Hey! I have 2 hands.

 I am writing this while grocery shopping in one window and watching Blair Witch with the kids. Blair Witch, by the way, is my very favorite scary movie in the universe.

Our Elf on the Shelf came this morning for a Halloween scavenger hunt, and we are watching a movie in the backyard with our next door neighbors tonight. I will have cute halloween pics of the kids to share OF COURSE (our hood is also doing a parade). But. No trick-r-treating, and I am sad about it because we moved here BECAUSE of the trick or treating. I mean, not really, but kinda.

We VOTED. My election anxiety knows no bounds.

I have reached a sartorial low point. ALL SWEATPANTS ALL THE TIME.

Minnie takes very abrupt naps, and it KILLS ME.

Practicing some make up for the big day

Meta.

Minnie Marigold Is Eleven Weeks Old

 

These 11 weeks have simply flown by.

Can you even believe how big she is??

Interlude: We made Halloween gingerbread houses that were a huge pain in my ass in terms of baking and cleaning. But the kids LOVED THEM.

Starbucks when the world is ending:

This is how I look 90% of the day:

Oh hey look! I have other kids!

But this one. ALL THE HEART EYES.

I HAVE FIVE CHILDREN. This surprises me when I remember.

Oh, this sweet little baby!!!

I KNOW that I am phoning it in here, friends, but holy hell there is so much to do just to sort of skate by every day, you know? I want to blog more about FEELINGS because I have them, but my hands are NEVER FREE.

SO, for now, baby pics and tiny captions it is.

Still busy; still delighted

Well, since my last post, our sleep situation has changed for the worse. Minnie truly never sleeps during the day and doesn't go to bed until 9:30-10:15 pm. WHAT IN THE HELL?

Still, everything is better with her around.

Even go fish.

Look at those tired eyes-- you would think that means sleep.

I mean, ok, she sleeps sometimes

And her faces!

It's so cold and dreary and fall-y here already.

Cards Against Humanity family edition is our go-to dinner game

Look at how squishy and delightful she is!

I am in love with her fat  little face.

Look how much she loves bedtime stories:

I am so bummed that she outgrew this skeleton number before one more Halloween wear.

So's she

GAME DAY!

I mean, she clearly sleeps occasionally.

Pumpkins!

Do you love this 90s college girl look?

Aaaaand, we're back to the whale spout.

 I am so tired, you guys. Maybe there's a reason elderly moms don't have more babies. It's also really hard to get anything done. I exercise every morning, do some basic housework, prep dinner, help kids as needed with school tasks, get dressed and out makeup on, dig out from under the lunch landslide, do laundry, complete whatever work tasks are necessary, and then all of the sudden it's the dinner rush and bedtime and it happens all over again.

Here's a concrete example of how busy I am: I am almost out of library holds and I don't know what to request next. This is something I make a priority and yet. THERE IS NO TIME FOR PRIORITIES.

But oh my goodness she's a delight.

On sleep

 Hi! How are you! It's me! Typing with 2 hands because I have 25 minutes before Dorothy and Cooper wake up, and Minnie is sleeping in my bed where I am not. I cannot tell you how huge this is-- usually, she ONLY SLEEPS ON ME for ALL OF HER SLEEPING NEEDS.

While I love this so much and recognize how fleeting it is, it is also SUPER OVERWHELMING.

Technically, she is sleeping through the night because some idiot decided that sleeping through the night means a stretch of 6-9 hours. Unfortunately for me, her stretch is from 8-ish to 2-ish, and I don't go to bed until like 11. Also, she spends the first 3 hours sleeping in my arms on the couch. WHICH I LOVE, don't get me wrong, but it doesn't necessarily feel like through the night, you know? She has had nights here and there where she sleeps until 4 and skips the 2, and those have been amazing. But other nights, she is awake off and on from 8-10 and STILL wakes up at 2, and sometimes, no matter when she falls asleep, she adds in a  12:30 feed just for fun.

I thought for awhile that side-lying and sort of not moving much to feed her would give her the idea that it's bedtime but all that does is make her grunt and burp for like 40 minutes after she eats, so I have to haul myself up and feed normally, burp, etc. It's better for HER, and she falls right back to sleep, but then my old lady insomnia kicks in, and by the time I am finally asleep after the 2:00, she is up for a 4:30 or 5 am snack. The 5 am snack is THE WORST for me because it's hard to sleep again before Ben's alarm and my need to have one quiet cup of coffee before all hell breaks loose. Minnie east one side very efficiently and is asleep within 7 minutes, and I get maybe one quarter of one more sleep cycle for me. (I am very good at falling instantly to sleep in the 4's-- I have no idea why, but when I had postpartum insomnia after Harry was born, I always knew that 4 am would see me snoring).

Basically, even though she sleeps well, I am getting 3 good hours and then SLEEP SCRAPS.  It's hard to be this old and parenting a newborn. Or! Maybe the perimenopause insomnia would have me sleeping like this anyway, so now at least I also get a baby?

And this baby! I don't even have words to describe how perfectly wonderful she is. She has made us all happier than we have any right to be in the middle of a global disaster.

She smiles, she coos. She laughed once at Ben, and she laughs in her sleep, so that's coming. She can ALMOST roll from front to back when she's on her tummy. She LOVES listening to her older siblings. She cannot sleep when she hears Dorothy's voice no matter how soft it is-- that's how much she loves Dorothy. Harry wants to be in charge of her all the time. Jack is impossibly sweet with her and can make her go from crying to cooing in moments. And Cooper! Cooper just has to appear in her line of vision, and she talks and talks to him. He says they have a special bond, and I think they might!

Ok-- I have 3 minutes to chug another cup of coffee before it's time to start our asynchronous learning day. Here are a few pics from yesterday (costume change due to diaper blowout).

I want to write a real post, but in the meantime here are some pictures.

Harry, 2 months in 2006; Dorothy, 2 months in 2020:

I cannot even believe how much those two look alike! And how much they both look like a Cabbage Patch Kid.

Minnie has basically stopped sleeping, so that's awesome.

I mean, that's not true. She slept great last night, and today she took a 2.5 hour morning nap (in the ergo), a 40 minute nap (on me), and a 30-minute nap (on me). But she needs to sleep some more, in my opinion but not in her, between now and bedtime. We always start off strong nap-wise, and then the wheels fall off the bus.

Dorothy, on her way home from picking up her school supplies earlier this week. She misses so school SO SO SO MUCH. She said she just wants to walk inside and say "I'm BACK!"

She's the sweetest.

Girls pic!

HER FACE!

Seriously, she is THE SWEETEST.

Jack turned 12.5, and we celebrated with a whole day of his favorite foods.

As Cooper says, they have a special bond.

She recently discovered the light fixtures.

And also! She smiles for pictures.

Tummy time

THAT FACE!

Cooper loves sitting practice.

There's a baby in my coat.

We rediscovered Daniel Tiger, and the COVID episode is awesome.

Here's dad tiger all grumpy because Daniel won't leave him alone while he does his clock factory work on the kitchen table. TOO REAL.

Minnie thinks Ben is hilarious.

I love everything about this:

THAT FACE

Her hair!

Modeling a hat from a friend

That hair!

OH MY GOD WHERE DID THAT MOBILE COME FROM?!