Mom, I have a crush...

As we celebrate Dad turning 33 tonight, another event overshadowed Dad's special day  Can you guess what it was? 

Yep, I kind of gave it away with the title.  As he arrived home, Gabriel proudly announced, "Mom, I have something very important to tell you.  Its a secret."  Walking closer to me he leaned in, cupped his hands around my ear, which was very important since it was only Isabelle and I in the entire house, and whispered, "Mom, I have a crush."

"Really?", I responded.

He continued, "Mom, my crush is Erin." still whispering, "She's so pretty and she's in Mrs. Womtring's class."

Not too alarmed at this point I said, "That's nice Gabriel.  Is she your friend?"

"Well Mom, I want her to be my girlfriend but I'm kind of shy around her.  Guess what though, today I sang, Call Me Maybe to her at recess." 

Thinking to myself, "Wow that's pretty good for 'being shy' around her."

The next thing I know he said, "And guess what? After school at Kid Zone, guess she gave me mom?"

"THIS!!!!!!!!" he said handing me the following piece of paper

Yep thats right, it is another note with a girls phone number and address.

"So...," he looked directly in my eyes and said, "Can we call her?"

And by that time, Michael had entered the kitchen.  He said, "Mom, if Gabriel's calling Erin, I want to call Alexa."

Until next time,
Angie

Where have the days gone?

For the last week and a half, blogging has been on my to do list, yet it seems, each and every night when I lay my head on my pillow with nothing left to give, I think to myself, yep, didn't get that done... again.

Life these days seems to be a continuous balancing act of juggling more balls than I'd care to count.  I'm not alone in this act, I know parents all across the country can relate.  From running kids to school, racing to work, plowing through as many piles on the desk as one can get done in a day, to racing home with less than a few minutes to spare, only to get to the school and be greeted by two disappointed faces, (mom, you didn't pick us up early).  To racing home to a baby with tear stained eyes whose seems to be longing to be held by her mom.  The juggling act continues as you throw together a meal that hopefully won't be received with all noses turned in the air, in between helping two kids get through homework they dread and fight about completing every night.  And in between there, squeeze in a baby that's hungry and decided she'd like to be fed about 10 minutes ago.  Conclude the evening by scarfing down dinner, packing backpacks for morning, creating a race of "who can get ready for bed the fastest".  With a quick prayer, maybe a story if were lucky, and hugs and kisses; I can take 2 balls out of the air and slow down my sprint to a steady, galloping pace. I then bathe the baby, feed her a bottle, tuck her into bed, and begin the task of tackling this place that use to resemble a house.

Yep these days that seems to be the programmed treadmill work out I've selected. Don't get me wrong, I really do love my life. Seriously, doesn't it sound like that?  Really I do. Have I convinced myself,  you yet?

Okay so you may not be convinced, but the truth is, I really do love it.  Certain aspects of my day I LOVE... I ABSOLUTELY LOVE.  The moment when Isabelle's eyes meet mine and she reaches for me with outstretched arms, and a whimper of "Mommy where have you been? I've missed you."  Push aside the guilt and that moment is pure gold.  It is so wonderful to feel wanted and to be the best thing in the whole world to that little person.  Pure gold.  A moment I've long for and prayed I'd get to experience.  A moment I cherish each and every day.  I've learned being that important to another human being doesn't come by that often. 

And there's the moment, when Gabriel races to meet me from the after school program to proudly announce that he had a "double blue day"  I actually didn't know you could get an even higher mark than a regular blue, but today he's insists you can.  And so I celebrate with silly dances and hugs of exaggerated proportions, to reinforce the message that mom really prefers blue days over yellow.

And I love words like metamorphosis, yes that's right.   Metamorphosis and amphibians, truly wonderful words; especially when said by your 5-year-old, front tooth missing kindergartner.  It is music to ones ears, and laughter to one's soul to hear your little boy impress you with the knowledge he's learned in school.  It is actually very impressive, seriously, I don't think I understood the meaning of those words until I was older.  His confidence grows as he shares the information he gained while I was away. I am proud to see him growing and to be interested in so many new and exciting things.  These are the moments to love.

See, so I was telling the truth.  There are so many moments in every single day, that remind me of the many blessings I've been given.  These are the moments that balance me after an extremely difficult day at work; when it seems no matter what you do, it doesn't turn out as you'd hope and the task of making even one person happy can seem like an impossible feat.  It is when the piles of work seem to grow higher an higher and the desire to retreat, throw up the white flag and join those you love the most,  is a calling urge, a craving you can't put out of your mind.

 It's the days when you feel like you are on a treadmill with no emergency stop; that the juggling balls have turned to blades of steel and that the harder you try to do better, you instead feel like your only doing better at failing.  Yep, these are the moments that I will honestly say I don't enjoy.  These are the stresses, the pressures, and the realities of life that can some days get the best of me.  I think others can relate, I'm sure we all feel it at times.  I think it is a part of life.  It is a part of growing, of pushing oneself to get better, the continuous reminder that we are always learning and together, in this workout of life.  In the end I believe we all desire the same and if given the choice, would all choose the moments of pure gold with those we love, in lieu of tossing the blades of death. 

It is my hope that as Gabriel, Michael and Isabelle grow older they do not only remember their youth as a race from one moment to the next.  I hope they don't remember me as the mom who mainly said "Hurry up, we're late, or lets go faster."  The reality is, I'm sure that those times will be part of their memory, because if I'm actually being honest, that is the reality of our life. So I have to let go of the dream that their childhood is only going to be memories of bountiful toys, endless hours of playtime and fun beyond imagine.  I hope that when they are grown and parents of their own, that they realize, Jarrett and I did our best to give them the best life that we could.  That we worked hard to give them what they need and sometimes what they wanted.  That they know what matters in life and to never stop working hard to get what they want.  That they know how important they are, that to us, they are the greatest people in the entire world.  I want them to never doubt our support and belief in their dreams and that we love them more than they will ever know.  That is our ultimate goal. That is why we run this race and continue this marathon.  

So on the days when we feel like the the race of life has plowed us down and buried us in a pile of dust, when the balls of responsibilities have crashed upon our shoulders and shattered into pieces, I search for the gold.  I try anyway, to find the speck of gold that reminds me of the best moments in my day.  And then as I put my head on my pillow and ask myself, "where has the day gone?"  I reminisce about the Isabelle's beautiful and full of love smiles, of the pride Michael feels in successfully accomplishing a Home Depot craft project, and the pure happiness Gabriel exudes as he wackes the ball at baseball practice.   These are the moments of gold in my crazy, hectic, over-scheduled and WONDERFUL  life. 

Until next time,
Angie

Is that suppose to be a compliment?

This morning as I was giving the boys a haircut Gabriel said, "Mom you should be Wonder Woman."  I responded, "Really Gabriel, why do you think that?" 

Giving me the look that says, why in the world wouldn't you think that he said, "Mom, its because you are HUGE!  Don't you weigh like 600 pounds mom?" 

Overhearing the "compliment" Gabriel had just given me, Jarrett immediately intervened and tried to change the subject.  Guess he didn't want Gabriel to add additional insult to injury.

Oh aren't children wonderful!

Until next time,
Angie

5 years and counting...

5 years ago we celebrated Jarrett's oncologist declaring that he was in remission.  Tonight we celebrate another huge milestone- 5 years cancer free!

Thank God for answering all of our prayers.

Tonight we have yet one more blessing to give thanks for.

Until next time,
Angie

And on the Seventh month…

Isabelle continues to amaze us. This past week Isabelle turned 7 months and all the wonderful things I’ve said about her every month past, continue to apply this month.
Although she unfortunately spent the weeks on her way to her 7 months sick, she continued to be a happy baby. I think with the start of school, her lovely brothers, aka walking germ monsters, brought home a variety of nice infection causing pathogens that made their way to, well Isabelle. First it was a runny nose followed by a stuffy nose, a cough here and there and then the wheezing started. Next thing we knew we had made 6 trips to the pediatricians office in less than 3 weeks. Yep, you name it, she pretty much had it this past month. Ear infection, eye infection, respiratory infection, and the latest… reactive airway disease, which just happened to include a frightening pre-diagnosis of infant pneumonia. Thankfully the chest x-ray showed there was no pneumonia, but with all the scary whispering between the doctor and nurses, the stat instructions to “get a chest x-ray now”, followed by the x-ray tech, holding up Isabelle’s x-ray and saying, “They sent you here to see if she has pneumonia right?”, I’ve decided I’d prefer never to experience that situation again. Thankfully she is doing much better and this past weekend finally made the turn and is back to acting like her old self.
Some of the things Isabelle has enjoyed most this month is talking to her “friends”. Tigger, Bee, and Puppy Dog are her favorite stuffed friends and by talking to them, I mean she usually forcefully grabs them with both hands, screams a piercing, room silencing happy scream, and finally shoves her friend into her mouth to be chewed on and covered in drool. She loves it and repeats this happy tradition over and over with each “friend.” Isabelle has also decided this past month that she’s rather spend most of her time sitting up rather than lying down, however she’s still trying to figure out what to do when she reaches too far to get one of her toys, topples over and ends up like a cockroach on her back. She can roll over and over and over but she still hasn’t figured out how to get back to the sitting position. Well, I take that back, she has figured out how to get back to sitting position… it goes something like this. Face plant onto the carpet, regain bearings, roll to the left, roll to the right, realize your back in the same place you first started and begin to scream. Wait for mom to appear and sit you back up. Success, you’re back in business.

Another area where we are in business is in her eating. The girl, is just like her mom and LOVES to eat! If only her mom would eat so healthily. Isabelle happily stuffs down squash, sweet potatoes, peas, green beans and carrots.  That, along with her oatmeal make her one happy baby.  She smiles from ear to ear and then shoves her fingers in her mouth only to come out wiping the vegetable of the night across her face.  She's a very good eater and I look forward to introducing fruits to her soon.  She currently weighs 15 lbs 1 ounce and is just over 28 inches long. 

Isabelle also continues to love her exersaucer, or super-loud-bouncer as we affectionately call it.  The girl is actually pretty strong and has figured out how to "bounce" her bouncer across the house.  I don't think it is technically made to actually move anywhere but up and down, but some how our baby girl has figured out how to make the thing mobile.  And even more enjoyable the "bouncer" is not a quiet toy.  It is actually the opposite. Anyone causally passing by our front sidewalk while Isabelle exersaucers can easily hear it from the front yard.  It perhaps, sounds like someone is pounding a 2x4 through our wall or beating a steak with a mallet over and over and over.  I've learned she can't be in it while the boys attempt to do homework because the boys have told me and I quote, "MOM, she's so loud I can't even think."  But she loves it and celebrates with huge wide mouth gum smiles as she makes her way across the house and back.

And with all those calories burned throughout the day we are starting to see her sleeping longer and longer at night.  In fact, I hesitate to say it but will anyway, there have been several nights when she's slept from 7 p.m. until 5:30 a.m.  Those days are glorious, now if I could only retrain my body to sleep through the night.  I for some reason still decide to wake up several times during the night just to check on her and make sure she's still sleeping.  Even though I still wake up, it is wonderful to still see her sleeping and helps me get right back to sleep.  We hope this trend of sleeping longer continues.

Isabelle has been such a wonderful blessing to us from the moment we met her, but I find with each passing day, we love and enjoy her more than the day before.  In the last few weeks she has become so engaged with us and with others around us.  She smiles so easily, with her wide mouth, toothless grin and loves to be talked to.  She responds now when called by her name, and as she sees who called her name she responds with a slight tilt of her head and a smirk.  In those moments, my heart melts.  And just tonight she got try her own sippy cup and LOVED it.  Even though she spilled more water on the carpet and on her, it was clear to see that she was so excited about the possibility of holding her own cup.  She is growing up so quickly and I most days, wish I could stop time and put ever moment in a bottle to relive over and over.  As we all know life doesn't work like that, so I try to savor ever moment possible, tuck the feelings into my heart forever, and look forward to tomorrow and what new adventure with her may come.

There's one thing for sure, that little baby girl has brought us a lot of love.  And we thank God every moment for her.

Until next time,
angie

Rise and Shine...

This morning I went into the boy's room to wake them up.  With tons of energy and more excitment than anyone should have at 6 a.m. I said,  "Rise and Shine boys.  It's Thursday!" Groggy and still half asleep they just rolled over to the other side of the bed and tried their best to continue sleeping.  So I repeated again, "Rise and Shine, its Thursday and time to wake up!!!!"

I left their room in the hopes they'd continue to wake up and get ready to shower.  A few minutes later, Michael trudged into our bedroom moving slower than a snail.  He quietly climbed into the shower and just before turning on the water, he paused, looked at me and said,

"Mom, why is it only shiny on Thursdays?"

Here's hoping your Thursday (and every other day of the week) is shiny!

Until next time,
Angie

The Tooth Fairy visits again...

Tonight we will have a visit from the tooth fairy and for the first time, the tooth fairy will be coming to visit someone other than Gabriel.

See it all started back this summer when Aaron pulled Gabriel's first tooth.  Carefully observing in the background and watching as Gabriel basked in tons of attention, collected money and got to tell his story over and over, Michael decided what Gabriel had going was a pretty good deal.

So in an attempt to join "Gabriel's club", this summer Michael took it into his own hands to try and pull his front tooth using a "bat-a-rang" (some toy modeled after the Batman movies).  In actuality it was a string tie from a Glad garbage bag, but Bat-a-rang or garbage tie, the result was, he broke loose part of his baby tooth and made it a prime target for extraction, Michael style that is.

After realizing Michael's desperate attempt to get money, I gave him a lengthily lecture about how it is not okay to try and pull ones teeth before they are ready to come out and I provided him a detailed list of all of the foods he would no longer be able to have if he tried to play dentist and pull his own tooth again.  He obliged with my firm request, but the damage was done.

Since this summer that tooth has been loose and today when I picked him up from school the first thing he announced to me, (after exclaiming he didn't have to go to time out or do any think walking) was that he tooth was really loose.

Showing me his mouth and seeing the tooth completely bent over, it was obvious he was right.  He said, "Mom, will you please pull my tooth?"  Given that Jarrett and I are both not the best at wanting to extract teeth, I decided that since I had picked up the kids, I got dibs and to Michael's question I responded, "Oh Michael, Dad would LOVE to pull your tooth, lets wait til Dad gets home from work."  Thankfully my stalling technique worked, or so I thought it had.

After getting home, we immediately started into our normal routine, me prepare dinner, get Isabelle's dinner ready, read Michael his homework instructions, observe Gabriel's homework efforts and get another load of laundry in the wash.  In the middle of those tasks Michael decided he had to go to the bathroom and without even realizing it, moments later, I heard urgent screams that I could tell an emergency had happened... "MOM... MOM...MOM.. come quick" 

Racing to the bathroom with a baby on my hip, I peered into the bathroom to see Michael smiling from ear to ear, with blood running down his chin and in his two hands carefully holding a teeny, tiny tooth.  Spiting blood as he spoke, "MOM... I PULLED MY TOOTH!" 

Realizing the emergency really wasn't that bad of an emergency, and by that time Gabriel, Isabelle and I were all in the bathroom with him, we congratulated him, while Gabriel shoved Kleenex in his mouth to try and stop the bleeding.  We moved to the kitchen so, of course, Mom could photograph the history making moment.  And Michael continued to celebrate saying, "MOM, I didn't even need Aaron's help to pull my tooth,"  feeling proud he continued, "I'm so happy my tooth is out"

All throughout the night Michael continued to bask in the glory that he had, "joined Gabriel's club, the big kids club."  Meanwhile Gabriel tried to act all "in the know" and gave Michael advice after advice of how to act, what to say and what it means, now that he's so big.  He said, "Michael, now that you lost your tooth, if you are scared in the middle of the night and you want someone to go to the bathroom with you, you can wake me up, okay?"  I'm still trying to figure out the connection with losing a tooth and having a buddy accompany you to the bathroom in the middle of the night.  I'm just going to write it off as a guy thing.

So tonight the tooth fairy will be visiting our house again and I can't wait for Michael's reaction in the morning.  It is hard to believe our little Michael is no longer a little boy.  He's a big kid and with each day that passes, I see him changing and growing into a wonderful big boy.  I"m excited for him as he joins the gap tooth club, but with it also comes a ting of sadness. Athough I won't tell him, I can't help but feel a bit nostalgic that my baby boy, well, is no longer that. 

Congratulations Michael on your lost tooth.  I hope you're okay with what the tooth fairy brings you.  I know you said you hoped the tooth fairy would bring you $62.00 for your tooth but mom got a text from the fairy... she said 4 quarters is the going rate.

  The before shots... the ones we took when we got home.

 This is how the tooth was resting before Michael decided to pull it.

 And then comes the photos that remind me of Ed Helms, in the Hangover... you know the part in the movie when he realizes he's pulled his own tooth....

 I think Michael is making the exact same face...

 

And sorry about the bloody photos but I just couldn't resist.

  He's one happy boy!

Until next time,
Angie