It Feels Busy

I feel like I'm so busy these days. But when thinking back on my day's accomplishments, it usually looks something like this:
Get up, change and clothe baby, change and clothe toddler, feed toddler breakfast, make coffee, feed myself, nurse baby (repeat every two hours), take a shower (when baby is napping and toddler is watching a 10 1/2 minute episode of Charlie and Lola), put on normal clothes and makeup, Bryan home for lunch, feed everyone, change more diapers, toddler naps (if the baby is napping too, this is my window of opportunity to get something done; start dinner, sweep the floors, maybe even do some laundry or finish up a blog post), then Bryan home, eat dinner, clean up, change diapers, and suddenly, it is time for bed. At the end of the day, I'm exhausted. Last night I was in bed at 9:30, which is really early for a night owl such as myself.

I really don't know how moms with more than two kids ever get anything done. Or leave the house with everyone clothed, clean, and fed.


My beautiful chubby baby.


My restless toddler. This is how I found her this morning.

I do love my life. Although there are moments of frustration when both girls are screaming or crying for my attention, the moments of harmony and joy are abundant. Elaina is such a curious bright-eyed baby, studying my face with much intensity when she's awake. Chloë is helpful and (usually) cheerful, and learning something new every day. And Bryan is wonderful. He does the dishes, changes diapers, and gets up with Elaina in the middle of the night.


This is how Elaina dreams. Yes, she really is asleep, despite how much her eyes are open.

The only picture I have managed to get of her smiling. I love it so much. She even smiled at me while she was awake a few days ago.

We went to Seattle a couple of weeks ago to watch my brother Samuel play Rugby. (Getting out of town was an ordeal. We made it 8 miles to Pullman in our Honda Pilot, then decided the brakes seemed a little funny, stopped at Les Schwab and waited over an hour for them to tell us there were major problems and it would take all day to fix. So we came home, crammed into the much smaller Nissan Sentra sans stroller, took the Pilot to our local Les Schwab, and finally hit the road three hours later than we initially set out.) I brought my little camera, but didn't use it. My sister got a few pictures, and wrote a post about our weekend. We met up with my parents, brother Isaiah, sister Katie and her boyfriend Louis, and all stayed in a retro hotel. Samuel stayed with us both nights he was there, and he got to meet Elaina for the first time! And of course Chloë was thrilled to see Uncle Samuel. We enjoyed watching Samuel play with the Glendale Raptors for the first time, and has some great, low-key family time back at the hotel. We got to spend some time with our friends the Dowers, and went to a great little pub for lunch with our friends the Rusts.

Yesterday I went to Spokane with my mother-in-law Deb and my sister-in-law Laura. We had to go to David's Bridal so Laura and I could try on Bridesmaid dresses for Jessie's wedding. Have I mentioned that Bryan's baby sister is getting married in May? She is. To Kaleb. And Bryan and I are both in the wedding. We're honored, and we know it's going to be a great celebration.

I'm off to start dinner! I'm making fish tacos, and am very excited.