We interrupt this blog...

...for a little stomach virus that is sweeping through Michael, Lily, and I.

Normal broadcasting will resume soon...

Another bulleted list

Oh, yah...hold onto your hats. Here are 10 random (read: uninteresting) things going on in my world this week...

1. I bought new bras today (starting with a good one, eh?). I bought them at Target, and I bought the size that I *think* I am without trying anything on. I can hear my sister-in-law cringing and throwing her computer to the ground. But, see? The thing is? I just don't care. I know I should spend $100 a bra and get something that "fits" right. Maybe I'm just too cheap, maybe I just don't have big enough boobs, maybe I have a high threshold for discomfort. Really, I just need to hold the girls a little closer to my body so that they don't hit my waist-band and make it hard to zipper up my pants. I just can't spend the rare moments I have alone going bra shopping. I hate shopping in general, but getting half nekkid and measured? Yah...I just don't have that much alone time to waste. I get MAYBE 2 hours a week without the kids hanging off me or sleeping upstairs...and those 2 hours are usually book club or s'mores and wine with the girls. WAY more appealing than bra shopping. So I just don't care. It's not as if a better bra is going to make my t-shirts and frumpy shorts look better. So there.

2. I bought a different kind of yogurt this week (dude...isn't this post AWESOME?). I eat a little granola mixed in with yogurt every morning for breakfast. It doesn't get soggy and it fills me up. Which solves the problem I have with cereal (seriously, my kids have some kind of Pavlovian response to milk hitting my cereal...all hell breaks loose no matter the precautions I take.). I've always bought the generic vanilla in a tub. But the last time they were out of everything except for Stonyfield Banilla. So I bought it. It is...divine. Creamy, sweet, flavorful. It has taken my granola experience to another level. I don't know how I'll ever go back...damn it. I used to like cheap wine, too. Arghhh...

3. We have been more adventurous with the kiddos in the past few weeks. Like last Saturday we took them to a live theatre production...Pinocchio. Lily and Andrew were captivated...and even Michael made it past the halfway point. Shocking...and inspiring. This weekend we're going to a historical farm for a fair-type-thingy. The weekend after that, we're taking all 3 to a Trenton Thunder game (minor league baseball). We are sure to have a disastrous outing sooner rather than later, which will make us hide out at home with the 3 kids once again. False sense of confidence...

4. Just in general, this summer has been really enjoyable. I thought July would SUCK, but all 3 kids are at really fun ages. It is mildly stressful to go places with Lily and Michael, but only because it is really hard to hold both of them when Lily decides to go ape-shit and I have to drag her out. Other than THAT...it's been great. Andrew totally didn't need summer camp this year...we would have done fine finding fun things to do. But, whatev- he's been having fun this way too.

5. Speaking of summer camp...I have a shocking admission. Every day I have to take Andrew 10 steps into the school and initial a clip-board as he runs across the cafeteria to his group. Takes less than 2 minutes. Except when I have to unstrap Lily and Michael and coax Lily to the front, where she inevitable trips and skins her knees, and then Michael wiggles to get down so that he can get into the puzzle box or try and eat a name tag and then coax the screaming injured Lily back out to the car, strap her and Michael back in despite their protests and take them back home to boring-ville for the few hours until it is time to once again strap them back in and repeat that morning's torture. I did this 4 days a week all year last year. It is summer. Don't mom's get vacations too? (don't answer that). So...I leave them in the car. I know, I know...I should be arrested. I COULD be arrested. But would that give me a few days off in jail? No, seriously, I do still bring them in to pick him up, because that's when I have to wander around the gym and pry him off the teenage boys that are counselors and that Andrew is infatuated with...it can take many minutes to pick him up, so I do drag the littles in for that. Okay? Okay?

6. When I took Michael to his 15 month appointment, I struck up a conversation with a set of parents bringing their newborn in for her first appointment. It was the mother, the father, and the nanny. After oooing and ahhhing over their baby, I settled into trying to keep my 1 and 2 year old from poking her eyes out or spreading their cooties onto her pristine carseat carrier. Considerate, aren't I? And I heard the mother say to the nanny, "Oh! The doctor will probably ask us...how much did she sleep last night? Or did she wake a lot to feed?" It is 2 weeks later, and I still find myself thinking about this woman who didn't even wake up with her 4 day old. I am baffled and puzzled and I feel I have been exposed to an entire social level that I had never glimpsed until now. 2 weeks, and I still can't get my head around it.

7. Tomorrow night one of my friends is having a group over for S'mores and wine. I love my friends. :) Let's just hope that we don't digress into sex talk after a few glasses of wine. I like sex as much as the next person, but I certainly don't need to know or share with people who I will serve chicken nuggets and discuss potty training with the very next day.

8. I am going to Ohio...again. And we are planning another trip in December. And I'm excited about it. It's amazing how sleeping at night makes you so ambitious. This August, we are driving to my parents...we usually go to Jeff's first. So we are adding another 3 hours to an already long trip. With kids who don't sleep in the car. We may be crazy.

9. Despite not being an easily stressed person, I am the type of person who likes to be able to plan ahead, so as not to be caught unawares. So Jeff's job situation makes me happy, because I know we will be here for the near future. But little things, like Andrew's Kindergarten situation, can drive me crazy just as easily. Like, could we seriously find out if he is afternoon or morning? That kind of changes life COMPLETELY for us. And I don't even work. Could the school send us some sort of communication so we know they have our address? Since every other elementary school in the district did this weeks ago? Best elementary school in the district my ass. (oooooh...I am a potty mouth today...)

10. The farm down the street from us has started selling their sweet corn. Jeff has picked it up on his way home from work 3 days in a row. Michael and I seem to have a case of the runs...connected, do you think? I refuse to give up my sweet corn...so what should I be pairing this food with to help my digestive tract handle all this roughage?

Wow. This was...fascinating only in how pathetically uninteresting my life is. Seriously Banilla yogurt is the most exciting thing to have happened this week so far. I can feel your jealousy for my life radiating through the computer.

More torture...er...I mean videos...

Andrew was upset that I posted a video from, like, weeks ago about him. He wanted an updated version. So I obliged by taping each child for one minute.

This is the best he could come up with...

I get songs in my head CONSTANTLY. All those catchy little kiddie songs just grab onto my brain cells and refuse to leave. We have the They Might Be Giants 1,2,3's...holy crow those are stuck in my head all day long. When I sing one over and over, it really bugs the kids. Lily has taken to telling me what song she has stuck in her head. And then she gets mad if she is interrupted while singing. Enjoy. (The song is Hakuna Matata...in case you didn't know...)

Mikey just being Mikey. Happily cruising around the other kids...kind of minding his own business for a change, though.

Movie Day

We officially have a walker. Here's Michael showing off his skills. Although he is chosing to walk most places, he still crawls when he is really on a mission...walking is still too slow. And he really prefers pushing things...as evidenced by the giant picnic table in my kitchen (I had playgroup here this morning and moved it in...we don't usually have giant plastic furniture blocking the exits...)

I decided just to get Lily on film...because her voice is so cute and she is so cute. This is Lily finally eating her dinner...sorry about the grotuitous open mouth chewing and talking. A little too much see-food...but I still love the video. Oh, and Shadow goes all "guard dog" in the middle of the video because Jeff came downstairs. So. Stupid. Also stupid? Me, who couldn't figure out how to turn the darn video off at the end. Shadow and I...it's like we were seperated at birth.

Here's another one...grotuitous food chewing....but I just love her little giggle and expressions.

And a video from a swim day in the backyard...not a great clip...but pure Andrew.

Trying to make a point...and missing...

Tonight Lily was screaming and hollering and pushing and just generally crabby at her little brother. Michael had the AUDACITY to want to play with her in the little house. She was peek-a-booing and things, but heaven forbid he actually enter the premises.

Jeff was intervening...trying to get her to calm down and realize that it would be fun to let him in. He said, "I remember a little girl who used to bother her big brother just like this. Do you know who that was?"

Lily stops crying, looks at Jeff and says, "Grandma?"

Can't get past him...

Have I ever mentioned that Andrew is obsessed with football? Still?

I picked up a fantasy football magazine for him at the grocery...the official NFL one. He spent all weekend absorbed in it (except for the Saturday morning spent watching his Uncle Colum from Texas play soccer...randomly here in Philly). We assumed that he was enjoying the pictures and trying to figure out what team/position each player was.

But on Sunday, Andrew pointed out a discrepancy that he had found. Apparently in one section, they said that the Saints first game would be against one team and later in the magazine it stated that the Saints first game would be against a different team. Andrew was concerned, because he knew that couldn't be true.

So, basically, my 5 1/2 year old found a typo in the fantasy football magazine.

I think we've got to find a way to get this child to a football game...I don't think this obsession is going anywhere.

Three Old Posts

I got this idea from Swistle...


Except I did 4 because one is just a picture...

Got static? Just because I can't believe that Lily ever looked like this...and it is stinkin' cute!



April 2006 Suffering through pregnancy...not fun to read, but I was trying to go with the "see how different things got year to year?" thing. Yea, April 2006 was NOT a good time.

April 2007 Learning not to compare...one of my favorite posts that I've ever written...still rings true to my ear.

April 2008 Whoops! Adding a 3rd to the mix...I love this post as well.

An observation

I took the kids to the Please Touch Museum yesterday. Andrew didn't want to go to camp and I didn't want to sit at home and listen to the kids beg me for food (they have inherited my boredom=hunger gene)...so off to the museum we went. We got there as it opened...I wanted to have our fun before all the camp groups descended. We had a blast...all 3 kids were really good and cooperative...and I dare to say it was a very very successful outing.

But there was this one funny thing I noticed. I get very tired when I go somewhere like this by myself with the 3 kids, because I don't really keep them tethered to me...I like to let them roam (in the same area as myself...but still). So it is a constant counting/checking/rearing in/moving on kind of a thing. You know, like a sheepdog. I am always humbled, however, but the mothers in attendance who have MORE kids than me and still brave the outing. I "only" have 3, after all.

Yesterday I got in line to check in. There were 3 other families also in line. We were as follows:

1) A mother and a father and one toddler that looked to be about 2. The father has his camcorder out (in line to get tickets?) and is filming. The child has a kid leash on (I know, I know...it is a backpack...whatev). The mother looks nervous already.

2) A mother alone with her 2 boys that looked to be about 2 and 4. She has a double stroller, the children have temporary tattoos with ID info on it, and they both have a sticky name tag on the back of their shirts with additional ID info. Mother looked nearly frantic with worry.

3) Me...with a double stroller. No identifying info. I don't know if I looked nervous or not...I couldn't see me ;)

4) A very pregnant woman alone with her 4 (four!) little boys...they were moving around too fast for me to accurately assess their ages. Mother looks alert but not concerned. She also had a single stroller...no kids in it. No identifying info.

What does this mean?
a)Once you have more than 2, you kind of let loose. I mean, you've got spares, right?
b) Cautious mothers with more than 2 kids just don't go out to places like this.
c) It means nothing...just a random sampling of mothers can't tell you anything.

I would just once love to see a mother of 4+ kids with them all on "backpacks"...you know, like a dog walker in New York City.

They're GOOD too

No, really...my kids are good sometimes.

Andrew- Has been a rock star with his siblings and other kids. It's like all that social awkwardness has just melted away. He was hunting for fireflies and started in with the big boys from across the street. Their mother commented, "I couldn't even imagine Andrew doing that last year." He has found that he LOVES playing with Lily...and he is becoming very good at adapting his game to suit her mood. There are many mornings that I wish he didn't have camp, because they are playing so well together. Except that he is doing GREAT at camp, too...always surrounded by kids and counselors playing hard when I go to pick him up. So any of you out there with 2 year olds attached at your hip who can't seem to get 2 feet away from you to make contact with the outside world...there is hope! And I am sooooo glad that he didn't start Kindergarten last year. In California, the cutoff date for Kindergarten is December 1st...so Andrew would have skated by. And with his booksmarts and ginormousness, I'm sure we would have started him. But the social development in the last 12 months has made me sure that even if he is bored next year...he will be so much happier socially and emotionally. It makes me feel really good about putting him on that bus. When does that start again?

Lily- Honestly, she is getting much more rational. I can sense the 3's coming...still tantruming, still obstinate, but not so irrationally Cr-A-zy. Usually we fight during 2 main times...meal time, because she hates all food except junk and her mean mother makes her eat good food and then Andrew pick up time, because she is having fun doing her own thing and doesn't want to pile in the car just to go sign him in/out. Nothing in it for her. I can understand these tantrums, they make sense to me. Other than that, she is waiting to hold my hand in parking lots, listening, understanding limitations...amazing.

A quick story...I went on Monday morning to get Michael's hair cut. I have never done this with Lily...but it had to be done. So we dropped Andrew off and went straight there. In the car I gave Lily a debriefing of what was going to happen...we do this for every outing, so she knows the expectations. She walked in, grabbed a sucker, and climbed into one of the waiting chairs. I went back with Michael and held the screaming banshee while he was submitting to the torture of getting his hair cut. She never moved...just swung her legs in that chair and munched on the sucker. When I came back front with my sweating, red-faced, sticky from suckers and hairy from the sticky, and newly handsome 15 month old, Lily was still sitting in the same chair. I complimented her and told her I was proud of her. She pointed to the 60 year old woman next to her and said, "I was just talking to this girl." The nice woman laughed and told me they had indeed had a long conversation. As we were leaving, Lily waved goodbye, and the woman asked her what she was going to do today. Lily responded, "I going to try not to get hurt." and bounded out the door. If you saw her beat up knees, you'd think it made a lot of sense.

Michael- Oh wait. Michael is always good. We don't REALLY need to go over that again, do we? He is so so so so so close to walking. So close. If he were my first child, I would probably say that he is already walking. He can stand and balance for a minute or more. He regularly takes 2-3 steps to get somewhere before he drops down and crawls. He CAN do it...but he doesn't think he can. I think it is an any day thing.

Enjoy your day! My kids have requested the pool again today. My friend went out of town and gave us her pool pass...so we are using it for all its worth. ;) But it makes me T-iiiiiiiired. But it makes the kids tired too...so that's cool.

Serving size

Oh, CRAP. Another "get healthy" post. Let me give you the Cliff's notes in case you are short on time today.
1)Giselle has failed in her last pathetic attempt to live past 40 again. Something is surely to blame other than her own lazy ass
2)Giselle is starting a new pathetic attempt to live past 40...it has worked for about a week now and she is convinced that THIS will be the thing that works
3) Giselle will list reasons why it WON'T actually work...
4) Stay tuned for next week's episode...it is sure to be a rerun.



So my exercise thing totally went down the drain. First and foremost it is MY fault...secondly I blame Stephen King (finished the book last night!)...and finally I blame my husband. Jeff decided that for this 6 week stint he would join me on the exercise challenge. He started marking his exercise on MY calendar. Except he gets to go to fencing 2 nights a week and count that. AND he is like a machine when it comes to doing the Jillian exercise tape. He has no hesitation...just gets dressed and does the work-out. Marking all over MY calendar with his success. Which mocks me and my piddly little "Shadow walks". So I did what I do in any competition...I quit. Very noble.

Why don't I just use his hard work as a challenge to myself, you ask? Why don't I let it spar me to keep pace with him? Because that's just not how I roll. I know I can't win. He farts and loses 5 pounds. He has a higher tolerance for pain and he is just a harder worker than I. I do the Jillian tapes and 5 seconds into it I feel a little knee pain...I worry that I'm breaking down the cartilage and I ease up a bit. Jeff would just crunch through the pain and worry about the knee later. Like I said...he's a machine. Also...the fencing thing.

Whatever. It's mostly MY fault for not wanting to do it enough. Also...? I am hungry. Because I decided that the reason I exercised for 5 weeks and lost no weight must be because I was eating poorly (shocker). So I started...gulp...writing down how many calories I was eating.

I've kept a food diary before. It usually lasted about a week and a half before I lost interest and once again began the mid-day raid of the kids' fruit snacks. But this time I decided to pay more attention to the serving sizes and calculate the actual calories.

Holy Mother of Unfairness. Serving sizes SUCK.

I started the day making my morning coffee. Let's remember that I like a little bit of coffee with my creamer. And I read that a serving of creamer is 1 Tbsp. So I get out my measuring spoon and add a serving to my coffee. And then I quickly realized that I have been drinking my coffee with about 5-6 servings of creamer. And I would have 2 cups a morning. So at 45 calories a serving, that is 225 calories...just in my morning coffee. Oops. I got out my American Heart Association cookbook and read how to calculate my total caloric needs. 1700 a day. Oh, Lordy.

The first few days (this was last week) were filled with a longing hunger. I really think it was mental, though...because it only took until the middle of the week for me to adjust. I cut my coffee back to one cup in the morning, and I allow myself 2 servings of creamer (I just can't do one serving...just can't) in it. And the rest of the day has followed suit.

So now that I've started changing the amount that I eat, it's time to increase the old physical activity meter. I don't know what to do about doing this side by side with Jeff, though. I want him to be healthy and strong, and I'm proud of him for being so good at this. But it is DEFLATING for me, because he is already in great shape, he has a hobby that motivates him and that he has fun doing, and I'm just so...fat and tired and weak. I need to NOT compare myself to him, because it isn't the important thing...I just need to get out and DO something. Or figure out how many calories I burned carrying two toddlers in the pool for 45 minutes. Because that WORE ME OUT yesterday. ;)

A swimmer

We officially have a swimmer at our house!!! I took the 3 kids to a friend's neighborhood pool last Thursday...by myself. That is a whole other story, but I am quite proud to say that all 3 children survived without requiring any sort of intervention from a lifeguard. Of course there was no lifeguard. But basically it was me holding the screaming, shaking baby boy...who really had never been in a pool before and so was LESS than thrilled to be in it. He was gripping my neck and shoulders like an orangutan baby. Lily refused to wear any sort of floatation device, since it hindered her ability to bend over when out of the pool. Arghh. So she mostly stood on the step and jumped into my one arm or jumped in from the edge while I held Michael away from the splash. She was very very good about waiting for me. And Andrew took a while to get comfortable in the water, despite the fact that he could touch the ground and still be head and shoulders above the water. Whatev- This was one of those times that it was very very good that I am uber-laid back. Because I'm pretty sure that a normal mother whose instincts are intact would have had about 1,000 heart attacks. Or maybe it is very very bad for my children that I am uber-laid back and risked their lives.

Except that they had a BLAST. Even Michael was giggling by the end (although still with a death grip on my shoulders...searching for that long mama-orangutan hair that he instinctively was wanting a hand hold of). And after 30 minutes of adjusting, Andrew kicked his feet up and SWAM ACROSS THE POOL. I was jumping up and down and hugging him and so so so excited. He was so proud of himself, he did it about a million times. It is so amazing to see your child accomplish something so important...it was like when he read me his first book. I don't care if it isn't that amazing or special in the grand scheme of things. This is MY baby doing it for the first time. Oh! I swelled with pride.



One more story before I go and put Lily to bed. I bought the kids a bag of rocks from Lowes. I know, I know...Mother of the Year. But they LOVE rocks...they always steal them off of people's landscaping and nothing beats going to the creek at the local park and picking up and sorting the rocks. Why not bring this fun to our own backyard? So I made the big $3.99 investment and bought a bag of rocks. Today I dumped about 1/4 of it on the lawn and told them to have at it. They sorted through, rinsed them off, made music with them, taste-tested them (that was only Michael). It kept them quiet and happy for at least 40 minutes...while Jeff and I sat in the shade enjoying the weather and looking at each "cool" rock they brought us to inspect.

But my favorite was when Andrew brought me a gray rock. Most of the rocks are quartzy looking white and orangy-tinged. But this one was gray. He ran over to me and said, "Mom! This looks like a wild rock!" You know...like a rock you'd find in the wild and not at a store. ;)

Braids!

Lily clapping at the parade

The crew eating their candy and watching the parade

Lily thought the parade was too loud...kept her fingers in her ears almost the whole time.

But did you notice....THE BRAIDS? She let me put braids in her hair. And again yesterday...2 French braids!?!? So pretty, and she was so patient as I did it, and did I mention so pretty!

I was so proud of her and myself, that I took lots of pictures...

I think I kind of love this last shot of Lily. It kind of captures her goofiness...and she isn't tilting her head with her mouth wide open either. ;)

A healthy dose of laid-back

Michael gets his laid-back personality honestly. I am *mostly* a relaxed, easy-going, positive person. I am not *usually* nervous, worrisome, competitive. I am not naturally depressed. (these are all subject to change when life...uh...changes in a drastic way. Giselle with new baby/Giselle moving makes my brain work differently). I am not on any sort of "brain medicine". This sounds all well and good. Except that I teeter on the line of lazy, unmotivated, and worthless. Okay...so I pretty much have fallen WAY on that side of the line.

I read a lot of blogs and talk to a lot of mothers (and occasionally even people who -gasp- AREN'T mothers)...and the overwhelming theme is GUILT and STRESS and WHY CAN'T I SEEM TO DO IT ALL and FEAR and OH MY GOD I HAVE DUST ON MY TV. People who have a hard time finding time to read a book or stay up until the wee hours of the morning trying to catch up from the day. They freak out about their children getting diseases or having accidents. And I read these things as I sit at my computer that is barely visible beneath the piles of crap, surrounded by toys...my God...the toys, which are sitting atop the needing to be vacuumed carpet, with windows that have no curtains in a room with no pictures hanging on the wall, next to the "hall of mulch that's dragged in by the dog/kids/Jeff", next to the unblocked staircase that my one year old could fall down, near my 1,000+ page book (I'm on pg 438...and having creepy nightmares about clowns already)...etc etc. I read and think that maybe...just maybe...laid-back ain't the good life choice.

Okay, so laid-back maybe isn't so bad. But I wish I had a smidgeon of guilt about being a total slacker. I look at my messy house, and my kids watching tv, and my lack of exercise, my complete and total inability to SPELL exercise without spellcheck, and my lack of career or even desire for a career...I look and I think that I could be better than this. I could spend just an hour a day cleaning and I could plan activities for the children and I could fit in an hour of walking/jogging/exercising and I could write the word exercise over and over 100 times until I could finally for the love of God not spell it exersize. I think this for about a minute. And then I decide that "I Yam what I Yam" and I go back to reading my gigantic book (seriously...clowns are ruined for me FOR-EVER). I just lack the stamina or interest to be better...to do better...to take pride in the silly little things that define my life. And every night I go to bed and envision that the NEXT day I will motivate myself better. But I wake up, and I check my blogs and read my book a little more...and on and on the cycle continues.

-sigh- There's no real point to this blog. I just feel...different...than most the people I read about on these silly little blogs. I am...happy...bored sometimes...but just generally happy with life...but I have the sneaking suspicion that when I die (probably young, since I prefer reading while eating Cheetos to going out for a jog), I will look back and wish that I had spent more time baking with my kids than freaking out about clowns (seriously...Stephen King knows how to touch a chord in your soul...). However...I am quite confident that I will NOT look back and feel bad about a dirty floor. Not matter how much self-improvement I wish for myself...I can't understand how this makes life better. ;) Too lazy for that.

This is supposed to be coming out as a compliment to those mothers who are stressed...I am worried it isn't coming out that way. I just wanted to tell you that I am impressed by you and awed by you and think you are doing a great job. I wish I could be more like you...and I wish that I could pass along a little of my "non-guilt" so you could appreciate your own motivation and drive better. So you could see what things you are accomplishing...despite the worries that you aren't doing enough.

I guess I should stop looking for problems and enjoy the fact that I enjoy my life (except for the occasional baking with children part...seriously...it is right up there with painting). But in 5 years when I go back to work, I think maybe I should take some sort of drug to help me stay motivated. What's the opposite of an anti-depressant? Of anxiety meds? I need an upper... I'll start looking into it...maybe after this next chapter...

15 months

Michael is 15 months old. Did you hear me? 15 months old!

Sometimes I just can't get my mind around that fact. He still acts like such a baby. Or at least we treat him like a baby. Dude, when Lily was this age, I was entering my 3rd trimester. When Andrew was this age, we were getting ready to move to Louisville. They both seemed so much older... but I guess Mikey will always be cursed with the "baby" title...and all that comes with it.

He isn't walking...but I think he COULD if he wanted to. He lets go of things and stands for 10 seconds or so. He hates crawling on his knees on the pavement, so he kind of does this cro-magnon ape crawl. Add that to the grunting, and watching Michael is kind of like watching the evolution of man. You know? That picture of the ape walking and morphing into the caveman? Michael is like...2 from the right. Not quite evolved.

And the grunting! Oh, how this child REFUSES to utter a word. Okay, that's a lie. He definitely says "ook" when he wants you to look at something. And if his daddy shows up suddenly, he says, "Dah! Dah!". Yesterday he clearly said "Ba" and pointed to a ball. That's about it. Mostly it is grunting or this garbly goop that sounds slightly Arabic...but which Michael clearly believes makes perfect sense. It has all the inflections and emphasis of normal speech patterns, and Michael will finish up looking at you for a response.

He is starting to get frustrated with things. My easy going boy. Once in a blue moon, we will tell him to stop doing something (like stick his fingers in the CO monitor) or take something away (don't chew on the dog leash) or move him off of something (no, you can't climb the ladder up into the play house of death)...and he will thrash and pitch a fit. Of course, he's still Mikey...so it lasts about 3 seconds. And then he's off to find something else to do. He adores his brother and sister...nothing makes him giggle like a wrestling match with one of them. He like to cruise around the back of the dining chairs and "ickle ickle" us (Oh! That's another of his words!). He is full of mischief and loves life...just all around enjoys everything. He is so good about just going on errands and picking up other children and just being in the stroller or on my hip. He has no stranger anxiety, and is very very used to me leaving him in another room while I do something else.

I just love him. I remember sometimes how HARD it was a year ago...how miserable last summer could be. And how simply wonderful he is this year. Oh! How sleep changes everything. And I know that next summer he will be a basket case of 2 year old schizophrenia. So I enjoy him...in the moment...and just love love love him. 15 months! How did we get here already!?!

Product recommendation

Okay, so this is really an update post...but I'm going to start by telling you about this really cool cleaning tool that I just discovered. I swear, it has changed. my. life.

I have carpet in every room except the front hall, kitchen, and bathrooms. So primarily I am a vacuum person. I love my vacuum, even though I have yet to find out how to properly do the steps. My steps are...ew. But everywhere else it works great. For the hard floors, I don't have big crumb issues (thank you, Shadow). But occasionally I really really need to sweep up the other debris that fills the nooks and crannies. I have gone through many many sweepers and attachments for my vacuum. None of them have worked very well. Most annoying is emptying the teeny tiny little filters...which I inevitably do in a messy manner...putting much of the dust back on the very floor I was trying to clean. The latest was a cordless/rechargeable electric sweeper. It was crap. I couldn't get the corners or the baseboards...which are the main problem area. So I have been using the little hose on my vacuum and sweeping up a square inch of flooring at a time. Annoying.

Then I bought a...wait for it...broom. I KNOW! Where the heck have I been? I've tried brooms before...but apparently using an outdoor broom is not so good for in the house. I bought this cute little angled broom with dustpan...and it is soooo different from an outside broom. It doesn't leave big pieces of straw behind, it angles so nicely under the table and in the corners. I just haven't yet figured out how to efficiently brush the pile of nast into the dustpan...but I'll get there. Maybe. So, anyway....just had to share.

What else? Oh! I was talking to my sister the other day and realized that I kind of forgot to mention to her and the rest of the world that Jeff has accepted a new position within his company. I wasn't allowed to share for the first week or two, and by the time I was allowed to it was so old news. I mean...we're not even MOVING or anything. It should fuel some really frustrated blogs, however, because Jeff will now be working in center city, Philly...which means he will take the train, which means he will leave our house at 6:30am and not return until 7pm. Um, -gulp-. I am trying not to freak out and instead focus on the fact that he is employed, making a good salary, and we're not moving. But secretly...shhhh, secretly...I don't wonder if I will wish we'd just moved rather than the children getting to see him for a whopping 30-60 minutes in the evening. Which would be more traumatic to them? But shhhhhhh, for cripes sake, don't tell HIM I'm thinking that. Seriously, I'm such a peach to be married to. "Don't move me...I can't handle another move." "Don't work late." "Don't travel too much." "I want to stay home with the kids and eat bon bons while you work all day." "I can't clean the house, the children are driving me crazy." Yah...I'm a gem ;)

Um, not much else...Oh! the No TV in July thing is going quite well. But it's really easy, since there is nothing even tempting on tv. It's like giving up hot cocoa for August, or promising not to wear bathing suits in December, or giving up going to the movies after you have kids. Really NOT a challenge. My book club is reading The Kite Runner, which I've already read, so I'm free to read whatever suits me. I just finished the book Replay by Ken Grimwood. I got it off of a Lost website, of all things. It was about a man who keeps repeating the last 25 years of his life...it was fun and interesting. I'm currently reading It, by Stephen King. I really like his stuff...although I haven't read many of his horror novels...this one is good so far. I'm not fully into the creepy part yet, though. It is 1,136 pages long. So that should take care of me for a while ;) Any suggestions? I like anything that's good. ;) Sci-fi, fantasy, historical...whatever. Just make sure it's not too educational. You couldn't pay me enough money to read the financial books that Jeff devours like candy. Or self-improvement books...ugh. I mean...what's there to improve? I've already showed my fabulousness in this post...discovering basic cleaning tools that humans have used for thousands of years...whining about my husband's job regardless of the choices he makes, challenging myself with non-challenges. Like I said...I'm a gem ;)

Totally Terrific Treehouses

Jeff had the day off today, so we drove south of Philly and visited a fantastic arboretum.

There was a pond with turtles, lots of easy trails, a butterfly house, and 10 treehouses scattered along the main trail. Everything was made for kids to crawl into, touch, play with...awesome. The "path" was even made for kids...just signs in the woods pointing you in the general direction...but kids were free to run in and out of the trees and through the big fields. It was a paradise for little legs.

Treehouse #1: The 3 little pigs. You climb up and find a house of bricks, a house of straw, and a house of sticks. And 3 little pigs made of Spanish moss on top of the brick house and a wolf made of Japanese cedar leaves on the house of sticks. Very very cool.

Inspired by a fallen tree...through this tunnel you visited the "Imagination Station", with a stage and dress-up box, a fireman's pole, and other playground-y things.

Treehouse #2:

Treehouse #3: My favorite. Mikey liked this one too. Inside the "fort" part, there was a tennis racket and an old time radio and posters and old license plates. Just like the tree house/club house you dreamed of as a kid.

A random wigwam we found off a path in the woods. There was a whole campsite set up like the native Americans would have lived in. The kids loved it. This is also where Jeff found a tick climbing up his leg. I spent the rest of the time in the woods looking over my kids like an ape.

Treehouse #4: This tree house was shaped like a giant drum. The pathway was railed with guitar strings. Behind it was a little clearing with a whole tea party set up...wooden table and chairs, wooden fireplace, an entire little house set up in the woods. I didn't get any pictures of it...which is amazing, since I took dozens of pictures.

Inside the drum were instruments! Lily playing the xylophone.

Andrew rocks out on the steel drum.

Even Michael had fun with the interchangeable xylophone tubes.

Treehouse #5: Made to imitate a spider's web. This one was kind of scary...but Andrew braved it and got to the top. It was very modern and cool looking (with a slippery metal ladder)

An exploration part that had shovels and magnifying glasses so you could look for bugs or examine the tree rings on all the stumps or whatever. Andrew strikes a silly pose.

There was also a huge vegetable garden that the kids could wander through. Come to think of it, this park is kind of random...but very very fun.

Treehouse #6: This tree had strings hanging down to a platform. When you pulled on the strings...they rang cowbells strung up on branches high above. Cool.

Butterfly house...obviously.

It is time for Michael to walk. He didn't want to be contained in the stroller, but he didn't want to crawl on the rough wood and pavement. WALK ALREADY!

Treehouse #7: This was the kids' favorite. We played here for a long time. Lily loved the nest in front with the giant wooden eggs, and Andrew liked climbing up into the birdhouse.

Okay, wait. That's only 7 treehouses. As I look at the map, they also counted the Imagination Station, the tea party place, and Thoreau's workshop(an exact replica of Thoreau's cabin by Walden Pond) as treehouses. Like I said...random.

All in all, a successful outing and lots of fun!

Siblings

I'd be lying if I said that I -never- wonder what life would be like with just one kid. Bill Cosby asked an audience once to raise their hands if they were parents. Then he told all the people with just one child to put down their hands because they weren't really parents...they didn't have to deal with the WILLYOUSTOPTOUCHINGME and if something is broken you know who broke it, etc etc. I don't know if I agree with him...parenting is parenting. BUT...having more than one certainly changes the rules a bit.

Like playing music in the car. So far, we only have to take 2 turns for favorite CD's to be played (my music NEVER gets played...except as a way to get the fighting to stop in the back of the car...it's a very effective threat..."If you don't stop screaming, I'm turning on my music."). Soon there will be 3 fighting over the next song...and the next song...ugh. And of course the toys. What one child is playing with becomes unimaginably interesting to the other children. Which is why I rarely hear from Lily when Andrew is at school and Michael is napping...she is blissfully alone with the toys and she enjoys every second of it. And then there are the guilt trips..."Sometimes I feel like you don't love me as much..." And the screaming...dear God, the screaming. And the wrestling...which almost always ends in screaming. And the hiding of precious items...with the inevitable losing of precious items because they can't remember where they hid them (Lily has yet to learn this one...although I'm sure it will come soon). And the bossing around (Andrew is my biggest helper when it involves scolding Lily) and the competition (good job beating Lily in every race, Andrew...very impressive) and did I mention the screaming?

But I wouldn't have it any other way. Because as much as they drive each other (and me!) crazy, my kids have a relationship that cannot be duplicated in any other form. And I'm really really happy they have one another.

Enjoying the silly kiddie pool...Andrew and Lily had a BLAST together...no input from me needed at all. I could have been reading a magazine except for the 14 month old that refused to play along with them. ;)

Before the water became clogged with grass. Lily was amazingly patient about getting shot in the head with Andrew's water gun. She just needs to learn to run away as fast as Shadow does from him ...he tired of that game very quickly.

The family menace.

I don't do swim diapers in the backyard. Why bother? Apparently they serve more of a function than just feces collection...they hold up baby swim trunks. This photo was taken just moments before the "pooptastrophe"...you can read more below.

Michael hated the pool...thank God. Lily loved it, but not when Andrew was jumping in. So she spent a fair amount of time on the sidelines watching him hurtle his body into the ground.

A Pantene commercial if I ever saw one.

Watching, watching...

This was the first day I braved the kiddie pool. Monday, we did our usual "play in buckets of water on the front porch". It is shadier on the front porch in the afternoon, and I don't worry so much about Michael drowning in a bucket. Plus, there is a rocking chair there. But by the time Jeff got home, Andrew was dancing in the front yard in his Spidy underpants, soaking wet. Lily was running after him in a water-logged size 5 diaper that hung to her ankles. And Michael was covered in wet chalk...and eating a big blue piece. (my favorite was when Lily shoved Mike and then denied it...except for the undeniable yellow hand print smack dab in the middle of Michael's face). We had delved a bit too deeply into the WT mentality, and I decided it was time to get civilized and put on swimsuits and get out the pool before we were evicted by our HOA.

Michael preferred to look for chalk to eat in our storage containers...he is seriously addicted to the stuff. While I turned to film the older two, he dropped a deuce on the patio. That's right. Grunted one out. But with no diaper on, it just slid down his leg and made a big doggie-do pile. Oh. My. Lord. It was gross. And it was my worst nightmare...I can't leave the other kids alone with the pool out. They had JUST gotten in, so I didn't want to drag them back inside while I cleaned up the mess. So I made them sit on the glider while I ran inside to get wipes and a diaper and a new suit for Mike. It took only a minute, and they were thankfully agreeable to this arrangement. Then I pinned Michael down on the concrete and used about 1,000 wipes while he screamed in fury. There was chalk to be eaten! Grossest thing ever.

And on that note...I'll leave you to go enjoy your own summer day!

July

So June was fantastic. An unbelievably fast 30 days that swung between trip preparation to trip to trip preparation to another trip. And after pampering us with seemingly limitless fun family time, it has unceremoniously dumped us into July.

I knew July would be hard, coming after the June we just had. No visitors scheduled, no trips, no school, no milestones, nothing. August isn't quite as bad, since we at least have things to celebrate (read: eat cake)...the 10 year anniversary, turning 32 and then Andrew starts Kindergarten the 31st...whoo-hoo!

In order to make July more depressing...I mean interesting...I've decided to challenge myself during this month. And I'm dragging my unsuspecting family along with me. It's like New Year's resolutions 6 months late. And I'm only holding myself to these things for the month of July, unless I begin craving punishment and want to continue through the summer.

1) I am...gulp...giving up tv. Completely. But I am obviously not giving up the computer. Jeff thinks this means I am going to spend all my free time doing chores. -snort- As if. I plan on reading, cross-stitching, drinking alcohol...apparently blogging ;) A girl's got to unwind...

2) I am...gulp...going to limit my children's tv time. I think I may try and limit their tv time to when I'm putting Michael down for his nap and bedtime. I just need the older two zombified while I am tucked away upstairs for a while. But it is going to be really hard to stop using it as "Toddler Prozac"...which is pretty much how I deal with Lily right now. We'll see...

3) I have been researching crafts and experiments to do with the kids and I am going to attempt to incorporate them into our play time. I am SO SICK of playing pretend games. Ugh. At the very least, it will make for some interesting stories, right? Or maybe not-so-interesting stories? Our first experiment has been kind of a flop. I bought some white carnations, and we mixed up some colored water for each of them...in an attempt to color the petals. It kind of worked. Not quite as vibrantly as I wanted. Today? We're making a bug hotel.

4) We are not eating out AT ALL in the month of July. AT ALL. No take out, no drive thru, no delivery. Not even beverages...or ice cream...or ANYTHING. We spent WAY too much money in June, and this is one way to cut back. And it could be fun. Right? Right? I just have to be sure to stock up on easy meals for those days when I feel like putting an ice pick through my eye. I never feel like cooking on those days. ;)

5) I have restarted my exercise challenge again. I got a really bad head cold in week 6, and so failed to earn my I-pod. I didn't start again right away...because there was so much food to be eaten on vacation. ;) So now I am starting again...3 pounds heavier than last time. Ugh.

Okay! Time for misery to begin. Starting....NOW...