Pictures and Tuesday Thoughts

Mike took my camera and looked through the pictures last night. After he was done he sighed and said “oh to be a kid.”

It is wonderful to be a kid. This family of three kids is just so much fun! Mike and I have stresses that come with our jobs and life as a grown up in general and it’s good to see on these kids faces – they don’t!
Scott continues to be a dangerously sweet baby. I say dangerously because he is the kind of baby that makes you think “oh we could have so many more of these!” He has hit what I can only assume is a two week growth spurt and has been eating about every 90 minutes for the last two days. That’s every 90 minutes around the clock. It’s not so easy at 2 a.m. to appreciate. BUT, I am thankful to be experiencing normal baby cycles. Both of my kids came to me home from NICU with schedules and I never really experienced this extra feeding Scott is doing. I’m hoping he’ll get nice and chubby since my first two were (and still are) such skinny little things. I can’t wait to see some rolls!
I had my two week check up after surgery and am healing wonderfully. The nurse midwife at my O.B. office happens to be a lactation consultant and we had ourselves a nice consultation about Scotty. Well, while she gave me a liiiitttle hope- I’ve pretty much accepted that I’m going to be pumping breastmilk for this boy. He has a tongue muscle issue. She said sometimes babies who have this are able to resolve it by about 2 months of age. In the meantime letting him “practice” is about the most tortourous thing I’ve ever done. He does nothing but scream. It’s awful. To date this is the only reason he cries. So, while I appreciate the convenience of breastfeeding and would love to not have to a) wash bottles or b) have my pump with me all the time I just can’t take the screaming. If he were my first baby and I had nothing but time to devote to him….then it’s possible we could work through this. BUT, I have two older, busy kids and I just can’t devote 24 hours a day to breastfeeding. I want him to have breastmilk and I’m willing to do what it takes to get it for him- but the easy road we are not taking! Luckily I’ve been able to keep up with him and as long as that keeps up we’ll both be happy. Aside from that drama he is just as easy going as I hoped he would be. He has two “awake” periods a day when he stays awake for a good 90 minutes to two hours. He likes to be held when he is awake and he likes to look at whoever is holding him. I need to get better at wearing him because his awake time is usually in the morning when I’m trying to get everyone dressed/ready/fed and at dinnertime. (of course) I can’t complain at all about night time because even though he does get up (sometimes 4 times a night) he eats and then goes right back to sleep. And, he finally decided sleeping in his bed flat was okay which is good because for a couple days he slept on his boppy pillow.
We’ve got less than a year left with Mike left in his current job. There are loads of jobs here in Norfolk he could be assigned to next so the chances are pretty good we could stay here. BUT there is also a chance we could move which is crazy! We really love our neighborhood, house and this area in general so it would be sad to leave. SO, if any of my readers want to experience Virginia Beach – you’ve got less than a year of guaranteed free place to stay!
I tried to get a picture of all our kids together- which was an epic failure. I mean- no one got hurt or anything but good pictures they are not. I will try again often because I really do want one good picture of the three of them together and something tells me it’s going to take more than a couple tries.
The first week of May we are going to start our “new” school year. Which is when I will start keeping track of number of school days we have. In the fall Emma will technically start kindergarten- but we are going to start in May. The summer is a great time to do school work during those hot hours of the day when you don’t want to be outside. Plus, this will be her last school year I don’t have to have her tested so it will be as much for me as it will be for her counting the days and making sure we get all of her “requirements” met. She is getting more independent with her work which is just great. She can go get her own workbooks out and if I say “three phonics pages” she can even do them independently! Growing up is great! I decided to get out our BOB books for Andrew since he’s been asking about reading for a while. He knows all his letters and sounds so I thought he’d be ready to try reading. Well, boy was he ever ready! I took the two easiest BOB books out to him and he sounded out and read every word to me! He gets a little ahead of himself sometimes but if I make him go back and sound a word out again that he said wrong he gets it! I’m so proud of him! He was just thrilled that he had read a book himself! So far watching my children enjoy reading and seeing the utter joy and gratification they get from knowing they did it has been one of the greatest joys of motherhood so far. The world truly opens up once you can read!