A walk down memory lane.

First we celebrated a wonderful year of having this sweet girl in our lives. She and Oliver have some very similar facial expressions.

And then we celebrated a year of having this little guy with us. He has an interesting personality to say the least and perhaps a bit more than his siblings, he ADORES Oliver.

After a lovely year with the second little Asp guy, we had no idea what a whirlwind we had on our hands. He doesn't believe Oliver needs any personal space/boundaries.

And then there is Oliver. He became momentarily shy as Gary put the cupcake in front of him and we all started staring at him.

But who can resist yummy chocolate cupcakes with banana and a hint of coconut frosted with a whipped chocolate ganache? Can you tell I have progressed in the skill of baking (especially presentation) since Leia, Spencer and Nathan?

It didn't take too long for him to decide to give the whole sugar experience his best shot.

And he decided he liked it. A LOT!

And what better way to finish off dinner than with a good old fashioned raspberry. Oliver thinks we all enjoy being sprayed by chocolate spittle, indeed any kind of spittle.

It's a brave new world...

Oliver's hair has been getting longer and longer. Now I'm not about to get out the clippers, but his hair is dead straight so it's in his eyes and over his ears. I would love for it to curl up a bit, but it just doesn't. So I popped him in the bumbo and gave him a trim. Now it's not perfect but he kept twisting his head and trying to grab the scissors. I gave him a flashlight, a lego motorcycle, a medicine syringe, a (sealed) bottle of ibuprofen, the comb, and also had bright cartoons on the TV. Nothing was as interesting as what I was doing. He turns one in two days and with the haircut he really looks like a little one year old. And he's acting more like it. He's only a little bean weighing in at 22lbs, but he knows what he wants and goes for it. He's frequently pulling himself up on things and hurting himself on the way down. He's my constant companion in the kitchen these days and he loves emptying my lower drawers. I can't have him play in the bathtub while I take a shower anymore as he can stand up and turn the faucet on. I can see the lovely baby stage disappearing rapidly to be replaced by the exciting life that is parenting a toddler. I'm a little melancholy but so grateful to have my Oliver.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

I'll be sleeping in tomorrow!

Today has been a mixed bag all around. I went to a Pride Assembly at the kids' school and Leia got an award for reading as well as for scoring proficient/advanced proficient in all her work. She's taking some pride in her school work at long last. It only took Kindergarten-4th grade to get there!

Then I had a friend come over and bring lunch. We chatted for a few hours and I really love the company of this particular friend.

Then later Gary came home from work so I could take Oliver to a 4.40pm doctor's appointment. I enjoyed a lovely 40 minute wait in the office with a very fussy 11 month old who just wants to crawl around and poke through people's purses. Sure enough, he has an ear infection again. The doctor asked me what pharmacy I'd like the prescription sent to and I told her.

I arrived at the pharmacy at about 5.45pm and no prescription had been sent. I waited about 15 minutes. Still no prescription. Then I called Gary and he called the doctor for me. They had sent it to the wrong pharmacy and said they would fax it in right away. By 6.20pm, still no prescription. I decided to take Oliver home since he was miserable and feeding him and putting him to bed couldn't be put off.

I took him home to Gary and turned around again to go back to the Pharmacy. When I got there, there was still no prescription. I was feeling extremely angry and a bit silly at this point. I got Gary to call the doctor and get mad. It's not like I was waiting for some medical marijuana. It was antibiotics for an 11 month old baby with an ear infection that has been causing night time pain for the last two nights and temperatures of 102-103 degrees. Eventually the doctor got on the phone with the pharmacist at 7pm (lucky I guess that my doctor stays open until then). I eventually left the pharmacy at about 7.25pm.

While I was waiting the 20 minutes for them to fill the prescription I was sorely tempted to buy lots of chocolate and eat it. I always want to do that when I'm stressed. I also wanted to hop on over to Mcdonalds and get a large fries and milkshake. And I'm not going to lie and say I didn't want a box of croissants as well. But I made a commitment to putting myself first and I know how I feel when I eat things that aren't good for me. I am worth the effort!

So when I finally got home and made myself some whole wheat toast, I opened up my computer to discover an email from Spencer's teacher informing me that he threatened to beat a little boy up at school today. It sounds bad and definitely unacceptable but Spencer likes to follow the crowd and is very influenced by others. He is often convinced that bad behavior is somehow cool. I don't think he'd actually hit someone but what if I do have a thug in my house disguised as a rather cute 7 year old? Maybe I should have bought the chocolate!

This week has exhausted me. I don't really have a brain cell left to consider how we're going to deal with Spencer. But at least my happy, contented baby should be back very soon, and I decorated Leia's room. The house is pretty tidy. I let a few things slide but it's not at all unbearable. I don't want a sick baby and a room to paint on top of my normal routine every week but I made it through.

* For those who were wondering, Leia loves her new room and I didn't exactly do the wall art myself. The flowers are vinyl wall decals and the butterflies are little mirrors. I just applied them artistically. To be honest it required a little ingenuity since the textured walls do not lend themselves easily to this type of project but I'm pleased with how it turned out.

Done!

Well in between taking care of a fussy fussy, hot baby who I am fairly sure has another ear infection, I powered on and finished Leia's room. CHECK.

Now I can get the rest of the house back into shape, exercise, and not buy toblerones or einstein bros bagels because I am stressed.


Hope you like it.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Scaling it back

This week I think I have taken on a bit too much. I decided to paint Leia's bedroom. Ever since we moved in she has been on at me to do her room. It has been three years since she has been in a truly personalized space of her own. We left her pink bedroom in Ohio to move into a rental house and even though she had her things it never felt like HER room. So Saturday we went and picked out a paint color. It's called Berry Punch.

I made a goal to get her room painted this week. Of course that doesn't cancel out all the other stuff I have to do like provide three meals a day for 6 people, do probably 6 loads of laundry, make sure toilets are clean, and workout at least three times this week (a goal I set myself over the last few months).

Yesterday was quite hard. I had to go out to run a few errands, I had to finish the first coat in Leia's room, wash Oliver's bed linen, and clean one of the bathrooms. I also had to do the regular stuff. So there I was in Leia's room at 4pm rolling the walls, the kids come home from school and literally BEG me to take them to Skate City for a school fundraising event. I was looking lovely as you can imagine and dinner wasn't even yet in the works.

As I sat in Skate City I realized that if I'm grumpy and stressed at all of my family, all the achievements won't matter much. This morning I am watching my friend's little boy and Oliver had a temperature when he woke up. So the working out is off for today. I am struggling with taking a break from the painting. I just want to get it done. If Oliver is settled this afternoon I might push to get that done so that I can go back to being super Mom.

And I also had to deal with Leia this morning. She pulled another "I don't feel good" thing. I could tell she was tired and sore from going to Skate City last night. She and Spencer were tearing around the hall at pretty good speeds and doing plenty of tumbling as well.
There was a "Donuts with Dad" event at school this morning at 7.45am and when Gary left with the kids, Leia had realized that I was concerned about their health since I had discovered Oliver's temperature.

Sure enough, Gary brought Leia home with him after the breakfast. It's hard to always be the bad guy since a few tears from Leia convinces Gary she's on death's door every time. But she had no temperature, no other real symptoms aside from fatigue from a late night and probably sore tummy muscles which she interpreted as a tummy ache. Skating definitely engages the core muscles and they don't do it all that often. So I took away the half eaten donut, gave her one slice of whole wheat toast and asked Gary to take her back to school. More tears ensued which made it even harder for Gary to take her back. If he hadn't brought her home in the first place it would have been a whole lot easier.

So I'm endeavoring to give myself a bit of a break. If I don't finish Leia's room by the weekend (although I most likely will), or a clean floor has to give way to cuddling a hot little baby then oh well! And since I've lost 15lbs since I started my "taking care of myself" goal, I guess one less workout this week won't make a massive amount of diference.

Pictures to follow........