptly served them both  sprinkles with a dash of paprika and Sawyer decided his only method of transportation today would be walking... which is really great, just really dangerous since the top half of his body moves much faster than the bottom half and there are two crazy toddlers circling him every 30 seconds making his path an ever-changing obstacle course.

I really do LOVE being home with the kids though and as Mark had to return to work I reminded myself for the millionth time how lucky I am to be able to stay home with them each and every day.