That Time...

 

And here's where I dump a bunch of pictures I'm not sure where else they fit, but worth sharing nonetheless...

 

There was the time Rudy and Avery spent an amazingly long time laughing nonstop, trying obsessively to perfect riding on Dad's back together:

The time Avery would then sit on Ben and I'd go to stop her, only to be stopped by Ben's uncontrollable laughter:

The time I followed a tip from ..somewhere?.. and made a quick game of organizing shapes/colors into marked envelopes on the kitchen cabinets and the kids were surprisingly peaceful for 5 minutes:

The time we played Connect Four over and over, simply taking turns making a row of colors, or a pattern of some sort (and I started to get glimpes of the three playing together):

The time I actually took a picture of just Ben:

And the time I actually included Rufus in a picture:



The time we visited Dad at the Firehouse and Ben made it out of his carseat carrier:

The time (make that all the time) we went to Scheels and the kids race to the moose and bear chairs and ask for their picture to be taken:

The time Rudy became obsessed with cutting paper.  I started drawing lines on paper, just so he could cut them out.  He surprised me one day when he asked for glue and proceeded to glue his strips together and explain to me that he made a ladder, "just like Dad uses": 

The time I tried to get a good picture of the three stacked on top of each other.  What was I thinking?  I can't manage them siting next to each other!  Rudy and Avery found it hilarious that Ben kept rolling off:

That time this happened:  A GOOD HOME PICTURE!

Rudy and Avery are only laughing because I pretended to fall off the bench that was sitting in front of the bed.  Ben's smile would turn to concern... at least someone cares for me :)

That time our sleep schedules went to complete heck.  The flood really really threw us off.  I used to be such a schedule-follower, and it worked.  But moving so many times and the disarray that was our life, we were a mess... 

No one wanted to sleep or even fall asleep in their own rooms and I didn't have it in me to force a sleep training regime knowing we wouldn't be there long...

Ben did great sleeping in his crib upstairs, unfortunately the other two wouldn't leave me (or each other) alone long enough to get him settled and down to sleep.

Ipads became a clutch, and our bed was taken over most nights... 

Good news is they have learned to fall asleep just about anywhere... certainly makes traveling and/or babysitters easier.

Naps were not always successful and I spent a lot of afternoons loading them all up in the car and driving around town.  We were in the market for a new house, so I had lots to explore.  And the car usually put everyone to sleep!

In the evenings I was usually able to get Ben to fall asleep while the kids watched a movie in the living room and could take him up to bed.  Then I'd lay (and usually fall asleep) with the other two in my bed.  I would typically set an alarm so I could get up and work a few hours while they were in bed, since I had lost any chance of that during naptimes.  Here's an idea of what I'd come back to:  

It got so ridiculous some nights that I couldn't help but take a picture.. look at those wing-spans...

Unfortunately, bad sleep doesn't help stress.  And stress doesn't help sleep.  Let's just say I'm so happy these sleep habits are over!