11.27.2012 -- Underdog

Tuesdays at our house are one of our busiest days.  Gabe doesn't have school, but there is a violin lesson and three gymnastic classes that have to be fit into the end of the day.  Yesterday was no exception.

It began early with a ravenous Charlie requiring yogurt for breakfast.  Mission accomplished, Charlie and I went back to bed.  At a more reasonable hour, I awoke to find Lucy reading.  Lucy's normal morning involves sleeping as late as possible, so when she does wake up early and is productive, it's a relief.  It means she has had enough sleep and that our day will go more smoothly.

After getting Lucy off to school I spent about three hours doing other things.  My mind has conveniently gone hazy, which is a pretty good sign that those three hours aren't exciting enough to record here.  Diaper changes, baths, and arguments about what is an appropriate breakfast, more arguments about Gabe's attire...  That's it in a nutshell.

At about 10:00, our (superlative) friends arrived and we had one of our play/social/exercise hours.  This is something I highly recommend to anyone spending copious amounts of time with (beloved) children.  A little face-to-face adult interaction works wonders and can only be improved by exercise. Talk therapy plus sweat therapy equals happiness.  AND it's free!

I  probably should have showered and changed out of my spandex to go to the store afterwards.  I didn't.  You see, time is short and valuable when kids are due for a nap.  I loaded Charlie and Gabe into the car and headed straight for the store to get chicken and broccoli for dinner.  We also needed to get supplies to make birthday cupcakes for Gabe's preschool class today.  The store outing went about as you might expect with two boys overdue for naps.  Charlie left the store in my arms, screaming, and Gabe left nodding off in the driver's seat of a plastic kid-sized truck/grocery cart.  Fortunately, both of were solidly asleep by the time we got home.

While they slept, I put groceries away, took a relaxing bath, and put dinner together.  Charlie woke up in distress and it took a good hour to calm him down and feed him.  By this time, Gabe had to get up in order to get ready for gymnastics.  He'd had an accident in his sleep, so we plopped him in his own bath.  By the time both boys were dressed and happy, Lucy and Grandma Judy were coming in the front door just in time for Lucy's violin lesson.  Her teacher, Miss Lauren, was right behind them.

The rest of the night includes picking up Gabe from gymnastics, taking Lucy to gymnastics, finishing dinner, eating dinner, putting together dinner for Lucy, Picking up Lucy from gymnastics, and going to a gymnastics class myself.

The extra good part about these Tuesdays is that a lot of times, we are able to squeeze in some time outside.  Between picking up Gabe and dropping off Lucy, we have an hour.  Today, we went to the park where the kids spent most of the time on the swings.  They love swinging, and they love underdogs!  An underdog is a playground move effectuated by the pusher upon the pushee.  Said pusher holds on to the swing and keeps contact with the swing, holding the swing in front then pushing it over the head while running under the swing.  It makes the kid in the swing go really high without having to build up to it.  A courageous and impatient swinger's dream.  This is something that we do a lot.  It's one of those things where it's always the person giving the underdogs who ends it.

While I was running back and forth giving Charlie, Lucy and Gabe underdogs, I remembered my dad pushing me on the swings. 

I don't think he ever stopped giving underdogs.

10.24.2012 -- Skeletons Out of the Closet

Yesterday:

Gabe and Charlie awake at 6:30.

Charlie becomes DBE (Dumper Boy Extroaordinaire).

I tried to make pumpkin cookies, but Charlie dumped a bunch of water into the mixing bowl.  I thought maybe I could salvage it... I doubled the batch.  Turned out I just made a double batch of bad cookies while Charlie raided the fridge and spilled leftover chicken, rice and teriyaki sauce.

While I cleaned this up, Charlie and Gabe ran around yelling at each other.  I needed the cookies, though, because a friend was coming over for tea (Mormon tea without caffine, y'all).  The cookies were a total bust, so I rounded up the boys and took them to the store to buy cookies.  (Why didn't I do that in the first place?)

Finally, Charlie got to sleep, just in time for me to breathe before my friend showed up--but not in time for me to clean up the house.

Despite my "baby style*" house, we had a lovely tea where I had to stop myself at least three times from trying to clean up. 

Charlie woke up yelling.

                                                                                           ......I'm blocking the rest out.

I am having a hard time imagining myself with any extra energy let alone brain power right now.  Yesterday wiped me out way before I was in bed.  First of all, the day started about an hour too early.  Lucy and Charlie will sleep in, But Gabe is up at the (butt) crack of dawn, and he enticed his little brother into getting up, too.  It was as recent as last weekend that I thought we had turned a corner with Charlie.  We had gone out to eat and he hadn't required any more effort than Gabe and Lucy did.  No thrown food, no screaming.  It was a golden moment.  In my mind, a backlit glow of peace and happiness was all but there on everyone's shoulders and heads. 

...Memories.  ...A moment of silence to commemorate that evening, please....


Yep.  Yesterday, I realized in the morning that I had agreed to get together with a friend at noon, and I had offered to bring refreshments.  I scrapped a few more complicated ideas then settled on making pumpkin butterscotch cookies.  I had already gotten the ingredients from the store a few weeks earlier, so it would be perfect.  When I bake, I often double the batch just to minimize the mess making, opting instead to have cookies or cookie dough around for a few days or weeks.  So, of course, I would double the batch.

Well, Charlie was determined to help me out yesterday.  He is so adept at getting up on the counter that, aside from dedicating yourself to keeping him off, there is really nothing to be done if he wants to be there.   I was going to make cookies, and I couldn't do that AND keep him off the counter, so we were just going to have to deal with the fallout.  Said fallout usually isn't too bad.  He is usually content to be within arms reach of the mixer and the ingredients.  Yesterday, though... he had different ideas.   His fingers were in every inappropriate place, he was spitting out the ingredients that didn't agree with him, he was standing in only the most dangerous spots and to top it off, he gave me a single moment of respite while he filled a cup with water, then dumped it into the mixing bowl while my back was turned.  I tried to dump out the water, but Charlie had added it at what seemed like the worst time possible, when I was still mixing in the pumpkin,  vanilla, and eggs.

Despite the craziness, we did manage to (finally) get out some Halloween decorations.  Lucy and Gabe really wanted to hang some spooky spiderwebs, and we got out the old ceramic skeletons.  Not impressed?  Well, they were spooky enough to keep our neighbor, Ava, from coming over.

Good times.

12.30.2012 -- Then and Now

Last year's Christmas card and one from this year.  The kids are growing! (See how I get that cheesy goodness in there without even flinching?)

We got back from a family reunion today.  How does a few days withing walking distance of skiing sound with all (or most of) your loved ones sound?  Heavenly?  Yep.

I didn't ski or snowboard this year.  Charlie was acting like we pumped him full of amphetamines most of the time, so I decided to stay around and keep him from destroying things and tackling babies.  I mostly succeeded.

Just before Christmas, I had decided to put together a photo book to cover the past two years of our familial voyage.  I had about 12 hours of work into the project (I know, right?) and Charlie turned off my computer.  I hadn't saved a thing.  So I went to Plan B for gifts for our parents.  It wasn't the end of the world, but reviewing the past couple of years, as always, gave me a broader perspective than usual (tunnel vision).  I don't think that journaling or blogging is anything earth changing, but it's really great to be able to look back and get glimpses into those days that have gone by.

Some things that I've been telling family when we were together these past few days:

Lucy's first adjective: Heavy
Gabe's first adjective: Happy
Charlie's first adjective: Cool!

Charlie also can say, "Awesome!"  When he says "milk," it sounds like, "nog."

Gabe really, really, really wanted a remote control helicopter for Christmas.  He got a fancy four channel helicopter to share with his dad. 

Lucy is actually playing the violin.  Keep in mind that our (my) standards are pretty low.  There are no solos or autograph requests as of yet, but we are getting it done.  ("We" are getting it done, not "Lucy" is getting it done, because she is learning the Suzuki method, which means that every moment she is practicing, I am helping her.)  It's another swing for me at consistency and practice.   When I was young, I convinced my parents to enroll me in piano lessons.  I loved the idea, but lacked the persistence to practice, so I stopped.  We did that at least two times, maybe three: enrolled and quit, enrolled and quit.

The story above about Charlie turning off the computer is typical of our family these days.  There are times when I try to catch up on things like blogging.  Honestly, it's hard sometimes to keep trying when time is lost like that work on the photo book.  Of course I've been saving my new projects as I go.

Gabe and Lucy both spent quite a few hours on skis this past few weeks.  I saw a video that Brian took of Gabe. (He's a solid little skiier!) But it's been about a year since I saw Lucy ski.  She just this week started using poles and moved up into the intermediate class.  Charlie took three runs on Brian's back (in a backpack) yesterday on Millie at Brighton.  He wasn't screaming, there were no tears, and he even smiled, so we count that as a success.

I'm going to try to embrace my limited time and call this good enough, or Charlie will probably make my exit for me.  Happy New Year!

09.12.2012 -- Park. Walk it out.

First days of school 2012

 Lucy's "first day" of second grade.  One day late.

 Gabe's first day of Preschool.

What would he do without her?

09.11.2012 -- Fall, Falls, Will Fall

It's Fall. Lucy and Gabe have been in school for a week.  Yesterday, I felt like my world was falling apart.  I truly felt like I couldn't accomplish anything.  Of course, all I had to do was move the whole operation outside...  I can weed while I am outside, even if Charlie and Gabe are stuck in destruction mode.

Fortunately, today was less extreme.  Fewer things were thrown, spilled and broken, there was less hitting, shrieking, and the toddler was much cuddlier.

Back to School: Lucy is loving her teacher, as was predicted.  Mrs. Noyce must have the best reputation of any teacher anywhere!

So far I have heard mostly good things from Lucy about about school in general.  There are only a couple of stories that have had me wondering.  The first of these stories involves a fifth grade boy getting into a minor altercation with Lucy over a hula hoop.  I'm being vague because I can't really remember, and I didn't understand the story well in the first place.  I think Lucy said that a fifth grader boy thought she took his hoop then twisted her arm until it hurt (so she would give it to him) but them he found his hula hoop.  The other story came today when I asked Lucy what she had for lunch.  She was complaining about how hungry she was after school.  She told me that she only had watermelon and meat for lunch because the boy sitting next to her was so hungry that he took her egg roll (and something else) when she wasn't looking.  She tried to go back to get more lunch, she said, but they wouldn't give her any.

Who knows?

I can't wait to get into Lucy's classroom to volunteer/spy.  I love seeing the kids in their school environment.  It helps me understand so much!

Gabe seems like he is finally coming to terms with the scheduling of his preschool.  He would like to be at school early every day.  It is torture to us both for him to be made to wait five hours to go to school.  Since school yesterday, he has been singing the "Days of the Week" song.  (The tune goes with the Addams Family theme song.)  He has also been showing off his "spelling" skills.  Here is how Gabe spells book: "buh ooh ooh kuh."

We took Lucy to Gymnastics tonight a few hours after her violin lesson and finally had to leave when Charlie got too intent on joining the toddler class.  Gabe helped him climb onto the half wall and he sat there for a bit, then squirmed down and tried to get in the mix with the class of three-year-olds. There are Mommy and Me classes, but no solo classes for younger than three.

Tonight I was looking through invoices on my e-mail and that had me reconsidering these gymnastics classes.  For better or for worse, Lucy and Gabe both really enjoy their time at gymnastics though, and the tuition isn't quite putting us in the poor house, so I guess we will continue to pay the bills and ferry them back and forth.

 

 This is Dylan Ellsworth.  Google him.  Watch the videos.

He coaches the boys recreation class that Gabe is in.  Gabe loves it.

Lucy's teacher is a sweet young lady (how old am I, 90?) with a cheerleading background.  Lucy is in a pre-team class where she gets to spend two hours practicing twice a week.   I do sometimes question whether I should find a class for her that is less crowded (the class keeps getting bigger and bigger!) with a more experienced coach, BUT she is having fun and progressing.

09.03.2012 -- Pow

Brian, Lucy, Gabe, Charlie and I got back from Lake Powell this afternoon.  Lake Powell is amazing and too fun for words.  The drive there and back with our three kids is also too... fun... for words.

Highlights include:

Charlie playing mostly with TicTacs and other colored candies (ChewySweetTarts) on the way down.  He emptied all of the TicTacs out over and over.  The SweetTarts, he emptied into a cup then fished out only orange ones to go into an empty TicTac container.  Then the sprinkled them all over the floor of the truck with gusto.

I really have to remind myself that, although we will never be without challenges while traveling, at least our current set will not last forever.  Charlie *hates* his car seat.

We are able to spend time with lots of wonderful people any time we go to Lake Powell, and this time was no exception.  We loved hanging out with the Henries and the Johnsons.  They had to leave earlier than us, so we spent our last night on the boat alone.  We slept under the starts and it was about as good as you would expect.  Beautiful, tranquil, clear skies, perfect September Arizona weather, no bugs...

Gabe woke up early crying out about Transformers.  He recounted his disturbing dream for me later that morning.  In his dream, I had a red Transformer toy for Gabe.  I kept trying to give it to Gabe, and he kept trying to tell me that he wanted a yellow one.  In the wee dawn hours, Brian comforted him by whispering, "you'll get a Transformer, Gabe..."  Oh Gabe.  He is big on appreciation these days, often telling me that I'm the best, or that he loves me--just out of the blue.

Lucy is a tubing queen.  She almost can't get enough of it.  I'm not sure she has been driven to her own satisfaction yet, though.  She always asks drivers to go faster and find more waves.  I got my first glimmer of boating in the future this past week, when Lucy took charge of the rope without being asked, and did it really well!

This is a picture of Antelope Canyon.  

Not a shabby place to swim for hours and jump off rocks into perfect water.