Astronomy Lesson

As much as I dislike the morning scramble, I do like that I am able to take all of the kids to school. Once we arrive at daycare Evy "babysits" Will in the hallway while I take Charlie in to her room. I've found it's easier to leave Will in the hallway. If I take him into Charlie's room he's attacked by 5 three year olds who all want to see him and touch him. After leaving Charlie's room we take Will to the nursery. On the way out of the center Evy and I wave at Charlie through the window, blow her kisses, and make funny faces. Then it's on to Evy's school. When Evy jumps out of the van she always says something funny and I love this part of the day. Today I told her, "I love you to the Asteroid Belt." She responded, "I love you to Saturn!" Saturn happens to be further away from Earth than the Asteroid Belt. At age 5 she's already smarter than me!

Meal Time

 

I absolutely hate meal times. I'm not sure where we've gone wrong, but we have two children who are extremely picky and take an hour to eat two bites of food. Evy is particularly bad. This morning I am forcing her to eat a whole wheat bagel with jelly on it. She says the bread tastes bad. She won't eat certain brands of hot dogs because they "taste different" she has refused pancakes when the syrup is not the same that she is used to. We go through this battle with every meal. The amount of time and food wasted in our house is maddening. 

Dancer

Charlie started dance lessons this year and she loves it! After her first lesson she said, "I want to do that again!" There are 17 kids in her class which is just nuts. We are able to watch them on a TV monitor and it's organized chaos as the teacher attempts to get 17 three year olds to sit in a circle and then follow instructions. Our good friend Ellie is a teacher's assistant in Charlie's class which has been fun for all of us. I can't believe how tall and thin she looks in this picture!

School Days

We are two weeks into our new daycare/school/work schedule and my it's exhausting! I get up at 6 a.m. and get myself mostly ready. I cannot get dressed this early in the process, otherwise I will end up with spit up, jelly, or a wide variety of other items smeared on my work clothes. At 6:45 I wake up the girls and get them moving so that by 7 a.m. they are eating breakfast. It takes Evy 30 minutes to eat a half of a bagel and Charlie eats pretty much nothing. While they are "eating" I pick out their clothes, distribute vitamins, pack backpacks, pack my lunch and try to remember what other items need to be lugged along this morning (a family picture for crafts at daycare? Three clean outfits for Will because he spit up on all of them yesterday? A library book that needs to be returned? A white T-shirt for tie-dying? The morning snack for the Kindergarten class? A check for PTO?). At 7:15 I wake Will up and give him his bottle. While feeding Will I bark commands at the girls "Eat your breakfast!" "Please eat!" "You have got to hurry up and eat!" "Go potty!" "Brush your teeth!" "Please get dressed!" "Get dressed!" By 7:30 I start to sweat. I help Charlie get dressed, brush hair and get shoes and jackets on. I circle back through the house to make sure that lights are off, toilets are flushed and no sinks are running (yes this has happened before). I put my clothes on knowing that there is minimal amount of time for them to be wiped out by the kids. By 7:45 we are loading into the van. I make one or two trips back into the house to grab whatever has been forgotten. The girls fight over toys while I drive to daycare to drop off Charlie and Will. At 8:10 we are back in the van and on the way to Evy's school. Around 8:20 I pull into the car line and Evy unbuckles herself and puts her backpack on. She hops out of the van and says "Wish me luck!" Then the van is quiet and I enjoy 11 minutes of silence as I drive to my office building. The good news is that by 8:30 a.m. I have completed the most difficult part of my day. Cheers!

3 Months Old

 

3 months old! Will is still eating 4 oz. on a pretty regular 3 hour schedule. At night he eats around 10:30 p.m. and makes it to somewhere between 5 and 7 a.m. before he's ready to eat again. I really prefer the 7 a.m. feeding! We are still using the crazy expensive formula which definitely helps his gassy stomach. He's also on an acid reflux medicine, although I'm not sure how much it is helping. He spits up like crazy. This month Will attended several back to school events for his sisters, started daycare, and attended his first Hawkeye tailgate. He is a pretty happy baby who takes great naps!

Charlie's 3rd Birthday Party

 

The only time that I attempt to be crafty and creative is at birthday time. Every year the girls get to pick their cake theme. Charlie started out wanting a Peppa the Pig theme, then she talked about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and then Frozen. Finally she settled on My Little Pony and I told her she couldn't change her mind again because I needed at least a week's notice! Evy informed me that Apple Jack is not a "sky pony"...silly mom, but luckily Charlie didn't seem to mind that I didn't get it exactly right. We celebrated at home with family and shared the celebration with Scott's birthday. Charlie got great clothes, books, a snuggly blanket, Twinkle Toes shoes and a ticket to an upcoming Disney Live celebration. What a great way to celebrate turning 3!

Will's First Day at Daycare

I started back to work today, which means Will was off to daycare. It's easier to drop your baby off when you know it's for less than 30 hours per week. When I dropped Evy off it was for 50 hours per week and that was devastating. The nursery at our daycare is operated much better than when Evy started and the entire thing just felt better. Last night I used our label maker to label his pacifiers and bottles. His pacifiers have tiny little labels that read "Will" and I hope this helps reduce the number of times the staff sticks the wrong pacifier in his mouth! The girls were excited that it was Will's first day of school! I dropped him off around 8 a.m. and picked him up at about 3:30. He was being held when I picked him up and that's always reassuring. They said he had a great day (what else are they going to say???). He ate on his normal schedule but only napped in 20 minute increments. That's exactly what the girls did.  

And now he is exhausted. He has been sleeping most of the evening.