January 12

The weather forecast predicted an ice storm early this morning, and I confess: I was hoping for a snow day. Sadly, it didn't come to pass, and I sent my tired boy off to school. (Our small group from church meets on Sunday nights, so Caleb gets to bed late.) The girls were equally tired, so I thought putting Lily down for her nap would be a piece of cake.

It was not a piece of cake, and by the end of the afternoon I was so frazzled and frustrated that all I wanted was cake. Or alcohol, but that's not an option right now, so cake would have been nice. But there was no cake. And there was no nap.

I spent an hour rocking and holding Lily, allowing her to fall asleep in my arms, laying her gently in her crib, placing my hand on her back to help her settle back into sleep in her crib, creeping quietly out of the room, only to have her jolt awake as I closed the bedroom door. Over and over and over.

Then I spent an hour letting her fuss/talk in her room, hoping the tiredness would overtake her and she would put herself to sleep. Ha!

Desperate, I spent a third hour lying in bed with her, trying to convince her that snuggling up with me and napping together was a good idea. Fail.

Would you like to see what that looked like? Of course you would. That's why you're here.

Don't let that grin fool you. Even though we were snuggled in bed together and she was free to do anything she wanted, Lily spent at least half of the time crying. She was just that tired, and there was nothing I could do to console her.

Are you wondering what she's doing in the picture above, besides grinning? That's my shoulder she's resting on. She's laughing as she tries to climb over my shoulder. 

Yep. Our snuggles looked mostly like this. Exhausted Mama, trying desperately to get some rest and calm her little one, and squiggly child who only wants to use Mommy's face as a pillow.

I repeat: there was no napping today, and no cake. I am calling today a failure.

January 10

I recently read that women need more sleep than men, and I felt much better about my current sleep needs. This morning, I slept until 9 am while Chris made the kids pancakes and kept them happy. He even took a few pictures, which always makes me happy because I love the glimpse into what Mornings with Daddy look like. 

The girls sit on the counter and eat bananas (cut in half and placed on a plastic popsicle stick, to keep their precious hands clean) while Chris makes breakfast. Apparently Daisy was not feeling the need to be photographed, and Lily thought she was being ridiculous. 

(Also, do you see our awesome bird feeder suction cupped to the window? It was Lily's Christmas gift, and it is so much fun!)

Caleb got in on the funny faces, too.

I love this sweet little girl!

It's reassuring to know that Daisy is a stinker for Daddy, too, and not just me.

Eventually I woke up, and I was greeted with fresh coffee and Chris' specialty peanut butter banana chocolate chip pancakes (grain-free, of course). As I sat and enjoyed my breakfast, Lily kept bringing baby dolls to me and asking me to wrap them up. She was so funny, struggling to carry two babies at once, that I had to pause my breakfasting to take a picture. Or multiple pictures. Whatever.

They say that children imitate what they see parents doing. Apparently Lily sees her mommy messy-haired, still in her pajamas, struggling to keep up with more children than she can handle.

Ain't it the truth.

Yet she loves those babies dearly,

even if the act of caring for them sometimes knocks her over.

But oh, the sweet moments are so sweet.

If this is what Lily sees in me, then I suppose I'm okay with it.

Side note: Chris is Superman, and fixed our oven today. Life can resume as normal, except that I am immensely proud of my man.

January 9

Today was awful. Just awful.

It started when Caleb decided he wanted to play Lego Star Wars. Before school. 

Most mornings, we have just barely enough time to get him dressed, fed, lunch packed, teeth brushed, shoes on feet, and down to the bus stop. On good mornings, we might have fifteen minutes to spare. We have discussed this, and yet he was convinced that he would be able to play Lego Star Wars. When I told him that there just wasn't enough time, he flipped out. We barely made it to the bus on time, and I was beyond peeved. So was he. I hate it when we start days like that, but it's pretty hard to quickly help a child deal with irrational expectations when you have to get to the bus on time.

When the girls and I got home from the bus stop, Daisy asked to make pink goo. She has been asking to make pink goo for days. I have no idea why, but she has been pretty persistent about it. So, determined to turn our day around, I found a recipe for goo that used ingredients we had on hand. 

Daisy was delighted.

Honestly, I was not so impressed. I used a recipe that just called for cornstarch, food coloring, and water, and it made an interesting concoction that straddled the line between liquid and solid. Interesting, but messy.

See it dripping down from Lily's fingers? Except it was also solid. Very strange.

Also, since it was largely cornstarch, it smelled like corn. We added some lavender essential oil to make it smell nicer.

Gooey mess. The girls loved it.

From the looks of Lily's face and shirt, she was sampling the corn starch. Strange child. 

This was after I wised up and gave each girl her own bowl.

And Daisy was happy, happy, happy.

Sadly, this was the highlight of our day. After this, I spent an hour scrubbing the kitchen floor/entertaining the girls, only to discover that my recipe for floor cleaner contained too much baking soda, leaving a powdery residue over everything. It needs to be washed again.

Then, just for fun, I put the girls in a bubble bath. That was uneventful.

When I went to make lunch, I discovered that our oven no longer heats up. Cue hours of googling possible problems, researching repair places, looking for directions on how to repair it ourselves, finding the part necessary, finding stores that may have the part in stock... all while trying to keep the girls from destroying things. Then Lily refused to nap, and Daisy refused to nap, and then both girls finally fell asleep but slept much less than they needed to and woke just as it was time to get Caleb off the bus so I had to take two grumpy girls to pick Caleb up.... And then Caleb was a grouch when he got off the bus... I am so thankful this day is over. Even if tomorrow is just as bad, at least it is Saturday and Chris will be home to trudge through the muck with me. He's a good man, that husband of mine.

January 7

Some days I'm really shocked at how good Daisy and Lily are at entertaining themselves.

Daisy spent nearly an hour playing happily with these little wooden blocks:

They came in a set to make a "balancing tree", but she has been having fun building various things with them. It takes patience and fine motor skills, and she's really pleased when she's done. Of course, now that Lily can climb up onto the banquette in the kitchen all by herself, nothing is safe on the kitchen table anymore, so Daisy has resorted to doing her balancing work on the dining room table.

Meanwhile, Lily found one of Caleb's Superman action figures and began running around the room with Superman held high, making a "whoosh" noise with her mouth.

I have no idea where she learned this, but she was clearly  pretending that Superman was flying.

Also, it was a delightful combination of hilarious and adorable. 

And then Lily only napped for an hour and a half. I'm pretty sure she hates me. And then I went to see if Daisy was ready to be awake from her nap, only to discover that she had been in her room for nearly three hours without actually napping. Instead, she was trying on every single bathing suit she owns. I have no idea why, but at least she stayed in her room and let me think she was napping.

January 6

Daisy was beyond excited to go back to preschool today. All by herself, she chose some brand new sparkly star tights, a pink dress, and her pink Anna boots. The girl was on fire today! Then she tripped and fell down the stairs on the way to her classroom. Stupid boots. Even though she scraped up her forehead, she was so brave! Daisy told me later that she knew there were kids in her classroom and she didn't want to upset them, so she didn't scream and cry. Eventually I got her settled down, and Lily and I headed to my 32-week prenatal exam.

Everything about this pregnancy is perfectly normal, which is wonderful! Just like all of my other pregnancies, my belly is measuring a bit smaller than it should. I suppose that's why I seem to gestate my babies a few weeks longer! The midwife let Lily hold the Doppler and push the button on it while we checked Yoey's heart tones, and Lily was fascinated. It was so cute that I had to take a quick cell phone video:

 There's a moment where she seems to make the connection that the noise she's hearing is her baby, and it is just so sweet. Reason #39,450 why I love the midwifery model of care: there's time for little moments like this.

After we picked Daisy up from preschool, Daisy grabbed my ring sling and wanted to wear a baby doll. But then Lily got mad and wanted to wear her baby doll, too. So I put Lily's doll Ergo on her and the ring sling on Daisy, and both girls were happy.

At least, I thought they would be. But when I got my camera out to document the adorableness, I only got this:

And this: 

These girls. They were really happy to have their babies on them, so I'm guessing they're just fierce mama bears.

Lily eventually warmed up, though, mostly because she wanted to see pictures of herself on the back of my camera.

Seriously, isn't she adorable? I'm pretty certain that when Yoey arrives, she will want to wear him, too, and will not understand when I say no.

January 5

Caleb went back to school today; this morning I rubbed essential oils all over him, fed him vitamins and elderberry syrup, and prayed over him at the bus stop. I so don't want to invite sickness back into our home!

Lily napped today. It was only for an hour and a half, but she went down easily and slept for 12 hours last night without waking, so I'm calling it all a win. When she woke from her nap, though, her pants were a little bit damp from a leaky diaper, so we needed to change them. Unfortunately, she didn't want to let me put pants on her; she wanted to do it herself. This is a daily occurrence now, but the problem is that she hasn't mastered the skill yet. In fact, she has not once successfully put pants on herself. She almost did it this morning, but the pants were on inside-out and she couldn't get them up over her big cloth diaper. 

So of course when she was adamant about putting on her own pants, I grabbed my camera and began filming. What follows is nearly four minutes of Lily trying to put pants on, and it is a very accurate depiction of why I never get anything done, ever.
(Spoiler alert: she never actually gets the pants on.)

I know it's long, but it really is pretty cute.

Also cute was dinner prep tonight. I put Lily on the counter so she could watch while I rinsed and tore up some kale to make kale chips, and after watching me handle a few leaves, Lily decided to help.

She was actually remarkably helpful! I thought it was especially sweet because it was all of her own volition, and it was the first time she's ever tried to actually help in the kitchen. She's not even 18 months old yet, but she's already such a big girl!

(And yes, she's wearing a pajama shirt over her other shirt. Her request. And yes, she is wearing pants. After the video above, she wandered around in just her diaper for nearly an hour, until her legs got cold and she finally allowed me to help her put her pants on. So it goes.)

January 4

Well. After a busy day yesterday, today was... a dud.

We had every intention of going to church this morning, and yet somehow I ended up sleeping so late that it was impossible for us to get there before church was over. Oops. So instead, we hung around the house and did nothing all day.

They are neither in-season nor organic, but raspberries were $1.25 at the grocery store, so of course I bought several boxes. Lily has figured out how nicely they fit on her fingers, and it's so much fun to watch her! (She's also figured out the same thing about sliced black olives. This age is such fun!)

I can't remember now why Daisy was hugging Caleb; I think maybe it was for no reason at all? I turned around to see them both standing on the banquette (not allowed, by the way), and Daisy had her arms wrapped around her brother as he ate a Rice Krispie treat. (Yep. Not only are we eating non-organic raspberries, I am also now letting my kids eat Rice Krispie treats on occasion. Chris and Caleb made these while I was grocery shopping yesterday; it was perhaps the first time Chris has ever made Rice Krispie treats, and I was delighted that he was willing to tackle it with Caleb.)

Please note that Daisy did not eat all of her lunch, so she didn't get a Rice Krispie treat of her own. But she didn't seem to mind - she was too happy snuggling her brother!

Lily (also standing on the banquette - seriously, do these kids not know the rules around here?) started cheesing as soon as I got my camera out to take a picture of her brother and sister. I mean it literally. As soon as I snapped a picture of Caleb and Daisy, I heard "Cheeeee" coming from Lily's direction. She was happy with the Rice Krispie treats, too.

Christmas is put away, Chris is back at work, and Caleb goes back to school tomorrow. I guess that means the holidays are officially over, and life as usual must resume. It also means that we have just about two months until Yoey arrives! My prenatal appointments are up to every two weeks now, which makes everything seem a bit more real. Still, March seems pretty far away. Funny how that works.

January 3

Despite the steady drizzle of rain all morning, I got a call from Emily this morning that she, Billy, and the boys were coming over so that Billy could cut up a sycamore branch in our back yard. (It's a long story; suffice it to say that my mom wants it for "projects", and we like to keep her happy.)

So many things about this picture make me happy: Billy out there with his chainsaw, Daisy glued to the window in her tunic, flowered leggings, and pink "Anna" boots, and Lily's wearing Daisy's helmet for no reason at all.

At one point all five children were plastered to the big glass door, watching Billy and Chris. It was super cute, but I only managed this not-so-cute shot. I'll trust you to imagine the adorable vignette that was. 

(Also, the matched set of Lily and Jace never gets old. They are so cute  together!)

I spent all afternoon shopping for groceries and household stuff, and ended up trekking to five different stores. Luckily, I was prepared this time and didn't end up crying in Costco. I arrived home to find that Lily had once again refused to nap. It seems to be developing into an every-other-day thing, and I am totally baffled. Mostly, though, I was thankful that I wasn't there today to have to deal with it. 

Once Daisy woke up from her nap, we headed out to a Mexican restaurant to celebrate my sister Emily's birthday, which was actually a few weeks ago, and my nephew Ryan's 17th birthday, which is actually on Monday. After dinner, we had birthday cake at Mom and Dad's house.

Ryan's girlfriend, Alana, joined us for the celebration, and I was highly entertained by their arm wrestling match.

Somehow, Lily and Jace didn't even seem to notice the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve. That was not the case tonight. See the ornament in Lily's hand? "Pull the Ornaments Off the Tree" became her new favorite game, and Jace happily joined in. Rather than being horrified/distressed/annoyed, Grandma was tickled. Maybe it was the two margaritas talking, but she insisted that she had hoped all along that they would do that, and was surprised it had taken so long.

Lovely peachy-pink roses and polka-dotted lanterns for this birthday girl!

I made birthday cakes for Emily and Ryan, so Daisy felt responsible for them, too. She insisted that Mimi smell her cake, and Emily gamely obliged. What a good auntie! Daisy was delighted to see her enjoying the cake.

Then Daisy asked to put all of the candles in the cake. Why not? 

(Also, isn't she the sweetest thing ever?)

Emily and Ryan shared candle-blowing-out duties. It's crazy for me to think that Ryan is now older than I was when he was born! He's 17 now, and I was a month and a half shy of my 17th birthday when he joined our family.

There's something about Ryan in this picture that reminds me that though he may seem really grown up now, he's still just a kid. Don't grow up too fast, Ryan!

January 2

My sister Emily texted early this morning, asking if we were available for a morning playdate. How could we say no? She, Max, and Jace arrived right after breakfast, and we all had so much fun! Lily and Jace - who were born 3 days apart - are both at such a fun age, and surprised me by interacting with each other quite a bit. Even though Max is just over a year younger than Caleb, they are also perfect playmates for each other. And Daisy didn't feel left out at all. She was happy to be part of all the excitement! Meanwhile, Emily and I sat, drank coffee, and laughed at our children's antics. Perfect.

Lily and Jace played piano together, and it was just darling.

Of course you want to see a video of our young virtuosos, don't you?

Maybe only the Mommies and Grandma will enjoy the video, but still. Posterity and whatnot.

Jace rocked his Hawkeye shirt and Daisy's sunglasses. That kid knows he's cool.

And Lily was really entertained by all of it.

After lots of running and building with Legos, Caleb convinced Max to play Lego Star Wars with him. Max has never played the game, and probably never even played with a Wii before, but he was a great sport. The boys had  so much fun!

Just as Emily was getting ready to load the boys up in the car, we noticed a squirrel right in front of the windows. He had found some bird seed buried in the mulch, and was digging pretty happily. The kids were so excited, and watched Mr. Squirrel for about 10 minutes. Who knew one persistent squirrel could be so entertaining!

He was really close, though, which was part of the appeal. We see lots of squirrels around here, but we don't normally get such great seats to the show! (Do you see the fuzzy blur just by Caleb's forehead? That was our squirrel.)

The rest of the day happened as normal - Lily actually napped today, though for less than two hours. At bedtime, all three kids were supposed to be brushing their teeth, but I happened to discover Lily doing this:

Yes. She is brushing the T. Rex's teeth.

But as soon as she noticed me, she immediately began pretending to brush her teeth again.

"What, Mom? I've been brushing my teeth this whole time!"

This girl is going to be trouble someday!

January 1

Happy New Year!

I finished 2014 with 324 blog posts, which isn't too shabby! Better than 2013 or 2012, but not as good as 2011 or 2010, which were both in the 340s.

I started my year by sleeping in until after 9 am, which is how I wish every day of the year would go. Unfortunately, we all know it won't happen, so I'll savor my one late morning. It's a good thing I got so much sleep, because I have officially come to the conclusion that Lily either hates me or she hates napping, or possibly she hates both me and napping. Or maybe she hates the idea of me being able to nap, and thus she refuses to nap herself.

Regardless of her motivation, the point is that no napping occurred in my house today. Napless days are always frustrating for me, but they have been happening with greater frequency lately. It was even more frustrating today because we were invited to two separate celebrations during nap time, and I skipped both of them because the girls were supposed to be sleeping. Then neither girl slept, but I had sent Chris and Caleb off to one celebration and I had no car seats to take the girls anywhere. It was awful, and I'm feeling a huge sense of foreboding as we prepare for Yoey's arrival in just a few months. If I don't figure out this Lily-napping thing soon, life with a newborn is going to be very unpleasant.

My mom came over to offer some moral support/distract the girls, and she arrived right after Chris and Caleb returned home. Lily's vocabulary has exploded recently, and today she began calling my mom "Namaw". Cute, right? Mom entertained the kids, had a talk with Caleb about being respectful to Mommy and Daddy (he was upset that he didn't get screen time today), and offered me a bit of a break while Chris fetched some pizza for dinner. 

In the midst of that, I didn't take any pictures. But when Mom texted me with a question while I was reading bedtime stories to Caleb and Daisy, we responded with a few bedtime selfies for her.

Caleb was adamant that he wanted the bear's face to be in the picture, not his own face. Funny kid.

Daisy's selfie. 

(Not actually a selfie, since I took it for her, but she could see herself as we took the photo and chose which face she was making.)

Caleb's selfie. He actually took this one himself. What a handsome little man!