The Holidays

The holidays can be a little bit confusing when you're 3 years old.  Little One is under the impression that Christmas isn't a "day", it's a 4-day gift-giving, junk-eating extravaganza - Christmas Eve - my parents host my dad's family; Christmas Day - Mr. MOTH won't leave the house, so we host; Day After - Grandma E and Aunt Jo (pronounced Hant Jo by Little One) visit; 2 Days After - Mr. MOTH's youngest sister and her husband visit (this year, we were actually hoping to see most - if not all - of his 4 sisters but it SNOWED - yes, that had to be all caps).  She is understandably overwhelmed and more than a little confuddled.

We also spend a lot of "family time" during the break.  Mr. MOTH takes a ton of vacation over the holidays and we end up running around a lot (this time, it was for paint chips, paint samples, gallons of paint, sandpaper, etc., etc., etc.).  Also, life goes on.  Oldest Boy still had basketball practice several times and it was on our way to drop him off that my favorite quote of the holidays happened.

Little One (as we're cruising down the highway):  "I really love the holidays, but I need to go potty!!"

Little One with her most prized possession: A "sparkly" piggy bank that she only asked for 1, 376, 922 times.

Plans Change

Did you ever start a project?  You know the kind - one that involves, say, ordering a standard piece of furniture, assembling it, and then using it?  How about one that starts with ordering a TV stand for the basement, having it come in a color other than what you were expecting (although if you had shown your wife the color, she would have known it wasn't going to be white even though the photo looks white because it says "antique") so you decide to paint it bright white.  Only the paint won't wet the surface (meaning it beads up and looks like hell) so you buy special primer that also doesn't work.  You then try to wash it off (or, rather, your wife does and being a woman and not a handyman thinks that washing means you use water which is bad for particle board) which may have ruined a tiny piece.  You then end up sanding every square inch down to (almost) bare particle board so that you can paint it. 

Except that's not the end.  Oh, no.  Because you also ordered a new computer desk in the same color from the same company.  And that then has to be painted bright white.  And bright white won't go with the off-white of the walls.  So after you strip (by sanding) the desk and repaint it you have to decide on a color for the walls (a long, painful process that went from gray, to blue, to rose, to red, back to blue).  Then you paint the walls and decide they might be too dark with the dark wood bookcase and desktop (actual desktop, not a wood desktop computer - although ours IS from the stone age).  And you try to talk your wife into letting you paint the bookcases bright white, too.  But she's had enough and just wants to use the friggin computer in a room with a desk and doesn't give a flying fig about what color the bookcases are any more!  (Incidentally, this is how the room got to be blue.  I just.wanted.it.painted.already!!).

{SIGH}  This is how Mr. MOTH spent the 17 days he had off from work for Christmas.  Happy Holidays, indeed!

Finnegan

We are, collectively speaking, just a little bit Irish. There is a tiny bit in me and a tiny bit in my husband but mostly we're just American. Of course, on St. Patrick's Day everyone is Irish and we're no different.

We started planning our New! And Improved! Leprechaun traps the day after Valentine's Day (we can only focus on one holiday at a time, y'all...). In their schematics (no, I'm not joking), the boys get a little bit elaborate - with pulley systems, cages, and the like. But in actuality we are working with the supplies in my (very limited) craft box.

Our tweaked version, using the trap from last year:

Youngest Boy's trap (Leprechauns always break the rules):

Oldest Boy's trap (notice the Jedi sign to Keep Out!):

A photo of Baby Girl and I using the self-timer:
Baby Girl's room before (ignore the fact that she doesn't have a bed, please):
The Boys' room before (they made sure it was leprechaun-ready before school):
The boys' room after:
Baby Girl's room after:
Our room after (notice Baby Girl is immediately cleaning up):
All in all, it was a fantastic day for them (and me). We always have so much fun doing this and I am so grateful that March 17th comes the day after March 16th. I need the distraction.

Finnegan left notes in each room (which is how we know his name), coins for all 4 kids, and a pile of gold nuggets (Reese's mini cups). The notes promised a return next year. Let the planning begin!

Halloween

The Mommy's kids:

Little One:

Youngest Boy:
Oldest Boy:

Baby Girl:

Little One was less than thrilled with her costume. Originally she was going to be Tinker Bell, but it was too stinkin' cold for that! Funny thing is, I have a picture of Youngest Boy in the same costume with the exact same expression on his face! :) Youngest Boy went as Darth Vader - yes AGAIN! I had to, um, "retire" the costume after this, though. I'm planning to pick one up on clearance in the next size up. Oldest Boy was a skeleton - his favorite Halloween "character". And, of course, Baby Girl went as Cinderella. Unfortunately, she wouldn't let me take a picture of it, but she wore a faux fur coat over it (while Daddy pulled her around in the wagon). She truly looked and acted the part of princess! The crown was from Disney World, courtesy of Grandma-Grandma.

We trick-or-treated in our neighborhood on Friday and then went to my parents' place to hand out candy on Saturday. They get well over a hundred kids most years. This year it was 137 and to Youngest Boy it was one hundred and thirty-seven opportunities to make a friend! I swear, I don't know where he gets it! :) His best line: "Step right up! Get your free candy here!"

I Guess I'll Sleep When I'm Old

Sleep. Oh, how I miss it! Truthfully, I could probably count the number of times that I've slept through the night on one hand since Oldest Boy was born. He'll be 7(!) in February! Most recently, I'm averaging about 5-6 hours of sleep a night, but that's NOT consecutive. Little One is maybe cutting a tooth and she definitely has a cold so I'm hoping the party that occurs in her crib every night at about 1AM for the last week + is going to go away eventually but right now, I can't function. I don't want to drink too much coffee (really, is there such a thing?) because when the opportunity for a nap arises, I want to be able to take advantage. Oh, wait. I HAVE 4 SMALL KIDS. The opportunity is never going to arise. For Christmas this year, I'd like a Starbucks, please. Not a cup, a franchise.

Bottom line: I'm feeling completely overwhelmed. I'm clinging desperately to my "glass half full" spirit, but it's dwindling fast. I'm focusing on the positive because I do NOT want to be the Grinch but I am certainly developing some Grinch-y attributes. Maybe chocolate will help...

**As an aside, couldn't you just nom on those fat rolls all day? She's our chunky monkey. At 6 months old, she weighs three full pounds more than her sister did at the same age: 18 pounds, 7 ounces!! And yes, my children look like they live in an orphanage. Mr. MOTH read a report about crib bumpers and SIDS and none of our youngest three have been allowed to use one...

Success!

Christmas shopping with my girls was a smashing success! I can't decide if Baby Girl was so well-behaved because she felt like a big shot shopping with the ladies or if it was the fact that she had an over-abundance of undivided attention - which made me feel like a less-than-perfect mommy. Either way, she was soooo much fun!

The best, by far, was lunch. Unlike our old-time shopping trips, lunch was consumed in the food court. I promised her nuggets because I was certain there was a fast-food place there. But no. So I offered pizza or pasta. She gladly chose the pasta...and ate nearly the entire plate with a fork - all by herself!! It was maybe the cutest stinkin' thing EVER! I just soaked it all in, that moment when my little girl morphed into a big girl in front of my very eyes. It's hard to explain just how grown-up she looked. But I know that I will never forget it.

And, of course, I still have mucho gifts to buy because I don't even know what to look for!!

An Old Family Tradition

Since before I was born my family has had a whole host of "traditions". "Buckeyes" are required holiday eating. "Euchre" is our favorite card game (and there's an unwritten rule that if you're a couple, you cannot be partners at the euchre table. Period.). And a lot of others that are just too weird to put into writing :)

But one of my favorites has always been Christmas shopping on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. There was a time when the women folk would take the train downtown to the big city and hit the only major department store. The one with the big Christmas tree outisde. They used to have a big sleepover where there was much craziness and near-nudity (and I don't even think there was any drinking). Oh, the stories I have heard!

As time progressed, they switched from the train to a charter bus trip. These are the shopping trips that I remember from my youth. It was a little over an hour ride down but it seemed like days. We were there waiting for the bus at the crack of dawn. I can't remember ever missing a year.

And these women. They shaped my personality. They were fun. And funny. And fun-loving. And cheap. We would always, always have lunch in the restaurant/lounge at the department store. Every year, my elderly aunt (Ruth) would flirt shamelessly with the 20-something bartender and drink a white wine spritzer which always made her lip go numb (incidentally, I knew the instant she died because my lip went numb. Never had before. Never has since. Take it for what it's worth). She always bought whatever money-making gizmo he was trying to sell and half the time she talked the rest of the ladies into buying some as well. One year it was light-up bow ties and visors. That was a fun Christmas for the men-folk!

One year my aunt (E) and I tried on fancy dresses just for kicks. I still have those photos somewhere! And I think that was the same year we pretended to be mannequins and scared the crap out of some middle-aged men! LOL!

All of this is just to say that I like absolutely adore this tradition. And for the first time, I'm taking my girls. My girls. I feel like I've been waiting for this my whole life. I know they won't remember it, but I will. No, we're not going down to the big city. We'll probably go to a local mall. But it will be an adventure. And I'll probably take pictures. And if they were older, they would probably be embarrassed. But, above all else, I want them to understand that it's OK to have fun. I think the women in my family may have been who they had in mind when they coined the phrase "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun." I.can't.wait!!

So Thankful

I got to:

Cook Thanksgiving dinner for my extended (immediate) family
Send them all home ;)
Eat pumpkin pie with abandon - including Cool Whip!
Put 4 beautiful, silly, squealing children to bed
Drink a glass of wine with my handsome husband
Go to sleep in a warm and cozy bed (despite a furnace malfunction).

Thanks!

Non-Committal

I am very glad that I did not commit to doing NaBloPoMo (or whatever the hell it's called). I wanted to give it a go, knowing full well that something would come up and cause me to miss a day or two. Sure enough, after a couple of sleepless nights brought on by lord-only-knows-what and one computer glitch (that, of course, would only occur during the 2.7 minutes of "free" time that I have every day) I missed a couple of days of posting. But I'm going to press on, mainly because I didn't actually "commit" so technically I haven't really fallen short of any goals. My personal goal was to try to do the best I could this year in hopes of things getting easier every year (why are you laughing?).

You may remember my anxiety last year around this time of having to cook a Thanksgiving dinner all by myself because no one else in my husband's family was going to be available to make sure his mom had company (and food) during the holiday. I was nervous about the cooking thing, especially since I was pregnant and sick. But mostly I was just pissed that - once again - the responsibility of caring for her had fallen to me when others were supposed to be handling it. I did it, but it was grudgingly. And I had help in the form of my SIL's husband who actually cooked the turkey for me.

Turns out, I should have done it myself. Because this year, I'm having Thanksgiving dinner at OUR house for my family. My family being the six of us, my parents, my brothers, my sister, my grandfather, and (probably) my brother's new girlfriend. {SIGH} Surprisingly, I'm not freaking out (even though I only having seating at our table for 6. AT MOST). Probably because my mommy is coming over to help. And if I screw it up? We'll call it a "learning experience" and maybe I'll get out of ever having to do it again...

Halloween

Trick-or-treat. One of the great joys of childhood! Oldest Boy said, "What a great holiday! It's all about CANDY!"

Baby Girl easily scored twice as much loot as her brothers. The boys were all about speed, but Minnie Mouse worked it. She slowly walked up (in all fairness, this was her usual speed) and said, "Trick-or-treat!" Followed by, "Thank you! Happy Halloween! (and sometimes Happy Birthday!)" Once the older folks heard that they were all, "Here! Let me give you another one!" At which point she would s-l-o-w-l-y walk back to her daddy who was pulling her in the wagon and say, "Wook, Daddy! I got more treats!" Every. single. time.

Halloween with four kids. It was crazy-fun but not easy. I carried the Little One (in her warm and fuzzy tiger costume) strapped in my Hip Hammock. That wasn't so bad until she fell asleep and became dead weight. I thought my arm was going to fall off! They all seemed to enjoy it.

Now we're in the middle of three awful head colds that I am praying will clear up before Thursday, when round 1 of the flu vaccine begins. They're scheduled for round 2 (H1N1) on Friday.