Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Days Four through Six

The last few days have been kinda crazy. On Monday, it was raining, but I'd promised the boys Sunday night that we could go to the Aquarium. So, we braved the weather and spent the morning there. That evening we looked at another house with RoseMary, our realtor. It didn't have a lockbox, so we couldn't get in. I was sort of glad because I'd like to talk to Matthew again before we decide on someplace. I told RoseMary we were going to take the week off, and see what's available next week.

Tuesday, yesterday. We went to playgroup and Walmart. As I was getting the boys out of the car at playgroup, Brennan ran over to the ditch and sat down in it. Fortunately, I'd packed an extra pair of pants for him. Unfortunately, I didn't pack extra shoes! Then after playgroup, when we were getting back in the van, Brennan tripped and skinned his chin. Poor guy!

At Walmart, we bought a few groceries, some stuff for the boys, a jumprope, and some flowers. The jumprope is supposed to be for me to help me get enough in shape to start doing Parkour, but Colin has been trying to use it, too! The flowers were potted pink, purple, and rosy red tulips, and two pots of daffodils. Tulips and daffodils are some of my favorite flowers, and I wanted something springy and pretty to decorate the front of the house.

We didn't do much else after that. I cleaned the house, the boys played, we made some dinner rolls. I watched a couple movies and did some sewing after I got the boys to bed, and it was really nice. Nikolai was kind of fussy, because I'd had some chocolate. I really should get some dairy-free chocolate so this doesn't keep happening.

Today, we've stayed at home. I needed some rest time from everything we've been doing lately, and I'm sure the boys did, too! I cleaned the house this morning, and attempted to catch up on the laundry. I'm beginning to doubt I'll ever be caught up again! I'm starting to understand the challenges mothers of large families face. I think I'm also starting to understand my role and responsibilities better, and am getting better at managing my time. I'm doing a lot better at keeping the house clean and getting the chores done, and still doing fun things with the boys.

I made cupcakes again today, yellow this time. We each ate one when we came back from our walk. I'm going to start getting dinner ready soon, and then it'll be bedtime for the boys, and hopefully more movies and sewing for me. I've gotten one of six placemats done, and still haven't finished the diapers. Hopefully I'll have at least the placemats done by the time Matthew gets home.

And one other piece of news: Nathan is back in the States from Iraq! He's in Wisconsin now, he should be back in Texas on Friday.

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Day Three

Last night was horrid beyond belief. Nikolai didn't go to sleep until between 12 and 1, and then Brennan woke up poopy... Colin woke up with a wet bed... Brennan woke up screaming because the heater turning on scared him (I think it's something about Matthew being gone. Last time Matthew left, every time the AC turned on when he was asleep he'd freak out, too). So at that point, Nikolai, Colin, and Brennan were all in my bed. Colin and Brennan decided that, since they were in bed together, it was playtime. Got up, lights on, and everything. They came back to bed pretty soon, but one or the other of them was up about every half hour from then on. Colin wet my bed, and Brennan decided that 5:45 was time to wake up for good.

Today didn't go as planned, but it wasn't that bad, either. RoseMary had mentioned us coming to her house, but never ended up calling us. We went to church, I talked to Audrey, and she and her kids are going to come over sometime this week. After church, we took a very nice, long, three-hour nap. Well, Nikolai woke up partway through, and kept me up for a while, but I still got a good amount of sleep, too. After naptime the boys played while I... what did I do? Made dinner, took care of disasters, played with the boys, did some laundry. I guess that was about it. Nikolai got fussy again after dinner, and I'm pretty sure it's tomato sauce that's causing it. We'll see if eliminating tomato for a while helps. I hate this restricted diet every time I start nursing. At least this time I haven't gotten thrush or mastitis, or got sick and lost my milk. Those are things to be thankful for. And I can have yogurt. Woohoo! Dairy! Maybe I can freeze it so I don't have to eat that coconut milk ice non-cream. I'll have to try.

The boys stayed up kind of late tonight, but they were mostly behaving, and it was a pretty good evening, with the exception of Nikolai screaming. I got the house picked up again, and all of the dishes done. It's so much easier to keep the house clean when Matthew isn't home, and I don't understand it. The boys are the ones who make most of the mess, but I guess they do clean up everything in the evenings before going to bed, and Matthew doesn't. Part of it could also be I don't have that mental divider in my day between "work" and "Matthew's home, therefore it's time to relax", and keep working steadily from the time I get going to the time I get ready for bed.

I got out one of the puzzles I bought at the thrift store, and started putting that together today. I haven't done much yet, but I got maybe a third of the edge done. I haven't put a puzzle together in a long time. I figured it would be something to do in the evenings, and a nice way to relax when I don't feel like doing anything else, but don't want to go to bed yet, either. I didn't do any sewing today, even though I wanted to. I'm kind of disappointed, but I don't even want to get up to make sure Colin and Brennan are covered like I usually do before I go to bed. I'm in bed now laying down as I type this! Nikolai is sleeping peacefully beside me, snoring a little every once in a while. He has such a cute little snore. And he's so precious when he's asleep! He's precious all the time, except when he's crying. I got some cute pictures of him today, and a couple good ones of Colin and Brennan, too. I'll post them later.

Tomorrow the boys and I will probably be going to the Aquarium. I told Colin we could. I really do like the Monterey Bay Aquarium better. It's so much bigger, and there's so much more to see and do, and I'm really sad that we'll probably never get to go there again. But this Aquarium is okay. There's an outside part, which at least makes it a little more interesting. If it was only the inside, it so wouldn't be worth the drive. Though, we'd probably still go anyway, just because it's something to do, and for kids that young it's just as good as any other Aquarium. I wish I could find some other places to bring them. There's a children's museum in Wilmington, but that's an even farther drive than the Aquarium, and I'd prefer not to do that if I have any say in the matter. Anyway, all of this has been to say, that if we do go to the Aquarium tomorrow like we've planned, I'll probably be posting pictures then.

I'm so tired. And it's now just about 1. And Nikolai has been asleep for about half an hour, so I think he's going to stay that way. Here's to everyone sleeping well tonight!

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Day Two

Today was, maybe, more successful than yesterday. I got the entire house cleaned, cleaner than it's been in a long time. And I got a little bit of work done on the placemats I'm hoping to finish by Easter. Of course, there were some setbacks, the worst of which was at dinner when Brennan threw the remainder of his food at the wall, and Colin dumped half the parmesan cheese onto the table. But we've survived, and we'll sleep and start again tomorrow.

Friday, March 26, 2010

Day One

Matthew is gone again, on an exercise for the next eight days. Well, I guess there are only seven days left, since today is just about over.

Today we:
~baked chocolate cupcakes and a double batch of granola bars
~met with the realtor, RoseMary, to see if there was anything in our application to keep us from being able to rent a house (there wasn't. Quite the contrary, in fact.)
~went to the park for a while
~did some basic cleaning: filled the water filter, did a load of dishes, handwashed some stuff I keep not washing, did some laundry, picked up the toys before the boys went to bed
~I did our tax return, finally
~got the stuff out to make the placemats I'm intending to have done by Easter. I started to actually cut them out, but Someone woke up right as I was starting, and now I'm debating if I want to do any more tonight or not

I am so tired, and so worn out. It feels like I was in the sun too long today, and, yeah, it was warm when we were at the park, but I didn't think it was that bad. It was partly cloudy, kinda breezy, really nice weather. Maybe I'm just tired because I woke up four times last night, and Thing 1 and Thing 2 don't take naps anymore. Quiet time is only mildly successful.

All in all, it was a great day, even with Matthew being gone. I tried keeping him company while he packed last night, but ended up falling asleep on the couch at around 10. I could tell I was about ready to fall asleep, and I was really trying to stay awake, but I just completely crashed. I've fallen asleep on the couch three times this week, although last night was the earliest it's happened. The other two times were trying to get Nikolai to stop screaming and fall asleep. I think there's something else I'm eating that he doesn't like, but I haven't been able to figure out what it is. Matthew thinks he's just being a baby, but I think if it was colic or whatever, he'd do it more consistently. Some days he doesn't cry at all, and sleeps wonderfully day and night, other days, he'll scream until he passes out from exhaustion at about 2 in the morning, and then will sleep for ten hours, only waking up once or twice to eat. Matthew doesn't think it's something I'm eating because on the screaming nights, if he holds him, he'll settle down. I don't know, it's just exhausting and wearing me out. It's almost 10 now, and all of the boys are (finally!) asleep. Maybe I should do the same.

Friday, March 12, 2010

In Which Nikolai Sleeps Through the Night

He slept from about 11 last night to 5 this morning, and I think he only woke up then because Colin did (which resulted in Matthew and myself waking up then, also).

Today has been a good day. Grandma and Grandpa left this morning, which was sad, but the boys haven't been too bad today, and they got to play outside for a bit while I did some cleaning. It's been raining for the past couple days, and was still drizzling a little while they were outside, so they stomped in puddles and got dirty and wet, and had a good time. At least it isn't really hot or cold right now, and they were able to go out and run around.

Brennan wanted to sleep in my bed at naptime, because Colin usually does, and Nikolai is now, so I tried to let him again. I've tried several times, but he won't lay still, and keeps getting out of bed. I give him a couple warnings, then put him in his own bed. That's where he is now. Niko and Colin fell asleep at about the same time, less than five minutes after Brennan went to his own bed. Brennan is still awake.

I've continued looking online for a house in the area, but I'm about at the point where I'm wasting my time. I'm not seeing many new listings. There aren't any in our price range that have a fenced backyard, though, so I guess I'll have to either wait a couple weeks and look again, or settle for something without. We have until the end of June. I'm sure God will provide the perfect place for us, so I'm not really worried. Colin keeps asking when we'll get our new house, which I think is kind of funny. He still every once in a while says he wants to go back to our old house in California. He doesn't understand the moving process yet.

Off to continue cleaning the house, and hopefully find some sort of chocolatey yumminess to enjoy while no little hands are present to take it from me.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Beginning Again

Today I'm attempting to restart my blog. I started it quite a while back, several times, in fact, but have never liked it, and never continued, so today I'm starting again.

Grandma and Grandpa (Pearson, Mom's parents) are here for another few days. We all went to the park this morning. The weather was wonderful! The boys had a good time, as usual.

After the park, I brought everyone home, and Nikolai and I went to meet Matthew and get some stuff done on base. We had a miscommunication issue that resulted in things going from bad to worse, I ended up trying to do some stuff without him, and came home with nothing accomplished except finding out that Matthew needs to do a laundry list of nonsense to get put on the wait list for base housing, and we'd be better off finding someplace else off base to live come this summer. Not like we have much choice.

Sunday, our landlords told us that they won't be renewing our lease because her mother is moving to NC, and will be living in the house after we vacate it. Our lease ends in 3 1/2 months. The wait list for base housing is 6-10 months. Problems exist in that timeline. I've thought about going back to Texas for a few months, but I really don't want to live in someone else's house for that long again. I've thought about moving into a temporary house between this one and base housing, but that would be two moves in the next year, and apart from the general unpleasantness of that in itself, the military only pays for one local move per duty station. The third option we have is renting someplace off-base again, and ditching the idea of base housing alltogether. The problem with that is, Matthew will be gone most of the next two years, and I don't want to live outside of base housing with him being gone that long. Plus the whole saving money if we live on base thing, and having other military wives around us, and playgrounds on every street, and the safety of a gated military community.

It's just about time to start making dinner. Colin and Brennan are snacking on everything, and Nikolai is sleeping- finally! I'll try to post pictures up here later.