My last post was so wordy with no photos…
Because I’m having a hard time keeping up with my journaling and I want to blog, too… I decided to kill 2 birds with one stone. This is what my day looked like today:
Up at 5am to feed the baby, change him and pray that he goes back to sleep (which he did). James was in the office today so I was able to go back to sleep, too. They boys were already awake when I woke up again to feed Keagan (at 8am). James made breakfast for the kids while I fed the baby and changed him and tried to keep him awake. Today I’m cracking down on his schedule & trying to find out why he’s so fussy: 1. is he not getting enough to eat at each feeding? 2. is his tummy really upset? 3. is he not having enough awake time & therefore waking up too early and thinks he’s ready to eat again? (he’s been on a 2 hour schedule that isn’t really working for me) 4. is he just so accustomed to being held that he’s exerting his will? The guessing game is a hard one. I’m trying to find a pattern and then we’ll go from there.
Boys made their beds and cleaned their rooms, Kennedy cleaned her room & Cade & I made her bed. I folded the laundry that was in the dryer and put one load in the washing machine, went downstairs and made myself some toast and water for breakfast, quickly inhaled it and told the boys to get dressed for school. We covered 3 lessons in one day today. It took us longer than normal, but I have to say the boys did really well. I set Kennedy up in the boys room to play. She, of course, immediately had to go "poo-poo" and then proceeded to tell me that she did "one little tiny baby poo poo" Then she told me, "he’s sad because he doesn’t know where his mommy and daddy poo-poo are" Then when she flushed him away she said, "weeee… I’m going to find my mommy & daddy!"
Too Graphic for my blog? Sorry, we’re all about the potty talk here at my house.
While the boys were working on their "Seat work" (worksheets) I switched the laundry, put it away, and charged my camera battery. Back in the school room, we finished up just in time to feed the baby again. Cade, Canyon & Kennedy all went out to jump on the trampoline. I pulled out my copy of Reb Bradley’s Child Training Tips and my copy of the Ezzo’s book on Scheduling. My children have been a little out of control since we brought Keagan home & I realized it’s time to pull in the reins. While feeding Keagan, I read a few chapters of each book, then changed 3 dirty diapers and headed downstairs to think about what to make the kids for lunch. When I opened the refrigerator I noticed that I had left a bag of chicken on the bottom shelf while we were in Santa Barbara from Sunday to Monday. Needless to say I had a pile of salmonella in the bottom of my fridge. Unexpected deep cleaning of my refrigerator followed (45 minutes!) Made the kids leftover mexican mac-n-cheese (thank you Christine) and leftover pizza (thank you, Nicole!) and tried to eat a little myself. Keagan was wide awake during this and I was very thankful for that. Wrapped him up and put him down for a nap.
The 3 kids went back outside to play while I finished cleaning up from lunch. Ran upstairs and ran payroll for our company, also wrote checks for out taxes (not a happy day in the Northlake Bank Account 🙁 ) and sent them out for Certified Mail. Organized my desk because tonight I have to pay the bills- I’m extremely late on most. Time to feed Keagan again and he is crying. Fed him and changed him and kept him awake. Had a little talk with Kennedy about obeying and not singing, calling out, getting out of bed during nap time. She went to sleep without a sound- praise the Lord! Had a talk with the boys about being respectful and what that looks like. Obeying without questioning, using kind words and a kind tone of voice, etc. Told them that room time means.. no coming out unless it’s an absolute emergency. They played nicely together in their bedroom for 2 hours this afternoon and only came out to use the bathroom. During that time I did some more laundry, returned 2 emails, called our insurance company because I mistakenly put Keagan on James’ insurance instead of mine, ordered a pack n play that we desperately need, called on a subscription that hasn’t been coming, settled Keagan down- he woke up in the middle of his nap- and answered one phone call.
Fed Keagan again, made a grocery list for James, did some learning time with Kennedy, colored with Kennedy and now I’m writing this out. I know there are about 10 things I’ve forgotten to mention, but I think this is a pretty good sampling of my day. Now I should go take some pictures of my house and myself so you can see how scary it truly is. Maybe when I get a free moment 🙂
It’s amazing how large he looks (he is a big boy) but relatively small compared to ..say…Kennedy ..who suddenly seems like a GIANT to me. Things are going well. We just had some family in town for the week. I didn’t take nearly enough pictures, but hopefully Susie will send me some of the thousands they took 🙂
Here are some of the things you forget when you haven’t had a newborn in the house for 3 years:
1. they poop A LOT.
2. newborn diapers are SO tiny and expensive & you go through them quickly
3. a full night’s sleep is a VERY precious commodity
4. it’s okay to NOT pick them up every time they cry (for some reason this is harder for me with #4)
5. showering- also a VERY precious commodity
6. baby acne is not very cute and not so easy to photoshop out
7. it’s really hard to remember his name (this may be specific to me only)
There are more but my brain is out of memory at the moment..
So, my boys had their first t-ball games last Saturday. It was so fun to have a cheering section (the cousins and Uncle Brian and Aunt Susie). I didn’t get very many pictures, but I think Brian took about 400 so I’m sure we’ll have some cute shots:)
Cade likes to slide into home – the coaches actually encourage it. It’s pretty funny when they don’t quite make it to the plate 🙂
The Huddle- I took this shot in between two posts (hence the vingetting effect).
And one more photo of keagan before I go.
It’s amazing how quickly the time goes by when there’s a newborn in the house. I feel like all I do is feed him and change his diapers. My house is pretty messy and my laundry is piling up, but I am enjoying this time SO MUCH. I know (from experience) that it goes by WAY too fast so I’m just eating it up…
Cade said today, "I wish grandma and grandpa lived here all the time. I really like them." 🙂
We miss you, mom! The kids haven’t eaten since you left!
by emily