52 Project

I never thought I’d say this, but it is so much fun having an almost-teenager.

This is my last #52Project post of 2015, and what a better subject than my favorite goofball, my oldest kiddo Logan.

He’s pretty absent on the Rushed Mommy blog scene, so this is an extra-special appearance on his part.

I got really lucky with this child. He was my first, so I didn’t know it at the time, but he is a really easygoing kid. His dad and I split up when he was a baby, so until John and I got married it was just Logan & me. We shared a room until he was 3 and I made enough money to rent my own apartment. For the first 3 years of his life we slept together and spent all of my non-working hours together. For a while I was working as a substitute teacher during the day and a cocktail waitress at night, so my little guy was bounced from daycare to sitters, quite often both in the same day. He’s a resilient little trooper. He never cried when I left him and always ran into my arms when I returned.  

I have many joyful memories of adventures with little Logan. While I was in college I worked mostly nights so I often had free time during the day. We would go to San Diego’s Balboa Park and take advantage of the rotating “Free Tuesday” museums. One time we rode the commuter train down the coast and explored Old Town. We frequented parks and libraries and window-shopped in the malls. We went everywhere together.

You HAVE to make a ‘cool guy’ face when your mom takes a selfie on Jr. High registration day!

Now he’s turning the big 1-3 in a few months. He’s taller than I am and his voice changed without any warning. One day I called him on the phone and was completely blown away when a teenage guy’s voice answered, “Hi, Mom!” 

He’s into all the cool trends, which is kind of nice because he is now my connection to what is “in” in society. I was so proud of myself when I knew what the Whip and Nae Nae was and my coworkers didn’t! I guess that is one positive to the endless repetitions of that song I had to listen to – thanks, Logan!  😉 

He loves to laugh. Lately it’s turned into this older dude-sounding laugh, but he has always been ready to turn a situation into something silly. Sometimes I don’t even think he’s trying to. A few years back he found a stick while we were hiking in the snow. He entertained himself for hours by hitting anything and everything with it. It was both funny and annoying because we were desperately attempting to make some forward-moving progress meanwhile Logan was constantly leaping off-trail to go hit the snow on a nearby log. Just yesterday we were driving home from church and he pulled his beanie over his face. He started acting like he was a bank robber who couldn’t see where he was going, playing up the comedy of the situation. He’s such a ham.

But he is also still very attached to his mom. When John is at work or school and I’m home with tired, crying little guys, Logan always steps in to help out. I don’t ask him to do much because I don’t want young siblings to be a burden or for him to resent them for the extra work they require. Maybe that’s why every request of “Can you hold the baby?” or “Please help your sisters with ___” is received with a positive attitude.

Thank you for helping make this tough year just a little bit more joyful, Logan. I love you to the moon and back.  

This post is inspired by my current schedule. Report card time always zaps me of time and energy, so here I am, coming up for air, in this week’s #52Project.

RING RING RING Alarm clock. Fumble in the dark. Cuddle sleepy baby. Nursing, try not to fall asleep.

Get set for the day, looking at the clock.

Tick, tock. Tick, tock. Hurry up and go!

Breakfast in the car.

Drive, stop. Drive, stop.

Get there quick, on time!

Kids running and yelling.

Be focused, be kind.

Children growing and creating.

Need hugs, bathroom now!

Band-Aids, pencils, when is lunch?

Emails, parents, phone calls, grades and paperwork.

Teacher, teacher, teacher listen to me now!

P.E., math and writing.

Tidy up the room.

Traffic, traffic, traffic.

It’s Mommy! Mommy’s home! 

Listen to the stories: Friends, girls, study hall.

No Minecraft-do your homework! Complain and stomping feet.

Sizzle, stir, and steam. Come on kids, now let’s eat!

Bubbles and splashing water. Scrubbing pudgy toes. Wrapped in fuzzy towels. Curl up on the couch.

       
  Time 
          s
           l
            o
             w
              s 
                down.

Fingers through fine hair. 

A kiss for mommy’s nose.

Giggles.

Caressing cheeks. 

Don’t grow up so fast.

Story time. Pointing at pictures. Reading all together, the same familiar text.  

Tucked in. Teddy too.

Twinkle little star.

In Jesus name, Amen.

I love you Mommy. 

Heart is full.

Good night. Close the door.

Dishes, emails, grades.

Sit down with cold ice cream.

Cozy quilt, dark room.

Sweet sleep but not for long.

RING RING RING Alarm clock. Fumble in the dark. Cuddle sleepy baby. Nursing, try not to fall asleep. 

You know how in those old-school cartoons, the cartoonists use a calendar with the pages flying off to show that time is going by really quickly? That’s kind of how my life feels right now. Sometimes I look at my kids and just can’t believe how fast they are growing up. My neighbor and I were chatting yesterday about that same thing and he mentioned his surprise at Logan’s voice changing. I said, “What?!! His voice changed?!” I didn’t even notice! Probably because I live with him and hear it every day, so it was a gradual change to me. But what an eye-opener to realize how the minutes turn to days which turn to months which turn to years in the blink of an eye! Thanks to my #52Project I am keeping track of these little moments.

The baby is so close to walking now. I mean, any day now. I’m not ready for it! But gosh darn is he cute. 

The girls have been at the sitter all lot, especially last week. I had back to school night, John had some big projects for school to work on, and he’s been working a lot of double shifts lately. The plus side to that is that our sitter, a mom of all boys, just loves to do their hair pretty. She keeps trying out new styles on them. I love the braids! 

My poor oldest. He’s in three honors classes, plus youth group, plus baseball. This guy. He’s hanging in there pretty tough, but I know sometimes he feels overloaded. He’s smart, he works hard, and I love him to bits. 

Oh and did I mention-the girls turned three!  

I can’t believe three years ago I was eyebrow-deep in preemie diapers, bleary eyed, thinking I would never survive the next day, let alone the next five minutes. They are actually the reason I started this blog.

My days are long, but through it all my husband is a really good sport. He puts up with a lot, and sacrifices a lot, and I really appreciate him for that. I’d love to tell you all the wonderful things he does for me but I don’t want to blow his “I’m a tough guy” façade. He’s an amazing husband and a wonderful dad and I would be lost without him right now.

Is there anything more precious than a child sleeping?
Madeline and Emily shared the same womb for nine months and the same crib for 12 months. We just recently transitioned them from cribs to real, big-girl beds.

They took to their new beds pretty well. But we started to notice that sometime in the middle of the night they would both end up in Madeline’s bed.

Being that she is the more outgoing of the two, at first I thought Madeline was making Emily climb into her bed every night. However, I have caught Emily a couple of times sneaking into Madeline’s bed while her sister was sleeping. So now I know the culprit is really Emily.

They don’t have to sleep together. They will occasionally go the whole night in their own beds. Still, how sweet is it that Emily wants so badly to be next to Madeline that she will climb into bed next to her sleeping sister?  

They aren’t just sleeping in the same bed either. They get all intertwined, with arms and legs walked all over one another. Sometimes let me go check on them one of them has her legs thrown over her sisters back or an arm over her face. I took this week’s #52Project picture of them a couple mornings ago as I was getting ready for work.

Is this normal for kids to want to sleep all smushed up next to their sibling? Did your kids do that kind of thing? Inquiring minds want to know 🙂

We had a blast the last few weeks of summer. There were some free days in between John’s last day of summer school and the first day of school for Logan and I. It is ALWAYS hot in San Diego, so the little guys spent most of these in bathing suits or nudie-kazoodie in our backyard kiddie pool, making all the pics for this #52Project look like they were shot in one day! Well… Some were. 🙂

My sopping wet toddlers, fully-clothed at the spray ground!

Daddy dug a hole & made a mud barrier to keep the waves out. Best idea ever! The girls played in that little pond the whole time. 

We were the only family on the beach with a tent. But it was super necessary for getting the baby to nap & providing a break from the heat/sun! 
Naughty baby keeps sneaking into the kiddie pool with all his clothes on :-/

No matter how many times I pull the boogie boards out of the pool they get dragged right back in! Our embarrassingly cluttered patio makes a great backdrop, don’t you think? 😉

My husband was on the phone yesterday telling someone about my new job. He talked about how supportive the staff is, how neat the environment is… And then, in response to something the other person said, I heard him say, “Well, she’s gone a lot more now than she was with her other job”.

“She’s gone”

He wasn’t being offensive, he was just telling the truth. But the truth cut me deep. I’m gone a lot. I don’t see my babies very often.

I’m gone…

Something about that really bothers me. Maybe it’s because I never really feel “gone”. My husband and my children are always in my heart and in my thoughts. Nearly all of my decisions are based on how they’re going to affect my family. But the fact of the matter is, I’m away from them. A lot.

Blurry cell phone pics… Sometimes you gotta snap quick with what you’ve got before the moment passes! 🙂

My grandmother, who passed away this year, used to have a saying. “Keep your chins up“. When she would say it, just the fact that she pluralized chin would put a smile on our faces.

So that’s what I’m trying to do with this week’s #52Project.

Keep my chins up.

Enjoy whatever quality time I can get with my family, even though it may be just an hour or two a week.

 
Stay focused on my blessings, and how badly I needed a job, and how this one landed in my lap just in the nick of time.

It’s interesting having children that are 11 years apart. The reality of how quickly the years fly by is evident when I look at the two of them. 12 years ago Logan was my baby. Now he’s older, doing his own thing, getting invited to coed Halloween parties (don’t even get me started).

For now my chins are up. But the days are long, The years are short, and this too shall pass.

We’ve been having such a lazy summer. Well, the kiddos have. I got caught up in online classes, which kept me pretty busy on top of caring for 3 little ones! Like I said before, we make several trips to the park a week. Here’s a Vine of me and Baby JP in the shade while his sisters enjoy the play structure.

We had a play date at my sister’s. She has a trampoline!  

… Which gave the girls somewhere other than our beds to jump. For a while they were climbing into JP’s bed and going nuts in there. Things started to get a bit rough and I’ve made the baby’s bed off-limits for jumping after that.  They are basically insane. Older brother Logan is sooooooo good with his little siblings. 

But he’s still a 12-year-old, Mr. Cool to the core. 

The baby puts EVERYTHING into his mouth. I swear, he finds things on the floor in places I didn’t even know he could get to. He’s constantly crawling under the table looking for scraps to nibble on. You gotta love that happy face, even though chasing him around is exhausting! 

The girls are getting so big. It’s amazing how much they have grown since this post. Emily (in the purple) still runs everywhere she goes! 

Next up on #52Project I’ll share our big, huge beach trip and what’s going on with me at work.  

When you look at these next few photos, try to guess where we spend a lot of our time (I’ll tell you the 2 places at the end of this post).

Can you believe how big he is? Baby John is always giving big smiles. He is the sweetest little squishy baby ever. 

These munchkins. 

More big smiles. 

From Instagram.

I was experimenting with shutter speeds and, while this picture is not great in quality, it is sooooo Emily.

And here is a picture I took of a flower.

And a doorknob.

No pictures of the Big Boy this week, or for the next few weeks. He is visiting his dad and comes home just in time to go whitewater rafting with the youth group. Lucky duck!

So where are we spending all our time? These days I’m either buckling down to get homework assignments done for the two online classes I’m taking (because I didn’t already have enough to do in the day), or we are cleaning or running errands. So you are guaranteed to find us either at home or in the car. Or maybe at the park a block away. And if you’re thinking of coming over (ahem, MOM), you really should because being alone with 3 small children 24/7 is making me batty. Oh, didn’t I mention? John is also taking summer school classes during the day and working nights so he’s only home a couple of half-days a week.

It’s cool, I’m not losing my mind… Yet.

Check back in for next week’s #52Project post because I think I’m going to have a good pic of the girls. *fingers crossed*

There are 2 awesome things about taking a photo a week:

1. It gives you a personal yearbook of your life

2. You end up with way more than one great photo a week. I’m looking for moments to photograph every day, so I have more than just one favorite for each week.

Here are some of my favorites over the last 4 weeks.

Do you know how hard it is to get your teenagers to let you take their picture? Geez Louise, this guy is like the elusive snipe! I practically had to beg to get him to sit still for this one. I used to worry that he’ll feel like I equate my love for my kids with how many photos I take of them. But not anymore. Continue to expect waaaaaaaay more baby and toddler pics than teenager ones because this guy just isn’t feelin’ it.

My oldest is such a ham and got my blue eyes despite his dad’s Hispanic background! I love him to bits.

Park day!!! We are at the park a lot. There are 2 within a few blocks of where we live and we don’t have a yard so-to the park we go! Madeline on the left, Emily on the right.

I just noticed that all the papers and magnets on the fridge are on the top part. I take a lot of pictures of my kids. The girls have started pulling my magnets from the fridge and trying to get each other to say “cheese” to the magnet/camera. Such silly girls!Everything in reach of little hands gets pulled off and used as a camera!

This was my “I’m going to do ALL THE THINGS!” day, which resulted in throwing my back out. Note to self- don’t try and do all the things.  Emily and I are washing dishes together and, yes, we actually DID get a lot of dishes washed. Baby is “helping”. When he is in the front pack he snatches desperately and tries to grab at anything that waves even remotely near his face. In order to get anything washed or folded with baby in front I have to stick my butt back and stand at kind of an angle while holding both my arms way out in front to keep stuff away from him. Great mental picture, right?  Apparently your body isn’t meant to hold such a position for very long, hence throwing my back out.

Emily. Watching my parents’ dog through the slider.

Madeline washing dishes. I gave up at making it a group effort and surrendered my sink to my toddlers.

Baby John, my drooly happy guy. He’s 6 months in this picture.

I love this picture. We were at the park (again) and they usually each do their own thing. A typical park activity would find one twin climbing a part of the play structure while the other goes through the hamster tubes (I’m pretty sure that’s what they’re called), or one on the slide and the other making a new friend. For a brief moment, they decided they wanted to slide together.  And here you can see their love for each other and their toddler joy all contained in those smiles.

So what’s up next for #52Project? I’m taking a photography class this summer so there should be some nice photographs coming out of what I’m learning. I’m super excited for that. Also, I think I’m going to go back to a post a week. Maybe. We’ll see…