Sunday Night

Lunches are made. Clothes are out. Bags are ready to go. Kids (and Jim) are in bed. Caroline is still awake, but three out of four ain't bad, as far as I'm concerned.
I was trying to upload some pictures to Snapfish to make Christmas cards. We had an excuse last year to not send them out (though nobody besides us knew it at the time), so I feel that somehow I really need to get my act together this year. We have some wonderful family pictures and some great pics of Sam and Caroline, but none of Nate smiling. This is hard to believe considering how much this kid smiles. So I've been combing all of our pictures trying to find some that coordinate angle, color, facial expressions while all at the same time matching the design of the card. TOO MUCH STUFF TO THINK ABOUT! And suddenly, instead of being fun, making a card became a chore. Just one more thing to do.
I'll have to re approach it when I'm in a better frame of mind. I want stuff like this that go with Christmas to be fun.
Too bad I'll think about it all day tomorrow.
Ugh - why can't I just let things be good enough? It doesn't have to be perfect. I'm certainly not.
And how.

Here's what has been happening here lately:
Sam continues to amaze us with "Sammy being Sammy". Has taken to nursing his stuffed animals when I'm nursing Nate. And while I almost dropped over the first time I figured out what he was doing, after I thought about it I decided there are much worse things that my son could be doing. Plus, it's cute. I'll just hope he outgrows it before he goes to school.
Nathanael continues to become more and more interactive. He is constantly gooing or gaa-ing or fake coughing to get someone's attention. His newest trick is that if he notices that my mind is somewhere else when I'm nursing him, he'll whack me with his arm until I talk to him. Good thing he's cute! Our Little Man is getting bigger every day. Fifteen pounds, eleven ounces and twenty five and a half inches long at last check. HOLY SCHIKES! He's a big kid. Somewhere around the ninetieth percentiles for height and weight. No wonder my arms get tired lugging him around!
Yes, Caroline is reading from the "Baby Be of Use" series. Gotta start them young!

Nate's 1st Christmas Tree

Today, we decided to go and cut down our own tree for Christmas...typically, we have gotten christmas trees as a present in the recent past, but this year we decided to explore our own environs and see what was out there...Karen asked around Caroline's dance studio and was told of one in Princeton off Route 31. We let google do the walking (so to speak) and found the one-and-only tree farm in Princeton called Marsh's Tree Farm. Of course, in Caroline-talk, the place was called "Martians Tree Farm". Caroline asked to see the Martians of course :)



"Is this the one you want?"



Me & Things One and Two



CJ and Sam Surveying the landscape




Caroline and Sammy watching for bears or something...



Aahhhh, free candycanes!

Giving Thanks

As I sit here surveying the utter disaster zone this house is, I couldn't be more thankful for the three active, bright children that made it that way, my loving husband who is the provider that allows us to have this house; and our families, who fill the house with laughter and fun (and overflow from the backed-up toilet - you KNOW who you are). =-)



Sam started a new holiday tradition this year. Not sure how long this one will last. But can you think of a better way to watch the parade?

And So It Continues.

Our week / weekend of craziness continues.
I should be doing some paperwork right now to catch up on what I can't finish at work.
I don't feel quite awake enough to write something that could be audited by Medicare, so I'm here instead.
Jim got called in at 4:20. AM. Good times.
I'm approaching it as a challenge to see if I can actually get the three kids (and myself) up, ready, morning chores done and to church on time. Which shouldn't be too different than a regular weekday except that we were at the Holiday Bazaar at OLA last night until eight thirty! When bedtime is seven fifteen, that extra hour or so makes a big difference.
My ace in the hole for getting the kids to and through church is the $10 gift card I got to Dunkin Donuts from work.
I am sooooo not above bribery.

An Oven Update:
Here is the latest on our saga...
We have been without an oven since March.
Yes. March.
We are on our fourth replacement.
Yes. Fourth.
If anyone is thinking of buying a new oven, please contact me and I will tell you what brand to stay away from.
This has been a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad (thank you, Alexander) consumer experience.
We may need a FIFTH oven.
Yes. Fifth.
We had the replacement oven installed last week. Everything went well and the kids and I even got to bake cookies.
Until I came home from work the next day. The stench of mercaptan was horrible. And when I got close to the oven, it was almost enough to make me throw up. So I turned the isolation valve off under the oven and evacuated the kids out of the house as fast as I could.
With the iso-valve on, the smell went away, giving us a pretty good indication of where the leak was.
After going back and forth with the oven company, we were able to get NStar out here (thank goodness). They found the leak in the packing of the oven valves and red tagged it, deeming it unsafe for use.
We are waiting to hear from the oven company as to how and when this will be fixed. And THEN will need NStar to come out and inspect before we can use it.
So much for cooking a turkey for Thanksgiving.

I've decided I can be just as grateful with pizza and wings. =-)

The funniest moment of the weekend so far has been on Friday night. When we're singing our prayers, when we come to each child's part, they stand up. Caroline usually does a little dance as she's singing and Sam will sometimes copy her. When Sam got to his part, instead of performing a ballet-type dance, he put his sippy cup on his head and started doing the Bottle Dance from Fiddler on the Roof!
We laughed so hard we almost cried.
I love that boy!!!

What a Week.

It has been a long, arduous and relatively craptastic week.
Nothing huge, mind you.
But lots of little things that cumulatively have made me (us) a bit grumpy.
For instance:
-Remember how we finally had an oven that worked? Yeah? Well, it doesn't now. Grrrrrrrrr.
Put that with a teacher conference, work, laundry, work, meetings, research, a trip to the ER (long story), work, more laundry, snotty noses and (oh, right) my birthday; I'll be glad when the weekend is here and we can relax.
I hope.
And then I look at these pictures and wonder how I possibly could ever be grumpy.
Sam got the camera. How do I know? Those are his shoes. And Diesel 10. No one else could possibly have framed this shot.

Sam has been amazing this week. He has been sharing his trains (GASP). I had to record it as much as I could (because we never thought it would happen). Please note it will also be recorded for posterity when I can braid Caroline's hair with a straight part (just sayin').


He even subjected himself to one of his sister's tea parties...

We've decided that he's a spitting image of his grandfather. Except for the snotty nose. =-)

And just to further represent the amount of insanity we live with (and love)...

And why does Caroline have jazz hands? I have no clue. But they work for her...
And yes, I do let her pick out her own clothes. Why do you ask?

THERE. I'm not grumpy anymore.
Thanks.

Long Time, No Blog.

Getting back into the swing of things.
Honing my organizational skills.
Testing my ability to multitask.
Stretching my capabilities.
Otherwise known as going back to work after maternity leave.
Sigh.
Considering I'm in a new building with new staff, new clients and new Medicare paper work (that exceeds all reasonable expectations of ridiculousness), this week hasn't been nearly as bad as it could have been. Or as I imagined it being.
Everyone has really stepped up to the plate.
Jim and I are slowly trying different strategies with getting things done around the house and figuring out what works. More importantly, we're figuring out what doesn't.
And we'll see how this all goes.
If it goes well - that's great.
And if it doesn't?
Well, I've come to the conclusion that it's okay, too.
I just had to give it a try. =-)
I love my job. But I love my family more. So we'll see how it all works out.

Oh, and by the way - did I mention WE HAVE AN OVEN?
HHHHHOOOOOORRRRRRRAAAAAAYYYYYY!!!!!
Only took seven months.
But it's ours and it works!
We can bake to our heart's content. Just in time for me to be trying to lose this baby weight.

The kids are still in their Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat phase. It's all Joseph, all the time here. They just love it. Almost too much.
To expand their horizons (and preserve our sanity), we decided to introduce some other music. They like Beethoven and Bizet (anything with loud drums or cymbals will do). But if anything is going to usurp Joseph out of the CD player in this house, we think it will be "Godspell". It has been a long time since I've come across music that's more enjoyable. And everyone likes it - even Nate (who seems to be partial to "Day by Day"). Sam has been running around the house singing, "Prepare ye the way of the Lord," which, though it may sound a bit strange - is really cute. Caroline likes "It's all for the Best."
The most amusing part is that they (after only a few days) can sing all the words. And harmonies.
Which, I think, means the apples don't fall far from the tree. At least when it comes to memorizing obscure song lyrics.
And, yes, referring to the previous hyperlink - I can still say all the words. Without any music.
It's a long story - but Melanie is laughing right now, I'm sure. =-)
Here is CJ singing along to "Godspell."
And here are the kids singing along to "Joseph"...

Lookie Here!

Anyone that really knows me knows that I hate buying new clothes.
Garage sales, consignment, hand-me-downs, overstocks (if it has to be new).
For everyone. Me included.
Caroline and Sam are quite proud of this and have told people, when complimented on their outfits, "Thanks. My Mama got it at a garage sale." *insert a blushing Mama here*
I will occasionally cave, if it's something special (like a new leotard for dance or a really cool shirt with dinosaurs), but that's certainly the exception to the rule.
But yesterday, when I was getting some supplies, I just poked around the clearance rack at Babies-r-Us. Usually filled with overpriced things that will be outgrown very quickly - so I wasn't expecting to find anything.
But I found these for Nate - marked down from $24.
I paid $1.74.
For all five.
THAT'S a deal I can live with! =-)

Oh - and guess who took my camera this morning?
Was it Nathanael?
I'm thinking no.
Maybe Sam?
Still thinking no...
Caroline?
YES. YES. YES.

Oh No!

I just spent the last hour clipping coupons.
And I liked it.

Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

An Extra Few Minutes

Since I have seven (and ONLY seven) minutes, I figured I would try to get a new post out while I can.
We tried to go to Old Sturbridge Village yesterday. We packed lunches and drove out there looking forward to a great afternoon.
STUPID MOMMY!
I didn't check the new fall hours and they were closed.
So we drove all the way back and went to the Ecotarium instead.
We had fun and the boys got some decent nap time in. Too bad those naps cost me $6 in gas!

We'll start by showing off Nathanael's physique. You can't look like this by going to the gym, folks.

We splurged a little yesterday and I took the kids on the train at the Ecotarium. I know it's not the best picture, but I figured it was blog-worthy because Sam and Caroline sat next to eachother for more than twenty minutes without incident. NEW LEAGUE RECORD!
And they took this picture of Nate and me.
And even though this picture was taken in a restroom, I think it's pretty cute...
I think Nate is thinking something like, "WOMAN! For the love of all that is good and kind in this world, get the camera out of my face and quit making me dress like a frog!!"

Halloween

A few days late, I know.
But it's not like I'm sitting eating chocolate bon-bons all day.
Okay - so maybe I skimmed some of the Mounds and Reese's Cups out of the kid's buckets.
I only wish that I had the time to eat them sitting down.
If I'm not careful, I'm going to totally sabotage all the progress I've made since Nate was born (only seven pounds to go - it feels like more, but the scale doesn't lie - right?)...I never thought I would say this, but the older I get, the more difficult it is to get back to what my body used to be (or at least my perception of it). Nine months on, nine months off, I suppose. Sigh.
But I got my beautiful babies out of the deal - I can't imagine being more blessed - even if I am a little squishy around the middle. =-)
I digress...

We had a good Halloween.
Grampy and Grampa came down to Trick or Treat. Our neighborhood is turning over and the are more families with small children. It was so nice to run into people or have friends stop us to say hello as we walked by. After college (being uprooted every six months between classes and co-op) and our multiple moves since we got married, it's almost strange to be part of a community, let alone having friends that live close-by.
It's nice.
Caroline dressed as a bride. She wore her dress from Pat & Erica's wedding. I totally caved on this one - every part of my Mommybrain was telling me that I shouldn't let her wear something so nice- but what's the point of having a princess dress if you can't wear it? Especially if you don't have a little sister to pass it on to? AND it was $15 on e-bay. Nina was nice enough to bestow her wedding veil on Caroline, which she loved. Add some flowers from the Dollar Store and we had ourselves a bride!
Wee Nathanael was a cow (calf? veal?). The poor kid was so bundled up under the bunting it's a wonder he could move at all!
Did I mention it was 34 degrees? Brrrrrr.
Everyone loved having Grampy and Grampa around.
Sam (yet again) was Superman. He refused every costume we tried on him. So the only thing we could put on were his jammies. At least he looks muscular with his jacket on underneath! I even offered to make him a coat of many colors so he could be Joseph and he said no. Hopefully next year we can get him in something different.

And all tuckered out after making our final stop to Ria's house!

Caroline and Sam meeting a knight that lives down the street. Is it awful that I almost wish we could do arranged marriages? Caroline and Michael are peas in a pod (and we really like his family)...

Here's Nate after we finally got him disrobed. I could eat him up!