Breakfast At Our House

If there's one thing I'm not screwing up every day, it's breakfast... 
I have a love/hate relationship with breakfast time. I love it because it's the start of a new day surrounded by two, of the three dudes, I like most. Rad's right by my side, the entire time, helping me pour the corn into the pan, stirring the oatmeal, pressing the buttons on the blender, or just giving the kitchen table a good old fashioned scrub down as he sprays cleaner (all natural) over and over again, wiping it with his soaked paper towel. He repeats, "Daddy made a BIG mess of this table last night, huh!?" Yes, Rad. Yes he did ;) And if he's not down for a snooze, I'm usually wearing Evy Boy in the LuLu Wrap, trying my best not to splash water in his face while I do the dishes.
For the same reason I love breakfast, I also hate it. It's multitasking at it's finest. Some days my brain feels like it might just explode! And finishing anything? Just getting the bacon from the fridge to the oven can take twenty minutes with helper Rad needing me to help him with this, or move that for him, or Everest's passy boy falling to the ground, and the freakin' smoke alarm going off for the 20th time because it's positioned directly over the oven (that "beep" will kill me one of these days...) But you know what? It's all worth it for that hot breakfast.
We make the same thing every single morning... "Corn, tatoes, bacon, and soothie", as Radcliff says, and now we've added oatmeal after a friend told me it that it helps with milk supply (it reeeeally does!). We get the corn, bacon, gluten-free oatmeal and hash browns from Trader Joes. I love shopping there because they have nitrate free bacon and turkey bacon (we rotate these), their fozen corn tastes so fresh (don't bother with frozen corn aywhere else, it always gets stuck in your teeth), and their hash browns are to die for. I also love their gluten-free oatmeal. Even if you don't eat a gluten-free diet, it's so much better than regular oatmeal. Our smoothies consist of frozen fruit (we switch it up), avocado, spinach, coconut milk, in the carton and can (again, Trader Joes thick, creamy coconut milk in the can is truly what heaven's got to be made of!), chia seeds, flaxseed (another food that's supposed to help your milk supply), and then kifir. 
As big of a pain in the butt as it can be to make such a production out of breakfast, I figure, even if we don't have the best lunch or dinner, at breakfast time alone, we've gotten most of our fruits, veggies, proteins, and good fats in for the day that we need. And (it's a big AND!), I've never really understood how people eat cereal, or toast and feel good throughout their day. It's not a judgement, it's honestly something I don't get. If I eat a breakfast like that, I feel lethargic, I don't have energy, my stomach hurts, and I'm hungry like an hour later. So... I challenge all of you to make an effort to eat a big, warm, healthy breakfast every morning and see how you feel. Plus, as you can see, it really brings the family together too. 
I thought it needed to be documented so I can always remember these happy-crazy breakfast memories when I'm older. As stressful as this first part of the day can be, I know I'll miss having Thing 1 and Thing 2 by my side, in 30 years, when I'm still making the same damned thing.

Life With Two!

You like how my phone just spit up the last six weeks in pictures? Ask me if I've taken one with my real camera. Nope... And now let's talk about how long it has taken me to finally take a minute to write down the blur that is the last six weeks of my life. Two kids is completely nuts. Seriously, I never stop. Like ever...

But before I bitch (I need other moms to validate my feelings!), I want to write a little bit about my Bear guy. He is such a little sweetheart. We laugh at him all day. He pulls the craziest faces and is constantly, and I mean constantly, farting. It's so dang funny. He's starting to smile more and more and makes a cute little noise when he does it. I just melt! The two dimples on his cheeks are to die for and I kiss them all day long! We think his eyes will for sure either be blue or green which will be fun to have another color to add to the family. He's been having some bad face days lately. Baby acne's got the best of him and he's super embarrassed. We just load him up with concealer every morning and that seems to be doing the trick ;) And to top it off, he's losing the hair on the top of his head, but not on the sides. He needs a toupe. Poor Bear. He's getting bigger and bigger by the day. He is six weeks old and already fits into a lot of three to six month old clothing. He's the best dang nurser around and I just laugh, because if I nurse him for as long as I did Rad, I will have nursed for four and a half years straight. My poor boobs. He loves his passy-boy (halleigh fricker!), baths, being swaddled, and older brother Rad, even though Rad will kill him one of these days. I'm so thankful for another beautiful, healthy, strong boy. We are so lucky! And so excited to watch these two hooligan brothers grow up together. Although Rad can be brutally not gentle, bless his two year old boy self, he is so sweet with Bear, and loves him so much already!
Now let's talk about how insane my life has been. The first two weeks after we brought Bear home were incredible. I thought, "Oh my gosh! This is seriously not that bad." Why would it have been though? He slept all day long! It was after he woke up things got crazy up in her. 
Let me describe my day to you, in a nut shell. The hood-rats wake up. I bring them both into bed with me and nurse Bear, and then toss Rad a chocolate milk baba. Yes, I just started giving Rad bottles at almost two and a half years old to ease the pain of being weened the day Bear was born. Poor Rad, only not. He got the boob for two years and three months. I know, insane. I look at him now, and seriously laugh that he nursed a month ago. He's huge and speaking not only in full sentences, but in full long conversations, as we like to say. Let's hope he doesn't remember the boob? PTSD, man. Anyway, I feed Bear in the zombie like state I usually am in, nodding off the whole time, while Rad drinks his bobs, and watches Mater's Tall Tales for the 78,999 time. And then the remainder of the day is as follows (and not in any particular order): eat, poop, sleep, pick up the pieces (literally and figuratively), play, clean, get frustrated, feel love, feel guilty, wanna cray, laugh at them and laugh that this is my life... start all over again. And again. And again, And again, All day, everyday. It never ends, does it?! 
But honestly, the last couple weeks have finally been going really smoothly. I feel like I'm getting into the groove of things. We are all getting a lot more sleep, thanks to Babywise, and a more rational and well rested Savannah is emerging. I have been making an effort to do little things throughout the day that I love, even if I feel like I don't have time to. Like I've started showering, putting on makeup, and getting dressed, no matter what, every morning. Seems pretty routine right? Wrong. Ha! But I need to feel like I'm taking care of myself. I blast music and we dance while we make breakfast, Bear strapped onto me in the Lulu wrap, and Rad getting "bizzy" as he spins and spins and spins. We take drives and plan lots of outings and listen to more music in the car, and I hit a gym class at night when Wren gets home. I drink lots and lots of water regardless of how hard it is to just make it to the freakin' fridge to fill up my beloved hospital mug, and I make healthy meals to eat. And Wren and I have been trying to have at least an hour with just the two of us at night. That was a really hard part of all of this for me... I'm fine giving and giving and giving to my two dudes all day long, so long as I have a little bit of alone time with Wren everyday. But since we were both so tired we'd just crash after we'd put them down, and day after day of that was just hard. But anyhow, things are on the up and up! I keep reminding myself that this is just a season and to try and enjoy sweet little Bear as much as I can. He's only this little for a second. It's just so hard to enjoy anything, no matter how adorably squishy they are, when you're butt-nasty tired. 
Send good vibes my way that Bear will only start sleeping longer and longer, and Rad will be as gentle as he can with him, and that I can remain patient, AND that Rad and I will never, ever get our periods at the same time again. Emotions have run wild over here, I tell you! Things are so great when I can just stay patient. And in the meantime I'll be resisting urges, as always, to not make out with both my boys. No matter how much work they are, I'm just so terribly in love with both of them and think they're both just way too ridiculously handsome. But Wren? I'll make out with Wren because it's appropriate, and especially because it's been six weeks ;) SNAP!