Weekend Fun

Owen's first haircut (since being home, anyway). I think he was actually an old pro at it, because he didn't mind the clippers at all. Jim did a pretty good job. I was a little sad, because I actually wanted to let it grow more to see 1) what color it would be longer - thinking it will be a little darker, and 2) if the hair in the back will EVER lay down. So far it just sticks straight up all over like a little hedgehog, which I think is adorable. Jim did not find it so adorable, and decided that he must cut it off. So I may not know until he is a teenager if the spiky hair goes away when it gets long...
And Natalie and I had a mother/daughter time at the park, since she is starting preschool this week. We had a lot of fun, although it took a lot of bread to lure the turtles up from the deep this time. Keeping our fingers crossed that the start of preschool goes well this week. Deep breaths...

Hummus anyone?

This shot is of Owen after I gave him some pretzels to dip in hummus while I made dinner. It's hard to tell in the picture, but he is squishing hummus between all of his fingers like he's soaping up his hands during a wash. There is hummus on the chair, on the newspaper, on both of his legs...He did eat quite a bit of it too.

Bonding

Owen: "Well, they seem to have sent the boy off somewhere most of the time now, so it looks like I'm going to have to bond more with the girl. It's not bad though, because she shares my passion for shoes...and love of dance."

Photographer Liam

Some shots taken by Liam. I think I will give him the job of taking photos for the blog, he does so well. Starting with his self-portrait:

First Grader

My big First Grader. Sigh. It's happy/sad.
I think the first day went fine. I am probably not going to get much more information than "fine" from now through the end of college.

And no, it wasn't any easier having one less. Natalie was quite determined today that everything Owen so much as glanced at was EXACTLY what she herself was getting ready to play with. And so it goes.

School..Yeah!..Right?

So tomorrow is the start of First Grade for Liam. Natalie still has another week before preschool starts. I can't believe the summer is over. It was such a surreal summer for me. I wonder how the kids will remember it (and maybe I should hope that Natalie won't remember it). For weeks now I have been saying I can't wait for the start of school, but I realized yesterday that having Liam go to school really won't lighten my load any, considering he is the non-crying child who can actually be helpful with the other two.

As I came to this realization, I also had a huge wave of guilt that Liam probably didn't enjoy his summer much (thinking to the time earlier in the week when he was walking around with his hands over his ears chanting "la la la la...I wish I had earplugs" while Natalie was wailing away) and I found myself just wishing I could start it over and give him more fun, more pool time, more bike riding, and less family angst. Ahhhh, mother guilt.

Since I can't give him a new summer full of fun and no family adjustment adjustment issues, I took him out for a morning jaunt with just the two of us. Something I haven't done in too long. It was wonderful. I think Liam must have missed the one-on-one time too, because from the moment we were in the car until the moment we got back home he talked. I am apparently his go-t0 person for deep questions and long-winded explanations (I answer his deep questions and then he explains in depth about miscellaneous things that I might have been wondering myself, for example how to get past certain video game levels). We fed turtles, ducks, and fish, we took pictures of ourselves, and he held my hand the entire time we walked. We are definitely going to plan more of these mother/son outings.

I guess I will console myself with the fact that even though Liam starting school doesn't necessarily make my day easier, it hopefully will make his a little more fun as he can interact with his friends.

Daddy's Girl

So adding a third child did send child number two into a tailspin, from which she has not yet emerged. BUT it has also had some other interesting side effects. Natalie has always played games with her Daddy's emotions. She only wanted Mommy when she was a baby, and then as she got older she bonded to Daddy much more but she never wanted to let him know that. She would be affectionate only on her terms, and if he asked for a hug or kiss she would never give one (of course, if he asked her NOT to hug or kiss him, then she would). She always chose to stay with Mom if we were doing separate things.

Well, NOW, with me taking care of the dreaded "little bother" she is all about Daddy. Jim is loving it. If he asks who wants to ride with him to Starbucks or Home Depot, she jumps right up (would NEVER have happened before). She wants Daddy to do all kinds of things with her. The best part is in restaurants. Jim always had it easy with bathroom duty in restaurants. He took Liam and I took Natalie. But Liam hardly ever had to go, and if he did it was in/out la-dee-dah. Natalie...not so much. Now if she has to go she says "NO, I don't want to go with Mommy, I want to go with Daddy!" and for some reason she is even worse about needing to go 2-3 times per dinner. ha ha Oh, poor Jim. I get to relax with the baby who can use the bathroom without ever leaving the table. Such luxury, I tell you. Only two things make me sad about this: 1) I really do hate the thought of her seeing, much less using, the inside of a men's toilet. Yuck. She'll probably be scarred for life. And 2) I can tell she probably would rather use the women's toilet but she can't stand listening to the screams from the table if I leave Owen there and go with her. Yes, we can usually hear them all the way in the bathroom.

Still...such luxury for me. Who needs a trip to the spa.

Bye Bye Baby Stuff...or not

So now that we have our last baby home (oh yes, the last), and we know how old he is, I have the urge to purge. Also, most of the baby stuff has been in Natalie's closet and now she needs room to have shelves installed in her closet so that she can shut her closet door and keep her toys "safe". We still need to come to an understanding that not every toy in the house is allowed to be in the "safe zone", but I can see that she does at least need some amount of safe zone. On a positive note, the picture above shows a rare glimpse of Natalie and Owen playing together, and it was one of Natalie's toys that she graciously gave to Owen because he loves it. Good on two fronts - that Natalie was OK giving him something, and that a toy is actually holding his interest longer than 2 seconds.

The problem with cleaning out old baby stuff is that the big kids don't want me to get rid of anything. Liam, in particular, is very sentimental about stuff. I know he gets that from me. It sure can be annoying.

So now I find myself sticking a Baby Einstein floor mat (the kind for babies that can't even sit up yet...) in Owen's closet because I couldn't take the tearful pleading from Liam not to give it away. Because, of course, Liam and Natalie both insist that Owen can use it. ha ha He looks like a giant baby in a miniature baby village.

To top it off, last night Natalie wanted to sleep on this mat, with those toys dangling above her head. Gee, do you think she still wants to be the baby? And yes, I let her. Now tonight, Liam is doing the same thing. Maybe they know something I don't. Maybe tomorrow night I will lay underneath those dangling toys and stare at myself in that plastic baby mirror, and pretend that someone is here to feed me and carry me and take care of all my needs too. I suppose everyone needs to be a baby again sometimes.

Gorbachev

Our own little Gorbachev...with a nice scab on this forehead from taking a header down some concrete steps at Liam's t-ball practice (it actually looks worse in person than in pictures, I think).

I had been so excited about taking him to practice and letting him run around because I thought it would be a safe place for him to run off some energy.... This boy could find danger in a rubber room with foam toys (which, incidentally, I have considered installing). I actually don't think it is a plus that he didn't cry at all when he fell. He only cried when I tried to hold him (he wanted to climb some more). sigh... I know this is probably related to the orphanage experience, where getting hurt didn't necessarily bring much sympathy, but I do find it a little unnerving. I get the feeling that someday he'll be dragging around a broken leg or some other appendage and I won't know until I see it.

This is a picture of the Charming Smile (prior to the head scab).
Perhaps he is smiling because he has eaten the following over the course of the last month:

• Parts of about 4 crayons
• A handful or two of sand from the sandbox (And on more than one occasion. Apparently, the first taste didn't deter him.)
• 2 stickers from the doctor's office (different visits...will I ever learn?)
• 2 tines from a plastic fork (this one had me worried, but rest assured, I saw them later during a diaper change)
• Cat food
• Possibly a Lego diver man's air tank (I think he took it out of his mouth after Liam started screaming like crazy because he was so worried about Owen...Liam still thinks he ate it)
• Not even going to mention the bits and pieces of things or food from the floor...

This is going to be the boy who tests that rule that "anything that can fit into a toilet paper tube is a potential choking hazard". I never really believed that rule, to be honest. A toilet paper tube is pretty wide. But as I watched Owen trying to fit one of Natalie's bath toys fully in his mouth the other night I realized that they toy was probably JUST small enough to fit inside a toilet paper tube. And I removed anything smaller than my fist from the tub...

I think he must also be the child the Manufacturers had in mind when they printed "Not For Children Under 3" on every single toy. I always thought they were just overly conservative with those warnings, but now I know why.

Is there any prayer out there for keeping a wild child safe?

On the bright side, he is doing really well. He is communicating things a lot more, between sign language and semi-words. He seems relaxed now, and wakes up happy. There isn't much screaming at all now, except for the kind that seems like a standard almost-2 temper tantrum. Now if I could only say the same for Natalie...yikes...she is still not happy at all.

More Planes, Buses, Autos

Well, we have returned from our first trip with three children. What, you say, are we craaaazy for traveling so soon? Probably. When we landed after our final Russia trip, with Owen in our arms (and around my neck), we looked at each other and swore we wouldn't travel again for at least two years. But...there was a little thing called a 50th Anniversary party going on in Florida. And 50 years is big...really big. And I hadn't seen my parents in almost two years! And my siblings in longer than that. So we went. And, surprise, surprise, we had a great time!

I think it was a nice combination of the kids loving their cousins, aunts/uncle, grandparents, having a nice hotel pool, and there being enough family around to keep one or both of the "agitators" (Owen and Natalie) busy enough to not worry about each other. I am so glad we went. Oh yes, and the party was wonderful. I loved hearing the stories from my Dad's college roommate, and meeting my parent's friends. It was all good.

The travel itself, I could do without, but I guess that's the price to pay. I am so looking forward to the day when we don't have to carry two full-size car seats and one booster with us. And for the record, I know there is a story, complete with video, going around the internet about a woman who used a backpack with a leash on her child and now may be facing child abuse charges, and I would like to express my support and sympathy to her. The monkey backpack and leash was a lifesaver in the airport! Yes, he was in the stroller too, but with plane delays, etc., we had to let him out SOMEtime. And right now all Owen wants to do is run like a man on fire whenever his feet hit the ground in an airport (and many other places). I know the lady in the story was dragging her child around a store by the leash...but hey...I saw the video, and the kid was not cooperating at all. I wasn't dragging Owen around, but it did feel like I was trying to walk a large, uncooperative Rottweiler at times. He is so strong.

Anyway, we made it through the travel. Even the part where we had to wait an hour and a half ON the plane before taking off because of lightning (and that was the only part Owen slept through, of course)...and then the plane started leaking all over Natalie...and then Owen...they say it was because of humidity or temperature change or some such thing. I'm afraid I will never get the image of the paper towels taped to the ceiling/overhead thingy with bandaids out of my head. Then the water breaking through the bandaids and Jim and I and several other people had to wait for take-off with our arms in the air, pressing wads of paper towels into the holes around the lights to try and stop the leaking. I fully expected to be asked to push the plane down the runway and then jump in real quick to get 'er started during takeoff.

So, some pictures from the trip. I also updated the header with a picture of the threesome. It's not the best shot of Natalie, and was only possible with Owen in a stroller, but it is progress.

Congratulations on 50 Years Mom and Dad!!

Dressed in party finery.

Owen meeting Grandma, and doing his best to charm her (I think it worked!).

Natalie dancing with her Daddy on the town square. Retirees know how to have a good time with their live music and line dancing! Natalie only wants to "dip" when she dances.

The threesome in the airport. Owen looks a little worried in this shot. Maybe he's thinking, uhmm, the last time I boarded a plane and ended up half way across the world...what now??

They are all ready to retire NOW and ride around in golf carts all day!