Another Sick Day

Maximilian is napping, Karol is watching Tangled with her new Rapunzel doll (Paci Fairy delivered it last night!) and mommy is writing up a blog post. This is a wonderful day! As much as it screws up my cleaning schedule (the gnats can attest to that), I absolutely love having the kids at home.

When Karol is here, though, it makes me miss Patrick a ton! Karol will be well enough for school tomorrow, so I'll have a LOT of catching up to do. I'm hoping to get the heck out of the house today so that I won't be tempted to leave the house a wreck and go out tomorrow once I'm free of the preschoolers.

Karol's Teeth: An Update

After a conversation with Matt, it has been discovered that Karol did indeed bang her teeth just days before the purple-ish bruising showed up on her teeth. So we suspect it was this and not the vitamins that did it. A little online research says that the bruising may fade over time, but take 6 months or longer to become unnoticeable again. I guess at least it's not completely my fault *sigh*.

The Paci Fairy

Today is a momentous day. It is the day our four year old gives up her Paci.

We've tried about a million different ways to do this; this time we're letting someone else handle it.

When we returned from school today, Karol found a letter taped to her door from the Paci Fairy:

Dear Karol,

I am the Paci Fairy. Since you are a big girl now, I have taken your pacifier to give to new babies that need pacis. If you are a very good girl over the next few days, I will bring you a special present for being so good and going to sleep without your pacifier.

Love, The Paci Fairy

Karol was a little distraught over this, but the promise of a gift made her feel a little bit better. In fact, Karol wrote back to the Paci Fairy:

Dear Paci Fairy,

I am so memorized (mesmerized) with you. I would like you to bring a Rapunzel doll from Target, please.

Love, Karol

Yeah, she told the Paci Fairy what to bring. That's okay. I'd buy her a friggin' pony if this thing worked!

After a bit of a rough night the first night (which Daddy heroically tended to), we're on night two and Karol went to bed and fell fast asleep with not even a peep! If this keeps up, she'll have her new doll by Tuesday!

All I Want for Christmas Is Karol's Two Front Teeth...To Fall Out

I am the worst mother in the world, and here's why:

• I gave my daughter vitamins that stained her teeth brown/purple.
• I didn't take her to the dentist right away because I assumed it would go away.
• Turns out the vitamins stained her teeth internally, and it's never coming off.
• Karol is not much bothered by this. I am. I really am.
• Vainest. Mommy. Ever.

It's her TWO FRONT TEETH! Goodbye child model career! Goodbye Little Miss pageants! It's OVER. Until they fall out in 1.5 to 2 years, that is.

And the worst part is, I think it looks weird, I can't help but stare at them whenever she smiles, and I'm afraid people will think I just don't teach her good oral hygiene. I mean, I sure would if I saw a kid with two front teeth that looked rotted out.

Ironically, she has no cavities and has very healthy teeth, according to the dentist. But I would much prefer to have a hidden cavity than a billboard of a tooth stain.

Am I an even worse mother for googling "veneers for children?"

In other news, Karol was a rock star at the dentist, even did much of her appointment without me in the room, and a just-in-case x-ray shows that the permanent teeth are totally fine/untraumatized.

Unfortunately that doesn't make me feel any better AT ALL.

Errand-mania

What an insanely 'productive' morning the kids and I had today...we got out of the house at 8:30am. That's 8:30 in the morning. But that's not all, we ran pretty much every hurricane-preparation errand on my list.

First stop: Duane Reade drug store for toiletries and batteries for flashlights (and toys).

Second stop: Michael's Crafts store for crafty activities while we're stuck inside.

Third stop: Playground! There's a pretty nice playground on the way to the grocery, and since I needed the grocery store to be the last stop, I wanted them to get some play time, especially if we aren't going to be able to hit the park for the next couple of days. We'll probably do a nature walk after naptime, too, just to get a little more in.

Fourth stop: Associated Supermarkets to stock up on food. Typical grocery trip: $15-35. This one: $130. To be fair I bought a lot of non-perishables that I just wasn't sure if we had enough of already. The kids were really horrible (by my standards, at least). I don't know how many older folks laughed when I said things like "get out of the rice!" and "Your behavior is horrible, there's no way you kids deserve ice cream" and "stop grabbing things, stop grabbing things, stop grabbing things!"

They didn't get ice cream, which led to Karol crying half the way home, but I did get popsicles (on sale) for future good behavior bribery (in the freezer now, hopefully the power won't go out because then I'd have to give them to them whether they behaved or not, because I can't let them go to waste).

Now we're finally back home, the fridge and freezer and cabinets are totally stocked, and we're ready to weather the storm.

Naptime Chaos

Well it's happened. I knew the honeymoon couldn't last forever, but still. Max is slowly pushing back on his morning nap, so his afternoon nap is later, and doesn't line up with Karol and Patrick's anymore.

On top of that, Karol's almost ready to give up the nap altogether.

*sigh*

I was hoping to stretch that one out 'til she was 5 or 6 at least! She's such a good sleeper, when she actually naps.

And on top of the schedule change, school is starting again soon, which means Max and I will be trekking down to the school when he should be taking his afternoon nap. I guess he'll just have to get good at sleeping in the carrier or stroller.

My BFF Babies

OMG. Karol and Patrick were SO CUTE tonight, I nearly cried from laughter. Here's how my evening went.

I returned home as Matt was doing bedtime. It took me at least two minutes to unlock the door, because Matt had locked EVERY lock, including the chain lock, so I still couldn't get in. I ring the bell. He walks by and says "I'm putting Max to sleep" and doesn't unlock the door. Karol and Patrick followed him out, though, and started talking to me through the crack.

I see a face, and an arm, and assumed they went together (they didn't). After a few seconds I realized I was holding Karol's hand and hearing her voice, and seeing Patrick's laughing eyes peering around the door. And he has Karol's (clean) underwear on his head. 'Do you have undies on your head?!' I say, in an aren't-you-silly voice. Karol giggles and says 'they're bonnets!' They're both wearing them.

Matt's holed himself up in Max's room, which seems pointless since we're making noise right outside his door, so I stick my hand in and manage to unlock the chain lock from the outside (yeah, that's worrisome) and let myself in. I hush the kids and usher them in to finish their bedtime, which they are clearly too energetic to be ready for.

We read four Bible stories, because Karol's logical argument that we should read all the Elijah stories together was a good one (we normally do two), and I let them keep the underwear on their heads to bed because, well, I pick my battles.

After I do the standard set of prayers - Apostle's Creed, Hail Mary, Our Father, Oh My Jesus, Glory Be, Hail Holy Queen, and the bedtime prayer (yeah, I put them through all those - one of my New Year's resolutions was to drill the rosary prayers into them), they do their 'special prayers' which are the free-style, from the heart version. I'm pretty proud of their ability to grasp the concept, and it just might be the most adorable thing you can possibly hear on this whole earth. Karol did a very nice special prayer, and Patrick thanked God for "Max, Patrick (yes, himself), Mommy, Karol, Max (again), Daddy, and Teddy." Then they cozied up in their beds, with no intentions of sleeping.

20 minutes later they both emerge, 'bonnets' still atop their heads, asking for drinks. I deliver water, only to discover that they've both crawled into Karol's bed together (the top bunk) and are "camping." I let it go because it's just too cute and because this is the stuff memories are made of, and hopefully they'll 'bond,' plus if Patrick's sleeping with Karol, he's not sleeping with me. I just hope they'll fall asleep before me.

Looks like they did.

No Time to Post

That's really not true, I have time to post updates about the kids, everyday something happens that I think I should write about that! But I don't. 'Cause I'd rather be with my kids. The kids are ALL napping now, so I thought I'd make writing a priority.

For the first time in quite a while, I am home, by myself, with all three kids. This hasn't happened for more than a day or two since last summer, and even then I had help coming in left and right because Max was a newborn. I was very scared about how these few weeks of summer break would go for us, but actually, they've gone really well. I'm lucky to have fantastically well-behaved children, and have been able to do the grocery store, parks/playgrounds, library, post office and all kinds of other errands with them with pretty much no problem - except that the stroller has two seriously deflated tires. The actual wheel has broken and we're waiting for replacements, which need to come hella fast, because pushing that thing uphill is no easy task as it is.

We've been doing a homeschool dry-run with Karol and Patrick, and they are having a ton of fun with it. We are finally starting to catch up to Karol's abilities in her math book, so we've been able to slow down a bit with it.

Max had his first birthday! And it was a blast. We celebrated while we were in Indiana catching up with tons of friends and family. Speaking of which - what a whirlwind vacation that was! I already feel like I need another one; Matt and I did get to escape the kids for a couple days, though, at the lovely Swan Lake Inn Golf Resort.

Karol is about two weeks away from turning FOUR. I'm just a bit disturbed about this. I'm really not ready for her to be four. It's already time for decision 2012: kindergarten. And we could not be in a harder place to make this decision. New York has a lot of fantastic options and a lot of terrible ones as well, and not much in between. But enough of that, because I'm sure I'll be writing about nothing else in about 9 months when it becomes a really serious decision.

Patrick is picking up communication skills hand over fist these days. He is amazing, to say the least. Usually when kids can't find a way to express what they're thinking, they throw a tantrum. Patrick will try to explain something, sigh, and then say "I don't know the words." And that is that. I assure him that someday he'll know all the words, and he can tell me about it then.

I am really soaking up this opportunity I've got to experience my kids through constant immersion. The apartment is looking a little worse for the wear, but amazingly I've been able to keep up with the regular cleaning stuff. It's keeping the kids' toys under control that seems to be impossible. Although it's amazing how quickly they clean up all their own things when there's money to be earned.

That's right, money. No, we aren't outright paying our kids to do what they should be doing anyway, but since Karol's been learning about pennies and nickels in her math book, we've had to find a reason to give her (and Patrick, can't leave him out) change to buy things in our 'store.' In order to drive home the whole money concept, I gave the kids some pennies and nickels (just pennies for Pat, he's working on counting 1-20) and they 'bought' some of their toys from the living room to take to their bedroom. They quickly ran out of money, however, so they withdrew some from the bank. Pretty soon I decided they needed to 'work' for their money, lest they get the idea that it grows on trees. Hence the living room pick up. Then the game could continue. I haven't taught them about saving yet, I figure I can wait until we cover dimes, quarters and dollars before I bust out compound interest and that sort of thing.

In other news...well, there's not much other news. Matt's still working his buns off, the kids will be returning to Nazareth Nursery in the coming weeks, and I'm just here, trying to keep people clean and fed.

A Small Tragedy: The 24-hour dad mug

I knew it was only a matter of time. In some ways I'm surprised it lasted as long as it did. And yet it's still a raw shock that it's time with us was so brief.

Last Saturday was a beautiful day, and I decided to take Karol for some mommy-daughter time to a place called Little Shop of Crafts not far from where we live. It's a really neat place where you can hang out as long as you want, listen to music, and make crafty things. But it's not cheap. The trade for not having a sitting fee or materials fee is that the pottery or other products for painting/decorating are a little overpriced. In the long run, however, it's totally worth it not to have to ration your paint or watch the clock. If you don't finish the day you come in, you can even bring your stuff back another day and continue working!

Karol spent 20 minutes picking out a small mug with sharks engraved in it to paint as a special gift for Daddy, then we had a barrel of fun painting it for a couple of hours! It would be ready for pick-up a week later: yesterday.

After a long conversation about carrying with two hands and walking slowly, Karol delivered the gift to Matt, who of course loved it and put it in the cabinet with the rest of the mugs.

Today, desperate for any form of caffeine, Matt used his new, favorite mug to brew some tea, left it perilously close to the edge of the counter and left the room.

Enter Patrick. My sweet, sweet Patrick. He came into the kitchen with a dirty dish and I told him to put it in the sink. I noticed he was due for a diaper change, so I left the kitchen to get a new diaper, just one room away. Then it happened.

*CRASH* *TEARS* I bolt back into the kitchen to find Pat a little wet from the scalding hot water and completely and totally distraught, overwhelmed by emotion. I scoop him up only a moment before Karol comes in to see what's going on and finds her precious new mug shattered into at least a dozen pieces. Emotional breakdown number 2, tears and wailing commence.

I hand Patrick off to Matt who checks him for burns from the water (he was totally fine) and scoop up the second heartbroken baby saying, "it's okay, it's just a mug, we can make another one. Yes it's very sad, but it was an accident."

And then we switch. Naturally, Matt assuages Karol by telling her how much he loved the mug, but now she can make a new one, and they begin cleaning up the mess.

Patrick is still balling his eyes out and so while changing his diaper (he still needed a change, after all) I tried to listen through the tears at what he was saying. "I broke Karol's cup, I broke Karol's cup," he kept repeating. He was obviously very guilt stricken and upset. Even though it was an accident, he felt terrible! Now that I think about it, it was a surprisingly kind-hearted and mature emotion for a (should-be) self-absorbed 2-year-old to have - but that's my Patrick :)

It was clear he needed redemption so I told him that it was an accident and it was not his fault but if he felt bad he should go tell Karol he's sorry. After a heartfelt "I sorry, Kawol" and a hug, the tears dried up quickly.

Bear in mind, this all happened within like a 4-minute span of time, at the most. What kills me is how I felt throughout this whole ordeal. It could not have been a more pitiful situation, with both children involved, and both legitimately upset, and no one really did anything wrong, per se. But to see and to know how upset and grieved they both were was more painful for me as a mother to watch than for them to experience, it seemed!

In short, a lot of good, hard lessons learned today, for everyone. I'm certainly not looking forward to the many heartbreaks yet to come, even more serious than this.

Oh, and if you're wondering where Max was for all of this, thankfully, he napped through the entire thing.

Big Sis and the Baby

Capturing a moment of cuteness: Karol is spinning in the middle of the living room and making up silly songs in front of Max, who is eating it up! He's smiling and even patting his knee to the 'rhythm' of Karol's song.

Meanwhile, I'm looking up apartments in Jersey. Not moving for a year and a half, but it's good to be prepared, right?

Moved In

My oh my, it's been a busy week and a half. We've been making the move to NYC, which in a lot of ways took a lot longer than we expected. We're still not completely out of boxes, and Max's room is kind of a temporary catch-all for the stuff we can't deal with at the moment, but for the most part we've turned this little three bedroom into a home for Karol, Pat, Matt and I. I think I'll tell the story in pictures.

Patrick and Karol are playing in the courtyard of our Arlington apartment, waiting for Mimu and Grandpa Plomin to arrive last Friday. Matt & friends spent the whole day loading the U-Haul and I had my last day at work.

We got a late start and some hiccups in the plan for driving up Friday night, so we stayed at a hotel just south of Baltimore and woke up at 5 to drive up to NYC.

Here's our U-Haul and one of the moving guys we hired to help us unload, bright and early at 9:30am.

Here's our new apartment! No, not in the Sushi shop, four floors above it.

Working on unloading...

Matt has gotten a LOT of handyman experience. He built a bunch of new furniture (this is Karol & Pat's new bed), and hung shelving and pictures.

Our new kitchen table! It has leaves to fold out and we found it in the 'As Is' section of Ikea. I think it was a display model. We got lucky, because this table (that I'd already decided was 'the one') was discontinued, so you can't get it new anymore.

Karol and Patrick arrive on Monday! Here they are exploring their new bunk beds.

Patrick's on the bottom and Karol's on the top. Thomas the Tank Engine sheets for Pat and Disney Princess sheets for Karol.

First bath in the new - much smaller - bathroom. Mommy is not a fan of the faucet being in the middle.

Karol helped me unpack some of her clothes.

K & P 'sort' hair clips while I unpack stuff in our bedroom. They made a mess, but it occupied them for quite a while.

Patrick tested the new freedom of his big boy bed for a couple of nights, getting up and sneaking into bed with mom and dad at 3am. We were too tired to put him back! These boys were so adorable I just had to snap a picture.

We've spent quite a lot of time at Ikea and Home Depot. Here's K & P working on their math skills in the children's section of Ikea. Mmm, gotta love the Swedish Meatballs for lunch!

We spent a lot of mornings at a diner a few blocks away because it took us days to get the kitchen set up. Groceries in Manhattan are ridiculous (think $8 for a small box of cereal), luckily the day before Matt started work we were able to drive out to Ft. Hamilton (about 1 hr each way, in Brooklyn) to the commissary and stocked up. The money we saved was WELL worth the drive.

Here's Karol enjoying some eggs and pancakes.

The living room is very kid-centric. Matt built all these little white shelves and all of the kids' toys now have their own special places, which makes clean up MUCH easier. The kids are getting used to putting away Toy A before getting out Toy B.

So now it's time to test out our new system with Matt going to work and me (eek!) staying home. I'm fearful that I will lose my mind, or spend every minute entertaining the kids, or become TV mom and let them watch PBSKids all day. I'm striving to find balance. I guess we'll see how it goes!

Smith Family Reunion

Well our quick trip to Anderson for the Smith Family Reunion went fantastically. We got to see lots of family we haven't seen in a while (some K&P met for the first time!) and then I zipped back to DC to work. Matt and the kiddies are hanging with Mimu and Grandpa Plomin for the rest of the week.

Unfortunately, this means Matt will miss an ultrasound for the first time ever on Friday. I would reschedule, but 2pm on a Friday was the only appointment I could get three weeks ago, so we definitely won't be able to get this very important one in before we move otherwise.

So I've got a few days to myself in the nation's capital...and I'm trying to pack like crazy. I have been researching the best ways to pack (what order, how to pack breakables, that sort of thing) and one thing that I see a lot is to pack the kids' room last. This makes sense, especially since they'll need to use their stuff - like cribs and beds - up to the day of the move.

Lots of articles advise taking special items that the kids find important for them to take in the car instead of pack. The only problem with that is that I can't think of any specific toy or stuffed animal or blanket that either one of the kids are particularly attached to. My kids are strangely without 'loveys' altogether. So I guess I'll just leave out a couple of their every day sorts of things.

Well, back to packing. Enjoy these pics from the reunion.

Saturday with Mommy

Well Matt is getting the keys and moving the first few boxes into the Manhattan apartment today! That means I'm home with the kiddies - of course it's a free-for-all while Daddy's away!

Actually, I've done a fairly good job keeping a schedule, of sorts, today. Karol sneaked into my room a little after 7, and Patrick was just waking up in his crib at the same time, so we started the morning a little earlier than normal. But that was just as well, since the farmer's market starts at 7 and all the best stuff goes early.

The kids were dressed, fed and ready to go by 8am! But they decided they wanted to do a puzzle first. After a scuffle over piggy banks (don't ask) I managed to convince them they wanted to go for a walk to the farmer's market.

Rather than stroll, I strapped on their monkey and doggie backpacks and they walked with me. Luckily it's only one block away. We checked out all the different foods, but they were most entertained just sitting in the grass picking wildflowers and clovers.

We even got to pet a couple of dogs while we were out!

We started heading back home around 9, and Patrick demanded we stop at the courtyard for some rock pile action. Of course, they ended up completely soaked, but they had a blast.

I let them pick a flower from the landscaping in exchange for going inside and changing. Since they were already wet, I decided it was a fantastic time to brush teeth (forgot to do it this morning). Then they stripped off the wet clothes and decided to do puzzles again.

Snack time rolled around and they actually wanted cold oatmeal as their snack. My kids are weird.

After snacks, we threw in another load of laundry together.

I knew I needed to burn some time and some energy for a successful nap time, so I took the kids up to the pool all by myself. Until now, there's no way I would ever feel comfortable taking more than one kid to a pool without some back up. But I devised a strategy and I felt pretty confident I could do it. It helps that there's always a lifeguard on duty, and it's a 4-foot pool, so I can just stand.

We suited up - Coast Guard approved life jackets, sunblock and all - in the apartment. I didn't want to be stuck snapping Karol's jacket while Pat wondered off to the pool. After a pep talk about staying right next to Mommy all the time, we headed up to the pool deck. And I couldn't be more thankful we did. The water was perfect, and the kids both did a great job of holding onto Mommy, the wall, or a combination of the two. The jackets give the kids a lot of buoyancy and Karol was able to keep herself upright really well. Her big thing at the pool is propelling herself around the edge, so we did that a lot while I bounced Patrick on my hip.

The only real issue was actually the other children at the pool. There was a group of three sisters - two 8 year olds and a 5 year old - that took an interest in Karol and therefore were in my way a bit. And they were annoying. The 5 year old would take Karol's hand and inevitably she'd get a mouthful of water from losing her balance. Meanwhile, Patrick was already tired and cranky, so we needed to leave. This was simple enough, because I told Karol that we could go inside and watch Caillou. She was ready to go instantly.

Getting out of the pool was easier than I anticipated, but still no picnic. The kids were easy - I just sat them up on the edge and they walked over to our pool bag. I didn't want to be more than arms-length away for very long though, so I 'hopped' out of the pool up onto the side instead of taking the ladder, as best a 7 month pregnant lady can. I was shocked at my own ability to do it, but it couldn't have been pretty to watch.

Karol and Patrick sunbathed for a couple of minutes while I loaded up all the swimming supplies, and then we headed back to the apartment.

Caillou gave me enough time to make lunch - mac & cheese and peas - and then those kids just sat and ate. They must have been hungry because they both had two helpings of mac & cheese and most of their peas, and they didn't even talk or goof around, they were so intent on eating.

Next we caught Grandpa Shaw on Skype and then an episode of Wonderpets before stories and naps.

They are both sleeping like rocks now. Matt's already on the road back, so I'm hoping he makes it home in time to play with the kids before bedtime!

Mind Your Manners, Kids!

I'm totally going to be a parenting snob for this post.

For anyone familiar with our children, this is kind of hilarious. Here's an excerpt from an email that I get weekly about Karol's development from BabyCenter.

Now that your child is old enough to notice how grown-ups behave and that actions affect other people, he's ready to learn some manners. Start with the very simplest, "please" and "thank you." Role model without demanding compliance. You're likely to make more progress if you heap praise on him when he exhibits good manners than you will by hectoring him when he forgets to say "thank you." You want learning manners to be fun, not a battleground.

So now is the time, apparently, to start teaching 'please' and 'thank you.'

Karol is well versed in manners and etiquette well beyond her years, I guess. Not only does she use 'please' and 'thank you,' but she does it in complete sentences ("May I have some more milk please?") and doesn't need much prompting, if at all.

And Patrick's not far behind. He actually picked up 'please' all on his own, probably because he saw his sis getting what she asked for whenever she used it. I'll never forget those precious chubby cheeks when he brought me an empty cup and said "peez?" in that same tone that Karol uses. And now when he asks for "more," simply asking "can you say 'please?'" gets an appropriate response with no hassle. I suspect he'll be doing it all on his own well before his second birthday.

A trick I've started using recently - requiring Karol and Patrick to be polite to each other. This is actually how I approach a lot of conflicts. Fighting over the same toy is a great opportunity to encourage sharing, of course, and manners naturally are a part of that.

So, all that being said, I'm sure I'm a snooty mom for bringing it up at all, but I couldn't resist the opportunity to brag :)

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.

My Son's Amazing Motor Skills

So for a little distraction/treat, we went out to eat tonight at the Cheesecake Factory. Since I didn't think to bring sippy cups, the kids got milk in cups with lids. Karol rocked the cup with a straw, but Patrick practically poured it down his shirt. It's hard to mentally switch from sippy cup - where you tilt the cup up - to straw - where you keep the cup down.

So Matt asked the waiter for a small glass or plastic glass, like a shot glass. You see, Patrick has pretty much mastered drinking from a cup - taught Montessori style. Check it out:

Yes, I was totally paranoid he would drop the glass and break it. But I think he does this very well. In fact, he's better at it than Karol is right now, I think because 1) we started teaching him the skill at the right time, when he was mentally prepared to learn it, and 2) he's generally a rock star at gross and fine motor skills.

When it comes to climbing, using a spoon and fork, etc. he's doing the same things as Karol. Since Patrick apparently didn't get the super-cautious gene that Karol did, he usually is doing more running, jumping and climbing than Princess Karol is.

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.