So much going on in this head...

I have had so many topics roaming around in my head, it is positively depressing how little I've been able to post. But folks, keeping three kids alive is seriously time consuming. Granted, we've been doing a leetle more than just maintaining life around here...

...Leah is attending Safety Town, an Optimist Club-run program for kids going into kindergarten. She's been learning about traffic signs and bike safety, and has gotten to check out a police car and a fire engine. It's been great for her, and also requires us to be out the door by 10:15 to get her there in time. Just what I needed - a goal to get me up and moving! And this one is definitely reachable, even with the new little guy.

...We traveled to Western ND this past weekend for a family wedding. Adam slept the whole time, except for a short period of fussing. We pulled over and burped him, and then he was okey-dokey again! The trip went well despite our general sleep-deprivation (the kids from fun, us from Adam's eating schedule), and it was good to see several of Aaron's sibs and their families.

...Prodigious amounts of burping and tooting. Contrary to popular thought, these activities are NOT necessarily a requirement for life. Adam has been the source of most of the excess noise, but let me tell you folks, not ALL of it. Baby Adam is not a spitter (so far), but he does enjoy a good belch...or ten. The child will belch an hour after eating, and after already having belched three times. It's almost always the reason for his fussing - pick him up and give him a few good thwacks on the back, wait for the man-sized burp, and then he's happy again. I swear one time I saw his lips flap like Homer Simpson's.

...Cleaning off sand. And taking showers. Aaron added a sandbox to the kids' swingset, and now I am fighting a constant battle against the grit. We have changed the main exit to the backyard to try to avoid having it ground into the carpet, but so far the kids most enjoy getting hosed off. Fortunately we have convinced BOTH kids that showers are the way to go, which has greatly sped up our bedtime routine.

...Laundry. Seems like this should be a life necessity, but I guess we could wear dirty clothes and survive. Actually, Adam does this fairly often - I guess after two other kids, I've given up on changing his clothes every time he pees or spits up on them a bit. I figure, if it's not too much, or not actually touching his skin (like pee on a onesie being in a diaper-covered area anyway), it's not that big of a deal. Besides, baby boy does NOT like having his diaper changed OR his clothes changed at night. Not that I can really blame him, I guess. But the screeching does bother his sleeping father a bit.

Future posts promise to be more about the survival part....sleep (or lack thereof), eating (the constancy of it), and other joys. As life settles into more of a routine around here, hopefully my blog will return to a kind of normalcy, as well! Thanks for hanging in here with me! (Oh yes...photos will follow, too!)