California dreamin'

We moved to Cincinnati when I was 9. The moving truck came to our house on my birthday, in fact. I was...ahem...NOT happy.

But there was a delightful Australian family that lived across the street from our new house. They had a daughter, Elizabeth, who was 2 years younger than me. However, I was always a bit behind the curve of girls my age, so it was a perfect fit.

I have loads and loads of memories growing up with Elizabeth. I remember swimming for hours and hours in her pool, playing mermaids or trying to bounce each other off the inflatable rafts. Playing "house" or "doctor" or any of the countless pretend games in my basement (where does Lily get it from, I wonder?). Reading through her voluminous collection of Berenstain Bears books. Walking her dog Aussie around the neighborhood barefoot...returning with stained toe nails because of popping tar bubbles with our toes. Worrying horribly when she and her mother were in a traumatic car accident and she got countless stitches in her forehead. Sitting around her kitchen table, listening to Elizabeth seamlessly switch from an American accent to an Australian one (depending on if she was talking to me or her parents). Eating Nutella (happily) and Vegemite (unhappily). Playing a card game and laughing uncontrollably because she looked so ridiculous after her face swelled up from a bee sting. Watching a snake eat a baby bird a tree by her house. Dressing up with make-up and crazy hair styles and trying to fool the neighbors into thinking we were new to the neighborhood (but we looked so different! How could they tell it was us???).

Need I go on?

Elizabeth and her family moved to San Diego when I was a junior in high school. We had grown understandably apart as we got older...once I became a band geek and she a solid athlete, we had less in common. But there never was a time I didn't enjoy her company.

I went and visited her in San Diego during winter break my junior year of college. We had a great time exploring Del Mar and taking a trolley tour of San Diego and playing games and doing puzzles. I remember thinking, "This is such a nice place to visit...I certainly wouldn't want to live here."

One year later, I found out that I would be moving (near) there. And Elizabeth and her family were our adopted family in many ways once Jeff and I were living in Orange County. I have pictures of Elizabeth holding Andrew as a baby.

And then we moved away. And I haven't even talked to Elizabeth. Very negligent...how life gets in the way. But I knew everything happening with her...since our mothers are still the best of friends.

So I already knew she was getting married when I received her wedding invitation in October. I was surprised to be invited...which Elizabeth apparently knew I would be, since she included a sweet personalized note. And I mentioned to Jeff that as crazy as it seemed, I really wanted to go witness my childhood friend get married. And he dug up some unused frequent flyer miles and told me I should do it.

And so on Friday I am going. It will be nice to enjoy the sunny weather of California, nice to have a weekend away from the kids. It will be nice to mooch off my parents like a teenager and nice to relax and enjoy a long flight cross country. But it will be especially nice to revisit my happy childhood with an old, special friend and her family.

5 more years until I have this fight?

I just drove to pick up Andrew from school. Because he wanted me to, that's why.

I followed a bus as it dropped off the remainder of its middle school students before it headed to Andrew's school for the next set of kids.

I saw 25 kids get off at various stops...give or take 2.

One of these children was wearing a winter coat. A total of ONE out of TWENTY-FIVE.

4 children were wearing t-shirts, and nothing else.

We have 19 inches of snow on the ground, and it just started snowing again early this afternoon.

One coat.

4 t-shirts.

Conclusion?

Teenagers are idiots. And I am not ready to pick my battles yet.

How does anyone shovel with kids around?

So we got 19 inches of snow last night. Guess what that means? No school. Also? Jeff can't go to work, because it is going to take 10 hours to dig out our cars. However, he will still work in the basement. So...3 kids at home for the umpteenth day, but required to be quiet so Daddy can work.

Excuse me while I go scream into a pillow.

Right now Jeff is taking a shift with the shoveling. When you have 3 small children, it is not an option for both of you to go out and shovel together. There is nothing efficient about shoveling when you have children. Yesterday, I had to shovel out the 4-6 inches by myself because the snow didn't come down until after Jeff had left. It went something like this...

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8:15 am- Since Jeff left for work at 6:15, about 3-4 inches of snow had fallen. So Giselle must go shovel out her car to take Andrew to the bus stop or even all the way to school. Giselle gets her boots on.

8:16 am- Snow-dar goes off in the 2 year old. The 4 year old also wants to go out in it. Giselle drags out the boots, snow pants, snow mittens, and hats.

8:30 am- We finally all get outside. Lily and Michael immediately begin fighting over our 1 kids' shovel. Andrew gets a broom to sweep off the windows of the van. Giselle begins shoveling paths behind her car.

8:32 am- Mike gets pushed into a snow bank by Lily in the struggle for the shovel. Giselle must go break up fight.

8:34 am- Giselle resumes shoveling.

8:35 am- Andrew begins crying because snow has gotten on his hands. Giselle realizes he never put on his gloves and goes to help him clean off his hands.

8:37am- Giselle resumes shoveling.

8:38 am- Lily slips in a slick spot and falls on her bum. She cries hysterically despite the fact she has 16 solid inches of padding between her butt and the ground. Giselle goes to help her get up. In the mean time, Michael takes the kid shovel, climbs up on top of a mound of snow, and begins pushing newly shoveled snow back onto the driveway.

8:39 am- Giselle hears her neighbor snickering.

8:40am- Giselle begins shoveling again, after a strict talk with Michael and Lily about shoveling the opposite side of the driveway than Mommy.

8:41 am- Michael begins crying when his mitten gets lost in a snow bank. Giselle must go find the mitten and put it back on. Lily takes this opportunity to take back the kid shovel. Michael screams anew at the injustice. Giselle takes the kid shovel and puts it in time out. She realized that she has only shoveled half of what she needs to.

8:42-8:58am- More of the same. Shovel a row, break up a fight. Shovel a row, help someone in trouble. Finally get enough snow shoveled that we can get in the car and leave.

8:59 am- Try not to scream at the kids to get in the car...but fail. Once in the car, children begin peeling off snow gear. Ice hits their skin and crying begins anew.

9:30am- Finally get back home after taking Andrew to school. Roads were shitty. School is only 5 minutes away, and it took me 30 minutes to get there and back.

10:30 am- Get a phone call that school is being dismissed early. Andrew will be sent home in 90 minutes.

10:31 am- Giselle cries.

And eye appointment and an auntie

We've had a lot of togetherness lately. Which doesn't leave me for much blog fodder. That I wish to bore you with, anyway.

(Lily is taking an x-ray of her patient Michael...not using him as an arts-n-crafts table)

Last week...Wednesday to be exact...Lily had her first ever eye appointment. She had done mediocre on the little eye exam at her 4 year old well visit last fall. Which wouldn't really concern me normally, since they give it to the kids in the weight/height check hallway, while lots of other kids are being ushered to their rooms. It is in a main traffic area, which I think is a very flawed design. However, Lily is also excruciatingly clumsy. And although all things point to genetics, I thought it best to just make sure it wasn't her vision making her run head first into walls.

It's not. She has 20/20 vision, which is actually better than expected at 4 years old (20/30 is considered perfectly normal). The doctor checked her for all sorts of other eye problems that can cause clumsiness. Negative. Lily's problems are not fixable with a simple pair of eye glasses. Perhaps when genetic infusion is invented...

My new neighbor, whom I am NOT stalking, watched Michael for me. So it was just Lily and me. And she was fabulous. She did NOT want to go get her eyes checked, and had a 20 minute fit when I told her earlier in the morning. But by the time we got to the office, she was so cooperative and fabulous. Even when they put the dilation drops in her eyes. She charmed the snot out of all the patients in the waiting area. I had brought a Highlights hidden picture book for her to keep her busy, because I am eye-doctor-retarded and didn't think about the fact that she couldn't enjoy it when her eyes were dilated. So she announced, "I can't do this because of my funky eyes." And then proceeded to dance and sing around the waiting area, completely oblivious to the audience...just floating around in her imaginary world. It was completely and utterly charming.

A few days later, my little sister showed up. She had frequent flyer miles to use up, and she chose to use them to come visit us. Suck-ah!

Lily quickly invited her into the fold...

We had a blast with Auntie A...all the kids competed for her attention. She was eternally patient with them and played more mind-numbing games than should really be possible. She endured a snow day. She went to a basketball game for 5-7 year olds. She tolerated the mall with a 4 year old. She read countless children's books. So thanks for coming, Andrea! You made what could have been a looooooong winter week so much fun. ;)

And finally, since I can't seem to get my pictures to download in any sort of order... Michael and Lily celebrated the fact that Michael is finally sitting at the big table instead of a high chair...by using the booster seats as toys. Now we can never find the booster seats when we need them...since they are always being dragged all over the house as "cat beds" or "airplane seats" or "furniture for the play house." -sigh- Healthy imaginations are great. :)

At least my house is clean...

Andrew has no school again today. Last week there was a snow day on Wednesday and then a teacher in-service day on Friday. Yesterday was MLK day and today...another snow day. Ugh. Just ugh.

But as the title suggests...at least my house is clean. I am seriously avoiding the children. Well, not really, but I swear that at least 60% of the time if I am elbow deep in a cleaning project they happily play alone. It is at the mere whiff that I am not working my tail off that they jump on me like a puppy on a chicken bone.

So my house is clean. Except for the floors. Because what is the point of mopping floors when the dog is coming in with snowy feet every hour?

My little sister is coming for a visit on Thursday. Good news: weather should be fine by then. Bad news: All this "togetherness" with my children may lead to me foaming at the mouth and acting like I need to be committed. If I ever want another niece or nephew, I've got to pull it together and make it look like this parenting thing is The. Best. Decision. Ever. Which it is. Except on consecutive snow/sick days. :)

So...off to look busy again. The children are starting to notice that I'm sitting down...no! I can't play neighbor again. I'm busy...dusting the floor boards. See how busy I am!?!

And the award goes to...

It's been several weeks since Christmas, and I think it is time. Time to award the prize for Most Loved Christmas Gift.

In a surprise twist this year, each of the children love the same gift. It's like winning a triple award.

This gift creates much havoc in our house. There are many tears while fighting over the privilege to play with it. Andrew spends a long time assembling it. Michael and Lily push and shove to get a good position. Andrew is the overlord of play, hoarding pieces.

Drum roll please.....





It's the trains.

My mother bought Michael a wooden train set from Costco for Christmas. Michael is frequently found in this position...

...spooning with his trains.

Occasionally, the three of them will get along enough to have a blast playing with the train set together. Moments after this picture was taken, Lily's trains stalled, and Michael had a fit because he couldn't chug through. He kicked his leg, knocking over the bridge. Andrew proceeded to scream at the top of his lungs and threaten to "Never build another train track again." The screaming scares Lily and Michael, who dissolve into wails.

Good times.

Honorable mentions...

Horsehead on a stick. I got one for Lily and one for Michael. Andrew has commandeered Michael's and he and Lily gallop around our house. Lily is the cutest in her pink cowboy hat (which I totally forgot we had).

Honorable mention for Michael...

Well, the pillow pet is popular, but Michael gets the award for "best sport". Because his toys were the hit this Christmas, and he is constantly having to share them with his older siblings. Poor guy. Next year I'm only going to get him gifts...

And finally, this has nothing to do with gift awards, but it is a shot of all Lily's favorite things.

Shadow and her night-night. Found cuddling together on the couch. Lily was just about beside herself when she found them snuggled up. Shadow is trying to send me a message... Owners take note: I am a 13 pound California dog. Not only do you torture me with multiple small children, you move me to a God-forsaken cold place where I am neck deep in snow each time I take a pee. I am taking this treasured toy hostage until you turn the thermostat above 67 degrees. In the meantime, I am creating a warm spot with it. Sincerely, Shadow.

Dr. Jekyll

This girl. Oh! This girl of mine.

I had a teacher conference at her school yesterday. My first chance to sit down and talk about Lily with the people who spend 2 1/2 hours, 3 times a week with her.

Here's what they said, "Lily is a delight! She is so smart and eager to share. We can always depend on Lily to have the answer to our questions. Like last week when we talked about houses made of ice and she immediately raised her hand and said 'Igloo!' She is kind and loving towards her classmates and happily plays with anyone...although she prefers the girls. She sticks up for herself when another student takes something from her, but she never instigates trouble. She never protests any activity and is eager to try new things. She prefers pretend play over coloring and crafts, but again, she never gives us any protest. She has age appropriate writing skills. If we could have a class full of Lilys, it would be the most perfect class ever."

Wait. Are you talking about this girl?

Are you talking about the girl that fights me tooth and nail about going to school each morning? The girl who at the time of this writing has already had 2 screaming fits about whether she has to wear pj's to school today for their Hibernation Party (it is 6:30am)? The girl who snatches toys from her brothers and laughs evilly and then screams in indignation when they reciprocate? The same girl?

Yes, it seems that Lily is the model student. She is Dr. Jekyll at school, while often Mr. Hyde at home. Which is preferable, I suppose. And I'm proud of her. I predict that she will be our most successful child. She is smart, but also willing to try new and difficult things. She sticks up for herself while simultaneously winning over the authority. Watch out world! Here comes Lily!

In other news, Lily has been really enjoying her little brother. To the point that they exclude Andrew many times. Perhaps we should have another baby to even things out. This odd-number always seems to leave someone out. Lily and Michael love to play cat and trains and baby. And Lily gets to boss Michael around...which she loves. When she plays with Andrew, he is in charge and threatens to stop playing if Lily tries to assert any opinions.

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It's like Lord of the Flies over here, people. It is amazing the negotiation and cooperation skills that they are learning from each other. And perhaps the odd number forces them to balance...if Andrew is being too bossy to Lily, then she'll just leave and go play with Michael. So Andrew has to find the perfect amount of pressure to manipulate Lily in order to control her but not lose her to Michael. Okay, so 3 kids is good. Phew.

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Really, I feel like Jane Goodall over here.

Right now, the large male I call "Andrew" is doling out bug toys to the loud female I call "Lily". The small male, "Mike" is currently out of the picture. We'll see how the female deals with being short-changed in the toy distribution.

At least they don't throw feces at each other like apes do. I should add yet. They don't throw feces yet.

How did this blog post disintegrate so quickly? Wasn't I supposed to be talking about Lily? Not throwing poo?

My Lily. My strong-willed, opinionated, mood-changing, observant, loving, imaginative girl. How she melts my heart when she out of the blue compliments her dad's hair cut. Or when she comes up from my mom's basement with no prompting and says, "Thank you so much for cleaning up the basement. It is really nice." Or when she cheers on her little brother if he adds an end sound on a word. Or when she runs into the room, throws up her hands, and sings dramatically, "Everybody DANCE NOW!"

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Oh! How I love my 4 year old!

Catch up on Andrew

Oh, my. Blogging just hasn't been in the cards in 2011 yet. Neither has calling my sisters, or reading books or cross-stitching. I don't know what I've been doing, but it has certainly been keeping me busy ;)

So let's catch up on Andrew.

Here's the goon before Christmas. He created (with mechanical help from his Dad) a Power point presentation for a school project, and this was a shot he wanted to include. Just in case the class forgot who was giving the presentation, I suppose. I like it now, because it clearly shows his little baby teeth...on New Year's he lost one of those front ones, and his smile is forever changed...

The Tuesday before we left, Andrew's class put on a play, The Gingerbread Caper. It was kind of instead of a traditional holiday party. I love it. He was so stinkin' cute. He gave the intro and ending as well as his part in the middle. His teacher told me later that she hadn't planned on an intro or ending, but mentioned it during the last run through. Andrew raised his hand and said, "I'll take care of it." She didn't even know what he was going to say. Mr. Confidence. Remember when his problem in preschool was mixing with the other kids? Whew. We've come a long way, baby.

At Grandma's we made Gingerbread cookies on Christmas Eve. Andrew is at such a fun age. He is patient and agreeable and really creative. He isn't bashful about his talents. He is just a delight. Here is his fishing gingerbread man.

Despite getting quite lanky and large, Andrew still likes to cuddle. It's like having a Great Dane who thinks he is a lap dog. We often lose circulation to our legs, but who could say no to this cute (big) kid?

This is Andrew and his men's body wash. When shopping with his Dad for other family gifts, he fell in love with this scent. Jeff took Lily back to the store and got it for him. So now my 7 year old proudly smells like a 40 year old man. Lovely.

Playing at Enter-Train-ment park. Again, he is just so much fun to interact with...the scavenger hunt was superb with him.

Here's the tooth gap...

And I might brag a little more about this kid's brain. His math skills are...incredible. We do not work with him on math, although we do ask him to figure stuff out as we go about our days. Like Jeff took him shopping for his little brother for Christmas. Andrew picked out two cars that were $5.99 each. He asked Jeff what 99 + 99 was. Jeff asked him if he could figure it out. Andrew thought for a few moments, went up to the cashier and said, "This will be $11.98". Once Jeff picked his jaw up off the floor, he asked Andrew how he did it. Andrew said, "Well, I know 100 + 100 is 200, so 99 + 99 is 198." No mention of the adding it to the dollars, but whatev's.

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He is also doing multiplication (last night he figured out 6x6), and asking lots of questions about fractions.

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He's smart. I had a conference with his teacher yesterday to discuss what the school has to offer as far as accelerated tracks. I'm pretty sure she thinks I am a psycho parents who drills Andrew with flashcards every extra second of his life. She'll know the truth when she gets Lily in a few years ;)

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He also continues to show amazing empathy for others. He came home last week with another boy's lunch box because he'd forgotten it at school. He wanted me to drive it to his house, because, "B. packs such big lunches it won't all fit in a little paper bag. He NEEDS this lunch box, Mom." I love his big heart.

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And his sense of humor continues to develop. He actually understands my sarcastic jokes a bit now. Like the other night at dinner we were all discussing imaginary friends. Lily was saying she has one and Andrew confirmed that he also had one. I said that I had 2 imaginary friends. Andrew asked me what their names were. I said, "Peace and Quiet." Andrew starts chuckling as he figures out the joke. He kept repeating it as he explained it to himself.

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Ah, how I love my 7 year old!

Catch up

No, I did not resolve to stop blogging in 2011. It's just so overwhelming to try and capture memories from the holidays after waiting so long to write about them. So let's catch up...

Dec. 23- Andrew skips school and we drive to Ohio.

Dec. 24- Hang out at G-ma and G-pa's. Run out to buy a stinkin' baby tree for Andrew. Make giant gingerbread people. Wrap all the gifts that I had sent to Ohio. Wonder how it will all get back to PA. Go to church. Put kids to bed and have wine and shrimp cocktail with in-laws. Lovely night.

Dec. 25- Wonderful, long, lazy gift-giving day. I do wish that we opened presents slower like my family used to. I still don't know what Uncle Chad got Andrew. It was lost in the tornado of wrapping paper. I mean, the gift wasn't lost. I just didn't witness it getting opened. Also, Lily was super excited about the gift she and Andrew made for Grandma (a recordable book from Hallmark...she and Andrew sang the whole thing). But she missed seeing Grandma open it, because everyone just kind of tears into things at once. Every year I say we're going to go slower the next year. And then it happens again. Enthusiasm :) Linda also made a delicious spread for Christmas dinner. And I didn't have to cook it...this traveling thing might not be so bad...

Dec. 26- Drive to Columbus to celebrate my parents' 40th wedding anniversary. You can read all about it in my sister's blog. She has copies of the photo shoot we did with my folks before hand. And a shot from their wedding. We all had such a good time and I am forever grateful for my sisters...who did all the work. I just showed up. ;)

Dec. 27- We drove down to my parents' after the party. Andrew stayed behind to spend the night with Colin. He had a blast...and apparently woke up at 6 am and told Kate all the morning "rules" of our house. Like he doesn't get fed until 7, etc. No secrets with a 7 year old. Once in Cincinnati with the rest of us, we celebrated Colin's 6th birthday (the same day as my parents' anniversary). We opened more gifts and had birthday cake. We ate Skyline. We had Montgomery Inn for dinner (take-out). Lily had a major pooping issue that interrupted my dinner.

Dec. 28- We had a day full of errands and fun little trips. Lily went to Tangled with my mom and I...a "girl's" day. Andrew went shopping with Pepere and bowling afterwards. Jeff stayed home with Michael. We had Skyline again. And Jeff and I went on a date that night...to Montgomery Inn. We stopped at Kroger on the way home and picked up pints of Graeter's. It is no wonder we each gained 7 pounds over the holidays.

Dec. 29- We went to Michael's heaven...Enter-TRAIN-ment Station in West Chester. It was...awesome. Room after room of model trains...and we had a sheet with a scavenger hunt on it. So you go through really looking for things. In the middle of it all is a huge play area with things for kids age 2-12. Really really cool. We stopped at La Rosa's on the way home. We had a lighter dinner. Andrew and Pepere played a lot of Wii Madden 2011. Okay, so Andrew played a lot and Dad watched a lot.

Dec. 30- We packed up and went back to the in-laws. The kids were re-united with all their toys. We went to a b-ball game of Jeff's second cousin that night. Andrew loved it. Michael was traumatized by the buzzer. That boy is just not interested in sports like Andrew always was. He did enjoy driving his cars in the stands, though.

Dec 31- We tried to round up all our stuff in preparation for the next day. Jeff's cousin from out of town came over with his two baby girls and had lunch with us. We went to a park, since it was 50 degrees out. We had steak for dinner. Yum. I played Andrew's new DS game while the in-laws "watched" basketball (read: slept).

Jan. 1- We left to go back to PA. There was barely enough room for all 3 children in the car. We only stopped twice the whole trip. A new record. Due to this, we made it home in only 8 hours. We dumped the car out into our living room and enjoyed being home.

Jan. 2- Day of clutter madness. Desperately putting away Christmas decorations, filing away toys, grocery shopping, etc. Kids ignore all the new toys and go back to playing cat. Why do we get them anything, again?

Jan. 3- Jeff back to work, Andrew back to school. Lily desperate for playmates and attention. Giselle going crazy. You know, normal re-adjusting routine.

And we're caught up.