First Days of Kindergarten!

Remember this? It's been a wild and crazy 5.5 years involving many moves (and two more kids!) but this still feels like it was yesterday (Connor at 3 months old, one of my favorite pics of him as a baby):

And now, so grown up! I could not be more proud of him, he's just such a terrific kid (and big brother!)

Monday was Connor's kindergarten visitation day. Andrew and I both took him, just for an hour, to meet his teachers, half his class, and check out his new classroom. He was a little nervous but mostly just excited!

With Leyla and his new Darth Vadar backpack :)

Kindergarten action pose!

Proud parents!

Outside his new elementary school.

He drew a picture of himself and his best bud Tristan (who is also starting kindergarten at East but unfortunately is not in his class).

His teacher Mrs. Orlando reading to the class.

Tuesday was the biggie- the first day riding the bus. I love this next series of pictures. Here we are waiting for the bus. Leyla's clapping for Connor, telling him how excited she is that he gets to go to kindergarten!

So happy! Side note, Leyla starts ballet next week and so I just got her this leotard which she has literally not taken off in days.

 Yay for kindergarten! Is that the look of a proud little sister or what?!

 Bus is almost here, it's getting real! I could see he was starting to get nervous.

When we heard it turn onto our street and start powering up the hill Connor clung to my leg for a minute and squeezed my hand. That's when I thought I might lose it! But he climbed right on in.

 Blurry wave. Bye Mommy :(

 And just like that he was off.

I turned around just in time to see what might be the saddest face I ever saw. I think it just hit her that her BFF was gone. It made me cry too.

 I asked if she was ok and that's when the waterworks really began. My poor little ballerina!

Kindergartners only go half days all this week. Needless to say, no one was more excited than Leyla when he got off that bus yesterday!! And here he was getting off the bus today (Wednesday!)

Kindergarten is off to a GREAT start! Connor- you are our rockstar!

Smile!

Finally had my phone near me to catch this boy's killer smile!

Logan's Birth Announcement

I thought this was such a sweet little picture of him!

Brother Stuff

The kids like to help Logan with his tummy time. Here Connor was giving him a lesson in Transformers (very important stuff!)

All Out for Autism 5K

Andrew's company sponsored a team for New Canaan's "All out for Autism" 5k and kids run last night. Connor and Leyla did the Kids' race and then we all walked the 5k. Great night for a great cause!
Andrew's work team:

And our little team.

Connor crossing the finish line of the kids' race (he won in his group!)

And then he went back to help Leyla finish. Love hearing her say "I did it!" at the end!

Even though he was carried the whole time all the action must have really worn Logan out because I woke up at 5:30 this morning realizing that he hadn't eaten (or even stirred!) since we put him to bed at 8 last night!! It's funny- being awake at 5:30 for the first time previously would have been an unacceptable hour for me but with a newborn I feel like a million bucks today! I put him back to sleep afterwards and he woke again at 8:30 for the day. Not sure if this means we need to walk a 5k every night before bedtime? Regardless, I'm loving my sweet little man even more this morning!!

New Mom of 3 Milestone

Survived back to school clothes and shoe shopping with three! Even though I forgot the baby's pacifer (doh!) everyone was really good!

New shoe "fierce" poses (Connor's is his go-to superhero pose). Leyla picked out the coolest shoes- girlfriend's got such great style! Note the headband ;)

7/8 Weeks!

Little man will be 8 weeks old tomorrow! He is such a sweet baby boy!! These past two weeks he's started rolling over ( at 7 weeks) and reaching for/batting at toys on his playmat. Lots and lots of smiles and coos which I just adore. Evening fussy time is thankfully almost nil again (that was fast!) At night he generally goes from 7:00pm to 1:00-3:30 before waking, (we've dropped the dream feed)-- still not too bad. In the last two weeks we had visits from Jessica (and her two boys Carter and Landon), Stacy, Tracey, Jason, Maeve and Ryan. Logan seems huge to me, he may weigh as much as Leyla did at a year old. We'll find out for sure at his next doc appt at the end of next week. He's already done with a lot of his 0-3 sized stuff and is just about to move up to size 2 diapers. He's still 100% breast milk- giving myself a pat on the back because homeboy eats a ton and it's sometimes a challenge for me to keep up. I'd say that's probably the toughest part of adjusting to 3 kids- living within these 3 to 3.5 hour feeding cycles. There's only so much you can do before it's time for him to eat again!

 Bath time baby Liberace! Or maybe Don King.

 Loves the bath.

Just as Leyla has intense Star Wars battles with Connor, Logan is already having to play with dolls.

Benefit of summertime babies- adorable chunky thighs on display!

I've been feeling nostalgic these past few days as I'm preparing to send my oldest baby boy off on that school bus for the first time next week. As anyone raising little kids knows, the days are long but the years are short. Perhaps someone up there knew it would help to have another big blue eyed sweet baby boy back at home :)

It Takes a Village!

So thankful to have such great helpers :)

This is my favorite face of Leyla's by the way. I have pictures of Andrew as a kid with the exact same face/expression. Love that little girl so much!!

Camp Weekend

Absolutely picture perfect weekend to be at the camp!

Morning walk over the new bridge with L.

 Sweet boy!

 Connor, world's best big brother and baby entertainer!

Our neighbor David taking the gang out for a ride. Andrew got to water ski multiple times.

Head over heels for this sweet little man!!

 My favorite view.

Andrew and the kids out for a paddle boat ride.

Love when he sleeps in my arms.

Connor loves to feed the baby. Logan on the other hand is not so sure about this ;)

6 Weeks!

Little smile! I haven't captured a picture of the huge grin yet.

The sweet face he makes when he's cooing :)

Little man is 6 weeks old today! I've been eating up his little smiles and coos and am obsessed with his chunky thighs. He's a very good natured baby for most of the day and then gets fussy psycho in the evenings. I think I remember the same with the other kids and hope it only lasts a couple more weeks! I love how much he looks like the other kids (Connor's eyes and hands, Leyla's chin and ears, both their noses and lips) and yet also has a look all of his own. Per the usual- those Goodman genes run deep!

The last 6 weeks have been kind of a blur. This past week I feel like we really found our working routine, particularly at night time. I had been trying to keep Logan up until after I put the kids to bed but that just wasn't working (and I'm not really sure what I was thinking). He was fussy and then I couldn't give the kids the attention they needed at bedtime. So our evening routine generally resembles an assembly line, with Logan in bed at 7:00 and the kids in bed by 7:30-8. We started giving Logan a "dream feed" (pumped bottle of milk while he's sleeping- he never really wakes up) before we go to bed at 10:30/11 (the idea is that Andrew will give it to him and I go to bed earlier but that hasn't really happened yet because I cherish my adult time in the evenings!!) But maybe soon. With the dream feed he only wakes once in the night (2:00-3:00am) and then again for the day sometime between 6:00-7:00am. Any earlier than that and I give him a quick feed and put him back down but that only happened once this week. I'm generally pleased with how things have been going but don't get me wrong there are moments (or sometimes hours) of total freaking chaos. My internal dialogue generally goes back and forth between "This is so great! I've totally got this! I'm rocking it! Look at this beautiful family we've built! How did I get so lucky??!!" and... "OMG This is INSANE! How did this happen? There are little people everywhere! And they never stop asking for things! I want to hide in a closet with a beer and hope they don't find me!" Ha. I think (hope) those are normal thoughts at six weeks out ;) And I know things will get a whole lot easier once school starts for Connor and Leyla (not that I'm in a rush for that). But at least then I'll have a chance to breathe a little.

This past week Ashley (due in a month and looking fabulous!) and Claire came to visit and meet Logan and of course this past weekend was our little family reunion in NJ where Logan got to meet the rest of the family. This past weekend Andrew and also I had our first night out (dinner party at a friend's house) and a sitter stayed home with the three (big step!) We put Leyla and Logan down before we left so we weren't too worried. And it was SO great to be out! I had my 6 week post partum check up yesterday- all is good and I got the go ahead to begin working out again- yay! I've already lost 25lbs (golf claps) but still have a ways to go. It's not just the baby weight- I got pregnant in the midst of our kitchen renovation when we were eating out most nights a week (and more pizza then I care to admit!) so I began higher than I would have liked. Even so I probably gained the most of any pregnancy, which is unfortunate. I'd like to think I made healthy choices, I apparently just made a lot of them ;) I need to hang onto some of the weight for breastfeeding purposes but for the rest, Project: Get In Shape Girl has begun!!

Best big brother imaginable! Check out that thigh chunk on Logan (missed out on that with Leyla!)

Ash and Logo (current nickname)!

We're heading back up to the camp this afternoon. My Mom and Gerry will be there this time. The kids are really looking forward to some Grandma time (as our we!)