Friday Bullet Points

My computer spent some time at the Genius Bar this last week, and the kids have made it clear that I shouldn't turn my back for two seconds, so I'll try to cobble together a list of what I can remember of the last week.

-This week was far and away better than last, and is best described with Eleanor's comment at dinner last night: "Declan sure improved his mood for dinner tonight! What a relief!"

-I recently read the suggestion that everyone gets one free pass in parenting. Mine is apparently not potty training, nor is it sleep. I'll leave it at that.

-My free pass might be eating, as evidenced by Declan and Eleanor's pretending to shoot laser beams out of their brains while devouring salmon last night, after I told them it would make their brains extra sharp.

-Aaron is sleeping over tonight (and the next few nights), and he picked "A League of Their Own" out of our drawer of DVDs to watch tonight. I wondered if he'd be disappointed when he realized he'd chosen a story of women's professional baseball and a tense sisterly relationship. Just now, two minutes into the movie, he asked me, "Is this all girls? All girls and no boys? Playing baseball? Are you kidding me?" We'll see how long he lasts.

-I finally got it together in the kitchen after moving this week, and I made yogurt, this salsa
(of which I may or may not have already eaten almost a whole jar), this granola, four loaves of bread, brownies, kefir, and kombucha, in addition to the normal meals. The rest of the house looks completely neglected, but if you come over, I'll have food for you to eat for the next couple of weeks!

-One of my favorite authors is Ann Patchett (mostly because I love Bel Canto). I just started reading Truth and Beauty the other day, which I am really enjoying so far. I set a goal for myself on Good Reads in January to read 50 books this year. Up until this last month, I was on track to meet my goal, but moving really threw me off. I'm attempting to catch up in the next few weeks. Up until having kids, if anyone would have told me that I'd ever go a full month without reading a single book, I'd be shocked. Now, as much as I still love to read, I have to be much more deliberate in reading regularly.

-Tomorrow night, we get to meet up with Ben and Dierdre for dinner in San Francisco while they're here from Scottsdale, thanks to Tom and Patty's being here to keep the kids! I'm excited to be close enough to the city for a quick trip like that!

-On that note, I may fall asleep in this chair if I don't get to bed...

First week back to work.

We're nearing the end of Chris's first week back to work, and mine as well. The most I can say at this point is that we will all survive it. Probably.

Chris's new schedule has him getting home every night at bedtime. After dinner, baths, jammies, and nightly meltdowns.

Declan has always had a hard time with changes and transitions, and so I fully expected his behavior to tank this week, and he did not disappoint. It has been a week full of his throwing tantrums, refusing to eat, making messes when my back is turned, bothering (tormenting?) Eleanor, etc, etc, etc.

Eleanor decided she was done with diapers last week, but she apparently did not decide that she wants to use the potty as well. After potty training Declan fairly easily by going cold-turkey with diapers, I thought that's what we'd do with Eleanor as well. This is the third round of cold-turkey potty training we've attempted with her since last fall. You win, baby girl.

Miles has Roseola this week, and has been clingier and fussier than usual, and he has not been sleeping well at all.

I'm pretty sure the kids all had a meeting on Sunday night, and decided they'd plan something special for Chris's first week back: Disaster Week!

However, I read Loving the Little Years by Rachel Jankovic earlier this week, and it couldn't have come at a better time. You can read my Goodreads review here, and if you're the parent of young kids (especially several young kids), I can't recommend it highly enough. I've been employing many of the techniques in the book for handling the kids, as well as the techniques for handling myself, this week (except for one incident when I may or may not have slammed the front door out of sheer rage--ahem).

I think this passage might have been written just for me this week:
"Don't think that the endless trips off to the bathroom with a toddler or two in tow are just a waste of time and energy--it is a gift that you are giving to your children. They will need these life skills! You are repeating these things for them just like a teacher circling missed math problems with a red pen. They will get it eventually, they just need lots and lots of repetition."

And maybe this one too:
"After having the twins, I had to deal with how easy it was to get overwhelmed. I can remember telling my husband that I was going to try not to say that anymore, not even to myself. It was time for me to adjust to the work load that God had given me. But deciding to be the kid who would dive in and not the kid who would stand around anticipating the work and getting overwhelmed has some real consequences. You have to know that you are giving up those moments that you were allowing yourself. Deciding not to say it is different than never actually being in over your head. But God loves a cheerful worker. I am still frequently in over my head. Actually, most of the time! But deciding to not wallow in that fact has removed one of the biggest obstacles to my work--my own calculations of how hard the job is."

So to summarize the week: tantrums, poop, a door covered in honey, pee in my shoe, fifty pounds of sand dumped in the grass, one trip to the library, one trip to the park, more poop, more pee, a tickle fest in the beanbag chair, and early bedtimes all around. The work is hard, the job is big, but the little people are worth it. Good night.

Miles Anderson

Miles was born at home exactly one year ago today, after several days of fetal-trickery that nearly drove me crazy wondering when he would actually decide to make an appearance. We were delighted to have another boy, mostly because if he had been a girl, Chris and I might still be arguing over a name!

He has spent the last year demonstrating that he is up to the task of being the youngest child with two siblings so close in age. He doesn't let Declan and Eleanor get in the way of his receiving all the attention that he wants from me; he protests loudly if I walk away or leave him with someone else, and he wakes up all night long to make up for any lack of daytime attention. He's very cuddly and affectionate with me always, and even occasionally with others. He loves Declan and Eleanor and wants to be involved with whatever they're doing: riding bikes, painting, playing at the playground, etc. He's pretty fearless and very tough. He has to be, since Declan tries to wrestle with him, and Eleanor constantly wants to rock him and hold him (usually against his will).

He loves animals, and calls all of them "dog!" or "ruff ruff!" He also can say mama, dada, Eleanor, Declan, Nini, Niki, Grammy, cat, night-night, look, more, thank you, that, hi, and bye. He's the closest to walking that any of our kids have been at one year, though Declan walked at 17 months, and Eleanor walked at 14.5 months, so he doesn't have fierce competition. He's pretty little (about 18 pounds), but he's very fast and agile, just like Declan was at that age. He is an absolute delight, and we look forward to really seeing his personality emerge over the next year!

Master Bedroom

When we moved in to this house, our bedroom looked like a dark, dreary chamber of gloom. The picture to the left doesn't really do it justice. The walls were a dark, pinkish tan color, with off-white trim. The wood floors had at some point be painted brown. Dark brown. I can understand painting wood floors, but why brown? It was grim.

Only because we had help from my wonderful mother-in-law, Patty, who was willing to watch the kids, Chris and I were able to spend a couple of days devoted to making our room much brighter and lighter.

We painted the walls a bright aqua color (Chris apparently truly loves me, because he'd have everything in our house plain white if he were choosing), and the ceiling and trim brighter white than it previously was. The best part is that we painted the wood floors white as well, and the room is much brighter, more relaxing, and much less likely to put me in a gloomy mood whenever I'm in there!

The Easy (?) Life

After living in an actual house for less than a week, I can already say I love it! When both Declan and Eleanor were born, we were living in our condo in Scottsdale. It was not very kid-friendly in that it was on the second floor (my neighbors definitely got a show on a daily basis when they watched me haul two kids, the double stroller, groceries, laundry, etc. up and down the stairs), and we were not allowed on the grass. Seriously. Our HOA spent thousands of dollars every month making that grass look gorgeous, but no one was allowed to walk on it, touch it, look at it, or really even think about it. Once we moved to LA, we were on the first floor (bliss!) and had a playground right outside our door. But pretty soon, Miles was born, and we had five people living in a 900 square foot, two bedroom apartment. It was tight, to say the very least.

Our new (to us) house is by no means huge, but it seems like a palace to us! It has a third bedroom, though for now we're still keeping all three kids in one room and using the third as a playroom. It has a fenced-in yard that I can see from the kitchen window, which is the only way we got our house unpacked in just over two days. It has a driveway where we can park. No more driving around trying to parallel park in a too-small spot during rush hour, and then hauling the kids and groceries a quarter mile to get home. And the most exciting (to me at least, since I do the laundry) is the washer and dryer just off of the kitchen. I used to schedule in laundry every three days, since using the coin-op machines at our apartment took a dedicated chunk of time when I could be home to deal with it, and washing five loads at once meant a mountain to fold all at the end.

Life at home just seems a lot easier and more productive than it used to (not that life with a three year old, two year old, and one year old should ever be described as easy and productive). I would sometimes beat myself up over how little I was able to get done during the day, especially when I would hear from other friends about all that they had done in a day. We're still working on organizing the house and making it home. We finished a fairly minor, but very exciting, home-improvement project last night that I'll write about once I get some good after pictures.

July 1

July 1 has a history of being a rather eventful day in our lives. This year, we are moving. Five years ago, I had a miscarriage during our first pregnancy. Four years ago, my brother, Christopher, died. I kind of hate July 1.

In the interest of staving off depression, here is a short list of some of my best memories of Christopher:
1. He was always willing to go so far over the top to get a laugh. Once, at a church event, there was a contest to see who could produce the best fake vomit. Christopher actually vomited. Most of his antics were less gross, but still really funny.

2. Christopher really loved babies and little kids. He was equally willing to cuddle a newborn and wrestle with a six year old. He was a great uncle to Niki's boys, and I am sure he would have loved my kids too.

3. He could thread a piece of spaghetti up his nose and out his mouth.

4. Even as a little kid, he loved to eat duck. It was always funny to hear a five year old request duck for dinner.

5. When he was a toddler, he would march around the house with his eyes scrunched shut singing the "Duck Tales" theme song at the top of his lungs.

6. He made really good waffles and pancakes from scratch.

7. He had gorgeous curls that got him tons of attention both as a toddler and a high schooler. When I was a senior and he was a freshman, people would ask me, "Oh, are you Chris's sister? His afro is awesome!"

8. He used to talk to people in public in a very convincing sounding fake language and make me "translate" for him. It was particularly entertaining when he ordered food in restaurants.

We love you and miss you every day, Christopher!