Apparently, I have two budding fashionestas

I was helping Vanessa with her hair this morning and asked her if she wanted to wear one of her favorite headbands - an adorable pink and blue plaid around-the-head kind with a bow on top. She looked at me and proceed to tell me, "Mom, that is plaid!"

"Ya, so? It is cute and the pink matches your outfit"

"But I am not wearing any plaid. It doesn't match."

"But you have solid pink leggings and a white and pink shirt on. How does it not match?"

"But I don't have any plaid on!"

"Where did you learn about plaid?"

"Katelyn."

She is 6, not 16!

Dear Fashion Designers,

I'm trying to stay on top of my ever-fast-growing children making sure that they are fully clothes in appropriate-sized outfits. Since they are constantly growing, I feel like I am always having to purchase new clothes. Furthermore, our seasons have changed, once again, and now I need to start to prepare for Summer, which means new shorts and shirts, skirts and dresses to buy. I appreciate a well-made item, especially one that is from a good piece of material that I know will handled even the toughest days outside in the dirt and handle the many washings it will have to go through.

However, here is where my struggle begins. I do not want to pay an arm-and-a-leg for ONE piece of clothing. But if I don't, I get shotty quality and material, not to mention inappropriate items. So I'm asking for good-quality, age-appropriate clothing. Demanding, I know. But really, is it too much to ask?

My child is 6 years old and therefore, should dress like a 6 year old. She is not 16 and in High School. She is in KINDERGARTEN. Therefore, I expect her to dress and look like one. She should not be wearing a barely-there swim suit or a t-shirt that says "I'm Hot" or have a need to be covered from head-to-toe in bling. Don't get me wrong, bling is nice, but there is an appropriate age and place for it. But she does not need to be wearing a mini or short-shorts or a tube-top. Please, I wouldn't even wear these things, why would you think I would let my daughter wear them! Where are they bright colors and cute designs? Where are the rainbows and hearts? What about dots or plaids or stripes? Why does everything have to have that already-wore-and-washed-a-million-times look or have a fringed hem?

I know I ask a lot, but I cannot believe that I am the only mom out there who feels like this. Look to higher-end lines for some ideas. Hannah Andersson, Boden or Gymboree are perfect examples...adorable age-appropriate fun outfits, full of color and fun patters and designs. Yes, I could shop these stores exclusively and I am starting to head that way, but replacing a child's wardrobe every few months gets costly. I'm sure there will be a time and a place for what you are producing for young children, but not now. Give them a few years and let them be kids. What's the rush to make them grow up so fast?

Sincerely,
A fashion-conscious and, apparently, conservative, Mom

If only every morning was like this...

My early riser baby bird decided that yesterday her alarm clock went off around 5 AM and so too must mine. Often she'll wake up before the others, and I'm not even sure how she functions on such little sleep she gets overall - naps are short and quality is hit-or-miss, but then again, she is the third and is thriving just fine. On these early mornings, she and I will play in her room having some quality Mommy-Daughter time. To me, it is pretty special that I get a few undivided minutes to be alone with her in a quiet peaceful space. After playing for awhile, Paige decided that it was time to take a little nap.

Since the other girls were still sleeping, I decided to use those few precious minutes to take a quick shower and get ready for the day. I'm in my bathroom when I hear the water running in the other bathroom in the house. I figured that one of the girls was up and we'd all be starting our day shortly. Then Katelyn walks into my room...completely dressed - jumper, socks AND shoes - and informs me that she'd also brushed her teeth, did her hair, made her bed and opened her blinds. SERIOUSLY? Without asking a million times, bribing, or yelling? What happened to my little girl who makes each school morning oh so much fun? And how did you get her to make her bed without asking? Tell me, oh please tell me! Because on Monday morning as she complained about what I made for breakfast, again, or how when I did her hair not to her liking I'm sure the neighbors heard her loud and clear too. This morning Katelyn surprised me again with a beautifully made bed followed by the unsurprising "why do we have to have that for breakfast" comments again.

Now only if this little alien could work some magic on the sassy six-year attitude we have going on...

Thankfully she only has two

A recent conversation I had with Vanessa as we were running late for an appointment...

Me: "Come on...hurry it up!"

Vanessa: "I am...I only have two legs!"

Sorry, this gerbal was on a break, but is now back

It is mind-blowing to me how fast this last year has gone. In many ways, it is rather scary to me how fast each day goes by and how quickly life changes. i just realized that my last post was in February...as in THREE months ago!! Yes, that was many, many, many days and weeks ago. And it's not like nothing has happened in our lives to share, in face just the opposite. But something inside of me was just stuck on auto-pilot on surviving each day and not really thriving. We've been extremely busy, but what family with young children and a busy husband and my own activities isn't? And yes, I could beat myself up for not having even posted the girls birthday letters from January or sharing all about our surprise trip for their birthdays or milestones Paige has reached. What good would that do for anyone, especially for me? So, here I sit on a Saturday night with three little girls asleep and Bill out visiting some old friends and had an urge to pick up the laptop and start writing.

Today marks the one year anniversary of our loss of Jennifer. ONE YEAR. In many ways, it just seems like yesterday, but then I'll stop for a moment and reflect back on all that has happened this last year - Paige was born and she is now almost one year old; Vanessa has turned into a social butterfly; Katelyn is almost a first grader. We miss Jen and remember her often, but also know that she is in a better place. Recently my mom was helping my brother go through some of Jen's clothing and since I am similar in size to what Jen was, I was given some of her clothing. In a jacket that I was given, I wore it out one night and put my hand into the pocket. Inside, I found a ticket stub to one of the last hockey games that she had gone too. Finding this stub made me pause and reflect for a moment, because I know how much she LOVED her hockey and that she wore this jacket to see her team play. And perhaps it was her way of telling me that she is still around and with us. I kept the stub and have it hanging on my fridge, so that I am reminded of her every time I see it.

I feel like I owe it to my girls to go back a few months and capture in print where I left off. I cannot put everything else on hold to get it done, but am going to make a valid attempt. I do this site, not so that I write about the color of the lint in my belly-button, which by the way is lint-free, but so that my girls have a journal of their lives and we can share it all with you, our family and friends. I've never been good at baby-books; I don't scrapbook; I struggle to stay current on e-mails; and it's a challenge to make time for phone calls. Here at least I can record some of the highs and lows of life and hopefully you'll laugh with us on this crazy journey.

Did she take up boxing without us knowing it?

Katelyn came home from school on Friday with the outside area of her eye swollen. Perhaps she had got bitten by a bug or maybe it was the beginning of Pink-Eye. We watched it all weekend continue to swell, but no discharge or extreme pain (as a spider bite often causes). I took her into the urgent care yesterday, which thankfully we were not in need of "urgent care", because this urgent care facility isn't really an urgent care facility at all. They take patients by appointment only, or if you happen to walk in, as a family in the waiting room sitting next to us, you could be waiting hours - as in at least 3 hours like this family (who finally gave up waiting and walked out). While hanging out in the lobby for our "urgent care" appointment, the receptionist was telling a caller that the next appointment was at 7PM that night - as in 7 hours from now. There has always been the thought that if you don't have to go to the ER, then don't...go to an urgent care location to get quicker or easier care. Um, I think going to the ER might actually be faster.

Anyways, since her eye was almost swollen shut when she awoke in the morning and who knows what kind of condition it would be in if I waited until today to take her to see her doctor, we headed in to have it checked out. It is a blah-blah-blah caused by a blah-blah-blah. Got it? Ya, me too. In English, it is a symptom of a sinus infection. In children now-a-days, it is very uncommon to see eye swelling and discoloration to the area, but that's what it is. Being that there are no other symptoms that Katelyn has, I would have never in a million years guessed that is what's going on. She had a cold almost three weeks ago and I thought was free from it, but I guess not. It is a very odd place for this germ bug to hang out, but with medication, it will be gone in a few days.

Smelling Like...Febreze?

Katelyn has the option of wearing a crew-neck cotton sweatshirt or a fleece pull-over. Usually, the fleece wins because it has pockets and what 6-year old cannot live without pockets? What would they do with all of those treasures that they find throughout their day? How would they make sure that their chap-stick gets washes and dried, as it is securely tucked into the zipped pocket? How would they be able to dispose of their snack trash, because apparently there are no trash cans at school? And of course, their hands might just fall off from being so FROZEN without the ability to put them into the toasty warm pocket!

A few days ago, Katelyn was DETERMINED that she was going to wear her fleece to school. Because the other one just wouldn't do. However I had been a little slow on laundry and it was sitting at the bottom of the dirty clothes pile. Since my laundry seems to reproduce on its own, the fleece was sitting under a pretty large pile of stinky clothes. Without regards to potentially offending her classmates or teachers, she dug through the pile and came out victorious. I had decided not to fight this battle - if she wanted to dig through the mound and wear a dirty sweater, it was her choice...after all, she was the one wearing it, not me.

Now here is where my excellent parenting skills comes into play...just to make sure that no one thinks I never wash my children's clothes, I gave her a few sprays of Febreze as she walked out the door. We were laughing as I was doing it, but hey, at least she smelt cleaned!

The Hotel Is Now Closed

There had been a disgusting smell in one part of our home over the last few days. I figured that our pipes had finally bit the dust and we were leaking under the house...yes, it smelt that bad. It wouldn't have surprised me if it was indeed our pipes, as our plumbing stinks. No exaggeration, is just sucks. No actually, that's the thing it doesn't do. It is just worthless. One flush never works effectively, so always requires two. Anything more than one sheet of toilet paper clogs it up, and so you can only imagine how #2 does going down. And with kids, one sheet is nearly impossible, especially when they are learning to wipe completely themselves. Needless to say, we've made friends with our plunger. I tell you, I know how to use that baby like the pros.

I kept asking Bill to go under the house and see what was going on, but it wasn't really a priority to him. At one point today, I had the windows and door open, yet since it was raining and cold, had to keep the heater going so that we wouldn't freeze. Good way to spend money, I know. I think he finally got the hint and made the trip down under. No joke, he was under there for almost TWO HOURS! All the while, he was talking to himself about how bad this was or that was, or moaning about trying to fit through a small tight spot - after all, in one part of our home, the crawlspace is maybe a foot so scooting on your belly is the only way around.

What did he find, you are wondering?

Oh goodies, let me tell you!

Lovely, beautiful, friendly little critters who had decided to make our home's crawlspace their home (puts a new spin on "mi casa, es su casa" doesn't it now!) and now their graveyard. The bag that was brought up was HUGE...filled with not just one dead rat, but 15! FIFTEEN! That's a one AND a five next to each other! That's way more than 1 and almost touching the number 20! That's not just a family of critters, but an entire village, including the neighbors.

GGGGRRRROOOOSSSSSSSS!!!

A budding photographer

I was downloading some pictures and noticed a few additional photos taken by a young photographer in my home - Vanessa. These photos are hilarious! They capture what is important to her - some of her favorite toys, her laptop, the mouse to the laptop, her dolls, and her sister. In all, there were 38! Thank goodness it was digital, otherwise she would have wanted me to change out the film roll for a new one. Seeing the pictures caught me by surprise, but gave me a good laugh, especially since so many of them were taken at crazy angles angles like this one...

Dirt + Pouring Down Rain = One Stinky Dog

I had to temporarily put Riley outside while an angel cleaned my house. He had complete access to the garage, which was warm and dry. But NOOOO, that would just be too miserable.

Someone recently learned...

how to sit all by herself...and she is ready for her throne.

So yummy!

Although these little piggies are incredibly adorable, they're also incredibly difficult to paint. I think there may actually be more paint on her skin than on her nails. And check out those ankle rolls!

Answered Prayers

Today our prayers were answered and they were answered the way we wanted them to be...Riley has returned home to us safely! Apparently, a neighbor about a block away called animal control and he spent the night in the shelter. I am very grateful that this family was watching out for him, making sure that he was kept safe and not wondering the cold dark streets at night. However, if they had just let him be, he would have come right home or Bill would have found him during his five hour search. But regardless, we brought him home this morning and we are one happy family again. Even the girls were jumping when we saw him this morning and Katelyn said grace tonight at dinner thanking Saint Anthony for Riley's safe return. This little adventure that he went on really taught us how much we love him and miss him when he is not with us; after all, he is our first born and will always have a special place with us.

A mother's heart is sad

If you believe in God or Saints or a Higher Power, would you do me a favor tonight? Send a prayer that Riley returns home to us safely. Bill and my dad were outside taking down the Christmas lights and Riley was hanging outside with them. The next thing they knew Riley had decided to take himself for a walk. For the next five hours, both Bill and my dad walked and drove around the neighborhood searching for him. Calls were made to animal rescue and we looked into making "Lost Dog" fliers to be posted in the morning. We wouldn't be too worried if he had his collar on, but of course for whatever reason, he happened to have it off tonight. Perhaps someone took him in for the night and will try to find his home in the morning. I hope that is the case because without his medication, he is more likely to have seizures, and if he is at someone's home, they will not know what to do with him. So let's hope our prayers get answered tonight!

Matching smiles and PJ's while waiting for Santa to come

Every Christmas Eve, we give the girls three gifts to open: a Christmas-themed book, an ornament, and new PJ's. This has become a fun tradition for all of us and one that I hope to continue for years to come. Someday when they have a home of their own, I'll be able to send them with a box of their own ornaments, some fancy, some simple and some to remember a favorite pasttime with. The books perhaps they'll keep for their own children, just as we have several of Bill's Christmas books from his childhood. And the jammies, well they are just something fun.