Turning Points

A big milestone for us this week. Alden started Preschool. There is a difference between Mother's Day Out and Preschool I have come to realize. Mainly, he goes to school every single day of the week and that Kindergarten sign our future elementary school puts in your front yard to welcome you is getting to be a closer and closer reality. Being three weeks post-partum does not help a weepy mother watch her little boy grow up. However, an unexpected plus to school starting is how much Alden loves to share with me about his day. We have a lot of heart to hearts and special time because he has something to say, and I want to hear about it. He was especially excited to find out that I had read the book Miss Nelson is Missing, too. One day, he tells me that he saw a movie about making crayons. I told him that when I was little my favorite show I ever watched was the episode of Mr. Rodgers Neighborhood where he visited the Crayola factory. His eyes lit up, "That's the one! It was Mr. Rodgers! I watched it because I love you Mommy!" Kind of corny, but it was a little moment. I am happy at how much he loves school and how he was begging to go back. It is a lot easier to send him off everyday when I know I am doing what is best for him and makes him the happiest.      

                                 

Now, Spencer is another situation entirely. I had a bloody come apart. I have no idea why, and I have a few friends and family members who had to glue me back together and do a lot of listening.  I had already had Spencer in school for the three day program since last Spring. I was happy with that until the week before school started when I found myself crying endlessly that he was growing up and I was prematurely sending him off to school for a whopping four more hours.  He does not like to leave Mommy and loves to say things like,"Wait for me!" and "Don't leave me!" through barrels of screams and tears when I drop him off at Mother's Day Out just to twist in the knife. He wanted me to pick him up and hold him and I couldn't, he wanted me to tuck him in bed and the baby was always crying, he wanted to sit in my lap after naps and it happened to be the time the baby needed to eat. In moments of weakness and guilt, I moved him to the two day a week program and relinquished the coveted spot.  Then, it happened. The grandparents, the Daddy, the Nanny all left me alone with three kids.  I realized on Meet Your Teacher day that the guilt was over-rated and that Spencer would spend that extra four hours with me watching me cook dinner, feed a baby, or slave over the now endless laundry for a family of five. What fun!  Also, there were only three kids in his class which seemed a little boring as well.  So, I suck it up knowing that the school would think I was insane and talk about me behind my back and asked for our spot back in three day. They did it. Then, I woke up at 3:00 am crying that I had made the wrong decision again.  At school, he screamed, said he wanted to play with Mommy, asked me not to leave him there, chased me down the hall and knocked me over clutching me so hard.  This did not help. I cried again through Harrison's check-up and made the doctor tell me it was okay.  Nuts! I mean, nuts! Guess what happened when Daddy took him the next day? He ran right in! Think my husband could go to work at 9:00 three days a week??
                                               
After all of my drama and a few glasses of wine later, I am officially out of my baby blues period and very thankful for my last minute switch.  Just dropping Alden off at school and trying to get coffee at Starbuck's yesterday took an hour.  Harrison required a stop to burp once and twice for a diaper change. Did I mention that the mileage on the car was 4 miles? I have managed a few crockpot meals, but I learned very quickly that I cannot cook dinner with a newborn and two toddlers. Someone will want to steal food, eat food, scream, or endanger another human being. I can't be specific over which one of them it will be at any given time.  All I know is that  in one 15 minute period I had two kids in time out, a dozen cracked eggs on my kitchen floor, and a screaming baby that only gets quiet when I walk around with him in the Ergo baby sling. So, Spencer and I just have special days on Mondays and Fridays and I try to do the boring stuff in between. He picks his activity which so far has been to go to the bookstore to play trains. Harrison is happy in his Ergo and Spencer is happy with his trains and Mommy gets to sit and drink Starbucks.  Although, I admit that I have had to buy a train every time I leave to get him out of the store peacefully. I know, I know, that is super bad parenting. Don't judge a tired Mamma. Peace is priceless at the moment.
                                
So, my last day with my boys all together at home and no one in school was really my only day without another adult being at the house at some point during the day in almost a month. It was good to have them all to myself, but exhausting. I attempted every Pinterest "What To Do With Your Toddlers" game I had ever pinned.  We painted handprint animals, we made a sticky collage of Halloween costumes on contact paper, we ran obstacle courses, we watched online stories, we pretended to be animals, we made silly faces, we put up colored squares and ran to them when I called out a color, we read books, we had a dance party, we cooked muffins, and we took a bubble bath. That was while wearing Harrison in the Ergo to keep him happy and downloading new apps for the two iPads in order to have sit-down time to feed him.  Wouldn't trade all that energy for the world! It keeps me laughing and counts as exercise.
                                           
Spencer's silly face.
                                           
This is another situation we have. Our neighbors. There is a little boy Alden's age that I refer to as our "boy in the stripped pajamas." You know the story of the child that was friends with a boy in the concentration camp but they were only friends through the fence? That is Alden and this boy.  They also have a big yard and playset which makes Alden want to cross over all the more. Here is the problem: we haven't seen his parents in three years.  They are there, a nanny is there, but we never see the actual adult in order to have this boy come over to play. He asks Alden all the time but in the kid way of asking without asking your parents which means Alden gets excited but then the playdate never comes to pass. Every time we get in the car or out of the car, they talk and swap gifts of sticks and rocks and brick and leaves through the fence. When these children break something, they ask Alden if his Daddy can come and fix it so their Daddy won't see it (they are desperate if they are looking to Joey as their "handy man").  Alden is convinced that it is my fault he isn't  going over there and doesn't understand that you can't just climb fences into people's yards without parental permission. We are working on locating the adults and resolving this issue. Unless they are Bo Radley, they will have to come outside sometime.
                                
                                                
Another milestone, we now have a one month old.  I started to get weepy about this at the hospital Starbucks but laughed at myself instead. Our hospital room was on the other side of the wall as the Starbucks. Every morning, we could hear the swoosh sound of the cappuccinos and lattes being made. We were standing waiting on Mommy's decaf when Harrison just lulled to sleep at that sound. He was home:) Without tears, however, I can report that we are 10 lbs. 13 oz. and have already outgrown the outfit that Alden wore home from the hospital (although the dryer might have had something to do with that). He is taller at 22 1/4 inches long, and the big news, we have reflux!
                               
Yes, although we have escaped the heart murmur and giant head of our older brothers, baby boy number three inherited the visits to the gastroenterologists.  Dr. Mom recognized the symptoms and had him diagnosed before we even went for our doctor confirmation. We are covered in spit up around here and have a very unhappy baby curling up, choking, and screaming. We have a lot of swinging of car seats being held upright on Mommy's shoulder and eventful car rides.  But, we are working on the right concoction of baby medication to make his little life a little less traumatic.  As Alden would say, "Bless his little heart."

My babies.  A totally spontaneous and rare moment of bonding where I was thankful the camera was already in my hand.  (FYI: Alden had been decorating Spencer with stickers hence the sticker on the side of his face).

Speaking of random moments, Spencer discovered a photo of himself in his old nursery.  He was awestruck. This made me smile.

 First family photos. Mommy and all of her boys!

Here are a few more pics of our new little guy and all my favorite boys taken by someone who knows how to use a camera better than Mom: