In My Head...

are many random thoughts. I try and think about where to hop back in to this whole blog world that I haven't been much a part of lately, and it just seems overwhelming to try and cover every single topic...so instead I will just do a potpourri of all the going-ons inside this head of mine!

My daughter is seven weeks old now. She is smiling all the time. I don't remember the boys smiling as often or as frequently as she does. She has the cutest little dimple in her right cheek and it just melts me every time I see her grin. She is eating about every 3 to 3 1/2 hours during the day and at night she goes about 4-5 hour stretches. One night she did a 7 hour stretch, but it appears that was just a fluke! I really love getting up with her. It's usually only once a night, and she has gotten to be a fast feeder and can eat in about 20 minutes. I just love snuggling her in my arms when the house is dark and quiet. It's just a special time for the two of us.



Grayson and Ethan are starting to put together mini sentences. They love to walk around now and say things like "Mommy's chair." "Grayson's cup." "Goodbye cow." They are such little hams and LOVE to make us laugh. Grayson's new game now is to hold up his food at mealtime, look at us and say, "Apple?" when he clearly knows it isn't. We'll say "Noooo..." and he'll smile and say whatever the correct food is. I love seeing them develop and change.

Ethan is such a little cuddler lately. He became VERY attached to Ama when she was here. He would often follow her from room to room and say "Hold you, hold you" with his arms up in the air. He loved being with her everywhere she went! One night he clung to her as she put him in his crib and Chris had to peel his arms off of her. He had a hard time when she had to say goodbye!

My body is slooooooowly recovering from the trauma of bed rests, births, and babies that has happened to it over the past two years. I am in desperate need of starting an exercise program again. I think Mr. Power 90 Tony and I might be getting reacquainted here again soon. I need to build my core strength back up and get my girlish figure back again. Ha! I have BAGS of clothes tucked away that I swear I will get back in to. I don't know when, I don't know how, but it will happen someday....right???!!!

Our house is now officially on the market as of yesterday. No showings yet, but we're ready whenever they call. It seems so surreal to look out the window and see a sign in our front yard. I have such mixed emotions as I look around this home! I love our home. If I could take it with us and add on a couple additions it would be the perfect home for us for many more years to come. It is so full of memories here! It is so hard to imagine another family calling this THEIR home. Sigh. At the same time though I have such an excitement as I think about this adventure before us and our family!

I am finally (ahem) taking over full time care of all three children. Tonight ends day 2 of Operation Mommy Only and I am still alive AND even better...SMILING! There were those moments, don't get me wrong. Moments where I just had to laugh because every single child needed me at the exact same time and I didn't know who to take care of first! For the most part though I feel like we are finding a groove. I feel like I can successfully take care of Adelyn. Feed her, hold her, change her, bath her, cuddle and kiss her - all while giving that same care and attention to both Ethan and Grayson. I have really been taking time to make sure that every single one of them gets some one-on-one time with me each day. At the end of the day when I tuck the boys in to bed I don't feel like I've accomplished a whole lot, but when I think back on the day I guess I would say that caring for a 7 week old and two 22 month olds is enough! I think so often to my Grandmother's though who raised 6 kids all on their own. One of my Grandfather's was a farmer who worked outside from sun up to sun down, and my other Grandfather was a car salesman who worked similar hours. My Grandmother's were able to care for all those children - so I can certainly do it with three!
Today as I was breaking out in a sweat from wrestling with the boys mattresses washing sheets nad putting fresh ones on, I was thinking about the days when the women would wear those fancy dresses and high heels all day long. Their hair perfectly done, make up on... I just had to laugh imagining how completely opposite I was from that picture of perfection at that moment!

I love being here. I love this time in my life. Adelyn is our last baby and so it is a time that I am just trying to soak in and not forget. Even in those moments of craziness I just try and remember how quickly these moments will pass and I just stop my worrying and frustration.

Chris starts his new job so soon! He turns all his work stuff in tomorrow, and will soon be making his first weekly trip up to Minnesota. He will be flying back and forth every other week until we all move up there permanently. He is really excited about this new opportunity and I am so excited for him and all of us!

Mom just left this past Sunday after 3 fabulous weeks here with us. She is just amazing I tell ya. She just fits in here with us so smoothly. I loved her company, and I loved seeing how much she enjoyed helping out with the kids. We shared many special moments together and I will always cherish this time we've had with her living here with us.

The biggest challenge of this entire house selling adventure is going to be keeping up with the cleaning. I want it to stay clean enough where we could get a call for a showing and I could quickly do a few things and we could be locked, loaded, and out of the house in less than half an hour. I have a chore chart that I am making myself stick to. I have had chore charts for years, but so often I would just move a chore to the next day, and then the next, until it would be a month before I would have changed our bed sheets. Okay...maybe not a month...or was it... :)

I really need a pedicure and a haircut, not to mention a shower and a shave (kidding about the last two. They actually DID happen today...but check back tomorrow). But things like getting out in public to get them done are rare these days. Some Super Moms can do it. They stick a child on their front, a child on their back, a few in the stroller and off they go...but the thought of it just wears me out! I often think that someday soon my kids will all be old enough where I will be able to take a shower without two of them wanting to see where Mommy is the entire time I'm in there, or the day when they will no longer want to put on my make-up along with me. (On a side note - I realized tonight that I must do a lot of ponytails around here. I had my hair down this evening and the boys were AMAZED by it! They kept jabbering on and on about it and putting their hands through it.) Maybe someday I will even use the bathroom alone again too!

I'm in no rush!