Well, seven months into this mother-of-three business, and I'm just now feeling like I'm starting to dig out of the rubble!  Since I'm finally not pregnant/always busy with a newborn/starting to get the occasional 5 hour chunk of sleep, I've really been able to get into a better housekeeping and cooking routine.  I've tried to come up with fun euphemisms for each day of the week to remind me what chores I should be doing that day.  I'm having a hard time coming up with alliterative names for Mondays and Thursdays, so lend a hand if you can come up with something creative!  My routine goes like this (am I really so boring that I'm posting a cleaning routine?!):

Mondays:  all laundry, vacuum entire house
Toilet Tuesdays:  all three bathrooms, top to bottoms, except showers
Wipe-It Wednesdays: dust, wipe something that doesn't get wiped every day (cupboards, fridge, walls, etc.)
Thursdays: all laundry, kitchen floor
Free Fridays:  free choice out-of-the-ordinary chore (clean basement, garage, showers, etc.)

Apparently Alaina has picked up on my routine, and created her own, down to the hour.  I love the detail in her drawings.  I guess everything takes an hour, and she's on a variation of military time.  Her routine, as far as I can decipher it, is:  wake up, get dressed, come downstairs, eat breakfast (LOVE the cereal bowls), go upstairs, brush teeth, come downstairs...

The day also includes getting on and off the bus, school, recess, me making her lunch, eating, and playing the Playstation.



I don't even know where to begin with this little ray of sunshine.  Yes, I'm still up a 3ish times a night, but it's not hours of back-patting anymore.  Usually he's content to go right back to sleep after a quick ten-minute feed, so I'm feeling much more human these days.  He squeals with delight when I bring him out of his bedroom in the morning, excited that he'll get to see his favorite people again.  He plays well enough by himself to let me get some things done while he's awake and he takes two pretty good naps during the day.  If we have to be out during naptime, I just wear him in the Beco, where he happily observes all that's going on around him until he quietly falls asleep.  He's still hanging in there at 2% for weight, but now that I know he's back on his curve and growing well, I definitely don't mind having my baby stay little for a bit longer!


Did I mention that he learned how to sit and crawl in the span of a couple of days last week?  We've said for months how this kid just wants to GO, and he's been so much happier now that he can!


This.  This is my favorite.  When he's in a silly mood, he scrunches up his nose and breathes in and out rapidly.  I remember Mom telling me that I did this as a baby, and I'm pretty sure there's a picture of me looking just like this in my scrapbook.  It makes me laugh every time.










Sorry, I'm not sorry for all the baby pics.  It's no secret that I love babies.  I just can't get enough of him.


Even though he's mobile now, he's not super speedy yet (thank goodness).  When he get something on his mind, though, it usually doesn't take long for him to accomplish it!


Getting him up from naps is the highlight of my day.  This picture kind of makes me laugh for a couple of reasons.  When I ordered a set of crib sheets off Ebay, I hated this Winnie the Pooh one, but it's always good to have backup, and I liked the other three.  When I put this on for the first time, Harrison absolutely loved it, and he still tries to scratch off the characters.  Also, I'd been meaning to cut those tags off of his bumper, but they are his favorite part of his crib.  We've since lowered his mattress because he's just in the beginning stages of pulling up on stuff, but he'll probably be walking next month! :P






Trying so hard to get that Tigger off.


He's really bonded with Anthony lately and just lights up when Anthony so much as walks past him.  Harrison's pretty determined to scratch the beard off of Daddy's face.


Those teefs!


He's finally starting to enjoy being tickled!  When I was rocking him for a bit today, he was blowing raspberries, and I guess it was tickling his lips because he just kept cracking up!


We are 7/12 of the way to our goal of nursing for his entire first year.  I'll be honest and say that the first 3 months were pretty miserable, the next two were bearable, but the last two have been amazing.  Not because I'm one of those moms that falls in love with breastfeeding, but because for the first time in my adult life, I am going back for seconds at every dinner, then capping off my day with dessert every night, and STILL LOSING WEIGHT.  I am eating like it's going out of style, not exercising much beyond everyday mom duties, and baking up treats multiple times a week.  Most fun diet ever.  I guess this is the tradeoff for not sleeping!


Is this picture not precious?!  I love my boys! (Dad, care to photoshop all the junk out of the background for me? :) )


Here are a couple of videos I took of Harrison just a few days before he really started crawling!  Ignore my baby-talk voice, please! :)
https://flic.kr/p/n964ha

https://flic.kr/p/n95xbP

And in final news, WE'RE MOVING!  No need to be alarmed, we're only moving three blocks away! I know it sounds crazy, but this last flood incident put us over the edge with our current property management company, and when I started to look at other houses online, I fell in love!  The house that we're moving into is actually just the newer version of our current floorplan, but the minor tweaks the builder made are the exact things that we've complained about.  In short, the house is newer (brand new!), cleaner, bigger, better located, and less expensive.  How could we say no?  We get the keys next week!

March is the craziest weather month in Colorado, so we spent the rest of the month enjoying the warm days and enduring the cold.  As of this week, I believe we have gotten over the hump of Harrison's six month growth spurt, and it has been amazing.  He's on a pretty predictable schedule these days, which makes life SOOOO much easier!

Kelly came to visit over St. Patrick's Day, and it was fun to spend the weekend with real Irish folk (her grandmother lived in Ireland).  Fort Collins gets pretty into the holiday, which was fun.  We went to Old Town to watch the parade, but it was somewhat spoiled by the freezing wind!


It seemed like everyone in the whole town came to watch the parade, even this rat guy, who was completely engrossed in his phone for the hour we were next to him.  You'd think it'd be hard to see?




After the kids had met their parade candy quota, their interests shifted back to their norm:  food and warmth.


To escape the weather, Nana took the kids into Rocket Fizz, their favorite candy store.


It is really fun to watch the kids' decision making process there.  They take their selection VERY seriously.


I'm glad we went when we did...I was almost out of my "Doctor's Choice" candy cigarettes! :)


Balloons, necklaces, candy from the parade, Juicy Drop Pop.  That's a good day in Alaina's world (but brrrr, that wind is cold)!


Papa looked like a real leprechaun! :)


After the parade, we ducked into an Irish pub for lunch.


Just in case her lunch of pizza and french fries was bordering on too healthy, Alaina threw some Sweet Tarts on it for good measure.


Nana gave the kids some pool lessons, which they loved.




We finally hit the point where camp chairs around our dining room table just wasn't going to cut it anymore! :P  Nana and I went looking at dining room tables together, and since the family has grown considerably with Amanda's additions, they needed more space, too.  Nana fell in love with a beautiful mahogany table, which conveniently placed her old set up for sale, and now looks fantastic in our dining room. :)  Papa and Nana invited us all over for a beautiful dinner to break in the new table!


Could anything look more inviting?


The only downside to a table that seats 14?  Needs megaphones on the ends (especially in this family)!


About a month ago, I had walked with the kids to the nearby park without my camera, and put Harrison in the baby swing just to see what he would do.  I fully expected him to absolutely hate it since he's doesn't like wind or bright sun in his face.  To my surprise, he adored it, so I had to bring my camera with me the next time.  I wish I could have videoed it, but it was a busy day at the park and the two year old in the swing next to him was named Harrison!  So weird!  These pictures make me so happy.  He's such a sweet, fun, happy baby.


When he smiles really big or laughs, his natural instinct is to bring his hand to his mouth to cover it.  It's almost like he gets self-conscious!


So happy!  And look at those toofers!






My favorite!  Drooling into the wind and everything!



April is shaping up to be quite busy with plans every weekend, another pseudo-spring break, and a possible move (to a similar house only two blocks away
, so don't get worked up!).  Can someone please figure out how to slow down time?!