1. Isaac sleeping. After spending Christmas break visiting family and staying in close quarters, Isaac got accustomed to 2-3 middle of the night nursing breaks. Exhausted and desperately ready to sleep through the night again, we participated in Sleep Training Round 5 and it was a total success. After maybe three nights of crying/whining intermittently, he is back to sleeping like a champ. In bed by 6:30pm, he cries out between 4:30-6am, I fill his tummy with warm milk and he is back to sleep anywhere from 7:30-9:30am. Wednesday morning he finally rolled over at 9:45am after a 15 hr slumber. No complaints here!
2. Mornings spent cooking. Since Isaac has been sleeping in, I have been capitalizing on my "hands-free time" (i.e., arms are free from not holding a baby) by cooking dinner with Cesia. She has always been my sous chef and is lured in the kitchen by the possibility to eat more food! "Is this a licking recipe?" she always asks. Middle child is ecstatic to get any special time with Mama, and cooking is where that often happens. Adara is happy playing on her own after breakfast and retreats either to her room with books or downstairs with blocks and dolls while Cesia and I prep and cook family dinners. One of the most satisfying parts of my day is to spend time dicing fresh veggies and herbs, simmering homemade vegetable broth (so easy and so delicious - now part of our daily routine), experimenting with new recipes from Vegetable Literacy or Esalen Kitchen cookbook (thanks Auntie M and neighbor/friend Jayn!) and having dinner ready by 9:00am. This leaves the afternoons stress-free and full of play as we know dinner is ready in the fridge to be reheated on the stove and on the table when little bellies are hungry.
3. Family playtime. Last week Cesia initiated playing with Isaac for the first time, ever. As crazy as I am about my little boy, I do realize that up until now he really did not provide much fun for a 2 year old. In the past week, that has changed. Able to engage, laugh and reciprocate, Isaac is the playmate of the house. The girls have clearly sensed the changes and rapid developments he has made and seek him out for fun. Whether it's passing blocks back and forth, back and forth, reading books togethers, playing family, setting up the dollhouse or building with oversized lego's, all three have been enjoying each other so much lately. For the first time I can sit back and observe (though, let's be honest, I'm not actually sitting, rather cooking and peeking down on them, listening and eavesdropping on their conversations). "You are such a sweetie, Isaac," "Thank you, back to you, thank you, back to you," "Let's go find snowball together!" are all heartwarming phrases I've heard a lot lately from my two growing girls.
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| They even let him in the bath with them now! He used to go so crazy and splash them, the girls begged to take separate baths from little brother. |
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| Picking weeds and cultivating our yard. |
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| Climbing fences. |
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| Little brother loves to be outside and show off his new trick of climbing up the slide and then sliding down head first! |
4. Park play. We had our first fun park visit in way too long yesterday. Parks are challenging for me. I spent many long mornings at the park alone with Adara when it was just us. Cesia came along and we spent many long afternoons there just the three of us. Then came Isaac and everyone wanted me for push them in the swing or watch them slide down the giant bumpy slide or carry them across the hot sand or, or, or.. It just wasn't any fun for me anymore. Isaac ate fistful after fistful of sand, choked on sticks he dug up and the girls whined as I couldn't give them enough attention. So we have mostly avoided the park. Until yesterday. With Isaac in this new awesome phase of life, he is so much fun, learning huge new things everyday and just wants to play! So we tried out the park scene again and had a blast. All three went on the swings together, all three build sand castles together, all three climbed the play structures, jumped, slid, ran and explored together. How I love these three kids so much right now.
5. Triple stroller running. Christmas break provided a nice respite from the triple. I did bring the single Bob just in case. I have some separation anxiety when it comes to traveling without a running stroller. However, the Bob happily remained parked in the garage while I ran alone every morning. As much as I did enjoy the break from pushing 50-120+ lbs of weight, I missed the company on every single run. Back home and on full time mommy duty, weekday runs are once again triple stroller time. Tuesday's schedule called for 8 x 400m at 5K pace (90 s) with 400 m jogs in between. I feared this workout with the triple. However, with a Church meeting I had to attend in the evening and Alan leaving the house before 7am, I knew that was my only option. We ran 1.5 miles down to the flats and I pushed that triple for the workout of my life. Superpowers of the triple stroller were in full force. My three little cheerleaders got me through the 90 s intervals with lots of "Go, Mama, Go's!" and we chatted away on the recovery jogs in between. Right as we finished the final fast 400m, Cesia closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep. Not bad, I thought, Interval workout completed and child put to sleep.
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| First run on the new year on 1/1. Missing one kid though, as Adara luckily got to play at her friend's house while I ran Cesia to sleep. |
6. Outside the Box Take 3. Now that my boy is finally sleeping more at night, he can actually stay awake during the day and have some fun. He is also on more of a routine schedule so I can plan some things ahead - like taking him to Outside the Box (OTB) classes, http://www.otbee.com. Adara grew up at OTB. Knowing zero Mamas or babies in our neighborhood when I first had her, a Santa Monica friend referred us to OTB. We attended our first class when she was only 4 months old and couldn't even sit up. They placed her in a baby-pool full of room temperature spaghetti, along with 6 other babies. She screamed her head off. We went back the following week and 5x/week from then on until Cesia was born. OTB is where we went to make friends, learn, develop our brains, stimulate our senses and spend our most precious days together. I am so happy to finally be back there with Isaac, if only for 1 hr class/week. I can not say enough about their program.
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| Isaac playing in the bead bucket at OTB! |
These are just some things that have been making me smile this January. We are in a very happy place, indeed. What have you been smiling about so far this year? Are you in a happy place or challenging place? Wherever you are, I wish you peace, love and patience.
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