Tidbits to Remember

I have a few stories I want to blog about, but after putting in a new garden today I just don't have the patience to upload the photos to the computer, then to blogger, then to write a story about them. It will come later.

What I want to do now is write down a few tidbits about how my children are now so I don't forget.

First Charlotte:

• We didn't (haven't) taken down the Happy Birthday banner from Greg's birthday. Last week she looked up at it from eating her breakfast and asked why we still have it up. I told her because I just haven't gotten to it yet. Then I asked her if she knew what it said wherein she told me, "Green H, White A, Red P, Blue P, Gold Y." I was very impressed.
• At her three year check-up she was 37 1/2" tall (25%) and weighed 33 1/2 lb (75%). What a cute little shortie.
• Charlotte makes up all sorts of pretend friends that hang around our house. This reminds me a lot of her cousin Travis and I love it.
• Charlotte is currently taking music classes at the Folk School of St. Louis for the summer. She loves them. She especially likes Sally the camel. And the egg shaker songs and games.
• Two weeks ago in the car she asks me, "Mom what does pitter patter mean?" This came out of nowhere so I gave it my best shot by saying, "It is the sound of little feet running along." Silence from the back seat, then, "Umm Mom? I think maybe it's the sound of rain maybe?" First reaction if you knew the answer then why did you ask the question? Then I realized one of the egg shaker games is the rain game where they match the volume and tempo of the teacher's guitar with their egg shakers while singing "pitter patter" until the teacher reaches the thunder and lightening.
• She loves the egg shaker games.

And now for Greg:

• At Greg's one year check-up he was 29 1/4" tall (25%) and weighed 22lb 3 oz (50%). Which means he gained about one pound from the time he was 4 months to the time he was a year. Sounds a lot like his daddy.
• When Greg walks he holds his hands above his head. Usually he is also opening and closing one of the hands.
• Greg plays with his hair. All the time. I used to think it was his ear, but now that his hair is a little thicker and longer he is always playing with it.
• One of the spindles from the banister broke a while back. It wasn't a big deal until Friday when Greg realized he could see Suzie below him through the hole and then I had to catch him by the leg before he fell. That opening is now tethered off until a more permanent solution can be found.
• Greg says, "Mama!" "DA!" "uh-oh" "Baa" (Ball) and his approximation of cracker, kitty cat, and dog.
• Tonight he also figured how to say "Mana" which is Mindy (aka his favorite person in the whole world right now).

7:25 AM

After a few weeks of having the ability to walk with zero motivation to try it Greg decided to join the world of bi-peds yesterday. It happened while I was doing my hair at 7:25 AM. He still falls down on his bum a lot, but walking is surely his favorite at the moment. You can see in his face that he's totally excited about the new trick he can do. Dan and I tried all day yesterday to get a video of it, but were totally unseccessful. Then this morning at the park...

We went to the park at 8:30 and by the time we left an hour later it was already 80 degrees!

The Pool That Daddy Bought

When it got hot here in March I wanted to buy a new pool for the kids. Dan wouldn't let me because the pools I was looking at were the small blow up kind. He said that Suzie, the cat, would pop them and we would just be wasting our money. He had a point. So I didn't buy one. We made do with storage bins with water in them as water tables. Then it got cold and it wasn't an issue.

We kept our eyes open and my friend told me they had the kind we were looking for at Walmart. We headed out and bought just exactly the pool Dan wanted. I was sure glad we had it on Saturday. Summer officially hit St. Louis with and 83 degree sunny and humid day. We spent the day out in our little pool.

Yes, the little pool has a slide! The water started out clean and clear, but there was so much re-applying of sunscreen it ended the day hazy. We emptied it.Greg kept trying to climb the slide and then slipping and face planting into the water. It didn't bother him enough to stop trying. I had to get into the pool to keep him from drowning.

Saturday was one of those magical times with my kids where life is good and you remember what it felt like to have summer last forever.

Oh The Worries

Last week I hurt my neck. Just like I hurt my neck at my cousin's wedding right after Charlotte was born. Turns out I hold my babies exactly the same way every time I pick them up and over time my neck gets hurt. That, and I tend to tense my muscles more than necessary. So when this happened I dug through the medicine shelf and found the muscle relaxer my OBGYN gave me last time this happened. After consulting my physician (Dan) I took one. It was supposed to last 6 hours.

It didn't.

I was out of it for a good 24 hours. It was rough. Try as I might my body was moving in slow motion. Not something I want to do again soon. Then again I don't want my neck to go into muscle spasms anytime soon either.

After the 24 hours was over though I realized that I felt Great. All my muscles were relaxed and my body suddenly wasn't revolting on me causing me pain. And that's when it hit me.

I'm a worrier and those worries have been building up for a while. What's funny is that mostly I don't really feel worried. It was only when I was forced to take a step back from the day to day grind that I realized I need to start doing something about it.

So my solution, instead of living on muscle relaxers which sounds a bit like torture to me, is to figure out my worries and stresses and find constructive ways to deal with them. As it turns out though, being a mom means you have worries and stresses. They come with the job title. I watched a Gerber commercial a few days after this incident that perfectly shows the messages moms receive every day. It talked about how what kids eat from birth to five changes their bodies for their entire life. Oh great! Let your kid eat a cookie now and they'll never live a long, healthy life. You better watch all their bites or you may ruin them! Now if that's not stress I don't know what is. Trivial, and yet not.

Oh! And add on top of the stresses and worries of motherhood the stresses and worries of being poor which we are. And you know what? There are some perks to being poor (hi WIC and Medicaid), but that doesn't take away all the stresses there are as well (hi WIC and Medicaid). Plus, our particular brand of poor (medical school) has it's own healthy serving of worry.

When I was in high school I would literally be unable to sleep because I was too stressed and worried about things. I'm fairly certain my parents seriously considered sending me to therapy. Though it never came to that. Now I think to myself, what on earth did I have to be worried about?

Please don't misunderstand me. This isn't complaining. I love my stresses, and my reasons to worry. I love my family and kids, I love my husband's efforts to an excellent career, and in a way, I also love being poor. It has ripped from me so very much of the pride I never knew I had. I am amazed at the things I will do because I love my kids. I just need to also allow myself to face the fact that these choices we've made, these things we are trying to do and accomplish, they're hard. If I don't I might just end up a cripple in need of a very long nap.

I also would like to acknowledge that many, many beautiful and wonderful women and mothers are much more able to handle their stress and worries, which are so very unique to each person. So the question I have is, what do you do with your stress? How do you identify it and manage it? One solution I am trying to implement is a spiritual one. I am trying to remember the importance of Alma 37:36-37

"Yea, and cry unto God for all thy support; yea, let all thy doings be unto the Lord, and whithersoever thou goest let it be in the Lord; yea let all thy thoughts be directed unto the Lord; yea let the affections of thy heart be placed upon the Lord forever.
"Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for good; yea, when thou liest down at night lie down unto the Lord, that he may watch over you in your sleep; and when thou risest in the morning let thy heart be full of thanks unto God"

I think that, along with drinking more water and eating less crap are good first steps.

It's a Miracle

In light of me not taking the little things for granted I chose to see my son making it to his first birthday as a miracle! He didn't kill himself! Or cause himself to be killed! Anyway, we're so happy he's in our family. In honor of his first birthday we had the pancake cake and he opened presents. Mostly that means that Charlotte opened his presents. But both were excited about the things inside.

Also as an afternoon treat (and instead of cake or cupcakes) I gave him a jello pudding cup. I did this for Charlotte too and liked it. That's about as much effort as I think a 1 year old needs.

Happy Birthday Little Guy!

Quick Quote

As heard coming from upstairs.

Dan: You need to get dressed.

Charlotte: I am.

Dan: Right, but you're just wearing panties. You need to wear something over them.

Up Before the Birds

The birds start chirping at 5:18 AM around our place. How about yours? Would you like to know how I know? Greg wakes up before them most days. Most days he starts making noise around 5 AM. Today he woke up with a scream at 4:45 AM. I can't even blame this on Dan because it's before he gets up for the day. I want this to stop, but I'm not sure how. Any ideas?

Here's what I've already done:

• He goes to bed at 7:30. I'm not willing to make it any later because I already pushed it back from 6:30 and that didn't change this issue.
• He has a room darkening shade. It isn't a blackout shade, but it does keep the room dark enough for nap time during the day.
• He's off pacifiers so it isn't that he's losing it because he doesn't use them.
• He takes great naps.
• He sleeps solidly from 7:30 until 5.
• We feed him a second dinner right before bed so he's not hungry. Plus, this morning I refused to nurse him right when he got up just to see if it was that and he calmed down without it.

Anyway, all advice is welcome, even if we don't use it.

History Lesson via Daddy's Quilt

Remember the NFL quilt that sneaked it's way onto our bed? Well, once it was on there it never really left. Except for in the summer when we only need one quilt on the bed. To which Dan replies that I'm crazy for wanting the AC on during the day and yet sleeping with a quilt on at night. I know I am, but at least I haven't turned on the AC right Dan? Right?

The other day Charlotte and I were cuddling in bed and she kept pointing to the pictures asking me about them. Some were easy, but others weren't. Call me crazy, but the logos have changed since before I was born. Plus, it looked like there were three different kind of pirates on that thing and I'm pretty sure there aren't three different NFL teams with pirate mascots. So I told her to just ask Daddy since it's his quilt anyway.

Sunday I'm in the bathroom doing my hair and Charlotte asks Daddy about the quilt. They spent a half hour talking about the quilt. Turns out that there's a lot of American history tied up in that quilt. All about the patriots, and the red skins (and how we don't call them that anymore). There was more, but I was only half listening. I learned that there are indeed two teams with basically pirates so at least I wasn't too far out of it.

Amazing what a quilt can do.