Hank at 3 Months!

It's crazy that my little baby is 3 months old already.  It is going by too fast! 

At 3 months Hank weighed in just under 18lbs (yeah I know).  I wish that for every pound he gained was a pound I lost, since I'm the one feeding him and all.  You can always dream I guess.

Hank likes to lace his fingers together then try to shove all 10 of them in his mouth at once.  When we can hear slurping coming from his direction we know that's what he's doing. 

He is a really good baby, and so happy.  He loves getting attention from his older siblings and doesn't complain much when they smother him.

We sure do love our little guy.  

Happy Mother's Day!

Just wanted to get on here quick and send a shout out to my wife, the best Mom in the world! We are so grateful to be your kids and husband and love you so much! Thank you for all you do and for putting up with all the crap (literally a lot of days) that you have to clean up from us :) Thank you for being such an incredible Mom and wife and for always being there for all of us. We love you so much!

Love,

Tom, Arvilla, Clark, and Hanky

Three

After having Arvilla, 50% of moms I talked to said that having 2 kids was the hardest, and the other 50% said 3 kids was the hardest.  So which group am I now voting for?  I'm not sure.

Going from one to two was pretty hard, but Arvilla was only 13 months when I had Clark and Clark was my hardest baby so far.  One big reason being the jaundice.  I also struggled a lot more emotionally after Clark and I didn't feel like myself (I kind of felt that way after Arvilla too).  I'm doing much better in that area this time around for sure.

With three when I'm busy with the baby the other two play with each other and leave me alone... a little bit anyway.  I've also had a lot of practice being a mom so I'm more comfortable caring for Hank than I was with the other two so I don't have that anxiety.  For instance the first time he slept through the night I didn't wake up thinking "My baby died!" like I did with the other two.  If you're wondering he slept through the night 3 nights in a row, but is back to waking up once during the night again.

I think the hardest thing about having 3 kids is trying to leave the house.  Maybe if they weren't all so close together in age it wouldn't be so hard because the older children could do more to get themselves ready and to help me with the younger child.  It would also be easier to be somewhere because I'm assuming older children are a little easier to manage in public (or they would be in school so you'd have less to take with you).

Because of that we don't get out too much while Tom is at work.  I try to go to the library once a week, and every Friday I take the kids to a donut shop and let Clark and Arvilla (and myself) choose one and we sit and eat it while all the old people either smile at us because we're cute or express collective groans because I'm bringing "noisy" kids out in public.  Even though my kids sit and behave themselves quite well when we go.  I'm trying to do more, but sometimes it's just easier to stay at home and play or go to the park down the street.  This has given us many opportunities to do a lot of creative activities at home.

I guess both situations have their hard and easy parts to them.  I will say that having three kids isn't as difficult as I thought it would be, and I'm getting better at it every day.  

How The Clark Was Potty Trained

1. Introduce.
How: We let Clark try out his underwear a little, and let him use the potty before bath or other times he showed interest.
Result: He became familiar with the potty.

Months after started that step...

2. We did this.
How: Clark and I spent the entire day one on one drinking lots of liquids and visiting the potty a lot!
Result: He had a lot of practice and now understood how it all worked.  He also became so much better at "holding it".

3. Wait.
How: We encouraged him to wear underwear, but let him wear a diaper when he wanted.
Result: He mostly chose the diaper, but when he was in underwear he would only go when we told him it was time, and then he'd complain about it.

4. Ran out of diapers.
How: He chose diaper for this time of the day (whenever it was) and Tom showed him that we only had one diaper left.  He asked Tom to go to the store and buy more, and Tom told him that we can't buy anymore diapers.
Result: He chose to save the diaper for a rainy day and to wear the underwear.  All the sudden something changed in his attitude and he started taking himself potty without encouragement or coaxing, and was happy about it.  One time he said "I have to go potty" and started running for it, Tom followed to help but Clark slammed the door in his face and said "I need my privacy!!"

Grandma Pickle was visiting and told Clark how proud she was of him for going potty and being such a big boy!  Clark responded very matter of fact "Well, my diapers are all gone Grandma!"

He's been in underwear ever since and has only had one accident right next to the toilet. 

It was all very different than how we potty trained Arvilla, but both times we just went with how we felt and played it by ear.  Honestly potty training Clark has been easier than I thought it would be, we really lucked out.  Now I have only one kid in diapers, and his diapers are easy right now (thanks to his breastmilk diet!)

Silly Arvilla

Arvilla:  "Mom, I really need to throw up."

Me: (Skeptically) "You do?  Go in the bathroom then."

Arvilla walks in the bathroom and leans over the toilet.  I follow her.

Me: "Do you feel sick?"

Arvilla: "No, but I have the throwups."

Me: "The throw ups?"

Arvilla: "Yeah the (hiccup) throw ups."

Me: "Do you mean the hiccups?"

Arvilla: Pauses to think for a minute, stands up "Oh yeah, the hiccups!!" Then she walks out of the bathroom.

I married an amazing woman!

Can I just say that Juli is freaking amazing? She just is, ok? She is an amazing mom and an amazing wife and somehow she takes care of four babies all day long (myself included of course) and is still sane. I have always known that she was amazing, but I came to the realization even moreso this morning while spending 4 solid hours (minus a short nursing break) trying to keep Arvilla and Hank entertained while Juli was home potty training Clark. A park visit, a library trip, and a Chick fil A trip later (complete with an emergency bathroom trip for Arvilla while Hank screamed his head off) we headed home for nap time. How in the heck does Juli do this every day? Seriously, folks. While on the outside it might look like she's the ring leader of a three ring kid circus sometimes, she is holding it all together and doing a freaking amazing job raising our kids. I am eternally grateful to you, Juli and I am so glad you're my wife and the mother of our children. Thank you for all you do! Love, Tom

Adjusting to Life in Casa Grande

Casa Grande is about half the size St. George, but still has Walmart and Target... and even a Mimi's Cafe (our favorite!) so our basics are covered while still living in a small community, which we like.

Tom has been loving his job. I'll have to have him tell you more about that sometime.

We are sharing a car. That plus having three kids plus one of them being a 2 month old means the kids and I don't get out much. We have a lot of playgrounds in our neighborhood that we walk to often to get out for a bit, but mostly we try to keep happy at home. I've been doing preschool with them every morning twice a week, when we aren't doing that we play games (their latest favorite are sword fights with the wooden spoons), bake snacks, color, read books, and sometimes I let the kids totally destroy the house while they play with ever single toy they have while I cuddle with Hank, read a book, or goof off online to stay sane (since most days it's my only contact with the outside world).

I know things will get better as Hank gets older and as I make new friends. I know it won't ever be as good as when we were in St. George because nothing beats being able to go to my mom's house, having my dad feed us lunch while my mom and I visit and play with the kids. Or going to my sister's house and having her feed us lunch while the kids play with her daughter (or daughters depending on the sister). I no longer have those comfort zones to rely on. I have to be a big girl now.

When I do take Tom to work and get out with the kids I get a lot of strange looks, and I feel a little like a circus. In Utah people didn't think twice if you had 3 kids 3 and under because that was fairly normal. At least most people who see us here probably think Clark and Arvilla are twins so it doesn't look like I'm too crazy.

We love our house. I often get lost when I'm driving home though because all of the houses are brown. All of them. Well most of them. Luckily I can read street signs or I'd be in big trouble!

The kids love their church classes here. We are always so excited for Sunday to come!

There isn't very much to do in Casa Grande, but luckily Phoenix/Mesa/Tempe/Chandler/etc. are only a short drive away and there's lots to do there. We've only ventured that way once to go to Ikea and do a huge Costco trip, the stress from that trip almost killed Tom and he's still recovering.

Since Tom works for the City we get free access to the gym at the new Public Safety building which is about a mile away from our house. Haven't gone to it yet... but knowing we can is exciting. Another perk to his job is that every Thursday some guy comes to the office selling home made (and insanely delicious) tortillas for $1 a pack.

It's hot. Luckily we're used to hot, here's it's just hotter. I was 99 degrees yesterday.

I start teaching piano lessons in May. I already have a couple of students, but hoping for a few more.

We like it here. I don't miss St. George as much as I thought I would. I miss the comfort and familiarity of St. George, I miss my family, I miss Swig and I miss Arvilla's preschool and her awesome teacher... but I'm glad we moved here. I'm especially glad Tom has a good job that he loves.