It's a Party

A few weeks ago we celebrated Ree's birthday at school.  On the day we celebrated I aided in her classroom (with some help from Natalia in the sling), and at the end of the day, Jeff and the boys joined us for the party.  Each day at preschool ends with the kids sitting in a circle, listening to a story.  For birthdays, the story is followed by the teachers placing a small table in the middle of the circle and lighting a candle on the table to represent the sun.  The birthday child then holds a globe to represent the Earth and walks around the "sun" once for each year they are old.  While they are walking, their parents tell about what happened in their life that year.  Following the ceremony, school is dismissed, and the kids who are allowed to partake enjoy cupcakes on the playground.  (We have several families that avoid eating sugar.  While I respect that immensely, the very thought makes me want to run for the M&Ms.)

Jeff and the boys arrived that day during story time.  Michael walked in, waved, and loudly said, "Hi, guys!"  Leon is a little better at reading situations and he chose to be quiet when the other kids were all silently listening to a story.  He quietly came over to me, wrapped his arms around my neck, sat in my lap, and whispered in my ear, "Where's the cupcakes?" 

Tonight we went to a belated autumn equinox party with some other families.  Having never attended one before, we explained to the kids as much as we could ahead of time, but it was still a bit of a mystery.  Adding to the intrigue was the fact that it was out in the country, a truly foreign adventure for our city dwellers.  Upon arriving, Michael jumped out of the car and ran toward the other kids, ready to join in the fun.  Leon held back and wanted to hold hands with me (a true sign of nervousness since it practically takes a supernatural act to get him to hold hands in a parking on a regular day).  We had been there about 10 minutes when Leon again whispered in my ear.  This time he said with surprise and awe, "Mom, it's a PARTY!"

Natalia slept Sunday night. She went to sleep around 10:30, got up at 1:00 and 3:30 to eat and fell right back asleep both times, and then she slept until 7:15 Monday morning.  Amazing.

Yes, I know there is room for improvement, but it's hard to explain how little we've slept over the past 3 1/2 months.  And things have been really bad the past two weeks.  Just sleeping, at all, is somewhat of an amazing change.

So, of course Monday was a big game of "let's try to recreate yesterday." On Sunday our day started with me taking the kids to Target and Harris Teeter while Jeff watched soccer. It was actually a really productive day, so Natalia spent much of the rest of the day plopped on the floor playing with a tray of toys wherever I was working. However, while I didn't have to go in to the office yesterday, I was working from home, so that immediately changed everything. I did my best to recreate as much of Sunday as possible. Natalia had lots of time in the sling and I tried to keep her in the room with me at all times. And then, doom! Natalia generally sleeps for at least two hours in the afternoon, and I laid down when she had been asleep for about an hour, thinking she would sleep for another hour, and I could get some rest too. Even though I was on the bed and she was across the room in the swing, she must've sensed me, because her eyes immediately flew open. She was done napping.

Then, to make matters worse, she passed out during dinner. Just flat our fell asleep. I tried to be optimistic thinking "sleep begets sleep" but when it came to bedtime again, she made sure I knew that was nothing more than a disco nap. She was ready to party all night. Around 11:00 last night, shortly after I had given up all hope, she passed out. And slept until 5:30. She ate and was still sleeping when Ree woke her up at 7:25. It may be false hope, but I'm starting to think that someday we will sleep again. Ahhh.

Hey, Stefanie

At dinner on Friday night the kids were discussing the new nicknames Jeff made up for them. Ree was Peach, named after Princess Peach from Super Mario Brothers. Michael was Mater ("like tow-mater!" for all you Cars fans), and he took his name so seriously that when I said, "Goodnight, Michael," he corrected me and said, "No, Mater," so I dutifully told "Mater" I loved him. (I also regularly hug and kiss Leon's stuffed dog good morning and good night and I help Leon tuck the dog into Natalia's baby swing when we leave the house, so referring to my child as a vehicle is really no big deal.)

Leon's nickname is Doc and I asked if it was also a reference to Cars or if it had to do with the toy stethoscope he's been carrying around. I was told that it was neither. It was due to his striking resemblance to Danny Torrence in The Shining. (Redrum! Redrum!)

The kids told me Jeff was JPo, of course, so I inquired about my nickname. Silence. Apparently I was not cool enough to get a nickname. Ree was the first to speak and offered, "Um, Stefanie?" I joked that Stefanie wasn't my NICKname, and we went on with the meal.

Apparently, it did register with Michael, though, because all weekend when he's needed something he's said, "Hey, Stefanie!"

Knock, Knock

Leon and Natalia have a lot in common. They are my blue eyed,  brown haired children.  Leon was the super nursing champion of the world, and Natalia is giving him a run for his money.  Leon is a crazy little explorer who is always puttering around trying to discover how things work and who has never let things like large dogs in his path or objects placed five feet off the floor discourage him.  Scarily, Natalia is much the same.  Leon logged many, many hours in the sling, and at Ree's preschool they joke they have never seen Natalia below the neck because she spends so much time in the sling. When all else failed, Leon convinced us he would only sleep at night if he could sleep touching me.  Natalia is much the same, and our mattress is back on the floor so I can safely leave her to take care of other kids during the night and because it so nicely complements the crown molding in the bedroom. 

However, they handle jealousy differently. I've always been the one to tuck the kids in to bed so I could get in a few last cuddles each night.  When the boys were younger, I tucked Michael in first since he is an early to bed, early to rise kid who needed to get to bed as early as possible. Plus Michael was easy to tuck in - he would just chug a bottle and pass out, and I never knew how long Leon would want to nurse. Each night I would sit Leon on the living room floor to play with toys while I fed Michael on the couch. And inevitably, Leon would sit there, flapping his arms and crying hysterically. He refused to crawl to me. He was paralyzed.  Mommy was cheating on him with another baby!

Now it is Natalia's turn to sit on the living room rug and play with toys, waiting for her turn with Mom, while I tuck in her siblings.  She isn't much of a fan either, and she often cries too.  However, Natalia is much more willing to take matters into her own hands.  Each night I take the boys into the bathroom individually to brush teeth and go potty, and then three of us sit on the floor in their room and sing bedtime songs.  (Currently, "Yellow Submarine" is requested every night with me singing the lyrics and Michael adding in the background comments and noises.)  While we were singing last night, we heard a knock on their bedroom door, which was shut to allow us privacy as we butchered the Beatles' classic.  I ignored the knocking and kept on singing.  We heard more knocking, and the boys got curious.  After a third round of knocking, they insisted I open the door.  They were quite shocked to find Natalia outside the door, on her hands and knees, clearly proud of herself that she had left the living room, crawled down the hall, and found us.  That girl knows how to get things done!

Mi Familia

Each month a family is featured in Ree's preschool newsletter. I was asked to write something about our clan for the October edition. This is what I came up with.  Oh, and PCP is the name of the preschool, not some illicit drug reference. :)

 

Back in the summer of 1999, a friend from college asked me to go to a Cincinnati Reds baseball game with him and some of his friends from high school while we were all home for the summer.  I tried to get out of going since I had work to be at work early the next morning, but he insisted.  Little did I know, I would meet Jeff that night and some day we would find ourselves living in North Carolina, twelve years, four kids, and two dogs later.

The beginning of our relationship was a little crazy since, among other things, I lived in Ohio and Jeff lived in Montana.  But by 2002 we were together and living in the small college town of Athens, Ohio.  We ended up staying in Athens for over five years and while there we managed to get married and acquire Prudence and Maxwell, our two rescue dogs named after Beatles’ songs and better known as Pru and Max.  We also got the silly idea to start having children.

Ree was born in Athens, and is the oldest of our crazy clan.  She likes princesses and, as she describes it, all things girlie.  Ree is very inquisitive and absorbs everything she sees and hears (occasionally to our dismay!).  She loves creating incredibly complicated pretend worlds that seem to involve placing every toy she owns on her bedroom floor at once.  She also loves art projects and often has a marker or a pair of scissors in hand.  Despite my best efforts, she has my sweet tooth, and most weekends include a “baking project” where we concoct some sort of treat in the kitchen.  

We moved to Wilmington in late November 2007, and by the following Thanksgiving we had managed to add two more children to the family.  Leon is the oldest of our twin boys by five hours, and he loves cooking.  He is nearly always stirring things together whether he is playing at home, outside, in the bathtub, or at the beach.  He also loves cleaning and fixing things and is always puttering around the house.  Here’s hoping he loves the same things in ten years!

Michael has the personality of a teenage boy trapped in a toddler’s body.  Michael likes laying on the couch, eating junk food, and watching sports on TV.  Michael also likes flirting with girls, and you can often find him sitting in a wagon on the PCP playground, waiting for some older girls to pull him around.  Amazingly, they often do, and it helps that Michael is also very funny, sweet, and loveable.

Natalia is our newest addition.  The girl has been short and wide since the day she was born, and she loves eating, which keeps her cheeks delightfully chubby.  She has also recently learned to crawl, and now that she is mobile, she is trying to take on the world, or at least keep up with her siblings.  Natalia has been hanging out at PCP since she was four days old, and I’m sure she thinks she can run the school from inside the baby sling.

Jeff and I often joke about what people without children do since we are hard-pressed to remember a time when we did things other than wash dishes, fold laundry, and watch episodes of old TV shows in 10-minute increments in our “free” time.  We love the beach, and our family spends tons of time there when we can.  We also both enjoy reading, and we are happy to have passed this love on to our children.  I like writing, and I blog about my family and for Where’s MyMidwife?.  I also enjoy cooking and baking and thankfully also love working out.  Jeff loves music and is a huge sports fan devoted to the Cincinnati Reds and Bengals and Liverpool FC.  And when we can, Jeff and I still like to watch Reds games together, you know, for old times’ sake.  

Six Toothed Wonder

When Natalia was four months old, she got her first two teeth. Despite much drooling, gnawing and misery (for all), there had been little action on the teeth front since then. Then last
Saturday night while she and I were in the garage doing laundry, she was making a sound like she was grinding her teeth.  It was really irritating and a bit perplexing.  How does one go about grinding two teeth that are side by side?  I got inside and saw this boulder of a top tooth had popped through.  I told Jeff, and he said, oh yeah, that came in on Wednesday.  (Um, he could've mentioned that. Then again, I could've noticed sooner.) This Wednesday night I noticed the other top tooth had popped through.  Four teeth! Then on Thursday afternoon Jeff texted me. He had been showing Ree Natalia's new teeth when they discovered two more teeth on top. She's up to six teeth, with most of those teeth coming in the week she learned to crawl. That kid is out of control.

Natalia's Morning

In case you ever wondered what a day in our house is like, I thought I would edit and share part of an email from my hubby about the fun he had this morning with just one of our children.

Natalia started her morning by waking up screaming while Jeff was in the shower. Then she wouldn't eat anything; she just wanted to crawl around and moan. We still have a VCR/DVD player we use for old videos, and Natalia then managed to crawl over to it and get her hand stuck in the VHS tape slot. They finally made it to preschool around 9:00 a.m., and Natalia freaked out because Jeff took her in without taking her out of her carseat.  She was so traumatized, she cried all the way home, and preschool is at least 20 minutes away in traffic. Exhausted, Natalia chugged 6 ounces of breastmilk when they got home. She then proceeded to crawl into the toy room where she started eating Leon and Michael's toys. Leon has a large collection of empty food boxes (cereal, granola bar, pasta, etc.) that he uses when he is "cooking."  During Sesame Street (on at 10:00 a.m.), Leon had all his cardboard boxes in the living room. Having lost her toy eating privileges, Natalia chewed a cardboard box and got a piece of cardboard stuck in her throat and started dry heaving. Thanks to Elementary Ed. classes in college, Jeff knew to give her some back body blows (baby Heimlich), followed by a finger sweep, and she puked it out. After that, she passed out in her crib. Most likely, right before they needed to leave again to pick up Ree at preschool.

I Wish They All Could Be Carolina Girls

While we were at the beach today, Jeff and Michael were walking along and passed three girls in bikinis walking in the opposite direction. Michael looked at them and said, "Hi, pretty girls!" One of the girls smiled and said hi to him. Apparently this only encouraged him, because while we were leaving we passed a group of girls with surfboards, and the scene was repeated.

Do these girls not realize they are creating a monster???