Life Lately

FEBRUARY 22:

It's been a month since I've written anything here. A lot has been happening. When a lot is happening in my mind, I tend to turn inward rather than out. I get quiet. I don't call friends, I don't make lunch dates, and I don't blog. Thankfully the people in my life who know me well and love me, know this about me and knock on my door anyway!

Addison will be three months old tomorrow (Feb 23). She's had a "cold" for over a month. Turns out, she had RSV and was really very sick. We had her in to the doctor (not our regular doctor) twice before they determined she had RSV and not just a cold. It was a little scary to be honest. She's better now.

My Dad had quadruple bypass surgery a week ago Monday. He is recovering, slowly, but surely. It's been a long couple of weeks with a sick baby and Dad in the hospital. This week feels like a month. I can't believe Dad's surgery was only a four days days ago. Although I've not stayed at the hospital overnight and I even skipped a day of going there to visit (Cliff went that day instead), I feel like I haven't been home in a week.

Today I'm at home. It snowed about 4" overnight and this morning and now the sun is out. The night was short. Addison was up 1am-1:45am, 3am-4:15am, and then up for the day at 6am. I pulled on a pair of Cliff's fleece pajama pants and a cozy sweatshirt. Gavin and Addison are still in their fleece jammies. We are doing nothing today, but watching the snow fall. I'm not sure how Gavin will tolerate a day of nothing, but it's just what I need. He's now watching The Indian in the Cupboard, Addison is napping, and I wish I were napping too, but I have been yearning to blog. Yearning is a new word Gavin learned today. He learned it on PBS's Word Girl on my iPad.

Gavin is growing like a weed. He is into picking out his own clothes and dressing himself now, which is awesome. Amazingly, the outfits actually kind of go together. He chose his Noah's Ark t-shirt today that my Mom appliqued for him. I love that he chose that shirt! With all the trips to the hospital we've made over the last two weeks between Addison being sick and my Dad's surgery, I've heard one of my favorite mispronounced words quite a bit. There are just a few words that Gavin says incorrectly that I just love. My favorite is probably "Hospabo", which is how he says hospital. He still also says "becept" instead of except, which is another favorite. He still "prastisses saying prastiss" (practices saying plastic). There are a couple of others, which of course I can't think of now. Gavin and Addison both started at a new daycare about 5 weeks ago, which has been a major transition, but seems to be going better. I think it just took some getting used to. Transitions are always tough.

Addison will be three months old tomorrow, and I can't believe how she has grown. She is sweet and beautiful and so special. She smiles first thing in the morning and she coos and gurgles in response to us talking to her. She still doesn't eat very much at a time and she doesn't sleep very long stretches at night. The most she really drinks at once from a bottle is two ounces, occasionally three, but usually more like an ounce or ounce and a half. She was sleeping for 5-6 hours at night for a few nights, but now it's back to just two or three hours at a time. I'm hoping it's just a growth spurt or something and she'll go back to longer stretches soon. She is just the sweetest thing.

I'm tired lately, mostly from waking up throughout the night I think. Amid all the chaos lately I have completely abandoned all forms of communication. I have hermit-ized. I've not kept up with taking pictures of the kids at the milestone markers. I've not included anyones growth stats here on the blog or even recorded them for their scrapbooks. I've not scrapbooked, or blogged, or even posted any pictures on facebook. But as I've turned inward, I've turned in TOWARD my little family and it feels good. We've hunkered down and buried our faces in the beautifully messy chaos that is a home with small children. We have sticky floors and dirty laundry, mac and cheese dried on plates and yesterday's soggy bowl of cereal still on the kitchen counter. We have poopy onesies and superhero figurines hiding out in the laundry hamper together. We pull ear plugs, spiderman action figures, rocks, money, nuts and bolts all out of the dryer. We don't have a single piece of laundry in the hamper that doesn't have either spit-up, poop, jelly, paint, or peanut butter on it. We have to scrub floors as often as we scrub toilets. We get licked when we ask for a kiss, but that's better than getting punched. We mostly get giggles and silly faces, although sometimes we get grouchy faces too. We have little snowpants and gloves draped over doorknobs to dry and nursing bras draped over shower curtain rods. We spend weekend mornings with the four of us snuggled in bed when we can, and night times reading favorite books for the hundredth time. I'll take tired for this life we get to live.