One of These Things Does Not Belong!

Well, the holiday season is upon us and I can tell the busy season has hit because I will be posting half the blog posts this month as in the two previous months. Whoops!

My husband and I have always had a "not till after Thanksgiving Day" policy regarding all things Christmas (except for buying gifts - I'll do that year-round if I see the perfect thing for someone!) Alas, this policy, like so many, has been completely ignored by our children. Our oldest especially, as he is eight and is An Authority on Just About Everything.

He is also very adept at getting into the boxes in the garage, and so delved into a Christmas box early. After strictly informing him that the box would be the only one to be opened early or he forfeits a Christmas present, I allowed the kids to get the stuff out of the box and start to decorate the house last week.

One of their favorite things is the Fisher Price Little People nativity set. All three love this toy, even though anything "Little People" in our regular toy selection is considered "baby stuff" by the boys. They had much fun and merriment setting the nativity up and setting out all the figures just so. I didn't really pay much attention until I went to look out the window at some deer the other day.

Can you spot the anomaly?

Just in case you need a hint:

Somehow I don't think the baby Jesus had blond hair, a pink bow, or a cuddly teddy bear. That would be because this is the baby from my daughter's Mom & Baby Minivan set. Apparently the nativity baby Jesus was missing, so the kids had to substitute. 

All you purists out there can relax, the real Little People Baby Jesus was found later that day. All is well in the world once again!

My Brain Is Going in Too Many Directions

This week has been so busy! Of course, there are a lot of weeks I say that now that I have three kids in school. Which reminds me that I wish the "Now" me could go back and tell the "Then" me that it was true what parents of older children warned me about life being busier once kids start school. Seriously, I thought having the kids in school would free up all this extra time for me to have to myself (and in some ways it has) BUT it also means that the time outside of that is FULL OF STUFF. Appointments, field trips, parent/teacher conferences, not to mention the other stuff I'm involved in - which I try to keep to a minimum, but it seems that this year in particular, things are just getting out of hand AND MY KIDS AREN'T EVEN IN SPORTS YET. I just don't know how other moms do it! Of course, I've been assured that those other moms are saying the exact same thing about all other moms too.

Mostly, I just feel that there are all these things I want to do, that even when I have some free time to do something, I don't even know which thing to do first, and I get overwhelmed and end up doing nothing - just waste time playing a game on facebook or reading an actual book. Or a book on my Kindle, which is a real book, but not an ACTUAL book. All you avid readers out there will know what I mean.

[side note: I love my Kindle. I was afraid it would detract from my enjoyment of holding and reading an actual book, but it hasn't. I still read actual books - now I just have the chance to read MORE books because I can buy the actual books that I really want, and I can ALSO get cheaper e-books to sample new authors or genres. Since I have a hard time allowing books to leave my shelves (even ones I didn't love all that much) this has also helped the space issues we have in our house. I mean, a person can only physically store so many books in her home before her children start asking for their closet space back...]

All this to say - I wish I had more time to devote to my many interests and passions. One of which is photography and photo-enhancement/alteration. I play around and I love it, but I lose all confidence when I see the spectacular work that is out there. Trolling etsy, looking at photography, I alternate between "wow, that person is SO talented, I'd be wasting my time listing my stuff" and "wow, my stuff is definitely better than that, I should list it!" Which sounds extremely rude and pretentious now that I've typed it out, ha.

So, before I bore you to death, here is my Red Dahlia.

Flashback Friday - Trimming the Tree

My blogger friend Tia has inspired me to flashback on Fridays (when I remember) and this Friday her flashback inspired mine as well.

Since getting married, my husband and I have established the tradition of getting our tree the day after Thanksgiving. Now that Aaron works on that Friday serving a huge Thanksgiving feast to the homeless community, we've pushed our tree expedition back to Saturday or Sunday dependent on weather, but we like to get our tree as soon as possible so we can enjoy it for as long as we can.

Getting a real tree is a must for both of us. It is what we grew up with, and living where we do, I can't imagine celebrating Christmas without the crisp heady aroma of a real tree scenting the air! Last year was our first Christmas in our new home, and my husband managed to catch the sweetest photos of the kids as we started to decorate the tree.

Isaac was six last year, and took the task of decorating very seriously. You can see how intent he is upon his job.

Thaddeus has some developmental delay and is very sensitive about getting his hair cut, so in order to get through the ordeal as quickly as possible, my husband completely buzzes it twice a year. Last year he did it for the first time just before Christmas. So Thad looks like a recovering cancer patient in all his photos - but apart from choking on a bit of hair and throwing up, it was the least painful haircut he'd had in four years.

Also, see how he put all the jingle bells on the end of one branch? That was his decorating style last year. We had four very over-laden branches where he'd chosen to decorate. I left them like that because it was too cute!

Miriam was 21 months and this was the first year she was aware of the hoopla surrounding Christmas. She saw her older brother sniff the tree, so of course she had to as well.

This set of three photos makes my heart swell with love, and maybe with a touch of sadness because already the kids have grown up more since this time last year and have left these stages behind, and I just want to gather those moments up and hide them inside me, where I can keep my kids safe and no one can ever ever hurt them.

Of course, that's not possible, and I wouldn't be where I am today if my mom had done the same to me, after all. So as I look back over this past year, all our ups and downs, all the tears cried (many by me), all the stress, worry, fear, angst over my children (it's been a hard year), and even the laughter too - I realize that my kids will grow up no matter what I do, so I'd better just do the best I can and take lots of pictures along the way.

Flashback Friday - Oh Where Oh Where Did the Sippy Cup Go?

Inspired by a fellow mommy blogger, I'm posting my very first Flashback Friday blog post!

A few years ago, I was attempting to teach my kids to start picking up after themselves (ha, moms get some crazy ideas in their heads sometimes). So I was busy with the baby and told my 2nd son, age three, to put his sippy cup in the kitchen.

Later, I went into the kitchen to make lunch and was annoyed to see that his sippy wasn't anywhere to be seen. I had to grab a clean one from the cupboard and make a mental note to hunt down the morning one so we didn't find it someday with 3 weeks-worth of nasty chocolate milk inside.

Sure enough, after lunch I found it.

You know, I mentioned the kitchen sink - I just didn't specify which one! That is the blue play kitchen that Santa brought for our two boys for Christmas the year before. It was a huge hit!

And here is the culprit, age three. It is almost as if he is remembering the sippy cup incident and saying to me, "But I did put the sippy in the kitchen!"


Share your flashback here!

Losing My Cool

There comes a time in every mother's life when her child's level of cool outstrips her own. This usually happens around the child's thirteenth birthday, give or take a year or two. In my third child's instance, this happened about 11 years early.

Sunglasses and a cell phone? AND they both match her jammies? I just can't compete with that.

Working for the Weekend?

After the weekend we've had, I couldn't help but think of the expression "working for the weekend" and laugh. I swear around here, when Monday morning comes, I breathe a sigh of relief!

We managed to pack tons of fun into this past weekend, but with three little kids, sometimes that fun involves lots and lots of work on our part.

First off, the wedding on Saturday went really well as far as Thad was involved. He only had three melt-downs and all three were over the fact that the wedding couple wasn't going to open their presents at the party (really, who could blame him? The only parties involving presents he's ever been to have been birthday parties so the concept of seeing a table of gifts and not seeing them opened is mystifying!) The first time we broke the news to him, I wasn't sure he'd be able to recover, the poor guy was heartbroken. He cried a couple other times when he'd spot the table of gifts, but reminding him that the presents contained boring things like sheets and toasters helped. No Scooby-Doo videos, Thad! (although I'd have loved getting Scooby-Doo videos for my wedding, ha!)

The wedding was outside, though, and it was FREAKIN' HOT! I think it hit 90 degrees, which is very rare for around here, and having to sit in the heat for nearly 45 minutes waiting for the wedding to start was brutal on the kids. In fact, I missed the last third of the ceremony, because I had to take two-year-old Miriam for a walk through the shaded, wooded paths nearby to get her out of the sun.

I think yesterday was even hotter. We skipped church and the kids played in the little blow-up pool all morning, which Daddy had filled with fresh cold water for them. Then we spent the afternoon at my folks' house since it was the last day my brother was here visiting from Colorado. Mostly we lounged around watching Tom and Jerry cartoons with the kids, because it was too hot to do anything else. The problem with living where it only gets over 80 degrees a handful of days per year is that no one has air conditioning.

Finally, after dinner we all converged on my in-laws' house. They live on the lake - and it is a very clean, clear, refreshing lake too! We jumped in and there was a collective sigh of relief.

I must say, though, I am glad it is Monday and we are back to normal. It is still hotter than Hades out, but at least I have nothing to do but keep the kids from melting. A cool pool and a freezer full of popsicles should do the trick nicely!

I have to say, reading over what I just wrote, that my life looks entirely different now than it did seven years ago. Of course, it isn't surprising considering that then I was child-free with a full-time office job and now I'm a stay-home mother of three! I wouldn't have it any other way (even when I complain that my brain is slowly sizzling away like baking soda doused in vinegar).

How to Get Back on the Horse

When I first started my Etsy shop, selling my handmade lotions, I had all sorts of energy. I was fired up about what I did. I loved to craft. I had two little boys. I managed to keep up with them, the house, and still have time to spend online networking and promoting my business.

Fast forward three years or so. We've moved, we had another child, the economy has slumped into the dumpster, and my motivation has slithered underneath like a snake seeking shade amongst the discarded waste.

I don't know how all my good habits morphed into bad ones. I try to change things around, but I find myself standing in various spots of my house, staring at the project I want to tackle and just feeling dejected and useless. The times I don't, one of the kids will invariably find me and need something anyway.

So I'm going to try something a bit new. I'm going to blog about my tasks and to-do lists and goals. I apologize in advance if you follow me and find this utterly boring. Maybe take comfort in the fact that I have "restarted" this blog probably three times and it never lasts. I mean, this post in itself is almost one year, one month after my last one.

SO.

Today's goals: 1. sort through the kids' clothes they've outgrown and set aside the fall stuff to take to the consignment store. 2. pack up my Etsy order and get it mailed. 3. empty and reload dishwasher and wipe down the counters. 4. make dinner.

Those seem doable. Most of those I would do anyway, but maybe if I write them down, I'll feel more successful once I've done them. Now to post this and get started!

Speaking of Babies...

Miri likes to stand now, and one of her favorite methods is to hang off my pants while I'm in the kitchen cooking or making lotion.

Which was fine, until today, when I was still in my baggy flannels and hadn't tied them around the waist and she was "helping" me make some lotion and pulled my pants down! The sudden give of material startled her into letting go and she fell backward and whomped her head pretty good on the floor.

Poor baby, lying there with her head injury and her mama screaming in laughter with her pants halfway down.

The worst was that I lost my place while measuring and my scale turned off on me. So I had to pour the scent back into the bottle and re-measure.

Miri was fine. By the time I went back into the kitchen a few minutes later to stir, she was back at it, clinging to my pants - which this time were firmly tied!

And Then There Were Three!

Stop beating down my blogverbial doors! I'll give you the synopsis on our third and last child now!

Miriam was born end of March last year. I can't believe she is nine months old already. She has been our joy, truly the best-natured, happiest baby I've known, which I'm sure will come back and bite me on the arse when she is a teenager, hehehe.

Gulp.

Really, though, when you know this is your last baby, it sure is nice for that baby to be fun and a joy to be around. Miri is just so happy with life. Well, unless she is tired, hungry, or teething - but who isn't cranky in those situations?

She crawls like a fiend, pulls herself up on anything she possibly can, and has recently discovered the joys of walking, using her baby stroller we got her for Christmas. The look of impish joy on her face as she haltingly pushes that wee stroller around is priceless beyond words!

But it is obvious from that twinkle in her eye, she means trouble - and so we better be on our toes!

Second Son, NOT Same as the First

When I found out our second baby was also going to be a boy, I knew theoretically that they would be different, but in reality, I totally prepared for the baby to follow in his brother's footsteps.

Boy, was I wrong! The adage "no two children are alike" is true. So very true. I am sorry I doubted you, adage.

Our first son had colic, and cried almost constantly (or that was what it felt like at least) for the first four months. Second son was a peach! He slept through the night after only a few weeks, and the best part was that he didn't wail for three hours before doing it, either. Isaac, even up through age two or three, took a lot of work to put to bed and usually still cried or fussed himself to sleep for a few minutes. Thad was so easy - you just laid him down and walked away. No fuss, no muss.

Of course, as Thad grew out of babyhood and into toddlerhood, the personality differences became much clearer. Thad is a very happy child, but on the rare occasions he got upset or mad, it was like a hurricane blew in, wreaked havoc, and then left - all in the space of minutes!

Thad is now three years old. He was a really late talker - in fact, he is still catching up to his peer level. We have had some concerns over his developmental delays. At 2 1/2 to 3 years old it is hard to tell whether he is just displaying extreme toddler angst or if there are deeper issues at hand. We've had evaluations done, but no one was willing to give a hard and firm diagnosis - we'd have to take him down to Children's hospital in Seattle to do that, and I am just not willing to put him through that yet. The evaluations done here were harrowing enough.

These local evaluations did qualify him for occupational and speech therapy, which we will start soon. They also qualified him for the public pre-school program aimed at children with developmental delays. He started the one-on-one prep class with his teachers in December and has done really well; we hope to integrate him into the classroom with the other children soon!

He is such a soft-hearted sweetie with a 1,000-watt smile! When he is adorable, he is the most adorable boy on earth. When he is cranky, you want to tear your hair out! I am not sure which son is more persistent - they just wear you down in different ways!

One of my favorite Thad quirks is how he will ask for something 23 billion times until you finally say, "Oh, Thad, would you like some pretzel sticks?" and then he will happily say, "Okay!" like it was all your idea - and a great one at that.

Another thing he does is say thank you - to everything. He'll be having a temper tantrum over watching a show and I'll get down and take away the DVD case as his punishment and when he calms himself down, I'll give it back to him and make him put it away. "Thanks" he says. Hahaha. Silly boy.

For a long time, he wouldn't give hugs, but he has now decided hugs are awesome, so he gives everyone one! He likes to reach around both your arms and squeeze with all his little three-year-old strength. I just love it!

I have a feeling that Thad will give us a hefty set of challenges that are completely different than his older brother's; I also think he'll bring us some of life's greatest joys. My heart swells when I spend time with Thad - he has that effect on you!

When Two Extremes Collide in One Child

So now that I've professed my dedication to writing about my family (please, contain your enthusiasm - it's embarrassing) I thought I would introduce my children, as they will most likely figure prominently in most future posts.

Let's start off with my first born. He is five. My husband's and my genes must have feared he would be our only offspring, because I'm pretty sure we genetically tried to cram all of us into his tiny little body.

He is the epitome of both our extreme personalities. He is mouthy (ahem, that would be me as a child) and he has anger and temper issues (Dad as a child - actually till college). He has an insane imagination and makes up so many stories (me, me, me) and he has an amazing artistic talent and draws much in advance of his age (that would be his daddy all over).

He is Mr Melodramatic (I have NO IDEA where in the world he could ever had mined his talent for over-exaggeration AT ALL. NO IDEA!) and he talks about 97% of his waking hours (and not surprisingly, 5% of his sleeping hours - and you should hear some of the things he says in his sleep! Hahahahah)

In fact, he is chattering away at me as I write this, even though, shameful Mommy that I am, I stopped listening about 10 minutes ago.

When I consider how much he has packed into his skinny-butt body at age five, and I multiply that by three in order to imagine what he will be like at age fifteen . . . well, let's just say I barely prevented myself from passing out and as soon as I post this, I will drop to my knees and plead with God that isn't how it works, because I can tell you right now if that's the case, one of us won't survive that long.