Spoke Too Soon

You know that time a couple weeks back when I said the kids weren't acting out since bringing our new baby home?

Yeah. Scratch that.

It appears they waited until Daddy went back to work and things went back to normal before unleashing.

Oh, and do you also remember that time I said Abram was a happy, chill baby?

Again, you can just disregard that as well.

The rational part of me knows it's probably that Abe's going through his six-week growth spurt a little early. He just wants to nurse the entire day. And he's a little peeved that when he falls asleep, I have the nerve to lay him down.

And I can step back and see that now all the newness is settling and constant visitors have slowed, the kids are going to have to adjust to our new normal. They can't be that excited every day for the rest of their lives. And as they come down from the new baby high, they're going to finally go through that adjustment period.

So...as Julian pulls stunts seeking attention, Evie throws tantrums, and Abe screams to eat RIGHT NOW, I gaze across mountains of unfolded laundry and struggle to find that rational part of me so she can talk me down.

It will all calm down eventually. I can do this. I'm going to start finding time for yoga again, I googled "how to meditate" this morning, and started reading a book called Peaceful Parents, Happy Kids that basically teaches you how not to yell when you just really wanna yell.

I knew three kids four and under at home would not be easy. But I also know I can do it. And enjoy it. We all just have to get our "normal" figured out.

Oh and a post with no pictures isn't right. Here's the link to all of the pictures we got from Abe's photo shoot: http://saracombsphotography.smugmug.com/Newborn/Abram/28091889_S575d3

One Month Old

Our little Abram is one month old.

He's the noisiest little gruntlet at night and is always cracking us up with his goat-like noises. He groans, bleats, grunts, and just generally makes a lot of sounds in his sleep. I can't even quietly turn over in bed without causing a good two minutes of piggy little snorts from the bundle next to me.

He sleeps about like you'd expect a newborn to. Most nights I'm up feeding him every two hours or so. Some nights we get lucky and he'll go 3-4 hours. Other nights I'm a little less lucky and he's waking me up to eat every hour. (This is the part where I remind myself how fast these first few months actually fly.)

We're starting to get some real smiles out of him, which is so fun. They're genuine and huge. We keep score and brag when we get one all to ourselves.

Our little guy's starting to look at some toys and keep his eyes on his brother and sister when they're around. Although it could be because when they're around, they are IN HIS FACE. Julian put it best the other day, after he and Evie had been lambasting poor Abe with forced hand-waving, hugs, kisses, and the resulting accidental headbutts when he remarked, "He is such a patient baby!"

Fun fact: He seriously toots louder than anyone in the house and the kids (ok, and the parents) think it's hysterical. In fact, he just farted in his sleep and scared the dog. True story. 

He's still wearing newborn sizes, but not for much longer. And he's losing his hair, just like Julian did. Now we'll see if it comes back white-blonde like his did too.

As far as Big Sister, she seems so big to me these days. She's getting the potty thing down awesomely and is relishing loving on her new baby doll (er, brother). She's funny and sweet and has recently come to love potty humor just as much as Julian. (Great.) She's in that two-year-old stage where some days she seems so grown up and can do so many things on her own, and other days she's an emotional wreck. Mimi's Jimmy Buffet quote in reference to her lately was perfect: She's like trying to reason with hurricane season.  

Girlfriend is zero to sixty in about .5 seconds when it comes to a power struggle and sometimes it's hard not to laugh at her dramatic tantrums. Julian loves to smirk at her and tell her how "ridiculous" she sounds. (His new favorite word.) That only gets her more riled as you can imagine.

Oh, my silly girl. She said "cheese" in every picture, so her face is a little weird in them all. 

We all try to be as patient as we can with her and try to talk her down. Sometimes it works and she'll tell us how she's feeling and why and we can move on. Sometimes it doesn't work and we can distract her until she's calm. And sometimes, it doesn't work and there's nothing to do but ride out the emotion-storm and hide your giggles. Ahh, we love her.

Has to be rightnexttohim whenever possible.

 

She's getting to be such a big girl in other (more positive) ways too. Most of this stuff is old news, but I haven't exactly been on top of posting lately. We officially dropped her bee-bees (pacifiers) to only sleep times. That actually went so much easier than I thought. We switched rooms, so she is finally in the sweet pink and green nursery I planned for her over two years ago. She loves it and Mitch and I are happy to be back in the master bedroom. (Just in time for our new little roommate!) She spent her first night away from home at Mimi's and didn't get sad at all. She's even watching big brother learn to spell and has been taking a crack at it herself.

For example, the other night in the car she said: "Hey guys, guess what? Want to hear how to spell 'H'? Here you go: E...v...e...w...x...now...I...know...w...u...i! There. That's how you trace 'Evelyn'!"

Uh, what? (I love that she thinks the words at the end of the ABC song are also letters of the alphabet.) We were all amazed of course and gave her a round of applause for her advanced spelling/tracing skills.

Julian has transitioned easily into his big brother role for the second time. He's actually really helpful with Abe and Evie. He's happy to sit still and hold Abe or go get what I need if I'm stuck nursing or changing a diaper. (His new response: "Sure! No problem sir!") He's good at talking Evie down sometimes or talking her into things we need her to do.

There's another side to that though. Sometimes, he gets in rascal mode and thinks it's funny to tell Evie to do things she shouldn't. Now even if she knows she shouldn't, if a smirking Julian tells her to, she probably will. They think it's high hilarity to goad each other into naughty stuff and then say "good job!" when they get into trouble. I will say though, they think the time-outs are slightly less amusing. 

On a more positive note, Julian is learning so much these days. He's working on writing his name and it is getting pretty good. His reading and spelling are currently better than his writing of the actual letters, but it reminds me of the way he learned to talk; he used to understand so much from us before he actually said things himself. He can read a couple of books almost the whole way through and surprises us daily reading things we didn't know he knew. He's very proud of his drawing and writing and makes some pretty funny faces and a cool snowman.

While we could really use some warm weather soon (we are so cooped up) we are getting along well as a new family of five. It feels great watching my kids welcome their new baby "brudder" and love him fiercely from day one. We are so blessed.


A big thank you to Sara Combs Photography for the gorgeous pictures of the kids. She was amazing!

A Slight Resemblance

There's no denying he's one of us. :) Can you tell who's who?

(I do see some slight differences that make me think he's a little more Mitch than the other two.)