Ten on Tuesday

1. Our friends the Clarks from our Dragonflies soccer family brought us a full, delicious meal for dinner this evening and this adorable dragonfly onesie for E so he is ready for the coming season.  We are so lucky to have happened on to this particular soccer team and have made some wonderful new friends as a result.  Thanks to the Clarks and all our new dragonfly friends. 

2.  Here is E in the cradle my dad made for me when I was a baby. We haven't used it too often in the night as it is almost too close to use and we end up waking him up or vice versa with little noises.  We do use it for naps and as a "safe" place for him to rest while I get ready or take a shower.  It is amazing how quickly he is filling it up though and it will soon be ready for a new home and for us to add his name to the bottom with all the other friends and family that have shared this special bed. 

3.  It is sort of becoming a weekly photo ritual for me to catch these two together just hanging out. I love the size differential and how much my husband loves babies, ours in particular, but he really does seem to love all babies.  I'm a lucky lady to have all these awesome guys around.

4.  We have some ongoing struggles with M.  There are some improvements and a sense that she is "hearing"us on some of the behaviors, but then there are other times where it is a hot mess.  She is a fan of the iPad though and earns some electronics time through good behavior.  Humorously she has taken to calling it the "ipa pa" in imitation of her little cousin Zane who is a big iPad fan as well.

5.  On Sunday, we got to spend a quiet morning and into the afternoon with Brent's parents and the  Jones family.  Above, Bill is doing little mini-lego kits with the bigger kids.  Matthew is maybe warming up to us a little, which is good as we're spending four days with them later in the week in Dallas!  This should be fun and is our first real road trip in the new van and with lil'E.  We shall see how that goes.  Here's hoping!

6.  Last week was crazy hard on the parenting front for me so we're making some changes this week to try and even it out.  Yesterday, we went to the farm to hang out with Grandma and Uncle Able for awhile.  Here the big kids are splashing in the pool before it got too terribly hot.  We did lots of puzzles, had tasty veggies and fruits, took a lovely afternoon nap and mostly held it all together which is a big bonus.  

7.  Our next change is heading back to the gym.  This is absolutely necessary for my health as I have a lot of weight to lose to get back to a size and fitness level I can be happy with.  I've been to Zumba twice this week and am glad to be there again.  I will re-start my C25K training this week too.  Another bonus is that the Y has childcare and other kids for mine to play with so it is a win all around.  I'm told E did well on his first day today and the big kids seemed glad to be back there.  One of the childcare staffers was so sweet and encouraging about the work I have ahead and life with three kids.  It felt good to be back.

8.  Brent and I went on a date, just the two of us, for a couple hours on Sunday afternoon.  Brent's parent's watched the little kids and B went to Preston's birthday party (he LOVED seeing his old buddies again).  We didn't do anything too exciting, but enjoyed being able to have a conversation without being interrupted and the ease of time just us.  Who knows when this might happen again, but it as a lovely two hours.

9.  The big kids are really into lego building these days.  M usually sticks with the duplo set and B has a multitude of "big kid" LEGO things to explore or sometimes he rejoins M in the duplo world. This week Grammy & Granddaddy gave M this new LEGO DUPLO Read & Build Busy Farm set which perfectly combines our love of books and all things LEGO.  Also, it is a toddler accessible way to introduce the instructions they will see in kits for older kids.  We are definitely a fan and have been spending even more LEGO time than usual today. 

E's first park outing with sister on a very hot day--- the hat "might" be too big:)

10.  E @ 6 weeks - E is six weeks old today.  In some ways it has flown and in others it has been long.  The big news this week is that last night he only got up once to eat between 8:30pm and 7:30am.  Granted, it took awhile to get him back down that one time, but still- awesome!  Being a third time parent I know this may not happen again for awhile, but a girl can dream. (Actually, I literally dreamed this morning that we had left him somewhere and he was crying and we couldn't hear him.  I assume this was because he'd been sleeping peacefully so long:))

In other news, we're trying to push him toward a more regular eating schedule with feedings closer to 3 hours rather than feeding him anytime he fusses at all.  The paci seems to help with this.  The shift is also related to what I think is a decrease in his willingness to nurse.  The last few days we've had a few struggles on that front and I "think" they may signal the beginning of the end as it were.  This is now the longest I've ever managed to nurse though so that's one goal reached.  We will likely make it a bit longer, but I've seen this behavior before when they begin to "get" that they can get what they want/need faster/more easily from the bottle.... It is OK and expected if still a bit sad in some ways. 

I am still working on getting naps to be in his bed more as he tends to wake in transition from a person to his bed more during naps than at night and generally still really prefers to be held while awake v. on a blanket or in a chair or doing tummy time.  I know this is totally normal, but is definitely trickier with three kids here than it would be otherwise. He does seem very curious about his surroundings, the ceilings, etc... and is engaging a bit more with people, which is fun.  The long weekend in Dallas should be an interesting test of our sleeping/schedule hopes, but I'm very excited about the journey overall.  He is generally pretty good in the car so we're feeling optimistic.

The other big excitement this weekend is the Olympics. I am so excited for them to start and we're planning a few Olympics related activities for the kids while we're in TX.  Do you all have any suggestions for Olympics fun with kids? I hope you have a great week and we'll be back soon!