We Need Buckets

Boy likes the sauce.
Applesauce, that is!

Every year, we experience the “lost month.” You know, the one where the ship sinks because we just can’t seem to bail fast enough. Usually it’s January. This year, it’s October/November [January - I'm looking at you! … we already did our time]. Disclaimer: I am in no way implying that you need kids to experience the lost month. It seems to, unfortunately, be part of life, regardless of marital or parental status.

It started out innocently enough with Declan getting a cold that migrated to an ear infection. At the same time I was going out of town for work. And day care was closed for two days. But the day care close was planned and we had Grandma Nash lined up. No problem.

But then Mike and the girls also got the cold and developed a life-altering cough that plagued the house and destroyed everyone’s sleeping habits for three weeks. [when the 4 month old is the best sleeper, you know it's grim!] In the midst of that, Ms. A broke a tooth and ended up needing emergency oral surgery. Another 3.5 days of day care closed, combined with a few days of the cold keeping various members of the family home.

A Q in a box

The cough calmed enough that we weren't having middle of the night coughing fits, so it seemed we may be crawling out. Obviously, that meant the washing machine decided to break. Thankfully five people plus dog really don’t make much laundry ... It was fixable, but they had to order a part. It took over a week to fix (just fixed yesterday – praise Heaven!). Enter Mike schlepping bins of clothes to the laundromat a couple times and my slight Type A tendencies making me feel like the piles of unwashed articles in the house were closing in on me.

Since Mike went hunting last weekend, I do admit there was a certain amount of freedom knowing that I simply couldn't do the laundry. The gang and I had a great time. But somewhere in the weekend, a new cold bug decided to come visit. The girls are still occasionally coughing from the evil October bug … so this one has decided to pick on Declan (so far). With 9 days in the last month of missed day care, the tall Vs are getting a little twitchy about losing their jobs. The ship had officially taken on too much water and was going down.

Thankfully, Grandma and Grandpa Johnson were willing to redirect south instead of north from their St. Cloud trip to spend today with the baby … and do my laundry. Hello clean sheets – how I've missed you!

I also need to add that Mike got pretty sick while I was out of town and having Grandma here was a godsend. The ship would have sunk long ago without her here when the chaos began. 

Thank goodness for grandparents. They brought the metaphorical bucket to help bail this ship out. 

When Life Hands You Lemons ...

sometimes you end up making sour faces! We brought the kids to the portrait studio on Saturday to get individual pictures and group pictures of the gang. The girls were really excited and were so cooperative when we were getting ready. Declan was all smiles when we got there. Then we went into the little room. Dec was so confused by the whole experience that he forgot how to smile. He wasn't upset, but he just looked perplexed the whole time. So the photos didn't capture his personality at all.

Upset status went to our sweet middle child. There was a stranger looking at her. It was a strangle place. She wanted absolutely nothing to do with it. I managed to peel her off of me for three very sad looking "group" photos at the end. The oldest was a ham - of course - but was so overly excited that most of the pictures have her eyes closed or her mouth wide open. Because you have to open your mouth to open your eyes ...

I ordered a few pictures that were mediocre. When we got home, I hired my own 4-year-old photography assistant for a piece of her own Halloween candy (she's very affordable) and tried to take my own photos of D. Bugs and I got a somewhat better result and we cancelled the other order. Someday, I hope there will be a lovely photo of the three of them. A mama can dream!

The tongue was out in most of them. And the drool.

Mouth open. Eyes open.

Sweet sad Q (isn't she cute though?)

You may think I purposefully picked the worst photo.
But no, this is the ONLY picture of the three of them. The only!

Here's the one that Bugs and I got at home

It's Halloween

I didn't do a great job of taking pictures today. It's a bit of a sprint to get dinner in, do our trick or treating, and get home to hand out candy too. Oh, and feed a baby. We had a really nice evening that was only marred by our poor Q not feeling well. We're still battling the awful cold here and she chose not to take a nap. So zombie toddler by the end.

It was chilly out tonight - but not terrible. D and I joined the gang for our block and then Mike and the girls continued on to the cul-de-sac. Daddy reports that they had a blast. I handled the trick-or-treaters while they were gone and then turned over the bowl when they got home. I'm not sure if Fiona enjoyed getting candy or handing it out more. She LOVED when friends came to our door. Quinn also liked it, but she was pretty worn out.

These pictures are a combination of ones my sister took at Pumpkins in the Park a couple weeks ago and actual shots from tonight. Happy Halloween!

Superhero Batgirl pose

Ladybug

Little duck

Ladybug and Mama

Halloween pjs

Cheese face

Handing out candy

Bat puppy

A Goal Achieved

We "forgot" our costumes

When I was pregnant with Declan, I decided that I want to run a 5k after we had him. Before the snow flew. Because we had three kids and I wanted to do something for me.

I was going to run one in August with my sister, but it was a pretty big one, cost a lot of money, and needed "spectator passes" for Mike and the kids. The sheer logistics gave me hives. So that didn't feel like a good fit. My friend Beth has been running too. So we decided to do a 5k together and found a nice little race in S-town at the community center. Cheap, easy, the hubbies could bring the kids. Much better fit.

It was all coming up roses until Declan was still not sleeping through the night in September so my getting up early to run before work was suffering [non-existent]. Then I got my rear in gear and started using my lunch break at work to hit the treadmill. But I would only go a mile or so because I didn't want to have to take a shower ... or smell. And then a respiratory plague hit my house. So sleeping went out the window as four of the five Vs coughed all night long. And then Beth hurt her foot.

We debated bailing on the race and both decided we would be more disappointed to give up than to go slowly. Saturday morning found us jogging/power walking a lovely route around town. Spoiler alert: I was the one Vanneste not coughing all night. But as I was jogging, I discovered that my lungs were a little compromised by the bug as well. I walked more than I wanted to, but jogged more than I walked. And finished at just over 38 minutes. So slow. But finished. And finishing was the goal.

Beth and I had a good time and are looking forward to doing more of these together. And the bar is pretty low to achieve improvement on my time by spring.

However, I'm still really proud that I did it at four months postpartum. And my girls were running races all weekend. Because they are proud of me and want to be like me. Two successes with one three mile event!

4 Months - Revised

Updates from D's well check today:

   Weight: 13 lb 13 oz (13 percentile)

   Height: 26.25" (86 percentile) ... he grew almost 4 inches in 2 months!

He is by far our tallest baby at this age (F was 25.5 and Q was 25.25 inches) and our smallest (both girls were over 14 lbs ... in fact, Bugs was 14 lbs 9 oz). His head is smaller than the girls' head were. But all in all, healthy boy!

Also, a retraction from my previous post about how he can "almost" roll from back to tummy. He can, in fact, now roll from back to tummy and Ms. A found him on his tummy at nap today. Tricky boy!