Super Secret Surprise Day

As our "big" (read=only) Spring Break excursion, I got a smokin' deal to take us to the Family Fun Center (Bullwinkle's) in Wilsonville. We built it up for the kids, telling them we were going somewhere fun on Tuesday, but not where. They asked over and over, but we just said it was going to be a Super Secret Surprise.

When we got there, they still really didn't understand what was going to happen, but over the next 7 hours, we:

• drove/rode in Go Karts
• rode in Bumper Boats
• did the Sky Trail (well, Tristen did)
• played miniature golf
• played Lazer Tag (boys & dad)
• rode the Frog Hopper
• played in Kidopolis (MaraJade)
• played video/arcade games
• ate lunch in Bullwinkle's restaurant

The weather was beautiful, the kids had a blast, Eowyn amazingly slept most of the time in the stroller or on Mom, and it was all-around a pretty great day. It was really nice to be able to do something like this with them, and I hope they remember it fondly - cause it ain't happening again anytime soon. :-)

No, Mace didn't like the Bumper Boats at all - all 3 times. Suuurre.

Tristen on Sky Trail.Tristen with the very nice lady who let him hitch a ride at the end of our long day.

MaraJade & Dad.

A very happy racing Mace! And Dad.

Just a minute before she dropped the sucker on the ground and broke it.

Frog Hopper!

Nice form PJ!

See Tristen's face? PJ had just made a hole in one and Tristen couldn't believe it!

A very cool hole - MaraJade wanted to go in the house.

Eowyn Awake.

And Eowyn Asleep.

Never thought I'd see the day....

Yes, that's my little man, hiding out in the computer chair...........reading.

I think back to when he was a baby and toddler and absolutely refused to still there and let me read to him. And to him as a kindergartener, having battles to get him to say the letter sounds.

I thought for sure he'd never read, but by the end of kindergarten (Mrs. O and Ms. D rock!), he was reading. By the end of first grade, he was doing better than I'd expected. And by this year, he can sound out just about anything.

But I still never thought he'd see reading as anything more than a chore for school. So when I got the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books from the library on a whim, I never expected this. He read the first one in 2 days, the next 2 in about a day each, and just finished the last. I actually had to say, "Put the book down while you eat, please." Seriously! Yippee! And I had visions of myself when I'd go into his room at night to find him snuggled in bed, reading by the dim light of the night light (yeah, bad for the eyes....).

Off to search for more books for him to become immersed in!

Dinner Out

Last night, we were in town waiting for PJ to finish working, and decided to use one of our gift cards (Yay! for gift cards - we could/would never eat at a real restaurant without them!) and go to Harborside for dinner - with all of us.

The kids have been so very sad since Chili's unexpectedly closed down, because that's where we would go for our occasional dinners out and they just loved it. They've gotten pretty good in restaurants in the past year, but I'm still apprehensive when starting out.

Anyway, they were quite good at Harborside - certainly not angels, but I was pleased. Our server seemed sort of standoff-ish about the kids, but I didn't think they'd done anything deserving scorn.

At the end, the kids are huddled together on the heater that runs along the window by our table, warming up while we finish our dessert. They're playing and being goofy together, and our server comes by, stops and looks at them. Oh, no, I think - here it comes. Then she says, "I have never seen such well-behaved kids before. I expect a certain amount of craziness, but they were amazing. Wow." She might just be stroking us for a bigger tip, but that's fine by me - then the ladies at a nearby table chime in that they are totally impressed, as well.

- And now we will take a break for a moment of juvenile smugness and gloating. -

I've had to take some considerable crap over the years from people hinting, strongly implying, or outright saying how "bad" my kids (the boys especially) are, how crazy, wild and out-of-control (none of whom are actually reading this blog, I would imagine).

And so to them, I proudly say, "Ha!" and "Suck it!"

- Back to our regularly scheduled maturity level. -

Time flies.....

Yes, I know everyone says it, and I've always known it's true, but sometimes that truth just slaps you in the face a little harder.

I so clearly remember the days when it was just Tristen, then Tristen and Mace, then Tristen, Mace and MaraJade. The days that seemed to drag on endlessly, with me desperately trying to figure out what I was doing, what to do with kids, how to best take care of them, how to take care of a home at the same time, how to take care of myself, how to have fun with them.....all in the hours while PJ was at work and I was trying to fill the void. It seemed often that the day would never end, I would never have a moment to myself, that the kids must surely be bored to tears, that I would never regain my sanity or figure out this mothering thing.

Don't get me wrong, I know I am so blessed to have been able to stay at home with my kids - I've loved it and wouldn't trade that time for anything in the world. But it was a learning experience, and took me a long while to get the hang of it (well, I'm still figuring some things out...).

And now I can only look back and see all the time I've missed. Tristen is getting baptized, Mace is in kindergarten, Monster will go to preschool in the fall - but it seems that they were all just babies moments ago. How much time did I waste obsessing over behaviors, attitudes, cleaning, training, researching, and whatever else it is I do? How many times did I put them off on doing art projects because I either couldn't just go with the flow or was afraid of the mess? How many games did we not play because we first needed to clean up?

And now, with Eowyn, I'm entering a whole new parenting realm: a baby with school-age kids. It seems I'm constantly on the go. I'm at the school at least 3 times each day, dropping off and picking up. In between those times, I have to figure out how to maintain the house, my other "jobs", plan, shop for and prepare meals, clean and maintain myself and the kids, and somewhere in there - taking up large portions of those dwindling blocks time - I take care of and love on my sweet little baby. That vast expanse of day I used to bemoan has been hacked up and subdivided into tiny parcels of minutes and half hours.

I remember wondering what I was going to do with my day - now I wonder, what can I hope to actually get done? There is so much to do, but no time left. Every day is full of interesting choices: If I eat breakfast, grab a quick shower and dress, I can't work out. If I check my email and maybe update my blog, I can't do the laundry. If I run the errands I need to, I can't do the cleaning I need to. If I get pictures of the baby on to the computer, I can't hold her a little longer. My house is in chaos, I'm behind on everything, and really don't see when I'll ever get caught up again.

And all the while, my babies are growing up and up, at an ever-increasing rate of speed. Why can't it all just slow down a little?

WHAT? How do YOU play Battleship?

Mace and MaraJade play so well together.

Except when they're fighting.

Anyway, lately MaraJade loves playing Battleship - her way - the organized way. And Mace has no problem joining in, once I tell him it's OK to play a different way and to leave her alone!

Eowyn Update

Yeah, I know, I haven't blogged much about this sweet baby at all. It's been a tad busy around here the past few weeks. Oh, and my camera crapped out right after Mace's party, and my backup camera will only hold a charge long enough to snap a couple of shots of anything. Anyway.

She's such a sweet baby, (I'll never understand when people ask, "Is she a good baby?" Really? Am I going to say, "Oh, she's just rotten!" But I guess they're just asking....) aside from the spitting up thing (Really, really hate that). She sleeps well at night, takes up all my time during the day, and is your average happy baby.

She's finally waking up more, which is a good/bad thing. Now that she's not sleeping all the time, she doesn't quite know what to do with herself, aside from eat. But we got a vibrating seat yesterday that she just loves - she actually fell asleep peacefully in it a few minutes ago! Without me! Woo hoo!

I've always said that she has a pleased look about her, and she's smiled at me for weeks now (PJ doesn't believe me), but she's really smiling now (in sporadic bursts), which is so fun. She loves to be with me and follows my voice and presence whenever I'm not holding her (love this, but makes it difficult to ever get anything done).

She's getting huge! Already fits well into her 0-3 month clothes, and probably will be out of those in another 2-3 weeks. Eek! Of course, I just bought a case of 150 size 1 diapers, and she's already starting to ooze out of those. Good planning.

The kids all love her. MaraJade always wants to share her blankie with the baby, Tristen loves on her and wants to hold and carry her, and Mace loves to talk to her in this super high-pitched voice.

So, aside from the having zero time to do anything (what with the constant carpooling, going to various doctor/physical therapy appointments, plus my regular chores/duties - I've got thank you notes to write people!!), it's very nice right now. I'm not losing my mind at all. :)

Asleep! On her own!

One of the only ways she'll sleep without me, propped up on the Boppy - just long enough for a shower for Mom.

Oh, Mace. What ever are we going to do with you?

So today when I picked up the boys from school, I got Tristen, then went to Mace's class. (I do it in this order in case Mace's teacher needs to talk to me - yes, it happens often.) While waiting for Mace to come out, Tristen tells me about how he saw Mace at lunch, "and Mrs. O was holding him real tight, and he was waving and screaming!!" Crap. Then one of Mace's classmates pipes up, "yeah, he was real bad today." Double crap. So when it's my turn, I ask Mrs. O how it went today. Turns out, he's been having "a rough week". According to the other teachers (PE, music, library, etc.) it's been ever since the baby came, but to his wonderful teachers (Mrs. O & Ms. D) who love him and know him best, they say it's only been this week.

Sample Behaviors:

Running up and down the lunch table benches
Repeatedly smacking a classmate with his lunch bag (Quote Mrs. O: Good thing you didn't have one of those ice packs in there!)
Making fart noises with his mouth incessantly (got him kicked out of PE on Tuesday!)

So the teacher asks if anything has changed in the past week or so (sleeping, eating, anything?), and I really can't think of anything. I know he has a hard time in PE because, a) the teacher is young and doesn't have an appreciation for Mace, b) Dude, there are 22 5-6 year olds running around in this giant open space, c) it's a giant open space - really, d) it gets noisy - and when it's noisy, Mace simply can't control himself and just spazzes out.

So we thought maybe something to make it less loud? Earmuffs are out of season, kids' lawnmowing earcovers don't exist, and his giant headphones won't do anything without accompanying music. So I thought, earplugs? We'll see how that works.

PTA meeting was later this evening and we talked some more, and simply can't think what might be going on right now to explain this behavior. What it really boils down to is Mace not taking responsibility for what he does. He knows right from wrong, appropriate behavior from inappropriate, but he just doesn't care to do the right thing. He is willing to take the punishment as it comes to have the fun of doing what he wants. Oh, and because "it's funny!" If he thinks something is funny (fart noises!), you simply cannot get him to stop short of removing him from the room.

When we ask him why he does this, here are his kind of answers:

"Something else was controlling my body!"
"I just have the Sillies."
"It's fun!"

How do you get a super smart 6-year-old to do what he's supposed to? One who doesn't care about the punishment? Who just wants to have fun every waking minute?

We've joked that he'll do fine as long as Mrs. O follows him throughout his elementary years at Campbell. But really, if he doesn't start getting it together, he's just going to be perpetually in trouble at school. I wrack my brain, but simply can't figure out what to do with him.

Sometimes I hate being a responsible grown-up

So my favorite band ever is a-ha (www.a-ha.com). You may remember their hit "Take On Me" from 1985. They had modest success in the US after that, but only for a couple of years. However, internationally, they've been a huge hit ever since. They've made 14 albums, set a world attendance record at a stadium in Brazil, and have had successful solo careers as well. I've loved them ever since the beginning and have done whatever was necessary to get my hands on their import CDs (back before the days of Amazon!).

I've always told myself that if they ever tour anywhere in the US, I'm going to go see them in concert. Well, they are calling it quits after 25 years together, and are playing 2 cities in the US!!!! 4 shows in NYC and LA. And there is just no way I can go. It'll be in May, so I'll have a 4-month-old whom I just can't leave. And even to fly to LA the day of the concert and fly back that night would be about $250, plus the concert ticket and other costs. Not the best use of $350-400 when we have medical bills and regular life to pay for. Crap. PJ told me to make it work, but I just can't rationalize spending that kind of money on a one-time event when it could pay for, say, groceries for a month.

I hate growing up. It kinda sucks.