A house full of females

Kevin went to two conferences in October, and as my post implied, my brain was starting to suffer from the effects of taking care of 3 kids on my own. (I don't know how so many of you do this day in and day out just because of your husband's crazy work/school schedules. I have to remind myself to not compare because otherwise I feel so lame in comparison, especially when I complain haha.) So, it was good to have family come and help me out for a few days.

I picked up my mom, my sister Jennie, and nephew G from the airport Monday night, ate a late dinner, and chatted a bit before heading to bed. We were all exhausted!

Tuesday I decided to walk Joseph to school because good heavens there were two other adults in the house so I could leave the other two kids at home. Unfortunately, we made it out the door late enough that we didn't catch up to Joseph's friend, so he spent the whole way there grumping about how I was no fun to walk with compared with his friend or Daddy. I reminded him that I invented Chutes and Ladders and Cannerland so I was plenty fun, but he didn't agree. So, when I dropped him off and saw his friend's dad there, I took him up on the offer to pick Joseph up the rest of the week. It felt pretty funny to have him come every morning to our house which was so full of grown women who could walk Joseph to school if they weren't asleep on the couch, but I didn't care. (Well, a little.)

After I came back from walking Joseph to school, we made a shopping trip to fill the house with the food everyone liked. Then, my mom and I hurried to Joseph's school where she was a mystery reader who read a couple books to a very attentive and silent group of kindergarteners. The rest of the afternoon was pretty quiet. I was able to pick Joseph up without the other two boys in tow, which was magical. Jennie was so nice and played chess with Joseph. G and Matthew were cute with each other, and Jacob was of course incredibly sweet every single second ever.

I know it's a lot -- the hair, the bod!

What can I say except, you're welcome!

All my mom's grandsons, but not all their faces

It's a lot of work hosting people in a small space (especially a small space that's just awkwardly designed), but we made it work. My mom was so nice to recaulk the bathtub, go shopping multiple times, and help me clean, and she even would have made her delicious salsa for us had she found cilantro at Walmart. (As it turns out, we had some in the fridge, our neighbors have lots, and we recently discovered cilantro hiding in our flower garden, too. Oh well.)

The next day was beautiful and sunny. We headed to the ward playgroup so Matthew could sit on my lap and eat snacks and frown at the thought of playing. At least the rest of us had fun, I think. We grabbed some Chick-Fil-A for lunch, and eventually Kaylie and K showed up to join the party! When Matthew and K saw each other, they started laughing and laughing because that's what they do best (that and dancing).

When Joseph was home from school, we walked down to another park.

Progeny

All the grandkids in one picture. Jacob really is there behind the blanket. Also, we finally used both double strollers!

It's funny -- you sort of expect to do things like play games or watch shows together after kids go down. But I think we were all so tired that we mostly sat on the couch until our own bedtimes. I think I've gotten a bit used to alone time in the evenings so it was different being with people all the time. But it was nice, too. (I thought about it, and I'm pretty sure the last time my mom and sisters Kaylie and Jennie and I were together with just the three of us was probably when Jennie was a baby and Leslie was in school, so it was fun thinking about the three of us being the age of all our kids.)

Thursday morning was another beautiful morning, so off we went to Brooksvale park. We had considered going to the aquarium, but it was far enough and expensive enough that we opted for the park instead. When we saw how happy the kids were to see farm animals at zero cost, we definitely felt like we had made the right choice.

The trees looked a little prettier in person, but yeah. The foliage this year did not exceed expectations.

They loved the miniature horses. And the chickens, and sheep, and bunnies.

Something funny was that we all wore either reds or greens (not including jackets, which were mostly blue). I had been wearing red until Jacob spit up all over it, and then I changed into green without realizing I was still matching everyone.

Trying so hard for another grandkid shot.

After I got Joseph from school and gave Jennie a quick tour of Yale (quick because I forgot which direction some one-way streets went so we just skipped a few beautiful buildings altogether), we headed over to Edgerton Park. I had had such good luck planning enjoyable activities so far, but our luck ran out. I made the mistake of bringing the toddler's trikes along, figuring that they would like somewhere mostly flat to ride around. But everything about that was a bad idea, starting with getting the trikes in the car, trying to convince them to ride the trikes (Matthew doesn't even really ride his unless someone is pushing him, and my hope that seeing K riding hers would help completely backfired), and then having to carry the trikes along with lots of little kids. Oops.

But on the bright side, there were more chickens, and these ones didn't have a "do not feed" sign.

We were even able to make the chickens jump for the clover leaves, which was very entertaining.

I love these two sweet boys together!

From here, we headed over to the elementary school for the art gallery I'd heard about for weeks. I had gotten so many reminders about it that I was sure it was going to be epic.

But my luck had run out as you remember, so it was just us wandering around an empty school seeing a few "All About Me" info pages in the hallways. They were colorful and somewhat poetic, but not quite what we were expecting. I had planned my whole day to make sure we could see these, so it was a bit of a letdown. Oh well! We had bread and soup waiting for us at home, so we bounced back pretty well.

The next morning I got some good playing in with the little kids, which was nice because I felt like I had been so busy doing dishes and nursing Jacob that I hadn't gotten the chance until then. Then everyone packed up, hunted more for a missing bottle (still haven't found it, so I'm guessing some toddler put it in the trash), ate, and then headed out the door. Kaylie left for New Jersey the same time I left to take people to the airport, so we all prayed for safe travels at the same time.

Those two are too cute together!

And we all traveled safely. Thanks for making the trip, everyone!

How old are you?

"Matthew, how old are you?"
"Joseph and Jacob and Mommy."
"How old are you?"
"Joseph and Daddy."

He didn't understand the question. So I made a little song.
"What's your name? It's Matthew. How old are you? I'm two!"

The first few times I sang it he would sing his phrases correctly. If I asked "How old are you?" he would say his same strange answers, but if I sang it he would respond "I'm two!" like the song suggested.

I thought that we had it down. But lately when I've asked "how old are you?" I've gotten a variety of responses.
"I'm three!"
"I'm not two, I'm three!"
"Three! Three! Three!"
"Five!"
"Joseph and Jacob and Mommy and Daddy."

Even when I sing the song, he wants to answer wrong.
"What's your name?"
"It's Joseph."
"How old are you?"
"He's five!"

"What's your name?"
"It's Jacob."
"How old are you?"
"Three months!"

"What's your name?"
"It's Mommy."
"How old are you?"
"You're three!"

And sometimes he just walks around saying, "I'm not two. I'm not two. I'm three! I'm three!"

At this point I think it's just hopeless. After all, someday "three" will be the right answer.

Freeze frame

You know what always looks great? People's faces when video chat gets frozen. It's always in the funniest position -- mouth open awkwardly, the most asymmetrical pose possible, with a bit of pixelation thrown in to make it just gorgeous.

There have been a few times the past few weeks where I've thought, "If someone happened to see me right now, it would look as crazy as my frozen face on video chat!" A lot of that is my own fault -- I think of good ideas, but the execution ends up less sleek than I expect, so in order to fix the errors I have to do things a little out of the ordinary. This has been especially true with Kevin gone so much this month with conferences in Illinois and Israel.

In the off chance you've seen me doing a few funny things lately, here are a few of the background situations.

The scene: Walking around outside with a vacuum.
The sitch: I wanted to see if it could reach the van now that we have decent extension cords. And it could! So I finally got to vacuum my car at home after years of having to go elsewhere.

The scene: Climbing on the edge of a recycling dumpster at the library to reach in better.
The sitch: I threw a dirty diaper in the recycling instead of the trash. I couldn't let it stay there in good conscience.

The scene: Grabbing a chair from the row in front of me at church and adding it to our row, which blocked the aisle space.
The sitch: Oh, Sunday mornings are just hard. Kevin often has meetings in the mornings so I'm used to getting kids ready by myself, but he usually comes back to help us get to church. But since he was in Israel I had to do it all and we were late. I wanted to sit by friends who would help watch the boys while I nursed, but I couldn't see any open spots where I'd been expecting them. There were two chairs left in one spot, so I squished us into those two chairs. I regretted that as Matthew screamed through the Sacrament prayer about not sitting where he wanted. During the first talk, I decided that 3 people needed 3 chairs, so I pulled a chair from another row onto our row, not expecting anyone to need to get past. Turns out I was wrong. So I pretended that Jacob was hungry, put the chair back, got snacks for the boys, and headed to the mother's room.

The scene: Jacob and I are covered in spit up in the mother's room.
The sitch: Yeah, he wasn't really hungry. It was a funny enough image that I almost took a picture of it, but when I got my phone out another mom walked in, and I felt self-conscious about taking a picture instead of cleaning it up.

The scene: Dentist appointment in the chapel.
The sitch: Matthew had an eruption cyst ever since Labor Day or earlier, and we decided to take the resident pediatric dentistry resident up on his wife's offer during her Sacrament Meeting talk and have him check it out a couple times. So one week Kevin took over the job of trying to get Matthew to open his mouth in the chapel, and the next week I did it. The cyst is finally gone now, so can the molar just break through? Please? Please? And the other three while we're at it? Please?

The scene: Walking to the church dumpster barefoot. (So many dumpster adventures! Or more accurately, so many diaper adventures!)
The sitch: Jacob had a dirty diaper at church later that day. I wanted to take notes during the Primary Program practice so I didn't want to miss any of it. When it was winding down, I hurried out to the hallway to change him (the bathroom usually smells bad and I didn't want to add that kind of negativity to my life) and then ran back into the Primary room because there was a door that leads right to the dumpster. Problem is, it locks behind you. I was in a hurry, so I just stuck my shoe in the door to prop it open. Then I couldn't walk with one shoe on and one shoe off, so the other shoe had to go off too. My feet might have gotten a little dirty, but at least the whole thing was quick.

The scene: My son is holding a cup filled with water and a drenched sock.
The sitch: I was taking a shower and Matthew wanted to help me out by dumping bath toys in while I stood there. Then he found a cup and tried to get as many droplets in as he could while standing next to the shower. And I guess the sock needed to be in there too.

And toothpaste. Another thing to put out of reach, I guess.

The scene: My son is yelling, "I don't have any shoes! I need shoes!" as I am putting him in the double stroller.
The sitch: When you spill milk right before it's time to walk to school, you lose the privilege of wearing shoes because Mom has to clean the mess instead of put on your shoes. At least, that's the excuse I gave for why I put Matthew in the stroller without shoes one day when we ran Joseph to his friend's house who walked him the rest of the way to school. It wasn't warm outside, but he stayed in the stroller the whole time so I didn't really think he needed shoes for a jaunt across the street and back. But of course every other parent with elementary-age kids was out that time, so it was a great time to let my son's feet freeze while he announced it to the world. (Yesterday he didn't get to wear shoes to church either because he kept taking them off. I brought them in my purse and eventually he decided to wear them.)

The scene: Carrying Jacob in the baby carrier on my right hip and holding Matthew on my left hip with a purse dangling somewhere there.
The sitch: It really is easier than holding Matthew's hand. I call this my "Mom Strong" look. (I think that when a kid can say "carry me" instead of "carry you" they are clearly too old to be carried. Matthew's not there yet.)

The scene: Reclining the couch (nicknamed "The Room of Requirement") as far as it can go and diving behind it.
The sitch: Well, I did find some things I'd been missing -- a Hot Wheels car, a hair thing or two, and an entire little card game from Chick-Fil-A. But not a little green peg from a Paw Patrol game. Nor was it anywhere else I looked. Which probably means it's where Joseph said it is, which is somewhere in Matthew's large intestine. This was the first thing that happened after Kevin left for Israel and it's sort of set the tone for the antics and adventures we had with Matthew this week. (First time eating a non-food item, first time falling down the stairs [thank goodness for a soft landing], first time calling poison control [it was just a bit of medicinal cream at a friend's house and he was totally fine], first time applying eyeshadow to a cup that you just put a drenched sock in and then filling the cup with toothpaste, first time applying blush to his face, etc. But we all lived!!! And the doctor says to not worry about the peg, phew.)

The scene: Blocking traffic while getting Joseph out for school, then going and parking right next to the school right after that.
The sitch: Hey, the car in front of me was blocking traffic too! Joseph got out pretty fast, so I didn't feel bad. I turned forward to turn the hazard lights off, and when I looked back he had completely disappeared. I pulled off to the side of the road, got out, found some staff still standing at the door by the playground and asked them to go check if Joseph was in his class or not. He was. He had apparently apparated there.

And this is how I dressed Jacob because it was totally logical at some point in time.

The scene: Holding a baby while playing piano at stake choir practice.
The sitch: He wanted to be held. So I held him. If people hadn't noticed his cute little feet sticking out I might have gotten away with it for longer.

The scene: Playing the piano with one hand and reaching down with the other at the same time.
The sitch: Music that you put on the music stand on the stake center piano slides off. Surprise! So I had lots of fun picking up music that kept falling off while trying to sightread. I did okay until I played an entire verse in a minor key when it was supposed to be major. It sounded pretty macabre. And then the next week I decided to intentionally place the music on the ground and crane my neck to see it. It worked great. (On my to-do list: hole punch that music.)

When my mom and sisters Kaylie and Jennie were here with their kids for a few days while Kevin was gone, my brain didn't do so many silly things. I still felt a little crazy with how much sweeping is necessary with 5 little kids in the house or how I found myself carrying the vacuum outside just one week after I vacuumed the van because it already needed it again, but in general things went a lot more smoothly. No more dumpster adventures, at least.

I guess I'm kind of like Macon Leary from The Accidental Tourist. It's good to have other people around to shoot down my totally-logical-yet-still-crazy ideas.

And, in case you were wondering, it's great to have Kevin back. No more frozen face video chat for us this month!

I can do hard things . . .

I can do hard things.

I can do hard things . . . when I feel like it.

I can do hard things . . . and I don't have to do them perfectly.

I can do hard things . . . and I don't have to do all of them at once.

I can do hard things . . . and I don't even have to do all of them.

I can do hard things . . . and I do better at them with enough sleep.

I can do hard things . . . and I have nothing to prove.

I can do hard things . . . and I don't have to do them alone.

I can do hard things.

Recycling bin

Today was pretty good. My friend came over to play beautiful piano music in preparation for her recital, and the house was even clean when she came (isn't company great? such a good motivator). Even getting Joseph from school was easy because I have finally reached picking-Joseph-up nirvana with all the right streets for avoiding traffic and snagging a reasonably close parking spot. Then I vacuumed the van. Then I finally made it to the library for the first time in four weeks.

At the library I was able to find lots of books I wanted and was excited that my hold on E. B. White's essays came in (I have been planning to read it for 6 months but only placed the hold a day or two ago). Jacob showed off for the librarian as she was checking out all of our books, even giggling a little for her. Then we went out to the car and I changed Matthew's dirty diaper. I walked over to the dumpster, threw it in, and then sighed as I realized what I had done. I had thrown it in recycling instead of trash.

Since I love the earth, I decided to get the diaper out. If I were an inch taller and had proportionately longer arms I would have gotten it just fine, but it was barely out of reach. So I climbed up, reached in, and grabbed it.

I didn't fall in or anything. (That would have made the story 50% better, huh.) It was a little gross but nothing worse than the diaper I had just handled. But what was interesting was what all was in the recycling bin. Besides newspapers there were tons of DVDs (or at least their cases) and books.

Curiosity almost got the best of me, and I was almost willing to reach in further to take a DVD or book home. But then I figured the DVDs were all pretty scratched, and besides, the first one I saw was Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire which was arguably the worst Harry Potter movie made. And the first book I saw was Just Ella, which had a scene where she dug a gross hole out of a prison and the whole book was just sort of gross and I was done with gross. And maybe the physical copy of the book was gross, too. Surely something must have happened to it to just toss it in recycling instead of donating it or selling it elsewhere.

So I decided to leave the dumpster diving for another day and properly discard the diaper before heading home. And so that is the story of what you find in recycling bins at libraries.

In good news, it looks like DVD cases are recyclable some places. Probably here. Who knew?

Anyway, if you're looking for a free book, the library recycling bin might be a good place to look. Watch out for dirty diapers.

September by the numbers

Whew! What a month we made it through! I felt like I was treading water for a lot of it. It was fun water, but it sure kept us busy! I became well acquainted with the paradox that the more company you have, the harder it is to keep things clean for company.

Here's a quick rundown of the month.

Home and family

0 -- days where I folded and put away laundry the same day I washed it.

9 -- blog posts I wrote when I could have been folding laundry. Someday I'll be grateful for using my time that way.

1 -- arrangements transcribed this month. I'm glad I got it done, and I wish I had more time to do more!

1 -- number of mice spotted and later caught in a trap. After 11 months of this kind of nonsense, we finally had an exterminator come who came in less like Arnold Schwarzenegger and more like a friendly middle-aged man with bait boxes. I hope we're done with mice!

1 -- number of car batteries that died this month.

1 -- number of side view mirrors damaged on our street-parked car because New Haven is just the best.

150 -- Estimate of meltdowns this month. It can be so hard to be 2, and it can also be hard to be 5 and suddenly thrown into full-day kindergarten.

4: the number of seconds he's actually happy in there

0 -- new molars. Poor Matthew has had a bruised gum for more than a month now, so I desperately hope it happens soon.

1 -- containers of curry powder dumped on a plate when I wasn't looking. Plus lots of water.

7000 -- times Matthew has run around coffee table singing Let's Go Fly a Kite, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Baa Baa Black Sheep, and We Know the Way from Moana.

8237 -- times the name Batman has been said in our house, usually prefaced with "na na na na na na na na na."

Even this is a Batman outfit.

1 billion -- how much Joseph loves kindergarten.

-1 billion -- how much I love picking Joseph up from kindergarten with two others in tow, especially on rainy days. (But I'm getting better at it.)

4 -- days in the rotation schedule for Joseph's outfits (he does Superman/Clark Kent, Batman/Bruce Wayne, The Flash/Barry Allen, and Green Lantern/Hal Jordan day in and day out, with Blue Iron Man maybe thrown in.)

This is his Clark Kent shirt.

This is what Matthew looks like in a 5T shirt.

This is Joseph not too happy about posing in his Bruce Wayne shirt. When he tried it on the night before he told me he was going to go look in the mirror to see how rich he looked. Also, Matthew is totally not stuck, despite appearances.

400 -- papers Joseph has brought home from school. (Okay, it's usually like 1-2, but I'm still drowning.)

60 -- phone calls from the school district telling us about random days off from school or canceling events due to imaginary inclement weather.

1 -- birdhouses turned into piggy banks that can represent Hamm when acting out Toy Story.

Slink is my favorite.

0 -- times I'll let my kids play with dry Play-Doh in the future.

0 -- vegetables in Matthew's vegetable garden.

4 -- chapter books finished (repeat of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Ramona and Beezus, Dinosaurs Before Dark, and one of those superhero chapter books Joseph loves and we can't stand.) Also started Mike's Mystery and restarted Charlotte's Web.

A lot -- amount of hair lost due to 3 hair cuts, Jacob's little bit of scooting, and my postpartum hair loss.

2 -- doctor's appointments (one for me and one for Jacob). Nice to have a break from Yale Health and the hospital!

100% -- Jacob's weight percentile + Matthew or Joseph's weight percentile. One of those boys is at the 92nd percentile, and the other two aren't. Can you guess which one is at the 92nd percentile?

He loves his fingers!

2 months old! 14 lbs 10 oz!

2 -- chins on Jacob

20 -- approximate # of days where I would say Jacob slept really well at night. I appreciate it.

And then he's so happy most of the rest of the time!

90% -- how often Jacob would spit up all over my hair the same day I washed it.

15 -- kids who have played at our house this month. (Not 15 play dates, thankfully.)

30 -- minutes early the home teachers came one Sunday.

12 -- peaches turned into peach cobbler or blanched and then frozen. Not hardcore canning, but at least I did something with the fruit in season!

2 -- jars of jam I brought home from a Relief Society activity in which I mostly watched other people do the canning.

Work

2 -- papers Kevin has worked crazy hard on this month, plus a few more that aren't as urgent.

50 -- average number of edits per figure. Super fun.

1 -- genetics retreats attended in Massachusetts.

1 -- upcoming blog posts wherein Kevin will explain his research. (As soon as he's not spending hours day and night on other work!)

Play

7 -- dinners Kevin and I prepared for people outside my immediate family.

9 -- times friends or family slept at our house or we slept away from home. (Between all those visitors and all the times Jacob spit up and soaked through, we washed a lot of sheets!)

2 -- relatives named Megan who took the train in to visit us! We had a blast both times!

4 -- museums visited (Peabody Natural History, Yale Art Museum, British Art, and New Haven Museum). I think the New Haven Museum was my favorite because it had the fewest security guards.

There was a picture of lions that he wanted to look at for about 10 minutes.

6 -- playgrounds we went to this month (a few times at Villano, Scantlebury during my appointment, East Rock, Pease Place, Hannah's Dream Playground, and tried Ansonia Nature Center and Brooksvale for the first time).

Playground at Ansonia Nature Center

Pease Place Playground

Watching a scary construction vehicle.

Lots of fun farm animals at Brooksvale.

0 -- animals our kids wanted to touch at Ansonia Nature Center (there were snakes, bearded dragons, tarantulas, bunnies, and birds)

He wanted nothing to do with that bearded dragon.

He was okay petting this mammal though.

15 -- mph the wind was blowing when we went to Lighthouse Point (give or take a few mph). I guess we would have had more fun later in the month when it was warmer!

4 -- times we had ice cream outside the house (girls' night at Ben and Jerry's, Friendly's after Lighthouse Point, Arethusa, and Joseph's school's ice cream social). I usually don't like buying ice cream anywhere besides the grocery store because it's so much more expensive per ounce, but this month we made a lot of exceptions.

One scoop at Arethusa is a lot.

Their meals and ice cream ended up being free, so that was fun.

2 -- times we introduced guests to New Haven pizza. (I'm still not a huge fan.)

3 -- food trucks we tried with my aunt Megan.

Cupcakes are fun.

3 -- times we showed people around Yale. (No good pictures of the pretty architecture, unfortunately.)

0 -- times I was on time to soccer. I really did try though.

Joseph said it looked like a Bob Ross painting there. (Also, that's his Hal Jordan shirt in case you were wondering.)

10,000 -- chocolate chips, popcorn kernels, water beads, little squares, fingernail things, and days lived. And then the next day we went to Joseph's friend's 5th birthday, and I felt a special kinship with someone celebrating such an important day right after I celebrated such a pretend important day.

0 -- number of official ward parties and stake events we've made it to in 2017. There were a few of them we missed during September because . . .

3 -- days we spent in Acadia!!! This will get its own blog post, but here are a few numbers associated with it:

34 -- number of different state/province license plates I saw there: (ak, ca, co, ct, de, fl, ga, il, in, ks, ky, me, md ma, mi, mn, mo, ne, nh, nj, ny, nc, oh, ok, pa, rh, sc, tn, tx, ut, vt, va, ontario, quebec, plus we talked to a woman from Washington)

1529 -- ft above sea level we attained while in Acadia.

This picture was actually at South Bubble, which was just 766 feet.

1 -- epic sunsets we saw. (Plus 1 okay one.)

before it was too epic

75% -- Batting average for throwing snacks into Joseph's car seat on way to and from Acadia. (I did best with animal crackers and fruit snacks and worst with granola bars and string cheese.)

0 -- bears seen in my sister's New Jersey backyard when we were there for General Conference. (That number isn't always 0, though.)

5 -- new states for Jacob in September, bringing the total up to 7. Connecticut, Utah, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, New York, and New Jersey. (He hasn't been out of the car in New York, but I think the 30 minute delay on Tappan Zee bridge counts as being in the state.)

30 -- days in a very, very busy and happy September.

4 smiles

Amidst all these adventures we still managed to go shopping, do homework projects, attend presidency meetings and Mutual, exercise once or twice, and even sleep! We had a blast!

That said, hopefully things will calm down a bit in October.