Andrew's mini tv spot

A quick update and finding back-dated posts

I get two sentences per person to avoid writing a novel. here you go:

Elizabeth had her first ear infection last week and is recovering well. She also has 6 cute little teeth and took her first tiny steps yesterday in between games of peekaboo.

Rebecca is enjoying being 3 with her crazy curls and stubborn scowl. I love her laugh and her constant help in the kitchen.

Andrew is excited to start playing basketball in January and loves going to enrichment classes with the second grade at school. He is becoming the newest member of te Harry Potter fan club one long chapter at a time.

Lenna got her ears pierced for her birthday and is looking forward to a "Nght Owl" sleepover party at the end of this week. She healthy and happy and back to her normal self and coping very well with her diabetes, with the exception a few "no more needles" meltdowns.

Mike is busy working har to take care of us and making a good name for himself at his job. He draws an enthusiastic crowd when he walks in the door each night and has exclusive rights to the biggest hugs and smiles from the little girls.

I have been exercising my creativity with birthday cakes and Halloween costumes. I am excited to fit into my pre-baby jeans again and go running on the rare days I everyone is healthy enough to go to gym day care.

I have dedicated 15 minutes a day to getting the past crazy year into the blog before the end of the year. I am going to post-date the blogs so if you aren't reading in a feed reader or email, you can click the links at the top of the page (right under the picture) to see the newest old posts.

Things to love right now

* Chubby baby cheeks with dimples and giggles
* Toddler tea party with mini pumpkin jack-o-lanters as the guests of honor
* Magic red and gold leaves, pink sunsets, and chilly mornings
* 7 yr olds with wiggly front teeth who make everyone waffles for breakfast
* Fourth grade student of the month, nominated by her peers for being  trustworthy- a good friend, honest, and reliable
* Finding a giant chocolate bar in a grocery bag while cleaning off the top of the fridge, that I didn't know was there, that had been bought and left sometime earlier by a thoughtful husband
* A kitchen that smells like pumpkin chocolate chip muffins
* An organized front closet
* One week until my mom getaway- room with housekeeping, a hot tub, a pool, no cooking for two days, and great company. And that is before the event even starts!
* Fresh picked apples, apple crisp, apple pancakes, and apple pie
* I found the box with my sewing machine inside- welcome back friend!
* Celebration season in our family- 2 birthdays down, Halloween, 2 more birthdays, Thanksgiving, Wedding anniversary, and Christmas! I can think about presents and celebrating, and baking, all the time instead of laundry and boxes and humidity.

The New Normal

Blog? What blog? Oh, that blog. I guess I should write something...


Time for an update. I will start with the smallest.

Elizabeth is almost 6 months old! I can't believe how fast the time goes, but at the same time it seems like she has been here with us forever. She is now known as "Princess Drool", "Rolly-polly-olly", or "Squirmy Wormy". She never stops moving and will be crawling before we know it!
She has mastered the art of rolling over in both directions, can arch her back right out of her car seat onto the floor if I forget to buckle her in, and can wiggle her way around in circles to reach whatever we thought was just out of her grasp. Her brown hair is still pretty sparse but has filled in the bald spots she had a few months ago.
She hates the bath tub, being left alone, and riding in her car seat. She loves her brother and sisters, esp when they are making funny faces at her. She likes to put anything she can reach into her mouth, sucking her fingers, and is especially delighted when she is able to catch her toes and get them to her mouth.
The one thing she doesn't want put into her mouth is solid food. We tried cereal for a few weeks but have stopped, since it took forever to get anything to stay in. She kept drooling it all back out faster than I could spoon it in. Maybe we will try again in another week or so.

Rebecca is my little fireball. Her curly red hair is as crazy as ever, as is her temper and her emotions in general. Anything she feels, she does in a big way. She coming out of a rough last few days but considering all the changes she has been through the past 6 months, I am glad it isn't any worse.
Our goals for the next few months (in order of my priority, not neccessarily hers) include getting her back to sleeping through the night in her own bed, going to the nursery in church, learning to ask for things without whining, and learning to use the potty.
She loves being a big kid and doing everything she can with Lenna and Andy. She likes to help with chores, especially in the kitchen. She also loves water.
She told me last week that she was working hard to turn into Ariel, her favorite princess with fins. She is excited to get fishy feet, which can be grown, apparently, by bathing at least twice a day, swimming at every opportunity, and drinking large amounts of very cold water. She wishes she had a pool in the backyard.
Her other favorite is birthdays, and she claims every other day as her "happy birthday cake present" day. We have been attending some sort of birthday or other celebration requiring cake at least twice a month since we moved here, so she has gotten to pretend easily.
She is mastering words and loves to talk, sing, and read books. She is learning to name her letters and spell her name but is really enthusiastic about shapes right now, so we are going with that for a while. Her current favorite shape is an oval, which she can spot just about anywhere. She likes bare feet and bubbles and wants to be the baby sometimes.

Andrew is growing while he sleeps! He lost another tooth last week and his pants are all at least three inches too short. He loves to play outside and ride his bike. He learned to climb a tree at the start of the summer and is working on dribbling a basketball. He loves swimming at the pool at his cousins' house.
He has proven to be very responsible at doing his chores such as taking out all the garbage and vacuuming. He also likes to help in the kitchen.
He has spent most of his summer playing with girls, and we are all praying for a nice boy his age to move into our neighborhood. There are plenty of boys around, but finding one that is fun to play with, uses clean language, and doesn't beat little kids up, is proving to be a challenge.
His reading skills exploded in kindergarten and he is turning into quite a reader- he is into Geronimo Stilton and Magic Tree house books right now. He has taken to borrowing Lenna's beginner piano books and teaching himself to play. He is ready for lessons as soon as we can schedule and pay for them, probably next year. After a couple tries, he has the songs memorized and can play through with both hands and no music. Not prodigious, we are only through Old MacDonald and Jolly Old Saint Nicholas so far, but Lenna has forbid him from moving ahead of her.
 His favorite thing about the move was his chance to spend more time with his relatives, especially his Papa Bear. So far he has enjoyed "guy time" at a minor league baseball game and is scheduled for a fishing trip and some gardening work this weekend. His aunts, uncles and cousins have all shown him a good time with sleepovers, bowling, swimming at the pool and the lake, riding a horse, watching movies and playing video games.
His little spirit is really starting to show now that he is better at expressing himself. He introduced himself to the ward by going up to the front in Sacrament meeting in June and bearing his testimony of prayer and Heavenly Father's love. Everyone was very touched. He enthusiastically prepared a talk about the importance of temples and eternal families for primary on Sunday. His sensitivity sometimes causes him trouble but is sweet.

Lenna is living up to her name, which she recently learned means "Bright one."
She adjusted right away to the new school and had no trouble academically. All schools come with mean girls and she had some trouble for a while but ended up well. Her prayers were answered when two girls in her class at school were found living right here in our neighborhood and they have become good friends.
We had to do some hoop jumping and pushing to get her tested for the gifted program here but after getting the right people involved she was able to get tested and accepted into the magnet gifted program here and will be in a class with all other gifted fourth graders next year. She is looking forward to the challenge, it will be interesting how she adjusts to not being the first one done every time.
Instead of taking the summer off, she has been trying to fill every week with something new to do. We had a great reunion in West Virginia with her best friend Leara, where they made cookies, dyed their hair with kool aid, and went on a nature scavenger hunt.
After that she has kept herself busy with Spanish class at the library, memorizing the bookmobile schedule, devouring library books like they are ice cream cones, taking piano lessons from her cousin Zan, and joining horse club. She went on an overnight adventure where she learned to ride a horse, braid horse tails and manes, and care for horses in general and got to sleep in the hayloft.
This week she is finishing up drama day camp with the local children's theater and will make her stage debut as Perdita in 101 Dalmatians. She is very excited to memorize lines, sing a solo, and do some dancing while wearing a doggy costume and stage makeup.
Lenna has been a great helper with all of the juggling we have had to do lately. She is learning to cook some things in the kitchen, is in charge of loading and unloading the dishwasher daily, and keeps all the kids in check when they go outside to play.

Mike is very busy with work, and the commute to and from work. We miss having him around in the afternoons but love our time together on the weekends. Mike's brother Matt just moved into our townhouse complex and has a similar commute, so they have started carpooling. It gets them both home in time for dinner and an hour before the bus would for about the same cost, so we are enjoying that blessing.
Mike loves his job and the important work that he is doing. There are lots of advancement and learning opportunities that are available to him that he is excited to take advantage of in the future. 
Mike is enjoying finally coming home after 14 years of living in other states. He has wasted no time embracing his role as son, uncle, brother, and grandson and works hard to be present at special events whenever possible and help out whenever he can. We are all enjoying the chance to be part of a local extended family, though it seems to come with an abundance of cake- at least every other weekend!
We are feeling the difference in the smaller ward here, since we both just got callings and people actually notice when we aren't there. Mike was asked to teach Elder's Quorum our second Sunday there, then was called to do it permanently the week after that. It always makes me smile when an older couple comes up to us, especially Andrew, and tells us they remember when Mike was just that big.
I am finally feeling like I have a little more control over things. It seems to be directly correlated with the regularity of Elizabeth's sleeping schedule and the ability to keep things following a routine. They say kids thrive on routine and regularity- I guess their moms do, too.
I have only gotten hopelessly lost once or twice but was saved by some over the phone navigating by Mike. And am down to getting a little bit lost to only once a week or so, and only make wrong turns every other trip, instead of every time I get in the car. It's getting better. For a while the kids took to adding "unless mom gets lost" to every plan we made. "We will be there in 10 minutes, unless mom gets lost." "We are going to be home in time for dinner, unless mom gets lost."
I was just called as the Relief Society secretary. The calling I left behind in GA. I guess I wasn't done learning from that one yet? I have only done one Sunday so far, but so far so good. Except, when they sustained me in sacrament meeting they read my name as the RS president, not secretary. So I got to have a mini heart attack for about 5 seconds, until the bishop corrected the counselor and he started over. Then I got put in the right place and felt much better.
I was feeling squished and overwhelmed with all of our stuff stacked all over the place here, so we stuck it all in storage. It is my goal to have it all back here and unpacked before school starts again so we don't have to pay for it anymore. I think I might need to buy another book case though.
We have enjoyed the benefits of apartment living when it comes to not being responsible for maintenance and lawn care, but enjoy the large yard and little space for a flower bed that comes with the townhouse. For Mother's Day I was given a flat of flowers to plant with the kids help, and so far they are still alive! Becca and Andy were a great help in getting them planted. I enjoy our close proximity to the park across the street and the elementary school that the kids can walk to- hooray for no more carpool lines!
Hopefully as things settle into our "new normal" I will be able to get things in order here then find time for things like blogging, reading, and crafting again. And to find a gym with child care so I can start running again. After I find the boxes with my sewing machine, craft supplies, and books! I have to remind myself that I just had a baby in the midst of all our chaos and to give myself and our family some time to adjust, which is harder than I thought it would be.
Mike just told me to contact a publisher so I could finish my mini novel, so I guess I am done. Pictures to come in the next post!

Boxes

203 items or boxes unpacked and put away. 52 to go.

In case you have been wondering where I have been lately. I am giving myself another 2 weeks to finish. If I meet my goal, I am taking myself shopping at the outlet mall that is a block from my house. Wish me luck!

And what do you do if you are a kid and all your toys are in a box? Well, turn the boxes into toys. We have a cardboard condo row in our living room now.

And finally, Becca and I took the one sunny day last week to walk to the park across the street. I hope it dries out so we can return, it was really beautiful!

Young Writers (mommy brag)

Yesterday Andrew brought home a permission form and this post it note:
"Andrew's writing has been selected to represent SCE kindergarten classes in the Young Georgia Authors writing contest. Please fill out this form so we can send his essay to the county level contest."
His little face was just bursting with pride, right before he broke out into the happy dance chanting "I won, I won, I won!" We are proud of him and happy that he has something to celebrate being good at.

Unfortunately we won't hear the results from the county for a few weeks, which will be too late for us since we will be moved by then. I wonder if they will still give him the award if he wins, if he has moved out of Georgia? We are hoping that luck and history are on our side, as well as some fabulous writing about "What Happens in the Spring," since Lenna won the competition in first grade.



Regardless of what happens, we are very proud of our little man. And personally, I am relieved, since it wasn't long ago that I had to bribe him to hold a pencil long enough to write his name.

Welcome Spring

We had a little spring weather preview last week. We enjoyed as much outside time as possible and tried to embrace the simple pleasure of play.

Simply go fly a home made kite:

Simply learn to ride a bike:

I'm looking forward to a simplified spring and summer full of simple pleasures like playing outside. What are the simple pleasures in your life right now?

Ordinary

An update post, full of the stuff that now makes an ordinary day at our house. For those of you who are wondering how we are doing but never get a chance to talk to me because I am always unavailable and busy nursing or napping or playing catch up.

First, for the grandparents and aunts and uncles-
Elizabeth is doing well. She is about 9 lbs now and has grown another inch. He red hue has faded into a rosy pink. She has grown into her wrinkles and now looks like a chubby baby instead of the saggy baggy elephant. Rebecca keeps her in a constant supply of kisses to her soft brown hair and dimpled cheeks. She has ten tiny toes and ten long fingers and a belly button that hasn't yet decided if its an innie or an outie.  Her tear ducts took a while to catch up but are not functioning at full capacity, which has ended the watery cheeks and goopy eyes.
She eats well, but most of what goes in comes right back out. We are treating for reflux and I just started a dairy-free week to test for a possible milk allergy. I already miss my midnight cereal snack and chocolate treats. And soy milk is blech.
She sleeps like a baby. She is starting to be awake more of the day time, but not enough to say she has a nap schedule or anything. She cries for a few hours before bed but sleeps the rest of the night, with breaks for feeding every few hours. Recently she has been stretching her sleeps to four or even five hours at night, for which I am grateful. If only I could convince the rest of my family to sleep during those four or five hours as well so I could sleep, too!
She had her first kitchen sink bath a few days ago. Lenna enjoyed helping and watching. Elizabeth didn't enjoy it as much but was happy to be out and snuggled after.

Rebecca is adjusting in her own way. She loves her "baby sister Elizabeth" and is very gentle and loving toward her. Mommy takes the brunt of any animosity or hard feelings. Her new favorite words are "No!", in response to any requests to do anything, even something she likes, or "I want my mommy!" in response to anyone else trying to help her or move her or breathe near her. She won't sleep unless it is in Mommy's bed, and not until mommy is right next to her. Mommy appreciates the love, but is kind of tired of the extra long nap and bed time duties. Especially at 4 in the morning when she wakes in her own room and discovers mom isn't with her, but has just put the baby back to bed and is trying to go to sleep.
She likes to steal the pacifier and claim it as her own, wants to be fed her dinner, and has watched more tv in the last month that she has in the previous six combined. But she loves to take a bath, help change diapers, or pat the baby to help with burping.
Rebecca just learned to pedal a tricycle yesterday when we borrowed one she could reach the pedals on. She also loves to ride in the stroller and go for walks, so we are trying to go out each day and take a walk. She will let me read her books while we are feeding the baby, unless she is busy scattering puzzle pieces or board games around the living room, unfolding all the towels, or climbing on the counters to find a valentine candy stash.

Andrew is doing well. I think he has grown a foot this year. We have worked hard to cut his tv and computer time down, and eliminate anything violent or scary. There has been a big improvement in his behavior problems and his nightmares. He still likes to play super heroes and pirates and star wars, but has to imagine the bad guys instead of replaying scenes from tv. The ones in his head are much more age-appropriate (although, is there even an age where violence and fighting and terror are "appropriate" viewing for anyone?)
Andrew has taken off on the reading rocket. He loves to read, especially chapter books that make him feel like a big kid and on par with his big sister. He still doesn't like to write, but loves art and music and PE at school. Lenna is teaching him to multiply when they play school. He has been a really great help the past month, when he wants to be. He came with me to the grocery store Saturday and did a great job keeping the list, pulling things off the shelves, and unloading the cart onto the check out while I held a hungry crying baby. He is learning to include Becca in his games and likes being responsible for his own list of chores- he takes out the garbage, clears the table, feeds the cat, folds towels, and runs the vacuum. When he feels like it. Other times, he is a super-stinker and jumps with both feet into the "annoying little brother" roll complete with silly songs, weird faces, pranks, surprise attacks with a Nerf gun, and stolen treasure.
He has had a break from his allergies the past month or so, which we have all enjoyed. The trees started blooming this week, so our break is over and we will start new medicine after his check up next week. I hope this spring will be easier on him than the last few. His last remaining food allergy is milk, so he and I are experimenting together with no milk this week. He thinks soy milk is blech too, but likes the coconut milk mint chip ice cream Mike brought home from the fancy organic grocery store.

Lenna is growing up fast. She was very worried about how much work she would have to be doing to help with things here after the baby arrived but seems to have settled in ok. I try not to ask too much of her and remind her to breathe when she starts to get too dramatic or to demanding of herself. And I try not to forget about her. We spent 5 minutes making a bracelet last night that seemed to make her day. Wish I had done it sooner! She stopped going to her clogging classes, it wasn't her passion and I couldn't see the point of paying for classes and hauling all the kids out to lessons when she didn't love it. Soccer started this week and she is disappointed that she isn't playing but is looking forward to swimming lessons this summer and maybe learning something new at a summer camp. With the warm weather this week she has finally had a chance to tackle her new bike and learn to ride again. I think she has got it.
Lenna just finished a report at school on Eleanor Roosevelt and now is on a hunt to find out about all the first ladies. She has started reading books in the "Dear America" series and has started asking questions about immigration, war, racism, poverty, and discrimination. Its hard to explain the KKK to a 9 yr old. I would rather go back to matching the correct villain and prince to each princess in her story book. She is excited to be moving to the DC area so she can visit the museums as often as she would like. I predict a busy summer!

Mike had a birthday last week. He wanted it to pass unceremoniously but the kids thought that was a terrible idea. Since they are the ones really in charge around here we had a party anyway. We had a family movie night.I borrowed a projector from a friend so we could turn the living room wall into a big screen. Lenna ran a concession stand in the kitchen and sold candy, popcorn, hot dogs, and nachos for monopoly money. We watched Despicable Me and had a birthday cheesecake. And we still had everyone to bed by 8!

 My "all about me" post will have to come later, but I am doing ok. Really tired, finally stopped hurting all over from child birth, and am trying to adjust to only putting two things on my to-do list, and still not getting it all done. And I think they are going to release me from my church calling because I delegated away all my duties and they haven't missed me all month. And there is a for sale sign in my front yard.

The End.

Hope you enjoyed our ordinary!

A Little Too Much Togetherness?

We live together. We eat together. We pray together. We play together. We . . . get sick together?

One with strep throat, one ear infection, and one who needs stronger allergy meds.

And now, we take medicine together!

The First 12 Days of Christmas

The First 12 days of Christmas we:

1. Got a package from the North Pole

2. Earned 50 cents to donate to the Angel tree at school
    Did a secret service for a family member

3. Decorated the short Christmas tree (kids only! no help from mom and dad) and hung lights on the porch

4. Went to the county tree lighting celebration

5. Had a visit from Saint Nick

6. Wrote letters to Santa

7. Watched Christmas movies and ate popcorn

8. Made treats to take to school

9. Mom visited our classrooms and read stories and passed out food (it is good to be the cool mom!):
Stick balls and a porcupine for the kindergartners

Orange cookies and Christmas oranges for the 3rd graders

10. Filled a Kmart cart with groceries and toys for the Salvation Army and paid using our pizza money and went home to leftovers for dinner instead

11. Donated our outgrown clothes, toys, and bean bag chair to the stuff swap at the church, and didn't bring anything for ourselves home in return; Had hot chocolate and cookies at the table while daddy read stories

12. Put up the big Christmas tree and nativity sets


Whew! OK, whose ready for the next 12? Not me, but here they come anyway!

Thanksgiving vacation

For Thanksgiving vacation we:
took a trip to the library
spent a day with Chuck E Cheese
made a Robin mask and some bamboo for a hungry panda sidekick

made root beer

made a present for grandparents

made a present for aunts and uncles

watched the construction workers pour cement in the neighbor's yard

drove a long way for a too-short trip to Nana's house

We need a vacation to recover from this vacation!

He knows when you are sleeping

We have an "in" with the Big Guy up North. My parents live in North Pole, Alaska and my kids firmly believe that their grandpa is best buddies with Mr Claus. I intend to exploit this belief to the fullest extent of my capability.
This year, right after returning home from our Thanksgiving trip, the kids found this package:

The letter on top was from Santa, explaining that Grandpa had mentioned that they needed some looking after, so he was sending some helpers to watch them until Christmas. Inside were two little elves.
Dolls to the untrained eye, but real magic Christmas Elves to those who believed in Christmas magic. The elves report daily to Santa on what they see around the house, and do most of their moving around at night while we are sleeping. You never know where they will turn up or what they will be into.

In this picture, they have been playing dress up with the jewelry Becca left out, and taking turns riding on their make-shift sleigh.
Other nights we have found them in the popcorn bucket, reading Christmas books to the teddy bears, playing with the kids' toys, snuggled in bed with the kids, on top of the bookcase riding Rudolph, ready to jump down and fly, tangled in the Christmas lights they had hung, in the Christmas tree branches after decorating the tree with the kids' socks from the laundry I left of the couch, or having a puppet show.
I have gotten into the habit of helping them find their way to bedrooms just before clean up time, bed time, or any other time the kids need a little incentive to be on their best behavior.
Every house should have an Elf!

Thanksgiving 2010

This year I am thankful for:

Recliner chairs,

Good food,

Cousins,

Turkey,

And really big, full dining room tables.

And family. Happy Thanksgiving!

Halloween 2010

Highlights include:
Flopped cake pops (see, not perfect. And they were just a happy with orange-filled oreos)

Preschool party with face painting and dress up. We practiced trick-or-treat and went on a lollipop ghost hunt.

A fairy princess

Batman

Sick baby disguised as Batman, hoping to get out and go to the party

Down on the Farm

On the farm with Andy's kindergarten class:

 Ride the bus

 Get lost in a corn maze

 Play in a giant box of corn

 Jump on a giant pillow

 Go on a hayride

 Milk a cardboard cow

 Pet a goat

 Climb a tractor

 Hug a pumpkin

 Rope a steer

 Go down a tube slide

Decorate a tiny pumpkin

Go back to school while mom goes home a takes a nap!

Beach Trip Fall 2010

When I get old and rich (or maybe sooner,a  girl can dream) I am going to buy a condo on this beach and visit as often as I want.
Until then, we will keep going as often as possible. This time, off season so we could afford beach-front accommodations with a great view, a balcony, and a private beach.
Highlights include:

watching the cargo ships come into the harbor, the lighthouse at night, the invading pirate ships acting as promo for upcoming pirate week, collecting shells, swimming in the ocean, watching the fog on the beach, ice cream on the board walk, no crowds in the great local restaurants, not catching the flu, doing nothing, and having so much fun you forget to take any pictures of yourselves having fun on the beach.