I am really lucky to come from a family where I simply adore my brothers and sisters. They are truly some of my dearest friends and comrades in this life. We are a team of five siblings, I fall second in line between two brothers, followed by two little sisters. It is because of these awesome peeps that I simply can't decide if I should call it quits after having my third. If they (my siblings) had been rotten then my decision would be much easier, but as it stands I can't imagine Lily not having a little sister to call and chat with when she reaches adulthood.
So if you ever ask me if we are done having kids I might crouch down into a fetal position and rock back and forth whispering, "I don't know!" I love the kids and am terrified of pregnancy.
So blame my indecision and insanity on a combination of my awesome siblings, gorgeous children, and fear of pregnancy.
Recently my little brother, Kent, and little sister, Jenessa came to visit. They brought gifts, smiles, and a ton of attention for Lily and Sawyer. I took about 5 pictures the whole weekend, because as much as I like to capture memories, sometimes I just set the camera down and enjoy making the memories.
They happened to arrive on the weekend of my mom's birthday. In her honor we held a Facetime birthday party, complete with a homemade cake on our end and presents we sent her way on her end. Lily totally decorated the cake, and Sawyer in a rage of jealousy had to add an airplane to the mix.
If you are looking for your next cake decorating idea, look no further than our Rapunzel/Belle/unicorn/Barbie mermaid/Swan/Dusty the Plane/random yellow table design. It's sure to be a hit at your next party.
Continuing on the theme of siblings, let's tackle some thoughts on my little ones who are adjusting to being a sibling party of three:
Lilster:
Always full of life and energy, and lately a little bit of teenage-adoring-eye-rolling, this little firecracker never fails to amaze me with her laughable insights.
Lily: I can't wait to be a teenager!
Me: I can. Why do you want to be a teenager so bad?
Lily: So I can have a cellphone and talk and roll my eyes and text my friends.
Me: Who have you seen do that?
Lily: Skipper! (on a Barbie movie)
Me: Oh dear.
Lily: Hey Jenessa! Can you take me upstairs to my bedroom and tickle me on my bed and hit me with this Sugar Daddy (a pillow toy)?
Lily recently completed reading her first chapter book! I am so proud of my little reader. She is flying along and quickly grasping new concepts in her reading skills. This summer Mommy is so excited to introduce her to some new worlds in the land of reading that expand beyond the world of her reading BFF Junie B. Jones.
Our schedule that we set up a couple of months ago has really been helping calm things down in our home and add order and routine. In case you are curious our weekdays go like this (I think you can even see a picture of our schedule in a picture of Keith and the boys below):
3:30 - 5:00 free time
5:00 - 5:30 homework at the table
5:30 - 6:00 dinner prep and clean up
6:00 dinner
7:00 bath and jammies
7:30 stories
8:00 bedtime
If the kids cooperate with a good attitude ("Yes Ma'm!") they get a sticker for a chart, and both children recently filled out their sticker charts. Their reward was special one-on-one time with a parent of their choice. Lily chose to have a night out with Mommy (and Grant) and I suggested we go and get pedicures (her first time).
Me: Lily, do you want to go and get your nails painted all fancy with me?
Lily: Yes!!! Oh! And you know what else we should do?
Me: What's that?
Lily: We should get them to paint our faces too!!!
Me: Uh...what do you mean?
Lily: We could get her to paint our face like Frozen! I would get an Elsa on one cheek, Anna on the other, and Olaf's hair on my forehead.
Me: Fabulous, we'll have to see if they do that.
We had a great night out together, but what amazed me was the total transformation in Lily during that night. She and I have been struggling the past few weeks with her attitude and a LOT of tantrums. Throughout the night she was smiling from ear to ear, laughing with me, and genuinely happy to spend time with her mommy. She kept stopping mid sentence and slipping her arms around my waist to tell me she loved me and that she was so happy to be out with me. It really brought to my attention that she has been struggling to be seen and heard lately in our home and needed some TLC. Her behavior the past few days has been great following our night out. We'll be slapping another sticker chart up on that wall again because heaven knows our date did our relationship a world of good.
Soyboy:
Sawyer chose to go on his date with Daddy, and boy did he have a great time. He too has been all smiles after returning from a night of waffles and "sour" (whipped) cream at the diner and video games at Chuck E' Cheese. He had a blast with Daddy and has been holding his cute cheap little airplane he got on that trip like it's a life-line to fun.
Switching back to sibling talk, let's take a trip back through memory lane: When Sawyer was born it wasn't long before he figured out that Lily was a complete and utter danger to his length of life. When she entered the room he would immediately start to howl and cry in complete fear. It took a few months before things calmed down in that department.
The tables have turned and now Grant has reason to fear Sawyer. It fascinates me to see that he doesn't fear Lily and will let her hold him, but has already determined that Sawyer is a wee bit of a danger factor.
Sawyer doesn't seem to get why Grant sees him as a threat.
Eventually these boys are going to be best buds, and I know Sawyer with his endearing, sweet personality will be showing Grant how to get in all sorts of boy trouble. Last week he asked me if I would let him show Grant how to play. I agreed (see the little car in Grant's hand?). Sawyer was pretty bummed when Grant "refused" to make car sounds and move his car across the pillow.
Luckily for Grant, Sawyer is a pretty patient little guy and will keep trying until his brother is ready to accept him and enter into his wonderful world of moving vehicles.
As Lily has delved deeper and deeper into her newest obsession with the songs from the movie "Frozen" (which we don't even own yet), Sawyer has rebelled by busting out an obsession with a song called, "What Does the Fox Say?" I bust out in laughter when I came to pick him up from the gym daycare and found him wearing this little homemade mask of a "fox". He wore it all day, I kid you not, and would jump out at me yelling, "What does the fox say?" with super crazy eyes, twinkling with mischief behind that mask. It made me laugh all day long. How can you not love this little guy with his twerky, off kilter fox ears?
Grantman:
Grant is turning out to be such a sweet, pleasant little soul. We were a little concerned in the beginning, with him being so colicky the first few weeks. But now when he smiles his eyes light up and he is starting to giggle these days. He is so happy when you pay attention to him and loves to show you how big his smile can be. He's going to be a right jolly old elf, he is.
Our little big man continues to be a challenge as I assume I can resume life as normal. Lily and I attempted to have a trip to Barnes and Noble the other day to cash in on her birthday present from her Great-Grandpa. I told Keith we'd be back in an hour, but I underestimated the fact that infants are on their own timetable.
When we got to B&N things were going swimmingly. I gave Lily 20 minutes to pick something out while Grant slept, but he awoke early, fussy and hungry. Lily and I quickly purchased her toy of choice and then I asked if she wouldn't mind if I fed Grant quickly...
Returning to the children's section I found a quiet corner to sit and nurse in, using his thick warm blanket as a nursing cover. About 10 minutes into his feeding session I felt the squirming and a suck-suck-big pause and knew what was coming: Juicy. Squirts. I braced myself, tucking the blanket under his lap "just in case." When it came it was of epic proportions. Quickly covering myself up, I held Grant aloft to see the damage. It was more than I feared. Dripping down his leg he quickly covered the blanket in a glorious color of sunset orange infant poo. I stared in horror at the scene unfolding before me and looked up to see another mom giggling at me.
"Need help?" she asked.
"Yes." I whispered, not sure what to do.
She disappeared and found another victim to enter the scene. Poor B&N worker looked like he had never seen the juicy squirts of a breast fed baby before. Welcome to my world dude.
He didn't know what to do, so I asked him if he could find me a garbage bag. Then wrapping Grant in what turned out to be a reasonably absorbent blanket (whew) I ran with Lily and my garbage bag clad baby to the bathroom, only to discover that I was down to two wipes. It can't get better than this, right?
To make a long story short, we came home three hours later than planned. I'm getting pretty good at bathing my baby in public restrooms, much to my chagrin.
Despite the challenges that come with these little siblings, every day is worth it with them. I love being a mommy, and I love that it is complicated, often messy, hard and uber rewarding.
