More Peas, Please!

 

 

If you take a look at Hannah's plate, you will see a sight not normally beheld by mothers of young children.

Peas. Lots of them.

Now, of course any one can put peas ON their child's plate. That in and of itself is not amazing whatsoever. What is truly amazing is that Hannah is in fact eating the peas. And enjoying them. Quite a lot in fact. Hannah likes her peas so much that when they are on her plate nothing else is touched or tasted. She has eyes only for those little green veggies. This is why you will notice there is a rather large pile o' peas on her plate. She had pieces of hotdog and some goldfish crackers, but I really just put those on there to make myself feel better because I know she is only going to eat the peas but I want her meal to look well rounded.

It is a curious thing to me. When I get the little pan out to boil them, she starts to get excited. I have to pick her up so she can watch me put the peas in the water, and then we have to stand there until they are ready. She says "P-Peas! Hot! MMMMmmm! P-Peas! MMMM!!!" Luckily for us, peas both cook and cool down pretty rapidly. I put a bit of salt and pepper with some butter on top, and she starts insisting "Chair! Down! MMMMM!" The second she is in her highchair and the plate is down, she goes at it with both hands, grabbing tiny fistfuls and shoving them in her mouth as if they were candy and not in fact...you know....peas.

Soccer Monsters

 

 

 

 

Yet another soccer season has come to a close. Its time to look back, and reflect on what we learned.

First, we learned that Hannah seems to have more interest in being out on the field than either of her brothers. Its not that they don't enjoy the game. Its just that the game isn't really their top priority, shall we say. The boys like being part of a team, they like wearing their cool uniforms, and they REALLY like the post-game snacks. The actual game, with the running and all of that kicking and whatnot, they could mostly do without it seems.

Jude did seem to get the general idea of cheering when his team scored and giving a hearty frowny-face foot stomp when they did not. At the beginning of the season he would attempt to kick the ball if it rolled directly in to his foot (I say attempt because even when the ball did roll directly in to his foot he was not necessarily successful in then kicking it in the desired direction). By the end of the season though he was quite often seen running towards the ball in a proactive attempt to make contact with it before it made contact with him. The focus of his gmae however remained water breaks and half-time orange wedges, but overall I was very impressed with his progress.

We also learned that Eden liked playing defense. It required less running,which meant less sweating, and there was the added bonus of getting big cheers for stopping an on-coming goal. This initially made me terribly nervous, knowing that if it got past him he could be singled out as the kid who caused the team to lose. Luckily for both of us, his teammates were not those kind of kids. And even more fortunately, he turned out to be a darn good little defender! I still encouraged him to play up front once in awhile, but he refused. He found his niche, and he was staying put. Plus, he liked to strike these "I'm a big scary goal defender" poses, with his arms and legs spread wide and a growly-grimace on his face. I am fairly certain this did not have the desired effect on the opposing team, but it did make me smile.

I spent good portion of every game scooping Hannah up just before she ran on to the field. She felt very strongly that she should be allowed out there to play with her brothers, and she made this known. Loudly. During half-time I would attempt to appease her by ketting her loose to run around the field, which made her gloriously happy for those ten minutes.

Perhaps we should take these lessons to heart before registration in the fall......both the boys have already expressed an interest in taking karate instead. Still some kicking involved, but much less running. And its indoors.

And Sammy makes.....four?

 

This is a photo taken by my sister in law, Mary, who was just here to visit. She came with me to Field Day for the boys' school. In case you hadn't noticed, one of the kids in the photo is not actually mine. I said to Mary "Here, do you mind taking a photo of me with all my kiddos?" She says "Sure!" And I say, "Ok, come on boys over here, Mary is going to take our picture!" We all get together, and I crouch down. And then I realize Sammy is crouching next to me. I laughed and said "Sammy, are you one of my kids?" and he said "No, but I wish!!"

Best. Compliment. EVER.

Sammy is a very cool kid. He is Eden's best friend, and he lives in our neighborhood one street down and then up a few houses. They ride the bus together, and this year they were in the same class which is how they came to be "best friends" instead of just "bus friends". In the past few months Sammy has come over to our house usually once or twice a week after school. He and Eden play really well together, and since they are in the same class they can do homework together. Sammy often eats dinner with us on these nights, which I love because no matter what I make he will eat it, and he will LOVE it, AND he will tell me its delicious! I swear the boys eat more when Sammy is over as well, its that whole competition thing. They don't want to be out done, but they don't have a prayer because Sammy can easily eat more then both of them put together.

One evening while at dinner Sammy randomly chimes in with "Eden's Mom, did you know Eden likes a girl in our class? Well, actually, we both like her." I did not know Eden had a crush, but I was also not suprised he hadn't told me. Eden is....an internal child. Jude will verbalize every thought and feeling that crosses his mind but Eden seems to delight in the fact that his thoughts are his own and no one can make him share them against his will, thankyouverymuch. So I said "No, Sammy, I did not know that. Whats her name?" At which point Eden turns bright red and begins waving his arms frantically in a very emphatic "STOP TALKING" motion in front of Sammy's face, since he can't speak to silence him because his mouth is full of chicken nuggets. But Sammy says "Jennifer! Just like my mom!" and starts laughing. Eden puts his head on the table. He is trying to look mad, but he is also laughing. I said "Eden! Tell me about Jennifer!" He sighs and says "Tell you what?" in that sort of Ugh-I-can't-believe-this-is-happening kind of way. And I said "Tell me what she looks like first of all." He says she has brown hair, usually in a ponytail, and braces. But he says it with this goofy, love-struck grin and blushing cheeks that I have never seen on my child before. He really DOES have a crush! It was a very big moment for me, as a Mom. Then Sammy says "I can't believe you didn't tell her already. I tell my Mom eeeeeeeverything." Maybe some of that open-mindedness will rub off on Eden. But I doubt it.

Speaking of crushes, Hannah seems to have an itty-bitty-baby crush on Sammy. When we go pick him up and he climbs in the car she exclaims "MAMMMMYYY!! MAMMMYYY! HOOORAY!!!" and the top of her lungs. When we get home she wants to follow the boys around. If he leaves the room she says "Mammy? Uh oh! Ohhhhhh no!" and we have to go looking for him. She wants to hug him and put her head on his shoulder. When he says "Hi Hannah Banana!" she shrieks and laughs and turns away. At Field Day she was so excited to follow Eden and Sammy around. I told Eden's teacher I thought Hannah might have a crush on Sammy. She said "Well, at least shes got good taste. Hes a great kid."

Oh, and I got to see Jennifer too. But Sammy had to point her out to me.

 

 

2nd Half (except its more like 2/3)

R&R is over. We had so much fun, I can't even write about it all. To sum up, we went to the beach, went on a fieldtrip with Jude's class, went to my best friend's wedding, and spent lots of time just hanging around the house being a family. Oh, and we got new carpet, which was a huge production. Overall though, it was just tons and tons of wonderful.

There is not really any way to tell someone what it feels like to have such an essential part of our family basically missing, then returned, then gone again. When he left at first there was this void, an empty space that I felt around me. The house had a silence where his voice should be. And then when he came home, it felt so loud, so full, so bright. Now the empty space returns, but it seems almost more defined in contrast with his recent presence. Sharp edges where he should be. The empty space feels heavy. Maybe that makes no sense, but its the only way I know how to say it.

There are way too many pictures to post, so I just picked two. One of all of us, and one of Hannah with her Daddy.

We have about 7 months left in the deployment, but we still like to think we are half way done. That makes it easier to deal with.

I think Patches is Gifted....(Or:So what can YOUR cat do?)

 

 

 

Our cat Patches has apparently taken up a new hobby.

Reading.

So this is what is really going on when we are out of the house! I had always wondered what the cats did in their spare time apart from sleeping and making obscene amounts of poo in the litter box. Now I know.

I hope that her little cat friends don't tease her and call her a "nerd". How will she cope with the pressures of being labeled "gifted" at such a young age?

On his way Home!!!

 

Dean is his way home for 2 weeks of R&R!!

*Lora does a Happy Dance*

POP! (Or: A Sad Day for a Judah-Pudah)

 

These are the remnants of a big pink bouncy ball.

I was at Target with Hannah two days ago, and she simply REFUSED to leave without it. "Ball! Ball! BALLLLL!" She kept saying (and signing!) until Mommy caved in. She was so excited, she carried it around the store showing everyone who would listen "Ball! BALL!". She held on to it in her carseat all the way home "Ball! Ball! Ball!" At this point I am beginning to worry she will never say any other words ever again.

We got home and she played with it, rolling it in the hallways, kicking it like a soccer ball, patting it and even hugging it.

Then.....her big brothers came home.

Jude really really REALLY wanted to take the ball out in the yard and play with Eden. I told him he had to be extra careful because it was Hannah's ball, and we didn't want it to pop. So we all went out in the front yard. The boys tossed it back and forth, rolled it down the hill, even rolled it to Hannah who shrieked with delight when it bounced off her front. Eden tossed it to Jude, but he didn't catch it and it rolled down one side of our yard in to the neighbors yard....where large prickly pinecones loomed,sinister and sharp, just waiting for the opportunity to pop something. Jude ran after it as fast as he could, but when he caught up with it and tried to pick it up it went "POP!"

Jude picked up two sad,floppy pink pieces, and started wailing. Hannah, on the other hand, started laughing and clapping as if she had never seen such a great trick. The ball had become flat! Awesome! Jude ran over to me and crumbled in to my lap, a heap of tears and sobs "I...didn't.... MEAN TO....mommmy!!!" I told him it was ok, it was an accident, and we would get another ball another day. Hannah, meanwhile, is shaking the big piece of what was once her ball, and laughing hysterically.

We collected ourselves and what was left of the ball, and went inside. Jude insisted that we could not throw the ball away, because he said "Mommy, I want to remember this really special ball FOREVER!" I told him it was no good now, it was trash, and we couldn't keep it. But we compromised by taking his photo with it, so he could remember those glorious five minutes when this ball was a part of his life. That made him very happy.

Table and Chairs (Or: My baby knows sign language!)

 

 

This is Hannah's brand new table and chairs.

The reason they came to be is that Hannah is a very tiny person, who had no place that was Hannah-sized to sit. She could sit in her highchair of course, but she really doesn't like to unless she is eating and even then the second she is done she wants to get down. Since she is now 16 months old (today!)I realized that perhaps she would like to start doing more big-kid things, like coloring and playdough or maybe even painting. She is getting kind of bored with the "baby" toys, and is ready to move on.

I ordered this table from childrenstablesandchairs.com. A very creative name for a website......which sells children's tables and, you guessed it, chairs! They had lots of cute stuff, and not as expensive as I had found on other websites for wooden tables and chairs. They also had a very nice table that happened to match the top of Hannah's crib. On top of that, it only took 3 days from the time I ordered it for it to arrive! I was so excited that I decided to attmept to assemble them myself, in spite of the fact that I am seriously tool impaired. But the chairs went together very easily with an Allen wrench that was included. The table was a bit more challenging because it required a real screwdriver, and the top screws on a couple of the legs didn't want to go in all the way. I did get out Dean's power drill, but after staring at it for about 10 minutes hoping it would reveal its mysteries to me, I realized I still had no clue how to work it. So I just tightened all the screws as much as I could with a normal screwdriver. The table does stand, and its not wobbly, so I think it will survive until Dean gets home and can fix it up right.

So, Hannah seemed really happy to have it all set up in her room. She will come up to me now and say "Table? Table? Chair? Chair?" The really cool part about this is while she is saying table table chair chair she is simultaneously doing the SIGN for table and chair in sign language. Why? Because she learned how from her Baby Einsteins video about sign language. She can do so many signs, its amazing. Besides table and chair she knows the signs for blanket, bed, clock, flower, cup, bowl, puzzle, blocks, ball, piano, computer, and bear, and "change" for when her diaper is dirty, but I taught her that one myself! They aren't perfect of course, shes not quite that coordinated, but they are really close. In the top picture you can actually see her doing the sign for chair. We go to her room and I sit her in her chair and she repeats the words and signs several times and then wants to get down. She is unfortunately still a bit too small to get in and out of even these small chairs on her own, but soon I am sure she will be able to manage. We have colored a picture while sitting at the table, but that took some convincing. Mostly she just likes to talk about the table rather then use it but thats ok. I am sure she will get the idea soon enough.

Walking! (Or: The Best Day I Have Had So Far This Year)

 

 

 

It is true, my sweet precious tiny baby girl has joined the land of the Walking Walkers Who Walk.

This makes her no longer my sweet precious tiny baby girl, but instead my sweet precious tiny toddler. Because, lets face it, even with walking she is still sweet and precious and tiny. With an emphasis on tiny. Which makes the walking that much more sweet and precious.

At 3 p.m. this afternoon, with no warning or pretense, Hannah stood up holding on the the T.V. stand, let go of it, and simply walked away. Before this stunning moment, and in fact all morning before this moment, she would only walk if she was securely holding on to either my hand, her highchair, or her pushing car. She loved to push things, including the shopping cart, but as far as independent steps she would only take two or three and those usually were in the context of her falling down. I sort of figured eventually she would just decide to walk, but I guess I was expecting a little more active practice, with more wobbly steps and the falling, leading up to 4 then 5 then 6 steps at a time, you know? Like a normal baby? But she had other plans in mind. And so this afternoon she took off, and did laps around and around and around the house. She started in the livingroom, walking in circles first on the carpet, a bit hesitant to strike out into the great unknown of the wood flooring. After thirty minutes of walking confined to the rug though she felt she had her sea-legs, and off she went.

Her pattern became as follows: Go from Livingroom rug to hallway. Take a Left at Mom's room followed by a Left into Hannah's room. Go to Hannah's chair, lay her head down, throw her hands up and say "WOW!" Or perhaps "Yay!" or sometimes "Good Girl!". Pick her head up. Turn around. Walk out. Take first Right, then second Right. Go back to Livingroom rug and again shout one of the three aforementioned congratulatory proclamations to herself. This goes on for basically the rest of the afternoon until bed time, with very little variation except to occasionally hug one of her brothers or the dog.

And it was truly one of the most wonderful afternoons I have had all year!

In other smaller (but still wonderful) news

I bought some slipcovers online from JCPenny at Christmas time, for the couch and loveseat. I hadn't put them on yet because we did not want Patches to turn them into slipcover shreds. She went yesterday do get declawed and as SOON as we got home I pulled them out and trued to put them on......but they were WAY too small! I called JCPenny but they said since I ordered them over 90 days ago I could not return them. The very nice lady said I could go into a store in person and hope someone took pity on me. So today I did just that. Eden was still home sick so he and Hannah tagged along. When we got to the counter I said "I bought these online. They don't fit." The lady there said "Ok.", took them, typed some numbers in to a computer, and refunded all of my money! She didn't ask for a receipt or ANYTHING. It was so, SO very awesome.

Then, I got a text message on my phone a few days ago saying my account address had been changed and to call Verizon if it was unauthorized. I forgot to call them until today. The very nice Verizon lady told me my address was still the same as I repeated to her, and then she said she noticed I had gone over my minutes last month and wanted to know if I needed to upgrade my plan. I explained to her that my husband was deployed, and we had the misfortune of having our bank information stolen, which lead to his name being involved in this check fraud scam, which lead to many many MANY minutes of me being on hold with the police, FBI, Federal Trade Commission, U.S. Postal Service, U.S. Secret Service, FedEx and UPS. I told her I never go over my minutes, it was just obviously a freaky month. She said "Oh, I am so sorry to hear that. You have been a customer of ours for several years, and I am just going to credit that amount back to you, if thats ok?" Heck Yeah! That was nearly $100! Thank you Nice Verizon Lady Dawn!!!

To sum up: This was the best day I have had so far this year. I apologize profusely to March, whom I may have judged prematurely to be in league with January and February. That is clearly not the case. Thank you March for showing your true colors, even if you are nearly half done.