So in the weeks leading up to the birth of Elijah I really wanted to do one last run away to the mountains for a day. I wanted to spend some quality time with my boys naturally but in reality I wanted to run away so that I could use the maternity swim suit that I bought when I was pregnant with Noah and never used. But as we looked at the weekends leading up to D day there were commitments and conflicts every weekend for probably 6 weeks or more leading up to baby time. I was so bummed. But as it turned out the 'babymoon' I actually got was A LOT better!
On Wednesday, the day before we had little Eli Derek's family got here to be with the boys while Derek and I were at the hospital and to get to know littlest man a bit. They stayed for a few days after I came home with Elijah to help us adjust and to help me recover. While I was kicking it in the hospital my brother and father in law were busy fixing the lock on our sliding glass door and the cupboard above the stove that was threatening to fall off at any moment and my mother in law was keeping my boys busy and happy. By the time they left our refrigerator was packed with food, the boys were enjoying their "new" books and toys and the sliding glass door was not only locking but sliding like it was on ice without a sound.
When they left on Monday Derek stayed home from work for TWO WEEKS with paternity leave to entertain the boys while I loved up on the newest little Tangren. They'd run off on little adventures to the store or the park leaving me home to pretend I had just had my first instead of my third.
But don't worry Derek too learned the power of a warm sleeping baby.
The boys were eating it up having Derek home. The "adventures" to the store were really adventures when Dad was taking them. They just played all day long. It didn't even really matter much what they were doing...with dad...it was fun. Case in point. We were in the front yard pulling weeds and Derek was showing them how to get dandelions out. ( Derek does yard work to relax- no, seriously ) Then when they'd lost a little interest they'd gone to do other things when Derek yelled. " I found another dandelion! Who wants it?" and TWO little boys chime "ME!" and go running towards him. When Dad is teaching them things they are becoming men, taking on a challenge to conquer. When I teach them things, I'm giving them chores to do. I guess that's how it is with boys and Dads and boys and Moms.
Derek decided to re season the badly rusted dutch ovens that we've neglected for years. He planned on it taking an afternoon...it took three days and exhausted all of our propane for the grill. In the end it took a wire brush drill bit and the oven to complete the job.
But he had a cute little helper.
Noah scrubbed and scrubbed with Dad
It was during the re seasoning that Noah decided that we were holding out on him by telling him he wouldn't like it and not letting him have any apple cider vinegar and insisted to have some. He found out for himself that we were right. We have a very funny video that is too large for blogger that will be blackmail someday.
Then after two weeks of Derek being home it was time for him to go back to work. But then came my parents to help for a week. My dad always likes to have things to do while he's here and we were happy to oblige him. A couple things had been knocked off that list by my husband and his brother and father but he wasted no time in getting things done. First up was taking off the remnants of the broken safety gate and patching and painting where it had been. He also made a strawberry box for us so that we can start our own you pick strawberry patch since I've missed that so much since moving to Utah. (Let me tell you people store bought strawberries are tasteless at best)
While he was at it he leveled the ground by my house, dug bricks into the boarder of the grass (which has since been admired by more than one set of people) oh and totally cleaned out the weeds. Just because he's amazing. He finished it the same night we discovered that the forest of tomatoes in my kitchen window had grown much taller than I'd realized and needed to be planted last week. So after unsuccessfully trying to plant them myself with two crazy boys wanting me to play with them and another little boy wanting to be held, an unexpected visit from the Relief Society and getting said crazy boys in bed I gave up trying to do it myself and let my wonderful husband and father plant my garden by flood light.
I snuggled little man while my equally amazing mother folded my boys laundry.
That's the magic and beauty of a post baby babymoon.
One of the things on the list was getting screens for two of the windows in our house that have been without them for as long as we've had the house. I figured, EASY, because you can just go out and get those....well no you can't. You have to buy a kit and make them. Can I just say again how glad I was that my dad was here to do that. Not the first clue where to even start. But not only did he do that but he also replaced the screen in our screen door that was letting flies in. Yahoo!
He also added fun stickers to our Swaggerwagon depicting our current family
Yes we've officially become one of those families.
While my dad was busy taking care of the things around the house, My mom focused her attention on taking care of me and little Elijah. First order of business was getting me a fresh new look. As soon as we had Hyrum off to school that Monday we were off to the salon for a cut and highlight.
In the evenings Elijah would get fussy and the only thing that would calm him down would be my Mom holding him like this
They bonded a lot while she was here.
Of course my Dad got plenty of snuggle time too. He is known as the baby whisperer. He hasn't lost his touch.
We had our first big excursion while they were here. We headed up to the City Creek Center to check that out
It gave me a little more confidence about taking all the boys...anywhere.
They were also essential in putting together and carrying out Hyrum's birthday party...more on that soon.
When they left I watched them drive away and cried. Not only because my 'babymoon' was over but because I really didn't think I could do this on my own.
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