Life, Lately

Wow, life is big and busy yet small and slow right now.  My day seems slow and dare I say, boring-in-a-good-way, since giving birth.  I'm at home on maternity leave for 6ish weeks and it's just me, Declan, and "Baby Brendan" (always gotta say Baby in the official name according to the resident toddler).  Then everybody else comes home and we're busy til bedtime.

People always want to know how the former baby is dealing with the new baby, and Declan is killing it.  There's absolutely no jealousy, lots of helping hands, and he is relishing his new title of Big Brother.  Big Brother gets to eat lollipops and play outside and wear new sneakers, all the things that little babies can't do.  

Poor little babies ;)

Declan's pooping spot.  But don't ask him if he's pooping, or you will get a very angrily yelled "No I NOT!!!"

The big boys...

...that would be them, have soccer all the time.  Fine, not all the time, but with practices Mon, Tues, Wed and Thurs, and games on Sunday, it feels like it!  Maggie and Xander have games on Saturdays (they are in two different leagues) and their practice schedules are to be announced. 

He doesn't hate it as much as last year.  #winning

 Having a newborn at the start of fall soccer season wasn't my best plan.  Oh wait, I didn't plan it :)

School began on the baby's due date (thank God he was a few days early!) and we now have:

An 8th Grader

A 6th Grader

A 4th Grader

A 3rd Grader

And a Kindergartner

2016-2017

I am very thankful that these five are all at the same Catholic school for the last year.  Next year, JP will be at our Catholic high school (where Phil and I work) and Declan will be in preschool with the rest of them.  One out, one in.  Once maternity vacation ends for me, Declan and Brendan will be going to a home daycare of one of my very best friends (hi Michelle!).  We are lucky to have a great place to send them to be faux mothered while I'm at work.  I will miss being with their little faces and bodies all the time though :(

Moving on to way less important things.

In order to feel productive, I have been napping waaaaaaay less than a postpartum mom should, and cleaning out dressers instead.

Baby Brendan was helping me clean and organize.

It just feels so good to get rid of kid's clothes.  The five school age kids all wear uniforms anyway, so how many t-shirts does a uniformed kid need?  The answer is ten.  Two jeans.  Six shorts.  Etc, etc, etc.

They all come home from school and want to hold Baby Brendan.  Of course I make them wash their hands/take a shower/change their clothes first because I'm growing increasingly neurotic about germs the more children I have.  More kids = more puke to clean.

So this is big news...

See that construction and those cute construction workers?  Well, we live in a two family house, and my parents are moving in downstairs!  They sold their house and are remodeling the entire downstairs before they move in for good.  We're all so excited!  My Dad is grateful that his hearing loss will come in handy when they live below our family of nine :)  Trust me, there's plenty of times when I wish I could just lower the volume on my invisible hearing aid too.

Seemingly overnight, the weather went from this:

...to this:

 And just like McDonald's, dadadadada I'm loving it!  The littles are awake, so see ya later!