Sunday, June 3rd Logan’s Blessing Day

Today Jacob blessed little Logan. From my family, I had my mom, Grandma Hansen, Bec, Jud, Sadie, Joe, Anthony, Geana, Jaedyn, Coleen and Darrell. Jacob’s parents came, and so did Janea, Jayden, and Tyler. It was just adorable to see all the little cousins together in church. They had so much fun with everyone being there with them. Jacob gave a sweet blessing. I don’t remember what he said exactly, but it was sweet.

Everyone left after sacrament. Jacob’s mom actually had to leave right after the blessing, so she wasn’t around to be in any pictures, and neither was Tyler. We didn’t do any special lunch or anything. I’m just not a good planner, I suppose. I’ll have to do some pictures this week of Logan in his blessing outfit. I had a meeting after church to finalize some stuff got girls’ camp, and then we went to my parents as usual.

I spent a lot of Thursday at Jacob’s mom’s house. She wanted to see the boys, so I took them over, and then Logan and I went to JoAnn’s to get some fabric for the rocking chair in his room. That evening a family that Jacob home teaches brought us Chili’s for dinner because he watched their dog over Memorial Day weekend. I love it when I don’t have to cook dinner, and the food was really good to top it off. I had mutual that evening, and that pretty much summed up Thursday.

Jacob was off on Friday because he’s starting his new schedule tomorrow. Trish dropped by Friday afternoon after I picked Easton up from school to pick up the family pictures I took of her and Brad and the kids. She hung out for a couple hours and talked to Jacob about nursing. She just finished her masters in nursing and is going to be a nurse practitioner. Our kids played together for a little bit, and then she left. Later that evening I dropped Jacob and the boys off at his mom’s while I went to do senior pictures for a girl whose parents have known my parents for years. Afterwards I picked the boys up from the Edgels and we headed home. I had to get up early Saturday morning to do newborn pictures for someone that Andrea referred to me. I was there by 8 am. After the pictures, I came home and went to sleep at 9:30 after getting Logan down for a nap. I slept until 11:30, so Jacob took care of the boys and fed the baby while I caught up on some sleep. Logan has been doing really well, but sometimes I go to bed a little too late. He’s been going down about 10pm, and then he’ll wake up about 5am, but I just bring him in bed with me and he goes back to sleep until I wake him at about 7:30. So I don’t have to feed him when he wakes up at 5am, which is nice. He’s little bit more of a cat napper, which is hard sometimes during the day. But some days he’ll take long naps on his schedule, while other days it’s only about 45 minutes. He’s still on a 3-hour schedule, but I’m considering moving him to a 3 1/2 hour schedule this week. I ordered the Babywise book to refresh my Babywise skills, so I’ll see about his schedule when the book gets here this week. One thing about Logan that I absolutely MUST brag about is that he is so content to hang out on the couch laying on his back or on his boppy for about an hour after he eats. He only starts to cry when it’s time for his nap. But he prefers to be laying on his own than be held, and I think that is the best. Easton was my best sleeper, and really just a good baby all around. But even in all his perfection he needed to be held more than Logan does. Teagan was super happy but also needed to be held. So having freedom to set Logan down for an hour and let the boys talk to him is really nice. I’m just amazed that he likes to be independent for so long. He doesn’t need to be entertained and doesn’t want to be held. I love it. He’s recently discovered his hands, so he spends his time on his back just wiggling around, staring at his fists, always looking like he’s ready to box someone. And he’s so smiley when you talk to him. Not as smiley as Teagan, but still happy and content. It’s interesting how all my children have had such different strengths, even as babies. Easton was my sleeper, Teagan was my constant smiler, and Logan is Mr. Independent. But they have all been good babies. I have certainly been very lucky in that sense. I’ve never had a colicky or sleepless baby. I hope that continues with my next two.

Yesterday after my nap, we went to Coleen’s house for a swim and BBQ for ATI, the company that she owns and Jacob works for. It is certainly a diverse group of employees that work at ATI, and we’ll just leave it at that. My mom also works there, but she wasn’t able to go to the BBQ because she had to take my grandma to do some things. The boys had a fun time playing with the other kids and, of course, with Sadie. Bec and Jud are living there for the next little bit, which I think I’ve already mentioned. Anyway, the BBQ was fun, and Logan was a super good little boy the whole 5 hours we were there. He hung out on the couch for a lot of the time, either sleeping or just being independent. On his 3-hour schedule he wakes up to eat, which takes him about 15-30 minutes to drink his bottle depending on how sleepy he is. After his bottle is finished he has wake time for the next hour, and that’s when he’ll hang out being independent and happy. Then he gets a little bit fussy, so I know it’s time for his nap. He’s supposed to nap for an hour and a half, but he’ll often nap for only 45 minutes to an hour. When it’s nap time,  I’ll rock him for just a minute until I see his eyes start to droop, and then I’ll lay him down on his back/side in his crib (or on a couch if we aren’t at home) with his binky and let him fall asleep on his own. Sometimes he doesn’t want his binky, sometimes he does. If we’re not at home, it’s harder to get him to nap, but he just fell asleep at Coleen’s yesterday when he was supposed to, and didn’t get fussy when he transitioned from wake time to nap time. He really is a very good baby. I like to write these details down so that I’ll remember them when I have my next child, even though each child is so different. I’ve found that so far my 3 have done well on a Babywise schedule.

Jacob is starting his new schedule tomorrow. Basically for Monday-Wednesday I’ll be a single mom because he’ll leave just before 7am and get home after 9:30pm. But then he’s off Thursday-Sunday. So each wake I’ll just have to make it three days on my own with three children for the whole day, and then I’ll have him home for four days straight. I’ll be hanging out with my sister a lot – that’s for sure.

This is also Easton’s last week of kindergarten. Some moms cry on the first day of school. But I feel this great sadness coming upon me as my little boy finishes his first year of school and wonder where the time went. I feel like he just barely started, and suddenly it’s over. And when I think that I will have to repeat this only 12 more times with Easton, I’m just amazed at how fast the time will really fly. Coleen and Darrel went to my parents’ for dinner tonight too, and I listened to Coleen and my mom talk about how raising children feels so long when you’re in it, and then suddenly it’s just done and all of your children are gone. Going through this school year seemed long, I suppose, but now that it’s over I realize that it was just an instant. And it’s a sad thing for me to think of. I’m not one of those people that thinks, “I can’t wait for my children to grow up and leave so that my husband and I can travel.” I don’t want my children to grow up. I like them just as they are. Let the hard times pass quickly and the good times linger. If only it were that way!