Randomness

• First random subject: Max learned to take pictures with my camera! Maybe I'm biased, but I do believe he's got talent. I mean, along with 32 other random blurry pictures, he got these too...

Not bad, huh? Do you like Nolan's sandals?

• Second random subject: After a few strange nights of Max not feeling well, he's doing better now. It was the strangest thing, he got up constantly both Wednesday and Thursday night from about 11:00 PM until 3:00 AM with a fever. On Thursday it went as high as 103 degrees. Then around 5:00 or 6:00, the fever broke, he slept until 8:00 or 9:00 (unheard of!) and then woke up just fine. Very strange! In fact, he was so good yesterday that he didn't take a nap! That's also unheard of. But, the boys played so well together that I could hardly complain. In fact, that leads me to...
• Random subject number three: Nolan and Max on Friday played everything under the sun, ranging from star wars to bartender (yes, they got the cocktail shaker out). When I wouldn't let Nolan take any other liquor out to play bartender, they decided to play... Girls! Yes, girls. They each got a purse and walked around with them. I asked Nolan what they were going to do, and he said he was going shopping. It was "her" son's birthday ("her" son was turning 6) and "she" had to buy a present. Of course! What else do girls do but shop? Here's a picture of the "girls" and their purses. The redeeming thing was that Max's purse, at least, was filled with plastic frogs and lizards!

• Random subject number four: HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM! Ok, it was yesterday, and I did remember to call, so the belatedness is ok here on the blog. She and my dad went to breakfast, which would be my pick too. I love going to breakfast and don't get to do it nearly enough. Luckily, Dave usually makes me breakfast on the weekend. It's not quite the same as going out to breakfast, but tastes as good (if not better!).
• Fifth random subject: On Wednesday I got a box. The kids and I were running out the door when I saw it so I didn't even get a chance to see what or who it was from. When we got back, I took a closer look and saw it was from a friend of ours we haven't seen for a long, long time, Laurie Greer (who's also Derek's, Dave's best friend from HS and old roomate's, sister). I was very surprised. Laurie and I used to see each other fairly often when we both lived in Illinois, but since she's had a child and we've had three and they moved to Atlanta, we haven't seen them since I was pregnant with Abby and I went to Atlanta on a business trip with Dave, and we've instead become more Christmas card friends. I opened the box and what I saw made me laugh out loud. It was several pounds of craisins! Laurie's husband, Victor, used to import ingredients for restaurants, craisins being one of them, and so they used to give me some all the time, which I loved! But since they moved and Victor started specializing in ethnic foods, I lost my craisin hook-up. Fortunately (for me, at least), their dog Jack needed to consume craisins for some kidney issues and they ordered more than the dog and their whole family can consume, so Nolan and I are downing many, many craisins. Yum! And the point of this whole story? There are those friends we have and count on for every day life. Those that know what's going on, who are there for you and who you would call in a heartbeat, and those friends make the world go around. But then there are the other people you know and think of only every now and again... maybe something happens that makes you think of them, or someone says something, or you see something they would like. I guarantee, if you email, call, or send them a note, they will appreciate it and it will make their day. I know Laurie's crazy box of craisins made my week!
• Random subject number six: Max actually sat down on his own this morning and read a book. Yes, I said Max sat down and read a book, and I got a picture to prove it.
  


• Random subject seven: Nolan finger weaving. Abby has spent a lot of time lately finger weaving, which is kind of neat and makes, basically, scarves. Nolan decided he wanted to try. After playing girls the other day, I found this funny. I'm not sure Dave did.
  


• Eighth random subject: The counter is Max's favorite place to sit. It's gotten to the point where as long as he's sitting and not standing, we're ok with it. As I took his picture, I also got this cheesy smile, which I think is funny. He's actually trying to figure out how to smile!

• Random subject number nine: I had a kidney ultrasound done on Wednesday because there's still lots of blood in my urine. They think it's kidney stones. No kidding. I guess this will tell if anything else is going on. I just wish there was something they could do about it.
• And last but not least, Random subject number ten: I thought I'd share Abby's Valentine letter to Dave and I, below.
  

Makes me happy I gave up my job so I can shop. Actually, I don't mind, and I find it funny. But I do wonder if they'll remember that I actually WORKED once upon a time. In fact, we got a new VP of Marketing at work (my boss), and she's including me in lots of stuff. In a way, I'm glad to feel included. But as I sat answering emails on Thursday, I realized how glad I am not to have to do that every night anymore. Once in a while? Ok. But every night? Not so much.

And that's it from here, lots and lots of randomness! Today we were inside all day because of all the snow. Yesterday the kids were riding their bikes, today, sleds. Hopefully it will go away quickly. I'm done with winter! And I done for the night... 9:30 is my bedtime. :) Hope everyone's having a great weekend!

Abby

"Did you know that once, Lincoln gave a speech. About slavery. But someone didn't like his speech, so he shot him. But instead, he should have really used his words and talked it out."

Yes indeed, he should have. But try to convince Abby of that when, oh, Max steals a little plastic toy she got from McDonalds and if he plays it "HE'LL WASTE THE BATTERIES." Nevermind that it just sits in her room, with no one, including her, playing it. She goes from complete crazy girl, where there's no reasoning with her, no talking to her, to complete crazy girl running around the house, where again there's no talking to her through the silliness, to complete helper girl--"Sure Max, I'll play with you. Where should we go? Can I give you a piggy back ride?" And then the cycle repeats. Makes me wonder how I'll keep up with the teenage years!

And in more Abby news, she decided this morning against tae kwon do. I am a little disappointed, since I really do like the discipline and the feel good aspect to it. But, even though it's snowing outside, I know spring and summer are right around the corner. And I'd probably be resentful of driving her, at least twice a week, twenty minutes to practice, when I'd rather be outside taking in the gloriousness of the weather. In that way, soccer and softball will be much better, not to mention the ability to let Max play at the park at the same time. But, mostly, I'm glad it was her decision and she doesn't seem disappointed at all.

Just me and the little man

The kids had off school today, and I completely forgot to take off work. It just worked out well that Dave had to be in Chicago for work, so he took them down to his mom and dad's to hang out for the day. They left yesterday around noon, and won't get home until late tonight. I have to admit, this brought out a little bit of panic for me! I truly can't remember the last time I spent a big chunk of time with Max, just me and him. Usually I have the big kids to play with him too, or Dave. And since Dave loves this time with Max, I take the big kids and leave him at home with Max! So, since Dave hasn't spent much time with just Abby and Nolan, and his mom and dad wanted to take them downtown on the train today (a little hard with Max tagging along!), and since Max has daycare today that I'm already paying for, it was just me and the little man yesterday. He went down for a nap right away when they left, and then slept for 3-1/2 hours! That's unheard of! Then we went for a walk outside, and headed to the basement to play for awhile. Then dinner, then more playing in the basement, then bath, then bed. Actually, we had a lot of fun! I know I shouldn't sound too surprised... he is fun even though he's a maniac. I'm just not used to so much alone time, and am not at all sure what I did with Abby when she was that age, and am not at all sure what I'll do when Nolan's in school in the fall, too! Anyway, this morning, Max is still sleeping. Apparently, I have that effect on him--when Dave's home, he gets up at 6:30, and now, here it is, almost 7:30! I may have to wake him up soon...



Here's some pictures from around our house this weekend... Max got his first haircut on Friday! Now I guess he's a big kid for real, I can't deny it anymore.


Here's Max hiding after he got in trouble...


I can still see you!


Max did this to Nolan... see the nice bruise on his cheek? He came up and pushed him into the end table. Poor Nolan. Dave yelled at Max, and Nolan thought he was yelling at him. I think when he realized he wasn't getting yelled at, the relief was so great that he didn't even mind the hurt in his cheek!

Awww, poor Max got yelled at...

The rest of the weekend was nice too, with lots of friends. Friday night was Jenny from Mayville, which is always fun. Even though we were at the restaurant for 3 hours (or more?) with slow service, the food was great once we got it and the company is always awesome. You know it's good when you can end up at George Webb and not mind because you get longer to chat! Then on Saturday I finished taxes (yeah me!) and we had friends over for dinner. Their son, David, is in Nolan's preschool class, and they get along GREAT. Laura (the mom) watches Nolan for me on Monday, since he really hated the Y daycare program. It's truly a lifesaver, and now Nolan asks "Can I go over to David's house every day?" It's pretty funny. They also have a younger son, Nathan, who's 10 months older than Max. But, because of their birthdays, they'll be in the same kindergarten class. Unfortunately, they'll go to a different school than us, but something tells me that they'll still all be friends anyway.

My other conundrum is whether to take Abby to tae kwon do lessons. She won free two weeks, and really likes it. I really like the discipline, and the cheering for other kids in your class. But it's a fairly big time commitment, and about a 20 minute drive, at least twice a week. Abby's willing to give up other sports (swimming, soccer, softball), but I'm still just not sure! Stay tuned, I guess, or weigh in if you have an opinion!

Happy Monday to all!

Is it Thursday already?

So, I've had about four posts written in my head since the last time I wrote, and every time I went to bed, or took a nap, or watched tv, or read my book! I guess it's about time.

The first blog in my head was from last weekend already... the paper on Saturday was depressing. After Abby came along over 6 years ago, it was difficult to read or hear any sad stories, and I think it's just compounded with each baby. And then being pregnant, oh my! First, there was the description of the late-term abortions that a UW system clinic was going to start performing. It wasn't just that they were going to do it (which, to me, is bad enough), but the description of how these babies at 19-22 weeks needed to be amputated first and then suctioned. Bleah. I could write a million things on that, as well as the fact that it's going to be at a UW clinic, but I won't. And then the story of the women finally charged for starving her 1-1/2 month old baby. The baby who had complete muscle atrophy as it tried to protect her vital organs before completely starving to death. And finally the story of a local high school boy who posed as a girl and asked many adolescent boys for graphic images of themselves and then, when he got them (yes, they actually sent them to him), he used them as blackmail to perform sexual acts on them. I mean, really? What is this world coming to? And how do I let my soon to be four children ever use the internet? But how do I not? How do I warn them of the dangers that lurk out there, while still instilling in them that the world is basically a good place? I remember last year being two minutes late to pick up Abby from school and she panicked. As I drove by the school steps, she was crying and one of the dad's stopped to help and she just looked at him. I had no idea whether to tell her she could trust him, or not, or what to do. And if I don't know, how will she??

But anyway, I'm really not depressed, living in the newspaper or wondering each and every day what this world is coming to. We are doing fun things around here, too... like going to Disney on Ice! Last Saturday we headed downtown for the show. It was good, but not spectacular. The kids liked it (well, Max fell asleep, but 2 out of 3 ain't bad!) and it was a good day out. Here's Max, still awake in the first half, and was actually pretty into the show...

The kids with their booty... but what they really wanted was the snowcones behind them. No way! I can only imagine the mess that would be!

The kids before the show...

And it was nice enough, that we could wear spring jackets... that was nice!

Here's a random picture of Abby in the cute jumper that Dave's mom made her for Christmas...

And here she is on mixed-up mismatched clothes day!

And I REALLY should have posted after Tuesday, and called it Gloriousness!! Although extremely windy in the morning, the afternoon was picture perfect. I made all the kids play outside, and even skipped swim lessons that day so we could enjoy it a little further, and enjoy brats on the grill! Max even cooperated by taking his nap at 10:30 to 12:30, so we could all just be outside. It's turned a little colder now, and drearier, but considering it's still above freezing, I won't complain too loud! Here's Nolan and Kyan from across the street, playing Star Wars/Power Rangers in the grass and snow.

Look at that sky! You had to keep looking up... the grass is so yucky right now that it was a little hard to take.

And here's Max, enjoying his scooter he got from Christmas (thanks, Gram!). He was happy to get it out of the garage!

And that's it! The week is caught up. This next week promises to be not all that exciting, which is good, I think. With the three kidlets, regular days are exciting enough!

Is that Max, or Bono?

You decide!

Choices, choices

Today we got home from preschool, and Max went down for a nap very quickly. I was planning on playing a game or two with Nolan, but then Brenda from across the street called, asking if Nolan wanted to come over and play with Kyan. Considering Nolan's Wii play has been suspended in our house for the time being, and Kyan has Wii that Nolan could play, Nolan quickly decided that YES! He'd love to come and play! So, with Max down and Nolan across the street, I had some tough decisions to make. Do I:
1) Clean the house
2) Do the dishes
3) Put away the clean laundry
4) Go through the great maternity clothes I got from my friend Stacy (Thank you, Stacy!!)
5) Think about dinner
6) Read a book
7) Take a nap

And the answer is... #6 and 7. (I am SUCH a multi-tasker!) Once Max woke up, I cleaned the kids' rooms, emptied garbages, put away clean clothes and thought about dinner. Good use of time, if I do say so myself. :)

Anyway, not a lot going on here. I'm feeling sluggish but ok. I continue to have blood in my urine, which is fairly attributable to kidney stones. Luckily I haven't had much pain except minor lower back aching, which is good, but also attributes, I think, to the constant tiredness going on right now. I'm also freezing cold all the time which is really not fun, and I have so many layers on I feel like an eskimo, but it makes a nice, hot bath at the end of the day and then crawling into my heated bed feel really good! Max is so busy, busy, busy, and while it tires me out, Dave really enjoys it, and this time of childhood in general. He actually said the other day, "I'll really miss this when Max grows out of this stage. It kind of makes me look forward to having another one." What? Wow! That's progress if I've ever seen it! And, as the doctor listened to the baby's heartbeat yesterday, she pronounced, "Sounds like a girl to me." Woo hoo! Of course, I won't put too much stock in that, and I'll be happy with a healthy baby, but it will get me through the next month to think it might actually be a girl. But I'm still bracing for another boy, just in case.

Well, that about covers it from here, all the news that's fit to report!

P.S. I do know the difference between the White House and the Capitol Building in the previous post... I was just testing you.