Home again

A lot has happened since my last post. Last Wednesday Garrett and I left the kids with my friend DeAnna and flew to Seattle for Christina's wedding. I wish I had some pictures to show from our trip! Our camera has been slowly dying ever since last winter when it got some water damage while sitting in my rain soaked purse on a walk with my mom and the kids. Last week when I went to Christina's bachelorette party I went to take a picture of her and that was the end of it. No more working camera for us. So it may be a while before I get any new pics on my blog, but be assured that they will be back as soon as possible.

Our trip to Seattle was great, largely due to my trust in the kids' caregivers. DeAnna, poor thing, got sick with a terrible cold the day before we left town, but she soldiered on and took fantastic care of our kids while still caring for herself and her own sick three year old. I don't know how she did it. She got a break partway through when some other friends of ours stepped in to care for the kids over the weekend. Then Sunday afternoon DeAnna was back in the driver's seat until Garrett and I returned home Monday morning. It was such a relief and a blessing to know my kids were in good hands and that they behaved like angels while Garrett and I were away. I admit it would be nice if they had behaved so angelically when we got home. Alas, Monday was a teensy bit horrible as all three kids let us have it for leaving them for five days. There were a lot of tears and tantrums and needy clingy arms reaching up. But yesterday was almost comletely normal and today was a great, so I think we are all fortunate to have a quick recovery. I missed my little munchkins. I was definitely ready for some soft skin and squishy arms and cute little voices saying "no" and "oh no!" and "shoes." But I did not pine for them, which was nice too.

Garrett and I had a great time away. I was really busy doing my bridesmaid duties so we did not have a ton of time just the two of us, but we did manage to get in some couple time as well as visits with our folks. Garrett's parents drove up from Vancouver, WA on Thursday afternoon to spend a few hours with us, which was really great of them given we didn't have much time to dole out for their visit. I only got to see them for a couple hours because I had the bachelorette party to get to, but at least Garrett got to spend some extra time with them before they had to head back home.

I had a really wonderful time being a bridesmaid too. I have never been a major player in any wedding except my own (I lit some candles in a wedding once, but that hardlly seems significant enough to say I was in a wedding). Christina was a bridesmaid in my wedding almost nine years ago and we've been steady friends since before that time, but we do not always keep in close touch so I was somewhat surprised when she asked me to be in her wedding. I was especially so when I realized that her sister, who was the maid of honor, was the only other attendant she would have. I was completely flattered and humbled that Christina would choose me to stand beside her on perhaps the most momentous and life changing day of her life. I kept waiting for her to take back her offer! But she never did, and I was delighted to stand by her side as she married Jason. I had not met Jason before this trip so it was a quick introduction and I was sorry I was a long distance bridesmaid because of the limitations it put on being a part of the wedding planning, much less on being a part of the bride and grooms' lives. Nevertheless, I took advantage of the time I had and enjoyed getting to know Jason a little and watching Christina and Jason together. It was a special time for me to reflect on my own marriage and realize how much I treasure Garrett and yet just how far I fall short in letting him know what he means to me. Christina has always been so curious about my marriage and so open to my insights on relationships. That's a humbling thing, especially when the one listening to you on your soapbox is as thoughtful and and contemplative as she is. I know that after years of marriage I have some pearls of wisdom to offer. But this weekend it was wonderful to soak up the pearls that Christina had to offer as well, lest I become too stagnant or too smug in my own little world. She was a beautiful bride, truly glowing from the inside out, and her passion and zeal for giving herself wholely to her groom was a poignant reminder to me that God calls brides to give themselves up for their grooms throughout marraige, not just in the early days and months and years of fire and romance. I don't expect being married after ten or twenty or thirty years to feel the same as it did on the day of my wedding. But I do expect it to feel better, because I expect to be more known, and to know more. If God is dwelling among us in our marriage we are truly melding into a beautiful creation all His own. I am truly blessed to be married to Garrett, my best friend and the most caring and devoted father.

So now I am home again and back to the regular grind. Somehow, even though I'm not overflowing with consistent weekly commitments, I do manage to fill my time and this week is no exception. The biggest time commitment of my week is speech therapy, and I'm excited to report that next week my schedule will get much easier on that score. Until now, each child has had two 45 minute therapy sessions per week. Due to scheduling issues that's meant that three or four days of my week are taken up with therapy times. But starting in July all three kids will be working with the same therapist, Sharon, and our therapy times will be consolidated to just two days a week. Woohoo! Now my Tuesday and Wednesday mornings are tied up, but the rest of my days are free and I can finally have some flexibility in my shedule. With the summer months ahead and all of us itching to get out and enjoy the sunshine (which has yet to make much of an appearance here in New York, I might add) I am really excited to be a little more free. Plus, even more exciting is the fact that Amelia will finally get to work with Sharon, who I think will be a much better fit for her in terms of her linguistic progress. Sharon has already started working with Amelia a little bit, letting her sit in on some of Abby's or Gabe's sessions. And this morning Amelia said "Bye bye baby" during the session with Sharon. A whole sentence! That's big news around here. I'm feeling good about the progress they're all making and can't wait to see more of it. Everyone tells me that once my kids are talking I'm going to wish they would quiet down. I nod and smile at the comments, but I don't suspect they are true. People told me I would dread the day they started crawling too, and walking, and climbing. It's true that each new triumph brings with it new challenges, but I'm game for the journey. It's been so darn exciting hearing my kids talk to me at all I think it will be a long time before I've had enough of it. At this point I still think it's adorable when Abby says "no" in her little high pitched angel voice, and if Gabriel wants to say "water" a hundred times every time he sees a glass of water, a full bathtub, the pool, a raindrop, or a picture of the ocean, I'm all ears.

Bananas and new words

I'm not sure how many people read this blog anymore. I am beginning to think my following has dwindled to somewhere around half a dozen or so. But I figure that just means my followers are die hards and that charming videos of my kids are almost as enchanting to you as they are to me. At least I will tell myself that and continue to post appropriately adorable content. Here are some cute videos I took the other day.

The start of a new trend?

I remember posting quite a while ago that Amelia climbed out of her crib one day during naptime. All evidence suggested it was a traumatic event, with a loud thump followed by lots of tears and misery.

Well, she did not climb out of her crib again for several weeks and I was beginning to allow my optimism to suggest we were past that. No such luck. Today I put the kids down for naps at 2pm. They never quieted down, so I spent an hour listening to babbling and giggling and shrieking in the next room. Then I heard another sound: scratching at the door. Like a cat was trying to get out.

That made me suspicious.

I went to check on them and sure enough, I opened the door to a room littered in diapers, wipes, changing table pad (all things easily reachable once crib has been evacuated), and Amelia and Abigail giving each other a big bear hug! They looked up at me, locked in a loving embrace, and giggled. From his crib, Gabriel giggled too. Sheesh.

So with their help I cleaned up the room, put everyone back to bed, and decided to try again. After all, they had to be tired, right? It was 3pm and they still hadn't gotten a wink of sleep! But nap number two flopped as well. Still no cries of despair or angst, but no quiet, and when I went back to their room shortly after 4pm there were the girls, playing in a sea of diapers and wipes. Ugh.

Did I mention that Garrett and I are about to leave town on Wednesday for our longest trip away from the kids ever? We leave Wednesday afternoon and get back home at the crack of dawn on Monday morning. We're flying to Seattle where I am going to be a bridesmaid in my friend Christina's wedding. We have a couple friends helping with kid care while we're gone. I'm sure they're going to love this new escapee act that the girls spent this afternoon perfecting.

A thought provoking argument

I have not had much time these days to keep up with my own blog musings, which I hope changes in the near future. I did, however, run across this blog written by someone else and it struck a chord with me on the issue of right to life and child abuse. For an insightful view on the links between abortion and child abuse, take a look at this.

Visit with Nana

At the end of May my mom came to stay with us for five days. It was entirely too short of a visit, but we tried to make the most of our time together. Over the weekend we spent a fair amount of time out and about. The pool at our apartment complex has opened for the summer so we took the kids to hang out by the water for a bit. Gabe likes to get in the kiddy pool, but the girls are still content to watch and throw toys into the pool for Gabe or mom or dad to retrieve. Other fun activities included visiting farm animals at Stew Leonard's (a dairy farm turned grocery store that boasts live farm animals and animatronics inside the store so the kids can gawk at talking chickens and lobsters flipping on a trapeze in the seafood section), Gabriel eating his first ice cream cone while the girls slept in the car, going to Muscoot farm to see more animals and explore an old working farm, a trip to the mall, and plenty of fun at home. Garrett and I also, as has become our habit, took full advantage of having a grandparent in town and we spent a night with some friends in the city. On Sunday morning we woke up, got some treats at Starbucks, and took a leisurely walk in Central Park. It was really fun walking around our old neighborhood and the parts of the park where we used to walk Haley when we first moved to Manhattan.



I really did not want my mom to leave. I've been having a hard time this spring keeping up with the kids and feeling like I just don't know how to spread myself wide enough for all of them. Abigail has been having a dreadful time with what has developed into fairly chronic tummy aches that cause her a great deal of pain. It's led to some mighty tantrums from all three kids given the strain of me trying to meet all of their needs and ultimately failing. We are plugging away but feeling the stress of it all. It has been hard too, that the kids are not talking more. If only they could just tell me what they want! It has been very trying. But at the same time I have seen a lot of progress in their speech and overall communication. Amelia has finally learned to say "bear" which is handy since she has two teddy bears that she can't seem to live without. Our house is filled with babble now and new words as the kids experiment. Many words don't stick right away, but some do, so I'm hearing lots of attempts and variations at words like cracker, out, open, door, chair, puppy, up, boom, on, off, diaper, and shoes. Shoes are the new big thing in our house these days. The kids are obsessed with them, especially the girls. Abby has perfected wearing flip flops, which is pretty darn cute, and Amelia is so smitten with shoes of any sort that she has taken to stealing them off of her siblings' feet. Today she almost made Abigail face plant on the concrete at the pool's edge while Abby clopped around in my flip flop sandals, and later this afternoon I caught her trying to take Gabe's crocs off his feet while he walked around the apartment. Guess I better keep an eye on that.

Any other kind souls out there who want to come visit? There are plenty kids for all to enjoy!