Making Memories

We were in recovery mode today.  Yesterday we partied hard with our friends.  This statement takes on a whole new, yet still quite accurate meaning when you consider that "we" is in reference to four adults with our six children under five getting together for a fun evening of grilling, trampolining, swinging (on the swing set), running, sandbox-ing, exploring, chasing, and s'mores eating, with grown up conversation in between.  The three "little kids" (under 2) went to bed after s'mores and the three "big" kids (3 and 4) got in jammies and stayed up to watch Snow White while the adults visited around the fire pit.  My husband and my friend's husband had spent what seemed like an hour getting that fire started.  They didn't use a lighter or any matches.  Just some old-fashioned cave-man fire-starting stuff.  I was literally on my way to get the lighter (because it was way past time for s'mores!!) when I saw smoke finally rising from our fire pit.  The manly men prevailed, and it was good.

We had a wonderful time with friends.  The kids all got sufficiently sweaty and dirty and scraped up to consider it a true summertime playing extravaganza.  They explored our "woods" (treed area around the perimeter of our yard) and jumped themselves silly on our new trampoline.  My husband, hero of the evening, played a new game with them, which involved getting on his hands and feet under the trampoline and chasing the kids by pushing his butt up into the trampoline from the underside while running around bear-crawl style.  I wish I had seen this and gotten a photo.  I heard the laughter and screaming of the kids, but I was putting Sis to bed while this was going on.  So I, like you, have only a (very hilarious) mental image of these antics to go by.  Oh how I love that man. 

Needless to say, we were all feeling a little worn out today.  Incredibly, the girls only slept in a little bit past their usual wake up times, so they were pretty tired and crabby today.  We got lots of good down time in though.  Nothing like being pooped to bring a family together for some serious bonding.  The girls made breakfast with their Daddy.  

They love helping him cook eggs.  They work the pepper mill and really get into pinching and sprinkling the salt from my salt pig.

We read lots of books and just relaxed.

This afternoon we went outside for more backyard fun.  I love watching the big girls run and play in the yard.  They go on "adventures" and make up scenarios involving monsters and giants and castles and rescue missions.  We got them sufficiently tuckered out again this evening.  

This is the stuff of memories.  

Simple

This weekend I'm enjoying simple things.  Lilacs in mason jars on my counter and table.  Big smiles and hugs from my girls.  Playing outside in amazing, warm weather.  Watching imaginations bloom and sister games develop.  Great times with wonderful friends.  Date night.  Some lovely real snail mail notes from my Grandma and a sister in law.  We're not doing anything extravagant or big this weekend, but doing simple things together is exactly what makes me happy right now.

Miss has had some trouble with a bit of eczema.  We discovered it was probably largely being caused by her frequent wearing of her "ballerina costume."  So I have had to tell her she can no longer wear it and explain why.  I was worried this might lead to an all out screaming fit.  But to her credit, Miss has taken this in stride and is now just working on expanding her dress up repertoire.  At a play date on Friday she was a doctor.  Yesterday, she was a princess.  She had been wearing high-heeled play shoes and carrying a Snow White purse in addition to her tutu and crown, but in preparation to go outside to play, we discussed every princess's need for real shoes and sunglasses.  She chose boots.  It's a good look.

I believe this stick was supposed to be some sort of weapon for fending off the "Evil Queen," her sister.

The weapon of the Evil Queen?  A watering can.

Miss chose this rock as her place from which to defend herself.

"Here she comes!!!"

Terrifying, eh?

The battle.

It was epic, of course.  Miss alternates between enlisting her sister in the roles of "Monster," "Evil Queen," and "Prince Charming."  Lass plays along happily.  It's so fun to watch.

Last night I think my husband and I finally reached real "grown up" status.  We had a grown up night and play date in one.  It was awesome.  Our friends came over with their three kids, my husband cooked ribs, the kids played, no one got hurt or threw a tantrum, my friend and I chased kids around and had a some great grown up conversation (as only moms can do while managing five kids running and climbing all over and one newborn), and our husbands consumed a couple of grown up beverages while talking about manly things and occasionally bouncing a baby.  Good food and good company led to a supremely enjoyable evening.

The four oldest kids all crammed into our tiny sandbox.  This thing was the entertainment hit of the evening.  They all played in there, even dumping sand over each others' heads, and never once was there an argument amongst them.

It was beautiful.

This little munchkin was the star of the show.  She loves to be outside, and she rocked the bouncy seat when she wasn't eating or napping in her swing inside.  A good time was had by all.

Today we're having a lazy Sunday at home.  The big girls are outside playing with their daddy.  Our garden is starting to produce a few items ready to be eaten (radishes and lettuce).  We have lots of leftovers from dinner last night, so I won't have to cook.  This is the life.  Happy weekend to you.

Did I Say I Thought Pink Eye Was Yucky?

Yes, I did.  When Miss first started school I typed this post, which I stupidly titled, "Bring on the Ickies" (why would I ever type such a statement?).  At the time I was grossed out because I thought she had pink eye, which she actually didn't have, by the way.  I was writing about how I knew she would bring home lots of germs now that she had started school and blah, blah, blah.  Yesterday I got a much better sense of the truly icky.  Picture it.  I wake up at 4 AM to Lass's crying.  It was a "something's wrong" kind of cry, so I went in to get her thinking maybe she'd had a bad dream or something, and I'd just rock her for a bit.  Instead I found that Lass had puked all over herself, her bed, her floor, and then me as soon as I picked her up.  Okay.  I got it all cleaned up, put both of us in clean jammies, and began rocking her to try to get her back to sleep.  Naturally, she puked all over both of us again before I managed to run her to the bathroom and get her over the sink.  Again, I get it cleaned up and go back to rocking her.  And that's not even the really icky part...

Rewind about 8 hours to Wednesday night.  I had received a text message from a babysitter telling me that her roommate had just found out she has scabies.  Oh yes.  I thought pink eye was gross?  No.  No, scabies is gross.  Gross as in make-my-skin-crawl-give-me-the-crazy-heebie-jeebies kind of gross.  Unfortunately this babysitter had been to my house three times in three days, including Wednesday afternoon for a little while while I took Miss to gymnastics.  At first I wasn't too worried about it, since this babysitter didn't even know if she actually had it, and I hadn't seen any signs that my girls did, but still.  I did vacuum every room where this babysitter would have been, rugs and furniture.  And then as I was sitting there at 4-something AM, rocking Lass again after changing both of our clothes for the second time, I couldn't help but imagine a little bit what yesterday might have had in store for me.  I pictured two puking girls, perhaps being sick myself, and needing to scour and sanitize my house and medicate my girls to get rid of little tiny mites that had burrowed under their skin and gotten into all of our clothing, bedding, furniture, carpets...  Perhaps this was a bit melodramatic, but I was sleepy and my mind was wandering on it's own.  And really it wasn't really too far fetched to imagine that could have been my day.

Amazingly, Lass went back to sleep (though I never did - see thoughts running through my head, above) for a little while and when she woke up she had no additional symptoms of a stomach bug.  She kept down everything I gave her to drink and eat and was her cheerful happy self all day long.  Miss never got sick, nor did I.  Score 1 for Mama!

Unfortunately, I did get a text later in the morning that my babysitter does in fact have scabies.  Even more unfortunately, I couldn't get a doctor's appointment until 4:30 in the afternoon to find out if my girls or I had it.  So, though I tried not to worry about it, I was kind of freaking out that we were infested.  There were no real signs that any of us had it, but I started imagining that every little red spot on my girls or any itch I felt myself was a little mite trying to find a home.  I started stripping sheets and doing laundry.  And then I did the most appropriate and merciful thing yesterday afternoon.  I let my girls watch a rare bit of afternoon TV and I called my mom to whine.

 TV Glaze

It was quite therapeutic.  My mom did what all good moms do.  She listened.  She sympathized.  She made me laugh.  What more could a girl ask for (other than having said mom living nearby so she could have come over to help with the laundry, which my mom would have happily done, of course...).

And to make a very long story short, the girls napped, we went to the doctor, and we found out that we do not have scabies.  And I learned a lot about scabies that made me feel better all around, like that scabies can't live long at all in clothing, furniture, etc.  That washing every article of clothing and bedding in our house wasn't really necessary, though I did it anyway.  That scabies show up fast and move fast and itch like crazy.  In other words, if you have scabies, you know it.  Since we didn't have it and our poor babysitter had not been around for a while, the likelihood that we would get it was nil.  Score 2 for Mama!

And, since we did not have scabies, our other babysitter, whom we had scheduled to come over so my hubby and I could get out for dinner, was still happy to come.  So we had a nice dinner out and relaxed away the craziness of the day.  Score 3!!  I am still a little bit shocked when I think about how crummy yesterday could have been and then about how relatively not-so-bad it really was.  I feel like I dodged a major bullet!

And to top it all off, since we don't have scabies and my testimony for this morning got postponed (thankfully, because I wouldn't have had a babysitter!), we got to go to a much-looked-forward-to play date with some great friends.  My friend had a Christmas cookie decorating play date at her house this morning, and it was a blast.  Lass mostly just ate a cookie and played in the frosting.

Miss had lots of fun decorating the cookies and eating them.  She had a little bit of a hard time though with the idea that she could only eat one of the cookies she decorated and the rest we had to just decorate and save to take home.

Miss made a special cookie for her Daddy.

A good time was had by all.  Hooray for no scabies!

Tomorrow we go to my parent's house for a week.  I am so thrilled to spend the week with my Mom and Dad.  But, that likely means there will be very little blogging from this girl until we get back, as my parents live in an internet black hole.  I'll be back in about a week!

A Long-Lost Friend is Found

Have you ever found a long-lost friend?  I mean, truly lost touch with someone dear to you and then found them again after many years?  This happened to me.  Eight years ago, I lost contact with a dear friend, "C," due to phone problems and cross-country moves.  I tried to find her several times.  Back then, I don't think she really did much with email.  Not sure if she even had an email address, so I couldn't just send her a quick message with my new number and address.  I tried good old-fashioned snail mail, and that didn't work either.  When Facebook came out, I searched for her with no luck.  I even searched the friend lists of people I  thought she would surely be friends with if she were on FB.  Nothing.

Yesterday was another friend, "S's" birthday.  I popped over to S's FB "wall" to wish her a happy day, and whose name did I see there also sending her birthday wishes?  Yes, my long-lost friend, C.  I just about fell out of my chair in my haste to send her a friend request.  Then I waited nervously to see whether she would accept my request and "friend" me.  See, I'm not a huge FB user.  I don't choose to be "FB Friends" with everyone I ever knew.  I don't necessarily want to be found easily on FB, so I don't put my maiden name in my profile, nor do I use a photo of myself as my profile pic.  And due to one of the many and seemingly arbitrary changes that FB has made recently, you can no longer send a little message when you request to be someone's friend.  So, I was nervous that C wouldn't know who I was and wouldn't friend me.

I needn't have feared.  The next time I checked my FB page I saw a happy and heartfelt message from C that just about made me cry tears of joy.  Evidently, she has missed me too.

The last time I spoke to C, I was finishing my internship at the end of my doctoral training program.  I wasn't married.  I didn't have kids.  She was already married and had four little ones. Now her kids are so big.  One just graduated from high school!  So much has changed for both of us.  I can't wait to hear more from her and get caught up on everything that has happened in the last eight years.  My heart is so happy because I have found my dear friend again.

Although I don't use it a ton, right now I am thanking Facebook with all my might.

Happy Fall

Fall is my favorite season.  I love the crispness of the air, the colors of the leaves and their lazy floating to the ground.  I love pumpkins and apples and squash and chilly morning trips to the farmer's market where all the season's bounty can be found.  I love open windows through which cool breezes bring the scent of burning leaves.  Fall makes me feel cozy and productive.  Like I want to snuggle up with my Loveys, but also to get out and go do stuff.

Last year around this time, we went to a local farm where they have pumpkins, apples, animals and a big rustic playground.  We had a lot of fun, though I ended up a bit overwhelmed at the end of the day, struggling back to the truck with a newborn wrapped to me, a toddler and a big bag of apples in one arm, and pulling a wagon completely loaded with pumpkins with my free hand.  Thank goodness for the kindness of a stranger who came to our rescue.  Here we are in a photo from last year. 

We went back to the same farm yesterday.  My how things have changed.  We've upgraded our equipment,

and the girls have grown so much.  They were both charged with the task of picking out our pumpkins.

Lass took a relaxed approach to the job.

Miss, on the other hand, was all business.

She searched through all the pumpkins and even hauled the ones she chose toward the wagon.

We met up with some good friends, and had a wonderful day.

Back at home in the afternoon, we took full advantage of the glorious weather and the mass of leaves fallen from our beautiful oak tree.

 

The girls had a blast jumping and rolling in the leaves.  Daddy got down in the leaves with the girls too, and even got buried.

And yes, I got buried too.  I don't know the last time I played in a big pile of leaves. I was a little shocked by how wonderful the leaves smelled and how the scent transported me instantly back to my childhood.  I had completely forgotten that smell.  It's a fantastic smell!

Happy fall to you!