Rosing a Family

 Things we forgot: -Headphones -Nursing Bra -Slip-on shoes for me -Advil for me -My deodorant -Enough underwear -Enough Socks -Extra pj bottoms -A nursing top for me But probably more things we brought but won't need.  Yesterday Shelly and I had a long conversation about whether or not she should get her covid vaccine before or after Philip was born. She was worried the second one might result in a fever that would interrupt her plan to have natural labor. We decided to do it the next day and did a tarot reading for more insight. The tarot deck basically said, "Choose whatever you want, it won't matter anyway." We didn't get the joke until the next day when Shelly's water broke. Day 0: Shelly woke up at 6:30am and thought maybe her water was leaking just a little bit, we weren't sure so we went about our day as normal. She had a couple more small leaks and we drove out for the vaccine. When we got home around 10:30am, I headed back to work and around 12pm ...

Shelly spent two full days decorating the house for October. According to Milo, "Mama made it Halloween". He keeps asking to "go to Halloween" so we took a walk around the neighborhood today to try to spot other Halloween decorations. So far only a couple houses have decorations but multiple people have come by to see our house and tell us it looks great. It's a very friendly neighborhood.  Ember snuck out recently and was MIA for 10 days. We sent a message out to the HOA and they emailed everyone in the neighborhood a picture of her. That day, we got a call from a family with a 7 year old son who had spotted Ember under a van around the corner from our house. Shelly caught a glimpse of her before she disappeared and we weren't able to find her. It was good to know she was ok and was nearby. Amma recommended we put her food out (in the bowl she was used to) and it did seem like someone was eating from it. Later, while Shelly was decorating she thought she he...

 A Day in the Life 5:45AM-7:00AM - Lily wakes up complaining of a wet diaper and Shelly and I trade off who gets up and who sleeps in for the morning. If we're lucky Lily will go back down after she gets a fresh diaper and Milo will stay in bed too. Sometimes we even get until 7:00AM before one or the other of the kids insists it's morning and time to get out of bed. (The other day, I got up at 6:15AM and had a blessed 30 minutes to myself to drink my coffee and relax before the kids decided it was time to get up). 7:00-8:45 - Shelly or I sleep in and the other gets breakfast for the kids and makes coffee 8:45AM-9:00AM - I get ready for work and Shelly prepares to spend the day with the kids (usually by drinking her coffee and working on her current autumn-themed puzzle. 10:00AM - Lily insists on taking her morning nap. She can ask for it by name but usually just reaches up towards the stairs to indicate she's ready. 12:00PM - I take my lunch break. If it was my morning to ...

The smoke is finally starting to clear. We are going to unpack our go-bags (a little) tonight and hope we can let the kids out in the backyard again soon. Shelly and I are doing well though a bit tired. My job has been stressful lately with Amazon changing the rules on us all over the place, my team is scrambling to keep up. Thank goodness I finally have a full team of 6 supporting me, I don't know how I could manage without. Even so, I am still working early/late most days. Holiday is coming up so we are looking at another 3 months of hard work ahead. Thankfully, Milo has lots of books and toys he can play with on his own and Lily is content to snuggle if Moms need to sit down for a minute. Milo saw Lily sticking her head in a box yesterday and announced she was pretending to be a robot. He took the box and showed us what he meant while Lily watched half angry, half amused. Then she got the box back and enjoyed pretending to be a robot like her big brother. She is enjoying emulati...

Milo is acting very mature lately, able to listen and converse at a four-year old level part of the time which is good because he just turned four. It is so refreshing to ask him to listen and then have him respond back with an "ok" after I ask him something (we spent all of 3 with him ignoring most questions until the 5th-20th repetition). Also, he has been progressively calling us up to his bedroom after we've said good night more and more times before he goes to sleep. He insists he needs another toy or book or forgot a specific toy. So yesterday I told him (exactly 100 times) that he had to choose his books and toys to bring to bed before we went upstairs and anything he didn't bring I was not going go get for him later. We discussed thoroughly what he wanted to bring (a single book from the bookreader set Megan just got him and a monster truck) and what he didn't want to bring (the rest of the books that go with the bookreader and his new hot wheels track tr...

 2020 So Far January - Yay, Christmas season is over! Shelly's birthday at Lithia Springs was great! My company holiday Bonus and Raise were postponed since 2019 profits were not as high as previous years. February - Work was hard without a proper team, a lot of job posts have gone up but my team wasn't flushed out yet. Lily's 1st Birthday was great at Megan and Dan's house with Family. March - Yay! I got a HUGE raise and a good bonus... We are finally financially stable enough to afford our apartment with ease! Milo wouldn't wear any clothes but woody pajamas so we got 5 additional pairs. April - Quarantine began, Lily started growing her first tooth (at 15 months). May -  Milo's preschool canceled, playgrounds off the menu and science works closed. We entertained ourselves with parks, walks and the beach as well as a couple costume changes. June - Camping trip! Also, can we afford a house? Surprise we can and we bought one.  July - We own a house! We paused ou...