Little Helper

The other day, there was a lot of cleaning chores that needed to be done. I did the best I could to incorporate Ava into my chores, without her really being in my way. She loves to feel like she's helping. It takes a whole lot of patience on my part, but she sure does love when she's being "helpful."

She loves to wash the dishes. Let's just hope that the water restriction police don't come around while she's doing this chore. After the dishes, she also helped with cleaning her bathroom upstairs, but I didn't grab the camera for that. Since we were dealing with chemicals I felt it was best to actually make sure she was being safe instead of documenting the cleaning with my camera. (and I call myself a true scrapbooker...shame!)

This picture is unrelated but it shows you just how much Ava does not believe in personal space.

Summer has begun!

This is how we spent our first evening of summer:

I prefer to get my watermelon flavor in the form of a Sonic slush.

Class of 2022

My Elle went and grew up this year, and specifically today! She started off a Kindergartner and before we could even each lunch, she was a 1st grader! I would like to commend myself for not crying too much at the graduation ceremony. It helped that the slide show kept messing up and we couldn't hear the songs the whole time so that kept me from losing it totally. I could not have imagined a smoother year that this one. All of my fears and anxieties about my children starting school were completely wiped out by her wonderful teacher. I asked the teacher if she'd please stick around to get my other two through Kindergartner and she said that her college-aged daughter had just decided to go to vet school, so yes, she'd be teaching for a lot longer. Ha ha! After Elle's graduation we checked her out for the rest of the day as did most of the other parents. We let her pick where she wanted to go for lunch and Hallelujah! she didn't pick CiCi's or Mikey D's...she picked Applebee's! After we ate, we ordered dessert, which NEVER happens! This was such a wonderful day and now we can look forward to all kinds of adventures this summer. Way to go Elle-bell!

Fits Just Right

I bought Levi this outfit before he was born. I planned on letting him wear it either home from the hospital or to church the first time. But, he surprised us by being so much smaller than the girls. We tried it on him this morning and at 6 1/2 weeks, it finally fits him just right! I actually thought that it would still be too big for him, but I guess he's growing faster than I realized! Here's a few pics I snapped this afternoon.

Caught a Coo on Camera

This is Levi's favorite thing, a bouncy seat I bought for $10 at a consignment sale a few months back. It has paid for itself big time! We think the three animals hanging in front of him are his friends. They seem to make him very excited as you can tell by his little legs! I wish I had gotten the camera out sooner because he had been "talking" to his friends a lot but at least I caught one coo. :)

Game Over?

I saw this cartoon today and it gave me a laugh. I definitely don't agree totally with the cartoon...but I can see it's point! The biggest changes that I've noticed in the past 6 weeks are as follows:

1. The house is messy all.the.time.

2. I can't keep up with the messiness!

3. The laundry needs to take birth control.

4. I am tired from the minute I wake up till the minute I go to bed.

5. I fall asleep very quickly at night now.

6. I pretty much don't care what we eat at any given meal as long as it's easy to make.

There are also some exciting things emerging as we hit the 6 week mark today. Levi is getting in the grove of nursing and napping and night time sleep. He is becoming less fussy. He occasionally smiles a little bit, but his biggest smiles are still in his sleep...he's teasing me. My body is slowing going back to what it was before. I still tire very quickly and deal with a lot of lower back pain and sciatic pain, I'm guessing from having my stomach muscles cut in half! I am getting closer every day to fitting normally in my clothes, but am going to have to step it up soon, if I don't want to wear the same pair of cotton stretch capris at camp every day.

I have one week left till Elle is home for the summer and I am actually very excited about her being here. Not only does she provide entertainment for Ava, but I have lots of stuff planned for both girls. I am going to do some "homeschooling" this summer with both of them to keep them from being bored as well as teach them some things they need to know, both educationally and religiously. Very excited! Okay, enough with the break from cleaning the house....back to work! Game on!!!

Tummy Time

Today I tried tummy time with Levi. He is actually staying awake long enough after he eats to do more than change his diaper! He had been quite fussy until I put him on his tummy and then he seemed to calm down from it. This is a stark contrast to my girls, especially Elle, who HATED tummy time. He seems to have a pretty strong neck too. He kept holding his head up for a few seconds and at one point turned his head from one side to the other. What a big boy!

Bday Redo

Since Levi decided to so rudely interrupt Elle's planned birthday party, we had to reschedule to event and the only time that everyone could do it was this past weekend. Elle has been so patient and gracious about plans not going the way she had expected them to and I'm so thankful for that. So, Saturday morning, Shawn took her and Ava to a place in town that had indoor bounce house type stuff. We also invited our neighbor that has 2 little girls and one friend from church. I stayed back to finish all the last minute things and to allow Levi to have a good nap. Then all of them came back to our house around noon for pizza and cupcakes. Elle had already opened all of her presents on her real bday so we didn't do that but she seemed to have a wonderful time, all things considered. I truly am stumped as to how to feel about having a 6 year old! But, having 3 kids stumps me pretty bad too! I'm pretty sure that next April is going to be even more complicated than this one was!

May Milestones

This weekend saw a few fun milestones. My baby turned 1 month old on Saturday. On Sunday, I celebrated Mother's Day as a mom to THREE kids! It's still hard to believe that I've got three children. I say this a lot, but I still feel like I'm about 21 and just married. (okay I don't really feel that way first thing in the morning, but my mind feels that way.) Anyway, somehow Levi, Shawn and I have all survived the first month. I'm not really sure how it happened but I'm thankful we are all still here. It has been a tough month that at some times seemed never ending and at other times seemed like the days were just blurring together. Levi has definitely changed in this one month. He's still mostly a little cute blob, but he is beginning to be somewhat more alert. He started cooing a little bit last week and I just wait with baited breath constantly to hear any fun sound he makes. It still doesn't happen too often, but when it does, the whole family goes a little crazy. He is also just almost smiling at me every once in a while. I still can't say that he has looked right at me and smiled at me while I'm talking to him. He has smiled when I kiss his cheek or the side of his mouth, but I am not going to call it official until he smiles while looking right at me...I can barely wait for this to happen! I am ready for some feedback in some way other than screaming.
His daily schedule is something like this: I wake him up around 8 am and feed him. It takes him around 45 minutes to eat...life has gotten very slow for me and I pretty much can't get anything else done right now. I am reading books like crazy though so there's a positive. Then after he eats, he can only manage about another 10-20 minutes of being awake before the yawning begins. Then I put him down for a nap. Most of the time I then wake him up when it's been three hours from the time I woke him up last. This goes on all day until his last scheduled feeding which happens around 10:30 pm. After that, I let him wake himself up. He has gone as long as about 4 hours at night, but mostly goes about 3 1/2 before waking to eat again. Needless to say, I'll be really excited when I'm getting more than 3 hours of sleep at a time! I am full out sleep deprived at this time. I can barely hold a real conversation, I have a hard time making a decision about anything and last night I even put a carton of some delicious icecream that I had eaten in the frig instead of the freezer....GASP! I have dark circles under my eyes for the first time ever...looks really pretty with my pasty white skin. lol Anyway, from experience I know that every day will get a little bit better. I also do look so forward to when he does wake up each time because he's getting easier to snuggle. He's around 8 lbs 3 oz at this point which is great! That means he's gained 1 lb 5 oz in the first month.

3 days old

1 month old...what a difference a month makes!

Onto Mother's Day. I woke up to a beautiful rose and some pretty cute cards. The girls were so excited for me to see the card they got. They got me a gift certificate to a local salon and day spa which I'll be using ASAP! We all got ready for church, which was Levi's first Sunday, took a few cute pictures and headed that way. Levi did really well for church and so did the girls. I am thankful that others are willing to sit on the same row as us and help with Ava. I had to hold Levi all during church so my hands were out of service for her. I fed him at the beginning of the service and then he slept through the whole sermon! It was wonderful. Then our friends took us out to lunch at Red Lobster (YIPPIE!) and he slept through almost the entire thing. It was wonderful!!! Lunch was delicious and we even got dessert which is such a luxury! Then we headed home and it was Levi's nap time so we put him down and he actually didn't fuss at all about it so I took advantage and crashed too. It was wonderful. The girls were napping, Levi was napping, Shawn was studying and I was able to actually rest for a while. He woke up just in time for me to feed him before leaving for afternoon services and that was nice. Anyway, my day was quite peaceful and that's really all I could want at this point. Rest!

A mommy of THREE!!!

Here's the shirt Levi wore for his 1st Sunday...I thought it was only appropriate that he wore a tie like his daddy...and with pink in it! Stylin' from the very beginning. (and his expression cracks me up in this pic!)

Two of a kind

Levi and his Long Johns

I took these photos yesterday and they are my new favorite pictures of him!!! I'm not sure if these long johns were Shawn's when he was a baby or if Gramme just happened to pick them up when I was pregnant with Elle but finally I have a baby that is small enough to fit in them. He looks so stinkin cute in these!!!

The girls are CRAZY about this little boy!

Melts my heart

Mother's Day Tea

Thursday at Elle's school, the kindergartners were doing a Mother's Day Tea. I was so excited to go to her school alone with her and spend some time together. She was extremely excited to show me all the surprises that she had worked so hard on in preparation for the big day. It was so sweet to be there with her and see how proud she was of what she had made me. I will forever cherish all the things she made me. I am a total sucker for sentimental items and now I have a whole bunch of new things to file away. Her teacher did a phenomenal job with preparing everything and with all the little gifts each mom received. I have really changed my perspective on Mother's Day in the last 6 years. I used to want presents and objects. Now all I want are sentimental things and fun times with my kids, for Mother's Day. Of course, a little pampering and sleep would be nice too. Each of my kids is so important to me. Elle made me a mom and showed me how wonderful little girls could be. Ava made me a patient mom and allowed me to see the wonder in the small things. Levi gave me one last chance to love on a baby and a new perspective as well .

The picture that Elle painted for me. I love this kind of stuff!

1st Church

Wednesday night Levi made his debut at church. I almost felt like I was making one too. It had been a month since I was there last. I was a little apprehensive about being there with him just because I know that when he gets hungry, there is no calming him until you just feed him! He was suppose to eat right as church was over, but I was going to try to wait till we got home since it's about a 45 minute process right now (please let it get quicker soon!) Anyway, he did really well. He sleep through all of class and church with a lot of rocking and soothing from me. I was completely exhausted by the time we headed home and he was completely starving. He screamed nonstop without taking one break the whole way home. What a contrast from how he had been during church! Anyway, we finally have that under our belt and now we can begin to get out in public more and start to go back to our "normal" life.

He's already preparing himself for church with a little prayer. What a spiritual baby!

Daddy rocking him before we left for church. Love to watch babies fall asleep!

Introductions

This past weekend, Shawn's brother Chad and his wife Lesley came in for the weekend to meet the newest baby in the family. It was so nice to have them here. Though we didn't do much, it was just nice to hang out and watch their baby Ezra and just laugh. This was the last of the official family visitors. We are now truly on our own raising three kids! Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the weekend.

I think Lesley looks blissful for 2 reasons: #1 She's holding a sweet new little baby #2 She is so thankful not to be at this stage of parenting with her own! :)

Another reason that Uncle Chad is the best. He willingly and on his own accord offered to change a poopy diaper. What an awesome uncle!

Ava loves Ezra. Camp this summer is going to be so much fun!

Elle was an excellent "babysitter" for Ezra. She is so patient and sweet with him and so good at keeping him entertained.

Ezra getting a good look at the only other boy cousin on our side....they will have to stick together in a few years.