Time with college roommates

This past weekend (yes, I realize it is almost the weekend again) was so much fun! My college roommates and their kids came to Atlanta for the weekend. All told there were the 4 of us, and our 5 kids...plus one on the way. :) (I should add, Chris was here, but he tried to make himself scarce--poor guy, he was surrounded! :) ).

All four of us (we lived together all 4 years of school--minus semester's abroad etc). :



The three little boys (Eli 11 mos (2 days older than Ryan), Ryan, 11 mos, Thomas 7 mos):



Sweet friends playing(Anna-Kate and Aubrey--9 days older than AK):



Our two little hams :



We didn't do a lot, just by nature of how many kids we had. We did make it to Chick-fil-a for lunch on Saturday (Chick O'le, as Anna-Kate calls it). The girls had a great time playing. During naps we spent some quality time chatting at Starbucks, which is always a relaxing time. It was a quick trip, but makes me so thankful for the friendships that I have. These are girls that no matter how long it is in between conversations and visits, we pick right back up like time hasn't passed us by.

These are the great friendships of life.

25 things.

I've been tagged by a friend on facebook to post 25 random things about myself. Here goes.

1. I am a terrible napper.
2. I hate to drive
3. I love to bake...and eat...
4. I desperately try to achieve "all ducks in a row" status. Always.
5. I'm addicted to E news
6. Unfortunately, I often fall asleep listening to ESPN. :)
7. I am not an animal person
8. We have a dog. It's Chris'.
9. I am addicted to diet dr. pepper
10. I am also addicted to a good deal. It's a high, what can I say?
11. My competitive nature gets in my way of rational thinking at times.
12. I blog-stalk my friends. :)
13. I love to read parenting mags and Southern Living
14. I am extremely thankful that I can stay home with my kids.
15. I am OCD about my kitchen counters and sinks being bleached and cleaned.
16. Bad grammar (both written and spoken) is a major source of irritation to me
17. I love the color pink.
18. I get stuck in a rut and rarely branch out when ordering food out to eat or cooking.
19. I love (need?) a schedule and routine. Thankfully, my kids adapted well to one.
20. My life runs by lists
21. I love having scrapbooks, but hate making them.
22. I desperately wish I was more creative and artistic.
23. I hate change.
24. My favorite times of day are 8 am (getting to see my kids wake up full of life and well rested/happy) and 8 pm (because they go to bed and I have time for me and to hang out with Chris).
25. I love flip flops and wish I could wear them year round.

Breakfast...take 2

So remember the lovely breakfast I spoke of yesterday? Not so lovely the second time.

We had a lovely time socializing, despite a little one (8 mos) pulling a whole cup of just poured coffee onto himself and my friends' "over easy" eggs raw. So, I got to the center of my pancake and discovered it too was not cooked. Ehh, no biggie, I don't need all of it anyway. Then I got to the center of my sausage, it was pink, ehh I'll eat around it--no biggie. I didn't want to be the third to make a scene and send something back etc.

WRONG move.

*Note to self, don't eat undercooked pork, or egg for that matter. Unless it's cookie dough or cake batter, but I digress.*

I woke up this morning at 5:45 and, let's just say, emptied my stomach. For a couple of hours. All better now.

Taking my lesson and running with it.

Ack! Can it be??

That today my boy is 11 months old??? Where does time go?

For your viewing pleasure, a picture of my sweet boy (doped up on motrin) in Anna-Kate's beads as they played crawling tag today. What a true joy it is to see one's children lovingly playing together and hear their happy laughs! (Notice his finger pointing--it is always pointing at something. He was pointing at me and saying "mama", love it!)



***

I had the lovliest morning today. Some mommy friends from Anna-Kate's playgroup and I met for a fabulous breakfast as all the big kids were at MMO. Not so much of a break though, as there were 5 moms and 4 babies (Ryan being the oldest). Funny, they stuck us outside on the patio (obviously heated)....wonder why? :) We had such a great time. And, did I mention it was delic?

A day at home

Anna-Kate had a fever for about an hour last night, so we are keeping our distance from friends just to be careful. Days like this are often hard with semi-sick kids cooped up, but thankfully, my kids came through to give me a few laughs.

Today we were playing upstairs. Anna-Kate got some marachas (you know, those things in Latin culture that you shake) in her stocking, but prefers them to be lollipops. Whatever. As I said yesterday, Ryan is getting 4 teeth, and has been in rare form for the 30 minutes that his medicine takes to kick in. So, I was holding him and AK decided to share a "lollipop" with him to make him not so sad. He began shaking it and she told him not too because, "these not shaky lollipops, just plain lollipops". So he decided he was over all the rules and up and threw it. Across the hallway. Seriously? (baseball player?? Cha-ching!)Anyway, she handed it to him 3 different times, all with the same scenario (not ok, but everything is a work in progress). She says, "Ryan, no throwing, OK?" (at which point he threw it). She picks up his hand all poised to give him a pop and says, "Ryan, I give you pops now, OK?". I intervene and explain that only Mommy and Daddy are allowed to give pops. She says, "OK. Ryan, (and re-picks up his hand)I give you love pats now". Ha! Then had to inform her that love pats (which, when Ryan was little was what we called burping him since she thought we were hitting him) were like hugs or on the back when helping babies burp.

Love pats my foot!

***

A moment after, Ryan decided he was done with the girls and crawled off to the bathroom to peer into the tub. I said, "come here Ryan", and just behind me I hear an echo "come heeere Ryan". He looks up, but doesn't move. I say, "Ryan, obey Mama and come here please sweet boy." My echo, "come here please boy." He hesitantly looks at us. Anna-Kate then upped the ante, "come here Ryan, I give you cookies!" (and I promise I don't bribe with food. Too often.) Wouldn't you know it, he came right then. I said, "good job obeying Mama Ryan". Anna-Kate turned to me and said, "Oh, he came for me Mama". Hmph.

The other side of the coin

So today was one of those days. You know, the ones that you have to think hard to remember days like last week. Ryan is getting his top four teeth (finally, he will have more than the bottom two!). Four teeth is a lot and my sweet easy-going boy has been incredibly fussy and needy. Not that I blame him, but it is tiring to hold an 18 1/2 lb baby. All day. And sometimes balance that with also holding a 2 1/2 year old. All day.

Anna-Kate is trying her darndest to give up her nap. Let me say, that is a sad day. Don't get me wrong, my days of afternoon freedom are far from over. We have quiet time here--until she's in school in the afternoon we'll have quiet time (currently, it's 1:30-4--though she usually sleeps for at least an hour in there). It takes her so long to fall asleep and then she doesnt' sleep well at night, so we've decided to just put books in her bed and tell her she can read quietly and use her "whisper voice" or sleep, her choice. See how nice I am with the options? :)

Anyway, today she never fell asleep. So, when she started crying at 4 on the nose I went in to her crying, "I all wet Mommy, I wet". She rarely has accidents during her nap, but she had a lot to drink, so I did a preventative strike (I thought) by putting a pull-up on her. Well, when I asked why she was wet (and naked, mind you) she said, "I no want to get my panties wet, so I took them off".

Of course you did. Why not, that's logical. I have to pee, so I'll take off the thing that absorbs my pee and keep it dry and just soak my matress, sheet, blanket, lambie and all other sleeping paraphanalia. Super.

What followed was not my finest moment. When I again became calm, cool, and collected Mommy, I had to comfort my traumatized child and assure her that yes, accidents do happen, but in the future she is not allowed to take her panties off in bed to go potty. I am merely a shout away and I'll dash her right on off to the potty. Then, I was off to get Ryan--who had woken up with a poopy diaper and to whom I had forgotten to give motrin before his nap. Way to go Mom.

The following hour was spent holding both of them (as they both cried hysterically if put down) and tried to keep everyone's respective hands to themselves as each tried to push the other off my lap. (Which, begs the question, what does one do when a third child comes along and said Mom only has 2 legs on which to sit? Hmm.)

My heart is full to overflowing.

Yesterday was such a good day. It was one of those days were there's a happy song singing in your head all day and everything your kids do is sweet and wonderful. Oh, if every day could be like yesterday.

We skipped Bible study because it was so blasted cold, and stayed home and played all day in our jammies. By all day, I mean, we took the jammies off to get in the bathtub last night then put them back on to go to bed. Anyway, the kids played so sweetly together. Anna-Kate was down on her hands and knees crawling with Ryan and they were both just belly laughing as they crawled in circles chasing each other. We read stories and all cuddled together on the bed in the warm blankets. Everyone ate their lunch and dinner without a problem with nice manners and we watched "Ryan's show" (his new baby einstein) together. They both slept from 1:30-4:45...it's amazing how good you can feel when you get that much time to be productive and be alone. I got a lot of monogramming done for a girl from church, cleaned my house and was able to watch a little TLC while I was sewing for fun.

Days like yesterday make me so thankful. My heart was near bursting last night as I watched my kids and my husband enjoying each other. It is such the simple things in life that bring the greatest satisfaction. I am so thankful for the family God has given me, and overwhelmed by how quickly time passes. I read somewhere a while ago that days drag by and years fly by....it's so true. Ryan is almost 1 and Anna-Kate will be 3 before I know it. I need to be better about savoring the precious moments, and even the not so sweet ones too.

Do you?

Irony and my melted heart.

It's funny. Today, we went to a MOMS Club meeting where a rep from the American Heart Association was speaking. Great talk on being heart healthy for families, women, kids--great. How to eat out better, excercise more efficiently, what to be aware of as far as strokes etc go. Quite informative.

What'd we do on the way home? Ya, we stopped at McDonalds.

In my defense, it was a friends idea. And, the kids ate applesauce and 100% juice.

***

In unrelated news, I saved $34 and change off my grocery bill yesterday with coupons etc. That was exciting.

***

In my favorite news of the week...last night we were at our church small group. Babysitters didn't show up so the big kids (interesting that AK is now considered a "big" kid) were watching a show, but the little ones were in with the adults. Ryan was playing by himself and crawling around. Then, he looked up and made eye contact with me, crawled straight to me and cuddled up (I was sitting on the floor). He put his little head on my stomach/lap/arm area and nuzzled (I know, precious), then, he said, "mama". Twice. He's been saying "mama" forever, but this was the first time that it was a real connection to me specifically. Melt my heart.

Big news in our house!!

No, I'm not pregnant.

Chris got a new job! This is such an answer to prayer and Chris is beside himself excited! He is moving from consulting to an HR job and will be dealing with benefits. Congratulations babe, I'm so happy for you!! :)

*****

Not much other news. I keep swearing Ryan will be walking tomorrow. He can walk while only holding 1 hand, but just isn't all that interested in letting go. If you let go he immediately drops to his knees to crawl. He's so fast, I guess he's just not motivated to walk. Ugh! I'm ready for him to walk and stay off the dirty ground! Stairs are a new interest as well. A couple of weeks ago, I was blogging and I hear Anna-Kate say, "NO RYAN, that's no no for you!" (what I find myself saying to both kids all too frequently...). I turn around and he's 5 stairs up!

Dora

Have you ever seen Dora? It's currently Anna-Kate's fav. All of the catchy tunes (Read: gets stuck in my head) she loves to sing. In fact, in case you're unfamiliar with the main song, the words:

"Come on vamanos, everybody let's go, come on let's get to it, I know that we can do it! Where are we going? _____! (fill in blank for that day's adventure), where are we going? ______________! Where are we going? _________!

So, every time we go anywhere or do anything I hear that song followed by what we're doing. For example.

Me: Anna-Kate, let's go upstairs it's time for your nap.
AK: "Where are we going, upstairs! Where are we going upstairs!" etc.

***

Last night I said it was time to start picking up her toys to go to bed.

AK: "No mommy, it's not night time."
ME: Yes it is and it's time to go to bed.
AK: "It's not time to go to bed because I say it's not nighttime. It's time to go to work. Let's work. Joseph is at work. I go to work. I Mary princess Mommy".

Fortunately, she forgot earlier stated argument and there was a non-issue of going to bed. :) Love that kid.

My poor sweet boy!

Alternate title: MOTHER OF THE YEAR and it's only January 3.

So Chris and Anna-Kate went to Duncan Donuts to get breakfast. We figure we'll eat better in '09, but might as well go out with a bang. Well, and we had a giftcard to use first. :) I hadn't gotten to wash my hair yesterday, so I got a basket of toys for Ryan in the bathroom and hopped in the shower. He is so sweet and entertains himself so well, I didn't think anything of him being quiet. Until I noticed him stuffing both hands in his mouth. So, covered in shampoo and soap I opened the shower door to see what he was eating. What did I see, my poor boy covered in BLOOD. I did the most logical thing at the time--scream! What else are you to do? This of course scared him and he burst into hysteric tears. I jumped back in the shower madly trying to get shampoo out of my hair then got out dripping wet. I picked him up and rushed him to the sink trying to get the blood off his face, hands, jammies (ignoring the wall, floor, bathrug etc.). Then I saw it. A razor. I keep a razor in the tub for those nights I just feel like a long soak, but I had moved it way back and (what I thought) out of his reach. Well, he pulled a Macguyver on me and got it. Thankfully, he had only cut his right hand pointer finger, but I couldn't get the blood stopped for a while. We were about to go get stitches when it stopped. Praise the Lord.

Chris came back in the midst of my phone call with the ped and then started freaking out that Ryan had swallowed the razor.

Between the two of us, we are rational first and foremost afterall. :)

*****

In other Ryan news, Chris was holding him waiting for the tub to fill up and had to quickly move him to the potty if you know what I mean....and low and behold, he peed on the potty for the first time this week. Ahh, he's so advanced--ha!

I've been promoted....

to an angel. :) Her "son baby Jesus" is always lost and she is perpetually looking for Him. O ya, and she isn't just Mary, she's "Mary princess" and don't tell her otherwise. (Oh, and Mimi, purple baby is now Mary baby) I love that she really remembers the Christmas story and what Christmas is all about.

Today, as I've been packing up our Christmas decorations, she asked why it was all going away. I said, "well, Christmas is over and we have to put it all away until next year". Her response? "NO! Christmas not over, I not ready for it to go away!" A girl after my own heart. It pains my soul to put away all of the decorations. I love Christmas so much and find myself mildy depressed (not really) after my pretty house goes back to normal. And plain. Speaking of which, I need new ideas for my mantel. I am so bored of it. For anyone reading, thoughts, ideas??

Yesterday, Anna-Kate and I went on a little "Mommy/daughter date" to, where else, Target. :) We split a pretzel (with "special" mustard sauce), played with and looked at all the toys, and had a really fun time just being "us girls" as she says. She loves to have one-on-one time with me and loves to play with and look at the new toys at Target. She also always asks to have a big pretzel when we go in--so we killed 3 birds, one stone. My kinda efficiency. :)

So, we sat down to eat and I said that we needed to pray and thank Jesus for the pretzel.

AK: "God is good. God is...Wait. I can't say this. This not bread Mommy".
Me: "It's OK honey, we can pray to God using any words we want. We can even just say, 'thank you Jesus for this yummy pretzel!'"
AK: "Oooooh. Thank you for pretzels Jesus!!"

Such a sweet teaching moment, and of course, I had to laugh too.