Stretched thin, but grateful

We've had a lot going on in the Campbell household lately!

Sick house

I managed to catch a cold a couple of weeks ago and felt a bit out of it for a week. Everyone else seemed OK until this past Friday evening (argh! I really thought I was in the clear!) when Jack came down with a sore throat. Then the night before last Peter had a stuffy nose and didn't sleep well, and today Peter is still stuffy and Thomas started up with runny nose

:(. So that has not been fun. BUT, I am very grateful that it's just a cold and not some gastrointestinal bug, and I'm very grateful that now I'm healthy and feeling well enough to care for the sick kids.

Potty training

Thomas is out of diapers except for naps and bedtime! He's actually doing very well, although it was a rough first week or so. At the point that I was about ready to give up and put him back in diapers until he was closer to 3, something clicked and now he seems to get it. Hooray!! This leads me to ...

Out of the crib and into the bed

In honor of potty training, Thomas now sleeps in a mattress on the floor, next to Jack. Once again, we had a rough couple of days convincing Thomas to keep napping in this new arrangement (and some days he still fights it), but overall the transition has been smoother than I expected. I needed more sheets, so I bought construction sheets for both beds, and the boys love them.

Reading

Jack is about 1/4 of the way through his reading book, and he is doing so well. He's reading short, simple sentences, but we still have a bunch of letter/sound combinations to learn. He really seems to enjoy it, and he's eager to learn more. My biggest surprise so far is how excited *I* am to watch him learn this new skill, and to know that I'm his primary teacher. It definitely gives me hope that he and I can work well together in a teacher-student relationship for when he starts charter school next year.

Rolling

Peter is rolling all over the place these days, although he usually gets "stuck" on his tummy and forgets how to roll onto his back, so he'll squawk until someone comes to rescue him. His head control is excellent now, and his sleeping schedule is really evening out. I can usually count on 3 naps a day, right around 8:30AM, 12:30PM, and 3:30PM. It's great that he has a good routine now, but it makes planning outings difficult ... I can't usually get big outings (like grocery shopping) done between his naps because there just isn't enough of his awake, not-eating time available. But he doesn't usually take good naps unless we're at home, and if he misses a nap, he gets cranky. So I'm trying to limit my big outings to just a couple times a week, and then spend the rest of the week at home if I can ... I know when Jack starts T-ball and kindergarten, my weeks will be busier and less flexible, so I'll try to enjoy spending time at home while I can.

The Citation

Remember that silly registration ticket that I got early in September? Would you believe that it's STILL not settled?!? I've gone by the courthouse twice already, but my ticket is "not in their system", which means they can't clear it now that I've fixed the violation. Apparently Ramona only has court on Fridays, and the court date written on my ticket was not only a Monday, but it was Columbus Day (yesterday!). So the ticket got sent back (to where? I have no clue!) to have a new, better date assigned. And until then, I just have to keep calling or visiting the courthouse to see if I'm in the system yet. David wondered if maybe the cop never turned in my ticket -- maybe he had pity on that lady driving around a minivan-full of little boys after all!

No thanks, my plate is full

I'm slowly coming to terms with life with 3 kids. I think the day-to-day reality is finally settling in. In the early weeks of Peter's life, people would ask me if having 3 kids was harder than having 2, and I usually answered "No", because it didn't seem that different, still crazy but not too much more so. But that was when Peter slept pretty much all the time, pretty much any where. Aside from feeding him (which is kind of nice, because it forces me to sit still in one place for 15 minutes) changing a few extra diapers (Peter is blessed with an amazingly slow digestion, so those are 99% easy diapers), and extra laundry, it wasn't too different from life with 2 kids. But I can definitely say that things ramped up over the last month or two, and they haven't showed any signs of slowing down. I do have time to cook meals, keep the house reasonably clean, play with the boys, and do the usual maintenance chores, but I really and truly do not have time for extras (my less-than-frequent blog posts are proof of that!) I'm supposed to start teaching an NFP class in the near future (whenever I feel ready), but the thought of it makes my heart sink -- even if David were able to get home in time to put the kids to bed, and Peter were to take a bottle, I do not know where I can squeeze out the extra time for class prep, teaching time, student follow-ups, etc. Something else would have to give, and I don't think I can afford to give up anything else right now. It's frustrating, but I suppose it is the season of my life right now. The NFP class will still need teachers in a few months, or a few years, but my family needs me (especially my littlest and most demanding members) now!