Toddlers and Tiaras...

Here we come! I know that I posted pics after last week's ballet class. And who knows, I just might post 'em EVERY weeks so be ready. I realized last week there were no close ups of my super star. So this is for all of you Olivia ballet fans (insert BeBe and Grandma here!)

I have to say, I could hardly resist this Old Navy sweater/jacket when I saw it at the consignment shop a month or so ago. It seemed like it would be forever until she would wear it. But this morning was chilly enough and it was so perfect for a ballet morning. She is just so super cute.

I don't get a lot out of her after class. She would demonstrate for me how they curtsy at the end of class. It was sweet, but I want more!!!

I had scheduled a phone date with my good friend Karen this morning during class (partially to keep me from peeping through the forbidden window). It was hard to see a handful of other moms bending in to catch a glimpse. But I used every ounce of self control (and mobile minutes) to keep my nosey self outta there. She's already asking when she gets to go back. I think she's hooked.

Don't blame me, I live in Ohio!

And because of that, there just isn't a lot of hip and trendy stuff to do... therefore, we go to festivals. A lot of them. And we eat fried stuff. Lots of it. (And then we sweat it when we weigh in at Weight Watchers each month. Which I did this morning, by the way, and I came in well under my goal. Whew!)

I took the kids over to my friend Sally's after naps yesterday. This is our new plan. Play date after naps every Friday afternoon (unless one of us is out of town or sick or dying or something.) For me, this is the hardest push-thru of the week and I thought if I can have a play date each week until the husbands come home from work, we've got it made in the shade. So, I packed up the kids and off we went yesterday. And an added bonus, there was a festival going on ACROSS THE STREET from Sally's house. So when the husbands got off of work, we all met up at their house and walked there for fun and dinner. It was a gorgeous evening and super fun to spend it with our good friends.

Olivia and Ava are bestest buds. I absolutely LOVE to listen to them play but most of all, chat. Their conversations are innocent and sweet and I could eavesdrop all day long.

Olivia is officially addicted to face painting and we've now got Ava hooked as well. I did manage to convince them to just get their hands painted since we were minutes away from bed time and hated to pay a whole dollar just to wash it off, but I could live with going to bed with a painted hand.(Don't ya know after one potty trip and a wash of the hands we had to deal with a washed away unicorn. At least it was proof of a good post-potty hand wash.)

As is true of all hillbilly carnivals, this one came with some sketchy (at best) little kid rides. But a promise is a promise and the kids spotted this train ride when we first arrived at the festival.

It was one of the saddest moments when all 5 kids got ready to board the train and the 19 year old carni informed us the train wasn't working. Steve asked if there was anyone coming to fix it in the near future. The pimple faced kid held up a piece of sandpaper and said, "Yeah, I'm workin' on it." Ummmm... kids, time to find another ride.

So, even though these cars were CLEARLY the second choice, there were a *few* tears as we left the train, they fully enjoyed their TWO DOLLAR a kid 5 minute ride. Are you kidding me? I'm quite sure, 'back when I was a kid' it only cost a quarter to ride a death trap like this. But who am a to deprive my kids a moment of death-defying fun???

Seriously, it was a highlight of my week watching my three and little Ava go round and round, giggling with delight. I could have stayed there all night, allowing them to ride 'till they barfed. But bedtime was calling.

Growing up my mom always said one of her greatest joys in life was watching me have fun. Hello, lamo! (At least that's what I USED to think.) Oh my what a blast to hear my kids giggle and enjoy simple things in life. And to do it with good friends, what could be better?!

Breaking up is hard to do

You may remember a certain incident earlier this month involving dinner w/ a friend, a veggie wrap and a public toilet? Well, me and my relationship with guacamole is officially over! In the toilet, some may say. You would think I would have learned my lesson, but maybe my experience with the vicious veggie wrap was a lot like giving birth... you forget the pain and are willing to revisit the scene of the crime all too quickly once time has healed all wounds.

I was on campus yesterday. I look forward to my weekly visit to campus for LOTS of reasons. Shamefully, one of them being my "treat" of eating in the student union cafeteria. Its not that the food is all that good (although, its not all that bad) but it really is the love of someone else making me lunch that gets me excited each week. I did a quick scan of my options (and the lunch time crowds that seem to hit the same time I make my debut in the union each week) and noted a chicken burrito that seemed *interesting*.

I got to my table and my friend, Liz, joined me for our weekly appointment. As I bit in and inspected the innards, I realized there was guac in it. A distant thought of caution ran through my mind, or was it more of a repulsion? But because I like to live on the edge, I pushed onward and finished my lunch. It wasn't 10 minutes after polishing off the burrito that I realized I had made a terrible mistake!!!

Guacamole's revenge. It was total deja vu! I got that same knot in my stomach and that same dreaded feeling. I quickly called off the rest of my appointments for the day, high tailed it to my car, crawled into bed and "fought it" for the next three hours and then; guess what?

Guacamole: 2, Elizabeth: 0!

I spent the next 4 hours barfing and VOWING to NEVER, EVER eat the green stuff again!!!

So, I don't know... am I a complete head case and now it's all in my mind? Or can I really have some kind of aversion to guac that causes me to instantly throw up??? Whatev.... I'm unwilling to take this experiment any further! Let the mystery live on, but guacamole... let the world know, you are dead to me!

Treading water

Sorry about the delay in between posts lately. I feel like I'm just trying to keep my head above water these days. Life if full and busy and good. With O in school every day, my job back on campus in full swing (albeit very part time, but keeping me crazy nonetheless) house cleaning, doctors appointments for kids, mom in the hospital, dad under the weather, workouts and the season finale of More to Love to catch... I can just barely stay afloat. (which may have to be a whole other post in and of itself.) Don't hear me complaining, its more like justifying my infrequent blog activity.

Which is sad for me. I love to blog. It helps me stay sane. It helps me make sense of the tantrums, the disobedience, the clutter, the rusharoundness that is my life. It makes me feel like I have something to say more than, "No, you can't have ANOTHER cookie." "Don't hit your brother." "Time out!" "Do you want an ear flick?" and other stuff like that.

Throughout my day it occurs to me, "That would make a good post." But recently, by the time 8 pm rolls around (or nap time) I find I have a list of a million other things to do (or dare I confess, watch on tv?) that I have been putting blogging to the side.

Or some days I think, do people (and by people I mean you dozen or so who read this thing) really want to read about another mundane day at my house? Another failed attempt at eating well? Another festival we've attended? But I think my mom does, right Bebe?!

So, I'm back at it. Blogging, hopefully, helps me keep my sense of humor at the simple things that seem to be my life these days. As I look forward to the next month of life, I take in a deep breath and hope that my treading is strong enough to keep my head above water for a few more weeks. Coming up we've got a student retreat, Steve's birthday, Quinn's second birthday (but such a significant one and I really want to make it special) more doctors appointments for Quinn, parent teacher conferences at Olivia's school and then Quinn's big surgery. Gulp. Thankfully, Jesus goes before me and Steve goes next to me. And hopefully YOU will be along for the journey as well.

Just be patient as I try to keep up with it all and a have bit of fun along the way.

Festival mania

I don't know about where you live, but here in our neck of the woods, it was a fabulous weekend. A picture perfect late summer/ early fall weekend. With festivals to boot.

Growing up, my parents were festival goers. I remember attending just about every ethnic festival in our city. I'm pretty sure my love for other cultures and foods is a direct result of the festival hopping we did growing up.

Mostly I remember sweating my butt off in the blazing hot sun as we stood in long lines for food I didn't like (at the time) and listening to weird music... but the depth of my cultural appreciation took years to refine... what can I say?
Well, Steve and I didn't exactly make it to any culturally enriching festivals this weekend. But we did make it to our neighborhood street fair, where Olivia got her face painted. We waited for more than a half hour for this butterfly face.

I'm pretty sure Olivia would say it was worth the wait. I had to make a Kroger run right after the face paint was dry and boy did she milk all the attention from the old ladies oooing and ahhhhing over the butterfly beauty. Gimme a break. It was rather freaky if you ask me, but I'm not a 3 year old girl (or an 80 year old granny for that matter.)
Later that evening our friends Erin and Nick came over. While all we did was grill our hamburgers and let the kids run loose in the yard, Nick proved to be a one man festival. My kids LOVED playing with Nick and Erin and it was so fun to watch our friends love our kids.

Sunday was day 2 of festival mania. And thankfully the Popcorn festival did not disappoint in the fried sweets department. Ahhh... Funnelquest '09, while Weight Watchers wants to shut you down, Southwest Ohio fall festival season does not!

All hail the grand daddy of them all... Fried Snickers, Oreos and Rice Krispy Treats. I've died and gone to Funnelquest utopia.

And speaking of a one person festival, Steve's Aunt Marilyn was in town from Michigan and joined us for the festival fun. Steve's Aunt is a blast and absolutely loves our kids, and the feeling is mutual. Quinn met her for the first time on Sunday and let's just say, he likey some Aunt Marilyn!!!

He also likey sitting in a fire engine.

Which is really funny because Turner is the one crazy for all things big, shiny and on wheels. But he did NOT want to sit in it. (You can't look at it if you're sitting in it.) But Quinn... he likes to sit! (Are you sure we are not blood related? 'Cuz I swear he gets that from me!)

So all in all, it was a really great weekend. In fact, it was the kind of weekend I wish I could bottle up and keep on the shelf for sometime in February. Because I know all too well... Winter, it is a comin'.

Peeping mom

After several months of begging and pleading, we finally broke down and signed Olivia up for dance lessons.

I was kind of against starting my kids in activities so young, but guess what? This is HER doing, not mine. I know every mom thinks their kids is more advanced than any other kids their age. I'm not sure I think that, exactly. But I do know that Olivia has very defined likes and dislikes and dance is a definite like.

So last week we headed off to Target, got her a leotard, tights and ballet slippers, signed her up for 8 weeks of lessons at a local community arts center and then answered a weeks worth of the, "Do I get to go to ballet class today?" question.

We got to her 10:15 Saturday morning class about 20 minutes early partly because I didn't exactly know where I was going and didn't want to be late and partly because I was sick of saying, "NO! It's not time to leave yet." Steve had to do a football chapel so I had to take all 3 kids with me. A real barrel of monkeys, let me tell you.
We got there and it was a vision of pink. So cute. The class if for 3 and 4 year olds. And oh my, it really was sweet. When the instructor, Miss Nancy (who is hard core!) came out and read the names, Olivia marched in and grabbed a hold of that ballet bar like it was serious business.

Then, to my utter sadness, Miss Nancy dismissed all the parents to the hallway and announced that class would be over at 11:00 sharp and we could return to pick up our ballerinas.

Wait a minute. You mean I don't get to stand there and ooo and ahhhh over every brilliant thing she does? I'm paying $55 and don't even get to see what kind of return I'm getting on my investment? Fine, I'm sure that it IS for the best. That way O concentrates on Miss Nancy and not on me.

So, the door was shut and I had to figure out how to entertain 2 hellions in the hallway for the next 10 minutes until Steve came to take the boys home and I would wait for O to be done. He came, they left and then it was me left to my own devices.

The door did have a window, but it had strategically been covered with construction paper. Are you kidding me??? Who did she think we were? Fine. You can keep a mommy out but you can't keep her down. For the next 30 min. me and the other 7 moms waiting took turns bending and contorting, trying to get a glimpse of our girls (who were certainly outshining the other mediocre girls and really should be trying out some other hobby.)

Olivia was in heaven. She finished her class and before we were even in the car, she asked when we get to go back. Sorry, O, the class is only once a week. And so begins my life as chauffeur extraordinaire. Good bye Saturdays, hello, activities.

Breakin the law

I may have mentioned before that in our short 5 weeks home with Quinn we haven't exactly "followed the rules." Which is so odd, because I'm a TOTAL rule follower. Seriously! I was never grounded, not once, growing up. I got one demerit in high school because the teacher could see my boxer shorts underneath my uniform skirt. There was that one time I was about to go toilet papering, but never quite made it. Like I said, pretty much a rule follower.

So when we were preparing to bring home a little guy from China, we were required to go through some international adoption education. Some of it was helpful, some of it was boring but almost all of it scared the socks off of me. They pretty much made it seem like we would be entering about a year of lock down. "Don't let anyone other than you and your husband hold your new kid. Don't put them in child care. DO start using a family bed." Life as i knew it...over.
Well, this rule follower pretty much deviated from the first day. First things first, family bed??? With a 2 year old boy? H_ll no! Not let anyone else hold him? Kid can walk anywhere he wants to go. He was at an outdoor rock concert 3rd night home and jamming! L.O.V.E.S. going to the YMCA childcare while I work out (the workers are marvelling at how much progress he's made in such a short time.)

Don't know what the family bedders would say about cross-dressing for your new Chinese kid (actually, they are probably in favor) but Quinn has a sister who is rather fond of dressing him up like a princess. And he's not arguing.

If you're into the family bed concept... more power to you. Forgive my mockery. It's just not the way we roll around here and it certainly wasn't going to start now. There are 16 other hours in the day for me to bond with my new child, and that's working out just fine.
I'd say things in genearl are working out just fine, but the whole inspiration for this post is my screaming bloody murder newest addition who is recently taken to protesting nap time. He'll sleep about 30 minutes and then scream his sweet little head off. I KNOW there would be some people opposed to that. (I'll admit, I'm even having a bit of a hard time with it.) But here in this house, we have a mandatory rest time, even if you don't sleep. Let's just say, mama NEEDS the rest time more than anyone!

The greater mystery (Other than why he won't sleep. Until 4 days ago, he took a fine nap) is how in the world his brother can sleep soundly 5 feet away in the next crib. Amazing! I have to believe it is good for both of them. If you are flipping out at my allowing him to stand in his bed and scream until his head is wringing wet, don't be too alarmed, I did go up there, hug him and kiss him and tell him his nap is not over. I'm not too sure it comforted him a whole lot, but it made me feel better. And isn't that really what parenthood is all about?

I never knew nap time could be so exhausting!!