preschool! how the weeks fly by

first of all i should tell you i am one of those mothers who is excited for preschool to begin. please don't judge me too much. i love my sons and have nostalgia moments about where the time went between birth and three. but i am glad jude gets to interact, engage, and learn with other kids while i get to interact with quieter moments, exercise, and time with just baby harry. i fought the mental battle all morning to not simply fill the school break with "to do's".

leaving the house

jude is a handsome energetic member of his preschool class. i am thrilled to see so many little boys at concordia university's preschool.

1st day at concordia preschool

jude is most excited about his backpack. go thomas go!

it rolls! just like thomas

speaking of thomas we took the whole family to Day Out With Thomas in August. The Illinois Railway Museum is a lovely spot in union, illinois. the collection includes lots of old CTA trains and steam locomotives. we enjoyed the streetcars that take you around the complex. but on this day it was all about the #1 engine.

its thomas!

jude and daddy took a 20 minute train ride aboard thomas's coaches. Harry came along but slept through the adventure as he does during most of our outings. Here's lifeguard harry sleeping on the job at the splash pad or pool.

little lifeguard

Harry made a visit to doctor dave today for what turned out to be a cold. we learned the seven week old chunkster is 9lbs 7 ounces. i think harry dropped about half that amount in his baby swing this morning in a diaper blowout, timed right before i carted him to the appointment. later jude managed to pee in his pants as i fed harry in the other room. coaching my 3 year old through that cleanup by himself was not successful. i think parents should be able to put waste management on their future resumes.

the other child in our house, george the medical patient dog, is in week 2 of his six weeks of crate restriction. here's a quick shot of him with the don't-lick-your-leg-staples cone.

dog in recovery

georgie heads to the vet on friday to get the staples out and hopefully lose the cone. here's hoping i don't lose it the rest of the day.

When you're buried

Time flies when you're buried under life's responsibilities. Baby Harry turned six weeks on tuesday. The reality of laundry for four is setting in. 5:30am this morning...Greg is soothing Harry who won't go to sleep after I fed him at 4:30. Jude opens his door to reveal soaked pajamas and a wet bed...pull ups can only handle so much apparently. I head downstairs to get the just washed extra train sheets and blanket. Today I will rewash the ones I washed only two days ago. The ordinary busyness of our new life is still overwhelming.

We decided to have the doctor fix our dog. Surgery to compensate for torn ACL and meniscus. One big bill and two days more before we see him.

Lots of outings while Harry sleeps. Splash parks, the zoo, and even a trip to meet Thomas the tank engine, are helping mommy survive with two little ones. Two day a week preschool starts next week

one down, many to go

baby harry is now one month old! we are happy to reach this milestone with our now healthy, good eating baby boy. particularly after yesterday's doctor appointment gave us the all clear to let harry sleep as much as he will at night. no more setting the alarms to make sure he eats on schedule.

chillin in the bassinet

our family helpers have come and gone. now comes the real work of figuring out how this family of four thing is possible. will we ever find time to watch our favorite tv shows again??
right now its a cycle of surviving the day, getting jude to bed, putting jude back in bed after several potty requests, cleaning up the chaos and feeding harry before crashing on our pillows.

3 millers and a baby

speaking of mister jude, our 3 year old is living up to his age...plenty of opinions, answers of automatic 'no' followed by a more reasoned response, crashed together with adorable cuteness, conversation and laughter.

trucks and balls are my favorite toys

jude decided the other day to read a story to George our dog. our patient pup got to hear a bit about Curious George the monkey or at least see the pictures, because jude can't read yet.

story time dog

poor george is dealing with what the vet believes to be a damage ACL. he limps around in the mornings til the medicine kicks in. we are waiting for x rays to confirm a diagnosis and help us learn more about potential treatments...and cost. its hard when advanced pet care is available without advanced insurance to help with the costs. at least the rest of our family is healthy as we celebrate one month with harry.

happy harry

if you've read this far you are clearly a fan of baby harry, so here's the info from his doctor's appointment:

weight: 8lbs, 3 ounces 15th percentile
length: 21 inches 50th percentile

Read & Roll

Jude, like most little boys, enjoys having stories read to him at bedtime. In a recent development, however, he has begun turning the tables and reading the books back to us. Now before you award him a scholarship to Oxford on account of reading at three years of age, we should point out that we think he is reciting them from memory.

Still impressive.

And continuing the theme of doing things early, Harry has proven himself quite adept at rolling from side to side at three weeks of age. He is nearly rolling over already, and seems heavily motivated by his desire to eat anything he can reach... in this case, we've found him attempting to suck on his sheets. Seriously, he ends up practically face-down, twisted all around and gnawing at the sheets, after we've started him out on his back. He may be smaller than Jude was at this age, but he's a heck of lot more agile than Jude was.