It’s cool that God puts us in charge of little people who become the center of our universe.  Let’s admit it.  We’re obsessed with our kids and love to talk about them.  Nearly every day I chat with Dave, my parents, my sister, my co-workers, my friend Darlene and many others about every little thing they’re doing.  I can’t help it, really.  And fortunately I limit my kid conversation to the people who seem to really care.  But surely there are occasions where I’m gushing about something of zero interest to the other party.  Oh well.  Don’t hang out with parents and grandparents unless you want to hear about potty training and tantrums.  That’s what’s important from our perspective.  It is scary how excited I get about clearing out their school backpacks at night to unearth a cool art project or a letter home to parents.  Last night at 11:30 I was going through Charlotte’s book club brochures picking out cheap selections.  I should have been in bed yet somehow could not resist doing something I find really entertaining.  All things involving my kids are fun.  Cannot wait for the monster party Charlotte’s invited to tomorrow.  I have been talking about it for weeks.  No, I don’t think I need to get a life.

Posted under Baby Thomas: Month 27

Charlotte told me she didn’t want to take a bath this morning but maybe will take one tomorrow and I was secretly thrilled.

Thomas hits his sister some times and I don’t always stop him because she needs some payback for bullying him.

Much of the 30 minutes I did weights today was spent obsessing about eating and how I can’t wait for my mom to bring the homemade Halloween cookies, pizza casserole and french toast casserole when my parents come for the weekend.

It is annoying when my childless co-workers yawn and complain about how they’re so tired.  (I think I’ve covered this before.)

It is even more annoying when my divorced and single co-workers talk about how marriage kills your sex life and your freedom.  Get over yourselves and learn how to compromise!  ( Even though it took me until my 30s to stop being so selfish.)

Thanks to Dave and daycare, changing poopy diapers is something I rarely have to do and I don’t feel guilty about it. 

Doing hair and make-up is so taxing, I’m willing to look like a washed-out version of my working self on the weekends to avoid it.

I recently asked a brutally honest high definition TV appearance consultant if she thought I could hold off on Botox for a while.  She said yes.

Dave showed me on Facebook girls from his high school he used to think were cute.  Let’s just say I feel better about how I look on the weekends now.

The last three things I mentioned were all about how I look.  This TV job has warped my sense of reality.  Help me!

Posted under Baby Thomas: Month 27

“What have we done” has gone through my mind the past couple weeks.  Unexpectedly, we have decided to sell our house and either build a new one or move to an existing one.  Most likely with some apartment living in between.  I have already considered how much blog material this whole adventure (potential nightmare) will bring.  So I had to mention it here since I really don’t hide things well.  And the stress and anxiety and rollercoastering of emotion this process has already brought is scary.  I am eating everything in sight and blabbering on and on about it to anyone who will listen.  Have never sold anything like this before.  Have never had to keep my house in “show” condition with two little ones living in it.  Last night, with empty fabric bins on their heads, my two blockheads knocked over the decorative vase on the back-from-storage end table and broke it.  I anticipate more damage to come now that our house is not as child-friendly.  Why are we doing this, is the obvious question?  Interest rates are so low, we could get so much more house for not much more money and relish the memories of living on top of each other in an apartment to get there.  Okay that last part is a total lie!

Posted under Baby Thomas: Month 27

Not as enthusiastically as I’d like, I’ve returned to the local rec center to resume working out more regularly.  The year started off great for me in the exercise department.  I kept up the routine after my 3-month fitness program ended in March and managed to work out all summer with Dave.  Then he went back to school.  The kids went back to school.  And I stopped going to the gym.  It shows.  This week I’m back in commitment mode and did manage to run yesterday and lift today.  As I was “resting” between sets a 50-something gentleman told me not to fall asleep.  Of course, defensively, I shot back something about just being happy with myself for making it there.  Later, again resting between sets on another machine, I found myself amused at the sight of a gray-haired, older man doing dips while squeezing an 18-pound medicine ball between his legs.  I was barely pushing 30 pounds up in a relaxed position and here this dude is suspended from two bars gripping more extra weight between his knees than I could probably lift over my head.  Oh, well.  You gotta have room for improvement.

Posted under Baby Thomas: Month 27

I have not done much to stop the little girl upstairs from carrying out her diva ways.  At 4, Charlotte is (in my mind) a typical child.  Perhaps I am lying to myself.  She is obsessed with her hair.  Some times gets up and stumbles to the bathroom in search of a brush to comb it out before she comes down to face the world.  Constantly takes ponytails in and out, headbands off and on and changes her mind about how she wants to wear it a hundred times before heading out.  I am not that great at styling it–she agrees and ripped out the decent french braid I did last week and “high” pony she wasn’t satisfied with yesterday.  As for her clothes… I have to keep this entry short… it is a neverending battle.  She only wants to wear Hello Kitty shirts, tight t-shirts, skorts and short-shorts.  Oh, and one pair of jeans with holes ripped in the knees.  They do look cool, I admit.  But anything baggy is out and long sleeves are a last resort.  She rolls up her strecth pants above the knees and wants loose shirts tied in a knot in the back.  I gave up the fight months ago.  As long as it’s not too crazy, I pretty much let her go with it.  I have returned tons of stuff she liked at the moment of purchase but later refused to wear.  Fine.  It’s going back and instead of forcing her to wear it she can pick from the same crop of shirts that have gone through the laundry every week.  It’s a shame her frilly dresses never make it off the hanger.  I see little girls looking so cute in big bows and ruffles.  Not Charlotte.  She is her own stylist.  At times she does remind me of a bad 80s video or a street kid I’ve seen on some runaways in Hollywood documentary.  But you know me well enough to get that I don’t expend a lot of energy on things I don’t see as worth it.  My daughter’s quirky taste is one of them.

P.S.-The above shot was taken the morning of school pictures.  Before we headed out, she changed two more times and fiddled with her hair all the way up to the sitting with the photographer.

Posted under Baby Thomas: Month 27

Thomas slept between Daddy and me last night.  It must have been the bathroom light in the hall or my conversation with Dave that woke him up.  He was calling for us from his crib and I knew, unless I scooped him up, he would wake up Sissy.  Then she would have been in our bed, too!  So Thomas shared my pillow and “cuddled down” holding my wedding ring.  It was wonderful, actually.  And Charlotte never knew.  The crazy thing, unlike his sister, he never interrupted my sleep.  In fact when she came into our bed at 5 this morning, I thought Daddy had at some point carried her brother back to his crib.  Until I heard the two munchkins talking between me.  “Do you want to come in my room, Thomas?”  “Yes!”  Next thing you know the pair were climbing over me and sliding down the side of the bed.  On to Sissy’s room across the hall for way-too-early morning reading and chatting.  I did what any devoted mother would do, resumed being a devoted wife and snuggled behind my husband for the few minutes we were alone together in our bed.

Posted under Baby Thomas: Month 27

I don’t cry over spilled milk or markers waved in the air by a 2-year-old.  Scenes like the one pictured tend to stress Daddy out, though, so they’re more likely to happen when he’s at work.  Of course I don’t want my kids to get hurt, but I do want them to have some creative freedom–even if it involves spray-foam mustaches in the tub and bits of Playdough on the wood floor.  Messes can be cleaned up.  Dirty hand marks on the wall can be painted over (and have been).  My children will only be young once and someday they’ll skip the silly, preschool-type fun of stringing macaroni and cutting out shapes in exchange for texting in their room and watching shows like Teen Mom on MTV.  Actually based on the way they dump and stuff bins of toys (crap) around the house, they’re more likely to take an interest in the show Hoarders… or be featured on it!

Posted under Baby Thomas: Month 27

Not paying attention more in grade school geography and high school history.  Could use a bit more knowledge of both, especially for my current job.

Failing to learn how to type without looking at my hands every few seconds.  My teacher let us race through our assignments, regardless of how we did them, for free time.  I had a lot of free time. 

Worrying about other girls seeing me naked in the PE locker room.  My body was fab–back then.

Crying at grade school parties over some fight with a girl.  I don’t talk to them today, ever, except to accept their friend request on Facebook.

Taking chemistry and Physics 3-4.  I should have known when 10 out of the 12 kids in my class said they wanted to be engineers it was a mistake.  

Eating that last bit of Moose Crunch left on the table behind me in the newsroom.  Who’s the jerk who left it there?

Posted under Baby Thomas: Month 27

Sunday was another one in a series where our kids were grouchy, punchy, stubborn and overall pretty obnoxious.  Think of a number of adjectives you’ve applied to your children at their worst and they would fit in this case.  It’s like nothing we do gets them to calm down or act the way their teachers rave about.  The problem, not wanting to entirely blame the parents , partly lies in a lack of sleep.  All week they either don’t get a nap or don’t get a long enough one then don’t sleep in as late as needed.  I don’t think a 8-8:30pm bed time is unreasonable, but Thomas gets up at 6:15 crabby.  Then he ends up waking up his sister because he’s one floor down yelling at the DVD player not to lock up.  It’s like we’re the orderlies at the insane asylum, I swear.  Yesterday I stood in the hall and watched Thomas for a couple minutes in his young preschool class.  He sat quietly on the mat until he was asked to come up and do the calendar.  Apparently he whispered “October” when prompted because I couldn’t hear it and the teacher asked him to repeat it.  It cracked me up.  This kid who is so high strung every morning at home doing somersaults and jumping off the stairs is like a little church mouse at school.  The other night his screeching was so loud it set off the alarm at the house we were in.  No joke.  Dave told me at one point this weekend that some times the way they act with us it’s hard to have any fun.  I agree.  It can suck.  Let’s be honest about that.  But one look at that little boy in front of his class with a look of total innocence, all the weekend crap was forgotten.  My kids can send me on emotional rollercoasters like nothing I’ve ever experienced.    

Dahn & Wendy with us at Gals & Pals in Traer

Posted under Baby Thomas: Month 27

I knew Alvie’s health was not good in recent years, but I did not expect my parents to call me Saturday to tell me he passed away.  We met in freshman year biology.  He with a briefcase and me intrigued enough to talk to him.  From that moment we were great friends.  I knew he had diabetes, but he always downplayed it and frankly did not have the family support or resources to properly manage it.  The disease took his leg a few years ago and steadily impacted his vision.  But I didn’t know what it was doing to his kidneys.  He died last week at 37.  The memories have been flashing in my mind since I heard.  The night Alvie, another friend and I flipped a coin to see which way we should drive my Ford Futura.  The funny thing is we ended up right back where we started in his neighborhood having weaved all over town, unexpectedly in a circular pattern.  His unique laugh and quirky sense of humor are vivid.  Yet the most important thing that comes to mind when I remember Alvie was his relationship with Christ.  He was talking to me about Jesus long before I came to know Him.  Phone calls in college and letters sporadically sent over the period since high school graduation always included motivational Christian reflections and personally-selected Bible verses.  My biggest regret is not taking the time I should have to see him this summer when I was home.  My biggest comfort comes in knowing he is finally free of the challenges diabetes wrought and rewarded for the countless people he exposed to Jesus.

Posted under Baby Thomas: Month 27