I read a lot of mommy blogs and a lot of those women have bucket lists. Lists of things they want to complete during the summer or school year or holidays. Lots and lots of bucket lists. I've never really made a bucket list, but if I did there would be several things on it that I remember from my own childhood. Like splashing in rain puddles and running barefoot through the warm grass and chalking up pavement with hopscotch and catching fireflies in a jar and camping out and eating s'mores.
We've been spending as much time as we can outside with the girls and Tommy. They love being outside. Running, blowing bubbles, drawing with chalk, splashing in the pool, riding bikes, digging in dirt. I must sound like a broken record because I say it all of the time, but they love being outdoors and they have so much energy it's almost a necessity to get them out and running.
So. A bucket list for my kids. It includes perfecting the art of bubble blowing. There's nothing more perfect than little lips puckered up to blow bubbles.
Chalked up hands are also on that list. And if you know me you know I'm OCD with messes, but I'm kind of okay with sticky messy kids because 1. they're outside and 2. I can hose them down in the bath afterward. So we chalk it up. Adding dust to already sticky dirty hands. Stasa's really into creating behavior charts for all of us and chalks happy faces all over the driveway.
The girls run from activity to activity when we're outside. And no matter how many of their toys and things we bring out, when the neighbors bring out their toys they run to those like a moth to a flame. We always make them ask before they play with anything that's not theirs and they're lucky that our neighbors are generous and like to share with other kids. Lexi pushed this mower around and around. Yeaaaaaaaaaaah she's wearing socks with her sandals. A battle I'm not interested in winning.
Stasa's getting really good at riding her scooter and switches from that to her bike and scoots around the cul-de-sac. I've been known to take a spin on the scooter, too.
This is a typical scene in our yard now when we're outside and playing. A content little man lounging in the shade.
This adorable little man is eight weeks old. Eight weeks have passed since he was born. I'm still marveling that time can pass so quickly and am trying to soak in as much of him as I can in the four short weeks I have left at home. I can't seem to get enough of him and I think it's partly because I've done this before and I know how fast time passes and how much I'm going to miss him once I'm back at work. I know my heart will ache and my arms will long to hold him so for now I'm going to hold him a bit more and squeeze him and kiss him whenever I want because right now he's all mine and I'm his.
At this point we can practically set our clocks by his schedule. He almost always wakes up at 4:40 am to eat. Every morning. 4:40 rolls around and he starts grunting. Eh, eh, eh. And then again around 6:00 am. Eat night is different and some nights he wakes up every few hours, some nights he sleeps for over five hours, but every morning when 4:40 comes he wakes up. No matter what.
I'm definitely tired like I was after the girls were born and the exhaustion starts to hit hard around dinner time, but in spite of all of that I still don't nap during the day. Instead I snuggle with my little man or clean or walk the mall. I'm sure I'll regret not napping once I'm back at work, but I kind of prefer to stay on this schedule.
And this little man who I spend all of my time with is growing like a weed. He's getting bigger and longer and smiles more and is even cooing like he's about to laugh. He's still not a huge fan of tummy time and tolerates it, but prefers to have his sisters by his side. I guess he figures if he's got to do it so do they. Lucky for him they think it's a privilege to do tummy time with him.
This morning I propped him up on the Boppy for some assisted tummy time and he did a pretty good job. Probably from all the time he spends cuddled up on our chests. Stasa gets overly excited when he lifts his head and yells "he's lifting hes head!" (side note: We correct her constantly, but she still says hes instead of his.)
He was so proud of himself and was in such a good morning today. All smiles and coos and sunshine.
This happy guy makes my day every day. I say it again and again, but Tommy is our most relaxed baby. It's like he knows that we need a happy easy baby. The girls require so much of our time right now and we won't hear a peep out of him unless he's hungry or wet. Otherwise he's pretty content to just watch the chaos unfold around him. I hope this is his permanent personality. We will definitely need to find his voice when dealing with his sisters though because those girls, well those girls are forces of nature.
We've had perfect weather this week and after dinner we've been taking advantage of it by taking the kids to the pool and playing outside. Both girls love the water, but this week when we went after dinner the pool water was chilly and Lexi wasn't that interested in playing in the big pool. She preferred to stand and observe as daddy and Stasa splashed and played.
She finally decided that the little pool was the place for her to play. She loves these little diving squids we have and happily throws them in the shallow water so she can jump in and fetch them again and again.
And the little man and me? He slept in my arms while we hung out in the shade. I usually prefer to be in the sun and water, but that water was too chilly for me so I was happy to hang in the baby area with Lexi and Tommy.
Yesterday was another beautiful day and instead of schelpping it to the pool we took the girls out to the cul-de-sac to run around. It's usually just us playing outside since our neighbors moved, but last night a few of the neighbors came out with their kids and it was kidpalooza in the cul-de-sac. I loved it and the girls loved it. It reminded me of when I was a kid and everyone was outside playing and talking. These kids of ours...they're serious bubble fiends. Stasa will hang around and blow bubbles and then run over and show us her bubbles. Lexi, on the other hand, that kid will blow bubbles for a bit, but eventually her urge to stick her hands and arms in the solution takes over and she splashes around in the bubbles and then pours them out.
And after Lexi was done pouring out the bubble solution she decided to sit in the puddle and splash and play.
After the bubbles were gone, the girls kicked their balls around with one of the neighbors and his daughter.
And being the energy-filled kids they are, they quickly moved from that activity to flower picking and fence climbing.
And the Tommallama did what he always does and quietly hung out while the girls ran circles around him. He's such a good baby. You won't hear a peep out of him unless he needs to be fed or changed. Very rarely he'll cry because he needs extra cuddles, but he's generally such a laid back baby. It makes things so much easier since the girls are non-stop until they fall asleep.
The little man is seven weeks old now and just finished a wicked growth spurt. Okay, maybe it wasn't so bad. He was up all of the time wanting to eat, but wasn't all that fussy unless he was hungry. The only problem was that he was hungry all of the time. I'm not making any sense, am I? Probably because I'm tired. And hungry. And tired.
Anyway, he's still a spitter and still sleeping in our room because I'm nervous he's going to spit up and choke. I mentioned this to a colleague and she offered up one of her Rock-n-Plays that her twins used. The first day I put Tommy in it and BAM quiet and asleep. That night BAM woke up once. ONCE! And he's been sleeping soundly in it since. And will even hang out awake in it. I loooooooove this product.
He's been eating a lot and starting to fill out. I love when babies get all chunky. And when they smile, which he's been doing a lot, too. I can't not smile back. It's the cutest little gummy grin.
Seeing him fill out reminds me of my favorite chubby baby picture. Talk about a round baby. I love this face.
Stasa's been really interested in my camera lately so recently I gave her one of my first digital cameras, my Sony Cybershot. It's bulky and slow compared to today's point and shoots, but Stasa loves it. I showed her how to use the camera, including checking the pictures she takes and off she went. She gets so excited when she taking pictures and runs over to show us what she captured. "Look mommy! My foot and the tummy mat!"
"Mommy! Mommy! Our potty seat!"
I love how excited she is about taking pictures and hope she stays interested in it. I think I might even put together a photo scavenger hunt for her. A week ago she took her camera to Costco and Safeway and kept asking me to list things for her to capture. I have given her a few simple rules, one of which is don't take pictures of mommy while she's nursing Tommy. Other than that she's got free rein. It's so fun to see her watch her brother or sister or the cat, jump up and run for her camera so she can capture "the moment." She really wanted a neck strap for her camera like mine and I made her one, but then the strap piece broke off the camera, so now I need to figure out another way for her to safely carry the camera around. Or maybe I'll just get her a new camera, like this one. It even has its own photo editing software so you can add your own effects and Disney characters. If she had that we'd end up with photos covered in Disney princesses. Or maybe I'll have her save her own money for this. I've been looking for a way to start teaching her about money management. Especially since my parents never really taught me anything about managing money and I ended up being so irresponsible with it until my aunt and uncle gave me a few tough lessons.
For now I'll keep teaching her with the old point and shoot. I think she's pretty good for a 4 year old, but she does need to remember to keep her finger away from the lens.
It's hit us. The six week growth spurt. With Stasa we spent her sixth week in a sleep deprived haze. I vividly remember walking her around and around and around all night until she finally passed out when the sun came up. And from what I remember of Lexi's infancy it was one giant growth spurt from the day she was born. Tommy's six week growth spurt hasn't been too terrible. He's up as often as he can be to eat and isn't really napping during the day, but he's happy just to be held, which was not the case with the other kids.
Mornings are the best with him. I actually prefer getting up with him before everyone else on the weekends because he's just so happy and I enjoy spending that quiet time with him. I keep knocking on wood because Tommy really is a relaxed baby and if he does get upset it's usually because he's hungry. The girls used to cry just to cry and Lexi took it to another level and screamed. She hit notes I didn't know existed.
Tommallama is such a cuddlebug and is happy to curl up on just about anyone. Lately he's really giving a lot of smiles and they're not just gas or poop smiles either. Real legit smiles.
The day Stasa's been waiting for finally arrived: recital day. Ever since she got fitted for her costume she's been asking when she's going to the stage. That's how she puts it. Going to the stage. So we've been mapping out our year since her birthday to help her understand when she's going to the stage. Mommy's birthday, Uncle Vince's birthday, Lexi's birthday, Easter Bunny comes, new baby comes, then STAGE. So with the passing of each occasion she would run through the list again. After the little man was born she started asking every Saturday on the way to and from dance class. When her costume came in she got even more excited. Rehearsal day arrived. And then The Day. Stage Day.
Last year we were rushing and ended up getting to the school with just enough time to throw Stasa into her costume, get her to the dressing room, and get to our seats before the show started. This year I was determined to have plenty of time to get Stasa ready, take a few pictures, and find decent seats. Tom wasn't too thrilled with my plan since it got us to the school an hour before Stasa needed to be there. BUT I did end up with plenty of time to get Stasa stage ready and take pictures.
Stasa was quite happy with her costume and hair and makeup. But really she would love anything that was pink and covered in sequins. And she loved that she got to wear makeup, even though it was only a little bit compared to what the other girls were wearing. They requested that they wear black eyeliner and mascara, brown eye shadow, blush, and dark pink lips. We opted for blush, light eye shadow, pink lip gloss, and clear mascara. Still Stasa was thrilled and felt special. I'm not the biggest fan of her crazy new smile. You really have to catch her unaware to get a genuine smile nowadays otherwise you end up with a cheeseball.
And now seeing this picture I'm kind of shocked at what I actually look like. Here I was thinking it wasn't totally obvious that I'm nursing, but then BAM in yo face.
Stasa did a great job on the stage. I warned Kelly that she might get up there and not do anything but smile, and there were definitely moments of OMG I'M ON THE STAGE smiling, but there was also some beautiful dancing. She's such a ham.
I managed to record about half of the recital rehearsal before my phone ran out of storage space. That's what I get for taking a bajillion pictures and forgetting to transfer them to my hard drive. Still I'm glad I captured what I did.
Tommy was a gem. He ate and ate again and then passed out on Kelly's shoulder for the rest of the show. Then there was Lexi. She was fine for a bit sitting on my lap and then having a few snacks with Tom, but then she started flipping out when there were only a few performances left. Tom ended up taking her out to calm down which apparently took quite some time.
It didn't help that she was up before dawn, didn't really eat, and the recital was during lunch and nap time. She was a little better once she got out of the auditorium and got some food, but was still a bit of a pill for the rest of the day.
And that concludes this year's dance class. Now we have to decide if we'll enroll Stasa in another year and if we'll have Lexi start. I'm thinking it'd be nice to have both girls in class at the same time and I'm pretty sure Stasa wants to keep dancing.
In other news the boy and I have been lounging around at home. We've gotten into somewhat of a routine. After the girls and Tom are ready and out the door, I have my coffee and Tommallama has a couple of nursing sessions. He seems to like cluster feeding in the early morning and then napping for an hour or so. Then rinse and repeat. Sometimes we venture out and run errands, but most days we hang around the house and I get a few things done...some days it's laundry, other days it's general household upkeep. And then there are days when we don't leave the couch.
But nearly every day around 3:00 or so I get started on dinner. I've been working on having dinner ready so we can eat as soon as Tom and the girls get home. It's been so nice to have so much time after dinner to play with the kids. If it can stay warm enough every day we'll start hitting up the pool after dinner to let the girls burn off some energy. It's funny, but even after a jam packed day at school, with tons of play time outside, they still come home full of energy and ready to go.
