Woznation

I think its safe to say that 2016 wont be the most documented year of our lives, but I’m trying to jot down a few memories here and there so the thing isnt a total blur.    Here is my photo dump of spring 2016.  Highlights were —

Easter at home:

Bloomington for Busia’s 60th birthday with Emmy:

Phil gone for a 2-week work trip to California. This is Wil’s lego tower that he called his ‘new daddy’ after about 10 days.  Luckily my parents and Busia were able to come up and help out:

Buying a House and starting renovations!! Phil wasnt even there for the closing because he had to be in California – so it was kind of chaotic, but we got it done! Stock photo is the best shot we have right now:

We are so pumped about the house — I think its going to be really great. Good location, good schools, lots of room to grow.  Now we’re busy picking out furniture, making renovation decisions, finding new schools, etc.  Its nice that we have a bit of overlap between our current rental and moving into the new place.  We are finishing up the school year in our current location – then will move in to the new house mid-June once the renovations are complete.

Rest of the pictures/highlights include: a nice mothers day at home after phil got back from his trip, a job offer for me in the area (but we couldnt settle on start date, so we are going to check back in a few months and see if it still works out), a trip to the indoor pool during spring break, I took Wil on a school field trip to a play, we went to a friends Firehouse birthday party, Wil started his occupational therapy with ‘Ms. Heidi’ who he LOVES and shes able to give us lots of tips to help Wil, they started re-paving our road which is lots of construction excitement for the kids, we had a few springtime scavenger hunts —  Other than that – its starting to warm up – so we’re just spending as much time outside as possible!!! We’re hitting up lots of festivals  – Wil’s new favorite thing is face-painting. Evie loves riding bikes and doing her scooter to the little library house around the corner, and Zev likes to watch it all from his bouncer.

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3:00am – Evie is calling for us.  Phil goes in and gets her to go back asleep. Zev is fussing and I pop the pacifier back in.

4:45 – Zev is fussing and the ninny isnt cutting it anymore.  I nurse him.  And Phil’s alarm goes off for the day.  Phil is up and showering and Zev snuggles with me in the bed –  by 5:15 Zev and I are back asleep.

6:15 – Evie is calling for us again.  I wait for a second hoping Phil is still around – luckily he is, and he comes up to get her back to sleep again.

6:30 – Evie is calling again but Phil is gone.  I head in there to get her to sleep for a little while longer.

6:50 – Evie is calling again.  Get her to go back to sleep one more time…

7:15 – We officially start the day. Wil, Evie and I head downstairs.  I get them set up with blankets and milk on the couch while I make oatmeal.  We put on Big Hero 6.  I feed barney and get some coffee. I help Evie go to the bathroom then head upstairs to get Zev.  I change him and give him a bottle while the kids finish up breakfast, then I try to put him down in the bassinet downstairs, but he never falls back asleep – just fusses while I clean up breakfast and make Wil’s snack for school.  We brush hair and teeth and change Zev again before heading out the door.

8:30 – In the car to drop off Wil at school.  Its less than 2 miles away, so we drop off and are back at the house before 9.  Once back home I put Zev on his playmat – he spins himself around in circles, but doesnt roll over quite yet. Evie wants to do puzzles and watch the Lorax.  I unload the dishwasher, take out the trash, get myself breakfast, respond to some emails, and make a grocery list. I help Evie in the bathroom and change Zev before heading out the door again.

9:45 – running a little late for Palatine library story time.  We load up the car and make it there a few minutes late.  I feed Zev while Evie listens to stories and sings songs.  Zev doesnt really fall asleep.  We play a little while longer and I help Evie in the bathroom again before heading to the grocery around 11.  It starts to hail a bit and I forgot the jackets – so we run in as fast as we can.  Evie has a minor meltdown because we cant use the cart that looks like a police car with the driving wheels because Zev’s carseat doesnt fit.  But we survive.

11:40 – We’re done with the grocery a bit early and dont have to pick up Wil until noon so we head through starbucks drive-thru and then play in the car for a bit. Zev finally falls asleep!  Because of the freezing rain, I park by the door of Wil’s school and hope that Wil’s speech teacher sees me and brings him to the door instead of me getting Evie and Zev out of the car again – luckily he does and I’m able to pick-up Wil without complete disruption.

12:10 – We’re back home.  Zev stays asleep in the carseat.  I put away the groceries,  make grilled cheese for the kids, put on some Netflix and pump. The kids play in the playroom after lunch.  Zev wakes up while I’m pumping and Wil tries to help keep him happy until I can go and get him.  I give him the bottle and change him. Zev hangs in his bouncer while I clean bottles, answer some more emails, and take care of barney.

1:00 – Evie heads upstairs for her nap (i help with the bathroom again). I head downstairs and work on an email to a recruiter about a job in the area but I dont get very far before Wil needs help in the bathroom (this is a rarity! He usually handles things by himself at this point) and Zev is starting to fall asleep in the bouncer.  I’m exhausted, so me and the boys head upstairs to my room to take a nap.  I dont think Wil ever fell asleep but he plays quietly enough that Zev and I did.

2:45 – Zev is still asleep but Wil and I head downstairs.  I have lunch and coffee and start some dinner prep.  I write another 2 lines of my email about the job. At 3:15 I head up to get Evie.  Zev fusses a bit but goes back to sleep.  Evie and Wil watch big hero 6 again and eat some cereal.

4:00 – Phils home early!  He shovels the driveway and the kids play in the play room. I finish the casserole for dinner and pop it in the oven. I help Evie in the bathroom twice and play with the kids until Zev starts screaming. I get Zev changed and fed.  The kids are still playing nicely together in the playroom (another rarity) so I write another few lines of the email while Phil comes back in to play with the kids.

5:30 -Chicken nuggets in the oven for the kids, and change Zev – he plays on his mat while the rest of us eat dinner.  After dinner, Phil and I trade off with the kids, who are not playing so nicely anymore.  I did puzzles with the kids while Phil did the dishes.  Then he took over while I headed upstairs to shower.  Phil did a bottle and diaper change for Zev. I come downstairs and pump.  Wil and Evie are running in circles and fighting.  Phil and I are trying to keep our cool. (Really cant wait for summer where we can spend this hour outside at a playground!)

7:00 – The kids have a treat while we watch a show and try to calm down for the night.  Zev falls asleep in the bassinet downstairs and I get the bath ready upstairs. Phil heads upstairs to do bath-time while I clean up downstairs and then come back up for stories and lullabies. Phil and I trade off running downstairs to keep Zev happy after he wakes up.

8:20 – The big kids are tucked in and we’re back down stairs. But Evie calls for us at least 3 more times for various things (ninnies, bathroom, another song, etc…) I dont know when it was actually quiet in the house.  But I did finish my email about the job finally while Phil dealt with Zev.  We let barney out and get a bedtime bottle ready then head upstairs. I do bottle and diaper for Zev while watching Scrubs on Netflix.  Phil and I are too tired to talk about our days. Lights out around 9:30.

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So lets see:  8 bathroom assists, 8 diapers, at least 6 trips into Evies room to get her to go to sleep, 8 times feeding Zevin, 2 pumping sessions, 0 minutes talking to my husband about our days or anything remotely ‘adult’, 0 minutes working out,  I dont recall any major meltdowns or timeouts, but it seems likely that they occurred.  I only mention Barney 3 times but I swear I took care of him more than that. But yeah – the rest of it is pretty on par with having 3 kids under 5. Some days are better.  Some days are worse.  But we’re doing ok.

Just popping in to say we survived our first Chicago winter. (But by all accounts, it wasnt bad at all).  Baltimore seemed to have more snow – but also had warmer days sprinkled in, so the snow would always melt and you’d be able to get outside for a few days here and there.  But here, it snowed and it stayed on the ground forever because it doesnt reach above freezing for months at a time! We made the huge mistake of leaving our sled outside on the patio after the first snow – and it got frozen to the ground for all of January and half of February.  Lesson learned.

Heres my brain dump from the last few months:

-New Years was spent at home making home made confetti and cheers-ing with apple juice around 8pm to the netflix countdown

-Evie is officially in her big girl bed.  We originally put Wil and Evie back in the same room to free up the crib for Zev.  But Wil and Evie had a bit too much fun, so Evie is back in her room.  And Zev is still in our room.  But thats ok! Because Zev is starting to sleep through the night for the most part!!  We’ll deal with the crib situation in the new house

-We’ve been house hunting.  There was one we were pretty close to pulling the trigger on but ultimately decided to see what else was out there.  But I think we’re narrowing down what we want.

-I took all 3 kids to Btown to see my sister and her family – it was the first time they had met Zev, and the first time we had seen them since last August. And Phil got 3 glorious days all to himself.

-Phil had a few work trips.  One of which was 4 days (with a stop in Vegas!) so Char came up to help with the kids and Mark came up over the weekend. Then my parents came another weekend to help us watch the kids while we went into the city for a day and house hunted.

-I hopped down to btown with Zevin for 26 hours for Sarah’s baby shower and had time to go on a run outside and a pedicure with Celia. It was a near perfect weekend.

-I got majorly overwhelmed and nearly had a breakdown one day — so Phil scheduled a massage for me,  left work early and took care of all household duties and kids while I got back my sanity.

-I turned 33!  And had two phone interview/discussions about job opportunities around the Chicago area.  It was pretty fun to have the focus on me for hot beat, but ultimately had to decline one offer since there is no way I can commute into the city right now. But the other one is still an option!

-Wil is really into letter sounds and trying to read —  Its so cool to watch him string things together to figure out a word! He still needs lots of help and repeating, but you can tell hes getting the idea.

-We have discovered an indoor trampoline place near us that Phil loves. He at least takes Wil and Evie with him.  But really he goes to meet his friend (and his kids) and its the adults who have the most fun.  There is a big sign that says ‘No Double Flips’ — so Phil does triple flips.

-Phil went to a bulls game! And is headed to a blackhawks game tomorrow night.

-We went to the children museum one afternoon and Zev had a total blow out. And in a total amateur move – i didnt bring him a change of clothes.  I think if this would have happened with Wil, it would have totally ended the day.  We would have just packed up and went home.  But luckily I’m not so overwhelmed by these things anymore.  I just stripped him down, brought my mostly naked baby to the gift shop, asked for the smallest shirt they had (which was 2T!) – wrapped him up and carried on with the day.

-I was at the grocery store with Evie the other day and she picked up a shallot and asked what it was.  When I told her, she held it up to her ear and said ‘I cant hear the ocean?!’.

-Evie includes sounds effects when shes talks. “I see a froggie, ribbit ribbit”.  “Do you want to play Trains? Choo choo.” “I want to watch monsters, ROAR”.

-Wil starts every sentence with “Let me tell you something” which was cute for a while but starting to get annoying

-Zev is putting everything in his mouth!

I know this is a super lame update after 3 months, but really we’ve just been surviving  cabin fever, trying to get into a rhythm, and waiting for spring! I cant wait for warmer weather and more sunlight!

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Zevin!  You are amazing at 3 months.  He is finally waking up to the world and becoming more alive.  He loves when you smile at him and loves to smile back. He loves tickles on his tummy, especially any skin on skin contact. He is constantly moving his arms and legs.  Hes starting to figure out if he kicks on his play mat – things will move!  And hes figuring out how to get his hands to his mouth which is good and bad – we are trying to avoid him becoming a thumb sucker, but that might be his path.  He loves when people talk to him and makes adorable little cooing noises back.

Its a miracle hes surviving his siblings though.  They love him a little too much and want to ‘help’ a bit more than needed.  If he is crying and wont take his ninny they just cover his mouth to ‘help him’ stop crying.  Yikes. I’m finding it hard to leave him in a room with the other two kids while trying to get something done in the kitchen because I’m nervous they will be all over him.  So now Zev has to be next to me at all times, so I can protect him. He loves watching everyone around him though. Especially Wil.  Wilek will sit and ‘talk’ to him in goo-goo’s and ga-ga’s or will ask that I set Zev up in his bouncer while he builds towers or plays other games and ‘teaches’ him how to do it along the way.  Its truly adorable.

We’re still working on sleeping for longer stretches.  He will sleep for 6+ hours – as long as someone is there to put his pacifier in every few hours when it falls out – so we’re still not getting good sleep – even if hes only eating 1 or 2 times a night.  But hes been good about handling nursing or a pumped bottle or formula – so I’m thankful hes not picky about eating and gives me a break from time to time.  Phil and I even left him over night with our parents for a night since we knew he could handle the bottle just fine for one night.  It was a much needed night off 🙂 (We also joke that it was over a year before Phil and I left Wil for a night, but by the 3rd kid, we weren’t so worried and got out of town at 11 weeks!)

One thing I am truly grateful for is — I am finally a baby person.  After 2 kids and preaching how terrible infants are —   I LOOOooooooooooooooooooooooooove Zevin at this stage and never want him to grow up…. ever.  I remember talking to my friend Laurel after her daughter was born, who she knew would be her last, and how she cataloged every milestone so much closer than her previous child since she knew this was her ‘baby’ and her last chance to experience it all, and I completely feel it now.  I love every little noise he makes and every little sneeze and every little leg roll.  Hes a perfect baby.  I’m not wishing it away this time.  I’m treasuring it.

He has never enjoyed being swaddled, but sleeps best when being cuddled or in extra layers so hes nice and warm.  He’s just starting a phase where he wants to be held all the time (perhaps for protection?!).  But I dont mind 🙂 Hes still in our room (as Evie is reluctant to give up the crib).  I can only fight so many battles at a time – so he might be in with us until we move to the new house and get the crib out of Evie’s room.

His stats at 2 months were 13.5 lbs (70%) and 24 inches (75%). Hes gaining weight like a champ and starting to look more baby-like instead of alien/newborn-like.  I cant tell who he looks like though.  Maybe somewhere in the middle of Wil and Evie? Maybe some long lost relative?  I guess we’ll see.  He looks exactly like I’d expect our child to look though. He looks very familiar to me.

Here are some growth pictures over the first 12 weeks:

Zev – 1 week

Zev – 10 days

Zev – 2 weeks

Zev – 3.5 weeks

Zev – 6 weeks

Zev – 8.5 weeks

Zev – 11.5 weeks

Here is the 8th week photo in the same outfit and Lion, compared to Wil and Evie (But Zev’s was closer to 9 weeks)

Zev 8.5 weeks

Evie 8 weeks

Wil 8 weeks

Of course Zev’s photo shoots are a bit more exciting than Wil’s ever were.  Many more people to get in on the action.  I love this crazy family!

Happy New Year!!  We are wrapping up the holidays around here and gearing up for 2016.  Lets take a look back at 2015..

Jan: The calm before the storm.  We were fresh off of a mexican vacation and just starting to talk more seriously about having baby #3 and moving back to the midwest.

Feb: Started to move forward on big life plans.  Had an awesome birthday / date night / last hoorah where I ominously said ‘I bet we wont do anything like again for a long time” Boy was I right!

March: Confirmed I was pregnant! And Phil was flying to Motorola for a second interview!

April: Phil got his job offer and we were putting in our notices at work and looking for rental houses.

May: Moved from Baltimore and lived in Btown for four weeks

June: Phil started the new job and came to btown on the weekends.  Finally moved into rental at end of the month.

July: Found out we were having a boy! Worked on finding doctors, schools, vet, etc.

August: School started and finally started to feel a bit more settled

September: ‘Babymoon’ to cleveland, starting to gear up for baby #3

October: Mostly huge and miserable. Waiting for baby to arrive.

Until finally:

November: Postpartum craziness with lots of visitors.

December:  Holy shit we have 3 kids.

2015 was such a crazy and insane year – I cant believe how much our life has changed since last January, but we are working really hard on creating the life we want and we are so close I can taste it.  I am really excited for 2016.  The year where we buy a house.  The year where all our kids sleep through the night.  The year I have my body back to myself (and I run a sub-50 5-miler?).  They are not lofty goals, but they will take a lot of work.  I’m not expecting 2016 to be easy.  Phil and I actually prepared ourselves that it might be the worst hardest year of our lives with 3 kids so young – but I feel like we are headed in the right direction – and I’m strangely hopeful that things will be pretty great.

Bloomington was so so so wonderful.  There are so many people around to help!! And boy did I take advantage.  I got a massage, went to a yoga class, ran, and went out with friends multiple times. But I finally feel a little bit human again.  I had been in ‘mom’ mode so much lately, that i kind of lost ‘amy’ for awhile — I was feeling like a shell of a person.  I had completely lost my sense of humor.  I lacked the ability to detect sarcasm —  seriously — i would just stare blankly at people not getting the joke.  But in bloomington, Char took the big kids for 3 nights, and my parents would watch Zevin, allowing me to stay out with adults and sleep-in in the morning, and I think i’ve found myself a little bit.  I just need to hang on to this version of amy for as long as i can.  Or, I just need to find a better balance  – find a version of myself that is a more attainable hybrid version of amy/mom so i dont feel like jekyll and hyde all the time. i think thats why i’ve been hanging on to work so much, since its a true version of myself that isnt tainted by kids/family/life.  So even in the craziness of life the last 8 weeks  – when works pops up – I prioritize it.  And even if the deadlines are stressful, it feels good to be ‘amy’ while I’m working.

sorry if this blog has been all about me, by the way, i think I am echoing a few of phil’s sentiments.  he at least is able to spend some time with adults each day, but it cant be easy to work 40 hours a week and then come home and be ‘on’ the second he walks in the door.  somehow he seems to be handling it wonderfully, and I appreciate his help, attitude, support, love and encouragement so much.

Anyway- back to bloomington – it was great. Celia came over and met Zev, we saw BJ and Macey at Lennies, Phil went to Camp with Loren, and we did trivia with Andrew and Jessie and friends, where Jimi made a surprise appearance (and Phil ended up playing with chainsaws and campfires until 4 in the morning!).  We also did plenty of fun family things.  We made it to ‘The Cabin” with the Wozniak friends. Phil and I took Wil and Evie to Wonderlab one afternoon.  We went to Christmas Eve mass followed by the wozniak polish ‘wigilia’ dinner, and then game night at the Watkins.  We had a great Christmas morning with my brothers’ families’ (and got to snuggle with baby Cole!)  It was truly wonderful. Everyone was happy and relaxed all week.  At the wozniak wigilia dinner, we go around the table and everyone wishes each other a specific thing for the upcoming year and wil wished for me to ‘not be so mad all the time’. It was sad but sweet.  But that is my goal!  I’m aiming to be a happier, more relaxed parent in the coming year. Christmas vacation was a big step in that direction.

So thanks to everyone again who went out of their way to help us, visit us, gives us gifts, etc.  We had a great week.  Ive been thanking a lot of people recently, just like thanksgiving — which is a great thing to do, obviously, but — lets just say – no one is thanking me these days, haha. [Except!! I did get a very nice gift basket from work for my efforts on the recent manuscripts we submitted.  That was very unexpected and appreciated.] I mean, our parents are wonderful in ‘thanking us’ for coming to bloomington for the holidays – but really – they did all the work and watched all our kids.  Someday I would truly like to do something for someone else again. Hoping by next year we can start giving back.

Here are some more pics of our awesome week:

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The holiday season was such a whirlwind! I cant believe I am writing this in January already.  We kicked things off on thanksgiving here in Chicago and kept things very low-key.  I think I am a decent home cook, but somehow ruined the turkey – so we had mostly sides.  I made my first batch of Christmas bark, which also didnt turn out that great, but I perfected my technique in the coming weeks (I have found the bark turns out better the soberer you are…. go figure…).

Em was here right after thanksgiving which was a huge help. (And we had an amazing surprise brunch with her and all the wozniaks aunt/uncles when she arrived!) We looooooved having her here. Everything is easier with another set of hands — Or I basically asked her to keep Evie the hell away from me, thus making life 1000x easier, so she was on Evie duty the entire time. She was the first guest to arrive since potty training Evie, too, so that was extra helpful!  Also, Em is such a good sister/friend, and we just like having her around 🙂 So it was a really really great week. I wish she lived with us always. She started the holidays off right with some Christmas cookies:

[Quick aside from holiday events: Evie is doing great with potty training!!  We used M&Ms to help reinforce the idea of going, as we did with Wil, but with Wil – as soon as things started becoming habit – he kind of forgot about the M&Ms.  But Evie hasnt forgotten!  we are like 6 weeks in and after every pee shes asking for ‘LOTS OF NEMNEMS!!’  i dont know how we will break it, but shes doing great, so thats what important to us right now.]

Life is still crazy around here but we tried to celebrate the holidays the best we could.   The hierarchy of needs in this house tends to be: bodily fluids, food, sleep, (but then you could also add in the complexity of whos need it is.  Evie trumps anyone these days, then Zev…anyway)  ….all the way down on the list was anything christmas related –   but I think we did ok! I mean — everything was kind of a disaster, but the kids were happy so thats all that matters.  The tree turned out alright:

Our outside decorations were kind of a mess. I bought minimal lights to meet the kids idea of ‘christmas lights’ outside, and thought we would just do a  simple frame around the garage, but Phil pulled an audible and used as much of the lights as possible – forgoing any symmetry or rationalization in my brain, which drove me crazy –  But the kids loved them.   c’est la vie. We also went to the big Arlington Heights lights display which the kids had a blast at.

When we went to see Santa — we dressed Wil up in a collared shirt and Evie in a new dress.  We clearly dont dress our kids up enough because Wil kept referring to himself as a ‘doctor’ and Evie as a ‘princess’ just because we put them in nice clothes for the first time in….a year?  We went to the ‘free’ santa up in barrington (dont have to pay for pictures or anything) and heard you get what you pay for, but he turned out to be a very decent looking santa! But we didnt get a clear pictures of the kids, go figure.

Wil and Evie both had christmas parties at school.  Wil’s class even did a whole Program with like 5 songs! (That seems like a lot for a bunch of 4 year olds?) His teachers asked that I come up and sit with them at the front of the church, in front of Wil so that I could help keep him focused during the show, so I had a great seat 😉 And it went great!!  We are really proud of him.

If you have an extra 3 minutes of your life you should watch this whole thing.  I love this guy:

Heres the rest of the pictures from December in Chicago.  We spent a lot of time at Barrington library – or at playgrounds in the 4-oclock twilight hour:

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Next – We’re off to bloomington!!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

We are enjoying a nice quiet little holiday as a family of 5 but wanted to take a moment to thank friends and family for all their help this year.  When Phil and I were deciding on moving and adding to our family – we didnt consider that we would also be making these life decisions for our immediate family as well.  We didnt really ask my parents ahead of time if we could come live with them for 4 weeks while we moved from Baltimore to Chicago.  We didnt really consider how many vacation days the grandparents had or wanted to use on staying with us as we brought Zev home.  But they were there for us.  As were so many friends and family who supported us through our crazy year.

We are so so so thankful for our parents (specifically Nanc and Char 🙂 )  —  We literally sucked the life out of these two this summer and in the weeks after Zev’s birth.  When we moved from Baltimore to Chicago we left Wil and Evie with them for days at a time on multiple occasions.  And in the last few weeks, they, again, did all the work for those kids – while also maintaining our home and making us dinner (and dealing with me at the height of grumpy-hormonalness).

I also received so many thoughtful and supportive texts and emails from friends and family, checking on how things are going and wishing us well — most all of which have gone unanswered.  My sister sent awesome gifts for Wil and Evie to help keep them occupied as we brought Zev home.  As did Celia – I think she spoiled my kids more than any of the grandparents!!  Maggie sent a box of homemade chocolate chip cookies which I love/hate her for.  Lets just say I did not lose any pregnancy weight that week. And Em is on her way to visit on Sunday for 5 days to help with the kids. We’re so lucky to have so many people willing to help.  Thank you to everyone who has reached out – I’m so sorry that many of you have gotten no response from me, but I truly appreciate all the support.  Every gesture helped get me through these early stressful weeks.  I hope to come out of my cocoon in the next few months and can start giving back in the coming year.

Thank you all! We love you!  Hope you had a great turkey day!

indian costume from school

evie had to wear it too

making spinach balls

thanksgiving day walk

chex mix and spinach balls!

hi zev.

hi barney.

breakfast pie

Well we have the first few weeks under our belt.  Man those first few weeks were rough.  There is ZERO routine – you never know whats going to happen, when hes going to eat – when hes going to sleep – when hes going to cry.  Youre in complete survival mode.  And I was still recovering, and felt like shit and barely sleeping.  But somehow, day by day – things are getting a little bit better.  My mom was here for the first 10 days, and Char was here for the second week – so Phil didnt take any vacation days, except for the initial 3 days while I was in the hospital/coming home.  I even got 20-hours of work in at week 2 when we got notice of a few edits for a re-submit for one of our manuscripts — Thank goodness it happened when we still had additional help!

It took Zevin a while to figure out days/nights but we are starting to get 3-4 hour stretches of sleep out of him at night.  Nursing has been going okay and I’ve been able to pump occasionally to give myself a break.  Hes going a bit longer in between feedings, too, which is nice.  Its hard to be on the clock every 1.5-2 hours —  I’m glad things are falling into a more manageable 2-3 hour routine. We kept our expectations very low for the first few weeks.  We finally broke into our freezer meals and have been enjoying some take-out. Any day that we got anything ‘extra’ done (outside of keeping people fed and clean) was a good day.  I was very proud when I got the kids nails clipped one day.

I’m definitely sleep deprived and not completely ‘with it’ at times.  After Zev’s first doctors appointment, I turned the car off and started to walk inside  – completely forgetting him in the car.  I didnt make it very far before I remembered him in the backseat – but it was still a weird moment.  Then, when the Wozniaks were here, I was sleeping in and Phil had Zev in the bassinet downstairs, but left to go get donuts with everyone without bringing him upstairs or telling me he was leaving.  But Zev just hung out downstairs by himself for awhile!  So now we are very cautious around here to always keep him in a safe place at all times – because our minds are so scattered! I just try to get through each 5 minutes at a time – never 100% sure of if everything is under control or not.

Days are seriously so hard now.  I mean, its fine, we get through.  But you never know how easy you had it until you have another kid. I took mental notes of my surroundings the other day –  it was so cliche –  like a bad adam sandler movie:  cold coffee next to me, a pile of clothes with spit-up all over them on the dining room table, breakfast dishes still out on the table, pile of clean clothes yet to be folded from the day before on the floor, pantless evie on the floor watching a terrible netflix show eating goldfish crackers, barney in his cage because he just freaked out and had a sneezing fit over workers out front, zev finally asleep on my chest in dirty clothes (because i wasnt going to change him AGAIN after the first spit up episode).  It felt comical.  I have finally become ‘that mom’ that drops off her kids at school in her pajamas.  I definitely didnt brush anyones teeth or hair that morning.  And when I picked up Wil from school that day, I was informed that he had had a bloody nose – but somehow all the blood ended up being wiped on his crotch!?  I asked him what happened – and tried to figure out how he even managed that – but I didnt get the full story.  I feel like I spend half of my day just shaking my head at the absurdity of my life.  Raising children is CRAZY.

Then, as if things werent hard enough, we decided to potty train evie. There was a snow storm on the way and Evie doesnt have school or music class for another week – so we knew we’d be spending a lot of time at home – so why not potty train?! why not pile on another major ridiculous parenting task this week?!  why not.  So here we are 6 days in, and shes doing pretty well.  not perfect. but we’re getting there.

The snow storm was actually pretty fun.  We had over 12 inches before Thanksgiving.  The kids loved playing in the snow — and Phil was a trooper shoveling us out.  The kids were out playing with Phil in the front of the house for most of the morning, then I was able to take them out back to build a snowman later  — but about 15 minutes after I took them out back – we had a massive branch fall down in the front right where the kids were previously playing!  It was crazy.  It hit the house – but no major damage. (Side note: when we told our landlord about the branch and sent pictures, she had workers come a few days later and they took down the entire tree!!  i was so upset!! I definitely dont think the entire tree needed to come down. I dont know if orders got messed up or what – but we definitely said a BRANCH needed to be removed, not an entire tree!!).

So we’re at 4 weeks 2 days as a family of 5, and things are going ok.  Things can only get easier (…right?).  I love not being pregnant and enjoy wrestling with the kids and picking them up and throwing them around, just like daddy 🙂 and every day we get closer to sleeping through the night. I cant wait until that day comes!

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The kids loved halloween this year!  We’ve had a bad run with holidays in the past – so I wasnt getting my hopes up too high, but as they are getting older – holidays are really starting to come together.  We’ve actually been talking about halloween for months since that was right around Zev’s due date – so we would tell everyone the baby was coming on halloween (and I was just praying he would actually be here and home by then! Thank goodness it worked out). So maybe that was part of the reason they were looking forward to it, but they seemed genuinely excited about the costumes, pumpkins, and trick-or-treating as well.

We started celebrating a few weeks early just in case there were any surprises with my pregnancy. I wanted to make sure we at least had costumes – so we made a big afternoon event of going to the costume store and picking out some halloween decorations.  They, of course, had to wear their costumes as soon as we got home.

They loved their ghosts in the yard, and Mimi had brought some halloween stickers for the window.  They also loved looking at all of our neighbors decorations and looking for pumpkins on people’s porches.  Its so fun living in a neighborhood where people participate in this sort of thing – it makes me so excited for the Christmas season too!

When Mimi and PopPop came to visit, we tried on more costumes and finally carved our pumpkins:

The dinosaur costume was something my Grandma Bear made for Philip when he was a kid, its an awesome costume but Wil ended up sticking with the Batman.  Both kids had halloween parties schedule for the 30th at school, but as I mentioned, Wil came down with a stomach bug right when Zevin was born and had to stay home (He was sick last year, too! Poor guy.).  Evie was able to go to her party with Mimi and Wil got all his goodies the following Monday.

Wil was feeling much better on Halloween and the kids were very excited to go trick-or-treating.  It was scheduled from 3-7 in our neighborhood.  The kids got up from their nap and enjoyed handing out candy to a handful of people as they had their snack.  I think it helped that they got to give some candy out before going themselves, so they could see what they were about to do.  Then we got dressed up and skyped with Busia and Dziadzia while they opened up a few little halloween presents from them.  My parents headed to church while Phil took the kids out around the neighborhood, and I stayed behind with my little pumpkin.

Zev slept for most of the time that Phil and the kids were out, so I was able to hand out candy.  Of course he did wake up towards the end and needed to be fed.  I definitely had the answer the door while nursing to give out candy one time, but I dont think the kids even noticed, haha.  They had their eyes on the candy.  It was actually a pretty cold and rainy night, so Wil only ended up staying out for like 30 minutes then came home, but Evie wanted to keep going!  Wil stayed in the warm house and counted his candy — Evie ended up with about double the loot!

We’ve had over a week of sugar highs now, so we’re trying to convince them to donate the rest to the troops. Overall is was a great holidays with all 3 kids 🙂