We haven't had a totally sunny beautiful day for a while now. Lots of summer rainshowers and thunderstorms going down in the afternoon these days and it's made going to the pool tricky business. This morning was rainy and gloomy and I figured we'd be stuck inside all day, but it actually did end up clearing up enough and the sun sorta came out so we were able to rush to the pool before it was closed for the day. There was another little girl there that seemed pretty close to Maeve's age, maybe 4, and they had a lot of fun playing together. The little girl's mother was there by herself, but then a guy showed up and it became clear pretty quickly it was not a husband, but a love interest. People watching and listening is one of my favorite things to do and sometimes it's bad because I get sucked in, but try not to make it look like I'm listening too closely.... ð. It brought me back to the days of dating though. Feels like forever ago!
A little rewind though, before the pool, Maeve spent a good chunk of the afternoon making a bunch of cards for some family and friends. She wrote some substantial messages, but I totally nailed it because I sat down with her initially and wrote out what she wanted to say to everyone, so that she had a template to copy as she was writing in each card. I must say, I am impressed with her focus - she stayed with it until she was finished with all 6 cards and had fun decorating them too. It took a good couple of hours! I may or may not encourage her to do it more often, because she obviously enjoyed herself since she stayed on task so well, and it gave me some time to get some housework done! Double win! Rowan did some puzzles while she worked.
Speaking of housework, am I the only one that intends to do certain cleaning jobs, sometimes even starting them, only to have to go somewhere else in the house to grab something and then I end up getting distracted by something else in that area and before I know it I've gotten other jobs done and totally forgotten about the first job....?? Holy run-on sentence. Like take yesterday - I thought I would treat some stains in some clothes by boiling them on the stove with Oxy clean and got the water on to boil. I then went upstairs to get the Oxy and seeing the state of the upstairs completely distracted me and before I knew it, I was cleaning the entire upstairs! ðĪĶ It took me a while to even remember I had put the water on to boil. ðð Luckily my kids are kind of afraid of the stove since they know it can get hot, so they know to stay away from it, but it was still a fail on my part! ð Then today I had the intention of showering, but Maeve distracted me before hopping in (but after turning the water on), so I went downstairs to help with something and once again got totally distracted with other tasks. Once I went back upstairs 30 minutes later, I had completely forgotten that I turned the shower on in the first place!!! Oops. ðĪĶ♀️
Rowan was kind of on a roll again today with his funny comments, such as...
~While making my bed, he came in and said "I'm gonna jump, but I won't mess it up Mommy while you're building your bed! ðð
~At one point, he said he wanted juice and could open it. He did in fact open the bottle and and exclaimed, "I did it! I'm strong!" ð
~While nursing the babe at one point today, Rowan started to sweetly caress Nolan's cheek, while singing the lyrics "I'm rotten to the core" from Descendants ðð - no need for sweet lullabies in this house ð
~Randomly, at one point Rowan jumped on me and while squeezing my cheeks as hard as he possibly could, he said, "you're the best kid ever!" ððĪ
~While at the pool, Rowan started to chat up a storm with me and we had this convo:
R: Look! A butterfly! Do you like butterflies?
Me: Yep, do you?
R: Yeah - butterflies aren't scary, they can't eat us.
Me: Oh yeah?
R: Yeah, because they don't have strong mouths. Not like bugs - bugs have strong mouths and they can eat us."
ðð ð This is all news to me!
~After the pool, I was trying to get Rowan back in some dry clothes and he said, "hold on, I have to do something with this towel" and then he started singing a zombies song under his towel like a ghost! ððĪĶ
Gotta love that boy! Before bed, we took some slow motion videos of Rowan jumping onto the couch - Maeve got some pretty cool ones and everytime the kids would look at each video they would laugh and laugh. It was pretty cute! I have a feeling it will be the new thing they ask me to do haha.
He's quite the jumper and slow motion makes it even better!
I just noticed that when you view blog posts you do see the date right above the title of the post, and I normally include the date too in my title. Though it might seem redundant, the reason I'm still doing it is because sometimes I'm blogging about different dates than the date it actually is, if I'm playing catch up. So anyway, it might seem weird but it will keep me straight. Today we went to the doctor in the morning to get Rowan checked out because yesterday he squeezed out a drop off blood after he peed once. And since he had said "it hurts" a couple times as well recently, I knew something was definitely up. We found out it looks like he's got a UTI so we got some antibiotics for him to take. And just now as I'm writing this I am realizing I forgot to give him his first dose tonight. What's crazy about that is when I was putting him to bed I said a prayer with him and in my prayer I mentioned being grateful that we could go to the doctor and find out what was wrong, which reminded me before it was too late to give him his medicine. I thought YES, I'm so glad that made me remember. But seriously, in the 2 extra minutes that it took to finish my prayer I totally forgot again. Why is it that since being a mom nothing stays in my brain for more than 2 minutes?! For real though! It's a real thing and I hate it. I didn't used to have things go in and go out so quickly. Too much going on I guess! ððĪĶ♀️
Also, why is it that whenever I read books with my kids, it only takes a couple books before I feel sooo tired and can hardly keep my eyes open?? I seriously struggle with that. On days we don't read books, I don't feel tired for one second of the day, and yet on those days that we do, all the sudden I need a nap! ðī It's unfortunate. Today was one of those days where we read some books and I ended up cuddling with Maeve trying to sleep. Sadly, Rowan is brutal and cannot keep his body still for 2 seconds and instead loves to throw himself at people, so you can imagine how successful my attempt was to sleep for a minute. ð
Adam took it upon himself to start teaching Maeve how to tell time. She's gotten so excited about it that now she's over her reading lessons and just wants to focus on that. We've missed a few days of reading lessons and somehow I need to get her back on board for that too. But Adam was all cute and made her a fun clock and tacked it onto some scrap wood last night for her to practice on, so she decorated that today. The finished product ð
Maeve and Rowan are definitely two peas in a pod - Rowan had an accident this morning (but a total of 3 before the day was over ð - I'm hoping his UTI is a contributing factor and that he will get back on track again as that starts to clear up ðĪðĪ), and when I took off his wet shorts, I only put new undies on. During lunch, I looked over to realize that Maeve had taken her shorts off just so she could match Rowan. ðĪĢðĪĶ It's so funny to me, and Rowan definitely looks up to her a lot, yet he also likes to pull out her hair sometimes (literally - he was pulling on her hair in the car today making her scream and actually pulled some out) without even being mad at her. Like it's a fun game. Who does that??? He got an earfull from me afterwards, that's for dang sure.
And for some funny moments of the day:
~I was doing laundry while Maeve was on the phone with her Gram (my mom) and she asked her what the doctor said about Rowan. She said "I don't know, but Mommy is upstairs doing laundry and I don't wanna get in her business" ðð
~Rowan pulled out an Arthur book to read that was about making pancakes and he referred to Arthur as the "maker man" ðð
~I had directed Rowan to go upstairs and get some new clothes to put on and on his way back down he said "I have my clothes and also a surprise" - and then he revealed that he had wrapped up a little door stopper rubber cap in his clothes. ð This turned into a game of him finding a million things to hide in his clothes and surprise us with. Maeve thought it was hilarious and was laughing her head off (as she would say - that's her new phrase ð) so I had to get a video. Never a dull moment in our house!
~Maeve was outside with Adam this evening helping him clip off some basil from his basil plants and she said "it's so beautiful out here, it feels wonderful, the basil smells so good, and the moon is out!" - I can just see her taking it all in and having a look on her face like she's in heaven. ð§ She's an observant girl beyond her years!!
I think that's all she wrote! Except for a couple mroe photos.
Waiting at the doctor's office. ð I might start making Rowan wear this hat everyday because it's so dang cute on him and it covers up the bad haircut that I gave him! ð
He's such a sweet boy!
He is so dang grabby though and I am including this pic because Maeve was on my phone and saw it, showed it to Rowan, and then came and told me saying, "Mommy, we just saw this picture and were laughing our heads off! It's sooo funny how he's grabbing you!" ð
Adam had church meetings in the morning, so I made waffles while the kids had some screen time. I found a really healthy waffle recipe with no oil and loaded with applesauce that is so bomb, which I'm happy about!! I love a soft fluffy waffle that is crisp on the outside. After marrying Adam, he converted to me to cutting my waffles into strips and dipping them in syrup as opposed to pouring the syrup over top. I had always been annoyed that the syrup would soak into it so quickly and the syrup flavor wouldn't be as apparent. So then I'd feel it needed more syrup before long. Dipping it totally solves that problem and less sugar intake in the end! Win win! After his meetings we talked about our plan for the day, hoping to make a bike ride work since we couldn't do one the night before. Knowing that I needed to be on a Zoom call for BYC at 6pm, we decided a bike ride to a park for lunch was the way to go.
I'm not going to lie, I've learned that I love a good sweat in the heat of the summer if I am in breathable workout clothes without makeup on. Makeup and heat do not go well together and I can't stand sweating in normal clothes with garments underneath, but if I'm prepared for it and can avoid those 2 things, then I am all for exercising and getting my sweat on! We biked for an hour over to Barfield Park and I always carry the baby, while Adam pulls the kids behind him in the bike trailer. Let me tell you, there is nothing more satisfying than sitting down in the shade after biking for that long, taking the weight of the baby off my back, and drinking ice cold water!!! I love it so much! There is just something to be said about those kind of moments when something so simple feels so amazingly perfect and is exactly what you need. I live for moments like that! We enjoyed our faux hot dogs on the grill, giving our muscles a break, and the kids even had a total ball playing with an outdoor faucet getting all wet and cooled off themselves. The only bummer was right before we were about to leave, when Rowan told us he needed to go potty, but didn't quite make it in time and ended up with poop running down his legs. ðĪĒðĐ It's in moments like that when Adam is around that I'm especially happy we have a baby, because 9 times out of 10 I'm on baby duty and I was quite happy to hold the baby and watch that mess get cleaned up from the sidelines and instead of being the one to do it! ðð Anyway, after that got taken care of we made our long trek back and both Adam and I were running on almost empty by the time we got back. We were sooo ready to be done in that final stretch and I kid you not, we both immediately got into our kiddie pool in the backyard with the kids and submerged ourselves as best we could!! And then we ate some popsicles while still sitting in the water. As Adam would say, "it was like angels"!!
We had planned on being home earlier from our bike ride to fit church in before my church meeting that evening, but it ended up taking longer than we thought, so I had to quickly get cleaned up and between that and dinner it was too late to fit it in without the kids going to bed late so we decided to push it off to Monday. In all of our moments of downtime in the house on Sunday though, the kids were cracking us up dancing to one of the Zombies songs - Maeve came up with this new dance move where she'd basically just fall to the ground, but it was very purposeful and always on the same beat during the chorus. Of course Rowan copied her as per usual and it was just funny to watch! They may have gotten to sit back and relax on our bike ride, but they got their work out in dancing around, that's for sure. ðð
Monday:
One of the highlights of the day was going to the library, which we hadn't done in forever. I decided it was time to get some good kids books on manners, respect, understanding/dealing with emotions, and diversity/race. Just some fitting topics to learn about given our current struggles at home as well as the struggles in the world. They also picked out some other books of their choice, which meant lots of Fancy Nancy books (always). Another highlight was doing some science experiments. I always have fun googling those because some are so easy to do, but honestly pretty cool! They probably liked this balloon one the most. Gotta love vinegar and baking soda!
Rowan was on a roll on Monday making me laugh. Some of those funny moments include:
~Calling hand sanitizer "hanitizer" ð
~Maeve wanted to play I Spy in the car on the way to the library, but Rowan said "I'm full for I Spy" - his way of saying he didn't want to ðð. I guess it makes sense why he'd say that considering when we're full we don't want to eat anymore food. In the same vein, he had no room in his life to enjoy playing that game... ðĪ·♀️
~We did in fact have a short church meeting after dinner and while we were supposed to be working on quieting down and being reverent, Rowan thought it would be funny to spank Maeve's butt on repeat. He kept chanting "spank your butt!" while smacking her bum and she kept cracking up. ððĪĶ
~During the evening hours, Adam happened to fart out loud basically right on Rowan's face. It caught him by surprise and he screamed like a little girl! ðð
And that brings us to today (Tuesday)! It was a pretty low key day, but a few noteworthy things to mention are:
~When Rowan woke up, he came downstairs and the first thing he said to me was "Mommy, I'm full for my bed" meaning he was done sleeping ð - I guess "I'm full for...." is his new phrase.
~Maeve was fully dressed and out of nowhere while I am nursing Nolan, I look up to find her butt naked playing with Rowan who was also butt naked. While I was starting a load of laundry, she was supposed to put a new pull up on him (he was out of clean undies), and turns out instead of doing that she decided to just get butt naked too. ðĪĶ♀️ðĪĶ♀️ I asked her to put her clothes back on and Rowan exclaimed, "No, because we're naked time now!!" and then they started chanting "naked time now!" while jumping from the coffee table to the couch on repeat. ððĪŠ
~Just as we were headed out the door to go grocery shopping, our new face masks from Old Navy showed up on the doorstep! The kids were so excited to see them and Rowan actually wanted to wear his!! ð They work a lot better than their other masks I got them so it's a relief. We made it successfully through all our shopping with masks on all of our faces the entire time! ðð
~I made a new recipe for dinner tonight. It was a cheesy (vegan of course) Mexican tortilla bake and it was pretty good! We stopped at Sprouts to get the salsa for it, since the recipe recommended that salsa brand and I must say, it is pretty good for being store bought! I'm glad to have discovered it.
And now for a few random pictures:
I just can't with this Olaf costume!! It is too much. ð Definitely the best purchase I've ever made.
ðð
It was making me laugh that Zoey did not care to move even with the babe resting his legs on top of her while he was nursing. ð They're just that best of beds I guess!
I was so going to blog last night about the weekend after watching an episode of Sweet Magnolias (starting that out, we will see how it goes), but I fell asleep while watching it soooo - lesson learned, I should just get my blogging done with before I unwind at all. ð
Here's what's been happening around here the last few days.
Friday:
Thanks to the Primary Presidency in our ward, Maeve woke up ready and excited to celebrate Pioneer Day. Since it's pretty much a Utah holiday, she would not have even known it was Pioneer Day otherwise. I certainly wouldn't have been thinking about it! Girlfriend likes any excuse to celebrate, no matter the holiday, and she went to bed the night before thinking she'd make Pioneer day cards for friends and cousins (that may or may not have even known it was Pioneer Day). ðð We ended up filling the day with enough fun that those cards didn't get made, but I gotta love her for wanting to make them. She actually said on Saturday "oh shoot, I forgot to make my Pioneer Day cards! Ugh" ð - she's the best. I digress! So, the Primary put together some activities for the kids to do that day and we did a couple of them. One was making these cute little homemade handcarts with my help, and both of the kids were certainly more excited to eat the finished product. They lasted as long as it took me to take these pictures. ð
After Nolan woke up from his morning nap, we got ready to go to the pool. I put my pony-o in my hair so I could do a side braid and Maeve asked "is it waterable?" (referring to the pony-o, and what she really meant is waterproof) and that gave me a good laugh! ð We had some fun once there and Maeve was very excited to jump in the pool for the first time without her puddle jumper on AND without plugging her nose. She actually asked me if she could, so it was all her and I'm loving seeing the extra bravery and confidence these days in her! Still trying to convince Rowan to jump in from the side, but he won't go for it. He prefers jumping from the stairs and holding his head so high it doesn't submerge at all (although he's accidentally submerged it before and it is pretty funny how shell shocked he looks ð)! We all jumped in together about 20 times in a row, while Nolan chilled in his stroller. I'm pretty sure I made Maeve's year by jumping in with her over and over! ð I had to get a video of her in her glory.
Also, this was the car ride on the way home from the pool, no joke. They were chanting this almost the entire time. "Ding dong, who's there? A cow just stuck a ______ (fill in the blank with a million different variations) up his butt" ðĪĶ♀️ðĪĢ I can't make this stuff up.... These are my children.
When we got home from the pool, Maeve was taking off her bathing suit and all the sudden I look up and see what looked like poop that was smeared on the sides of her bum cheeks along, as if it had been along the inside line of the bottom of her bathing suit where it covers her bum. I was seriously so confused as to what even happened and kept asking her if she pooped herself and she said she didn't know, but that she must have. But when I was helping her get cleaned up, I smelled a piece of it and it didn't really smell like poop so then I wondered if it was mud, but I also have no idea how that could have even gotten on her....??? I seriously am still so confused as to what happened because nothing makes sense. My mind was and still is blown!!! ðĪŊ
Adam got home a little early from work so he was actually home soon after we got home, so we did our second Pioneer Day activity with him, which was Stick Pull - a game Joseph Smith played back in his time. The kids had fun doing it themselves first, and then Adam jumped in and it was pretty funny to watch. They were in heaven playing with him and Rowan asked to do it again a million times! I even jumped in on the kids' side and a handful of times and Adam still easily dominated. ðð Here's some videos of it.
We had potstickers and broccoli for dinner (shocker) and convinced Rowan to eat his broccoli by telling him we'd get ice cream from Burger King afterwards (which surprisingly, despite his love of ice cream, he still almost gave up and didn't earn it and was acting ike he didn't even care about it ðĪŊ, the little stinker). After finally finishing the last piece, we headed over and everyone else got ice cream while I opted for some beloved DP. ð We rented a movie to watch for after the kids went to bed and as per usual, I fell asleep 30 minutes into it. ðĪĶ
Saturday:
I woke up Saturday morning determined to figure out how to get disinfectant wipes from somewhere. I came to the unfortunate realization that the only place I could *maybe* (and that's a big fat maybe) get some was at a CVS 20 minutes away. Knowing my luck though, even if I called and they said that there were still a few in stock, like it said online, by the time I got there they'd probably be gone. I decided it wasn't worth it.
Adam left to go roofing and the kids played on their own for a while. Seriously the new question I'm asked on repeat now is "Can you get the baby? Can you get the baby, Mom? Mom! Get the baby Mom!!!!" because poor Nolan is just trying to keep up with them and grab any toys of theirs that he can. Interesting how once Rowan was crawling, Maeve was so excited to have a baby to (sort of) play with her, but now that it's Rowan with the baby brother he couldn't care less since he's got a big sister still that can really play with him. He was really trying so hard to get the baby away from him, and despite my efforts of telling him that Nolan was simply trying to let him know that he loves him and wants to join in on the fun, he still wasn't having it. So much so that he tried to shut himself into the bathroom so Nolan couldn't take his beloved trains and cars, but soon realized the door wouldn't shut due to Adam's pull up bar hanging from the doorframe. But then he said "I know what to do!" and took the stool from the bathroom and used it to block the doorway, like so, and then sat inside the bathroom to play. ððĪĶ
Poor baby Nolan, totally shafted by his big brother!! Such a rough life for that sweet little babe. But he really is starting to get into anything and everything that he shouldn't. The dog food and water is his favorite... ðĪĶ.
A few funny moments from our Saturday morning included...
~Rowan picking up the bathroom mat and saying "maybe it's like my blanket" and trying to wrap it around himself. ðð
~While going potty, Rowan said "ow! My penis hurts!" I asked him why it was hurting and he said "I don't know, maybe because of the coronavirus!" and needless to say I laughed and so did he ðð
~Maeve had clothes on, but ended up taking them off. I asked her why she was naked and she said "I don't like being naked, but I like being best friends with Rowan and he likes to be naked" ððĨ° - she kills me.
Unfortunately the rest of Saturday didn't really unfold like we hoped it would, but the plan was to go on a bike ride after dinner. Once Adam got home from roofing at 2, I figured it was best for him to go to the pool with Maeve to keep teaching her how to swim without me so that I could finish the movie I slept through the night before and then have dinner ready for when they got home so we could get out at a decent time on our bike ride. So the boys and I stayed home, and I finished watching The Lost Husband while Nolan napped and Rowan watched something else on tablet. It's super rare for me to watch anything mid day like that, but I didn't want to pay to have the movie for another night and it was really the only time to watch it if we were going to bike. Little did we know it would end up thundering and being lousy weather after dinner, so we didn't end up going. It was probably for the best though, since Maeve was in a terrible mood and said she wasn't feeling well. Rowan, on the other hand, tried hard to let us know it was okay to go on the bike ride still even in the thunder, reassuring us that "if it thunders, we'll just go like this" and he covered his ears. ðð Gotta love that boy! Sadly for him, we still ignored the advice, and stayed home. ð Somehow after dinner we ended up having a family hug session on the kitchen floor, and I think that happened just because I had to squeeze Rowan after he made his thunder comment and before long everyone else joined in for a sweet little family moment. ðĨ°
After the kids went to bed, Adam picked up some crumbl cookies cause the flavors of the week were calling my name and sounded too good to pass up. We got Dirt Cake, Ultimate Peanut Butter, Cinnamon Roll, and Coconut Lime. They were all really good, but I think I Coconut Lime was my favorite! We devoured them while we watched some Boy Meets World. ð
I also just have to include these other cute pics from the day...
He just laughed and laughed when she kissed his hand. It was too much!! ðð
Just munching on Daddy's flip flop, probably infested with Coronavirus. ð Gotta love that it's almost as big as his body
Stay tuned for catch up on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday tomorrow night.
I didn't write yesterday, mainly because I didn't really have much to say. It was a low key day spent at home. By the time we could have gone to the pool, the weather was looking a little dicey so we stayed put. The kids managed to still play out back in their little pool for a bit though, and we did play some games together in lieu of getting out of the house. I taught the kids Uno, which I got Rowan for his birthday in June, and they enjoyed it so much we played like 5 rounds. To be honest though, we may have not played as many rounds if Maeve had won sooner than that because she's kind of a sore loser and just has to win before moving onto a new game... ððĪĶ
Other than that, all I have to share from yesterday is one funny thing that Rowan said. We were talking about baby Nolan and Rowan chimed in "When I was a baby, Nolan was Rowan" ððĪ - which what he really meant was, he used to be a baby just like Nolan. 3 year old mixups are kind of the best. ð
Today had its good moments and bad moments, which is really how it normally goes ha. #momlife I've found that I go through cycles of handling my kids' bad behavior pretty well and then somehow I get out of whack and for the next little while I seem to get stuck in lash out mode when they misbehave. Right now I'm in lash out mode and just this week I've already yelled at Maeve 3 times and really just took what was a bad situation and made it worse. ð I don't know what it is, but it seems like more often than not, my kids do not listen well nor do they take my discipline seriously. There is nothing that gets under my skin more than me telling Maeve that if she doesn't listen and stop what she's doing that I've already asked her to stop doing once, that she will lose her nightly treat for her to say to me "no I won't" - excuse me, what?! Who do you think is calling the shots around here chica? You, the 5 year old?!? Think again little girl! Don't worry, she lost her candy for that comment. I just couldn't handle it today and the yelling ensued. But I HATE it when I yell because I immediately feel so guilty and start crying. And every time it's the same story - I recenter myself and then talk to her again and apologize for not handling myself well, hash out her bad behavior and make sure she knows the boundaries and understands what the problem was and she apologizes too. I feel like these heart to hearts go well except for the fact that I always cry in front of her through some of it. Today I started to worry that there could come a point where you're crying too often in front of your kid(s) and they might think you're a mess... And maybe I was already there! ðĨ I thought of Jody Moore's Better than Happy podcast and I thought to myself that as a life coach she seems to know so much about human behavior and managing your emotions, etc. and I knew she'd be able to tell me what was appropriate. I couldn't help myself because of the worry, so I straight up sent her a message on Instagram to see if she'd humor me and give me her opinion. Turns out, it is good for your kids to see your human-ness and there is nothing wrong with crying in front of them when something has happened that makes you want to cry. She even said there's no such thing as crying too often. I bet a lot of people might disagree with that, but maybe it's because the norm for a lot of people is to want to push away negative feelings and not feel them because negative feelings are viewed in a bad way. But apparently we need to all stop doing that!! Negative feelings are a part of a life and we need to embrace them, feel them, process them, and move on to better feelings. Anyway, hearing that from her eased my worries and I am praying I can be better moving forward at keeping my cool. They're just kids after all, feeling big emotions themselves that they're not sure what to do with. How can I expect them to figure out how to manage their ugly feelings and keep their cool if I can't do it in front of them?! Parenting is such a big freaking job. I need all the help I can get from the Big Man upstairs. ððð
That was a long tangent, but as far as how we spent our time today, it was a lot of the same that we always do - taking out every last toy they own from our downstairs toy basket to set up their "home" behind our couch and taking turns pretending to be dogs - ya know, the usual. ðð The only that changes from day to day is what/who they're pretending to be. They also played outside some, we hit up the pool before it stormed and had it all to ourselves, and before long it was time for dinner and our other nightly routines. One of those being reading lessons with Maeve and I swear, that girl can read well, but sometimes (like tonight) she messes up the words and it is clear she is not even looking at what the letters are AT ALL and will not even try to figure it out the right way. She just keeps throwing out different wrong words, even when I tell her to sound it out, and it drives me crazy. ðŦ She also tries to skip certain tasks sometimes just cause she doesn't like what she's supposed to do and that also drives me nuts! If we keep doing 2 lessons a day though, we will be done in 12 days and she will officially be reading on a second grade level. ð We'll see if we pull it off!
The only picture I've got is one I snapped yesterday of Nolan trying to get in on the action with the kids. He's a busy boy crawling everywhere these days and the poor 3rd child has it kinda rough, cause pretty much in their eyes he's almost always just trying to ruin their fun with his grabby hands and entering their territory when they don't want him to. But how do you tell a baby to stop being a baby? ðĪ·♀️ I think they're just going to have to learn a little more patience.
Also Rowan is in fact naked 80% of the time. He likes being naked. I'm over it.
In many ways, today was a total joke. A total trainwreck. Or like the title says, a car pile up that you just can't stop. As I mentioned yesterday, I think it has to do with insufficient sleep (for my kids) - gone are the days of them sleeping in if they're up later than they should be - no matter what, they are up at 7am 80% of the time. Maeve has been taking a while to fall asleep lately and it's becoming clear the 12 hours of sleep is important for her. The whinyness, the sassiness, the rudeness, the lack of patience if something went at all wrong was at an all time high today for Maeve and for Rowan. I felt like I was disciplining left and right and putting out way too many fires between Maeve and Rowan because they just could not be happy together. There were tears shed at one point or another by all of us. And then to top it all off, when I'd had enough and decided that we were going to try and turn things around and head to the pool, bad moods and all, to have a dang good time (even if it was just for an hour before dinner time), we showed up at the pool only for me to realize I did not have the kids' puddle jumpers. So we turned around and went home. No swimming to be had. Some days are just not pretty. And it seems like it's one thing after another. That, my friends, was most certainly today.
When Maeve realized we couldn't swim, she fought back some tears and said "but we haven't had any fun today and have just been mad at each other. Now what will we do!?" - I was so beyond over it all myself that I knew right then and there, we just needed some good food to turn the day around. I don't normally give in to getting food out for dinner when the kids have been monsters, since it is something they like, but for my sanity and to make us all feel better that we couldn't go in the pool, I knew it had to be done. So stopped at Wendy's and got kids meals for a whopping $1.99 per meal (can you believe that?!?) and then Adam picked up Subway on his way home for him and I, so we didn't have to eat total garbage food. But being the good husband that he is, he did surprise me and treat me with cookies (Subway cookies are the best ððð). After we ate, he filled up our kiddie pool and put the slide back in it and the kids acted like they'd never played with it before and life couldn't possibly be better. ðĪĶð And that's how you turn a bad bad day into a better day.
Now, as rough as much of the day was, I will admit there were some funny moments mixed in. Such as...
~During lunch time, Maeve was not pleased when she saw the veggies on her plate because apparently she didn't realize they were mixed veggies with green beans, and thought it was just a peas and carrots mix. She threw a little too much sass and rudeness at me because I "gave her something she didn't want" and I said to to her, "can you be nice to your mother?"
to which Rowan chimed in, "I can be nice to your mother!" ðð
~Rowan showed me a boo boo on his finger and then said "maybe Maeve hurt myself tomorrow" - meaning that maybe Maeve gave him the boo boo yesterday - he gets yesterday and tomorrow mixed up every time ð
~We got free frostys from Wendy's too because we have the 2020 Keychain free frosty thingys (so technical ð) and in the middle of eating his, Rowan asked if I could wipe him. When I went over to him, he had his face buried down in his shirt like he was looking for something down there, so I asked what he was doing. He said he was just looking to see if any ice cream went down there, so I asked if any had, and he pulled his head back out and said "nope, I'm good!" ð
~During dinner, I noticed Rowan's chicken nuggets box was empty and I said "You ate all your chicken nuggets!" to which he replied, "No I didn't, one of them went bye bye" ððĪ. I asked him where it went and he said he snuck it into Maeve's box. ð
~I noticed Nolan's straps on his carseat needed to be adjusted up a notch because they were getting too snug in the shoulder area, so I went out to fix it while the kids were eating. When I came back in they asked what I was doing and I just said that I had to loosen his straps, to which Maeve responded "do you want him to fly out and be dead???". I assured her I wasn't loosening the straps that much! ðððĪĶ
~Rowan wore a dirty windbreaker that was too small for him to the pool because "it was raining" and heaven forbid he not be protected from the rain. For some reason, Alexa told us it was raining at that particular time of the day, even though it wasn't. He threw the biggest meltdown at the thought of not wearing that windbreaker and I had nothing left in me to try and convince him otherwise, so off we went while he sweat to death in his seat..... ðĪĶðĪĢ. When I took this first picture, he said "don't take a picture" and closed his eyes, acting all somber. ð 3 year olds!!
~This is one from the other day I forgot to mention, but you know the coronavirus is getting to your kids when BOTH of them are repeatedly saying during their pretend play "we can't do that 'cause.... Coronavirus!" ððĪĶ♀️ It's really kind of sad if you think about it... ðĨ
Thank goodness for some comic relief to keep me from killing myself today. ð
I slept in this morning in part because I stayed up too late last night writing yesterday's post. Too many goals and not enough time, is what it feels like sometimes. But it's all good, I'm calling it a win if I at least wake up early more often than not. I don't know if it's because it's summer and the sun is up so early now, but the kids rarely like to sleep in past 7:15am anymore. So really, I don't "sleep in" cause even they are up pretty early - and this morning I did not welcome it. I tried so hard to get Rowan to cuddle with me like Maeve was (I can win Maeve over easily in that regard), but he just wanted to flail and go crazy with his body. That boy is too hyper in the morning. Soooo I faced the facts that we had to embrace the morning and we all got out of bed. It didn't take long for me to feel good about getting going luckily. It helps that I really do love starting my day with my workout. That boost of energy, doing the muscles good, getting my sweat on, and actually seeing results (I do have a 4 pack now and if I could let go of sugar completely maybe I could work my way to a 6 pack.... But if I'm being honest, sugar is probably going to win ððĪ·♀️)... it is exactly what I need to get me going everyday and put myself in the right kind of mindset to be a good mom the rest of the day.
Our main activity of the day today was running some errands instead of going to the pool. But before heading out, I found out that some of my cousins and an Uncle on my Dad's side of the family have tested positive for coronavirus! All the sudden, it's all getting more and more real and personal. Half of my extended family attempted to still get together for the lakehouse reunion this week and corona decided to make things a little ugly. I texted some of my cousins and got the scoop and luckily, they're all doing okay relatively speaking. Hoping and praying for them that it stays that way. ð
We headed out to do a couple returns, pick up an order at Old Navy (new workout top for me - it's pretty cute and we've got some other stuff on the way that's being shipped), and get a few things from Walmart. Not going to lie, wearing a face mask in the summer is not so fun. It's already hot without one on, so I'm sweating even quicker with one on... But what can you do! ðĪ·♀️
The last couple of nights Maeve has gotten to bed around 9-9:30pm, but still waking up too early and boy is it showing in her behavior. That girl knows how to whine and be overly sassy when she has not gotten enough sleep, so I went out of my way to make sure she was in bed by 8pm tonight. Hopefully tomorrow is better! ðĪ
Rowan has been doing better with going in the potty for the most part lately - he's earned his rewards everyday for the last few days except for yesterday when he peed sitting on top of Adam. ðĪĶðĪĶ But he had no issues today and he's got a new train to show for it! He was so excited to get it. Speaking of going potty, this morning while Rowan went potty one time he whispered to me "I'm gonna look and see if my penis is big yet" [looks down at it] "It's not big!"ðððĪĶ That boy is something else!
I think that's all she wrote for today. But I'll leave you (and by you, I mean my mom, the only one who reads this... ð) with this picture of Nolan - it's the first time I went in to get him after his nap and he was sitting up perfectly straight. This is the huge smile he gave Maeve upon seeing her. ðð There's a whole lot of love amongst the siblings in this house and it makes my heart happy.
Another weekend is almost over and I've got a little bit of catching up to do. Starting with Friday!...
Friday started out just lovely. We had our typical morning routine, but I also made some pancakes and the whole time I was busy with working out, scripture study, and making the pancakes the kids did such a great job of playing together and not even needing suggestions from me on what to do. That Maeve is getting really good at just saying "okay Rowan, now let's go outside on the back patio and ride bikes! Come on!" or "k Rowan let's play this game" or "k Rowan let's dance to some music" etc. etc. and he is always ready to just follow her lead. It is a TOTAL game changer for me. Especially since Nolan is usually the most content baby on the planet, although he is more and more on the move and things are about to get cray cray around here because of that. I guess I should retract and say that they already are a little cray cray considering today we kept finding clumps of hair around the house near wherever he was playing and were a little confused - come to find out, we later found him in the act pulling hair out of the head of one of Maeve's doll's. ððĪĶ Oh dear. We also discovered that he ripped the arm out of a GI Joe doll and one of the tiny bolt parts was missing, so either he ate it or the dog ate it or it somehow disappeared otherwise. ðģ Only heaven knows, but everyone's still breathing so that's what really matters.
When Maeve and Rowan were eating both standing on kitchen chairs eating pancakes, we had this conversation:
Maeve: "Hey Mom, look, when I stand here next to Rowan, my head is above his! I'm bigger."
Me: "Yep, you're taller than he is since you're 5 and he's 3."
Rowan: "Yeah, I'm just a little bit up, because I'm 3..." ð And by "a little bit up", he means only a little tall, but not as tall as Maeve - these kids are too funny when they're trying to figure out how to say things but they say them totally wacko.
Later in the day on Friday, we were headed to the pool and I texted Dreah about her dogs coming over and she ended up telling me she didn't need my help because of exposure to Corona by a coworker. He/she got it and she was around them while they were sick so she had to get tested as well and was waiting on the results. I also found out the day before that a friend in my ward received a prompting to leave a beach trip early with her family and soon after she got home, she came down with it and was really sick. Not going to lie, hearing a case and potential case from ladies I know personally amped up my anxiety a little bit and I was kind of on edge about it the rest of the day. Which made me feel a little sick to my stomach, like I normally get when I'm anxious about something. The brain is more powerful than it's own good sometimes and it's a little annoying...
Anyway, the pool was still fun and Maeve made a little friend, but Rowan fell asleep on the way home and was passed out on the couch for over an hour, which messed up bedtime -- always fun (read not fun) -- especially Maeve was all bothered that that meant she wasn't going to stay up later than Rowan.
Sometimes you just have to relax ð
Knocked out cold... He was even snoring pretty loud ð
In trying to make her feel better about it, we had this conversation:
Me: Maeve, it shouldn't even really matter to you that much that he's awake with you until you go to bed because you know what you normally do during that alone time without him?! Reading lessons! (hinting at the fact that it isn't a very exciting activity)
Maeve (said in a very matter of fact way): Well, it's important, ya know! I need to know how to read for Kindergarten, ya know! ð
She kills me! ð
Ever since Zoey figured out how to squeeze through the gate at the bottom of the stairs, she is constantly following us upstairs now. So, after Maeve went up to get ready for bed with Adam, sure enough she followed them and when she wouldn't come right back down, Rowan kept calling her a "freaking stinko" ðð Not sure where he got that from... ððĪĶ
Other pics from Friday:
Maeve got a letter in the mail from her friend Lucy (a daughter of one of my good college friends) and she was so excited!
Rowan is loving purses right now ð and this puppy purse was all the rage on Friday - after I took this picture, he switched it to wearing it like a cross body bag and said "maybe I wear it like this so I can pet it" ðð and then retracted and said "mmm maybe I don't" - he's so funny
Will you just look at him?! I could eat him a million times in those overalls. He is so perfect! ððð
They kept singing Ring Around the Rosie a few times and then would run outside and ride around on their bikes for a minute, then back in again to sing, on repeat! It was pretty cute so I got a video - and they're just in undies because they had been west oh fancy dress up clothes and didn't want to get them dirty eating pancakes ðð
Saturday morning Adam went roofing, so I decided to work out while the kids had their screen time. I don't always work out on Saturdays, but I usually do if Adam is gone. Afterwards was pretty magical because once I was done and screen time was over, in the amount of time it took me to make and eat my breakfast, the kids got going playing on their own so I decided to read for pleasure while I was eating and ended up being able to read for awhile before Adam got home. It was awesome! I'm reading The Help an it's getting pretty juicy. I saw the movie once a long time ago, but I think I was distracted when I watched it because I don't remember it well and as I'm reading it, not a whole lot is coming back to me. It's been a fun read so far.
After lunch and Nolan's nap, we went to the pool and are making good strides teaching Maeve to swim. It was her second lesson with us in the water and she was actually able to swim a little bit back and forth on her own. So exciting! It's kinda crazy having a kid old enough to learn how to swim and even read. It kinda seems impossible she was ever a baby! Life was so different back then - time really changes so much for these kiddos and it's both heartbreaking and exciting at the same time to see so much growth and learning happening before our eyes. ððĪŊ
Unfortunately we didn't get a bike ride in on Saturday or today, which is a bit of a bummer, but it was just too late after we finished dinner and then today we thought we were going to be helping the missionaries with a lesson with an investigator of theirs at 7:45pm (evening bike rides are the way to go in this summer heat), so that kinda squashed being able to do it today, although ironically since it cancelled we ultimately could have... but oh well. There's always next weekend! After getting the kids in bed though, we did order some cinnamon bread from Marco's pizza - we hadn't had it in a long time and I swear it used to be better. It was kinda disappointing, but still good - just not blow you away good like I remember. I just decided to restart Boy Meets World from the very beginning since I've finished Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist now (can't wait for next season! Although who knows when that will air thanks to Corona...ð), so we watched some of that while we ate and then I quickly fell asleep like I always do. Poor Adam! Always left with a sleeping wife when we watch just about anything... ðĪ·♀️
Today was an exciting Sunday - we had a productive morning cleaning the house and got our home church done and then I found a recipe for Melonpan (a Japanese sweet bread) and decided to slave away and make it. It was very involved and honestly it's a blessing it didn't work out with the missionaries, because I was not finished with it when it was time for that. I didn't get the dough quite elastic enough and so they ended up more dense than they should have and also tore a little bit unfortunately, but they still taste pretty great! I started them at 4:15pm and didn't get to try one till 30 minutes ago (10:30pm) Kinda crazy that the amount of time it will take to eat them is exponentially shorter than the amount of time it took to make them - but hey, it was fun for me. ðš
And I'll leave you with this last quote from Rowan that I forgot to share from last week. He had let out a loud toot and gasping, said "I tooted! It's okay though, I didn't poop!" ððĪĶ -- what a relief haha.
With preschool ending, our routine has been thrown out of whack the last couple of days. I thought I would welcome the extra time and freedom to do whatever we want during the time normally spent doing that, but instead I feel like it's made me less productive and ironically even with the extra time we have not made it to the pool the last couple of days! ðē Truth be told, we could have gone yesterday, but I chose to call my mom instead because we were way overdue for a chat. So I'm glad that happened, and it was a nice good chat. Then today got thrown off a bit because of a dentist appt to fix my front teeth and improve my smile - one of my front teeth was a little off and looked different from the rest in color - but I'm definitely happy I got to fix that!! I won't see the final results until 3 weeks from now when the permanent crown for one of my front middle teeth will be made and ready. So now I'm anxiously awaiting that day! And speaking of the dentist, Adam was able to call about our extra bill of $1,000 and they did agree to charge $500 less for my work today so basically we are getting away with paying half the amount, which helps. Not all is lost! ð I had hoped to make it to the pool today, but really Nolan's naps kinda threw it off. When we were ready and could have gone, he needed a nap and by the time he was awake it was too late to be worth it to go. ðĪĶ♀️
Anyway, back to being less productive - kinda the reason why I didn't end up writing last night and also didn't want to tonight, but I basically forced myself even though I wasn't in the mood because I refuse to fall off the wagon. It's interesting to me that it's often this way - the busier we are, the more likely we are to make the entire day productive (and stay positive about it) and the momentum keeps us going. But on the flip side, when we have a little more free time it's easy to lose momentum and maybe slack a little bit on some of the tasks we know we should do. It's probably just a human nature thing, but I do find it interesting that having down extra free time during the day can sometimes make you slack more the rest of the day, instead of recharge you. In any event, I wonder if what I should take from this is that the heavens are telling me that I don't need a preschool manual in front of me as a reason to keep up with structured fun learning activities for my kids. I honestly enjoyed it and so did the kids - so maybe we need to at least make time every day for 1 kind of structured activity. But enough word vomit...!
Since we've just been home all day the last couple of days (well, the kids anyway), I must say I've been pleased with how they've just been in their own little world so much. The pretend play is at an all time high right now and I'm grateful their imaginations are really running wild and Rowan is old enough to hold his own and keep their pretend play going. Most of the time they're inside making up games with their toys or playing house, but today even when they went out on the back patio to play with the hose and ride their bikes, Maeve told me they were pretending it was a car wash with her riding through it on her bike and Rowan cleaning her with the hose. ð During some of their playing today, I was able to actually sit on the couch and read a book for bit and that usually never happens, so it was a treat. ð
And now for the comical stuff from the last couple of days...
~Yesterday when Rowan was in the bathroom going potty with me, Maeve said "Rowan, I'm gonna shut the door so no one can see your penis" ðð
~Yesterday morning I told Rowan he needed to come pick out his toy to try and earn for the day by staying dry and he said "I can't because I peed" - which isn't actually funny because he was telling the truth. Sure enough he was standing in a pee puddle, but I do applaud him for his honesty. Luckily after a number of bad days in a row not earning a toy due to accidents, he DID have a good day today and got a new little foam football. ð Heaven help me that this child will figure out how to only go in the potty before he's 10 years old.
~Zoey threw up yesterday afternoon and immediately started eating her throw up. She ate all of it and I guess I'm not complaining cause I didn't have to clean it up myself, but man, dogs are really so disgusting sometimes!!
~This morning as I took my retainers out Rowan was watching me and after they were both out he said, "Now you don't have tongues?" ððĪ
~Before dinner tonight, Maeve put on her Anna dress and Rowan put on his fireman costume and they were playing. I heard Rowan making a phone call to Maeve saying "Hi princess, I'm a fire man. Just like... what are you doing princess?" ð
Aaaaaaand now for some pictures and videos.
Yesterday I took a swig out of the big bottle and Maeve motioned that she wanted some and she got to experience drinking out of the big bottle too ð
This little boy is cruising and I guess it's about time that the dog food and water can't stay on the floor anymore...
This is what happens when the kids are in charge of cleaning up their toys. ððĪŊ It's out of control! Not sure how that is even all balancing, but needless to say, I laughed out loud when I noticed it like this and we dumped it out and did a little reshuffling.
I discovered yesterday that Nolan thinks it's pretty hilarious when I squeeze his cheeks. There is nothing better than a baby laughing so hard! The kids had to get in on the action too! ðð
Last night, Rowan said "Mommy look!" and did this new trick. I'm not sure how he even learned it or thought to try it but it was too funny!
One final thought -- why do moms have to do everything sometimes? Maeve put me in a bad mood before she went to bed tonight because she insisted that I do her reading lessons with her even though I was in the middle of nursing Nolan and Adam was sitting on the couch not doing anything. She is so stuck on it always being me that does it with her and it kind of drives me crazy. I know someday she won't want me to do anything with her and I'll be sad about it, but today is not that day. ð Luckily spewing my thoughts here put me in a better mood.
Today was a mixture of some great moments and some moments that made me want to escape and not deal with what was before me. Which really means, it was a typical day. #momlife ðð Since yesterday we did not get as much preschool in as hoped, we had more to cover today in order to finish Maeve's whole program, which she was so dead set on doing. I knew we could if we just focused, but heaven forbid everything work in my favor so that we could just focus. ð We got through some of it and before long I was dealing with Rowan peeing his pants, the dog escaping upstairs for the 5th time (she figured out how to squeeze through our gate.... ð), Nolan refusing to just go to sleep for one of his naps, and then coming to the realization that Rowan had no more clean shorts so I needed to start a load of laundry. So much for staying on task with preschool. ðŦðĪĶ Somehow after feeding the kids (side note on that: every time Rowan tells me what he wants for lunch latelt, after listing off what he wants he says "and that's enough" ð), we powered through and finished it all at a decent enough time to stop at Kroger to buy candy and soda so we could celebrate. I told Maeve we'd watch a movie and tbeh could have candy and soda to celebrate being all done! What a year of preschool! She loved it and was for the most part a happy, engaged learner which I really did appreciate. It made my job a lot more fun! We got our candy and soda and Adam ended up picking up some Blaze pizza on his way home for dinner. The timing worked out great and we were able to eat the pizza and then start Zombies (of course Maeve would pick that one) and finish it in time for Rowan to get ready for bed. It was nice to be able to relax during that final stretch before bed time and honestly... I kinda like Zombies too, so it was a win for me as well. ð The kids were so snuggly with me during the movie, which was also sweet. So it was a fun ending to a somewhat chaotic day! I got some cute pictures from our final preschool activities and our celebration:
One of the activities was smashing ice - it was a hit and they asked for a few batches of ice
I told Maeve to flex ð
This one was the final activity - trying to hit a homemade bullseye target with sponges. Action shot of Rowan's. He's got a good arm so he actually did just as well as Maeve on this one and they both hit the bullseye a few times!
Maeve hitting bullseye!
Action shot for both of them
After we finished, I had Maeve pose excitedly to show that she was ALL done with preschool and feeling great about it!!
Of course Rowan had to join in on the excitement and copy Maeve ðð
With their candy all ready for the movie!! I love that it's becoming less impossible to get a good smiling picture of them together!
Also, I forgot to mention yesterday that Rowan came up to me randomly and gave me a kiss on the cheek. It was so cute, I just wanted to remember it.
And just like that, a big chapter in our book is finished! And that's a wrap.
Alright, so maybe this is going to turn into an everyday posting minus the weekends. My routine gets a little thrown off on the weekend and I'm a little less goal oriented because I just want to have more fun. But that's as it should be, right? ðĪ
I'm certainly not going to fill in every little detail here of the last few days, but here are some memorable things worth noting...
Friday:
Sometimes kids are so badly behaved you want to lose your mind and then sometimes they're so well behaved it almost doesn't even seem real. Maeve showed the latter on Friday morning, when it was lunch time and she asked Rowan if he wanted a silver fork like her. He said yes, and then she said "okay, just remember, you can't bang it on the table!" (I normally do not like when she tries to be the mom figure, but I felt like it was tastefully said so I appreciated it.) He responded "I'll bang it just a little bit" ð to which I said "No bud, you can't bang it at all" and then he sat down and sulked quite dramatically for a moment, as he often does when he's sad about an outcome. But then (and here's the golden part of the story), Maeve took it upon herself to walk over to him, crouch down next to him, put her arm around him and say "It's okay Rowan, Mommy will let you have the fork, she just doesn't want you to bang the table at all. If you promise not to do that, she will give it to you!" and he pulled himself out of his sulking and said "okay" and then Maeve asked if she could get the fork for him, to which I of course obliged. It was so sweet to see that she could tell he needed comfort and was ready to comfort him and fix the situation. ðĨ°ðĨ° Normally I have to do that! Such a great moment that needed to go in the books.
The only other thing I'll mention about Friday is that I took Rowan out to Walmart with me and then to the dollar store to pick out a bunch of items I can give him as rewards over the coming days if he will keep his undies dry. We made a treasure chest and he was so excited about it, but to be honest I think Maeve was even more excited about it, even though it isn't for her. ð She was actually really bummed she couldn't come with us to help Rowan pick stuff out, but I wanted to take just him since I've actually never gone out with him one on one before. I felt like he needed some solid time with just me, and Adam got off work early so it was perfect. It was actually really fun to be focused on just him. He carried his purse with him, so there's that. ð Life with an older sis! ðĪĶ He was so chatty in Walmart and I just love him.
Other pics from the day:
I always find him sitting like this now, all day long. I call it the lazy man sit. Always propping himself up with the one hand. ð
I found Maeve playing with him and him on his knees like this. I about died from the cuteness! ð
Saturday:
In the morning, the kids enjoyed playing in Luna and Bear's crate. ð Just putting it to extra good use!
We then had the perfect day spending a couple hours at the pool and taking an evening bike ride. These 3 boys were at the pool and they were NOT shy and Adam was the cutest letting them climb all over him. He had all 5 kids piled on him, giving them a ride around the pool over and over. He's a champ and definitely the fun one. ð
I also tried this new sandwich recipe for dinner and it was ðð - it was basically like eating a garden on bread and the homemade dressing that went on it was so fresh and tasty. I'm kind of obsessed and it will probably become my lunch on the daily. My kind of healthy! Our bike ride afterwards was so nice. We are definitely a bike riding family and we've been doing it most weekends lately. I just listened to a podcast about the importance of being present and his good it is for us, and I realize now that's probably why I really love bike rides. It gives me an opportunity to be very much present, feel the air on my skin, notice everything around me and really take it all in. It's harder to do that when you drive, but you're very much immersed in it on a bike. It's definitely my jam and my happy place. We rode over to the snow cone shack only to find out it wasn't there! It was kind of a bummer, but luckily it is right by Chick fil A so we ended up getting a frosted lemonade instead and ice cream for the kids. It was still just as refreshing! ð
Sunday:
Another successful day of home church, and I have to say that nothing gets Rowan as fired up as singing and acting out the primary song Do as I'm Doing. It's so dang cute to watch and see him in his total happy place following Maeve around. We're officially talking about God enough around here, considering during preschool today when I pulled out some colored ice cubes and asked where the ice came from (looking for water in frozen form as the answer) and Maeve said "from God" ððð. I can't blame her too much cause the lesson was about how everything we have comes from God - the earth and everything on it, our possessions, and our bodies. She apparently listened! The rest of the day was just what I needed as I got to make some homemade Hawaiian bread, took Nolan's 7 month pictures (10 days late - I might be crushing it in some areas of my life right now, but most definitely not in this area. I missed 5 and 6 months so I'm actually proud of myself that I finally made it happen. It didn't take long to get some good pictures because he is one smiley little boy! There has never been a better baby and he is just a bundle of joy. He's starting to crawl so that is certainly going to shake things up here in a bit when he gets really good!), and then went over to the Pylant's house for a bonfire and games. We made hot dogs and smores and played Code Names and Cover Your Assets. It was a fun time for sure!!
☝️☝️He is sooo dreamy! ððð
For a fun pic comparison, here's Maeve and Rowan at 7 months. They all look pretty different to me!
Monday:
Today was one of those days where I was on my A game and we could have gotten preschool done before lunch time, but Maeve lost focus and said "hold on, Rowan and I just need to dance for a minute".... 5 hours later.... Seriously, with the exception of stopping for lunch, after dancing for a little while, they played pretend for THAT long. I was not about to interrupt their fun since they were just happy without me and playing so well. It gave me a chance to do more cleaning and shower without being bothered at all and it was quite nice and amazing that it lasted for as long as it did. So not that exciting of a day, but so great at the same time. Except for the fact that the price I paid for hours of uninterrupted time to myself to get things done was later cleaning up an accident after Rowan peed his pants. Ironically I knew he probably needed to go potty and was so torn about asking him if he wanted to go before I took a shower, but I was worried I would disturb the peace. Ultimately, I decided to let it slide and then paid for it like I thought I might. Ya win some ya lose some. He did earn a new monster truck though on Saturday for staying dry all day! ð Anwyay, I just have to share that I overheard them at one point during their playing and Maeve said to Rowan "We have no more customers. Do you want to give me a massage Rowan?" ðð - gotta love the things they pretend to do. Adam actually just told me he overheard Rowan the other day playing with his monster trucks, pretending the trucks were talking and crashing into each other exclaiming,"I'm gonna punch you in the face! I'm gonna beat you down!" ðð Boys are so crazy! The only other thing I have to say about today is that I am so over 5 year old sass and crankiness/rudeness. I feel like Maeve was so impatient/rude/demanding at times today and her tone of voice was just NOT okay. I gave her a little bit of a talking to and reminded her again at bed time that she needs to stop acting like if things aren't immediately perfect she's gonna die. Here's to hoping tomorrow is better!
Pics from today. Maeve wanted to take some selfies with me. Looking at these pics you'd think she only has the ability to be sweet! ððð
Not sure what is going on here, other than the fact that Rowan is behind that curtain. ððĪ·♀️
