Days 5 - 11

Wow!  Last week was so crazy, what with Sydney and Ford under the weather, and then parent-teacher conferences at the end of the week.  Sydney did not go to school Monday or Tuesday.  She was well enough to go back to school Wednesday, but Lorelei doesn't have school on Wednesdays, and then no one went to school Thursday or Friday due to conferences.  This has potential to be the longest post ever, so my goal is to tell you I was thankful for each day, as well as update you on what we've been up to.

Wednesday, November 5th: I am thankful for Ford, also known (or better known) as Bubby.  He turned 10-months old on the 5th, and all of a sudden he is like a little boy.  He has four teeth, and two more should come through any day, and he started crawling a couple of days before his 10-month birthday.  I used to think he was super laid back, but now that he is mobile, his dormant I-need-to-get-into-everything and I-suddenly-have-tons-of-energy personas have been unleashed.  I also feel like he's gotten chubbier lately, but Chet's not too sure.  All I know for sure is that he's the best.  Pictures to follow.

Thursday, November 6th: I am ridiculously thankful for washing machines and dryers that allow to us deal efficiently with piles like these (those are clean clothes, I promise):

I used to do one load of laundry a day, but lately I've been doing several loads in a single day (no day in particular, just whenever it needs to get done).  Our laundry room is in the basement, and the guest bed in the basement ends up looking like this as clean loads get dumped onto it and (slowly) get folded and stowed away.  Can you imagine having to carry clothes to the river and scrub them against rocks? And then, did they carry the wet clothes back home before hanging them to dry?  Because that would be super heavy.  Granted, people had less extensive wardrobes then, but I try not to complain about laundry, because we've got it good this day in age.

Friday, November 7th: I am so thankful for my husband, Saint Chester, who kept our three children by himself with nary a complaint or beady-eyed look as I sashayed off to New York City to visit my friend Lindsay.

Saturday, November 8th: I am thankful for this great country, where people from so many different cultures/walks of life and with amazing talents live in perfect harmony (okay, now I'm being facetious, but we live much more harmoniously than most countries).   New York City is such a microcosm of the American melting pot, and I love that I got to spend the weekend exploring the city with a "native" New Yorker (she's not really a native, but she lives there now and knows much more about it than any person I've ever been to NYC with before).  By the way, your eyes are not deceiving you: I spent the weekend in New York City, sans children.  Lindsay came to visit us in D.C. in June, and we've been planning on me visiting her in the fall.  I'm so glad we were able to make it happen, and that Chet is super dad and willing and able to let me go.

So what did Lindsay and I do in the city all weekend?  Her husband was tied up with a work project, so we girls painted the town red, which means that we drank lots of coffee and bellinis, ate amazing food at every single meal (mostly French food, for no particular reason), and shopped 'til we dropped (although we didn't buy much -- honestly!).  We didn't do anything remotely touristy (not that I'm opposed to that), and the break from herding children was exactly what I needed.  I really hope I can visit Lindsay again before we leave D.C. (by the way, I took an Amtrak train from Union Station to Penn Station -- it was such a straightforward means of travel, and I loved it!).

Chocolate chip pumpkin French toast (with pumpkin on top) for breakfast

Bellinis

A Birchbox store, for those of you familiar with Birchbox

Central Park, with Lindsay's English bulldog, Tango

This is all the photographic evidence (hardly any) of my visit to NYC.  So sad.

Monday, November 10th: Even though I loved visiting NYC, I would not like to live there, especially not with small children.  I didn't realize how much "green" space there is in the D.C. area until I got away from it.  Alexandria in particular feels like living in the country compared to New York, and I now have a greater appreciation for our yard and for the numerous parks just a short distance away.

While I was gone, Chet took advantage of that green space.  He took the kids to our neighbor's soccer game on Saturday morning, and to the park on Sunday:

He also proved that he is a braver and more tolerant person than I am by letting three extra neighborhood kids play at the house:

The man deserves a medal.

Tuesday, November 11th: I think it's safe to say we're all thankful for our Veterans today.  Those who have served, and are currently serving.  Chet and I took Bubby to Starbucks this morning, where we enjoyed our free coffee:

Day 4: Books

In case you were wondering, we all slept gloriously last night (Ford only got up twice, which is good for him).  I was beginning to wonder if the girls had snuck out their bedroom window they were so quiet.  The cold symptoms are not completely gone, but a good night's sleep is a sign that we're on the road to recovery.  I kept Sydney home from school today (she stayed home Monday too), but she'll go back tomorrow, and boy is she glad.

Today I am thankful for books.  And libraries.  And electronic devices that give me instant access to any book ever written.  I feel like I've been in a bit of a reading rut the last couple of weeks, but this afternoon I finally finished Atonement by Ian McEwan, which made me feel super accomplished.  I saw the movie years ago and  remember liking it (it was kind of dark and depressing, which, truth be told, intrigues me), but I had heard (mostly) good things about the book and wanted to read it too.  (From what I've gathered, Ian McEwans's books are either loved or hated.)  The storyline itself was dark, depressing, and intriguing, but the author's style of writing sort of fell flat for me.  And I have a hard time not finishing a book after I start it, so I knew I would read it 'til the end, even though I didn't love it.  I may give Ian McEwan another chance though, because I'm interested in reading his book Enduring Love, which I cannot remember if I saw (it's a movie too), but I definitely remember seeing the previews for.

This post is probably super boring, but I'm super tired, so that is my excuse.  ;-)

What are you reading?

Modern(ish) Medicine and (Relatively) Good Health

Today, November 3rd, I am thankful for mostly modern medicine and the overall good health of my children.  That being said, all three of them have colds, in varying degrees of nastiness.  Sydney's is the worst, then Bubby's; Lorelei brings up the rear with minor cold symptoms.

I took Sydney and Ford to the doctor this afternoon, just to make sure it wasn't anything worse than what I suspected.  Here's a list of our manage-the-symptoms tactics:

• Sydney and Lorelei received a teaspoon of honey about an hour before bedtime, as well as Hyland's nighttime cough and cold medicine (I'm not sure if that stuff even works, but I feel like it's worth a try).
• Sydney also received a dose of Tylenol, because she's the only one running a (low-grade) fever, and she seemed miserable.
• Sydney and Lorelei have the off-brand version of Vicks VapoRub slathered onto their chests and the bottoms of their feet (I'm not sure if that works either, but, again, worth a shot).
• Sydney and Ford happily (not!) had saline shot up their noses in order to rid of some of the gunk.
• Sydney and Lorelei have lotion and chapstick smeared all over the bottom half of their faces and lips (it seems like everything from the nose down gets chapped when they have colds).
• Both kids' rooms have humidifiers blowing ultrasonic steam in their faces.

Hopefully these remedies keep them comfortable and asleep (unlike last night).

Ford (chewing on a baby wipe) and Syd at the doctor:

Two Things on Day 2

Whew!  I wasn't sure I'd have a chance to post something today, but the kids are in bed and here I am!

Today I am thankful for two things:

1.  Chet's mom (Grammy), whose birthday is today.  Happy birthday, Mom/Grammy!  She is a special lady, and I am proud to be her daughter-in-law.  She is a very talented seamstress, and it seems that Sydney has picked up on the fact that I rely on her sew things every time she is in town.  Case in point: a couple of days ago I noticed a small hole in one of Syd's knit dresses, right in the middle of the dress (as opposed to a hole in the seam).  Sydney announced, quite bossily, "Well, we better send this to Grammy so that it can get fixed."  Perhaps I should have taken the comment personally, since Sydney obviously has no confidence in my ability to rectify anything having to do with a thread and needle.  But I did not take it personally, because the only thing Sydney has ever witnessed me doing that resembles sewing is using a seam ripper to remove Chet's name tags from his old uniforms.  Touché, Syd, touché.  Then, just a few minutes ago and out of the blue, Sydney said, "Grammy is a great grandma because she can sew lots of things."  Thoughtful pause.  "She must be tired!"

2.  I am thankful for the wonderful church we found.  In fact, just this morning we transferred our membership from our Gulfport church to our current church.  We try not to waste too much time getting involved in a church each time we move, and we always transfer our membership once we find the right church.  This makes sense for us, because it helps us to fully engage in our current church, and since we do not really have a "home" that we plan on returning to (who knows where we'll end up once Chet is retired from the Navy), there's no reason for us to remain members at any particular church.  Anyway, it was nice that we finally took that step.  Our next step is to do a baby dedication for both Lorelei and Ford.  Sydney was dedicated at our church in Jacksonville when she was about three months old, but Lorelei fell through the cracks (it took us a while to finally transfer our membership to the Gulfport church, and also because of Chet's crazy deployment schedules).  Sorry, middle child!

I mentioned that our friends Jed and Paige were in town this weekend to visit us.  We had a lovely time with them, and were sad to see them leave.  On Saturday we all headed to the National Children's Museum (the weather was cold, rainy, and windy) for the kids to get some energy out.  I think it goes without mentioning that such outings are downright pleasant when there are four adults and three children (one child per adult, and an extra adult to carry the diaper bag).  Here are a couple of pictures from the museum visit:

Twins

Sydney and Lorelei are on the set of bunk beds that were part of a "bedroom" display at the museum. It was by far their favorite exhibit.  Little do they know that their twin beds at home are actually bunk beds (I'm sacrificing floor space in their room for not having a heart attack).

I hope y'all had a great Sunday!

A Month of Thankfulness (and Halloween pics)

An excerpt from this blog, November 2, 2012:

Each year during the month of November, many of my Facebook friends post something they are thankful for each day.  I'm going to do the same thing, but on this blog rather than Facebook.  It will challenge me to write each day of the month!

I'm going to do the same this year, and I'm so excited to start!  I'm starting off with a bang, because there are three things I am thankful for today:

1.  Chet's Grandma Jean.  Today is her 90th birthday, so even though she doesn't read this blog, I'd like to sort of dedicate this post to her and mention how thankful we are for her, and for all of the other wonderful women in our family.  Grandma Jean is a fun lady, and I wish we could see her more often (she lives in Arizona).

2.  As always on November 1st, I am ridiculously thankful that Halloween is over!  I am always so excited to pull out the Halloween garb on October 1st (toys, books, shirts, socks, bows, etc.), but by October 31st (actually, before that) I am OVER IT.  Despite all of my Halloween Grinch tendencies, this Halloween was more fun than I expected, because this is the first year that Sydney (and therefore Lorelei) really understood costumes and trick-or-treating.  They had their own opinions about how to dress up, and their excitement was contagious (sometimes when you have young kids that don't really understand holidays it's just downright exhausting to be excited enough for everyone).

3.  I am so thankful for the amazing neighborhood we live in.  I am in awe, daily, that God landed us in this small (but functional) house with plenty of character, on a street with several great families, and in an area that is so close to Chet's work.  It was truly an answered prayer.

On that note, here are a bunch of the neighborhood kids before trick-or-treating began:

Several neighbors were taking pictures with really nice cameras and at a better angle, so I will post more pictures once I get those via e-mail.  

Before I go on, I have to mention that there was a little bit of Halloween drama in our house earlier in October over a Halloween costume.  We took the girls to TJ Maxx to pick out their costumes; Lorelei chose Tinkerbell and Sydney chose Rapunzel (the costumes at TJ Maxx were not actually advertised as Tinkerbell, Rapunzel, etc., but it was obvious what the costume was supposed to be, and they were GORGEOUS).  Anyway, Sydney wanted to be a mermaid, but the only mermaid costume available was a size 6X, and way too big for Sydney.  So she tried on a few more costumes (including Elsa and Snow White) and chose the Rapunzel costume.  However, a few days after the purchase, Sydney started voicing doubts about her choice ("voicing doubts" is a nice term for "whining").  So we returned the costume and decided to wait a little while before choosing another.  A few days later she said she wanted to be a witch, and she didn't mention dressing up as anything else (there was no way I was going to deal with her changing her mind over and over before Halloween).  Target happened to have four different witch costumes, and would you believe that the cheapest costume ($15) was the cutest one they had?  The witch hat was included, and I bought the costume while they were running a buy one get one free sale, so the broom was completely free.  Go me!

Here are the girls in their original costumes, the day after we purchased them:

Lorelei was so proud to be Tinkerbell; I admire her confidence in her decision.

Here's Syd in her newly-purchased witch costume:

And here are pictures from last night:

Our friends Jed and Paige are in town visiting, so Chet and Jed took the girls trick-or-treating while Paige, Bubby and I stayed at home to hand out (and eat) candy.

Do you like Bubby's candy corn costume?  I found the hat at Target (it had an orange flower sewn to it that I had to cut off), and we dyed the bottom half of a white onesie orange.  Here's a visual explanation of that process:

I hope everyone had a safe and happy Halloween!  

Thursday

Go ahead and give me a high five for that creative blog post title.  In my defense, the images you are about to see are so random that no word exists to link them.

Fall is incredibly beautiful in this part of the country.  I love that the leaves change colors, fall from the trees, and decorate the ground.  Many people in our neighborhood pay for lawn care, and this is an image (taken through the window from inside our house) of the across-the-street neighbors having their yard mowed and leaves blown.  Look closely, and you will count FIVE leaf blowers in action, and two extra workers pulling some sort of tarp looking thing (I have no idea what those two are actually doing, but I wanted to mention them so that you would know that SEVEN men were simultaneously tacking this one yard).  Believe me when I tell you that seven men can mow the front and back yard, and blow and bag leaves in fifteen minutes flat.  It's like yard ballet.

Here is the scooter brigade.  These kids love to scooter to school, and they're all quite good.  Lorelei is riding her brand new birthday scooter; Syd is borrowing the neighbor's scooter, but will be getting her own for Christmas.

(Sydney appears freakishly tall in this picture.  She is the exact same age as the girl to her right and the boy in the red jacket.)

Lorelei doesn't go to school on Wednesdays, so we scooted/wagoned (not a word) to school Wednesday afternoon to pick up Syd.  Coming home was "fun," in that Lorelei was too tired to scoot home, but didn't want to let Sydney borrow her scooter, which meant that I had to carry Ford in one arm and pull the wagon with the other (with two heavy girls and a scooter inside).

Ford is well now (he was sick the last two days Papa John was here), but Papa John and I went out and about one morning while the girls were in school.  Tell me this isn't the sweetest thing you've ever seen:

Happy early Halloween!  (I can't wait for it to be over!)

Gymnastics

Today Lorelei started her first organized activity: gymnastics!  I think she has great balance (although she seems to constantly trip and fall, hmm...) and is built like a gymnast -- at least more so than Sydney ;-)  (In case you read this some day and feel offended, Syd, you are built like a beautiful ballerina, and Lorelei is not.  Does that make you feel better?)

Back in May when Sydney completed her gymnastics session, I said that she would not do gymnastics again, unless perhaps she begged me once she was older.  However...here we are, and both girls are signed up.  This is because the class is for 3-4 year olds, and this is the only session where they both qualify age-wise.  Instead of only enrolling Lorelei and creating a situation where I had to entertain a complaining Sydney ("I want to do gymnastics too!"), I enrolled them both.  Bubby and I both appreciate the peace, and I am already mentally preparing myself and storing up patience for when the new year rolls around and Lorelei is the only gymnast (since Syd has dance all to herself, she's just going to have to learn to deal).

Anyway, Lorelei did great, and here are some pictures (we cannot watch, so I have no action shots):

Eating sandwiches before class while staring longingly at the adjoining playground.

Saying, "Gymnastics!" and clapping. The gym is behind them.

And Bubby, for good measure.