Life Lately

It's been a busy past couple of days and I feel as if I am having more and more trouble keeping up with this little blog. My excuse? I have about 1 hour where the kids are not crawling all over me.

One hour. I love my children endlessly, but sometimes I need some space.

That one magical hour usually begins at 9:00 PM and I feel almost giddy thinking about how I should possibly spend it. Reading? Praying? Watching a non-cartoon movie? Eating a meal? Taking a shower? Sitting and just enjoying the quiet? However, despite all my wild plans, by then the husband is usually feeling a bit needy and requires me to lend my ear to his work frustrations while I simultaneously re-inflate his ego with one of my inspirational pep talks. And then I'm too exhausted to do anything else.

The hours between 10:00 PM and 6:30 AM are spent sleeping, although even those few precious hours of restful bliss have been disturbed lately by my eldest shining his Buzz Lightyear flashlight into my face at 5:00 AM just to tell me "I wake up, Mommy!" I need to figure out how to get that kid to sleep in longer.



Both kids love to "help" unload the dishwasher. I imagine their passion for
this activity will end the moment they are actually capable of doing chores.

Anyway, enough of my complaining. Here are some highlights of some happenings and general musings from the past week:

1. Last weekend, we traveled down to Columbus, OH to visit my sister, brother, and sister-in-law. My sister Catherine is getting married next January and finally had a weekend off work to shop for a wedding dress. She had all of her bridemaids plus Mom, Sophie, and Baby Emma come along to help find the perfect dress. Although our lovely bride-to-be was definitely overwhelmed by the large selection of dresses and the mass chaos inside the store (there must have been about 100 frenzied brides and their posses crammed into that small space), she swiftly found the perfect dress on the third try. There were plenty of tears of joy as she exclaimed: "Well! I look pretty good!" It was easier than any of us thought it would be.

2. After finding the bride's dress, we set about to select a gown for the bridesmaids. We tried on one gown of Catherine's choice and all loved it. Done! Then we went out for margaritas to celebrate.

3. Baby Emma was truly taken by all the glitz and glamor of the bridal salon. She wanted to touch everything sparkly, lacy, and fluffy. I'm already a bit worried. She seems to love to shop!

4. After spending some time with Catherine, I headed over to the home of my brother Michael and sister-in-law Maria. Paul and Matthew were already there as they had been spending the afternoon with Michael and Maria while the rest of us were out shopping. Michael and Maria made us a delicious Pad Thai for dinner followed by a fantastic strawberry pie for dessert. Then they asked Paul and I to be the godparents of their new little baby due at the end of March and we could not feel more honored!

5. Speaking of babies, all of our children seemed to get along so well together. It made me so happy to see the little cousins playing together as I was never close to my cousins while growing up. At one point, all three kiddos were jumping on a mattress together and it was the funniest sight!



The three amigos: Cousin Michael, Matthew and Emma. They played so well together!

6. When we arrived back in Erie, Baby Emma decided it was time to climb the stairs for the first time. Now it is her favorite activity. Fantastic.

7. I am realizing that I am going to have to stop calling Baby Emma a baby pretty soon. She is heading quickly towards toddlerhood. She needs to slow down!!!! I'm not ready!

8. Emma is also eating way more food than Matthew. She would be eating all day if we let her. She's got a pretty non-discriminating palate. I caught her eating crayons the other day (and enjoying them!).

9. Paul and I had a great night out for Valentine's Day. After polishing off a delicious dinner of sushi and wine, Paul suggested that we go see a movie. We headed over to the theater but saw that the only movie playing before 10:00 PM was the LEGO movie. That certainly explained the legions of children running all around the lobby. We went to the grocery store instead to pick up a few things we needed (like coffee and antacids because we are 80) and then headed home. We are lame.

10. Matthew has been really into listening to books on CD. He loves reading along with the narrator and turning the page when prompted. However, our library has a very limited selection of books available in this format. This means that we have been checking the same books out over and over again. Don't get me wrong, Kelsey Grammer does a fantastic job reading The Cat in the Hat but listening to it about 200 times over is really pushing it.

11. You know it's been a long winter when 38 degrees feels tropical. Oh summer, come quickly!

12. I have been addicted to parsnips as of late. Luckily, the rest of the family seems to love them as well. We've been chowing down on roasted parsnips, pan-seared parsnips with carrots, parsnip soup, and parsnip puree. I can't get enough!

13. My kids are addicted to popcorn. They both love to watch the air popper do its thing and then battle it out to see who can stuff more fistfuls of popped kernels into their mouths. Baby Emma usually wins. This is probably unsurprising considering what I wrote about Ms. Roly-Poly in #8.

 

 

14. I've been really enjoying watching the Winter Olympics during my aforementioned one hour without the kids. I did happen to turn the television on while we were eating lunch the other day and there was some event going on where women were skiing around and then pausing temporarily to shoot at things. It was bizarre. I didn't really understand it. But apparently I am alone in my confusion. I mentioned seeing this event to Paul and he replied with unabashed disbelief: "You've never heard of biathlon?! It's really, really cool!" Which basically means that I am very uncool. I think I'm just going to stick to watching uncool (aka normal) events like alpine skiing and figure skating in the future.

Have a great weekend, everyone!