We had Eve’s 1st Birthday party this
weekend. It was great! There were tons of people in my tiny
house, but more fun is that there were tons of kids. I think
they were 3 months to 7 years all running (or being carried)
around the house. We had so much fun. Here are the pictures (in
a very mixed up order):

Eve's 1st Birthday

Thanks to everyone who made it over to help us celebrate
Eve’s birthday!

Lex has been experimenting with what he
calls us these days. When he was a baby it was “mamma” and
“dadda,” like most babies. For quite awhile it’s been “mommy”
and “daddy.” Then, a few days ago, Alan became “dad.” We joked
about it and yesterday I became “mom.” This morning, for a few
hours, I was “Tessa” as in “Oh, there you are Tessa.” :) It was
funny. I think it’s because we had a full house today and the
little girl calls me by name a lot. Lex decided he wanted to
try it too. Apparently he didn’t like it (or just forgot)
because I was “mommy” again by this afternoon :)

Speaking of full house, I had two small scares
today. At nap time I had the toddlers in bed and I was feeding
the babies when I heard Lex making noise upstairs. Based on the
amount of movement and high pitch to his voice I was guessing
he had a dirty diaper. Both babies were fussing though, so I
decided to finish with them first. After a few minutes he came
to the top of the stairs and started calling me, saying he had
a dirty diaper. I went up to change him and found him
completely naked at the top of the stairs, Huggies Overnight
diaper in hand. Ack!! In his room I found all of his clothes
and his diaper (very fortunately it was just wet!) on the
changing table. He had soaked through his pants and decided to
take matters into his own hands. I was soooo relieved to find
the diaper just wet. I’ve heard about disasters of this sort
before and did not want one of my own!

The other, more important scare of the day was in the
afternoon. I was doing a round of diaper changes (5 kids today,
all in diapers) and I came back into the living room after a
few minutes and had an instant feel that something was wrong.
Quick scan showed no baby gate on the stairs, no Eve to be
found, and then I heard noise upstairs. I ran up and found her
standing in the bathroom throwing toys into the tub!! Guess she
wanted a bath. I was freaked out though and really have to be
more careful about keeping that lower baby gate in place!

I guess it counts as a good day when
you go through three names and two scares and everyone comes
out safe and sound (and clean!).

We went in for Eve’s 1yr well child visit
today. She certainly is a well child, and she decided to show
of her walking skills to the doctor! She weighed in at 19lbs
9oz (and for those of you keeping score, yes that is 3oz less
than last time) and 29″ (.25″ less than last time, but I’m sure
that was just margin of error!) The doc was mildly concerned
that she hadn’t gained weight or height, but said it’s probably
ok since she got very mobile during that period. He did ask us
to come in for a 15mo check up, just to make sure she’s gained
a few pounds by then. Who knew lack of weight gain could ever
be a problem in this family? Guess who’s getting chocolate cake
this weekend!! :)

I also brought Lex along for a quick
check up because he’s had a fever for the past 24hrs and been
pretty miserable when not hepped up on the Tylenol. We were up
last night every 1/2hr for most of the night. It was awful.
Apparently his ears and lungs are ok though, so the doctor said
keep doing what we’re doing and see if it gets better. Fun,
fun. Hopefully he does get better soon!

Here is a little video of Lex using the
computer. He gets so excited :) We ended up moving him to the
floor so he has more room for the mouse. On the couch he was
running it under his legs, up the arm, and all around :)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFOQbEgd3MM]

She’s soooo close! I think all she’s
lacking is confidence. She can walk from the stove to the
fridge, or follow me across the dining room. She likes to
cruise around holding on to things, but when she really wants
to get there she drops to her hands and knees. She is a super
speedy crawler, so maybe she’s lacking confidence or maybe she
just has no patience for the slowness of walking :) Either way,
she’s super cute :)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veCM0M-D5mY]

And another month. Happy April!! It’s
almost 60 around here, like spring may actually make it to
Vermont. Yay!

We spent Eve’s 1st
birthday with relatively little fanfare. Lex was in an
annoyingly aggressive mood and spent the day running around,
crashing into me, knocking things over, and bopping the babies
on the head. Eve was in a very fussy mood (she’s been like that
a lot lately) and spent much of the day with her head on the
floor crying (whenever Lex bopped her, or bumped her, or she
saw me but I couldn’t pick her up, or who knows why else).
Daycare baby was also fussy and took very short naps. Through
all that Lex and I were able to bake her a super delicious
carrot cake (Carrot Cake Supreme, says my mom’s recipe) and we
had a little singing and cake then an early bedtime. Lex got no
cake (a so-sad from earlier in the day) and didn’t seem too
upset. Eve was a little overwhelmed by the big cake, but
happily ate the small piece I cut for her. I think the real
fanfare will be Saturday :)

My T/TH daycare toddler
will be going to preschool full-time in two weeks, so I’ll be
stopping all together instead of switching to part-time. I had
mixed feelings on the part-time thing anyway. Part of me
thought it would be the perfect compromise, but part of me is
just ready to be done. It was nice (and weak on my part) that
she made the decision for me. Now let’s all hope I made the
right decision in the first place!

Sorry I haven’t posted in awhile, but it’s
been an emotionally draining week. As a few of you may know, we
have been struggling with the daycare and, since solid decision
making seems to be completely out of my range of capabilities
these days, I’ve been struggling trying to figure out what to
do. I’m fortunate to have found great daycare kids, all are
happy, funny, and very nice kids and I’ve been lucky. However,
having kids here all day, every day, has taken a toll on me and
my kids. I’m very stir crazy these days and as spring
approaches (though you’d never know it looking out the window!)
I can’t help thinking of all the things I want to do with the
kids that I won’t be able to since we’ll be confined to our
house (or at least our property) every day. I’ve been trying to
get them out on weekends, but Lex prefers to be home on
weekends because daddy is there and no extra kids. So that
leaves me struggling with him or staying him. During the week
my normally sweet boy has become a bit of a menace, jumping on
the girls, pushing them, taking toys, and generally making them
cry (which they are VERY quick to do). I feel like I’m spending
most of my days disciplining him and usually cranky with him.
Alan and I were talking about the fact that I need to
discipline the girls too, because tattling and bossiness aren’t
considered good social behavior. I guess I’m not real good with
discipline and especially not when there’s always someone who
needs a new diaper, new bottle, nose wipe, more food, etc. It
just seems like there’s never time. It’s frustrating. I know
Lex’s behavior issues are because he gets no alone time and no
mommy time. Eve has also turned into a fuss pot and spends her
time crawling around after me and crying a lot. We thought she
had an ear infection (I could have sworn!) but the doc says
she’s fine, so now it must be teething or attachment issues or
just too much activity all the time. It’s hard to tell with a
baby. So I’ve been thinking for awhile about whether or not
daycare is really the best option for my family. The money is
ok and we definitely need all the money we can get, but at what
cost? And when do you switch from “give it all you’ve got”
mentality to “it’s just not working and/or not worth the
effort.” I hate to be a quitter, but I also hate how I feel
every day these days.

So, I made the
decision to stop doing daycare. I told the parents this week
and everyone was understanding, but upset. It’s really hard to
find good childcare around here and almost impossible to find
infant care. I’ve given them two weeks notice, but I won’t be
locking the door in any one’s face either. My full-time toddler
will be going back to her previous daycare center this Monday
and I think the family is good with that. I think she’ll be
happier there too. I’m hoping that baby can find a good
alternative though. Like I said, infant care is hard to find
and I really feel the worst for her. That’s what made my
decision even harder. She’s also the sweetest baby on the
planet and if I had any way to get 3 car seats in my car I’d
keep her in a heartbeat! But, alas, I don’t. I may end up
keeping my T/TH toddler though. I’ve been talking with her mom
about it. That would still give us three days to get out or be
quiet at home, and then two days with her. I don’t know if that
will happen or not yet. See why I was struggling though? For my
own hopes at sanity and family peace I have to put a huge
burden on other families.

To put things
in perspective though, my friend emailed me last night that her
1yr old son has to have abdominal surgery. The little guy had
kidney problems before birth and now needs surgery for a
bladder problem. Let’s all keep him in our thoughts and
prayers.

Alan hooked a Windows laptop up to the
computer so we can watch Netflix from their site. It’s pretty
cool. Now he’s teaching Lex how to use the computer. Lex loves
a reading site called Starfall and he loves to sit with
Alan or I and read the stories. Alan set it up on the TV and
gave Lex a mouse and he’s learning to work it himself. Crazy,
huh? He’s doing really well though. Alan set the mouse speed to
slow so it’s easier to control. (don’t worry, we know all about
screen time limits and Lex won’t be sitting in front of the
tv/computer for too long) He’s so cute!

Some days I feel like I just can’t keep
up, especially on those rare occasions (like last weekend) that
we take a day off from the household chores. There is always
sooo much to do (cleaning, laundry, baby food, bills, daycare
prep, grocery shopping, etc… ya know – LIFE!) and by the end
of the day I’m just exhausted but there’s still so much more to
do. I’m by no means an overly meticulous person or anything, it
just seems impossible to keep up. During the day I’m always
torn between sitting down and playing with the kids, or trying
to get dishes done and the table cleared so when they all start
clambering for more food I can be somewhat prepared. Sigh. Last
night folded six loads of laundry and it took me almost two
hours! Tonight I asked Alan to do bath/bed for the kids so I
could pay bills (and bitch on the blog ;) ) and he said fine
but he’d need an hour or two to do datdec stuff afterwards. I
agreed since I’ll need an hour or two to do everything else
anyway. Life is exhausting these days. Ok, enough gripping, off
to pay some bills now (without Quicken ’cause we had a sad SAD
data loss *sniff*).