A Screeching Halt

A week ago Monday was L's 9 month well baby check. While a relatively healthy little guy, this visit he scored low enough on the developmental checklist to warrant a referral to a special child based therapy organization. Eeerrrchhh. (That's the sound of the brakes being put on). Yes, due to his prenatal experience this is to be expected and yes, he has been about one month behind as we have monitored his milestones over the past 9 months. But occupational baby therapy? Were we really talking about that big of a delay? Early intervention is key and so of course I made the phone calls right away. And of course, I will do whatever needs to be done for this precious little guy- I mean look at this adorable little face!I mentally began to clear my calendar. What could I cut? And part of me wondered, "Cut what? Making dinner? Doing laundry? Blogging? Yes. Probably blogging." Time had to made for..... Baby school? This was a daunting thought as I am.... well, hmm, how shall I say this.... "not sure I am keeping every single ball in the air... " And another part of me wondered if it was time to jump on the "delayed" track. No, he is not crawling. No, he doesn't actively participate in patty cake. No, he does not have a specific word for a specific thing... or mimic.... or push his arm through his sleeve when you are dressing him.... or bang two toys together.... But, there are so many things he does do! Like pose for a picture!It's a change in mindset. With the two older kids I constantly had to check myself from focusing too much on the "checklists". Without fail, every time I was about to panic because the chart said that at "this age" they should be doing "this" and they weren't, days or weeks later- they were. With L, it is a little more important to stay diligent on the milestones- but guess what? In the week since his doctor appointment he has made significant progress towards many of the things I said he wasn't doing. He is not yet crawling, BUT he is doing pre-crawling moves. He can rotate around in 360 degrees, inch backwards and forwards (he must be doing it like an inch worm) and he has started getting up on all fours and rocking back and forth. He did bang two things together today and has started making more motions towards "clapping". I think he may be starting to say, "Mama" for me. (He says mama and dada sounds, just not toward anyone or anything). I am fairly confident he is going to "get" all these things.... just maybe not right "on time". And once again, have you seen a cuter little guy?

Reading

E picked up a book we recently borrowed from the library and wandered into the bathroom where I was. She is particularly fascinated by this book as the title is, "E (her name) And Her Yucky Brother". I picked it from the library without the usual glance through and as it turns out, it is a book about a little girl whose family adopts a four year old boy from foster care. After some rough chapters, it has a happy ending. It is also a "First Reader" book and so I was a little surprised by the mature content. Not necessarily new subject matter in our house, though!
Anyway, the point of this is that E made a leap into reading on her own... she picked up this book and read a whole sentence completely on her own. She was pretty excited and I know it was a great confidence booster.We have always loved reading, starting when the kids were babies. Classics like: "Big Red Barn", "Goodnight Gorilla" and "Pajama Time" were among our favorites. When S came along he mostly had to read what E had chosen and often lost interest... he wandered off during most reading times. I remember worrying that he would not share the love of reading... but now, he is right there with a stack of his choices and has his own favorites. He loves "Ella and the Naughty Lion", "Big Chickens" and the classic: "The Little Engine That Could". We have the version of TLETC that has been recently re-illustrated by Loren Long and I love his artwork. It makes reading, "I think I can, I think I can, I think can" 500 times a day allot more bearable. E has moved on to longer "chapter" style books with less pictures. We have read James Herriotts Treasury for Children, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle and some of Thorton Burgess's Adventures of..... series. Of course, now L is in on the action. Has been since the day he came home. He thinks books are for eating, but other than that seems to be as happy for story time as the other two.I like to buy used children's books online. I have used Amazon of course, also http://www.abebooks.com as well as www.half.com. One of the easiest ways to search for a book is simply to type the ISBN into the search engine. Also, I have enjoyed www.paperbackswap.com. This is a great site that allows you to trade your books for other members books. You pay to ship a book someone requests from you, but then you get a credit that can be used to request a book from anyone else. You don't pay anything for the book sent to you. Listing books is very easy, there are thousands of great books to chose from and you can even make a wish list for books you are interested in but aren't currently posted. Do I sound like an ad? Well, actually, if you do decide to sign up make sure and type my personal email address in as your referral!

And we love to go the library. Well, mostly we love to go to the library. Trips to the library have become a pretty big excursion for the mommy in the house. First, there is simply the time of morning we have to leave to be at the library in time for story or music time. Second, since we have had to leave early and drink coffee in the car on the way, there is the fact that I desperately have to go the bathroom by the time we get there. However, there isn't time since if we don't go right into story time we will miss out. Its a popular story time and fills up! So, I have to wait.... Then there is the matter of holding a squirmy baby, keeping an eye on an aisle-exploring two year old, and trying to talk E out of another story about "Clifford the Big Red Dog". At the end of this, I have to carry our book bag, weighing somewhere around 30 pounds, over one shoulder, while carrying L in the other arm. I really should use a stroller, but if history serves me, that would just mean I have something to push... while still having a baby to carry and books to manage. We just went to the library this past week. We went to story time and and there I saw... the most perfect pair of summer shoes. They were exactly what I have been looking for- a pair of shoes that would go great with capris, a cute skirt or even jeans. They looked like they could have been Keen or Merrel, but I don't see something that is exactly them on either website. I would have asked the mom that was wearing them what brand they were... except, I had been less than gracious a little earlier when her toddler had tried to claw L's face off. I hadn't noticed her shoes yet, and her muttered, "sorry", when her little guy took both his hands and grabbed L's face, had not really impressed me. I just re-deposited L from the blanket in front of me to the side of my lap opposite her and Mr. Grabby Pants. I should have been more understanding though and offered a smile. No harm done, really. But my energy was elsewhere and now I will never know where those shoes can be found. Cute-Shoe-Wearer? If you are reading this, lets make amends. Let's let by-gones be by-gones. I'm sure your new-walker is a very sweet little boy. He's sure quick! Hey, by the way, where did you get those shoes?

Ouch

We had a little boo boo at gymnastics play the other day. Not E. Not S. Me. I was attempting to help E explore the bars. You know, the ones you can hang from upside down. Not bars you have to be 21 to get into. Obviously. I was poised over her ready to help her swing her legs over when all of a sudden she bolted straight up into the air. Her kangaroo jump was blocked by my chin of which she collided with such force that I staggered backwards. The staggering backwards was not helped by the fact that I had 21+ pounds of baby in a backpack. Tears instantly sprang to my eyes from the pain and shock. Of course, I had to immediately make sure E was OK, get a locate on S and try not to fall over on L. They were all fine, but I was not. My lower jaw felt like it had been relocated to somewhere in the vicinity of my eye sockets. I could not fully open or close my mouth. My ear drums hurt. My teeth hurt. There was a clicking feeling when I tried to talk. Just smiling (which I was not doing, but I can imagine) felt disconnected. After the initial ouch! and shock, the feeling was more like when you leave the dentists office- sort of numb and uncomfortable, but it was not necessarily painful. But. I couldnt stop tearing up. I was not crying, per se, but what do you call it when your eyes are watering and your lip is wobbly and you cant talk? That is what was happening. At this point I needed to PULL IT TOGETHER. We had 40 minutes left to play and there was a roomful of people. But. I just felt very much like weeping. I wasn't sure why at the time but looking back I think I felt.... bullied. Beat up. These little people eat the last bite of my snacks, share my pillow all night, pull my hair, wake me up at 2am saying, "Mommmy! Where's my car!", make unbelievable messes, wrap my TV remote in doll clothes so it is missing for 3 days and leave snot trails on the shoulders of my new black sweater when I wear it. And now one of them had quite possibly dislocated my jaw and I would have to drink all my food from a straw from here on out. They were out to get me. Of course I quickly was able to come back to reality. Children. Accidents. All normal behavior. I was still a little bit choked up for a while, an hour and a half to be exact, but that may have been because I was having trouble imagining scheduling an X ray into my week. Later that evening I still couldn't bite my teeth fully together, but my mom was pretty sure that if it was a serious injury I would have a little more pain. The next morning I was good as new. And thankfully, I discovered that, should I ever need one, we have a doctor in our very own house!

NOOooo!

This. Has. Not. Been. My. Week. And it's only Wednesday. To be accurate, some of the things in "this week" actually happened last week, namely the infamous cat pee incident. Some of you already know this story, being on my very short list of people with whom I would share such a horrifying story with. But now since I am a world published blogger, it is almost required that I share everything with the masses. However, I will summarize this story, as it is really yesterdays news and I have a better one for today! Here are the high points:

1. Had been smelling urine smell while sitting on particular couch for a few days, usually just changed a couple diapers and went on with day.
2. A few days go by, kids and I on couch reading. E says, "Why is this wet?"
3. Further investigation leads to discovery of standing liquid in crevice between leather couch cushions. Sticky smelly cat urine.
4. ARRRGHHHH.
5. More ARRGHHH.
6. Both crevices between the cushions full of pee.
7. Fall on floor dead.
8. Get up.
9. Begin clean up. Long process. Many chemicals. Smell not completely gone.

...I didn't really sit on that couch anyway.... You probably shouldn't either, except that I am not telling which one it is. However, the kids will probably "let the cat out of the bag" as they now refer casually in conversation to that couch as the "cat pee couch".
(Cat that is now re-purposed as a strictly outside cat. Cat that is lucky she wasn't re-purposed as a fur stoal. Cat that spends most nights trying to gnaw her way into the house through the floorboards under our bed....)

But on to today. TODAY, the kids and I were outside working on the garden. Primarily hunting slugs in a desperate attempt to save sprouting plants. I soon noticed that the kids had moved on to cilantro harvesting in giant mixing bowls that they had apparently just returned from inside with. Simultaneously, I started hearing a strange thudding noise from inside. I asked E if they had let our dog in when they went in to get the very size appropriate cilantro containers... she gave her favorite reply as of late; "S did!" (This has gotten to be such a common phrase around here that I told her today that I was going to call Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle- anyone else love her?-and ask her for a pointer-finger cure. Later at dinner E asked if I really did have Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle's phone number....) Since I did know now that the dog was inside and I was still hearing this banging around, I ran in... to discover my bowl of defrosting chicken breasts on the floor. The dog was trying to eat them, they were still quite frozen, thus the loud noises. Unfortunately, the bowl had been full of ice water that was now quite chickeny- this was now splattered all over the floor and cabinets. Chicken breasts were everywhere. Everything was full of muddy paw prints, including the kitchen counter. Seriously? I wasn't even sure where to begin. I went back outside. (and the dog too.) I cant even tell you how much I am grossed out by raw chicken, yuck, yuck, yuck. Thankfully, I LOVE bleach. And I used alot of it....

Easter

True confessions. I had wonderful plans for reading the story of the resurrection to E a little each day, beginning with Palm Sunday. We did read Palm Sunday and we colored palm branches. And then. Well, all I can remember is that I got out the cute "Easter" decorations, you know, the little plastic eggs that we trimmed with matching felt pieces and transformed into little animals like an owl, skunk and mouse. I am such a sucker for these springy crafts. And the next thing I knew as I was facing the end of the week I was:

• taking the kids to mass egg hunts in town
• boiling 5 dozen eggs for family dyeing
• organizing three different egg hunts
• taking a rare all-day shopping trip for necessary dance attire
  
• making a last minute trip to town for "one more" Easter basket goodie
• staying up until after midnight making scratch cinnamon rolls for the first time
• cooking food for family dinners
• assembling treats that were both dessert and kid crafts

It took me a week to recover. It seems that these things are just enough to upset the already delicate balance of work, housework, childcare and now.... blogging. I see how I go a little crazy with wanting holidays to be so super memorable and perfect for the kids.... Next year, though, particularly for Easter- I hope to keep a firmer hold on what we are really celebrating....

Who Moved My Cheese?

Wheeerrre is the remote for the TV? The box to be exact. You know, the thing the federal government made necessary and thankfully paid for? We cant watch TV without it and it is missing. (There are no buttons on the actual box)

That was yesterday, 8pm, Dancing with the Stars time!! The remote had been missing for three days at this point and I hadn't really missed it yet, but now I had joined in the search. Reaching in couch crevices, a dangerous job around here as some of you know, looking through toy boxes and play kitchen cabinets. I even called mom to see if she had seen the kids playing with it when she babysat on Friday. J had already called her on Sunday, and no, she didn't remember anything. We asked the kids many many times if they had by any chance been playing with it. Nope. This would be remote number 2 that we had to replace, number 1 had been added to the silverware basket in the dishwasher while we weren't looking at gotten really really clean.Then, brainstorm. E's favorite game of all time. Packing "bags" of "things". Loading diaper bags for her babies. Gathering things for school. Preparing for a trip to Hawaii. It doesn't matter, her bags are always packed and at the ready. There is no plan or rhyme or reason behind the content- usually they are the most miscellaneous assortment of things that take fooorrrrreeevvver to sort back out into the correct places and put away. I often tell her not to put away bags of things without first unpacking them, or she wont know where things are when she wants them. It was 8pm, but I snuck into their room. E was still awake. I opened the cupboard door and looked through the top bags. Nothing. I whispered to E what I was doing. Silence. Then, "You know, I think I do remember seeing the remote in a bag. I think S put it in one. Look in the baby drawer in the red bag." ? I opened the drawer, pulled out a red mini gift bag. Inside was a hard rectangle shape wrapped all up in a baby bib and fastened closed with tape. E started talking, "I think S did that. I just remembered". Smile. "It's OK, E. I think maybe you did this and it's OK that you forgot, but let's not blame S. (He does his own share of re-organizing family belongings) Goodnight, honey"
Whoohoo! I finished unwrapping the remote as J walked in the door from class. We laughed when we saw the addition of several yards of dental floss wrapped around it as well. So E!
Now. Has anyone seen the package of cream cheese? After breakfast I couldn't find it. Just the outer paper box. No foil package of easily moldable and certainly soon to be stinky cream cheese. Where is it?

Just the Facts Please

In beloved Christmas letter style form, I will bring you up to speed on the current happenings around here so I can move on to more important news, namely how I did NOT have any Easter candy today.

J is now a college student. Yippee! This means that he is still working at the University (thank you break in tuition), still working the farm, and now taking two classes. He looks so cute studying in front of his laptop. His goal is to get into the Computer Engineering program which is a long time interest and one he hopes will help us further our goals.S is the person writing this blog so you will probably get sick of hearing about her- BUT one honorable mention here: J and S started a beginning ballroom dance. Faced fears. Braved broken toes. Took the bull by the horns. It has been fun.... here is a picture:E is growing up. Growing up. Growing up. She surprises me daily with what she knows. And I should have a fairly good grasp on what she knows since I am the one teaching her! We started a lesson this week on coins. She already knew how to make the "cent" sign! I don't know how, but she did! She is doing great with learning to read, beginning writing and math concepts. So great, in fact, that the other day in a conversation I had with her she said- well, I'll just tell you the whole thing...
Me- "E, how do you think homeschooling is going?"
E- "good"
Me- "How do you think it will go next year?"
E- "Mommy! Next year I wont have homeschool! I'll already be done with this." (gestures to shelf of schoolbooks). Pauses. "I'll be learning to drive." Another pause. "Well, maybe I'll already know that too." Long pause. "Mommy! What are you doing?"
Me- "Writing down what you just said so I can tell Daddy"
E- "You're so funny, Mommy"
That about sums it up. She is a tremendous help with her two brothers, when she is not driving S to distraction with her constant directions. Mostly, though, she loves to help and be involved. She is in a dance class as well as a Bible study for kids. We also take part in some homeschool activities such as gym time or other group get togethers.
S is the funniest little guy! He is such a delight and joy to have around. Both J and I have a sadistic fondness for the "two's". We love when their personalities explode, watching their independence, and literally being able to see the wheels turn as they make one learning leap after another. S is no exception. Yesterday he tried to decline a nap (which he usually takes willingly) by saying, "Today is not my sleep day." A few days ago at breakfast J had told him the muffins were gone but he could have a wheat bagel or fruit. His reply?: "That's no fun!" He is loving the recent playdates with a cousin his "own size" and has just finished a little Daddy and Me soccer class. He was sometimes not sure how he felt about this class of 10 kids and their parents but definitely had some fun times.


L is kind of like our precious little family mascot. The other two kids truly adore him and are thrilled when they get a smile (or full belly laugh) from him. Which is a pretty easy accomplishment but dont tell them that. He has two little teeth- but teething has been pretty hard on him. Note soaked front in picture. That would be drool, drool and more drool. Usually I have bibs on him constantly and still change his clothes all the time. He isn't crawling yet, but I have a feeling we are looking at that excitement soon. The adoption process is moving along. I believe it will be late Fall before everything is final, but each step we take brings us a little closer. Everything that needs approval up to this point has that approval.
OK, this blogging thing is a lot of work. I'm taking a break for now!

Welcome

Oh hi! Thanks for stopping by! Would you like some tea? Coffee? Sure, I’ll join you for a latte. Yes, we drink quite a bit of espresso around here. The other day at the doctor’s office they asked me “how many caffeinated beverages” I drink in a day. I said, “Why? Do you have some?”

So, you must be wondering why I gathered you all here. Me. The anti-facebooker. A blog? Really? Well, I have a few reasons. First, I really, really do want to stay in touch better with all my wonderful friends and family. I would love to share more regularly what is going on in our lives…. pictures of the kids, etc. Lest you think I am only interested in a one-sided conversation, I am really hoping you will take the time to say “Hi” back and post a comment on the blog. To make it more fun, each time you visit you will be entered in the sweepstakes drawing for a night of babysitting! And by “babysitting” I mean babysitting my three children. While I go to the spa. (Please see below for Sweepstakes Entry Rules.)

One of the things I am excited about is an opportunity I recently discovered on www.blurb.com. Through this site, I can “slurp” my blog into a nice professional looking book. Blurb? Blog? Slurp? Who thinks of these names? Regardless, I am excited about this possibility for some regular recording and memorializing of the pictures and the quotes. Oh my, the things these kids say. Here is a sample from just this evening of the hilarity you will be reading about (should you choose to visit again): E to S- in a somewhat exasperated tone, “S. Please don’t make me keep repeating myself millions of times”. (He was trying to wrangle permission to sleep in her bed with her, which she doesn’t give very often because he is too wiggly.) No kidding.

What else can you expect here at Just Mommying Around? Well, I like to process thoughts in writing- but haven’t done so in a long, long time. I’m looking forward to getting back in the habit of debriefing on paper once in a while. Let me know if it gets to be too much! I may, gulp, even share some of my goals with my personal fitness efforts. So I started this blog with a "Before" and "After" picture. I do not like the way this is headed. Lots of things to change and I hereby pledge to do so. You know, winning the battle between good eating and the evil presence of massive amounts of Easter candy…. You can also expect lots of gardening tips…. A couple how-to ballroom dancing videos… And FASHION ADVICE! Tons of it! Seriously, though, the other day my friend and I were talking about the balance between “doing things” like a Bible Study group, volunteering in your child’s classroom (or being your child’s classroom), having a play date, or maybe even taking a ballroom dancing class with your husband (OK- 2 mentions, but more on that later) AND feeling like you are gone all the time. Going, going, going and constantly one step behind the 8 ball known as “laundry”. She asked how I did it and I said, “Well, I don’t do anything. “ At the time that was my honest answer. I often feel like I am not doing anything. I don’t do a lot outside of the home besides my one day a week of work. Most plans I make are at the mercy of a newly appearing runny nose. So I often don’t try. Even though I love what I do, it feels so intangible. So same. So un- extraordinary. When it is 9am and “all” you have done is made breakfast, changed diapers, cleaned up breakfast, re-directed squabbles, gave a bottle, changed diapers…. You might think-? What am I doing? So- it is my hope that this blog will give me a chance to do something I enjoy… writing and sharing photos. And remind me of what it is that I am doing.

And please do post comments. They will be slurped by blurb in the blog book! Immortalized forever! However, I do have a couple requests. I am somewhat uneasy about this move to post my pictures out into this nw-fangled internet land. I think- in all non-paranoid reasonability, it is OK. But, I will only be referring to names with the first initial. E, S, or L. You know who I am talking about here right? And when I refer to all three of them together I will abbreviate by writing, “English as a Second Language”. Please do likewise. Also, please avoid statements that include physical locators. You know, don’t say, “Hey, how’s that construction going on your street- ___?” Or, ask about the ranch’s production of ___. Or talk about certain popular festivals that are in August in this area. (It will be hard not to post pictures of that time). Wow that’s a lot of rules. But you want to win the sweepstakes, right?