Thursday, January 28, 2010

Another one??


At least it's not mine this time!! This little bean belongs to my sister... 9 weeks pregnant. Apparently, craziness runs on my side of the family--it's her fourth as well. It will be my mom and dad's eight grandchild in eight years, and they only have two kids. Mom, is that enough for you??

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

"It looked sucky"

I got new yogurt the other day. Usually we're Yoplait Thick 'N Creamy kind of people, simply because its consistency is more like custard and doesn't fall off the spoon when, oh I don't know, someone takes a spoonful and turns it upside down prior to inserting said spoon into his mouth. But Nolan takes yogurt in his lunch almost every day, so I figured with him, I could get the cheaper stuff. I mean, he's been using a spoon for awhile now. So when he got home from school, I asked him how his yogurt was. His response? "It looked sucky. And then when I tried it, it was sucky." What? I asked what he meant and he demonstrated how he sucked it through the big gaping hole in his front teeth. Ah, I see. Indeed it is sucky!

On another sucky note, I forgot what real food does to babies' diapers. As little as Ava actually wants to eat real food, apparently it's still having the impact. It's a sad stage--one where you go from not minding changing a poopy diaper of your adorable baby, to whose kid smells like that? It couldn't possibly be mine!

And, speaking of growing up too soon (do you like my transitions here?)... Nolan has been sleeping in the basement, just to have a room of his own. That's not new news, but today he told me he'll just tell me goodnight upstairs. He doesn't need to be tucked in anymore. What?? How can that be? I didn't have the heart to tell him that I still need him to be tucked in at night.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

St. Anthony once again

Once before I blogged about St. Anthony and how well he works. You pray "St. Anthony, come around, something's lost and can't be found." Then, for whatever reason, you find it. Well, it's worked again. On Thursday we went to eat, Dave paid, and then he couldn't find his wallet Friday morning. He called the restaurant, no dice. I looked through the van, in our room, in his jacket, everywhere. Nothing. He got home from work Friday and looked everywhere again, to no avail. He called the restaurant again, but nope. He then went outside to vent some. Meanwhile, I put Ava in her highchair, put her bib on, and stopped to say the St. Anthony prayer four times, deliberately thinking about what I was saying. I walked to the refrigerator, got out Ava's food, and noticed something under the dining room chair. Under closer inspection, it was, indeed, Dave's wallet. I got him to come in and look, and we were both joyous. Although, he did say I could have found it a minute earlier so he didn't hurt his ankle on whatever he kicked in the garage.

And speaking of Ava's food... she's finally eating some. I tried giving her some a few weeks ago, but she really didn't do well, with oatmeal, or applesauce, or anything. She just spit it all out, and the literally turned her head and wouldn't look at me or open her mouth. Now she'll eat most fruits, but squash, sweet potatoes, peas, or any other veggies? Nothin'. Apparently she takes after her sister.

Nolan is quickly becoming a toothless wonder. Last week he lost a top tooth, and now he lost the other one. He looks pretty funny, and I promise to take pictures soon!

Tomorrow the kids don't have school so we're heading to a local waterpark. I'm hoping it won't be too busy, and lots of fun! I'll let you know!

YES!!!

THIS JUST IN... VIKINGS WILL NOT BE GOING TO THE SUPERBOWL. I REPEAT, VIKINGS WILL NOT BE GOING TO THE SUPERBOWL!


I don't yet know if the Vikings will win or lose, but at least the interception throwing, I'm too good to think anything bad will happen on my throws Brett Favre has returned and he screwed up the guaranteed win! Yeah!!!

Man, is he looking old tonight.

Nicole, if it sounds like a foreign language, it's a post about football. :)

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Too much talking, not enough reading

Last night I commented to Dave that Ava is my favorite. At least, she will be until she can talk, and then I'm sure it will switch. I know, I know, that's not very nice to say, and I know, I know, it will all go so fast. Someday it will be too quiet, they won't want to talk to me, I'll wish for these days back. And I don't doubt for a second that that's true. But really? There are days when I just need them to be quiet. When I can't answer another question, hear another story or try to decipher any more words. It's loud in our house, and some days I feel bad that I'm just tuning everyone out, not really listening. But, I think it's my defense mechanism. If I couldn't tune it out, then I'd really be in trouble!

Besides the noise level, I do miss individual time with the kids. It's really hard to read with them, either all together or one at a time. Abby has to read for school 15 minutes a night, so I probably read with her the most, but really she usually just reads by herself for her time. And poor Nolan, he can't read the books he loves yet, and I just don't have the wherewithall (how do you spell that??) at the end of the day to read with him. Especially if Max isn't sleeping, and Ava is eating! Dave keeps talking about wanting to read Harry Potter with the kids. It's a good thought, and I would love it too, but...

This four kids business, it's hard!

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

My Chunky Monkey

I had to take Ava in to the doctor last Friday for a suspected ear infection, again. In the two weeks since I had her in for the ear infection before that, she gained a complete pound. Now, for me? I'm happy if it's just a pound gained in a week. But when you're only 15 pounds to begin with, jumping to 16 seems pretty big!

And speaking of ear infections, she still had one, and she got the strong antibiotics this time. You know, the ones that wreak havoc on her tummy. Where she couldn't poop before, now she can do nothing but. (Sorry, tmi.)

I'll post picture someday soon. I used to have my camera everywhere, take a million pictures, and download them immediately. Now it's a lot of work. :)

How you know you're a stay at home mom...

I had to ask Dave what happened in Haiti. Don't judge me. They don't show the news reports during Yo Gabba Gabba.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Sleepover

Sometimes I just write things on the blog, and other times, I think about what will the kids want to know from when they were little. Sometimes I write about them and what they're doing, and sometimes it's how I feel, good, bad or otherwise, so that when they become parents, they know it's all ok. That I wasn't always perfect (really!), that it wasn't always easy, that despite the cliche, kids don't come with instruction manuals.

So this is one of those times when I just didn't know what to do. Abby was invited to a sleepover about a month ago. It was for a girl who moved to Jackson in the middle of the year, so I didn't really know her or her parents. And the sleepover was at a hotel, about 45 minutes from our house. There were no details (why that hotel, what time is pickup, what should she bring for the sleepover, etc.) on the invitation. All of the girls in Abby's class were invited, but only two other girls were going. There were also some relatives invited (reported by Abby). Hmmm. I debated and debated. On the one hand, I felt bad that nobody was going to the party. On the other hand, my little girl! So far away! I don't know the parents! (And that pesky story in the news this week where the mother served champagne and Mike's Hard Lemonade to her 12-year old daughter and her friends at her sleepover.) But regardless we RSVP'd yes.

I took her (and my mom for backup) to the hotel on Saturday. The invitation said the party started at 3; we got there at 3:05. And when we got there nobody was there. We waited. 3:15, no one. At 3:20 another family came, and they didn't know what was going on either. We waited some more. At 3:40 or so, they finally got there, but there was something wrong with the room, I couldn't hear exactly what. But, they finally got it all figured out, and we headed to the room and the pool, Abby changed into her suit, and they all went swimming. And I talked to the mom for a little bit, saw Abby having fun, felt ok and only slightly anxious, and then left her there.

Everything turned out fine. When I got there this morning, she was swimming (still?) and having a great time. She was tired today but happy she went, and I was happy I let her. I know many (most?) of you are thinking I'm crazy. But, ultimately, I told Abby if she was at all uncomfortable or wanted to come home, to just call me and I'd come as soon as I could. And I had to trust that she would.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Thank yous are hard

Sometimes, thank you is hard to say. It's easy when you pass the salt, or pick up a dropped paper, or get a gift, but the big ones can be difficult.



But do you know what I think is harder? I think it's harder to accept a thank you. In the past few weeks, a few people have given me genuine thank yous for what I did or how I helped them. While it meant a ton to me, I was left speechless on each occassion, shrugging it off like it was nothing. It's even harder, I think, to accept thank you than a compliment. A thank you means you impacted someone's life, personally. And that's a big thing, an important thing. And I wish I knew how to accept them gracefully.



So, if you've thanked me recently, thank you. Thank you for thinking enough of me to give me the thank you. And if I wasn't so great at accepting it, know that it still meant a lot.



Enough of that! Mushy, mushy... geez!

Maxisms

Max has gotten to be so funny. I look at pictures of him from when Ava's born, and I actually think she has aged him! Instead of the wispy blond hair, he now has textured, somewhat curly light brown hair. And his mannerisms are just crazy. He will now watch an entire movie (unheard of four months ago!) and his favorite is Flushed Away. I think I've seen it probably 30 times since we got it for St. Nick's just a month ago. It's pretty cute, so I don't mind too much, and I actually see or hear something new each time, but it's still a little overboard (I know this because I wake up singing "Poor Old Roddy, flushed down his own potty" nearly every day). And he says things that crack me up now. I asked him if he wanted juice. He replied, "Yes, please. I like juice very much!" He said that about candy, too. "I like candy very much." Really? Very much? Then we were playing a game the other day, and he wanted to watch, what else, Flushed Away, so I told him he had to help me pick up the game first. He said, "No. I'm busy." Then he sat on my lap as I cleaned it up. What? No way! Crazy kid.

The word of the year is...

DELIBERATE. A blog that I follow over here is challenging her readers to come up with a word of the year. It could be anything, really. (If you go to her blog, it could be a couple posts back. And she actually got the idea from someone else, who probably got it from somewhere else, but still.) A list of potential words can be found here. I really wasn't going to come up with one, simply because one wasn't coming through for me. Oh there could be many, really. Simplify. Balance. Laugh. But for some reason, in the shower the other day, all of a sudden, it hit me. Deliberate. Or, I guess, deliberately. I want to live deliberately this year. When I put food in my mouth, I want it to be deliberate, and not just the leftover food from dinner on the kids' plates. When I sit down to hold Ava while she naps, I want to be deliberate about it, and not feel guilty that I'm not washing dishes, or making dinner, or a million other things I could (but not necessarily should) be doing. When I spend time with the kids, I want to be deliberate about it, putting myself whole-heartedly into the book, the blocks, the craft project or whatever else it may be I'm doing with them.

Deliberate. It may be tough, but I think it will be worth it.

How about you? Do you have a word of the year?

Sunday, January 3, 2010

And time just keeps going

Today I am crabby. I'm not sure why... possibly because Abby and Nolan are going back to school already tomorrow, and possibly because they've been home two weeks. I don't know how it can be, but it seems like those things are two sides of the same coin. It was hard tonight, getting them ready for bed earlier, making sure backpacks were ready, clothes were ready, we have the good stuff for lunches. I think it's all the stuff that comes with going back to school that puts me over the edge. Suddenly, there wasn't enough time to finish the reading that should have been done and the other homework, the laundry, come to terms with the schedule.

But it's been a fun two weeks! Christmas morning here, Christmas with Dave's family in Chicago, a few days off, Christmas with my family on New Year's Eve and then, and then, New Year's Eve. That was quite possibly the most fun I've had with the big kids since they've been born. YES! It was that nice to me. We got home from my family Christmas, and put Max and Ava to bed (sorry, littles!) and then let the games begin. Abby and I played her new game Qwirkle (love it!) while Dave and Nolan played Lego Indiana Jones Wii. Then Abby and I played Wii Sports (beat her!) and Dave and Nolan played Bakugan Brawl (a board game Nolan got from Santa... Dave's not so happy with Santa as the game is really not so great). Then we all played Uno and other games, and finally watched the ball drop. I truly couldn't have planned it any better, and they were so much fun. (A huge sorry to Jenny and Rocky, Cody and Kyle who we totally canceled plans with!!)

Prior to this, there's also been "stuff" going on with Dave's job. I wasn't able to blog about it much because of all the people involved, but he got a new job. After much back and forth, he accepted it the week after Thanksgiving, but waited a week to give notice at his current job. After he gave notice, they counter-offered, which was nice but a big shock for Dave. He decided it wasn't about the money, and turned down the counter-offer, but then his VP and then the CEO talked to him more and convinced him to stay. It was truly an agonizing few days for him as he really didn't know what to do, but I'm happy to say that now he's at peace with his decision, and for that I'm happy.

That's it for around here. I'm hoping we survive the school day and return to regular life tomorrow. Maybe it'll be a welcome change?