Middle Child

Jane talks a lot. Ben cries a lot. They get a lot of attention.

Megan is pretty chill and just goes with whatever's happening. And she gets less attention because of it. Less than two months with three kids and already we're battling Middle Child Syndrome.

Let's give Megan some attention, shall we?

Megan likes to just hang out. As I said, she'll just go along with whatever. She is often content to just be.

I don't get many pictures of her on her own because she rarely leaves Jane alone. The recent pictures of just her are, in fact, courtesy of Jane and a consequence of Mom leaving the camera within reach and unsupervised.

She is pretty photogenic though, isn't she? Her hair was actually done up very cute in that last picture...too bad that's the part of her head that's cut off.

The latest and greatest excitement in Megan's life is a new toddler bed. I was hesitant to add one more level of crazy to our lives, but it was basically a seamless transition. The mattress and bedding are all straight from the crib, so it feels exactly the same to her; the only difference is she can get in and out herself. She loves it and will often just sit on her bed at random times during the day.

I was mostly worried about Jane keeping her awake or coaxing her out of bed when it's time to be going to sleep. In a week, that hasn't happened at all. Mornings, though, are another story. Generally what wakes me up in the morning is Megan stomping around saying, "Mommy! Mommy!" and Jane running on tiptoes saying, "Shhhh, Megan! Be quiet or you'll wake them up!" It's actually pretty amusing. Sometimes I stay in my room longer just because I think it's funny to listen to them.

Next step: take down the crib.

As much as I'd like to just give the attention to Megan, I really can't say anything about her and keep Jane out. As you may have already noticed. They get along well for the most part.

Megan will let Jane boss her around as long as it suits her, but when she's done, she's done and will find something else to do, regardless of what Jane thinks. She's big enough, too, that Jane can't really push her around. For as quiet as Megan is, she's just as opinionated.

Most of the time, though, they are good friends. Their current favorite is playing with the dollhouse.

The dolls in residence are Troy and Aberlina. I'll let you guess who named them. Come over sometime and I'll introduce you.

Despite how hard it is having three kids, I think I'll keep 'em. All of them. :)

Our "School Player"

Introducing our first ever preschooler!

Jane will be attending preschool two days a week in the afternoons. She has been so excited to go to school! Can you tell?

Megan wanted to get in on the picture action...

Jane's favorite activity when she gets home is homework. No, they have not given 3-year-olds homework. Jane's "homework" is writing in her notebook. And when I say "writing" I mean scribbling and attempting the six or seven letters she tries to imitate.
 

This is her current best attempt at writing her name. Even though they are not in the right order, she at least has some semblance of the correct four letters. I call that progress.
 

 The week before school started, we got Jane's hair cut. I love her long hair, but it was getting straggly at the end and didn't look very nice.

I took her to Cookie Cutters. She loved the car and the movie, but it took a good bit of bribery to get her to wear the cape. Once she got over that, though, she had a good time.

I think it turned out quite well. Nothing drastic, just evening out the ends. Now it can keep growing straight. (Side note...it still seems weird to me sometimes how different my girls' hair is from each other and from mine. Who knew I would have a blond child? And at the same time, who knew there would only be one?)

My girl is growing up! When we were walking home from school on Monday, I asked her what she did in class. Her response: "Nothing." Ah! I thought that wouldn't start for a few years at least.

She has since told me all about the sun, clouds, families, and walking feet in the halls. We also must all sit on our pockets now if we're on the floor. Good to know she's learning something, even if she still thinks she's only playing at school. :)

Mother's Retreat

My 30 day book meme attempt at reinvigorating my blogging mojo didn't work. This temporary slacking is a little more complicated than just having nothing to say.

To put it mildly, having three kids is kicking my trash. Not going well.

No one likes to admit that they're not amazing, but I found it rather unavoidable for me this time. Why? I had to leave. Being with all three kids all day long was getting progressively worse day by day, and I knew we were about to hit critical mass. Bad. So, I came up with a grand plan to prevent disaster.

In short, I sent my kids away. And then I left, too.

While Chris took the girls to his parents' house in Aberdeen, Ben and I went to a hotel for Friday night. My purpose was two-fold: 1) evaluate why I want to be a mother and how I want to do it, and 2) just have a break.

When I checked into the hotel, the receptionist asked if I was there for business or pleasure. I said business. My job is being a mom, and that's what I was there to work on. Business it is.

It was quite the spiritual adventure, I must say. I prayed a lot, read a lot, and wrote a lot. I have over forty pages written in my journals just from that one night and morning.

What I learned is a different post for another day. Suffice it to say, I have a much bigger perspective on the work that I'm really doing now.

It was nice having Ben with me. One tiny baby is much, much easier to handle than a baby and a toddler and a preschooler. For the most part, he was quite content to let me do my work.

When he was awake, though, his happy smiles helped me remember that being a mom really is worth the effort.

I spent Friday night in the hotel. Saturday was a day of doing whatever I wanted. Ah, it was glorious. A few things I particularly enjoyed:

I ate an entire candy bar. All by myself. No one even asked for a bite.

I took a shower with no fear of property damage.

I left a pen on the floor and none of its ink ended up on the wall.

None of my bookmarks came out of my books.

I listened to the radio in the car and no one yelled at me because I didn't hear them talking.

I bought a Christmas present and no one saw it.

There wasn't any grand miraculous fix in just that one weekend, but I was much more ready to see the girls again come Sunday night when they came home. It will still take some time to get life how I'd really like it to be, but we're headed in the right direction now, and I know where it is I want to get. And if nothing else, I got a lot of sleep this weekend.

To those of you who already have three kids, kudos to you on surviving (hopefully better than me). Any tips you want to share? To those of you who are still headed in that direction, I wish you luck. :)

Maybe now I can get back to documenting all the fun things we've done, even during this little rough patch. Like what Chris and the girls did in Idaho. And Megan's new toddler bed. And Jane's first day of preschool--how did I miss blogging that?! Come back soon for those posts. It'll be great.

Handsome Little Man

I am overwhelmed today by how many people came to show their love and support for our family. We had quite the party going.

Ben, as star of the show, was decked out in his finest. He looked just like a miniature deacon! I was a little distracted by the roughly 50 people having lunch at our house, so this is the best Ben-only picture I got showing his outfit.

 
But really, the shoes were the best part. Thanks, Wendi! Ah! So cute. I am quite enjoying little boy clothes after more than three years of only little girl clothes.

The blessing was wonderful. I am so so grateful that Chris holds the priesthood and is able to do this for our children. The things shared in the blessing are just a small glimpse into how strong a spirit our little man really is, and how special he is to our Heavenly Father.

I can't say we've ever had quite so many people at our house all at the same time--these people must like us or something. Or they were just hungry.

Lunch was good. We had a potluck barbeque. I don't think we've ever had quite so much fruit at our house all at the same time--Megan was in heaven.

 
For most of the time, Ben slept in the bedroom. All this excitement just for him and he slept right through it. Ha.

He did wake up eventually, and introduced himself to many of the relatives he had yet to meet.

 
(This is just a funny picture because he was mid-sneeze.)

 
Last but not least, we had just a few minutes to snap some blessing day family pictures. It occurred to me that I never did any family pictures on either of the girls' blessing days, so we should today. But then, I think that's part of what made me forget to get a good one of just Ben in his outfit. Oh, well. I can dress him up again later.

Thank you again to everyone who came!

Ben's Mirthday

JeriLynn, I think it was, talked about her son's "mirthday"--his one month birthday. I liked the idea. So I stole it. Thanks, JeriLynn.

Happy Mirthday, Ben!
One month old on Saturday, August 27

Let's start with our size comparison. Thanks, Tannie, for letting me steal that idea. I'm all about idea thievery lately.

3 Days

1 Month

No, I did not intentionally get him screaming both times. It just happened that way because it was the only time he was in the car seat both days. But you can tell that he's already getting longer, and he definitely has NOT plumped up. When you hold him he is all arms and legs. He is looking less newborn, but he's still tall and skinny. Like his dad.

Contrary to what his car seat pictures may suggest, Ben is an extremely mellow baby. Thank goodness. We were due for a mellow one.

I am not one to put babies on a schedule--that can come when they're bigger. However, he has quite conveniently put himself on a pretty darn consistent schedule. As long as he's fed and changed and we're not going anywhere, he will sleep from 8:00 to 11:00 each morning, 12:30 to 4:30 each afternoon, and 6:00-8:00 each evening. Almost on the dot, every day. During the night, he only wakes up twice, if that. Then he's up at 6:45 and happy to start again. The only problem with this schedule is that he is always awake when everyone else is eating. Makes cooking tricky.


Speaking of happy, he smiled for the first time yesterday! Oh, it just makes you melt.

His sisters still love him...a little too much. Jane is very helpful with getting diapers or burp rags, and she'll sit with him and keep him company while I make lunch or dinner.


We are blessing Ben this coming Sunday. Let me know if you want to come!! It'll be quite the party, with many people staying at our house for the weekend and several (as in lots and lots) more coming over for lunch after church. Should be quite the party. We're excited to see you all!


P.S. I've added Day 21-30 of my book list. I post-dated it for last Monday, so it won't show up on the top of the list. Go back and read it. Please. And leave a comment when you're done. Pretty please. :)

My Foul Ball

As I have mentioned before, Chris will occasionally help a friend of ours with his fireworks shows. Most often, it's the fireworks at the Slat Lake Bees baseball games.

Last Saturday, Chris was only helping with the actual show (fire control) and clean-up afterward, so the kids and I went along just for fun. Sweet deal--hang out with Chris and watch a ball game (or at least pretend...we didn't actually care...) until the very end of the game. Sit in the stands with just the kids and me for the last inning, watch the fireworks, and go home. No problem.

Part one worked great. The girls had all kinds of fun running up and down the hill.


We shared some snacks.



And Ben took a nice little nap.


Good times.


Part two, however, failed. Miserably.

By the time we cleared out of the grassy area (because of the coming fireworks show) and settled in to the stands, we were all wearing down. The girls were tired and bored and hungry. I was tired and bored and hungry. And I assume Ben was tired and bored and hungry, too, because he was anything but content. As any mother of small children will attest, this was a very bad combination.

So, there we are. Sitting on the end of a row in the stands, Ben screaming in the ring sling, Jane doing anything she possibly can to run away from me, Megan eating laffy taffy candy she peeled off the ground. I gave her a pacifier just to get her to stop doing that, but she threw it on the ground repeatedly and put it right back in her mouth. So disgusting. Let me just say that a baseball game is not the best place to take three very small children by yourself...it wasn't going well.

And then I got hit by a foul ball.

Yes, you read that correctly. I looked up just in time to see the ball coming straight at us. My only instinct was to wrap my arms around Ben, and I only barely had time to do that before that ball made serious contact with my right knee.

Ouch. To put it mildly. In my head, it was quite a bit louder and may have included a few additional choice words. But only in my head. As far as anyone around me let on, they all assumed it had grazed Megan's arm. No one said a word about me.

Worst part? The ball rolled away and some lady down the row in front of us caught it. All that, and I didn't even get to keep the ball.

I told Chris and he reported it to the medics (without my knowledge, incidentally) who brought me an ice pack. I'll let you guess how long it managed to stay on my knee, considering the aforementioned child situation.

To add insult to injury, a storm blew in and the wind picked up quite a bit. We had to sit for a good half hour after the game ended (as if the game counted for anything) before they even did the fireworks. Several people around me got up and left, apologizing all the way. Apparently my stressful situation was obvious...but they still left. Sigh.

Luckily, we did get to see the fireworks. I was worried that after all that, they would be cancelled altogether. Thankfully, the show did go on, and it was a definite redeeming point to the whole adventure. It was a very good show. Good job, Wendi and Tony! And Chris, too.


I will say, I am extremely grateful that the ball didn't hit any of my kids. Ben was on my chest, Megan was standing between my knees, Jane was standing right next to me. The ball went in the only possible open spot between them all to hit me. If it had to hit someone, I'm glad it was me and not them.

Here is my knee three days later. The swelling has gone down significantly. Hopefully in another day or two I'll be able to walk up and down stairs again.


In the meantime, I'm not sure I'll be attending any more baseball games. Or if I do, we'll find a babysitter first.

Day 21-30

Day Twenty-One

Favorite Book from my Childhood


Heckedy Peg
by Don and Audrey Wood

I still have my copy from when I was a kid, and I have yet to let my girls look at it without my direct supervision. I liked this book so much I even rewrote it with months of the year instead of days of the week.

Day Twenty-Two
Favorite Book I Own

Seriously?! Have you seen my house? My bookcases are overflowing. I like them all so much I just have to buy them. If I read a lot but didn't own, this might be a more relevant question. For the moment, I am going to skip this. I'll add my answer to this in with Day 30.

Day Twenty-Three
A Book I have always wanted to read but still haven't


Wuthering Heights
by Emily Bronte

I feel like I should have read this a long time ago. I even own it (see why 22 doesn't work?) and still haven't read it. Not sure why I think I should...the only thing I actually know about it are that the late Heath Ledger and his sister were named after the main characters. Maybe it's a dumb book and it's not worth my time. Who knows...I'll probably still never read it. But I still think I should...

Day Twenty-Four
The Character I Relate with the Most

I don't like this one. I have no idea. So I made a new one for this day.

Funniest Book I've Read Recently

The Willoughbys
by Lois Lowry

Thank you again, Kate, for introducing me to this one. It's about four children who want to be old-fashioned, so they set out to be orphans. Their parents decide they would be happier without children, so they set out to get rid of them. Trust me, it's hilarious. I reread it while I was in the hospital with Ben.

Day Twenty-Five
A Book you wish More People would Read


The Westing Game
by Ellen Raskin

I first read this when I was in sixth grade. I have since read it many times, including once with each class I taught at Providence. I think it is very clever, and well worth the read. Read it.

Day Twenty-Six
A Book that Changed my Opinion about Something

I Didn't Plan to be a Witch
by Linda Eyre

I actually just read this book last Friday (yes, the whole thing). It's a book about being a mother, and I couldn't have read it at a more perfect time. I'm planning a post on the Village soon about it. Keep a watch out there if you want to know more.

Day Twenty-Seven
Most Surprising Plot Twist or Ending


The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
by Agatha Christie

I have read literally dozens of Agatha Christie mysteries, and many, many other mysteries by different authors. I feel like I'm pretty good at solving the whodunit long before the last page. This one? Holy cow. I never saw it coming. If you only read one Agatha Christie book ever, pick this one.

Day Twenty-Eight
Favorite Title

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
by Robert M. Pirsig

I read chunks of this in college, though I must confess that I still really have no idea what this book is even about. But I do think the title is clever.

Day Twenty-Nine
A Book Everyone Hated but I Liked

Spoon River Anthology
by Edgar Lee Masters

Masters went through a cemetery and wrote short poems describing the imagined lives of each name on a gravestone. I read this book in a drama class my senior year in high school. It makes for a dramatic performance piece in reciting the poems, and it makes for an interesting personal read as well. That said, most other students in that drama class hated it. But I was intrigued.

Day Thirty
Favorite Book of All Time

As I mentioned before, this one book could easily fit half of this list. Like days 1, 2, 5, 6, 9, 10, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19, 20, 21, 22, 25, and 26. I tried not to overlap, and yet this book has already hit the list twice. Any guesses?

Referring back to day 22, my favorite book I own would have to be my four copies of this book.


Going through this 30-day list made me want to read it again. This time around, I picked the small red copy.

Yes, Pride and Prejudice is my all-time favorite book. Any questions?

And there you go. 30 "days" of my book experiences. Hope you found it at least mildly interesting.