Life with little kids

I love being a mom.  Don't get me wrong, it is challenging, and tests my patience on an hourly basis.  My house is messier than I ever imagined it could be.  (And for some reason every time I try to clean it, these little people in my house take it right back to the mess it was before...)  But it is such a rewarding thing to teach them and help them understand new things every day.
I thought I would take a minute to sit down and write out some of the things the kids are doing lately.

Peter is VERY into bossing Brooke around.  And Brooke is NOT into it.  And with her strong personality she ends up beating up on Peter quite often.  There is an embarrassing amount of taking toys, and biting going on these days. (Peter is taking the toys, and Brooke is doing the biting.)  At least both kids can dress and undress themselves.  And use the toilet.  That makes my life a little easier.  Peter has been able to buckle in his car seat since about January and I never imagined how much that would change my life!!!

Peter can count as high as 20 and has started to be able to do some basic addition and subtraction.  He is also starting to read, which I am SO excited for.  The books I want to share with this kids are so numerous!  I am already dreaming of the day when I can give him a good chapter book to read.

He is way into Batman and Spiderman and pretends to be a "super-hero" for about 5 hours a day.  He has actually never seen a Batman movie before.  Go figure.  I think its just ingrained in little boys' DNA to like that sort of thing.  He drags Brooke into his pretend world and they run all over pretending to be fighting crime and saving the day. (And Peter wears his cool red cape, while Brooke always sports the puffy prissy princess dress!)

His favorite movie: Aladdin.  He quotes it non-stop.  (And I am not exaggerating!  Its sooo annoying)

Brooke is so fun these days.  She is still not 'easy', but she can really put on the charm when she wants to.  She is all about the Princesses.  All the time.  And following Peter around.  And repeating anything he says.
She is taking a nap in the afternoon (and Peter does too, most days).  They both wake up around 7:00 am and go to bed around 8:30. (but they can lay awake chatting with each other for almost an hour!)
Thank heaven Brooke is not a picky eater.  She will try anything.  And she STILL LOVES Tomatoes.  I think they are her favorite food.

Heath is my happy boy.  He is currently in the "trying to kill himself" stage.  He is crawling and pulling himself up on the furniture and has ZERO awareness that he is unsteady and a hazard to himself.  He falls over constantly and is guaranteed to have at least 1 bruise at any given time.  He puts everything in his mouth (like all babies do).  His latest is sucking on the binky up-side-down.  I catch him flipping it from the right side to the wrong side all the time.  And changing his diaper...oh my.  He just wants to roll over so most of the time there is poo everywhere and/or I am getting peed on.  He is definitely my most squirmy kid.  And he does it all with a huge grin on his face.

Heath is an okay sleeper.  (Okay, he is awesome, but my expectations are so high, he won't get a good review until he is going to bed at 8 and waking up at 8...)  He goes to bed at 8, and wakes up sometime around 3am to nurse, then sleeps until 8am.  He would like 3 naps a day, but being the 3rd kid, you have to make certain sacrifices.  He gets a morning nap most days for at least 30 minutes and a good 1.5-2 hour afternoon siesta.  He is usually a crab by 5:30 so if we are home, he gets another 45 min nap.
He LOVES nursing.  And is super speedy (about 9 minutes total).  Which is good because he is so distracted by his siblings that I have to nurse him in his room with the door shut. (Brooke was the SAME way at this age).  And it is always interesting to see what kind of trouble the other 2 have caused during that 10 minute lapse of supervision...

When it comes to 'real food' Heath kind of sucks at eating it.  Not for lack of liking it!  He loves it, but just can't contain his excitement for the SPOON!   When I feed him I have to have 2 (or more) spoons on hand, one to try to get food into his mouth with and a decoy spoon or two for him to grab at...and then try to feed himself.  He's no dummy either.  He isn't satisfied with the decoy spoon until it is COVERED in baby food.  Lets just say that dinner is a VERY messy, VERY time consuming event right now.  And to be honest, I am a slacker and only feed him real food about 5x a week.  It is just exhausting!

I don't have much time to myself these days.  I can barely keep up with the laundry and most nights there is a big pile I have forgotten to fold waiting for me on my bed when I try to go bed.  I at least can find time to work out.  That is about the only time I get...which isn't really mine, because the kids are with me in the stroller... I don't mind too much though.  Its a good work out.  (Unless there is a hill...then I am so mad that Peter isn't old enough to run with me because he weighs so dang much!)

At least Bryan is around a little more these days.  Our first year of dental school was TOUGH.  Its gotten better every year.  Most nights he is home around dinner and doesn't have studying to do so I get him all to myself! (bwa ha ha ha <----evil laugh...)  Its nice to have him home and not doing school stuff.  I love it.
We are in the application process yet again.  Bryan is applying for a residency program within the Army.  He is also wanting to specialize in Endodontics so it looks like we have a couple more years of school in front of us.  We figure that we will probably get buy our first house when we in our mid-forties! :) 

Well, if you made it through all this, you are a trooper.  I am just trying to journal a bit so I can remember this kind of stuff when I am old.