From Rostov with Love...

New blog...

2009-02-16T14:07:00.002-05:00

Join me over at my new blog at ...

http://srlsfamily.wordpress.com

(now I'll see if I can figure out how to automatically send people there!)

Laundry...

2009-02-13T16:08:00.003-05:00

I took the day off today to catch up on my house. We did a pretty good clean (with the exception of my room/bathroom) the Saturday before Logan's birthday party. But then I went on service and...well, let's just say that getting the laundry in the machine (most of it) was all I could do (besides cooking and getting the kids to school and picking them up from daycare)!

Started out at 9 AM cleaning the kids bathroom. It was a mess!...and can I tell you that I hate boys - especially boys who don't hit the toilet water when they are peeing? ...oh yeah and who don't empty the tub water when they take a bath with the babysitter? and who smear toothpaste all over the sink and counter top. Okay that took a while.

Next I went to my room. Now, my room is a MESS. I haven't cleaned it since before Thanksgiving so (believe me I will spare you pictures)...I started with going through my closet and my bureau drawers and taking out all of the (now) too big (YEAH!) clothes that I had accumulated over the last 2 years since I last was successful with weight watchers. There ended up being one GIANT - overfilled - stuffed to the gills garbage bag for me to bring to Good Will. It feels good to get rid of it. My closet was in complete disarray...really since this summer and all of the painting. The contractor had just moved everything into my closet and knocked everything onto the floor. You'll be happy to hear that I now can walk into the closet and actually pick out clothes.

Next I moved to all of the kids "junk" that has come into my room and removed all of my sheets, rotated my mattress and put new sheets on and washed and replaced my comforter. I then turned to my bathroom. Can I tell you how much I hate boys - especially boys who don't hit the toilet water when they are peeing? Okay...I'll spare you the details a second time! Also, we usually use my tub for baths and there was dried soap scum all over the floor and tub surround. I threw out two garbage bags full of dirty ripped kids clothes, random papers and dried out markers.

Meanwhile I came across a recipe for English Muffins and made 20 whole wheat English muffins.

Finally, I put a LOT and I mean a LOT of laundry on and started folding. It's 4:27 and I think I will have all but one load folded by the time I have to leave to go pick up the kids. And that is mainly my clothes, so I plan on having that done by the end of the day. I think I might have a clean room by the time I go to bed tonight.

We have a 3 day weekend because the school is off for President's Day and the daycare is taking it as a Teacher Education Day. We will do some cleaning each of the days to bring the house back into control. Saturday, we will go to a VCU Women's Basketball game.

Long time...

2009-02-13T16:05:00.002-05:00

I have been lax about blogging. I have been "on-service" the last 14 days in a row and between getting the kids up for school, working all day...and rushing home to get them before 6PM...well, it has left me spent at the end of the day. Not to mention the multiple sick days for the kids (we are smack dab in the middle of a vomiting epidemic in Richmond!). Both of the boys got to spend at least one day in the last 2 weeks in my office...bothering me and my assistants.
...some developments
...we had Logan's Princess birthday party the weekend of the 24th. Twenty kids, 7 parents and lots of fun and food. I got my house cleaned just in time. The girls in attendance loved the dress up station, the make your own wand station, the Princes Playdoh - complete with sparkles to mix into the Pink and Purple colored home-made Doh. The boys liked the swords and swordfighting, the Pin the "S" on Superman game, the Pinata, and the Cannon ball fight. Everyone liked the chicken nuggest and tater tots and, of course, cake. (unfortunately, I was so busy making sure everyone was involved in some activity or other, I didn't get any pictures...)
...so, for Addison's party we went a little lower key. She LOVED getting presents and has told me each day for the last 4 days that it's "MY BIRT-DAY"...unfortunately, it isn't her birthday everyday. We went to Red Robin with Wendy and Pat and they sang to her and brought her a sundae...she told everyone the next day who asked her about her birthday..."I like ice cream!" I got this cool doll at Target (and it was on sale 50% off) - it is a doll who either laughs or crys. When you push it's belly it giggles. When you push the back, it cries and it's cheeks get red (running a temperature)...if you put a thermometer in it's mouth it stops crying (or if you put the pacifier in its mouth)...it has a medicine spoon and she makes slurping sounds and then her fever goes away! She loves the baby (and so do all of the other kids who have been playing doctor to her).

Oh my god...Crockpot Yogurt

2009-01-24T19:59:00.002-05:00

I started making yogurt in my crockpot in October when I saw a post on the web by my favorite website of the year last year - "A year of Crockpotting". It tasted pretty good, however, I just couldn't get it to "gel" enough. I was using skim milk and the website did say it was more difficult to get non-fat (as opposed to whole milk) to gel. The last 2 times I did it, I added some unflavored gelatin (as suggested in another website) and all I got was thin yogurt with glops of unflavored jello (UGG!) ----Until today!!! -- turns out I was adding the gelatin at the wrong time.

Seems like a big deal - right? for yogurt right? Well, with my trying to do the WeightWatchers thing, they want you to have two 8-ounce glasses of skim milk a day. I - AM - NOT a milk drinker but I do like to have yogurt on my cereal. Well, two of those cups of yogurt a day can be pretty expensive and ... 1/2 gallon of milk is (relatively) cheap.

Here's the secret recipe...

Totally Gelled Non-Fat Yogurt

Ingredients:

1/2 gallon of nonfat milk
1/2 cup of powdered non fat milk
1 packet of unflavored gelatin
1/2 c non-fat yogurt (from the store - with active cultures - this acts as your starter)
(optional)
(1/2 cup of splenda baking sweetner)
(1 tablespoon of vanilla)

Directions: I used a 4 qt crock pot

Pour milk into crock pot and turn on low for 3 hours - 3 1/2 hours (this kills bad bacteria)
Stir in 1/2 cup of powdered non fat milk and sprinkle package of gelatin on top
Once it warms up the milk, stir several times during the heating process to distribute the gelatin
Turn off crock pot and allow it to cool for 3 hours (or to temp of 90 degrees)
After it is cooled, take out approximately 2 cups and put into a clean bowl and whisk in the yogurt starter and then add it back to the crockpot
Stir the mixture well
Cover the crockpot and then unplug it and cover the entire thing with a towel +/or a blanket to keep the cultures warm while they are working
Leave undisturbed for 12-14 hours
Once the 12-14 hours are up, uncover and be amazed!!!

Once you make it, you can put it into different containers. Save 1/2 cup to use as starter for you next batch! You can use the yogurt you make as starter about 6-7 times then it gets a little stale so you will have to buy another 1/2 cup yogurt at the store.

Shopping Trip

2009-01-24T17:25:00.005-05:00

After spending way more than I wanted on all of the supplies on Logan's b'day party this weekend, I had a great shopping trip at Kroger's today.

Many of you know that I am a closet couponer and frugal wannabe. Anyway, I read about a couple pretty good deals at Kroger and so decided to go and finish up my stocking for the next two weeks since I will be working 14 days in a row and won't be able to go shopping. I had bought fruit and milk and some other staples over the past few days but needed some cheese for pizza and some lunch meat for the boys.

Kroger is having their annual super sale...for selected items (and you can mix and match) if you buy 10 you get $5 off. so, here is what we got.

10 -Kraft 2% shredded cheese packages - on sale for $1.99 (- $0.50 each) and "surprise" there was a coupon machine right by them for $0.75 off each bag - so I got each bag for $0.74
3 lunch meat for $2.99 (-$0.50 each)
5 Armor Meatballs for $2.99 (-0.50 each)
6 Tostino Pizza Rolls for $2.99 (-0.50 each) with a surprise coupon machine for $1.00 off 2
6 Steamer vegetables for $1.99 (-0.50 each) with 2 $1.00 off one coupons and 2 $0.50 off of 2 coupons which were then doubled.

So, I spent $40.41 and based on sales prices and the deals, I saved $54.11.

I am excited about it! Now I hope my freezer doesn't die!!

My beautiful 4 year old...

2009-01-21T09:35:00.007-05:00

Letter to my beautiful daughter on her 4th birthday...

Dear Logan,

I can't believe that you are turning 4 today. It seems like yesterday that I was visiting you in a Russian orphanage and couldn't get you to smile. Now you have turned into the girl with the mile-wide grin and the silliness to go with it. You have brought such a difference to my life and our house - a place that was all trains and trucks became castles and dolls. You have taught me so much about love and joy and have taught your brothers about softness and kindness.

My favorite sayings of yours are "I love my family" and "I have a silly family". You see the good in everyone.

Please don't grow up too fast, let me still have mornings like today where we carefully picked out the prettiest dress and tights you have so that you could feel special, let me stare at your beautiful face and see your inner beauty for a long long time.

Love,

your mother

The drive down...

2009-01-05T19:51:00.007-05:00

12/26/08...

...the presents were opened, the supplies packed in suitcases...we went out to dinner with Wendy and her mom. The plan was for her to come home with us and we would leave after she and I packed everything into the car. Unfortunately, she packed all of her stuff except she couldn't find her license - and we needed that - to get into the hotel and for her to do the rental car! Ugh! so she spent 20 minutes on hold with the Mechanicsville Wal-mart where she had taken it out to return something earlier in the day but no luck - then did the 30 minute drive back to her house with her mom worrying about all of our plans going to pot - and then she texted me that it was in her pants pocket from earlier in the day - wrapped in the Wal-mart receipt.

...one disaster averted!

...meanwhile at the ranch, Riley and I packed the truck and strapped it onto the trailer I have for it. She arrived at our house around 8:45 and we did some final adjustments and off we went.

...The kids were so excited they couldn't sleep. Riley was awake most of the night consistently and kept asking us what state we were in now. It brought back memories of my childhood when we would stuff 7 kids and 2 parents into a station wagon and drive 4 hours from our home in Massachusetts to our previous home in NY. "Are we there yet" was a much hated question and like the cartoons, I can remember us asking it repeatedly! Of course, I was taking pride in what I thought was his burgeoning geography knowledge until the ride home when he asked if we were back in America yet? dunno where he thought we left the country (or continent) during the trip but he clearly didn't realize that all of the states were in "America" (LOL).

...Logan and Addison slept pretty consistently and Matthew also was asleep between 11 and 4 or 5 in the morning.

...By 4:00 there was no containing Riley anymore and - by extension the others because he cannot modulate his volume well - so we decided to put in a video. It gave us the extra hour of driving we wanted to get to a good stopping place for breakfast and to fill up the gas tank.

...10:00 am we arrive ...the hotel/condo is right behind SeaWorld and even though we didn't plan on going there, the kids recognized roller coasters when they saw them and knew we were "THERE". They wanted to go to the park right away!

...We used Wendy's GPS to find the local Wal-mart and went there to buy food ...after a shopping trip that was complicated by a lot of touchy hands (I wants, can I haves?, and gimmes?) we arrived back to the hotel and Wendy tried to check in. Even though she had called earlier in the week and asked for an early check in (which they assured her we would get!)...they had allowed the people in our room to have a late check out - huh??...so here we had frozen, refridgerated and other food in the car and the possibility of no check in for 4 hours. We were tired, frustrated and neither Wendy nor I were good at concealing it - especially with 4 tired kids and luggage for a week to unpack! Ultimately, one of the bell man came and took our food to their restaurant refrig and freezer, and took all of our luggage so we could go to the pool. At 2:00 (instead of the 4 we were told), Wendy got a call that our room was ready. So up we all went. They delivered our food and luggage a few minutes later

...The hotel had 2 main large pools and sprinkled around the area was a playground, a life sized chess game, ping pong table, pool table and 5 hot tubs and 2 children's pools (one a 1 foot pool and 1 a splash pool with spouting water!)

...After a dinner of (yum) spagettios...the kids were ready for bed and so was mom...

The lazy blogger...

2009-01-04T16:21:00.002-05:00

Okay, okay...I definitely have been lax about blogging but, I can say that I have had one of the best holiday 2 weeks of my life and there really hasn't been time. I plan on blogging about the time over the next several days but here's a preview...
...12/24/08 - all of the kids woke up and we went out shopping for brother and sister gifts (at Dollar Tree)...then went home to finish up and get ready for Christmas.
12/25/08...had a wonderful Christmas complete with happy children and mom and not too much clean up...a great dinner and just enough time to relax and go to sleep.
12/26/08...did some errands and got ready to pack for the Disney trip...it started raining...pulled the trailer and back end of the truck into garage to pack but it started pouring so went out to dinner and then packed...waited for Wendy who had misplaced her license...she found it and we packed while she went home to find it...left at 9 pm...
12/27/08...arrived in Orlando FL around 10 am (after 2-3 stops and breakfast)...went to Walmart for some food supplies and then back to the hotel/condo to check in...they weren't ready so we ate lunch and then went swimming and got to check in around 2PM...everyone went to bed around 6pm...
12/28/08...first real day...went to Animal Kingdom...had a great time
12/29/08...went to Magic Kingdom...my back started hurting on the drive in (did absolutely nothing to it!)...left mid day to pick up Denise, Elena and Nina at the airport. Made it back for a few hours at Magic Kingdom...back spasming (is that a word?)...borrowed some medicine from Wendy's friend Tracy...it didn't work. Slept with an ice pack on my back...
12/30/08...woke up barely able to walk...we decided to make this our day to stay around the condo...Denise and girls went to Animal Kingdom, I stayed with 6 kids at condo complex while Wendy and Tracy went shopping at Downtown Disney...back was "somewhat better in water"...made lunch after 2 hours of swimming...all kids did quiet time (mom napped) for 2 hours and went back to pool - went to bed around 11 pm after picking up some muscle relaxers at Walgreens
12/31/08...Back to Magic Kingdom...back was better - if I didn't move - or sit - stayed till around 3 pm but the kids were wiped and we left for a nap...Parks were "Closed" to new entrants so we couldn't go back (not that my back would have taken it)...Wendy and Tracy did get into Epcot for the festivities. I heard them from my bed at the condo!
1/1/09...Hollywood Studios...excellent day...pain was manageable with meds and no fast movements...driving was hard
1/2/09...Epcot...good day but we were all tired and all of the walking didn't really help my back...
1/3/09...swimming in the morning...left Orlando around 2 pm; ended up hitting traffic in Georgia so stopped at 1:00 am in NC and slept
1/4/09...home at 11:30 am with 4 kids who are tired, cranky and restless...can't wait for bed time.

Merry Christmas to all...

2008-12-25T16:49:00.003-05:00

It was a tough transition last night, all of the kids were definitely excited and behavior was off. Ultimately Logan, Addison and Matthew went to bed crying. Riley ended up crying because Matthew was so loud he couldn't sleep. I ended up eating a hershey bar (and I haven't done that in a long time) because of the stress. Then, I put the presents out, wrapped the last couple and filled the stockings. I was in bed by 12:30 and only had 2 people in my bed this morning when I woke up.

...Speaking of waking up...Riley did - at 7:30! - I think a personal late record for him! He came into my room and laid next to me and said,..."know what?...Santa came!" I asked him how he knew and he said...cuz I saw that the cookies were gone. "I asked him to write a note back to me on the cookie note so I want to see if he did" - (score one for the tired Santa cuz I had - at the last minute written a note on the back of the cookie note! - there was no sign of asking for it but I thought it would be cute so, whew!)

...I got up and made them wait till I got dressed before they went downstairs and then, there was a mad dash down the stairs to the living room where the tree and presents were. By the time I got there, the packages were separated into piles and they were waiting patiently for me. ...It took all of about 5 minutes but mostly there was squeals of happiness and excitement. all of the packaging (and you know how hard that is) was undone by about 1 hour after we were up and they were happily playing with new toys...the first broken toy occured at 9:30 and there was some consternation (and squabbling) but again Santa scored by (accidentally) choosing two radio control cars with the same frequency! - so the one whose antenna broke could use his brothers control panel to run his car!!!

...Wendy and Pat arrived around 1:00 just as I was getting the girls down for a nap. And I started finishing the cooking. Dinner (and the girls) were ready by 3:00 and we opened presents from Pat and Wendy...and (score again) the boys got another radio control car and guess what? the one whose first control panel was broken got the one that has the same frequency as his first car! now he can use both cars at the same time?!

...We all sat down to dinner of ham, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, asparagus, mixed vegetables, and these "to die for" pumpkin dinner rolls that I made. Boy I ate about 4 of them and I am stuffed!! The ham was the moistest one I have ever eaten.

...all of the kids ate (first miracle), talked about what was great about their Christmas in turns (second miracle) and thoroughly enjoyed themselves( and so did I).

Merry Christmas to All...I hope your day was good too.

Ready, set, go...

2008-12-24T13:44:00.003-05:00

...went to the car repair place and finally found someone who understood why I didn't want to leave the Tahoe...I will have it repaired the week we get back...then the Pathfinder will be big enough!

...today we did some last minute end of the year stuff...delivered 5 more bags of clothes we've outgrown to Goodwill...went to the Library to get some new DVD's and books on CD for the trip...went to Dollar Tree for the kids to buy presents for each other. It was a disaster but I think we have everything...

...now we are doing quiet time and naps and I'll decide if we are going to try to go to Walmart to return a tablecloth I bought there which doesn't fit my table (cause I am mathematically challenged!)...

Merry Christmas to everyone!

Last minute details...

2008-12-22T19:34:00.004-05:00

I decided to take today off to complete some last minute details for Christmas.

It all started out well enough...drop kids off at daycare...stop at WaWa and pick up a free coffee (with a coupon that was due to expire on 12/31/08)...drive to Dominion Chevrolet to drop off Tahoe to get speedometer repaired and the 2nd seat seat belt latches replaced since they have been broken for a couple of months...

...here is where the trouble started...waited over an hour for the courtesy van to get back from its first run to drive me home...called Pediatrician and begged to get Matt's meds refilled even though I didn't give 2 day notice...went upstairs and went through all of the presents I've bought ...answer cell phone...it's Dominion Chevrolet - did I forget my pocketbook in the courtesy van?...curse!...they will drop it off on the way back from their next drop off...wrapped all of the presents...determined what I still needed to buy and made a list of places I needed to go to...walked outside to the minivan to do some errands...it was out of gas!...curse!...curse again...answer cell...Tahoe is done...Good! can they send the van to pick me up?...40 minutes later get back to Dominion and pick up Tahoe and head to CVS...buy a few things...go out to lunch with Debra...get call from Ped office - Rxs are written and I can pick up...head out after lunch to Ped office and pick up Rx's...head back down Broad St and stop at CVS along way cuz I didn't get all I needed...

...get into a fender bender in parking lot leaving...curse!...curse again!!...talk to insurance agency to report it...they want me to bring it tomorrow to be repaired...need it for trip to Disney...promise me they will give me a comparable car to rent (first $600 is on the insurance company)...head to Walmart...buy last minute gifts and 2 gallons of milk...talk to insurance investigator...he also assures me I will get a comparable car (but will it fit the trailer?!!)...

...go to Walgreen's and drop off prescription...go home and read email and order pizza for dinner...go back to Walgreens and pick up prescriptions...pick up Pizza...pick up kids at daycare...eat pizza in Family room in front of television.

I'm tired...anyone else?

Christmas Blessings

2008-12-20T18:07:00.003-05:00

It has been a rough couple of weeks, but I think I can start to see the light at the end of the tunnel (and am hoping it isn't a TRAIN!)...I do feel blessed this Christmas season despite this and want to take the time to make sure that I comment on them.

First, my Matthew. He has taught me so much about unconditional love and facing adversity. He has grown up a lot in the last year and though he still makes a lot of impulsive, poor choices - I definitely can hear him - on occasion - at least saying the right things. He is a sweet older brother who gets along great with his youngest sister and loves to make her laugh.

Next, there is Riley. I can't believe how much he has struggled and how far he has come this year. He definitely continues to be my sensitive one as evidenced by his struggles with back-to-school and his behavior at times. He worries alot about how people see him and wants to be good. He has become so helpful around the house - last week cleaning his bedroom and "labelling" his drawers for his clothes. This morning he got up with the two girls and played with them for 15 minutes and then took his youngest sister to the potty and got them both dressed for the day. I laid in bed smiling the whole time imagining him as a teenager and hoping that he remains so helpful and wonderful.

Logan continues to be the princess of the family though she is showing signs of an impending Barbie obsession (oh no!). She is silly and mischievious and sweet and outgoing...everything that I am not. I am told almost on a daily basis that she is the life of the party at her daycare class. And even at 3y11m I know that we are in for a lot of "girl drama" as she gets to be a tween. She has the most amazing imagination and tells me stories of her and her frineds every day...of course I don't know which to believe and which to not but that is part of her charm.

Addison has become a Lavoie in record time. She is feisty with a dramatic flair and has more melodrama than the other 3 combined - any booboo is met with tears and screams - that disappear with one word..."fine"...I say...you are fine...she says "fine?" and I say yes...you are fine and she is off. She loves music and dancing and being the baby of the family. She is sweet and loves kisses and hugs and taking her shoes off in the car. She also has a mind of her own that gets her into trouble but has a great way of saying "I'm sorry" and you know she means it.

I also am blessed by a career that I continue to love and feel privileged to have. I am blessed to have a wonderful extended family who I don't get to see enough and friends who are there when I need support. I am blessed with good health and the good health of my children, to live in a country where we are free and have amazing plentitude.

Merry Christmas to all who know me and I hope your next year will be full of blessings and wonder.

Buncha stuff going on here...

2008-12-12T10:16:00.003-05:00

Not much time (and too emotionally raw) to write about it. But thought I could share some of the pictures we took the other day. Merry Christmas!

trip from...

2008-12-01T19:01:00.003-05:00

...well, you know where...
We arrived home at 2:30 pm, nearly 23 hours after we left Denise's house on Sunday. I should have known it was going to be bad when at noon it started hailing in MA as we left for a trip to the mall to see if the kids could run off some of their energy. We actually entered the mall right next to the Santa display and there was one family on his lap and...no...one...else...in...line so we slipped right in. Matthew asked for a WALL*E toy, Logan - a princess computer, Addison - nothing in particular and Riley asked for a Go-Kart (to which Santa - bless him - said he would think about it!). Addison was not scared in the least and I actually thought she did great.
So, we started out at around 4PM. It was dark and raining pretty hard. First thing I did wrong was\ go the wrong way on the first interstate which took us about 12 miles out of our way. When we finally were appropriately headed South we started going. We made pretty good time considering it was pouring rain until we got into Connecticut. At this point, we started hitting random 10 mile sections of complete gridlock. I had this goal of getting to the NJ Turnpike but the kids started getting anxious and even Matthew started bugging me about eating dinner. Finally around 7 pm we got into NY and we stopped at the first rest area. IT WAS PACKED. The kids were crazy and were trying to run around and (did I mention) it was pouring rain. Okay, the lines for food were like 75 people deep at each of the restaurants so I elected not to eat. There was a lot of grumbling but we got back into the car. So, we continued like that with these random 10-15 mile back ups and then open road through the George Washington Bridge to the NJ Tpk. By now it was really dark and there are few lights and my eyes were dry and tired. We got to around the Newark Airport and I decided to try and stop for the night. I could see about 10 hotels ...but could I get to them? No way...we were driving around random clover leafs and finally I took a wrong turn that was taking me back to NY City and I got off ...oops onto another semi-highway and there was no way to turn around and finally I got off of that and was traveling in this (how shall I say this) less than affluent area of Newark (and I was scared!) for about 45 minutes until I happened to get back onto the semi-highway going south and almost got turned around again but finally found my way back to the NJ Tpk. Now I wasn't going to stop for a while and we went about 1/2 down the Tpk and I got off and we got to a hotel around 10:30. By this time the kids were starving...including Matthew who was very cute but could definitely see that there was no McD's at this hotel. I reached out into the back and grabbed the first bag in the bread that my brother Steve gave me (shout out - you saved the day!!!) and grabbed a bag of bagels. Matthew saw them and said the famous words..."Are those bagels...I want a bagel!!!" (for those of you who know him, know that a bagel is like poison to his mouth! a texture he just doesn't do! so for him to want it was a testimony to how hungry he really was!)...as a bonus they had apples at the front desk and I took 5 of them and he ate one of those too...and she gave the kids pretzels and he ate two small bags of them too!
Day 2 dawned at around 6:30 for the family and we were up and in the restaurant (with Matthew leading the cry for food!)...and out on the road by 8 am. We made pretty good time in NJ but Delaware, MD and Virginia were all randomly stop-and-go. As we got toward Richmond, we saw some black clouds (and a rainbow!) and I just knew that it would rain on me as I was unpacking and wouldn't you know, we got a huge downpour as we were trying to clean out the stuff out of the seats.
So, all-in-all, it was a good trip, but it will be a long time before I attempt to drive it again.

Part 1 of trip down...

2008-11-27T20:09:00.002-05:00

We left right on time at 2:00 am on Wednesday. We had gotten everything packed and all of the kids and I went to bed around 9:00 pm. I was getting my coffee and the last few things together and went out to start and warm up the truck.
I turned around and the au pair cam walking into the house through the open garage door! Okay, a little annoying...I was hoping that she would help me to stay awake but since she was walking in the door at 1:45, that idea went away.
We got the kids into the car and I started driving. I filled up the gas tank down the street for $1.66 a gallon (have I said that I LOVE these gas prices!)...
Sometime around the time I was merging from 295 onto 95 N, I looked down and noticed that my speedometer read 55 and the speed limit was 65 so I sped up. After a few minutes, the car was really loud and I was trying to get my speed up and...that was when I realized that my speedometer was STUCK on 55...I pulled off the highway and it stayed at 55! So, now I had the majority of the trip to travel without knowing how fast or slow I was going. For the next 3.5 hours, I travelled at 55 and passed many many people. We stopped for breakfast on the NJ Turnpike and when I got back on the road, the needle went to 130 mph and varied between 50 and 130 depending on my speed the last 3 hours.
Despite (or because of) the broken speedometer I arrived at Jean's house at 9:00 (with a stop at Dunkin Donuts).
Wednesday was a slow day. I took the 4 boys bowling at the local lanes and after we checked into the hotel, we had lasagna and came home to sleep. Today we woke up at around 7 am and go to Jean's around 9 am. We ate Jean's "famous" French Toast and Riley, Addison and I went outside and played. After a great Thanksgiving dinner, we came back to the hotel and the kids went to the hotel pool. After the pool, we went back to Jean's for dessert. Now we are lying in the beds, watching Zack and Cody and getting ready for bed.

Thanksgiving...

2008-11-25T20:03:00.003-05:00

The car is (mostly) packed.

The kids are settling down.

The au pair is out on a date.

And I am trying to psych myself up for this trip.

Don't get me wrong, I am totally looking forward to Thanksgiving (with the exception of the drive from LI to MA on Friday...and the drive from MA to VA on Sunday). I love spending time with my sister Jean who I think is the coolest (and calmest) mom going. She gives me strength and we haven't seen her since May ...so looking forward to it. I wish that I could spend the entire time at her house...aside from the driving it just is more stressful for me to go visit the entire family.

But, Logan is really on a "grandpa" kick. It started about 2 months ago or so...she just randomly started asking when we were going to visit her grandpa...then, everytime she was sad, she would cry and say..."I miss my grandpa" and lately, everytime she doesn't get her way or something doesn't go her way she says..."My grandpa would get that for me (or let me do that!)".

Now, for those of you who know my father (and clearly Logan doesn't), he isn't (usually) the warm-and-fuzzy-bake-cookies-with-you type. Logan hasn't seen him since 2 summers ago when we spent a week with him (kind of) in Maine (well, maybe a lunch sometime in between that and now).

So, she has been really looking forward to this trip and I am going to do it so that I can get some pictures of her and him for the future. It is so sweet and I hope I can get her some

Getting ready for the holiday...

2008-11-22T19:06:00.002-05:00

Well, we have had a busy day. I went to bed last night with a headache at around 9:00 pm and woke up at 1:30 am and couldn't get back to sleep. Finally I fell back to sleep around 3:00 am and still had my headache when I got up at 6:30. After breakfast, I brought the kids to River City and then made a little detour to pick up the food that I ordered through this program called Angel Food Ministry. This is the second month I have used this program.
After the girls went down for their nap I was able to re-hang all of the kitchen cabinet doors. The kitchen looks great...even if I do say so myself!...I just have to do two more doors and a couple of drawer fronts and it is DONE...finito...over!
This afternoon, I finished culling through my closet for shoes and we went to donate them on our way to the local gas station. $3.25 (at $0.75 each 4 minutes) later worth of vacuuming and the truck is empty and ready for our trip to Long Island and Massachusetts! Tomorrow we will put the trailer on the truck and get everything ready to be loaded Tuesday afternoon so we can leave around 1:00 am Wednesday morning.

You forgot to remind me...

2008-11-17T21:09:00.003-05:00

..."mom...you forgot to remind me to put on a long-sleeved shirt this morning...umm...can you ask your boss if you can come home and bring me one to school?"...

...mmm...

...mmm...

Yup, that's me...mother-of-the-year...who forgets to tell her son to wear a sleeved (never mind a long-sleeved) shirt on a day when the morning temp is below freezing...also, I fought with him when he wanted to wear a coat and told him that he just needed to wear a sweatshirt!

Lazy Saturday...

2008-11-15T13:38:00.003-05:00

I was hoping to have one of these and so far it is...the kids woke up pretty early but I was able to stay in bed until around 7. After showering (with Addison screaming outside the door totally pissed bc I wouldn't let her in)...we got dressed and ate breakfast. After a little cleaning and re-cleaning up the toys, we all got in the car and went to River City for gymnastics and dance class. I was running on empty and so I filled up the car for $42 ...over 23 gallons at $1.789!!!! (have to say I am loving these low gas prices and really dreading when they go back up).
There was actually very little fighting and bickering at River City (Addison got a little feisty at the end of the two hours) and we came home and I made lunch and then set up Nastia's computer in her room.
She had been using mine, but wants to be able to instant message at 4 am cuz that is the time her parents are up...because of the time zone. I decided to give her one of the two that I had bought for the boys. But, I haven't had the $ to buy a replacement wireless receiver (since the boys had broken both of theirs)...so last week while we were looking for her camera, I picked one up (which was only $39.99 - compared to the $60 ea I had spent on the other two)...any how, it is up and working so hopefully that will help with her happiness and with me keeping people out of my room.
Now, the girls are in bed, the boys are watching disney channel and I am about to take a little nap. Hope you all have a great weekend.

Making your home a haven - Inviting and giving - Day 5

2008-11-14T13:21:00.003-05:00

...Day 5 of the Making your home a haven is inviting and giving. I was struggling trying to think of what to do for this part of the challenge yesterday but events of the night have taken that struggle away...

My oldest son came into my bed in the night and was moaning in his sleep. Finally, he snuggled up to me and said those fateful words "I think I have to throw up!"

The rest of the night consisted of washing sheets and blankets (he had already thrown up)...rubbing his stomach and head...and worrying about when the rest of them would get it! I had planned on going out to dinner with Wendy and Pat (our surrogate Grandmother and aunt) but that will be cancelled for a quiet family night. Hopefully we can get some sleep tonight and will feel better tomorrow cuz it looks like it will rain all weekend and having 4 kids in various stages of stomach sickness stuck in a house because of the rain might just send me completely over the deep end.

So, I'll leave you with a quote that I love...

You make a living by what you get. You make a life by what you give.- Winston Churchill

Making your home a haven - FUN (Day 4)

2008-11-13T08:46:00.002-05:00

"We are driven by five genetic needs: survival, love and belonging, power, freedom and fun"
- William Glasser

So, today the challenge is to add some fun to our house. Isn't it so true that relationships within our families and houses are what make our homes havens? Against the outside? I have already had a morning where my plans have changed several times so I hope to - most of all - be flexible and try and insert fun wherever I can.

I went to bed last night after telling Riley that I couldn't drive him to school after all. Last weekend I had told him that I would drive him on Tuesdays and Thursdays - if he wanted. Well, when I realized that I needed to come in to work for a 7:30 am meeting and then be home by 9:00 am for my post-placement social work visit, I realized that I needed to leave the house at 7 (and I can't drop the boys off before 7:20)...He was mad and accused me of "lying"...ugh.
After dinner, I was tired so ended up going to bed at 9:30 or so and really fell asleep. I was awakened twice during the night by the girls coming into my room but must have fallen back asleep quickly because when I woke this morning (at 4:50 am), I felt more rested than I have in several weeks. As I lay there thinking about the day, I decided that the stress of trying to get to my work and back was too much for me and made the decision that I couldn't make the 7:30 meeting. Woke the boys and Logan at around 6 and started getting breakfast ready. I got to tell Riley that I had changed my mind and that I would drive him to school (and we can stop at the Library on the way to return the books! This is the start of FUN cuz he loves to put the books into the automatic feeder while sitting in my lap in the drivers seat!).
While we were getting ready to leave, I got a call from my SW who said that she was feeling ill and couldn't come this morning (ugh, this makes the 3rd time she has changed this visit!)
but, the deed was done, I was missing the meeting and off we went.

Here is the rest of my list for today:

Get to work and complete a couple of projects that I need to do (make hotel reservations for our trip up north over T'giving and email a patient list to my colleagues who are doing clinic with me this afternoon)
Blog (oh yeah, that is fun!) - and keeps me from working!
Do my afternoon clinic
Since I only have 2 patients this afternoon, hopefully I will finish early and if it isn't raining too much, I will ask my colleagues to join me in a cup of coffee at Starbucks across the street from the clinic space in the Mall (fun for the mommy who never gets out with her friends)
Go home and feed the kids dinner. Eggs and garlic toast with fruit.
Make cookies with the kids (and let them eat one before bed!)

Check out how others are putting "fun" into their days today!

LMAO

2008-11-12T20:30:00.001-05:00

Okay, this is addictive...and scary...and hilarious...and another one of those crazy things that are on the internet...

Make your home a haven - CARED FOR (Day 3)

2008-11-11T22:15:00.002-05:00

First, here is my quote for the day...

"You are willing to go anywhere, but are you willing to stay where you are?"

I plan on reflecting on this today with the idea of caring for myself will ultimately help me to care for my family and those around me and I tend to be the type of person who has to be moving, not exactly "ADD-like" but as if I am so important that if I am not doing 3 things at once I will be not working.

Today I woke up at 5:30 and was able to get myself ready and go choose clothes for the kids before anyone (including Riley) awoke. This was such a blessing and allowed me to be much more relaxed as I woke each of them up with a little song about what they were going to be doing today. This was (relatively) easy since they were all sleeping in my bed (had arrived at various times during the night).

The plan for today is very busy and so I am going to care for myself in that I am going to just try and take one thing at a time and remain calm.

1) Up and eat breakfast and get the boys ready for school and the girls ready for pre-school
2) Make and pack lunches for the boys (calzones I had made a couple days ago)
3) Today I allowed them to watch a video for "exactly" 5 minutes because we had made such good time getting ready. It worked to help Matthew out the door when the bus arrived...not so much with Riley who wanted to dawdle over putting on his sweatshirt (vs wearing a T-shirt in 30 degree weather)!
4) At work today, we are interviewing again and I will try and arrive early to meet with the applicants and mingle (something I am not good at) and then interview several of them later in the morning.
5) After the interviews, I will go home and pick up Nastia to bring her to the European Deli in town. She is missing (I think) Russian food and can pick up some of the supplies. I hope by caring for her, my kids will reap the benefits of her presence in our home This was successful though I got there a little late, we were both able to get some food shopping in and back to the house 15 minutes before the bus arrived. What good timing because I had just enough time to take the bread out of the refrigerator and set it on the counter to rise and to put the food away.
6) After this, I will be home for the boys to get off the bus. We have an appointment for the 4 kids to go get the flu shot today. (I have offered to pay for Nastia to get one too since I think it will make me less anxious if she doesn't get sick this winter either). It was nice to be home for the boys. They both ran and gave me a big hug. I think they miss their mom being there when they get home ...that ol' working guilt...but what choice do I have?...I am going to try and do this a couple times a month to try and keep in touch with them as they get home from very busy school days. After they dropped off their stuff in the house, we jetted to pick the girls up and drive to the pharmacy to get our flu shots. They were all really brave (but got the nasal flu mist so no real bravery was required)...and were great for the pharmacist.
7) After the flu shots we will try and do something fun... I haven't decided yet what but I will plan on being there with my kids in whatever we decide. So, across the street from the pharmacy is a Dollar Tree so I took them there to pick out a toy and I bought a package of "oreo's"...we had a nice little jaunt to climb on the nearby "chick fil a" climbing place and eat a package of french fries and go home...but wait...oh darn, Mamma forgot that we have Logan's 3 year post-placement visit from the social worker tomorrow at 9 am. So we made a detour to the local Walgreen's ...luckily I had my camera in my purse so I could print out 6 pictures to go with the report. We arrived home just in time to eat left-over spaghetti and meatballs and for me to put the garlic bread in the oven. The house smells so great right now I might just fall asleep.

8) Dinner will be left-0vers ...we have pizza, spaghetti and some chicken

Overall I think today was a successful day in our haven (home). I really did a good job of trying to block out the competing influences and spend an enjoyable time with my kids...this was made even easier since I left my cell phone/beeper at work trying to get out on time!

Good Luck to all who are making their homes haven's today.

Making your home a haven - CLEAN (Day 2)

2008-11-11T10:59:00.005-05:00

Here is my second installment in the Making your home a haven segment. The theme today is CLEAN...(okay, everyone who knows me needs to get up off the floor!)

Here is my quote that I found to reflect on during the day...

Cleanliness and order are not matters of instinct; they are matters of education, and like most great things, you must cultivate a taste for them

...Benjamen Disraeli

Here's my timeline...

1) up at 6:00 am...(Riley was already downstairs, and luckily I was able to get showered, dressed, made up and ready for the day before the other 3 were awake). DONE
2) get girls dressed and help boys get dressed for school DONE
3) breakfast of cereal and pumpkin oatmeal bread (homemade) for the kids; make my coffee and breakfast to bring with me DONE
4) take completed (yeah) kitchen cabinet doors off of the dining room table and get the next ones prepped so I can work on them after supper (1/2 DONE...finished with the first set, but didn't get to do the next part)
5) clean breakfast dishes (thanks Nastia for the help)
6) drive the boys to school DONE
7) Work...I have both morning and afternoon clinics today so will be running from the time I get there. ACTUALLY NOT AS BAD AS I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE...one PM patient came in the morning and 2 PM patient's cancelled so was out by 4 PM
8) Hopefully I will finish by around 4 and can get home to make dinner and complete the "clean portion.
9) During dinner prep, I am hoping to spend some time with the kids (if it is still light) playing outside Didn't get to go outside, but we had a good time in the house while I was cooking.
10) Paint (prime) the next set of cabinet doors
11) Do homework with the boys and cuddle the girls and get everyone to bed by 8 pm OK, this is where I had some trouble. Forgot that this was my WW meeting night. So, instead of this, I went to my WW meeting and spent some quality time with my friends Wendy and Pat. It was a good night.
11) Go through my closet and bag up the shoes that I haven't worn for > 1 year for Goodwill. I have been meaning to do this. (for those of you who don't know me, I have about 200 pairs of shoes and most of them just sit in my closet...since the beginning of the re-model this summer, I have been planning on really culling them)...Tonight is the night! I am still planning on trying to do this before bed.

Dinner tonight will be spaghetti and meatballs with left over cling peaches and homemade italian bread (garlic toast)

I'll post back pictures from the last two days tonight.

Making your home a haven - Tidy (Day 1)

2008-11-10T20:35:00.002-05:00

Today is the start of the Making your home a haven challenge. The theme is tidy (Whaaaa, you laugh) but I do have something to contribute here...
1) First, I spent about 15 minutes this morning as I was getting ready where I allowed the kids to watch television while lying in my bed and it gave me a few minutes to think and welcome the day. Once I got my coffee made, I sat at the computer and looked for quotes that I might be able to use to reflect on today. It might be too much of a chance for bringing lightning bolts so I won't be using a bible quote...

Instead, I give you this:
"You were made perfectly to be loved - and surely I have loved you, in the idea of you, my whole life long." by Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

This is how I want to be with my kids, free to give unconditional love - love that is -free from expectations and judgements. I hope that I can try and achieve this for 15 minutes...no 30 minutes...no an hour or two or three. If I can do that, then I can string a day and then two together...

2) My plans for the day were ...
...go to work...we are interviewing for residency applicants today and I have two meetings and a mid-year evaluation to do this afternoon. I hope to be done by about 4 and then hope to do a little shopping on the way home...
...dinner is pizza (homemade pizza dough is in the fridge ready to go) and cling peaches and going to make a couple of calzones so that I can send those in for school lunches later in the week...
...after dinner it will be a little quiet play time with the kids and starting homework with the older boys...
...finally, to get to the "tidy" theme, my goal is to complete the painting of several of the cabinet doors and get them ready to be hung up tomorrow.

Tomorrow I will try and get pictures posted of the days chores.

Making your home a haven...

2008-11-10T20:23:00.002-05:00

I am going to try and participate in this Challenge from Monica at The Homespun Heart called Making your home a haven...and while many of the posters are women who are SAH or homeschooling, I think that the premise of trying to make your house a welcoming and peaceful and family oriented place are right up my alley right now. I definitely could use some of the calming influence of a haven - and I'm thinking if I don't do it, it won't get done.

So, the themes for the week are going to be...Tidy, Clean, Cared For, Fun, and finally Inviting & Giving. As I understand it is, the plan for the day should be to get up and spend some quality time with yourself reading and contemplating. Then, you plan the day (because planning is part of the development of a haven) and then, you complete your plans for the day...incorporating part of the theme and post pictures of your completed projects - or before and after shots.

This should be interesting....

...Weekend from (double hockey sticks)

2008-11-09T18:43:00.002-05:00

...where did I leave off?...oh yeah, Saturday afternoon going home to dinner...Riley lasted about 1 hour and then started mouthing off and everytime I stopped him he would swing at me. Culminated in him hitting my hand (as I was blocking it) and twisting my pinky finger back...you can imagine that didn't go over too well and he was sent to bed! After much balleyhooing he fell asleep in his bed.
...This morning he woke at 6:00 and came into my bed and kissed me and said that he was sorry about last night. Afterward, he was downstairs watching television when I got up. He had gotten Logan breakfast (donuts) and as I got out of the shower, Matthew and Addison were sitting at the table eating donuts too. Meanwhile, I made some high fiber, whole wheat pancakes and later all of the kids came to the table to try those too!...
...then I started working...I had primed 4 of the cabinet doors yesterday and so I painted them a first coat and started trying to hang the 4 that were done. There was much cursing and I got the island doors on. Then...I went to get the ladder cuz the next two were over the fridge...unfortunately, there is a large soffit next to this one and it was a complete BEAR to hang. let me just say that it was a good thing the kids were outside cuz they would have learned some new words...
...Finally, I got that one and the other two hung and the new hardware holes drilled and the new hardware screwed on...I am very happy how they are coming out but I (as I said earlier) don't have a lot of the enthusiasm for it right now. I am going to try and finish the next 4 (painting) tomorrow night and maybe take part of Thursday off to do it this week.
...after naps, I told the kids that I would take them to a McD's play place. Riley was just a BEAR and was talking back and being a pill. We were there for 10 minutes and had to leave cuz I just couldn't stand him anymore. We got home and everyone took a bath and we had about 15 minutes of peace but then he started in again...making fun of everyone...saying he could do what he wanted...I was putting dinner on the table and he said one more thing and I chased him to his room. He knew he was in trouble this time and didn't say a word...when I checked about 10 minutes later, he was sound asleep!
...it's amazing how quiet it is now, with him asleep, the kids are all building a train track and cooperating and the television is off and ...well, peaceful. Riley is going to have a tough time growing up if tonight was any indication.

Long weekend...

2008-11-09T13:23:00.002-05:00

It has been a long weekend. I'm hoping it gets a little better but at least for now, I am more than 2/3rd's through it...(is that an actual word?)...yesterday we all got up early and I needed to take them with me to Lowes and Walmart. I purposefully left before the au pair woke up because I just needed some time away...
...We made it to Lowes - I had to get extra keys made (after the being locked out two times debacle last week) and I needed some paint tray liners so I could finish working on the cabinet painting!...I know, I know...I haven't done anything with it for over 2 months...I have been ambivalent-this is what happens to me. I do about 3/4 of a project, get totally excited about it and then ...get interrupted and I can't get the enthusiasm for it back and so it sits for months until I am pushed and then I resentedly do it. So, I have about 1/2 of the cabinet doors painted and need to paint the other half and need to re-hang them...I had about 4 doors done that have been sitting on the floor waiting for me to re-hang them too...The behavior in Lowes was well...unbelievable. Matthew had to touch everything that was within his reach and Addison was running around and touching and when I said "no touch" she would look me in the eye and say..."yes". And then Logan was walking away and I would turn around and she was down two other rows. So, we made it back to the car and I read them the riot act...also decided that they would all sit in a basket in Walmart. I needed to get Logan a leotard for her dance class cuz she lost her other two. I can't find them anywhere and it was totally annoying for me that I have been having her wear a bathing suit the last two weeks...but I still can't find it so...and I also needed diapers. We made it there pretty well and then got to River City (where their dance and gymnastics classes are)...
...things went downhill fast. Riley was an absolute bear during Logan's class...ultimately had me dragging him out of the building by his hair and screaming at him outside...Then Addison got bored during the boys class and she just kept screaming and having melt down temper tantrums...and since I was already mother-of-the-year with Riley, I really had no patience for her...
...the afternoon was taken up with naps and picking up all of the broken toys in the back yard. When the girls woke up, we took Nastia to the store because she needed to buy a new camera and well...it is not the type of shopping the kids were into...first store, I finally put all of them into the basket...Then they didn't have the one the guy talked us into...we finally went to the store down the street and bought it (same price)...then we went to dollar tree and I let them all pick out a toy and by the time we were done, it was dark and we went home to eat dinner.
...okay, i am too tired to continue ...maybe I'll post a little later...

Interesting day...

2008-11-04T22:01:00.003-05:00

...I got up this morning at 5:00 to get to the polls and vote at the time they opened. I had told Riley he could come with me (after he was crying because he wanted to vote himself)...and so we got up early and i made him hot chocholate and I made coffee and we got ready to brave the rain. He was so cute and he was so excited and proud that I was allowing him this special opportunity (and he was doing it alone with me).
...We drove up to the school where we vote and the entire parking lot was filled and there was already a line of 150 people outside with umbrellas out. We made our way back to the main road and parked on the side and got our position in line just as they were opening. All in all, we waited only about 25 minutes and we were in the building. Riley was very excited to see the computerized voting machines and got to "practice vote". He was cute and so patient and I was proud to have him standing next to me. I let him touch the screen to register my votes.
...Then we got back to the car and were home all before 6:40. After a LOOOONNNGGGG and busy Tuesday clinic where I saw too many patients in too short a period of time. After several more meetings, I headed home to relieve the au pair who was home all day with all 4 of them. She seemed in better spirits though to be cooped up all day with 4 kids in the rain clearly was hard on her. Once home I took her to the European Deli where they speak Russian and left her while I took the kids to the nearby play place at Chick-fil-A. What a joke! I was planning on getting them dinner but the line to the counter was out the door! turns out they were giving away a chicken sandwich to everyone with an "I Voted" sticker and for the nearly 40 minutes we were playing, the line just got longer. I, personally, wasnt going to get in that line. So, we went to pick up the au pair and I went to the McD drive through. Even though it was only 5:45, the kids were famished and all of them ate their entire happy meals in the 10 minutes we waited outside CVS while the au pair went in to buy a couple of things---yes, even Matthew!

The eve of a major political event...

2008-11-03T20:31:00.003-05:00

...so it is the night before election day and I am definitely NOT sitting in front of the TV trying to get some last minute information about the two candidates. In fact my two boys are playing/alternately with a Superman plug-n-play game and being so good I almost don't want to disturb it even though it is past their bedtime and ...what the heck, there is no school tomorrow...

Speaking of tomorrow, Riley came home last week and told me that "Obama is for the environment"...Without revealing my political leanings, I wasn't sure what that meant, but over the next several days he came home and told me things like "John McCain doesn't give money to the environment" and "Barack Obama gives money to the environment" and "who are you voting for mommy because you need to vote for Barack Obama because he is for the environment"

It was cute except in the very inappropriate way that I have no idea who was feeding him this stuff!!! and how NOT black and white these issues are. I was able to reassure him that neither candidate really were taking money from the environment and ...rest assured, my 6 year old will be happy with my choice of candidates...even if it isn't for exactly the reasons he envisions!

The crazy things there are on the internet...

2008-11-02T21:03:00.000-05:00

1 minute, 3 seconds

Created by Bunk Beds.net

Halloween

2008-10-31T20:48:00.002-04:00

Well, it was a good night here. I have been back from my conference for 3 nights now and I spent the first two screaming at the kids even though I didn't want to. I found myself losing it with everything. (Of course they really upped the ante last night...particularly Riley)...

...so as I was driving home tonight I tried to put myself in the happy place and practice all of my good thoughts and determined I wasn't going to nag or yell tonight...Well, one out of two isn't bad!...I picked the girls up at 3:45 pm (a little late) and as we were going home, I got a call from Riley at one of the neighbors houses because they were locked out. They had gone on a nature hunt and locked all of the doors. So, I got home and found them outside and neither boy had one his shoes. Next started about 10 minutes of ultra excitement and me trying to corral them into the car and finally we arrived at the restaurant where we were meeting Wendy and her mom. We had a nice dinner and all of the kids were really well behaved.

...we got home and I rushed upstairs to put pants on so we could go out. The 6 of us started trick or treating at right about 6 pm. Matthew was the Transformer "Bumble Bee"; Riley was Dearth Vader; Logan was Ariel and Addison was Snow White. The boys were really excited and Logan also got into it but the most amazing thing is how Addison totally picked it up!

...after the first house when she saw that she was getting CANDY, it was like she was born to trick or treat! She started saying Trick or Treat and was just so cute that everyone said it was okay for her to take a HANDFUL (even though I kept saying "just one" - okay, nagging!)...she RAN full speed from one house to the next and when she fell (and she fell frequently) would just get up laughing and start running again. ...one of our neighbors had their entire garage set up like a party...complete with a projection TV playing Tim Burton's "The Nightmare after Christmas"...and hay bales for seats in front of it. Matthew saw it from about a block away...he loves that movie and even after we had sat and watched it for 10 minutes, he was done with "Trick or Treat"...amazingly, so were everyone else. We did a few more houses of our close neighbors and then went back to the garage and watched for another 10 minutes and came home.

One more day...

2008-10-28T16:37:00.002-04:00

Well, the ICAAC/IDSA conference is over and ...overall, I'd say that it was a good conference and I am glad that I went. Today I ran into 3 different people that I have been looking for the last 3-4 days. Usually the last day of the meeting is not that great but I went to a fascinating session this morning on emerging viruses. And I got to see a few people I haven't seen in several years and catch up with them both on a professional and personal level.

...I had lunch today with Anne Marie (hey Anne Marie) who adopted her daughter from the same orphanage as Addison (she brought her daughter home 2 months before I brought Addi home). Anyway, it was a nice lunch and I enjoyed hearing about the amazing gains her daughter has made.

...I got lost trying to head north to Baltimore after the meeting, but ultimately was able to backtrack to the 495/395/95 interchange and head back up north. Arrived in Baltimore a little while ago and well...aside from the directions which had me going right on a one-way street (the wrong way)...I was able to get here. It is unbelievably windy out today and I don't know that I will go out walking much today but the meeting here doesn't start till 10 am tomorrow so maybe then...I need to find something for Riley!

...Looking forward to seeing my kids tomorrow. Hoping the meeting ends a little early tomorrow.

Night 3

2008-10-27T16:50:00.002-04:00

Heard back from the kids a couple of times today ...Riley called when they got home from school and then again to tell me that he had "taken" his own temperature and he was sick...I told him to call me back when Michelle arrives and have her take his temperature.

I spent the afternoon relaxing and responding to email. I decided that there weren't too many things that I wanted to hear about. Only problem...wanted to take a LONG bath - but my hotel room only has a shower! UGH

Monday

2008-10-27T06:15:00.002-04:00

Well, the weekend is over and that means roughly 1/3 of my away time is over. I'm anxiously awaiting the bus coming to pick the boys up (have already called to remind the babysitter and au pair about Matthew's medicine) and the girls going off to daycare so I will have a "relaxing" 6 or 7 hours of not worrying! I guess if they are in their routine then they should be good!

In the nothing good is ever free category, we had dinner last night at this really funky restaurant called PS7. The last year or so, the Virginia Infectious Diseases Society hasn't met and so it was decided to have a reception at IDSA to try and poll people about what they wanted out of / from the local society. Well, we got an offer from a company that works with one of the pharmaceutical companies and does wine tasting to host it so we said sure. It turned out to be only a small group of people and the pharm company had hired a pharmacist to give a "brief" talk (we were told 15 minutes).

Well...
dunno, this guy thought he was the master of ceremonies or something. His presentation was a case that he (a pharmacist - even a pharm D) shouldn't be trying to lead ID "DOCS" through!!! It was awkward, it was painful, and (well except for the snide comments from Bill K, Greg C, and Steve D who were sitting near me) a not very well thought out plan. Turned a very pleasant night into a long, awkward, painful affair - did I say that already?

Had a chance to talk to all of the kids last night ...Logan started crying when I said I would be home in 2 days...Addison said "I LUB BOOOO"...Mattew said "Hi Mom" and Riley said..."Hey mom, um can I ask you something?...what are you going to be bringing me back? ...okay, bye love you!" The babysitter who is helping the au pair at night told me that they had a great day and that they were all happy and dirty! Guess that is all I can ask for - but, can you tell, I miss them?!

Here...

2008-10-25T18:19:00.004-04:00

So, the annual ICAAC-IDSA meeting is in Washington DC this weekend. It is also the first year in probably a decade (not sure of the numbers but a long time) where the two associations (Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy) and (Infectious Disease Society of America) have held a joint conference. When I first started my fellowship, the annual meeting was a 5.5 day affair of debauchery and learning! Then, somewhere along the lines the two associations had a fall out - over - guess what? - money. So, for a number of years now, there have been two competing meetings in the fall. Not a good move cuz nearly no one could do both. Personally, I think I last attended either in the fall before I adopted the boys...so a long time ago.

I've been anxious about this trip. Already paid > $800 and so wasn't really looking forward to cancelling it but... the au pair has only been here a few weeks and was afraid of overwhelming her. Still not sure it will all work out but I keep telling myself that it is only Washington and I can be home in 2 hours if necessary (more about that later).

It is a dreary day in the Mid-Atlantic; rain and fog and cool weather. I left my house around 2 and realized that I didn't have my email confirmation (from which they scan your bar code to prove that you paid the registration fee)...so, I had to go 1/2 hour out of my way to go to my office and find it on my desktop computer and print it. In the meantime, I picked up this laptop because my laptop, my precious laptop, my poor poor laptop...had coffee spilled directly onto it this morning and it no longer comes on (boo, hoo, boo, hoo). [like a good non-nerdy computer person, I'm hoping it will dry out over the next few days and start up again!]

So, I start up here with my handy dandy "Google Maps" emailed to my smart phone so I can get on the road (don't I sound all hi-techy?). Well, the combination of weather and traffic and it takes me nearly 2.5 hours to make it to Northern VA. Then, I promptly get lost as I am coming off of Memorial Bridge!!! ugh! So, I pull over and call the hotel. Well, 3 phone calls, several U-Turns and much cussing later, I am here.

Well, you say, that is not too stressful, what are you complaining about? Well, while I am on the phone the first time with the hotel (the time they kept me on hold for 7 minutes - I timed it!)...Riley calls me and leaves a message. I'm not savvy enough (nor calm enough) to put it here in it's entirety but it goes something like this...

"Mom...Matthew cut Wall-e's cord...yup, he really did...and Addison and Logan are up and they were crying and...well, I think you need to come home cuz its an emergency, well I don't know if it is an emergency but...love you, bye"

So, over the next half hour I tried my home phone no fewer than 10 times and the au pairs cell no fewer than 6 times and kept getting the answering machine. (also interspersed in with calls to the hotel and trying to find the dam place) and well, I need a drink!

Finally got through and the au pair said ..."everything is good...we are cleaning!"

Anxiety...

2008-10-23T21:05:00.004-04:00

I have a conference in Washington DC this weekend and next week. This is going to be a stretch for all of us. I have arranged for people to stay overnight to give support to the au pair and to take the girls to daycare and to get the boys on the bus. We talked about it today and she had some good questions and seemed pretty realistic about the work and what will happen- asked me what we would cook and feed them. Makes me feel better about it.

Meanwhile in other ulcer producing issues...got a call from the boys' school on Monday - it was the Principal. She said that the county central office had called her and told her that the variance she had approved for Riley to come to the same school as Matthew was not appropriate and that she had 3 choices: to send him back to our neighborhood school after the term, after the semester or at the end of the year. But that he wouldn't be able to continue in the same school "just because his brother is in a developmentally delayed class".

I was crazy...besides the unbelievable inconvenience it would cause for me to have them in two different schools, it made me mad that someone who was not involved could make this decision - when the Principal was okay with it, when the school is not overcrowded, when he had already attended the school for a year (last year).

Also, part of the reason I allowed Matthew to be moved to this school in the first place was because I was assured that they would be together and I really feel like it is beneficial to Matthew to have someone with him. It helps him to be calmer on the bus, it helps his anxiety and I just think it is wrong to separate two boys who are so close!

So, I called and made an appointment with the principal to discuss what my options for appealing this would be and that was today.

Well, first, she has NOOOO idea why I made an appointment with her. (Great those two sleepness nights for me and not even a problem registered on her side!)

Then as I explained why I was there, she explained (what I had assumed but it didn't help)...that she had been chastised for giving the variance...she had made the call without looking into who exactly the child was (and who his brother was) and she had just done it as one of a list of things she had to do that morning without thinking. [Okay, I guess I have to give her a kudos or two for telling me the truth about that!]

"I could tell you were cold on the phone, but I wasn't really sure what it was about and I thought that I was giving you the best I could - to stay thru the school year" - "now that I talk to you, I realize that there is always more to these stories". [Um...ya think?]

We ended up calling the head of the exceptional education in this region (who was the one who convinced me to enroll Matthew in this school and assured me that Riley could go too). They were on the phone while I was in the room and she is supposed to try and take care of it - I hate it though, because the principal wouldn't give me this woman's direct phone number and wanted me to call her next week if I don't hear back from her by then! You can be dam___ sure I will.

Whew....

2008-10-19T20:52:00.003-04:00

I finished my last in-hospital service stint today ...until March! Of course there is so much going on at home and work that it really isn't a break.

I am trying to get the house in order and arranged - it has been pretty topsy turvy since September when I had the upstairs re-carpeted and painted. I am almost done putting all of the boxed stuff away//separated into stuff to give away to Goodwill //separated clothes for the kids into summer and winter//all of the laundry done.
Yesterday I hung some of the pictures and the white boards that I had used to organize the school days. Also put back up the plastic hanging folders to organize all of the papers and books. Today I went through the basket of shoes and separated out the ones that won't fit next year (summer sandles/flip flops/crocs) and the ones that will. Then made a full bag of shoes to go to Goodwill and another bag to go in the trash. So, the two things I had on my list for this weekend.

I have been on a cooking jag. I love to make bread and I had seen this book called "Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a day" on a blog I read. It really is a neat way to make / have fresh bread almost daily without having to take 2-3 hours to make a loaf ---and no kneading! Last week I made this dough for cheese bread and I had made two loafs last week. Today I finished up that dough and made three loaves (one to freeze, one to eat, and one to bring in to work).

Last night I decided to try one of the sweet bread recipes and made this "brioche" dough. I then made donuts out of it for the kids this morning. It was fast and easy and I froze a bunch of the dough so I should be able to do it again. Matthew was a little hesitant when he saw them (I don't have a donut cutter so they looked more like "munchkins" with powdered sugar on them as they came out of the frying oil. But, he was convinced to try and then ended up eating about 10!

The house smells great with the scent of baking bread, taco soup & home made corn tortilla chips (baked not fried!).

eyelubboooo

2008-10-16T10:37:00.002-04:00

Okay, so what can make a day like yesterday end on a good note...

Laying down next to Addison at bedtime, she usually takes that time to practice her face parts (and poke me in the eye while doing "eye")...and she starts saying...

eyelubboooo...eyelubbbooooo....eyelubbbboooo...EYE LUB OOOOO

(enough said!)

High Anxiety...

2008-10-15T14:48:00.002-04:00

So, yesterday was day two with the au pair and I got a call from Riley at 3:30 seemingly doing well. I was late getting out of the clinic so didn't get the girls until seconds before the 6:00 deadline and we rushed home. The boys were outside in the back yard playing with Nastia. I started putting the dinner on the table so I could go to my 7:00 meeting.

Of course there was a ton of flurry about why I was going back out again and I know I probably shouldn't have tried but...

So, after the 4th or 5th time someone jumped up from the table to kiss or push me out the door, I lost it and brought them all back to the table and snapped that they needed to stay and rushed out.

As I was shutting the door, I glanced at my pager/email on my PDA. There was a note from Matthew's teacher with a litany of his sins that day and asking me if I knew what might have gotten him off to a bad start (as if, he needs something to get him off to a bad start!). At this point, my anxiety is high cuz I can't stand being yelled at / chastised for things that I have no control over (which is what the email basically was doing) - oh and ..."I tried to call several times this afternoon and there was no answer..." - so I am doubly bad cuz I was working! -Makes no difference that she didn't call the number that is CLEARLY marked as my preferred method of communication (my cell) and that I didn't even know that she had an email address until 4 days prior when she decided to try and make the fact that she hadn't done her job with the bus change stuff my problem!

But, I decided I needed some distance between me and Matthew to calm down and off I drove. I was in the meeting for 3 minutes when I got a call on my cell from home so I rushed outside to find it was Riley who wanted to tell me that "THE SOUND ON OUR TV ISN'T WORKING" - Oh the catastrophe of it all!! ...but by that time, I was so done that I left and ran to Food Lion for a few things before going home. I walked into the garage to put some of the food in the freezer that I have there and found ...it ...unplugged!!!

So, after I screamed for the two boys to come out to the garage and had a feeble attempt at denial, Matthew admitted that he was playing with the plugs! Ugh! luckily the stuff hadn't defrosted as it had probably been less than 2 hours but I almost blew my head off holding in the screaming I wanted to do cuz...

...well, he had had a bad day at school and I needed to have him at least be able to have some ability to focus when I talked to him about it
...and I know he just can't help himself with some of these things
...and he told the truth nearly without any prompting (which is very unusual)

So, I sent a long note back to the teacher after laying with him and trying to get him to talk about what happened at school. So here I sit, at the end of the next school day with nary an acknowledgement of my email. Have I said ...I hate people today yet?!

First day...

2008-10-13T21:06:00.002-04:00

Riley...Can I come home on the bus every day? till June?

Matthew...I like riding the bus home...

Mom...boys happy, house clean, homework done...B+

What is the deal...

2008-10-12T20:32:00.003-04:00

...with gas prices? I mean less than 2 weeks ago, the prices were > $3.50 and tonight I look on-line and the price at several of the local stations is $2.599!!! With all of the economic stuff going on, is this the 1st sign of the Apocalypse?????

If it gets under $1 then I will start building the bomb shelter in the back yard!!!

I think the au-pair...

2008-10-11T20:09:00.007-04:00

...is worried she is going to become fat like us Americans.

Now we definitely have an American child diet in this house...pasta (because Matthew will eat nearly any kind of sauce or cheese covered pasta)...mac & cheese (again pasta but of the cheesy variety)...carbs (chicken nuggets, tater tots)...cereal or donuts for breakfast...and (because I need to fatten Matthew up) an assortment of cookies,candies, snack foods.

Earlier this week she had her first glazed donut...then, tonight I made waffles cuz Matthew has been asking for them. Now this is not like a 15 ingredient, home made waffles...they could only be easier if they were the frozen EGGO brand. But, pre-bought, COSTCO mix in the large bag, mixed with water and oil and plop into the waffle iron and drizzle (smother in Matthew's case) with Maple syrup.

When I sat the kids down, she initially said she didn't want any. Then, she was intrigued by what I was making (I usually triple the batch so I can freeze some for a quick breakfast for the kids on school mornings). I turned around and she started taking over for me in making in them and then I saw her trying a piece of one (without syrup so she hasn't gotten the total effect!).

She turns to me and with this distressed tone in her voice says..."it is soooo delicious!".

(I tried to reassure her that if she continues to keep trying to keep up with Riley and all of his walking / bike riding, she should be okay).

Challenge

2008-10-07T17:16:00.005-04:00

Mary of Owlhaven posted this challenge today and I thought I would play along...go to your pictures folder on your computer and find the 6th file folder and then post the 6th picture and tell about it...

This is from this summer when we went to the beach in Corolla NC to visit my sister Teresa and her family who were vacationing there. I love how my oldest son (in the foreground) is actually looking at me and it captures my growing girl (facing away) and...in the background is my nephew Max who was doing some fishing. He dutifully brought all that he caught to the shore for all the little kids to ooh and aah over.

She's here...

2008-10-04T18:00:00.002-04:00

and seems really nice. She is still very unsure of her English and so I went out and bought a Russian/English dictionary. At least I can find the English words in it and let her read the Russia. I think she is going to learn fast and she definitely has already picked up some things. The best thing is that tonight, she was out in the front yard with Riley and started kicking the soccer ball with him and he was having a ball. Guess you don't need language to play. Its gonna be a tough few weeks to get going though.

Proud...

2008-10-03T13:13:00.004-04:00

For those of you who know my son Matthew, you know how far he has come in his time with me. We have been struggling with school and I have had some issues with his teacher (who is currently on extended leave until November). This morning I found 10 "spelling" words in a baggie in his folder. The note said to review them because he would have a test today! Ugh. now I have to say that I am not even sure at this time that Matthew understands what a word is! He has really exploded over the summer with writing letters but it usually is a page of random letters in no order (and certainly not on the lines!).

So, with a heavy heart this morning I pull out the cards and ask him to do them with me. (Now, he already is starting off badly because he had completed 2 homework papers and thought he would get to play a little DS before the bus).

I pull out the first card and show it to him and he gets it right! Now picture me going through the cards faster and faster and trying to make sure they are right side up and him getting all of the words correctly and now picture me starting to cry and carrying him all over the kitchen. Yep, he has come so far.

I know he will always struggle. But it's amazing how small successes can be so big! And I can only hope that poor Riley who tried to throw in a "but those are easy words" while Matthew and I were dancing will someday get that sometimes, these things we take for granted, are really important!

Body Image...

2008-10-02T10:36:00.002-04:00

My friend Beth gave me a big "shout out" here about how "I" led her to wearing high heels despite being a tall girl through my example. The whole post was great in her very self-deprecating way and it got me thinking about my body image and how it has changed through my life.

First of all, being a tall girl has been part of me since I can remember. I remember my first embarassing time where I recognized that I was not your "typical" girl. I was in First Grade and in Catholic school. There was an annual festival for Mary (mother of God) in May and they usually had the youngest girls in the school participate by being some sort of "princesses" - all I remember is getting to wear these really pretty dresses that they passed along each year. Anyway, they chose the youngest so that the dresses would fit...unfortunately they didn't count on me! I started Kindergarten at 4 years of age (at the time, you only had to be 5 by Jan 1st of the year you were in it and seeing how my birthday was end of November...) so I was always one of the youngest in my class. Anyway, I was designated to being in this festival and I was (literally) a foot taller and 20 pounds heavier than any of the other girls. Of course, the dress didn't fit! and I, being the mature 6 year old at the time had a huge FIT when they tried to convince me that I shouldn't be in the procession! So, I had to be "wedged" into the dress and I remember lots of comments about how I didn't let the other (smaller) girl take my place.

Okay, can you say trauma!

Throughout my grade school career, I was consistently the tallest (and though looking back on it now I realize that at 5'10" and 140 pounds in high school I was far from FAT), I always interpreted my tallness as "bigness" as "fattness!". Didn't help that I always had curves and never that stick straight body habitus of the adolescent boy/girl.

So, somewhere in residency, I lost weight and was exercising alot and got down to one of the lowest weights I had been since high school - and I was accused of being SICK. Not once, but repeatedly!! For me, it finally hit home that I just couldn't see what others did. At the same time, I was able to wear clothes that looked good on me and ...well, they looked good with high heels. Heels became my way to feel better about myself. No matter what my weight, no matter if I was tired or anxious...the way I felt and held myself with heels was much better than when I wore flats...maybe it was the dressed up feeling they gave/give me...maybe it was the change in posture they afford.

I still struggle with my body image...heels don't take that away...but they certainly give me an edge and I like that!

Rain,rain, go AWAY!

2008-09-28T18:29:00.002-04:00

Well, the old joke goes, as soon as the State Fair of Virginia begins, the rains will come. It certainly has been the case this year. Fair started Thursday...rain started thursday...rained (hard) Friday...rained (off and on) Saturday...and today when it was supposed to be nice...rained again. Even though my house is large, it is NOT large enough for 4 kids and a grumpy mom.

Today we went out a couple times because we have nothing (relatively) in the house to eat and since my kids have started to drink 2 Gallons of milk a week, we had none of that so it was dire circumstances.

First we went to Costco. I neede to get some milk ($3.30 a gallon v $4.25 a gallon at Walmart). I needed some snacks for lunches for school and since Matthew won't eat very much, I need to get the good stuff. We made it about 1/2 way through the trip before Logan and Matthew started chasing each other up and down the aisles. We finally finished and checked out and it was lunchtime so I bought a hot dog for Addison and Riley and a piece of pizza for Matthew and Addison. Matthew was too revved up to eat and Logan kept getting up so it was time to leave and get naps.

I finally unpacked everything by 2 and the girls were asleep so I had some time to fold 4 loads of laundry and sort some of the summer clothes into tupperware to go away till next year.

After naps we went to Walmart...okay, not smart but I needed some weird things (like a bicycle inner tube for Matthew's bike) and so decided to combine it into one trip. What a MISTAKE...the two who were running earlier ...started again. I was so mad. Plus, Addison was scratching me because apparently I'm not allowed to hold onto "my basket" while I am pushing it!!! Geez. We finally left without 1/4 of the things I need for this month but I just will hope to do it when the au pair is here and I can leave the majority of them home.

Dinner is cooking and Logan is upstairs playing with her stuffed animals. A little while ago she brought down this monkey named "Emily" and told me she was sick and could I watch her while she (Logan) went to work...because she (Logan) was her mommy. So when I asked what I was, she said...her "grandma" ...OF COURSE!

Overwhelmed...

2008-09-28T10:10:00.002-04:00

I'm feeling overwhelmed with things both at home and work these days so little energy to blog...so, I am adapting from several blogs I read pretty well...have I said I love RSS feeds? It allows me to find and keep blogs that I read close and get notified when there are new posts...

Anyway, one of them put a post to this cool site which makes a word picture of the most frequently used words on your blog. Mine looks like this...

You can make your own here.

Is that really what I was meant to do?

2008-09-23T22:06:00.005-04:00

I don't remember going through the "princess" stage as a kid, but Logan definitely has it bad! This morning she was just chattering away during the drive to daycare...it is becoming one of my favorite times because she is just so much more willing to share what she is thinking than the boys.

...so, today it went something like this....

"When I get big I am going to live in a castle."

mmm...

"I will be a princess and live in a big castle"

mmm...who else will be in this castle...can Addison come?

"Yes, she can be a princess too"

mmm...

"And Taylor (her best girlfriend) is going to have big muscles and she will fight and kill the monsters"..."Taylor and Max will have big muscles and fight"

(smiling now...)mmm... what about me, will I be living in the castle?

"Yes, mommy you can be a princess too...no, you will be a queen!"

(smiling again)...thank you...I would like to be a queen

"Yes, you will be a queen and you will keep the castle clean and make sure that everything is put away in it's place"

(now laughing)...you mean I have to clean the castle!!? [for those of you who know me, I don't clean the house very much...can't imaging cleaning the castle!...and certainly don't think I would be doing castle cleaning if I was the QUEEN!!!]

UGH!

(Picture is from http://homepage.eircom.net/~osrai/kilkenny_castle.htm - Kilkenny Castle)

Hurricane Ike

2008-09-13T20:01:00.002-04:00

Reading about all of the trouble caused by Hurricane Ike in Galveston TX reminds me of a trip I made there in 1993.

It was February and I was completing my fellowship and trying to decide what to do with my life after my fellowship. So, I applied for a job at UT Galveston and went down there to interview. Meanwhile, my sister used to go to TX for a vacation each February to go to the Houston Rodeo and she decided to join me for a few days while I was there. The second day of the interview, was horrible. It was raining cats and dogs. I remember they had one of the secretaries drive me from interviews and from building to building. At one point, I fell in a puddle with my interview dress on! I spent the next half hour in the ladies room blowing on my dress with the hand dryer!

But, that wasn't the worst part of it. As the night went on, the weather got worse. We were staying in this hotel on the beachfront of Galveston. the hotel was directly across the street from the beach! It had these open stairs on either side of the hotel and the wind was HOWLING up the stairs. Our room was right at the end of the building and there was no heat! We called down to the main desk several times and at one point, I think they brought us a couple of extra blankets but it was freezing in the room. The seal at the bottom of the door was horrible and so the wind was coming in through the door. We tried to block it with towels and the wind was so strong, it would push the towel across the floor into the room! Finally, we hunkered down in the beds trying to get warm and were greeted by the outside door at the top of the stairs opening and slamming closed repeatedly from the wind. We asked the main desk to come and lock the door but they wouldn't because it was a "fire" door - some good that would do in a fire!!! It wouldn't stay shut.

I think we finally had a little sleep but the next day was a nightmare trying to get our flights out of Houston. I think I finally got out of Houston International but my sister had to get a flight out of Hobby.

All this to say, that we endured a "Non-hurricane" on Galveston island. I can not imagine enduring one that was as strong as Hurricane Ike. I pray for those who made the poor decision to stay and see what would happen. I hope that the number of people dead is less than we expect and I hope that Galveston Island (what I remember as a beautiful place) can survive.

Weekend...

2008-09-07T14:35:00.002-04:00

...what no big catastrophes? well the weekend isn't over yet! No, really, things have been pretty quiet (well no sicknesses)...
Yesterday was Logan's first dance class and then 15 minutes later the boys first gymnastics class. Everything went pretty well. Logan loved it. Looks like there will only be 3 or 4 other girls in the class and they did pretty simple things. she looked so cute in her leotards and ballet shoes. As for the boys, well they did pretty well too. the hour we had to wait for their class to start was a little rough. this place is pretty big and has a huge play area but the toys are mostly for the 12-18 month set...not exactly entertaining for my boys. Next week I'll need to remember to bring something more for them to do. When they finally got in there, they were in a class of 8 boys with one teacher. I'm not sure that is a good ratio but we'll see. Matthew was pretty distracted by all that was going on (even medicated) but he was pretty good about staying in line and following. And what was the favorite parts of the adventure?

Logan: dancing to itsy bitsy spider
Matthew: doing the (high bar) monkey bars with chalk on my hands
Riley: doing the rings and turning upside down

I think the next 8 weeks our Saturday mornings will be pretty full!

Weekend coming...

2008-09-04T20:46:00.002-04:00

Can't wait for the weekend. Today Logan and I went to Walmart and bought some snacks for school and night; some fruit for mom and most importantly...leotards and tights for BALLET. Logan has been asking to take ballet almost on a daily basis for the past 6 months. She is finally going to start those lessons on Saturday. She is so excited...and I am pretty sure that her chicken pox will pretty much be gone by then.

Speaking of chicken pox, we are doing well. The pox are drying up and I am just waiting for next week. I think if the other two kids don't get it by Thursday, we should be okay.

First day of school...

2008-09-02T21:51:00.002-04:00

Here is the homework Riley did today at afterschool care (the words in Red are what he wrote in)...

My First Day of School...

...Today, TosDay was my first day of school. When I woke up this morning, I felt neRvis about going to school. The weather was CoLD. I wore shoRTs to school. My teacher's name is Misvon (Ms. Vaughan). The first thing we did in class was Red Books. I made friends with JahDen. At play time I liked Monkey BaR. At lunch time I ate Samwith. The best think I liked doing today was Resess. I did not like Music. At the end of my first day of school, I felt good.

I think he is off to a good start. He was happy when I picked him up from daycare and he got a green mark on his calendar. Tonight as he was falling asleep he asked me to put a note in his lunch box with "I love you" on it so he could look at it during the day (awwww).

The saga continues...

2008-09-02T08:17:00.006-04:00

On Saturday night we were outside late and I got a bunch of mosquito bites. So, when Logan came in and showed me her bumps on Sunday I was sure that was what it was. When she complained later in the day and on Monday of more itching I told her she must be " very sweet"!
When we were riding to the pool yesterday and she started scratching her head, I thought for sure that she had the "L" word (since last week there was someone in the other 3 year old class with it!) and groaned inward about how that would be a pain.

When we got to the pool I checked her head but she didn't have lice...what I did see was a "bug bite" in her scalp where she was scratching (phew...dodged that bullet!).
It wasn't until last night after dinner when she was scratching more and I found a few more bug bites on her stomach (which was covered when she was out) that it slowly dawned on me....

...NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

It can't be, shingles isn't contageous...she got the vaccine...how can I be out of work for a week?!!! Tomorrow is Tuesday (my busy day at work which I have missed for the last 3 weeks because of illness of some sort and my nurse is going to KILL me)...

but it is...it's the POX...ugh! All I can say is the rest of them (the kids) better get them quickly...like soon...not spaced out over the next 2 months...but within the next couple of days!!!!

Shaping up to be a long weekend...

2008-08-31T14:21:00.002-04:00

Well, half way thru the long weekend and it is shaping up to be a very long weekend indeed. Started thursday with the contractor coming to the house and pulling up all of the carpet upstairs in order for it to be ready for the next day. He also boxed up our entire upstairs life - clothes, beds, TV, cable and put it into one of the rooms so we all slept in my bed and (luckily) were able to find clean clothes in the dryer that hadn't been folded yet! (one of the few benefits of my unorganized lifestyle!)
Then comes Friday...we leave the house at 9:00 am to go to the school and meet Matthew and Riley's teachers and drop off the 2 bags of supplies we brought! Luckily Wendy came with us and took the girls to the playground to play while we went in. Unfortunately, we were getting the end of Hurricane Fay and the playground was soaked so the girls were soaked by the time we got back to them an hour later.
I liked Matthew's teacher (he has a substitute for several months because his regular teacher is out on Maternity leave). Riley was very shy but I liked his teacher. She has her room set up like a beach which was pretty cool and I think she will be good for him.
So, we had planned to keep the kids with us for the morning and then they were to go to a babysitter's for the afternoon. we were under strict orders not to come home till about 6:00 pm so that all of the painting and carpeting could be done with few distractions! The babysitter cancelled at 11:30 because she was home with her son who had broken his arm playing football the day before. So, now I couldn't go to work and had to entertain 4 kids in a wet environment for 6 hours. We went to the library and to LOWES and rode the tractors while I picked out paint colors for the 1/2 bath downstairs and my bedroom upstairs. Then we walked around the mall a little, bought ballet slippers (an adventure in itself) and finally went home at 6:30. Unfortunately, the painters didn't show so the contractor was left to do all of the painting himself...this set us up for the long weekend ahead!!!
Finally, the contractor left at around 7:30 with all of the house in disarray and all of the kids sleeping on my mattress in one of the bedrooms and me sent to sleep downstairs on the couch. Oh yeah...it was HOT! Luckily I opened windows and it brought the temperature down to about 78 all night but...dang, did I really need to pay for an airconditioner visit on a long weekend?!
Saturday morning...temperature 80 degrees (...I open more windows cuz it is cooler outside than inside)...we wake at 7:40 and I get off of the couch to make coffee and look up and the contractor is back. He heads upstairs and starts what was a long day of painting. By noon, the temp is 84 in the house and I make the dreaded call to the air conditioning company...not so much for us because there still is some cool air in the downstairs and the fans are recirculating it okay so that if you don't move you can actually stop sweating...but for the painter upstairs where all of the hot air is going! We eat lunch and I get the girls upstairs in their sweltering (but newly pink and gorgeous!) room for nap. They put Logans bed upside down and the mattress is crooked. After trying (unsuccessfully) to turn it myself I get one of the 2 guys to help...Success and we lay down (sweating) for naps.
The airconditioner repair(wo)man calls and says she will be there in 1/2 hour so I go to the garage to clean out the access...contractor comes out and say...you don't think I didn't turn on all of the fuses after I shut it off to fix that light do you?...yup! guess what...fuse to airconditioner is off...DANG! so I call her back and say...um you don't need to come...she is like..."GREAT"...!!!hope I don't get charged for the call!
After naps, while the air was definitely one, the house was still HOT so we went to the pool. When we got back, they were working on my bedroom and had finished putting the boys beds back together. They finally finished around 9:00 pm last night. We all got to sleep in our own beds, but I now have to go through about 40 boxes in the au pairs room to put our upstairs back together! Don't think it will be done this weekend ...and getting the oven finally delivered this afternoon.
Happy Labor Day indeed!

almost 24 hours...

2008-08-26T14:28:00.003-04:00

without a major catastrophe. I'm not sure I should drive home but maybe this is a sign of good things to come!

Matthew had his 7th birthday party at a local haunt called Kangaroo Jac's. This is another inflatable party and play center. It was fun but...having that many kids running around at breakneck speed and then being fed pizza and cake is a recipe for some very difficult kids in the afternoon. At one point, Matthew got bored so I gave him my camera to take pictures of his friends...here is some of his artwork!

Going back to bed...

2008-08-25T10:32:00.002-04:00

Ever have one of those times where you just think that maybe if you just went back to bed and put the covers over your head you would be better than trying to keep plugging along...

This weekend our microwave died...I have been planning on getting a new microwave and stove (to match the other appliances) sometime in the future ...as I am re-doing the kitchen. But, was kind of hoping to do it a little later. Well, this weekend, I had to turn down the request for instant mac and cheese because when I push the buttons...well, the timer counts down...but nothing else. UGH!!!

So, I took the 4 of them to Lowes cuz we CANNOT live without a microwave and ordered them. Hopefully the microwave will be delivered and installed by Wednesday! In the meantime, I'm going back to bed!

Not my finest moment...

2008-08-23T09:55:00.003-04:00

I admit it...I make mistakes. Some are easy to get over, some aren't. Today I made a big one and I probably won't let myself off the hook for a while about it.

My son M has a problem with biting. It has gone one since he was really small. I think it is a combination of his sensory issues, his impulsiveness, and his limited social and communication skills. When he was 2-3 it was a big problem in his daycare...luckily, I had the support of the very great administrators and teachers of the daycare who loved him almost as much as I and truly understood the developmental issues he was dealing with at the time.

He improved...but it never went away. So, in the last month at his summer camp/daycare, he has bitten someone on 3 separate occasions. On two the times, the recipient was his best friend who had been teasing him about something and, because he can't understand or can't verbally retaliate...well, he responded the way he can! Now, a child biting at 2 years old is very different than one who bites at 7 and the daycare (not the same one) called asking for some help...God, I wish I knew what I could do! To their credit, they didn't immediately ask me to remove him and I think they want to work with him because they, too, recognize how he is special - even when he is doing unacceptable things.

So, he and I had a long talk a week ago...his DS was taken away until he could show that he wouldn't bite for > 1 week...I started him on a different med for his ADD to try and help his impulse control...and we talk on a daily basis using social stories to try and help him with his repsonses to (how shall I put it) less than ideal scenarios...

I know, you're thinking...what does this have to do about a big mistake...

So, today, the 3 older kids went outside and they were sitting on the deck setting up an UNO game. I thought it was so cute that I actually took a picture of them since I haven't seen them start such a cooperative game without adult prompting before (a milestone)...

Pretty soon, L got bored and I saw her walking around the deck playing with other things but about 3 minutes later, I heard her go to the two boys and a few seconds later, scream and come running into the house saying...."_____ BIT ME!!!!!"

Well, I was up, screaming, ranting...grabbed Matthew by the arm and chased him up to his room all the while looking like a complete maniac..."BITING IS NOT EVER ACCEPTABLE...YOU WILL NOT GET YOUR DS FOR ANOTHER WEEK...YOU WILL STAY IN YOUR ROOM...I AM GOING TO CANCEL YOUR BIRTHDAY PARTY...I CANNOT BELIEVE YOU DID THAT..."

Meanwhile, he is yelling that he didn't do it (and I'm ignoring him because he says I didn't do it about anything...even if I see him doing it)...and I start yelling "DON'T YOU LIE TO ME AND MAKE IT WORSE...I CAN SEE THE BITE MARKS ON HER ARM...I KNOW YOU DID IT..."

And he keeps yelling that he didn't and something about it makes me STOP...I scream at Logan to tell me the truth about who bit her and she says "R_" and I ask R to tell me if he did it...and he says..."yes, mom" ((because I am sure he is anticipating the raving maniac to re-appear).

So...R went to his room without me even asking...and I grabbed my lovely, sweet, falsely accused boy and held him tight and begged for his forgiveness...which he gave way too easily...and I'm not sure I deserve it...

I can only hope that I can use this experience to become a much better mother...one who doesn't jump to conclusions and who can believe (and believe in) my kids...even when they are not acting quite as society would want them to be. UGH. I have a lot of work to do!

They definitely don't think the way we do...

2008-08-21T21:35:00.006-04:00

Today is my eldest son's 7th birthday. It is hard to imagine that he has now officially been mine for 5 1/2 years and it is hard for me to remember how hurt and damaged he was when I brought him home and more importantly, how far he has come in those 5 1/2 years! He has learned to Eat solid foods (a feat that took nearly 2 years) and has learned to talk and has learned to count and spell and be a good brother to his younger siblings. He still struggles with things, he makes some poor choices, he frustrates me more than I like, but he can make me laugh like no one else. He has a sweet innocence to him that makes me want to hold him and protect him and believe in him and fight for him.

A I lay with him tonight, him drifting off to sleep in a cupcake induced stupor we had this conversation:

Mom: I like to think today about what was going on 7 years ago when you were born. It makes me think about your birth mother. I bet she is thinking about you today.
M: Who? my birth mother?
Mom: Yes...the lady whose tummy you came out of.
M: You?
Mom: no, you know that another lady carried you in her tummy and had you in the hospital and then left you with the doctors and nurses so they could find you a mommy who could take care of you forever.
M: What was her name?
Mom: Her name was _____ . You know that, we read about her in your book.
M: Where is my birth mother?
Mom: In Russia.
M: What is R's (my six year old son) birth mother's name?
Mom: Well, we are talking about your birth mother because it is your birthday and I'm sure she was thinking about you sometime today
M: Did she get shots?
Mom: What?
M: my birthmother, when she was in the hospital?
Mom: Yes, I guess she probably got shots.
M: did she get a needle?
Mom: (a little exasperated now) yes, I'm sure she got a needle in the hospital. but I want to talk about how we are lucky that she left you with the doctors and nurses and that I could find you and bring you home.
R (who has been quietly lying [listening] in the top bunk): Did my birth mother get shots?
Mom: Okay, bedtime! Let's say a prayer for both of your birth mothers- who are no longer in the hospital and are not getting shots!

Maybe the next time I try and discuss the hard subjects I will remember to not to bring up the hospital and derail the discussion to the current obsession of my 6 & 7 year olds - Shots!!

The other shoe...

2008-08-20T15:43:00.002-04:00

...just dropped. I can officially say that I have had one of the worst 2 weeks in history...I'll itemize it for you...

1) trip coming off the beach...break and sprain ankle

2) have to work for the next 14 days in a row without a break

3) totally overwhelmed at work but finally make it thru weekend one

4) come back to work on Monday and start to feel really bad...

5) remember at 12 that Addison has f/u eye doctor appointment...

6) rush to complete work that could take 4 hours in about 2 and run to pick her up and then drive across town to the eye doctor...

7) start to run fever...go back and pick up the other kids and drive Matthew to a birthday party...

8) get the BIG fever while at Burger King with the other 3 kids; spill one cup of Hi-C

9) DRAAGGG myself home after picking up Matthew (and having to wait an extra 1/2 hour for the party to be over)...

10) Addison becomes febrile during the night...

11) We stay home on Tuesday...have to cancel 10 patients and 2 lectures (not to mention arranging someone to round with team for me)

12) Feel a little better in evening only to get fever back overnight and SPLITTING headache and runny nose to go with it.

13) Addison wakes up with fever...we both stay home...

14) get a call from daycare about Matthew's "rash"...what rash? I only thought he had scraped himself on the pool wall.

15) start thinking about the distribution of his "scrapes"....DOGGONEIT!

16) take to pediatrician so I don't have to diagnose it

17) you guessed it!!!!....SHINGLES - now he has to stay out for at least a day...(and you know what that means....UGH!)...I'm going to take a nap!

Sleeping babies...

2008-08-20T09:03:00.004-04:00

Some of my favorite sights (and pictures) are of sleeping babies. You can just see their innocence and the hand of God in it. Addison and I have been home with a bad summer cold with fevers for 2 days. This morning, after eating a handful of blueberries (and a rare cheerio thrown in!) we sat on the couch. She watched about 3 minutes of "the Little Einsteins" show and then fell asleep on the couch. If you could hear her sweet gurgling snore it would complete the picture - now, I think I will join her!

Visit to NC Outer Banks...

2008-08-11T21:00:00.004-04:00

Teresa and Tom rented a house on the Outer Banks for 2 weeks and so we went out there for the weekend. The Outer Banks is about 3 1/2 hours drive from Richmond so we set out early Saturday and arrived around 10:30. The weather was beautiful, the house was beautiful and, since I haven't seen Teresa (and her new daughter Charlotte) since...before Charlotte was born. It was a nice visit. The kids loved the sun, the surf, and, especially the pool right in the yard. Have I told you how much they love to swim? well, they were in 7th Heaven with a pool in the yard. Here are some pictures from the beach on Sunday.

Riley is becoming a complete surfer boy! Look at him getting ready to tackle the waves! Logan and Addison loved playing in the surf at the edge of the waves.

The sand was a big hit for the kids as well.

So, it was a perfect weekend...until...well, while leaving the beach on Sunday I fell in a hole at the end of the beach stairs and TWISTED my ankle...okay, I have had sprains before, but this was the one to beat all. So, Tom drove me to the local Urgent Care center and we did an xray. The review by the ortho here confirms mostly a sprain with a tiny avulsion fracture of the tip of the fibula. He thinks I pulled the entire ligament off of the fibula with a piece of it! Treatment is like a sprain though...most important thing is getting back range of motion and strength. So I get an air cast for stability...PT referral (cuz his "women" physicians usually are too busy to do the exercise they need to do to get the range of motion and strength back)...a handicapped sticker for 6 weeks and ice!

It was pretty sore driving home last night but was better (a little) this am after sleeping with it on 5 pillows and a bag of ice on it all night. Going to be a busy week though...since I need to walk all over the hospital while I am on service. UGH!

The Dirty (1/2) Dozen

2008-08-08T21:04:00.006-04:00

Well, our vacation is officially over but we had a good time with Denise and her two girls. The 3 older kids are all separated by 6 months and they got along great. There were some tears as the girls drove away.

Here's Addison: Look how she has learned how to say "cheese"

These are from this large pool and waterpark near our house today. Matthew and Addison like playing in the sandy area!

These below are from our last night dinner at Friendlies...I doubt I will ever go back to that one ...but we left a good tip!

These ones show the "dynamic duos" that cropped up this week. Logan and Nina loved playing princess and make up together. Elena and Riley loved playing and riding bikes together.

Okay, here are the dirty (half) dozen!

Tomorrow the kids and I will drive to the beach in NC to visit with Teresa and her family who are staying there for 2 weeks. We (unfortunately) only get to spend 2 days with them but are excited about meeting baby Charlotte for the first time and seeing the boys!

Swimming

2008-08-07T15:18:00.003-04:00

My kids are becoming fish (or fishlike)...this week while Denise has been here, we have had the opportunity to go swimming at the local pool. Matthew and Riley are getting better each day - though they have been "swimming" and not needing a floatation device for the last month or so...but, earlier in the week, I forgot the floats and so I let Logan go in without one. Well...bless my soul...she can SWIM!!! She turns around and swims underwater ...out into the pool and back! Addison also is getting into the act. She can "swim" while wearing a life jacket and LOVES it...

Bread...Bread...Bread

2008-08-02T19:49:00.003-04:00

My sister and her two kids are here visiting for the week and she brought down some bread from my brother who is a "Pepperidge Farm Breadman" ...We got a large supply of bread for Christmas and now we have more...lots of my favorite "soft oatmeal" which ...this time (apparently) is "fresh"! I just have one question? What am I going to do with fresh bread...my kids won't know what to do with it! (And why didn't I deserve fresh bread for Christmas?...okay that is two questions)...

So, shout out to my brother Steve. We will eat french toast all month!

Big News...

2008-08-01T20:15:00.003-04:00

Well, I have been contemplating this for a long time but haven't been able to decide what would be the best for me and (especially) the kids. But, I just decided that I needed to make a change and try something new. I hate how anxious and crabby I am when I get home at night and have them descend on me with yelling and hungry faces...

So, I have decided and have signed with an Au Pair agency. After 2 weeks of talking to prospective candidates, I have decided on a young lady who is from the Far East in Russia near Vladivostok. I am really excited about having someone who can help me with some of the jobs that I have been trying to do (with increasing trouble) with 4 kids. I also really am looking forward to exposing the kids to someone from Russia and to some of Russia's heritage and culture.

She will be arriving in Richmond on October 3rd if all goes well. Now I just have to get her room together and the house (semi) clean!

Eating...

2008-07-31T16:06:00.003-04:00

Even 5 years later, I am constantly amazed at how far Matthew has come with regard to eating. I look back at our first year together and all of the tears and yelling (for both of us) and how fearful I was about his future and I can not believe it.

Yesterday, as we were driving home (and the kids were drinking their weekly Slurpee treat- I know, bad mommy!)...I asked what they wanted for dinner and one of the options was Spaghetti and I decided to make it. It's always been one of Matthew's favorites.

Well, he ate 4 helpings!

I couldn't believe it. In the middle of the 3rd one, he had to go to the bathroom and while there, I heard two HUGE burps and then, when he came back to the table, he finished the 3rd helping and purred a little...then he said..."Can I have just one more small serving?"...Of course, I said...and as I was reaching into the bowl, he said..."well, how about medium and I'll see if I can eat it?"...About an hour and 1/2 later, when the were doing their nightime snacks, he ate two swiss roll packages!

Now, if I could only get him to gain some weight!

Cool...

2008-07-29T09:56:00.003-04:00

So, some of you know that I have a good friend who sometimes spends time with the boys to give them some "male bonding time". He acted as coach for their soccer team this spring while I was in Russia and with the summer, it has been hard for us to get together. Well, he came over yesterday to take the boys to the pool and brought his latest toy...

The boys completely forgot about the pool and wanted a ride in it. Since Matt had been waiting and playing patiently, he got to go first. Twenty minutes later, he came home...in awe.

Later Steve said, Matthew kept saying..."there's no top (well that's called a convertable)...this car is sooooo cool (thank you)...you are so cool!! (thank you very much!)...

Lazy saturday

2008-07-27T09:49:00.002-04:00

I had to work yesterday so the kids spent the day at MCV daycare. I was able to go pick up some of the things I need to do some painting this week at Lowes before I picked them up. After we got home, the kids rode their bikes in the front yard for a while and then we ate dinner. I made a frozen chicken alfredo pasta dish and all of the kids loved it. We then went out for ICE CREAM !! The kids loved it. They all ate their cones and dishes down to the last drop! Addison was covered head to toe in chocolate ice cream. It was totally cute!

Today we are going to hang around at the house and maybe go out with Wendy and Pat for lunch. It is a little overcast but we may go to the pool at sometime later in the afternoon.

Good days...

2008-07-24T09:51:00.004-04:00

We've had a few good days the last few, think the kids are finally getting tired from all of the swimming, etc. (and I guess the simple things make me happy)...

Matthew said this morning..."mmmm can I have waffles again tomorrow morning" (and when I said yes...) "goodie!"

Riley was up watching tv and eating potato chips when I came down with the other 3 this am. So, I'm like ready to blow up and trying to find the remote - which he must have used to turn on the TV and he's like ..."I don't know where it is" and I'm like..."well, you must have used it" -- he starts arguing and I say "go up and change out of that swimsuit you have worn 3 days in a row (and nothing else, mind you)" and he goes up and comes down with a new t-shirt on and I'm like "okay, I am not going to yell but you are now going to bed after supper because I told you to change your swimsuit" and he starts arguing but I say..."I'm not arguing" and he ACTUALLY goes upstairs and finds a new suit.

Logan and Addison wake up in my bed and are all smiles and the amount of "screeching" has been significantly decreased the last few days...even while waiting for the supper to be cooked. I am constantly amazed at Addison's speech and Logan's patience with Addison. She's a great big sister.

Feeling better...

2008-07-21T16:54:00.004-04:00

The kids all woke up today better rested and refreshed and there was not so much whining before breakfast. Riley only got into trouble once (and I was practicing my staying calm and he ultimately went upstairs to his room quietly and then called down that he was ready to talk to me).

The older boys were going to this big pool that is near our house as a field trip with the daycare/summer camp. All of the school aged kids are going. They were so excited that I told Matthew he didn't need to go to summer school today and let him play hooky! (bad mommy)...Meanwhile Addison had a follow up of her eye botox therapy at the ophthalmologists and he seems to think things look pretty good so far! (yea)...

I still need a little more sleep to make up for my weekend but hopefully I'll be able to do that tonight....Just have to keep the visitors down to one (or two)...

?Vacation?

2008-07-20T21:39:00.003-04:00

So, since finances are tight after the adoption this spring, we don't have a lot of money to do a fancy (or not so fancy in our case) vacation. I was asked last winter to do a lecture at my work department's annual educational conference at VA beach and so I decided to make a long weekend of it and bring the kids...get a babysitter while I was working and then have the afternoons to play and enjoy the beach.
...can you say...What was I thinking????
My kids definitely didn't "get" that this was a working weekend. The older ones, especially, had a lot of trouble not acting up when I wasn't with them (I'm really sorry "Shore Sitters"), then, they all wanted all of me when I was with them and their were too many things to do. They were just overwhelmed with it. And they were in no way ready to behave at "semi-adult" recreational parties at night that we had to participate in...which just served to keep me anxious and watching everything that they did. so...not really relaxing.
...We did, despite everything have a few good times. Thursday afternoon we arrived and I (silly me) took them to the pool...since we had somewhere to go that evening, I thought I could just "watch" them in the pool...HA! Riley did his first canon ball into the pool and I was soaked and meanwhile, Addison was having nothing to do with just sitting with her feet in!!! She WANTED full on, under and in the water! So I went back to the room while my friend Wendy held her out of the water and watched the rest. When I got back down (with suit on) it was fun for an hour and I have to say that it is great to see the boys swimming and jumping in and having fun in the water.
...Friday afternoon, after the conference ended for the day, we went out on the beach. Riley and Logan had their life preservers on and had a great time having the waves push them back up the shore. Riley wasn't satisfied with just going in a small amount, but with the red flags flying, I wasn't going to let him go out any further. Wendy did take him out into the ocean a little farther but he still was pretty scary cuz he has no "reasonable" fear of the water. Addison loved sitting in the sand and having the waves come to her. She was flipped completely around several times by those "red flag" waves.
...Saturday afternoon, we went out for lunch and then walked a little in downtown VA Beach (but very little cuz we were all tired and HOT).
Addison was clearly tuckered out by the whole weekend ...she fell asleep before lunch both Friday and Saturday afternoons (actually laying on the restaurant tables)...and was the cutest thing. Even Sunday, she fell asleep on the hotel bed waiting for us to finish up with the conference. And amazingly, after that brief nap, she was the only one to stay awake the entire ride home...entertaining Wendy and I by singing twinkle twinkle little star to her self and talking happily to herself the whole way.
Now we are home, they are in bed, it is quiet and I am happy. There were definitely times this weekend where I thought..."oh, what was I thinking I could handle 4 kids!?!"

the things they say...

2008-07-14T20:56:00.004-04:00

...the other night while I was laying with her before sleep...Logan says..."when are we going to visit Grampa?...he needs to meet Addison"

she is right. I'm trying to figure it out cuz we need to meet my brother Pat's cute twins who were born in late December. So, Dad...I'm coming...probably the week before Labor Day (Tuesday or Wednesday) thru that weekend. Looks like that will be the time. Need to save up the money for the gas!

... Today Riley had some dental work ...he had to have what they call "conscious sedation" where they get medication to make them really sleepy aand then they don't care if you are drilling on their teeth. He did great. Then he came home and he slept for almost 3 hours. He was really cute when he was waking up and later this evening ...he kept telling me that this was a great day (reminiscent of our day off last week). He also was soooo proud of his silver teeth and asked why he didn't get all of his teeth capped! I told him I couldn't afford that.

Hi mommy!

2008-07-11T13:40:00.004-04:00

Addison, officially home 2 months and 10 days has surpassed all of my expectations...well, in a lot of ways but none more than her absolute amazing acquisition of language. Now I was told in Russia that she had delayed speech and that she only knew some simple words and, truth be told, she didn't say any words except "dada" to me during our visits. Even during the second trip at the end when she would (when forced) turn to look at me as they were taking her away, she wouldn't say bye (Пока Пока)...

...she has been learning words at lightning speed (and don't get me started about comprehension) but this week has passed another milestone - Putting words together to make sentences. Most kids first learn words and their conversation is one word statements. Then they start putting 2 words together and finally 3 and more words...

...for Matthew (who also had speech delay diagnosed in Russia) the putting words together (as well as expanding his vocabulary) is what took so long. Part of it (I think) was his hearing ...he had fluid in his ears the first year home and some hearing loss as a result) and also his "processing" of what he heard. He heard (and I really think understood) sentences as just really long words. So, he would start the sentence and it would get garbled cuz he couldn't manipulate his tongue and didn't realize that he should be saying each individually.

...This week has been the sentence week for Addison. First one was when I picked her up from daycare on Wednesday...we had the usual...squeal...dead run to mommy, grab mommy's face and kiss her, then I put her down on a cabinet to fix her shoe. As I did that, she touched my face and said...plain as day..."my mommy came!" course I was bummed that she still has such anxiety over whether I will come pick her up at the end of the day but I was impressed! Then, this morning she came in my bed in the early morning and we were dozing together. My alarm went off and I turned over to stretch and she sat up, looked me in the eyes with a mile-wide-

smile and said..."hi mommy!"

Hi - indeed!

Deep end...

2008-07-10T21:57:00.004-04:00

...the boys have been doing great with swimming this summer. Matthew started with his residual fear of "drowning" and I was worried that he would again go through and refuse the swimming lessons that are given at the daycare. Riley finished last year with a pretty good "doggie paddle" and not fear of going under...so I knew he would "get" it this year. And he did...the first time out, he was spending half of the time under the water and...well, it doesn't hurt that he grew almost 1/2 a foot or more and he can stand easily in the shallow end of the pool. By the time the first week of summer camp was over, he had taken and passed the "middle test" (swim the short length of the pool) for the daycare (allowing him to go in the 5 foot section) and was planning on taking the "deep end test"(swim one long length of the pool and then tread water for 1 minute)...which he did the next monday. Matthew was feeling very left out and he pushed himself to get over his fear and by the second week, he had passed the middle test but he was still uncomfortable because he can barely stand in the 3 & 1/2 foot section and he spent the next weekend wavering back and forth between..."I think I'll take the deep end test" to..."Mom, I don't need to take the deep end test do I?"...So, last weekend, he tells me that he passed the deep end test. I couldn't believe that he had but didn't want to argue so just said...oh wow. Riley said repeatedly that Matthew had not passed and was pretty vehement about it but...when I got in on Monday am, Matthew's teacher said that she was soooooo proud of him because he had passed the deep end test! She said...

...he did the entire thing doing the "doggie paddle" but he made it so all of the life guards were soooo happy for him that they passed him! They are keeping an especially good eye on him when he is there and they aren't allowing him to be there when there are > 2 classes and a lot of bigger kids but...he doesn't care. He even went on the diving board at our neighborhood pool into the deep end!

Weekend Maddness

2008-07-07T13:28:00.003-04:00

...The fourth of July weekend is over and we all survived (barely)...yesterday, I spent a bit of time doing some cooking for the week and trying to clean out the kitchen.

...so, the kids and I tackled the toys in the Family room. We reduced two train table drawers and 3 rolling buckets to...well, two train table drawers and 3 rolling buckets but each of the drawers had significantly less in them. Next year we'll get rid of the trains, but for now, one drawer has all of the trains and tracks and the other has the "crash-em-up" car tracks and cars. The rolling buckets now have not a single McD's toy nor broken toys nor anything that I hate! I even found enough to put a couple of posts up on Craigs' List to sell some of the ones we have outgrown. If no one buys them, they are in the garage to go to goodwill.

...after lunch we went to see WALL*E - the new Disney / Pixar animated movie about a garbage robot left on earth...Matthew has been wanting to see this since the last movie we went to had a trailer for it...As anything you do with 4 kids, it had it's ups and downs. UP...I pre-bought the tickets on Fandango.com (DOWN...I had to pay $1 service charge per ticket)...UP...we didn't wait in line and walked in (complete with popcorn and soda and candy)...right as the trailers were starting...UP...the now expected Disney/Pixar short film was extremely good (all of the kids were laughing...though Matthew asked a couple of times if this was WALL*E and when was WALL*E going to come in the movie)...DOWN...all of the kids had to go potty right in the middle of the show even though they had gone right before we left home...UP...Riley sat in his own row away from us cuz...well...cuz that's how he is these days...DOWN...Riley got bored and started walking around our row...throwing out his trash...coming to give sleeping Addison a kiss...etc...UP...the movie was really cute and there were enough fast sequences that even Logan stayed awake...UP...I kept Addison up after lunch and in the car on the way so she was really tired and she fell asleep on my chest after gorging herself on popcorn and soda from my glass...DOWN...I had to wake Addison up to go to the potty with the other kids...UP...she fell right back asleep when we sat back down...UP...all the kids walked out talking about the movie and happy about the outing.

...we got home afterwards and the kids played outside while I cooked and we had a nice dinner and played in the backyard and then fell asleep. Now, I am ready (not) for another week at work.

Happy Birthday USA

2008-07-05T09:59:00.009-04:00

This was a special July 4th for us as we welcomed Addision into the 4th of July tradition as an American citizen. Since I am working to make up for all of my time off, I couldn't go far so we decided to take in the sights and sounds of the neighborhood.

...our neighborhood has an annual July 4th party starting with a "parade" where all of the kids decorate their bikes, scooters, strollers and other motorized vehicles in an appropriate shade of RED, WHITE & BLUE...so, in the morning we ventured out to do some shopping and find some streamers and balloons to put on our "vehicles"...

...I recently joined Sam's club...I've held off on it bc I didn't think it would be much different than the two other clubs I belong to...Costco and BJ's, but I noticed on line last week that they have this "click and pull option"...you can pick what you want on line and then "pre-order" it. They pull it for you and you go pick it up the next day. I had done a couple of things on-line earlier in the week and it really worked well and since I needed to do my big "monthly" grocery shopping, we went there. The kids had a blast and loved it. Riley pushed Addison in the cart and only ran into one person...(sorry mom, I was looking at the pool!)...Matthew saw a toy he absolutely has to have for his birthday, and Logan loved all of the food samples (well, so did Riley, Matthew, and Addison [who was covered in ice cream by the time we left!])...

...after that we stopped by Dollar Tree...now, this was a test bc we usually go in there and I let them pick one toy each after a good week of behavior. But, our goal was to get balloons, streamers, and a few things that I always get there...like cheap pasta. The kids wanted to go look at the toys so I let them but was very worried about the fallout. Turns out that they were so excited about the balloons that it only took one reminder to get them to put them back!

...home to unpack the car, make lunch and take naps...then after naps, we set to decorating the bikes. Unfortunately, I didn't think to take a picture but we finally were off to the local elementary school (the starting point for the parade)...

...the parade was led by a Firetruck and a Policeman both blasting their sirens and horns and we arrived at the party in one piece, though I keep forgetting how hard it is to push that sit and stand stroller with someone (all nearly 40 pounds of them) sitting in the back. I was thinking...GOD, how out of shape am I?

...The party had hotdogs for the kids, a big blow up maze, face painting and balloon animals but...the piece de resistance...was the live band. while I was getting ice cream for the girls, I discovered Matthew at the ampitheater. He was sitting in the back row and bouncing on his butt to the music. We all sat down next to him and within a few minutes he was brave enough to go to the dance floor where there were a few other pre-teen girls dancing and proceded to have the TIME OF HIS LIFE!

...He was totally into the dancing...got up there and tried to follow along with the electric slide and totally was doing the Macarena! After that one, he came up to me and said...can they play the Macaroni again?!!!

...And who was the miracle of the party???? Well, Addison was up there dancing whenever Matthew was up there. She was just so cute. I kept having people come up to me to say...is that your child? (of course they could do that alot because I had a lot of kids there!)...one older woman came up to me and asked if Matthew was in dance lessons because he was so focused on following and trying to perfect all of the moves for the dances.

Silly mommy forgot her camera and video tape ...so these will have to do from my little cell phone...sorry about the sound quality!

...weekend

2008-06-30T08:51:00.002-04:00

Busy week and busier weekend...glad it is over...

...Friday night was the annual beginning of summer party at the daycare. This year the theme was "Renaissance" Fair and all of the workers were dressed up in midieval costumes. They had the following...though don't know where they got this from as food choices...turkey drumsticks; pickle on a stick; kabobs of fruit and then some salads and barbecue chicken legs and various desserts and other things brought by the families. But the real fun at this party is the pool being open. I got there around 6:10 cuz I was home working on the benches after work and had to get into my bathing suit. We had a great time in the pool; the kids ate nearly nothing and by 8:00 we were all beat!

...Saturday I woke with a migraine and it looked like it would be a badddddd day. Ultimately, I was better by the evening and I even had a chance to work on the benches some and to try and paint several cabinet doors to choose which one I want to us. Then it was the annual Med-Peds party to welcome the new interns. This is the first year in about 15 that it hasn't been at my house! What a relief! We got to go over and just relax. The yard was great and the kids had plenty to do so I could just sit and relax.

...Sunday, everyone actually slept in (or was quiet in Riley's case) until around 8:00 am. We got to eat breakfast and watch a little TV, go outside for a while and then...it was lunchtime. Mommy slept during naps (which almost never happens) and then I took the kids to a local elementary school to play on the playground (and we took a little picnic snack) ...by the time it was dinner, we stopped to do some Walgreens and CVS shopping and then went home to my home-made Mac & Cheese - which everyone loved!

...CVS...spent $3.50 out of pocket (plus $24 ECB's from 2 weeks ago) and got...2 mascara's, 1 professional strength right guard deodorant and a toy for Matthew and candy for the other 3...also got $12 ECB's back

...Walgreen's...spent $15 out of pocket (plus $5 in "register rewards") and got...3 packages of 40 diapers, 2 boxes of Honey Bunches of Oats, and 2 oral B power toothbrushes...and got $7 RR's back.

...Today, Matthew started his summer school. Had a little trouble getting things together but he was on time for the bus. Addison only started to cry when I was leaving and was pretty distractable so looks like I might make it thru the summer.

...I'll close with a couple of pictures of my girls from last week at the daycare. They love the pool!

Ugh...

2008-06-28T21:36:00.004-04:00

...woke up this morning with a splitting headache...well should say that I was awoken...Addison crawled downstairs then started shouting when she didn't find anyone else awake...at 5 am!!! Ugh...we all got in late yesterday after a day of swimming and fun. I went to bed at 10 pm but wasn't feeling well when I went to bed and tossed and turned all early morning...I can remember thinking that I should go get tylenol, but I couldn't get myself up from the bed...

...also, my stomach was upset and I was dizzy when I stood up. Definately a migraine, I haven't had one for a couple of years. By the time I finished work, it was 11 am and my headache was better but my stomach and dizziness was still there. Finally around 4 PM I was feeling better all the way but I am TIRED today. Not one of my better mommy days...little patience when I am sick.

...hopefully tomorrow will be a better day. did some work on the kitchen benches today. got the bottom cushions re-upholstered with this really cute beige vinyl material which feels like suede. I also painted two of the kitchen cabinet doors. I can't decide what color to paint them so I got two different brown colors and painted each a different brown. I'm going to let Wendy and Pat help me choose...hopefully bring them out into the light tomorrow.

A better week...

2008-06-27T12:30:00.003-04:00

So, it's Friday afternoon and no one has been kicked out of daycare so...it already is a better week than last week....
...its a good thing too because work has been busier, lots of consults each day but I have still been able to get out and do some errands before picking up the kids at 6:00. Still working on my kitchen project, but I have it nearly all cut out and plan on finishing the cuts this weekend and spending sometime sanding the "joints" where I will attach the benches together. Also hope to get out on time today so maybe I can stop at a fabric store and find the fabric to re-cover the cushions for the seats.
It is going to be hot this weekend so hoping that my air conditioner stays on while I am in the garage sanding...

What a great day?....

2008-06-22T14:12:00.004-04:00

Yesterday we attended the 8th Annual Kazahkstan/International Adoption Family Picnic hosted by a family who lives in a rural suburb of Richmond. They live on a farm like area with a pool, a large (like 1/4 mile) paved driveway, with a large grassy area with swingsets and sandboxes. I've been invited to this party 2 or 3 years in a row but haven't had time to make it to it. So, yesterday I decided to go and what a great time we had!

...The boys brought their bikes and the driveway was a great place to practice riding without training wheels. Matthew was on his bike nearly the entire afternoon. Logan made friends with a couple of girls and spent hours on the swingset...and in the pool. Riley loved swiming in the 4 ft pool without a float and sliding down the slide. He really is getting good at swimming. Addison charmed everyone she met - though she was a little clingy given that in the past 24 hours she had been at daycare, had a babysitter till she went to bed, had me for 2 hours and then the babysitter came back again...oh no!!...yup, she kept pretty tight to me for the afternoon. But, she played in the kiddy pool, ate 2 (or maybe 3) sno-cones, smiled alot and basically had a great time.

...I ended up knowing 4 other families there and had a good time sitting and conversing with other adults - with only one kid glommed onto me!- and even she was walking around me and playing a little. In no time at all, it was after 7 pm and the food was gone and even Matthew had eaten some cake and ice cream! We all dragged ourselves back to the car and drove home.

...As we were driving home Matthew said..."that was the best party I've ever been to!!!!" I have to say, it really was fun.

Tiring week...

2008-06-20T22:20:00.003-04:00

...I'm sitting here in the hospital at 10:40 pm and you cannot imagine the bad memories this is bringing back...not only the constant people walking up to me asking me to do this or that but that coupled with boredom of waiting for the next shoe to drop and it getting closer and closer to the time I get to go home and knowing that if there is an admission this late I am going to be incredibly resentful.

...Why am I here? well, this is the annual Pediatric resident's night off. so attendings stay in house and cover for them. I am the attending for the evening part (5-12 pm) and while I am only supposed to be covering for General Ped admissions and patients, I have now officially put in orders and done things for H/O, GI, and Pulmonary.

...I started back to work on Monday only to have Addison be kicked out of daycare with a fever. Luckily she was not too sick and was able to go back on Wednesday. But, that meant I had to take her to work with me on Tuesday and I didn't get much but the bare minimum done. Then, Thursday, Logan gets booted for fever...okay, now I have to ask (thank you thank you thank you) my friend Beth to go pick her up cuz I am swamped with work and can't get there in the hour window. Logan looks really punky and I start to get a little anxious...you know, I found that tick the day before. So, being the non-hypochondriac I am, I get her some medicine cuz, you know, I really can't deal with her having Rocky Mountain Spotted fever or anything like that...Meanwhile she comes to work with me today and I have to pay this student who is working for me this summer $10 an hour extra to watch her while I am seeing patients...so much for frugal fanny!

...then, I have arranged for her to go to a neighbors house for the afternoon cuz the babysitter (who works at the kids daycare) doesn't get off till 6 PM and I have to start my shift at 5 PM...and then pay the painter and go back to the hospital.

...what painter you ask? well, after my DIY escapade with the breakfast nook, the rest of my house was looking like Sh** so I was talking to one of the residents and her husband does painting. so, he has been at my house all week painting the kitchen/family room, the hall/stairs/and foyer area (you know that two story foyer area I have with the vaulted 16 foot ceilings on the second floor!)...yup you guessed it - I won't be doing those. Then, he noticed the water damage in my dining room and said...you have to fix that...so he did that today. He also "has a guy" who does hardwood floor repair and he's going to fix me up with that when he comes back to town in 5 weeks and also has a guy with carpet who will do the upstairs (again when he comes back in town in 5 weeks)...

...it looks amazingly good but I will be glad for the 5 weeks to get everything re-organized.

...oh yeah and I bought a new dishwasher and it was delivered yesterday and I was so excited not to have the sound of a train going thru my kitchen that I ran it half full yesterday. It is amazingly quiet.

...so, now all I need to do is paint the kitchen cabinets, get a new stove and microwave and get a new countertop and I'll have a completely re-modeled downstairs.

...anyone have some extra money lying around?

Eeeek!

2008-06-18T20:42:00.002-04:00

Okay, I know there are lots of you who have been there...done that...but tonight I had a first. I was putting the kids together and was rubbing Logan's back and shoulders while lying in her bed and I went to rub her head and found "something" firm. So, we get up and ...you betcha...a tick!!!! Ugh! Small, black and gross. I got it out but wanted to hose her down with disinfectant. Tomorrow all of the kids are getting the twice over!

Annoyed...

2008-06-13T15:33:00.003-04:00

Okay, there are several things that are annoying me today and over the past several weeks. I usually don't vent much in this blog but I just have to share an email I got this morning...

"...With all of the confusion of the last day of school I forgot to send home report cards. I will leave the report cards at the front office for you to pick up at your convenience. Hope everyone has a great summer! Sorry for the inconvenience,Mrs. G"

...so, WTF!!! what else do you have to do on the last day (half-day actually) of school except to give out the report cards and have a party?! And...at my convenience I can just ...take all 4 kids, go to the school, take them all out of their car seats, walk into the office - oh by the way - what are the office hours during the summer?!?- get the report card which isn't going to really tell me anything knowing what she has written on the previous ones - and then trudge all 4 kids back to the car, hear the bickering, get them buckled in, and drive away...Sorry for the inconvenience - ha!

There is no love lost between me and this woman who, for some reason, haven't clicked since I met her last year at this time. I find her opinionated and inflexible (as, I'm sure, she finds me)...but, the last straw for me was when she argued with me at an IEP meeting that the 1 teaspoon of chocolate syrup my son was taking his medicine with was making him hyperactive.

So, we've had this almost passive aggressive relationship the last 9 weeks and then I get this email (at least it wasn't only my son who didn't get his report card)...I'm thinking...how lame can you be. This is the special ed teacher too so she only has 11 kids in her class. And what is the worst thing? Well, this special ed class is K-2 so I have 2 more years of her! UGH!!!

CVS

2008-06-10T16:35:00.002-04:00

Good day at CVS today...two trips...spent $20 (total) out of pocket...got $22 in Extra Bucks to spend on my next trip...
Bought: 6 boxes of Cereal (4 Honey Nut Cheerios; 2 Fiber one) with $1 off each coupon
2 boxes of Q-tips (500 count)
4 12-can cases of Coke products
2 bags of pretzels (it was getting late and Addison needed a snack)
14 bags of various candies (oh my kids are going to be so happy)

Author, Author!

2008-06-09T20:08:00.004-04:00

I have been reading this website called "Adoption Under One Roof". Their aim is to "cover adoption from every angle, every view, for everyone". Anyway, I am (minimally) participating in some of their forums and was asked a couple of weeks ago if I would be a guest blogger. So, today my "Joy" post was published on this blog.

You can find it at http://ouradopt.com/adoption-blog/jun-2008/guestblogger/joy-0

...And for those of you who were wondering...Addison continues to do well at daycare. She has gone 3 days so far (and luckily for mommy) and her response to seeing me continues to be " excited-high pitched squeal - followed by a death run to me - and today repeatedly happily slapping both of my arms and kissing me. I could get used to all of this love.

Update on the heat.

2008-06-07T18:56:00.002-04:00

...we had a bunch of things to do today but didn't try to do too much. The kids and I went out in the backyard at 8:30 and within 5 minutes I was sweating. But, while they played, I put (back) together the doll house that L. got for Christmas. One side of it had blown over in the high winds and storms we have had the last few weeks and last week, Matthew decided to push the rest of it over and jump on top of it. Luckily the plastic is pretty resilient (and he is pretty lightweight!) and then I cut off the wood on our back fence gate which won't open because the ground isn't level there...it still won't open completely but it is better.

...then I remembered that the boys REALLY needed haircuts and in my current penny pinching-trying to pay for the adoption expenses mode, I am not going to spend $25 on haircuts. So, one at a time I put them outside and I cut their hair. I have gotten better at doing boy haircuts over the 5 years I have had them - though they have gotten less likely to just want a buzz cut. But, I have a very expensive pair of hair shears (LEFTY) and a pretty good buzzer and we got it done. I think both of them came out better than I have ever done them before. I am starting to be able to "thin" out the top part of Riley's and still have it lay flat. Matthew's cowlick is another thing but it looks cute!

...by the time I finished doing that it was lunch time...Addison ate an entire PB & J sandwich and then about 2 cups of watermelon chunks. Then she and Logan took a nap. They woke up in time for a little running under the hose and then we went to dinner with Wendy and Pat.

...we finished up our excursion with a trip to Target to buy Matthew another DS since Logan broke his other one.

...now we are home and I am trying not to move too much. Hope you all are keeping cool

It's not the heat...

2008-06-07T10:27:00.004-04:00

...it's the humidity! Isn't that the old saying? well, it is definitely BOTH here in the mid-Atlantic this weekend. We had a wonderful, cool, relatively non-humid spring month of May but, this week has gotten progressively hotter. Today the forcast is for temps of 99 with heat index of 107 and tomorrow is supposed to be even hotter!

...so, what do you do with 4 kids under 7 when the recommendations are to stay inside because it is too DAM* hot?? It is a nightmare! Of course, it didn't start well...

...Riley woke at 6 am as usual...so, he went downstairs...Logan was content to sleep next to me until she heard him ask if he could have a popsicle (and me saying yes if he ate it over the table)...so, then I stay in bed till around 7 with various visitors (including a bob on the nose from a toy being thrown at me by my newest- I guess she wanted me to get up!)

...downstairs, meanwhile, the "boy who can't just eat one"...had found the brownies he and I had made last night and wasn't content to just make a mess downstairs and have the popsicle that I had told him he could have, but he had to (with Logan's help because she can't say no to sweets either) eat S*I*X (yes, you read it right!) brownies - leaving one (so I couldn't say they ate them all!)...I thought there was something funny when I saw empty baggies on the ground and didn't realize till I was making breakfast that the brownies were gone!

...so, needless to say, there is some tension in the house this morning. The two of them are banned from snacks all day. It will be a very tense day when the snack kids are kept from snacks all day.

...cabin fever is mostly described in cold weather but I bet it can happen in the heat too!

Joy!

2008-06-05T20:31:00.004-04:00

Today, my newest daughter, attended daycare for the first time since her adoption. I have been off of work for over 2 months. In the next two weeks, I will work 2 days a week and then it will be FULL time. I knew this was coming, I have gone through it with my other 3 children as well, but somehow it was different this time.

When I first adopted my two older boys (in 2003), I read all of the information about child care options for adopted kids - how most people felt that large day-care centers were counter productive to attachment because it just put the child back into an institutional setting and that they wouldn't learn what it meant to be in a home or family. But, working in a large medical center that had a wonderful and caring on-site daycare center, I decided that having my new kids close was going to work for me. I made the committment (to myself) to never allow them to have 3 meals at the center and 3 months after I brought them home from Russia, I enrolled them. For my younger son, the transition was relatively easy. He was a laid back baby of 12 months who could weather any storm - as long as there was a bottle within reach.

For my older son (21 months at enrollment), it probably was one of the top 3 best decisions I have made for him. He was used to having a lot of children around. During my 3 month leave, he would regularly go to my back door and stare out at the neighbor children playing. His first English word was "shoes" (as in "lets put on some shoes" meaning we were going outside and he might have a chance to play with those other kids and not be only with me and his (at the time) pretty boring baby brother! On the day I brought him to the daycare center, he literally ran away from me to play with the other kids and the toys. Ultimately, it was the other kids who taught him what was the difference between a family and the center and he readily followed their lead.

When I brought home my older daughter 2 and 1/2 years later, I never had any doubts where she would go for daycare. She also was a young baby and adapted well - no doubt aided by the fact that her two very protective older brothers were also there for the first 6 months or so. A few months later, after my older son started school and needed a different center for after-care, I switched all of the kids to a program nearer to my house.

So now, I am home with daughter #2. Things are a little different. I spent a large portion of my allotted leave in Russia because the 10 day waiting period wasn't waived. My time at home with her has (literally) flown by. With 4 kids now, I have been seriously considering whether a nanny would be a better (or at least cheaper) option for daycare. In the back of my mind, I remember the recommendations from my reading 5 years ago. But something about having only one other person spending more hours a day with my child than I do ...something about that just seems like it would be counterproductive to me.

And honestly, her adjustment has seemed to be going better than I can even expect. This girl who was described to me by the orphanage director as "someone who will always have trouble with transitions" and who cried bitter tears each and everytime I visited her in Russia (19 separate visits of 1.5 - 2 hours each) and who, in Russia, was always trying to get me to leave and wanting to go back to her room - she shares more kisses and smiles and giggles than almost any other child I have encountered. She has displayed more signs of attachment in such a short period of time than I could even imagine. I truly believe that she was "waiting" for a mother to shower with love - and am blessed that I am that woman!

So, it is with great anxiety that I brought her to the daycare center this morning...Would she feel rejected? confused? angry? In the last month, she has been accompanying me to her older sister's class and has progressively become less timid and more interested in playing with the toys. We have been spending about 1/2 hour each morning and afternoon at the center. When we arrived this morning, her class was going outside. I went with her and put her into a swing (one of her favorite activities) and after about 10 minutes, I left.

Those tears which I haven't seen and sobs which I haven't heard for over a month were there as I said goodby...but her teacher picked her up and started to comfort her. Later, when I called, she was running around in the sprinkler! When I arrived to pick up the children, I walked into her room and...

WOW!!!! her eyes lit up, she ran to me and said "mama" and kissed my face about 20 times! I can honestly say that I have now seen pure JOY. I wish she had the words to express what she was feeling because I can only put my own spin on it. What I do know is that even though our "exclusive" time together has been shorter than I wish, we are definitely on track for a healthy and loving attachment - and I don't think that daycare could interfere with that!

Random monday musings...

2008-06-02T08:06:00.002-04:00

...so, we are all sitting here waiting for the kids dentist appointment (need to leave in a few minutes) and the two boys decide to go outside. They ask if they can take Addison so I say okay...a few minutes later Logan goes outside and Riley opens the door for her (so I can stay sitting and working on my computer)...he shuts the door and then re-opens it with a big smile on his face and says to me..."mom, you get your own time!"...sometimes you want to kiss them...even a 5 year old can get that you need some time on your own (and I guess - for him - it is okay as long as it isn't my own time in my own bed!)

...what is your personality? a do it and get it over with kind of person? or a take your time and do it in small pieces so it doesn't hurt as much all at once? I'm sure you can guess what kind I am? not sure...okay...I am a single working woman with 4 kids under the age of 7...mmm...when I was an intern and resident, I always did the hardest rotations at the beginning of the year because I figured I could do anything for a month at a time...and today I am waiting to go to a dentist appointment...where all 3 kids are going to be seen. Yup, I am scheduled to take 3 kids aged 6, 6 3/4 and 3 to the dentist while carrying a newly adopted 2 year old with us. Crazy you say? yup. But, why not get the pain over all at once...I guess the only downside is how much pain we will cause the rest of the people at the office and the staff...oh well? its all about me...what about you?

Not much new...

2008-06-01T23:59:00.002-04:00

...today was a better day than yesterday...not great but I still have a voice at the end of the day...we went to the pool (only took 20 minutes to get everyone dressed, everything packed and out the door)...I've been putting Addison into this infant float cuz I am a little worried about her stability - even in the baby pool. Today she wanted to get out so I let her and she did pretty well...fell a couple of times but was able to right herself.
...even Matthew has been swimming under water in the baby pool and tried his "wings" without a float in the big pool and Logan was swimming with her face in as well. Think this is the year that the 3 older ones will get it - especially with the swimming lessons at Tuckaway.

Save me...someone...anyone!

2008-05-31T15:57:00.004-04:00

So...Addison allowed me to get thru 1/2 of my meetings yesterday. Then, at the 3rd one, she she wouldn't eat anything...mmm unusual...then she fell asleep...okay it is close to lunchtime...we walk from that one to the next and she wakes and is sitting in her stroller and (again) refuses food...mmm...then she starts vomiting and is so surprised by it she starts crying. So after a few vomits, I leave that meeting and head home with one of my assistants paging the people who I was having meetings with in the afternoon...we get to the car and she has another episode of vomiting...(one of my favorite things in the carseat!)...after about 10 minutes she seems better enuf to get home and she falls back asleep...we get home and her temp is 102 so she gets some tylenol but she is happy and laughing and playful so I let her stay up for 1/2 hour and then (once the cleaning lady finishes her room) we go in there and I get her to fall back asleep...she woke up still with a fever but clearly feeling better but i kept her to crackers and yogurt...she went to bed feeling better and woke up this morning happy and playful...

...only problem, she has this rash on her legs which has spread to parts of her arms and she has been a *P*I*L*L since waking up from her nap. She had gotten up during her nap and taken her diaper off and woke up wet...she was screaming about that...then she was hot and I gave her some tylenol...but then she was screaming cuz i (obviously) gave her the wrong kind of juice (*$#!)...and then she was screaming cuz she wants to go outside and it started thundering and lightning a while ago...I won't even talk about the behavior of all 3 of the other kids during the morning when I was screaming at one or the other and then the behavior of all 4 during the soccer game when the two boys were alternating trying to bounce the ball from Addison and she was trying to run into the street and Logan was hanging all over me in 89 degree 100% humidity and wouldn't get off - and ended up hitting me and yelling at me so that she went to bed with out lunch!

...Now I can't even let them go play (kick them) outside to get some space cuz of the lightning. UGH! So this is one of those days that make me feel like "what the heck was I thinking - 4kids!!

...Tomorrow has got to be a better day.

Ups and downs of life...

2008-05-30T20:02:00.004-04:00

...so this morning I go to work because I have some meetings to do and I have grouped them all so that I am only working one day a week during my leave...

...we remember pretty much everything including the popsicles for Riley's class for field day, field day shirts and sneakers for the two older boys, new pair of glasses for Matthew (who broke his other pair yesterday for the 5th time in 3 months!), breakfast for mom, snacks and lunch for Addison (who is coming to work with me and I'm hoping for the 3 hour nap this afternoon like she did the other two times), leaving out the check for the cleaning lady and putting the last load of dirty clothes in the washer and loading the dishwasher before we leave.

...get to work and I check my Checking acct on - line to make sure I have been paid cuz I have several bills that are due on the weekday before the first and I don't want them to "bounce". And surprise of surprise...I am doing the happy dance...cuz either I got a big raise that I wasn't expecting (fat chance) or I got my $5000 non-taxed, Adoption reimbursement from work!!!

My work place started this adoption reimbursement about 3 years ago ...I looked into it with Logan's adoption but at the time it was $1500 and you had to have completed the adoption. By the time I completed the adoption of Logan it was the end of the year and I was going to get the federal tax adoption credit anyway (and the business one comes off of that!)...so I just did my taxes instead of filling out the paperwork. So, with Addison, I was thinking, okay it is only May and I could really use that $1500 before next year so I decided to print off the paper work and ...lo and behold, the benefit was increased to $5000/child. I completed the paperwork and dropped it off at Human Resources on Tuesday May 6th...on my list of things to do at work today was to call them and see if they needed anything else to process it...I never in my wildest dreams expected it to be in my paycheck today! But it was!!!!! So, Kudos to the people in Human Resources and to Mary Alice O'Donnell (who sometimes reads this blog)- for telling me about the benefit 3 years ago! and THANKS!

cuteness...

2008-05-29T22:30:00.002-04:00

My younger son, Riley, developed a crush on the daughter of the woman who stayed with the kids while I was in Russia. He alternates between giving me messages to bring to her mother in the morning (including cards he has been making that say "I Love you Denec" (can you tell that they are learning to write words phonetically) to acting TOTALLY shy if she tries to talk to him. Tonight I had to give a lecture and so Michelle was babysitting. Riley has been talking about this daily, for the 2 weeks since I scheduled it.

...at 5:30pm, Denise and Michelle walk in with Matthew and Logan in tow. However, Riley won't get out of the car. Apparently when Denise went to pick him up in his classroom, he hid under the table and wouldn't come out. After all of the teachers tried to coax him out, one of the boys (cuz the girls couldn't lift all 60# of him)...carried him to the stairs. Then finally was coaxed to Michelle's car and stayed there with his arms over his head the entire ride home.

...I had to go to the car and carry him crying into the house and he went to my room and fell asleep until 8 pm ...I guess he finally did interact with her later in the night but...

God, I don't know what to do with the terminal shyness. What am I gonna do when he is 14? I can't imagine the drama we will go thru!

Out of the mouth of babes...

2008-05-28T20:08:00.004-04:00

Conversation this afternoon with my 3 year old daughter...

"Mom, did you take a shower today?"

"Why?"

"Cuz you look different..."

" I got my hair cut"

"Well it doesn't look right"

"Don't I look beautiful?"

"no, Mom, the back doesn't look right"

So much for the $135 and the "master" stylist!

Later in the car...

"You hurt my feelings saying that my hair didn't look good"...

"I was only kidding mom, you look beautiful!"

(she knows which side her bread is buttered on!)

Weekend...

2008-05-25T20:57:00.004-04:00

...we've had beautiful weather and a great weekend. Friday my sister Jean and 5 of her 6 kids arrived from Long Island NY. Her oldest is 17 and youngest is 3 months. All of my kids were fascinated with the baby and spent time giving her gentle touches and love.

...Saturday we spent the morning running errands. I was able to rent a truck from Lowes and pick up my new gas grill and bring it home. Then, Jean and I struggled like the girls we are to get it off the truck...oh yeah...and trying to figure out how to unclasp the packing straps I had bought so we could loosen it...finally one of my neighbors who has two 20 year old twins came over and said...um my sons are home from college, they could help if you need it (like we didn't need it)...so they came over and brought it around the back. (I paid them $10 each!)

...then Jean and I went to Chester to meet up with someone who was selling used church pews on Craigs' List. I am going to try and make bench seating for my [newly painted!] breakfast nook (I will confess that I got this idea from my sister Jean who did this over 10 years ago for her kitchen and I have always loved it!).

...we ended up getting one LOOOOOONNNNNGGG church pew that is 22 feet in length (separated into two pieces). They really were in great shape and he has lots more so if anyone is looking for something...solid oak and with few scratches....

...anyway we got those home pretty easily and unstrapped (we are now experts at the strapping release!) and grabbed the boys to come over again to help get them out of the truck. had to leave them outside overnight cuz my garage wasn't empty enought to fit it in. Now, I have to get the nerve to make that first cut!!!

...after that we (all 2 adults and 9 children of us) went out to Cheese burger Cheese burger. Can you believe it, they didn't have a table that could accomodate all of us. We had to separate! - the nerve!

...then we went to the mall where I took the younger ones to the play areas and Jean and the older girls went shopping.

...we had a pretty lazy day today and went out to lunch with Wendy and her parents and then met a couple of her neighbors at the Richmond Braves game. I hadn't been to a Braves game for about 12 years. I remember going one or two of my first years in Richmond..."Chipper Jones" played for the R braves (now he's a big deal on the Atlanta Braves)

...It was fun - Matthew especially liked the music and interactive play...he was obsessed by the Diamond Duck (the R braves mascot) though called him Donald Duck and wanted to know why he looked different the first 3 innings before I finally convinced him he wasn't Donald Duck. Riley was pretty happy about the access to food and soda and wore his baseball cap that we bought pretty proudly - though I am worried if his head gets too much bigger he will have to special order his hats!

...I am always sad to see Jean leave. She is such a good mom and I learn so much from her about patience and equanimity when we are together. Tomorrow will be a quiet day at our house ...

Looks can be deceiving...

2008-05-21T20:10:00.004-04:00

I haven't posted these cuz they were on my camera card and I hadn't had time to download the pictures from my camera card since being home...
Here are the pictures of Addison as she was being handed to me from the orphanage...she KNEW something was happening...

Thanks to Konstantin, my facilitator for capturing her abject terror at the thought of going out with the stranger who brought bananas.

Riley's birthday...

2008-05-20T21:18:00.003-04:00

Sunday night we had a birthday party for Riley...I can't believe my original baby is turning 6! He has been asking to have a party at the local "Pump-it-up!" since last summer when he got to go to one there. This is a party place that has a private party room with all of these blow-up air jumping places and slides. It is 1 and 1/2 hours of jumping/running/screaming fun followed by 1/2 hour party with cake and juice. We had 16 kids (including my 4). It was a great party. Despite his outward bravado, Riley is really shy and doesn't like to be the center of attention - but he was excited to be the birthday boy because one of the rules of this place is that the child whose party it is, gets to "butt" whoever and whenever they want - they get to go to the head of all of the lines.

Here are a few of the pictures.

Cool...

2008-05-20T20:31:00.002-04:00

So, I had this great idea to paint my breakfast nook last week while I am on "maternity" leave. I've been thinking about re-painting my downstairs which hasn't been painted since the house was built (1993 I think)...anyway...yes, it needed it...especially after 5 years of kids eating there! ...so, I had it in my mind to use a terracotta color with white trim but got really anxious before I bought the paint that it might be too dark. ...but, I found the color I wanted and brought the paint and supplies home on Friday.

...plan was to empty the room Sunday night, get the taping off done and do the edging and 1st coat while Addison was napping on Monday and the next coat on Tuesday...Turns out I bought this "signature" paint at LOWES ($29 / gallon) and let me tell you - it ROCKS...it nearly covered in one coat...this really dark color on the white, never been painted since the house was built 15 years ago...un-freaking-believable. So, I got to do some edging while Addison was swinging in Matthew's old "therapy" indoor swing and I got ALL of the wall color done in one day.

...so today I did the window trim and then the baseboards while she was napping and it looks AWESOME...even if I do say so myself...

...Unfortunately, now my kitchen needs to be redone! - UGH!!