5:20 AM and Spinning Days

Yes, folks – 5:20 is the time that my youngest has designated as his new wake up time! It’s awesome. Let me explain to you everything that is wrong with this situation (other than the obvious being that it is way to #$%&ing early for anyone to be getting up):

1. I typically get up at 5:30 during the week to take Deacon out. In the past? I’d get up, take him for a walk, get back, shower, put on makeup and THEN Alex would get up. Perfect timing, as I was 75% done getting myself ready. Now? I have to get up, make a bottle, get the baby and then leave him in our room with a husband who REALLY doesn’t want to have to wake up to watch him. I’m still not 100% certain Josh ever really wakes up, so just in case, I always do the “what could he possibly get and choke on in our room” search before leaving.

2. I need to find a way to occupy him for the hour and 20 mins before we have to leave the house for daycare. Try doing this while also trying to shower and get yourself ready in the morning- not fun.


3. Because he got up too early, he becomes VERY tired, cranky and needy right around 6 am, which is still a good 40 mins before we leave. So, NOW try to get yourself ready AND occupy a baby who is cranky and needy. Also not fun.

4. If Alex wakes up at 5:20? Chances are pretty good that Avery will also wake up at 5:20, as their rooms are right next to each other, so now we have not one, but TWO kids who are cranky, tired and needy. Awesome.

5. As it turns out, a 12 month old doesn’t know the difference between a workday and a weekend day and as a result, decides to join us at 5:20 AM on Saturday and Sunday as well. REALLY????

And, here is the little stinker himself practicing his new fun game of pulling himself up on things...

And, here he is just prior to pulling himself up on Avery's easel and sticking a paint brush in his mouth...



Now, onto my eldest. We experienced the most unique and bizarre meltdown to date the other morning. She wanted to wear a dress to preschool. But, not just any dress. Nope – it has to be one that spins. And of course, none of my suggestions spun to her satisfaction. So, she freaked. Bawled, laid on the ground and……kicked. And, that was the end of it. Because there is NOTHING that I hate more than temper tantrums like that. And, I let her know of this immediately when the kicking began. Don’t worry – I didn’t do anything drastic. I just explained to her (in a somewhat raised volume and tone) that those types of fits are not tolerated in our house. Apparently it worked, because she stopped immediately. Once she calmed down, I attempted to explain to her that some days are spinning days and some days are non-spinning days and that day happened to be a non-spinning day, at which point she looked at me and said, “Can’t TOMORROW be the non-spinning day??”



It’s a good thing these kids are cute, that's all I have to say....

Happy 1st Birthday, Alex (plus a 3 week recap)!

Wow – lots to catch up on – I’ll focus on the most important event and then go chronologically.
Alex turned 1 on July 2nd!!!! I can’t believe that it has been a year since I had him. I get nostalgic with every birthday, but the first is always even more sentimental just because it is so close to the time that I actually gave birth (not to mention, that I’m convinced that the first year is by far the hardest on a mother, but we won’t focus on that part). Anyway – we celebrated with Josh’s family and some friends the weekend before his birthday. In keeping with tradition, I made him a cake – I chose a monkey – not because it really meant anything, but more because it had a minimal amount of colors.

I did the balloon so that Alex would have his own piece of cake to devour. As you can see, that didn't quite work out. In fact, he hated it.



The week before Alex’s party, I was in NYC for a conference. The funny thing about the trip? There was no conference. Yep – that’s right – somehow I managed to get it in my head that the conference was on Thursday and Friday in NYC when really it was Tuesday and Wednesday. You can imagine my surprise (i.e., near panic attack) when I showed up and they didn’t have my nametag on the table. The good thing was that there was a different conference that Thursday that I did attend, so the trip wasn’t totally wasted and I was able to catch up with Christine and Colleen while I was there. We had a great time and it was nice catching up in the big city! Somehow, I yet again managed to drink too much each night I was there, so the mornings were a bit of a challenge (especially the one where I was on a train by 6 am), but it was worth it.

We flew out to WI on July 2nd, which was Alex’s actual birthday (I figure at this age, he wouldn’t know the difference, so I didn’t feel badly flying all day on his bday). We nearly didn’t make it, as daycare called literally one hour before I was supposed to pick the kids up saying that Avery had a fever of 102.8. Seriously????? I rushed her to the dr. and begged them to see her, which they did. They checked her ears and she didn’t have an infection and they took a urine sample ( I personally think that I should get mother of the year for getting a 3 year old to pee in a cup, not to mention for getting peed on during the process) and there was no infection there. It looked like it was just a virus, so we loaded her up with Tylenol and we were on our way. The flight there was rather uneventful other than the fact that my son is at the age where he does not want to sit still, which proves to be challenging on a flight where he is supposed to be sitting in your lap. Josh was kind enough to stand in the back most of the time and rock him to sleep, which was huge.

The trip was great – we had an awesome time. We arrived to this cute sign on the garage door when we got there, which was a nice little surprise - my mom's creative like that.






We celebrated both babies’ birthdays (Annabel’s and Alex’s) as well as William’s birthday on the 4th. And, yes – I made another cake – this time it was a fisherman (for Will) that just caught 2 fish (one for Alex and one for Annabel).



We celebrated by having a picnic lunch at the beach followed by swimming for all and then a nice dinner that night and some fireworks later on. Here are the babies yet again NOT enjoying the cake that I spent hours decorating. New rule - until they can prove to me that they will eat the cake, no more decorating. Who am I kidding? I'll eat the cake that they don't eat - I'm still decorating.



The rest of the trip was spent on the boat



in the lake




on the playground

in the kiddy pool





And, of course, wearing our sister's clothes because that's always a fun thing to do on vacation...


We also made it down to Milwaukee to visit with the girls and all of the kids. Wow – there were ELEVEN kids between all of us. It was great seeing them, but I’ll be honest – the next trip may need to exclude anyone under 30 and include a significant amount of wine. Thanks to Becky for hosting all of us at her house (which looked like this the majority of the day…)

Believe it or not, we were able to get a picture of all 11 kids together, which was pretty impressive...

Overall, it was a great trip. I am just now getting over my "return back to work" depression, but I'm thinking it still may take a couple of days (and a new job where I can have summers off) to fully get over it. :)