Taking a Cue from Amanda

My friend Amanda has a really great blog where she posts almost daily. That, in itself, is pretty amazing but the posts are really great, as are the pictures.

I may not be able to write as eloquently as often as she does, and I definitely won't be taking shots like she does any time soon, but the point is to write about the little things every day and when all compiled together they are a special treasure, a collection of my life together with my family, and that really is my point in doing this.

My details about Tuesday, March 15th, 2011? It's been raining almost all day. Mostly drizzling, but now it is starting to really come down at about 4pm. The good news, though, is that the temperature is rising. It might be about 50 degrees or warmer out there! The kids are eager to get out there and see how durable their rain boots are. None of the boys' old boots fit Meredith, so we went and got her own pair the other day. She will not be left out of anything!

Meredith's had a runny nose for a couple of days and that, along with the time change, have had her sleeping in rather late. I'm glad that so far there hasn't been much to stand in her way because sleep really is the best remedy for so many ailments. (I wonder if I'll be saying the same thing when she's a sleepy teenager who doesn't want to get up before noon!)

When she got up Charlie was already at school and she and I had breakfast together. She loves these bowls with a straw built right into them. She sucks up all the milk before she's had more than a couple of bites of the cereal. Then, of course, is pretty much done with the flakes. She like tangerines, though, and had some of them. Afterward, I folded clothes while she played with the blocks, put things in her purse; then curled up on the couch. She still isn't feeling well.

At school today Charlie learned all about Transportation. He told me he made a really cool painting using truck tires, but it is at school drying. I'm so happy for him that he has gotten more confident in himself and enjoys going to school. He is so proud of all the things he has accomplished this year!

When Charlie got home we had lunch, then ran errands before going to pick up Lou and Ben at school. It's such a rough time of day for the two of them. I really wish there was an easier way to get the boys home from school but there is not, so they unhappily squirm in their car seats until they either fall asleep or decide to watch a movie in the van. Today Meredith fell asleep and Charlie watched Lady and the Tramp.

After we got home from school, Mere went to her bed and Charlie crashed on the couch and now Louie and Benny are playing hockey outside with wiffle ball bats and a plastic hockey puck. I'm hoping that these equipment (instead of the real sticks and ball) won't bust out a window in the garage door. They got a really neat hockey set for Christmas, but we have yet to figure out how they can play without doing major damage involving broken glass and a ball flying out into the street while cars speed by. We have plans to take it down to the nearby tennis court that is lacking a net.

Anyway, this is nothing earth-shattering, but it's a snapshot of our day. And, hopefully the start to a better documentation of the kids.

Loving the Time Change

I kind of feel like we were cheated out of a fall. The weather went from blazing hot to chilling temperatures as the days passed by--no crisp mild days that I love about this time of year. Along with that, the quickly dissolving hours of daylight have made it difficult to get motivated to do anything.

All that changed today--the first Monday after the time change. Waiting for the boys' ride to school and it is a bright morning. The kids are confused because they remember just a few days ago it was pitch black out. "Is it Monday?" they ask. "Do we have school today??"

This is good for all of us. We're better rested (at least for the time being) and more motivated to get things done. Well, I know I am! And I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this isn't just a passing phase.

Apple Stem Predictions

The kids don't like stems on their apples so I showed them the old wives tale, how they can say the alphabet while twisting to have the apple predict who they are going to marry in the future.

Benny got "L." Lori, Lisa, Lou! "Well, I can't marry Lisa!" (Uncle Billy's girlfriend)

Charlie also got "L," but he wasn't going to be deterred, "I'm marrying Meredith. Or Mom."

It's funny how these little games I used to play when I was a kid are uncovered in my mind when a moment like this comes up with my kids. I guess my memory isn't as bad as I thought!

Getting Dirty on the Job

The boys have been begging to paint down in the basement. Really, to do anything down there. I think originally we were going to let them put some primer on the walls or something like that, but now the painting is completely done and there really isn't anything down there that we were ok with them doing.

That's when we spied the box of scrap wood that has been collecting in a corner. When I was little my grandpa did a lot of woodworking and would give my siblings and I his scrapwood to paint. I loved it. We'd find oddly-shaped pieces, use our imaginations to figure out what that piece wanted to be and then paint it.

So, when Kevin and I were painting, staining, and dry-walling the basement, the boys set up shop at a kid's size table right in the middle of all our work and got down to the business of painting wood. Don't be surprised if you get a brightly colored (animal/car/building) made out of wood for Christmas. They're very proud of their work.

And extremely dirty!

Why is Charlie in his underwear? He didn't want to put on "old clothes" so he decided that wearing the unds was good enough. His bottom then became his napkin, so to speak. Thank goodness for washable paints!

What I Learned From Sports Talk Radio

Our beloved Reds are doing something this season that we are not all that familiar with: Winning.

This has caused some fans to be overjoyed with the prospect of having a team to be proud of and looking forward to seeing play the fall. Whereas there are others who are naysayers and think people are overreacting, that our local teams do this all the time and once we get our hopes up they'll come crashing down upon us.

Listening to a local sports talk radio host, he imparted some wisdom that can be applied to all areas of life, not just a winning baseball team: Don't judge someone about how they react to a situation. If someone wants to over-react to a win (or some other event in life) let 'em!

Who says that a team has to have an established tradition of winning in order to get excited about them? Why is it that people are afraid to look silly for showing emotion? I guess that's what I love about my kids, kids in general. In everything they do they wear their emotions on their sleeve and they show the passion they have for something, whether it's going down the slide at the park, getting their favorite meal for dinner or seeing a special person in their life.

What happens to adults, that they have to maintain some kind of composure, be reserved when it comes to things that get them excited? Life's too short not to get worked up about stuff. Especially the good stuff. A sunny day, a good meal, hanging out with friends, a winning baseball team are all things worth getting pumped up for, in my opinion.

My favorite quote below has a little something to do with this thought:

The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes "Awww!

--Jack Kerouac

My Favorite Time of the Day

I love easy going mornings where there is no place we have to be, the sun is shining and the coffee is brewing. My favorite meal of the day is breakfast, probably because of the relaxing nature of it. I am lucky to have married a guy whose talents include making some pretty fantastic breakfasts!

These aren't the best pictures of some of his creations (blueberry 'cakes for Mom and Dad; regular for the boys and Mere), but I wanted to capture the moment: sunshine peeking in the windows on a spring morning, shining on the few pancakes left after the kids and Kevin have deserted the kitchen to wrestle in the living room.

I will clean up the kitchen now, including the remnants of what Meredith has eaten. She loves her Daddy's pancakes and eggs. I think she's very happy to be able to join in this tradition with us :)

En Plein Air

I have been trying to find some activities to do outside that don't entail getting muddy from head to toe. I really don't mind them getting dirty, but I also don't want them ripping up the yard before the grass has time to set so that the rest of the year our yard is a mud pit!

I came across the idea of "plein air" and thought that the boys would really enjoy it! We have two easels that the boys got from Santa a couple of Christmases ago and they would be perfect for taking outside. Louie was at school, so I had Ben and Charlie find something in the back that's they would like to paint. Charlie picked a few yellow flowers that popped up along the driveway and Benny picked the basketball hoop.

We set them up and they got to work. Charlie decided to break against the mold and paint the yellow flowers blue, which he still called yellow. (Yes! He's talking, finally :) More and more each day. I hope you hear it soon because it's so cute.)

Benny painted Daddy and Louie and himself playing basketball. Charlie was not too happy to be left out of the painting. Something about discrimination against the short guy.

And Meredith wasn't sure what to think about it all. Her little head kept going back and forth between her brothers, as if she was watching a tennis match. But I think she really liked scooting around the backyard on her own. Her cute little shoes didn't take too kindly to it, though. They got pretty scuffed up in the process!

Midweek Moments

• Going through Louie's folder I saw that he got a sticker that has a picture of a dinosaur and it says "Nice Try" on it. Lou informed that he thinks it says that because it's a triceratops. Not sure if the coffee hadn't kicked in yet or not, but I was pretty impressed that he caught onto that.
• Charlie drew his first "person" picture, or at least one that I recognized people in it! As in the past, I get so excited when the boys draw pictures of people--our family. When Lou first drew his I called them "chicken nugget people." Not sure what kind of artist Charlie will be because when I went to find the picture it was crumpled up and cut up. I'm guessing he's a bit more on the avant garde end of the spectrum. (I'll have to post the picture later.)
  
• In the last couple of weeks I've attended a PTO meeting and a board meeting at the preschool. In both, the topic of technology has come up in discussion. This is a point of conflict with me. As much as I love technology (i.e. digital cameras, the internet), I feel like it is healthy for all people to have the ability to disconnect from electronics. Not all the time, but sometimes. There is so much to be appreciated around us and as much as technology has been responsible for some really great things (this blog, for instance, ha-ha), it does cut us off from the "living" world. On the other hand, I want my kids to be well-versed on the ins and outs of technology because (as the talk in the meetings suggested) that is where classrooms and education in general is headed. In the not-too-distant future kids will be reading on iPod Touches instead of textbooks. (Wow. Just now getting to my point.) Benny has found a game that he can play on a website and he loves it. He talks about playing it all the time and I wonder if he
  
• As I type this I see a squirrel digging up a bulb that I planted. Ugh. Please, please, please let there be a few flowers that pop up this spring!
  

A Little Bit of Sunshine

Ahhh...just what we need amidst all the snow and chill of February.

On Friday we met up with Amanda, Owen and Eli at Krohn's to pretend that it was warmer than it actual was. Of course the day we pick to go it's a fairly mild day (38 degrees) that we could have spent outside, as long as it was on concrete. Otherwise it would have been pretty muddy. Regardless, I'm glad we made the decision to go to the conservatory.

Right away it was time to eat! I can only imagine what it's going to be when these guys are going through puberty!

After inhaling their pb&js they headed over to this sand vessel and played while Amanda and chatted. So very nice.

I know that it's always hot inside the conservatory, but today was extraordinarily warm! How awful that I get to be around all these gorgeous flowers and in the sun and warmth (sorry, I thought this shot was nicer and it seems really blurry!) and I complain about it!

The boys shared their special treat of gummy frogs with Owen and Eli. Not sure how good they were. They might have been lime flavored, which I'm not a big fan of.

Owen is destined to be a tour guide. Maybe that is the way he can support himself through college to earn his degree in some sort of science. This kid knows what he's talking about!

Seeing all the plants got me excited for spring. I am starting to plan for the garden.

And I dreamed of a day that I could actually grow a beautiful plant...

This patient lady waited for the boys to get in position to take the cave picture. I don't think she expected to be in it!

Did you think I was kidding about how hot it was? We had to go outside to take a breather and let the boys run around without their coats on!

They had such a good time playing tag and chase and I'm sure everyone thought we were terrible moms to let them outside without hats and coats.

It was a gorgeous day spent with great friends!

The Trauma and Drama of Being a Momma

I'm going to forewarn you: this is not a pretty story. If you have a weak stomach you may want to pass on this post.

I worry. Anyone who knows me is well aware of this. However, I like to think that I do a pretty good job of putting this worry on the back burner when a "situation" occurs.

I find out last night that this is not the case.

After we were finished with dinner Louie went to wash his hands. When he came back, I'm not sure if he was singing or whatever, but something made Kevin ask Louie to come over and let him see in his mouth. I just figured that he had a piece of food stuck in his teeth or something.

Nope. Lou has two teeth growing behind his two front teeth on the bottom row. Not right behind, like they're going to push the other ones out, they are starting themselves a new row. Like a shark. And so when I looked at it I went with it, like it was cool, like a shark. All the while my stomach was flipping over and I was working really hard not to make a grossed out face. There was his jaw showing in between the two sets of teeth! It just didn't seem right.

Kevin asked how long they had been there, since the beginning of the school year? Uh, like 14 days, Lou says. Kids are no help when it comes to these matters. They were pretty much out of his jaw, so unless teeth are like mushrooms, they had been there for a while.

What does one do in a situation like this? I had never heard of such things. I only knew that if your new teeth came in crooked that you got braces. What do you do when two renegades try to take on the rest of the mouth? Louie said it didn't hurt him, and so we didn't think much more about it at that moment.

I was cleaning up the kitchen and Kevin was hanging out nearby with Meredith when we heard a scream followed by crying that we knew came from Lou. We had gotten home late the night before and it had the tone of a very tired boy so for the first few minutes (seconds?) we didn't think much of it. But the screaming got worse and so I dropped the dish rag and went out to the living room.

Louie was holding his nose while Ben and Charlie were still wrestling on the ground. They were playing football and those two didn't believe the play was over yet. I moved Lou's hand away and large droplets of blood came out. I mean large. Then came the blood pouring out of his mouth. I was trying to find out if he had done something in both his mouth and nose--could his two new teeth busted through the roof of his mouth?? More screams. More blood and those two rascals on the floor wouldn't stop wrestling around at our feet! I sent them up to their room and had Kevin get a wet towel and a towel with ice around it.

The more blood Louie saw the more he freaked out and the more blood there was on the carpet. I had him walk into the bathroom and I wonder if that was a mistake: bright lights on a white porcelain counter top, a great way to exaggerate the amount of blood there is. He kept saying that he couldn't breath and I thought I was going to get sick. I had Kevin look up on the internet what to do for a bloody nose. I thought I had heard that you're not supposed to tilt their heads back anymore, so I wanted to be sure that we did it the right way. Or at least did something.

I don't know if it was the fear that there was something really wrong, or just all the blood but I was feel really whoozy. I had Kevin come in to take over in the bathroom and I went to sit down at the computer to take some deep breaths and try to find out how to take care of the bloody nose. (We figured out that all the blood in the mouth was coming down his throat from his nose, if that's a positive aspect of the situation.) I got chills and my stomach was flip-flopping and Meredith was crying at my feet while I looked up information on what to do.

Once I found something that sounded the most credible I tried to explain the procedure to Kevin and tragedy was averted. Not by me and my astounding skills on the internet, but by a calm father who let the blood gush slow down and allowed his boy to calm down all the while I was still frazzled.

What am I going to do when something like this happens and Kevin's not home to save the day?? I am hoping that I have some sort of "reserves" stored up where I'm not going to overreact to blood and my kid screaming. Maybe I'll be able to stay calm and calm everyone else down. That's possible, right?

P.S. Kevin took pictures of the aftermath in the bathroom so I could post it on here, but I decided to keep that little gem just for the family.

Sad Goodbyes

The boys are prepping Mere for their leaving. Tonight, Uncle Hog is keeping the boys over night. All three of them! They have a big night planned of pizza, Alf, coloring Christmas pages, and watching some Christmas shows. In the morning will be Mickey Mouse pancakes!

Meredith is crying.

The boys are so sweet, trying to console her saying, "It's ok, Mere! We'll only be gone for one day!" All this is said in their high-pitched voices. She cries even harder.

I think Meredith is hungry.

But it's still cute.

Thoughts of a Parent

It is our choices...that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities--J.K. Rowling

Whenever I was pregnant I would imagine what that child's life was going to be like. What his or her interests would be, what sports would be played, what would direction his or her life would take. I'm not going to lie; some of that leaked into my thoughts after they were born, too.

Is Louie's fascination with numbers and his pretty impressive drawing abilities mean that he's going to become an architect?? (This was one of my dream jobs.) Will Ben play in the Bigs as the pitcher he says he will be? Will Charlie become a speech pathologist?? And Miss Meredith will a shuttle commander (does anyone else have fond memories of Space Camp?).

When I saw this quotation, it really made me think about how true it is. My kids can't be defined by what they can or can't do. Maybe they don't do well in everything they attempt, but they chose to try it, and those decisions help me to see that my children are much more than I could have ever dreamed.

Fall is fleeting

Been bit by the Christmas bug

The boys have been overly cranky this week, something I am attributing to the lack of naps after a long weekend. So, yesterday when I had about enough of the screaming/crying/fighting/whining I popped in a Christmas CD and something magical occurred...

They stopped crying, started listening, and then, began dancing! Oh, the power of holiday music! I'll have to store this bit of knowledge away for years to come. Of course, I can't use this all year-round or else it'll lose its power, but for now, I'm happy to use it for all its worth.

The boys do independent dances, partner dances, and then start ice skating on the kitchen floor. If you ever get a chance to see it, I'm sure it'd put a smile on your face like it is mine.

No big thing

I think Meredith just officially rolled over...and no one even noticed. I put her on her back so we could pick up all the puzzle pieces and then, she was on her back! I'm pretty sure she has rolled over before, but because Kevin and I weren't breathing down her back with a camcorder in hand, we'll never know for sure. I promised myself that I wasn't going to have my children think I loved the first any more than the others because I documented his life better. How naive I was. It's not about the want, it's about the time and, of course, the ability of focus on five things at once.

She's doing so much! She talks about as much as Charlie does, without all the "static." She grabs and holds and SLOBBERS so teeth can't be far away. She smiles so brightly with those cute cheeks. She's changing each day, and one of the newest changes has been the extremely high pitch squeal that she's adopted. I call her Squeakers now.

We celebrated Meredith's baptism back on October 18th. Here are a few pictures to prove it (sorry, it's been so long since I've done stuff on the site that I forgot that when you're uploading pictures you have to do it reverse order. Here they are):

Meredith's delicious cake from BonBonerie (thank you, Aunt Erin!)

Four Generations

The whole family

The Godfathers, Uncle Jeff & Uncle Joe

Fr. Pat, baptizing Meredith

New Friends

How great is it when your new friend not only gets along with you, but also with your three siblings? From a mom's standpoint, it's great when this friend comes over! Jake is so good with all the kids--even Charlie and Meredith. He has a 13 month old sister, so he probably has some practice with the little ones.

In this picture they were showing me their vampire teeth made out of candy corn, so that kind of explains what Louie is doing. They all get excited when Jake comes over, whom they call by his proper name of Jakob. It's pretty cute.

Always waiting

The boys came down from their room this morning clutching their pillows and blankies.

Today is the day we leave for camping, but that will not be until later this afternoon. This means absolutely nothing to these boys.

They get their clothes changed, pack their backpacks with toys, get their shoes on and proceed to ask every fifteen minutes if it is time to go yet.

It is so hard to be a kid, when everything you want seems so very far away.

(Almost) Back to Normal

As much as it is nice to think of a place where little boys are quiet and not beating the snot out of each other, when it happens I realize that it's just not right.

So when it happened yesterday, when Louie and Benny barely got off of the couch I realized how sad it is. They are meant to be rambunctious, wrestling around the house. That's what boys do. Or, at least, my boys.

That's when I knew that even though Ben had a bit of a fever this morning he was going to be just fine. Just fine, indeed.

The fighting began bright and early and things are pretty much back to normal in our house.

Good Morning, Grandpa!

Grandpa came to drop something off and this is how we greeted him. We move a little slow in the morning around these parts as of late!

Vocab Lesson

It's great when the boys ask what certain words mean. So often I feel like when they're watching a movie, they're getting a vocabulary lesson. Today we were watching Lion King and in the scene after Mufasa saves Simba, Nala, and Zazu from the hyenas in the Elephant Cemetery, Mufasa talks to Simba about how Simba deliberately disobeyed him.

Louie asked me what that meant, and I explained it to him to the best of my abilities. And then Louie says, "So like when you tell me and Ben to not do things lots and lots of times and we do it, is that it?"

Yes.

At least they're aware of it, I guess. They're deliberate.