Confusion Reigns

Einey's best friend is a boy. And as such, since she's gotten to the age of sleepovers, she has been informed that while he may be her best friend, she just cannot sleep over at his house. We just explained that boys sleep at boys houses and girls sleep at girls houses. After much protesting, she finally accepted our terms.

All was fun and dandy until we got th invitation to a New Years Eve, kids sleepover bash. At her other best friend's house. Who also happens to be a boy. We explained our plans and they happily accepted the fact that we were going to have a sleepover and play games and stay up until midnight (or attempt to at least). All the kids are camping in the host kid's bedroom - which is currently divided into "boys against girls" fun. Each gender has it's own side. Until yesterday. As we were talking about the party, she paused and I saw the wheels turning. Then I heard:

"How come I can sleep over at his house and not house?".

She finally accepted that it was because the whole family was spending the night.

So soon, we're off to have tons of fun!

We'll see you next year!

Worst. Mother. Evah

Today I earned the above title "Worst Mom Ever" from Einey. I really didn't do anything wrong, I just didn't do what she wanted me to do.

I sent her upstairs to get dressed so we could head to church. Only she wanted to sit and watch Pokemon. She was in tears as she told me it was the worse day of her life and that I was the "worst mom she ever had!". I still made her get dressed and we went to church. At church she was snuggling into me and told me she stilled loved me, even though she was mad at me. By the time church ended, she said she wasn't mad at me.

Hopefully, she'll learn that she cannot always have things her way.

We survived

We survived Christmas and it's aftermath. I swear, if I have to un-box, un-wrap, un-tape and un-twisty tie another toy any time soon, I may go bonkers! Most of the gifts the girls got were locked up tighter than Fort Knox! Do toys really need that much excess packaging?

Husband looked at the dizzying array of toys (in their packages) and was wondering when we were going to start building another play room to house them all. Once they were all un-packaged, they fit nicely in their
proper baskets / on their shelf. Nice and neat!

Wednesday the girls went to see Waterhorse with a friend. It was daddy's day out. Moe and I hung out with the mom and little sister of the friend. We basically hung out at the McDonald's play place for an hour. First time I've done that and Moe had a blast! Waterhorse was apparently good, but not necessarily a kids movie (it's PG). I guess there were a few scene's that scared the girls.

This morning we spent an hour at the local pet store for a "field trip". The girls got to hold all types of animals. Einey has decided she wants more lizards as well as a snake and a hamster. Moe wants fish. Then we went to a pizza / movie lunch at friend's house before relaxing for the afternoon at home. Then we had community service parental volunteer hours at the girls school for a basketball tournament. It's part of the agreement with her doing pep squad - each parent has to volunteer. Luckily, it also goes towards our yearly required volunteer hours! The girls were real good hanging out in the cafeteria area where the concessions were while I manned the admissions area. They did of course devour copious amounts of popcorn, water and candy.

Tomorrow brings a trip to the craft store to pick up make your own party hats and tee shirts for the New Years Eve Kids Bash we are going to and roller skating in the afternoon. And Sunday brings a birthday party. I think I need a vacation from this winter break! Actually, I can't complain as we've basically lounged around the last few days!

Time for Christmas

Time we were awoken Christmas morning 6:00 am. No not, by the sound of kids discovering the plethora of toys under the tree. We were awoken by sounds on the roof. Uh huh. Yup. Again.

6:30 am - The time the kids woke up for the day

8:00 am - When they were finished opening their gifts.

8:30 am - Time that I opened my new camera

8:40 am - Time that I realized that I hate* my new camera.

How long it took us to lose our first toy - 10 minutes

Amount of time it took to remove toys from packaging - 1 plus hours

Time Christmas dinner was supposed to be ready - 2:30 pm.

Time we we actaully sat down to eat - 3:30pm

Amount of time it took from opening new presents until we threatened Moe that Santa would be back to take the toys back - 7.5 hours.

Time spent with family - 4 days and counting....

Merry Christmas and enjoy your time together today!

*Possibly, I am going to try playing with it some more, but I think it may get returned.

2007 card

Merry Christmas

Wishing you all a very merry Christmas!

Memories

Six years ago, on Christmas Eve, I was sitting at my parent's house with my whole family. After eating, I got an upset stomach. At the time, I thought it was the pizza, I always got an upset stomach with pizza from a certain place. Husband and I left my parents house around 11 pm. It was the last time we did a Christmas Eve gathering which lasted so long (now we meet for a few house the weekend before Christmas). We headed straight for our church where we attended midnight Mass. After mass, we headed home for a peaceful night's sleep.

On Christmas morning, I awoke to my water breaking. In a fog, I stumbled to the bathroom, cleaned myself up and headed back to bed. About a 1/2 hour later, it dawned on me what actually happened. After I was finally able to rouse Husband, he took his sweet time taking a shower and grabbing our things. I still hadn't started having contractions, but we headed to the hospital anyway (we didn't know!). After getting there and checked in, my contractions finally started. At this point, we called our families to inform them we would not be coming to visit. Around 3 pm, one of the nurses mentioned to Husband that the hospital was offering free Christmas lunches. Husband, who apparently felt he was starving, snuck out when our favorite nurse was in the room to grab a bite to eat. Only he didn't eat and come back. He brought the food back to the room to be with me. I think it was the only time I ever kicked him out of the room! (To be fair, I had just entered a transition phase and for the first time, was highly uncomfortable) When he came back into the room, the smell of turkey and cranberry sauce swirling around him, we found out it was time to start pushing the baby out. 45 minutes later, Einey was born.

Einey's birth and the moments leading up to it are forever stuck in my mind, just like the events leading up to her sister's births. I was not ready for her to be born, there were so many decisions we had yet to make. She was 4 weeks early so we had no last minute time to prepare. In fact, I had visited my OB the day before she was born and he felt was still had at least two weeks. Apparently the upset stomach I had was in fact early labor. I didn't know, it wasn't intense like I heard it would be. I was always told when you went into labor, you'd know. In fact with all three of my girls, I didn't know. After we had Einey, everyone who saw us the night before commented on "I knew you'd have her soon, I could see how uncomfortable you were".

So here I am, on Christmas Eve, thinking of that Christmas Eve six years ago that would forever change our lives. We still do most of the same traditions, we've just modified them to fit our family's need.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Wish

"For Christmas, I would like to spend time with my whole family." ~Einey

Einey got her Christmas wish. Originally, this weekend was to be filled with spending the holidays with my extended family and then a Christmas party and caroling with friends. But then Moe got sick. She has had this nasty cough (croup?) for a few days and hadn't been sleeping. The end of the week, it was also accompanied by a fever. Now all that lingers is a cough, but it's enough to keep us home together.

Einey, Meenie and I still made the trip to visit our family (the gathering was originally scheduled for our abode, but last minute scrambling led us to my sister's house), drop off the gifts we brought and to pick up their gifts. We stayed for a bit and Einey and Meenie opened their Christmas presents with their cousins. Einey also opened her birthday gifts.

There are a few duplicates which will need to be exchanged after the New Year (it's not worth fighting the crowds!) but for the most part, they got plenty of fun toys. I didn't ban all things Made in China because some of their favorite toys are from there. We will just keep an eye on the consumer reports and toss what needs to be tossed.

Husband took one look at the bags of stuff I carted back into the house and shook his head. They outdid it again I see. Where are we going to put all that stuff? But once it was out of it's ridiculous packaging, it all fit nicely in the designated bins in the playroom. In fact, their is plenty of room to spare for the new toys Santa is bringing!

On a side note, I found Area 51.

That is what I saw when I walked down into the living room the other day. The kids couldn't understand the humor I found in the sign.


P.S. I'm not sure what's up with my header. It keeps changing so I think it has something to do with blogger. I'm going to leave it for a few days and see if it rights itself. It looks a little better today than it has the last few days.

Moe's Lesson Learned

Horseradish sauce is NOT tarter sauce.

Wii Crazy

Santa was going to bring a Wii. Then he wasn't. Now at the last minute, he decided he wants to.

I don't know what, except for temporary insanity, propelled me to try to find one this morning.

8:30 am Dropped Einey and Meenie off at school

8:50 am Stopped at GameSpot to check and see if they got any Wii's in (wishfull thinking!). There were three people waiting.

9:05 am Went inside. Found out they had a shipment due that morning and they usually arrive around 10 am. Decided to wait - hey I'm the fourth person here, I should be lucky!

9:07 am Moe declares she needs to potty. I initiate a game of I-Spy.

9:30 am Moe is hungry. I pull out a granola bar (not sure when I put it in my purse, but it was there). More people filter in and join the group.

10:00 am Moe is a little antsy. She's wandering around, looking at game boxes, playing the display games.

10:16 am Still no UPS. I decide to wait a bit longer.

10:30 am Moe and I are sitting on the floor coloring.

10:45 am I decide to wait until 11:05 so I can make it back to pick Meenie up.

11:05 am UPS pulls up into the plaza. I wait. I'm not getting this close only to leave.

11:15 am Truck pulls up to the store. Unloads in the back.

11:20 am Store Employee walks out. They have three Wii's.

Did I mention I was fourth in line?

Store employee does tell Moe and I we can come back two other days they are expecting shipments in. Um thanks but no thanks, Moe would probably not behave as well.

11:38 am Arrive at school a tad late to get Meenie.

11:45 am Stop at McDonald's to reward Moe for behaving so well!

It's not that big of a deal, especially since we initially decided to wait. Waiting until later in the year really isn't going to be so bad. Really.

Edit: Day 2 - 15 minutes in line, #3 in line, 3 Wii's. One was needed to replace a defective one.

Day 3 - 1hour, 30 minutes, #4 in line, 3 Wii's. Not in the cards. We'll wait awhile! At least that's $250 + ( plus for all the games/accesories I'd buy) I still have.

Ice, Ice Baby

Ice hurts. Or more specifically, what's under ice hurts. Even more specifically, falling down concrete steps because you slipped on ice hurts.

We just had our sand/salt bucket filled after the snowstorm last Friday. And we used all of it on the driveway under the cars so they would be able to get out in the morning. Unfortunately, we had none left for the stairs. And just my luck, leaving this morning to pick up Meenie from school, I slipped and hit three of them on the way down. Luckily, Moe didn't fall. And then, after walking out the door with Meenie, we both fell. Not fun.

When I picked Einey up from school, they warned us about the ice in the parking lot. The whole lot is like an ice rink! The teacher on car duty was going to complain after we left. She said if it was still like that in the morning, to call and complain. It's just not safe.

I found some kitty litter(don't ask why I have kitty litter if I've never ever owned a cat) in the basement and used it to cover the stairs and the front walk so the mailman didn't fall. It seems the have worked.

Now to get more sand/salt before it snows again.

Edit: 4:30 PM Yah! I have more sand/salt. Thanks Dad!

Nationality, Language and Religion...

Last week, while we were driving, Einey asks me, "how did you know I was going to be English and not Spanish?". I glanced back and told her "you're neither, you are American". After a blank look, she asks well what is an "American". So we talked about how your nationality is determined by where you are born and that since we live in America, it makes her American. I guess I never quite answered her question, because a few minutes later, she asked, "How did you know I would speak English and not Spanish". After a few chuckles, I told her that the language you speak is usually determined by the language you hear spoken at home.

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At school this month, the girls started off their lessons learning about Hanukkah and Kwanza in addition to Christmas. So while they were lighting the weekly advent candles, they were also making Menorah's. Meenie's preschool class talked about how all three celebrations have things in common. They all use candles to celebrate, they all have families gathering for feasts and have some sort of present giving. And it's all a way to celebrate your heritage.

At the end of their lessons, their Menorah's came home. Meenie asked if we could light it. As I lit the candles, she started to spin her dreidel and sing the dreidel song. At this point, Einey flipped out and stormed out of the room.

"I don't want to be Jewish, you need to stop right now. It's not fair. I just don't understand"

When I finally got her to calm down I tried to explain to her that what we did did not make her Jewish. That it takes alot more to convert to a new Religion. And also that being Jewish means much more than religion because it is also an ethnicity.

At the same time, we brought up the subject of tolerance. We explain that while it wasn't something she normally celebrates, nor something she fully understood, that her reaction was unacceptable. We explained that as she grows up, she is going to meet people who don't share the same beliefs as she does and that's it's okay. It's part of that diversity that makes everyone special. One day, she's going to have friends who have different religions, heritage and political beliefs than she does and that she's going to need to accept it.

Of all the kids, I didn't think she would be the one to react like that. She is usually pretty tolerant and has never let anything like religion or ethnicity bother her before. But as I look back on it, I think she was scared. And while I know she still doesn't fully understand, one day she will.

Cancelled

It's official. I've canceled Einey's birthday party, to be rescheduled at a later date in January. And she took it very well, no complaining at all!

After 10 inches of snow yesterday and a "Nor 'Easter*" on the way for Saturday into Sunday I didn't want to risk it. On the bright side, friends who couldn't come due to Christmas obligations may now be able to make the rescheduled party. The downside is I may have to buy more party favors as we invited extra guests after some declined.


*Forecast changes frequently

Winter Weather Rant

I'm glad to see snow. Really I am. I even went out and brought new sleds this morning. I can't wait until after nap time to go out and play with the kids.

But why, oh why, do you send kids home early because the roads are slick but NOT send out the snowplows before hand? We live close to the school - it normally tames me two minutes to get there. I live on a main road in town and have to briefly get on a main state road (one that is always on the list of most dangerous roads in the country). Yet when I went to pick up Einey at 12:45, none of the roads were plowed and no corners were sanded. Now the snow started to fall at 11:15. I had come home from a playgroup at 11:45 and the roads were not to bad. Forty-five minutes later, they were pretty slick (and yeah, the snow is coming down pretty hard and fast). It took me almost 20 minutes to make the 5 minute round trip drive. And the kicker - we've seen the plows (because the town owns several) out and about. Just not doing what they should be doing.

So again, why send school buses out on the crap-tastic roads without first treating them?

Please, Please, Please let them be wrong....

Saturday Night

A chance of snow in the evening...then snow... rain and sleet after midnight. Moderate snow accumulation. Lows around 20. Chance of precipitation 80 percent.

Sunday

Rain...snow and sleet with freezing rain likely in the morning...then a chance of snow showers in the afternoon. Additional moderate snow accumulation possible. Highs in the lower 30s. Chance of precipitation 70 percent.

For once, I am hoping and praying that the weather forecasters are wrong. With our luck, it will be the one time they are right!

You see, Einey's birthday party is scheduled Sunday morning. Einey, whose birthday falls on Christmas Day and already at the age of almost six, feels jipped (thankfully she has a great teacher who is helping us to realize that it's a special day... more on that later). Einey whose single biggest fear right now is that her friends won't get to celebrate her birthday with her because they can't come over on Christmas (even though we told her a hundred times her party is not on her birthday). Einey who has been counting down since the first of the month.

I have until Saturday morning to make the call on whether we want to reschedule or try to go ahead with it.

I just hope it's not a repeat of three years ago when I had to cancel Moe's baptism three times and finally in February said "let's do it in June!"

One Crazy Mama...

What do you get when you have 13 kids under the age of 6, 7 dozen sugar cookies, containers of colored frosting and more toppings than you can imagine? Sugar highs to last until Christmas!

{Rest of the story...}

Psst. Wanna know something?

My girls are blabber mouths! Every year, we take them out and let them pick out gifts for their siblings and parents (Husband takes them to shop for me, and I take them to shop for him). So far, the two little one's have spilled the beans.

Meenie to Moe: "I got you puppy in my pockets with a bracelet"
Meenie to Einey "I got you Pokemon cards with Cradaily and Roserade"

After shopping with with daddy yesterday:
Moe to Meenie "I got you a penguin" (which in fact she did but it wasn't a Christmas gift)
and then signing in the other room "We got Mommy socks and".................. shhh don't tell me!

Every time they open their mouths, I need to remind them NOT to tell what they brought someone. I think i need to start walking around with my fingers in my ears saying "lalalalalalala"!

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Yesterday UPS pulled up in front of the house (not unusual since I did alot of shopping online and I am still waiting for at least 3 more packages). Only I couldn't identify what was in the box. I mean the box was HUGE and the items I ordered were small. They shipped this:


Inside a box like this:

A little bit of overkill, no?

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Speaking of Christmas and gifts, don't forget to visit the New England Mama's blog for your chance to win some great prizes! Some are from New England vendor's such as Little New Englander, Brooks Pond, and Yellowhale Photography. I wish they had (or I knew about) that Brooks Pond baby carrier cover when I had the girls. I would always slip one of Husband's sweaters over whichever girl was in the front pack at the time. It made getting out in the spring and fall much easier! And the Little New Englander tee-shirts are great! The girls love walking around in their Virginia Beach shirts, so why not a local shirt. Finding a children's photographer is hard. I have a hard time finding one who fits our families need. But Yellowhale Photography does amazing work. Just browse through their gallery to check. Other prizes include a gift certificate to Sephora, a set of sacks from Envirosax (these are truly an amazing product - and they really do hold alot. So far, I have managed to fit almost everything inside of them), some gift certificates to Dunkin Donuts, Digital Day Counters from Days Ago, some HP photo books, A homemade Christmas Ornament made by our Maine blogger, MomonCoffee (do you take order's because Husband thought they were cool!) and a diaper bag by Skip Hop.

Make sure you visit and sign up for the contest. Contest ends 12/8! Be sure to tell them Whirlwind sent you!

A tad chilly...

This is what one of the million 19 pumpkins from Halloween looked like yesterday:

I'm not sure why they are still hanging around outside, but I think it's time to pluck them and add them to the compost pile. I did finally pull the Mums (and while I was going to add them to the compost heap, I noticed that despite lack of water for over a month and freezing temps, they had new growth, so I trimmed them back and they are currently residing in the basement). I did finally get some poinsettia's for outside.

Alone

Hear that? No not the heater running nor the hot water percolating. The silence! The kids grudgingly went to school (I say grudgingly because they were hoping for a day off - but as usual, the winter weather predicted was less than anticipated) and Husband is gone for the day. With Moe. On his own free will!

Yup, despite standing in line on Black Friday t oget me my camera *surprise* he feels he needs to buy me more things for Christmas. And thus, he volunteered to take Moe shopping.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to do the laundry, dishes, and finish decorating visit the New England Mama's Blog and see what kind of prizes I can win.

Emergency Surgery

This morning I performed my first ever emergency surgery.

You see, Squeaky the Elephant, encountered some trouble which resulted in a split back. As he lay on the side of the computer desk, with stuffing slowly falling out and his beedy black eyes watching me, I realized, it was bettr for him if I ended the suffering. Normally I would wait until I met up with the master surgeon, but with the holidays and all, I knew he would be suffering for a long long time.

With a steady hand, I cradled Squeaky in one hand and with the other, carefully stitched his back together. It's not perfect, and he'll always bare the light green scar against his light gray skin, but in the end he was very happy.

Meenie, Squeaky's handler, was very happy. As I wrapped him in a pink ribbon tourniquet, she gently took him from my arms and is now helping him rest comfortably on the sofa.

As my surgery schedule picks up (and I'm sure it will now that they know surgeries can be performed at home rather then away, I am sure my technique will improve. And I'm sure that eventually, I will be able to match their skin color to stiching material, minimalizing the scarring.

But for now, they are happy.