Sometimes You Feel Like Dancing

It's 6:25 in the morning, it's below freezing outside and I'm in the world's most comfortable bed piled under  a pile of snugly blankets. I hear the little man start to fuss. I quietly make my way into his room, noticing that Kate's light is on, she is quietly playing in her room. I pick up the little ball of fleecy, sweet smelling baby and settle him into my arms, he starts to nurse while I use my iPhone to catch up on the night's news and Facebook status updates. Suddenly the sound of crazed, stampeding water buffalo comes from Kate's room along with the sound of her singing, at the TOP of her lungs. I'm temporarily frozen. I can't take Jack with me, the noise combined with her bedroom light will surely wake him up for the day and I had big plans that involved my cozy bed and soft pillow after feeding him. I lay him on the floor (now crying) and hurry out of his room, throw open Kate's door and for the second time in just a few seconds I'm stunned to the point of immobility. She has her back to me, doing some kind of complicated dance move in only her purple Tinkerbell panties. Her little buns are a wiggling and her arms are above her head but the noise it keeps a coming. Her pjs and the clothes she has picked out of the day are strewn across the floor. Evidently somewhere in the middle of the process of getting dressed she was inspired to do some kind of sing and dance show. Suddenly she twirls and she too is stunned and still. Her mouth is open wide (due to the singing at the top of her lungs) and her eyes are wide too. We look at each other, her stunned silence allows me to hear Jack crying and hungry in the other room.  I somehow manage a stern look and the words, "Ex-cuse me!" Then I shut the door and hurry back into Jack's room before the smile breaks across my face.

I feed him and make my way back to my covers. I'm there for another 15 minutes but sleep will allude me this morning, my mind is too busy now. I want to preserve this memory, this is a moment that I don't ever want to forget. These days will be gone too fast and I know that when they're teenagers and are wanting to sleep in on cold mornings such as today, I will wish to hear those sweet morning voices and to see those tiny buns in Tinkerbell panties.
I start to wish that Jack hadn't been hungry so that I could have scooped her up and danced around the room with her...only I would have stayed fully clothed and used a whisper to allow the others their sleep while we had our moment.

I sneaked down into my office to record the memory on this blog-- tomake a deposit in the savings account of my memories. I hear two little quiet girl voices in the basement now. While I was trying to go back to sleep Brian gathered both girls and scooted them downstairs to allow me more sleep. I love that man more then he knows, and I love these kids of mine. Maybe one day they'll know how much, when they have kids of their own, when I'm sleeping in and dreaming of these days and they're waking up early in the morning to feed their own kids. But for now it's my turn, these are my best days, I have a date in the basement with some sleepy smelling girls.

Bliss

The girls are at school. Jack is playing on his play mat, the sound of the dryer is running in the background, the white stuff is floating outside.
This morning was filled with the sounds of excited chattering since we're having friends over for movies in our pjs tonight. The house is picked up, my office floor is filled with gifts and gift wrap and today is the first day of the December Daily project. Perfection

The Best Day

I'm five years old, it's getting cold, I've got my big coat on
I hear your laugh and look up smiling at you, I run and run
Past the pumpkin patch and the tractor rides, look now, the sky is gold
I hug your legs and fall asleep on the way home

I don't know why all the trees change in the fall
But I know you're not scared of anything at all
Don't know if Snow White's house is near or far away
But I know I had the best day with you today

I'm thirteen now and don't know how my friends could be so mean
I come home crying and you hold me tight and grab the keys
And we drive and drive until we found a town far enough away
And we talk and window shop 'til I've forgotten all their names

I don't know who I'm gonna talk to now at school
But I know I'm laughing on the car ride home with you
Don't know how long it's gonna take to feel okay
But I know I had the best day with you today

I have an excellent father, his strength is making me stronger
God smiles on my little brother, inside and out, he's better than I am
I grew up in a pretty house and I had space to run
And I had the best days with you

There is a video I found from back when I was three
You set up a paint set in the kitchen and you're talking to me
It's the age of princesses and pirate ships and the seven dwarfs
And Daddy's smart and you're the prettiest lady in the whole wide world

And now I know why the all the trees change in the fall
I know you were on my side even when I was wrong
And I love you for giving me your eyes
For staying back and watching me shine
And I didn't know if you knew, so I'm takin' this chance to say
That I had the best day with you today

Song: Taylor Swift, The Best Day

November Goal

I've really gotten out of the habit of updating the blog, I'm hoping to update more frequently in November. I originally thought I would make a goal to update every day during this month but I think that may be a bit of a stretch. 

Jack is seriously Super Baby. I have never had a three month old that will sleep 11 straight hours at night. It's not always 11 hours but he always sleeps through the night. I feel like a new woman. 

The girls and I have been "playing school" a lot lately. Kendall has started to read a little bit and Kate can write her name now. We've even changed an area of our basement into a school room. We love having all our educational materials gathered into one area but I really hate how dark it is down there, I've considered giving up my office (or at least reconfiguring it) to be the school room. I haven't committed to that yet! Our list of school supplies that we want is growing by the day. Right now we really want a US and World map and cork boards to put them on so we can learn where everyone we love lives!

Today we gathered some leaves and stuff to practice drawing. Anytime we sit down to do a project it always grows and morphs into a different project. I love providing jumping off points for the girls and watching where their imaginations take them.

We've been making new friends at our new preschool. We had friends (twins) come for dinner and trick-or-treating last night and next weekend we are having other friends (also twins!) come for dinner. The girls are loving it, they told me so many times today that yesterday was so much fun! 

Fall Time

I love the fall, the house smells all apple cinnamony and I start preparing to hibernate. Last weekend when mom was here we took her to a local farm and had a blast. We rode a horse drawn wagon through the orchard, visited a petting zoo, explored the corn maze and walked around all the craft booths set up. We may have also purchased apple cider doughnuts and a pumpkin roll, I will never tell.

We're enjoying our new schedule, the girls are having so much fun at school. Every afternoon when they get home I have some kind of activity planned. Yesterday I gave them a bunch of paper, stickers and envelopes and they wrote letters. Today we are going to gather different items to stamp on paper (thread spools, buttons...), we also plan to make pumpkin playdoh soon.

Jack is growing like crazy. I've started to put my 2 month old boy into a few 3-6 month outfits! He is starting to smile more and more and is sleeping like a champ in his crib at night. Love these kids of mine, love this job of mine!

One More

This one is great too. Cant remember exactly but I think this came from odeedoh.

You might see this in Jack's big boy room :) Better start collecting some good wooden trains and such!

Pitter Pat

This photo makes my heart beat a little faster.

credit ABCD Designs

School Days

We made it, we made it through a summer that was a little hard. Usually our summers are filled with long days at the pool, play dates at the park and afternoons spent in the back yard spread out on a big quilt surrounded by our picnic basket, an art tablet and various supplies. Not so much this summer, the heat didn't combine well with being so very pregnant and I admit that I was a grumpy pregnant momma. My Mommy Guilt has been at an all time high but we made it though and managed to have some fun in the process.

Today is the first day of school. The girls were so excited and I was excited too. I was looking forward to a clean house and some sweet sweet quiet. First day jitters were present for all of us. I kissed the palm of each of my little ladies and told them when they missed me to just put their hand to their cheek and that would be me kissing them.

It's just Jack and me home now. It's so very very nice and quiet. I walked through the house picking up little toys and went to put them in their rooms. I walked into Kendall's room and was hit, hit by her scent. The smell of bubble gum chap stick, baby shampoo and the smell from outside--you know that smell of cut grass that little kids somehow absorb into their skin while the wind blows through their hair during rides on a Dora bike with training wheels. That smell hit me like a ton of bricks and suddenly the house was too quiet and I had tears in my eyes. Suddenly all those messes were glimpses of them that I wasn't so very anxious to clear out. The sticky handprints on the front door, the brown dirt footprints on the white bathroom stools, and the crumbs, oh the crumbs...maybe they can go.

I think I should have had them kiss my palm too.

Life is Good with Jack

Somehow I managed to get the best baby in the entire world. Seriously, he rarely cries, he sleeps well, he eats well...

Kendall and Kate can't keep their hands off of him, or their lips off of him. Ok, I can't either.

Another admission, I don't mind the night time feedings. Sure, I'm exhausted and look forward to a full night's sleep but I love that quiet uninterrupted snuggle time. I love the baby grunts and squeaks and smells. I like to put him on my chest to burp him, he pulls his knees up so that his little bottom rests in my hand and he is this tiny ball of yumminess. I like to rub his sweet little peach fuzzy head and bury my nose in his soft neck to take all the kisses I want. I love how after eating and burping and changing I wrap him all up and lay him in the bassinet and he just peeks at me and then closes his eyes and goes off to sleep. Three to four hours later we do it all over again.

I'm having a hard time sharing him. Of course not with Brian, I LOVE to see him snuggling our sweet baby boy, but with other people. I can't walk away, my arms feel empty, something is missing and I can't relax until he's back against me and I can get my fill of his sweet baby smell. Three is our stopping point.  Every day I am one day closer to being out of this newborn stage, out of this baby stage, it brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it. I know as soon as the next stage comes I'll love it but saying goodbye to each day is still hard, maybe that is why I'm cherishing those middle of the night hours.

But for now we are just staying close to home, close to him and wrapping ourselves in this blanket of babiness that has come into our house.

HA

These girls crack me up. Sometimes they are just so cute that I have to grab my camera. Well, Kendall had no problem letting me snap one of her but Kate did not want to participate. Kendall asked, "Do you want me to put my hand out like this and pretend that Kate is here (her arm 'around' her sister). HA, yeah, that will be perfect honey, just like that.

Finally Kate agreed to let me take her picture, only a little bit of bribing was required.

I realized today that Kate thinks the song "Skip to my lou" is about her because we always call her Lou, Sissy Lou, or Lou Lou. 

Right Now

Right now...we never finish what we start out to do. The girls had big plans of playing in the sprinkler. They got their bathing suits on and set out to work together to get their rooms clean before we headed out. They have been in there awhile just playing together, wonder if we'll ever make it to the sprinkler.

Right now....I can't get enough water, I chug it non-stop. If you hand me a bottle I can finish it off before I take a single breath. If it's cold Jack squirms in my belly a lot : )

Right now...my hubby is getting more and more involved in local politics. He was already involved in one board and the chamber of commerce and today he was invited to join a second board.

Last night.....I slept, a good, uninterrupted sleep. It was so good I know those sleeps are about to become extinct.

Last night...she slept well too.

In The Kitch

A rounded momma and her big girl on a date night with Daddy.

Lots of grilling happening in our house this summer. I'm usually such a foodie and love planning and making meals but with the afternoon pregnancy exhaustion that job has kind of dropped off my priorities list. I mentioned to Brian how maybe he should take over responsibility for one dinner a week. He said that he thought he already did more then one meal a week. I was really at a loss for words because I could tell he was serious but I just couldn't remember him cooking....ever. Then he explained that he grilled more then once a week. HA! I plan, shop, marinate, cook all the sides, prepare the salad, plate the food, set the table and clean up all the dishes. He sits out with a glass of bourbon on the deck and flips something on the grill and thinks he is cooking. Really, I thought it was cute of him, such a man!

Our favorite dinner this summer is flank steak and corn. I use Darby's recipe from the blog Fly Through Our Window (one of my favorites).

1/3 C soy sauce
1/2 tsp ground ginger
3/4 tsp garlic powder
2 tbs brown sugar
3 tbs honey
2 tbs olive oil
Combine ingredients in small sauce pan and stir until it comes to a boil then remove from heat. Let cool completely before marinating. 
Actually, the first time I made this I didn't exactly read the directions and just whisked all the ingredients together without boiling and marinated that way. I've also used fresh ginger instead of the powdered ground stuff before too and I think it gives it a slightly better taste.


We've grilled corn on the cob this summer too but despite trying various methods we haven't found one that is fail safe every time. This could partially be due to our need for a new grill (most likely). However, the last few nights I've made it the following way and I think it's excellent.

fresh corn on the cob
sugar
butter
scallions
salt and freshly ground pepper

Shuck the corn and boil until tender (sorry I've never timed it) with a couple teaspoons of sugar in the water. Cut corn off cob into a bowl and toss with butter, sliced scallions, salt and pepper. I have been using a pepper grinder with black and red peppercorns in it and I love it (I'm a big pepper fan though).

We had this for dinner tonight but the camera was in the basement so I didn't take pictures. It was yummy though!!

Chick's List

I spent time this afternoon reading through old blog posts. So fun! Obviously I love the memories, the photos and the videos of my little ladies at all the different stages. I also like the Chick Lists, seeing what I was interested in at different stages.

Right now I'm loving Evernote.com I am always finding inspiration online: kids party ideas, decorating ideas, craft ideas, projects, recipes...it's hard to keep it all organized. On Google Reader you can "star" your favorite things but I hadn't found a way to organize or easily search for things. Evernote stores it all, you can tag it with various words too to make searching easier. I have multiple "notebooks" my recipes are in one notebook and I have them tagged with words like entree, appetizer, even tagged with a specific season (so I can search for good summer dishes). I even have a tag called "B out of town" things I know he wont like but that I want to try. Brian has been using this too. I currently only use the free version but I am on the verge of paying the yearly fee ($5/month or $45/year) so I can use it a lot more, I plan to scan in all my recipes, and torn out pages from magazines. Love it.

Current favorite summertime dessert. Creamy vanilla ice cream with locally grown peaches sliced on top. Oh so very yummy. We've been buying the Breyers Fat Free Ice Cream.

Anticipation. I am so not a patient person but I do love the planning, the dreaming, the giddiness that comes from having to wait. Oh so very anxious to get this party started. To hold him in my arms, to be sitting up in that hospital bed with a baby on my lap, my husband sitting on the bed and my girls crowded around to see (and Lorie snapping pictures the whole time, ha).

Checked out these books from the library. I have a grocery list made and I plan to have a big cooking and freezing day.

School supply time will be here before we know it. I have my eyes on these for the girls.

She

She is an introvert but still would be happy to be stuck to my side 24 hours a day.

She is looking way too old to me.

She has a brain that is constantly working--playing with numbers in her head or just thinking through things.

She is excited about having a brother but still reminds me that she likes girls better.

She has not forgotten her best friend Anna even though we moved 2 years ago.

She is learning to express her feelings and it cracks me up, "YOU ARE REALLY FRUSTRATE ME!"

She wants to pick out her own outfit everyday which results in fully color coordinated outfit (usually pink).

She takes a long time when while working on an art project because she wants everything perfect.

She cleans up after herself and chastises me if I don't turn off the bathroom light.

She rewarded her sister with various prizes yesterday for playing a game nicely (giving her a dollar, a My Little Pony, various jewelry...

She still sleeps with her snuggly bunny.

She is one sweet little lady

She

She knows something is about to shake things up because she wants extra snuggles lately.
She has the ability to make anything messy.
She can antagonize her sister to no end.
She randomly tells us she loves us.
She has started telling me that I'm her best friend.
She would happily wear an entire box of band-aids.
She likes to change her clothes during the day.
She will eat a HUGE meal for breakfast and then barely eat anything else all day (two waffles, two eggs, "Daddy cereal"--Fiber One).
She constantly is making noise--this one is hard for me to handle.
She has an easy time making friends.

I Heard & Motherhood Ramblings.

This week I have heard a few things that I immediately had to write down and I have been thinking about non-stop.

Elizabeth Edwards said she wanted to live eight more years because at that time she would have walked each of her children to the next chapter of their lives.

I have had this image in my head of mother's holding their children's' hands, leading them to a doorway and then encouraging them as they walk through the door. Isn't that what we do as mothers? We're just working each day to teach our kids what they will need to know for that next step. We're constantly observing, seeing what is missing, incorporating lessons of life in every little milk spill, tear fall, and good or bad choice. We're teaching through the accidents, loving through the mistakes, and disciplining through rebellion (not my line either but another one that I love).

Motherhood in general has been on my mind a lot, not a surprise since I'm preparing to increase the number of ducklings that follow me around. I've always been really attracted to Brian's ambition in his career. It's not an ambition that I have ever had, my ambitions have ALWAYS been family related. Would this make feminists gasp? It's okay, it's what I choose and I'm not ashamed of my "Stay-at-home-mom" title. It's my job (one that I absolutely love) and I work hard to do it well. I think that is part of why I get frustrated during pregnancies, my body won't let me do as much as I would like to or what I know it is normally capable of. It frustrates me to no end that my kids are watching Barney movies in the afternoon because I need to lay down. I have been laying awake every night, mind racing, so excited for what is to come. Excited for the baby smell of sweetness, lotion, and milkshake all rolled into a snug swaddled bundle, excited to watch Kendall and Kate stretch and grow into this new role of extra big sisters (their next chapter?), excited to get into our new routine--finding what works for us and what doesn't, excited to see Brian hold his son, a son that will carry on the name that Brian shares with his own father and grandfather.

Don't get me wrong, it's not all sugar and spice, there are definitely fears and guilt and anxiety about if I'm doing a good job, fears that change depending on the week. This week my fear was that I'm not instilling enough confidence in my girls. Again, something I heard--a middle school age kid that suffered from such poor self esteem that he was filled with self doubt and negative feelings about himself. But, we learn as we go...them and me. They're teaching me as much as I teach them, I think. We make it, we will make it. We'll work towards this next chapter and then the next one until finally... (the last thing I heard this week that has had me thinking), "The little person that I hold in my arms tonight is the one that will be holding my hand when I die." All three of them, hmmm, one will just have to hold my foot because I'm running out of hands. Mom--you don't have enough appendages for all of your kids.

Diaper and Wipe Holder

Sometimes you just need a couple diapers and a container of wipes, not a whole diaper bag. They actually make little pouches for just that situation but today I made my own. It's far from perfect, I had never done a "gathering stitch" and I had never sewn in a zipper but I love it. I don't know if you can tell from the picture but the front is ruffled (not wrinkly, ha). And the interior is lined with a green paisley fabric.

Three in One Day?!

Good baby toys are hard to find. They just don't make em like they used to. You know I've been browsing the toy aisles of Target and Babies R Us since I found out I was pregnant and I have yet to find one quality, well made baby toy (not battery operated and plastic). I've turned to the internet and here is my baby toy wish list:

Pacifier Chain: practical, entertaining and well made

Moby rattle:

Patience Blocks: blocks, rattles, puzzles

Stroller/Car Seat Toy: easily attaches, lots of colors

Fabric Ball: lots to grab on to or chew on

Natural Wood Teether:

Frustrating, I've spent all day trying to upload pictures to here but it's just not working! Blogger must be having problems. This is all I can get on here. Bummer. I am trying to blog people!!

I LOVE this

Kate came up to me like this and said, "What are these called?" I just stared at her with a blank look on my face for awhile trying to figure out what she was really asking me.

Finally I answered, "Your temples."

At first she accepted this answer but I could tell she was rolling that around in her brain and it just didn't sound right. She just stood there with her hands up to her head and then asked, "Like bumble bees have?"

Aaaaaaaah, "Those are antennas"

Love that girl.

For Suzi

Tidbits because it's all that I can get motivated to blog about:

I'm RE-reading Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert...fabulous, one of my two favorite books (the other being Pride and Prejudice). I had to check it out from the library because, sadly, I gave my copy away.

I stopped at the book store today and picked up these for our vacation. During our hotel stay I checked out two books by these authors and they were both good (very very different though).

Today the girls and I made this. YUMMY. Make it

Last week we went here.

and here (butterfly exhibit).

This makes me laugh:

and so does the fact that today she asked multiple times for "bikini bread" (zucchini bread).

This makes me smile. I had walked to throw something in the trash can and when she saw me walking back she was so happy to see me (I was gone three seconds).

I have a hair appointment tomorrow--mine are always too far apart so I get really excited about them. Wishing I had scheduled a pedicure. Our beach trip is next week and I can't reach my toes.