Sunshine Through the Clouds September 29, 2009

I apologize for not updating for awhile.  Life has been pretty hectic and stressful lately.  When the stress overtakes us, it is hard to find the good each and every day.  But there were some bits of sunshine through the clouds.  The pictures below are my sunshine.

A day of jousting, food on sticks, unicorn paintings, and sword fights at the Renaissance Festival.

 

Silly times at home.

 

Chaotic, but fun times with great friends.

 

We have a fun weekend planned ahead.  Mason’s first dance class, a neighborhood picnic, and then off to Dutch Wonderland.  Looking forward to sharing the fun with you all next week.

Soap AND Water September 22, 2009

There are some nights when Mason needs you next to her the whole time she is getting ready for bed.  Needs help with pajamas, wants you sitting in the bathroom while she pees, needs help brushing teeth, etc…  Since it is usually the end of a very long day, I do not always give in to her wishes.  I’ll reluctantly sit in the bathroom while she pees, but then get her toothbrush out for her and leave while she brushes.  (No, I am not Super Mom, and I admit it.)

Lately it has been more common that she will do things on her own.  Last night was one of those nights.  I was washing dishes, so it was Jeremy’s turn to get her ready for bed.  When I saw him cleaning up toys, I asked where Mason was.  Lo and behold, she was doing everything (and I mean everything) by herself.  I was in shock.  I peeked in the bathroom, and there she was in her nightgown flushing the potty.  She then actually washed her hands instead of asking for sanitizing spray!  That’s when I just about fell out of my chair (although I wasn’t in a chair, but you get my point!)  Voluntarily washing hands with soap AND water is above and beyond.  What will be next?  Voluntarily taking a shower?  Voluntarily brushing teeth both morning and night?  I won’t hold my breath.

Potatoes and Trains… Wait, what? September 17, 2009

Apple picking is one of my favorite fall activities.  It gets you out in nature.  You get to weed through hoards of trees of find the perfect apples.  And then you get to take them home to use in an apple pie, or even better, apple crisp!  Seriously…  what could be better than hot apple crisp on a cool fall day?  (Even brownies and mint ice cream can’t top that in the fall.)

We’ve been trying to make it a tradition with our friends, the Cramers, to go apple picking every fall.  This year, we were way ahead of the game.  While we are usually late in the apple picking season before we find time to do it, this year, we were almost too early.  We picked Great Country Farms as our venue this year.  The Cramers had been there before for pumpkin picking and said it had a lot of other activities to keep the kids entertained.  Sadly, when we arrived, we learned there were no apples to pick.  Well, technically we could pick apples out of a crate in the country store…  but not apples on trees.  Sad.  BUT there were potatoes.  An interesting twist for a fall day, but we bit and took the wagons out to the potato field.

Rows and rows of tilled up potatoes

 Thankfully, we only had one bag to fill.  Just in that one bag, the two families picked 11 pounds of potatoes.  We took the majority of them because the Cramers had just bought potatoes at the store the day before (thinking we were apple picking, not potato digging!)  A week later, we’re only halfway through our potatoes.  We’ve done baked french fries and beef stew with the potatoes.  We really want to try homemade potato chips, so the fryer might have to make an appearance this weekend. 

But potatoes were far from the popular attraction at Great Country Farms.  There were farm animals, playgrounds, mini golf, slides, and best of all….

The Jumping Pillow! (Sadly, you had to be under 12 to jump.)

 

Serious fun on the jumping pillow.

As if potatoes and jumping pillows weren’t enough, the next day we went to the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore as part of our day to celebrate Nana’s birthday.  Cooper is really starting to learn more words, and one of his favorites is “choo choo” so this was a perfect choice for him.  We saw some trains, listened to Milkshake, and witnessed Cooper eating his first corn dog. 

 

I think he was a fan.

 

At the end of the weekend, we were full of potatoes, trains, corn dogs, and birthday cake.  I think that’s a good mix (except when on the jumping pillow)!

Hand-picked September 12, 2009

I’m guilty of pushing many things on my kids.  As you’ve read in the past, I enjoy musicals and have pushed some of my favorites on Mason (HSM3 and Newsies).  I often try to get Mason to wear the outfit I want her to wear rather than her picking a dress for the 8th day in a row.  And I convince them that some toys are cooler than others just because I don’t want to deal with the aftermath of a loud toy or one with lots of small pieces.

This was the case last weekend.  On our way home from Charlottesville, we stopped at Target in Gainesville.  We do this almost every trip home from C’ville just to break up the drive a bit.  This time, we offered to get the kids a toy each for the rest of the drive.  (Yes, it was not a holiday, and they were going to get a new toy.)  The first aisle we went down had Star Wars stuff.  Mason was excited until she realized it was all Clone Wars, and she didn’t see anyone she really recognized.  Next came some Thomas trains.  We tried to get Cooper excited about the small ones, but he only was interested in the huge track set with the train depot or something.  Jeremy found a Buzz Lightyear that Mason got into, and into the shopping cart it went.  But I was looking for the Barbie aisle.  I’d been saying I would get her one for her birthday, but I thought this might be a good time as well since she’d been great all weekend.  Of course, in the Barbie aisle are also all the Disney princess dolls and HSM dolls.  Tough decisions for little Miss Mason.  In the end she decided on an HSM microphone that plays 2 songs from HSM3 that you can sing along too.  You can also just use it as a microphone (with a speaker) without the songs.  I must admit that it is pretty cool.  (Ok, I thought it was cool until she played one of the songs about 10 times in a row!)

It was a lot harder for Cooper.  What small toy can you get a boy to keep him occupied in the car?  He was not into figurines.  We really didn’t want another noise making toy since the microphone was going to fit that bill pretty well.  As we were contemplating HSM merchandise, Cooper found what he wanted all on his own.  Despite our attempts to get his attention diverted to something (anything) else, his hand-picked toy came  home with us.  The next day he did not let this toy out of is sight!

Napping with his football.

 

Snacking with his football.

 

Sliding with his football.

 

Swinging with his football.

 

And bathing with his football.

Girls September 8, 2009

Conversation overheard in the backseat…

Luka:  “You’re really good at that book, Mason.”

Mason:  “You’re really good at that book too.”

Luka:  “We’re really good at being friends.”

Mason:  “I say, I say what?”

Luka:  “We’re really good at being friends, I said!”

Mason:  “I say, I say what?” 

Me:  “You heard her, Mason.  Luka, that was really nice.”

Pause….

Mason:  “I love you, Luka.”

Luka:  “Me too.”

2 hours later, they decided not to be friends because they had each drawn on the other’s chalk drawing, which was “not very nice.”

Girls.

Future ‘Hoos? September 7, 2009

Lakes on the Lawn

 

Will they continue the legacy? We'll know in only 13 short years.

The Power of Four

I’m still limping a bit when I go down stairs, but overall I survived the Charlottesville Women’s Four Miler.  Despite not stretching my quads as much as I should have, I managed to beat my time challenge – under 39 minutes.  My boss had challenged me to do the four miles in under 39 minutes, which would have meant less than a 10 minute mile (my normal pace).  Luckily the 3,299 other women, scores of volunteers, and amazingly supportive crowds were ample motivation to push me through miles two and three, which were the hardest.   I finished in 37:09!  My sister, aunt, and mom all beat their own time goals as well.  How about that for the power of four?

Go ladies!

 

All in all, this event is a wonderful way to support breast cancer patients in Charlottesville as well as showing support for all those affected by this common disease.  As of race day, they had reached 75% of their fundraising goal, so thank you to everyone who donated!  I can’t wait to do this again next year.  Here is to my sister and all other survivors.  And my best wishes to everyone affected by breast cancer.  May this race be just one small part on our way to finding a cure.

The Power of Four + One (a couple more years, and she'll be running with us!)

The Waiting Game September 2, 2009

I’m doing a lot of waiting this week it seems.  Waiting for things to pick up at work.  Waiting for news of layoffs.  Waiting for when we get to leave for Charlottesville and a weekend of fun ahead.  Waiting for Mason to get used to her new school.  Waiting for Cooper to get out of his “big boy bed” in the middle of the night.  Waiting for the new fall shows to start (only one more week until Glee!)  Waiting, waiting, waiting…

I’m not a fan of waiting.  I like instant gratification.  I don’t like to buy things online because I don’t want to wait for it to be mailed to me.  (But on the other hand, I love having the surprise of a package at my doorstep after so much waiting that I forget what I ordered.)  I don’t like hearing, “We’ll see.” or “Just wait it out.”  I probably push my kids a little to get to the next phase or milestone just because I’m done waiting for it to happen on its  own.  (Case in point – Converting Cooper’s crib is just my selfish way of pushing the need for new bed linens for when he moves into a big boy twin bed.  I’ve found the comforter I like and need the excuse to buy it.)   I especially hate waiting for freshly baked cookies to cool down.  I often burn my tongue eating them too fast because I don’t want to wait to taste them to make sure they are good.

Funny that I hate waiting and yet I urge Mason and Cooper every day to learn PATIENCE.  I do think I have patience (you have to with kids!), but I don’t like to wait.  Does that make any sense?

The reality is that I know things will happen in due time.  And I know it’s stupid to wait for bad things to happen because they just might not.  And that’s a good thing!

I do think things will pick up at work.  I do hope the layoff rumor is untrue for Jeremy and his coworkers.  I do know that Mason will eventually feel comfortable at her new school with her new teacher and new friends.  And I can only hope that she will then not be a terror when she comes home.  It is possible that Cooper may  never get out of his bed in the middle of the night.  We’ve gotten through 4 nights now with no incident – I need to have faith!  I need to remember that the start of the new fall shows means the start of being addicted to our DVR at night.  I should embrace the free time by reading or sitting outside on these gorgeous nights drinking a beer with my husband.

And finally, it’s ok for me to be impatient waiting for the weekend to come.  I can’t wait to see my sister.  I can’t wait to run the 4 Miler in support of breast cancer programs in Charlottesville with my sister, aunt, and mom. (4 Women, 4 Miles… 4 the girls!)  I can’t wait to see friends from college I have not seen in a few years.  I can’t wait for Scott’s pizza.  I really am just super excited for the fun ahead this weekend.  I have to find something good amidst all these negative thoughts lately.  Here’s to my patience and positivity!