Occupied

Oh poor blog, oh, house, oh, details in life, oh, other children, you've all been so neglected. And really, this is the reason:

But seriously, how could you resist that face?  Anyhow, turns out that #4 isn't going to put up with being stuck in a bouncy seat or a corner somewhere, or sleeping half the day away while we carry on with all the details of our busy lives. Nope, being #4 I guess he came wanting to make sure to command some attention.  So he just likes things the way he likes them. And will only sleep being held. So if you come around our house, you may be put to use doing something like this:

I really have spent up to 6 hours a day holding this little guy. That is why you probably haven't heard from me much. But having gone through this three other times, I am realizing how fast these stages pass, and really, spending half your day holding a cute little baby certainly isn't the worst thing in the world.  It just seems to be a short term gain. I'm tired, he's tired. During nap time either I hold him and we all get some sleep or he cries and wakes up every 20 minutes and I fight and fight to get him back down.  So being held just keeps winning out.  And then he's well-rested and pleasant!

I never really even got around to blogging about the two trips my mom has made out here since the baby was  born, the one trip my sister made, or Ryan's trip to Ethiopia.  He did over 180 cataract surgeries in a week or less.  Amazing. Patients came from hundreds of miles away and just slept on the ground. He has some videos of taking bandages off for the first time from people who hadn't been able to see in years. It was pretty amazing. My mom and I did remarkably well with the kids and even managed to get out and have some fun. 

The first time she came back in March after the baby was born, she got in late at night and I wondered how the kids would feel waking up to her in our living room after not seeing her for months. When I came out of the bedroom that morning to this sight I realized I need not have worried.

And here was Grammy on parade in the halls with the crazies trying to burn off some energy.

 

And my cute sister who even had to spend her birthday with us.  Thanks to all the nice people who helped us out over the last few months. I haven't been very on top of things to thank you all, as you can tell!  

Feeling nostalgic

This beauty got sold the other day:

(The stroller, that is. Although depending on the day I may have offered the children as well. :)    But I'm feeling a little nostalgic.  This was such a part of our family and our home for the last few years. (How could it not be, sitting in the middle of our living space for the last 3 years??? That was the final deciding factor of why it had to go.Besides the fact they all walk everywhere now.)  This stroller allowed me independence, saw me through downpours, Disneyworld, restrained children who could scream the entire walk home, and brought us no lack of attention.  I will miss the comments. I will actually miss the stares. I will miss strolling down hip Lincoln Road with you and hearing the gasps and the commentary from the single and swanky crowd. I am sure you inspired birth control among countless passersby.   

But I will welcome the open spot next to the kitchen table. And the fair penny you fetched when we sold you. So long.  I doubt the next owners could ever look as cool in you as we did.  :)

Pay it forward

To whoever you are, nice woman, who stopped and gave me and my sopping wet children a ride when we were caught in a freak rainstorm, I sincerely thank you.  And I will write it down to remember someone in Miami was courteous to me one time while we lived here.  :)   (Seriously, this is a much more common scenario!)

I know this scenario of me getting caught in a freak storm with all my children out at the park is not an unfamiliar Miami story.  This time we were all out, along with everyone else in the neighborhood for Memorial Day at the park.  Ryan was about 30 feet away from me and I hear him yell to me, "GO! FAST!!"  I still didn't know what he was talking about until I looked down on the ground right in front of me and saw the splatter of a raindrop the size of a tennis ball.  Good grief, these things sure come out of nowhere.  I had the baby in my arms and tried to cover him with a blanket to shelter him, but with the sudden wind and all there wasn't much success to that.  Ashton was screaming so much Ryan shoved him in the infant seat in the stroller and I tried to herd the other two kids along, but with all the running and chaos, shoes kept falling off, bodies were lagging behind, and I wasn't sure whether we should try to make it all the way home, try to go run into a closer building, just huddle together and wait for a minute or what.  So there I stood at the edge of the road getting soaked, looking around trying to figure out exactly what I should do.

Then along came the nice woman who rolled down her window and yelled at us to get in. I protested that we would get her car all wet, but her nice passenger friend got out and even took sopping wet Phoenix onto her seat with her in the front while Cash and the baby and I climbed in the back. Ryan and the covered large child in small seat just ran through the rain.

Since thanks wasn't quite enough, all I could think to wish her was that someone would do the same for her someday.  Just like I always put a quarter in the meter for a stranger when I see their time has expired.  You always hope it will come back around.

The joys of boys

Phrases and happenings around here recently:

Cash saying in his sweetest voice to Phoenix, "Phoenix, will you take my socks off?''  To which Phoenix replies just as sweetly, "Okay!" and obediently sets about the task while his brother lounges on the couch. Ah, the privileges of being the oldest.

One day I hear Phoenix running out of the bathroom yelling, "NO!  I do it by MYSELF!!"  And I see Ashton running after him wailing, "Noooo!  I wipe Nee-nik's bum!!"  Really?  Who'd have thought I'd have to institute a we wipe our own bums in this house policy?

Cash is at that age where he can just talk and talk.  Our poor unsuspecting neighbor got an earful the other day when Cash descriptively told him about all the places on his body that he doesn't have hair like his dad does.  Yeah, I'm pretty sure that was more than he was looking for when that conversation opened up.  :)

And now I'm in hiding because my boys are all so curious after listing off all the people in the house who had little penises and then following with the ones who had big ones like dad, and mom.  After informing them I didn't have one they were all shocked and now keep trying to figure it out. And they keep trying to figure their own out.  Man, I really had no idea what I was getting into with all these little boys.   

If the name fits

I realized I should have put this on here in case I ever get around to making the blog into a book, and since any other form of scrapbooking is becoming less and less likely. 

It really was no illusion that I've been getting robbed of the baby stage with this little guy.  At his two month appointment a few weeks ago he weighed in at 14lb 7oz.  He was 95th percentile for height and weight.  I hope he keeps it up - if you've got three older brothers to wail on you, you're going to need all the help you can get.  At least we chose the right kid for the name!

Blessing

Blessing.  Great word.  We had Diesel's blessing, he is such a little blessing, and I even felt many small blessings that day and over the weekend. It was much needed coming on the heels of some rotten weeks.  One blessing about church on Sunday was that my kids stayed quiet during the meeting which is no small miracle, and Phoenix even fell asleep in my arms.  That has NEVER happened.  It was so sweet. Most especially since neither he nor I ever sit still - let alone at the same time.  It was so fun to be able to sit and look at him and study his little features and look for the baby face in the little boy he has become.  And there were 4 baby blessings that day in church.  I could have sat there and listened to them all meeting long it was so special.  It was such a happy day to hold and behold all my little ones.

 

 I tried out a few comparisons here just for fun.  It was hilarious to see how Diesel filled out every inch of the same blessing outfit that was so baggy on Cash.  Poor little Cash was the skinniest baby you ever did see.  Diesel was also a little older when we blessed him.  It's funny that when all my friends and I had our babies here 2 months ago, we noticed that you could line them all up and know exactly which family they belonged to.  So while Diesel is his own little man, I guess you can tell he really is one of us, and not totally unlike the twins either. Here are some comparisons:

Cash, Diesel, Phoenix, and Ashton

(Cash was just too skinny at his blessing to look anything like his future self, so the above picture is slightly older. The one below is a skinny version.)

Phoenix, Diesel, Ashton

Saturday afternoons

It was when the 4th body joined the bed yesterday that I realized there would be no Saturday afternoon nap for me.  :)

Survival mode

Alright, I'll admit we haven't taken to 4 children as gracefully as I had hoped.  I have lots of friends with 4 kids and they don't all seem ready to lose it at any second.  I even had a night full of dreams of how out of control I am - forgetting the baby and leaving him at the mall, driving the kids around without car seats, forgetting to pick up Cash (he's in tears if I'm ever a minute late) and having him never talk to me again, and then waking up to find my husband had gone over the deep end and chopped up all the furniture in the house to make bunk beds for the kids and I had to just smile and say it looked great because I knew the stress of his life had finally made him go crazy.  :)

Currently we're all sick, I'm going in for another MRI this week, spinal injections again next week, and every night seems impossibly worse than the last.  The baby won't go to sleep before 12 or 1am (which means neither Ryan or I either), and then last night there were periods of time when something was happening every 20 minutes. The baby was miserable and crying (he's sick too), the twins were having nightmares, and then Ryan's pager (he's on call) was going off all the time until he finally got called in at 3am.  Phew.  And next week Ryan leaves for Ethiopia for two weeks. At least he'll get a vacation from the chaos.  Thankfully my mom is coming to the rescue again - I don't think I've had more than 5 hours of sleep a night since she's left. And my house hasn't been cleaned since my sister left 2 weeks after the baby was born.  :)

This isn't really a cry for help or anything, we're doing the best we can. I'm trying to at least find someone to come clean the house or something, and I'm trying to eliminate any non-necessities right now.  I guess I'm just writing to have something to look back at someday when my kids are old and I miss these days.  :)  And then remember that I might not miss everything about these days. 

But I will miss this cute face!.

Anyhow, here's when your brother's try to play with you (I walked in the room and panicked for a minute when I couldn't find the baby!):

 

At least some things are making it worth it all.

Random snapshots

Every so often I have to laugh at the things you never thought you would hear or say before you were a parent.  Like overhearing myself at the park saying "Don't wipe boogers on your brother." Or "Stop shoving money in the cracks of the dishwasher." Or today, Phoenix came out of the bathroom and needed a bum wipe. As I was hurrying to get a wipe, I see him leaning his backside against the couch and yelled out a big, "No! Don't lean on the couch!" Sure enough as he steps away we all notice poop smeared on the couch.  So then I have to laugh as Ashton runs to get a wipe to clean his brother's poop off the couch (how sweet) and then I see him wagging his finger in Phoenix's face saying in his deliberate manner of speaking, "Nee-nik (his form of Phoenix), don't put your poop on da couch.  Nee-nik.  Don't. Put. Poop. On. Da. Couch!"
 
Then as I was in the other room I hear the front door shut. Oh no, I think to myself. I run to the door and look out in the hall.  Sure enough I overhear three little boys trying to coordinate actions to figure out how to open the door and then maneuver the trash chute open so they can throw away the diapers.  While it is helpful that they've taken the job of throwing out the baby's diapers upon themselves, I usually have to brace myself.  Not only are the three stooges barefoot and parent-less roaming the hallway, but, as I suspected, Cash has nothing but underwear on and Ashton has absolutely no underwear on at all.  Thank heavens for the sake of the other tenants that at least Phoenix was decent. But really, three very small, very naked boys trying to throw out a bunch of poopy diapers (which had fallen out and were all over the hallway floor) by themselves must have been a pretty funny sight to come upon.

Or like last night Phoenix was eating dinner bare-bummed.  At one point he was standing up on his chair to reach something and when he pulled back off the table his cup of milk came sliding off.  Luckily he was able to catch the cup at the last second - right between his bare legs, his little boy parts sitting right in the top of the cup. It was such a sight that we hardly knew how to react.  Good catch? Why in the world don't you have any stinking pants on at dinner?!  Thank you for not spilling your milk on the floor like someone does at least once a meal! Or just WHY ON EARTH AM I SITTING AT THE DINNER TABLE LOOKING AT YOUR LITTLE WIENER IN A GLASS OF MILK?!?!?

Ugh. Sorry for all the potty talk, but I realize the problem is that I'm always sitting around nursing and these boys aren't the most adept at putting their pants back on after they go to the bathroom, or they just don't like to.  Which makes for a lot of naked incidents.  But seriously, as there was one random thing after another yesterday, I thought, man if you just captured all these random snapshots of our day on film, you could have a pretty good gag reel.

Time flies

At about 4 weeks I realized why is it that the last 4 weeks of pregnancy seem to last an eternity and the first 4 weeks after the baby is born seem to fly? This baby is growing way to fast!  It doesn't help that he's also my biggest baby and is bigger at this point than any of my other babies were.  He was 11lbs at his 4 week visit and was like 97th percentile for height and weight.  Slow down baby! I feel like I'm getting robbed of this baby stage! 

These next pictures pretty much sum up the rest of the household - crazy and full of personality.

(This is Phoenix and his preferred mode of transportation around our house. Seriously, even if you tell him to go to the bathroom he'll go get his scooter and ride it into the bathroom):












Although I have to say these guys are so much fun right now and say the funniest things. I don't know if it's just that I'm sitting around nursing so much that I get to observe them playing together more, but they are playing together so well and it's so funny to hear the things they come up with.  It's been a huge blessing.  Of course they fight and clobber each other the other half of the time, but at least there are good moments.
 
The other night when we put the kids to bed there were the million demands and complaints as usual. I guess Cash got sick of being ignored so we finally hear a very stern, growling yell from him-  "HERE'S THE DEAL: I JUST WANT MY BLANKETS!!!!!!!"  I don't know where he gets these funny phrases like "here's the deal" and then yesterday he was showing our neighbor all the cool stuff on his Leapster and while trying to add to the awesomeness of what he was about to show him, he pulled out a trendy version of "Wait for it....wait for it...."  which had our neighbor busting up (as I'm sure he was already dying to see yet another trick on the Leapster....)  I don't know where he comes up with these things.

Sometimes we even manage to get some brotherly love among these three.



And so I have to laugh that while it is virtually impossible to pull off a cute, posed, look at the camera and smile picture in this family, I finally realized - and am trying to embrace the fact that at least we have pretty accurate depictions of how life really is here. These crazies really are a lot of fun.