My Sweet Boy

Little boys might be the sweetest things in the entire world!  I'm not saying my daughter isn't sweet, I mean she totally can be, but on most occasions, Kahn laps her in the sweetness category. And last night was no exception.

As you know, we have been struggling lately with our bedtime routine.  It's getting better--much better--but occasionally, we have some rough bed times.  Last night wasn't exactly rough, but I was just tired and really wanted the kids to fall asleep so I could just relax and lay on the couch.

About 15 minutes after I put them down, I thought I was safe so I made myself a bowl of ice cream...the bowl I had been dreaming about all day!  Of course, next thing I know, Kahn is standing at the top of the stairs saying he needed a train to sleep with.  So, I quickly hid my bowl of ice cream behind a picture frame on the end table and he came downstairs and about as slow as he could, he looked through his bin of probably 60 trains to find that perfect train to accompany him to bed.  After a kiss and a hug, he went back up to his room.  About 2 minutes later, he came out of his room to tell me that he now needed a toy from the playroom.  Again, I hid my ice cream, he came down, got his toy, gave me a kiss and went back to his room.  I was thinking this was going to be his last time out of his room.

But no, of course, he came out again.  I asked him what he needed this time and he said, "I just need a bunch more kisses and hugs from mommy."  How can I say no to that?  So, I hid my ice cream, he came down and he gave me a bunch of kisses and hugs and then snuggled real close with me on the couch and we both sat there in silence for a minute--you could tell he was just as tired as I was.

The next thing he said was, 'I love you, mommy, and daddy and Olivia and Madeline'.  Bring on the tears!!!  He freely gives out 'I love yous' to me and Kahn on a daily basis, and on a very rare occasion he'll even include Olivia, but he had never included Madeline.  I basically lost it.  Madeline's been included in the 'I love you' line up--in his eyes, she's a part of the family!!!  I'm not sure what exactly made me lose it...but hearing him say he loved her and adding her in there with the rest of us was enough to bring tears flowing down my cheeks and get me even more excited about our new arrival in two weeks.

So I did the most logical thing any mother would do at 8:30pm with their 3 year old, I shared my ice cream.

Madeline, you have the sweetest, most lovable big brother in the entire world waiting to meet you!  And she'll never admit it, but Olivia is equally excited to meet you too.  You are already such an important part of our lives!  Mommy and Daddy have loved you since we found out you were growing inside me.  And there is no doubt, Kahn and Olivia love you too and will be the best big brother and sister! 

Two more weeks...

I love you!

Mommy

Mother's Day

A few weeks ago, we celebrated Mother's Day!  I like Mother's Day and I'm glad there is a day each year to celebrate me as a mother and all that I do and sacrifice to raise well-mannered, happy and healthy children.  A day of recognition is really nice and appreciated.

The thing I am most proud of in my life is being a mother.  I love being a mom.

I always knew I wanted kids; I knew I was going to have them at some point; and I assumed it would be great.  But being a mom has totally surpassed any expectation I ever imagined.

Sometimes when I hear my kids call me 'mom', I am still caught off guard and still amazed that I am someone's mom!

I love hearing them call me mom.
I love having these little humans rely on me for so much.
I love snuggling with them on the couch or in bed at night.
I love when I get home from work and they run to me and want me to hold them.
I love reading to them.
I love our conversations.
I love their imaginations.
I love watching their expressions when they are experiencing something new.
I love their excitement over the littlest things.
I love their innocence.
I love their smiles.
I love their kisses.
I love their energy.
I love their sense of humors.
I love their sensitivity.
I love their curiosity.
I love their every move and every thought and every word they say.
I absolutely love everything about them.
I love them more than anything in this world.
I love that I love them so much.

And I love that I am their mom.

Roommates!

With the arrival of our little Madeline in just a few weeks, we have been preparing around the house.  One major preparation was moving Olivia out of the nursery and making room for baby #3.  So about 3 weeks ago, we moved Olivia into Kahn's room.  They are officially roommates!

We wanted to move her far enough in advanced so she didn't feel like her life was completely being turned upside down with a new sister on the way.  So we just decided to move her one weekend--kind of out of the blue.  And let's just say, bedtime has not been the same.  Ugh!

Prior to this move, my kids were really good sleepers, for the most part didn't give us any problems going down at night and usually slept a good 12 hours until 7 or 7:30am.  Oh, how we miss those days!

Kahn and Olivia absolutely LOVE being roommates.  So much so, that when we put them in their beds at 7pm, they laugh and play and throw stuff at each other and jump on their beds and laugh some more and it continues for what seems like forever!  The first few nights it was kind of cute...we laughed downstairs listening and watching them on the monitor and we just got a kick out of their little conversations.  We thought the novelty of their sharing a room would run off after a few nights, but no, not so much!  Literally, they are not going to sleep until about 8:30pm and that's with many trips up to their room to tell them to go to sleep.  And they've been waking up earlier!!!

Desperate to try anything, I went out to Pottery Barn last week to buy them blackout curtains for their room thinking maybe if their room was dark they would just lay down and go to sleep.  Fail!  We've tried laying in their beds with them.  Fail!  We've tried rocking them in separate rooms to get them nice and tired.  Fail!  They still laugh and play when they are finally reunited in their room.

I have been using a successful tactic lately, but it's just made bedtime so much more complicated compared to our previous story time, lay them in bed and leave the room routine.  We now put Olivia in her crib, let her fall asleep and then put Kahn down once she is already asleep.  I mean, it's working, but just a process and at 7pm after a full day of working and then coming home to a crazy messy house, and fixing dinner and kids that want every bit of your attention, it's just more challenging and exhausting.

Overall, I guess we can say the transition has been good...I mean, they love being roommates and when they wake up at night crying or calling for us, the other one seems to sleep through it.  That's a good thing, right? I guess eventually we'll get this nighttime routine down and our nights will be back to smooth sailing!  Well, as much smooth sailing that can happen with a 3 year old, almost 2 year old and a newborn!!!  Yikes...3 kids in 3 years!!!  That's for another post!

I could post hours of videos of them playing and laughing in their cribs at night, but instead I am posting a video of our favorite time of the night--story time with the kids.  Olivia loves to read and she tries so hard to follow along with daddy.