New Year's Eve

Happy New Year's to all! I'm excited about 2010 ... so many changes ahead this year ... Kindergarten for Claire, preschool for the twins, and so on. It should be a very interesting year.

Today the girls and I ran some errands, had a nice lunch together, and then played in the basement the remainder of the day. It's just frigid outside with a low of 1 degree coming in just a few hours, so no need to keep running around town.

Our dinner was the highlight of the evening. We had beef braised in milk ...

... and then I made the girls the ultimate kiddie dessert: instant vanilla pudding with sprinkles of chocolate teddy grahams on top. They thought it was great. I also took some photos of the girls enjoying their holiday dessert ...

... then baths for all after the pudding, and the kids were asleep on time. I think I'll turn in early as Molly keeps waking me each night over some minor coughing fits, so I'm tired (when am I not?). I tend to think New Year's Eve is a very anti-climactic holiday anyways, so I'm no stickler for staying up until midnight. Here's to hoping 2010 brings us all much happiness, health, and security - for my family, and yours.

Post Script: Molly woke me up around 1am, manipulated her way into my bed again, and kept me awake for over three hours last night while she tossed and turned and generally kicked me in the back and head all night. *Sigh*.

A Playdate Day

Claire was in heaven today ... she had both best friend Lauren and neighbor Ashley over to play this afternoon. I felt the weight of being responsible for five girls, doing meals, snacks, and a shrinky dink project with them, so I'm exhausted tonight.

And I think Molly must have been tired this evening too. No matter how many times I said "be quiet!", "find a quiet game to play while Molly naps!", "please don't wake up Molly!", the girls just could not be quiet, so Molly got maybe thirty minutes of naptime. It was not the best of circumstances for the naptime routine.

So next time I decide to take on another playdate, I'll need to find a low-key activity for the girls while Molly naps. It will make that part of the playdate far less stressful for me.

But I loved seeing Claire so happy, so I was able to overlook some of the noise and chaos. I definitely learned that two girls can play together rather calmly, but three girls together is just noise and chaos. Lesson learned for mommy.

Napping Adjustments

It looks as though I have a toddler dropping a nap ... at only two years and three months of age. Claire also dropped her nap before age three - I am certainly "blessed" with high energy children - but definitely not this early. Lily is my highest energy child (I lean toward thinking she is showing signs of ADHD ... time will tell), and recently her nap was causing some issues. She was beginning to stay up late and wake up too early, which is of great importance when she's sleeping in the same room with her twin who needs considerably more sleep to stay happy. Molly has been a class-act crank recently due to her sleep deficit caused by Lily.

So yesterday and today I dropped Lily's nap entirely and she didn't even blink - it's like she didn't even notice that her schedule had changed. She wasn't cranky or overly tired. I'm not sure this is the result I was hoping for. It stands to make my WFH days extremely difficult without both of the twins napping for at least an hour and a half or more. I'm very anxious about this change.

I also know that kids are continually adjusting their sleep requirements, and even when Claire started dropping her nap, we often went to every other day before cutting them out entirely (part of my test today was to see if Lily needs no nap at all, or an every other day nap). If it's every other day, I could ensure that the nanny gets the no nap days and I get the nap days on two of my three WFH days. But if Lily has entirely dropped the nap, then life has just gotten more difficult for me during the work week.

I have friends whose kids napped well into their fourth and even fifth years. They don't know how good they've got it ...

The End Result

And the end result of all the cooking today was another fantastic bowl of soup for dinner tonight ( a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese following the Italian style is the perfect finishing touch) ...

... and Kyle has finally returned home this evening after roughly a 4-day absence (his plans for tomorrow are unknown to me as of yet), so I don't have to get Claire to bed right now, which is at least one less thing for me to do today.

The kids and I had a fun trip to Home Depot this evening to buy light bulbs. They played with the Christmas items and in the kitchen area, but their favorite spot was the showers. They got in and out of the floor models for at least 15 minutes until I dragged them away. The twins also loudly shouted "poo poo pee pee" every time we saw a toilet, so maybe they're not exactly public ready yet ...

Simple Is Good

Nothing makes me feel happier or more energized than seeing a bunch of fresh fruits and vegetables on my countertop, all washed and ready for a good, fresh recipe ...


With another snow storm approaching, I decided to make another pot of my pasta e fagioli soup which will ensure many nights of fantastic leftovers and require fewer grocery runs in the snow (soup is just now on the stove hence the unfinished look in the photo below - I'll add the fresh greens, pasta, and sausage later and try to take a photo of the finished product)...


The soup will provide a nice balance to my greasy, non-fresh Waffle House lunch I had today when I finally left the house with the kids (and my did the kids enjoy Sam's Club, Waffle House, and the grocery store this morning!).

We've also got a batch of blueberry muffins the kids enjoyed for breakfast (I baked them last night so they'd be ready for breakfast this morning) ...


... which completes the food picture for me today - a pot of soup with completely fresh ingredients and baked goods in the house. Can't beat that. As I've said before, I prefer simple, fresh ingredients in my food - just like the Italians themselves would use - and the results are far superior to taking shortcuts and using frozen or canned items. I just wish I had more time to cook like this every day.

Vacation time is a good thing.

Cabin Fever

We're still stuck at home due to the weather. I know plenty of friends have ventured out, but the side roads are still questionable (though looking better today now that the sun has appeared), and if I went anywhere, I'd be on side roads ... not the well-plowed highways and main roads. My opinion is I'll suffer a little cabin fever to keep everyone safe and at home. My car doesn't handle snow well, but more importantly, I don't trust the other drivers on the road. Why would I knowingly put my kids at risk just to reduce my personal boredom levels? Priorities, priorities.

But I. am. bored. Because of the continued snow plowing, Kyle hasn't been home much of the past three days (I can count on less than two hands how many waking hours he's been home, and he will be gone this third day also for its entirety). When he is home, he's too tired to help out much. So I've had no break, no relief ... nothing. The house has been blissfully peaceful though. The kids are still excited about the new toys, though I sense they're starting to get itchy for a change of pace too.

My biggest issue is the mealtimes. I've been on meal cooking and clean up duty for far too many days in a row, starting at least on Christmas Eve ... so we're talking four days and counting. Under normal conditions, I would have thrown in a lunch out with the kids by now just so I could avoid cooking and cleaning for at least one meal. Kyle hasn't been doing the kids' breakfast like normal (he hasn't been home during that time), so I've made, served, and cleaned four meals a day for basically the last four days straight. It's wearing on me badly at this point.

I remember a story I once heard on my paternal grandmother, who had three (hungry) sons, including my father. She told my mom "I have never enjoyed the regularity with which the meals keep coming". This, of course, was from the days when people didn't regularly do restaurant meals, so I can only imagine how numbed she must have been by all her cooking requirements for 20+ years. Too bad she didn't throw in a lunch at Waffle House once a week and a night of Thai or pizza take-out - it takes the edge off a bit.

And I need to take the edge off all my current kitchen time. Soon.

Here's a photo of Claire, who couldn't be stopped from enjoying one of her favorite things in the world yesterday, even with a foot of snow and more falling in the back yard (brrrrrrrr) ...

... and here's a photo of Claire prepping her new Bingo game, so I could play six rounds of Bingo with her while the twins napped yesterday (*yawn*) ... I'm sorry if I sound mean spirited, but board games are not much my thing ...

... and now, I guess I better go play another one of those bored, oops, I mean board games.

Sneaky Molly

The evidence was unmistakable. A lonely wrapper dismissed on the floor tells quite the story.

But I didn't see it until later because I was folding laundry. Instead, Claire alerted me that Molly was hiding from me in the basement, so I went in search of her. I found her in the playhouse in the basement, lying on the floor curled around her stolen loot in a protective manner. She had swiped a lollipop and was furiously eating it, hoping to keep me from taking it away.

Christmas night Molly had broken the cabinet lock off the "candy cabinet" doors (surely with malicious intent), and I was too slow to find a replacement. Yesterday, Molly took advantage of the wide-open access and grabbed herself the lollipop while I was out of sight folding laundry. She knew she had done something unacceptable, so she knew well enough to go hide and eat it (and giggle tremendously when I found her with it). I promptly found that new cabinet door lock, but I guess she got her reward in the end ... I let her keep the stolen lollipop, mainly as a tip of the hat to her well-thought out plan.