“how old is she?”
“3 weeks”
but as i say it, i think….huh, i’m pretty sure i’ve been saying that for at least a week now…….
“no…four weeks……already”
it’s crazy. and crazier yet, how can it seem like i just brought her home but that she’s always been here all at the same time.
all is good here. aside from the weather of course. worst summer ever. i could complain in great detail about everything from single digit temps at night to seemingly constant cloud cover and rain. we’ve slept with our comforter on the bed for most of july. but i won’t. why bother.
the kids are good. there are moments of course. it wouldn’t be parenthood without those moments. the ones that make you want to scream, or pull your hair out. or drink excessive amounts of alcohol or chocolate milkshakes, whatever your preference is. but over all, they are great.
sidney is big, a real big kid. and although she isn’t generally the most helpful around the house she’s taken to other chores with much enthusiasm. like collecting the eggs and letting the layers out in the morning, and tonight she put them away in the evening too. and after about 20 minutes of instruction with dad she has learned to ride her bike without training wheels, which she now spends much time doing. many, many laps around the big circular driveway.
olivia is my helper extraordinaire. overly helpful sometimes. but much appreciated help mostly. always the first to volunteer to help with dishes, laundry or baby. if only she and hannah could come to a truce. they spend more time battling then playing these days.
and hannah, sweet hannah. it’s hard to still not see her as “the baby”, she was for so long it seemed. but she’s getting so big. and she is a force to be reckoned with. all unbelievable cuteness one minute and all volatile, tantruming 3 year old the next. and she’s funny. and she knows it. a seriously well developed sense of humour for a not quite 3 yr old.
sidney and olivia are in the middle of their summer session of swimming lessons. every day for two weeks ( not weekends ) and as much as having to go and sit in the hotter then the surface of the sun pool area for an hour every single day for two weeks, with a sweaty little baby sucks really a whole bunch, it’s going great. they are definitely learning so much more when they go every day then once a week. and on friday as a break from the same drills, the older class played a game with balls and goals, and my clumsy sidney was surprisingly adept at getting the ball and throwing the ball and participated 100%. dad and i were both impressed. and olivia, who spent the first 10 minutes of her first class refusing to go in, and then sitting in the corner of the pool giving me her very best stink eye, is now diving for rings and mastering her floats ( front and back )
i keep waiting for nice weather, for you know…..summer to start…..so we can head to the cottage or my dad’s place and they can do some actual swimming in an actual body of water……but sigh…..it just isn’t coming. i really hope august is nice. i plan to head up to the cottage next week anyway, if my uncle is still there so we can have some boat rides.
and molly is a baby. i dislike when people ask if she’s a “good baby” because it seems to insinuate that there is a “bad baby” . babies are babies. they’re good when they’re sleeping and when they’re awake and even when they’re fussy and will only stop crying if you walk them. none of that standing still and rocking them either, but actual walking around, because there is clearly some difference between the two that only a baby can detect. but her fussy times are few and far between and she sleeps a lot and for good blocks of time at night, so really she is about as easy a baby as you can hope for. that’s a better distinction i think. easy or hard baby?
she’s already loving to look at her sisters, and half smiling and making little baby talking noises. it’s already slipping away. but please don’t take those type pf comments for any kind of uncertainty. no matter how sad i am that this is the last little baby face i’ll look down at, asleep on my chest, little tiny mouth open, so relaxed, you couldn’t pay me enough to be pregnant again. or to fill my basement yet again with baby stuff. stored away again for more years. or to add another few years onto the time it is before ryan and i might again get to go out alone. there are as many things i’m looking forward to as i am sad to see for the last time.
and there it is, the big update. probably won’t be another one for weeks. especially if summer actually starts.