Dec Does Stand Up

Declan was full of one-liners tonight that we don't want to forget. He was so funny and had us laughing all night.

**********************
Fiona: What's med school?
Me: Where you go if you want to be a doctor.
Dec: I don't want to be a doctor.
Me: What do you want to be?
Dec: I want to be Batman.
[this may be one of those "you had to be there" moments. But seriously, he had such a perfect delivery. We all burst out laughing and Mike spit watermelon across the table.]

**********************
Dec (after walking in on Mike in the bathroom): That your boy part? You squirt pee out of it!

**********************
Me: Time to brush your teeth.
Dec: I brush it my-self.
Me: Why do you brush them yourself?
Dec: Cuz my big.
Me: How big are you?
Dec: My grown up.

How We Holiday

Watching the snow

We've had a mostly lovely Thanksgiving holiday weekend. We decided to end it with 2 of the 3 kids throwing up. I'm feeling a little dicey myself, but I'm hoping that's just because I've been cleaning up vomit all day. Fingers crossed!

But before our weekend gathered around the toilet, we had a lot of fun. And actually, we had fun today. Q was a pretty upbeat puker - only upset when her stomach was as well. She didn't love being separated from her sibs all day, but she liked the one-on-one time! Dec just started feeling sick ... so I'm unclear how that will play out. 

Helping Mom shovel

It snowed on Tuesday night. It's really up in the air who was the most excited - the kids, the dogs, or me. We simply love the first snow (and many after that). We didn't get more than 2-3 inches and it's already melted away. But before it did, we played in it plenty. I took Wednesday off of work to prep for cooking on Thursday - and then picked all the kids up early. We headed straight outside when we got home and didn't go in until dinner!

Then on Thursday, we got to have Gma and Gpa J, Auntie, and Bugs' friend Makai and his family over for turkey. We greatly missed Gma and Gpa N and Gpa V, who stayed home because of illness. I'm sure I owe them all a turkey dinner and will happily pay up! The kids had a great time having a buddy over for the holiday and M's big sister found it more fun to oversee the kids than hang with the adults. So we watched football and played games all afternoon. It was lovely!

Our first snowman of the season

Mike had to work on Friday, but we got to keep Gma and Gpa for part of the day. We took them to our favorite new park and got soaking wet from the melt. However, we were the only ones there so had full reign of the zipline. It was totally worth it. Grandma, the girls, and I ventured out shopping briefly in the afternoon and the girls got a couple new Christmas dresses. By the time we went out, the stores weren't too crowded.

We spent the rest of the weekend putting up our Christmas decorations (poor Mike ... that December 1 rule seems to have gone by the wayside this year), watching our buddy J play hockey, playing our own hockey with snowballs in the road, and not feeling the greatest. Oh, and we also got a visit from our favorite North Pole elf - but I'll write more about that next time.

Street snow hockey

Grandpa on the zipline

Squad Goals

Mike and Brad had a somewhat early hockey game on Sunday evening - and it wasn't all the way across the cities. So Cheryl and I gathered up all the children and brought them to the game. Or we thought we brought children. I'm pretty sure they transformed into a herd of elephants once we got there!

Since it was an early game, there were several families there - all with kids around our kids' age. So it quickly became one big gang of small humans running up and down the length of the ice on the bleachers. The big kids had a blast and very sweetly included Declan in their escapades. C and I tried to keep count of humans and watched Hannah ... and the game.

The score was a bit lopsided (not in our favor), but Mike played really well and it was a fun game to watch. Hannah was ready for bed early in the third period so the Ps left. The kids and I hung out until the end. Because ... then they can watch the handshake line AND Daddy will skate over to see them. It makes their day to high five their daddy through the glass. He is truly their hero! 

[And I'm not going to lie, watching the Zamboni - and having the Zamboni driver wave to them - while Daddy changes is the most amazing thing. It may be even better than Dad at the glass. Don't tell Mike!]

Three Things

Fiona
Fiona has started chewing her finger nails. I blame Auntie. She desperately wants me to paint her fingernails and I've told her that I won't do it until she stops chewing her nails. The other two look like Wolverine (so I know when it's time to clip everyone) and F's are as short as can be.

She cracks us up with her expressions. Whenever something is weird to her, she calls it "creepy." She also says "seriously" all the time. And has even "Seriously, Dude"-ed me a time or two.

Fiona is learning two new songs in Sunday School and will be singing in church on December 18. She is super nervous, but also excited. Mike told her to pretend everyone was in their underwear. She told him that was "creepy." I told her to just look at me and pretend she was singing to me. We'll see version she chooses.

Quinn
For our child who doesn't forget a blazing thing, Quinn simply can.not remember to bring her coat home from school. By the end of the week, she usually has burned through both her coats, one of Fiona's coats, a sweatshirt or two, and perhaps one of Fiona's sweatshirts. Plus at least two hats and several pairs of mittens.

Quinn loves practicing her writing and drawing/coloring pictures. She's getting very good at her letters and is trying to learn to spell words. Fiona loves to try to help her. Depending on the day, the help is met with appreciation or annoyance.

Preschool has helped her gain a confidence and independence. She will still hang close to us [or on us] at times. But we are also noticing her adventurous nature emerging more. At Fiona's skating lessons or Mike's hockey game tonight, she enjoys nothing more than exploring the arena and running around with her friends.

Declan
Dec has learned to open doors. Which is a really fun development alongside the recent move to the freedom of the Big Boy bed. As our early riser, he has been known to wander into our room at very dark hours to ask if it is "wake up time." And is sent back to bed when it is not.

He is always singing. Usually not a song we know, but he's constantly stringing together words or gibberish and putting it to a tune. He has also been known to bust a move when a favorite song [or any good beat] comes on. And let me tell you, boy has moves! Mike better watch out or I'll have a new favorite dance partner!

He is ALWAYS hungry. He wakes up in the morning asking for food. He's asking for a snack within 45 minutes of a meal. He is also a total stringbean. If his pants fit in the waist, they are way too short. If they are long enough, they fall down. We have a shoelace belt and a basic disregard for fashion as our coping mechanisms.

Mike and Sara
Mike just completed his ITIL certification training and passed the final test. He worked really hard studying and this certification will be a good base for future career opportunities at his job.

I have my Christmas cards sitting in a box, just waiting for me to write the letter and address everything. Getting everyone's Christmas cards and putting them up on our coat closet is one of my favorite parts of the holidays!

I was at a funeral yesterday and the kids tricked Mike into playing Christmas songs on Spotify. And then they told me about it. That was pretty much all I needed as permission to break our [Mike's] "not until December 1" rule and start playing Christmas songs now!

A Day in the Life: Year of Three Drop Offs Edition

I’ve seen this Day in the Life concept documented on several blogs that I follow – and I’ve always wanted to do it. I’ve always hesitated out of fear that it will be so boring as Mike and I are at work for such a huge chunk of the day. As the Year of Three Drop offs/Pick-ups continues, I feel compelled to document our chaos so we can look back and laugh – or stare in astonishment that anyone ever got where they were going on time.

I selected a random day on the calendar a couple months ago – which now happens to be a day that Mike is in ITIL training (and therefore has a different/longer commute) and Bugs has skating. So this Day in the Life will be extra special-y special. And I guess it’s really a day in my life. We go five different places for the majority of the day – so you’re stuck with me. Buckle up – it’ll be fun!

6:00 am: Mike gets up and gets everything ready for Bugs’ flush. He gets her up, gets her hooked up, and brings her a bowl of cereal. Depending on our morning schedule, she either eats during her flush or after she gets dressed. Today was a “during flush” day.

6:10 am: I get up and get in the shower. My alarm makes a ridiculous beeping noise that throws me off. Then I realize that I normally have it set to the radio station and some little fingers seem to have reprogrammed it.

6:25 am: I get out of the shower and Mike gets in. I stay in the bathroom and continue getting ready.

6:33 am: I hear what seems to be a small scale riot in the other bathroom and go to check it out. Apparently Dec and Quinn are also now awake and have decided to “keep Buggy company” – which really means “try to play with her iPad.” D is also trying to steal F’s cereal. [I downloaded a free Easy Bake Oven app over the weekend. It’s the hottest thing in our house right now and they are all ob.sessed.] Bugs is not having it, so I bribe the other two with promises of a bowl of cereal and Mickey Mouse.

6:36 am: I was wrong. Mickey Mouse isn’t on. Miles of Tomorrowland is. Another small scale riot occurs while I try to reason with a 2-year-old. He suddenly loses interest in talking to me and becomes engrossed in the show. I head back to my room to get dressed.

6:41 am: Quinn shows up in our room sobbing because she wanted PJ Masks and not Miles of Tomorrowland. I talk her into sitting on our bed and keeping me company while I get dressed. She helps me pick out my outfit and we discuss the day.

6:50 am: Mike is dressed and heads to the living room to get a couple “hockey team captain” emails done. I pick out some clothes for Quinn. She starts crying again because the pants I picked are “itchy” – so I go pick out different, non-itchy pants.

6:55 am: Mike wrestles Declan into some clothes. I meet him in the hallway as I head to grab something in the dining room and he is heading to the bedroom to swap a “too big shirt” for a “baseball shirt.”

7:00 am: I’m closest to the remote so Mike yells at me to turn off the TV before PJ Masks starts. Because no one wants to have that argument! I literally chase Dec down to get his shoes on him, chase him again to wrestle him into his coat, and get his teeth brushed. While I do this, Mike is gathering all his stuff and feeding Yogi. Quinn is making her bed.

7:05 am: Mike and Dec head out the door. Dec is upset because Mike told him not to bring his water bottle in the car. I hand Dec’s water bottle to Q and ask her to run it out to the car for daddy. Crisis averted.

7:07 am: I help Fiona get off the potty and get her cathed. Quinn brushes her teeth and then lays on the floor with Fiona and chats with her.

7:13 am: Fiona heads off to get dressed. Q goes with her. I clean up the bathroom and the kitchen, get my lunch and Fiona’s snacks ready to go, and fill water bottles (normally we have Q’s too – but she forgot it at school yesterday).

7:17 am: Fiona shows up in the kitchen, half-dressed, to tell me that she lost one of her socks, but she didn’t really because it was right next to her on Dec’s bed, but she and Quinn spent the last few minutes crawling under all the beds looking for it and they found this red bracelet and isn’t that so funny, mom. And I take and deep breath and ask her to please hurry up and get ready (for the first of 97 times in the next 13 minutes).

7:21 am: I go check out the situation in the bedroom. Fiona is dressed (amen!) so I send her to brush her teeth and get her braces on. I make the beds and listen to the girls chat (and not brush teeth) in the bathroom. There is a lot of mirror admiring happening though.

7:23 am: I let Yogi out one final time, ask Quinn to get her shoes and jacket on, hurry Fiona on her teeth brushing, and start packing bags.

7:27 am: We are all standing on the landing, ready to go, when Quinn reminds Fiona that she gets to bring a toy to YMCA after care today (which both F and I had forgotten. So yay for Quinn!). So I run back up to their room to grab Clifford and we shove him in Fiona’s bag.

7:30 am: We are on our way across the street to drop Fiona off with Ms. Katie, who will walk F and Ev to the bus (which picks up at 7:51 am).

7:33 am: Q and I head to preschool and discuss the finer points of Daylight Savings Time and why it is always so dark when I pick her up. She also asks me if I remembered to let Yogi in. I confidently tell her "yes," pause, and then spend the next 30 minutes worrying that I forgot. Until I verify with one of the photos I took this morning that yes, that is his butt in the background and yes, he is inside. 

7:37 am: Arrive at preschool, give Q hugs and kisses, sign her in, and head to work.

7:58 am: Despite slow and rather heavy traffic, arrive at work just in time for my 8:00 meeting. My day is full of meetings.

8:27 am: Sneak out of meeting for 5 minutes to get a cup of coffee. Because our mornings are a giant Jenga game where the tower is always wobbling.

4:20 pm: Mike calls to tell me that his training class ended earlier than anticipated for the day. Which means he will pick everyone up, so I can head home and pull a quick dinner together.

4:47 pm: I leave work and talk to my parents on the drive home. It's really the only time where I can talk to them without being interrupted.

5:07 pm: I pull into the garage just as Mike is unloading the kids. Quinn runs out to get the mail and Declan hands me his empty snack cup, informing me that he would like it filled with new snack. Mike and I run around with our shoes and jackets still on to get everyone a snack, let the dog out, get everyone out of the gear, unload the backpacks, and start dinner.

5:18 pm: It's leftover night so dinner is on the table for the three kids. F and D picked leftover hotdish and Q went for the pork chop. Mike and I had cheeseburger joes.

5:35 pm: Mike and I are done eating and start going through school papers, loading the dishwasher, and reminding short people to hurry up and finish eating.

5:45 pm: Mike starts cathing Fiona and getting her ready for skating. I finish cleaning up dinner and act as referee between Q and D.

6:05 pm:  We are all loaded in the car and on our way to the rink. There was a last minute scramble because we couldn't find D's hat. Luckily we have a bunch of hockey hats in the closet.

6:15 pm: Fiona gets her skates and helmet on while we visit with Makai's mom and explore the arena. Bugs heads out on the ice to practice until her class starts. Mike and I take turns visiting with a couple of the moms we know and chasing the other two around the rink. It's the last night of skating so Bugs is going through the final evaluation on the ice.

7:05 pm: Class is done. Quinn and Makai are playing tag in the stands, so I help Bugs get her skates off so she can join. They all play for a few more minutes before we convince everyone to head out.

7:15 pm:  We're home. The kids each grab a handful of goldfish while I get the bathroom ready for ninja showers.

7:26 pm: The first ninja shower begins.

7:35 pm:  All three kids are showered, lotioned, and in their pjs. Mike is cathing Fiona and I'm helping the other two get their teeth brushed and picking up the living room.

7:43 pm: We settle in on the couch for our book and video. Fiona asks me to pick a new video tonight so we watched "Hard Knock Life" from the original Annie.

7:57 pm: Kids are tucked in bed. For a while. There's a bit of yo-yo behavior, but by 8:30, all is quiet.

8:00 pm: Mike pulls out his training materials to study for class tomorrow. I fold the kids' laundry, get everything ready for the backpacks tomorrow, grab a beer, and sit down to blog. We have reruns of The Big Bang Theory on in the background as we work.

10:30 pm: Bedtime. So we can start the giant Jenga game again in the morning.