Andrew: 5 Months

Happy 5 months big boy!

I feel like you changed a lot this month. You are so curious about everyone around you, and your favorite thing is to interact with people. You love to babble and smile at us. It even sounds like you are saying "hi" sometimes. Your face just lights up when someone talks to you!

Especially Lucas. You two seem to have a special bond. This morning he decided he's going to start calling you Drewy. It's funny because Jenna always preferred Ryan when she was your age. But you definitely love your Lucas.

Your favorite activity is stuffing every single finger and toe into your mouth.

 
You still tend to just snack and take cat naps throughout the day. I'm beginning to feel really worn out from sleeping with you next to me at night. We are thinkin g about moving you to the crib, although we haven't figured out where to put it. I wake up with an aching back and pulled muscles a lot, and it's all your fault! While it's nice to just roll over and nurse you if you wake up, it would also be nice to have space to myself at night.

You still aren't much of a roller! If I put your on your tummy you will actually try to army crawl a little, but rarely will you try to roll over. However, if I sit you on your bottom you always try to stand up on your legs.

 

Speaking of legs, yours seem to be short and stocky. I think you are going to have really muscular legs like your Daddy.

You are showing a lot of interest in my food so I'm planning on starting you on solids this month. I really enjoy this phase of babyhood, when you start eating and moving around a little bit. In my experience this is when my babies are most happy and content.

I love you so much my sweet Andy-Drew.

Happy 5 Months!

The Kids Right Now

ANDREW

Andrew seems like such a big baby all of a sudden! He is getting super wiggly, like he wants to stand up and run or crawl around, but he can't. He gets frustrated very easily if he doesn't have something in his mouth, and I think he will have his first tooth soon.

JENNA

Jenna is full of sugar and spice these days! On the one hand she can be quite sassy, doing things like hitting her brothers, disobeying, and whining. However, she can also be the sweetest little girl ever. She loves calling me her "Mommy Girl" and the things she says just melt my heart!

LUCAS

I can't believe Lucas starts school next month! He has calmed down a little bit this month and he is so affectionate with me. His favorite thing to do is build lego creations. He is so creative and focused when building something, and he makes the best engine sounds!

RYAN

Ryan has me so confused these days. On the one hand he can have the attitude of a teenager, which I hate! But on the other hand he is still so innocent. The other day he lost a tooth and he was concerned the Tooth Fairy wouldn't be able to find him because he was sleeping in our room. So cute!

Potty Training Jenna

I've heard that potty-training girls is typically easier than boys. My two oldest boys didn't train until they were 3 and a half! So I have high hopes for Jenna giving up on diapers soon.

Except this little girl is so gross! She will have an accident in her pants and then PLAY with it. I don't think I need to elaborate. It's so gross. Jenna has had more showers and baths this summer than the past years combined. I even bought her size 4T onesies to deter her from sticking her hand down her pants.

She does really well using her little potty, but if I am distracted, she will run off and hide and make a mess. I thought girls wanted to be clean!?

When did your little girl potty-train?

Weighty Wednesday: Food Prep

No change in my weight this week. I followed the 21 Day Fix plan for a few days but then kind of let loose on my birthday weekend and indulged in some treats. I did exercise two mornings, but I wish it had been more.

Lbs Lost So Far: 12
Lbs Left To Lose: 15

I've been thinking a lot about why I'm not losing weight and I think part of it is a medicine that I take. I began taking some medicine for anxiety towards the end of my pregnancy and I have a feeling it is causing me to hold on to weight. I am in the process of weaning off of it so I'm hopeful that my weight will start to come off. It is frustrating when I am doing all the right things and the scale isn't moving!

On Monday our fridge was well stocked with produce, thanks to a trip to Costco and the Farmer's Market. So I got to work doing some food prep.

I often want to grab something healthy to eat, but I'm put off by the thought of washing, chopping, etc, when my kids are screaming and it's the witching hour before dinner. So I washed and prepped a ton of fruit and veggies, as well as boiled eggs and a couple mornings worth of chia seed pudding. Making dinner the last couple nights was SO much more enjoyable when I could just grab produce out of the fridge. I made a stir fry using brown rice ramen noodles from Costco:

And another night I roasted a sheet pan full of squash, zucchini, and cherry tomatoes. Topped with garlic, oregano and parmesan, and it was so delicious!

Do you ever do meal prep? I don't do it every week, but I do appreciate it when I do!

My 35th Birthday

My 35th Birthday was a good one! It began with Andrew giving me lots of smiles.

Then this grumpy little girl joined us. She has a little cold and she was not feeling too happy.

Lucas and Adam snuck out early to get me flowers, coffee and donuts! Adam has brought me donuts every year on my birthday since we started dating almost 20 years ago!

 Jenna continued to be difficult but I managed to take a shower and blow dry my hair!

After a family trip to Home Depot (because where else would we go?!) we stopped for a quick lunch at Dickey's BBQ. Kids eat free on Sundays!

After a little cleaning up around the house I headed out to Nordstrom to get my makeup done. I've always wanted to do this, so I figured my 35th birthday was a great opportunity! My eyes looked pretty much the same to me, but I loved what she did to my skin. I bought some foundation and bronzer to try and replicate the glowing skin at home. Wish me luck!

My parents came over to babysit so Adam could take me out to dinner. We went to La Fornaretta and it was delicious! http://www.lafornaretta.com/  I ordered the carbonara and ate every last bite.

So far 35 feels pretty good! I am a very blessed girl.

Mom ADD

Can we talk about Mom ADD for a minute? Because I've decided it is a very real condition. And after talking with my sister, I have realized I am not the only one suffering from it!

With the addition of each child I have developed more and more ADD tendencies that I never suffered from before. This 4th child has confirmed my diagnosis.

I go through my days never really completing a task. There are SO many small (and big) tasks that I am responsible for, and I find myself constantly getting distracted. Here is a very real scenario:

I'm in the middle of doing dishes when Ryan screams for me. I run to the bathroom to find Jenna has just used the potty and then dumped it on the floor and it got on Ryan. I stick them both in the shower but realize we are out of towels. I grab some out of the dryer which reminds me I need to switch the laundry. We are out of dryer sheets so I hop on Amazon Prime to order some before I forget. I notice there is a tab open on my computer for the Kaiser website from yesterday, which reminds me I need to schedule well checks for the kids. I look at my calendar to find a good date and see that we have a playdate scheduled for the following morning. Yikes, we need to clean the playroom! I send Lucas upstairs to start but he needs the vacuum. Turning on the vacuum wakes up Andrew, so I carry him to the changing table. On the way I notice my watering can. My poor dying plants! Better water them before I forget. Because after all, it's just a couple plants, right? Surely I have time to water a couple measly plants? I head to the sink which reminds me the water is still running in the kitchen for my dishes! I turn it off, which reminds me the kids are still in the shower. I take them out but realize I never started that load of laundry in the dryer. I turn around to do that but realize I left the baby on the changing table.

And around and around I go.

Hours can go by where I'm like this. And nothing ever really gets finished because I'm being pulled in a million different direction. And I've realized it's not always the kids who are distracting me and pulling me away from my tasks. I'm doing it to myself! I could be in the middle of something, and if I suddenly remember I need to do something else, I will stop what I'm doing to go do it. Because if I don't, I will forget.

With the addition of Andrew, I feel like I've lost my ability to focus. I could be having a conversation with someone and I'm smiling and nodding, but my mind is far away. I am thinking about what to defrost for dinner, why another child is crying upstairs, did I remember to buy diapers at the store, what was that errand Adam asked me to do, oh and why is my head hurting?

Do you suffer from ADD brought on by motherhood? Can we form a support group? We can get together and simultaneously start a hundred tasks and never finish them! Join me?

Weighty Wednesday: 21 Day Fix

In terms of weight, I am up 1 pound from 2 weeks ago. BUT I am actually okay with that. In the week leading up to the 4th of July I managed to put on about 5 pounds. WHY is it so easy to gain weight and so hard to lose it?

Lbs Lost So Far: 12
Lbs Left To Lose: 15

When I stepped on the scale last Wednesday, I was not happy to see how much I had gained. So that morning I started following the 21 Day Fix plan again. And in this past week I have lost 4 pounds.

I have done a 30-minute workout 5 out of the last 7 mornings. The exercises have been hard and they have helped to confirm just how out of shape I am! My muscles have been really sore this week, but that's a good thing.

I have been following the meal plan about 90% of the time. For my weight and age I get 2 carbs, 4 proteins, 2 fruits, 3 veggies, 1 healthy fat, and 1 nuts/seeds containers per day. Surprisingly, I have not been overly hungry. Craving chocolate and cereal? Yes. Hungry or deprived? No.

My plan is to continue following this plan for the next couple weeks. (Except on Sunday, my birthday!)

Just for fun, here are a few pictures of my hair. This was me yesterday before getting it cut. It's long and messy and I've got the weird poodle wave going on in the back.

 And after. She cut off an inch or two and added lots of layers around my face.

 This morning.

Serial Cat-Napper

I've got a serial cat-napper on my hands!

 This sweet little boy only naps for 20 minutes at a time.

He seems to be a really light sleeper. Any sort of noise nearby (a constant in our house!) will wake him up. And even without any sort of abrupt noise, he still wakes up after around 20-30 minutes.

It makes it hard to accomplish anything. It also confuses me on when I should be feeding him, because I've always fed my babies after their naps. So he basically has no schedule and just naps and feeds whenever he wants.

Any tips on getting my baby to nap longer?

Week With Shayla

We've had a special visitor this week since the 4th of July. Shayla has been staying here and having a blast with my kids. Her Mom Nicole is engaged to Adam's brother, Uncle Sean. We've had a lot of fun spending time with our future cousin/niece!

She's been a big helper with this little guy.

 
They've been to the park, the splash pad, swimming, and lots of other fun summer stuff.



And she's been a great workout buddy each morning!

We had a fun week with you Shay-Shay!