St Patty's Day tradition

This is another tradition I did NOT plan on, but last year I made "green eggs and ham" for dinner on St. Patrick's Day. (I just tinted eggs and ham green - the ham looked more black than green, but whatever.) Everyone hated it. Chris thought it looked disgusting, and the girls are no Sam-I-am. So it was a shock when Katie and Beth asked me, hopefully, if I was going to make green eggs and ham again for St. Patty's Day. I was at a loss to come up with a meatless Irish dinner, anyways, since it was on a Friday, so I decided to go ahead and make it again, except that instead of ham we had pancakes. Tinted green, of course. For whatever reason, they LOVED it this time! Claire and Katie gobbled up their bright green cheese omlettes (with white cheese, no orange around here!) just as eagerly as they ate the pancakes (which were brown on the outside but still kept the bright green on the inside.) Go figure. So a new tradition is born, one that Chris is not exactly thrilled about but what can I do? The people have spoken.

(By the way, I am aware that pancakes and omlettes aren't exactly "Irish" foods, but that's why I dye them green. What is an "Irish meal" anyways? Corned beef? Blech. Beef stew and potatoes are OK, but they hardly feel like a celebration meal, you know?)

Proof of bad parenting

So........I'm having a kind of bad morning. I was up several times last night with cranky kids (bad dreams and teething, and a wet bed all in one night. Fun!) Chris is sick, and I am still dissapointed about having to cancel a trip to see my family this weekend. So this has been a lax morning so far -- Abbie and I are still in our PJs (which really impressed the Mormons who just stopped by), and I let the older girls dress themselves. So, just in case anyone is under the assumption that we've got it together around here (small chance, but still...) here is the proof of my poor parenting:

Claire's outfit:

On top of that, the girls asked if they could put on temporary tatoos. I let them, but did not monitor the application process. The result? Beth put hers ON HER FACE:

And exhibit #3 detailing my poor parenting, here is Abbie with a face smeared with snot. I'll clean her up........eventually:

update: while typing this, Claire wet her pants, so she is now, at least, wearing pants that match her shirt. And my motivation to take a shower just increased by quite a bit.

Mom, this is for you

Katie overheard me talking to my mother about her illness (she has pneumonia). Katie also knows that we were supposed to go into Pittsburgh this weekend for a visit, but had to cancel due to my (bleeping) back. So, with her ability - inherited from Chris- to think ahead and predict what will happen and how people will feel, Katie realized that Grandma Niccoli must be feeling pretty down this weekend, and she wanted to make her feel better. So here it is. I'm proud of my sweet girl.

Sacrifice Beads

In case you can't tell, I'm trying to make up for the two weeks I lost on here while recovering from my back. :)

So last week the girls went to "K4J," a religion class we go to once a month. Every month introduces a different virtue, and the theme this month is "Sacrifice." So Katie and Beth were both given St. Therese beads to use during Lent.

St. Therese and her sisters (she was the youngest, I think, of 5) used to make these things called "sacrifice beads," a string of beads that is tied together in a way that allows you to pull them along the string. On the top is a crucifix, and the deal is that every time you make a sacrifice, you pull a bead towards the crucifix. The goal is to pull all your beads during the day. However, for the sacrifice to count, you have to keep it a SECRET. No bragging, no comparing sacrifices, it should be a secret between you and Jesus.

Well, we've been having a hard time preserving the spirit of that around here. Katie's mouth runs non-stop all day long, so secrets are not exactly her forte. This is a speech I've heard several times a day for the last week: Katie, "I made three sacrifices so far today! Of course, it's a secret. I can't tell you what I did. But can I tell you that I did something that was really hard for me? I think that makes God feel really happy, I like to make some sacrifices but we are supposed to keep it a secret but I can just tell you that mine had something to do with Claire I keep my beads hidden in my pocket so no-one can see them Beth wants me to always see when she pulls a bead but I keep mine a secret it's in my pocket Claire always wants to take my toys but today I did a really good thing pulled a bead keeping it a secret a secret a secret I LET CLAIRE PLAY WITH MY TOY."

Beth, on the surface, does much better, but she has a certain way of advertising her sacrifices , that is actually more noticeable than if she spent all day talking about it. This is a scenario that we've gone through just as often as Katie's little speeches: Beth sits at the table coloring. Katie asks her for the red crayon, Beth hands it to her and then sighs loudly. She then gets up, walks over to the counter where her beads are, picks the beads up, casts a look at Katie, dramatically pulls one, then goes back to her seat. Katie says, "Why did you just pull that bead? Giving me the red crayon was not a sacrifice, you weren't using the red one. That was just doing a favor." Beth replies, "It's a secret." Katie: "I'm just telling you that giving me the crayon was not a sacrifice." Beth: "I can't talk about this because we are supposed to keep our sacrifices a SECRET."

So Katie is slowly going batty, because she is just positive that Beth is pulling beads when she doesn't really deserve to. And Beth, I am almost certain, is deliberately pulling beads in front of Katie because she KNOWS it's driving her crazy.

I think I may need some sacrifice beads of my own, so I have something to pull every time I resist the urge to chuck the beads out the window.

Sweet morning

I woke up this morning to the sound of pounding coming from the hallway. Not even fully awake, I sprang out of bed by pure instinct and rushed downstairs to find.......Katie, Beth and Claire all standing in their bedroom with all the lights on, playing store. Katie explained that they decided to play in their room for a while, to give Chris and I a chance to sleep in.

This is just about the most amazing thing I've ever encounted as a parent. I mean, how sweet and thoughtful is that??? Unfortunately the "store" game involved running up and down the hallway, right in front of Abbie's room, otherwise I would have seriously considered going back to bed and letting them finish their game. I am really hoping, though, that this is a sign of the beginning of the end of our sleep-deprived years. Abbie slept through the night, too, which is something of a miracle! I wonder what life would be like if every night was like this.... Will I even remember how to function on a full night's sleep?

fish update

Well, our fish over-population problem seems to be, uh, resolving itself. We started out with almost 30 fish, but at the last count we were down to around 11. I personally have seen Blueberry gulping down a baby, and Chris has witnessed him at it, too, so, well....I guess we don't have to worry about what to do with all those extra fish.

No sympathy from the peanut gallery

Soooooooooo, I haven't posted in a while because I threw my back out. Very, very pathetic. Claire really summed it up the best when, seeing me laying on the couch (my constant abode for about a week) with my eyes closed, she came up to me and said, "You need to get up -- you're the mom! Remember?"

Got Fish?

It is mainly Katie's responsibility to feed the fish, and she does a great job, hardly ever having to be reminded. As she was feeding the fish this morning, she began to talk about baby fish....The conversation between Katie and Beth hit my pre-coffee ears something like this, " Babies.....blah blah blah.....fish....blah blah blah.....Mommies, fish, babies.....blah blah blahblah." It wasn't until they began squealing with delight that I finally took notice. Of the baby fish in our tank. All 28 of them.

Who was the Mommy and Daddy? We're not sure, but the babies look more white-ish and brown-ish, so we're guessing that Strawberry (the brown fish with scary pink eyes) and Vanilla (self-explanatory) are the culprits. Unless, of course, another 28 fish appear tomorrow looking black-ish, in which case our fish tank is a baccanalia.

So, anyone know what we are supposed to do with over 30 fish in a tank that is supposed to hold less than 10?????

What am I complaining about?

On the way home from school today, Katie brought up something that she has been thinking over.

"I know a way that Mommies get a break," she announced.

She had overheard Chris, just last week, explaining to Becky that we desperately needed her to babysit because we "needed a break." So I guess Katie began to think over whether we were really entitled to said break, and her conclusion was a resounding, "No."

"Mommies put their kids to bed very early," she explained to me, "and I always hear you and Daddy laughing downstairs when I am in bed. So see -- you DO get a break. And you get it every single day."

Oh. Problem solved, I guess.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Consider this a big, grubby hug and kiss for all of you! :) As you can see, our morning began with a lot of candy (with some pancakes and eggs thrown in for good measure, but mostly it consisted of chocolate.) I'll maybe post more pictures of the other girls once we're all cleaned up and looking more respectable.

V-day around here is usually pretty casual and low key. We gave the girls little buckets filled with candy, and some mini coffee cups (for hot chocolate, of course.) Later on, I'll get some chicken nuggets for the girls, and Chris will pick up sushi for us while Claire is in ballet class, and we'll probably eat it while watching some season 2 Battlestar Galactica. We tend to feel overdosed on big holidays this time of year, what with three birthdays, Christmas, New Years, AND our anniversary all coming within a few weeks of each other. So we all just try to be especially considerate of each other today, and pig out moderately on chocolate. :)

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.