Torn Between Two Lovers

Feeling like a fool... That song reminds me of driving around with my Mom in the 70's in our orange Datsun pick up. But that has nothing to do with this blog post.

We all know Ben loves dressing up like a superhero. His old favorite was Spiderman.


A trip to Walmart the day after Halloween scored us a great deal on this Power Ranger costume. He had to have it. He loves the muscles.


He even wore it to the park yesterday and wondered why he was all sweaty. Yes, it snowed here last week and now it's 75 degrees. He's worn it two days in a row to pick up Emily at school. I'm really hoping I can get him in something else before we pick her up today or the other Moms will start to think I'm odd. Maybe they already do? I have to wait until he goes to bed tonight to sneak it in the wash.

He's really torn between the two outfits, but for now the Power Ranger is winning.

Speaking of loves, I reconnected with an old love recently. Comet. Yes, plain old fashioned Comet. It's all we used in the house as a kid. My Mom would assign me the chore of "dutching the sinks". Where did that word ever come from? Dutch the sink? Is it a real word? Slang? I don't know.

For years, I had gotten away from Comet and went to soft cleansers. Then, I went on my green kick and used vinegar. When I stayed at the Ronald McDonald house after I had Noah, I had to do my own housekeeping. For $10 a day, maid service is not included. Whatever! And there was my old love. Just sitting there waiting for me to hold him. A grabbed the can of Comet with a smile and went to town on the sink and tub. I fell in love all over again.

You know what else I fell in love with at the Ronald McDonald house? The wonderful people and companies who donated their time, energy and money to come to the house to make dinner for all of the families staying there. Somebody signed up for this every night...sometimes it was a family that had stayed there, sometimes it was a company or church group. After a long day at the hospital and feeling like if I ate one more turkey sandwich, I'd become a butterball, there was a group of smiling, happy people making me a home cooked meal. It was unbelievable really. The generosity of people sometimes astounds me. It makes me realize that I can and should be a better person.

Since we are on the topic of the Ronald McDonald house, if you are looking to get rid of some toys before Santa brings his bounty, consider donating to them. They are a great charity who made our lives easier for 13 nights. They have play rooms for the kids who are staying there, and they can always use gently used toys or video games that your kids are bored with.

You can go to Ronald McDonald House for more information.

Smiles

The hardest thing about going to bed every night is knowing that I will be up again in less than 3 hours. Since I was uncomfortable for a few months before Noah was born, I haven't slept more than 5 hours at one time in almost 5 months. It's starting to make me a little crazy.

Noah will be on what is called an "adjusted age" for a year. Meaning, he was 9 weeks early, so we need to subtract that amount of time from his age to find his adjusted age. Noah is 12 weeks old, minus the 9 weeks, so he should be doing what a 3 week old is doing. Basically, nothing. Well, eating, crying, pooping. That's about it. It also means that everything is going to be prolonged by 2 months. He probably won't sit up until 8 months, when most babies do this by 6 months, etc.

We hit our first milestone last night. I was up for the 1 A.M. feed. I was tired and bored watching Dancing With The Stars (if you've seen one quickstep, you've seen them all). I was having bad menstrual cramps, Noah had spit up all over me, I was thinking this was going to be a long feed. When, I went to put the bottle back in his mouth, I went for his nose by accident. I laughed and said something about how Mommy is silly. And he smiled! A real smile! We've gotten a one sided grin a few times, but I'm never really sure it's a smile or just a movement. Last night, I was sure. It was adorable. Big open mouth full of gums. And as I coaxed him for more, he obliged with a few more grins for his silly Mommy.

It was just what a needed to get me through the night.

Now, if I could only get a nanny.

Baby Noises

I love the little sounds of Noah sucking his pacifier and breathing/snoring. If this doesn't make you want to have another baby, I don't know what will.
Turn up the volume...


Just in case you need any birth control, this is what happened 10 minutes later.
Turn down the volume...

Take Two

Halloween night was so much fun. The kids got all dressed up. Emily was Thumbelina and Ben decided on Buzz Lightyear. For much of the day, he said he wanted to be all of his superheros...Batman cape, Buzz outfit, Spiderman hat, etc. I'm glad he picked one in the end.


Noah was Tigger. This was a 0-3 month outfit and obviously huge on him, but he looked cute.


I dressed up as an overtired, overworked stay at home mom...oh wait, that's what I am everyday.


We met up with a group of our friends and went trick or treating together. It's always more fun for the kids to go with each other. It's also more fun for us parents to be able to chat the whole time.


We were out for almost 2 hours. The kids were totally exhausted but they were troopers. We had bought 2 big bags of candy from Costco to hand out. My Dad and his wife usually come up and hand out candy while we take the kids out. This year, they didn't come because Suzy wasn't feeling great. So, we put out 3 bowls of candy with a note to take 2 pieces. This is what was left when we got home.


The funny thing is the 6 pieces of candy left in the bowl were not any candies that we originally had. I'm thinking kids thought of it as an exchange system. Take 3 laffy taffies and leave 3 tootsie rolls. At least they were creative.

The night ended with me tucking the kids in bed while David fed Noah. Emily's last words of the night were, "my belly hurts". Isn't that how it should be after eating too much candy on Halloween night?

What did you do for Halloween?

Random Things

I blogged every day this week and there is still so much more to say. Some weeks are like that and other weeks I can't think of a single thing to say.

I made shepard's pie one night. Giving the kids the beaters full of mashed potatoes earned me the title of "Best Mom Ever" according to Ben. Emily concurred. Who knew it was so simple?



Ben's preschool this week was a Halloween dress up party. Here are him and his friends.


Getting wrapped up to be a mummy.


Painting a pumpkin.


I've had these canvasses for about 6 months and I wanted to let the kids go to town on them. I never seemed to find the time. But, with early release for 3 days this week (due to parent teacher conferences), we took about 2 hours one afternoon and painted.


Here's Emily's masterpiece.


And Ben's.


Here they are hanging on 2 nails in my living room that were left there from last years Christmas wreaths!


Here's Noah napping this afternoon. There is just something so sweet about a baby all wrapped up in a white blanket sleeping.



Then he wakes up....

Flurries

We got some snow flurries yesterday. This is very early for us and I'm hoping it's the beginning of a nice snowy winter.

Here's Buzz Lightyear and Rocco.


Here's Noah with some flurries in his hair. His first snow and he didn't mind the cold at all.




It wasn't much and didn't last long, but it sure was pretty to look at.

Our Cool Coyote

On Monday, we went to an assembly at Emily's school. She was being honored with the award of "Cool Coyote"(their school mascot) for the month of August (it's a quarterly assembly). A cool coyote is typically someone who shows improvement in academics, leadership or citizenship. I thought the first month of kindergarten would be difficult to show much improvement. At our first parent teacher conference today, her teacher said she got the award for leadership in the classroom and taking initiative. We are so proud of our girl. To get recognized for doing so well the very first month of school is certainly impressive. David went to the meeting today and said the teacher had nothing but great things to say about Emily. She listens well and is a role model in class. The teachers only concern was that she doesn't talk. My girl? Doesn't talk? I guess she saves it all up for when she gets home. It may just be an age thing since she is the youngest kid in her class, making the cutoff by a day. But, she was much the same way in preschool. If that's the worst thing that she does while in school, I'm a pretty lucky parent. (Holy crap, I'm a parent! It still takes me by surprise sometimes.)

We had to kill a little time after the assembly because our carpool friend didn't get out for a few minutes. We went to the playground and had some fun. Noah, of course, was strapped to me in his sling.



I love the scenery from their playground. My elementary school playground was next to a water canal where they once found a dead body. The views of Mingus Mountain are much nicer.


The teacher sent home a packet of some of Emily's work with numbers and lots of drawings. Emily loves to draw. She was telling me about all the pictures. I asked her why Mommy was in so many of them. She said, "because I'm thinking about you". How sweet is that?

Congrats to our little Em Rose. We are so proud of you.