June Trifecta

Violet's past month may have been quiet, but the rest of the family's certainly was not.  This was my first full month with Will back to work since Violet was born and I have to say that it was definitely exhausting!  Just trying to clothe, feed, and keep everyone in a peaceful equilibrium was most times more than this mama could handle.  I knew that with the addition of another family member there would be emotional adjustments for the big sisters, additional laundry and generally not enough of me to go around but whew!  The emotional adjustments have taken the form of sibling rivalry to it's highest degree and the laundry has more than tripled thanks to the trifecta of three girls with the uncanny ability to cover bedding, clothes and any sort of unwashable surface with pee, poop and puke.  

Besides the crazy amounts of laundry, I am still adjusting to the crazy amounts of unplanned baths and showers because someone looks and smells like they rolled around in chicken poop but can't for the life of them figure out how it happened but will have a nervous breakdown if I don't wash it off of them right NOW, someone else woke up with puke INSIDE their pajamas, or someone else woke me up at the crack of dawn to announce that she had peed the bed.  And don't even get me started on the pee, poop and puke habits of the newest member of this tribe!  The fact that I haven't found a diaper yet that can do it's job on Violet is really frustrating - I've bought smaller diapers, bigger diapers, expensive diapers, cheap diapers, and used all varieties of cloth diapers but the only solution that works so far is to put a water proof pad underneath her wherever she is.  Thankfully, their cuteness (when not fighting) generally saved the day and I continue to be in awe of the fact that God gave me such an amazing trifecta.

My tailbone continues to improve, and now my only complaints are that it is still uncomfortable to sit on the couch or in the car.  Fortunately, my current circumstances do not allow for much couch or car time.  A friend of mine lent me her marvelous daughter each Friday this past month to lend a hand and keep the girls entertained (a.k.a. to keep the fighting to a controlled minimum) and I have to say it was such a nice combination of big sister care, new ideas, and youthful energy.  Pictured below are some of the fun things they did together this past month.  She shares a love of dress up, crafts and has inspired a new interest in the art of hairstyles.

Emma is now obsessed with having her hair braided and notices girls and women with braided hair wherever we go.  I know I am out of the fashion loop, but either I am just now noticing braided hair because of Emma's interest, or it is in style now and my three year old is more up to date than I am.  Speaking of style, here are the girls below in the right hand picture having fun while Will bought a pair of dress shoes.  In the left hand pictures, a friend met us for lunch at Costco where we shopped, ate and turned heads with six kids collectively.

They definitely have more fashion sense than me, and they also have more dancing abilities than I do too.  Here they are below at their dance recital, where they proudly danced in front of their family.  Based on how I choked back tears pretty unsuccessfully, I am thinking a week long dehydration marathon may be in order for when my babies graduate from high school.

I need to clarify that the tiny picture above of pinks, purples and blues in the trunk of our car is not the tiny dancers, but just their costumes.  I got a kick out of how two outfits took up our entire trunk.  The girls miss dance class and are looking forward to taking a tap class in the fall together.  Since the girls aren't in school yet, the end of dance class was our official start of summer.  Below are how we have spent our time so far, as laid back as possible.  Here Lucy is below giving Charlie some love.  In the bottom corner picture, Charlie is feasting on a can of tuna because we were completely out of dry and wet cat food and I just couldn't get out of the house to buy some more for oh, about a week.  Charlie did not mind in the least, and fortunately I had stocked up on the tuna a while back when it was on sale.  I was just concerned he would get used to the high class food!

I was able to do a small amount of structured activities with the girls this past month and it was great.  I really miss being able to do these things with the girls like we did before Violet was born, but I am telling myself we will be able to again soon.  Below in clockwise are the girls making Thank You cards with me, doing "candy experiments" which was inspired by an activity Lucy did at the library, making a double batch of Muddy Buddies so that the girls could do equal amounts of everything and inspired by the fact that there were "no good snacks" in the house, and the bottom three pictures are of homemade bubbles that used ingredients I already had and were inspired by the fact that we had run out of bubbles.  Necessity to not take three kids to the store truly is the mother of invention.

Most of the time though, the girls had what my educator friends would call free play.  I truly do believe that kids this age really only ever need free play but there is a fine balance between too little free play and too much.  I always know when too much free play has been achieved based on the level of fighting that escalates in direct correlation with the amount of time spent in free play.  Below the girls are "doing Daddy's hair" with fists of ice cubes on a hot day, putting chalk graffiti on the back of our house (not allowed and when discovered by me ended with a good wall washing by a pair of sorry cuties), a view of their art desk in their bedroom that is in a constant state of disaster, and finally them playing Little House on the Prairie.  The doll blanket afghans on their heads was completely their doing.

I have to say that I am constantly torn between allowing creative ideas and activities while watching the price of materials and the constant mess.  I am a self-proclaimed frugal neat freak and fostering creativity sometimes needs more of a laid back personality.  Lucy and Emma's favorite mediums when creating are masking tape, clear tape, liquid of any type with their most accessible being water, chalk, paint, markers (the more permanent the better), Ziploc bags, plastic containers from the kitchen, straws, any food (the less sweet the better), hair accessories, blankets, pillows, staples, and crayons.  Their favorite canvas includes daddy, sister's hair, skin, bed sheets (Emma did a custom dot to dot with orange crayon on her polka dot bed sheets), carpet, brick walls and table tops.  If no other options are available, they will take paper.  My favorite option is sending them outside where little damage can be done and the mediums they choose to use are less expensive and mostly free.   Here they are below riding their bikes in the cemetery in our neighborhood, riding their bikes with Charlie trotting faithfully beside them around the loop at the church next door, swimming in the backyard, and putting on a show with leaves.

Here they are below with Caddy their caterpillar who hopefully became a Monarch butterfly when she so slyly escaped after Lucy forgot to put the lid back on bug box.  They discovered what type of leaves Caddy preferred, and kept her happy for several days at least.

And there is always yard work to help with.  Here they are below helping Will put in a new potato bed.  We learned last summer that our local deer leave potato plants alone so we are going to make them a permanent fixture outside of the fenced portion of our garden.  We also forgot to put frames into one of the bee hives and were greeted with a mountain of comb and honey which we had to scrape out and are now enjoying.  We also harvested bowls and bowls of luscious strawberries from our garden and even made about a dozen half pint jars of Strawberry Rhubarb jam with our very own strawberries and rhubarb.

When it's time to come inside for quiet time, I can usually be persuaded to be lenient on my quiet time rules if a learning opportunity has presented itself and the opportunity happens to be free, quiet and still allow me to get some stuff done.  The perfect Get Out of Jail for Free card presented itself this past month when our neighbors had a giant tree cut down.  The girls watched the entire episode out of our kitchen window and spent about three times longer than a required quiet time doing it which was a win win for everyone.

We've joined the summer reading program at the library and the girls have enjoyed their Outdoor Explorer program which meets once a week in the library's garden.  Lucy found an abandoned duck egg there and was super proud to show all of her fellow explorers.  We went back later that night to show Will and were sorry to see a pair of ducks sitting near the egg, but not on the egg.  We are afraid that by touching the egg, the Mama and Daddy duck didn't want it anymore.  From now on we won't touch any egg we find that doesn't belong to our own chickens!

The girls have had more time to spend with their friends that are usually in school which has been nice. Below in clockwise order are the girls enjoying a lunch on Main Street with our friends on their last day of school, running through the rain after because we walked there and didn't check the forecast first, having fun at our friend's Lego birthday party and putting on a show on our front porch with another friend.

We had a lot of family time this past month with relatives in town from out West and my Uncle in town for a week from Africa.  My sister came and stayed with us for a weekend, and we got to meet an Aunt and cousin that we had never met before but hope to see regularly now - or as regularly as can be arranged living on opposite ends of the country.

 We celebrated Grandma T's birthday and Violet got to meet her Great Grandma J for the first time too.

And finally, we had a lovely Father's Day with Will which included lots of relaxing, yummy foods and a splendid picnic lunch in the park joined by my sister who played a hilarious game of hide and seek with the girls.

June went by in the blink of an eye and I can honestly say I've never worked so hard, slept so little and loved so much!

Violet at Two Months

Violet's second month of life was relatively quiet and went by fast.  She is getting stronger thanks in part to Will's regimen of baby gymnastics.  Here she is below standing...

Doing baby pull-ups...

And holding her head up enough to sit by herself on the couch.

Holding her head up is quite a feat, considering the cheeks she is sporting.

 Violet finally met her Great Grandma J. this past month and enjoyed snuggles with her.

And Violet of course enjoyed snuggles with her big sisters all month long.  The bottom picture in the below photo collage shows Violet's feet next to one of Emma's.

Violet is starting to show more of her personality.  She doesn't like to be left alone - awake or sleeping, and she is following in her big sisters footsteps more and more when it comes to sleep - or the lack there of.  In the below photo collage, I snapped a picture of Will yawning while trying to get Violet to sleep one night, and the right two photos Emma snapped of Violet and me, unawares.  Sorry if my yawn looks a bit scary.  It is the real deal of what I look like when sleep deprived.  I usually delete unflattering pictures of myself (it's my camera, my prerogative!) however I just had to keep the one of me yawning as it was a true candid shot that sums up my life right now.

Because of Violet's distaste for being alone and for sleeping, I have resorted to carrying her around in a baby wrap for as long as my back will allow me.  Fortunately, this is enough time for me to get some things done around the house with the older girls and Violet has been known to take naps in this wrap for up to four hours at a time.  Will doesn't wear the pink baby wrap, but somehow is capable of multitasking one-handed.

Here Will is below, holding Violet who is in fact sleeping.  She likes to sleep with her eyes half open which is kind of disturbing to see, and loves holding on to her pacifier like Popeye the Sailor Man holds his pipe.

 Violet, you are such a sweet, social girl and we love you!

Be It As It May

The timing on the events of our life this past month have been remarkable, both in positive and challenging ways.  We started the past month by finishing the last two items on our to do list before Violet was born.  Our bees arrived... 

...and the weather was finally right for inoculating the mushroom spores Will got me for Christmas into an oak log.

Hours after the bees were successfully installed and our mushrooms were "planted" I went into labor with Violet.  It was great timing.  In fact, everything about Violet's arrival was great timing.  And for the first six days of Violet's life, we had nothing but blissful relaxation, bonding and sweet memory making.  Here we are below with Violet, enjoying her first visit to the local cider mill that was having a special spring cider pressing the week she was born.

And then, as I was healing splendidly and really enjoying life not being pregnant and having to pee every 10 minutes and endure awful heartburn and swollen feet - I fell down the stairs.  The scary part was that I was holding Violet when I fell, and Emma ended up going down the stairs with us too.  Fortunately, I was able to hold onto Violet and keep her safe and Emma popped back up no problem.  After my adrenaline was reassured that both of my babies were okay, I became aware of severe pain in my bum-bee as the girls would call it.  A visit to the doctor confirmed what WebMD helped me self-diagnose - a fractured tailbone.  The timing on this was horrible in my opinion.  I spent the first week after my injury laying on the couch, unable to sit, and barely able to stand or walk.  Below was my view for most of the month of May - Violet laying next to me on the couch, the girls playing/fighting in the living room and the buds on the tree outside the living room window growing into their summer leaves.  In the bottom picture Lucy was laying on the other couch, bathed in sunlight, trying to "make her hair golden."

Meanwhile, I was trying to think golden thoughts and remind myself that it could have been worse.  At least the girls were okay.  At least I wasn't pregnant when I fell.  At least Will was able to take some extra time off work.  Once I was able to get off the couch, I alternated between the couch and my bed with Violet as my faithful sidekick.  Lucy has since learned the word "crap", as every time I had to change positions it was all I could do not to yell horrible profanities against the pain.  Crap was my compromise.  Here Lucy and Emma are below, showing me that they promise not to fight anymore and can they please earn their movie back?

One of the most challenging parts of my injury was that the girls knew that I had no ability to follow through on any request or threat and I also couldn't yell as Violet was usually laying next to me.  As a result, Lucy and Emma rolled around like a pack of wild animals for most of my recovery.  Fortunately I had a lot of help.  Below are some of my helpers.  In the top right hand picture a friend of mine brought her daughter and played with the girls as well as ran many grocery trips for me.  The bottom right hand picture shows Emma finally able to put her shoes on by herself, the bottom middle picture is of Will vacuuming Lucy's hair to get debris out of it, and finally in the bottom left hand picture, Will is painting the girls toenails since I couldn't effectively do it in a reclined position and they wouldn't stop hounding me for it.  "You promised when it was sandal weather that you would paint our toenails!"

Going through the first couple of weeks after my fall was depressing and I felt hopelessly unable to care for my three girls.  It seemed so unfair that the blissful honeymoon phase with Violet came to such an abrupt end when she was only six days old.  Time went by so slowly as I tried to keep the older two entertained and peaceful from my reclined position and maintain hope that the pain would eventually go away enough to sit and walk again.  I am happy to say that I am sitting as I type this - although the Boppy pillow I am using to cushion my behind will never be the same again.  As the below pictures show, I had plenty of distractions from my girls to keep my mind from going too far into the downward spiral of self-pity.

We bought Lucy a butterfly house for her birthday and five baby caterpillars to watch grow into beautiful butterflies.  Here Lucy is below taking care of each stage of the butterflies' life - from caterpillar to chrysalis to finally, butterflies.  Our hope was to let the butterflies go in our garden.

We learned many things with this butterfly experiment.  First, we will buy more than five caterpillars as only four caterpillars turned into a chrysalis.  We learned that once the caterpillars were hanging in their chrysalis that they are very fragile and should not be touched.  We lost one chrysalis as a result of it being smushed.  Next, we learned that once the chrysalis hatches the new butterfly wings should not be pet.  One butterfly then had deformed wings.  Several days later we learned that if you wait too long to release the butterflies into the great outdoors, they will die in the butterfly house.  We now had only two butterflies left - one with deformed wings, and one, perfect butterfly.  Lucy was sad to let them go and so we made a little ceremony out of it.  Right before Lucy opened the door to their house, she told the butterflies how much she loved them, and how she hopes that they fly free and find pretty flowers to pollinate.  Finally, with my urging that releasing them was the best thing for them, Lucy opened the lid to the butterfly house and the one healthy butterfly flew free for a sweet second when Charlie pounced from out of nowhere and caught the butterfly in his mouth.  We shouted "CHARLIE" in horror while Lucy tried to save the butterfly.  Charlie thought this was a fun game and dropped the butterfly from his mouth and started batting it back and forth between his paws until Lucy swatted him away and gingerly picked up her dying butterfly.  I tried to comfort Lucy with the fact that at least her butterfly died free.  Yes, we learned many things about raising butterflies, with the last lesson being make sure your cat is locked in the garage before releasing the butterflies!  Here Charlie is below, hiding out in a tree, in our asparagus bed, and resting on our fence.

 Charlie got into even more trouble this past month when a feral cat attacked him.  We ended up having to take him to an emergency vet over Memorial Day weekend as we thought we were going to lose him.  He had several puncture wounds above his tail and was no longer eating or drinking.  We were very glad we took him to the vet, that is until I took the girls to use the bathroom while the doctors were checking him over and realized that the bathroom at this upscale emergency vet was nicer than our bathroom at home!  I quickly ushered the girls out of the aroma therapy scented bathroom complete with Ansel Adams artwork and Bath and Body Works soaps and lotions to tell Will that I didn't think we could afford this place.  It was too late however, and we ended up leaving with our cat in a cone of shame with an embarrassingly shaved spot on his back and our receipt in a boutique-like gift bag.  Will contemplated administering some of the cat pain meds to himself to get over the bill.  When I asked him  later why he agreed to treat Charlie despite the cost, he told me what was he going to do with four sets of girls petting and cooing over poor Charlie.  Yes, Will is now including Violet in scenarios where the cards are stacked against him.  The top and bottom right hand pictures show that Charlie was recovered in days, as the huntee became the hunter once more and trapped a baby woodpecker in our garage.  Will rescued the baby bird and we are happy to say it was able to fly away, unlike the butterfly from earlier in the month.

 Despite the pain I was in, I did make it out to several outings after my fall including the Farmers Market, dance class for the girls, the chiropractor, the doctor, and Kohl's for new sheets as I noticed the ones I was laying on day and night were covered in holes.

The girls were trapped in the house more than I would prefer this past month as there was no place comfortable for me to lay down outside.  When Will came home from work he took the girls outside and helped them burn off their pent up energy.

Lucy brought many flower bouquets to the couch for me and has been enjoying all of the blooms in our yard.  Her favorite thing to play is Flower Shop and she does a great job arranging the flowers into beautiful bouquets.

We also had many visitors come over to meet Violet which helped get me out of my funk and put a smile on my face.

Mother's Day and my birthday also were very nice holidays to keep my spirits up.  Mother's Day was the very next day after my fall so all I really remember about that was the two mini chocolate bumpy cakes the girls and Will surprised me with (they had it hid in the vegetable drawer of the fridge - perfect hiding spot if you ever want to surprise me with something).  My birthday was much better, as I was finally able to sit in small durations and they got me a bigger chocolate bumpy cake.  I spent most of the day with the girls who stopped fighting each time I reminded them it was my birthday.  This made for an unusually pleasant day with my kids and I was just super grateful to be semi-functioning!  The day after my birthday I was even functioning enough to make myself my own favorite dessert - strawberry rhubarb cobbler with the rhubarb fresh from my garden.  You know things are looking up when I am in the kitchen baking again!  It was also the first baked good I was able to make since Violet was born.

One of the best gifts I received on my birthday - besides the worm bin, necklace from Etsy, campfire cookware, embroidery kits and fermenting equipment - was the ability to go for a walk!  I really couldn't have asked for more, and was just super happy and grateful to have an ordinary day!

Every day I continue to get better and perhaps the silver lining of all of this is that once my tailbone is completely healed it will make parenting these three little beauties seem like a cake walk!

Getting to Know Violet

I can hardly believe our little Violet is one month old already!  It is still sinking in that we have been blessed with three healthy baby girls.  Here are my three girls below sharing sister love.

Will is an old pro at snuggling baby girls by now, and even wears the tell-tale signs of seasoned fatherhood on his shoulder (baby spit up - upper right hand picture below) with confidence.  

That's not to say that we haven't had our ups and downs these past couple of weeks while adjusting to our new family dynamics.  Will and I have alternated exchanging looks over the tops of three screaming girls heads of "What were we thinking" and "We should have had twins."

Three is more than a handful, however Lucy and Emma have found a new thing to fight over - their beloved baby sister - and at times I think it would be easier if I had brought two babies home from the hospital.  To my friends with twins - I know this is crazy talk.  And to my friends with two girls - you know what I mean!  Violet usually gives the fighting older sisters the below look...

And when peace descends upon us, Violet will reward us with a beautiful smile and soft little coos.  Here she is below just starting a smile.  I have yet to catch the full smile with my camera, as the smiles are still so new that I am too busy basking in the beauty of her face shining up at me.

Violet's big sisters love to participate in any activity involving Violet's care.  Diaper changes and baths are the highlights, although they also love to fight over who gets the pacifier, burp cloth, socks, pick out her outfit, etc.  Here are Lucy and Emma below, helping Violet get her first real bath.

Violet has met a lot of family and friends during her first month of life.  I tried my best to get a picture of every person that met her for the first time, however missed several people.  Below is a sampling of all the love that Violet has been received with.  My side of the family…

Will's side of the family which feels like my side of the family too…

Some of our friends that are like family to us…

And some of our friends kids, which feel like family too…

We have definitely been blessed by lots of love and support this past month to help us ease into life with a newborn again.  We are also blessed by the fact that Violet is a good sleeper so far.  I say so far, because we are still scarred from Violet's older two sisters sleep habits and we know that there is no guarantee of a good night sleep.  Here Violet is below getting cuddled by me before bedtime.

Violet doesn't require swaddling to sleep like her older sisters, nor walks around the block or crazy rocking, however does enjoy the aspects of socially imitated sleep.  Here she is below not only sharing a nap, but also the same sleep position of the person lucky enough to catch some zzz's with her.

Here she is below, sleeping solo.

Violet also enjoys sleeping in a baby wrap that I wear.  This has been very useful, not just around the house when I don't have time to put her down for a nap or she is being fussy as well as when we are out and about.  This is one of my absolute favorite parts of having a newborn.  I love the feel of her warmth, cuddled up on me and the top of her head right under my chin, ready to be kissed any time I want.  The below picture was taken at her very first outing - the Farmer's Market.

Her second outing was to the local pottery studio where we have had each of our children's foot prints painted onto a tile.  I now have all four sets of foot prints hanging in our bedroom and they are some of my most treasured possessions.

Another treasured possession is the below growth chart Will made when Lucy was a baby.  Here are all four of my babies birth lengths recorded at the bottom.  Both the above and below items are extra special to me because it is one of the few ways I can have all four of my children's names together.

The last significant outing of Violet's first month of life was a trip to the cemetery.  After each of our girls were born, we have taken them to visit Luke's grave and put their tiny feet onto Luke's foot prints we have engraved on his head stone.  This is yet another way that I am able to see my four babies together on earth.

It was a beautiful day when we went to the cemetery so we were able to plant flowers for the season as well as enjoy a nice picnic lunch.

This month has flown by as we have gotten to know Violet.  So far she is a good sleeper and is generally a very laid back little girl.  When she is hungry however, she will go from a sound sleep or a sweet smile to a full out, heart breaking, nerve shattering scream-cry in a second flat.  As long as Violet is fed, burped and in a clean diaper though, she is content and happy.  Violet looks so much like Lucy and Emma when they were babies it is amazing.  Of course Lucy and Emma like to fight over who she looks like more but the truth is all three look strikingly similar.  It will be interesting to see how her features change and grow as time goes on, but she already is setting herself apart from her older sisters by her size.  She weighed at least a full pound more at birth and is in the 90th percentile for length.  Lucy and Emma were between the 20th and 50th percentile for their length.  Violet completed her first month of life at 10 pounds and grew an inch and a half already.  We are so glad she is finally here and a member of our family!