Baker Family

Relay for Life

2009-06-25T09:19:00.002-05:00

I’ve decided to take action and fight back against cancer by participating in the American Cancer Society Relay For Life® event along with my husband, Mother-in-law and kids. After having participated last year, I can share that it was an eye opening event that will never be forgotten.

Our team is Baker’s Dozen in honor of my Father-in-law who passed away due to a brain tumor two years ago. My husband and I have also had to endure my father and brother as well as my brother-in-law’s step daughter contracting this dreaded disease within the last two years also. All have since been fortunate enough to have been deemed in remission. It is our goal to make sure that through the generosity of others that we can find a cure for this disease.

Please support us in this important cause by making a secure, tax-deductible donation online using the link below if you would like to be a donor.

To donate online now, click here to be taken to William Baker's (my husband) personal page.

Relay For Life® is a life-changing event that brings together more than 3.5 million people worldwide -- 125,000 in New England -- to:

CELEBRATE the lives of those who have battled cancer. The strength of survivors inspires others to continue to fight.
REMEMBER loved ones lost to the disease. At Relay, people who have lost loved ones can find strength and healing among others who have walked in their shoes.
FIGHT BACK. Relayers pledge to take actions that will reduce their cancer risk and bring us closer to the day when cancer is no longer a life-threatening disease.

Whatever you can give will help - it all adds up! We greatly appreciate your support.

Waiting and wondering...

2009-06-17T09:01:00.003-05:00

I hate to say it but if you've been waiting for a new update on here, you're going to be stuck waiting a while longer. Call it writer's block or just sheer laziness, I just can't seem to get motivated to blog about our everyday happenings. I'll be back though...some day...I promise.

Day and Night

2009-05-08T14:52:00.006-05:00

Gipper brought a "treat" to our back door last night in the form of a bird. Of course the kids were completely enthralled by the goriness caused by the cat. I, on the other hand, stood back and laughed as Bill quickly tried to remove the carcass from our door step before the kids ended up needing therapy from seeing all the blood and gore up close. (Ok, there really wasn't any blood, just a shit load of feathers everywhere.) The cat had other ideas such as grabbing his loot and running off while Bill chased him from one end of the deck to the other and then down into the yard...all while cursing the animal.

This morning, the kids were checking out the remainder of the feathers left behind on the door mat when Matt asked me what kind of bird it was. Now I could be wrong (never - would be a first) but I told him it was Mourning Dove. To which he replied, "or maybe a Night Time Dove"!

Holding them tight

2009-03-31T09:05:00.006-05:00

There are a few blogs that I read on a regular basis, written by women that I've never met, living in cities across the US. One of them is written by Emily, who can be found at her own blog, http://www.captainhambone.typepad.com/, as well as over at http://www.parents.com/.

About a year ago, Emily posted an entry about some friends of hers, who while on vacation, found out that their young daughter, baby Emily, had a brain tumor. For those of you who know me and my family you are well aware that my Father-in-law passed away after a very short battle with a brain tumor. So this story hit home, simply because of the familiarity of the situation. I was touched by their story and was drawn into their lives as they uprooted their home life in VA and moved to Boston in order to get some of the best medical care for their daughter in the hopes that they would be able to fight the tumor. Throughout their journey they posted stories, updates and pictures.

There were some days that I would be reduced to tears as I imagined how difficult their lives had become. How they were facing an upward battle and how they would be left making decisions that would keep their little girl from growing and learning the way a normal 1 year old would. Between the surgeries, the emergency procedures to eliminate unforeseen issues, the tubes, chemo and radiation...well it's hard to put my thoughts into words but anyone who is a parent can understand.

Yesterday I received an update on one of the websites that after a year of fighting, on March 28th, the family sat down with the doctors and reviewed her latest CAT scan. There was new blood vessel growth that was applying too much pressure on her brain stem. Additional chemo was out of the option due to the rapid growth, radiation would cause more swelling so that was also ruled out and although surgery would be an option to help extend her life, the risks were far too dangerous and so the family chose to bypass that route as well. The decision was made to make her comfortable and enjoy whatever time they had left with her.

Yesterday, March 30, 2009, Emily's parents snuggled her with her favorite blanket, pillow and stuffed dog. Her breathing tube was removed and as she was cuddled in her mother's arms, surrounded by family and friends, she passed away. She was two years old.

As I look at my own, soon-to-be two year old who is babbling to me in his own little language from over the baby gate, I can't help but count my blessings. I'm relieved that the hardest decisions I've had to make for any of my kids are the everyday, tedious decisions such as vaccinations, what schools they should attend, they sports they'll play, how late they can stay up and how much T.V. we'll allow them. I'm grateful for the fact that I can walk over into the other room, swoop Robert up into my arms and hold him tight, right now or anytime I want. I breathe a sigh of relief that I can do the same thing when Megan and Matt get home from school.

Tonight, after they are asleep and I make that one last daily trip into their bedrooms to make sure that they are covered up for the night, I will touch their heads lightly as I kiss them goodnight and say a little prayer that I have the opportunity to do this over and over again.

Ass over tea kettle

2009-03-17T16:54:00.004-05:00

It's taken us 5 years (7, if you count Megan) but we have finally had our first real "accident" with one of the kids. We swore this day would have come years earlier but fortunately luck has been our side up until now.

Last evening during a walk around the block, in a moment of over-confidence with his new bike, Matt took a digger that left him with three loose teeth, some torn gums and a huge fat lip. If anyone has ever dealt with any type of mouth injury I'm sure you are quite familiar with the amount of blood that comes with it. Add Megan's shouts to me from down the side walk of, "MOMMY! MATT'S BLEEDING BADLY! THERE'S SO MUCH BLOOD!" and we wound up with a kid that was probably more freaked out than normal. Even after we cleaned him up and calmed him down, the blood continued to ooze and it took us a good 30 minutes to get him to stop shaking.

A quick trip to the dentist today (just to be on the safe side) told us what we had already figured out on our own but also confirmed that there was no major damage to the baby teeth and no fractures of any kind to the adult teeth.

And of course, to commemorate this moment in time for him? A picture! (What kind of parents would we be if we didn't take the time to ignore his discomfort for a few moments in order to take a shot for the blog?)

The end of the hockey season...

2009-03-17T16:40:00.003-05:00

This past weekend marked the end of hockey for us. The team played in a weekend long tournament and we went into it feeling certain that our kids on the ice were going to go home on Sunday with a three game loss. The clinic itself was to teach the fundamentals of skating with a little about the game towards the end. The past 2 practices marked the first time the kids had played in any sort of positions on the ice and in fact Friday night was the first time our goalie had been in the net and had ever been geared up.

We entered the first game with Matt playing defense and were treated to quite a few laughs at his expense. The poor kid was a bit lost when forced to play an real honest to goodness position. He forgot to follow the puck and instead simply followed the pack of kids skating around him. It reminded me of a school of fish as they changed direction and he would quickly turn to follow them even if the puck had just flown past him in the opposite direction. Oh well...maybe next year he'll figure that part of it out.

As it turns out though, the team did far better than we anticipated. We won the first two games against two of the Southern CT teams by a landslide and although they were beat 6-0 by East Haven in the final game, Hamden took home second place! They all walked away with metals but most importantly (to Matt anyways), they each had a hot dog and soda in their hands.

So now we have a slight breather before soccer and baseball begin!

Profane expressions

2009-03-10T10:09:00.002-05:00

Bill and I have often said that we really should censor our language better than we do but for some reason our filters just don't seem to kick in when they should.

For the most part, Megan has always been very good about not repeating what we say. Oh sure, there was that one time where she decided to say "f*ck" and "sh!t" all in the same week but after we spoke to her about it, she never said them again. (I will have you know that although she was only two years old, she used them in perfect context!) And of course Matt has said a few things here and there but nothing quite as dramatic as what Megan threw out there. So all in all, we've been rather lucky, all things considered.

So now we come to Robert. His list of distinguishable, honest to God, actual words is rather short. And much of his speaking skills sounds very similar to Swahili. (Not that I've actually heard someone speaking in Swahili, but you get my point.) He does repeat one word over and over and although we've never quite figured out if it's an actual word or just another sound that he likes to make, it sounds the same every single time and in the conversation that I had with him this morning it came out so much clearer than it ever has in the past.

I was doing a quick clean up with the vacuum this morning and whenever I'm done I usually hand it over to Robert to play with. It keeps him occupied and allows me to move on to something else. This morning, as he was pushing it around, Remy went nuts barking at it and chasing him around the living room so Robert paused for a few moments as if he just wanted to watch Remy's reaction. As I stopped to see what was going on I asked him, "what's Remy saying Robert?"

To which he replied without hesitation, "Oh shit!"

Similarities

2009-03-04T17:04:00.007-05:00

Buddies

There have been a lot of things coming out of my mouth in the past couple of days that I realized have been applied to both Robert and Remy. And I feel like I'm repeating them over and over. Such as:

"Put that down!"

"No biting!"

"Quiet!"

"Good boy!"

"Sit!"

I've also come to the conclusion that we've cleaned up more poop in the past two days than we have in the past 7 years!

Here are the pics of our new addition:

Oh wait - that was before the dog. We were trying a new style of parenting called "crating"!

Obviously the similarities don't end with what's coming out of my mouth! (And, no, he did not drink out of it. He was only demonstrating!)

Success in small doses

2009-02-25T10:46:00.003-05:00

Today marks the first day since Robert was an infant that we made it through an entire mass (OK, a little shorter than usual at 40 minutes long) without enduring a screaming fit, temper tantrum, snack food upheaval, toy and/or sippy cup propelling or a massive, stinky dump!

It's been a long time since I've actually been able to walk into church without Bill and not been loaded down with the feeling of dread for what was sure to come. Double that feeling of pending doom when I've got all three of the kids on my own. It's easy enough for me to walk away during a melt-down with just Robert but when I have to deal with him and I still have the other two sitting there, well it just makes life easier if another adult is there to lend a hand and/or stay behind with the older kids.

So, while I know that my next trip into church on Friday morning for the Stations of the Cross will be filled with all of the above mentioned tragedies just because I dared to rejoice out loud on the internet, I'll take today's victory and savor it, while hoping that maybe, just once, we'll be able to continue in the right direction. Lather, rinse, repeat...

"Picking" Hair Styles

2009-02-19T10:13:00.004-05:00

I'll let the pictures do all the talking on this one...

Oops!

2009-02-19T10:00:00.005-05:00

Did I forget to mention that we DID celebrate Christmas last year? Because after downloading a ton of pictures the other day I noticed that I still had Christmas morning pictures on there and hey, guess what? There was no Christmas post on here! Hhhmmm...how did I let that one slip past? So here you go...

Starting out with the stocking stuffers...

Moving on to the good stuff...

More hockey

2009-02-17T12:59:00.004-05:00

Matt has definitely progressed during the '08-'09 hockey season. If you need a reminder of how he started out, click here. Otherwise, enjoy the update of our "Problem Child". (Music courtesy of AC/DC)

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

2009-02-11T11:37:00.006-05:00

Yesterday was Grandpa's birthday and it has been two years since he passed away. With the weather having been relatively crappy (in a snowy way) we've been unable to make it up to the cemetery for quite a while. However, the past couple of days have warmed up a bit and so the kids and I decided to surprise Daddy with a visit to Grandpa's grave last evening.

Prior to heading out, they had made a Happy Birthday sign to place by his headstone and we decided to stop at the grocery store for some cupcakes to "share" with him as well. We didn't tell Daddy where we were heading but of course in my 3 minute absence to purchase the cupcakes, Bill managed to get Matt to spill the beans.

Once there, the kids hopped out of the van, still in their school clothes and wearing snow boots, and pranced around the cemetery while Bill and I did our best to secure the sign that they had made to one of the flags that was implanted in the frozen ground.

We lit up a single cupcake and sang happy birthday and while the kids enhaled theirs they decided to leave one behind for Grandpa to enjoy as well. As I placed that cupcake on the bottom ledge of his headstone I couldn't help but smile at what he might be thinking as he watched his three grandkids enjoying this moment.

Robert may never have a single memory of his Grandpa Baker nor remember the "crazy evening in the cemetery" but I know that Megan and Matt will remember it for a long time to come.

Snatchtastic!

2009-02-03T22:56:00.002-05:00

Matt was babbling to Bill tonight about how Simone snatched a toy from him today at school and it's bad and rude and blah blah blah.

To which Bill replied, "not all snatches are bad".

Brotherly love

2009-01-23T12:51:00.003-05:00

While I was straightening up and gathering laundry upstairs the other day, Matt and Robert were playing together in the TV room. Because they were entertaining each other so well I was able to do a few more things than usual and was enjoying the relative peace and quiet. There was no arguing (not that Robert argues per se) or screaming, or any kind of crazy chaos. Just two brothers getting along.

Later, as I was feeding them lunch, Matt informed me that he took very good care of Robert while they were playing and that Robert hurt himself by banging into the coffee table as he walked past it. Matt said, "Robert broke his heart so I kissed it and his heart went right back together!"

Aaaahhhh...

Snow Day!

2008-12-20T22:57:00.005-05:00

It was predicted that we would receive anywhere from 9"-14" of snow on Friday and it was scheduled to begin anytime after 9AM. But other than the grey skies above the only other sign of things to come was the fact that school was canceled and not a single flurry had touched the ground.

The start time was continuously being pushed back on all the radio stations and I began to wonder if the day off from school would end up being a waste. We bided our time by playing and waiting patiently for the much anticipated storm.

The kids have had a bad case of cabin/holiday fever for about a week, month, ok since at least Halloween, so I immediately wracked my brain for things to do that would occupy them during what could be a long, torturous day. We ran out to the post office so that I could buy stamps to send Christmas cards to all you lovely people in the hopes that you might actually receive them PRIOR to Christmas. After that we ran over to the grocery store and picked up some items in order to begin baking cookies. After all, if there was no snow, cookies could always be counted on as an instant "pick-me-up".

And after much waiting, the snow finally began to fall...and fall...and it accumulated quickly. The boys were napping when it began so I took the opportunity to shovel the driveway in the hopes that when Bill arrived home he would be able to make it up to the garage without having to park on the street in order to clear it himself. I made two passes on it and yet when he arrived shortly thereafter he still had to clear it again before making his way to the top.

Around 4pm we bundled up the kids and went outside to play. This is the first year that Robert was old enough to play in it so of course I snapped a couple of "first time" pictures.

We also threw an impromptu snow/cookie making/reason to drink some wine party with the neighbors which turned into a sleepover for Megan and their oldest daughter. The kids had a great time and even though we had rather slow start it turned out to be one of those memorable snow days that will always stick in our minds.

Welcome to my world of moderation

2008-12-17T19:54:00.003-05:00

Well, I knew it could happen. In fact, I've read on other blogs when an entry or photo of another parent's child has been violated either via comments, stolen or modified photos, etc. But I guess in my own naivety, I thought that my blog wouldn't or couldn't be affected by this. Unfortunately, the sick world that we all live in has hit this little blog and rocked my tiny corner of the world.

It's certainly a heavy and sick feeling to read that someone has taken an innocent photo and entry and turned it into something it isn't. Their own sick imagination creating more of an image than is there to begin with. The hardest part as a parent is dealing with that initial shock. The second hardest is forcing yourself to fight back in the most passive way possible. Definitely not what my instincts were telling me I should be doing.

So after immediately turning on the "moderate comments" feature, I took a deep breath before making another move. Unfortunately more comments were received, each more offensive than the last, and so Bill and I discussed the best possible way to move forward.

Go completely aggressive and password protect the entire blog.
Remove the mentioned entry in it's entirety.
Remove the mentioned photo.

Instead of jumping the gun on this one, I've decided to work my way backwards through the list above. So for now, all that you will notice is that your comments will not be published immediately as they were in the past. Instead I can now choose whether to publish, moderate or reject your comments as they come in.

But if that freaky ass pedophile is still out there waiting for another entry to violate and chooses to continue stalking my blog, that password protection isn't so far up the list that we can't jump ahead to option #1.

Scary, wild and crazy

2008-12-16T12:40:00.005-05:00

The title pretty much sums up what has been going on around here for the past week. The scary part comes from the numerous diggers that Robert has been taking. The other evening he overestimated the distance between himself and the pillows that he was dive bombing and slammed head first into the head board. Enter immediate goose egg, some crying and later only a small bruise to account for it. Last evening, he decided to crawl up onto the dining room chair and while standing backwards it toppled over. As I came running from the other room I found him clinging to the rungs and kneeling on the back of it, screaming of course. I immediately began checking for pinched fingers or a bloody mouth (which seems to be the norm for him) only to discover the other side of his head growing an enormous and rather purple egg on it. An ice pack on it seemed to calm him considerably and although the blood came to the surface the skin never broke so all that he's been left with is a nasty brush burn looking spot on his noggin.

Regarding the wild...it's always kind of wild around here with the three kids but particularly so in the past few weeks. Chalk it up to holiday chaos, being cooped up indoors now that it's colder outside or all of the above, I'm really not sure. But we've also found out that Matt has been acting up in school. I think his teacher was in a rather crabby mood when she unloaded on me the other morning but regardless, he's been spoken to about this issue almost on a daily basis now. I just don't want him turning into the class pain-in-the-ass, if you know what I mean.

And the crazy...well see the above for most of it. But here is some evidence of the craziness that Robert is making us endure.

And it's the holidays so it's only going to get worse before it gets better. Right now, the crazy is spilling over to the adults too...

Recent discussions

2008-12-04T13:23:00.005-05:00

While driving home from hockey one morning, we somehow got on the subject of "what do you want to be when you grow up". As we were discussing options with Matt such as a doctor, lawyer, fighter pilot, UFC champion, etc, Matt assured us that he knew exactly what he wanted to be.... A Zamboni driver. (I guess it could be worse.)

**************************************

As Bill was playing with Robert one day, he continuously called out for "DADDY"! Knowing how much I would love to hear this kid say Mommy, Bill tried coaxing it out of him. After numerous tries and getting blabbering from Robert, Bill finally questioned him if he knew who Mommy was. Without a beat Robert replied, "No".

***************************************

Somehow or another Megan, Matt and I were talking about becoming mommy's and daddy's someday and Megan asked me how I became one. Of course I told her that in order to be a mommy I had to take a test. If I passed it I could become a mommy. If not, I would have to be a daddy. To this day the kids remind me about how I passed the test and Daddy didn't. (They also believe that I have eyes in the back of my head. Gullible kids.)

Top 10 things that I'm thankful for

2008-11-26T16:02:00.004-05:00

A happy, well-adjusted, mostly healthy (minus the recent snot infestation) family.
Family coming to visit us over the holidays.
Spending time with the other side of the family during the holidays.
Adorable Thanksgiving crafty "things" that Matt has been bringing home from school.
Kisses from Robert that appear out of the blue.
The help that Megan gives me when I'm ready to tear my hair out from wrangling the littlest wild child.
My loving and supportive husband.
Food on the table (even if it is just hot dogs or mac-n-cheese)
The opportunity to be with the kids all day, every day.
The opportunity to get rid of the kids when Aunt Alicia or Grandma takes them off our hands for a break.

There are so many more things that I'm grateful for but right now, at this moment and over the past week or so, these are the things that stand out the most.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

It's obviously here to stay

2008-11-13T13:26:00.003-05:00

I thought that I was past the irrational worry that comes with being a parent. The kind of worry that you know is ridiculous but with all signs pointing toward the outlandish, you just sort of give in to the craziness of your thoughts and begin to wonder if it could perhaps be true. That maybe the good luck of having three healthy kids has finally ended and this is where the bad begins. Because I couldn't actually be lucky enough to make it through raising these kids this far with only one unexpected hospital stay, right?

But the other morning when Matt told me his head was still hurting him, I realized that those irrational thoughts haven't and probably never will go away. Daddy had given him some ibuprofen the night before when he complained that his head was hurting. So when I asked him where it hurt and was able to rule out a sinus issue (I had woken with a sinus headache myself, so I thought that maybe he had the same) by where he pointed to the pain, I then took a closer look. There was a huge "egg" on his forehead above his left eye and there was no visible bruising to go along with a dinger of that size.

I asked him if he hit his head and how the bump got there but he could not recall any particular event. So I continued asking him throughout the morning and still nothing. That's when the irrational thoughts came to my head... No, I won't go into detail so let's just stick with the description of irrational. Make that extremely irrational.

By the end of the day, he finally mentioned that he hit his head on the wall when he was in the basement with Pap-Pap. And it wasn't until he came up with that story (I say story because we still don't know if it's true or not) that I stopped all the crazy worrying.

I knew that I would always be concerned about my kids even after they grow up and move out of the house but I never thought that the concern could always overlap into the crazy at any given moment! I'll be more prepared the next time.

Halloween

2008-11-05T14:34:00.004-05:00

Halloween was spent with our neighbors where we ate, DRANK (Van Gogh Double Espresso Vodka, oh my!), and were merry (probably because of the aforementioned vodka). Of course the kids enjoyed the candy that they collected and there is so much left over that I'm already tired of looking at the bin that it's sitting in.

This year Megan was a Devil, Matt went as a Harley Biker and Robert was a bat. They were all excited about their costumes (except Robert who absolutely hated having the hood up on his costume and frankly could care less about dressing up..."just keep shoveling candy in my mouth!") and Halloween has quickly become one of my more favorite holidays. It's less expensive than Christmas and yet there's plenty of loot and lots of fun to have. I'm sure that will change when the kids outgrow this but for now I'm planning on enjoying this for a few more years.

The latest BUZZ

2008-10-01T14:57:00.002-05:00

A few days ago, Bill and I were discussing Robert’s hair. The lack of “cooperation” even after it is combed due to some crazy cowlicks and how I really don’t want to take the time to comb his hair anyway when I never have to touch Matt’s. So I went ahead and gave him his first buzz cut last evening to eliminate the issues at hand.

His hair is still so baby fine and looks much lighter when the natural light hits it so he now reminds me of a baby peep with a lot of soft downy fuzz. (The pictures don’t do it justice.)

Somehow, the third time around, I am nowhere near as sentimental about the growing up process as I was with Megan and Matt. I don’t mourn the loss of my baby when he outgrows his clothes or does something so very big boy like. I love the stage that he’s growing into right now and am having a lot of fun with him these days.

His buzz cut was just one more step towards having a full grown, loud stinky boy running around the house. And I’m definitely ok with that. In fact, strangely enough, I’m looking forward to it.

Hockey

2008-09-28T10:45:00.011-05:00

It's official...Matt loves being on the ice and will be playing every weekend from now until February. It's a "Learn To Play Hockey" clinic where they will be running drills the majority of the time but they will get to pass around a puck later on. Also, towards the end of the clinic, the kids will be playing in a 3 game Jamboree.

So far, Matt has been on the ice four times. Five, if you count the one time we took him to public skate two years ago. There has been some definite progress just in the past two weekends so I'm really looking forward to the comparison between now and February.

Here's Dad giving him some pointers on the ice...

He's not the smallest kid on the ice. There is one other boy that is much smaller but that little guy still hangs out down at the far end of the rink with the kids who are less sturdy on their skates and still use the walkers. Of course Matt wanted nothing to do with that so he's been with the bigger and faster kids since the first practice.

He's holding his own and seems to have finally figured out the drills that they run although he's still easily distracted by the kids skating past him or anything else that catches his eye. So although he'll never be singled out to play on the house team, it's good to see him enjoying this new experience.

Here he is with a little rock music backing him up...

Peanuts

2008-09-22T13:26:00.002-05:00

Maybe someone out there can help me to answer this question. It's something that's been gnawing away at the back of my mind for a while now and I just can't quite figure it out.

At what point did my voice change?

I'm not talking about the change boys go through during puberty although I'm sure my voice dropped a little back then as well.

No, I'm talking about something no one ever taught me in health class. I'm referring to the way that whenever I speak to my two oldest children my words morph into an episode of Charlie Brown. You know the ones I'm speaking of. The ones where when any adult speaks it sounds like a muffled trombone "wah wah wah wah wah" sort of noise.

Well, should I?

2008-09-18T15:42:00.006-05:00

Should I care that my 6 year old came home from school yesterday proclaiming that all the kids played "choke the chicken's neck" in gym class? (The game consisted of rubber chickens and ringing their necks while passing it on to the next kid in line. And no, I don't know what physical benefit they may have gotten from this activity.)

Is it wrong that I laughed like crazy and thought about how I couldn't wait for her to tell Daddy about this when he got home? Is it wrong that I'm not at all offended by this in any way?

Hey, the kids absolutely love the gym teacher there and if this is his way of having a little fun at their expense without them even knowing it, then have at it. Maybe I take no offense to this because it would appear that he has the same twisted sense of humor as we do.

But I wonder what after school conversations consisted of in the homes of the other kids in her class. I guarantee that there are some frigid individuals out there who wouldn't see the humor in it. (Probably the same parent that I observe every day speaking to their children with a very "childish" voice .) Because, GASP, this is Catholic school after all and we shouldn't be speaking of such vulgarities in the presence of children!!

Hhhhmmmm...I guess I'm not a very good Catholic then, am I? But then again, I already knew that.

He's sleeping with his hockey stick!

2008-09-15T11:55:00.002-05:00

Need I say more? Matt is already obsessed and he hasn't even started playing yet. The clinic begins this Saturday and Sunday for the next two weeks and if he likes it he'll then be signed up to play until February. I'll be sure to take pictures and if I can sneak into his room at night without waking him, I'll include one with him snuggling up to his new "security blanket". What's next? Full gear and a puck under his pillow?

Just you and I buddy

2008-09-05T13:01:00.008-05:00

The kids are officially in the swing of the school year and now it's just Robert and I together during the day. What a completely different dynamic when it's just the two of us. Sometimes he plays quietly and other times it's obvious that he is looking to be entertained. But that's what happens when you are the youngest and have only known having other siblings around to help entertain and amuse you.

The part about being with him that I love the best is when he takes a break from the toy that currently holds his attention and he toddles over, laying his head against me and then looks up with a smile on his face. He then wanders back to whatever he was doing and it's as if he just wants to remind me that he loves me.

One is such a good age. He is learning so much, growing like a weed and changing constantly. There are of course the occasional melt downs and tantrums but not like the "terrible twos". Besides, the unconditional love that he gives makes up for those times and the sense of humor that he is developing is a lot of fun too. You can see the happiness on his face when he does something unintentionally to make you laugh. Which of course prompts him to try it again.

Yep, we're in a good spot right now. Talk to me again around his birthday next June and I might be singing a different tune. But for now...all is good.

Off on a new adventure!

2008-09-02T13:03:00.008-05:00

Last night was spent packing book bags and lunch boxes for two kids, making sure that I wasn't forgetting any last minute items for either one of them (note to self: create some sort of bulletin board in the kitchen because the fridge just isn't going to cut it now with multiple kids in school) and laying out school outfits as well. Although Megan wears a uniform to school, the pre-k students are exempt from this so I was under strict instructions from Matt not to pick out anything "dumb" for him.

Matt was his usual goofy self and didn't show any out of the norm signs of excitement or anticipation for his first day. He played around as usual, climbing the walls (literally) and fell asleep quickly when we tucked him into bed around 7:45pm.

He awoke in the morning with smiles and went through our new morning routine as though this was the same thing he did every day and still there were no signs of Matt not being himself. When we prepared to walk out the door, I of course wanted to snap a few pictures of his first day, so out onto the deck we went. A few quick shots later and we were on our way to school.

His backpack was filled with the last minute items that he would need for the year, like a blanket for rest time, his art smock, a change of clothes, folders, etc. so I was not able to fit his lunch box in the bag too. I offered to carry it for him but was quickly told, "no, it's my lunch box so I'll carry it." We walked up to the school and because they stagger the pre-k arrival time from the regular students, we kissed Megan goodbye and she took off for her day as we hung outside to wait a few minutes before we headed down to his classroom.

When it was time to head in, again he grabbed both of his bags and took off for his classroom. He's definitely a determined little boy and I held back the urge to offer help again even though it looked like he was going to topple down the stairs with his little load.

Matt is used to this routine because he has the same teacher and is in the same classroom that Megan was in two years ago. He's walked this route before and is definitely comfortable in this new big kid role.

We walked through the door to his classroom and I swallowed the huge lump in my throat as I took in all of the excited kids and apprehensive parents standing nearby. (I'm a huge sap - thanks Mom - and cry at the drop of a hat but managed to contain this one. After all, I'm not a first timer here and I still have one more to go. Save it for the really sappy moments!)

Matt found a cubby to put his things in for the day and immediately started playing. I hung out off to the side for a few minutes and then asked Matt if he wanted Robert and I to beat it. Of course he said yes, so after I kissed him goodbye, told him I'd meet him up in the lobby after school, I scooped up Robert and we headed out.

Have you noticed the new "tight lipped, closed mouth smile" kind of thing happening here...
Note to Robert: Go right on ahead and get comfortable in a classroom setting too buddy. Certainly make it easier for yourself to break away from Mommy in a few years. But I guarantee you that no matter how content you are when that time comes, I'm sure to be a babbling fool.

Their last day alone together...at least until the next school holiday!

2008-09-01T13:43:00.002-05:00

Megan started school last Thursday but Matt doesn't officially begin until tomorrow. The school likes to stagger the start date for the pre-k students to avoid a few things. The first being the usual back to school crush of the older kids and the second is that some of the kindergarten students still experience some anxiety and they'd like to keep the pre-k kids from seeing that. By giving those kids a head start on the school year allows the pre-k kids to miss some of that chaos.

So Thursday and Friday of last week were spent with the boys here at home with me after we took Megan to school. It's definitely a different dynamic when one or more of the kids is missing from the equation and with Megan gone, it was nice to see Matt in his "take charge, older brother" role. It will be interesting to see what happens when I'm down to only one at home tomorrow...

Back to school

2008-08-29T14:42:00.002-05:00

Megan headed off to school yesterday for her first day as a "big kid" in first grade. All summer long she had been talking about this venture into a new grade always adding that this was the year that she would have homework. As someone who did not enjoy school until my high school years I've been hoping to help my kids have a different experience than I did at that age. I don't know if it's something that I can ward off or if some kids are just bound to dislike school but if I can help it be a positive thing, I will. So I've been re-focusing her on the positives as they come along. Of those positives, she gets to sit at a real desk this year instead of sharing a table with the other kids. She also gets to walk in/out of the building on her own instead of being escorted by a teacher/helper. (It doesn't seem like much but so far these little things seem to be working.)

She was slightly disappointed the other week when she found out that she wasn't getting the teacher that she had wanted. Her main reason behind wanting that particular teacher was simply because she had spent time with her in previous years in the after school program. However, after meeting Mrs. Lupo the other day she definitely seemed more at ease with heading in for her first day.

When I tucked her into bed last night and she told me that she "couldn't wait to go to school tomorrow" and that she loves being in first grade. I guess growing up and being a big kid isn't such a bad thing after all.

A week spent in PA

2008-08-28T13:40:00.009-05:00

We headed back to PA early Saturday morning in order to arrive by noon and not have an entire day which would feel wasted by travel. The kids were great with Robert only fussing occasionally and two stops made for potty breaks. (One being a false alarm on a dirty diaper.)

The goal of this trip was to spend some time with the family before the kids went back to school and to take care of my grandmother while my parents went out of town to TX. Luckily they were not leaving until Tuesday so we were able to visit with them before they left and I was also able to fit in some quality time at the hospital with my brother while my sister-in-law went under the knife for a neck operation.

The first day home was spent with the kids traipsing around down at the campground, in and out of the creek water and running all over the place with neither one of them wanting the day to end. So they both decided to spend the night with Uncle Dan and Aunt Dina until Matt changed his mind and made Uncle Dan take him home to Mommy. ("I'm serious," Matt told him.)

Another afternoon storm clouds began rolling in with plenty of thunder following suit. The skies opened up to a torrential downpour and the temperature had dropped 20 degrees in a matter of an hour when suddenly the pounding of rain turned to something much harder. As we looked out the window we saw a hail storm like none we've ever seen. Now I've seen larger balls of hail before but I've never seen an accumulation like the one that day. It took over two hours for the hail to melt and after it was over I took some pictures to remember the craziness.

Here is a shot of the fog rolling off of the hill as the temperatures were still in a crazy flux...

Tuesday rolled around, Mom and Dad left town and I was left with the 3 kids and Grandma, hoping and praying that we wouldn't drive her up the wall. Fortunately, Megan and Matt spent two nights with Aunt Tam, Uncle Bill and the girls so some of the chaos was alleviated. Grandma and I didn't need to worry about entertainment while they were away because Robert certainly took care of that for us. He climbed up the stairs 100 times a day (of which I brought him back down another 100 times), worked on perfecting his walking skills (ok, so he's still working on that) and kept us laughing with his own crazy personality.

Here he is devouring the can of icing that Aunt Janet left sitting out.

We ended our trip that week at a cousin's 3rd birthday party after which we began our drive back north around 7pm. As is usual, for most of the ride home I sat and thought about how much I miss being back there. Life is quieter there and of course I miss being close to my family. But as I cross the CT state line I always get a bit antsy to go back to my own home, to my own bed, to my hubby and all that has become my life over the past 9 years up here. That last hour of my drive just never seems to go by fast enough.

What I did during my summer vacation

2008-08-26T15:22:00.004-05:00

I was just talking to the kids this morning about the inevitable question that teachers ask upon returning to school in the fall and the various things that they could respond with when I realized that I have some great pictures to share and haven't gotten around to doing so for a very long time.

We spent a long weekend with some good friends down at Long Beach Island and of course I did everything in my power to remember to take my camera. I even argued with Bill at one point about where he had moved it to because, "GAH! I know EXACTLY where I put it and if he moves it to another location (even if it was better) I will no longer remember, blah blah blah". And guess what? No, I DID remember to take the camera. But I never unpacked it the entire time we were down there. But rest assured, we had a wonderful time with perfect weather and good company the entire vacation.

After that we were lucky enough to have some family come for a visit. We started them out with a trip down to New York City. It was the first time that Megan and Matt had been on a train and a first for both them, Zach, Jocelyn and Taylor to see the city.

As soon as we arrived we jumped on the subway and headed down to Fulton Street to see the WTC site. Bill and I have seen it before and although there's really not much left to see but new construction, I'm still struck hard with memories of that fateful day.

We then hiked down to Battery Park so that everyone could get a view of the Statue of Liberty, albeit it a long view across the water, but they saw it none-the-less. Here are Megan and Matt taking a break as we all enjoyed the view.

From there we jumped back on the subway and headed back up to Times Square. After grabbing lunch at ESPN Zone and playing hard in the arcade, we walked up the street to the center of Times Square where we caught up with The Naked Cowboy. There was no way that I was paying $2.00 just for a picture of an ugly guy with a smoking hot body so I quickly snapped these pictures of random strangers posing with him before we headed off.

We walked up to Rockefeller Center and then to the ultimate Megan spot, American Girl Place, where she was treated to a doll and the rest of the group took the nauseating tour (the beer back at The ESPN Zone was not enough to ward off the sweetness) of the entire building and the genius marketing that is American Girl. Before we knew it it was time to head back down to Grand Central for the train ride back to CT.

The next day was spent in the pool and then I took the older kids to Lake Compounce for the evening. We had a good time and we three girls enjoyed the look of fear on Zach's face as we persuaded him to get on various coasters with us. He was a good sport on all but one, Down Time, but we'll get him on there some day!

Tuesday was a lazy day although we did hit the mall for Tam to do some school shopping for the girls. And then Wednesday rolled around and they were off for the 5 hour drive back to PA.

Taylor stayed behind for the remainder of the week and she, Megan and Matt were pretty much water logged due to the amount of time spent in the pool and the hot tub.

Megan finally learned how to swim that week too... And the kids all enjoyed continuously jumping into the pool...

On Saturday morning I packed everyone up and we headed back for my week long visit with family in PA. I'll save those pictures and stories for a later post. Also to come next week...Megan goes to 1st grade and Matt hits pre-k!!

WTF!?! Otherwise known as "the hits just keep on comin'!"

2008-07-02T12:39:00.005-05:00

Around 9pm last night, Bill and I were just getting ready to sit down and kick back for the evening when we heard an unmistakable cracking noise followed by a huge crash/splash. We both went running out the back door to find an enormous tree toppled over and laying across the entire width of our backyard.

I knew without a doubt that it had hit the pool due to the splash that I had heard from inside the house. So we threw on the flood light and climbed up onto the deck to begin pulling large tree limbs out of the water fearing that the pool liner or walls were goners.

The rain was still coming down and it was difficult to tell if the water we heard running was from the storm or damage done to the pool. What we knew for sure was that the deck was "dead" along with the metal vacuum pole that I had carefully propped up along the railing a few days before when I finished vacuuming. As it was still thundering and lightening, we decided to head back inside before one of us ended up electrocuted and we would assess the real damage in the day light.

We couldn't stop laughing about it for the rest of the evening because, for those of you who know us, this is exactly our luck these days. But if we're going to talk about truly being lucky then I have to thank God it happened at 9pm and not in broad daylight because the kids play back there all of the time on their bikes. The basket ball net survived and as it turns out, so did the pool, which appears to have only a minor ding from where the tree and/or the deck collapsed on it before falling into the water.

Relay For Life

2008-06-29T11:57:00.004-05:00

There's a lot that I could say about our time spent at the Relay For Life that took place yesterday morning through this morning, but it all seems caught up in a hazy fog of incredible heat and humidity combined with sore feet and legs as well as a lot of exhaustion from getting only 2 1/2 hours of sleep. The most significant thing that I can say for sure is that it was humbling, sad, and joyous, all rolled into one event for a very worthy cause...the fight against cancer.

While we celebrated 2 battles won (Kyrstyna and Jean), an ongoing battle (Dan Topper) and two other battles lost (Grandpa Bob and his sister Beth), there were so many others that were thought of as well. What a great event and I'm glad that I had the opportunity to be a part of it.

Oh what fun - look who's one! (Or some other cheesy tag line for a 1st birthday.)

2008-06-13T13:15:00.012-05:00

All day yesterday I would look at the clock and think, "a year ago at this time, I was doing *this*". At 6:00am I began experiencing some cramping. Around 11:00am, because the contractions had stopped earlier in the morning, I had the brilliant idea that if I did laps around the block, pulling 2 kids in a wagon, that it might jump start labor again. When that didn't work we went back to the house to relax. (Maybe resting would do the trick!) At 2:00pm I was sitting on the couch, trying to nap but spent more time whining about how I was going to be pregnant FOREVER because nothing was happening and it was all just another false alarm. Around 3:00pm I decided that the cramping that had come back was definitely turning into regular contractions about 10 minutes apart. "But surely this would not last either so let's just take our time packing up the kids and head into to town to wait things out."By 4:00pm we were racing through traffic in order to make it to the hospital before I had the baby in the front seat of our car. And by 4:45pm, I was admiring our new son who had made his entrance about 10 minutes prior and had already managed to pee on the nurses several times indicating that his one kidney was working perfectly.

Although I think this way on the kids' birthdays every year, it really doesn't have the same impact as it does for that first year. It all flies by so quickly that the sleepless nights, crying fits, sickness, etc, which at one point felt as though they might never end, now feel to me like they flew by in a blur. And in reality, they probably did.

The first year is the hardest and so far one of the most rewarding for me. The kids change and grow so much that it feels like I'll miss something if I happen to blink for too long. And although the years are definitely not slowing down and the kids are growing up far too fast for my taste, I know that with the first year hurdle down, we can begin to relax a little as Robert turns from a baby into a toddler. The growing and changes that seemed to have taken place before our very eyes now begins to slow down to a steadier pace. To a pace that seems more manageable for our day to day lives. From here on out the obstacles become a bit bigger but perhaps it's the simple fact that we are sleeping through the night (most of the time) that makes it easier to breathe. (Amazing what sleep deprivation can do to a person's perception!)

So after a full year of topping off the growth charts, dealing with snot, more snot, wheezing, doctor upon doctor visits, a hospital stay for good measure, more wheezing and tons more snot, Robert is now a normal, (relatively speaking - he is a Baker remember) healthy 1 year old. He weighs 24lbs, 12 1/2 oz and is 30" tall. He's cruising furniture now, has two teeth with two more only mili-seconds away from popping through on top, and although the only word in his repertoire right now is Da-Da, he says it with a vengeance. He's a happy kid and rounds out our family perfectly. I can't imagine life without him.

Happy 1st birthday Robert Paul Baker!

Brothers and Sisters

2008-06-12T09:45:00.002-05:00

I walked around the corner the other day to find this on the back deck. As Megan and Matt were sharing an afternoon snack, they apparently decided to sunbathe together. So if Matt can go topless, then why can't Megan?!

Summer, Summer, Summertime!

2008-06-04T17:40:00.003-05:00

Some of my favorite memories growing up in small town, south-central PA were of summer vacations. Mom and Dad both worked back then and because we lived out in the country, the summers were laid back and as a young kid I would have told you that they were BORING! These days with all the running around that we do, there are times when I long for boring summer days to unwind both my body and my mind.

I remember the hot mornings when my sister and I would wake up, pack some drinks and hop on our bikes for a long ride before the summer heat would dictate that we slowed things down and stayed inside. We'd come home, sweaty and tired and plop ourselves on the floor in front of the box fan in a desperate attempt to cool down.

We spent a lot of time at our cousin's on their circus trampoline. We'd spray it and ourselves down with the water hose, terrorizing Pinky the dog as we'd bounce like maniacs above his head. We'd ride our bikes during the day when Aunt Janet and Uncle Ron were at work and then do crazy things like have food fights, attempt to survive Aunt Janet's flaming hot, spicy BBQ pork chops, go for walks and catch the neighbors doing questionable acts up on their second floor, tour the Gettysburg battlefield and climb all over Devil's Den in the evenings or on Aunt Janet's days off.

On the quiet times when we were back at home we had to find ways to entertain ourselves. Rain storms always provided the perfect excuse for cooling off and playing in puddles. Riding bikes, playing wiffle ball and hide and go seek until dark with the neighbor kids are memories that I look back on fondly.

I want my kids to be able to create memories like these that they can in turn share with their own kids later in life. I wish that I could go back in time to really appreciate these things as they should have been back then. But I'll settle for seeing the joy and happiness in my kids' faces as they splash in the puddles after a summer rain.

Hot Date With Daddy

2008-06-04T15:31:00.005-05:00

Megan and Bill had their annual date to the Father/Daughter dance this past Friday. Once again I got away with buying a new dress for her at the bargain price of $10.00!! (Two years running...can I make it to her prom at those prices?)

The most important part for Megan was her request for straight hair. So off we went to buy a flat iron...

While Matt and I shared a quiet Mommy and boys night at home with chinese food, Dad and Megan danced the night away. Ok, so Megan ran around with her friends, but I was told that they shared two dances. That's better than nothing, right?

It's Our Anniversary

2008-05-27T12:35:00.007-05:00

Eight years ago today, I woke up with a hang over from the countless rounds of shots downed at our rehearsal dinner the night before, and began preparing for the day that I married my best friend.

This marriage is a second time for both of us; Bill's first ending after bringing a son into their relationship and perhaps a general moving in different directions, amongst other reasons and mine...in retrospect, I would normally say that mine ended due to marrying too young, but considering I married Bill at the age of 25, most might argue that I was still pretty young. (What can I say? I accomplished a lot in a short period of time!) I think that my first ended mainly due to the other party not being fully vested and I was too young and naive to make it work for the both of us.

Bill and I met while I was living in Nashville, having moved there less than a year prior to get away from things that had recently failed up north. I was a corporate travel agent and he was one of my clients who happened to travel quite frequently with a local colleague. We laughed a lot and harrassed each other for about 6 months on the phone before we finally met face to face. I'd like to say that it was love at first sight but I think it probably took me an entire week before that happened. (Again, that doing things in a short period of time...). What I can say for sure was that after our first official date I knew, without a doubt, that even if things didn't work out for our long distance relationship, that I had a new perspective on the kind of relationship I wanted to be in.

I said goodby to him at the Nashville airport on Sunday morning and then I left there...waiting for him to not call. Anticipating the akward phone conversations that were sure to follow at the office when we tried to remain business like and act like the date was nothing. I figured a best case scenario might be one where we decided to give a long distance relationship a shot but struggled to figure out how to make it work over time.

What I got instead was a phone call that very afternoon after he landed and was back in CT. What followed were endless phone calls lasting until the wee-hours of the morning, bi-weekly visits (on weekends he didn't have his son) and a three months later, a cruise to the Caribbean over my 24th birthday when we decided to get engaged. (Again with the short time period thing...)

Two months later I was on the move again and this time it was to CT to be with him. The following year flew by with settling in to a new job, fixing up and selling a home, moving to a temporary home, a new job oh...and wedding plans of course. And before I knew it, May 27, 2000 had arrived and I was about to become a "Baker".

I couldn't have asked for a nicer evening. We were married at sunset, overlooking the ocean and as I walked out to stand next to him, the wedding reception on the floor below us was bellowing out "Beer Barrell Polka". How fitting.... We danced all evening and then moved the party on to Bill's college roommate's bar for more dancing (some on the bar, some involving $20 bills) and partying into the wee hours. The next day was spent with family and friends and finally on Monday, we were off on our honeymoon to Turks and Caicos.

Since then we've bought and sold homes and welcomed three more children into what started out as a ready-made family of three. We've had some obstacles to overcome over the years; some were pretty funny, like psycho ex's, (we both had one of those) and others were not, such as sudden deaths in the family and a mammoth sinkhole in our back yard. But we've never faltered in moving through these as we both travel on the same path to an ultimate goal... Growing old together.

Happy anniverary Bill - I love you more today than ever before!

Punishments

2008-05-23T13:25:00.003-05:00

Honestly, I love Matt unconditionally. But recently he's been pushing me to the end of my rope. It could be because I'm home with him 24/7 now. Or it could just be the age. Who knows. But when he makes me mad, he inevitably makes me love him a little more with those big, sad, brown eyes.

He's taken to doing things to Robert that I would have expected to see from him after we brought Robert home from the hospital. You know, that whole adjustment to another human being taking up space in Mom and Dad's arms. But c'mon kid...it's been almost an entire year. Why now?

Today, for instance, Robert was sitting on the floor, innocently playing with a toy and Matt walked over to him, stepped on his ankle and as soon as Robert began to yelp, he walked away as though nothing had happened.

After his time out, I make him hug Robert and tell him he's sorry. When I spoke to him about his actions the other day, his eyes filled with tears and his lip began quivering. This is very unlike Matt because after a punishment is doled out, he gets over it and moves on rather quickly. So I asked him why he was sad and he replied, "he was sad that he hurt Robert." (Insert heart melting.)

Unfortunately it hasn't stopped the behind the scenes torture. Recently a similar event occurred and as I mentioned before, Robert can be quite whiney. So when I hear the whine, I tend to ignore it figuring he's probably just stuck standing up and will eventually figure out how to plop down on his hiney. This time, however, the whine grew to a frantic cry and when I turned around, I found Matt sitting AND bouncing on top of Robert.

I immediately reprimanded him and made him sit on the couch while the rest of us went about our business. About 5 (ok, maybe 10) minutes later I realized that I had forgotten to tell him he could get up. I also realized that it was awfully quiet over on that couch. I snuck around the corner and found this...

Darn you child! Why must you be all innocent like when Mommy is still trying to be mad at you!?!

Word Play

2008-05-22T11:45:00.002-05:00

A thunder storm rolled through last evening and since Bill was working late I used it as an excuse to get the kids into the shower early telling them that if the electricity went out they'd already be ready for bed.

I finished up some things downstairs while Megan and Matt went upstairs to shower. A few minutes later I went up to round them up and to see if either of them needed help. I toweled Matt off first and sent him into the bedroom to get dressed. Megan followed and as I was helping her brush the tangles from her wet hair we listened to Matt talking in the next room.

"Mommy, what's light chicadee?" he asked.

Megan and I both looked at each other kind of funny as we tried to decipher not only what he was asking but why he was asking it. Unable to figure it out I asked what he meant.

"You said that when it thunders and lightnings that we might not have light chicadee," he replied.

I couldn't help but laugh when I realized he meant "electricity". Maybe my enunciation needs some work...

Update on Fat Baby

2008-05-21T11:56:00.005-05:00

Robert has got to be the whiniest kid that I've raised so far (God love the child) but when he's happy and smiling it's absolutely the best ever. He's still living up to his nickname(s) of Fat Baby, Fat Boy, Chubbers, and any other tubby nickname we come up with. But even with all that chub, he hauls ass through the house like you wouldn't believe.

He's a major ham for the camera too as you can see from the pictures posted. As soon as he sees the flash light up he's gets a huge smile on his face. He usually crawls towards me at that point and of course ruins a perfectly good shot, but occassionally I can sneak in a few good ones.

Along with that whine usually comes his least favorite situation to be in these days. He constantly pulls himself up on things and plays around for a while but then begins to whine/squeal/fuss/out-right scream because he's petrified to sit down. We've tried showing him how to do it all nice like, but recently I've taken to just plopping him down on his rear end in the hopes that it will prove to him that all that padding down there is going to protect him. So far, no luck.

Yes, I had to help him sit down after this picture was taken.

On the development side of things he still only has two teeth but he'd figure out a way to eat a porter house steak if you'd sit it in front of him. (Marshmallow Peeps not excluded. See below.) The only word in his vocabulary is Da-Da. But Da-Da can mean a lot of things depending on the tone in which he says it. My favorite is when he sounds like he's ticked off about something, with his face all scrunched up and pissy while chanting it.

So while I know I shouldn't be wishing his life away, I honestly can not WAIT until he finally starts walking. Maybe that will eliminate the whine. In the mean time, I'll just enjoy carrying that little bundle of chub around, stealing kisses any time I want and wondering how we managed to have one child with the bluest eyes...

Sports

2008-05-21T09:28:00.005-05:00

We've finally gotten motivated enough to sign the kids up for sports this year. Megan decided she wanted to give soccer a try and Matt is in the Pebbles and Bam-Bam T-ball league.

After several rain-outs for both of them, they've both had a few practices and scrimmages too. We've come to the conclusion that Megan will never be the next Mia Ham-Garciaparra but if she actually pays attention she's not too bad. The problem seems to be that the coaches are volunteer parents. They're doing it because their kids are playing too; not because they necessarily want to teach 5 and 6 year olds the ins/outs of soccer. While I would NEVER complain about the things they teach the kids or how they are teaching them, I really wish that they would keep them a little more occupied throughout the hour and a half that they are there. I find that during the many lulls in practice, I go looking for Megan and find her twirling around the field with her friends. Oh well - as Bill said, we just paid $40 for her to socialize a bit more.

Matt isn't much better. And unfortunately it appears that the coaching style there is about the same as on Megan's soccer team. But he's having a blast running the drills. They are teaching them to throw, catch, fielding, running bases and hitting the ball off of the tee. After his first practice I asked Matt if he liked it. He said no because "it was hard work". But we know better by the fact that he always wants to know when it's Saturday so he can go to baseball. And by the way that he takes off for the field when we are there and we have to pry him away at the end.

Ummm - guess I've been slacking

2008-05-21T09:16:00.004-05:00

So, Megan had a birthday a little bit ago. Ok, back in March. March 19th to be exact, but it sort of got pushed to the back burner due to the death of my Grandfather that same day. But we didn't forget it and we did celebrate with her that day. It just turns out that she had a very low key birthday this year. Nothing wrong that, right? So happy 6th birthday Megan!

Easter was back there too...sometime in March...just after Megan's birthday I think. And I found out that getting all 3 kids to cooperate so that I could get our annual Easter picture of them was difficult to do at best. Here's what I ended up with:

The kids had fun hunting for eggs at Aunt Alicia's and it was a nice day overall.

The way kids think

2008-04-25T12:17:00.005-05:00

Last night at dinner Megan was asking me why Daddy had to work late. I explained to her that he had to take a phone call from someone who was in a different time zone - which of course led to the next obvious question from her. "What's a time zone?" I began explaining what it was and how it worked to which she replied that it all sounded a little silly.

So I decided to make it a bit more interesting and told her how her cousin in Japan was already waking up on Friday morning even though we were only eating dinner here on Thursday. Her eyes got big, she laughed and said, "now that's just freaky!"

Matt isn't much better these days and seems to constantly be asking "why?" to anything he possible can. (I thought that was a 2 year old stage - not something a 4 year goes through.) I appreciate that he's simply trying to comprehend the big world around him but I have to admit that it drives me up the wall a lot of the time. Mostly because the "why's" seem to be an automatic conversation reflex after a while and not really a legitimate question. But then there are times when he simply cracks me up with his simplistic logic behind what can be a complex issue for a 4 year old.

For example; this morning Matt found one of our cats in the backyard torturing a squirrel. From what I could tell, the squirrel had a broken back or something as it dragged itself away from Gipper. And as Matt watched, Gipper batted the squirrel around a bit more and then finally grabbed it by the throat and rag-dolled it a bit. The questions from Matt just came rolling out about why Gipper would do such a thing. I didn't want to pretend that the cat was just "playing" because, hey, you can't coddle your children forever. But I also didn't want to play out the slaying of the creature with too much drama and end up scarring his little brain forever. He seemed satisfied with my answers at first until he finally said, "why can't he just eat his own food instead of eating squirrels and mice?"

My response was that Gipper is an animal and that's just what some animals do. To which he replied, "Gipper's not an animal!"

Ok, so now how do you explain that an animal is a creature and not what we refer to he and his sister as when they are acting crazy? (And I knew for a fact that my answer would lead to the next question of what is a creature?) So I explained it by saying, why don't you ask your Daddy.

(Hey, I'm home with the kid all day, every day now. You can't expect Daddy to get out of answering some of these important questions!)

Pregnancy

2008-04-15T13:31:00.007-05:00

I've recently been surrounded by a lot of pregnancy 'issues' so I thought I'd share.

First of all, I've been going through every piece of maternity clothing, baby clothing, baby furniture and gadgets, etc. that Robert has outgrown and have been handing it all down to my niece to be stored away until she and her hubby are ready to procreate. And it reminded me of just how much stuff one little kid uses. The day that she stopped by the house to pick up the items that I had ready for her was an eye opener for both of us. The shocked look on her face as I continued to hand her box after box of baby clothing was classic. It was the look of someone who hasn't been in this position yet and is completely unaware of just how quickly and easily a child will "over run" their household. She asked that I only save clothing up until about 18 months as she felt that would be adequate.

Having been there, I think I'll save up to 24 months. The kids grow so fast in the first two years that before you know it, another season has changed, and your child just outgrew everything in the previous size. It's nice to have the clothes as backup until those growth spurts slow down a bit and clothing sizes last longer than 2 months.

It was surprising to me in the way that I didn't realize just how much I had been storing the 3rd time around. After Matthew was born and we were sure (ha ha) that we were not having another kids, we gave everything away. When I found out that Robert was on the way, we scrambled to replace all of those items. And through the help of a lot of hand-me-downs from friends, we replaced everything pretty darn successfully. Which is why I was shocked, once again, at how it all accumulated so easily.

The family has also been blessed with the news that my cousin is expecting her first baby. This news came right before my Grandfather passed away - so I predict - a boy! Let's see if the theory of "when God takes one away he replaces it with another" holds true. So yeah!! Another baby in the family! What's better than that? Unfortunately this wee-one will be born in Japan so I have no idea when we'll all get our first visit with the expanding family.

And while she is kind enough to share the news of ultra-sounds, etc. with us, I have to fight an overwhelming urge to give assvice. I just keep thinking about when I was pregnant with Megan, all the firsts were so great but some of them were rather unexpected. And I remember thinking at times that "no one bothered to give me a heads up on this". Plus, now that I've been there and done that 3 times over, I often think back to the times Bill and I shared before the kids. I wish we'd made a point to do something special in those final months. Just the two of us. But the only thing that I can remember doing was enjoying a nice dinner out a chinese restaurant and joking about things were going to change soon. Hmph...had I really had a better idea, that dinner out would have been expanded to a little weekend getaway or something similar. Oh well... hind sight's 20/20, right?

And yesterday, I came across a few other items that I wanted to hand over to my niece. Some pregnancy books and an unused pregnancy test. I laid them on my desk, which happens to sit right inside the door from our garage so that I would remember to pack them all away with any other items that I came across and promptly forgot about it.

The kids and I went upstairs later that evening to get them showered and ready for bed when Bill came home from work. The look on his face as he tried to calmly inquire about "why I had a pregnancy test downstairs" was priceless.

No Bill, your 5th child is not on the way. You're a starter gun now, remember?

Update #2

2008-04-07T14:53:00.003-05:00

While my brother was in the hospital, so was my Grandfather. As a 92 year old man, he was doing very well mentally but had begun having health issues a while back.

While he was admitted to the hospital for 3 days he was kept on oxygen and the original thought was that he would be allowed to return home but would most likely remain on the oxygen...forever. But after about two days, he came off and was doing well enough to have the oxygen sent home with him in the event that he needed it. We were told that his heart was weakening as well. In fact when he had had been hospitalized a few years prior he was told that he had about 4o-60% capacity. This time around...he was down to about 15%.

About a week after he was discharged he began experiencing pain and was taken to the hospital again. This time around he was told that there was nothing that they could do there that he couldn't do with the help of hospice from home. He was told that, at best, he had 6 months to live.

On the morning of March 19th, my Dad went to visit my grandparents and to install a type of "lift" for my Grandfather's recliner in order to help him get in/out of it with ease. He left the house around 12:30pm and a little while after that, the minister from my Grandparent's church stopped by for a visit. She said that she spent some time talking and praying with them both and because they had been unable to make the trip to mass that Sunday prior, she asked if they would like to receive communion. They agreed and no sooner had she given them communion when she said that a funny look came over my Grandfather's face. She asked him if he was ok, to which he replied, "no" and at that point she and my Grandmother decided to call hospice for assistance. A few moments later my Grandfather passed away. He was still sitting in his favorite recliner.

Norman Harold Adelsberger was 92 years old. He left behind my Grandmother whom he was married to for 69 years along with 3 children, 9 grand-children and 18 great-grandchildren. It was a small family but we shared a lot of love. We'll miss this wonderful, quiet man. But I know that he's in a better place, having lived a long and full life. I only hope that I can be so lucky some day.

Update #1

2008-04-03T15:41:00.003-05:00

A while back I mentioned that my brother was diagnosed with colon cancer. A lot has happened since that time but I've not mentioned it since as it was and still is an ongoing battle for him.

Immediately after the tumor was found, his operation to remove it was scheduled for the following week. I stood by the phone that day in anticipation of any news that would come my way and sometime around noon I finally received word that he had made it out of surgery and was doing well. As I exhaled a sigh of relief for him making it past the first step in this process I began scheduling my trip back to PA in order to visit family that weekend.

Friday evening rolled around and I planned on picking up the kids, running home to finish packing the car, feed the kids, say goodby to Bill and hit the road by 6:30pm for the 5 hour drive ahead. Unfortunately after a phone call with a family member my plans were altered. Tests results from the tumor that was removed were delivered that day and the news wasn't good. There was cancer in 9 of 13 lymph nodes and he had stage 4 cancer.

I quickly placed a call to Bill at work with the news and he decided to head back with me as well. We both decided that if there was nothing else that we could do for him we at least wanted him to know that we were both there supporting every decision that he and my sister-in-law would be making and to give them our love and support along the way.

Dan was doing really well by the time we got to see him Saturday afternoon and was discharged the following day. The best that we could do for him was to deliver balloons to his room displaying just how much we loved him, in writing..."Congratulations on the sex change operation". (Can't lose your sense of humor through adversity, right?)

I also got a chance to visit with my Grandfather who had been in the hospital earlier that week as well with heart problems. All in all, it was a nice weekend. Far too quick as usual but it's always good to visit with everyone any chance I can get.

The weeks passed for Dan and other than a blood clot in his leg, he healed quickly. The best news of all came to us last week when it was determined that there was no cancer, anywhere, in his body. Take a minute to let that sink in...because remember earlier...stage 4 cancer!!??!!

To think that this was possible when the earlier diagnosis was delivered is by far the understatement of the year. Does anyone ever receive news like that after a stage 4 diagnosis? So whether the doctors did a fabulous job or there was help from a spiritual side is not for me to decide. All that I can say for sure is that I am so happy for him. The roller coaster ride that I'm sure he was on has leveled out to a steady ride of chemo treatments to ensure that any undetected cancer in his blood is eliminated has begun.

And while his fight is far from over, it's nice to know that he has fought hard and has won every round so far. He'll keep fighting hard too. I know he will because that's just who he is. His spirit, personality and upbeat attitude are something that I admire a lot. And I'm proud to call him my big brother.

Updates to come

2008-04-01T09:20:00.002-05:00

I have so much to share since it's been....well forever since I last posted. But I don't have time right now. Highlights of what you can expect...

Megan's 6th birthday
Easter
Grandfather's passing
Cousin expecting
New job
Haircuts, teeth and crawling
Brother Dan's good news - no wait...EXCELLENT news!

Our lives are sometimes way beyond normal, in fact can be quite boring at times, but it's all passing by so quickly these days. I know it's not all over the top, exciting stuff and that you won't all be sitting on your hands, holding your breath, just waiting for the moment that I hit the 'Publish Post' button, but these events have not only kept us quite busy but on our proverbial toes as well.

Post birthday post

2008-03-11T13:31:00.006-05:00

Lucky for us, Matt is a kid who is pretty easy to please and entertain. This year however, his birthday wish was for a four-wheeler and a gun (nice, I know) and he was quite adamant about receiving these items. We tried on countless occassions to get different gift ideas out of him but he stuck to his guns...no pun intended...and continued to repeat the same wish list over and over. So we broke down and caved to the little shit.

We started the day out by letting him open up the smaller gift of the two...

And as I mentioned, because he's easy to please, he never thought twice about how this might be the only gift he was receiving. He was as happy as could be and off to the sitters he went that morning with the promise of birthday cake that evening.

When we arrived home, having no clue that something bigger and better was awaiting him, off he went to play while I emptied out diaper bags and back packs. A few minutes later he came into the kitchen with a funny look on his face as he announced the fact that he had found a "really huge present in the living room!" I know how badly he was itching to get his hands on that gift so I made him wait just long enough for Daddy to get home so that he could watch him open it as well.

No sooner did Bill walk through the door did Matt start tearing off the gift wrap on the coveted present...

(Yes, that's Christmas wrapping paper. So what? It's double

sided so only one side looked 'christmasy'.)

I wish that I had been able to get a picture that captured the happiness on this kid's face when he figured out what it was. After every stitch of wrapping paper was removed from the box, he proceeded to climb on top. After all...isn't that what you're supposed to do with a four wheeler?

We promised him we'd go out to dinner that evening so while I fed Robert, Bill opened up the box so that Matt could at least see the actual gift. Once it was out, he hopped on top again. Hey, who needs wheels and handle bars anyhow?

(Can you see the joy on this kid's face?)

So after dinner, we came home for some cake. Recognize this thing? Yes, it's the exact same God awful green smiley face cake that he picked out last year. (Honest, go back in the archives for those pics.) After that it was off to bed with the promise that we would put his four-wheeler together that evening after he was in bed and that he could ride it the next day when the battery was done charging.

Saturday dawns and with it comes torential downpours. Matt spent every available moment sitting on his ride and while watching the rain come down, he would occassionally look my way and tell me, "Mommy, I love my four-wheeler." Although we felt bad about the still charging battery, we felt worse about the weather outside.

(Can't you just feel the love?)

Finally! Around 4pm or so, the rain slowed down to a light drizzle and so we hauled the four wheeler outdoors so Matt could enjoy his new gift. And off he went...

Almost taking out the light post and stopping just short of my feet...

All in all, his 20 minutes spent outside before the rain came down again, was well spent. We brought it back inside for lack of a better storage spot for the time being and Matt spent the next hour wiping it down. The tires even got a good cleaning too!

The next day was the parade in New Haven for St. Patty's Day, which Matt still thinks is held for his birthday. We braved the 36 degree weather to sit on the street and watch a lot of drunk Irishmen and Irish-wanna-be's march up and down the street. A few hot chocolates and many full bladders later, we made our way back to Grandma's for his official birthday party with the family at which he made out like a bandit. It looked like Christmas all over again. But the funniest part of the day was the attempt that I made at making a fire truck cake for him. The concept was good but the final result left a lot to be desired. Bill said it looked like a bad Maco paint job. I think it looks like it got too close to a structure fire and began to melt. Oh well!

Sledding

2008-03-10T12:28:00.010-05:00

Bill and the kids and I went out to a local golf course 2 weeks ago (boy am I late on posting) for a little fun on the hills.

They began with the hike up....

Which turned into a ride to the top via the Dad lift...

Megan started things off with a trip down the hill in what looked like the best available spot...

Little did we know that there was a man-made jump directly in her path. (If you squint really hard you can a patch of very white snow in front of her.) She hit it square and went flying face first down into the snow. But she was a trooper, much to our surprise, and she continued on...

Next it was Matt's turn. He has quite the sledding talent in that he can twist himself around on top of the sled while hurtling down the hill and never fall off of the darn thing...

But for as good as he was on the big hill, he preferred the little odd slopes along the way that as Bill said, allowed him more runs in less time...

It was a fun time for all, even Dad, who managed to squeeze his rear end onto the teeny tiny plastic disk 'wanna-be' sled...

#4 for Matt

2008-03-07T13:40:00.004-05:00

Four years ago today was the beginning of life with Matthew. I guess I instinctively knew deep down that something was going to happen as the weekend approached (or perhaps it was just wishful thinking). As I said goodby to the front desk receptionist on my way out the door that afternoon I remember discussing with her how adamant I was that she would not see me walk back through that door the following Monday.

Friday evening was spent at the wake of a family friend and my emotions were running wild. We made our way through the slow moving receiving line and no matter how hard I tried, I could not contain my tears as I watched the family grieving. I waddled back outside to Bill stating the obvious that "I'm sure that didn't help the family" and me thinking that I would liked to have unloaded more than just my out of whack hormones on him for thinking I would have reacted that way on purpose.

Saturday brought more running around as Bryan was with us for the weekend and by the time early evening and dinner time rolled around I had been having some "leakage" that could no longer be ignored. When my water had broken with the Megan the first time around, I had an initial small gush but was later told that her head had dropped into the birth canal and essentially "plugged the hole". So this time around, because I had been leaking all day with the occasional gush that could not be contained with normal methods, I was aware that I would have to let my OBGYN know what was going on in order to avoid a dry birth. Unfortunately this meant a trip to the ER as the office was closed on the weekends. So off we went... Two hours later, we were sent home with no news but to wait it out.

The following morning brought more of the same but I began placing calls to my family in PA in case they wanted to get a jump start on the 5 hour drive to CT in order to be here for the birth.

Around 2-2:30pm, with Megan already down for her nap, I decided to take advantage of the quiet time and get some rest myself for I knew these opportunities would be few and far between before too long. And no sooner did I get comfortable on the bed did I feel the first indication of contractions.

If you've ever gone through labor before, you'll understand when I say, it took 2 more contractions before I was convinced that things were happening. So I crawled out of bed and went outside to let Bill know what was going on. He decided to take Bryan back home early so that wouldn't become an issue later on and I called back to PA again with the update. Mom and Dad decided to hit the road then for the drive up here. Little did they know that they should have heeded my advice from earlier in the morning as there was no way they were making it up here in time at this point.

Megan woke up shortly after that and we decided to go for a little walk around the neighborhood. The weather was absolutely beautiful that day and it seemed as though every neighbor was out enjoying it too. After attempting to hold a few conversations through contractions that were growing increasingly stronger, I gave up and headed back to the house to call my in-laws to come help with Megan. They lived about 4 blocks from us at the time but by the time they arrived, I could no longer talk through the contractions and Megan was definitely noticing that Mommy was not "feeling well" at this point. So my father-in-law took her back out for a walk and my mother-in-law picked up where I had left off on packing my hospital bag. (Yes, my due date wasn't for another 9 days, yes I had procastinated the 2nd time around.)

Sandy tried convincing me several times to call Bill and tell him we'd meet him at the hospital but I wanted to wait it out. By the time he walked through door (only about an hour after he left) my contractions were on top of each other and I all that I could think about was getting to the hospital. Oddly enough, he chose that time to brush his teeth and change his shirt... hhhhmmmm... good planning Bill!

Finally, we were off to the hospital for the 2nd time that weekend and luckily I was already registered due to my visit the night before. By the time we arrived, I could barely stand up throughout the contractions so Bill ran off to grab a wheelchair. As I waited on the curb, another contraction hit and as I doubled over, hands on my knees, while concentrating on breathing through it, a security guard approached me. His first mistake was that he opened his mouth. His second mistake was shouting out to my mother-in-law and me that "hey, you can't park here! This is for labor and delivery only!" To which I replied in the most eloquent way possible, "does it look like I'm standing here for my f*cking health?" Probably fearing for his own safety, he wisely backed off and at that same moment Bill appeared with a wheelchair and assistance from someone with admitting and I was whisked inside.

I knew that I was already in transition because I had been shaking from the time we arrived downstairs. As soon as we got to the room, I quickly changed into a hospital gown, crawled onto the bed, was examined by a mid-wife (whom, again, I did not know - throughout all of my appointments and with 2 pregnancies, I managed to once again be delivered by someone I had never met) and was advised to start pushing! Less than 10 minutes later, at 4:30pm, Matthew Cole Baker made his debut into the world at 6lbs 15oz, 19 1/2 inches long!

Happy Birthday Matthew! Your smiling face, crazy antics and funny sense of humor add so much to our family. We love you buddy!

Not good, but not horrible either

2008-02-29T08:56:00.003-05:00

I've been a little preoccupied this week to think about posting anything worthwhile. (And I do have some fun pictures of the kids to post...but they'll just have to wait.) Between my head being in a whirl since finding out that my brother has colon cancer on Monday and with this the last week of the month, which means we're busy at working trying to wrap up invoicing to meet numbers, etc. there has been little time for me to think about anything beyond making it out of this week in one piece.

So, unfortunately yes, my brother was diagnosed with colon cancer. That's the bad news. The good news is that they removed the tumor on Wednesday morning after a 5 hour surgery and he is recovering well. The doctors believe that they removed everything but at this point are waiting for the pathology test results before determining a course of action on chemo/radiation.

So I'm heading back to PA tonight after work for a quick weekend visit. The 10 hour roundtrip drive will be well worth it to see my big brother and give him a hug. After all, if I've thought my week was bad, all I have to do is think about his and I'm once again reminded of how lucky I am.

Megan and Uncle Dan

Numbers

2008-02-21T18:35:00.004-05:00

After receiving some disturbing news yesterday, I've been running a lot of numbers through my head in the past 24 hours and they're all adding up...much higher than I care to really think about.

4 co-workers who have each faced cancer battles within their families over the past 2 years. 3 lost their fight and as of last week, the remaining family member is searching for a reason to keep fighting.

1 babysitter, diagnosed with a tumor in the base of her skull. Treated, fought and won.

1 Aunt, who passed away from breast cancer back when I was very little. I still remember her wake being one of the first ones that I had ever attended. I had a cold that day that left me with a constant nagging cough. I distinctly remember sitting in the funeral parlor that evening while the rosary was being said and being so afraid that if I coughed I would once again be reminded to be quiet in that setting. It left me to the point where a blubbering noise would erupt when I could no longer restrain the urge. Yes, I admit that was a strange child.

1 Aunt and sister-in-law of very close family members diagnosed with cancer. Fought and won.

1 sister, diagnosed with cervical cancer about 5 years ago. Treated, fought and won.

1 Grandmother, passed away at a ripe old age, but not before being advised that her body was consumed with cancer throughout. Because of her age, no battle was fought.

1 Grandmother, cancerous tumor in her intestines. Surgery to remove the tumor as well as a part of her intestines, fought and won.

1 Father-in-law, diagnosed with a fast growing brain tumor a little over 1 year ago. Surgery performed immediately to remove as much as possible. Treatments began and with it so did the complications. He passed away on Feb 6, 2007.

1 Mother, goes for annual mammograms and each year we hold our breaths as they find significant lumps and run additional tests. Every year she dodges another bullet.

1 Sister-in-law, stood by her Mother when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Treated, fought and won. She also made it through a cancer scare with a mis-diagnosis on her Father.

These are just the people that I've watched go through this battle...there are so many more out there. Too many to count. Family members of friends who lost their battle with cancer before I ever knew them.

This year, my husband and kids, along with my Mother-in-law and a few other family members will be participating in the Relay for Life at Quinnipiac University. This year, we'll be remembering my Father-in-law and so many others who have been affected by this awful disease. This year, I'll be saying a prayer that the numbers on my list above do not go any higher.

But for today, tomorrow and the next, I'll be thinking of and saying prayers for my brother as we wait for test results, hoping for the best and preparing ourselves for worse. I don't feel like that preparation will really be enough... So I'll just keep thinking positive until then.

Little girl crushes

2008-02-15T10:40:00.002-05:00

While Megan was perusing her Valentine cards last evening, she came across one with the picture of a High School Musical cast member on it. She turned it towards me and said, "Mommy, look."

I asked her what his name was, to which she replied in the most dreamy voice a 5 year old could muster, "Troy". And I swear there was an audible sigh at the end of that statement.

Yep - takes me back to the days of hanging posters on my bedrooms walls with pictures of Ralph Macchio, Corey Haim and Kirk Cameron on them. Could I have picked a geekier group of boys to worship?!

Happy Valentine's Day

2008-02-14T13:15:00.005-05:00

******************SEE UPDATE AT BOTTOM*******************

This year marks the 10th Valentine's Day that Bill and I have celebrated together. We've never been the type to go overboard on the celebrations for this Halmark created holiday but we certainly never let the day go by unnoticed. And today I want to tell him how much I appreciate this.

Our first Valentine's together, back in 1999, was spent at the Melting Pot in Nashville, TN. We followed up the romantic dinner by taking in some blues music around the corner in Printers Alley and then ended it with a horse and carriage ride around town. I also remember that weekend consisting of take-out food, chocolate covered strawberries, and dare I admit it to everyone (oh what the heck), a sexy red outfit from Victoria's Secret of course. It was romantic, our relationship was still only one month 'new', and I remember that fuzzy feeling surrounding me as though nothing and no one else existed.

After I moved to CT, over the next couple of years we went out of our way to go out for dinner at romantic restaurants or we'd stay in for wonderful cooking at home. Bill always made sure to acknowledge the day in some way, shape or form. Even if it was just with a pretty, unassuming bouquet of flowers that he happened to pick up at Stop N Shop on his way home.

The kids have since become a part of our celebration and these days are spent helping them with kitty cat and Spider Man valentine cards. To add to this, while picking up heart lollipops for Megan to share with her class, Bill also made sure that each of the kids had a special card from Mom and Dad and their own little box of chocolate candies.

And yet this morning as I climbed into the car to take Matt and Robert to the sitters, I found a card hidden up on my sun visor. He once again found a quiet way to remind me that I am still his valentine.

Thank you Bill for making sure that although we both agreed long ago to not go crazy on this holiday, you never let it go by unnoticed. And most of all...thank you for loving me...every day.

**************************************UPDATE************************************

After posting this I received a call from our receptionist...regarding a delivery... I guess, considering he just blew every word out of the water up there about "unassuming bouquets and quiet reminders" I should add that he still knows how to keep me on my toes.

Today's the day - Let's go shopping ladies!!

2008-02-14T08:31:00.003-05:00

IT'S AN ONLINE PURPLE DOOR JEWELRY PARTY!

Please join me today for my Purple Door E-Party for beautiful AFFORDABLE jewelry.

All that you need to do is log on to http://www.mypurpledoor.com/ and start shopping. Upon checking out, put my name (Lisa Baker) in the field that says: "Referred By/E-Party Hostess".

Each guest who orders $25.00 or more will receive a FREE pair of glass pearl earrings! And better yet...because today is Valentine's day, you can take advantage of The Purple Door's Valentine special of $5.00 off a purchase of $20.00 or more by putting the coupon code PDVAL08 in at checkout. AND (yes, there's more...can you believe it?) all orders of $50.00 or more will receive free shipping!

The Purple Door is a jewelry and accessories company offering fabulous, fun and AFFORDABLE jewelry and accessories.
Natural gemstones, Authentic austrian crystals, semi-precious stones, freshwater pearls, sterling silver, kids jewelry...there is something for just about everyone.
Best of all, nothing is more than $50.00 and most items are $30.00 or less. Really!

So log on to http://www.mypurpledoor.com/ and have fun shopping at your convenience.
Beautiful jewelry...fabulous prices... I hope you'll join me for some shopping fun!!!

My Purple Door E-Party:
http://www.mypurpledoor.com/

HOSTED BY: Lisa Baker

DATE: Thursday, February 14th (Valentine's Day)

The Purple Door
Where Girlfriends Love To Shop!
http://www.mypurpledoor.com/

It's an E-Party! Let's go shopping!

2008-02-13T15:17:00.000-05:00

Browse now - but get ready to shop tomorrow! I'll include discount and code info in tomorrow's post:

YOU ARE INVITED TO A PURPLE DOOR JEWELRY PARTY!
AND IT'S ONLINE!
(Invite a friend!)

Please join me for my Purple Door E-Party for beautiful AFFORDABLE jewelry.
And you can stay in your pajamas if you want to~does it get much better than that?!

The Purple Door is a jewelry and accessories company offering fabulous, fun and AFFORDABLE jewelry and accessories.
Natural gemstones, Authentic austrian crystals, semi-precious stones, freshwater pearls, sterling silver, kids jewelry...there is something for just about everyone.
Best of all, nothing is more than $50.00 and most items are $30.00 or less. Really!

The party is tomorrow, Thursday, February 14th (Valentine's Day).
So log on to http://www.mypurpledoor.com/ and get ready to have fun shopping at your convenience.
Beautiful jewelry...fabulous prices... I hope you can join me for some shopping fun!!!

My Purple Door E-Party:
http://www.mypurpledoor.com/

HOSTED BY: Lisa Baker

DATE: Thursday, February 14th (Valentine's Day)

The Purple Door
Where Girlfriends Love To Shop!http://www.mypurpledoor.com/

Growing up Matthew style

2008-02-12T13:33:00.001-05:00

I was tucking Matt into bed the other night and as I usually do, I leaned over his little body and propped myself up on my arm so we could sing our usual bedtime songs and end with fishy kisses. Matt began squirming a little and told me that his side was itching and hurting him. So I pulled his shirt up and decided that we'd put some lotion on it to help.

I grabbed the lotion out of the other room and when I came back into his bedroom he told me that Daddy had forgotten to put it on him after his shower, so we decided to load up all over instead of just that one spot. After putting the lotion on his torso and arms, I pulled his pj bottoms and underwear down to get to his legs and hiney. (Nothing worse than a dry, itchy hiney!) Matt was holding his shirt up and watching me apply the lotion when he informed me that his pee-pee was sticking out. (And just to clarify - not really "sticking out" but it was just there...and in his mind, sticking out.)

"But it doesn't stick out like Daddy's does," he says to me.

"And I don't have feavers like Daddy does eiver."

Poop, puke and so many other completely unnecessary things to discuss on a blog

2008-02-09T21:50:00.000-05:00

If there is one sure fire way to kick start your weight loss plan, it's picking up a virus from one of your kids. Unfortunately, it's bound to end sooner or later and then willpower may have to take over.

It all started last Wednesday when the babysitter called to tell me that Robert had been unable to keep his breakfast down and that 3 very messy diapers later, he had diarhea on top of that. So I left work early to bring he and Matt home to begin what is so far 4+ days of sickness.

Because I've used up all but 4 days (actually 3 now) of my vacation time for the year (which is to last me until July!!) on the kids' sick days, Bill stayed home with Robert on Thursday. 3pm rolled around and I was beginning to feel a bit under the weather myself. Long story short, my 30 minute drive home felt like the longest drive ever with me barely make it home before losing it....literally.

My evening was spent sharing a "sick bed" with Robert, trying to hold down little sips of gingerale while trying to keep Robert hydrated with Pedialyte. By 1:30am my stomach had calmed down enough that I was only dealing with the southern end of the sickness...if you catch my drift. However, Bill, who was sleeping on the couch downstairs, was just beginning his bout around that time. Fortunately for him, there was no vomitting involved, and after a round of Imodium, he was off to work. Granted, a long drawn out day at work, but he was just slightly above the functioning mark.

Friday was spent home with the boys, waiting for what seemed like an inevitable moment that Matt would start up, and hoping to see the end for Robert. So far, both have not come. In fact, both Megan and Matt have seemed to avoid disaster. (Although with my luck, it will hit them on Monday and we'll be dealing with more missed time off from work.) Although, I guess with as much puke and poop that Bill and I dealt with there was no way that the two of us were coming away healthy.

And poor Robert is still having a tough time. Although "things" have slowed down, it's still very messy and definitely not something that you can wait too long to change. In fact, as soon as it is heard, we very carefully pick him up to move him to the changing area, hoping to avoid ruining another set of clothes.

We had also tried numerous times but he wanted nothing to do with solid foods until today. He's also picked up a slight gag reflex everytime he smells the Apple flavored Pedialyte and I can only attribute it to the fact that he was still getting sick when we were constantly pushing it down his throat to keep him hydrated. So after a slow start with some rice cereal and applesauce, I think we're finally on the mend. At the very least, I'm hoping that things become a little more bound up!

And in the mean time, the house has been sanatized and the Lysol hasn't left my hand. If we can keep the sick count down to 3 out of 5, we'll be in good shape. Keep your fingers crossed...

The Great Interview Experiment...part deux

2008-02-07T10:58:00.000-05:00

The second part of the Neil's Great Interview Experiment took place with Mary Pat who interviewed me. (Poor thing!) I didn't give much thought to the process initially but when the introductions began with the pending questions looming, I began to wonder what in the world she could possibly manage to pull out of my blog that might be interview worthy.

Drum roll please!!!

Q - Blog questions! Why did you start blogging? Do you have any real life friends that blog? Do your friends and family read your blog? What does your husband think? When do you take time to blog?

A - My cousin Karen and her husband moved to Japan a little over a year and a half ago. In order to stay in touch with family and friends back here in the US, she started a blog (www.kimonokaren.blogspot.com). I started reading and then began exploring other sites and became addicted immediately. So I figured - why not give this a shot on my own in order to stay in touch with my out of state relatives. So many times I was left telling stories about the kids over and over again or intending to update the family on something happening in our lives and for one reason or another not get around to sharing it. Blogging just took care of that for me.

Although my friends and family read the blog, I get the impression that they aren't quite up to speed on the "etiquette" if you will, as the comments left behind on it are few and far between. It's obvious who understand the whole blogging thing and who doesn't.

In all honesty, I think my hubby thought that starting the blog was a little absurd (although he never said so). But now that I've been at it for a while, I know that he enjoys it and is constantly checking for updates. I've offered him the password to help out with posts but I still can't get him to take me up on that offer. Maybe if I give him free reign to post about the Red Sox or Notre Dame... Anyhow, although I have a long way to go before I'm anywhere near as good at blogging as some of my favorite reads are, I have definitely evolved over the past year. Now if I could just find more time...

Q - How did Uncle Kevin AKA Uncle Fat Kid get his name? What does he think about this nick name?

A - Ah, poor Kevin. (He's gonna strangle me for this one. He'll get over it.) Kevin has put on quite a bit of weight over the years. I'm told and from pictures that I've seen, he used to be an average sized 5'9" guy. Lot's of good food and numerous Bud Lights later...well let's just say he's not as svelte as he used to be! But he definitely has maintained his sense of humor about it all as he dubbed himself "Uncle Fat Kid" and continues to roll with it to this day.

Q - What in the heck happened with your house? It was built on a barite mine? How did you find this out? Is the barite worth anything? Does this effect the entire neighborhood?

A - Wow! I had forgotten that I had ever written about this issue. I could go on and on for quite a while on this one but I'll spare you the smaller details and will try to keep it to the point.

When my husband and bought our first house together back in 2001, although we wanted a niece sized piece of land, we really couldn't afford it. So we settled on a fantastic neighborhood, beautiful home - on a lot the size of a postage stamp.

Four years later, the housing market went through the roof and prices were almost double what they were before. We could finally afford that larger piece of land and so we went looking for our ideal home to raise the kids in. What we found was a little of 3/4 of an acre in the next town over. The house was ok, but definitely required some updating which I was looking forward to doing - starting with the kitchen and baths.

A month and half after we moved in, the Northeast was hit by some pretty severe rain storms that lasted for about a week and caused some major flood damage. We were lucky enough to have avoided any flooded but on the last day of the rain, we woke up to find a large gaping hole in our backyard that turned out to be a shaft to the barite mines. It was 10' off the back of my house, 15' in diameter and 35' deep!!!! I almost threw up the first time I approached the edge and looked down inside.

After much research we discovered that the town had mined for barite (a mineral that was used in white paint...unfortunately not worth anything today) back in the 1800's, shut down in the late 1800's but never closed the mines properly. They then proceeded to allow neighborhoods to be developed on this land.

We calculate that over 200 homes are affected by this along with some commercial property but the town of course denies having any part of it. We've tried so many different paths to get this resolved and continue to come up empty handed. So now we are caught up in a lovely little lawsuit with the town and the previous owners (who knew but still sold - no disclosure) that might not see the inside of a court room for another 2 years.

In the mean time, we've sunk $15,000 into closing the hole and are told that in order to fill the tunnels that run under our home and throughout our property, we're looking at around $500,000!!! (I don't know about anyone else's funds but that $15k blew out any thoughts of beginning renovations there and we certainly don't have access to $500k to fix the remaining issue.) And the ironic part of it all...we bought this place because of the LAND!!

Q - If you had it all over to do again would you go through the whole ear piercing thing with your daughter again? When did you get your ears pierced? How old were you? Who took you?

A - Oddly enough, although Megan gave us quite a ride that day, I would do it again in heart beat. The drama that she piles on to the every day thing can be very over the top. (Proven by the way that she cut off the dramatics less than a minute after walking out of the store after we completed ear #2.)

I on the other hand was not allowed to get my ears pierced until I was almost 16 years old. Just a silly old rule that was put into effect for my older sisters that still remained when it was my turn. I remember the year that I was finally permitted to get them pierced...one of my sisters was getting married that October (1990 to be exact!) and I begged and pleaded with my parents to let me get them pierced so I could wear real earrings for the wedding and not the crazy clip ons. They of course refused. However, just two months later, my Mom surprised me on a trip to the mall by telling me I was getting an early Christmas present and had them done then. What difference the extra two months made is beyond me.

Q - Have you noticed anything regarding Robert only having one kidney? Is he just as crazy as the other kids?

A - We found out that Robert had only one kidney during a routine ultrasound at my OBGYN office. We then began monthly visits to Yale so that they could monitor the development and begin testing for any other potential issues. Apparently having one kidney can be completely normal and even hereditary. Or it can be just one of numerous indications that there is something much more complex happening to the developing child. Although we don't know for sure if it's hereditary (I have both of my kidneys but my hubby hasn't been tested) it was determined that there were no underlying issues and the remaining kidney is fully functioning. And on the day that he was born, within two minutes, he had urinated twice - one time drenching the nurse.

Although we had been told prior to his birth that everything was fine, after seeing firsthand that everything was in working order, I think I finally released the breath that I had been unaware I was holding for the last few months.

There are no outward signs of the issue and in all actuality, he's an enormous child. Off the charts in fact. So it's not like it has affected his growth or eating in any way. His personality is not quite as nutty as the older kids and so far he seems very laid back and calm. He's still young though and I'm sure he'll be picking up some good stuff from Matt as he gets older and they begin playing together more often. So anything could change!!

Q - You have an entire week without family responsibilities. What do you do? Where do you go? Who do you take with you? (husband not allowed)

A - Hhhhmmm...no family, no husband...no worries, right? I would take my Mom and 3 sisters someplace warm. Someplace where we could just sit our rear ends on the beach, drink some fruity cocktails and let the sun soak into our bodies. And I'm not particular - it can be any beach. But it must be warm! (Can you tell that I'm tired of winter already?)

Q - You have won the lottery. It's an obscene amount of money. You have paid off all your debt, your families debt and secured trusts for your children and grandchildren. You still have a boatload of money left over? What do you do with it to indulge yourself?

A - The first thing I would do is get the F*%K out of the mine pit that we call home today. We've talked about moving south so we'd probably head to the Carolina's somewhere. I'd then take the entire family, mine and my husbands, on a vacation. Nothing over the top. In fact maybe we'd start out with Disney, for the kids who have never been, then head off to a mutually agreed upon spot that we would all enjoy. We'd probably head back to reality for a few months but then I'd make sure that my husband and I were able to take our dream vacation to Tahiti, Bora Bora, Morea and what the heck - we'd head to Fiji too. I'd also make sure that we were able to pick a vacation spot every year that would be traveled to with our kids and another every year for just he and I.

Beyond my grand vacation and home buying plans, as long as everything else was taken care of financially, I would just want to live a casual, laid back life where we could come and go however and whenever we wanted.

Q - I'm going to assume you have an iPod. If you don't then just play with me here. What is on your playlist? What are the top Lisa songs that mean something to you. Name as many as you like. Highlight one that is kind of a Lisa theme song.

A - My playlist depends on my mood. I can listen to any kind of music - except rap. I'm currently stuck on Michael Buble, some random jazz music and the soundtrack to A Lot Like Love. But that could change next month when I get into a country music kick. (Although that never lasts too long - just enough to get a fix.)

Anything can trigger the change; the mood I'm in, the weather that day, an upcoming concert that I'm anticipating going to (went through that phase with Billy Joel and Rod Stewart). I have a habit of playing my favorites over and over to the point where I still love them but can't stand listening to them anymore and have to take a much needed break.

Theme song? I've never really thought about that before. And the more I think of it now, I keep going back to the little ditty that Jack Black creates in the movie The Holiday for the Arthur Abbott character. Now I can't think of anything else except the piano music and the old man scaling the stairs at the end of the movie.

A - Do you read other people's blogs? If so what is your favorite blog?

Q - Like I said above, I've become addicted to blogs. My first real addiction was Amalah, which lead to MamaPop. From those spots I've expanded to: Silly Little Girl, All & Sundry, Not That You Asked, Whoorl, The Shape of a Mother and most recently, Autismville (over on Parents.com). I peruse others sporadically but I try to not get into them too much or my day would be spent reading blogs instead of working!

Q - What question were you hoping that I would ask that I didn't? Ask and answer please!

A - I can't say that I was anticipating anything in particular and in fact was wondering how anyone would be able to pull anything interesting out of my blog to ask about. However, you've asked some great questions and I've had a lot of fun answering them!

But if I have to add on here, how about blogging pet peeves? My two biggest pet peeves would be cyber trolls. It irritates me to no end how someone feels that they have to post negative comments and/or attack a blogger. It eats me up even further when it then turns into an attack on fellow commenters who defend the blogger or when it just continually gets hashed out over and over. Let's all stop feeding the troller egos and simply delete their inappropriate comments!

The second pet peeve would be lurkers. If you're kind enough to read the blog - leave an occasional comment. It gets a little lonely out here without knowing if anyone else is living on (or should I say visiting) the same island!!

So there you go. Perhaps this information won't spawn an entirely new group of people to begin cyber stalking me (as Bill likes to say) but for those of you who read me...I hope it was worth the few minutes out of your day!

Citizen of the Month's Great Interview Experiment

2008-02-06T17:30:00.000-05:00

Neil Kramer, a writer from Los Angeles, came up with a nifty little idea that blossomed into a 359 (and counting) person interview experience. Take a looksie, sign up, or just read all of the interviews that have taken place so far.

This is a two part process in which you are interviewed by the person above you and then in turn you interview the person listed below you. I started out by interviewing Jeni Allen from TN. And while it was determined that I'll never be the next Barbara Walters, it was fun and fortunately my questions were sent during the height of the tornado invasion down south so I inadverdently helped take Jeni's mind off of the crazy weather around her. Here is our end result:

Q - I noticed that your blog looks relatively new, having started in September 2007. Is this your first and only blog? What got you started with blogging and inspires you to this day?

A - My current blog (Allen Family Circus) is my first and only blog. I started blogging as soon as I got my own laptop and my resident engineer set up a wireless network for our house. I've always loved to write, and to read, and I love to share what's going on in my life and in my head. My inspiration is primarily born of a desire for connection; SAHMs can feel pretty isolated, but I've found there are lots of us out there!

Q - James is quite obviously one of the loves of your life. Tell me what your first impression was of James when you first met.

A - Well, I thought he was nice enough, but kind of goofy. I don't remember our actual first meeting, but he does - he tells me his first thought was, "Jeff has a sister?" I think I didn't pay too much attention to him when we first met, because my best friend was interested in him. Then he asked me out and I started paying more attention. :-) And now, eleven years after that first date, I still think he's goofy, and I love it.

Q - Wendy would be love number 2 (not in order of preference but rather chronological!) - How did you break the news to James when you found out that you were expecting.

A - I'm pretty sure I just got his attention and showed him the test. He said, "Hmph." (I call that his "James noise." It's his initial response to almost everything.) We were both a little shocked - it was an intentional pregnancy, but we didn't think it would happen that quickly. James did not get as excited as I hoped, but in hindsight I see that it was the responsibility of having a baby that was tempering his enthusiasm. And now, to see him roll on the floor with a giggling Wendy, you'd think he had jumped up and down and yelled when he found out she was on the way.

Q - You've put in the time and effort to become a doctor/vet and in your own words have said that it was probably not the best choice for you. If you could do it all over again, what career path would you have pursued and do you still think that you would be a SAHM if you had followed that ambition?

A - If I had it to do over again, I would have stuck with either biology research or teaching. It would have saved about $100,000 in student loans, 6 years of intense stress, and quite a bit of strain on our marriage. I'm pretty sure I would be a SAHM in any case, but if I had chosen the other career path, we'd probably have at least 2 children now, instead of just Wendy. This decision is one that haunts me with what-ifs. Then I remember that if things HAD gone differently, Wendy would not be Wendy - so maybe things worked out for the best after all.

Q - Now that you're a SAHM, what is the most difficult thing for you to deal with that you never would have anticipated?

A - I've been surprised how lonely I feel sometimes. Because we moved right before Wendy was born, there wasn't time to form friendships before the busy-ness of having a newborn isolated us. My family lives in town, and that's great, but my heart aches for friends my age, especially those left behind in Columbia and Jefferson City, Missouri.

Q - From what I can read, you live in the Nashville area (I lived there too for a while, and that's where I met my hubby!). What's your favorite thing to do with the family around town.

A - Well, I'm embarrased to say that we've never done anything in Nashville. We've been here for a year and a half and haven't done a single, solitary thing, other than having Wendy at Vanderbilt. We live just far enough out of town for it to be kind of an excursion, and we just haven't taken the time. I would like to tour the Gaylord Opryland Hotel, go to the Zoo, and see what free stuff we can experience this summer. Really, even though we enjoy art, and music, and theater, we're homebodies.

Q - If there were no barriers and the sky was the limit (in terms of time, money, etc), what changes, if any, would you make in your life?

A - Wow...well, I would definitely pay off our debt, sell this house, and buy one that fits our lives better - you know, a house with closets. I would want to take James and Wendy my two favorite places I've lived, Anchorage, Alaska, and London, England. I would want to arrange things so that James had more leisure time. I'd go visit all of my friends several times a year, and have them visit me, too. And I might set some money aside for a mommy makeover after our family is complete. :-)

Q - And maybe this is too personal, so if you'd rather skip this one, feel free. Are you planning on expanding your family? What is your "ideal" family size?

A - I have always visualized our family with four children. Even as I type that it sounds crazy, since I have so much trouble keeping up with one. But four seems right. They may not all be our biological children; we talked about adoption years before we knew there might be a medical limit to my childbearing. To be surrounded by children, and later, hopefully, grandchildren, is one of my dreams - and to be old and alone, with no family, is one of my nightmares. We'll just have to see what the years bring.

Tune in tomorrow to read my interview given by Mary Pat!!

One Year

2008-02-05T23:11:00.000-05:00

February 6, 2008 marks the one year anniversary since Bob passed away. A lot has happened this past year and not a day goes by that something doesn't remind us of why we loved him so much and just how much he is and will continue to be missed like crazy.

Robert resembles Bob from the wispy hairs on his head, to the similar baby pictures from Bob's childhood, down to the little chubby crooked pinky finger.

Matt not only talks about him constantly but continues to act like Grandpa in his carefree, crazy antics.

Every trip to Hamden is a reason for Megan to mention the trips to the convenience store where Grandpa would buy his hard rolls and a treat for her during the time he used to babysit for us.

And those same trips to Hamden always include a drive past the cemetery where he is buried and is cause for a chorus of "Hi Grandpa, hi Mimi, hi Grimpie! We love you and miss you!" to come from the back of the car from both kids. (And most recently, Matt has added a greeting to God in that grouping.)

Everyone in the family has dealt with this loss in different ways. Some moved past that moment in a steady gradual movement and others are continuing to struggle every day, looking for that happy or at least calm place in their lives again. But no matter how we've managed to move on or how far past the sadness we've pulled ourselves, his memories continue to stay with us.

Bob was always willing to lend a helping hand, and the way that he loved his family, his grandkids, the Red Sox and Notre Dame, can not be compared. He may not have been a perfect man or lived a perfect life, but he was about as passionate as they come. If he were here to tell you himself, I'm sure that he would agree that although he wasn't quite done, he managed to live a full life. And I thank my lucky stars every day that he was a part of mine.

Bowling - The New Contact Sport

2008-02-04T13:03:00.001-05:00

We decided to take the kids bowling on Saturday to introduce a little something new in their lives. (And break up the monotony of our typical Saturday morning.) We went to a place right around the corner from the house that only offers duck pin bowling, which we figured would be perfect for the kids. Smaller balls + bumper lanes = easy handling and guaranteed scoring!

Before we even left the house, Megan started in with her typical, "I don't want to bowl" excuses and I figured we were doomed before we'd even begun. However, once she walked through the door her tune changed and surprisingly enough she was quite enthusiastic about it the entire time. (Perhaps the idea that she was able to wear new shoes helped the matter.)

Matt started us out, being that he is the youngest, and although he was coached by Daddy prior to rolling his first ball down the lane, he immediately adopted a style unique to himself. A little turn here and a little spin on your release and you too can be a duck pin master like Matt!

Megan stuck with the tried and proven technique of rolling between the legs but quickly proved herself to be as good a bowler as her Mommy. (Which is to say that we both stunk at this!) We both seemed to have decent enough techniques but there was something happening on our release that left us bouncing off of the bumpers. (Thank God for those bumpers!)

After a LONG and drawn out 10 frames we managed to make it through the game with only 3 melt downs. One was from Megan when she decided to hold onto the waiting balls while a return ball came barrelling up the shoot, smashing her fingers in between. (Even though we had told them both countless times to "get your fingers out of there!!") And twice from Matt. Once when an old crotchety man who evidently proclaimed himself the evil, duck pin, child terrorizer decided to yell at Matt for investigating the spot where the balls came out. And the second time when Megan smashed her finger and Matt arbitrarily decided to join his tears with hers.

Final scores? I don't remember exactly but I am a big enough person to admit that Matt beat me. Hey, back off! I still managed to kick Megan's butt!

Everything AND the kitchen sink

2008-01-28T13:08:00.000-05:00

It's been a long couple of weeks, making the most boring part of winter feel even longer, darker and colder than usual. And although February is right around the corner, with the corner being this Friday, I sometimes feel like the months of January, February and March will go on and on forever.

We began the year with an emergency trip to the hospital which turned into an overnight stay. Along with an ear infection and bronchiolitis, Robert managed to pick up RSV and the next 10 days were filled with steroids, antibiotics and breathing treatments. Although I began to honestly believe that I would never see him as a healthy, happy, smiling child again, we actually reached the light at the end of the tunnel and this is what we ended up with:

Of course, that lasted for all of a week and half and we are now back to snot encrusted noses, difficulty sleeping at night due to some major stuffiness and a lot of whine. (Not the good kind of wine...) Oh my, the whine that comes out of this child. I don't know if non-stop crying would be
easier to listen to but when you're stuck with this noise - well it's just far too difficult to describe.

See the shine above that paci? The return of the SNOT!!

On Friday, I walked into the school extension program and found Megan with a bright pink cheek and nice little ding under her left eye. One of the boys was throwing something in the trash and evidently Megan's face happened to get in the way. She says he was throwing out some pasta but I've never known rotini's to be quite so dangerous before. So who knows what the real story is...none-the-less, she ended up with her first black eye.

Kind of difficult to see in this picture but honest, Ronzoni left his mark

And then there's Matt...always Matt. The kid who is forever entertaining us with his crazy and sometimes questionable antics. Here he is sitting in Robert's Bumbo chair and looking like he'll prove us right after all about riding on the short bus someday!

Lounge lizards

Loose teeth and boyfriends

2008-01-16T10:42:00.000-05:00

Megan lost her first tooth a little over a week ago at Grandma's house and no one even knew it was loose to begin with. Apparently she was eating a lollipop at the time which got stuck on her teeth and as she was prying it loose discovered a missing tooth. She stuck out her tongue to show Grandma and there it was. Sitting right on the tip of her tongue.

Amazingly, our drama queen handled this with flying colors and is now the proud owner of not only one little gap in her bottom front teeth but also, as of last evening, a second loose tooth right beside that one. She has been wiggling it like crazy in anticipation of another visit from the tooth fairy.

She also proceeded to tell me last evening that she has a boyfriend. Ricky, is his name and she says that she likes him because they went to pre-k together, they talk all the time and because he wears a cute hat. (All very legitimate reasons to have a boyfriend these days.)

In trying to understand how my little kindergartener thinks when it comes to this little boy, I inquired about how they "became" boyfriend and girlfriend. She said that while talking to him yesterday he said to her that she was his girlfriend. So I asked how she responded and she replied, "I said, well I guess that means you're my boyfriend then."

So there you have it. Nice and easy. No passing notes like we used to do in elementary school stating, "I like you. Do you like me? Will you go with me? Yes or No. Please circle one." (And by the way, where did the phrase "go with me" or "going out" come from? Where did we think we were "going" back then? To the lunch room? Maybe to the playground?)

Oh, and about that cute hat that Ricky evidently sports to school every day...it's brown and white with a little brim on the front like a baseball cap, but it's not a baseball cap, it's a different kind of hat. And it's cute, as in cool cute, not baby cute, so let's just make that clear right now.

Second Skin

2008-01-10T11:08:00.000-05:00

-From A Second Chicken Soup for the Woman's Soul

My favorite pair of old jeans will never fit me again. I have finally accepted this immutable truth. After nurturing and giving birth to two babies, my body has undergone a metamorphosis. I may have returned to my pre-baby weight, but subtle shifts and expansions have taken place – my own version of continental drift. But that’s okay, because while the jeans no longer button, the life I exchanged for them fits better than they ever did.

For me, this is a barefoot, shorts and T-shirt time of life. I have slipped so easily into young motherhood; it is the most comfortable role that I have ever worn.

I love the feel of this baby on my hip, his soft head a perfect fit under my chin, his tiny hands spayed out like small pink starfish against my arms. I love the way my 8-year-old daughter walks alongside us. On gorgeous spring days, the breeze lifts her wispy ponytail, and we laugh at the way the sunshine makes the baby sniff and squint.

I am constantly reaching out to touch them, the way a seamstress would two lengths of perfect silk, envisioning what might be made from them, yet hesitant to alter them, to lose the weight of the wholeness in my hands.

On those rare mornings when I wake up before they do, I go into their rooms and watch them sleeping, their faces creased and rosy. Finally, they squirm and stretch themselves awake, reaching out for a hug. I gather them up, bury my face in them and breathe deeply. They are like towels just pulled from the dryer, rumbled warm and cottony.

My children curl around me on the sofa in the evening, often falling asleep, limbs limp and soft against me like the folds of a well-worn nightgown. For now, we still adorn each other, and they are content to be clothed in my embrace. I know there will be times that will wear like scratchy wool sweaters and four-inch heels. We will have to try on new looks together, tugging and scrunching, trying to keep the basic fabric intact. By then, we will have woven a complicated tapestry with its own peculiar pattern, its snags and pulls and tears.

But I will not forget this time, of drowsy heads against my shoulder, of footy pajamas and mother-daughter dresses, of small hands clasped in mine. This time fits me. I plan to wear it well.

Little version of Daddy...

2007-12-28T14:24:00.000-05:00

I am determined to get a better picture of this little guy. It seems that every photo I take he either has a very determined, puckered lip look or this sad little look of disinterest. But let me tell you, when he sees his Daddy, his face literally lights up. (The only time I can get him to give me a smile remotely close to that is when I'm tickling him and even then it's hit or miss.)

And while his shirt says he's a "little version of daddy" it's mostly that I'm told his current size is the equivalent of Daddy's when he was a baby. However, this child is the spitting image of his grandpa Bob as a baby. Boy do we miss him!

Update - new and improved - now with pictures and of course some ramblings too

2007-12-27T10:23:00.000-05:00

I've obviously neglected my duties here in order to keep you informed of our travels along with gratuitous pictures of kids. So consider this my "month of December update".

We started the month out at the annual Yacht Club Christmas Party during which pictures were taken of the kids on Santa's lap. But they really weren't very good so, sorry, no pics of this event. (Honest, there really were pictures taken. I had neglected to charge my camera and even went as far as to borrow the MIL's camera for just this purpose.) Anyhow, Megan and Matt both got to sit on Santa's lap and Robert would have too had he not fallen asleep in my arms. But all three kids came away with some great gifts and had a fun afternoon.

The following weekend, we had a little "freak" snow storm that no one seemed to know about. It began around 3:30 in the afternoon and by the time I left work at 4:30pm, it had created a nice mess. Unfortunately, that mess led to an accident in which I managed to total the Pacifica. And somehow, although I was the third accident in a line of six on that steep hill, I was the only vehicle that was not able to drive away. It made for a long evening, hanging out at a stranger's home (very nice strangers, by the way), waiting for the police to show up and then the tow truck. Which of course Matt was ecstatic about because he got to see "Mater". (The tow truck from the movie Cars.)

Bill swears that I did this just so I could get a new car. I'll have you know that while I'll freely admit that I'm crazy, I'm not stupid and I would never put my kids in harms way on purpose, like we ended up in that evening. I'm sure it will be a long time before he let's me live this down but at least I've blown that theory out of the water. Let's move on, shall we?

For the next two weeks, as if we didn't have enough on our plates already with Robert's Christening and Christmas coming up, we began our hunt for a new car. We settled on a 2005 Honday Odyssey, which I have to admit, I absolutely love. Not only does it ride nice but the storage in this car is just unbelievable! The kids get in/out easily on their own, no more climbing over center consoles or struggling to put seats down so someone can get into the third row. I'm looking forward to our first trip to BJ's in it so I can prove to Bill just how much more room it has for all that bulk shopping we do!

(I just re-read that paragraph and it still amazes me just how much my life has changed that I am actually excited over a mini-van, storage and bulk shopping. Who would have thought?!) (And yes, that is my car in that picture.)

The weekend of December 15th rolled around which was the weekend that we planned to have Robert baptized. Of course a double snow storm was predicted and before the weekend ever rolled around we were scrambling to come up with alternate arrangements for God Parents. As it turned out, only Mom and Dad were in attendance as they were able to make the trip up from PA in between the storms. So while Dad stood as a proxy for the God Father, my MIL stood in for the God Mother.

We joked that if we had waited any longer to have him baptized that he would have been able to walk up and dunk his own head into the water. In reality, he really was the biggest baby there, among a sea of teeny-tiny 3 month olds. Oh well, the sacrament was received without a hitch, and then there was plenty of food back at the house to last us for the next few days due to the low guest attendance rate.

What was that? You want to see pictures of this event too? Yeah...ummmm...still didn't charge my camera.

But my MIL had her camera with her! Of course, she was standing in as a proxy so that meant she couldn't very well take pictures at the same time.

But my Mom was there and had no other duties to perform!! So she took pictures!! Did I mention that she's electronically challenged? No? Well, she is. I also think that she has an undiagnosed electronics phobia. Yes, she's petrified to use strange computers, cameras, DVD and CD players...and the list goes on. This phobia also renders her incapable of utilizing the common sense gene for actions like holding a camera still while snapping pictures. So while she did attempt to take some photos, only one came out (one that I took by the way) as all of the others appeared to have been taken by someone who had a bad case of the caffeine shakes. So when I get around to scanning that one itty bitty, beautiful picture, I promise I'll share it with you. Until then...you're out of luck.

Now, while my parents were in town, we were successful at something and that was building a gingerbread house. Mom patiently helped Megan and Matt, well mostly Megan, but occassionally Matt, decorate a pre-fabricated gingerbread house. (What? Did you think I actually had the time to bake these individual pieces? HA! Nice one!) But guess what? I managed to get pictures of it too! Never mind that they were taken a week later when I finally remember to charge the camera. They were taken just in the knick of time too as the two little devils in the picture were just itching to tear that thing apart. Which they promptly did as soon as I gave them the ok.

So this brings us up to Christmas. I end this post with more pictures and just a quick blurb that Christmas was a huge success. The kids are at such a fantastic age right now that I'm just having a good time watching them 'believe' in the magic. Oh, and their favorite gifts were their Leapsters which I honestly believe have been surgically implanted to their hands.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!!

Robert, looking like he's being squished and is about to lose his breakfast...

Chillin' next to his Lightening McQueen CD player - KACHOW!

See? Surgically implanted Leapsters.

Don't be messin' with the exersaucer!

More Bitty Baby clothes (as if she needs more)

Yes, every picture must have the "cheese" or "mouth open wide" pose

Posing with her new big girl bedroom set

And here's the "open wide" pose

Too busy to post

2007-12-06T12:13:00.000-05:00

I promise to have some pictures to share but I'm way behind these days. Between preparing for the holidays, Robert's Christening (12/16), and everyday life, I'm finding it hard to accomplish much of anything. But here's something for you to think about until I get around to coming up with something better:

Matt, to me, on the way home last night: Mommy, how old is God?

Me: Rrreeeeaaaallllyy old Matt. Ask your Daddy when he gets home tonight.

Bill, to Matt, later in the evening: He's 43!

(Nice try Bill.)

Giving thanks

2007-11-21T14:57:00.000-05:00

As I grow older (and hopefully wiser) I find myself becoming a little more pessimistic about things that I would never have thought twice about in the past. Since we moved to Cheshire more than two years ago and had the "pleasure" of finding out (the hard way) that our home was built on top of barite mines, I sometimes feel like the bad times just keep rolling in. As they say, "the hits just keep on coming"! Having dropped close to $15,000 into closing that sinkhole, Bill and I were no longer able to fix up the house that we had hoped would be our little dream home in which we raised our kids, made many happy memories and lived happily ever after. Or at least until the kids were off in college and Bill and I escaped to tend bar and run dive tours in Turks and Caicos.

The smarter, happier side of me has to slap that crabby side around sometimes in order to remember that, you know what? We've got it pretty darn good. Sure, we're caught up in a law suit that could take years to finalize and even then we might never see a dime. And we can't sell the house we're in order to downsize, perhaps allowing ourselves a little more financial freedom. And yep, Bill needs a new car (or at least a heating coil) because he has no heat, which of course means no defrost either, and he just trying to make it through the winter before breaking down and buying a new one. (Ask him about the lack of A/C during the summer heat with only one window that would go down and find out which scenario he enjoys most!!)

So with Thanksgiving upon us, it's time for me to express my appreciation for all the things that are right in our lives. Bill and I have our ups and downs like all couples do but we'll soon be celebrating 9 years together in January and 8 years of marriage in May. We are blessed to have four beautiful kids, three of them together. Two of them happen to think that the sun rises and sets on their big brother Bryan and I'm sure Robert will be feeling the same way too by next year. We're all healthy and we just happen to be lucky enough to be surrounded by loved ones on both sides of the family. There's always plenty of food on the table and darn it, it might be a money pit, but we still have a roof over our heads. (For the time being anyhow.) (See, there's that pesky negative side of me again.)

There are so many people out there that are less fortunate than we will ever be even during the lowest points in our lives. There are those who are no longer on this earth and for all we know there might even be some who are celebrating their last Thanksgiving with us and don't even know it yet. I am so thankful for the times that we've shared, the lasting memories that we created and the happiness that these relationships have both given and received.

May you have a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving celebration. And may you remember that without the bad times in our lives the good times wouldn't be quite as sweet.

Manners 101

2007-11-14T09:06:00.000-05:00

While Bill and I are both fully aware that our children are no saints, by a LONG shot, we've been told by some that the kids are actually pretty well behaved when we let them out of their cages to roam within view of the public eye. But we still hammer the kids on a daily basis about their manners.

Megan is pretty good about this. She remembers her please's and thank you's, covers her mouth when she sneezes and coughs, uses a napkin when eating, and is pretty good about being considerate of others. (Although she definitely has a bossy side that we are trying to tame...)

Matt is the tough one. On a good day, he'll remember to cover his mouth when he sneezes. But on an off day, when he just feels like getting under our skin, he'll quite blatantly refuse to do so. Those off days tend to occur more frequently than the on days.

Although we'll probably still be lecturing the kids about these things when they're 27, it's nice to know that some of the things we've taught them do actually sink in occassionally. However, we seldom reap the rewards of our efforts. Maybe because we are just Mom and Dad and are undeserving of routine manners in the eyes of our 5 and 3 year olds. (Oh wait - the 15 year old is pretty much the same too!) (Robert - you're off the hook on this one.) But Wendy, our babysitter, will sometimes tell me when the kids have gone out of their way to be kind.

Last year, when Megan was still going to daycare a few days every week, Wendy was telling me how demanding her kids can be. (By "her kids", I mean the kids in her care.) While the other kids were forgetting or neglecting to use any manners, she informed me that it was refreshing to hear Megan politely ask for things that she wanted.

Because Megan was standing there when she told me this, I used that opportunity to prove our point to her about how nice manners can be, how good it made the other person feel and how manners will get you so much further in life. And she gets it. That's just how Megan is. I just have to remember to not take that for granted with her.

Matthew, being the terror that he is, has us believing that he is the exact opposite of his sister. Well Wendy has once again proven to us that we must be doing something right. She told me the other day that she had walked into the room with kids everywhere and commented about having no place to sit. Matt proceeded to jump off of his chair and said, "Here Wendy. You can have my seat." She said it brought tears to her eyes and as she told me the story, I could feel the same thing happening to me. I've always called him my little man and when he does things like this, it gives me glimpses into the wonderful man that he will grow up to be.

Robert, you've got a lot to live up to baby boy! But lucky you, we'll be hounding you about these pesky manners just as hard!

He's far too quick, this kid

2007-11-01T15:07:00.001-05:00

There's a new Nationwide Insurance commercial on the radio these days. Well, to be honest I'm not exactly sure how new it is, maybe it's just new to me. It starts out with a guy and girl in their car, driving down the road and he's commenting about how great her hair smells and ends in an accident. Of course everything in the middle is absolutely the type of meaningless, childish humor that I get a kick out of. And as it turns out, so does Matt. (Hence the aforementioned childish...)

On our ride home the other evening, the commercial came on and the rest unfolded something like this: (And remember, I'm paraphrasing here...)

"Mmmm...you're hair smells great! I love the smell of lemons."

"Thanks! It's my new shampoo called Scentalicious. It changes scents every three seconds."

"Mmmmm...now it smells like cherries!"

...giggle, giggle from the girl voice

...and now I notice in my rear view mirror that Matt has a goofy grin on his face as he's listening to this.

"Mmmmm...now it smells like....OH DISGUSTING! IT SMELLS LIKE COW SH...!"

"LOOK OUT!"

Honking horn, screech, crash, bang (sounds of auto accident)

And as the commercial wraps up with the Nationwide Insurance Info on accident forgiveness, Matt shouts out, "COW POOP! HE WAS GOING TO SAY COW POOP MOMMY!" All while laughing hysterically.

Happy Halloween!

2007-11-01T09:02:00.000-05:00

Another successful Halloween has come and gone with tons of loot left over at the house as evidence. (Note to self: any candy still remaining next year will be placed in plastic eggs for Easter baskets just like last year.)

The kids had a blast and no one complained about being tired at house #5 this year. In fact, the only one who was exhausted was Robert who promptly passed out on Daddy's shoulder at the very last house. What a trooper! (Ok, props to Dad who carried him all night! How's the back this morning Bill?)

This year, because the kids all went dressed as 3 of Bill's favorite sports teams, we made Daddy dress up as the referee as well. He added the hockey helmet since he was carrying the Bruins player around the neighborhood.

Matt cleaned out each house, either because he quickly got back in to double-dip before we could catch him or because he was told to take more candy due to the Red Sox costume.

So it was a lot of fun and the kids loved their costumes, but I have to admit that I'm a little disappointed. It's just so much more fun to paste the pictures everywhere showing Bill in a kooky costume with the kids. This year was pretty tame...but I always have the year of Winnie-the-Pooh to hold me over!

Ole!

2007-10-30T10:11:00.000-05:00

Early Halloween celebrations? Nope. Just a stop off at our favorite Mexican restaurant. Which leads me to my rant today.

While waiting for our waitress, we were teaching Megan how to say various foods in spanish...papas fritas (french fries), hamburguesa con queso (cheese burger), cerveza (beer), you know, the basics. When our waitress showed up we innocently asked her what the spanish word for pumpkin was as Megan had told us that she learned it in spanish class that day but couldn't remember it. (I, on the other hand, had seven years of spanish in high school and I don't think that's a word that I ever learned.) (It's calabaza, by the way.) Of course Megan had to count to 10 for her as well. (She'll sing it for you too.)

The waitress proceeded to tell us that she too has a daughter in kindergarten and that she had to enroll her daughter in english classes. You see, she has never spoken to her in english and upon entering school her daughter couldn't say or recognize a single word.

Maybe I shouldn't have been, but I was taken back by that. Here we are, proud of Megan for learning another language and yet this woman, who lives in the US, sends her daughter to an english speaking school, couldn't be bothered to teach her child a single english word?

See, when we found out that Megan would have spanish class every Friday in school, I was happy about this. Bill on the other hand? Not so much. I look at it as a good thing. Everyone should know a different language and in fact, I wish that I had retained more and used what I learned in those seven years more frequently.

But the conversation we had with our waitress simply reiterrated Bill's point and irritation about this subject. We're completely behind a parent's wish to ensure that their child can speak their native language and of course they would want to maintain their family's culture as well. But you live in the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. Where we speak ENGLISH!! If you are going to live in this country, learn the language and use it!! Then go home and speak spanish, french, german, italian, yiddish, whatever, to your little heart's content. And don't ask me on a phone call to press 1 for english or 2 for spanish...just continue speaking in english and give the option for an alternate language. I shouldn't have to choose!

Maybe I'm being a bit too regressive on this issue. I look at other countries where english is splattered all over the place, on products and in public places, and think nothing of it. Am I being a hypocrite? Perhaps.

To top it all off, this woman was quite fluent and spoke with barely a hint of an accent. So I assumed that she was sharing this story with us because perhaps she had a tinge of regret for speaking to her daughter solely in spanish for the past 5+ years. Perhaps she now saw how maybe some english (and I'm being generous by saying "some") would have been a good thing to help ease her transition into kindergarten...in an english speaking school... After she told me how her daughter was progressing and that she had begun to pick up the language fairly quickly, I asked her if she now spoke to her in english a little more often to help out with the learning curve. Her response was, "no", with a big, content smile on her face.

And we wonder why spanish is predicted to become the predominent language spoken in our country...

**UPDATE** Yes, I know that there are not 7 years in H.S. No, I did not fail math during that time frame either. I had 1 year of spanish in elementary school and then another 6 beginning in 7th grade. I was just too lazy at the time of the post to clarify this so I lumped it all together. Next time I will not be so general with my information in order to keep everyone informed properly. (By everyone, I mean BILL.)

Blackmail

2007-10-29T13:30:00.000-05:00

Call it what you want - say what you will. Honest to God, I had kids so that I could torture them some day the same way I was tortured growing up.

Don't feel sorry for them. I endured weeks of nausea, 27 months of incubating them, hours of NATURAL childbirth and the pain of squeezing those 3 melon heads out of my cooch. (I'm quite eloquent with words, aren't I?) This was followed up by months - years it seems - of sleepless nights, crying, talking back, snotty noses and temper tantrums. And, yes, I'm fully aware that the best is yet to come. Therefore, the following is just a small example of what I will be collecting as they grow up before me.

And for those who can't see the video - here's a little glimpse of what's inside:

Yes, I truly love being a mother!

New tricks

2007-10-25T09:32:00.001-05:00

Robert is growing up so fast these days. He's laughing a little more when provoked, is much sturdier when in a sitting position and has figured out how much fun it is to jump and bounce around. Time spent in the bouncy seat is slowly being replaced by his Bumbo chair (although he only lasts in this for a few minutes before growing bored) and his "jumpy" thing-a-ma-bob. I have no idea what this thing is called these days so I simply refer to it as "the jumpy". He absolutely loves his jumpy and can be found hanging, jumping and twirling from the doorway at any given time.

This is the lovely stationary stage, which will be replaced all too soon by the mobile, won't sit still, can't keep up with him and can't get anything accomplished around the house, stage.

Summer weather - Fall fun

2007-10-24T07:46:00.000-05:00

We took the kids on an impromptu trip to Lyman Orchards over the weekend. This was my first trip there and I was pretty impressed with the corn maze that they created. In fact, they had copies of the mazes over the past few years and I never realized just how extensive the designs were. This years theme was spider man:

Bill helped them find their way through the maze while I sat in the shade with a sleeping wee-one. (I guess I need to stop calling him that - he's not so "wee" anymore.) From there we wandered over to the hay ride. Although now that I think about it, there was no hay, so I guess, technically, it was just a horse and wagon ride. After that we picked out the perfect pumpkin for carving. Here are the pics from our day.

Hanging out by the duck pond

Entering the lazy man's pumpkin picking patch-heck with wandering a field, just pick from the pile!

The end result

...and Chunky Monkey

2007-10-15T10:26:00.000-05:00

Robert went in for his 4 month check-up and our little chunker weighed in at 18lbs 8 3/4 oz!! (26" long). We're just about ready to ship him to his cousin Karen in Japan!

"Hey Karen. Can you get Robert to his Sumo training class on time for us?"

Not only is he outgrowing his clothes but he's also outgrowing the 'oversized' kitchen sink!

Notice the strategically placed bubbles

Chug Monkey

2007-10-11T11:01:00.001-05:00

While eating out Friday night, Matt asked if he could play a video game when he was done. We of course agreed as this pretty much guaranteed a speedy inhalation of his food. So when he finished his PB&J, Bill dropped some money into the machine for Matt to play away.

Sounds innocent enough, right? HA! You must have forgotten who the parents are of this child!

Matt could be found bellied up to the bar, playing a rousing game of Chug Monkey. The object of the game was to have your monkey catch the mug of beer as it came sliding down the bar and chug it before catching the next one. The more you caught, the drunker your monkey became. Obviously this meant that after a few successful catches and chugs the more difficult it became to catch those brewskies! Occassionally the monkey would slide right off of his bar stool and onto what I'm sure must have been a beer covered and peanut strewn floor. He was a trooper though, that monkey. Because he would crawl right back up onto the stool and continue on.

(Reminds me of a few people I've partied with in the past!)

Driving 3 year old

2007-10-04T14:55:00.000-05:00

Conversation between Matt and Daddy yesterday in the car:

flick, flick, flick

"Matt, don't play with the window controls."

"Because if I put the window down, it won't come back up, right Daddy?" (BMW on it's last legs - or windows, right now.)

"Right buddy."

"And if I pull on this handle, the door will open and I will fly out."

"That's right Matt. Don't play with that either."

"And if you pull on your handle, you will fly out the door. But then I will climb up front and drive."

The kid is always thinking...

Baby blue eyes

2007-10-04T08:07:00.000-05:00

...teaser continued...

Check out those little blue peepers!

Sneak preview

2007-10-03T08:38:00.000-05:00

Because you've harrassed me unmercifully about pictures, I broke down and gave in last night. (No, I'm not mentioning any names. cough Aunt Alicia cough) I delayed this poor child's bath and bottle in order to charge my camera and give you what you want. (Do you feel guilty yet?)

And then I thought...why give in so easily? Make her wait for it! No full facial shots and no complete body shots. You'll get to view him and all of his glorious chubbiness in person on Sunday. So here you go...

Peek!

Baby toes - YUM!

More rolls than an italian bakery, as the saying goes (Cankles...see?)

Cankles continued...

2007-10-02T08:20:00.001-05:00

The other night Bill and I were discussing just how chunky Robert is. Bill grabbed his leg and said, "as you would say, the boy has cankles!" He moved his hand just a little further up his leg and said, "no, make that thankles."

To which I replied, "I think they're more like stankles."

(Get it?)

(Thighs + ankles = thankles)

(Stomach + ankles = stankles)

(Oh, nevermind. I found it funny but it kind of loses it's comedy when you have to explain each word.)

(sigh)

Brutal honesty

2007-09-27T14:56:00.000-05:00

I decided on a whim last week to get my hair cut short. It's been approximately 5 years since it's been this short. In fact, I believe I started growing it out again right around the time that Megan was born, so about 5 1/2 years to be exact. But I'd had enough of styling my already short bob hairstyles and so I found a kicky hair style that I don't even have to style and decided to give it a shot. It certainly helps shorten my mornings by having one less thing to do in order to make myself presentable to the public.

As I'm sitting in the chair and the hairdresser is 'styling' me up to leave, Megan walks over with a big smile on her face. She takes a quick look at the hair laying on the floor and says, "Mommy! She cut a lot off. You're hair is really short now!"

"Yes, I know," I replied. "You've never seen Mommy with short hair before. Do you like it?"

"Not so much," she says, with the same angelic smile still on her face.

Nice to know that I can rely on her to tell me what she really thinks.

Wedding

2007-09-25T12:17:00.000-05:00

We are back from a quick weekend in PA where my niece got married. (I still can't believe I'm old enough to have nieces and nephews who are getting married!) It was a very nice ceremony and the day just flew by.

Both Megan and Matt were in the wedding as the flower girl and ring bearer. Megan performed her duties beautifully. Matt, on the other hand, decided to change things up a bit and kept us all on our toes.

To start with, the wind was blowing slightly and Megan was having a tough time keeping her petals inside the basket. So Matt helped her out by chasing them around and handing them back to her. That was all wonderful and good as we walked towards where the ceremony was being held, however, once we arrived and they had to walk up the aisle, Megan's job was to scatter them for the bride. I guess Matt didn't quite understand that and thought that they were continuing to blow out of her basket. So he continued to pick them up as she scattered them and then gave a handful of them to my sister-in-law as he made his way to the front.

He had also decided the night before at the rehearsal that he really wasn't all that interested in pushing the bubble mower up the aisle. He played with it for hours around the reception hall but when it came to pushing it up front for the ceremony- it was too much trouble it seemed. So on the way back down the aisle, he handed it off to Megan and she carried it back for him. Thank goodness it was a pretty relaxed atmosphere, otherwise I would have been upset that things didn't run perfectly. Instead it provided some comic relief for everyone. Leave it to my rug rats to mix things up a little!

The girls...

The boys (groom on the far left)...

Moon over Misquamicut

2007-09-12T15:01:00.001-05:00

Proof that we are raising our kids right. Here's a photo of Matt washing his hands after going to the bathroom...

Remembering...

2007-09-12T08:07:00.000-05:00

Today Robert is officially 3 months old. He's growing like crazy and I affectionately refer to him as our "monster baby". It's amazing to me how much a child grows and changes during their first year of life. Three months ago he was a little 8lb 8oz crying, pooping, sleeping infant. Now he's somewhere around the 15lb mark (He was 14lbs 2 oz at his 2 month check-up), he smiles, coos and has begun laughing when tickled. He's now coming pretty darn close to sleeping through the night (bottle at 8:30pm - goes to sleep by 9pm and then sleeps until 5:30am) although not on a consistent basis just yet. He's eating real food now too and has been for over a month and his dinners have consisted of all the stage 1 fruits and vege's at this point. He really is a pretty content baby.

While we had thought that Matt was our last child, Robert came along as a pleasant surprise. Perhaps it was because someone up there decided to bless us with another family member while proceeding to take away another. Because of that, I don't want to take this gift for granted. I'm trying to remember every last detail, every last smell, every last facial expression.

I don't know if Robert really looks like Bob although he looks a lot like Matt when he was this age. Of course Matt looks like Bryan, who looks like Bill, who looks like his Dad... And Robert has Bob's crooked pinkie fingers although they're not as noticeable now that his fingers are so chubby. And Sandy swears that he has Bob's "turtle lips", as she likes to call them. Heck, he has a double chin just like his grandpa did.

So perhaps it's just wishful thinking but wouldn't it be nice if there really was a "transfer of souls" so to speak? Wouldn't it be nice to know that there is still a part of Bob that is with us through Robert? And when he smiles in his sleep as babies do, I'll always think that it's because Grandpa is whispering to him. It's good to know that Grandpa Bob will never truly be gone.

Cankles I understand, but hippos...??

2007-09-07T13:55:00.000-05:00

Matt has a way of saying certain words that I find pretty darn funny. And although I know I should be teaching him the correct words, so far I've refused because...well, I'm lazy for one...and with the chaos that surrounds you after having 3 children, one needs to find humor in the little things in order to get by.

One of the words is "elmos". "These are my elmos," he says referring to his elbows. And this one I understand. It's just a mispronunciation of the actual word.

But the other one is "hippos". One might think he is referring to his hips, but no, I assure you that is not it. He's actually referring to ankles. Hhhhmmmm... the only way I can rationalize it is to think about my own ankles which proceeded to disappear towards the end of each of my pregnancies and instead morph into what I affectionately referred to as cankles. (Calves + Ankles = Cankles) So perhaps he is referring to the enormous size of those cankles which were relative to the size of hippos? No? I don't know, this one has me stumped...

I'm back! But I don't have to like it!

2007-09-04T14:09:00.000-05:00

After 12 weeks on maternity leave, I have to say just how easy it was to leave the electronic world behind. At first, my guilty conscience ate at me when I wasn't checking email but I quickly got over that. And now that I'm back to work...well I can only imagine that I will have more time to check my email, update the blog, do some laundry, take a shower....oh sorry...I got a little carried away there. But in all honesty, one can accomplish more working a full-time job than you can when spending all day at home with 3 kids.

So what have we done all summer long? Take a look...

Of course, first came the introduction of Robert into our family...

Then Megan "graduated" from pre-k. The ceremony was held the day after Robert and I came home from the hospital. So I apologize for not taking more pictures of the event but let's just say that stitches and metal chairs do not make for a comfortable combination. It was all that I could do to shoot this one picture and unfortunately it's a bit blurry. Here she is accepting her "diploma"...

Along with a visit from his Aunt Chris from Tennessee, Aunt Tam and the girls also came up from PA for a visit. The kids and I also made 2 trips back to PA as well with one of those trips occuring when Robert was only 2 weeks old. He is now a seasoned traveler just like his older brother and sister. (Here are the kids playing at a playground back in PA.)

We also made a trip to Sea Isle City, NJ with some of the family. Here's Robert's first trip to the beach...

Here's Matt, learning how to boogey board. First he started on solid ground...

Then he went into the water with some help from Dad...

From there he was on his own... (and no, I was not quick enough to snap the picture of him getting slammed by another wave and coming up choking and sputtering which resulted in the end of the boogey board lessons. Why? Because I was too busy yapping at Bill for letting him go when the kid doesn't know how to swim. Let's prioritize Bill!! Eliminate the oldest child first and then move on to the younger ones!)

Walking to the lake...

The boys, playing in the ocean...

Matt was often found just staring at the water and giggling...

Exhibit AExhibit BExhibit CExhibit DPosing for Sports Illustrated, Swimsuit Edition...

Megan and Matt, sitting along the water and having fun as the waves pushed them around...

Taylor and Bill...

Zach, the funny kid...

Some good natured rivalry...

Seth...

Goofy Megan...

Mommy Taylor... best babysitter EVER!

Uncle Bill taught Matt how to pop a wheelie - here he is practicing...

Peeking out from the tent...

Uncle Dan, taking Megan on one of many bike rides...

Crazy kid...

Jocelyn...

Taylor...

Dad and Megan...

Matt in a hole...

So now the summer has come to an unofficial end with Mommy going back to work, the boys are at day care and Megan is starting Kindergarten. She's doing well (although her first morning going off to the extended day program was a little teary) and enjoys going to school. She loves to wear a uniform and thinks of herself as one of the big kids now. She also proceeded to tell me last evening while I was tucking her into bed that this year she might get a boyfriend. "Lord, help us!"

Introducing...

2007-06-19T20:29:00.000-05:00

...Robert Paul Baker... born 6/12/07 at 4:28pm
...8lbs 8oz - 20 1/4" long

Last Tuesday I woke up around 4am with some "cramping". Nothing more and since I had experienced this two weeks earlier I managed to to not get overly excited about this. Around 5am I began keeping track of them and found that they were coming on every 10-15 minutes.

At 6am, when it was time for Bill to get up for work I told him what I had been experiencing for the past 2 hours but also noted that it had been over 20 minutes since the last one had hit. He got up and showered and when he was done I still had not had any further "cramping". My initial thought was, "here we go again...false labor!" So off to work he went and back to sleep for me.

At 8am I was woken up by a nice little contraction and the sound of the kids running around downstairs. So I got up and decided to start the day. And this time the contractions, although still only slightly more painful than cramping, were coming at an even 10 minutes. Bill had already decided that he would work for a while at the office and would be home before noon unless I notified him otherwise so I gave him a call to give him the latest update. He decided to finish up what he was doing and head back home.

When Bill arrived sometime after 10am the contractions had dwindled once again. So off we all went for a few laps around the block with the hopes that it might trigger labor to begin again. Unfortunately it seemed that our attempts were futile at this point.

Around 1pm we put the kids down for naps and I snoozed off and on downstairs in the living room while whining the entire time about how this child was never going to come out and that I had no idea what I could do to alter things. And then somewhere in the midst of my complaining they began again. This time they were worth noting and so we began to keep track of them...12 minutes...10 minutes and so on.

Finally, around 2:45pm we decided to get the kids up and drop them off at our friends' in Hamden where we would also wait things out. This would put us 10 minutes from the hospital as opposed to the 30 minutes from our home.

By 3pm we were packing up the car when I noted to Bill that they were suddenly becoming much stronger and were now coming every 5 minutes. So we placed the call to the Doctor's office and we were told to come in to their office for a quick exam.

We were less than 2 miles down the road when the contractions were coming every 3 minutes and the rush began. We made alternate plans for Bill's Mom to meet us at the doctor's office and take the kids to our friends'.

When we arrived at the doctor's office and informed them the contractions were coming every 3 minutes, I was rushed in for the fastest exam ever. I was told that I was 8 centimeters dilated and fully efaced and if I left the office that minute we would still be able to make it to the hospital and that they would be calling in my arrival ahead of time.

We must have hit every red light and school bus on the way to the hospital. We arrived at 4pm, wheelchair waiting for me at the curb and off we went. But even the elevators would not cooperate...so off we went to faster elevators. (Why we didn't head that direction in the first place is beyond me.)

From that point I had just enough time to change into a hospital gown and for them to break my water before we began pushing. And I thank God it went fast because honestly, no matter how many kids you have, no matter what size they end up being...they all hurt like hell coming out with no pain relief! But the end result is so worth every last minute of pain. Just look at the beautiful family we've created!

You're still here?

2007-06-05T13:44:00.000-05:00

If I had a dollar for every time I've heard that, well I wouldn't be rich, but it sure as hell feels like I would be.

But yes, I'm still here...sitting at work...willing my cervix to dilate...wishing for painful contractions... Anything at this point would be better than where I am now. The worst part of it all is not that I'm uncomfortable and miserable physically. I'm just emotionally "pissed off" and impatient. I'm only 1 day past my due date and yet it feels like an eternity. Most likely because Mom and Dad made it up here early this time and now they are sitting and waiting......and waiting..........and waiting........and I can't do anything to control this or speed things up.

So with every little twinge, cramp and braxton hicks contraction that comes across my body, a little part of me gets excited that perhaps "this is it"! And then as it passes and fails to return within that nice little 10-15 minute time frame that contractions begin to fall into, I grow a bit more insane.

What could'a been an eventful weekend turned into...yawn...

2007-05-29T12:55:00.000-05:00

The kids were gone Friday AND Saturday night. Let me repeat the AND portion of that sentence. Bill and I took advantage of the quiet evening on Friday and headed out to dinner together. There was a lot of baby talk of course and I don't mean the sickening sweet baby talk of new lovers. We talked about the kids, about the 3rd/4th on the way, about how I'm apprehensive once again and how it could happen "any time now". That seems to be my standard response when asked when I'm due..."any time now"...

After dinner we headed home and my comfy bed along with my need for sleep called for me. Bill, on the other hand, heard the Red Sox calling his name that evening. And with the rain delay that he patiently waited out, he fell asleep on the couch, coming up to bed around 3:30AM. (And might I add what a blissful sleep I had during those 5 hours of non-snoring, no bed sharing required hours.

Shortly after he came up stairs, I became a bit "crampy" and I remember falling back to sleep thinking about how I haven't experienced that feeling in 9 months now. A little after 4AM I awoke to my first contraction. No, nothing painful, just a nice tightening of the stomach, but along with that same crampy feeling from earlier that had not yet disappeared. I drifted in/out of sleep while the contractions came about 15 minute intervals. Never increasing in intensity but certainly enough to make me feel excited about what was surely somewhere on the horizon.

Sometime after 6AM, I noticed that Bill had woken up and I explained to him what I had been going through for the past 2 hours. As we were both still more interested in sleeping, we let it go at that and drifted back to sleep.

The alarm went off at 8AM and although the crampiness had not subsided, I had not had any further contractions since around that 6:30AM time period. So we debated whether or not Bill should go to Bryan's baseball games that day and concluded with the stand-by of "don't leave the cell phone behind for anything." I assured him I would call at the first sign of any commotion but that if things remained the same, I was heading out to my hair appointment at 10:30AM anyhow...so why sit around the house and wait for what may or may not come.

As it turns out...what may never came. I napped for at least 3 hours in the afternoon and the day passed by with only minor discomfort on my part as those cramps never went away until the evening hours.

By the time I crawled into bed that evening, I felt as good as new. And have continued to feel that way ever since. The only irritation being the heat which Bill alleviated by turning on the A/C in the TV room for me.

So no further signs of a baby and at this rate, this will be the kid that 18 years from now refuses to leave home...just like it's refusing to leave my womb!

I'm still here

2007-05-25T13:24:00.001-05:00

Need I say more? Ok - I will, because I feel the need to elaborate.

I feel great - pregnancy wise. As for the cold that has come upon me and has instilled it's death grip on my head this past week? Well it's simply kicking my fat ass right now! I crawled into bed at 8:30pm last night and would have been much happier had it been 6:30pm instead. And for those of you who know me (night owl) know that I must be feeling pretty darn crappy to have gone to bed that early.

I got up at 10:30pm (yes - I had to pee already) and was feeling all exhausted, crampy and just nasty overall and I remember thinking that if I was going into labor that God must really hate me. There was no way that I would have had enough energy at that point to push a baby out of my cooch feeling the way that I did then.

Today is a little better. And now the kids are off with Aunt Alicia for 2 WHOLE NIGHTS!!! So I figure I've got a few options. I can:

Catch up on my sleep
Get romantic with my husband and hopefully kick start labor
Catch up on my sleep
Put the crib together
Catch up on my sleep
Clean the house (maybe strenuous vacuuming will bring on labor!!)
Catch up on my sleep

Oh well - no matter what I choose to do, this kid is coming out whenever it's ready and there's really not much I can do about it. But as another expectant mother said to her unborn child the other day, "This due date thing...it's just a suggestion really. You can come out at any time. Really. Any time. NOW!"

Baby #3 update...

2007-05-24T07:17:00.000-05:00

As of 1pm - Wednesday, May 23rd - 1 centimeter dilated and 70% efaced...

WOO-HOO! Got some movement going on down there. Granted, it could be another week before the kid makes it's grand debut, but I'm holding out hope for some time during the long Memorial Day weekend.

Stay tuned!

Mother's Day

2007-05-22T07:43:00.001-05:00

This Mother's Day was by far the best one ever! The kids are at the perfect age where we no longer need to prompt them to say or do things and in my eyes, that's the best. Megan convinced her Aunt Alicia to buy a gift for me the week before at the dollar store and she had been patiently waiting all week long to give it to me. She also reminded me on a daily basis leading up to it that I was "not allowed to look inside". I didn't have the heart to tell her that Matt told me what it was the day that they brought it home. (So much for keeping secrets when he's involved!)

Sunday rolled around beautiful and sunny. Megan and Matt woke up, came into our room and the first thing that they said was "Happy Mother's Day". Then they both dragged Daddy out of bed so they could get my presents. After opening up their gift of a teddy bear tucked into a rose coffee mug, a handmade gift that Megan had made at school, and a beautiful eternity diamond necklace from Daddy (combo Mother's Day/anniversary gift), the kids went off to play in Megan's room while we lounged in bed. A little later, Bill got up with the kids and fed them breakfast while I took my time showering, shaving and general grooming in peace!!! No interruptions!!

The afternoon was spent at Nanie's and with the Cole side of the family where Matt practiced skate boarding with his cousin...

Father/Daughter Dance

2007-05-21T14:38:00.001-05:00

Where do I begin? I've definitely fallen behind this past week and at this point I need to catch up on a couple of events. The first one is the Father/Daughter dance which took place on 5/11 (told you I'm behind) and was pretty much the event of the school year for Megan. She had been looking forward to it for some time and knew exactly where it fell on the calendar she marks off.

A few days prior, we decided to try on some dresses that she had in her closet. Of course the one that she loved the most was the one that both Bill and I liked the least. So the very next day we headed out to Marshalls to find a bargain dress. And what a bargain it turned out to be! $12.99 later we headed home with the pink dress that she fell in love with.

The next day...Bill calls to tell me that it is torn, which probably explains why the bow was tied around the front of the dress and not the back (I'm brilliant about noticing those smaller details - ha). So off I go to another Marshalls close to work. And what do I find? The same dress for $11.00!!! (Do you think we'll be able to get away with paying $11.00 for a prom dress in another 10 years?)

So it turned out to be a successful 'mini-prom' night and Megan was ecstatic to have a date with her Daddy. Here are the pics from that evening...

It looks like Grandpa's lips...

2007-05-10T12:38:00.000-05:00

Funny and unusual things that the kids say or have said in the past:

Gubble-gum (Matt, referring to bubblegum)

Nuse - pronounced n'yuse (Megan and Matt both said this instead of 'use'. Still trying to break Matt of the habit.)

"I love my Pap-Pap. I pull his pants down." (Matt, after spending a week with Pap-Pap and Grammie here in CT during which time he de-pantsed my Dad whose was wearing his PJ's at the time.)

"Grandpa lives in Kevin with Jesus." (Matt, referring to heaven, not Uncle Kevin)

"Hi Uncle Fat Kid. You swimming like Free Willy?" (Matt's opening line when calling to wish Uncle Kevin a happy birthday who was vacationing in FL.)

"The baby will come out of your mouth." (Megan, after catching an accidental glimpse of a c-section on TV and thinking that the incision she saw was someone's mouth.)

"It looks like Grandpa's lips when he was in that bed." (Megan, after looking at my belly button which appears to have a protruding "upper lip". She was referring to Grandpa's lips when she saw him in the casket. And yes, the kids all said it looked like he was getting ready to spit.)

Caterputter and hepicopter (A very young Bryan, referring to caterpillars and helicopters - according to Daddy)

Updates

2007-05-04T10:06:00.000-05:00

Let's start with the oldest...Megan...where do I begin with this one. The melodrama + Mommy's raging hormones = a very bad combination. The crying just never ends and I'm right on the verge of joining her for lack of a better solution at this point. I mean, seriously. Just this morning she asked me if the Father/Daughter dance was this evening, to which I responded that no, it was next Friday. And she proceeded to burst into tears. Give me a break already kid! I've never been into the whole "medicating kids" thing, but if her hormones are this bad at the age of 5 - one of us is going to need to be medicated SOON!!!

Then there's Matt. Matt is testing his limits in the talking back department. Just the other night, after a few hours of putting up with his sass, I warned him that any more of it would warrant a slap on the mouth. Ok, so that was like the equivalent of talking to a brick wall...and yes, I popped him on the mouth and the darn kid wasn't phased. Probably because I didn't do it hard at all. Just enough to get his attention. But it must have worked because the talking back stopped. (Well, it was either the pop on the mouth that fixed it or the fact that he was in bed 15 minutes after that.)

He's also getting beat up by a 2 year old at daycare. A girl, I might add. HA! My babysitter tells me that Catherine is feeling her oats too and has been scratching and pinching Matt. She believes it's because they are the same size so of course he's the most logical target for her. Oh well - he'll survive. But in turn, he's also biting and punching 2 of the older kids. I have to be honest and say that I don't really care about this because, well, they are both 5 years old and if they are letting a 3 year old get the best of them, then they deserve it. But also because these are two of the kids that used to beat up on him all the time about a year ago. Back when he didn't know any better to fight back or walk away. Back when Megan told me that these two kids had ganged up on him, beating him with pillows one day. And when I asked what Matthew did in return, she said nothing. That he just laid on the floor while they hit him. And now I want to cry again...because really - he was just a baby for goodness sake!! And yes, I know he's 3 years old now, but c'mon - the kid is still wearing size 18-24 months!!!

And let's not forget baby #3... With a little over 4 weeks to go, they are pretty sure that the baby is in a head down position (thank God!) and I'm up to 27lbs in total weight gain. Yeah for me!!! But you would never know it by looking at me. This stomach sticks out farther than it did the first two times around...clothes are getting tight...and I'm struggling to avoid the waddle. Yep, don't want to succumb to the pregnant duck waddle!!! So 4 of those pounds were added on in just the past two weeks alone but I've been eating healthy. Lots of fruit (pineapples and strawberries this time around) and plenty of ice. Gotta chew on ice...

*Back off Bill - I may have eaten a quart of strawberries in one sitting - on two separate occassions - but they are STRAWBERRIES!! How much damage could they have done?

**Ok, so the first round had sugar added to them. So what!

***And well, last night's round, I ate with the left-over cool-whip.

****And by left-over, I mean left-over from the strawberry shortcake that I had been eating earlier in the week with another quart of strawberries.

*****It's worth mentioning that the shortcake was prepared with Angel Food cake - and we all know that that's low in fat. Right?