Birthday Cake

Conversation in the car...

C: "Mom! Mom! What kind of cake do you want for your birthday?"

Me: "Oh, I don't know. What do you think?"

C: "How about a heart cake?"

Me: "A heart shaped cake?"

C: "Yeah! Because you love us!"

Me: "That's nice...but how about it's a heart shaped cake because YOU love me?"

C: "Ok...that too. Good! So you can make a heart cake for your birthday!"

Me: "Wait a minute! I have to make my own birthday cake? I'm not going to make my own cake."

C: "But who else is going to make it? We don't know how to cook."

O: "Yeah, mom. We don't know how to make a cake."

Me: "What about Dad? Dad could help you make a cake."

C: "I think Dad's too busy for that. You can just make your own cake."

O: "Yeah! A heart cake...because you love us!"

Indeed I do...but why is that again???

The Future...

A conversation during bath time this evening...

C: "Hey Mom! I'm more than half way to 10!"

Me: "That's true. But don't rush to being 10. Let's just enjoy being 5."

C: "Why?"

Me: "Well, I don't want you to rush to grow up! Because now is so much fun! And eventually you'll get really big and grow up and move away, and then I'll miss you."

O: "But then you can still take care of me and the baby! And that will make you happy, right Mom?"

Me: "Right! But I hope C will still come and visit even when he's grown up. That would be nice too."

C: "Maybe..."
"...but I might forget where you live."

How to make an Apple Pie...

Step 1: Go apple picking! Insist on using the ladders even though there are tons of apples easily within reach while on the ground.

Step 2: Fight with your brother about whether to make apple pie or banana bread, even though your mom already went out and bought all the fixings for homemade pie crust, but has no ripe bananas.

Step 3: Agree to make an apple pie when your mom threatens to cancel baking altogether.

Step 4: Eagerly help mix flour, salt and shortening for the dough.

Step 5: Lose interest all together and go watch TV while your mom peels, cores, and slices lots of apples.

Step 6: Return when it is time to mix the apple slices with cinnamon, sugar, and nutmeg. This part smells good!

Step 7: Inform your mom of the many ways she is rolling out the crust wrong. Remind her that the recipe calls for making a "lattice crust" with one inch strips of dough, and ask "But Why?!!" a thousand times when she says that's too hard.

Step 8: Load the filling into the imperfect pie crust.

Step 9: Humor your mom and tell her that perhaps the regular pie crust will turn out OK, even though you really wanted the lattice crust.

Step 10: Whine about how hungry you are and ask "Is the pie ready yet??" every 30 seconds for the next hour, until your mom finally takes it out of the oven.

Step 11: Whine for the next 20 minutes about how you don't want to wait for the pie to cool!

Step 12: Dig into a big slice of pie at 4 in the afternoon and completely spoil your dinner.

Step 13: Talk with your mouth full. Your mom won't mind since you're yelling, "Do I like it? Yes I do!" and "Thanks Mom!"

Five minutes later, ruin the post-pie bliss by pushing your brother into the edge of the table, so that he gets a big goose egg.

Winding Down

Since the boys have now started school, summer is officially winding down. I know there are still technically a couple weeks left, but I always feel that once school starts, fall is here! We've done most of the things on our "Summer Adventures" list, and since we'll be busy with school and our fall extracurricular activities, I don't think we'll cross off anything else.

1. Move (yikes!)
2. Explore all of the playgrounds in our new neighborhood (not sure if we've hit them all, but we've been to at least 4!)
3. Take a family vacation
4. Swimming lessons
5. Join the library's summer reading program and read, read, read
6. Go Strawberry Picking
7. Go Blueberry Picking
8. Go on a Treasure Hunt in the Woods
9. Have a beach day
10. Go to a minor league baseball game
11. Go to a local racetrack and see a real car race
12. Play Minigolf
13. Bowling
14. Go for a hike
15. Visit local Children's Museum
16. Visit local Science Museum
17. Visit local Aquarium
18. Go to preseason football game
19. Visit Gramma and Grampa
20. Visit the local farm
21. Visit Zoo
22. Host BBQ  

The weather was really beautiful this summer, unlike last year when weeks on end were rainy and cold. So I didn't really feel like taking the boys for indoor adventures. I think we'll save those for the fall. Bowling & Museums here we come!

And don't forget apple and pumpkin picking. I think fall will be pretty fun too!

Big Day!

Today was the first day of school for both boys. They both woke up early and were dressed and ready to go about 20 minutes before we needed to leave. I need to figure out how to make this last through the dregs of winter, when getting out the door always becomes a nightmare.

C is clearly comfortable after two years in school, and was happy to be left on his own to check out his new classroom. O was thrilled to go to school for the first time, and I thought that he would have an easy transition since he went to camp over the summer.  I was very surprised when he dissolved into tears when it was actually time for me to say goodbye. I guess the difference is that his brother was at camp with him, and this time he was really on his own. I left feeling like a terrible mom, but was reassured by the huge grin I saw at pickup, and the eager chatter about books, snacks, and art.

I can't believe that I have a kindergartener and a preschooler! 

I'm excited for them, but do wish they weren't quite so eager to head off away from me...

Can't time slow down just a little?

Body Parts

O studies my belly intently.

Me: "Are you looking at the baby?"
O: "Yes. Where's his foot?"
Me: "I'm not sure. Where do you think it is?"
O: "I think it's here!" (poking me in the side)
Me: "Maybe! Where do you think his head is?"
O: "Hmmm....maybe over here." (poking my other side).
"But I know his bum is here!" (poking the lowest part of my belly).
Me: "Really?"
O: "Yes. So he can poop on the floor!!!"

Sigh. Why does it always come back to poop?

Insomnia

I have suffered from insomnia with all of my pregnancies. I am always tired and can fall asleep quickly, but if I wake up in the middle of the night, it takes hours for me to fall back to sleep. Between Hubby coming to bed late because he fell asleep watching TV on the couch, having to pee, or one of the boys waking up, it seems that almost every night I am wide awake around 3-4AM. It's very quiet at that time of night...except for my brain, which, once awakened, seems unable to shut up.

Tonight I was sound asleep until I heard O crying in panic at 4AM. I had forgotten to turn on the hallway night light, which caused him a great deal of distress. "WAAAAH, Mommy!! It was too dark and I didn't know where the door was!!" He's now sound asleep with Hubby in our bed, and after 30 minutes of lying awake staring at the ceiling, I gave up trying to fall asleep again and came downstairs. Might as well do something productive with my time, like making lists of the phone calls I need to make when it's a more reasonable hour, what C & O each need for the first day of school, etc.

I've been feeling very stressed these last couple of weeks because both boys are starting new schools this year. C is heading off to kindergarten, and O will be going to preschool for the first time. Because C has a significant dairy allergy, any transition like this is very scary for me and most of my recent insomnia has involved worrying "what-ifs". I had grown confident and comfortable with his care at preschool, and it is hard to start again with new teachers and staff.  The lateness of class assignments hasn't helped my worries. It was only yesterday that I was finally able to meet his new teacher and speak with the school nurse! They both seem very nice and receptive to working with me to keep him safe in the classroom, so that is reassuring, but we will see how it all irons out once school starts. I haven't been worrying too much about O starting school since he seems ready for a new experience, he is going to C's old school, where I already feel comfortable, and so far he has no known food allergies. All of which are good things. But then I feel midnight "mommy guilt" that I am spending so much time trying to get things in order for C and I haven't really given O's transition much thought at all. With myself, I just can't win.

I keep hoping that once the boys settle into school, I'll be able to settle back into sleeping well. But if history is any indicator, I'll be suffering from this early morning waking for the rest of this pregnancy. Perhaps my body is just getting me ready for all those midnight wakings with a new baby. I guess that's not a bad thing.

But really, I'd rather get some sleep.

20 weeks

Halfway through! I don't feel that big, but after taking some belly shots this weekend, I realized that I am getting kind of huge already. I guess that's what happens when it's your third.

How cute is little C in that second picture?!?!?

Did you know that at 20 weeks: "Your baby has grown as big as a banana. (Length: about 6 1/2 inches from head to bottom, and 10 inches from head to heel.)" My boys are obsessed with the site "Poppy seed to Pumpkin" and eagerly look forward to checking how big their baby is each week. Having already passed through a variety of beans, lemons, limes, tomatoes, and peppers, they can't wait for the mini-watermelon and pumpkin. Yikes, I don't even want to think about how big I'll be in January!

Great Expectations

I picked up a new journal last week.

I've written in the same journal two times before.

The first was quite full, the second had some more blank pages.

I'm not sure how the third will turn out, but I hope it will end up with more pages filled out than not.

If feeling lucky and grateful were all that were needed, the book would be written already.

Gone too Soon...

This has been a sad week for me. On Monday I learned that one of my oldest friends passed away unexpectedly. He was the youngest son of my mother's best friend and was the closest thing I have to a brother. Born in the same year, we truly grew up together. I went to his house after school every day. I have many fond memories of being forced to watch He-Man and G.I. Joe, which wouldn't have been my cartoons of choice, but were still a treat, since I wasn't allowed to watch TV at home. Then there were the Skipbo tournaments, swimming at the lake, and the ski trips where he was always much more of a daredevil than I.  Even though I hadn't seen him often in the past 10 years, as life had taken us in different directions, he was still always a part of my consciousness because he was "family." I frequently heard updates about him and his family through my mother, and on the occasions where we were able to get together, my boys just loved playing with him and his young son.

Yesterday was his funeral service, and though I am not a public crier, even I couldn't stop the tears from flowing. I was so touched by how many people he was loved by and had freely loved. One of the most beautiful parts of the service was when his wife read some excerpts from his journals. Apparently in recent years, he had always carried a notebook around to jot down thoughts, and much of what was in there was descriptions of days with his son. In fact, my two boys remember him as "the guy with the notebook!" because when we last saw him earlier this summer, he let them play with it. Unbeknownst to me, he had also let them write in it. I learned this at his wake, when his wife told me that when she was flipping through his journal this week, she saw the names of C & O where C had printed them.  In the excerpt she read aloud, he described seeing a firetruck with his son and dipping their toes in a pond. Transmitted clearly through every word was his pure enjoyment of fatherhood and pride in his son. What a gift it will be for his family, to be able to turn to his actual words for comfort and memories.

All of this got me to thinking about how important journaling can be, not just for your own soul, but for those around you. As I said when I started this blog months ago, I used to love to journal, but never find the time anymore. I had hoped that the online format would make it easier for me to keep up, but it was still hard to find the time. But I am going to try to recommit to it now. Even if my boys never read what I write here, I want to be able to come back and relive all those little memories that I would otherwise forget. Because simple things like firetrucks and wet toes are what life is all about. And I want to make sure I remember that.

Keeping busy! (Just not with this blog...)

This summer is just flying by. I'm not quite sure how it happened, but my calendar keeps insisting that next week is AUGUST! Already?!?! Big changes are coming in September with C going to kindergarten and O starting preschool, and I don't want to get there yet.

Our summer has been fun, if a bit lazy. The boys started a month's worth of daily swimming lessons, so most of our days consist of a leisurely morning at home, swim lessons, home for lunch, and then a leisurely afternoon at home, or the occasional return to the pool for more swimming fun. After a tearful first 3 days, O discovered that "I love swimming, Mommy!" Thank goodness!

We have fit in a few other things, and are having fun checking off our Summer Adventures List.

1. Move (yikes!)
2. Explore all of the playgrounds in our new neighborhood
3. Take a family vacation
4. Swimming lessons
5. Join the library's summer reading program and read, read, read
6. Go Strawberry Picking
7. Go Blueberry Picking
8. Go on a Treasure Hunt in the Woods
9. Have a beach day
10. Go to a minor league baseball game
11. Go to a local racetrack and see a real car race
12. Play Minigolf
13. Bowling
14. Go for a hike
15. Visit local Children's Museum
16. Visit local Science Museum
17. Visit local Aquarium
18. Go to preseason football game
19. Visit Gramma and Grampa
20. Visit the local farm
21. Visit Zoo
22. Host BBQ 

 We still have quite a few things we want to accomplish, so we'd better get moving!

50 Books in 2010--update #3 (25 weeks, but only 20 books)

I'm still committed my 50 books in a year challenge, but I am falling behind! With all the craziness of moving, C finishing up with school, and trying to settle into a new summer routine, I haven't been doing as much reading lately. Slowly but surely, I did work through 10 more books, several of which I enjoyed a lot. Here they are...

*             *               *

11. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
I thought this book was great. I wasn't sure I'd get into it initially since the book is written entirely in letter format, but I was quickly drawn in by the characters, and ended up really loving it. Quite a sweet book that I recommended without hesitation to my MIL who also loved it. My own mom is next on the list to borrow it.

12. Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay
I enjoyed this book as well. Based on a very sad premise, this was a depressing but interesting look at the Holocaust from a child's point of view.

13. The Girl Who Played with Fire by Steig Larsson
This is second book in the Millennium Trilogy. It was fun to revisit the characters from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and I look forward to reading the final book in the series to see where things go from here.  I just picked up the 3rd book last week, so I am sure it will show up in my next book update.

14. Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris
I loved the Twilight series, so I thought I should check out the first book in the Sookie Stackhouse series. It was an easy read, but I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as I enjoyed the Twilight series. I never thought of myself as being really into "vampire" fiction, I was just drawn in by the characters in Twilight. The same didn't happen for me with this book. Perhaps it was too vampirey. I still may try out another book in this series though, since I know a lot of my friends did enjoy these books.

15. Real Boys: Rescuing our Sons from the Myths of Boyhood by William Pollack
I read this book in snippets over a few months while waiting in the school pickup line, in an attempt to figure out how to raise my two boys to be fine young men. It was filled with interesting anecdotes and gave me some ideas. Here's hoping I can figure it all out without screwing them up too much!

16. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley
This was a cute book, focused on the detective exploits of an 11 year old girl. As a Harriet the Spy and Sherlock Holmes lover, and a girl who used to pretend to be a spy and solve crimes in the yard, this was a fun new character for me to discover. I look forward to reading Bradley's next book.

17. Raising Cain by Dan Kindlon and Michael Thompson
Another "raising boys" parenting book. Can you tell what I've been focused on?!  While interesting, this book kind of stressed me out, talking a lot about sex, violence, drugs, and the struggles boys have in adolescence. Yikes! Can they just stay 5 and 3 forever?

18. Little Earthquakes by Jennifer Weiner
I had heard of Jennifer Weiner's books (In Her Shoes, etc), but had never read any of them. So when I saw this one for $2 at a book sale, I figured I would check it out, even though I had no idea what it was about. It ended up being a fun, easy read about becoming a mother and the life changes that go with it. Not profound, but a good summer read.

19. People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
I really enjoyed this book.  I tend to like historical fiction, and this story about a book conservator and an intriguing journey through the history of a unique book, was right up my alley. It was historical fiction for book lovers!

20. The Case of the Missing Servant by Tarquin Hall
I always pick up Indian fiction (a small tribute to my heritage, I guess), and I love mysteries, so even though I had never heard of this book before, when I saw it at Costco I had to check it out. And I'm so glad I did, because it was a funny and interesting tale of a private investigator in India. The flow of the speech of the characters and their expressions brought back the voices of my relatives, and I couldn't help but smile as I read along. I am not sure if the author intends to write more books in this vein, but I sure hope he does, because I would love to follow "Vish Puri, India's Most Private Investigator" on a few more adventures.

*               *               *

I really do want to succeed in reading 50 books this year, so here's hoping I can catch up some this summer. Two books a week will be tough, but I did pick up a few promising new books at the local library's 50c book sale! I've already started book 21, so we'll see how it goes...

NH Numbers

Last week we took a short family vacation to the White Mountains in New Hampshire. We all had a great time, and it worked out well for a relaxing post move vacation. I think fun was had by all. Here's a brief look at our vacation in numbers (and a few pictures)...

# of different license plates seen: 30 states, 4 Canadian provinces, and 1 US government plate

# of holes of mini golf played: 36, and the boys begged for more.

# of motorcycles seen:  We stopped counting after reaching 111, but we surely saw several hundred as, unbeknownst to us, it was also "Bike Week" in the White Mountains. Largest group of motorcycles seen riding together: 22

 

# of gorges hiked: 2

 

# of glacial boulders seen: LOTS

# of ants, spiders, and beetles spotted and studied in depth by the boys: I have no idea, but it seemed that every other minute they were looking at some insect.

# of caves explored: 10

# of trains ridden: 3

# of hours at Story Land amusement park: 7.5

# of times the boys rode the roller coaster: 3 (this was the only ride they wanted to repeat)
 

# of times the boys needed to be carried during all of our long days: 0 (!!!!!!!)

They really are growing up! This vacation would not have been nearly as much fun last year.

Almost a month...

It's been almost a month since I last posted.

I had such high hopes when I started this blog. I was going to post 5 days a week, so I would never forget any of the funny things the boys did. But just like with losing weight and getting regular exercise, it's proven harder to stick with this goal than I thought. Life just gets too busy sometimes.

Soon after my last post, we moved. Which means that several weeks of our lives were focused on these.

We're mostly unpacked now. Just a few straggling boxes are left (which are the hardest to unpack because they're filled with things that we don't quite know what to do with). We would have been further along, but I just couldn't resist taking the boys to do things like this instead.

After all, we've never been strawberry picking before, so when the right weather and the right timing lined up, how could I waste that opportunity? And it was on our list of summer adventures!

Now that life is settling back into our regular routine, I hope to be back posting more. At least until things get busy again... I'll just keep doing my best. Even a little something has to be better than nothing, right?

Keeping them busy all summer long...

As pre-K is rapidly winding down for the year, the long stretch of summer is looming. This is not as much of a shock for me as it is for many other moms with school age kids, since I am used to having O home with me everyday. Still, the idea of being home with 2 active boys for months on end (without the break of school, music class, and our other regularly scheduled activities) is both exciting and daunting. While most of the other children in C's class are heading off to full day, multi-week camps, C and O will be staying home with me. Right now I have the luxury of being home with them, so I want to enjoy it!  But that means that the boys' entertainment will be completely up to me.

To that end, we are continuing our tradition of making a "Summer Adventures" list. In late spring, the boys and I sit down and come up with a list of all the fun things we want to do during summer vacation.  Making the list is a big part of getting excited for summer. C checks on the list every few days and can't wait until we start crossing things off it. Some will happen, and some probably won't. But, here is what we'd love to accomplish this summer:

1. Move (yikes!)
2. Explore all of the playgrounds in our new neighborhood
3. Take a family vacation
4. Swimming lessons
5. Join the library's summer reading program and read, read, read
6. Go Strawberry Picking
7. Go Blueberry Picking
8. Go on a Treasure Hunt in the Woods
9. Have a beach day
10. Go to a minor league baseball game
11. Go to a local racetrack and see a real car race
12. Play Minigolf
13. Bowling
14. Go for a hike
15. Visit local Children's Museum
16. Visit local Science Museum
17. Visit local Aquarium
18. Go to preseason football game
19. Visit Gramma and Grampa
20. Visit the local farm
21. Visit Zoo
22. Host BBQ 

Last year, our summer adventures list helped us keep a good balance between active outings and lazy days at home. I firmly believe that the boys need both, but I do better with at least a loose weekly schedule. 

What do you and your family have planned for the summer? I'd love some more fun ideas!

We are all artists.

C's pre-K class just finished a 3 week unit on art, culminating in a trip to a local art museum. I've been hearing about this unit in little snippets after school.. It's been interesting to try to figure out what on earth they've been doing from the one line facts that C chose to provide. 

"Art is shoes."

"Picasso didn't just do paintings, he also did sculptures."

"And then there were marbles, but my marbles kept falling out, so it didn't really work."

"We made stabiles. It's like a mobile but it's a stabile." 

"Kline painted with lines."

"We got to splat! The paintbrush wasn't allowed to touch the paper. Only to splat or drip. Like my friend Jack makes art." (I later found out that they had been studying Jackson Pollack.)

"We're all artists, Mom. Even you."

I was really quite bewildered. But I could tell that he was having fun with the unit, and maybe learning a little something too.

When I asked him how the trip to the museum was, he eagerly told me how on the way there in his classmate's car they watched "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" and on the way home they watched "Mickey saves Santa."

But what about the museum? "Well, we looked at some art, and then we went to the bathroom, and then we had snack, and then we looked at a little more art and then came home." With a little more prodding, he did eventually say that they looked at a Mondrian painting and then tried to copy it.

So I was really surprised by the impressive display of their creations when the class opened their own art gallery this week. Even though the information didn't always come home, it was clear that they touched on all different types of art, from pop art, to line art, to sculptures, to still lifes, and quilting. Seeing all the kids showing off their work with such pride was wonderful. They knew that they really were artists. And that's the best lesson of them all.

O's tale

The boys were taking turns telling me stories this afternoon. This was O's tale.

"Once upon a time there was a Baby Mario. And a Baby Luigi hugged him. And then they got flushed down the toilet! HA HA HA HA HA! And then there was a little, little, little...no, a giant, giant, giant bear that scared them. The End!"

I'm not sure why I found this so funny, but I truly laughed until I had tears in my eyes!

Happy Mother's Day

to all the mommies out there...

...who wouldn't trade this job for anything!

Feeling like "that mom"

I like to think that I am raising my boys to be well mannered.  On their own, they behave quite nicely, and C's teacher has no complaints about his behavior in school. But lately, when the two of them are together, it's as if their energies collide and combust, creating a whirlwind of noise and running. It's not that they are having tantrums (although they have plenty of those too), it's more of a jubilant tornado. All that happy energy and noise proves very disruptive when we are in public, and makes me feel like "that mom".

You know the one.

The one that people roll their eyes at and wonder, "How can she let them behave that way?" or "Why doesn't she control her children?" When they are chattering and singing so loudly at a restaurant during lunch that two separate parties ask to be seated elsewhere as the server leads them in our direction. Or racing around the aisles in the shoe store (reminding me why I prefer to do most of my shopping online). Or playing "bonk heads" in the double cart at Costco. (They never believe me when I tell them that this is not a good game, even though it ends in tears every time.)

To all the tired and exasperated moms that I rolled my eyes at before I had children, I apologize. I didn't know. I had no idea that sometimes the energies of a 5 and 3 year old really can not be tamed. That boys truly will be boys. That sometimes asking nicely, bribing with snacks, and doling out time outs just doesn't work. 

I know now. Because I'm "that mom" too.

Water water everywhere...

Due to a major water main break, we spent the last few days without drinkable tap water. Until the "boil water" order went into effect, I had never really thought about how often I use tap water. A quick drink, wetting a paper towel to wipe a messy face after a meal, washing my hands, rinsing a toothbrush, running the dishwasher, all these things and more were off limits for 3 days. In fact, it was so automatic for the boys and I to just reach for the tap that I had to wrap a towel around the faucet handles to remind us to stop!

The novelty made it somewhat fun. As I washed and rinsed pots and pans in a basin full of previously boiled water, I felt like a pioneer woman. Yes, the paper plates, plastic utensils, and bottled water for drinking (and coffee making!) ruined the illusion a bit.

I got a glimpse of human nature in a local CVS when bottled water sold out right in front of me. Some people walked out with 16 cases just for themselves, smirking at others who got turned away. I had only wanted to pick up a couple of gallon jugs that I could use and then refill because I didn't have any pitchers to store boiled water in, but I got concerned when I saw the shortage and surrounding hysteria. Everyone was saying that this would last for a week or more. So I grabbed up a couple of cases too. I couldn't even have bought a gallon jug if I wanted to, since the shelves were completely bare.  I felt guilty buying into the "every man for himself" philosophy, but still took what I thought would be enough for us if the shortage went on for more than a week. And remained grateful that at least we could boil water. After all, the bottled water was just more convenient. It wasn't necessary. I can't even imagine what the scene would have been like if we had no water at all.

This situation certainly opened my eyes to what I have always taken for granted--having potable water whenever I want it. I also never realized just how much I use water every day! We did drink a lot of tap water before we heard about the order. Here's hoping we stay healthy! I'll raise a glass of water to that!