It’s really cold. I have a lot of feelings about it being so cold, but they’re all very negative and I’m trying to remain upbeat. But basically, eff this effing weather and eff you January I hate you why can’t it be effing June already?

Sunday:

As if he didn’t already eat enough, now he thinks he should get PEOPLE FOOD too.

I mean, look at those thighs.

Kids these days with their selfies.

Monday:

She insists on greeting her bus driver in french when she wears her “french hat”

Really impressed with the post office

This was the highlight of their day. Evan wants to know if he can wear Linc all the time.

Tuesday:

Before…

…neglecting the children during…

…After. It still looks mostly like that. One whole week!!

Wednesday:

STILL COLD

Let’s play a game called: Whose baby is in your lap?!

Irony: That wrap I’m wearing probably could have paid for the plumber to fix my dishwasher. BUT I’D RATHER DO IT MYSELF AND HAVE THE WRAP.

Thursday:

It’s a little staticy in our house

SHUT UP DON’T MOVE

So…basically I’m done here?

Friday:

We tried to wait outside for the bus

But gave up and stood inside staring out the window instead. Well, I stared. Linc continued to think he’s people.

Pretending she’s at a cafe

Saturday:

She’s got a teenager attitude – sure, you’d make a good seat, whatevs.

He ordered celery, so I let him order red drank instead of milk

And we out!

Last week was our first week back at all our activities…and yet I completely forgot to go to them. We just skipped swim class. So my goal for this week is to make it to all our appointments and classes and activities and dinners and stuff. If you see me on Wednesday and my hair looks like crap, you’ll know I’ve already failed, since my hair appointment is TUESDAY.

And someone please fix this weather. Ok, good talk.

Welcome to a WHOLE NEW WORLD. This world is called “My husband is home after 4 months of being totally gone and 3+ years of being mostly absent”. We’re a full week in and definitely still adjusting, especially since not only is E back from sea he has a MONTH OFF. I’m trying to make up for the last 3 holiday seasons he mostly missed in the next 3 weeks, so the gingers might be missing a little school. Who really learns anything between Thanksgiving and Christmas anyways? They’ll have plenty of time for school during the horrible months of January, February and March.

Sunday:

Warm enough for a casual walk to church

What big eyes you have

I pulled over to take a picture of a heron, but it flew away so just IMAGINE a beautiful white heron in this picture

Monday:

SWEATER PANTS

The first time I got him on my back for any length of time and he REALLY liked it

Sitting in the dark editing newborn photos because that’s when it is quiet

Tuesday:

WHY IS THIS BABY IN MY SWING????

I took approximately 65 pictures to get ONE where she was holding still enough to be in focus

Wednesday:

Super excited to be “helping” Caroline

Gross, gross, gross weather

Helping with the apple pie

Thursday:

We ate a bunch…

…visited some baby friends…

…and then relaxed in our pie comas.

Friday:

Instead of Black Friday shopping, I got my roots done. Wise choice.

Gorgeous (COLD) day to chop down a tree

Light Up City Hall

Saturday:

E taught the kids SkipBo. They’re terrible.

SANTAAAAAA!!! I KNOW HIM!

Linc is SO DONE with his stuffy nose. Poor baby.

I think I might have actual blog posts to write this week. Although don’t get your hopes up TOO much, I also have two sessions to edit and Christmas cards/birthday invites to order. Plus finishing up a bunch of loose work ends. So…just kidding about the blogging thing. I should be able to actually sit down and write about things on my mind some time after the new year.

I wore a lot of babies this week. I have to justify owning all these wraps somehow. Although I never thought I’d take/post so many selfies. What can I say, the wraps make me feel pretty.

Sunday:

The kids wanted Linc to play with them

Obviously I wore the nautical wrap to the seaport

Caroline pretending to be daddy in the submarine exibit

Monday:

Day off school = pjs and iPad

Wraps also make excellent blankets

Baby neck torture device is still a favorite

Tuesday:

When you buy a used wrap and your baby immediately falls asleep they say it came with “sleepy dust”.

Really excited about bananas

Basking in the glow of the TV while I catch up on Scandal

Wednesday:

Warm enough to wait for the bus outside!

When you live in an old house, sometimes walk tours stop to point at it.

Gorgeous night at Bluff Point for a session

Thursday:

He was happy it was raining so he could wear his cool fireman raincoat

She was happy it was raining so she could play with the umbrella

Swim on Thursday nights is EXHAUSTING

Friday:

THESE ARE NOT ALL MINE. Not even half mine. We had a meet up.

My mirror is filthy but there’s baby on my back!

This keeps happening. I think she might need day off.

Saturday:

Apple picking

Goodest good baby slept the whole time

This is almost not even like real life, right? Look at that huge empty field.

We had a busy week, and another busy week coming up, followed by nothing but busy weeks until Christmas. I don’t understand how it’s almost the end of October already, or how my baby will be three months this week or how it is almost 11 pm and I am still finishing this post and not sleeping. Time is such a jerk.

It is 11:25 am and I am watching The Price is Right, which means life is really good right now. That’s how I judge my level of happiness: am I able to be home, eating a sandwich, between the hours of 11 and 12 so I can watch Drew Carey give away cars? Yes? Success!!

Tomorrow Linc will be 1 month old, and I’ll start doing monthday updates again. I have big plans to do a same-spot monthly photo like I did with Caroline’s tutu, but I am TERRIBLE at following through with stuff like that so we’ll see.

It turns out the hardest part of having three kids isn’t the third kid – it’s the first two. I thought I had done a really good job teaching Evan and Caroline to play on their own without needing me to intervene or referee much. But in reality I just didn’t realize how often I had to step in until I was stuck on the couch under a sleeping or nursing baby and couldn’t break up their squabbles. There has been a LOT more yelling than I like (and I’m not even strictly anti-yelling) just because I CAN’T walk into the other room and deal with them calmly. Caroline has started shouting “Moooooom Evan is TORTURING ME again!” and Evan shouts “DON’T COME UP HERE!” and then I have to stomp up the stairs while they both shout “NOOOOOO! We’ll be good! We promise!!!!” It’s fairly exhausting just to listen to them all day, plus the stomping is really rough on my knees.

Luckily, I only have everyone home for one more week before school starts. School itself is going to be a challenge – Evan’s bus comes REALLY early and I’m kind of nervous about how he’ll behave during a long ride to school – but the quiet I’m going to get while both big kids are gone is going to be life-changing. I can start blogging again. I can edit photos. I can finish knitting one of the 5 baby hats I’ve started but not finished. I can start taking pictures for other people so I can start saving up for the new lens I want.

And I can do ALL that stuff because Linc is a super easy baby. I have absolutely NO delusions this has anything to do with me or my parenting whatsoever. It’s luck. Just luck. Maybe there’s a little truth to the idea that because I’m not tense and nervous and stressed the baby isn’t tense and nervous and stressed, but that’s anecdotal at best. I know plenty of people whose second or third baby was WAY more high-needs than the first one. I just got an easy one this time, for which I am unbelievably thankful. With E gone almost all the time I would be seriously, SERIOUSLY losing my mind if I had an inconsolable, colicky baby.

The day my mom left me alone with all 3 kids I looked around and realized my house was clean and organized, and if I could just MAINTAIN that current level I could avoid a disaster. I’ve been doing really well – right now there’s only one load of laundry not put away and all the dishes are in the dishwasher – but I’ve given up on the kids’ room. Until they go to school and I can spend a good 3+ hours in there purging it’s hopeless. Luckily the rest of the house is still in good shape, so I can just shut their door and ignore it. I’m also ALMOST done with Linc’s nursery – I still haven’t ordered the crib and I need my husband to build me a shelf – and I’m really excited to share it.

Now I have a very important episode of House Hunters: Where Are They Now? to watch while I make a grocery list and a meal plan and enjoy this slightly annoying update while I can. I feel like the next one (after the 6 am wake ups and lunch packing and school drama) will be…much less smug.

Having my own newborn to photograph was a) awesome and b) horrible. Newborn photo shoots are hard work – lots of crouching and squatting and lying down and then getting up and holding your heavy camera at weird angles and being super patient while the baby settles and re-settles and needs to be fed and fed and fed again. So when you’re trying to do all the things yourself it’s exhausting. Add in the fact that you’re recovering from birth (my birth recovery was fairly easy but I still GAVE BIRTH) and I was SO sore after each photo shoot.

Because obviously I did more than one. Four, in fact. Three of which I am going to post photos from right now because I FINALLY got the photos edited. It was awesome to be able to pick whatever time of day the baby was SUPER passed out instead of just hoping a baby was sleeping during the time I scheduled a session. I also waited until he was (slightly) less yellow and his skin was (mostly) clear, so the editing wasn’t that hard.

So now I present: a zillion pictures of my baby.

p.s. I know this is a ridiculous thing to ask, but I need to order at least a couple to put on our family picture wall, so if you have a favorite or favorites let me know!

p.p.s. I also know in theory I should put this all on my photography blog, but no one reads that and I want to show off my baby so you get them instead. I’ll add some to my portfolio…if I ever remember to update my portfolio.