Lord, grant me rest!

Things have been busy.  I feel like I'm running from the time Henri wakes up to the time Carter goes to bed.  Every morning, Henri wakes up first, many times while I'm feeding Valerie.  If it happens after 7am, he's happy and full of energy.  He's figured out how to open his bedroom door, so he comes into my room and gets me.  I finish feeding Valerie and follow him downstairs and we figure out breakfast.  Then Carter comes down and joins us for breakfast, then I check e-mail and drink my coffee.  Then we all get dressed.

Then our day begins.  Henri is still taking one nap, but I have a feeling it will be gone by Christmas.  He's also showing interest in potty training, so I've decided between Carter starting school on the first and activities ramping up mid September, we'll give it a shot and see how it goes.

Then after a morning activity, we have lunch, then clean up lunch, then play for a bit, then Henri goes down for a bit and Carter and I do stuff we can't do with Henri around.  Henri's up from nap, then we play some more, sometimes run out for a bit, then start dinner.

After dinner it's bathtime, then bedtime for Henri.  He falls asleep while Carter gets one on one time playing a game or reading a story with mom or dad, then Carter heads for bed.  Then parents relax and get to bed.

Then about every 1-2 hours Valerie wakes up to eat, or be held or be reswaddled.

I think she's eaten every hour for the last 48 hours, which means I'm exhausted and hungry, so I'm going to bed early tonight and hoping for the best.  She's one month tomorrow (guess I'll have to post pictures-she's getting cheeks and a chin!) so she's due for a growth spurt.  They usually last 2-3 days, so I am hoping, hoping hoping that I'll get to bed at a decent hour and she'll start moving her feedings back to every 2-3 hours.

We finally got assignments for Carter's teacher.  He'll go to school Wed the 1st, then off the 2nd, then on the 3rd, then off for Labor Day, then starts school up.  I'm working on finding activities for me to do with the little ones in the mornings, then we'll have the afternoon for nap/rest before we go pick up Carter.  We live too close to the school to have bus service and the teachers want students to be picked up and dropped off IN their classrooms, which would require me to get all the kids in and out of the car, so I'm thinking we'll be walking there a lot, which is good because I'm now exercising everyday and sometimes it's tough to fit it in.

So, I'm still on the blog, just too busy to post these days!

Hot zoo...

It has been hot.  Like breaking records hot.  So we went to the zoo.  It was a surprisingly nice temperature in the shade when we arrived at opening.  So we fed some birds...

Then the kids passed out. One at a time.

Then we had bath outaide tonight.

2 movies from Everett Children's Museum

Henri's talking more and more now... in this "ball"...

Aquarium & Pike Place Market with Nana & Papa

We took Paul to work and caught the bus to Seattle from there.  We went to the aquarium first, then Nana thought it would be nice to bring some fish home from the market...

Random pictures

Just some random pictures from the last week...

A birthday party!

Andrew & Annabelle had their birthday party at the Everett Children's Museum.  Henri found an empty seat and sat himself right up with the big kids, even though he and Valerie were the youngest guests...

Appointment Statistics

Henri's now 25% for weight and height!  He'd been running 5% for weight, 25% for height and at 23.5 pounds is now in the 25th percentile.  Valerie, at 5 pounds 11 ounces is one ounce over birth weight at 10 days old :)