Sleep

I want to write this post for several reasons. 

Sleep in this house is not an easy thing. 

Ever since Barrett joined our family, sleep has been ... difficult. 

But like all hard things in our lives, they pass, and soon - we forget. We forget the things that caused us frustration. The very present sigh of relief when Barrett finally rolls his eyes back and his eyelids stay shut fades from memory. 

Someday, our sleep problems will be funny. We will laugh about them. We do laugh, sometimes. Because really, it is pretty ridiculous. 

Nap time is a time of battle. I march into the bedroom to wage war on my tired toddler. 

Getting a busy toddler to sleep is a feat. Doing it with a 6 week old that demands to be held is a miracle. 

Until about 2 months before Gentry was born, Barrett slept in the infant car seat for naps. Or in the stroller. Or in the car. In anticipation for G's arrival, we had to stop with the infant car seat so that G could use it. Plus, Barrett was quite a bit too big for it. 

So we were down to the stroller and the car. With an infant, I didn't always want to be going for a walk or a drive. Plus, Barrett was sleeping at night in our bed - and it was getting cramped - in addition, he had stopped sleeping all that well. 

So we set the crib up again. 

To get him to sleep in the crib, we had to deploy several tactics. 

Hold his hand through the slats. 

If he was particularly wiley, we would have to hold him down (nicely, of course) so that he could calm down. 

Now both of these tactics worked great / work great when there is a 1:1 ratio of kids to parents. When it is a 2:1 ratio of kids to parents, the system ... fails. 

Time to play imagination:

Nap time - Gentry will inevitably get hungry. After he eats, he will get gas, or be lonely, or take a huge poo. This will all happen right after I have changed Barrett, given him a pouch, put in in his crib for a nap. 

There I am, sitting on the bedroom floor, trying to hold Barrett's hand through the slats, trying to feed/calm/rock with one hand and legs Gentry. 

Barrett has different ways of going to sleep. 

Sometimes he is tired, cuddles up and after 20 minutes of hand holding, he is in dreamland. 

Sometimes he needs a good cry to get some extra energy out - I sit on the bed away from him and coldly ignore him, while likely holding Gentry, who is likely having an epic screaming meltdown. Because I am not holding Barrett's hand, he is screaming too. It's harmonious...future Hanson brothers. After about 10 minutes of this, I can go to holding Barretts hand, and hopefully rocking G into sleepiness and voila, 30-40 minutes pass and Barrett is sleeping. 

Yesterday was a new kind of special. Barrett was extra wild, ran and rolled and jumped around his crib like a wild animal for an hour. I am pretty sure we were in need of an exorcism - we needed to find an old priest and a young priest - or a new priest and an old priest - or however that goes...I'm too tired to remember things like that. Then he got tired. (meanwhile, G cried, loudly, with gas). Then B pooped. So we had to pause sleep and change that. Then he got wild again, then angry, then cried. I won. But it took 1 hour and 43 minutes to win. 

Sigh. 

So today-we went back to the tried and true...I went for a walk. Barrett in the Bob and G in the front pack. Worked like a charm. Barrett is sleeping nicely. 

But wait. Sleep always has to be complicated for us. So for today's complexity...G is 6 weeks old today, so I can go to the gym and put them in gym daycare. But, if you have a child under 1, you have to make a reservation so they have the correct staff to child ratio. So I reserved at 1pm because they are most dead from 1-2/3. If you miss your reservation, you are charged $6. So this means we have to leave home by 12:30. It is 12:19 and Barrett is sleeping still. I may have to ***gasp*** wake him up. Cue me crying. Sob. 

Someday. 

Someday this will be funny. 

Gentry (Newborn photos)

Mr. "I rolled over at 5 weeks 1 day old" from tummy to back. 

Barrett at 20.5 Months

Barrett, you are 20.5 months old and a ball of energy. I find you very hard to describe. Where some kids you can describe as quiet and pensive and others you can describe as loud and busy, I find it difficult to place you in a box that way.

You wake up in the middle of the night and cry out from your crib in our room (yes, in our room). Sometimes you are hungry and after eating a pouch, you go right back to sleep. Sometimes you are something else - scared? lonely? and when your dad comes over and lays you back down, sits on the floor and holds your hand, you calm down and go back to sleep - but sometimes you don't - and you end up in our bed - a little ball of cuddles with your head on your dads arm and your hand on his chest. You like to be close - at times - you will pat our arms, your dads chest cuddled up with your paci.

You reach up whenever we arrive at steps going up or going down. You seem to know we are there because you rarely look over at us, you just reach up to hold a hand to steady you when you climb the stairs - even though you are perfectly capable of climbing or descending on your own. You are so careful sometimes, and yet, you are so rough and fearless at others.

You run through the yard without a care, often tripping and falling and getting up without a tear. You walk with your eyes cast forward and rarely worry about what you might trip over or run into. Your legs are full of bruises, your face covered in scrapes, goose eggs and scabs that make you cry only briefly before you are ready to face the next minute.

You are so loving towards your brother sometimes. You kiss him with an exaggerated "MUAH!" you pat him, you pet him, you hug him and try to hold him. Then, in the same moment you slap him and lay on top of him, hug him too hard. When he cries, you look at us and say "uh-oh" and point toward him. You always want to help carry little brothers car seat out to the car. You proudly loop your arm around the handle.

You love tractors and mowers and machinery. When Gpa mows the yard, you always want to join in. You are so excited and so careful to hold your ear protectors against your head for the entire time you mow. You are so still when your ride on the mini with your dad or gpa. You quietly observe and learn as you watch them expertly run the machines.

You can screw and unscrew caps, open doors, place shaped objects in the right hole, put things away, follow complex directions and click in buckles (like for car seats). You are learning colors and can point to the correct colors most of the time. You can say more (mo), Uh-oh, Uh-hu, No, yea. You rarely say mama or dada. You jabber sometimes but we have no idea what you are saying.

You are thoughtful and caring - you worry. Gpa fell off a chair and it made you nervous, or scared you - and you cried.

You are determined and bull headed. You don't get deterred from an idea easily. You learned to take ice out of a cup at a restaurant and now you want to thrust your little hands into our cups and pull the ice out. When you are done eating, you start dropping food and then dump all the food and the plate and silverware on the floor. You are impossible to put to sleep. Impossible. Did I say impossible? You won't let yourself just go to sleep. You can be exhausted and you won't sleep. You are not the kid who falls asleep in your toys. No. You need to be walked in your bob stroller. We have gone so many miles with that bob putting you to sleep. You need to be in your car seat in the car. We have driven many unnecessary miles while you sleep, afraid that if the car stops, you will wake. When you fall asleep in your crib, we hold your hand - or if you are particularly wiley that day, we have to hold you down, wait for you to calm down. Sometimes it takes 20 minutes. Sometimes it takes an hour and a half. You can hold out forever. It's exhausting.

You want to be outside and won't let us forget until you are let outside. You believe that to be outside you need a sweatshirt and shoes - therefore you refuse to take off your sweatshirt even when it is hot - I think you think that you will have to go inside if you take it off. You play in the dirt, eat it, get filthy and need a bath almost every night.

You love to watch baby einstein movies which we let you do once little brother arrived because we learned it calmed you down before bedtime. You prop a pillow up, put the boppy pillow in front of it and grab a fuzzy blanket and cuddle up. When the caterpillar comes on, you say "ooooohhhhh" and snuggle in excited. You are very focused.

You dance sometimes, sway to music - but only sometimes - when the mood strikes. You try to jump and get no lift off but put so much effort in that half the time you end up on your rear. When you or anyone else toots, you say "oh!" and point - quite the habit...potentially embarrassing. Sometimes you even laugh. You laugh hysterically when you are tickled. You fake laugh sometimes, I don't know where you developed it.

You know grammy's house and will get very excited when we go there. You know where your toys are, where your high chair is. You sway to the music when Steve plays the guitar. You hug grammy and play rough - she lets you do things we don't, like rough "hugs." You always get your fill of fruit and love to check out Kona's kennel and the vacuum, climb the stairs and play golf.

When you are taken away from something you like or we take something away that you wanted, you get mad. You cry, hard. You cry harder when this stuff happens than when you get hurt. You are tough.

Recently, you have developed new boy traits that must be ingrained in being a boy - You tackled Hudson (age 3) and I have no idea where you learned to do it. You are very rough sometimes. You come flying at us like a flying squirrel and we have to try and stop you, especially if we are holding little brother. If you have something you shouldn't and we come for it, you run away and when we catch you, you throw it. You laugh and think it's pretty funny.

Some of the things you do are so hard not to laugh at  - and yet, as parents we have to hold our laughter in until you aren't around. One such incident - your dad was peeing and you closed the lid to the toilet (making a mess) - funny, but not appropriate.

You love to read (or rather, be read to) and cuddle up. You will go to the book shelf and get book after book. Your favorite seems to be the superhero book. You jabber about it like we are supposed to understand (we don't) and point to things. If we try to not read a book you want to read (because we don't like all your books), you grab it again and insist. Sigh. So we read it.

Sometimes you get wild for no reason. Right now, you are sitting on the floor, bouncing up and down, getting on all fours, bouncing like a wild. For no reason.

You are so much fun to watch - you are so frustrating sometimes. You are so loving and cuddly and yet, you are so rough. You understand so much and yet, you pretend not to sometimes. You are active and busy and never seem to tire or run out of energy. You are shy and reserved but so open and sweet with your "people." You are always moving. You never stop or lay still. You make my heart melt.

Gentry 3 weeks / Barrett 20 months

I feel so bad that I have barely written on my blog and haven't done any of the weeklies for Gentry. I also feel terrible that I haven't added pictures. I will get there - I'm sure of it. Someday, I will venture out of the house, solo with both kids. I will post pictures. I will update on the kids. I will. Someday.

Gentry 3 Weeks

• Brown hair, blue eyes, olive/white skin, short almost non existent eyelashes
• Sleeps in the infant napper of the pack n play, swaddled for about 1.5-2 hours at a time at night. Wakes to nurse. Eats and back to sleep. Only eats off one side per session, day and night. Barrett was the same. 
• Cries loudly when he cries, which isn't often, but can make a lot of noise when he needs to. 
• Sleeps well just about everywhere - car, swing, our bed, on us, infant napper, etc. 
• Wearing newborn (not much) and 3 month clothes (too big)
• Very content
• Somewhat gassy which is fixed by holding him so he is on his tummy. He loves tummy time I think because it helps with gas. 
• Likes his paci but will act like you are trying to kill him when you try to put it in. Then he gets very content and just sucks on it. 
• Still in disposables which we got from my showers, will maybe try to transition in the next few days but I think he may be too small for the cloth still. 
• Likes to hold your hand, his hands, blankets, shirts, cloths
• No spitting up...yet. 
• Has started to kind of "connect" with you when you hold him, will look at you, look around, look at the light, etc. 
• At his 2 week appointment he was at or near 50% in everything. 21.75 inches long, 9lb 3oz
• Loves baths, just like big brother Barrett

Barrett 20 months

• Wears 12 month and 18 month clothes. Blond Hair, hazel eyes, tan skin, lots of bruises, long eyelashes
• Determined
• Loves to carry around silverware, forks, spoons, toothbrushes, flashlights. Went thru a phase where he would wake up, scoot off the bed, run into the kitchen and open the silverware drawer and whine about getting his flatware. 
• Doesn't talk. Still. I think he says more. Maybe. And he may or may not have said Vacuum. Other people claim he talks. My mom said he says shark and another shark. His grammy (Nick's mom) says he said Costco, and says a whole host of other things. Either he doesn't talk for us but talks for other people or I am the worst mom ever and don't know how to "listen" to my child. 
• Loves all things boy. Trucks (big trucks), mowers, excavators, dump trucks, the Indy500 (boring!), cars, motorcycles, etc. 
• Takes riding on the mower and excavator very seriously. Usually will sit nicely while either Nick or Gpaw run the equipment and on the mower will sit and hold the ear protectors on the whole time. Loves to watch himself on videos riding the mower or being on the mini excavator. 
• Likes to play with his blocks and sticky blocks. Enjoys playing with his vacuum and pulls it out when I get the real vacuum. Loves to read. Likes baby einstein videos. 
• Sleeping part of the night in his crib (hurray!!!). Slept 10 hours straight the other day after not really taking a nap and going to gymnastics indoor play park and running around for an hour straight. We need more things like this...but I can't seem to find them. To sleep in his crib, it has to be dark, he has a noise machine on waves, and you have to have your hand on him or hold his hand until he falls asleep - which can take 20 minutes to and hour. Oh sleep + Barrett...how I don't love thee. 
• Sleeps really well in the car. Which rocks when you are going on a road trip. It doesn't rock when you are just out and about and either have to hang out in the car and drive or hang out in the driveway. We need to get a part of the garage cleaned out so I can park in there and leave him to sleep. 
• Still won't just fall asleep. He will play and play and get more and more tired (and more and more destructive) but will not just sack out. Has a complete inability to just fall asleep on his own. 
• Is very determined. Yes, I already said that. If he wants to do something, it is almost impossible to change his mind. 
• Already negotiates. If he has something he shouldn't, you have to "trade" with him to get it back. 
• When he is done eating, he has a bad habit of just throwing the food off his tray. We are working on this...
• Loves baths and playing with all his bath toys
• Loves to help in the yard. Waters plants, plants things (ish), digs in the garden, eats the strawberries (spits out the green ones), loves to play in the water and get muddy. 
• Has adjusted...sorta...to having a brother. Is interested in him and will come and pet his hair, give him kisses, he wants to hold him and hug him. Also gets rough with him, shakes the swing, steals his paci's (all the time), has hit him, thrown a flashlight at Gentry which caused hard crying from both (Barrett got put in time out)...we say "gentile" a lot. It's a work in progress. I am sure there are a lot of bumps and bruises and fights and hugs and kisses to come. Boys are definitely not girls. Ha ha!
• Is very sweet. Holds your hand, helps take Gentry's infant car seat to the car, waves at everyone, cuddles. 

One Week (and also 13 days) and other stuff

Gentry:

• Eats every 2 hours or so, day and night. 
• Sleeps very well (either in the crook of my arm or swaddled in the pack n play napper)
• Pretty much just east, sleeps and is content and awake. He is super easy and super content. 
• Is growing because he is fitting ok in 3 month clothes (length, not chub - he is pretty skinny still)
• Does tummy time pretty happily
• Is going to be one tough dude. Older brothers are not gentile like older sisters - we try to be careful but he does get poked and roughed around by Barrett
• Still in the jerky infant phase, moves his arms and legs with little to no control over movements
• Seems to have a bit of a cold, maybe. Is kind of "snorgely" and stuffed up sounding
• Content being held by anyone
• Cries very loudly when he wants something (food) but quiets right down when he gets it

Gentry + Barrett (this blog is not about sugar coating)

• 2 is WAY harder than 1. The transition to 1 seemed pretty ok, pretty easy at times. Sleep deprivation, lack of showers, etc - yea it was hard. But I could sleep when the baby slept (if I wanted to, not that I did), I could just sit, I could set him down and do stuff. Having an infant + a toddler? Mayhem. Craziness. Whole-new-ballgame. 
• I thought Barrett was an easy baby. Turns out, he was not. Gentry, easy. Barrett...looking back, in addition to his dairy problem, I am almost certain he had colic. He cried a lot. He needed to be held all the time. He pretty much only liked being held by me. I remember struggling to take a shower or eat or anything. He was very difficult to nurse for the first 5 or so months. Gentry? Set him down, hand him off, swaddle, unswaddle...he is just content. Shower? Sure! Cook? Absolutely! Clean? No prob! - oh wait. Except for that busy toddler part...hm. Nevermind. I will just be unshowered, uncooked, uncleaned for...um. Ever. 
• Did I mention that 1 was way easier? Let me tell all you 1 child families who thought 1 was a hard transition - who thought the sleepless nights were hard, who thought getting anything done or getting out of the house was hard. 2 is no joke. The good news is, I am used to being chronically sleep deprived (if you recall, I have not slept through the night since before Barrett joined us and he is almost 20 months old) so the good news is, I am not really bothered with not sleeping. And yes, I am super loser - I go to bed at 8:30 and get up at 7 or 8, whenever Barrett gets up - which equates to probably 6-7 hours of actual sleep. But there is no part of me that is willing to sacrifice any sleep for a stupid TV show. Sorry network TV. 
• The bad news is - having an infant and a 20 month old is CRAZY. I don't know if an older sister would have been easier because girls are more gentile and into things like babies - but my sweet, compliant, easy going toddler definitely is a little more defiant, I wanna do it myself, whinny, grouchy, etc than he was. Maybe this was on its way anyway - but it hit right when Gentry came home. And from what I know about toddlers, 20 month olds are not capable of being jealous. But something is certainly going on. I spend a lot of my day reminding myself to be patient. Be patient. Be patient. Be patient. Repeat repeat repeat. 
• People constantly remind me that the boys will play together and long term, it will be great. Right. I know. But short term (and I think we are talking a year at least), the is HARD. That's right. No lies. This. Is. Hard. When it was just Barrett, I was easy going mama. I was even tempered mama. I was just the kind of mama I wanted to be. As a mom of 2 (with newborn) I am patience tested mama. I am easily thrown over the edge mama. I am short tempered mama. I am every kind of mama I never wanted to be. And I am hoping that I can either reign this mama in, or that eventually things WILL get easier and I will be back to the previous mama. 
• When you have your first, people ooh and aaah. People come over. People wanna meet the baby. People are so so so excited. When you have your second, people mostly don't seem to be interested. Meh, it's the second. If you were expecting lots of drop ins and people wanting to see you or people wanting to see the baby or whatever - don't get your hopes up - or you may be disappointed. Or maybe I send out "don't visit us" vibes. Either way - it's definitely not the excitement of baby 1. Not trying to be a downer, just being real. 

Me:

• I gained way less weight with this pregnancy (yeay!) so while at 2 weeks out I was down to 160 with Barrett, this time 1 day shy of 2 weeks out I am down to 145.5. That is what I was when I got pregnant with Barrett. Wow. (I still have lots of work to do but yeah!)
• Im sweating like crazy at night, just like I did with Barrett. 
• Breastfeeding is going well. I was a bit engorged at the start but we are on track now. 
• 1 pair of prepregnancy jeans fit. Few shirts fit because my boobs are huge. 
• Mood wise, I am pretty good. Other than being overwhelmed by having 2. 
• Sleep is good - but that's because I am used to not sleeping (ha!)

Birth Story - Gentry

I really went back and forth on whether I wanted to do a VBAC or whether I wanted to just do a scheduled C-Section. Ultimately, the decision came down to the following factors -

• I would have to go into labor spontaneously - family and personal experience showed that I would possibly even go a full 2 weeks past my due date and then I would have had to have a C-Section anyway. 
• I have big babies
• I have no idea why Barrett didn't come on his own and ended in a C-Section - size may or may not have been a factor. 

So we decided to go with May 8. My doc was on, it sounded like a good day. 

Nick, my sister Ali and I arrived at the hospital at 6am. They took us back to the room where the did all the C-Section preparations - clean stuff, IV, baby monitor, etc. - then we waited. At around 7:45 my doc came and chatted and asked if we had any questions. Then I walked down the hall with my doc into the operating room. It was large and cold and sterile and there were about 4 nurses and my doc and the assisting doc, Doctor Olmstead. She was nice. They had me lean forward for the spinal then lay down, get the catheter (ick) and they began to administer different drugs. Some made me sick, nauseous, numb, dizzy - it was like an endless cocktail of different stuff. Nick and Ali both got to come in. Ali took pictures, Nick sat by my head. Ali took pictures of EVERYTHING. She kindly separated the pictures in a folder on my external hard drive for ones that most people would never want to see - but it was kind of unique to get pictures of that I suppose. 

The doctors worked their magic. I guess I had several dips in my blood pressure which had to be corrected by more drugs. Once they were in, it was determined that I had an enormous amount of amniotic fluid. Turns out Gentry had a swimming pool in there. No wonder I ended up so big. The doctors all commented on how much there was. Then they pulled little Gentry out (at the time he did not have a name) and he cried LOUDLY. The little guy had some lungs on him. He got weighed (8'5) and then they put him on my chest because he was having some trouble getting the fluid out of his lungs. I heard the doctors say things about the fluid, about suction, and then something about a mild hemorrhage. Apparently, I lost a lot of blood - and about 10lbs of fluid. They took G out of the room to clean him up and took me to recovery. 

I was dizzy and had to lie flat. My blood pressure was super low. Like super low. I get the idea I was in recovery for a really long time. I started to get sick and threw up. Just as I began to throw up, the babies nurse came in and said that G needed to be on my chest because he wasn't doing very well. My nurse said I needed time to get better and as the nurse for G was leaving she made a comment about it being very important that the baby come back to be on my chest. I tried so hard to stop throwing up, tried so hard to tell them to just bring him in if it was needed. My nurse made them wait. Then they finally brought him back in to the recovery room - He was placed back on my chest again. It was awkward to hold him with my IV's on my back, with low blood pressure that made me so dizzy. 

Eventually, I think 3 hours after his birth, I was taken back to my room. I was still flat. I had to nurse G for the first time on my side because every time I raised the bed even a little, I got dizzy and my blood pressure went back down. I spent the better part of the day laying down.

It's amazing how fast you forget things. Was it day 1 or day 2 that they took the catheter out, the IV's out, allowed me to eat? It has only been 9 days and I already forgot. 

Barrett was scared of the bed (I think). He didn't really want to get up and cuddle with me. He played and was happy, but really not interested in being near the bed. 

Ali stayed overnight with me while Barrett went home with Nick. During the days, Joni (Grammy) took Barrett and kept him busy (and he had his first overnight with Grammy on the following night!). On the 9th, I was feeling much better. I got some sleep, took a shower, got up and walked around. By mid-day, the nurses were hardly coming in and Ali and I really felt like it was a bit dumb to be in the hospital. I asked my doctor if we could go home. He said if I was feeling up to going home, no reason why not. So just like that, we went home. All together, I was in the hospital for 36 hours. Not too shabby. 

So just like that, there were 2 little boys under 20 months in my care. So far, G is a super easy baby. He sleeps, he is content, he nurses well, he will let anyone hold him. I am easing into life with 2 kids. Life with 2 young (basically babies) deserves a post by itself. 

Updates on Life Spring 2013

I have been a bad blogger. But the weather has been gorgeous which isn't particularly typical of late April / Early May so I feel like I have an excuse. Still. Time passes quickly and without any kind of update, I find it easy to forget little things. Like these:

• Barrett loves spoons right now. He carries several of them around with him almost all the time. He knows which drawer they are kept in and will open it up and reach (because he can't see in) and try to get a few of them to carry around. He then uses them for all kinds of things. Eating, digging outside, just carrying them. 
• Barrett also loves rocks and will pick them up from our gravel area on our driveway or in parks or anywhere else. He will frequently find ones that he deems good enough to hold onto and will hand them over to me for safe-keeping. 
• Barrett loves trucks, tractors, equipment, backhoes, etc. He will play with the toy ones inside and out and spends a lot of time near the mini-excavator in our backyard hoping that someone will run it with him. He knows how to put the key in and turn it to "on" but can't start it yet. He knows that the red lever needs to go down for it to operate. 
• Still not talking. I have a suspicion that he is trying to say "mini" when he points out any equipment he sees in a book or magazine. He says uh-oh, yea and while I am sure he can still say it, he hasn't said hot lately. 
• I am veeeery pregnant and while I am a whole 20lbs lighter this time than I was with Barrett, I am very uncomfortable and at my "38 week" appointment (I think I am mis-dated and was actually at 39 weeks 2 days) I was measuring "generously" as my doctor put it. He wouldn't even tell me. I know that at "37 weeks" I was measuring 42...so perhaps I don't really want to know. 
• C-section date is still May 8 and knowing that in my family, the women hold onto babies for like, ever...I have no hope that this minion will come early. 5 more days of being suuuper pregnant, suuuper huge and suuuuper uncomfortable. Then I will just have to get used to having 2 littles around, which I am sure will be challenging. Have I mentioned how much I dread breastfeeding again? I did it for a year with Barrett and for all intents and purposes, it went well. I just don't enjoy it. But I do it because it's what you do. So, gulp. Here we go again. 
• Barrett is napping 100% of the time in either his stroller (bob) if we are here at home, or in the car seat if we are on the go. He no longer uses the infant car seat...mostly because we need it for little #2. 
• Speaking of sleep. I go to bed with Barrett almost every night at 8:30 (Im pregnant, give me a break) and he generally gets up for the day between 6:30 and 8am. No, he doesn't sleep thru but he wakes 1-4 times to eat and then back to sleep. Maybe someday...
• I worked my very last day yesterday...and I have no idea when the next time I will work is. (other than doing books for Bezates Construction). It's really weird to have an indefinitely last day. I love working for the social aspect and also for the accomplishment of it but I also love spending time at home with my little guy. I hope in the near future to have a similar situation as before, work 2 days and home the rest of the time, but if that doesn't work out, I am super happy just being home with my kiddos. We have bull intentions of spending many days at Stafford Hills club swimming in the pool and generally enjoying the outdoors. I am hopeful they have swim lessons this summer for the little guys. So excited!!
• I am getting better and better at sitting back and just enjoying/cherishing life and enjoying the little things. Our backyard really is becoming a sanctuary as we complete various projects and as the trees and plants we planted begin to mature and grow taller. I am learning that sometimes it is nice to just sit back here and enjoy the quiet, enjoy what we have worked so hard on. I need to do a post on what we have done but it includes concrete, stepping stones, fences, trees, plants, a fire pit table top, etc. We are still working on getting some grass down and a sprinkler system, which will allow us to just sit back and enjoy it. Our to do list is getting shorter and shorter. Also, we are almost ready to submit plans to the county to build a shop back here! Very exciting because Nick really needs one. And so does my garage. I am hopeful that in no time, I will be parking my car in the garage :D
• Anyway, that's kind of us in a nutshell right now. Nothing earth shattering, but life is good - uncomfortable from being so pregnant - but good. 

Boring post. No pictures. Sigh. Maybe next time.