Dave thinks Max is funny

At the dinner table tonight, we were quizzing Max on his words. Max, who's that? Ab-ba! Who's that? NoNo! Who's that? DaDa! Who's that? MaMoo. Yes, I'm MaMoo. They laughted. Me? Not so much.

Me too, Nolan. Me too.

I picked Nolan up this afternoon from his friend David's house, and here's the conversation we had in the car on the way home:

Nolan: We have to go back!
Me: Why?
Nolan: I forgot my mask!
Me: What mask?
Nolan: My Batman mask!
Me: Oh, did David's mom make you a Batman mask?
Nolan: Yes! And she sewed David a Batman cape, too!
Me: Oh yeah? Sounds neat.
Nolan: Yeah, it is. I sure wish you were the sew kind of mom.
Me: Silence.

Yup, Nolan. I wish I were the sew kind of mom too, but I'm just not. I'm a bill-paying, keep the house organized, make sure you almost always have your backpack kind of mom, but not the sew, iron or bed making kind of mom. Maybe someday. But then again, maybe not.

Of course, that conversation followed the morning conversations. On the way to Max's daycare, he said "Remember when I used to sneak out of bed, when I was on the bottom bunk, to look at my shirts and pick out what I would wear?" Um, no. In fact, I don't remember that. But, it doesn't surprise me. Then, on the way out of daycare, after I told someone that I was pregnant, Nolan asked "How do you get pregnant." Um, well, mommy and daddy decide to have a baby (kind of). "Oh," he says. "And then what?" Um, then we have a baby? "Oh, and then God and Jesus make magic and you have a baby?" Yes, Nolan. It's a miracle. It truly is, and God and Jesus help us. "Because they have lots of magic? And once you want a baby, they help you?" I said yes. I thought, sometimes God and Jesus help us before we even know we want the help. And sometimes they don't help as much as we think we want them to. But yes, dear Nolan, just yes.

I wish I had started this blog when Abby was younger. I know she said crazy, and cute, and ridiculous things too, but I can't remember what they are. She still says funny things, but they're just not the same. I'm sure I'll capture Max's stuff, and the new baby. But Abby's are just lost.

Speaking of Max, we have words! SpongeBob, Abby (Abba), Nolan (NoNo--HA!), Mama, Dada, shoe, no and some others on demand. It's about time!!

And in baby news... I had a doctor's appointment last Thursday. I've lost 12 pounds since my first baby appointment, but the doctor wasn't overly concerned as long as I gain it by 24 weeks (I'm almost 18 weeks now... 12 pounds in six weeks, yikes!). My thyroid levels were still way off, which explain why I'm always freezing cold, with skin so dry it cracks and why I can't get off the couch. Oh wait, that's either thyroid or surviving winter in Wisconsin with three kids. Either way, but I hope it helps to adjust my thyroid meds. And (for those who care), for the first time in four months I didn't have blood in my urine. Yeah! Apparently I finally drank enough water with lemon to dilute and hopefully dissolve some of the kidney stones. But since there are several it's only a matter of time before they come back. Hopefully after baby!

And I'll end with some pics of the kiddos... Abby and Nolan found their Valentine's suckers from Gram, with lips on the other side. Nice, huh?


I tried to get a picture of Max's eye, but I don't know if it worked so well. Abby Was twirling Max and Nolan in a chair, and Max wanted to get up. So, Abby stopped the chair, Max got up, was super dizzy and fell into the end table. Oops! Big black eye. They asked me about it at daycare today. Hmmm, I wonder if Child and Family Services will come knocking?

See the mark below his right eye? Yeah, that whole thing was a bruise.


What a ham, even with a shiner!


Here it is a little better. Poor kid!

And this is our fun from Saturday. After the salt clay debacle, I was a little leary of doing another project, but Nolan brought home directions for making a volcano, so I told the kids we could try it. And, since it rained (and then turned to ice and snow) all weekend, I figured what the heck. I gave them each 6 cups of flour, 2 cups of salt and some other ingredients to start mixing together.

Then they started forming their volcanos.

Ok, and here I'm missing some pictures that Dave took with his camera. But, basically, we added water, baking soda, dish soap and vinegar and boom! It exploded. Nolan did one and it made him jump so high--pretty funny! But here's the end version. All in all, it was worth the ingredients and the time. And they had lots of fun.

And that's all there is from my side of the world. I hope all is well on all other sides of the world, too!

47. Seriously?

Last night I was going through Max's closet, taking out the too small 18 month shirts and putting in the 24 month/2T shirts that fit over his big belly. While I was at it, I pulled out all the 24 month pants to be ready to go, since I'm sure he'll outgrow the 18 month pants soon. As I went through the different bins, I kept getting a bigger and bigger pile of pants. At the end, I just had to count. You got it, FORTY-SEVEN pairs of 24 month pants. Really? I mean, my goodness. I haven't bought him a single pair. Although, I know I bought Nolan more than enough. And other gifts of pants from other people. And then the pants that came from nephews Jake, Chad and Cole. But 47? I'd kill for his wardrobe!!

Salt clay, anyone?

Ok, I was feeling bad last week because my routine lately has been to take the boys to the Y
in the morning for Nolan's preschool, or have Nolan's friend David and his mom and brother come over and play in the morning, and then in the afternoon "let" Nolan watch TV or play Wii while I rest (read: sleep... Dave, don't read this!). So the other day, after 30 minutes of watching TV, Nolan wanted to make a clay snake that he saw in a magazine. There was a recipe, we had the ingredients, I had time if not the energy, so I just couldn't say no. After all, it looked easy enough...

Look how happy that kid is, and that snake looks easy enough. So, we mixed in the cup of salt, the two cups of flour, and the water and oil and stirred it all up. And stirred and stirred, but it didn't get doughy, just kind of runny. I thought maybe it would help to dump it out on some aluminum foil and use our hands. Nolan dug right in, and immediately started crying "My finger! My finger!" What? So I started to play with it and quickly realized that every crack and fissure in my dry, dry hands was now covered with salt and BURNING!! No wonder Nolan was crying! So, I told him to go wash his hands whileI kneaded it some more and added more flour, which in turn made it... More sticky!

YUCK!

But isn't Nolan getting good at taking pictures?

Here's a peak at what the snake kind of turned out like.

Nice, huh? I don't have final pictures, but after this, we baked it for an hour, where it got somewhat hardened, then Nolan painted it blue. The next day, he played with it for about 47 seconds, it broke in half, he cried, we threw it away. And that's all we'll ever talk about salt clay again! That's what I get for trying to find some energy for CRAFTING! Oh well.

Since that didn't work, Nolan wanted to take pics of me with the light sabre (saber?). I wasn't supposed to smile. So this turned out attractive, don't you think?

How about this one?

No? I just can't wield a weapon like these boys can:

In case you don't recognize these ninjas, they're Nolan and Kyan across the street.

On a completely different topic, it truly pays to wait to have a baby until you're a little older. I got more maternity clothes than I could ever use from Stacy, and Joe at work gave me all of his baby stuff since they were done. It includes car seats with bases, a high chair, exersaucer, bumbo seat, bouncy chair, swing, everything! It was so nice, and it's really nice not to have to re-buy everything. Even Max liked the deal... here he is trying everything out. This baby doesn't stand a chance!

I had a great weekend this weekend, but it went entirely too fast. My mom and dad (Gram and Grumpy) were here Friday, and then my dad went to my sister's and my mom and I went to a Women of Christ conference on Saturday. The morning was a little rough with the speakers, but the presenters in the afternoon were entertaining, poignant and truly left us with great things to think and talk about. After that we celebrated mass with Archbishop Dolan, who will soon be heading to the diocese of NY, and is really a great speaker and leader in his own right. Even his sermon got three rounds of applause! Then mom and I headed to dinner and home, where we stayed up until 3 AM chatting. I was tired today, but luckily Dave let me catch a nap on the couch after lunch. But, I still think I'll hit the sack early tonight. Hmmm, maybe now. 8:30 sounds like a great time!

Have a great week!

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!