I am sticking with my theory that if we stay really super busy all the time that this underway will pass quickly.

I REALLY hope it’s working for the kids because all it’s doing for me is making me exhausted. I live with a constant vague sense of dread that I’m forgetting something or that we’re late for something or that I’m supposed to be somewhere else.

My iPhone seems to agree with me, because every 2 minutes the little alert pops up that says “blah blah number of minutes to get home” and offers me directions back to my house. Usually, it’s offering me directions to ballet or swim or cheer or karate or whatever else we’re supposed to be doing. I find that very helpful, if somewhat creepy since I never specifically told my phone I was going those places. It just learned them. But constantly telling me I should be headed back to the house is freaking me out. WHAT AM I LATE FOR, IPHONE?

Yesterday we were 15 minutes late to Caroline’s mandatory extra ballet recital because Lincoln lost his shoes at our morning playdate. The good news is we did eventually find them, but every single time we need to get from point A to point B something like that happens.

It’s really hard to be Fun Mom when you also have to be Find Your Shoes Mom and No You Can’t Have Freeze Pops For Breakfast Mom and Stop Talking And Go To Bed Mom. I want to have ice cream for dinner too. I don’t want to spend the afternoon putting away laundry and changing sheets and doing dishes. Fun Mom doesn’t have to do that stuff. But there isn’t anyone else, so right now I’m Fun Mom and Regular Mom, which means I go to bed at 9:30 and haven’t seen a grown-up TV show in three weeks.

But we have been having a lot of fun.

p.s. It was about 73 degrees at the first beach and 65 the second time. I am raising hardy New England children.

Caroline is Seven!

Her favorite things are: cheer, dance, fashion, drawing, writing, reading, Wonder Woman, cooking, baking, her brothers, her friends, unicorns, glitter, Hamilton and making videos.

She is very, very smart, a wonderful friend, kind to everyone and makes me coffee in the morning. Caroline plans to have a streak of purple added to her hair over winter vacation. She cannot wait until she is old enough to officially babysit.

Happy birthday, my beautiful daughter.

I asked my mom friends last week if they thought I should be concerned about Linc not rolling over or bearing weight on his legs yet. They told me no, of course not, all babies are different and they develop at different rates, I’m sure he’ll roll over soon, their baby never rolled over and now look at her walking! That’s basically the Lord’s Prayer of parenting – I can recite it from memory but don’t often pay attention to what the words actually mean. It’s comfortingly familiar though, to hear it from people I know and trust.

Right after that Linc decided his new favorite thing is bearing weight on his legs, so at least half of my worrying was for nothing. I’m pretty sure one of these days I’m going to set him on the floor, leave the room, and come back in to find he’s just gotten up and walked away.

I’m a few days late with this update, not because I forgot it but because I didn’t want to even LOOK at the 5 month sticker a single second earlier than I had to. I cannot believe it’s already been 5 months with Lincoln here in our lives. He’s the first baby where I haven’t felt any desire for time to go faster. I am trying to stay completely focused on enjoying him right now, as he is, and not rushing anything.

It helps that he sleeps. I would be praying him to get bigger and older and thinking about night weaning and freaking out over how exhausted I was if he wasn’t already letting me sleep 7 hours a night. Best baby in the world. Or at least right now, since he’s taking a nice extended afternoon nap.

Likes include smiling, snuggles, people, singing, talking about cooking shows, being held, standing, bath time, chewing on things, his feet, my feet, mirrors, nursing, watching people eat, having his picture taken, the swing, the rock-n-play, his brother, his sister and the cat.

Dislikes include loud noises too close to his face, missing nap time, teething and having boogers removed from his nose/face in any way.

/

5 Month Milestones (originally from BabyCenter, now from Caroline’s 5 month post)

Mastered Skills (most kids can do)
Distinguishes between bold colors – Yeah, sure. How the hell am I supposed to know?
Plays with his hands and feet – Yes, with cartoon-baby-levels of cuteness.

Emerging Skills (half of kids can do)
Recognizes own name – He did this very clearly yesterday and I was like BOOM! MILESTONE MOMENT!!
Turns toward new sounds – Yes, he’s very nosy.
Rolls over in both directions – Still no rolling. In either direction. He doesn’t even look like he wants to.

Advanced Skills (a few kids can do)
Sits momentarily without support – Yes. He’s going to be sitting independently way before he’s rolling.
Mouths objects – Nomming is his favorite hobby
Separation anxiety may begin – A little. He doesn’t like it when everyone leaves the room, but he doesn’t mind new people or strangers.

LIFE UPDATE: My husband is still on shift work. That is 14 hour days, 7 days a week, which means I am also working 7 days a week, close to 18 hours a day. I fell behind on the housework and laundry a week before Thanksgiving and have never caught up, even when I ignore my children, neglect my blog, put off editing photos, stick in my headphones and tackle a room for 2 hours straight. And no matter how many times I clean up the main living space the children destroy it again within minutes. If I didn’t believe in my heart that I would trip over a RescueBot, fall into the TV and bleed to death on the floor I might just stop even TRYING to clean up.

KID UPDATE: Evan still thinks school is awesome. He hasn’t had any more bus drama and I haven’t forgotten a single half day in months. He is helpful and kind at home and still wants to snuggle on a fairly regular basis despite being so tall I sometimes don’t recognize him. Caroline refuses to wear anything besides princess dresses. She also has the most horrible whining voice in the world. It’s worse than nails on a chalkboard and she does it ALL the time, even when she’s just making up imaginary games between her dolls. She is also unbelievably adorable. Her birthday party is next weekend and her birthday itself is right after that and then my baby will be THREE.

COUCH UPDATE: STILL HAVE AN EXTRA COUCH I CANNOT EVEN GIVE AWAY. And no Christmas tree because of shift work and also because there is no where to put it because of the couch.

ICE CREAM UPDATE: Despite the fact that it is usually around 40 degrees, we’ve been hitting Mystic Drawbridge Ice Cream pretty regularly. Downtown Mystic is my favorite place for photo shoots right now, and bribing my kids with ice cream is a win-win, since it means I get some ice cream too. The peanut butter sundae is still my favorite.

PHOTO UPDATE: Here are some photos.

CONNECTICUT UPDATE: Still unbelievably scenic.

Evan started school on Tuesday. He’s going Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, which is kind of a wonky schedule but we do gymnastics on Wednesdays and I didn’t want to have to pull both kids out just so Evan could go to pre-pre-K. Some kids attend all five days so he’ll see some of the same friends regularly. Plus at the first day of drop off I ran into TWO of the moms from gymnastics, so he already has a couple friends in his class. I’m sensing a whole new circle of mom-friends in the making and I’m kind of excited. Unless, of course, then find my blog. Then I’m sensing I’ll be shamed out of the school entirely.

Ideally, I will do this every year for the rest of his school days. More likely I will do it next fall and then totally forget about it. And somehow I can’t picture a 13 year old 8th grade Evan wanting to pose while I ask him what his favorite toy is. MOM. TOYS ARE FOR BABIES. I like XBox.

p.s. I pretty much died when he said Caroline was his best friend.

Someone was annoyed I didn’t want to take HER picture

After a successful first day of school (no one cried except me!) we met E for a quick treat  and tried to get Evan to tell us about school. He wasn’t really interested. Or, more likely, he was just really really interested in his cheeseburger and milkshake.

Caroline gets a special treat for surviving 2.5 hours without her brother.

Yesterday was also Evan’s 41st monthday. Even though I stopped officially doing updates after he fell off the Baby Center charts at 36 months, I still think about how he’s growing and getting smarter and learning new stuff every single month on the 5th. I think school is going to accelerate things to a level I’m not sure I can handle – the less he acts like a little kid the sorrier I am that those years are so very short.

I just have to keep reminding myself school is good for BOTH of us. Today, while Evan is at preschool being a big kid I get to go grocery shopping with ONE CHILD at the base commissary, something I’ve literally never done despite their dramatically lower prices because it is too far to drag two children who might melt down plus the carts and aisles are too small. I’ve been making a list for three days, I’m so excited about this shopping trip. My life may not be glamorous, but it I think it’s pretty sweet.