DC Rocks Part 2

Ok, ok, so we're not still in DC. We came home Monday, and then real life starts and blogging gets pushed aside! The rest of the trip was really great. On Sunday we went to the Holocaust Museum, and I highly recommend it for anyone, but just prepared for it to be very emotional and heavy (that's probably obvious, but still...). I was ready for the images and the brutality--I've seen enough shows that have been graphic enough not to be shocked by that. But the whole thing is layed out amazingly, starting with the years prior to the holocaust and ending with how it was all handled at the end. Through it all, there were a few things that amazed me...
1) It just wasn't that long ago. I mean, I knew when it was, but I just am apalled to think it was just a generation ago.
2) The US (and others) responded horribly. We wouldn't take many Jewish immigrants (using much of the same reasons as today--they'll take our jobs, we don't want to desicrate our racial relations, etc.). We even went so far as to turn down a bill accepting 20,000 Jewish children (who later died in the camps) and turned away a boat that was at our border and made them go back to Germany. The museum did a great job pointing out that in places like Denmark, where the citizens helped the Jewish condemned, only 1 in 10 were killed. In other places, like Germany, it was 1 in 2.

3) They had a children's area where you followed one Jewish boy through it all, and the statistic they gave was that the number of children who died was equal to one school disappearing, every day, for eight years.

4) Finally, at the end, they had a theater with survivors talking about an experience they remembered most. I was actually fairly in control of myself until this point. I was watching and this man came on talking about being in the camp. He was working (meaning, shoveling dead bodies into pits to burn) alongside a friend of his, and his friend's mouth was constantly moving. The man asked him what he was doing, and his friend answered that he was praying and thanking God. The man knew that morning prayers were over, and that nighttime prayers were hours away yet, and couldn't imagine what his friend could possibly be thankful for. When he asked his friend in astonishment how he could be constantly praying a prayer of thanks, the friend answered, "I am very thankful that God did not make me like the murderers." Thinking about the story still brings tears to my eyes... I mean, but for the grace of God go I. What would any of us do, if raised to believe that blue eyes, blond hair was better? If all we knew was the German Reich? I'd like to believe I wouldn't do it, couldn't do it. But I also hope I never have to find out.

After the museum we walked past the National Mall, and it was just really neat to think of all the activity there the previous week. Thinking of Obama and family getting settled into the White House, all the preparations of housekeepers, butlers, chefs, everything to transition. It truly is amazing. Then we went back to Brian and Tammy's, where Tammy and I promptly watched a Lifetime movie and napped and Dave and Brian went grocery shopping, and then they and Al, Brian's brother, made dinner for us. Can't be beat! The vacation was truly a great mix of out to eat, seeing a few sights, wonderful conversation, friends, games and naps. And, since Brian and Tammy have a very nice pool, I think another trip, in warmer weather, is a certain guarantee!

Some pics of the trip... Here's all of us in Brian and Tammy's house--Brian showed me how to use my camera timer. Love it!


The White House in the background...


The curved building next to the red brick one is the Holocaust Museum.


Since we were walking past, why not a picture?

And finally, the kids at the Oasis. They were pretty funny on those chairs, and were GREAT at Dave's parent's house. The nice thing is that I feel comfortable leaving them, knowing that they'll have a fun time.

And that's it! We came back on Monday, and on Tuesday at 5:30, Dave left for a trip and comes home today. That's they way of it all! Hope everyone else had a great weekend, too; and, come to think of it, a great week!

DC Rocks!

Ok, so I haven't actually seen much of DC yet, but so far, we're having a great time. We got to Dave's parents on Friday night, finished our Christmas by opening presents with them (kids were SO excited to get more gifts!), and then took off around 5:45 on Saturday morning while the kidlets slept. We got some breakfast at the airport, our flight got in early, Brian picked us up at the airport, we came back to his and Tammy's beautiful new house, and then I sat on the couch the entire day until dinner! I can't remember the last time I did that... so relaxing, just sitting and chatting. We went out for a great dinner with another very funny friend, who also so happens to work at the Pentagon, and then back to Tammy and Brian's for a game of Scattegories (which, I won, and won $20!). :) Sleeping last night was so nice... it's just so quiet in their house! Even when I sleep in at home, it's always noisy, and I didn't really realize it until I laid there this morning and everything was just so wonderfully quiet. Of course, that's all about to change in May when Tammy has a baby! They'll be awesome parents, though, and I'm so excited for them.



Today I think we're heading to the Holocaust museum and maybe some other sights, and then the day is open. Tomorrow we head back to the little kiddos. It'll be nice to get back to see them again, but I do welcome the break... Dave talked to his parents last night, and his dad said, "I will not babysit Max again until he's 21!" Oops!

Mama said there'd be days like this...

Ok, maybe my mama didn't say there'd be days like this, but stay at home mamas everywhere did! You can definitely tell it's winter, and we've been spending a lot of time indoors. Max is still sick, and on his second round of antibiotics. That makes him crabby, and needy, and yet still crazy. Today, I took a sippy cup to the lip, and that swelled up and started to bleed. Then he came and sat on my head, and broke the clip in my hair. When I politely took him off my head, he cried. You know, the "But I really want to sit on your head!" cry. So then I hugged him. Later on, my cell phone rang, and it was Dave. Strange because he never calls me on my cell phone. Apparently, our home phone wasn't working. Kitchen phone was fine, office phone was fine, but wait! Where's the basement phone? Who knows. I looked in toy boxes and cubbies, in with construction paper, and even the garbage. Nothing. Ugh! Well, it was time for dinner, so we had some dinner, and then back to the basement to find the phone. I looked everywhere again. Abby looked everywhere again. Finally, I lifted up the center console of the couch, and there, with his extra diapers and, for some reason, a half-filled cup of water, was the phone. And it had been going for the past two hours. Oops! Luckily, it didn't call anyone, just took all our phones off the hook. That kid! Of course, that was after yesterday... I took the kids to swimming lessons and Dave was going to meet us there. He got there a little later than normal. Turns out Max must have been playing with the stove on our way out (I'm guessing). When Dave got home, it smelled completely of gas. So, after shutting off the stove, he opened all the windows, put out all the pilot lights, and let things air out a little bit. I'm just glad Dave was home... not sure what could have happened in the four hours we would have been at swimming, and not sure what I would have done if I had gotten home with the kids with that in the house. Man!

Tomorrow I'm taking the boys to a place called Family Funland around here, with a friend of Nolan's from preschool. Hopefully, they'll run around enough to wear them out for the rest of the day. It's also nice getting together with Nolan's friend David and his mom, Laura (and his 2-year old brother Nathan). Laura is very down to earth and, like me, doesn't necessarily fit it (or want to fit in) with the rest of the moms at the preschool, and is also going a little crazy this winter. Perfect match! We've been hanging out quite a bit, and now she's watching Nolan for me on Mondays when I work. That's GREAT, since Nolan cries every Monday when I drop him off, even after five months of this same routine. Now, when I picked him up on Monday, he asked if he could go back. I told him every Monday and he just looked at me and said "Can't I go more often?" Alrighty then! I think that will be much better for him!

Anyway, it's almost 8:45, past my bedtime. I better be going!!

Good night!

A new dream

Ok, since that last dream was pretty disturbing, I thought I'd post a better one today! We've been planning to take the kids to Disney over Abby's spring break (the week after Easter), but after planning, checking and researching, we came to the conclusion that it was just too expensive to go during that timeframe, and considering they could charge that much, our guess it will be WAY busy too. So instead, we're going to go to Busch Gardens in Tampa, and stay at a hotel in Clearwater on the beach. Still warm, still fun for the kids, a third the price. I'll take it! And the kids were so excited about it, even more so than when we mentioned Disney! The night we told them about it, I had a dream that we were there, walking around. I don't remember much about it, which probably isn't surprising since I've never been there. Regardless, it was a much nicer dream then the last one!

And, I'm guessing the kids dreamed about it too, considering how intent they were at looking at everything about it. Here's Dave showing them what all we can do there...


And here's Abby and Nolan before bed, checking out the website themselves. It definitely held their attention!

In other goings-on around the house... Max was Dave's little helper in putting up new cubbies for the basement and for Nolan's room. Hmmm, I'm not sure if that hammer is a good idea!

And I don't know what you do when it's too cold to leave the house, but here we have dvd stacking contests. Here's Abby with 25 dvds stacked up on her feet...

And Nolan with as many on his back. Talent. Pure talent.

And that's it from here. Not much going on. While not as cold as last week, it still feels too cold to go outside (at least for me!). But, we may try it this afternoon and see if it saves some sanity.

I have a dream!

I wish I could say my dream was a noble one, one about us all walking hand in hand, creating a better future for our children. But no. My dream was, of course, the baby. The baby had just been born, maybe two or three days old (and I think it was a girl!). I was in our office here at home, at the desk, and the tiny bundle was all wrapped up in a blanket and a hat and placed on the floor by the filing cabinet. For some reason I left the room, left the baby on the floor, and then it happened! In came Max... (insert Jaws music here). He ignored the baby, but wanted to see what was in the filing cabinet. So, he opened the bottom drawer, and then the top drawer, and bam! That's when the filing cabinet toppled over. Max got out of the way, but the poor, poor baby. Blood everywhere. I got her into her carseat to take her to the hospital, and then I woke up. YIKES!!!

Too cold for school?

I go a full week without really anything to say, but then bam! Two posts in one day. Wow.


Dave's gone tonight, and I got the automated call from school this afternoon telling me that school is canceled tomorrow because of cold weather (wind chill of -30 to -40 below until Friday noon). When Dave travels, as most people know, I'm fine. I don't mind the empty house, the kids' schedules, the hectic moments, for the most part. But there's always just a little bit of me when he leaves that panics. What if I can't do it this time? What if they get the better of me? What if I really do lose my mind? And then, when it's too cold to even have school, my stomach leaps into my throat, and I worry about what the heck I will do with these kids all day. Luckily, my head usually kicks in and says of course everything will be ok. Even if it's hour by hour, minute by minute, it will be okay. And it always is.


Tonight, I actually had energy! It could because of the nap I took while Max was napping and Nolan was watching TV. Nolan probably loves this pregnancy thing... he gets to watch more TV than ever. You want to watch another show? Great! Can you be quiet so I can sleep longer? But at least if I get a nap, I might be able to keep up with them at night. After dinner, I gave Max a bath, and Abby and Nolan came in the bathroom, with Abby's ipod and player, and we cranked the music and danced, danced, danced! Then, we came to the living room and danced some more! Everything from Please Don't Stop the Music to I Want a Hippopotomus for Christmas and Grease Lightning. Even Max got into it, and got mad at the kids when the sat down and wouldn't dance with him anymore. It was pretty fun. And now, the kids are still up (except Max), watching TV, and I figured why not... there's no school tomorrow!


Speaking of tomorrow, I'm supposed to be meeting a preschool friend of Nolan's and his mom at a local indoor playground place. I really want to, but it's SO COLD. But if I don't, I may just lose my mind! Hmmm, lose fingers to cold, or lose my mind? It's a tough call.

Here's some pics of my dancing fools... Max dancing with his monkey when no one else would dance with him.

Go Greased Lightning!

Some funky moves goin' on!

That's the ipod player behind Max and the monkey... he also liked being the dj! That kid can feel the groove!

Be warm!

Two weeks later...

Ok, so the title could almost refer to the amount of time inbetween posts this time, but rather, it refers to Dave's wedding ring. Two weeks after Max flushed it down the toilet, we found out that he didn't really flush it down the toilet. I mean, Dave heard the ploop into the toilet, and heard the flush. And he looked everywhere in the bathroom, and took the toilet apart, and to no avail. And later, just to be sure, I prayed to St. Anthony and looked around the bathroom myself. Nothing. Then, two weeks later, Max pulls Dave into the bathroom by grabbing his hand and using his pteradactyl words (no real words, just the squaking of a pteradactyl) so Dave follows him. Where Max miraculously produces... the ring! What?!? How can that be? We really have no idea. No idea where it was, if he knew the whole time, what happened. But it's back. So, maybe, I'll take that as a message that he'll be ok after all, and will mellow. Someday.

So, outside of trying to figure out Max, things here have been quiet. I may have updated sooner, but I'm not really feeling so great. Tired... very tired! My hope is that it will go away soon and I'll get some energy back. But, when that happens, I'll also start showing and this baby thing will become more real. I'm not sure I'm ready for that! And we're trying to deal with the COLD. I can't handle winter anymore, it's really kicking my butt. But we do try. I refuse to go outside, but every now and again we try to bring the outside in to us...

A bounce house in the basement!

Abby made everyone casts. Max loved his!

And I run a tough ship around here... here's the boys doing their homework.

I hope everyone is surviving the cold. If you don't hear from me, it just means I'm hibernating!

Jill

Not my proudest mommy admission

From the moment Max wakes up, I count down the hours until he's back asleep again. Maybe not even the hours. The minutes. Seriously. When he sleeps in, I'm so grateful in the morning, but then I just know naptime will come late. When naptime comes and he takes a great nap, I'm so happy. But then when he wakes up, I just know bedtime will be late. That little kid does not stop. Ever. Tonight he threw a candle off the table. I cleaned it up. He dumped goldfish (the crackers, fortunately!). I cleaned them up. He spilled juice. I cleaned it up. I brought toys to the basement. He brought them up. I think 90% of my day consists of cleaning up something he just did. Did I share what he did last week? Either way, it's worth sharing again... he flushed Dave's wedding ring down the toilet. Yup, just got it off the sink while Dave was shaving, dropped it in the toilet, and WHOOSH! Down it went. Whatever it is, he's in it, on it, under it, spilling it, stepping in it. This, THIS, is what I expected when I started to stay home with the kids. Luckily I know it's temporary. And on the upside, considering he can bring the ladder anywhere he wants, get things out of the fridge, and refuses help on anything, at least in the next year, he'll be the most independent, self-sufficient kid ever! (Hey Max, mix me a drink, get me some chocolate!)

Anyway, thanks to everyone who commented and emailed me their support for this new baby. Considering Max's current temperment, I'm a little scared. Nicole, you're the best for offering to do my summertime drinking, but you may have to fight Dave on that. I have a feeling he'll be doing a lot of drinking between now and then! And Jenny, I hadn't even thought of having to change my blog name and masthead. Geez, this kids a lot of work already!

Happy mid-week everyone!

Is it a planet? The moon? What is that?

Why, it's baby number 4, of course. Yes, you read right... baby number FOUR! For those of you thinking four? Really? I thought they were done with three? My answer is SO DID WE! We really thought we were done. But, I guess life has a way at throwing some curve balls at you that you just deal with. I'm not sure who was more shocked, me or the doctor. Well, I know Dave was the most shocked, but hopefully he'll come around. We both will, I'm sure. Eventually. You know, in the middle of summer, when it's hot out and I can't drink all summer again! Arrgghhh! It will be ok... it will be ok... it will be ok... you say it too, ok? Then maybe it really will be ok.

Due date: August 13.

New Year's Resolutions

Happy New Year! 2009... so full of promise, so full of promises! What are mine? Well, I decided my resolutions will focus on the kids. Here they are, from youngest to oldest.


First, Max. Poor Max, my resolution for him, ahem, I mean, my resolution involving Max, is getting rid of the nuk. 12 months and one day for the other kids, 18 months for him. Geez! It's time. And, actually, this one should be done soon. I took it away yesterday upon waking (Happy New Year, Max!) and didn't give it to him for nap or bedtime. Nap he cried for about 10 minutes, bedtime was about 45 minutes. But, once he was asleep, he didn't wake up at all all night for it. That surprised me, since he often cries for it if he can't find it on regular nights. Today's nap started in the car (sans nuk), and he woke up after 45 minutes. But, I got him back down for another hour. And then, tonight, we read books, he cried for 30 seconds, and that was it. Will it really be this easy? I feel like I should make another resolution for him!


On to Nolan. I'm going to try to spend more time with him. I mean, I'm home with him every day, but yet, I still don't get into the things he gets into. He loves playing Wii Star Wars Legos. He plays with his Bionicles. Crossbows and Catupults is his favorite game. Ugh. There's just gotta be something I can do with him that we can connect on. I'll find it!


And finally, Abby. I'm going to try to keep her young this year. I know I often lament about how quickly she's growing up, but still she's only six. I can't help her maturity too much and what she learns in school, but I can control her clothes! She's recently grown out of the size 6 clothes she has, which are mostly in the little girls' section of clothes that have princesses, Dora and pink fuzzy outfits, into size 7/8 clothes, which seem to be in the grown up section of clothes that have half shirts, short skirts and high heels. Geez. It's really tough to find clothes that cover things, don't have suggestive messages, and don't advertise shows that are made for high schoolers and marketed to 5 year olds. But there are clothes out there... I will find them!


And that's it for me this year. Sounds easy, huh? Maybe it is. I'm sure I'll add plenty as the year goes on, but hopefully, next year at this time, I'll be able to look back at this post and feel like I at least accomplished this.

On to the pictures. I haven't gotten our family pics off Dave's camera yet, but here's some from mine...

Max was exhausted and fell asleep in his macaroni and cheese. The other kids did this when they were little, he waited until he was 18 months. Still cute!

This is a lot of snow. Luckily, some of it melted now, but man! Could we catch a break between the snow and the cold?

Christmas at the cabin... We were at the Dells this past weekend with my mom and dad, my sister and her husband and three kids. We stayed at a log cabin, which was pretty nice, and had a nice Christmas, with access to a water park, which is always a good thing! Here are the kids with their new Quillows, which my sister made.

Max got a new scooter that was a hit with everyone.

Cole got a soccer goal, which he and Nolan thought was a tent so they camped.

What did Santa bring in her bag?

KIDS!

Over new years, my great friend Renee and her husband Jon came in from New York. They have one son, Ben, who's five days older than Max. Ben is a hugger (and sometimes a biter!) and Max is more of a rogue toddler. It caused a little dissention at first, but then they started hanging out and playing together.

Ben says all kinds of words. Max? He squeeks like a pteradactyl. Gotta love it.

Our great neighbors Rocky and Jenny came over with their boys, too. Here's Abby and Rocky with matching tiaras.

Ben loved crawling on Abby, which means Max decided to crawl all over her too. Poor Abby!

Happy New Year!

Abby and Cody made it till midnight. The picture I forgot to take was Nolan asleep on the couch!

Hope everyone had a safe and fun celebration... Enjoy 2009 for all it's worth!