Two-Zero's

This is one of those little bits of nothing I don't want to forget after the years roll past.  Cawood has been asking for "two-zero's" for weeks and I just couldn't figure out what he wanted.  It's not often any more that I can't understand either of the twins, but this one has had me stumped for a while now.

The twins were scheduled for their three-year-checkup at 8am this morning, but the pediatrician's office called at 6:30 to cancel.  Dr. Walters is sick today and we need to rescuedule.  That's not a big deal, except I had aldready given Jessy the morning off so I just brought the twins in to the clinic with me. 

Cawood came to my desk and started asking for a "two-zero."   As soon as he said it in this enviroment, I knew what he wanted.  You see, when I place any order from my veterinary distributor it arrives with a plastic bag containing my invoice and two or three "two-zero's," all of which I toss in my desk and the kids know it.

Tootsie Rolls.

February 20th, 2012: They Turned Three

Out of pure stubbornness, I kept Cawood rear-facing until his third birthday.  The seat is approved to rear face to 35 pounds and he's weighing in at 34.8, fully clothed (but the way I see it, he's wearing his clothes when he's riding in his seat, so that should be considered into the body weight calculation.)  Anyway, I kept the twins both rear-facing until their birthday on the 20th.  Eva's only 30 pounds or so, so she'll obviously stay backwards for a little while longer. 

Hows this for a great idea?!?!  Build a bear for the twins third birthday!  Guess what?  By pure luck, Faith had a "Snow Day" scheduled for President's Day, which also happened to be their third birthday.  Lucky us!  All three kids had the chance to celebrate.

Eva started out wishing for a penguin like Cawood, but she put it back and later choose a dog:

Faith with her unstuffed peace bear:

Eva stuffing her dog:

Stuffing Cawood's new friend:

Cawood loves his little penguin.

And Eva her dog:

At their birth minutes (7:09, 7:11pm), they were sword fighting (cardboard rolls from gift paper.) 

I would show you pictures of Eva and Cawood opening their birthday gifts, but Cawood was stark naked in those as well, and the camera angle isn't that great, if you get my drift.  I'll save you from the uncomfortableness of having to view those pictures. 

One last gift.  I turned his seat forward facing.  Here's my big boy during our fitting just before bed:

Girl Scout Cookies

At the very first girl scout meeting of the year, I was volunteered to be cookie mom for the troop this year.  I thought, "Sure!  That should be fun!"  I agreed to the request and here we are.  We took our cookie orders and at the end of January we had four corners of our dining room looking just like the one above.  We have cookies!

Long story short: the cookie part of this has been spectacular. My cookies vs dollars is balanced to the penny.  Problem is, I've met with one or two parents who see things differently from me (and they are good friends.)  It's been an interesting experience and it's absorbed a ton of time.  More time than I imagined - again, I expected to spend time with the cookies and the money, but I didn't realize how much time I'd be dedicating to the parents, and in turn our service unit leader (who has commented to me that I've handled the situation as well as possible, and we just have to deal with difficult people sometimes.) 

Anyway, cookies will be all over and done with in another 3 weeks (THREE WEEKS!?!?) and I'm hoping to get back to blogging like I used to.  I've decided that I'm going to focus my volunteer efforts in the future at the school, the Church and with animal rescues, etc.  In short, I'm sticking with the organizations that have a history of saying, "Thanks for your time."  The sad thing is, most of the parents do say thanks, but you understand all about bad apples spoiling the experience. 

This isn't just me, either.  I've talked with other mom's of leadership in our troop and they've noted the same issue:  One parent in particular who does not volunteer her time has a tendency to bully and intimidate those who do.

Have you ever heard of "Frontier Girls?"  or "American Heritage Girls?"  They are alternatives to Girl Scouts that focus more on love of God and love of country than traditional Girl Scouts.  I'm considering talking to some of the like-minded Christian moms in the group, just to see what people think.  Faith loves Girl Scouts, so I'd hate to take her out of it, but if the troop as a whole continues to have problems I like knowing we have other options. 

Are You Ready For Some Three-Year-Olds?

Finally, finally, finally!  I'm finished with the twins birthday party pictures!  We did a smallish party this year, just because we don't think kids need a huge and elaborate party every year.  Not a whole lot of reason other than that.  I'm sorry the blog's been suffering a little.  I'll throw up a post on that in a little while so you can read about what's going on (Girl Scout Cookies.)

Without further delay: The birthday party!

Nana gave Cawood and Eva some rain boots.  They both loved them, but Cawood was especially tickled.

Nana and Eva:

Ray playing with Faith

Eva Marie was given a Rapunzel wig by Grandma:

 Ray gave the kids an awesome trike to share!

Barbara, me and Matt

 Sweet Little Eva would not blow out her birthday candles so Jessy had to help.

Cawood, however, did blow his out.  Trouble was, my camera wouldn't snap at the right moment so I don't have a picture of him doing it. 

The best gift of the day!  Grandma made Cawood a Super Why sweater.  This is great because now Cawood will take off his Super Why costume long enough for me to wash it - providing the Super Why sweater is immediately put on.

Grandma, Cawood and the sweater:

Building stuff:

Silly girl.  This was truly the best picture of the three or four I managed to snap:

Daddy and little man:

What a sleepy superhero, all tuckered out after a long day of partying. 

And the sister, hoping the party will go on. 

35 and Running

Birthdays have never really bothered me (probably because I'm the youngest of three, and I see my brother and sister getting older before me.)  Anyway, here it is:  35.  It happened, and it kind of surprised me.  I've been so busy going to high school, college, vet school, getting married, having babies, raising kids, building a practice . . . you know, life moves fast.  The last thing I remember was a big snow storm on my golden birthday (#16) and the front office of my high school *PACKED* with balloons, stuffed animals, candy and flowers (they changed the rule the next year: gifts were not allowed to be delivered to school.  I can only imagine it was because on that day my gifts made office work a little difficult.  The gifts in the office on that day were more than a little bit ridiculous.)  I don't know how I got from there to here, but here we are. 

I never liked Valentine's day or my birthday until Eva and Cawood came.  Now I love them both, because I don't just have two dates entwined together in my mind, I have three:  The 14th, 16th and 20th.  The 20th is a GREAT day, so that makes the other two great as well. 

I told DJ at lunch today that my gift to myself is going to be running.  I love to run, but I've just never given myself permission to take that 30-45 minutes away from the family three or four nights every week to go run.  The kids have been little, and they needed so much, but you know what?  Those twins are coming up fast on three, and they are fully able to express their needs.  There is no reason DJ can't watch them so I can run.  Right?  Right?  Chances are they'll just go upstairs and play anyway.  It's not like last year when they were on my hip at all times.  Now they have things to do, games to play.  I feel like that's a horribly selfish thing to do: leave the family for any want of my own (let's face it, running is a *want* and not a *need.*)

But then I circle back and think: I don't like leaving these kids for any reason.  I don't want to miss a single minute with them that is available to me. . . and I think about running and how Faith asked me one time last summer when I went for one of my rare runs, "Why are you running from us?"  Ahhh. . . what's a mom to do? 

So I'm 35 now.  I want to run, but I do not want to miss a single second of time with those kids.  I'll be 40 and then 50 before I know it and I'll wish I had exercised more, because I've always loved it.  I love the kids more, so technically that should answer that question, but it does not.  When I am 100, am I going to wish I had taken better care of myself, or am I going to wish I had spent every waking moment with my children when they were young?   Children who, by the way, were very difficult to convince God to give me in the first place, so I darn well better appreciate them.  Dilemma.

Dear Sweet Eva,

First, I would like you to know we love you very much.  Second, I would like you to know we do not like sharing a bed with you.  I know that seems terribly unfair as we welcome both your brother and your sister into our bed during the nighttime hours with open arms.  Then we give them hours upon hours of warm snuggles.  There is a difference:  Cawood and Faith snuggle up tight and sleep.  You however, do not sleep.  You talk to us, you squirm around and you ask us for things. 

For example, this morning you were in my bed for one hour.  You asked me for water, apple jacks, a new diaper (by the way, it's time to potty train,) Boots the monkey, your slippers, your pillow pet and your dream blanket.  Because you were so close to my side, and because you will only use your dream blanket (no other blanket is permitted to touch you,) you demanded that I remove the covers from myself, because they were in your space (which was actually my space.) 

During the hour you shared my bed, I was in and out of sleep.  Every time I opened my eyes, you were watching me, just inches from my face with a smile on yours.  I loved that and it made me laugh a little to myself, but it's a little hard to sleep when someone is unwaveringly watching you. 

I don't want to hear you ever complain about how we allow your siblings to sleep with us, but not you.  There is a reason.

We love you.  Sleep in your own bed. I'll snuggle with you by day. 

Love, Mommy

Sweet Sleeping Sisters

How darling!!!  Right? 

Here's the story:  Cawood has a habit of turning off the lights in the basement and Eva just couldn't resist taking a nap in her daddy's chair.  Aww! Sweet, sleeping, angel of mine. 

Shortly after, Faith came home from school and snuck downstairs.  She snuggled up tight next to her sister and also fell fast asleep.  Isn't that about the sweetest thing?!?  These are the moments a mother lives for.  What a huge blessing! Thank you Lord for these two sisters that love each other so. 

THIS is  why I wanted two girls.  THIS is why I think every little girl should have a sister (and also why I think every little boy should have a brother.)  These are the moments why I did not want Faith to be an only child.  These little everyday moments between siblings that really aren't a big deal, but really they make a huge impact on family dynamics.  These girls have each other forever.  Forever, they are bound.

Fast forward 20 minutes: Eva awoke and realized Faith was in that chair with her.  She was upstairs in a flash, screaming that awful Eva scream at me (yes, she still does that - sigh - )  That little girl of ours screamed herself into a time out; she was absolutely on fire because Faith had curled up with her to take that nap.  Furious. 

The thing with Eva:  She's sweet as a pea, darling, angel from heaven.  Oh goodness that child is a doll.  But don't get her angry, trust me on this one.  And don't try to share a nap.  She sleeps alone, that one.

The Haircut

First things first.  I do realize that I've always held firm on the "no-bangs" thing.  I do. not. like. bangs.  Not at all, not one bit. 

I also realize how unbelievably fortunate I have been with Eva: she allows me to brush her long and beautiful hair.  Faith screams and we keep her hair short out of necessity: we either fight every single day, or we keep it short. With Eva,  I was hoping her hair would be halfway down her back for kindergarten (because along with my dislike of bangs, I also dislike butt-length hair.  If it can reach the toilet, it grosses me out.  Mom used to tell the story of Cousin Lois and how she had to throw her hair over her shoulder before taking care of business - all I can say is that left an impression on my little brain at a very young age.)  Regardless, long hair on little girls is beautiful and I was hoping Eva would be one of "those girls."

Today, we cut bangs into Eva's hair, and then we chopped it into a shoulder-length bob. 

I didn't really see any other alternative because just a couple weeks ago Cawood cut a huge chunk of hair out of both the front (bang area,) back (underside,) and top (cowlick) of Eva's hair.  I couldn't do anything about the cowlick, but we're now in the active process of 'blending' her hair back into shape.

This is where we were, with just two or three minor trims in her life (you can clearly see Cawood's work on the cowlick):

The stylist is parting her hair to show a little more of Cawood's work:

Miss Thing was not going to pose for pictures this afternoon, so the following two are the best I have to show you:

She's still adorable, of course.  But wow, I'm missing those sweet baby curls already. 

Anything You Ask

I do seem to be having trouble keeping up to date here, but I'm not too busy this weekend so I'm going to make the blog a priority for the next day or two.

Anyway, the kids and I just came home from grocery shopping.  I unloaded the kids first, and asked Faith to exit the Pilot through a particular door, to keep her grubby little feet away from the groceries.  She answered me, "Of course!  I'll do anything you ask." 

I replied, "Go clean your room." 

Little miss smartie pants said, "That's not asking.  That's telling me." 

Christopher: Moving North

Praise the Lord, and thanks for your prayers.  Christopher has decided to head north, back home to Indiana.

Barb, of course, was quick to point out that Mardi Gras will be happening soon in New Orleans and if Christopher thinks of that he may take a westward detour, but for this immediate time being, he is heading north. 

His reason?  It's too hot in central Florida.   (Insert skepticism.  Aunt Cathy isn't buying that ridiculous reason, but I'm glad to have him home even if he is too stubborn to admit life is rough on the road, and pretty posh here in Indiana.)

Happy Birthday To Me!

OK, so it is absolutely not my birthday yet, but it's coming up fast.  The kids and I went to Terre Haute on Saturday for a few reasons, but while we were there Grandma surprised me with a birthday cake that she and the kids made while I was running some errands. 

Faith inserted 35 candles.  35 is a lot of candles, in case you were wondering.  We were struggling to light them all before others melted flush to the icing. 

But we got the job done, everyone sang to me and I blew out all 35 in one breath!  

Wow.  That's a lot of smoke.

Good times.  Like mom and dad always say, "it beats the alternative" (NOT having another birthday.)

Faith told me later, "Mommy, you win." 

I asked her what she meant and she answered, "You'll be 35 before Daddy, so you win."

I said, "That's right!  And I'll beat him every single year forever and always."

Bubble Fest!

How exciting is this?  Girl Scouts of Central Indiana has this program called "Bubble Fest" designed for the Daisy's.  Last Wednesday (I know!  I'm falling behind on the blog) Faith's daisy troop met at the science center of a local girl scout camp so they could explore the wonderful world of BUBBLES!

Faith: 

Faith and Katie were instructed to build a bubble sheet with this contraption in front of them.  Then, the girls were told to reach through the two bubble sheets and shake each other's hands.  This picture was taken right after they figured it out:

Blowing bubbles:

The girls were even able to make a great big bubble around themselves!  You can't see the bubble in this picture, but you know it's there because you can see the flash bouncing off of it.

 Faith builds a bubble around Katie: 

And Katie builds a bubble that's a little easier to see. 

100 Days of School

I was at Faith's school last week for the 100th day.  I thought I'd show you some pictures: 

Faith just happened to be Student of the Week this week:

Oh look!  It's Isaac and Faith. 

The kids did all sorts of things to honor the number 100.  They colored crowns with the number on them, they took 100 steps from the classroom and posted a little footprint on the wall that said "100 steps led me here" and they bounced a balloon 100 times. 

100 days smarter, these kids are!

Favorite Team

Today is "Favorite Team" day at Faith's school.  The kids are supposed to wear clothing in support of their favorite team: whoever that happens to be. 

We searched for Faith's Kentucky T-shirt that Nana gave her for Christmas, but couldn't find it (of course!)  Instead of Kentucky, I pulled out Faith's pink Colts sweatsuit and told her that she'll be supporting the Colts. 

So this morning, as I was dressing Faith, we had this little conversation:
Me:  Do you know what sport the Colts play?
Faith:  (looks at me like I'm being ridiculous)  Yes.
Me:  OK!  I just wanted to make sure you knew they played soccer.
Faith:  No!  They don't play soccer.
Me:  Oh!  You're right!  They play baseball.
Faith:  (Laughs) No they don't, Mommy.  Everybody knows the Colts play basketball.