If you ignore the near-constant sickness, August was a good month. We’ll especially ignore the end-of-month bonus we got Saturday in the form of a LONG day in Boston Children’s hospital for Johnny ending in an asthma diagnosis and the fact that Mike currently has bronchitis for the second time this year. I do want to know, can anyone tell me why the nurses at Boston Children’s thought it was a good idea to try to draw blood from the back of BOTH of Johnny’s hands before finally succeeding in the much-more-common inner elbow spot?
Back to reviewing August… I enjoyed the simplicity of life with two children for the few hours before I went to the hospital to have Lily. The kids got to go to TWO birthday parties August 1st, which would have been impossible with a newborn. Lily has been a joy to take care of, so enjoying having a newborn around has been a breeze. I LOVED having so much family around. It was wonderful to spend time with family members I rarely get to see. I thoroughly appreciated my mom’s cooking, and my siblings and parents spent a lot of time baking with Emma, wrestling Johnny, reading to Emma and Johnny, snuggling Lily, and helping to mow the lawn, paint the cathedral ceiling in our family room, and install a new ceiling fan in the same room. Our final visitor left August 27th, so we’re still adjusting to life as a family of five. Emma and Johnny are learning to share their parents with Lily, and Johnny is getting better at understanding just how gentle you need to be with a newborn. Emma has emerged this past week as an absolutely stellar big sister to both Johnny and Lily. She’s great at comforting both of the younger children and helping around the house.
As for annual goals:
- Find places to keep all those odds and ends that get stashed in random places: ignored, although I cleared out some old toys.
- Potty train Emma: Done. Johnny is still interested in using the potty and sits on it occasionally, but I’m honestly not terribly interested in having two potty-trained children at the moment. If Johnny chooses to train himself overnight, that’s great, but I’m not pushing it.
- Get Johnny to eat more solid food: we’re back to ground zero on this one since the trauma of Saturday. He drinks milk from a sippy cup and not much else. Any suggestions?
- Be more patient with cooking/baking that involves a rolling pin: My mom did this, but I don’t think she had my patience issues to start with.
- Take the kids outdoors more: They were outside most days, sometimes for hours on end. We kept them in most of the time for one particularly hot and muggy week.
- Get the kids to sleep through the night better: Another setback here, I’m guessing due to the combination of new baby and illness. Neither Emma or Johnny is sleeping through the night. They don’t stay awake long when they wake up, but it’s still disrupting everyone’s sleep.
September goals:
- Enjoy New England’s beautiful autumn weather by spending time outside and visiting a farm at least once this month.
- Visit a farmer’s market. My town runs one and there are several others in neighboring towns.
- Make sure all three kids get quality time with both parents. I was baking cookies with Emma last night and she said, “This is fun. I needed some Mama time.”
- Enjoy the return of play dates: we’ve been in self-imposed quarantine for the past month thanks to The Evil Virus That Took Forever to Go Away, so we’re all looking forward to visits with friends this month.
I’d love to get my sewing machine out, so we’ll set that as a bonus goal. I’m also excited about running a review and giveaway from All Modern this month, a store that specializes in contemporary furniture but offers some fun toys for babies and children as well.
What are your goals for this month?
