oh happy milestones

You have kids and you bond with them and think they're adorable and become insufferable on all social media platforms with your endless albums of all of the milestones.

All.
Of.
Them.

Yes, I'm up their with the guiltiest! Because...hello this entire blog and 75% of my favorite topics of convo.

Sometimes the sleepless nights, the worry, the never ever ever ending feeling of being perpetually overwhelmed, and all the crying that sounds suspiciously like someone is faking their own death, makes me wonder how I can love them so much while simultaneously needing a very long break from their antics...every 5-8 minutes.

But thank goodness for progress and milestones! Milestones!! Those milestones that make having the crazies underfoot (and overhead) every day.

Just let me stray into the land of optimism and promise for a few minutes...

Time for potty training prattle!! With Rad I never even thought that maybe in a million years I would play the a game of bodily fluid Clue with a person that speaks 1/9000000000th of the English language, but I would honestly give Rad a 7 out of 10 so far on the training front. !!! You're surprised? Consider me floored. I wasn't even going to think about potty training him until he was using complete sentences, but it turns all-star is stellar at yelling "POTTY!" and "POO!" (his universal term for all bodily functions) and making a beeline for the bathroom. Plus he's not rebelling and peeing on Rhett's face or anything crazy. I still throw down a towel on on any soft surface like the couch, because stale urine isn't a smell I want to associate my life with all the time, but really we are rocking the being at home part of potty training. (We have not ventured far out of the house in underpants because I am thee consummate novice mother...)

Learning tricks of the trade. 

Genetics isn't my best subject (neither is spelling without auto correct though...) all I know is that Rhett's bike riding genes are far superior to Jake and mine. I learned to ride without training wheels when I was 6 and it took at least a week. Jake shares a similar uninspiring story. But clearly the bike riding gene fell far from the tree with Rhett because in about 12 minutes he was off and pedaling sans training wheels.

Video? Here you go. 

You hear that clucking in the background? That would be the approval of one proud mother hen.

I still occasionally get the panicky and overwhelmed feeling and the other day I was in a funk. A bad one. For no good reason! Well the 5AM panic attack might have made me tired and when I'm tired I'm the queen of the funk. Really I think I was just fighting off the bizarre feeling of isolation and loneliness that can come with staying at home (for me!) and experiencing the weight of anticipation at bringing baby boy #3 home in a few weeks. The boys were their usual level of handful but nothing out of the ordinary and while I sat there leaning on the wall in our room while the boys jumped on the bed I closed my eyes. Six seconds later Rad came over and pulled my hair (Rad + hair pulling = true love) and Rhett asked if I was tired. Admitting I was, he started pulling every pillow and blanket off the bed. I was this close to getting upset at the extra mess but Rhett told me to come lay down on my "nest" (bed). He was so adamant that it was my nap time that I laid down on my "nest." Rhett turned into mother hen, tucking me in, getting me a stuffed zebra, and sternly told me that it was time to sleep. When my 4 year old says jump, I jump and when he said sleep I zonked. For a heavenly 15 minutes.

I woke up to having Rhett and Rad laying on the nest and Rhett softly talking to Rad telling him to be quite. Although we move at an imperfect pace most days it was really nice to finally feel like the world might not come crashing down around me (Dramatics-R-Me) and I may have shed a tear of motherly love for the boys. (Emotional Displays-R-Me too)

A week ago we faced the musical bedrooms and did what we've needed to do to get ready for the baby to take over Rad's room...threw Rad in with Rhett into the new bunk beds.

99 threats from both parents and two hours later...they were asleep. Jake and I like to sit in the hallway and listen to their conversations after we turn the lights off. Rad lays on the bottom bunk and call out "Wett?" "Wett??" 71 times in 10 seconds to which Rhett responds "Rad I am trying to SLEEP. You need to be SO quite!" After Rad pushes enough of Rhett's buttons, Rhett comes stomping out very indigent and righteously huffy. Rad always follows thinking there's a party he might miss. Sadly he has yet to find that elusive party.

Anyway I asked them after there first night...what was it like sharing a room for the first time?

Rhett: It felt like a dream!
Rhett: Until Rad cried.

Rad: No bed!!!

Moving on up. Way way up. :)