One HEK of a time

Sometimes you just need to go play on a frozen marsh apparently. Our kids have twice this week now gone to play at Potter marsh. Daddy took all three biking and then I took the girls ice skating. And by that I mean E spent about five minutes in her skates and the rest of the time running around in her boots but we’ll call it ice skating. Anyways it’s been a spectacular spot to just let them loose to play. I will clarify that obviously this is a really popular for people to recreate so it’s pretty easy to tell when all the surrounding ice is safe and the water is not all that deep anyways. But being in such a different area than normal (essentially open fields vs woods) really changed how the kids could play and explored. Specifically for biking the flat area with lots of “short cuts” for his biking loops gave E a chance to really keep up and go exploring with her brother. We could easily see them, they could see us and they felt like they were exploring following the little “trails” be...

 Toddler skiing is SOOOOOOO slow. I honestly think it’s the slowest method of moving we’ve tried with our kids. You’ve got all the regular distractions plus they have these unwieldy, slippery things on their feet so it’s not really that surprising but still! I personally am really bad at the whole “go their pace” “enjoy the little things” “stop and smell the flowers” thing with kids. It didn’t help that H was a crazy good hiker from the beginning. We knew we had to adjust expectations with E but it’s still a head space I struggle to be in most days (especially during cold winter outings!). Luckily she wants to do what her brother does and is a bit more gutsy to try things and fail. Without being that crazy kid who just jumps off everything without looking thankfully! Except for this giant snow pile we found😅. That required immediate jumping and sliding off of.

Who said you need to put the bikes away in winter? Ok granted this particular winter for us has been extremely low snow but kids can still go out biking regularly even if there is snow on the ground. H just learned how to glide on his balance bike when he was around 18/19 months old, just as the cold and wet weather was setting in of course. I was so excited to be able to walk at a decent pace and distance with him that I didn’t want to put up the bike for the season.  So we didn’t. My husband found some tiny, knobby tires and switched them out. Then we proceeded to have the kid bike the trails all winter long, often with a baby E following behind in the chariot (side note: a Thule chariot with skis ands a front jogging wheel is a spectacular winter trails stroller. Even managing the skinny footpaths with ease.) While H couldn’t use the brakes with his mittens on he still had a great time and kept building up his biking skills and putting on literal miles. Fast forward a few years ...

K is our third baby now to use the Montessori topponcinnos that I made in my ages 0-3 training. They are spectacular for helping hold little one steadily with just one arm while to do a multitude of tasks. Or for transferring them out of your arms and not having the new, cold surface startle them wide awake. And of course for helping big siblings hold the baby. However I feel like the most classic use is as a table decoration, aka the baby centerpiece🤣 Oh and just putting baby down wherever you feel like it for just a moment to attend to another crisis. Only to have them be super happy and right in the main thoroughfare of your older children’s right pain…. Yep of course that’s where she wanted to be as wrecking ball big sister is winding up for the evening🤦‍♀️ I just keep telling myself that time siblings have survived each other for centuries already…. Right?

 Our local ski organization puts on a ski for kids event every year as a fundraiser for skiing in the schools. And like so many of the other local outdoor clubs they don’t forget the littlest community members! So today we cut naps short and hauled everyone across town. H was enamored with the avalanche station. Pretty sure he watched the demonstration twice through and was by far the youngest kid participating in the beacon search after. E meanwhile was just scooting around and laughing about all the costumed characters. I mean what isn’t funny about a skiing sandwich or tiger? Not sure if the moose or elephant was her favorite but that girl doubled her speed during the race to chase that elephant up a decent sized hill. And K did exactly what we needed her to do- take a two hour nap in the chest carrier. 😅 Funny thing is that the more you bring babies to things like this the more you notice others doing the same. There were babies in backpacks and young toddlers ambling around. ...

E has really been struggling in the evenings lately and honestly we’ve been just exasperated with her behavior. Knowing what it stems from (new baby, busy stressed parents and adjustment to being two) theoretically helps but doesn’t really fix things in the heart of the moments where there’s screaming and demanding from one child or another. Today I finally got around to putting together some practical life inspired activities. The Montessori teacher in me cringed a little bit to make what were essentially “busy” trays rather then just involving her in the real tasks around the house but they’re what we need right now. I made a little scooping and open close work, a funnel pouring activity, and an eye dropper with some colored water and mini paint tray that I’m hoping can double as some color mixing for H. I did make myself feel a little better by engaging her in cleaning up and putting away what had been in that space beforehand at least. And then I made a point to actually present th...

Sometimes you have this awesome plan to feed the kids early and go up to the mountains to see the sunset. But instead you end up taking your middle child to the mall and riding escalators instead because you need a new internet router and said middle child has just been a “joy” to be around since they woke up from their 2 hour nap.🤷‍♀️ So you go for some one on one time, treat them to no less the 8 rides on the escalator (who’s counting right?) and some pretzel bites (because of course they might have had dinner already but you haven’t). And then when you get home they immediately blow through the agreed upon plan of doing some “sewing” with you and do a drive by hit and run for one of big brothers puzzles pieces instead. Yes we are in hard core age 2 over here. Wish us luck😩

 Today in baby fashion let me tell you about the wonderful fleece bunting! Ok but seriously this has been out favorite baby layer for adventuring with all three kids. I found a used one in 12-18 months for H during his first fall and we started using it for everything. If covered his hands, kept his booties on and was thin enough we felt comfortable using it in the car seat if we weren’t driving far (didn’t want to overheat the baby!) We bought a 18-24m one brand new after that because we knew how much we would use it. So when I was expecting E I kept a lookout for an even smaller used one online. I found a 6-12 month one and figured it would be not insanely oversized by the time we actually needed it. Fast forward and my tiny 6lb and change baby was utterly swimming in that fleece 🤦‍♀️.  So yeah, we supported Patagonia again by buying a smaller new one. But at least we ended up with adorable matchy suits! how cute they are in their matchy suits!

Sometimes you forget to look up directions to a new playground before driving away from target and end up at a totally random place instead. My husband, not me for once !🤣 But it turned out much better. Bigger play ground and a nature trail nearby with some of the best natural kid toys in Alaska: dried cow parsnip stalks! They’re like sticks but less stabby for everyone involved. It’s was great except for I  made the mistake again of not dressing warm enough. Not to self: always grab that extra layer and maybe another when standing around waiting for children (aka 90% off the time) Shuffling around in the pea gravel while your kids are entertaining themselves and your husband gets to carry the infant heater is a balance of enjoying the relative peace and still feeling your fingers. Then of course just when you’re coldest the toddler will need to pee and you have to help them get all their layers off and hold them over a snowbank.

At 5 weeks old we’re finally got around to K’s first cross country ski outing! Ok the lack of snow might have been the major contributor to why it took so long…technically last week might have been the first time? I was walking, the chariot was on wheels but birth siblings were skiing…🤷‍♀️ but today everyone was on skis! Except now I am second guessing if my husband actually put the skis on the chariot🤣🤣🤣 Things were going great! Here we are with a newborn and two other littles (H is 4 and E is 2 and change) getting out skiing as a family. My husband checked the weather up in the mountains where there was more snow and luckily there was an inversion so it was even warmer up there (like 22 instead of 12) We got everyone ready to go with relatively little drama, didn’t even have a screaming baby in the car because we were ready to go right as nap time struck. Awesome! Then we get in the van, start driving up to the mountains and realize it’s already 10:20. And our oldest has his last...

 The most important lesson I've learned as a mom when trying to get through life with a new baby? Always go to the bathroom first! Seriously! Before you pick the baby up, before someone hands them over to you, even if you think it's only going to be for five minutes.  GO TO THE BATHROOM FIRST! Because once they're in your arms it's so emotionally hard to put them down. Whether that's because you're enamored with snuggling them or you're petrified of waking them up. So go to the bathroom first. It's way too hard to wiggle out of your pants with only one hand!