As you all know, I have taken on way too much a bit of a heavy workload. It’s been overwhelmingly crazy a little on the busy side, but Matthew has taken over the majority of the errands/grocery shopping/childrearing. I’m GOING CRAZY AND FEEL LIKE I MIGHT LOSE IT doing well, considering that I’m putting in about eight to ten hours of (paying) work per day. Every day. Seven days a week.
Ahem.
Composing myself, because there is a bright note. Two, actually.
My good friend Amanda was good enough to host a girls’ night last Saturday. It was a much needed outing for me, as I’ve only been leaving our house about once per week. I’m not even kidding. I had brought my camera, but didn’t pull it out as we were too busy stuffing our faces. And looking at pictures on Facebook. Aren’t we wild?
We really are.
On to my second bright spot of the week. Our best buds Karen and Travis told us we’d better meet them at the beach for supper, or they would give us fifty lashes with a wet noodle.
OK, they just asked nicely, and we jumped at the opportunity. Wouldn’t you?
Summer has ARRIVED in the Okanagan. It’s HOT, and nothing says summer like a potluck picnic at the beach. Well, margaritas say summer but we all had to drive. Pop was the beverage du jour.
(I’d do a slide show, but I don’t have the time to figure it out. See above about the craziness that is my life right now. Please excuse the onslaught of photos…I can’t help myself.)
The kids all had a great time. The four older kids pretty much left us alone played on the playground equipment and in the sand.
Here’s Graham and his future wife Sarah, deep in conversation.
It looks like he’s making a play, but can I remind you that he’s FOUR? Besides, they wouldn’t do anything like that until they hit their thirties. That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.
(Sidenote: Here’s a cute story for you. Graham and Sarah always tell us that they’re going to get married to each other. Graham told me this again today and said, “I’m going to be the King, and Sarah is going to be my Princess. I’m going to give her a crown.”)
Awwww….but back to the beach.
Emily was her usual sweet self, and we just plunked her right in the centre of the picnic table while we ate dinner. Her “fast hands” made it a little interesting, but we managed to keep anything harmful out of her reach. Then we sat her on the beach blanket, and she amused herself for over twenty minutes with this:
Yes, an empty juice box. Karen and I were laughing at how with our first babies, we would be sure to pack all of the age appropriate toys (rattles, teethers, cups, etc.) And Emily? She gets an empty juice box.
She didn’t seem to know the difference.
Here’s another cute one of her, if only for my Mom. Hi Mom!
It was good to get away from work and spend good time with great friends. I needed that. Desperately.
While the sporadic re-connections on Facebook have been great (and weird? and crazy? and cool?) There’s something to be said for hanging out in the real world with real people. Like these two:
And don’t Matthew and I look happy to be at the beach?
It was the first time I had worn a normal bra. While the nursing bras are hot and all (what with the three-inch-wide straps and huge clasps) I thought I’d pass on that look. Don’t worry, Emily didn’t starve…and I looked somewhat fashionable.
Three weeks left, dudes. Then I’ll have all of the time in the world to blog/Facebook/etc.
Better yet?
I’ll have human connections coming out the wazoo. And DAILY beach time.
Can’t. Hardly. Wait.
The “volcanoes” I’m referring to what would be my “ladies”, my “milk dispensers”, my “tatas”…you get the drift?
(Trying not to get crazy Google searches coming my way…though I may have shot myself in the foot with the last one)
They haven’t really been volcanoes since those first few weeks after Emily was born and I was spraying milk like a geyser water sprinkler. Now they’ve calmed down to a light mist…or even less, I guess. I can almost get away without wearing breast (hello, Google) pads.
The battle is that Emily is a busy girl. Too busy eating real food, scooching on her bum and watching her brothers’ every. single. MOVE…to want to waste time with her face pressed against my chest. The routine goes something like this:
Latch on, slurp, slurp…lean head back and smile at me.
Latch on, slurp, slurp…lean head back and…thbbbbbbbbtt!!!! Something like this:
Latch on, slurp, slurp…lean head back and talk to me…dadadada…mamama…BABABABABA!
If her brothers or Daddy come in the room, then she wants no part of me. It really is a battle, and some days I grow weary. She’s much happier with a bottle for the most part (she can see everything!), and I’m getting to that point too.
Yesterday, she went for her morning nap a little later than usual, and then slept for three hours! We wondered if we should maybe try and make it a one-nap day. She was having a grand old time outside with the men in her life, as evidenced here:
Come four o’clock, however, she was not a happy camper. That girl has the biggest bottom lip that you e’er did see. I must catch it on film sometime. It’s classic.
We laid her down for a nap, but she didn’t do her usual routine. Normally she slides her little thumb in and we don’t hear from her until she’s done her nap. Instead, she decided to yell at us until we got her back up. She was tired, but not tired enough to pass out.
That’s when I pulled out the (not so) big guns. The result?
Slumber. Her sweetness is almost too much to bear.
I’m not packing (tucking?) them in quite yet.
Hey! Remember me?
I’ve been working many, many hours. No time to blog, or do much surfing. I’ve been keeping a little connected with the outside world through the occasional email or wall post, but have been pretty much immersed in reviewing accounting assignments.
Nothing like a little (OK, a lot) of accounting to suck all of your creative juices from your body. I’ve been spending my days staring at the computer and reading about debits and credits, and accounting Handbook sections…(getting sleepy)… and lease versus buy calculations…ZZZZZZZZZZZ.
*Snort!* Huh? Where was I? Oh yeah. Accounting…then there are the financial statements…(head bobbing)
Yeah. Not much exciting blog fodder.
We did have a little excitement to break up my boredom. Matthew was outside with the kids and yelled at me to bring the camera. This is what he found. Or better yet, this is what found us.
Thank God I have a zoom lens. I wasn’t going anywhere near that thing. It slithers and hisses and has beady little eyes. It’s not the kind of snake that OMSH had to deal with but DID I MENTION THAT IT WAS A SNAKE? IN MY YARD?????
It slithered off, hopefully never to be seen again.
*Shudder*
(Insert seguay here…I have no creative thoughts do do one myself)
This morning Matthew “did” the boys’ hair before they left to drop Graham off at Playschool and then run some errands. The dudes looked so cute that I had to pull out the camera.
Then I dressed Miss Emily in a sweet dress, and put the jean hat on. She took it off a number of times, but the strap finally foiled her attempts and she gave up trying to whip it off of her head. I win. This time.
Here’s what she thinks of the hat:
But I like her in hats. She’s even cuter (if that were possible), or at least I think so.
That’s all I got, folks. Back to work for me…zzzzzzzzz.
Though I’d rather be bored (and busy) than dealing with the “excitement” of reptiles.
But boy! Am I long on pictures!
‘Twas another stellar summer day here in the Okanagan. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping (and eating the fish from our pond. Gah!), and the air was delightfully warm.
Too bad for me that I spent many hours working. INSIDE. Bah! But I made a point of getting outside for a bit with my beautiful family. I was armed with my camera. Of course I was! There are more on Flickr, but here’s a sampling.
My sweet, sweet Nathan. He will break many, many hearts.
And “Dr.” Graham. He told me that there was another baby in my tummy. If THAT doesn’t strike fear in my heart…
And Miss Emily…Sigh…
Auntie Karen bought her this outfit “just because”. I’d buy it in my size if it existed.
Even if it did, I could never be that beautiful.
Somehow?
I have kids that have exceeded my wildest dreams.
Kim over at mommyknows.com is having a May Madness giveaway. She’s giving away cool stuff from her online store, thebabymarketplace.com. Online shopping! From Canada! (She ships to the US and elsewhere too) All you have to do is comment, and you’re entered in that day’s draw. I haven’t won yet, but I keep trying!
EDITED TO ADD:
I WON! I WON! I WON!
And the more comments she has, the better chance she’ll continue the contest into June.
GO COMMENT ALREADY!
The last time I left our property was on Saturday. That was FOUR days ago. No wonder I’m feeling stir crazy.
Enough posts about me. Blah, blah, work is crazy, blah, blah…
You come here to see my cute kids! Besides, I think that my post-baby PMS-free days may be over. Any posts about myself may be a little on the, ahem, grumpy side. Please pray for me and my hormones. Better yet, pray for Honey and the kidlets.
I promised you a cute video yesterday, and I’m coming through for you. Emily has been trying out new sounds with her little vocal chords. And also trying to fly away.
Click here if you can’t see it.
Someone on YouTube already rated it at five stars! Maybe because, like me, they find that sound she makes both humorous and kind of disturbing all at the same time.
And the boys?
A few weeks ago, a light turned on in my sweet Nathan’s head.
“What would happen if I pushed the red car up the hill, got in, closed the door, and pushed off?”
Graham? Also curious.
Here’s what happens.
Wheee!!!!
Then it starts all over again.
I wish they made these cars in my size.
