Reflections, by Hilary

I was working after dinner tonight (still not done!), so Andy put Ethan to bed for the second night in a row (working last night too!)...

About ten minutes later, he called for Daddy, but Daddy had already been upstairs once after bedtime...so I took my turn. E greeted me at his bedroom door and asked in the sweetest voice ever, "Mommy, would you like to have a little snuggle in the rocking chair with me?" Would I ever?!

Sitting there, squeezing my little (big!) boy to pieces, rocking him in the plush green chair that I used to rock with him in his baby room...I was euphorically happy.

I think about Deb a lot. I think about the crazy moments of each evening, I think about the serene moments like the ones spent with Ethan in his rocking chair tonight...and all the moments she will never have with her baby girl.

It puts it all in perspective for me. I am stressed and overwhelmed, and I think that's still legit, but every day, whether it be good, bad or ugly, is one that I'm sure she would love to have.

There will never be another moment when I'm asked to share a "little snuggle" where I sit in that chair with him and think about all the work awaiting me back at my laptop (like I may have done a few times before 2 weeks ago)....never....because those moments are so priceless, and I'm thankful for every one of them.

And since that was really heavy....I feel I should share the conversation between me and my little Angel as I was tucking him post-"little snuggle"...

I told Ethan that he should try to sleep well, because good rest, good food and lots of liquids are what help us feel better when we are sick (colds in our house!...but only the kids so far). So he asked about the shot with medicine and asked if that helped get the yucky stuff out (he got the first round of H1N1 last week...which I decided to refer to as a "little pinch of medicine" instead of a shot, but he's on to me now)...and I said that the shot was for really yucky stuff, but there wasn't much we could do for a cold except to rest, and eat and drink well. He listed off his favorite juices that he would drink lots of to help him feel better. And I mentioned some healthy foods that he could eat as well. Then he threw in a random observation, "And suckers are really tasty?"....Um, sure.

So, I tucked him in and said I love you as I was closing the door so it was open just a crack. He replied, "I love you too. Thanks for talking about healthy food with me". Oh my gosh, this kid is just too funny. Love him.

Bullet points to catch up!

When blog posts have this much lag between them, it's time for bullets...

Ethanisms:

• Random thought..."Inside my head, I have a brain"
  
• Wrapped up in a blanket...upon exiting, "I was in an egg and I cracked out"
• Talking about D & Owen's upcoming 1st birthday (OMG, did I just write that?!), "They were in your tummy and they came out because just like me they didn't like it in there because there's GOO in there!" Emphasis on the "goo"...
• Mommy to Ethan, "Ethan, you are cute as a button"...Ethan to Mommy, "Mommy, I'm your button"
• While doing my hair yesterday, Ethan was watching me and declared, "Mommy, you are the prettiest lady that I ever seen in the whole wide world"...who taught him this and how much do I owe you?

Now for the rest of the bullets:

• Dylan has started clapping! For awhile now he's been doing this thing with his hands like he's brushing something off of them, but he's definitely officially clapping now. It's so cute! He has also said both "Mama" and "Dada"...and today, Gramma Leslie and I could have sworn we both heard him say, "Bye bye, Gramma"...or at least he was trying!
• Owen is a maniac with the "real" food. Yesterday I made them a grilled cheese for dinner, gave them each half cut up in little pieces. Now...Owen has just two teeth, on the bottom, although the top two look like they are just about to pop. Dylan has 6! Two on bottom and 4 on top, although the pointies are just starting to really come out so they might not totally count as useful with eating. Owen had his half of the grilled cheese down in like 2 minutes. We'll have to teach him how to pace, as stuffing handfuls of grilled cheese in your mouth is a. not safe, and b. not such a hit with the ladies. Dylan had a tougher time with it...although he does just fine with the other "real" foods we are giving them such as sliced deli meats, crackers, breads, little pieces of cheese, tiny tiny little cut-up grapes.
• Dec 8th is the big 1st birthday. They become official toddlers. What the...? This year was hard, no doubt, but where the hell did it go?! It went SO fast! I haven't planned a party...and frankly, not sure if I'm going to. I mean, seriously, they don't know what's going on, it's stressful for me (and Andy?), it's nearly impossibly to find a window of time for a party with their nap/bedtime schedule, and we don't need any more toys in this house. But you've got to do the first cake pictures...so maybe Ethan and I will make cupcakes, because he loves to do that...and we'll do the honorary "go crazy and get messy" pictures!
• Andy and I just returned from 4 days in Vegas on Sunday. We planned this trip early in the year, somehow predicting that we might just need a vacation near the end of 2009. We were right and it was impecably timed. Work has been crazy busy for both of us...and, I can only speak for myself, but I was ready to crack for sure. We had a good time...walked the Strip, had some great dinners (Delmonico and CUT...OMG, CUT is the best ever!!), Andy played craps and a bit of blackjack switch, hung out with Skipp and Liz who were also in town over the weekend, stayed up too late, took a couple naps, laid in bed later than 6:30am (though neither of us is capable of actually sleeping past 7am anymore, regardless of staying up until 3am), I took a Stripper 101 class for fun with Liz, and Andy and I saw the best fight ever LIVE on Saturday night (although we bet on Cotto and he didn't win, it was still incredible to be there!). All in all, a nice time away...no hangies and Spillary did not appear, rare for a Vegas trip...but it was just what we needed.
• Probably one of the reasons I was relatively mellow in Vegas is that I got some terrible news just as we were about to board the plane on Thursday morning. My boss called me and they had just been told that my co-worker, and friend, Deb, had died during childbirth. She was due on Monday the 9th and induced that day, her daughter was born on the 10th and Deb died on the 11th...something went wrong, still not clear on the details...but we went to the memorial service last night and did learn that she got to meet her daughter, and there was a lovely, albeit heartbreaking, picture of the two of them together. I am lucky that in my nearly-30 years I haven't had to mourn a lot at all...and I just don't know how to do it very well. I keep replaying conversations we had and it seems like just yesterday...Tomorrow will be my first day back in the office since learning about her passing, as I worked from home today as part of my usual Tues/Thurs schedule. I am dreading tomorrow. I'm her "out of office" for her "maternity leave" and am getting all sorts of emails despite the news being sent out to most people at work. Each time I get one of these emails, I start crying all over again. If only I'd known that her last day in the office on Oct 30 would be the last day I would ever see her.... Tomorrow I'll sit across the aisle from her empty cube.

Sorry to end on that note...but it seemed better to close with depressing news than to start with it and continue on with my analysis of Owen's eating skills, and recollections of Ethan's wit.

Guest blogger: King of the castle, master of his domain

Hello world, it's Zookeeper A. You knew they couldn't keep me down forever.

It has been a while since I made an appearance here. Let's be more specific........I wrote the inaugural entry into this thing you people read, and this is #3. I truly am a model of consistency.

So what's new 'round here? Plenty.

First, the star attraction(s). The terrible twosome continue to enhance their skills. They already had bow-staff skills and num-chuck skills, but now they can both feed themselves their bottles. If you have survived having twins yourself, I know hearing that probably takes you to a happy place. For those of you who were never traumatized, take my word that this is sweet relief.



The critters also ventured out to a festive gathering at our neighbor's house on Saturday ever so briefly. It seems that a crowded house and a well developed pelt may lead to overheating. Who knew?

Now the big boy. You all know that E has lots of skills. The girls won't stand a chance with this one, especially now that he has Trick or Treating skills. That's not to say that everything was easy here. Like I said, we went to a neighborhood gathering next door. E is super comfortable there. He would happily spend whole days there "helping" neighbor J water the flowers and running around her yard with the local cubs. Halloween appeared to be a different case. The mommy/daddy cling was in full effect and efforts to separate were met with screaming Spidey. We survived long enough for him to realize these were just our friends and everything was fine.

Trick or Treating was explained many times. Many discussions of the process and procedures. I don't think 2+2 equaled 4 until the first time the kids gingerly approached a door and propositioned a friendly neighbor. Then, euphoria. Wait....Daddy...she gave us candy! Time to run full sprint to the next house. Lather, rinse, repeat. Repeat. Repeat.


The craziest part? They didn't even really seem that interested in eating the candy. The thrill of the hunt.



We have lives too, although they are not nearly as dynamic and evolving as our pack. I did however take a new job recently, so the busy life has become busier. But, about a year ago we tagged 2009 as being "The year of survival". If this is surviving, thriving is going to be pretty fantastic.

Pumpkins and Elephants

Because it's so hard to find the time to blog...two blogs turn into one.
Next on tap: Ethan's pumpkin train ride. Stay tuned...

First up: Ethan and his elephants. His "guys" as he calls them.
Left to right is Horton, Africa (originally named by Ethan), Ernie (originally named by Andy), & the big man himself.


Next up: Last Sunday's project...buying and carving the pumpkins. We bought 5 mini pumpkins from Byerly's since the past couple weekends were either too cold or too busy for a trip to the apple orchard, which is where we typically pick our pumpkins. Our 6th pumpkin was the pumpkin that Ethan selected on his pumpkin train ride a few weekends ago. It was the biggest, and the best for carving out Ellie the cat.

I decided to just do the first letter of each of our names on each pumpkin...5 carving-size pumpkins would probably take up our entire front steps! In a few years I'm sure that Andy and I will forfeit our pumpkins so that the boys can have bigger ones to carve faces in...but until then, I think these turned out pretty cute. I only cut myself two or three times with the utility knife to cut the skins off the pumpkin and make our letters, so I'm calling it a success! Thankfully, Andy is a remarkable carver and he did Ellie cat and the slits in the letters so oxygen could get in to the candles.


Check it out! Mommy is in a picture!!

Ethan: Halloween preview

Spiderman, Spiderman. Does whatever a spider can.

I love the built-in muscles!!

Ethan has a fall party at preschool this Thursday and all the kids can wear their costumes...without masks. Actually, I'm surprised we got him to wear the mask at all when we did our practice run last night!

This year will be Ethan's first year of trick or treating!! Our neighbors are having everyone over on Halloween at 5pm. Not sure if Andy or I will accompany the trick or treating group, but one of us will do that, and the other will put D & Owen to bed (at least we will have an hour prior to bedtime at the party so they can wear their costumes....monkey and lion) and hand out candy. I'm thinking about dressing up. One of our friends from college used to have a Halloween party each year...and even though I don't drink wine out of a bag anymore (from within the box!), I really miss dressing up!

First haircuts!

Owen and Dylan were getting a little hairy.

All my babies were born with lots of hair...just like their Mommy.

I've got quite the volume in this picture. And um, could my Mom get any more gorgeous?! Wow!

Ethan on Day 2

Dylan & Owen at 3 weeks

But then they began to get male infantile baldness worthy of Nelson's Baby Toupees around 4 months old...so we shaved them.

Ethan pre-shave

Dylan & Owen pre-shave...Owen is rocking a serious receding hairline in this pic!

Ethan cleanly buzzed. And OMG, look at those rosy red cheeks! I want to pinch you!

Owen and Dylan no longer looking ridiculous...and pretty cute in their little buzz-cuts!

Before long, their hair began to grow back to stay and I was loving running my fingers through Owen's thick dark hair, and playing with the little curls that grew above Dylan's ears. But recently, it began to get less cute and stylin' and more unkempt and shaggy. We're big fans of the home haircut (not for me, but for the boys, sure!), but Andy wasn't sure he could trim the bottom while keeping some of the length on the top and not make it look like a reverse mullet, so we opted for the Kid's Hair "salon".

I made appointments for this past Saturday morning. We had lots of things we wanted to accomplish that day, so Andy suggested we divide and conquer. I quickly called "not it" on the haircuts. Let's face it, Andy's braver than me with taking the kids anywhere on his own...so he didn't have any issues with it and quickly offered to draw the short straw and take D & Owen in for their first haircuts on his own. He even brought a camera...and took pictures...and got their first haircut certificates and "hairs". I'm a lucky lady, I know.

So, with no more ado....

Before:Mr Owen

Dylan and his tongue

During:

Owen looks a little red-faced so I suspect there might have been tears, but he looks like he likes getting his hair "did" here!

Apparently Dylan did not want to part with his curly locks....neither did I. Thankfully, they'll grow back!

And....After:

Owen's hair is no longer obstructing his vision...hurray!

And Dylan is looking SO much like his big brother, Ethan. What is with that pointy tongue?! Always sticking out!

They look so old to me now...real BIG boy haircuts!! They were a success. And turned out much better than Ethan's first official haircut.

Lloyd Christmas, anybody? Lesson learned. Spend the extra cash on the kids' hair "salon" instead of choosing the nearby women's salon that specializes in blue hair dye, if you catch my drift.

You know you've really arrived when...

you start covering your furniture in vinyl....

I purchased toddler booster seats for Dylan and Owen last night. A few years ago when we bought this dining room set with off-white fabric on the chairs, I wasn't thinking about how dirty it would get when we had kids. So I found these sweet chair seat protectors at Bed Bath & Beyond this morning. And now it smells like shower curtain in my dining room...but it's worth the ease in clean up! Red sauce, here they come!

The house already looks more spacious without those two gigantic highchairs blocking our natural light from the picture window.

Dylan says, "Hey, what's on your tray?"

Oh fun...they can see out the window from their chairs...meals with a view!

I'm loving these little green trays...they snap right off and they both fit in the drying rack at the same time...with other items too! The highchair trays were bulky and odd-shaped and were a serious pain to clean...which is why I left them dirty so much. Hey, a Cheerio from today is just as good tomorrow!

**Look at those haircuts!! Will post before and after pics soon.