The crazy, not quite lazy, but wonderful week...

I cannot believe it has been over two weeks since Mandalen was born!  Time is racing by, and it would seem there is nothing I can do to slow it down :)  We took her into the doctor this week for her 2 week check up.  She not yet back up to her birthweight...she's only 9 lbs 8 oz.  The doctor wasn't too worried about it since she was so big to start out with.  He says bigger babies sometimes take longer to get back up to their birth weight, but like a first time mom I am of course stressing!  He knows I have a really hard time with nursing in the beginning, so he almost looked afraid to ask if I thought I could feed her one or two more times a day :)  It was a little thing, but it made me feel good to know he even remembered, and that he cared.  We've worked in a couple more a day, so I'm hoping when I take her back in this week for a weight check, it has made a difference.

This was Bryan's first week back to school.  It went a little better than I thought thanks to lots of help from family, friends (THANK YOU everyone!!!), and my kids, but wow.  Sidenote:  Whoever said that it's all the same after 3 kids is, in my mind, a bit of a liar :)  Not to worry, I am not bitter, but wow...what an adventure trying to figure out how to balance everything like giving equal (or at least somewhat fair) attention to each child, cooking, diapering, nursing, potty breaks, playing, not acting too stressed out even though I kinda am, cleaning (this has been the first to go I'm afraid), listening, lecturing, making time for hugs (you may laugh, but I have to consciously remember to do this sometimes!), gardening, reading, praying, and all of the other things that I think I need to accomplish in a day but rarely actually do.

I do have to give a little shout out to my kids though, especially Zerin.  They have all really stepped up in a big way to help me, and Zerin has gone way above and beyond.  He is always the first to run to my aid when I've forgotten a diaper, or need an extra set of hands, or eyes, or both.  And he never complains about it!  The most heroic thing he did for me this week was when I took Mandalen to the doctor (which is just a few blocks from our house) I realized I forgot our PKU packet.  So, Zerin, being my knight in shining armor, ran all the way home, found the packet, and ran all the way back within 10 minutes.  He is so loving towards all of the kids, but especially his two littlest sisters.  He is going to make a wonderful daddy someday.  Every mother should be so lucky.  I don't know that I have ever felt so grateful for him as I have this week.

I have one more week to get things figured out before the real fun starts once the kids go back to school.  I ventured out a couple of times and that went pretty well.  Not that I was able to get out the door before noon, but at least we made it, right :)  If clothes are on, hair is combed, teeth are brushed (this is occasionally optional lately), and everyone is fed...that is how I am measuring success at this point.

Bryan celebrated his 34th birthday this week.  Finally...he's as old as I am ;)  Both of our moms were able to be there along with Marné which was a lot of fun.  Zerin took this picture of Bryan looking at one of his presents.  I was a little impressed!

Belen got her little hot pink cast on Wednesday.  She is so adorable in it :)  She is getting frustrated enough with her immobility that she's slowly starting to crawl around.  It's a walking cast, so she could walk, but I think she's pretty scared about it hurting still.  We'll see how far her frustration pushes her to work past that in the next little while.  She's a lot more frustrated than usual, but I can't blame her...she's such a go-er...this has to be killing her to not only be so immobile, but also knowing she is missing out on a lot of what the older kids are doing.  A little less than 3 weeks to go :)

The kids went to my Mom's on Friday for a sleepover.  Her and my sister really spoiled them, taking them to the fair, making homemade waffles, and of course putting all the couches together to make this amazing fort!   If you look closely, you can see all 4 of the kids hiding in there :)

So here's to the last week of summer....what a summer it's been :)