Playing catch-up on funny kid quotes

9/1/15 Arianna
"I had the weirdest dream. It was a stormy night, and it was raining - of course. And someone was IN LOVE with me! And he was like 2 or 3 years old and he kept trying to kiss me on the cheek!"
Did you love him back?
"Well he had 3000 moms and 10 dads and 3000 grandmas and 2 grandpas"
So did you love him back?
"Not so much"

1/4/16
K: "Mommy my butt hurts"
Me (dubious she knows what that is): "Oh really? Where is it?"
K: points to butt with middle finger

1/4/16
Me: why is there a sock in your toy bus?
K: the ponies are cold!

1/3/16 I was telling Arianna that the ham was frozen. This is Karina's reaction: "Frozen? Let it go?!"

1/6/16
"Mommy, I need a tissue. Me bless-you-ed" -K

1/6/16
Wednesday night at church Karina saw a smart car and gasped and said "baby car!"

2/7/16
Should I be worried if Karina is "napping" and I hear squeaky crib springs, then "Blast off!...I'm doing it!"

"Mommy, why didn't God make skunks fake?" -R

2/17/16
We were just talking about American Idol, I was explaining it, then why they can't watch it. So I said they're "not kid songs" on the show. So Marissa said "so they sing songs like 'oh, the god Buddha is truuuuue'"

2/24/16
"Me need water. I need water" -K

3/10/16
K is pretending with ponies and they are arguing "yes me am! No me not!"

4/2/16
"I just freaked out!"
"The grape has a freckle!" ~K (2 year olds are hilarious)

"Do you know what personal space is?"
"Yes, but it's boring!" ~Arianna

"My future self is way smarter than my past self, even if it's only by 30 minutes" ~Marissa, reviewing Timeline for Classical Conversations Memory Master.

4/3/16
"I ayowda sing!" Karina's new argument ("I allowed to sing!") When other siblings don't want her to sing frozen songs over and over and over

4/15/16
"Me not need pants!" -Karina

4/18/16
Dan: Rarity (a pony) lights up and is pretty like you!
K: Me not light up!

4/19/16
K keeps leaving my room, then peeking in the door. R is cuddling with me and every time she peeks in he asks her to cuddle with us. finally he just asked her "why do you keep popping in without an answer?"

K is helping me. I asked her how it's going. "Super great! Not a little bit very well."

5/3/16
Cuddling in my bed with Karina this morning after waking up too early, I heard a big wistful sigh, then "I wish I had a bess (dress)"

5/8/16
Karina: "I have a be-ess!" So excited to wear a dress on Sunday that she turned it into two syllables.

5/12/16
K just put her hands on my face and said "you're the best mom ever"  Whether or not she knows what she said, it was adorable.

5/18/16
"Me got a big big problem. No Bretts here and no little mermaids here." (Brett is a babysitter who played Ariel in the little mermaid play we saw a few weeks ago) -K

6/13/16
I was just telling A about my friend Megan's birthday coming up. And she asked "does she use ACT to clean her teeth" and M finished for her "Megan doesn't know that coffee breaks down tooth enamel. Thankfully she uses ACT restoring mouth wash!" (from a commercial)

7/something/16
K just fell and hurt her butt. She cried & cuddled for a while and I said "I'm sorry" to her. She said "it's not your fault, it's the blue thing" (the bucket she fell on)

7/11/16
K was climbing on a chair with slats at the rec center and her foot started to fall in between. She suddenly whined "this not going well!" in a panic.

7/12/16
Just painted A's nails. She chose gold. Her exclamation when they were done "there's gold in them there fingers!"

I handed K her ketchup at dinner and she said "way to go on timing" cuz she had just gotten a fry out! Lol

7/18/16
K, about to try,  "Potty here I come!"
I told her to put her shorts on,  "Shorts it is!"

7/23/16 Karina at M's 1st soccer practice of the season
"Soccer is my not favorite"

"I wanna go in the car. It's scary here. It has ants and flies. And the car doesn't have ants and flies."
"They're practicing soccer long long long long long long time so them is done!"

For my own memory, here are a few things going on lately:

• My sister Rachel just had her first baby last week. Alana had a great first few days, then started having seizures. She's in the local children's hospital NICU and they're still trying to figure out what exactly is going on. My parents are here visiting, and we've all been at the hospital on and off. Rachel and Jared are staying near the hospital for now. So overwhelming and scary!
• We got hardwood-looking laminate flooring put down on our entire first floor. It was such a pain! But it looks gorgeous and I love it!
• The 3 big kids just finished 2 weeks of swimming lessons and are all finally getting pretty good!
• We've had our house on the market for about a month. We had a few showings early on, but nothing in a while, which is discouraging. I have several houses I'm in love with, but we can't make a move on anything til we sell our house! We're not planning to move far, I would just love a little more space!
• The school year is starting soon, and I'm going to be a Classical Conversations tutor for a young Foundations class. I'm a little nervous about the music and science experiments, but I think it'll be fun once I get into the swing of things!
• M will be starting 5th grade, A will be starting 2nd grade, R will be starting Kindergarten, and K is about to turn 3. I took the crib down last month and put it on the curb. It's the end of babies for us. It's very bittersweet. Babies and toddlers are my favorite. But I feel like I have my hands full, and look forward to doing fun things with the kids as they get older.

Summer 2015

6/25/15
"Mommy, don't look now but on her birthday your baby is about to be a toddler" -Arianna about Karina

6/27/15
"Mommy, do you wanna play soccer with me?"
"Yes, Roman, I'd love to play soccer with you!" (never thought I'd say that!)

8/5/15
Arianna prayed to ask Jesus in her heart.

8/7/15 - Karina is 23 months, but acting so much older!
Last night was bath night, but I left around 7 for my Mother's Day mani/pedi (finally). Karina was kinda sad so I snuck out. This morning when she woke up, she snuggled with me for a bit then said "Mommy! Daddy did bath me!"

After breakfast Roman was in the bathroom for a bit then came out. She said "Min done bafroom?"
(She says Min for Roman, Nyanna for Arianna, Sha-sha for Marissa, and Me for Karina lol)

8/17/15

Today we started school! Marissa started 4th grade, Arianna started 1st grade (but 2nd grade math), Roman is continuing Pre-K, and Karina is just our distraction! We'll start slowly, since CC (Classical Conversations) doesn't start up for another 2 weeks. This will be an interesting year with Marissa starting the Essentials program through CC, and Roman joining the girls learning Foundations Cycle 1 material. Hopefully we can find a routine and get into a good rhythm, because so far today was rough! We didn't spend a ton of time on schoolwork today, mainly just introduced the books, and talked about the plan for the year. After lunch, the big 3 had book time, and now they are working on typing lessons. Roman had his first typing lesson, which was funny because he's still learning his letters haha. Once CC and Essentials start, we'll be working a lot harder and longer each day, especially Marissa and I in the afternoon doing Essentials.

Memories

I'm feeling stressed. I want to remember everything. I want to remember the night when Roman (4) poked his face into the crack in our door at 9:45pm wearing a spiderman mask. I want to remember the dinnertime when Arianna (6) figured out the trick to "Johnny Johnny Johnny Johnny Woops" before anyone else. I want to remember Marissa (9) saying there were just so many babies she was going crazy cuz she loves babies/toddlers so much. I want to remember Karina (21 months) laying her head on my chest and being goofy with me, trying to close her eyes.

But my memory is terrible. So I'm writing these things down, and taking zillions of pictures on my phone, and posting about everything on Facebook. So while I make 16 meals each day, and make comments about how much I want a wall of silence, I am acutely aware of how wonderful these years are and how much I'll miss them.

Will I forget what it feels like for a tiny toddler body to cling to me like a monkey when they don't want to let go?

Will I forget their giggles and goofy wild games on the living room floor?

Will I forget the wafting of pee-filled diapers coming from the diaper trash? (I hope so.)

Will I forget the scent of freshly washed toddler hair?

Will I forget how much I want to freeze time in these precious years, yet rush ahead to the less physically demanding years?

I already miss the baby days. And the toddler days are quickly passing. I'll never get them back. So I guess I'd better find a new favorite stage.

Easter 2015

Catching up - Fall 2014

I found this old draft that I never finished. Guess I'll post it!

8/28/14 - Karina turned 1.
Roman at dinner "Uh Mommy, I have a water problem!" He had spilled it in his tray.

9/6 - K took her first step! She was standing next to Marissa's chair and Marissa scooted it away so K was standing alone and she was so distracted she took a single step toward Marissa.

A: Mommy can we have a treat?
Me: We'll see...
A: No, I need a firm answer!

Goofing around on the bed together...

M: Karina, don't knee my platter!" (meant bladder)

Roman: "Eenie meenie minie moe, which one has a bow?"

Watching liberty kids, soldiers are talking about tour of duty. Roman says "haha! He said duty!"

Arianna and Roman were playing with animals and people and Arianna says "wait for it..." as she makes twilight sparkle do a flip or something. Then Roman says "do it in slow mode, I didn't see it"

End of summer 2014

Well, tonight I have been dealing with a bout of mastitis due to Karina not nursing much during our busy Sunday. I had a low fever, major headache, and achy legs. I napped a little this afternoon, which is probably why I am still awake at 2am!

It's hard to believe summer is drawing to a close and it's almost time to begin another year of homeschooling. It's been a good summer, full of lake house visits with NY family, Marissa getting baptized, swimming lessons, VBS, and beginning a membership at a local recreation center. Marissa finally came into her own with swimming this year, and can tread water, swim underwater, float to rest, and is learning the crawl. She finally gets why swimming is so fun! Roman is a pro at maneuvering around deep water wearing his froggy life jacket, and Arianna is finally venturing beyond her comfort zone to duck her head under. We plan to keep swimming at the rec center so they can progress even further in their water skills.

Karina will turn 1 in a few weeks and I'm struggling to hold onto her babyness. She has 4 big front teeth, not much hair, and the cutest grin. She doesn't like to sleep longer than 2-3 hours at a time (even at night), but I try to remind myself that I'll miss nursing her like crazy and getting to kiss her cheeks every 2-3 hours all night.

I started attempting to get some running exercise in this summer. After 4 babies, my super skinny days are over and I'm finally resigning myself to actually needing some exercise. So far I still hate it and am really bad at it, but that's mainly because it's so hard to find time to do it kid-free. I'm hoping the rec center membership will help in that area.

This year Marissa will be in 3rd grade, which is weird because I actually have memories from my 3rd grade year. Arianna will officially begin kindergarten (although she is reading fluently thanks to her big sister and completed her K math book already), and in my spare time (HA!) I hope to do some preschool activities with 3-almost-4 year old Roman. I'm sure this year will be challenging because of teaching 2 kids instead of just 1 and dealing with a toddler and 3-4yr old, but I'll do my best and that will have to be good enough.

We are using Classical Conversations again this year, doing new-to-us Cycle 3. It's our final year before Marissa starts Essentials and next year Roman will join the fun as well. This year Roman and Karina will be in the nursery together, which will give me the freedom to roam between both big girls' rooms.

Marissa and Arianna will start their second season of soccer this fall. They were in a short season this past spring, and both decided it was something they wanted to do again so we signed them up in the homeschool league. I'm looking forward to them having fun, but not looking forward to the soccer part since I still hate it! I will try to embrace being a "soccer mom" for their sake though, and Roman and Dan love watching them play. I wish Roman could play in their league too because he is crazy good for a 3 year old (so says Dan). I'm really hoping for NO RAIN every Saturday!

Our church recently had a big push to raise funds for a new children's area to be built, and as of last week, God provided OVER the requested amount. It's an exciting time in our growing church and I can't wait to see the new building completed.

I don't expect to ever get back to blogging on a regular basis, but I do like to fill in the blanks when I can. The cooking/dishes and laundry of a family of 6 are enough to kill me, to say nothing of TIME, especially during the school year. I wouldn't trade it for anything, but I wouldn't say no to a maid or cook!

Things to remember - early 2014

-How Roman wants to cuddle all the time, especially at breakfast, lunch, dinner, and bed time
-Arianna says "You Nork" instead of New York
-When Roman is scared, he says "Mommy, I scary!"
-The way Karina softly rubs my belly, arm, and chin and holds my finger while she nurses
-The intimate chats Marissa and I have while I wash her hair
-How Roman keeps informing me that I "*gasp* have a big bottom" and he has a "yittle" bottom
-How Roman says the plural of some things: "mouth-iz" "wolf-iz"
-How Roman can't say the sss sound, but only sometimes: "horry"= sorry, "hissors"= scissors, "webhite"= website, "mommy, can we watch hid the hience kid?"
-Slushy = "flushie" (R)
-Arianna, after getting a giant push on the swings: "That, like, really freaked me out!"
-"Is today March twenty-tooth?" -A
-Karina is 7 months old now! She was rolling around the living room and suddenly sat up again! She's not sleeping well, but is finally slowly eating more solids.
-Arianna said "I triple pegasus promise!"

Karina update

Karina woke up this morning saying "dadadada" - she is almost 6 months old. No matter how many babies I have, I'm never prepared for how fast they grow up. She's delightful in every way. She's happy almost all the time, and if she's upset, it's always an easy fix. She grins at her siblings like crazy and they all adore her, fighting to sit in front of her and talk baby talk to her. Karina is close to sitting up on her own, and rolling around everywhere. She plays with anything she can get her hands on, and that usually involves eating it. She nurses about every 1.5 hours if she's awake, and takes two solid naps of about 2-3 hours, plus an evening cat nap. She's not sleeping all night, but I still get a few good chunks of sleep most nights and she goes right back to sleep after nursing. She's very destractable and adorable when she nurses, grabbing my face, lips, hair, the nursing cover, and anything she can get her one hand on. I finally gave in and put her in the nursery at church and she's happy for a little while, but every time so far they've had to page me a few times. I think she's a mommy's girl, and I won't lie: I kinda love it.

Roman is 3!

Drinking asparagus soup with straws, "I made a mess on my forehead!"
The Tuesday night before Roman's 3rd birthday, the girls were sick and I was worried Roman was next. He started crying in the middle of the night, so I went to check on him cuz he never wakes up at night. We ended up cuddling and goofing off at least 4 times throughout the night, and I loved every minute of it. At one point I was just looking at him and he whined "me too", which is how he says "i love you back" sometimes, but I hadn't even said it yet. I can't believe my tiny preemie baby boy is so old and smart and talkative!
I put him down for nap/rest time and he was fine. A few minutes later, he started whining so I went in to see why. "Mommy, you cuddle with me?" How could I resist that?!
Roman, while watching ice skating on tv, "I have arms. That boy has hands like I do." "You're adorable.""I not 'dorable, I a big boy!"

A: "Let the show commence! That's a fancy word for begin."

R - potty training! The first day and a half was awful and I had pretty much decided to give up and try again in a few weeks/months. Then suddenly he totally got it and has been doing awesome! He is adorable running to the bathroom yelling "I go potty really bad!" And he's really only had one accident since then and that was because we forgot to remind him. The only weird thing is he hasn't pooped in the potty yet. Not for lack of trying, but I put a diaper on him for nap and he is now only pooping at nap time. Lol. I'm sure he will be fine eventually though.

A: "I don't even LIKE lettuce!" [While pointing her finger at herself]

Karina is 4 months old and so adorable! She's rolling like crazy and starting to sleep on her belly no matter what I do. She's still a great sleeper and all around a happy girl. She weighed 12#11oz and was 25.5in long at her checkup.

Christmas was kinda crazy but fun. It was just our "little" family (which isn't so little anymore!) But I just mean no relatives. The grandparents and great grandparents showered the kids with gifts and EVERYTHING was a huge hit. They exclaimed over everything they opened and were just delighted the whole day.

Well even though this is kinda all over the place, it's time to post it or it'll never happen. I've been adding to it since Roman's birthday and planning to spend more time on it but oh well!

snippets 2

• This morning the girls woke up and played in their room, Dan was at a church event, and Karina slept late after nursing at 8:30am. I went into Roman's room and cuddled with him for a bit. Then we went to my bed and read book after book after book. Love that sweet boy.
• Yesterday morning on our way to CC, Marissa asked why Merida from Brave wanted to "change her feet" - "change her fate" with a Scottish accent. Haha!
• The other day I finally got around to giving the big girls their first piano lesson! Marissa learned cdefg on paper and every octave on the piano. Arianna learned cde on paper and every octave on the piano - and they both actually remembered what they learned so far. 

Snippets

• "Mommy, you leff it in my room, I foun' it!" -Roman calling me from nap to tell me I left my water bottle in his room.
• Last night Karina slept from 10pm until 7:30am without waking up! It was wonderful! She has only been waking up once anyways, but this was extra nice.
• Yesterday, Dan took Arianna to the store to grab a few things we needed. He took my van key off my key chain because he doesn't have a button unlocker. Well, yesterday he left for evening church early (as usual), and then later I loaded all the kids in the card to go to the rest of evening church. Only to find that he had never returned my van key and he had the valet key too! Needless to say, we didn't get to church! We watched The Incredibles instead - the kids' favorite movie!
• Fall Back (hour time change) was this past weekend, and I was worried it would screw us all up, but we have the best kids ever and all 6 of us got an extra hour of sleep!
• Before Halloween, Arianna was having a hard time decided what dress up outfit to wear and changed her mind several times. Roman had no trouble deciding on the Merida dress from Brave...for himself! Haha! I managed to convince him that a monkey was cool enough!
• A few days ago, I woke up to both big girls in my bed cuddling with me. Arianna fell back asleep for a long time and Marissa requested to go downstairs and start school early. She finished everything I usually have her do before the rest of us even had breakfast!
• Karina just turned 2 months old and had a well visit check-up. She weighed 10lbs 13oz (25th %) and was 23.25in long (80th %), making her the biggest 2 month old we've had by 1oz (M: 10#, A: 10#12oz), R: 8#9oz)). She grinned at the nurse til it was time for her shots. She hated them of course, and was so pitiful. She slept a lot that day, but when she was awake she was miserable - it seemed like her legs were sore because everytime she moved or I moved her or tried to nurse her, she screamed out in pain. The next day she was fine though!
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• *Note to self* Always remember the smell and feel of fuzzy baby hair after a bath!
• I've found myself getting very emotional while doing laundry - I have to pack away the tiny cute things Karina has already outgrown, and Arianna outgrew, and Marissa outgrew. Ugh. I need a steady supply of newborns for an indefinite period of time!
• Marissa's top two front teeth just fell out recently! Her smile is adorable!
• Marissa has started dotting her "i"s with hearts instead of dots. Her reasoning: Hearts are so much prettier than dots, don't you think?
• I took all 4 kids to a pumpkin/apple farm for a field trip with our CC group. I wore 4 week old Karina in my Mei Tai (baby carrier) and she slept the whole time! Phew!

• Conversations in the car last month:
• Marissa: What is that tent?
• Me & Dan: Um, a tent!

• Roman: My nose not moving!
• I turned around to see him trying to shove a pair of sunglasses upside down over his nose.

Welcome to the world, Karina!

• Karina Brielle was born August 27, 2013 at 2:47pm.
  
  I want to write out her birth story here so I don’t forget it:
  In the early morning hours (1-3am) of August 27th, I woke up feeling odd. I felt like I was leaking, so I got a towel to lay on, and tried to get back to sleep. I was having sporadic contractions, but they weren’t painful at all, but I really couldn’t get back to sleep either. Somewhere around 3-4am, I felt something “different”, ran to the bathroom, and then I knew for sure my water had broken. My sudden run to the bathroom woke up Dan, so we started timing my contractions using an app on my phone. They were 10-15 minutes apart and not painful for a while. Around 5am, they were 5-10 minutes apart, and I was definitely feeling them more than before. We started to think we should call our friends who were going to watch the other kids. So I got up to pack a few last minute things before we decided it was definitely time to call them. After I finished packing, I realized the contractions had basically stopped, and even when I had one, they weren’t painful at all. It was weird, but my water was still broken so we knew it would be sometime that day.
  When the girls came into our room that morning, we told them Karina would be coming sometime that day. Marissa said “It doesn’t seem like a special day, but it’s gonna be!” They were thrilled, and we decided then to call our friends to pick up the kids. Their kids and our kids had all been looking forward to it for a loooong time, so we knew they were in good hands and would enjoy the day/night with them. They came to pick them up around 8:30am, and Dan and I had breakfast then headed to my regularly scheduled doctor’s appointment that week. They did some test on the fluid and confirmed that my water had broken. The doctor also checked me and said I was at 5cm already! That was a shock because for every other baby, I was at a 2 for one check, then the next thing I knew I was at 10 and ready to push. So being at a 5 was odd. At this point I was having a contraction every once in a while and they were slightly painful, but not much. I went 45 minutes-1.5 hrs in between some of them. We decided to head on over to the birth center in case things picked up quickly (like in the past).
  We got there around 11 and got the same room that both Arianna and Roman were born in. They had the tub filled up already, per my request. The nurse started my IV (for GBS+) and I got my first (and only) dose of that. We ordered lunch and just sat around waiting for things to pick up! I was having sporadic contractions, but nothing I had to struggle through, and they weren’t very consistent.
  I called my mom around 1:20 and we chatted for a bit. During our phone call, I had a few contractions that were finally hurting enough to let me know I was actually in labor. I labored on my hands and knees on the bed and around the room for a little while, and the nurses listened to Karina a few times. I don’t remember what time it was, but I decided to get in the tub at some point – maybe around 2:20? As I was on my way in, the nurse wanted to check Karina one more time. While she was trying, I had a BAD contraction, more fluid leaked, and I could barely stand up.
  I got in the tub, and was still having hard contractions, but I got a few minutes of relaxation in the water before things really got bad. I had maybe 2-3 contractions in the water, and dang, they really hurt! At this point I was on my hands and knees, with my hands up on the edge of the tub and my legs behind me. Then suddenly I wanted to push! I pushed one, looooong, EPIC push (at one point the midwife yelled to stop pushing but I couldn’t, then told me to grunt through it – apparently Karina’s hand was up by her face and she was worried I’d tear really bad), and she was out at 2:47pm! The midwife caught her behind me and I didn’t tear at all! The midwife rested Karina on my back for a minute, and then they all helped me stand up so they could pass Karina through my legs so I could hold her. She was super slimy and got slime all over my IV site. She cried pretty much right away (which doesn’t always happen with water births), and was LOUD! I told Dan to run and grab the camera, and we got a few nasty pictures of her fresh out in the world
  I held her on my chest for a little while in the tub, but the cord was pretty short so I was having trouble keeping her out of the water enough, plus she was screaming her guts out – we couldn’t even talk over her! Dan cut the cord, and then the nurse took her so I could get out of the tub. I felt so dirty (and actually pretty good) that I asked the nurse and midwife to help me clean up a little before I got out! So I stood up and they helped me shower. Haha. Then I climbed out of the tub and walked to the bed where the midwife delivered the placenta. Then I held Karina for a long time and she even nursed for a while. It didn’t take her long to get latched on. I think after that the nurse came and weighed her and checked her all out again. She weighed 7lbs 4oz and was 19 1/4 inches long (they measured her much later though).
  It was by far the weirdest of my deliveries, since it kinda took a while to get going. But it was still very fast once it actually started. Maybe 1 1/2 hours total? And of all my deliveries, I felt the best after this one. I wasn’t really sore at all, and I actually felt better afterwards. My muscles and back had been so sore for so long – it was just a relief! I immediately slept better too! Well, the first night she was up a lot obviously, but I still was much more comfortable sleeping than I had been in months!
  Because she was born so quickly, I never got the second dose of the GBS+ antibiotic (story of my life apparently). So they had to check her blood over and over (poor thing kept clotting, so they had to re-do it several times), and we had to stay an extra day to “observe” her. I was so ready to go home (it was BORING at the hospital! haha), but it was nice to have food brought to me and just do nothing for a while. The food was actually really good, and they serve a lot at each meal, which is awesome for me. Dan picked up the kids Wednesday night after the first night of AWANA (our friends took them there), and my parents and sister drove into town Wednesday night too. I was by myself at the hospital after that, and around 1am I had to move down the hall so someone else could have the birthing room. Thursday after lunch, we finally got discharged and my parents and sister came with Dan and the kids to take us home!
  At this point I still felt great. My only complaint was sore and bleeding from breastfeeding, but I expected that after living a nightmare with Marissa and Arianna as babies (not with Roman since I was still nursing Arianna at the time, plus he was in the NICU so I was pumping like crazy). Thursday, Friday, and Saturday were fun days spent with family. We even all went to see Monsters University at the cheap movie theater.
  Sunday morning I felt great, so we all went to church together, 5 days after Karina was born. Towards the end of small group, I started to feel really really cold. I thought I was fine, since I’m always cold in church. After small group ended, I took Karina downstairs to nurse her in the nursing room. At this point, I was visibly shivering and realized I might have a fever. I was also in TONS of pain every time I nursed her, so I thought maybe I was getting mastitis (again, not something I wanted to repeat). After I cried/nursed her, I went upstairs and met Dan on his way down to check on us. I handed Karina to him and went outside to stand in the hot sun. I was still sooooo cold, that he gave Karina to my sister in church, and we went outside to sit in the hot car to try to warm me up. I knew I wasn’t “just cold” from being in church, but I didn’t think it was that bad. Dan sat with me in the car for a while, but he was positively dying of heat, so I sent him inside and told him I was doing better, which I was starting to warm up a little. After about 45 minutes in the hot car, I suddenly was so hot I couldn’t stand it. I was sweating buckets and desperately needed some water to drink, but my water bottle was empty. I texted Dan, and my sister brought me out some water to drink. Church was over at this point, so we all went home and I landed on the couch. Dan took my temperature and it was 104 so he called the nurse/midwife after hours number and they said I needed to be seen in triage at the Women’s Center. So Dan, Karina, and I went back to the hospital. Boooo. They checked me out and did an ultrasound, where they thought some lining was still too thick for 5 days post-partum. They decided I needed a D&C to get rid of the infection I obviously had, but someone was having a C-section so we had to wait for the OR and my doctor. We timed it so that I nursed Karina really well just before I went in for the procedure. As long as Dan was with me, I could also keep her with me. I would only have to pump/dump once after the surgery and then she could nurse. My parents came down to the hospital too, while my sister kept the rest of the kids. So while I was under (breathing tube and everything – yuck), Dan and my parents consoled poor starving Karina. I was adamant that she not get any formula/bottle, and she made it through just fine - it was probably about 4-5 hours. Once I came out, I immediately pumped (a ton!) and then tried to wait for some milk to come back so she could finally nurse again! It was a rough few hours for Dan and my parents, rocking her and doing everything they could think of to keep her asleep and calm. And then once I was out, it was a rough few hours while I tried to let my milk build up again, but she just wanted to nurse and nurse and nurse. But I was still in so much pain from breastfeeding that I couldn’t let her, but she just wanted to nurse! I tried to make her wait at least 30 minutes in between feedings, but there still wasn’t much milk for her. Finally around midnight she got a good long filling feeding in, and we were able to sleep. This entire time I had an IV and was getting antibiotics every 6 hours. They were watching my temperature to make sure it didn’t spike again, but I already felt 100% better and totally fine. All day on Monday (Labor Day, her due date!), Dan and I sat around waiting for the word on when we could go home. It seemed like the longest day ever – we just watched tv all day! But finally before dinner they let me go! After having an IV for 24 hours, my arm was actually the most painful part of my body, with breastfeeding pain a close second. I also had a very sore throat from the breathing tube, and very sore neck and jaw (possibly also from the breathing tube, or possibly from tensing up from the pain every time I had to nurse her). I had to laugh about all my pains though, since NONE of them had anything to do with pushing a baby out!
  Since we’ve been home, we’ve had wonderful friends bringing us meals, and after my parents and sister left on Tuesday, Dan’s parents came that Friday for the weekend. As of today, 15 days post-partum, my only complaint is slight sharpness when she first latches on. This is HUGE compared to past nursing experiences, and I’m already loving snuggling with her and actually sleeping in normal positions without crying.
  I’m trying my hardest to enjoy every moment of this sweet newborn girl, since most likely this will be our last baby. I think I’m finally ok with that, since this pregnancy was so much more uncomfortable than the others, and I will never forget that giant EPIC push. But I will always miss these newborn days, especially when I’m not in pain anymore (especially nursing pain). I love love LOVE newborns, kissing newborn cheeks, snuggling a newborn in a froggy curl on my chest, even nursing in the middle of the night. So I’m soaking her in and letting other things fall behind. Because right now SHE is much more important than laundry or a picked up living room.
  The kids love her too. The girls are sweet and sing her songs, but Roman has surprised me the most. Every waking moment, he has to know where she is, what she’s doing, if she needs to eat “mommy’s milk”, he wants to see her arms if they’re hiding, he wants to kiss her forehead, and hold her all the time. He is the sweetest proudest big brother ever. I can’t believe I’m a mom to 4 kids, and they’re the sweetest most wonderful kids in the world.

August?!

How can it possibly be August already?! I'm almost 36 weeks pregnant, and each week goes by so slowly, but I'm surprised it's August. I've blocked out the whole month from other activities and appointments (except for mine every week of course), and we'll be starting school soon so hopefully we can get a little done before it's baby time.

This morning I got up and went to a kids' clothes sale nearby. Got a bunch of stuff for Roman, who really needed the most, and a few things for each of the girls. Roman is still barely wearing 2T right now, and even then sometimes his pants fall right off his butt. But I got him a bunch of 3T stuff (with adjustable waistbands!) that should hopefully carry him through the fall/winter. Arianna is growing out of 4T, which is surprising me, and into 5T, which is coming straight off Marissa's rack in the closet! It's pretty handy since I don't even have to pack things away in between them. Haha. Marissa is around a 6, but also has a problem with pants since her legs are so long but her waist is so skinny. Right now I've got a load of tiny baby girl clothes in the washer and once they're clean, all we need is a dresser (Ikea run!) and she can come! I'm so ready to be done, but want to make sure she doesn't come early like Roman, so for now I have to be patient. One more week or so and I'll feel better about wanting to be done!

Marissa has been whining about how the summer went so fast. She says she misses her friends (at our CC group), but I can tell she's not that excited about starting back to school. Arianna is though - I'll be doing some preschool with her, depending on how everything else goes! She's already at preschool level on many things, so it'll be pretty laid back. But we did get her school supplies that she's excited to use.

Roman is talking like crazy lately. I love hearing him discover new ways to communicate, and his voice is so cute saying things like "Roman's fault" and "No, YOU'RE a goober"

There's a list a mile long of things I wish we could get done around the house before K is born. But most days I can barely get through doing the bare minimum, and I feel bad putting it all onto Dan, so it's probably not all going to get done. I've checked a few minor things off the list, and there are a few I know we'll be working on together. But after that I think I just have to give up on my list. It's mostly organizing junk anyway, so it can wait. Although the junk is really getting on my nerves, I am just in too much muscle pain to go crazy with nesting.

I'm really enjoying the quiet of nap time today. Dan took Marissa out bike riding, so I don't have my usual chatterbox next to me. Haha! Arianna isn't sleeping (she only sleeps once every few weeks lately) but she's playing quietly in her room, and Roman isn't sleeping (he only sleeps once or twice a week - boo!), but he's calm and happy to play in his bed with his stuffed animals for now. I really wish he took naps more regularly, because once K is born, I'm really going to need them (for him AND me!). At least he's good at keeping himself happy, just like he always has been.

I think since everyone's occupied, I'll see if I can check something off my big list before I get too tired today!
(Yesterday Marissa tried to copy my use of the word "occupy" and ended up saying "octopi" instead!)

Ugh

2nd week of swimming lessons, and I'm so incredibly frustrated with my girls. Marissa has been getting progressively better, even though I know she can do more than she is. But Arianna is boggling my mind. Despite having almost one-on-one attention, the girl who is typically afraid of NOTHING is terrified to do ANYTHING in the water. She started out the first week doing pretty well, but suddenly this week it's like she's never heard of this thing called "swimming" before. I have tried every bribing, reasoning, and threatening tactic and nothing seems to be working. I really thought having someone else teach them would help much more than my previous attempts. But at this rate, neither of them will even do a thing on their own, no matter how much I tell them it's supposed to be FUN! Ahhhhhhh!

Remember this

I'm writing this because I want to remember every detail about tonight. Dan's coming home from work late (OISF meeting), so it's just me and the kids. We did dinner, baths, and bedtime. Roman was crying for some reason, after I had put him to bed and was finishing up with the girls. So I went in to see why, since he's usually completely happy to go to bed. I asked him what's wrong when I went in, and he said "kiss" - so what was I to do? I gave him a kiss and a hug and a long cuddle (on the big boy bed waiting for him in his room) and put him back to bed in his crib. A few minutes later he started crying again. He's got me wrapped around every single finger, and he NEVER cries at bedtime, so I went back to check on him. He said "kiss" again and pointed to the big bed. So I scooped him up and took him to the big bed, where he pushed me down so I was laying down, then he put both arms around my neck. Then he rested both hands on either side of my face, and just stared at me. We cuddled like that for a long time, then I gave him a kiss as I was getting ready to get back up. Then he started kissing my cheeks and lips over and over and grinning. I asked him where he wanted to sleep "baby bed" or "big boy bed" (he knows the difference and thinks it's a funny argument to have at every nap/bedtime. He always says "baby bed" but tonight he pointed to the big bed and said "big boy bed." So I got ready to get up (it takes me a while lately), but he kept pushing me back down for more cuddles! Then Marissa shows up in his doorway, so I ask her what's wrong. She said "you said to always tell you this if it happened again: I feel sad, like I'm gonna cry." So I managed to extricate myself from Roman, promised him I'd be back in a minute, and went to give the girls each a long cuddle in their beds. Then I went back to Roman, clarified that he still wanted to sleep in the big bed, and then said I'd check on him in a few minutes. As of right now, I haven't heard a peep from his room (over the monitor) and he hasn't tried to open his door (it has a child-proof knob on it, but I'd hear him try it). It's hard to believe that he might actually be ready for a big boy bed. But he was the cuddliest sweetest little boy on the face of the planet tonight, and I don't ever wanna forget that feeling when he's 5 and bouncing off the walls or when he's 13 and stinky all the time, or 18 and grumpy and moving away. He will always be my sweet cuddly little 2yr old who is finally talking up a storm and I'm loving every second of it.

Catching up

Time to play catch-up again! It's Sunday, and tomorrow I will be 27 weeks pregnant! I'm home from church this morning because somehow I got this awesome head cold/allergies and I need a million tissues every second. Dan has it too, but not as bad, and he seemed mostly better this morning. Not fair! Haha.

We finished homeschooling for Marissa's 1st grade year and I'm so proud of how it went. I didn't go crazy with stuff, but I feel like she learned a lot, and so did I. The hardest part was dealing with Arianna and Roman when we needed to do school, but we were able to do things during naptime too, so that helped. Marissa did great on the standardized tests we signed her up for, not that we were surprised. We finished the math book (and did extra math towards the end), finished the phonics book (exactly to the day!), learned each letter in cursive (her handwriting is amazing!), and did lots of reading. She had typing lessons on the computer, and watched several PBS documentaries about elephants, lions, wolves, etc. - she LOVES those types of things. Add all of that to our Classical Conversations curriculum (that she memorized like a pro), and I feel like she got a well-rounded education this year. I'm not sure I'll ever be the type of homeschool mom who does school year round and incorporates schooling into every part of our day. But maybe that's ok. I'm looking forward to a school-free summer, aside from daily reading time. I feel like it's an important part of a kid's life to have a break, and I need a break too! Next year will be extra challenging because Arianna will be starting Classical Conversations and I'll start doing more preschool stuff with her, AND the baby will be coming right when the year is starting.

Arianna has turned into a hilarious awesome 4 year old. We talked to her pediatrician and took some drastic measures with her digestive issues (enemas and LOTS of miralax), and since then she is happier and eating better and just all around more pleasant to be with. She's finally wearing underwear because she actually poops in the potty (this was a LONG time coming). For a while, she was positively soaking the bed every night, even through a pull-up. I changed her sheets every day - it was ridiculous! But suddenly, she was dry for a week straight, and now she's even wearing underwear to bed. I can't believe how much she has grown up. She's super sweet and plays adorably with Roman (most of the time). The girls are still sharing the purple room in their own twin beds. There will be lots of bed-shifting going on in the next year or so, but eventually the 3 girls will share a room, and we'll have to get another twin bed to put in there with the bunk beds.

Roman is 2.5 and graduated out of his speech therapy/Help Me Grow program. Just in the last few months, he suddenly has so many words and is speaking in 3+ word sentences. He thinks he's hilarious, and he is! He is still super sweet and cuddly, and most of the time so obedient too - but he's definitely 2! His little tantrums break my heart, and I have the hardest time keeping a straight face to discipline sometimes! He knows he can always ask his sisters for help with things, and it makes me smile when they help him out. He's starting to ask to go potty lately, and I can see that we will have to address that this summer - although I'm worried about him regressing when the baby gets here, so we'll see how that goes. A few weeks back he had been climbing in the girls' beds and asking to go to sleep there. So we decided to try him out in a big bed. The double bed has been in his room since he was born, so all we did was take the frame out so it wasn't quite as tall. He was super excited about it, but when we tried to let him sleep in it he FREAKED out HYSTERICALLY! It was pitiful, so we gave in and put him back in his crib. He's not climbing out or anything, so we're not in a rush. We're doing it gradually now, and usually just sing and play on the big bed before putting him to bed. I'm not sure why it was so terrifying, but now we playfully fight about "big boy bed" and "baby bed" every time it's nap or bed time. The other day in the car, he suddenly said "mommy, doggy bite me!" and started giggling like crazy. I don't know where that story came from (because it definitely didn't happen), but it was hilarious and I want to keep him this age forever. I just love 2 year olds!

After 9 weeks of "discussion" we finally settled on a name we like for our baby girl, but I'll probably wait to announce it when she's born. It's unique enough for me, but normal enough for Dan. And there isn't another name in existence (that doesn't start with M, A, or R) that we agree on. So it's not changing! I'm definitely much more uncomfortable in pregnancy this time around, but it's still wonderful and I love it. I get sore under-belly muscles a lot, but the worst is if I'm sitting strangely for too long (like slouching in bed, etc), I get the WORST feeling in my butt and down my thighs. It feels like I'm sitting on a tennis ball, and getting up doesn't help, walking on it doesn't help, and it hurts when I put pressure on that side AND when I take pressure off that side (like switching which leg I'm walking on). Aside from that though, I feel great and so blessed to have complication-free pregnancies. I'm a little overly aware of my water breaking early, just because of Roman's water breaking so early. But there's no reason to expect it to happen again, so I'm just being careful.

We've got a busy summer ahead of us, starting with our 8th anniversary on Tuesday! Hard to believe we've been married for 8 years, but we've packed it full of life! I'll turn 30 this month (holy cow!) and it seems odd to me that we'll probably be done having kids when I'm 30. Most people nowadays don't even start til 30 or later. It will be nice to be done with diapers and naptimes (Arianna and Roman barely nap these days, so it's a peek into what life could be like with older kids!), but I'm worried I'll have a hard time being done with babies, and then being done with 2 year olds. I don't think I want more kids, but I think I will always want more babies and 2 year olds. Lol.

We're going to NY to visit my side of the family next week. We usually go later in the summer so we can enjoy going to the pool with them, but this was the only time that would work. Once we get back, the girls both are signed up for 2 weeks of swimming lessons and hopefully someone ELSE teaching them will work better than me teaching them. Haha! After that we have a week at home and then we're going on vacation with Dan's parents, and after that is our church's VBS. That brings us to August, which I have left completely open and free just in case, and for my sanity.

Then it's baby time! I have no idea what I'll do with all the little girl clothes. It's getting a little insane already, and we don't even have baby clothes out yet! I'm so excited to see what she looks like and hopefully the seasons won't be too off and most of the stored clothes we have will still work for her. I got rid of TONS of baby boy clothes already, but that barely made a dent in our clothes collection. It's ridiculous, but we'll probably start getting rid of things as baby girl grows out of them. So sad!

Well, I think I'll go take a hot shower and try to clear out my stuffy head a little. I'm not enjoying being sick, but I AM enjoying the peace and quiet while Dan and the kids are at church. This better clear up fast for our trip to NY this week!

Coming Labor Day 2013...

I'm pregnant! And I can finally share it! I hate keeping secrets, and a pregnancy secret is the worst! I had my 3rd miscarriage last November, so we wanted to be SURE before we told the kids. And so we ended up keeping it a secret from just about everyone we know until we knew it was safe. I didn't want it to get back to the girls, and then have to explain if something were to happen again. But I had a doctor's appointment yesterday, and heard the heartbeat again, so it was time to spill the beans! Marissa was SOOOOOOO excited, flipping out all day after we told them. Arianna wants to name it Balloon Boy or Faline. And Roman doesn't know what everyone's so excited about. But we're so happy! I'm 12 weeks pregnant, due September 2, 2013, which just happens to be Labor Day, which I think is so funny! It will certainly make homeschooling interesting, but we're so excited no matter what!

2013

I'm officially a failure at blogging. And I'm so used to typing on my phone (new Samsung Galaxy Note 2! Love it!) that I wait for auto correct to fix things on the computer! Arianna is sleeping, Roman is supposed to be sleeping, and Marissa is playing her My Little Pony game on the iPad (after some extra CC during naptime) so I'm going to try to get a quick update in!

• Still homeschooling, though we have yet to really get back into the routine of things after Thanksgiving and Christmas, and a super long break from CC. Marissa is starting to fight it, and seems to be getting bored with some things, so it's time to kick it up a notch! She understands most things so quickly, but also gets bored quickly. The only thing she's really struggling with is spelling, which we aren't even really focusing on. It's part of phonics to me though, and the English language is frustrating the crap out of me lately! Marissa totally understands phonics rules like long vowel/silent e. But uses them in the wrong words (rane=rain) and other than saying "it's just that way because it's that way" I don't know how to explain it any better. I like the phonics book  - it's very clear about rules/exceptions - I don't think that's the problem. It's just driving me crazy :-)
• I've been doing several pages of Kindergarten stuff with Arianna most days, and she whizzes through almost all of it. She can read most any CVC words and loves doing her "school." She'll turn 4 in February, and next year will start CC with us officially. Can't believe it! She's still very much a daddy's girl, and sometimes I just have to back away because I know I'm no good! She's still hilarious and full of imagination, so she and Marissa pretend pretty well together.
• Roman is finally starting to talk more and communicate things to us! It's been a long frustrating wait for it to happen though. The PACE therapist is still coming twice a month, though I don't really know for sure that it's helping - it certainly isn't hurting. He answers "good" when you ask how he is. He says "what" when you call his name. And knows the names of all of his favorite toys: cars, balls, truck, books, animal names - and most recently he's obsessed with the girls' My Little Ponies and calls them "moanies"  and makes them say "yee haaaww" - it's adorable! He's actually growing out of his clothes for a change, and with Christmas money from generous relatives, I fixed that problem :-) His winter coat is still a 12m, but in actual clothes he's wearing 18-24 month stuff.
• OH, ROMAN TURNED 2! He finally hit 21 lbs at his check up, and now I officially don't have any babies/toddlers in the nursery at church for the first time since Arianna was born. *sniff sniff*
• Speaking of Christmas, we had a wonderfully crazy holiday. My parents and sister and grandma drove out from NY for a (too short) visit, and then I randomly decided that I would drive back with them with the kids and visit for another week before CC started back up again. Unfortunately, Dan had to work in the middle of the holidays, so he couldn't come. Also unfortunately, we were predicted to get a GIANT snow storm here and then in NY too, during the planned traveling days. So at about 3pm on Christmas day, we decided we would try to leave ASAP before the snow hit OH and get to NY ahead of it. I hadn't packed a single thing, so I ran around like a maniac for 3 hours and we managed to leave at 6pm. We completely avoided all the snow, but didn't get to NY until 3am. But we left poor Dan all alone for the rest of Christmas AND his 30th birthday. We had a blast in NY though, and the kids loved playing in the snow. We got to see a bunch of extended family too, which was a bonus. The kids got SHOWERED with wonderful gifts from very generous family, and now I'm still working on finding our house and laundry room after all that chaos! (By the way, I LOVE shopping for clothes for the kids with Christmas present money. Haha!)
• Hmmm, I guess I never shared about this either: I had a miscarriage over Thanksgiving. We found out I was pregnant in October sometime (kinda forget now), but hadn't shared it with anyone. I got checked out kinda early for other reasons, and they were monitoring my levels (bloodwork - fun!) and the second they started to go down I just knew it. I had one good cry before we even found out for sure that it was over, and then I was ready to move on. Dan's parents came for Thanksgiving, which was amazing, especially since I was pretty much down for the count during that week. It was so nice to have the help, and the kids always love visiting with grandparents!
• I stopped babysitting the extra boys since they moved farther away. Roman was sad to not see the baby every week! He's so funny around babies.
• Roman also got his first haircut! Dan had a mowhawk at the time, so I went crazy and had Roman's hair cut into kind of a faux hawk. Roman thinks he is SO COOL when I gel his hair to look just like Daddy's! He begs me to do it and then goes around showing everyone!
• He's still an awesome sleeper, although it sounds like today he decided not to nap. Lol. He's singing and babbling away in his room, happy as a clam as usual. He was awesome even in NY, which surprised me, although it shouldn't have. He's just plain awesome.
• One of Marissa's main Christmas gifts from us was an mp3 player. She thinks she's so cool listening to music all the time, and we loaded it up with some of her favorites like Skillet and Flyleaf. Haha!

That's about all I can think of that's worth mentioning from the last few months. I'm giving up hope that I'll keep blogging regularly, but maybe I'll at least blog every few months? Haha!

*UPDATE* Can't believe I forgot to mention the best Christmas present ever: we got a DSLR! Again, thanks to generous relatives, we were able to find one we could afford, barely used on craigslist. It's a Canon Rebel t2i, and it's basically in perfect condition. The guy who owned it only used it once, and we got an extra lens and a giant carrying case and all the manuals for it. We've just been using it on manual mode right now, cuz I have no clue what I'm doing! But I hope to be able to learn how to really maximize the potential. It's already worth it though, because it takes pictures so quickly that the kids are actually not blurry and it takes much less time to get a good shot. I'm so excited to see where we can do with this new toy!

Well, we've been homeschooling for about a month now! It's going better than I expected with Marissa, and about what I expected with Arianna and Roman. I was expecting Marissa to fight me more when I asked her to work on things, but that really hasn't been much of an issue. She's interested in just about everything we work on, and works hard and relatively efficiently. We're on week 5 of Classical Conversations material, and so far I really love the program and community. We meet once a week, on Fridays, and Marissa's tutor goes over the new material for the following week, do a science project and art/music, and reviews previous weeks' material. Arianna and Roman do great in the nursery, and I enjoy talking with the other moms while we observe the class. It's challenging for me to learn the material, and fun for us to memorize it together. We have the CD of everything in the car, and even Arianna is picking up on a lot of it! We have separate phonics and math books, and they seem to be just about right for Marissa.
We start each day with breakfast and Super Why. Then we head downstairs to the schoolroom/playroom. Marissa and I work at the desk, and Arianna and Roman have a little table and play area. We work on memorizing the CC material, and learning map locations for CC. Then a few pages of math (she likes to do more sometimes!) and then some phonics/writing practice. I have her read word families, and we're reinforcing short vowel sounds right now. Then she writes sentences for some of the words we read, or I give her a "spelling test" with some of the words we read. Then (if Arianna and Roman let us have time) we expand on a subject. We've been making a science book about all the classifications of animals. This gives her a chance for some crafting (her favorite thing ever!) and is a little more fun than just memorizing the facts (which we get from CC). Usually by this time, Arianna and Roman are no longer playing nicely, so we head upstairs for free play before lunch. I try to keep them busy with puff ball games, coloring, balls, trains, and Arianna practices her letters on a white board or uses her alphabet tracing notebook. But this only lasts so long! It's definitely the most challenging aspect of homeschooling so far!
After lunch, I put Arianna and Roman down for nap (although Arianna seems to be getting out of this need, boohoo!), and Marissa and I have a while to ourselves. She does typing lessons on the computer, and we sometimes explore different areas on our globe and google information about it. Or she'll pick a topic she's interested in lately, and we'll explore that. One week we went to the Butterfly House at a local gardens, and so we researched Monarchs and everything about them. One day she informed me she wanted to learn how electricity works, so we attempted to figure that out. Lol. She wanted to learn how to tell time on an analog clock, so we've been working on that, and she plays a clock game on the computer to work on that. There's also tutorials and songs for CC material online, so we take some time to listen to those and work through the tutorials. Then she gets some free time on the computer while I get some free time, and her school day is over!
Today is Tuesday, which means I'm watching A (3 like Arianna) and R (5 months) for some friends. It means extra crazy days, and less actual school time, but we make up for it throughout the week. Right now I got all 4 younger kids down for nap (who knows if Arianna's actually sleeping though!), and Marissa is on the computer so I have some time to breathe. Haha. It's definitely challenging, but one day a week is definitely do-able, and they're good kids.
Roman is finally saying lots of words and getting a super funny personality, and it's so fun! He says bear, deer, doggie, ball, car, snack (na), mac (ma), mommy, daddy, bowl, and some others that I can't think of right now. He actually learned MINE today, from Arianna of course. Haha! He's so funny (especially around the baby) and still loves playing any kind of ball game, and driving his little cars around. He can be so goofy, and loves running around and crawling around (like jaguars) with the girls.
Arianna's still struggling with poop issues. But I'm not pursuing any kind of fix right now, just hoping time will help. She's so smart though, and I love watching her learn the CC stuff with us. She's getting really good at writing the letter A, and is very interested in writing her name.
Well, naptime is almost over and I need to prep for dinner tonight!

End of summer

Well, the summer's pretty much over already! This Friday starts our first Classical Conversations (CC) day, and officially kicks off our year of homeschooling for Marissa!We just finished up a fun weekend with Granny and Poppop, only a week after an extended trip to NY to visit with Grandma, Grandpa, Great-Grandma, and Rara. My PA grandparents, aunt and uncle from NH, and my brother and his wife also all drove to NY to visit while we were there. It's been a fun month of relatives, and we haven't had much downtime at all!
In NY, we spent a lot of time at the pool in the neighborhood that I grew up in, where my Grandma still lives. It felt so weird to go back there after all these years, and spend the afternoon swimming again! This year, by the end of our visit, all 3 kids finally started loving the water! Marissa finally gave up her floaties (after much convincing, and some "accidental" deflating - she hasn't actually needed them for a while), Arianna finally gave up on hysterical screaming, and Roman couldn't keep his face out of the water (as long as there was a ball nearby). I drove the kids out by myself (Dan used so much vacation time for Disney & Nicaragua, that he didn't have any left), and it went much better than I expected. We only stopped for dinner and gas, and made it in great time! The kids did great, and I didn't even go crazy! We spent one day at Toughannock State Park and ate lunch by the water, played on the playground, and hiked up to the falls with the kids.
Roman learned a bunch of new words while we were in NY (mail, bear, deer, birdie, fish, rara, and "grandma, grandpa" which both sound like rara, but he knew the difference). Just this week he also started saying car and poppop. He's still completely obsessed with all types of balls and games with balls. He now sleeps with a soft ball, and practices kicking and throwing balls against the walls. He's crazy good for a 20 month old (?!) and since I know I'm going to have to watch him play sports the rest of his life, I'm just glad he's so cute :-) He also discovered running while we were in NY, and he holds one arm sideways across his chest and runs so crazy!
Arianna's still having digestion issues, which means she's back in pull-ups so I don't go crazy. Wish we could figure this girl out, but I have a feeling we never will. She does everything 100% and all her emotions are extreme. I'm hoping we can do some school stuff with her and figure out how she works. Haha!
Marissa is excited about homeschooling, and we've started making a list of everything she wants to learn this year! I hope I'm up for the challenge...
I guess that's all for now!

Happy 4th!

Either life is too busy or I'm too lazy to keep this up. One or the other is true all the time. So I'll just start!
Yesterday I went shopping for 6 hours by myself. It was glorious. It was my treat because I survived 8 days of single parenting while Dan was in Nicaragua on a missions trip with church. I have quite a bit of birthday money, and I'm actually spending it slowly this time, instead of the usual "spend it all in one day then return things because I'm indecisive" thing I usually do. We also went to see fireworks with some friends last night til 11pm and the kids are all soooo tired today!
The month of June was crazy. Marissa had her last day of school and a school program. We had a few weeks of nothing, then we DROVE to Disney World with Dan's parents and bro & sis-in-law for a week. The kids did SO GREAT, and it was so much fun. But it was exhausting! Then we drove back through the night on Friday, and Dan left for Nicaragua Saturday morning for 8 days. It was hard to be without him, but my college roommate (Laureann) came for a few days with her two boys, and we had dinner with some friends, so that helped break it up. We have this week to catch up from that, and then next week is VBS (I'm watching babies again of course), the next week is "practicums" for me and Marissa to prepare for Classical Conversations homeschooling which starts the middle of August. And after practicums, I'm driving the kids to NY for a few weeks for an extended visit with everyone. I'm really excited about that visit, just not so much about the 9 hours of driving with no adult backup! Dan's taken so much time off from work in June that he just can't take any more yet.
Marissa's adjusting to being at home all day (and so am I). The kids play really well together most of the time, and when they're not, they're fighting of course! Marissa is in massive craft mode still, and makes the most creative things out of paper and tape. Lol. Arianna is doing pretty well with potty training - although we reverted to wearing a pullup all the time because of her ongoing poop issues. She's still on Miralax everyday, which usually does the trick, but for some reason it's not always perfect. Roman got a hold of her cup yesterday (while I was shopping, and Dan didn't realize which color cup was hers), and poor Roman had a miserable day with lots of nasty diapers! Arianna's talking so well, and copying Marissa like crazy. She knows all her letters and sounds, and busts out the most hilarious phrases, directly imitating the things Dan and I say (it's a good thing they're not bad phrases!). Roman still really only says "mommy" "ball" and barks and quacks. But he's trying. We're going to a class for him since he qualifies for help, but I'm not really sold on it, and am trying to get in-home help instead.
Roman and Arianna play like crazy together. And usually Arianna ends up knocking him down or injuring him in some way. While Dan was in Nicaragua, they were running down the hall, and A bumped R and he ran smack into the corner of the mudroom doorway with his forehead. It was BAD immediately, and I considered taking him to get stitches. It was super swollen but didn't really bleed very much, and it's scabbed over pretty well, so I think he's ok. But it was scary! He's still super sweet and cuddly, and such a wonderful sleeper. But he's definitely showing his age (19mo) lately...tantrums are starting!
This morning I turned in my weekly editing work for probably the last time ever! Between my vacations and their schedule and the ending of remote reviewers anyways, I am probably done. It was the most wonderful job for this time in my life and I loved the flexibility of it. But I will be soooo glad to have my evenings free after the kids go to bed!
I think that's all I can think of to update on. Wish I could have made the time to chronicle in detail our Disney trip, but at least we have pictures to remember it by! Maybe someday (in my free time - ha!) I'll get back to updating this more regularly. For now, I'm glad I at least do it once in a while.