When I thought the worst part was over

It has been a few days without updates.
It has been a few tough days (primarily nights I guess) and updating the blog has not been a priority.
Surviving, has.
However, it is far from as bad, miserable and desperate as it might sound.

Alex left Friday for a hunting trip with a friend. Just for the weekend. I was looking forward to being "home alone", which I really enjoy every now and then. I obviously know that I'm far from being alone (with my three little boogers in the house) but it is a different feeling when you are the only adult at home and the kids still sleep more than I do (who doesn't! ;-) so I do get some alone time at night. Little did I know what was waiting me.



Playing Timber Friday night. Marlee won!

Gabriel slept very bad both nights and woke up every or every other hour. In addition to that I had one leaking diaper in our bed the first  night and one incident of throwing up in our bed the second night. We have very clean sheets now... 

Noah has been a little under the weather lately and it got really bad on Sunday when his ears started hurting very badly. He was crying and complaining and the only thing I could do was to sit on the couch holding him. Painkillers did not seem to help and he really did not want me to touch the ears or put something warm on etcetera. He finally went to sleep on the couch and I sat there with him until he woke up. It was a totally different Noah who woke up! He still had a pretty bad cold but was playing, running and laughing! What a relief!!



Hurting ears!

You might think that it was a bad weekend for Alex to be gone, and I guess it was in a way, but I was still happy to get my alone time and we had so many good moments too - fish for dinner Friday (Alex does not like fish) and Marlee loved it! He even had the left overs for lunch the day after. Marlee worked on a Lego "creature" the whole day Saturday and did so good!! Noah was happy organizing cars :-) The weather was gorgeous and we enjoyed some good time outside walking and biking. When things got so bad with Noah's ears Marlee was at a friend's house (who's mum had already offered to help me out and picked up Marlee earlier) and Gabriel was sleeping good so I could really focus on Noah. It was like things worked out pretty good in the middle of all the sorrows :-)



Building lego



Marlee's lego "creature"



Car organizing



Blowing bubbles





So did Alex come home and save me? Well not really, he was feeling really sick, too, and last night (Monday) was the worst. So was Gabriel. Just when I thought he was getting better and the worst part was over! He kept crying and crying at night and could not go to sleep. I ended up sitting on the couch with him all night, some times sleeping, sometimes crying from pain. When it was time to get up and get Marlee ready for school I just could not convince myself that school was more important than me trying to get some more rest before everyone woke up, so I texted his teacher and explained our situation. Also, I really did not want to put Gabriel in the car seat screaming even more. He does not like to go in the car! We all ended up staying home until the afternoon when we went to a park to see a friend and her boys. We had a great time with clear blue sky and strong winds.



Considering this was the first time I had to actually just sit and hold one of my children because he was feeling so bad and that it was actually the first night where I had to spend the whole night sitting (not lying) on the couch, I still feel very lucky! Some parents do that A LOT more! BUT it is still very hard when you are in the middle of it. 

Now I'm lying in bed anxiously waiting to see what this night will be like...

Beautiful, beautiful day!!!

So it has been a few days since my last update. Nothing special has happened. I have had a few "playdates" at home and at the playground and all our every-day-things. The Volvo needed to go to the car shop for a day to get fixed.

 

Today, however, was a gorgeous day!! While Marlee and Noah were at pre school I went for a walk on the beach with a friend, and Gabriel in the stroller and it was so beautiful. It was actually the first time I walked the beach without Marlee and Noah and it was nice to walk in an "adult pace" and talk with an adult about adult things for a change :-) But I did not get enough of the beach and the sun so after I had picked up Marlee and Noah they got to pick "snacks on the beach" or "Mac n cheese at home". The choose the first option, luckily! We had a great time on the beach even if we did not bring anything but snacks from Walgreens with us, no towels, no swimsuits and no toys. The only thing we were missing was pappa, who was at home working.

Well, we could not have fun chilling on the beach all day and both Marlee and Noah were awake a lot last night, for some reason, so we could all need some good rest. I never expected them all to go to sleep at the same time but I manage to do that, including myself and we all slept for three hours!!! I woke up by Gabriel at six, starving! With no dinner plans in mind and both me and Alex starving we decided to get Burger King :-) It ended up being a very good night, with burgers and a board game with the whole family (that does not happen very often), to a gorgeous day!

 

Am I not he cutest you have ever seen!!??

Just cleaned off cradle cap (skorv) with baby oil

Big helper!

We got some yummy bread made!

We should always keep the swim trunks in the car apparently! :-)

 

 

 

 

Fun day!

Saturday - Alex's day off so we have had family time. Today that meant working on a "chill room" in the garage and letting the boys drive Noah's car in the drive way. Marlee also went with Alex and Owen to get a ping pong table :-) Of course we had our weekly meal at chick file as well!

Gabriel's "sleep all night" thing was a one hit wonder and he is back to sleeping medium good, which means waking up 1-3 times a night. Good enough for me event though it was wonderful to sleep for the whole night!!!!

My rock star!!

Marlee's bird feeder. I can't help but associating it with something else... It might not be too obvious in a picture however...

Gabriel is very good at turning from back to belly, not so much the other way around..,

Organized chaos

I had Marlee staying home today because of a cough he has. It's not very bad but it gets worse when he gets exited or talk a lot. We ended up building a train track and looking for fabric at Jo Ann fabric. It always look like a complete chaos in our house when the train track and mega blocks/Legos are taken out. But it's not! How else should you play with these toys!? 

It still stresses me out to have such a messy house with things every where but I'm getting better everyday. I struggle every day with ignoring or accepting it (Alex seems to be a natural, and was probably born that way ;-) I mean I will most likely live like this for the next 10-15 years and it is such vaste of time and energy to stress about it, I just have to convince myself that it is just an organized chaos and not a mess!

Great shopping at Jo Ann earlier today and I'm so happy to have a sewing machine!!!

Talk about a GOOD morning!!

IAfter updating the blog last night all the boys fell asleep and I started making a wall calendar that I've been planning to do for a while (I regret not asking my Swedish Santa for one for Christmas (my parents) but maybe it's not too late?? Hint! Hint! :-) Well, anyways, I did that, as well as played scrabble with Alex and his cousin Owen, who is staying here at the moment (the boys adore him!!!) (I finally totally crushed them by the way :-) and ended staying up until 1:30. I got so engaged in the calendar making and it is so fun!!! So I expected to wake up extremely tired and maybe having to "waste" the morning napping (if Gabriel would let me) while Marlee and Noah are at pre school. The next thing I know is my alarm going off in the morning. Gabriel had slept the whole night!!!!! And so had I, except for a tiny break when Marlee came into us. Noah has slept the whole night in his bed, too. The longest Gabriel has slept before is about 4h accept for the one time on IKEA when he slept for five hours. I feel so good! It did make me a little worried though so I had to wake Gabriel up and feed him before waking up the other boys :-D 

Whale spotting with our Swedish visitors!!

Great day! Started out slow with a late breakfast and some cleaning. Around lunch time some Swedish friends from outside Orlando came to visit us. A mum with her daughter (one day! older than Marlee) and son (just turned three). The kids had so much fun! We walked down to the beach and while the kids were running in the water the mums spotted something BIG out in the ocean. It came up to the surface over and over again for as long as we were down there. After doing some googling we believe that it was a Right whale and it seems to be only 490 of them I think. Amazing!!!!!! Now Marlee is passed out, Noah will hopefully be soon and Gabriel, too. 

Noah did not think that he needed a nap...

Pine cone hunting

When picking up Marlee and Noah at pre school one of the teachers mentioned that they are looking for pine cones to make bird feeders with. I quickly suggested that me and the boys could look for some in the forest. So we did. And we found lots of them! I'm not sure that they will serve good as bird feeders but they surely served good as treasure hunting reason. Great walk in the forest!!!

Why did we have such a good day?

I have had a very good day today, ie I have had patience, and I wonder what made this day so good? It surely did not start out brilliant. The morning kind if past without me noticing and I ended up brushing my teeth at 12:30. Why! Simply because Noah pooped twice (in his diaper), Marlee pooped once (on the toilet, but I still need to assist in the end), Noah broke a glass, Gabriel nursed and barfed on my clothes. All things, which are totally normal with three kids in the house but they take time! We did manage to eat a nice breakfast in between all of this and it never made me stressed (on a "less good" day it probably would have). Gabriel has been unhappy all day and not slept as good as he normally does. The weather has been grey and rainy. Both Marlee and Noah was in a very bad mood by dinner time and through a fits because I boiled all the binkeys at once (Noah) and because I did not serve Mac n cheese for dinner  (Marlee) but pasta bolonaise. I still put Noah and Marlee to bed in a good mood and they were both happy (while Alex was fixing a broken toilet). So why did I manage to deal with our every-day-tasks so well today? Did I wake up at the right time? Did I drink coffee at the right time? Did I eat better? Oh, wow, I wish I knew, and I would do it tomorrow again!! What I do know is that "our" bad days are bad because of me and not because of my boys, even though I'm sure that they play a little role, too :-) ❤️❤️❤️

Beanies for my boys

Learned to sew beanies yesterday :-D Monster jam for the boys!

Gabriel 3 months old already!!!

I can't believe that this little charming, smiling booger is already a quarter of a year old!!! He is such a happy little boy (except when being in his car seat or alone/not carried) and he sleeps very good now. Still wakes up a few times during the night but gies to sleep by himself in the stroller, which is amazing!

Almost a heart attack!!!

Yesterday when Marlee came riding his bike I saw something moving on his front wheel. Then I saw that it was a snake (I'm sorry to say that snakes really, REALLY scares me!!!)!!! I tried to calmly tell Marlee to get off his bike. Not sure I succeeded with being calm but he got off and I did not seem to scare him nor Noah. After some phone calls and googling we figured out that it was a copper snake, which is really poisonous. That did not make me feel any better!

Well, long story short.. Animal control came and it turned out to be a corn snake, harmless and actually a good pet.. It was such a relief!! But I still don't like snakes!

Today both Marlee and noH had school. Gabriel and I went grocery shopping and then we all went to a playground with a friend and her two boys. The kids had so much fun and the weather was gorgeous! Tomorrow is supposed to be cooold!  All three boys fell asleep in the car on the way home sand Noah and Marlee continued sleeping in the house. We finished the day with dinner with farmor who is going back to Miami tomorrow. 

Uncle Doug's birthday!

Monday (yesterday), was Uncle Doug's birthday so me and the boys drove up there to visit him and Aunt Jackie. Their great grandchildren Seth and Silas was there, too, and Marlee and Noah had a great time with them. They are such sweet boys! It was very good to see them all and the car ride up and down went fairly smooth. Gabriel is still not happy about being alone in a car seat but he slept most of the time luckily.

 

Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday to you!

 

Today was Marlee's first day at pre school after the Christmas break and tomorrow Noah is going, too. Hope he has forgotten about Santa's visit there!!! Now it is time for me and Noah to go to a playdate at the park. Gabriel is coming, too, of course!

 

Nice day!!

Yesterday was kind of "my" day. Alex took Marlee and Noah in the morning so that I could sleep in. Then he and his cousin went out with them to visit some stores and have lunch while I got up late and had a slow, peaceful morning :-) Marlee spent some time with farmor while Noah napped and I did some sewing (pillow covers for the boys)

Later at night I had dinner out with a friend. Gabriel was with me but slept the whole time :-) I really needed a day like this to charge my batteries and now I'm back at full speed again!

Today (Sunday) I went to a park/playground by the beach with a friend and her daughter in the late afternoon. The kids played in the playground and in the water. They had so much fun! We even saw dolphins close to the shore just before the sun set which was really exiting! Unfortunately I did not get any picture of the playing or the dolphins but I did get a picture of a real cutie who loves to suck on his hands now :-)

Farmor made us a very yummy turkey dinner after the park. Noah has become such a picky eater. He does not even want to try most food and would just rather eat plain pasta and bread all day every day. He finally agreed to eat some food (when the rest of us was already eating dessert) since he would not get any ice cream otherwise. He is so stubborn! And he does not even get upset or sad about it, he just sits in his chair and says "not good". He refused to even try the hash browns (råriven stekt potatis) I made for lunch so he did not eat much real food today, just breakfast and some fruits in the park. Everytime he wants something now he says "me...", like "me apple juice", "me animal cracker", "me water", "me ice cream". He is so funny!

Time to sleep!

Happy New Year (resolution)

I hardly dare to tell you what my new year resolution was, but it was to update the blog more frequently, more often... and it is already the third... I am not going to make any excuses but continue with my resolution and not let this bad start stop me. I believe that that it was you should do with any goal, mission etc you have. DO NOT THE SMALL MISTAKES, FAILURES STOP YOU, BUT LET THEM ENCOURAGE YOU TO DO BETTER!

 

Let me start by giving you a short review of our last days of 2014.

Marlee and pappa went on a kayak trip before leaving Miami and they saw so many cool things, such as sting rays and crocodiles.

 



All boys watching my Swedish cleaning program. Wow am I smart, I will never have to clean again! ;-) Though, I wish they would talk about cleaning up toys, too...

Gabriel is sleeping so good now! The last two days has been a little less good but still fine. I am trying to stay off dairy products to see if it helps but chocolate........................

Painting Christmas presents - bird houses. They are not yet finished but I will show you when they are (I had to make them take a break when it all started to turn brown, when they try to mix all the colors together... Why do [my] kids always do that?)

And here comes 2015!!! HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!

And happy birthday morfar!!!

The boys are just as wonderful, cute, full of energy, misbehaving, curious, entertaining, loud, great and awesome as last year! Well Noah, the angel, has started to disobey a little more than before, guess he could not be an angel forever...

 

Noah in his new helmet. It is size 5-8yo... I can wear it, too! Must be a big brain of sweetness in there!

 

 

We had a very good New Years Eve with some friends here for dinner and fireworks on the beach. Even if the wind made it very difficult to light them. Marlee and his friend Lexi really enjoyed the beach and the fireworks. Noah stayed with me and Lexi's mum, Kathie, on a safe distance. He fell asleep in Kathie's arms :-)

 

On New Years day it was time for the yearly Polar bear splash (or something like that). Me and the boys watched it last year and this year me and Marlee decided to join. Farmor was brave enough to come, too! :-) The weather was far better this year, and the water was probably warmer. I expected it to be freezing but it did not even hurt and me and Marlee even enjoyed jumping in the waves. Not for very long though.

 

Marlee LAST YEAR

Noah LAST YEAR

 

And this video is taken by farfar, this year, 2015. Me and Marlee are on the very left, me in dark blue swim suit and Marlee and dark shorts. He is running on the beach part of the video.