It's Rough Being the 3rd Child

I just realized today that I hadn't taken a picture of Cameron in close to two weeks except for one quick picture with his siblings a week ago before Elise's preschool graduation. When you are just 2 1/2 weeks old, that is the better part of your life that has gone unpictured. The really sad thing is that I am pretty sure by the time Elise was 2 1/2 weeks old we had taken enough pictures of her to fill an entire album and then some. I guess that is the difference between being the first child and the third. Anyway, I felt a little bit guilty about it so I got my camera out today and started clicking away. Nevermind the fact that these pictures were taken about 3:00 in the afternoon and he was still wearing his jammies from last night.... I guess that is another difference between the first and the third child. Elise had on the most fashionable girly outfit everyday of her life until she was well beyond a year old. This time around I'm just happy he made it through the night without peeing on himself, and if he has accomplished that why mess with changing his clothes. Don't worry, he eventually got a bath and a new set of pajamas on just in time to go to bed tonight in a nice clean set of clothing. Sometimes I wish I could wear my pajamas all day long, so I'm actually going to consider that a bonus of being the third child... less uncomfortable clothing and more comfy pajamas. Anyway, here are a few of the pictures I took today. I think he is definitely chunking up a little bit and looks a little different from the last pictures I posted.

Being a Mom of Three is Hard Work....

Warning: This post may be a little on the lengthy side. If you don't have some time on your hands, do not feel obligated to read on.

I have decided that being a mom to 3 kids is hard. We decided to take our first outing on Friday. Okay, maybe we didn't decide to go on an outing as much as I decided I didn't want to deal with potty training Steven this week due to him being completely out of diapers. But, whatever the reason, I left the house by myself with three kids in tow. I had been promising Elise she could get a library card so that she could do the summer reading program which started this week as well, so we decided to stop by the library and then head to Target for diapers. I first fed Cameron and got him to sleep in his carseat so we could leave him covered up and I hoped he would sleep the whole time. However, by the time I got him to sleep in the carseat and got all of our stuff plus the two other kiddos ready to leave, it had been an hour and a half since I'd fed him already so we were on a little bit of a time crunch.

We left about 11:00 and headed to the library first. I unloaded Cameron in his carseat as well as Elise and Steven from the car, we walked up to the door and found it was locked. What? I looked at the sign on the door, and of course it stated that the library opens at 10:00 am every weekday except Friday when it doesn't open until noon. Perfect. We walked back to the car, loaded everyone back up and headed to Target. We went in, got diapers, picked up a few other things on our list and got in line to pay. I got to the front of the line and Cameron started crying. It was about time for him to eat again. Oh well, at least I was at the front of the line. But then another employee came up to our cashier and proceeded to have a 5 minute conversation with her about who knows what. People in the lines all around us were flying through the checkout, and I was stuck there with a hungry crying baby that I didn't want to have to take out of his seat in a dirty store and a toddler who kept trying to pull everything off the shelves at the checkout. Lovely. Finally we got through the checkout and headed to the car. I put the kids in the back and told them they could play for a few minutes while I fed Cameron. I got Cameron out of his seat and started feeding him when I heard from the back seat, "Mom, I really have to go potty, right now!" Perfect. I was not about to go back into Target so I told Elise that she would have to hold it. She assured me that would not be possible. I thought for a minute and decided the best option was to put one of Steven's diapers on her in case she had an accident because there was no way I was unloading two kids and one hungry baby again. Now I had a crying four year old as well because she was asolutely certain she was too old to pee in a diaper, and of course she was right about that but sometimes you've just gotta do what you've gotta do, and this was definitely one of those times. I finished feeding Cameron, took off Elise's wet diaper (yep, she really couldn't hold it,) and headed back to the library. Of course the librarian wanted to see my driver's license to give Elise a library card. Oops. I recently lost my license and haven't had a chance to replace it just yet. I did have my passport for ID, but I was going to also need something with my address on it since my passport didn't list that. Hmmmm.... I looked through my purse and of course had nothing that could verify my address. As we were about to leave with two crying kids because they couldn't check out books, the librarian suggested that maybe I had a car registration in my car with an address listed and that would work to verify my address. Great, of course I did. We walked back to the car again, got my registration and went back to the desk to get a library card. I let each of the kids pick three books to check out, and of course Steven found himself in the Christmas section with all Christmas books. Oh well, I was too tired at this point to care, so Christmas books in June it would be! Finally we made it home, just in time for Cameron to eat again. I'm pretty sure I won't be going anywhere with all three kids again, maybe ever. Okay, I'm sure I'll have to attempt it again at some point, but I am at least going to need a couple more weeks.

Slipping Slide Time

We had a few very hot days here, and so Elise and Steven got to enjoy their "slipping slide" as Elise calls it. Cameron and I enjoyed watching from the porch. They had great fun jumping, rolling, sliding, and being pushed down the slip n' slide by Dad.

Our Sweet Little Boy

So far Cameron is a very sweet little baby. He rarely cries, and has been getting up just twice a night since he came home from the hospital The last two nights he has gotten up only once between 9:00pm and 5:00am. Yes, that's right, he is not quite two weeks old and already sleeping better than Mr. Steven! I'm hoping this is a good omen.

Preschool Happenings

This is Elise's last week of preschool. She is very excited for Kindergarten, but sad to be leaving her preschool, her friends, and her teachers.

Yesterday was the last official day of school. She helped me decoupage some paint buckets with Dick and Jane fabric for her teachers, and we filled them with cookies and various goodies. It was cute, she was so proud that she helped to make the buckets and was really excited to give them to her teachers.

Today was her preschool graduation. Her graduation was nice, but simple. She got to walk across the stage and get a "diploma," and sing a song with her class. Most importantly it was short, which is important when you are trying to keep a newborn and a two year old happy. Good thing Grandma and Grandpa came along and helped entertain Steven. After graduation I told her she could pick a treat to celebrate with, and she was quick to decide that she wanted a chocolate donut with sprinkles and chocolate milk. Yes, I have a little chocoholic on my hands here. We stopped at the donut store on the way home and got the very last chocolate donut with sprinkles in stock. It was definitely her lucky day!

This afternoon we are going to walk over to her elementary school and finish registering her for school next year. Can you say "last minute?" School is out Friday, and I'm not sure when the office closes, but we sure are cutting it close. I can't believe I will have a kid in elementary school next year!

Elise on her last day of school, ready to give her teachers their gifts:The buckets we made to put her teachers' gifts in:Hanging out with her brothers before graduation:Getting her "diploma":Celebrating with a chocolate donut with sprinkles. Things just don't get any better than this!:

So Sleepy

So far, Cameron is a good little baby. He sleeps A LOT, and is happy most of the time he is awake. He is happy just to sit in his swing or his bouncy chair most of the time. We are keeping our fingers crossed that this sweet little baby stays this way!

It's a Boy!

Cameron Rex Miller

6lbs. 9 oz., 18 inches

Born 6/3/2010 at 6:35 pm

Kitty, Mommy

This morning I was sitting watching TV and Steven was in the room with me playing. He walked over and looked out the window, and started saying to me, "Kitty, Mommy, kitty." I kept saying, "yeah, is there a kitty in the backyard?" I was feeling very lazy so I didn't want to get up and actually look, but he was just not going to let it go until I did so I got up and looked. I was very surprised that instead of a kitty I saw two deer just feet away from our window. They were looking at Steven and he was looking back. We went outside and got a few pictures. The funny thing is that this is the third time we've seen deer in just a week. The other two times we saw deer walking down the middle of the street in front of our house. Also, I have had two separate neighbors report that they have seen a bear on our street this week. We are missing a family reunion in Yellowstone this summer, but I guess we don't need to go that far to see wild animals and the wilderness.

Four Year Old Conversations

Yesterday I picked Elise and her friend Zach up from preschool, and while we were driving Zachary home they were talking about babies. Elise was telling Zach how she was getting a new baby in her family, but she and Steven were still really babies. She was then explaining to him how everyone is still a baby to their mom and dad, even moms and dads. Where does she get these things from? Anyway, Zach replied with, "Yeah, Moms and Dads are big fat babies!" They both laughed and then Zach thought for a minute and said, "Except, my mom and dad aren't fat." Elise quickly said back, "Oh, well my mom is really fat!" Thanks Elise, you really know how to make a very pregnant lady feel good :-).

A Little Bit of Denial

Denial about what, you wonder? Well, I can't believe that this baby is due in less than 2 weeks! Although I am very ready to be done with the whole pregnancy thing, I am in no way ready to bring a baby home. This last week it hit me how close I am so I finally bought diapers, formula, bottles, etc. However, so many things are still undone. I haven't washed any baby clothing, I haven't gone up to the attic to bring down things like crib sheets, blankets, burp cloths, etc., and I haven't gotten out the portacrib, bouncy chair, baby bath, or carseat. I hadn't even thought about packing a bag of stuff for the hospital until I picked Elise up from preschool yesterday and a mom that is due 3 days after me mentioned she spent the morning packing a hospital bag and getting things ready. Hmmm.... I guess that might be an important thing to get done. I have way more general family laundry stacked up than I care to think about, and no motivation to go down to the basement to do something about it. I really need to spend today getting ready, but instead I am sitting here eating Oreos and looking at pictures of my two other kids as babies and wondering if this one will look like either of them. The sad thing is that truth be told I don't even like Oreo's, but it is the only treat in the house right now and I am desperate for a treat, so it will have to do. I guess I better get up, put the Oreo's away, and go get something done. But before I do, here is a picture of each of my kids as newborns. Any guesses as to who this one might look like? Or if it will be a boy or a girl? Or any name suggestions? We don't even have a list of names ready, so we are far from being settled on one.

Elise as a baby:

Steven as a baby:

Swim Lessons

Elise started swim lessons this week, and she is having a ton of fun with it. I debated whether to sign her up or not because I really could teach her myself, but I decided to go ahead and do it. She is a bit of a scaredy cat, but when she sees other kids doing something she is much more likely to try it. Also, she is a lot more likely to do something her teacher asks her to do than something her mom asks her to do. The first day she was a little timid and afraid to try things, but by the second day she was jumping in, putting her head under the water, and doing everything her teacher asked. She is loving it. Here are some pictures from her first day.

Preschool Trike-athon

Elise's preschool does an annual trike-athon as a fundraiser. This year it happened to fall on a very busy Saturday for us, so I was hoping to sort of skim over it without her even realizing what she was missing. However, they talked it up so much at preschool on Friday that she was just not going to forget about it. It was all she could talk about when she got home from school, so we ran to Party City last minute on Friday night and got some stuff to decorate her scooter. Since she has a Tinkerbell scooter anyway, we went with a Tinkerbell theme and it turned out cute. She was pretty cute at the trike-athon too. They rode around in circles for about 20 minutes, and after about 15 she was so worn out that every time she passed me on the track she would yell to me, "Mom, I'm soooooo tired." She is a bit of a drama girl, and so the "tired" looks on her face were just priceless. I would tell her, "Okay, it's almost over, just ride slower if you're too tired." Really though, I had no idea how long they would have them ride or if it really was almost over, so it's a good thing it turned out to be true! Steven was pretty sure that it was his job to run around the track chasing after Elise, but once I talked him out of that he was content to stand by me dancing to the music and yelling "Go Eeese," everytime she came by.

By the way, wondering why most of the other kiddos in the pictures are wearing matching red T shirts and Elise is not? Well, they sort of rope you into selling raffle tickets by playing up to the kids that everyone who sells at least 5 will get a matching T shirt. I wasn't about to sell tickets, but I was sure Elise would be crushed if the whole rest of her class had matching shirts and she didn't so I just ended up buying 5 tickets myself. Then when they gave her the T shirt my little fashionista took one look at the shirt (which was sort of ugly, by the way) and wanted nothing to do with it. She wanted to keep on her green shirt because it was prettier, and after all, it was a much better Tinkerbell color to go with her theme. That little stinker!

Egg Hunting

On Easter we got to go to my grandparents house for dinner, and the kids had an Easter Egg Hunt with some of my younger cousins and my cousins' children. They loved it! Elise must have filled her whole basket with eggs, and was totally into running around and collecting as many eggs as possible. Steven, on the other hand, went about things totally differently. Everytime he found an egg he would sit down on the grass and open the egg to see what was inside. If it was quarters he would just throw them on the grass and move on. After all, what good is money to two year old? If it was candy he would sit down, take out his binky, put the candy in his mouth and eat it before he would move on to find another egg. He came away with way less eggs than any of the other kids, but he was totally pleased with his egg hunt experience so no worries! At first I was actually trying to speed him up so that he could get more eggs, but then I thought, why do I want him to have more eggs? How much candy does a two year old need, and he obviously could care less about the money so we may as well let someone else have it. It cracks me up how different these two kiddos are though!

Why Dads are More Fun at Bath Time

Dad's are more fun at bath time because they forget practical things, like the fact that we use very little soap on Steven because he gets bad exzema from it, and they fill the bath completely with bubbles anyway! The kids are always asking for Dad to give them there bath, but most nights it ends up being me who does it. About a week or so ago Chris actually gave them a bath, and when I came upstairs they were both covered in bubbles, had bath toys out, and were having a grand old time with Dad. No wonder they don't want baths from Mom. It only took Steven a few days with lots of lotion and medicine to get rid of the rash, and since they are still talking about having bubbles in the bath I guess it was worth it.