More potty talk...

It has been quite a year. I started potty training Kayden a year ago. A whole year. And...wow. There have been MANY loads of laundry and many moments of frustration. She seemed to catch on really quickly but soon regressed with renos then a new baby throwing our routine out the window. And she never seemed to recover. By November we were well into a new routine but things just weren't getting better in terms of accidents. And I knew she was smart enough/old enough to catch on...something just didn't seem right. So I started looking into medical reasons for why potty training would be a struggle and wouldn't you know, constipation was the culprit! She's been plugged pretty much since starting solid foods and we noticed that when she was especially plugged, she had trouble holding her pee. But it never crossed my mind that constipation could be the reason she didn't feel her pee coming ALL the time! Ugh! I felt so bad. Here we had been trying to train her for almost a year and she was obviously trying but simply couldn't feel the urge to go! So we continued training but with extra motivation to solve her constipation issues as quickly as possible. Diet changes didn't seem to help much so I took her to the doctor in December. He suggested "Lax-a-Day." We tried it and it did help but when we stopped for a few days over Christmas, so did her pooping. I didn't feel good about a laxative being a permanent solution so I started looking at other things we could try. Two weeks ago we cut out dairy (switched to almond milk instead) and, without going into detail, I'll just say that it was a very good two weeks! Best two weeks she's had since she was exclusively breastfed! But almost none of that "good two weeks" made it into the potty, unfortunately, because for the first time that she could remember, she didn't have to sit and strain for half an hour to get it out...it just came! And took her by surprise...and didn't give her time to get to the potty. But talk about encouraging! Kayden, on the other hand, has seemed pretty discouraged with the whole potty training thing lately. And who could blame her? It's been a year of more accidents than successes. She recently just stopped telling us when she had accidents, wearing her wet pants until we noticed, and that's not cool. So yesterday I suggested that we take a break, go back to diapers, and when she turns 3 (10 days), she will be a big girl and can go back to panties and we'll try again with the whole staying dry thing. She seemed very grateful for the break. (She often tells me "I'm just having a break, Mama.") I'm a little nervous that she will lose what little bit she was trained...but I've also spent most of the past year feeling like success is "just around the corner" and it never was. So at this point I'm willing to take a small step back in hopes of a renewed girl when we start training again. It's been a long road. It's about as different from Levi's training as it could be (he was trained at 21 months within a few days, nights too by 22 months). This experience hasn't made me doubt that early potty training is wrong. I will still try to potty train Maddie before or around her second birthday. But I will make sure that there are no medical issues standing in her way of success. I kinda feel like I've failed Kayden. How could I have missed that for so long? I just hope that, once we have this constipation thing under control, potty training will be fast and easy and that it will build her confidence right back up again!

A peek into my mind as a stay at home mom...

I wrote this last night but figured I would wait until the light of day to see if I still have the guts to share it. Everyone wants to feel like they're good at what they do, and moms are no exception. But when there's no job description or even much time for stepping back for some perspective, it can be tough.

"I always forget just how out-of-it I feel at various points in the first year after having a baby. I go through depression, exhaustion, guilt, lack of motivation, discouragement - and of course love and joy that burst through my chest, and moments of peace too. But those negative ones always take me by surprise and make me feel like I've always been like this and like I always will be. It's hard. Those hormones get to my mind every time. I wish they wouldnt. It's so hard to be a good mom when you don't always feel like you have a clear mind. I feel overwhelmed by stuff and I know that it really shouldn't be getting to me like that. Or the kids will ask to do a simple activity like paint and it'll feel like they've asked me to climb a mountain. Why is it so hard? I don't feel like I'm that tired or draggy. I always pictured myself as the mom who drew no limits when it came to kids and crafts/activities and their creativity. And yet, they're at the stage right now where they need so much help and don't have long attention spans so I barely have time to get them set up and it's time to start cleaning up already because they're done. I also feel like I'm constantly being pulled in at least 2-3 different directions at once. It's not unusual to have supper going on the stove, Maddie crying in her crib because she doesn't want to nap, Kayden at my feet saying "I want you to HOLD me!" and then Levi asking me to watch something or read something or just poking Kayden to get her to scream. In those moments I just feel like it's too much. If I go to Maddie, supper will either burn or be pushed later. If I let her cry, her nap will be even later and it will be harder to get her to sleep because she will be that much more tired. If I let supper go later, I've got two other grumpy kids and chances are, Nathan has a meeting to get to so supper needs to happen at a certain time. I can't very easily hold Kayden while I'm cooking but that's most often when she asks to be held and I don't want her to feel like I always say "not now." Levi is the least of my worries but he's insistent so finally I snap at him then feel bad because all he wanted is a bit of attention. I love the chaos and it also feels like too much sometimes. It makes me feel like I'm losing my mind. How can you love something that makes you so crazy? I don't know.

"Today my one goal was to clean Levi's room. If I'd used quiet time for it, it probably could have taken half an hour. But instead I chose to use quiet time to do some computer stuff which is harder to do while kids are awake. And Levi's room ended up taking all day. Between a couple loads of laundry, getting meals and snacks, reading stories, taking potty, nursing Maddie, putting kids down for naps, feeding animals, burning garbage, dressing kids, changing diapers, doing Kayden's hair...there were only snippets of time here and there to do it. And when the kids are around where I'm working...well, I hold Maddie because she's fussy but then only have one hand to clean. I sort things into piles but the kids always find interesting things in the piles and then they aren't piles anymore. I need to move something across the room and there are little bodies in the way. I also hoped to clean the disaster that is the basement (has been for a month or so) but that didn't get touched. *sigh*

"It's hard to know if you're doing a good job as a mother. Your kid has trouble in school and you wonder if it's your fault. Your daughter is sad and wants to go to bed without lunch - is she just tired or is she sad because you don't spend enough time with her? I try to take time to be attentive to the kids, to read them stories and to listen to them but there's a lot of work to do in running a house too. Some things just need to get done. I try to involve them where I can - baking, cleaning...but they don't always want to do what needs to be done and I sometimes just want to get something done without "help." I wish the lack of accomplishments in a day and the number of piles of clutter were an indication of the time I've poured into my children instead. And while I know that's exactly what the piles and unfinished projects are, I always fear that the kids still feel like I'm too busy. Where's the balance? My work and my life are one and the same. There is no "40 hours a week" when it comes to raising children and making a home. No job description to tell you how you're doing, to measure yourself against. I hope that our children will look back on happy childhoods. I hope that they will be well-adjusted adults. I hope that they will know how much I love them. I hope that they will feel like I always had time for them. The most I can do is try my best every day and hope that I'm not making any huge mistakes. Oh that my children would be able to say:

"We always knew she loved us.
"She always had time to listen.
"We each knew we were her favourite."

I didn't write this for sympathy or in hopes that anything will change. I just know that I often feel alone in this chaos but know that there must be other moms out there who feel the same way. Be encouraged, other moms. Nobody has their life all perfectly together. And if they do, they have children who sleep like angels or they only have one child (because we all know that fewer children automatically means easier - NOT) or they just simply poop unicorns. I'm pretty sure anyone who is a mom feels like their life is running a bit amuck. And I just want all those moms who are falling apart to know that it's ok. And you're not alone.

Madelyn - three months

Aah, our beautiful baby girl is three months old already! She is such a sweetie. These three months haven't been without their frustrations, but there has been so much lov and joy too as we get to know our Maddie!

Maddie is growing like crazy. I did the home-weigh this morning and she was almost 13.5lbs! When I went for her first immunizations earlier this month, she was 11lbs 14oz so she's likely somewhere in between those numbers. She is short and light for her age but height to weight ratio is at 97%! That means she is short and chunky. I love it! And it's normal for exclusively breast-fed babies to be chunky so nothing to worry about. She's wearing 3-6 month clothes and the newborn and 0-3 month clothes are officially packed away.

Madelyn is happy and full of smiles (and even giggles already - tickling and fart noises (thanks Daddy) seem to work best!) most of the time. I'd say that she's a pretty happy baby, even though she cries more than our other two and other people probably see her cry more than laugh. But if she's awake and fed and at home, she's usually happy. She does seem to like being at home rather than other places though. She has screamed inconsolably at places like Superstore, friends' houses, and church when there's nothing obviously wrong except that we're in a strange place. She also might be making strange already. Seems early but all babies are different! Maddie doesn't like loud noises; they usually make her cry. Poor reno baby. The house has been worked on her entire life and it's not done yet! Only floors to go though!!!

Maddie's hair is coming in nicely. She went bald on top in the fist few weeks of her life but now you can't even tell. She has dark hair that is a bit thinner on the back of her head and longer at the nape of her neck. Her eyes are not completely brown but are quite dark and look like they may be headed in that direction. Her skin is so clear, just one "milk blister" by her right eye that has been there since birth or shortly after. Kayden had one in the middle of her forehead right up by her hairline when she was a baby and it eventually just went away so I expect Maddie's will too.

Sleep has been a hot topic this month. While Madelyn gives us decent stretches of sleep once she's asleep, it often takes a fair stretch of time to get her to nod off. She starts acting tired after about an hour of awake time but it's not uncommon to spend 20-60 minutes getting her down for naps and 45-90 minutes for night. She just fights sleep tooth and nail. Most of this month has felt like a big, long sleep battle. That said, she has dropped her 2am feed this month and often is only up at 5am for a feed before waking for the day around 8-9am. She even slept right through the night once this month, waking for the day at 7:30! I was pleasantly surprised! She goes to bed at night anywhere between 7:30-9:30pm, depending on the length of battle on that particular night. The sleep fight has gotten quite a bit better for naps lately as I've learned that putting a blanket over her face speeds up the process immensely. As long as she can see what's going on, she will force her eyes to say open but when she can't see anything, she will give in to sleep much more quickly. She also likes to rub her face in a blanket as she's falling asleep which makes her hard to hold cause it's almost like she's trying to wriggle out of your arms! At night, none of the regular tricks work and it just takes a long time to get her settled. I sure hope I have a different story for you next month! She still sleeps swaddled and on her side. She's become much more sensitive to noise while she sleeps so I've told the kids that whoever wakes her is the one who has to put her back to sleep. She usually naps 3-4 times a day and one of the naps is usually longer than the others (one hour is a short nap, 3-4 hours is a long nap but even 2 hours counts as the long nap of the day).

Stupid fly kept landing on her. Get off my baby!

Levi was my trusty helper, shooing the fly away from his sister during her photo shoot.

Maddie loves her big brother and sister. She smiles for them a lot and whenever they are looking at her, she just stares right back. Levi loves to climb up on the change table when I'm changing her and getting her dressed and talk to her and get her to smile or laugh. Kayden will often be found leaning on the front of Maddie's bouncy seat just talking to her sister. It melts my heart how much they love her. They argue about who gets to hold her first, especially in the morning. And they both like to burp her, though Levi says that she's getting too heavy. I guess she is almost half his weight!

New things Madelyn does as of this month...she can sit in the bumbo fairly well, though she gets tired quickly. She holds her head up with no problem whatsoever. In fact, if you lean her back against something, she will be pulling her head up trying to sit up straight so she can see what's going on. I think it won't be long before she's sitting on her own. Maddie drools a LOT. I don't know that it's teething, but her shirt is always soaked. I've started putting bibs on her cause those are much easier than a shirt to change multiple times a day! Maddie is getting more distracted while I'm nursing her. I'm not too worried about a nursing strike as she doesn't have any other way to eat, but if she took a bottle, I might be a bit nervous that one day she would just prefer the bottle because then she could see what's going on around her a bit better! Maddie holds onto blankets or any fabric that touches her hands. She was starting to do that at the end of last month but I forgot to write about it. :) It's pretty heartwarming when you're changing her diaper and she grabs your arm or sleeve and won't let go!

There's that fly again...arg!

I don't know that Maddie has had many firsts this month. She was in the nursery at church for the first time this month...but I don't know if that counts because I was up there with her! I had my first birthday with 3 kids this month - the big 3-0!

I just LOVE the baby stage and I'm sad to see it going so quickly. At the same time, it is exhausting and I will enjoy being in a bit more of a routine with her naps and night time sleep as she gets older. I love that eating isn't an issue yet. She can't really be picky when there's only ever one thing on the menu! And her smiles are so freely given at this age...it can be much harder to get a smile out of a toddler or preschooler!

Happenings...

It feels like there has been a lot happening in the past month. It has made life feel a little busy but it has also made August feel quite long so that's a plus! I'm always good with summer feeling as long as possible!

Maddie has been growing and changing. She smiles so much and sometimes it almost sounds like a little giggle coming out of her. Around 7 weeks, she decided to be a bit more challenging in the sleep department and it has continued. She can fight sleep unbelievably well. You know she's tired and yet she manages to keep her eyes (or one eye at least) open so she doesn't quite fall asleep. Bedtime used to be a quick 20 minute change, swaddle, feed, bed routine and now it is often an hour or more before she's actually asleep for the night. She still gives good stretches of sleep at night, though, and I'd rather deal with a baby who has trouble falling asleep than a baby who has trouble staying asleep. She's almost doubled her birth weight at 2 months so she's growing well!

Kayden...we found out she needs glasses this month. They had to be ordered and then they were back ordered so we don't have them yet. I took it pretty hard when we found out she needed them, which I didn't expect. But I have since found out that it's actually quite common for parents to have a hard time adjusting to the fact that their young child needs glasses. Who knew? So she should get them in the next couple weeks and then we can start the fun of seeing if she will wear them. With Kayden we are also looking at potty training. I went through the three day potty training back in January and she caught on decently quickly. So she was doing really well from February to April. But at the end of April we started renos which threw our house and schedule into chaos. It didn't bode well for potty training. Then in June Maddie arrived and Kayden's  accidents just became more and more frequent. By the end of the month, if we didn't take her to the bathroom regularly, she would have an accident because she just wasn't telling us she needed to go anymore. She wouldn't even tell us after it happened. She would just keep playing. Talk about frustrating! So anyway, one day in early August she peed on the couch and didn't tell me and that was it. I put her in a diaper and neither she nor Nathan or I have said much about it. She uses the diaper and that's that. BUT...tomorrow is the day that we try again. My thought is that maybe a couple weeks in diapers will have "reset" her and it will all be fresh tomorrow. Levi will be in school because as much as he wants to help, Kayden just doesn't respond positively to his instruction (surprise surprise!). And Friday is Nathan's day off. I'm hoping that by Sunday we can go to church without diapers. Wish me luck!

Levi has started school! His first day of kindergarten was yesterday. He was excited and then I went to drop him off and he was scared but at the end of his first day he was excited to go back so yay! We have a school boy! 

Introducing...

Madelyn Amia McCorkindale

June 22, 2015

6lbs 10oz, 18.6" long

We went in for a scheduled c-section bright and early Monday morning. I wasn't looking forward to the process much (I felt quite sick through the surgery and recovery with Kayden) and this time wasn't much different from last. I did ask for more anti-nausea drugs this time which helped that end of things but then I was pretty drugged for most of the first day. Day 2 was much better and every day since then has been easier and easier in terms of recovery and feeling like myself again. I'm still moving slowly and haven't ventured beyond the front step of the house BUT I'd rather take it easy and go slow than try to rush recovery and have it take longer as a result. 

We all just love Maddie around here. The kids adore her. Most of the time they're too busy to take much time out of their day to pay much attention to her (especially Kayden) but Levi will snuggle up next to me a few times every day and just spend time with me and Maddie. It's pretty special. 

Maddie has been a very content baby so far. She eats well and sleeps well (for a newborn so up often but never for long). She is mostly content when she is awake. I'm hoping this lasts! She is just so sweet! 

Size-wise, she is between Levi and Kayden's birth weights (3oz heavier than Kayden, 1.5lbs lighter than Levi) but the shortest of all 3. Levi was 20.5", Kayden was 19 3/4", Maddie was 18.5"! I was 18" at birth and weighed less than each of my girls so there's a good chance they'll surpass me in size when they get older, but I'm betting not by much! 

I've had a lot of people say that they see a resemblance between Kayden and Maddie. I see it a bit, they're definitely sisters, but I see more resemblance between Maddie and Levi. Kayden had very fine features as a newborn. Tiny eyes, tiny lips, tiny nose. I feel like Maddie has more pronounced features. She has big, beautiful eyes, wider lips, and a more pronounced nose. I'm curious to see her look develop as she gets older. Each of my kids has their own look and each is so beautifully made. It's an amazing privilege to see how God can knit three totally different and totally beautiful children from the same two parents! 

Well, I'm tired and it's feeling late so I'll just throw in a few more pictures and post this baby. Welcome to the world, Madelyn Amia! We're so happy you've joined us!

A little time alone.

Today Nathan needed to head to Regina so he decided to take the kids along for a little "daddy-kid adventure" leaving me with a few hours by myself. This doesn't happen very often. Maybe once every 6-12 months I get a few daytime hours at home by myself? It's lovely. I usually panic about what the best use of my time is. Do I nap? Do I try be productive? Do I dive into something I enjoy and enjoy doing it with no interruptions? Do I try to organize life so it will be that much easier when everyone gets home again? Today I opted for a little of everything! I started out gardening. I planted out a couple house plants to make even the tiniest amount of extra space on my counter (which is full of house plants right now thanks to renos). Then I started a load of laundry...baby clothes and blankets! Hmm...the question that has you all wondering is whether I've dug out the baby BOY clothes or the baby GIRL clothes! Time will tell, my friends. Time will tell. Little baby McCorkindale should be here within a month :) While waiting for the load of laundry to finish, I laid down in bed. I didn't plan to nap but oh, I did! You wouldn't believe how I wrestled with myself about that one! Not so much the fact that I was napping, but my mind and body kept saying "get up! You need to switch laundry so that you can be done before everyone is home! It's 3pm, you need to get Kayden up from her nap! You really shouldn't sleep away your whole afternoon!" But I pushed that voice down and snuggled deeper into my oh-so-cozy bed for just a bit longer. And a bit longer. Amazing, people. Amazing. As I'm laying here, though, being utterly lazy and feeling my hips and ribs turn numb because I haven't turned over in an hour, I'm realizing that this stage of life where I constantly have little ones needing my attention is going to be so short-lived!  I've been in this high demand stage for almost 5 years now but in another 5 years I might be almost out of it! I might be looking at sending my youngest to kindergarten and having every second day to myself! And then the year after that, every day! And life will never be like this again. They just won't need me the same way. And I won't have the constant company around the house. As exhausting as it can be... I'm going to miss it! Sure, our house might be cleaner. (Yes, I said "might!") I will be more rested. I will have more time to do the things I enjoy without being interrupted at every turn. But...but...will this time with my babes at home really be over?? Does it really fly by that quickly? Wow. What a ride this parenting thing is. I'm so thankful for these quiet moments every few months to remember to enjoy this time with my kids at home every day. It's such a short and unique time. I take it for granted and feel like it will last forever but it won't! Man, I need to hug those kids more, before they just push me away and run on to the next thing. Oh wait, that's already happening... :) shoot. Just stay my babies for a little while longer!

Pregnancy and Renos...

Feels like pregnancy and renos are the two big things going on in my life right now. Not that either of them are keeping me particularly busy. Pregnancy isn't really a "busy" thing and when you're pregnant, renos aren't busy either. At least not for me. Nathan has work to keep him busy every waking moment of the day. Between working a full time job, mowing 6-8 hours a week - pregnant wifey tried to help a few weeks ago but that was a mistake, renos with no end in sight, helping me with a few of the things that I can't do right now (putting up pea fences for one), and spraying our yard for dandelions...never mind having some sort of down time and family time...it's been a long month for Nathan already! Hopefully the next month brings the end of bedroom renos so we can ease up a bit with that and enjoy our transition to life as a family of 5 with a bit more down time! I honestly can't believe how fast it's gone. Not so much the pregnancy - this one has been full of "adventures" (more on that later) which has made it feel unpredictable and drawn out. But I think about this time 5 years ago and Nathan and I were still just the two of us. And in 5 short years we have become a family of 5! That's the part that's crazy to me. How quickly a family can grow and change!

As mentioned, pregnancy has been interesting this time around. I feel like my first pregnancy was full of fears and worries but was fairly comfortable as far as sickness and discomfort. My second was higher on the pain scale but not so bad with sickness or fear/worry. And this one has had on and off worries/pain but I feel like I've been more sick this time around than both the other pregnancies combined. Desperately rushed trips to the bathroom in more places I care to know, emergency ultrasound at the beginning, cardiologist appointment, emergency optometrist appointment...it feels like this pregnancy has has soaring hormones that have brought out every weird pregnancy symptom there is. Just goes to show that each pregnancy can be so different! Needless to say, I'm ready to be done with the pregnancy stage and meet this new little one! At around 35 weeks is when I always get really excited and the arrival of a new baby starts to feel much more real. I can start to see the due date on the calendar without flipping so many pages. I can start to think in terms of "only five more Sundays in church before the big day!" Those are the things, for me, that make the arrival feel close. Sure, I've long outgrown my maternity clothes and I can feel little feet and arms inside rather than just whooshing round shapes. Yes, those things make it feel close. But the calendar is what really does it for me. Events are being planned for after the baby's birth (I saw a sign on the side of the road for an auction scheduled to happen after baby's arrival)! And I can't wait until our milk won't expire until after we're home from the hospital! Then I'll really know it's close :)

Well, aside from pregnancy and renos I'm not sure what else is happening. I have much less energy for gardening this year. I've got my seeds in but haven't done anything beyond that. I pull a few weeds here and there around the house but bending down is getting less and less possible (hello heartburn and basketball trapped beneath my ribs). The kids have been great lately. Being able to get outside every day has made a world of difference in their behaviour and attitudes. It's lovely. Levi is such a helpful, smart, and funny four year old and Kayden is an increasingly independent yet still fairly sweet and agreeable two year old. We are STILL dealing with potty regression with her, unfortunately. There is often a small accident these days before she tells us and then finishes on the potty. Some days I feel like we are making progress and then other days, like today, we almost don't have enough shorts/underwear to make it through the day. The regression all started a couple days after renos started which is a month ago now. I totally blame the change (chaos) in our house and routine for the regression but I expected her to bounce back to where she was by now and that just hasn't happened. I'm not sure what to try next. If she doesn't want to sit on the potty and try to go, there is no forcing her. And yet accidents usually come minutes after I ask if she needs to go and she says that she doesn't. She has been dry overnight more in the past month so that gives me hope. But the daytime accidents...oi. So much laundry! We just never had to deal with regression to this extent with Levi, or at least not that I remember. 

Anyway, enough potty talk. Wanna see some pictures??

Wearing daddy's hats, because they're so much better than our own. 

Reading stories together this morning. Levi loves to read to Kayden and I'm pretty sure she doesn't mind one bit. 

"What are we doing, mama? Can we look in the mirror too? Can we? Huh? Can we please?"

35 weeks

Sneak peek at the colour scheme for our new living space!

I hope they're always good friends who choose to play together, even when the park is full of other kids!

Planting the garden. 

What happens after planting the garden. 

Visiting the bunny. The last lone bunny that survived the winter. I think he needs a friend but the kind of friend he won't kill will only result in many, many more friends than he needs...

34-35 weeks...like I said in an earlier post, I take tons of belly pics over the course of a few days and then realize I have a bunch and stop...and then realize a that it's been an entire month since I've taken one so I take a bunch more. I don't do regulation very well, I guess!

Since we are so close to the end now, does anyone care to make guesses on baby's gender?? Leave your guess in the comments, I'm curious to hear what people are predicting!

Renos during pregnancy...why?!

One of the most frustrating things in the blogging world is when you spend half an hour writing out a witty, entertaining post on your phone, only to put your phone down to put your kids to bed and to come back to find that none of it saved. Why on earth would the blogger appnot have an automatic save?? Anyway, now you all get the shorter, less entertaining version!

Why is it that renos often happen in the latter stages of a baby entering a family? Sure, it's probably pretty logical. You need more space, or a more usable space. It's nesting to the extreme: "honey, let's renovate! Oh, except I can't help you really very much at all..." Doesn't quite seem fair, does it? In our case, we are looking for more bedrooms. I'm hoping the baby has their own room by the time he/she arrives, not that they will use it for the first little bit. But I really want to go through the process of getting the baby's room ready...and to do that, we will need to have the older two in their new room(s). It's yet to be determined if they will continue to share a room for a while or if they will have their own rooms right off the bat. 

The first week of renos was done by a crew during the day and Nathan did cleanup in the evenings. By the end of the first week, we had our garage framed in, windows added, a subfloor and ceiling built and bedrooms framed. Since then, we have been working on drywalling the bedrooms and covering the studs in the addition with particle board. Considering this is one of Nathan's busy seasons with work (wind-ups, grads, etc), he hadn't had much time to work on the house. But he has been devoting what little time he has to do what he can. And he also manages to spend some quality time with the kids every day. He's pretty amazing. No complaining either. How great is he? 

Speaking of great...ok, so this is kinda opposite...our house is a wreck right now. We have displaced furniture all over the place and thanks to a spring flood in our basement that happened just as renos got going, we don't even have that space to store the things that fit down the stairs. It's lovely. So now we're not only trying to finish up the upstairs renos, we are trying to eliminate our basement water problems. But once it's done, our list of things that we want to do to this house will be much shorter! And that is just.plain.exciting!

Speaking of exciting...oh wait, opposite day again...Kayden has had some serious potty regression with the chaos of renos. She had been trained for three months and we were at the point of not needing to take along extra clothes when we went out but now we're back to "how many changes of clothes will we need if we're out for 6 hours?" I know that regression happens and that they just need consistency and patience and they'll be right back into their groove before too long. But right now it's discouraging. I just hope that baby's arrival doesn't bring on potty regression #2! 

Speaking of baby's arrival, we should be welcoming baby in 6-7 short weeks! I'm getting so excited to meet this little person. It always becomes more real to me once I can see the date on the calendar and count the number of doctors visits left before the big day! This is actually happening! We're actually going to have three kids! THREE! That's exciting! I'm sure it'll have its moments of "what have we done?" but when I see those sweet little faces...there's no going back :) I thank God for each one of these miracles! 

Crazy renos

The last few days around here have been interesting to say the least! It was one week ago that we heard that renos would be starting on Monday. (Whenever the contractor has time, right??) And now we are in the middle of day four of having our house ripped apart, I mean renovated. 

So far we haven't had too much interruption to our living space as the big part of the reno is a garage conversion and they haven't taken down the wall in between yet. 

This is a before shot of our living room aka "fireplace room." We have since sold the black couch since we won't have space for it anymore and our sectional has been moved in temporarily while renos happen. This room looks basically the same except for furniture and stuff everywhere. It's a mess. 

There is also a big mess outside our front door. The garage door has been taken out and replaced with a window. A much smaller window, obviously, but still a good size!  We have two new south facing windows in the garage and a subfloor has been built. Yay! It's taking shape!

The kids have noticed that something is going on an seem to have been testier than normal, especially the first day or two that guys were here working. As a result, I've had to come up with activities to keep them distracted from bugging each other. And every time they got along for even 3 minutes, I took a picture so I could remind myself that there are good moments happening despite the seemingly unending whining! They really are adorable and delightful when they're getting along!

As of about half an hour ago, we have even less space. Our communal space is now our kitchen and bathroom, because let's face it...when you have young kids, bathrooms are about as communal as the rest of the house! BUT...the end of the construction feels near! There are two bedrooms to be framed and then I believe we mostly just have finishing to do! Oh yeah, and an exterior door is being taken out yet. So siding work needs to be done to patch that hole. And we need to add a ceiling in the garage so insulation can be added. Still lots to do I guess. But it feels so much closer than it was a week ago! I can't wait to see it done! I can't wait to start using our new space! My hope is that things are basically usable before baby comes...

And if I have time for a bit of nesting before the big day, even better!

Pictures

Painting Easter eggs:

Throwing stuff into water is always fun. This is the pond on our yard that shows up every spring:

Cuties getting ready for church:

That's just cute! Can you find Goldbug?

Thankful for two good travellers! This one knows how to entertain herself when her brother is sleeping:

Waiting for daddy to get home from work:

Visiting our sole surviving bunny:

And the latest. I've lost count of weeks. I think I'm closing in on the end of the 29th week? Roughly 10 weeks to go (due end of June):