Third Child

Better Late than Never

D in front of her great grandfather's grave




Although an embarrassing month late, we finally got to my father's grave to celebrate his would-be 63rd birthday. Between rain and sickness it took that long. Finally we just went even though the ground was really wet from rain and C was pretty sick (hence her swollen eyes). With the wet ground it was near impossible to get a picture of all three girls together--maybe next year.

This year there were a lot more questions about death and heaven and I do question if I am forcing them to address difficult issues too early. But I want them to have a sense of who Grandpa Michael was, and I want them to honor his memory, so I think the trade off so far has been worth it.

When we went to the nearby florist C and D begged me to buy them little balloons they could put at his grave. I think he would have gotten a kick out of the "Get Well" and "Congrats" balloons they left him. And I think he would have loved the "Julia Mancuso Crowns" C and D were sporting.

And if memory serves (and it may not as I am writing this in freaking April) thanks to Papa Chris for meeting us at your house for a little bit of lunch before we headed home.

Ticked Off

It has been a tough week, especially for C. First, the love of her life (A) left her on Valentine's Day for a week in London. On Monday her mother found a tick in her back, and though her mother did a KICK ASS job getting the thing out (and I quote from the doctor "I've seen trained physicians who can't do this...how did you do it?"---you know your life needs an excitement injection when your proudest accomplishment of late is getting a tick out of your kid's back), the ordeal scared her. Then she got sick, and gave the sickness to her caretaker (Mom) and now we are all a tad miserable. Between it all she has missed a week of school and it has been a bit rough on all of us.

So not a very glamorous Valentine's Week for us. We managed to enjoy a doughnut treat in Andrew's absence, and we really enjoyed the Valentine's shirts Aunt Roey made for the girls. And making forts seems to cheer us up a bit too.

Overheard

Tonight we went to a dinner party. I got dressed right before putting C and D to sleep. As I am putting them to bed:

C: "Mommy I really don't like that shirt you are wearing."

Me: "You know sweetheart, people don't always want to hear that you do not like something. If they ask you for your opinion you should be honest. But if they do not then I think most people would prefer that you only say something if it is a kind thought."

20 second pause

C: "Mama, please ask me for my opinion of that shirt."

(Taking the bait) Me: "Charlotte what do you think of this shirt."

C: "I really don't like it."

____________________________________

C: "What does stupid mean?"

Me: "Not smart."

C: "Mommy, you should stop calling drivers stupid."

____________________________________

There's a family in our preschool class who recently had twins at 25 weeks. Other families have been helping out with their 4 year old as much as possible. We recently took the little boy to Train Town for the day. As we were returning I told them that my mother might be there with Andrew and Lila when we got back (she had stopped by enroute to something). C and D were giving Jesper the lowdown as we got out of the car to go inside.

C: "Jesper, Papa is really big and he might scare you. But I don't think he's here. It is just MaeMae and she is not scary at all. She's really little."

D: "Yeah Jesper, she's, she's like a 10 year old."

Go World

i love the winter olympics

I am, while maybe in the minority, probably more of a winter olympics fan than summer. While I loved watching Michael Phelps, I would prefer to watch skiing over swimming any day. I like the smallness of the winter olympics, and after being at SLC 2002 I got officially hooked.

So I am doing my best to indoctrinate my kids. We have been making medals, singing the national anthem, and showing them a lot of the competitions. So far, they seem to love it just as much as we do. They have even learned to chant "USA" at the TV.

(ps. C has been sick so the pics are a little more D heavy right now).

D

Betty Draperville

I hate cooking. This we have already covered. Baking yes, cooking no. But I am a mother of 3 now and not cooking is not an option. And I think I make good meals for my kids. Simple, but good. Problem is that Andrew is neither home by their dinner nor interested in eating what I feed them. So he either has to "fend for himself" or we make a second dinner. I loathe nothing more than finishing up one meal to start another, and yet I feel bad not feeding him. So, I have been trying to find things to cook that everyone can eat. The requirements are: easy to make, can be made at least in part ahead (ie. during lila's nap) if possible, relatively healthy, good source of protein (ie. the "main" part of a meal) and not very expensive.

The result? I have launched our dinners back to 1960. This week I made a quiche and turkey meatloaf. Both had a little too much onion (none of us like onions), but they were not horrible. C and D didn't love them but I think I could have tweaked the recipes and worn them down with repetition enough to get them to eat them. And most importantly, they met all the above requirements. The problem? My husband. He basically wouldn't eat them. Last night I made it for him because I had a girls dinner. I got up this am and found the meatloaf sitting out on the counter. Not only had he not eaten it (he'd ordered Dominos) but he had left it out so I couldn't feed it to anyone today.

I have to admit, I was irate. I know I suck at cooking, but I tried. I realize he must not realize how much I despise this part of my "job" because if he did he might have at least pretended to eat it. I of course should see it from his point of view. As much as it is nice to have someone make you food, it must suck not having a say in what you eat each night. And it sucks when you have different food tastes than the food preparer. And it really sucks when your wife can't cook for sh*t.

(He has already apologized, fyi, and I have more than ranted about it, so I'm not being passive aggressive in writing about this. At least not totally). I realize I should get over this now. So I will. Sort of : )

At Least She's Honest

Today C did something that was very considerate towards her classmates. As we left school I said to C "I am so proud of you for being so considerate towards other people. You always worry about other people getting what they need."

D looks up at me and says "And I always worry about me getting what everyone else gets."

(Needless to say, they both have their moments of selflessness and selfishness : )).

And in case you haven't seen it I did a bunch of postings (FINALLY) below the "Slump" post. Trying to get back in the groove.

Slump

In case you haven't figured it out yet, I am in a slump. A blog slump, a life slump, a winter slump, an exercise slump, whatever. Not sure of the origins but it is here, and it is slowing down my blog productivity significantly. I am trying to push myself to keep writing because C and D LOVE looking through the blog-books that Andrew made for me. But there is a direct correlation between how I feel about life and how much I want to blog. I realized how bad it had gotten when I hadn't even bothered to blog about LBD taking her first steps. And now I'm not only in a slump, I'm pissed off at myself. And I have gotten so far behind on this blog (22 posts saved as drafts in fact) that I have to force myself to try to catch up (which I will, so just look below this post for more past posts. eventually)

Lately I just don't want to blog at all. I'm sure it will pass. Until then, either I understand your departure from my audience or I appreciate your patience.

I Go Out Walkin'...

And she's OFF! After several times of "I think that was a step" and many times of watching her nose dive because she shifted forward but didn't move her feet, LBD found her feet and can officially be considered a 'toddler.' A and I think it is a pretty remarkable feat considering the belly that she has to carry around (and she definitely has a little 'junk in her trunk' too). I love to watch the sheer pride on her face as she does it.

I am a little nervous knowing that I will now have three little people to chase around now, but mostly I am excited. For her. It is a big world out there and it helps to have two little feet to help you move through it. Yeah little L!!

(Alright, I readily admit that I am writing this post so late that I am having a hard time remembering a time when she wasn't running a mile a minute. Shame on me. And this took me SO long to publish the video it has held me up for weeks. Literally. I am so not ok w/ managing my videos on a Mac. Oh, and do you know how many annoying "Lila walking" videos there are on YOUtube? Makes me never want to post a video again. Given how long this took me, maybe i won't).

Sweet Child of Mine

Is it just me, or does this (D)

look a bit like this

"Ballet-er" on Fire