7 Quick Takes, wherein Lucy is released into the Wild

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Lucy started Preschool this past Tuesday.  It's at a local Nature Center, and I think it is going to be a good fit for her.  I haven't, in general, been a big fan of Preschool but I could tell that Lucy both needed a primer on how to behave in a classroom and that she was desperate to go to school like her big sisters.  This program is only two days a week and is "nature-based" which translates into playing outside and taking a lot of walks, with some visits from awesome animals thrown in.  (They've already visited the barn owls they keep on the grounds and have begun to raise horseshoe crabs!)  

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We are wondering if this will signal the end of the Imaginary Classroom:  Rosie,who lives above a coffee-shop and has hot chocolate every morning, the wise teacher Mrs. Orangie Power, who once died of a broken leg and whispered to Lucy with her last breath, "Don't be afraid of ghosts!"  (Mrs. Orangie Power eventually resurrected, although the details on that are unclear.)  I will be kind of sad to see it all go.  It's been fun to see the crazy things Lucy comes up with, like her 'second-best' imaginary friend Amy, who had a pet stink bug, not to mention the fact that Orangie Power is a freaking awesome name and it makes me happy every time I hear Lucy say it.

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After her first day of school, Lucy said that she was a little homesick but had fun.  (She also told me all the details so that I could tell everyone else - she did not want to waste her own time repeating herself.)  

The second day, when I asked her how her day was, Lucy said, "I had a lot of fun!  I didn't miss you at all!  Actually, I forgot you existed!"

I'm going to take that as a good sign.

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Claire had an incident in lunch this week.  A boy started harassing her about the size of our family, telling her that "Eight people in one family is too much!" etc.   She held her own and told him that he must be unhappy with his own family if he was focusing so much on hers.  (Claire, at 8, is sometimes remarkably insightful.)  It all worked for the good, though, because now this boy is not allowed to sit anywhere near her during lunch.  He's been a thorn in her side for years now, so I'm glad she gets a break.

Still, this is the first time any of the girls have encountered a really negative attitude towards having six sisters.  Claire handled it well and didn't get unduly upset, yet still...The whole thing makes me sad.

 -5-

I stole my neice and nephew for a few hours earlier this week, and I'm sorry Becky but I couldn't help myself!

I could not get him to stay still enough to take a unblurred picture, which cracks me up.  He may end up wearing Minnie-Mouse shoes when he comes here, but this kid is always all-boy!

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Yesterday, while I was putting Ruth to sleep and Chris was picking up the Girl Scouts, Lucy went on a rampage of sorts.  She opened the Ovaltine and ate about a third of the powder with a spoon, then she went into the bathroom and ate 3 Children's Chewable Tylenol tablets.

The positives:  I got to catch up with my good friends at Poison Control.  The medicine cabinet was in need of a good cleaning-out anyways (I found some stuff we haven't used in close to a decade, stuff I'm mystified ever survived the move.)  I have one less portion of dessert to worry about for the next week, as Lucy is most definitely cut off.  Ah, and I realized that she can reach the faucet just fine so the stool (which gives her access to the medicine cabinet as well) is now comfortably nestled in storage.

-7-

I just made this blanket for friends of ours who just had a baby (incidentally also named Ruth).

This is by far the best blanket I've ever made.  I think I'm finally getting the hang of it!  I'm also now just finishing up an epic blanket that I've been making for Lucy.  I began it two years ago, so it feels good to almost be finished!  I'll post a picture once it's done.

Thanks to Jen at Conversion Diary for hosting 7 Quick Takes!

How Matt Berninger from The National almost stepped on Beth

Alternate title:  How I turned out to be a worse mother than I thought

 The National just came to Merriweather, and since we had three tickets, and since Katie had come along for our pilgrimage to see Mumford and Sons, and since I never quite got around to having a birthday party for Beth, we figured it was the second-eldest's turn.

We had a great time, and Beth (who, if you recall, had one previous concert experience) thoroughly enjoyed herself.  Towards the end of the evening, the lead singer - as he often does- started weaving through the crowds.  In a moment of pure blind instinct, I realized that he was heading our way and I grabbed Beth by the scruff of her neck and propelled her through the crowd to get her a spot up front.  Thou Shalt not be Obnoxiously Pushy could reasonably be considered one of the guiding principles of my life,  but apparently my principles don't hold up to the temptation of standing kind of in the vicinity of a guy in a spotlight. 

Beth's view was mostly of his backside as he sung to the crowd in front of him, and even though he almost stepped on her as he turned back to the stage, and even though he almost hit her on the head with the mike when he dropped it, she was extremely excited.  As I stood on the sidelines watching her, it hit me that I had just shoved my kid into a screaming throng and then abandoned her there.  I was struck by two disparate thoughts:  #1- that I was so instinctively willing to do something (be obnoxiously pushy) for my child that I would never have done for myself, and #2- the fact that it didn't occur to me until it was too late that throwing my kid into a howling mob like her life depended on getting close to a Rock Star wasn't really the smartest thing to do.

Anyway, she not only survived to tell the tale, it was the highlight of her night.  We found this video on YouTube, much to Beth's delight.  You can see her around the 26 sec mark, lower left hand corner.  She's the really short person standing behind the singer.

Slice of Life

Somebody is very proud of herself for leaving the living room!

Magic Daddy

I've just hurt my leg exercising, so while I sit at the computer holding a squirmy baby and icing my calf I might as well put up a story on here that I've been meaning to tell.

On Good Friday, we were all in the car on the way to see Katie in our parish's Passion Play.  Lucy was in a talkative mode, so Chris was egging her on by asking her various random questions.

"Do you know what I do when I'm at work?" he asked her.

This has proven to be a nebulous concept for the girls over the years.  When Katie was in kindergarten she told her teacher that Chris was "kind of a nurse."  The other girls tend to just shrug and say, "he helps doctors somehow."

Lucy, however, did not hesitate.  In her decisive and prompt way she immediately answered, "You bring people back alive."

When people ask me if it bothers Chris that he doesn't have any sons, I always just shake my head.  They totally don't get it.  He may not have someone to arm wrestle, but he has six little girls who adore the ground he walks on.  He is absolutely and without rival their hero.

I mean, when I say they believe he can raise the dead, I am saying that quite literally.

A snippet from a particularly impressive show

The girls put on quite a few shows, but I rarely post them because the videos are always too long to upload.  However, I've just realized that putting them on YouTube bypasses the blog's limitations, so get ready!  There will be more home-show awesomeness in this blog's future!

This one came about because 1- Adele, a favorite around here, just came out with a new CD and Katie is obsessed with it, and 2- Grandma and Grandpa Mlinek were watching the girls while Chris and I went to see a talk by Scott Hahn, thus providing a bigger audience than usual.  They did routines to quite a few songs, but this one was my favorite:

Define this

I was driving the elementary girls into school the other day when Abbie asked me to define "courageous."  I did my Lemony Snickett-y best, and then asked her why she wanted to know.

"I am supposed to do something courageous this week for Girl Scouts," she said.

"Punch a kid in the face!" Beth suggested beside her.

"That's not courageous," Abbie said.

Beth clarified, "Punch an older kid in the face."

Lucy, dominating

Lucy:  Boo, can you get me a drink?
Beth:  Say the magic word!
Lucy: You will get me a drink.

You know your kids are awesome when....

...not one, not two, but THREE people at the museum approach you to gush about how well behaved they are, how sweetly they treat each other, and what an amazing family you have.

Then, as if that weren't enough, when you stop to take a video of a disturbing bunny in the "sculpture garden" they all, in unison and completely on their own volition, decide to act like a pack of zombies.

These girls are the best.

Non-swimming summer activities

Here are a few things, other than swimming, we've done this summer:

We went to a minor league baseball game:




We have been watching lots of shows, many of them heavily influenced by Lucy's recent preoccupation with "The Karate Kid 2" :



And today we had a girls afternoon out at a Victorian tea house! The girls brought their "lady manners" and absolutely dominated in their fancy hats. It was a ton of fun, super girlie, and really highlights (for me) the advantages of having daughters!

The slip and slide was defective....

...but they worked it out! Here's the before and after videos!

It's a girl! (Again!) (Of course!)

My thoughts:

1- Wow!

2- What are the odds? (Actually, pretty good and getting better with each girl that comes down the pike. It just feels like we are beating them. )

3- My Father in Law is an actual, honest-to-goodness prophet!*

4- It makes me sad that so many people are going to assume that we were "going for a boy," and will feel sorry for us. It's never been about that as far as we are concerned. People tend to think that having more than the standard amount of kids is crazy, so I guess they look for things to explain it to themselves in a satisfactory way. They ought to realize that we just happen to embrace the craziness, and feel some things (like having 6 kids in 10 years) are worth doing even though it might be hard.

5- I was not actually scheduled for a sonogram. The doctor, after an agonizingly long time searching for the baby's heartbeat, sent me over to the hospital for an emergency sonogram. When the nurse asked him what the sonogram was for, and I heard him quietly answer "viability," my heart lodged into my throat. During the 45 minutes between realizing that something may have gone horribly wrong, and seeing the baby's gorgeous fluttering heartbeat on the screen, I had nothing but time to reflect on how very, very desperate I was for this baby to be okay. The big news during this sonogram was not "It's a girl!" It was, "She's alive and well!" and nothing else mattered. Nothing.

6- A part of me secretly worried that, should we have a boy, I might lose my identity. That's ridiculous, right? It is. It is. Still, having a family of girls has been such a part of my life for so long that I couldn't help but wonder if I could hack a change this late in the game. I guess I don't need to worry about that right now!

7- I do mourn the potential to name this baby "Zeke," even though we knew that we would be accused of naming the baby after our favorite coffee. Zeke's may make the best coffee in the world, but that has no bearing on the fact that it is also a supercool name! I don't think a girl could pull it off, though, so the name is a moot point.

8- There is a different dynamic between mothers and daughters and mothers and sons. The same goes with fathers - it is just a different ballgame between boys and girls. Do we sometimes wonder what it would be like to experience that different dynamic? Sure. Do we regret that we haven't? No. In case you haven't noticed, we are take-things-as-they-come kind of people. We'll take the largish family, gladly. And we'll take the girls, just as gladly, though we may not have planned for either.


8- This is my nephew after only an hour or so at our house. He is an extremely boyish boy, too! He's always pointing stuff out to my girls for their edification - things like grills, dump trucks and helicopters. They smile politely at him and then look over at me with confused faces. Why would he care about these things? They ask me. I do not know. I do not know.



*I thought that I had posted before about "The Prophecy," but I looking through the archives, I see I haven't. Waaaay back, when Katie was just 8 months old and we had just discovered that I was pregnant again, Chris's Dad had an extremely vivid dream in which we had 6 girls. We laughed heartily at the thought, and then dismissed it. His family has always believed in the dream, though. When we couldn't determine the sex during our 3rd pregnancy, we felt positive that we were having a boy. Chris' Mom, however, went out and bought three dresses for the Christmas following the baby's birth. Those dresses have now been used many, many times!!! And now, nine years after the fact, it has become clear as can be that the dream was indeed prophetic!

It's good to be 5!

Abbie turns 5 today! I will post pictures someday, when my laptop allows me to upload them from my camera. Hopefully it will be in the mood sooner rather than later.

Abbie had a good day, I think. This birthday feels like a real milestone, to us, for some reason. Chris and I are both just finding ourselves...extra grateful, I guess, to have this kid around.

The morning started off very sweetly. The two older girls (on their own, with their own money, and without my prior knowledge) bought birthday gifts for Abbie at the Holiday Shop they have in school. So they begged me to allow Abbie to open them before school. Claire, who doesn't yet have her own money, decided a few days ago to make Abbie a bracelet and she went first, shyly apologizing to Abbie for the homemade gift (which was also way too small) but Abbie gave her a big hug and said, "Oh, I love it, Claire! It's okay that I can't wear it, I'll just like to look at it."

Beth gave Abbie a Christmas-tree shaped etch-a-sketch, which was cool and well appreciated but soon eclipsed by Katie's gift, a talking bear that records your own messages. As the girls were all exclaiming excitedly over Katie's gift, Beth sat by herself and fiddled with the etch-a-sketch. Katie (who had very carefully picked out Abbie's gift, and who I know was secretly hoping to be the giver of the day's best present) saw Beth's face and then started loudly talking about how cool the etch-a-sketch was, drawing everyone's attention back to it.

I was so proud. So proud of all of them.

We ate our cinnamon rolls, and later Chris and I took Abbie and Lucy to Abbie's favorite library (which has a kid-sized town to explore, complete with grocery store, post office and fishing pond). We fired up Abbie's dinner of choice (Spaghetti-O's, Lord help me) and then the Grandparents and returning college hero, Uncle Andy, came over for some (terribly ugly - wait until you see the picture!) cake. Tomorrow we will all go to the aquarium, and Grandma Niccoli will come over to finish off our celebration. Abbie is having a great birthday.

That morning in the kitchen, though, is what I will remember forever. Five girls coming together so happily, so sweetly, so lovingly. We have plenty of mornings full of bickering and spilt milk and nasty attitudes, but it was good to see everyone pull together like that and just enjoy making their sister happy. That is one of Abbie's talents - she draws people to her, and draws out the best in them.

I thank God for the privilege of being her mother. I thank Him for giving us this time with her. I thank Him for the dynamic she brings to this family.

Happy Birthday, Bejabbers. We love you.

pictures for ya

First of all, Katie's first sleepover. It went well: I only had to tell them to quiet down twice, and I was able to fall asleep around 1:30 so....much better than any sleepover I had as a kid! (Sorry again, Mom.)

A phenomena I've observed was highlighted during this party - the almost mythical dimensions "the sisters" have reached. We had carefully coached the younger girls to stay out of the way of the party, but both Katie and her friends wanted to include them at every turn. One of the crafts we did was to decorate and sign pillowcases, and the other girls all insisted on having not only the girls from the party, but Katie's little sisters sign them as well. The younger girls were treated like celebrities. It made me proud to realize just how much Katie talks up her sisters to her friends, and it also made me proud to see what a force these five girls make when they band together. The other kids all clearly viewed them as something special that they wanted to be a part of, and it did my heart so much good to have it confirmed: it's not just my mother's eyes that see it, these girls really are something special.

They even insisted on including the sisters in the group photo:

Here's Katie blowing out the candles on her cupcake. (It's become a bday party staple here to have decorate-your-own cupcakes. Makes it easier on me!)

Here's Katie's actual birthday cake. I wasn't completely happy with it, but I learned a valuable lesson: never use dark colored glittery sprinkles with light colored frosting!

And here are cupcakes that I pretty proud of. Funny thing, though - Katie's teacher (very sweetly) emailed me to say that she grew up in New York City, but thought my cupcakes were the best she's ever had. (Yeah, okay, I'm bragging, but wait for the rest of the story...) The thing is, the kids in school didn't like them at all. Chris thinks it's because they aren't used to frosting that isn't from a can, but who knows? Obviously, the cupcakes were pretty frosting-heavy. Katie was happy with them, though, so that's really the only thing that matters. As always, my goal is only to impress my kids. If that's accomplished, who cares what anyone else thinks!

They were cute, though, weren't they?

Jellybeans and little girls

Do you see this jellybean cannister? Imagine five girls standing around it, salivating. Coveting. Sort of like this:

I bought the jellybeans for Chris. Anything that qualifies as a treat around here has a tendency to....disappear. Quickly. The girls are a lot like locusts when it comes to sugar. So, because I bought the jellybeans for my hardworking husband and wanted him to be able to eat a few, I put a strict prohibition on the jellybeans. They are only for BOYS.

The girls can't take it. They are dying of desire. They have not, however, touched the jellybeans. They gather around the jar, look longingly at its contents, repeatedly wonder aloud how the various colors might taste...but they don't touch them. They respect the Daddy's right to his own treat.

But let's talk about Lucy. She is a wonder and a worry to me, in that order. I marvel at how self-assured she is, how little she cares what others are doing or thinking, how confident she is in her place in the world. I can't believe this little firebrand shares genes with me. I can't believe that I had a hand in bringing this force of nature into existence. While the other girls were tip-toeing around the jellybeans, Lucy studied them long and hard. Then, a few days after their arrival, she came to a decision.

Chris and I were in the basement when she came halfway down the stairs and stopped to confront us. "I am share Daddy's beans, " she announced, looking expectantly at Chris.

Her gaze was unflinching and steely.

He stood up and went to get her some beans.


How could he not? "I am share Daddy's beans," she said, and she meant it. It wasn't a question, it wasn't a request, it was a statement. Concise and unconquerable. Just like Lucy.

Watch out, world, because your jellybeans are next.

Back to School (or How Anne of Green Gables deceived me)

Sorry for the long silence. It has been a busy few weeks, but here I am to report that the first week back was a resounding success! The girls all seem to enjoy their respective teachers and classes, and we're off to a smooth start.

Yesterday, though....

Yesterday was a different story. It was the official Back-To-School Night, where the parents get to sit for hours listening to things that could be communicated in the span of three minutes, and the teachers get to learn where all the annoying habits of their students come from. I joined the "hospitality committee" this year, which is a fancy way of saying I bring food. Since all baking these days must be used as preparation for my sister's wedding cake in November, I decided to make cupcakes decorated in the school colors, with tiny roses on top.

This is where Anne of Green Gables let me down.

I grew up loving the series. Loving it. I loved the way Anne did things just like me, forgetting things and having crazy things happen to her....I was never responsible for having a mouse drown in cream, but I did once leave the garage door open, leaving me an easy scapegoat for the mouse that appeared a few days later. I also never fell through a roof, but I routinely ran out of gas while driving my grandparents' boat around Deep Creek, leaving me (and my passengers: Kelli, Julie, Shannon, Ange - I'm sorry) stranded at the mercy of strangers. The awesome thing about Anne, though, was that as she grew older she grew out of her ditsy ways. By the time she was a mother she was gracious, relaxed and serene. I felt confident that my future would be the same.

Fast forward to yesterday. I began decorating the cupcakes around noon, thinking that I could drop them off at the school right before classes let out and surprise the girls with a car-ride home. It wasn't to be, however, because I am incapable of gauging time correctly. By four o'clock I was frantic and the kitchen was covered in frosting, and I was still not done. To make things worse, Chris came into the kitchen and immediately burst into laughter. He was laughing so hard he couldn't tell me why, he just directed me to the bathroom mirror. I went in and looked at myself. I looked at my lips, then my teeth, then my tongue. They were all a deep, violent shade of blue. I should not have licked that spoon.

I brushed my teeth like mad, to no avail, then realized that I was just going to have to accept the fact that I was about to face an entire school full of judgemental parents...with a blue mouth.

I packed up the cupcakes and asked Katie to help me load them into the car. Despite my blue mouth (and, actually, green fingers -- the cupcakes were blue with yellow flowers), I felt proud of the cupcakes. They looked cute, and I congratulated myself on cleverly decorating them in the school colors. I said as much to Katie as she helped me out, and she looked at me with a puzzled expression.

"Um, Mom, " she said, "The school colors are blue and red."

Oh. So, as it turns out, I decorated the cupcakes in visually unappealing colors and covered myself in bizarre stains for no reason at all. I was all set to really impress the PTA crowd.

Anne Shirley would never have done that. Where did I go wrong? Is this my fault, or is it the fault of Mrs. Montgomery, who should have known that flighty little girls grow into flighty little adults? I'm going to blame Anne. And hope that the parents of my kids' friends don't hold it against them when their mother can't pull herself together.

Family Fun!

Rockband.

I've talked about it enough, it's time for you to see what all the fuss is about because this game...this game is just so much fun. Here's Beth, singing one of her favorite songs, accompanied by her father and uncle (who, please notice, is hard to beat when it comes to those drums.) Enjoy! (We certainly do.)

(Edited to add: AAURGH! I have now spent a shameful amount of time trying to get this video on here, but it still isn't right. The full video is too big to upload, so I spliced it but although it looks fine on my computer I can't get it right on here. I'll try again later.)



I might, someday, if I thought you could handle it, post a video of the girls rocking, and I do mean rocking out to Chop Suey. But I'm not sure you can handle it.

5 Star News

The girls occasionally put out their own paper, inspired by Little Women who were in turn inspired by Pickwick Papers. I love it, and today's edition was especially impressive. Enjoy!

A Reason to Celebrate
Turning 20
Today we are celebrating a most important 20th birthday, Andy Mlinek's. Katie: A man to look up to. Beth: Great uncle. Claire: He is a great jedi master. Abbie: He's the best godfather.

The woman of 5 children
August 24th is Becca Mlinek's birthday. As a mother and wife, 33 is a big step, a great one too. Katie: I could not love any other mother of mine. Beth: She's a very responsible mom and good hearted. Claire: I think mom's a very responsible mom of us and she loves us very much. Abbie: Mom is the best mom in the world, thank you.

Entertainment
Back to school
The three oldest Mlinek girls are going back to school. Katie: my new teacher, Mrs. Sharp, should be great. Beth: My teacher, Mrs. Turner, is going to be very nice. Katie had her. Claire: My teacher, Mrs. Little, Is going to be the nicest in the whole world.

A time for friends
Tomorrow, Katie is going to Morgan's house. Then next tuesday, Morgan will come here. Katie: I'm so excited!

Sports
The Brett Farve case
A long time ago, Brett Farve said he would not join the Vikings. But today we saw that he hadn't made up his mind fully. Today, Brett Farve said he would join them. Training camp already started! Katie: A man who can't make up his mind shouldn't play. He's ridiculous! Beth: Farve is so coo-coo in his head he should have a coo-coo bird in his head that makes up his mind. Claire: I think he's the worst ever, he drinks too much stuff that makes him crazy. Abbie: I think he should have a basket on his head full of laundry with 1,000 gallons of water. I'm serious.

Health
Claire's ear is hurting and going to the doctor tomorrow. Claire: It's painful, people!! It really hurts!!

Written by Katie Mlinek- president
Beth Mlinek: Reporter
Claire Mlinek: Suggestor
Abbie Mlinek: Apprentice

Her middle name is not Esther, but it should be

Take a look at my little fish!





And did you catch that "I'm so neglected, poor lil' ol' forsaken me, nobody takes my picture" drama going on in the background? Girls are so much fun.

Blood of my blood

We let Katie and Beth stay up late last night, and we all watched Stardust - a fantastic movie that you need to put in your Netflix queue right now.

We've had the book for years (it's a little too mature for the girls to read yet, but the movie is more family-friendly) and I have loved it for years, but this is one of those rare, rare cases where the movie is every bit as enjoyable. We all absolutely loved it (yes, including Chris. His surprising ability to locate quality films regardless of genre is one of the first things that attracted me to him. Still does.)

After the movie, Katie and Beth helped me clean up the pie plates and glasses before going to bed. As we rinsed the dishes, Katie made me very proud. She said, "I wish more girls my age would see that this (meaning Stardust) is what is really, really good. Not something like," with extreme disdain, "Hannah Montana."

Man, I love this kid.

My heart just about burst. I was, at that moment, the proudest mother in the world. Enjoy your millions Miley Cyrus, you spoiled rotten vacuous brat, but you haven't sunk your talons into the hearts of my children. They see right through you.