day in the life–part one

In an effort to document some of the madness that goes on around here I ‘followed’ myself around for a bit last week.  I only managed a couple hours worth, because frankly, with 3 kids it’s not so convenient to try to snap pictures every forty-five seconds.

Naptime is when I have to get dinner pretty much done.  Otherwise, we’re not eating, and my girl gets h.u.n.g.r.y. fast.  While A was here we made double and triple batches of tons of stuff to store in my spare fridge/freezer.  This evening’s menu included some pre-marinated chicken.  All I needed to get done were a couple of sides – easy peasy.

While I’m making dinner the boys are napping as is Emilia… supposedly.  I say supposedly because more often than not she’s not napping at all.  It makes me sad that she refuses to nap – probably because I would so welcome the opportunity to do so and have ‘nap envy’.  Days she doesn’t nap I try to get her down earlier, but honestly, it doesn’t work out and she ends up going down at the same time.  I will say when she doesn’t nap she does sleep in a bit later… so there’s that.

naptime – doesn’t that look restful? not.

While A was here she finished Emi’s ‘big girl’ quilt.  Because, really, she wasn’t busy enough.

‘I carry your heart in mine always.’

Bath time now starts around 5:30ish.  I’m trying to get Emi’s bath done earlier so that way after dinner I only have to bathe the boys.  So far it’s worked out well.

The boys chillax in the playroom…

while I take care of Emi.

like how she’s lined up the animals?

After bath, it’s pj time for the girl before dinner.

some pre-dinner yoga – 3 point.

the boys and e – one twin had eaten, one hadn’t – can you guess which one was hungry?

Dinner is served.

chicken, couscous with pine nuts and lemon, and emi’s favorite – ‘purple stuff’ (aka cabbage).  with a side of catsup of course.

Coming soon: day in the life, part 2 – teamwork.

we did it!

A terrible picture but I had to document it.  Today was the first morning I had all 3 kids by myself.  No Marcus, no A, no net.  I was so nervous/anxious I woke up at 6 before any of the kids so I could have a peaceful start of my morning.  (I’ve been re-reading “The Happiness Project” and that’s one of the suggestions she comes up with and it does work I find).  Emilia was dressed and ready for school (like the outfit? – purple tights, size 2T monkey sweater, pink shirt, and brown tutu skirt) and the boys dressed and fed for the morning by 8:30 – just before Ms. Anne (our nanny – l.o.v.e. her) arrived so I could get out the door by 9 to take Emi to school.  (Andres is crying because he was so tired.  That baby only cries when he’s tired.  Two seconds after this picture I put him down in his bed and he was sound asleep).

Of course tomorrow morning there’s no school, no nanny, no nothing.  My goal is to make it to the gym by 9:30 with all 3 kids in order to get to yoga.  Fingers crossed.

3 meses

My boys are three months old already! Can you believe it?!

andres on top, javier in stripes.

Both of them are full of smiles and coos.  Andres continues to grow by leaps and bounds and is in 3-6 month clothes.  Javier is still in 3 month clothes, but they’re getting snug.  I’m still breastfeeding both of them and supplementing with the soy formula.  Javier is still struggling with reflux – if we miss a dose of his Zantac the poor baby is super uncomfortable and it just pours out of him.  Andres is down to one dose of Zantac a day and doing just great.  Both of them have adjusted beautifully to sleeping in their ‘big boy’ cribs.  Andres is on a pretty regular sleep schedule – goes down around 9 for a nap, then again around 2 and then takes a ‘catnap’ around 5:30 and is down for the night at 8 p.  Javier fights sleep like Ali.  He’s just sure he’s going to miss out on something.  Today, for example, he didn’t fall asleep until noon after waking up at 7:30 – unheard of for a baby!  Both boys have slept through the night – Javier more consistently than Andres – but I haven’t managed to get both of them to do it the.same.night.  Ugh.

love how j is looking at a.

my funny valentines

Time – where oh where did you go???

Some random highlights – in no particular order…

Javier recovering. 

He was so sick the past two weeks with RSV which developed into bronchiolitis.  The worst was when I had to take him to get a chest x-ray to check for pneumonia.  They put him in an apparatus that looked like it belonged in a Medieval torture chamber.  Just awful.  Fortunately he didn’t have it and after several days on antibiotics/albuterol/steroids his breathing became easier.  While he was sick he slept even less than he does on a normal day, which is to say next-to-nothing.  He is, however, sleeping through the night even if he only takes maybe a nap a day.  At this rate he’ll never grow.

the stain is just water – it dried before we left.

a couple m&ms before the fiesta.

Last Saturday Emilia conquered her fear of ‘the monkey’ and went to Monkey Joes for her friend, Jackson J’s, birthday party.  She bounced and ran like a crazy person for two hours straight.  Sheer bliss.

documenting the two-handed-bottle-feeding technique.

a terrible picture of my sweet andres.  he’s always smiling and the two seconds he cries it’s because he’s hungry.  put him down on his tummy and he’s out in two-and-a-half-seconds.  this is his face 90% of the time – giggling and with his hands towards his face.  btw – at 3 months old the bottom two teeth are just under the gum line. yikes.

not the post I intended

So I have this post in my draft section all about our ‘nueva realidad’ – the new reality we’re entering – that I’ve been meaning to actually post… but it’s not finished yet.  Yet I’ve gotten quite a bit of flack (ahem, Nana!) that I haven’t put anything up recently and so I give you a hodgepodge of randomness.

feel like you’ve seen this outfit before? that’s because you have.  it’s pretty much all she wants to wear around the house… a constant request for ‘playing dress up’.  the only thing that changes are the accessories.  it makes me nuts and I really really need to get over it.  please note that baby Jesus’ burp cloth is, of course, a cleaning rag.  sadly I didn’t get a picture of her ‘feeding baby jesus from my tummy (aka breastfeeding).

listen boy – mama’s gonna take a bunch of pictures now.  brace yourself.

my handsome boy.  you can’t tell it here, but his eyelashes curl upwards.  such a cuddle-bug.  (and please ignore the spit up on his collar.  I could photoshop it out, but really, do we want more delays?)

this one is t.r.o.u.b.l.e.  I imagine he’ll be the one who steals my car in the middle of the night.  mischievous.

sure javier’s got spit up down the front of his shirt and andres is already in his jammies in this picture.  it’d been a l.o.n.g. day because, what’s more fun than getting your passport picture taken?  getting two baby’s passport pictures taken at the same time.  it was an exhausting process that made me feel like I had run a marathon.  thank God Emilia’s is still good for this year. but my boys are both smiling in this one and that’s what matters.

 

a crap picture but look at how happy my girl was to be outside last weekend in the beautiful 70 degree weather.  we spent a good long time at freedom park enjoying our picnic and getting some energy out running around the lake.

Part of our new reality is that when one gets sick, everyone gets sick.  I’ve been to Dr. Walker’s office twice this week – once with Emilia and Javier and once with Javier and Andres.  All down with RSV and general icky-ness.  Interestingly enough, Dr. W checked her notes and it was exactly one year ago almost to the day that Emilia last had RSV.  Keeping track of the meds and who gets what and when was proving to be a challenge, so I had to make myself a chart.  Sadly, I didn’t even put all of meds on here – the boys get Albuterol 3 times a day and Emilia is still doing breathing treatments every morning.  Fortunately she’s a million times better already, Javier still sounds icky and Andres’ eye is no longer draining yellow goop.  Now of course, Marcus is sick.  He’s on his own.

oh yeah, and the passport applications are still sitting on my desk because I haven’t felt like dragging all 3 of us to the passport office yet.