Swimming Lessons & Our Day Today

Life with 4 kids, an infant, and especially summer time is super busy and a constant schedule juggling act.  I have to juggle multiple feedings and naps around whatever else we have planned for our day, plus try to keep Aspen busy so he isn't bored and bugging his sisters.  Since the reason I do a blog is to help me remember what life was like at each stage (and I'm probably the only one reading this), here is a peek into our day today...

Teague, at 8 months old is still waking up multiple times a night...  last night he woke up at 12:30am (fed him) and at 3:00am (fed him again).  He freaks out if I don't feed him, and with his allergy issues, the fact that all our hardwood floors magnify the sound of his crying, and I'm just too lazy, sleep deprived or both to fight it, I just go along with it.  He woke up for the morning at 6:50am so I rolled over and asked Mark to get up with him so I could get a little more sleep.

Side note:  It's been amazing to me to see how Mark has changed in his role as a Dad and husband over the years since we had Aspen.  With each child, he has become more involved, helpful and emotionally engaged with the babies.  This time around, he often gets up with Teague in the night to give him his binky, gets up early with him so that I can sleep a little longer, was comfortable with me leaving him with all 4 kids when Teague was just 6 or 8 weeks old, and will either take him when he's being fussy so that I can get dinner going or take over dinner prep for me.  He also cleans up the kitchen and dining room (including sweeping) every night, and almost always puts the older 3 kids to bed while I feed and put Teague to bed.  And this is not an easy task!  Willow makes bedtime extremely difficult pretty much every night...  Yes, he's pretty amazing!

7:10am - I got to sleep a little longer, but forced myself out of bed and into the shower at 7:10am.  I got myself showered and dressed for the day.

7:30 - Hearing Teague fussing, I went downstairs and fed him while Mark made juice (we've been juicing daily for the past couple months) and coffee.  

8-9am - Willow and I worked together to make up a batch of GF granola and another batch of regular granola, held T for much of this time, wrote up chore lists for kids, To Do list for myself, and got them dressed for the day.  Got Aspen and Journey started on their chores.

9 - Teague down for his first nap.  I got the other kids started on their chores outside.  Most days I have Aspen pull 200 weeds as apart of his chores.  Journey has to go outside and pull weeds too, but I don't have an amount for her.  She just has to stay out as long as he's out.  It sounds like a lot, but only takes him about 15 or 20 minutes.  While they were working on their chores, I ran back upstairs to finish drying my hair and doing make up.  

9:30-10 - quick kitchen clean up, pack after swimming lessons lunch for kids, get the kids ready for their lessons, eat breakfast

10-10:20 - had to wake T up from his nap (unusual) and quickly fed him while the other kids anxiously waited in the car.  Just a little excited for swimming lessons  :)  Thankfully we took off a few minutes early, because it took forever to find a parking spot.  Aspen was alternately praying for a spot and yelling at people to move and hurry up, haha    He's got a little of both his mother and his father in him, lol

10:45 - Highlight of the day.... the beginning of the very highly anticipated swimming lessons  :)  I was able to get them all into their own classes at the same time (yay me!), although I did have to fib a little on Willow's age.  She is supposed to be 3 to do a class without me in the water with her, but since that wasn't going to happen, and I knew she would hate being left out of lessons, I 'advanced' her age by a few months, haha

 Willow's class

Willow reacted exactly like I knew she would.  She resists new things so she refused to look at her teacher or get in the water at first, but a few minutes in, she warmed up, and by the end, she was having so much fun that she was the last kid out of the pool (as in the entire pool) and cried that she had to go.

  Journey's class

She looks so little compared to the two boys in her class!  I think this class is a bit advanced for her, but hopefully she'll learn a lot!

Aspen's class

He had a bit of a rough start today too.  He missed hearing who his teacher was, and wondered around finally jumping into the deep end of the pool and accidentally joining the wrong class.  He was so flustered he was ready to quit swimming lessons before they had even started!

Once we got things squared away with his class, he had a great time and made friends with another boy next to him.

 Teague's first time down a slide :)

11:30-12:30 - we took stopped at a park to have lunch and play after swimming lessons, then stopped at a Goodwill drop off place to donate some items we've had floating around.

12:30-1pm - unload swimming lesson stuff, feed Teague, put Teague and Willow down for naps and quiet time for Aspen and Journey.

1-2:30pm - lunch for me, quick kitchen clean up, put in 2nd batch of granola to bake.  A little veg time on the computer while I ate my lunch, updated my budget program for July, paid some bills online, made a salad for dinner. 

2:30 - Aspen and Journey up from quiet time, snacks, sent them outside to play.

3 - Willow and Teague up from their naps.  Got Willow a snack, set up the sprinkler for her, tried to do a little cleaning - main bath and sweep main floor - all while Teague was super fussy.

3:30 - fed Teague.  Tried to do more cleaning upstairs with a fussy baby in tow, while kids coming in and out with different problems, hungry, someone not playing nicely, etc.  

4:30-5:30 - tried to put Teague down for a nap.  Had kids clean up the basement, then turned on channel 10 cartoons for them.  Continued to try to clean upstairs bath, got Teague up again since he was not interested in napping, sweep floors, start dinner, gave him a little solid food, fed him again.

5:30 - nap for Teague.  Continued to work on dinner, Willow 'helped' me with dishes, cleaning up around the house.

6 - Mark home

6:30 - dinner time, got Teague up from his nap.

7-7:30 - worked on getting girls to bed with Mark and finished sweeping their room out.

7:30 - fed Teague again for the last time of the day.  Mark finished cleaning up the kitchen, doing the dishes and sweeping, then he and Aspen left for the beach.

8-9:30 - Teague cried and fought bedtime which is quite unusual for him.  Willow also fought bedtime until 9pm (not so unusual!)  while Journey was asleep by 8:15 or 8:30pm.  She's learned to sleep through a lot - including Willow getting spankings!

It was a long day for me today.  Normally the kids are down to bed and the house is clean by 8 or 8:30pm.  Teague was fussy most of the day (pretty sure teething?), and I felt overwhelmed with the amount of cleaning and effort it took to keep the older 3 busy throughout the afternoon.  I'm thankful for a new day tomorrow!

4th of July Week 2012

This year, tuna season started super early.  Mark's first trip out was June 23rd, and they caught 10.   Usually unheard before July!  Since the 4th fell in the middle of the week this year, we went down on a Thursday night, the weekend before.  Mark had big plans for another tuna trip on Saturday, but started feeling like he was coming down with something the day we left.  Remember how June was the month of sickness here?  Ugh, somehow, amazingly he hadn't caught it.  Well, he wasn't spared.  By Thursday night, he was super sick and popping pain meds for his throat.  Friday he was worse, and spent most of the day in bed.  Thankfully, Grammy and Papa were down for the week at their house so we spent most of the day there so that he could rest. 

Saturday's fishing trip was canceled, and Mark (barely able to talk, swallow or eat) decided that he'd better head into the Tillamook ER.  The older 3 kids stayed with G & P, while Teague and I took him in to the hospital.  It was a good thing we did.  The Dr. took one look at his throat and told Mark that had he waited much longer to come in, his tonsils would have abscessed, and he would have been looking at surgery!  The dr assumed strep, although wasn't able to take an official test due to how swollen his throat was, gave him a long list of prescription meds to get, and we were off.  It took just a day or two before the meds really started kicking in, and we were able to do some fun things as a family.

Oceanside


One of our favorite little towns along the Oregon Coast is Oceanside.  It's absolutely beautiful, has a laid back feel and a great beach to play on complete with a tunnel through the rocky cliff to another beach (Aspen's favorite).  The kids were super excited for the sunny weather, and the fact that they got to play in the ocean.

Teague 7 1/2 months

He loves the beach, and the feel of sand on his feet and in his toes.  But for a Mommy, he's not at an easy age to bring to the beach.  It takes just a couple minutes of playing, before handfuls of sand make their way to his mouth.  It's a mess every time!

Journey 5 1/2

Aspen 8

 Love them...  Quick pose before they were off and running into the water  :)

The beach here is much safer than in Rockaway.  I don't normally let them play in the ocean there when it's just me with four kids!

Seriously.  No words. 

Love my girls.

Love the look on Aspen's face  :)

Willow 2 1/2 - fun in motion

Teague's spot with me while we kept an eye on the kids in the water.

 Parade! 

Mark and both Papa's were tuna fishing for the 4th.  I am so thankful Grammy was here to come to the parade with us.  The kids had been looking forward to it for months, so we definitely weren't gonna miss it...even with Willow being sick

 Ready for the parade to start.

Aspen and Journey ready to get the candy.  Willow wasn't feeling good that day (I think strep), and spent most of the parade in the stroller.  I was secretly so proud of Aspen and Journey who made sure to fill her bucket with candy, and give her the best picks first (without being prompted).

Daddy's Boy

 Mark had been gone all afternoon at the docks getting ready for a fishing trip, and this was how Teague responded when he walked in....  oh my goodness..  How can you not just melt?  Such a sweet boy.


More fun on the beach....

 Aspen, Journey and I were able to go to the beach and take a walk while Teague and Willow napped at Grammy's beach house.  It was such a weird feeling to be walking down the beach with just them two.  It gave me a little vision into what life would have been like had we of stopped with Journey.   So different!  They are getting so much bigger and more independent.  We had no problem walking quite far (something I'd never do at this point with all four), talking the whole time about random things. 

He's such a boy!

June 2012

I think June can be summed up in three things...
School ends & Summer begins.  Beach.  Sickness hits the family.

Aspen finished up 2nd grade and was awarded the June character trait of Patience.

Summer begins...  

I was a little anxious about summer break.  Aspen is the kind of kid that needs lots of activity and stimulation.  Other than first thing in the morning, I don't generally allow the TV to be on, and restrict the Wii time to 45 minutes per day.  That leaves a lot of time to fill!  The girls, Teague and I had a sort of normal routine around here.  They were used to spending much of our time at home playing due to Teague's naps and feedings.  They don't get bored or really even bug each other very often. But when Aspen is thrown into the mix....  Yes, things don't go quite as peacefully!  He wants Journey to play with him at all times, but either he doesn't always play so nicely with her or they exclude Willow.  Both of which cause problems, arguments and some kind of interference from me once things go downhill.  The only thing I've come up with so far to help with this is creating daily work/chores for Aspen. 

Thankfully, being the age he's at, he's also had a lot of opportunities to do fun things:

Bill & Diana had him over to their house for 4 days with a couple of his other cousins.  They had a blast playing outside, sleeping in the tree fort (one night with Papa and one by themselves!), and earned $32 doing chores and hauling brush and tree limbs for Nana.

Sleepover at Peyton's house.  It was supposed to be at our house, but I got sick, and Charity offered to have him come to their house for the sleepover.  So nice since I was feeling so bad!

Sleepover with Peyton at our house.  Peyton and Aspen play so well together.  Aspen really loves and takes care of him.  Mark took the boys to the nickel arcade in the evening, and the rest of their time was spent playing outside, making forts, playing legos, and a little wii time.  When it came to bedtime, I went downstairs, as I always do, to check on the boys, pray with them and say goodnight.  I walked down to see them cuddled together on the floor with Aspen reading Peyton comic books.  It was adorable.

Camping, hiking and rock climbing trip with Daddy, Ryan, Papa, Aaron and William and Adam at Smith Rocks.  Since we aren't campers, I was thrilled that Aspen got the opportunity to go on this 'boys' camping trip.  He had a blast, and so did Mark :)

Beach Trip
Halibut season started at the beginning of May.  Mark did really well this year and limited out on each trip.  When he fishes, he generally only goes once a week on whatever day the weather is best.  The other days we are down at the beach we try to spend as a family doing fun things together.  Most of the time it's simple things like walking to the beach or going to the arcade, but one weekend in June, on a particularly nice day we took the family on a boat ride into the ocean and up to the cliffs by Manzanita.

 Once I moved from this position in the back of the boat (Aspen was really worried Teague would fly out of my arms into the water) to the front, Aspen calmed down, and even enjoyed himself!

 A seal!

I have to note, since this is something I'll probably forget, that Aspen is SUPER scared of going in the ocean.  Any time Mark asks him if he wants to go fishing or for a boat ride, it's a resounding NO!  Of course it's Mark's dream to someday fish with him and Teague so we are trying to 'condition' him into liking the ocean, haha

Group bath time!

Going to the beach requires a lot of baths for sandy kids  :)

Sickness...
Sometime in early June, maybe the first weekend?  Aspen came down with a severe sore throat.  Strep had been going around at school, so I watched his throat carefully for white spots.  I've never had strep, but had heard that you get white spots in your throat as a sign of strep.  He never got the white spots, so I had him on pain meds, gargling and taking lots of Vitamin C.  It took him a couple days, but he was over it pretty fast.  About a week later, Journey came down with it. It seemed about the same as Aspen, except she wasn't able to gargle, and it took her much longer, maybe a week or 10 days to go back to herself.  Of course, near the end of Journey's sickness, Willow came down with it.  And I was getting lower and lower on my patience level with someone always being sick and need, especially since the girls and Teague couldn't or didn't tell me they were feeling sick, they just started crying more and being needier...which looks a lot like fits and whining - something I can't stand and have no patience for!  Ugh.  Once I got it (the day before our 13th anniversary), I realized how bad they must have been feeling, and felt SO guilty for not being more patient and understanding.

Mark came down with it the last weekend of the month, while we were at the beach, and definitely got it way worse than the rest of us did.  After a few days spent in bed, trying to get a handle on it with gargling and tylenol, he realized he needed to head to the Tillamook ER to get checked out.  It was a good thing he did, because his tonsils were so infected and full of puss, they were closing off his throat and close to rupturing!  Poor guy, always gets it the worst!