special breakfast

This morning I made oatmeal brule. Cooked oatmeal with brown sugar on top, hardened under the broiler and served in cute little Holiday ramekins. I drizzled the top with coconut milk and served banana and fresh pineapple on the side...for a tropical twist to this winter morning. The kids turned up their noses. I should have put the canister of raw oats on the table and returned to bed. Brian loved it. He is so much more mature than the two big kids. Felix ate his banana puree with pleasure. He is more refined as well. Amata wanted peanuts and Dom wanted cheese.

buddies

no matter how crazy the day, times like this melt my heart.

winter fun

Here is my little drummer boy. He is 6 months now and just learning to sit independently. What a joy!

Preparing for Christmas

Thanksgiving in GH:
We had a great Thanksgiving in Grand Haven with lots of food and family.We had a little birthday party for Dom, complete with him standing on his chair at a restaurant singing his favorite tunes for the family.

Santa's Kayak:
We are excited to have outdoor outlets at our new house so we can hang lights. We also just reclaimed a kayak that was lent to Brian's coworker this summer. Put that together and it is one great kayak sled for Santa.

Choking Hazards:
We have been discussing the need to give some of our toys away for other kids that have less toys to enjoy and Dom is on board. Tonight we were picking some things out to donate and Dom picked up a Playmobile wheel and said, "We should give this to a kid that does not have a baby at his house because this is a choking hazard." Clearly another topic we discuss often.

Dom the Builder

Dom also had a great time at the museum exhibit.

Mata the builder

A couple weeks ago, before croup, we went to the Bob the builder exhibit at the Hands-on museum. Mata is quite the steady hand.

five months

Felix is super charming with his smiles an coos. It makes the dairy free life for me worth it. Any milk in his milk makes him a screaming mess. We like him to be Mr. Happy.

Away from computer

Let me fill in some brief updates from the last couple weeks. I have not had any computer time.

Sick, sick and sick:
Brian and I had a horrible GI virus that we think the kids had as well. We felt horrible for a couple days there until we truly liquidated all of our assets. I told Brian I think I am one GI issue away from my pre-baby weight.

Once we were all feeling better Amata came down with a high fever and the croup. We are not sure if it had any relationship to the h1n1 shot she received the day before, but it was bad. When I took her to the doctor she was feeling pretty bad and gasping for air. The doctors decided to send her to the hospital in an ambulance. It was pretty dramatic. After some oxygen, epi and an oral steroid she was observed for a bit and released just in the nick of time because Felix was getting quite hungry after 6 hours with Brian and Dom. She still has a cough, but no more gasping.

A home of our own:
We closed on our house yesterday. What a relief after seven months of waiting. Even at the closing the selling bank did not have all the paperwork signed. It wasn't until later that evening when we finally heard from our realtor that it was complete. Today I hung some pictures and cleared out our storage once and for all. In celebration I bought Brian a present: The first book in the Twilight series. Yes, I am aware that my husband is not a teenage girl, but nor is he a tween and that did not stop him from loving the entire Harry Potter series. I think I will be reading this as well. Looking forward to seeing the movies too. I am sure to be a fan, given my maturity level and up until 2 episodes ago I was quite the fan of Gossip Girl.

Okay, Felix is screaming and I need to get that boy to sleep. I am sure I have more to say, but that is all the time I have. Bummer.

mommy likes green day

I try so hard to play kid friendly stuff in the car, like Joe Riley and the Curious George soundtrack. Green Day's latest work is my favorite these days. It wakes me up on those monotonous drives to preschool or Bible Study....hmmmm I wonder how many other moms listen to Green Day on the way to Bible Study. Maybe that is the draw. This evening our family is enjoying an American Idiot concert on TV. How much damage could it really cause, right? My mom thinks my kids are going to be really confused when they get to Pioneer High and all the cool rebels are into punk and they think it is lame mom music.

play therapy

I am not always good at getting down on the floor and playing with the kids, but yesterday it was badly needed. I was sitting on the couch catching a little Giada break when Dom set the printer on my lap. I decided to turn off the TV and play in the basement with the kids. In all honesty I was folding a little laundry on the side, but I was trying.
At one point Amata pulled out the tunnel and after a few minutes it was my turn to crawl through. I couldn't. My debilitating claustrophobia took hold. I tried a few times, but alas I could not get through the six foot tunnel. Moments later my brave kids were wrestling in that cavern that I could not even enter. At one point Amata was pinned and needed release and I said "All done Niki!" What? Why in this intense moment of claustrocraziness did my sister's name emerge from somewhere in my psyche?

haircut!

It was getting in my mouth when I held her, in her eyes when she played. It was time to tame the frizz and lighten my baby girl's way.

Going the distance for treats

Little Astronaut Mata and Domas the tank engine were out for two hours of long enduring, bucket filling work on Halloween night. They were very polite with their "Thank you" usage and often struck up hilarious conversations with the treat givers. Dom is my future politician with his gregarious works of persuasion. Today I will take him with me to vote, but how long before he is on a ballot???

best of buds

I received one of those magical compliments on Monday. The kind that make you forget the baby poo smell deep in the fibers of you shirt and experience mommy bliss for just a moment. The kids went to child watch at the YMCA while I went to work out with Felix (my spotter). When I returned to get Mata and Dom the women in child watch gushed about how sweet they are together. I thanked them and confessed it is a 70/30 type situation, but I am still feeling the lift. Right now they are chatting about Dom's nursies in the living room. I should go see what that is about, but it sounds sweet. "Okay Dominick, lets go!" I think they have decided to get Chocolate milk in the kitchen. This will be messy, but much less creepy.

noodie boodie

Amata will not keep clothes on! She changes outfits constantly and often walks around "noodie boodie" for a good portion of the day. Yesterday she wore Dom's pajamas and airplane undies to her little Bible study class. The teachers were very nice when they came to get the fresh pants and pull up for her once the inevitable accident occurred. She refuses to use the potty and refuses a diaper...at least we have a carpet steamer (thanks mom).

babysitter bliss

We had a babysitter last night while we went to a Halloween party at Tim and Tonja Fox's house. We had to dress as 6 degrees of a dead celebrity. Brian and I dressed as groupies for the band the Dead Kennedys. They are a punk band that peaked in the mid-nineties...in honor of Ted. We had a great time and returned to find the picture above. Apparently it is not me. My kids will not go to their beds even for the best sitter. That makes me feel better. We had to pay her well.

smarty pants

Amata and Dominick were playing puzzles today in the living room while I was trying to clean up the disaster from their morning ambush (clothes, toilet paper rolls, etc.) I looked up and Amata had completed an entire 24 piece Dora puzzle. She said, "I did it!" I said "Wow Amata. You did that all by yourself? You might be a genius!". She laughed and said" I am not a genius, I am Amata!"

Blogging for Nicole

My sister Nicole moved to Kenya two days ago and I miss calling her a few times a day to tell her all the things driving me nuts and cracking me up, so I decided to take a few minutes every chance I get to write her in this medium. Email could work to, but that can be distracting. I get to working on triangle things or facebook things and before I know it I have forgotten that funny thing Mom did or Dom said. Here we go Nicole, here is what you should know about the last couple days:

Mata in the Pond:
I took mom and the kids to the botanical gardens yesterday to get our minds off the fact that you were in the air. They have a great little kids trail with a fun hut, binoculars, bridges and it ends at a black bottom pond covered in green algae. The kids loved it. They were great too. Everyone was inspired by nature when we got to the end of the hike. I stood next to Amata and looked up the hill where Dom and Mom were looking at a sign, asking them which way we should go to head back to the car. When I looked back to Mata about 20 seconds later she was up to her neck in the pond and horrified. I yelled, "AHHHH MATA!" and ran over and pulled her out of the water. Somehow her hair did not get wet at all, so I stripped her down to her diaper, put on her sweater that I had been holding and carried her back to the car. About 2 minutes into the hike mom and I started laughing. I must admit I am a bit surprised how quickly it all became hilarious. I thought it would take at least a day, but the girl was fine and the sight of her in that pond was just too much. Mom kept talking about how expensive algae and seaweed treatments are at the spa.

Mom's advice on birth control:
We are trying to decide what to do about not having more babies. I just want to make sure we do not have big regrets. Also trying to be a good daughter that lets mom voice her opinions, I asked. She had good advice, sharing that she regrets not having one or two more. I said that I needed a few years for sure so maybe I could get an IUD and mom said, "Babies come out holding them in their hands." I fell off the stool.

More Thank you envelopes:
As I sit here at my desk I can see two more destroyed envelopes from thank you notes Dom has destroyed. I am going to just email people!

Chocolate Milk: Amata loves drinking out of that Clifford cup that Ani left because of her adoration for her cousin. I gave her some chocolate milk and went into the living room to drink my coffee and watch the news. All I could hear was some happy sounds from the kitchen so I continued watching the hokey segments on decorating your mud room. At last I went to see what the happy kids were doing and found them covered in Chocolate milk. Apparently when shaken, the Clifford cup makes wonderful chocolate milk rain. That was one of three showers Amata needed yesterday. The kids had just as much fun with the spray bottle and rags they had to use to clean up the huge mess.

Okay...I will try to write again very soon. I think it will be fun to keep you up to date on the mundane and the ridiculous. Just to send you off with a great picture in your head: Dom is wearing my black heels and his new underpants which are red with airplanes.

I can roll, but I'm not sure I like it

So, Felix arrived 5 weeks ago and things are moving fast. He has discovered how to roll over, but once he succeeds, he's not sure that he likes the outcome.

a day out with Thomas

We got to ride Thomas! What a fun day for us all.

Spring is here...and the baby will be here soon!

We are enjoying some much improved weather conditions. The kids love going out on the river!

Dominick will graduate from the 3s class at his preschool in just a couple weeks. He just started pee wee soccer and is learning gymnastics.

Amata is fast as can be and talking all the time.

Felix is due in just 4 weeks.

Brian and Jeanie have lost their minds and just listed their house and put an offer on a much bigger one...yikes.

Years Flying

The days might drag, but the years are flying by. Dom is 3 and we are already expecting a third kiddo! Whoa...wasn't I in college the other day? Oh yeah...still am...finishing up the never ending master's. Dom is now a school kid too. He is in the Triangle Cooperative preschool 3s class and having a great time.

holiday fun

We had a lovely holiday in Grand Haven. The kids keep making us laugh....especially when we have had any sleep to increase our appreciation of their comedic gestures. Dom is saying the funniest things, like "Mimi, I need some privacy." He explained as he shut the bathroom door. Potty training has had its hilarious and intense moments. Thank goodness for carpet cleaner!