Some days

Some days I upload pic after pic to blogger with the best of intentions.  Intentions to post that exact evening, not a day later.  And then an entire month passes quickly by and here I am.  But as always, better late than never :-P

I have lived through baby milestones two full times now.  You would think that it would be old news by his point but each time it still catches me by surprise.  Like this day when Emerson made the realization that, hey! This moving, nommable thing is part of ME!

While pondering this major discovery, I captured the most epic photo bomb.  My goofy T.  Just when I think she can't be funnier than she already is she steps her game up a notch. 

Mother hen I'm telling ya.  I honestly would not have survived maternity leave without this great helper. Whether it was comforting Emerson when she cried or helping Teagan get dressed for the day, Parker was my right hand woman.

Please note that Teagan is still in the nude.

Another thing that also doesn't get old no matter how many babies one has.  The cuddles :)

Everyone loves a good cuddle! Teagan is pouting because her turn with E ended.  Talk about being loved. So loved that no one wants to give her up.  

See how happy Teagan is to have her lil sis back in her arms??



Teagan also likes Parker to be in her arms as well.



And sometimes sisters are played with just fine on the floor.  The perfect distance away for Teagan to play the tune of "Animal Sounds" over. And over. And over again.  That song will forever be burned in my memory.



Other things:

Parker always seems to catch the most perfectly candid iPhone pics.

The big girls are still obsessed with this statue at the library.  His name is Andy and his parents are significant library donors.  The real life Andy drowned while studying abroad in India in his late teens.  I'm sure Andy's parents have witnessed the love many, many children visiting the library have for his statue. While I cannot begin to imagine the pain a parent must feel to lose a child, I can only hope that seeing the excitement and cheer the memory of their son has on children brings a bit of joy to their hearts.

On a happier note: MATCHING MAXI DRESSES! I even scored one for E to wear next spring.  I was so made to be a mom of girls. The only piece of the puzzle missing here is a matching one for me!

And a little snapshot of the oh so hard (insert sarcasm) maternity leave.  Chilling with my ladies and friends at Rochester's Wild Wednesday.

There's river wading, rocking gathering, and bucket filling.

There's fire hose spraying (one kid loved it, one kid cried).  Mom had a blast.

And of course it's not a wild Wednesday without a larger than life slip n slide.

Emerson basically behaved like a boss the entire time, rocking her fan equipped double BOB  while decked head to toe (check out those tootsies!!) in pink.

The end of the day wasn't pretty, as is the case whenever we skip a nap.  And without fail if we skip nap, Teagan falls asleep for the night in the silliest positions. Practically off the bed and did not even stir when I moved her to a more normal position.

Update on Syd :she's hanging in there but the end is imminent.  Typically our family meals look something like this below.  The girls hanging out at the kid table while Sydney stands guard at close proximity, waiting for any morsel of food to accidentally fall to the ground.

But lately she's barely eating, even with an appetite inducing pill.  Wet dog food she won't touch so we switched to a mix of chicken, quinoa/rice and veggies.  Then she would only touch the chicken.  Then she wanted nothing to do with the chicken.  So now we give her whatever.  Hot dogs.  Sliced cheese.  Meatballs. Pasta.  Whatever she wants she gets.  This sucks.

That's all I have for now.  I'm taking tomorrow off to do some things that I just can't get done during the week--huge Costco trip (my fave!), a trip with my ladies to the mall per Parker's request (love it!), and a swing by the pool store.  My parents are visiting for the whole weekend so we will surely have a great time :) I appreciate my weekends so much more now that I'm back to work so I am READY for four straight days off!

Back in the swing of things

Two weeks back in the swing of work-school-late nights and it's feeling like we didn't miss a beat.  Parker is loving being back with her buds on the regular and while Teagan is having a bit of a hard time adjusting at drop off, Parker is right there to take her under her wing and make sure she's comforted.  My sweet, nurturing, mother hen Parker to the rescue.  

Emerson is killing it at daycare.  Now that she's able to roll to her side in the crib she can fall asleep all on her own though the swing is her preferred place to take a long snooze. Girl sucks down her bottles and while I'm still pumping/nursing we're also supplementing with formula and trying to figure out a brand that doesn't make her super gassy.  Out of all the babies the teachers have seen, they all agree that Emerson is one of the easiest little one they've ever had.  

And speaking of Emerson, she is now 4 months old! So I guess that makes it a good time to catch up on her at three months ;)

Ohhhhh that grin makes my heart happy every time.

So does her semi-serious face.  Basically this child can do no wrong.

At three months old Emerson rocks tummy time and can hold her head up high, is talking up a storm (see below), loves stretching out on her play mat, swipes at toys, and snuggles up close to be rocked to sleep.  E loves to be walked in the stroller and smiles SO big when her sisters play with her.  Which is often.  

Look at my mad head-holding-up skills

I have to take your attention away from the children for a moment and ask you to look at the background of the below picture.  It's my barn door!! Thanks to the handy hubby for whipping this thing together in like two seconds.  I could not love it any more than I do.  It was the much needed finishing touch of our modern rustic living room.




Back to the kiddos. I cannot even count how many times I get comments about the girls when we're out and about.  Like sheer disbelief that we have three of the same sex.  These comments never happened with two girls but three makes peoples head spin for some reason.  I keep their heads spinning when I tell them I wanted all girls! I mean, check them out.  Of course I wanted to keep up with the theme of cutie tootie little ladies!

Sort of a random hodge podge post here but that's what you get when mama bear is surviving on six hours of broken sleep and recovering from an annoying draining head cold.  Thank goodness for coffee!

Summer fundays

The end is slowly approaching. The end of maternity leave that is.  In a mere week and a half I'll be back in the office, back to the schedule of early to rise and late to sleep. of go go go.  While I'll miss this fabulous vacation...errr...I mean maternity leave...I'm looking forward to getting back into the swing of things.  I will also be looking forward to racing home from work to greet my lovies and splash around in the pool until the sun sets :)

Well, I'll probably just splash around with the big girls.  The little one will probably feel like cuddling at the end of the day.  Fine by me.









...and Kris

...and Parker :)




But who knows, sometimes Emerson just loves chilling in her bouncer while we enjoy being fishies.  See her in the back left? :)



Speaking of fishies, our biggest fish has dominated the water and now is able to swim completely on her own! I'm so proud of our Parker :)




We all love our water time obviously but I highly doubt that will be spending any time on our slip and slide.  I bought this thing a couple years ago and it finally made it's debut a few weeks ago.  The first hill was slow and left us unimpressed so off it went to the hilliest part of the yard.  The part of the yard where only the biggest kids are allowed to sled in the winter because it's so steep.  As I watched Parker FLY down it, into the catching area at the bottom, and down the rest of the yard which resulted in some grass burn, I think we will pack the slip n slide up for good and focus on the pool from now on :)




All this summer swimming is so exhausting!

Another thing I have so loved during my break is a complete lack of schedule.  Well, I take that back.  I actually thrive on a schedule and so do the girls.  We all function better that way. But being able to do whatever we want when we want has some serious perks.  Like it's a rainy summer morning so what do we do? Meet up with some friends for an impromptu viewing of the latest Minions movies.

Emerson's first movie.  Yeppers, I brought a baby to the movies.  Can you tell she's a third baby?! A brave move on my part but she rocked it.  Soundproofing headphones, swaddle and cuddles were all she needed to nap the entire two hours.  Go E!

Our mornings have went something like this.  Wake up.  Watch a show.  Eat breakfast.  Discuss our plans for the day.  This particular day Parker suggested a trip to Chuck E Cheese.  Well why not, right? Especially since we have thousands of CEC tokens to use up.  

Not all our days involve venturing out and about.  Toting three kids four and under around town can be tricky so some mornings are spent enjoying our own backyard.  With the addition of the pool we had to move our swing set and trampoline to the back of our yard.  Pretty cool swinging and jumping in the woods. Until you see a black snake, scream louder than you ever have, and vow to only wear Hunter boots out when venturing to that part of the yard. Yuck yuck yuck.



And last but certainly not least, one of my fave parts of leave has been just soaking in my littles and all the things they find enjoyable.  Like teaching Emerson how to crawl.  Knock it off! Keep this baby little! Please and thank you.

Or making sure she has enough toys.

Or refusing to smile for a picture.  

These kids! Welp, that's it for now.  Off to order food from our fave local pizza joint and enjoy live music at the zoo.  Perfect family night!