Like drinking out of a firehose

that's what my day felt like.

but first, let's give our thanks and admiration shout out to elizabeth for sleeping great again last night  7h25 and then 3h40 for a grand total of 9:15 to 8:30.  the kid is saving my life with her sleep habits.  and her sweet and low maintenance temperament.

brady woke up around 6:15 this morning.  i didn't want to sit in a glider for an hour only to find out that he was wide awake so i checked downstairs and asked chris if i could send brady down to snuggle in bed with him.  my wonderful husband said yes but my clingy teething toddler said heck no.  the boy only wants me.  for everything.  so i got him to snuggle in bed with me and we slept until 8:30 i think.  then he snuck out of bed, watched abigail sleep for a few minutes, and then went to the kitchen and brought me a can of pringles to open for him.  and then he started crying (why does he have to cry SO loudly?!) when i told him no.  so i had to go downstairs with him (because he loves throwing tantrums when we're in the guest room while elizabeth is sleeping.  she's a deep sleeper and she settles herself back to sleep so well but i still try to limit his screaming lest he give her ear damage or something.

brady got cereal, abigail woke up, the kids played while i fed elizabeth or something.  i don't know, it's all a blur.  i tried these white shorts on brady (with a built in belt in the front that you can't see in this picture) and he thought they were the greatest ever.  he kept his hand in his pocket (as he's prone to do) and kept admiring his reflection in the mirror.

like dis...

what a stud.

abigail had us sit on the bench to watch her ballet show.  then as soon as she started, she stopped to go into her room to pull out her chair (broken... i need to fix that) piled high with carefully selected books.  i know i'm ocd about messes and clutter but it's been especially difficult lately for me to watch the migration of toys.  if you want to read a book, just sit next to the books and read it... don't take a stack of books to the kitchen floor.  that sort of thing.  so i asked why she was bringing all that in the hallway and she said in case she needed to rest during her ballet.  i told her no.  brady and i were ready to watch ballet... she didn't need to rest.  but she kept insisting it was just in case she needed to rest.  i didn't have the patience to be nice anymore so it turned into "you whine and cry about cleaning up your messes and the chair is broken and i don't want you taking your crap out of your room and spreading it to other parts of the house... if you don't start dancing some ballet for us right now then brady and i are going downstairs to play something else."  maybe we both had a hissy fit but eventually the crap stayed in the room and the ballet happened.  it was serious business.

my favorite was the exposed thomas undies.  not my favorite was the part where she kept yelling at brady for singing along to the taylor swift song (both kids really like her songs although they don't know who she is and haven't made a connection that they like all her songs.  this one just so happened to be on this barbie cd we got from the library) that was playing.  he was so cute and it made me sad that i couldn't get her to stop being so mean and bossy about it.  she's insanely bossy.

we went downstairs to get abigail cereal.  and i gave brady a small bowl (since he'd already had one).  he finished and then accidentally flicked his bowl, splattering milk and soggy honey bunches of oats remainders in a three foot radius of his spot.  awesome.

then a few minutes later when abigail was finishing her cereal, he somehow helped her spill the bowl in her lap and the floor and the cloth padded chair.  uuuugggggghhhhhh my ocd self couldn't even handle it.  i took abigail up for a bath.

it was very upsetting for all of us.  well, except brady.  he didn't care.  this picture makes the mess look far smaller than it actually was.  also, you can't clean up wet honey bunches of oats cereal without smearing soggy cereal flakes all over the floor.  so i had to try to sop up some milk but leave everything else to dry (so i could sweep it later).  once again... uuuuuggggghhhhh.

i ran a bath for abigail and had her hop in.  the ambitious parent in me would have bathed both kids.  that just wasn't me today.  i was the lazy and already defeated parent.  so i left abigail in there for an hour and a half to play as long as she wanted (because brady is miserable and spreading the misery to all around him so it was good to keep those two separated for a bit) and then told her to grab some soap and suds up and rinse off the lower half of her body.  when i came back later, the water was opaque.  i'm not sure how much soap she used but i'm guessing it was a ton.  i had to rinse her with fresh water to make sure it didn't irritate her skin.  ha.  meanwhile, brady dressed up and then chewed on both thumbs (to get both molars) while i held him.

i think abigail got out and dressed around 12:30.  so i was thinking let's eat and have quiet/nap time and then watch a movie, eat dinner, and go to bed.  but while abigail was eating her sandwich and grapes picnic in the front yard, presley came over.

also, i didn't have time to try to get brady to nap before my visiting teaching meeting at 2.  this is where my steady stream of water turned into a firehose.  elizabeth woke up right before the rs pres and counselor showed up and i didn't have time to feed her.  so i left her in her basket thinking maybe she'd go to sleep again but knowing she wouldn't because it had already been several hours.  and brady was crying because he wanted me to go outside with him so he could play with abigail and presley but he kept coming inside because "mom, it's too windy for me." and when the girls finally came inside, abigail wasn't being nice to brady and wouldn't let him in her room to play so he was constantly crying outside of her room and on the stairs and in my lap about it.  and my washing machine was going but my laundry room is so messy and full of crap that i could hear piles of crap continually falling off of my vibrating washing machine but i couldn't even go help it because i had yeun nam and syndee over and by this point, elizabeth was fussy and refusing to nurse and crying about it.  she doesn't nurse great under a cover, but also wasn't doing great because i was distracted with our meeting and with screaming brady who was also climbing on me and taking pictures and slow motion videos... of my love handles.

and it would have been a difficult meeting just on its own with all the changes and was even more challenging when lucy and kalia came over and then that just added to the chaos having five kids squealing and running around and one kid fussing on my lap.  and then they kept asking "can we color right now?  and paint?  because some of us want to paint too."  and after forever, the meeting finally ended (even though i have more stuff i need to figure out, we just couldn't spend any more time on it) and i needed to make vt changes while it was fresh on my mind (didn't happen) and switch laundry and feed elizabeth and get her swaddled and down for nap and finally hold brady and i couldn't even send the girls home because my neighbor stephanie texted and asked if i could keep them for a bit (because she needed to leave for work) until her husband got home from work and they were all "can we watch a movie? and can we color and paint while we watch it?  and some of us are starving so can we have a snack? and could you get us a cup of water? with ice in it please? and could we have popscicles please?  and presley would like chocolate milk please. and she needs to go poop... can you help her with that?" and on and on and i was about to lose my mind because of the crazy mess that was in every room by now and all of the constant requests and that somehow in this brady had scattered ritz cracker crumbs and baby gold fish allllll over the great room and my back hurt and i had a headache and all i'd eaten since i'd woken up was milk and chocolate chips and chocolate milk and it was 5:00 and i was soooo done.

hallelujah that honey got home around 6:15 so i had reason to send the girls home at that point and i was able to speed clean a lot of the upstairs and at least keep the laundry rotation going.  we had tacos for dinner (thank goodness for precooked, pre portioned taco meat) and the missionaries came over at 7 to teach us a lesson.  honey even got the great room vacuumed in time.  i'll admit that i was not at all looking forward to having them over but it was awesome.  one of the missionaries was switched out with a zone leader.  so that guy taught most of the lesson (on the plan of salvation) and it was awesome.  i was pretty distracted with brady, who was climbing all over me whenever he wasn't jumping like crazy on chairs and about to bust his head open.  when they left, we headed upstairs for bedtime.  i let chris and abigail do their thing and then i took brady up to put him to bed.  i think it helped having the kids separated tonight.  at least, it helped me to have them separated.  they love each other a lot but holy cow... when their powers combine...  yikes.

i got out brady's baseball pillowcase (that emmy made him last summer but he's never had a chance to use) and he thought it was incredible.  i wish i'd gotten a video of him when i showed it to him and he realized what it was.  this picture doesn't capture how excited he was, but man... the boy sure loves his baseball pillow!

also, you know it's been a crazy day when you find a baby goldfish in brady's diaper.

and after playing hard all afternoon and evening and not getting a nap, he was out... fast.  thank goodness.

and this girl was out pretty fast too.

i got those three loads of laundry put away and things slowed down a bit around 11pm so i was able to enter in all the vt changes and i finally was able to let out a sigh of relief at having survived the chaos of today.

and then i took a moment to be thankful...

for my clean kitchen.  because as silly as it sounds, if my kitchen is clean... i'm okay.

My maddening Monday

Normally my Monday's are excellent. Maybe because weekends are normally difficult for me and it's nice to get back to a weekday. That would make sense this time because my weekend was so great and today was... not great. So, not really sure why, oh wait... Yes I am. It's because my kids couldn't listen for the life of them. That's why my day sucked. I won't even try to sugar coat it or take accountability for it... It was all their fault. ; ) 

Last night was a fun adventure. Brady went to bed just fine at 9:30 while I sat in his glider. I think he woke up sometime in the 11:30 hour and went back to sleep with me in his room. I think. Not sure. What I am sure of is that he woke up at 3am and wasn't tired anymore. Like I sat in his glider for around 45 minutes waiting for him to fall asleep and he was still wide awake. Over the course of the following hour, he got out of his bed every few minutes to wander around. I just kept thinking he'd get tired and fall asleep but the boy was not. At all. He was all "mom, I wanna go to the library!" And I was like "no, Brady, we can't go until after we sleep."  He was all "mom, I already sleep."  Yeah, I get that kid. But 9:30 to 3am isn't enough. And the library isn't quite open yet. He just genuinely wasn't tired at all... I get it, it's happened to all of us before. And he wasn't trying to be crazy or disobedient... I think he was just confused and trying to pass the time. So I kept hearing him get out and play with some bath toys from the drawer in the bathroom. And eat one of Abigail's starbursts. And stand by Abigail's bed and talk to her (she sleeps like a rock) while holding her Barbie. Caught red handed he's all "mom, I not wake Abigail up!"  Ha. I was amused, thankfully, despite the fact that I was awake with him from 3am until at least 5:15 when the sun started to come up. 

Yeah, elizabeth slept for 7 hours and 20 minutes, ate for less than 7 minutes before falling asleep again and slept for 5 hours and 20 minutes, not waking up until almost 10am. Am I rested at all? Nope, because I have Brady. Who wanders the halls for hours during the night. Seriously kid? You're killing me. 

Also killing me... These two waking up around 9, and wasting no time with their shenanigans. Abigail is wearing Brady's basketball shorts over her pj shorts. She'll be turning five next week. These shorts are size 18 months. 

I took a short little series of photos to try and get one that wasn't blurry... As I was clicking, Brady was taking off his shirt. Why? Because that's just what he does. I don't even think he notices now. He just spontaneously undresses himself. 

I know I've probably mentioned it a few times before, but I can't get over his tanned skin. His little tanned toddler legs are to die for. I wish pictures could capture it. They can't. 

Abigail is kind of a mini mom these days. It drives me crazy about 99% of the time because she bosses Brady around as if she's his parent, not his sister. This morning she was all about them making their beds. And yeah, they pulled Brady's mattress in there sometime after they woke up (Because last night... Y'know at 5:15 am, I finally put Brady's blanket and pillow next to Abigail's bed and hoped he would stay) which is seriously impressive considering the turns and narrow doorways. But yes, Abigail was nazi this morning about both of them having their beds perfectly made. 

The kids are cereal, I threw on clothes, we went to the library... The morning was a success. 

Brady doesn't care for the actually story part of story time. He does like the songs though. Other than the songs, he just begs to sit on my lap or leave. ; ) 

Head shoulders knees and toes.  See? Tan legs. So cute. 

The best surprise is that my friend Kirstyn shows up with Michaela. We never see them ever since they moved out of our ward so it was a lot of fun. Especially for the girls. This other little girl RiMaya walked up, asked if she could play with them, and then this... BFF's. 

We hung out at the lirbary forever. 

Brady enjoyed jumping. I enjoyed taking pictures of him jumping. 

Mouth open wide like a parachute. 

I wanted a picture of Abigail and michaela just because it's cool to see how much they've grown. RiMaya wanted in on the action and I wasn't about to leave her out of the fun. Abigail used to be tall but I guess she's a shrimp kow because michaela is six months older and RiMaya is 9 months younger. But I think they're also both just talk for their age too. 

We got home around 12:30 and my plan was to feed kids and then have nap and quiet time at 1. But immediately after we got home, Lucy's mom texted tha Presley wanted to come over and play. I wanted to be a nice mom so I said yes. Bad move. The rest of the day was a major struggle as everything went downhill. They all wanted to watch the little mermaid that we'd just picked up from the library. Brady was already crazy grumpy because of teething and being exhausted from so little sleep. And Abigail always gets rude and bossy to me during and after playing with friends. I'll skip rehashing the ceappiness of the afternoon but let it be known that it sucked... Royally. 

"Hold me mommy... Watch the show with me mommy." Says the little boy chewing his whole fist as best he can. 

He takes my phone at every opportunity. So, photography by Brady. 

Abigail kept watching the little mermaid after they all ate. But Presley wanted to hang out with me (well, let's be honest, Elizabeth... since she woke up) and Brady follows us because he loves Elizabeth too and because he said the movie was too scary. So this was my audience while I fed Elizabeth. 

The star of the show. 

He sure knows how I highlight his best features. I wish I had his eyelashes. 

A party jumping on the bed. 

Abigail went to Presley's house with her. And then came home after peeing a huge puddle on their kitchen floor. Awesome. I told her she's not allowed to play at friends houses now... indefinitely. 

Honey texted something about needing to use a gift card  before it expired so we went to outback for dinner. The more I eat there, the more I realize how much I don't really like it. I mean, the food wasn't bad by any means, but it didn't excite me or hit the spot. It was just normal food. With a whole lot of cracked black pepper. All three of the kids were a bit of a struggle and so was I. Poor honey. I'd warned him though that he better come home with a lot of patience for all of us because we'd had a ROUGH day. I know it was hard for him but he did a good job handling all of us. 

We came home and got the kids ready for bed and decided to try and let them fall asleep in the same room because Brady was so tired (he fell asleep on the way to outback) but an hour and a half later of them jumping around on their beds and we had to break up the party.

My quietest, easiest, most obedient kid. 

Initially, Elizabeth and I sat on the loveseat and told the kids to be quiet and still and close their eyes. Abigail wasn't having it and Brady quickly jumped on the defiant bandwagon. Honey and I ditched them and their awakeness and went downstairs to watch the bachelorette. 

After that was over, he took Brady's mattress back to Brady's room while Abigail and Brady screamed and cried as if we hadn't given them one hundred warnings over the space of two hours. And Elizabeth was sad and cranky because she was so tired (even she was on one today and wasn't taking her four hour naps like she usually does) and was a bit freaked out with all the commotion. But I was able to kind of capture her sad face. It's one of the cutest things I've ever seen in my life. 

She doesn't have a real cry (especially not like the one jovi was doing in the mothers lounge yesterday!)... It's just that her whole body tenses up for four or five seconds, and then she lets out a single newborn baby cry. And then she makes this face. 

I need a video, because holy cow, isn't that adorable?!?!  She doesn't have a set of lungs yet and it's rare that she gets upset (this time was because honey wanted to finish our show before getting the kids to sleep since there was only a few minutes left) so it's still super cute. 

Anyways, I swaddled Elizabeth and held her in Brady's glider while he laid in his little bed and she fell asleep within two minutes and then Brady did within five. And Abigail in her bed in her room within ten. That part was easy enough. Now we just need them to all stay asleep...

Crossing my fingers tomorrow goes a little more smoothly!

Sunday mothers lounge, naps, and a walk

Let's just pick up where we left off. I put Brady to sleep in Abigail's room at 10:45 and he fell asleep just fine on his own. He woke up at 12:20 crying though. I sat on Abigail's loveseat while he fell back asleep. At 1:30, they were still fast asleep. 

Brady woke up again at 2 but I took him back to his bed and told him to lay down. I figured since I was already up that I would just take Abigail to the bathroom. She was soooo thirsty and drank an entire sippy of water. While I refilled it, she went back to her room to get in bed. Before I even walked in, I heard her crying. There she was, crumpled at the foot of Brady's bed just bawling. It was as if she was mourning the death of a loved one. She gets like that though when she's tired so I figured she was confused. I thought that she'd accidentally tried to lay on Brady's mattress and thought that Brady somehow had stolen her bed. So I explained to her that he was in his bed and she was free to crawl in hers. Nope. That wasn't the issue. She was not at all confused. She knew exactly what was going on and was devastated by the situation. "Mom! No! I don't want Brady to sleep in my room!!!  He keeps waking me up!  I don't want him to wake me up in the morning! No! Just have him sleep somewhere else! He can sleep in my room another night! Not tonight!!!"  I felt so bad for her. It's true, he's woken her up at 6:30 and at 7 and those are not hours she likes to see. Me neither to be honest but it was 2am and I needed Abigail to just take one for the team. I explained to her about when she was 3.5 and stopped sleeping in a crib but was too scared to sleep by herself so she slept in Brady's room next to his crib and she used to wake him up in the morning all the time and it made him cry. As I was explaining this (which is way more complex than what my brain usually goes at 2am), I was humored by how exactly the tables have turned. It's literally the exact same situation. Once I explained it, she was 100% okay with it. I told Brady I would lock him in his room if he woke Abigail up again and had Abigail ask Brady to please not wake her up. So Brady agreed and they both went to sleep. 

At 4:30 I was up feeding Elizabeth so I took Abigail to the bathroom again (because she downed two sippy cups of water at 2am and I didn't want to push my luck) and the kids were doing fine... and even synchronizing their sleep positions. Also, this is why I have to be extra diligent about taking Abigail to the bathroom and putting her back on the mattress. I'm not into middle of the night carpet cleaning. 

I didn't dare touch Brady though because he's not an insanely deep sleeper like Abigail. 

I decided it was best to leave him as is. 

Elizabeth woke up at 8:30, which is a pretty typical time for her. I cracked my door and saw that Abigail and Brady were both fast asleep. Sweet!  And then I became a captive in my own guest room because I didn't want to wake either of them by sneaking downstairs. So Elizabeth and I just hung out in the guest room for the next HOUR AND A HALF. Because Abigail and Brady didn't wake up til 10 o clock. I saw Abigail stir a bit and then a few minutes later Brady woke up and started talking. So neither woke the other up and they were bff this morning as a result of it. Hallelujah! 

We even made it to church early (chris made a comment later today about how I left the blender dirty this morning instead of cleaning it right away. I pointed to the kids' dirty oatmeal bowls as well and said "do you appreciate how much more punctual I am now than when we got married?" He said yes but that he didn't really think about it anymore... Which is a good thing because it's just not much of an issue anymore because I'm so much improved. I explained "yeah, years ago, I would have chosen to clean the blender and the bowls and the kitchen and just be late somewhere. I would have put the blender back perfectly but probably been ten minutes late to church because I would have also taken more time to do my makeup. Now, I leave dirty dishes and dirty blenders and skip all makeup other than mascara so that I can be early to church with my family without having to stress and rush out the door. I do that for you."  I hope he realizes how much I still have to work at it and that it an ongoing expression of my love for him.)

The kids fight over who gets to sit next to Abigail. They also fight about who's head gets to be closest to hers. 

Chris helped with blessing the sacrament. I left as soon as he sat down.  And I spent the entire sacrament meeting in the mothers lounge nursing Elizabeth and then letting her fall asleep before I put her in her car seat. I didn't want to take her back to sacrament meeting and have the kids wake her up immediately after sitting down. 

I was sitting on the floor because our mother's lounge only has two chairs. And being in a maxi skirt, it made sense for me to let other people sit in the real chairs. 

Also, here's a random vent for mothers of young children... Don't change nasty poopy diapers in the mothers lounge. Take that crap to a changing table in an actual bathroom. I get that there's a changing table in the mothers lounge, but save that for wet diapers or newborn poop. My newest friend named Sara (because I can't get enough of friends named sara(h) even though I have a ton) and I were both in there nursing babies, when in walks a mother and her son who looked to be about 2.5 or so. She pulls down the changing table thing and changes a nasty diaper requiring at least four wipes. Tosses it in the pail and walks out. Meanwhile Sara and I were struggling to even breath. It's a small room and the window doesn't even open. I thought it was common sense not to do that, but I guess not.  So not only were we suffocating, but the little boy was rambunctious enough in the process to distract Sara's baby so she quit nursing and wouldn't continue. And while I'm ranting... If there are bags, bag your baby's diaper. Because that nastiness is penetrating. I'm not going to pretend my baby's poops smells like roses (outkast anyone?) and you shouldn't either. 

Sorry to sound harsh but I think some people just must not know (I'm assuming this lady didn't because she didn't even apologize or acknowledge it at all) and I'm here to save lives. Since Sara and I almost lost ours. ; ) 

Also, in case you were wondering... I'm a southerner. And the mothers lounge is really boring when you're by yourself and don't have sacrament meeting to listen to anymore. 

Anyways, I dropped a screaming Brady off at nursery (apparently his crying lasted for 10 minutes until they said "we'll go get your mom if you can play quietly with toys for five minutes... And then he was golden) and enjoyed most of second hour with my honey until Elizabeth got fussy enough that I took her back to the mother's lounge. She'd slept for 50 minutes but then just had enough gas that she couldn't put herself back to sleep. Even my friend sitting in front of us turned around at one point and was all "was that her?!" after one of Elizabeth's louder toots. That's seriously one of the only things that'll make her fussy at all... Toots and burps. 

Sooo, I took her back to the mothers lounge which was a happening party. Kylee, Larissa, Rochelle, and Sara was back there again to try nursing her daughter (since she was hungry already from not finishing nursing before) so I parked myself on the floor again. I changed Elizabeth's diaper and let her kick a bit and then nursed her some more and let her fall asleep again. I was going to try to catch the last 20 minutes of RS, but I'd already left sacrament and Sunday school early and didn't want to go to RS late only to have to leave that early too. So I stayed in the mothers lounge with Larissa since we were the only two left at that point. Previously though is talked to Rochelle about her baby and I've gotta say again how grateful I am for an easy baby this time around. Her little girl jovi is like how Brady was. Even the short time that she was in there, jovi was screaming waiting for Rochelle to mix up another few ounces of formula and then screaming after the bottle was done and screaming even after being wrapped in in a blanket and bounced around. I told her I felt for her. She was all "I literally have to wear her in a moby all day long" and I told her about how Brady lived in his car seat. She was like "oh my gosh I remember you always swimming his car seat! Even when he was really old!"  I'm all "ummm, yup, the handle is actually cracked now because yeah, lots of caraway swinging that first year of life."  

We came home and both kids were still loving each other. Also, yes, I know Brady's tie doesn't match. I didn't pick it. 

I need to get more used to this part of having kids. Passing by the upstairs bathroom to find a half eaten banana on the toilet and three starbursts arranged in a triangle on the corners of the bath mat and a glow stick placed nearly in the middle. Whaaaat? I'm guessing that's why it took Abigail so long to go potty. Don't worry, she eventually cleaned up the starbursts, a kid threw away the glow stick, and I saw Brady eating that banana sometime this afternoon. It's all cleaned up now. ; ) 

Brady napped in his room for over two hours. All I had to do was sit in his glider while he fell asleep. Then I took a nap of our own. Like many other Sundays, Abigail was the only one not napping but she played nicely in her room for quiet time. 

My nap was glorious. I thought I heard elizabeth starting to stir and it was past time for her to wake up anyways so I got her up and fed her. Both kids were doing well together again and I was in a great mood from my nap. 

We decided to take a family walk, but the rain had picked up again so we did a puzzle and hung out for a bit. 

This is an acceptable position for working on a puzzle I guess. 

This is what Abigail calls a "baby hug" and she explains it to me every time she does it... As if I haven't heard that explanation from her fifty times before. ; ) It's cute. 

So much sisterly love. 

I asked Brady to clean up the puzzle (I think Abigail left to go potty or something) and he was all "yeah!" and then cleaned it up so carefully. It always makes me happy when a kid listens and helps out cheerfully the first time they're asked, but this was just especially precious. It was adorable. 

Abigail gave him a hug and said thank you for cleaning up their puzzle. 

And it lasted so long that Brady started to panic about the choke hold. 

They finished cleaning up together. 

And then we went on our family walk all around the neighborhood. It was perfect. Everything was fresh and beautiful from the rain and the temperature and breeze felt amazing and the air smelled of summer rain showers and it was just great. I loved being able to take elizabeth on a walk outside where she didn't have to be bundled up like crazy or covered from the sun with a blanket. She just snoozed in the breeze and then woke up for the last bit of it.

I fed her inside while the kids ate and got ready for bed and then put her down and sat with in Brady's glider while he fell asleep on his "little bed."  I even got him a new binky for the occasion since he'd bit through his other one. These molars were coming up so fast initially but now that they're half way broken through, they seem to have slowed down and not made much progress in the last two days. 

It'll be nice when it's not so bad for him. He can stop being so attached to me and maybe start loving chris again. ; ) 

Let's all cross our fingers for a great night of sleep tonight and even more importantly... a late start tomorrow morning. ; )