July! I'm So Glad You're Here!

I'm here!

June was a blur, a fuzzy four weeks, a month that kind of stomped me into the ground and squished it's toes on me just a bit for emphasis, 

ground me into the crevices of our hot concrete driveway to make sure I really was good and stuck.

A couple of more pregnancy-related migraines, lots of work, lots of disobedience from the oldest, lots of crying and flailing from the youngest (for only a bit longer! eek!), and mess after mess to pick up when I just don't really want to bend over that much anymore to pick up the fake pizza toppings off of the floor.  Why can't they just stay on the wooden pizza crust like they are supposed to?!  Days filled with timeout after timeout, vacuuming crumbled up styrofoam found in bed minutes before naptime, spending an hour trying to fix said vacuum because the styrofoam clogged it to the point of not working.  Finding a flower pot void of flowers, then broken, then smashed as pieces were thrown against the house and GLASS doors.  

I got the kids fed yesterday morning and went to hop in the shower before we headed out the door for a quick errand, 

coffee run and a trip to Botanica with friends and nearly stepped on a human turd.

Yes.  

There was poop in the corner of the shower.  

Sometimes it feels like life is throwing roses at you and other times you're stepping on poo.

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Henry seemed to be bothered by his adenoid removal surgery at the beginning of the month more than I anticipated.  At least for longer than I was expecting.  And then we decided to move the tots into Nelle's room so the baby could be put straight into Henry's old room when he/she is brought home from the hospital.  Ham and Nelle are on the same schedule so logistically it made sense.

Except for it's Henry and he likes an audience, and he loves being ornery more, 

and after three days of being very pleasantly surprised that things were going okay, 

they were both falling asleep within a reasonable amount of time and staying asleep, 

Henry taught Nelle how to get out of her big girl bed and chaos ensued.

We gave it the 'ol college try.  

With threatening, and discipline, and positive reinforcement/bribery, and maneuvering bedtimes a bit, and leaving the door closed to keep Nelle in the room until Henry hopped out of his bed to open it for her.  Over and over and over again.  And keeping the door cracked, except then I was spending all of my work time sitting in the dark hallway so Ham could see me and think twice every time he tried to get out of his bed and into more mischief.  

And then there were the times Andrew and I found them both scampering across the top of the dresser from bed to bed.  

And the time they threw three boxes of diapers all over the room.

They were both losing too much sleep at the beginning of every night, and we were all miserable.

The situation felt out of control, and so did our parenting methods.  

So, on Wednesday night after someone pooped in the shower unnoticed, 

we moved Henry's bed back into his own room, 

and took down the crib I had just put up and reassembled it in Nelle's room.  

35 weeks tomorrow, and starting on the baby's room now!  For real this time.  

That only makes me a little panicked.  

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Welcome, July!

I'm so glad to spend you nesting, getting our tired, cranky kids back on track, 

and spending a bit of time daydreaming about this sweet baby growing in my tummy 

that I just haven't gotten to think about as much as I want. 

I hope you are filled of afternoons at the pool, family time and poop-free showers.