Harrison, the star of, "To sleep or not to sleep, that is the question."

It's been like 6 weeks since I last blogged. I just looked it up. It's been a crazy month and a half. I'm not even sure how to document most of what I'll remember.  I looked through my pictures to remind myself what we've been up to and couldn't remember why I took some of them. *facepalm* 

I think I haven't been blogging because it takes emotional energy and a surprising amount of time to write blog posts and I have been low on both of those lately. Having a non-sleeping-baby and a screamy toddler and three other kids all at the same time is heck-a overwhelming.

I have a lot of pictures of Harrison sleeping this time around. I'm not sure why since he doesn't seem to do it very much. Maybe it's like taking a picture of a Yeti or a Unicorn. If by some miracle you come across it, you better document it!

This is Jules eating her Costco pizza and blueberries. Sort of. I think she ate like 3 bites of each and was done. She's a super big turkey about eating. She will say she wants something, but then refuse to eat it once I get it for her, screaming at me that she can't like it. She doesn't like to sit at the table and eat even when she "can" like it. She must run and play, then come back for a bite, then run and play some more. Half the time, she doesn't remember after about the third bite that she was eating in the first place.

She says cute things like, "They came to we house!"

 And "Buckle me out, Mom."

She still loves chocolate, which is good, because she's getting some reasoning skills and we can now bribe her to eat vegetables with a promise of chocolate. Or a TV show. Otherwise she may only ever eat granola bars, protein bars, and chocolate milk.

Emilia had her end-of-year choir concert the last week of school. Since I hadn't gone to any of her other ones, I decided to take Cecily and Mira and go. There were some technical difficulties and Cecily was dying of boredom before the end, but I'm glad we went to support her. This is us after.

Can you spot the sleeping Harrison? ;)

Another magnetic rainbow for you to look at while I go through the rest of the week as laid out in my calendar. Harrison had a doctor appointment the same day as Emilia's choir concert. He was supposed to get a full line up of immunizations, and in the past, I've gotten them for my kids exactly as the doctor suggested. With Harrison, though, I felt like maybe he needed them spread out a bit more. So we only got three of the seven. Harrison was off for at least a week afterward--cranky for no (apparent) reason, not sleeping like usual, having a hard time with things that normally he was fine with, etc.

Steve also had pickleball, Mira and Cecily had activity days, and I gave a lesson via Zoom to Megan's church Young Women's group about how to start or get better at writing. I actually ended up talking more about book covers than anything else, but other than that it seemed to go okay.

Steve had game night that week and we had Gina and Josh and Allie Kerby over for dinner Friday night. Cecily's birthday was that Sunday and she thought about having a birthday party with her friends on Saturday, but Saturday was the only day my family could do our monthly birthday dinner, so we did that instead and had her friends come the following Saturday. That was the first week of school being out for us. Cecily decided to take two friends and Mira and Emilia to play laser tag again.

Harrison hangin' in the baby bathtub.

My dad and I went car shopping again for a new car for Steve. I took Harrison along and he thankfully slept for most of the trip. We looked at 3 different used car dealerships and ended up picking the first one we drove. This is the only picture I took of the day and it's not even of the car we bought. Haha.

I just thought he looked cute in his Sunday clothes. Guess he didn't agree.

 This is us eating homemade pizza. I think it was for Cecily's birthday dinner on Sunday.

Nana cuddling with Harrison at her house. Not sure when.

Emilia decided to organize the magnets by color one day. We thought it looked pretty, so we took a picture. :)

This is another Sunday outfit for Harrison. He's so adorable.

As I mentioned before, Harrison does not sleep. Not during the day anyway. He sleeps amazingly at night--up to about 8 hours without eating, and usually about 12 hours total. So I'm getting the rest that I need. That way I can be very well-rested for getting absolutely nothing done during the day. I have to keep telling myself that this won't last forever. Because it feels like he's been around for about three years now and I'm wondering why he isn't talking and walking and playing with Jules yet.

He sure is cute when he does sleep, though.

My mom came to visit one day and was talking with me in my bedroom. When we came back out to the livingroom, the girls were like this, all watching Emilia play Animal Crossing on her Switch. (Notice the forgotten book on Jules' lap.) My mom saw Jules watching and said, "Jules, what are you doing?"  Jules immediately and enthusiastically responded, "I reading!"

While she was at our house, my mom, Mira and Cecily, and I, put together this 500 piece Snoopy puzzle. You can't really tell in the photo, but many of the pieces had silver foil on them to represent snow. It was really hard to put together!

For the summer, part of the older girls' everyday chores is to play with Jules for at least 20 minutes. This is what Cecily decided to do with her one day.

That's Mira's hand. She took this one.

Another visit to my parents. Harrison was talking away to Grandpa.

We got a baby swing to see if it would help Harrison stay asleep longer during the day. It doesn't. He will sleep in it, but only for his usual 20 - 40 minutes at a time.

The week after Cecily's birthday, besides her party, we had a ward ice cream social and I had a doctor appointment. I think we must have visited my parents that week as per the above pictures.

The following week, both Cecily and Mira had 3-day camps (they only lasted an hour-and-a-half each day). Mira did golf with cousin Dylan and Cecily did volleyball (mostly to not feel left out about not going to golf with Mira and Dylan. They both enjoyed them. Cecily picked up volleyball really quick.

Emilia had a YW activity, Steve had pickleball and we went to DI one day, partly to drop off a big pile o' stuff and partly to shop because I love thrifting, as we all know. I'm pretty sure Cassie came to stay overnight that night since we were going down toward her house anyway.

The next day, Steve took Cecily to the doctor because she had a sore throat that wasn't getting better. It ended up that she had Strep and they got a prescription for penicillin to help get rid of it. I had to teach Sunday School the next day and Steve had to do Singing Time in Primary, so Cecily got to stay home by herself for two hours and watch TV. She almost wished she had Strep every week.

My mom and dad came to visit us the next week, Steve skipped pickleball (his last week) because it was over 95 degrees outside, as as he put it, "I wasn't going to win anything anyway."

That Friday, we brought dinner to our neighbors who just had a baby, and Saturday, we had dinner with Alison and James. Also on Saturday, Cecily woke up with a rash covering her entire body. I called the doctor and they said to give her benadryl and to stop giving her the penicillin because it was most likely a reaction to the medication, especially if it got better with the benedryl. Sunday, we were supposed to have another birthday dinner with my family, but the rash was even worse. Obviously the benedryl was not making it better, so I worried that she had scarlet fever or something contagious. After talking to the doctor's office again, consulting the family and giving her more benedryl, the family ended up coming anyway. Nobody caught a rash afterward, and when I took her to the doctor the next day, he said it was his best guess that it was a reaction to the meds, so I guess she shouldn't take penicillin anymore. Steve has a similar reaction to penicillin so it's not too surprising.

Cecily had an interview with the Bishop that Sunday morning in preparation for her baptism. The bishopric also wanted to talk to Emilia. They asked her to give a talk in church on Father's Day about "The Sacred Role of Fathers."

We visited my mom the next week, and Cecily's baptism was on Saturday. For every baptism, someone gives a short thought on the Holy Ghost and someone gives another one on Baptism. She asked my mom and me to give them, so I had to prep that during the week, plus get stuff ready to feed a crowd after the baptism. We were blessed to have my parents, Alison and James, Ben and his kids, Joe and Cindy and family, Camber and Cassie, and Josh and Gina come, and Nick and Wilda and Megan were able to participate via Zoom.

This is how Jules chose to participate. She is such a character. She also decided she needed to tug on my dress while I gave my thought on the Holy Ghost until I bribed her with playing a game on my phone.

My handsome brother. He needed a shot of himself for Zoom meetings, so I took one for him while he was at my house after the baptism.

Another one of Harrison sleeping. Maybe he sleeps more than I think.

This shot just made me crack up. This is how I feel at the end of the day. Every day.

Joe and Cindy and family stayed overnight Saturday and Sunday. It was lovely having them there for Father's day. Joe and Steve played lots of games, including Age of Mythology, pickleball, and Splendor.  Thanks to some insight from Uncle Joe, Emilia gave a great talk on Sunday. She said her voice wavered the whole time, but none of us could tell.

I had a doctor appointment that Monday, Mira and Cecily had gymnastics, Emilia had another YW activity on Tuesday, Jules had her 2.5 year doctor appointment on Wednesday, and on Friday, Nicole and Heather were in town for Steve's cousin's wedding, so he took the day off and we went out to lunch with them. We were going to go to the wedding Saturday night, but Megan decided last minute to come stay with us starting Saturday evening, so we stayed home and got the house ready and greeted Megan, Cari, Febe, and Elijah when they arrived. Anna arrived the next day with Alison. She had been staying in Arizona with our cousin Dot for a few weeks and was coming home. 

The Staleys stayed until Thursday. The cousins had a great time playing lots of video games and make believe games (except Emilia who is almost 13 and likes to hide inside her own head most of the time), Megan and I played games, too. And we took the kids to the splash pad one day where I sunburnt the left half of both of my calves, though not the entire left half of my right calf. I managed to somehow sunburn that one in very weird splotches. My mom and me and Alison and Megan did a puzzle together, of course.

Because the Staleys were going to be otherwise occupied Wednesday night, I was able to go out with Camber before she headed off for an Arizona vacation. She introduced me to a cupcake place with a HUGE selection of gluten-free cupcakes and the one I had was AMAZING. So yum.

Yesterday, I woke up with a sore throat, so I didn't feel like doing much. Steve took the older girls to Barnes and Noble while Jules napped. They got some books and a new game. He also went grocery shopping and picked up supplies to make 4th of July themed milkshakes. Emilia and I left around 8:30 to go watch the Lehi City fireworks display at Thanksgiving Point. Steve and the rest (who aren't fond of fireworks) watched Lego Movie.

Today, I still had a sore throat, so Steve took the girls to church and I stayed home with Harrison. After Jules went down for her nap, I let Cecily and Mira open a new Lego set to put together. We had super nachos for dinner which were super yummy. Harrison was struggling with all dairy for a while, but I think he's getting better at digesting things, so I'm testing putting some of the things back into my diet. Tonight was cheese.

Ben and Haylee handed down a bunch of clothes and she had this as one of the outfits. I'm sure she got it for the 4th last year (or previously) and this year Harrison gets to wear it.

Happy Independence Day everyone!

Feeling good

Grandma and Grandpa left for their mission! They were called last year, but weren't able to leave to go to Florida until they'd gotten vaccines. But they did and now they're in Florida serving for the next 16 months.

Before they left, they went and visited each one of their children's families. Nicole, then Cindy, then Steve, then Heather. They arrived here 3 weeks ago tomorrow and stayed until Thursday morning. I didn't know they were coming until Saturday night when I texted Wilda about something. Steve had talked to them and forgot to mention it. So Sunday as we were pondering their visit, we realized that we still needed to do Harrison's baby blessing and that we didn't have to do it in church like we would have pre-Covid. So we talked to my family and to the Bishopric and were able to coordinate having his blessing at our house on Tuesday night. Luckily, my parents, who had gone to visit Megan in Colorado, were arriving home Monday night and would be there as well!

Grandma loved snuggling the little man.

And when she found out that we didn't have a blessing outfit, she ran out and got one for us. Doesn't he look dapper? 😍

Both of our families were able to participate via zoom or in person. And Heather's son (our nephew) Xander and his fiance joined us as well. They're going to BYU currently. This is everyone who participated in the blessing: Xander, Nick, Steve, Ron, James, Bishop Cheney. My mom, Wilda, Alison, Audra, and our other kids were also in the room.

You can see the shoes better in this picture. And no, Steve isn't choking him. This is how he burps Harrison.

On Wednesday, we all went to the Living Planet Aquarium. Most of us hadn't been there in like 8 years and we thought Jules would LOVE it. And she did. Mostly.

At one point, there was a tank you could walk up to, and as soon as a large fish approached her she froze, started bawling, and begged to be moved. She didn't like any of the large aquariums after that. 

We saw a bunch of awesome creatures, including this fish that looked like someone frankensteined it together,

these jellyfish that sit upside-down on the floor of the aquarium,

this enormous lobster (it was like three or four feet long),

manta rays that were wider than Cecily is tall,

snuggling toads,

brightly-colored poisonous hoppers,

an asian leopard (she actually prowled around her cage quite a bit--it was awesome to watch),

and penguins who said high and then posed for us. For some reason Jules was not afraid of them coming close to her.

We built another castle after Grandma and Grandpa left.

And Jules wanted me to take a picture of her "arctic cod."

The trees were blooming the next week and they were gorgeous. I found this little friend when I was cutting some of the blooms to bring inside. 

I think I said in a previous recent post that Jules has this thing with sippies where she leaves them all over the house and I can never find any when I need them. One day a couple weeks ago, I found all these sippies and it just illustrated the point so perfectly. I laughed, took pictures of all of them and then put them all in the sink.

livingroom floor:

Cecily's bedroom floor:

Her crib:

My bathroom floor:

The kitchen table:

I wanted to document how small he was compared to me at 2 months.

I was going to give him a bath one night before bed and got him undressed before going to run the bath water. I found him like this less than five minutes later.

After the bath, Daddy "put Harrison to sleep."

For May the 4th (Star Wars day), we all wore Star Wars shirts, Mira sprayed her hair green to match her baby Yoda shirt, and Cecily had me do Princess Leia buns. I forgot to get pictures before school and by the time school got out, they'd both taken their hair out. 

On the 5th, Steve started with the city pickleball league. He plays every Wednesday for six weeks for an hour and a half. I think he's enjoying it so far.

Last Sunday was Mother's Day, of course. Cecily was the sweetest. The week before, she started planning what she wanted to make me for breakfast. She coordinated with Steve to make sure we had all the ingredients and then woke up early Sunday morning to make it. It ended up being applesauce gluten free muffins and they were so tasty, they were gone before I had a chance to take a picture.

She also made me three cards and some fake flowers. My other kids made me cards as well. All three of them thanked me for giving birth to them (they used this term), so I think I might have traumatized them with my "real talk" about the birthing process.

Mira decided to coordinate her entire outfit one day this last week. That's panda shoes, panda socks, a panda shirt, and a panda sweater. She is such a cute fashionista. I won't be surprised if she grows up to be a fashion designer.

Jules is too cute. Whenever she doesn't get her way, she breaks into sobs. If the crying gets her anything she wants (even if it's not the original thing), she immediately stops crying and wipes away her alligator tears. With my other kids, I would have thought she was faking to get her way (because they were), but with Jules, I think I have genuinely broken her heart, and she just easy to be entreated. She wants to be happy, so she doesn't let herself be sad any longer than necessary.

I could be wrong. She is totally smart enough to be playing me. But I choose to think she's a tenderhearted, easily appeased kiddo.

This week, I had four covers to finish, had to teach Sunday School, and had a virtual conference for both Friday and Saturday, Steve was gone Wednesday night for his pickleball league, I had a dinner with my writing group Thursday night, and no one could watch the kids on Friday. It was a lot. But I made it through and it was actually a really good week except for possibly Friday night. 

The writing conference was both virtual and in-person. I didn't go in-person because when I registered, I didn't know if I'd be able to leave Harrison, and I couldn't take him with me. So I attended virtually. The rest of my writing group went in-person, so they were all in town and we met up for dinner the night before the conference started. This is all but one of us. The one in Texas couldn't make it out this year.

I ate some dairy last night and today Harrison has a rash and has been pretty cranky. He's now crying again, so I'll have to go get him out. Have a great week!