January--Just Like I Remembered

Things have improved since my last post. (Thank Goodness!) I don't feel quite so overwhelmed. The boys spent the night with Ed's parents on Saturday so Ed and I relaxed, went out to dinner, watched a movie, slept in on Sunday, and I ran errands ALONE. Amazing how restorative a little time away from the kids can be. On Friday night and Saturday morning, we got some snow, so the boys played for a little while on Saturday morning. Then late Sunday afternoon, we actually pulled out the sleds and the boys skidded on the ice that had formed in all the yards. (Less than an inch of snow + light rain + freezing temps = ice-covered grass!) A couple of the yards on our street have a slight grade, which made sledding unexpectedly fun!

I actually got the camera out and took pictures Saturday morning:

Unfortunately, however, throughout all of this, I've been battling a sinus infection that started on Thursday. I went to urgent care on Saturday and got antibiotics and Flonase. Meanwhile, Seth started coughing a bit on Saturday when he left for the in-laws, and was coughing a LOT when he got back on Sunday. And his eye was pink and goopy. So we started the eye drops last night (thanks to leftover drops from William's bout with pink eye a few weeks ago) and went to the doctor this morning. Fortunately, his ears and lungs are clear. The coughing is post-nasal drip. Unfortunately, he's very mucousy, and he's prone to vomiting when he's mucousy. On top of that, he HATES the eye drops, and although he was quiet and still for the doctor when she gave him the drops, he screamed and cried when Ed and I did it. So I'm not even sure the medicine ever acutally made it into his eyes. Time will tell, I guess.

So we were home today, and William got to ride the bus home, and Seth watched a LOT of TV and I got a little bit of work done. Fingers crossed that Seth gets better and not worse. That I won't have to take another sick day this week. That no one else in the family will get sick.

Ah, January. What an awesome effing month you are.

A Whole Lot of 'Nuthin Going On

We had a very quiet, low-key weekend. Well, not exactly quiet if you consider the 3 year old (LOUD) and the yelling (that I'm trying so, so, so hard not to do). We didn't go anywhere or do anything as a family. The boys played with their toys, William played with our next-door neighbor, Ed and I cleaned (I did some major dusting and mopped the downstairs floors--woot woot!), I went to Target and the grocery store, Ed took the boys to the Air and Space Museum, I actually took time during the day to read a book.

The highlight was my lunch with Tanika on Sunday. (So sorry to interfere with the game Lester! Many thanks, because you have NO idea how much I needed that lunch.) I'm bummed that we didn't get a picture together, but I was too busy gabbing to think about it. It was so awesome to spend time with Tanika, sans kids. She is so wise and funny and unassuming. And did I say wise? I mean it, peoples, her instincts are right on the money. I feel bad that I spent most of the time venting about my life (when she's the one 8 months pregnant with 18-month-old twins!) but she was just what I needed. (Too bad for her, huh?) I hope I can repay the favor for her one day. (She's probably going to need it when Curve Ball arrives!) Thank you Tanika for a great afternoon. I wish we lived closer to each other!!!

As for all the venting I did, I'll blame it on the January, post-holiday jet lag (as Lindsay so aptly describes it!) And parenting. It's just really, really hard right now. I feel so discouraged and incompetent. It's not like me to have low self-esteem, but it feels like I'm dropping ALL the balls right now. So obviously, what I need is some chocolate, red wine, and shopping! And I need to remember that I am human, things will be fine, and January is more than half-way over. Ed and I tell William all the time to focus, but I think I need to heed that advice. Focus on one thing at a time. Focus on myself, and what I can control. Focus on smiling, on appreciating what I have, on the small thing that make me happy. So, I'm off to focus on my cup of hot tea and my job, which I'm lucky to have and to enjoy. Suck it, January!

Let the Planning Begin

Now that we have lived in our house for more than six months, I'm struggling with how little we've done in terms of furnishing/decorating. I know, I know . . . it takes time. But we haven't even painted! Granted, we're busy, and we have two small kids. But I'm tired of excuses and I'm tired of living in my house the way it looks right now.

Meanwhile, Ed does not want to spend a DIME on new stuff because he thinks the kids will destroy it. I'm not itching to spend a ton of money on fine furniture and decorative items, but come on--we're grown-ups now. I think we can find some cheap not too expensive stuff that will pull us through the next ten years, and then we can see where we are.

Anyway, as the argument rages, we decided that THIS WEEKEND, we will make a list of our priorities. We both agree that our first priority is to paint the boys' bedrooms and the office/guest room. I think we could do this ourselves, but Ed is leaning towards paying someone to do it. Fine. Whatever. At this point, I just want it done. My next priority is to rearrange some furniture that we have. As in MOVE THE PIANO INTO THE DINING ROOM. Our piano is currently in the living room, which is basically our family room, and it takes up too much room and doesn't allow for enough seating in the room. I want to move it into the dining room, but Ed is worried that it will get damaged and dirty in the dining room by little hands that haven't been wiped, as if the kids are going to eat food and then get up and play the piano. As if we would LET them do that. My argument is to put the piano on one side of the table and then make sure the kids sit on the other side of the table. And eventually, the dining room will be more of a formal dining room, and we'll eat in the kitchen nook. Anyway, doesn't his argument sound ridiculous when I spell it out here? LOL. I think I've almost convinced him to move it. So that's step one. Step two is to buy a new rug for the living room and two swivel or club chairs. And we need end tables.

His next priority is a desk for me, rather than the living room. I want a desk for him, so that we can put his desk into William's room. But he wants a stand-up desk and the only one he's found that he really like is $3,000. That's a little steep. (It's wood, Amish-built, fancy.) So he's still looking. Meanwhile, after the living room, I'd like to get new furniture for Seth's room. I'd like to get him a loft bed with a little "fort" or place to play underneath. I've found them for $400 that would fit in his room. Ed doesn't want to spend money on cheap stuff that will need to be replaced in four years. But I don't think we need to buy his forever furniture at age 3.

Aghhh! So wish us luck this weekend and hope we can come to some kind of agreement. Whether we hire painters or not, the plan is to pick paint colors for the three rooms this weekend. I'm thinking blue, blue, and blue. Why complicate things? I guess we'll see. This means that I should be updating my other blog in the not-too-distant future. Not making any promises, but man, it would be really nice to see some PROGRESS!!!

I Got Nothing -- Except Cool Ants

Looming deadline at work + very demanding and defiant and power-hungry 3 year old + attempt to read more, spend QT with the hubby, and sleep more = no time for blog.

I'd love to post more on discipline struggles with 3 year olds, but I think we've all been there. I could also talk about 5 year olds who do NOT like to review school work at home, making it very difficult for parents to ensure said child is learning.

Instead, I'll talk about an awesome gift William received for Christmas--an ant farm! This is not your old-school ant farm, though. They have this gel that serves as both their food and water source and their tunneling medium. We ordered the ants through the mail and they arrived in a little plastic tube. We dumped them in, and they went to work! (You can also catch ants outside for the farm, but since it's winter, ants are hard to come by in these parts.)

I highly recommend it! We got ours at Lakeshore Learning, but I'm pretty sure you can find it on Amazon (they even have illuminated ones!) or other online toy stores. Very very cool!

High Time for a Blog Post

Wow--I've been putting off blogging for a while now. And now I don't even know where to begin! Part of the problem is that my laptop is broken again. The screen is all messed up (thanks to a wee little drop that ocurred when I took it to work one day) and it's annoying to work with it this way. It happened before, and I took it in, but they said I could buy a new laptop for less than it would cost to fix it. They suggested that I buy a stand-alone monitor and plug it into that. But then the problem miraculously cleared up, so I never touched the screen after that, keeping it open all the time. But then I brought it downstairs one day, and left it on the dining room table, and William came along and forgot that he shouldn't close the top, and he closed it, and now it's all messed up again.

Anyway, back to where to begin? I guess a Christmas recap is in order. Christmas was great and I managed to accomplish all my goals. Chippy the elf was a huge success and really added a lot to the holiday season. I Chippy managed to pull something off every single night (even though there were a few nights when I bolted awake at 4 a.m. and remembered that Chippy hadn't done anything yet). Of course, the very last night, I completely and utterly forgot. One of the boys crawled into our bed at 6 a.m., and then I remembered. Oh no! Luckily for me, my mom, who stayed with us over the holidays, remembered. I ran downstairs with the claim that I had to use the bathroom, and discovered that Chippy had been in the guest room and had gone through Mom's suitcase and had thrown her clothes all around the room. Mom to the rescue! So all was well. Chippy left us on Christmas Eve and the boys can't wait to see him again next year.

As for Christmas itself, the boys were super happy with all of their gifts. Santa brought William a huge flatbed quad-axel trailer with a backhoe, and he brought Seth a jackhammer. He also brought new blocks for the boys to share. William gave Seth an electric screwdriver and Seth got William a submarine toy. We got Seth some new paint for his easel, a woodworking kit with a real hammer, nails, wood glue, and wood for several different projects, some books, and Ed turned his playhouse into a workshop, with a work bench and peg board to hold all his tools.

One of three pictures I took on Christmas morning. You don't get the
full effect of the tool bench in the picture but trust me, it's awesome!

We got William a lego space shuttle, a lunch box with his name on it, some books, and paper for all of his drawing. We also bought some drawer inserts for our shelves in the playroom to hold all of his markers and paper. The boys also got great gifts from all the family. William got an ant farm and a venus flytrap terrarium kit. Seth got more trucks and a push broom and take-apart vehicles. And that doesn't even cover the stocking stuffers!

Meanwhile, I got a Kindle Fire and I LOVE it! Hopefully it will aid me in my goal to read at least 24 books this year.

Which leads us to the inevitable, beginning-of-the-year New Year's Resolutions post.

And of course, thinking about what you want to accomplish in the year ahead leads you to think about what you accomplished in the past year. So I had to look back to remember what it was that I hoped to accomplish last year, and while I didn't lay out a whole list of things, I did want to focus on DO IT NOW--the idea of getting things done, not putting things off, doing things when I think about them, instead of trying to remember things later. Overall, I'm better now at getting things done, although it happens in fits and starts. I do well for a while, and then not so well, and then well again. Toward the end of this year, I started working on making lists to help me accomplish small goals. I'm still working on lists, but what I've realized is that just writing things down on a piece of paper doesn't motivate me to do them. What I lack is the motivation, so THAT is what I need to figure out. What will motivate me to get off my ass and get to doing? If I find the answer to that question, I'll let you know.

In the meantime, there are a million things I want to work on in 2012. First and foremost, I want to be a better mom, a better parent. I want to lose my temper less, I want to encourage much more, I want to model good behavior and the values that I want to impart to our kids. I want to work on responsibility and independence with the boys especially. And I want to be patient and kind.

Second, I want to focus on me. I will be 40 years old in less than six months. And I'm feeling every bit of those years and I'm starting to look every bit of those years. Plain and simple--I need to exercise. I HAVE to. I'm signing up for a 4-mile run on Mother's Day. That's right--you heard it here. I have a friend to run it with. She had twin boys 6 months ago, and also has a 5-year-old boy and a two-year-old boy to boot. That's right--4 boys 5 and under. She is UH-MAZE-ING and I look forward to accomplishing this goal with her.

Third, I want/need to pay more attention to my husband and our relationship. We need date nights, regular date nights. It's so easy to take Ed for granted, to put him last on my list of priorities. And by doing that, we grow apart. He deserves so much more than that, so we are aiming for going out on a date once a month, and having an at-home date once a month.

Fourth, I want to focus on decorating our house. We've lived here for 6 months and haven't painted a single thing. We've bought very few items for the house. Enough. I'm almost 40 years old. There's no excuse for living in a house that looks like a college dorm room.

Fifth, I want to stop biting my nails.

Sixth, manage my money better and keep better track of my spending.

Seventh, clean my house more often!

Eighth, read at least 24 books this year.

Ninth, take more pictures of the boys.

Tenth, organize said pictures digitally and GET PRINTS MADE.

Eleventh, send birthday and anniversary cards, reach out and keep in touch more.

Twelfth, Blog more often.

Thirteenth, plan ahead for dinner/lunches, and take my own lunch to work more often. Also--make lunches the night before. (I've gotten lazy about putting stuff together the night before, but oh how we pay in the morning!)

Yes--lots of lofty, attainable goals. Should be fun.

In the meantime, what's a New Year post without a look back? 2011 was a pretty big year. Moving into our forever home and William starting kindergarten pretty much dwarfed everything else. It was also my year as president of the daycare board of directors. My tenure as president ends on Jan. 10, and I'm so glad it's over. It didn't end as well as it started--definitely some parents who are NOT my biggest fans. But I did my best and I learned a lot and I think I had a positive impact on the Center. Now I can turn my attention to William's school and hopefully start volunteering once a month. Anyway, overall, it was a good year. And the best part was seeing the boys grow and learn and become close buddies.

And this reminds me of an awesome story that I don't want to forget. Last Friday, William came down with pink eye. We got the eye drops for him, but when it was time to administer the dose on Friday evening, William was super cranky and was NOT going to cooperate. Ed held him down (screaming and crying, of course) and I attempted to put the drops in. Seth heard all commotion and ran into the room and started yelling at Ed and me, "Quit hurting my brother! Throw that medicine away. Quit hurting my brother!" He punched and kicked Ed and then he came and punched me in the eye! He was dead serious. Ed and I couldn't help it--we just started cracking up. Neither Seth nor William were amused. It was amazing to see how protective he was of William, and how he wasn't at all afraid to go at us. I was really proud of him, even though we had to tell him that while it was awesome that he wanted to protect him brother, it was not okay to punch and kick Mommy and Daddy.

So that's it--that's the wrap up. It feels good to have a new year and a fresh start, kind of like a clean slate. I'm determined not to let the January/February doldrums get the best of me. If all I accomplish in 2012 is to be a better parent and run a 4-miler, then I will be pretty damn proud of myself. Of course, those two specific goals will probably be the most difficult to accomplish. But I'm sure I can do it. Bring it on 2012. I'm ready!

Crap--Only Five Days????

Wow. How is it suddenly five days before Christmas? How am I NOT done with shopping? Too busy enjoying the holidays, I guess! The boys got over their stomach bugs and for now, we're all well. (Knocking vigorously on wood, of course.) We've managed to cross a few more things off our holiday list. We went shopping for donations to the animal shelter and dropped them off. William got $10 out of his piggy bank to donate, in addition to the cat food, copy paper, old towels, and dog treats and treat holders we brought them. We got to walk through the shelter and see all the animals, too. The boys were very excited to help the animals and it was good that they got to see exactly how and where the animals live.

On Sunday, our neighbor and her two boys piled into the van with us and we went to a drive-through light show at the Manassas battlefield. It was pretty cool and the boys had a lot of fun. Tonight, Santa drove up and down our street on a firetruck. The truck was all decked out with lights and Christmas music blared. The boys LOVED it. Seth was so excited, I thought he was going to pee his pants.

Chippy continues to elicit giggles and wonder from the boys as they run to find him each morning. This morning they found him hanging from their mobile crane. Chippy had gotten every single one of the boys' trucks off the shelves and made a caravan of trucks that ran through the playroom and all the way through the kitchen. Yesterday morning, he made a "snow" angel in flour. One night before bed, Seth had dumped a bunch of change out of a piggy bank, and in the morning, they found that Chippy had sorted and stacked all the money. He also (finally) finished decorating the boys' gingerbread houses. And if you're wondering who Chippy is (ahem, BF), he's a scout elf, sent by Santa to keep an eye on the boys and report back to Santa. Each night he flies back to the North Pole and in the morning, he's never in the same place that we left him. And sometimes, he gets into a wee bit of trouble!

I'm actually really glad that Chippy is visiting us this year. It has added a whole new layer of fun to the holidays. William completed a worksheet for his school that asked about what his favorite holiday traditions are. He answered opening presents (that's my boy!) and finding Chippy each morning.

So, five days and counting. We have yet to visit Santa Claus at the mall. I'm saving that for Friday, when my mom will be here. Mom will probably bake a batch of her sugar cookies so the boys will get to decorate a few. They lose interest in decorating cookies really quickly, so I usually avoid the whole thing. But with mom to share the work and cleanup, it's worth it! I'll probably make a run to Target tomorrow night. Maybe Home Depot, too. Everything will work out. No panic here? It's all good. At least we're not traveling. Okay--off to find my zen!

'Tis the Season . . .

for viruses. Seth picked up some kind of stomach virus at the end of last week and spent Friday night (into the wee hours of Saturday morning) throwing up. He pretty much woke up every hour from 9:00 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. and puked. Except by 11:00 p.m., there was nothing left in his poor little stomach. He seemed none the worse for wear on Saturday, though. No fever, no other symptoms. And while he didn't eat a lot, he didn't throw up for the rest of the weekend. So I assumed we were out of the woods.

Not so fast! Monday morning, after we were all dressed for school and work and were getting ready to head out the door, Seth had a major diarrhea accident in his pants. So I stayed home with Seth and tried to work while he "worked" alongside me. I had my work laptop and he had my personal laptop. He stapled a bunch of papers together and diligently took notes as he clicked and typed away on my computer. Luckily he took a nap. And by then, it was time for William to come home. Since I stayed home, I sent a note to William's teacher that he could take the bus home. And I made sure I got to the bus stop on time to meet him this time!

By the afternoon, Seth seemed to be better. Ed will stay home with him Tuesday (we have to follow the 24-hour rule) and hopefully, that will be that. I spent a little time today sanitizing door knobs and faucets and other much-touched surfaces. Hopefully we can contain the virus.

Despite Seth's illness Friday night, we took the boys on the Santa Train on Saturday, as planned. It was a pretty quick trip and the boys enjoyed it. On Sunday I took the boys to the mall with the intention of seeing Santa Claus. The line was a mile long, however, and since I was by myself, I decided to nix Santa. We'll try to go one night after work when the lines aren't so long. We've visited the same Santa since William was a baby, so trying to find a different and lesser-known Santa is not an option. Instead of Santa, we rode the train that takes laps around the food court, we played in the play area, we visited the Lego store, and we saw The Muppets. I loved the movie but the kids--not so much. Seth doesn't really like movies, and William wanted popcorn halfway through, but Seth had fallen asleep, so he was distracted by his hunger.

We also made gingerbread houses on Saturday afternoon. But that occupied the boys for all of maybe 20 minutes. Seth just wanted to make a fence out of Tootsie Rolls and William got his roof decorated and made a fence of Tootsie Rolls and surrounded his house with Gummy Bears, and that was enough for him.

William's

Seth's (I did the roof)

Looks like Chippy has some gingerbread-house-finishing to do! (But not tonight because Mommy's Chippy's tired.) I had made six gingerbread houses in all thinking that our neighbors could come over and decorate, too. But since that didn't happen (thank goodness--ack--the mess!), I'm going to pack up the houses with a container of candy and the frosting and give them as Christmas gifts. In the meantime, Chippy seems to have gotten himself in quite a pickle!

Hopefully the boys will rescue him in the morning. It's not as bad as this mess he got into a week or so ago:

Since I have been SO bad about taking pictures, I finally forced convinced the boys to look happy together.

Twelve days and counting!

Holiday Decor and Pinterest

December is moving right along. Thought I'd share our holiday decor. First, our tree, complete with the Polar Express going around the tree. Although I prefer white lights on trees, the boys LOVE colored lights, so last year, I purchased several sets of colored lights. Seth asked how come there weren't any pink or purple lights? Good question buddy. Anyway, maybe at some point, I can get a good picture of the tree lit up. Also, please note the fact that I did not, in fact, rearrange the ornaments that the boys hung. I decided I like it just the way it is!

Next up, the mantle. I thought about adding some greenery in there somehow, but I didn't have any and didn't want to wait to get it decorated. So this will do!

I also put all the Santa pictures out on our piano in the living room and we have those electric candle lights in each of our windows. And I have a wreath on the door. And some snowman-themed nick-nacks here and there.

Good enough! I also thought I'd share the fact that I actually executed TWO ideas I pinned on Pinterest. That's right, not one but TWO!

First up, on Thanksgiving, the boys and I made these:

I forgot to take a picture of the finished product, though. We placed three tee-pees on an upside-down paper plate and made a little campfire out of pretzel sticks and orange and red icing in the middle. (That was William's idea.) We used them as centerpieces for Thanksgiving dinner. And then the kids filled the cones with ice cream for dessert! They were easy to make and the family was impressed. I'd do them again.

My second Pinterest project was these:

(You can find the instructions here: http://cookiesandcups.com/pretzel-hugs/)
I made half with Hershey's Hugs and half with Rolos. They're very easy and they taste good. I wouldn't say they're overly impressive, but they're a nice change of pace!

And finally, keeping up with 'ole Chippy. He must have rubbed some of the boys' toys the wrong way last night because this morning, the boys found him tied to the table leg and surrounded by all of their action figures. Poor Chippy!  Yesterday morning, they found Chippy holding a dry erase marker, sitting next to our family picture. He had drawn beards and mustaches and glasses on all of us, and he even gave me horns. That Chippy! The fun never ends. (Wow--is it only December 6? Chippy has to do this for 18 more nights???? )

Holiday Fun

The Holidays at the Hahn household are going pretty well so far. Of course, it's only December 3. And I don't have a single picture to share, but what else is new? I thought I'd better keep track of how things are going with our new traditions, so here goes.

Chippy is still making the kids laugh. On Thursday night, Chippy got out William's sleeping bag and had a little camp-out in front of the fireplace. The kids found him Friday morning in the sleeping bag, with a flashlight and a skewer with a mini-marshmallow on the end. He even had marshmallow smeared on his face! On Saturday morning, the boys found Chippy hanging out in Mommy's stocking. He had put several pairs of the boys' underwear in their stockings! (Thanks LauraC! ;-)

The holiday-book-thing is going pretty well, although it got off to a bumpy start. I wrapped 24 holiday-themed books and the boys get to open one each night for us to read. They have to take turns unwrapping, and the first night, it was William's turn, which did not sit too well with Seth, who equates taking turns with the world ending. William was already upset because I wouldn't get his sleeping bag out of the attic for him (this was the same night that Chippy decided to get it out and have a camp-out) so he was not in the mood to placate Seth. Somehow we got through it, and since then, Seth has been fine with taking turns. Last night was his turn, tonight's was William's.

The boys are also enjoying the advent calendar--especially when they get to eat a piece of candy first thing in the morning.

On Friday night, we got our Christmas tree, and I realized that we have a little tradition now, going on at least three years, involving the tree. I'm pretty cheap, so we always go to Home Depot to get our tree. So our tradition is that we go on a weeknight, we meet Ed for pizza, and then we get the tree and bring it home. This way we beat the weekend crowds and it's fun for the boys to do this after school. Last night, Ed and I set the tree up after the boys went to bed and the boys and I decorated it today. I haven't quite finished (need to rearrange most a few of the ornaments the boys hung) but the boys love it. I've set out most of the decorations, but still have some things I want to do.

So yes, it's still early, but I'm happy that my efforts thus far have not turned into epic disasters. Of course, we still have gingerbread houses to decorate and I was thinking of making salt dough ornaments that the kids could paint, but that may be pushing my luck. Maybe I ought to leave well enough alone.

One final note--last night, my neighbor wanted me to go out and have a drink with her, but I told her I had to finish William's dragon costume for the medieval-themed party. Turns out she had a knight costume that William loved, so William ditched the dragon and borrowed the knight costume, and I got to go have drinks with my friend! (I told you she was an awesome neighbor.)

Stay tuned!

Making a List . . . Checking it Twice

As many of you know, I  have never really been a goal-oriented person. The whole make-a-list-of-what-you-need-to-do-and-check-things-off-as-you-do-them idea seems to have escaped me. I can make lists, but I lose them. If I don't lose them, I just forget about them. I don't get a charge from checking things off. And although I do, in fact, make grocery lists, inevitably, I forget something on the list every freakin' time I go to the grocery store. (It's RIGHT THERE in front of me--I'm hopeless!)

Anyway, I decided that the only way I can change my ways and become more productive and efficient is to keep trying on the whole list thing. I tend to not stick with things, so I'm trying to change that. I've played around with list apps for my iPhone, but I've found that I'm really a pen-and-paper kind of girl. So for now, I'm going with that. I consulted with LauraC and decided to try out a master Excel spreadsheet for overall organization, but it turns out that so far, my best method has been day-to-day lists on post-it notes. This works really well while I'm at work. Not as well at home. But I'm working on that. I'm also using my daily calendar at work to keep track of what I've accomplished or worked on each day.

The top list is my general Holidays Activities list. We started the Advent Calendar today. We have two, so the boys get to alternate who peeks in which one. One is filled with small treats and the other is filled with simple activities (sing Jingle Bells at the top of your lungs; give everyone in the family a hug; draw pictures for your teachers; help someone today and share what you did at the dinner table; etc. etc.) Chippy, our scout elf, is in full swing. On Monday night, he got out Seth's tools and built a block building. Yesterday, he was sitting in the chair in front of the TV, holding the remotes, eating pretzel sticks. Today he was perched on the easel, holding a paintbrush. He had gotten out the boys' watercolors and painted all their names, and a picture of himself. That Chippy!Tonight we start the book tradition--unwrapping a holiday-themed book each night.

So far, the holidays have been very merry and bright. If I can keep up with this whole list thing I have going, maybe they'll be merry, bright, and productive!

Oh yeah--I almost forgot. William got invited to a birthday party this weekend with a medieval theme. The kids are supposed to dress up in costumes. What the what? William decided he wants to be a dragon. So I'm converting the bat costume from Halloween into a dragon costume. I must be a glutton for punishment!

And So It Begins

The HOLIDAYS are here. And can you believe I have not started listening to Christmas music yet? I guess I'm working my way into it. Our weather has been unseasonably warm here (highs in the upper 60s) and while I'm not complaining, I guess the Florida girl in me is finally used to the more traditional cold holiday season.

I am fully embracing the season, though, whatever the weather. We pulled out the decorations tonight and I started putting things around the house. We'll get our tree this weekend. I need to find some stocking hangers that will work with our marble mantle. The ones I have aren't deep enough for the curved and beveled edge.

We also introduced the boys to The Elf on the Shelf, and they are fully on board. I had thought that he would make his appearance a little later in the season (so there wouldn't have to be so many days when the elf needed to be moved around) but the boys watched the TV special on CBS last Friday night and William was ready for a scout elf that minute! The boys named him Chippy--they're so original! (If you didn't see the TV special, Chippy is what the kids on the show named their elf.) Chippy is having a great time playing with the boys' toys so far. I just hope Chippy remembers to go to the North Pole every night and return to our house in a different spot from where he took off.

Other fun Christmas plans are coming along. Beginning December 1, I have 24 holiday-themed books wrapped and ready for the boys to unwrap--one each night until Christmas. I also got tickets today to our local Santa Train. It's not the Polar Express trip we took last year, but it will still be fun for the boys. (Hopefully) We went ice skating on Sunday morning and we'll try to go again at least once before Christmas. We went to the Sculpture Garden in D.C., and it was a gorgeous day. But it was almost 70 degrees and the top layer of the rink was just one big puddle. Seth got pretty wet from all the falling. Hopefully the next time we go, the weather will be a bit more seasonal! Also on tap--visiting Santa, of course.

I still have holiday cards and calendars to design. Presents to shop for and gifts to make. We have neighbors that we actually like this year, so I need to come up with something to give to them. When I was growing up, my mom was a cookie-baking machine this time of year. She made an incredible variety of cookies that she would place on trays and we would deliver them to all the neighbors and relatives and friends. I would love to follow that tradition, but OMG--I would go nuts having to bake all those cookies. Not to mention the fact that I don't have time. I guess I'll have to figure out some scaled-down version.

In the meantime, I'll be decking the halls and moving the elf wondering where the elf will show up and just trying to keep my priorities in line. December can be a crazy month, so I want to do everything I can to keep the crazies at bay!

Thankful

There is so much to be thankful for in my life, and as hard as the last few months have been professionally (which, of course, affects things as home as well), I have not lost sight of all my blessings. Things are great in spite of the stress. In spite of the 3 year old in our house (who shall remain nameless) who has decided to pitch crazy fits when he doesn't get what he wants and who thinks he can and should dictate the terms of EVERY SINGLE THING we need him to do. In spite of the fact that today, the first time William got to ride the bus home from school, I didn't make it to the bus stop on time, so the bus driver had to take him back to school, where I picked him up (oh yeah--Mother of the Year award headed my way!). In spite of the fact that I'm in charge of the daycare center's holiday party AGAIN this year because the board member who was supposed to be in charge resigned; in spite of the fact that OMG THE HOLIDAYS ARE HERE!!!!

Like I said people, blessings. Children, health, family, jobs, a home, financial security, love. I want for nothing. I'm working on a way for our family to give back this year. We buy toys for Toys for Tots every year. But last weekend, I talked to the boys about choosing a cause that we could donate money or needed items to. I talked about different options, and Seth said he wants to donate to an animal shelter and William wants to donate to a homeless shelter. I asked them what we should give and Seth said he wants to give $3 because he's 3. And William said he'd like to donate $12. I printed a list of needed items from the animal shelter and next weekend, the boys and I will make a little shopping trip. I know we can make our donation to the animal shelter and visit the actual location. For the homeless shelter, I need to do a little more research. I want to pick a shelter for women and children or families. It's a small gesture, for sure, but I want the boys to take ownership and to really feel like it's something they're doing.

In the meantime, I'll spend tomorrow with family, and the rest of the long weekend soaking up the time off and enjoying time with the boys. My life is fuller than full, and it hasn't been that difficult to keep my head above water when I think about just how good I have it. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Darn You, Netflix

For the most part, we love Netflix. We don't have cable, but I think we actually watch more TV with Netflix than we would if we had cable. The only problem with Netflix is there are no parental controls--no way to block certain shows. Thanks to this feature, William has discovered Power Rangers. Are you aware of how many different versions there are of Power Rangers? There's the original series from the early '90s and then there's a newer series, which is all Croching Tiger Hidden Dragon special effects, and then there are movies. William especially loves the newer series. Lucky me. After one episode, of course, Seth is ready to fight the bad guys. I told Seth and William they could practice the moves, but they could NOT fight each other. They can only fight imaginary bad guys. We'll see how long that lasts before Power Rangers get banned from the Hahn household.

*Sigh*

Go Go Power Rangers!

Working, Working, Working

I'm drowning in work right now, facing a huge deadline that I'm not likely to meet. I work until 5:00, get the boys, do the night routine, then pick up where I left off around 8:30. Some nights I have to go back to my office. Not getting to bed until midnight. How did I live on so little sleep for so many years when the boys were little?

I have to say, November and December are terrible months for deadlines. WAY too many holidays. Way too many people taking time off. Oh well. Life goes on. Maybe tomorrow will be an uber-productive day. Maybe I won't get pulled into daycare center business for more than a few hours. Maybe Seth won't request eggs and bacon at 6:00 a.m. Maybe the super committee will COME TO THEIR SENSES AND FREAKIN' INCREASE REVENUE ALREADY--IT'S CALLED COMPROMISE PEOPLE!!! Well, I think we all know the probability of any of those things happening, so on that note, I'm going to bed.

Laying Low

There seems to be lots going on lately, but little to write about. Or at least, by the the time I get to the end of the day when I have time to write things down, there is little left in my brain to write about. Things are good though. Not much to complain about. We have all been a bit under the weather, but that hardly seems like reportable news anymore. This is already our second round of mild colds this fall, although maybe the first round just never quite went away. Seth has been okay, but William has been coughing a little since Thursday. We had a long weekend (Friday off) and no obligations (woo-hoo!) so we took advantage and layed low all weekend. No tae kwon do for William. Not a lot of physical activity. The weather was pretty nice so we got outside a bit. William rode his bike and Seth rode his scooter. They "did work" on the back patio.

On Saturday, I took the boys to the library and William checked out a book on how to draw monster trucks. William LOVES to draw and Ed thought it would be a good idea to find books on how to draw. Great idea--except that meant I had to sit with William and "help" him draw ALL the monster trucks in the book when we got home. He was so excited and engaged--I couldn't say no. He spent the rest of the weekend drawing a million monster trucks. And then he played monster trucks. And then he drew a million more monster trucks. I need to find a library book on how to draw stuffed animals, or pillows, or clouds.

Seth, meanwhile, is his same old self. On Friday morning, he helped me clean the bathrooms. He LOVES to help clean. And he's actually not half bad at it. He scrubbed the sinks (I sprinkle baking soda around and give him a damp rag) and the toilets (Borax) and I let him put on the rubber gloves and use a Clorox wipe to wipe the toilet seats. He was thrilled! He also loves to be outside, working with his tools, riding his scooter, helping Ed sweep up the patio. He puts on Ed's work gloves and grabs big piles of leaves to put in the yard waste bags. May his love of helping last forever!

The other thing that Seth loves lately is eggs. He can not get enough eggs. Every morning, around 6:00 a.m., he wakes up and says, "I'm hungry Mommy. I want some scrambly eggs and sausage." So every morning, we've been making scrambly eggs and sausage. This morning I made bacon. He ate three pieces of bacon, an egg, and half a waffle. There are some mornings when he'll ask for a second egg, and once, he even ate three eggs!

In other food news, William has stopped asking for chocolate milk first thing in the morning. And throughout the day. He used to want chocolate milk constantly. He would gladly drink his way through the day. But today, he asked for a snack, and when I asked him if he wanted chocolate milk, he say, "Mom, I said I was hungry. If I wanted chocolate milk, I would have said I was thirsty." Well, excuse me! I guess wonders never cease. Maybe it's because we finally threw away all the sippy cups. That was hard for William. Instead of sippy cups, we mostly use straws, now. Slowly but surely, I'm tossing in a regular cup and there have been a few times when he's actually drunk from the cup without complaining. Seth, on the other hands, loves to drink from regular cups. In fact, he prefers "grown-up glasses." Oh joy!

I almost forgot that we went to the doctor on Wednesday to follow up on Seth's ears, and to talk about William's asthma treatment plan. We're keeping William on the Pulmicort through the winter, and will check in again in March. Seth's ears looked good and his lungs sounded fine. William weighs 38 pounds, Seth weighs 30 pounds. Fingers crossed that William will get over his cold without having to use Albuterol!

So that's about it for us. Next weekend we're heading to Great Wolf for our delayed vacation. The boys are excited and I am, too. Ed, not so much. But he'll come around. And oh yeah--I almost forgot! William has a new kindergarten teacher starting Monday. She's been an assistant in one of the first grade classrooms, and the principal said that she's been in William's class. But William said he never heard of her. Oh well--he'll get to know her tomorrow! We have a meet-and greet with the new teacher on Thursday night. Hopefully we'll love her!

Trying to Remember What I Want to Write About

So many things going on, and yet I can't seem to coalesce my thoughts into one coherent post.

William's kindergarten teacher unexpectedly resigned. William is in his third week of substitutes and I really have no idea what's going on. We've been getting letters from the principal assuring us that our kids' learning has not been affected, that they team teach and the lesson plans are being followed and the kids are not behind. William seems non-plussed by the whole thing. But when I picked William up from after care today, I spoke to the after care teacher who is also an assistant in his classroom, and she said things today were much smoother than last week. Um, okay. Great. We were supposed to have had parent-teacher conferences this week, but those have been postponed until they hire a new teacher and that teacher has a chance to go over the assesments and get to know the kids a little. It feels like we're starting over. But when we got home tonight, William announced that his school was the greatest thing ever. So I guess all is not lost.

We've had a pretty easy transition with the time change this year. We brilliantly pawned the boys off on their grandparents for a sleepover Saturday night. So Ed and I blissfully slept in on Sunday while the boys bounded out of bed at 6:00 a.m. Why didn't we think of this before? And you may be wondering what Ed and I did with our freedom? We cleaned our house. I dusted every surface and cleaned out toys and drawers and junk and then I mopped. We did go out to dinner. And we got to sleep in. Pretty fair trade!

Seth's Spotlight on Me week is this week. Except we've managed to make the spotlight more of a day rather than a week. (We being the parents.) We made Seth's poster tonight. Seth directed the effort and William helped. It was definitely a group effort. A little different than William's poster from two years ago.

I'm doing a special snack with the class tomorrow. Seth is really into construction and tools, so I'm bringing pretzel sticks and cheese in the shapes of triangles, sqaures, and rectangles so the kids can "build" with their snack. And then I'm teaching them a construction song and reading a construction book. Then on Thursday, Seth wants to have pajama day, where all his friends can wear pajamas. And we're going to bring in two big appliance boxes so the kids can "build" houses and decorate them. Fun huh? Except I haven't actually gotten the big boxes yet. And I don't have the pretzels and cheese for tomorrow's snack. (Lunch-time errand, I guess.) And Seth wants to give his friends candy, not pretzels and cheese. (Who can blame him?) So we'll just have to see how it all turns out. Nothing like doing things half-ass at the last minute! (The story of my life. LOL)

Meanwhile, William's writing and drawing skills continue to progress, despite the instability of his classroom. He made a book at school with a bunch of pages stapled together and lots of drawings. This was one of the pages:

We couldn't be more proud!

On that note, I'm going to bed!

Halloween 2011, and Other Stuff

Halloween was a blast this year. It was a wee bit of a challenge having it on a school night, since we didn't get home until 6:00 p.m. But we managed to get some dinner in the boys and get their costumes on them in less than 30 minutes. I never had a chance to change out of my work clothes, so I trick-or-treated as Millenial Working Mom, but it all worked out well. All the kids on our street trick-or-treated together (more or less). We hit all the houses on our street and then went around the corner to a house with an awesome haunted yard display. There were all kinds of mummies and bones and bloody creatures and bats in the trees and gravestones. Very cool. After that we hit another street, but William was ready to head home by then. My mom was visiting us, so she graciously stayed home to pass out candy while Ed and I went around with the boys. It was fun to do it together.

We were home at 7:30 and we let the boys check out their loot. We confiscated all the peanut-contaminated candy from William, which left him with a pretty pitiful pile of goodies. Our neighborhood this year must be a lot more affluent than our last neighborhood, based on the type of candy purchased. Last year it was all tootsie rolls and dum-dum lollipops and sweet tarts. This year it was snickers and twix bars and reeses peanutbutter cups and butterfingers and m&ms. Too bad for William. Fotunately, he takes things like that in stride and it didn't seem to bother him one bit. We let the boys eat as much candy as they want (which wasn't all that much), got them out of their costumes, brushed teeth, and got them in bed. All in all, a pretty awesome Halloween! The best part was how excited the boys were to get in their costumes and join their friends outside. Last year, Seth did not want to trick-or-treat, but this year, he got really into it. It was great to see him having such a good time.

Without further ado, the costumes! William's homemade, good-enough bat costume:

Seth as a construction worker:

Ready to head out:

Other than Halloween, our other big event was the snow we got on Saturday. It was cuh-razy. The boys were pretty excited, even though it didn't stick to the ground. William ran around in it for about 30 minutes. Seth ran around in it for about 10 minutes, but then he decided to start jumping in the crazy-huge puddles forming on the curbs, getting his pants and feet completely soaked in the process. I let him get soaked and then dragged him in. He didn't seem to mind. I didn't get any pictures though. It was pouring snow and for some reason, I didn't think to use an umbrella to shelter myself. Duh. What can I say--I was in the moment!

Other October activities included a local truck touch, which the boys loved, hanging out with Baba (my mom), planting daffodil bulbs in the backyard, and seeing A Dolphin's Tale at the movie theaters with friends and teachers from William's old school. As busy as October was, THE HOLIDAYS are now upon us. And the next 10 weeks are likely to fly by as never before. Hopefully, I will find ways to slow things down a bit and capture the joy and gratitude that are meant to be shared and savored this month and next. Bring it on!

Just Good Enough

After going through many different ideas for Halloween costumes (skeleton, vampire ghost zombie, Frankenstein), William finally decided that he wants to be a bat. You know, a bat--the little nocturnal mammal that flies around at night. So this past weekend, I bought a black hoodie sweatshirt and black sweatpants and bought black felt fabric from Joann's. Then I went to work, cutting bat wings out of the fabric to stitch to the arms of the hoodie, and bat ears to stitch to the hood. My neighbor came over while I was working on it and she had all kinds of ideas of how I could make my design better. She was none-too-impressed with my mad craft skillz! I resisted the urge toward perfectionism, however. Once I cut out the wings and ears and pinned them to the hoodie (I decided to pin first and sew later), I figured that I'd let the one person whose opinion mattered most decide if the costume was good enough. I hung the bat hoodie on my bathroom door and went to sleep. The next morning, William woke up (in our bed), saw the hoodie, and excitedly said, "Is that my bat costume?" He tried it on and he loved it. And guess what? He looks like a bat! It's not the most fabulous bat costume ever made, but it's good enough. I still need to make a mask and he wants it to be a vampire bat, so we're going to get vampire teeth, but overall, I'm pretty happy with how it came out. It doesn't have to be perfect. I don't need to impress anyone other than William. I don't have to knock myself out and turn it into a stressful endeavor. It's more than okay if the costume is just good enough. And it is.

Pictures to come . . .

A Night in the Life of

Time flies when you're not blogging. When you're too busy to blog. When you don't feel like blogging. So a long absence from blogging deserves a day-in-the-life-of post! Or in this case, a night-in-the-life-of post.

• We got home at 6:15 p.m. tonight. As soon as we walk in the door, William wants to make spiders (?). I tell him, "Of course we can make spiders! I bought black construction paper just the other day. I just have to get dinner started." Fit ensues and he gets very stern talking-to about patience and not throwing fits when he doesn't get what he wants immediately. 
• I get steak out of the fridge, put in a Ziplock with canola oil, soy sauce, and Montreal steak seasoning. Meanwhile, Seth is whining about wanting to paint, so I get paper and his watercolors and put them on the table. 
• Luckily, Ed arrives home and he goes upstairs to change. I sit down with William and we start to make the spider. Seth decides to take the spider pieces that I'm cutting out for William so big fight ensues. 
• Fortunately, Ed comes downstairs and he and Seth go outside to turn on the grill and do yard work. 
• William and I finish spider and then William wants to ride his bike. It's pretty much dark by this time, but I tell William okay. Ed puts the steak on the grill. 
• While William gets his bike, I cut up some new potatoes and put them in a pot to boil on the stove. I get out frozen broccoli and put it in microwave pot, ready to be nuked. 
• I go out front and meet William with his bike. He rides up and down the street a few times. Several other kids in the neighborhood are out with flashlights so William gets a flashlight and then Seth comes to the front and gets a flashlight and all the kids run up and down the street playing with their flashlights, having a blast. 
• I run back inside to check on potatoes and get a glass of wine. I go back outside (with my wine) and talk to the other dads while the kids play. Life is good! Pla
• Ed comes out front after a little while to say that the steak is ready. I go inside and plate dinner. 
• Kids come in, wash their hands (after much nagging), and we sit down to eat at 7:15. Seth eats. William barely eats. William wants chocolate milk but doesn't get any because he didn't eat. He's excused and gets some paper and starts drawing pictures. I start his nebulizer treatment. 
• Seth finishes his dinner and gets ice cream with whipped cream and chocolate syrup for dessert. 
• I fold clothes in dryer and move wet clothes from washer into now-empty dryer. 
• Ed cleans kitchen while I drag boys upstairs for bath. 
• William starts going through his drawer of artwork while Seth bathes. 
• I change sheets on William's bed. (William still needs pull-ups every night. Except we're out of pull-ups. Ergo, changing sheets on the bed!)  
• William gets in bath. Seth gets out. I quickly wash William and both boys get in pajamas, brush teeth, and pick out one story each. 
• Seth picks I Just Forgot (Little Critter). William picks a book on sharks. Lights out at 8:20 p.m., a mere two hours after we got home. 

Many nights are like this. If they're not wanting to play outside, they're watching TV, or dragging toys into the living room, or drawing pictures, or playing with playdough, or playing in the kitchen. Often, Seth "helps" me with dinner. Often there is yelling, fighting, nagging. Tonight, no one got sent to his room, which means it was a pretty good night. There was frustration at the dinner table, but no yelling. Again, a good night. Playing outside in the dark with flashlights on a beautiful fall night was pretty awesome. I'm glad I said yes. It's hard to juggle what the boys want to do when we get home with what I NEED to do when we get home. I wish we had the luxury of just "chillin' out" for a little while. I wish I could give them my undivided attention the minute we walk into the door. But I can't. Usually it's okay. Sometimes it sucks. We make adjustments. Some nights, cereal for dinner will have to suffice. Other nights, I'm proud of the meal I put on the table. When Seth starts school in two short years, I'll be able to get to work earlier and leave earlier. And then maybe we'll have our chill-out time. Maybe the free-for-all meals will be fewer and farther between. Maybe things will be easier. Then again, other things will probably be harder. For now, we make the best of what we've got. I'll take nights like tonight any day of the week.

Descriptive versus Evaluative Praise

Last night I attended my first PTA meeting--a milestone indeed! The meeting featured a presentation on homework, but the speaker touched on other subjects as well--one being descriptive versus evaluative praise. You can google those terms to get a long list of links describing the two concepts. Basically, descriptive praise focuses on the effort and the person making the effort while evaluative praise focuses on the end product and how the praiser feels about it. For example, your child puts his head under water for the first time. Descriptive praise would be, "Wow--you've been working your way up to going under water for a long time. It probably seemed really scary but you didn't give up!" Evaluative praise would be, "Great job! You did it!"

Clearly, evaluative praise is not bad. But according to lots of studies, it's not very effective in building self-esteem or self-motivation over the long haul. Unfortunately, I find myself reverting to evaluative praise ALL THE TIME. I do try to mix in descriptive praise, and it's not that difficult when you're talking about "catching" them doing things right. "You remembered to take your shoes off at the door. That really helps keep our house cleaner. Thank you!" "You ate your dinner without complaining. I know that sometimes, you don't like what's on your plate, but I'm glad you know eating healthy food is important."

However, when it comes to all the, "Look at this Mommy!" comments, I fail miserably. The kids are constantly seeking my input when they draw or paint pictures, or build something with blocks, or create things with toys. This morning, for example, William watched a Mighty Machines video about building airplanes. He then went to the playroom, dumped the toys out of the baskets they're stored in, and then used the baskets as hangars for his airplanes. He saw me and said excitedly, "Look Mommy! Look what I did!" I struggled to come up with something to say. So I described what he did. "Wow! You used the baskets as hangars. You better put all those toys back in the baskets before you leave for school! That's a really neat idea!"

I feel like the "really neat idea" comment was evaluative. Maybe I could have asked him how he thought of that. Or maybe just left it alone with the description. It's even worse when he shows me a drawing. I can't really comment on colors because he tends to be monochromatic when he draws. I sometimes try to describe the picture to him, but a lot of times, he beats me to the punch and tells me about his drawing. So then maybe I'll say, "Wow--you really love to draw!"

So what about you guys? Help me out here. Give me some examples of descriptive praise you use when your child says, "Look what I did, Mommy!" I need a cheat sheet!

Neighbor of the Year

Traffic has been pretty bad for a few weeks now, and last night was no exception. Seth and I got home a little after 6:00 p.m. and Ed and William got home at 6:15. I had already started browning ground beef for sloppy joes when my neighbor knocked on the door holding two Papa Johns pizzas. They had delivered the wrong ones so they gave them to her for free and she passed them along to us. Score! I put the sloppy joes in the fridge and we all ate pizza standing up in our kitchen.

Then she asked if I wanted to come to Trivia Night at a local bar. It started at 8:00. Ed said I should go, but I could tell he really wanted to go, too. So our neighbor offered to call her regular babysitter to see if she was available. She wasn't available (too much homework) but her younger brother was. He's 14 and my neighbor said he's great and that her boys love him. So we threw caution to the wind and asked if he could sit from 7:30 to 9:45. We quickly finished up dinner, gave William his nebulizer treatment, gave the boys a bath, brushed their teeth, and put them in their pajamas (all by 7:25!). Ed ran around the house straightening up and although Seth protested a little bit at first, both boys were fine with having a sitter. I left to pick him up (they live right around the corner from us), brought him home, and quickly gave him the rundown. All he had to do was get the boys to their room and turn out their lights.

Ed and I were at the bar at 7:45 and our neighbor and her friend met us there at 8:00. We had a blast. There were 30 trivia questions we had to answer and we ended up answering 20 correctly. Not bad! Mostly, it was just nice to get out and socialize and spend time with Ed. We really enjoyed it. This was our first teenage babysitter and the boys really liked him and said they'd like to have him again. So hopefully we can start doing this more often! It was certainly way more spontaneous than we are accustomed to, but I'm glad it all came together. And of course, none of it would have happened if not for our fabulous neighbor! I'm so so glad we moved.

Home Again, Home Again

The boys and I spent the weekend in New York with one of my oldest and dearest friends and her family--my friend ME, her husband M/CE, their son JE and daughter KE. We drove up on Saturday and drove back on Monday, so it was a quick trip, but we had a great time. Two years ago, we visited them over the Fourth of July weekend. Her son was 5 when we visited before, and this time, William is 5. Can I just say that I don't like 5 year olds very much. Guess I just said it.

Anyway, the weather was gorgeous this weekend, so the boys spent lots of time playing outside. We went to an orchard with a fall festival going on and got to pick apples and go down a big slide and jump on lots of moon bouncy things and lots of other fun festival stuff. We also got to swim in my friend's heated pool, which was really fun. We watched the Lion King in their movie room and the boys played with all JE's awesome toys.  JE and William played really well together, and JE was really great the whole weekend. William loved it and so did Seth. Every time I spend time with ME and JE, it's like looking two years ahead and seeing what I can expect from William. If this remains true, I'm looking forward to age 7!

I remembered to pull out the camera and take some pictures at the fall festival.Sorry for the photo overload, but you know how rare it is for me to take pictures!

Thanks ME for an awesome weekend! Can't wait to see you guys again.

Happy Moments

This morning, Seth woke up at 6:00 a.m. and wanted something to eat. It was dark and cold downstairs. I heated up his mac-n-cheese (yes, the child loves mac-n-cheese for breakfast) and sat him at the little table in the playroom and turned on the fire. (As much as I love a wood fire, being able to turn on a fire with the flip of a switch is Heaven!) Meanwhile, William woke up and wandered downstairs. We have a new rule that there is no TV watching before 7:00 a.m. So Seth and William decided to play Zingo. They sat at the table, warmed by the cozy fire, eating their breakfast and playing Zingo together. I watched them and felt all those warm fuzzy feelings that parents feel when their kids are happy and occupied and NOT trying to gouge each other's eyes out. It might have been nicer if it happened a wee bit later in the morning, but I had to get ready for work anyway.

William has been having a few issues with his after care program that we're trying to sort through and I've been feeling somewhat unsettled by his whole kindergarten experience. It's nothing serious--no misbehavior and no tears or pleas to not go to school--but I fear that he is getting lost in the shuffle. He tends to not speak up when he needs something and there is a level of independence expected in kindergarten and after care that I think we weren't quite prepared for. I don't think he's unhappy, but if he is, he doesn't want anyone to know. When I pick him up, he's smiling and happy. He happily gets on the bus in the morning. We're not having any misbehavior issues and he seems to have gotten over the exhaustion he felt in the first few weeks (when he would come home and unleash the wrath of God on me). But he doesn't talk about school a lot. I get bits and pieces of his day. He has mentioned a few friends in his class, but I'm not sure if he's actually bonded with anyone yet. He brings home work sheets and says he loves math. He seems to enjoy art.

This is the part of parenting where you hoist the sails and point 'em in the right direction and hope you've given them the tools to get where they want to go. But what if I haven't given him the tools? How do I help him mid-stream? How do I guide him without taking over the controls? Okay--enough with the metaphors. But I didn't anticipate this anxiety. It's not something I'm used to feeling. I know it's still early and that we're all still finding our way and getting used to things. And I'm mostly (mostly) confident that William will be fine and will even thrive. But still, I worry. As if parenting hasn't changed me enough already! I swear I used to be laid back and even-keeled and non-ruffleable. Look at me now--uptight, anxious, with a tendency to flip my lid at a moment's notice. Not what I signed up for.

But then I remember the sight of my boys, sitting at a table in front of a fire, bent over Zingo, chattering to each other, and I can't help but smile and know that all the anxiety and stress is worth it. We have a long way to go, so my mantra today is: deep breaths, confidence, happy moments, we'll get there.

Treading Water

Fall is moving right along in the Hahn household. We had our second weekend in a row of rainy weather, and this weekend, it turned pretty cold. For the second weekend in a row, we had to skip our plans to go apple picking. But it's just as well. We had a pretty long Saturday (after a pretty long week), so it was nice to spend Sunday at home. I got lots of cleaning done. Finished all the laundry. And even took a long nap with William, while Seth napped with Ed. Laying low was probably a good thing, since we have continued to battle the sickies. 

William caught the cold that's been going around and started coughing on Wednesday. On Thursday, he got sent home from school. He didn't have a fever, but his cough was constant and he said he didn't feel good. His cough sounded like post-nasal drip, so I bought some Allegra allergy medicine to see if it would help. I sent him back to school on Friday and he had a good day, so thank God for small favors. Meanwhile, on Friday morning, Seth's teacher called to tell me he was really complaining about his right ear. Are you kidding me??? I had taken Seth back to the doctor the Tuesday before, and he was still coughing. But the doctor said since he didn't have a fever and wasn't acting sick, I should continue to nebulize him and just watch him. She had looked in his ears and they were all clear. So on Friday, when his teacher called, I was slightly annoyed and figured Seth was playing his teachers. I took him to the doctor and it turned out that he had a raging ear infection in his right ear. Oops! She thinks he might have had bronchitis this whole time. So she prescribed antibiotics and they seemed to have helped quickly with the ear infection. I take him back again on Tuesday, so we'll see. Meanwhile, William's runny nose has turned into a stuffy nose. But he's not wheezing or coughing, so that's good.

In better news, the boys had a great time on Saturday playing at the Port Discovery Museum in Baltimore. (I met up with Tanika and her twins, Dean and Cary! Read about it here.) The museum is huge and has so many hands-on activities for kids. There's a huge climbing structure when you walk in. And when I say huge--it's three floors high, with a million levels and there's a slide and mats and buttons and OMG. It's crazy. William wasn't interested in the play structure (way too confining for him--those enclosed kind of places freak him out). Seth was all over it, though. Which was great, except it was hard to keep track of where he was and he was a little bit on the small side and there were times when I couldn't see him at all. Then he'd go down the slide and end up on the first floor while I was still on the third. I think my blood pressure spiked quite a bit while he played. After that we went to a crafts room and made pop-art pizzas. Then we did the tot trails, and then hit the Ancient Egypt Adventure Expediting. It was really cool, but a little too scary for William. He refused to explore the passage to the tomb with the mummy. So we headed to the water play room instead. Where Seth got absolutely soaking wet. They both had a ball. And luckily, I had a change of clothes for Seth. I finally dragged the boys outta there since we had to go to Ed's parents' house for a family dinner. But we will definitely be going back. Next time, I'm bringing a second pair of hands, though. And we'll take our time, too. 

September flew by and October will, too, no doubt. Almost all of our weekends are booked. Trip to New York. Truck Touch. Pumpkin Patch. Halloween and visit from Baba. All awesome, fun things. But all of it leaves me feeling like I'm treading water, barely hanging on for the ride. I have this nagging sense that I'm forgetting things, that my disorganization is going to hit me hard somewhere along the way. But I'm too tired to get it all together. For now, I'm working on getting things done at work (and working as hard as I can while I'm there), doing fun stuff with the boys (making memories, right!), staying on top of the house, and the rest will have to fall into place. I just hope we've seen the last of the sickies for a while. 

Mommy Meet-Up

On Saturday, I got to meet Tanika, Mommy-to-twins Extraordinaire and soon to be Mommy-to-twins-AND-singleton Extraordinaire! And I got to witness first hand the extreme cuteness that is Dean and Cary. We met up at Port Discovery in Baltimore, and all I can say is WOW. That place is awesome.

But first, the most awesome part--Tanika, Dean, and Cary! We met up with them in the section of the museum called Tot Trails. Dean and Cary were adorable, and so true to how Tanika describes them on her blog. Dean stuck close to Tanika, while Cary wandered off to do his own thing. Cary quacked like a duck while Dean taunted his mom by repeatedly putting a wooden dowel in his mouth and then smiling devilishly when she told him to stop. LOL. Then Dean decided to take a page from Cary's book and show me how well he could mimic a lawn mower. He had everyone around him cracking up. Cary's thing was definitely the light bright wall. I think he could have stayed there all day! My boys, meanwhile, high-tailed it to the other end of the room where there was a multi-level area with a tunnels and windows. Hopefully they weren't too much of a menace, because I hung out with Tanika and her boys. Yes--I was that mom!

I managed to get a picture of all the boys with Tanika:

That pretty much says it all. We tried to get Seth to take a picture of Tanika and me:

Cute but blurry. So we tried again with a woman sitting close by:

Better!

Tanika was exactly how she comes across on her blog--sweet, down to earth, funny, attentive, and so together as a mom. When I first started reading Tanika's blog, I was so impressed with her mad mommy skilz. She's one of those women who has that natural instinct for mommying. I love her view of parenting and her gift for writing. The only bad part of the visit is that we hardly had any time at all to really chat. I knew that was coming, considering we had four boys between us, but still, majorly disappointing. I had planned on getting to the museum early so that my boys could do a lot of the big kid stuff before we met up with Tanika, but the morning went as things often go, and we didn't get to the museum until 1:00. And since there were more things that the boys wanted to see, we left Tanika, Dean, and Cary in a flurry of goodbyes. I thought I'd see her again before she left, but then my phone died. Sigh. Now that I've had a small taste, though, I'm determined that we will meet again, soon. And maybe even without the boys, so that we can actually talk!

Tanika--thanks so much for meeting us there! I LOVED meeting you and the boys and can't wait to see y'all again!

I Give Up!

I'm struggling with putting together lunch for William. My original plan was that he would buy lunch at the cafeteria. But after looking at the menu and getting worried that he would end up hungry, I decided to pack lunch for him. He almost always eats his fruit (banana, strawberries, or grapes definitely; cut up apple--a little; whole or cut-up pear, no). He sometimes eats cheese and pepperoni. He sometimes eats a jam sandwich. He ate some cold chicken nuggets one day. Not the next time I tried it. He ate leftover pieces of steak one day. But we don't have steak all that often. He did not eat the carrots and hummus I packed one day. He sometimes eats wheat thins. He will always eat fruit snacks, fig newtons, Oreos, and chocolate chip cookies.

Anyway, last night I decided to get creative. I made a jam sandwich and then used a Halloween cookie cutter to cut out a ghost shape. This morning, I told him there was a surprise in his lunch box and showed him the ghost sandwich. He looked at it skeptically and said, "It's just a sandwich, Mom."

I think I'll stop trying to please him. LOL! In the meantime, for some awesome inspiration, check out This Lunch Rox.

Bad Mother Award

Seth has been coughing for two weeks, so I finally took him to the doctor today. It's been a weird cough--very junky and mucusy--but it's not usually bad during the day. It's never sounded like wheezing. He'll cough a little bit here and there, but it's been the worst after he's been sleeping--in the middle of the night, and in the morning. Two weeks ago, he had a low-grade fever for two days, but no other symptoms. His nose hasn't been runny or stuffed. He's been in a good mood (other than the car ride to and from school!), he's eating fine, he's sleeping okay (some nights, he's woken up and stayed up for a while coughing and coughing, but other nights, he's been fine). All of this is my attempt to justify why I haven't taken him to doctor.

So fast forward to today. The doctor listened to him breathe and then ordered a nebulizer treatment. After the nebulizer, she could hear him wheezing. Then she was worried about pneumonia. You can imagine how I felt thinking my child might have had pneumonia for two weeks. She had him do a second nebulizer treatment and listened again. After that, she said he did not have pneumonia, but she gave him an oral steroid and said we needed to nebulize him every four hours today and tomorrow, and then two or three times a day over the weekend. I can't believe he's been wheezing all this time! Well, it may not have been all this time, but I'm feeling pretty lame for letting it go on so long. He's basically being treated for asthma. Why do my kids have asthma????

Anyway, switching gears, not too much going on, other than adjusting to the new normal. William's school finally started full-day kindergarten this week. We haven't noticed much of a difference with him. He seems to like it, but he just doesn't say very much. And he gets mad when we ask him questions. I can't even ask him what he wants for lunch without him yelling at me. One day, after asking him what kind of fruit he wanted, he said to me in a very exasperated tone, "Mom--just fix me what you want me to eat." Alright then--easy enough!

Speaking of food, one of the unexpected consequences of kindergarten is that William has been eating his dinner (for the most part) without any discussion or comments. He just sits down and starts eating. He has an appetite! This week we had salmon and broccoli, chicken soft tacos, steak and asparagus, and pizza (with whole wheat crust), and the only thing he didn't eat was the pizza. I'll take it!

So, that's about it for us. Life is good, even though everything just feels, well, different. The end of summer seemed to hit us so suddenly, but fall is shaping up pretty well so far. Maybe I'll even get back into blogging more than once a week. Then again, maybe I won't. Maybe this is part of the new normal, too.