She's been called Boppers since before she was born, but some of Tim's new nicknames for Allison are:

Mrs. Boppington (sung to the tune of "Mrs. Robinson")
Boppzillasaur - in context: I'll say something like, "I hope she at least sleeps well next to me tonight." Tim replies, "Well, she is a boppzillasaur." !

Blake wouldn't eat much all afternoon/evening, and even didn't touch his dinner much. He did eat some melon though. Then, at 9pm or so, he threw up. Poor kid, I guess that explains his all afternoon/evening crabbiness. I'll be praying it's nothing too serious, and that that was the only time he'll get sick! He's sleeping now.
Today was Nathan's last day of Kiddie Camp. It was twice a week for four weeks, and he really enjoyed it. We're looking into a preschool for the fall, one I finally looked into that shares a parking lot with our church. It sounds great- "play-based" was how they described it, and that was Nathan's problem last fall- he didn't want to quit playing to do the structured activities! Of course they'll still have those, and he'll be a year older, so I'm sure he'll love it. Bonus: They also have a 2-year old program, and they make it convenient for moms, so we might have both boys in preschool at the same times each week, giving me and Allison girl time! I'm sure much of that will be spent shopping :)
Life is getting steadily easier with three- we still have our challenging times, but I'm getting better at not getting stressed out as much. I'm also learning to let go of more control- I just can't do it all! From an email I sent to a girlfriend:
"Someone recently told me that after the 3rd is when a mom starts to relax more and let go of more control. I can totally see that as I was still wanting lots of control over life, cleanliness of the house, and the kids' activities up until Allison's birth day- but now I just can't control it all so Blake will be making a mess during lunch while Nathan is dealing with going to the bathroom (which has been almost perfect lately- praise God he's been doing GREAT!), and ALlison is needing a diaper change and feeding, and lunch isn't finished being made yet. So I Just have to let Blake make a mess, Allison cry a bit, and Nathan deal with more of his own bathroom tasks- as I rotate between the three. It's nuts, but so what if our carpet gets spilled on, more clothes need washing after a bathroom accident, or Allison waits an extra 5 minutes for food? It's not the end of the world. Anyway, that's what a typical day is like around here at times :)"

On a strange note, Allison slept practically ALL DAY! I was starting to get worried that she'd be up all night, but so far she's been sleeping most of the evening too, with a period of wakeful play where she actually played happily on her activity mat, looking all around for maybe a half hour, and had a wakeful period again for a bit at the boys' bedtime before getting hungry. Now she's sleeping on Tim while he watches some old episodes of The Waltons. At this point he's afraid to put her down! I wonder if this is part of a growth spurt (or just after one) as she was eating more in the last week or so, and today went a bit longer between feedings.

All that time gave me a chance to actually make dinner (veggie soup in the crockpot with all my farmshare veggies- it turned out just ok, too much tough kale in there!) and a blueberry peach cobbler. I also made a chocolate mousse I'd been wanting to try. Those last two desserts were pretty quick ones- and since the soup wasn't done until after dinner, we had a heat up chicken slab pie from Costco I'd bought this week. Anyway, with that and having visited a friend today, I felt a bit more like myself today- like I had a LIFE outside of kids! Of course at this point my kids are my life, and that is good. God has blessed us.

Blake just woke up very unhappy from his nap for no apparent reason. He won't even eat! Then he started whining again b/c he couldn't have more of his gummy vitamins. From the other room (I came to print out a recipe for blueberry-peach cobbler I hope to find time to make tonight- but I'm not sure), I heard Nathan say, "Oh Blake, don't worry. I love you!"

"Life isn't about how to survive the storm, but how to dance in the rain!" - Author Unknown
I just found that on the bottom of a friend's email, and I really think that's what I need to learn. I think the Lord is teaching me this more and more through having 3 kids!

Allison slept about 6 hours straight last night! I slept from midnight to 5:30am, at which point I woke up and said "What? It's almost morning?!" That was cool. She fell asleep probably around 11 or 11:30, but I was afraid to move her to the crib too soon or the whole falling-asleep process would start over. Anyway, how nice! I think I have been really afraid that this one would be an awful sleeper. So far, so good.
So we're continuing the pattern of weeks=hours of sleep, at least roughly. 6 weeks old- 6 hours of sleep. Nathan was sleeping 10 hours by 8 or 10 weeks (wow!), Blake was more like 8 hours at 10 weeks. So we'll see!

I'm writing down things Nathan says every day so I don't forget. He is hilarious lately.

This morning at kiddie kamp (two mornings, twice a week for 4 weeks, this is the third week) they did 4th of July activities- made "fireworks" on paper with paint and glitter, and colored and stuck stickers on a page with people watching fireworks. We were talking about them on the short walk home (that is so nice!) and I said that we'd probably try to go see fireworks this year. I explained that we'd go try to sit on the nearby hill and see what we could see. He didn't quite understand what I was talking about so I explained that they would shoot fireworks in the air and they'd explode with lights and color. He asked, "Do they shoot them up in the air with Q-tips?" I was totally puzzled at first, until I remembered that the fireworks painting they did on black construction paper had white fireworks painted on, and it looked like they used Q-tips to do it. Sure enough, that was it- he was making the connection to his experience with fireworks (painting them on paper) to what I was talking about. I think he'll enjoy them this year! Also, I bet Blake will be pointing and yelling- I doubt the loud noises will scare him!

The other funny thing that happened today, and led to a funny saying: We were almost to my mom's house, and Nathan said he had to go pee-pee really bad (we had been in the car for awhile). I asked if he could hold it, and he thought he could, but as we came to the next light it became clear he couldn't much longer. My sister who was with us urged us to pull over at the next parking lot where we could see a lot of trees and bushes, so we pulled up behind a daycare and were pretty well hidden while I helped Nathan take care of it. Thankfully we stopped because it was a LOT of pee! Later, when we picked my brother up to go have lunch together, Nathan told him, "When you gotta go bad you peep in a bush."

Today, Allison followed in her brothers' footsteps of growing super fast!
13 lbs. already
23" (another half inch in a month)
head: 37cm

The nurses and Dr. all commented on how big she is, and how well she's doing. One of them was like, "That's the weight of a 3-month old! Wow!" They were amazed. It's pretty funny, since it's so normal to me.
Thankfully she's doing great, healthy and meeting all milestones.

When I offer Nathan food for breakfast, he has some quirky answers to my questions lately:
Do you want some eggs?
"No, I don't like eggs. I'll like eggs when I'm 5 years old."

I made some strawberry muffins for breakfast the other day (pretty good, recipe from the Stonyfield Farms yogurt container top). Nathan said, "I'm always about muffins."

I asked him if he would like a nectarine cut up for breakfast, and he said, "Nectarines can be negotiated." (That one comes from Tim; he often "negotiates" things with Nathan, although it usually means yes, essentially!)

I managed to vacuum our dust and lint-ridden carpets today. While vacuuming upstairs, it actually calmed a crying Allison down! She went back to sleep and seemed a bit restless, so I flipped her onto her tummy and she has been sleeping another hour or so. Blake was like that at the beginning too, and then I was able to put him down on his back later on (around 12 weeks or a bit later). Allison will sleep on her back at night, mostly, but definitely sleeps longer when she's in our bed (I don't like to put her on her tummy at night.)

We watched Word World today, and I'm not sure who enjoyed it more- Nathan or me! I think the show is super cute. They did a little "healthy eating" song, which Nathan was singing afterwards.
A few hours later, I heard Nathan singing it again, but with altered lyrics:
"Don't dring milk- drink some juice instead
Eat some candy, which is very sugary, don't eat any healthy dinner
When you want to eat some sugar, take some candy and eat it up!"

What a clever little silly boy!

Reasons I love a party:
1. The house is cleaner than it has been in a month! (Well, that's for other reasons too)
2. The kitchen is almost spotless, mostly due to helpful mommies who cleaned up things during the party, and keeping things simple
3. Watching my son enjoy time with friends
4. Spending time with other mommies and getting some social time in for myself!
I'm considering having a little 2nd b-day party for Blake, something similar to today's party.

( See party photos! )

The other day I took Blake into the Dr. to get his fingers checked out because he'd burnt himself a few days prior on a new skillet I had bought that had blue sides. He was curious at the new blue skillet (all ours are just black) and reached up and touched the side of the pan as the eggs were cooking on the stove. It was the back of his three middle fingers, and he didn't even really cry, so I didn't think much of it until they formed blisters. Those looked painful, but he wasn't really complaining and the blisters were closed, so I figured they'd heal up fine. Then a couple days later the blisters broke, and they looked awful, and painful, and he was crabby and cranky a lot. Finally he was holding his fingers up to me even after I'd bandaged them up, so I decided to have them looked at in case they were worse than I thought. They are 2nd degree burns, but since they were small the doctor just bandaged them up together (which Blake managed to get off 5 minutes into the car ride home) and prescribed a burn cream to put on them. Thankfully, just a couple days later, they are looking much better and almost healed over.
They weighed Blake for medication dosage purposes and he weighs 33 1/2 lbs! I think he's been suddenly growing a lot lately, and I think he looks so huge in ( this picture!! )

This three-kid thing is so hard! It's so overwhelming juggling all their needs, especially since Allison needs to be held a lot, but she is getting better. I think the lack of sleep is definitely influencing my ability to juggle things effectively. And I have to just learn to deal with a messy house. The only problem is when I start stepping on toys and actually hurting myself, or worry that I might trip while holding the baby. Thankfully Tim listened to my needs during my meltdown last night (I didn't expect him to read between the lines- I was very specific that I couldn't stand the messy house!) and turned it into something productive, helping out by picking up all the toys in the house this morning and vacuumning the room that needed it badly (especially under the dining room table).
He's out walking now with Allison, and the boys are in bed (but humming and such- their bedtime has been so off this week, since they were up late Sunday night and with Tim getting home an hour or more later each night, it's been tough to get them to bed on time). Tim's job started Monday and it's been longer hours mostly due to the longer commute, so it's an adjustment for all of us, big time. The job is going well so far, and we're grateful for the opportunity.
I'm going to try to put up some pictures now. Also, I think new moms should just be exempt from thank-you cards. Sorry if I owe you one, it's coming soon! I'm planning to put them in with the announcements (which are mostly made) so it's just taking longer this time around. Oh well, right? Who cares, they'll eventually get there!

Tonight while cleaning up after dinner, I overhead this:

Tim: "Nathan, that looks dangerous." (He was sitting on a ride-on toddler toy at the top of the two patio steps, about to go down)

Nathan (very confident): "No, not too dangerous- I'm pretty brave on it."

After a rather rough afternoon with Allison, including an hour of fussiness and trying to rock her to sleep, she finally fell asleep in my arms and I was able to transfer her to the swing. A couple hours later, she woke up for another feeding, and fell asleep again immediately after. I put her in her crib on her tummy (she tends to need a lot of burping, and figured she'd wake up if on her back) and she slept three more hours! That was really nice.
This evening I tried to go for a walk with her in the infant seat in the stroller, but she cried almost the whole time- I don't think she likes that infant car seat. I'm wondering if it's getting flat or harder over the years. Is there an age limit on infant seats? When I tipped the stroller back on its' two back wheels, thinking it would put her temporarily upright if she had to burp or something, she was happy! When I put it back down to normal, she'd cry again. What is hear deal, I wonder? Is this how she is, or is it her age? I went back home and traded the stroller for the moby wrap, and she fell asleep against my chest grabbing onto my shirt while I walked. It was super cute.
She started getting the standard baby acne maybe a week ago, and it seemed a lot worse than either of my boys had. Female hormones, perhaps? Not sure. But today it seems to be getting better; even Tim noticed that tonight.

Today was surprisingly tiring, despite it being a Saturday and Tim and I being home. I think on weekends we sort of expect to get a nice long break, but really there's no break with three kids! Nathan isn't napping anymore, but will play quietly on his own a lot. Allison has been more difficult today- she seems gassy, and can't fall asleep on her own at all, and prefers to be held over any other contraptions like the bouncy seat or swing. Once we (finally) get her to sleep, though, she'll usually sleep well in one of aforementioned baby seat items. This afternoon, after a long fussy morning and fussy after lunch time, she slept from like 3-6 in the swing after I got her to sleep in my arms. Then this evening she was fussy awhile after her 8 feeding, but then fell asleep on me (after nursing again) and she's still sleeping on the couch next to me now.
Last night I went to sleep around 11:15pm after feeding her, and didn't wake up until 3:45 to her hungry cries! She slept 4 1/2 hours, and went even longer from start of the last feeding to the early morning one. That was nice. Hopefully it will continue, but I'm not really counting on it :) At only 2 1/2 weeks, that's pretty amazing, so I can't complain overall.
Our neighbor friends offered to have the boys come over and play this morning for a couple hours, which was nice- but unfortunately Allison took all our time while we were home! At least Tim and I could spend it together taking care of her instead of having to "divide and conquer" with all the kids.
Tomorrow we'll tackle going back to church for the first time since Alli was born. I think it's also the weekend where the kids move up to the next age group class, so Nathan will start going to the 4-year old class (he stopped going to the 3-year old one after having a couple weekends of crying and being upset last fall, much like preschool- so we're trying again this year). I think he's excited to make some new friends there and learn something new. I hope he doesn't get upset like before, but we really want him to go so we'll work through any emotions that come up.
Blake was really cute this afternoon- we were playing with these little plastic stands that go to some car toy of Nathan's, and blowing air on them to knock them over, and Blake was cracking up. I think he needs more one-on-one time, which I'd love to give him more of. Maybe we'll try a bottle this week for Allison (we tried one this week on Thursday or something, but she didn't take much). I'd like her to be able to take a bottle easier than my other two, who CRIED and CRIED and would never take one. That pretty much puts a damper on my freedom. I got Dr. Brown's ones instead of the Avent ones, which my boys hated, but Blake didn't really care for the Dr. Brown's one either. Any recommendations? Or is it strictly about being consistent and giving them the bottle regularly, no matter what? And is 3 weeks too early to start, even with nursing well established?

So I don't think I mentioned that I actually made it to Target with all three on MONDAY of this week (yes, you read that right- just before the baby was 2 weeks old). I really wanted to get out, and I figured I'd just give it a go- and it went very smoothly, thankfully. I was able to make it through my list of items before the baby woke up, and even picked up lunch on the way home for all of us (Tim came home for lunch that day since it was his first day back). Thankfully they had one of those super-carts with the two-seater attachment, so the boys sat there, and the baby was in the big part of the cart in her carseat. All my items fit in the top part where Blake would have normally sat, but the leg holes were blocked off because of the two seat attachment thing.
Today, I met some friends at this park about 10-15 minutes from our house. I figured a new park is always fun, and the boys would enjoy getting out. We packed up a lunch, and by the time I got everything together and fed the baby, and tried to get her to stop crying (she wants to be held a lot the last couple days) it seriously took me over 1.5 hours to get out the door. Thankfully I started prepping lunches and diaper bags pretty early, around 10 or 10:30, and by the time the last kid was buckled in the car it was 11:30. I was like "WHAT!?" Apparently adding a third kid adds about an hour onto your prep time in getting out the door. Thankfully it wasn't an appointment I had to be on time for. There was quite a bit of walking, and I carried Allison in the Moby wrap for a good chunk of the park time, and Nathan had to go potty (#2) while at the park, so with all of that chaos, I was exhausted. Then of course the boys had trouble napping b/c Blake had fallen asleep on the way to the park, and Allison once again just wanted to be held and burped for a long time. So I didn't get the nap I'd hoped to. But, as a saving grace, Blake finally fell asleep from 3-5 and Allison eventually did too, so I had some quiet time with just Nathan (and the dishes that desperately needed doing).
It was a crazy day, but I made it. Allison ate at 6, we got her back to sleep in the bouncy seat (with bouncing, vibration, and pacifier- which she isn't crazy about, but will sometimes take) and is still sleeping, going on 3 hrs. between feedings. She does this in the evenings a lot- either wants to eat every hour, or nurse constantly, or she'll sleep like 3-4 hours.
Nights are still tiring, feeding every 2-3 hours, but the tiring part is more that I've been on a choppy every-hour waking up schedule. I'll wake up at 1 to feed her, fall asleep in the glider, wake up again at 2 realizing I'm still in the glider, discover she's asleep and I'll put her down in her crib. Then I go to my own bed, sleep another hour, and wake up for her 3 or 4am feeding. At which point I have TIm go and get her and feed her in bed- I think last night I was able to sleep a 2-3 hour stretch by doing that, so maybe I'll consider bringing her back into our bed for the time being. That every-hour thing is brutal!

We went in today for her two-week check, and she is already 9 lbs. 14 oz., and 22.5" long today! Her head measured 36.5cm. She is just growing so fast.! A WHOLE POUND and a half-inch above her birth weight and length! The doctor walked in, and having just looked at her chart, said, "Well, good job!" I immediately knew he was referring to her weight, and we had a laugh about how fast she's growing and how much she's eating. He joked that he wondered why she was in such a hurry to grow, but told me to feed on demand as she wants, as it's working well so far. She is averaging 2-3 hours between feedings, but she'll have a few-hour window each day where she wants to eat every hour, and then will go 4 hours sometimes. Thankfully the last two nights have been pretty good, with up to 3.5 hours between feedings, and going back to sleep without fussing much, which is SO nice for me. Often, I'm just up an hour or less with feeding and burping, instead of that two-hour stretch of gassiness the other night. I actually wake up feeling reasonably rested, as long as I go to bed by 10 or so! The boys have been doing pretty well waking up at 7 or later the last couple mornings. That has really helped the transition to having them alone this week for the first time- they are sleeping in for me, and Blake napped a total of 5 hours on Monday- 2.5 hours in the morning and another 2 in the late afternoon. I think he's either fighting off some illness or is getting his last molar or something, poor kid!
We had Allison in our bed for the first week or so, and that was ok, but I always feel cramped and Tim is a good sport, but I think he feels squished too. And somehow the baby truly seemed to creep towards me in the night, and I'd wake up with her right next to my chest/body! It wasn't dangerous, since I knew she was there, but I was sort of like "get out of my sleeping space little one! I can actually stretch out now without you in the belly!" Tim and I both felt reluctant to put her too far away from us, though, so we considered putting a bassinet right next to my side of the bed. With Nathan, I wanted him out of our room the first night because all his little noises kept me awake. I wouldn't have considered putting him in our bed with us! To avoid the hassle of preparing and setting up a bassinet, we just tried Allison in the crib. So far she is sleeping well there (as long as she's already asleep when I put her down), and I'm using a swaddling blanket a friend gave me (thanks Jessica S.!), so I'm not going to hassle with putting anything next to my bed for now (there's not much room there anyway). Later on she'll (hopefully) learn to fall asleep on her own. Actually, all three kids are sleeping in their beds right now!! I wonder if Allison will have an early bedtime earlier than her brothers. Both Nathan and Blake didn't start going down for bed in their cribs until at least 12 weeks, and with Nathan we didn't put him to bed early until we started having problems later on (like 6 mos. or something, when we realized he needed to go to bed earlier).
We are enjoying the baby phase more this time around. I think each time you realize more and more how fast it goes. And it's so fun seeing the differences and similarities in Allison's appearance to us and her siblings. Each baby is so unique, it's a miracle that never ceases to amaze!
I have to admit, now that the memories of the pain of childbirth (mostly pushing, really) have already started to fade, I'm actually thinking down the road (like 3 years or more) I'd be willing to think about having another. Tim's pretty much not thinking that at all, though. So we'll see how God changes/doesn't change our hearts over the next few years... but wow kids are amazing.
We had one challenging time this afternoon- Blake woke up very unhappy with a dirty diaper (I wondered if he was a bit under the weather, or if it was that molar- he seemed to have a low-grade fever too), and Allison woke up starving, and Nathan was using the potty with the normal "trauma" that goes with that (I'll spare you the details, but it just involves wet pants). ALL THREE were crying at once. Thank God Tim was working from home, heard the chaos, and came up to help Nathan. Then he brought Blake down (I had actually already attended to Blake before the others started crying, and thought he was still tired- but he wasn't going back to sleep). So I started feeding Allison while Blake came and sort of whined and lay down near me on the couch. Then, I put on a video, they got popsicles, and all was well again. And I was feeling pretty good again!
I started this thing a couple days ago where I write my "accomplishments" on the fridge whiteboard, so I see that even if the house is a mess or whatever, I'm still accomplishing things. My list Monday was:
1. took a shower (while Tim was home)
2. swept kitchen floor
3. threw in 2 loads of laundry
4. fed buddies and buddyette - 4 times

Tuesday's and Wednesday's lists were very similar with a couple variations, like today's doctor appointment and Tuesday's playing outside and going to the park with the kids. There's nothing to "show" for that at the end of the day, but it's equally important! It's helping me see my role as mommy is really accomplishing a lot overall, putting into our family, no matter how much redundancy or seeming lack of progress it involves.
I have a billion thank-yous to write- family and friends have been so generous with gifts, meals, and most of all, time helping us out. My mom watched the boys again this morning so I could take Allison to the doctor without a whole circus of kids with me :) That is so nice, for sure. I am very grateful for all the help.
Off to relax a bit before the next feeding!

Yesterday Nathan found a spider in the front entryway, and he took something and killed it all by himself. It was this little drama taking place on its' own, and I was listening in. He was going "Mom! A Spider! Don't worry, I'll get it..." After he killed it and announced this to me, I asked him if he wanted a rag to wipe it up. He said no and did his little hand wave up in the air to reinforce the "no." I asked him again if he needed the all-purpose spray and a rag to wipe up the bug guts. He replied, "It's not going to rose again, so it's fine" very matter-of-factly. Of course, that spider is not going to rise from the dead, so don't worry about cleaning it up! It's not coming back!

Today, we were out in the backyard just before dinnertime (which I went and picked up Chili's takeout for! yum!) and Nathan heard the ice cream truck in the distance. He said, "I think I hear something! It's the Legendary Ice Cream Truck!" Obviously Tim's been teaching him the real name of the ice cream truck!

My friend Lindsay came and took pictures of Allison last week, and they are SO cute!
I almost wish I'd had them done for my boys, too, but I didn't know Lindsay then.
Her work is so nice- you can check it out at www.bellajackson.com.

( See Allison in all her newborn glory :) )

Okay, so that's a ridiculous subject, but something just occurred to me: with my boys' births, both were immediately measured and weighed, but with Allison, she was weighed and measured hours later- like 2 or 3 hours later, giving her "conehead" time to go down a bit. I wonder if that's why the boys measured 22", and then smaller at their 5-day appointments, but she measured 22" a couple hours later. I wonder how long it takes for a conehead to un-cone? With all three of them, I pushed for a half-hour or less. With Allison it was closer to 20 minutes, I think, mostly because I was feeling all the pain and wanted her out!! I felt like I worked much harder with her birth- I guess that's a big duh statement since it was natural vs. epidurals the other two times.
( Recovery update and a couple pictures )