My Little Magoo Turned FIVE (10 Days Ago)

My littlest girl is not so little. As she tells me, being five automatically makes you a Big Kid, so now I'm not allowed to refer to her as one of the 'littles' anymore. She's charming and feisty and loyal and loving. She still picks her nose, but knows she shouldn't. She asked for makeup for her birthday. She still insists on being rocked and sung to at bedtime. She won't be in kindergarden until next year, and I think that she'll basically be ruling the entire school by the end of the first week. 

We love you Maggie!

My Lulu Belle is SEVEN!

OMG Fred is Three!

Just like his brother, Fred wanted his song to be Everything Is Awesome. I don't know how he'll feel about this, but at least I complied. 

Last night I was playing with Freddie on the floor in his room when he kind of tackled me. I laid there, with him laying flat on top of me, and I told him about how he grew in my belly when he was a baby. He sat up and looked at me funny. 'I didn't grow in your belly mom. I grew in your heart. And when I came out your heart was empty so it filled up with love. And bees.'  I may have died laughing. Happy birthday buddy. You'll always be my baby.

Sam's Birthday Is Awesome!

I was in Florida for Sammy's birthday, away from the hard drive of history, which is where all of the photos are stored. As soon as I got home, I got to work! I did things a little differently this time, so hopefully this works. I love you buddy!

And Just Like That, She Was Four

Maggie turned four the other day, and boy howdy was it a big affair!

 We rented a big bouncy house, complete with slide

We had a piñata, which was totally a unicorn and totally NOT a donkey

And at the end we even went for a family swim!

The party was a huge success, by my estimation. Maybe the best kids party we've ever thrown. We had a great mix of family, old friends, and new friends. There were some folks who we missed, but after a few minutes in the bouncy house it was hard to focus on the negative.

Also, Maggie decided to stop wearing a diaper to bed now that she's four. I was happy to hear that, but not at all optimistic. She's never once woken up dry, but since it was the weekend I thought I'd indulge her. Well guess what? Three days later and she is doing spectacular! Not a single accident! However, for the first two nights she had to come and wake me up to tell me she peed and then to snuggle each time she went to the potty. Sweet, but it got old real quick. I finally convinced her that she didn't need to notify me each and every time she went potty, and last night I slept uninterrupted and she still woke up dry.

So far, four is awesome!

So without further ado, here is the annual birthday montage! 

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Back To School Update: The Girls

Oh, my darling daughters. Both of you faced some serious changes in your school routines this year. Lucy changed schools, which I was very nervous about. I really felt like moving her to the public school was a good idea, and now that we have a few weeks under our collective belts I feel like we made the right decision. She loved her Montessori classroom, but struggled with the freedom of choosing her own work. This year, in a more traditional classroom setting she is doing great! Socially, things don't seem to shabby either. A little girl she knew from gymnastics was assigned to the same classroom, so luckily she didn't have to walk in on the first day not knowing anyone, and since then she had made some new friends. I was a little troubled when a birthday party at the end of the first week was kind of disastrous for Lu, but today I saw a friend call out to her and wait so that they could walk in together. My heart almost melted.

Maggie is in the same school, but we moved her from the afternoon class to the morning class, which means none of her friends from last year are with her anymore. I struggled mightily with this decision, but ultimately for the sake of family maintenance had to switch her. Freddie is now going to school in the morning, and keeping her in the afternoon would have meant a ridiculous amount of time dropping off and picking up at this particular school. Plus, the afternoon dismissal time at that school is still the same as at Sam & Lucy's school, so I would have been struggling to pick kids up at two spots across town from each other. After dealing with that last year, I felt pretty strongly that moving her to the morning class would be key element to maintaining my sanity, and in the end that would be good for her. No one wants a bat shit crazy mom, right? Luckily, because she's a little social butterfly, this hasn't impacted her too negatively. The first few days were weird for her, but now she's got a whole new posse of friends, plus we're still friends with kids from last year and see them socially, so she's got that going for her.

Extracurricularly speaking, my girls are BUSY. Lucy is taking golf lessons after school one day a week, and they both are attending a group piano class and a dance/acrobatics class. Luckily for me, since they are close enough in age, they go to the same piano and dance class, which was a huge relief for me. With Sam in hockey and piano and golf (not to mention the therapy that Sam and Lucy are still going to for now) I don't know how I'm going to manage all of this once Fred starts with sports/activities. Probably with a lot of coffee, and maybe some druge. Legal ones, of course, but I'm pretty sure drugs will be necessary.

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In other unrelated news, we are having a giant birthday party for Maggie this weekend. She wanted a pinata in the shape of a unicorn, of course. I was just starting to think that I was going to have to whip out some paper mache around here, but then a trip to Target saved me. Wandering down the party aisles, Maggie should out, "THERE IT IS! MY UNICORN PINATA!!!"

If anyone dares to tell her that it's actually a donkey, I'll use the pinata stick on your head.

Six Going On Sixty

For her birthday she got a sewing machine, and said her favorite part was the train ride because it was so serene and calming. I can't believe how quickly the time has gone by.

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Happy Belated Sammy

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Better late than never. Thanks for making your mother cry on a thursday night. Love you bubs.

Freddie is TWO!

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Baby Fred

Tonight I put my baby to bed one last time as a one year old. Freddie was born 14 minutes shy of midnight, so he won't technically be two for a few more hours. But we celebrated his graduation to toddler-hood madly none the less this past weekend.

It's hard not to think of him as a baby. He still wears diapers, he still sleeps in a crib, he even still nurses. I see him like this when I close my eyes:

But he had his year two check up today and he was exactly 30 pounds and exactly 36 inches tall. He runs and jumps and speaks so well. Before I put him into bed, he said rather emphatically, 'I don't like naps! I go DOWNSTAIRS!' He sleeps in said crib with a pillow, blanket, curious george, and now a rubber crocodile that he received at his big shindig yesterday, just like a big boy. 

I just can't. 

Tune in tomorrow for the montage. Until then, I'll be the one in the corner weeping.

And I Would Drive Two Thousand Miles

Well, we're home from our vacation, no worse for the wear. I was very anxious about the whole driving there and back with four kids ages 1, 3, 5 and 7, but we survived. The key is, just give them whatever it is they want to keep them quiet. Sam played video games almost the entire way, and the other kids watched dozens of movies and shows, plus were given free reign with an old iphone and an ipad, which were both loaded up with games and shows. Plus there was a giant bag of food at my feet, and snacks (mostly healthy) (except for the one pound bag of M&Ms) we administered at regular intervals of about 12 minutes. Parenting WIN!

The vacation itself was also quite nice! I got to meet and snuggle and photograph my two darling little nieces!

Isabel

Penny

They were the absolute best! I can't imagine how tough it must be with two newborns instead of one, but my brother and his wife seem to be doing a superb job. I'm already counting the days until we see them again this summer!

AND! As if meeting their new cousins wasn't exciting enough, we took the kids to both Universal Studios and Disney World while we were there! We only took the big kids to Universal, but everyone, including the Nunnie and Pappy, went to Disney.

With Uncle Danny and his brother Jake

MAGICAL!

Oh, and some not-so-little boy turned SEVEN while we were there! We actually went to Disney on his birthday, so don't listen to him when he whines about not getting a party this year.

Even though I'm a fricking photographer, and I had high hopes for a lovely family photo this year, this is the only one we got all week with all six of us. It's kind of terrible, but I love it just the same!

Family Soup*

We're back to the daily grind now, and I bitterly washed all of our shorts and bathing suits and then put them back into boxes in the attic. There are five days of rain and snow in the next five days, and I just really can't wait for summer. I'll get to squeeze some babies and it will be nice and warm!

*My sister-in-law came up with that one!

Sam is Seven

Dear Sam,

You may be a preternaturally large seven year old, but your dad can still carry you on his shoulders. For at least three or four minutes.

Love,
Mama

Birthday Week Wrap-up

My, how time has flown since my last post. The fact that it happens to be a photo of champagne is kind of appropriate, since I feel like I blacked out and this week slipped away into the ether. But here we are, and lots has happened since then...

On Tuesday SOB and I went out for our collective birthday dinner. Since his birthday is January 23rd, and mine is February 1st, we tend to spread out the celebration over those ten days. Which is probably why I was up almost two pounds at Weight Watchers yesterday. I did get to attend Weight Watchers alone for my birthday, which was about as fun as you would imagine it to be. I think the weight gain can be most directly attributed to beer. I used to hate beer, but now I love it, and somehow I can't seem to lose weight! But in addition to beer, also food. I'm looking at you, sushi boat.

My husband has a penchant for ordering food that is served on a vessel, and even though this was likely meant to be shared by four people, we ate almost all of it. And drank some Japanese beer, also. Blerg. 

On Thursday we had to take my car to the shop (again) because it eats brakes. This is third or fourth time we've had the braked replaced, and it B-L-O-W-S. SOB was off, so he was going to take our car seats from the van and put them in the garage, but he was running late and since I was leaving soon, he though he'd put them in front of his car and I could put them in there. BUT! Since he parked his car down the driveway, I approached it from the rear and never once saw the car seat on the ground in front of it. And then I ran one over. The best part is that I didn't even realize it was a car seat that I had hit. We had a big wind storm the day before and there were a lot of branches down, so I just assumed it was a stick. Good times!

The text message read: nice work dipshit

So on my birthday, I got to go out shopping for a new car seat! At least I got to go alone.

On Thursday we were MYSTERY READERS at Sam's school. It was a lively affair, to say the least. One of us grown ups had to have leave early to pick up our daughters, so SOB got to do the reading honors. He was spellbinding! He read 'When I Grow Up' by Al Yankovic (yes, that Al Yankovic) and I highly recommend it. But maybe that's because I totally saw him live and in concert when I was a young(er) lady. Whatever. (It was awesome.)

Then on to Friday! My twin nieces were not born, but I can forgive them. My sister-in-law has set them up in a pretty cozy spot, so the won't get evicted until Monday or Tuesday. After a long afternoon of car seat shopping, my mother and I went to a Friday night Zumba-thon club night extravaganza in support of the American Heart Association's Go Red for Women day. Whew, that was a mouthful! It was fun, but I was eternally grateful that it was dark in there, because my hips don't move in all of the ways they used to. And that's all I'm going to say about that.

We got my favorite pizza and salads for dinner, drank some wine and then two of my kids puked in their beds. Happy birthday toooooooooo meeeeeeeeeeeee!

Libya, Babee

In  honor of my husband's birthday, I am posting this horribly embarrassing photo of myself, taken at the peak of awkwardness, in a rather unflattering pair of tights. I'm doing this instead of telling you a story about how he painted my bedroom the wrong color. It was probably only mostly his fault, and I'm not mad anymore. Because I love him. 

I also, apparently, love fringe! 

For the record, this outfit was assembled for my first and last figure skating competition, where I skated a routine to 'Deep In the Heart of Texas' and came in third out of three competitors. Soon thereafter, I discovered that kissing hockey players was more fun that figure skating, and I traded in my white boots and toe picks for a pair of hockey skates. 

How did a post for my husband's birthday turn into a post about my adolescent kissing habits? 

Dearheart, Dar, Hun, Golgi, Babee, Stephen. I love you so much for weatherizing my window first. For feeding the kids when I'm losing my mind. For always finding all of my typos for me. For making me like beer. 

For taking me to concerts, even though you don't like them. For taking me to plays and getting spit on. For eating hundreds of dollars worth of sushi for me when I didn't like it. 

For understanding the importance of sparkly patriotic hats, and the friends we wear them for. For the way you've supported my photography and all of the fancy camera stuff you've happily bought for me over the years. 

And of course for these little hell raisers. 

I hope you have the most amazing year ever. 

Happy Birthday Pappy!

Today is my dad's birthday, and we just wanted to say we love you pappy and daddy-o! 143!

Maggie is Three!

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Better late than never! We love you so much Miss Maggie Magoo!

Maggie is Three

My darling little Magoo is three today. I'm working on finding the things I need to make her birthday montage, but so, so much of my life is still in boxes. But she got a new house. And Nunnie came to the rescue and got a cookie cake. AND? She got to spend some quality time in the play area inside the grocery store, which she's been dying to do since tuesday when she got turned away for not being three. AND she got to go to a big party for her beloved aunt's baby shower. Luckily for us, she really didn't realize that the party wasn't for her.

I love this little peanut so much. I can't believe that she's three. My sister-in-law, who we showered today, is seeing the same OB for the birth of her little girl as I saw with Maggs. Talking to her at the shower today really brought back memories of the day Maggie was born, even more than usual. She was such a sweet and perfect little child right from the start. She has always been so loving and affectionate, and today she's just as noisy and chatty as she was when she was born. She can cuddle with the best of 'em, and she tells me at least thirty times a day that she loves me.

I think she know that, if I could, I would tell her I love her at least thirty thousand times a day.

Lucy is FIVE!

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Thirty-Three

To all of you, and anyone I've ever loved or who has ever loved me, THANK YOU!

Stephen, Sam, Lucy, Maggie, Freddie, Mom and Dad, Danny and Martha, Liz and Mike, Tori and Joe, Dane and Finn, Allison and Greg, Phillip and Rachel, Gram and Pap W., Gram and Pap D., Uncle Joe and Aunt Sharon, Johnna and Jimmy, Jiada, JJ, Jenny, Jodi, Uncle Dave, Mari, Uncle Michael, Uncle Mark and Aunt Jo Ann, Alek, Grace, Luke, Rachel, Uncle Tom and Aunt Lauri, Amanda, Ben, Jacob, Uncle Rob and Dave, Uncle Rick and Aunt Denise, Cousin Max, Laura and Jason, Ricky and Falen, Aunt Deb, Scott and Whitney, Nikee and Vinnie, Zac, Jen and Chris and little Clara, Sara and Greg and Sam, Will, and Josh, Chrissie and Juan, Carrie and Marcello, Lilliana and Neens, Laura and Eric, Marissa, Leah and Ben, Reagan and Evie, Susan and Josh and Aaron, Lora and Dave and Jake, Jodi and Dave, Katie, Tiffany, Christina, Christine, Naomi, Melanie, Susan...

Happy Birthday Pappy-O!