Only 3

Yesterday, I caught a glimpse of life with Zoe, Emily, and Eleanor at school and it was pretty quiet around here! My parents took the 3 older girls to the Bangor fair and they had a great time. I heard a lot about the monkey show they saw. I took the younger 3 to Target and then a little later we went to the grocery store and then we went through the drive-thru at McDonald's to bring food home to eat. I paid for the food and then went to the next window to pick up our food. The man gave me our drinks and then told me that there was a wait on the chicken nuggets, so he told me to pull into a parking spot on the side and our food would be brought out when it was ready. I had a feeling that we would be forgotten about and I was right. After awhile, I went back to the drive-thru window and asked for our food. The young woman at the window hadn't been told that I was off to the side waiting for food and she felt bad. So we got our food, plus 2 free apple pies (I wish they still made the fried apple pies!), plus 2 free meals for our next visit. Not bad for the extra wait we had. The wait was pretty relaxing, otherwise I would have been more annoyed about it.

Do I have to? (in a whiny voice)

Zoe has the desire to make a pillow case. I should be excited that she wants to learn a new skill, but I HATE to sew. I've been annoyed and resistant to her desire, but I am slowly coming around. I looked on the internet this afternoon and found easy instructions for kids on how to make a pillow case. I figure if she has instructions written out to follow, then we'll be fighting less because honestly my attitude about this stinks. I'm dreading getting to the point where I have to dust my sewing machine off and try to remember how to thread the stupid thing. Before we get to that point, we need to find my measuring tape, but someone doesn't seem to be looking very hard for it.

Kate is going through a phase where she wants to get her sippy cup out of the fridge when she wants a drink. If I pour milk into a cup, I can't just give it to her, I have to put it in the fridge and then she gets it herself. Silly girl!

Here are some pictures that Matt took on Saturday.

Getting things done

Written 7/26/08

I had 3 things on my to-do list today.

1) Write thank-you notes. I've been wanting to do this for awhile now, but it just never became a priority...until today. Many overdue thank you notes have been written! I set a goal at the beginning of the year to write more thank you notes and I think I am doing well with this goal.

2) Put away laundry that I washed and dried yesterday. I miss being able to do laundry once or twice a week and staying in control of it. I have lost control of the laundry and I feel like I'm doing it all the time now, and there is always more to do!

3) Write my talk for church tomorrow. I couldn't get motivated to do this. I was stressing about this talk, but after talking with Matt (who asked me to speak!) I feel better because I changed the hymn I am going to talk about. The program tomorrow is going to be about favorite hymns and "Love at Home" is not my favorite hymn, and frankly I was having a hard time thinking about talking about a subject that I feel we are failing at lately. Yes we love each other, but there seems to be a lot more contention and fighting going on between the kids than usual. So now I am talking about "Count Your Many Blessings". A much easier subject for me to talk about because I do have many blessings to be thankful for and I love this song! Matt says to get up and tell why this is my favorite hymn and then I can sit down. Sounds good to me since I still don't have the desire to write a talk.

Speaking of blessings, we have received several tithing blessings this weekend. I love tithing blessings! We received a gift card to our local grocery store from a woman that Matt knows through work. We had very little money to finish out this month with, so this gift card to the grocery store was a perfect gift! Then we received a check today from my OB's office for overpayment. How sweet is that?!

This weekend is our town's festival. Matt took Zoe, Emily, Eleanor, and Zach to the parade this morning and they stayed downtown for a few hours. The kids brought money to spend, so they each bought tickets to go in the bounce house and they each brought home a toy. I also heard rumors of them eating cookies and pie.

Matt took Zoe, Emily, and Zach on Don's boat for a ride with Don and his family this afternoon. Eleanor chose to stay home. Then Zoe, Emily, and Eleanor went over to my parents' home this evening to go to the fireworks with my Mom and to spend the night.
I ironed this evening, so hopefully I'll make it to church on time tomorrow without the older girls around to help.

Written 7/27/08

I made it to church on time and my talk is over :-) We had a very uplifting Sacrament meeting. 6 of us shared our favorite hymn and then we sang the hymns. A lot of eyes were wet after the meeting, including mine.

A+

Noah gets an A+ for his first date night, even though he cried a lot on the way home. We went to Pizzeria Uno for dinner and Noah slept peacefully in the sling the entire time. We were very pleased. Then he slept through most of our shopping at Target. Do you find it hard to stick to a list at Target? I do! We had a delightful first date night with Noah. :-)

Lookin' good

Noah had a doctor's appointment today, and thanks to my Mom taking an extra day off from work to recover from her trip to North Carolina, I was able to leave the rest of the kids with her. Taking care of 5 children is relaxing don't ya think? She offered and I gratefully accepted. Noah is looking more pink than yellow these days and he is up to 9lbs 4oz, so all is well. He doesn't need to be seen by the doctor again until he is 2 months old. Yay!

Thank you all for your kind comments lately. Taking care of 6 children has been the easiest transition I think, thanks to Zoe and Emily. I was very nervous about having a summer baby and having all the kids home, but I think having the older girls home has made things easier. We are able to do so much because I recovered quickly from the delivery, and Zoe & Emily do a great job helping out with their younger siblings. They are more than willing to help out when getting to go somewhere fun is involved! Noah being an easy-going baby helps, too. He only cries when he is hungry or has a dirty diaper. He is happy to hang out in the sling and often falls asleep while being carried around. I think being stranded at home all winter plays a factor in me wanting to be on the go all the time this summer. Plus, the kids get along better when we are somewhere else other than home. It seems like when we are home, one of the kids is always crying or fighting with another. My short talk on the hymn "Love at Home" this Sunday could be an interesting one! We do have our challenges when we are out and about, like when Zach pushes Kate down at the pool, or at story time when my 2 kids (Zach & Kate) are louder than all of the other children combined (which includes 2 preschools) and Zach & Kate insist on spitting at each other, but I deal better with those challenges than the fighting at home. In a nutshell, being on the go these days is keeping me sane.

A day at the museum

Zoe & Emily have been wanting to go to the children's museum for the past few months. So yesterday I told them that if we could get the 4 free passes that are given out at the Bangor library then we would go. That meant getting ready quick to get to the library when it opened at 9am. We made it there at 9:20 and the passes were already given out and the kids were very disappointed...which turned them into grouchy, whiny, sad children. I told them that I would try our local library which had free passes in the past, but I wasn't sure if they still did. Before trying there, we stopped to feed Fluffy since we were going by my parents' house. Fluffy is going to be one happy cat to have my parents home again this evening! Actually, we're all going to be happy to have them home again. Anyway, our local library doesn't have the passes anymore, so I was gearing up for an afternoon with grumpy children, even offering to go swimming didn't cheer them up. As we were turning into our driveway, Zoe & Emily offered to help pay to get into the museum. They were more than willing to part with the money they have earned so far this summer and we headed to the museum. The kids spent 5 hours having non-stop fun, while I spent 5 hours counting heads and feeding Noah.



Kate loved playing with the tennis balls. It was time to move onto something else though when she started throwing the balls around the room.



The baby dolls were also a big hit with Kate. She was not happy when I took them away from her to go into a different room!












Emily made a friend while playing (she's to the left of Emily).
Zach needed help getting down after climbing, so Zoe went up to help him.
Noah was the easiest to keep track of. I am so glad my wish of a mellow baby came true. :-)

Focusing on what I DID do today

Fluffy got fed today, I signed Zoe, Emily, and Eleanor up for the second session of swimming lessons (instead of going to the pool 4 days a week for lessons, we'll spend 2 days a week there for an hour each day), did some laundry (I can't seem to get caught up, but I make progress every few days), organized some clothes that were given to me awhile ago for Kate & Noah, had Family Home Evening, went grocery shopping, read a bit, and wrote on blog.

Oh yeah...the cat

Not having the older girls around this morning and not using my Saturday wisely to get ready for church today resulted in being late for church. I find that Sunday mornings go a lot smoother if church outfits are picked out and ironing done on Saturday, but I was too busy relaxing, reading, and enjoying the quiet last night to be productive.

As the kids and I were coming home from church today and were about to turn onto our road Emily asked, "Are we going to go feed Grammie's cat today?" My reply, "Um, yeah, we should probably go do that." The cat can be thankful for Emily because she was well on her way of not being fed for the second day in a row and who knows how many more days. Sorry Mom, and Fluffy!

Noah was up close and personal today with Win Butler, the lead singer of Arcade Fire. Win's mother, Liza, is our Relief Society President. She was holding Noah after Sacrament meeting and then handed him off to Win, who seemed unsure about holding a newborn, but did just fine. It didn't dawn on me until we got home that Noah was held today by a famous singer. How cool is that?!

Poopy Day

We spent most of the day at Aimee's camp for our Primary activity. We had a great turnout, the weather was perfect, and everyone had fun...including me even though Noah pooped all over my hand when I was changing his diaper. Zoe, Emily, and Eleanor stayed with Aimee, along with Zoe's friend, Morgan, to spend the night with Aimee at her camp. The girls have been looking forward to it all week! Zach is lost without his older sisters here. He has asked several times this evening where they are and when they are coming home. It has been pretty quiet around here this evening. Quiet, but still eventful as Kate pooped in the tub during her bath. More pooping in the diapers and less everywhere else, please!

My sister got married today. I hope it was a great day, Donna!

Friday's Feast

I don't want to dwell on the rotten afternoon we had with lots of crying, hitting, pushing, and yelling (that would be me) rewarded with a trip to the pool for the last hour of afternoon swim because had we all stayed in the house together any longer, there would have been bloodshed, so I will focus on Friday's Feast...

Appetizer
When was the last time you had your hair cut/trimmed?
Several months ago the kids and I went to the walk-in salon at the mall for haircuts. My hairdresser was not working because of surgery. I don't like the layers I got and I look forward to my next haircut with my hairdresser in the fall!

Soup
Name one thing you miss about being a child.
Eating all the sweets I want without worrying about gaining weight!

Salad
Pick one: butter, margarine, olive oil.
I should say olive oil, but I'm going with margarine.

Main Course
If you could learn another language, which one would you pick, and why?
Italian, so I could visit Italy and not stress about communicating while I'm there.

Dessert
Finish this sentence: In 5 years I expect to be…
Retiring from preschool years and having all 6 kids in school, woohoo!

Good news

Noah's doctor called today and his bilirubin level has gone down, so no more trips to the lab. :-) He has been awake more the last few days and he is eating more, too.

I took some pictures of the kids at the pool this evening. The kids always have a fun time swimming! Here is Kate throwing a ball to Matt. She has quite an arm on her! When I was pregnant with Kate, I had the feeling she was going to be a good athlete. Softball just may be her sport.


This is a rare moment for Zoe & Emily to visit Zach & Kate in the shallow end. They were having fun making Kate's hair stick up.

Kate continued to mess with her hair after Zoe & Emily went back into the deeper water.


After swimming, I went to the grocery store while Matt fed the kids dinner and got them into bed. Noah slept as I shopped. The lady in front of me at the checkout saw that I was shopping with a baby and commented on how I had my hands full. Um, shopping with a sleeping baby is nothing compared to the chaos I avoided had I brought all 6 kids with me shopping! No, shopping with 1 sleeping baby was quite peaceful.

Loving Noah

I think Emily holds Noah the most. When she's not holding him, she's either rubbing his head or giving him kisses.


The kids and I took a walk downtown today after story time to the post office and then we got an ice cream. I felt like a mother duck with her ducklings as they walked in a line behind me. Well, three of them walked and Zoe pushed Zach & Kate in the stroller. How did I manage with a new baby without a 9 year old and a 7 year old to help me?

Random Act of Kindness

Emily & Eleanor had their last swimming lesson today for this session. They have next week off and then they'll continue in the classes they are currently in for the second and final session of swimming lessons. I took all of the kids to the pool today and it went really well. We spent most of Emily's class in the car while I fed Noah. Then I put Kate and Zach in the double stroller and Zoe carried Noah around for awhile in the sling while we waited for Eleanor. Then Emily held Noah on her lap and Zoe pushed Zach and Kate around the pool. Keeping Kate strapped into the stroller is a must now!

I decided to take Zoe, Emily, & Eleanor school shopping this evening since I had to go to Bangor anyway for Noah's lab work. It was a very productive evening and the kids were good. Emily & Eleanor got backpacks, they all found a lunch box, and Zoe picked out a binder and folders. It was so cute and weird to see Eleanor walking around like a big girl with her backpack on. She was so happy to be school shopping with Zoe & Emily.
We went to Bugaboo Creek for dinner since it was family night and kids eat free...one kid eats free for every adult meal purchased, so I knew one of the children's meals would be free, which I thought was great. Not long after we sat down, Emily says she has to go to the bathroom. This annoyed me because she had just gone to the bathroom at L.L. Bean, but I took her to the bathroom. We get back to the table and Eleanor announces she needs to go to the bathroom. I am again annoyed because she too went to the bathroom at L.L. Bean plus she waited until AFTER I got back from bringing Emily to the bathroom to tell me that she needed to go, too. I asked Zoe if she needed to go and she decided to try, so we headed back to the bathroom. We didn't get far before Zoe saw the bathrooms and said she would take Eleanor, so I went back to the table. Noah slept through the shopping so he was ready to eat when my meal came. This would have annoyed me in the past, but with Noah's jaundice, I am more than willing to feed him when he is awake and wants to eat. Of course Noah pooped as well when he was eating, so I went to change him after I ate...another trip to the bathroom. Noah decided to pee on himself while I was changing him, which was his first time doing that. Ugh. When I got back to the table, I got my money out and laid it on the table with the bill. The waitress came over and informed me that someone paid our bill, so I didn't owe any money. Sweet!...but also weird. It was strange not knowing who paid our bill, and the girls were very curious to know who would pay for our meals, so they kept asking the waitress, but she wouldn't tell. I was happy with just one of our meals being free, so what a pleasant surprise for us all to eat for free. Thank you whoever you are! It was an unexpected gift and we are grateful!

Another trip to Bangor

A dear sweet sister from church (Shelly) came over today to take Emily & Eleanor to their swim lessons and then she watched the kids while I took Noah to his doctor's appointment. Noah's jaundice results are still creeping up (14 on Friday, 14.8 on Saturday), so he will have more blood drawn tomorrow.

Zoe has school shopping fever. She has been looking at the Lands' End and L.L. Bean catalogs that we have received in the past few days trying to decide what backpack she wants. I told her we will check out the L.L. Bean store before we order anything online, so she is insisting we go tomorrow night. It's tempting to go and get an early start on our school shopping, but then I think a trip to the pool would be better if it's hot and sunny because the month of July is the time to swim around here. We'll see.

Oh Santa!

Noah had his first church experience today. He ate and pooped through most of it.

We sang "The Spirit of God" during Sacrament meeting today. Eleanor lit right up when we sang "hosanna" because she thought we sang "Oh Santa". She was so surprised and excited that we were singing about Santa!

Zach fell asleep during Sacrament meeting and didn't wake up until church was almost over. After a snack and potty break, he went into nursery for a few minutes before church was over. Zach loves nursery and looks forward to going every Sunday. Now if we can get Kate to adopt that attitude in a few Sundays, that would be sweet!

Brothers

A better day than expected

It is so sweet how much Zach loves having Noah around. Zach loves to hold him and to talk about him. One of these days I'm going to take a picture of them together. Even Kate gets excited whenever she sees Noah and says something that sounds like binky, but I know she is talking about the baby. Kate has her moments of jealousy, but overall I think she's doing better than I expected. Emily held Noah while I ate breakfast this morning and Zoe held him for a bit while I finished getting ready for the day. They were both very anxious to hold Noah, which turned out to be a huge help.

My mom surprised me this morning with a phone call saying she was available to watch the kids while I took Noah to the hospital to have blood drawn. I was also able to take Zoe to her swimming lesson with just Noah. The life guards, especially Miranda, have been anxiously awaiting Noah's arrival, so they were excited to see him. Miranda asked me if having Noah was easy...obviously she has never experienced childbirth...I told her it went pretty quick and left it at that. Noah sunbathed for a 1/2 hour while Zoe swam and I hoped that would get his test level to a point where he wouldn't have to be tested again, but no such luck. We'll head back to the hospital again tomorrow for one more test.

Home at last

I have had a nice couple of days in the hospital relaxing, reading, snoozing, cuddling and feeding Noah, but it's good to be home. The delivery of Noah went well and we found the happy medium of getting to the hospital, although if my water hadn't broken right after Matt suggested we head to the hospital at 1am and I was still unsure, we might have had another emergency room delivery. We had just enough time for me to get immediate contraction relief from a shot that is given before the epidural, but I delivered Noah before ever receiving the epidural. I was thankful for that shot at the time, but now I am having spinal headaches, which I hope will go away on their own because I don't want another needle in my back to cure them! Noah has a few minor issues like jaundice, which is not severe enough to put him under the lights, but enough concern that I need to bring him back to the hospital tomorrow for another test. He has lost 10% of his birth weight, so we have some formula to give him along with nursing him. Nursing him has been quite easy so far and I hope that continues. He came out of the womb very grumpy, but he has mellowed out a lot and has potential to be an easy-going baby.


Showing signs of being an Erickson already!


Zoe, Emily, and Eleanor came to visit Tuesday night with my parents and then Zoe and Emily came to visit last night with my parents, but I didn't have the camera to take any pictures of them with Noah. They were all very excited to hold Noah and they took advantage of every opportunity to hold him. Zoe came with Matt this afternoon to bring me and Noah home, so we have one picture of her holding Noah.

Eleanor was so cute Tuesday night when she walked into the hospital room, spotted Noah in his bassinet with a binky laying next to him and exclaimed, "He came with a binky!"

We didn't get home today until 5pm. It made for a long day, but it was more relaxing than I anticipated since I only spent 2 hours with all the kids before they went to bed. Zach was happy that Noah was finally home (he came to visit yesterday with Matt and Zach was ready to take Noah home with him and Matt right then) and even Kate was excited to see the baby...or maybe it was just the baby's binky.

Its a Boy!

His name will probably be Noah, he was born at 2:45 a.m. 21 and 1/4 inches long, 8 pounds and 9 ounces. He and his Mom are doing well.

Before:



After (about an hour later):



Here is his impression of Jabba the Hut.