I know I'm a slacker...

I know, I know. No posts since January. We really just don't have much interesting going on! Besides the normal madcap antics of a 4, 2, and 6 month old anyway...Just a few quick updates on each gremlin, uh, precious gift.

AMELIA: Is really growing up and maturing. She still has her moments, of course, but I'm very proud of her. She loves to help me and almost drives me crazy in the morning making sure that I have the other two kids dressed before we leave the house. She likes to help too much sometimes! She is still full of a bazillion questions a day. Right now she is in a phase where she wants us to spell everything for her or want to know what a word is. I have a feeling that if I took the time to work with her one-on-one, she'd be reading. She has a hilarious imagination and uses it freely. She loves to play "I'm the mom and you're the itty bitty [baby]."



JAMES: Gives me a heart attack at least once a day. His favorite phrase right now is "MOM. WATCH THIS!" Usually followed by a leap off the back of the couch or table or toilet or or or... :) He is in a whiny stage that I remember all too well from Amelia. I see lots of time spent in the whiny chair in our future. He is eating better, though not well. He will at least eat most meat and a few fruits. Still only one or two veggies he will touch. I think there's about a 6 pound difference between he and Naomi. He loves to sing and talks way more than Amelia did at this age. He is ALL BOY all the time! Loves the dog, the dirt, water, running, kicking, hitting, etc. He is going to keep me on my toes! We have a new deck and he will spend hours playing out there. He is still my best sleeper, often sleeping 10-12 hours a night.


NAOMI: Is growing too fast! She just turned 6 months and is already trying to crawl. She's got the rocking back and forth down and can lurch forward a little bit. I'm not ready for her to be mobile! She sits very well and is usually very happy. Well, she's either very, very happy or very, very mad. There's not much in between! She is very playful. She loves the tub. She has ridiculously beautiful eyes that elicit comments every time we're out in public. The girl likes to eat. Loves her mama food and her baby food! (Side note: James just walked downstairs with one of Amelia's baby dolls and wearing one of her bracelets...hilarious.) She is not a fan of naps or sleeping through the night, though we do get that occasionally. She is very loud, whether happy or not. James and Amelia both love to play with her and fight over whose turn it is to hold her. Amelia can make her belly laugh better than any of us.

So, there you have it. :)

And One and Two and One and Two and...

So, we got this hair-brained idea to do a sprint triathlon this year. Yes, we are insane. I have not run since my freshman year of college. I have not been on a bike for probably 7-8 years. I do not swim well. So we have our work cut out for us. We joined the gym in November. I finally went for the first time two weeks ago. And let me tell you, I have really been enjoying it! In fact, I didn't go today and I miss it! It is such a nice little refresher for Mommy. We generally go right after dropping Amelia off at school. I have been mainly working on the treadmill and bike for now, but will be changing my 'norm' a little bit to follow the training schedule more closely. I figure the people who designed the schedule know what they're doing far, far better than I do! This is just a sprint tri, so it will be a quarter mile swim, a nine-mile bike ride, and a 2 mile run. The swimming is what concerns me the most. And after my first time in the pool the other night, that concern was very justified. I was waiting for PETA to show up to rescue the beached whale. Oh, was that painful. And I didn't even do that much! I thought Jesus was callin' me home after the first couple of laps. Hopefully by June, I'll be able to swim more than flounder! And maybe I should buy a bike... :D

Sleep? Please?

Mommy is tired. Naomi has been such a good sleeper up until now. For the past 7-10 days, she has been up 2-3 times a night. I'm guessing it's another growth spurt as she acts like she's starving every time! But to compound the issue, James has been waking up around 6. And then Amelia runs into our room yelling "JAMES IS AWAAAAKE!" Thank you, honey. This morning it was 5:45. I guess the positive side to this is that we are rarely rushed for school in the morning! But I am so tired! We've tried letting them just stay up a little later, but they still wake up at the same time and are just cranky because they didn't get enough sleep. I'm thinking of instituting a "can't come out until we say it's ok!" policy! James is still in a crib and (so far) can't get out by himself. He does however, stand there and yell "MOOOOOOOOMMMMMMY!" repeatedly. Hmmm. Dilemmas dilemmas. Anyone have any experience or advice? Help? Please?

"Annie"

Well, it hasn't been as easy to keep this updated with 3! But I'm going to try to get back into it again. Instead of catching you up on the past 3 crazy months, we'll just start from the present. So, Robert and I have talked about how we think it's important to do things with the kids that will leave fun memories for them. While the younger two are still a bit young for a ton of adventures that they'd actually remember, Amelia is getting to the age where we can do more with her. And we still plan on going lots of fun things with the whole family, too, but today was Amelia's special day. She loves "Annie." I can't tell you how many times we have watched that video. So many times I've wanted to hide it on more than one occasion! Anyway...the musical version is in town this week, so Amelia and I went this morning. She loved it. She wanted her hair curly like Annie. She wanted to wear her special red Christmas dress (which she paired so nicely with Snow White socks and dress shoes). She woke up at 5. FIVE. The rest of us did not. :) She did get a little antsy toward the end; after all, the show did start at 11 and go until almost 2. But by and large, she did very well and kept saying "I just can't believe this!" She was hilarious! I'm so thankful I got over the stomach bug in time to take her today. And I look forward to many more of these times together!

Adjusting

I know it has been way too long since I've posted anything. Life has been a circus. Adjust to three has been much more difficult and exhausting than I could have imagined. It makes two seem very easy. We do love our little Naomi! She has been fun and a big source of the exhaustion. :) She likes to cry much more than the other two ever did, starting about 8 PM and usually lasting for 3-4 hours. Thankfully, it's not every single night and by that time, the other two are in bed so we can focus just on her. She also does NOT like her car seat and likes to let us know by screaming about 80% of the times we are in the car. I am thankful that she is my third if she's going to be a crier! I don't think I would have handled it nearly as well as a first-time mom!

We are all adjusting. Amelia and James love Naomi to pieces. James loves to hold her, but is done after about 20 seconds. We have to remind Amelia often that while she is a "big girl," she is not big enough to carry Naomi around. Amelia has been showing some mean streaks at school and many, many mean streaks at home. She is very gentle with Naomi, but not so much with James or the poor dog. James runs to sit in my lap when Naomi starts crying so that I cannot go get her (at least that theory works in his mind!). He has reverted back to wanting to be held constantly and only by Mommy, but all-in-all, he has adjusted much better than I expected him to.

I will post more later. The baby is crying yet again and I need to get Amelia ready for dance class while figuring out what to have for dinner so we can eat before 8 tonight!

Tonight, tonight!

Finally! I feel like I've been pregnant FOREVER! We will be going in tonight to begin induction. I've been induced before, so I'm not too worried about that process. Just anxious to hold Naomi on the OUTside of my body! Amelia has been stressed. Please pray for her if you think about it. She's very excited about Naomi coming, but I think she's also worried about Mommy. James knows something is going on, but is rather oblivious. :) We will keep you posted!

The Countdown's Getting Lower Every Day!

We are so close to the end. I'm anxious to hold Naomi on the outside of my body, but still apprehensive about having 3 bambinos to look after! I have very little energy right now, but am overall feeling okay. The blood sugars have been good. The placenta is still too low, so in two weeks they will do a final ultrasound to determine if we need to schedule a c-section or not. I really, really do not want to go that route, however, I do want Naomi to be safely delivered, so I won't put up too much of a fuss. :) I guess the good thing is we would know when she's coming! And if I do have to have the c-section, I will have plenty of help. Amelia is already calling Naomi her "best friend." So sweet. :)