Fall Family Outing

 

Hello, it's October! F turned 7 months old a few weeks ago, and no, I'm not okay, thank you for asking. He's still working on sitting up, and he really wants to crawl, but so far just gets up on his knees and rocks back and forth a few times before falling back down. He currently has RSV, which I would feel more stressed about, perhaps, but at this point I'm just glad it's not The Virus.

For a couple of days in September, Oklahoma decided to act like fall, but now we are back to 90 degrees, and Panera still isn't carrying my favorite seasonal treat: cranberry orange muffins. As if I needed another reason to be mad at 2020. I need my muffins, people!

Despite the heat and the lack of leaves turning brown (aka colorful death), last weekend (pre-F having any cold-like symptoms, please note) I leapt into the fall spirit with open arms. I decorated my mantle and bookshelves, and we loaded up the minivan and headed to a local farm. 

I've been wanting to check this place out for several years but never made a point to go, and I'm so glad we did! The weather was perfect, and it wasn't super crowded, so there was ample space to enjoy the activities while not getting super close to anyone. We rode a train, got some pumpkins (each kid got a tiny pumpkin for free!), pet some animals, and greatly enjoyed one of the few outings we've taken as a family of five.

The kids did awesome and seemed to have a lot of fun. They are both going to daycare, but other than that we don't get out much, so I'm really thankful we were able to at least do one fall activity this year in case we don't end up doing anything else.

I hope you are having a nice start to fall, wherever you are. Stay safe and well!

Oh, and PS. If you read my last post, MY NOSE STILL HURTS. That's all. Good day.

on midnight encounters and cheesy television

 

Hello from your occasional blogger friend. 

CAN ANYONE HEAR ME? Never mind don't answer that. I'm fine talking to myself.

I saw on Facebook someone shared a meme that said 2020 is 70% over. Can I get an amen? This year. I mean what. a. dumpster fire. J and F share my feelings (see above).

If you follow me on Instagram then you might have seen my amazingly skilled stick figure diagram of the midnight collision Jordan and I had two nights ago. And that's not a euphemism for marital times. J came into our room around 3am, and long story short both Jordan and I got out of bed and ended up knocking heads in the dark. I heard a snap and thought for sure I'd broken my nose. It hurt SO bad. I had a headache all the next day, and now it's been two days and my nose is still aching constantly. I can't smell anything, and I don't know if I've got The Virus or if it's just my bruised cartilage blocking my nasal passage.

2020 has got me not leaving my house, and now I'm thinking I probably shouldn't even leave my bed.

F is 7 months today. HOW. How. How. Did I mention how? They say the days are long and the years are short, but lately the days have been short too. I'm super busy at work, and my days are flying by. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but I'm also completely shocked when I see F rolling all over the floor and rocking up on his knees like he wants to get going somewhere. He was born yesterday and you can't tell me otherwise.

In other very important news, the show Sister, Sister was recently added to Netflix (don't nobody @ me about how I should be canceling Netflix, pleaseandthankyou). I've been rewatching Season 1, and it's bringing me baaaack. I used to love that show, and I'm actually really enjoying watching it now. 

Another surprise? Fuller House. I think the stress of 2020 has got me fondly yearning for my innocent youth. I watched the first season or two when it first came out, and I thought it was okay but super cheesy and kind of dumb. However, I recently started up again and I'm loving it. It's still super cheesy and ridiculous (and why do they think it's believable that Candace Cameron would always be wearing heels and skirts even on a Saturday morning????), but it's fun and sweet and I'm here for it.

I thought I had other things to update, but since I don't go anywhere or see anyone, I'm out of ideas. So, I'll do a quick "currently" rundown for anyone interested (i.e., my mom).

appreciating: flexibility of being able to work at home a few days a week. This is probably the best thing to come out of the pandemic for me. I do go into the office a few days a week, but I'm also at home several days, and it's so nice to not have to pack up my pumping stuff or get dressed and go all the way downtown. The kids still go to daycare (even F), but I just feel a lot less stress with working this time around, and I'm grateful.

anticipating: random, but taking R to a corn maze. Will there be corn mazes still this year? I feel like that's a pretty socially distant activity, so I hope so! For some reason R's been talking about corn mazes, and I actually do think she'd like to walk through one, so maybe we can find a few outdoor family activities this fall. It's been crazy hot all summer, and I'm ready for some cooler temperatures!

collecting: toys and random other small items constantly all over my house. We've got to get a handle on this before F starts crawling. Oye.

starting: to reread the Risen Motherhood book for an online book club I joined. I read it last year when it released, and I've been wanting to go through it again, so this is good timing! Speaking of time, I just need to find some of that to actually read the book.

finishing: my summer New Testament Bible reading list. The women's ministry at my church did a summer reading plan where you read the Bible every day June, July, and August, and by the end you read the entire New Testament. I did great in June and finished all the days. July and August both have about 75% done, but there are some lingering blank spaces and I'm plugging away at them until I finish the reading plan. Better late than never!

I guess that's a wrap for now! I'd like to say I'll "see" you back here sooner than a month from now, but clearly my track record this year isn't so great. Thanks, as always, for checking in and following along with the blog! 

Let's hope the last 30% of the year turns around for all of us somehow. Until then, be careful where you walk in the middle of the night ;) 

emotional toddlers and me

I've said several times now that the transition to a third kid hasn't been as hard as going from zero kids to one. And I still do think that. But lately? I'll be honest. Having three kids has been feeling like a lot. 

Remember back in March/April when we were in actual quarantine because everything was shut down? That was hard because we didn't go anywhere. But now I'm back at work in my office, and F started daycare last week, and I have so. much. stuff. to get ready every day. Why does one tiny person = 800% more things?! It takes so long to get everyone in the car to go anywhere, and frankly it's exhausting. This is why people have live-in nannies.

Also, toddlers. I don't want to name any names, but there is a certain child in this house who recently turned 3 years old and is now SO EMOTIONAL. So many emotions. And I'm like, dude, *I* have emotions, and there is only enough room in this house for one person to being having meltdowns. And that person is me.

Probably anyone who has been following my blog for the last few years is shocked to hear that F started daycare last week and I didn't write a melancholy and embarrassingly vulnerable blog post about it. I don't think I posted anything on social media either.  I mean who even am I keeping my feelings to myself? Apparently dead inside.

Kidding. No, the truth is that the week leading up to F's first day at daycare I was a complete wreck. I would just look at F and start crying. It's a terrible feeling having to leave your baby with someone else for an entire day five days in a row. And I don't care if that person is grandma or dad or someone at daycare, it doesn't feel right to be away from your baby. Add my name to the very long list of people who think the US Maternity Leave Laws are an atrocity to mothers everywhere. I cannot be more grateful that my company has allowed me to work from home with my babies for a few months after my maternity leave ended. It's been such a gift and a special time!

Anyway, for some reason, this time I just didn't feel like talking about F going to daycare--except with Jordan, who had to talk about it with me because we are stuck in the house together. So he went, and it was hard, but it wasn't quite as hard as last time with J, and definitely not as hard as when I did it with R. Look at me! Personal growth!

Moving on to things that are way more fun. The last two months have held 4 Bumgarner birthdays: mine, Jordan's, R's, J's. We now have a 5-year-old and a 3-year-old! And Jordan and I both turned 30 for the fourth time. Don't ask questions.

I took the afternoon off work for both of their birthdays, and it was so great. We went to the park and splash pad, picked up lunch, ate cookies, and watched TV, not all in that order. This whole quarantine/pandemic thing has made even the smallest fun really exciting, and I guess one good thing that has come out of all this is truly getting to slow down a bit and not have any commitments and finding joy and fun in super small things I probably took for granted more than I should have.

Of course, I know there are also a ton of sad stories and that this has been (generally speaking) fun for no one, but I'm just saying we are trying our best to be thankful for the many blessings we have.

The big topic for most parents lately has been what to do about school this coming year, and if we are talking about blessings, I have to include our daycare as one of the biggest. We always planned on sending R to kindergarten this year at age 5, but as it became clear that the pandemic wasn't going away any time soon, I told Jordan that I really thought we should consider keeping her back, to start kindergarten in 2021. 

Ultimately we both feel completely confident about our decision to keep her at daycare for another year. I know that probably sounds crazy to some of you, but I am 100% certain this is the perfect choice for R and for our family during this time. Her teacher is amazing and basically does preschool with R's class right now. She has 8 kids total in her class, and they learn all sorts of things and do fun projects, have outside/gym time, centers, breakfast, lunch, and snack. It's such a load off for me to continue to only have 1 location to drop off/pick up all 3 kids, and overall I'm incredibly thankful that R isn't just one year older and would not have the option to stay for another year.

Last but not least for this round of blog updates, F turns six months old this week, and I'm super sad about it. How is he that old?! I still think he's just a tiny baby, but really he's chunky and rolling and alert and I AM NOT OKAY. 

Give me 500 more babies. 

It's the toddlers who will slowly kill me.

Stay safe and well, friends! Thanks for checking in to my sporadic posts. Remember when I used to blog multiple times a week?! El - oh - el.