Preschools, Minivans, and Other Mom Trademarks

Today was a crazy day of ups and downs for me personally. I think for the other members of the family (although I haven't heard about Matt's day yet), it was pretty even keel.

Karol was very excited today because Ms. Adria was coming. Ms. Adria is our new babysitter who we found through a somewhat expensive online babysitting service (this is how it's done when you live in NYC and know NO ONE) and she was scheduled to come for the first time today.

I prepped the kids by telling them that we were going to have a new friend come over and play. Karol was very excited about this. She's been missing her DC care takers and especially her home day care best bud.

I spent the morning getting the kids fed and presentable, and trying to make the apartment look less like a tornado hit it. The sitter got there a few minutes late, and that's when the roller coaster started rolling. I foolishly left only half an hour between sitter-arrival and the actual time of my appointment, so I started stressing myself out about it around 8:30 anyway.

So I had to rush out the door, and Patrick, of course, was not cool with me leaving anyway. I had to give him an extra hug and kiss goodbye. Karol, on the other hand was like "Hi! Come play with me, I'll show you my toys!" Totally apathetic to whether or not I was there.

Hailing a cab was more difficult than I anticipated. I had to get the hang of it through out the day. It took about 10 more minutes, but I finally got a cab and zoomed across Central Park to the doc's office. I was only 8 minutes late, so not too bad.

But bad enough, I'm afraid, to have to spend over an hour there. I don't know if that was my penance for my tardiness, or if the office is usually that slow, but I had a lot of time to worry about making my next appointment with the chiropractor.

While at the examining room waiting for the doc to appear, the phone rang. Since I didn't recognize the number, I just let it go. Then I thought "Maybe that was the sitter. Maybe something's wrong." And of course slowly started freaking out inside. I called the number right back, but it was busy.

So I did a reverse look-up on the number, and much to my surprise, it was Nazareth Nursery. You may remember that this is the school that Matt and I simply adored. We've been hoping and praying that Karol would get into the one spot that may or may not exist there, depending on this and that, since our visit in March.

As it turns out, Sister Lucy called Matt right after trying me (hence the busy signal) and so I shortly got a call from him telling me that she wanted me to bring Karol down to enroll at 10am tomorrow!!! "Bring her birth certificate, baptismal certificate, and your checkbook."

I was so thrilled at this news, nothing could ruin my mood, though a lot of things tried. I don't actually have a copy of Karol's baptismal certificate, so I needed to get it faxed to me. But our phone line is messed up. So I can't get a fax. Solution? 30-day free trial e-fax service - you can receive faxes as email attachments. Whew.

But then there's the thing I needed to fax. Here's where it gets complicated.

We bought a minivan. That's right. Minivan. I should say I bought it. It's in my name, and Matt doesn't want to be at all associated with a mom-mobile. It's a 2003 Toyota Sienna. So now we have 2 cars. In Manhattan. No, we're not crazy, we're just way too busy and haven't found time to sell the other one.

So we went to a dealership, very much on a whim, last Saturday to check out this minivan I'd found through USAA's car buying service (really great way to find a car, by the way). And a couple hours later, we're driving it home. The only hiccup was that we're new here, and nothing we have says we live where we live. So I need to fax them a lease. The lease was IN THE CAR when we were there, but we didn't realize that at the time, unfortunately. So now I still need to fax them this thing.

Through the e-fax thing, I can send attachments like a fax. But to do that I need to scan a pic of the lease. And our scanner won't work. After changing a couple of inks and looking up the error message online, I gave up. The car dealership will have to wait another day.

The fax issue took up the first half of naptime, but I was actually able to get a lot of address-changing done (banks, insurance, other random places) and get everything ready with AFLAC for Max's arrival.

After that, I hung out with my babes, played games, read books, and then bedtime arrived sooner than I expected. Matt had a networking event and so I'm home alone for a while. I'm hoping today is an easier day. We'll see.

Mother's Day 2010 and "Babies" Movie

Today started out early (6:45ish), with a cranky Miss K coming into our bedroom to cozy up with us. She had a terrible time Saturday with napping (she did, but the timing was off) and sleeping (going through a getting up over and over again phase), and now she (and therefore Matt and I) was paying for it with a night of restless sleep. We all finally rolled out of bed a little after 7.

Matt managed to keep the kids at bay (he locked the bathroom and bedroom doors) while I took a shower. I really wanted to wash my hair and shave my legs today, since both were seriously overdue. Even on a good day, I usually have to choose between the two. Luckily when I'm pregnant my hair doesn't need to be washed more than every other day, and is really fine every third day, if I'm sporting a ponytail. Can't get away with that non-pregnant!

So after getting dressed and ready, I emerged to find Karol and Patrick up and at it and Matt made cinnamon rolls for breakfast - from scratch! I wanted to make 9am Mass, so there was no dilly-dallying with dressing and feeding the babes - but we still didn't make it to St. Charles until all the parking spots were taken, and we'd surely have to sit in the upper room.

Since parking was impossible, Matt saw that first communion was going on, and the kids actually do better downstairs in the main area rather than upstairs where kids can be more free, we decided to move to plan B - detour to Barnes & Noble and the Clarendon play area (although it was really too cold for that this morning) for an hour and a half. I'd planned on killing some time there after Mass anyway, so we just flipped the two. We picked up a new book I serendipitously found called 'Hello, New York City' and made 11am Mass easily with time to spare.

Patrick slept the all the way up to benediction!

When Mass was over, though, I was STARVING. So we went to Applebee's - mommy's secret obsession. We haven't been going out to eat much, so this was a big deal! After that, it was home for nap time. Mommy and daddy have not been doing nap time well recently. I don't know if our timing is off, or if we just aren't getting the routine right, or what, but the past two weekends we've totally failed at napping. Today, Karol didn't even take one. I settled for spending about an hour of 'quiet time' together, and that was it.

After a post-nap time snack, we headed to the Ballston Mall to catch a new movie. This is a pretty huge deal, in my opinion. I can count on one hand how many movies I've seen since K was born, with fingers to spare. And on the occasion I do see a movie, it's usually been out a while. But I started seeing the online buzz a couple of weeks ago for the movie "Babies" that opened this weekend, and was brave enough to take a 2.5 year old and a 16 month old to a movie that runs 1hr 20 min, in a theatre full of other people.

They actually did amazingly well. The movie has no real dialog, no narration, just a visual documentary. We sat way down front so the kids' chatting wouldn't be too noticeable, and generally they just made comments about what was going on on-screen. I was particularly impressed with Patrick's observations during the film. He was really watching the movie. And whenever an animal, food or other object popped up that he recognized, he pointed and said the name. So many words he's picked up! Banana, cows, dog, bird, baby, cat, cars...and the list goes on.

On the way home, in fact, Patrick said "please!" Can you believe it? He was asking for his drink (we could tell by his gesture) but since he's picked up on our insistence that Karol "ask nicely" for things, he said "please" without ever having been prompted! I was floored. I made sure to point out to Karol what he had said, and that he knew to say that because of her good example. She really enjoys being 'big sister' and when we note the ways she's 'big' and helpful, it encourages her, I think.

Karol was getting cranky after the movie and nearly fell asleep on the short car ride home, so bedtime was actually pretty smooth - for Matt. I got special dispensation from bedtime duties on account of the special holiday.

But I still had one baby left to take care of - Max! He was hungry! So I scavenged all the days leftovers and topped it off with some raspberry sorbet...but now I'm thinking little Maximilian wants a bowl of cereal too...

All in all it was another fantastic Mother's Day. Even though Matt was out of town last year, Mother's Day was especially good in 2009, too. I stop to think about how lucky I am to have these amazing, wonderful kids all the time, but on Mother's Day I try to really take the whole day just to appreciate the great family I've got. It's really all about them, and that's what makes it enjoyable. I think that puts me in the right mood for a 'special' day no matter what.

Missing the Baby Gear

I'm getting way too attached to the kid's baby gear.

It's not that I'm afraid I'll miss it. I'm afraid the kids will. Do they really have an attachment to these things? Or am I projecting that on them? Being too attached to 'stuff' is the opposite of what I want to instill in them, but I don't want to inadvertently rip something away from them that they feel emotional about, either. With the move coming up, a lot of things are going to change.

It's really getting hard for me to come to terms with giving up our lovely apartment, but only because of the convenience it affords. I know I'll be fine emotionally. But are the kids going to miss it? I remember growing up in two houses - and the second one was my grandparents' house before we moved there, so it was already 'home' to me. I can't imagine what it would be like to up and move to a whole new city.

On the other hand, Karol and Patrick are still very young - Karol's not even 3 yet. Will she even remember? I have no idea. And who knows how much we'll end up switching apartments in NYC, as the family (and hopefully the income) grows.

So why am I feeling this way today? Well, it doesn't help that it's a gloomy, crappy day overall, but I'm thinking about selling our double stroller. It's a monster of a stroller, and has served us very well. But now I'm looking to trade it for something smaller and more maneuverable for the city. And with Patrick walking really well already, we probably won't need a stroller for every trip in New York. Plus I don't really like the idea of having them locked up and lazing in a stroller for extended periods of time while I wheel their butts around. So I want something light-weight, easy to fold and easy to get around on skinny sidewalks.

But that means I'll need to sell ol' reliable. It's been like a second home for all the lovely long walks we take in Arlington...but am I the only person who's really getting sentimental about it?

We might go stroller test-driving at Buy Buy Baby this afternoon after work (I'll probably actually buy it used) to see what brand/model works best. I figure I'll be wearing Max for the first 6 months or so. I'm looking at the Jeep Wranglerthe Combi Twin Sportand the City Minibut who am I kidding? Should I just skip straight to the Triple Threat?

Good Times in the Bath

Karol and I wrapped up the evening (a terrible, nothing goes right type of day today) with a mommy-daughter bath, complete with facial masques, tea-tree oil foot scrubs, and an intense game of 'Spuh-LASH!' which is a lot like catch, but without the catching.

Luckily the rest of the night went smoothly with no tears from either toddler at bedtime. Unfortunately, Matt will be up late tonight working on one of two final papers that is due tomorrow at noon. I will be SO glad when he is done with all of this on WEDNESDAY.

As for me, I've been done with class for a week or two now (yay!). Now I'm going nuts about packing, going through the kids' clothes and weeding the outgrown and winter weather gear from their drawers for storage, and making big piles of random stuff to be donated. We are going to be losing a lot of space with the move to NYC (oh yeah, and adding a kid) and the extra stuff just isn't getting out of my apartment fast enough for my taste.

It's 9pm, and I think I'm going to go to bed. That's actually a little early for me. I'm hoping tomorrow starts off a little smoother than today did, but I'm not looking forward to Matt being MIA while he crams on final projects the next three days!

Stream of Consciousness Post about Montessori, The Kid's Development, And Moving

Saturday was a crazy day. We went everywhere. We were in and out of the car like crazy. All in anticipation of a rain storm that never happened. But we were able to pick up a lot of new tools and supplies for our Montessori-fying the apartment quest. Between a 'liquidation sale' on the edge of DC's bad side, Ikea and Home Depot, we were able to get some serious deals on some makeshift Montessori stuff.

The most important thing we purchased this weekend was by far the kid-sized table and chairs from Ikea. The kids are loving it so far. Saturday and Sunday were both full of test driving some of the new stuff. I'm starting to feel more confident that this idea is going to work.

And in order to facilitate the New World Order in our family routine, I've kicked off a mad Ebay/Craigslist sell-athon. With the move to NYC fast approaching, we've been meaning to downsize anyway, and the sooner it happens, the better, I think, because this belly isn't getting easier to deal with.

Speaking of which, I have got the worst heartburn in the history of the world. It is bad. It starts around 4 o'clock and doesn't let up. Doesn't matter what I eat. Doesn't matter how I sit or sleep. There's nothing I can do but deal with it and pop the Tums like candy.

Mission 1 with Karol is going to be teaching her some preliminary skills - basically teaching her the Montessori Method procedure for approaching (school) work. This is stuff like, how to get out and unroll your mat before you start an activity, putting an activity away before taking out a new one, carrying trays properly so things don't topple, etc, etc. She's very quickly picking up on practical life skills like pouring water or milk from a pitcher into a cup. She and Patrick are both drinking out of a regular cup at dinner time (teeny tiny ones). They are also obsessed with tasks like handwashing and teethbrushing because it means they get to stand at the sink and 'play' with water.

Patrick's big lessons are going to be things like stacking blocks, nesting blocks, and beginning to learn to count. He's in an amazing language boom right now, picking up words faster than I can keep track. Just this weekend he probably said five or six words we hadn't heard him say before, completely out of the blue.

He's starting to show an interest in the potty too, although it'll be a while before he is even tall enough to sit on the training potty. He totally gets that the word 'pee' is associated with it (that's one of his new words!) and likes to pretend-pee by sitting on the edge of the potty and bouncing.

Speaking of bouncing - Patrick has a hilarious morning ritual. Typically Karol will wake up and be talking to herself or calling for Mommy or Daddy in the morning when Matt and I walk in. Inevitably we hear a bright "Good morning, Mommy/Daddy!" from Karol and Patrick starts jumping/bouncing on his bed, with a smile from ear to ear like he's so thrilled to be starting a new day. It really is a great way to start the day and puts a smile on my face every time.

Meanwhile, on the apartment hunting front, Matt is scouring the market for the (probably impossible) perfect apartment. It's almost hilarious that he's trying to find an apartment that would be cheap even here in the most expensive neighborhood in Manhattan. I have a feeling we'll be living in a shoe box at this rate. Which brings me back to the need for downsizing our stuff.

So far I haven't had a whole lot of success, but this is just the end of Day 1, really. Still, when I posted like 8 things on Craigslist this morning, I was hoping to have at least 1 less thing by the end of the day. Although there have been a couple of bites, nothing solid yet.

And books! We've got more books than the closest branch of the public library, I think. I looked into donating them to the library today, and - it figures - they just had one of their bi-annual book sales and therefore aren't taking new donations until May 10 or so, so I have to stare at these boxes that much longer, I guess.

My next downsizing task - which I plan to attack as soon as I'm done with this post, since Matt's at school until late tonight - is the White Thing. Really it's a white Rubbermaid rolling 3-drawer filing tower that I've had since college. But we've always just called it the White Thing. And now it's in our bathroom. Pretty soon it will be empty. It's already for sale on Craigslist, although Matt thinks it'll probably have to be given away (guess I'm okay with that), but it's worth at least a shot at selling it. I'm checking my email like mad, just to see if there are any new takers on our unwanted stuff...ugh.

Montessori Mommy?

I'm back to reading Montessori from the Start: The Child at Home, from Birth to Age Three and back on a Montessori kick again.  I think I wrote in an earlier post that we found exactly the right school for our kids - it's a Catholic Montessori preschool - and last month we were finally able to go there for observation.

I'm even more convinced that this is where I want Karol to be next year, but alas, there's no space available.  Well, Sister Lucy, the lady that runs the place, said they may have an opening depending on if one family moves...so we're keeping our fingers crossed, but won't be surprised if it doesn't happen until the 2011-12 school year.

So what do we do until then?  I really don't see the point in sticking her in a different preschool for a year and then switching.  That just seems like it would cause undue stress for all of us.  So I'm seriously considering teaching her (as best I can) from home, in the Montessori Method.

Of course, it doesn't seem fair at all to put that kind of time and effort into Karol and not Patrick, who's nipping at Karol's heels right now, developmentally speaking.  But he's in a totally different sensitive period, so the work he should be doing is totally different from what Karol is on.

Oh, and let's not forget little Max (that's Fetus Plomin's new name, now that we know he's a boy for sure)!  I have the chance to start from the very beginning with him.  But just taking care of the basic needs of an infant is enough work for one mom.  I'm already depriving the poor little guy of much needed sleep (for mommy) most nights in order to research Montessori homeschooling, apartments in NYC and preschool options.  Do I really think I'm going to be able to teach all my kids at the same time all by myself?

Well, yes.  I guess I do.  My plan?  Be prepared well in advance.  I'm going to have to tackle this 'stay at home mom' thing (makes me cringe to type that) with a strategic campaign plan.  That's why I'm so glad I discovered this awesome blog, Wanting What You Have.  It's written by a professional 'housewife' (cringe) who's come up with what she calls a Home Management Guide.  It is the greatest idea ever.  Not that its a new one.  Basically, it's a business plan for the home.  I've already started building mine.  I've got two whole sections done, and I'm totally stoked about it.

I'm doing mine a little differently, though, since, well, every household is a little different, and in our case, a lot different.  I'm planning for all my Montessori tools and research to be a huge section of this binder.  I think I'm going to come up with a different name for mine though.  Something like, 'Jillian's World Domination Strategic Campaign Plan.'  So far I've got all my work schedules done, pretty similar to how Heather does it, and a cleaning section.  I'm going to add a food section, but I still don't really know enough about cooking yet to put it together, and Matt's in charge of the groceries right now, so I'm at a loss for a price book (I'm just going to take over his).  The Montessori section I'm going to start building tonight right after I write this post.  As for the World Domination-specific sections, that's classified, sorry.

Happy and Healthy Babies - All of Them!

Today was a 'big' day for the DC Plomins.  Bright and early this morning the whole family trekked up to our old stomping grounds, Silver Spring, for a round of doctor's appointments.

Karol - not surprisingly, Karol got a gold star for verbal ability.  The doctor was floored that she was answering questions like "how old are you?" and "are you a boy or a girl?"  I guess those are questions a 3 year old may be able to answer.  She was also impressed with the 6-word sentences she was uttering -but Matt and I know she can easily do 15-word sentences and more!
She's an expert at jumping, but hasn't mastered walking backwards yet - although that's another 3 year old task.

Patrick - Patrick is right on track developmentally, and doing especially well in the walking/climbing arena.  He's off the charts for both height and weight and a very healthy growing boy.  Patrick's language is seemingly ahead of schedule, too, but of course he was too shy to talk to Dr. Fishman at all.  He did manage a 'high five' though.
Patrick got a whopping 3 shots, one of which being the chicken pox vaccine.  The good news is that he won't need any at all at the 18 month check up.  I'm hoping we can squeeze that one in before we have to leave for NYC in July.

Baby #3 - Mommy and baby got a check up today, too.  I'm doing fine, of course, and New Baby Plomin has all the major organs and limbs and whatnot that they check for in the 20 week ultrasound.  And of course we got the opportunity to find out what we're having.  And, as I've been predicting since day 1 - the ultrasound confirmed we're having a boy!  Karol and Patrick are excited to have a baby brother and Matt and I are excited to use pronouns like "he" instead of "it" when referring to "him."

Measurement-wise he is still on track with his original due date of Aug 10, give or take a couple days.  I'm betting he'll be quite an average size, weighing more than Karol did (7 lbs 9 oz) and less than Patrick (9 lbs 3 oz).  It'll be 'fun' to get to know all new doctors just a month before he's born to deliver him in NYC, but we're getting closer to figuring out who that will be now.  Or I should say, Matt is.  I've put him in charge of finding the doc, the hospital and an apartment in NYC.  We'll see how that goes.

The apartment search is still pretty passive - it's still early - but we've got some feelers out.  We're still pretty focused on the West side, hopefully somewhere in our between the West Village and Upper West Side.  I'm not really thinking about that now, though.  For right now I'm just looking forward to tying my shoes without straining and meeting my new little boy, and thanking God we are so very lucky to have such beautiful and healthy children.

So that's the update for now!

Busting Out The Maternity Gear

Here's a pic of me wearing maternity clothes again for the first time this pregnancy.  This was late February.

Not too bad, eh?  I'm still stretching regular shirts over the belly, but maternity pants or skirts are a  must since about two weeks ago.

Mommy Blogging from The Sears-er-Willis Tower

How did I not get this memo??? I'm in the Windy City and have an extra hour or two (in and out with the TA-50 drop off by 8:30, yay!) so I thought I'd take the opportunity to walk around my favorite city for a while. I go to the Sears Tower to go to the sky deck (despite the cloudy day...) and it says "Willis Tower" on it! I thought I was in bizarro world where cream cheese is ketchup and metal is now rope. Now can the Sears Tower NOT be the Sears Tower? Furthermore, how could I have MISSED IT?? Nobody thought this was interesting enough to shoot my an email? Come on!

So anyway, the drop off at the 416th went splendidly, and I'm excited to be c

oming home to my family in just a few hours. Unfortunately, my phone is kaput and I left my GPS at home, too. So I had to go by Mapquest and memory to get into and around the city.

Next stop - Midway airport, then home to my babies!