well I'm pleased to say that I finally feel like I'm adjusting to our new normal with 2 kids. I feel a little bad since pretty much all of the faithful readers that I know of have more than 2 kids and, granted, I only see your facebook "highlight reels", it still looks like you handle things really well and I have decidedly not been. but I tell myself often that comparisons to what I think I know about anyone vs. their actual reality does neither party credit. it's best to just keep my nose in my own crazy business and choose to believe that everyone else is dealing with their own craziness too. and so with tremendous support from my amazing husband, some good time spent at the gym, and an increase in prayer time - I am on my feet as a mother of 2 and loving it!
for the sake of guiding my thoughts:
Outside my window:
it's rainy and dreary and looks to be cold. the leaves are pretty much all off the trees and everything is that murky brown color. I don't mind though, I like cold weather. and it's not been so cold lately to make the trip from the car to the daycare/work unbearable. I hear it's supposed to be up to 60 this weekend though!
What I'm wearing:
well, I'm still in that awesome post-pregnancy stage when nothing really fits. I have 1 pair of work kakhi pants that are at least a size or two too big, and 2 pair of leggings with a couple of sweater dresses that I feel to be mostly work-appropriate. so I do a lot of pulling up of the pants or pulling down of the dress. as tall as I am, it's very difficult to find long enough sweater dresses! and lord knows I will NOT be buying any clothes for myself for a while. at some point, I hope to go digging in the basement storage again for some smaller pants in hopes that I might be able to fit into something else. those darn kahkis are so loose that they've almost fallen off while chasing Cameron into or out of the CDC (also carrying the car seat, etc.). it's a great picture, I tell you. so anyway, yes. I'm wearing the black leggings today with black boots and a gold sweater dress that I forgot I had until I noticed it on my closet floor last night while I was looking for something to wear today. go me.
Toddler:
oh that boy! he is just amazing. his language has really taken off lately and he says the best stuff! he's still obsessed with frozen. no joke - he will run around the house for a solid 30 minutes recreating scenes from the movie complete with hand gestures, facial expressions, songs (sung mostly in key!) and with perfect recitation of multiple character's lines. and we DON'T watch it every week anymore either. he will even request to wear daddy's superman cape because it's obviously much longer than his and it makes him feel like elsa, so he'll run down the hall into each of the rooms, dramatically toss the cape out behind him and go "Are you ready?!" the stomp his foot to the ground to "make the ice appear". if it wasn't so funny it would be a little creepy how well he does it. he also does similar recreations with scenes from Finding Nemo and WallE. We got him a stuffed WallE for Christmas and he will be SO excited! Charles has been talking to him about his dreams before bed and he often reports them to have been "WallE dreams" and will tell us about what he's done with WallE and Eve-a, usually involving trucks or sandwiches. he also got an elf on a shelf yesterday from grandma ronda. I have mixed feelings. he doesn't really have any concept of who santa is and that is 100% ok with me. up until now I've been just trying to get him to understand that Christmas is Jesus' birthday and since he loves us so much we get presents. not sure how else to explain it to him and I would welcome suggestions! but now we're introducing the santa thing. he was a bit freaked out this morning when the elf had moved. I read him the book last night but don't know that he retained much. but regardless, we're giving it a shot. "shark bait" the elf is trucking along. potty training is still not happening but I'm hoping to give it a concentrated effort over Christmas break since we'll have a good long stretch of time together to try it.
Baby:
3 months old already! he is an exceptionally sweet little boy. his smiles started around thanksgiving and he just loves to take everything in and get snuggles. he's even more snuggly than Cameron was and I think he will be maybe less independent and more clingy - he will be the baby. I am ok with that. I quit pumping at about 2 months and, except for the ridiculous cost of formula, I do not regret my decision one bit. I chose to give him the same formula used in daycare because they will provide it while he's there; but sadly the version I use at home is powdered (cheaper) and they use liquid pre-mixed at the center. even though the doctor says they are the same, they are decidedly NOT. the liquid kind does not sit well on his stomach and I've now had to start sending bottles from home of our formula. we recently joined sams, so we save some, but it's still about $20/week. ouch. he's had a couple of sicknesses lately from daycare but thankfully nothing too major. he caught on to the beginning of that terrible stomach bug going around but it wasn't nearly as severe as others have had it, and this week he had a mysterious rash that is now pretty much gone. he and big brother are getting along well still, and he is sleeping much better through the night. I feed him around 8:30 and he is up again at around 3. so definitely not too bad! plus, if he happens to wake up before 2, Charles will get up and take that feeding. score!
In the kitchen:
last night I tried a pot pie sort of thing with leftover turkey and some ham and swiss cheese. it was not nearly as good as I had hoped, needed more liquid. overall, I've been trying to eat a lot better (want to be able to wear jeans by Christmas instead of just my sweats!), so there's been some shrimp things and some quinoa lately. I bought a bunch of meat at sams a couple weeks back and made use of my food saver, so that's been good. I will go again this weekend so we'll have some more options. it's been a crazy week with sick kids and sick mom and life in general, so yesterday was the only night I cooked and it wasn't even all that good. don't know what tonight will bring.
crafting:
I need to make the salt dough ornaments/gifts, my goal is to do that this weekend so that I can be painting on them.
reading:
yea... no.
bringing me joy:
my boys, all 3 of them are amazing. my heart sings when we're all together! I've really been working on trying to go the extra mile with Charles. instead of getting frustrated that he's reluctant to get up and come to church with us, I made him some coffee for the car. and what do you know, he did awesome and I got to watch him snuggle on the boys during mass and even willingly stand up for a birthday month blessing (read: PARTICIPATE!). life is good.
also, Cameron LOVES Christmas lights! so far that seems to be the only thing about Christmas that has sunken in (other than singing happy birthday to jesus and getting cupcakes - good luck with that one kid...). we took him on post this last weekend to see the lights and he lost it. "CHRISTMAS LIGHTS!!!!!!!!!!!!" it was amazing. I hope to take him to one of those drive through park displays or maybe the thing at botanica, I've never been, when we're back home.
what I'm thinking about:
money. it is and it isn't within my control and it's a huge source of stress. but that's life I guess. we're doing our best with what we have and it will get better.
not being so hard on myself.
pictures:
my boys, entertaining their mother with Mr. T impressions in the bath. they pity the foo...
