Sloan has a shadow these days. It follows him wherever he goes and does whatever he does. He doesn’t seem to mind, though.
Not yet anyway…
For more Wordless Wednesday shots, visit 5 Minutes for Mom.
The Birthday Party
February 8, 2010 by
We had The Birthday Party this weekend. The Birthday Party that required a lot and very little all at once. Because I just didn’t have it in my to host a party this year, we booked a gymnastics party for the 4 year old. It was well worth the money, in my oh so humble opinion.
Of course, there was a little preparation that went into the party. Namely, making the cake. In general, I like to buy the cake because, well, I’m not that good at making cakes. Actually, that’s not true. I can make a cake fine – I can’t decorate a cake. Usually, when I try and decorate cakes it looks as if I did so while blind folded, while fighting off a rabid monkey. I’ll wait for a moment while you get that visual in your mind…
Got it? I know…it’s bad.
But I was determined this time to accomplish the task of making the perfect cake. And because I don’t know when to take a step back and tone it down, I decided to attempt this cake – the beloved Rainbow Cake from MckMama’s blog.
As expected, the making of the seperate cakes was a piece of…well, cake. Ahem. And, as expected, the decorating of said cake made me long for a stiff drink and a Prozac. And Tia wanted purple icing to boot, so after several tubs of icing were sufficiently colored, I set to assembling the monstrosity cake.
It wasn’t the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen. But it was pretty cute with the purple icing and the hot pink swirls at the bottom. And, of course, when we cut into it and we saw the rainbow layers, I got ooh’s and aah’s from kid’s and mom’s alike.
But there was more to the party than just the cake! Of course, my camera batteries ran out seconds after the party began so I didn’t get a lot of the actual party (Lee ran out to buy more before the cake and presents). But I did get a few and rather than tell you about the party, I’ll let you look and see for yourself.
After all, they say a picture is worth a thousand words, right?
-
- Gearing up for assembly.
-
- The completed cake. Not bad, eh?
-
- The parachute was a big hit. Every picture I have of Tia, her mouth is wide open.
-
- If only they looked alike…
-
- I’m not sure what the expression is, but I love this picture
-
- Landon was thrilled that he actually got to participate. I’ll probably regret it now, though, every time I take him to watch Tia’s gymnastics class.
-
- The whole crew with their medals
-
- Tia gets embarrassed and silly when she’s center of attention.
-
- Singing Happy Birthday
-
- So cute and so worth the effort!
-
- It was a hit
-
- The Rainbow cake was as cute on plates as it was assembled.
-
- The birthday girl with her gymnastics medal
-
- Tia and her best friend.
Now I’m gonna melt your hearts
February 5, 2010 by
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again…
He’s YUMMY.
Katya Rose
February 2, 2010 by
Moments ago (or so it seems) the doctor laid a tiny, squirmy baby on my chest and said, “Congratulations, you have a baby girl.”
My daughter.
I never thought I’d have a daughter. And yet, as I held her in that very first moment and looked at her face, somehow I knew her. It was like I had always known her, her face was so familiar to me.
And now, four years later, I’m wondering how it happened so fast?
How did she go from this?
To the smart, witty, mischevious four year old sitting on my couch?
Where did the baby go? The one who’s eyes and cheeks swallowed her face?
To say I adore this little girl is quite the understatement. She’s just awesome. And Lee and I both agree that our time with her has seemed especially fast. We sometimes struggle to remember her as a baby. I think it’s because, as babies go, she may have been the best infant on the planet. She slept 19 hours a day until she was six months old. She ate like a horse (maybe a pony) and she smiled near constantly.
There’s also the fact that she wasn’t a baby for very long.
As soon as she figured out she had the potential for mobility, she took off. By 5 months she was crawling, by 9 and a half months she was walking and by one she was giving me a heart attack by jumping off any and everything in sight.
Before she was two, she was a big sister – a role that she was born to play.
But this contributed to the feeling that somehow she’s just grown up too fast. I feel like I missed it. Even though I relished in her girlness as a baby, now that’s it’s so far removed, I feel like it happened too fast. And now this small person stands before me. How did that happen?
I love having a girl sandwiched between two boys. She brings a bit of sensitivity to the bunch. Not much, of course, because she makes it known she wants to be one of the guys.
I look forward to seeing these relationships grow as they get older – to see the boys protect their sister and Tia look after her brothers.
It’s been one heckova year for Tia. There have been a lot of milestones reached. Most good. Some, ahem, not so good.
And here we are, Feburary 2, and I’m wondering how we got here so fast. Tia pranced into our room at 6:15 this morning and, with her tiny mouth inches from my ear, stage whispered, “Moooom. I’m four now.”
I know, sweet girl. I know.
Happy Birthday, Katya Rose.
Last year, I wrote this post for her birthday. It’s still one of my favorite posts. I’m not sure I could ever say it better than that.
Some kids want ponies…
January 29, 2010 by
We’re driving down the road in the (smokin’ hot) minivan when we pass it. As we drive by, Sloan’s head whips around so far and so fast that I wonder briefly if he might be part owl given his ability to crane his neck to ungodly angles.
“Oh. my. gosh. Mom. Did you just see that? Did you seeeeeee that?! Wow!” he exclaims (and when I say exclaims I mean screeches to the point that my ears start to bleed). He’s now all but sitting on his knees staring out the back window.
“What?” I ask.
“That yellow car. Did you see it?”
I rack my brain. I vaguely remember us just passing a yellow sports car. “Yeah, I saw it,” I said. “What about it?”
“I saw a Transformer head peek out the top. It looked right at me!”
“Oh really?” I ask, highly amused.
“Mom – it was Bumblebee! It really was mom. I saw his head stick up out of the front of the car and he looked at me. That was totally Bumblebee. Totally Awesooooome.”
Upon arriving home, he sat in front of his bedroom window for a solid thiry minutes, “just in case Bumblebee comes to our house.” And for days afterward, he reminded us that somewhere in the greater St. Louis area, a real life Bumblebee was on the loose. “I wonder if Optimus Prime and Star Scream are in our city too?” he asked on more than one occasion.
A few days after the momentous Transformer sighting, Sloan came tearing into our bedroom where I was folding clothes laying down for a few minutes. He had the phone in his hand and wanted to call his dad, who was out shopping for a new car.
“Mom, can I puh-leeze call daddy and tell him to buy that yellow car we saw the other day.”
“Honey, I don’t think daddy is looking for a little yellow car – he needs a bigger car.”
“Aaawww…I really want him to bring that car home. That way I could have my very own for real Transformer.” And with his head hanging low, he moped out of the room.
Some kids want their parents to buy them ponies…mine – he wants an honest to God Transformer – and we won’t give it to him.
We’re so mean.
This is why daddy is so much fun
January 26, 2010 by
Nearly every evening, our home is filled with delighted shreeks, hysterical giggles and the occasional tears – and all of it is caused by the man that our kids call “Daddy.”
He’s a good daddy. He knows how to love his kids. Even if he’s exhausted, if they come to him with big eyes and ask him to wrestle, he will almost always say yes. Particularly if Tia blinks her huge blue eyes in his direction. Usually I have to scrape his heart off the floor so he can answer her.
The wrestling is loud, it’s crazy and it’s rough. He doesn’t hold back – not even with the girl. And when she cries, he reminds her that if she wants to play she has to buck up and be tough. And she will take a deep breath, brush the tears off her face and dive back in.
And it’s not only wrestling – there’s also tickling, some hide and seek and a good deal of chasing. In short, it’s good, good fun. I leave you with evidence.
What about you guys? How do your kids have fun with their daddies?
More Things I Never Thought I’d Say
January 18, 2010 by
This time last year, I posted the first edition of Things I Never Thought I’d Say. This is the follow up.
“Please don’t wipe your boogers on your brother. In fact, please just don’t even pick your nose.”
“Guys, quit kissing each other. Brothers and sisters don’t kiss like that.”
“If you’re out of toilet paper, let me know…please don’t wipe yourself with the towel.”
“Are you eating one of the dog’s treats? Gross!”
“No, honey. I’m sure you don’t have the spotted mountain fever.”
“I know you’re mad, but you need to fix your face and shape it up.”
“You can kiss your wife like that someday, but you may not kiss mommy that way.”
“Why is my underwear on your head?”
“Don’t forget to wipe and flush.”
“I’m glad you’re having fun, but daddy’s saw is not a sword.”
“You found a slug? Oh great. No, he can’t sit at the table with us while we eat.”
“No, I don’t think that girl is looking at you because she wants to marry you.”
“What’s that sticking out of your diaper-Did you put something in there?”
“I think he just swallowed a penny.”
“I digged through the poopy diaper and I found the penny! Yeah!”
“I’m going to bed at 8:30 tonight. I don’t care if it’s Friday.”
“Because I’m the mom and what I say rules.”
“Hey! There’s one mommy and three kids – you guys are going to have to give me a break.”
“You NEVER cut anyone else’s hair. EVER. Never-ever-ever-ever-eveeeer.”
“Honey, if you’re naked and your brother is naked, please wait until you’re dressed before you start wrestling with him, okay?”
What about you? What are some things you never thought you’d say? Do share!
Brain dump
January 14, 2010 by
With the temperatures warming up to a balmy 42 degrees, I am snapping out of my rebellion against all things weather. We took the kids sledding at the local park again the other night. I’d love to share pictures or video to document, but I brought the digital camera without the media card inside it and the video camera had roughly 45 seconds of battery power. Awesome. Go mom!
But I can paint a word picture. I’m better at that anyway. I have to say that snow is a huge perk to cold weather because sledding is good fun. And finally, Praise be to God, Tia realized what fun it could be. Within about 15 minutes she was sledding down the hill by herself laughing the whole way. It’s a pretty steep hill so the sled gets to moving which means her laugh was a combination of terror and delight.
Sloan brought a neighbor friend with him and they were practicing boy law by competing for who could be the loudest and could say “That was awesome!” the most. I think they tied.
Then there was Landon. I wasn’t sure about how he would do. He’s a little guy…a little guy who loves sledding! He would plop himself down face first on the sled, curl up in a little ball and bark, “Push!” And Lee and I, like Pavlov’s dogs, would comply. We’d run beside the sled about half way down the hill to keep it from picking up too much speed, then we just let him bounce the rest of the way by himself.
He came up with a grin every time.
In the words of my six year old, “It was tooooootally aaaaawesome!”
__________________________________________________________________________
With colds and fevers circulating around our house, we’ve had a couple of rough nights sleep. There is nothing worse than having to get up in the middle of the night when it’s freezing cold and stumble out to the kitchen to get water and medicine for a crying child. So last night, I decided we were going to be prepared.
Before bed, I rubbed down everyone’s feet with Vaporub. It works wonders. I don’t know how, but it does. I plugged in mentholated vaporizers in their rooms and they were all asleep by 7:30. And I went to bed knowing that I was prepared thereby ensuring that I would maximize my own sleepage (should be a word).
And nobody woke up. They all slept through the night.
It’s amazing what being prepared will do!
____________________________________________________________________________
My heart hurts for Haiti. Pictures like this one bring bitter tears to my eyes. (The picture is graphic and it involves children- I just want you to be prepared.) Lee and I talked with the kids today about the earthquake and how we can help them as a family. Sloan remembers the small earthquake we had here a couple of years ago so he kind of gets what happened.
We told them that we were going to be sending some money in to help with the clean up and rebuilding and suggested that they think about what they could give from their wallets. We decided to give them the freedomt o give as much or as little as they feel they need to give.
I’m interested to see what they decide to do.
______________________________________________________________________________-
Today is my nephew Eli’s 7th birthday. We love that little boy – particularly Sloan. He and Sloan are two peas in a pod. I wish we lived closer just so those two could spend more time together.
Happy Birthday, Eli!
___________________________________________________________________________
I’ve run out of things to say. Shocking – I know.
It Can Only Go Up From Here
January 13, 2010 by
That’s what she said…
Sorry, I couldn’t resist. So inappropriate…
It’s been a morning. Said morning began at 1:00 am when Landon woke up crying for the second night in a row due to a nasty cold. I gently nudged Lee out of bed to deal with it (read gave him a shove and a grunt) since I was on middle of the night duty the night before.
But I might as well have gotten up with him myself because all I did was lay in bed wide awake for an hour listening to him cry and cough on Lee’s shoulder in the other room. And pray that God would give him some sweet rest.
Then I got hot so I turned the fan up. Then I got cold so I turned it down. Then I just felt like I was going to explode out of my skin from being so tired yet unable to sleep.
I finally slept. And I had weird dreams that I had trouble distinguishing from reality when I woke up. I hate when that happens.
I am observing in Tia’s preschool class today, so when Lee got up at 6:00 this morning, I rolled around in bed for a few minutes trying to convince myself that it would be fine to go with wrinkled clothes and bed hair. I even wondered if I was careful not too stand too close to anyone I could get away with not brushing my teeth. Ultimately I decidede that might be a little extreme.
Then I heard the older kids up wandering around and Landon crying again so I dragged myself out of bed and took a shower. I thought Lee was out there with them.
I took my time getting ready because I assumed my husband was holding down the fort. A half hour later when I finally emerged clean and with makeup firmly packed over the bags under my eyes, I was surprised to find Landon still in bed and Sloan sitting in front of my laptop at the island.
I assumed Lee was working in his office in the basement and didn’t hear the kids upstairs destroying the house. I fought back frustration. I got out clothes and started on breakfast then went to check my email only to find that whatever Sloan was doing on my laptop messed it up.
It won’t start. And the error box tells me it’s not going to start then gives me some big long code that is apparently supposed to tell me why it won’t start – either that or it’s the key to the universe. Blast! Why don’t I speak computer!
I consider tarring and feathering my first born.
I call down the stairs to Lee that I need him to be my hero and fix the computer. He doesn’t answer. I yell a bit louder. He still doesn’t answer. I mutter under my breath as I exert the effort to actually walk down the stairs (oh the horror!) only to discover he’s not there. He left early this morning. That would have been nice to know…
At this point, Landon is crying from fatigue; Tia is absolutely sure, positive from the very fiber of her core, that she is going to starve to death before I finish the oatmeal and Sloan swears up one side and down the other that his shoes are nowhere to be found.
And there is an odd odor beginning to permeate the house. I soon discover it’s Landon. His system doesn’t handle cold medicine well. Then I discover the wet sheets and pajamas on the floor from a certain someone who had an accident. They’re lying in the hallway, so the hallway smells.
When I fetch Landon’s diaper I notice that the medicine cup has fallen on the floor and the residue Sudafed has left a lovely pink stain on the carpet. I dab it with a wipe then pull his bear blanket over it.
I finally send off the 6 year old, still considering whether or not tarring and feathering him would constitute as child abuse then exercise my motherly awesomeness by setting the younger two up with the Disney Channel.
I look one more time at my useless laptop and wish again I spoke computer before settling back at the desktop that now feels sooo 2009.
*sigh* It’s only 8:00.
How was your morning?
The Grammar Lesson – aka The Day My Head Exploded
January 12, 2010 by
Pull up a chair and join us, won’t you, around the kitchen table (actually, if I’m gonna get technical, it’s an island, but whatever. I mean, really, that’s neither here nor there).
It’s time to work on a little grammar. It will be fun! We’re gonna conjugate verbs…in russian*. Just you, me and the six year old…
Pretend you’re a fly on the wall…or the screen. Of course, you don’t have to pretend to be anything if you don’t want to. You can just sit there and read out loud…or to yourself. It’s up to you. Sheesh…let’s move on.
“Okay, buddy. We’re going to learn about verbs tonight.”
“What’s a verb?”
“It’s a word that has action. A word that moves.”
“Words can move?”
“No. I mean, well…yes. It’s a word that shows action.”
“What’s action?”
“Action? Uh, well…action is movement.”
“Oh…” Clear confusion. He’s not understanding. It probably doesn’t help that I’m switching back and forth between Russian and English as I try to explain this to him. I stick with English for a minute because God help me I cannot explain a verb in Russian.
“Okay – run. That word has action. When you run you’re moving, right?”
“Right!”
Score one for mommy. I’m starting to feel good. I can do this – I can teach this kid to conjugate a verb in a foreign language…oh yes I can.
“Great. Talk – that’s a word with action. Play, stand, drive…all these words have actions. Can you think of a word with action?”
“Telephone!”
*awkward pause and the feeling of unbridled grammatical success from half a second before pffffts out like a stiff balloon. “Nnnnooo. A telephone is a noun.”
“What’s a noun?”
Oh geez.
“A noun is a person, a place or a thing. It’s doesn’t have action. It doesn’t move-but that’s not what we’re learning. We’re learning verbs today.You can talk on a telephone, right?”
“Right! Hey – can I call my friend Chris on the phone?”
“Focus, Sloan. Look in my eyes. Okay (here I switch back to Russian) now we’re going to work on verbs in Russian. Let’s start with Want. How do you say ‘I Want’ in Russian?”
“Ya Hochu.”
Feeling of success eases back, this time a bit more cautiously.
“Maladyetz! Very good. Now how do you think you would say ‘You Want’ in Russian?”
*Long pause. He’s thinking about it. I see the wheels turning behind his eyes. I can almost taste victory. Then he breaks out in a wide grin.
“You Vant,” he says in English but using a russian accent.
(sigh) I think I might be in over my head.
*for the record, I didn’t learn to start conjugating verbs until I was in college and truth be told I wasn’t very good at it then and I’m not great at it now. In Russian, there is a different ending for every verb depending on if it’s plural or singular, present, past or future tense. And those endings vary based upon the words, meaning that while there’s a basic model to follow, every word is different and you just have to learn how to say the words correctly.
Tonight we worked on the present tense verbs ‘To Want,’ ‘To Whisper,’ ‘To Scream,’ and ‘To Cry.’
Tomorrow we will work on the future tense.
I think my head might explode.
Recent Comments