Saturday morning

Violet is the most conversational and excited right when she wakes up in the morning. Dave and Calvin are still sleeping as I'm writing this, its 8:32 am. Violet got up at 7:30 like usual, came bounding into our bedroom and announced, "I woke up dry!" I got up with her and made some oatmeal for her. She stood on a chair next to the kitchen island and ate, and while it was getting ready, she stood there and started madly stomping her feet on the chair. "I'm slapping my foots!" I said "you're slapping your foots?" She responded, "Yeah, I sink so. Cuz my legs are cold." She is really attached to the tune that Mama Rowena taught her ("This is the way the lady rides, the lady rides, the lady rides, this is the way the lady rides, so early in the morning." riding on her legs swaying side to side gently. The next verse says "This is the way the farmer rides, the farmer rides, etc." a little more bumpy, and the next verse "This is the way the cowboy rides" REALLY bumpy.) It always makes her laugh. At least I think those are the verse, I don't remember. Anyway- she wants everything to that tune. "This is the way we eat our oatmeal, eat our oatmeal, eat our oatmeal, etc" and "This is the way we use our spoon, use our spoon, etc." She kept wanting me to sing that song with all sorts of things. I must have sounded audibly sick of singing that song, because she said after the 50th verse of something random, she said "Mom, are you getting tired of that song?" LOL and after she said that, she said "Mommy, you are funny. Want a bite of oatmeal??" I said "No, thanks, its for Violet." V: "Yes, you do!" I've really been enjoying her crazy random 3 yr old brain lately. I can't keep up capturing the goofy things she says! oh, and another thing yesterday or the day before. She was propped up on the couch watching something on TV with a bunch of pillows behind her. The pillows knocked over and she had nothing to lean back on. She panicked and said "Mom! I lost it! I lost the spot for my head!"

figuring out English

V got a pack of fruit snacks today. When it was all gone, she said to me "I want a few more fews." Me: What are "fews"? She thought for a moment, then said "I want a few more fews foot snacks. Just a few."

She's so cuddly after a nap

V woke up after her nap today and wanted to cuddle. She grabbed my cheeks and said "Mom, I love your cheekies. Do it to me!" so I grabbed her cheeks with my hands and said, "Violet, I love your cheekies!" which made her giggle uncontrollably.

Friday!

I am making a lazy morning out of today. It feels nice! I've gone to work out three times this week, I felt like taking today off. My hamstring muscles are screaming, they're so sore. I can't bend over with out pain today, so I'm takin' a break. Violet woke up at 7:30 this morning and came bounding into my bedroom with red stickers all over her face and pajamas. I was barely coherent, she continued to put red heart stickers all over the bedroom wall while I spent 15 minutes waking up just laying there. She put stickers on my face, too, and I didn't notice until I got a glimpse of my face in the mirror. ha! Calvin woke up at 8, and they each had a big bowl of oatmeal. I had granola. Dave met a friend for coffee this morning so he got home from that around 8. Yesterday was a crazy day. It was fun, though! I worked out, then picked up Kim and Katie to come with us to indoor park at the rec center. Selena met us there with her kids, and they played for awhile, then at lunch, and played more. When we got home they were SO tired and whiny. I put them in bed and took a shower. I had a doctor appointment to go to, so I left while they were sleeping (Dave is home working downstairs) and got to the doctor's office RIGHT before a storm blew through and dumped hail and freezing rain in a big whoosh. It got amazingly dark for 2 pm and it blew through with in 30 minutes. I got to catch up with my midwife who took care of me with both pregnancies. She was glad to see me. I got home after running a couple errands (post office, HyVee pharmacy) and walked in the door to a tearful Violet. She couldn't find me. She had woken up from her nap early and Dave didn't notice, and was walking around the house in tears because she couldn't find me. She gave me a big hug and clutched me tightly and said "I thought you were around here somewhere. I couldn't find you, mommy." I spent the next 15 minutes calming her down. She needed to snuggle. Then she was hungry. Calvin didn't wake up until nearly 4:30. We have been working on finishing up leftovers, so I didn't have to cook anything for supper. Wednesday night we went to the crossroads mall so Dave could get some shopping done for some new pants. He knew of some great deals and discounts going on at Dillards, so I let the kids play at the crossroads kid play area all night. Violet and Calvin both loved climbing the stairs to the slide, and going down and up the whole time. Two other girls showed up and V had a blast playing with them. One of the girls was obviously older (maybe 4 1/2) and was faster than the other two. The other girl did not speak english...her mom was there speaking to her in I'm guessing Russian or something middle eastern. I didn't recognize the language, but the girls played like it wasn't an issue. The language was laughter, chasing, falling, tripping, and doing a good job taking turns. I was entertained by them! Calvin kept trying to escape the play area so he kept me on my toes! They both got to ride the carousel. Calvin screamed - he was so scared! Violet loved every moment of it. Tuesday was fun, too. Our friends' kids came over so they could get a date night from about 6-8:30. The night went smoothly and V and her friend had a blast upstairs. They kept busy with all sorts of mundane things - and the boys and the baby were downstairs individually busy with toys. They all scarfed down fruit and grilled cheese for supper. Tonight we're having some friends over that used to live in CF - Jeanne, Scott, Annemarie and Bennett Hansen. They live in Charles City now. Dave said he's going to make supper. He planned meatballs and marinara sauce over spaghetti with cheesy garlic bread. Jeanne is bringing some dip and a dessert. We used to hang out a lot before they moved. I'm glad they aren't too far away, but we miss seeing them more often. I've gotten interrupted about a million times while writing this. Calvin is on the stairs crying, Violet is trying to comfort him at the moment with more toy balls. He keeps going upstairs and playing with his fan. She has a pile of blocks on the carpet and makes a tower or something, and he just HAS to come over and knock down what she's doing, which sets her off into a tizzy of crying. She tries to give him a pile of blocks to play with, but he doesn't get that concept, so he does whatever he wants and makes her mad. I got out a granola bar to eat and they both wanted bites....this is sort of a random account of random things, but its just what is happening at this very moment. She is upset right now because she saw a pack of markers on the bookshelf in the front room, and wants to color with them. I told her no because they are permanent. (why would someone give a kid permanent markers?) She just brought me a big fat black permanent marker asking if she could write with it. NO! I said. I should probably get off the computer - I gotta give these kids a bath this morning before naps and lunch, and its already 11:15 so I should probably get moving.

"funny things"

"Funny things" (which sounds like "funny sings") is the name Violet came up with for what she does when we hook up the digital camera to the TV so she can see herself live on TV. It totally cracks her up and she turns into the biggest ham, throwing herself all over the floor giggling, dancing, and making faces. She always wants to do "funny things". I got a pair of pants that have the word "LOVE" on the left leg. The O is in the shape of a heart. After lunch before naptime, she looked at my pants, and pointed to each letter saying "E, V, heart, and L. It says PANTS!" As we tucked her into bed, Dave tried climbing into her bed. She says "Daddy, don't sleep in my bed! That is my bed! You are driving me CRAZY!"

The latest

I guess its just been a busy week, with not a whole lot to write about! Most mornings this week I've been out of the house doing something, which has been good, but it makes me get behind on housework. Monday I spent trying to recover from the crazy sleepless wedding weekend, Tuesday morning I went to indoor park at the rec center to let the kids play, Wednesday morning was Bible Study, Thursday morning I was out of the house running errands, and Friday morning my mom and I took the kids out and about doing stuff all morning, running a few errands, etc. I have done a little shopping for myself and ended up returning half of what I bought. Sometimes I really hate shopping and sometimes I really love it. I hate it because it takes so much time and effort to find stuff that I like and that fits right (and I'm not exactly the most patient person in the world), and I love it because when I get stuff I really like it is so rewarding. Thursday this week was the last night that our small group is meeting - we're changing to a different night and meeting with different people. I will miss our old group, but I'm also looking forward to seeing what God has in mind for our new group of people. I wonder what we'll study? Dave is in charge of leading the small group, I am praying he will get a direction for our group. Violet is really loving to rock and sing songs at night. One night when I was rocking, the song Be Thou My Vision came to my head because I heard it at Jay's wedding and really loved it. I sang the first verse by memory, and Violet asked me to sing it again. She especially likes to hear the words "best" in the 3rd line, and hearing "waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light" and talks about presents, like presents that you get at birthday time, LOL. I got out the Hymn book and left it in her room so I can sing songs to her at bedtime. She drinks up songs and tunes, she can learn a song very quickly, and sings on tune very well. Even if she doesn't turn out to be a singer, she's very musical and I would love to find a musical outlet for her. Last night Dave rocked with her and sang some random hymns from the book - and I don't remember what the songs were, but one of them had the words "vile" and "Calvary" in the lyrics. When she heard the word "vile" she piped up "Not Violet!" and when she heard the lyric "Calvary" she said "not Calvin!" and laughed at herself I think in disbelief that her and Calvin's names were actually in the songs. haha! She also proved to me that she's gaining strength and dexterity. The other night when we were at Dave and Karen's for small group, she hauled up a kid size plastic table up the entire flight of stairs by herself. She first brought me a little play bowl, 2 spoons, mixers, and an egg, pretending to bring me a snack. I told her to eat more food at the play table downstairs but she interpreted that as bringing the table to me. I couldn't believe she hauled up that table by herself. When she helps me pack up my stuff after work out class, she carries my 5 pound weights back to the rack my herself. Yesterday morning I made a pot of coffee. I must have been mumbly and tired at the moment I was making it. She said "mom, what are you doing?" as I poured the water into the coffee maker. I said "I'm putting water in the coffee maker." and said said "oh! you're making comfy? You're going to be all warm and cozy?" It made me laugh. We took the gate down that blocks the stair case. Calvin now has free range to the whole house. He's proved his ability to handle going up and down the stairs with no help or supervision lately, so we took it down. Even though I still worry about him falling down the stairs (and he has!) I think it will just take a few more tumbles for him to be more sturdy and secure. He seems to LOVE the freedom. He goes upstairs, and immediately goes to his room and starts playing with the black fan that sits on the floor in his room. He pushes it to make it rotate. I can always tell that is what he goes for first because of the familiar clicking sounds it makes as it moves up and down. Sometimes he wanders into Violet's room and pulls all the books off her bookshelf. Yesterday, I found the two of them together in the guest room. Violet had moved her pink step stool next to the bed so she could climb up on it and jump on the bed. Calvin was giggling at her jumping and pulling the dresser drawers open and shut. His teeth have been bothering him a lot. After his nap today he woke up screaming. I went into his room and he was sobbing, chewing on his fingers hard and had a mouth full of drool. I gave him a dose of motrin and about 15 min later felt better. He seems really chill and relaxed after the ibuprofen hits his system. He went to bed at 7 pm tonight, and I hear him wake up and cry about every hour, poor kid.

Jay and Molly's wedding recap

Jay got married on Saturday!! My little brother got married. I'm so happy for him! I think the highlight of the weekend for me was seeing the expression on Jay's face as he watched Molly come down the aisle, seeing her all dressed up in her wedding gown for the first time. She looked beautiful! Grandma and Grandpa Hardinger came to stay with us on Thursday evening. They arrived in time for dinner. I had lasagna ready with spinach salads and garlic bread, and I baked an upside down pecan cake with butter pecan ice cream for dessert. I haven't cooked a meal like that in a looong time, so it was nice to finally do it and have guests over! Everyone went to bed pretty early - G and G were tired from a long day at the doctor (treating Grandpa's eye) and traveling in the car. The next morning I made blueberry muffins, scrambled eggs with cheese, cut up oranges, and toast. G & G left around noon to head down to the airport to pick up Lucy who flew in from Arkansas. I spent all morning packing up and getting ready for Jay's wedding. I know I packed too much stuff, but its hard to know what extra stuff you'll need, anticipating needs here and there, and of course, wet clothes. We drove to Cedar Rapids on Friday afternoon right around the kid's nap time. They both slept in the car almost the whole drive. We had to stop at Prince Albert's Tux Shop to get Dave's tux and shoes before heading to the hotel. We got to the Marriott and found my parents in the lobby. The hotel was nice, and had recently been remodeled. The whole hotel has exterior hotel rooms - with a big restaurant/atrium thing in the middle. V and C got to run around for about an hour as friends and family trickled in to the hotel that afternoon. Rachel had been delayed overnight in Denver, so she took a shuttle to the hotel from the airport. Joe and Dee came, then Lucy Abraham came (Row and Loren picked her up from the airport). The rehearsal started at 5 pm - but we were 20 minutes late by our mistake of not anticipating the roads being really bad from the fresh 2 inches of snow that fell quickly and rush hour. The rehearsal was interesting and challenging, trying to keep track of our 2 kids running around. Dave was tied up doing the part of the groom's best man. Violet did a good job with the rehearsal. The more challenging part of the evening was at the rehearsal dinner. Neither kid had a great nap, so both were extra tired from lack of sleep and expending lots of energy. The rehearsal dinner was at Biaggi's - a reeeally good italian restaurant with great food. It was really enjoyable to be around lots of family and friends that I hadn't seen in a long time. G & G Pavicic from Fargo, Ruth and Michael, Lucy, G & G Hardinger from Arizona, Charlotte Narjes, Rachel from OK, just to name a few. I had a hard time engaging in any long conversations because my attention was always needed somewhere between V and C. Calvin got really whiney and tired at the dinner. I couldn't find his paci or his blanket, and I knew his teeth were hurting him - he's got 3 coming in still. I ran out with the van to Walmart to get some motrin and a paci but they didn't carry any more of the pacis that he likes. I resorted to a different kind but in the end, he didn't like it. Everybody was waiting for me to come pick them up afterwards at the restaurant. Once we got our two screaming kids back to the hotel, we got them to bed as soon as we could, and then tried our best to relax and hang out with family. Calvin went down to bed EASY - he always looks forward to laying down with his paci and special blanket (I found one of his pacis in his bag at the hotel) and Violet was a little apprehensive of about sleeping in "a huge bed". After getting her settled down, she slept for a little bit, but once we got back in the room and went to sleep, she whined, cried in her sleep, was too hot, it was always something. It seemed like every 15 minutes during the night she was awake whining about something. Then Calvin started to cough incessantly and she woke up and screamed at him to stop. He stopped coughing, she fell asleep, then woke up an hour later and wet the bed. She whined that she was cold, I changed her into different clothes (i only packed 1 pair of pajamas, what was i thinking??), got her back to sleep, then Calvin started coughing again. It was just one kid making noise allll night...we barely slept and felt foggy and woozy by morning. Ugh. We got out of bed at 6:30 to shower and get dressed. Rachel drove with us in the morning. We dropped off Calvin with Aunt Mary Kay at her house. She was happy to take care of him while I took care of Violet during the schedule picture-taking time at the church. She did pretty good for those three hours of waiting time and getting pictures taken. She loved all the attention - saying "cheese!" for almost every picture shot. She was crazy about her "clippy shoes." Her friend Katie let her borrow a pair of white dressy shoes and they were comfy and fit perfect! She wanted to walk in the hallway where it was hard flooring so she could hear her shoes clip-clop. The time rolled around quickly and guests started arriving, so I got Violet in place with the rest of the wedding party in the back of the church and took my place. As I walked down the side aisle, I caught a glimpse of Mary Kay holding a happy Calvin. He did great through the whole wedding! Violet walked down the aisle and dropped her flower petals, one by one, most of them got caught on her puffy dress fabric because of the strong static cling. The photographer brushed them off her dress at the end of the aisle. I called her name and she lit up and came running to me. She did great! I had two packages of fruit snacks ready for her to eat during he wedding ceremony. It worked like a charm! She did great and sat still for most of it. The ceremony was really nice. Jay and Molly looked SO happy!!! The wedding reception was also fun. It was at A Touch of Class. J & M sat at the head table with each of their parents. I liked that idea instead of the whole wedding party. Calvin stuffed his face with bread, bread and more bread. He eventually fell asleep on Uncle Michael's shoulder for about 45 minutes. We laid him to sleep on the floor and later I found him walking around. Violet ran around with Devin for a lot of the reception. The music was really great, too. They hired a guitarist who had a really nice voice. We sat at a table with Gary and Sami Pace and Rachel. Violet really started to get tired and whiny during the reception. At one point she came up to me and said "Mom! I'm too hot!" I picked her up and she was sweating. I changed her into a different outfit, and she seemed happier. Dave gave a really great speech at the party as the best man, said some really great things about Jay. His punch line was "Molly, you look stunning! And Jay, you just look stunned!" Next step was to get the kids some rest. We went over to Dave and Mary Kay's house and let Violet take a nap in Calvin's pack and play (I guess she felt safer in there being in a strange house) and he stayed awake. They hosted the family at their house for an evening of games, fun and appetizers. Calvin played most of the night ON the pool table, putting balls in pockets and pushing them around. He ate a ton of crackers, too. It was the day of carbs, apparently. We left around 8 pm and by the time we got home, Calvin was out like a light. I could have tossed him around and I think he would have kept sleeping. I stuck him in his crib with his clothes on and he slept until morning just like that. V was more of a challenge. She was soo overtired, she was a screaming mess. We got her ready for bed downstairs so she wouldn't wake up C. Sunday morning I stayed home. Dave took both kids with him to Bethany. I just needed alone time to recuperate and get the house back in shape. I'm more of an introvert who gets a little weary and tired from socializing for 2 days straight. I've had a nice day to relax, so I'm recharged and much better now. eta: public link to the pictures on facebook http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=219777&id=517210532&l=b5338

dad, I finished the project. ;)

Today

It was a rough start to the morning. Violet woke up on the WRONG side of the bed...started whining immediately about being hungry, got upset that I didn't race downstairs that moment to get her food, she got mad that I made it downstairs before she did, she got mad that I wasn't wearing the right pants, she got mad that she couldn't slide backwards down the stairs, she got upset that she couldn't sit in what chair she wanted...I swear...it was EVERYTHING. Then I made the mistake of asking her to finish a 1/2 of a banana before she got pancakes (I knew she wasn't really crazy about bananas, but I asked her to anyway for some reason), she didn't finish the banana, so she got nothing to eat. She's either on, or off. She's got 2 extreme sides...really whiney, controlling, irritating, and enough to make me want to put her in her room and shut the door and leave for awhile, and the other is extremely sweet, fun, kind, thoughtful, sharing, and considerate. I don't know what makes her tick sometimes. Carrie had the impression that Violet was such a sweetie all the time, but after living with us for a week she realize she is just a normal kid who throws tantrums because she's three years old. I didn't have plans to work out today, but after that horrible breakfast episode, I just had to go and drop her off for an hour to burn off some steam. She was happy to go. She just loves leaving the house. That seemed to "reset" her for the day, because the rest of the day was much better. Maybe she didn't get enough sleep, or had a kink in her neck, or SOMETHING. Man...it was just a bad morning. I'm glad it didn't continue on the rest of the day. Calvin was super tired by 6:45 pm so I put him to bed a little earlier than usual. That gave Violet and I some time together with out distractions. I was waiting for just the time like that to get out one of her birthday presents - a paint set and a notebook. She LOVED painting. She sat there, focused, breathing steadily, and painted almost every page in that book. She kept saying "this is fun! I'm so excited!" So I'm glad we got to wrap up the day on a nice note. I am praying tomorrow is a little better in the morning. She has this new thing she says. Its sort of placed randomly throughout the day, but she runs around, pauses for a moment, shakes her hands and her head together, and says "freak out! I'm freaking out!" I have no idea where she got that! Calvin is such a little delight. I think I'm really enjoying the stage he is in right now because I know it won't last long. He's so happy (if he's fed and not tired). He is gleeful about just everything he discovers. He likes to point at things and say "ooh!! ooh!" and when I start singing a tune, he jumps right in and starts humming. I think he can hum some tunes. Call me crazy. But when I start the "abc" song, he almost gets the tune right on, and if I start humming the tune to "this old man, he played one, he played knick knack on my thumb..." he hums right along and finishes the stanza. We'll see if that develops. Dave has been gone all day. I am pretty tired. He met a friend for coffee this morning at 6:45, came home, and let me have a break to take a shower. He went to work, and I called him up for lunch (I made pizza) so he could eat together with the family. That was a nice time. He worked until 5:15 and then left for Cedar Rapids to have dinner with Jay. He called a few minutes ago and said he would be home around 10:15.

Enjoyed the weather today

I went to MOPS this morning (thankfully Violet is feeling much better! She was too sick to go to Sunday School so she didn't go) and it was really nice. Thanks to all who prayed for my devotion-leading, it went well. When I got home it was just too beautiful to pull in the garage and shut the garage door. I got the kids out of the car and let them walk around outside, up and down the sidewalks, down a few houses and back to our yard to tromp around some more. Dave came outside and walked around the yard with us. Calvin fell a lot in the muddy mushy wet grass - and Violet happily splashed in the water and ran around the yard. Calvin enjoyed himself a lot, I could tell. He was acting like a kid in a candy store - looking every direction possible not really knowing what to be fascinated with first. He picked up rocks, put them in his mouth, spit them out with a look of disgust on his face, picked up red berries that dropped the tree in the front yard, stuck those in his mouth too, and spit them out with an even more disgusted look on his face, LOL. He saw a car go by and said "Oohh!" while pointing. He climbed up cement landscaping blocks, up the stairs on the gazebo, he was just all over. If I picked him up for a second to redirect him, he would get so mad that he couldn't go on his own. It was just so refreshing to breathe the outside air and actually enjoy it.

I had a really enjoyable night with the kids

Dave is off with a bunch of guys and Jay for his bachelor party tonight. They all piled into our van, so we stayed home the rest of the day. Earlier in the day I took the kids to McDonalds for lunch just to get out of the house for awhile. They did great there. They sat well, ate well, and didn't put up any fusses. I did have to take V to the bathroom and hold Calvin at the same time which was difficult and awkward, trying to keep him from touching anything and wiping her at the same time. Violet had 3 chicken nuggets, Calvin just ate french fries. She worked a deal with me that if she finished all her food, she could have some ice cream. I figured, sure, why not, so she ate all her nuggets (I say 3 because the 4th one fell on the floor, that went in the garbage). I got them a little cup of ice cream to split. Violet got to hold the ice cream cone with the ice cream on it - Calvin ate from a spoon. She seems so sensitive to cold stuff. She can't eat it fast, and took tiny little licks. As soon as we got home from there, I got the kids in bed (this was around 2 pm, so they were both super duper tired and welcomed the naps). They both slept for a couple hours, V got up before C. She wanted to rock, and rock, and rock...she didn't want to get off my lap. I think she's starting to feel a little sick. Her little body felt really hot, so I gave her a tsp of motrin to try bring it down. She complained about her eyes burning. I got them supper around 6:30. Calvin just took a couple bites. Violet didn't want a thing and said she would eat later. She never did eat though...so I suppose in the morning she'll be super hungry. They just played really well together. I sat on the couch and watched them play. She watches out for him all the time. If he's trying to climb up onto the little ride-on car, she will notice if he's struggling and run over to him and say "Aw, its ok buddy. I will help you." She is always finding something that will make him laugh. Part of the day was spent with her camera hooked up to the TV. I point it in their direction and follow them around...and the kids just LOVED seeing themselves on the screen. Calvin woke up in time to play with that. He sat on the couch, got one glimpse of his own face and body, and screeched and pointed to the screen. Violet ran around and giggled and danced, fell on the floor on purpose, being a total ham. She came to me and snuggled under my blanket a few times. I brought down a pile of books and we read lots of books together. Calvin was interested in story time, but he just wanted to rip the books from my hand. She got annoyed with him doing that a little, but he moved on to play with the pig that he drops the plastic coins into for 15 minutes. He was so focused. We got to read books for a long time. She seemed to love the attention. I was focused on her all night, almost every single moment. Not every day is like that. She helped me put Calvin to bed first. She picked out his pajamas, got his diaper out of the drawer, arranged all his blankets in his crib, put his toothpaste on his tooth brush, and climbed in his bed with him to give him a kiss and a hug goodnight. It was just so sweet. She went to bed with no fighting, either. I think some of her behavior is due to the fact that she's feeling sick. She has a cough, is slightly feverish, and she must have body aches. She complained about her eyes burning a lot, her legs being sore, and today when she was in her car seat for about an hour straight, she was screaming about her back hurting. That could have just been a tactic to get out of her car seat though, I don't know. We rocked in her room and sang as many songs as I could come up with from memory. I would finish a song, and she'd say "I want a different song now." and I sang "I'm so happy and here's the reason why, Jesus took my burden all away" (an old sunday school song that I love) and she said "mom, can you teach that song to me?" so I sang it over and over, and I said I could teach it to her tomorrow, too. She went to bed well, got up an hour later to go potty, and she's back in bed. eta: I just re-read this post and realized I mentioned her feeling sick two times...can you tell I started this post, got distracted by something, and finished the last half of it an hour later? ughhh.

I'm such a good helper

After her nap today, Violet was on the potty taking care of #2, and she said to me "mom! come in here! I need to tell you a secret!" so I go in there, lean over to hear her secret, and she whispers: "Mom, can you be a good helper and turn on the fan for me? Its kind of stinky in here."

Violet - some recent pics

her dress up stuff: sporting green frosting from a cupcake on the day of her birthday. "Okay, baby, its time to brush your teeth now!" Spit, baby! Swish, baby! She's SUCH a little mommy right now!

Calvin stuff

I forgot to mention Calvin's teeth! I was brushing his teeth last night and stuck my finger in his mouth between his gums in the back of his mouth so I could hold his mouth open to brush. My finger hit something pokey! One of his lower molars is all the way through - so I did some more digging and noticed the 2nd set of his lower front teeth are starting to poke their way through. He won't look like a baby anymore with just 2 little front rabbit teeth. Things that make him happy are: putting a blanket over his head and taking off walking in any random direction. He giggles with delight when the blanket covers his face and he starts walking. I think he anticipates running into something and falling over for fun. He ran into the wall once and sat down hard, laughed even harder, and rolled over, grabbed the blanket, and tried again. He likes to laugh at Violet when she jumps around. He loves food. He ate a ton of that mexican-inspired pasta dish (aka: mexi ziti). He likes to randomly cuddle if he's sucking on his paci and leaning against me with his favorite blankie between me and his cheeks. When he notices Dave comes up for lunch or he's done working, he'll run over to him with delight - let Dave hug him while he leans his head on Dave's shoulder - and then wriggles to get down. Like he's saying a quick "hi!" and then "bye!" He has been bringing me things - random items, and saying "hah!" I'm guessing he means to say "here!" and he fakes putting the phone to his hear and blabbing, sometimes. He's just such a happy little toddling thing. He really only gets upset if he's hungry or overtired. He doesn't do well overtired. Today I had a moment where I knew he was tired, but I couldn't put him in bed because I thought we were getting in the car with in the next 20 minutes. I got him all snuggled on the couch, propped up by a pillow and wrapped his blue blankie around his legs in his lap, gave him his paci, and let him watch a baby video. He sat there mesmerized for 20 minutes - sinking into the couch even deeper like he was in a trance. I think he enjoyed the relaxing time. I sneaked over to try prop him up a little better, but that disturbed his peace. He popped up like he was ready for a marathon and proceeded to ignore the TV and wiggle around, roll off the couch, and take off to do something else. Little booger.

Well, we got out of the house

but we never made it to work out class. It was just a craaaazy morning and it was 9 am before we were even ready to put the kid's shoes on. So...we scrapped that idea since we didn't want to walk in 20 minutes late and not get in a good work out. It had to be worth it for that much effort! Its nuts how a 1 minute car ride to the gym takes SO much longer with 4 kids in tow. Anyway...we made a purposeful detour to Cup of Joe, grabbed some mochas to help us wake up, and took the kids to indoor park at the rec center again and let them run around and play for almost 2 hours. I sat and talked with a bunch of ladies that I knew from MOPS group - it was fun to see them there and talk. Calvin mostly climbed over soft blocks and roamed around. He wasn't scared to walk across the entire length of the gym and get involved in something with out having to be near me, it was nice. But hard to keep track of the little guy. He's quick! He got pretty tired at the end, just wanting to sit with me and wiggle around, but for the most part, he was crawling up and over all sorts of things. He liked to sit on a little red car with 4 wheels and push it back and forth. Violet liked to sit on the rollercoaster toy and share with the other kids - she is so good with sharing and letting other kids take their turns. She also roamed around in the toy cars and climbed up a castle wall and went down lots of slides. Austin wanted to throw a basketball into the hoop but never made it in. Renee was all over the place...doing everything. Its crazy. Need I use the word crazy again?! ha! We fed them a little snack of crackers/raisins/juice, took potty breaks for the older two, and then let them play even more. By 11:30 we were ready to go, so we got them home, fed them lunch (grilled cheese and tomato soup), and Carrie got herself showered and packed up her vehicle. I helped her vacuum out her van and reinstall her car seats. Somehow Renee's car seat harness straps were all twisted so I took the seat apart and rerouted the belt and made it straight and reinstalled it. She left by 2 pm. I got an exhausted Violet to bed at 2:30, but just then Calvin woke up screaming. I couldn't do much to help him get back to sleep, so I reluctantly got him up and let him sit in his chair hooked onto the counter and eat a snack while I prepared a casserole for Joan and Wendell. I cooked bacon, chicken, and noodles, while chopping an onion, celery and green pepper all at the same time. Calvin munched on shredded cheese and raisins (probably a good combination of food, they balance each other out comin' out the other end, lol). He got all fussy so I tried putting him back in bed, but he wanted nothing to do with it. I finally got sick of dealing with him because I knew we had to pack up the car and take the casserole to the Ferguson's soon - so I plopped him on the couch propped up with pillows, his favorite blankie, pacifier, and a baby movie, and he happily lounged on the couch and watched his video for 20 minutes. That was a needed break. I was just hustling around the house, cleaning up after my cooking mess, picking up toys, getting the house somewhat in order - and then I got a call from Dave saying he got a call from someone asking if we could host small group at our house. I just figured - why not - the house isn't clean anyway - go for it. So - it was just fun, but more craziness to add to the day. The NICE part of having small group at our house was being able to put Calvin to bed at his normal time - 7:15 pm. And he was READY. When I got his PJs on and put him in bed, he snuggled right into his blanket, made his happy cooing noises as I laid him in bed and he was out in 2 seconds. Violet had SO much fun running around the house with all her friends, so it was a fun night. Need I say how crazy the day was? I'm ready for a little down time, some silence, and mayyybe a glass of wine. Ahhh. Oh - another thing. I got asked to prepare a 10 minute little devotion to share with the girls at the MOPS meeting next week. Something immediately popped into my head - and it was to encourage the moms to start their day with prayer for help with the day. I think I will be speaking to myself more than anybody else in the room. Its hard to establish new routines, especially for myself because I'm not very schedule oriented. I plan to tell the story of my frustrating Walmart trip and how even though if I had prayed at the beginning of the day, maybe the same frustrating things might have happened, but I would have probably handled them in a better way knowing that God was helping me through it and giving me grace for each moment, rather than me huffing and puffing through the store complaining, not giving my kids a good example to follow. So I hope that goes well - if you think - pray for the time that I share that devotion that the Spirit would speak through me and the words I speak might hit home with another another mom and encourage them a little. Yes, parenting is VERY hard! There are awesome times of blessing mixed with tough stuff. God knew it was going to be tough, so he promises to give us enough grace for each moment of those times. Thanks mom and dad for making it through the tough stuff with me!

LaMarche cousins visited again

This week I've barely had a minute to sit on the computer. Josh is traveling for work, so Carrie came to visit for a few days, Monday through tomorrow. Its crazy around here! Monday night they got here around 6:30 and I had creamy chicken and wild rice soup ready on the stove - I had gotten Panera bread bowls ahead of time, so I served that up in the bread bowls - yum! Austin and Renee are sharing Calvin's room and Calvin is sleeping in a pack and play in my closet. He's been comfy and slept well there so its working great! Austin and Violet play really well together. They're working on taking turns with everything and doing pretty well. So far anyway. There are definitely spats when either of them think the other is doing something wrong, but hey, they're both 3. We realized that this is one of the short times in their lives when our kids are both technically 1 and 3 years of age. Violet just turned 3, Austin will be 4 soon. Calvin just turned 1, Renee will be 2 very soon. They're all about exactly 9 months apart. Tuesday we took the kids to the rec center for indoor park from 10:30-12. It was my first time there and I don't know why I haven't gone earlier - the kids had SO much fun! One 1/2 of the gym was full of ride-on toys, little cars, and scooters. The other 1/2 of the gym had climb-on toys, play castles, a little baby rollercoaster-car type of thing, horsie, big blocks, etc. They got all pooped out and we brought them home, fed them lunch, and got them down for naps. Even though it was a crazy morning I'm glad we did it. Carrie and I took advantage of the fact that Dave was home working, so we took off to do some shopping while he stayed home while the kids were sleeping. We went to the mall, I returned some stuff, got some new work out shoes, got some shirts, etc. Violet and Austin love to play the song "I like to move it move it" from the movie Madagascar over and over and over and dance. The "thing" to do is push play to start the song over. They came up with rolling their bodies on the big exercise ball off the couch and doing a somersault onto the floor and took turns doing that. We took the kids with us to my Bible study this morning and from what I heard, they all did great in the child care area. We packed a lunch and ate there since its always a tough time to bring them home all hungry and fix something fast to eat. We have plans to go to work out tomorrow morning and then take them to indoor park again until lunch time.