Program week

This week has three programs for us to attend. Monday was Sophia's kindergarten concert. She and her classmates did a fantastic job. I'm having video difficulities, but I will keep trying. Maia had her little class party/ show today. As you can tell, she's being weird. She pretty much didn't sing at all, and just looked around the room, yawning and seeming confused. When we got home, she took a killer nap, so we're guessing she was tired. But we have all 7 minutes of refusal to participate, so we'll always have the memories! Friday is their dance recital. Sophia is super enthused, and Maia could care less. I won't be there. Hopefully I'll be home from the hospital, but in no shape to watch a show. This year I'm counting on James to actually hit the record button, since he failed to do so last year. Finger's crossed! I know Sophia will do great, as usual, and Maia will be funny and obstinate, as usual, so they will be cute. If I can get the videos to upload, I'll definately have them on here.

We came home and decorated the tree. The girls had an absolute blast placing all of the pieces. James didn't really care to join in, but he did us all a HUGE favor by keeping Celia distracted by reading her books and keeping her entertained. As a little girl, my mother and I would decorate the tree while listening to Bing Crosby's White Christmas. I found it on cd the first year I moved out, and have listened to it ever since. Of course, we also must listen to Jimmy Buffet's Christmas Island, to balance it out. I'm curious to know what the girls will listen to when they are on their own!

Oh Christmas Tree..... Oh Christmas Tree.....

how cold it is when we are picking you out! As usual, we had a fantastic time picking out our christmas tree. It was very cold, in the low 20's, but the girls had hot chocolate to warm them up, and had a blast running around finding the perfect tree, which for Sophia, was every tree. Celia's mind was completely blown when she saw James pick up the tree after cutting it down. It's a tradition we started as a family when I was pregnant w/ Sophia, and we will keep doing it forever, since it is always so fun. Yeah christmas tree day!

The reason for the absence...

I know it has been a LONG time since I last posted, and I am very sorry. 90% of it was just due to the breakneck speed at which our lives are paced, but another 10% is due to the fact that I was dreading/ really thinking about explaining the initial abscense. As I had posted earlier, my paternal grandmother was very sick. Her cancer spread quickly, and by the beginning of November, we knew we didn't have much time left with her. Given the fact that my dad passed very quickly and unexpectedly earlier this year, I was determined to do for her what I could not for my dad, which was simply to be there with her and support her to the end. My aunt Glenda, and my cousin Allison, were just amazing, putting in at least twice the amount of time and work I was able to. Their strength was just awe inspiring. By the last week, we were all there around the clock, and able to all be with her, and my grandfather, as she took her last breath. She was a really amazing grandmother, and I am honored to have had her in my life. She was the kind of lady who let me dye my hair pink with Koolaid and use her treadmill as a shopping conveyer. She always let myself and the rest of her grandkids know that she was there whenever we needed her. I am so greatful to her for that love, and am so glad that while we couldn't beat this cancer and have more time with her, that we were able to spend it together until the end. So that is my post about why I have been gone. I'm going to probally be gone again for another period of time, due to the fact that tomorrow I am having a hysterectomy. Having three little girls back to back, being small, and having traumatic births left me a bit damaged, and it's time to get it fixed. I hope that I'm a tough cookie, and that I will be back soon, but if not, I'm posting a month's worth of blogs today to catch everyone up. So enjoy the rest of today's posts!

Let's call her bruiser

Celia 0, sidewalk 2

Oh, and C and her dog. Too cute!

Halloween!

What an awesome day we had this Halloween! My cousin Tricia threw an awesome party, and suprised me with, hands down, the best birthday cake I have ever had! The girls got their way, James and I dressed up as superheros as well, so we were one super family! We now have a HUGE bowl of candy, plus leftover cake, for the girls to indulge in, and for me to resist. It's so nice to ring in your birthday on a day that everyone is in a good mood for. Thank you to all the wonderful friends and family that made it a great day, and for the wonderful presents. Most of all, thanks for spending the day with me, and reminding me that I am so lucky to have such a great group of friends and family! That was one great birthday!

Fall Fun!

We had the awesome opportunity to join some friends at the park this week, for some serious fall fun. My friend Paige had the great idea to bring some rakes, and the girls got to make a HUGE pile of leaves to jump into. Having never had that many trees around as a kid, and the girls having never seen that amount of leaves before, we had a BLAST! There was plenty of fun to be had. We took a walk though the woods, and when we returned to the playground, a doe was standing there, so the girls got a good look at a deer. Having done this, I am vowing to get a pass to the park for next year, so we can have plenty more good times in nature. Great day!

A totally non kid related post

I have decided that the blue-tooth headset is really bad for society. It's something that has been bothering me for quite awhile, and I just have to post about it. Initally, it was designed to use in the car, so you could keep both hands and eyes on the wheel and road. Perhaps if you are working and need use of your hands, it should be allowable. But when you are standing at the counter at the pharmacy, get off the phone! People are walking around looking like some sort of cyborg with this thing hanging off their ear, even when they aren't talking. Then, there is the fact that you can't tell who is crazy and who is not, especially people with long hair. Someone who is standing and talking to themselves is almost impossible to tell if they are on the phone w/ their bluetooth tucked under their hair, or if they are crazy. I saw a man yesterday walking along the street, gesturing wildly, and talking alone. Initally I felt bad, but I had a thought he was on the phone! It's so weird that I even thought this man who is most likely homeless given his clothes/appearance, and I entertained the thought he was on a bluetooth. Who knows, given the amount of people who have cell phones, maybe he was.

There is baby-proofing, then there is Celia-proofing

To specify, when one baby proofs, they take anything dangerous and put it, oh, say 4 feet up and you're pretty much good until 5, when they have the mental capasity not to, let's say carry a steak knife around. With the older two, I did things like use plug covers, and gates at the stairs and we were okay. With Maia I had to keep my eyes on her outside, because she liked to stick rocks in her mouth, but other than that, saftey was pretty much easy. I say that, because Celia has really stepped up her game in the last week. She has always been really fast, really strong, and completely without fear. Plus she likes to suck water off of anything, like the slide or the sandbox. Add to that a love of hiding (and staying totally silent while doing so) and we already had a recipe for danger. Now, oh now.... She can get on top of the counters. I was baking cake and cupcakes for my grandmother's 77 birthday, and I turn around to see her standing on the counter, opening my cabinet door and pulling out glass sundae cups. Repeatly I took her down, and she would scale up again. Then yesterday, I saw her walking around the kitchen holding a steak knife! They are in the top drawer, which was totally out of her reach. There were none in the dishwasher for her to get out, and I was baffled how she got it. Well, today I may have got my answer. She doesn't get a pacifier unless she is in her bed. She saw them on the top of her dresser, and I watched and she pulled the drawers out. and climbed up them like they were stairs. God have mercy, this kid is a freaking mountain goat. At this rate, I spend half my day pulling her off of something, a fourth of the time thinking of ways to secure the house so she doesn't get hurt, and the other quarter in the feeding ,cleaning, caring for the other kids and the dog who won't stop eating stuff that makes her puke. I'm going to go to Ikea soon, which is where I got my kitchen cabinets, and get the custom child lock stuff to keep this girl from stabbing someone. In the meanwhile, looks like I'm going to be busy!

Celia the Master

As you can see, Celia definately LOVES Wuzzy. Celia also LOVES being in charge. These things go very well together. Also, in case you were wondering, that is green marker on her face. Things happen.

Yogurt

Because it's not a good start to your day without poison control

Yep. Before 9am this morning, Celia ate a half a travel tube of Colgate Total toothpaste. Miss S forgot to put the cap back on (she gets a kick out of travel sizes), and I found Celia clutching the tube. She looked a me, belched a HUGE minty burp, and I called the now memorized poison control number. Thankfully she's okay, but little miss will be extra careful to keep the toothpaste where it belongs. At least she will have fresh breath all day!

My favorite conversation about death

As you all know, my grandmother has cancer. We initally thought it was stage 2, but now know it is stage 4 and we have a very limited time left with her. As it has progressed, my girls are becoming more aware of it. Since my dad died in April, Sophia has developed what I consider a very healthy view on death. We are not religous, but I am very very spiritual, and have taught the girls that we have souls and that when our bodies die, they go back home to where they were before we were born. So on Wednesday, Maia asked what I was going to do while she was in school. I told her I was visiting my grandma, and here is the best conversation ever about death:

Maia: Why is she dying?
Me: Because she has cancer, and it is something that grows inside a body, and eventually the body stops working.
Maia: Then her soul flys away!
Me: Exactly.
Maia: *pause* Momma, how does a soul fly?
Me: I don't know (really reaching for something here) probally like a hot air balloon.
Maia: *another pause* No, I don't think so. I think they fly like witches. You know, with brooms.


She proceeds to eat her breakfast and that settled it in her little 3 year old mind. I love this age. It's so perfect, pure and simple! Her acceptance, and Sophia's as well, have given me such a renewed perspective on this very natural order in life, and such appriciation for what we have right now. That conversation will be with me for ever, until it's time for me to fly away on my broomstick.

Oh Joy!

http://www.fitsugar.com/4639618


Now all I need is an article that shortness=awesomeness and I'll be a happy gal!

Sweetness of Fall

Well, there is the picture I promised of Miss C on the table. She was hopping up and down, so the camera caught her on a landing there. We've been really enjoying the start of fall. School routines are down, the fall dance and gymnastics classes have started, and we are starting to do the fun things that the season offers. This weekend we went apple picking at Anderson Orchard in Mooresville. It's a huge place, and they also have raspberries to pick as well. The girls had a great time, as did we. The weather was perfect. 70 degrees, light breeze, big puffy clouds, truely picturesque. Celia is obsessed with apples in general, so she was over the moon when she would pick one and eat it right then and there. Right now we have 3 huge bags sitting on our counter, and have already gone through 2/3 of one. Any time C sees someone eating on, she screams "bite, bite!" until you give in. Needless to say, there is a lot of apple eating done in secret around here.

Maia is changing so much in the last few weeks, it's amazing. Her speech has been great for awhile, but now she is developing such complex thought and reasoning it's truely astonishing. The other night, she was fighting with Sophia about a light. Sophia wanted to leave it on, and Maia wanted it off. She finally got upset and said to Sophie "But if you leave on the light, it will be bad for the earth!". She won. Sophia is HUGE on being good to the earth, so it was her first defeat. To see Maia make that connection though, "leaving on the light uses electricity, bad for the earth, Sophia also wants to take care of the earth, and I want this light off so this will work", it's cool.

Sophia is still loving school, though I'm 90% sure she has a crush on a boy in her class. She sits by him, and is in a group with him, but she wont' tell me his name. I have asked her every day to learn his name, but when she comes home, she just blushes and says she doesn't know. Oh, how upset she gets if I tease her! So it looks like we have our first mystery boy crush, on of many many in this house, I am sure. Lots of lovely things happening, fall is definately the best season in this house!

Back to School and Big Girl Stuff

Every time I post, it seems like there are so many milestones that I have to skip over a lot of them and just focus on a few. This time, I promise to hit the big highlights. As I posted earlier, Sophia was "learning" to ride a bike without training wheels. She finally did it! Now she is flying all over the place, and my and the hubby had to get bikes of our own to keep up. Celia is not a huge fan of the helmet I force her to wear, but she does enjoy riding with me, so it's a wash and she puts up with it so long as I go fast. Monday was the first day of school for both Sophia and Maia. Last year I bawled when I dropped Sophia off for preschool. This year, not so much! I had a little moment when I dropped off Maia, but I didn't cry, and I was good after Miss Sophia got on the bus. Both girls seem to love school, and I am loving the break I am getting while they are gone. Maia is definately not a morning person, so it's hard to get her moving in the morning. She just cries and says it's too early to get up. Can't wait for the teenage years! All in all, things are going smoothly, though we almost missed the bus this morning, and I'm sure the girls will continue to love school.

On the darker side, the girls are having to learn a bit about the sad side of life lately. My grandmother was found wandering a few weeks ago, and since then was diagnosed with two different forms of dementia, and later we discovered she also has stage 2 lung cancer. The girls have visited the nursing home my grandma is now at, and have been so wonderful by not asking too many loud questions while we are there! It is a side of life that we all must deal with at one time or another, and it is an awesome responsibility to teach your children the proper way to handle and cope with the situation. We don't know what the outcome will be yet, as there is a lot more testing to be done, but regardless, we have been trying to see my grandmother as often as possible and are so grateful to have her in our lives.

Lastly, Celia has become a monkey on speed set on fire with the way she moves. That kid is so fast, so dexterous, and so smart that there is no way to keep up. I've actually lapsed into fantasies of having a giant monkey cage in my room to safely sit her while I do such exotic things as clean or cook lunch. I don't have any pictures of her doing her typical stuff because I'm usually too busy yelling and running to catch her to take a picture, but I think the sitting in the drawer picture is cute. I will try and calm myself enough to take a picture of her standing on the table/counter/computer desk next time she is up there, which shouldn't be too long. When I do, I'll be sure to post it. Now, I'm going to enjoy the next 1/2 hour of silence!

Summer summer time.....

Two weeks to go until school begins, and we are really cramming the best summer has to offer in. Blueberry picking, trips to Purdue's varities of fountains, baseball games, gardens, parks, and zoo trips abound. Sophia's in the process of learning to ride her bike without training wheels. I don't recall that being such a traumatic experience as a kid, but perhaps it was so bad I blocked it out. She started the process crying and freaking out, which by a general rule is not condusive to riding a bike, as it is hard to see where you are going with tears in your eyes and snot running all over. We're making progress, and as long as she doesn't realize we've let go, she is able to ride. The problem is the second we let go, she lets go. So there is a lot of work to be done. We're all ready for the beginning of school. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with one kid two days a week. It's only for 3 hours that I'll be alone with Celia, but it will no doubt be odd. Being the third, she is always having to stake her claim and demand attention. The few times where the other two have gone somewhere with James, Celia and I had a great time once we figured out what to do, so I'm really getting excited to know her better as an individual, rather than part of the herd. She is really becoming verbal, and understands a lot. She can follow pretty much any direction you give her, knows most of her body parts, and says probally 15 words now. Every day there is something new. Yesterday it was "Spongebob". It's amazing to watch her blossom, and remember how Sophia and Maia went through that same process. It seems like a lifetime ago, even though it was just a few short years. Now that my last totally free summer is coming to an end, and we are about to become a part of the larger world outside my family and friends, I know that things will change dramatically. And I'm looking forward to it.

Back to School, and I'm kind of jealous

It's that time of year, the stores are filling up w/ fresh, crisp paper, perfect crayons that have yet been chewed upon, lunch boxes and backpacks, and for the first time ever, I will be the mom buying for my kid. Now, the school Sophia will be attending is kind of making it sorta disappointing because all school supplies are provided for kindergarteners, but she still needs a backpack, lunch box, and some new duds. I'm normally a pretty cheap girl, but since I have to clothe 3 girls, I tend to buy the nice stuff, on a deep discount a season out. That means Miss Sophia already has most of her fall clothes, thank you very much Children's Place Outlet. But, today I spent the big bucks for my dear girl. I know my friend Laura will be proud, because I bought her the first LL Bean backpack in the house. People swear by these things, and I wanted something to take her to the 6th grade. So, she and I looked at the catalog together, and online, and she picked out a purple flowered backpack with her initals on it. I am so excited to take her picture with it on the first day of school. Maia is getting the old backpack that Sophia used for preschool, and on the monumentous occasion of starting kindergarten, she will get a LL Bean as well. It reminds me of when I was a kid, excitedly buying my supplies before school, getting everything neatly stacked, packed, and ready to go. I even had a dream of going back and getting my PhD the other night, that is how in the school zone I am in. So when all those supplies go on sale at the end of August, I may just slip an extra box into the cart, just for me.

Da duh da duh....

Anyone wanna guess what this is? 6am, James leaving for work, and this is what he sees:

There was no noise, and while the darkness makes the video quality poor, he could see the object clearly, and it was a shape similar to a jellyfish. He's super skeptical, and if he took video, then you know he was baffled!

Sweet Summer

I've been trying to think of all the things that made summer so magical to me as a child, and apply them to this summer with the girls. I remember grape koolaid, popsicles, running with bare feet, trips to the swimming pool, water guns, and tending the vegtable garden with my mom. So far, we have hit all of those things. I added some of my own, including trips to Conner Prairie, bouncy houses, and outdoor projects. My favorite was seeing Sophia and Maia carrying a 14 foot long board to the backyard. Impressive! It's been crazy and fun, and I hope that they are developing the amazing memories that they will cherish their whole lives, just as I do.

FUN!

I forgot to post pictures from our recent outing to King's Island. Our good friends Christina and Steve went with us, and their adorable kids came along as well. The super cute girl, S, is Maia's newest favorite friend, and their boy, A, is a doll, but not Sophia's boyfriend, because she is mortified by boys already if you insinuate that. So he's just her friend, and she loves him, but not in that way! We all had a great time, even though it rained quite a bit. Note the wet shirt on James. Lovely day with some lovely people. Makes me wish I lived closer!

Worn out!

Lately, I feel like I've been engaged in man-to-man combat on a daily basis. First, let me say that I've been working out to this crazy video, 30 Day Shred, which I swear is awesome but leaving me extremely sore. So I'm in no real place to say I'm starting out on the right foot when it comes to the fact that I'm on my feet all day. However, even if I wasn't getting the crap beat out of me w/ the workout (have I mentioned how much I love that video. Because I do, since in 4 days I'm already getting seriously toned arms), Celia has seen to it that I do not have a moment of rest, EVER. I've been straining for a good description of her, and it's a tie between mountain goat on caffine, or monkey on speed. I'm more for the latter. She has NO FEAR, and amazing climbing abilities, which makes for a dangerous combination. I don't yet have pictures of

her hanging off of the ladder to the clubhouse, or standing on the top of the back of the couch, because I'm too busy racing to catch her. She has also learned that if she stands on the dog, she can climb on the bed. We're talking Wuzzy the dog, not a stuffed dog. That dog is the best, calmest dog in the world. Thank god, because I don't know what I would do if she weren't! This morning Celia dumped about 200 goldfish crackers on the floor, which Wuzzy cleaned up for me, thank you very much. That is why we got a dog, to reduce my sweeping! Seriously though, Celia is a terror right now, because with this newfound delight for climbing and doing dangerous activites, she is also teething, and developed a lovely "do it now" attitude. Each age brings the good and the bad, it's just right now, while she is so sweet and staring to say really cute suff, the bad is just wearing me out! Don't be suprised to see another ER post in the near future, either for a nervous breakdown on my part, or a broken bone on Celia's. It's a toss up!

Hair

Sophia and Maia were upstairs, being too quiet. When they came down, this is what I saw:

They cut off Maia's bangs, her hair which was to her shoulders is now hacked into two sections, barely past her neck, and what you can't see is lots of little chunks an inch long all over. Thanks Sophia!