At the 6 weeks mark last week, I kinda looked at her and said to myself, ok, yeah, this is the point I remember, the point where you finally know them, you've learned their habits and cries, wants and needs, their little things that make them who they are. The first few weeks of mommyhood post-pregnancy are hormone-driven and survival-based, with deep, deep natural instincts that must be as old as man taking over as you care for this little tiny human. It's a bit like driving on auto-pilot, you're moving forward and time is passing, but then you get to 6 weeks and go, "Wha...? Where are we? How did we get here?" You're glad you took so many pictures, because it's all fading so fast and the last 6 weeks just mix together and you're pretty sure your bigger kids did some cute stuff, too, in that time frame. And aren't you still waiting for something... like pregnancy to be over and the baby to come?
There are some shining and memorable moments in our recent life though, like when no one could tell just how there got to be gum on the baby. Yes, you heard me... GUM. On the BABY. All the kids chew gum, and they all still had gum in their mouths, and, well, we just never really got past that point, as no would fess up but they did all hear a great deal from me about whether or not there should EVER AGAIN be gum on the baby... Some days are smooth, others are so bumpy they're related to toads, and others are just so-so. We work, some days we clean, some days we make messes.
Some days are spent with every task being Plus 1, a baby strapped to me while I cook, school, clean or even pee.
See her little ear and fuzzy head?
The Laundry-o-saurus is here again, and is threatening to take over the hallway.
Sometimes, our days are so awesome, we crash on the potty, looks comfy, don't it?
We spend a lot of time lovin' on this little wonder:
Happy girl
Sleepy sisters
Always time for books
Tuckered out
Shelby's WTF face
Smiles for Mommy
There's times we go out for banking or grocery shopping or stuff like that and I have to try and think about when I've last had a shower. I take stock and find hairy legs and slightly odorous armpits... but my hair feels okay, so it couldn't have been that long. There's an unidentified brown smudge on my leg, and as all Moms in the trenches (I'm about to earn my 13 year MomTrench badge...woohoo!) are aware, the obvious thing to do is to touch it and sniff it, and make sure it's not poop. We're usually pretty certain it's not poop, but you really can never be too sure. We are in the car, and if it weren't for RJ being oh so helpful and yelling "Stop!" and "Go!" about 400 feet before the respective traffic lights, I'd probably have blinked too long already and fallen asleep. It's good that he's paying attention, though, he's been to preschool, rode his bike around the back patio and made galaxy slime outside in the hot sun, so he's close to his melting point. It will only take one tiny disaster to strike and he'll melt to the floor in some state of half-liquid upset-ness. My train of thought is interrupted by Riley saying, "Hey Shelby," and my brain clicks on a little bit and goes - Shelby? Did we bring her? I quick take a look in the mirror, but it's hard to see as she's directly behind me and we don't have the First-Time-Mom backwards facing mirror. I can't tell, and I am actually curious at this point as I have no recollection of carrying her out to the car, and right at that very moment Riley says, "I see you looking around, Shelby." Okay. Phew. Shelby's in the car. Not that I was worried. Ok, fine, a little. Just a little. I don't have much time to ruminate on that though, because a car flies up on our right and cuts in front of us, and RJ starts cursing him out, in true Me fashion. Yes, I still curse like a sailor, and my kids hear it. I've had some issues trying to control it over the years, as curses just seem to fit so well in some situations, it's like I can't find replacements to show as much emphasis as they do. It worked out really just fine with the first 3 kids, they just kind of automatically learned that Mom says these things when she's fired up and especially when she's driving or crossing the street at the crosswalk where people are supposed to be stopping. And they also learned that they, as kids, are not allowed to say them, and they never really had an issue. Until RJ. That little sponge, in all of his twirling and hopping and crashing and bashing glory, is still paying attention, all the time, don't think for one second that he isn't. And he just recently started cursing out ALL the cars at the crosswalk (he hasn't yet learned to discriminate which ones are actually being stupid) and most of the cars on the road, or at least whoever is around when I hit the brakes. But at least he's consistent... so far everyone is a "Dammit...you...stupid...!" Yikes. So... we're trying to put a tight lid on that one.
Homeschool is going, we're winding down a lot of our bookwork and instead doing some unit studies and planning a buttload of outdoorsy stuff. It literally went from 56 degrees 3 days ago to 85 today. It's sticky and muggy and the heat is here as if it's been here for weeks, it's a bit hard to handle having not warmed up to it... (get it? Haha...).
I've been incorporating a bit of sensory play things into our days, not school-related, just fun-related. Our colored rice bin and the lentil bean box are getting less and less use so we'll put them away for a while until the kids forget and then they'll be all novel again when we bring them back out. We've done waterbeads, until they got rained on and sunned on and became a nasty science experiment, and the girls made Goop (corn starch and water). RJ didn't like the mess on his hands, but the rest of us had fun!
Yesterday was Galaxy Slime (follow the link to the recipe we used... super simple) which led to hours worth of enjoyment with the slime itself, then the slime with Playmobil people and Toob animals.
At first, it was too stringy, so we had to troubleshoot
Then we got it just right
RJ made his black with gold and blue glitter
Today we got the baby pool out and everyone but Chase has been in it, out of it, on top of it, pulling buckets out of it to take to the mud pit and refilling it all day long. They've painted wood with paintbrushes and water. Splashed each other with Barbies' whipping hair. Dumped buckets of cold water on each other's heads. Made mud pies. Flung mud pies. Drank Kool-Aid (the horror!), but I'd spotted the packets on clearance for 10 cents a piece, so I couldn't resist giving them a taste of the 1980's. Of course, we made it with only half a cup of sugar and it still tasted like way too much. :)
There was a glorious period of time where RJ had gone to bed (as he'd melted...), the girls were playing in the mud pit, and Chase was holding Shel. I called out to him as I went outside, "hey, can you just hold her... until she needs me?" That kid is the bestest, cause he knew what I was doing. I was going outside, to sit. To sit. To SIT. In a chair. In the sun.
I pulled up another chair to put my feet up on. I sat. I convinced myself to relax my back. I closed my eyes. They opened for a second when one of the girls called my name and told me something. I mumbled an "mmm-hmmm" sounding response and closed my eyes again, hoping they'd ignore me. I took a deep breath and let it out, trying to focus on relaxing even more. I could feel the sun, nice and warm. It (the feeling of sitting, by myself, in a comfortable position) was so indescribably... foreign... and so, so good. And then Chase was at my side, apologetic-looking, with a squawking, rooting, hungry-again baby. I smiled at him and said thanks, and got up and went in to feed her.
But man, that was by far, the best 3 minutes of my day...
