10/11 Months as a Lewman 3.0

Happy 2016!

I think I will always remember this month when I look back at the “younger years”.  It was my most emotionally strained month as a Mother.  Between repeated child illness, broken legs, house flooding, work stress and not having any time to myself while making a home open to family for the holidays…it nearly broke me.  I didn’t really know it at the time because I was just focused on getting through the next hurdle but once the tree was down, the kids were healthy, the basement was unoccupied and work calmed down, I realized how hard it was on me.  Then 2016 happened and it was sunny, then snowed, and like that I snapped out of it and moved on to enjoy the daily annoyances and smiles of the ups and downs of life.

Sums them up.

December was a hard month on Delaney too.  She had two colds, a bronchial infection and pink eye (on Christmas).  She wasn’t eating well, cried a lot and was irritable most of the time.  It was so disheartening looking at her wondering when she would be healthy again and I had a hard time remembering what that looked like on her.  Emmy was having issues sleeping – would wake up with night terrors or have an accident or need to go to the bathroom or want to be with us.  It was so difficult to watch these little people work through these normal things on their own.  I will say that Christmas was magical though.  This year was certainly all about Emmy.  She had the big haul with a handmade 4 ft repurposed jewelry box made with perfect sized, barely adhesive choking hazards for Delaney, a scooter made for a 12 year old {boy},  a Rapunzel dress when she wanted an Aurora dress,  and all kinds of jewelry and clothes that she has already broken and/or ruined.  Hayden, graciously let her take the spotlight on Christmas morning and Delaney just ate tissue paper.  She truly is the middle child struggling to keep the attention.  So, we obliged. We got to see the kids in their crazed, twitching with excitement bodies for hours.  For whatever reason my Mom and I tag teamed Tye’s birthday/Christmas presents theme as “Builder Bob”with a new drill, drill bits, and a tool belt.  He made the comment (in true Tye hilarity fashion) “I don’t think you guys know what I do, I am in sales – not a contractor!” Then we had mimosas and momentarily forgot about all the illness and wet flooring we had in the basement and enjoyed the day.

The Lewman Five

Because of the unwanted water in our basement - we had to move Hayden upstairs and cut off access to the play room and the main TV of the house.`And I have learned there are a lot of frustrating things about compacting 5 people into 1,300 square feet of living quarters, mostly all congregating in our room 80% of the time.  Every day I have to figure out where I am going to get dressed and which toy would be the least painful/most quiet to step on.  It is either one of three things on the TV; football, The Odd Squad or The Great British Baking Show because 1/5 of us is always trying to go to sleep.  The bed sheets now have marker on them.  There are umpteen thousand mismatched socks of all sizes strewn about. There are snout marks on the windows, I am still not sure who's DNA it is.  And Delaney’s room is stuffed with a full size bed and 12 year old boy with his shoes/clothes/socks/books/laptop cords/headphones/homework papers/boysmell…it’s now Haylaney’s room. I think by her 1st birthday she should have ownership again.  With all of that said, I love that all of us are together and on the same floor.  At the end of the day when I lay down and close one of my eyes – I feel like all is right in the world.  We are all safe and I can hear everyone breathing and when they get up to pee in the night ☺ Looking forward to having our play area back but will be slightly sad Hayden goes back downstairs to his room.

Oh, the snuggles.

D weighs about 20 lbs and reaching 29” – she’s wearing 12 month clothing and just starting to wear shoes.  I cannot wait to see what that little figure looks like in a bathing suit this summer!  She’s already bikini ready.  Delaney has been hitting so many milestones now that she’s recovered from her 3 month ailments.  She’s smiley and happy and loving again.  She’s still struggling with being held by anyone but Mom and Dad but we’re pretty good at passing her to family when we need a break!  I was concerned that she wasn’t interested in baby food/solid foods or even PUFFS but then one day – BAM, she was into it!  She loves them all!  Now we are finally giving her bigger chunks of soft food, she's eating like she’s angry and killing the puff game.  Still nursing but now that she’s exploring more food we will probably start weaning in the next couple months.  It will be nice at work to not make two trips down to the basement anymore.  She has the most adorable nod that she’s sporting these days.  “Can Mama have a kiss?!”… no, with a fast shake of the head and a smile.  She's not a real belly-laugher.  Maybe it means she will be one of those people that only laughs at super hilarious material…and doesn’t have time for the day-to-day giggles. Although she does go into hysterics with Emmy fake spitting in her face - which then makes me think she doesn't understand humor at all...only time will tell.

And finally – my little lady is walking.  She is officially – not a baby anymore.  Heartbreaking and heartwarming all at once.  I love to watch her advance and hate to see her grow.  With Emmy I would look at everything as firsts, with Delaney I look at everything as lasts.  Which is no way to be but that’s just how it is.  That hair just doesn’t want to grow either.  She’s got a strong party in the back and not much on top.  Which was the way I was as well and now I have tons of hair - so I am sure we'll see it come in within the next 35 years.  I’ve already been sworn to not give her the famous “Emmy bangs”…I thought they were cute!!

 Miss Delaney Rae will be 1, a month from today which means only 1 more blog!  Bittersweet.   Here’s the last two months of  photos in a nutshell.

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