greenbeard

 

In honor of the Green service (and all of its "joys"), Nate has decided to grow a beard. I'm afraid by the end of the 10 week period I'll be calling him Grey Beard instead!

I fine

One night last week the kids were in the tub, I was folding laundry in my room, and Nate was downstairs. There had been much giggling, splashing, and general bathtub fun when suddenly Jimmy calls, "I fine Mama, I fine. I fine Mama, I fine!" I run in to find his little nudie self greeting me at the door handing me something and continuing to say, "I fine." Looking for blood or any other indication as to why he might feel it necessary to assure me he's fine, I neglect to notice what he just placed in my hand. Then I realize - its poop! Grody. Yucky. Ack! It was one of those moments that clearly illustrates my lack of coolness. When hearing whatever sounds came from my mouth, Nate dashed upstairs and had a very good laugh with the children. I'm so glad they found it all entertaining.



Yesterday Nate began his Green rotation. Some of the ENT services have color names such as Green and Gold. Gold is a pretty nice service to be on. Lots of surgery, but most of the patients are generally healthy and the surgeries tend to be outpatient. Green is not so nice. There are tons of surgical cases, most of which involve removing large nasty tumors from people's heads or necks all-the-while avoiding their facial nerves or important arteries and things like that. Its intense and the hours are awful. The good news is that this is his last time to be on the service. The bad news is that he's the cheif, so the buck stops with him. The good news is that (taking into account his scheduled week of vacation) there are only 8 more Mondays left. The bad news is that we're in for it for the next two months.

 

Saturday I thought I'd take advantage of the fact that Nate was home and I did something I'd been wanting to do for years - I went to the Botanical Gardens all by myself. I've been to the Gardens countless times, but never alone. I went down paths that aren't stroller-friendly, toured an old Victorian home, stopped and read whatever signs I wanted, enjoyed the peace and quiet, and had a fabulous time. So now I'm geared up and ready for the next 8 Modays. I fine.

ZZzzzzzzzz

....That was then

This is now......


The past few weeks have not been easy on any one's sleep schedule - Jimmy has seen to that. After much debate (which is difficult to do when running on minimal sleep), I came to the conclusion that perhaps he just would be more comfortable in his crib (than say a big pile of books on the floor). The first night the crib was back he not only slept through the night there wasn't any mischief right after he went to bed (which had been going on towards two hours a night) nor was there any early waking. He also is taking naps again. All in all we're feeling a bit marvelous.

I decided to include a slideshow of pictures of the kids sleeping taken over the past 2 1/2 weeks. Hope you enjoy. You'll note towards the end of his crib-less stint, Jimmy got very creative with his positions and props. One of my favorites was the night we found him with his brace propped up on an upside-down blue box, his leg supported by Duck, all while laying on his blanket. Priceless.

tasty testing & research

This weekend we went to a fabulous swanky wedding. To convince a newly married couple to watch J and G while we attended this very fabulous and swanky event, I promised to make them dinner. Their request: lasagna. I haven't made any in a long time and decided to try this one. I must admit it was pretty good, but it makes me want to find the best lasagna out there. So here's my request (I'm hoping you guys will play along), will you please send me your favorite lasagna recipe, or lasagna tricks, or lasagna dos and/or don'ts? I'll do some testing and research (well, Nate will do a lot of the tasting part of it I'm sure - when I told him about this idea he got extremely excited!) and then I'll post the results. So if you're game, it could be a tasty September!

is your kid red or blue?

Conversation with Grace while driving home after school:
G: "Mom, hey, ummm oh what's that guy's name?"
M: "Which guy?"
G: "Y'know, the first black president of our country?"
M: "Do you mean the guy Barack Obama?"
G: "Yeah!!! That's the guy! Tell me all about him."
M: "Uh, okay. Who told you about him? How do you know about him?"
G: "My teacher told us about him! And if I learn more and can talk about him on Tuesday I can get some tokens!" (Tokens are part of the reward system of this particular classroom)
M: "Well, he is not the president of our country but he's running to be one. That means that in a couple of months when the grown-ups in our country vote they can choose between him and another guy, John McCain, to be the president."
G: "Oh, I know who I'd vote for (and now clenches her hands into fists and 'raises the roof' and chants):
Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Obama!!!!!

wild nights

These pictures were taken over the last few nights. Its no wonder the kids have been a bit cranky...

who knew blackberries could be so fun?

Last week we went across The River to pick blackberries with a good friend. I was surprised at how much fun it was for everyone. Jimmy really got into the picking and did a pretty good job at only picking the black ones. Grace was thrilled she could carry her Very Own Bucket. And Nate and I couldn't resist bringing home far more than we planned on. Our friend Ann had a great time too and made some tasty cobbler the next day. As for us we did two blackberry fold-overs (kind of like a half pie/turnover situation) and blackberry ice cream. To quote Jimmy, "so nummy."

what really happened

You may have noticed the last two posts consisted only of pictures and really not much story behind them. That is because it has been a crazy transition time for me. With Jimmy out of the crib (by the way he actually took a nap today, first time all week, I think it was in the crib but I didn't dare check) somewhere in my mind that means he is certainly no baby anymore. And with Grace going back to school that means she's gone all day long (yes, I know this is a good thing, but I've never been one to adapt to change really well).

It was a mad-house when we got to school on Monday (picture the day before Thanksgiving at the grocery store or the day after Christmas at the mall). The kids were wild, most of the parents were in a rush so they left, and the teachers didn't have a clue what was going on. What should have taken 10-15 minutes at most took us almost an hour. We finally got Grace to her classroom, found her seat, and then it was time for J and I to go. We said the normal stuff (love you, have a great day, see you after school, etc) and she said, "Mom, please don't leave me.... here". Uggghhhhh!

However, I calmly told her that she'd have a great day and that we'd be right there when school was over. Then we quickly left her room and found our way back to the car just in time for me to cry. And since I'm letting it all out today, I did cry once more and it certainly wasn't just a tear or two. At one point I thought to myself, "Well, I could always pull her and home-school." HA!

Luckily my sanity arrived and thoughts like that don't exist any more. Of course she had a great day, of course it is a great school, of course I'm not going to pull her. But its still a long day to have her gone. Today the reality of it set in on Jimmy and it was his turn to cry (no, he didn't see me cry the first day thank-you-very-much as he was very involved in his board book while buckled into his car seat and I had on my sunglasses and looked straight ahead). We left her running around with the kids (yes, they were adequately supervised, just in case you were wondering) just before the bell rang, and Jimmy just cried and said "Gwaacie". It really was sad. And several times during the day he'd say, "Go get Gwaacie?"

I should probably read that book, Who Moved my Cheese?.

first grade here we come!

 
 
 
Watch out world, here she comes!

no strangers in the night

Last night was Jimmy's first night to have his very own Big Boy Bed. As you can see he enjoys sleeping in it.

 

back to normal

Jimmy is much better, thank you very much. I know this for lots of reasons: he constantly throws the couch cushions all over the room, he insists on doing everything himself, he seems to try Gracie's patience, greets our pet fish every time he enters the room, and causes general mayhem and destruction all day long. On Friday when I went to get him after his nap this is what I discovered:

 

 

He somehow opened the closet door and got this box inside his bed. He was very proud of himself and I must admit, I'm pretty proud of him too.

mr. cranky-pants

 

Our poor Buv is one sick little guy. He's got a serious sore throat (all red and blistery, yuck!). Its just a virus that happens to be going around, but it is miserable. We've had a hard time convincing him to eat anything. And when any of my children (and myself for that matter) don't eat on a regular basis they tend to be a bit irrational. Combine that with a fever and you've got yourself an unpleasant afternoon (or evening, or morning, or late night, you get the picture). Grace has been pretty nice about his situation. Apparently the first night he was sick she sat by his bed and prayed that he would get better. I thought that was really sweet, but of course sweetness doesn't last forever and during the day it was back to the usual bickering about possesions. Thankfully she's off to play at a friend's house this morning and Jimmy has succumbed to a morning nap. I'm hoping we're on the mend.

lincoln-ites

Saturday brought a 24 hour shift for Dr. Nathan at the hospital. So the kids and I crossed The River and met my parents for an outing in Springfield. We met them at the Lincoln Memorial Garden. It was very nature-y. Jimmy even walked into a giant spider web. Grace screamed (in a nice damsel-in-distress sort of way) and Jimmy just pulled on the web and began to unravel it. It was a great moment to illustrate the difference between these two.

From there it was on to other Lincoln sites - the tomb (Grace was totally disappointed she couldn't see "his dead body") and New Salem (this is a frontier town where Lincoln used to live). Our verdict on New Salem - never go when it is over 90 degrees with matching humidity (none of the homes have electricity, they are very 'authentic', this makes many of the workers there 'cranky.'). Really we couldn't help but compare it to Nauvoo and though one is 'politically-historical' and the other is 'spiritually-historical', they both are from the same time period and Nauvoo is a much more pleasant experience. However, New Salem has a gift shop (great for trying on hats and taking pictures and an ice cream shop, mmmmmm).

musical animal identification

camping, revisited

Its been over a week and I have sufficiently recovered from the ill-fated camping trip to post pictures. You will see the crowded contents of our car, a very wet tent, a frustrated camper trying to light a fire that would just smoke and smoke until it faded out with a gleeful camper at his side, some more wet parts of the tent, visiting wildlife (someone's dog kept coming back to our site, I think he smelled our s'mores), kids playing in the river, a captured tadpole (sadly the funeral for this particular tadpole was held later that evening), and excited Naturalist with her new tadpole, an eager river-explorer trying to drink the river water, etc. I guess most people had fun on the adventure. Maybe next time I'll have fun too.

the other white meat

So a few weeks ago Nate made this for dinner. It was "'mazing" to quote Jimmy. The kids snarfed it up (well, J did not each the spinach part) and to Nate's dismay there wasn't much leftover. Also it was very quick and easy to make. I decided to make it tonight - I found some nice chops on sale and our tomatoes are just begging to be used up - it'd be perfect. But there's a problem: I'm not good at making pork! I don't know what Nate does that I don't when it comes to pork, but whatever it is he does it well. Now I'm just disappointed. I'm generally a very good cook. I guess I'll have to add pork to my list of "Things Better Cooked By Someone Else". What's on your list?

makeover madness

I'm not sure what came over me, but I did another blog face-lift. Not sure if I'm into it. Do you like it?

rain, rain, go away .... and please don't come back when I'm camping!

Torrential downpour. Severe storms. Wet yuckiness. That sums up Friday night. I won't go into the details.

Saturday the sun came out. We celebrated by having s'mores at 8:30 a.m. Broke camp and then played in the river. Came home dirty, exhausted, sun burnt. But somehow we managed to have a good time.

Tonight Nate said he was glad we went despite some of our challenges and that we should do a family trip again soon. I agree, but next time let's sleep in a hotel.

where the wild things are

Sunday we took a drive to Lone Elk County Park. I love that place because the kids and Nate can be close to Nature and I can be with them and we're all happy (the power of a/c, love it!) We saw lots of deer and even a few elk. They are huge! Jimmy was really excited and would say "Hey, there a melk over there, a melk, a melk, a melk."

Yesterday the kids and I attended an activity called "Year of the Frog" through a local nature center. It seemed like a good thing to do two weeks ago when I signed us up. Billed as an activity for all ages, I didn't think twice about bringing a two year old. Five minutes before we arrive at the location (which was a bit farther than I bargained for) it starts pouring sheets of rain. Yes, this was to be an outdoor activity. No problem, the Naturalist on hand, Miss Amy, had us gather in the little building and she taught us a lesson on frogs, toads, salamanders, etc. Way over the head of J, but he did enjoy sitting on his chair and raising his hand when the other kids did - at least for a few minutes. Then he just wanted to climb on all the chairs, move the chairs he wasn't climbing on, run around the room, and make his way to the top of the tables. Finally it was time to pet the bull frog and toad which was a great opportunity for Jimmy to poke the toad in the eye. Turns out toads don't have great eye sight any way so I decided not to worry about it. After that the clouds parted and it was out to the pond. Yes, a real Pond right in the middle of Nature. As we gather outside Miss Amy says, "Umm, this nature area is well known for its ticks and chiggers." Oh, great Miss Amy, thanks! And thanks to the folks at the nature center who organized this for not telling all of the Moms this so we could be properly attired. Then as we approach the actual pond (with Jimmy running full speed ahead - one of his new favorite phrases when we're driving "full speed ahead, mama") Miss Amy says, "Okay everyone, lets look at this plant that is growing right here (on a step we all need to walk right past to get to the pond), its a three leaf plant and no one can touch it because it is called Poison Ivy." What do you think 2 and 3 year olds want to do when someone says, 'okay everyone, look at this'. That's right, they want to touch it! Somehow I could tell that I should just scoop up Sir James and we managed to avoid contact with said plant. In the meantime we scooped out snails, tadpoles, salamander larvae, and lots of gunk from the pond. Grace LOVED it. So much that she's decided to be a Naturalist herself - one that studies tadpoles and frogs and dogs and cats. Oh, and did I mention J tried many times to drink the pond water? As soon as we got to the car I stripped J of his shoes, socks, and shorts as they were more wet than the pond itself and discussed with Grace that if she really wants a pet frog she'll be the one to catch the crickets to feed it, not me. Upon arrival at home it was straight to the tub for them while I called Nate and said "Tell me everything I need to know about ticks and chiggers." Somehow we escaped our natural experience unscathed. And to think we've been planning to go camping this weekend. AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

super date 2008

As you may have guessed from the recent poll, we recently celebrated our 10th anniversary. It is unreal to us that we've been married that long, but after careful calculations we've come to the conclusion that in fact we have been.

To celebrate Nate got me some of the fanciest roses I have ever seen. The stems were so long they were taller than Jimmy. The were a beautiful red and in a gorgeous vase. He also decided since I'm more of a traditional girl than a modern one, that he would give me a gift that went along with the traditional wedding gifts (10th year being the tin/aluminum year): a 12 pack of Diet Coke (sadly the 10th year on the modern list is diamonds).

We managed to convince someone to stay with the kids starting around noon on Saturday. Her husband was on-call that day and night and said that we were more than welcome to stay out as late as we wanted. And so begins our Super Date (oh, what is a Super Date? It is a term borrowed from Nate's sister who planned many of these kinds of excursions for groups of her friends in high school, basically it is a date that goes on and on and on...)

We began at one of our favorite places to have lunch (which happens to be no where near our house and not the best place for kids (not a bad place for kids, just not the best for them) in a town called Creve Coeur): Pastries of Denmark. Mmmmm. So good and quiet. No one tried to interrupt our conversation to tell us things about Big Trucks, princesses, soccer balls or to ask us about video games. It was fabulous (and the food wasn't bad either!).

We then took the scenic route back towards the city and drove through swanky towns like Ladue. We found ourselves at the Art Museum. There were so many cool things to see and some great people watching too. The museum is located in Forest Park which was beautiful and green; however, it was about 96 degrees that afternoon with matching humidity and there was no way Nate could convince me we should hang out there and try and fly a kite. But we did find a nice spot in the shade to hang out in for a bit. After a lovely tour of the park (inside the cool a/c air of the car), we drove through an area of STL newly renamed The Grove towards some funky shops.

After that we headed north to the CWE. The streets were shaded so walking a bit through there wasn't too bad and we found a place to grab a bite to eat. Our waitress was extremely concerned for our comfort that she would come and check on us about every 4 minutes (really not exaggerating that one). Our seat by the window proved well for more people watching.

With our hunger satisfied we went to the "New" Cathedral and walked around. The grounds were pretty and by this time a nice breeze was blowing so we didn't notice the awful thick humidity as much as we did earlier.

From there we headed east towards the riverfront to the Arch. Sadly we weren't able to go up to the top (for just a moment I was a disappointed, but then realized I didn't have to ride in one of those teensy-weensy cars to the top). The Arch grounds were pretty as well.

Then it was back West to The Loop. If you are looking for a young and hip crowd (which we weren't sure our old hips were looking for) then The Loop is the place to be after dark. The tattoo parlor was in full swing and so were the vintage stores, bars, and record stores. We each got a tattoo on our cheeks (rear cheeks that is): Ten Years of Bliss. Ha haa, did I fool you? You'll never know.

We found dessert at the Melting Pot. Very tasty way to end our Super Date. Now you know how we spent our Saturday. And for the record, when we were first married we had great plans to celebrate our 10th anniversary in Hawaii or some place lovely like that - never in a million years did we think we'd celebrate an occasion such as this in STL. So the new plan is to celebrate our 13th in a very big and tropical way. Wonder what kind of tattoos we'll get then...