Happy birthday, Ian!

Three years sure went by fast with this little one at my side. Now a big brother, he sure has taken off as being more and more independent. He is now getting dressed (and undressed) by himself, which is sometimes frustrating because he discovered the dresser with his clothes and realized he can make the decisions on what he wants to wear. Fine by me for the most part, but when he makes several wardrobe changes, we tend to run out of clothes before laundry day, not to mention that nothing stays folded in the drawers anymore.

He has also done really well at getting his shoes on & most of the time on the right feet. It also helps that he can get his coat on too. (When he puts it on himself, it tends to stay on rather than when I do it & then it quickly comes back off.)

How quickly we forget how much they learn at this age and how independent they become. He's such a little helper with his baby brother & a character to watch and listen to. Just the other day the phone rang, and Ian's new favorite thing to do is answer the phone and "screen" my calls. It was Daddy & he gave him the play-by-play of all the things he was helping Mommy do. We were packing to go to our weekend class & he told Daddy, "We're packing to go to the nuns." It was adorable.

The path

I got quite diverted from the path to the virtue of patience yesterday. What started off as a seemingly quiet, enjoyable, relaxing day turned into a day of dangling from frazzled rope ends. It maybe didn't help much that neither Ian nor myself had a very good night sleep the night before, hence why we needed a quieter day.

After Mass, we enjoyed a wonderful breakfast out with a dear friend. That was a treat for us. Unfortunately, on the way home, I didn't even get out of town before Ian dozed off. Not a good thing since it only takes us 15 minutes to get home & rarely does he continue to nap after I carry him out into the cold. There goes my chance to rest as well!

Needless to say, I thought we'd try it & I put him in his bed & proceeded to get comfy on the couch with baby. I heard Ian hopping around in his room, but that is not anything unusual and he will usually eventually climb back into bed and rest. Not today!

I crashed for what felt like a minute & soon he was coming down the stairs. "What's that on your hands?! And your clothes? And your hair??!" Grrrr! I ran upstairs to view the damage...

Just the day before, the staff at the school threw a baby shower for me & another teacher & all of the goodies were upstairs...including 2 large bottles of baby wash and baby lotion. Yup, baby wash...empty...all over the couch and floor...and window!? Top is off the lotion. That's only half gone, but where is it? Oh, it's all over my freshly washed clothes, baby's new clothes, the floor and...the fan?! Aaahhh! Yes, you could say it hit the fan as well as my temper.

As I proceeded to undress Ian to clean him up, I realized he had a very full diaper. Not just pee...that's why he was messing around. Poopy diaper equals a reason not to take a nap. But in this case, he thought it would be a good reason to make a giant mess. As I undressed him, he got a bloody nose when I pulled the shirt off his head. (He's been getting them lots, so not a big surprise.) But quite inconvenient! Ever try to keep a wad of kleenex stuffed up a nostril while taking a shower? So we have lotion, stinky poop & now gushing blood happening in the shower and an overly impatient, angry mom at tub. Oh, and when I turned on the shower, it accidentally squirted out the top of the showerhead & not the hose end & sprayed ice cold water on him. Now neither of us is happy!

I attempted to cool off for the rest of the afternoon, but overtired toddler does not exactly make for happy company or a good grocery shopping partner. We proceeded to snap at each other for the rest of the day. Not a great day to happen since my spouse worked an almost 12 hour day! Plus, Ian continued on the trend of mischivious behavior when he got into my lotion bottle and the bottle of hand sanitizer. More goopy hand incidents!!

So, today we're going to try to, first of all, get more sleep! and secondly, hide all of the bottles of anything he can dump all over. Maybe then I can attempt to get back on the path to the virtue of patience & maybe jump over to tolerance as well instead of the path of angry & downright irritated and where it leads. Did I happen to mention that am in constant need of God's good graces? 'Cuz there's no way I'm getting anywhere without that!

Mail time!

One of Ian's newest joys is watching "Blue's Clues" and here's our newest joys of him when he watches it. If you could see the TV, he doing some of the same actions.

Last week, Ian surprised me and made me breakfast.

Complete with coffee, fruit and even a tablecloth with napkins...too cute!

Pickles & butter

That's all that Ian decided he wanted to eat for most of his meals this past weekend at deacon classes. I think he likes to eat the butter because it's in those little single-serving cups and it's perfect for his little hands and fun to dip his finger into. Anytime the Sisters would set them out, he would grab a couple before we would even notice. He'd be sneaky and quiet that way. When he found out there were pickles, he had to have some of those. At one point, I noticed him spreading the butter on his pickle slices...mmmm!

What I've learned...

I've been asked many times now how many kids we have & when I say "five", I can usually expect the eyes-wide-open, jaw-dropping expression along with, "Wow! You must be busy!" I can't deny that I am, but there have definitely been some things along the way that I have learned I can and should do, and some things I didn't think I would have to do. Here's a few...

1. From the start, I have enjoyed embracing the "nap when your baby naps" philosophy. Especially if you are up every 2 hours at night. Otherwise it catches up with you in other ways.

2. If you can stand a little messiness every once in a while, your kids really won't notice. They do notice however when you're grumping at them every second to pick up their stuff. (I'm still learning this. I've allowed some messes, but I still don't want to raise lazy piggies.)

3. Here's a few things I've learned to do while holding an otherwise unconsolable baby...
-type one-handed on the computer...usually while swaying back and forth
-push a shopping cart - have you ever tried to do it with one hand? not so easy!
-go to the bathroom (sometimes you really have to go and the baby won't quit screaming)
-nursing while going to the bathroom (again screaming, but when you gotta go...)

4. Here's where the wonderful invention of the baby sling/carrier comes in. Took me a while to get used to it & find some I love to wear, but when you have a baby who loves it, it frees up your arms and saves your back (a little) more so you can do more stuff like...
-vacuum
-get ready in the morning
-do the dishes
-cook meals
-type with both hands on the computer...I'm still swaying though!
-push the shopping cart with 2 hands and chase after the toddler
-and yes, I think I even went to the bathroom. Hey, once you get them in there & they're content, no use on pulling them out and risk waking them just for a quick trip to the potty!

All in all, I would say that yes, I am busy, but I am also blessed to be able to be at home. I definitely admire those who work all day and get it all done after a long day! I have also learned to just sit back on some occasions and just take it in rather than worry, and that lesson has been more rewarding and energizing than finishing any of my daily chores. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy a clean house as much as the next, but some days (like the weekends) it's a never-ending ride that you have to learn to enjoy being a part of...especially when everyone else in the house is.

The other side

We survived our trip to Fargo and baby Noah is a good traveler. We only had to stop (for him) once and we may have made it if we wouldn't have had other stops. Makes traveling a little less stressful & easier to look forward to...although we have lots of crap to haul along! But we have settled down from the long break & it's back to the "normal" way of life.

The Johnson cousins

We got some snow when we visited...perfect for a (small) snowman!

Newest Johnson cousin...baby Olivia. Just 3 weeks younger than Noah.

Vikings game day