Project Drool

I so want to get around to trying some of these projects:

• this house
• these decorations,
• or these
• or these
  
• valentines
• this quilt
  
• this advent calendar
• nesting block
• mobile
• fabric bucket
• for Raph
• for the beach
• napkins
• soap for kids
  
• counting bean bags

You'd think I have time on my hands or something...

Makili's Big Race

We've had a real Americana weekend so far around here. I'll get around to part II tomorrow, but the big race last night was definitely a slice of Americana. We were asked to attend this car race by the homeschoolers down the street, to whom I teach writing. I thought it was a homeschooler thing, but it turned out to be a church thing. Categorically, I'm not against church functions, and this was fun, though there was a speech in the middle which honestly Raph and I found sort of entertaining. At one point, the speaker asked "Who wrote the bible?" The kids in the audience were giving really logical answers like "Christians" and "the disciples." After telling the kids that they were wrong, the speaker went on to say that God wrote the Bible. I didn't point out that this was historically inaccurate.

Anyway, we had a lot of fun. I carved our car (really a flatbed truck with an excavator on top) in less than a day, gashed my hand twice with my fancy carving tools. It's for the kids, right? Seeing all of the other cards was VERY fun! Note the Washington Monument Car in the background! (There were a lot of "America" cars - military vehicles, monuments, etc.)
There was a lot of waiting around, but we didn't mind because they gave us nachos and fried dough - again, real Americana.
Finally, our turn.
We raced four times. Sadly my hand-carved car didn't make it to the finish line even once. But who is counting anyway?

Sadness for a two-year old

Makili is very interested in the concept of sad. He constantly asks if someone in a book or a movie is sad. I was just listening to Pandora and a Dolorean song. Makili asked if he was sad, and I said "yes, he's sad." A few moments later he asked, "did his mama leave him?" I chuckled and said, "no, he loved a girl and the girl left him." A few minutes later he asked, "did the girl have to go to work?" He makes me smile when he's not driving me nuts.

Today was LONG

It has been a BUSY week and it is starting to catch up with me. It was long day. The highlight of which was chatting with our newest niece Olivianne Josephine Matty, who was born on Tuesday? on the internet. The low point today was a pile of poop in a pair of underwear. And then all those points in between just blurred together. Though I haven't forgotten when Makili fed Remick our dinner (vegetables wellington - puff pastry - the works) when we weren't looking. Raph actually asked me in all seriousness if I gave Remick some of it because it was all over him. At least they're cute.

I take it back.

Well, I said that Remick was sleeping though the night. It took me a week to get used to it and actually be able to sleep myself. And here I am again, up in the middle of the night because the little bugga will not sleep. Not with my help, not without it. Boy is he frustrating me. At least I'll get some crocheting done, right? And blogging. And I picked up the toys a bit. So I'm also going to take back saying the Makili was potty trained because I don't want him to make me a liar too. Okay? Noone sleeps though the night (because last night NOONE did - not even Makili, the soundest sleeper on the planet. He woke up telling me his feet hurt??? his feet?) and we all crap in our pants. Okay. They can make me a liar now.

ps: look at the thighs on this child!

Trained!

What do you do when your potty training child falls asleep in the car with no diaper on? If you're Raph, you just slap that diaper on outside his pants.Here is my triumphant little guy a few days a go on his throne. Since then, we've officially abandoned the little potty and all diapers except for nap time and bed time. We even went all the way to the Museum of Science yesterday in Boston with no accidents! What a big boy!!!

Makili says

Makili cracks me up. I was just telling him that he was a nice boy. He smiled and then said, "pirates are not nice." Then a few second later he said, "Santa's nice."

Yesterday he looked at me with a mean face and said, "I'm a crazy boy!"

When I ask him a question and he doesn't know the answer, he used to shake his head no or say no. Then he progressed to saying, "I don't know." Now he emphatically says, "I don't want to talk about it!"

Sometimes, he comes over to me and looks me squarely in the eye and says, "I want to hang out with you." So sweet.

Big Week

So as of this week, Remick sleeps through the night and fully crawls, though not quickly yet, thank god! AND the big news.........

Makili uses the potty! I really have Raph's aunt Gina to thank for this. It has been on my list of things to do, since I knew he could basically do it from my last attempt, which we sort of abandoned over the holidays. But, he never really handled having pants on very well. It was as though if he had something on him he though it meant he could just let it all go... But Gina watched my kids on Wed so that I could go to my Master Gardener class (so cool!). When I came home, Makili ran to me to tell me that he had peed on the potty! And he's been doing it ever since! He poops on the potty. He uses the potty when we're out! We've had a couple accidents, including one really gross pile of poop in his brand new pajamas, but we're learning! (Retrospectively, that one was my fault...) I am SO excited!

I just asked him why he wasn't wearing a diaper, and he said, " Cause I want to be a big boy like Daddy." God is he cute.

There was a little bribery too by the way. I had to take him to Walmart yesterday to buy him a tractor after his first poop on the potty! We are super excited around here!

Officially a trend!

Four consecutive nights of something in the vicinity of 8:30-5. I am beyond happy about it.

Family Photos

I took some photos of our friends' family for them last weekend. I think they turned out really well... And it was FUN!

My kind of snow!!!

I finally taught Makili to like snow. It helped that it was 32 degrees. I rolled in the snow. Jumped in the snow. Made snow balls, snow angels, and "Opa Snowman." We walked and hid in the snow. And when I was tired, I sent for reinforcements. Raph came out and built a snow mountain that they slid down over and over again. It is beautiful outside. The predicted 1-2 inches is close to six inches. It hasn't stopped snowing all day. Beautiful slow-motion snow. Lovely.

Oh. My. God.

After seven months of TERRIBLE sleep, Raph and I have had it. It would be one thing if Remick were consolable in the middle of the night, like if I nursed him he'd go back to sleep. But NO. I have held him crying in the middle of the night for over an hour. After Friday night, we agreed we couldn't go on like this.

So we let him cry on Sat. I went to a play (which was AWESOME!) and when I came home Remick was crying. Not loud or frantic or anything, more whiny, complaining. Raph said he had been crying for 20 minutes or so. He tells me to go lay down in Makili's room, which I do. I laid in bed in agony listening to Remick's crying ramp up. I was suffering. He was suffering. I knew Raph would be disappointed with me if I caved on our agreement. So it went on. Eventually he stopped working on his midterm, came in the room, put on some music to help me block out the crying. We had agreed I could go in at 2:00, since that would have been 7 hours since the last time I nursed. But, the next thing I knew, I woke up and it was 5:30! My boobs were about to fall off my chest, but there was no crying! I woke him up to nurse. And he went right back to sleep to 7:30.

I was prepared for worst again last night. He went to bed at 8:30. Quietly and without much fuss. I waited for the crying to commence. And I waited. I woke up at 4:00 am, having gotten more sleep in one shot than I have in over half a year. I couldn't sleep, but there was still no crying. He woke at 5:00! (that's 8.5 hours), nursed and went back to sleep. I won't pretend that I expect more nights like that, but oh my god! Can you believe that! I am so thankful!

Some Days.

Some days are like this...





And some days are like this...

Winter

I'm having a winter moment. I'm actually having an over-winter moment. I am over the 700 square feet that is suffocating me, feeling like I am constantly trying to dig out of a mountain of dishes and laundry and toys and diapers, as these things continue to rain down on me. I'm over forgetting about, then restarting the fire, lugging wood, sweeping sawdust, then forgetting about the fire all over again, and being annoyed to have to restart it. Here are some numbers about my week:

1 - Number of times I have already had to go outside today to get wood (it's only 7:30.)
2 - Number of days the current load of laundry has been wet in the washer.
3 - Number of hours of sleep I got last night.
4 - Number of times I had to restart the fire yesterday.
5 - Number of minutes I was in the car yesterday before the brake was clearly not working right, which will cost between 2 and 6 hundred dollars to fix. Extra winter bonus.
6 - Number of times in the last 10 minutes that Remick has tried to crawl and then started to cry because he's stuck on his belly.
7 - Number of times this week I had to change sheets because one of my children peed through his diaper on the bed.
8 - Number of days this week that I wished it was closer to spring. (that's how little sleep I got.)
9 - Number of times Makili said "Mama, please play with me" in the last 10 seconds. He does this ALL day long.
10 - Number of dollars I have left to spend this month under our new budget.


Of course, we've had some nice winter moments. Here are some recent pictures from skating on the pond with the McCall and Rohan clans. And it is getting a bit warmer. Above freezing anyway. "Warm" spell.

Frontal Lobes. And some snot.

My morning sunshine...

Mr. Independiente

This guy has been Mr. Independent lately. After I have a go brushing his teeth, he likes to do it him self.He wields this stool like a champ, whipping it into whatever corner it might be needed to climb up and see. He is officially in charge of getting himself water when he wants it.
His language continues to change rapidly. I will miss the laughing about him saying, "I want to press the butts on the peter." (buttons on the computer) or "foon" (spoon) or the million other little ways his language reminds us he is still a baby even though he is getting so big and independent.

Matching Sweaters

Remick and his Dad have matching sweaters, which is pretty awesome. I have of late decided that in fact Remick has my personality. He is entirely pissed off that he can't crawl. And he does sort of come close and scoot around sort of, but in his estimation it needed to happen five minutes ago and it is entirely too slow! Impatience that sort of sounds like me...He's in a real mama phase at the moment, and whines and cries if I set him down, like to go to the bathroom for example. He has been sleeping quite a bit better, waking once or twice a night. Until pretty recently, he would be easy to put back to sleep, but all of a sudden, it now seems to take him forever! This is on the agenda of things to address!
He's pretty cute.

Old Friends

I was lucky enough to get a visit from my friend Emma and her mom over Xmas break. It was great. She was great. It's so fun to see your friends grow and change and to think about the people that we once were.

Today He Made Me Laugh

This is my little engine man right after Christmas with his entire car/tractor collection. It is a bit disgusting, I admit, but what can you do with so many generous aunts and uncles and grandmas and grandpas, and friends, and Santa. It all adds up you know! (We are currently secretly rotating them for sanity's sake.)

Anyway this guy has been cracking me up today. My day started out kind of rough - scrubbing Remick's poop out of my sheets. Yeah, that's a rough start. My day also included picking up a waterproof mattress pad too, btw. Anyway, I was prepared for a rotten day, but it turned out to be a good one. Makili has been making me laugh all day.

While at Annma and Paka's over Xmas, he saw the movie "Cars" which as you can imagine was a hit. Paka promptly went and bought it for him and it has been on nonstop up there since. I finally had to pull the plug after 48 straight hours of Cars. Anyway, now that we're home, he's really been talking about Cars a lot, and today, he looked around and said, "Where'd the TV go?" As if we'd ever had one!

Later he starts walking around picking things up saying "I want our house to be clean." Of course, I'm thinking, "BE MY GUEST!"

And later, he asked for mango, even though it wasn't fully ripe. I cut it up for him and put the long slices into a bowl. They weren't juicy, so he went and laid in the bed with the bowl on his stomach lazily savoring each slice, saying, "This is good..."

He's so damn cute.

Ploy Isabella Huber

Ploy was born on December 27, 2009. (Better late than never with the pics...sorry Ariel!)

Reflections and Hopes

I have so much to post at the moment, and my Dad gives me a hard time if I go a few days with no posting, but I really wanted to pause and think about this last year and what I look ahead to in 2010. I had hoped to put on a slideshow from 2009, but I have too much on my plate at the moment, so instead, here are a few pictures of our snowy hike yesterday. Raph and I decided that we wanted to start 2010 off outside as a family, so we did a mile hike. Makili hiked about 1/4 of it and got a sled ride for the rest. Our family picture turned out a little blurry and without much Remick. Oh well. Makili and Remick both fell asleep, and yes there was a bit of whining and crying at the beginning, but ultimately we had a great time and it was beautiful.




In the car yesterday, Raph and I discussed our "highlights of 2009." I know I'm forgetting some, but I thought I record a few. In no particular order.

Highlights of 2009:

• Remick's birth (duh!) - we both have fond memories of the midwife and the nurses on call and having many people visit us. More than anything the elation the moment he was born.
  
• Getting to spend a month with my niece, Brittany, who came to help us out after Remick was born. Specifically swimming in the tidal water at Crocket Neck and Newfound Lake in NH. Making ceramic frames with her. Watching her pitch with the Matty's. Playing soccer with her. Raph watching the storm approach with her in Bramford. Hiking Rattlesnake Mtn with Brittany and Ann.
  
• Christmas - skating on the pond, Makili's excitement
• Makili swimming in a pool for the first time for his 2nd bday.
  
• Raph new job, which has been a terrific fit thus far
• Soccer - Raph and I have both begun playing in a league and that has been wonderful for both of us.
• The Beal convergence in Maine in October. Meeting Luke and Faith.
  
• Our annual Fourth of July party - wild weather and so many family and friends we love (and good Beal representation!)
• Watching Makili delight in dumping water on my Dad's feet over and over again at Fort Foster.
• The Tobey Family Reunion at the barn where Raph's great great grandfather worked and lived.
• Completing the greenhouse and getting the pile of building materials and trash out of the driveway!
• Feverishly "making" for the craft fair at the beginning of December.
• Potting and repotting 297 tomato seedlings with Tim and Tamara (even if they all got wiped out by the blight)
• Bagels. Ann's bagels specifically.
• Terrific success with garlic, potatoes, leeks, onions, and brussel sprouts. And raspberries and pears.
  
• Trip to New Orleans in March, a place I'd always wanted to go!
• Playing late-night bananagrams in The Friendly Toast with Ethan and his girlfriend Christina.
  
• Taking 25 exchange students skiing last Feb. (and we're gearing up to do it again!)
• Drinking loads of sun tea and soaking up family love in Bramford in August.
• Sharing many amazing meals with Tim and Tamara, godparents.
• Having Makili get to spend a big block of time with my mom while she was here waiting for Remick's birth. Specifically I can just picture the two of them in the pouring rain in their rain coats, Makili jumping in puddles, and my mom soaking wet in her non-waterproof coat.
  
• Playing in the tidepools at York Beach with the McCall clan.
• Makili's tractor costume. Trickortreating with the Masterson's. The outdoor train set-up was pretty great.
  
• Meeting my newest (not for long!) niece, Kaylee.
• The ultimate frisbee competition, with custom designed frisbees, in Arkansas, last Feb.
• Watching Larry share his love of tractors, and engines in general, with Makili.
• Watching Makili's language unfold.
• Playing with Kane in the leaves at the Weyant's house in November.
  
• Placing 16 exchange students.
• Larry changing a poopy diaper.
• Seeing John and Gwen, Hawaii friends, in November. We're really making a plug that they move back East!!!
  
• Being present at the 4th annual Blackpointe Chowdafest. Sitting on the rocks in the sun with good friends - Camille, Emma, Becky. Seeing Camille and Pascal together.
  
• Running a 5k for the first time.
• Kayaking to the lighthouse with Raph and Makili.
  
• Meeting Raph's cousin's newest baby this week - Ploy Isabella Huber (pix to come.)

This list grew as I started typing it, and could probably grow more, but I need some sleep. So the "goals for 2010" will have to wait until tomorrow.