Last week we took an impromptu trip to Chincoteague Island, VA, marking our first and only “vacation” of the summer. I say it in quotes because let’s be honest, you really can’t call it a vacation with three kids ages 3 and under! A more accurate description would be “changing locations for a few days.” Anyway, we chose Chincoteague because we wanted to go to a beach, but not sit on the beach all day, and Chincoteague has a lot of other things to do. Not to mention it’s an easy drive from DC.

We made it about 15 minutes before we had to turn off the awesome mix CD that Portman made for the trip and turn on Dora, but we should have seen that coming. The kids did really well for about 2 hours, then we had to stop at a playground in Cambridge, MD because Ada had a major diaper blowout. As in, the biggest one she’s ever had… it was down to her knees! Luckily the playground was gorgeous and a nice break for the kids – we plan to stop there the next time we make this trip. After hosing down the baby, we were back on the road and in another hour or so made it to our destination.

I found a very highly rated “cabin” on trip advisor, and it was incredibly affordable. It turns out there is a reason it is so affordable – it was DISGUSTING! Like, wear-your-shoes-in-the-house, don’t-sleep-on-the-sheets disgusting. The kids didn’t notice or care, but next time we will be renting a nice house, not going extreme budget! We quickly got dressed and headed for the beach on Assateague Island, where we spent the rest of the afternoon. The kids were so wiped that we raced back to the cabin, fed them a box of mac n cheese, and put everyone to bed.

None of us slept great because the furniture was so uncomfortable, so we were up bright and early and headed for the island playground, which was also awesome, then back to the beach for the afternoon. Ada was so wiped out that she fell asleep on the beach for over two hours! Roman and Harper had a fantastic time digging “swimming pools” in the sand and building sand castles. Neither one was very interested in swimming, which was fine since the waves were actually pretty big. We had dinner at a roadside BBQ and were all in bed by 8pm.

We ended up cutting the trip short by 1 day because we were not thrilled with the sleeping arrangements and we had done pretty much everything that we wanted to do. On our last full day, we hiked to the top of Assateague Lighthouse (Roman and Harper climbed almost the whole way by themselves!) and we rented bikes with trailers and biked around Assateague Island. It was a really fun trip, despite the accommodations, and we definitely want to go back!

Ada and I woke up before 6AM one morning and drove to the beach in time for sunrise. It was so worth it!

The wild ponies on Assateague were gorgeous!

Ada turned 4 months old last week – where oh where has the time gone! We had her 4-month checkup on Tuesday and she weighed 14 pounds, 4 ounces (67th percentile), was 24 1/4 inches long (52nd percentile) and her head was in the 53rd percentile. She has already outgrown all of the teeny tiny newborn outfits and fits comfortably into Harper’s old 6-month clothes (that Harper wore in the summer at 6-8 months – she was a peanut). She is the sweetest little chubby thing! This morning she woke up and her first tooth had broken through (yes, my kids teeth very early), which explains the excessive amount of slobbering that she has been doing!

At 4 months she is starting to be a little more active. She rolls all over the place – especially in her crib at night. I will put her down in one place and find her on the complete opposite side in a different position. She holds her head up really well and likes to look around to see what’s going on (there is usually a LOT going on around here!) She laughs, giggles, and has a big huge smile. And best of all, she sleeps! She is sleeping 10-hour stretches at night, eating, and then going back to sleep for another 2-3 hours. On top of that she takes at least two 2-3 hour naps during the day. Just in the last few weeks she started going to sleep a lot easier – I just feed her, lay her down, and she does the rest of the work! The only complaint I have is that she only likes to sleep lying down, which means she does not sleep very well in the car. This makes car trips a little difficult, and I just have to make sure we are home when she is ready to sleep because she gets MAD!

Ada’s personality is super easy-going. She will sit in her seat and deal with all of the hugs, kisses, and attention from her siblings like a champ. She “sings” to herself and shrieks very loudly – it is very happy and sweet. I just love her!!

I feel like we are adjusting very well to life with 3 kids. A lot of people say that going from one kid to two kids is the hardest thing, then any additional kids are not as hard. I totally disagree. Two was easy – the jump from two to three has been so much harder. It’s much more of a challenge for me to take them all out of the house by myself, but I can do it. I’ve grown a lot more patient, that’s for sure! Going to a restaurant other than Chipotle is pretty much out of the question. We’ve done it a few times, and Portman and I barely get to eat anything. Even though they are a handful right now, I’m so glad that they are all so close in age.

Here are a few more shots of the baby girl from the past few weeks. We just took a quick trip to Chincoteague and Assateague Islands and she was a great trooper!

Sleeping on the beach:

I’ve had several requests from family and friends for pictures of our new house, so this morning I brought my camera along as I cleaned up the kids’ rooms. Their rooms are the most “put together” parts of the house (although the walls are still bare) – everything else is still a work in progress.

Quiet Playroom
Our new house has a landing at the top of the stairs that we were originally going to use for Portman’s office. A few days before we moved in, we came to our senses and realized that the kids would be ALL OVER him if we did that, so instead we turned it into the “quiet” playroom. We have comfy chairs, books, baby dolls, animals and a computer desk (computer has not yet arrived). I painted the backs of the built-in shelves a really pretty blue to add some contrast and color. Eventually this will be the kids’ homework room.

Ada’s Room
I finally got my pink room in this house! Well, sort of. I couldn’t bring myself to paint the walls pink, so I went with a really pretty bright green. Ada’s room was originally a sitting room off the master bedroom, but we put up a wall and a door and turned it into another bedroom. It opens onto a porch, but eventually we will remove the porch and turn it into a bay window. Also, she doesn’t have a closet so I found some really cute hooks (on clearance!) and hang some of her clothes there for a little extra storage.

Roman’s Room
Poor Roman has never actually had new “stuff” – his furniture and bedding were all handed down from Harper. I didn’t want to buy anything new for his room in this house because we plan to do a “choo-choo” room for him when he is ready for a big boy bed. He LOVES his crib, so I don’t know when that will happen!

Harper’s Room
Harper’s room is the most put-together (meaning I actually hung pictures on the walls), but still needs a little work. We basically had to take two rooms worth of furniture and make three, so Harper’s dresser and bedside table went to Ada. We plan to buy her a dresser, just haven’t gotten around to it yet!

We usually leave the ladder off the bunk bed because Roman likes to surf down the steps on his tush! He doesn’t seem to mind it, but it looks uncomfortable to me!

In my haste to post before the kids woke up from their nap, I failed to leave out two very important things about our new living arrangement.

First, we have opted for NO CABLE. This was a big discussion prior to the move because I was a big trash-TV watcher, as in “Toddlers and Tiaras,” “Keeping Up With the Kardashians,” and pretty much anything on HGTV. However, we decided that it is not worth the $120 a month or whatever it was for me to waste 2 hours of my life and countless brain cells every night. Our new set-up includes Netflix streaming, 4 free network channels in HD thanks to the ginormous antenna that the previous owners left in the attic, and shows purchased from Amazon’s streaming service. I have to say that I do not miss cable, at least not so far. It helps that I am so busy that I don’t have time to sit in front of the TV for several hours a night. It also helps that I’m not confined to the basement during the kids’ sleeping hours like I was in our old house. Our friends and family have bets on when we will cave in and get cable, but for now we are just fine!

The second thing I forgot to mention (how could I?!) is that PORTMAN HAS AN OFFICE WITH A DOOR THAT SHUTS!!! Yes, that deserves all caps! I cannot put into words how wonderful this has been. In our old house, the kids had to walk through his office to get to their playroom, and his office was really just an extension of their play area in the basement. This gave them plenty of opportunity to break his stuff, climb on his lap, play on his computer, and loudly participate in important conference calls. Portman likes to work from home and I prefer that he works from home, but it was just not an option without a real office. In this house we opted for a kid-free basement, now known as the “man cave.” He has a huge work area, a couch and a big TV. There is a baby lock on the door and the kids don’t even know he is down there during the day. Since moving in, he has only been into the office twice, and he swears he is getting a ton of work done. I love it because I can actually leave the house during nap time and run a few errands without all three kids!

Finally, Portman wanted me to share this photo because he took it and thinks that it is awesome:

This summer will definitely be remembered as a summer of transitions. We welcomed baby Ada to our family, Harper involuntarily “gave up” her pacifier (more on that later), and we moved! We are all settled in to our new home and we couldn’t be happier. As stressful as it was to pack up and move with two toddlers and an infant, it was definitely the right decision for our family.

We only moved 1.5 miles from our old house, but our lifestyle is completely different. Where to begin! First of all, we have grass! We asked Harper at dinner the other night what her favorite part about the new house was, and without hesitation she said “da grass.” It’s true. We have a LOT of it, too. Our house backs up to a farm, so we have a beautiful barn and a huge field adjacent to our back yard. The kids have already spent countless hours running, climbing trees, and getting very messy, just like they should. We find it hard to remember that we still live in Fairfax County and that we are only a few miles from the beltway, since we now have so much nature and privacy!

Speaking of nature, we have already had visits from the hundreds of birds that come to feed on our bird feeder (left by the previous owner), and the kids are learning to identify different birds. We will probably have to get a book soon since we don’t know very many of them, but both Harper and Roman enthusiastically tell us whenever a cardinal, “mommy cardinal,” or blue jay is at the feeder. We also spotted a deer in our yard just the other morning, which might be a problem when we plant a vegetable garden next summer. We also have a farm cat who peruses our yard looking for rodents. Needless to say, it is heavenly!

The other big change for us has been having so much space. We no longer have to shuffle down to the basement for every nap time so that we don’t wake up the nappers, and we can carry on a normal conversation when the kids are asleep (we used to whisper, seriously). We aren’t constantly bumping into furniture, and the kids have much more space to run around without getting hurt. The toys are not constantly under our feet, and I feel a lot less stressed out about the mess since it is more spread out!

The transition to the new house was definitely a challenge, but everyone is doing really well now. Roman had the hardest time, and spent the first few nights screaming and confused. He woke up one night and Portman found him standing in his crib facing the wall saying “Mommy, help!” It was so pathetic! Harper was perfectly happy to move, but not so happy that her pacifiers didn’t move with her. She had plenty of warning that the moving trucks would not be taking her pacifiers, so she never actually asked for them. Instead, she spent the first week or so lying awake at night for hours asking to “have something in my mouth.” She refused to actually ask for a pacifier, but insisted that she needed something in her mouth! She is over it now, but is still taking a lot longer to fall asleep at night. Hopefully we will work out all of the kinks before school starts in September.

At our old house, baby Ada slept in Mommy and Daddy’s bed, but here she has her own room. This took some getting used to for both of us, but she is now sleeping most of the night in her crib by herself. I usually bring her into bed with us for her last feeding around 4 AM, and she spends the rest of the night with me. It all depends on how tired I am and how many times I’ve been up with her already! Sometimes I’m just ready to lie down and fall asleep while she nurses.

We got a slow start on photos, but I finally took a few of the kids in their new digs. We don’t have any indoor shots yet since we spend most of our time outside.

The back of our house with the barn in the background: