10/18/20 instastories

Rough night. Liam went into the crib awake. He never fell asleep but I did. (Then I went back in an hour or more later. He had a snack at 5 AM.  He was still awake for awhile.  Dave let me sleep in a bit and then Liam came up asking for milk. Liam moved a step stool and climbed up on the counter.  He also tried to cook. He climbed up on a chair. He liked his hooded towel. Liam climbed again. This time to the tub. He turned on the water. Liam worked really hard to push the hamper down the hall.  I keep the step stool up on the counter when not in use now. Liam is a helper.  The kids play on the mattress in the closet. It's our old mattress. We have to recycle it.  Miles teaches Liam to climb up on the back of the couch. Liam stood beside poly and Petted her. Liam sat on the couch.  Liam tried to vacuum. I drew a pumpkin face with my eyes closed! Liam got to sleep and I did sit-ups.

#itsmomchallenge Week 3

May 17-May 23

We jumped in the puddle in our driveway. I even got Liam out of his little car to jump. 

To my surprise we walked a mile to find all the puddles. I don't usually push the red car that far since it's so loud. Miles walked the entire way. When Ella is around, nobody wants to walk so long.

After our walk, we had our family meeting outside. everyone climbs all over me.

And it worked! Typo above!

Ella and I finished making her crowns so we could drop them off to her friends.  i have time lapse video of us but it's too much trouble to insert a million videos.

Longest run in 4.5 years. I had one slightly shorter than this in November 2019.

I took these photos to remember the everyday. He doesn't often sleep sitting up on me.

Look closely at his head!

Ella's PE class was field day. They told everyone to get siblings and parents involved.  Miles wouldn't do it, so then I did. It's so weird to do a zoom field day compared to the awesome field days they would normally have.

School almost always looks the same.

A new long run since 2015.

Look at that tight hug.

Liam helped me lower his crib. 

I probably included these pictures but then I did a summary. I actually ran again so this was not even the total! i ran 20.0 total in a week. 

I know I'm not in this one but its also the family meeting.

Weekly family meeting but this week it was outside at Murphy Park.

Here i am trying to get to the car and all the kids climb into the wagon. (Well Liam was already in it.)

(I rearranged the furniture holding Liam but that's a video so you have to check out the album for it.)

Sleep (1.28.20)

It must really suck being the youngest and having siblings that have places to be. I am always having to wake up Liam. I hate when I go in and opening the door doesn't even wake him. Then I feel so bad for having to wake him up.  I have tried to get him out of the sleep sack and into the car still asleep but once we are in the hallway he is awake. This photo was when I had to wake him to go to gymnastics. But I have this type of thing happen at least once a week but sometimes a half dozen times!

Photo Taken January 28, 2020.

#itsmomchallenge (Week 2)

I'm still doing the challenge. I felt like I had to take more good pictures so I took more than 1 a day.  Some are better than others. I also made a list of some various things I want to get pictures of like playing or crafting things with the kids. I do them so often but am never in the pictures. I'm thinking more about asking people to take my picture too. 

The pictures on the right are examples of the pictures I always take. The picture on the left is one I took including me!

The middle picture shows me with them. Usually I would take the left and right versions. My fingers are in the right picture. I'm reading this book to Liam per Ella's request. We read it more than once.

Dave was still cooking when I made this collage.  I used my phone on a tripod to take the pictures of the table. It was a little abnormal since I was giving a bottle that I had warmed up. Usually I would be nursing if Liam was hungry during dinner.

Well then after Dave was done cooking, he actually joined us at the table.  This is rare. The electronics on the table are not rare. Usually I have a laptop there even if I don't use it at all.  You can even see in the window reflection that the TV is on.

Miles wanted a hug with my whole body. That's is way of saying put Liam down and hug me.  I hugged him and hugged him more and then I took the pictures. They aren't the best pictures but they were the best I could do. I wanted to document his desire for a hug.

Miles will often ask to hold Liam. Usually it's while I'm nursing so he can't actually do it. But he holds him a decent amount of time. If he starts crawling Miles will try to get up immediately.

Friday started off with a Mother's Day Brunch at preschool. I tried to get someone to take our picture as a family but they didn't seem to hear me and then I'd be interrupted or Ella would be up.  For the bottom picture, I asked Miles if he wanted to pose for a picture and that's what he did.  Later Ella gave me my gift and was so happy about it. 

Next up was going to another preschool. Mile made a card. Most kids put tons and tons of decorations on but he went more minimalist and just put 1 thing on.  He kept opening it up and telling me "I love you."  I loved it. He was so proud. Granted he kept saying it was for Love Day versus Mother's Day. Love Day is what Daniel Tiger called Valentine's Day.

I took some selfies at school then thought I'd prop the camera and took pictures. I accidentally made the first collage with the selfies.  This is just one of the tables of activities. Miles loves preschool. We play together. He calls it "Mommy's preschool" since I go and the other preschool he goes to it but I do not stay.

After school, we went to a birthday party. We were late. I was exhausted. Miles was napping. Ella was at school. We got there late and the kids had a blast. We probably only got to attend about half of it. That bite being taken of pizza in the top photo is the only bite taken the entire party.

I had laundry in the dryer for 3 days and never got to folding it. When I finally folded it, I had Miles on my lap the entire time. I had Dave take our picture. Ella is asleep beside me too.

We played with blocks. I was impressed with Ella being able to create something that was pictured on the box. 

I always seem to have a kid on me when I'm trying to eat. My arms weren't long enough to get a proper picture of them both on me.  

I often sit beside the kids as they hold Liam so that I make sure they support his neck. But then I may get up to take a picture. Well here I got myself in a few.  Maybe some day I'll actually brush my hair.

I have pictures like this of Liam too. I need to make a collage to compare the size difference.

With growth spurt Liam going on this or nursing is 95% of my day.

We finally did foot prints and hand prints for the baby book and for the sibling books. They were supposed to be done right when Liam came home from the hospital

Sometimes I wish I had go go gadget arms to get far enough away to get everyone on the picture. 

In the morning while I was nursing Liam, Miles was talking to me nonstop. I tried to get him to go wake Dave but he wouldn't. Then he was lying on the ottoman and sliding back and forth. I thought it was fine then all of a sudden he cried and showed me his hurt finger. It had skin hanging off. I said to go wake Dave for a bandaid. He was willing for that. It was more than scraped skin and there was a cut so Dave put some polysporin on too. 

I have long arms but sometimes not long enough to get everything in a picture. I'm not sure why Miles wanted to cuddle with me but he did.

When the kids get older will they ever remember anything about nap time? Will they remember how they hated going to sleep and getting them down took forever? Will they remember how they could stall? 

Liam is 1 month old. I wanted to get dressed first but I never get time. I did the photo shoot except for pictures of myself. We took pictures in the chair and then on the floor. I decided to record with time lapse when we were in the loft.

Dave was sick but he went in the car for drop off so Liam could stay in the car. He cried the entire time at preschool so at Safeway I ran in taking him. So Dave sat in the car by himself. I was going to be quick so I just held him. I got a cart since I was getting juice and milk.

The second part of the photo shoot for Liam included me. He just got hit with being sick so he was miserable and close ups of his face you could tell his eyes were puffy.

5/14

Miles kept using his pretend phone to take pictures. He kept telling people to "say cheese" but they never did then he'd get mad. I said I'd say cheese but then eh was mad I was saying cheese to my camera not his. I said I was saying it to his and just taking a picture with mine.

This isn't even all of them that I posted on instagram but sometimes I posted individual photos or videos and I didn't spend the time to include them all here. I still spent well over an hour putting this post together so that later I have something to look back on.