Mom Always Said

"Don't play ball in the house"

Well, we weren't throwing a ball we were throwing Kate.




Then of course Reilly wanted to play too!

Smells

While in the car after hours and hours of traveling...

Shad: Shea smells
Me: Yah, she needs a bath.
Reilly: What does she smell like?
Kate: Like grapes or something? or maybe apples?

Ahhhh, yah Kate... that's it. Grapes or Apples.

"I Just..."

Kate's favorite words. No matter what you say to her, if it's something she doesn't like or didn't want to hear, her first response is... "I just...". For example:

Kate, please don't step on the dog.
I just walking on her.

Kate, please give Reilly back his car.
I just using it.

Kate, please stop touching Shea's head.
I just feeling it.

Kate, can you please get up in your carseat?
I just looking at Reilly's.

Kate, can you please go potty.
I just can in a minute.

It's her world... we're all just living in it with her.

SuperBowl Blues...

Perfection is in the eye of the beholder. There's always next year.

A Picture

is worth 1000 words...

Incessant

According to MerriamWebster : continuing or following without interruption.

The word defines Kate... she talks incessantly. Those of you who know us knows that she takes after her Dad. I am so soft spoken and shy that I know it is his trait. ahem

Anyway, she talks and talks and talks whether you are paying any attention to her or not. If you are talking to someone else she just chooses a few words from yours to repeat and try to become part of the conversation.

Another approach she has happened this morning, it went like this:

Kate: "Reilly"
silence
Kate: "Reilly"
silence
Kate: "Reilly"
silence
Kate: "Reilly, answer me"
sigh
Kate: "Reilly Andrew, I'm talking to you, answer me"
Reilly: "What Kate"
Kate: "Ummmm, ahhhhh, I don't know"

Skiing and Peeing

Reilly had is ski lesson today. There are a couple little guys in his class - as everyone readied themselves for the upcoming hour, I helped Reilly get his skis on. We started moving toward the lift and he said:
"I have to go the bathroom." Oh man... I was ready to ring his neck b/c we had already gone. I said "Are you serious" which is really a dumb question because with children it usually doesn't come out of their mouth unless it's true. So the next 7 minutes went like this:

Okay, hurry, come on.
scamper scamper (tough in ski boots)
into the ladies room
Mom, can you take off my mittens?
No, I'm going to help you.
I take down his ski pants and two pair of long underwear and the SpongeBob boxers, I line him up and expect him to just go.
Mom, I can't concentrate like this.

delay.... delay....

Phew, with that short delay we were back out on the slopes in just a few minutes.

Honesty from the Innocent

Sounds like a dirty word, doesn't it? It's actually the little ski place down the street where Reilly is in a preschool program. Today was his first day, I wasn't sure how he would do since he's only really skied with Shad and last year was when he broke his leg skiing at this mountain. However, his sister, Kate that is, positively reinforced him on the way over:
Kate: Rye, you are going skiing
Reilly: Yah
Kate: You falled last time
Reilly: Yah
Me: That's okay people fall all the time when they are learning to ski.
Reilly: Yah Kate Mom falls when she skis.
Kate: Yah, but Rye, you fall A LOT.
silence and frost heaves... more silence and more frost heaves...

He skied for an hour with other kids his age. It went well. They stayed on the magic carpet the whole time and Reilly was "assisted" by the instructor most of the time. But, whatever works, we don't want him to be intimidated by skiing since he got hurt doing it.

Afterward he had a BIG smile on his face, rosey cheeks and was thrilled. He was also so excited to be able to wear his ski jacket with his lift ticket on it to school.

NOTE: Thankfully Nannie could help me today, I'm not sure how I would have done it with a stroller/infant, a toddler and Reilly that needed help with all his equipment.

Hands and Feet

As Kate and I lay in bed today with Shea - we discussed what the day held in store for us.
Me: Today we're going to clean this room. said in a high pitch to make it sound fun and exciting
Kate: Can I help?
Me: Of course, that would be great!
Kate: Shea has hands, but she can't help.
pause
She has feet but she can't walk.
She can't walk down the stairs.
Shea can't help us.

You've got to appreciate such thoughtfulness.

How many toes does a fish have?

says Tacky the penguin.

Reilly asked where which restaurant we were going to for dinner, I asked him to guess (since we only go to four different ones that the kids will eat at AND that are kid friendly). He began guessing then had this to say: "I know it's Sunshine on the Iceberg".

Shad and I looked at one another, wondered what the heck he was talking about and he broke into a story about Tacky the penguin, apparently one of the books he is reading at school.

We're still in the dark, but he's got us curious now.

Fascinated

It's fun to watch Kate and Reilly since the birth of Shea. They were close before since they share a room but they seem to actually be friends now - playmates. Shad and I love to watch them talk, play, share, veg and more. Kate has a maternal way about her, even at two. She's constantly checking on Reilly, repeating what we say (as though he didn't hear), correcting him, and generally watching over him. He adores her and compliments her on things she does. They are also the first to tattle on one another - specifically at bed time. Some nights they spend two hours tattling on each other, playing, reading, giggling, playing flashlight tag and more things that get them into trouble.

All that being said it's been so great to watch them grow closer to one another and growing in general. With Shea part of our family now, the two of them seem much older and appear to grow inches each day!

17-0... and he knows it... thanks to his peers

He spends most of his free time at school making books, here is a photo of him and his latest:

Reilly just told Shad that he loves Tom Brady as much as he loves Shad. Shad replied with "is it the same kind of love?" (total set-up in my opinion) and Reilly replied with a "yes, the same kind of love".

Happy Birthday Shea

Okay, well Happy First Month of life in the outside world. For her birthday, she went on her first run with Daddy. Here she is all bundled up and ready to go. Apparently she slept the entire time, when she got home, she got placed on the ottoman and did not move for another thirty minutes. I think she likes the fresh air, and like most other newborns motion is good too!

Huffin and Puffin

I played soccer twice this week. I wanted to get out and do something that brought me back to what I thought of as "my old self" - just so I knew it was still there... somewhere. Shea and the kiddos hung with Dad for the two and a half hours while I was out. Shea was challenged with a bottle during these times, thankfully, she did okay.

I played with my "chick" team on Monday and the coed team on Tuesday. I found that my head really knew what to do but my body could not keep up. Three weeks after her birth, it's about what I expected. What I didn't fully expect but got a chuckle out of - in hindsight of course - was the loss of bodily fluid during exercise. Not only was it feeding time, I was reminded of why kegels are important and how pelvic floor muscles are more important than I gave them credit for. Oh... not even forty yet and dealing with the issues of my mother and grandmother. How sad...

Regardless, of my premature exercise, it felt soooo good to be running around again. It makes me so happy to run around not to mention being able to do it with friends.

Feeding a Baby

Reilly: Mom I know why your nibbles are fat.
Mom: Why?
Reilly: Because they have all the milk in them.
Mom: Ahhhh..... uh huh.

Welcome...

It must have been a result of my eviction, because our third child joined us less than 24 hours after the post. We have been blessed with another daughter, Shea, to our family. Oddly, labor began at 3:30am when I woke to a pain (contraction); my eyes popped open to find Kate standing inches from my face stroking my hair. I was confused and thought it was a dream - Kate rarely is up before the sun. I brought her back to bed and went back to sleep - curious if this was the onset of labor... finally. About 30 minutes later I woke again to a pain, I opened my eyes and as I stared at the door, Kate came walking in once again. She knew... she just knew...

We all hung around the house as my labor progressed and I passed time upstairs while Dad and the kids hung out downstairs. I cleaned more than I had in months... I think Shad was wishing I went into labor more often. Somewhere around 8am I told Shad to "GET the kids to school". I called my MD who told me to come into the office at 11. I found that to be odd as I had not done that in the past, but I agreed. 11am finally came around and we went to the md office. I found some pleasure telling the woman checking me in when she questioned my appt time that I was "in labor". Shad and I walked up the three flights of stairs to my OB's office and waited for her to be free. She checked me and sent me to the hospital - I was 5cm. It was 11:30 by the time we were in our room and I was sitting on a ball in a hospital gown. Over the next 4 1/2 hours Shad and I breathed together, I screamed, and Baby Shea arrived. (of course this is the abbreviated version, email me if you want the full version) Her arrival was different than the arrival of the other two. Not better or worse, but different.
She has a full head of dark hair, and weighed 7lbs 15ozs. Over a pound more than the last two.

Eviction Notice

What I once referred to as the "home stretch" apparently was not at all. I'm sitting here like a butterball turkey still waiting for #3 to make his/her grand entrance into the world. I can think of a number of reasons this child has not made it's way through the tunnel, but I'm sure aside from the fact, it's just not time, there isn't a good reason. My theories, however, still are worth considering:

1. Because of my lack of patience and tolerance the child on the inside hears a lot of whining and crying from the siblings on the outside and a lot of dog barking and whining.
2. Again, because of my lack of patience and tolerance the child hears much yelling on the outside and wonders why he/she would want to be there to hear it on the "other side" at least from where he/she is sitting, it's muffled - perhaps like when you go underwater in the bathtub and someone starts talking to you.
3. Oreos won't taste the same through breast milk.
4. It's been snowing and it's cold outside - it's warm on the inside.
5. Christmas is just around the corner, why not wait.
6. The other two kids got to make their mark in different ways on their way to the "outside" world, so this one figures that 10-12lbs would be a good way to make sure he/she is always remembered.

Oh, perhaps it's a little bit of all those things - then again it's likely none of them.

The Home Stretch

#3 is almost here - technically he/she is not due to arrive until 11/30 but intuition tells me it may be sooner. The kids are getting pretty anxious and in some ways it is showcased through their uncanny ability to "not hear" Shad and I as well as their knack of mastering the art of "crying/whining" when they are not getting their way.
Shad and I are truly challenged with keeping our patience these days. It's been a test to say the least. Fortunately, for the most part, when one of us is feeling impatient the other is patient. I would tip my hat to me being more of the former than that of the latter.

The kids have both attended "sibling" classes at the hospital so they can have some insight into what is to come. It's funny when I think about it Reilly is always going to be the "oldest" no matter how many members of the family come - but we are creating that not so envious position of "middle child" with Kate. She will now become the middle child and will either be the only girl or will have a sister. It's really an interesting thing to change the whole family dynamic - for better or for worse.

Shad and I are looking forward to the coming weeks to understand how we have done so...

Chick Mornings

Shad has been taking Reilly to school for the past few months which means Kate and I can have our "quality bonding" time in the mornings. The past couple mornings I have tried to get her to lay in bed just a "little longer". Verbally she'll commit, but as soon as she lies down she says "I need juice" and I say that I'll get it in a minute - to which she then replies "and dinner - I need dinner now too."

We don't last more than about 20 minutes b/c the demands just keep coming and it defeats the purpose of trying to get an extra few minutes.

Perspective

So... Kate is into dressing herself. I let her get whatever she wants out of her draw and typically only provide climate driven feedback. So, some days she has on 4 shirts and other days she wears her pants backwards. Typically the clothing does not match but occasionally she get something that at least looks like a coordinate set - either way, she's expressing herself, so I think it's cool. Well... I did... until this morning. The shirt she chose has a quasi neck tie - it's a piece of ribbon that appears to allow you to close the shirt at the neck but it's truly an accessory and has no function at all. Kate asked me to tie her shirt, I did. Apparently incorrectly... she untied it and asked me to do it again. I took the two ends and made a bow... I was wrong...again. Repeated step #1 again, this time I created tears. I asked what she wanted and she said a bow... after about the 7th time I picked her sobbing body off the floor and started showing her the zipper on the sweatshirt she had chosen.

Thankfully the distraction worked b/c the shirt was fine from that point on. Phew....