Windy days

We are home today, riding out the superstorm in our pajamas. I slept as late as I possibly could while still remaining a responsible parent, threw on my robe and joined the kids on the couch for a movie. The storm isn't too intense here, a few gusts of wind and constant, steady rain. Now I have a few minutes with nothing that needs doing so I can finally get back to this blog, at least for a moment.
 Lucy is four. The last traces of baby-ness have slipped away and she is spending less time sitting on my hip as I carry her along beside her brother and sisters. Now she leaps forward to keep up with them and I sometimes am left behind to watch them run. Which isn't a bad thing, I think it just, once again, has caught me by surprise. How fast this all happens.
She talks to me all the time, non stop as we drive to school/work in the morning (which we do together. I teach either in her classroom or right down the hall while she goes to her "big girl" preschool). Then we get to school and she is suddenly quiet and intimidated by so many faces. She takes so much in but she struggles to keep up. The other kids in the class are mostly older and they are doing a lot of kindergarten prep stuff that she isn't quite ready for. But she is happy and making friends. And when we get back to the car at the end of the morning she is full of words just waiting to spill out for me.
We go home and wait for the rest of the kids and we nap and watch quiet tv while we wait for the bus. They we are all up and running again, playing outside for the afternoon, doing homework together, getting ready for scouts or other activities. Our evenings don't seem as rushed as they have in past years because I am not juggling everything alone. The big kids handle thier own showers and baths, the little ones pick out thier own pjs and then we meet on the couch for books. We don't watch any tv after dinner anymore which has made our house a lot calmer in that last hour before bedtime.
Our weekdays are fairly routine and I'm sure seem so boring when I write it all out. There is so much happening though, so many moments, big and small. Hayley was elected vice president of the fifth grade, Julia is learning to read and dealing with the huge world of grade school. Ace is obsessed with football and video games and sometimes closes his door when he dresses up like a firefighter and plays in a big cardboard box because he's not sure if that is cool when you are almost 8. Lucy writes her name (everywhere, and sometimes in a Sharpie). The moments are moving so fast and I feel like I am standing in the middle of it, trying to catch them and slow them down long enough to seal them up tightly in memory. It feels about as easy as trying to catch a handful of this wind.
So, instead I'm just going to go sit and watch another movie or play another board game and enjoy this moment where we are all together, safe from the storm.

The present

I keep waiting and waiting for the desire to blog to strike but it just isn't happening. I don't know what is to blame. The kids are as funny and entertaining as ever and I still have a desire to capture many moments to preserve in pictures or writing but something is missing. Maybe it is just that I have waited so long and feel like there is too much to sum up in a blog post and too many subjects that I completely skipped (Hayley's 10th! birthday for example) that picking up where I left off is impossible. Instead I'll do the next best thing, a fresh start. And hope that my precious memories from Spring 2012 don't fade because they weren't blogged (trust me, they won't). So, here is where we are now:

Lucy thinks winking is the coolest

Lucy: Finished her first year of preschool. She LOVED her teachers this year and jumped out of my arms into her teacher's arms after the end of year party and refused to leave. Adding 2 amazing teachers to her list of "dinosaur mamas" (the name she gives to women that she not-so-secretly would like to be her mom) is fine with me.

Julia: Graduated from preschool. Julia has changed so much from when she started preschool. That year I was terrified to send her to school because she was so nervous around anything unfamiliar. She would tremble and shake when faced with a social situation and I thought preschool would be too much for her. But, as she does, Julia proved that I worry too much and loved preschool. She made a friend and the were inseparable until we had to move. Again, Julia surprised me by how well she transitioned to a new place and a new school and she loved Ms. Ann and her preschool class this year. She made friends and as the last day of school approached she started crying at night because she was so sad it was over. It broke my heart and made me realize how much we have asked of Julia. So many changes in such a short time and I know she has been more scared and nervous than she shows. I know she is ready for kindergarten but part of me wishes we had more time to move more slowly through all these changes. For her sake AND mine.

Ace was showing off some dance moves and this happened. He was just excited that he face looked so huge in my picture.

Ace: 5 days away from finishing 1st grade. I am stressing to Ace that this is the summer of self control. He is starting to go off the rails a bit as the last week of school starts and I am hoping we can make it through a summer without daily tantrums from him. He is still learning how to keep his behavior in check when he is excited or frustrated or bored and it can drive me up the walls! But he is has such a kindness and vulnerability that it is difficult to stay mad. For at least a few minutes every day he is pure sweetness and it "bursts my heart" (a quote from his Mother's day card to me). Also, it can be difficult to follow through with consequences for his behavior when I see how genuinely bad he feels about losing control. That is something I have to work on before the summer so we don't spend the whole time yelling at each other like crazy people.

Hayley: One week away from the end of 4th grade. Did I mention this girl is 10 now? That completely floors me. I wake up in a sweat when I realize that the summers of her childhood are flying by us at such a pace and it makes me want to savor this one more than ever. I hope she isn't noticing that some of her friends are doing sleep away camps and trips away from their parents because I don't want to answer why she is not. Because I selfishly don't want to miss a week or two weeks or even a weekend of this time together. There just isn't enough of it.

Lucy and Hayley

Lucy seems to be 100 percent recovered from her eye injury and has even stopped using it to guilt us all to bow down to her supreme power. Although the other day she bumped her head on the wall and got a big goose egg and when I told her I was sorry that happened she said "You didn't do it this time. You scratched my eye, memember?" The incident may be forgiven but not forgotten. She is one hundred percent potty trained, even at night. She loves to announce this to everyone. Her aunt, her teacher, the cashier at the grocery store all have to applaud her when she announces at full volume "I am in the potty club! I pee all the times!"

Being 3 and a half is hard work!

Hayley and I are both struggling again with finding our balance. I am constantly pulling her to slow down, stop trying to grow up so fast and keep up with all of her friends and she is pulling away, determined to go her own way, even if she is unsure which way that she wants to go. She reminds me so much of myself at 13 or 14, even though she is only (almost) 10. She wants to find a way to fit in with everyone that I am afraid she will lose a sense of who she is. But every time I think I can't take one more eye roll or fresh remark from her, she does something like this

Yes, she's smarter than me, we knew this long ago.

And reminds me what I love so much about her. Her creative, sweet, and kind spirit. And I remember that this is all part of growing up and I try to pull a little less and worry a little less and listen a little more.
And I also remember that she is my oldest, which means that I have to go through all of this four more times. And then I need to take a little nap.

Coming up: What is up with these yahoos?

I waited a few days to post this story because I didn't want to read it again. I almost deleted it.  But I want to remember it so here it is. Lucy's eye is all better now and she has decided that now is the time to cash in on my guilt. She has replaced the word "Please" with the word "Now" and yesterday told Andy and I that we were not allowed to enter the kitchen when she was eating or playing or using the table. She is a diva. And I love her......
February 28:
Today was so busy and I was so rushed. We were late with 3 errands to run and a basketball game to attend that I didn't know about until the last minute. I was cranky and impatient and oh so tired.

In the parking lot after our second errand Lucy turned her head right as I reached down to pick her up and I accidentally poked her eye. If I had been moving slower and paying attention, it probably wouldn't have happened. There wasn't any big reason for my rush, it was a silly errand that easily could have waited until tomorrow.

She seemed okay until after bath, when we noticed she was closing her eye even more and it looked really irritated. I took her the the ER, hoping they would say nothing had happened and she was fine.

She has a big scratch right on her eyeball. It is painful (though it heals fast) and there is not much we can do to make her feel better. She was so freaked out by the goop they had to put in her eye that they had to hold her down to get the drops in.

It was all my fault. All I was thinking of was how much I had to do. Even though it was an accident,  I caused Lucy that pain, and if I had just been more patient, slower to get angry and rushed, it probably wouldn't have happened.

We sat on the hospital bed and read her penguin book:

"These things are big and long and deep,
and strong and high and far and steep....
and I am small.
But you are big and you are kind.
When I'm with you I do not mind."**

Lucy looks up at me

"You are big, Mommy.
And I am small."

"Yep, Lucy, you are small and I am big."

"And when I'm with you you are kind to me, Mommy."

"You are kind to me, Lucy."

"Yep, we are big and small and kind."

She didn't get stay mad at me for poking her eye. She didn't even let it ruin her day. She forgave me, she called me kind, she moved on. She was excited to have me all to herself in the ER room. They gave us our own little room and she kept saying "We is all alone, this is our room just for me and you." She just enjoyed the moment.

I have so much to learn from Lucy.


**From her book titled I Am Small (I can't find the name of the author, sorry)

7

Ace,
You are  7, can you believe it? You did so much as a 6 year old, I can't begin to remember it all, but here are some of the biggest moments:
This year you moved from Cape Cod all the way down to North Carolina. I know you were sad to leave your friends and a little scared about what life would be like in a new town with a new school and new house. You were so brave and you looked for the good in the situation and were a comfort to Julia and Lucy. You walked into your new school with so much confidence and excitement, I think everyone in the room knew they wanted to get to know you, the cool new kid! I got so many messages from your friends back in Cape Cod and they remember that tomorrow is your birthday! They love you so much that they still think about you all the time, even though you have moved many miles away.
You started first grade and you learned to read. Your teachers are so impressed with your sweet personality. I think you spend more time at school enjoying your time with your friends than focusing on learning but you do your best and you are learning so much. You are an excellent reader and I love listening to you read every night. I love that you are reading Warriors so you can keep up with your big sister but remember to choose "just right" books like Grandma taught you so you don't get too frustrated.
You had your first sleepover this year with your new friend. You camped out in his living room, played games and watched movies. I was afraid you might miss us and maybe you did, but you were happy to be with your friends. We sure missed you!
You made a lot of new friends at school and in the neighborhood.
You went to the aquarium and spent the night there with Daddy and your Cub Scout troop. That was one of the highlights of your year.
At New Year's you told us your favorite part of the year was becoming a bobcat in scouts. You have done so well as a boyscout, you are learning so much responsibility.
You wake up everyday excited about what excitement the day holds. Sometimes you get upset because some days just don't measure up to your expectations of greatness. I wish I could make everyday as awesome as you expect it to be but I'm also proud that you are learning to find the awesome in the ordinary. You are teaching me to see it too.

You want to do a lot when you are seven. You want Daddy to get you a dirtbike so you can go with him to the dirtbike track. You want to go back to Cape Cod to visit your friends. You want to go to Busch Gardens, and you would LOVE to go to Florida. You want to go bass fishing and try and catch a bass with a tag on it so you can get five dollars and a tee shirt.
I am not sure if we will do every single thing on your list but I hope we do a lot. I can't wait for more adventures with you!
I love you, Baby Ace, you make everyone of my days awesome.

Boooring

Sorry to say it but January was pretty much a dud as far as months go. I slept too much, exercised not much at all, ate very very much, and did nothing of great importance. I'm going to go right ahead and blame January instead of taking any responsibilty for my actions because, well, this is my blog and I can do what I want. *snap, snap, snap for added sassiness*
A few good things were sprinkled into the mix. I did start a walking routine with some friends. I think we burnt more calories laughing than walking and there was the day that I convinced everyone to go "just one more time around" only to get us caught in a huge rainstorm. But it was fun.
Hayley cheered in her first basketball game, she was surprisingly good. I was surprised because I have never in all the 10 years I've known him see Andy even attempt a dance move and I dance often and enthusiastically but not well at all. So I was a little taken aback to see that our eldest has some smooth moves. But then again, I am often surprised by how great my kids are, it is one of the joys of my life.
And of course, there was JuJu's birthday which was terrific. And a girls' night out with some friends.
(as a sidenote I hate the term "Girls' night out". It is so cheesy and I feel like a dork anytime I use it but I can't think of a better term). And we went to a Tarheel basketball game. That was awesome.
Okay, so maybe January wasn't such a dud. But I'm still not sorry to see it end. I'm ready to start fresh in February.

Because I am chronically late for everything, I waited till a week into the year before deciding what my resolutions are. I don't really have many but the ones I have are important to me so here they are:
**By the way, I'm sorry that my return to blogging has startedwith a bunch of lists that are not important to anyone but me. I'm rethinking what I'll blog about since Ace and Hayley are getting older. My main purpose in keeping a blog is so at some point the kids can go back and read it and now that they are older I feel like they should be the ones to decide what stories to tell. I'm trying to work out a way to still share my memories and moments without stealing theirs, if that makes sense. So, for now, my writing is pretty blah. Sorry.

1. Travel. I want to see at least 3 new places this year or revisit old places that the kids haven't seen or don't remember. (Washington DC and Savannah are the top of my list). Since Andy is focusing more on home improvement projects, this may be tricky but I'm determined to make it happen. It may include some camping which is so out of my comfort zone.

2. Embrace my homebody-ness. Besides the traveling, I'd like to stop wasting my time on errands and pointless activities just to fill time and instead, enjoy time at home. It is the last year that Julia will be home most days with me and I don't want to spend it shuttling her to the the grocery store three times a week. I've found that my favorite moments with the kids are the unscheduled times. Like doing a puzzle with Ace, watching the girls create a city with their figurines, reading with Hayley on one side of the couch and me on the other. I love those times and want more of them.

3. Grow our own vegetables. More Andy's goal than mine, we are trying our hand at gardening and hoping that it leads to healthier eating. I'll update that in the Spring.

4. Give Hayley more respect/responsiblity. She will be 10 in March and she is capable of so much, sometimes I feel like I hold her back by my parenting (smothering?) style.  For example, if I'm going to bug her about getting dressed on time, I need to respect her enough to let her pick out her own outfits. Some things I'm still on the fence about whether she is ready. Fixing her own snacks in the microwave? Choosing her own bedtime? Walking the dog?  I feel like I missed the chart where it tells you when it's time to let go and let your kids do these things. I tend to "baby" my kids a wee bit (I did spoon feed Julia her soup for a half hour yesterday which may have been bit extreme even for me) and I know Hayley is responsible and mature so, I've got to let go at least a little.

2011

Before I throw out last year's calender, here are some memorable times from 2011 (note that I didn't actually buy a calender until mid February so I may be forgetting some from January and early Feb, that's what I get for procrastinating)
January: Julia turns 4, we take her out to the movies and her favorite resturaunt to celebrate. Ace starts Ice skating lessons, Hayley starts basketball.

February: Ace turns 6, we go to Friendly's for dinner and he later has a small party with his buddies.

March: Andy turns 39, Hayley marches in the St. Patrick's day parade, we celebrate her 9th birthday a week early with a trip to Boston to go the the American girl doll store and the cheesecake factory. We spend a week in E. City, househunting. Our first offer on a house is turned down but our second is accepted and we begin the process of buying our second home. Hayley has another small party to celebrate her birthday.

April: Hayley is in the robotics club at school, she "graduates" to being a Junior girl scout, Ace performs in the ice skating "Night of a Thousand Stars"

May: My last Mother's day tea at Julia (previously Ace's) preschool, we start to prepare for our move and finalize our house.

June: My mom, dad, Julia, and I travel to upstate NY for a wedding, we close on our house, Ace finishes kindergarten, Hayley graduates from 3rd grade (her previous school was k-3). We say goodbye to dear friends over dinner at our favorite pizza place, pack up our essentials, our family of 6 and 2 dogs and head down south to our new home.

July: We move into our new home, celebrate the fourth of July with a trip to the Outer Banks, I turn 33, we buy a small pool and spend the rest of the month in it to adjust to the heat. My sister visits and we get to meet my nephew for the first time, the kids and I spend a week at my parents house.

August: More adjusting to our new home, Andy starts his new job, my sister and niece visit and we go to the beach again, Hayley starts 4th grade, Ace starts 1st.

September: Julia and Lucy start preschool, Lucy turns 3 and we have a party with lots of new friends and (not new) family.

October: Julia goes on her first field trip to a fire safety show, we go to the pumpkin patch with their preschool, Ace stays overnight at an aquarium with his Cub scout troop, we go to the state fair with my sister, niece, and parents. We go trick or treating in our neighborhood with friends.

November: Hayley, Julia, and I go see a local theater group perform "Annie", We go to my parents' house for Thanksgiving and while there, we go to my 15 year high school reunion, my Aunt and uncle visit.

December: Ace is in the Christmas parade on a float with the boyscouts, Julia and Lucy are in a Christmas program at preschool, Hayley is in a concert at her school, Ace gets his bobcat badge at Cubscouts, my parents visit to see the concerts and boy scout ceremony. My sister and niece visit for Christmas, we throw a Christmas Eve open house, my parents come for Christmas dinner. We have a very MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Five

Julia is FIVE today. She is excited because five year olds take showers, not baths. Five year olds ride in the backseat of the van. Five year olds use phrases like "Seriously, guys?" and "Okay, okay, this is getting crazy".
Five year olds even, ready for this? Go...to... KINDERGARTEN!
She is excited about presents, she keeps asking me if there are any wuggle pets in the wrapped packages by the couch. I say I don't know, we'll have to wait and see and be surprised. She says let's open them now and be surprised now. But we are patient because five year olds and their mommies are well known for their patience.
I catch her eyes and she curls up next to me in the morning (because one thing five year olds do not do quite yet is sleep all night in their own beds) and I remember one morning when she had a stomach bug. I was very pregnant with Lucy and I knew this would be one of the last mornings that Julia would be my smallest baby so, even though I was sad to see her sick, I was savoring this moment of cuddling her close and rocking her. I felt that way again this morning. I know soon she will be sleeping all night in her bed and we won't have that many more mornings of cuddling up while Lucy sleeps and the big kids are already in school. Soon she will be at school too. But this morning, I got a few precious minutes.
She still has never had a big big birthday party. I thought about it this year but at our Christmas Eve party I watched her sit at the snack table, a little nervous and overwhelmed by all the people. And on New Years at a friend's house she sat on the couch with her other quiet, introvert friend and they put on headphones and watched the DS together, silently but happily. I thought, no, not this year. I want to honor who she is and acknowledge what makes her comfortable and what does not. I want to make her happy. So we had a family party, with a pink cake made by my mom. Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Sara, and cousin Naomi were our guests. It was a perfect day.

Happy Birthday, my sweet Julia. I love you just as you are and I always will.

Well, this is awkward.

Yes, I broke up with my blog for while. I was drawn away by the flash and glamour of Facebook and Pinterest and blogging just seemed to have lost it's spark. So I left to pursue my dreams of making every nutella recipe Pinterest had to offer and reconnecting with my third grade music teacher over witty status updates and shared "likes". Since I'm the only one who reads my own babbling it didn't seem important to keep up here but I missed the old blog, and here I am, seeing the error of my ways and crawling back. I was reading through the archives to find a Christmas quote I like and found myself reading my entries from the fall/winter of 2008. Ace was in his unpredictable, tantrum-y stage, I was still counting Lucy's age in weeks, Julia was in diapers, and Hayley had just begun school. I have pictures and memories from those days but seeing in words what our days were like is something worth keeping up with. Because the time, it flies.
We are getting the house ready for my sister's visit and for our other Christmas activities. Lucy is going bonkers. Sara is her "dinosaur mommy" and all around favorite person. One of her favorite games is to have me pretend to be Sara so she can live out her dream of having Sara as a mommy. The rejection stings a little but Sara is pretty awesome so I get it.
Julia is going about twice as nuts as the other kids because she is also excited about her birthday after Christmas. Last year she called us out on the lack of presents on her birthday (we ended up giving her some of her b-day presents on Christmas because we are awful about waiting) so she only had one gift from us. This year I'm doing my shopping for her after Christmas so I'm not tempted to do the same this year.
She will be 5, which is unbelievable to me. One more semester at preschool and we will be sending her off to kindergarten. Un. Believable.
I hope everyone is feeling the peace, joy and love of the season. If you have a little bit of all of those things in your life, you can stop shopping, you have the only gifts you'll ever need.

October

I was worried that when we moved to a small town we would have fewer opportunities to do fun things with the kids but October has set out to prove me very wrong. Every week our calender is full of great Fall activities and each of the kids (except our poor perpetually Left Out Lucy) has a special activity just for them. I love it, Andy is exhasted, and the kids are now going to expect every month to be as jam packed as this one.
Here's a peek at what we've done and what we have planned.

Last week Julia went to a fire safety program put on by the local firefighters. It would have been perfect for Ace but his class didn't have a bus so they had to cancel their trip. That turned out okay because it was Julia's first field trip so it got to be all about her. Also, I got a glimpse into her preschool world and was happy to see that she has made a lot of sweet friends and her teachers are as awesome as I've heard they are.

Saturday we went to a birthday party at a small hands-on science museum downtown. Everyone had fun (even if Hayley refused to smile the entire time)

Sunday was military appreciation day at the zoo so we got to go for free. With a family of 6 to pay admission for, we will happily battle the crowds if it means saving all that money so we were there bright and early (which means 10:30 for us). We spent 5 hours seeing every animal, keeping all the kids happy with snacks and drinks and lifting up child after child so they could get a better view of the animals. Then we missed the last train ride of the day because we had to go get tokens and were not in line in time. That means that the previous 5 hours were instantly forgotten and all they will remember from our trip to the zoo is that we missed the train. But, I have pictures. See, they were happy, it was fun!

Hayley had a field trip today to learn about the Civil War. I'm not sure what she learned but I did hear every detail about the bus ride, the picnic lunch, and that she learned how to play MASH on the way home.

Ace is going to "sleep with the sharks" at the aquarium with his scout troop and his dad on Friday and Saturday we are packing up and heading to my hometown for the State Fair. I've been looking forward to that for the entire month so I hope the kids love it as much as I did!

Lucy Claire, 3

I thought today would be hard. I thought I would feel sad and lost because my baby is not a baby anymore. She is the Big 3. The age of wonder and discovery and (let's hope) potty training. But instead of feeling sad I have worn a smile all day. Because if there is anything at all that could be better than knowing Lucy, the baby, it is knowing Lucy, the big girl. She is something to behold, let me tell you. Clever and silly. Stubborn and bold. Funny and thoughtful. Even as the youngest of four children, she finds her own way in the world. She has her own unique personality and the strongest will of any three year old I know.

She is our baby, our wild card and she is so, so loved. Today on her birthday and EVERY day.

So far, so good

School started last Thursday (for those keeping track, that is 2 days after the earthquake and 2 days before the hurricane, sheesh). I spent the week before wringing my hands and losing sleep over all the What-Ifs. What if they encounter a bully? What if they are scared? What if they miss their old school? If you've ever read Wemberly Worried, that is an accurate description of me the days before school started. The best description of Ace before school started was a friend's comment on my facebook: "Ace is all in, baby, all in!" He left the orientation giving complete strangers high fives and practically leaping into the car on the first day. Hayley was not so enthusiastic but she was happy to be going back and optimistic about making new friends. I asked them after the first day if it was a one thumb up day, a two thumb up day, or a thumbs down day and Hayley said "I wish I had three thumbs!" so I think it's safe to say they still have a positive attitude about school.
Next week Lucy and Julia start preschool and I will have 2 mornings a week all to myself. Whatever will I do with my freedom? Start a bookclub? Plant a garden? Plan and prepare elaborate meals? Watch marathons of My Redneck Wedding while eating handfuls of cereal straight out of the box? The possibilities are endless.
The girls are as ready for school as the big kids were. The day before school started we had a back to school party with cupcakes and candles and we went around the table telling what we wished most for the new school year. Lucy wished that she would "Not be mean all the time" and Julia pondered the question for a while before shrugging and saying "Just that it will be great and also awesome". My girls, they aim high.

Two weeks ago when I looked at the calender and realized that the kids would be starting school about two weeks earlier than usual, I told Andy I would not be ready when it was time for them to go back. We still had so much Summer to do. I was wrong. This past week has felt like an endless loop of whining, tantrums, complaining, and arguing. It was the first week that we weren't unpacking or traveling or babysitting and I thought I would appreciate the lull in activitiy. Again, I was wrong. With no plans, our living room quickly began to resemble the commercial for Planet of the Apes. You know, where the apes (my kids) are throwing cars and bellowing and the humans (me) are running scared.
So, yes, I am ready for school to begin. I think the big kids are too. But we also still have a lot of Summer. The brief moments when no one is losing their mind have been precious. We swim in our little backyard pool every afternoon. Lucy and Julia are getting braver and braver in the water everyday (which makes me more and more nervous). The pool is very shallow but it is wide enough that they can actually swim across it and float around. Lucy says we are mermaids together.
We also have daily concerts put on by Julia and Hayley, they dance and sing and I'm supposed to vote on who wins. They are surprised everytime by the two way tie.
Ace puts on Fire prevention presentations. He lists the important safety rules: 1. Don't swim in a storm. 2.If you want to set something on fire, call him, Firefighter Ace. 3. Don't smoke in bed. (he read this one in a children's book on fire prevention that was published in the early 70's and he wasn't quite sure how you would know if you were smoking in bed or not, we had to explain that one).

33

We are beginning our fourth week in our new house in a new state and I'd say we are finally beginning to feel settled here and beginning a normal routine (well, normal for summertime, which allows for 10 pm bedtimes for the kids and popsicle lunches). I think the transition was so easy for me because NC was my home for 22 years, so coming back meant returning to the familiar. For the kids, it was a bit more of a shock. We did our best to make things as easy as possible for them and giving them what we felt was the right amount of information at the right times. They have known for months that we would be moving, they came with us househunting in March so they could see the area, we tried to find a lot of time to spend with thier friends in the days and weeks before we left Ma. It was hard to say goodbye to their home and they are still a little rattled by all the big changes but we have been so lucky to meet wonderful new friends already and they love the house so they have adjusted really well.
My sisters came to visit me last week and then we traveled together to my hometown for some more family time. It was so great to have all 7 cousins together and see how they all loved each other. Moving closer to family is definitely at the top of the list of the best things about moving to NC. It was the best birthday present ever!
Speaking of birthdays, I feel like I should have some reflections on turning 33. Not that it is a milestone birthday (although my dad did point out to me that I am now exactly half his age). 33 is significant for me because 23 was a very significant age for me. On my 23rd birthday my parents gave me a card that said "On your birthday if life surprises you...Let it." A few days later I found out I was expecting Hayley. Before my 24th birthday I had a new husband, and new home, and a new baby girl. 23 was a year of the sweetest surprises. So my wish for my 33rd is that life continues to surprise me, and I continue to let it.

Spring Breaking

I can not believe it is Spring Break already. It doesn't feel too Spring- like when we have only had a handful of days where the sun was shining and the temp was over 50 degrees. Also, the first three months of the year have gone so quickly. The move is coming up on us so quickly too, I am so excited and nervous and stressed and happy and sad all at once. In short, I'm an over-emotional mess. I cried watching Oprah which is not unusual for me except this time the show had not even started, it was just a promo with Paul Simon singing. Darn you, Paul Simon, going and making me feel things! (I don't know what movie that came from, if you recognize it, tell me because it's going to bug me until I remember)
Ace and Hayley had playdates today. I'm so glad my kids are well behaved at other people's homes. It makes me forgive them for behaving like wild monkeys here at home. It also means they get invited back for more playdates so I can enjoy more afternoons of relative peace (Hayley and Ace spend a lot of vacation time fighting because they are not used to so much uninterrupted sibling bonding). I went to pick Ace up this afternoon and the mother of his friend told me that he was quite the ladies man. She said she put on a tv show for them and Ace said "Let's sit together on the couch and watch Scooby-Do, it'll be like a date" and then put his arm around his friend. I'm impressed with his bold moves but did clarify that parentally surpervised cartoon watching would be all the dating he can do for the next 10 years. He accepted my terms.
We have a few more plans for the week, including skating, having friends over, a movie, and some library activities. I like having time to just be together but an entire week is exhausting and hard to fill. Sometimes all this "together" time makes me feel like I am actually spending less time than usual interacting with my kids. I'm used to our routine which has kind of built in individual time with each of them. Lucy and I have 3 mornings while everyone else is at school, Julia has afternoons while Lucy is resting (naps are a thing of the past around here). Hayley has homework time and Ace has afterschool while the girls are playing together. And then by the weekend they have all missed each other so they play well and we usually have plans that keep us busy. But over this long stretch there is either so much to do that we are rushing around or we are bored and cranky and I send them off to the playroom so they aren't driving me crazy. So, I'm guessing by next Monday I'll be more than ready to get back into our groove and send them back to school! Until then, I guess I will enjoy watching Transformers every day at 7am with Ace!

In a nutshell...

The post-holiday part of our winter was eventful, with long stretches of nothingness in  between events. We celebrated Ace turning 6. We had his b-day dinner at Friendly's and a small party over winter break. They played kinect, played some Transformer's themed party games and made "allsparks" from construction paper and shoeboxes. It was very low key and fun, Ace is in his element with just a few friends who share his interests (toys, food, fart jokes) so he was well behaved and so were his buddies. A few weeks later we celebrated Hayley's 9th birthday early with a trip to the A. Girl doll store and a "fancy" dinner out in Boston. The night before her birthday she had a friends over for more kinect, a dance party, and a movie. Again, it was perfectly simple and fun. For anyone with more than one child, I highly recommend lowering expectations for birthday parties (actually, I recommend lowering expectations all together).  It has taken so much pressure off this year not to plan parties and the kids have enjoyed their birthdays as much as any other year. In fact, I think they may have had more fun because the day was really focused on them and they had more than one celebration.
We spent a week in NC, househunting and getting to know our soon-to-be home. It was busy and the kids were pretty bored but it was a nice break from the ordinary and got me feeling really excited about our move this summer.
So, that was the rest of our winter. I'm leaving out some very important events of course, like Lucy's continued resistance to potty training. If you ask her if she will try to use the potty she will look at you like you suggested she try snorting pepper and say "I do that later, Mommy".  Hayley has lost 2 more teeth, one while she was eating her first half rack of ribs (the girl is 40 pounds soaking wet and she ate those ribs like they were a light snack, our waitress was astounded.) Ace is into all things Transformers, he watches the DVD's on the mini tv in his room while acting out the scenes shot for shot with his toys. Ever since the week that Julia was sick and spent the day in front of the tv she has been really into cooking shows. She loves to watch Giada and the Neelys and then request whatever they are making for dinner (ironically, her favorite food is still ramen noodles).
One more thing and then I will end this rambling. As the weather has improved I've started a new routine of taking one of the kids at a time with me on my evening walk with the dogs. I used to resist taking them because it was my time to have some quiet but now I've started taking my own walk earlier in the day and I've discovered how much I enjoy the one on one time with the kids. Ace will open up and talk to me without getting silly and distracted. Hayley gets to talk without being interrupted and Julia and Lucy mostly love to ask questions and anxiously await one of the dogs' pooping. I hope they don't get tired of it because I love it.

Weekending

I slept way, way in this morning and woke up to Lucy picking my nose and telling me that I am her best friend. Then she listed her best friends: Daddy, JuJu, Hay-ey, Ass, Buddy, Coco, and Mama. She calculated that that equals 2 best friends. And all her best friends were coming to her party in the living room. If that isn't a good excuse to get out of bed on a Saturday morning, I just don't know what is.
I helped with the PTA Game Night at the school last night. I pulled it together in 10 days and when it was all set up and we were waiting for the kids to show up I was feeling pretty darn proud of myself and my organizational, party planning skills. Then the PTA president informed me that my fly was down. Still, the night went well and I think I did a good job, wardrobe malfunctions aside.
We get through the winter months by indulging the kids (and ourselves)  in random surprises and frequent trips to Dunkin Donuts or out to dinner or anything to break up the monotony of getting up, bundling up, defrosting our car, and heading off to the same old places. Monday we took the kids shopping and to Red Robin for dinner. After dinner Lucy hopped off her booster seat and, without prompting, went over to Andy and gave him a hug and said "That was a yummy dinner, thank you Daddy". It was simple but so sweet, and made me proud that she has such a grateful heart. She says "Thank You" at least 20 times a day and she really means it. That impresses me, as do many things about my Lucy. 
Julia was a rockstar at her 4 year check up yesterday, she is 29 lbs and on target with all her milestones. When we left she asked why the doctor called her a peanut and I said it was because she was little and cute like a peanut and she said "Oh, I thought maybe I smelled funny". I don't know why but that was the funniest moment of my entire day.
I don't know why I still can't post pictures but after the kids are in bed I'll try to post an all picture update. I have some good ones of the kids bowling and game night. Luckily, I don't have any that capture me with my fly down.

I sure am glad I didn't make a New Year's resolution to update my blog more often because I would be failing miserably. Other things I'm glad I did not resolve to do: eat less bacon, watch less television, take fewer naps. Because the first 12 days of 2011 have included a lot of bacon, television, and napping.

We also had a birthday party for Julia. Not a Party! party, because those are overwhelming for our sweet, shy princess. But we went sledding that Saturday, and then to a movie and out to dinner and she had a play date with her best friend at the end of the week. We did things that made her happy, and celebrated 4 years of having her around making us happy.

We welcomed my nephew into the world, except he was in Texas and we were welcoming him from all the way up here. I'm sad I wasn't there but all the excitement and love we were sending was enough to travel halfway across the country.

It is probably for the best that I was not there when he was born because I was a big stack of cold germs all week. That explains the excessive amount of napping and television (I have no excuse for the bacon.)

p.s- I know it is actually 16 days into January but I typed this out a few days ago but didn't post it because I wanted to add pictures. But then I tried to add pictures and Blogger was all "No. I hate you." so I just decided to go ahead and post it picture-less. In short, I am a huge blogging failure. 

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.