Working on manners and bottles

This is how every single sentence Anna Kimball utters these days sounds:

"I wove your kitchen ... Mommy,"

"Daddy has a truck ... Mommy."

"Henny has a pool and I can go there ... Mommy."

"Emery has her sandals on ... Mommy!"

In case I forget who I am, to her and two others, she is faithfully there to remind me. Anna Kimball also is bordering on developing another habit that isn't quite as cute, one her sister developed at exactly the same age. The one where she interrupts me whenever I am talking to another adult and insists that I  "Stop talking Mommy!" so that she can get her very important question posed, statement uttered, or what-have-you.

So we are working on manners these days and I am seriously considering strapping my four-year-old in a high chair any minute now for I am beginning to lose track of how many times in meal she slips out of her seat, ambling on toward more interesting pursuits than finishing her half-eaten meal.

We/I also working on not getting too freaked out by Jamison's recent refusal of the bottle. Just a stage, right? He's so darn cute otherwise, but I tell you, I didn't even want to make eye contact with him yesterday after he refused two bottles in a day. I heard him laughing in his crib and all I could think was "the nerve! to laugh!" But then of course I went in there and saw him kicking his left leg like crazy and doing this new adorable thing where he sucks in his lower lip under his upper lip and somehow I forget the dreadfulness of his bottle boycott.

Yes, Anna Kimball is sitting in Emery's lap - Emery wants to mother everyone right now :).

Moments before he tried to fly out of the Bumbo. Definitely not a reliable holding spot but it'll do for about 10 seconds. 

This was taken on a walk to the neighborhood playground early the other morning. The girls were so excited and kept exclaiming "we're having so much FUN!" Guess we haven't been frequenting the playground recently ... I loved their enthusiasm over it all because really, playgrounds get old pretty fast ... but not on that magical morning. That also happened to be the day a wet bed woke them both up at 5am, Anna Kimball put herself down for nap at 11am and we sure needed a little magic to see us through a day that literally would not end.

Catching up

Seeing as how I haven't blogged in more than a month, playing catch up doesn't seem too realistic. Summer seems to be zooming away, but I think that's how it always feels right after the 4th. Then we hit the dog days of August and you realize how long it really has been since it's felt comfortable outside at 3pm.

We just spent a fantastic week in Michigan with Matt's family. When we returned, Jamison literally changed overnight into a four-month old who doesn't nap as frequently or as long, isn't content to just sit and stare at his sisters from his bouncy seat for his awake periods and generally is making me rethink how on earth I'm ever going to get anything done with three children at my heels day in and day out. My conclusion is this - for the next year or so, I probably won't get more than the bare essentials accomplished. I like this conclusion only because it's going to make me feel oh-so-good about myself when I do manage to find the time to organize a closet, make that trip to Goodwill, clean out the avalanche that is our freezer right now, etc.

Emery and Anna Kimball are now roommates and continue to adore their little brother. Often their affection is a bit too aggressive, but their intentions are good of course. Jamison continues to dazzle us with his grins and has taken to laughing in the past week or so. I'm not laughing about the fact that his sleeping through the night skills seem to be regressing, but I suppose that's par for the course.

Now for some pics:

There's that grin!

Grammie surprised and delighted Emery and Anna Kimball with matching bathing suits and super silly headbands for the 4th. I love that she insisted on them wearing the headbands one morning when Matt took them to the bakery in town ... and that despite his eye roll, he went along with the plan.

Jamison seems much happier on his tummy than his sisters - perhaps an indicator of stronger gross motor skills? We can only hope.

There's that grin again!

We went to the Detroit Zoo one day and were particularly mesmerized by the polar bears, though the primary reason for our visit was to show Emery a real live giraffe. As soon as she laid eyes on her spotted four-legged friend she announced that she was "all done." Kind of reminds me of how I made the same announcement after my first, and last, ballet recital. Like mother, like daughter.

Yes, I am frequently asked if the girls are twins. Love that they can share clothes!

Anna Kimball is definitely becoming a daddy's girl, which melts my heart a little. And is a little relieving. It's a lot of pressure being your children's be all end all. So glad Matt can join the party :)

The girls spent so much time playing in the sand that we didn't even make it onto the boats until the second to last day of our stay. That didn't stop Anna Kimball from jumping behind the wheel before you could say "Want to help Grandpa drive the boat?"

The best family photo we got all week - I actually do like how it's a little bit posed, a little bit candid. These are happy, tiring, trying, rich times. Here's to the rest of summer being gentle on us all and us on each other.

Lately

Just some snapshots of what we've been up to lately, starting with Emery's preschool end-of-year performance, during which she sang not a word, but did grin like the Cheshire Cat the entire time. In between songs she felt it very important that the girl standing next to her, and everyone else, know that "Anna Kimball's peeking at me!!"

We also had Jamison's two-month checkup and from the looks of Emery's face you would have thought she was attending his funeral. She dislikes going to the doctor that much. I recently had the idea to buy her and Anna Kimball a pretend doctor's kit so that she might get a little more comfortable with the unavoidable reality of doctor's visits ... so far she is quite content to be "Dr. Emery" but certainly not the patient.

We've been breaking out the sundresses, actually for quite a while since it's been warm here all May. Pardon Anna Kimball's exposure.

I'm slowly getting back into shape while also trying to avoid joining the gym again. I have a free trainer who actually lives with us and has invested more than a birthday checks in our garage gym, so I'm giving that a go. Fortunately the kids enjoy watching the spectacle of me attempting multiple pushups at a time, so here's hoping the novelty of it doesn't wear off too soon.

As for Jamison, well, he's doing a great job of rolling with our routine and actually is sleeping better out of the house than in the house these days. Such is the life of a third child I guess.

He loves to be sung to, is in the 75th and 90th percentiles for weight and height and has even had a number of solo visits to our dear angel neighbor who frequently invites the girls to play. Somehow I've been able to hide the fact that she came and went with their baby brother, but I'm not sure how!

They surprised me

My expectations for last week were pretty low, since I figured weaning all of us from grandparental attention and help would be pretty tough. Turns out I should have had more confidence in all of us. Let's start with Jamison, otherwise known as the boy who sleep-trained himself at 6 1/2 weeks.

Here I was, gearing myself up for some pretty miserable cry-it-out sessions at 8 weeks, and the child goes ahead and shows me that he's just fine going to sleep by himself, morning, noon or night. Part of me is wondering if I did something wrong with Emery and Anna Kimball that they had to scream-it-out on more than one occasion, and part of me wonders if he's just amazing. And part of me doesn't care, because hey, I just got a lot of time back in my day now that he doesn't need my arms to cradle him to dreamland.

And then there's Emery and Anna Kimball, who spent quite a bit more time at home than usual this week. Didn't seem to bother Emery a bit. She even asked to stay home quite a few times. She and Anna Kimball played together better than ever, rarely needed timeouts and didn't drive me to the pantry for some chocolate relief any more than they normally do.

This isn't to say there weren't challenges or that I think it will be a cakewalk from here on out. It's just to say that sometimes having low expectations isn't such a bad thing, since being pleasantly surprised is always a good thing!

Maternity leave is over

Henny and Papa, who rented a small house nearby for a month, left two weeks ago and Grammie swiftly took their place. She actually stayed with us and pretty much had zero breathing room from her adoring brood of grandchildren. I admire her stamina. A lot.

Yet, all good things must come to an end, including this stay-at-home-mom's version of maternity leave. Grammie left yesterday and our "new normal" begins tomorrow when Matt leaves for work. I'm hoping our new normal won't include an uptick in meltdowns, timeouts and general domestic disorder but let's be real -- it will.

It's a good thing there's ice cream in the freezer, wine in the pantry and an Internet connection. As far as I know, there's nothing a little dairy, Cabernet or Berenstain Bears on YouTube can't ameliorate, right?

Nocturnal comic relief

Last night was rough. Jamison was up constantly and difficult to settle back down. Icing on the cake was that Emery, who rarely wakes us up in the night, hollered out on four different occasions with four different dilemmas. One of which was that her "foot wrists" hurt.

So I guess she doesn't know the word ankle yet. Taking solace in the fact that I was able to laugh at this despite my ever increasing sleep deficit.

Four weeks and counting

Jamison is now four weeks old and thus far we've gotten quite a taste of life with three kids. I say "taste" because Henny and Papa have been here, Matt's mom comes next week and the meals from church have been a'flowin. So I'd say we've been sampling reality in spurts so far and from what I can tell, much about life with three is great (or, let's be honest, will be great when we get through this rocky, needy newborn phase) and lots of it is hard. Case in point - Jamison has his first cold. Emery didn't get a cold until she was seven months old. But, every time I turned my back this week, snotty-nosed Anna Kimball would snag an opportunity to put her face right up close to his and just stare. So be it.

It's no fun seeing your newborn sick, but he's hanging in there and has promised to sleep tonight.

He's growing rapidly and has already jumped from a birth weight of 7 lb. 6 oz to somewhere in the low 9 lb. range. And I swear he's been smiling for the past few weeks even though that's not supposed to happen until 6 weeks. 

Jamison spends his nights snug as a bug in the carseat in the living room. Doesn't he look regal there? We're holding off giving him Anna Kimball's room until he learns to sleep on his own ... and I am counting down the days. Even caught myself Googling "cry it out four weeks" the other day. But I'm not that heartless. We'll give it a few more days ... ok, weeks.

Night, night Jamison - remember your promise about tonight? Love, Mom.