Thoughts on this life stage and random updates

What to write... what to write.  People keep asking me how I'm feeling, and all I can think to say is "tired and discouraged."  Daniel's had to travel a bit for work lately, and it has been hard.  The kids miss him a LOT when he's gone and have begun expressing those feelings with devastated faces and tears upon hearing when he next leaves.  It is rough.



It seems like this pregnancy has messed with my emotions a little more than the other ones did.  It has created some challenges.  I am hoping... hoping it settles down in this next trimester and I'm able to regain some stability.



Stability.  That's a word that does not describe toddlers, 3-year-olds, or babies.  The kids are delightfully young.  They are fun and spontaneous and silly.  They are concrete thinkers, and both of the older ones are beginning to really enjoy engaging in conversations with us.  But it does go from "delightful" to "OH MY GOSH" in a matter of seconds, and sometimes it's hard to get back to delightful once they've plunged off the cliff of despair.  There is not much room for reason when that happens.  And most of what I'm thinking is, "keep it together.  keep it together."  It is hard to be screamed at, even when you know you're the grown-up and haven't done anything wrong.



My daily refrain, once Oliver is seated at the breakfast table and has begun screaming for food, is, "hang on.. wait a minute... hang on... it's coming."  And this has developed into a sort of thug-rap song, complete with a chorus of, "When you gotta wait, you gotta wait patiently... when you have to wait, then you need to wait patiently!  ...hang on wait a minute, hang on just a minute, hang on wait a minute, hang on just a minute."  And the big kids have adopted this song as their own, and they take it upon themselves to sing it to Oliver in the mornings when he begins screaming for food.  And Oliver actually bobs his head up and down to the rhythm of the song.  It is beyond amusing.  



Elliot's new favorite phrase is, "Oh gosh.  Oh my."  and he employs it whenever something is spilled or lost or otherwise disappointing or surprising.  He also enjoys reminding us, "Mommy, I wuv you."




Lucy's favorite game is, "Will you let me go?"  
No, said the troll!  You have to say the magic word.
"Is it... abracadabra?"
No.  
"Is it... please?"
No.
"Is it... tickle-me-more???"
YES!!! Okay I'll tickle you more!  Hahahaha (tickle tickle tickle tickle)

Random funny thing Lucy said yesterday -- "Mommy, I love you so much, that I cannot help you clean up right now."  


Both kids are obsessed with Doc Mcstuffins.  Cars seems to have faded into the distance, for now--though I wonder if Elliot will come back to it when Oliver is old enough to be a fan with him.  


We talk about baby sister here and there.  The kids aren't preoccupied with the prospect of a new sibling, but they do seem to enjoy talking about her when the subject comes up.  


The sleeping situation these days has actually sort of improved, though from the outside looking in, it looks worse.  Both big kids fall asleep in our bed, and then we move them to the floor beside us when we go to bed.  This means--as Daniel pointed out the other day--that even though we live in a 4 bedroom house, currently all 5 of us are sleeping in one bedroom (and closet).  Since the kids each wake up anywhere between 0-4 times/night, having them right there beside us eliminates trips to their bedroom for each of those wakings, not to mention the dreaded "will-you-lie-down-on-the-floor-beside-my-bed-until-I-fall-back-asleep" questions.  Now they can lie on the floor beside our bed until they fall back asleep.  Much better.  
 


I keep making a point to take mental pictures of the new things the kids are doing, and the day goes by so simultaneously quickly and slowly, and somehow I just think I am not writing down enough things!  What can you do.  Lucy's only 3 (well, almost 4), but I can definitely see that you quickly forget the stage once it's behind you.  There are so many things from this period that I don't want to forget (and some that I do).  I'm somewhat haunted by the myriad middle-agers who approach me ALL the time to say things like, "enjoy these precious years--they go by so fast."  They all seem so sad that this stage is over.  I hope I don't feel like that.  I want to remember fondly the really precious parts, and I want to stay grateful that the less-than-precious parts are behind us.     

PS - can you believe how clean the floor appears to be in this series?  Who puts white tile in the kitchen?  Sheesh.

Family Zoo Outing

Yesterday held a pleasant surprise.  I thought I was scheduled to work, but I found out just before leaving for work that I wasn't! 


So instead we had a nice quiet morning and then took the kids to the zoo for lunch and a quick tour of the "giants of the safari."  



Elliot couldn't wait to see the lions (said, "Yi-ons!").  Our view of them left something to be desired... they were far away (well, it wouldn't be far if there were no gates between us, but you know what I mean).  Maybe we'll see them better next time.



When I think of our walk through the zoo, I think of little hands holding my index finger as we walk, and of potty stops along the way. 



The exhaustion of lifting little bodies onto adult sized toilets, and the arduous task of propping them up at the sink so they can wash their little hands. 



I think of fights over who flushed whose pee-pee and who has to go first, and the resounding, ever-present chorus of, "is it loud?" whenever we go to a public restroom.


I don't want to forget how they looked, scrambling up on the bench to get a better look at the elephants and giraffes.  Pointing to them and saying, "Yook, Mommy--big, BIG eh-fants!"


Elliot badly wanted to see the owls next, but we had actually spent all the time we had, and it was time to go home.  The only thing left on our list to do was the carousel.  Lucy had begged to do it the last time I took the kids, but without Daniel there I had said no.  This time we established at the beginning that we would do the carousel, and Lucy was so, so excited.



Elliot was losing his marbles in the car and on the way home.  That happens whenever we sail through his nap time.  We had a really nice time at the zoo. Over dinner, we asked the kids what their favorite part of the day was. 


They both responded--as they have every single night for the past few weeks--that their favorite part of the day was, "when we bought yucky babies from the store and bought yucky babies from the store and bought yucky babies from the store!"


We are doing our very best to not make a big deal of this.  We listen politely and then go on to ask each other about our days.  Sometimes... like yesterday when we spent so much energy making the Zoo happen... it is a teensy bit annoying not to hear about any of it from the kids and to hear instead about "yucky babies." 


But it's a phase, and it will pass.  And there are much more annoying phases ahead.  And in the grand scheme of things, "yucky babies" are not the worst topic of dinner conversation you could have with your kids. 


But for Daniel's and my parts, we enjoyed the zoo.  So we talked about that.

We have some sweet news!

Hopefully you can view the video above. 



We are so excited to announce baby sister, due in November!!

The kids, ya know... I think they're excited.  It's so far away; it's hard for toddlers to wrap their minds around something many months away, let alone get excited about it. 


That's fine, though.  Daniel and I are excited enough for all of us.

Ten Months Old (Oliver's Monthly Photo)

Oliver is closer to a year than he is to 6 months.  That thought struck me the other day and was bittersweet.  Ack! He is getting big so fast.


New stuff this month: Did I mention he is a biter??  We call him the piranha (shout out, Carrie). Or the biter.  Poor guy.  He is teething like mad.  I wonder if he actually really is a biter and I'm just blaming it on teething.  Time will tell, I guess.


No steps.  Not a one.  He is content to crawl and pull up, crawl, and pull up.  Maybe next month.

He is the only Pruessner I've ever met who does not care for cheese.
 

He LOVES "flying on the bed" (being thrown in the air onto our bed) and romping around with the other kids. 


He's holding his bottle on his own (finally).  He can put away chicken like nobody's business.  It's crazy how much he loves chicken.

He is putting everything in his mouth.  He especially loves to gnaw on sidewalk chalk.  Despite repeated (sometimes every few seconds) reminders to "no eat!" he gets a huge grin on his face when he finds a nice large chunk of the stuff.  Must feel pretty good on his teeth.  He is a true third.  I don't recall Lucy ever getting a hold of sidewalk chalk to gnaw on.  Although, just to clarify--this is not something I let him do.  It's something his spirit seems to be drawn to.

 

He loves catching your eye from across the room and smiling.  Wow it's cute.

He is snuggly.  He embraces "head down" in the evenings and will sit quietly, being rocked, until he falls asleep.  He doesn't get this kind of luxury night time experience every night, but it is heaven when the stars align (read: the other kids cooperate with less parental involvement of their going-to-sleep), and I get to hold his squishy baby body and rock him until his eyes close and he's completely out.  So, so good.  The stuff of mommy dreams, really.


He's not so much interested in signing.  We've tried some.  He's still shrieking a fair amount, but he also has employed arm-waving as a clear sign that he wants more of something.   



Oliver, what can I say??  You are delightful and fun and cuddly and adorable, and we are LOVING being your parents.  And Lucy and Elliot think you're pretty awesome, too.

Easter 2015

He is risen!  Happy Easter!





We had a really nice day!  Here are the Cliff's notes:

5:30 am - Wake up the kids, get the dressed while half asleep, hold Elliot while he cried and cried and cried.

6:45 am - Sunrise service at HPUMC (moved inside due to rain... but with breakfast burritos and donut holes, which the kids loved).

8 am - Kids' first visit to Krispy Kreme.  B/c the "hot" sign was on, and we had a lot of time to kill before lunch.  Mesmerized by the factory-production of the donuts.  Amazing.

***nap time***

12 pm - Lunch at Ginnie's house -- brisket, duck, and chicken (wowsa!)  Enjoyed chatting with family.

1:30 pm - Easter egg hunt!!! Our first ever (the first one Daniel and I hid eggs for, together, in our own backyard).  The kids had fun.  Each egg had ONE treat in it (like 1 m&m, etc.).  Because c'mon... they're only 2 and 3 years old.

***nap time***

6 pm - Leftovers for dinner.  Finish staring down the clock until 7pm bedtime.

7 pm - Kids to bed.  FREEDOM for us. 




 

And just like that, it's Spring

It seems like there was just snow on the ground a few days ago, but it must be longer ago.  Because it is definitely Spring.



I'm part of a mom-tographer group that organizes photo-opp-play-dates.  And today's was called, "Garden Fairies."  I think the original goal was something about fairy wings in the wild flowers.  In the end, there were almost no wild flowers, and we went above and beyond with the fairy wings.



I made this dress for Lucy while Daniel was in Mexico a few weeks ago.  I'm not going to lie, she doesn't love it.  Actually, she wanted to change out of it until all the walkers-by told her how beautiful she looked.  And then she didn't mind it as much.



Lucy and I have gone head to head a few times recently (euphemisms abound).  Although lots of people are eager to give advice on this issue, my favorite advice is from those whose general sentiment is "she'll grow out of it; it's a phase; it doesn't mean you're doing everything wrong; it doesn't mean she's going to hate you as a teenager."


Goodness this stage can be so, so fun.  But wowsa... the emotionally charged disappointing times are rough on all of us.



Elliot's vocabulary has exploded, and he is so eager to communicate verbally now.  He loves telling stories.  One of his favorite phrases is, "Ah hoe you" (which means I'll show you).
 

But I LOVE it when he says either, as in, "Das nah uh bug.  And das nah uh bug.  And das nah uh bug eeever.  And das nah uh bug eeeeeeever."  He is so cute.



Lucy has made up 2 jokes.  The first one goes, "Two men walked into a bar, and the third one ducked.  Another one ate bugs.  Yucky, yucky bugs!  And then Oliver spat up on the table and ATE me!"  She thinks it's pretty funny.  Her second joke is really more of a pun.  It goes, "Mommy, peanuts are privates!"  Hahahah.  This one she also thinks is hilarious.  She tells it a few times/day, minimum.

This weekend is Easter!  So far this week, we've had 2 Easter egg hunts that have been a bust.  I have promised the kids this Sunday will be better.  Easter hunt photos to follow.
 

PS - Fairy pictures are fun.  Here are two "artistic" ones :).