mia's experiment

I did a experiment with  my mom! it was very fun! I got a bottle and a balloon. 

It was only me and mom!  I learned that no matter how much you blow the balloon, it won't blow up in the bottle.      

Winter Fun

Enjoying some home made hot chocolate after a nice play in the snow

He  may not have gotten the hot chocolate, but he didn't have to miss out on the fun strawberry decoration

Questioning my ability to make sound decisions as he watches Mia and Naomi play more in the snow.  He was not very happy with me.

What a little stud!  (He sort of looks like BJ to me in this picture)

My angel making a snow angel

The happy duet sharing a grilled cheese

Divine Respite

Last week was so horrible I was considering committing myself to an institute.  Lennon was miserable constantly.  He was also getting four teeth all at once and he seems to have inherited my lack of pain tolerance, so that could definitely been a factor.  Regardless of the reason, it was a very very tough week for both of us.  Yesterday wasn't quite so bad, but the last two or three hours of the day were pretty miserable.  Imagine me trying to make a delicious, healthy dinner for my family that I love while a fanatical screaming 18 month old pulls at my legs wailing "mamaaaa, mamaaaaaa."  It tends to take the fun out of preparing a meal.  Fast forward to today.  Despite having been awoken at 5 30 by Mia's stupid school to tell us something we already knew (that today was a half day, they had also called to tell us last night and they actually called at 5 20 and 5 30 and I never was able to fall back to sleep) the morning started off pretty well.  Lennon woke just before 6 and as I went in to nurse him I strangely didn't feel tired as I usually do.  He got up in a great mood which is pretty unusual.  He came out into the living room and started playing with toys and smiling and just being super sweet.  He was great all through breakfast and getting ready and getting out the door to drop Mia at school and Shelby at the train.  However, upon arrival at Mia's school we noticed something was amiss.  Aside from us there was only a car or two in front of the school in contrast to the typical zoo of hurried parents rushing their kids out of the car in the freezing weather.  I then rechecked my phone and found yet another message from the school letting us know school had been cancelled due to the snow storm.  I guess that call came when I was in Lennon's room this morning.  So we dropped Shelby off and headed over to The Brill home.  We had such a lovely morning.  Hot tea, warm banana bread, good conversation.  Mia, Naomi and Jonny put on a little show complete with costumes and scene changes.  Lennon toddled about playing with dolls and vacuums and pots, consumed an inordinant amount of currants, some crackers with rosemary and a little bit of apple juice which he then poured the rest of onto the floor.  All this while staying in a positively wonderful mood.  He was like a normal child.  Wandering from room to room discovering new things to play with.  Checking out the hampster and the fish.  He had a really good time and didn't have a single meltdown.  Not even close.  It was so awesome.  A much needed break from the hystrionicity ( I realize that is not really a word) of the past several days.  I see little strides of progress in his mood every so often and it's a real comfort.  He is such a sweet and funny boy when he isn't miserable.  He's now napping and Mia stayed at The Brills for a little longer so I am going to nap while he naps.  Oh Joy!

Unintended Sleep Deprivation

I am a mean mean mommy who kept her poor sleepy baby up and running errands so long this morning that when we arrived home at 10:30, about half an hour to an hour before his regular nap time, I sat him down at the top of the stairs and he literally crawled down the hall to his blankie, asked for a paci and was practically begging me to put him to bed.  I tried convincing him to eat some lunch first, although it was kind of early, but he sweetly refused.  He is now asleep and I guess as long as he takes a good nap that will be it for the day.  I think if he sleeps less than two hours though, I will try again for an afternoon nap around 3.  I forgot that although he slept until about 7 this morning, which is pretty decent for him, he was up until 10 last night because we were out buying our car.  YEA!  Oh yeah, we have a new (new to us, not actually new)  car.  It is almost exactly the same, only silver and 3 years younger.  We got a really good deal and are super excited.  They are replacing the radio/cd player cause it wasn't working, but we should have it sometime tomorrow or the next day.  I will post pics once we have the car in our possession.

me and dad going to get ice cream.

me and dad went to get ice cream.  I got chocolate and dad got lemon .

I loved it.

my dads card

my  dad made a card. he drew  him . I was connected to him.

it was to my family. I loved it. from mia

Mia's Time Line

Mia's first project for school was to make a time line of her life up to this point and choose one important event for each year.  She did it all on her own outside of a little help making the straight line with a ruler.  She was extremely motivated and had it finished days before it was due with no nagging from me.  She even got on the computer and chose which pictures she wanted to use.  We were super proud of her and wanted to share her presentation with you.  Enjoy!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GAGA!!!!!!!

Happy Birthday Gaga! We love you and hope you had a great day today! We can't wait to see you again.

Love,

Jenna, Shelby, Mia and Lennon

Our First Family Skiing Trip

Just settling in Friday night.  Mia and Chloe having hot cocoa by the fire.

About to take to the slopes.

Mia and Chloe about to ride the magic carpet up to the pre bunny slope

How cute is she?

Enjoying more hot cocoa at the Alpine Club after a long day of skiing.

(BTW - the alpine club rocked!  I guess it was just for home owners and the staff was amazing.  They knew what you wanted/needed before you did and they were so friendly and helpful.)

Lennon was clearly exhausted by all the excitement.

We left for home in a snow storm.

A view from the kitchen in their beautiful mountain house.  

The ski slopes from the living room.  They have a telescope and the whole family keeps walkie talkie's with them while they ski and so they can radio back to whoever is at the house if they are about to come down one of the slopes you can see from this window and then they just focus on the slope and get to watch from the comfort of their living room.  Not bad.

Last weekend we were invited up to ski in New Hampshire with the family of one of Mia's friends from gymnastics.  We had a super fun time despite some little hiccups.  We headed out friday afternoon in the friends moms car.  Mia's friend - Chloe.  The mom - Cory.  Me and the kids rode up with them and Shelby came later in our car and Chloe's dad  and brothers came up later in a separate car as well.  In the car Lennon was actually pretty good, but we had the unpleasant constant soundtrack of Mia's hacking cough which I really had no idea was so bad.  I knew she had been fighting off an ear infection that week, but didn't notice her cough except a little bit at night when she was laying down for bed.  I was so embarrassed that she was so obviously sick and it was really too late to do anything about it.  I apologized over and over again and just felt terrible.  I am the worst at feeling frustrated with people for bringing their sick kids around my kids and now I had done that big time to a family that was treating us to an awesome weekend skiing in the mountains.  They were so awesome though about everything.  Our second night there I gave Mia some robitussin or something to help her sleep with less coughing and it put her in such a deep sleep that she wet the bed.  It was completely soaked.  I was mortified.  The Little's were so so sweet though and didn't seem put off at all.  Their house was great and we had the whole bottom floor complete with our own bathroom.  Skiing was super fun.  I had never been and of course Mia had never been, but Shelby had been several years ago and picked it right back up.  Mia took a little lesson and did great and Chloe's dad, Brett sort of gave me a private lesson on the bunny slopes for a couple of hours.  I did okay and would LOVE to go back and try it out another time.  Lennon stayed in a day care place for a few hours saturday and did well so that we could all ski together.  The food, the house, the company  - everything was really nice.  We had a great time.  I was just so embarrassed feeling like we had been a burden on them.  I was relaying all this to my friend Suzanne and she said all the hiccups were God's way of making sure I couldn't pretend to be anything other than usual myself.  Just to keep me humble.  Great.  Just what I needed.    

Hmmmmm...

On the way home from the Science Museum yesterday I was talking about our overnight last summer.  Dusty had a friend who did the overnight with his son at the museum in NY and he told him they gave the parents alcohol.  I said they were very explicit in our information that there was to be absolutely no alcohol or you would be asked to leave.  At this point Mia jumped in, "But, Naomi drinks alcohol right?"  She was very matter-of-fact about it.

"No, hun.  Naomi doesn't drink alcohol."  I assured her.

"Yeah, isn't there alcohol in soda?  She drinks soda."

"No, there's no alcohol in soda, it's caffeine."  

GASP!  "Naomi drinks CAFFEINE?!!"  

Oh course I always think Mia is funny and I laughed, but it wasn't until Shelby pointed it out that I really thought about the fact that Mia was completely okay with the idea that her 8 year old friend drank alcohol, but completely aghast about her drinking caffeine.  She's a funny little girl.

I'm a Big Huge Baby

So after just over one week into keeping Teddy, I don't think I'm going to be able to do it.  It's just too much stress for me.  I was just getting to a good place with Lennon and now it's been thrown for a crazy loop.  Especially since we are most likely going to have Mia home for school sometime in the next month or so.  I feel really horrible and don't know how to talk to Stefani about it.  I just hope she can find someone else to do it before too long because I want out as soon as possible.  I'm just holding Teddy all day and then once he's gone, Mia's home.  I think if he were my own it wouldn't be so bad cause if I were holding him and neglecting Lennon at least I would know it was for the good of one of my kids rather than feeling like I'm putting money ahead of my kids happiness.  We'll see what happens.  I'm a huge chicken and can't even imagine talking to Stefani about it, but I'm going to have to get up the nerve soon so she can find someone else.  

Mommy's Language Has to Change

Okay, so it's not as bad as it sounds really.  I do, unfortunately say 'retarded' quite often.  It's a bad habit, I'll admit.  I had never heard Mia say it until last night.  She exclaimed that whoever made the whatsamathingy she was using must be retarded.  I gently let her know that you just shouldn't use that word.  I went on to explain what the word meant.  I told her that some people's brains to develop the same as others and they never have full capacity to function.  She seemed cool with that and I thought it went really well.

Fast forward to this afternoon.  Here's a little snipit from our conversation.

Mia  "Mom, sometimes 'Mary' (I'll change the name of the kid to protect the poor girl) understands what Mrs. Timmons says and sometimes she seems like she doesn't have any idea what Mrs. Timmons is saying.  (long pause)  I think she might be retarded."

Me "Mia, remember I asked you not to use that word."

Mia "I'm not being rude, I think she might have actually not had her brain develop right."

Me  "Okay, well let's just not use that word at all okay?"

Oh my.  So, as you can see, I need to start watching my mouth.  

Stories

I thought of the perfect nickname for Teddy as if Teddy isn't nickname enough.  Ted Head.  Like a Dead Head, for those of you who don't know it's a follower of the band The Grateful Dead.  Anyway, I like it.  

Today Lennon went over to the blocks and very specifically took out four or five red blocks, set them aside, put the lid back on the tub and walked away.  No clue what the heck he was doing, but he seemed like he accomplished it.  

Mia picked up Teddy when he was fussing yesterday and rocked him to sleep in her lap.  She then said "I'm just like a little mommy!"

A conversation from the back seat of a mom's car.

Mia "How many boyfriends do you have Chloe?"

Chloe "I have two.  How many do you have?"

Mia  "I have three.  Well, only two now.  Giovanni and Christian (that's Chloe's 11 year old brohter)  Mateus was my boyfriend but we broke up."

Chloe  "Oh, did he dump you?"

Mia "Yeah."

Chloe "Why?"

Mia "I don't know.  I guess he just kept talking to me and asking me questions and stuff. (long pause)  But, whattayagonnado, he's only four."

Much hysteria.  

Right Back to Reality

Mia and Lennon in front of a tree at our hotel Christmas morning in Boston.

After a crazy Christmas with much traveling from town to town, we are back and just barely starting to unpack when we are about to turn right around and go up to New Hampshire to ski with some friends for the weekend.  Mia and I have both never been and Shelby has only been a couple of times.  We are all looking forward to it a lot.  Especially because it is not going to cost us much at all.  Basically all we have to do is rent boots for $20.  

Christmas was awesome and we all got spoiled rotten.  We couldn't even fit all our stuff in three large suitcases and 5 carry-ons.  My Dad is sending us a series of boxes with the rest of our loot in the days to come.  Thank you to everyone who was a part of making our Christmas so special.  I think Mia is really beginning to see the beauty of Christmas as slightly separate from the hubbub of gifts.  When I asked her what her best gifts were she listed something and then changed her answer to "well, really the best thing was just getting to spend time with all my family that doesn't live here."  

Christmas eve eve we put the kids to bed and set up for old St. Nick's visit.  In the morning we did the whole Christmas thing and the kids were thrilled with their gifts.  A city streets rug and big Elmo stuffed animal for Lennon.  A fancy outfit and Barbie ornament for Mia.  She was more appreciative than we had ever seen her before and had far less than any other Christmas celebration she had had.  Later we built a snowman and headed out to the Hilton at the airport where we ordered chinese and Mia and I went to the hot tub.  Unfortunately the egg rolls didn't agree with Mia and she spent the night barfing - all over me.  It was awesome, but at least she was totally better by the next morning.  We then spent the next 10 days shuttling between Dallas, Murphy and Greenville and it was so nice to get to see all of our awesome family and friends.  Merry Christmas!

oh yeah, Mia has three less teeth than she had a month ago.  She lost one of them the last day of school and the other two in Texas at Gaga's house.  She looks like a big 6 year old girl now.  Also, we got home sunday afternoon and monday morning I started nannying for a little 3 month old baby 5 days a week.  He is fine really, but having Lennon plus a 3 month old is no walk in the park.  I don't know how people have babies that close together without losing their minds.  It's been a rough week for sure.