the big 0-3

I've been dreading hitting the big 3-0 this year so much that Grace's big 0-3 kind of snuck up on me. Last week, I'm sitting at my desk at work, frantically trying to squeeze major revisions on an 8-page layout into the afternoon and listening to Keane on my iPod to keep myself sane when the sappiest song that ever did exist comes up in the shuffle...Tim McGraw's "My Little Girl". And this mama had a hard time not losing it.

Today, Grace turned three. Three. Three years old. It probably seems like a lifetime to her (because, well, it is her lifetime!) but for me it feels like...about...a second.

Everyday as she explains to one of us that "we need to just wait until he opens it and then we will see" or "you will get your turn in a minute if you are patient" or "I'm going to sleep now and when I get up, you are not allowed to call me Skinny Mini anymore", I wonder where my little baby has gone.

Such the little grownup she is. So grownup that she feels the need to rummage through purses or get into makeup every chance she gets. So grownup that she insists on being the helper and cleaning the floors or pulling up a chair to help cook. So grownup that she jumps at the chance to discipline her brother whenever she happens to catch him doing something. So grownup that she will explain the ways of the world with her immense vocabulary to those who are willing to listen. So grownup that she successfully chews gum. So grownup that she immediately recognizes when she's upset someone with her actions.

Yet still little in many ways. So little that when she recognizes she has upset you, she feels so bad that the crocodile tears come out and you couldn't possibly stay upset. So little that she still gets joy out of helping with basic chores. So little that she still loves to be rocked and cuddled. So little that she still sucks her thumb. So little that she still needs her blankie when she's sad. So little that we had to introduce gum, so she would stop chewing on her blankie. So little that she is shy and clings to Mommy or Daddy when she's around people she doesn't know.

Even though the grownup is slowing starting to outweigh the little, I'm clinging to the little...for as long as I can...because it's just moving way too fast. Happy Birthday, Baby Girl.

old friends, new cooking methods

We had friends visit this past weekend and I'm still weeding through my pictures so I can write a meaningful post about the entertaining three days. For now, I'll just share these two photos because they prompted me to re-live the moment from Sunday night and smile when I came across them. Below is Sheila at The Melting Pot and below that is a close up of her first attempt at battered fondue (yes, these skewered pieces of meat have all become one giant piece of fondue-d deliciousness).

Quick lesson learned. The rest of the meal went a little smoother...until we got to the charred lobster...

Additional photos/reflections of the weekend to come.

future's so bright...

I finally broke down from the embarrassment of being seen with Sam in his silly, little, round, broken, red sunglasses that he got as a hand-me-down from one of the kids at his old sitter's house a couple of years ago. I know I shouldn't care what other people think, but I do care what I think and I pretty much think he looked like a fool in them...no one tell him that! Okay, that's a little harsh, but they did make his head look enormous...especially when he paired them with the little, red hat that my parents got him last year which he has completely outgrown. So, since I've been unable to talk him out of wearing the sunglasses (or the hat) on our daily walk lately, I decided it was time to replace the shades with something much cooler. So, on our trip to Target today, each kid picked out a new pair. Here are a couple pictures of them testing them out...inside...while it rained outside...


Now, if we can only get him to stop wearing gloves (gardening or winter) on our walks, we'll be all set...

big brother

A friend came over to watch Grace for me this morning while I took Sam to his dreaded appointment with the allergist. On the way out the door, Sam decided that he needed to take his toy cell phone along. Half way to the doctor's office, he announced from the back seat that he was going to call up Mrs. Erin to check and see how Grace was doing. Such a good big brother. :)

We confirmed what we had suspected for a few years today at the appointment. Sam is allergic to peanuts. Along with it, he is also allergic to all varieties of tree nuts. Poor kid. I was hoping it would be peanuts and that would be it. This really knocks out a world of wonderful foods for him. I was really excited to learn that there is a peanut butter substitute out there, though. The allergist gave us a couple of small samples of a sunflower seed spread called Sunbutter by a company who guarantees that there are not traces of any nut in their manufacturing facilities. I'm going to go hunting for a larger container of it over the next couple of days so I can try some of my recipes that require peanut butter substituting this new product instead. Keeping my fingers crossed that it doesn't cost an arm and a leg.

Sam was also tested today for several different outdoor allergies and only had minor reactions to two trees. We go back for round two next Wednesday: additional pollens, dust, molds, dogs and cats (not enough room on his little 4-year-old back for all those scratch test spots). I'm thinking we can pretty much rule out a dust allergy since he would probably be dead by now living in our house if that allergy were present. I'm pretty sure Gordon is secretly hoping that Sam is allergic to cats so we can put the cat out of his misery in this home and send him to a house with a grumpy old man so they can commiserate together about loud, obnoxious, snot-nosed, tail-pulling children. And I'm also pretty sure he won't get the satisfaction. We shall see...I'll update on the allergies again next week.

all God's creatures...

The kids are out eating breakfast on the deck and Sam just came in to tell me that he just saw a baby wolf spider come out of an egg and that I can't vacuum it because he thinks that it is cute. While I'm proud that I'm raising such a sensitive child, I'm having a really hard time not imagining thousands of baby spiders hatching on my deck right now, covering the outside of my house and trapping my inside to be eaten alive by these terrifying little animals. Damn you, creators of Arachnophobia...

we're like Indiana Jones...but instead of the holy grail, we found this

Kris forced me to do something I thought I'd never do the other day. Yes, we cleared out the three Andrews Moving Company boxes out of the corner of our bedroom! I feel so vindicated, so alive, so free!

We opened them up on Saturday morning and started sorting through them. I could have sworn that I had opened all of them up at some point after the move. I was sure that I knew what was in each of them and had decided to shove them into the corner until I could find rightful homes for all of the important treasures that were held inside.

As we started to go through them, there really was more crap than treasures, but we did find a few things worthy of keeping. One was my address book, which was exciting enough for me to shriek at the sight of it. It has been missing since we moved a year and a half ago, so to the few people who only exist in my address list and not on my electronic Christmas card list for some reason: you WILL NOT be ignored a third year in a row! Get ready...a cheesy family Christmas card will arrive to your mailbox this year!

Among the other keepables was this:

This is the list of names that we were considering when we were pregnant with Sam. (No, I have no idea what I was thinking with some of these...so as not to offend anyone, I'll leave it up to your imagination as to which ones actually make me throw up in my mouth a little now.) Actually, the first 14 are names I was considering...the last two were Kris' picks. In case you can't read the list above, I'll type it out for you to see:

Cole
Samuel
Will
Thomas
Zachery
Andrew
Asher
Ashton
Curtis/Kurtis
Emmett/Emmit
Grant
Jack
Jonathan
Nicholas
The Terminator
Fudgecicle

Now everyone has a glimpse into the man I deal with everyday. Oh, and Kris wanted me to add that we still claim ownership to any names that are not crossed out on the original list, so if any of our friends or family were considering naming their next kid "The Terminator", back off...we're saving it for any future offspring, should any decide to show up.

outdoor fun

We finally bit the bullet and started making progress with the backyard. Last summer, it was completely ignored. Since the kids were in daycare all day and I was working full time, by the time everyone made it home and got dinner in them, we only really had time for a quick walk or quick trip to the park and then bed. Since the kids are home with a sitter part-time and me part-time this summer, we made it a priority to start adding stuff to do into the backyard, along with kid-proofing measures to keep them contained.


Kris has had a busy couple of weeks getting the new swingset built (with Greg's help...thanks, Greg!), building gates and attaching them to the top and bottom of the deck stairs, and installing hardware on the new deck gates and the fence to keep the kids contained and to prevent them from constantly going up and down the deck stairs when they could be going in and out the basement door. Too bad the little smarty pants both figured out how to work the latches on the deck gates, already. Guess we may have rethink those and add something to lock them.

The swingset turned out great and the kids are having a ball on it. As much as it pained Kris to eat up the tiny amount of flat space that we have in our yard, I think we both feel that it was totally worth it.


We also got the sandbox filled and all the outside toys, patio and kids' picnic table cleaned up.


And, we finished up just in time for our houseguests this coming weekend and Grace's birthday party coming up next weekend. With 5 kids under 5 in the house over a holiday weekend, it will be a beautiful thing to be able to tell them to go outside and play.

Now, on to planting. Besides play equipment, this space could really use a tree or two!

on the horizon...

So, I'm staring 30 in the face. Okay, that's a little dramatic because it is still 8 weeks away.

Let me start over...30 is on the horizon. I'm trying not to get all personal with the number until it is maybe 1 week away. Trying. Desperately. And yet, it keeps reminding me that it's coming.

It reminded me today as I was gardening. I was lovingly planting the second round of annuals that I bought this season and stood back and thought "I may need to go get some more." Yes, me, who never planted one thing at the old house in the 6 years that I lived there until I was trying to spruce it up to sell it. And seriously, annuals? These are the types of flowers I used to say were too much trouble for only having them around for 3 short months. I mean, who wants to replant every year?

And don't even get me started on the fact that I decided to whip up some banana bread the other day because I had 30 minutes to spare. It used to take me at least 30 hours to talk myself into a baking project, because, while I love to eat the end result, I used to hate the process to get me there.

What's next? Elastic pants and dying my hair blue? 30 is seriously starting to scare me.

Daddy Duty

When Mom is on duty and Grace gets into Mom's things, she gets a time out. When Dad is on duty and Grace gets into Mom's things, she gets told she's beautiful and gets her picture taken.


Oh well...at least it produced a blog-worthy photo even if she did ruin my eyeshadow creating one very fancy unibrow.

recent outings

Okay, so maybe "recent" isn't the best word to describe them, but I still wanted to share some pics of a couple of fun outings even though they took place in close proximity to Easter which was, well, over a month ago. At least I'm catching up now, right?

The Explorium
Since Kris was off the week before Easter and since our little world was going through some major changes that prevented us from actually planning a vacation away from the homefront, we decided to take the kids downtown to the local children's museum. They had a great day, and so did we.


The Brookfield Zoo
While we were in Chicago for Graham's baptism, we decided that it was a beautiful Saturday and we had time to kill before the baptism on Sunday, so we packed up the crew and headed to the Brookfield Zoo. They had their dinosaur exhibit up with the giant animatronic dinosaurs. We thought that maybe Sam would be excited about seeing them...until we got there. It took quite a bit of convincing, several wipes of tears and a "lucky penny" to convince him to even enter the short walk through the giant robots. Kris and I just left Grace with Sarah and Nate to wander slowly through and take it all in while we hurried through and got the terrified little boy to the gift shop at the end as quickly as possible. On our way to the car later, though, he told us that his very favorite part of the zoo was the dinosaurs. Who knew?!

Waiting to go to the zoo!

On the way by these guys, Sam yelled "Hurry, Mommy! Take a picture!"
Ten minutes later, when we walked back by, they were still laying in the same place. :)

Grace is constantly rummaging through any bag she can find to look for snacks.

Scared to see (and hear!) the dinosaurs...

Tuckered out after a fun day at the zoo.

growing up too fast...

We have hit two MAJOR milestones in our house in the last week.

#1 -- Sam officially likes showers!
And I'm not just talking about him starting to tolerate them and me not having to worry about getting my eyes clawed out anymore while I'm trying to hold him in. We're talking singing in the rain, people. We're talking, can't get him out until the water turns cold. Hmmm...I can finally relate to my dad when I was a kid...beating on the bathroom door yelling "time's up!" Although, I still love long showers...I'm really only pissed that Sam likes them so much because I see, down the road, when he will start taking showers in the morning, that his obnoxious use of the hot water could affect my obnoxious use of the hot water once it's my turn. Okay, I'm a little pissed that I can't use them as a threat of punishment anymore, either. Don't judge me...it's one of the few things that used to scare the kid to behave.

#2 -- Grace is potty trained!
I feel like I can safely say that now. It's been a roller coaster, starting last October when she decided to wear underwear, did it for a few days successfully, then, all of a sudden, started using them like she would diapers. Of course, the daycare staff was not so into that, so they immediately stuck her back in Pull-ups at the first drop of pee in the undies, so with no support on that end, we decided to take a step back for a while. We had encouraged her ever since and when we did get her on the potty, she would go, but if we didn't tell her to go, she had no interest. Until last week. Last week she decided at the temporary sitter's that she didn't want to wear Pull-ups anymore. And lo and behold...the sitter let her switch to undies! And the difference now that we have support during the day has been amazing! So, I feel that now, after she even went poop on a public potty at the car dealership today (by the way, we bought a new car...another post, another time), I can safely say that GRACE IS POTTY TRAINED!!!

So, alas, my babies are growing up too fast...but I can't say that I can complain about either of these major accomplishments. I'm thrilled! Now I have a job for Sam...to encourage Grace that showers are the most awesome thing in the world, because she's still in the clawing-the-eyes-out-trying-to-get-out-of-the-shower stage, but to make it even more entertaining, she couples it with a blood curdling "get me out of here". Never a dull moment...

sibling love

Me: "Grace, what do you want for a snack?"

Grace: "An apple...and Sam can have the skin."