Happy Noise

New Years at Myrtle Beach

2012-01-07T23:02:00.001-05:00

If you hadn't already gathered by this photo taken on New Years Day, we spent the holiday weekend at the always tacky-fabulous Myrtle Beach. We brought along Ashley and John and baby Liam, Another Nathan, and Mr. David (originally of orange shoelace fame). Turns out? Six adults and four babies makes for a slightly chaotic road trip. In case you were curious.

But the weather was absolutely gorgeous. Sunny and 70 in January = God bless South Carolina. We got to play on the beach, take naps, read, play games, go outlet shopping, and cook a lot of good food including a multi-course fondue and a several-layer birthday cake.

And consumed one or three (ahem) adult beverages in the process.

Anyway here's our trip, in pictures --

Charlotte's first time at the beach!

Love seeing my babies running and playing together.

Another Nathan is completely fascinated by the beach. #midwesterner

Have I mentioned recently how glad I am that we now own two of these dump trucks? (Also, don't be fooled by their bare feet or my mention of nice weather. The water was frikkin freezing.)

Myrtle Beach, home of keepin' it classy. Because why wouldn't you close down a trashy amusement park and replace it with a neon-lit ferris wheel? I mean duh.

Playing taboo...

For the record, this is how Another Nathan actually gives clues: ummmmm ummmmm ummmmm it's punctuation... and it has a sister. Or maybe a brother? It's a this or a this-this! Yes, David totally got it right. FROM THAT. Color me impressed.

(Bonus Erin-loves-you points to the first person who's as smart as David and comments with the right answer.)

Mark successfully photobombed us like six times. *sigh*

(And yes, we are Those Friends who have matching hoodies. You will not judge us. They are cute.)

My beautiful beach babies. I melt.

For more pics of our weekend, click here. Happy beachy new year to you all! And remember, kids: it's a this... or a this this.

Awkward Sibling Pic, v5.0

2012-01-06T23:56:00.015-05:00

The first awkward sibling moment of the new year!

Whatever delightfully mischievous news Nathan just gave his sisters, Charlotte looks properly horrified while Anneliese is still trying to maintain some semblance of a game face.

She'll clearly be the one handling their PR at future press conferences.

{Note, 1/24: And so begins a series of drafted-but-not-published posts, after a blogging hiatus spanning the most insane several weeks in recent or maybe even distant memory. To be explained someday maybe. For now: I'm baaaaaaaack!}

Christmas Lights

2012-01-02T23:55:00.000-05:00

I love love love Christmas lights. I spent a lot of time brainstorming on how to do lights on the new house. Classy and simple but not so simple it didn't seem festive. So this is what our house has looked like for the past month:

Next year we will add candles and wreaths (not lit) in the dormer windows upstairs. (And fix that lattice work under the front porch. Been bugging me since we made the offer on the house.)

And all will be merry and bright once again.

Happy Twenty Dozen

2012-01-01T23:29:00.001-05:00

Hey it's 2012!

I can't get it up for resolutions right now, so this post is blissfully short. Just three things to say:

1.) It's never too early in the year for a somewhat awkward family photo.

2.) No, you let your son run around on the beach in January in a sweater and his underwear.

3.) We might be awkward but dang do we love each other.

Happy New Year!

2011: Year in Review

2011-12-31T09:29:00.001-05:00

Well, 2011 is up. Die Zeit ist um. And I don't even know what to say about it, because I don't know how I feel about it. Am I glad for the notion of a fresh start, after a particularly trying season? Or am I sad to let go of what will always be a landmark year for our family? I don't know. This year has been... a lot.

The year of Charlotte. Our sweet youngest child, the tiny little girl who makes our family feel complete. She's the most important thing that happened this year, by far.

The year of the house that love built. Our new home was more than just a simple purchase and bystander renovation. It was a hot mess of a sales contract, a months-long rebuilding project, seven straight weekends of diy painting, sixty-seven sample paints on the house walls, and three tanker trucks full of water to fill the pool. It was a bonding time and a family time and a friend time and a laughing time and a crying time. Labor of love indeed.

The year of good marriage. Mark and I have made no secret of the fact that we work really hard at our marriage, and have no qualms admitting that we've been through several rounds of marriage counseling (which have been extremely beneficial) over the years. And while this year did have a few low relationship moments, they were very few. Everything felt really good with us throughout the renovation, the pregnancy, the sale of our old house, and most parenting moments, especially Charlotte's labor and delivery and her newborn stage. We have been on the same page and seem in a good groove of supporting each other in the right kinds of ways. It's not perfect and it never will be, and I know harder years will come again, but for now I have to say I'm kinda proud of us. It's been a high-ranking marriage year, for sure. I feel very in love, and count it as nothing short of a small miracle to have Marky in my life, as a wonderful father and husband. Oh and I'm totally, officially and finally, a good wife (ahem). Let's just say we're both pretty danged happy with each other. ;-)

The year of ppd. My official blog admission: after Charlotte was born I was diagnosed with post-partum depression. I don't want to go into a lot of detail, although maybe in later braver months, I will. All I'm brave enough to say right now is that it was unexpected and severe. I believe I will heal, but mental illness has probably changed me forever. And sadly it will be a huge marker, much bigger than this short blurb indicates, of how I remember this year.

The year of the friend cars. I never thought I would be the mom who buys into character-licensed stuff, but the friend cars, they got me. We watch them, we talk about them, we wear their shirts and stick their stickers and read about them. We love them, and shamelessly so. Haters gonna hate, but Finn McMissile is sexy and he knows it.

The year of Another Nathan. Remember when Mark and I functioned here in Raleigh without our wonderful friend Another Nathan? No? Yeah us either. He's been a good friend to us for several years now, but all three of us have bonded so much this year that it's officially a best friend situation. Besides the stuff the internet already knows, like helping with the renovation and painting, being an awesome set of third hands to help with the kids, encouraging Mark and doing their ASP trips together, this year has been marked by a hundred fun nights of grilling and swimming and movies and red wine and cookies. It seems he's truly leaning on us for support in his home away from home, while also being just about the most amazing listener on the planet. We're all emotionally connected more than even just a year ago. We're honored to be his Raleigh family.

The year of the minivan. And then there were five. Three in car seats. Which means I let go of a last vestige of mobile professional Erin, and made the full transition to minivan mom. I can't remember now why I resisted so long. I love that our family is big enough to fill up a van. I love that our road trips now involve movies. I love that we have three rows of dancing passengers when we're out running errands on a sunny day. Um, my life as a minivan mom is rockin awesome.

It was the best of times and the worst of times and now it's over. How I feel about that doesn't matter as much as embracing what's to come next, and hanging on for dear life. Okay 2012, bring it.

Sunglasses in Winter, Duh Mom

2011-12-29T23:30:00.001-05:00

My two budding fashionistas have suddenly decided, here in the dim of winter, that they need to wear sunglasses. All the time. On every car trip. Even when the shades are up in the car and it's not that bright.

I don't mind, really, but they frequently need help getting the arms on over their ears. And they frequently need help with this after I have started driving. (There is lots of eye rolling from the front of the car.)

And when I keep asking why the sudden interest, I get brilliant answers like:

- they match this shirt (Nathan)
- sungasses, yeah! (Anneliese)
- it's good to wear them (Nathan)
- sungasses do it self! (Anneliese)
- mommy, I just like to wear them (Nathan)
- SUNGASSES, YEEEEAH! (Anneliese)

*sigh*

Whatever. It makes them happy.

Your daily Nathan, and daily Anneliese: rockin the shades

And it is, after all, a cute fashion choice. They're not wrong about that.

Big Brother Math

2011-12-28T23:29:00.001-05:00

Two sleeping parents
+ one up-early baby
+ one helpful big brother =

One million toys.

Your daily Charlotte: "But she needed to play with something!"

Don't cringe at the mess. Smile because he amused his sister safely and quietly and didn't wake us up.

Unquestionable win.

Christmas with Relatives

2011-12-27T23:03:00.002-05:00

What's Christmas without a healthy handful of extended family gatherings, right?

Charlotte bonding with Grandma

Uncle John, cousin Liam, and Nathan with his new apron

Great-Grandpa soothes Charlotte the Christmas Elf

Reading books with Grandpa. Always a win.

Way to go, Uncle John!

Marmie with Liam and Charlotte, the first-Christmas grandbabies!

This collection of pictures is presented as the drama-free version of our family gatherings. Just kidding, it was less chaotic than it looks. Just kidding, it doesn't look that chaotic, so it was actually more chaotic than it looks. But not too much drama. Just kidding, any drama is too much drama but it's unavoidable. Just kidding, it's avoidable but only if you're robots. Just kidding, even robots have drama. Just kidding, I know nothing about robots or their drama. Just kidding, I do, but what I meant to say is Christmas was fine and wonderful and easy. Just kidding, it was fine and wonderful but not easy. Okay I'm done now. Just kidding. No just kidding, I'm really done.

Relatives make me want to say weird snl-related things. Anyway, merry merry from our people!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T23:11:00.004-05:00

Our family had a sweet Christmas at home, made even sweeter by the fact that it was Charlotte's first, and our first in our new home.

We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas day in worship, and playtime, and naptime, and giving each other presents. I don't know if it's because I finally feel like my family is complete, or just that all the stars happened to align this year, but it's the first Christmas in my adult life that even came close to capturing the wonder of the Christmases I remember as a child. It was lovely and simple and except for ruining the roast beast (which resulted in a Christmas dinner of chinese takeout), it was the Christmas I've been craving for more than fifteen years.

Santa came! Train tracks for Nathan, a dress-up bin for Anneliese, and foam blocks for Charlotte.

New robes for the big kids. Anneliese calls hers a robot. Wear it my robot pees! Awesome.

Charlotte's first Christmas...

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Awkward Sibling Pic, v4.0

2011-12-23T23:37:00.005-05:00

Today's awkward sibling photo is brought to you by bathtime, lest any of you accuse us of never bathing our children. See, bathtime totally happens. And we take pictures. Sometimes even for reasons less important than the upcoming celebration of the lord's incarnation. Like, to commemorate Charlotte's whopping second bath. (For a completely hypothetical example. Ahem.)

So what's the best worst part of this picture?
A- Nathan's fake smile
B- Anneliese's hair, so dirty her pigtails stay in place even when the elastic is out
C- Charlotte, either obsessed with her belly button, or weak in the neck, or being a drama queen who's holding out for an amendment to the nudity clause in her modeling contract

If you guessed C, then ding ding ding you are correct!

Charlotte Claire: making family photos awkward since 2011.

So I Joined a Gym

2011-12-22T23:50:00.001-05:00

I haven't gone into painful detail here on the interwebz, but it hasn't been a top secret fact that the last few months haven't been my awesomest.

One thing I decided to do a few months ago was was join a gym. There's one near my house that has childcare and a pool* and it only took the tiniest amount of prodding** to get me on board. For way cheaper than an hourly sitter, I could get lots and lots of mommy breaktime while doing something healthy to boot. Also the exercise high sounded pretty good. (Or a sauna relaxation high. Or just a shower in peace. Whatevs.)

Cute new shoes added to my workout motivation. (I mean duh.)

Now a proud member of the orange shoelace club!

And I have this to say about the gym: I love it.

I'm not doing anything fancy, just the elliptical, weight machines, and an occasional group class. Only about an hour or so. It's been almost two months, and I've barely missed a day. (That's how you know I like it.) It's alone time, and I'm doing something that's just for me. It just feels healthy on all kinds of levels.

Plus. Again with the cute shoes.

*I definitely didn't tell the gym that I mostly wanted the pool so I could cry in private underwater. Oh and that I had no fitness goals, I just wanted to feel better. And they probably didn't look at me like a basket case. Nope. Not that crazy.

**Thanks, Another Nathan.

Charlotte and Whit

2011-12-21T23:58:00.000-05:00

My good friend Merritt and I have joked about Anneliese being a good match for her son Finn (whose grandparents took them on their first "date" last year), but now it looks like we have another shot at marrying a daughter off to a Shumate:

Meet Whit.

Whit, a few weeks old, November 2011

He's about the same age as Charlotte. And is clearly her soul mate.

Charlotte, a few weeks old, August 2011

Yep. They even have the same swing.

(And matching slacker no-longer-rookie moms who would never wake a sleeping baby, even in this position, for such tomfoolery as buckling them into the swing. Pssssht.)

Hey Charlotte and Whit, I promise y'all can totally hang out someday! Maybe someday soon!

Meeting Santa

2011-12-20T23:55:00.000-05:00

Our kids all got to meet Santa at Mark's work Christmas dinner! He makes an appearance every year, with a small gift for each kid there. They all sit on the floor and he calls for them by name when it's their turn to get a present. (Very little house on the prairie, no?)

It was Charlotte's first time seeing Santa, and she did great. Meaning, she was completely clueless and then fussed a little. Santa brought her a book about Jesus. She wasn't thrilled about the incarnation in board book form. We'll work on that.

Nathan was super nervous (you'll remember his Santa terror from last year) and had spent the weeks beforehand avoiding Santa wherever possible, but on this night he put his brave face on and talked to him about the train tracks he was longing for, and also where the sleigh was parked. So proud of him for doing something social, even when he was nervous! That is a very big deal for him. (And he was pretty excited that Santa brought him two new friend cars.)

And then there was Anneliese. Oh, Anneliese.

She spent most of the time sitting in my lap looking scared. And then when he called her name, she went to get the present, but frantically backtracked when Mark offered to lift her into his lap. She took the present, said thank you through her tears, and then fled the scene, sobbing.

(Everyone laughed. We had That Kid.)

She got some bright neon socks which she does like, but mostly she was happy to climb back into my lap and eat her candy cane.

They each need a t-shirt that says I Survived Santa 2011, right?

What Child is This? (No seriously.)

2011-12-19T23:01:00.000-05:00

Nathan's preschool class had their Christmas party last week, and I was one of the parents in charge of executing the celebration. The other two parents were my kind of preschool parents -- skip the weeks of planning, do simple things like read the nativity story and do a craft that doubles as a snack. Easy. Done and done.

Except.

One of the parents is an actor. And what reading of the nativity story wouldn't be cooler with people role-playing as the holy family, complete with costumes and a question/answer session? (Questions I would never ask.)

So guess who got talked into being the mother mild? (Babe in a manger included!)

This was the final of *many* wardrobe options. Like whoa.

And that's the story of how Charlotte made her acting debut as the baby Jesus.

My Girls

2011-12-17T23:58:00.000-05:00

Who's the fairest of them all?

(Or is fairest not the right word?...)

My Boys

2011-12-16T21:55:00.021-05:00

I love this picture, and both dudes in it, and that they also happen to be my two favorite snugglers (when they're not busy hugging each other).

Your daily Nathan: happy with Daddy

Nothing much, just an easy moment at home. We're thrilled when it happens!

Awkward Sibling Pic, v3.0

2011-12-12T23:08:00.000-05:00

Today's awkward sibling moment brought you to by Another Nathan. I was briefly excited and proud when I saw he had managed to get a picture with all three kids looking at the camera (no small miracle).

But then I looked closer.

Is one of Anneliese's pigtails standing up on its own? Is Nathan flipping us off? Is Charlotte crazy-happy or crazy-angry or just drunk with the power of world domination? What does it all mean???

(I can totally do a Christmas letter full of just these awkward little treasures, right? Say okay mommy.)

Charlotte at Four Months

2011-12-08T23:03:00.002-05:00

Charlotte is four months old! And whoa dang, folks. She has definitely turned a corner in the last few weeks. My hunch last month that the colic had passed has indeed proven true, and she has almost become... (dare I say it?) ... the easy one.

I KNOW RIGHT.

She's babbly, giggly, and I think the most flexible out of all three kids. Her nap schedule is erratic, but mostly that's because she's a poor third child whose schedule revolves around what everyone else is doing. She'll nap on the go if she needs to, and if I have to disrupt her sleep for some reason, she's okay with that too. Who knew.

Charlotte had a couple of major milestones over the last month. She got her first tooth (already?! freak.) (who said that? not me) and perfected the art of rolling over. Oh and both of those things happened on the same day. Yeah.

you roll, girl!

She's growing great too. Weighed in at 13.5 pounds (50th percentile) and just over 25 inches (90th percentile, tall like her sister!) so she's holding her curve on both fronts. I guess we could start solids whenever we feel ready, but (in case I haven't mentioned it once or a million times), I hate the baby food stage and am content to sit here in my easy world of nursing for a few months longer. Unless her weight drops off and she starts needing extra calories, in which case we'll for sure go ahead and start her.

Mostly Charlotte is just a sweet friendly social little girl. Far more social than Nathan or Anneliese were at this age anyway. She's quick to make eye contact and lock gazes with anyone* who's talking to her, and she's such an easy grinner. I'm not sure who convinced her over the last few weeks to be so happy about life, but I'll take it.

{Okay I just re-read what I wrote and I totally sound like one of those annoying moms who writes blog posts about how her baby is annoyingly perfect and even the crappy stuff is actually kind of sweet and blah blah so let me say now: I am not that mom, and she is not that baby. She's doing way better, but she still wakes up twiceish a night, she still manages to make sure I'm covered in spitup anytime I need to go anywhere, and she has a knack for yelling every time I most would like an adult conversation (kinda her thing). Make no mistake: she ain't perfect, and I rarely handle the frustrating moments well. Okay I just needed to be honest about that. Thanks for listening.}

My favorite time of day with Charlotte is in the wee hours of the morning, when, after two feeds and putting her back in her crib, I finally give up and take her back to bed with me. Sometimes she sleeps, sometimes she babbles, sometimes she poops on our bed (hey you take the bad with the good, right?) but she is always a great snuggler. And there's just something about the sweet little sighs of a baby lying next to you, and the weight of a head on your shoulder... yeah it makes me wonder why I didn't cosleep** more with Nathan and Anneliese.

So anyway, happy four months to my increasingly happy, growing-way-too-fast snuggle bunny little girl! We love you, Charlotte.

*Let's be honest, it's usually Nathan.
**Not interested in medical opinions right now, I know the facts, no hard feelings, kthx.

DIY Toddler Lounge Chair

2011-12-07T23:41:00.000-05:00

You will need:

-infant bouncy seat
-plastic stool
-toddler

Allow toddler to drag stool near bouncy seat, climb in bouncy seat, prop feet up. Instant lounge chair!

Your daily Anneliese: lounging

Duh, winning.

Santa Babies

2011-12-05T23:39:00.002-05:00

Your daily Goettsch (and a Grice):

Santaliese

Jolly St Nate

Charlotte the Sleepy Elf

Merry F-ing Christmas and a Very Screamy New Year!
Love, Charlotte and Liam
(Why would my mom reject my brilliant holiday card suggestion?)

Santa babies!

Christmasfest

2011-12-04T23:53:00.002-05:00

Ok, internets -- there's something you need to know about our dear friend Another Nathan. Dude loves him a good fest. And last weekend, he took me to see his absolute favorite of all the fests that ever were: the Christmas festival at his alma mater, St Olaf College.

Okay, he didn't take me to St Olaf. It's far away and really cold. We went and saw a simulcast (it had a legit trailer!) of the event at a movie theater here in Raleigh. (Although Nathan had also flown up to see it live and in person two days earlier, in Minnesota. That's how much he loves Christmasfest.)

He likes to tell how it was going to the Christmas festival with his mom one year in high school that solidified his college choice (and therefore his career in church music). Also how apparently it is not appropriate to feel Christmasy or put up a tree or fully embrace Advent until he after he's fested. Yep, true story.

And y'all. I totally get why he favorites this thing. It was so, so good. Five choirs, five hundred college kids singing beautifully with an incredible orchestra (I kept thinking dang they're just undergrads!! ...amazing talent). But it's different than just a regular Christmas concert, because the whole auditiorium full of attendees also sings along on hymns, and there is excellent narration and really well-done scripture readings. The whole thing was just kind of awesome. Best Christmas concert I've seen, probably ever. Definitely ever. I could have listened to at least another hour.

So all the music was really lovely, but the top choir, the St Olaf Choir, was just... outstanding. Even *I* could tell they were a notch above. I've been a music nerd for many years, and I have never heard a choir make a sound like that. Somehow even in parts, they sound like one voice. It's incredible. (Watch this video if you don't believe me. Actually watch it anyway, even if you do.)

(If you can't see the embedded video, click here to watch it on YouTube.)

Ok so anyway, the whole point of this. It was wonderful, I feel Christmasy now, and set your dvr's for when exerpts from the fest come on PBS in a few weeks. Do it. That is all.

Happy Advent.

Starbucks Date

2011-12-03T23:25:00.001-05:00

Last week I was feeling kind of down, and I wanted some time out of the house that would also make me feel mommy confident. So I collected Nathan out of his room, scrapped that day's "alone time," and we had a haircut and coffee date.

Usually when we do this, he just drinks a boxed chocolate milk. But that day, the people working there sold me on a kiddie hot chocolate (Nathan calls it chocolate hot, remember?) that they made special for him to be juuuust warm, not hot. Per Nathan's very very specific instructions. So, chocolate warm, I guess.

Anyway.

It was a sweet time, snuggling on some tacky orange armchairs, sharing a treat and drinking from holiday cups, making small talk with every person who came to the nearby counter to add cream and sugar. (Nathan needed to know what every person had ordered, and needed them to know he was drinking chocolate hot.)

It wasn't til about twenty minutes later, when Nathan was singing and dancing (in public!) to feliz navidad in the background, when it occurred to me his hot chocolate was probably chock full o' caffeine.

Um, oops.

Bright-Eyed Sisters

2011-12-02T23:23:00.000-05:00

Today's minute of Mommy Lovedrunk is brought to you by my sweet daughters, both of whom manage to smile with their eyes (and light up my life in the process).

It makes them seem curious and engaged. Between Charlotte's wide-eyed long lashes, and Anneliese's sparkly eye shine, it's hard not to meet their gaze and be happy when they're happy.

Plus, who could resist just one more picture of babies holding babies?

Party of Five

2011-12-01T23:54:00.017-05:00

Well here it is December, four months since baby Charlotte was inside me, yet we are still experiencing a real dearth of family pictures with all of us. And by dearth, I mean only one such picture actually exists.

Shameful, no? (Add it to the list.*) To make it even better (better?) even the one we do have was copied from someone else's camera.

*sigh*

Anyway. Our family of five, in October, at the legofest:

Parents uncombed and unshaven, four-year-old with a perfected fake smile paying attention to something completely unrelated, floppy baby covered in spit up, and of course a toddler middle child who's wearing all manner of who knows what for what will turn out to be a milestone family photo. Yep, this is us.

And I think with this combination of five personalities, it will get weirder before it gets normaler.

*Charlotte has still only had just the one bath. But who's counting?

Furman Girls: The Next Generation

2011-11-30T23:00:00.000-05:00

Last week my Furman friend Kelley was coming through town with one of her daughters, so I dropped Nathan at school and took my girls to go meet up with her in Chapel Hill. We met at emu's house, and of course her two daughters were also there, so...

Yeah that's a lot of Furman girls in one place.

Kelley, me, Liz... and our girls*

And somehow we were all wearing purple. (Wasn't planned. Swear.)

Anneliese- 2, Charlotte- 3m, Sienna- 3, Sally- 2m, Annie- 2

Which means I'm pretty sure some of these babies are destined to be sweet Furman friends eventually too. (I just cringed as I wrote that. Being a mommy means thinking about college in terms of tuition dollars. Ugggggggh. But, um... yeah. I mean, go Paladins! #fuallthetime)

It was a great morning of catching up with great friends and a handful of great laughs.

(And Kelley has hinted at coming out of blogging retirement for a post with outtakes and attempts at this group picture. You heard it here first.) (Update: she did it!)

*We're actually missing one from these families of Furman girls, because Kelley's oldest daughter Kiran, the original Furman Girl: Next Generation, was back at home. Next time!

Pehistoric Lego Creations

2011-11-29T23:22:00.000-05:00

Legos never get old around here. True story.
Nathan is dawning on a new age of dinosaur love (an era I was told to expect, an apparent requisite phase for all little boys). So of course he has been very busy building the perfect prehistoric creature.

Your daily Nathanosaurus

Look I made a lego dinosaur! It's a brontosaurus and it has six legs.

Um, yeah. Of course it does. Points for effort?

Glimpses of Wateree

2011-11-27T23:00:00.037-05:00

The big kids have spent a few weekends recently with their Opa and Oma down in South Carolina. First when Mark dropped them off for a visit while he went to a football game in Clemson (leaving me at home for another easy fall weekend with just Charlotte), and then they rode down with Uncle Nick and Aunt Barbara for Thanksgiving last week (Mark was working, Charlotte and I found ourselves in Huntersville with my dad's family).

It's kind of bizarre to be all split up on weekends like that, but it's fun afterwards to look through picture updates and see what my babies are up to when I'm not around.

(If I had to base those assumptions on what Anneliese told me, it'd be limited to something like big puppy! big boat! Opa's house! Nay-nay biiiiig booooat! Yeah.)

Who doesn't love a fabulous new hat? I mean really.

Why do they both do this with their fingers?

So I'm gathering the canoe is not his favorite, then?

But they both seem pretty happy on the big boat.

And I'm pretty sure this is my new favorite picture of Nathan.

Today I'm feeling thankful for sweet grandparents and relatives who enjoy and know my children. It's no small thing, really.

Chef Nathan

2011-11-25T16:59:00.001-05:00

I've mentioned before that Nathan has become legitimately helpful in the kitchen. But now that he gets up before us, gets himself dressed, gets his own yogurt and (pre-poured) cup of milk for breakfast, and can make his own lunch? I'm pretty sure he should just take over all the cooking duties.

Your daily Nathan: maybe a budding chef, but no awards for speed

I mean, it's just one small step from pb&j to chicken casserole and potatoes au gratin, right?

Babies Holding Babies

2011-11-23T23:25:00.002-05:00

Nathan and Anneliese both spend a lot of time begging to hold Charlotte. They love it. Every time we take a few minutes and sit down and let them (and then bust out the camera, of course), I think it's going to turn into another in a series of Awkward Sibling Photos.

But seeing two kids who are so joyful at being big siblings, and a baby who just takes it all in stride, like being adored is the most natural thing in the world...

...well I just don't have much to poke fun of about that. It just seems sweet and happy to me instead. Awkward sibling hilarity and snark will have to wait for another week when they aren't being so beautiful and sincere.

The World Through Nathan's Lens

2011-11-21T23:49:00.001-05:00

I went through the pics on the cameras last week and there were a ton taken by Nathan. I found lots of shots of his sisters, his toys, his clothes, and our house, all taken from his height. It's actually kind of fascinating, the things he finds photo-worthy.

(He might say the same about me.)

So here are a few pics of the world according to Nathan... these made me smile:

the beloved orange shoelaces

classic Mommy

baby sister Charlotte

I promise my driving is better than this picture indicates

Bowden, from behind

smiley self-portrait

happy sister Anneliese

Mommy and Nathan

I love seeing the world through his eyes, a little bit. :)

Mommy's Girls

2011-11-19T23:48:00.001-05:00

My friend emu took this picture of me with Anneliese and Charlotte last week when we had a Furman-friends playdate at her house.

Whoa. I have two daughters.

I love this picture. And the babies in it, and everything it represents about being their mommy.

(Including the plethora of purple.)

Tis the Season? Already?

2011-11-18T23:00:00.020-05:00

Charlotte doesn't seem too thrilled at the way-to-soon arrival of her first Christmas season in early November.

Your daily Charlotte: Christmas already? Yikes!

Little does she know, this is likely going to be her hat for the whole winter. Maybe she should join the #OccupyAdvent movement.

Another Day, Another Dress-Up

2011-11-15T23:59:00.000-05:00

Mommy's new favorite hoodie is also Anneliese's new favorite hoodie.

Your daily Anneliese

It just might look cuter on her. Maybe. ;-)

Youth Choir Paparazzo

2011-11-13T23:02:00.000-05:00

Nathan and I went to a youth choir rehearsal to take some pictures for our church's new website. He was a little bit excited about seeing his teenage fans, and a lot excited that I was going to let him "help" with the picture-taking.

And perhaps I was a little bit paying attention to the youth choir, and a lot paying attention to Nathan being their paparazzo.

And because it makes me smile, here's the rehearsal from his perspective:

I think he does a good job of capturing the excitement and splendor of teenage girls singing worship music around a piano, yes? ;) He's pretty much an artiste.

Boxelder Nightmare

2011-11-12T23:51:00.000-05:00

So the newest homeowner adventure we've been battling recently is the discovery that we're cohabiting with a bunch of boxelder bugs. And by bunch, I mean like... tens of thousands of boxelder bugs. Do you know boxelder bugs? I didn't know them til we moved here. They look like this:

like roaches. with red trim. oh and they fly.
all togther now: *ew*

You might remember from Nathan's tick story that I'm not in love with bugs. That they make me cry. And throw up. And feel all panicky inside (and out). I'm a smart rational confident adult, but I do not do bugs.

We had noticed them outside the house sometimes, but didn't pay them any particular notice. Just another of the bajillions of bugs that crawl on our planet that I try not to think about too much. Then a few weeks ago I saw one on Charlotte's bedroom wall and (calmly, I swear) asked Mark to kill it. But then we saw another. And another. And pretty soon we had killed about forty. It was not a good start to date night.

Several days, several google hours, and one visit from our pest people later, we had more info. Boxelder bugs, attracted to boxelder trees (note to self: find all boxelder trees in our neighborhood and cut them down), don't bite or eat plants, love warmth and sunshine.

So they're mostly harmless except that as the weather gets cooler and they have a hard time finding their warmth and sunshine outside, they think they should move into our house to get it.

HA HA NO.

Our pest people brought a big truck and motor and spray system and ladders and attacked the house with poison. They were liberal in the application. I told them I was more freaked out by the bugs than the chemicals. I might or might not have stood outside crying and saying die mother f-ers while they were spraying. (Not my finest housewife moment.) (Bugs bring out the ~~worst~~ best of my profanity abilities.)

(I also might or might not have spent an afternoon huddled in the kids' bathroom with two terrified children and one hungry baby after bugs were spotted in all their bedrooms and naptime just wasn't happening. That day we were four out of four for people at our house crying. Not my finest mommy moment.)

Charlotte's bedroom window. This is the stuff of horror films.

So basically they swarm around the southwest side of our house (the bonus room downstairs and Charlotte's room upstairs), where there is lots of sun in the afternoon. And then come nightfall, they apparently find ways into the house to keep warm. Dormer closets, crawl spaces, window frames, our baby's bedroom. Their numbers do seem smaller now, but I'm not sure whether that's because the spray was effective or they're just staying in the house walls now.

Excuse me while I throw up. Again.

Charlotte at Three Months

2011-11-08T23:26:00.000-05:00

Charlotte is three months old! And... we're all still pretty much exhausted. Which is why we have mostly cell phone pics and not much else. Hey, life with a newborn, right?

Here's what's new with Squeaky C this month:

Babbling! She has become quite talkative, far more babbly than I remember Nathan or Anneliese being at this age. Sometimes I swear she's saying hi!!! She has a funny and pipsqueaky voice and we get to hear it most when her brother and sister are around.

Sleeping! She spent a week of sleeping through the night. The whole night. Like, twelve hours. And just when we had convinced ourselves we had a new normal, she changed her mind and went back to being up twice a night. Suuuuuper. But at least nowadays when she gets up, she eats then goes right back down, no more up forever with a wide awake baby at all hours. Still, I am ready to be done with the zombiemom thing.

Grabbing! Charlotte can now reach for and grasp small toys. Mostly Jolene. And my hair. Hi there, major milestone.

Spilling! This is what our family calls spit-up (thank you Nathan, circa 2009). And Charlotte does it like a champ. She's a spit-up superhero. And her superpower is the amazing ability to get it everywhere except on the burp cloth. Between her spills and my boob leaks, I'm basically always a hot wet mess. As is the furniture. And carpet. And other children.

Giggling! Her laugh is more of a chuckle right now than a full-on giggle, but it's still music to my ears. When we bounce her right before or after a feeding, she's tickled enough to share it. Here's hoping there's lots more of this to come.

Sitting! Well, in the bumbo. And her head still droops a little. But it kind of counts! Or maybe not? Yeah she's as floppy as her brother and sister before her. I make floppy babies. True story.

Scooting! Okay so it's obviously not intentional mobility, but when we put Charlotte on the floor, she arches her back and presses against her feet, which means she can work her way around a room in no time. Which also means our floors are covered in spit up everywhere, not just on the towel where I originally laid her.

Self-soothing! She's still loving the thumb. And I'm still loving her, loving the thumb.

Eating! She nurses well and often (still about 10-12 times a day, including morning and evening clusterfeeds), and is almost guaranteed to accept a bottle when we need her to. Or want her to. Which means date nights are back. Win.

Chillaxin'! I'm about to say this to the internet, although I'm scared it will bite me in the badonkadonk later: I think the colic has passed. Charlotte gives us many many spells of awake-yet-peaceful these days. She is still fussy at times, but it's rarely inconsolable, and it's never for hours on end. I have one thing to say about that: whew.

Happy three months, sweet Charlotte!

Chorister Nathan

2011-11-07T23:43:00.006-05:00

Part of Nathan's preschool is a weekly worship service, and part of that worship service is teaching the older kids (whoa. mine is now one of the older kids) to lead in singing. In a choir.

I guess it goes without saying that his favorite part of this is wearing a robe (like mommy! awww).

But the truly unexpected amazing thing is this: Y'all! He actually sings! I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes. But our little social wallflower... he totally sings. Out loud! (While avoiding making eye contact with anyone he knows, before during or after. Whatevs. Baby steps. He sings!)

And it's maybe the sweetest thing I have ever seen. I might or might not have cried.

Your daily Nathan: sweet choirboy

It is almost incomprehensible to me that my child is standing in the sanctuary wearing a robe and singing anthems when he was just born... like, a couple weeks ago or something, right? Whoa.

Best. Mad. Face. Ever.

2011-11-04T23:41:00.000-04:00

Okay folks. I'm going to ask you to stretch your imaginations here for a bit. Can we all just agree to not remember that Charlotte was born at the beginning of August, and not notice that it's now the beginning of November, and not do the math to figure out how old she is for today's milestone? And definitely can we agree to not judge anyone based on those things we're not noting? Okay? Cool? Cool.

That being said... Charlotte has officially had her first bath!!

(Get excited.)

She was okay with it at first... and then she wasn't.

Which is okay with us, because her mad face can't be stressful when it's this... awesome.

So basically, she shrieked. Amidst a chorus of Nathan clamoring to help wash her, and Anneliese constantly narrating what was happening (baby. chey-ette. baff.) (baby. water.), she shrieked. Lesson for the day: first baths are not unchaotic in a family our size.

Other lesson for the day: clean babies are sweet and fuzzy-headed and oh-so-cute wrapped in towels, and might be worth the effort of bathtime a little more often. Maybe.

Llama Alpaca

2011-11-03T23:16:00.000-04:00

Last week I saw a picture of a llama on twitter. It made me laugh. Nathan asked why I was laughing. So I showed him the llama picture.

Did he think it was funny too? I don't know. I'll never know, because he instead chose to respond with...

(wait for it)

...but that's not a llama, that's an alpaca.

I don't... I can't... um, whaaa? Did that sentence really just fall out of your mouth? Well excuuuuuse me.

Hey, Mom? Dad? I hereby offer a sincere apology for all of those moments in my childhood when I ruined a perfectly good moment by being a know-it-all. I repent in sackcloth and ashes.

(And after a very thorough google image search, I still don't know what the eff this "llama" is. Maybe a llama. Maybe an alpaca. Maybe a camel. Someone enlighten me. Someone who is not four, please.)

A Ladybug, a Skunk... and Miss Viola Swamp

2011-10-31T23:09:00.014-04:00

In case anyone out there is wondering, the magic age where kids decide to voice a strong preference about Halloween costumes is four. After being wishy washy for a week, Nathan eventually latched on to the idea of dressing as a witch. And wouldn't let go. Not a warlock, not a wizard, a witch. With a black dress and tall hat and green hair and green fingernails.

Oh Nathan. Always a big bucket of quirky.

And it turns out he had a very specific witch in mind. A certain Miss Viola Swamp. Apparently she's a character in a children's book (which everyone on the planet has heard of except me) -- a mean substitute teacher who we're supposed to understand is actually the real teacher in disguise. Oh and she looks like a man.

So basically Nathan was asking to be a cross-dressing witch for Halloween. SUPER.

Oh! Except, I'm not sure she's even actually a witch. Whatevs. Details.

So we found a witch's hat, green hairspray, and I took a green highlighter to his nails. I talked him into a cape instead of a dress. He took one look in the mirror, decided he didn't look like Miss Swamp (duh sweetie, because you insisted on being dressed like a witch, and is she even a witch?) and proclaimed that he was just a regular witch pretending to be Miss Swamp.

Clear as mud, yes?

So. I sent him to school like this:

He was nervous right at the last minute, but when he got to school and all the other kids were also wearing costumes, he felt better. Oh and his teacher was also dressed as Miss Viola Swamp, and had also opted for a regular witch's hat and a cape (really, universe? really?) which was either extremely validating for Nathan or extremely weird. One of those.

We also dressed up the girls (in two hand-me-down costumes, you might remember Nathan as a skunk too) (side note: wow Nathan and Anneliese look alike when they're dressed as skunks!) and took everyone trick-or-treating.

baby's first halloween! *scaryface*

It was rainy and cold, and only Anneliese didn't seem to mind the weather, which she proved by stomping in every puddle and sloshing happily through every gutter and was soaked to her knees by the time we got home.

Which was about six houses after we started.

And our little girl skunk garnered far more comments than our little boy witch. I have to say, I'm kind of proud of our neighborhood for that. No one batted an eye. Yay America. For what it's worth, Anneliese does make a ridiculously cute little skunk.

As for me, I dressed up as a mommy of three who loves trick-or-treating in the rain. Who just survived her son's first drag halloween. Awesome.

Happy Halloween!

Lost in a Good Book

2011-10-30T23:12:00.002-04:00

Anneliese loves to read. And, as we have well established, she loves puppies.

Your daily Anneliese: lost in a good book

Yeah. Basically she just peed herself a little.

Nathan Brings It On

2011-10-28T23:19:00.001-04:00

So apparently my mom took Nathan and Anneliese to a Davidson basketball scrimmage last weekend when they were visiting. Nathan wasn't a huge fan of the basketball (word on the street is the buzzers were far too loud and startling and and after some time he was basically crumpled in his seat with his hands over his ears) but... he did like the cheerleaders.

Um, people dancing around and spelling things? That's basically Nathan's happy place.

He's recently convinced himself that Charlotte's squirms and wiggles are dancing. Oh and that he taught her to do it. With his pom-poms.

Your daily Nathan: bringing it on

Somewhere out there, my uncle and aunt (former Wildcat cheerleaders) are doing a happy dance themselves.

New 'Do

2011-10-27T23:09:00.033-04:00

I have spent a lot of the last three months feeling like a hot mess. And a lot of the last three weeks trying desperately to get it together.

When Ashley was here she convinced me that a new haircut and color would give me a mood and confidence lift, or if nothing else buy me a couple hours out of the house where I could be alone except for the person washing my hair (um, heavenly).

So I did it.

It's now a lot shorter, a lot darker, and Charlotte told me she likes it too.

The Third Thumb

2011-10-26T23:52:00.000-04:00

I have spent no small amount of time lamenting the fact that both Nathan and Anneliese turned out to be thumb addicts when I would have preferred them to take a pacifier. You know, so I'd have a prayer of keeping it clean (well, cleanish), and also so *I* could be the one to determine when the addiction ended. I'm sure there are moms of paci addicts who say they would choose thumbs instead. Maybe it's one of those grass-is-greener things.

But no more.

Charlotte has found her thumb. And let the record show, I am fully on board. I am now a shameless lover of this addiction. Shameless pimper of the thumb. Shameless reveler in the extra sleep her thumb habit has bought us.

Y'all. The crying in the last week since she got thumb-consistent has been reduced by at least 50%. She fusses, finds her thumb, and gets it together. It even happens in the middle of the night.

I don't think the awesomeness of that can be overstated:

She fusses in her crib. She finds her thumb within minutes. And she goes back to sleep. All while I stay warm and cozy and drowsy in my bed.

SERIOUSLY.

Her up-once-a-night pattern has changed to a full 10-12 hours of sleep almost every night in the last week or so. So basically I have learned to equate thumb sucking with sleeping through the night. And quiet naptimes during the day. I might pay for it later in thousands of dollars of orthodontics bills, but let me tell you what: the lack of tears now will be worth every penny later.

It took three babies and three thumbs to get me on board, but I'm here now. My name is Erin, and I am a babythumbaholic.

Two Little Tigers

2011-10-25T23:10:00.000-04:00

I'm not sure if you people got the memo (or caught a whiff of Mark's ~~borderline-~~obnoxious excited chatter about it), but Clemson's football team is having the best season they've had in, like... thirty years? Or something. I didn't fact-check that, I'm just guessing they haven't played this well since their golden age in the early eighties.

(Aside: wasn't the early eighties kind of a golden age for everyone? I mean really.)

(Another aside: good grief the early eighties was thirty years ago. I'm old.)

Anyway, Clemson. Playing well. Happy Mark. Posing happy kids on staircase to take happy pictures.

Your daily Nathan AND Anneliese!

Yay Tigers and stuff.

N-A-T-H-A-N

2011-10-24T23:32:00.001-04:00

So we have survived the era of what's that, broken through to the other side of what's your favorite color and thought we were contentedly still thriving in the season of why, but it turns out Nathan has a new favorite question:

How do you spell.... {insert random word here} {repeat ad nauseum all day every day}

Oh and he does it with numbers too. God bless our souls when we eat in a restaurant that calls numbers out when food is ready.

How do you spell french toast? What does purple start with? What's a C for? What sound does a G make? What makes sixty-two? What does that stop sign spell? What does a nine and five for Lightning McQueen make? What does c-h-a-r-l-o-t-t-e spell?*

Awesomesauce.

He's doing great -- he knows all his numbers and letters and can even sound them out. And he's getting pretty dang good at it. But seriously? ENOUGH. Especially with asking questions you very well know the answer to.

What's that letter, Mommy?

It's an N, buddy. What's N for?

Nathan. And what else?

You tell me, what else?

Another Nathan.

:::sigh:::

We're trying to channel his energies into writing instead. True story: it's much quieter. Spelling his own name is his favorite, but there are others too (Uncle John pretty much has celebrity status in these parts).

still working on those J's though

And when he draws a picture for me and then asks how to spell mommy, even if it is for the sixteen thousandth time....

Okay okay, I guess this stage is cute or whatever.

*Many many thanks, dear sister, for the large stack of burp cloths bearing the baby's name. We had no idea just how conversation-worthy those would end up being.

Mommy and Me Time

2011-10-23T16:08:00.003-04:00

Mark took the big kids on a road trip for the weekend. He went to Clemson for the football game, and Nathan and Anneliese visited the grandparents in Huntersville. For those of you doing the math at home, that leaves just Charlotte and me back at home.

Which means my weekend looked a lot like this:

And this:

And, because I've decided that I care not one lick about internet-offending anyone who thinks that a baby smiling while nursing is anything less than precious, this:

... In a word, glorious.

There's a part of me that feels guilty for saying that. I mean, I love Nathan and Anneliese and Mark. Obviously I do. But dang if I don't also want and need quiet easy bonding time with Charlotte.

So, I shamelessly revel.

We ignored the clock and did whatever we wanted. We snuggled. We went outlet shopping. We took a nap on the floor. We caught up on the dvr. We went out to dinner, twice. We went and looked at new houses with a friend. We spent both nights co-sleeping with no crying.

And if there's a better way to feel mommy-lovedrunk first thing in the morning than waking up to this sweet sight, I don't know what it is.

So basically, pretending Charlotte and I were the only two people alive for a couple of days was good for my soul. Yeah.

Happy Girl, Revisited

2011-10-21T23:12:00.000-04:00

I am very high on Anneliese these days, can you tell? She's always been our happy girl, but in the past month or so, she has taken it up a notch, and she basically just oozes joy.

(And pasta sauce, apparently.)

Your daily Anneliese: the smile that melts a thousand hearts

That smile. Oh, that smile. How can you not smile back? Gets me every time.

What I learned at the State Fair

2011-10-18T23:12:00.001-04:00

We hit the state fair this year with four adults and four babies. Me and Mark, Ashley and John, Nathan, Anneliese, and the two newborns Charlotte and Liam. And before you raise your eyebrows too high, you should know that we handled it just fine. Mostly.

Here's what I learned:

1.) It's totally possible to pee on a portapotty while wearing a baby in a bjorn. Ashley and Mark both proved it.

2.) If you send one adult and two kids to the top of a giant slide, one of the kids will inevitably get panicky and you will have to send another adult to the rescue. That same panicky child will, within the next two hours, be begging to ride everything he sees, including rides designed for grownups.

3.) My son is a woo girl on amusement park rides. (So is his Uncle John.)

4.) And apparently the two of them got together and converted Mark as well.

Hands off, ladies. He's all mine.

5.) It's possible to eat an egg roll for breakfast, a pineapple slushy for a snack, and a fried snickers bar for lunch, and still not feel nutritionally satisfied. Who knew.

6.) My sister can shove her face full of funnel cake, get powedered sugar everywhere, includingon the maternity pants she's still rockin', and still be absolutely beautiful.

7.) Cows are prettier when they've had their hair vacuumed. Oh yes. They did that.

8.) If you go on a reeeeally high swing ride, and get kind of scared, your husband won't hold your hand and make you feel better. Oh no. He will make a video of you panicking. {footage not for public internet consumption. sorry.}

9.) It is indeed possible for me to contain four babies at a carnival, by myself, even when one of them is on the boob (you can't see Liam but he's in the stroller and I am in control, I promise). Supermom what.

10.) One thing I did not learn: What is a dead animal petting zoo, exactly? No really. Not a rhetorical question. I need to know.

For more pictures of our Goettsch/Grice trip to the state fair, click here for the photobucket album.

Uncle Mark

2011-10-16T23:04:00.001-04:00

My sister Ashley and her husband John came in town to visit (and for the state fair), and Mark finally got to meet baby Liam!

We took care of him for a few hours so Ashley and John could have a date night and a bit of evening quiet. Uncle Mark did a bangup job.

Just kidding, he did great. Of course he did. And he and Liam are super chummy now.

Good times.

Jolene

2011-10-15T23:19:00.000-04:00

One of the presents Mark brought back from Florida a few weeks ago was a little stuffed turtle for Charlotte. So the turtle's name is Jolene. This is according to the tag she came with, not any bizarre toy-naming tendencies from either child (not that those don't exist -- we also have a baby doll named Baggie, which is a story for another day).

Jolene is super soft and small enough for Charlotte to grasp. Bowden too, it turns out. They had a brief run-in when Jolene first came home from Florida, and the end result is that Bowden has firmly established her territory in this house, and Jolene is down an eye.

Anyway.

She's still sweet and cuddly and she's become the go-to toy for sticking in Charlotte's car seat, or for big brother and big sister to bring over when she's upset and needs a toy.

...Or, in Anneliese's case, for throwing at her when she's upset and needs a toy.

*sigh*

Try not to notice how out-of-control exhausted I look, mmmkay?

And that's the story of how our baby's first toy is a one-eyed turtle named Jolene.

Happy Birthday, Anneliese!

2011-10-13T23:22:00.002-04:00

Our baby girl is officially TWO!

The girls and I spent Anneliese's birthday morning shopping while Nathan was at preschool. First we hit a toy store where we played with a ton of stuff, then I let Anneliese pick out one present to take home. She wavered between a pink Little People airplane and some colored bubbles for the bath, before deciding on the latter (I might have given her a gentle nudge towards the bubbles, being the more silent option). Then we went and picked out helium balloons (she chose a shiny star... purple of course) and had a birthday lunch at Zaxby's.

Nathan and I made Anneliese a purple puppy cake, per her request, and we had a few friends and family over to celebrate. We had so much fun watching her open presents and be the center of attention (although Nathan did give her a run for her money as far as that's concerned, and there was even one gift she opened which made him say that looks like a good present we can share! um, no).

It was an easy fun day celebrating our sweet and joyful little lady.

What, *you* don't eat birthday cake shirtless? Your purple mess then.

See Nathan? She totally knows how to open presents herself.

Little mama? Makes me smile.

Happy birthday to our sweet funny wonderful beautiful Anneliese!

{Yes, I know these pics are ~~a week~~ two weeks late in posting. Though shalt not launch bloggity complaints at the new(ish) mommy.}

For more pics of Anneliese's birthday, click here for the photobucket album.

Anneliese's Second Year

2011-10-12T23:02:00.003-04:00

Baby Anneliese has had a crazy eventful second year! In the last twelve months she's learned to crawl, walk, run, and talk. She lived through renovation and moving, and now sleeps in a big girl bed. She went from mostly bald to wild and curly and mulleted. She turned from being our baby to being a big sister. And she did all of that with a heart-melting smile at the ready (and Hattie in tow).

Seeing her grow up is in turns both sad and beautiful. Mostly beautiful.

Some of our favorite Anneliese memories from the last year:

(If you can't see the embedded video, click here to watch it on YouTube.)

She's turning into an amazing little girl. We love you, Anneliese.

A Legofest

2011-10-10T23:00:00.003-04:00

Confession: I didn't know that legos were, like... a thing, until the last year or two. It turns out that they have almost a kidcult following, and people love them. The lego love is apparently prevalent enough to warrant stores and licensed merchandise and even amusement parts. Who knew?\

Well. Mark and Another Nathan, for starters. Both lego-obsessed kids grown into lego-obsessed adults. And they were both a ~~teensy bit excited~~ laughably grown-man beside themselves when we found out that there was a lego festival coming to Raleigh. A fest! With legos! Whoa dang.

So we went. Obvs.

And Y'ALL. I have never seen so many legos IN. MY. LIFE. There had to have been trillions of legos in that convention center. (Oh yes, it was in a convention center.) It was a special kind of lego awesome.

Our happy lego-lovin boy

Daddy and Anneliese built a tower together.

Charlotte's take on the fest? ...Meh.

Nathan and Another Nathan built a... train? A roller coaster? A train station?
(They were concentrating very hard on their work. I did not ask for specifics.)

A lego made of legos! Meta.

What's better than a sweet toddler wearing a lego crown and lanyard?
NOTHING.

A map of the USA, built by fest attendees.

The Nathans each built houses to put on the map.
(n Texas and Iowa, in case you were curious)

My personal contribution was the row of flowers in front of Nathan's house. Yes, that's totally a house. And yes those do too look like flowers!

Have you ever seen a grown man this excited about legos?
NO YOU HAVE NOT.

Anneliese found the one lego puppy* in that huge mountain of duplos.
(*It was a bear. Whatevs.)

Nathan built a lego car and raced it down the track.
Two of his favorite things!

Look! Lego Harry Potter! He's hott.

Wait what's this can it be I'm not sure oh yes it totally is A FRIEND CAR MADE OF LEGOS. Oh, sweet lego-ey Lightning McQueen. I can now die happy. *swoons*

(Okay. I might have been a little excited about the legofest too.)

Charlotte at Two Months

2011-10-08T23:00:00.002-04:00

Well if it's blowing my mind that Anneliese is going to be two this week, it might be freaking me out even more that Charlotte is already two months old! Um, what?

On some level I feel like we're still in those fresh newborn days, when really we're... not. Not even a little. Maybe because the fussy sleep-deprived fog hasn't quite lifted, it's hard to believe it's already been two months. But it has. The calendar says so.

The past month has been... hard. I won't lie. Charlotte is still colicky and spends a lot of her waking time frustrated. She spits up a lot, which sometimes makes me worry her tummy is upset. Her doctor says she has molars (!) bulging in her back gums, which at this age is unusual but not unheard of, and is likely causing some pain too. Basically we're all exhausted. We hear her crying even when she's not crying anymore. It just sort of stays ringing in our ears. We call her Baby Screamsalot so that we laugh instead of cry. It works, sometimes.

But there are some good things happening as well:

- She is less fussy now than she was even just a week ago, especially during the day. If we're on the decline, I'll take it. Even if it's slow.

- She is going to bed by 8 or 9 most nights, and then only getting up for one feed before daybreak. Our nights are much more manageable, overall.

- She has a couple of periods of sweet quiet and smileyness every day.

- She is a joy to cuddle with in the wee-morning hours when she comes to bed with me. I love waking up next to her. Those few minutes a day are doing wonders for our bonding, which otherwise has been frustratingly slow.

- She does great on the go. I can haul her to the grocery store, for preschool dropoffs, shoe shopping, and even on road trips, and she handles it like a champ. She loves the car seat and seems to like being out and about, where there are new things to see and hear.

- She can stay with a sitter. This is a really important breakthrough. When your baby screams for hours every evening, there's really not many people you trust to leave her with. Now that she's a little more manageable before bedtime, we can actually leave her for a few hours and actually be able to relax enough to enjoy some adult time. It sounds small, but this has done wonders for our sanity.

- She's huge! She's growing really well, just shy of 12 lbs and just over 24 inches. That's about the 75th percentile for weight, and off-the-charts tall (99th) for height like her sister.

- She's a great eater. Once we got her tongue-tie sorted out, she has been my easiest nurser of all three. She eats well, she eats regularly (about every hour or two during the day), and she doesn't seem to have any aversions to what I eat (except caffeine). She and my milk seem to be in a good rhythm of supply and demand, including enough to pump a bit for the freezer most days if I want to.

- Nathan and Anneliese still adore her. I keep waiting for some sibling rivalry or jealousy, but so far it's been really smooth sailing. Yay.

So the past month has been a bag of mixed blessings.

We hate that she's not happier, but we're grateful she's healthy and thriving. It's hard to adjust to meeting her difficult needs, but at this point our family wouldn't feel right without her.

Someone told me recently that a new baby is a hundred days of hell, and then it's awesome. And since the hell days are decreasing while the awesome days are increasing, I'm daring to hope we're right on the brink of that.

It's been two hard months, Charlotte, but we know you're worth the ride! We love you, Squeak.

Annelieseisms at Almost Two

2011-10-07T23:40:00.000-04:00

I can't believe Anneliese is almost two. Two. Where did the last year go?

A year ago today, she was still a baby. (Look at this picture if you don't believe me.) And two years ago today, she was still gestating (another picture). Whoa.

And now...

Well now she is a walking talking bundle of joyful energy. Our easygoing friendly (yet also messy and destructive) sweet toddler. She's loud and affectionate and opinionated and wonderful.

A few of our favorite Annelieseisms will give you a glimpse of what life is like with her these days....

Haaaah Mom! (Hi, Mom!) Said at the top of her lungs anytime she enters a room and needs to greet someone. Even if it's only been four minutes since she saw us last.

Hankoo Daddy. (Thank you, Daddy.) She is sweet and appreciative of anything anyone does for her. Hand her those legos? Thank you. Fix her shoes? Thank you. Wipe her butt? Thank you. Yes, seriously.

Gee-go. (Here you go.) Said when she hands us anything. Something we asked for, or, you know... whatever trash or dirt she picks up off the ground. Whatevs.

Poh-puw. (Purple.) Her answer to any question about what color something is. Subsequent guesses frequently include boo, geen, wed, wonj, ey-oh, and boun. That's clear, yes?

WON-uh! (Run!) Shouted before she races across a room. (She's at that age where she has to narrate everything she does, as she does it.) These races are best when they end in a huge hug.

Happo-uh book. (Hippo book). Which she asks to have in bed with her at every naptime and bedtime. She also asks for her pig book, and one of about four puppy books. Or all of them. Girl loves her some animal reading.

Puppy hurt. (Puppy shirt.) Her favorite thing to wear these days, except for some boo dess she keeps asking about. (We own no such blue dress.) (?)

Nay-nay gihn. (Nathan again.) Asked on repeated loop all morning, every morning, when he is at school and she is missing him.

Poo pees. (Pool please.) She asks to swim every day after nap. (Even though we haven't been swimming in a good month.) Not to be confused with poopeee pees which means she has to poop. Sometimes they sound alike. On those days, we miss the potty and change diapers. *sigh*

Baby hyatt. (Baby Charlotte.) This pronunciation is much better than the first attempts, which sounded like a bad four-letter word. Use your imagination.

Baby ky-een. (Baby crying.) Proclaimed with authority whenever Charlotte fusses. You can imagine she gets a lot of mileage out of this one. Alternate version: mommy ky-een. She gets more mileage out of that one than I'd like too, unfortunately.

Moh moke pees. (More milk please.) She loves eats almost anything we put in front of her, and usually asks for seconds. (When it comes to food, she is everything Nathan isn't.) She's especially keen on her big girl cup. With a friend car on it. And no lid!

Hattie biss. (Hattie kiss.) She is quite affectionate with her animals, especially Hattie. And the new purple clownfish Daddy brought back from Florida is a big hit too. Poh-puw fiss!

Bee kuck. (Big truck.) If we hear this in the monitor from her room, we know she's climbed into her recliner and is peering over the back out the window because she heard a truck. (Frequent, because the construction on our street still will not end.)

Way it. (Wear it.) Demanded when she brings us whatever wardrobe choices she's pulled that day from her dresser. Or her hamper. Or our dirty clothes pile. (Stay classy, Anneliese.)

Ees, ees! (Anneliese! Anneliese!) Shouted when one of us is about to do something for her that she wants to try on her own. This is her 2-year old way of saying bug off, I can do it myself!!

Okah mom. (Okay mom.) Her sometimes dejected response whenever I she has to do something she's not thrilled about, and tell her say okay, mommy.

Pie now. (Play now.) This is Anneliese's equivalent of "all done." We hear it when she's over whatever else is going on.

Hoo-uh, docks, ants. (Shoes, socks, pants.) Her other words for her clothes. She's learning to be as picky as Nathan is about what she wears. And she's no longer always taking cues from her big brother stylist either.

Dis! Dis! (This! This!) What she resorts to yelling when she's trying to tell us something but doesn't know the word. Helpful, no?

I know it will only be a matter of months before she's speaking more clearly, and people besides Mark and me will be able to understand her. But for now, this is so so cute. She's still my tiny toddler for just a little longer. Trying not to think about her turning two in less than a week.

Someone out there knows how to stop time, right? Say, okay mommy.

Lovedrunk on Smiley Charlotte

2011-10-06T14:43:00.077-04:00

Here I have proof that Charlotte is definitely not mad all the time...

We're actually having a great day, very sweet and smiley. And she slept almost all night, and then followed that by a few hours of snuggling and clusterfeeding and dozing with me in my bed. Not gonna lie, when I woke up after that I was a little love-drunk on Miss Charlotte.

Her smiley moods make me so happy.

Someone remind me of this the next time we have a miserable fussy screamy day. Because what's better than baby smiles? I mean really.

Regular Job Panic

2011-10-04T23:43:00.001-04:00

{This buzzkill blog post is brought to you by Mark's new work situation.}

The latest news on the job front (remember that merger I mentioned last winter during our home-buying adventure?) is that Mark has been moved out of his shift job and is now working a regular 9-5 schedule. Whaaaa?

For our family this is bizzarre, considering Mark has worked a rotating shift for the better part of the last eight years. We were used to that. We liked that. We're assuming (hoping) that this job change is only for a few months, but who knows.

And in the meantime, it's not my favorite.

Y'all. We see Mark so much less than we used to. Part of the brilliance of working a twelve-hour shift, even though it made some long mommy days for me (sunup to sundown, and all three meals in between), was that he only worked three or four days a week. And many of those were overnight. Which means we had lots and lots of days when Mark was home. Which not only was awesome for the kids (and the general running of our household) but gave me a lot of freedom too.

Now that he's working every weekday, I find myself almost crushed by the weight of the regularity. It's all the time. Every week. Indefinitely. I know this is the plight of millions of stay-at-home moms across the country, but it's never been my reality and it sort of horrifies me on some level. How do they do it?

How do they find time to go to the dentist? To grab a coffee with friends? To have a midweek lunch date? To go for a walk? To go try on new jeans? To do any of those things alone, without a baby or two or three in tow?

Do they just pay for a lot of babysitting? Trade with other moms for mornings off? Or did they just make peace with the idea of all-kid-all-the-time already? I don't know.

I have one morning a week when both Nathan and Anneliese are at church, so I can be out and about and do some me things. Well, with Charlotte. Who might or might not stay asleep in the car seat. And even if she does, it's definitely not the same as being alone.

(Hey remember when I used to be alone sometimes? Yeah me neither.)

And on weekends when Mark is around, I feel like I'm supposed to take advantage of family time, and be home with everyone. Even though if I'm being brutally honest, I don't want to. I get lots and lots of playtime and snuggles with my kiddies, so when another adult is around, I mostly just want to get out of here for a bit. I spend a lot of time trying to figure out my next escape.

These are things I maybe shouldn't admit to the internet.

Also, the up all night thing. When Mark had several days off a week, it felt normal and natural to ask him for help during the night sometimes. But now that he has to get up for work five days a week and get up for church on one, that means he only has one night where he can sleep well and sleep late. It feels like there's never a good time to ask for midnight help, even when he says he doesn't mind.

This new schedule feels borderline opressive.

Would you believe that last Sunday morning, I drove to church dropped Nathan and Anneliese off in nursery rooms while Mark taught Sunday school, then went back home? Just so I could take a shower and get ready all by myself? (All by myself meaning, while fervently praying that Charlotte would stay asleep in her car seat. Which she did, thankfully.) Really, I feel like I've stooped to a new level of desperation.

Does craving that alone time and freedom of mobility mean that I'm not cut out to be at home with my kids every day? Is this "job" not a good match for my personality? For the past few years (when Mark was home so much more during the day), it felt okay. But now I don't know.

All that being said, Mark has been in Florida this week and it's been surprisingly good. I'm definitely used to juggling all three by now (even though I don't feel like I do it very well, I'm used to it), and while the evenings are predictably fussy, they've been manageable (Charlotte and I are co-sleeping while he is gone, which helps tremendously) (no I do not want to hear your opinions on why I am a terrible mom for co-sleeping, I have enough momguilt these days as it is, kthx) and the daytimes have been mostly fun and easy. So yeah. We're doing all right.

Despite what this picture of my non-dressed girls would indicate.

(Totally doing laundry tomorrow, swear.) (And I think the shirtless look really complements Anneliese's mullet anyway.)

But seriously it's been way easier to have Mark gone this week than I thought it would be. I only start to feel panicky when I remember that when he gets home he has to go right back to work again. And then again after that. Forever.

Hi there, bleak.

*sigh*

And Then I Found Five Dollars***

2011-09-30T14:56:00.002-04:00

So. Another Nathan and I went on a road trip to DC last weekend. It was... something.

It started with me forgetting the baby and having to go back to get her, and it ended with one of us (I'll never tell who) getting a speeding ticket. And in the middle:

- A Starbucks pit stop started great, then turned into a dead car battery. A nice man named Brian who worked at a nearby Harley dealership gave me a ride in his red pickup truck. (Sketchy?) And a nice lady mechanic named Carla installed a new battery. Lesson learned: everyone in Roanoke Rapids, NC is ridiculously nice.

- I might or might not have had to climb into the back of the van during an interstate traffic jam, to deal with a car seat poop explosion (oh yes) and nurse* the baby.

- Nathan** accidentally sent a hilariously inappropriate text message to Mark. I laughed about it for three hours. And by three hours I mean three days. And by three days I mean I'm still laughing about it.

- We somehow used all of the six cupholders in the center console, at the same time. I hereby retract any previous statements about how there are definitely too many cupholders in the minivan.

- We sat in an incredibly frustrating amount of traffic in and around various DC suburbs. Good lord the traffic. But a friend said that me cruising around there in my minivan pretty much made me Michelle Obama. So it was maybe worth it?

We feel the exact same way about DC traffic

- I had a phone conversation with a businessman named Curtis, which apparently left him convinced Nathan and I were both sketchy confused weirdos. Me! I'm articulate! And not sketchy! What was his problem?!

- We saw Merritt! And had dinner with her and spent the night with her in her new house. And didn't take any pictures. So enjoy this cell phone pic of the two of us in my old house instead.

- Oh and we totally took the baby to a bar.

- I co-slept with Charlotte on an air mattress (this, despite the two empty cribs in Merritt's house). But it was way awesomer than it sounds. No tears! All night!

- I learned that Another Nathan, rule-follower though he may be, cannot follow GPS directions. Not even a little. I had to hold the phone and read it and personally tell him where to go in order to have any chance at all of making the correct turns.

road trips give me good hair

- I fell (fell!) into the bottom floor of a row house building. I have graceful entrances down to an art form.

- I had an emotional breakdown directly in front of the White House. Know what happens when you're driving a minivan in a traffic jam and there's a baby crying and you're hungry, and you get totally overwhelmed with life and then you start crying too? Your best friend force-feeds you crackers. True story.

- I drove on the wrong side of the road in downtown DC. I ran a red light in downtown DC. Please no one let me drive in urban areas anymore, mmkay? I'm not good at it. (And I'm still never telling which one of us got that ticket on the way home.)

- I made Nathan wear Charlotte in an infant carrier. He looks very sweet, no?

- Nathan called me a Boss Hog. Oh yes he did. (He wasn't calling me bossy or fat though, why would you even assume that?? Bad blog reader!) And then we ate in a restaurant of the same name. Somehow we went into the service entrance. No one batted an eye.

- Oh and did I mention that because the van is still relatively new, we didn't know the code to restart the radio after the battery died? So aside from Nathan singing pop songs to me (not that that wasn't awesome in its own way), our whole adventure was sans music. Seriously.

code error 5: not our favorite radio station

But you know what? In the midst of all the sweat and tears (and I mean both of those quite literally), dang did we laugh a lot. And I think we might be better friends than we were before we went. So... road trip win. For sure.

* Just kidding Marky, I probably didn't do that.

** Let the record show, that is exactly how it happened. No matter who tells you otherwise.

*** No, seriously. I found five bucks on the ground during the dead battery fiasco.

This is Our Life, On Colic

2011-09-29T22:43:00.007-04:00

I was sorting and organizing pictures the other day when I noticed a real dearth of pictures of Charlotte. Almost all that we have of her, with only a handful of exceptions, were taken in the first two weeks after she was born. Those lovely sleepy sweet two weeks before the poop hit the fan.

And by poop I mean crying. And by fan I mean every corner of my existence.

Some people will blame the lack of pictures on the fact that she's a third child. (It's not that, I promise, and I have double the pictures of Anneliese over Nathan in their first years to prove it.) Really, it's the crying. It's totally the crying.

Most of the photo ops we have would look something like this:

And frankly by the time she's quiet or asleep, we're so exhausted and frazzled that taking pictures isn't a top priority. Terrible? Maybe. But that's where we are.

I'd like to tell you we're turning a corner. That she's gone to bed by 8 or 9 the last week or so, meaning the evening crying is limited to about two hours instead of four (or five or six). That she's only gotten up once or twice through the night those nights, and once slept all the way through til almost 5.

And all of that is true.

BUT.

One step forward, two steps back.

Last night was hard. Today was awful.

Right when Charlotte got my hopes up that maybe this colic stuff really does end by six or eight weeks, suddenly I'm back into a pattern of constant (wholly unproductive) soothing attempts. Of constant noise in my ears. Of constantly putting big brother and big sister on a back burner because whatever they need doesn't seem quite as desperate as the shrieks of a miserable infant. Of constantly second-guessing myself about why I can't make this little girl, my tiny precious daughter who I love so much, feel better. I'm her mommy. My only job is to make it better, and I don't know how.

This used to feel like unrequited love. Now it feels like fury. Her crying is angrier by the hour.

So now I am sitting at the desk, leaned far back in an office chair, so that I can type this without waking Charlotte who is finally zonked out on my chest. You know what's more heartbreaking than a baby who had to cry herself to sleep, even if it was in Mommy's arms, who even in a moment of sleepy peace still has tears on her cheeks?

Not much.

And that's why we don't have many pictures.

Awkward Sibling Pic, v2.0

2011-09-26T23:21:00.000-04:00

Because I had a whirlwind weekend and am too thoroughly exhausted for a real blog post, and because the last nightmare picture of my three adorable beasts was such a hit...

You're welcome.

Wide-Eyed Wonder

2011-09-23T23:51:00.001-04:00

Every so often, Charlotte will find that happy place between sleeping and screaming, where she's awake yet calm. Even without nursing. Yep, crazy but true -- it really does happen a couple of times a day.

Your daily Charlotte: our wide-eyed girl

I'm excited for more moments like this, where she stops being so furious with the world and starts looking at it with curiosity instead. It's a cool place, Charlotte. I promise.

Less crying, more wonder. Please, sweetie?

Anneliese the Destroyer

2011-09-22T16:14:00.064-04:00

Over the past few months, Anneliese has taken a turn towards the destructive. Besides the predictable stuff, like making a huge toilet paper mess in the hallway, or smearing spaghetti sauce all over the kitchen cabinets, she's also into some extra-special bits of chaos.

Like flushing legos down the toilet.

And dumping applesauce on her head.

And pulling Nathan's hair when she originally asks for a hug.

And pouring milk into the bin of dry dog food.

And throwing blocks.

And ripping pages out of library books.

And coloring Nathan's carpet with sidewalk chalk.

And breaking three pairs of glasses in the span of under a month.

(The most recent being the glasses I wear every day. Ugggggh. Honestly we've decided that Anneleise's grubby paws are where glasses go to die.)

So basically all of these things could be prevented if I was just watching her more closely. And I know that. But clearly I'm notsomuch on top of things these days. And also, hello, three kids. And also, her smile and sweet personality make me forget about the chaos and that makes it hard to prevent the next time. And also, no-mess Nathan didn't prepare us very well. He was not like this!

I guess what Anneliese is lacking in finicky-ness, she makes up for in... spirit? Yes, let's call it that. Spirited.

A Week

2011-09-20T15:32:00.001-04:00

It's funny how if I don't write blog posts, I don't really know what the date is. (This is what happens when you don't have a job.) It's the 20th, right? Tuesday? Which means I haven't written a blog post in a week?

Um, I'm not sure what to say about that. Certainly not the whole ugly truth, which is a blog post for another day (or never). So... how about... here's what I've been doing instead? Yes, let's just jump straight to that.

-- I ordered some birth announcements. And mailed some too. With thank-you notes, even.

-- I cooked two meals. The first two meals I've cooked in about a month and a half. (People have been keeping us well-fed these days.) (And by people I mean not only church friends but also Qdoba and Buffalo Brothers.)

-- I survived my first road trip with all three kids, alone. Thank you, dvd player in the minivan.

-- I met my nephew Liam!! I took five pictures while I was there. Four were of Charlotte, and one was of Ashley's boobs. New aunt fail. (Someone email me pics from this weekend please!)

-- I decided to omit the words crazy and should from my vocabulary.

-- I drank four decaf iced mochas from Starbucks. (Not living near a drive-thru Starbucks has really forced me to cut back on my Starbucks habit.) (Did I say Starbucks enough in the last two sentences?)

-- I put away the pack&play in our room and explained to the baby that she needs to sleep upstairs in her own crib now. She had lots of questions about how it's going to work, exactly, but she's (slowly) coming around to the idea.

-- I took a backyard swim with Mark and the kids. Probably the last swim of the season.

-- I spent a lot of time trying to soothe Charlotte.

-- I also spent a lot of time watching other people successfully soothe Charlotte.

-- I said approximately three zertrillion prayers for patience.

-- I found the baby on the washing machine at Ashley's house at one point. Apparently this is Uncle John's method of soothing. It's a sitcom cliche come to life, and it totally worked.

-- I also watched him carry a sleeping unbuckled Charlotte up a whole flight of stairs in a baby swing. While it was swinging. She did not fall out. She did not wake up. It was extremely impressive. Uncle John ftw!

-- I got all three kids out the door in time for the 8:15am church service, to hear our new pastor's first sermon before I left town. I forgot diaper/nursery bags for the girls, but I was there and on time.

-- I took the big kids and Another Nathan for a pizza lunchdate at Costco. Yes, people do that.

-- I went to a baby shower for my pseudo-siblings Michael and Jessi. I made Michael change his first diaper in front of the whole crowd there. Charlotte was an excellent poopy guinea pig. Michael was a good sport.

-- I drank some red wine. Only once while nursing the baby (this week).

-- I remembered to take pictures of Charlotte almost every day. Once or twice it happened when she wasn't crying. One of those times it was even in my arms. Who is this child????

-- I cried no less than two (but no more than ten) (I think) times per day.

-- I watched many hours of reality tv (don't judge) while breastfeeding. I hope I don't remember Charlotte's infancy as a blur of 4am viewings of Project Runway and Bachelor Pad (I said don't judge) and House Hunters International. But I fear I will.

-- I spent one sweet and easy night co-sleeping with Charlotte (at my sister's house). Say what you want about co-sleeping (normally we don't do it either), but I woke up feeling bonded and connected to her in a way that's been sorely lacking recently.

-- I had a text-celebration for my friend emu whose second daughter, Sally, was born on Saturday night. :)

-- I thought about giving Charlotte her first bath, but didn't actually do it. This week, for sure. (Once Mark sees I admitted to the internet we haven't done it yet, it'll now be tonight.)

-- I had a few coffee and lunch dates with friends. And no kids.

-- I consumed many smartphone and touchpad internet hours. I am apparently now more of an internet consumer than contributor. That'll change. Soon, I hope.

Big Brother Update

2011-09-13T23:26:00.006-04:00

It's hard for me to remember Nathan as an only child sometimes. The more comfortable he gets having two little sisters around, the more I realize how much he really was meant to be a big brother. He doesn't have a leader personality, exactly. But he is a protector and a caretaker and it's clear he adores both of them and really thrives in that role.

Now that he's in school four mornings a week, he runs for Anneliese as soon as we pick him up. She is the one he misses and most wants to see when he's back. And he has lots of questions about what she's been up to while he's gone: What did she play with? Her shape box? Did she do the shapes right? What did she eat for snack? Did she use her words? Did she do good listening? Was she a good example? Did she poop in the potty?

It's cute, but yeah okay sweetie I'm pretty sure we can parent her without you, like... checking up on us.
(Except for that potty thing. We totally fail on that when he's not around.)

He's also being so so sweet with Charlotte.

He's proud to show her off when we drop him at school or pick him up. That's my sister Charlotte. I have two babies. A baby and a big girl. Do *you* have two babies? He sings songs to her (her favorite is the ABC song, did you know?) and he talks to her like she understands. Like she matters. I love him for that.

He's as picky about her wardrobe as his own, choosing a onesie for her every morning and telling me which diaper color she wants to wear at each change.

He's got a suggestion or solution for every one of her cries, whether it's that she's thirsty... or needs a diaper... or wants to be held... or doesn't want to take a nap... (must be nice to have all the answers huh). And he's absolutely convinced he's the one who taught her to smile. (He isn't.)

He's gotten very confident at feeding her bottles:

And he's taught her how to be an excellent railroad track for his trains:

Hey, that's what big brothers are made of, right?

Awkward Sibling Pic

2011-09-12T23:08:00.002-04:00

This awkward family moment brought to you by Daddy:

Charlotte, sweetie... you've never looked better.

I dare you to look again and not laugh.

Liam

2011-09-10T22:31:00.000-04:00

Look! It's Liam! He's here! I have a nephew!!!! And he has just about the coolest birthday I can imagine! (And that's a lot of exclamation points!)

John William Grice IV, born 9-10-11

My beautiful wonderful awesome sister is a mommy!

(I might be just the tiniest bit excited.)

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Budding Lactivists?

2011-09-09T23:07:00.000-04:00

It's funny how quickly boobs have once again become a normal part of our family's life. I'm one of those anytime, anywhere nursing moms (considering the frequency with which newborns eat, and that I'm also chasing around after two other kids, I wouldn't know how not to be), and it's clear both Nathan and Anneliese have picked up on it.

When I stopped to feed Charlotte the other day at Target, and a shopper asked me if I "needed to do that* right here," Nathan's silly and chatty mood prompted him to answer right away: Yes because Charlotte likes milk from mommy. Made me smile to see him just take her question at face value. Well-handled, sweetie. Even though you are clueless of what she was really asking.

And Anneliese has spent the last week or so wandering around the house with her shirt yanked up so she can breastfeed her new favorite doll.

PS I totally did this as a child too. (Picture here).

Even Nathan has taken a few turns at nursing. And most recently, Anneliese has had Hattie doing it. Yes, Hattie the stuffed frog. Breastfeeding a baby doll. It's as hilarious as it sounds.

They aren't really young breastfeeding advocates, of course. They're just innocently reacting to an everyday situation, without knowledge of any agenda. That's a good thing, I think.

I love that for my kids, this is just... normal.

*Don't worry, a store employee was nearby and right away told her it was no big deal and pretty much to bug off. I might get asked about nursing in public more often than other people, but I think I'm also less likely to hesitate to do it than some other moms (I'm out and about a lot, and I remain firmly in the camp of hunger screams being more offensive than nursing babies), so that's probably why. And except for a handful of times, people who do comment are really positive. So don't get worked up, real lactivists. It's fine.

Charlotte at One Month

2011-09-08T23:58:00.017-04:00

Charlotte is a month old already! I don't know quite how that happened. With both Nathan and Anneliese, the first few weeks seemed slow and foggy (although in hindsight, still really fast), but with Charlotte it has been a whirlwind.

She's already outgrown all her newborn clothes and is comfortably wearing the three-month stuff. She's on the top rise setting of her newborn diapers. She feels heavier and looks longer and seems to be growing well.

She has lost the wrinkly dewey newborn freshness, which is sort of sad, but the good news about it is, she's turning into a beautiful baby girl with huge wide eyes and sweet soft skin. She has recently learned to smile and it's about the cutest thing ever, but she doesn't do it often enough or predictably enough that we've been able to get it on camera. Soon. I hope.

Hmm, let's see, what else is new with Charlotte these days? Well she's learning to hold her head and neck better, she does great on car rides, and she's a heavy sleeper... once we can finally get her asleep. At night she usually gives us at least one stretch of 5-6 hours (and once or twice, even more) and also takes several 2- or 3-hour naps during the day. When she's awake, she nurses about every hour, and after long sleeping spells she'll ravenously cluster-feed for a few hours after she wakes up.

She loves being held by Daddy and he remains the person with the best ability to soothe her, but also seeing or hearing Nathan and Anneliese goes a long way towards soothing the fussies these days. She's increasingly curious about them, trying to turn her head and watch them when we're all in the same room together.

She's been sleeping in the pack & play in our room, and she doesn't know it yet but she's about to get the boot and be sent upstairs to sleep in her crib. It's a little sad for me to see her graduate to her own room (even as I recognize how necessary and important it is), because it's tangible proof that my days mommying a newborn are truly numbered.

I'm both anxious for this newborn phase to pass (did I mention she's fussy? colic is exhausting) but also trying not to wish it away. I want to get into a normal enough routine that I can settle down and enjoy her infancy, but I don't want to crave the routine so much that I miss the reality of now. Even when it's hard, she's wonderful and adorable and worth it. We already love her so much.

Back to School

2011-09-07T23:30:00.000-04:00

It's the most wonderful time of the year... back to school.

Ok that's not true. It's a good time of year, but now that Nathan is in preschool four mornings a week, it feels a little empty and quiet around here without him. Anneliese really misses him when he's not here. (Nothing like a teary little girl standing in front of a rainy window asking for her brother to paint a picture that's equal parts sweet and sad.)

But fortunately Nathan's become quite talkative about what's going on at preschool, so we know a lot about what's going on there and how he feels about it. He's been cracking us up with his stories and observations when we pick him up.

Gems like:

-- I didn't need to wear that costume, I look handsome already in this shirt. After apparently abstaining from dress-up with his classmates.

-- Why do the other kids not have orange shoelaces? After apparently noticing and memorizing what everyone else was wearing. *of course*

-- It's because she misses me a lot; I'm her big brother. To his teacher, when he and Anneliese caused a mild traffic jam in the hallway with their happy-to-see-you-again hug after the first day. (Yes, my heart melted. Every labor contraction with both of them was suddenly worth it. Probably.)

-- I sang today mommy! Because Another Nathan said to sing. Is it good to sing? After two years of us trying to convince him that singing in public is okay. Well done, Another Nathan.

-- She colored on my arm. Is that naughty? She's a naughty girl. Repeated *ad nauseum* after a classmate got marker-happy on Nathan and then apparently turned on her own face as well.

And Anneliese started back to mother's morning out this week too. So she does have that one morning where she's distracted by church herself, instead of missing Nathan. And according to the teachers in her room, she's sweet and smiley and quite laid-back for them.

(Um, sweet and smiley, yes obviously. But laid-back? Whaaa? I like how my two oldest children both have alternate personalities in other people's care. Nice.)

So even though it's still a little weird without Nathan here most mornings, the girls and I will adjust and find our new normal.

Happy back-to-school!

Charlotte's Tummy Time

2011-09-06T23:07:00.001-04:00

Charlotte is doing great these days.

Well, that's only mostly true. The real truth is that she's apparently colicky. We've never been through this (so much for the assumption that third babies are easier, since the parents are theoretically smarter) so we're in new territory and we're kind of exhausted.

I'll restate: other than the evenings of impossible-to-soothe fussing, Charlotte is doing great.

She spends several spells a day on the floor of the bonus room, practicing tummy time. Her head and neck are so much stronger already!

These days, we're doing it mostly on the boppy, so she can have her head up high enough to look around her. Stretches the time before the inevitable tummy-time freakout by at least double.

And she frequently has Nathan or Anneliese or both crowding around her, making silly faces and noises, which keeps her distracted from the fact that, like all babies, she actually hates tummy time.

But who wouldn't tolerate a few minutes on the floor, when you have this kind of fun happening around you? I mean really.

Ok after posting these pictures of all my children sprawled out on the floor, I realize I should be pretending to the internet that I vacuum more than I actually do. So, here goes: Hi y'all. I vacuum. All the time. So often that I definitely never forget where we keep the vacuum cleaner.

Ahem.

Anyway. Tummy time. Siblings. Sweet fun win.

Big Girl Anneliese

2011-09-05T15:15:00.003-04:00

In the past week or so, I've been increasingly freaked out at how Anneliese suddenly seems so... big. When did that happen? Does becoming a big sister make you suddenly a big girl? A kid instead of a baby?

Praise the Lord for those sweet baby curls because they're the last vestige of toddlerhood she's clinging to. (Looks-wise, I mean. Personality-wise she's still a full-on toddler.)

It's also constantly catching me off guard how much she reminds me of my sister. Maybe it's because my earliest real memories of Ashley are from about this age? Maybe it's because she does legitimately look like her?

Or maybe it's just because I'm happy to have my very own startlingly loud left-handed middle child with a melt-your-heart smile.
Yup. I think that's it.

Sarah and Dr. Eric

2011-09-04T23:53:00.002-04:00

One of my favorite Furman friends, Sarah, came to visit me this weekend. It's not the first time she's come around on Labor Day weekend. It's apparently turning into a thing. And as always, we were very happy to see her!

She did lots of baby soothing.

She gladly shared her husband Dr. Eric with my adoring child who quickly found his newest getting-dressed inspiration.

She patiently read bedtime stories. (I had to hold her off from doing a follow-up craft the next day. She is Sarah, after all.)

She swam like a shark* in our pool. Oh yes she did.

She brought Katie and Noah (more Furman friends!) to meet Charlotte too.

She also convinced Anneliese to balance acorns on her head as a hat while floating around in the pool (impressive? oh yes) and stayed up late talking with me after a healthy round of popcorn, chocolate, red wine, and When Harry Met Sally. And she single-handedly kept both Charlotte and Dr. Eric sleepy and happy in the process. Whew.
And she made me smile. A lot. As always.

*not a whale, no matter what Nathan's 4yo wisdom would claim.

Daddy Date

2011-09-03T23:14:00.035-04:00

Last week, Mark took Nathan to the last Mudcats game of the season. Which was at 11am on a Thursday. Because... huh? Needless to say, there wasn't a big crowd at the game, and Mark and Nathan had pretty much a whole section to themselves.

(I gleaned this information from the photos I pulled off the camera, per our usual means of communication.)

Nathan was very excited for a morning alone with Daddy, and he spent several days afterward telling me about the date they went on. Which first of all, proves how often I must use the word date to describe any outing, regardless of romantic implications. And second, is just darned cute.

As best I can tell, their date consisted of eating junk food for lunch, sweating a lot in the sun, dancing (again) to music in the stadium, and running around the empty bleachers.

Your daily Nathan

What more could you want from a date with Daddy?

Other People Holding My Baby*

2011-09-02T17:55:00.000-04:00

We've had a steady stream of visitors over the last few weeks, besides just the grandparents. I haven't been super on top of things when it comes to taking pictures of everyone who came to meet Charlotte (and bring us food, in most cases... I seriously have not cooked in a month), but fortunately Mark seems to have the camera ready at least half the time. (Daddy for the win.)

our friend and neighbor Mary (and brother Hayes came too)...

EMU came with her daughter Annie and her unborn baby U2...

Another Nathan (remember when he could barely hold *one* baby?)...

Renee, who apparently makes Charlotte want to swan-dive...

Mark's Clemson roomie Jeff and his wife Crystal (and two of their boys)...

my friend Sally from church choir...

our friend and super-sitter Leanna (and Dan!)...
and their new daughter Gabby (Charlotte's future bff)

One of my Furman roomies, Betsy, also came to visit, but somehow we didn't take pictures. And Mr. David (of orange shoelace infamy) was also in town and spent a few minutes sweetly soothing Charlotte (impressive especially considering he's apparently never really been around a newborn before). Also no pics.

And the handful of church friends who came with dinners seemed to sneak in and out before we could bust out the camera either. So you'll just have to trust me... Charlotte has lots of new friends and we've felt very loved and cared for by everyone who has come to meet her.

*My Furman friend LP once joked that she could make a whole facebook album of pics of herself holding other people's babies. So our friend Kelley actually did make an album of other people holding her babies. I'm joining the bandwagon. Look what you started, LP.

Anneliese Giggling

2011-09-01T23:22:00.011-04:00

Happy September!

Because we're still on a daddy high around here, and because there's never a bad time to take thirty seconds and enjoy the giggling from this most beautiful of little girls... here you go:

(If you can't see the embedded video, click here to watch it on YouTube.)

More, please! Indeed.

Why We Need Daddy

2011-08-31T16:04:00.001-04:00

Day two juggling three kids by myself... not quite as smooth as day one. After yesterday, I was feeling very mommy confident so I attempted some errands this morning. Um, bad idea.

I'll spare you the gruesome details, but the end result was Anneliese crying on a store floor next to a broken ottoman, while Nathan was in distress because I was spraying (yes, spraying) Charlotte with breastmilk in my panicked inability to keep her latched on correctly while also tending to Anneliese. Ever seen four people crying simultaneously in a very public place? Today, we were That Family.

We ate some lunch, got it (mostly) together, and it only took a few tearful attempts to get everyone to sleep. But Charlotte will be up soon, and I'm exhausted, and I'm so missing this:

Mark has been a rock star over the last month. Soothing Charlotte when my attempts failed. Calming big-sister tantrums. Lots of midnight diaper changes (and midday ones too). Providing extra hands and diversions and attention anywhere needed. I got used to having him around all day and all night, every day and every night. And with mornings like the one I just had, I really want him back.

Someone please remind me that I'll get used to this, and that most days won't feel this eventful. A "new normal" is coming... soon... right?

Real Life with Three Kids... Day One

2011-08-30T20:59:00.001-04:00

Today is Mark's first day back at work after a month off. Which means real life with three kiddies just smacked me in the face when I woke up today.

But... it didn't smack too hard, actually. Charlotte went right back to sleep after both her 5am and 7am nursings. Nathan ate breakfast and then played quietly by himself until close to 8. And Anneliese slept past 9. (I know.) Definitely a good start.

And it stayed okay from there. We all got dressed. We played a little. I got lots of stuff done around the house, and my life feels like it's taking on some sort of order again. Both big-kid poops landed in the potty. The three children co-existed (mostly) peacefully while I prepared three meals. (Full disclosure: I didn't have to cook anything, just heat stuff up and whatnot.) We all ate when we were supposed to and napped when we were supposed to and besides a few spells when Charlotte got fussy, when Anneliese tried fix it by feeding her friend cars (yes, we knew it would happen and it finally did), and when Mommy's internet temporarily broke, there weren't even any tears.

Thanks in no small part to our baby swing. Which Charlotte has been all about (finally!) in the last week or so. Whoever first invented these things is my new favorite person in the history of babies and pendulation.

Comfy, Charlotte?

Yeah. We're definitely calling today a win.

Morning Playtime

2011-08-29T23:20:00.001-04:00

This corner of the internet has been pretty Charlotte-heavy of late, hasn't it? So here's something about the rest of the family. You know, the people who continue to exist and do stuff even when Charlotte and I are holed up in my bedroom, nursing and snuggling (read: trying to sleep like it's our job).

It's funny, the things I find when I get around to dumping pictures off our camera onto the computer. Whatever has happened while I'm ~~away~~ still sleeping, I might never hear about (remember, Mark's notsomuch a talker). But then I find pictures. And oh they say so much.

Like this one. Mark (apparently) took it on August 23, at 8:16am.

After a quick calendar consult, it looks like I was hahahaha yeah right like I have a full calendar these days! For sure I was still sleeping.

Anyway.

Even though I wasn't around and didn't hear about it, I know exactly what was going on. Let me set the scene:

Nathan and Anneliese, building a tower. (Everything is "a tower" even when it's clearly a tunnel. Or something else.) Make no mistake, Anneliese was not allowed to help. She's lucky if she got to drive one of those trains on one of those bridges. That tower is all Nathan.

But the tower isn't enough to hold his attention. He's off-and-on still pretending to be interested in the Thomas dvd playing over his shoulder. He's bleary-eyed from having gotten up several hours earlier, under cover of darkness, and creeping down to the bonus room to watch it. (Oh, the annoyingness we ignore for the sake of keeping him quiet while we sleep a little more.)
Anneliese is still tired because Nathan got bored about fifteen minutes into said Thomas viewing, and went upstairs to wake her up to play. It was probably still dark when that happened.

No one is dressed. Not because it's "only" 8am, but because we've all been in a maternity-leave mentality for weeks, and we don't get dressed anymore unless people are coming over or we have to leave the house. (Ok that's a lie. We don't even get fully dressed for company or for every errand. The only surefire way to get the PJs off is to get us in the pool.)

Mark seems to have climbed up onto something (the keyboard bench?) to take this picture. He's somewhat bleary-eyed himself, because I'm sure he hauled butt out of bed as soon as he heard that Anneliese had been released from her room, and without supervision, things like books and legos and diapers and Hattie end up in places like the potty. He's exhausted because he was up for at least one diaper change, and likely more, the night before. He's not dressed either; this picture was almost definitely taken in his underwear.

He's either holding Charlotte in one arm, trying to get her to sleep... or constantly hushing Nathan and Anneliese to keep the decibels relatively low so Charlotte and I) can sleep in the other room. Seeing as he's been at this for two hours already, he's likely on the verge of no longer caring if it works.

What you don't see in this picture is how happy Nathan and Anneliese are to play together in the mornings. The absolute glee from Nathan's corner when someone affirms he doesn't have to get dressed (for someone who's so picky about his clothes, he also loves any excuse not to put them on). The giggles from Anneliese when she climbs up into Mark's lap and he shows her home videos on the computer. I'm not around for that stuff either, but I'm dozing contentedly in another room while I hear the muffled sounds of it all.

(Marky, do you remember taking this picture? Did I get it all right?)

Earthquakes, Hurricanes, and Restaurant Appearances

2011-08-28T16:23:00.002-04:00

Well this has been about the most unremarkable week of "remarkable" weather we've had in Raleigh in a long time. Technically my kiddos just survived both their first earthquake and first hurricane. But, um... yeah. Neither one was particularly impressive here.

The earthquake was centered about three hours north of us, but we definitely felt it here. For someone like me who's never experienced an earthquake before, feeling the ground shaking underneath me was a bit disconcerting. For someone like Mark, who's actually been through a real earthquake (he lived in California as a child), I had trouble convincing him that what we felt wasn't just more street construction. The fact that it's even possible to confuse our little quake with street construction shows exactly how not earth-shattering it really was.

Hurricane Irene caused a bit more trouble. It rained for a long day and got really windy (duh), which caused lots of trees and limbs and power lines to be down. Which meant that tens of thousands of people were without power. But... not us. Ours was only out for a few minutes. The damage to homes and buildings and roads just an hour east of us (we live about two hours from the coast) was much more substantial, and it made me glad that this particular hurricane was mostly a non-event for us. It was almost... boring.

Okay, it was totally boring. The most interesting thing that happened was an adventure through a packed-out mall parking deck, a rude pickup truck driver who stole the one and only space left, even though he saw we were there first, all to get into the movie theater and find out the one thing we wanted to see was sold out. Clearly what people do here during boring hurricanes is go to movies at three in the afternoon.

Irene in NC (NOAA NWS Nat'l Hurricane Center)

Unremarkable weird weather aside, something legitimately impressive did happen this weekend: we took all three kids to eat in a restaurant. In public. Twice. And we all survived! Behaved, even! See? Impressive. (Both times we had Another Nathan with us, so we were never actually outnumbered by little ones. But it still counts, right?)

So now the sun is shining, the air is a bit cooler, and aside from all the post-Irene debris scattered everywhere, it's pretty much gorgeous outside. Which means... bye I'm going swimming now.

Newborn Charlotte

2011-08-26T23:05:00.000-04:00

Charlotte at five days old...

It makes me smile and cry at the same time. She already looks so different than when these pictures were taken just a couple weeks ago. She's changing way too fast. So much for keeping this one a baby forever...

Tongue Tie

2011-08-25T15:00:00.134-04:00

Well, it took two weeks but we finally figured out what was going on with Charlotte's latch that was making nursing so painful -- she was tongue-tied.

Mark suspected something weird was going on with her tongue almost a week ago when he noticed he couldn't see it at all when she took a bottle (which has a clear nipple... he should be able to see it). Once he pointed that out, I realized I never saw it when she was nursing either (and I usually could, a little, with Nathan and Anneliese).

And although the nursing pain had abated a good bit, it was still there... and when it went to both sides instead of just on the right, I started researching. Turns out there were a bunch more indications that's what it could be, so we asked about it at her checkup earlier this week. Our doctor took a look and he agreed she was indeed a little tongue-tied.

Not Charlotte. A different tongue-tied baby.

(Tongue-tie, by the way, is when the frenulum -- the piece of tissue that connects the tongue to the floor of the mouth -- is too short. It means that the tongue is too "attached" to the bottom of the mouth, which can cause problems with nursing and eventually eating and speaking as well.)

Charlotte's case was mild, and she had clearly found a way to compensate for the difficult latch and still get enough milk (she had gained close to two pounds since her last checkup ten days earlier... yowza), but since it was still causing me pain, and would be more difficult to fix later when the frenulum is thicker and more formed, we opted to do it now.

They gave her some pain meds, kicked me out of the room, and the procedure basically involved just clipping tissue to allow her tongue more freedom of movement. It bled a little. Charlotte was upset but not for long.

Mommy's tears: maybe worse than this. And definitely not pictured.

I nursed her to calm her down afterwards, and right away I could tell her latch felt so much better. And when she cries now, her tongue comes way farther out of her mouth. She's had a fussy few days that I suspect are related to her sore mouth, but we'll get through it.

I've had a handful of people (several veteran moms, including my own, and even our doctor) tell me in the last few weeks that some nursing pain is normal at the beginning. But while I definitely got sore with my first two babies while my body eased into breastfeeding, I never had any pain with them (besides Anneleise's bad latch). So the concept of "normal pain" was sort of lost on me. Clearly what's normal for some moms is definitely not for others. Score one more in the category of trusting your instincts.

Just goes to show that every mom is different, every baby is different, and even third-time moms still have something to learn about this whole nursing thing!

Grandparents Galore

2011-08-24T14:45:00.004-04:00

Last week we had a steady stream of visitors coming to check out our new arrival.

For those of you keeping count at home, Nathan and Anneliese and Charlotte have four sets of grandparents. Although it can be chaotic when it's time to arrange visits, especially around the holidays, most of the time we feel like they're pretty darned lucky to have so many relatives to love (and yes, even spoil) them, and we like being part of a big family.

Marmie (my mom) got to meet Charlotte a week ago Sunday when she brought Nathan and Anneliese back home after their week in Huntersville.

Then on Tuesday, Grandma (Mark's mom) came up and spent the night with us. She got to finally see our new house, and meet Charlotte...

...and spend some bonding time with all three of her grandbabies.

On Thursday, Opa and Oma (Mark's dad and stepmom) drove up from South Carolina for the morning, and stayed with us for lunch. They brought toys for big brother and big sister, and lots of hugs for new baby Charlotte.

three generations of Goettsch!

Then in a whirlwind grand finale, Grandpa and Cathy (my dad and stepmom) came to visit on Saturday, bearing barbecue and hugs...

three grandbabies and one more on the way SOON!

...and my Grandpa (who has the distinction of being the only man I know in his generation who never ever seems fazed by baby crying)...

...and they had Ashley and John hot on their heels.

After all the chaos of the week had died down somewhat, Ashley and John managed all three babies for a few hours so Mark and I could nap. Together. Which sounds sweet and sappy but I don't care. It felt oh so good.

And then they hung out with the kiddies even longer so we could have dinner, just the two of us, out of the house (gotta love the fringe benefits of a baby who learns how to take a bottle way too soon)... and I had my first post-pregnancy beer! (Which might or might not have made me slightly drunk. Nine booze free months means it only takes one, apparently.)

Anyway what all that adds up to is... Ashley pretty much rocks. And she's going to be an awesome mommy herself in a few short weeks!

For more pictures of Charlotte meeting her grandparents and relatives (and some (non-graphic, don't worry) shots of me teaching Ashley and John about breast pumps)), click here for the photobucket album.

Family on the Greenway

2011-08-23T15:53:00.000-04:00

We took our first whole-family outing early last week, the day after Nathan and Anneliese came home from Huntersville. It was quite the trek -- about two hundred yards down our street to the greenway. (What? We still had to load up all the kids and the stroller, so it totally counts.)

All we did was take a walk, but it released some pent-up energy from the kids, and did my mental state a world of good (I don't do well when I feel cooped up and lonely... leaving the house regularly, even in the summer when we don't have much scheduled and Mark is off work anyway so I don't technically need to, is an absolute requirement for me).

We had some bickering over the water bottle, some fussing when one little girl got too tired to walk, and some whining when one little boy fell and skinned his knee. But they made up for that by holding hands and trying to run together (and with Daddy), sitting together in a tree stump and grinning about it, and especially when they both wanted to help push Charlotte in her stroller. Awwwww.

For even more pictures of Charlotte's arrival and first few weeks at home, click here for the photobucket album.

First Cloth Diaper

2011-08-22T15:21:00.001-04:00

Charlotte's cord stump fell off this weekend. Which in some families would be a milestone in itself, but in our family, it mostly means mommy is super excited about putting her in her first cloth diaper.

!!!!!!!!!!!

She loves it. I promise.

This one is a Happy Heinys Mini. It's cute and soft and squishy, and despite my being a little nervous about the bulkiness, it totally fits her. And it adjusts to get two sizes bigger, so I think these will last us a good while. (Her Tots Bots Tinies also fit really well right now.)

Best part? It holds all the poop in. **mommy passes out from happiness**

Fluffy bums ftw!

New House! We Live Here Now!

2011-08-21T23:03:00.001-04:00

Can I still call it the new house? We've lived here for four months, and we're finally really settled in.

Before we left for the hospital last week, Mark went around and took a bunch of pictures, because we still hadn't really shared many since we've moved in, and also because with Nathan and Anneliese out of town, and Charlotte still inside me... yeah it was almost clean around here for a minute.

So because you, oh internetty bloggity friends, were so tolerant of renovation pictures and updates, here you go. Before and after pics of our new house (well, the downstairs living areas, for now). This is what it looks like now* that we're living in it.

Kitchen BEFORE:

Kitchen AFTER:

Living room BEFORE:

Living room AFTER:

Bonus room BEFORE:

Bonus room AFTER:

Wow, now that I look at these pictures I realized we need to, like... hang pictures and stuff. We'll totally make that happen. By Christmas, I promise.

Next time, bedrooms!

*But way messier.

Bird Bath for Charlotte

2011-08-20T23:54:00.000-04:00

A couple days ago, we washed Charlotte off for the first time since the hospital. (Please please stop acting surprised.) She can't have a real bath yet, since her cord stump is still hanging on by a thread. So we did what my Grandma B used to call a "bird bath" -- just mopped her off with a wet soapy washcloth.

She did not love it.

Nathan also did not love it. He stood by looking over my shoulder in concern, constantly reminding me to be gentle, and to not hurt her, and mommy she doesn't like that!

(They both survived, relatively untraumatized. Obviously.)

And Charlotte looked awfully sweet wrapped up in her hot pink monster towel afterwards.

(But who doesn't look sweet wrapped up in a hot pink monster towel? I mean really.)

Every time she keeps her eyes open long enough to meet my gaze for a few seconds (not often), I'm reminded that as much as she looks like Nathan, those big dark eyes are completely reminiscent of Anneliese.

And I love it just as much this time around.

The Shoelaces are Contagious

2011-08-19T23:56:00.001-04:00

This is our good friend (and now, neighbor!) Hayes, whom Nathan adores. When you're four, there is almost no one cooler than the twelve-year-old who's nice enough to spend time playing with you.

Your daily Nathan

And that person gets just a little bit cooler when he agrees with your taste in shoelaces.

Yes, the orange laces are clearly becoming a Thing in these parts. Not gonna lie, I didn't see it coming.

Top Ten at Ten Days

2011-08-18T23:24:00.001-04:00

Charlotte is ten days old! Here are the ten best things so far:

1.) She knows me and responds to me. My voice, my touch. It totally makes me feel like a real mommy.

2.) Sleeping with her mouth open.

3.) Her squeaks. Still awesome.

4.) Hanging out with Daddy. Even outside doing yardwork.

5.) Snuggling with her on my chest.

6.) Her daily late-afternoon nap in our bed. She looks so sweet and tiny up there.

7.) The one night when she slept from just after midnight til 6am. Make no mistake, though, it was just one night.

8.) Baby yawns. Even better when squeaky.

9.) Her weird and fuzzy hair. Maybe a better word is... tufty. Or just weird. But I love it.

10.) Her awesome newborn smell that still hasn't worn off because we don't really wash her that much (don't judge). Sweet and spicy and exactly like all three of my newborns have smelled. I want to bottle it and keep it forever, especially knowing Charlotte's my last one.

Nathan and Charlotte

2011-08-17T10:15:00.002-04:00

As surprising as Anneliese's quick bonding with Charlotte has been, Nathan's has been anything but. We fully expected him to be quite taken with his new sister quite fast, and indeed he was.

He's so good and so gentle, and so concerned when she cries. He's constantly bringing her things to make her feel better when she fusses -- Kate the puppy, his friend cars, a toy plane, etc. He's constantly telling us that she's thirsty for milk from mommy... the idea that mommy's milk is Charlotte's drink and food seems lost on him, so he only ever calls her thirsty, not hungry. :)

Yesterday morning while I was on a boob break,* Nathan got to feed Charlotte a bottle. He took his big brother responsibility very seriously.

And later that morning, I found Charlotte napping in his bed. Apparently Mark put her there while he was playing upstairs with Nathan and Anneliese. And Nathan had kindly surrounded his baby sister with some lego and matchbox cars and trucks.** All totally necessary for sleeping, of course. Very sweet in a very Nathan way.

He keeps asking me if she knows him yet. He's clearly anxious for her to be as attached to him as he already is to her.

And these two are definitely cut from the same cloth. I keep thinking to myself how much Charlotte reminds me of Nathan as a newborn. It's not in my head! They look so much alike!

Nathan at 2 days old... Charlotte at 2 days old

Yay for sibling bonding. :) If it made me happy when there were only two, I'm excited at the possibilities with three!

*The last boob break I've taken! Yay, it's getting better. Also the construction seems to have moved down the street somewhat. Wins all around.

** Yes, yes, we do indeed own a toy tractor trailer with the undertaker on the side. Nathan calls it his redneck truck. *sigh* THANK YOU ASHLEY.

Street Construction

2011-08-16T18:42:00.000-04:00

So when we brought Charlotte home from the hospital last week, we were greeted by lots of road equipment. Blocking our driveway. Awesome.

(They actually tried to detour us around the block, and Mark had to pull up and talk to the traffic guard person to convince him we live here and to let us through. Um, totally not parking a block away and walking my new daughter home for the first time.)

This construction has been working its way down our street for a few weeks now (replacing a water main or something), so we knew it would land in front of us eventually. But here's the thing. It's now been in front of our house for a week. I don't understand how it could move along at a steady clip and then just stop. In front of our house. For a week.

I'm over it.

Yes, the kids think the steamrollers and backhoes and dump trucks are fun and interesting. But that cuteness lasted about half an hour, and then the constant crashing and digging (whatever jackhammer they're using literally shakes our house) and beeping OH THE BEEPING has begun to make me insane. (Read: irritable.) My nerves are totally shot.

This is no longer a cute anecdote for Charlotte's baby book. It's an incredibly obnoxious reality where one machine goes back and forth and back and forth over a ten-yard stretch, BEEPING on every one of those backs, and then moves fifteen feet and does the same thing for another hour.

I cannot take it any more.

I do not understand how they're not done! At least with the twenty yard that lie directly in front of my house and driveway. MOVE. ON.

Ugggggggggh.

This post brought to you by my raging post-partum hormones and mood swings. You're welcome.

Charlotte's Birth Story

2011-08-15T23:13:00.001-04:00

Hey guess what. Charlotte is a week old. Yes, already. So before I forget the details of last Monday, I'm going to recount her birth story. Now, bear with me. It's fairly unremarkable how the whole thing went down, except for the last fifteen minutes. But I guess unremarkable is pretty much the goal when it comes to labor and delivery, amIright?

So shortly before midnight last Sunday, I finally packed my bag for the hospital. (And I'm not even lying about it this time.) Not because I was in labor and it was time to go, but because the induction I was hoping it wouldn't come to... was coming. First thing the next morning.

But wouldn't you know, as soon as that dang bag was packed, I started contracting. Nothing regular, but real contractions that told me it's time.* I can't even tell you how relieved I felt that things were starting up on their own. It alleviated so many of the fears I had about inducing before my body agreed it was ready. I went to bed and slept as much as I could.

12am to 4am - I finally get tired of being woken up with each contraction, so I just get up.

4am to 6:30am - I fill a few hours with my dvr, the computer, and a quick swim. Because why else do we have a pool in our backyard except for a pre-dawn swim in labor? I mean really. Then I sit in the baby's room, wrapped in a towel, and watch it get light outside and feel cheesily happy because it's Charlotte's birthday!

6:30am - I call the hospital to find out what to do about my induction time slot. Do I come in, even though I'm contracting on my own? Yes, apparently. I guess my chart says not to let me go past today (again with the low fluid) so they don't want to risk labor puttering out, and they tell me to come around 8 or 9.

6:30am to 9am - Contractions about ten minutes apart. Each one reminds me of the terrible horrible awful no good very bad pain, lots of pain that will come if I don't get the epidural in time. Yes, my fear of that is all-consuming. I get cranky and stressed. I take it out on Mark. (Have I mentioned it before? I'm lovely in labor.) We bicker, I shower, we straighten the house, we take one last belly pic, we go to the hospital. Somehow I decide against breakfast. This will soon prove to be a terrible decision.

10:30am - Settled in a hospital room, which might be the very same room that both Nathan and Anneliese were born in. (Yep, just checked. 4B30. Seriously, WakeMed?) It looks different in the light of day. Contractions eight minutes apart but not really painful. IV is in place, pitocin is started, platelet count is approved for epidural (which has been ordered). A whopping 1cm dilated. Nothing to do but wait and hope it goes fast.

11:55am - It's very quiet in our room. Contractions every three(ish) minutes, pain is about twice as bad, trying not to cry. Not miserable, but I'm feeling ready for the epidural. Mark is having trouble staying awake, he keeps dozing off. Not in an annoying way, it's sort of sweet. I'd be doing the same thing except for these contractions. Now 3cm dilated.

12:30pm - Mark is downstairs in the cafeteria where I sent him for some lunch to perk him up. Water is broken. Contractions are suddenly way way way worse, and I start to feel panicky. Text Mark to tell him please come back (he's run into a church friend who works for the company who's doing some roofing repair work at the hospital today... honestly of all things; they're having lunch together), eyeball the epidural kit on the counter and regret not asking to have it put in earlier. Like, an hour ago. Or yesterday. Owwwwwwwwwwww.

12:35pm - Even though I swore I wouldn't want anyone to know I'm in labor, I'm sending panicky texts to an incredibly reassuring friend, and I realize for a minute that it's sort of... nice that someone else knows where I am and what's going on. In that mindset, I decide to distract myself from the pain by checking facebook and twitter and reading something (anything omg it hurts) in my google reader. This works for fifteen minutes or so.

12:50pm - I realize I have to wait twenty minutes for the second bag of pre-epi fluids to go in, then call the anesthesiologist who will take who knows how long to get here, then he has to actually do his whole needle-spine thing, then it will be fifteen minutes before it starts working. Bottom line: I'm still at least an hour from pain relief.

1pm - 2:30pm - This is the most painful part of my labor. Contractions just under two minutes apart. Fortunately Mark is a labor expert by now, and he's saying and doing all the right things. Striking a balance between supporting me, distracting me, and reminding me that I've been through much much worse (which half the time annoys me but at the end of the day it's true and therefore helpful). I'm crying but trying not to panic. I'm mostly failing.

2:45pm - Epidural is in and working moderately: I'm tingly but not totally numb. Whatevs, I'll take it. I feel human again.

2:50pm - Still only 3cm dilated? Really? But it hurts. Why is this not working?? My inner this is why I'm scared of inductions voice starts getting louder. My worry about a stalled labor resulting in a c-section gets more pointed. (Yes, just four hours in. I know, I know, it seems dumb. But with Nathan and Anneliese, I was only in active labor for about four hours total. In my mind, I should be holding Sprout by now!)

3pm - Our nurse finds me in tears, worried my epidural is failing (my numb area is getting smaller... not good), re-doses it, and sticks around for a few minutes to make sure it fixes itself (it does). In the meantime we chat about our kids (she has eight! three biological and five adopted) and our churches, and she's encouraging and nice without being a cheerleader type. We love her. Best nurse out of all three labors, hands-down. Her name is Catherine.

3:15pm - Mark has a healthy one-sided running commentary going, chattering about how my cervix was slow to open with the other two as well, and then just sprang open super fast when it was ready. And how the doctor keeps saying that's what's going to happen this time too. But they're all dumb. What do they know? I'm totally going to stall out. They're going to make me have a c-section. I'm sure of it.

3:25pm - Catherine walks in and finds me in tears again. She's worried it's from the pain, but really I'm just missing Nathan and Anneliese and all I can think about is hugging them. She laughs at me, but in a nice way. Mark texts my dad to ask for pics of them in the hopes of cheering me up. My mood swings are all over the place.

3:30pm - Hmmm could my mood be because I'm ravenous? Food and drink have been added to the all I can think about list. Normally I wouldn't hesitate to cheat and eat a snack in labor, sure that it doesn't really matter. But right now I'm so convinced I'm headed for a c-section that I don't eat anything.

4pm - I'm 5cm dilated. Instead of being glad for some progress, I'm discouraged it's not enough progress. My OB Dr. Bass jokes that he has a coffee date with his wife downstairs in the cafeteria at 6:25, so we definitely will be getting the baby out before then. I roll my eyes.

5:15pm - Still at 5cm dilated. Sprout is doing just fine in there, but I'm hungry and discouraged and can't shake my ever-growing c-section fears. I just want to be done with it all and hug my baby girl. And not have to have surgery to make that happen. More crying.

5:30pm - Another Nathan has texted me about starbucks, donuts, and sent tweets about popcorn. He can't possibly know the extent of my hunger misery, but I still want to strangle him a little bit. But at least for fifteen minutes, I have transferred my labor frustrations elsewhere, and my c-section worry is temporarily distracted. So... win?

6:05pm - I am looking through texted pics from my dad, of Nathan and Anneliese swimming in his neighborhood pool (love!), trying to ignore the increasing pain and pressure, and... is that an urge to push? No, that can't be right. I ignore it long enough to send one or two more texts.

6:08pm - Yep, 10cm. Time to have a baby. Dr. Bass tells me she's posterior (not facing the floor like she should be) so I might need to angle differently to push her out than I'm used to. Ha! I don't actually know any different. Nathan was sunny-side up, and Anneliese presented sideways, facing my thigh. We laugh a little about how bizarre that is, and how her delivering OB didn't even know what to call it in my chart. At any rate, I'm unfazed by the prospect of a posterior delivery.

6:12pm - Everything is almost set up for me to start pushing, when I remember how much I hate hospital hats. Before I have this baby, we're getting out different hats. She is not wearing that ugly horrible hospital hat! Mark is a good sport and finds the hats in the hastily-packed hospital bag. I have a feeling everyone is rolling their eyes but I pretend to ignore it.

6:15pm - It's so calm. Unlike my two meconium babies, Sprout has managed not to poop inside me, so there are no extra doctors or nurses or nicu people hanging around. Just me and Mark and Catherine and Dr. Bass. Who is surely about to miss that coffee date with his wife downstairs.

6:16pm - I push. Once. Mark looks at me, wide-eyed, and says wow good job darlin'! He seems excited. Dr. Bass reaches for a bulb syringe (you know, those baby booger-sucker things) and I briefly wonder what the heck he needs that for (um, that tiny thing is not going to be any kind of force against all the mess that's about to flow out of me, for realz) when it occurs to me it has to be for Sprout. Which means her head is out. Which means I've pretty much delivered. Already. Whaaaaa?

6:17pm - Mark says oh look, there's her little hand. Um, excuse me? I've watched enough baby shows on tv to know that's not good. But sure enough, little Sprout is shooting out fist-first (technically a kind of breech) with her right arm crossed over her chest and reaching up along the left side of her head. And she's facing sideways (like Anneliese! another one?) to boot! Well hi there, bizarre presentation. So Dr. Bass tells me not to push anymore and he oh so very carefully pulls her torso out, working around her shoulder and arm.

6:20pm - Happy birthday, Sprout! :) She's all the way out, arms and shoulders working just fine. Praise the Lord!

Immediately after delivery, I was oh so happy I got to hold her right away (Nathan and Anneliese's meconium prevented that with either of them). She was lying on my chest when they cleaned her up, and when Mark cut the cord. It was a really nice few minutes (well, a lot of minutes... she was quite the gunky little lady).

And I'm happy to say that even though it took twice as long as my other labors, the induction definitely wasn't as bad as I had worried. And the end result? Definitely worth it.

*for Mark and Another Nathan: it's bo time, to be exact

Meeting Baby Sister

2011-08-14T23:58:00.002-04:00

Nathan and Anneliese came home today! After ten days with grandparents, they're finally back. And we're so glad! Even as we were enjoying an easy(ish) quiet(ish) week with just Charlotte, Mark and I missed our big kids like crazy.

They were both very excited to meet their new baby sister.

Nathan kept asking us is that Charlotte? as if he wasn't sure this is the baby we've been waiting on, this is the baby that's no longer inside mommy's tummy (and he definitely didn't know what to make of my no-longer-pregnant status... he kept touching my belly and asking why Charlotte's not in there anymore)! He even got to hold her. Charlotte was less than thrilled, which worried Nathan a bit. But he did just fine. :)

Anneliese was far more interested in her baby sister than I thought she'd be. She kept saying baby, baby, and wanting to play with her (even when we wanted her to do other things... like eat lunch... and take a nap). She must have hugged her and kissed her a hundred times over the course of the afternoon.

And... she shared Hattie with Charlotte! I'm pretty sure that in her toddler love language, that's the sweetest most selfless little gesture Anneliese could have made.

Yes, I cried a little. (Regardless of the fact that she totally took Hattie back ten minutes later when she needed some soothing of her own. Whatevs. It was still sweet and awesome.)

For a while, Anneliese was so mesmerized by Charlotte that she pulled up Nathan's extra car booster seat and plopped down in front of the baby swing and just stared at her. Like she was settling in for a good show or something. :)

After their naps, both kids gave Charlotte the birthday present they made for her at Build-a-Bear a few weeks ago... Kate the puppy. I couldn't believe it, but Charlotte actually seemed to like it. She buried her face into its fur, gnawed at it a little, and then dozed off with her head resting on its head. Made me laugh.

And afterwards, any time I got up and took Charlotte somewhere without Kate, Nathan (who is already an expert on his new sister, of course) would rush up to me and put it in my lap and tell me Charlotte needs this!

So now all my babies are happily sleeping under one roof. Even though the littlest one will surely be awake in the next hour, this still makes me unspeakably happy. Yes, juggling three will be hard, maybe harder than I'm wise enough to realize right now, but that's still how I want it -- all three of them, at home, with me.

Left Boob, Right Boob, Boob in a Bottle

2011-08-13T23:05:00.075-04:00

Disclaimer: in case you didn't guess from the title, this post is about nursing. If that makes you squirmy, then... well, first of all, get over it. And second, oh it's okay, just don't read this. (But no seriously get over it.)

Okay so you'd think that by the third child, I would know how to breastfeed. You would be wrong. Again. I started having some pain on my right side yesterday, but couldn't find anything wrong with her latch. It got progressively worse throughout the night, and by 3am I was having toe-curling pain when she was nursing, and residual soreness even when she wasn't, and oh yeah there's that horrifying blood blister that made an appearance early this afternoon. Yes, it's as painful as it sounds.

I don't think it's a bad latch, because A- the left side is fine which means she's clearly doing it right over there, B- I checked her latch, multiple times, and it's pretty much textbook-perfect, and C- it even hurts to pump, and a pump can't have a bad latch. So I have no idea what the original source of the pain is, but do know I'm not nursing through it. Nope. I have no need to be a hero or a martyr to that kind of pain (see: I *heart* epidurals), nor was I willing to switch her to all left-side nursings, pump the right, and risk stimulating extra milk production and getting even more engorged (my boobs are... um, not small to begin with, especially while nursing).

Which means Charlotte got her first bottle today. Like Anneliese, way earlier than we planned to. (Unlike Anneliese, Charlotte's bottle wasn't full of bloody milk. We're limiting our vampire children to just the one for now, thankyouverymuch.)

She did just fine, and afterwards she nursed just fine (on the left) also. Awesome.

So now we have officially expanded her mealtime choices to three: left boob, right boob, or boob in a bottle.

It's a heck of a menu. I'm just sayin'.

Squeaky C

2011-08-12T23:26:00.009-04:00

Charlotte is a very squeaky baby. I don't know how to explain that other than exactly like it sounds. She... squeaks.

She squeaks in her crying, and in her hiccuping, and in her sleeping and snoring. The first noises she makes when she starts to wake up are squeaks. She squeaks in between grunts when she's pooping. We don't have that last one on video (yet. just give it time, folks.) but Mark did get a few seconds of an infuriated cry the other night, made somewhat less infuriated-sounded by the squeaks interspersed throughout.

(You know you're the third child when instead of tending to your cries, your parents videotape it and laugh first.)

(If you can't see the video embedded above, click here to watch it on YouTube.)

We've taken to calling her Squeaky C. Secretly I hope she squeaks like this when she starts laughing, too.

And that maybe it lingers til adulthood and I get to tease her about it at her wedding. Terrible or awesome?

Welcome Home, Charlotte

2011-08-11T23:49:00.030-04:00

{Note: another delayed post, written on my phone earlier this week, just now uploading pics and posting 8/13.}

We brought Charlotte home from the hospital yesterday!

We had a typically rough but totally manageable first night at home. She woke up three or four times, but we were able to get her back to sleep within half an hour each time, except at 6am when she decided daytime is for being wide awake and, more importantly, being held.

All in all, par for the newborn course. We'll take it.

In the last twenty-four hours she's gotten to meet both Uncle Nick and Aunt Barbara! But not together. Because that would be too logical. (I'd tell you why they didn't come over together, but I'm in a newborn fog and I'm not sure I understand it myself. Something about some business trips?)

Charlotte also got to meet our former neighbor Renee who was in town for work and showed up with dinner for us. (True story: you bring me food, you get to meet the baby.)

And today she's been sleeping all day long. We could barely wake her up to take her on her first outing (Target, then chick fil a, then to the doctor for her newborn checkup).

first ride in the minivan!

She cries about every three hours, then nurses herself back into oblivion. Meanwhile Mark and I, for lack of anything else to think about this week, are doing that annoying new-parent thing where we stare at her and bask in her cuteness until we fall asleep ourselves.

And that's all for now, from the land of the new baby.

Post-Partum

2011-08-09T23:25:00.102-04:00

{Note: finally uploaded pics and posted 8/13; sorry for the delay, photo-clamorers.}

So I am typing this in the middle of the night, in a hospital room, delirious from lack of sleep and knock-you-out postpartum contraction pain. But Charlotte isn't having any of that pesky sleeping-in-the-bassinet business, so she's in my arms, she's incredibly sweet, and I'm trying to focus on the good parts of being a new mommy instead of the hard ones.

I don't think she likes sleeping-baby pics as much as I like taking them...

Because, for real. This postpartum recovery has been by far the hardest of all three babies.

One downside of a super-fast delivery (still a story for another day) (but no, seriously, I pushed once) is that Charlotte didn't spend enough time engaged in the birth canal to squeeze out all the... gunk. So she has spent much of the last day and a half gagging and choking and throwing up a fairly gross combination of mucous and colostrum and clumpy blood. Nice, huh?

(Oh I'm so glad this is the first thing I'm telling the internet about my new daughter.)

So there's that.

And then there's me. I am post-epidural itchy (still totally worth it), my back is super sore (three for three on sunny-side-up deliveries), and the post-delivery contractions are more painful than anything I got to in labor. Yes, I said it. More painful than labor. I think every doctor or nurse who has come in here has casually remarked that they do indeed get worse with each subsequent child. Well, super. Thanks. Not helpful.

So, um. This hasn't been the most awesome of hospital stays. But with Nathan and Anneliese out of town, Mark has been super-available. And considering it's our third baby and we both know what we're doing now, he's also been super-helpful and useful and basically a rock star.

except for keeping hats on... he's had a few daddy baby hat fails

Clearly it takes having three children to get the hospital thing down to an art form and work really well together. We're definitely calling that part a win.

much better, Daddy... now you can have your rock star sticker back

And it hasn't been all bad.

I mean there's this beautiful sweet baby...

And Another Nathan came with hugs for Charlotte and gobs of snacks and drinks and goodies for Mark and me...

We got to show Nathan and Anneliese their new baby sister on skype...

And oh yeah, that whole beautiful baby Charlotte thing again.

So we're really doing mostly okay. And we're very excited to bring her home tomorrow!

Happy Birth Day, Charlotte!

2011-08-08T21:30:00.003-04:00

Sprout is here!

Charlotte Claire Goettsch,
born August 8, 2011, at 6:20pm,
8lbs 2 oz, and 20 inches long.

Charlotte and Erin are both doing beautifully!