Valentines WHAT?

While you'd have to be living in a cave to forget that today is Valentines, the truth is the holiday crept up on me again.  I love to see all the cute personalized photos of the valentines on Facebook and the adorable valentines day card boxes that look like Sponge Bob, Despicable Me Minions or the like (thanks Pinterest), the truth is I've barely come up with a token of appreciation for my own valentines.

Sometimes I wonder with all the other celebrating that happens at school for this holiday, if I even need to do anything else.  The Valentines celebration started on Monday of this week for the boys when they came home begging me to buy them a Sweethearts Lollipop.  While I debated and pondered the question of if they really needed a lollipop as big as their face for them to know how much I love them; my mind scrambled to find a reason to justify to them they really didn't need it and I shouldn't have to feel guilty for not buying into the hype.  I decided in the end NOT to buy into the hype and promised them that I'd have something just as fun for them to have at home.  They, though at first disappointed, seemed excited about a mystery surprise that would be waiting for them today when they got off of school.

And then there was last night.  I hope other moms can relate.  At 9:15 p.m. I sat in the recliner, completely exhausted from the crazy day that it was.  My mind slowed enough for me to pinpoint the to do item I knew I had been forgetting but couldn't identify what it was.  "Oh that's right" I said to Jarrett sitting at the kitchen table recording his hours for the day.  "What?" he said.  I continued, "Crap, I forgot I have to go get items for Michael's valentines day party tomorrow at school."  Already having changed into my PJ's, I decided no one would really care what I looked like anyway, so off I went to the store in search of bowls, grapes and strawberry cream cheese.  Thinking it could be a quick trip, I realized I was wrong as I pulled into the store lot only to find almost every space full.  Who in the world goes to the grocery store at 9:30 p.m. on a Thursday night?  Walking into the store I immediately realized, I had asked myself the wrong question.  "Who goes to the grocery store at 9:30 p.m. on Valentines Day eve?"  The answer for all those wondering....almost every husband, boyfriend, and dad within the nearest 10 miles.  I say almost everyone because my husband was at home; he might have been the only one.  I zoomed around the store, trying to get in and out as quickly as possible, remember I was in my pjs.  Grapes... check, strawberry cream cheese... check, plastic bowls... not   Staring at the paper plates, plastic silverware and Styrofoam bowls, or I guess I should say the shelves that normally house them, it took me a moment to remember I wasn't in Atlanta where the Polar Vortex had hit, but still in sunny Arizona.  Why in the world were all the disposable plates, bowls and the like gone?    Thinking they must have been moving merchandise in the store around and I just had to find the new location, I asked the first store person I found.  "Excuse me, could you please tell me where I can find the plastic bowls, you know the kind like paper plates?"  The lady smiled and went on to tell me they had had a run on those type of items and didn't have any left.  Who knew.  There were plenty of roses in the store, but paper bowls, nope, nada.

After stopping at the second grocery store on the way home to buy bowls, I arrived at home, washed the grapes, got them all ready for today and crawled into bed.  Then came this morning.  As usual, in the mornings at our house, Isabelle walks around  whining to have The Wiggles put on, Gabriel and Michael argue, tattle and mess around until we have to give firm instructions to stay in different rooms of each other.  After showering and throwing some clothes on, I glanced at the clock to see it was almost time to go.  I made the normal announcement, "Brush your teeth, get your jacket and shoes on.  We have to leave in 15 minutes."   That's when Gabriel came charging into the bedroom to ask me where his class valentines were and where the valentines card box was.  "Valentines WHAT" I asked Gabriel.  Mom, didn't you get me valentines for my class and where is my valentines day box for my class? He might as well have asked me what the newest species to be discovered in the world has been, because I had no idea he needed valentines and a box.   Not having the most pleasant response, I said, "Gabriel I don't know what you are talking about?  I never got a note or an email about your class having a Valentines Day event.  Why are you just telling me about this now?  Other than the letter asking me to donate plates, which I did earlier this week, I don't have any idea about a valentines box or cards." While I won't go into the specifics, it was clear someone had both dropped the ball.  We compromised.  Thankfully I had bought extra treats (for my own personal candy stash, some may say) and had enough for him to take to school.  Sadly they were not personalized, (seriously I didn't even have a list of names) and there would be NO cute, creatively decorated valentines day box.  Instead I sent a note to his teacher explaining that 15 minutes ago was the first I heard about the box and apologized that Gabriel wouldn't have one.

After dropping the kids at school, going to work and being out and about, it is clear, many people are getting nice gifts this Valentines day.  There are flower delivery people it seems at every stop light and the red and pink balloons are floating in the sky.  Love it in the air.  And while my family might not be getting the cutely decorated valentines with long personal message of love, I hope they still appreciate the "on-sale .40 cent bags their Bubbaliscious bubble-tape gum (for the boys) and M&M's (for Belle) are wrapped in.

And even Dad gets a gift this year.  I'll let you guess what bag is his?

 Even though my token of love may be small and simple, I hope they know my love for them is the exact opposite.

Happy Valentines Day!

Until next time,
angie

A tall, string bean.

Today I took Isabelle to the doctor for her 2-year check-up.  I looked forward to this visit for a couple of reasons.  One because, knock on wood, Isabelle has been relatively healthy as of late, and so it was nice to go to the doctor for a good reason.  Also, because I knew there would be no vaccinations this time, so Isabelle wouldn't be leaving in a bad  mood.  Finally, I was excited to go to the check-up because I was interested to see how much she had grown.

Several people had told me that how ever tall a child is at their 2-year birthday, often time is a good indicator as to how tall they will be as an adult.  With limited information about Isabelle's biological parents, I was interested to gain, what kind of seems to me, a piece of her puzzle.  Isabelle, from birth has always been tall (long) and thin.  While her weight continues to be in the 10th percentile, her height is always in the 90th.  With the exception of when she was so sick last winter, her doctor doesn't seem concerned as she consistently follows her own growth chart.

As we checked in and they took us back, Isabelle proudly stood on the stickers, on the middle of the scale.  She carefully and quietly observed the nurse looking down at her and smiled when the nurse praised her with compliments of being a good girl.  I looked at the scale and saw a whopping 24.2 lbs, thinking man she's grown so much from that baby weight of just over 6 lbs.  After a quick swipe on the forehead to get her temperature, we were into the waiting room for her height  and head circumference measurement.  Those measurements came out to 35 inches tall and 18 1/4 inches around her head.  Not having experienced this age with the boys, I'm like a first time parent, only with the mindlessness of a parent with three kids.  Basically, I had no idea as to what these measurements really mean.   Thankfully the nurse could read the clueless expression on my face and without having to say a word she said, "These are great measurements.  For height, she's in the 90th percentile, weight she's in the 10th and the same for her head circumference.  Right along track with all her past measurements.   I smiled, thanked her and turned to Belle to celebrate her "accomplishments"  Maybe that's not what parents are suppose to do when they get those results.  If that's not what they do, than I'll blame that on the first time experience excuse.

Next the doctor came in, looked over her measurements, and said, "Do you know how how a child's height at age 2 is a good indicator of how tall they will be as an adult?"   Pretending to have a well-informed parent,  I said, "Actually I have heard of this."  Isabelle's doctor continued, "Well, I can tell you she's not going to get her height from you."  I smiled and she continued, "Your husbands pretty tall right?"  I responded, "Yes, he's 6 foot I think."  "Well, according to these measurements, Isabelle will be at least 5 feet 10 inches tall, and possibly even 5 feet 11."

"What?" I said, laughing, mouth open in awe and trying to comprehend exactly how tall 5 feet 10 or 11 inches would be.  Me, being a expansive 5 feet 2 1/4 inches on a tall day, I quickly tried to subtract in my mind exactly how much taller Belle will be than me.  The doctor, being so kind and so much of a faster thinker than myself, joked saying, "She'll probably be taller than you when she's in 6th grade."  Actually, I hope that was a joke, maybe she had some other chart than can predict at what age she will surpass the height of her less-than-tall mom.    

While the visit continued and the doctor shared all sort of other helpful information about what Isabelle should be doing in the coming months, praised all that she is doing now and complimented her language skills, I was still back at the beginning of the visit.

  She's going to be how much taller than me?  My mind was racing.  Maybe she'll be a basketball player.  I hope she doesn't think she will be too tall.  Maybe she'll get a college scholarship to play basketball and Dad and I can cheer her on. I wonder if her friends will question her about why her mom is so short and she is so tall?  I hope she is proud of how tall she will be? 

While I have no idea why my mind races to 1000 questions that won't cross our path for many years to come, I guess I have to write it off to being a planner.  Always trying to be prepared for any situation, even if it is 14 years in the future.

After getting a glowing report from Isabelle's pediatrician, we left the office and immediately I grabbed my phone to call Jarrett.  He answered and I responded, "Guess how tall Isabelle is going to be as an adult?"  "Well Hello to you too!"  I repeated myself, this was serious business and I needed a guess.  He laughed, knowing me so well and said, "I'm going to guess 5'7''"  Nope, I replied and then shared the news.  "Yes, Dad, 5' 10" or 5'11"  We both laughed, while Isabelle sang Twinkle Twinkle, in her car seat not having any idea how incredible we thought this news about her was.

I continued to think about this revelation all day and when the boys got home it was the first thing I shared with them.   Except I said, "Boys how tall do you think Isabelle is going to be when she grows up?"  Michael's guess was that she was going to be as tall as me, while Gabriel guessed taller. "Mom- you are short, all of us are going to be taller than you, except Jack.  I think you will always be taller than Jack."  Thanks for the vote of confidence there son.  Anyway, I said, "Boys, the doctor thinks Isabelle is going to be almost as tall as dad."  As I shared the news, their eyes bulged out, they smiled as wide as they could and burst out laughing, "Oh my gosh mom, she's going to be tall."  While it really isn't that funny, I think it is the fact that right now she barely towers over the kitchen table, yet in a few years, she'll be towering over me.

Maybe all parents react this way when they find out the estimates of how tall their child will be as an adult.  I think for me, this piece of information really is like a missing puzzle piece into what her adult life will be like.  Unlike non-adoptive families who have past generations of loved ones to compare against, and genetic background to discuss, we don't.  Its like looking at a blurry picture in a 3D movie when you forgot to get the glasses.  You can kind of guess what the image on the screen is, but until you put the glasses on, you never know for sure.

With adoption, family histories and past generations of comparisons, are not always there have.  While I'm thankful for as much information we have about the boy's biological parents, we sadly don't have as much about Isabelle's.  Gaining this information today, felt like to me, we got one piece in the 1000 piece puzzle waiting to be assembled.

And that one puzzle piece told me, that while her mom might have the height of a pea, my daughter is going to resemble a tall, string  green bean. I've always liked green beans.  Today, they became one of my favorite vegetables.

Until next time,
Angie

It's a BIG day....

What's that you say?

Did I hear you correctly?

Never mind, I see a slide and some birds to chase.

Wait, did you say it is MY birthday?

Well, I'll stop and smile for that...

CHEEZE

CHEEZE- BURGER

I said CHEEZZZEEE!

Okay, back to playing now...

I'm such a big girl now!  Look at what I can do!

I'm so excited, I can hardly contain my excitement!

Excuse me Mr. Elephant, did you know I turned two today?

It's my special day.

Wow, mom's right when she says I've grown a lot this year.

Hello duckies, I have something very important to tell you...

Hey, come here, I want to tell you something.

 I turned two.  

Don't you want to be my friend?

I guess they don't want to be my friend.

That's okay, I'll just go play.

Are you ready?

Are you set?

Cause guess what?

 Watch out world.  

I've arrived and I'm GREEN(aka TWO). 

Happy 2nd Birthday Isabelle Grace!  We are so thankful to have you in our lives and we love you so so so so so so so much!

Until next time,

Mom

How old are you?

GREEN.

Yep, that's her answer every single time.  Even thought we've been practicing for weeks and never mind the fact I ask her at least 5 times a day.  The answer is still the same.  GREEN.  No Belle, you are going to be two (as I show her with her two fingers).  And still, even after all those reminders and practices of saying two, she still answers Green.

I don't think I've come to terms with the fact that my "baby" is turning two.  Seriously, is there a support group for moms who are sad that their baby is no longer a baby?  Don't get me wrong, there are so many wonderful things about the fact that Isabelle is turning two.  We wouldn't want her not to grow but as I've said so many times before, if only I could stop time for a while and just enjoy her (and the boys) being small for a little bit longer.  The past 24 months have been so much fun, I don't want them to end.

But since I have no control over stopping time or keeping my baby a baby, I guess I better suck up the fact that she's growing up in front of my eyes and just enjoy the stage we are at now. I still have almost 48 hours before she actually turns to, so I'm going to spend as much time as I can cuddling, loving on and soaking up all the wonderfulness she brings to our lives.

And then, on Friday, when she actually turns two, I'm going to keep on doing the same thing I've been doing for the last two years.  Because even though my baby keeps on getting bigger, she's always going to be my baby.

Until next time,

Angie

A terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day...

We've all had them. And today was one of them. 

You know how it starts. You get out of the shower to see that your brother is wearing your FAVORITE pair of jeans.  It continues when your begging to mom, to wear shorts, in 38 degree weather is immediately denied.  And then, after succumbing to the old worn out jeans with the holes in the knees, and the button that is harder than anything to fasten, you walk to the kitchen to see that your lovely brother is munching down on the last of your favorite cereal, leaving you with the least-favorite, non-sugar cereal in the cupboard.

And that was just the start of Michael's day.

From what I have gathered, his terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day continued at school.   While I know little of the specifics, the moment he got off the bus; his head was down and all he said was, "today has been a bad day."

We walked home and as usual, he got started right away on homework.  An hour into his homework adventure, he came to me to show his progress and that's when the bad day continued. After scanning the worksheet he completed on front and back, I had to share with him that he had completed it all incorrectly.  

Upon hearing the disappointing news, he tilted his head back, sighed a huge frustrating sigh and turned back with his worksheet in hand back to his work space in his room.  Minutes later a huge crash came from his room, and after opening his door, I saw he had dropped the pencils and colors containers spilling them all over the floor.  Insert another huge sigh followed by his eyes welling up.

I asked what happened and at this point Michael just looked at me and started crying.  With tears of pure frustration flowing down his cheeks, I told him I was sorry.  He responded with, "Can I just be alone for a while?" 

His reaction caught me off guard.  Since when did my 6 year old ask for alone time?  And when I really just wanted to reach down, grab him in my arms, hold him tight and tell him it would all be okay; I instead just listened to his request and quietly closed the door behind me as I walked out of his room.

While it wasn't fun to see him so sad and to see him struggle with all the things he thought had gone wrong today, as I thought about it I realized, today was probably a real growing day for him.  Although I'd love to be there to help him solve all his problems and overcome all the obstacles he will face in life, that isn't the way life works.  In a way, isn't it my job (our job) to help him develop the skills and abilities to work through them on his own?  While we will always be there to support him and cheer him on, developing those skills now will hopefully only help him.

While today started out as a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day, I'm happy to say that Michael was able to turn things around and the night ended very peacefully and with him being in a much better place.  As I kissed him and told him goodnight, he hugged me and said, "Mom, I think tomorrow is going to be a better day."  

I simply said, "Yes, I think it is."  

Until next time,

Angie

Super Bowl with a side of sickness...

Just like the millions (maybe it is billions) of people across the world, last night we joined in the festivities and celebrated the Super Bowl.

Honestly speaking, I think this was one of the years I looked forward to the game more than usual.  It wasn't because of the teams (our favorite family member teams wouldn't be on the field), or for the commercials (although I loved the Budweiser Best Friends ad).  The reason why I looked so forward to yesterday was because Dad took the whole day off and we had a family day.  It. Was. Fantastic.

Earlier in the week, when I asked Dad if he was going to have to work all weekend, he announced the thought he'd be able to take one day off.  I was so thrilled, I asked if him if he could please take off Sunday so we could have a Family of 5 Super Bowl Party?  Although he looked at me like I was a bit crazy, he said, sure.  Don't you just mean we'll stay home and watch the game?  Still in my desire to have all the fun and hype of everyone else going to a Super Bowl Party, I said, "No, we are going to have our own Super Bowl party.  Just us 5.  It will be fun.  I'll make all the traditional Super Bowl unhealthy snacks and then we can lay around on the couches enjoying them and I won't even have to worry about cleaning the house from top to bottom because it will be just us, in our own mess. Seeing where I was going with this, Jarrett played along and said, "Sure, I'll be here for the Party of 5 Super Bowl party."  (wink wink).

And so yesterday came.  It was a glorious day.  We woke up to a cool morning (got to love those here in the hot desert), we went to church.  Michael and I went on a bike ride/run where he collect shells along the canal on our way back.  Then we had breakfast, followed by a family movie of Mr. Poppers Penguin's where Isabelle even watched.  I then got to run out to Michael's by MYSELF and enjoy an hour of browse shopping while brainstorming all about decorations, invitations and the like for my sister's wedding. After returning home we had "cooks choice" aka left overs for lunch and then retired back to the couch for more football pregame.  While Isabelle napped, Dad and Mom may or may not have also napped on opposite couches, while the boys zoned into the TV.  Talk about the perfect lazy day.  And even the boys, who are constantly full of energy declined to go outside and play with the neighbor kids, I knew either they were enjoying the lazy day or the fact that all 5 of us were all together and just enjoying the time.  

As the game time approached I prepared the chips, the dip, the BBQ wings, the fruit salad and veggie tray (I couldn't feel right serving only unhealthy foods) and the pita bread and humus.  I set everything out on the table and said help yourself.  Our family super bowl party is about to start.

She was very busy stuffing her face full of food!

Dad, Isabelle and I dug in while Michael was too busy playing his video games (a special treat he doesn't regularly get to do).  Meanwhile, Gabriel laid on the couch with his hood up over his head, covered in his bed comforter and tried to push out the rest of the world.

Poor Gabriel has been sick now for over a week.  He's complained about his head hurting and he's had a fever for the last 6 days.  Finally on Thursday when Gabriel came home in tears after school, saying his head hurt really bad, I went to take his temperature by putting the thermometer in his ear to get a reading, he pulled back.  "Mom- my ear hurts really bad"  Fifteen minutes later we were sitting in the doctors office waiting for the diagnosed I had already confirmed as "ear infection."  An hour and a half later we walked out with a confirmed message that Dr. Mom's diagnosis was right again.

While he's been on antibiotics for the past 3 days, sadly he doesn't seem to be getting better.  In fact, he says his head hurts worse and his fevers are continuing.  While the doctor did say his ear infection was really bad, I am not sure if that's why his head continues to hurt.  As of yesterday we were on day 7 of feeling bad, day 3 of not wanting to eat and day 2 of forcing him to drink liquids.  He's home from school today and he's been sleeping for the past 3.5 hours after sleeping most of the day yesterday and most of the night.  I hope he wakes up feeling better.

While millions celebrated the Super Bowl yesterday and enjoyed the football, the fan-fare and the food, we enjoyed it too.  Only for us, the favorite part was just spending time together even if one member of our party was under the whether.

Until next time,

Angie

A good attempt and the Wiggles.

In the last three years that I've been sharing our family stories on this blog, it has been my goal to share updates on a regular basis.  Sadly my efforts starting in 2014, were miserable at best.  But now that it is February 1, and a new month, I'm determined to do better. While I have a lofty goal to write a little something each day, I'm going to be realistic and shoot for two updates a week.  Hey, that's a big improvement from a total of 4 updates total in January.  

Most nights after the homework battle, the race of dinner and the whirlwind of trying to get three people into bed at a decent time, I'm too tired to think about a fun story to share.  I guess the calling of Chicago Fire, Chicago PD, or Law and Order is too strong.   The truth is there have been things that have been happening that I've wanted to share.  I'm determined to do better.

I guess I'll start with this update.  Our daughter LOVES The Wiggles.  And by LOVE I mean she is absolutely, insanely, obsessively loves The Wiggles.  It is the first thing she now says in the morning when she wakes up, "MOMMY!!!  WIGGLES?"  And it is the last thing she thinks about at night.  Just last night as I was rocking her before going down for the night, she was giving me a rundown of all the songs on her favorite Wiggles DVD.  She started singing, "Hot Potato" and then moved onto "Fruit Salad Yummy Yummy" and before drifting off to sleep she was singing, "Toot Toot Chugga Chugga Big Red Car."  Sadly all of us in our family know the Wiggles too well.  We've checked out the same DVD from the library for 8 weeks straight now.  We can all recite every single word to the Wiggles DVD song track and it isn't uncommon for us to watch the entire DVD twice a day.  Just this morning at 6:20 a.m. all five of us sat on the couches staring at the TV and watched the Wiggles for the 1000th time.  I had to laugh, while they sang about monkeys dancing all of us watched intently all zoned in and completely consumed by the movie.  Realizing just how silly the act all of us were partaking in, I made a comment to Jarrett about how sad it was that we were all so entertained.  Jarrett responded saying, "You know what is really sad?"  "What?" I said and he replied, "When all day at work, everyday, all I can hear in my head is the last Wiggles song and then before I know it, I'm singing along to some silly song about monkeys, tooting cars, or fruit salad. That's silly."  I guess he does have a good point. 

Ah yes, to say our house has been affected by The Wiggles would be an understatement.  In fact as I type this, The Wiggles is playing on the TV.  For those who aren't familiar, I happily share with you what we've been living with for the last two plus months.  

http://www.thewiggles.com/ 

Pretty exciting huh?  

Until next time,

Angie