I took all three kids to Virginia, since the idea of feeding, bathing and entertaining them by myself was scarier than driving 450 miles alone. My apologies for ALL the lake pictures, but I basically parked myself on the dock and didn’t move for 4 days.

Sunday:

Watching “the robot show”

That’s MY soccer shirt from when I was a teeny tiny terrible soccer player

A+++++ PRO PARENTING

Monday:

Swim class kicking practice

Dinner made and delivered by someone else is better than any dinner I can make. Plus WINE.

BABY HANDS

Tuesday:

Caroline says “That is a lady with a gun giving it to another lady”.

2 week check-up

I got my rug! Now I just need a crib and I’ll be almost done.

Wednesday:

4:30 am is toooooo eeeeeaaarlyyyyyy

TOTALLY WORTH THE DRIVE

Wearing out kids + dog

Thursday:

Good morning, Sunshine

Good morning, Sunshine (literally)

Last summer, Caroline REFUSED to get in the water or in any boats. This year she rode on all the things.

Friday:

We are both very relaxed

Evan found a friend and they had a GREAT time jumping

My parents got a boat and a tube. It’s like the WANT to make it as hard as possible to stay away.

Saturday:

AND they made breakfast. My parents are the best.

Tiny baby rash guard and suit = best

S’mores to cap off an awesome vacation

Now I am home. We have freezer meals from a friend for dinner, a house still super clean and organized from my mom’s visit and a busy week planned. I might actually survive as a mom of 3 (and by survive, I mean until school starts, because once school starts ALL THE NAPS WILL BELONG TO ME.)

I hate everything.

I’m still pregnant. I haven’t managed to shake the baby even the littlest bit loose since before my due date, so we’re waiting it out a bit longer. The good news is E’s departure date keeps getting pushed back so he’s not going to miss the birth – he still might have to do a mad dash to the hospital to get there but he shouldn’t be At Sea.

The other good news is my house has never been so clean and well organized, since my poor mother has been trying to keep busy instead of just sitting on the couch staring, waiting for me to pop.

Sunday:

Mommy I’m a walrus! A turkey walrus!

Obsessed with the new bathmat

The kids are enjoying the clean, newly made-over bathroom too

Monday:

I want to buy everything too, buddy

Princess Grumpypants

Well, that explains the grumpy pants

Tuesday:

Ikea is fun for everyone

Making herself at home (more Ikea)

Bedtime stories

Wednesday:

Bounce house center smiles

I’M MAKING POOR CHOICES smiles

Thursday:

Finishing up errands I NEVER thought I would get done before the baby came

OK MY TOES LOOK NICE I CAN GIVE BIRTH

Evening aquarium visit

Friday:

3.5 hours in L&D for tests, NO BABY

To the pond for some fish-catching (we caught no fish)

I enjoy sunsets and long walks on the curb trying to get the baby to FALL OUT

Saturday:

Infant seats are useful, even without an infant

Trapped in my seat by bins of baby clothes that are ALL ORGANIZED now

We actually did even more stuff not pictured. As much as I want to just crawl into bed and sulk until I have a baby, doing stuff is better for me and the kids and my very patient mother. Although I’m starting to lose any semblance of motivation and the bed-crawling thing is looking better and better.

Since I’m NOT having a baby I’ve been editing photos and might actually have some non-iPhone posts up. UNLESS I AM IN LABOR RIGHT NOW IS THAT A CONTRACTION? (No.)

This week is simply called: Still Pregnant.

Sunday:

Who can possibly feel that depressed in the shoe aisle at Target?

She’s a fish

At least it makes a good shelf for dessert?

Monday:

More fish-like behavior

Fort time

Naps

Tuesday:

I woke up and was STILL PREGNANT

The princess accompanied me to my growth ultrasound

Summer means letting them stay up until they ask to go to bed

Wednesday:

When it is too hot to do ANYTHING, buckets of water on the porch are good enough

My hero

Maybe some day I’ll need some baby clothes

Thursday:

It’s was a little humid

That drink is 150% sugar.

Showing off her floating skills

Friday:

That is not the baby I was hoping would appear while I was at L&D

I made a giant pasta salad that no one else in my family eats. I am a selfish pregnant lady.

My cat says: For real, are you ever going to have that kid?

Saturday:

I LOVE MY BEAR MOMMY!

It was a really long, really hot week and by the end she wasn’t super excited about the fireworks

Obligatory blurry firework picture to prove we made the effort to go see them.

It took like 20 minutes to put that together and I am STILL pregnant. In case you were wondering.

This week felt really, really long. But in a good way. A full way. Something about going away for the weekend to Mom 2.0 changed things at home – maybe we ALL needed a break from each other – and we’re all happier to be around each other. Despite spending an awful lot of the week in various waiting and exam rooms, we ended it in NYC proving our kids are really good sports (we made them walk everywhere) and really fun (when they aren’t driving us crazy).

Sunday:

These are my “before” flowerpots, but that didn’t stop her from trying to take care of them.

She asked for purple flowers to plant (I don’t even know what these are).

Mother’s Day at Chili’s (again) calls for finger guns

Monday:

Freezing, FREEZING cold water

The gingers are unphased by cold

So excited about her chocolate frog she forgot to take the plastic off.

Tuesday:

She tied that all by herself.

Thank God for iPads (during my NST)

Wishflowers

Wednesday:

Pweeeese we swim some more Mommy? Pweeeeeese?

We bought cat food and paper towels and batteries at Walmart. She is hugging the batteries.

Fawkes Phoenix is Evan’s new BFF

Thursday:

Looking pensive about the rain

In case you thought they were GOOD at posing for pictures.

Sleeping Beauty

Friday:

What is this weather even??

Next year, SHE is going to be coming home on that bus.

Another day, another visit to L&D

Saturday:

When you get the Metro-North seats with the power outlet, you get to play Angry Birds all the way in to the city.

Shake Shack is actually as good as everyone says.

I think our last family picture (selfie or otherwise) was in October. We heart NYC.

And now I am literally going to crawl upstairs to bed because my left hip is broken (out of joint? sprained? can you sprain a hip?) and I can’t walk. I finally found my sense of direction in New York, but unfortunately it was because we walked EVERYWHERE. I’m pretty sure even the gingers are going to sleep in tomorrow.

Although I did get a super awesome new stroller that’s inspiring me to get back to Stroller Strides. Maybe if my hip pops back in we’ll actually make it this week.

Today it is only in the 60’s and threatening to rain, but Monday was gorgeous so we went to the lake. The water was can’t-feel-your-toes freezing – almost as bad as the ocean this time of year – but the kids had a great time.

(Sidebar: The one zillion dollars I have spent on swim lessons so far is totally worth it for the peace of mind it brings me around the water. We’ll still be sporting those across-the-chest floaties for most of the summer, but the fact that both kids understand how to hold their breath, float on their back and get to the wall/shore means I can actually ENJOY going to the lake instead of freaking out the entire time about the very presence of water more than 1 inch deep. I plan to continue throwing money at our swim lessons all summer.)

We were not the only people there. Evan actually ran into a friend from school and that friend has some siblings/friends for Caroline plus their favorite baby-friend Baby Charlotte came too. I like this lake in May. by July it’s crowded and trashed (because it is free and has lots of parking and people are jerks) so we’ll be at the real shoreline beach with everyone else.