Christmas in Pictures

This is what my living room looked like at 10 pm tonight. And these are just the presents from family members for our kids. The mess is killing me but I told myself, and the kids, that they could keep all toys out for 1 week. It's going to be the longest week of my life.Baby number 3 is 3.5 months old and started rolling over 3 days before Christmas. She rolled herself across the room to get to the presents. And then tried to EAT them.
Child number one opening her Disney Princess Deluxe Pack. Loves it.
Child number two discovering his Razor scooter.

We had a really wonderful Christmas and it is magical to see the joy of Christmas through the eyes of my children. They were so excited and thankful. Hope your Christmas was splendid.

Up and Down, All Around

I'm sure my son has the attention span of a typical 3 year old boy. But I'll be damned if it is not killing me these days. He goes from one activity to the next, usually demanding my immediate involvement in a matter of minutes. By the time I get settled into one he's moved on to the next. This would not be a problem if it were just the two of us at home. But I have a 3 month old baby constantly in my arms, which requires lugging her around as well as keeping her happy as we move about the house every three minutes and twenty-seven seconds.

Our days goes something like, "Mommy, come upstairs to my room and play superheroes with me." I go upstairs, sit down start playing superheroes, and the next thing I know he's done. "Mommy, can you turn on the click start game for me?" Get that turned on, sit down to play with the baby and he's done. "Mommy, can you turn on Batman for me. I want to watch Batman." Turn on Batman. Son watches four minutes of it. "Mommy, I want to ride my bike outside." It takes me fifteen minutes to put his shoes on, open the garage, get his bike, set up my chair in the driveway so I can watch him. Just as all this gets complete, he rides his bike for five minutes and he's done with that too. It takes me another fifteen to put everything away. We go back inside, "Mommy, can you get out the crayons and some paper. I'm going to make a picture." I get out the art supplies, he scribbles for thirty seconds, and then asks if we can go play trucks upstairs.

Are you seeing the pattern?

How I haven't lost more weight is beyond me.

Does this go on in your house too?

Neighborly

We bought our house when our neighborhood was being built. We were actually the third house up and saw the rest of the homes go up around us. Two years after moving in we had our first child and two more have followed since. Our oldest is now five and until a few months ago we could have sworn that no other kids lived in our neighborhood.

Then our daughter went off to school, our local public school. Each afternoon after school let out our streets and sidewalks became filled with kids riding bikes, scooters, playing catch, etc. Then, out for a walk one day, our daughter saw a classmate and they were beyond thrilled to learn they lived so close to each other. In the week since kids have come out of the woodwork. One of our daughter's best friends lives just down the road from us on our same street. Ironically, they have lived there almost as long as we have and yet we have never run into each other. Now, we are out almost everyday after school watching our children play as well as the weekends. It's actually really nice. It seems strange though that after 7 years we are finally starting to meet more of our neighbors, especially those with children.

Some of my best childhood memories are those that involve playing with the neighborhood children. We rode bikes, played ball in the street, went in and out of each other's homes as if they were our own. Today people are much more cautious and stand offish and I can understand much of that, but it sure would be nice to have a little bit more of that true neighborly and community feeling and we are starting to have some of that. It's nice.

Three Blessings

These three blessings are saving my life right now. They bring me immeasurable joy and give me such a sense of purpose, a reason to get up every morning. Things in general are a bit of a clusterfuck right now. One aspect of my life that couldn't be better is the relationships I have with each of my children.

The Snowbirds are Arriving En Masse

Every year around this time the snowbirds (aka: old people from colder parts of the country) begin arriving in Tucson. And every year around this time the locals, myself included, get cranky. It's not that I don't like old people. I have an ancient grandmother whom I love very much. It's not even that I really mind that they've arrived. Heck, we can use all the help to our economy that we can get.

It's their driving that gets me all hot and bothered. They are s l o w.

Today after picking up my daughter from school we headed down to visit the aforementioned ancient grandmother. Generally speaking it takes 20 minutes to arrive. Today it took 30. I swear every car I got behind or next to was a person over the age of 70 in a car with an out of state license plate, like Wisconsin or Michigan or Idaho or South Dakota.

The road rage I was suppressing was immense. You can tell my children ride with me all the time as my three year old, sensing my frustration, says, "There are stupid idiots on this road." Couldn't have said it better myself, kiddo!

It is for this reason, among a few others, that I don't own a firearm.

I Am Tired

Life with 3 kids 5 and under sure is interesting. Our "newborn" is now 3 weeks old and I am back in the groove of "life as usual." I am taking and picking up our daughter from school, cleaning, cooking meals, doing laundry, giving baths, paying bills, making and keeping appointments, and the host of other tasks that consume my daily life. Sometimes it's a bit hard and it definitely requires that I start preparing much earlier for when I want to leave my house, but all in all it's been a relatively smooth transition from 2 kids to 3. Definitely easier in many regards than the transition from 1 kids to 2.

I'm still primarily trying to stay home during the day as I don't like to take new babies out in public too much (germ phobia). That and the fact that my boobs are constantly leaking and more times than not I forget to put the "pads" in my bra. Before I know it I'm driving down the road and the front of my shirt is soaked. My daughter loves when I pick her up from school like that, trust me. I've had to start carrying the baby close to my chest instead of pushing her in a stroller to hide the leakage.

Both older kids have adjusted so well to their new sister. They adore her! There is no jealousy or impatience or regression of behavior. Really, I expected some type of acting out from one or both of them (especially since our daughter such a rough time when our son was born), but it just isn't there. And trust me, I'm thankful for that.

All that being said, I. AM. TIRED! The baby sleeps a good portion of the day and then is up all night, which means I am up all day and then all night. I think I've been getting somewhere in the ball park of 2-4 hours a night for the past 3 weeks. I'm not sure how much longer I can last like this, but I'm not thinking too much longer. My eyes burn, my head hurts, I nod off if I sit too long in one place (not really a problem since I don't ever get to really sit). All three of my kids were "backwards" for the first couple months of life and both of my older kids didn't sleep through the night until they were each 3 years old, so it could be a while. I saw one picture of myself where I seriously looked dead and I asked my husband how he could even stand to talk to me looking like that. He assured me I looked fine. I knew he was lying, but again. Thankful!

Anyway, life is busy but good. Any ideas on the whole sleeping issue?

Family of Five

Last week I gave birth to child number 3. All went smoothly and I made sure to get up and walking after the c-section so that we could get discharged after 2 days (My hospital experience was not a pleasant one, but that's another post for another time). We've been home for a week now and so far the transition has been pretty seamless. The kids adore their new sister and have been a huge help to me. My husband took two weeks off to help as I recover. I'm sure things will be a bit hectic for a while once he goes back to work but for now I am just trying to rest, relax, and enjoy the extra help.

To say that I am smitten with our new daughter is a gross understatement. There are no words to adequately express the feelings when a new child is born. I love her beyond measure and feel so blessed to be her mother. She's nursing well and is pretty mellow as a whole. She has her days and nights mixed up so I'm pretty sleep-deprived but at least when she does sleep she sleeps well....something neither of our other kids did especially well until they were each close to 3 years of age.

Needless to say I am being kept busy, but it's a wonderful kind of busy!