Life With the Boys

When Sophie was in preschool twice a week, we would make those our shopping/errand days so she wouldn't miss any of the fun. Now that she's in school all the time, we have no choice but to continue on without her. As far as she knows, we just sit around all day, and I don't tell her otherwise since she would be devastated if she knew she was missing out. It's a bit strange, and sad, to not have her around, but she is loving kindergarten, which has made the transition easier. 

I like to try and get out at least once a day, even if it's just a trip to the grocery store, For many of our outings though, we meet up with friends, and Davey is even starting to make some friends of his own! It's been fun to watch him respond to the extra attention and grow into his role as the "big boy" now that Sophie is not around to be the boss. He can be the sweetest, funniest kid (when he's not behaving like a gremlin) and he will be a fun buddy to have around for the next few years before he starts school too. 

Charlie and Davey are not friends by any means yet, but they are starting to have a few positive interactions to balance out the rough/physical ones

My cute boys on the bed

The highlight of our week is always library music time. It's all songs, instruments, games and dancing and you are never required to sit quietly on a rug - perfect for little boys! This is also our new seating arrangement for when I have both boys and only the single stroller. 

We've had some fun at both outdoor and indoor playgrounds

We've also been taking lots, and lots of walks. It was too tricky for me to take all three kids on long walks by myself, but now that we are down to two again and the weather is starting to cool off, it's been one of our favorite ways to spend the mornings.

One day we walked down to the south end of our neighborhood where some new homes are going in to look for "diggers." Davey is obsessed with all construction vehicles right now, so he was thrilled that we found a few that weren't in use for him to get a closer look. 

Charlie often nods off before we make it home

Just a couple more pictures from another walk. There were amazing clouds that day!

 

Happy Monday

This week got off to a good start, especially compared to our difficult Monday last week. I've found our days go much better if we get out of the house, even if it's just for a little bit. A change of scenery seems to help the kids from getting too annoyed with each other, and me from losing my patience with them, so it's a win for everyone. Except Charlie, who has to just hang out in his car seat.

With a baby it takes forever to get ready to finally leave the house, but we normally manage to get out the door around 10 am. Our destination for the day was the grocery store, followed by the mall play space.  It wasn't too crowded and the kids had a fun time running and climbing. After an hour of play, we went home for lunch, naps, and then only had a short time before Dave got home for dinner. It was a good day. 

I have two little cars in my diaper bag that the kids love to play with. The only thing that would be better is if they were identical so there wouldn't be a dispute each time over who got which one.

Helllllp Sophie! - She really is good about watching out for Davey and "lending a hand" when needed

Charlie also turned six weeks old on Monday. At this age he has mastered his smile and we love seeing his happy, little face! We've seen smiles for a couple weeks, but he gives them freely now and is especially happy in the morning when I go to pick him up from his bed. 

Charlie is growing fast and it will be time to get out the 6 month clothes in a week or so. I have noticed that he's getting heavier to carry around, and am guessing he weighs around 12 pounds now. Although I'm sad my tiny baby is getting big so fast, I hope as he grows it will help him better weather the sibling storm that descends upon him each day with force. Just the other day he was the object of a tug of war between Davey and Sophie. One had his head, and the other his body... poor baby. I can't turn my back for a second.  

Charlie smiling up at me from the front pack

His best smiles always come on the changing table

Napping on my chest after a feeding - love those squishy cheeks!

Behind

I'm behind on the blog.... March has been a busy month with trips, and birthdays and parties and I have about 8 posts started that I just can't seem to find the motivation to sit down and finish. So instead of working on those tonight, I thought it would be easier to just write about an ordinary day, like today.

My morning started around 4 am, like always, when Davey woke up for his feed. He still doesn't sleep through the night, and at this point, I don't really feel like forcing it. He waits for me in the crib with his yellow blanket, squeals when I come through the door, and then I whisk him out as fast as I can before we wake up Sophie. After we're done, he goes right back down in our room. It works and I figure he eventually get there once we move and he's got his own room.

A few hours later I woke up to thunder. It's been so warm and dry the past couples weeks, and this was the signal that rain and colder temperatures are finally returning. There were a few loud booms, and I lay in bed waiting to hear one of the kids cry, but they slept right through. When Davey did eventually wake up for the day, I pulled him into bed with us, where he spit up two minutes later. Morning over.

After we stripped the sheets, started breakfast and got ready for the day, we left for Curiosity Museum. Wednesdays I work from home, so this is my day each week to do things with the kids. I've been meeting up with my two cousins and their kids about once a month and today was one of our play dates. There were 5 bus loads of kids there on field trips, but we kept to the toddler areas and were able to avoid most of the crazy crowds. In fact, Davey had so much fun playing that he skipped his morning nap and didn't even turn into a monster. Once we made it home around 12:30, he went right down and slept for close to three hours.

While he slept, Sophie helped me make some grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch and then she went out to play in the backyard while I cleaned up and put fresh sheets back on the bed. I joined her out back when I was finished and she made me several rounds of dandelion soup, grass salad, and stick sandwiches. The rain kept threatening, but never came so we stayed out all afternoon and then Davey joined us when he woke up.

Sampling some chalk. I can't imagine it tastes good, but it's not toxic (I checked) so I let him have it for a few minutes before I took it away. It still baffles me that he sought this out, but refuses bananas. 

Later we had Davey's one year well child visit. Last time we found out he had low iron, so I was curious to see if our efforts had paid off and his levels had come back up and they had! He's still on the low end, but within a "normal" range now. We also found that his weight is holding steady in the 75%, but his height has really slowed down. For his first 9 months he was almost off the charts, but now he's just average. Higher iron levels should help him bounce back, but it has been nice to not have him going up a clothing and/or diaper size ever few months. He's already wearing 18-24 month clothes and that's big enough for me.

Just waiting for the doctor to come in.

After the visit we came home to make dinner, and then it was off to bath. The kids love their bath and only get out after an hour because the water's gone cold and it's time for bed. We had them down shortly after 7, and then the rest of the evening was ours to work and relax. We played some Mario Kart, cleaned up the house and then I got some projects done for the school while we watched "The Help." It was a good day. 

And now that I've been lazy, I might feel up to finishing those other posts tomorrow. Be prepared, a blogging storm is coming! 

Crazy Sundays

Sophie had some crazy energy today. Sundays are hard on kids, and parents. All I ever want to do is take a nap, and she just wants to play, play, play! After trying to rein her in at church, then fight through lunch, and then have "quiet time" while baby brother napped, she needed a release.

Dave took both kids outside, and after I cleaned up the house a bit, I brought the camera out to take some pictures. There isn't much to do in our backyard, but she ran, twirled, jumped and rolled. And since I had the camera, she also decided to do some "tricks" like jumping on one leg, kicking like a donkey, and throwing a ball as high as she could. It was fun to see her soooo happy!

She was thrilled when I showed her the picture on the right and told her that she threw the ball higher than the houses. It's all about perspective :)

Davey had all the entertainment a boy needs - some cars to scatter and a crazy sister to watch

I love it when I can get a natural smile out of her - they are rare!

I showed Sophie how to use the camera and she took this picture of us

Fall Leaves

Our neighbor had a big tree in her yard taken out a month ago. A good portion of the tree used to hang over our yard as well, and now that it's gone we've had no leaves to rake up, but also no leaves to play in. Last Saturday was a really nice day, so after lunch I walked the kids down by our mailbox where there are some big trees and let the kids have some fun. Sophie kicked leaves all around, threw them, rolled in them, and had a fabulous time. Davey mostly scattered and tried to taste them :)

Another Day, Another Park

Normally we use one of our membership passes on the day I work from home, but for the last few weeks we've been attending library story time and visiting different parks around our neighborhood. I know our good weather days are numbered, so we are trying to spend as much time outside before the cold/wet forces us indoors. This time we went back to a cute little park I found driving home from Costco a few months ago. I have no idea what it's called, but I like it because there are lots of things for Sophie to climb and it's never crowded.

Davey caught a cold from Sophie and had the saddest little cough. It was nice to see the swings finally put a smile on his face after being miserable all morning. 

Sibling rivalry has already started. I took Davey's picture on the log, so of course she had to have her picture taken there too.

 And on a side note, we are still trying to figure out how to get this boy to eat some food. He will not open his mouth for a spoon, and if I ever do manage to get anything in his mouth he starts spitting. He seemed to think, however, that this apple core was awesome and gnawed on it for a good 20 minutes. I don't know what to do with this boy....

Back to Real Life

We traveled all but two days in July. It was busy, but super fun. Then August arrived and it was back to business. We had just enough time to go grocery shopping and take care of laundry before I went back to work, the kids started at a new babysitter, and Sophie began swimming lessons. Then a couple days later Dave left for Anaheim to attending a huge management conference where he presented a paper he had been working on, and met with a bunch of potential schools who are looking to fill teaching positions next fall.

Not the best photo, but you can see how excited she was about lessons on her first day!

While he was busy interviewing, we held down the fort back home. I found the best strategy for tackling things alone was to be out of the house as much as possible because it meant no mess for me to clean up, and would wear the kids out. Work, church, and swimming lessons kept us busy, but we also spent time at the library, the dinosaur museum, the pool, or just out in the yard. I also made an effort to get everything ready the night before - breakfast and clothes laid out, lunches packed, car loaded - so the mornings would be less chaotic. Nothing can compensate for having Dave around though... Those were six long days and we were so grateful to have him back!

Doing puzzles at the library

We went to McDonald's twice while Dave was gone. I found one with a playplace nearby and it really saved my sanity. 

Exploring the new geometry exhibit at Thanksgiving Point

I tried to take the kids to the grocery store party, but the first time we were too early and they were still setting up the treats and activities so we left. The next time we were too late and everything was cleaned up. Sophie was so bummed because I had really talked it up, but on our way out a bakery lady handed her this bag of cotton candy. You should have seen her face. Thank you for saving our day!

Let it be known that we were on time for 9 am church! After Sacrament meeting we dropped Sophie at nursery and then went to the mother's lounge. We spent the entire 2nd hour rocking/napping. We both needed the break. 

Sophie was thrilled to find a snail outside our door one morning. The poor guy had his eyes poked several times and wisely ran for cover after we went back inside.

This jumper saved my life.  He LOVES  it and can spend 30-40 minutes bouncing, allowing me to get stuff done. It also wears him out :)

Tired momma snuggling my boy

Hanging out in the front yard. I'm glad the weather is finally changing from scorching to tolerably warm. It's been nice to spend time outside again, although Davey clearly doesn't love grass yet.

These are the good days

Tonight I felt like I should do a blog post, but as I thought back over the last week or so, only depressing things came to mind. We've had a string of bad luck lately, but things ARE good so I guess this is great opportunity to push my negative thoughts away and count my blessings.

Blessing #1: This girl. She definitely is a light in our lives and makes us laugh all day long. I am so grateful to be her mother. In two short years she has taught me so much about love, patience, sacrifice, and joy. 

The other day there was a napkin lying on the ground and Dave asked Sophie to pick it up and throw it in the garbage. She obeyed and we praised her! Next thing I knew she had taken all the brand new napkins I had just put in the dispenser and also threw them in the trash. 

She was SO proud about the pile of napkins she put in the trash that she told me she wanted a prize, specifically a treat. How can you resist that sweet face?! I had to teach her that clean napkins don't need to go in the garbage, but then gave her two chocolate chips for her efforts.

With "Head". She put him together all by herself

First taste of twinkie - gotta love that creamy filling!

Bubble Beards!

Blessing #2: We have been able to spend lots of time with family recently! My grandma Mimi lives here in Utah and we love seeing her every couple weeks. My mom also came down to take my little brother home from BYU and we got to spend a few days with both of them. And, my grandparents from California came to visit for two weeks! While they were here we had a Lambert-side get together to celebrate one cousin's engagement and another cousin's baby that was soon to arrive. 

Sophie with Great Grandpa and Grandma Lambert

Four generation lunch with my Grandma Mimi, my mom, and Sophie

Lambert Family Dinner

Blessing #3: Dave. He is the best husband and father. I am spoiled daily by him. He also recently passed his oral and written exams! He is now considered a PhD candidate, instead of a student, and will continue to work on research, his dissertation, and prepare to teach a business class at the University of Utah in the fall. 

As I was cleaning the freezer over the weekend  the cookie dough tub, that I thought hadn't even been opened, was suspiciously light when I took it off the shelf. Now I know where Dave's extra 10 pounds came from!

Blessing #4: Vacation! One week from today we are headed on a cruise without Sophie. She will be in great hands while we're away, but I'm still getting anxious about leaving her. I haven't done anything to prepare for this trip and it's just around the corner. Time to start packing!