2010

Whew! This has been a long, cold December with no internet. But, thanks to my handy dandy husband, who got this baby up and running, I am back just in time to recap 2010.

Winter: Julia turned 3. After a busy Christmas trip to NC, we kept her celebration low key and went to the 99 for dinner followed by a pink doughnut cake and presents. She got a keyboard that she used all year to keep us entertained with her sweet musical stylings. Ace turned 5 and had a spaceman party. We visited the Boston Children's Museum over Winter break, tried out ice skating, enjoyed a few too many doughnuts and anxiously awaited Spring.

Spring: Hayley turned 8 and had a spa party. Family friends came up from New Jersey for a visit and Hayley reconnected with one of her first friends from back in Texas. Ace started his second year of Tball and Hayley started soccer. We went to the Franklin Park Zoo. Julia made her television appearance on Sprout's Barnyard Boogie which she watched daily for at least 2 months.

Summer: Ace and Hayley took swimming lessons twice a week at the beach while the little girls enjoyed a lot of mornings with Grandma. We took a lot of beach trips, afternoon naps and picnics. My sister and niece came to visit for the Fourth and we were in the parade, had a barbecue with my family and watched fireworks from the beach. My cousin and her family came for another fun week. We ate a lot (which leads to my one and only NY resolution to lose some weight before our move this summer). Hayley starred in her fourth community musical theater production. Andy took Ace and Hayley to a monster truck rally. Hayley got stung by a jellyfish and I sprained my ankle falling in a hole on the beach.  At the end of the summer, after months of refusing to get  more than her feet wet in the ocean, Lucy finally decided to go for a swim with Grandma. She discovered she loved it, just in time for summer to end.

Fall: Ace started Kindergarten, Julia started her second year of preschool, Hayley started 3rd grade. Lucy turned 2 and we celebrated with a picnic on the beach and a party at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Andy started a new work schedule which (thankfully) means he is home more often. We went apple picking for the first time. We had a fun weekend with my aunt and uncle visiting from NY. All the kids went trick or treating together. We celebrated Thanksgiving at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Julia asked me a bazillion times when the snow was coming.

Winter 2010: Hayley started basketball and Ace started skating lessons. The first big snowfall came just a few days before Christmas and just in time for my sister and niece's visit. The girls dressed up as Sugarplum fairies for a Christmas Eve party at Grandma and Grandpa's house and we loved having my niece with us for Christmas morning. I made black eyed peas for dinner on New Year's Eve and we played board games and twister and now the kids are watching a movie and trying thier best to stay awake until midnight. We talked about our favorite moments of 2010 and what we wanted to happen in 2011. Ace wants to go down a waterslide, Julia wants to have Emily over to her house. I'm just looking forward to seeing what the New Year holds in store for us. Praying for health, for more time with family and friends, for more fun and more laughter. And I'm wishing you all the same.

Still here.. just not here, here.

Our computer must have heard all the smack I was talking about it's broken keyboard because now it has completely shut down on me. It won't even turn on, no matter how much sweet talk (and a few threats of throwing it out the window thrown in) I try.
There are certainly frustrations to not having high speed internet access. Like yesterday when I was watching Celebrity Rehab and I was racking my brain trying to remember if Jeremy or Jason London had starred in Party of Five and I had no way of accessing that crucial information (it was Jeremy, by the way). But, I'm finding plenty of benefits as well. We take more excursions to our wonderful library, I read more books, I go to bed earlier. I do miss blogging though, and reading blogs rather than skimming them.
So that explains my long absence. As soon as we get the computer to forgive me, I'll be back with an update and some pictures.

Rainy days

The rest of our week has been rainy and gloomy, and non-productive. This weather has not been helping me with my plan to be less snippy. In fact, I think the weather is mocking my ambition to be cheerful. So I'm mocking it right back by trying to cozy up the indoors and ignore the fact that my lovely, crisp Fall is turning dreary and cold and the yellow and red leaves that made me feel so very happy just a few weeks ago are now almost all on my lawn, which is not nearly as lovely.
Ace has been to school only 3 days this week, and two of those days he was late. He woke up every day not wanting to go to school and his morning he hid my keys in an attempt to delay us as long as possible. I had already sent Hayley off with our neighbor so I wasn't in a big rush. I did tell him it is not okay to hid the keys and I told him that if it was too late the school may decide to open up a weekend school just for him to make up for the time he missed so he shook a tailfeather and went and got my keys from his pillowcase. Then I fixed him a second bowl of cereal and we sat at the table for a few more minutes. He said that last night he dreamed of flurries and transformers. He learned the word flurries from the news and now thinks that they must be the most exciting weather ever. He may be disappointed when he sees them. I was tempted to keep him home all day and stay at the kitchen table hearing more about his happy dreams. But we were late and Julia was eager to get to school so off we went.
Lucy and I went grocery shopping and then cuddled on the couch to watch Curious George. We picked Julia up from school. Julia wanted to swing and was upset the swings were wet. I told her I understood, this weather was just no fun. About an hour later Julia told me she likes the rain, because when her pants get wet she could go home and put on her ballerina suit.
I should take a tip from Julia and look on the bright side.

What a Week

Halloween and the preceding celebrations were fantastic. The kids wore their costumes pretty much the entire weekend, starting with Friday's school dance. Saturday we spent the day with friends, crossing some of our Halloween-ish activities off of our list (including "scary" movies like Ghostbusters, which meant we ended up with 3 kids in bed with us at midnight because of nightmares).  Sunday we carved our pumpkin, suited up, and Andy took all the kids to Grandma and Grandpa's neighborhood for Trick or treating. Lucy came home and announced, in the cutest toddler squeak ever: "Guess what een here? Ess Can-day!"
I went to bed thinking what a perfect holiday it had been and just as I closed my eyes, Ace started coughing. An hour later we were bundling him in blankets and Andy was zooming off to the ER. He is FINE, thank God, just a bad case of croup but no one got any sleep that night. Ace got a shot in the batooney and came home talking about his pretty nurse and how cool it was to watch Transformers on Andy's phone. The shot must have done the trick because he didn't cough anymore that night. He was fine Monday but since croup often recurs during the night, I kept him home from school for two days until I was sure he was all better. As boring as it was, he loved being at home. He cuddled with me on the couch and watched cooking shows, we read books, and he announced he was hungry every 5 minutes (I think one of the things he dislikes about kindergarten is the limited access to snacks).
We were so lazy the past few days, it was hard to get back into routine today. I tried hard to shake my crabby attitude from too little sleep and no schedule but I'm still feeling out of sorts. Lucy must be feeling it too because she told me today for no apparent reason that Hayley and Ace are "so mean" and she threw her toothbrush in the toilet on purpose when I tried to help her brush her teeth. The only thing that cheered her up was the candy bucket. She loves to reach in a grab something and then look completely shocked that "Ess can-day!"
Lucy also now climbs in and out of her crib with no problem. We were watching tv one night about 30 minutes after bedtime and she just came strolling out of her room like it was no big whoop. The next night I went to put her in her bed and as I was turning on her noise machine she plopped right into her bed and pulled up her covers. So, time for a big girl bed. That is on the to do list for the weekend.
Also on the to do list, get a good night of sleep and stop being such a snippy mommy. And hope that no one else has to get a shot in the batooney.

On a soapbox

I don't know why this article:

 http://www.marieclaire.com/sex-love/dating-blog/overweight-couples-on-television

upset me so much but it hit a nerve. For one thing, I really like the show she is ridiculing. Besides the fact that I think the show itself relies too much on the character's obesity for laughs, I think it is a sweet, romatic comedy and I think Melissa McCarthy is beautiful and so funny.
It also made me think of my girls, and the messages they are going to be getting from everywhere once they are at an age where they are influenced more by magazines and television and the internet. The messages that being overweight makes you less of a person, that it is okay to ridicule or be disgusted by someone because of the way they look.
And I also thought of myself.  How I sometimes think I'm not as attractive or valuable because I weigh more than I did 5 years ago. I try not to pass that along to my children, I am learning to say "Thank You" when they tell my I'm pretty instead of laughing and rolling my eyes as if to say "Oh, I wish!"  But then I read an article like this and think, do people really look at me and think that?  Do they see me kiss Andy, (who still fits into his high school jeans, by the way) and wonder what he is doing with me? It plunges me back into the insecurity that I am working so hard to fight. That is why I took the time to leave this comment. I don't know if it will ever be read and I toned it down a little from my original comment. Then I reconsidered printing it because it seemed a little of an overreaction. But I left it up because I believe what I wrote, no one should be made to feel less than because of the way they look.
Oh, and I won't be buying Marie Claire again (not that that makes a big statement since I can't remember ever buying it before).
Here's my comment:
"I am the mother of 3 young girls. As hard as I work to teach them to respect others, it makes me sad that they can pick up a magazine and learn it is okay to tell people they are disgusting because of the way the look. That they can tell people they shouldn't be seen kissing because it is offensive to others. It's all free speech, right? We have the right to bully people in print because it is our opinion and we should use our right to free speech to tell people how disgusted we are when we have to watch them cross a room. Should we be applauding Maura Kelly for her honesty? Does it really take courage to be honest about how much we hate an entire group of people just because they don't look the way we think they should?
No, I don't think I'll applaud that. I think I will continue to teach my girls compassion, kindness, acceptance, and courage. It is courageous to hold your head up high no matter how you look. If you waddle a little because you are overweight, if you aren't as thin or as rich as the other people in the room, if you walk with canes because you were born different. Everyone has the right to walk through a room without being ridiculed or humiliated and to kiss the people they love without fear and shame. And if someone looks at them and feels disgust and then chooses to write an article to shame and bully that person, SHE is the one who lacks courage. Hate is easy, feeling superior to others is easy, writing some lame apology when you don't get the reaction you expected doesn't take courage, and it certainly doesn't deserve any applause."

My goal to update my blog at least once a week has been derailed by three factors. One, this computer stinks and I have to jiggle the power cord frequently to keep the battery charging so I cut my online time down significantly because I'm lazy. Two, the energy I had in the Summer has been replaced by my Fall mood, in which I lose steam after the sun goes down (sooner and sooner each day).  Also, I'll admit it, there is a lot of good tv on these days which fills up my evenings. In fact, I'm typing this at warp speed so I can tune into Boardwalk Empire in 6 minutes (Steve Buscemi can pull of the steamy sex scenes without totally creeping me out, who'da thunk it?)
Ace had another great week at school, I think (knock on wood) that we have turned a corner and he is adjusting really well to the long days and new rules.
Just as the dust settles from the emotional transition into Kindergarten, I am dealing with the transition from little kid to "tween" that Hayley is going through.

I refuse to accept that she is really in the tween category already but 8 is definitely a year where she is stuck in the middle.  She comes home some days exhausted and moody. Some days she comes home with an attitude I don't even recognize (like the day she got in the car and asked if we could go buy an Ipod and/or a cell phone.) I'm trying to figure out what my role in all this is. It feels as if I was just getting the hang of this parenting dance when someone came along and sped up the music.  I am constantly questioning if my expectations are too high or too low. I wonder if I am giving her enough space, if i am asking the right questions or if I am smothering her with too many questions. She comes to me and tells me about something that she needs to talk out and sometimes I don't listen well, I brush off what is important to her because I am distracted.  Sometimes I jump in and tell her what to do instead of just taking in what she wants me to hear without trying to come up with the right answer to a question she isn't really asking at all. We both get confused and easily frustrated with one another. I try not to lose my temper when she rolls her eyes at me or slams her door. I try to remind myself in those times to  take a deep breath and remember that this is all part of the the mother/daughter dance. We step forward, back, trip over our feet, and sometimes fall down in a grand fashion and have to get up and start all over.

(....still happy to be dancing with you.)

A list

Because my computer hates me and keeps freezing up on me mid-sentence, I have condensed everything I wanted to say into this quick and easy list of 6 things I don't want to forget about this particular moment in time:

1. That Julia's favorite toys and constant companions are Iggy (a stuffed lizard) and Naomi (a yarn doll that her cousin gave her). Tonight we made up a story about Iggy and Naomi moving to Paris and opening a bathing suit shop.

2. Lucy's  new bossy attitude. Two nights ago at dinner she told everyone we had to keep our hands down. It is hard to eat a meal with your hands in your lap but if we lifted them, we got a very stern look from Lucy. She would also yell at us. I don't like to admit I was intimidated by my 2 year old but, man, she is not messing around.
 
3. Ace stayed on green all week and told me every day that he "Definitely did NOT fool in the bathroom" So, for those of you who may have been concerned, it is now safe to shake Ace's hands because he knows not to touch the urinal cakes.

4. Ace announcing on the way back from the grocery store that he "Definitely needs to buy a car" so he can go to cooler places than the grocery store. He enjoys throwing around the word definitely lately.

5. Hayley writing an acrostic poem with her name for school and misusing Edible for the E. She thought it was a synoym for Incredible.

6. Lucy announcing "I here now" loudly and enthusiactically any time she enters a room. She thinks we've just been waiting for her all our lives (she's right, we have.)

Apple picking

Friday started out on a bad note. Ace has been getting in trouble at school and I will be the first to admit,  I perhaps overreacted to the situation. I may have become a little defensive of my only son. I may have declared Kindergarten a soul-sucking institution that was stealing all the joy out of my poor, innocent child's life. I may have called my sister and neighbor and gone on and on about how Ace was doing the absolute best he could do and why, oh why was that not enough for his teacher? And then I may have found out that my poor, innocent only boy child was juggling urinal cakes and throwing soap on the walls in the bathroom at school and maybe, just maybe, his teacher was perfectly justified in reprimanding him. Lesson learned: it is not always wise to rely solely on your 5 year old's account of why his card has been frequently flipped at school, there may be more to the story than you are told. We have talked to him about it and he knows now that there will be consequences at home if he keeps messing around in the bathroom so I hope this is the last we will hear about urinal cake juggling because, eewwwww.
The rest of the weekend was a big improvement. Saturday we went apple picking at a farm about 45 minutes away. I have never been apple picking before and I loved it. The kids all had a great time too, Julia was on a mission to pick more apples than anyone else and Lucy was on a mission to eat more apples than any 2 year old has consumed in a 2 hour time period.

On the way home we stopped for pizza and I noticed that Ace was looking a little spacey. I thought maybe he was just tired from all the walking but turns out he was coming down with something. By bedtime he was running a fever and had trouble sleeping. As much as I hate to see him sick, at least he felt good enough to enjoy the apple picking and now he has a full day to do nothing but rest and get better. I'll keep him home tomorrow and hope that he feels better by Tuesday. 
Today we are home, prepping for a yard sale next weekend, catching up on laundry, and watching Football. It feels like the ideal Fall weekend. I love that it is just barely warm enough to open the windows and let the smell of wet leaves blow in the window. I love pulling extra blankets out of the closet to put on the end of everyone's bed. I love the smell of the apple muffins I baked (from scratch, go me!) The busy-ness of getting back into the school routine is settling down and I feel like there is more time to savor the change of seasons now.

**Edited to add: I went back and forth on my decision to include the bathroom story in the post. There are things about my kids that I try very hard not to share on the blog and embarrassing stories are one of the things I think are off limits after a certain age. But truly, if Ace reads this at a later date and doesn't get a laugh out of the fact that he was almost pink slipped in Kindergarten for bathroom horseplay, than I will have failed as a mother. One of the important lessons I hope to pass along to them is the importance of not taking yourself to seriously.

Lucy Claire 2 years (and 4 days)

Lucy is 2. I hope she enjoyed her birthday celebration(s) but I'm not sure she ever really got what we were celebrating. Every time we wished her a happy birthday she would wish us a happy birthday too. It didn't help clear things up that her brother and sisters were all up in her presents and cake, I'm sure she thought they were meant for all of them instead of just for her.
We had a party with Grandma and Grandpa

A birthday picnic on the beach

And a special family party afterschool on Wednesday.

So now she is 2. She wakes up every day happy. She lights up our lives with her funny snort/laugh and her bright smile. She loves birds, pictures of birds, songs about birds, books about birds. She is both terrified and fascinated by bugs. She likes Curious George and Elmo and Angelina Ballerina. If you ask her where she wants to go, she will choose Grandma's house 98 out of 100 times.  If you ask her what she wants to eat she will say Dunkin Donuts or pizza (but she doesn't really want pizza, she wants pasta but she gets the words mixed up). If you ask her what her name is she will say Emily (because that is what Julia tells her her name is), if you ask her who loves her she will say "Me!"

I love you roo, Lucy. Happy Birthday to The wonderful Wooz.

(there are pictures meant to go with this post but my phone is being wonky and I wanted to get this up before too long, I'll try again tomorrow)

Lucy Talks

All three big kids are off to school this morning so Lucy and I have the house to ourselves. You would think it would seem quiet but Lucy is going through a major language explosion so there isn't much quiet time around here. It is amazing to watch her vocabulary grow. Ace and Julia both had speech delays and at two they were still speaking mostly in one word sentences so I had forgotten how talkative an (almost) two year old can be.
If Lucy is awake, she is talking. And, if she feels she is not getting enough of a response, she is YELLING. Yesterday she did not feel Andy was interested enough in her commentary on Ace's pet ladybug so she grabbed his face, pressed her face to his and yelled "Ladybug! Inna cup! Dee it? Dee? Dee?"
She blows me away with how smart she is and all that she has picked up on just by observing her brother and sisters. She knows the names of characters in her favorite books, she can count,  recognizes most colors, shapes, and the letter L. I love listening to her make connections all on her own.  I also love the times when she doesn't quite get it. A few minutes ago I was so impressed that she showed me a triangle block and said "Triangle". I showed her a circle block and she said "Cir-dle", what a smartie! Then I showed her a square and she said  "Buddy!" (our dogs name). Not sure what connections were firing in her mind on that one but I give her an A+ for effort.
I love hearing about what is on her mind. The other day in the car she couldn't stop talking about seeing airplanes with Daddy. We had gone to meet him for dinner at his work and we went to sit on the helicopters and airplanes. I knew she had a good time but it was so cool that she was still remebering and thinking about it the next day. When she wakes up from a nap she will tell me what she was dreaming or thinking about, it is the sweetest moment. Usually the first thing she says when I go to get her from a nap is "My guys? At school?"  ("her guys" are Hayley, Ace, and Julia and she always looks forward to picking them up after naptime).
It is hard to narrow this list down but here are some of Lucy's most frequently used words and phrases:
Grandma (used for both Grandma and GrandPa)
Coco going? (when she is looking for her favorite playmate, the dog)
Dinner ready?
I do it
You help me
I help you
Read it to me
Angelina (her favorite book)
Big huggies (this is reserved for Daddy)
I hungry
Carry me
I walk
I put my head down (one of my favorites, she says this right before she leans her head back when she is swinging or someone is hugging her. I love that she tells us beforehand what she is going to do, it makes it that much sweeter)