Yet again, I’ve found myself up with Rowan at 6:00am. Its been happening a lot recently, and I’ve felt pretty zombie-like. However, this morning, I felt decently rested. Rowan and I had some great dozy cuddles. The kind where he’s fast asleep, but putting him down would wake him. So he slept in my arms and I watched a chunk of a movie. It was perfect. When I got up for the day, I did aaaaall the dishes that have been staring me in the face over the last few days while the older ones ate breakfast. Its been a good day so far.

I’ve been thinking about Rowans nights and how I can get him to sleep longer. Usually, he goes down around 8:00 or 8:30, wakes up at 1:30 or 2:00, and again between 5:00 and 6:00. It isn’t a bad sleep schedule, especially if I don’t require more sleep after 6:00. If I’m good to get up at that point, then he’s technically only woken up once in the night! Woot! I think I have to cut the kid a break. He’s 9.5 weeks old. I dont think he needs to be sleeping through the night just yet. I haven’t been able to shake the fact that the other kids slept better, though! Or at least longer into the night before waking up. But yesterday, I figured it out!!! The other kids took a lot more work to get to sleep at this point. Not lots or anything, but normal baby stuff. They needed to be rocked a lot, we’d do laps around our room with them, lots of shushing in their ears, etc. Rowan has been rocked to sleep less than a handful of times since he was born. And its not because we’re cruel. He hasn’t needed it. He put himself to sleep in the hospital! He’s just chill that way. Dekker and Laela would be awake waaay later into the evening (as in 11pm) before they’d go to sleep, so of course they’d sleep later into the night. Rowan goes down right after the other kids do at 7:30! If he goes down at 8:00 and sleeps until 2:00, thats six hours! If we kept him up until 11:00 and he gave us six hours, we’d consider him to be sleeping through the night! Crazy perspective for me, anyway.

Thinking this all through has made me actually really appreciate how well Rowan sleeps. I know I’m very lucky to have such great sleepers in my house. If waking up at 6:00am is my current reality, so be it. I genuinely enjoyed the early morning with Ro today. And likely will again soon.

Yesterday evening, we ate outside on the deck. Because it was beautiful and who could resist!! We kept it really basic outside food – grilled cheese sandwiches, carrots, and ice cold water. The kids were so happy! I figured they’d like being able to run around while they ate, but they didn’t really do much of that. They ate the majority of their meal from their little chairs, and then snacked a bit more while they played.

Unfortunately, we didn’t think to wash or sweep the deck off first, and it made a huge mess of their clothes and themselves in general.

Its ok. I did laundry.

So the evening was cut a bit short in order to get everyone bathed and into bed at least around the usual time. They were happy, though. It was nice.

We didn’t have the best night with Rowan at all, and I woke up feeling pretty zonked, but I actually really enjoyed today! I spent a good chunk of the morning on the phone with my mom, which I haven’t done in AGES. I miss her. Afterwards, I embarrassingly called every restaurant I could think of that I though might have a “kids eat free” day, and made a master list for our family to have on hand. Maybe that way, we might do less fast food and be able to go out a bit nicer when we have city days. I didn’t think those promos still existed, but they sure do!

Once the calls were all made, I quickly made the kids some lunch. While they were occupied with that, I washed up and got ready for the day. I packed up the diaper bag, picked the kids clothes, and got them ready as well.

On the way out of town, I checked the mail. Apparently I ordered two premium BMs. Suspicious, yes? Its ok, they were camera batteries. Phewf!

We met Brady in the city, abandoned his work van at Costco for the next few hours, and ran around to run our errands. We renewed our vehicle insurance, dropped my family ring off at the jeweller, and stopped at Walmart to buy a ring to wear while its gone for the next week or so. Does anyone else feel naked without their rings?! From there, we did a quick grocery shop at Superstore. Revlon stuff is on sale for unbelievable prices, so I got a lipstick and a two pack of their awesome gel envy nail polishes. We’re loving Dekker’s cool new hat from Superstore, but we don’t much care for any of the girls hats we’ve seen, so we opted to finally buy her a cute hat from the baby boy section and she LOVED it and wore it the rest of the time we were in Superstore 🙂 We got the rest of our stuff, and the kids got their cookies. We picked up our weekly savings after that, where I looked back and saw this sad sight, haha! No idea why, though!

We actually picked up a CHRISTMAS GIFT in the afternoon as well, before stopping for supper. We weren’t there long before taking our happy kids with full bellies to Costco for the last stop. I swooned a bit over these nice athletic looking zip up jackets they had there. I have a nice bright pink one that I got last year, but there is a lovely dark grey one that I’d love to get my hands on as well. Oh well, I got enough treats for myself today 🙂 We grabbed our bulk groceries, plus a tin of pretty hand lotions, and we were off. For the first time ever, Dekker put his arm around Laela in the cart and cuddled her. Of course, it turned into a headlock, but she was all in, and soaked up the snuggles with her big bro.

Its good to be home now. We dragged them into the house and straight to their room to get their jammies on. Laela was more than ready, but Dekker was doing everything he could to NOT put his jammies on. Finally, Laela walked over to him and tried her hand at helping him into his shirt. It was hilarious to watch, and definitely delayed the process, but was SO worth it!! Now, however, the two older kids are trashed after not sleeping AT ALL today, and Rowan isn’t doing too much better, honestly, so it could be an interesting night. But hey, last night was interesting as well. We have interesting kids, so I suppose they’re allowed these nights once in a while.

It was a nice day, filled with visiting and outings. But now its time for a bath and a small snack. And tomorrow – three days worth of dishes :/ I like it so much more when I’ve kept up with that. Oh well, its gotta get done. Not tonight. Tomorrow.

Before I get to the bulk of todays post (which I’m actually super excited to share about!) I wanted to ask if you guys are annoyed with all of the pictures? I’m putting up considerably more than usual, since I’m LOVING this new camera, and while I think people usually seem to enjoy seeing pictures, I know that it can cause some problems. On my end, our internet is patchy, so if I blog in the evening, it sometimes goes up super late while I wait for the pictures to load. Also, I know some people have told me that all they see is tiny little white squares when they view the post. The pictures are in fact there, but they take longer to show up. What do you guys think? Keep the pictures, even amongst the annoying time suck? Let me know!

Onto the next thing, I wrote yesterdays blog in the early afternoon, and therefore didn’t get to tell you about the cool thing that happened in the evening. Dekker asked for a bath. It went like this:

Me: Rowan needs a bath.
Dekker: I need a bath?
M: No, just Rowan. You don’t have to have one.
D: Maybe I’d like one?
M: Well, you can have one if you want…
D: Ya! I’ll just go get in.

And off he went, to the bathroom, where Brady was running a tub.

Of course, anything he can do, she can do better. Laela raced him there and tried desperately to get into the tub before him. Luckily, Brady was able to snag her just before she got in and get her undressed first. That is how we got ourselves here 🙂

It was hilarious, and chaotic, but awesome. Its a pretty small tub for three! I think we may have to follow this trend though, because they all loved it. Well, ok, not Rowan so much. He cried a bit, but was a pretty tough cookie for the most part. Dekker poured water on himself and on Laela, and they really enjoyed themselves! Not having to wash their hair made it way more fun. Who would have ever thought Dekker would ask for a bath?! Awesome!!!

That was the story I was most eager to share, but of course, I must add yet more pictures from this morning. Because I love these kids. I woke up FREEZING cold this morning and haven’t been able to shake it yet, despite my sweat pants, hoodie, and socks, but they really kept me entertained and happy.

Do you see the look of fear on his face??

Best. Kids. Ever. I know, none of Dekker, but he’s less inclined to let me photograph him these days. I love him too, I swear!! Looking forward to taking them to the city tomorrow. Cutest little dates ever.

I’ve had a headache for about two weeks, and now that today was a completely free day, I’m taking it off.

Ok, not “off.” I’m always “on” as a mom. I never get to zone out, or ignore my kids, or lay in bed all day. Those days are done, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. But I do feel pretty crappy, and its nice to lay in bed while they do. That is our family’s current state. We’re all in bed. Except Brady. He has a job and stuff.

I usually, at the very least, make the bed and do the dishes and tidy up the kitchen a bit. I packed the dishwasher, but I didn’t gather any rogue dishes from around the house. I didn’t even wipe the table. There are bottles in our room and downstairs that I did not retrieve. And the bed didn’t get touched. Well, its currently occupied so I’m sure it’ll live. But seriously, as much as I am able, I am taking today off.

Have you seen the little meme that floats around Facebook once in a while with the lazy puppy on it? It states “I can’t adult today.” That is definitely how I feel. I cannot adult today. But the reality is, I have to, at least to an extent. But I’m going to adult as little as possible today, and try to grow up a bit for tomorrow. I made a very ominous list called “Can’t put off!” I probably should have called it “Sunshine and happiness,” but every time I say “happiness” Dekker asks “What you said about a penis?” and we get nowhere. The list contains decisions Brady and I have to make sooner than later, things we have to schedule, and a handful of other things, I’m sure. I’d check, in order to give you specific examples, but I don’t want to know myself.

Maybe we’ll deal with some of it tonight, but not now. Now is the time for YouTube and maybe even a bit of shut eye. Rowan has been giving us these beautiful stretches at night. He goes down anytime between 8:00 and 9:00, and he sleeps until 3:00!! But then he wakes up at 6:00-ish and isn’t hungry enough for a bottle, he’s between awake and asleep, but he cries loudly and with determination. But wants nothing really. So while I get that nice stretch, the night is cut a bit short on me. I feel like my eyes will always be rimmed red, but I know they won’t be. Ro is only nine weeks old today. I’m pretty sure he’s allowed a bit more time to figure out sleeping 😉

I, on the other hand, am thinking I’d like to familiarize myself with sleeping a bit right now. A nap it is!!

Snow Day. In case you somehow missed it, or aren’t from around here, we got a solid snow overnight. I tried to view it positively by rocking my mukluks again, but straight up, I have battled the grouchies all day.

However, we braved the weather and the roads, and drove to my parents for the day. My grandma is out for the weekend, and she hasn’t seen the kids since last summer, so we definitely wanted to get in a visit with her. We had a lovely day, and the kids put on quite the show for her! They rocked their best manners, said their cutest phrases, and were so polite I could taste it. They made Brady and I look really good, basically! My grandma was super impressed, and said over and over again how lovely and well behaved they were, and that always feels good. They napped well too, which was a treat for all of us.

We had moms cinnamon rolls for supper, and the kids destroyed them! Seriously. Dekker had at least six, and Laela had five. They both also had a big bowl of fruit salad. They both out-ate me. It was pretty epic. Sadly, shortly after supper, we had to head home. The kids were sad to go to bed upon arrival, but its past their bedtime. I think its a weird adjustment for them, as its staying light later into the evening. Weird for me too, honestly, but in a good way.

As I mentioned, I’ve been feeling grumpy for most of the day, and while I truly enjoyed our visit with everyone, I am quite tired and needing some downtime. So its YouTube and the tub for me! Enjoy the last of this Sunday, all! Reality is back in business tomorrow!

This afternoon was finally our performance. To clarify, it was the last Spring concert choir that the school will have, unless something amazing happens and they reopen somewhere down the line. But as it stands, Bethany will close its doors after commencement tomorrow. It was the last concert, and I was thrilled to be part of it.

Of course, as it would happen, it snowed like you wouldn’t believe today. Thankfully, when Jerilee came to pick me up for warm ups, the weather had really just begun, and we made it on time no problem. We ran right into the gym and saved my family a row of seats before hitting the stage for a quick run through of a few songs.

While I was at practice, Brady was getting the kids ready to come. I’ve taught him well, obviously, because he took pictures 🙂

Between practice and performance was about a half hour, where I ran into a couple of beautiful people who came to watch. These people included Brady and the kids, my parents and grandma, Willa and her friend from church, Jerilee’s parents, and lots of other alumni that I didn’t know was coming. So many nice surprises!

I won’t minimize it. Concert choir was a lovely time of praise and worship and reminiscing. I loved it, and from what I heard, the crowd really enjoyed it as well. Extra points if you can find me!!

When all was said and done, we inched our way out to the main doors to meet Brady with the van. The kids walked super slowly and Laela specifically attracted an unbelievable amount of attention. Ok, it wasn’t unbelievable. It made perfect sense, she was SO gorgeous in her huge skirt and pink leather jacket 🙂 They were all so adorable today.

The kids were asleep within minutes of leaving the school.

Now, we’re home, and Brady and I specifically are completely wiped. I could barely understand anything the kids were saying, and I even started to make up words. Doesn’t “yumby” sounds yummier than “yummy” anyway? I mean yumbier… Now I’m confused. I got some good cuddles in with Rowan while Dekker and Laela ate their supper at the table.

While I love my kids, I am relieved that they are finally down so that I can get some supper and hit the sack!

I’ll send you off with a photo shoot, feature myself and the lovely Jerilee. I picked many of the super unflattering ones, just for fun. It is a good thing that Instagram didn’t exist when we were in college 😉

Yup, we’re cool. We know.

Sleep well, all.

This has been a super busy week for me. I know many of you lead considerably busier lives than me. I am not always out and about at all, but I don’t thrive in busyness like some people. If I have one outing, task, or what have you in a day, I’m good. I’ve been out each evening this week, twice getting home after 10:00pm. I know its not late for everyone, but around here, its kind of our cutoff time for a soak. 10:00pm is too late to run a bath, so it constitutes as “late” in our house currently.

Our morning was pretty rocky, but I am feeling relieved now. All three of the kids are asleep, which I never ever thought I could make happen. I’m in bed with the fan blowing, watching some YouTube, and doing not a whole lot else. I did all of our laundry yesterday, and did the regular stuff around the house today. No real chores. As it turns out, nothing is on our calendar for today!!! I’m so happy to have one free day this week.

Of course, moments ago, Brady texted to tell me he may need stitches, so thats a win and will throw a bit of a wrench into our lazy evening at home, but likely it’ll just start later. I guess stitches once every 4.5-5 years is ok, if he even needs them.

Tomorrow will be busy. Our choir is performing at 2:30pm. It it the only show, and it is the very last concert choir there will be in this setting, as the school is closing 🙁 It will be an unbelievably emotional time for many, and the music and all that surrounds it will be pretty epic. Seriously, if any of you are local and want to come, please do! I can give anyone interested more details. I’m so looking forward to being a part of the final concert. Hopefully some of you can be a part of it too 🙂

Our kids are great sleepers! Rowan currently gets up twice-ish per night, but he always goes back to sleep on his own, and never with much fuss at all. I honestly don’t know if we’ve ever rocked him to sleep. He just sleeps. Awesome sauce.

But I’ve started to notice something about his beds. He sleeps in his cradle in our room for night, which has a thin little foamy mattress inside. For his naps, we put him in the crib in the older kids room, so we can watch him on the monitor. That crib has a fairly firm mattress. Both beds just have a regular sheet on them, no extras really at all.

In the morning, sometimes Rowan wakes up a bit too early for me. I wait until he’s past the lulling in and out stage, and I know he’s good and awake. Now, we do not co-sleep, but those mornings, I bring him to the bed and lay him on Bradys side. Not under blankets, not even in my arms. He basically lays on the quilt. I bring him there so I can give him a soother and try to convince him he needs to rest a bit more. We never use the soother to put him to bed at night, but occasionally use one to hold him off for a bit, or encourage him back to sleep during naps and such. However, he falls asleep on his own. And sleeps for a few more HOURS.

This morning, we had the same set up, and after a while, he started to move a little. So I secured his soother in his mouth, and lay my chunk of the quilt over top of him. I KNOW! It sounds unsafe, but it wasn’t. His soother is one of those cute ones with the little stuffed animal hanging off of it, so I wrapped the quilt overtop of his chest and the stuffed lambie. His eyes immediately rolled back and he was out. FOR ANOTHER HOUR!

So what this boils down to is  the fact that Rowan is sooo comfy in a softer bed. I’m not suggesting I surround him in quilts in his little cradle or anything, but is there any harm in laying some squishier blankets underneath him? Or something like that?! Laying him in his crib feels like I’m laying him on a hard floor 🙁 He’s not at a stage yet where I’m worried about him grabbing things and not being able to control where they go, but he’s not far off from that really either.

Any suggestions on how I can make my baby’s bed more comfy without making it unsafe?

Guys, I finally got my legs waxed again! I haven’t gone since Rowan was born, which has been eight whole weeks! I know, it seems like he’s been around for ages already, but its actual just shy of eight weeks, and I wasn’t even going to consider going in until it had been six weeks, so I’m not that gross, ok??

It was really nice, though, to go in and see my waxer and friend, Jenn. I love the girl talk and the relaxing environment. Granted, hair is being pulled out of my body at warp speed over and over again, but it feels luxurious and pampering to me. I now have fresh legs, arms, and brows, and I feel ready for spring. While I was doing that, Brady and the kids were doing this…

Suuuper cute!

After my wax, we hit Walmart for a dress shirt and a pair of shorts for Dekker, a couple of groceries, and the most exciting for us – a card reader for our camera cards!! The wifi capability is a great feature, but when your wifi blows like ours does, its pretty meaningless. Instead of fighting with the camera every single day to try to load the pictures onto the laptop, we now have a new option, and it is SO fast! Only $12 and I loaded the whole camera card onto the laptop (about 200 pics at this point) in moments. We also snagged a little tripod, because I love accessories and trinkets.

We snagged some food and made it home just in time to put the kids down. They hate that, but they actually went down pretty well. Once they were in bed, we had about 15 minutes before we had a meeting about our life insurance. Thankfully, our girl is wonderful and comes to our house. We did that in less than an hour, and now we’re going about our routine of having a soak and a snack. With last nights choir practice going so late, I didn’t get a bath, and it will be an even later practice tomorrow, so tonights bath better be borderline perfect.

Sleep well, all!

Brady was so sweet this morning and fed Rowan at 5:15am so I could keep sleeping. Ro is particularly annoying to feed right now, as he’s cutting his amounts down pretty significantly, and we’re having to work for every ounce. Thanks to Brady, I was able to sleep until 8:30ish and feel more refreshed. For whatever reason, though, I was shot by noon. I ate lunch with the kids but wasn’t revived at all. I was droopy by 1:00, and decided to try a new nap time.

The kids usually go down at 1:30. They tend to take quite a while to fall asleep at night as well, so I figured an earlier nap time couldn’t hurt. We’d try it, anyway. I went about my normal system where I warn the kids a bit in advance, and then put them down a half hour early, unbeknownst to them. Laela was ready, and slept. Dekker started to talk right away, so I shushed him through the monitor and surprisingly, he fell asleep too!

Rowan had pretty much slept all day up until that point, so he was tucked in his bed, and I went to cuddle up in mine and relax a bit. But it was shortly after 2:00 that Dekker woke up and started moving around. Normally, I talk to him through the monitor and try to keep him down for a bit longer so that Laela can sleep, but the earlier nap time was an effort for an easier nighttime, and wakefulness could likely only help with that. So I whispered into the monitor “Dekker, if you can walk really quietly, you can come cuddle with Rowan and I in my bed.” He immediately rolled out of bed and walked quietly across the room and out his door. He appeared at my door, climbed up onto the bed, and gave me a big hug and kiss. He greeted Rowan the same before tucking himself under the covers and snuggling in for a bit of YouTube. It was sooo sweet to cuddle with my boys.

Once Brady texted to say he was on his way home, I knew I had a short period of time before I had to get on the road for choir practice. The performance is this weekend so there are extra long practices this week. I asked Dekker if he would mind if I did my makeup and he said he’d bring toys. He went downstairs to retrieve the trucks he had in mind, and I had just begun my foundation when he came back into the room. Without a moments pause, he said “Your makeup looks beautiful, mommy.”

Turns out I can’t trust his judgement. Of course, at the end, he told me “You fixed it!” Yes, yes I did. Promise.

When Brady made it home, Rowan had finally woken up a bit and I was feeding him. Dekker was playing toys around me, and Laela was going on HOUR FOUR of her nap! What a crazy day for schedules, or lack there of. Brady came bearing a large parcel from the post office for us. A VERY intriguing parcel!

Dekker was so excited to open it and see what was inside. It was a crazy beautiful care package put together for us from my aunt and uncle, and their two kids, to celebrate Rowan, and also Dekker and Laela. My Aunty Sandy never disappoints. She gifts us such beautiful, thoughtful things for our kids, and they’re always unexpected and SO appreciated! This particular gift contained some gorgeously soft clothes for Rowan, including these hilarious onesies that I just can’t get enough of.

The toy that was very specific for Dekker was one of those vintage looking tin spinning tops with the handle-ish thing that you push down to make it spin. Am I making sense? I couldn’t get a picture of it because he was off with it too fast, but he LOVES it!

I think I love Laela’s present the best, to be honest. As I don’t want to put her in dance already…

It is gorgeous and full and soft and unbelievable and I’d wear it if it were my size! As you can see, there is even a little matching headband. This is PERFECT for Laela.

On top of all of this was a card, a couple more toys, some stickers, and a handmade blanket for Roro. I was completely blown away by such a gift. Its all still in the box (except Dekker’s top and Laelas skirt is hanging) because I want to look through it all again tomorrow. But tonight I was out practicing for Saturday, and got home later than usual. You guys should really all try to make an appearance. Its going to be beautiful and emotional and memorable.

What a FABULOUS day!