Pre-Baby Update

Here is an update on our busy spring. It is about to get busier as the baby is due to arrive in a few weeks. We are so excited. Excited enough to be washing cars, painting bedrooms, organizing closets, cleaning out refridgerators and freezers and dusting things of little importance.

1. Sean lost his first tooth. Very brave. Just had Dad yank it right out. Mom does NOT do teeth.

2. Patrick built us a great gym in the garage. It involves lots of wood and piping. We have lots of fun equipment too. Max wanted to investigate the kettlebells and managed to drop one on his foot. We spent an evening at the ER in order to sooth mom's worries. Not broken, just a bad bruise. Max thought it was a great adventure. He reminded me how he was just like George in Curious George goes to the Hospital.

3. We spent March either kicking up our heels with jig steps or on the wrestling mat. It was enjoyed by all, and we saw lots of improvement in our skills. Sean kept the dance teacher laughing after her explanations and reminders right before the kids went on stage, Sean would questions, "So what do we do?"

4. Patrick and I both spent weekends away on Silent Retreats. We both enjoyed the time spent in prayer and meditation and have been appreciating the fruits of the experience since. I must admit when I was home with the kids we cleaned, organized, and ran errands. When Patrick had the kids it was a dreary, rainy weekend. He had them out in the creek on adventure. They had boat races. I heard it was "the best weekend ever". Thank God for Daddy and adventures.

5. We spent a day as a family at an area natural history musuem. We had tons of fun looking at all the stuffed animals and bones. Then we went outside to look at an indian village, a grist mill, and a stone age homesite. Leave it to my daughter to climb INSIDE the burial mound. GROSS!

6. Waiting for baby. Keep us in your prayers!

My white picket fence....and sutures

I suppose I've always dreamed of having a white picket fence. I don't really recall those dreams, but my husband assures me at many times I have noted how nice it would be to have one. These days my dreams consist of sea serpents and dancing in parking garages...and my fantasies involve a night without going to the bathroom several times, or dinner magically appearing on the table...But, I now am the proud owner of a beautiful white picket fence in the backyard. It is off of our french doors in the living room and it surrounds a nice flower bed with plenty of mulch for digging little boys. It can contain dogs, but mostly those little boys that need containment. It looks so pretty and seems to be working so well. I do believe my husband is right. I have always wanted one. This one was built by Patrick and our lovely neighbors in a short weekend. I tried to help, but my biggest help may have been keeping little helpers out of the way. Oh yeah....and the highlight was helping my husband stitch up his own hand. I think we threw ten stitches. I got to hold forceps and tie knots. It was very exciting! and very long. It looks pretty good if I do say so myself...though not as good as that fence.

St. Valentines day is the "New Thanksgiving"

This holiday is changing bit by bit over time for me. Romantic love, hearts, candy, flowers. This year all those mushy things were replaced by sheer thankfulness....for many things. My hubby had a hard, long day of surgeries followed by several consults since he was on call. A normally short day became a very long one. At some point he called to check in and asked if I had planned anything for Valentines day (note to self....he is the romantic that usually takes care of these things, and his wife may take if for granted). I notified him Luke had boys scouts, but I had planned a nice dinner. I mean....I even candied nuts to put on a salad, but we were expected at scouts. I could sense his disappointment and with 2 sick little boys with colds, I decided to drop Luke off at a friend's house so they could take him to boy scouts, pick up the baby sitter, head home, put little boys to bed, take hubby out to dinner, take baby sitter back home, pick up Luke, and call it a night.

The plan worked great until we walked into the house from dropping off Luke/picking up sitter. That is when, upon entering the kitchen, Max puked spaghetti and green beans all over the kitchen floor. And when I thought he was done and took him to the kitchen sink to rinse his face and hands....I found out he wasn't, and then he hit the kitchen cupboards. So I put him in the shower with Patrick and I cleaned the floor, chairs, cupboards. I took the sitter home. And at 8:30 we grilled some steaks. Patrick suggested just eating the leftover spaghetti the kids had eaten, but I couldn't stomach it. And I sat back and contemplated not love, but thankfulness.

I am thankful for:
1. Those very important two minutes. The ones from the car to the house. The ones that allowed me to clean a tile floor and not a car seat and car carpet. Very thankful.
2. A husband that loves to shower whiney, pastey, sick kiddos.
3. The changes in a marriage over time. I read the Five Love Languages book a long time ago. I thought I had my husband pegged into his language. But I think that language is changing a bit. I think he is becoming more romantic and a surprise gift would be nice every once in a while. I need to remember this.
4. For kids, laundry, vomit, and everything in between.
5. For my #14 wallball that was my Valentine's Day gift. While some may like chocolate or jewelry, exercise equiptment is much more practical. And he knows it!

And now another day, another dinner. The date will wait until next week. Maybe I can plan something better. And hopefully no one will puke.

Catholic drummer

The kids and I attended Mass on the Feast Day of St. Blaise. There is a special blessing the priest gives at the end of Mass asking St. Blaise to interceed on our behalf to the Lord, specifically with problems of the throat (but against all evil....I like that part!). It was my little boys' first memorable celebration of the Feast. Oh yeah....St. Blaise was an early martyr of the Church and through his prayerful intercession a small boy was saved from choking a fish bone, hence the whole throat thing. Anyhow, the blessing involves the priest placing two blessed candles against the throat.

While at the altar rail, and while watching others being blessed, Sean leans over to inform me,
"But Mom the candles aren't lit!" (This is a good thing since clothes and hair would go up in flames, but a disappointment to a five-year old boy).

The next day while playing on the floor, Max walked over with 2 drumsticks held just as Father held the candles. He informed me he was a priest and he blessed my throat with drumsticks. I'm just glad he is paying attention!

I heard a funny one today

Mom: "Has anyone seen Max?"

Luke: "Oh yeah...he's in the garage. Naked. With snow boots on. And a bow and arrow."

Mom thinking to self......yep, makes sense, it's Max.

And just to clarify....he had on a pull-up.

Jekyll and Hyde

Two year-olds are such unique creatures. Full of joy and love and yet struggling for words and learning obedience. Max has been spending lots of time in time out lately as his little temper is getting away from him. When something upsets him, he tends to melt down into a puddle of yelling and tears. Luckily (at the moment) a time out in my room works wonders. I take his wriggling, yelling, crying body, and place him in my room, tell him he may come out when he is done crying and can use nice words, and shut the door. Without an audience, he calms down nearly immediately. Then the weird kicks in....he has associated being calm with being happy. He will break into the weirdest fit of fake laughter and come out smiling....then tell us, "I was joking." Go figure.

Just yesterday such an event unfolded at Target. Unfortunately, it is quite far from Target to my bedroom for time-out. This was likely one of those instances where you should leave your cart, take your kid to the parking lot, and go home. But people, I have 4 kids. I homeschool. I have very little time for errands. They get squeezed in wherever possible. I go to Target maybe once a month. We were out of pull-ups. I just could not leave. The tantrum happened due to the fact that Max wanted to walk through the store, not be put in a cart. Being largely pregnant, cold, tired, and in a big hurry because the other kids were in the car with Grandma, I just plunked him in, buckled him up, and we were off. Then the tears.....and yelling. I calmly told him repeatedly we were in a hurry, we would go fast, he needed to calm down. I offered him the dry erase markers to hold. NO TAKERS. After a short while and many curious looks from fellow shoppers, I realized Max no longer knew why he was crying. We needed a change of course. SOOOOOO......I took the pack of notecards that were in my hand and used those to bop the kid on the forehead. Immediately, I looked around to see if those curious shoppers had seen that. Then I looked for those security cameras. I figure I am now on a Wanted poster at Target for mean moms. But that little whack did the trick. He stopped looked right at me and said, "you hit my head!" Yes, I replied....I told him to calm down by doing that Lamaze breathing thing (only time in my life it has really ever helped). We practiced breathing in through our noses and out through our mouths.....and then came those weird cackling, giggles, and yeah, he was "Just joking mom!"

Anyone for drink?

Heard this one?

The two year-old: "It was an accident." or "You are my buddy." or "I'm just jokin'" Yeah.....not buying it.


During a dinner of roasted chicken, which is a painful event for my great eater 10 year-old, Sean gave us a lesson on barnyard animals and poultry products. Luke hates roasted chicken...it's too dry. So we sit and discuss white meat vs. dark meat. We bring out ketchup and bbq. Luke was not pleased even with these additions to his dark meat. And then the five year-old says, "Maybe it was just a white chicken, not a brown one."


The kids have a electric circuit set and spent an afternoon making fans run, light bulbs light, and a radio turn on. Sarah was working on a radio in the kitchen. She looked up at the clock and noted, "Oh it is 1pm. That must be why the am won't work". Patrick and I cracked up loudly at her deductive reasoning, and then proceeded to discuss wavelength, frequency, and radio function. I'm not sure she got it all, but she knows the radio function is not dependent on the time.