This is 40, Installment 7

Remember when kid food was cute? I mean, in the beginning it was adorable-- baby's first solid foods, funny faces. Then it got a little messy as they started feeding themselves, food all over the upper bodies. But still cute. And little. Then you could do creative things with the food-- shapes and colors and such, and they'd semi-appreciate it, maybe even help you with making it. Still, it was little.

I am past the little food phase of my parenting life. I'm pretty sure I'm now on to the huge food phase. I have three boys and all they're doing is eating and moving.

Recently I just owned it and started feeding the twins two dinners a day on hockey practice days. They'll down a frozen pizza or two after school and before practice (to be clear, I cook them first), come home from practice, and eat tacos and drink smoothies. The second dinner is the one where they smell like dank hockey gear and sweaty helmets, in case you wondered.

Brian often makes them two breakfasts on hockey game days. Piles of sausages and a carton of eggs. Twice. If they don't eat that much then they end up eating 20 granola bars and 25 string cheeses and we will be out of school snacks for the week. And they're skinny and they're not very tall.

Guys, it's only going to only get worse from here. We might need to take out a second mortgage to afford our grocery bills.

This is 40.

Eaters

The Best Part of You

For the past few weeks I've been working on a poem that I believe encapsulates my feelings of thankfulness to all of the amazing people who make my world go 'round. Since I don't drive because of my seizures, I find myself constantly at other people's mercy, and I won't lie: it is infuriating. It is a terrible feeling and one I try to avoid as often as I can.

But I've lived this way now for many years, and I've tried hard to find the good in my situation-- to find the helpers, as Mr. Rogers would say. I have been blessed with such great people, but I don't think I'd know them the way I do if I didn't really need to. If I didn't really need them.

So, here is the poem. You know who you are, and you are wonderful. Happy Thanksgiving.

The Best Part of You

I know that
daffodil in the snow part
of you, that
shiny penny on the path part
of you

You stop everything to
pick up my kids
to take me to work
to the doctor
the store
the pool
the library

You drive me home
yet again
you pile muddy baseball boys in your
extra seats—smells like death
but you laugh,
a soft laugh of knowing
of caring
of giving

You teach my class for me you hold me
while I shake you carry me when I can’t
walk myself you let me cry

You change plans to drive me
when it rains or snows
you get blood in your car so my
son can get stitches

I see the light in you I see
the warm, glowing goodness
others never get to know
because they don’t need you
like I do

I’m thankful that

I get to see the best part of you

Fall time shenanigans 

My Scrapbook

This is my scrapbook. There are stories on here that I would have forgotten forever if I hadn't chronicled them-- if I hadn't whispered and shouted about them when they happened. The boys all love to hear me read these old entries about them when they were little, and there's so much that exists here that I would have forgotten if I hadn't written about it. So...after two years of not blogging, I'm back. I make no promises about frequent posting, but I think anything will be better than nothing.

My life is considerably different than it was when I started this blog. I am no longer a stay-at-home mom, who needs to write to stay sane, but a working mom. I no longer use the word "diaper" fifteen or more times a day. We no longer live in our little cozy condo, but have upgraded to a townhouse in an adorable little neighborhood not far from our old condo. The place feels gigantic. We have had all kinds of discussions and conundrums trying to figure out what to do with all this space. It's a new adventure. Really a whole new mindset from the angle I took on my other blog, At Home In A Nutshell.

The twins are now in fourth grade and Teddy is in kindergarten! I love the snuggles Ted gives me and all the kisses. He's a very affectionate little guy, who always tells me he loves me. Granted, he also has told me I'm the meanest mom ever, so it's a mixed bag, but still. The love is there.

Reading over past entries I see how much my life was consumed by taking care of my kids. It still is, but there are also so many other things consuming my life now on top of them. I love that I had that special time at home with them and was able to give them so much of me. I love it, even though we lived in such a small space for such a long time. Totally worth it to get to stay home and see my babies every day. But now I have a basement. And a backyard. And a workout room. And an office. It really might be too much. I sometimes feel paralyzed because I don't know where in the house I should be or what I should be doing. That doesn't feel normal.

I bike to work every day-- I leave home at 7:15 AM. I usually get to see the boys puttering around in the mornings but I miss all the super fun stuff like forcing them to get dressed and brush their teeth in time to leave for school. My amazing mother-in-law comes over and does that.

My bike ride is perfect and beautiful. It now takes me only 12-13 minutes and it's hilly, but not too hilly. I'm winded when I get to my classroom, but I'm not out of breath or soaking in sweat. I give myself a little time to change and cool down before my students arrive. I teach 130 teenagers about reading and writing. It's a tall order, but I like it...most days. I love it when girls who say they hate reading fall in love with Atticus Finch and when students throw notebooks across the room in frustration when Elizabeth Proctor lies to try save John Proctor in The Crucible. To see them so engaged and emotionally involved in literature is awesome. To help them become stronger writers is rewarding. This year my big project is reviving the school newspaper. It's a shame, but our high school has been without a school paper for several years and I have a grand total of eleven journalism students determined to bring it back.

I believe I've reached a healthy work/home balance. I try very hard to get my school work done at work. I bike home-- stopping on my way to get the boys from their school-- walk home with them and make dinner or pack something to eat for dinner out at the ball field if it's baseball season. Play with the kids. Read books with the kids. Help them with homework. Inevitably I end up doing a little grading at home and a little planning, but not most weekends, because mostly my work life and home life are separate.

Brian works close to home also-- he's still doing technology support in a couple schools in the district. He keeps very busy with coaching the twins' travel baseball team, their house baseball teams, and being on the board of the local Little League.

So there's a catch-up for any of my old blog-readers who might be out there. My next entry will be more entertaining and less informative, as I strive to continue my whispers and shouts as a scrapbook of my little life of teaching, parenting, and writing. Cheers!

My three little loves are getting big!  

Our Month of Fun Things

I have a beautiful and blessed life. I love my life. I just have to share what our month has been like, because it amazes me what we've had come up the past few weeks. 

First of all, in April I broke my ankle when a line drive hit me at a softball game. But didn't know it was broken, so limped around on it for three weeks in pain before finding out: The x-ray didn't show the break, but the MRI did.

Calvin has had the most remarkable month of all, though: He...

• Fell out of a tree, ripping up his chin, and cutting up his eyebrow and mouth and knocking out his tooth: needed a stitch and antibiotics for the tooth.

• Got a horrible case of poison ivy all over his face-- swollen almost beyond recognition, the day before      his field trip. That lasted about a week and a half.
• Got lice and consequently a shaved head-- thankfully this seems to have been taken care of quickly (fingers crossed).
• Has a very sore throat that might be strep
• Has had almost all of his baseball games cancelled due to rain.
  
  The kid is holding up remarkably well, even though he made several questionable decisions in the baseball game he played the day after his stitched up eyebrow and skinned up chin: slid headfirst twice. He rationalized it by the fact that he was safe. I'm not sure why sliding headfirst was necessary, but that is a debate I don't want to get into again.

Meanwhile, Teddy's eczema flared up and resulted in a staph infection, and then steroid cream, antibiotics and lots of baths. He also got lice. I could not bring myself to shave his head, so I'm guessing it might take a little longer to cure, though it's looking good so far.

I found out that my ankle was broken and cannot put weight on it-- this has been for the last week and a half. I have at least two more weeks to go without weight-bearing. Then I got lice. Thank you, first grade.
Clark joined in on the party by also getting lice. Though aside from that and a few baseball rainouts and a particularly bad flip into the boards in a hockey game, he's had a relatively smooth month.

Brian hurt his back and neck somehow, so he's had a hard time doing normal things as well. Since we've had record amount of rain this spring, we've barely gotten any baseball games or practices in, which has been frustrating for him as a coach especially. But he has risen to the many challenges and been great about picking up the slack around the house, and scheduling make-up scrimmages so the kids can have a bit more baseball this spring.

I started this blog as an outlet for myself to write, and especially to record parenting things that might seem frustrating at the time, but in which I could see the humor by writing about them and sharing them with readers. This month seems to fit the bill. I'm still in the midst of hobbling around doing 47 loads of laundry and combing hair with lice combs and trying to do normal household things with one leg, but writing this has made it seem less exasperating and a little more comical. I'm also buried in a super messy house while ironically maintaining a blog about a clean and less cluttered house. I know it will pass, but I still feel a little fake about it. 

I've been shown once again how amazing our friends and family are with all the help that they've generously given us. I couldn't have survived without them.

My $2 Homemade Thomas the Train Costume

Teddy loves Thomas the Train. I love making costumes. Halloween was approaching. We had a bunch of recycling piling up. It all came together for a perfect storm.

My materials:

1 diaper box
1 box of milk cartons three-pack, cut in half
1 empty tub of Greek yogurt
1 empty tub of broccoli cheddar soup (same size as yogurt tub)
3 dessert-size paper plates
1 dinner-size paper plate
strips of cardboard
4 feet-ish of thick ribbon
1 can blue spray paint
1 can black spray paint
red acrylic paint
yellow acrylic paint
black sharpie
hot glue gun
scissors
picture of Thomas or Thomas toy to look at

The only things I had to buy were the blue spray paint and the ribbon because I wanted ribbon cuter than what I had, It totaled roughly $2, and that's rounding up.

The funnest part about the costume was that I made the funnel be the place where the candy goes. That way he didn't need to carry a bucket or bag for candy. Here's what I did. Maybe it will be helpful to someone out there who likes to throw cheap stuff together for costumes. :)

Started cutting a diaper box

Found this in the recycling

Cut a hole in a box flap and hot glued the container to it-- a spot
for candy!

Later I cut a trap door into this so the candy could be taken out easier.

So the top looked like this and I cut the hole at the bottom a little bigger
for his feet to walk.

Attached the other box-half with hot glue and spray painted it all blue

Spray painted the next container black for the funnel, and glued it around the hole

Cut slits and glued the ribbon down

Painted red lines and let Cal help attach spray-painted paper plates 

I had also spray painted these blue cardboard strips and then
glued them on top of the wheels

Painted my yellow "1" on the sides, drew a face on a trimmed dinner plate with
a sharpie, and BAM. Thomas.

Teddy approved

And so did his Wizard-Brothers

All the Boys at 18 Months

It is interesting to see the differences between Teddy's behavior and reactions to things as opposed to Cal and Clark's. Here are some pictures and a comparison.

Teddy at nearly 18 months

Cal and Clark at 18 months

Concept/object	Cal and Clark at 18 months-ish	Teddy at 18 months
Vacuum	Worst thing ever, must scream and cry and wail and run away and throw selves on floor in agony.	Funny! Must chase it around and touch it and let Mom vacuum up my toes with the attachment; need to find it in the closet and touch it; I like to pretend vacuum with my toys.
Ceiling fans	Most interesting object in life so far. Must gaze at them intensely for as long as the grown-ups will let us. Must point out every single one we find. Must arrange all toys and food into ceiling fan shapes.	meh
Vegetables on my tray	Must not touch unless it is broccoli and then we can touch it and eat the tops off gingerly.	Would rather eat them than bread or mac 'n cheese or pizza. Give me more when I grunt. My faves are cucumbers and green peppers.
Fruit on my tray	We will eat it all…for another few months when we will decide we don’t like anything except apples, and only without the peels.	I will eat it all and grunt for more.
Cars, trucks, trains	meh	I want to make my food into cars; I love to watch construction equipment and drive toy cars and trucks around.
Balls	We love to throw balls and roll balls and Clark already has a follow-through on his throw.	I sometimes like to throw a ball. I throw it backwards over my shoulder to confuse people/because I’m not sure how to throw it forward.
When I fall down/ am run in to/ am fallen on/ am hit with an object on accident	Shock. Usually we cry, but have learned to read the room and sometimes don’t cry.	Never fazes me. I know no pain. I am knocked in to, stepped on, picked up and moved out of the way every day. Don’t care.

Language	We love it. We use sign language fluently and have quite a few words.	I know a few signs but am belligerent about using them because everyone knows what I want when I grunt and point. I know a few words and that's enough for me. Besides, there is too much noise in my house for me to talk anyway.
Books	We love them and have our favorites that Mom reads every day. We also like to eat the board books.	I have favorite books and Mom reads them to me over and over. Love them so much I carry them around by the front or back cover all the time so the best ones are broken in half. If Mom or Dad want me to smile they recite the first lines of my favorite book and it gets me every time.
Heights	Not sure how to get up on anything so we don't even think about it.	Everything must be climbed on. Whenever someone doesn't push a chair under the table I am ON that table and I am standing up and I am drinking/eating/throwing/ whatever is on the table.
Sleeping through the night	Been doing it since we were 3 months old. NBD	What is that? Must wake up once a night unless I am super tired. Must go back to sleep with mom and dad when I wake up because I am a spoiled brat but very cuddly.
Appliances	The oven is mildly interesting if its light is turned on.	Must be IN them if possible and/or pushing buttons if possible.
Water	Must not touch it unless it is in a puddle on the ground. Must stay far away from every large body of water.	Love the water! Put it on my face, dump it on me, let me splash in it, let me throw it at you, throw it at me.

Beginning Kindergarten Series, Day 1

The walk to school was fun and the boys' voices only faltered a few times. They asked again what they'd do today and I told them drawing and coloring and reading and playing on the playground and playing games. Clark, the forever competitor, said, "I'll win 10 games for you today, Mom!" Which almost made the dam break behind my eyes, but I held it together. At the front door it was a little harder, they kept wanting to hold my hands and I could feel their palms were sweaty (or maybe it was just mine). 

At the door of the classroom Clark started to break down. I went in with them and helped them sit down at a table. He kept hugging my legs and crying quietly, asking how long it would be until I would come back, asking if I could stay just a few more minutes. When the bell rang I pulled away and walked toward the door. He kept saying, "Bye Mom,"searching for my face around the other parents. Cal on the other hand seemed fine-- checking out the crayons and books. 

I said goodbye as long as I could and that it would be awesome and they'll have so much fun and can't wait to hear about it. These things were difficult to say. As soon as I turned around I started crying so I walked quickly down the blurry hall and out the door.

This day came so quickly, and yet I am so, so thankful to have been able to spend almost each and every day of Cal and Clark's life at home and on adventures with them. I know many mothers don't get the chance to do that and I will always treasure the years I've been able to be at home full time. I'm thankful for a husband who understands and is on the same page that I'm on as far as me staying home. 

But I digress. 

When Teddy and I picked the boys up at school this afternoon they were a little shaken up. The teacher said they did great all day and then got antsy and scared as they were dismissing them. Understandable. I felt a little jostled in the dismissal herd and I'm 5'6". 

The walk home was nice as I tried to get information from them about their day. I found out that they didn't go outside much and play on the playground because it was so hot today. Clearly this affected them. They got home and yelled, "YYAAAAAAHHHH!" while flinging their backpacks across the living room. After a small snack with Teddy they did NOT STOP THE CRAZINESS all night. Bouncing off the walls. It was storming or I would have taken them outside for awhile to run it off. Clark was literally climbing up the dishwasher an onto the counter, which he has never done before. 

They husked corn for me on the balcony and made a "corn machine" with the sliding glass door. Clark held the stem or handle part of the corn into the space where the door slides into the side of the frame. Then Cal smashed the door shut. They were ecstatic that it worked! 

When Brian got home they wrestled for what seemed like two hours straight. Teddy even got in on the wrestling. 

It's a lot of time that I'm not with them and it will take some getting used to, for sure. I'm supposed to find out in a few days what day I can come into the classroom and volunteer as a room mom. Then I'll really get the inside scoop. 

Here are some good quotes from the day:

On the way to school:

"I'm going to win 10 games for you today, Mom." -Clark

After:

Me: "What did you do?"

"I don't really remember. I think we colored the whole time." -Cal

Me: "Did you read stories? Did you work with letters, did you build anything or do anything with numbers?"

"We didn't work with letters. They assumed we already know them." -Cal

"Lunch was boring and loud, like AHHHHHH! I wasn't even hungry." -Cal

"I did not like lunch. But we did see Peter and Andrew there." -Clark

"She said we were going to do math, but we didn't even do any." -Cal

"I told my teachers all about t-ball." -Clark

Me: "What was your favorite part?"

"The drawing." -Cal

"Yeah, the drawing."-Clark

Getting into bed: "School was funner than we thought." -Clark, with a nodding Calvin agreeing. 

Yay! 

Gammy found two of the same old Norman Rockwell
mugs with a first day of school scene. So
the boys had their milk in those this morning.

Leaving home

At school!

I love this picture so much. They look at each other
the way Cal's looking at Clark here so much of the time.
I'm happy that they have each other. 

I'm still holding it together as we near the door...

Found their classroom

I think it's all hitting Clark right here. 

All done! Water before heading home

Brothers missed brothers

After school snack/leftover lunch

Cal just broke the corn in the door. You can see the little chunk
of cob stuck in the frame.

Corn-cuttin' machine!

May-June-First-Part-of-July Highlights

 I'm going through pictures and want to post some May-June-first-part-of-July pictures to remember some of what we did during those months. Meanwhile the boys are watching Cinderella because they love the story (don't tell them I told you) and Teddy is napping. We'll see how much organizing and uploading I can actually get through.

Potomac Nationals game with Gammy and Poppy
for a birthday gift!

It wore them out.

Best pals Everett and Teddy ransacked kitchen cupboards together

Teddy spent many hours cheering on his tee-ball-playing brothers.

He even got to visit the dugout occasionally!

Cal and Clark had some special guest spectators.

Teddy got to join his brothers on the ice!

On his own personal sled

Wild animals at the zoo for Henry's birthday

More zoo visits-- wild animals with pals Hudson and Grayson

Baby boy growin' up

Secret Father's Day waffle-making and nose-pick staging.

Father's Day P-Nats baseball game

Summer haircuts after three tick incidents. You'd think
they like to play outside or something.

Just another tee-ball practice: Cal in hiking boots and
old man sweatpants shorts-- Clark all serious in his baseball
socks, cleats, athletic shorts, and short stop shirt.

End of season little league picnic: they got to play in the tee-ball
exhibition game!

It was a great season for the Blue Wahoos!

Teddy reacts to Daddy winning Coach of the Year

Something terrible happened to the highchair "car,"
which required fixing with salad tongs, ice cream scoop, broom,
and various other kitchen utensils. 

Babysitting Cousin Clara

Teddy's love affair with the dishwasher began.

Space Age ant farm! Super cool. Learned about
 the thorax and such.

Cool signed up for the Summer Reading Program at the library.

Plenty of pool time so far this season

Kite-flying (They still think they have to run the whole time.
I see no reason to tell them otherwise.)

Sausage-cookin' with Cal

Loggin' some Summer Reading Program books

First camp! Baseball camp just down the street.
Five hours a day seemed like a lot to me, but they did well and loved it.

To my horror, Clark resurrected his superhero,
  Black Groin, to fight with Cal's Green Face with PVC pipe.

We ordered some caterpillars and watched them
hatch into butterflies!

We loved watching them break out and discover their
new bodies.

Teddy still loves the dishwasher.
If we leave it open he climbs in.

Fourth of July at the lake house

Dirt-bathing and then water-drenching
after Dad's softball games- a popular pastime.

Head-first slide into home...aaaaand SAFE!

And here we go sliding into July...Teddy turned 1 on July 5th while we were at the lake house. We celebrated there with a candle in his first ice cream. This past weekend we had a real party for him. I hope to post the pictures before the month is up. Can't believe he's one!