Twitching ovaries.

 Seriously.  Too much cute in one picture.  It takes all my might not to nibble on these kids all day long.  Ha!  Ironically, I recently came across a study talking about just that fact.  Why it is you get the urge to play-bite your kids.  It was talking about how images of babies or interacting with babies triggers similar brain pathways that are triggered when you get your hands on some really good food.. both pathways resulting in a surge of dopamine.  I believe it..!  There are so many times when I see bare chubby baby thighs and tummy that I just want to nibble away.. and they all laugh so hard at it!  The article also talked about how primates play bite and, to summarize, the biter and the bitee (if you will) must have an enormous sense of trust in one another.. knowing that the biter isn't going to actually cause pain.. and that it's almost as if sending a message that "I'm so trustworthy, you can stick your finger in my mouth"  (here's the article ).  I'd believe that, too.. All the time while I'm nursing Amelia she reaches up and shoves her fingers in my mouth.. waiting. almost, to see what I'm going to do.  Aidan will do this to me, too.. except he'll come up and shove his hand in my mouth and say bite.. such strange behavior, but reminds us of our primal roots.

Now as if talking about biting cute babies wasn't enough, here's an adorable tubby shot.   We're slowly letting Aidan hang out for longer and longer in the tub, and so far (knock on wood!) he hasn't pooped recently!  I hope this means we're turning a corner!! Hooray to that, though my bathroom will probably be quite sad.. I don't think my tub has ever been so clean!!  I had posted this to my Facebook page and someone commented "you're going to need a bigger tub!".  How true is that, ha!  If/when we have more kids, there won't be room for another. 

Having more babies.  Ahhhh..!  Something that has been on my radar now for a few months!  This is the first "spring" that I'm not pregnant in 3 years!  It's crazy how much I miss it.  How could you not want more when you're surrounded by these 3 and see how much love they have for one another?!  I may not have come from a "big" family, but I came from an immediate and an extended family that strongly impressed the importance of family and how fulfilling family is.  There is no greater gift than the love of a family.  I fully believe that. However, I can say for certain that there won't be any new babies joining our family in 2015.  But, it's definitely a topic of conversation that gets discussed quite often here.  We go back and forth all the time on how much time we'd "like" to put in between our next child.. how many children we'd like to have.. if money weren't an area of concern, I bet that number would be a lot higher.. but, seeing as our grocery bill has already doubled with just 2 mouths to feed (Amelia doesn't really count yet..!) it's definitely a factor in our decision.  We will see what life has in store for us.. first things first, we'd have to get a new car... so!  That'll be the indicator.. when the new car comes.. baby #4 hopefully won't be too far behind :)  In the meantime, we're soaking up all the awesomeness these 3 crazies bring to the table!

 Afterall, I have to keep young babies in our house... what else would I do with my awesome wrap stash that I've accrued?!  It's kind of a bummer that Amelia isn't really a fan of being worn, especially since she's the lightest and I could easily wear her for long lengths of time at once!  And, ironically, Aidan likes it the most.. and no surprise, he's the chunkster.  Him and Owen weigh pretty much the same these days.. around 30lbs each.  Aidan will bring me over my wrap and say "uppy, Mommy.. pleaseeeeeee?".  Seriously, how can you say no to that?? You don't.  You just say sure, kiddo.. and up he goes.  He's so funny.. we do "dance parties" in the great room all the time.. it's a fun way to pass the time and keep everyone involved and burning some energy.  Aidan likes being on my back while we're dancing because then I'm bebopping him all around.. but, if I were to stop or slow down he nudges me and tells me "go faster, Momma"!  I seriously don't understand why I'm not stick thin!! I nurse Amelia, I wrangle the two crazies.. I dance with kids strapped to my body!! Sigh, I really need to cut out the ice cream at night or something! 

I have started going to the gym (I know I mentioned this before).  Since there won't be a baby this year, I figured it's about time I stop looking like there might be one!!  Having 3 kids back to back has done quite a number on my physical self as well as my confidence, so this is a nice way to get healthy and help restore a little bit of self esteem.  It's actually become quite nice.  I really enjoy zumba.. it's a lot of fun and keeps me interested without getting bored (mostly because I'm so focused on trying to learn all the different moves and combos and not falling on my face!).  It's nice too because it's also become a point in my day to look forward to where I get to focus on "me".  I love my kids and I love being a Mom.. but, I started realizing that I wasn't taking any time for myself really and that I do deserve that every now and again.  It also helps that Jas is an incredible Dad and I have no concerns leaving him with wrangling 3 kids for dinner and bedtime 2x a week!  I still have that "guilty" feeling.. like I should have just stayed home with them.. but, I remind myself that happy Momma = happy kids.. and sometimes that 2 hour break is just what Momma needed to restore those patience after a crazy day!

Too good to pass up!

Like I said in my last post, the month of March flew by, but there were still a few gems I wanted to share in my blog, so this post is kinda jumping backwards (not necessarily in sequence, either), as most are from March, with the exception of the Easter pictures.

 Do you see this?  This is how you allow two boys to happily play pirates in the tubby without having to worry about disaster.  Disaster meaning Aidan pooping in the tub, Owen screaming like he's been shot, and me frazzled and irritated that I'll have to scrub the tub with bleach for the 57th time this year (and it's only March!).  For convenience, I always bath the boys together.. actually, we do all 3 on the same night.. it's just easier.. bing bang boom.  Because of Aidan's inability to not crap in the tub, we usually give him a shower bath, which entails him sitting in the tub and me washing him with the shower head before the tub has even filled.  And then when he's done, Owen gets to get in and can play.  Except how awful is that!  Aidan wants to play, too, and every single night there are tears because he doesn't want to get out.. he wants to play ABCs or pirates or just splash around and make a mess like Owen.. but, every single time I concede and let him stay in.. he poops.  So, I popped a diaper on him, lined the floor with towels, and made peace with the fact that my bathroom would be a soaked mess and just let them play.  It worked fantastically, as they both had a blast.. there was no poop in the tub (ha, but he did poop in the diaper!! what is it with the tub that makes this kid poop?!).. and everyone was happy.  I will admit to having to save him a few times as he almost went over the side head first.. a small price to pay for the happiness that comes along with pink bath water and foam pirate toys.

 

Re-purposing diaper boxes has become my new secret mission in life.  Mostly because it pains me to think about how much money we spend on diapers.  Our latest recycling mission was breaking them down and painting on the under side.  Works SO much better than construction paper (er, more like printer paper) that we've tried in the past.  After the first few minutes of painting (mostly unassisted - aside from me just making sure they didn't eat it), Owen starts saying "Look Mom, I made an airplane".. I was fully prepared to pretend like I saw it and praise him, never expecting he actually did make something that really did look like an airplane, but to my surprise he had!  He must have some if his Aunt Mimi in him, because he certainly doesn't get that creative artistic side from me.  I have zero art skills.  I'm the "paint a sun in the corner of the paper" kinda gal.  Jason isn't very artistic either... at least not that I know of..  I've never seen him draw anything? 

 Moodle is doing so well sitting up.  She very much enjoys the freedom, too.  She's becoming even more of a delight these days.. genuinely happy and content.  Her hair is still a ridiculous hot mess.  We've had to resort to using poufs of some sort to keep it out of her eyes.  It's so funny, when she does have a fussy period, Owen will say "Mom, Miss Amelia is fussy.. she wants boobie" or  "Miss Amelia is cranky, she needs a nappy" or perhaps my favorite of all "what's your problem, girl!".  Cracks me up.  I don't know why I find it so funny hearing him say these things as these are all things I say to her word for word.. it's just hearing it come out of his mouth that makes me laugh.  Sometimes he repeats things and instead of sounding like he's 2.5 he sounds like he's an adult.  Aidan usually comes over and tries to share his juice cup or snack with her whenever she's crying.  Which, is surprising.. because of all things, Aidan is very possessive over his food and drink!  It's like stealing honey from a bear!  Sometimes, I really honestly think he might try and bite my hand if I were to take his food!

 Owen also has this crazy obsession with the carbon monoxide detector.  It's plugged into an outlet in the hallway at the top of the stairs outside of their doors.  It has a "tester" button on it, that when you press it the alarm will beep 3 times in a row.  It's a high pitched beep, similar to the smoke detector.  For some reason, Ojo is terrified of this alarm.  Aidan has figured out that Ojo hates it and has made it his goal in life to try and press the button every. single. time. we come up the steps.  They now try and race each other to the top of the stairs, and then Owen, my normally very sweet and gentle kid, will full force football tackle Aidan to the ground to prevent him from pressing the button as he shrieks "DON'T BEEP IT!".  If tacking fails, he's not above hair pulling, shoving, eye guaging, etc.  It is a fierce battle they have.  The more aggressive Owen gets trying to prevent Aidan from doing it the more intense Aidan gets in his desire to do just that.  I wouldn't care as much, except the fact that it's like 3 feet from the top of the stairs makes me constantly yelling at them to NOT wrestle right there!  Ahh, sibling love at its finest!

Our days are filled with highs and lows, ups and downs, tears, tantrums and giggles.  It's never boring, whether we're playing diaper box trains, with me pushing them all around the hardwoods or curling up together on the couch eating pretzel goldfish and watching TV.  And the more they're able to communicate (mainly Owen, but Aidan's saying more and more these days, too!) the more comical my days with them are.  Owen must ask me 1000 times a day "What you doin`, Mom".. I had started responding with "I'm having a party, Ojo" because it was irritating me beyond belief (almost as irritating as listening to Halloween music STILL in March).. so now, when I ask him what he's doing he tells me he's having a party.. but he's nice enough to ask if I'd like to come to his party.. it's a fun party, Mom.. you wanna come, Mom?  Come to my party, Mom!  Or how about last week when it was raining when he had this lightbulb moment and yelled to me to tell me that water is coming from the sky!!  That's right, kiddo :)  Or how he farted the other day, and was laughing hysterically because he farted on his pants.. Another favorite is every morning when we wake up he will say to me "Guess who's coming over today??!"  and when I say who, he'll name someone.. usually Mommom.. or "the guys".. or "my friends" he'll say..  He also likes to put people on the spot.. so, watch out.. if you get a phone call from Owen he's probably going to ask you if you're going to come over and play with him.. and if you tell him no, he'll likely make you feel like an awful person for making him cry (my Mom can attest to this.. he's done it to her many of times.. and for the record "no" because you have to go to work isn't an acceptable reason to him!).

 Ha.  Easter.  So, with Aidan and his barfing issues in the car, pre-Easter photos didn't really happen.  We actually woke him up from a nap, stripped him down to a onesie and loaded him in the car in that, justtttt in case he yacked all over himself before we arrived at Jason's Aunt's house.  For that reason, there was no early afternoon Easter pictures.  SO, what you see is what you get.  This was post Easter dinner.  3 tired kids.  All pretty crabby.  Ready for bed.  And, wanting absolutely nothing to do with smiling.  At least they matched!  I was able to get this one sweet picture of Ojo loving on Moodle.  This boy has such a big heart!  Overally, Easter itself was a success, despite no smiling shot to capture it  We made it there and home (thank you drammamine) puke free.. though, we were pretty close... my hopes that the tubes helped cure Aidan's motion sickness have pretty much diminished.  We've seen no improvement.  Tis life.  The kids had a blast at Jason's Aunt's house and they were really, really well behaved.  There weren't any major meltdowns or crying fits...!  Their Aunt Nicole and Mommom & Poppop had gotten them bubble toys and water guns so they had a ton of fun playing outside. 

I'm kind of a terrible Mom in the sense that I didn't take pictures of them "opening" their Easter baskets.. or finding the eggs I, er.. the Easter bunny, hid.  But I guess that's to be expected considering I didn't take them to see the Easter bunny, either.  I've harped on this before (I'm sure), but it's just SO hard to justify taking Aidan out in the car for a drive that I know is going to make him sick unless I medicate him for something they aren't even going to enjoy anyway.  Actually, if I'm being totally honest, we miss a lot of things they would absolutely enjoy, too.  On top of Aidan actually getting physically sick, it has also become a MAJOR source of anxiety for me, too.  I don't really understand why, either.  I tell myself over and over.. there's nothing you can do about it.. if he pukes, oh well.. we clean it up and move forward.. but even still, I get ridiculously anxious the entire drive.. I'm not one to have "anxiety" issues normally, but this is definitely something I don't handle well!  I think it's the combination of feeling guilty that I'm forcing Aidan into the car knowing he won't feel well, plus then the frustration of dealing with the mess and the cleanup.. uninstalling car seats, taking car seats apart to wash them.. re-installing car seats.. the smell of puke that lingers in the car.. ugh, it's just horrific.  I PRAY he outgrows this, soon.  Or, at least starts to understand the concept of knowing when it's coming, so we can teach him to puke in a bucket or something!! Even then, though, I'll still have the guilt.  I know how awful I feel when I get car sick.. I can't imagine dealing with that feeling every single drive :(  When I'm pregnant my motion sickness worsens.. I remember many drives to and from work where I'd have to pull over on the Blue Route to get out of my car until the nausea passed.  Aidan's too little to ask us to do that.. instead he's stuck back there feeling so sick to the point that he pukes.  Ugh.. I hate it for him.  So, for the most part.. we stay isolated at home.  Anyway, I digressed, a lot.  My point was, while I suck for not taking any pictures of essentially anything Easter related, at least I have proof that the Easter bunny did in fact come and bring them baskets!  And, we did end up dying eggs!  Something I swore I wasn't going to do because it's an utter waste of time.. but, we invited my parents over and the kids died eggs with Mommom and Popple.. Ha.. wish I had the picture of Aidan's egg victim.. the one he smashed in his hand by squeezing it until it burst.  Or, the 15 eggs that Owen died that were cracked in 49 different places.  Meh, they enjoyed it.. and, as my Mom keeps saying.. it's all about tradition :-P

Playing Catch Up

The days are busy and the weeks are flying by!  And as a result, my poor blog has been neglected.  Not by choice, per se, but more so by necessity.  Sleep trumps blog always.  Plus, I've added in this fun thing called the gym (grumble), which steals away more hours of my week with, so far, little pay off (another grumble).  It's also FINALLY been nicer out so we're spending a lot more time outdoors, which means the days of blogging during naptimes are over because naptime is now used to do laundry, clean dishes, dust, vacuum, etc.  Tis life, I suppose.  I find myself leaving little post its around or notes on my phone of certain things I want to remember so I can write about them if/when I actually get some time!

SO, to kind of catch up here.. let's start with Aidan's surgery.  He can finally hear like a normal person!! At least, we think!  Surgery went really well for the most part, despite him vomiting 7 times between the car ride there and home.  This motion sickness is a BEAR.  Ugh.  Once we got there and got him ready for the procedure they came in to give him giggle juice, which is, as you probably guessed from the name, supposed to make him giggly.  It did not.  He continued to glare down every nurse or doctor that came within a few feet of him.  One nurse even said "well, I guess it can't make everyone giggle".. lol.  He is such a serious boy when he wants to be.  Taking him back was tough, he definitely pitched a fit initially, but once they got behind the closed doors we couldn't hear him anymore.. so I just tell myself he settled easily.  Literally, from the time they took him out of my arms until the doctor met us in the waiting room to tell us how it went 8 minutes had passed.  So fast!

 Recovery actually went better than I had expected, and better than the anesthesiologist had prepared us for it to go in the sense that he wasn't hysterically screaming or inconsolable.  He was out cold when they brought him out of surgery, and stayed asleep for a good little bit.. the nurse kept saying just let him sleep it'll help the medicine pass from his system.. and then after a while she was nudging him and poking him trying to wake him.. my boy enjoys his sleep!  When he woke, he was grumpy, and clingy, and cried a few times here and there, but overall he did really, really excellent.  The procedure is normally done with a mild anesthetic (because it's so quick), but given Aidan's history with motion sickness, they did it via IV so they could give him some anti-nausea medicine, too.. I'd like to say that it worked great, but it did not.  Despite Daddy sitting in the back with him, he still managed to yack all over himself and my car.  So much for the wishful thinking fixing the ears may help the motion sickness!


 Did I mention it snowed?  Yep, as you can see here in the background it did indeed snow on March 20th.. hello spring.

Once we got home and fed him he was pretty good.  Crazy on his feet, stumbling all over the place and walking into walls and such, but after a good nap he was pretty much back to normal.  He had some gunky junk come out of his ears the next morning, but other than that he seemed perfectly fine and not bothered by the procedure at all.  Good to know in case any other or future kids may need this!  The ENT told us that it's totally normal for children with tubes in their ears to have discharge come out of their ears instead of their nose when they get sick.  What a weird thing to expect.  I keep waiting to see Aidan sneeze and see gunk shoot from his ears.  I really hope that doesn't actually happen...!

Aunt Mimi purchased the kids a swing set for Christmas this year.  I thought we were going to have a nice end of March day on weekend so I invited my parents down and put my Dad and Jason to work setting up the swing set.  Except, it turned out to be cloudy and cold.. like, really cold.. hands numb kind of cold.. ground so frozen you can't stake the swing set down kind of cold.  Oops.  In my defense, the initial weather prediction said it was supposed to be warmer and sunny.. I can't help the fact that they're always wrong!!

One of the perks of living where we do is having the woods behind our house.  The kids LOVE to explore.  Owen has a new obsession with some of Daddy's TV shows.. in particular, Mountain Monsters and Swamp people.  So, he thinks it's the coolest thing to go out in the woods and look for Bigfoot.  "Gotta get him, Dad.. DAD!  Do you see him, Dad?!  Mom!  Look!  It's BIGFOOT!".  He cracks me up SO much.  When you ask him about swamp people he talks about how the alligators are in the water and then BANG, they go nite nites.  

This little lady.  She has the most amazing smile in the world.  With this adorable little dimple in her cheek.  Even on the crummiest days, she can make me smile and feel a million times better just with that smile of hers.  She's doing so well sitting up.  Still not crawling or mobile at all yet, but I'm sure that will come in the next few months.  She's a watcher.  She likes to just sit there and take everything in.  Watch what the boys are doing.. what we are doing.. what the dog is doing.  She just enjoys seeing the world.  I guess she didn't really have a choice in that matter.  Being baby #3, she was and still is left to entertain herself every once in a while when I'm off helping out one of the other two.  She kind of had to adjust, and that she has.  Don't get me wrong, she still very much has a voice and will let you know if she needs something, but for the most part, she's quite pleasant.  Those 2 bottom teeth that have been sitting at the surface for months now finally broke through, too.  I thought she was my earliest teether, and here we are over 6 months and just now seeing them surface!

We've started putting her in the walker lately.  While I'm cooking dinner, I task Owen with the job of pulling around Miss Amelia.  He loves it almost as much as she does!  She laughs and giggles at him, and he gets such a kick out of that.  Best little buddies.  I will say, if there is one thing all 3 of my children have mastered (aside from their ability to eat enormous amounts of food) it's their ability to give the dirtiest looks in the world!  I believe this one in particular is because the sun is partially in her face, but she shoots them at me every once in a while for no good reason at all..  I've been told I tend to give not so nice glares at people, too, so I guess they inherit that trait from me.



Finally with the weather breaking we're able to start spending more and more time outside.  My boys have so much pent up energy from the winter months, it's amazing how much better our days go when they're able to get outside and burn that off for an hour or two.  One of the down sides of the boys being so close together is their ability to team up on me..!  They encourage each other to do bad things, and pretend Mom doesn't exist!  But, the benefit is this incredible bond they have between them.  I remember when I told my former manager at work that I was expecting again (with Aidan).. and I said to her that I was so excited for them to be best friends.. to which she responded that her and her sister were very close in age as well, and they were never close.. they actually don't even talk now as adults.  That was the first time I had this panicked feeling of omg.. what if they don't get along.. what if they don't like each other.. I can happily say, though, so far that has not been the case.  And, seeing the joy they each bring one another is absolutely incredible!  And then you throw Amelia into the mix and see how much she adores them and how much they adore her.. seriously.  My heart can barely handle all the love they have for one another!  Both the boys just randomly come over and hug and kiss her.. Owen will tell me, "Mom, I love Miss Amelia".  It just.. incredible.  I pray that closeness sticks with them forever!

       

It's amazing how quickly these kids are able to master a skill.  When we first got the swing set, Owen had zero concept of how to swing like a "big boy".. Aidan couldn't figure out how to get up the steps of the slide.. and neither one of them had any idea what the point of the teeter-totter was.  One weekend my in laws were over and I was at the gym.. I came home and Owen was swinging like a big boy with no problems at all!  I was in shock - he barely would even sit on it with me, and here he was holding on tight, asking to be pushed higher and higher!  Since then, there's been no turning back.  He tells me he wants me to push him so high he can touch the moon.  Aidan swings in the "baby" swing.  It surprises me SO much that he doesn't get sick being pushed, but so far he hasn't.  We've slowly worked on mastering how the teeter totter works.  It's difficult for me to do it with them alone because neither quite understand the concept of not letting go and not being able to just jump off at any given moment.  The last time I tried, Aidan dove off, which caused the teeter totter to drop down and caught Owen on the back of the leg which then instilled some fear and he's refused to try it again.  I'm sure it won't be long before they're willing to try it again and they'll master this, too.

 Can we take a guess as to what's going on here in this picture?  Aidan has become a frequent flyer of timeout.  I honestly don't even remember what he was doing that caused him to have to visit the time out chair, but it was probably total disregard for me telling him no to something, or a complete melt down over something, or likely a combination of the two.  Regardless to where we are playing, I must always have a time out location because almost always Aidan must visit it at least once.  I remind myself all the time that strong personalities are good as an adult... it's just as a toddler I tend to call him stubborn, defiant and mischievous!  I will admit, though.. sometimes Aidan gets in trouble when really it wasn't all his doing.. I've caught Owen a few times setting him up.. "Aidan.. Aidan, climb on that chair and get the remote".. or "Aidan.. it's okay, get the iPad.. get the iPad Aidan".. He's also entering the "what" phase.  I'm sure I wrote about this before with Owen.. every time you address him the response you get in return is "whaaaaaat".  It's funny, I hear it so much that I barely even noticed it anymore coming out of Owen, but it drives Aunt Mimi crazy, so whenever she's here and points it out to me I realize how he would say it ALL the time.  And, now Aidan, too.  

It's amazing to think how much my life has changed in 3 years.  It's amazing to think how much a tiny little person (or 3) can change your life.  Whether we're trapped in the house or running around like crazy people outside.. whether everyone has cooperated and taken their naps or we've dealt with tantrum after tantrum.. life is still incredible.  Some days I absolutely feel like my head may burst from so much stress.. but I can promise you one thing.. there isn't a single day that goes by where my heart isn't overwhelmed with the amount of love I have for them.