New Year, Same Stuff

So it is a little weird that we started this year similarly to 2009--Charles unable to walk and in a cast. Sigh. I was holding it together pretty well through Christmas but by the two week mark without a break I was starting to lose my mind. I had to give myself a timeout a few times before I smacked the face off of one of my children. It's not the taking off the diaper and throwing your poop all over the floor, it's not getting into the pantry REPEATEDLY and dumping the contents all over other portions of the house, it's not the sassy attitude and unwillingness to take a nap "actually". It's the screaming. Especially when they all scream, cry and hang on me at once. I just can't take the noise. It's like it short circuits my brain or something. But thank god, Christmas break is over now and we're back to our old routine and that helps a lot.
I'm starting to plan a vacation for myself. I've decided that once Charles gets well again, I'm going somewhere else. Without any of them. I don't know where yet. I think I made this same resolution last year and never did it. This year will be different! I just have to figure out what I want to do...
So on to 2010. Hopefully it is a year that brings completely healed legs!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all! We had a nice Christmas and now I'm sitting here in the messy aftermath. Charles and I stayed up late doing the Santa thing. We even set up the train tracks on the train table and it was really fun. When the kids finally got up in the morning (I was growing impatient! They slept in on the only day that I didn't want to!), Griffin was just thrilled to see it all laid out below. They were all excited to go downstairs and see what Santa brought We opened presents and had breakfast and I think that was one of the best parts of my day. We had breakfast in the dining room and the kids didn't have their booster chairs. I sat there looking at my family in the sunshine--Kenna and Griffin sat across the table from me on their own and I could just see Kenna's eyes. Seeing their little faces around my table was just the best. I was really proud of my breakfast too, since I made my own bread just like my Mom always did. Cinnamon swirled wreath bread, scrambled eggs and sliced oranges. Next year, when Charles can walk, we'll have frittata like his dad always used to make. Later, we played with toys and hung out. Last night, walking in after dinner at Debbie's carrying sleeping babies back into my messy toy strewn house I was struck by how my house smelled like Christmas and it was just such a nice feeling to be coming home with my family on Christmas day. I guess it must be the result of baking the bread, but my house just smelled like home always used to smell when we would come home from my Grandma's.
Today I had the traditional day after Christmas. I laid around and did close to nothing (except read a book). I still had to do all the mom stuff and the waiting on Charles stuff, but I kept it to a minimum ;-) I did kick some of the toys under the tree before the pizza guy came. I also ate too much junk food. This is all working up to the traditional feeling gross and needing to eat better and clean everything by New Years day to start fresh again. What can I say? I'm a traditionalist!

Out with the Old Hardware

Hi all. Yeah, I know I've not been writing but it has been a busy month. When I realize that I haven't blogged in a while then it gets harder to do it because there is so much to say. Charles had his surgery today and it went well. I've been busy like crazy and I'm feeling beat tonight so I'm not going to write much. Took twins to dr. yesterday for their 18 month checkup and K is growing! She's now in the 25% for height. Yea Kenna! Still in 5% for weight though. Griffin has a sinus infection again but I forgot to give him his meds today since I wasn't home this morning. The twins are talking more and more. The dr. asked me how many words they say and I have to tell you that I just had no idea. I remember that with Laney I was so involved in each milestone and now the babies I feel like, whatever that's fine. My guestimate on words? about 15 for G and 20 for K. Depends on criteria for counting. They both understand everything you say however. G told me this week twice when I got him in the morning that he'd pooped (and he had). The second time he told me that he "poo poo nigh nigh". On the way home today from the store (he and I went to get C's r/x together since the boy freaks out when his momma leaves and I took pity on my mother in law) he told me that he was going nigh nigh. bye. and fell asleep. aw. Kenna says a lot more than Griffin does and it's super clear. She's also starting to make little sentences with verbs. "Fro Ball" and that sort of thing.
I went through my pictures today for our playgroup dvd and just can't believe how much they have all changed this year. Wow. I didn't think Laney had changed all that much but she really has. I've got to go and get some sleep since I'm dragging butt.

Animal House

My poor son is getting bit by everyone. His older sister, his younger sister. They are little animals and he's so sweet (most of the time). Kenna bit him at least three times today and then Laney bit him too. Luckily the girls are taking some cues from him occasionally and giving him some love too. The twins were so cute tonight while I was making dinner. Griffin hugged Kenna. He's also a kisser, but you have to watch out for the tongue...
Kenna was grouchy all day today and I'm not sure why. She's been drinking an incredible amount of liquids lately and is always thirsty. She also removed her diaper in a rage tonight. So I asked her if she wanted to go sit on the potty and she ran in to do it (!). She sat there very pleased with herself until Griffin pushed her in.
Hmm. What else is going on? The tree is getting raided at an astonishing rate. Somehow G got hold of a glass ornament ball and was trying to eat part of it. I let them walk in to pick up Laney at school today and it was like herding cats. Thought we might try it out, but I don't think it's any easier.
I'm very close to getting the Christmas shopping finished though I need to get nieces and nephews presents. Need ideas... I've been going a little crazy with Christmas shopping I think. I need to wrap things and figure out what I've bought. So I'm probably getting carried away. But it is so much FUN!! I bought G a train table today. Which takes up massive floor space, but I think all of the kids will enjoy it. And I'll be able to pick up trains as well as kitchen crap. Yeah, there is a downside to everything. Practical me says to return some of it. Xmas me is getting excited for Christmas morning. I'm not sure who will win. I haven't been this excited about a Christmas since I was actually a kid. I'm going to start wrapping tomorrow.

Ho Ho Holy Crap that's a Big Tree

We put up our brand new artificial tree over the weekend and it is ENORMOUS. The 7 1/2 footer looked sort of puny at Costco so I bought the 9 foot tree and it is just huge. On the up side, it looks good in our living room with the high ceilings. Downside is that it will never fit in a regular house should we move. I didn't realize that the measurement didn't include the stand height. But anyway, we've been having fun decorating it and starting the Christmas thing. I can't tell you how much I'm enjoying Christmas. I feel like we're really a "family" now and the kids are so excited by all of the stuff that I'm excited too. I even went shopping on Black Friday at 6 in the morning. Which was too late for most stuff sadly. I should have gone at 4. But really, 4? Is anything really worth that?

I got out the Christmas decorations and the kids have all been squirrelling away different objects. I found G hiding in the closet with these little musical tap dancing things I got last year. The tree ornaments are regularly migrating to various parts of the house too. Charles is getting a little upset with them about it, but I don't mind. I just put the unbreakable ornaments at the bottom.

We had a nice Thanksgiving at Ernie and Diane's. The weather was great and we ate out on the patio. Lucky thing since Saturday a big storm blew in and it got windy and cold. It rained today a few times. Charles told the kids that he could make it thunder, but Laney worked out that it had to lightning first. I bought a new picture frame to go with my singing gingerbread house and was looking for a picture to fill it --so I was looking at last year's Christmas picts. Oh my gosh, the kids have changed soo much.

Bobcats and Babies

Aack! I can't believe that it is almost Thanksgiving! This month has just flown by. In fact, this year is going fast. I was thinking about it this morning--we started the year with an invalid husband and the twins were little babies and we're going to end the year with an invalid husband but the babies have grown so much. They will be 18 months old in December and they are walking and talking (and rubbing toast into their hair in the case of Kenna at the moment)
Anyway, I thought I'd post a few pictures today of Halloween and our San Diego trip. Last week we went down to TEP Park and got H1N1 vaccinations for the kids. We also went to the zoo for playgroup (oh crap, must mail passes along to next group today!!) and did the normal school stuff.
[side note: if there are typos involving an L, please forgive. Kids have got crap in my keyboard and it's hard to type Ls now]
Sunday I got Charles to help me take the kids to the park so that Laney could practice riding her bike. I helped Laney and Charles walked the twins on their leashes. They are so funny. Griffin likes to hold a hand and walk slow so that he can look at everything and maybe pick up rocks or whatever. Kenna is somehow a McNearney/Phillips combo--she's charging ahead to the very end of her leash and walking as fast as she can. She is on a mission! At the park there was a group of older boys (10-12) and they were actually pretty good about playing with the kids. Especially Kenna, since she's a walking talking "baby doll". Is it that boy children don't inspire the same caretaking tendencies? I wonder about that sometimes. Griffin is never the baby for other kids. They just ignore him and he them.
In other news, we haven't seen our resident bobcat for a while, but I haven't got an update from the neighbors in the last couple days. About a month and a half ago I was woken up at about 3 in the morning by these weird noises outside. And I mean weird. Sort of a creaking sound with some croaks and other strange noises thrown in. Although I couldn't figure out what it was, it made me instinctually uncomfortable. Then a few weeks later we started getting reports from the neighbors about bobcat sightings. The bobcat took our neighbors' small dog right in front of them. Just jumped down and grabbed it about 5 feet away from them in their backyard. It also tried to take the next door neighbors' dog, but he chased it off. One of those nights, Laney woke up in the middle of the night and got in bed with me and the noises started again like they were right under the window. This time with more growling, so I figured it was the bobcat (confirmed by Google the next day. The internet is amazing--you can listen to bobcat noises). He's been eating the local bunny population on my other neighbors' patio furniture and shredding the cushions. Charles has been a little freaked out and I haven't been letting the kids play outside early in the morning or at dusk just in case. Kenna is sort of the same size as a small dog after all ;-) Hopefully the bobcat will move on to another locale soon.

Busy Couple Weeks

I might need to do this in several parts because it's been a busy few weeks! We've had Halloween parties, Halloween, Laney's birthday and a trip to San Diego so there ya go. We're trying to get back into the swing of things this week and I think we're all a little tired. The twins have gone back to two naps a day! So working backwards in time...
Today we had dance class and lots of dads were there due to the holiday. Laney missed last week because of our trip so she was a little clueless as they worked through the new "routine" that they are learning. I guess they are doing a little Xmas show. Yesterday I took Laney to the Dr for her 3 year visit and then to school a little late. She weighs 32 pounds and is 36 inches tall. He tested her talking abilities (um, definite pass) as well as physical things. She still can't stand on one foot. I wouldn't say that she is the most coordinated of my children at this point ;-) She was happy to be back in school but had a fight with the teacher's assistant about getting out of the playhouse and hit her! Last week she was in trouble for screaming at her teacher. Preschool is supposed to socialize your children, but I'm noticing a definite decline in Laney's behaviour as she goes to school. I think partially it has to do with the teacher's laissez-faire attitude about the kids interactions. She allows a lot of altercations, which is fine to a point but it encourages aggressive behavior (in my kid!). I don't know. We got our "report card" and they mentioned that Laney needs to learn to ask nicely for things and be less aggressive. If I can't get the other teacher for the twins next year I don't think I will put them into school until they are ready for actual preschool.
side note: I just realized that I spelled behavior in both US and British fashion. I should make up my mind.
Kenna and Griffin are doing great except for G's tragic haircut. Oops. They are starting to talk quite a bit now, especially Kenna. They make me laugh. I cleaned house on Monday and swapped out clothes. Kenna is now in 18 month sizes, sort of. She has things ranging from 9 to 19 months that fit. She's so little in frame that tops sort of swim around on her, but her legs are too long for 12 month pants. She's just dinky.
My brain is tired so I'll add more later.