Blogging Frenzy

It's a blogging kind of day, I guess.
Dark, rainy and with two sick kids already in bed. Golly, I nearly forgot how easy it is just to keep track of one urchin (even if it is Nate).
Sam passed out within a few minutes of coming home from school today. He woke up and said he didn't feel good and then refused Tylenol. So I set him up in front of an old Yankees game so he could watch Derek Jeter. Where he promptly passed out again. I would say his fever is about 100 right now...let's hope tonight goes okay.

But then Nate provided some comic relief while waiting for his bath. The kid just doesn't stop.

Sam's Homework

Kudos to all that homeschool. I don't just think we could cut it right now with Nate being all Destructi-Nate-or and everything.
It was a challenge to get him to not be crazy for the 30 minutes that Sam and I worked on this:

Sammy did a great job on his letter to Derek Jeter. He loves Jeter. He even wears his glove to bed. Good thing we can pick up WCBS on our radios to get the Yankees games! =-) We are taking it to the Post Office today to mail. But I had to scan it because it is just so darn cute. His writing has gotten a lot better. Now we need to work on the reading part. And the sitting in one place for more than 10 minutes part. But those will come (I hope).

Peeps.

Nate is asleep in his stroller in the garage and I'm hoping to get the blog updated, the laundry put away, the dishwasher emptied and the floor cleaned up before he wakes up.
Good luck to me.
After six years, you would think I would learn to set goals that are not so lofty.

So I'm sitting here listening to the Sox. Sam and CJ are at school. We made "Patriot cupcakes" this morning - really sour cream muffins with blueberries and strawberries. Sam wouldn't eat them - still waaaay too nutritious. We also read "Paul Revere's Ride" (okay - the kids got wiggly after half of it). I've got to come up with something red, white and blue for dinner.

Seems like most of the blogging recently has been about Nate. Caroline and Sam are doing well. Caroline started t-ball and is enjoying it. Sam is loving school and wears his Jeter Glove everywhere. The two of them either play together very well or are gouging each other's eyes out. And they can switch from one extreme to the other in about 15 seconds. Much of my time is spent refereeing to try to prevent the extremes.
Sometimes I am successful. Sometimes I am not.
Ugh.
I think they two of them get so tired of being good at school that by the time they get home they're just done. I need to keep them away from each other until they've cleared the grumpies out.
As with most other things in life... I am learning.

But Nate certainly has taken the headlines lately. Today included.
This morning the boys were playing very nicely downstairs. So I figured I would run upstairs and switch the laundry.. Three minutes - max. It's just easier to leave them where they are (especially if they're playing well) than to try to get them to do something else.
I got it done and came downstairs - where it was quiet. Eerily quiet.
Sam was playing with his trucks and Nate was nowhere to be found.
"Sam - where is Nate?"
"I don't know, Mama. He's certainly not in here. He's not in the blue room, either."
"I know that, Sam. But can you tell me where he is?" At this point, I'm starting to get a little nervous. I knew he had to be in the house. But I couldn't find him anywhere.
So I look and look and look. Our house isn't that big and we don't have that much furniture - so there aren't that many places to hide.
Then, I hear a muffled, "Mama!" coming from the kitchen.
So to cover my bases, I look in the pantry. Where I find this:




The little turd locked himself in the pantry and went to town scarfing down the remaining Easter candy. Including almost a whole package of Peeps.
I hope Jim is home to change that diaper.

Now That Nate is Talking More...

...he says the darndest things.

Nate is starting to potty train. He requests to sit on the potty to pee/poop (most of time unsuccessfully - but still) and lets me know when he has done something in his diaper.

One of the most proud moments of my mothering career came this afternoon. I mean, there is no way I could teach my kids these things - it just must be because of wonderful genetic combinations that Jim and I bring to the table...

Nate came up to me (after laying a juicy poo) and said, "Mama, I poop, I poop."
He then pointed to his rear. "I poop, Mama."
"Okay, Nate - I'll change you."
He then bent over, took a big whiff of his crotch and said, "Yup, I pooped."

And soon there will be four of them!?!?!?!?!?

Yup.

Let's just say I'm batting .500 now.
Q is of the XY persuasion.
We are oh so in for it.

Happy Easter!

Sunday night.
Kids don't have school tomorrow, so the house is pretty much a disaster area. But it's okay. It really is.
Nate is screaming in his room. He desperately wants to be in bed with us, but if we're not sleeping, neither is he. And that's a problem. So we're making bets on when we think he's actually going to settle down and fall asleep.
Caroline is wrapped in a blanket lying on our floor reading "Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator". She also desperately wants to be in bed with us but she is simply getting too big to move - so she has been relegated to the floor.
Thank goodness Sam enjoys the solitude of his own room. He just does better and wants the routine of sleeping in his own bed with Ghillie and Pjaffe every night. And I'm all for that.

Please excuse any spelling errors. My contacts are sticking to my eyes and my glasses have been destructi-Nate-ed. Vision is not one of my strong points right now. Hopefully I can get to the optometrist and pick out a new pair of frames this week. This week we also get another sneak peek at Baby Q. All we hope for is a healthy baby and an uneventful pregnancy - we would DEFINITELY like to find out Q's gender. Just for planing purposes. For the record, I think Q is a boy. I make this assertion based on our last two pregnancies, because once you have had two in a row of one gender your chances of having the other gender decrease and because we've gone directly from the "quickening" phase to the "holy crap - something is performing mixed martial arts in my uterus" phase. But I also thought that both Sam and Nate were girls. So stay tuned. Maybe I'll go .500. (Sooo much better than the Red Sox - but don't even get me started on that).

The Easter Bunny came to our house today. He left some chewed carrots and some fun things for the kids. Each kid got a pack of Oreos, new crayons, something practical (cool paper plates, cool plastic kid eating utensils or cool bathroom dixie cups) and a new book. Caroline got her Great Glass Elevator book, which she just declared she finished. Sam got "Underpants, Thunderpants" (which he insisted on taking to church - thanks a lot, Easter Bunny) and Nate got a baby superhero book. They were thrilled.
Easter and Holy Week are my favorite time of the Liturgical Year. I'm trying to instill that appreciation in the kids, as well. This year it didn't go exactly as planned. Since we have been away the past two weekends, we missed the memo that mass times were moved up a half an hour this morning. I DO get the bulletin via e-mail every Wednesday, but I never bothered to look at the mass times. WHY would I do that? At least we weren't the only ones...
We did manage to get some pictures after church...
And yes, if you were wondering *which I know my mother is*, I did trim Caroline's bangs.
And no, I won't be doing it again any time soon. Hairdressing is harder than it looks.

Since we are in a new place for this Easter, we decided we should try to establish some new traditions. The first annual Beer Hunt had to be postponed because one of our participants was stuck at a military base overseas and should be taking place sometime soon. So instead of toiling over a big meal (when Sam would probably end up requesting Cheerios, anyways), we decided to go to the Orioles game.
I totally felt like I was "cheating" when I was at Wegmans yesterday and people had carts full of ham, potatoes, carrots, eggs and dessert fixings when I had bread and deodorant.
It didn't take much to get over it.
And believe me, I enjoyed my meal of Old Bay sausage and ballpark peanuts just as much as I would have enjoyed a traditional Easter dinner. The cleanup was easier, too.
We saw a good game. Jason Hamill took a No-No into the eighth inning. It was first time going to the ballpark that Sam and Caroline actually "got it". They enjoyed the game for what is was and we had a lot of fun exploring. Camden Yards is gorgeous and the Orioles staff goes over and above to make fans comfortable. Sam is obsessed with Cal Ripken, Jr and had to see everything having to do with Cal, Cal Sr and Billy Ripken in the park. He was very disappointed when I told him that Cal was "taking a day off" and wouldn't be playing today. He perked up when he decided he could pretend that any other Oriole was Cal because they all wear the same shirts.
Whatever it takes.
After the game we got to do some exploring in the Inner Harbor. It was a little weird because every time Jim and I have gone to Baltimore before we both have commented how nice it would be to live here.
And now we do.
Funny how things work.




And can't forget this one...

Happy Easter!

Spring Break

Oy vey.
It's Spring Break. In all its' glory. Strep throat, runny diarrhea, whiny kids and all.
Oh does the fun ever stop?

Really. It's not that bad. Really. Antibiotics are wonderful (even if they do cause said intestinal issues) and things are much better today. I can tell the kids feel better because they're acting up more. I think Caroline is doing an experiment to see which ways she can annoy me the most. She has discovered many very effective ways, in fact. Today I think she annoyed me as she as sitting still and breathing.
Nate, again, is into everything. Today he managed to get his head caught in the kiddy potty seat, scale the kitchen counter and climb a ladder in the garage. Honest to goodness, this child is going to turn my hair grey. Okay. Grey-er. But still.
Sam is into whining. And whining. And whining. I've thought about investing in a taser to shock him every time I hear him turn a one syllable word into a six syllable, multi-tonal word. But I really don't think it would work and I wouldn't want to waste my money.

Things aren't that different from normal - it's just that we have spent the last two weekends away - one in Rochester and one in New Hampshire. It's a bit of a let down to be home again, I think. Mama and Dad pale in comparison to spending time with Grammy & Grampy and Nina & Pops The kids got to see some friends in Worcester - we've been hearing "I miss my old house," and "I miss Michael and Dominic," and "I want to go to Ria's house," and "When are we going back to Bow Lake?" rather frequently.
I think getting back in the routine of school will be a good thing.

Some good news is that, with the advent of the wonderful baseball season, I have been able to make some serious progress on my Winnie-the-Pooh baby quilt. I know this is my last shot - so I HAVE to get it done. All I have left is the backstitching and putting on the backing - which will be the most challenging part. It's nice to see 6 years of on and off work coming to completion. =-)
In the meantime, here is SuperDestructiNate preparing for takeoff!