My Summer Routine

I know I keep saying this, but I can't get over how much easier this summer is than last summer!!  It's been SOOO fun!

So far our days have looked like this.

SLEEP IN UNTIL 7:30 or 8:00.   Yes SIR!

Can I get an AMEN!??  It.Is.Glorious.

Then we eat, clean up, get dressed and pack up for the morning.  Last week it was head to the gym and let mommy get her sweat on for an hour and then go swim.  And WOW, it's hot and we're all sweating up a storm in my classes.  But it feels oh so good.


Then I go change into my bathing suity and get the kids.  We swim from 10:30 to whenever we get hungry or someone has a meltdown.  ;-)


Come home, eat lunch, put the younger 2 down for nap (sometimes the WHOLE house - including me -  has to go down - I just use my mom radar for that one) and I get whatever I need to get done around here.  Sometimes it's computer work, usually keeping the laundry going, cooking dinner, and if I'm lucky, a shower for me! 


I've also incorporated a mandatory READING time for the older ones.  We are trying to keep up with the summer reading, but when you have 3 that need YOU to either read TO them or read WITH them, it gets crazy.  I keep telling them, "Guys, there's 4 of you and one of me - I'm doing the best I can!"


Then after some reading time, they are free to watch some TV.  If it weren't 100 degrees outside, I'd force them out there.  But quite frankly, I wouldn't want to be out there and can't bring myself to lock force them outside.  And sometimes I get sucked into all the old I Love Lucy episodes too. 


Some afternoons we head back out for errands or library time.  Tonight it happens to be softball for Robert.  Can't wait!


This week we started a VBS.  So after our morning routine, I drop the older 2 off at VBS, head to the gym and then take the younger two to the baby pool.   Read: Mommy lounges by the gated baby pool and works on her tan while the little ones play.  As opposed to having to get in with all four in the big pool and have them hang on me the whole time.  Which is FINE but I also like to relax sometimes.  :-)


Then we head to get Olivia and Landon and go home for our afternoon routine. 


I make myself stay home all day about one day a week to do major cleaning and catching up.  But I've found that the more we're gone, the less the house gets messed up!  IMAGINE THAT!


Evenings are spend in the driveway playing, or doing something fun with Robert.  Sometimes a cookout or any other activity we can find. 


With Robert's new job, he will be occasionally traveling, so establishing my little routine early in the summer I'm sure will be helpful. 


So, just in case you were wondering how we are spending our days, that's the skeleton of it all! 

Do you have a general routine you follow???

Life Now

Today ended out Christmas/Winter break. It was FUN. Busy. Crazy. Haphazard. Mayham. All in one. I love order and routine and there just wasn't much of that over the break. We still tried to get up and do "first things first" - make bed, get dressed, eat breakfast, etc. But some days, well, they were just pj days. Which was fine by me. We didn't get out much - except when Robert was around. I guess I'm just too chicken to go places with all 4 by myself. Except the park. Yes, the gated parks. We were there a lot too. Then the temperature dropped to 12 degress. Yeah, not going outside at that temperature. So we just hunkered down at home around the fire. Played lots of wii and snuggled in the bed with a heating pad watching lots of movies.


We are now almost 4 months into having this little guy around.




And lots changed over the break. The boys are now officially sharing a room. And the transition went much smoother than when we put the girls together. Thankfully, Rhodes is a GREAT sleeper. Going 10-12 hours a night. Every once in blue moon he'll get up once to eat. I think it's just because he missed me. :-) We shall see how it goes once he's mobile and blabbing more.


Lillian also has had some milestones. She's pretty much potty training herself. She stays dry around the house and during nap pretty good. I haven't ventured out yet with panties. It's more my problem than hers though. I'm not quite up to the task of visiting every bathroom in every store we go to. So we'll just stick to panties around the house until I feel she's ready to ALL day in panties!

I will say, taking a more laid back approach to potty training has been SO much easier. With Olivia, I really forced it and worked on it. It was pretty stressful for me. With Landon, I just waited - until he was 3. Then it was really quick. Lillian has shown her own interest and I just praise her for staying dry and going in the potty. More of a positive reinforcement approach. So she desires to be potty trained and it makes it a much smoother transition, in my opinion.


We also took the railing off of her twin bed!! And I haven't heard a "THUD" yet!! :-) With the railing gone, it makes the room look so much neater. Not to mention the bed is MUCH easier to make. Glad to have that gone.


I wonder what else will happen in this NEW YEAR!!! I feel adjusted to life as a mom of 4 - not that it's easy - I just feel adjusted. Now I'm just ready to tackle LIFE itself with my brood of 4!

This Is How He Rolls

I'm happy to report that bootcamp has been a HUGE success....so far at least! And last night he slept from 9:00 to 6:30 a.m.! Of course, it probably didn't help that I (gently) shook him to make sure he was still breathing after I got up. It's so nice to find a happily sleeping baby just the way you left him 9.5 hours ago!!


The only downside is all these naps (that he easily goes down for). This is how he has to take his first morning nap...during carpool.



You see, I had already swaddled him and put him in his crib. Then at 8:15 for carpool, quietly transferred him to his car seat and buckled him in all swaddled up. And he slept right through carpool!!

And in about 30 minutes, I'll start it all over again with his feeding! Things are going so much better around here now! A well rested mama is a much happier mama!

Oh, I could just go on and on about babywise right now. I'm thrilled at the positive feedback I received about it. Especially since it gets a lot of heat out there in the baby world. But it's nice to know that it's working so well for so many out there!!!

I will say I'm curious about a couple of another books - "The Happiest Baby on the Block" and "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child". I would be interested in comparing philosophies from the three books. Anybody read these before??

Bootcamp

Time to practice what I preach around here. Which meant I had to crack down on Rhodes (and myself) and get some routine going on. So I started Rhodes on my own version of baby bootcamp - courtesy of Babywise. You see, I've always recommended this book for new moms. It worked miracles in my first 2 children. I strayed off the book for Lillian - and it shows. But it was time to jump back on the bandwagon I rave about so much.

So I pulled out my book the other day and reread it. And it spoke to me entirely differently than when I read it with Olivia!! So weird. But I'm sure it had to do with the experience in babies that I have under my belt now. 4th times the charm, huh.

As I re-read it I just kept thinking this makes SO much sense. Why am I killing myself over here trying to "wing it" and all I have to do is put a little effort in on my part and get things going a little smoother - if that's possible with 4 kids.

My biggest mistake I was making was not feeding Rhodes enough during the day. I would go 4 sometimes 5 hours in between feedings! Yikes - that's not good for a 9 week old. So we stepped it up to at the most 3 hours in between feedings during the day - until we get stabilized. And what would you know, he slept through the night (considered 7.5-8.5 hours) TWO nights in a row!!! I am a new woman! :-) His fussiness also decreased I might add.

Also, the way I'm helping to "force" (and I use that lightly) my routine/schedule is to WAKE UP THE SLEEPING BABY!!! Any way you have to - strip them down, wash them off...just get them awake! You see, the cycle should be FEED/WAKE/SLEEP....FEED/WAKE/SLEEP...etc. Then you slowly drop feedings and combine sleep and wake times until you have two consistent (then one) naps a day. This being done over the course of probably 18 months or so! It's called Parent Directed Feeding - and I (flexibly) watch the clock in order to FOR ME to decide when it's time to eat again. Crying is the last sign of hunger.

Then (hopefully) after a couple of weeks, Rhodes' little internal clock will start syncing with what I'm been working on and we will be on our way to a HAPPY and healthy little boy!

I know schedules, attachment parenting, etc are touchy subjects in the mommy world but I believe routine and (flexible) schedules build security for kids. Kids like predictability and they also NEED sleep!! Tired children are cranky children which makes for a chaotic, unhealthy household.

This is not a hyper-scheduling book. You will not starve your baby of food or attention by using the techniques this book talks about. What you will do is bring some predictability to you life and your family's daily life. And you will get your SLEEP!!! Can I hear an AMEN!!

Also, yes, I'm sure there are exceptions to the rule out there. I don't know why. But with each of my children - with each different temperaments, these techniques have worked. Well, Rhodes' is still up in the air, but I'm going to give it my all. But one day, HE WILL be on the 1:00-3:00 nap/rest time like the others! That's just part of being a McClellan!!!

Am I Dreaming????......

I'm sitting here at my computer listening to the sweet sound of ........... NOTHING!! The house is clean - and I mean clean! Counters, toilets, floors, bedrooms and all been vacuumed, mopped and wiped down! I even washed some of the floor mats! You might have to understand that I am NOT the cleanest/neatest person in the world - I try though. But my husband came from a VERY clean home and is pretty good at cleaning! I wish I had my mother in law's "clean gene"! And also, my kids can mess up 10 times faster than I can ever clean up.

The kids are ALL sound asleep! I've worked out today. I'm showered - amazing! Dinner is halfway prepared (all I have to do it throw it on the grill) and I've managed to clip and file my coupons, write thank you notes and organize our medicine cabinet! What is into me today! It feels nice to finally have my energy back after been pregnant and having a newborn. Things are falling into a nice schedule! Lillian is sleeping 10-11 hours most nights. I even started carpooling today. And small groups at church are about to start and I'll have weekly events to look forward to!!

I LOVE routine! My kids crave routine! Sometimes I can probably be a little too strict about it though. I'm SUPER strict about sleeping routines! I guess I know that I pay for it the next day if I skip too many naps or let them stay up late! Olivia still naps pretty well. Even if she does't, she still has to stay in her room from 1:00 to 3:00 for a rest time. I guess she couldn't figure out what she wanted to do yesterday - play quietly in her room or sleep!



So we found her sleeping on her floor where she had been obviously playing! SO CUTE, though!

While Olivia was sleeping on the floor, Daddy and Lillian were napping on the couch!


Gotta love those Sunday afternoon naps!!

I also have to post the only other picture of all five of us that has been taken since Lillian was born! The only other picture of all of us together IN it was when I was in the hospital bed!

Here's the first:


And here is the next one we got around to finally taking together!!



I can't believe it took us so long! We've had pictures of the kids, and part of the family - but none with just us FIVE!!

Note that Olivia and Lillian are wearing matching dresses - thanks Lovey! I can't wait to match them more!!! :-)