my sweet boy waking up from a nap

and one more for good measure--totally awake and excited to see Daddy!

 

34 weeks

Yet another picture with my eyes closed!  (And I just realized I'm wearing the same shirt as in the picture from 31 weeks...oh well.)  Want to hear a true story?  I have one eye that ALWAYS closes when I smile; it's not really noticeable in real life but it is in photos (Isaac has a touch of this too).  I always get really self-conscious about taking photos, which is why any professional photos of me are usually from one angle only.  When I was in eighth grade I brought home my school pictures and my mom said, "You look like you're drunk."  Which, sadly, was true (that I looked drunk.  Not that I actually was.  Thanks, Neil, for pointing that out).

Is it just me, or is this baby growing a lot all of a sudden?  I'm getting a little worried about his size if I go to full-term or past my due date (Isaac was 8 lbs 6 oz and 22 inches long at 38w6d; Jules was 7 lbs 13 oz and 20.5 inches at 39 weeks, and Abigail was 8 lbs 9 oz and 20.5 inches at 41 weeks.  Are boys usually bigger?  Because I'm having visions of a nine and a half pound baby at 41 weeks). 

Anyway.  34 weeks.  Six weeks, give or take a few, to go.  Neil and I both agreed a few weeks back that this pregnancy has felt much longer than the others (maybe because of the complications at the beginning?)  Right now I'm torn between wanting those six weeks to fly by, and feeling like I should relish the freedom of life without a newborn (mostly I am just impatient to not be pregnant anymore, since it is not a state I particularly enjoy).  I look at the calendar about 100 times a day and think about how long I still have left.  Nights are getting hard for me again--the kids have been waking up a lot lately and I've been doing a lot of lying awake worrying.  A lot of this week has been kind of sleep-fogged.  I think I've also hit the point where I've done so much research and planning and preparing that my mind is overloaded and I start comparing studies and methodologies about labor instead of sleeping.  Which is pretty counter-productive.  (Plus the baby, like all babies, LOVES to be awake all night, kicking and punching like a prize-fighter).

On a lighter note, thank you to everyone who commented on my naming post!  So many great ideas!  Seriously, I loved reading through those responses.  I think we're finally narrowing it down...

callout

Please tell me your best boy name ideas!!  Please!

**names that coordinate with current children are a plus (Abigail Grace, Juliet Elizabeth, Isaac David).

thanks in advance, my friends...we're having trouble finding the perfect combination here. 

lots o' words

First of all, thank you all SO much for your wonderful comments and thoughtful emails about my last post.  I really appreciated the advice that you all shared, and I feel like I'm much better prepared for my next chat with my OB.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!

We spent a lot of the day Saturday in the garden.  Can you believe it's that time again already?  I admit we weren't very diligent last fall about cleaning up and clearing out the garden--we sort of let things die and then lit a bonfire in the middle in hopes of burning out the tomato blight.  And I left the leeks, chard, and lettuce in the ground partially to see what would happen over the winter and partially because I didn't care anymore (by the time the frost hit, we were in super prep mode for the half-marathon and I was ten weeks pregnant, so there were other things on my mind...). 

Surprise surprise--the lettuce came back!  We'll see if it survives enough to actually eat.  The leeks were pretty well bunny-munched, and the chard (which I never grew to love) died an unmourned death.  We lit another fire in the firepit (nice because it was freezing cold) and spent a happy afternoon clearing things out and burning them.  Then we planted peas along the back fence and in the box, along with lettuce, spinach, onions, and radishes.  (Then our neighbor's cat came along and dug half of them up.  Stupid cat.)  It was a lovely Saturday--we were all exhausted and smoky and dirty afterwards, but happy and windblown.  We had blueberry pancakes for dinner.  :-)

Today is the first day of Abigail's spring break.  It's been so nice and slow-paced; we had a leisurely breakfast of steel-cut oats, spent an hour reading stories, and did some cleaning up and clearing out.  I love doing this kind of thing and Abigail does too, so we both quite enjoyed ourselves (Jules and Isaac mostly played while Abigail and I organized books, moved furniture, vacuumed cobwebs and reunited puzzle pieces with their bags).  We ate a late lunch, went for a walk, and then the girls played with Legos while I ran on the treadmill during Isaac's nap. 

I've pretty much decided not to run that 5K next weekend (mostly because my parents are coming this weekend instead of next so I won't be able to run it with them), so today just for fun I timed the first 3.1 miles of my run (although I actually ended up running faster for the last mile, but oh well).  I ended up with 30:24, or 9:47/mile (cheating a little because I wasn't running any hills like I would in a real race).  I have to say that the running has actually gotten a LOT more comfortable over the last month or so, which is so nice!!!  (Probably because I'm slowing it down a lot, or maybe the baby is resting more on my hips.)  I cannot express how grateful I am that I've been able to run so long during this pregnancy; I really feel like this has been a blessing for my sanity as well as my fitness.  Much better than the weeks of bed rest last time around--six weeks to go!

my new dilemma

So I went in to the doctor today for my 33-week checkup.  My OB was on vacation, so I saw the nurse practitioner, and FINALLY remembered to ask her how the delivery schedule works out (I've had three babies, but all three were induced) when you just come in to the hospital in labor.  Not surprisingly, she said that all of the doctors in the practice deliver their "own" babies if it's during the workday, but at night and on weekends, it's whoever happens to be on call.

Here is the thing:  I love my OB.  I really adore her and feel like she listens to everything I say.  She was incredibly supportive when I had surgery during my last pregnancy, and it was far and away my best delivery yet.  So while I thought about switching to a midwife for this baby because that was more the care model I wanted, I ended up staying with my OB because I like her so much.  And she is 100% on board with the kind of birth I have planned for this baby, and she's taken very careful notes as to what I would like (which is awesome).

But now I'm worrying about what happens if I go into labor and I have a doctor who I've never met, who couldn't care less about all the things that my regular doctor and I have discussed and that she's been so enthusiastic about.  So now I'm debating whether at my next visit I should talk to my doctor about possibly scheduling an induction for a time when she's on call, and I should best bring up that whole "are your colleagues going to be great or just do their own thing" discussion.  I'm more nervous about this because I had a very clear discussion with my regular doctor prior to Abigail's birth, and since he wasn't on call, the doctor who delivered me not only ignored all my requests, but gave me a whole bunch of interventions as a matter of course without asking or alerting me to what was going on--recovery was an absolute nightmare.  No exaggeration. 

I guess I'm just not feeling very reassured after my visit today--the nurse practitioner was really nice, but she was agitated about the fact that a) I lost a pound rather than gaining the three she was looking for and b) I refused to come in twice in the next three weeks (honestly, once is enough.  I've had three babies and I know what signs to watch for).  And she was reading over some of the notes in my file and saying, "Hypnobirth?  What's that?  I've never heard of that." 

Any advice?  I would really love to go into labor on my own because I've never actually done that before, and I imagine that it would be much more manageable.  But on the other hand, I really want my doctor!  And my last induction (amniotomy and no chemicals) really was great.

victory!!

Last week I was really dreading this week.  Not that it was full of awful things, but it was just a VERY full week and I knew I was going to have to be functioning at 150% to get through it. 

We're halfway done!  Tonight I finished up the last of my project grading (hurray, hurray, jubilant dance of extreme joy) and started on all the "regular" grading this week:  reading responses, project proposals, and discussion postings.  I'm completely caught up now with everything that has been posted, which is great.  I also ran my 4 miles, taught the *Laurels how to make homemade mozzarella, and (this might be my biggest accomplishment all day) actually made a dinner that everyone liked:  broiled lemon salmon with broccoli and raisin cous-cous. 

So now that I type this out I realize it doesn't sound that impressive, but with a couple of kids that are still sick and all the regular "mom" things I do, I feel like I'm climbing mountains on days like this!  Funny how that perception of daily accomplishment changes once you move into the demographic of walking down the street = stopping to inspect each clump of grass, rocks, and dirt and agreeing that yes, that is indeed a nice "wok" and look, there's a "tweet tweet" in the sky!


*"Laurels" refers to the 16-17 year old girls in our church  I should also note that I was really nervous about this not working, and then right when I started in on the demonstration I realized I had ultra-pastuerized milk, which means that the cheese is practically guaranteed not to work.  I did some very fervent praying while I was staring into that stockpot full of non-curdling milk and miraculously it turned itself into cheese.  Not perfectly, but well enough for my purposes.  And it was still tasty!

snapshot

Sometimes I think to myself how lucky I am to have children that will allow me to do the "extra" things, like exercising (with them home) and grading (with them home).  Because those are two things that eat a fair amount of time, and I have to be focused 100% on what I'm doing and not on the children. 

So today, as I am grading during naptime, I want to give a shout-out to my awesome kids.  Mostly Juliet, because she's the one who is actually awake and who EVERY SINGLE DAY lets me have "quiet time" to myself while Isaac naps, but also Isaac for being a good napper.  (Abigail is at school.)

Right now I've been grading for almost an hour and a half.  Juliet spent the first hour lying quietly on her bed looking at books after I read her our usual three stories (our routine is that Isaac goes down for his nap, I read Jules three stories of her choosing, and then she does her thing while I do mine).  And now she's sitting quietly on the floor eating a piece of banana bread, listening to Charlotte's Web on the tape player, and putting together a puzzle.  Granted, we've done some "training" to get to this point, but I am always so impressed and grateful that every day I have at least an hour to do the things I need to do without interruption. 

Thank you, children.  You are really quite miraculous, you know that?  (and now back to grading.  hate grading.  hate it so much.  witness my blog-posting procrastination right here.)

three years ago this summer

One of my absolute favorite places in the world.  We miss the mountains so much in the summer.  And in the winter.  And the fall. And the spring. 

Want to know a secret?  When Neil and I were very first dating, our second date was a drive through the Alpine Loop.  He came to the Eyring Science Center where I was teaching a TA session on geology prepping my students for their first exam that semester.  He poked his head in the classroom door and my heart skipped a little beat.  We walked out to where he'd parked his black Jeep Grand Cherokee and climbed in.  He'd brought snacks:  apples and the last of his dried mangoes from the Philippines (at the time, he thought he would never be able to find these again, so sharing them with me was a big deal.  Since then I've made it a point to buy them whenever I come across them in Asian import stores). 

We spent an hour and a half that evening driving up Provo Canyon, over the lower back slopes of Mount Timpanogos, and down through American Fork Canyon.  We stopped and looked out over the valley with the wind whipping through my hair and rustling the golden leaves of the aspen.  He wanted to hold my hand, but was too nervous. 

Every chance we got while we lived in Utah, we drove that loop.  When it closed for winter, we'd park our car and hike back into the trees.  We'd check the opening dates in the spring and make sure that we were there in our Jeep in time to see the first buds on the trees.  During General Conference, we'd make sure that we listened to at least one session over the radio while we drove through the mountains. On nights when we'd finished our homework early, we'd jump in the car and drive up the canyon.  I think it was one of the things that helped us the most in the first few years of our marriage--all the hours we spent driving around, talking and laughing and joking and planning our lives together.  I'm really grateful for that time.

spring break

Can I be honest?  This has been a pretty cruddy spring break (right up there with the year Neil got pneumonia--the first time.)  I've spent more hours than I care to think about this week sitting in doctors' offices, including one awesome jamboree with all three kids today (Saturday morning at the doctor's!!  Yippeee!!!) 

All week I've been angry at myself for dragging and feeling miserable and not doing Cool Fun Things with the kids.  (Turns out I have strep and the beginnings of double ear infections and a sinus infection.  Cool, huh?)  I have been grumpy and cranky and yelling way too much and sleeping way too little (despite exercising more than usual hoping that it would a) kick my doldrums or b) make me sleep--neither worked.  Mostly I just lay awake at night feeling achy and thinking of new things to worry about).  It's one of those nasty illnesses where you start hallucinating at night instead of just sleeping like a rock.  I've been feeling defeatist about everything and wandering around miserably bemoaning the general state of the world.  Mostly in my bathrobe.

But.  Life goes on.  Antibiotics are good.  Isaac is eating again (he noticeably lost weight), the crocuses are blooming, and we went on our favorite walk in the spring twilight tonight for the first time since Halloween (all of us coughing so loudly we scared away any errant wildlife).  We haven't gone anywhere all week because we're playing Fever Roulette, and it's been an absolute lifesaver to be outside.

And I remembered my camera. 

Did you know that the name "Neil" means "champion"?

He is mine. 

a little story from today

Today I read an article about actually doing those things where you think "Gosh, someone ought to do something about that."  I thought, oh, that's a good point, I should politely ask people to clean up after their dogs or whatever, yep, agreed.  And then I moved on with my day.

Tonight I was at the library after going to Abigail's parent-teacher conference.  I had to pick up a couple of holds, and as long as I was there, I thought I'd skip over to the YA section, which is my current favorite place to pick up fun reads.  I like the fact that most of them are not incredibly long, you can usually find a great book (it's seriously an awesome genre), and they're fairly reliably clean.  I don't consider myself ultra-prudish (one of my favorite books is The Color Purple), but I like being able to read unknown books without finding out halfway through that they're of the bodice-ripper variety.

So I was standing there, picking up books and flipping through them, and I cracked open one innocent-looking cover and found myself staring down at an extremely graphic sex scene.  Very, very, very graphic.  I slammed the book shut, replaced it on the shelf, and thought to myself, This book should not be here.  Some thirteen-year-old little girl is going to check it out (it was by a popular author) and go home and either be completely scarred, or start searching out these kinds of books. 
So I did something.  I walked up to the circulation desk.  I very politely asked who was in charge of categorizing books, and I was given a comment form.  And I wrote a very polite but heartfelt message about why I felt that this book was inappropriately shelved, and asked that the library consider moving it out of the YA area.

And I walked out feeling really good--I'd actually done something about something that I thought mattered, and it took me less than five minutes. 

(Next I'm going after those people who walk their dogs without baggies in hand.) 

the brighter side

Today was a really weird day.  All day long I was torn between thinking, "This is HORRIBLE!" and "This could be so much worse."

For instance.  I woke up feeling awful.  Dizziness, sore throat, pounding headache.  Horrible, right?  But Neil got up and let me sleep in for another two hours (Isaac woke up crazy early) while he fed everyone and got the morning routine going.

And then I was griping in my head all day about it being daylight savings time.  Oh, woe is me!  My children are going to be off-schedule!  But Isaac was really sick.  And he fell asleep in the car on the way home from taking Abigail to school at what would normally be 11:45, but what was 12:45 today.  (And then he fell asleep on my shoulder when I carried him in, woke up when I laid him on the floor to change his diaper and said, "Mamama" very feebly, and was asleep when I got back with the diaper, slept all through his diaper change, said "Mamamamama" when I picked him up, and was asleep before I got him into his crib.)  And daylight savings time was a boon, because otherwise he would have been asleep when Abigail needed to be driven to school.

I felt lousy when I was running--still dizzy and that sense of an impending cold.  But I took an extra couple of water breaks, and Juliet listened to the Charlotte's Web audiotapes we picked up at the library sale on Saturday, and she was happy even though I spent longer on the treadmill than I usually do.  And I felt a lot better when I was done. 

We went into the pediatrician's this afternoon.  And waited for a full hour before we saw the doctor.  Long, long, long wait.  The kids in the room next to us were screaming and beating on the walls, and I thought my head was going to explode.  But then I thought, "Those children are not MY children, and even if they are loud, I don't have to discipline or entertain them."  And I watched Juliet and Isaac wash their hands for the thousandth time and counted my little blessings that they were content to do that.  And that I was able to get the last appointment of the day in time to get medication for Isaac's double ear and double eye infections (poor, poor, poor baby).  And that it was spring break, so Neil didn't have to teach any labs, and he could come home and get Abigail off the bus so that I could actually snag that last appointment.

And when I was driving home today and thinking frantically about what I was going to do for dinner because it was already 5:20 and everyone was hungry, I realized that I had three things:  a package of frozen tortellini, a jar of spaghetti sauce, and a bag of spinach.  Dinner.  Voila.  Everyone was happy.

So.  It was not the best of days.  But really, can I just say that I felt like it was the best possible given what we started with?  I'm ending the day with a profound sense of gratitude. 

crossing off the to-do list

Isaac's room/the nursery after some of our alterations yesterday--I still have to re-hang all the artwork,
as I needed to move it around with the new furniture placement.

We had one of those crazy productive days yesterday.  In January, Neil and I made a spreadsheet showing everything that we needed to do before the baby came, both in baby prep and in regular life.  We quickly realized that after March 18th, every single weekend until the baby's due date was booked. 

So we've been working on projects intermittently, and this weekend and next weekend are our big buckle-down weekends.  Our major accomplishment this weekend was getting the rooms set up to accomodate another child; we haven't totally decided on how it will all play out, but the tentative plan is to put Jules and Isaac together and Abigail in with the baby (of course, we may end up with all three older kids together.  Any advice from those of you who have put 4 kids into 2 bedrooms?  The baby will be in our room for awhile, but I have found that everyone sleeps better once we are in our own rooms.)

On Friday night Neil and I picked up the new mattress that we'd ordered online and bought sheets and new black-out curtains, then I wrote a draft of my birth preferences.  On Saturday Abigail and I went to a library booksale first thing in the morning, then came back and spent the morning with Neil setting up the other twin bed and moving the crib (plus all of its water storage).  And reorganizing the nursery closet so that the dresser could fit inside!  While Isaac napped (he's sick right now so his nap was very long), we worked on Abigail's school project and Primary talk and I finished sewing Isaac's new quilt and washed all the 0-6 month baby clothes.  Neil and I cut each other's hair and I cut Isaac's, we went on a walk as a family, and did all the normal Saturday things (groceries, washing sheets, a million loads of laundry, baths, Sunday prep, etc.)  It was a LONG weekend and I was totally exhausted--I remembered around 9:30 pm last night that I'd never done yoga and boy, is my back complaining about that lack now.  But we got a lot done and I'm so glad!!  I really like to spend the last month or so before a new baby in just enjoying family time and really focusing on the other children--Neil has a lot of work commitments in April and we're planning some fun things as a family, so it's good to have a bunch of those to-do list items crossed off.



A quick note about the quilt I made for Isaac--it was SO enjoyable.  Very simple, obviously, and this was refreshing after the full-sized pieced quilt I made for the girls right before Isaac was born (I was hand-quilting half the night the last week of my pregnancy.  So not fun).  What I liked most about this quilt was that I finished it in three sessions of a couple hours each--one to press and cut the fabric, another to sew the top together, and a third to attach the batting and backing.  I ended up with a larger quilt top than I had batting by about two inches, so rather than use blanket binding I folded the top over to the back (see the first picture).  And I used an old sheet whose mate was worn out as the backing, so the whole project was under $35. 

I was really happy with how it turned out--it looks so much nicer than the first quilt I made for Abigail, where I used a carpenter's square, chalk, and a pair of scissors to do all the cutting and measuring!  Learning how to use a rotary cutter and quilter's square have made a real difference, as has getting my mom's sewing machine tuned up and oiled.  It's really nice to enjoy sewing and have everything work as it should instead of it being a frustrating experience--this quilt was my favorite project to date.

almost midnight

It's Friday night, and I am sitting up at the computer killing time.  Neil is at a game night with friends (I think for the second time since we've lived here, poor guy--he's a little overworked) and I was planning to go to bed earlier, but the children always seem to magically know when Daddy is gone.  Isaac woke up about half an hour ago, feverish and shaking--poor little man. 

And as long as I'm up, I wanted to write down some funnies that Abigail said yesterday.  We had the missionaries to dinner last night, and one of them asked me how I liked living here.  Before I had a chance to answer, Abigail said very seriously, "Well, it's a nice place, but the garden can be a real problem."  She then went on to discuss soil and water conditions, with explanatory interjections by Neil--I was totally cracking up.  (We've spent a fair number of dinners lately discussing our garden plans for the year, and Abigail has been a very intent follower/participant in the conversation). 

Then the other missionary said something about the weather warming up, and Abigail jumped in again and said, "Well, it's nice that it's getting warm, but I just worry that the trees will blossom and it will freeze again and kill the buds, and we won't have any fruit."  So the elders said, wow, she sure is interested in growing things--and Abigail went off on a rant about how much she loves lettuce. That kid pretty much lives for the garden in summertime.  I told her that we only have two weeks until we start planting, and she started wiggling for joy so much that I thought she would topple right off her chair.  She has presented me with about six different ideas for bunny traps--every day when she gets off the bus she walks slooowly along the fence checking for new rabbit incursions.  Peter Rabbit thinks he's going to get some lettuce?!  Not with this sheriff in town.

31 weeks

You guys, apparently I am pathologically unable to take a non-blurry photo of myself where I don't look completely dazed.  I took a million pictures this morning because I PROMISED myself I was going to post a pregnancy photo on my blog today, and let's just say I shouldn't quit my day job.

Also, what do you do with your arms when you're taking a photo of your stomach?  I never know.  Hence the oddness of this shot.  (Also, my eyes are closed.  And it's blurry.  And the bath towels are really an attractive backdrop. And it was the best one of the lot.)

But here I am at 31 weeks pregnant.  It seems like this baby should be born any day now as far as the general discomfort level goes, but I still have 9 weeks to go!!  On the plus side, I was thinking this morning that it's nice to be pregnant and have all the extra skin from previous babies stretched out again.  I have really lucked out as far as avoiding stretch marks goes (thanks for the good genes, Mom & Dad!), so I actually like the way my stomach looks when I'm pregnant.  (But when I roll over in bed at night, I feel like a beached whale.)

I'm still doing the same exercise routine--running 4 miles 3x  week and yoga the other 3 days.  All I'm going to say about that is that the yoga feels really good.  And that I'm not starting seeds under grow lights in my bathtub this spring, because I have taken more hot baths during this pregnancy than I have during the previous five years we've lived in this house, and that is not an exaggeration.  (This is the only way I am still running--soaking and stretching my joints back into compliance.) 

And the Hypnobabies program is giving me the best nights' sleep I've had during four pregnancies--even if I end up having anesthesia during labor, Hypnobabies was worth every penny just for the sleep alone.  I am usually a TERRIBLE sleeper when I'm pregnant (going to the bathroom 10 times a night, anyone?) and I must tell you that listening to the scripts while I fall asleep means a) I'm usually asleep within a few minutes and b) I actually sleep all night.  Seriously, this is the most amazing thing ever. 

the only thing cuter than Jules doing yoga...

is Isaac doing yoga with her.

Sometimes when I am doing a pose, I'll hear a happy little giggle and look down to see Isaac
next to me on the mat, hands reaching towards the sky or out behind him or drawn close to his
heart in imitation of whatever I happen to be doing.  Warms my heart every time to see how
darling and how happy he is.

Today was a good day.  Nothing too unusual, it was just a really nice day.  A day where at the end of it, I felt so happy with how I'd spent my time.

two non-connected pictures

What is happening to Juliet in this picture?  A wild sneeze?  Caught mid-landing after plopping down?  A very small localized tornado?

I don't know, but it makes for a cool picture.

And this is kind of an odd picture of Abigail, but I LOVE her coloring.  So gorgeous. 

30 things

So my sister Mary Beth wrote a really cool post today that I thought briefly about imitating, but I decided I was too tired.  (Today Neil came home from work and I was just barely beginning to make dinner (as in taking ingredients out of the 'fridge)--he took over, ran me a very hot bath with lavender, and sent me off with my dinner while he fed the children.  I love him so much.  I was a mess today.  Mess, mess, mess.)

So instead you can just go read what Mary Beth had to say. And I am going to go vacuum up the entire bottle of baby powder Juliet just emptied on the floor.  (Why do we have baby powder?  We've never used it.  And now I am going to pay the price.)

sick day

Abigail developed a fever halfway through school yesterday and came home to spend the afternoon asleep on the couch (the picture is from earlier this week--right now she has super-pink cheeks).  She was a little disappointed today when the fever was still running high and we told her that she wouldn't be going back to school today, as it's the culmination party (green eggs & ham feast) for their Dr. Seuss week.  And she was supposed to go to a friend's house this morning (although fortunately she didn't remember that). 

Thankfully, I was able to whisk Jules and Isaac out to the library last night, so we've spent the morning reading through our sackful of new books.  Plus we made popcorn and ate it while we read, so that made the morning feel a little more festive.

Our plans for today are to try to replicate what Abigail's class is doing (per her request--fortunately her teacher sends home a lesson plan schedule every week).  So we'll be eating green eggs for lunch, reading Dr. Seuss books all afternoon (as a matter of fact, Abigail is reading Green Eggs and Ham to Jules right now), and having a spelling test.  It's cute that a spelling test is something very exciting. 

Comedy of Errors

Isn't it funny how sometimes your best efforts to get things tidy seem to do anything but?  I remember the part in Little Town on the Prairie where Laura and Carrie decide to do all the spring cleaning before Ma and Pa return from taking Mary to college, and the day before they're due to return, Laura looks around despairingly and wonders how they managed to wreck--through trying to clean--the formerly lovely house.

This morning I started out with three children and a bathroom.  Both were reasonably clean--the kids had a bath on Tuesday and the bathroom had only a splotch of soap on the counter where Juliet had been a little too vigorous in using the hand soap.  As is my usual habit on Tuesdays and Thursdays, my plan was to let the children splash around in the tub while I did my makeup and cleaned the bathroom, then I would wash their hair and end up with a clean bathroom, clean children, and a nice appearance myself.

Problem 1:  I took a shower and then started laundry right before starting their tub.  The hot water ran out .

Problem 2: I dropped my foundation into the sink and covered the sink and counter with oily taupe goo.  It took forever to clean up.

Problem 3: I put my makeup up on top of the medicine cabinet so I wouldn't knock anything over again, and managed to knock down a basket of clean washcloths.  Right into the toilet.  Which I had just sprayed with cleanser.

Problem 4:  As I was fishing the sodden washcloths out, I felt a splash on my foot, and realized that Isaac was just dumping his fourth 2-quart pitcher of water over the side of the tub.  I splashed over and took the pitcher away, but not before he had managed to soak all the towels, bathmat, and leave about a quarter-inch of water on the floor (I didn't notice because the water hitting the towels was silent, while I was busy scrubbing away at foundation).

Problem 5:  I helped Abigail and Juliet out of the tub and left Isaac to splash happily for a minute or two, enjoying the luxury of having the tub to himself.  Apparently he was lonely.  For the first time in my mother-life, I had the joy of turning back from the towel rack to find that my son had made himself a little friend.  I think he was very confused as to why I was so horrified. 

So...my kids are now clean, all the towels and rugs are in the washer, and the bathtub is very, very, very clean. 

twelve minutes of sitting still and watching Isaac

He is a very busy (and adorable) boy.