Weekend

Summer is coming, days are long, COVID restrictions are easing, and things are feeling (dare I say it...) normal! It is such a freeing feeling having our first vaccine and having most of our family vaccinated as well. I know we aren't in the clear, but it sure takes the edge off. 

We had a full weekend again, and I'm pushing myself to be more flexible with going out and Eva not getting proper naps. She's just a newborn, but man does she ever let us know if she hasn't napped properly! We always pay for it in the evening. 

Friday was a pretty normal day. Dave was working, I was with the kids, and I got some errands done! During nap time, Eva was up, so I took her out to get her passport photos done. It's tough to get pictures of a newborn that will be approved by the passport office, but I'm hoping these will work. 

Here's her passport photo haha! You can only expect so much from a 6 week old! Got it done JUST IN CASE the borders open and we get to go to the cabin this summer! We did Emilia's really early too. See below. :)

Oh her hair was so wild! Also, these two look nothing alike!

Someone wasn't ready to get up from her nap!

Friday night we had Scott & Ashleigh over and we watched the Friends reunion! First thing we've watched on the big screen in over 6 weeks! Eva wouldn't sleep in her bed, but she happened to snuggle me and sleep while we watched which was a nice treat. The reunion was super fun. Very nostalgic. It seemed like some of the cast were just so grateful to be there and relive those glory days!

Saturday morning I had 20 minutes of peace. Dave was downstairs, Eva was napping, and both the big kids were playing upstairs. I grabbed a snack and some smoothie, and sat outside on the deck. It was such a beautiful day, and the air felt extra fresh for some reason. 

I also got some time to do my yoga during naptime, but Dom came down from quiet time early. So I did my yoga and breathing with Dom crashing cars behind me. Oh well... worth it!

Saturday afternoon we got together at my parents house for a patio BBQ with everyone. That is 15 people! Kids don't count towards the gathering numbers right?... right?! Haha We had a fruit platter, croquette buns, hot dogs, and a 15 year old $100+ bottle of wine Mom & Dad were saving for a special occasion. Saturday felt as special as anything haha. It's still so wild looking around at all these babies! Christmas is going to be wild! Also, Dom & Emilia are at this great age where they can just go off and play. It makes things a little less overwhelming :)

Cheers!

The fancy wine

Time for a round of name that baby! Haha. I only got confused once thinking Mom was holding Phoebe, but it was Myles. This picture is Eva

Eva and Myles

Myles

Opa & Phoebe

The three granddaughters!

Phoebe & Eva

Dom displaying his gentle heart with Phoebe, and Emilia laying down to be like the other babies haha

Oma & a happy Myles

A VERY happy Myles!!

Sunday morning I asked Dom what he wanted to do that day, and he told me he wanted to go to Rebecca's house. We haven't gone there since early December, and the kids haven't really played together for more than 5 minutes since then. They sooo miss each other! I texted Rachel, and we planned an impromptu BBQ at their place with Gramma & Grandpa! 

They have such a beautiful yard with a huge deck, hot tub, sitting area, swing set, play house, etc. etc. The kids had great fun and we hardly saw them except at dinner time. 

Sigh. One day we'll have a yard, and be in a cul-de-sac. <3

Couldn't coordinate a photo with all 3 of them poking their heads out, but the play house was great fun for a few minutes. That is until Emilia had a spider pointed out to her. Then she just got a look of panic on her face and said, "Everybody out!"

Aunty Rachel finally got to hold Eva!!

I spy three little cousins hiding under the swing set!

We started off this morning with some excitement too... I was feeding Eva on the couch and had to change her diaper, so I turned off my phone so Dom wouldn't type on it. When I went to grab it I saw that he had called 911... Ugghhhhhh. A minute later I'm still changing Eva, Dom had dropped a toy on her face so she's crying, Emilia is yelling because she wants more wipes, and Dom is sad because he thinks he hurt Eva. I get a call on my phone and answer it because as I suspected, it's the RCMP calling. They had to ask a bunch of questions, and sent an officer to check up on us to make sure everything is okay. Dom and I had a chat about playing with our phones, and he was so terrified the officer was coming to get him in trouble. I assured him he wasn't in trouble haha. It was bound to happen eventually. The RCMP lady on the phone was very understanding, "Yea, I have a 4.5 year old, a 3 year old, and a 6 week old. I was changing the babies diaper and turned off my phone, but the 4.5 year old got ahold of it and started pressing buttons on the lock screen..." Nothing they haven't seen before I suppose. I was grateful they didn't make us feel bad about anything though. The officer thanked us for understanding when he came to check in. I felt like we should have been apologizing, but it happens, and everyone was just doing their job! 

Thankful Thursday - 262

Blogger was being weird yesterday and not posting photos, so... this post is late! 

This week I am thankful for...

1. Being brave. Big deal over here! I took all three kids out to the park to meet up with some Chickalettas yesterday. I was anxious about it and almost bailed a bunch of times in the morning, but finally decided if I'm ever going to bring all three out by myself, I might as well do it here where I know there will be help. To my surprise, Dom and Emilia went off and played the whole time and hardly bugged me, and Eva slept! Hallelujah! I felt like me again for a brief while there! 

*I also was brave and went to the library today (just with big kids), and took Eva to get her passport photos done. Any outing right now feels brave to me haha*

Life of a third child haha

Emilia trying to push Dom & Isla on the big spinny thing

Baby whisperer to the rescue! Also, look at Eva's little hands all clasped together like that <3

2. Capturing regular moments. I'm trying to randomly film things throughout the day. Most of the videos are just Eva doing newborn things, but I try to catch Emilia telling a story or doing something silly because I want to be able to look back and remember how she talked. Same with Dom, or the way he played, or the way the kids all interacted together. I don't really use instagram, so I don't have stories about my daily life saved or anything. I don't publish these videos anywhere, they're just for me :) I'll look back some day and realize how crazy we were with these three little kids!

Blogger doesn't like to play the videos I try to post, so here are some random photos of the kids puddle jumping yesterday! 

Dropping buttercups in the "river" and racing them to the storm drain

And a random photo of me and Eva. I very very rarely get to hold this sleeping baby!

3. A light at the end of the COVID tunnel. BC released its reopening plan the other day, and if everything goes according to "plan", things are supposed to go back to normal (like normal normal, not "normal") by September. I'm grateful for this for many reasons, but it also brings out quite a bit of anxiety! I'm not ready for normal normal. It's going to be hard to adjust to not wearing masks or being around masked people in public, or doing handshakes and hugs again, or being in close quarters with people. I mean really, COVID restrictions have been an introverts dream in many ways. I'm really excited about the next few months where we can go back to regular interactions with friends and family, but masks are still mandatory/recommended in public spaces. Can it just stay that way forever? Especially going into cold/flu season this fall, and having a baby, and having two kids in preschool, etc. etc. It just makes so much sense for people to continue these good habits! 

Anyway, it's super exciting and I got emotional about it, but I also have mixed feelings about it all apparently. Processing as I write. 

Lately

 Missed Thankful Thursday last week. What, am I busy or something?! Obviously... Anyway! Here's what we've been up to lately.

Let's start off with some random baby spam. This girl is generally super content and I'm soooo happy about it! Once she's fed, she just sits and looks around for 25 minutes until her next nap time, and then after I put her down awake she's most often asleep within 5 minutes and sleeps for 1.5-2 hours. (That's if I get her to bed on time. If I'm late by even 10 minutes it's game over)

Evening chats with Daddy

Mom bought me this sweater from Costco when I was quite pregnant and I loved how it sat, and that it could zip up and didn't show the bottom of my belly. It was chilly this week, but I had to get out for a walk with the dog, so I wrapped up Eva, and attempted to zip my sweater over her. To my surprise, it worked! So handy! I did get stopped by a gentleman who at first thought I was pregnant and then noticed the head peeking out and had to tell me about how confused he was haha.

Rare snuggles

Dom just LOVES her so much. Always wants to be close to her, hold her hand, share his blanket, etc.

If you follow @busytoddler on instagram, you've seen bubble foam before. I made some last week and it was great fun!

Playing hockey in the sun (an almost daily occurence)

More baby spam

Hup Holland Hup!

Snuggle this Muggle! We hardly ever go anywhere so I find she is just in jammies 90% of the time. I try to put her in regular clothes every so often because there's something about a baby wearing big people clothes <3

Dave was out shooting a fancy Porsche on Saturday, so it was just me and the kids and the dog! They both were up so late the night before (while Dave was also out working), and woke up early, so it was a rough start to the morning.

Dom's lego creation. He has these sets of lego that he's stopped following instructions on, and just makes his own things out of the pieces. I'm always so impressed with what he builds, and the symmetry and functionality of them! I love Lego... so glad he does too! Great for his brain :)

Water play in her Elsa dress

My 3rd blue eyed babe

Said Porsche. One of a kind! Dave has been putting lots of work into the video side of Kimber Images, and has updated his website to reflect this! Video will become more of a focus, and Dave is working towards his dreams and goals! I'm very proud of him :)

See his updated website! You may even recognize a couple people in his projects page. 

www.kimberimages.ca

Someone was not ready to wake up yet apparently!

We went to Gramma and Grandpa's and had dinner there! First time since Thanksgiving!! The kids were SO excited, and played the entire time. We got to have a wonderful visit, and they got some real snuggles in with Eva. We didn't wear masks for the first time in a very very long time, and it felt so so good. All 4 of us are vaccinated, and we feel it was just time. Very much time. 

Such a snug <3

Emilia didn't want to miss out on the snuggles either apparently

Dom came down from Quiet time one day while I was resting and he and Dave had a visit on the back patio :)

On Sunday morning Dave suggested we go to the zoo as something fun and to get out of the house. It was a chilly day, but the rain held off. It was also WAY busier than we were expecting! Long weekend, duh...

Hands on his hips watching the train

Dom and Emilia have been asking to go on the train, so we agreed this time! 

The girls ready to go!

How Eva started the train ride...

How Eva finished the train ride.

Emilia was just living her best life on that train. Wow. I had no idea she'd be so excited. She kept telling me, "This is so fun! Me having fun!" She smiled ear to ear the whole time, and waved and said hello to all the animals we passed. Adorbs.

She never sleeps in the car seat. This was exciting :) Also, she just looks so cozy!

I wish I could take her to Disneyland. Such a fun age. So excited about everything, and doesn't fight a lot with me, so I think it would be a great time. 

Dom decided his legs didn't work after lunch. There was a long time of me reminding Dave and I that #being4isfine. We packed up and headed home, but that's the nice thing about having a pass, is that it's not like we feel that we wasted money! Who cares if we have to go home early, or one kid is in meltdown mode?!

Yesterday we dropped the big kids off at my parents for the day. Dave and I spent the whole morning purging/organizing/putting away toys. We've been feeling like the toy supply was out of control, so we have some packed downstairs for a toy rotation, and have organized their room with buckets and labels. It makes more sense now, and hopefully we can avoid them playing at night too much, and making TOO much mess during the day. It just overwhelms them. Emilia came home for nap, and then we went back there for meatballs & gravy for dinner. 

Anyway, it's been busy, but also just slow! Trying to give myself grace and let myself rest and just do life instead of constantly having an agenda. I mean I always still have an agenda because lists are life, but I'm easier on myself if I don't finish everything, and I'm trying my best to be more flexible. Haha... I'm so fun (not)!