I just reminded myself why I never take all 3 kids grocery shopping

So fast forward ohh maybe 9 months and Carina turned 6 sort of recently a while back. We finally got around to having her birthday party and with how busy we've been it became necessary to take all 3 kids to the grocery store earlier this week to order Carina's cake.

Our trip resulted in my laughing so hard I was crying (or was it the other way around? Definitely the other way around) and needing a drink before 5 PM on a Wednesday afternoon. 

We arrived at the grocery store and to my dismay not a single obnoxious race car double-cart was to be found. I put Serafina in a normal cart and the girls each grabbed one of the tiny carts. One had a "customer in training" flag and the other didn't and this was a HUGE PROBLEM. Argument over who had the right to lay claim to the fancy flag cart and who had to suffer the pains of the cart sans flag ensued. 

Since we were there to pick out Carina's cake for her birthday party I let her steer the cart with the flag and we headed over to the bakery counter. We flipped through the book of designs a few times and nothing piqued her interest. I asked her to please look again, and she finally settled on the Disney Fairies cake. I asked the employee how many people it serves and she didn't know and none of the other employees knew so she had to call the cake decorator to ask. After a few minutes she returned and Carina announced she didn't want that cake anymore.

I looked at her incredulously (like, why did we just wait 10 minutes and make her call the cake decorator, then?) Now she wanted the Minions cake. And the employee didn't know how many people it serves. She went to find out and I started filling out the order form in the meantime. Oh lookie there, it says right on the order form what size to get for our number of guests.

Cake ordered. Aurelia spotted one of the obnoxious race car double-carts that had since been abandoned about 20 feet away and clearly "we MUST go get it Mommy because I want to wiiiide!" In went Aurelia and Serafina. We returned the other cart and the tiny cart sans flag. We passed one of the sample "bubbles" with danish and I handed one to each of the ladies but Aurelia didn't want it. 

Off we went in the monstrous race car cart that takes way too much energy to push and of course the avocados we needed were as hard as cannonballs. We stopped for another "bubble" this time with strawberries and Serafina dropped hers and yelled "oh no!" so loudly people stopped to make sure she was okay. About 30 seconds later they returned to make sure she was okay once again when Carina's tiny "customer in training" cart somehow FELL OVER striking Serafina in the face with the plastic "customer in training" flag. I picked her up out of the cart and comforted her as she was crying hysterically. Customers and employees alike swarmed around us and asked if I needed any help. She was fine, fortunately. I, on the other hand...was about to lose my mind.

We grabbed the few remaining things we needed and as soon as we were all the way across the store Aurelia proclaimed that now she wanted a piece of that danish back near the store entrance.

After a danish detour and then the checkout line it was time to return to the car. I buckled in Carina, Aurelia, then Serafina and only after all clasps were fastened did I realize that we were missing Serafina's beloved monkey lovie. TAKE MY EYES BUT NOT "MAA-MAA" MONKEY. I prayed to God please please please let the monkey be somewhere in the vicinity because I am not unbuckling everyone and going back inside. I ran over to the cart return and breathed a sigh of relief as I found monkey under the seat. Time to go home. And have a drink. Cheers🍸

The party was today. I still can't believe she's 6 years old.

Broken arm story for another day 😭

Any time I'm crazy enough to consider running errands with all 3 please remind me that there's not enough wine in the world...

Our New Normal

::looks around::

August? Oh, honey.

I can't even finish a full cup of coffee before it gets cold, let alone a blog post. I started this one 6 weeks 3.5 months 7 months ago and have come back to it multiple times but just haven't been able to finish it until now. Such is our new normal. Let's just pretend it's still the end of October and I'm not the laziest procrastinator busiest Mom that ever there was. Shall we?

End of Octoberish
Yeah, oops on not updating sooner. We had a baby! Serafina is doing great and recovery has been a breeze {relatively speaking} this time around but birth story and details to follow; when I have time to write more coherently then mere stream of consciousness.

Three. I'm outnumbered.

I don't work on Mondays or Fridays and preschool for Carina and Aurelia is Tues-Wed-Thurs so it's just me and all three until Mike gets home from work in the evenings.

Today, everyone was sick but Mike, myself included. The baby woke up with a barking cough just before 5 AM and after an hour of nursing and bouncing and soothing she was still staring at me, wide awake. She finally fell asleep on my chest but not before blowing out her diaper. What's a Mom to do? You better believe I let her sleep on me poop and all. Although, I can't blame this on the 3rd child mentality. I've been known to do this before.

This Mom of 3 thing is hard.

Excuse me, gotta go. The baby just woke up crying after a 20 minute nap. Send wine.


Now
At the beginning of the year I started a new job which requires me to go on-site one day a week. I work from home on Mondays and Wednesdays, and on Fridays you'll find me baby in one arm while applying mascara with the other. I've mastered pumping while shoveling Raisin Bran down the hatch and brushing one of the big girls' hair into a pretty ponytail all at the same time.

My heart is full -- I'm the happiest I've been in as long as I can remember -- but I'm also the most stressed out. There's this constant nagging that something needs to be done, or cleaned, or paid, or fed, and the responsibility of everything I do and need to do just weighs on me.

I usually can't see the floor of the laundry room and I'm lucky if I remember to get more milk before we run out. We still have unpacked boxes from the move last year and the toy mess is slowly encroaching upon every single room in the house (even the closet in our bedroom...how does that happen?) I'm sure there's something more I should be doing with Carina to prepare her for Kindergarten in the Fall and with Aurelia to help with her tantrums and sensitivity. And the baby? I don't even remember what I was doing with the big girls at her age...helping them to crawl? Working on words?

Despite all this, I have more smiles, belly laughs, and endless snuggles than I ever thought possible. The girls are so sweet and we have so much fun going for bike rides, playing with dolls, or lining up all of their "guys" and pretending to have epic battles. Carina and Aurelia are best friends and expert big sisters. There's nothing more rewarding than watching these beings that you created interact with each other.

By the time the girls are in bed all I can muster is the energy to stay awake. Sometimes I'm asleep by 10:30, which is early for me. Other nights my mind wanders through all the things that still need to be done and the clock becomes my enemy as it nears midnight. Then it's time to wake up and rinse, repeat.

At least, with this post, I can cross one thing off of the "desperately need to-do" list ;)

Blink

I blinked and it's 5 months since my last post.

A lot has changed.



We moved from Connecticut to Charleston, South Carolina.

We're homeowners.

I'm 35 weeks pregnant today.

I have a new job offer.

Aurelia is potty trained.

Mike is getting his new office set up and teaches his first class in about 3 weeks.

Wait, 35 weeks pregnant? With all the packing and planning for the move, the move itself (16 hours in the car with sick kids and fighting cats is awesome, let me tell you) and unpacking {and still working part-time all the while} it's almost entirely escaped me that I'm enormous and the baby is going to be here so soon.

It didn't hit me until yesterday. When getting dressed I realized that almost all of my maternity tops are too short. Either I grabbed a bunch of mislabeled shirts or I'm simply -- as Aurelia would say -- "huge-mongous". I should probably figure out where I need to go to deliver this baby and take some baby clothes and diapers out of storage or something.

Ohhh becoming a 3rd time Mom is so, so different. I'd love to say it's due to the fact that I'm so much more chill this time around, but the truth is that I only have the brain capacity to keep track of so many things at once and the baby just isn't on my radar yet. I'm sure that will change the minute she arrives, though. I hope?

She. Yes, baby #3 is a girl. We couldn't be more excited. The girls were pulling for either Starla or Somersault, but we've settled on Serafina Anne, which means "fiery one" or "fiery angel". If she's anything like her sisters, her name will fit her perfectly.

"I'm pregnant like Mommy!"

Back in December, it had been a year since Mike and I had started trying for baby G #3. My doctor sent orders to the lab for me to go in for a round of fertility blood work whenever I was ready.

But I wasn't ready yet. It had only been a month or so since I had completely weaned Aurelia and to be truthful, we weren't in any rush. With the possibility of Mike starting a new job in the Fall, we thought it might be smart to try to avoid for a few months so as not to have a baby popping out while Mike was supposed to be teaching his very first college class.

A couple weeks later Mike got his job offer and of course we had to celebrate and of course I wasn't charting or paying any attention to my cycle. And then of course when a few weeks later I realized I hadn't gotten my period in a while and decided to take a test there were two lines. I think I stared at the test in shock for a good five minutes before even showing Mike. Neither of us believed it until we saw the same two lines there a few days later.  

Okay so just three short weeks after Professor Mike embarks upon his career as a professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, baby G #3 will be making his or her appearance. We're all really excited. And pretending to be pregnant is now Carina and Aurelia's favorite game.

I'm pregnant like Mommy!

The next few months are going to be crazy. We'll be flying down to Charleston soon to look at homes and provided all goes as planned we should be moving in early July. Then comes Mike's job and baby #3.

So far, this pregnancy has been really different from my two previous pregnancies. With Carina and Aurelia, I only ever had some light nausea. Now I feel nauseated almost all the time and have become well acquainted with the toilet :(  And since the girls no longer nap, there is no chance for me to rest during the day.

More to come soon...that is, if I can stay awake at night long enough to write another blog post ;)

Merry Christmas to all and to Mike a new job

Less than a week and a half into the month of December, Mike had already been on two out-of-state job interviews. Each was for a few days, leaving me with the girls and little space in my brain for much other than what to make for each meal and how to juggle bedtime to get them both asleep while maintaining my sanity. I think it was almost December 20th before I realized I forgot to order Christmas cards or get any presents other than those for the girls. Oops.

But now, we're at my parents' house relaxing for the first time in a long time -- as I'm happy to report that after submitting more than 50 applications and preparing multiple presentations Mike has accepted a {permanent} job as an assistant professor of chemistry in Charleston, South Carolina. Yes, you read that right, we're moving South in the summertime! This has been 13 years in the making for Mike, since he decided that being a professor was his goal when he began college at age 18.

That goal brought him to Wisconsin for 5 years of grad school, and then to Connecticut for 3 years of postdoctoral experience. We cannot be more excited about this {final} move. After 30+ years in COLD (New England or Wisconsin) I welcome nicer weather with open arms. In a few weeks we'll be speaking with a realtor and hopefully determining a timeline for buying our first home down there. I've never been to Charleston and know almost nothing of the area, so now begins quite the new adventure...