This and That

Some random stuff:

The Lobers had their baby! Her name is Isabella (Ella) and she is beautiful! I had the privilege to hold her just over an hour after her birth, and let me tell you......it is a dangerous thing to let any woman of childbearing age hold a newborn! But never fear, I immediately recollected that this tiny darling would not be waking me up in the middle of the night.....and there's a few already living in this house taking up that position. But, anyways, we are just thrilled for the Lobers, and we are honored to have been asked to be her godparents! This means I now have 2 "godchild" ornaments to missplace every Christmas. :)

On an unrelated note: Guess what? Katie and Beth are in ballet class with the daughter of one of the Ravens. (One of the pretty important ones) This, of course, was not discovered until Chris picked them up from class one night. Pretty cool!

SNOW!!!!!!

We love snow! Snow days are one of the things that live up to all of the "magic of childhood" hype that everyone always expects life with small children to provide.

Katie and Claire both woke up in the pre-dawn, because they were so excited about the snow. It was then a loooong few hours for them as I had to wait until I could let them out without waking up all of the sleeping DINKs in the dozen or so houses surrounding our "common area." So to keep them preoccupied we made about a million valentine's day crafts. Katie even constructed some kind of paper-house, complete with cut-out animals to live in it. It's actually really cool. Then we had a huge breakfast (that took me a proportionately huge amount of time to cook, to the girls' frustration). Then, once the kitchen was straightened up and the girls were all bundled up, Chris took the older three out to finally play in the snow. And they loved it! Snowball fights, snow chairs (which they, for some reason, are obsessed with), and an unfortunate dog-attack later (no one is hurt, don't worry!) and the girls were cold, tired, and very very happy. Abbie and I, who had been napping during all of this, were also very, very happy. :) Then later that afternoon, I went out with the girls again (Abbie stayed inside and watched from the window) and we completed the snowman begun that morning. I love making snowmen!

So, it's been a good day. Chris just read them two chapters from the current book, and they are now headed upstairs to get ready for bed. Mmmmm, snow days, You just can't beat it!

Catching up on anticdotes

It's been a while since I've really updated this, so here are a few gems from the mouths of my children, for your reading pleasure.

Beth, from under the covers of her bed, upon being asked why she was crying: No-one takes care of me. I have to take care of myself.

Katie, watching the snow coverage on the news: Why do they talk about how much snow there is? Everybody already knows that, it's not really news.

Abbie, with a wicked grin when she should be taking a nap, "Poopie." (She was not poopie -- it was a ruse to trick me into taking her out of her crib.)

Claire, after having a rough day getting along with Katie, "Beth is my best friend! I love Beth!"

I'm sending out my Christmas cards today.....

...so please don't think, when you get our card in a few days, that you are the only one getting their card so late. I guess I can at least claim the distinction of treating everyone in my life equally, although that just means equally poorly.
See, the thing is........Well, I didn't get the cards out in time for Christmas. I just didn't, I have no real excuse. Then, once the holiday was over and I had the time to settle down and finish them, we made the mistake of going "hard core" on potty-training Claire. And that went very, very badly. So badly, in fact, that we are just now finally beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. The point is, the Christmas cards were kind of pushed to the end of the to-do list. Behind things like clean the bathroom for the 5th time today and pin screaming toddler on the toilet and force her to stay there until she "tinkles" so that she doesn't get a UTI from holding it all day. So, anyways, I apologize for how ridiculously late these cards are. It's a mixture of my own irresponsibility and a really bad month. But hey! I hope you enjoy the picture!

Medievable Times

Here are some pictures from Claire's birthday!

Her birthday presents some difficulties, since she is so limited in what she can eat without throwing up. Cakey, doughy things are absolutely out, so I had some trouble trying to figure out what to make her for her cake, and what to do about breakfast. Some traditions have sort of evolved here, especially involving breakfast. The girls like to wake up to a kitchen decorated for the birthday girl, and have some sort of "big treat" for breakfast. Usually they request cinnamon rolls, but if Claire eats them at all, she usually throws them back up. Coffee cake is out for the same reason, as are pancakes. So what to do? The plan ended up being piling the girls into the car at 6:30am and making a run to Dunkin Donuts. Claire can usually handle the donuts, so that's what we got. Plus I got them some hot chocolate; they see Chris and I getting coffee all the time, so it makes the hot chocolate extra good to them if they can drink it from the styrofoam cups like we do. Plus, they thought it was really cool to go out in their PJs. :)

For her cake, I made a giant chocolate chip cookie. She had requested a Raggedy Ann cake for her birthday, and I was worried that the cookie wouldn't turn out well in the pan, but it ended up just fine and she loved it! Then for dinner we took her to Medieval Times ("Medievable Times," if you ask Beth). Chris and I went to the one outside Chicago back when we were dating, and we just loved it! We had watched a family walking around with several little girls all dressed up as princesses and we, almost admittedly falling in love and both secretly dreaming of what it would be like to start a family together, were just enchanted. I've been dreaming about leading my own troup of little princesses through there ever since. I was so excited, then, when they opened one up here, but when we found out what the ticket prices were (and let's just say, there is not much of a discount for children) we despaired of ever being able to go. However, wonder of wonders, they had a special deal in January where kids could go for free! Ha ha ha! A dream come true for me, and something I knew the girls would just love.

Well, naturally, they just went nuts once we got there! Claire was actually standing on her chair, jumping up and down and yelling at the top of her lungs is support of our knight. Incidentally, our knight was the black-and-white Warrior-Priest, the same knight Chris and I had all those years ago when we were dating. And he won both times!

So Claire had a very happy day, and she was dead asleep in the car before we got home. The 3rd birthday always seems sort of magical to me -- it is the real transition from babyhood to being a "big girl," and Claire had this adorable mix of the un-self-conscous happiness of babyhood, and the sweet, proud excitment of childhood. So cute. Happy Birthday Claire!

More pictures

Okay, I'm going to try one more time to put more bday pics up. If this doesn't work, we'll all just have to wait until my main site is back up and running.

Happy Moment

I just had the best hour of my life..........well, maybe not THE best hour, but it was definitely up there.

You know how working hard makes you appreciate resting more? Or how giving up certain foods make you appreciate just how delicious they are? Well, the same thing goes for time by yourself. I hardly ever get any time truly to myself, and I realize that this is a blessing, to be so surrounded by these sweet little girls. But......quiet and peace are nice, too, and it's a good thing to get a little sometimes, if you can. :)

Chris was home early tonight, so I was able to leave Katie, Beth and Abbie with him while I took Claire to her ballet class. So after dropping Claire off I walked to Starbucks and got myself a big old uber-yuppie skinny latte! And it was the BEST coffee, I drank it while slowly walking back to the gym where the ballet classes are. I could just walk in silence and think, and it was just so wonderful.

Hooray for husbands who help out! And hooray for disgustingly yuppie neighborhoods with Starbucks on every corner! And hooray for little girls, who are so cute when you get away from them!

Exercise in frustration

This morning, I decided to put in a Pilates video that has been gathering dust in our t.v. stand. With Claire still not quite there on the potty-training, going to the gym has become more hassle than it's worth, with the nursery workers pulling me out of class every ten minutes or so to take her to the bathroom.

So I thought it would be less frustrating to just do a video.

Well, 45 minutes later and I have at least worked up a sweat. For any of you who have ever tried Pilates, you should appreciate this: it is MUCH harder to do when balancing a baby on your hip, or having said baby straddle your chest while doing floor exercises. Not to mention the many, many times I had to pause it in order to re-allign the girls (who all, of course, decided to do the video with me) so that no-one got kicked in the face. So, all in all, I got some kind of work-out, but I'm not sure it's the one Denis Austin had in mind.

This is the story of my life right now. Before putting that video in none of them had any interest in me whatsoever. Abbie was happily playing with her drums, Katie and Beth were playing some kind of store game, and Claire was wandering around in her own world. But the moment I ever try to actually get something done they all suddenly swarm like locusts; Abbie desperately needs to be held, Beth suddenly falls ten times in a row, injuring herself in ten different ways, Claire decides that part of her must be touching part of me at all times, and Katie invariably picks this chaotic time to give us all a sound lecture on where we have failed in life.

But while I was gritting my teeth and desperately trying to just get through the video, I knew in the back of my mind that, could I see the scene in my living room through third person, what I would see would be hilarious. Babies hanging off a hassled mother's pants' leg, threee tiny little girls earnestly trying to follow an adult workout, with no idea that they were constantly getting in the mother's space....it's comedy gold. As a way to start your Saturday though...well, I guess there are worse ways!

Things to consider when dealing with me

My mom sent me this email today:

Becca,

In one of our business mags there is a little column- "Did you Know"

the third one down says


On average,a 4-year old child asks 437 questions a day( ask any parent and we already knew that one!!!)


So I figure you listen to:

481 Katie ( 437 + 10% 44= 481)
437 Beth 437
393 Claire-her's may be statements (437 - 10% 44= 393)
305 Abbie- I want (393 -20% 88=305)
24 Chris (men less verbal- no time to get it in)

1640 verbal requests,responses a day.

I bet the best customer service rep in the world does not deal with as much in one day as you!!!!!!!!!


Something to ponder if you have time.

If I have time, indeed!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!!! We spent a wonderful day hanging out with our family here, and although we couldn't be with ALL of our family, everyone was thought of, and loved, and missed.

I've been hearing reports.....

...that some people are actually reading this. So why isn't anyone commenting? Come on, how can I know if anyone (beyond my mom) is reading this if no-one says anything?????

Flying High

Every year, our friendly neighborhood firemen bring Santa around on one of their trucks so that all the kids can wave to him. They always, always hit our neighborhood just after we've put the girls down for the night, and this year was no exception.

I was in the guest room still wrangling with Abbie when I heard the tell-tale sirens, so I jumped up and yelled out, "Girls, Santa's coming!" They knew exactly what I meant. I opened their door just in time to see Katie, in her excitement and fear that she'd miss Santa, take a flying leap out of the top bunk, land (on her feet) on a pillow and go charging out the door. She was like a little Gummi Bear ("bouncing here and there and everywhere.")

This is the kid who never ever, ever (never ever? Never EVER!) makes a move without first analyzing every angle of the situation. This is a girl who solves puzzles before actually putting them together. But at the sound of those sirens she took a rare flight (literally) of fancy and just......let go. So unlike her. But so sweet to see!

And after all that, we still missed Santa. Why do they drive by so fast? Chris eventually picked them all up at once, and carried them (shoeless and coatless and heartbroken) down the sidewalk so that they could at least see Santa as he turned onto the next road. That seemed to satisfy them, and they happily went back to bed after that.

The funniest thing about this is that Katie has been expressing extreme scepticism about Santa this year. She recently asked me how, if Santa is a real person, he hasn't died, because of course all people eventually die. How the heck do you answer that? I just babbled on for a few minutes without really saying anything, and then changed the subject because she had me completely stumped. So not only was it surprising to see Katie so unusually impetuous and childlike, it was surprising to see this reaction to Santa, whom she may not actually fully believe in.

This year has been so cool, with all three of the older girls being so excited and so wrapped up in the magic of Christmas, and last night was just the perfect example. Once I knew Katie had not actually hurt herself, and my heart had begun beating again, I just couldn't help but laugh and laugh and laugh at the whole thing. So cute, so sweet, so innocent and excited! Oh my gosh, Christmas has never been so much fun!

A Christmas Mystery

On Tuesday, while comparing notes at the end of the day, Chris and I discovered that we had identical conversations with Beth in which she claimed to have a solo in the upcoming Christmas Show.

"There is a part of the song that only people with really good voices can sing, and I guess I'm the only one with a really good voice!" said Beth.

Chris asked, "What's the song?"

She couldn't answer. She couldn't remember the song she was apparently going to sing alone in front of the entire school in one day.

What to think? Beth is genuinely pretty gifted musically. I mean, the girl can carry a tune. However, she is not always entirely....reliable. This girl is the reason our fish are named Strawberry, Blueberry, Vanilla, Chocolate and.......Lala Salt. She once told my sister that we gave her a trampoline on her birthday. She was not exactly lying -- we took her to a place where they had trapeze-artists performing, and she watched them. Beth really does not sweat the details -- recieving a trampoline, watching trapeze perfomers -- same basic difference.

So we approached the Christmas Show with anticipation - was Beth really going to have a solo? If so, could she actually get through it, especially since she could not remember the song off-hand?

We needn't have worried, of course. The Pre-School kids filed onto the stage wearing the cutest little choir-angel costumes, and the song began. It was one I've never heard before, but Beth clearly knew the words; her voice was easily five times louder than every other kid up there. The audience was stifling giggles, and Beth breezily belted out the entire song. She did not have a solo, but in the end she was still kind of right -- she may as well have been the only one up there singing; she was definitely the center of attention.

Thanks to "The Grandma who Sews"

This picture isn't the best for showing off the dresses, but it's the best I could do. I made them pose for it before I let them eat their Sunday doughnuts, so they were a little impatient. :)

Grandma Mlinek, the day these came in the mail was a happy one around here! Claire was especially anxious to wear her "Christmas Princess" dress. (Becky will collaborate this as Claire asked, oh many, many times during the ride home from IL, where her Christmas dress was.)

The Big 1

Happy Birthday Abbie! Here are just a few pictures of her day. :) She actually said, "Cheese!" for the first time today while having her picture taken.

Our morning was taken up with ballet lessons, and in the afternoon (after a nice long birthday nap) we went to the fish store to get Abbie's "present" -- some new fish to replace the one who died last week. We've named them Vanilla, Chocolate, and -- there is some dispute over the third one. Abbie named it "Ni," (we thought she would, that is the expression she uses any time she wants something. It's pronounced exactly like the ni in The-Knights-Who-Say-Ni) but Katie insists that we should name it "Strawberry" because it has (very creepy) pink eyes. Time will tell, I guess. I'm rooting for Ni.

Note the cake: I'm pretty proud of this one! My cake decorating skills are slooooowly but surely progressing. Claire gagged while eating it, but I'm not going to take that personally......She does not exactly have a great track record when it comes to cake.

Look for a ton of post-dated updates in the next few days, as I try to catch up on posts I should have written. I just wanted to throw these pictures up in case anyone wanted to see Abbie today. :)

Good old Ottowa

It has been over two years since we made the trek to the Midwest to visit Chris' family on their own turf. The tallies below no doubt give you some indication for the delay, but in any case we were over-due for a visit.

It was a great couple of days! The girls fed their apparently genetic preoccupation with birds, literally, as Mom Mlinek has set up a little bird sanctuary in her backyard. And they had plenty of time to wear Uncle Andy down playing hide-and-seek and whatever other games they've invented that all seem to involve making Andy run around the house. And there were crafts, and cakes to be decorated (for Grandpa Mlinek's birthday), and videos to watch, and videogames to play (uh, for Chris and Andy, not so much for the kids), and weddings to talk about!

Ottowa is always described as a town with very little to offer, but I have to say we found nothing lacking when we came to visit! :)

Oh, and for the curious -- having your father-in-law sit at the dinner table covered in vomit because he doesn't want you to know (as though we didn't!) that he'd been hit and feel bad (as though we didn't!), before quietly sneaking upstairs to change.....priceless.

Thanksgiving Tallies

Hours driven: 24 ish
Accidents (i.e. wet pants): 1
Doses of drammamine consumed: 6
Incidents of vomitting: 8
Grandparents puked on unexpectedly while eating dinner: 1

Happy Thanksgiving!

Just wait till your Daddy gets home.....

Claire is in big trouble today.

Our blinds were not looking great, but they were certainly not this terrible until this afternoon, when Claire decided to practice her ladder climbing skills on the blinds while I was upstairs folding towels. I very much so wanted to beat the tar out of her, but instead I put her in a good long time out and then packed the girls up to go blow some steam off at the gym.

Now, the ceiling light in our van is on a timer, so that it shuts off a minute or so after the door has been closed. We had some trouble with Claire turning the light to "on," as in "on all the time" a few months ago, but I thought we had resolved that little issue. Guess not. No gym for us, because the car won't start.

Um....why did we have kids? I can't remember. I'm pretty sure our reasons didn't include having our stuff destroyed, and our car killed a week before Thanksgiving.

On days like this, I often will have that old nursery rhyme running through my head -- you know, the one that ends:
She gave them some butter without any bread
Then spanked them all soundly
And sent them to bed.

Sounds like good advice to me.

Our Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

The older two girls and I just came back from a trip into Pittsburgh and I'm due to write an update about that, but first I have to talk about this crazy day we've had.

First off, we are all okay. No one has been seriously hurt. But I couldn't tell you, with one disaster succeeding another today, how we've managed to stay whole.

The morning began badly; Abbie again woke up every few hours all night, eventually just refusing to go back to sleep around 6am. My state of mind was much like a fox caught in a trap -- you know, the ones who chew their own legs off to escape? Yeah, I wasn't doing so good. So Chris got up to let me sleep the last half-hour before we needed to get ready for school. Around 6:45, Claire woke up and promptly fell down the steps, doing some bizarre move that - according to Chris - resembled a cartwheel. She landed directly on top of Abbie.

Lots of crying, and a few years off the old heart for Chris, but in the end they were both okay. I got up and we took off for school. On the way, the girls and I stopped to pick up something at the grocery store and while we were in line Beth and Claire started climbing on the side of the cart. I told them to stop it repeatedly, but got distracted when it was time to pay. So, you guessed it, the cart came crashing over onto its side, pinning Beth under it. The scariest thing was that Abbie had been in the seat. I remember the whole thing as a hazy slow-mo, but I think that I managed to grab Abbie's jacket enough to keep her head from crashing onto the floor, plus I think Beth's poor little body cushioned the blow for the baby. The immediate aftermath, though, was pure chaos. Everyone was crying, including the checkout clerk. Abbie's nose was covered in snot as she screamed, and I didn't know which kid to comfort/check over/berate first.

I gathered them all together - Abbie still screaming - and headed for the parking lot, while several pairs of hostile eyes followed me out of the store. I am sure that there will be many dinner-table discussions tonight about that awful woman who had too many kids to handle. *Sigh*

Once safely back in our car, though, I was able to check Abbie out enough to feel fairly sure that she didn't have a concussion. Beth was just fine, beyond being frightened. And I doubt I'll have to remind any of them not to climb on the cart again.

So from Katie's school we proceeded with our usual routine, heading over to my gym. No sooner did we walk into the gym than Claire -- I don't even know how she did this -- closed her hand in the door. She's okay, though, despite that being her third trauma before 9am.

Oh, and Chris? When he woke up, for no reason that we can discern at all, his left eye had swollen to about twice its usual size. He looks a little bit like Rocky after the fight, without all the bruises.

I think we're just going to chill at home for the rest of this day. I just wish that I had a padded room.

Update:
It actually gets worse. Someone had to go out again today, to pick Katie up from school. On their way home, Chris and Katie were almost in an accident. They hit a slick part of the road, smacked off of the curb and made a complete donut, stopping just a foot or two from a (very big) ditch.

How many calamities can you dodge in one day? I don't want to test that quota.

Lord of the Menopausal Women

This past weekend, we drove into Pittsburgh to accompany Grandma Niccoli to the newest Michael Flatley extravaganza. I have to say that my girls, especially Katie and Beth, have been obsessed, absolutely obsessed, with an old VHS of Riverdance they found downstairs. They have the opening dance number memorized, with all three of them beginning with the group routine and then Beth breaking off to do Michael Flatley's part. It's very impressive. Katie also does a killer rendition of the Spanish dance.

So my mom has tried to capitalize on this to the fullest, since it gives her an excuse to indulge her crush on Michael Flatley. Needless to say, when she found out he was coming into Pittsburgh -- we were there!

Seriously, though, I have to say thank you to her for the tickets. I hate to admit it, but we had a really good time. The girls loved the show, and I had fun watching all the old women in the audience go crazy. And, bonus!, Michael Flatley managed to stay mostly clothed most of the time. (I cannot say the same for his young female dancers, however.) So thanks to Mom for the tickets, Margaret and Rachel for the sarcasm, the kids for the innocent enjoyment, and Charlotte (my mom's friend from high school) for the crazed applause that reminded me of my days as a New Kids on the Block teeny-bopper.