I was out tutoring last Thursday (the 17th,) and Don was handling bedtime for all 3 kids. At one point, he left Adam in the aquarium bouncy seat in his room, and the twins were in with him, while Don went to refill Avery’s cup of water. He was heading back to the room when he heard Adam suddenly crying. Those two little beasts had managed to FLIP the baby UPSIDE DOWN in the bouncy seat. Like, nose on the carpet, suspended from the t-strap, wire base up in the air, upside down. Don didn’t even ask for an explanation, he just grabbed Adam and tried to comfort him since he said the poor guy looked so terrified and was so upset. And he said the twins looked like they knew they had messed up bigtime, so he just told them they’d been very bad and put them to bed. I asked today, and of course they both could tell me all about it, but when I asked who flipped it, Alex said “Easy” and she said “Awix.” Those turkeys know how to work that twins thing, that’s for sure. Adam seems no worse for the wear, though I kept him out of that bouncer today so as not to give him some PTSD episode. Things like this are why God made him so big, I think. He’s gonna have to be able to fight back very, very soon!

Literally. Monday was just plain gross.

Adam pooped in his jumper while the twins ate lunch. Down his leg, to the floor, so he was dancing in it. Yuck.

Alex pooped in his underwear when he woke up from his nap, before I went in to get him. I stopped doing pull-ups at naptime because they were always dry. Double yuck.

And Avery had her normal naptime one too. She waited until yesterday, the one day I’ve ever let her sleep in her tutu, to have her first gross leaky diaper in probably a year. She got her sheets, the mattress pad, her skirt, and, of course, the damn tutu. Triple yuck.

And for good measure, Alex the potty trained wonder, who finally tells us when he has to pee or poop, pooped in his underwear after dinner tonight. Quadruple yuck.

I think we need to cut back on the fruit in this house or something.

I am so.done.with.poop!

The title says it all. Yesterday, I had had it by 9 am and had given myself a time out in the basement to cool off. Not that the twins accepted that - they stood at the gate at the top of the steps, ripped the lids off their Color Wonder markers, and threw them down the steps at me. Adam had bad night the night before and was up for the day at 6 am, and I was up late addressing announcements, so I was tired and grouchy. And Alex and Avery were in full whiny, cranky, disagree for the sake of disagreeing mode. He hit her in the head with the stick part of the Sweeping Sam broom on purpose - like chased her around the living room with it until he made contact with her skull, and she insisted on doing her high pitched shriek every time Adam was almost asleep. They sat in Adam’s swing and bouncy seat, climbed the toilet and desk, slammed the porch slider open and closed a million times, threw food… you name it. We were all very much on one another’s nerves. I think the twins have figured out that I can’t be as on top of them, discipline wise, when I am nursing the baby, so they act up from jealousy and just because they know they can get away with more. Honestly, yesterday was the worst I’ve had since Adam was born and it all around sucked! Days like that make me question myself as a mother because I know I lose patience when I shouldn’t, and then I feel guilty.

But then we have days like today that are the polar opposite. I was able to go to bed a little earlier last night and Adam took a bottle from Don, and then this morning the twins slept until 8 and I was also able to get Adam to sleep til almost 8 as well. (Not like through the night, he’s still up every two hours at night, but 7 hours of non-consecutive sleep are still waaaay better than 4.) I decided this morning that we would take advantage of the nice weather and go to Green Meadows Petting Farm which is only about ten minutes from our house. Before Adam was born, I was afraid I’d never leave the house alone with all three, but we’ve done story time at the library successfully a few times, so I decided to give it a whirl. It ended up being AMAZING. Adam slept in the Bjorn the whole time we were there, and Alex and Avery had a blast petting pigs, a bull, and a zebra, chasing chickens, holding a duck, and feeding goats and sheep. There are lots of pics of all that in an album we setup. My kids have NO fear, apparently. Well except for milking cows, which they wouldn’t do, but I think they were weirded out by the guy who was supervising that, not the cow herself. Alex also greatly enjoyed the Purell dispenser stations. Too bad for him there aren’t public museums of just those. More than anything, it was just a really enjoyable day with lots of smiles and cooperation that made me feel like maybe I am doing alright with them. Then again, I did feed them Famous Amos chocolate chip cookies for lunch, but whatever. I thought the farm had a concession stand and it didn’t. Oh well.

They really are good kids. I’m so lucky. Alex is starting to talk in sentences and some of what he comes up with is just a riot. He was happy to tell Grandma Nancy his own version of the story of Daddy drilling his hand and getting a boo-boo a couple of weeks ago. He calls himself “Assa” these days and corrected Adam the other day for spitting up: “Adam, no pit muk (milk) Eeeew.” Avery’s favorite new words are “yestuhday” (anything that happened more than about 5 minutes ago in her world) and “maybe sumtin else” when you suggest something she doesn’t care for. Well, that or the shriek I spoke of above, depending on her mood. She likes to tell me things match, like if we wear the same color shirt. They both love their baby brother so much, and it makes me smile when I see them do caring things like rock his car seat and tell him not to cry when he’s upset. Avery accidentally fell on him today, I mean flattened him like a pancake, and I immediately had two crying babies on my hands. Adam stopped as soon as I picked him up, but she was sobbing. I asked her what hurt, and finally got out of her that nothing hurt - she was so upset because she thought she’d hurt baby Adam. And Adam is SUCH a sweet, easy baby. He gets pretty fussy for a couple of hours in early evening a few nights a week, and he screams bloody murder in the car seat, but other than that, he is a dream. He has been smiling for a couple of weeks, which just melts my heart. It seemed to take forever for the twins to smile, but Adam does it all the time when you talk to him. So cute. And even though he’s up often at night, he’s really good about going right back down after he eats and spends most of the night in his crib, from about 11 to 6 most nights.

All in all, there have been so many more good days than bad ones, and it helps to remember that and look forward to what’s to come.

Wow, it’s been a month already (well, it WAS a month last week). We both feel guilty that we haven’t had as much time to post lately. Don’t worry, we’ve been taking plenty of pictures (see the April and May galleries) and have lots more that need to be uploaded.

Last week Adam had his 1 month checkup appointment. All was well and he has gained weight as expected. He clocked in at 12 lbs 6 oz and 22 1/2″. Definitely still a big boy and has plenty of smiles to share. He seems to enjoy his floor gym and lets out little coos and noises when laying on it. He also has no trouble holding his head up and dishing out the occasional head butt. His strength scares me and Alex needs to look out once he’s mobile!

Here are a few pictures. Jen took the one on the rocking chair on his actual 1 month birthday. We’ll use the same chair for each milestone and try to put some signage up next month. An old co-worker of mine puts their son next to a bear so you can see the size contrast. We’ll have to start doing that too.

Jen’s been doing a good job with all 3 kids by herself.  We all (me and the 3 hoodlums) are all VERY lucky to have such a good mom/wife around the house that can deal with the daily stress associated with being a stay at home mom of 3 kids under 2!  I definitely don’t think I could have the patience to be here all day with the kids and not go completely nuts.

We’ve uploaded a lot of great new pictures to the April album.

A short clip of Adam smiling at us.

Just got word from Jen that Adam’s 2 week checkup went great. He packed on another 10 or 11oz in the past week and is up to 10lbs 12oz. According to Jen the doctor said “he’s a big boy” and was surprised when she looked at the paper to find that this was only his 2 week checkup. She initially thought he was 2 months!!

His lack of pooping and occasional discomfort weren’t a concern for her at this point. She wants to wait a few weeks to let Jen’s milk flow stabilize and to let things settle a bit more (Jen can probably provide a more accurate description).

I do however have his recent stats. He’s 75th percentile for height and head size and 97th percentile for his weight. What a bruiser, huh? He’s going to be bigger than Alex and Avery in no time!

Aunt Ann from Arizona has been staying with us all week and helping out with stuff around the house, the kids, etc. She is such a great help and has really made this week a nice and easy one for Jen, which definitely helps with the recovery, etc. She returns home this Saturday and will be greatly missed!

Other friends and family will visit over the next week or so, hopefully providing help all through next week too. Keep checking back in the April album for more pictures. I think we have some that need to be uploaded from the computer. I’ll try to get them up tonight or tomorrow.