Bubbles with Max

Tonight I spent some time playing outside with max, just he and me mostly. We were trying out his new bubble machine. He was so excited. For over 30 minutes bubbles were flying out of that machine and we were chasing them, popping them, admiring them and just having fun. He wanted me chasing them too, so I did. We smiled and laughed together. It ha been way too long since max and I just played together. I hope we do it again soon. My son loves to laugh. He is best web he's active and laughing, or even better making others laugh. He is a cutie!

Fancy Nancy

I told Ellie we were going to visit a butterfly farm today. She got really excited and squealed!

She proceeded to tell me that, " Fancy Nancy says you must dress very colorfully when you see the butterflies, because maybe they'll think you're a flower and land on you!"

Too cute!

Sleep

All and all, Clair is a good sleeper for an infant. She has usually given me a log sleep each night since she was born. Recently, she usually goes from about ten pm to five or six am. I'm a lucky mom really. The past five days much of this has even been in her cradle. 

Daytime requires more hands on time from me to keep the tears at bay. I do what I can. I only lay with her at nap a couple times a week now. We both miss our shared naps, but mommy has a constantly messy house and millions of mommy chores. 

Even though she really doesn't do that much nursing, I'm still her go to paci wen se wants to settle in. I enjoy that I can provide her that comfort and hopefully some nutrients. I don't know how log this will last, but I will try. 

This photo is for my memory. She is so peaceful when she dozes off this way. 

Handsome

Mothers are partial to their own children. This is a given. But I still think Max is the most handsome little boy. I love the look he gets in his cheeks get Rosie and he's a little bit sweaty. His eyes just shine through so brightly. This is what he look like after running around at the park today for only 45 minutes. He is just so adorable and I love him so very much.

Big kids playing in the basement

Ellie and Mexican enjoying playing in the basement since Kylie was here with them. I've gone with it, as it using presents me an opportunity to do something I need to do and then time to have fun together. Whether or not this is being a good parent, I don't usually come downstairs if I don't hear screaming. Today I came down for the first time in a few days because I wanted to use the exercise room. The picture below shows the disaster that I found all over the floor.

After speaking with Ellie, she thought it would be okay to come sequins all over the floor because they plan to vacuum them up. This explains why their bin little sequined. All over the floor throughout the house of the past couple days and I couldn't figure out why.

Needless to say I was livid and wanted to go upstairs and wake them. But we will deal with this together after nap, and I have had some time to be clear and explain to them that that was unacceptable. I must need to take some of the blame to as I left them alone down here with Martin and glue from all the projects they had done with others.

Milestone: Clair slept in cradle for nap

Each day I watch my little girl grow. I'm happy for her milestones. But I know this means that she will be a grown-up big kid before I know it.

I have been wanting her to sleep in her cradle at naptime for a week or two now. As much as I love being able to lay down and nap with her, it's my only chance to get anything done for me. I decided if I was ever going to get back into an exercise routine, naptime would be that point in the day. 

Today I attempted to exercise. I was interrupted just after five minutes with her crying two flights up. I decided to consider stair running part of my exercise, and just run with it. After going to her, replacing her pacifier, kissing her locks, and explaining to her that she needed to sleep in her cradle, I returned to the basement to exercise again. 

Low and behold, this time she allowed me to finish a 45 minute workout. She is currently still sleeping!

Well done Clair!!!

Fun at Max's third birthday party

This evening we had Max's third birthday party at the local park. It was a wonderful evening. The kids all had fun playing at the park and playing water guns. We had a nice gathering of mostly family and a few friends. It was absolutely perfect. Max really enjoyed himself and so did others.

Here are a few photos of the event. For he kids, playing with Robert, Mikey and Colleen was a hit. Thanks to Gramma and Laura for help with Clair. She had a nice time too. 

Max spent a lot of time at the outside "shower." He's wanted to play in that for a while, and today he finally got his chance. I don't think he really played on the playground.

Pictures are in reverse chronological order, but they tell a good story. 

Sibling rivalry

Quote from Ellie today, "I'm jealous, Clair has cuter clothes than me."

And so it starts.

Mothers have been doing it since the beginning of time

Today was my first day at home alone with all three kids. No one went to daycare and no one was here to help. All in all I would say it was a good day. It does make me smile when I think about how accomplished I feel, and the fact that their mothers that stay home with much larger numbers of children that I have.

We accomplished pretty much everything on my list. I would've been able to do a bit more, if Clair's only choice and sleeping wasn't being held by me. Even got to the library and did a little bit of grocery shopping. I also made a nice summer dinner for the whole family. Your ending the evening outside playing. I have picked raspberries, and now I'm sitting in a lawn chair holding Clair while she sleeps. It is quite relaxing, if only I didn't feel like there were 1 million chores to be done. I hope that when I look back on my time raising children I do not regret trying to keep up with the chores and the Housework the way that I do.

First sounds

Tonight as Clair and I were chatting, she made her first letter sounds. We were smiling at each other having our chats, and instead of just her tongue going, a sound came out. She said "guuuu."

I was so happy, that made her smile bigger. Then she said it a few more times. She's getting so big!

Welcome sports to our life

I like sports and I want to enjoy them with the kids. We finally signed the kids up for a trial of soccer. Max went last week. He's luke warm on it at best. Tonight he didn't play Half the time. However David said he was pretty good when he did play. 

Ellie was so nervous and repeatedly told me she didn't want to go. I just told her we were going to try it out. So, with some hesitation, she jumped right in. She did great! She dribbled, she kicked, she did her happy dance, she listened to coach amber very well. I couldn't have been more proud. My favorite was how she would fix the ball with her hands instead of feet. That's my daughter!  

I think she was proud too. She told me she enjoyed it. She thanked me for signing her up. That is so wonderful!!!

Clair's week 7 milestones

Today Clair is eight weeks old. I cannot believe how time is flying and I cannot believe how she is growing. And changing.

A few days ago we had an awake. Where she did not nap between bottles. This is one of those monster screen and she's awake a lot more, turning into the baby instead of an infant.

I also think she weighs between 11 and 12 pounds these days. It's amazing that the two-week appointment Dr. Clarence was so worried she wasn't gaining weight. I knew by two months it would be a different story. I can't wait for her way in on July 1. So I can wait because I don't want time to fly.

Today officially ends my maternity leave. The rest of my time on his bonus time. I surely cannot imagine leaving her and going back to work at this time.  We are just getting to know each other. 

I love how happy I can make my girls like kissing her face. When she is upset and crying at Eileen into her and put my lips on her face and talk to her gently, she comes right down. That's an amazing touch to have as a mommy. Being a mother is truly the best relationship in the world. At least I say that now with my children young, I hope I can always feel that way. :)

Emily Sinclair like to smile at each other. Evelyton such a great job of spending time with her young sister. Here's a picture of Claire admiring Ellie as they lay beside each other.

My boy is three

Sunday morning Max turned three! He greeted me that morning by running into my room with a big smile on his face showing "mommy I'm three! " It was adorable. He was dressed in his little green plaid jammy pants and a green leprechaun shirt. He is looking so big.

Where does time go? I was trying to remember some things from when he was little when he was born. I found it hard to remember just three years ago. Being a mom of three is fantastic, but sometimes I wonder if I spread myself to thin amongst the children. I only hope the answer is no. I know my siblings and I turned out okay, but my mom got to stay home full-time.

The day started with a lot of presents. Next is excited about all that. He liked his bike and this Tholdens all the little dinosaur gifts too. I think his favorite might've been a little windup music box that sings twinkle twinkle. This is a little gift I set-aside Bacchic Christmas for Max. I knew it would get to his heart. He walks around turning that music box and singing twinkle twinkle. It's adorable.

We went to church in the morning. We also have notes. And we spent the evening at aunt Katie's celebrating Father's Day. Max wanted to take his new football with him. He and granddaddy played football for a little bit. It's cute seeing my father interact with him now he's getting older. Dad sure does like to play with the boys.

We celebrated with a chocolate chip cookie cake for Max. Cookies are his favorite, so it just seems appropriate. One difference I remember from last year and this year is that he wasn't near as messy after eating his cookie cake this year. Must be a sign of his impending maturity :-).

Here are a few pictures from the day.

Parents are officially outnumbered

This evening the whole family took Hazel to the airport for her return to Scotland. The kids were excited to see the process of leaving from an airport. But they were also sad to see granny go, especially Max. Max told us multiple times he did not want to take Granny to the airport. Then, sometimes he tried another tactic, that he would go with her. He held her tight the entire time. We helped her check her bags and get her tickets. We looked at a few planes. But granny was ready to get through security, and we had to Sarah goodbyes. After granny gave hugs to everyone, she went to walk towards the escalator that would take her down to the security checkpoint. Immediately Max starts to follow her. I apologize to the security lady there, and she was very understanding. We proceeded to get Max on the right side of the gate. He sat down on the floor and watch granny take the escalator down. He was very solemn, but he did not cry.

The return trip home prove challenging as Klarr cried in the backseat and there was no granny to console her. I eventually decided to stop the car and feed her. 

The real missing began only got home at 9 o'clock and it was bathtime for everyone and Claire was also very hungry. This is when I begin to realize what being outnumbered by children feels like. I'm extremely grateful to Hazel for allowing us to go 6 1/2 weeks after Claire's birth before officially being outnumbered by our children. 

We made it through bathtime with minimal tears. Ellie had a moment in the top but she was very sad granny had left. David to Caromax. And we can declare back and forth to the adult who was not most busy at the time. Clair even managed a quick bath.

As I was dressing Claire, Max came in and told me he did not want granny to leave because he likes her. I smiled and said I know you love grannie very much, but she needed to go back to Scotland to see the rest of her family. " But I missed her he says. She will come back tomorrow. She told me she would be here on Saturday." All I could do was look at him and hug him and tell him empathetically that it would be a while before Grannie came back, but she would.

As I was putting the kids to bed while trying to nurse Clair at the same time, Max began to demand Granny's return. I told him I understood, and I tried to be empathetic. Then, I suggested he lie down close his eyes and think about the fun times he's had with granny.

As I tried to leave the room so I could get to making Clair a bottle, Ellie says something along the lines of, " wouldn't it be nice if our house had three apartments attached to it and Grannie lived in one of them. And we could see her every day!"

It is now time for us to get on being a family of five and adjusting to being outnumbered. I have been looking forward to my maternity leave for about a year now. And I'm also scared of what Monday has in store for me as I begin life at home three alone. I know I can do it, but I know they won't get as much attention and love as they happen granny is here too. We all miss her!

On the way home from the airport I told David that I clearly remember Granny's departure the first time after each of the children was born. I always have mixed emotions about getting on with trying to care for my family myself, and missing her very much. She is so helpful and so good to us all while she is here. I hope that her visits are clear memories of lots of joy and love for the kids for the rest of their lives.

Clair Smiles

 I started to see you smiles from Claire about a week ago. She shared them sparingly. Over the past 24 hours I have been able to get smiles from her by looking in her eyes. Those are the absolute best moments. I look away Clair's eyes crinkle up when she smiles!

This morning we were up early. I have fed her and dressed her. I've dressed me too. We're trying to get out and about to visit great grandpa and great uncle stanley. I captured this picture after her feet. I love a happy baby!

Feisty

Claire makes her opinion known. For example, she often does not like writing in the car. It is amazing how quickly she can go from calm to shades of red or even purple. The picture below was captured after only a few minutes in the car.

I'm most impressed with how She has managed to work up to tears in her eyes, while still keeping the paci dangling in her mouth.

I thought the third child supposed to be the laid-back one?

Sibling love

Ellie came to me with this drawing she made. She explained it was her and Max holding hands. She wanted to put it into a new toy car max had gotten. This warmed my heart. How cute!

Showered with love

UThis past weekend I enjoyed celebrating my 37th birthday. Ellie was so giving for my birthday. She was so excited it was coming up. And she spent so much time preparing car and things for me. She spent all day Friday working on a very special cake with granny. She must've given me 10 to 15 different cut out hearts and flowers colorful things from construction paper. She made a very special card for me too.  She even decided to give me one of her coveted dolphin pencils. It was so sweet.

It's quite evident to me that Ellie is my biggest fan in the world. The love she has for me so sweet and so kind. I only hope that we can keep that forever. I love that little girl so much.