Frankie's first acting role

Frankie played Baby Jesus in last night's Nativity play at Elena and Sam's school. I thought he might be a challenge as he is not always the calmest baby in the evenings. He was starting to arch his back and fuss right before it was time to go on, and then he calmed down and looked adorable for his whole "performance." Elena and Sam also did a great job singing their songs with much enthusiasm. We have yet to witness one of our children who does not love being on stage, but I guess that's appropriate considering that is where Seth and I met.

As you can see, Frankie was pretty popular with his fellow cast members:



Seeing our own baby up there made me appreciate in a new way the sacrifice that God made by sending his Son to us in the form of a precious and innocent baby, knowing the price he would pay for our sins. At the end of the play, one of the angels talked about how this baby would go on to undergo great suffering for our sake. At that moment, I felt like I had a teeny-tiny glimpse of the immensity of God's love for us when I contemplated how extremely difficult it would be to offer up my baby - my baby! - to endure a future horrific death for the salvation of others. It was paralyzing for me to even imagine it, and God actually went through with it.

Sam is 7!

In honor of his birthday, here's a throwback picture of a time when he got a hold of a marker in the car:

...and a video of him falling asleep in a parrot hat.

Wake Up, Charlie!

For the last 6 months or so, Charlie has been in that weaning from naps stage.  He's been our toughest case yet as he simply doesn't need that much sleep compared to the others, which has its pluses and minuses.  The difficulty is that if he does nap, he stays up until about 11:00. If he skips his nap, he will go down by 9:00 about 1/4 of the time. The rest of the time, he either falls asleep around suppertime and then stays up until midnight, or he just gets overtired/cranky and then stays up until 11:00ish.

We have tried:
- waking him up early so he will nap by noon
- letting him sleep in late to encourage skipping a nap
- keeping his naps short (we've tried varying lengths: 15 min, 30 min, 1 hour)
- just putting him to bed when he falls asleep at suppertime
- moving his bedtime up to 7:00 or 8:00

All of the above methods have backfired the vast majority of the time. The nap length or time doesn't seem to make a difference at all. Even when we can get him to lie down at a decent time, he will sing/talk (very loudly) in bed for 2 hours easily. And putting him down at 7:30 just results in him waking up very well-rested at 9:00 and staying up until 1:00 am.

One day when we were in the "don't-let-Charlie-nap-too-long" phase of our experimentation, we were having a hard time waking him up. When he is napping, waking him up can be extremely difficult. We have tried taking him outside, letting him watch a favorite show, ringing our very loud doorbell, and giving him some sort of treat (he once sat up, ate a Popsicle, and then went right back to sleep). So on this particular day, Elena had some Pop Rocks and suggested we give some to Charlie to wake him up. And I let her (so maybe I'm not Mother-of-the-Year material) because I was pregnant and tired and desperate for an evening free of dealing with a wide-awake toddler destroying the house. And because I'm such a loving and compassionate mother, I video-taped it so we could all laugh at it later.

I will say, however, that things have actually improved greatly since the time change. Now that it is dark at 5:30, it's not so hard to get him asleep by 9:00 or so most nights. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the worst is behind us. Now that I think of it, that's actually the reason I've been able to keep up on the blog better: I usually try to save computer time for after the kids go to bed, and it has been a long time since I've had any "after the kids go to bed" time at all.

How Frankie got his name

When I was 8 weeks pregnant with Frankie, Seth and I went on our trip to Portugal and Spain. As I was smack dab in the middle of morning sickness, I went prepared to feel like total crap for much of the trip and armed with as many protein-rich snacks as I could fit into my carry-on bag (protein bars, hard boiled eggs, nuts, pumpkin seeds, etc).

During the first trimester of each pregnancy, my symptoms have been as follows:

1. If I get 8-9 hours of sleep at night, I'm really tired most of the day. If I get any less than 8 hours, I'm practically narcoleptic. The rest of the symptoms listed below tend to worsen as well when I am short on sleep. 

2. I have to eat something, preferably high in protein, every hour or so in order to remain more or less functional. Two hours is the absolute maximum amount of time I can go without feeling extremely nauseous. At three hours without eating, I am generally ready to vomit and/or pass out. 

3. If I stay up past 9:00 or so, I'm pretty much guaranteed to be "calling the dinosaurs" (as we like to call "puking our guts out" around here). 

4. Strong smells make me want to keel over, especially if it's a gross smell like garbage or fish.

5. Alcohol has no appeal at all. Even the smell of a drink is repulsive to me. 

Through all my pregnancies, I had good days and bad, but never any days with no symptoms at all until 12-13 weeks. The only pregnancy that was different was the one I miscarried: around 8-9 weeks, all my pregnancy symptoms pretty much disappeared, which turned out to be because I had lost the baby.

On the trip over to Portugal, I wasn't really bothered by morning sickness at all, which surprised me because I hardly slept on the flight but didn't have me too worried. By the 4th day of feeling great, however, I was convinced that I had miscarried again. I was staying up until 11 or 12 o'clock, averaging 6 hours of sleep a night, eating only at meal times (sometimes going as much as 6 hours without food), and I felt just fine.  I wasn't getting tired; I didn't feel nauseous at all; I wasn't hungry in between meals; I could eat whatever I wanted; and the smell at the meat section of the grocery store didn't bother me (and grocery stores smell a lot stronger in other countries than they do in the US). I even tasted a port wine in Portugal and I liked it.  Basically, I didn't feel pregnant at all for 4 days. 

During this time, we went to Mass in Lisbon, Portugal. After Mass, the priest encouraged us all to go to the birth place of St. Anthony of Padua, which was not far. He said it was an especially great place for any pregnant women to go as St. Anthony is not only the patron saint of lost items (I knew that) but also expectant mothers (I had not known that). So of course, we went and prayed there, asking St. Anthony to keep our baby in his prayers as well.

The next day, we went to Fatima, the site where Our Lady appeared to 3 young children: Lucia, Jacintha and Francisco. It is also the site of the "miracle of the sun," witnessed by 70,000 people - believers and skeptics alike. We brought with us the prayers of many of our family and friends. We, of course, prayed especially for our baby - hoping, if the life of our baby was indeed in danger, to bear witness to one of the many miracles that have occurred in Fatima.

One of the messages that the children in Fatima received was to recite the rosary daily. So the next day Seth and I decided to pray the rosary together. We prayed for our baby and for my morning sickness to return so we could have some peace of mind. I never in my life thought I would be praying to get sick, but that's basically what we did. When we finished the rosary,  I immediately ran to the bathroom and threw up. Then we high-fived. And for the rest of the trip (and the rest of the trimester), my morning sickness gradually returned...and we were thrilled every time I started to feel miserable from there on out.

I know some might think that it was all just a coincidence, but the experience truly felt like a miraculous event. My guess is that one of two things happened. Either we lost (or almost lost) Francis and were blessed to have him given back, or I was blessed with a complete reprieve from morning sickness on our trip until I asked to have it back. I had, after all, prayed before the trip that my morning sickness would not be too bad on our vacation so that I wouldn't be a wet blanket the whole time.

 If it was the latter, I think it's a classic example of the importance to "be careful what you ask/pray for." So often we think we know what we need rather than just trusting God to give us what he knows is best for us. And sometimes we get exactly what we ask for only to realize that maybe it wasn't all we thought it would be.

At any rate, when we were at Fatima, thinking that there was little to no chance our baby was alive, we decided that we would name the baby either Francis or Lucia in thanksgiving for our answered prayers. 

And that is the story behind Francis Anthony's name.

Halloween 2015

Getting ready (a few weeks early)

Elena designed this one - Seth did the carving

Seth may have switched to selling insurance, but that architectural drafting degree still gets put to good use (around the house and in jack-o-lantern design)

We had 11 trick-or-treaters stationed at our place (and 3 babies). Here they are dumping, sorting and trading their goodies after they got back.

In all the chaos, we failed to notice until it was too late that Charlie had dumped a box of Nerds into the carpet and was licking them out.

"Father Charlie"

Charlie has been playing Mass on a daily basis for the last few months. I finally had a friend sew him some vestments, and have been working to put together a little "Mass kit" for him, although he plays just fine with whatever he finds lying around.  It's fun to see the things that he notices and imitates. He will even do a little reading out of a Bible and then follow it up by sitting in his chair and "meditating" for a few moments before moving onto the next thing. I do remember the first time in Mass that he really noticed our priest doing that; he turned to me and said, "Look. Father is sleeping!"

A few weeks ago, we were at a Lutheran church, and Charlie started to "play church" on a little altar-like area they had in the basement.  Someone saw him and said to me, "It looks like you might have a future pastor there." After about 10 seconds he started genuflecting, and she said, "Oh...maybe a priest."

All Saints Day

Our kids' school started the tradition of having an Saints Costume contest every year to celebrate All Saints Day. There are prizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in each class as well as two grand prizes picked from all the 1st placers (one for the older kids and one for the younger).

It's been really fun every year reading through the stories of various saints and Biblical characters in the weeks leading up to the contest.  It's humbling to hear how truly heroic some of these men and women were.  

We learned about many of the early saints like Felicity, who died for her faith just days after giving birth to her first child, as well as more modern saints like Maximilian Kolbe, a priest who volunteered to take the place of a husband and father sentenced to die by starvation in a concentration camp during WWII.

In the end, Elena chose St. Brigid of Ireland and Sam chose St. Anthony.  They put a lot of work into learning about their saints this year, and both won 1st place for their class!

As the day of the contest drew near, we were trying to convince Sam to shave his head like a monk for his costume. We told him that if he did a really good job, he might win the grand prize. Sam asked, "But what if I don't?" Seth, thinking Sam would never agree to cutting his hair, offered to pay him the same amount at the grand prize (which in the past has been $100). Sam, of course, jumped at that offer and let us shave his head.

He was a little self-conscious at first, keeping it covered with a hat on his way to school; but by the end of the day when we wanted to shave it all off, Sam said he wanted to just leave it until it had all grown out. Fortunately, we were able to talk him out of that and he now has a super short head of hair.

In the end, Elena won the grand prize for the lower grades so Seth had to pay up, and both kids were very happy. Fortunately, they lowered the grand prize amount to $45 this year so we didn't have to fork over quite as much as we had thought.

St. Brigid, St. Anthony and "Father Charlie"

Brotherly Love

150-200. That's approximately how many kisses I would guess Frankie gets from Charlie in a day. And that's not an exaggeration. I tried counting one day, knowing I would never keep up. We hit 25 before 8:00 a.m. And we woke up at 7:45. And there is no shortage of kisses from the rest of the family, either.

Poor Charlie unfortunately hears "No " a lot more with the new baby, especially since his 2-year-old body isn't really capable of moving with the grace and care required to gently lean over a sleeping baby for a kiss. In turn, we have also been hearing "No" a lot more from Charlie, but overall we have been adjusting well. All three older kids are completely in love with their new brother, as it should be.

They say newborns can't smile...

I don't buy it.

Introducing Francis Anthony

We are pleased to announce the arrival of our little boy, Francis Anthony (Frankie), who was born Oct 17, weighing in at 7 lbs 4 oz and measuring 20 inches. He came much more quickly than the other three, which I've got to say, I did not mind.

I had been having contractions all morning, but they were pretty irregular, and given my history of 12+ hour labors, we didn't think it would be an issue for Seth to go help out on the farm for the afternoon. Of course, they sped up as soon as Seth left. I held off for a couple of hours before calling Seth, but by the time he got here we all hopped in the car and headed straight for Marshall (forgetting the camera so we don't have many first day pics). He was born a little over an hour after our arrival to the hospital; a big improvement from walking the hospital halls for hour after hour.

Although my doctor was gone for the weekend, I was happy to learn that the doctor on call was my previous (now semi-retired) OB. When the nurse went in to tell her that I had checked in, the doctor warned her that I "deliver like a steam engine." And that's probably a fairly accurate way to describe the experience, I guess. I'm very grateful that the pushing portion of deliver has always been quick for me: 4 minutes this time. And that was long enough. Kudos to those ladies out there who push for hours - you are amazing.

He has been a wonderful baby so far and has lots of sets of arms eager to hold him all the time. We are all adjusting to being a family of 6. As Jim Gaffigan describes going from 3 to 4 children (or maybe it was 2 to 3): "Imagine you're drowning, then someone hands you a baby." While there are moments like that, it's so wonderful to have this new little life with us and so worth all the chaos. 

Speaking of chaos, though, if you have a minute and are so inclined, pray for us when Seth goes back to being gone in the evenings next week. So far Seth has been home during the "getting kids ready for bed" portion of the nights. I had a taste of trying to do it on my own tonight when Seth was gone until 8:00 and yikes! Often Charlie hits "sleepy/disagreeable/I want Mommy" time at the same time that I'm trying to read the older two stories which don't hold the interest of Charlie who is either trying to get on my lap, jump on us, talk/sing so loudly no one can hear, get me to read his books instead, or creating a huge mess somewhere. If I deal with Charlie and get him down before I read to the older ones, they end up staying up too late and we all pay for it the next day. If I make Charlie wait, he hits "overtired" and can't sleep for another hour or two or three. So throw a nursing baby on my lap in the middle of all of that and it's a bit overwhelming. 

Thanks again for all the prayers and well wishes throughout the pregnancy. There's nothing better than welcoming a new life into the world.

More glasses!

I've  been very grateful and often amazed since we've met at how compatible Seth and I are. Our personalities go very well together, we pretty much agree (so far) on major decisions and lifestyle choices, and our interests are similar enough that we don't get bored with each other. Where we are different, we compliment each other (he can fix stuff, I can proof-read anything he needs to write; he can focus and get a job done, I can multi-task, etc.)

Our one consistent flaw so far appears to be an inability to pass on good eyesight to our children. We have yet another extremely farsighted child. This is the earliest we have caught it so we are still adjusting to the challenge of keeping glasses on a 2-year old. He still doesn't want to wear them around the clock, but he is gradually becoming more willing to wear them for extended periods of time. I'm just happy that modern technology can so accurately pinpoint a child's prescription.

Here are our three 4-eyes:

On the Wagon

Sam brought home a library book today about Charles Atlas, the body builder who developed a program to help people get in shape in the 1960s.  Growing up very skinny and often bullied in part due to his scrawny frame, he ended up devising his own exercises to bulk up and became the "World's Most Perfectly Developed Man." At the end of the book, it talked about how Charlie promoted more than just exercise. He was also committed to healthy eating, honesty and abstaining from drinking and tobacco.

When I read that, Sam's response was: "From now on, I'm going to give up drinking."

And Elena added, "Yeah. I'm just going to stick to that non-alcoholic stuff."

Of course they would choose to give up something they don't even use versus what I was hoping to hear: that they would give up candy and start eating more healthy food. That message apparently went in one ear and out the other. I guess the best I can hope for is that their enthusiasm to avoid alcohol will stick with them through high school and college.

Our Little Conductor

All of our kids have shown and interest in music, as most kids do. Ours seem to prefer singing and dancing to really taking the time to learn an instrument (probably because singing and dancing don't automatically require as much diligence and practice as an instrument).

Elena has always enjoyed singing. I've often caught Sam dancing his heart out when no one is looking. But I think Charlie has taken the cake on this one. Every day (at least once a day, if not more) Charlie grabs a stick and "conducts" while singing at the top of his lungs. Throughout the summer, I'd say he averaged an hour a day on this activity alone. It does make having normal conversations difficult for the rest of us as he is extremely loud, but it's quite entertaining.

In June and July, the community band  in Marshall has a concert in the park every Wednesday night that we went to. Usually the little kids play on the playground most of the time, but Charlie spent a better portion of his time watching the band play. I put together a little compilation of a few of his "concerts" that I caught on tape. The conductor of the community band would always talk for a bit between songs, and you can see Charlie doing the same a few times in the video.

 

The little stinker strikes again

Only this time he dumped out 13 puzzles. I'm hoping to talk the kids into a "family fun night" of assembling puzzles...

New on my To Do list: find another spot to store our puzzles and/or get rid of them.

Fish Boil

Our neighbor from down South suggested we all have a fish boil this summer, so Seth decided to throw one on Friday as an end of the summer bash. Unfortunately the neighbor who came up with the idea in the first place wasn't feeling well and couldn't make it so it ended up being mostly family. We all had a great time, though.

Seth did all of the cooking, and it was delicious. There was pretty much nothing left (except the broth, which he used the next day to make Gumbo - yum!) I was pretty tired by the time everyone left so Seth ended up doing all the clean-up as well.  I sure is nice having such a great husband. And thanks to our neighbor for the great idea!

Before:

 After:

 We had two bottomless pits teenage boys in attendance, who made sure no craw fish were missed:

First Day of School (Tired Mom Style)

The kids were more excited than I ever remember being for their first day of school. They wanted me to set their alarm clocks for 6:00; we compromised with 6:30. They really don't need to leave until 8:00, but they wanted to get there as early as possible so they could play outside.

I planned to get up at 7:30 to fix Elena's hair and see them off. Of course, I woke up at 6:30 when I heard them getting ready and didn't completely fall back asleep until about 10 minutes before my alarm went off.

So I got up groggily to find Elena dressed in a bright pink shirt (no problem there) paired with Xmas socks (a bit of a clash) and pants that were about 3 inches too short, accentuating the socks (lovely). I guess she grew a bit over the summer. So I tried talking her into new pants, but she said she didn't care, and I let it go. And I didn't fix her hair either (it was brushed, but she has the kind of hair that looks like it hasn't been brushed within 20 minutes if you don't put it up).

I told myself it was because I'm glad she doesn't obsess over her looks like so many girls do, and I'd rather see her have her own sense of style than stress out about being just like everyone else. And that's true. But if I'm going to be completely honest, it was really just because I was tired and wanted to go back to bed. Which I did.

I'll try harder tomorrow to make sure my kids don't go to school with the "My mom is pregnant and exhausted" look. Wish me luck!

I did manage to get a picture, though. Yay, me!

In the same boat

Well, almost. I still have 2 months to go and this expectant sow delivered her piglets the next day. We went to the fair one day too early, I guess. It would have been fun to watch the delivery. At least I know I'll be present for the birth of our own child, which should be more exciting (although less comfortable).

 I haven't done such a great job keeping up on belly photos, and this is the latest so it will have to do for now.

Today's excuse

I'm perpetually behind in everything that should be done around here. I think most parents are the same, and the most days the general excuse is the same: the number of people requiring me to help them, feed them and clean up after them far out-numbers me (especially in the summer when we average about 4 extra kids at our house per day).

Anyway, today Charlie created a very time-consuming extra project for me to do by dumping out 7 puzzles into one pile. Luckily 4 of them were little kids puzzles with bigger pieces which the kids could help with, but 3 of them were 100 - 200 piece puzzles. To make matters worse, two of them were Looney Toons puzzles and both included Bugs Bunny in the picture so I got to try to figure out which Bugs Bunny elbow, stomach, etc. went with which puzzle.

I'm trying not to think too hard about all the mischief he's going to get into when the new baby arrives. I guess on the bright side, it gives us something to laugh about (a few years) later.

How a 2-year-old eats popcorn

 Charlie imitates everything he sees, and how he eats popcorn is no exception; everyone else eat it by the handful so he does the same. Unfortunately with the coordination of a toddler, that doesn't work so well. Throw in the fact that he's also at the age where he usually does the opposite of whatever anyone requests of him and convincing him to eat it delicately is not so easy.

Needless to say, we don't make popcorn as often as we used to.

I can be a little forgetful...

About 50% of the time, when I load all the kids into the van to go somewhere, I have to run back into the house at least once to grab something I forgot (phone, keys, diapers, sunglasses, etc).

You know it's bad, though, when you are walking out of the house with your 2-year-old and he says, "Mom! Keys!"

And to top it off, he was right. They were still hanging on the key hook.

Our First First Communion

Elena celebrated her first communion on April 19th, which also landed on my parents' 40th wedding anniversary. I was still dealing with morning sickness at the time and didn't get around to put anything on the blog at the time.  

 This last picture was actually taken on the feast of Corpus Christi. We had a big procession around town after Mass. All the girls who made their first communion this year were invited to come wearing their dresses and to throw flower petals during the procession. We were expecting a whole pew full of girls in white dresses, but Elena was the only one who showed up in her dress. I was very thankful she doesn't get overly self-conscious.

Something Borrowed, Blue, Old and Cute

Seth's little bigger brother got married last month! I'm sure we'll have more pictures to come, but for now here's one of Charlie's outfit for the big day. His was my favorite (after the beautiful bride's, of course).

It was my brother's outfit when he was the same age, so it's almost 40 years old. I was so glad it still fit, and Charlie loved it.

Can you guess what this is?

If you guessed a bird cemetery, you would be right! A few weeks back, we had a really windy storm that blew quite a few baby birds out of their nests, so all the neighborhood kids spent an entire afternoon going through their yards finding and burying birds.

They buried 10 birds in all and have added the occasional dead bird since then. Each got its own brick tombstone with a name written across the top. I'm pretty sure all the decorating was done by Elena - once again, the only girl around.

I will add, for my readers who are easily grossed out by germs, that between the use of shovels and a neighbor boy with thick gloves, they all managed not to touch any of the birds with their bare hands.

Dancing Baby

As we were driving in the car the other day, a song came on that the kids liked so they asked me to turn it up.

The baby was kicking so I said, "I think the baby is dancing to the music."

...to which Sam replied, "Mom! Open your mouth so the baby can hear the music better."

No Fear

Here's a video of a typical Charlie scene: cute, adventurous, slightly dangerous and, as always, requiring constant supervision.

When it comes to swimming, as with most things, Charlie has no fear. His favorite activity in the pool is jumping in water at a depth of about 5 feet, touching the bottom, and swimming back up to the top. The only problem is he can't get his head back above water so we always need to be there to pull him up. This wouldn't be too difficult to handle - one would think you could just stand in the water to catch Charlie whenever he jumps in - if he didn't have such an "I'll do it myself" attitude. If he even suspects we are going to try to catch him, interfering with his ability to sink down and swim up on his own, he will run about 5-10 feet away from where we are in the pool and jump in where no one can catch him, making us scramble to get over to him.

I'm glad he does so well underwater, but it makes for nerve-racking trips to the pool. Last time, he spontaneously decided to do one last run and jump in the big pool just as we were headed out the door of the pool (I was already dressed and holding all our bags & pool toys and thus unable to catch him). Luckily, there was a boy in the pool not far away who was able to fish him out and hand him to me. Needless to say I have not brought him to the pool as often as I would like this summer - mainly because the water in the big pool is cold and I'm a wimp who doesn't want to have to keep jumping in after him.

And yes, we have tried floaties & life jackets (which he tolerates for no more than 2 minutes) & trying to keep him in the baby pool area (which he easily escapes) etc. etc. There's not much stopping this kid.  Apparently my brother was the exact same way at pools when he was this age so my parents never went with him unless they were both there (one in the water and one out). So thanks for that gene, Joe.

He got distracted by the camera as usual, but you can at least see him jump in once.

It's tough being 2. (But it's tougher being a 2-year-old's mom)

I wrote this about a month ago while school was still in session. Being done with school has helped a bit, but here's more or less how life has been the last couple of months:

It was tough getting stuff done when Elena was 2. It was tougher getting things done when Sam was 2 as he not only got into everything, but he also had a greater tendency to endanger himself by doing things like sticking coins in the electrical socket and climbing as high as he could get before he had the coordination to keep from falling.

But Charlie has brought things to a whole new level. He requires constant supervision in a way I don't recall with Sam and Elena (although let's be honest, I may just have blocked that out). All the kids liked to be outside at this age, but Charlie is adamant about being outside approximately 98.99% of the day. I love spending time outside with him (as long as it's not too cold, which bothers me but apparently not him), but it's rather difficult to cook supper, do laundry and clean the house from the back yard.

Unfortunately, bringing him inside and locking the doors doesn't help much because he has figured out how to unlock the deadbolts and get out. Every time I take a minute to go to the bathroom, I have to immediately locate him when I get out to make sure he hasn't escaped again. The only way to keep him inside is to stand in front of the door blocking him while he screams and cries to get out, then race him to the other door to block that one when he tries to escape that way. Since this heart-warming activity also does not lend itself to getting things done any better than being outside, we usually just go back outside.

Occasionally he'll sit and watch Frozen or Bubble Guppies, but I don't particularly like him watching much TV so I try to save that for emergencies: emergencies like it being 5:55 pm and I still have no idea what to we're having for supper. At which point the kids and I end up eating something quick like scrambled eggs and sliced apples or  Mac 'n' Cheese with frozen peas on the side (Sam and Elena won't eat them cooked). And usually as soon as I sit down to eat, Charlie is already out the door. During the average meal, I have to drag Charlie back to the table 6 times and I get to eat approximately 1/8 of a bite of hot food - the rest is cold by the time I get to it.  And poor Seth isn't a big fan of meatless meals. That combined with his gluten-intolerance, which makes throwing together something quick like a sandwich difficult, means he often comes home to no leftovers suitable for his supper. It's a good thing we have all the canned venison!

Evenings have become my most challenging time, being home on my own trying to get the kids ready for bed. For starters, Charlie often doesn't get tired until 10:00 or 11:00 pm, which means he is always awake through the entire process. Even if we can get him to stay in bed at a decent time (which only happens if I lie next to him), he will lie there and talk and sing at the top of his lungs for an hour and a half before he finally falls asleep.

He also doesn't like to sit and listen to long stories the way Sam and Elena, who enjoy reading chapter books together, do. So while I try to help Elena with her nightly homework and read stories to the older two, Charlie is usually repeatedly running out of the house so I have to get up and bring him back in again,  tormenting us by ripping the books out of our hand and yelling as loud as he can to try to get our attention on him and off the books, or wreaking havoc on the house (this has been his favorite lately).

Tonight, for example, he started trying to fix himself a bowl of cereal  while I read to Elena. So I asked Sam to help him pour his cereal and to put the milk away so it wouldn't be easily accessible to Charlie. Sam tends to only hear the first half of 2-step instructions and he did not put the milk away, Charlie then dumped out the rest of the gallon into his bowl (luckily it wasn't too full so the mess was minimal). After that he moved onto the bathroom and within 3 minutes had flooded it by plugging the sink and letting the water run at full blast until the sink was overflowing. He also had great fun splashing the water so it was not only all over the floor, but covering everything else as well. Another night he used a stool to get to a jar of cinnamon and dumped it all over the kitchen (stove, countertops, floor). It was probably during story/homework time that he stuck a toy motorcycle in the toaster as well. Fortunately I found it the next day before anything was toasted.

It's really not a question of  if he will make a mess during the 10 minutes scattered throughout the day that he inevitably wanders off without my direct supervision because I am busy trying to do something without his interference. It's just a daily adventure of finding out what the mess is going to be each day.

Through it all, though, he remains extremely charming and he makes us laugh all the time. If I had nothing else to do but give him my full and undivided attention, life would be so easy.  As it is, he gets most of my (very divided) attention all day long, while everything else (cooking, cleaning, organizing those growing piles of "I'll get to it later" stuff, my own personal hygiene) ends up getting neglected because, well....there's only one of me. If anyone has tips on how to bi-locate, I'm all ears.

Leipzig Fountain

I never got around to sharing this video from Germany. We came across a fountain on the sidewalk in Leipzig. We knew there would be no keeping Charlie from getting wet so we stripped him down to his diaper and let him play. He had a blast and so did we. If you look in the background you can see people stopping to watch. By the time he was done, he had generated a small crowd.

"Kiss My Baby"

While Elena and Sam are both very excited about their coming sibling, often giving "kisses to the baby" through my belly, Charlie remains more or less oblivious.


His lack of understanding on the subject was clear tonight when Seth was giving him a kiss goodnight. After getting his kiss, Charlie pointed at his belly and asked Seth to give his baby a kiss.

I know I know...

It's been a long time, but I have at least 3 really good excuses:

Reason #1: Seth and I went on a trip to Portugal in Spain in mid-March, which meant about 2 weeks of insane prep-work at school before the trip and lots of catching up to do when we got back. Here we are in Portugal. I'll probably get around to sharing more picture from the trip someday, but we've been back for a month and I haven't even had time to even look through them yet so it might be awhile.

Reason #2: Charlie. And the nice weather. Keeping that kid indoors is nearly impossible unless I let him watch Frozen. I try to limit his screen time so that is reserved for when I absolutely need to get something done inside. Even if he does stay inside willingly, he's usually doing something that requires constant supervision. I let him go off and play quietly the other night for 5 minutes so I could read books to Sam and Elena (Charlie doesn't sit as well for stories as the other two) and he came back with eye-liner all over one of his eyes. Needless to say, if I try to get things done on the computer, he either runs off and I have to chase him or he stays by me and tries to bang on all the keys or shut the lid while I type.

Reason #3: This is the primary and most exciting reason. We are expecting another baby (and I've been super sick)!!! We're due around Halloween and we are all very excited. Elena wants a girl, Sam wants another boy and Charlie is clueless, but every time we ask him if he thinks the baby will be a girl or a boy he says, "Baby girl!" I just had my 12 week check up today and all is well so far. I'm still feeling sick though so I'm just hoping that will be over in the next week or two.

My scary child

I was shopping with all three kids the other day when I heard a little boy exclaim, "Ah!! You scared me!" to Sam.

He had just rounded a corner and came face to face with Sam. I was a little confused at first, wondering why he had gotten so scared, until Sam turned around and I realized he was still wearing his face mask from playing outside in the cold.

I can't say I blame the kid. Imagine you are just a bit shorter than Sam and ask yourself: "Would I want to bump into this guy?"

:

Christmas 2014

I just realized I never shared any pictures from Christmas.  That's probably because I was busy directing a play over break. (As usual, as soon as I knew I had some free time coming up, I filled it up with a new project, but I really enjoyed it)

Here is our Christmas Eve "All you can eat seafood buffet" prepared by Seth. Luckily my parents came and help us eat it because it was quite the feast and way more than we could have handled on our own: crab legs, shrimp scampi, salmon fillets, stuffed portabella mushrooms and scallops.

These pictures are of a hayride Seth's parents arranged for the family to take around town for Christmas - complete with hot chocolate!

Celebrating on my side. I think this was our 4th day in a row of Christmas parties:

Charlie turned 2!

...almost a month ago. So I'm a little behind on the blog. I also just realized that I wrote a few posts in January and failed to hit publish, so those of you who check this regularly can look forward to a few updates in the coming week.
Anyway, for Charlie's birthday, we got him a toddler sized drum set.

I was expecting this:

I was not expecting to walk into the living room to this (although I guess I should have):

Tough Decisions

Elena informed me of this dilemma she has been pondering for awhile (a bit prematurely, I might add):


"I can't decide where I want to go to college. I kind of want to go to Marshall so I will be close to you and Dad. But I would also like to go in the cities so I can go to the Mall of America whenever I want. This is a really tough decision..."

We hit a new milestone

The first snowman that Elena and her friend made without needing any help from Mom and Dad.

At least the thousands of locust tree pods littering our yard are good for something. If anyone needs hair for your snowman, you're free to pick some up at our place.

Overheard today in the back seat of the van

I had a hard time not laughing out loud during this conversation between Sam and his 5-year-old cousin while we were in the drive-thru getting lunch.


Jack: You know, I'm almost a vegetarian.


Sam: I am a vegetarian, but my parents make me eat meat....except ham. I like ham.


Jack: If I stop eating ham and hot dogs and chicken and fish, I will be a vegetarian.


Sam: I have to stop liking corn dogs and ham, but that's it. Then I will be a vegetarian.


Jack: So I just need to stop liking 4 things and you have to stop liking 2 things. Then we will be vegetarians. Oh! And brats, too. I love brats.


Sam: Oh yeah! But I mostly just like ham....I hope I stop liking that ham soon.....Actually, I think I've already stopped liking it.


Sam (about 30 seconds later as I hand him a ham and cheese sub): Thanks, Mom. I'm going to eat this whole thing!