there is a beautiful pale pink rose bush that climbs over a trellis at the end of our driveway. here is some of the bounty:
(also pictured is the princess blue rotary phone that i found on a recent girls weekend that i had to have)
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
new favs
the previous owners of our new home clearly had a thing for roses, we must have 15 or more rose bushes. one of my favorite things is to have fresh cut flowers in the house. these bushes are affording me the opportunity to have endless bouquets.
there is a beautiful pale pink rose bush that climbs over a trellis at the end of our driveway. here is some of the bounty:
(also pictured is the princess blue rotary phone that i found on a recent girls weekend that i had to have)
there is a beautiful pale pink rose bush that climbs over a trellis at the end of our driveway. here is some of the bounty:
(also pictured is the princess blue rotary phone that i found on a recent girls weekend that i had to have)
Saturday, May 23, 2009
busy busy busy
we have been super busy here lately. this week i took the boys to see the blue angels air show as a part of the naval academy commissioning week festivities. frankly i had *very* low expectations and it turned out being one of the best times i have had with my boys ever. it was a great day! we went to a friends house that morning for a playdate and lunch, with plans to travel on to the blue angels in a caravan. we quickly realized that parking was going to be a challenge, but made the best of it. we fit an suv and a minivan in one spot that had been passed over by many cars. its all that mothers of multiples training i suppose! so we packed the little ones in the strollers and headed for the severn river. we probably walked at least 1.5 miles to find seats, mostly uphill, and f. was a real trooper. he was glad to sit down, and enjoy the reward of a yummy snoball.
no sooner were the snoballs gone when fat albert made his appearance. shortly followed by the blue angels themselves. f. was beside himself with excitement. it is moments like that when i love, love, love being his mom. k. was all about "da pa, da pa" as well. translation: the plane. even m., my little timid one, was enjoying himself. that is right up until one of the blue angels came close enough that we could tell his eyes were brown. m. then pulled his sun shade over his head on the stroller and freaked the ef out. k. kept pulling m.'s shade up and trying to get him to watch the show. it was actually pretty cute to watch k. trying to convince m. to have fun. but alas m. remained unconvinced and eventually fell asleep mid airshow! anyone who has been to an airshow in person will recognize this as a feat in and of itself - sleeping through an airshow! we left just before the show ended to try and beat a bit of the crowd, which really worked out well. again f. was a total rockstar on the long walk back to our cars. later when j. asked f. to recount his favorite parts of the air show he told two stories. one about the time the jets flew right into the sun and didnt burn up and fall out of the sky. and the second about the time that one jet flipped upside down and landed on the top of the other jet and they didnt burn up and fall out of the sky. 5 year old perspective, its something to behold. we finished the day off by hosting one of the midshipman we sponsor and his father for dinner. it was a perfect day!
the next day the five of us got up early and headed over to see some friends on the eastern shore and go strawberry picking. it was a fun event. i think m. was probably the biggest fan and pretty much ate his way from one end of the field to the other. he started off just picking anything off the plants and eating whatever he could shove in his mouth. but by the time we finished filling our pint baskets, m. was getting a little more selective and eating only the red ones and leaving the hulls and stems behind as mulch. all the kids and grownups were sticky sweet when we returned to the farm stand to make our other purchases. f. discovered some delicious cantaloupe being sampled there and could have eaten an entire melon on his own. he finally agreed to take two home with us, and leave some samples for the rest of the patrons. we scrubbed everyone down the best we could and treated the kids, and frankly the grownups too, to a delicious italian lunch. the kids were surprisingly well behaved given that there were 6 kids and only 4 grownups. k. had a lot of fun as well and insisted on wearing both a baseball cap and a plastic firemans hat for most of the days events. he only relinquished the hat when i agreed to carry his pint of berries inside of it. i dont blame him, the berries were delicious and well worth protecting!
the next day j. and i got up early and headed back to the naval academy to attend the graduation. it was the first time either of us was ever lucky enough to hear a sitting president speak in person. i was super excited to get tickets to the event and hear obama deliver the commencement address. he is so charismatic and i really enjoyed the whole event. it was an amazing ceremony filled with tradition. however, given the fact that we were roasting in the sun in something like the 4th to the last row in the upper, upper, uppermost level of the sunfilled stadium, j. was quickly able to talk me into cutting out early when we realized they were going to call each of the 1000 midshipman by name to walk across the stage and receive their well earned diploma. i had really wanted to take a picture of them throwing their covers in the air, but settled on going out to lunch with my hubby instead.
there is more to share and i am overdue for a capturing time post which i will try to get to in a few days. remind me to tell you about f.s report card and k.s new words...
no sooner were the snoballs gone when fat albert made his appearance. shortly followed by the blue angels themselves. f. was beside himself with excitement. it is moments like that when i love, love, love being his mom. k. was all about "da pa, da pa" as well. translation: the plane. even m., my little timid one, was enjoying himself. that is right up until one of the blue angels came close enough that we could tell his eyes were brown. m. then pulled his sun shade over his head on the stroller and freaked the ef out. k. kept pulling m.'s shade up and trying to get him to watch the show. it was actually pretty cute to watch k. trying to convince m. to have fun. but alas m. remained unconvinced and eventually fell asleep mid airshow! anyone who has been to an airshow in person will recognize this as a feat in and of itself - sleeping through an airshow! we left just before the show ended to try and beat a bit of the crowd, which really worked out well. again f. was a total rockstar on the long walk back to our cars. later when j. asked f. to recount his favorite parts of the air show he told two stories. one about the time the jets flew right into the sun and didnt burn up and fall out of the sky. and the second about the time that one jet flipped upside down and landed on the top of the other jet and they didnt burn up and fall out of the sky. 5 year old perspective, its something to behold. we finished the day off by hosting one of the midshipman we sponsor and his father for dinner. it was a perfect day!
the next day the five of us got up early and headed over to see some friends on the eastern shore and go strawberry picking. it was a fun event. i think m. was probably the biggest fan and pretty much ate his way from one end of the field to the other. he started off just picking anything off the plants and eating whatever he could shove in his mouth. but by the time we finished filling our pint baskets, m. was getting a little more selective and eating only the red ones and leaving the hulls and stems behind as mulch. all the kids and grownups were sticky sweet when we returned to the farm stand to make our other purchases. f. discovered some delicious cantaloupe being sampled there and could have eaten an entire melon on his own. he finally agreed to take two home with us, and leave some samples for the rest of the patrons. we scrubbed everyone down the best we could and treated the kids, and frankly the grownups too, to a delicious italian lunch. the kids were surprisingly well behaved given that there were 6 kids and only 4 grownups. k. had a lot of fun as well and insisted on wearing both a baseball cap and a plastic firemans hat for most of the days events. he only relinquished the hat when i agreed to carry his pint of berries inside of it. i dont blame him, the berries were delicious and well worth protecting!
the next day j. and i got up early and headed back to the naval academy to attend the graduation. it was the first time either of us was ever lucky enough to hear a sitting president speak in person. i was super excited to get tickets to the event and hear obama deliver the commencement address. he is so charismatic and i really enjoyed the whole event. it was an amazing ceremony filled with tradition. however, given the fact that we were roasting in the sun in something like the 4th to the last row in the upper, upper, uppermost level of the sunfilled stadium, j. was quickly able to talk me into cutting out early when we realized they were going to call each of the 1000 midshipman by name to walk across the stage and receive their well earned diploma. i had really wanted to take a picture of them throwing their covers in the air, but settled on going out to lunch with my hubby instead.
there is more to share and i am overdue for a capturing time post which i will try to get to in a few days. remind me to tell you about f.s report card and k.s new words...
Thursday, May 7, 2009
what i'd really like for mothers day
a new camera. my old one only allows me to take two pictures on a fully charged set of batteries each time. here is todays 1st shot:
Monday, April 27, 2009
overheard in my house recently
as a result of spelling words that are not to be comprehended by young children, my 5 year old has now come to believe that once you grow up you no longer pronounce words, you spell them. he is a budding reader and is still spelling phonetically. all of this has made for some interesting conversations lately.
j: f. would you like some grapes with that sandwich?
f: f u
j: excuse me?
f: f u daddy
j: what did you say to me?
f: i said F U DADDY
j: are you trying to spell something!?
f: few. F U. few!
j: here's your grapes, now run along.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
bathtime, three boys in the tub, cleaning commences
f: oooowww, that water is too hot mommy!!
me: f., its not that hot. come over here and let me rinse you off.
f. (covering his private parts): i hope that is not going to hurt my tenders!!
j: f. would you like some grapes with that sandwich?
f: f u
j: excuse me?
f: f u daddy
j: what did you say to me?
f: i said F U DADDY
j: are you trying to spell something!?
f: few. F U. few!
j: here's your grapes, now run along.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
bathtime, three boys in the tub, cleaning commences
f: oooowww, that water is too hot mommy!!
me: f., its not that hot. come over here and let me rinse you off.
f. (covering his private parts): i hope that is not going to hurt my tenders!!
Monday, April 20, 2009
capturing time
my boys are growing up before my eyes it seems. its becoming more difficult to remember the days when they were tiny babies as they grow into these rough and tumble boys. i am trying to soak it all up and enjoy every minute of it.
f. is all about spelling and math these days. our days of spelling things in front of him as a way of secretly communicating are over. as a byproduct of that activity, he believes that when you grow up you no longer say words you spell them. the other day when i told him to climb up into his seat, he indignantly replied: "mommy, you can just say U P, i am old enough now to know what that means!" in the last month he has started to sleep in the master bedroom with j. and i. the first night it was sort of nice to have a little one to snuggle with again. by the second night i told him if he wanted to sleep in our room, it would have to be on the floor. slowly, toys began to migrate into our room. one day last week he referred to the master bedroom as mommy, daddy and f.'s room. so this weekend when i cleaned the bedroom, all of his things found their way back to his room. saturday night he actually slept in his own room again and i felt like i was sleeping in a hotel. last night he started out in his own room, but at some ungodly hour this morning i felt a familiar knee in the kidney. i was too exhausted to take him back to his room, but did send him to the floor. i know it wont be long before he gets embarrassed when i kiss him goodbye at the bus stop in the mornings and he will roll his eyes if i show up for class parties, so for now i am enjoying waking up and seeing him asleep on the floor.
m. continues to be a chatterbox. he narrates his day and occasionally his nights. he has developed this way of tricking us into getting what he wants. he will say something incomprehensible, to which we reply, what did you say? then he will say it again, clear as a bell, so then we repeat it, happy to have figured out what he was trying to say. then he says YES, as if we suggested it in the first place. it goes something like this.
m.: mommy, gobblygook
me: what did you say?
m.: cookie
me: cookie?
m. YES! thanks for offering!
k. is making strides in the language department. he is still getting services every week. i think when he grows up he will be one of those people that uses an inordinate amount of hand gestures to communicate. my favorite one is when he wants you to sit with him. he will call your name then pat the chair next to him. k. is adding words to his vocabulary little by little, but still really just says the first syllable of most words. so ma is mama, da is dad, ki is kiss, ma is also max, mi is milk, etc.
either m or k, no one will fess up, put a lincoln log in the gas stove that heats the playroom a few weeks ago. we didnt notice it in there before we turned the stove on and saw a freakishly high vibrant flame. upon further investigation we noticed the tell tale shape of a flaming orange lincoln log. because it would require dismantling the whole stove, j. said, lets just leave it in there, it will burn off eventually. next year we will consider heating the whole house with lincoln logs, because that little nub of a log has been in there for at least 8 hours and is still going strong!
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
j.s mom had some bad news this month. the cancer has returned and is at this point inoperable. she has chosen to forgo further chemo. given that the cancer was already stage 4 when initially discovered, the prognosis is grim. we have invited them to visit for mother's day weekend, i hope it will be a nice visit for everyone.
f. is all about spelling and math these days. our days of spelling things in front of him as a way of secretly communicating are over. as a byproduct of that activity, he believes that when you grow up you no longer say words you spell them. the other day when i told him to climb up into his seat, he indignantly replied: "mommy, you can just say U P, i am old enough now to know what that means!" in the last month he has started to sleep in the master bedroom with j. and i. the first night it was sort of nice to have a little one to snuggle with again. by the second night i told him if he wanted to sleep in our room, it would have to be on the floor. slowly, toys began to migrate into our room. one day last week he referred to the master bedroom as mommy, daddy and f.'s room. so this weekend when i cleaned the bedroom, all of his things found their way back to his room. saturday night he actually slept in his own room again and i felt like i was sleeping in a hotel. last night he started out in his own room, but at some ungodly hour this morning i felt a familiar knee in the kidney. i was too exhausted to take him back to his room, but did send him to the floor. i know it wont be long before he gets embarrassed when i kiss him goodbye at the bus stop in the mornings and he will roll his eyes if i show up for class parties, so for now i am enjoying waking up and seeing him asleep on the floor.
m. continues to be a chatterbox. he narrates his day and occasionally his nights. he has developed this way of tricking us into getting what he wants. he will say something incomprehensible, to which we reply, what did you say? then he will say it again, clear as a bell, so then we repeat it, happy to have figured out what he was trying to say. then he says YES, as if we suggested it in the first place. it goes something like this.
m.: mommy, gobblygook
me: what did you say?
m.: cookie
me: cookie?
m. YES! thanks for offering!
k. is making strides in the language department. he is still getting services every week. i think when he grows up he will be one of those people that uses an inordinate amount of hand gestures to communicate. my favorite one is when he wants you to sit with him. he will call your name then pat the chair next to him. k. is adding words to his vocabulary little by little, but still really just says the first syllable of most words. so ma is mama, da is dad, ki is kiss, ma is also max, mi is milk, etc.
either m or k, no one will fess up, put a lincoln log in the gas stove that heats the playroom a few weeks ago. we didnt notice it in there before we turned the stove on and saw a freakishly high vibrant flame. upon further investigation we noticed the tell tale shape of a flaming orange lincoln log. because it would require dismantling the whole stove, j. said, lets just leave it in there, it will burn off eventually. next year we will consider heating the whole house with lincoln logs, because that little nub of a log has been in there for at least 8 hours and is still going strong!
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
j.s mom had some bad news this month. the cancer has returned and is at this point inoperable. she has chosen to forgo further chemo. given that the cancer was already stage 4 when initially discovered, the prognosis is grim. we have invited them to visit for mother's day weekend, i hope it will be a nice visit for everyone.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
firehouse visit and other birthday celebrations
so yesterday i turned 29. again. and we got about 29 inches of rain. it was a absolutely gross day. but i had fun anyway.
my mom and i took m and k to the fire station in eastport with about 25 or so of their twin and triplet friends. it was a little crazy. m is sort of a madman and was running all over the place. k was a bit more reserved and was a bit timid getting in the firetruck. but once he was in there was no getting him out. thankfully by the time k had worked up the nerve to get in, most of the other kids were on to something else. the firemen were fantastic and really knew their audience. they kept the talk to things like: "look a big red truck" and "wanna get in?" we made our exit before the tour was actually over, but that was fine by me. my mom treated us to lunch which was a nice surprise.
last night, f. and i went out to dinner together. when i asked him if he was my date he was adamant for that not to be the case. we were just mom and son going to dinner. we had fun even if it wasnt a date. it was nice to have some alone time with all my lil boys on my special day. maybe sometime this century their father and i will get some of that alone time again too. i am almost certain that when the year comes that my children do not sing about me looking liking a monkey and smelling like one too, that it will make me a little sad. its great to be 29. again.
my mom and i took m and k to the fire station in eastport with about 25 or so of their twin and triplet friends. it was a little crazy. m is sort of a madman and was running all over the place. k was a bit more reserved and was a bit timid getting in the firetruck. but once he was in there was no getting him out. thankfully by the time k had worked up the nerve to get in, most of the other kids were on to something else. the firemen were fantastic and really knew their audience. they kept the talk to things like: "look a big red truck" and "wanna get in?" we made our exit before the tour was actually over, but that was fine by me. my mom treated us to lunch which was a nice surprise.
last night, f. and i went out to dinner together. when i asked him if he was my date he was adamant for that not to be the case. we were just mom and son going to dinner. we had fun even if it wasnt a date. it was nice to have some alone time with all my lil boys on my special day. maybe sometime this century their father and i will get some of that alone time again too. i am almost certain that when the year comes that my children do not sing about me looking liking a monkey and smelling like one too, that it will make me a little sad. its great to be 29. again.
Monday, April 6, 2009
glub glubs
fresh off the heels of having a plate of glub glubs (aka goldfish crackers) hurled my direction, i sat down to compose this post. since when are glub glubs offensive to two year olds?! titles like "what's the fine for throwing your child out the window" or "i give up" or "n., mom and failure, a retrospective" came to mind for this post. i know i have created terrible eaters and that i am entirely to blame.
my children have always been voracious breakfast eaters, fairly decent lunch eaters and downright atrocious dinner eaters. when we moved into this new house, i said, "new house, new rules!" i really did try. but somehow, life got in the way, and little by little we slid into our old habits of making 3 separate meals for dinner, one for grown ups, one for the school aged set, and one for the toddlers. sadly, short order cook skills are topping my resume these days.
when f. was a baby i was a good mama and made all of his baby food myself. i turned my nose up at jarred baby food. i spent one day every couple of weeks preparing food for the days to come, froze it in ice cube trays and thawed it as needed. he chowed down on mango, avocado, lentil soup and the like. now his repertoire consists of cheese sandwiches, lunch.ables and peanut butter on rit.z crackers. i justify it by telling myself at least they are whole wheat rit.z. when the twins came along i was in too much of a haze to consider making all of my own baby food. although i would still mash my own bananas, mangos and avocado. somewhere with all three of my children, the switch from baby food to people food has gone seriously wrong.
the thing is, i love to cook! i enjoy roasting veggies or marinating a protein or making up my own recipes. however, when a thoughtfully prepared meal is hurled back at you at full force by a two year old, it starts to lose its appeal. so the blue box, longtime fav of poor college students and toddlers alike, started to creep its way back into our weekly routine. as depression also creeped its way back into my life late this winter, there were days when toasted waffles handed over the baby gate sufficed for dinner. nary a complaint, i might add, from the shorter set.
now that i am living better through chemistry i am thinking i might be ready to tackle the whole eating debacle again. otherwise i am going to be drowing in a sea of glub glubs being tossed my way.
my children have always been voracious breakfast eaters, fairly decent lunch eaters and downright atrocious dinner eaters. when we moved into this new house, i said, "new house, new rules!" i really did try. but somehow, life got in the way, and little by little we slid into our old habits of making 3 separate meals for dinner, one for grown ups, one for the school aged set, and one for the toddlers. sadly, short order cook skills are topping my resume these days.
when f. was a baby i was a good mama and made all of his baby food myself. i turned my nose up at jarred baby food. i spent one day every couple of weeks preparing food for the days to come, froze it in ice cube trays and thawed it as needed. he chowed down on mango, avocado, lentil soup and the like. now his repertoire consists of cheese sandwiches, lunch.ables and peanut butter on rit.z crackers. i justify it by telling myself at least they are whole wheat rit.z. when the twins came along i was in too much of a haze to consider making all of my own baby food. although i would still mash my own bananas, mangos and avocado. somewhere with all three of my children, the switch from baby food to people food has gone seriously wrong.
the thing is, i love to cook! i enjoy roasting veggies or marinating a protein or making up my own recipes. however, when a thoughtfully prepared meal is hurled back at you at full force by a two year old, it starts to lose its appeal. so the blue box, longtime fav of poor college students and toddlers alike, started to creep its way back into our weekly routine. as depression also creeped its way back into my life late this winter, there were days when toasted waffles handed over the baby gate sufficed for dinner. nary a complaint, i might add, from the shorter set.
now that i am living better through chemistry i am thinking i might be ready to tackle the whole eating debacle again. otherwise i am going to be drowing in a sea of glub glubs being tossed my way.
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