Time marches on...

Sometimes I think my iPod has a direct line to God.  I put it into shuffle mode and it truly seems to deliver a message to me via mp3.  Take tonight.  I am feeling a bit melancholy over the fact that I will wake up a year older tomorrow.  34 years old... Somehow it feels remarkably older than 33.

As I was driving my kids home tonight I plugged my iPod into the car stereo and the first song that blared out was "Godspeed (Sweet Dreams)" by the Dixie Chicks.  This is Liam's lullaby.  Each of my kids has their own special lullaby. Hearing this song took me back to the very first time I sang it to Liam in our hospital room on October 4, 2010.  I waited until it was just Liam and I and then I cuddled him up close and sang to him  "Godspeed, little man/ sweet dreams, little man/ oh my love will fly/ to you each night on angel wings/ Godspeed/ sweet dreams."  Then Laney's sleepy voice piped up from the backseat and she wanted to hear her special song.  Laney's song is "Lullaby" by the Dixie Chicks.  I skipped to "Lullaby" and remembered craddling her in the window seat in our hospital room on June 4, 2008, singing to her in the afternoon sunlight "how long do you want to be loved?/ is forever enough?/ is forever enough?/ how long do you want to be loved?/ is forever enough cuz I'm never ever giving you up."  These two songs combined with the bittersweetness of a looming birthday reduced me to tears by the time that I made it to our driveway.  

It is remarkable how long the days are when you have children, but how quickly the years pass.  How it seems that time can fade away when recalling the memory of singing those songs to each of my children for the first time, and how quickly it seems time has passed since then.  Just last Wednesday I witnessed Liam taking his first independent steps.  Still, the song can take me back in an instant to those first few precious hours when I was getting to know my little babies and singing them a love song that will remain with us always.  At times it seems that I was just introducing the melodies to them yesterday.  

I love that they each have their own song.  I sing them their songs as I put them to bed, or when they need comfort and I find myself wondering as I sing if it is them or I that needs the song.  How long will my babies let me sing their songs to them before they deem it too lame or babyish?  Until then I keep holding onto the precious moments that will fast forward me to 35.  Birthdays serve to remind us that time is precious and to make the most of it.  I am so thankful for all the times I have sung those songs to my kids.  I hope it never ends.

Happy birthday me.

School Daze

Laney goes to preschool on Tuesday and Thursday mornings.  This is her second week at school, and I have enjoyed each of those mornings because they offer me a precious 3 hours alone with Liam to play.  It is amazing how differently he plays when he is flying solo.  No older sister to tell him what to do, or to steal his toys.  Let's face it, watching Laney attempt to play with Liam is like watching a t-rex sneak up on a herbivore.  I don't know what is going to happen, but I do know that there will be carnage.

This morning he crawled around gleefully holding toys in the air as though he had just found precious gemstones lying in the sand.  He was thrilled to get the toys to himself and I swear he was playing with all of Laney's favorites just to spite her.  It was interesting to watch him decide what to do with the toys and how to interact with them, something that he doesn't get to do that often.  In fact most play sessions with L&L end with me slipping on my referee jersey and sending my two prize fighters back to their respective corners.  Sure they play together nicely a lot of the time, but mostly they seem to covet what the other has which has now led me to buy 2 of everything (including Rub-a-dub-dub Bathing Doll...it's a long story).

While I know that all kids fight, it sure would be nice to see them sitting side-by-side sharing nicely for once.  Oh well.  A mom can always dream.

Village Nursery School: first day of school 9/13

Heading to the Yellow Class for 3 year olds.  The Lady-Pack-Pack holds a change of clothes and Lovey!

A little shell-shocked over the whole thing, but by today (3rd day of class), school was proclaimed to be "fun" and she is looking forward to going back on Thursday :)

Playing by himself this morning.  If only I had a shot of him with his whole upper body in the cube...he was looking for toys in the bottom of it.  So precious!

Notice that he is wearing Laney's shirt since it was the only clean kid's shirt in the dryer this morning.  

Clean up on aisle 5

Today was a bad day for my clothes, but an excellent day for Method's laundry detergent!  By noon, all 3 of us were in our second outfits of the day and my washing machine was well on it's way to finishing the first of 3 loads.  What takes me hours to sort, pre-treat, soak, wash, dry, fold, iron, and put away can be undone by L & L in a matter of seconds.  Case in point, I was sitting in the waiting area at Hammond Dance Studio this morning as Laney was inside tapping away in her adorable (and brand new) pink ballet outfit.  I am jiggling Liam on my lap and it starts to feel warm.  And wet.  His diaper leaked and he and I were now drenched in pee.  Amazingly he managed not only to soak his overalls, but my cardigan, shirt, pants, and eventually underwear as it leaked through my layers.  As the realization of the enormity of the mess dawns on me, I realized that the zipper pouch of clean clothes was at home on the garage floor, in the mess of emergency items that I failed to stick back in my car after cleaning it out (damn Patrick will do the "told you so dance" tonight when he hears about that!).  So, Liam wore pee soaked overalls and I wore pee soaked pants.  Pants that I had to wash twice to get the stains out of and then carefully ironed last night.  Thanks Liam.  I was looking for something to do this afternoon.  Guess laundry is it...

Fast forward to the end of dance class, and we headed to the Pancake House with Gigi (yes, still wearing pee-soaked clothing.)  Laney ordered her usual: chocolate chip pancakes.  Predictably the chocolate chips ended up from head to toe, covering her sweatshirt and pink tights.  We headed home so I could head up my newest cleaning project.

As we walked in to our house through the laundry room, we made a pit stop at the  clothes hamper.  I stripped us all down and we headed upstairs to start over again.  A do-over day for our outfits I declared.  We gathered up everyone's wash piles and marched back downstairs to the laundry room.  Laney and I sorted the clothes and sprayed down probably 90% of Liam's dirty clothing in Dreft stain remover.  He is a SUPER messy eater.  Miraculously all of Laney's chocolate pancakes missed the leotard and I felt triumphant as I held up the one item that did not have to be washed today.

While we are all clean again, it is only a matter of time before someone spills something and I am off to clean up the mess.  Although I do give props to the dog for the worst mess in the last 24 hours.   Patrick walked into the kitchen this morning to discover that sometime during the night, Toby decided that lifting his leg on our refrigerator would be a great idea.  Honestly, no one has ever peed on my fridge before and still, it isn't the weirdest thing someone in our family has peed on.  That distinction goes to Liam.  While staying at Shesh and Pop Pop's house he was allowed to crawl around nude from the waist down due to diaper rash.  Shesh found him gleefully pounding on the grandfather clock in the front entryway.  Upon closer inspection she discovered that not only was he fascinated by the inner workings of the clock, but that he had somehow claimed it as a future possession because he and the clock had been covered in a waterfall of pee.  Please Lord, let that be the weirdest thing that gets peed on in our house!  And please Lord, let there be no more messes today.  I have real work to get done.

They are my kids.

Just after I arrived home from seeing "the Smurfs" with Laney yesterday, the power went out.  Apparently the power went out all over Southern California due to an operator error in Arizona.  Even though it was a pretty big nuisance, the power outage seemed to be just what our family needed yesterday.  It brought us some quiet time and family togetherness on the couch as we read books by candle and flashlight.  Laney, Patrick, and I walked around with our camping headlamps (much to Liam's enjoyment) and lit all of those old, half-burned candles that were gathering dust in the cupboard.  Lucky for us the kids were tired, and we had a totally quiet house by 7:45pm.  Patrick read by headlamp while I worked on Liam's Christmas stocking (only a year behind!) by my headlamp.  We had red wine and were forced to relax without the usual interruptions of modern living.  In fact, we managed to make an entire dinner for the kids without even opening the refrigerator or freezer (thank God for pasta.)  Just as we were ready to turn in, having blown out all of the candles and tucked the kids in, the power came back on.  In reality we only spent 7 hours without electricity, but the dramatic effect it had on our day was poignant.  We need a lot less face time with technology, and a lot more family together time.  We jokingly remarked that perhaps the power should go out at our house a few times a week, but it isn't a bad idea.  I think we will start declaring "technology free" days as a family and really trying to get back to the basics of togetherness.  Clearly we won't be starting tonight...Patrick and I have too much technology to catch up on after yesterday's vacation from our normal lives.  Still, I can't wait for our next Power-Out-Night at the Miller house.  I feel a wicked round of Candlyland coming on!

Mac and Cheese

Kraft Macaroni and Cheese.  Can't.   Live.  Without.   It.

When my little Liam sees me arriving at his high chair with a bowl of m & c, his arms start flailing about and he breaks into a huge grin.  I spoon it out onto his plastic tray and watch him stuff it in his mouth as though he is a chipmunk stocking up for winter.  In fact, this meal is highly requested by Laney as well, and I find myself whipping up a batch at least once every 48 hours.  It is probably not the most nutritious meal that I have ever served my kids, but at least they clean their plates!

Hooray for Easy Mac!

Do you know anyone who doesn't like mac and cheese?  With the exception of a brother-in-law who is lactose intolerant, I don't believe that I have ever met anyone who didn't like to gobble up a bowl of this orange goodness.  Thank God that it is quick to make because m & c is every mom's go-to box in the pantry.  Where would I be without it?  

PS--love that each little container of Easy Mac is only a buck and microwaves up in 3.5 minutes, for those times when 10 minutes of cooking pasta just isn't fast enough!  I know you know those times...

Update

I am  woefully behind on my blog, so I thought I would give an overview of what we have been up to these last few weeks:

• Liam is crawling everywhere and cruising along our furniture as well.  He loves to push Laney's sea grass step stool all over the kitchen as he proudly walks along with it.  Liam has started waving at us all the time, and is saying "dah" now repeatedly, though not to Patrick (yet).  He is currently on an eating strike, preferring to chew up his food and spit it out rather than swallow it.  He is still managing to find himself on the large side, weighing in at 25 lbs and wearing 24 month clothing.  I have been gelling his curls in the back each day and can't believe that soon enough he will need his first haircut.  Liam has also started taking his toys and holding them on top of his head, dropping them down his back.  No reason for this, but it does seem to entertain him!

Currently showing 3 times daily at our house

• Laney is super talkative and I have likened her nonstop commentary on everything going on around her to a play-by-play a la Bob Costas.  She even told another dad at the park today that "mommy calls me Bob Casta!"  What a character.  She also told him that her name was "Hugga-Bugga-Ding-Dong."  Thanks for the nick-name uncle Sean.  I bought her her very first pair of safety scissors and she loves practicing cutting paper each day during Liam's nap time.   She has become engrossed with Play-doh again, as well as painting, and watching Monsters Inc. Funny story:  two  nights ago Laney was helping me prepare dinner.  I got an orange bell pepper out of the fridge and she picked it up and said "what the hell is this?"  When Patrick and I stopped laughing we had to a) apologize for teaching her that word  b) teach her that hell is not an okay word  c) secretly congratulate ourselves for the fact that she used the phrase perfectly!

• Poor Toby went to the vet today for his 6 week x-ray on his leg, and we found out that it has not healed very well and he is in a cast for at least another 2 weeks.  The x-rays were forwarded to a surgeon and we will find out soon if he needs to have surgery on the bone.  Keeping our fingers crossed for speedy healing.

• Our house is going green!  Along with the myriad of green products I have switched our family to this year, Patrick and I decided to add solar panels to the roof.  All 19 are currently installed and passed inspection today.   After notification in a few days, SDG&E will let us know when we can turn them on.  I can't wait to see how they affect the electic bill! :)

Hand print project example

• I have been busy with creative projects including:  framing all four of our hand prints overlayed artistically; cutting up my old t-shirts and turning them into skirts for Laney (still a work in progress), baking ribbon wrapped around wooden dowels to make korker hair bows, cutting out felt for "button snakes," making a perpetual birthday calendar for my clueless brother, and needle pointing feverishly at night on Liam's Christmas stocking.  I estimate it to be 33% done, and need to kick my needles into overdrive to get that baby done before the holidays.

Button snakes:  Laney can slip the felt squares on and off by herself.  Bonus:  it takes her a long time and is a quiet activity.



Korker Bows.  Loved them as a little girl, and love them on my little girl.


• Patrick goes to work each day and well...he goes to work each day.  Lucky Patrick escapes the drama of my 3 year old each afternoon, crying woefully for daddy to come home.  Thankfully he is employed and we all appreciate the fun times we have during the day thanks to his dutiful efforts at Kyocera.  
• Fantasy Football is upon us.  I have joined the Leather 'n Lace league (thanks to Amanda!) for my inaugural season and Patrick has rejoined with his buddies for another go at it.  We sat down and did our rankings last night.  Who knew that I would need a list of 60 RBs, 30 QBs, and 80 WRs to go to my draft Wednesday....or that there was so much literature about it available on the internet?  I could see this becoming an obsession for some people, and at the very least a part time job for others.  I am determined not to let it take up too much of my time each week, but I have my doubts.  My team name is Killer Miller and I am hoping to have a good showing this season.  I will keep you updated at my season progresses.  

I'm off to bed!  Hope to post about our trip to Peru very soon!!!