San Diego is great and we are looking forward to a slight cool down in the next month maybe. Hayden started preschool today and loved it. He made a new friend but he can’t remember his name. He says his favorite part was riding a bike made for two kids. He told me he’s always wanted to do that! Through out the day he kept saying “I can’t believe it was the first day of school, it was so great!” He has several friends in the ward that are older than him and they must have taught him about school because now he always talks about recess (not a preschool term) and was wondering what grade he is in. (I thought about telling him he’s in MWF 4 year old P.M. grade...) Anyway, it’s great to have him started even though it’s only three afternoons a week because here the cut off for kindergarten is Dec. 2nd so all his friends from primary started school a few weeks ago and he has been really lonely. The plus side to his loneliness is that it has forced him to play with Danica a lot and they seem to really enjoy it. They have made up several games of chasing each other, he gives her horse rides on his back and they play games with the toys. It’s great!

Danica is still adjusting to having Alyssa around. She likes to point out all of Alyssa’s features like her eyes, nose, etc. She likes to help me burp her and is obsessed with giving Alyssa her binky. Even if she is asleep or in the middle of feeding Danica will try to force the binky in. But overall, most of her actions are positive toward Alyssa. Sometimes when Alyssa cries she says “Shhhh” to her, it’s pretty cute. However, the tantrums and grumpiness have definitely increased but that is probably due to a combination of lack of attention, boredom and “cabin fever” combined. Hopefully that will all subside soon.

Alyssa is still a cute as can be and has the brightest alert look in her eyes. Somehow she actually rolled over twice (stomach to back) while Barb was here, which is virtually impossible for a two week old so I don’t know how it happened. She is very strong and likes to kick her arms and legs a ton. We are still trying to figure out what Alyssa likes best and trying to help her settle into a little routine to help her feel happier but I think things are improving. She is letting us swaddle her now which helps a lot and we are able to put her in bed awake so she falls asleep on her own. She is sleeping better and mostly just waking every few hours to eat at night. She still seems bothered by gas and struggles some during eating but that should all improve with time.

Well, I have to be honest, I knew it would be hard to have three kids and youngest so close together and I kept thinking that if I told myself it would be hard then I would be pleasantly surprised when it wasn’t that bad.... well, there are moments when it really is that bad! Less than a month ago I really thought I was pretty good at my job and I had the kids, the house and my life all in order and going so smoothly. Now I am trying to figure out when I might feel like that again... three months? six months? when the kids move out of the house? I know there are many of you that have many more than 3 kids and you all survived so I am sure that once I am not so sleep deprived things will begin to look up! As I gain a better understanding of Alyssa I won’t feel so confined and it will be nice to get out of the house. However for now it can be a scary adventure... I took Hayden to an open house at his preschool last Friday and Alyssa screamed the whole time despite my best efforts to comfort her... at those times I really just wish we had stayed home!

Okay, I am off to bed. Thanks for all the pictures and updates. I’m sorry I’m such a taker right now because it’s easy to read the blog while taking care of Alyssa but hard to type with one hand! Maybe I’ll have to force Tom to write something!