Friday, August 19, 2016

Parenting 3 Little Kids may be Killing me

Everyday I wake up, and I say, "today I will not be exhausted. I will definitely not yell. I will not get frustrated. Today will be a great day!" and I think about all of the fun things we get to do today - play outside, maybe go to the lake, bike ride, do puzzles, read lots of books - there is so much fun in life with three little kids!!!! Everyone says, "the days go so quickly - savor them!"

...right!?!?!

So why am I already so frustrated by 7:30am EVERYDAY?! Within five minutes of waking up, Samara has kicked, pushed or yelled at Elie, frustrating him, and he yells, pushes or kicks back. She wants him to do and say everything she says - exactly as she wants - and he doesn't always want to do that. So they fight. Oh, and he's three. So there's that.

By 8:15 I have asked Samara to go to the bathroom, wash hands and brush teeth five times. She ignored me the first three, not even acknowledging that I spoke, and for the last two, she snottily said, "okaaaaaaay. I ammmmmm." But she didn't. So it's been 15 minutes, and she hasn't yet gone to the bathroom or brushed her teeth. WHY?!

Then Elie finishes his oatmeal, and instead of waiting nicely to be wiped off, he gets up, runs away, with oatmeal dropping all over the house (new house. new carpet). When I nicely ask him to please wait, he runs faster. Chill, mom! Just be calm! But he's getting shit all over my clean house that I spend HOURS each day trying to clean! So I get frustrated.

Five minute warning that we are going to put on shoes and it's time to leave for camp. Ok mom!
Two minute warning. Ok mom!
One minute warning. Ok mom!

Ok - now it's time to get shoes on and get your backpacks - time to leave! They ignore me. No response. Ok, guys, let's go, put your shoes on and get your backpacks. No response. Hello? I'M IN THE MIDDLE OF SOMETHING!!! Luckily I usually start this ten minutes before we actually have to leave (god help me when I have THREE kids' shoes to get on - right now Koby doesn't wear shoes). So I wait. We do finally get out the door, but it's so frustrating.

Then we get in the car. I forgot a soft toy! I'm still hungry!!!! How much do I love my kids? Do I go back, unlock the door and get what they want? Am I spoiling them? Am I just being a nice mom? Matt thinks I'm too soft. Sometimes I feel like I'm SO not soft - like I'm an awful bitch. And other times I do feel like I enable them to be annoying and obnoxious, but who wants to be mean and strict!? It's such a balance, and I fear I'm failing miserably!!

Now that my baby is going to stop being a baby soon I'm getting way nostalgic. (I am also on hormones to try to regulate my body which is at it again - so it could be fake feelings). I often feel like bursting into tears because I soon won't be able to lift up and hug Elie, and he is so fucking cute right now - like hilarious and so so cute (when he's not being so annoying). I don't want him to get older! I feel like crying when I rock Koby before I put him down to go to sleep, because I love holding my baby. There's just nothing like it. Or sometimes when I take off his clothes and see his super cute little body, and I just want to take a bite - because they are growing up, and I get that I will want this back. I genuinely love this - so WHY oh WHY is it so damn frustrating? Why does it bother me so much!?

And then there's the physical exhaustion. I wake up at 5:45 with Matt's alarm (Matt doesn't wake up at 5:45 with Matt's alarm, but that's another story). I try to get downstairs to have my coffee, breakfast and make lunches before they wake up. Otherwise I can barely make a sandwich. Once they're up (usually between 6:30 and 7:15), I do not stop. I get breakfast for 3, feed one, clean up breakfast for 3, get them out the door (see above), drive to Chinese Camp, drop off (that's not a fun drop off), drive to Kat Camp, drop off, come back, put Koby to sleep, clean up more, prepare dinner, do laundry, organize shit, Koby wakes up, play with Koby or walk with him, give Koby lunch, go pick up Elie, put Elie and Koby for a nap, finish making dinner, clean up (how does it keep getting so damn messy and dirty!?), get them up, go get Samara, do something with all 3 in the afternoon (though I have had help nearly every afternoon this summer - THANK THE LORD FOR EVA AND MARTHA!!!), feed them dinner, clean up from dinner, bathe 3 kids, somehow get them to go to bed. Then it's 8, and I am SO EXHAUSTED. I remember when I used to do fun stuff in the evenings. I can barely keep my eyes open, and Koby has mostly been sleeping through the night (or at least until 4 or so)!! My back hurts. My neck is sore. My whole body hurts from everything I do allllll day for these kids. It is literally taking everything I've got to just survive - and then I'm supposed to be thoughtful about all of this!? No way - Not yet. I can read parenting books and figure out how to be a good mom - and not just survive - in a few years. When they're all in school. All day. But by then it will probably be too late.
They're so cute, no!? (Here with Alma and Shalem who visited with Dena from Israel - we had the BEST time with them!!!)

Such sensitive souls...

They even play together on occasion...for about a minute. 

Innocents!!

Wednesday, August 3, 2016

The House

As mentioned a few months ago, we bought a house! The location is amazing - both because it's a five minute walk to Newton Centre, but also because it is literally across the street from a massive field that includes fun things to climb on, hide in, plus six soccer fields, four tennis courts and a playground...You can't go wrong. Not only that, but the backyard is so amazing that we don't even remember to go to the field sometimes! Ok - the house is fine too - but it's really the rest that makes it so amazing.

Here are the photos of "after" - though we have yet to hang our art. The "before" are in my post in May, linked to above.

This is the "before" bathroom photo. See below for the new look.

Living room in progress. Huge mirror above fireplace removed. Deep red walls replaced with beige. Windows replaced (throughout the house), recessed lighting installed.

Major beam that was eaten by termites is removed

Working on the bathroom...installing the shower

Powerwashing the house

Installing insulation on the ceiling of the crawl space, under the addition (kitchen and family room)

Elie helping me clean the day before we moved in

Moving in...clearly these photos are not in order, and I'm way too tired to organize them...

Chimney pointing (who even heard of that!?)

Matt with special purple swim goggles as protection as he tried to find the sidewalk out front of our house

And the blinds we splurged for warped in a week or so. But since we splurged, they're getting replaced for free. It's not all fun and games.

Elie's side of Elie and Sam's room. Thanks to Bubbie and Zaydie for the fun portholes on the wall.

Sam's side of their room. Thanks to Bubbie and Zaydie for the dinosaurs too!

The rest of their amazing room.

Our room

New carpet and stuff in entry

Living room is now the kids' room

Do you also get anxiety looking at this room?

It's a lot of space for toys...

Family room - with a Savta

Other angle, family room looking into toy hell room

One more angle. You get it? The kitchen is to the right.

Ok - ONE MORE ANGLE. 

We even put up three bird houses. I love this back yard. LOVE.

Dining room. We have yet to use it other than the table as staging space.

Pretty nice bathroom, right?

I can't believe how nice it is...

Matt designed all of this!

We JUST BARELY fit around that table.

So much nicer than that kitchen on Miller Rd!!!


We had the door and side of the door painted for Michigan. Because of the glare of the window, you can barely tell that the door is blue, and I think you won't be able to tell it's Michigan until we get our flag up...so it just looks like really obnoxious yellowness around a pretty plain looking colonial.

See what I mean?

There was a ton of work done - painting, floors finished, beams replaced, lots of work in the attic, faucets replaced, caulking, doors fixed...SO MANY THINGS...and it's still going...but it's so great. I love this house, and I feel so lucky every day that we get to live here.

Tuesday, August 2, 2016

Recent Photos

Tooth #1 falls


A few days later came #2!!

Thanks for the tunnel, Aunt Phyllis and Uncle Kendal

Going for a beautiful walk with Ian and Reia


One of our last porch sits at 31 Miller Rd

Elisheva came to visit!

Two Intraters came to say hi!

How cute is this sleeping Koby?

Shadows on a walk to the lake

Sam tried Kindergarten soccer

This was our breakfast set up everyday at 31 Miller Rd. Talking to grandparents on the ipad most mornings


Last day of school - last day at Temple Shalom for Samara

Goofball walking to the lake


Jer came to visit and help us move in! (and so did Bubbie and Zaydie!)

This is about a one minute walk from our house.


We love our hammock!

Ok, I wasn't really sleeping.

Best. Cream. Cheese. Mustache. Ever.

Flying from Boston to Detroit

Picnic with the Dronfields at Kensington

Finally - riding a horse at Michigania

Ringing the lunch bell - SUPER fun - except for for the poor boy in the back who felt left out

Walloon wasn't even that cold this year

A week with Wachters!!! SO FUN

Thanks for the boat ride, Jer!

...and skipper Elie

Elie climbed the dunes with Papa and Jer

And drove the boat - a highlight (for him - not the rest of us. We were nauseous)

Reviewing this, I just made it my Facebook profile picture. Too cute.

And Elie rode a horse too!

Meals were not my favorite part of camp.

Koby was SO DIRTY everyday. He loved crawling all around everywhere

Unicorns!

Waiting for the unicorn



With the best counselor at camp - our cousin, Eric

See you next year, Michigania!

Sam tried archery

This is the field across from our house. We are so lucky. I can't believe it. Neither can Koby!

Matt and I went to the Tigers game! I mean, the Red Sox game

In Michigan, canoeing with some London/Kanners!

Mark took me and Sam tubing. So fun!

Papa and Savta came to visit in Boston! Also opposite our house

We went for a beautiful walk in the same place as we did with Ian and Reia and Jer (all above) - Broadmoor

And the aquarium. Koby was about to jump right in with the lion fish. No, Koby!! Don't do it!