Time Flies When You're Having Fun

I'm still here.  There are a multitude of reasons why I haven't been on here, the majority of which center around time.  There's so much to do and so little time in which to do it.  I feel terrible that I've neglected this space, but in my pursuit of "me" time, my blog takes second string to running (and I rarely have time to do that these days).

Life raising three children is, actually, considerably easier than I'd anticipated.  Perhaps it's because twins are more than twice as hard (I think, at least!) or because Michael is one chill little guy or because we are older and have some experience under our belts.  I actually have no idea.  But things get done, we make it to church on time, and we are still managing to do things with Bobby and Maya (together, one-on-one, and as a family).  But, there again, comes the whole "time" thing. In managing to do to keep the home together, there's not a lot of spare time and, what time I do seem to have, I spend sleeping or trying, desperately, to get a run in.

Bobby and Maya had their fourth birthday party on Saturday. I'll post pictures once they are downloaded, but, suffice it to say, it was a pretty awesome time.  Here are two of the pictures I do have.

48 cupcakes + 1 sheet cake + 2 hours at a local park = a good time!

Thanks to PawPaw, there were a number of happy face painted kids (including Aunt Sarah!)

The party was a blast and the kids had so much fun.  It's hard to believe that, in 8 days, they will be four years old.  The time has flown by.  And, even more difficult to believe, they will be in PreK come Wednesday!

Once again, the kiddos are going to our (AWESOME) parish school.  We had Bobby's IEP meeting last week and his new teacher joined us.  Once again, we are reminded of why our school is so awesome.  We adored their preschool teacher and I have a feeling we'll be adoring their new teacher as well.  I love how much these teachers love the kids.  It's amazing.  In good IEP news, Bobby was approved to continue speech and OT, and he was given 15 PCA hours, which is really what we were hoping for (I'll write more about this later in another post).  So, we are looking forward to a good year.  Camp was great (more on that in the other post) and the kids are very excited about school.

Thanks to so many great handmedowns combined with some giftcards, the kids are all decked out for the fall and winter. Talk about a sigh of relief!  These kids have GROWN.  Maya is a solid 4T (although her waist is still teeny tiny and I have to get those cinched waist pants for them to stay up!) and Bobby (gulp) is a 5T or even a 5/small in boys. Michael isn't one to be left out... Our scale puts him at around 10 pounds but he inherited his Daddy's length...  He's been in 3 month/3-6 month onesies for the last week and a half and I had to move out his 3 month sleepers for the 3-6 month and 6 month ones.  L-O-N-G.  Funny enough, he has Maya's waist.  His pants want to fall off of him.  He'd be great in Newborn pants...if they were long enough!  But, again, handmedowns are saving us.  We've had so many friends with kids who are older than ours or in larger sizes drop off clothes they were cleaning out.  I have crates of clothes for Michael and Bobby and Maya have a fair amount of their closet due to friends with older kids. I grew up in the handmedowns of my aunts and cousins, as did Peter. Bring them on! :)  Even some of Bobby and Maya's classmates from last year gave us baby items!  I joked with Peter that one of the perks of a Catholic school is that someone is always having a baby, so there is always someone else you can pass on your stuff too!  But, seriously, the kindness has been overwhelming.

And how is Mr Michael?  "Doc", as Sarah has nicknamed him due to his initials (MD), is amazing.  He is the most relaxed, happy baby.  He doesn't freak out when the kids want to get in his personal space and snuggle him.  He smiles and makes the most adorable little noises.  He cries only when he's hungry. And sleep? The kid is a great sleeper.  He even puts himself to sleep!  Of course, life isn't always sunshine and rainbows: he is quite a gassy baby and his diapers... well, let me just ask how someone so small can create something so big and nasty!  But, that's a good thing. :)  Today, he is 2 calendar months old... Wow.  Talk about time flying.  Tomorrow, he's 9 weeks old and I can't believe that, this time in July, we were getting the kids off to camp and getting ready to go to the hospital.

Yep, that's a boob.  Sorry, but it is one of my favorite pics of him (8/30/13)

When he wakes up, I'll get a "2 month old" picture. But, right now, I have the time to blog because he's sleeping from his first breakfast.  He's really quite awesome in the let-mom-and-dad-sleep department.  He goes to bed around 8pm, is up anywhere between 12-2am, then again between 4-6am.  I don't mind the 4am wake time, since I used to get up between 4-5am to run.  I take him to the couch, catch up on Law and Order reruns, and then usually doze off with him. But, I'm planning on trying to lay out my running clothes so that I can feed him, put him in his crib in the nursery (he sleeps in the cosleeper or with us at night (usually cosleeper, actually...) and his crib for his naps), and then go out for a run while the house is still asleep.  Havent gotten that far yet...)

Speaking of waking up... guess who thinks it's time to get dressed and have second breakfast!...