Hey, Hey it's Your Birthday!!!!

  Well, today's the day. My baby boy is turning one!

 He has been walking for about a month now and he's jabbering away (some is decipherable, some not so much). Sitting here, writing this post I'm thinking of how crazy this last year has been.

We just finished Vacation Bible School at our church. Last year for VBS I was 8 months pregnant with him and it was a very long and tiring week. This year seemed to be a breeze! After VBS I stopped traveling with my husband because I couldn't handle the trips anymore. So, I stayed home and waited. It seemed really difficult having just one kid at the time (not that I was taking into account the whole 9 months prego thing), but I wasn't sure how I would handle two of them!

The day finally came! He was here and we were a family of four.

That first month is a blur. I remember a few things. Like after we'd been home for a few days and I was completely and totally exhausted. My husband was working in the other room, our little girl was watching a cartoon, and the new baby was in the swing. I thought "if I just sit here and close my eyes I'll feel better. I won't fall asleep, just rest."  WRONG!!!! I fell asleep and awoke a little bit later to the baby screaming bloody murder. When I looked over, my little girl was trying to kiss her new baby brother by climbing in the swing on top of him. I may or may not have screamed 😏, and I tried to jump up, but that only caused a lot of pain. My hubby heard my maybe / maybe not scream and came running. He got our daughter off the baby and saved the day, but not before I started blubbering like a little baby. It went something like "I'm a horrible mother! I can't even take care of them both! What kind of mom falls asleep when she's supposed to be watching her kids?!?"...Well, that's what it was supposed to sound like.... It probably sounded like "I'm a hmmmmsmdf msdofinwneih. I can't even tjajienfihds a aidfoihao. What kind of mwoieihoisoi wieonfoisn asleep when adkjfiajidifoj skfiajiewj kiiiidddddsssss?!?!"

 Then there was the day when our good friends brought us dinner and after dinner she was trying to help out with stuff around the house, and then I burst into tears again about how horrible of a housewife I was now that I had two kids. I'm pretty sure that I called my mom that night and she got a lot of cry talk as well. Apparently, I thought that I was supposed to be able to do everything right out of the hospital. Because doesn't every woman have a spotless and beautiful home, and just have it all together in general right away?? 😉

  Having a one year old with a new baby was definitely fun. She always knew that when it was time to nurse that meant that mom was immobile. Apparently that meant "FREEDOM!!!!". It was touch everything, drag out food, and hey, let's play in the toilet water for a few. Needless to say, nursing was an often interrupted process!

There are still some days that I'm simply surviving. The other day I was feeling extra on top of the world so I had two of my nieces with me off and on throughout the day. The oldest is four and the younger is two. At one point, I thought it'd be a good idea to make a quick stop at the grocery store with four kids.... We only needed a couple of things, so how bad could it be?? I started out with "I know you're big enough to walk, but you are all going to stay in the cart because I cannot keep up with all of you. I know your mommy probably let's you walk, but I am not your mommy. We have to get two things so we're gonna be really fast and we're all gonna be really good. Right? ok!"  It wasn't terrible, but it was 15 minutes of "don't touch, sit down, no you can't ride the horse, sit down, get off your cousin, hold this, put that back, sit down, no we will not buy more doughnuts." I wish I had a picture of all four of them in the cart, but I didn't really have the moment...or the free hand, for that matter. I did get the title of "best Nee-Nee ever!" because of it all. (Nee-Nee is what my nieces call me, by the way) So I think it was worth the whole day! Will I ever go to the store with all of them again, probably not. I don't know how my sister in law ever gets grocery shopping done!

And now I have to end because the birthday boy to be has a huge issue with not being held right now. The work never ends! What about you, do you have it all together??