three vignettes

Note: Aside from the drippingly pitiable stories below, it must be said that Matthew remains the most delightful little soul in this house. He is so sweet and precious, though I'm somewhat biased because he let me sleep 7 straight hours last night.

Is it the weekend yet?
 
I know you must be lost without an update on how we Bryants are faring on our own.
How shall I put this.... perhaps a few anecdotes will better illustrate the state of things around here.

Monday, 11:00 am - After an appointment I thought it would be fun for the boys to run and play at the park while I fed Matthew, especially since a feeding takes close to an hour. That gets difficult for such *spirited* big brothers. Suffice it to say that the pushing and shoving and yelling at each other made a peaceful feeding difficult. Moreover, Peter's untimely call of nature forced me to stroll across the park with a nursing baby. Davis tumbled down a hill then took off his shoes only to run around in the dirt so he could dig up rocks and throw them at Peter. Think I'll stick to nursing at home for a while. At least at home I don't have to worry about getting called out for indecent exposure.

Monday, 4:15pm - In a moment of desperation, I ventured out to the grocery store with all three children. Now the big ole infant carrier takes up the seat part of the cart, and I needed some cargo space, so the big boys walked. And ran. And rammed the cart with my 4 week old into an endcap, knocking over several shelves worth of Ghirardelli brownie mix. They threw random things into the cart, nearly collided with countless other shoppers, and elicited way too many looks of pity from the other ladies all over the store. Even the butcher came out to ask if we were doing okay. I. Was. Mortified. All that and I forgot the entree for dinner. I think that I'll be doing my grocery shopping at night until school starts in 4 weeks. I'd rather lose precious sleep than experience that ring of hell again.

Tuesday, 4:30 pm - Aggravated that I have had to repeat myself endlessly, furious at outright defiance from both boys, annoyed that timeouts are only viewed as a mere inconvenience, and soaked from cleaning up Davis's mess made while I was nursing Matthew, I confiscated every train and every Lego in the house.

Think they'll hear me now?

Me neither.

29 days til school starts!

a week in pictures - and a few words

How can it be that Matthew is 4 weeks old tomorrow!? 

On one hand the past month has dragged on, with less sleep and more commotion.  On the other hand,  I think we've reached a point where the big boys can't remember what life was like before Matty came home.  They are both so attentive to him!  We've had a few near-misses and bonked heads, but thankfully Matty has been a good sport.  I think he likes the attention.  He has been a great sleeper and eater thus far, granting me stretches as long as 5 hours some nights.  For those who are unaware or can't remember, that's huge. 

Early  morning cuddles

Monkey toes

Peter has continued his fascination with Legos, and I continue to encourage it enthusiastically.  It's a great outlet for his imagination and it's a quiet, solo activity.  Something we need a lot of lately.  Davis, not to be outdone, has taken to building railroads that take up the entire floor of the basement, along with block and Lego tunnels and bridges. 

An afternoon's work

Army Fleet

Firehouse # 82642

Railroads, tunnels and crossings - oh my!

Popcorn, Mommy?

Last weekend, we packed up and headed to the lake.  Nanny joined us as her farewell after taking such good care of us all for three weeks.  The boys were so happy to spend all weekend swimming, boating and jumping from various lakeside landmarks.  Matthew was a trooper and entertained us all with his expressions and sweet noises.

A watergun fight with Nanny

In his happy place

Nanny and Peter

Queen Reenie and her three princes at the lake

Swimming boatside

the first of many jumps from Jump Rock

Sacked out on the drive home

 We returned on Sunday in enough time to unpack before welcoming my cousins Emily (Davis's newlywed godmother) and Marie (Matthew's godmother) along with Emily's husband Zac and their friend Adrianne.  I wish I could always have four extra sets of hands.  They cooked, they did laundry, they entertained the boys, they took them on adventures... it was above and beyond the call of duty. 

at the railyard

in the meerkat tunnel at the zoo

Matty and Marie

So they left today and I had my first day alone with both all three boys.  It ... went.  We've all got a hangover from having so much individual attention for the past month, but we'll adjust.  In the meantime, I think I'll be going to bed now. 

milestones aplenty

Still here. Sleepy, but present. Though some may argue the two are mutually exclusive. Matthew is 3 weeks old and he got a super report from his pediatrician this week. He had gained 14 ounces in 11 days, which exceeded all expectations. He spends most of his time eating and sleeping but in the past few days we have been seeing more of his beautiful dark blue eyes.Sometimes when all eyes should be closed....





He loves to be swaddled, he's always willing to eat, he's ambivalent about tummy time, and he loveslovesloves attention from his big brothers.





Davis has, in three weeks time, gone from jibber jabber and only occasional phrases to speaking in (grammatically atrocious) sentences. Every day brings new words that we have been trying to pry out of him for months. It's as if he woke up one day and decided to grace us with his vocal vocabulary. I love this stage, but the excitement has not yet distracted me from his constant failure to listen. He's either going to break something very expensive or he is going to hurt someone very badly. Fearless toddler without his "listening ears" + mama who can't race across the room with a nursing baby = a disaster waiting to happen. Mark my words.

Peter has had a big time. He was able to spend a solo weekend at the lake with the Bryants while on hiatus from camps. Swimming, boat rides, bath-skipping, dessert before supper... a boy's heaven, right? Then he had a date to a bug festival with Aunt Callie. It was a little soirée at the nature center about nighttime insects and he was able to learn about fireflies and all sorts of bugs while on a nighttime nature hike. Kids were encouraged to dress up, so Hayes and Peter threw together a little fire ant costume. He was so proud!




He is back in camp, only this time it's a new place, new people and new routine. My little bookworm jumped right in without hesitation and loves it. That's really remarkable for him. How things have changed!

For at least 4 years, Hayes has been talking about building a workbench to replace the one in his workroom. Saturday afternoon, he decided to finally do it. By Sunday night, it was done. He needs a few more man hours to shellac it but he worked like crazy and built a really practical, efficient and versatile workspace. I'll take pictures when it's done- and organized.

As for me and my mom... laundry, dishes, diapers, road running, feeding, more laundry, more road running, more feeding... You get the idea. I think we are all a bit concerned about how I am going to do her workload and feed Matthew for 45 minutes of every 3 hours. Oh, and keep the big boys from killing each other.

This I gotta see.

a week in captions

Off to the hospital!

Meeting Nanny while Mommy is in recovery

Finally a big brother!

Bring on the presents for baby brother

the first of - literally - thousands of kisses from the biggest brother

listening to his baby breath

this pretty much sums up how happy Peter is around Matthew

meeting Boopah

three generations of Bryants

"wouldja put that flashy thing away already?"

making faces for Callie and Reenie

He's a roly poly!  Loves to curl up and cover up at naptime.

Assuming the position - Peter can't get enough of holding baby "Button"

Matthew's first sponge bath - not a big fan

But happy as a clam once he's bundled up again

  In honor of Independence Day, Hayes took the big boys to a 5K race this morning at which they both ran the kid's portion.  They returned home sweaty, tired, and oh so very proud of themselves.

Peter and Katie - race buds (Davis was too shy to join the picture)

Headed to the finish line!

By the looks of their hair I'm guessing this was post-race :)

You may have noticed that there aren't pictures of Davis with Matthew.  Davis was a bit under the weather (again) this past weekend, so he didn't spend much time visiting at the hospital.  He has been a great observer since we came home and only in the past day has he begun really loving on Matthew.  Really, like kissing and cooing and smiling and offering his toys for Matthew to try.  Davis is a rough one, so I expect it will be a difficult adjustment in some ways.  Luckily, he's been paying attention to how gently Peter treats Matthew and he's taking note.  There are lots of near-misses and collective gasps around here, but things are going surprisingly smoothly for such upheaval in their little lives.  I can only attribute that to the efforts of our family and close friends who have done so much to make them feel special and important during such a confusing time. 

Don't worry - I'll let you know when the other shoe drops.  And it will drop, probably coinciding with my mom leaving, my pain medicine running out and Hayes taking an overnight trip for work.  As I have said so often, I consider every day a triumph if we avoid a trip to the ER. 

smiles

My view:



Meanwhile, back at the house...