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.

A successful Halloween

I think this picture pretty accurately sums up our night. :)

Someday, when I finally get our main website up and running, I will post all our Halloween pictures, but for now this one was too good to keep to myself!

Edited to add: I thought I should put up a picture of all three of them, so you could at least see how they looked. Katie was Maid Marion, Beth was a rag doll, "Not Raggedy Ann, just a regular rag doll," and Claire was a kitty-cat. Abbie was sort of a fairy (She was just wearing regular clothes, but I threw some wings on her while she sat in the backpack), but those pictures will have to wait for the main website.

Double dipping

We went to an All Saints Day party today. "Double dipping" refers to the fact that we kind of walk the line when it comes to secular vs religious traditions -- today the girls dressed up as Saints and got some candy at a church party; tomorrow its princesses, cats and rag dolls and even more candy! Some people choose to do the All Saints thing as a way to avoid the dark and gory undertones of Halloween, while still giving their kids a chance to dress up. We're not really opposed to Halloween (OK, I love Halloween) but the All Saints parties can be fun, too, plus we get to learn more about the Saints. So we do both. :)

Anyway, Beth was co-erced into being Joan of Arc (I think she's a cool saint, but all my girls wanted to be "pretty" saints. Beth finally agreed to let me live vicariously through her, bless her.) She was waiting to leave, all decked out in her armour and helmet, sword and cape while I simultaneously dressed Claire and lectured Beth on St. Joan's life. While I was explaining St. Joan's bravery and her love of God, Beth leveled a deadpan look at Chris, and with a steely voice said, "I'll kill you."

Uh, I guess she couldn't get past the sword and helmet. Katie knew her saint down cold (She was the Blessed Mother - she likes to be the top dog. (: ) Claire was St. Elizabeth of Hungary, but since Claire can't even remember her own age half the time, I wasn't going to stress about her biography. So most of our prep time involved talking about how Joan of Arc dressed up as a boy and led an army (very interesting stuff to little girls.) We briefly talked about her martyrdom, but the girls were so horrorfied at the thought that I quickly moved on to other subjects. Later at the party, however, when asked to describe her saint Beth responded with,"I was tied to a tree and set on fire."

So much for avoiding the dark and gory element of Halloween.

Big Events

Katie had her birthday party today, and her Pittsburgh cousins (Annie, Emma, Sara and Megan)all came down to join in.

I know that all of the Chesters are eventually going to hear this, so I may as well tell the story myself: Uncle Mike and Colleen left Pgh at 5am to make it to our place in time. I am sure that they were very tired when they arrived at my house. I am sure that they were looking forward to relaxing for a bit before the party. I am sure that they were not expecting to find me in the process of making fleece hats when they arrived. I am sure that, even had they known my intention to make the hats as a party hat/favor, they would never have guessed that at 11am the day of the party (due to begin promptly at 3) I would have completed exactly four of the seventeen hats I needed to make. When they woke up at 4am in the morning, I am sure that neither of them even considered the thought that they would need to hand sew a dozen (ugly)pink fleece hats before their frazzled, unshowered neice would even think to offer them lunch.

As well, I'm pretty sure that my mom had no intention of running to WalMart at midnight the night before, in search of a sewing maching. I'm sure my mother thought that the days of dealing with my project procrastination ended when I came home with that green mortarboard perched on my head. However I am grateful for the sewing machine, and I do plan to utilize it. :)

I am sure that there is plenty of talk going on behind my back due to this, but they were all very kind, and most importantly, helpful, so all I can say is.........thank God for family! :-)

Claire blows my cover

Grandma Mlinek has been in visiting, giving Chris and I the chance to go away for a night and giving the girls a chance to craft their little hearts out. Fun has been had by all. :)

Today, however, Claire decided that it was time to blow the whistle on the whole tender-loving-mother persona I've tried to adopt. I was obliged to remind Claire in mass that it is important to remain quiet (she seems to think that, as long as she is repeatedly saying "Jesus" and/or telling other people -- in this case, her Aunt Becky -- how to behave during mass, she should be free to talk as much as she pleases.) I utilized the standard low-whisper-directly-into-the-ear manuver that most mothers know and love. I can't remember exactly what I said, but it wasn't too terribly harsh because, really, she wasn't being too terribly bad. But Claire immediately deflated, and slunk over to her Grandmother to sadly proclaim, "Mommy spanks me all the time!"

Day of days

It's funny how traditions start -- I've labored long and hard over designing "traditions" for our family, but the ones that seem to stick are the ones that evolve out of who-even-knows-where. I decorated the kitchen on Monday night, because it is now expected that I will do so. I also made cinnamon rolls, because apparently we now can't have birthday mornings without them. When Katie woke up, she immediately put on the "birthday crown." None of these are things I ever planned to do every single birthday, but it would crush the girls to not wake up to them.

Her favorite gift so far is a harmonica, believe it or not. While she has been in school today I've already broken up several fights between Beth and Claire over the harmonica. (They are trying to take advantage of it while Katie isn't around to claim her ownership.) Suddenly the girls are hearing harmonicas in every song we play, from Coldplay to Veggie tales.

A technical post

I've recieved a couple of questions about adding comments to these post, so I've been poking around to see what it is exactly that you need to do in order to comment. It looks like you need to set up a sign in -- but it's fairly easy. I don't think you need to worry about this site spamming your email or anything, it's pretty secure. So you just need to pick a username, give them your email, pick a password, then you're all set. Once you log in, you can comment to your heart's desire here. And please do! :)

Abbie is very cute

Abbie is the chubbiest, cuddliest, sweetest little baby ever! This entire household dotes on her, and random people are always coming up to me to gush over her. Having been through this baby stage three times before, I have some perspective on the gushers and Abbie definitely generates more than average.

Right now she is entranced with a blue plastic paddle-ball we have, because she can look through the plastic and see everything in a blue cast. She'll often spend a good 20 minutes just staring into it, then lowering it and to look at the "real" colors, then looking into it again. This is just the sort of thing they mean when people talk about re-discovering wonder through your kids. I mean, the living room looks pretty cool in blue; I don't think I would have thought about it on my own. :)

Recovering our youth

Chris and I went to a concert last night and it was so, so, so nice! The girls were happy in the hands of Aunt Becky and soon-to-be Uncle Dante, and we were happy getting a dose of rejuvenating tonic from The Old Crow Medicine Show.

We discovered an incredible new idea for retirement, as well! (Is it a little bit sad that we are already thinking about this?) It became apparent throughout the show that the group of older people in the front row were actually.......groupies. It seems they follow the band around from city to city! At the very least, they see a LOT of the shows. How cool is that? And trust me, if there is any band worth following around, it is this one.

All about Claire

Here are just some quick anticdotes from the past few days:


*I came home from a solo run to the store and was greeted by a mournful Claire who promptly announced, "Daddy spank me long time." I asked her what happened, and she just repeated, with her little frownie face, "Daddy spank me long time." Turns out that she had deserved a good walloping, but really only recieved a quick swat on her diapered behind. (The fact that she, who is almost potty-trainined, was diapered should give you a clue as to her transgression.) But she clearly felt wronged and would randomly repeat throughout the day, "Daddy spank me long time." Later on, when Chris had to reprimand Katie for hitting, Claire (clearly not intimidated by the earlier incident) ran up to Chris and yelled, "You hit me! Right here!"

*After a particularly harrowing mass, we were discussing whether the kids had forfitted our usual Dunkin' Donuts trip. We decided to go ahead and get the donuts, since the real culprit had been Claire, and the other girls had really just been reacting to her. Claire, however, felt differently I guess as she declared from the middle seat, "I did good job today, I pray to God!"

*At my gym, they leave out a bowl of dum-dums for the kids to have as they leave. This is Tradition (capital T!). Claire has been in the habit of sharing hers with Abbie in the car, and Abbie now squeals and bounces the moment I approach the "lollipop office" because she knows what is coming. I have to walk across the entire gym to get to there, and she is agitated the entire time in anticipation. All because she gets a few licks of Claire's lollipop. :)

*Last night was a rough, rough night with Abbie who woke up at 2:30 and then refused to go back to sleep. I lost track of time, but Chris remembered seeing the clock hit 4am before he finally just tuned her out and fell back asleep. So I tried to doze while the smaller girls were napping (Katie and Beth have "quiet time" with a movie and a room full of their best toys in the basement.) I woke up to the sensation of sticky little fingers smoothing my hair down, and a Care Bear snuggled in my arms. Claire bent down and kissed me on the forehead before proceeding to join her sisters in the basement. Yes, she did not take much of a nap, but yes I let that sweet thing go on down.