Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Monday, September 27, 2010
Organized Chaos (aka 3-year old Soccer)
Emily Grace started soccer a few weeks ago and I'm just posting the pictures now. It was comical to say the least! She has a lot to learn but it was fun. She jumped away from the ball, stomped off of the field several times with her pink cleats and hair bow, cried when the bigger kids took the ball during the "game" (more like organized chaos) and then helped me hand out snacks to the rest of the kids when it was all over... always the little hostess! 
Pink hair bow- CHECK
Pink Soccer Ball- CHECK
Pink Striped Adidas Cleats- CHECK!
You could spend a small fortune outfitting a toddler for sports! And sadly- none of this will fit next year- minus the hair bow... but she was so excited to dress up and play with her little buddy, Hayden, from pre-school!
They were supposed to be bunny hopping over the cones but most of the kids just ran in circles.
One of the mid-field temper-tantrums. Chris is trying to resolve the situation without drawing too much attention... poor Chris- he always gets that job while I hold the camera... :)
Whoops- another tantrum... I guess I thought they were prime photo memories and that's all I took pictures of- but she really did have fun!
The funniest part was the coaches. They must be high school kids because our naive poor little coach lined up the kids and then said this word for word:
"I'm going to kick you the ball and then I want you to stop it and dribble it back to me..."
Um "dribble?" Buddy- they're 3- let's start with NO HANDS! Of course he got blank stares and lost half of the kids attention... but really- they didn't even have a goal that they were playing towards- it was just a free for all- run and kick! They'll get the details later. If you've ever been to one of these toddler games, "organized chaos" is an understatement!
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Enlarged Aorta (sort of)
You know how the Grinch's heart grew three times on Christmas Day and broke the little x-ray do-ma-jig that measured his heart size? Well, that's me. Not that my heart physically grew or is anatomically too big for my body... I don't have any medical issues with an enlarged aorta (thank heavens!). And, not that I'm a Grinch at all- but when I look at my kids, I feel my heart expanding so that it breaks that little x-ray thingy. I feel like it grows and grows with love at every smile Emily Grace flashes in my direction or every giggle that I can coax out of my little Luke. My eyes tear up and my heart just throbs with love for these kids.
A small piece of me worried that when Luke got here, my time, my attention and my love would have to be cut in half. But while time and attention do have to be shared, my love has doubled, or tripled or exponentially expanded! I wish I could hold both of them every hour of every day. I love them so much. I wanted to write this so that I could look back and remember the place that I am in now. I never want to forget this feeling! God is good and we are truly blessed!
A small piece of me worried that when Luke got here, my time, my attention and my love would have to be cut in half. But while time and attention do have to be shared, my love has doubled, or tripled or exponentially expanded! I wish I could hold both of them every hour of every day. I love them so much. I wanted to write this so that I could look back and remember the place that I am in now. I never want to forget this feeling! God is good and we are truly blessed!
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Swaddle me this?
Emily Grace LOVED to be swaddled. She fought it a little at first but after a few tries, she wouldn't sleep without it. In fact, she slept through the night (8 hours!!) at 8 weeks. And I think most of that was due to the beloved swaddler.
So Little Luke HATES it. I keep trying. I had given up but after talking to a few moms after EGU's preschool the other day, I decided to give it another try.
Early this morning, 2:30-ish am to be exact, we woke up for yet another feeding for little man. I love our feedings but this every-three-hours-thing is for the birds! I love to hold him close and hear him gulp but I now realize how spoiled we were with EGU by not having to wake up all night. He'll be 6 weeks tomorrow and we are nowhere NEAR getting him to sleep through the night. Anyway, I tried swaddling him again. We woke up and both of his arms had come up out of the bottom pouch and under the wing/flaps that velcro him tight and were sort of free (at least up to the elbow). His paci was behind his back, digging into his skin of course, and he had wiggled down so much that his knees were bent in the pouch at the bottom and one of the swaddler wings was sort of wrapped across his HEAD (But still velcro'd tight)!
I won't swaddle him again tonight. That was just too scary. I know I'm doing it right- It's the same as what we did with EGU. I think he just fights it THAT much and wiggles like crazy until he semi-gets free.
Back to the drawing board and 3 am feedings...
So Little Luke HATES it. I keep trying. I had given up but after talking to a few moms after EGU's preschool the other day, I decided to give it another try.
Early this morning, 2:30-ish am to be exact, we woke up for yet another feeding for little man. I love our feedings but this every-three-hours-thing is for the birds! I love to hold him close and hear him gulp but I now realize how spoiled we were with EGU by not having to wake up all night. He'll be 6 weeks tomorrow and we are nowhere NEAR getting him to sleep through the night. Anyway, I tried swaddling him again. We woke up and both of his arms had come up out of the bottom pouch and under the wing/flaps that velcro him tight and were sort of free (at least up to the elbow). His paci was behind his back, digging into his skin of course, and he had wiggled down so much that his knees were bent in the pouch at the bottom and one of the swaddler wings was sort of wrapped across his HEAD (But still velcro'd tight)!
I won't swaddle him again tonight. That was just too scary. I know I'm doing it right- It's the same as what we did with EGU. I think he just fights it THAT much and wiggles like crazy until he semi-gets free.
Back to the drawing board and 3 am feedings...
Monday, September 6, 2010
NO ADULTS ALLOWED!
I've decided to boycott Chic-fil-A for a while. Well, the restaurant portion, not the drive-thru...Don't get me wrong- I love some nuggets and a big fat fountain coke zero! But after last week, it's a done deal.
Well, we're really boycotting any restaurant with a play place but Chic-fil-A was the only place that I let Emily Grace play in the play place until now. Of all of the restaurants, I felt it was the least-germy. I'm probably very wrong because other parents most likely feel the same and so more children are probably in there spreading more germs than in other plastic microbe incubators. Gah- talking about this makes me want a CLOROX WIPE!
I digress...
Anyway, twice last week Emily Grace got invited to play dates at Chic-fil-A. And twice we accepted. Both times I tried to sit out of view from the nasty germ-infested plastic paradise but alas, she is too smart. She knows where we are when we go there. She knows Chic-fil-A comes with chocolate milk and a slide. OH dear. So, I let her go play, waiting with the gallon of purell at my side.
So day 1- Tuesday: Long story short, she got to the top while I waited and watched anxiously from the safe side of the plexiglass of hygiene. Something happened, I have no idea what, but all of a sudden she was sitting on the top-most shelf, crying. Actually, she was bawling. Alligator tears were FLOWING down her sad, plump little cheeks. I couldn't get in there fast enough!!! Another mom, who invited us, was in there and helped me get to her. I don't even remember what happened. I feel like I was tossing little kids to the side in my attempt to get to her. But, we got her out, I bathed her in purell and she ate her ice cream and we went home (where I later boiled all of our clothes to combat the contamination that had seeped into the fibers).
Day 2- Wednesday: We went to the Natural Science Center with some friends and then headed to the dreaded Chic-fil-A. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy hearing "it's my pleasure ma'am!" every 3o seconds, but at this point, I was DREADING what was inevitably going to happen when the nuggets and chocolate milk ran out. The other moms delicately said "it really can't be that bad -surely that won't happen again!" Ok, sure, let's see how it goes. I'm laid back- let's give it another try. Afterall, the best way to get over a fear of heights (or germs) is to face it, right? WRONGO! She freaked again. She got to the top and you would have thought someone kicked her in the stomach! By the time I climbed through the tunnel of crud to reach my sweet little angel she was a wreck! But on my way up, some snotty-nosed little kid intercepted me- you know the kind- like Minkus from "Boy meets world..." He was the know-it-all who spits when he talks and has snot constantly pouring from his nose, that he wipes with the palm of his hand, that then touches EVERYTHING! So he sits on his knees, watching this drama unfold, seeing my dying rush to reach out to my child and says "HEY LADY! NO ADULTS ALLOWED!" My response should have been "KID! I COULD SIT ON YOU!" But, instead, I just said, "my little girl is crying and I need to get her down (PUNK!), so it's ok that I'm in here." Then the genius kid says in a mocking sort of voice "she should just go down the slide to get down!" Really smarty pants? That's how this thing works? I HAD NO IDEA! I couldn't believe that I was mentally arguing with a Minkus-like 6-year old. Really- who breeds and ends up with him??? I wanted to punch the snot right off of his face for getting between me and my Emmy! But he was what, 6? And I'm the adult here, so restraint was in order... But who lets their kid approach an adult with "HEY LADY!" Needless to say, I had a hard time fighting the urge to pour Purell all over his head like the slime from Nickelodeon! Little ratty germ terd! Wait, I'm the adult, scratch that last part... but notice that I didn't delete it. :)
So I finally reached my little Emmy Gu. Those sad little cheeks were once again covered in giant, flowing tears. I hugged my sweet little angel and we climbed down together. I told her that it was ok to be afraid but it would be a VERY long time before we went back to Chic-fil-a, at least the inside part where the slide was. She finally admitted it was scary in there and agreed that we didn't need to rush back. ((We'll never stop going to the drive-thru though!)) And One day, a long LONG time from now, we'll try it again. But for now, we need to work through her fear of heights and my fear of germs.
Back to clothes-boiling and the drive-thru line!
Well, we're really boycotting any restaurant with a play place but Chic-fil-A was the only place that I let Emily Grace play in the play place until now. Of all of the restaurants, I felt it was the least-germy. I'm probably very wrong because other parents most likely feel the same and so more children are probably in there spreading more germs than in other plastic microbe incubators. Gah- talking about this makes me want a CLOROX WIPE!
I digress...
Anyway, twice last week Emily Grace got invited to play dates at Chic-fil-A. And twice we accepted. Both times I tried to sit out of view from the nasty germ-infested plastic paradise but alas, she is too smart. She knows where we are when we go there. She knows Chic-fil-A comes with chocolate milk and a slide. OH dear. So, I let her go play, waiting with the gallon of purell at my side.
So day 1- Tuesday: Long story short, she got to the top while I waited and watched anxiously from the safe side of the plexiglass of hygiene. Something happened, I have no idea what, but all of a sudden she was sitting on the top-most shelf, crying. Actually, she was bawling. Alligator tears were FLOWING down her sad, plump little cheeks. I couldn't get in there fast enough!!! Another mom, who invited us, was in there and helped me get to her. I don't even remember what happened. I feel like I was tossing little kids to the side in my attempt to get to her. But, we got her out, I bathed her in purell and she ate her ice cream and we went home (where I later boiled all of our clothes to combat the contamination that had seeped into the fibers).
Day 2- Wednesday: We went to the Natural Science Center with some friends and then headed to the dreaded Chic-fil-A. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy hearing "it's my pleasure ma'am!" every 3o seconds, but at this point, I was DREADING what was inevitably going to happen when the nuggets and chocolate milk ran out. The other moms delicately said "it really can't be that bad -surely that won't happen again!" Ok, sure, let's see how it goes. I'm laid back- let's give it another try. Afterall, the best way to get over a fear of heights (or germs) is to face it, right? WRONGO! She freaked again. She got to the top and you would have thought someone kicked her in the stomach! By the time I climbed through the tunnel of crud to reach my sweet little angel she was a wreck! But on my way up, some snotty-nosed little kid intercepted me- you know the kind- like Minkus from "Boy meets world..." He was the know-it-all who spits when he talks and has snot constantly pouring from his nose, that he wipes with the palm of his hand, that then touches EVERYTHING! So he sits on his knees, watching this drama unfold, seeing my dying rush to reach out to my child and says "HEY LADY! NO ADULTS ALLOWED!" My response should have been "KID! I COULD SIT ON YOU!" But, instead, I just said, "my little girl is crying and I need to get her down (PUNK!), so it's ok that I'm in here." Then the genius kid says in a mocking sort of voice "she should just go down the slide to get down!" Really smarty pants? That's how this thing works? I HAD NO IDEA! I couldn't believe that I was mentally arguing with a Minkus-like 6-year old. Really- who breeds and ends up with him??? I wanted to punch the snot right off of his face for getting between me and my Emmy! But he was what, 6? And I'm the adult here, so restraint was in order... But who lets their kid approach an adult with "HEY LADY!" Needless to say, I had a hard time fighting the urge to pour Purell all over his head like the slime from Nickelodeon! Little ratty germ terd! Wait, I'm the adult, scratch that last part... but notice that I didn't delete it. :)
So I finally reached my little Emmy Gu. Those sad little cheeks were once again covered in giant, flowing tears. I hugged my sweet little angel and we climbed down together. I told her that it was ok to be afraid but it would be a VERY long time before we went back to Chic-fil-a, at least the inside part where the slide was. She finally admitted it was scary in there and agreed that we didn't need to rush back. ((We'll never stop going to the drive-thru though!)) And One day, a long LONG time from now, we'll try it again. But for now, we need to work through her fear of heights and my fear of germs.
Back to clothes-boiling and the drive-thru line!
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