7 Quick Takes--Our trip to Philadelphia

1.

We left Saturday for Philadelphia. It was Clare's first plane ride, and I was hoping she would do as well as her brother did on flights. The trip was for my brother-in-law's graduation from Penn. We decided since it would be a lot of walking and a lot of sitting at ceremonies, dinners, and such it would be best for Damian to stay with my parents. I don't think he minded one bit considering all I heard was on their agenda for the few days we would be gone.

2.

Clare did great on the flight there. She acted a little loopy at first, but I finally got her to settle down and sleep. Everyone said she was the quietest baby they had ever experienced on a flight, so I guess she didn't bother anyone.

3.

I had never been to Philadelphia so I was excited to see a new city.

Clare loved the fact that we got to have a king sized bed "all for her."

4.

Before we left I wasn't sure which carrier for Clare to bring... I know... I don't know how I handle all my problems either. Anyway, I have a Maya Wrap ring sling and a Boba. The Boba would have been easier to carry her around walking-wise, and she's starting to like back carries. However, I really hate using it to nurse and since I knew the chances of having quiet places to nurse would be limited, I went with the Maya. I'm glad I did because she really likes sitting on my hip so she can see as we walk, and I was right, I was often feeding her on the go. 

5.

Graduation was much different from ours at Furman. Definitely much bigger, and the commencement speaker was John Legend. Afterwards Nate and I thought and thought about who spoke at ours and we could never remember. I guess that's what happens when our entire school was smaller than Penn's graduating class.

After the ceremony, we went to lunch that turned into dinner after hours of eating and celebrating. SO much yummy food! Clare slept in my arms for a good majority of it, so I got to enjoy most of my meal without fighting little hands for all my food.

6.

The flight home was also good. She slept and ate mum mums. I think we were all exhausted from all the walking and fun we had had in Philly. 

7.

We then came home to Damian who is our high energy little man. It was fun having a chance to get to know Clare without Damian constantly "telling her how it is" but I was so glad to have our little family back together. It's not quite the same without D... It's too quiet... and perhaps too easy ;-)

Linking up with Jen

A Day in the Life

7:30

 

Wake up to Clare patting my face. I attempt to nurse her in hopes I can get a few more minutes of sleep, but she continues to be adorable. and awake.

7:33 

Hear Damian whining downstairs to Nate about something. Pray I can hide just a bit longer

7:44

 Damian finds me, and he's crying. 

I continue to ask him why, and he continues to ignore me. Finally he calms down and tries to tackle me and Clare. Family snuggle fest commences.

7:58 

Nate makes it upstairs to get ready for work. He gives me that "you're still in bed" look because he's been up for hours at this point. We chat about the morning before he sneaks in the shower. 

8:15 

Realize Damian not only has my phone but he's managed to pull up a random video online. We all get sucked in watching it, and Damian doesn't get the humor. 

8:20 

Finally I get up... Let the day begin, world. I moan and whine a bit.

8:24 

Now begins the fight for my phone. Damian repeatedly tells me it's his and finally pry it out of his hands. Tears... sooo many tears.

8:26 

Nate says goodbye and for some reason Damian was not satisfied by the farewell he's received.

8:30 

Chase Nate down in the driveway because Damian is in hysterics and saying that he needs another hug from Nate. Normally I don't cater to every whim this kid has, but he's never acted this way about Nate leaving before so I deem it kinda cute and try to stop Nate from driving away. Of course, he still cries when Nate leaves, so I carry him and Clare back into the house. Work out for the day--completed.

8:40 

 

Despite the fact that she now hates diaper changes because it means she can't go anywhere, she finally has a clean diaper on. 

8:42

Everyone is unraveling again about who knows what, so I decide we need to get out of the house STAT.

8:43 

Get me and Clare dressed. 

8:58 

My timer goes off?? For some reason Damian must have set that while playing with my phone earlier... sigh...

9:03

 Wrangle clothing on to scooter boy, although I have to wait until he's done taking his call

 and head to the car.

9:13 

Yes a whopping 10 minutes later we are all finally in the car and on the way to Whole Foods. Clare naps.

9:30

 Make it into WF thanks to bribery. Head straight to coffee and pastry section and load us up. 

Damian's diet has started off stellar and I just thank God that this chocolate croissant he chose is as big as his face because it means I will get to shop in peace.

9:40 

Damian starts yelling about something. WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT KID?!?!?! Finally realize ooohhhh Bees. Like actual buzz buzz sting bees. Right.... 

9:42 

Go look at bees.

9:50

 Still walking around WF trying to find bread crumbs. WHERE ARE THE BREAD CRUMBS?!?!?! Finally ask someone and she says "Oh, they're over here by the tuna." I give her the "Oh. Logically." face, grab some, and bolt to the check out because there is still way too much Ice Coffee in my cup and not enough chocolate croissant left in his pastry bag. 

10:00

 Make it to the car and let Damian help me push the cart back to the drop-off spot. He insist he must also throw away his pastry bag because, judging by the tone of his voice, his life depends on it.

10:14 

Time to go home. Talk to my mom on the drive back. Adult conversation. Woot Woot. Clare sleeps and Damian is surprisingly quiet-ish.

10:45 

Car is unloaded, and Clare is asleep in her carseat. I get to actually cook some!!! 

10:46

 Damian wakes up Clare.

10:47 

Stop myself from killing my child.

10:48 

Start to really regret the fact that I didn't make this dish the night before like I had originally planned. 

10:53 

Clare lets me finally put her down, and Damian is scooting around the house playing. She slowly dismantles the fridge and cabinets and I don't even care one little bit. 

I get to chop chop chop with two hands!

11:21
Everything is finally chopped after some "help" from Damian

 and a few intermissions from Clare. I realize that trying to triple a recipe was perhaps a bit ambitious... 

11:30 

Realize it's been 4 hours since I've nursed Clare, so we take a little nursing break. Wonder if 11:33 still counts as morning as I read my Morning Offering email.

 She falls asleep so I put her in he Ergo and keep on keeping on.

11:38 

Let Damian "wash dishes" because the environment isn't going to win today. 

11:50 

Recipe calls for wine and wonder if it's acceptable to drink wine before noon if I'm using it to cook.

11:51 

Curse the wine gods.

12:00 

Damian is playing by himself. Praise the real God for this miracle that last until lunchtime. At some point I notice that playing by himself also means hanging out in the dog crate.

12:50 

Casseroles are in the oven and I've got lunch on the table for Damian. I eat cashews because I have to fix this... It's just... yea it's bad.

1:29 

Kitchen is clean enough.

1:41

 Put on George and sit down for a second. Clare doesn't want to play and seems pretty cranky.

1:50 

Nurse Clare while wondering what Tibi is barking about while also making oatmeal for me to eat.

1:55

Eat oatmeal while nursing Clare and attempting to blog. I get no where because she wants to help type.

2:03 

Go upstairs to grab laundry and to change. Clare falls over pulling up on something and wants to comfort nurse. Damian notices we are missing and comes upstairs. I put Clare in the Johnny Jump-up so I can attempt to make myself look half way decent. She and Damian bounce while looking at each other in the mirror. I can't decide if this is incredibly cute or just kinda vain. Gotta love little kids.

2:20 

Casseroles done! 

Start getting Damian and Clare ready to go. We're delivering a meal to a mama friend who just had a baby (hence all the casserole making.) Also remember I need to pack a few packages from the eBay business and stick them in the mailbox.

2:50

 Finally get out the door 30 minutes later. Clare sleeps and Damian is silent. This. Is. Bliss. I'm completely recharged by the time we get to her house.

3:23

 Make it to friend's house and end up having an impromptu playdate for a bit. Damian's shy self seems to be finally warming up a bit right as we need to leave. Typical typical. 

4:50

 We're back home and Damian wants to go on a walk. Also, judging by his tone, this too is life or death and if we don't walk RIGHT NOW we will all die. But I tell Mr. Doing the Potty Dance he has to go to the bathroom first. He and I argue for a good 5 minutes before he finally just goes. I will never understand this dilemma. Never. (Can I mention how glad I am that dinner is already done! I also make a mental note to start cooking every meal early.)

5:00 

Strap Clare in the Ergo, Damian grabs his scooter, and we finally go on that walk. I tell him he has until 5:30 because then we have to go home to warm up dinner and take a bath. 

5:25

 Run into/meet our neighbor who has kids and end up talking for WAY too long. But we get a dinner invite out of it. Damian has had one too many interactions with humans and is losing it. The world is crumbling around us. We are all hot. We are all melting. There are puddles of despair everywhere. I'm fairly convinced the dinner invite has been revoked. But new friends bring Damian a frozen yogurt pop to help us make it back home. They are officially amazing.

6:03 

Finally start warming up dinner. Damian struggles. Clare is a sweaty mess and hungry.

6:08 

The moment we have all been waiting for finally happens as Nate walks through the door. Hallelujah choirs begin. Or, wait, is that the sound of my child still. wailing. 

6:10

 Dinner begins. After an epic battle over what he was eating, he decides that he suddenly doesn't like THESE chicken nuggets. He wants to go get different ones. I sip my wine faster. Finally we bribe him with milk to eat and he realizes, oh wait. THESE ARE SOOOO GOOD! Sigh.... We recount the day to Nate, while I feed Miss I Love To Eat So Much I That Bounce While I Eat And Therefore Make A Mess. Thankfully, the day seems to be ending on a happy note as everyone's mood is much better with a little food.

7:10

 Go upstairs and begin the bedtime routine with Clare while Nate tackles (literally) Damian. Rock and nurse Clare while I pray and decompress from the day.

7:50 

Sneak out of Clare's room. Catch up briefly with Nate while he cleans the kitchen from dinner. I then go outside to water the plants.

8:24 

Decide I just need some quiet time and swing outside for a bit. I worry about Damian some and hope I'm doing the right thing with him. 

8:36

 Go back inside and apologize to Nate for unloading all my frustrations about Damian and his "social skills" on to Nate the second he walked in the door. He, of course, doesn't care because he understands. 

8:40

 Start blogging.

9:06 

Realize the number of pictures I have for this post is unreal.

9:32 

Start texting all the people I've accidentally ignored in the last few hours. 

10:10

Finish post. Contemplate bed or ice cream. Bed or ice cream. And then think... Oh wait, didn't I do laundry at some point today?? Oops...

Sainthood Denied

What. A. Day.

It's 2 minutes to 11 pm and I've finally got a quiet house (until Clare reads this) and I'm sitting here eating ice cream instead of sleeping. Best use of my time for sure.

Maybe it was being gone for 3 days or maybe it was just that I was off my game, but today I was not feeling it. You moms know what I mean. Those days when being a mom is last on your To Do list, yet for some reason the Little Blessings don't get the memo. So here I am feeling all worn out and a bit grumpy and I read this beautiful post by Tess and think YES! THIS IS IT! 

Problem is, I failed at sainthood today. I guess in reality I fail at this most days, but today seemed more epic than usual. My temper was shorter, my yelling was louder, and my patience was non-existent. Damian is a big ball of need topped with whines and tantrums, and Clare is a little ball of "just let me sit on your hip all day long." And while my hips cry "give me a break" sometimes, I tell myself she's still a baby--she won't be soon-- and just give her extra kisses. But with Damian it hasn't been that easy lately. The real tragedy is how often I forget my big guy is still quite little himself. In a lot of ways he still needs me to just say, "He's still little" and give him extra kisses too. 

you can never release me! zzzz

But instead I yell, I turn the car around, I sit him on the steps, over and over and over and over. Of course, some times he truly deserves it. But sometimes... Sometimes I wonder if he only needs a bit more attention from his mama. It's only been 7 months of learning how to share me with Clare. And most often Clare's needs seem to outrank his. This parenting stuff is complicated..

Here Clare, let me squish you.

I wish I could just say, "Yes being a mother is so hard, but I'm learning so much about sacrifice." Or "Having a three year old is sure making me grow in holiness." But if I'm honest, I don't know that I'm allowing motherhood to turn me into a saint. Rather, I find it often brings out my worst qualities. And I hate that because I do love being a mom. I don't even want to be the perfect mom who does all this amazing stuff for my kids. No, I just want to be a good mom who teaches goodness and holiness to my children. And today, today was not that day. 

But the good thing about teaching holiness is it means teaching forgiveness. Tomorrow is another day and another chance to try again at this messy motherhood of mine. Hopefully it will be better. And if it's not, there's still some ice cream left in the fridge ;-)

House Update: Downstairs

 

We've been pretty busy getting the house unpacked and put back together these past few months. Every weekend seems to find us at Ho' Depot (as D would say) and with a looooong list of projects. I usually can't stand to have things left unfinished for long, but thankfully the fact that absolutely nothing in this house is "Done" isn't driving me crazy yet. It's hard to get all the things done that I envision in my head with the kiddos around. But considering they aren't going anywhere anytime soon, I thought I would go ahead and share with you the To Do list which is constantly being added to and updated. We'll start with the downstairs in this post. If you want a reminder of what the house looked like when we first moved in (craziness and all) you can go to this post here.

 Living Room

• Paint
• Add accent wall (matches front door)
• Whitewash fireplace
• Change light switches and electrical plugs
• Replace fireplace screen
• Get artwork for walls
• Artwork/decor for mantel 
• Replace fan for a light fixture (fan is down but we don't have a light in there)
• New side tables and lamps
• Curtains
• New throw pillows

Half Bathroom

• Replace door
• Replace light switch 
• Add GFCI outlet
• Replace mini blinds with shutters
• New vanity
• New toilet
• New tile
• New mirror 
• Paint
• Basically gut the thing....

Kitchen

• Paint
• Replace light switch
• Replace faucet 
• Remove door that leads to dining room
• Fix outlets
• Move garbage disposal switch
• Move chair rail up to counter height
• Replace ceiling fan with light fixture
• Add beadboard
• Replace countertops with granite 
• Paint cabinets white and replace hardware
• Add open shelves
• Replace fridge and maybe other appliances
• Get a hutch for storage
• Art work
• Curtains?

Dining Room

• First thing is to make it no longer our storage/ prep room
• Paint
• Hang curtains
• Replace chandelier
• Add wainscoting? 
• Add built ins?
• Art work

Hallway

• Paint
• Remove door that leads to living room
• Paint front door
• Change door hardward
• Change light switches and plugs
• Change closet door
• Get runner
• Change out light fixture
• Artwork

Playroom

• Paint
• Artwork 
• Make reading nook
• Curtains

So that's the downstairs plan... Once I can get some pictures of upstairs, we'll move on to Part 2 of the To Do List saga.

7 Quick Takes

Just some good ol' day in the life type stuff...

1. 

If I had to pick one food to live on/take with me to that famous deserted island everyone always references, it would be Greek Food. I LOVE Greek food "soooo much" as D would say. So when I found out Charleston has a Greek Fest both in the Fall AND last weekend, you know we hit that up! 

We tried to get there in time to take a tour of the church because the Greek Orthodox sure do know how to do a church, but they got all tricky and change the times on us so no dice there.  A little baklava sundae and all was forgiven.

2.

Parenting has been going great recently.

Ha!

As seen here when Clare apparently found the recycling bag and decided a beer can was THE MOST FUN TOY EVER. (And no, my kids do not wear clothes.)

3.

Damian has been ever more helpful around the house, minus all those times he's not. We recently started our eBay business back up so the boxes are appearing once more. We're going to have to break this FedEx man in because he hasn't learned the ropes quite like our ATL guy.

Damian told me he would move all the boxes into the house for me since they were delivered behind my car and not to our doorstep.

4.

Before I spill more secrets of my survival mode parenting, let's stop for a moment to look at these pretties.

 I never thought of myself as a "garden person" before, but now that we have a house, I can't stop. Between all the veggies and the 48235879 potted plants I keep getting... It's becoming a sickness.

5.

So back to parenting wins... Lesson learned--when two kids are mobile they team up and you will never win. 

Damian started this little cabinet emptying project and Clare came in as relief pitcher to finish the game. All day, every day. 

6.

I'm realizing that I have approximately 3984345 versions of this picture on my phone. I hope that as he gets older, he will still go on the occasional coffee date with his mom.

7.

Speaking of getting older, I started filling out his application for preschool the other night. 

After looking over tuition costs, I immediately began researching home schooling. When did he grow up?! Why is catholic school so expensive?! all the whines, all the whines.

Linking up with Jen!

Damian-isms vol.2

Time for another installment of things Damian says that makes me question his influences and such...




Scene: Typical morning...
Damian: I want to watch TV.
Me: You can watch TV when Clare takes a nap.
Damian (in sweet sing-songy voice): Ok sweet girl, time to take a nap.
Me: No it's not her naptime yet.
Damian (now very sternly to Clare): 1.2.3.TIME.OUT.
Me (trying not to laugh): Why is she in timeout?
Damian: Because she won't nap.


Scene: Playing with legos on Easter morning before church.
Nate: Look Damian, I made you a cross out of legos.
Damian: No, that's a plane!
Sooo I guess that answers the vocation question....

Selection of selfies found on my phone

Scene: At Starbucks
Me: Venti Ice Coffee please
Barista: Can I get your name?
Me: Mary (I never say Mary Helen because it takes them too long to get the double name...)
Damian (to Barista): Mary Poppins!
Everyone: awkward silence....

Scene: Out to eat the other night
Waitress: Would he like apples or french fries with his grilled cheese?
Me: Damian? Apples or French Fries? (neither of which he likes)
Damian: Ummm.... BACON!!!

No pants. Full sized juice.
Our standards are high in this house.

Scene: Sitting in our living room Damian suddenly points to the fireplace.
Damian: I want to open it.
Me: No, we aren't opening up the fireplace because the cat will get in there and make a mess.
Damian: But I want to go in it.
Me: (confused look)
Damian: I want to go up in it.
Me: What?
Damian: Like Mary Poppins!
Me: Ohhhhhhh..... Ummmmmmmm. (Try to think if I should pop the bubble now that she's not real or let him down easy. I'm a wimp.) Well... You can only do that with Mary Poppins and she's not here right now.
Damian: Let's go to Mary Poppins' house.
Me: Ummm... She lives really far away... Hey, What's that!!??

6 months...

 

Dear Clare,

Could you be any cuter?! You're killing me! 

Anyway, we've made it half a year and so far so good I'd say. It's been an exciting month for you, and after looking back at your 5 month letter, I realize how far you've come. At some point this past month, I think things finally clicked with me being a mother of two. Or at least it seems to have gotten a lot easier. Or maybe I've just forgotten how easy it used to be... Sigh... I still think having two of y'all around is much easier than having just one. You've got constant entertainment in your brother and that makes my job a little bit easier. But, back to you. Let's recap your month...

You have not only mastered sitting independently but you can now sit yourself up on your own. It's weird to come get your from your crib with you sitting up staring at us. It also means I've had to lower your crib down a level because...

You have also started, though not quite successfully, pulling up on things. The last thing I need is to not be one step ahead of you and have you falling out of your crib, sooo down it went.

Speaking of cribs.... And I mean this loosely, so very loosely, you are sleeping half the night in your crib. Woohoo! Usually you go down anywhere from 6:30-7:30 and then proceed to wake up between every 1-4 hours until I finally wave the white flag (usually between 2-4am) and bring you to bed with me. We've tried letting you cry it out, but that seems to have failed miserably in getting you to sleep longer stretches. I have my theories, but I'll save that for another day. Looking back at last month and realizing a month ago you were still in your swing and not able to put yourself to sleep gives me hope that maybe one day you will sleep long enough for me to get to REM cycle. Until then I will continue to keep all the coffee shops in business.

Since we're on the topic of sleeping, or really not sleeping, I should probably mention two of the reasons I think any 'sleep training' we attempted failed and those are your two bottom teeth. We said goodbye to that gummy smile and now you have two cute little teeth that are delightfully sharp and ready to chew.

And with those teeth, you've decided you are too old and mature for baby food. No ma'am. You will not be fed. You are a big girl and will do it yourself thank you very much. I have tried and tried and tried to feed you baby food with a spoon, but you break down into hysterics if I don't give you the spoon and "let you do it." You do get it in your mouth, eventually. It's only after all the baby food has been slung around the room. Tibi loves it. If only you could be fooled by us both having a spoon... So I've started cutting up things for you to eat with us, and you're happy as can be chowing down on an apple or pear or sweet potato fry.

You are still a huge fan of the raspberries and blowing bubbles. Each morning I wake up to you patting my face and blowing raspberries at me. It's cute... and I will probably miss that most when you finally sleep the night away in your room. You've also started babbling some. Hearing you say da da da da da has definitely melted some hearts. I'll let you in on a little secret... You've got daddy wrapped.

You aren't officially crawling yet, but using an interesting technique of sit, fall over and roll, sit, swing leg around, army crawl, roll, sit up, fall down, etc etc you can get wherever you want to go. I've lost number of the times I've witnessed you faceplant because you're legs go and your arms don't. I'm amazed at how well you take it in stride and keep moving right along. I went ahead and cleared out all of Damian's choking hazard toys. He wasn't amused, but I say it's pay back for how rough he is with you. He has no concept at all that you aren't a 3 year old little boy who loves to be tackled. I'm not sure what's going to happen once you're really crawling/walking and can go get back all those toys he steals from you.

In other news, I finally finished all your nursery bedding! I was hoping it's beauty would inspire you to sleep. I guess you just want to get up and look at it all the time. It's ok. I understand.

We haven't been to the doctor yet, so I have no official stats for you other than you are wearing 12 month clothing. I guess that means the 9 month dress I bought you before you were born for 4th of july will not be fitting you. Sigh. Maybe now that I'm not sewing your bedding I can make you one.

And that my sweet girl is about it! Keep being the sweetest little girl I know!

Love you, 

Mama