eighteen months

Our little guy hit 18 months on Monday.  He had his first official day in nursery at church on Sunday.  He played for the first twenty minutes and when he realized that I was not in the room anymore he climbed up on one of the teachers' laps and fell asleep.  Just like James.
At the doctor's on Tuesday he weighed in at 24 lbs 12 oz and 32 inches long.  I can not believe that he is getting so big!
The latest Matthew words:  uh-oh, Mama, Dada, ball, chicken, hey, cookie, away, ho ho ho, choo choo,  uh-huh.  He loves to read books, lightsaber fight, tackle his brothers, ride on his buzz lightyear car and his brother's firetruck, build and destroy block towers and play with his daddy.  He has the best laugh- something between a chuckle and a belly laugh.  Take a look at this picture and you can almost hear him.

experiment

As much as we love our little Matthew, his addition to our family caused our older boys to revert a bit and time is not helping the issue.  Last Monday after both boys insisted on being dressed by Daddy instead of doing it themselves, I hit a wall.  I was done with my 7 and 5 year olds acting like they were completely incapable of doing ANYTHING on their own.
Enter the job chart.
For family home evening on Monday we talked about responsibilities, how everyone does different things to contribute to the family and what happens when they don't do their jobs.   What would happen if Daddy decided to stop going to work?  What would happen if Mama didn't do the laundry?  Etc.
So working together we made a list of things the boys should do on a daily basis and then get to check off each thing once it is completed. 
The transition has gone better than expected.  Samuel loves checking things off his list and will race upstairs to make his bed if he sees that he forgot to do it earlier.  Practicing piano and doing homework are also much easier.  James is getting dressed on his own witout any help at all and cheerfully making his bed and practicing his reading.  They actually cleaned their room last week without me asking!  They also take time to play with Matthew since I put that on the list as well.
Week 1 of the job chart, although not perfect, is a definite improvement.  Why didn't I do this before???

longest two minutes of my life

So Matthew and I accompanied James to storytime at the library the other day.  James and 11 other four and five year olds spent half an hour engrossed in the creative story telling of our local children's librarian, Miss Lori.  Even Matthew enjoyed it!  At the end of storytime, Lori set out crafts and puzzels for the kids to work on.  James created a masterpiece of a penguin out of tissue paper and feathers.  I was rushing him out the door so I could go to the store before it was time to pick up Sam when I ran in to Lori and we started chatting about James' art class (a great topic for a future post).  As I talked to Lori, Matthew let go of my hand and toddled off to the next room to look at the board books he loves so much... or so I thought. 
I quickly finished the conversation so I could round up Matthew and James and get going.  I walked over to the board books.  No Matthew.  I walked over to the doll house and puzzles.  No Matthew.  I walked up the stairs which he loves to climb.  No Matthew.  At this point I was getting frantic.  The children's library is not very big and I searched all of it twice.  No Matthew.  I was making a second loop, asking everyone if they had seen my little guy when another Mom came up to me with a teary Matthew in her arms: "I found him on the elevator."
I uttered a heartfelt thanks and sat down on a nearby chair to snuggle Matthew, needing reassurance more than he did.  Another mom came up to me.  "My son did that once.  The elevator button is so low that the babies can reach it.  So scary!"  Yeah, no kidding.  It hit me that I was lucky no one had tried to summon the elevator to another floor while Matthew was inside by himself.  Poor little guy!  It must have been terrifying or at least terribly confusing!  I can just picture him, so proud of himself figuring out how to make the doors open and then so confused why they closed and he couldn't get out.
For future library visits, maybe I will just keep him strapped in the stroller.  From the time I realized he was missing to the time I had him back in my arms it was only a short two minutes.  Although I gotta say, it was the longest two minutes of my life!

energy or the lack thereof

I am exhausted- all the time.  Admittedly, I don't get a whole lot of sleep.  Between John's pager, Matthew waking up once a night (at least) and my older boys always finding a reason to wake up in the middle of the night (nightmare, drink of water, go potty, you name it) I feel like my life has devolved into a bad sitcom.  You know, the familiar scene where as soon as the mom lays down on her nice, warm, comfortable bed and lets out a sigh of relief, a kid bursts in the room or the baby starts to cry.  I honestly sometimes wonder where they are hiding the camera. 
I know my struggles and exhaustion are on par with any other mom of young children so I try not to complain too much.  It does not stop me from wondering if it would be worth the hassle of fighting my insurance company just so I can check myself into the hospital for a good night's sleep!  (Is complete exhaustion still recognized as a medical condition or would the doctor just laugh in my face?)  The beeping monitors and hourly check-up by a nurse would be more restful than trying to sleep with my five year old cutting off the circulation in my arm. 
Those of you with grown children are shaking your heads at me and murmuring the platitudes I have heard so many times:
"Enjoy it while it lasts.  It goes by so quickly"
"Just wait till they are older and your real problems begin"
"Better a sleepless night rocking a baby than a sleepless night waiting for your kids to come home."

Enough already!  I get it!  However, I don't think you remember exactly how debilitating it was surviving on interrupted sleep when YOUR kids were little.  Well, let me remind you. 
Most days I can barely remember my own name, let alone my three kids' names.  I lose words all the time.  I will be mid sentence and completely forget the word I was going to say.  It feels most days like there is a wall inside my head and coherent thought is just on the other side.  On the rare occasion that I can sit down for more than two minutes at a time I fall asleep.  More than once I have driven across town without remembering how I got there.  I have absolutely no ability to make small talk when in social situations; partially because I am too tired to think and partially because I am relishing the silence.
So being tired may not be the best excuse for the messy house, the inability to get ANYTHING done on time, my shoddy grooming, my lack of patience with the kids, my spotty blog attempts and my desire to stay home all the time instead of trying to be pleasant and sociable around other grown-ups- but for now, that's all I've got.

(Disclaimer 1:  This is not to discourage first time parents-to-be!  This is a state that you usually only reach one you have multiple children in the house.)

(Disclaimer 2:  This is also not meant to be offensive.  This is meant to be funny.  I just thought I would let you all know that in case the humor doesn't translate as well in my dillusional/exhausted state.)

(Disclaimer 3:  All typos are to be blamed on sleep deprevation!)

anniversary

John and I got married when I was twenty - in the middle of my junior year of college.  Most people would tell you twenty is far too young to get married and they would probably be right.  In many ways I was far too young and completely unrprepared for it.  However, I think there is something to be said for getting married when you are young enough that you are still growing into who you want to be.  After all, don't the experts say that growing together is one of the things that helps to strengthen a marriage?

I met John at a swing dance club in Philadelphia during Thanksgiving weekend of my sophmore year.  A friend from home, Hollie, had flown out for the long weekend and I was showing her around town.  We met up on Saturday with my friend, Tiffany (from UPenn), to go dancing that night.  Tiff invited John.  He seemed nice enough but was horrible at swing dance and I initially wrote him off as a dumb jock (which is hilarious if you actually know him because he is one of the smartest people I know!).  Anyway, it was not until he offered the three of us a ride back to Tiffany's and we walked out to see his brand new, very red, Mustang convertible that it occurred to me that ,maybe I should ask him a few more questions.  He still tells people that I married him for that car (which is only partially true! LOL! ).  When I saw the car I turned around and looked at him again, 'Wait a minute, what do you do?"  I asked.  He laughed a little and then told me he was a family practice resident.  Once I picked my jaw up off the ground we started chatting, realized we had a lot in common and really didn't stop talking until he had dropped us off at Tiffany's.  Now I knew he was smart AND a nice guy but I really wasn't interested in any sort of relationship with him or anyone else at that point.
You see, I had a plan.  College was my time to meet lots of people and have lots of new experiences.  I wanted to be foot loose and fancy free.  Then, once I had graduated and found a job or gotten a solid start on graduate school, I could worry about things like a serious relationship.  (Ok, you can stop laughing now!)
I hung out with John once or twice more, with friends, and then I went home for winter break.  We emailed a little bit back and forth over break.  He even offered to pick me up from the airport when I got back to Philly but that seemed too relationshippy to me so I declined.
My first night back John called and offered to take me out to dinner. I thought it would be fun to see him, get off campus and avoid dining hall food (not that it was bad, per say, but still) however I was a little unnerved by his enthusiasm. (Shouldn't he give me a day or two to get settled before he calls?)
The night of the date came.  I sent all my hallmates off to dinner and then waited for John to show up.  I waited.  And waited.  And waited...  Two and a half hours later, he had the nerve to show up!  He was doing a rotation at a hospital in South Philly at the time and had gotten held up, you know, saving lives.  I gave him a hard time about not calling when he realized he was going to be late (as my family will attest I am not the most cheerful person when I am hungry) but, since I was starving and the dining halls were now closed, I went out with him.  Things must have gone well because before the date was even over I invited him to go out swing dancing with me and some friends.  He agreed quite cheerfully.  Inwardly I was thinking, "This guy is a glutton for punishment" seeing as how the first time the dancing aspect hadn't gone so well.

Anyway, to make a long story short-ish, we finally went out dancing again.  When we hit the floor I started leading but John stopped me, "Aren't I supposed to lead?" he asked.  I laughed and said, "Go ahead."  And he did!  While I had been home for winter break, John had been spending his free time learning how to dance just so he could impress me.
So while John will tell you that I married him for his car, he is really just too shy to tell you that I married him because he took the time to learn about something that I loved to do just so he could see me smile. That is one of the things that makes our marriage so great.  I love music he loves sports.  I prefer hot climates and he likes the cold.  But as different as we may be, I will read finance books while he reads home decorating books (a recent example) so that we can appreciate and intelligently discuss each other's interests.  And while our marriage isn't always perfect (show me one that is!) we learn a lot from each other and enjoy our differences as well as our similarities.  I can't imagine my life any other way.

Happy 11th Anniversary John!  I love you!

Christmas and New Year's Eve in pictures

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Every year I plan to type up a clever, pithy note to accompany our Christmas cards to our friends and family across the country and every year it just does not happen.  So here's my back up...

2010 has been a year of firsts for us:

Samuel, 2nd grade, started piano lessons (which he loves!), performed for the first time in his school's variety show and offers mini concerts for anyone who visits our home.  He is also reading up a storm and continuing to play soccer in his free time.

James, Kindergarten, participated in his first ever art class- complete with art show.  He is loving school and spends lots of time working on his reading and math skills, drawing pictures of anything and everything, and playing soccer.

Matthew had his first birthday in August and he covered lots of those usual major firsts leading up to it:  sitting, eating table food, playing with toys, tackling his brothers... the walking came a couple of months later- during another first:

We took the kids to Walt Disney World!!  It was a first for me ( I had never been further south than Myrtle Beach, SC) and for the kids.  John had been years ago when he was a kid.  It was an amazing trip and I promise I will finish blogging about it now that the holidays are almost over.  In the meantime, check out some of the previous posts.

John is keeping busy with work and is still serving as the stake clerk at church.  This was the first season since Sam started soccer that John didn't coach.  He enjoyed watching from the sidelines.

As for me, I spend a lot of time chasing after the boys!  =)  In November I was asked to serve in the Relief Society presidency at church and after surviving my third Messiah production, was released from my stake duties.  Whew!

We send lots of love to all of our family and friends out there and send hopes for a healthy and happy new year!