The Wonder Years

Garrett and I are addicted to The Wonder Years, the old TV show from the 80s. We have all the episodes on DVD and if we turn it on after the kids go to bed, that's all we do all night long. Watch old episodes and laugh and shake our heads at the trials and sorrows and growing pains of good old Kevin Arnold. Tonight we watched the episode where Kevin's older sister Karen gets married. She and her new husband decide to move to Alaska after the wedding and we watched her parents struggle with saying goodbye. I swear, everything looks different through the lens of parenthood. I found myself tearing up, watching Jack and Norma send their little girl off with this young punk, their new son-in-law. My mind flashed forward twenty plus years down the road and I just can't even imagine my kids marrying and moving away. It makes me sad even to imagine it. But in the process of thinking all this, I'm keenly aware that both my parents and my in-laws have kids scattered across the country. And so, it's with this in mind that I am including a hefty collection of Christmas photos below so mom and dad and Vern and Linda can somehow share long-distance in this amazing Christmas with their delightful grandchildren. This year, Christmas was a real treat. Amelia, Abigail, and Gabriel didn't understand much, but that didn't mean they didn't participate. They ripped some paper, pulled goodies out of stockings, and played intently with each new unwrapped gift. Each new toy was fascinating and absorbing, each previously opened gift forgotten and each unwrapped gift under the tree wasn't even noticed. They were totally in the moment. And thoroughly enjoying it.

Our day was quiet. After the gifts we spent time on the phone with family, we ate good food, and we went for a nice walk around town. It was wonderful. And we've been enjoying our time ever since. Garrett doesn't go back to work until this Friday and I am absolutely loving having him home with me. This season has been so special. I think he sees it too--there's just been a different feeling to this Christmas. Christmas, a time when we celebrate God coming to dwell among us, has been truly felt in our household this year. God is with us. This year that magical feeling of Christmas and family and unity and celebration didn't end for me on December 26th, and I am so grateful that it lingers to this day. The kids continue to enjoy their new toys and their extra time with daddy, and he clearly is enjoying it too. It's been wonderful to savor those special moments when the kids are trying something new--Abby learning to put the coins in her new toy piggy bank; Amelia getting on her new rocking horse and going for a ride; Gabriel rolling his dump truck around the apartment and dragging his new wagon around filled with legos and blocks and bits and pieces from half a dozen different toys. Abigail loves her books now, and will bring one to us and climb in our laps for a read. And Amelia's hair is so long it's poking her in the eyes, but I'm lucky if she'll let me get away with pulling it back. Our kids are growing up. The evidence is all around us this season, and it's sort of sad but it's mostly wonderful and heart warming and exciting and fun.

I hope your Christmas was a time of joy, peace,and unity. I hope you had a taste of what it means to have God with us. Merry Christmas! (14,810)

Catching up a bit

I'm finally back on my own computer, thanks to my personal IT wizard Garrett, and I've been wanting to post some pictures from recent days of the snow that fell. We never did make it out for much flolicking in the white stuff. The kids were outside for all of about three minutes before they determined that snow and cold are no good and they didn't want anything to do with it. My visions of pulling them to the pizza parlor in their toboggan will have to wait for another year I suppose. I still hold out hope that one day it will come to pass. This year we had to content ourselves with viewing most of the snowfall from the comfort of our cozy apartment. I took the pictures below from our bedroom window. Things are already warming up and melting away, though I won't be surprise if more snow is to come. There's a lot of winter left.


It's Christmas eve and Garrett is on the phone with his family right now. We just finished watching "It's a Wonderful Life" and we're heading off to bed soon so the big man in red can make his move. Sitting here in the living room though, it's hard not to get wooed by the beauty of our Christmas tree and the quiet of the evening. Tomorrow brings Christmas morning and unwrapping gifts and lots of activity and noise with the world's most wonderful toddlers, but tonight is reflection and a deep sense of gratitude for all the gifts in my life--the ones that I get to unwrap every day. (14,608)

I'm so excited!

Yahoo! I got it to work. If you notice, hopefully, when you view my blog you now have musical accompaniment. The first song on my new playlist is In Christ Alone, the song I blogged about a few weeks ago. I'm very proud of myself right now, for figuring this out (I'm no computer genius, this is a big accomplishment!).

By the way, it is snowing like crazy right now and I love love love it! I can't wait to take the kids out in it. I have grand plans of walking to dinner tonight at our favorite pizza place and dragging the kids along in the toboggan we bought them yesterday. I may be a little starry eyed here, but this is just so much fun! If we make it to Bellizi tonight, I'll be sure to let you know. (14,451)

The end of a beautiful thing

The time finally came. Last Friday Gabriel got his first haircut. It was an emotional experience, at least for me. He seemed pretty emotional too, though I can't say for sure that it's because he's going to miss his curls. I think the tears had something more to do with getting his hair caught in the barber's cape, and then some general unease about the whole process. I liked the barber though. He lives in our building so he came over in the evening and did the job in our apartment. Gabriel was a real trooper, clearly upset but he held still and hung in there. It has been five days now and I'm finally getting used to his new 'do. I have to admit I was doubting my decision to cut. His hair had gotten so long that most days his curls were just a mangy mess rather than the charming halo I adored. Even so, watching them all fall to the floor was hard, and spending several days feeling like I didn't recognize my own son was a little troubling as well. We all survived though, and Gabey is handsome as ever, just with a new look. And I saved some of his curls for his baby book. Or maybe for my own keepsake box. In any case, the first cut is a thing of the past. Here are some pics to document the event (14,377):

BEFORE:

DURING:

AFTER (what a handsome young man!):

I think Abby is pretty

Technical difficulties

Getting online to update my blog these days has had its challenges. Seems like last week every electronic I use on a regular basis went through some crisis. My mom was here to visit and we went on a walk with the kids. When we left the house it was sprinkling, but in the course of our time out it started raining pretty decent and my phone and camera both got drenched in my purse. I was holding my breath for a while there that they'd come back to life. For a couple days my phone worked okay, but the battery life diminished by about 75% and I couldn't use any of the functions other than making calls. And our camera fritzed out so that the screen was cloudy and the only time the flash worked was when you turned the power off. That was all several days ago and it appears that both my camera and my phone are back in working order. But my computer also took a dive. I have no idea why it happened, and I still can't figure out what to do about it, but I can't get on the internet at all. I'm on Garrett's computer right now, but it's not the same. I miss my keyboard and my favorites list and having my photos on my computer so I can do things like update my blog.

So bear with me. I'm dying to update, and I will write more soon. With photos too. Hopefully from my own fixed computer. (14,328)

I'm in trouble

The kids are putting me through the ringer this week. I swear this phase crept up on me, then sprang out of the closet this week with a wicked snarl on its face. I have been so used to being able to leave the kids alone while I do whatever I need to do. They play beautifully and independently and besides having to put their diaper pale in the closet and remove all the knobs from their dresser drawers (thanks for the tip Kim--works like a charm), I've had to do very little to keep them from too many shenanigans while I take a shower or otherwise get things done around the house. No more. For the past week or so it's been apparent that we need to be pushing in the chairs when we get up from the desk or dining table, because all the little ones have learned how to climb on them and reach whatever is at the top. A week or two ago I came out from taking my morning shower to find all the contents of my desk strewn about the living room floor. Big bummer, but really my own fault. I didn't push in the chair.

Well now they have learned how to pull the chairs out (I suppose it was only a matter of a very short amount of time before they were bound to do this, but I was still hoping it would take longer than it did). My desk is still pretty safe because it's on carpet, and pulling chairs on carpet isn't so easy. But pulling chairs on fake wood floor is a piece of cake, and now the new beloved pasttime in our house is to climb onto the dining table and see what there is to do. Yesterday morning I found Gabriel, Abby, and Amelia sitting in their high chair seats, waiting for breakfast. It made me laugh. But as the day went on and I couldn't turn my back for more than 60 seconds before another kid was on top of the table I stopped laughing.

Today I put the chairs on top of the table. It kept the kids down, but of course Gabe redirected his ingenuity to the Christmas tree. We have the tree surrounded by a fence and he squeezed his way between the fence and the wall half a dozen times before I was able to add a couple fence links and now the tree is safe again, at least until tomorrow. When I'm sure Gabe will find some other thing to get into to drive me batty, and the girls will promptly follow suit.

The antics are to be expected I suppose, from curious little toddlers, but on top of that their nap schedule is quickly disintigrating. They have been in transition phase from two naps a day to one for a long time now, at least a couple months, but it just seems to be a hard week this week. They whine and cry and complain and fall apart with the slightest provocation. So brilliant mommy thinks it's time for a nap. Baby usually naps for one and a half to two hours, but this time starts babbling and playing and crying and fussing and giggling and yelling after twenty minutes. Mommy leaves baby to figure it out and go back to sleep. Baby never does. Baby wakes siblings. Naps are finally aborted. Babies seem happy for about an hour, then the world starts unraveling.

My kids have not slept in their stroller in ages. They just seemed past that point where the lull of the street would have any affect, and besides, they were such great nappers on this great schedule at home! But today is the second day in a row that we've gone out for a walk after lunch and I end up with sleeping babies. Yesterday both girls fell asleep. Today Gabe did. If I had only one kid I don't think this would feel quite so overwhelming, but it seems these days I always have at least one who can't/won't sleep, and it throws off the whole delicate balance. A couple weeks ago it happened that the kids only got one nap, but they made good on it and all slept for almost three hours. Now that's the kind of one nap a day I'm talking about. Since then I've had a lot of half naps and fussy naps and one-nap-a-days where the one nap only lasts an hour and a half, and then we're all on a sinking ship until bedtime. Oh, I will be glad when this all gets ironed out. Garrett seems to be of the opinion that as they grow and their sleep needs individualize even more it's going to be hard to keep them on the same schedule. It does seem to be the case that poor Amelia needs a little more sleep than the others, and she is rarely the one waking up early. But I am determined to train their little bodies to sleep at least at the same times, if not for the same lengths. This mama needs a mid-day break! And if it's only one, then it's got to be one that counts. Please God! Send reinforcements! I'm feeling tuckered out.

Good thing my little munchkins are so cute. It's really impossible to stay exasperated for long. And every once in a while it does still seem funny that they like to climb onto the table and get into their high chairs. On the second go around they even got into the right seats! (14,027)