Cooking

I've never been much of a cook. Baking, that's where my heart is. But recently, I've really started to find my inner chef's groove. I'm really enjoying making yummy grub for my peeps to eat. I've been trying new recipes, the kids have been getting quite a lot more variety in their diets! A while ago, I even made a loaf of fresh bread...FROM SCRATCH to go along with our friggen delicious dinner. Tonight, I'm going to be making it again! It's all I have been able to think about for a few weeks so I guess that means I need to eat it again! Delish! Anyway, I'm going to end this post now. It's boring. I'm bored writing it, you're bored reading it, lets just call it a day, mmmk?

The Other Mommy

My kids have 2 Mommies. Yep. That's right. They have me, and they have another mommy, she's black and shiny, and has four legs. She is our dog. We got her 3 years ago, from some strangers a few hours down the road. She lived on a chicken farm, and had acquired quite the taste for the ahem chickens... I guess she was about to be put out of farmer Joe's misery and sent off to doggy heaven by way of shotgun. Well, my mom told us about her, we were looking for a dog. Preferably something a little bigger, house trained, and good with kids. What we got? Sadie. She is absolutely unreal with the kiddies. She babysits them while they're playing in the basement. She comes and finds me if one of the little people is doing something they shouldn't. She sits at my feet when I'm feeding the baby, just making sure everything is going all right. She loves her babes like only a mother can. During Nolan's fussiest of fussy days, she was right there, sitting underfoot, making sure her babe was all right. The other night while Dan was getting the screaming babe ready for bed, Sadie sat outside Nolan's bedroom door, ears straight up, nose smack on the door, waiting to be let in to make sure Dad wasn't hurting her youngest. I have never ever seen anything like her. When Spencer was starting to walk, she'd heard him in the living room, instinctively knowing where he could and couldn't go. She lays on the floor and lets her boys climb all over her. Pull on her, drop things on her, all with a smile on her face. She takes her job VERY seriously. When we're out on a walk, she abandons all of her training and walks on the street side of the sidewalk, keeping her little ones protected from the cars driving by. When they're playing in the back yard, she keeps them from climbing the stairs up to the deck, knowing that it's dangerous and they could fall and get seriously hurt. She is absolutely amazing! A lot of days, her spectacular parenting is her only saving grace. Although she loves her kids with every fiber of her being, she is a very very needy pup. She needs a lot of attention. She has to sleep crated at night, because if left to her own devices, she pees all over the floor in the basement. NOT COOL. But, I'm willing to look past all that. She's helping my babes all create wonderful memories. She loves on the kids and lets them love on her with reckless abandon and I love to see it!

Prayers

Can we all just take a moment to say a little prayer for Great Grandma Peggy? She's having surgery this morning and a few prayers wouldn't hurt!

Time Changes And Kids

I'm not a big fan of time changes. They always manage to seriously mess up the good schedules we have at our house! This time change (the lose an hour one) is not so bad. The kids have been sleeping in an hour longer, however, they're now also going to bed an hour later. ugh. I love my evenings free of kids. I love the quiet time I get with my husband. When the kidlets go to bed later than normal, I miss an hour of my coveted quiet time! The upside is, they're sleeping until nearly 8am! Can't complain about that!! I've got to slowly adjust their bedtimes back to 7 for the two little ones, and 7:30 for the big one. I need my evenings! I'm okay with going to bed early, and waking up early. I prefer it to staying up late!

Last night we decided to walk over to the local A&W for some burgers. The kids had tonnes of fun walking over there. Liam is not a fan of holding hands through parking lots, but he did give in after a while. Spencer is starting to assert himself a lot more. He's also starting to back talk a lot more. That's not cool!! Usually, after a quiet but firm talking to he smartens up and is back to himself. It's worse when he's tired (obviously!)

Nolan is starting to come out of his shell a little more. His Nana and Grandpa were here over the weekend and he was much more open to the idea of someone other than his parents, holding him. Of course he reached his happy limit soon, but the fact that he let someone else touch him is a huge milestone! Go Baby Nolan!

Liam is using his words more and more every day! I love hearing his little baby babble actually slowly turn into words! He's getting really really good at stringing a few words together now too! Something that took Spencer a long while to do!

Spencer has learned about teasing. He's a big fan of pissing Liam off and then playing innocent. Shit head! We've had some good talks about it, and we've also allowed Liam to tease Spencer so that he can see how crappy it makes him feel!

Well, that's it for this Monday morning!

Finally

I seem to finally be coming out of this baby funk. It happens with every baby. I go into survival mode and stay there until things start settling down. It seems as though that might just be what's happening around here. Settling down. The big boys are finding their grooves as big brothers. They're getting along pretty well, most of the time. Nolan is starting to realize he's a little human being and therefore is acting more like one. It's nice. He's starting to really be interactive with his surroundings. He's grabbing for things, he'll smile at you from across the room! He loves his Exersaucer!! And the Jolly Jumper! Oh my goodness that boy loves him some jolly jumpin'! He's just figured out how to actually jump in it in the past few days! He looks so cute just bobbing up and down with a big toothless grin on his face!

I'm starting to find my rhythm with the three kids. It definitely took a lot longer to bounce back this time! I think it was more due to the fact that Nolan was super colicky, than the fact that I now have three little people who depend on me for EVERYTHING. I was thinking about this the other day. And, when Liam was born, he just fit right into everything. He was pretty laid back. He did have about a week of colicky behavior but I don't think it was really truly colic. Nolan on the other hand, was a challenge almost from the moment he came home. He had his days and nights mixed up pretty bad, was incredibly colicky. He still has some serious attachment issues...but it just means more snuggles for mommy and daddy, so I'm trying not to complain! He's definitely still a little fuss bucket when he wants to be, but overall, he's turning into a super charming and sweet little man, just like his brothers! I hate that it took so much out of me to get used to dealing with all three little men, but it did. The calm is coming back to the house, we're laughing more than we're arguing, we're slowly able to get out and do things as a family of five! That's the best! We went for a little walk on the weekend and it was so nice! I'm really looking forward to getting to the stage where we can take all three of them for a walk and have them all toddling on their own feet!

Last week, Liam had a pretty serious black eye. We're not sure how he got it, he just toddled out of his room on Saturday morning with a super severe shiner! It's finally starting to go away (nearly 10 days later) but then on this past Saturday Spencer ended up with a pretty radical shiner! So, needless to say, we haven't been making and public appearances lately!

Anyway, I had planned to get to bed early tonight...so far it's not looking like it's going to happen. But, I'm gonna try!

5 months

The littlest babe is 5 months old today. As of 12:03 pm! It's gone by so fast!! It's definitely been a challenge, but we're sure happy he's here!! He likes to let us know when he's pissed. It happens frequently! He's becoming so much more independent. He'll play in his exersaucer for 10 minutes or so, he'll sit in his highchair and munch on a toy while I'm making dinner, he loooooves his jolly jumper! He still hates anyone his is NOT his Mama or Daddy. Though he made a tiny improvement in that area last night when he let Auntie Chelle hold him for about 15 seconds! haha The first time she tried to hold him he flipped right out. But right before bed, and with a lot of sweet talking before, he allowed himself to be in the arms of someone other than a parent!! Victory!

Nolan is now weighing in at about 16 lbs. He's a little fatty!! Just the way we like them! He's been dabbling in pablum here and there. He's still not a huge fan, but of course it's a learning curve, he'll get it eventually! I did buy a jar of sweet potatoes to mix in with his rice cereal to see if that makes a difference, but I doubt it will. We'll just have to keep trying every day!

Nolan's nights seem to be slowly improving. That's all I'm saying though, because we all know that you never ever talk about anything GOOD a babe is doing, because it will surely change and make a liar out of me!

Well, that's all for now! Off to drink some coffee and watch the morning news!

March 1st

ahhhhhhhhhhh (big BIG sigh) I'm hoping and praying that this month will bring big changes in our house. Something along the lines of sleep and harmony. But, who am I kidding? Life with three young children is all about NO sleep and LOTS of inharmonious moments. But. I'm hoping Nolan turns into a bit more of a person, and not a needy little screaming machine. We have absolutely NO overnight trips ANYWHERE planned for the next few months, so I'm hoping that will help us to crack down and get his nights figured out. I think there's a lot to be said for putting them to bed awake but drowsy. We're going to have to work on this. Liam and Spencer's room sharing adventure is going fairly well. The mornings start A LOT earlier than they should, but I'm hoping if we get bedtimes back on track, the mornings will sort themselves out.

I'm happy the Olympics are over. Seriously. I'm tired RIGHT out! They were absolutely amazing to watch, but I've had my fill. How amazing that they were in our own backyard?! I think we put on a pretty spectacular event, if I do say so myself!

Anyway, screaming tired children are needing me to referee.