A Type of Survival Mode

Set has woken up.

While he still sleeps a lot, my 6 week old baby no longer sleeps almost every hour. The hours he is awake, he will sit calmly in a swing or other baby gear for about all of 10 mins before wanting to be held.
Aye aye aye. Baby bjorn is back in high demand. Reminds me of when Charles was born. We are not in a routine and I'm halfway completing all tasks with a newborn attached to me. But I'd still say that going from 2 to 3 has been significantly easier than 1 to 2. For us. At least I only have one screaming baby this go round. That gives me some perspective.

The newly awake Set had his 1 month check up where he weighed in at 10.14 lbs, woo-woo! Proud he's steadily gaining since I never really know how much he's eating. His temperament is more laid back than the other 2 so far. He has gone with Ike and I on several dates to restaurants and done very well. A glorious first for us as parents. He's a fantastically efficient eater and if he's being held, he's an easy third wheel :)

Back to check ups, Annette and Charlie had theirs too while we were there. Poor Annette had to get her 4 year old shots. She didn't like them one bit, but when the nurse said that she needed them to go to big girl school she complained a bit less. She is so so excited about school. Me too, most days. I registered her for Forest Park today. We won't know if there is enough room for her there until April, but that's where I'm expecting she will be in the fall. If not, she could stay another year at the lovely St. Mark's with Charles.

There's part of me nervous about her starting an every day school this fall. But she will be 4.5. And seems every bit as ready as I think she needs to be.
Having all 3 under school age, and all at home most days, is wonderful, but challenging. My house is constantly a wreck, my car even worse, and I hardly ever get to sit down right now.

It's laughable really, to see the messes. But I'm in survival mode, right? So I'm allowing myself heaps and heaps of laundry, trash cans overflowing, toys everywhere, counter tops piled high with things that need to be put away, and unwashed hair.

Oh Survival mode. It's manageable. With my super husband who can overlook the messes and can be excited to come home to the chaos every day, and amazing friends who go above and beyond to help me, and my mom and other family constantly helping, and all the hugs and kisses and snuggles and songs and stories....with all those blessings... this type of survival mode isn't really 'survival mode' at all I guess.

It's a full life. 

Fully blessed.

Charles is 99% potty trained! Only a sporadic accident here and there.

Even our ant farm went into survival mode the last couple weeks. 

Although they've all passed now, the dear insects. 

Our first and only family picture of our family of 5. And you can barely see the little Set. 

She would love to have full reign of him. 

sweet and funny faces all the time

Without TV or internet for a few days bc of the Uverse outage, we ended up watching Barney DVDs on my laptop. We survived.

She proudly shows off her shot wounds. 

We even survived a walk to Kroger thanks to the double stroller and the Bjorn. 

~ morgan

I spy with my little hand

Isaac and I got this game for the kids this Christmas. It has been one of the most played with toys they received. So I had to share our happiness with it in case anyone else is trying to entertain their youngins' indoors lately. With Set around, I feel like I need to be much more intentional about spending quality time with my big kids. Not that I do it enough, but I'm working on it.

Love that this game is customizable. You'll see what I mean below.
You could also make this whole game yourself. Using a card board box and cutting out holes in the sides, or you could just use a sturdy gift bag and cut holes in the sides.

Here it is at Toys R Us if you just want to click and buy it. Not sold on Amazon right now, boo.

It comes with cards and little 3D objects and some cardboard objects. We don't use the flat cardboard pieces yet because my kids sense of touch is not that keen yet. The 3D objects on the other hand, like the dinosaur and the ball, are just right.

You COULD follow the rules exactly like they're stated in the instructions, but I came up with a way that we find even more fun.

                It's so simple that Charlie can play just as easily as Annette, which is very nice.

How we play....

First we make a stack with the playing cards. (I removed the cards that matched the cardboard objects since we don't use those.)

The first player turns the top card over, and then sticks their hand in the hole nearest them and searches around with their hand until they find the corresponding object. If it takes them too long, we start counting down from 10. (Great for counting backwards practice! If my kids didn't have counting forwards down pat, I'd be practicing counting forwards instead.)

If you pull out the wrong object, or don't find it by the time we've counted down, the rest of the players get to stick their hand in the other hat holes and try to find that object. Whoever finds it first gets to keep that playing card and the object. We don't usually talk about who wins because that causes Annette to get a little too competitive, but if your kids can handle it-- whoever has the most cards at the end would be the winner.

I love that this game comes with blank playing cards. You get to find objects around the house that would make good game objects. A and C helped me search the toy box for items that would work. They picked a toy french fry, a yo-yo, a car, and some other ones. I chose the letter 'B' and a couple of other foam letters :) Always the teacher. Charlie knows over half of his letters, but still needs practice learning the other ones. This is the perfect chance! I will keep adding one or two unknown letters every once in a while. It's already working.

It's a very fun spin on the I Spy game. 

I spy Set sleeping in the chair.

Pumped to have a new go-to game that we can play as a family.

I was getting pretty tired of PPP as Annette calls it. 

(Pretty, pretty, princess)

~morgan

blurry memories. why i want time for photography lessons

i absolutely love love love pictures. especially pictures that capture special memories of my kids and family.

(excuse my CAPslessness. i am typing one-handedly as set is wanting to be held while my other two rest.)

isaac got me a nikon camera the year annette was born. i have enjoyed it so so so much.

yet, i have never known how to use it. i've pinned and read lots of tutorials. just enough that i've totally messed up all the settings and get more blurry pictures than i even used to.

i'm in desperate need of a class. with a newborn and two other wild kids to wrangle these days, my free time to play with my camera is very limited.

but i want good pictures NOW. i'm so patient, aren't I.
before set is bigger and crawling around, i want to be able to snap an impromptu picture of my 3 kids in a matter of seconds. before the moment is over.

here is an example. this morning my kids were all rolling around on the bed while isaac was getting ready for work. we have this big pretty window in our bedroom that lets in lots of light and makes me always want to grab my camera and take pictures.

but because i don't know how to correctly adjust my ISO and my f stop and all that fancy shmancy photography jargon, i miss capturing the most precious and clear shot.

need a quick fix and i dont think there is one.  until then, i'll just keep snapping away and playing with the different settings. and enjoying these blurry memories.

~morgan

Wordless Wednesday: Life with 3

Our third week with 3 bitties.... via iPhone.

Baby toes make me smile.

Getting a little more used to this 3 kid thing. 

Lots more: pajama time, allowance of crazy outfits, messes. And priceless picture moments.

Thankful for my handy dandy phone camera to capture as many as I can.

~morgan

Crib Deconstruction = Twin Headboards

Several months ago I mentioned reusing Annette's crib in this old post. It was a simple project. I just used the same chalk paint I used on Set's made-over crib and on our crafting/eating/playing table. Can't really call it a kitchen table because it sits in a breakfast nook type area, and can't call it a dining table because that makes it sound big and fancy. You can see it here, it's really a crafting/eating/playing chalk painted table. Really. It's held up very well considering how much we mess it up and have to scrub it to get all the mess off of it. I'll probably need to re-wax it one day, but I won't be getting to that any time soon.

So here are those two crib ends. I painted them, and then had my handy man come screw them directly into the wall so they wouldn't move around. Then I just slid the twin beds right up to them. Almost instant headboards :) They could probably be a bit wider to look like a standard twin headboard, but non-perfectionist me is not picky about things like that. There must be/needs to be a better word for those of us who fall in to that category. If their width starts to bug me, I could always get my HM to add a couple pieces of those crown molding things to either side to widen them up.

Here they were before. Isaac was ready to get rid of them when they'd been sitting in our storage for the last 3.5 years. Glad I figured out a way to keep them and make them serve a new purpose.

 I found the blue and white buffalo check bedskirt and pillows on eBay. Got the white pillows from an antique store and then had them monogrammed. Thought that would save me $$ instead of buying the pre-made ones on Etsy, but I should have just bought the ones off Etsy. The pictures above the beds are old book pages. Curtains and dresser were all in Annette's room already.

I took these pictures while my mom was watching them overnight for us. Otherwise, I would never have been able to keep this room clean for this long. Those wild sweeties came home and 30 minutes later it was almost unrecognizable :)

Annette and Charlie very much enjoy sharing this room. It probably helps that they are so close in age and that they prefer to be together rather than apart. Which I think is very precious.

 Oh, this outfit. 

Where I prefer gingham, stripes, and solids... she prefers glitter, neons, and clipart (which she always manages to find at her Granny's house;)

Happy days. 

Watching them play and sleep in here. 

Reading them stories, singing them songs, praying with them, and kissing them goodnight in here. 

Very blessed days.

That crib has served us well.

 As has Set's. 

Probably won't be chalk painting anything else for the next few months as I don't quite have enough hours or hands as of now with the three kiddos. But, I'll get there :)

~morgan