Random/Lately

Maddie has gone from furiously crawling everywhere, to cruising along furniture and standing up in the middle of the room...

TO WALKING! Woo hoo!

She takes what I think are the most adorable little frankenstein steps that have in the last few days turned into more of a wide-stanced march, and she's really great at pivoting now. :) She chases the other kids around the house, swiping toys and darting behind furniture. She marches towards us as fast as she can with arms in the air when she wants to be held. She is pretty much the cutest thing in our lives.

We spent a day over Memorial Day weekend driving over to the lake house and back home in the same day. We were celebrating my dad's 60th birthday and cousins I haven't seen in years came with their babies I had never met. It was great fun!

Little road warriors - they were really well behaved the entire 3 hour trip.

Finally there!

My grandpa Bob with his 'rally cap' on, next to grandma Edie.

Maddie loved being on the water and feeling the wind in her face.

Bubbles with cousins (or second cousins?)...

Grandpa Bob had never met Maddie, so that was really special for him to get to spend some time getting to know her.

Eating birthday cake.

Ellie had been having a rough time at night (and even during the day) with her asthmatic cough, so we were nebulizing her 3 times a day.  

Heading out, saying goodbye to more cousins!

A random picture I found on my phone - of myself. Sleeping. Robbie is turning into a bit of a stalker when he is supposed to be resting.

We took the kids to the Memorial Day parade, but we didn't get there soon enough! So we caught about the last 10 minutes - still fun. It was hot and the kids wouldn't have lasted much longer anyways.

A recent playdate at Northside park with the Lake girls.

The girls were eating lunch and kept scooting together and swinging their little legs under the table. It reminded me of how when you are little you just want to be touching the people you love all the time!

Fal-Fal and Elle-belle

Savvy Ann and Maddie Jane, relegated to the baby swings so the mommies could catch up. 

This girl is energy packed into a baby's body. Cute and busy and full of expression in her eyebrows!

Kacey's and my kids are in this phase right now where they don't want their own moms to do things for them. Robbie and Ellie want Kacey to push them on the swings, and Fallon wants me to tie her shoelaces. It's pretty awesome to see your kids love your good friend as much as you do! (Ps. you can't even tell in this picture that Kacey is in her second trimester!)

Content with the wind in her hair.

Happily watching on as the big kids play nearby.

Fallon is such a sweet big sister. 

Taking a lunch break in the stroller!

Another day, another quest for more sleep. :)

Robbie and Ellie woke up from short naps one day just as I was laying down for a much needed nap. So I gave them a box of bandaids and told them they could put them on me. 

Then I rolled over and 'rested my eyes' for another 5 minutes. 

Their handiwork...

 

By the way? Totally worth it. And as one friend pointed out, taking them all off was sort of like an exfoliating spa treatment. Sort of.

Helping Ellie fall asleep one day on the air mattress in our room while my friend Jen visited from Florida.

Favorite past time these days - dressing up in costumes.

Tiny ballerina.

Buzz Lightyear.

("flying" on the ground, ha!)

We helped a friend get ready for a St. Baldrick's event to raise money for pediatric cancer. The night was a huge success and the kids were entertained by our sitter's husband who is inside that bear costume, as well as a children's balloon maker, music and great food.

Hours after the event I came down with a brutal stomach virus. Thankfully it was a Friday night and Rob was able to take care of the kids that night and Saturday while I rested. 

Little walker. 

I felt better on Sunday so we took the kids to the park as a family to get some fresh air.

Watching the trains go by.

More happy swinging! Those tiny thighs just kill me.

Sliding with my tiny girl.

She is so adventurous at the park and kept trying to climb up this tunnel, then falling back down.

Peek-A-Boo!

Couldn't do this last year!

A little teeter-totter action...

And a few final pushes on the swings.

Ellie's about ready for bed.

So my sweet friend Jen came to visit and stayed with us the night before I got sick and the Sunday night afterwards! It was actually perfect timing. I can't believe we didn't take any pictures, so I snapped these with my phone as we were dropping her off at the airport! We were so sad to send her off. It was awesome to see her and get to catch up in person, but we really missed seeing the rest of her family also. 

Ellie is disgusted that I would try to serve her chicken and peas for dinner.

Check out that pouty face. Yikes.

Robbie gets his own pool pass this year as a 4 year old! He is so proud of it, this was taken right after we had his picture taken and he was handed the card.

We went to the Morton Arboretum one afternoon to check out the tadpoles in the wading pool. It was really frustrating - there was a huge group of kids that were splashing around and trying to catch the tadpoles, so you couldn't see anything in the murky water. Also, they kept pushing my kids off the stepping stones. So we stayed to the side and waited for them to all leave, then we went back in.

Summertime = blueberries in the car. I think she was rubbing them all over her face out of boredom. 

Siblings holding hands.

Playing in the backyard

Checking for boo-boo's that might need band-aids before bedtime.

Rob fell asleep on the train one evening and missed his stop in Wheaton. So we picked him up in West Chicago and brought him home. We are so tired it's getting funny!

We aren't the only ones who are tired - the kids and I have been hitting the pool pretty hard, and sometimes I try to keep Ellie up instead of napping her. This is what happens while I cook dinner if she doesn't nap...

June

Oh June... You've been a mixed bag so far.

Maddie picked up MRSA - we're not exactly sure where, but the most likely place seems to be the floor of the family shower room at the gym after an afternoon of indoor swimming. ICK. She had a single boil that I was lucky to even find, we treated her right away with an oral antibiotic and the entire family swabbed our noses morning and night with medicated ointment to prevent the spread of the bacteria, and that was it. The boil went away, no more breakouts, and it didn't spread to anyone else. Apparently it's more common to get now than it was even a few years ago (our pediatrician referred to it as 'community acquired MRSA' and said her kids have had it as well and she wasn't alarmed). We took Maddie back in this week to be re-checked by the doctor and she got the all-clear to head back to childcare/nursery settings and to be around other kids again.

My sweet friend Jennifer came to visit all the way from Florida! Even MRSA couldn't keep her away. :) She stayed with us at the beginning and end of her trip, and for literally all of the time in between that she spent in the city...

I came down with a horrible stomach virus!

Then we bleached the house.

Rob has been pretty busy at work, and comes home each day to who knows what. Sometimes somebody's throwing up. Sometimes we've been to the doctor with an unidentified bump or rash or persistent cough. About half of the time I've given up on trying to cook dinner and we call for carry-out. Last weekend he took care of me while I was sick and took complete care of the kids for 2 days straight. Then 2 nights ago, Ellie came running into our room at 1am, crying about her mouth burning and her tummy hurting and promptly threw up all over the carpet by my side of the bed. Lights on, I'm scrubbing the carpet until 2am... I don't know how he even gets up to go to work the next day after some of the nights we have!

I am trying to get him to take me up on the offer to stay at a hotel by himself for a night, just so that he can log some decent hours of sleep. I think it's a brilliant idea.

Ellie is in a random phase where she wakes up around 1am and/or 3 or 4am each night. She'll wander into our bedroom and goes back to sleep easily, but I have to take her back to bed. Sometimes I remember that it happened when I wake up in the morning. Mostly I forget. It's so normal. Why is it so normal? I don't want this to be normal. :)

However, we started going to the pool this week. First of all, it's much easier than I realized it would be! The older 2 wear floaties and can touch the bottom of the entire kiddie pool (which goes from zero-depth to 2ft 6in in the 'deep end'). I can hardly keep them by my side, and I was worried about them hanging on me before we went for the first time! Maddie is happy to walk around in the pool where she can touch, or be pulled around or for me to help her 'swim'. She keeps trying to put her face in the water, can climb out of the pool onto the deck on her own, and even jumped off the side into the water where I caught her when I asked her to today! What a little water bug. I am pleasantly surprised. Also? It totally wears the kids out. They are pretty wiped out by the time bedtime rolls around unless I've let Ellie doze on the couch while I make dinner.

Last night was the first night in months (and I don't think I'm exaggerating at all) that I slept over 8 hours in a row without interruption. I woke up with swollen eyes and a punch-drunk-happy feeling! It was glorious. I didn't even want or need coffee. What!?

The best news is that for the last 2 weeks, the baby has been working very hard at growing up. At 14 months old, MADDIE IS WALKING! Everywhere. And she's really good at it. She takes those little frankenstein steps that are just about the cutest thing in the world, and when Rob comes home she throws her arms up in the air and walks as fast as she can towards him with a huge toothy smile and excited little noises. I don't think life gets much better than those little moments.

Robbie came out of his bedroom the other morning and announced "Look mom, I dressed myself.". And he had. Head to toe, perfectly. He chose his Manning Giants jersey, a pair of khaki cargo shorts, and grey underwear. As if that's not enough, he has also been sleeping at night in underwear instead of a diaper, and only had one accident in the last week or two on night #3. We are so proud! Some milestones have taken a lot of work. This one seemed to just fall into place. He likes to pray at dinnertime, and my favorite phrases from his prayers include "Dear Jesus, thank you for dying on the cross for our sins... please bless our little hearts...".

Ellie is also learning about prayer, and loves to pray at mealtime and at bedtime. I love hearing about what's on her little heart and mind as I listen to her prayers. She names her food as she thanks God for it, and once she asked "How are you, God?!". She has been testing the rules and boundaries a lot lately, which is exhausting. She has a soft heart and responds best to a gentle touch, but digs her heels in if I come down on her too firm or impatiently. She has locked me out of the house a few times when we have all been in the back yard playing. She will not stay in bed at night and will not stay in her chair during dinner. It's enough to make a parent lose their mind.

In June so far, I have heard "I hate you, mommy!"... "I don't love you anymore!"... "This is the best dinner I ever had!"... "I love you, mommy!"... "You're my best girl, mommy."... "I'm gonna HIT you!"... "Mom, I just want to be where you are."... "Mom, I love God."... "Mom, we need to read the Bible today!". I am obviously learning to pace myself as a mom. Things change from day to day. We sleep, we don't sleep, the baby is suddenly mobile, I find what works for this phase of life or this season of the year. Each day ahead of us is like one big question mark! Will it be good? Hard? Full of fun memories or sick kids? I'm learning not to live in the future as I hope for easier/healthier days, and not to live in the past either, but to be determined to grow through each day and moment that I find myself in.

Here's to a great rest of the month!