Five years

After spending some time tonight reading a friend's archived blog posts, I was curious to revisit some of my first posts.

I stumbled across this post written nearly 5 years ago...all about Sam nursing and co-sleeping and how someday he won't be in my bed any more....

This morning I woke with not only Sam in my bed, but Arlo too and let me tell you that even in a king size bed, it was a tight fit!

Ah, I do know that really someday I won't have kids in my bed and I will miss. To be honest, I still enjoy a good early morning cuddle!

The Perfect Saturday

:: Sam and Arlo participated in a pie eating contest at the grand opening of our new local city market.

:: We snuck Arlo into the contest because the age limit was 5 - 7 years and there weren't many kids participating. He thought it was great; had to kneel on a chair to reach the table; ate two bites and then said, "IIIII'm doooone! My face needs to be wiped!"

:: Sam made it through half of the chocolate cream pie and said, "My tummy hurts. I can't eat anymore." I was so proud of him. He stopped eating because he was "listening to his body"...a term we use a lot around here (associated with potty training).

:: Sam and Arlo went to see musical production at Lansing Comminity College with a dear friend, Molly and Megan. It is a swing music based performance done by a theater class that Molly took when she was in school.

:: We are alone with Otis for an evening. Weird.

:: With the boys gone, Otis took his first bath alone. This is a very big deal for a third baby. He was so excited about the space in the tub that he spent the first 10 minutes crawling and rolling around and from end to end, while giggling uncontrollably. It was the cutest thing I have seen since the pie eating contest.

:: At the end of the bath he was very curious about the drain stopper. Once all the bath water had drained; he kept pulling it out and trying to put it back in. It didn't take too many tries before he steadied his hand on his leg and slowly lowered the "post" end into the correct hole in the drain. I was incredibly impressed that he figured out how to do that on his own. The "problem" really required some steady hands and clever thinking! I have a genius child (ok, I'm a little biased).

:: I rocked Otis to sleep by the light of the evening. He made adorable little cooing sounds...probably some of his last. Everyday there are more signs of his growth. This is such a bittersweet age.

:: Our bees arrived and we are officially bee keepers! We have two hives; two colonies! I will have photos to share very soon...

Simply Spiritual

We are in California visiting family this week and part of next. We just spent two days in Santa Cruz in a house that Matt's mom and dad rented. It was right across the street from the ocean (I'll have photos later). This morning the boys woke at 6:30 a.m. and I was able to watch the sunrise over the Pacific. It was amazing. The water crashing over the rocks...I never want to forget it.

Otis' Birthday Toy

And He's One.

Otis just a few hours old.

Otis on his 1st birthday.

At 10:35 a.m. this morning I woke for no reason other than, that exactly one year ago I was one minute away from birthing my third son. Strange, but sweet and the room was quiet with everyone else sleeping, so I sat and remembered my sweet Otis' birth.

We don't normally sleep in this late, in fact, it is a very rare occasion that I am able to sleep past 9 a.m. However, we are traveling and sleeping in a hotel suite...or rather I should write that we are not sleeping...so needless-to-say, we were getting the sleep when we could, even if it meant sleeping past the free breakfast our hotel provides.

Otis is a very darling little boy and everyone who passes by him stops and smiles and comments on how cute he is! I am not lying...it is true! He smiles and waves and has a handful of words, including "Ha", which is meant to be "Hi" as he waves. We were walking around Louisville yesterday and Otis was in the stroller waving at anyone that walked past the stroller (which was a lot of people in downtown Louisville)...very cute.


He is still crawling everywhere with no real interest in walking other than the occasional burst of want to walk while holding my fingers. It last only for a moment and then passes once he remembers crawling is much, much, much faster.
At one year Otis is about 28 pounds and wears size 18 months solidly, some 24 months. He sleeps 12 hours most nights, though he just cut his first molar and has been sleeping very poorly lately (who can blame him?) He is a bit attached to me and quite a "mama's boy", but I don't mind one bit! In fact, I quite like it. He's my baby and always will be....

We had a sweet little party for Otis on the 12th at home before we left for Louisville and then today we celebrated at a quaint little buffet style restaurant here in Louisville. Because we'd slept in so late we missed breakfast, and we were wandering the streets in search of some food. Cunningham's was the first place we found that looked kid friendly. They gave us our own little room and we had an array of foods to choose from including chocolate cake! We sang to Otis once again and he was able to dig in deep to the chocolate cake! Pictures to follow....

I am sad and happy at this mark in time. Things are getting easier as he gets older, but of course I am thinking about all these experiences being my last ones with a baby. Each one is so special...as it was with Sam and Arlo. I feel like I appreciate things so much more this time around...and so I don't mind when I am the only one he wants, when he needs me to carry him everywhere, when I rock him to sleep and it takes an hour (okay, when it takes half an hour)...

Finding Time

Whew! Finding time is so hard!!! My days are a constant juggle of priorities:

"If I drop off Sam at x-time and make the traffic lights just right, I might have time to get Arlo to school by xo-time and then I can squeeze in a quick trip to the library to return the 3 week overdue books" OR "ok, Otis is occupied for 5 seconds in the playroom, I'll just run to the bathroom and pee and if he's still happy when I am done I can quickly swish the water in the toilet and call it clean...oh, crap he's unhappy, I guess I'll pee with the baby on my lap and then clean the toilet after all the kids are in bed, no wait I have to finish Arlo's preschool quilt and bake bread...."

You get the idea.

Needlesstosay, I have been having trouble finding time to blog and as I write this minute I am holding Otis...which is proving to be a challenge as he really enjoys banging on the keyboard!

I have wanted to post about our recent wonderful week long trip to California to visit Pat and Jim and Presh; the exciting news that Arlo did start preschool this week and loves it so much that he gets sad when he sees me arriving to pick him up; Otis' recent words (speaking words, not just signing words) including "apple", "mama", "ah da" (all done), and "hi"; our struggle with a dairy elimination diet for Arlo, which may have shown us he is mildly allergic to milk; Otis' impending 1st birthday; and Matt's organic conference that he organized which begins tonight.

Not to mention I still need to find time to finish the appeal for our insurance company regarding reimbursement for Otis' birth and get our final insurance claim together for our homeowner's insurance regarding the house fire.

I know I am forgetting lots of other things I can't seem to find time for, like laundry, cooking cleaning and volunteering at Sam's school; planning this year's garden, making the playgroup schedule; finding a guest speaker for my monthly discussion group; knitting the baby gift for Michelle's baby girl due in April; and reading my book club books.

Yeah, this post is turning into a "to-do" list. Sorry about that. I hope to find time to post some photos soon....that is after I photograph the conference this weekend and volunteer at the birth center for "Info Night" next week, and, and, and....

Dear Mom,

I found an old email you wrote to me in November of 1997. It had been printed with an old dot matrix printer and was folded into fourths and tucked in a cook book I rarely use anymore. I had just moved to Montana and was attempting to cook my first Thanksgiving dinner. I asked you to send me specific details; recipes, ingredients and most importantly instructions on how to cook.
The list was long and the details were explicit. You were doing just as I had asked and every line of the letter was so very much from your heart. As I read it tonight it made me want to make a Thanksgiving dinner just as you had written it, even though it is nearly 6:00 in the evening and February.

I miss you. I miss you so much and I wish I could hear your voice right now. I wish you could know that Megan is here and we are a family together, even if Dad has a new partner and is so far away.

Anyway, all three boys are calling me. Arlo has been asking me to do a puzzle with him for the last 20 minutes and I should go be with them.

Send me an email sometime.