charlie's smiles

Charlie has definitely been my most demanding baby, even post-Zantac. Still, it's not too hard to procure some toothless magic from him at almost any time of day. (I apologize for the amateur photography--I was holding his head in one hand and clicking with the other, thus the poor angles and blurriness. You get the idea, though.)






I'm loving it real bad.

happenings, five words or less

I am so dreadfully behind on posting that I have no choice but to resort to brevity this time. Five-word limit per picture.

Erik and Holden in creek

Best friends today, frenemies tomorrow


Ellie jealous Carter's other girl


Charlie's baby sister, Ellie says

She'll be feeding Charlie, too

Wearing third trimester with smile

Finally finished Brooks' homemade onesies

"Little Sister," "Don't understand you"

oops, Charlie gets this one

Rug sheds worse than Samoyed

nothing says birthday like Tucanos

free cotton candy saved me

don't use fatless cream cheese

fist sucker since the womb

movie provides moment of peace

ballet classes commenced--thanks Grandma!

thought about running with her

just kidding, she too fast

Marathon Mish officially my hero

Celebrating her victory with buffet

I hope Bob had seconds

Erik did--finished off Ellie's

wedding gift turned anniversary gift

Hungry Little Caterpillar craft

Artsy kids make Mom proud

Pet tadpole arrived in mail

Gertrude McFuzz--preparing them for...

...Ellie's Dr. Seuss extravaganza celebration

Charlie's smiley photos coming soon...

(Wow, that was extremely difficult. Five words are never enough for an individual with my irrepressibly loquacious tendencies.)

Survival

The birthday chain. I couldn't figure out a better way to make concrete the very abstract concept that her birthday is soon, but not very soon. Ellie has faithfully and gleefully removed a link each night for the past month or so, consistently exclaiming, "It's almost my birthday!" each time and "I can't reach [the top of the chain] yet, but soon I'll be four and then I can reach it!"

My fondest vision associated with our distant dream of being homeowners is having an expansive backyard, complete with expansive garden. If the previous owners wouldn't mind readying the soil and planting the seeds, that garden might actually happen. Anyway, we've loved being benefactors of our friends' gardens this summer.
Ellie was fully prepared to frolic through the sprinkler a la nude, but thankfully Kjerstin's tankini top brought the meaning of "one size fits all" to a new level.


The days of bathing Char in a small toy bin got old real fast. We are all smiles about this current arrangement.


Mostly smiles.

After writing this post so far I feel my original topic is moot, because once all my kids are sleeping, life is easy, breezy, and beautiful again. Still, I know where I'll be again emotionally from dawn 'til dusk tomorrow, so I better still throw this out there.

Remember in this post how I said motherhood is so great and I'm only stressed out twenty minutes a day? Well, motherhood is still great, but I'm frazzled, frustrated, falling asleep on the job, or otherwise overwhelmed for more like 200 minutes a day now. Since Kyle's been employed (which has been wonderful and totally worth losing his help at home), I am finally feeling what it's like to take care of three little kids all day. And it's a doozy, to say the least.

I am still happy and no one's gotten injured yet, but I feel like my home is in a constant state of chaos with, at all times, at least one child throwing a screaming tantrum and at least one other child being dangerously neglected. I feel so sorry for my children because I can't be there for any of them the way I want to, I feel sorry for myself because I feel exhausted in ways I've never known before, I feel sorry for Kyle, Mish, and Bob who have to pick up the slack, I feel sorry for my laundry and dishes that have to fester in their own filth for days (if not weeks) before getting washed, and it's all just one, big sorry mess.

Don't get me wrong-- I'm not on the verge of a nervous breakdown (though sometimes I wonder...), and I'm still smiling and laughing when I can, but I'm not functioning on the level I'd like to, or need to. Readers of my blog more strong, wise, and experienced than I-- please share your advice on how to survive this transition!!!

This morning I...

-spent an hour and a half dropping Kyle and Mish off to work and bus station (waiting in freeway traffic for many moons)
-spent another hour and a half grocery shopping with the kids (Ellie's frequent refrain: "Mom, I'm draining!" --meaning drowning in the goods I kept tossing onto her in the cart. Erik kept adamantly asserting, "Mom, that's enough!" Ha, wonder where he heard that one...)
-prepared three separate meals for lunch, finishing off both the kids' leftovers in addition to my own meal
-changed Charlie's soiled clothes three times, Ellie's once, and Erik's once
-changed two baby blow-out diapers and three stinky toddler diapers
-washed 24 hands with soap and warm water
-set up two tents for the kids to camp in and read two bedtime stories
-wondered when I'll get to wash the two sinkfuls of dirty dishes, seven loads of dirty laundry, and eventually get around to washing my unshowered self

And hey! It's only 1:00pm. All I've been thinking about is the fact that the groceries still aren't unloaded (besides three containers of Dreyer's double churned, of course) and my clothes have my children's food, spit up, poop, and pee on them, but if I start keeping track of how many times a day I wash my hands, I may feel much cleaner and more productive. Well, one out of three of the kids who are all supposed to be napping right now is finally asleep, freeing up my legs to get going on the rest of this somewhat chaotic, highly distracted, and delightful frenzy of activity I call my life. So, here I go!

A special day...

Today I

-stayed in pajamas until 1:00pm

-spent an hour trying to cram my three carseats into my friend's smallish s.u.v. (without displacing her three carseats)

(don't know those people, b.t.w. Our scene was twice as impressive, and without the weird man)

-successfully hauled all six of our kids to a park (with a cool fountain) where they spent hours getting wet and dirty and tired

-put the kids to bed at 7:00

-dog-eared over half of the recipes in a gourmet cookbook Mish brought me


-devoured a Kyle-made burger (including yummy seasonings, pineapple, tomato, avocado, & bbq sauce)

-whined until he made me another half-burger before I would listen to his sales pitch he's practicing for his new job

-inhaled two slices of sugar-glazed baked chili bacon on or around 9:09pm (and it would've been more if more were available)

-watched the safety training episode of The Office on my laptop with Kyle and Mish

-"finished off" the Breyers rocky road ice cream (I mean, there was only 2/3 of the container left, and you know how annoying that is when someone leaves the carton almost empty in the freezer)

-felt good and healthy after a tall glass of ice water-- drinking water compensates for the rest of my indulgences, right?

- swaddled and re-swaddled Charlie until he fell asleep

-checked Creative Parties and Showers blog to make sure nothing better than what I've picked for Ellie's party theme has surfaced-- we're still safe


I tried to make this day memorable, but I guess it was a little bit of what all my days are like. What did you do to celebrate 09/09/09?

Blessing Baby C

So, I cut 15 pictures and captions out of the following post. You may have noticed that I have this problem where I don't post for a few weeks and then try to catch up all at once in a post so long that even I don't bother reading it. This is also because I want to include a variety of topics, hoping there will be at least one thing interesting to each of my faithful readers. Well, I seem to be failing in both of my objectives, so I'm attempting a new strategy: shorter posts. Just let me believe I can be short-winded.

Kyle's parents felt confident that they'd meet their new grandchild when they planned a visit one week before my due date, given my birthing record. Well, birthing records apparently meant nothing to Charlie. Anyway, we were thrilled when they decided to drive out A-gain for a weekend and we scheduled Charlie's blessing date accordingly. My mom was also in town and several of our friends were able to come and participate in the blessing.

I recall that Ellie's baby blessing was quite short, since once she starting wailing, Kyle wrapped things up abruptly with an Amen. Charlie was miraculously awake AND silent during his, enabling Kyle to bestow lots of lovely blessings on the babe, including gifts of music, good friends, and an early understanding of the gospel.

I'm glad Ma was here because I guess I didn't know that you're supposed to skip Sunday school and Relief Society after your baby's blessing to throw a party for all your friends that showed up. She insisted this was the standard. No problem. Mas Goodwin and Larsen, Mish, and I whipped up a feast for the celebration. (Yumminess factor not well represented in this photo, so you'll have to just take my word for it.)

In classic Goodwin style, we prepared far more food than a crowd five times larger could consume. We did this in part so Ma could sustain her endearing love of incessantly offering people food, and in part so we could live off the leftovers for a few days. This fruit cookie was the only dish that came close to being finished off. Well, I think the kids had picked off all the fruit by the end of it. I would've expected them to lick off the frosting, nibble at the cookie, and leave the healthy stuff.


Who's the "bumbo" now!?


There are few things I love more than a good party. This was a good one because of the food and company. Ellie's birthday party will be good because it's going to be obsessively over-the-top thematic. No fairies. No princesses. No more hints because the party's not for another month.