Survival

i spy 3 children

Oh my, has it been rough around here lately.  A willful three-year-old and a fussy almost one-year-old can really drive a mother toward the looney bin. 

Sunshine, sprinklers, and popsicles help.  Getting up at 5AM also helps.  I've been going for walks before David leaves for work at 6, and the extra energy I feel on those days makes the early mornings more than worth it.  At 5:30 in the morning it's just me and the birds; most days I don't even see a car.

Summer is good for so many, many reasons. 

Jonas: 11 (and a half) Months

*Yesterday he was sitting in his high chair yelling, "Lola! Lola!" and throwing his food at her. 
*He started waving 'hi', and does a perfect little princess wave where he twists his hand back and forth.
*There is little motivation to learn to walk:

He's been waking up around 6 each morning and wanting his breakfast immediately.  He eats just as much as the big kids because he really likes food.  He's only 3rd percentile for weight though, so high five to him for his amazing metabolism.  (16lbs 11oz (and a pulse of 118!) at his May 7th doctor appointment.)

All 4 top teeth have come through now.  I thought that might help him be not quite so clingy, but instead he seems to have found something else that bothers him.  Not sure what the mystery ailment is this time around, but anytime he wants to let me know I will gladly try to help make it better. 

He loves being read to.  I feel kind of badly about this one, because I read to the big kids a lot but haven't really read directly to him.  Finding out he loves to sit on a lap with a book was a recent discovery that made me feel like a terrible mom.   

"ok Jonas, Jesus had 12 de-cycles"

He is SO squeezable and loveable.  What do you call the phenomenon where you can be extremely weary of holding the baby, and yet the second you put him down you miss him?

Even fussy, I can't get enough.

i miss you too, mom

i neeeeeed you, alllllwaaaays

alright, one quick smile

Highlights or Maybe Lowlights

Is it too late to post Easter photos?  They turned out so nicely, it would be a shame not to share.

what a nice looking family

Then there was the birthday party David threw me.

And Mother's Day.

Last night was a midnight vomit party x 3 with Christian; no photos of that.  After sickness #3 there couldn't be a #4 or more because we were out of clean sheets and pj's.  David says it's OK for the kids to wear regular clothes to bed but I don't think it is. He also thinks it's OK to miss-match their two piece pajama sets...he likes to see me haul the kids out of bed in order to put them in the correct pajama pairings after he purposefully messes them up.  It's one of our greatest sources of marital discord. 

And there you have the highlights of our April and May!

Jonas: 10 Months

Before we get started, let's mention real quick that this is almost three weeks late.  Yowza.

Favorite Things: food, standing up. Even when I'm holding him he likes to stand on my hip.  It's very uncomfortable.

Most Impressive: saying 'mama,' 'Daph,' 'all done,' 'night night,' 'boo;' mimicking sounds and pitches.

Weirdest: if I lay him on the floor, he will barely move.  If I lay him on a bed, he will roll and crawl all over it.  If only the whole world was a bed. 

I noticed his top teeth coming in recently.  And just like with Daphne, it's not the typical top middle two, it's the two on either side.  Like little fangs.  So weird and funny that both of them did that.

hanging out on the counter top gnawing on garlic, because we are anti-vampire

He had been waking up so often at night, and I think part of it had been his nighttime use of a pacifier.  It would fall out, then he would wake up and need someone to put it back in for him.  Like the gentle mother that I am, one day I just stopped giving him the pacifier at bed time.  He was very alarmed at the loss and we had a few very rough days and nights of sleep, but now he seems to *mostly* be sleeping through the night. This makes him my youngest baby to sleep through the night, and so he wins a prize of...nothing.  Except my joy and gratitude, of course. 

smart lola

look at his face!

One reason I've been blogging so scarcely lately is because Jonas wants to be held constantly.  As much as I love holding my babies, I think being in the stage where they want to be held almost all of their waking hours is one of the toughest things for me in the baby year.  I wish I could at least get super muscle-y arms out of the deal.

But the nice thing about being on baby-number-three as opposed to baby-number-one is that I know each season passes, and I know that one day it won't be as hard.  Soon enough I'll be able to do whatever I want with my arms.  Wave them around, or....just whatever. 

And one last thing; he lives with perpetual bed-head.