Welcome to the world, Karina!

• Karina Brielle was born August 27, 2013 at 2:47pm.
  
  I want to write out her birth story here so I don’t forget it:
  In the early morning hours (1-3am) of August 27th, I woke up feeling odd. I felt like I was leaking, so I got a towel to lay on, and tried to get back to sleep. I was having sporadic contractions, but they weren’t painful at all, but I really couldn’t get back to sleep either. Somewhere around 3-4am, I felt something “different”, ran to the bathroom, and then I knew for sure my water had broken. My sudden run to the bathroom woke up Dan, so we started timing my contractions using an app on my phone. They were 10-15 minutes apart and not painful for a while. Around 5am, they were 5-10 minutes apart, and I was definitely feeling them more than before. We started to think we should call our friends who were going to watch the other kids. So I got up to pack a few last minute things before we decided it was definitely time to call them. After I finished packing, I realized the contractions had basically stopped, and even when I had one, they weren’t painful at all. It was weird, but my water was still broken so we knew it would be sometime that day.
  When the girls came into our room that morning, we told them Karina would be coming sometime that day. Marissa said “It doesn’t seem like a special day, but it’s gonna be!” They were thrilled, and we decided then to call our friends to pick up the kids. Their kids and our kids had all been looking forward to it for a loooong time, so we knew they were in good hands and would enjoy the day/night with them. They came to pick them up around 8:30am, and Dan and I had breakfast then headed to my regularly scheduled doctor’s appointment that week. They did some test on the fluid and confirmed that my water had broken. The doctor also checked me and said I was at 5cm already! That was a shock because for every other baby, I was at a 2 for one check, then the next thing I knew I was at 10 and ready to push. So being at a 5 was odd. At this point I was having a contraction every once in a while and they were slightly painful, but not much. I went 45 minutes-1.5 hrs in between some of them. We decided to head on over to the birth center in case things picked up quickly (like in the past).
  We got there around 11 and got the same room that both Arianna and Roman were born in. They had the tub filled up already, per my request. The nurse started my IV (for GBS+) and I got my first (and only) dose of that. We ordered lunch and just sat around waiting for things to pick up! I was having sporadic contractions, but nothing I had to struggle through, and they weren’t very consistent.
  I called my mom around 1:20 and we chatted for a bit. During our phone call, I had a few contractions that were finally hurting enough to let me know I was actually in labor. I labored on my hands and knees on the bed and around the room for a little while, and the nurses listened to Karina a few times. I don’t remember what time it was, but I decided to get in the tub at some point – maybe around 2:20? As I was on my way in, the nurse wanted to check Karina one more time. While she was trying, I had a BAD contraction, more fluid leaked, and I could barely stand up.
  I got in the tub, and was still having hard contractions, but I got a few minutes of relaxation in the water before things really got bad. I had maybe 2-3 contractions in the water, and dang, they really hurt! At this point I was on my hands and knees, with my hands up on the edge of the tub and my legs behind me. Then suddenly I wanted to push! I pushed one, looooong, EPIC push (at one point the midwife yelled to stop pushing but I couldn’t, then told me to grunt through it – apparently Karina’s hand was up by her face and she was worried I’d tear really bad), and she was out at 2:47pm! The midwife caught her behind me and I didn’t tear at all! The midwife rested Karina on my back for a minute, and then they all helped me stand up so they could pass Karina through my legs so I could hold her. She was super slimy and got slime all over my IV site. She cried pretty much right away (which doesn’t always happen with water births), and was LOUD! I told Dan to run and grab the camera, and we got a few nasty pictures of her fresh out in the world
  I held her on my chest for a little while in the tub, but the cord was pretty short so I was having trouble keeping her out of the water enough, plus she was screaming her guts out – we couldn’t even talk over her! Dan cut the cord, and then the nurse took her so I could get out of the tub. I felt so dirty (and actually pretty good) that I asked the nurse and midwife to help me clean up a little before I got out! So I stood up and they helped me shower. Haha. Then I climbed out of the tub and walked to the bed where the midwife delivered the placenta. Then I held Karina for a long time and she even nursed for a while. It didn’t take her long to get latched on. I think after that the nurse came and weighed her and checked her all out again. She weighed 7lbs 4oz and was 19 1/4 inches long (they measured her much later though).
  It was by far the weirdest of my deliveries, since it kinda took a while to get going. But it was still very fast once it actually started. Maybe 1 1/2 hours total? And of all my deliveries, I felt the best after this one. I wasn’t really sore at all, and I actually felt better afterwards. My muscles and back had been so sore for so long – it was just a relief! I immediately slept better too! Well, the first night she was up a lot obviously, but I still was much more comfortable sleeping than I had been in months!
  Because she was born so quickly, I never got the second dose of the GBS+ antibiotic (story of my life apparently). So they had to check her blood over and over (poor thing kept clotting, so they had to re-do it several times), and we had to stay an extra day to “observe” her. I was so ready to go home (it was BORING at the hospital! haha), but it was nice to have food brought to me and just do nothing for a while. The food was actually really good, and they serve a lot at each meal, which is awesome for me. Dan picked up the kids Wednesday night after the first night of AWANA (our friends took them there), and my parents and sister drove into town Wednesday night too. I was by myself at the hospital after that, and around 1am I had to move down the hall so someone else could have the birthing room. Thursday after lunch, we finally got discharged and my parents and sister came with Dan and the kids to take us home!
  At this point I still felt great. My only complaint was sore and bleeding from breastfeeding, but I expected that after living a nightmare with Marissa and Arianna as babies (not with Roman since I was still nursing Arianna at the time, plus he was in the NICU so I was pumping like crazy). Thursday, Friday, and Saturday were fun days spent with family. We even all went to see Monsters University at the cheap movie theater.
  Sunday morning I felt great, so we all went to church together, 5 days after Karina was born. Towards the end of small group, I started to feel really really cold. I thought I was fine, since I’m always cold in church. After small group ended, I took Karina downstairs to nurse her in the nursing room. At this point, I was visibly shivering and realized I might have a fever. I was also in TONS of pain every time I nursed her, so I thought maybe I was getting mastitis (again, not something I wanted to repeat). After I cried/nursed her, I went upstairs and met Dan on his way down to check on us. I handed Karina to him and went outside to stand in the hot sun. I was still sooooo cold, that he gave Karina to my sister in church, and we went outside to sit in the hot car to try to warm me up. I knew I wasn’t “just cold” from being in church, but I didn’t think it was that bad. Dan sat with me in the car for a while, but he was positively dying of heat, so I sent him inside and told him I was doing better, which I was starting to warm up a little. After about 45 minutes in the hot car, I suddenly was so hot I couldn’t stand it. I was sweating buckets and desperately needed some water to drink, but my water bottle was empty. I texted Dan, and my sister brought me out some water to drink. Church was over at this point, so we all went home and I landed on the couch. Dan took my temperature and it was 104 so he called the nurse/midwife after hours number and they said I needed to be seen in triage at the Women’s Center. So Dan, Karina, and I went back to the hospital. Boooo. They checked me out and did an ultrasound, where they thought some lining was still too thick for 5 days post-partum. They decided I needed a D&C to get rid of the infection I obviously had, but someone was having a C-section so we had to wait for the OR and my doctor. We timed it so that I nursed Karina really well just before I went in for the procedure. As long as Dan was with me, I could also keep her with me. I would only have to pump/dump once after the surgery and then she could nurse. My parents came down to the hospital too, while my sister kept the rest of the kids. So while I was under (breathing tube and everything – yuck), Dan and my parents consoled poor starving Karina. I was adamant that she not get any formula/bottle, and she made it through just fine - it was probably about 4-5 hours. Once I came out, I immediately pumped (a ton!) and then tried to wait for some milk to come back so she could finally nurse again! It was a rough few hours for Dan and my parents, rocking her and doing everything they could think of to keep her asleep and calm. And then once I was out, it was a rough few hours while I tried to let my milk build up again, but she just wanted to nurse and nurse and nurse. But I was still in so much pain from breastfeeding that I couldn’t let her, but she just wanted to nurse! I tried to make her wait at least 30 minutes in between feedings, but there still wasn’t much milk for her. Finally around midnight she got a good long filling feeding in, and we were able to sleep. This entire time I had an IV and was getting antibiotics every 6 hours. They were watching my temperature to make sure it didn’t spike again, but I already felt 100% better and totally fine. All day on Monday (Labor Day, her due date!), Dan and I sat around waiting for the word on when we could go home. It seemed like the longest day ever – we just watched tv all day! But finally before dinner they let me go! After having an IV for 24 hours, my arm was actually the most painful part of my body, with breastfeeding pain a close second. I also had a very sore throat from the breathing tube, and very sore neck and jaw (possibly also from the breathing tube, or possibly from tensing up from the pain every time I had to nurse her). I had to laugh about all my pains though, since NONE of them had anything to do with pushing a baby out!
  Since we’ve been home, we’ve had wonderful friends bringing us meals, and after my parents and sister left on Tuesday, Dan’s parents came that Friday for the weekend. As of today, 15 days post-partum, my only complaint is slight sharpness when she first latches on. This is HUGE compared to past nursing experiences, and I’m already loving snuggling with her and actually sleeping in normal positions without crying.
  I’m trying my hardest to enjoy every moment of this sweet newborn girl, since most likely this will be our last baby. I think I’m finally ok with that, since this pregnancy was so much more uncomfortable than the others, and I will never forget that giant EPIC push. But I will always miss these newborn days, especially when I’m not in pain anymore (especially nursing pain). I love love LOVE newborns, kissing newborn cheeks, snuggling a newborn in a froggy curl on my chest, even nursing in the middle of the night. So I’m soaking her in and letting other things fall behind. Because right now SHE is much more important than laundry or a picked up living room.
  The kids love her too. The girls are sweet and sing her songs, but Roman has surprised me the most. Every waking moment, he has to know where she is, what she’s doing, if she needs to eat “mommy’s milk”, he wants to see her arms if they’re hiding, he wants to kiss her forehead, and hold her all the time. He is the sweetest proudest big brother ever. I can’t believe I’m a mom to 4 kids, and they’re the sweetest most wonderful kids in the world.

August?!

How can it possibly be August already?! I'm almost 36 weeks pregnant, and each week goes by so slowly, but I'm surprised it's August. I've blocked out the whole month from other activities and appointments (except for mine every week of course), and we'll be starting school soon so hopefully we can get a little done before it's baby time.

This morning I got up and went to a kids' clothes sale nearby. Got a bunch of stuff for Roman, who really needed the most, and a few things for each of the girls. Roman is still barely wearing 2T right now, and even then sometimes his pants fall right off his butt. But I got him a bunch of 3T stuff (with adjustable waistbands!) that should hopefully carry him through the fall/winter. Arianna is growing out of 4T, which is surprising me, and into 5T, which is coming straight off Marissa's rack in the closet! It's pretty handy since I don't even have to pack things away in between them. Haha. Marissa is around a 6, but also has a problem with pants since her legs are so long but her waist is so skinny. Right now I've got a load of tiny baby girl clothes in the washer and once they're clean, all we need is a dresser (Ikea run!) and she can come! I'm so ready to be done, but want to make sure she doesn't come early like Roman, so for now I have to be patient. One more week or so and I'll feel better about wanting to be done!

Marissa has been whining about how the summer went so fast. She says she misses her friends (at our CC group), but I can tell she's not that excited about starting back to school. Arianna is though - I'll be doing some preschool with her, depending on how everything else goes! She's already at preschool level on many things, so it'll be pretty laid back. But we did get her school supplies that she's excited to use.

Roman is talking like crazy lately. I love hearing him discover new ways to communicate, and his voice is so cute saying things like "Roman's fault" and "No, YOU'RE a goober"

There's a list a mile long of things I wish we could get done around the house before K is born. But most days I can barely get through doing the bare minimum, and I feel bad putting it all onto Dan, so it's probably not all going to get done. I've checked a few minor things off the list, and there are a few I know we'll be working on together. But after that I think I just have to give up on my list. It's mostly organizing junk anyway, so it can wait. Although the junk is really getting on my nerves, I am just in too much muscle pain to go crazy with nesting.

I'm really enjoying the quiet of nap time today. Dan took Marissa out bike riding, so I don't have my usual chatterbox next to me. Haha! Arianna isn't sleeping (she only sleeps once every few weeks lately) but she's playing quietly in her room, and Roman isn't sleeping (he only sleeps once or twice a week - boo!), but he's calm and happy to play in his bed with his stuffed animals for now. I really wish he took naps more regularly, because once K is born, I'm really going to need them (for him AND me!). At least he's good at keeping himself happy, just like he always has been.

I think since everyone's occupied, I'll see if I can check something off my big list before I get too tired today!
(Yesterday Marissa tried to copy my use of the word "occupy" and ended up saying "octopi" instead!)

Ugh

2nd week of swimming lessons, and I'm so incredibly frustrated with my girls. Marissa has been getting progressively better, even though I know she can do more than she is. But Arianna is boggling my mind. Despite having almost one-on-one attention, the girl who is typically afraid of NOTHING is terrified to do ANYTHING in the water. She started out the first week doing pretty well, but suddenly this week it's like she's never heard of this thing called "swimming" before. I have tried every bribing, reasoning, and threatening tactic and nothing seems to be working. I really thought having someone else teach them would help much more than my previous attempts. But at this rate, neither of them will even do a thing on their own, no matter how much I tell them it's supposed to be FUN! Ahhhhhhh!

Remember this

I'm writing this because I want to remember every detail about tonight. Dan's coming home from work late (OISF meeting), so it's just me and the kids. We did dinner, baths, and bedtime. Roman was crying for some reason, after I had put him to bed and was finishing up with the girls. So I went in to see why, since he's usually completely happy to go to bed. I asked him what's wrong when I went in, and he said "kiss" - so what was I to do? I gave him a kiss and a hug and a long cuddle (on the big boy bed waiting for him in his room) and put him back to bed in his crib. A few minutes later he started crying again. He's got me wrapped around every single finger, and he NEVER cries at bedtime, so I went back to check on him. He said "kiss" again and pointed to the big bed. So I scooped him up and took him to the big bed, where he pushed me down so I was laying down, then he put both arms around my neck. Then he rested both hands on either side of my face, and just stared at me. We cuddled like that for a long time, then I gave him a kiss as I was getting ready to get back up. Then he started kissing my cheeks and lips over and over and grinning. I asked him where he wanted to sleep "baby bed" or "big boy bed" (he knows the difference and thinks it's a funny argument to have at every nap/bedtime. He always says "baby bed" but tonight he pointed to the big bed and said "big boy bed." So I got ready to get up (it takes me a while lately), but he kept pushing me back down for more cuddles! Then Marissa shows up in his doorway, so I ask her what's wrong. She said "you said to always tell you this if it happened again: I feel sad, like I'm gonna cry." So I managed to extricate myself from Roman, promised him I'd be back in a minute, and went to give the girls each a long cuddle in their beds. Then I went back to Roman, clarified that he still wanted to sleep in the big bed, and then said I'd check on him in a few minutes. As of right now, I haven't heard a peep from his room (over the monitor) and he hasn't tried to open his door (it has a child-proof knob on it, but I'd hear him try it). It's hard to believe that he might actually be ready for a big boy bed. But he was the cuddliest sweetest little boy on the face of the planet tonight, and I don't ever wanna forget that feeling when he's 5 and bouncing off the walls or when he's 13 and stinky all the time, or 18 and grumpy and moving away. He will always be my sweet cuddly little 2yr old who is finally talking up a storm and I'm loving every second of it.

Catching up

Time to play catch-up again! It's Sunday, and tomorrow I will be 27 weeks pregnant! I'm home from church this morning because somehow I got this awesome head cold/allergies and I need a million tissues every second. Dan has it too, but not as bad, and he seemed mostly better this morning. Not fair! Haha.

We finished homeschooling for Marissa's 1st grade year and I'm so proud of how it went. I didn't go crazy with stuff, but I feel like she learned a lot, and so did I. The hardest part was dealing with Arianna and Roman when we needed to do school, but we were able to do things during naptime too, so that helped. Marissa did great on the standardized tests we signed her up for, not that we were surprised. We finished the math book (and did extra math towards the end), finished the phonics book (exactly to the day!), learned each letter in cursive (her handwriting is amazing!), and did lots of reading. She had typing lessons on the computer, and watched several PBS documentaries about elephants, lions, wolves, etc. - she LOVES those types of things. Add all of that to our Classical Conversations curriculum (that she memorized like a pro), and I feel like she got a well-rounded education this year. I'm not sure I'll ever be the type of homeschool mom who does school year round and incorporates schooling into every part of our day. But maybe that's ok. I'm looking forward to a school-free summer, aside from daily reading time. I feel like it's an important part of a kid's life to have a break, and I need a break too! Next year will be extra challenging because Arianna will be starting Classical Conversations and I'll start doing more preschool stuff with her, AND the baby will be coming right when the year is starting.

Arianna has turned into a hilarious awesome 4 year old. We talked to her pediatrician and took some drastic measures with her digestive issues (enemas and LOTS of miralax), and since then she is happier and eating better and just all around more pleasant to be with. She's finally wearing underwear because she actually poops in the potty (this was a LONG time coming). For a while, she was positively soaking the bed every night, even through a pull-up. I changed her sheets every day - it was ridiculous! But suddenly, she was dry for a week straight, and now she's even wearing underwear to bed. I can't believe how much she has grown up. She's super sweet and plays adorably with Roman (most of the time). The girls are still sharing the purple room in their own twin beds. There will be lots of bed-shifting going on in the next year or so, but eventually the 3 girls will share a room, and we'll have to get another twin bed to put in there with the bunk beds.

Roman is 2.5 and graduated out of his speech therapy/Help Me Grow program. Just in the last few months, he suddenly has so many words and is speaking in 3+ word sentences. He thinks he's hilarious, and he is! He is still super sweet and cuddly, and most of the time so obedient too - but he's definitely 2! His little tantrums break my heart, and I have the hardest time keeping a straight face to discipline sometimes! He knows he can always ask his sisters for help with things, and it makes me smile when they help him out. He's starting to ask to go potty lately, and I can see that we will have to address that this summer - although I'm worried about him regressing when the baby gets here, so we'll see how that goes. A few weeks back he had been climbing in the girls' beds and asking to go to sleep there. So we decided to try him out in a big bed. The double bed has been in his room since he was born, so all we did was take the frame out so it wasn't quite as tall. He was super excited about it, but when we tried to let him sleep in it he FREAKED out HYSTERICALLY! It was pitiful, so we gave in and put him back in his crib. He's not climbing out or anything, so we're not in a rush. We're doing it gradually now, and usually just sing and play on the big bed before putting him to bed. I'm not sure why it was so terrifying, but now we playfully fight about "big boy bed" and "baby bed" every time it's nap or bed time. The other day in the car, he suddenly said "mommy, doggy bite me!" and started giggling like crazy. I don't know where that story came from (because it definitely didn't happen), but it was hilarious and I want to keep him this age forever. I just love 2 year olds!

After 9 weeks of "discussion" we finally settled on a name we like for our baby girl, but I'll probably wait to announce it when she's born. It's unique enough for me, but normal enough for Dan. And there isn't another name in existence (that doesn't start with M, A, or R) that we agree on. So it's not changing! I'm definitely much more uncomfortable in pregnancy this time around, but it's still wonderful and I love it. I get sore under-belly muscles a lot, but the worst is if I'm sitting strangely for too long (like slouching in bed, etc), I get the WORST feeling in my butt and down my thighs. It feels like I'm sitting on a tennis ball, and getting up doesn't help, walking on it doesn't help, and it hurts when I put pressure on that side AND when I take pressure off that side (like switching which leg I'm walking on). Aside from that though, I feel great and so blessed to have complication-free pregnancies. I'm a little overly aware of my water breaking early, just because of Roman's water breaking so early. But there's no reason to expect it to happen again, so I'm just being careful.

We've got a busy summer ahead of us, starting with our 8th anniversary on Tuesday! Hard to believe we've been married for 8 years, but we've packed it full of life! I'll turn 30 this month (holy cow!) and it seems odd to me that we'll probably be done having kids when I'm 30. Most people nowadays don't even start til 30 or later. It will be nice to be done with diapers and naptimes (Arianna and Roman barely nap these days, so it's a peek into what life could be like with older kids!), but I'm worried I'll have a hard time being done with babies, and then being done with 2 year olds. I don't think I want more kids, but I think I will always want more babies and 2 year olds. Lol.

We're going to NY to visit my side of the family next week. We usually go later in the summer so we can enjoy going to the pool with them, but this was the only time that would work. Once we get back, the girls both are signed up for 2 weeks of swimming lessons and hopefully someone ELSE teaching them will work better than me teaching them. Haha! After that we have a week at home and then we're going on vacation with Dan's parents, and after that is our church's VBS. That brings us to August, which I have left completely open and free just in case, and for my sanity.

Then it's baby time! I have no idea what I'll do with all the little girl clothes. It's getting a little insane already, and we don't even have baby clothes out yet! I'm so excited to see what she looks like and hopefully the seasons won't be too off and most of the stored clothes we have will still work for her. I got rid of TONS of baby boy clothes already, but that barely made a dent in our clothes collection. It's ridiculous, but we'll probably start getting rid of things as baby girl grows out of them. So sad!

Well, I think I'll go take a hot shower and try to clear out my stuffy head a little. I'm not enjoying being sick, but I AM enjoying the peace and quiet while Dan and the kids are at church. This better clear up fast for our trip to NY this week!

Coming Labor Day 2013...

I'm pregnant! And I can finally share it! I hate keeping secrets, and a pregnancy secret is the worst! I had my 3rd miscarriage last November, so we wanted to be SURE before we told the kids. And so we ended up keeping it a secret from just about everyone we know until we knew it was safe. I didn't want it to get back to the girls, and then have to explain if something were to happen again. But I had a doctor's appointment yesterday, and heard the heartbeat again, so it was time to spill the beans! Marissa was SOOOOOOO excited, flipping out all day after we told them. Arianna wants to name it Balloon Boy or Faline. And Roman doesn't know what everyone's so excited about. But we're so happy! I'm 12 weeks pregnant, due September 2, 2013, which just happens to be Labor Day, which I think is so funny! It will certainly make homeschooling interesting, but we're so excited no matter what!

2013

I'm officially a failure at blogging. And I'm so used to typing on my phone (new Samsung Galaxy Note 2! Love it!) that I wait for auto correct to fix things on the computer! Arianna is sleeping, Roman is supposed to be sleeping, and Marissa is playing her My Little Pony game on the iPad (after some extra CC during naptime) so I'm going to try to get a quick update in!

• Still homeschooling, though we have yet to really get back into the routine of things after Thanksgiving and Christmas, and a super long break from CC. Marissa is starting to fight it, and seems to be getting bored with some things, so it's time to kick it up a notch! She understands most things so quickly, but also gets bored quickly. The only thing she's really struggling with is spelling, which we aren't even really focusing on. It's part of phonics to me though, and the English language is frustrating the crap out of me lately! Marissa totally understands phonics rules like long vowel/silent e. But uses them in the wrong words (rane=rain) and other than saying "it's just that way because it's that way" I don't know how to explain it any better. I like the phonics book  - it's very clear about rules/exceptions - I don't think that's the problem. It's just driving me crazy :-)
• I've been doing several pages of Kindergarten stuff with Arianna most days, and she whizzes through almost all of it. She can read most any CVC words and loves doing her "school." She'll turn 4 in February, and next year will start CC with us officially. Can't believe it! She's still very much a daddy's girl, and sometimes I just have to back away because I know I'm no good! She's still hilarious and full of imagination, so she and Marissa pretend pretty well together.
• Roman is finally starting to talk more and communicate things to us! It's been a long frustrating wait for it to happen though. The PACE therapist is still coming twice a month, though I don't really know for sure that it's helping - it certainly isn't hurting. He answers "good" when you ask how he is. He says "what" when you call his name. And knows the names of all of his favorite toys: cars, balls, truck, books, animal names - and most recently he's obsessed with the girls' My Little Ponies and calls them "moanies"  and makes them say "yee haaaww" - it's adorable! He's actually growing out of his clothes for a change, and with Christmas money from generous relatives, I fixed that problem :-) His winter coat is still a 12m, but in actual clothes he's wearing 18-24 month stuff.
• OH, ROMAN TURNED 2! He finally hit 21 lbs at his check up, and now I officially don't have any babies/toddlers in the nursery at church for the first time since Arianna was born. *sniff sniff*
• Speaking of Christmas, we had a wonderfully crazy holiday. My parents and sister and grandma drove out from NY for a (too short) visit, and then I randomly decided that I would drive back with them with the kids and visit for another week before CC started back up again. Unfortunately, Dan had to work in the middle of the holidays, so he couldn't come. Also unfortunately, we were predicted to get a GIANT snow storm here and then in NY too, during the planned traveling days. So at about 3pm on Christmas day, we decided we would try to leave ASAP before the snow hit OH and get to NY ahead of it. I hadn't packed a single thing, so I ran around like a maniac for 3 hours and we managed to leave at 6pm. We completely avoided all the snow, but didn't get to NY until 3am. But we left poor Dan all alone for the rest of Christmas AND his 30th birthday. We had a blast in NY though, and the kids loved playing in the snow. We got to see a bunch of extended family too, which was a bonus. The kids got SHOWERED with wonderful gifts from very generous family, and now I'm still working on finding our house and laundry room after all that chaos! (By the way, I LOVE shopping for clothes for the kids with Christmas present money. Haha!)
• Hmmm, I guess I never shared about this either: I had a miscarriage over Thanksgiving. We found out I was pregnant in October sometime (kinda forget now), but hadn't shared it with anyone. I got checked out kinda early for other reasons, and they were monitoring my levels (bloodwork - fun!) and the second they started to go down I just knew it. I had one good cry before we even found out for sure that it was over, and then I was ready to move on. Dan's parents came for Thanksgiving, which was amazing, especially since I was pretty much down for the count during that week. It was so nice to have the help, and the kids always love visiting with grandparents!
• I stopped babysitting the extra boys since they moved farther away. Roman was sad to not see the baby every week! He's so funny around babies.
• Roman also got his first haircut! Dan had a mowhawk at the time, so I went crazy and had Roman's hair cut into kind of a faux hawk. Roman thinks he is SO COOL when I gel his hair to look just like Daddy's! He begs me to do it and then goes around showing everyone!
• He's still an awesome sleeper, although it sounds like today he decided not to nap. Lol. He's singing and babbling away in his room, happy as a clam as usual. He was awesome even in NY, which surprised me, although it shouldn't have. He's just plain awesome.
• One of Marissa's main Christmas gifts from us was an mp3 player. She thinks she's so cool listening to music all the time, and we loaded it up with some of her favorites like Skillet and Flyleaf. Haha!

That's about all I can think of that's worth mentioning from the last few months. I'm giving up hope that I'll keep blogging regularly, but maybe I'll at least blog every few months? Haha!

*UPDATE* Can't believe I forgot to mention the best Christmas present ever: we got a DSLR! Again, thanks to generous relatives, we were able to find one we could afford, barely used on craigslist. It's a Canon Rebel t2i, and it's basically in perfect condition. The guy who owned it only used it once, and we got an extra lens and a giant carrying case and all the manuals for it. We've just been using it on manual mode right now, cuz I have no clue what I'm doing! But I hope to be able to learn how to really maximize the potential. It's already worth it though, because it takes pictures so quickly that the kids are actually not blurry and it takes much less time to get a good shot. I'm so excited to see where we can do with this new toy!

Well, we've been homeschooling for about a month now! It's going better than I expected with Marissa, and about what I expected with Arianna and Roman. I was expecting Marissa to fight me more when I asked her to work on things, but that really hasn't been much of an issue. She's interested in just about everything we work on, and works hard and relatively efficiently. We're on week 5 of Classical Conversations material, and so far I really love the program and community. We meet once a week, on Fridays, and Marissa's tutor goes over the new material for the following week, do a science project and art/music, and reviews previous weeks' material. Arianna and Roman do great in the nursery, and I enjoy talking with the other moms while we observe the class. It's challenging for me to learn the material, and fun for us to memorize it together. We have the CD of everything in the car, and even Arianna is picking up on a lot of it! We have separate phonics and math books, and they seem to be just about right for Marissa.
We start each day with breakfast and Super Why. Then we head downstairs to the schoolroom/playroom. Marissa and I work at the desk, and Arianna and Roman have a little table and play area. We work on memorizing the CC material, and learning map locations for CC. Then a few pages of math (she likes to do more sometimes!) and then some phonics/writing practice. I have her read word families, and we're reinforcing short vowel sounds right now. Then she writes sentences for some of the words we read, or I give her a "spelling test" with some of the words we read. Then (if Arianna and Roman let us have time) we expand on a subject. We've been making a science book about all the classifications of animals. This gives her a chance for some crafting (her favorite thing ever!) and is a little more fun than just memorizing the facts (which we get from CC). Usually by this time, Arianna and Roman are no longer playing nicely, so we head upstairs for free play before lunch. I try to keep them busy with puff ball games, coloring, balls, trains, and Arianna practices her letters on a white board or uses her alphabet tracing notebook. But this only lasts so long! It's definitely the most challenging aspect of homeschooling so far!
After lunch, I put Arianna and Roman down for nap (although Arianna seems to be getting out of this need, boohoo!), and Marissa and I have a while to ourselves. She does typing lessons on the computer, and we sometimes explore different areas on our globe and google information about it. Or she'll pick a topic she's interested in lately, and we'll explore that. One week we went to the Butterfly House at a local gardens, and so we researched Monarchs and everything about them. One day she informed me she wanted to learn how electricity works, so we attempted to figure that out. Lol. She wanted to learn how to tell time on an analog clock, so we've been working on that, and she plays a clock game on the computer to work on that. There's also tutorials and songs for CC material online, so we take some time to listen to those and work through the tutorials. Then she gets some free time on the computer while I get some free time, and her school day is over!
Today is Tuesday, which means I'm watching A (3 like Arianna) and R (5 months) for some friends. It means extra crazy days, and less actual school time, but we make up for it throughout the week. Right now I got all 4 younger kids down for nap (who knows if Arianna's actually sleeping though!), and Marissa is on the computer so I have some time to breathe. Haha. It's definitely challenging, but one day a week is definitely do-able, and they're good kids.
Roman is finally saying lots of words and getting a super funny personality, and it's so fun! He says bear, deer, doggie, ball, car, snack (na), mac (ma), mommy, daddy, bowl, and some others that I can't think of right now. He actually learned MINE today, from Arianna of course. Haha! He's so funny (especially around the baby) and still loves playing any kind of ball game, and driving his little cars around. He can be so goofy, and loves running around and crawling around (like jaguars) with the girls.
Arianna's still struggling with poop issues. But I'm not pursuing any kind of fix right now, just hoping time will help. She's so smart though, and I love watching her learn the CC stuff with us. She's getting really good at writing the letter A, and is very interested in writing her name.
Well, naptime is almost over and I need to prep for dinner tonight!

End of summer

Well, the summer's pretty much over already! This Friday starts our first Classical Conversations (CC) day, and officially kicks off our year of homeschooling for Marissa!We just finished up a fun weekend with Granny and Poppop, only a week after an extended trip to NY to visit with Grandma, Grandpa, Great-Grandma, and Rara. My PA grandparents, aunt and uncle from NH, and my brother and his wife also all drove to NY to visit while we were there. It's been a fun month of relatives, and we haven't had much downtime at all!
In NY, we spent a lot of time at the pool in the neighborhood that I grew up in, where my Grandma still lives. It felt so weird to go back there after all these years, and spend the afternoon swimming again! This year, by the end of our visit, all 3 kids finally started loving the water! Marissa finally gave up her floaties (after much convincing, and some "accidental" deflating - she hasn't actually needed them for a while), Arianna finally gave up on hysterical screaming, and Roman couldn't keep his face out of the water (as long as there was a ball nearby). I drove the kids out by myself (Dan used so much vacation time for Disney & Nicaragua, that he didn't have any left), and it went much better than I expected. We only stopped for dinner and gas, and made it in great time! The kids did great, and I didn't even go crazy! We spent one day at Toughannock State Park and ate lunch by the water, played on the playground, and hiked up to the falls with the kids.
Roman learned a bunch of new words while we were in NY (mail, bear, deer, birdie, fish, rara, and "grandma, grandpa" which both sound like rara, but he knew the difference). Just this week he also started saying car and poppop. He's still completely obsessed with all types of balls and games with balls. He now sleeps with a soft ball, and practices kicking and throwing balls against the walls. He's crazy good for a 20 month old (?!) and since I know I'm going to have to watch him play sports the rest of his life, I'm just glad he's so cute :-) He also discovered running while we were in NY, and he holds one arm sideways across his chest and runs so crazy!
Arianna's still having digestion issues, which means she's back in pull-ups so I don't go crazy. Wish we could figure this girl out, but I have a feeling we never will. She does everything 100% and all her emotions are extreme. I'm hoping we can do some school stuff with her and figure out how she works. Haha!
Marissa is excited about homeschooling, and we've started making a list of everything she wants to learn this year! I hope I'm up for the challenge...
I guess that's all for now!

Happy 4th!

Either life is too busy or I'm too lazy to keep this up. One or the other is true all the time. So I'll just start!
Yesterday I went shopping for 6 hours by myself. It was glorious. It was my treat because I survived 8 days of single parenting while Dan was in Nicaragua on a missions trip with church. I have quite a bit of birthday money, and I'm actually spending it slowly this time, instead of the usual "spend it all in one day then return things because I'm indecisive" thing I usually do. We also went to see fireworks with some friends last night til 11pm and the kids are all soooo tired today!
The month of June was crazy. Marissa had her last day of school and a school program. We had a few weeks of nothing, then we DROVE to Disney World with Dan's parents and bro & sis-in-law for a week. The kids did SO GREAT, and it was so much fun. But it was exhausting! Then we drove back through the night on Friday, and Dan left for Nicaragua Saturday morning for 8 days. It was hard to be without him, but my college roommate (Laureann) came for a few days with her two boys, and we had dinner with some friends, so that helped break it up. We have this week to catch up from that, and then next week is VBS (I'm watching babies again of course), the next week is "practicums" for me and Marissa to prepare for Classical Conversations homeschooling which starts the middle of August. And after practicums, I'm driving the kids to NY for a few weeks for an extended visit with everyone. I'm really excited about that visit, just not so much about the 9 hours of driving with no adult backup! Dan's taken so much time off from work in June that he just can't take any more yet.
Marissa's adjusting to being at home all day (and so am I). The kids play really well together most of the time, and when they're not, they're fighting of course! Marissa is in massive craft mode still, and makes the most creative things out of paper and tape. Lol. Arianna is doing pretty well with potty training - although we reverted to wearing a pullup all the time because of her ongoing poop issues. She's still on Miralax everyday, which usually does the trick, but for some reason it's not always perfect. Roman got a hold of her cup yesterday (while I was shopping, and Dan didn't realize which color cup was hers), and poor Roman had a miserable day with lots of nasty diapers! Arianna's talking so well, and copying Marissa like crazy. She knows all her letters and sounds, and busts out the most hilarious phrases, directly imitating the things Dan and I say (it's a good thing they're not bad phrases!). Roman still really only says "mommy" "ball" and barks and quacks. But he's trying. We're going to a class for him since he qualifies for help, but I'm not really sold on it, and am trying to get in-home help instead.
Roman and Arianna play like crazy together. And usually Arianna ends up knocking him down or injuring him in some way. While Dan was in Nicaragua, they were running down the hall, and A bumped R and he ran smack into the corner of the mudroom doorway with his forehead. It was BAD immediately, and I considered taking him to get stitches. It was super swollen but didn't really bleed very much, and it's scabbed over pretty well, so I think he's ok. But it was scary! He's still super sweet and cuddly, and such a wonderful sleeper. But he's definitely showing his age (19mo) lately...tantrums are starting!
This morning I turned in my weekly editing work for probably the last time ever! Between my vacations and their schedule and the ending of remote reviewers anyways, I am probably done. It was the most wonderful job for this time in my life and I loved the flexibility of it. But I will be soooo glad to have my evenings free after the kids go to bed!
I think that's all I can think of to update on. Wish I could have made the time to chronicle in detail our Disney trip, but at least we have pictures to remember it by! Maybe someday (in my free time - ha!) I'll get back to updating this more regularly. For now, I'm glad I at least do it once in a while.

MAY?!

Well, it's May, and Marissa only has 3 weeks left of school! This month is going very fast, especially when I think about how we're going to Disney in the middle of June - stress! We told the girls a few weeks ago, and they are excited, although I don't think they know just how much they should be excited. Haha! Marissa turned 6 and is seeming so old lately!

Recently, Wee Praise sang in church on a Sunday night. It's 3-5 year olds, and Arianna recently joined them when she turned 3. So Marissa and Arianna are in the same class Sunday nights, and we got to watch them sing a few songs on the stage. It was Arianna's first time singing on stage, and it was hilarious! She was wiggling and moving all around, playing with the giant floor speakers, and then she discovered that they were projecting video feed of them singing up on the wall behind them! It was so funny to watch her do all the motions, while looking everywhere except in front of her. Lol. We got a little of it on video. But I'm so sad we didn't catch the end on video, because it was by far the best part! After they finished their last song, everyone in the audience clapped, so the kids started clapping for themselves. Then once it was completely silent and they started to herd the kids off the stage, Arianna yelled "Yay, I did it Mommy!" We just about died laughing, but she was so proud!

Lately, Arianna and Roman have been playing kind crazily together. And Arianna has started to call him "Stinky Pee" - which is evidence that Toy Story 2 is one of her favorite movies. Haha! How is it possible that Roman is almost 18 months old?! This is the longest I've ever not been pregnant or trying. Marissa was 16 months when I had my first miscarriage, shortly after I had the 2nd miscarriage, then Arianna, and then I got pregnant with Roman when Arianna was 12 months old. Wow, my poor body. Lol.

Right now both little ones are sleeping, and I'm resting. I think I hurt my neck/back while painting, and I can't afford to wait to finish painting! Yesterday I couldn't move my head to the right at all, but it's slightly better today. So far, since Saturday, I've done 3 coats of primer over the bright/dark orange in the basement playroom. It's a really hard color to cover! Now it's time to start the pretty gray, but I know the gray will need at least 2 coats, if not 3. It's kinda overwhelming, but it will be so worth it to have a pretty room to use for homeschooling in the fall. We will be doing Classical Conversations, which is also overwhelming, but I'm excited to see how it all works and I'm sure I will be learning just as much as Marissa! She is also excited, but I'm slightly nervous about having that many hours in a day to fill with her. I'm hoping we can establish some sort of routine that helps break up the day.

For the month of May, I'm watching 2 little boys, 2 days a week. A is 3 just like Arianna, and R is barely 2 months old. It's definitely a challenge, but a good one, and it's nice to have spending money. They come to our house, so it's easy that way, and the 3 year olds play well together. The baby is pretty easy too, and I'm still able to get everyone to take a nice long nap in the afternoons at the same time! Both Arianna and Roman are obsessed with the baby, especially Roman, and it's so funny to watch them watch the baby. It surprised me how easy I've been able to add these 2 boys to our family on those days, and it only reaffirms that I still eventually want one more baby. We'll see how that goes :-)

We recently purchased all the materials to make another shelf and a base for under the drying rack in the laundry room. I've designed them both completely on my own, and I really hope my measurements make sense when it comes time to assemble them! We finally cut them all to size, and once I paint them white, we can figure out how to put them together. Should be interesting.

Arianna went for a while where she did so awesome with going potty! It was such a relief, and I almost didn't take extra clothes for her to church on Sunday...well, she's had several (bad) accidents since then, and I'm back to being frustrated! I just keep reminding myself that I know she can do it, so eventually she will. The only funny part in all this is when she's trying not to poop, she stands on one leg and says she's being a flamingo. Lol. So we just told her no more being a flamingo!

Oh, I finally (after 9 years of wearing the engagement ring) got my rings sized down! They've been so loose and falling off, but I always thought (hoped) I'd gain weight when I was pregnant, so I didn't want to make them smaller. Well, obviously that didn't happen, so we finally just did it. It was NOT cheap, since that part of the warranty had run out, but so worth it! I never knew rings could be so comfortable! I barely even notice I'm wearing them anymore, and very rarely take them off for anything. I ended up going down two sizes, so it's a 4 now. I've been looking for a nice cute (cheap) ring to wear on my right hand for a while now, but obviously no one, and I mean NO ONE, sells rings that size! I'll have to special order it, which is stupid. Why don't small people have as much variety as fat people do?! I wanted to buy a shirt from Sears the other day, but it only came in S, M, L, and XL. What happened to XS, people?! Ugh, so frustrating. Not that I want to be this tiny, but I don't have a choice. And I feel like there's no place to vent about it, because everyone I know is trying to lose weight, or exercise and eat healthy. So what kind of person would I be if I said "I'm really trying hard to gain some weight, add calories to my diet, whine whine whine"?! Guess that's just what happens when I'm not pregnant or breastfeeding. Annoying.

Anyways, guess that's all for now!

Potty, DIYing, gorilla

Somehow it's the middle of March already, although it feels like the middle of May. Beautiful weather lately! The girls and I were outside yesterday afternoon for a while - I was trying to take apart a pallet (future DIY project) and they were drawing with sidewalk chalk while Roman finished his nap. You know it's nice outside if I'm willing to be out there
I've been thinking of tons of things lately that I wanted to blog about. But do you think I can remember any of them right now? Lol. Of course not. I'll do my best as I go though...I don't want these years to go by in a fog and not have any way to remember them!
Arianna has been having some difficulty with going potty lately. It's so frustrating because I KNOW she can do it. But instead of going to the bathroom or telling us she has to go, she just runs to a corner and does her business (both!). I feel like I've tried everything, and she's just so stubborn. Right now she's had a few good days, but Sunday was the worst because she pooped in her underwear while we were at the park before church. It was so messy, and of course I didn't have any wipes for some reason. Ugh. Anyways, if she goes all day staying clean and dry, she gets a cupcake (we're saving them in the freezer). And I also took away her new pony undies, and she'll get them back when she stops making messes. She knows all the right answers, and knows when she has to go. I just don't know what's going on with that girl.
Other than that, she is so joyful and sweet most of the time. Lately she's been asking everyone "are you happy" over and over, all the time, even if it's obvious we ARE happy, but especially when we're upset about something (like a potty accident...). It's so sweet and insightful, that I feel bad that we react the way we do. But we do our best to assure her we still love her, we're just sad about her accident, etc. But she asks Marissa and Roman too, and me and Dan at the most random times. It's so funny, and now she knows it. She's talking like crazy, and it's hard to believe we ever had any worries about her language development. She even read the words "cat" and "dad" the other day by sounding out each letter then smushing them together. I was shocked, and really didn't help her all that much. It's so reassuring that she's not behind and is so smart already!
We have officially decided to homeschool Marissa. We haven't registered or done any of the "official" stuff yet, but I have a feeling we need to do it soon. It's still very overwhelming to me, but I'm excited to see how it goes. Marissa is also excited about homeschooling, and I think it'll go well once we get into a swing of things. I'm also excited to design a beautiful playroom/schoolroom space in the basement I've spent probably way too much time on it, but it will make a huge difference to me as the "teacher" if the space is soothing, pretty, organized, and functional. IKEA here I come!
Last week Marissa asked for a real cell phone for her birthday. She said "Antonio has one" and that "he's in charge" at his house. Lol. We told her that it would definitely be a LONG time before she ever got her own cell phone. But it was pretty funny.
Roman is beginning to talk like crazy. He says "bear" everytime we go in his room, because the giant bear is on the bed in there. He mainly just says the "b" sound, but it sounds different depending on what b-word he's saying. He's so stinking happy, and has started to know exactly what to do when I want to take his picture. He grins at the camera so well, even though it doesn't last very long. But today he started doing the squinty grin, and Arianna is still stuck in that phase too. Lol, should make for interesting Easter pics in a few weeks here!
I had some time off work (end of the month wrap up in the office), so Dan helped me put up a cool shelf in the laundry room. We installed some 2x4s on each side of the washer/dryer nook. I had found some sliding closet doors for free off craigslist, so Dan cut one down to size with his table saw, I painted it, and we slid it right over the 2x4s. It makes a huge table surface for folding laundry, and it's about an inch above the washer/dryer tops, so it doesn't shake like crazy whenever they're on. I've got many other plans for the laundry room, but not as much time to work on it when I have "work" to do. I also spent a lot of time on my wall plaques that I'm painting. They were dollar store floral 10" square plaques, but I painted them all white, and then each one gets a different geometric design. I'm imitating some wall stickers I saw on someone's blog that they bought at Home Goods (We just got a new one - I need to go!), but I could never find them to buy for myself. They've turned out really well so far, and I love looking at something I created out of ugly stuff! It's made me addicted to craigslist though. We recently made a good chunk of money off stuff on craigslist, so I've been obsessively checking it every day to see if there's anything I could use/change/make for cheap. The hard part is deciding if it's junk or something I can work with. Haha!
We're going to Disney in June with the in-laws, and we haven't told the girls yet! We'll surprise them sometime before we start packing, so they know they need to be excited! But I've already been thinking ahead and researching everything possible about the trip, from flip flops (for me), double stroller/single, sunscreen and anything else I can think of. I'm very excited about it, and I know the girls will love it. I'm a little worried about how Roman will do just because 18 months is a hard age, but the adults will outnumber the kids, so I'm sure we can handle it! It's overwhelming to plan though, which is why I'm starting early!
I think I've covered just about everything I wanted to, except for Roman and the gorilla. One Valentine's Day when we were in college, Dan bought me a stuffed gorilla that plays the drums and sings. Marissa used to be terrified of it as a baby. We recently found it in our closet, and discovered that Roman was also terrified of it! It was hilarious, because he'd point to it, but then snuggle up with us like it would eat him or something. But after a while of that, suddenly he decided he loved it! Now he points to it, goes "eh, eh" and grins like a fool when we turn it on. He carries it around upstairs, and puts his fingers in the mouth as it sings. Yesterday he even imitated the singing and I swear he said "ooooohhh yeah baby" just like the gorilla does. I love that boy, and this age!
Well, I finished this early, so I still have some "naptime" to myself. Hmmm, laundry...or pinterest

Random - February

I just accomplished something I'd been dreading for almost 3 years: Arianna is potty trained! From the time she was a 4-month old crawler and an 8-month old walker, I knew it would be a LOT different from potty training Marissa. With Marissa, I had tried a few times early on, but she just wasn't getting it, and I was hugely pregnant, so it wasn't ideal anyways. But when she was almost 3, one Sunday she was in diapers, and the very next Monday she was completely dry in underwear and could go hours in between. It was incredible. But from day 1, Arianna has been SO very different from Marissa, and after the months of drama surrounding her breastfeeding, and then Roman being born (and the week I stayed in the NICU with him), I knew she could never be potty trained as easily as Marissa. But I'm ashamed to admit, I was pleasantly surprised by how quickly she succeeded! We started last Monday, Jan. 30th. I just put her in underwear and we stayed off the carpet/couch as much as possible. She had several accidents, but also a few successes, which gave me hope. I was extremely happy to slap a diaper on her for naptime and bedtime though! On Tuesday, she pooped in the potty, and didn't have any accidents all day, and that was that! She was awesome at church Wednesday night, and lasted a whole hour in the car on Thursday. She did have at least one accident at church on Sunday (it's a long time, and her teachers change partway through, so who knows if they even knew she was wearing underwear til it was too late), but she has been so awesome! She gets a jelly bean every time she succeeds, and her love language is jelly beans, so that really motivates her! Haha. The only problem we have now is she wants to "try" about every 2 minutes! She really does pee a lot, but definitely doesn't need to every 2 minutes. Hopefully this problem resolves itself soon because she still needs help in there, and it's hard to drop everything (dinner prep, changing R's diaper, etc) every 2 minutes to chase her to the bathroom! I'm just so proud of her though, and she suddenly seems so old to me! It's hard to believe she will be 3 this month. Seems like she was just born, and was my crazy mobile baby. She is still crazy, but so hilarious and random and entertaining. I've been able to say I have 2 kids 2 and under for a while, which just seemed crazy. But almost 6, 3, and ~1.5 sounds a little more sane! (Are we insane for driving them to Disney this summer? Please tell me no...lol)

Arianna and Marissa have been playing together really well lately (a lot less refereeing on my part!). Marissa decided (on her own) that she would teach Arianna the ABC's and the sounds the letters make. I found them one night (reading before bed) with an ABC book on Marissa's lap, and Arianna repeating letters and sounds after her. It's so cute, and Arianna knows all her letters and 17 of their sounds! Marissa thinks she's Arianna's personal teacher, and Arianna loves it too. The other day Marissa said to Arianna "Was that fun or what?!" and Arianna replied "Um, what!"

Arianna has started to pick up on Marissa's sense of imagination. Both of them could sit for hours with a few toy figures or animals and pretend the most elaborate scenarios. It's so entertaining to listen to!

Roman is an absolute joy these days. He is so stinking sweet, sometimes coming over to me simply to get a hug/kiss or lay his head on my shoulder. He is so happy, and babbles and plays by himself with a smile on his face. He laughs and giggles excitedly when I ask him if he wants to go upstairs, or if he's ready to eat lunch. He runs over to his booster seat at the table if I tell him to go get in his seat. He repeats "baby" all the time, and used to say "ball" too, but won't anymore. He high fives like crazy. He and Arianna play the goofiest games, and he loves when she gets rough with him. Haha. He's pretty tough, and falls down a lot, but always gets right back up and barely cries. He is still an awesome sleeper. He now starts his nap at 12:30, right after lunch, and I don't hear a peep from him until at least 3:30, sometimes 4. Then he's ready for bed around 7:30, and sleeps straight through (most nights) until I get him out of bed (sometimes I have to wake him up!) at 8:30. If he wakes up at night crying, he usually falls back asleep on his own within minutes, but if he doesn't, all it takes is a few minutes of cuddling and when I put him back down, he cries for a second then falls back asleep. It's so nice to get 8 full hours of sleep almost every night! Every time I look at him, I'm surprised at how big and old he's getting - 14 months already?! I want him to always be my baby, but sometimes when I look at him I see a toddler coming out.
We are again considering homeschooling Marissa this coming year. She has not learned much this year at school, and when we ask her each day what she learned, her answer is usually "I didn't learn anything, I already knew it all" from when I homeschooled her last year for "preschool." She enjoys school, and has a few very good friends (got her first marriage proposal too!), but we think she would really exceed with more challenges than she's getting this year (Dan and I have both seen firsthand what they are working on, and she literally does already know most of the things they are learning). I'm having a hard time agreeing, not because I think it's the wrong thing to do, but because of selfish reasons: curriculum stress/overwhelming, paper/supplies clutter, and our personalities clashing/my patience. I love her to death, but we're a lot alike. Lol. Dan is also interested in "classical" education, and that's also overwhelming to me. So we'll see where this all takes us.

Right now, Marissa is in MAJOR craft mode. She will take whatever scraps of paper we have around, take some glue, stickers, and crayons, and work on a masterpiece for HOURS! She is so creative, and loves to display her artwork...and I'm running out of places to store it! Lol.

Lately it seems as if EVERYONE I know is starting a blog. Just when I barely update mine anymore. I wish I could make myself post more often, because I love going back to read about my life...but it seems like I just keep getting LESS time to myself

Weaned

I accidentally weaned Roman during the process of getting my wisdom teeth out. I knew it was a risk I was taking, which is why I waited til he was past 1, but I still thought we'd make it. I was nervous about nursing him while I was taking vicodin, so I only did a little bit, when it was mostly run out and time for a new dose. He hadn't been nursing that much anyway, so he barely noticed. Well I finished the vicodin, and was only taking tylenol or ibuprofen, but he wasn't really asking to nurse much, so I kinda forgot about it. I still offered a few times, and he nursed then. But then one of those times, he suddenly didn't know what to do! He just kinda bit me, and looked at me funny. I gave up, and thought I'd try again another time. The next day he did the same thing, and now he's completely stopped asking. I'm so sad about, mainly because I wasn't prepared! But also because I nursed the girls for much longer (M for 16 months and A for 29 months). And especially because Dan doesn't want any more kids and I really love nursing my babies.
I'm trying to see the positive (wear normal clothing without having to be prepared to nurse everywhere), but it's hard right now. It's a very emotional change - I'd been constantly nursing for 34 months! My baby boy is growing up and suddenly seems so old.

Roman is walking! Officially, he walked at 13 months. Dec. 26th, while we were in Georgia for Christmas, he really started walking far, like across the whole room. And now he just walks everywhere like he's been doing it his whole life. It's hard to believe he started out at less than 5lbs!

I finally got my wisdom teeth out on Dec. 30th. I'd been trying to get it done since before Arianna was born! Literally the day I found out I was pregnant with her, I had a consultation scheduled. 3.5 years later...it's done! The pain was not too bad, but I was dizzy, nauseaus, and throwing up for the first few days, which was frustrating. I couldn't keep any food down, so I just stayed on the couch and slept on and off. I finally was able to eat, but obviously not chew much. I'm still being pretty careful with what I eat and how I chew it. But I'm so glad they're gone!

We had a very nice Christmas in GA. The drive there was long - 11 hours or so. But the kids did great. The girls played and watched movies, and Roman...well, he did pretty good. But I ended up sitting in the back with him for a while both legs of the trip. The first night we got there at 1am and he would NOT go back to sleep after sleeping in the car since 8pm. I tried EVERYTHING, and it was so frustrating! When Marissa or Arianna were that age, they would have eventually nursed themselves to sleep on me, or fallen asleep in my lap. But Roman is such a good sleeper in his crib, that he won't sleep on anyone! And I didn't want to just let him cry himself to sleep since he would wake up everyone else at the house we were staying at. Finally I convinced him to crash around 4:30am. The rest of the time he was fine though - we put him in his own room and let the girls sleep in our room instead. We all slept much better that way! The kids had a blast playing with Stephanie and Emily, and it was great to see all the relatives we don't get to see very often.

Today since I finally feel mostly better, I spent HOURS doing laundry, folding it, putting it away, and cleaning and organizing stuff! I had 5 huge baskets/boxes of clean laundry to catch up on folding and putting away, and they're all empty! Most of them were full of towels and sheets, since I had all the kids' laundry caught up for our trip. But now it's all done! I also took down the Christmas decorations while Marissa played outside on the playset and I had all the windows open. It was such a beautiful day! Then I dusted most of the living room (that doesn't happen nearly often enough!), and vacuumed and swept the entire downstairs. The next big job is TOYS! I need to clear out junk that the kids think is toys, so there's enough room for the toys that are actually toys. And still probably sneak some stuff away to be donated.

I think that about covers everything. For once I had enough time to write everything I wanted to, without having to stop for anyone! This is my weekend off from work while they close out the month of clients, so I'm going to enjoy just relaxing after the kids are in bed!

Ketchup

I honestly don't know where to start. Seems like a lot has happened, but I can't really figure out what. Guess I'll work backwards and see what I have time for!

Arianna is sleeping right now, and Roman is supposed to be. But he's been banging and babbling happily in there for 45 minutes! I expect him to fall asleep any second, but who knows! I don't want to forget my favorite part about him right now: whenever it's naptime or bedtime, I nurse him first, then pick him up and cuddle with him. I tell him "It's night-night time" and he lays his head on my shoulder and settles right in. Then I sing Twinkle, Twinkle, and it's the most perfect part of every day. He's so snuggly, and doesn't fight it at all. When I finish, I lay him down, and he (usually) quietly lays there til he falls asleep. I will definitely miss that snuggle time.
Roman had his 1yr check up yesterday. He got a few shots (no MMR, pox, or flu), and did awesome. When he cried a little for the shots, Arianna said "It's ok, buddy" in her high-pitched voice. So cute. He weighed 17lbs and was 29.75in long. I think she said that was 50th% for height, but wasn't on the chart for weight. He's fine though - he's come a long way from 4lbs 14oz! It's so hard to believe he's 1 already, and acting so old lately. He's not walking yet, but he can take a couple steps, and he's so close! He waves and gives kisses, and is such a joyful boy.
We just got back from a chaotic visit to PA for Thanksgiving with my dad's side of the family. The kids were mostly pretty good, but we created chaos everywhere we went! It was so good to see everyone though, and Roman wasn't even terrified of anyone!

I love eavesdropping on Marissa when she thinks she's alone..."Thank you, thank you, thank you God, thank you! Thank you for this piece of tape on here!" She's still enjoying school. On her day off before we left for PA, she said "I wanna learn!" and got out a princess dry erase K school book and spent hours at the table. Haha!

For the past few weeks before Thanksgiving, I got to babysit some kids I hadn't seen in ages! I used to watch triplets (A, E, & L) and their little brother (S) when they were 16mo and newborn, until about when Marissa was 1. Haven't even talked to them since, although we still exchanged Christmas cards. Out of the blue, they called with a temp childcare need, and I said I'd do it! It was a little complicated because I had to be here for Marissa to get on the bus in the morning, and be back in time for the bus to drop her off. But they made it work, and it was so fun! Obviously the triplets were in school, but I still got to see them on their teacher conference day, and S is only in half day K so I got to see him still. They also now have a 3yr old, W, and he and Arianna had a blast together. S really enjoyed playing with Roman too. It was very challenging because they're not a baby-proof house anymore, plus they have 3 dogs, and Arianna was terrified of them. But I'm glad I got to help them out, and the extra unexpected money was nice too!

We had a nice Halloween. Some friends from church came and walked around with us. Marissa's friend C and Arianna's friend H. Marissa was a mermaid princess, Arianna was a ballerina princess, and Roman was the cutest monkey ever.

Me: No jumping on the couch!
Arianna: Can I hop?

Arianna: Oh no! A puma! A puma!
Marissa: Ayudame! Ayudame!
Arianna: I'll save you!

Arianna gave us our first ear infection in all our years of kids so far. It wasn't too bad, but she complained enough that I took her in and got something for her to take. I'm pretty impressed that it took us this long!

Well I was going to try to get some pics in here, but Arianna just woke up and Roman still hasn't fallen asleep! Maybe next time!

Here is a picture of the finished beds for the girls! After many hours of sanding, priming, and painting, I finally finished working on them and we assembled them in their room last weekend. They are both so excited about them, and Arianna actually sleeps in hers (she was refusing to sleep on a mattress for the past few months, and always moved to the floor as soon as I moved her to the mattress). It's such a relief having them done, and I'm so happy with how they turned out. In a few years we'll bunk them to give the kids more room to play on the floor, but for now that's just too dangerous.
It's starting to cool down a little lately, and it's hard to believe Roman will be one in a month and a half. He's the happiest boy and I just love his huge grin. He has the same squinty eye problem on one side as I do, which is annoying but kinda cute.
How is it fall already? I went to a parent visit day at Marissa's school yesterday and it was fun to see her in a lesson, and then interacting with her friends at recess. She's such a big girl and so far I'm really happy with the school we chose for her.

We had family pictures taken a few weeks ago by a guy in our church. He followed us around a local park and then downtown a little, and just snapped away! I felt really awkward, but I'm so impressed with how they turned out, especially given the ages of the kids! There were so many awesome ones, and hopefully we can do the same thing again next year. We ordered a 16x20 canvas print of our favorite, and I can't wait to see how it turned out!

This morning, Arianna was playing with a play tea set and asked me "Would you like a spot of tea?" I just about died laughing. She is stinking hilarious these days, and so enjoyable. She absolutely adores Roman, and follows him around most of the morning. I kinda feel sad writing this because I don't know what Marissa does all day! I know she enjoys school, but she's also excited about days off, like this Friday. We're having a playdate with her friend Ingrid (and my friend Susan) since they don't get to see each other that often now that they're both in school. Arianna is just as excited about it though! They're the family that watches the kids if we ever need it and we just had a date night (to Maggiano's with J & A and T & R - YUM!) and the girls had a blast together. They usually order pizza when we (or just the kids) are there, and that's Arianna's favorite, so as soon as she hears that's where she's going, she immediately yells excitedly "PIZZA!"

I love my family, love my kids, and am enjoying the days with just Arianna and Roman immensely! Time to go get Marissa off the bus!

A new normal

Marissa has been in school for a few weeks now, and I think I've finally figured out a new normal for our days. It hasn't been as hard to adjust to (for me or Arianna) as I expected it to be. Roman takes nice long naps on a very regular schedule, so every morning from 10:30-12:30 I get to spend quality alone time with my middle child. It's actually quite wonderful, something I never would have predicted 11 months ago. Just before Roman was born, and for several months after, Arianna was a mess and very hard to appreciate and interact with. But she's such a lovely, sweet, thoughtful, imaginative, communicative person lately! She has ideas and opinions all her own and shares them all the time. She loves to ask "I cuddle you?" and "go upstairs, listen to songs, and jump?" and gets so excited when it's time to get Roman up from his nap.

Roman is standing up every chance he gets, and cruises all around the living room. He looks like sometimes he might forget to hold on to something, and I can't believe he'll be one in a little over two months! He has two bottom teeth, and his two top teeth are about halfway in. He's still so tiny, but looks like such a big boy when he's standing up grinning at me with all those teeth. After several weeks of waking VERY often at night, he's back to sleeping pretty good. He sometimes wakes once or twice, but goes right back to sleep after nursing. He still loves to nurse, and although I'm not going to wean him as soon as he turns one, I would really like to not nurse him as long as I nurse(d?) Arianna. We'll see how that goes...

Marissa is loving school still. She's made several friends, got invited to a birthday party (that she can't go to since we'll be busy), and discovered a friend that lives in our neighborhood. Somehow, miracle of miracles, she manages to finish all of her food for lunch every day. After months of taking over an hour to eat, we were very worried about that aspect of her day! Some days she comes home and wants to color or write at the table, and I can't imagine her wanting to after spending all day at school! She was sent home with a "baggy book" to read at home last night, and it was supposed to be independent reading - she did great! She's sounding out words she sees everywhere, and has a good grasp of reading already.

I'm almost finished sanding the beds for the girls. We got a set of (college dorm room) bunk beds that we'll bunk when the girls get (much) older, and I've been sanding them down to get rid of the grime and in preparation for painting them white. I'm excited to get them finished and set up their room. Arianna's been sleeping on the floor (or the Dora foam couch) for weeks now for some reason, she refuses to sleep on her mattress on the floor. Hopefully once they have cool new beds, she'll get over it!

Last week my hometown of Owego, NY was hit with massive flooding from the river that it's near. Entire first stories of houses were flooded, and it's going to take a long time for the area to be rebuilt, if they can even manage to do it in the first place. Such a hard time for everyone who lives there. I was so glad my Grandma and parents live high up on hills and weren't affected by flooding, just lost their power for a few days.

My sister has a boyfriend as of last night! I'm so excited for their relationship and how happy she seems to be.

Back in the day...

I just found a piece of paper where I had written all the words Marissa could say. There's no date on it, but I'm guessing it to be around 18-24 months or so. I thought I'd type it up because it's cute and I want to remember...

Rissa's Words

• gotcha
• jep = jump
• wait
• yo = yogurt or phone
• pee-pee
• poo
• spoo = spoon
• essie = sticker
• shirt
• da = socks
• ca = crackers
• sweatshirt
• choo-choo
• gentle
• eyes
• nose
• mouth
• toes
• poe-poe = pillow
• Mom! = Grandma (she imitated me saying "mom" to my mom)
• Pah-pah = Grandpa
• Jep! = Jeff
• cheerio
• da-da = hot dog
• bah = bath
• ch-ch = brush teeth
• ap = Nap in a Lap book
• Twinkle = asks to sing that song
• "ga ga guy" = lyrics "like a diamond"
• see = seat
• boo-boo
• nigh-nigh = night-night
• awww = expression for a baby
• ha = hat
• duh = stuck
• yusch = lunch
• da = dinner
• hee = asking to hold my hand to drag me somewhere
• gate
• cow
• keys
• clap

I'll never get back into this.

I can't believe it's September already! Marissa started Kindergarten last week and is loving it. I thought for sure there would be some tears or some rough days to start out (since she'd never been in a school setting before, and this is all day, every day!), but she loves it. Her teacher is wonderful, and she's already put Marissa in an "advanced" group for ABC knowledge (Marissa wasn't too happy about that, she says her own teacher is nicer than the "advanced" teacher. Lol.). It's so weird to be home with just the little ones. Arianna isn't a mess, but she asks to eat ALL. THE. TIME. I think it's because she's bored and I'm not interesting enough! I've really been trying to entertain her and do special things with her, but I also have to get stuff done sometimes, and Roman isn't nearly as exciting as Marissa was! The other day they played together in Roman's room for almost an hour while I did laundry and periodically checked in on them. It was so cute, and they'll have a great time as Roman grows older.

I think I've finally spent all my birthday money! I'm so indecisive that I've bought and returned things since my first big shopping trip (alone, with Roman) back in June. I got some awesome pieces and really feel like I used the money well. The clearance racks were my friends!

Since my last post, we spent two weeks in NY visiting my parents, sister, and grandma, and my other grandparents, my brother, and aunt and uncle also came to visit so they could see us. It was a crazy chaotic two weeks! Dan stayed with us for the first weekend, then he had to be back for work. They took some time off work to spend it with us, we spent a lot of time at the pool, and I think I can safely say that we completely wore my parents out over the course of the two weeks! The first weekend (thankfully when Dan was still there), we ended up taking Roman to the ER because he woke up at 2am coughing, croupy, and having a hard time breathing. I think if it had been either of the girls (as babies) we might have waited it out longer, but since Roman was a preemie and had breathing issues in the NICU, we were extra paranoid. He calmed down a lot on the drive there (of course), but they still gave him a few days of steroids and a few days of an antibiotic. It cleared up quickly and he hasn't had any more issues since then. We knew it was a possibility because he and Arianna had been exposed to croup at church just before we left. Arianna had a fever for a day, and lost her voice for a few days, but he got it much worse.

Roman is still an awesome napper! He goes down without a peep whenever I know he's ready. It's wonderful. He hasn't been as great at bedtime though. Sometimes he's just not tired enough yet, but other times I know he's exhausted and he just fights it. It's so frustrating when he's so good at nap time and so opposite at bedtime! He had been sleeping almost through the night for a while (only up once usually), but that's suddenly gone and he's been up many, many times each night for a week or so. It's exhausting! And I'm having to get up earlier than normal anyways to get the girls up and ready so Marissa can go to school. I'm very glad her bus doesn't get here until 8:49 though, because I don't even have to wake her up earlier than normal. But I have to be ready before they are up, and that's the hard part. I have to meet her bus down the street a little every single day this year. And in the afternoon I have to have my picture ID in order to pick her up from the bus. It's kinda a pain, but I'm very glad for all the precautions they take to keep her safe!

Arianna is turning into Marissa lately - she never stops talking! I can still remember how we thought she'd need speech therapy because she seemed to be taking forever to develop her language. But she's grown exponentially since we were in NY - Dan noticed a HUGE difference in just the two short weeks he was away from her! She's using full sentences and all the same inflections and phrases Marissa uses. It's so stinking cute! And yet so exhausting! But I'm trying not to wish away all the talking since I'm so grateful she's finally at this point.

Roman is 9 months old and cruising around furniture. He sits, crawls, pulls up, rolls around - all like a pro. It's hard to believe he was ever less than 5 pounds and so fragile! He was 15lbs 9oz at his checkup. When we were in NY, he just learned to pull himself up to stand so we would hold his hands and let him walk around and EVERYTIME he would shriek like a pterodactyl because he was so excited! He's such a happy boy, and in true male form, he's happiest when he's playing with toy balls. He has two bottom teeth, and his two top teeth poked through last week. It's so weird to see his smile changing! He's still an awesome eater, and I could never get enough food in him in NY! I'm still making his baby food, and it's hard to keep up with him! I'm using the breastmilk storage containers from pumping in the NICU and they're perfect for freezing and portioning all his food. He's recently started eating some table food. He loves cheerios (duh), and can eat tiny pieces of ham and grapes. I always struggle finding appropriate things for this age though.

I've been spending all my brainpower lately on planning a family photo shoot. We're hoping a friend of ours will be able to take the pictures this month, and I've been working on coordinating outfits for all of us! It's such a pain, and I don't want to be all matchy-matchy, but I don't want it to look like we just happened to take pictures that day. Hopefully they'll turn out wonderful so we can use them for Christmas cards!
Well, that's about it for now. Marissa's bus comes at 4, although it's supposed to come at 3:48, so technically I need to head outside around 3:40. Sometimes the little ones are still sleeping and sometimes they wake up while I'm waiting on the front porch. I'm not looking forward to spending this much time outside in the middle of December! I may end up driving her and picking her up instead, since they have a drop-off/pick-up so I wouldn't need to unload the little ones.