Photos I Love

A few weeks ago I had the kids photos taken and I love them! Maren Johnson is a great photographer, especially with kids. She was great at getting Charlotte to relax (I'm sure it helps that she has kids about the same age). I would recommend her to everyone. Now I just have to decide which ones to get for our wall. Here are a few that I liked a lot.

Cheerleader

Today Dan left for Texas where he will be presenting a research study he did with the head of the ortho dept at his school. It will happen on Friday. Until then he gets to listen to all the other studies, and gets dinners and a hotel room and I'm sure is having a good time. It's almost like he's a real doctor. Wont that be great? When he's a real doctor? In like 7 years. Yeah, that'll be awesome.

In the mean time, I'm so proud of all that he is accomplishing along the way. Go Doctor Dan!

Bursting

I've had a hard time thinking of things to relate to anyone lately, even myself. I feel just a tiny bit like I've just got to put my head down and endure to the end of this school year. I was realizing the other day how I haven't really been noticing all the wonderful things I've got lately, but rather looking ahead, behind, and away to see great things. I really do love what I'm doing right now so I thought I'd take a note of a few things that bring me happiness.

A few nights ago I couldn't sleep. You know how sometimes you're exhausted, but your mind keeps going when your body says stop? That's what was happening, so I got up and went downstairs. Around midnight I heard Charlotte wake up and go into our room and ask for me. I heard nothing more after that so I figured Dan must have taken her back to bed. We never sleep with her in the bed. There is very little sleeping on every one's part when she's in there. After a while I realized that hearing nothing after that probably doesn't mean that Dan got up so I went upstairs to check things out. She had decided to just crawl into my side of the bed and since she wasn't bothering Dan he didn't even fully wake up. I decided to just snuggle on in with her. I lay there in the quiet of the night with my little girl cuddled up next to me and my husband sleeping heavily on the other side of the bed. At that moment I was bursting with the love I have for each of them. It calmed me completely down and as soon as I put her back to bed I was ready to fall asleep.

The second story is about how I start my day each day. It starts with Greg crying. I wish it didn't and it didn't used to and I'm sure it wont when he's adjusted to the no pacifier, but for now, it starts with tears. But after I go get him I bring him into bed with me to nurse him. He happily snuggles right up to me and we sleep and cuddle and wake up together. While I'm doing that usually Charlotte comes into the bed with us. Then comes the golden time of the day. Both children are awake and happy and I have the ability to relax and just play with them. Greg crawls all over us and the bed and Charlotte makes up stories about what we're pretending to do. The sun is golden, the moment is golden, my life is golden.

Just Like His Sister

Greg tries to do everything that he sees his sister doing. Today we visited Daddy at school where he was studying. We met outside and did a small circut of the fountains on the med school campus. Dan was holding Greg's hands so he could walk. Charlotte trotted on ahead of us and then decided to "practice her exercises" which today means she was jumping. Greg stopped walking and bent over trying to figure out how she was doing it. He was unsuccessful.

There has been one thing he's successfully copied his sister in doing. When she was about his age she reached up and ripped a key off the keyboard of our laptop. We tried to fix it, but it was just a function key, which was seldom used so we didn't try that hard. Eventually my mom visited us and used her super powers of fixing things (because mom's have those super powers) and fixed it.

Greg has torn off the enter key.

My mom's coming in June.

Not sure if I can wait that long.

Answer

All the answers to the question were very good, but none of them were right. Today is day three of a pacifier free zone in the Whiting house. Day one was rough. Day three seems to be fine though. We're still working through things, but he seems to be doing well and still taking pretty good naps. I think it helps that I'm running him down to the ground before I put him down for a nap, but either way he seems to be transitioning fine.

At first I was really nervous about this. It's a hard thing to give up something that seems to stop tears in an instant. It isn't a hard thing to give up something that wakes you up roughly 3 times a night though.

Thanks for all the participation. Better Luck next time.

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He's Totally Right....And I Hate It

Last Saturday Greg crawled off the edge of the top of our stairs. The only thing that kept us from a trip to the ER was me pushing Charlotte over and grabbing him by is ankle before his plummet. The same fall that one of Charlotte's friends took that sent her to the ER. I've been telling Dan we need to install a mounted baby gate at the top of our stairs for a couple of weeks now since Greg has been able to crawl with some proficiency, but we've both just sort of procrastinated the issue. After that incident there was no procrastination in my mind. I talked and talked and talked about going to get a new one. Then Dan said we shouldn't go get a new baby gate. We need to use the one we have in our basement. The one we have in our basement we used in our apartment to gate off the entire landing at the top of the stairs. Its metal and heavy and it doesn't mount into anything. It wont mess up the woodwork. It was perfect for our old apartment, but I was convinced that it wouldn't work at the top of the stairs. The feet are too big. It will block the door to the toy room. Charlotte wont be able to use it. I wanted what I had in my mind as the perfect solution. I complained and complained until he brought the thing up and set it up.

It's too big and clunky. In order for it to fit at the top of the stairs it has to go into the toy room and push the table at the top of the stairs away. It isn't perfect. My first reaction was, "I hate it." I stewed. Then I realized that to buy a baby gate new will be expensive. Charlotte probably wont be able to work it anyway and we'd be making holes in the wood work in our house. So I fixed the part that Charlotte wont be able to control and moved a few things around and now I have to tell everyone.

Dan was totally right. This baby gate will be what we need for the landing. Plus, it keeps Greg from falling down the stairs so I guess I don't really hate it.

Connections

My husband's family has a family history book published. Its a hardcover red book and goes back around 6 generations. It's got photos and stories and all sorts of amazing stuff. Stuff that I've never read. Dan gets it off the shelf every so often and reads all of us a story that is usually pretty interesting, but other than that I never really paid much attention to it. That is until the other night.

When Dan's brother and sister-in-law were here they brought the book down and we all just looked through the photos one night after the kids went to bed. When we got to the part that focused on our part of the family we saw a photo that shocked me. I always knew that Charlotte looked like Dan. I never have thought that Dan looked a lot like his father. When I saw this photo all of that changed though.

In the family group shot Grandpa Craig was a little boy being held by someone. He looked exactly like Charlotte. All you would have to do is put curly hair on him and it would be Charlotte. It was amazing. And a real reminder that my kids need to know about both sides of the family.

Loving My Family

I guess I shouldn't be amazed about all the things that I learn from the simple experience of being part of a family. Here's another one to remember. I always knew my aunts and uncles loved me growing up. There was no doubt in my mind because they were there in the family before I was and waiting for me with open arms when I came into the world. I never had the experience of adding on aunts and uncles until much later (Hi Aunt Sue!) and it was awesome.

You know what else is awesome? Being the aunt. It is amazing! When I married my husband his brothers and sisters already had kids so I wasn't there to greet my nieces and nephews into the family with open and loving arms. At first I thought this would be awkward and uncomfortable to suddenly be an aunt to so many. Thoughts kept flying through my head. How could I possibly feel the love that I know my aunts had for me? These are kids, big kids, I don't know all that well. At least I am around for the youngest niece to be born. I have a chance to give that to her.

This week my husband's brother and wife are in town with three of their kids and I learned something about myself. It doesn't matter that they were part of the family before me. I love them so very much. Somewhere along the line they went from strangers to dearly, dearly loved children (and the same goes for my brother and sister-in-law). I tried to contain my enthusiasm to get them to come here while they were deciding their spring break plans. The night before they got here I barely slept with excitement. And I will bend over backwards to make them happy if I can. And I will buy a $3 soda at the zoo if I know it will help them enjoy it more. I love their laughs, and smiles. I love how when they wake up in the morning with my daughter all four of them practically burst out the bedroom door.

I also learned that I feel this way about all the family that I married into. I love them all so dearly and fiercely. Yes, there are still differences in personalities that we have to work through, but that doesn't diminish all the love I have for all of them. I look forward to when I get to see them and I'm disappointed when opportunities are missed. I am continually amazed at how boundless the love a person can cultivate within themselves seems to be.

I'll Have To Reminder Her Later

Today while letting Charlotte help me clean the bathroom:

Me: You are such a good helper! Thank You.

Charlotte: Uh huh.

Me: I should have you help me clean the bathroom all the time. What do you think?

Charlotte: I think that's a good idea.

You can't back out now! Hahahahaha!

Spring Inspiration

In case you are living where it might still be cold or snowing I thought I'd post a few photos I've taken recently so you can get a little spring inspiration!
This is the new garden in the front of our house. The back row is white azaelas then the purple rhodedendrons. I planted calladium bulbs just in front of them that obviously aren't up yet. Then there are the tulips I planted last fall and the day lillies I transplanted from behind the house. Right in the front are some blue star creeper. Clearly I like to plant things in rows rather than grouping. I guess that's something I'll have to work on.

Her are the front steps that Greg learned to climb up. We took out the pipe handrails and put in dwarf rhodedendrons in the same purple as the ones up top. The two rocks we acquired from the neighbors and around them is the blue star creeper again.

This is Charlotte at the Botanical Gardens. It was a lovely day and we got to see all the daffodils, hyacinth, and some tulips and pansies.

Here's Charlotte with the Easter Bunny. Despite this photo she really did enjoy the experience. It would have looked much better if I had been able to get her looking at the camera.

Mandolin

Yesterday I went to my mandolin lesson and I just wanted to let everyone know that it is awesome. I have loved every minute of it. I think its funny because this time around I'm not trying to avoid practicing, but instead trying to find time to practice. I wait until the kids are in bed and then I'm trying to make sure I get at least a half hour in a day. Chord practice is slow going but I can tell I'm starting to figure things out and its great.

Also, I put in the main garden in the front of our house and it looks stunning! Well, I think it does. It was a lot of work because I had to haul buckets of dirt from the back yard into the huge hole that was left after Dan moved our hydrangea last fall. I was doing it in the morning while the kids sat on the sidewalk eating cinnamon life. Or at least that's what I thought was happening. I looked up after about 8,000 trips (because Dan says we don't need a wheel barrow) and noticed that my son was no longer on the sidewalk. He was now on the concrete landing in front of our house. I asked Charlotte about it and she said, "He climbed up the stairs maybe?" She was sitting right there. How could she not know what happened? Also, that was the first time he climbed stairs. That's right. The first time my son climbed stairs they were concrete with nobody around to catch him if he fell. But he didn't fall. And my garden looks great.

And Now I'm Red

After dinner tonight Dan and I took the kids to Lowe's to purchase something for the garden in the front of our house. We may not do much, but we do need something. Plus, my husband always has an eye for a bargain and they were selling azaleas in one gallon pots for under $2. Can't pass that up. As we're walking around looking at everything, because who goes to the garden section and doesn't look at all the plants, and I'm concentrating on some very pretty, fairly cheep ground cover, Greg is arching his back turning his head and leaning away toward the person next to me. I guess I'm too used to shopping during the day because I absent mindedly say to him, "Are you just trying to check out that lady next to us?" No response from Greg or the lady. So I look up and see a man. A very large, very full bearded man standing right next to us. So what do I say? "I mean the man." He was a good sport about it and said that was the funniest thing that had happened to him that day, but I was sure embarrassed.

24 hours

I don't remember if I mentioned my banning of treats, candy and baked goods in our home about a month ago? I got so fed up with Charlotte not eating meals, that I went through our house and threw all of the sweets away. I also declared to the family that no new treats were to enter our home for a month and set the end date as Charlotte's birthday (because how can you not have a birthday cake?). Well, we didn't quite make it to her birthday because Dan got me starburst jellybeans for my birthday which we celebrated on Monday night. Then yesterday we made cookies that were intended for Charlotte to take to Joy School today (which we forgot). Turns out Charlotte didn't eat lunch today. Well, let me amend that. She ate one bite of sandwich. One bite. Then half an hour later she said she was hungry and asked for a popsicle and a cookie. I swear that kid has a memory for treats!

And as for me this was certainly and eye opener. I didn't realize how hard it would be to not make baked goods. We must have never had a night without them because every night after the kids got in bed I felt the urge to eat brownies, cookies, cake, chocolate, anything. But since we didn't have anything I couldn't.

So now the question is that of balance. How much do I allow in our home? When its here there is the contant fight not only to keep myself from eating it, but also my children. Dan has such amazing self control about this sort of thing so it doesn't seem to bother him one way or the other.

The Winds of Change

I can't believe that things seem to be changing so much lately. The health care bill was passed and that is going to seriously change things in our family's future. (And if you think I'm getting into that discussion on this public blog, you're crazy.)

Also, match day was last week. In case you are like most of the world, and you don't know what match day is I'll try to explain succinctly. After the four years of undergrad you do you apply to medical school. After the four years of medical school you have anywhere from 3 to 7 years of residency. (I think Dan's is going to be in the 5 year neighborhood.) Obviously based on what specialty you're going into your residency will be set up differently. Also, sometimes you do a 1-2 year fellowship at the end of it. You have to apply for residency much like you have to apply for medical school. The only difference, it seems to me, is that at each new level of learning the competition to get into it gets more and more difficult. You apply to however many programs you think you need to and you do away rotations (which means you work at their program for a month) to those you're really interested in and then you wait to do interviews. After all that working and interviewing comes the waiting game. You list the places you'd like to go and the places list the people they want and they're matched together. So the match day is when you find out where you got in (or if you got in). It's a very big deal. This year wasn't our year to go through the match, but next year is. It was a roller coaster to just watch the families that were going through. YIKES. Plus now I'm watching as those families pack up and put their houses on the market and work and work and work and I'm thinking, "That'll be me in a year."

Also, tomorrow I've got an honest to goodness three year old. She's three! How on earth did that happen? Three years ago she was nothing but a big rolling ball inside me and now she walks and talks. She has opinions and preferences that she tries her best to impose. Like this morning when she went to the grocery store in her pajamas because I wasn't going to fight that fight today. Or yesterday when she took a shower by herself and then got dressed by herself and came into my room with all her clothing sticking to her body because she did not dry herself. She notices things and says the most amazing stuff. She is smart and funny and gentle and kind and how on earth did she get so big? How how how?

Also, Greg moves. I put him down on the rug by our sofa this morning then ran upstairs to get a diaper. By the time I got back downstairs he had made it to the bottom step. Can anyone say babygate? He is funny and interacts with people and loves life. He's getting so brave at trying new things. Pretty soon he's going to be a toddler walking along all on his own.

Happy Birthday To Me

Last weekend the kids and I got out of Dodge and went on a women's retreat with my family. It was so much fun and I had a great birthday. Charlotte loved all the attention she was paid and Greg learned so many new little things. He now waves hi to people and can pull up on his own. Tonight Dan made me pancake cake for dinner and we had our little family celebration. Then Thursday is Charlotte's birthday, then it's time for Easter. This spring is off to a big start.

Things to remember

I just thought I'd write down a few things I don't want to forget.

The other day Greg was pulling himself up on the coffee table and slipped. Charlotte came over, picked him up (terrifying) and said, "Here you go Mr. Chubbers." Which is a nick name that his father gave him and I disapprove of, but it seems to have stuck in her mind.

When I introduced myself during my first mandolin lesson (which was amazing by the way) one of the other students said, "A red head named Maggie. That will be easy to remember."

Someone had forgotten to flush the toilet in a public restroom. Charlotte looked into it and scrunched up her nose. She pointed down to it and said to me, "Look. Eww. Isgusting." I didn't know she even knew the word disgusting.

Greg has graduated from army crawl to something else entirely that has no official name, but he seems to get around just fine. He has also decided that its OK to cruise along furniture if, and only if, there is the possibility of making a huge mess somewhere along the line. Yes, my friends he is now and undo-er.

Dear March,

Did you know that I love you? Well, don't feel bad, I was unaware of it previous to this year as well. But this year I have noticed more of all the lovely things you give and do for me. Sure, you "come in like a lion" and there may still be days of rain and (I shudder to think) snow, but there are also glorious days. Days wherein my children and I spend 3 hours in our backyard. You gave me that. You helped me to see the creativity and imagination that my almost three year old has. She doesn't need much more than a board, a couple of old bricks and a big ball to entertain her. Sure everytime we go to Sam's club she sees the $800 play structure and says she wishes she could buy it. I would feel bad, but for the knowledge of her running around without a thing in the backyard. You gave that to me. Thank you.

You know what else you give me, oh lovely March? Not only did you give me crocuses that have come and gone, but daffodils, tulips, resurrection lillies, and the first signs of growth on the hydrangeas, and mums. There is life and joy returning outside. I can tell because the birds have come back too. Aren't they wonderful, March? I knew you'd think so.

In March we get to escape the house, which means escaping the never ending chores that pile around me to see the sun! Oh the sun! March gives you the first signs that the sun is going to warm the days. I love to go outside, even when it's not quite warm enough, and just let myself feel the sun in March.

And most importantly, March, you have given me Charlotte. That most wonderful of gifts. I glory in her awesomeness. Even when she spends two nights throwing up, which she did just the past two nights, she's still so funny and smart and amazing. Thank you March.

Sincerely Yours,
Maggie

Finally Starting to Make Sense

For the past month I have been worried. Very worried. I worried so much that I convinced myself it had happened by mistake. I knew I was pregnant. I knew it. I knew it. I knew it. Never mind that I'm still breastfeeding and taking the mini pill.

So I checked.

I'm not.

Which was a relief, but did not explain what I had been feeling. What I was feeling was tired. Tired and hungry. Tired and hungry all the time.

Today Greg and Charlotte had their iron tested. Charlotte is fine, but Greg's iron is too low. I was given some information about what to have him eat, but of course as you all know he's only eating breast milk, bananas, and cheerios so there goes that advice. Actually we have been sucessful at getting him to eat meats lately which is exciting. Then the lady said, "You should probably increase your iron levels so he gets more from you."

I told this to some friends over lunch today while complaining about how Greg has recently also decided to nurse more lately. And I'm not sure how I didn't see this all before my friends pointed it out to me. I'm nursing more, which explains the hunger, and probably need more iron myself, which would explain the fatigue. Sometimes I think I would fall apart if other people didn't help to keep me together.

I finally Got It

Well, after looking for a month and then procrastinating for two months I finally bit the bullet and bought a new battery charger for my camera. Greg has reached the really exciting phase where I can take photos of him actually doing things and Charlotte is always in love with the camera. It was making me sad to not take any photos of my kids. So I excitedly anticipated the arrival of the new battery charger and promised myself to take tons of photos that very day of my adorable children to share with everyone that came to my blog.

The charger arrived just in time to take these:

I case you were wondering. Yes that, conjunctivitis. In both eyes. In both children.