8 weeks old

It's not like I didn't know life was going to get really busy with two, but you can't fully appreciate it until you live it I guess.

So how, are we?  We've all seem to adjusted pretty well to being a family of 4, some better than others, and some days are better than others, but so far, we are all still alive, thriving, and happy.  I guess that's all that matters, right?
I'll update in order of youngest to oldest.

Wesley Michael:
Is 8 weeks old and is pretty much just the coolest thing ever.   He's chill, laid back, and very serious.  He started smiling a few weeks ago but doesn't do it often.  He smiles most often when his brother is being silly and doing the "baby dance".  He is flirting with the idea of going to a 3 hour stretch between meals during the day, going at least 3 hours about once a day (usually in the afternoon/early evening).  He has been known to sleep 5+ hours at night even and we are hopeful this becomes the norm very soon.  He goes with the flow very well which makes it easier on me.  He's often worn in the Becco or Moby carrier and just likes to hang out and be part of our family.  He grabs at 1 toy in particular, tracks any and everything and loves to stare at the baby in the mirror.  He gets about 1 bottle a week to keep him familiar with it so when he starts his new daycare in May, he won't starve.

He loves his new Daycare Provider.  Her name is Becky and she runs a preschool/daycare out of her home.  She took 2 years off when most of her kids went to K, and she wanted to spend some time raising her own kids, and now is starting again. She really wanted infants.  She has 1 already, Freya, and Wesley and Freya are already friends, they are 3 weeks apart.  In September she has students starting for preschool so she'll have the summer with just 3 babies.  She has 1 assistant starting in May with Wesley and 2 more starting in September.  I could go on and on about Becky, how we ended up there and the challenges we will have to work out but I have limited time so maybe another day on that.  Just to say we are both happy with our decision and although the logics might suck for awhile, we are working on solutions and praying for the right answers.

Walter Jackson
Is growing up way to fast.  He LOVES being a brother.  Last night I went to a TBall meeting and took Wesley, it's just easier for feeding and such.  Walter was upset about Wesley leaving but not about me.  Humph.  He had a big week of learning.  We had real life lessons in some hard to understand concepts.  First: Soldiers.  We went to Fred Meyer to buy a gift for 1 of 4 birthday parties last weekend.  The vetrans were collecting items for soldiers so we talked about who the soldiers are, what they do, ect...  I let him ask the vetrans as well and they did a great job breaking it down for his 4 year old mind.  He still has a lot of questions but he's learning new things we failed to expose him to.  The second lesson was on jobs.  He learned that not every parent "has to work".  That some parents don't go to work and some parents do go to work.  He asked the heartbreaking question about why mommy and daddy work: don't we want to stay home and play?  He learned that Miss Michele has a job and her job is to be his teacher.  He also asked his friend Andre if he didn't get to play with toys because his mommy doesn't work (we told him we work so we can buy things like toys).  I also told him I work so we can pay for the house and if we didn't they would make us leave.  Hind sight, that was a bad idea.  He worried for days "they" were going to make us leave our house because Mommy didn't go to work this week.  :)
He also learned about homeless people.  There was a homeless man selling real change outside of Trader Joes (it's a paper they sell instead of asking for money, they get it for free and it's a way to keep them from just begging).  He asked if we wanted to buy one and Walter asked him why he was selling it.  He was good to Walter, explained he didn't have a job and didn't have a place to live.  Walter told him "my mommy doesn't have a job right now either" and the man then  said he was sorry, he knows how rough that is and he'll pray something comes along.  I didn't have the heart to tell him I was just temporarily off.  And finally Walter learned that sometimes the things you say can hurt someone with out you meaning it.  Same day, in Trader Joes, we saw a woman pushing 300#.  Walter has a new thing where he likes to walk right next to the shopping cart and we can't both fit down the aisle.  He sees the woman and shouts "Woah, that lady is soooo big, we'll never get through".  Of course, she heard him.  She snaps back, I'll move, you just have to ask.   We saw her a few more times and he kept saying "there's the huge lady, should I ask her to move?".  I was mortified and not sure how to take that conversation but we talked about not talking about someone when they can hear us, not talking about the way someone looks or acts because that's not polite.  Ugh, they don't train you for this stuff!

Sarah AKA Momma AKA mommy AKA CooCoo Banana Head (guess who made that one up?)
Doing fine.  I started running again and I'm obsessed with it.  Maybe it's because for 30-50 minutes who ever is with me is not screaming or crying but just sleeping or reading quietly.  And I love the fresh air; our weather has been decent.  I'm worried this will be short lived when the weather turns next week, we won't get a chance to get out much since I don't want Wesley out in the rain.  I have been working this week, too.  One of my employees is in Europe for 3 weeks so I am filling in a few hours a day.  I am torn between loving it and hating it.  I do enjoy using my brain and being "on" but it's hard to find the time and I have no predictability on when I can work. Some stuff kinda blew up and it was nice that I could come in and "save" it but it was also stressful because it took me 6 hours to write, read and finalize 1 important email.  I'm going to step into uncomfortable territory here and say I don't Love my short term stent at a SAHM.  I'm not that great at it.  The hardest part of my day is 6-7pm when I'm getting (or trying to at least) dinner ready, dealing with Walters witching hour (did I mention he mostly gave up napping) and waiting for Evan to get home.  I'm usually starving by that time too, which is part of it, because when Walter is home I can't snack like I do.  If I do, he wants to snack too and then he won't eat dinner, and sometimes I just plum forget.  I thought it'd be glorious: we'd have healthy fantastic meals every night, weekends would be all fun because I have all week to go to the store, do laundry, clean.... not so much.  I am so sick of Target and the grocery store, but I have to go almost every day.  We are out of something or we forgot something, or TARGET was out of something our last visit.  And I don't have time to cook.  I have grand ideas but never the time to implement them.  We play outside or go to the park every night unless it's pouring rain, so we don't get home till almost 6 and then everyone is cranky.  Nursing every 2 hours means I can never get too far in to anything or I'll have to stop, then forget where I was and burn it/forget an ingredient, ect... this happened almost every meal last week: Burnt, forgot an ingredient or forgot a crucial step.  We did start a new policy that one day a week Wesley and I try to stay home all day till we leave for preschool pick up at 3.  We've done it once and it was nice!  I showered at noon and still barely got out the door in time!

Evan AKA Daddy
Evan's job is going well and he likes it.  That's about all i can say about his job :)  He's playing hockey 2 nights a week still and is thinking about joining another team or switching teams.  He hates losing every week and he wants to play with more skilled players.  Now that he's meeting people in the league he's made connections to sub for a few teams which will get him more playing time and then maybe invited to another team.  He has been home with both boys for a few hours when my sisters were here.  I'm working on him doing it more :)  I wish I had more to say about him right now.  He's reading the Hunger Games which makes me laugh but he likes it.  We are trying to plan a little mini vacation so we can have some uninterrupted time just the 4 of us.  My only requirement is that it be sunny and warm.

OK now that I missed my window to shower I have to throw on some clean-ish clothes and head to gymnastics for Walter.  More next week after Wesley's 2 month check up.