Dancing Family

2011 A Year in Review

2011-12-31T23:55:00.000-08:00

First off- I didn't do my New Year's Resolutions whatsoever!! ha ha ha No Spanish! No emergency kit! No recipes from Food and Wine! (although I did try internet recipes) And no new photos in frames! It's a good thing I figured out other things to do, but wow. What a way to not accomplish a few goals.

Ok, so here's what DID happen in 2011. Rather than separate it out month-to-month I'll just take it in big categories.

Frannie- finished kindergarten in June. Her teacher was Mrs. Byers and her friends were mostly Zoie, Heather and Nicole. She also finished her gymnastics class and I decided to try her in piano over the summer. I have this thing with extra-curricular activities that I want the kids to express some amount of joy and willingness to do the thing- whatever it may be- because it takes me time to schlep them there (which means Adam and Natalie get schlepped too) and money to pay for it. So I'm not super-keen on continuing an activity that I have to bribe participation in. And gymnastics required the bribe of a Del Taco .49 burrito. Anyways, so I decided to put gymnastics on hold for the summer and I started her in piano classes with a teacher who lives next door to Nataki. Her name is Linda and she's super sweet and a good teacher. Frannie has since finished her first level 1A book and is working on the next one. It's a joy to me to hear her practice and play and I hope this is one activity that she'll continue to grow with. I never did re-sign her up for gymnastics or anything else in the Fall. Mostly because she started first grade and it is a longer school day and we wanted her to adjust to that. I figured piano was enough. I do have the desire for her to learn some sort of dance just because there is so much value to learning body control and movement, but for some reason it's just not the right time. I'm starting to think about homeschool dance. Shoot. I took lessons all those years. Why don't I teach my own kids to dance?

As far as other interests she loves to ride her bike (and now skateboard) and play with Legos and build things in general. She loves crafting and cooking. Basically, Francesca is a DO-er. Give the girl something to do hands-on and she's a happy camper, and that includes chores and organizing games with Adam and Natalie.

As I mentioned, in the fall she started first grade and so far it's been magical for her. The girl loves school. She loves her friends. She loves her teacher. She asks to go to school on the weekends. She asks to do more homework. And darnit, that's the way it should be. Shouldn't the little ones just LOVE school? Yes, I think so. So I'm happy that she's enjoying herself and that it's been a good year so far. Her reading and math skills are improving, and she's basically just where she should be. Her teacher is Mrs. Hansen, and her best friend at school this year is Heather.
At home she's a great big sister and helper to me.

Adam- I've seen big changes in Adam this year. And I feel that even in the last month I've seen him grow and change a lot. First, he got taller and he got bigger feet! His feet are now bigger than Frannie's which irks her no doubt, but I can tell he feels like a Big Boy because of it. In fact he told me today when I called him my "little boy" that he's not a little boy, he's a big boy. Well, ok, you can be mommy's big boy. I used to worry that he'd be so shy and not make friends well. Wrong. He makes friends with other little boys just fine. He's got an active imagination with all of his trains and cars and even though he can be an introvert, it's not a socially handicapping kind of quietness. It's pretty cute because I can see the quiet smirk or whatever it is and know that inside he's really into whatever is happening.
On Tuesdays I take both he and Natalie to the mommy n' me preschool class and he loves that. They both do. I think he's doing well with his "kindergarten readiness" because before I know it, it'll be fall and he'll be off to school.
Both he and Frannie asked for skateboards from Santa Claus, probably because of this video that Jason showed the kids. It is Adam's favorite youtube thing to watch by far.

The funny thing about skateboarding is that Adam is a "two feet on the ground" kind of kid. So it actually isn't something he's taking to just yet, although he definitely likes the idea of it. Frannie on the other hand is on that thing every day.
Other than preschool we don't do any special activities other than park days on Wednesdays and Thursdays but that is really all he needs. During the weekdays Adam and Natalie play together and fight constantly as is typical for kids. All of the kids have a good close relationship actually and that's nice.

Natalie- She's 2 1/2 and a feisty one. She's cute and smart and stubborn and has a VERY LOUD SCREAM! Oh dear. She's a really good talker and here are some of her most commonly heard phrases:
"I not paying with you eny-MO!" "Pbbb!" (That last part is her tongue out spitting at me.)
"I not gone to pay with you eber a-GIN!"
"Sees my sisso. He's my AM." (She's my sister. He's my Adam.)
"I want ba-ba cup!" (So we get her off the bottle, but she still needs to have a sippy cup of milk to go to sleep or for comfort.)
"Where's my bie?" She still loves that pink blankey and needs to suckle on it for comfort. We can NEVER lose that thing! She'd cry and cry and cry!

She did potty-train this year so that's good. She got #2 down really fast but it took all summer of me working on it with her to get #1. But she got it! So other than "I gotta go pee pee!" I also hear her saying "I need my pie-see!" (my privacy).

This year has seen one destructive act after another from Vasaline spread all over her body, to minty toothpaste, to massive yogurt smears, to drawing on walls and breaking the car cd player and our television by shoving weird stuff in it. I sort of think she's getting better now (although I hesitate to make that declaration too confidently.)
All of this is ok though because Natalie is a very good cuddler and she's funny and cute.

Jason- Jason has fully embraced his biking and fitness hobby. He continues to post at bicyclefriends and he loves riding every weekend and riding with the kids too. He taught Natalie how to ride which he was super proud of. He also won a few races this year. He competed several times in the KnobbyTime mountain bike races held at Bonelli and he won a few 3rd and 2nd place finishes. He's made a lot of friends through the cycling community and bikes are his favorite thing to talk about! He continues to work for Canidae and does a great job for them. Jason is a super-duper Dad and I appreciate how he always helps with the kids and around the house.

Jamie- As for me, I love being here with the kids and taking care of them and life around the house. Maybe I'm tired because it is 11:50 on New Year's Eve and I'm feeling done with writing this, but I'd rather not write a big huge fat paragraph about myself! Suffice to say, things are much the same with me and I'm enjoying life.

and the photo that didn't make it to the Christmas card...

Here we are on our way to seeing the Metrolink Holiday Train.

Happy New Year!

Overheard

2011-12-25T20:33:00.000-08:00

Frannie- "Adam! Stop shooting all the time! I don't want you shooting me anymore!"
Adam softly..."But I'm a boy. I have to shoot."
Frannie- "Well then go shoot somewhere else! Girls don't like to be shot at!"

Adam was talking to me one day and said something about when he has a son. So I tell him, "You know, before you have a son you have to grow up and have a wife first." Adam says something unintelligible that sounds like "fat wife".
So I say, "You want to have a fat wife?"
He says, "No, I want a straight one." "And she should play tennis."

Natalie says to me as she's suckling on her pink blankey: "I not a baby eny-MO!"
"You're not Mommy's baby?"
"No!"
"Ok Nattie, you're not a baby." (I don't care what she says, she's still my baby!)

Today was a perfect day

2011-12-23T04:49:00.000-08:00

I wrote this post back in March 2011
I just wrote my status update on Facebook that "Today goes down in the books as a perfect day." And it does.

Today was one of those days that from start to finish had an elegant flow of contentment and joy and productivity. It was an average day in many respects, but noteworthy in that everything good that can happen in one of my average days, did indeed happen.

On days like today, I love being a stay-at-home-mom and think that this is the best job anyone could have.

In the morning I made the kids egg burritos for breakfast and helped Frannie get ready for school. I did her hair as I always do and packed her a lunch. When I got home from taking her to school I began to tackle my kitchen and it was nice to just pat pat through the house doing my little morning chores. The kids were playing together so nicely this morning, no yelling, screaming or whining. Just the sounds of pretend choo choos and talking and whatever else they were doing. It had to be the most gorgeous day I've seen in a long time so the sun was coming in bright through the shutters and the breeze was coming in through the slider. It was just a beautiful day. I did have a pile of dishes overflowing in my sink, but since the kids were playing so nicely, I was able to have a relaxed conversation with a friend as I was doing my work.

Natalie went down for a nap at 11am. I made myself a tortilla wrap sandwich for lunch. Adam got PB&J. . I started the wash for our master bedroom sheets, comforter, pillow cases, etc... I've had two new king-sized pillows stashed in the closet for awhile, so today we not only got freshly cleaned bedding, but new pillows to enjoy as well. At 12:20 we left on our walk to pick Frannie up from school. The sun was just the right amount of heat and it was one of those days when I really did breath deeply and look up at the trees and enjoy the moment. I love watching Adam peddling away so well on his bicycle. I push Nattie in the stroller and always stop to pick a long strand of fox-tail grass for her to hold. Lately I've been arriving at Frannie's classroom a little bit early so I can help the teacher with any odds and ends like taking stuff off of bulletin boards or putting things up. Today, I put up new spring decorations on the classroom door.

When we got home, Fran had her snack and then Omar came over to play, so from that point on the kids were mostly outside in the front yard until dinnertime. They were in and out of course, (Frannie was inside for awhile watching her favorite Gilligan's Island and doodling a book "My Frend the Fairy") but the fact that they were mostly occupied and happy meant that I could continue with my pat patting through the house as I finished laundry and picking up. I started dinner at 3:00 and fried up some taquitos with last night's left-over pork roast, and made some guacamole and black beans. We ate at 4:30.

At 6pm I called everyone back inside for baths. Everyone got his/her hair washed. Clean jammies. At 7:30 all were in bed and I spent my evening watching American Idol (which is the best season in a long time if you ask me) and crocheting my blanket that is taking forever to finish.

And that, is a perfect day. (Oh! AND I started making my sourdough bread today. It's going to rise through the night.)

Natalie Rides a Bike!

2011-10-12T19:52:00.001-07:00

Success! Natalie rides a bike. Natalie's been riding a Specialized type strider bike since she turned two. She picked up the balancing part pretty quickly. At the point she was able to balance and coast on her strider bike, a conventional 12" two wheel was still to big for her. Her legs just weren't long enough. So I just let her coast around on the strider until about two weeks ago when I new her little legs were able to touch the ground while seated on the two wheeler.

At that point, she needed to get comfortable with training wheels and actually figure out how to pedal. You see the strider teaches balance but not how to actually pedal. Natalie was a bit awkward turning the crank over and over. She kept wanting to just scoot along. I worked with her until she was able to pedal on her own.

This weekend I took the training wheels off and needless to say she can ride a bike! I am so proud. My lovely pint sized bicyclist!

Innocence

2011-10-05T08:31:00.000-07:00

As I'm putting on Frannie's raincoat this morning, she comments about a boy in school: "Pierce is always cold. He's always saying he's cool. 'I'm cool' I'm cool."

Family

2011-10-02T16:06:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I need a new post so that my sad one isn't at the top of the pile

2011-09-10T14:57:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I took the munchkins to the County Fair!

Eeeps! Bee hive in the tree!

Someone's a little too little to be a praying mantis.

So anyways, I know that I just need to keep busy in the mornings and that will help me adjust. Preschool starts next week so I'll be taking the kids to that on Wednesday. I'll also hopefully be able to volunteer in her class on Mondays. Tuesdays and Thursdays we have park playgroups that we attend. And Friday is the library. Hopefully that is enough to do to keep our mornings busy so that the afternoon comes quickly and I'm not spending the whole day just feeling her absence! Besides, now it's time for me to start thinking about Adam's schooling at the fact that he'll be in Kindergarten next year.

My foray back into blogging

2011-09-07T23:04:00.000-07:00

People keep asking me, "How come you don't blog anymore?" and I don't have a great answer other than, "I don't want to."

But I'm here tonight at the computer because I'm sad and miserable and who the heck wants to listen to someone drone on and on about their misery? No one. So I'm droning at the computer instead.

So what is this silly thing that's making me so sad?

My Frannie went back to school last week and I hate it. It's 10:45pm and I'm sitting here crying, yes, CRYING because tomorrow is another school day and she'll be gone from 8-2:20. And I just HATE IT! I miss her too much dammit! I miss my little girl. And shit, she's gone so much she's just going to turn into a big girl like a snap and I'll freaking miss half of it because she's gone all day.

I do feel I'm being a little overly dramatic here. And I'm almost embarrassed that I'm so damn sad about this. I know people send their children to school every day and this has been done for a LONG time and I know all of this. She's enjoying school and is happy every day when I pick her up.

It's me.

I just feel a little lost without her here. I know I've got Adam and Nattie, but they're a bit lost without her here too. She's the one who orchestrates all of the games. Anyways, so that's it. My Frannie started 1st grade and I'm miserable that I've got a whole school year of this. I'm already thinking forward to the next vacation when I can have her back.

Kids

2011-05-29T17:56:00.000-07:00

Sunday

2011-05-22T16:41:00.000-07:00

The Kids

2011-05-08T16:27:00.000-07:00

The Bicycle Family

2011-05-08T07:29:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, I took the family on our first epic ride. We rode four miles to downtown Claremont for lunch and back. The kids did great, obeying all the rules of the road. We weaved thru the older homes between Foothill and Bonita, to our final destination, Downtown Claremont. Along the way, Jamie admired some of the homes and even did a walk thru one "Open House".

Our goal was to eat at Saca's but sure enough they were closed on Sunday. What restaurant CLOSES on a Sunday? We ended up eating at a pizza place in the heart of downtown Claremont. The food was okay.

Obey all the rules of the road. "Stay on your right hand side!"

Smile for the camera!

Adam absolutely loves his bike. He was the big brother and in his Thomas the Train backpack held Natalie's bottle, diapers and wipes. He also had our bike lock stashed in there too!

Natalie takes a snooze while mommy looks at an open house.

It was a great ride 8 mile ride. The kids did great and on the way home we stopped off at 21 Choices for some well earned frozen yogurt.

A good summer tip

2011-04-27T22:32:00.000-07:00

This goes into the files of "practical things I want to remember".

We all know that my street is like Kid-City, and my front yard in particular seems to be the main dance floor. So I've got kids whooping it up outside of my door everyday, and that's how I like it.

But, I've also become more sensitive to my across-the-grass neighbors and don't feel it's right to have a bunch of kid toys littering the yard anymore. So into the backyard went the playhouse, and in go the bicycles (as much as I can keep up with anyways).

But what I do have is a basket of small spray bottles (like the kind hairdressers use). Those stupid spray bottles make the best squirt guns and I've got a veritable water-fight-war outside my door after school with each neighborhood kid vying for his very own bottle. Natalie comes in wanting her "wa-wa" too, so now I've got an empty dishsoap container out there too for her.

So that's my tip. Squirt bottles and empty dish soap bottles for squirt guns.

Yock

2011-04-27T22:19:00.000-07:00

Today Natalie insisted on being totally naked. No daypo no nada.

But she did bring me two mismatched socks and shove them in my face with the order "Yock!"

Well, what Natalie wants, Natalie gets. Naked, with yocks.

Mommy and Daddy

2011-04-24T18:58:00.000-07:00

Frannie

2011-04-24T18:56:00.000-07:00

Adam is Getting Bigger

2011-04-24T18:54:00.000-07:00

Natalie Smiles

2011-04-24T18:52:00.000-07:00

Hop Scotch!

2011-02-14T15:36:00.000-08:00

Monday, Monday

2011-02-14T15:12:00.000-08:00

The Kids

2011-02-13T16:04:00.001-08:00

The Dirty Messy Stinky Baby

2011-02-06T22:52:00.000-08:00

I sure do love this baby...

But she's a mess...

A real mess...

Always a dirty, stinky, filthy ol' baby.

The other day I couldn't find her, and here she was upstairs asleep! (She can climb into her pack n play)

But, what the heck is the white crap on her ear!?

GROSS! What the heck is it!?

Great...so she found my face lotion...There is always something with this kid!!

She's my most feisty one yet screaming at me "Idowanto!" when it is time to go to bed or do anything else for that matter.

But she's also kind of smart. She's fully poo poo potty trained at 20 months. (And yes that's a bit of a brag because I'm glad I don't have to lay her down and deal with her windmill legs and poop anymore.) And really, she learned fast! Pee is another matter, but she'll get there in a few more months. I'm often surprised with how much language she has. Even though she may not enunciate perfectly, she's got a word for almost everything. But she's a booger baby who does just what she pleases and pretty much runs the house. I work for Natalie. She's the boss.

Someone who reads this will think "Well you need to discipline your child!" And I do, and try to. But sometimes I think her almost two year old brain is smarter than my 32 year old one. How can someone so little be smarter than me and run me around? I don't know. Adam did this to me too. The boy kicked my butt for a year and a half before I finally started winning. So Natalie is kicking my butt and also being adorably cute at the same time. It's a dangerous combination because it means that I'm frustrated with her one minute, and then laughing at something she does (that I probably should be reprimanding her for) the next.

Frannie and Auntie Jenny

2011-01-14T23:43:00.000-08:00

I love this picture of the two of them!

Just following orders

2011-01-09T22:34:00.000-08:00

Jason took the kids to a bike race today and sent me this picture via the camera phone and wrote "Post this to the blog". When he got home he said that he just pointed the camera and told the kids he was going to take a picture and they immediately got all silly and cracked him up. So here it is. I'm following my orders!

Daddy and Adam

2011-01-08T09:14:00.000-08:00

2011 New Year's Resolutions

2011-01-04T00:38:00.000-08:00

1. I need to get an emergency kit together for the house. I need to get a week's worth of food and water and some basic medical supplies and figure out where to store this stuff.

2. I want to improve my Spanish. Particularly my conversational Spanish. I really need someone to talk to me like a toddler and I know I would learn really quickly. Since I don't have that, I need to be braver and maybe order food at restaurants and look for more opportunities to speak when I can. I learn well with music so I'd like to buy more music cd's. There is a book called 501 Spanish Verbs that would probably be good for me to have as well. I really wish someone would make a book called "Spanish Commands for Mothers". Brush your teeth! Get dressed! Get in the car! Put your shoes on! Stop it! etc..etc.. :)

3. My dad gave me a Food and Wine cookbook that has some delicious-sounding recipes. I won't go so far as to have a goal to make everything in the book a'la Julie & Julia, but I do want to try some new things and expand my cooking skills a bit.

4. I have several picture frames in the house, propped up and everything, with NO pictures inside. I keep meaning to print up pictures for the frames and just haven't. So for over a year at least I've been staring at cute frames with no cute family members inside. Isn't that dumb? So I am making a New Year's resolution to change that and fill the darn picture frames with pictures.

2010 A Year in Pictures

2011-01-03T22:29:00.000-08:00

In January- I turned 31. Frannie started ballet.

In February- Frannie turned 5.

I spent my time nursing a chubby baby and quelling tantrums.

In March- I let Frannie quit ballet. We spent Tuesdays at the park.

In April- Jason turned 34. He ran his first Mud Run.

We became more of a bicycle family than a dancing family.

In May- Natalie turned 1! I signed Frannie up for gymnastics. We finally went camping!

In June- Adam turned 3. He took his first train ride to a baseball game with Daddy, Grandpa Tom, Uncle Ryan and Grandpa Marr. He still talks about it!

In July- It was hot.

Natalie learned that possession is nine-tenths of the law.

In August- More running.

More biking

No more training wheels! Jason taught him super-fast.

More swimming

And just hangin' out

In September-Frannie started kindergarten.

I hosted my 15th Bradley Reunion

Jason fixed up this bike

And then took pictures of it around town

He's so silly! Gotta love him!

In October- We had the Marr-Camarillo wedding

Kevin, Stef's Dad, Frances, Bryan, Stefanie, Alex

Adam loves trains! "Choo! Choo!"

In November- More time at the park

Time with Reemie.

Selling lemonade

I had fun with hairstyles

Natalie turned 18 months. I started noticing her super-messy destructive side. I'll say that now I notice it every day. She's my most "into everything" kid yet! If there's a bowl, she'll upend it. If there's crayons she'll dump them or eat them and spit out the bits. When I go into the kitchen there is pantry food like cake mix boxes all out on my floor. She trails my yarn through the house. Squishes toothpaste tubes. Draws on herself. Climbs onto the table. Empties the bathroom drawer. And then CRIES and kicks when you remove her. Yep. It's going to be a long year ahead!

Time with family

Ryan, Doreen, Jenny, Jason

Jason also did his first mountain bike race since high school but I can't find a picture of it.

In December- I went Black Friday shopping for the first time (well technically end of November.) Just wanted to do it because it seemed sorta fun. And it was! Although I'm undecided if I'll do it again.

And then of course it was time for Christmas morning!

And resting over winter break

CHEERS 2010!

Overheard

2010-12-28T15:37:00.000-08:00

From Frannie to Adam: "I'm the big sister, so please, I need scream at you when I need to."

As I'm cleaning Frannie comes into the bathroom, "Phew! It smells all mechanic in here!"
   Me: "Mechanic?"
   Her: "Yes, it's too mechanic-y"
   Me: "You mean chemically."

Last night Frannie says to Jason: "Daddy do you want to go to the bike shop?"
   Jason: "We can't. It's too late."
   Frannie: "I know. I was just speaking to your heart."

Walking in a Wetter Wonderland

2010-12-23T23:14:00.000-08:00

Now that's my kind of Santa.

My Christmas Tree Theory is true

2010-12-23T23:02:00.000-08:00

Note: I wrote this post about a week and a half ago, but was waiting to upload some pictures. Typical!
As far as my theory goes...I did cave a little.

Notice how the tree is only decorated at the top? There's my smiley little tree-wrecker right there. And Adam is thinking "Mom can I please just go back to watching Blues Clues?"

In case you didn't know, I have a Christmas Tree Theory. I have many theories on many things, and one day in November I landed upon my Christmas Tree Theory.

My Christmas Tree Theory is this:
Every year we hear people bemoan the stress of the Christmas season. Most are resentful of the amount of gifts they are compelled and seemingly obligated to buy, mostly due to the amount of money it all ends up costing. Many people turn their anger towards Santa Claus with all of his merry gift-giving that gets played out in so many television shows, movies, and books. On every commercial and storefront. Santa is calling.

But my theory is that Santa isn't to blame at all. It's all the Christmas Tree's fault. Because it isn't the presents that go into the stocking that has everyone knocking themselves out, it's the image of the tidal wave of presents flowing from under the tree that does it. We are compelled to fulfill that iconographic image of the glistening tree with the bounty of gifts perched below.

And now I know that my theory is true. How? Because prior to today I was satisfied with the amount of gifts I had gotten the kids. But today we threw decorations all over our glorious fresh-from-Oregon-to-Starberry-Farms Christmas tree and now I'm all panicky because I feel like I didn't get the kids enough presents. And I'm thinking about how many things they'll have to open on Christmas morning and it just doesn't sound like enough. Argh. Darn tree.

I know that my kids will get lots and lots of presents. We've got quite a collection of family here. And yet, despite knowing that we'll travel from one set of grandparents and aunts/uncles to another, I am feeling that pull to really pack it in under our own tree. So that at that moment when they bound down the stairs and see that the magic really did happen and they begin to dig into their stocking, they'll also have several boxes to tear through in those early Christmas morning hours.

Every year I vow to have a more modest Christmas. And then up goes the tree...

Some Changes

2010-12-22T00:28:00.000-08:00

I've intended on changing the blog format for sometime now. I know you must have been sick of the burnt orange stripe across the screen. Goodness knows I was. The only reason I've kept it for this long is because I kept thinking that I would have the blog printed and I wanted it with that design just for the memory of how things looked in the "early days". But, guess what? I still have not printed the blog, and perhaps I never will. So it is time to stop delaying making changes just because I'm waiting for something that I haven't done!

I also decided to change the blog title to match the URL. Makes things easier and is slightly more confidential.

Anywho, on with the show!

The gift of an ordinary day

2010-12-05T23:11:00.000-08:00

I'm reading a really sweet book right now called The Gift of an Ordinary Day: A Mother's Memoir by Katrina Kenison. Here is an excerpt:

"Our photo albums from those days are full of pictures of birthday cakes and holiday celebrations, vacation trips and family adventures, piano recitals and baseball games. But the memories I find myself sifting through the past to find, the ones that I would now give anything to relive, are the ones that no one ever thought to photograph, the ones that came and went as softly as a breeze on a summer afternoon.
No picture, or home video, or diary entry can begin to capture the nubbly texture, subtle tones, and secret shades of a family's life as it is from one hour, or day, or season, to the next. It has taken a while, but I know it now- the most wonderful gift we had, the gift I've finally learned to cherish above all else, was the gift of all those perfectly ordinary days."

This really speaks to me, because right now my life often feels like a seemingly endless string of ordinary days. Days that are filled with moments of sweetness and moments of frustration, but the effect is more of a song and less of a rock concert. And I sometimes wonder if I will be able to recall the music of this time. Will I be able to access these subtle memories?

Just the other day I used a cloth diaper on Natalie and I haven't used cloth in a long time. When I opened the stinky diaper I was instantly transplanted to a time when I took care of baby Frannie and smelled all of her dirty cloth diapers all of the time. And it was a good scent to me (sorry if that sounds weird) and a good memory, triggered by one diaper. A dirty disposable diaper smells nothing like cloth. It's all chemically. But a dirty cloth diaper has a more natural earthy scent. In that moment it was so nice to be with my baby Frannie again with that strong memory.

I feel the same about my baby Natalie now. Will I be able to experience my baby again? I try to pay attention to the little things about her that I love so much: the softness of cheek, the flash of a smile, head back, neck exposed for tickling. Her soft brown ducky hair that she swings like a wild mop when she shakes her head "No" at me. It's that little sound of her voice when she asks for her grubby pink blanket "bie", says "more" or "tank you", and also the screeching screams that she is so good at sirening too. She can be really stubborn! And that sweet little body. I love a little baby body! The perfect size for carrying and cuddling. The squishiness and little butt, and sweet little legs and feet. Little lips for kissing and freshly sprouted teeth smiling at me. I say the words "I just love havin' a baby" out loud every day. Because I do. Every day I get to hug her and kiss her and change her little diaper and put a sweet little shirt over her head and shove her pudgy feet into sandals. Lord help me remember it all.

It's a play spider!

Adam has traded in his hot temper for a cuddly-wuddly guy. I sometimes feel like I have a Laborador in the house. Before having children I had no idea how much physical touch they need all day long. I am surprised how much of my day is spent rubbing Adam's head, scratching his back, wrestling and tickling him, having him on my lap, and yes, even nipping at his ears. Maybe I'm kind of a doggie myself? Either way he's my puppy dog boy. What kind of little boy would he be without all of the physical touch that he seems to need? Adam is growing up a little bit. I can see it in the way his face is maturing and his tone of voice is changing a little. It's a little bit deeper a little clearer. Just small things probably no one else notices. I also sometimes say that he's a little bit like a grumpy old man. I'll tell people not to pay too much attention to him, because he doesn't like it. If someone says "Hi Adam!" he gets all scowly and grumbles "stwop it" or "no!". But if he warms up to you he's as sweet as can be.

Trying on hats at M&I Surplus with Daddy

Since Frannie has been in school I am learning to let go just a little. A friend of mine told me "You can't always edit their experiences." That was helpful for me because while part of me does want to edit everything, I know that part of my job is also to step back a little and allow her to work her life out a bit on her own. So I am enjoying watching from the sidelines as she navigates friendships and her teacher and classroom. She's always been a social girl who makes friends easily, and so far it's the same. She's also my fashionista who puts together great outfits (in my opinion!) and I am looking forward to the day when she can just pick out my clothes because I know I'll finally be a good dresser when it's in her hands.

These days my ordinary days involve walks to and from school, pushing a heavy stroller with Joe's Os in the cup holders. The kids sometimes all pile in with Adam sitting on Frannie's lap and other times they all want to hop out and run. Natalie stops a lot to inspect life (this is on the way home, since going to school is all about business.) Please forgive another dog comparison but, her behavior on these walks really does remind me of my old dog Herbie with the way she goes to the same plants every time and stops to check them out. There is one that attracts a lot of bees and she loves looking at that one. She hit the same huge red rose every time she passed it until the thing finally died. And of course all the walking gets her little system going and she makes a big constitutional. Just like Herbie! (I know my dad will appreciate this since he remembers this all too clearly!) Once we're home it's homework and snacks and housecleaning and playtime and I Love Lucy time.

I really do cherish these ordinary days.

Ho-hum Housework- a short post

2010-11-14T23:36:00.000-08:00

Housework isn't particularly difficult, but it is so monotonous and tedious and I'm just sick of it. I want a RESET button. I think it was my friend Sonja who introduced me to the the magical reset button. The one that's hidden somewhere in your house and you just push that little button and "Bzzzzt!" it's all done. The laundry is all washed, folded, and put away. Every dish is in the cupboard. The toys are decluttered and neat. The floor is mopped, carpet vacuumed, sinks and counters wiped down, windows sparkling, wall smudges gone, bathrooms shine with polished toilets, fixtures, and shower walls. You open the door and the home is airy and fresh and clean. Not just the entryway or front room, but as you travel from room to room to room it is all lovingly in order with no piles anywhere.

I need to stop fantasizing about the button.

Jason fantasizes about the Lottery. I guess to relieve him of financial burdens. I fantasize about this button.

A random kvetch about weather and how we're taught

2010-11-07T21:18:00.000-08:00

Why do schools insist on teaching that Winter means snow and mittens and snowball fights and ice skating and Spring means new growth and April showers, and Summer means hot, hot, HOT, and Autumn means rain and wind and leaves falling off of trees? I believe that this universal teaching of "How seasons work" has put us poor Californians in a constant state of being surprised and disgruntled with our weather because our weather is rarely what it's "supposed" to be. Take right now for instance. It is November and all last week it was hot. It was absolutely beautiful, but it got up to 95 degrees. We did have several consecutive weeks of rain, but now we're back to warm/hot. We had a very mild summer this year and I don't recall that it ever got scorching the way I've experienced it in the past. I also don't recall ever experiencing April showers, but June Gloom and scattered June showers I think happen almost every year. And yet we're always surprised by it! Like "Hey! It's June! It's supposed to be hot now!" Well...no it's not. It'll get hot in July. But June is overcast. Of course it never snows here. It does get brisk, but it also tends to be sunny even when it's our version of "freezing outside". This is of course, part of why the Rose Parade is such a success.

I really feel that we would all be more content and relaxed if we were taught "California seasons". Wouldn't it be nice to know, "Hey, this is what happens in New England, this whole snow, new growth, hot, rain/wind thing, but over here, this is what you can expect to see throughout the year as a Southern California resident so that you don't spend the rest of your life complaining when it is hot in November and chilly in June."

I've heard of several people who suggest that we should label California not by our weather seasons but our natural disaster seasons. Fire season, flood season, mud slide season. That's an idea. Sort of negative, but at least more accurate. In my Southern California Gardening book, the author discusses that in many ways our summer season is our "winter" in the sense that it is that harshest season for our plants to endure. While folks in New England are reading gardening books to learn how to protect their plants from winter's frost, we have to protect our plants from the intense summer heat. There are so many plants that simply will not grow here because the life cycle of the plant depends on a dormant frost period to then trigger new growth when it warms up. Because we go hot/rainy/hot/cold/hot/hot/hot/HOT all of the time, it really limits the variety of what we can hope to grow. I'm convinced this is why so many people think they stink at gardening. It is simply that we are taught nothing about our local climate. So people don't know that our summer is really our "winter enduring season" so they stick their delicate plants outside and wonder why they've burnt to a crisp. Or they stick something outside that requires a cold dormant season and then wonder why it stopped growing.

So when I see my daughter bringing home her little Kindergarten weather drawings where she's coloring a little boy's mittens and snow hat with twiggy trees and a snowman in the background...I get a little irritated. Not a lot irritated. Just a little. Why is it so mandated that we hammer home the New England bias? Must we forever be in discord with what our actual surroundings present to us? I'm all for learning about how things are in other places, but SHEESH!

The Halloween Peeps

2010-11-03T22:42:00.000-07:00

This picture was probably taken 1 hour before the stomach-flu did its thing to Frannie. But flu aside, I want to mention that we spent this holiday with my wonderful nephew and niece, Nicholas and Catie. Jason took the kids to a "Trunk or Treat" event at the Church of the Open Door on Saturday afternoon. The church members decorate their cars and the kids go from trunk to trunk "trick or treating".

The kids were here from Friday to Sunday morning. They had fun just being together as always.

Gotta throw this pic in of the sweetie on the other side of the table.

So even though it was a sick Halloween, it was a Happy Halloween too!

Sisters

2010-11-01T15:31:00.000-07:00

"Sisters, sisters, there were never such devoted sisters..."

We had a pretty wild Halloween what with every member of the family (including Grandma Bobbie) acquiring a vomit-inducing illness. Frannie, unfortunately, got the worst of it. Here's Natalie trying to help her Sissy.

Homemade Thomas the Tank Engine Costume

2010-10-29T21:33:00.000-07:00

For the trainiac in our lives I wanted to make him a Thomas costume.

This is very easy to make and only requires a cardboard box, 5 paper plates, paint and glue.

It's really fun to watch Thomas cartoons while sitting inside your very own train eating pretzels!

Here's the whole Halloween crowd.

(Note: Even when I offer to make her something, Frannie still wants to wear a princess dress up. This is fine by me!)

Happy Halloween!

From the Archives

2010-10-27T20:40:00.000-07:00

Bringing the Homeschool Philosophy into the Public School

2010-10-20T22:25:00.000-07:00

Welp, my Frannie has been in Kindergarten now for about a month and a half and so far so good. I like her teacher and especially like the way the staff works together as a whole. Everyone is really friendly and I feel like they care about the kids. Frannie is enjoying school and everyday I get to hear about some silly thing that happened on the playground.

Deciding on where to send her to school or to homeschool was a very difficult decision for me. For now I'm happy with my decision because I can see that she is learning and that she is getting enough activity every day.
Although I'm not homeschooling I guess I still think of myself as a homeschooling parent. I like that the school is providing the curriculum and the pacing for what she learns. (I had a tendency to push her too hard with things and then back off completely. I was never very good at doing just a little every day.) But I still feel like her education is my responsibility and it is my responsibility to supplement what the school is doing with lessons geared toward her specific needs.

For example part of her homework is to trace her name 3 times a day on a laminated paper. Through watching her do this activity I can see that she often forms her letters in wonky ways, even though the end result looks pretty normal. So in addition to her writing her name, I have her practicing writing the letter of the week that the class happens to be working on. I can see that this is helping her to learn to trace the letters in the right direction and order so that she doesn't have a problem later on when trying to learn cursive.

The other thing we've been doing is making little books using her sight words. Since Frannie likes to take pictures I developed a bunch of pictures that she's taken. Then we take two of her sight words to make sentences. Her first book was I See (I see my baby sister, I see my mom.) and the second was This Is (This is my hula hoop. This is a flower. etc..). When I did the first book I just had her tell me what to write, but in the second one I had her write the sentences herself and just do her best with the words. There are lots of misspellings but I'm really proud of her because I can see that she's spelling phonetically and that's an important part of learning to write.

Here is a link to the tutorial where I learned how to make the paper books.

Simple Books Children Can Make

Anyway, I'm actually having a lot of fun helping out with her school activities and doing other projects. The school schedule has definitely provided a structure to our day that was pretty badly needed and it provides her with a lot of activities that I don't have to think up myself.

More Hairstyles

2010-10-17T14:02:00.000-07:00

I'm still having fun with Frannie's hair in the morning. Here are some pics!

It's fun having a girl :)

Miles and Parker come for a visit

2010-10-17T13:00:00.000-07:00

About a week before Bryan and Stefanie's wedding I got a call that my Aunt Carrie, who lives in Washington state, would be coming down for the ceremony. I quickly offered her a place to stay and within a few days we grew from a family of five to a family of eight! (Plus occasionally a family of ten when my mom and dad were over.) It was so fun for me to have my aunt here and to see her little boys Miles and Parker again. The kids all love playing together so the house was a bit of a madhouse at times. Call me crazy but stuff like that just makes me happy. Maybe it is because I didn't grow up seeing my extended family very often, so when I watch Frannie, Adam and Natalie playing and having so much fun with their cousins I feel so glad that they will have some really awesome childhood memories and relationships.

Frannie (5), Miles (4), Adam (3), Parker (3), Natalie (1)

The other thing that made me glad?
Well, I am SUPER glad for the July Home Makeover Extravaganza. It felt so good to be able to instantly offer up my house as a place to stay when she called. Even though the one month of inconvenience was a pain in the butt at the time, it was worth having it all done and now we can just enjoy the house. Also, because we had to move all of the furniture out of the bedrooms when the upstairs got carpeted, we used that opportunity to turn the 3rd bedroom into a real bedroom instead of a mish-mash office/bedroom/playroom space. Having already moved all of that office furniture out of there and Adam's twin bed in, made Carrie's visit super-easy to prepare for. Whew!

My Aunt Carrie is super great and I love having her around. She is very down-to-earth and funny. She's a no-nonsense kind of a mom who is quick to keep the boys in check and also offers tons of love and snuggles too. The boys are really really sweet kids and if there is one thing that lifts my spirits it is knowing that, at least in my family, everyone is doing such a good job raising their kids! (They're all older than I am so I have a lot of good examples to strive for.) I may not see everyone very often, but when I do see them it's nice to know that the Marr ladies are doing it right. (Well, last names never stay the same with women so it's Campbell-King, Marr-Eckhart, Marr-Byrne, Borkman-Flad, and Borkman-Reed.)

Can't wait to see her again! Next time it will probably be us flying to Seattle.

Bryan and Stefanie's Wedding

2010-10-03T23:39:00.000-07:00

My brother married his long-time girlfriend Stefanie on Friday, October 1st and I'm very happy for them both!

Dad was Bryan's best man, Jason was a groomsman, Frannie was a flower girl, and Adam was the ring bearer.

Getting ready

I love this father-son picture. My dad has always been there for Bryan since he was a preemie baby boy and his wedding day was no exception.

You'd never know from this picture how much Adam truly hated this suit when I took him to try it on at the store (pouting/crying). I thought we'd have to have cousin Miles do the job instead. Fortunately Daddy worked his magic (I think he can get Adam to do anything) and not only did Adam do the job of ring bearer perfectly, but he wore that suit all evening long.

The Adam whisperer- Father and Son

Before the Ceremony

Pretty and sweet. I decided to do five cornrows in her hair the night before and take them out to give her hair some curl. I wasn't brave enough to attempt any complicated braiding or twisting styles since I'm still pretty inexperienced and the finished product often has bumps (which is ok for school, but not a wedding). Curls are a sure thing. Since her hair is stick-straight and won't hold curl well, this is the best way to give her a nice style that would last the evening.

Owning the red carpet

The Girls' Side: From Lewis, to Marr, to Castillo

Flower girl and Ring Bearer

The Ceremony

The night before the wedding I was told I'd be walking down the aisle with the kids. I guess during the rehearsal they were getting distracted with the long walk and right-hand turn. I'm very glad I chose a dress that matched their outfits!

I got teared up at this part. Weddings really are so beautiful.

Introducing Mr. and Mrs. Marr!

Aftermath

Awww...ain't we cute

This'll probably be our Christmas card

It was impossible to get a good picture of all three. Natalie is a real busy bee.

Better than bunny ears

Stefanie and her family wore checked Vans in memory of her brother who passed away

I love this glamor girl photo

I love this one too. You can see Doreen there on the right. She was their photographer and she did an amazing job! (I've seen a few of her pics already.) I'm super proud of my sis!

The Reception
Stefanie is in love with the Nightmare Before Christmas Jack and Sally characters so she decided to make this the theme of the wedding. It was a very lovely elegant wedding with lots of little tasteful accents. Here is the piece de la resistance: The Cake!

The colors for the wedding were black, white, and red. Here are her cute "party favors" that were at each place setting.

M &Ms with their names and picture printed on!

Hershey chocolate bar with this wrapper

One of my favorite parts of the reception was watching the both of them do a little choreographed wedding dance. It was very adorable. They did a simple night-club two step and did a great job!

My other favorite part was just seeing so many family members that I haven't seen in a very long time.

At the top of the list has to be my aunt Carrie and her boys Miles and Parker. At the last minute they decided to fly in from Washington state and they stayed with us! Frannie and Adam have been in kid-heaven for the past three days. I have loved spending time with my aunt and having her at the house.

Diane, Donna, Viree, Vicki and Uncle Jack

These are my second-cousins (and Uncle Jack). I don't get to see them very often since Diane and Donna live in Georgia and Viree lives in Washington. I love them all though. They are all really good moms and have good kids and families. It's kind of fun for me too when they are around because we look alike (especially me and Diane) and there is something cool about being around the people who share your same features.

Top: David and Michael Byrne (Viree's boys) Jason Eckhart
Bottom: Trevor Eckhart (Vicki's boys)

My Aunt Terri and Uncle Jack really know how to cut a rug. They are good little swing dancers.

I am hoping to upload some more family photos once I see what my dad took. I hope to get one of Alan and Ryan and Uncle Jim and Gloria and Sherry. I don't know if anyone got one of Rhiannon :/

So that's it for now. I'm tired. Uploading stuff takes forever!!

Having Fun with Frannie's Hair

2010-09-25T18:41:00.000-07:00

Since my brother and Stefanie are getting married in one week and Frannie will be a flower girl, I've been spending time visiting hair blogs to get some ideas for her hair. There are some really talented women out there!

Check out these amazing styles.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=18171&id=132926950063444
These are done by Girly Dos by Jen

And another one I've spent a lot of time on is Adopt a Do. She gives really great tutorial videos.

Each of these ladies has other hair blogs linked on their sidebars so I've visited several of those as well.

Anyways, watching all of these videos has inspired me to have a little more fun with my girl's hair. At first, when I spent a bit more time on Frannie's hair she was really squirrelly and didn't like me to do it. She complained that her legs were tired and moved constantly. I saw on one of the videos that the woman's daughter sits up on the counter while she does her hair and I thought "Brilliant!" That has helped a lot because now Fran doesn't have to stand for so long and she can even eat a bagel or something while I am working on her. Also, as soon as Frannie could really see what the finished product looked like, she honestly stopped complaining about it, because she liked it :) Just looking from a handheld mirror didn't help, so I got the idea on that first day to take a picture of it so she could really see it.

So here is my first weeks worth of hairdos.

Taking advantage of the next-day curl

It's fun! I went out and bought a few supplies. A rat-tail comb for one, and some thin black hairbands. I need a few more thick hairbands too. I'd also like to get a few more embellishments for her hair, but I can't do any clips that will bug the back of her head when she's in the car. So the classic hair bows with metal clippies are out. I'm thinking she might be ok with a simple ribbon.

Nit Nat News

2010-09-06T22:32:00.000-07:00

Here's my little sweetie pie showing her cute new set of chompers! She's actually got two more little ones on top on either side of the fronts. I just love love love this baby girl. I just love having a baby to squish and love on in general, so Nit Nat gets a lot of attention.

She is 15 months old. She has a love affair with the phone. She takes it, pushes millions of buttons, calls Japan, and says "hiii" in her little sweet voice.

Just look at that sweet beach belly baby.

She's a messy one all right. I call her my dirty stinky smelly stinky ol baby. I say that in the sweetest way possible of course. She loves to go into the backyard and squish the box elder bugs. She'll sometimes bring half-dead ones into the house to show me. Cool.

Here she is happy as a clam in the backyard hunting for bugs.

We visited Granny and Nan this weekend. Here she's getting a kiss from her Great-great grandma Nan. Nan is a sweetie who loves the babies too.

I know that some of the things Jason really loves is how she runs right up to him with her arms outstretched saying Da da! as soon as he comes home from work. She'll drop whatever she's doing to welcome him home. Then she follows him into the garage and does her "uhn uhn" sound while pulling up on the bicycle. She wants a ride!

One of the things I love the best is her face when I come into her bedroom in the morning or after a nap. It is just so full of light and joy. One of these days I need to remember to take the camera in with me when I first get her. I love that face.

I also love how she runs with her hands fully open with all fingers flexed. She kind of throws her chest forward and arms back with hands open wide and RUNS! It's so cute to me!

Ok, ok, my gush fest is over. :)

Our Anniversary Ride

2010-09-04T21:56:00.000-07:00

On Aug 24th Jason and I celebrated 8 years of marriage and 15 years of togetherness. That's a pretty long time I'd say!

In honor of our special day, he decided to take me out for a tandem bike ride (22 miles one way!!) to the beach. It was really fun! My butt hurt sooooo bad, but it was really cool to be able to talk to each other the whole way without having to crane our necks or shout like you normally do when trying to talk while riding. Also, he took me on a paved trail so there were no signals and no traffic so you could really just relax in the pace of the bike and enjoy the ride.

Starting out in Yorba Linda

Ain't that a cool trail?

Once we got to Newport, we stopped for lunch at the Crab Shack

On the way home my poor booty was soooo sore. I have no idea why. I've ridden a bike before of course, and I've gotten some soreness but nothing even close to this. I almost had to tell Jason that we needed to have my dad pick us up I just couldn't pedal anymore. So Jason told me to lift my feet and he started pedaling us both on the trail. He did that the WHOLE WAY HOME! He pedaled his wife's 140lb butt back home 22 miles. Can you believe that? Pretty amazing. Many people chided me along the way by saying "Hey! That's not fair!" or "You owe him dinner!" and we just laughed. I did appreciate him though for being so fit that he could do it!

Marrying him was the best decision I've ever made.

Francesca's First Day of School

2010-08-31T23:06:00.000-07:00

The alternate title for this blog is Mom Sends her First Born to School. It was just as much my first day (and Jason's and my parents') as it was hers.

I must start off by commending Frannie's bravery today. Do you what was on her mind as we were about to leave? Here it is:

Can you believe that? Now how, you may ask, did my little girl get in her mind that people would hit her or be mean to her?! I mean, this is crazy that this is what is going through her head and yet she is bravely going to school with no complaint or fuss! I am sad to say that I think the fault is a combination effort of both Reem and I. I have many teacher friends and many of the pregnant moms in my class have been teachers and I have been known to pass along a "can you believe what happened at school?" type of incident to Jason. The problem is that I've probably spoken in front of Frannie and I have a tendency to use the universal term 'kids' whether I'm referring to children her age, middle schoolers, or high schoolers. :/ I also think some of this is unintentionally Reem's doing because she comes over and tells animated stories of the kids she helps at the ICC school and will mostly talk about the ones who are really bad (don't we all do this type of thing?). And she'll often tell similar stories of crazy events that happen at her middle school. All in all I think that's what has affected Frannie's view.

So despite her cloudy outlook on what she would face, Frannie went to school and had herself a fine day.

a packed lunch

a gravity-defying walk to school

a few pics with her sibs

and her worry-wart mother and non worrier father

Here she leads the class in her part of the welcome song.

In spite of all my fears and worries, she never caves into them. She is a strong little girl who can hold her own in many situations. I think of her words "Making sure nobody hits me or bes mean to me." She isn't about to let anybody get away with anything. When I watch the video and see the little resolve in her spirit it makes me both laugh (because her answer was so unexpected!) and feel sad (that that is what she's anticipating) but in a way proud of her for being such a tough cookie!

Ok, so here's my pledge to her. To quit talking about school so d@mn much. I'm sure she's sick of it. I'm sure she's sick of hearing me talk about it, and every single other friend or relative we have who begins a series of 20 questions with her all about kindergarten, and what she'll face, and how it will be, and etc..etc..etc..etc..etc.. I'm just going to stop it. She's there already. It's out of my hands now. I need to just let her have her day and let her experience this year without trying to forecast every hill and valley.

Frannie, my dear, I love you so much. I'm glad you are who you are.

Adam is Blossoming

2010-08-30T14:12:00.000-07:00

Over the summer I've watched as Adam has really begun to come into his own. It has been so nice to see!

In my last post I showed some pictures of how he's swimming in the pool now. And just yesterday Jason taught him how to ride his bike without training wheels! It's totally amazing!

I've seen how being able to do these skills gives him so much confidence. He is always saying now that he's a Big Boy and that he's "willy stwong". Just yesterday he was screaming at the top of his lungs in the backyard and punching air. I went out there and asked what he was doing and he turned around and smiled and told me this whole story about how he was getting the dragon. So I guess he's becoming a little super hero now :)

On another note, his crying and tantrums have really changed as well. [Enter big sigh of relief.] I don't have near the problems with him that I used to. He understands "wait" and he'll say "ok, Mommy I'll wait". He always says please (sometimes even a "pwetty pwease") and thank you. He's a polite little guy! He says thank you so often that Natalie says thank you too.

He's still got that sense of humor of his and he often tells me "Ok, poo poo" and I'll answer back "Ok, poo poo". Or he says to me "Thank you sir." He tells my dad "Ok, Gwama" He's just silly.

I love my little son (ok, big boy) so very much!

Can't Sleep

2010-08-27T06:18:00.000-07:00

I've been up pretty much all night. I have that gnawing feeling in my tummy; my mind won't shut up and let me sleep. I'm sort of miserable.

Frannie starts kindergarten on Tuesday. I'm not happy.

I don't like unknowns, I really don't. No matter what decision I make I always feel like it is the wrong one. Then I ask Jason's opinion, but then his opinion sounds like the wrong one so I change my mind about it again. Then I wonder, "should I have just listened to my husband?" But then I remember how his FIRST opinion was the choice I ended up making before I tried to convince him that the OTHER choice was the right one. Poor guy can't win with me.

At this point she is scheduled for the AM K-1 combo class.

What I really wanted (after I changed my mind no less than twice on the paper and twice by phone) was to have her in the AM class that is from 8-11:45 Monday - Friday. That way I could pick her up and come home for lunch and have the whole rest of the afternoon. We would still have time to attend Tuesday Park Day together so she can see her friends. I ultimately felt that would be the best transition for her. Even though it means the end of slow mornings and will take quite a bit of focus on my part to change those habits. But it's ok, I'm ready to do that now.

But...with all of my mind changing...all of the AM regular kindergarten spots filled up quickly. They had too many parents who wanted that time too, and they only have one class structured that way.

The other option is the PM kindergarten class which meets from 10-2:20pm. The kids eat their lunch at school. The nice thing about this is that it would be a more relaxing morning for all of us and I've only heard wonderful things about the PM teachers. But I became very bothered by the fact that a dismissal time of 2:20 makes it feel like she's gone all stinkin' day. That, and seeing her old friends at the park is out.

The school has been really nice and accommodating with me. The secretary never made me feel like I was putting her out when I called. So I really appreciate that. In trying to fulfill my changed request for morning kindergarten, they put her in the AM K-1 combo class. It meets from M-F from 8-12:30 except on W from 8-1pm. So invariably in trying to have her be at school for LESS time, she is at school for the most time of any option. (Head falls on desk...)

And from what I can tell by the tentative schedule, I don't see that there is any real instructional time past 11am. It's a little odd actually because in having to accommodate the first graders, the kindergarteners end up having their snack at 10am, they have library time, music time, or computer time from 10:30-11 and then are walked up to the cafeteria for lunch at 11am. After lunch there is recess until noon. Then it seems they come back to class to do a quiet activity (she mentioned her play kitchen in the class) until parents come to pick up at 12:30. Part of me feels like that isn't so bad since it is a lot of play time and I really believe in play time. Afterall, more daily activity with friends was one of the reasons I felt homeschooling wouldn't work well for her.

But...(and here is where I start worrying) I know she is going to get really tuckered out. And when she gets tired she doesn't want to do the activity anymore. This is one of the big reasons why she started whining to me about going to ballet, because the class was at 5pm and she was already ready for dinner at that time and it was cold outside and she said she was tired. Then she started whining about going to gymnastics because it was Tuesday at 3pm and we had already been at the park for hours. She doesn't like to do gymnastics when tired and she would often fall asleep in the car on the way over. So even an activity she likes can quickly become one she doesn't like if she's being dragged to it. Knowing that she will be really tired after such a full morning like that, will she even have the energy to go to the park? Or will keeping her up like that without an after-school nap mess her up for the next day when she'll be at school even longer?

And that brings me to Wednesday. What can they possibly do with the kindergarteners for an extra 30 minutes one day a week? Honestly? Nothing. It will just be more kill-time activity. Wednesday is the school-wide minimum day so she is following the schedule of the first graders on that day. I asked about just picking her up at 12:30 and the teacher said she'd prefer the kids to be picked up at 1pm just because it can get complicated with remembering which children leave and which don't etc... I can appreciate her position on this since she does have 24 students and it is of prime importance that every head be accounted for and that the drop-off, pick up policies be air-tight.

But it just makes me uncomfortable. Even the PM kindergarten class gets a short 3 hour day on Wednesday because they meet from 10-1. I'd rather her have one day of the week like that, rather than a longer day. Even though it is only 1/2 hour longer. It's still longer. So if anything I wish it were the same pick up time, 12:30.

I've decided I'm going to try it out and see how it goes and how she does with the changes. If I continue to have a problem with the 1pm pick up time then I'll schedule a meeting with the teacher and probably principal just to arrange that I'll be regularly picking her up at 12:30 (or heck, maybe even 11 since they're just playing after that time anyways).

It is all just too many unknowns for her and for me and I can't sleep because of it. I want her to have a really good first year of school.

The Swim Teacher

2010-08-24T02:43:00.000-07:00

This summer Jason taught the kids (well, Frannie and Adam) how to swim! He asked a couple of other dads who taught their kids and they said the trick was just to take them every single day. So Jason made up his mind to do just that. As soon as he got home from work, the kids put their swimsuits on and went with Daddy to the pool.

Frannie started out being afraid to put her face underwater, and now she can swim all the way from one end of the pool to the other with her face down and everything! She looks like a little froggy when she's swimming.

Adam didn't even want to go into the water, but despite his clinging to my legs and crying, Jason forced him to go in and use his floaties.

And he likes it! He now asks to go swimming everyday.

As for me, I've been sitting around either in the house, or watching by the poolside.

Making sure Nattie doesn't plop herself into the pool.

Or run off too far with the keys. You can see it in her eyes how she's saying "Mine!"

I am so so so happy that the kids learned how to swim. I tried to teach Frannie some things last summer but wasn't able to get very far. I find that when she is resisting and being very squirrelly, I tend to go into drill sergeant mode. But Jason has taught me that with skills like this you just have to do a little bit every single day. Just get them to go a little bit farther than the previous day and they'll make big progress. I know for a fact I wouldn't have gotten her swimming the way he did! As for Adam, I also know for a fact that I would have let him stay in the house all summer because he was afraid to go into the water. Jason knew that he just needed to get him in there and make him work it out. And he was right! It is a big weight off of my shoulders knowing that they are learning such an important life skill!

The July Home Makeover Extravaganza...is finished

2010-08-14T08:10:00.000-07:00

I know that is quite a heavy title there. And really when all is said and done it just came down to paint, a laminate floor, carpet, and some baseboards. But darnit everything looks so different, it's like I moved and got myself a brand new house! I love it!

The before shots:

Here we have white walls and white carpet

A little closer now...

Toddler graffiti'ed white walls

And not so white carpet...

I'm not a white on white type of decorator anyways, but I couldn't even pretend to keep this looking clean. The carpet the kids are standing on had been professionally shampooed only 3 months prior.

The process of getting everything done involved 2 weeks of

scaffolding and keeping the kids out of the house and away from open cans of paint. The rest of the month of July was the laminate floor and then carpet upstairs.

Imagine my joy when I came home to this

and this

and brown carpet

and a green kitchen!

Did you know that it is more enjoyable to clean house when you like what you are cleaning? Fascinating how that works. Do you know how much peace of mind comes from being able to wipe up cat barf effortlessly and not feel even a smidge of disdain for the cat in the process? It's a lot of peace.

I'm loving my new house!

I would totally blog more if I didn't have to post pictures!

2010-07-16T23:55:00.000-07:00

For days and days I've been wanting to write a blog post about the home-makeover extravaganza that I am currently in the middle of.

It is one of those things where part of me wants to COMPLAIN about how hard it has been to have my life turned upside-down and not be able to be in my own house for two weeks now and how STRESSFUL it is to make these decisions about what colors everything should be when there are truly a billion CHOICES with every single item and how everything COSTS more than you thought it would and takes LONGER than you thought it would and how when you do one project in invariably leads to having to do another project and then there are ever more decisions, more choices, more money...wait a minute, I think I'm complaining.

Anyways the truth is that I am deeply grateful that I even have the luxury of making these decisions. I am deeply grateful that we currently have the resources to make these little dreams a reality. So it seems pretty stupid to complain too much. Yes, very stupid.

So we're in the middle of getting a few things spruced up around here. When we bought this townhome 2 1/2 years ago we knew we'd eventually need to repaint and re-do the floor. The previous owner had a love of white spaces and while that worked really well for her as a single woman, it works terribly for me as a mother of three. The white carpet in my living room is just plain ol' ugly at this point and the walls have various stains, hand prints, and a bit of toddler graffiti on them since it seems that the kids need to give wall art a try at least once. But I have no way of cleaning the flat finish walls and despite regular carpet cleanings the floor looks hopeless. So Jason and I agreed that paint and a downstairs floor was necessary.

But you know, if you are going to hire someone to paint the downstairs and ginormous livingroom wall, you might as well just have them do the upstairs bedrooms too because realistically, when are you ever going to get around to it? And if you are getting a new floor downstairs it sure would be nice to have a new baseboard since they'll just have to do this base-shoe thing around the existing baseboard anyways and it doesn't cost much more and the installation is included. And since we're doing the living room floor in laminate, it's just going to be another series of decisions to do the kitchen and bathroom someday and then we'll have all these different floor seams in the house so you might as well just have them do the laminate in the kitchen and downstairs bathroom too. Now, if you have a new floor downstairs and nice new paint with a new baseboard it is going to look pretty stupid to have those cruddy stained "once-white" stairs that greet you right at the livingroom entrance. You should probably just re-carpet the stairs, that way the entire downstairs will look nice. Did you know that carpets come in different die-lots? I didn't. So just because you pick one color/type of carpet today for the stairs doesn't mean that two years from now you can buy the exact same carpet for your hallway and bedrooms, not to mention that you'll have brown stairs and a white hallway for two years. And it will be another process of the house being upside-down while furniture gets moved and people get hired and contracts written. Sigh.

If you give a mouse a cookie. Right?

So we're kind of doing it all. All the paint, the whole downstairs floor, and all the carpet. I suppose it's just basic stuff but it feels like a lot.

I have a few pictures of the scaffolding that was in my living room. But it's on my camera. And as much as I'd love to have a picture of it right here, I just don't feel like getting it off my camera and downloading it and then uploading it to the blog. That right there is the biggest reason of why I sometimes take forever to post something new.

So I don't have pictures, but it's an update nonetheless. (I just love now "none the less" evolved into being just one word. That's so cool!)

When it is all done I'll try to put up a few pics.

The family gets baptized

2010-07-02T23:31:00.001-07:00

At St. Luke Lutheran Church in Claremont on June 13th. (Jason and I were baptized on May 31st.)

It was a very nice ceremony and I'm so glad that we finally found a church that we are comfortable in and are learning in. After the children were baptized something felt complete to me, like a thin circle was drawn around us all.

Peas in a Pod

2010-06-18T22:46:00.000-07:00

Our neighbors just left for Egypt for the summer. WAH! I'll miss them. Frannie and Omar play just about every single day and they never get sick of each other. I have to tell him to go home all of the time, and then 15 minutes later he'll be back in the garage. Omar is a good kid, but boy does he have a knack for breaking things. He reminds me of one of those puppies that chews on your favorite shoe. When you find the shoe with tooth marks and slobber all over and scold the dog, he just looks at you with this face like "Huh? Me? What did I do?" He's broken flower pots, my mini blinds, he made the roof of the playhouse collapse, he cracked the plastic pool, he's made Adam trip by chasing him with a hula hoop and then hooking him by the ankles. He runs too fast, jumps from high places, and in general doesn't think much about the cause/effect of what he's doing. He's six.

But he and Frannie and Adam play well together and rarely fight.

On one day Frannie took a bunch of pictures. These made me smile.

Keeping House

2010-06-17T01:09:00.000-07:00

I really love learning about the art of keeping a home. I feel that for many women my age, homekeeping was pushed so far down on the list of worthwhile priorities to be taught either at home or school while growing up, that we are trying to figure it all out at a time when it should be second-nature. There were no Home Ec. classes in my jr. high or high school and for all of the math, science, literature, and history I was taught, the only lessons I learned about home and family in school were in reference to a sort of female enslavement. I sometimes wonder, did my great-grandfather really not appreciate the efforts of my great-grandmother? Was she really seen as second class to him as the textbooks would make it seem? Or did they just have a respected division of labor? There's a lot to be done to make a household work, and for some reason the actual work-load of the home side of things has been minimized to the point that I guess people think homes can clean themselves, meals can cook themselves and children can raise themselves.

Before being in this role, I never appreciated the work involved. Perhaps I saw it as part-time work, something that could all be accomplished with just a little effort on the side. But this business of nurturing people and the home they dwell in is a whole thing.

Fortunately, I came into wifehood and motherhood with a knowledge of how to cook, and a knack for lovin' up babies. Those things have never been hard for me. It's this keeping the home in order part that has been a struggle. It's like...work. There's a lot of cleaning. And things keep getting dirty. And there's always stuff coming into the house to sort through and stuff that needs to be pulled out. And them kids I live with keep making huge messes and interrupting me every five seconds. Hmmm...funny how that happens.

But I finally feel like I'm really breaking free! (From the house-trap mindset that is, not the kids!)

I have been getting better over the years bit by bit as I read books and blogs and apply what I've learned. However, for a long time I have been stuck at the place of doing an ok job of keeping things in order but it has always felt like a huge effort. Just thinking about the dishes that have to be done, or the kitchen that has to be wiped down was a major mental drain. I would always wonder "Why does it always feel so hard?" I know that it isn't actually difficult to wash dishes or do laundry or pick up toys. In fact when you are in the middle of it, often the mind can take a little vacation and it isn't so bad. Somehow the mental activity of just getting there took about 75% of my energy. I wanted to be one of those people that just gets it done and doesn't anguish over it. Jason's that way.

So in my quest for knowledge I ordered another home organization book from the library, Sandra Felton's Organizing for Life. Her book isn't about how to clean, it's about the mental side of things. Organizing for Life explores the cognitive patterns (and sometimes physiological issues too) that contribute to someone being a "Messy" vs. a "Cleanie". For me, the most helpful chapter was chapter 16 where she talks about the way the average successful homekeeper relates to her home. She says the number one difference between those who keep their homes clean regularly with little problem versus those who are always struggling with the house is that average successful homekeepers just want their home to look nice.

What? That's it!?

She says the average "Messie" focuses on wanting the house to "work better" and be more organized so that life will be more efficient. For example, kids will be hustled off to school with less effort, items will be found more easily, documents will be stored more appropriately. She says that the human desire for beauty is much greater than the desire for efficiency. Also, the person who wants a nice home will subsequently have a home that works better and is more efficient.

This may sound stupid, but this information hit me over the head.

I read that chapter about four times.

Want a nice home...they want the house to look nice...they want it to be pretty...welcoming...for themselves.

They just want a nice house.

I ...want a nice house.

I have never admitted that to myself or even really considered it. In fact I have always viewed myself in opposition to those who want their homes to look nice. Isn't it a vain character quality to want something for beauty's sake? Isn't it much more noble to desire efficiency? And yet, it isn't enough. A vision of efficiency has never been enough to make me want to wash any dish. I'll do it out of duty's sake because I love my husband and I love my kids and I know it is important to them (especially to him) to have a home that they can enjoy. For years, that has been the motivation I've been operating under. But desiring efficiency and desiring to please family members isn't enough to shake the emotional response that everything is such a c.h.o.r.e.

I deserve a nice home. A nice home isn't just for other people, it's for me. I deserve a nice home to live in. I feel like I need to keep repeating it over and over and let it sink in. When I keep that vision in my mind, it does make a difference. It changes the energy with which I approach the house. Rather than being a trap, it's like the mess is in-between me and MY nice house! I want my nice house back! So the mess must go! It also means letting go of my little self-identity as a "Messie". I can feel sometimes when that old mind-set is operating and when I have to switch to the new one and get my vision back.

So if you come to my home, don't get all Inspector-Gadget on me and whip out your magnifying glass to check my skillz; There will probably still be some toys on the floor and dishes in the sink and blah blah blah. However, when the time comes to stick my hands in some soapy water or put Thomas and his Friends away for the day I think my inner-world won't be moaning and groaning through the whole thing.
I'll be creating my nice house.

Adam Jason turns THREE!

2010-06-14T20:52:00.000-07:00

[Note: I started putting this blog together on June 6th!]

Well my little guy turned three years old yesterday. This is a big birthday for him because it is the first time he was FULLY AWARE of the event. Everyone did an excellent job of getting him pumped up about it. Seeing other kids blow out birthday candles a few weeks prior also did the trick.

"Is it my bootday?"
"Not yet Adam. Next week. And you are going to have a special Tommy party!" (Tommy = Thomas the Tank Engine)

Adam is very cute when he gets excited. He kind of pulls his neck in, folds his hands together in his lap and smiles big with bright eyes. It's adorable to me! He's a fairly reserved little boy so he doesn't often react with a huge WHOOP! He does this more measured reaction but I know it means he's VERY excited. And it makes the times that he does do a big WHOOP even more entertaining.

Here's Jason's take on the early morning hours of Adam's birthday.

The day started out early. Francesca was up by 5:30 am, "Daddy its late, we need to go to Grandpa's house to make Adam's cake." Bobbie has a special talent for making awesome cakes and at Adam's request a Thomas the Train cake was on order for the day. With Francesca as co-baker, the plan was to make the cake at Grandpa's house.

Thirty minutes later, I was out of bed and both Adam and Franny met me down stairs. I fed them, dressed Franny and off to Grandpa's house we went. Adam at the last minute decided he wanted to go for the ride, so in his pajamas, I loaded him into the van.

We got to Grandpa's early and well before Grandma Bobbie. Hmmmm, she said beween 7 and 8, its 7:15 am. "Ding Dong," went the door bell, once then twice. Does Grandpa know we're coming? A few minutes later, we heard feet shuffle and Archie barking behind the closed door. Grandpa's head poked out of the door and I now now, he WASN'T expecting us.

We stayed awhile, talked as Archie raced around the living room, full of excited energy running to and from Francesca and Adam. Bobbie never showed while I was there and after two phone calls from Jamie I had a growing "To Do List".

A quick trip to Stator Bros and back home, time to start party planning! Jumper was delivered on time, bbq out, charcol, cooler filled with ice and drinks, back yard swept, the day was setting up on time. Stress level, close to zero.

Okay Jamie you can finish!

Here is the cake Frannie helped my mom make. Complete with track and toy train!

He Did he just say stress level close to zero? I'm pretty sure he just said that. Anyways, my pre-party stress is never a zero but I will say that with now having a little bit of party experience, I am no longer in all out anxiety mode like I used to be.

Anyways, back to Adam.

It made me very happy to put together this particular party for him. Adam has his ups and downs. He's a wonderfully cuddly little boy who says "Please" and "Thank You" and a friendly "Hi!!" to strangers. He gets so excited about trains and begs to watch his train movies every day. Watching him watch a train youtube is hilarious for me as he always "chuffs" with the train and points at the screen and gives big laughs and sound effects as the train goes down the track. While we enjoy so many sweet moments together, he is two (now three) afterall and the phrase "terrible twos" really means something to me. Some days are haaaaaard. In fact most everyday is a mixture of absolutely aggravating patience-testing behaviors and cuddly sweetness and silliness. It's weird how it all can change hour by hour.

The party was a chance to celebrate all the super parts of my little guy. And I'm so glad we did!

We decided to invite family and a few friends to the house for a BBQ. We also got a jumper because of all the kids on the street who we knew would come over. It was a beautiful day. There were a million kids around as expected and Adam got a lot of nice train gifts! He really enjoys opening presents.

These are just some things I'd like to remember about him as a three year old:

The way he loves to cuddle. When I carry or sit with him, he lays his head on my shoulder, tucks his arms in and wiggles his booty to get comfortable.

He asks for candy constantly. When I say "no candy" he promptly says "Can I have gwum?" Half the time I let him have gum just so he'll stop asking.

Juice. The boy loves juice.

"Work that body" running and dancing.

Lately his little sense of humor includes pretending to pee on everything.

"I yuv you" (Mom, Gwama, Auntie, Gwampa, Fwannie, Natowie, Omaw, Weem) He will often tell those he loves that he loves them!

The train sound effects.

His low laugh.

The way he shouts "Gotta go pee pee!" "Gotta go POO POO!" and then "I'M DOOOONE!" in a screetching howl.

"Give me my pie-see!" (give me my privacy)

"Can I have a pop-ped-o?" (marshmallow)

"My. name's. Anum!"

"You bootiful, Mommy"

Obviously I really want to remember his way of speaking! It's really cute and I know he won't do this too much longer. The L's are pronounced like Y's. The R's are just lost in the word. Everyone finds it quite funny the way he pronounces the name of a certain favorite green train whose name rhymes with Mercy.

I always want to remember the way he and Frannie play and laugh their heads off together. Or as Frannie would say "crack your head off".

Slowly Natalie is becoming more of a playmate too, but she is mostly still a nuisance to him. I suspect this will change more once Frannie starts school.

Finally this year he is riding a tricycle. He would never even sit on one before. And now he rides all around everyday. I know Jason is really glad about that!

Someday he'll graduate to papa's bikes.

Adam can load up a DVD or VHS tape all by himself.

Last year he was very clingy and he's grown out of that now. He actually has several little friends. His besties are James, Naomi, and Omar.

He's a cautious kid. He never goes down the slide at a park. He only likes to swing on the swing a little bit and that is just a recent development. He just recently did the tricycle thing. He won't go in the swimming pool without me in there holding him. Otherwise he just sits with his feet resting on the first step. He still loves to run and kick a ball though! I guess he's a feet on the ground kind of kid.

I love my special 3 year old "Big Boy!" who is full of love and stubbornness and is powered by juice and a passion for trains.

WE LOVE YOU ADAM!

Natalie Meadow turns ONE!!

2010-05-28T23:40:00.000-07:00

My sweet baby girl was born one year ago today! Right up there in my bedroom. It's so cool to think about that day.

For her birthday today we had a little neighborhood party. There are 18 kids on my cul-de-sac, mostly boys, but they're a lot of fun and it keeps this street full of life and busyness. I told Jason last week that we're never moving because you can't buy great kids to play with your kids. Anyways, Reem is my little helper and she made some invitations and came over today to make/decorate cupcakes. We put an invitation on everyone's porch that said to come outside at 6:30pm and we'll sing to Natalie and serve the cupcakes.

It was a good way to celebrate!

My little Natalie is still a sweetie, but her stinkery side is developing nicely as well. She's been taking daily lessons from Adam. :P So in addition to her smiles and laughter, there are now demands and tantrums and arching. All part of growing up! Lately her biggest lesson is learning that she's not allowed to go into the street. So she gets a lot of "No, no" from me and Frannie and "No street" and putting her back on the grass and this just really ticks her off. Boy this baby can really cuss me out sometimes when she's tellin' me what's on her mind and how dare I not let her on the street? And take the cell phone away? And take that penny out of her mouth? Are you KIDDING? Yep. She's got a lot of words for her mama. A lot of words.

I dressed Natalie in the same dress I put Frannie in when she turned one :)

One thing I love about her right now is the cool 70's baby hairstyle she's got going on. Soft and shaggy over the ears. A very common style for 12 year old boys. And 1 year old girls!

She has a few words in her vocabulary:
Ma ma
Na na (banana)
Did did (daddy)
No no!

And she's an excellent pointer. She understands a TON. For example, I say "Seepy seep!" and she starts laughing. She knows it is nap time. Jason asks her to dance and she'll shake a little booty. She'll give a kiss and hand me something when I say "Can I have it?" She's understanding the whole no street thing too.

One thing she does that the other two never did, is she has a favorite blanket. It is a pink fuzzy blanket that I keep in her bed. One day when I was changing her sheet, I had all the blankets in a pile in the hallway for washing. She came waddling down the hall, saw her blanket and dragged it all the way back to her bed and got on her tippy tippy toes trying to put it back inside. Every night she buries her face into that thing when going to sleep.

She nurses, but she eats a lot of solid food as well. She still only has two teeth on the bottom. She will jokingly nip while nursing and I say "Ouch!" and she'll start laughing. Then she'll do it a few more times. She's not hurting me or anything, but she knows that the potential is there. It's like her little joke on mom. :)

She loves to be outside and play in the dirt and sand and play in her little front yard house. There are so many kids around here that she is a pretty easy going baby. Just yesterday I peeked in the front yard and there were five boys, Ali, Omar, Nicholas, Christian, and Aman all sitting in a circle with Frannie, and they were doing goo goo ga ga with Natalie. Anyone who says kids, even boy kids, don't love babies is crazy. The age range is about 6-12. These kids love to take her for rides in the push car or wagon and they do a good job of making sure she never goes on the street.

Sweet Natalie I love you so so much. You are a wonderful delight to me. I love to nuzzle you up under your neck and nip your ears and give you delicious squeezes every day. My heart sings with joy at your baby ways and in watching you grow. Happy Birthday!

And just for fun, I want to throw in a few Natalie/Frannie comparison shots at one year of age.

My Mother's Day Off (on Saturday)

2010-05-09T22:50:00.000-07:00

For Mother's Day I asked for a day off. I really had no desire to be taken out for a meal or even be given a certain gift. All I wanted was a day to myself. No butts to wipe, clothes to wrestle on, fights to quell, messes to clean, meals to make, juice to pour, activities to provide, or even conversation to be had. Does that sound mean?

My only participation in the family was to nurse and say "Go ask Daddy."

On Saturday Jason left with the kids at 10am and thus began my day. It was quite glorious. I started by wasting lots of time. I almost started to feel guilty for this lack of productivity, but then I thought, "I can spend this day any way I want to, even in a thoroughly non-achieving way. I don't have to answer to anyone for my time or how it is spent." Wow. What a strange thought. What a strange feeling to give myself permission for pure nothingness. It was such a weight lifted off! After I wasted time, I took a shower.

Then Jason got back home. That's right. In the span of like three hours, that is all that I did. (Well a big part of the "nothingness" was updating the camping blog and that took forever.)

Once he was here I nursed the baby and set out to run an errand or two. I had shoes to return. Since I was returning shoes it only made sense to look for more shoes. And maybe try on a shirt or two too. On the way I got myself some ice cream. I wasted more time at that drug store just going up and down the aisles eating my ice cream and looking at pretty much everything in the store. Just because.

Once I got back home I went upstairs and crawled into bed with my book Confessions of a Slacker Wife. It is SUPER funny! I highly recommend for anyone who wants a light read and wants to have a laugh. The kids came into the room a few times and tried to get into bed and such, but I shooed them away with my "Go see Daddy! It's my day off!" Anyways, I finished my book. What to do after that? Well, take a nap of course.

It really wasn't a great nap because the kids were being kind of loud in the house, but it was ok. Once again, I started to feel guilty for napping and for my lack of involvement with the children, but I shoved it away. There is really NO reason to feel guilty when I do almost everything for my kids all the time every single day 363. (I guess I should subtract out Mother's Day and perhaps some other random day I haven't accounted for.)

Once I got up, I was feeling pretty good, so I decided to go outside for a walk. I walked about two miles. At home Jason said he wanted to go to the bike shop. I said, "Ok, but you have to take the kids with you!" he he he. I really like this day off thing. I need more days like it.

Pretty soon the kids were in bed. Before coming home from my errands earlier I stopped at Albertson's because they have a Red Box movie machine. I rented Julie and Julia for the evening. After a few matches of online Scrabble I settled into our big red chair with some decaf coffee and watched a very cute movie. (Learned a lot more about Julia Child than I ever would have I think.) Jason enjoyed the movie too.

So that was my day off!! Woo hoo!

Grandma Carol with her Grandbabies

2010-05-09T21:31:00.000-07:00

Catie (5), Natalie (almost 1), Adam (almost 3), Francesca (5), Nicholas (6), Grandma Carol (I'm not sayin'!)

Afghan for Catie

2010-05-08T13:35:00.000-07:00

My sweet niece Catherine (Catie) turned 5 years old last Tuesday. Last year around her fourth birthday she was at the house and admiring Frannie's afghan. I told her that I could make her one for her fifth birthday and asked what her two favorite colors were. "Blue and purple." Ok. A blue and purple afghan it is.

Here she is at the party with her friends.

Whenever I make a blanket for someone I think about them a lot. The process of crocheting is basically one year of monotonous stitches. One after another after another after another. During that time that I'm zoning out and stitching I am usually thinking about the person that I'm stitching for. In the end the blanket represents for me all the prayers and good thoughts and wishes I have for that person that now exist in a physical form to be enjoyed.

Camping!!

2010-05-05T22:09:00.000-07:00

F.I.N.A.L.L.Y.

After all these years that I've been saying, wishing, hoping, thinking about going camping we finally did!!! HOORAY! And we had a wonderful time!

Now for those who are of the hotel variety, I'm sure there isn't much to be impressed about concerning a simple camping trip. (I shouldn't say anything bad about hotels. I like them too!) But I've got a list of reasons why camping has been on my mind for so long and why I've got the bug already to go back.

1. Childhood memories. One of my favorite childhood memories as a kid was my dad taking my brother and I to the Kern River on camping trips. It was a long ride in the back of the pick up truck (couldn't do that nowadays I guess) but once we got there there is just a certain spontaneous fun to exploring around and under trees, throwing rocks in the stream, and eating outside for a few days. Sure your feet get cold at night, but you're in a cool sleeping bag and you get to see stars at night and a sunrise in the morning.

I really really want to make these memories with my own kids. I want to be that family that goes and sees new places, pitches a tent and eats outside. I want my kids to see stars and trees and have those same childhood joys.

2. Nature and a change of scenery. I miss nature. A lot. My world is very suburban and it seems to get more claustrophobic all the time. When I grew up in San Dimas it was just in its beginning stages of becoming a developed city. There were still many agriculture plots with oranges or strawberries growing. I suppose my heart craves a slower pace of life, and yet the environment around me has only gotten busier with time. I am grateful to live in this part of Pomona that borders Claremont because there are a lot of nice trees here and nice homes, but it isn't the same as open space.

Also, because I am an at-home mom, I spend a huge chunk of my life inside of this house. I have been craving a major change of scenery for a long time!

3. Frugality. I always enjoy things more when I know it isn't costing me too much money. The lower cost of camping ups its fun-factor for me by a ton. Without the stress of thinking about the money, I can more fully enjoy the whole experience.

---

Now up to this point the main things that have prevented a weekend vacay in the woods are either pregnancy or baby related (how do we camp with a young baby???) or just our inexperience with equipment and such. There have also been work/schedule conflicts too.

Perhaps my dad took pity on us, or perhaps he was mostly sick and tired of hearing all the "talk but no action" in regards to the Oh-how-I-want-to-go-camping-we-need-to-go-camping-why-don't-we-go-camping discussions that have taken place over the years, but either which way he took the bull by the horns and organized this thing.

Thank you Dad!

He made the reservations, organized all the food, took me to buy a tent, bought us an air mattress, brought the tarp, tent stakes, and a bunch of other stuff. It was my job to pack clothes and bring my kids. And Jason too! Whew, that was tough!

Anyways, we decided to go to Malibu Creek State Park for our trip. It is local, has restrooms and showers, and has the type of scenery I was going for (wooded as opposed to beach). Here is the State Parks website where I searched for camping facilities http://www.parks.ca.gov/ If you know of other good websites that offer campsite searches, please let me know.

We arrived on Saturday and stayed until Monday. Here are the pics!

The Campsite

The Super Cool Tent

Oooh an Instant Tent! The box claims you can set it up in one minute.

It took about 20, but not bad for a first try.

It's big. 10'x14'

Big enough to fit Nattie's Pack n Play. There she is taking a nap.

Big windows! What a great view.

Good Eats

Dad cooked all the meals. And washed all the dishes. LUXURY! He made beef stew, brought hot dogs, for breakfast it was eggs, bacon and potatoes one morning and pancakes and sausage the next. Yum yum!

Animal Sightings

We saw several different types of fuzzy caterpillar.

There were lots of gophers poking their heads out of holes to say hello.

AND we saw a huge rattlesnake. Didn't get a picture of it though (the above is a web pic). Jason and I were walking and a man came up to us and asked if we knew the number for the Ranger Station because he saw a rattlesnake. He motioned for us to follow him and sure enough, there was a very healthy snake slithering through one of of the campsites that bordered the mountainside. I'm guessing said snake got hungry and wanted to give a go at one of the many gophers.

Having Fun

Jason, Dad and I had several sandbag tossing tournaments. This game is addicting!

Nattie was one dirty baby. Note to self: Next time bring the stroller so you have somewhere to sit her down when you don't want her sitting in/playing in/eating dirt.

Cold Mornings

Happy Family!

(We never did get a pic with all six of us, but I will next time.)

Not all things work out perfectly

2010-04-25T09:37:00.000-07:00

I just attended a birth last night for a Bradley couple. I got a call at about 4pm from her husband because they were at the hospital (after having transfered from a birth center) and the staff were talking the "C-word". He was nervous and wasn't sure what to do. His wife was fully dilated and had been pushing for two hours in various positions but the baby just wouldn't move down. In my heart, once he said that, I knew that she probably really would need to have a cesarean and I offered to go to the hospital just to hold her hand and provide moral support.

Once I got there she was quite calm and surprisingly strong given the two days she had already been in active labor. Her husband too, still looked remarkably alert. They told me the positions she had tried. The staff was very supportive. Her OB when recommending the cesarean was compassionate, knowing that she really wanted to have her baby vaginally. After talking it over, she still wanted to try pushing some more in different positions just to see if that would help baby's head clear the pubic bone. She squatted down on the floor, pushed while standing and also tried hands and knees pushing. She pushed HARD. Strong woman.

But sometimes there is a baby in there who gets stuck. It does happen sometimes. And it's a bummer when it does, but the reality is that it is important to accept what is, and let go of unfulfilled expectation. Sometimes you just gotta get the baby out.

Cesareans save lives. Sometimes cesareans are unnecessary and that is what all the hubbub is about (as it should be), but when it's necessary, it's a gift of life. In this situation the mother would have lived, but not the baby. Incidentally the baby was transferred (GBS concerns and low blood oxygen levels) to the NICU unit at another hospital because the hospital where she delivered didn't have one. So now mama is separated from her baby and husband. Of everything that happened, that was the part that broke my heart. I feel that mother and baby should stay together always.

The days will be long for this couple. Breastfeeding will likely be impaired. Their birth has been a series of plan changes and disappointments, so I am hoping that she has magical nipples that that baby just grabs right onto when reunited. And if not, she'll need extra support for that too.

Not all things work out perfectly.

And yet, this is a strong family who I know will have a beautiful life together and I'm happy for them.

I feel that my job as a Bradley instructor isn't to lay guilt on people by holding natural childbirth up as the only standard by which "good births" can be measured. That isn't, and has never been, the point. To me, the point is to empower people with knowledge of how to have a natural childbirth and all that it can do for them and their baby, but also to know wise use of drugs and interventions if something abnormal presents itself. Any person who wears glasses, a hearing aid, or takes seasonal allergy medications should understand that sometimes the body needs some help.

As far as this couple is concerned, I sincerely hope they don't feel bad every single time they feel obligated to explain to someone why she needed a cesarean or why she may not be exclusively breastfeeding.

Ok, ok, Night Weaning

2010-04-12T21:06:00.000-07:00

First of all, I don't claim to be any sort of expert or anything. Frankly, didn't mothers used to get to sleep through when the baby was a few months old or something? I'm always kind of curious about that since it sounds pretty darn nice. Anyways, I've never made that happen, but all that said, here's what I do:

I have two Pack n Plays, one in my bedroom, one in another bedroom. I like the Pack n Play because of the mesh sides and the portability.

As a newborn the baby is always in our bedroom. At some point I start putting her in the other bedroom for naps when it is convenient. Once she's comfortable with that then I start putting her down for bedtime in the other bedroom and go to her when she wakes in the night and bring her back into our room. After awhile I start going to her in the night and putting her back in her own room.

At some point I know that she is only waking up at night out of habit and not because she is genuinely hungry or really for any other reason. I also get to a point where I am so tired I can't take getting up any more and it really starts affecting my daytime mothering.

So once I hit that point I make up my mind that I'm not going to get her when she wakes up. She crys. I don't go in.

The next night she doesn't really cry anymore. After that she's sleeping through the night and so am I. I go get her when she wakes at 5:30 or 6am.

Once she is broken of the night waking habit, if she happens to wake up and cry I know it is for something real and not just because she's used to it.

The Super Sweetie

2010-04-11T13:01:00.000-07:00

I haven't done a baby post in awhile even though I spend each and every day loving up on this baby. There is nothing I love better than to hold her, squeeze her, make her laugh, and watch her do new things.

She's 10 months old and has been walking for about two weeks now. It started off as just a step or two, but now she's pretty good at it! I think it is so adorable the way she lurches forward and back trying to keep her balance. She knows she's doing something really good too because she'll stop and look at me and smile her big baby smile and clap her hands. I'm glad she's good at cheering for herself.

I'm so lucky to have such a sweetie.

I love the big smile she gets on her face when I pick her up out of her bed after a nap. See that smile in the picture? That's how she looks at me every time I go get her. I love the way she wiggles her bootie like a puppy and buries her face in her blankets when getting comfortable to go to sleep. I love when I try to change her diaper and she gets both legs going in big circles like the tap move "wings! wings! wings!" She's full of talking and sounds from "ma ma ma ma" and "da da da" to growls, sputters, raspberries, and tongue spits.

She can crawl up and down the stairs no problem. I don't even have to watch her or worry about her. Lately she loves to be pushed in the toy car or push Adam's Lightning McQueen toy.

She also loves to play in the toy house in the front yard. She opens and closes the little front door and makes herself right at home.

She can eat almost anything, and I'm much more adventurous with her diet than I was with Frannie especially. I loosened up with Adam I guess, and now I don't worry so much. She eats Joes O's, oat bran, oatmeal, cheese, pretzels, eggs, yogurt, applesauce, regular apples, she will murder a banana if I let her, she'll murder a strawberry too and that really does look like a crime scene when she's done. She still nurses several times a day. Just last week I night-weaned her and I'm finally sleeping through the night.

I've given her several nicknames, like Netter Sweater, Nettie Spaghetti, Natalie Spagatalie, Netta, and Susie. WHAT?? SUSIE? Yes. Susie. I don't really know why. Maybe because it is sort of a combo between Sweetie and Cutie. But one day I started calling her Susie. And then I said it again and again. And now I say it all the time. I say her real name too all of the time. And her middle name too. And sometimes it's Susie Natalie. Or Susie Meadow. Or Susie Natalie Meadow. It's lots of things. I guess I just have lots of little special names for my baby sweetie.

Why I'm becoming Christian

2010-04-03T21:58:00.000-07:00

In a month or two it is likely that Jason and I will be baptized and then we will get the kids baptized too. We are currently taking Catechism classes with our pastor on Wednesday evenings. He is kind enough to come to the house because he knows it would be too difficult for us to find the time for 12 classes with the kids being so young. As part of the series we read from Luther's Small Catechism, the history of Martin Luther, and a Meaningful Worship book. The class is intended to be an introduction to Christianity and Lutheranism. First off, I'm so glad I found this church because after 10 years of going to different churches and mostly spending our time at the UCC, Jason and I FINALLY feel like we are learning something. There are so many things that I think people take for granted if they were raised in the church, that Jason and I have been clueless about. We have so many questions from basic to complex that have needed explanation! It feels good to finally feel like "Oh! So THAT'S what that is!" as well as learn a lot of history and get some foundational knowledge of the faith. We have four more classes before we're done.

So why Christianity? Why not Buddhism or Judaism or something else? I did investigate these religions and still believe they have value, however, I chose to learn about Christianity for a few reasons:
1. Because even though I wasn't raised specifically as a Christian, I grew up amongst it. Culturally it is what I feel comfortable with.
2. I got tired of celebrating Christmas and Easter as purely secular holidays. I got tired of having a life with no rituals set aside during the week to honor the sacred. All those years when I'd go to church and drag Jason with me, never really "getting" many parts of the service or "getting" Jesus, I went just to say my thank yous. Half the time I didn't even know what I was really doing there other than the thank you part.
3. When I was 34 weeks pregnant with Frannie I began to have "labor jitters". I spoke to Lori on the phone and told her that I was scared. I told her that I wanted to trust in God but that I was feeling afraid. When she heard me mention God, she asked if she could pray for me. I told her she could and she prayed for me right there on the phone and asked God that knit my baby in my womb to give me strength and courage that He will see me through. As she prayed I felt a weight lifted off of me and I began to cry deep sobs. It was the first time anyone had prayed for me, and after that I wasn't afraid to give birth. I knew that things could happen, but I came to a place of peace knowing that it was out of my hands.
4. When I did give birth to Frannie and I was in my deepest place I felt as if I could touch the other side. The other side is so close to us, like pinching fabric with two fingers. It's just right there. And when I was deep and pinched the other side I could feel tremendous peace there. I was in pain and at peace all at the same time. I know that there is a loving God. I know this as much as I know anything.
5. After Frannie was born I began searching more for a religion or a church. I doubt I will ever claim to have all of the answers to life or anything, but it is very important to me that my kids know God. I need them to know that when I die or someone they love dies, that we are always here with them. I need them to know that when bad things happen, they are never alone. When they feel lonely or scared or inadequate there is a loving God who made them and who walks with them.
6. It was Adam's birth that made me understand the concept of Jesus as a savior. Adam's birth was extremely painful. Much more so than I experienced with Frannie. His was so painful that it took me about 9 months to process what happened and to process the depth of pain. Why does God call women for this? Why does God ask this pain of us? This process of birth can feel like dying. Why? Why has God called his daughters to die to give life to our young? The surrendering of the body and bearing of pain is an act of pure love. This is what Jesus did for us. Perhaps God sent a Son and not a daughter because his daughters are the ones bearing the pain of ushering in life. In Jesus, he bears the pain so that we may make our way home. Ultimately bearing the pain has brought great joy to my life. I enjoy thinking about the days my children were born. Those were heroic days for me. I can see how Jesus' death while desperately sad, is also heroic and full of hope. His life is one I am just now learning more about. Remember, I'm a newbie.

So tomorrow morning is Easter Sunday. I am looking forward to greeting God and experiencing the hope.

Happy Easter! and a Vote

2010-04-01T21:43:00.001-07:00

Reem told me that she wanted to do a photo shoot with the kids. I figured, "Sure, why not?" So I got into the spirit of things and put them in matchy-matchy outfits and even twisted a few pieces of Frannie's hair with a curling iron before assembling them outside.

All I have to say is Wow.

It is SO HARD to get three little ones to look sort of in the same direction, have a decent expression on their face, not move too much, and be close enough together to get them all in the frame.

On top of those gymnastics, Nattie was in a bad baby mood. I have no idea how Doreen does this!

Either which way, I forged ahead hoping for the promise of coordinated Easter pictures.

So...here are the good...

And here are some bad ones, just to get a feel for what MOST of the pictures Reem and I got look like.

Now, I need a favor! I would like to pick one of the good ones to print up to send to a family member or two. Which one should I pick????

Frannie Rides a Bike

2010-03-30T21:20:00.001-07:00

I'm so surprised at how fast she learned and how fast Jason was able to teach her and get her so comfortable. It took him about 4 days.

His words from the youtube: Last Sunday, Frannie reminded me about a conversation we had about her bike and training wheels.

Daddy, "Remember when what you said, when I turn five you would take the training wheels off."
"You're right," I said.

Since Sunday, I've been working with Frannie and I think she has it down.

Here's the video!!

Just a pic

2010-03-07T16:11:00.001-08:00

Meet Reem

2010-03-03T20:35:00.001-08:00

This is our 12 year old neighbor Reem. I call her Reemie. She is so sweet and so much fun. I honestly can't believe she's only 12 because she seems a lot older than that. Reem comes over to the house almost every day at around 4pm just to hang out. She tells me about school stuff, plays with the kids, you name it. She is great company.

I love my Reemie!

Life from Frannie's Point of View

2010-02-28T20:54:00.000-08:00

My last post was about a hectic day. Well as I was trying to make lunch and Adam was crying and the baby was hanging off of my legs, Frannie came to me with Jason's camera and asked if she could take some pictures. "Sure, yeah, fine." Like I am going to argue when at least one kid has found a way to keep herself busy? Anyways, as I loaded the SD card I did a slideshow and saw all of the pictures she took. It totally cracked me up! Here is a bit of life from her point of view:

And don't forget the Thumb's Up pic I already posted.

I have 3 hours to make it look like I lead a calm and well-organized life

2010-02-25T22:09:00.000-08:00

It's 12 o'clock. In three hours I have a couple coming to the house to make up class 5 that they missed.

I just finished making lunch for the kids. My kitchen looks like this. That pie looking thing on the counter is a macaroni/broccoli/cheese/hotdog amalgam that I threw together because we don't have our normal lunch stuff in the house. I had to get creative, but getting creative gets everything dirty and takes time.

Every other downstairs room also needs attention. The bathroom is scummy and there are crumbs all over my floor near the dining room table.

Adam is in a bad mood.

The entire time I was making lunch either he was crying or the baby was if I tried to set her down.

If I put her down she grabs onto my pants and buries her head between my knees.

Frannie took this picture of me. Yep. Thumbs up.

Goin' for a walk

2010-02-25T07:36:00.000-08:00

Here's the sweetie practicing her skills!

Adam and James

2010-02-23T19:17:00.000-08:00

Jason took some adorable pictures of the boys at Disneyland. Who needs rides?

Curing an Ear Infection Naturally

2010-02-22T20:36:00.000-08:00

On Saturday afternoon Adam started complaining that his ear hurt. Then suddenly, his complaints became cries and sobs telling me "Mama! my eaw hoots!". After forcing some Tylenol down him, I called my pal Sonja who cured her own ear infection without antibiotics. After whipping out her handy dandy natural health reference book she gave me several tips. Taking her advice and doing a few searches online here is what I did:

1. Sleep with the infected ear up to allow fluid to drain down.

2. Put 2-3 drops of warm olive oil in the ear.

3. A few hours later put a few drops of warm garlic juice in the ear.

4. About an hour or two after that put a few more drops of olive oil in the ear.

Can you picture me tiptoeing in Adam's bedroom in the night doing this? I felt really silly. He stayed asleep though.

Come morning time he was good as new. There haven't been any complaints from him since!

The Girl

2010-02-21T19:46:00.001-08:00

Well, my darlin', I've broken your birthday post into several sections because I realized that I would never post anything if I had to get it all out at once.

Last Tuesday you turned 5 years old. This was a big one for me. I wrote a little Facebook update about how I feel like I've gotten a new badge on my "mom-scout" jacket. It's true! Maybe it's the "mom of a school-aged child" badge.

As for you, I know you are super happy about being five years old! This year I have seen your increasing independence. You can't wait to start school partly because you can't wait to be dropped off somewhere without me. You have a fun personality and make friends so easily.

Skill-wise you can read just a little bit, and enjoy writing upper-case letters. You are trying to spell by sounding out words. Most of the time what you end up writing is just a line of letters. I'm happy about your progress though because I can see that you are learning even though I stopped actively teaching you. It seems that it is just sort of clicking bit by bit.

Oh, let's see what else? You don't like ballet class. I can't believe it, but you actually much preferred the other City of La Verne class where all I thought you did was stand in line the whole time waiting for a turn to do a few kicks across the floor. According to you, there was a lot more "dancing" in that class. Really? Is it because you got to change into tap shoes too? So, this class, this REAL ballet class where you prance like a horse and get to flutter your arms like a butterfly isn't really dancing to you, but the class where you got to hold your arms "like a pizza" is. I don't get it. Partly I think you like the other class better because it was earlier in the day (not cold and dark outside) and the waiting in line meant there was more opportunity for socializing and comparing leotards and skirts.

Size-wise you continue to be a petite girl. You and Adam are about the same weight. I think you are two pounds heavier than he is. Are you 34 pounds?? I know that being on the short side bothers you. You sometimes ask me how come all the kids are bigger than you are. I know when you go to school you will meet other five year olds who are petite too. It is interesting because you are pretty mature and prefer to play with children who are your same age or older than you are, but that means that you are very often the smallest one in the bunch. You are very healthy though and almost never get sick (knock on wood). You still have a picky-ish diet but that is slowly changing.

Happy Birthday my darling girl!! I love you so so so so much and I love being your MOM!

The Birthday!

2010-02-20T19:27:00.000-08:00

When given the choice of a birthday party or a day at Disneyland, the decision was easy. Disneyland!! On Tuesday Jason took the day off from work and we all went to celebrate Frannie's 5th birthday. My friend Lauren's family all has passes so I asked if she'd like to join us. My Dad also came, and surprise surprise, Bryan came too!

When we got there I asked Frannie what ride she really wanted to ride and she said "Tower of Terror!!" so it was decided that we'd spend the day at California Adventure. I'm really glad we did because the park was unexpectedly crowded and I know we would not have been able to enjoy the day as much over at the main park.

It was an absolutely beautiful sunny, not too hot, California day. I don't think I've had such a nice time at an amusement park in a really long time. Frannie had so much fun riding the Tower of Terror twice, Soaring over California, and all kinds of smaller rides in the It's A Bug's Life section. She and Hannah were constant hand holders. Adam had so much fun hanging out with James (even though they really didn't ride many rides at all). I enjoyed talking to Lauren all day as we sat and waited for the girls to ride their rides. My Dad, brother, and Jason were the ones who escorted the girls. Jason and I aren't normally big Disneyland folk, but both of us agreed that we actually had fun!

The Gathering

2010-02-18T22:37:00.000-08:00

On Sunday the family came by to have The Cake (and also some hamburgers) and sing Frannie her Happy Birthday song. I also invited the Tomt's and neighbor Omar from across the street.

This was good. It wasn't a party. A stressful busy, freak out about every detail party. I only had a few minor freak out prep moments because general gatherings do that to me anyways. There were enough people and kids to make it feel special.

As far as Frannie is concerned anytime ANYONE comes over be it a grandma, grandpa, auntie, cousin, friend or neighbor, it's always a time to celebrate. And of course, anytime a few kids are in the same room together they make it a party for themselves. Here they are playing a silly game that they made up at the table.

The Cake

2010-02-15T00:37:00.000-08:00

When Frannie came to me a month ago with a Wilton's pamphlet showing various sample cakes, and pointed to a certain one declaring that was the cake she wanted for her birthday, I politely told her, "That cake is too complicated for mom."

Frannie, not to be dissuade, went to Grandma Bobbie instead.

That cake was not too complicated for Grandma.

After purchasing several supplies: a cake leveler, frosting comb, circle boards, turning table, and the right tips, Grandma Bobbie set out to make the birthday cake to end all birthday cakes for her special girl.

And here it is.

Frannie with Grandpa Marr

2010-01-19T21:54:00.000-08:00

Grandpa with his special oldest grandgirl!

More Bicycle, Less Car

2010-01-16T22:00:00.001-08:00

Jason has been very inspired by this site Tot Cycle that promotes family cycling. He would love to have one of these contraptions where we can put all of our kids in the big bucket and ride around town. He thinks it would be a great thing for me to take the kids to school in. I actually think he's right on this one. It does look like a lot of fun!

One of his New Year's resolutions is to use the car as least as possible on the weekends. Since he couldn't go riding this morning (Adam barfing all night...) he used his free time to jimmy up one of the mountain bikes with this little cargo holder. Then he rode to the store and got some ginger ale for the poor boy.

Adam's first friend

2010-01-16T21:54:00.001-08:00

Is James.

2009 A Year in Review

2009-12-31T22:18:00.000-08:00

When I think about the past year, Act I and Act II comes to mind. Act I was the first half of the year where I was finishing up my third pregnancy and Act II was the birth of Natalie at mid-year (May 26th) and her early babyhood. This is a good time of life. I can feel it. You know sometimes when something is happening to you and you just know very deeply "I'd better cherish this." Well, this year has been that kind of year. Maybe because I suspect that Natalie will be my last baby, I am taking special care to enjoy every transition and change, not just with her, but in watching the other children develop relationships with her and with each other. Also because this is probably my last year with all of us at home together all day, because while I have investigated homeschooling for so long, I'm still on the side of the fence where I'm probably going to send Frannie to K. So I spend a lot of time watching my three babies play and fight under this roof and I appreciate it all so much.

While I know that this is a special time of life, it has its challenges.
Adam is now 2 1/2 and this whole year has been a challenge with him and his temper. I've written a few posts about it, but have actually refrained from mentioning it too much because I don't want it to sound like my difficulties with him are the biggest aspect of our relationship together. The truth is that we spend a lot of time having fun and I enjoy his developing personality a lot! He's got a funny little sense of humor. He calls me Thomas a lot. He purposely says things that he knows will get an exaggerated "What!?" reaction out of me followed by excessive tickles. Everyday he requires a lengthy dose of cuddling and tickling. He is very sweet to Natalie (although now that she is moving and ruining his trains he's getting pretty mad!) He loves to be read to, and yes, he is absolutely in love with all trains (thank you for all the train Christmas presents everybody!)

As far as his temper goes, learning to manage that has been hard! I sometimes marvel at how "smart" I can be in some areas but how quickly this 2 year old can completely give me a run. Essentially Adam is Veruca Salt- when he wants it, he wants it NOW! And if he doesn't get it NOW then you will pay. You will be on the other end of a blistering scream the likes of which my father has heard from his side of the phone many times. Other times it starts off as as a sulky whine that ends up being a crying scream. I've learned that all things lead to crying eventually. I have tried all manner of tactics to improve things and really the only things that work are time outs for bad attitudes and counting to 3 for commands. The counting to 3 is because otherwise I could ask him to come to me all day long and he wouldn't. If I get to three and he still hasn't come then I go get him myself and he gets a little swat on the bum. Since he is minding so much better, everything else is better. On my side of things, the crying for other things doesn't bother me as much because I know he is a sensitive kid. I am accepting the fact that sometimes I will be THAT mom with THAT crying kid in the store especially if he is tired or if his sister is poking him too much. Most of the time he's very delightful to be around.

As far as Frannie goes, she's my ultra girly-girl sweetie who loves dresses and giggling. She also requires a lengthy daily dose of tickles and cuddles. She enjoys crafts and cooking together and she and Adam play all manner of games. Some favorites of hers are "jump in the pillows" where she gets all of the bedroom pillows and puts them on the floor and she calls "ready, set, GOOOO!" as they race down the hallway to jump into the pile. She also likes "Jumpin' Daisy" which is basically her and Adam jumping on the bed while I sing this made up song. Both she and Adam ask to play "Work that Body" almost every day. Work that Body is another made up song game where I sing this rhythm and they run around. I change the rhythm up and directions up and they move accordingly. Sometimes it's slow, sometimes fast, and I often throw in a FREEZE! She is very helpful in terms of getting things for the baby when I need them and overall she's just a sweetheart. The one thing she hates is to clean up her toys and her room. She turns into a wet noodle at the very mention of such a task. Fortunately one day last month I gave a random frustrated threat that if she didn't start cleaning Santa wasn't going to bring her any presents and all of a sudden I've got a decent picker-upper on my hands! A Christmas miracle! So thank you Santa Claus for putting a little fire under my girl's bum. I hope this lasts. It probably won't.

Little sweetie Natalie can do no wrong. She's the darling of the house right now. She constantly surprises me with what a little mover she is. A few days after I shot the picture of her standing, I caught her climbing up the first stair step. She is just wasting no time with learning to get from point A to point B. She turned seven months old the day after Christmas.

From Jason's perspective, life could probably be separated into three categories: Life at Work; Life at Home; Life on a Bike. At work he gets somewhere between 50-100 emails everyday and is always writing checks, filling orders, problem solving, you name it. He does so many things at the office I can't even categorize them all. When he gets home we have dinner and he has time to be with the kids. He is also with the kids early in the morning. One of the most helpful things he always does (and I appreciate this sooooo so so much) is he gets the kids their oatmeal and feeds them before he goes to work. He then puts a movie on for them and leaves for work. At about that time Natalie wakes up and so do I. Doing this gives me an extra 30 mins to one hour in the sack since I don't have to wake up when Adam does. I LOVE YOU FOR THIS! Every Saturday morning he goes for a long bike ride and I think it is his favorite part of the week. He has a biking blog where he writes about his travels and experiences. The man loves his bicycles.

As far as trips go, I was able to go visit my Aunt Carrie and cousins Miles and Parker in October. I will post pics and more details in a a separate post! I'm so glad we went to visit her and the kids. I am hoping in 2010 that Jason and I find a way to do more trip-taking, particularly camping.

I continue to teach Bradley Method classes. I'm teaching two sessions a week, Friday nights in Claremont and Saturday afternoons in Chino. It is wonderful to share the time of pregnancy with other couples and one of the fun off-shoots is that I've made some friends along the way too.

So 2009 is done and gone. It's been a year of homemaking and family and lots of hugs and kisses from little arms and hands and sweet little lips that say "Mom. I yuv you."

Big Standing Girl

2009-12-31T07:39:00.000-08:00

Fun Christmas Crafts

2009-12-26T23:09:00.001-08:00

The kids and I did a lot of fun crafts this year. I wanted to post them because one in particular I learned about last December and I remembered it all year long and was eager to try it. So here is a rolldown of Mrs. Crafty McCrafterson's Christmas creations.

Number one is the snowglobe soap I learned about last year from Sonja. These are very easy to do with children, and not time-consuming. But they are fun little things! Click on the link for instructions. Frannie really enjoyed giving these out to her friends!

The second item is a spin-off of an ornament gift I received in junior high school. See, I have a mind like a steel trap. Sometimes. Anyways, all you do is buy clear ornament balls, fill them with a little bit of confetti or glitter and use fabric paints to doodle on your design. Adam did the one on the left, Frannie did the one on the right. I like it!

The third one is basic salt dough ornaments. I think I may make batches of this dough regularly because the kids had so much fun painting these. Essentially their style is to squeeze as much fabric paint with as many different colors onto one piece as possible. It's okay. They're 4 and 2 and I'm learning to let go! My delightful neighbor Reem did some too. I'm thinking they could paint trinkets for any season of the year. Then they can hang them out in the garden somewhere.

The last craft is my own brain-child. And the kids didn't help except for picking out their own fabric. For the past two years I've wanted to crochet the children their own Christmas stockings. It just hasn't happened because it is a craft that takes quite a bit of time and by the time I think about it again, it is December and we need stockings Now! So I had this idea to make fleece stockings. I let the kids pick out their own fabric (I picked out the owl one for Natalie because it reminded me of her middle name Meadow) and then used an existing stocking as my pattern. I cut it out, glue-gunned the seams, turned it inside out and viola! In about fifteen minutes I had three stockings. Each stocking cost about $2.50.

There is one more craft I've had my eye on and I have all the materials to make it. It is this embroidered hand prints idea. Hopefully I'll get to it, even though the craftiness of Christmas is over.

Merry Christmas 2009!

2009-12-26T21:34:00.001-08:00

I love this first picture where Natalie has a wad of my Aunt Lisa's hair in her hand. Babies are so good at making their presence known either through a nice hair grab or glob of drool (such as on Uncle Don's cane) or a nice "Well how do you do?" bit of spit up on the shirt. Such impropriety! I love it. That's why babies are so wonderful.

The second picture shows my brother Bryan (behind the stairs) cousin Liam (he was the reader to the kids) and my other cousin Rhiannon is on the far right. Initially I was sitting on the couch with Adam when Liam came around and sat down. Adam, being the shy soul that he is, wasn't really going for my attempt at introductions so instead I said "Adam, do you know what Liam's very favorite thing is? It's trains! Isn't that right Liam?" Liam of course is a good sport and played along and we had a short conversation about trains and Liam said how great they were, and all of a sudden Adam was A-OK with Liam and he let him read him a story. Soon the other kids were wanting to hear the story too so that is how the couch pile up happened. Very cute!

I didn't get many other Christmas pictures because boo hoo me, I came down with a head cold on Christmas Eve night! After opening presents on Christmas Day morning (and taking just these few pictures) I went back to bed and fell asleep.

By all accounts my dad made a super excellent awesome machaca and eggs breakfast with spanish rice and beans. He also made a cheesecake. Go Dad!

At my inlaws house there was prime rib, chicken marsala, green beans, carrots and other yumminess. Go Castillos!

And of course on Christmas Eve, my mom made her traditional meal of cornish game hens, wild rice, veggies, and gingerbread muffins. Go Mom!

The children got many wonderful presents this year. This is the first year that Frannie really understands the concept of Santa Claus so her reaction when coming down the stairs was priceless. She was so excited! And of course it is all real. Santa really did come down that chimney and eat those gingerbread muffins and drink that milk and set out a nice dress for her and a wooden train for Adam and an alligator xylophone for Natalie. He really did fill the stockings too. Amazing. And he did it all so quietly he didn't even wake up Daddy who was asleep right on the couch! Frannie says he must have said his "HO HO HO" like this (whisper soft) "ho ho ho". I told her she's right. He must have said it really soft so as not to wake Daddy.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas and the Swine Flu

2009-12-20T13:35:00.000-08:00

I was awakened this morning with a little tickle in my throat that got me thinking, "Oh, no. I hope I don't get sick." As I'm lying there half awake and half asleep, my brain starts cataloging the places I've been in the last three days. Have I been around anyone sick? The "computer" keeps running and I suddenly have a vision of myself from the night before.

You see, last night I went Christmas shopping. At Target of all places. (I hate Target but it is so convenient, being one block from the house, that it sucks me in.) At any rate, after the kids were in bed I hopped into the car to pick up some odds and ends for Christmas. Shopping was good, got what I needed. I got home a little after 10pm and after setting down my purse and keys I headed straight into the kitchen. Right there on the counter were two little gifts to greet me in the form of two dainty shortbread cookies that my mom had made with the kids that evening. I popped them into my mouth and probably grabbed some tea to veg in front of the computer.

Why is this important? Well it isn't really, except that during those thoughts it occurs to me that I haven't heard any news about the swine flu for awhile. What happened to the swine flu? What happened to the signs in front of every drug store including Target advertising the availability of the vaccination? What about the anti-bacterial handwipes that used to be placed near the cart pick-up area? What happened to all that? It seems that the swine flu has magically vanished.

Or is it just Christmas?

Have any of you noticed any swine flu news since mid November? Other than this one article, reporting 800,000 pediatric doses were recalled and the recommendation that parents not worry, "Children 6 months to 9 years old should get two doses about a month apart, the CDC says." It seems that all of a sudden the world has fallen silent.

Does the swine flu still exist? Has the vaccine been so magically effective that flu rates have completely plummeted?

Or is it that, God forbid, something gets in the way of people going out to stores to buy Christmas presents? Which if that is the case, was the swine flu really something to ever be worried about at all? I mean, why are there no news segments about "keeping healthy during this holiday/flu season" with recommendations to sanitize your shopping cart handles? Because my behavior last night, of going shopping with lots of people, keeping hold of a cart handle and touching many objects, only to return home to pop a sweet straight into my mouth, is what EVERYBODY does this time of year.

I suspect come January 4, once the holidays are comfortably behind us, the swine flu will once again resume its place in the American consciousness. I would not be surprised to see a second wave of urgings for people to get their shots. Will the signs once again be posted outside every store? Will that former news article emerge again and parents be told to perhaps get their child a second dose? Come to think of it "Children 6 months to 9 years old should get two doses about a month apart, the CDC says" seems to be very convenient timing if you ask me.

We shall see.

Happy Thanksgiving! and the Turkey Trot

2009-11-30T06:32:00.001-08:00

This year we had Thanksgiving at Jason's grandmother's house. And a wonderful time we had! In addition to the niceness of seeing everyone and the yummy food, she put a lot of thought into the place settings and tablecloths, the flowers and just overall presentation. It was nice!

Granny and Nan came to visit us a few weeks ago and I forgot to get a picture of the two of them with the baby, but I'm glad we got one over Thanksgiving. Nan is the kids' Great-great-grandmother and Granny is the Great-grandma.

Two days after Thanksgiving I ran my first 5K Turkey Trot. The week leading up to it, I was cursing that I even signed up for the darn thing to begin with. I thought "What is this insanity that has caused me to pay $30 to wake up early in the morning to run 3 miles in the cold?" I guess I thought it would be motivation for me to finish the Couch to 5K program. So anyways, I did my fair share of complaining, but I suited up anyways on race day and the family all headed out to Bonelli Park. It was a beautiful morning, nice and crisp and there were lots of people. I honestly still didn't feel prepared for this thing. The max I had run without stopping was two miles. But I lined up anyways and when the start bell went off, so did I. My goal was to finish the race without stopping, and to not finish last. I am proud to say that I accomplished both of those goals. I have a slow jogging pace, but I didn't stop.

There were three things that I did right:
1. Wear a beanie so that my ears don't get cold. I am very sensitive and get a headache quickly if my ears get old.
2. Wear a light hoodie jacket. It was COLD but of course once your body heat picks up, things are fine. At the one mile mark I took off my jacket but was glad I had it as a warm-up.
3. Bring kleenex. Running always makes me have to blow my nose. So I'm glad I didn't have to try and figure that one out without a tissue!

In the end I finished in 40:45, number 101 out of 161, I was 10th in my age group, and my pace was a 13 minute mile. So basically I was on the back-end of the middle group.

I'm really glad I did it!

Day Out with Thomas

2009-11-23T21:33:00.000-08:00

Last weekend Jason took the kids to the Day Out With Thomas event at the Orange Empire Railroad in Perris. I had heard about this from a few people in the past, and about three weeks ago it occurred to me to check to see when the event would be taking place. Fortunately I looked at just the right time!

Adam loves loves loves loves trains. All trains really, and definitely Thomas the Tank Engine. In fact here are Adam's favorite You Tube's that he begs to see on a daily basis:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSCNCUc9pw8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VJ8XtxUMsI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkOLq17GReg&feature=fvw

At the Day Out With Thomas event the kids got to take a 20 min train ride lead by Thomas, they got to visit with Sir Topham Hat and there were lots of toy train tracks to play with and bounce houses, train tattoos and other fun stuff. Jason said that Adam could have played with the train track sets all day long. I expected that Adam would be so excited and almost freaking out at the wonderfulness of seeing a real Thomas train, but Jason said he was silent all day long. He said it was as though he was completely overwhelmed into silence. I think this is probably true because now Adam talks excitedly about Daddy taking him to see the train and he also remembers that Grandpa has taken him on a train. So he remembers it and it makes an impression on him, but during the event he is stoic. My contribution to his love of trains is that I walk him over to see the Metrolink come in every Thursday while Frannie is in her ballet class. "Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!" That's his favorite part. And the whistle.

When I ask him if he wants to go play with James he looks at me with bright eyes and says "James has trains."

When I ask him if he wants to play with Nicholas and Catie he says "Nicholas. Train." Yes, indeed dear, Nicholas also has trains.

So I guess trains are good for his social life!

Every single day, several times a day, (in addition to asking to see the trains on the computer) Adam looks up at me and asks "Buy new one. Train."

Frannie Sings in Church

2009-11-22T17:36:00.000-08:00

These days we've been going to St. Luke Lutheran Church in Claremont. We've only been going here for about 4 weeks, but one thing I like is that they give the kids the opportunity to sing in church! I wish I had known they were going to have them sing all four verses of the song, I would have taught them to Fran. But I taught her the first verse and she sure can sing the chorus!

http://www.youtube.com/user/BicycleFriends