California trip and Father's Day

Happy Father's Day!!!

Oh, wait….. am I almost a week late?

We spent last weekend (Father's Day weekend) in California, which is the main reason this post is so late.  Originally we were going to Cali this past weekend for Shaun's cousin's wedding, but had ended up having to decline the invitation. (No kids invited) We decided to go anyway to my in-laws house because my SIL and BIL would both be in town.

It was a nice little get-away, especially since the temps here are quickly climbing into the low 100's. The weather was perfect, the kids always love having time at Papa's house, and S and I got a chance to relax together.

One of our first activities was to go to Underwood Family Farms. We've been there a few times, but the kids love it, and this was baby R's first time. It is basically one of those "pick your own fruit" farms, but it has a ton of animals, a petting zoo, train rides and a big park. The big boys had a blast. We even took the "cow" train around all the fields…. L2 was a little unsure about this, so I ended up riding with him, but he ended up really liking it. (I, however, was incredibly squished in a tiny train car meant for a small child…. the things we do for our children!)

Of course we had to do a beach day. I was a little nervous about this. We taken L and L2 to the beach several times and they have never been that into it. They have both always been scared of the water, and as babies they hated the sand. This time was a pretty big success though. L was all about playing in the waves and trying to our run them, and R loved the sand and seemed to think it should be added to his regular eaten foods list. L2 was still not really having it….. but hey, two out of three isn't too bad!

This view….. I just can't get enough. I love the ocean.

My Handsome Hubby!

L2 protesting the beach by refusing to leave the rock he was sitting on. Eventually he did sit on the blanket and play in the sand a bit…. but he wasn't overly happy about it.

L chasing the waves. It was so cool to finally see the progression of him being scared of the waves to him having fun playing in them!

R is definitely our beach baby! By far the best "baby" experience we have had at the beach yet!

The wedding was on Saturday night, so while the rest of the family went our we stayed in, ordered pizza from our favorite place in California and took advantage of my in-laws HBO in-demand to catch up on True Blood. One of S's best friends ended up coming by with his girlfriend and we all hung out well into the night. Usually we try to do a date night out, but this was almost better! 

For Father's Day we gave S his presents, (a nice bottle of Saki and a subscription to a beer magazine from me, and an adorable card "story book" from L and a card from the little boys) and then my MIL and I made eggs Benedict for breakfast. We had talked about going out for dinner, but my FIL is a pretty  amazing cook so he ended up making steak and lobster for everyone. So yummy!

Papa and Daddy opening their Father's Day gifts!

It was a nice little vacation. I always stress out before we go (the packing! the cleaning!) but I always end up really enjoying myself once we were there. And i know it meant a lot to S to be able to see his brother and sister and to celebrate Father's Day with his family.

We're back now and just trying to get back into the swing of things. I'm looking forward to July to celebrate S's 30th birthday and have some family time for the fourth of July!

My family. These people, they are my world. 

Truly the best daddy in the world. My boys are so lucky!

Summer time

Well, summer is officially here in Phoenix. I know the calendar says it is still technically spring, but our 110 degree heat begs to differ. Summer last a long time in Phoenix, and by the end of it, I'm over it. However, the first few weeks still carry that summer feeling, that giddiness, that I remember from when I was a kid. There is just something about summer. Even though our schedules really don't change, the days are longer and we tend to move slower. It's not uncommon to have spontaneous movie dates (like we did today) just to get into someone else's AC and escape the heat. There are Popsicles at lunch and splash pad days and little boys that seem to constantly smell like sunscreen and chlorine. We've been slowly easing into our summer activities around here. The sports season are over for the year and instead of practices and games on the weekend we've been able to have a little more spontaneity, like stopping at the fire house open house on a whim.

It took the boys a bit to warm up, but once they did, L loved the fire trucks and the hats and letting the fireman show him all the hoses. It was free and easy and a total spur of the moment decision when we saw the cardboard sigh on the side of the road, but hopefully one that will be a happy childhood memory for me boys.

Of course, one of our biggest summer activities around here is the pool. From now until September we will spend at least one full day of each weekend splashing and playing and trying desperately to cool off.  L was just starting to swim independently at the end of last summer, and although he is back to relying on his kick board and noodle right now I know he will soon remember those skills. L2 is not liking the pool right now. I don't know if it's possible the water hasn't quite warmed up enough for him yet (He's like his mama, he doesn't like to be cold!) but he freaks out every time we make him go in. I don't think he's scared..... he likes playing on the step and he likes playing around the pool.... he just doesn't like actually going in. I'm hoping this changes as summer goes on. Phoenix kids kind of have to love swimming.... I'm pretty sure it's a rule.

R is a little water baby. (L and L2 both loved the pool at his age too). He loves going out and splashing with mommy and daddy, and he thinks it's pretty hilarious to watch his brothers play!

Pool days are almost always followed by long afternoon naps. R is going through a cuddly stage where he is happiest if he is sleeping on someones chest. It is so sweet and I love these baby cuddles.... but, man, it gets really hot sometimes! That's OK though, I'll take a little sweat if I can have some more cuddles with my sweet baby.

Hhhmmmm.... let's see. What else? Forts. Oh my goodness.... the forts. Anyone else have kiddos (especially boys) who are super into the forts? It's almost getting ridiculous at my house, and I'm pretty sure L has a future as a builder or an architect. His forts lately have been taking up my entire loft, and they are quite involved. I've labeled the picture below, and as you can see, it's pretty intense. And also, he doesn't like if you call it a "fort", it's his house. It's sweet, but I've had to put my foot down about dismantling it and cleaning up at the end of the night because it was getting to the point where I could hardly get through the loft to the boys room!

Next week we will be celebrating Father's Day in California, which should be a nice trip. We are visiting my in-laws and the boys love getting to see their papa and grandma!

7 months

R is seven months! Wow, it's hard to believe it's been over half a year since he joined our family.... I seriously cannot remember a time when he wasn't here!

He has really taken off this last month! I know when I updated his six month stats he was crawling and just starting to tentatively push/pull up on things. Well, he has mastered that skill and is not crawling like an old pro, pulling up on everything, and even cruising! It;s pretty crazy actually, and I feel like I spend 90% of my day chasing him from room to room. (we definitely need to put up some of the baby gates we had taken down once L2 got big enough!)

We are still exclusively breastfeeding and he is eating usually one jar of stage 2 baby food a day. (half at lunch and half at dinner). So far he has liked everything we have given him, including some of the dreaded ones like prunes, peas and chicken and sweet potatoes! What can I say, the kid likes to eat! He must take after his mama! He nurses about 5 or 6 times a day. We're still pretty on demand (as in, when he's hungry I feed him!) but he's gotten on a fairly good schedule which is nice.

He is finally sleeping through the night!! Thank you, thank you! He goes down around 9:30 still and is sleeping all the wait to about 5 usually. Then he moves into bed with me and we side nurse and go back to bed until 6:30-7:00. Every once in awhile we still get a 3 am wake up, but honestly it's not that big of a deal to me. Nursing is so second nature and easy for us now he just comes straight into bed to eat and we both pretty much go right back to sleep! I sometimes miss sleeping with him for more of the night, but he is still in our room and I know we are both ultimately getting better nights sleep. I'm still not ready to move him to his own room, although S is stating the push to move him at 9 months. We will see who wins the battle!

He loves his brothers. He follows them where ever they go and always wants to play what they are playing. I have to monitor this pretty closely because obviously the big boys can play kind of rough, but they are both surprising gentle and patient with him. L prides himself on being able to put R to sleep in his swing and being able to make laugh!

(R likes to sneak up on L2)

Let's see, what else? R has a tooth starting to push through! It hasnt' actually broke through yet, but it's close. He is going through a cuddly stage right now, that i"m sure has something to do with the tooth. He only wants to nap right now sleeping on someones chest, and while it makes it hard to get anything done, I can't deny that I absolutely love it!

Besides that we are just getting ready for the hot weather and summer here! I will post more soon about our summer plans and what we've been up to!

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day friends!

I really love this holiday. Mostly because the whole fact that I get to celebrate it centers around what I consider my biggest accomplishments, my kiddos. I don't know if I could have every imagined how much I love being a mommy, but I really do. Now, don't get me wrong, it is by no means all sunshine and rainbows. Especially now that L is talking back and L2 is in the throws of the terrible twos, I often find myself yelling at them, and issuing time outs and counting down the hours until S gets home and I can hand over parenting duties to him. Some days being a mom is really, really hard. Some days it is disgusting. (This week we had a stomach bug run through the house that resulted in me cleaning up puke and many, many blowout and diarrhea diapers. It was gross.) I love being a mom, but I can honestly say I didn't love any moment of the bodily fluid cleanup that I endured this week. Some days I find myself getting so frustrated with them that I have to walk into another room and catch my temper before I go back in and start dealing with it again. I am by no means a perfect mom, but this is real life, and, damn it, I try. And some days that's all you can do. But, the bottom line is, even on the worst of the worst days, even on the days when they are driving me up the wall, I would rather be with them than anywhere else in the world. That's what being a mom is all about.... even when it kind of sucks, it's better than anything else you could imagine.

And I'm so lucky to have a husband who recognizes that being a mom is a hard, fulfilling, wonderful, challenging, frustrating and rewarding job, all rolled into one. (So is being a dad!!) I love that he gets that even though I stay home, I work hard, He gets it, and he makes me feel appreciated everyday, not just on Mother's Day.

But he did make today special for me. He let me sleep in (for all you mom's out there, you know that "sleeping in" means sleeping until 8) and then he made me a delicious breakfast of crepes and coffee and mimosas.

The boys gave me a card and L made me this beautiful necklace at preschool. I love it, and he is so proud of it. I definitely cried a little when he gave it to me.

My present from S was something that I asked for and have been wanting for a long time. Anyone who knows me knows that I'm a bit of a gym/workout rat. I go about 5 days a week and love running and yoga. But lately I've been feeling a bit discouraged about firming up from the last pregnancy and I think I need to do something new. My gym offered a week free of personal training which I did and it was amazing. Having someone coach me and push me and show me new moves felt amazing. But, unfortunately, personal training is ridiculously expensive and there is no way we could afford it after the free week. (At my gym your looking basically at several thousand dollars) I was bummed, but it is what it is. Then the trainer I had been working with approached me and told me that she had a member who had moved and had a fully paid for personal training package that she was looking to sell. It was 62 one hour sessions for only $200 which is beyond a steal! I was so excited and when I brought it up to S he immediately agreed to get me them for Mother's Day. I start tomorrow and I am so excited!

Anyway, after our delicious breakfast we spent the day window shopping at Nordstroms Rack and the mall. (something I never get to do and requested). Then we came home and S let me take a long afternoon nap followed by a bubble bath while he did all the grocery shopping and gave the kids dinner. I couldn't have asked for a better day!

R's first food

Well, I finally bit the bullet and gave R his first food. Pureed organic Peas..... yum!!! (so yuck, actually... I can't stand the smell!) but regardless of what I thought, he loved them!

The truth is, I think he's been ready for awhile. He's had awesome head control since about 3 months, has been sitting on his own, and is constantly trying to grab out food when we are eating. I actually started L and L2 on solids (well, purees) at four months, but I held out with R until he was at least 6 months. A big reason I waited is because the more research I did and the more I talked to my doctor the more it seemed like even though he might be ready at four months, his body and his digestive system was really more likely to be ready closer to six. I also felt like with him breastfeeding like a champ and being in the 75% for weight while being exclusively breastfed, there was no reason to rush it.

And, honestly, I really could tell a big difference in the waiting for six months instead of starting at four. I remember with both L and L2, they really didn't like the first few tries, and they still had the "push out" reflux much more than R does. R was more than ready and I was really surprised by how much he seemed to like pureed peas!  (Did I mention yuck?)

OK, and here's my honest mommy part..... I think I am, no, I know I am, holding on to R's milestones a little longer. I think with L and L2 I was always so excited for them to hit that next stage, but with R I can see myself holding back a little. Not that I'm not super proud with every new milestone that he hits and not that I don't fully encourage him, but with every new thing he does there is this small part of me that wonders if this will be the last time I get to witness this. We haven't made any decision as to if we are going to add more to our family (and obviously R is only 6 months old, so we won't be making any for a while yet) but just the thought that he could be my last baby (OMG, that just made me tear up) is making me want to hold on to his baby stage just a little longer.

But, my little guy is growing up and I couldn't be a prouder mama! And, with any luck, maybe I'll finally get a kid that's not a picky eater!!!

**Oh, and please excuse the quality of these photos! I was trying to take pics with my iPhone with one hand while feeding him!

the cupcake bandit

What do you get when you have a mischievous two year old with a huge sweet tooth who knows how to get the fridge open and combine it with some anniversary cupcakes?

Well, my friends, you get a little criminal in the making:

Our little cupcake thief. His execution of the crime was pretty good, however he needs to work on hiding the evidence!

six months

My sweet baby R is six months old!!!

He actually turned six months this past Saturday, but I was out of town for the weekend for a friend from college wedding and then yesterday was a rough night because poor baby had to get all his six month shots, so I'm just now updating.

OK, let's see. Well, at his appointment yesterday he was 18 lbs and some change, so in the 75% for weight and in about the 66% for height. He is officially sitting completely unassisted and he is also crawling!!! He's been trying and sort of army crawling for about a month, but he is not up on all fours and all over the place! He has also been pushing up on his little music table and getting his legs under him to attempt standing.

He is still exclusively breastfed. We will probably be introducing rice cereal this weekend and then other foods right after that. I'm very proud of the fact that he has had nothing but breast milk for six months! (And is super chubby, so obviously it's doing a body good!)

He is still not sleeping through the night, and we are still mostly co sleeping. He starts out the night in the pack in play in our room (he has outgrown the bassinet!) and then usually wakes up around midnight to come into bed. He cuddles with me the rest of the night and we usually end up side nursing about twice throughout the night while we both are still dozing. S is starting to bring up moving him to his room..... but I don't see that happening any time soon! Truthfully, I love having him with me, and as long as he's still waking up at night I would prefer to have him right there.

He is starting to babble a bit and he seems to love hearing himself "talk". He loves his brothers and L is really good at comforting him when he's upset, although he's really not upset to often. He's pretty easygoing and usually only cries when he is hungry, tired or poopy. (Except for last night after the shots.... he cried all night last night! Poor babe!)

He's very into toys now and I feel like I am constantly on the lookout for little toys that aren't safe for him. That's one of the hard parts of having three boys all at different stages, but the big boys seem to understand they have to keep the little toys away from R.

I can't believe he's six months. I know, I know, I say that every monthly update. But man, do we love this little guy. His brothers adore him and his daddy and I just can't get enough!

Happy six month birthday, my sweet boy!