"Mommy made me a birthday!"

(Ava to her dad after seeing her birthday decorations)

I can't believe Ava is two today. It has gone by so quickly! She has been a real whirlwind and a joy. I can't imagine life without her.


She is still super busy and active. Her latest thing has been to color on everything-- walls, carpet, cabinets, tables, you name it. She always admits to it and acts very contrite ("that was naughty" she'll say in this cute downcast voice), then does it again right away. She brought me a book to read one afternoon, and lo and behold, on each page was at least one little scribble, usually over the princesses eyes. With each page turn she would say "Ava did it. That was naughty." So cute but I think its getting time to lock away the coloring things!

She is way into princesses right now. I was so relieved when Isa survived her early childhood without getting too into princeses and barbies, yet each of my girls has gotten successively girly. I thought I'd have a hard time with it, but when its a certain child's personality, I can't help but find it cute. (thank heavens!) She wants to dress in princess dresses each day, and some days goes from one to another in quick succession. One day she looked down in obvious pride at her pink sequined self and said "I'm bu-ful. (beautiful)" If you ask her if she's beautiful when not wearing a princess dress she will always say no (with a 'duh, Mom' kind of look on her face).

She keeps us laughing when she spots princesses everywhere, even in unlikely places. Here are two recent ones:

Whenever we see this Stainmaster Carpet ad in Costco, she says "look, Mom, a princess!"

She gets so excited when I use this soap. She calls it princess soap.

Two of her favorite things are gum and band-aids.  She is happy as a hippo if she has both at once.  She got band-aids from her compassionate aunt for her birthday and in less than an hour had used the whole box (mostly on her tummy).

She has been loving attention from her dad lately and said to me the other day "be better. Daddy come home." I asked her if it would be better if Daddy came home and she said "yes."

She can be quite the handful at times-- probably more demanding than any of my kids. She is also my first to really hit or grab toys from siblings. She loves to scream at the top of her lungs when she feels she has been unjustly dealt with. She is my first to really throw tantrums. And yet I think she's so cute I just want to eat her up. Is there something wrong with me? I guess I can finally understand those parents who look on lovingly while their little terror goes about terrorizing others. Not that I ever want to be that way, but I finally get it.

She can be quite sweet too, I guess I need to give her some credit.  She is the first one to give hugs/kisses if someone gets hurt or is sad.

Between wanting to eat her right up and strangle her, all in the same moment, we're sure glad our little two year-old came into our lives.

We're having a....baby!

I wanted to wait a bit longer to tell everyone this time, since I had an early miscarriage (only 5 weeks-ish, but had taken a positive test) this summer.  I know this is nothing compared to how long others have gone, but I was nonetheless sad and feeling guilty since I had run my half marathon while pregnant and hoped I hadn't been the cause.

So I wanted to make sure everything was okay before I told anyone.  Our family figured it out pretty early, but its been a fun surprise for others.

So far, its been a great pregnancy.  I felt pretty sick at first, but the nausea has eased to tolerable levels and my legs have been less painful (not less unsightly--whew!) than last time.  I have felt so much more relaxed since I'm not as busy as last time, not moving house right before a birth, and not in as much pain!  Its really been a huge blessing.  I thought I'd have to ask for a bit of help this time, but we've been able to function much better than expected.  I'm sad this is my last baby, but also feel so pleased to be having him or her!  This is a little sweet bonus that I wasn't sure we'd be able to have.  There is also lot less pressure knowing I don't ever have to go through this again!  I think I've genuinely been able to enjoy this pregnancy (not at first...when I was sickest I wasn't enjoying anything).  I always look at my kids with appreciation during each pregnancy, as I see how much can go wrong.  I feel really, really blessed.  I would love to have kids forever, but I am definitely at the point where I don't feel I can give all of them what they need if I kept going.  So...I'm super happy and excited about this baby, while finally feeling closure that its okay for us to be done having kids.   Whew!  Sorry for the whirlwind of words.

Today I had my 20 week ultrasound and as far as I could tell, everything looked good.  I don't have an appointment with my doctor until next week to get a more official okay.

I (clenched jaw) decided I didn't want to find out the sex of the baby, but to let it be a surprise.  Miguel, on the other hand, definitely did want to find out.   But, I'm behind in this argument 3 and 1/2 to 1/2, (we found out with all but Isa, and even then Miguel knew but I didn't) and this is our last baby, so I was preparing myself for a knock-out fight (okay, not really).

Well, today I showed up for my ultrasound, and...no Miguel.  He's never missed one of these before, but he had forgotten about the appointment.  I had the devilish thought NOT to call him, since I knew I would automatically get my way, but decided to do the right thing and remind him.  He was 30 minutes away, and the sonographer thought the appointment wouldn't last much longer than that, so we decided it would be best if he stayed at work.  He asked to speak to her on the phone and she kept listening to him and laughing, so I'm sure he was bribing or threatening her or both. 

I was a bit sad to do it alone...but chances are his powers of persuasion (when of course I want to know what the baby is-- so easy to give in!) used on both me and the sonographer would have had the desired effect.  So.....we're having a baby!

What's Going On

Some Halloween pictures.  I was feeling really exhausted that night, so I didn't gussy them up quite as much as I usually do.  We did have our spooky dinner, which was fun.  We found the costume Maia is wearing that day and had bought it on sale for Ava for next year.  Maia was able to sqeeze into it and she looked so cute we let her wear it.

 I love Ava's new "camera face!"

This one is probably my favorite.  It makes me laugh:

Ava fell asleep eating lunch!  This girl never stops.  She has been saying the cutest things lately and also has been coloring on everything.

We're in that horrible hair-in-the-eyes phase...at least it motivates me to do her hair each day. 

Isa has gradually progressed to wearing a boot.  It was a blessed day when we gave the wheelchair back.  Its amazing how heavy that thing gets!  I learned new appreciation for anyone who has a child with disabilities.  She still limps around, but at least she can walk.

She still doesn't speak much to anyone other than friends or family.  I tried taking her to a pyschologist to see if that would help, and it has a little.  She was filling out a form for parent teacher conferences about her strengths and weaknesses as a student.  One of the questions asked which rules the student was already good at following.  She was having a hard time thinking of one (she can be a little "cheeky" to use the English phrase), so I started going through some hypothetical rules to give her an example, such as no running in the halls or raising her hand to talk.  She said "well, I hardly ever raise my hand to talk."  Okay, oops, I guess I wasn't thinking about that one.   Almost every rule I mentioned, she'd say things like, "but I do run in the halls sometimes."  This was just not working out.  Finally, I had a stroke of brilliance.  I said, "do you ever talk out of turn or interrupt the teacher when she is talking?"  She acted frustrated and said, "but Mom, I hardly ever talk at all!"  "Exaclty.  So if you hardly ever talk at all, then you can't be talking out of turn, can you?  I think we have found a rule you obey VERY WELL."  She giggled about that for quite a while, and wrote it down with a huge smile on her face.

We went on a trip, just Miguel and I, in October.  This is HUGE news, if you know us at all.  We never leave our kids.  I have been dying to blog about it, but all the pictures are on Miguel's phone, since dummy here forgot the camera.,  So, here are the highlights:

1.  A couple of days in upstate New York when the leaves were brilliant.  (Loved the people, too)
2.  A quaint old B & B that we never would have taken kids to. 
3.  Church historical sites which we tried to rush through because we were pressed for time.  Ironically, I was the one getting frustrated at the missionaries (poor kids, they were like vultures...we were pretty much the only tourists) who cornered us at each location and bore their testimonies like crazy.  It got to be a joke Miguel teased me about, wondering what had happened to me, and me dreading each new site and almost (this is horrible!) laughing at our final church site as a missionary started crying as she was bearing her testimony.  I know where I'm going.
4.  Niagara Falls.  Stunning.  More stunning than I had imagined.  More touristy too.
5.  Niagara-on-the-Lake.  Charming town I'd never heard of before.
6.  Toronto.  A little disappointing.  Still, I was determined to do gourmet in a big city, so we trudged through Chinatown and some rough parts of Toronto at 10pm at night to go to a Spanish tapas restaurant.  Worth it.
7.  Our friend's wedding.  Entertaining (at 28, marrying a beautiful girl with teenage daughters who weren't sure about him yet), beautiful, biggest Chinese buffet I've ever been to (I ate every fried thing in sight and no veggies), so great to see his family again, who we bonded with in England.
8.  Tim Horton's.  Disgusting.
9.  Thousand Islands region.  Too bad we were out of time-- it was breathtaking.  We want to go back with the kids some day.
10.  Running out of gas on our way to the Syracuse airport, being helped by a stranger, then being told at the airport that Miguel's flight had left at 6am in the morning (booked wrong by his travel lady at work) and that there was no room on the flight home on a standby basis.  Then forgetting the liquid restrictions and having to chuck our brand new maple-leaf shaped bottle of maple syrup.  Miguel said he wasn't willing to pay $25 to check a bag for a $13 bottle of syrup, and who can blame him?  At least they didn't lock us up for trying to sneak it through.

Pictures to come later, I guess.

Nothing else going on around here worth mentioning just yet.

La Rota or The Mysterious Girl in the Purple Striped Cast

We had an adventure a few weeks ago and I've been to busy to write about it!

I got a call from the school at one o'clock in the afternoon on a Wednesday, just as I was putting my girls (okay, and myself) down for a little nap. I could hear the secretary's message vaguely from upstairs, and she seemed concerned. She asked me to call right away and said it was regarding Isa. Since that seemed a bit unusual, I roused myself out of my almost slumber to call her.

She said Isa had hurt her foot in P.E. and could I come and get her immediately. When I got to the school, the first thing I could see was Isa's face, which looked white from pain and streaked with a few tears. She is my little tough-ie, so when she cries about pain it is a big deal. The secretary had a bag of ice on her leg near her ankle, and when she lifted it up it was obvious that Isa's leg was broken. It was bulging above her ankle and her foot seemed to be hanging unsupported. It is a bit distrubing to see that, especially as the mother.

I carried her to the car and drove home, trying not to panic. I called Miguel at work and he kept telling me not to panic, but he didn't see her leg! I madly threw a few dishes in the dishwasher while I talked to him in the phone, called the neighbor to see if she would take the other girls when they woke up, etc, then we went to see the doctor.

At this point I was afraid Isa was starting to go into shock (me too!). She was white as a ghost, staring into space and had the cold, clammy hands one hears about. The nurse had me wrap her in a blanket and lay her down, and the doctor came out after just a few minutes and told me just by looking at her leg that he couldn't deal with it in his office. He said we'd have to go to an ER and have an orthopedist set it under anesthesia. (He took some X-rays at his office to confirm, and I overheard him telling trthe ER doctor that both the tibia and fibula were broken and offset by 75%)(and this is all from a freak accident in P.E. where she bumped into a boy and then he fell on her leg)

I'm still in adrenaline/panic/survival mode, so we hustle to the ER and wait. And wait. The ER was packed. Isa was so brave-- I didn't see her cry at all. We joked that we were having a broken leg date. Miguel eventually showed up with the other kids, and he got to go in while the orthopedist set her break. When we first arrived, the X-rays from the first doctor hadn't, so all the docs were asking to see the pictures I had taken of the X-rays on my phone.

After he set the break and I felt I had been wrangling Ava way too long, we ventured into her room to see how things went. Miguel was white as a ghost now-- said it hit him when he saw his little girl all hooked up to machines and engulfed by that large bed.

She has been wearing a cast up to her thigh and unable to walk for almost three weeks. It has been a long three weeks! She has been a real trooper. She's learned to use a little wheelchair-- cute to see her maneuver all around. We have to carry her a lot and I have to go to the school three times a day-- to drop off, pick up (and now I appreciate handicapped access- its not very good where I drop her off and its a huge pain lugging the wheelchair 25 yards and back each day), and take her to the bathroom at lunch. I have gotten swallowed alive by my other chores and my other kids have been a bit neglected.

She did have a mini-breakdown one day, and ranted about never wanting to go to P.E. again, just wanting to walk and take the darn thing off, but overall she has been really good. The attention started to pour in a few days after her accident, and she enjoyed all the visitors, balloons, coloring kits (and I enjoyed a meal brought in by a friend!), and other things to keep her entertained. Her teacher even stopped by. At school she said the other kids follow her around in a little herd at recess. A semi-pro football player singled her out for attention at a school assembly, and everywhere we go she says that people comment on her cast.

Since she has such troubles talking to others, this has been a blessing in disguise.   That said, I'm ready to get my life back in a few weeks!



All this happened right before we had company from Spain coming to visit...we went to Yellowstone together.  (another post!)



Kaedon wanted to make her breakfast in bed the day after her accident.

Sisters give siblings better mental health, study shows

Sisters give siblings better mental health, study shows

Home Run Fever

May was the craziest month we've had in a while! Kaedon and Isa both played soccer, and Kaedon tried baseball for the first time. I have to admit, I was relieved when Isa finished soccer. I felt that I was a terrible coach and I'm pretty sure the parents thought so, too. She was super happy about me being the coach, even though it was so laughable at times. Usually Miguel had to work during our practices, so I'd spend an inordinate amount of time chasing little girls when I was supposed to be coaching. For one practice, only two girls showed up. One of those girls was Isa. Maia had to use the bathroom 5 minutes into our practice, so I asked Isa to take her and they didn't come back for 20 minutes! At a different practice, I took some popcorn to help occupy my kids and it was more of a distraction than an occupier. Ava wouldn't share, then spilled a bunch of popcorn in the playground wood chips. Isa kept sneaking over to the wood chips during practice to pick out some popcorn to eat. The girls didn't listen to me anyway and were all goofing off (this is the norm)...I think its because of my commanding personality. Then Maia yelled to me that Ava was up to her knee in mud. I ended up giving Isa a time out (embarrassing in front of her friends), and leaving the girls while I retrieved Ava from the mud pit. Of course my periodic retrieving of Ava didn't help the orderly practice part. Aaaagh! I don't think I'll coach again any time soon. (I'd do it for Isa, but...)

I've been surprised at how much fun it has been to watch Kaedon play baseball. The first time I attended one of Kaedon's games I was amazed that half our town was there. Baseball is a big deal here. Its been quite fun watching the games, as most the kids hit the ball and the scores are quite high for baseball. It also helps that Kaedon's team is really good.

Kaedon has had no training whatsoever in baseball prior to this season, and it was hard to watch him bat or try to catch the ball next to some of these kids who were born hitting home runs. Its hard not to feel guilty as a parent for somehow denying your child's inner Babe Ruth. That, coupled with the fun and excitement of winning all but one game this year, has made it more challenging to try to keep the proper perspective.

I have whole elaborate theories about sports and competition and bettering oneself, but its easy to let them go out the window when it is exciting to win, or when, as a coach, you feel pressure from parents to win. Competition can be the polar opposite of compassion/charity for others, especially if the goal is just to be better than someone else. We can't NOT try our best, though-- because in the end we do our best in order to help others do their best.

My favorite moment this baseball season is when Kaedon was on third base in a tense play-off game against his friend's team. Kaedon was on third base and his friend was defending it. His friend reached over and gave Kaedon a discreet little fist bump a minute before Kaedon ran home. Thats the real kind of home run I want to see, I just have to keep reminding myself that. :)

Corinne's bookshelf: read




More of Corinne's books »

A Narrow Escape and Quotable Quotes

My sister and her husband just moved back to the US (California) from Australia. It will be nice to have them closer for a little while before they travel the world! They played with my kids and were really good sports.

We also met my other sister's boyfriend and he seemed like a cute, nice guy too. Late at night, our topic turned to poo and such, and so I hope he comes back.

During the festivities at my parents house, Ava escaped! My parents live on a corner, facing a busy street. I'm so glad Ava chose to go down the non-busy road, but what a scare! Three young rescuing-angel teenage boys saw a baby in the street and went searching for her parents. Since my parents don't normally have a baby at their house, they followed a family on a walk, who said she wasn't theirs, and tried several neighbors before returning to my parents house. We didn't even know she was gone! I am ashamed to admit it. So glad she is safe! That was a close one.

While we were at my parents, my mom was using the bathroom when she heard some frenzied knocking at the door. Maia, in her four-year old way, was saying, "I gotta go potty!" My mom hurriedly sprayed the bathroom with some of that fruity bathroom spray that our family does not possess (she has a very nice smelling house in general anyway) and let her in. Maia asked her "Grandma, did you poop or pee?" "I pooed," my mom replied. "Wow, Grandma, your poo smells GOOOD!" said Maia in a congratulatory way. I hope my mom will not be embarrassed that I just advertised this story to the whole world. :)

Not to be gross here, but I guess I'm on a streak, so I may as well keep going. A twenty-year old skinny Hoover salesman came over and gave us a terribly long schpiel about a really expensive vacuum. The only reason I did it is they promised to carpet clean a whole room. It turned out to be more than I bargained for, as he was at our house for three hours. At one point during his demonstration, he was trying to communicate the dangers of dust mites, and therefore the need for a good vacuum to obliterate them. He told us in a sinister sort of way that many people experienced an allergic reaction to the dust mites. He said "its from the dust mites FORNICATING!" I think he meant to say "defecating." Since I got the whole presentation twice (don't ask) I got to verify that I did indeed hear him correctly the first time. It was so hard not to laugh.

We got an ecology book from the library and Maia and I attempted to make ourselves a little smarter during the day while all the others were away. She was so cute, inquisitive, and grave when we read about any animal eating another animal. The result, though, seemed a greater appreciation for our bodies, for nature, etc. Last night at dinner, Maia said a super long prayer thanking Heavenly Father for everything. She ended with "thank you that Isa is so special, thank you that Kaedon is special, thank you that Mom is special, thank you that Dad is special, thank you that Ava is special, and thank you that I am the best of all." Miguel was laughing so hard he was shaking.

What's Going On

Here are some of our recent goings on:

We had a birthday party for Miguel's dad. What a fun guy.


I made the mistake of looking up party suggestions for Maia's princess party. She turned four and has been such a patient kid this last year I decided she deserved an extra fun party! So we went all out (all out for me): red carpet (alas, I didn't get a picture!), cheap Snow White cut-outs in the doorway, a wishing well they threw a coin into at the beginning and pulled up a basket at the end for their party favor. I also asked my too kind friend to make the cake, and she went all out! I felt bad she went to so much work, and the cake collapsed on the way to my house. She rescued it beautifully -- it was sure fun! I even broke down and dressed up as the queen, in an old dress I could barely zip up! All in all, pretty fun.


Playing "pin-the-lips-on-the-frog."





Isa lost her first tooth, then she lost her second tooth a few days later! She was so excited to put her tooth in a special tooth fairy pillow her grandma gave her. I also tried to braid a heart in her hair for Valentine's Day.



Kaedon earned his Wolf badge in Cub Scouts and was able to have Grandpa witness this special event as well as speak at our recent Blue and Gold Banquet. My dad did such a great job- he spoke for the 100 year anniversary of Scouting. It was so fun to have him there. We forgot our camera! Darn it. Here is a picture of the cake Kaedon and I made for the event.

One

Ava turned one three months ago! I have some really cute pictures of her in a dress Miguel's family sent us from Spain. She is sooooo busy! She plays in the toilets, climbs on the table (dumps out the cereals, etc), dumps out the garbages, empties my cupboards, turns off the computer while I'm using it, eats crayons, rips the kids homework, it goes on and on. She does what all my other kids combined did at this age times ten! (playing in the toilet is new, even for us!) All this notwithstanding, we are enjoying her to bits. At least she has a sweet temperament while she is destroying the house. If I tell her no, she actually acts like she cares. (this is new) :) She is wild for books, though she will only sit still for a minute. I have to read them with lots of entertaining noises or be really quick about it! She is a sweet, busy girl! We sure love her.

Happy Valentines Day

Make a Smilebox greeting