Photo Every Hour: July 21st

Yay for Connor sleeping (mostly!) through the night--boo for his refusal to go back to sleep after this feeding (and yay for husbands who are willing to stay up with him so I can go back to bed)

7:00 Although really, with views like this, even early mornings are tolerable at the lake

8:00 It's Danish Days in Viborg this weekend, which means starting our day with Aebleskiver! (aka Danish pancakes)

9:00 New to Danish Days this year--a party for the Fife and Drum at my parent's cabin after the parade. Nothing like waiting until the morning of to prep my contribution

10:00 Loaded up with our full car to head to the parade

11:00 The "babies" of the Fife and Drum Unit

12:00 Play time at the cabin while the guys get the grill fired up

1:00 Feeding time at the zoo!

2:00 Lake time with Daddy!

3:00 It's going to be hard for me to keep tabs on Connor during his nap if I drop the monitor... #momfail

4:00 Connor getting in on some swimming time

5:00 Cleaning up the remnants of the bar table--and getting photobombed by Darrell

6:00 More play time!

7:00 Lake calories don't count, right?

8:00 Settling down for bed at a remarkably reasonable time given the chaos of the day

9:00 Ugh... Speaking of chaos... Maybe if I just pour myself another drink and close my eyes the mess will go away?

10:00 Well, I've got my drink but (spoiler!)--the mess didn't go away on its own

Wrapping up a long but super fun day!

Connor: Ten Months!

Height/Weight: No official stats, but if I'm being honest, I feel like he's plateaued here a little bit. Which isn't terribly uncommon for breastfed babies (especially ridiculously mobile ones); the other two just hit their plateaus earlier. I'm sure he'll still end up be bigger than both William and Garrett at a year, but maybe not by as much as I was initially thinking.

Wearing: Pretty much all twelve month clothing (plus a few eighteen month items, although pretty much just rompers which I've always felt like run a little small regardless of brand) and exclusively size four diapers.

Eating: Oh boy. Anything and everything. A few weeks ago we started giving him the same thing we were having for dinner (just diced up really small) and there's been absolutely no looking back. He has pretty much inhaled everything we've been giving him (jambalaya, salmon, enchiladas, tater tot casserole--just to name a few). He also tends to do better with his vegetables cut up small as opposed to pureed, although he'll still eat some purees as long as he's being served something else as well (which is good, because we had built up quite a stash in our freezer). He eats three meals a day with us, and nurses periodically in between (usually four or five times during the day plus at least one feeding at night still).

Sleeping: Still a little hit or miss, but we've started to see some improvement over the past few weeks because we've been making him cut down to just one feeding at night. Darrell had to sit with him for a few nights, but now even if he does wake up around midnight Darrell can usually get away with just rubbing his back and he'll fall back asleep. I can pretty well count on two naps out of him, although we don't always get his morning nap in at the house and sometimes he'll sneak in a late afternoon nap if we're out and about and his earlier naps weren't the greatest. Otherwise he usually settles down in his crib pretty well, and he almost always overlaps with Garrett for at least thirty minutes, which is glorious.

New Stuff: A little more quiet than last month, although we did hang out at the lake for a five day stretch over the 4th, so I suppose that length of time at the lake (and the 4th of July) was new, but he did really well--or at least as well as could be expected since he was cutting one of his top teeth (which, for the record, we were convinced was bothering him a month ago at the beach, and it now appears his other top tooth has started to swell up and come in, but I'm sure cutting that tooth completely will be another multi-week process as well #teethingsucks). While he's certainly been aware of his environment in the past, he's definitely started to become more intentional with and aware of how he interacts with it--things like clapping are no longer just random actions but a very conscious response to what is going on around him (which was a little problematic at my brother's baseball when we were the away team; he kept clapping when the majority of the other people were clapping, and they were all clapping for the opposite team!). The downside to this is that object permanence has started to rear its ugly head--he is fully aware that Mommy (and Daddy) still exist even after they leave the room, and he definitely makes it known that he does not approve of us walking away (which has been somewhat problematic at bedtime/nap time, although he gets over it pretty quickly). Plus, during the day, his brothers typically do an excellent job of distracting him, so I'm still able to step away to get a few things done. And I know I've said this about every one of my boys, but holy cow is this kid stubborn. He knows what he wants, and man alive he gets upset if he doesn't get it. He can get a little wild when he gets upset, and I don't know if it's just because he's a little bigger than his brothers were at this age or if he is just that much stronger, but sometimes I swear he is going to throw himself out of my arms. I suppose the upside to that is maybe he'll end up being a good roller coaster buddy for Daddy someday because he seems to not be bothered by throwing himself backwards and nearly ending up upside down #silverlining

Photo Every Hour: June 21st

Well, I'm getting these up before my next photo every hour day. But not by much. Better late than never, I suppose?

2:12 Guess who still thinks he needs to get up multiple times a night to eat?

6:21 Eating... Again. And up for the day, because when you don't sleep through the night you always get up early, right?

7:00 Enjoying a little quiet playtime before his brothers get up and the house gets crazy

8:00 Prepping to be out of the house through lunchtime while trying to get the little one some breakfast (aka keep him contained and out of trouble)

9:00 First stop--Connor's nine month well visit

10:00 Second stop--The Outdoor Campus for William's Freshman Fisherman class

11:00 Playtime (and then lunchtime) for the younger two while William is at class

12:00 Wrapping up class and getting ready to head home!

1:00 Lunchtime for William while the other two settle down for their naps

2:00 Pro--Connor isn't napping so I can finally get his laundry from yesterday put away. Con--Connor isn't napping so I have a fun and fussy evening to look forward to

3:00 So glad we invested in a nice "trampoline" for the kids to use in the basement (cue eye roll)

4:00 Dinner prep and snack time

5:00 Isn't this how everyone plays with their exersaucer?

6:00 In the car--by myself! #thismustbewhatheavenfeelslike

7:00 After a few errands, time to meet some friends for Book Club or, as Darrell (more accurately) calls it, Mom Club That Occasionally Reads a Book

8:00 Love this time to unwind and chat without having to worry about the kids or stuff at the house...

9:00 Because I know as soon as I get home it's back to reality (and with three kids, laundry is always a reality)

10:00 And sometimes, when you escape your house for a few hours in the evening, it means you menu plan at ten at night #momlife #totallyworthit #atleastihavewine

Bedtime. At last.

Connor: Nine Months!

Yes. I know. I'm almost two weeks late on this one. I'll partially blame it on the fact that we were on vacation during his actual nine-month "birthday" as well as the fact that due to said vacation his nine-month well-visit didn't happen until a week later... But honestly, I'm not sure I would have gotten this up any sooner even if those things hadn't happened. I guess that's just life with three kids.

Height/Weight: Connor was technically nine months and a week at his well-visit (#details), so these numbers aren't super accurate, but they are more accurate than the numbers I've had in previous months, so we're just sticking with him. He is currently 19lbs 10oz and 27.75 inches, which is definitely heavier than either of his brothers were at this age--in fact, he is only 5oz shy of what both William and Garrett weighed at one year of age. So I no longer have to just say that Connor "seems" bigger than his brothers were--I finally have actual proof that he is indeed bigger than his brothers were.

Wearing: No real changes from what I mentioned last month--still mostly twelve month clothes and a smooth transition into size four diapers. He's still managing to fit into a few of his nine month shirts and pajamas, although I think that's only because his ridiculous mobility has kept him from packing on as much weight as he would have otherwise.

Eating: Holding pretty steady in this department as well. After introducing a myriad of flavors and textures, we're wrapping up our single-food fruit and vegetable purees and finger foods--much to Connor's delight, I'm sure--and over the next few months (or maybe weeks, depending on how well it goes) will start transitioning him into eating the same food we do. The biggest issue in this department is making sure the only things he puts in his mouth are food (and fresh food at that--we end up sweeping our kitchen constantly and he still manages to find teeny tiny little crumbs of day old something or another to put in his mouth).

Sleeping: Oy veh. He had a few early mornings and we blamed it on goofy timing of overnight feedings (which--at the very least--happen pretty consistently only twice a night). He had a few more early mornings and we became worried that a bad habit was forming. He had even more early mornings and we've had to accept that this is now a "thing"--a thing which we have no idea how to remedy. Usually he sleeps until six (key word there being usually), but he is almost always up by 630. I *think* I could tolerate his early mornings better if he were consistently letting me get more sleep at night--or at least consistently taking decent naps during the day--but no luck in those departments (at least not yet). I know our traveling and schedules haven't helped us establish any sort of super consistent routine and sleeping environment, but sorry kid--you need to figure out and accept that this family doesn't hold still.

New Stuff: A few big ones which--shockingly--probably contributed to some of the sleep issues. He went to his first wedding--my cousin's in Minneapolis--and four days later we drove back to Minneapolis to fly out to North Carolina for his first beach trip. And the wedding was the week after we spent all of Memorial Day Weekend down at my parent's lake cabin. So that's what--four different sleeping environments in as many weeks, with most of them lasting at least three nights? #nowonderthekidhasproblems He can also get himself into a seated position very easily in his crib--but has not yet figured out how to lay back down--so that doesn't help matters any either. I will say, though, that he is the first kid for whom we've lowered the crib mattress before it was necessary; I actually think we lowered it to its lowest sitting a few months ago, and although he is pulling himself up on pretty much everything else, the crib railing is still just high enough that he can't quite master that move yet. Which is fine by me, because if he could then it would just be another thing for him to do at night besides go to sleep #inserteyeroll All annoyances aside, he is definitely one of the silliest babies I've ever known, and each day is a fun adventure (especially for William and Garrett) of figuring out what new and ridiculous thing will make him belly laugh! (Things on the list so far--hitting a triangle, blowing a train whistle, throwing a package of wipes, covering him with a blanket... The list goes on and on).

Photo Every Hour: May 21st

7:00 Connor's new favorite past time--finding every last little crumb of food (or anything!) that has been left on the floor

8:00 Breakfast time!

9:00 Apparently when Mommy has to put laundry away in the nursery, everyone decides they also have to play in the nursery

10:00 I was supposed to drop the older two off at Grandma's house so I could take Connor to a baby story time just the two of us, but Grandma was running behind schedule (shocking), so instead we all loaded up and headed to the library

11:00 No picture from the actual story time, but we got this fun song book to take home with us!

12:00 Grandma finally got home from the lake, so time to drop the older two over there and start some man-to-man coverage. Which is good, because this kid a currently a teething monster (don't let that smile fool you--the minute I try to set him down he starts screaming)

1:00 Laundry time for Mommy means (short bursts) of play time for Connor until he decides he's unimpressed with not being held and starts fussing again

2:00 Somebody didn't think he needed a nap and fought me tooth and nail. But, as usual, Momma knows best

3:00 What started as a quick online shopping venture to get William new swimsuits for the beach turned into a very long "I have to look at everything because the whole store is on sale" shopping experience (that resulted in my spending quite a bit more than I intended too #whoops #suckerforsales)

4:00 Costco snacks are the best snacks

5:00 Play time in the garage while Mommy finishes dinner (this is normal, right? Because my boys think playing in the garage is awesome)

6:00 A little late for us to be having dinner, but that's what happens when Mommy is operating as a one-man show because Darrell had to work out of town today and won't get back until late

7:00 Anything William does is hysterical to Connor. Seriously.

8:00 One down, two to go

9:00 Enjoying some girl time while ignoring the fact that my oldest two still aren't asleep (thank goodness Darrell will be home soon!)

10:00 These girls are good for my soul

11:00 I'd say that two bottles of wine between four friends is pretty reasonable, but one of the girls is pregnant and not drinking (not me) and the other only had a small amount because she is nursing and had to drive home (also not me), so yeah. Let's just say I had a fair amount of wine

12:00 Finally said my goodbyes and did a quick clean up before heading to bed

Oof. I am definitely going to be paying for this tomorrow. Minimal sleep plus wine hangover plus parenting is a bad combination. It was (mostly!) worth it though :-)