Busy, busy, busy

I was thinking about what to write on my blog this week and nothing super substantial came to mind. All I could really think about was that I'm having a moment of peace and quiet where all three kids are asleep and Bill had to go back to school to finish some things up and it made me think about how crazy life is at the moment. Three kids seems to be the tipping point of becoming supremely busy. It was a big transition when I had Spencer, not so much with Genevieve, and adding Aaron wasn't hard so much as just so much busier. I have hundreds of unread blogs on my Feedly where I used to read them every day. I haven't had a free moment to read blogs in days. When the kids go to bed at night I have so many things I could do that I just have to pick and choose. That's pretty much the same story with everything in my life.

I remember when my best friend first had her three boys it became nearly impossible to catch her to chat. I understood in theory that she was super busy, but now that I've hit the same point in my life it is so much more real. I rarely talk to anyone on the phone unless I'm driving somewhere and have a bit of time where everyone is strapped in. There are just too many needs going on all the time to talk while we're at home.

So is child number one hardest? Two? Three? Eh, I can't really say. They each had their challenges, and the sheer quantity of needs that come with three kids becomes overwhelming at times, but at the same time I have three adorable kids that I wouldn't trade for anything. I have found that getting away occasionally to recharge is absolutely essential now, whereas before it was just a nice thing to do now and again. I wouldn't change that we've chosen to have our kids so close together. It definitely makes it crazy right now.

I do sometimes pine for the future time when Bill is out of school and we have a little more financial flexibility as well as the kids being a tad older and the flexibility that will bring as their abilities to do things develop. But I also can't imagine my babies growing up and I love them at this stage, so I try to shelf that feeling pretty quickly. We are in a great situation now and I want to enjoy it, limitations and all. Every phase of life has its own set of limitations. This time will pass and there will be things about it I wish for in the future.

And such are my meandering thoughts at the moment. For your viewing pleasure, here's Aaron's latest darling picture that makes my heart melt. I need to get the camera out again because I haven't taken a single picture of the other kids for a week or two.

I thrive on order

I need order in my life. Especially I need order in my house. It gives me a sense of control of at least a little piece of my world. But well, I have three kids and apparently the best way to play with any toy is to first dump it in its entirety on the floor. So while I've somewhat given up the need to have toys picked up except at the end of the day, I'm always trying to find better ways to organize my house.

I'd really like to find a new place to live in a few months but I'm worried we won't find anything. Nothing is available at the moment. So this week I decided to move things around a bit in our current place. Genevieve has her own room now. The crib is in Spencer's room as well as our mini armchairs under the loft bed in n a reading area, plus a big pile of pillows to make nests for reading. Oh, and my closets are reorganized. Some people are great with just shoving stuff in them and shutting the doors, but that grates on me a bit so now they're all reorganized and my world feels ordered again. Simple pleasures.

Spencer slept in the crib the last couple nights. When he's not busy being in his tyrannical threes as I lovingly refer to them, he's such a fun little kid. :) Genevieve loves her new arrangement. Aaron napped in the crib a few times and seems to like it. He's still in our room at night but it's super nice to have multiple places to put him for naps. That's especially important since to do this reordering I had to put my computer in my room so we're in there a lot more now.

So like I said, simple pleasures that help me feel like I'm doing something besides spinning my wheels uselessly. That always makes me happy.

Spencer selfies

Genevieve selfies

Genevieve photo bombing Spencer's selfie

a duplo, because you know, we should always have a picture of a duplo.

And Aaron's HUGE mouth. He has seriously the best grin.

Rough times

Wow these last couple weeks have been rough! Both our A/C and dishwasher broke this last month and both have taken an inordinately long time to resolve, with the dishwasher still being in process. We spent from last Wednesday to yesterday stiflingly hot in an 83 or 84 degree house. It was awful. I never realized how frustrating life can be when you spend all day sweaty and sticky. With no A/C even if the house wasn't so hot it was super humid, so my fingers stuck together perpetually and other things like that. It wasn't fun. I made numerous frustrated phone calls, left tons of messages, and totally laid into our management yesterday before anything was done. We're actively in the hunt for a new place to live anytime between now and the end of our contract in December. It's an extremely frustrating place to be because renting in this area is super expensive and this has been a sweet deal for us. The cons are vastly outweighing the pros at this point though after living here for close to two years. The complex got acquired by an out of state management company six months or so ago and we have seen a whole bunch of incremental changes for the worse. However, there are very few places around here that are even big enough and most are way out of our price range. It's an awful feeling to feel like the status quo has to change but have no options for change. We found a fantastic place a couple days ago but someone else was able to grab it before we could sign a contract. So frustrating!

So that is the status at the moment around here. We're saying lots of prayers that something will come available soon that will work for us. Three months and counting.

Thank goodness the kids manage to stay ridiculously cute despite it all. They spent most of the last week in diapers or underwear so they'd sweat less. They certainly didn't mind.

Two months old already!

I was trying to take some 2-month photos, but they just wanted to be there with Aaron. I don't mind. :)

He has the biggest smile. It's amazing.

Spencer and Genevieve can't get enough of Aaron. It's heartwarming.

Picture Overload

It's been so hot since Aaron was born, and he is such a hot little baby anyway, that we haven't been able to wrap him up in blankets much at all without him being a sweaty puddle. But this morning it was a bit chilly in our house and this is how he napped all morning. I'd have slept for hours too if I had that kind of setup!

Spencer regularly makes little duplo things and then asks me to take pictures of them. So fun. 

This was Genevieve's birthday cake a day late. We munched on this for over a week. It was amazing. It was made from this cake and this frosting.

Bill hasn't been drumming much lately, but he pulled out his drum practice pad and he and the kids jammed it up a bit the other night. It was tons of fun until one or both of them started using the drumsticks as hitting sticks, and then that was the end of that. :)

They graciously posed for me to show off their interesting outfits of choice. 

Genevieve views Spencer's wardrobe as free game. That's his shirt and another day she wore his cowboy boots to our friend's house.

Kind of a weird out of focus picture, but sometimes Aaron explodes. That's the only way I can describe it. He doesn't regularly spit up, but occasionally, and it's happening less and less, he just empties his entire stomach. He got me one night like this and again the next morning. It's so ridiculous that I can't help but laugh and laugh. So, so, so gross.

It didn't stop him from falling asleep, spit upon and all.

Genevieve's latest choice of hats. 

What they're doing at the moment

Spencer:

-Is getting more and more capable of reasoning. He has learned how to ask for things very politely and it melts my heart when he says things like, "Mommy, may I take a bath, please?" or whatever else strikes his fancy. Turns out it's harder to say no when he asks like that. The flip side is he thinks if he asks nicely he is guaranteed to get what he wants. We have some pretty epic fits thrown over being told no. It's improving though.

-He loves to do headstands, which he refers to as headstanders. Genevieve joins him and they laugh and laugh and laugh.

-We had what feels like a small breakthrough in his eating habits and he has started trying a few new things we give him in trade for jelly bellies. It's not the most ideal method, but hey, new tastes crossing his tongue is so novel that I'll take small bribery to get it. He still can choose to say no, so it seems to be the right level of bribe, enough that it motivates him, not so much that he feels faired against if he says he doesn't want to try it.

-He is starting to talk to other people more and notice the folks in the world around him.

-He loves anything chocolate. He will do much for chocolate. :)

-He still has a memory like an elephant. He can count to 100 and gets the concept of numbers.

-He is "reading" a few words in Bill's Hooked on Phonics game on his phone. He knows all the letters and he's catching on a little bit. The few words he knows, "cat", "dog", he will point out when he finds them in our books we read.

-He is our little lover boy. He showers us with hugs and kisses, particularly Aaron and me to a slightly lesser degree.

-He absolutely adores Aaron and is pretty bothered when he's asleep. He's fairly oblivious to the needs of others to sleep, so he has no problem kissing him and getting right in his face to wake him up. In fact this morning he freaked out that I was still asleep and came and screamed an inch from my nose. Not his best moment. lol

-He is super independent. He can access just about anything he wants in our house and gets down whatever he wants to play with or see.

-By the same token he is very attached to my hip. He prefers me to anyone else and always wants me to help him over anyone else.

Genevieve:

-She turned two this week and is hard core into her terrible twos. We love her anyway.

-Her favorite phrases at the moment are "no," "no, not that one," and conversely "thank you." The first two drive us a little crazy, but the third sure is precious as she always says thank you whenever we give her something or do something for her.

-She has a scream like a banshee that she lets loose whenever she is displeased, which is often. Think terrible twos again. However, as soon as her issue is solved she stops immediately.

-She is also enthralled with Aaron. She is super sweet around him. She always wants to give him hugs and kisses. Both kids think it's utterly hilarious to give him raspberries on his stomach. He suffers their love quite well. :)

-She is smart as a whip. She has a really well developed vocabulary and speaks in full sentences with multiple things said each time. I'm constantly blown away by how well she can say what she wants. Watching kids develop their vocabulary never ceases to amaze me.

-She has always been shy of strangers and even people she knows that aren't her family. But she is coming out of her shell and really starting to talk to other people. She particularly likes other kids close to her age and she will follow them around at the park and she is pretty social. This surprises me as Spencer is more of a loner still.

-We're trying to get her bangs to grow long enough to go behind her ears. She hates having her hair done, so she has hair in her eyes virtually all the time. She has a double cowlick that makes it do the craziest things on the back of her head.

-She loves to climb and can get pretty much anywhere she wants to go.

-She is still very much a daddy's girl. She loves him to pieces.

-She and Spencer are best friends and worst enemies at the same time. They just adore each other but can't share if their lives depended on it. They'll get there in time.

Aaron:

-Weighs 13 lbs as of yesterday, nearly two weeks to his two-month checkup. That is more than either siblings weighed at two months. He's huge! His torso is so long he is wearing his 9-month onesies. I often wonder why he can't do some things yet and then realize it's just deceiving how big he is. He's still only 7 weeks old.

-He's starting to smile at me and coo! It makes my heart melt.

-He absolutely loves to sleep on his stomach, so we let him for afternoon naps. He sleeps on his back at night.

-His night sleeping is pretty erratic. Sometimes he only wakes once, but more often it is two or three or even more times.

-All his hair rubbed off, save a thick fringe on the back. Now it is all coming back in uniform in length and still dark. This kid will not lack for hair.

-He has long, beautiful eyelashes that would make any girl jealous.

-His eyes are still blue and fairly dark at the moment.

-He is still very chill. He only cries when he's hungry and I'm not feeding him fast enough. Though he is staying awake more now and doesn't quite know what to do with himself since he can't really grab things yet. He'll figure it out though. He does a lot of looking around, taking in the world.