Our homeschool aid from the school came out on the 17th of March, and while she was here, I filled out the paperwork to register Connor for FIRST GRADE!!  I cannot believe he’ll be in first grade!  His sixthbirthday is coming up at the end of this month, and I can hardly believe I am about to be the mother of a six year old!  Six seems so…not babyish anymore! 

I’ve been doing lots of thinking about motherhood lately.  I had a funny moment the other day…I was making the kids lunch: Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and bananas.  I had three plates lined up on the counter:  Connor’s sandwich was made from two pieces of bread, and then cut in half (rectangles; not triangles!) and his banana was hole.  Autumn had one piece of bread, folded over and cut in half, and half a banana cut into three bigh chunks.  Then Aiden’splate had one piece of bread folded over and cut into small, bite-sized pieces and his half a banana was cut in half length-wise and then cut into bites.  It was just a funny symbol of the three different stages my three different kids are in.  And soon, I’ll have a dish mashed up banana in it to feed the fourth baby! 

My days are busy, and the older the kids get, the more fun I have being a mom.  I love the process of watching them become their own person, and develope their own interests.  I like having babies, but I’m the first to admit I love having toddlers and older kids much better. 

Connor has been going through a bit of a tough stage lately.  He’s been very arugumentative, and trying to get his cooperation for even the simplest tasks has been….well….let’s just stick withchallenging!  The tantrums and the tears…I would imagine it’s just a tiny preview of what puberty will be like!  After MANY days of observing and discussing, Shawn and I felt like nearly every problem was a result of Connor being overly tired.  He’d had a rough few weeks as far as sleep went; going to bed after eleven, and getting up before seven-thirty.  He was clearly not getting nearly the sleep he needed.  So, we sat down with him and had a discussion about the way things were going.  We came to the compromise that he would go to bed at nine o’clock every night, except Wednesdays, when he could stay up until eleven o’clock.  Wednesday nights are our family night.  We make a fun dinner and a yummy treat, then after the babies go to bed at seven, we watch LOST and Ghost Hunters, and have the treat we made earlier. 

As a part of our compromise, Shawn and I agreed that we would spend an afternoon and really deep clean the upstairs for Connor.  The way our house is set up, we have the main living area plus two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and the playroom, on the first floor, and then two bedrooms upstairs.  On the main floor, Shawn and I have our bedroom, then Autumn is in the nursery that is connected to our room.  Recently we moved Aidenfrom our room to the playroom, which is now working as his temporary bedroom until we move him into the nursery with Autumn. 

And the upstairs is all Connor’s.  He has his bedroom, and the the other bedroom is set up as a playroom/media room with a few toys, a tv, dvd player, xbox, hundreds of books, and two comfy recliner chairs.  And he?  TRASHED both rooms.  I mean…trashed.  Filthy.  Disgusting.  And we?  Have to take the blame for letting it get so out of hand!  We hardly ever go up there.  He usually takes himself to bed, and there isn’t really any reason for us to go upstairs.  Except…we should have.  We really, really should have.  Because it took us two thirteen-gallon trash bags, an apple box full of dirty dishes, a good two loads of laundry, almost an entire vacuum cleaner container of blech sucked up from the carpet, and two-and-a-half hours on a Saturday afternoon to get the upstairs clean.  But…clean it is.  Spotless even.  And now?  Before Connor goes to bed?  We take 15 minutes and make sure it STAYS picked up.  Because the rest of my house is pretty freakin’ clean all.the.time.  And the upstairs was like….I don’t even have a good analogy.  It was like the upstairs was my “Monica’s closet” from Friends.  Remember that episode?   But, it’s clean now.  And Connor is getting more, restful sleep in his newly cleaned room.  And I no longer have to worry that other children will disappear during play dates if they follow Connor upstairs! 

Autumn and Aiden are doing great.  I mentioned earlier that we moved Aiden into the playroom.  He’s been sleeping in our room for the last 14 months.  Sleeping either in our bed, or in a bed side-carring our bed.  But the poor thing was getting woken up several times a night.  He’d wake up when we came to bed, and when Shawn’s alarm went off, or when Autumn called out in the middle of the night.  And more recently, every time I’d get up to throw up or take my perscription in the middle of the night.  He was waking up between two and four times a night.  And it was taking him AGES to fall back to sleep.  And then he was waking up to stay by six o’clock every morning.  We were all exhausted.  The poor thing would sit in his high chair and suck his thumb through breakfast, and barely make it to nap time at eleven!  So, we made the very difficult decision to move him into the playroom.  Which is literally three feet from our bedroom door….but I cried anyway! 

The first night he went to bed at seven, (with no tears, except for Mommy’s!)  and slept until 3:30.  He woke up, and Shawn went in, and it took about 45 minutes to get him back to sleep.  Then the next night…he slept from seven p.m. until seven-thirty a.m.!!!!!!!   And EVERY NIGHT since then, he has slept the entire glorious night through!  I have waited fourteen long months to get more than three consecutive hours of sleep, and now I am in heaven!  I look forward to going to bed now, instead of dreading how long the night will be!  And Aiden is so happy and playful, and is clearly so much better rested during the day! 

Autumn is….well….I don’t really have one word to describe Autumn!  She’s hilarious and loving, and naughty and thoughtful.  She will be Connor’s best friend one minute, and then literally be biting his arm in the next.  She’ll be running and laughing with the boys, and then be screaming at them and trying to take their toys!  She’s found a new love for drawing the past week or so.  It’s hilarious to watch her.  She has a big sketch pad, and she’ll take a pen and tilt her head way to the side and stick out her tongue and draw.  She’s very focused, and very deliberate with every line she makes.  It still comes out looking like two year old scribble, but according to her it’s a blanket or a bottle, or her brother.  Shawn and I are amazed at how intensely she concentrates.  We may have a little artist on our hands! 

Anyway…this update is turning into a novel!  My midwife came yesterday for my first appointment, and everything looks good so far.  I can’t believe we’re only 12 weeks into this!  I feel like I’ve been pregnant for years!  And well…basically I have!  But, I’m loving being a mom.  Even on the challenging days.  Even when I’m so sick from hyperemesis I can’t get off the couch.  Even when it looks like nothing but mass chaos from the outside.  It’s our chaos!