what's up weekly. (two weeks' worth, a week late.)

This was written last week, but I didn't get the photos done in time to publish it.  Now, this week, I didn't have time to write, but I at least could get the photos in, so enjoy last week's post a week late.

Hi hi!  The babies are sleeping and I should be too, so I'm just going to dash this off quick, I hope you understand!

I last left you with promises to fill you in on our Fourth of July festivities.  Well, wait no longer.  Here is what the kids were up to.

We take our celebrating seriously around here.

Todd got the kids smoke bombs at the fireworks tent so they could do this.

They also did sparklers and a few fireworks after dark.

Unfortunately, I wasn't there to witness all the fun.  I have missed out on evenings with the family since the babies came, since nursing them is a full-focus activity and they start to get fussy and prepped for bedtime around 7:30.  So that's my cue to duck back to the bedroom with them, where I nurse and cuddle and watch 7th Heaven and nurse some more until they're conked out.  Knox typically falls asleep between 8:00 and 8:30; Eulalie typically likes to party until 9:30 or 10:00.  Then I go to sleep shortly after that.

It has been a bummer to go to bed separately from Todd these last couple of months.  Our whole marriage, including past postpartum days, we've always gone to bed at the same time.  It's weird to go to sleep separately, and I'm hoping that soon the babies will become predictable enough, and I'll be rested enough, to move our way back to a joint bedtime.  But in the meantime, at least Todd and the kids live it up after I retire for the night.

I've been chugging away at school planning in small windows of time during the day.  I think I've gotten most, if not all, of our books ordered, and have gotten about half of the year scheduled and planned.  A few more days and I might be close to finished with the planning stage.  Then I just need to get some things printed and bound, and pick up basic supplies we'll need, but we're getting there.

I awoke one morning to find this on my porch.  I had too many books to fit in our mailbox, so we were upgraded.

In the meantime, the kids have still been doing varying amounts of school through the week.  They have been assigned reading and math each day.  Some kids have been overachieving - Penelope has almost finished the entire course of Algebra 2 in the last month, with a 100% average.  She has also nearly finished next year's Free Reads books already.  Atticus knocked out six months' worth of math just this week.  Whew.  Who knew that school would seem so appealing during the chunk of the year when they don't actually have to do much of it?

Many mornings, my younger readers show up ready for all contingencies.

We have been incubating some eggs the last couple of weeks, and have about one more week to go before they (hopefully) hatch.  I mentioned last time that something got into the coop recently and took every last one of our chickens (leaving crumbs much too small for the other Whos' mouses), but Chick Days are over at Tractor Supply, so my friend Stephanie gave us some eggs and lent us an incubator.

After kind of a rocky start, since I'm me and I can't just jump into anything, so I was researching and procrastinating when I should have just stuck the eggs in and crossed my fingers, I was surprised to find that most of the eggs seem to have "taken."  At least, according to my limited research and very limited experience.  We "candled" the eggs yesterday, which is where you shine a light through the shell to see what's going on inside.  There were some that were pure liquid inside (not what you want; we pitched those), some that had started to grow and then stopped (again, not what you want), and some where you could actually see the solid body of the chick inside!  My light wasn't strong enough to see the eye or see any movement, but I've heard you can see those things after a certain point in development!  It's like chicken ultrasound.

The solid, dark mass in the top of the egg is the chick.

Got my photojournalists on hand to document the experience.

So.  We'll see what happens.  We may be about to get like thirty chickens.

Another few items of note:

I have been working on sleep training the babies and it is going well!  They're sleeping in the crib at naptimes, and I'm able to lay them down awake and they put themselves to sleep now.  At night they'll go 6-7 hours in the first stretch before waking to eat, and they're getting pretty predictable in a 2.5-ish hour nap cycle during the day.  The days are opening up, and the nights are getting more restful, and things are going well.

Blurry but sweet.

They turned two months old yesterday!  

They're smiling and starting to coo/talk to us.  Knox is very content and calm, and Eulalie is much more active and social.  They are both so precious.  I can't get over how blessed I feel to have been given two babies.  It hits me fresh every day.

They were baptized two weekends ago!  

My parents and my sister's family all came down to attend the baptism and to celebrate with us, and we doubled the weekend fun by also having Callista's birthday party!  It was so fun to have all the cousins here.

Callista was so sweet - she was genuinely excited and grateful for every gift she was given.  This girl truly loves life and knows how to feel joy and appreciation so well.

And other than that, we've all just been doing a lot of snuggling and playing, and all is right with the world.

And those were our full, wonderful days!

And I have not posted this previously, but Todd wrote an amazing blog with the meaning of their names.  I'm late in sharing it, but to be fair, everything is delinquent around here these days.  It is worth the read!

what's up weekly. (Babies Got Bath, and The Chickens Went Home To Roost.)

Hello again, friends!  I just got the babies down for nap, so I have a few minutes to fill you in on life lately.  My goodness, it just flies.

The babies are doing really well!  They'll be seven weeks tomorrow.  They have settled in to a predictable night time routine, and as long as I'm going to bed shortly after they fall asleep in the evening, I am getting decent sleep, which makes life feel much more manageable and calm.  We usually head back to the bedroom after dinner between 7:30 and 8:00, and they spend the next hour or two cluster feeding.  (If I'm going to cave and tandem nurse, this is the time that I do it.  I still really dislike it, but it's sometimes necessary.)  Knox usually falls asleep between 8:00 and 8:30, Eulalie is more of a night owl and might be up until 9:00 or 9:30.  They wake up in the night around 2:00, and then get up for the day around 5:30 or 6:00 the next morning.  It's doable!

The single swing is getting too small for them both and I could just cry!  This is one of my favorite sights.

Through the day, our routine is pretty full.  Feeding the babies one at a time takes around 45 minutes to an hour, then I take a little bit to cuddle with them, then it's time to swaddle them back up and get them to sleep again.  Knox falls asleep in his bed on his own, but Eulalie fights it more.  Once we're done with that routine and everyone is down for nap, I might have thirty minutes or so before they wake up and start it all over again.  (I know I should tandem nurse to save time, and I likely will down the road, but it's not a good fit right now.)  Once I shower, or walk on the treadmill, or eat something, my free time window is up, so the days fill up quickly without much extra getting done.

We crossed the six week mark last weekend, and I have been reveling in it.  I'm so glad I took those first six weeks to radically rest, but by the end of it I got pretty itchy for normal.  So this week I started walking on the treadmill, and I made short trips out to the library, the grocery store, and Goodwill.  We also took the babies to church for the first time on Sunday.  They did amazingly well, especially considering how long our church days are.  We were at church from 10:30-2:00, and they ate once and slept almost all of the rest of the time.  Hopefully they do as well this weekend - they're getting baptized on Sunday!

Their first time in the car seats.

Their first time in the car.  We have just enough seats in the van!  We have a 15 passenger, but we took out one of the three-seater seats so that we have room for groceries.  Which leaves ten back seats - just enough!

My first time back to church, too, since the babies were born!

In other fantastic news, Callista turned seven!  It's hard to believe, first because I can't believe she's so big already, and second because I can't believe she's still so little.  She is a huge helper with the babies, and is totally adept at picking them up out of the swing or bouncer (and setting them back down safely), and walking around patting them.  She frequently gets one to sleep for me while I'm feeding the other one.  She was clearly made for taking care of babies.  She loves it when I let her help, and often doesn't stray far from me when the babies are up so as not to miss a chance to help.

She is funny and animated and tells the best stories.  She already has deep thoughts about theology and evangelizing and logic.  She likes to clean and tidy and can often be found spontaneously sponging off the outdoor playhouses or vacuuming her room.  She is enthusiastic about school and is working really hard this summer to become fluent at reading.  She is very feminine - she likes making sure her hair is done each day, and she is growing her nails out long, and she loves picking out just the right outfit for the day.  She is incredibly affectionate, and will often burst out, "I LOVE MY LIFE!"  She is so colorful and beautiful and fun.

She wanted to go to the Sonic playground for ice cream after dinner on her birthday.

Gratuitous shot of Oey, because she is just too adorable.

In other news, we have had some other really fun items of note.

First, Todd took both Atticus and Penelope out for driving practice, since they're both permitted drivers now.  Atticus has been out driving before, and spends time at work driving machinery, so he's more comfortable behind the wheel.  Penelope had never previously driven anything but an ATV, so it was more of a learning curve for her.  All I can say is that I'm thankful for Todd.  Teaching new drivers is a whole new level of parenting.  (Or so I can say from my comfortable spot on the couch.  I don't know from personal experience, nor do I have much interest in switching seats with Todd.)

He also took the kids out to buy fireworks for the Fourth of July.  Juni then spent the early part of this week asking if today was "Bomb Day."  I'll post photos of our celebration next week (or rather, the next time I blog, whenever that might be.)

The babies got their first baths!  Those of you who can do age math are probably shuddering right now, but I don't like to bathe babies earlier than I have to.  I spot clean them, obviously, but I don't like making them cold and wet and stripping their skin of important oils, so little babies only get bathed every so often.  (It's a different story once they're older and actually getting dirty.)

Eulalie

Knox

And in sad news, something got into our chicken coop early this week and massacred all four of our chickens.  Two were left for us to find, two disappeared.  We held out hope for a bit that maybe they escaped and would return, like when the pit bulls got in, but we found their feathers all over the back field so we are quite confident they are all together in that great coop in the sky. 

 

The aftermath, minus the carcasses.

Atticus was gone at work that morning, so Finneas played the man and shoveled the dead chickens out to the woods for me.

All that remained of Rosie, who was the most annoying chicken in the world, but who didn't deserve this.  Fly high, Rosie.

Since the kids were pretty upset, and Chick Days are over at Tractor Supply, we got some fertilized eggs from a friend and are going to try our hands at incubating some replacement chicks.  I'm a little hesitant, since hatching isn't guaranteed and I've heard many fully developed chicks don't make it through, which is its own new drama, but I think it will be a good process for the kids to learn from.

And last, the big girls moved into their new bedroom this week, and the younger girls moved to the big girl bed in the old bedroom.  Everyone is excited.  There are still a lot of logistics to finagle - decorating the new room, figuring out the dresser situation now that the girls are split between two bedrooms, moving Ophelia in with the little girls at some point, figuring out where everyone (including the babies) will nap during the day.  It's far from over, but we're at least getting there, and I'm grateful for the extra bedroom space to work with.  This house never ceases to be a blessing to us.

I will leave you with a little ghost of Knox's smile.  Both the babies have started giving social smiles, but they're so hard to catch on camera!  But they're so sweet - and I get smiles from two babies!  I LOVE MY LIFE!