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.