Life Lately

Oh my gosh, they're all napping at once! I don't even know what to do with my hands! I am sitting on the couch wrapped in a blanket, shoving food into my mouth, chugging water, looking out the window at the beautiful day and typing--- all at the same time!

Real Time Photo

I probably have like 4 seconds before someone wakes up but I think about blogging all the time and want to get a few (hundred) words out reallll quick-- and this is also a great excuse for ignoring the MOUNTAIN, I say it again MOUNTAIN of laundry waiting to be folded.

This is like a weekend's worth of clothes

1. So far so good. Thanks for those of you who asked and if we aren't friends on the old FB, Charlie Bennett was born January 31st and is as fat and precious as I had dreamed.

 I wrote a blog post about his birth that will be coming at ya in the next few days... months... years... who knows... Consistency is not my strongest virtue. Sponsorships, anyone?

He is still pretty sleepy so it hasn't been too crazy yet. I mean it is craaaaazy, but I know once he is more wakeful and stimulated it will be a lot harder. Maybe I'll be surprised and we'll breeze through trying to get him on a schedule/teaching him to sleep/figuring out nursing but I keep my mothering expectations low, low, low so probably not.

2. Archer has totally gone rogue on us. He is not as hateful to the baby/me as I feared (Low-Expectation-Ally really thought she wouldn't be able to breastfeed because the child is suffocatingly possessive of his mama!) But he has really gotten the hang of climbing on furniture and standing up for all to see and share his madness with him.

He is scaling the baby gates too, yesterday I was scarfing down some leftover something off of a kids plate, and heard him giggling from our loft-- the stairs are super treacherous so I keep it gated off. Aint nothing too big for Archie to climb!

Not exaggerating: Emmy ate organic eggs scrambled with spinach every day at this age. Archer helps himself to a box of Chicken Biscuits and we call it balanced breakfast

I can't help but laugh when he gets onto the kitchen table. We have a pretty large one so it is constantly 1/4 covered with food, 1/4 covered with crafts, 1/4 covered with random kids stuff that needs to find a home, 1/4 hairbrushes/whatever Archer ran from the bathroom with and I quickly confiscated. Having open concept living is SO overrated! Basically it is just way for ALL your mess to be in one place. I have such a love-hate relationship with it!

Another real time photo. Before kids I said I'd never be one of those moms that had random stuff laying all over her house. LOL

Anyways, Emmy and Mack can usually be found sitting here eating their thousandth snack of the day or drumming up some sort of creative mess genius. Archie has figured out how to shove his little body up on the bench, then climbs on the table. You really would think a gorilla has escaped from the zoo and dropped right into their laps-- that's how dramatic and unnecessary Emmy and Mack react! They start screaming "He's on the table, AHHH, MOM-- He's on the table!!" Desperately collecting their colored pencils/aquabeads/cookies. And Archer really does act like a monkey, he manically laughs and tries to gather as much stuff as he can before I run over with my boob out and Charlie tucked under my arm to take him down before the next instance happens... 5 minutes later...

The sweet child also dumped a bag of rice out on the kitchen floor last week. It was a 1 lb bag. It was full. I made the rookie mistake of taking a phone call, and turned to catch him mid-pour. It was too late for any intervention so I calmly carried on my conversation (I chose that free minute to book Mack's birthday party and couldn't hang up!) and sat in a chair to watch the chaos unfold. Emmy and Mack were delighted and started filling pots and skillets up with rice to throw around the house. It was basically like one big sensory table, finally turning into that Pinterest Mom over here, don't be jealous of all my skills! I will be finding rice smushed into all our baseboards until we move. Yesterday I vacuumed some up in Mack's room which is on the other side of the house.

That same night as the rice-tacular, he fell into the coffee table and needed 4 stitches so that was slightly terrifying. I kept my cool until after we got home from the hospital. Sometimes I feel so discouraged because it seems like we have years of the dangerous phase ahead of us!

Archer seems to have a gently masked aggression towards Baby Charlie, he'll approach him with a soft coo and starts to tickle his feet, next he playfully hits him, followed by some serious jabbing and then tries to violently shake his head.

I am considering buying a fence to put up around Charlie's swing

3. Parenting Emmy and Mack is more challenging, too. I feel like I ask a lot of them right now. They are constantly grabbing me things and picking up. Emmy is even on breakfast duty since I taught her to use the microwave, she gets up before anyone else so she makes oatmeal for her and her little brothers! I don't want to put too much pressure on her so I'll probably just teach her how to roast vegetables and fire up the grill before calling it good.

Kids only know what you show them right? So while other kids' definition of "normal" might be trips to the park, riding their bikes, playing tag with their friends, Emmy and Mack are well versed in the experience of watching mom use her breast pump, protecting their little brother as he learns to use the stairs, and playing "who can collect the most dirty diapers?"

The old married couple holding their little bundle of joy
Photo credit Haverlee Photography

It is hard to make them feel loved with all the attention going to Archer and Charlie (please note our major hospital error in that both little boys share almost 100% of the same letters in each of their names). I am asking God to fill in my parenting gaps, as He already so kindly does, My biggest thing for now is just putting down my phone while nursing, trying to look them in the eyes as they tell me their fantastical little kid stories, and telling them I love them every chance I get! Mike of course is a huge help too, Saturday morning I left them for a few hours and told him not to discipline anyone just to let them run wild and be kids-- which he is totes the king of doing anyways!


4. Errands, no thank you. I tried taking all four babes to Target by myself in a blizzard last week. Whoops. We didn't even make it out of the mini-van before Emmy and Mack announced they had to go to the bathroom. Strike 1 against me.

Strike 2 happened in the bathroom when I was ignoring Archers fussy cries and he got stuck in the infant seat (somehow he twisted his legs into the side) so he started shrieking, cue Charlie screaming. I made the mistake of telling Emmy and Mack (in that moment) that I wanted them to spend the money they had each brought on a craft instead of a toy.

So as we left the bathroom, I already hit Strike 3 as Mack started crying, "But Mommy, I REALLY WANTED A TOY!" So I pushed my cart full of hot mess past Customer Service with three crying children before we had even walked up and down a single aisle. Awesome. Mike called me while I was in the check-out line with 1/10 of my list, everybody staring at me, the babies crying, and the big kids loudly asking me how to pronounce all the names of the candy bars, and I answered, "Hello is this Jesus? Are you coming to help me?!"

Yikes. So that was the last time I've gone anywhere unnecessary with the littles! We did make our big debut at the pediatricians last week for Charlie's 1 month check-up which was also a bit of a ish-show once we found out it'd be a 90 minute wait, bless! But our favorite PA saved the day and took mercy on me, seeing us right away and hiding us in a patient room so I could nurse.

Not pictured: Charlie crying to be fed. Not smelled: Archie has a giant poop

Sooooo we are keeping the caffeine intake highhhhh and strong. I am so glad for social media where I can connect with all of you during an otherwise isolating season! Thanks for all your messages and comments, it spurs me on and reminds me that this is such a refreshing space for me and I am grateful for you all!

This is actually how I nurse 90% of the time

Love them!