Mia's Marriage Proposal

Gavin can't get enough of Mia. I had to get a play pen because lying her on the floor for tummy time is a dangerous proposition. There's always someone jumping over her, dancing over her (one foot on each side of Mia), hugging her, picking her up to make her "dance", etc . When Mia's on the bed, Gavin is usually stradling her while telling her a story or singing her a song.

A few days ago Gavin was holding a small drawstring bag which held a ring of Jolie's. I'll recount our conversation:

(Gavin) "Mommy, do you know what I have in this bag?"

(Me) "Yes, it's a ring. Are you going to give it to me because you love me and you want me to marry you?"

(Gavin) "No."

(Me) "You're right, I can't marry you because I'm already married to Daddy."

(long pause)

(Gavin) "Mommy, when Mia gets big, I'm going to marry her."

I truly hope that Gavin's fondness for his little sister will last and that she survives infanthood with a brother who "loves" her so much.

Where's the Beef?

Last night Mia had her first taste of solid food. She was more than ready. She's been rather fussy in the evenings and I think we've decided she's been feeling hungry and left out of the dinner routine. We were having rice a few nights ago and I put a few grains on a spoon for Mia. She was yelling and grabbing at the spoon and basically acting like a starved animal. She LOVED the rice cereal we gave her last night. She sucked down the whole bowl and was amazingly content the rest of the evening.

Introducing solids has been a welcome development for the rest of the family. For weeks the kids have been wanting to give Mia all sorts of interesting treats. It's pretty amazing how bad their judgement has been in this area. I'm glad we've trained them to ask before they act (at least when it comes to the baby). Tristan would probably have tried to feed her a rib eye by now if it had been up to him.

Yesterday they were all with me when we went grocery shopping and you'd have thought the box of rice cereal was the most exotic food on the planet. Other kids were fighting over who got to hold the lucky charms; my kids were fighting for posession of Gerber rice cereal. Go figure.

Ballerinas

Last night we attended Jolie's ballet recital. She's been taking ballet for three years and she's really quite good. A few weeks ago her teacher asked me whether she was going to take next year. I confessed that we weren't sure. Jolie has been nagging us about taking gymnastics and I've told her she can only do two activities at a time (for my own sanity). Jolie's teacher seemed devastated. She's always telling me what a great student Jolie is and how much she depends on her.

I seem to have come across another parenting dilemna: does one encourage their children to focus on one activity and develop and hone their skills so they become really accomplished at that ONE thing? Or, does one encourage said children to try their hand at a lot of things, whereby potentially never becoming good at anything? And if you opt for the former, how do you know what that ONE thing is?

I'm having the same dilemna with Tristan as he's announced that he wants to play football (yes, that's right... FOOTBALL). He started with baseball and soccer and this year he really wanted to play basketball. Now football? Yikes. Not only do Dan and I know NOTHING about football, but they practice five days a week!

Who knows... maybe gymnastics and football will be our thing.

I think I'll still encourage Jolie to stick with ballet.

A Book Recommendation

I don't know that I've ever looked so forward to book club. I will be taking my copy of A Thousand Splendid Suns and checking out of this joint in exactly 42 minutes. But who's counting? Melinda, don't be surprised when I show up on your doorstep at eight o'clock on the dot. And don't be surprised if I'm the last to leave (but I guess that wouldn't be anything new.)

So why so much anticipation you ask? First, I loved the book. Anyone who's read it will understand. More importantly, I love the thought of getting out of the house tonight. It's been nine intense days of summer vacation (again, who's counting?)

Since Monday I've been daydreaming of what tonight will be like: nobody asking for a snack, no wiping ketchup off the kitchen chairs, no breaking up quarrels, no dropping whatever I'm doing to run a kid here or there, no picking up after some aborted science experiment, no threats, no violence... just calm, intellectually-stimulating conversation and snacks laid before me.

Ahhhhhh... 33 minutes and counting.

Blackberry Cobbler

I'm so glad it's tomatoes and not blackberries that are linked to the salmonella outbreak. I've eaten more than my share of the cobbler I made last night. I highly recommend it.

Blackberry Cobbler

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup white sugar, divided
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons cold butter
1/2 cup boiling water
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 cup cold water
1 tablespoon lemon juice
5 cups fresh blackberries, rinsed and drained

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.

In a large bowl, mix the flour, 1 cup sugar, baking powder, and salt. Cut in butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in 1/2 cup boiling water just until mixture is evenly moist.

In a separate bowl, dissolve the cornstarch in cold water. Mix in remaining 1/2 cup sugar, lemon juice, and blackberries. Transfer to a cast iron skillet, and bring to a boil, stirring frequently. Drop dough into the skillet by spoonfuls. Place skillet on the foil lined baking sheet.

Bake 35 minutes in the preheated oven, until dough is golden brown.

Oh, and I recommend it a'la mode.

Mia at Five Months

I've been meaning to post about Mia's recent achievements but there always seems to be something going on with the other kids. Don't be deceived. I still spend most of my waking hours holding her, kissing her and being otherwise completely infatuated with her.

Mia rolled over a couple weeks ago. It was actually mother's day when she was lying on my bed and rolled from her back to her stomach. I think it surprised her when she found herself on her tummy, she didn't know quite what to do. Two days later she rolled herself off the bed. I hesitate to make this confession as I know it will bring much condemnation. Look, it happened. She cried but no permanent damage seems to have been done. The important lesson was learned: don't underestimate a baby who can roll. Strangely, we've had to learn this lesson four times.

Mia is still our most content baby. She loves to smile. She kicks her little legs when she's excited. She has settled into a sleeping and eating schedule. She stays up late with me (I'm holding her and typing with one hand right now). She takes a long nap in the morning if she's allowed to do so. She gets fussy in the afternoon and evening but I've decided this must be par for the course with babies. She needs someone to hold her from four or five in the afternoon until midnight. It makes me a less efficient person and sometimes requires creativity (i.e. brushing someone's teeth while holding baby) but we've learned to manage.

Mia has discovered her feet. She's trying to figure out the significance of "this little piggy went to market". She thinks it's a pretty weird rhyme. She likes to spend short periods on her stomach. She will push up and give me a big smile of triumph. Then she kicks her legs for a bit, looks around, and inevitably calls for help after about five minutes. She's getting better with her hands. She can hold a toy to her mouth for a while. We dug the baby toys out of a box in the basement yesterday and found all kinds of gems for her to play with.

I'm amazed at how well Mia does in the car. All that I remember of my other three is long periods of crying and screaming and my stress level rising. Mia seems to love rides in the car. Sometimes I forget she's back there. I often have to ask the kids whether she's awake or asleep. I'm sure it helps to have three specimens to stare at while she's riding along (what could be more entertaining than them?)

She's developing an interest in food. A few nights ago the kids were eating Creamies and she wigged out. I couldn't figure out why she was so fussy and realized she was craning her neck to see the kids eating their treats. She wanted one! Maybe someone had sneaked her a little taste last time the Creamies came out of the freezer? Who would have done such a thing? Chocolate ice cream treats aren't appropriate for babies, afterall.

The Last Day

Well, I don't know whether to weep or jump for joy. Today is the last day of school. On one hand, I won't miss mornings of making lunches and following Tristan and Jolie around, announcing the time every three minutes and threatening them about what will happen if they miss the bus, aren't ready for their ride or leave the house without making their bed. I have a feeling I'll start enjoying the hours of 4-8 pm a little more. No rush to get dinner on the table by five or six so that we can do something else or be somewhere else at six thirty or seven. No more long division! No more telling Gavin to be quiet so others can read or conjugate sentences (yes, they do that in third grade now).

On the other hand, I'm going to have full respoinsibility for entertaining FOUR, yes, FOUR kids... 24/7! That's where the weeping comes in. Starting Monday, I will officially be resuming my role as Summer Entertainment Committee Chairwoman (sigh).

Oh, and yes... you're seeing correctly. I gave Tristan a MOHAWK last night before he went to bed. This was my first hair cut (don't look too closely). He's been begging me to let him have a mohawk for the last day of school (to which I replied, "Absolutely not!). I reconsidered after seeing his Spectrum classmate, Liam, at Decade Day on Wednesday. Tristan idolizes him (mostly because of the mohawk, I'm afraid). I decided the kid didn't look that bad so I pulled an about-face. My kids thought I was the coolest mom in the world. That was a first.

We're planning to buzz it off tomorrow.

Tonsillectomy, Part Deux

Ok, I probably spoke too soon when I reported that Gavin was doing well. He's been up in the night SCREAMING the last three nights. I spent much of last night on the floor of the nursery singing primary songs in order to soothe him. We put him in there with our big humidifier because someone suggested it might help.

The strange thing is, Tristan's tonsillectomy (at age 3) was EXACTLY the same. He did remarkably well for the first few days and then started screaming in the night about 4 or 5 days in. Everyone in my family remembers this because we spent part of that time at our family cabin. Tristan was NOT a favorite nephew on THAT trip.

When I was dealing with Tristan's post-surgery trauma I was told they develop scabs in their throat which get really dry and painful.

I knew things were too good to be true. Gavin is also way too hyper and active during the day to take a nap, so I get to deal with the side effects of a sleep deprived kid as well. Happy day!

Tonsillectomy

On Friday Gavin joined the Sans-Tonsil-and-Adnoid Club (and let me tell you, it's quite a club)!

Gavin has been having major sleep problems for a while. Have you ever witnessed a night terror? I've witnessed many. Gavin has also been getting up during the night, sometimes several times. Combine that with the wakefulness of pregnancy and a newborn, plus my sciatic nerve pain and Dan's early work hours and you have two very sleep deprived parents and one very sleep deprived three year old. I didn't attribute Gavin's sleep problems to his tonsils and adnoids until one morning when he was sleeping next to me. I could hear his labored breathing and realized that he was waking himself up, or at least out of a deep sleep, because of his breathing. Our doctor put an oxygen monitor on him during the night and confirmed that he had obstructive sleep apnea.

So the surgery went well. The worst was when he was waking up. The anesthesia made him really sick and he was also very disoriented. He was also pretty upset about the "glove" on his hand (IV). I was extremely grateful that they put IVs into children AFTER they're asleep. I held him in the recovery room for a couple hours and told him stories to distract him. Our doctor said that Gavin's tonsils were large and his adnoids were even larger. He thinks the adnoids might have been most of his problem.

Since we've been home Gavin has done well. Friday evening I stayed home with Mia and Gavin while Dan and Tristan went to the fathers and sons overnighter and Jolie went to a party with a friend. I had to keep telling Gavin to stop climbing and running around. He also wanted to eat things that weren't on our list of soft foods.

Today and yesterday have been the same, although Gavin's throat will start hurting once in a while and he'll ask for some medicine. He was up during the night complaining about his throat but the pain medication seemed to help. Tristan and Jolie seem to think that Gavin is being treated like "royalty". I guess I need to make jello and pudding more often as they're under the mistaken impression that these are fine delicacies.

I'm an Alien

I have a confession to make... I am officially the only person on the planet who doesn't watch American Idol.

This morning I took Mia in for her 4 month well child visit (yes, I know... I'm a month late) and our pediatrician broke the ice by asking me if I was happy with the results of last night's voting. I had NO IDEA what he was talking about. First, I assumed he was talking about the presidential primary and I was a little embarrased that I hadn't checked in on CNN to find out whether Clinton or Obama won Kentucky and Oregon. Then he said something about David vs. David. I was really lost. It didn't even occur to me that he was talking about Idol, because I didn't know until later that both finalists were Davids.

I think Jill was a little shocked this afternoon when American Idol came up in conversation and I asked her who had won. I'm a Utahn, after all. Truthfully, I left the house at 8:30 this morning and haven't had the TV or radio on all day.

Gavin is having his tonsillectomy in the morning so my ignorance of current events will definitely continue for a while. This raises an important point: is a TV show about wannabe superstars really a current event?

Have you had your laugh today?

Did you know that to live a healthy life, you should have at least one deep belly laugh every day? If you haven't had yours today, watch this. Dan and I saw it on SNL a couple weeks ago and I was laughing hysterically.

Two Words of Advice

First, if you're thinking of taking your kids to see the new Narnia movie, Prince Caspian, make sure they can sit still for 3 hours (the film is exactly 2 hours and 40 minutes from beginning to end) AND make sure they're not prone to fear of intense fight scenes, White Witches, "bad guys" and the like. My mom and I took the kids yesterday as I needed an activity while Dan was digging up the yard for our new sprinkler system. I read the Narnia series to the kids a year or so ago and we loved the first film so logic follows that the release of Prince Caspian was something we'd be all over, right?

Let's just say that Gavin, Mia and I spent the last half of the movie wandering the halls of the Cinemark and wasting my money on arcade games. It was a replay of the last Pirates movie, except this time I had a toddler AND an infant and substitute my mom for Dan in the theater with the other kids and my phone, my purse, my keys, and everything else a person might need when they're stranded. Another occasion when I had a lapse in judgement and tried to take all the kids to a movie.

Advice number two: If your kid tells you he has hives, take him seriously! Tristan came down with some itchy bumps on Thursday after he'd been outdoors all day at his Spectrum Olypics. They were at the base of his legs, around his shoes. I looked at them and figured they were nothing serious. I think we put some lotion on them. Friday he complained about them again. I bought some Cortizone cream when I went out that day and we put it on after school. By yesterday morning he was complaining about them big time and they'd spread all the way up his calves and theighs, all over his hands and arms and even some on his face. We've decided that it's poison oak or poison sumac because he'd gone on a hike with a friend on Wednesday and that's about how long it would have taken for him to have a reaction. He's been scratching terribly which is why the bumps have spread. I feel badly because it wouldn't be nearly this bad if I'd taken him seriously from the start.

So there! Take my advice and learn from my mistakes. Actually, there were many other mistake I made this week but these are the two that come to mind at the moment. What did you learn this week?

More Birthday Fun

Happy Birthday to my big SEVEN year old!

I woke up this morning with party hang over. But silly me, it was Jolie's birthday! She requested eggs and toast on the birthday plate. I nearly told her that she'd already got all the birthday attention I was prepared to give her(and it was only 8 a.m.). Fortunately Dan didn't have a hang over so he obliged.

Did I ever tell you my story of May 17th of last year? I don't think I did because at the time I was lying on the floor moaning.

I was sooo sick. It was the kind of sick that you NEVER forget. From the end of April until the middle of July I pretty much wanted to crawl under a rock and die. Sitting here with Mia now, there's no question that it was all worth it.

But still! It was bad.

I spent last May 17th alternating between lying on the bathroom floor (vomitting) and lying on my bed (trying not to vomit). I remember Jolie coming in to ask what we were going to do for her birthday. Honestly, I didn't have anything planned for her birthday as she had kindergarten in a few hours and we were having a HUGE luau the following day, complete with elaborate invitations, tiki torches, dinner and hula dancing (see what I mean about me and parties?)

I guess Jolie didn't get the memo about THAT being her birthday celebration. I told her that maybe we could do something special before school but I needed some time to try to feel better. A while later I received a hand-delivered note that was addressed "here". Inside she reminded me that it was her BIRTHDAY and asked what was my PROBLEM in not showering her with ATTENTION??? I kept the note. I'm thinking that horrid, horrid, morning sickness is probably genetic so someday it will be a nice conversation piece between her and I.

Truly, there's nothing wrong with a girl who loves to be showered with love and attention on her special day, right?

Happy Birthday, Jolie!

My Ears are Ringing

Ay yai yai... my ears are ringing with the sound of screaming girls. We had a birthday party for Jolie this evening and it was pretty loud and dramatic. I'm starting to understand what my friends have been telling me for years. The drama has commenced and is in full bloom.

We had 14 girls at our party. I had planned on more like 7 or 8 but during the course of making invitations, Jolie informed me that she'd already verbally invited five girls from her class. So, not wanting to exclude anyone (including my own children)... there were 17 kids in my house tonight!

It went amazingly well. My friend Donna offered to help, plus my mom and aunt Lisa. We divided the kids into three groups and we did manicures/pedicures, made shrinky dink necklaces, and played "Don't Eat Pete".

Yesterday and today while I was stressing out over getting everything ready for the party, I repeatedly asked myself why I always make things as difficult as possible on myself??? Handmade invitations, 13 guests, grilling lemon chicken and cutting up fruit and vegetables, making an ice cream cake... somehow I find it impossible to take the easy road. All afternoon I went back and forth about whether I should farm the boys out to my dad or Dan and have them take them somewhere. I knew it would be easier that way. On the other hand, it was our celebration of Jolie's birthday so I wanted to include them. Ofcourse I took the high road.

Once I decided to invite the boys I decided to put Tristan in charge of our game, to make him my "helper". He did well with the first group of girls but when we rotated the girls I found him in the family room having his toenails painted bright red. So much for being a helper. I guess he felt more comfortable pretending he was a 7 year old girl. Gavin did three rotations in the living room playing the candy game over and over again. At least everyone had fun.

So, how was your mother's day?

Today a friend and I were catching up on the past week's events. The subject of mother's day came up.

"So how was your mother's day?"

We both agreed on a few things. Number one, there's a certain heirarchy of mothers. The older the mother, the more honored and revered. The larger the corsage. The more she gets to sit back and bask in the warmth and affection of the day.

The events of MY day assure me that I have a long way to climb in that hierarchy. When the extended family had gone and I finally sat down last night, my feet and back were more sore than they've been in weeks. Earlier in the day, I only made it through 15 minutes of church before finding myself in exile (a.k.a. "mother's room") with a hungry baby and a three year old who was near melt-down. I WAS able to hear some of the mother's day commentary over the speaker so that was nice. I tried not to breathe too deeply as the stench of the diaper pail was a little distracting. I was also playing a game of I-Spy with Gavin and nursing Mia, so I have to admit that the speakers didn't have my FULL attention. I walked home from church early to put Mia down for a nap (she'd had it) so if there were kind words uttered about mothers in the third hour I missed them.

Here's the thing. I'll be frank. There were a lot of kind words said about mothers yesterday. We love our mothers. We honor them for all they've done. Our lives would be nothing without them. We like to recite poems about moms whose kids mix the sugar with the flour and sneak bugs into the house. It's all very sweet. But I have some suggestions for people who REALLY want to make the difference in the life of a mother:

1) First and foremost, cut us some slack! If our children are less than model citizens, if we don't manage to find time in the day to exercise or we haven't yet lost our baby weight, if we serve our family processed food, if we show up late for a doctor's appointment... try (just try) to understand! If nothing else, be kind.

2) Offer to take our fussy baby for a walk in the hall so that WE can sit and listen to the lesson (or eat our food while it's hot.)

3) Offer to babysit so that we can leave the house or take a nap or a shower!

4) When we defy all the circumstances that try to prevent us from doing something EXTRA, something kind or thoughtful, something creative, something extraordinary... say thank you! Show us that you understand what it took to accomplish this.

5) How about telling us that we're doing a good job, that our children won't be forever damaged because we yelled at them this morning or neglected to adequately teach them their spelling words this week?

Don't get me wrong, I don't HATE mother's day (my friend's mom confessed that she does.) I wouldn't go that far. I just wish there were more walking the walk and less talking the talk.

Happy Mom's Day

In honor of Mom's Day I'm posting a couple love notes that Jolie brought to me this week. One is addressed to a "special loving pretty mom." There's no better boost to one's self esteem than to discover that, in your child's eyes, you're "ocstrdanere", "ecksiding", "cool" and "intaresting".

Happy Mother's Day to all!

Is Jolie a Meanie?

Jolie started spring soccer several weeks ago and this morning I finally got it together to take some photos. Jolie played with the same team last fall. When the snow started melting and the pink dragons came back to practice this spring, it became apparent that Jolie had caught the competitive spirit. I don't know what happened during the dark cold winter but Jolie is now a competitor! She goes after the ball and she's even made a few goals. Last year and even last fall Jolie was, shall we say, less aggressive. I made the suggestion once that she go after the ball and get it away from the opposing team. I'll never foret her reply, "Mommy!" "That's kind of mean!" That's when I realized that competitive sports may not be her thing.

Now I'm wondering... maybe the competitive spirit can be acquired.

Does This Look Like the Face of a Trouble Maker?

We got an unusual phone call today. It was from Jolie's teacher. It wasn't about helping with the class field trip or my offer to donate juice for "Dads and Donuts". It was about a problem. I was shocked. So was she.

It seems that Jolie was caught in a situation in the girls bathroom where she and two other girls were goofing around with a large quantity of toilet paper. Mrs. J. had gone looking for them as they'd been away from class for too long. She discovered the girls... and the toilet paper. It was one of the other girls who'd been the mastermind but Jolie was guilty by association.

Mrs. J was as shocked as I was. Jolie has a reputation of being an ANGEL. I guess we can blame it on peer pressure.

Frontrunner

This week Dan's parents have been visiting from Virgina. Yesterday we all took an exciting trip on our new commuter rail train, Frontrunner. We rode it to Salt Lake and then made our way to Temple Square to see the gorgeous spring flowers. We had dinner at the Garden restaurant which offers a beautiful view of the city, and then we made our way back home. It was a fun excursion even though there were four million people riding the train with us. I enjoyed seeing the completion of the commuter rail project as it was in the early planning stage when I worked for UTA seven years ago. It was also exciting for Gavin as we've been watching the practice runs for months and talking about the day when we'd finally get to ride.

Mia at Four Months

Mia is so happy! She spends her days smiling and playing. She's also starting to use her hands. If I put her teething beads into her little fists she can raise them to her mouth and chew for a few minutes. She also loves to kick when she's excited. I'm usually greeted first thing in the morning by a smiling, kicking baby.

I should say that I'm greeted IF Tristan doesn't go in and get her out of bed first. Mia has definitely assimilated well into our family. Tristan likes to see her before he leaves for school so he takes any grunt or peep he hears on the baby monitor as an invitation to get her up. It's very sweet but sometimes creates stress for me as Dan has long since left for work and I'm always very busy getting the kids ready for school, making lunches, finishing homework, trying to appease Gavin "I want oatmeal!" "I hate Wonder Pets!" "I'm DOOONE!" (from the bathroom)... and ofcourse Mia wants to eat the minute she's awake. If only I had ten hands.

We're still not completely sure about Mia's eye color. It's still a mix of blue and brown (somehow I have a feeling they're going to end up being brown.) Ofcourse she looks like Dan but more and more people are telling me that she looks like Jolie. I really see her resemblance to Jolie in her eyes and nose. Mia was featured as the first grade show-and-tell a few weeks ago. Jolie was thrilled to finally be able to show Mia off around school. I arrived with Mia a few minutes early while Jolie was in the lunch room. I was immediately swarmed by little girls (I think a few boys, too.) She was the envy of the class during show-and-tell.

I think Mia is fascinated by Gavin more than anyone else. Last week I was sitting at the computer in our office while Dan was holding Mia. Gavin jumped up and tapped Mia on the arm and she laughed! We weren't certain that she'd truly laughed so we asked Gavin to do it again. Sure enough, Gavin was responsible for Mia's first laughs. (Makes sense... it must be pretty hilarious to watch a miniture person jump and run around all day long, not to mention hit people with swords, hulk gloves and light sabers and climb all over everything).

**It makes me a little sad to write this today because Gavin has been very sick. He's been running a very high fever (over 104) since Monday and is not at all himself. I'm sad to see my usual active, happy little buddy so sad and lethargic. I hope he's back to is usual self very soon**