New Year’s tradition

Can I just say that hubbs is the smartest man ever? At breakfast this morning he asked the kids to tell us what they were most thankful for in 2011. When everyone had talked about specific toys and events, he said that we need to make room for 2012.

Get it? Make space. Get rid of clutter. And he got the kids on board. Because if they want 2012 to be as awesome as 2011 was, they need to have space for it! So we spent the morning cleaning out Little Man’s room. And the afternoon was spent cleaning out Bean’s room. Of the two, Bean’s was much harder. While on first glance it seemed like the cleaner of the two rooms, Bean has a knack for turning other people’s trash into her treasure. And hiding it.

One conversation with her went like this:

Hubbs: “How about this Burger King crown. Why don’t you wear it more often?”

Bean: “Because, um, it’s cardboard. And it’s not pretty.”

Hubbs: “So, maybe you can throw it away now?”

Bean (as she puts the cardboard not pretty crown on): “NO!!!”

The crown eventually did make it to the trash today, along with a very great deal of the rest of her “treasures”. The good news is that Bruiser is only attached to a few things, so tomorrow will likely be an easier day.

Loving our brand new tradition! I think it’ll be back every year.

Six

Six years ago today Little Man was born. 3 weeks early, but through what must have been the easy labor and delivery ever. He was easy going then, and he’s still easy going today.

Little Man is truly a gift – he lights up a room by walking into it. He can befriend anybody in no time flat. He knows everything there is to know about dinosaurs, planets, Lego Ninjago, and Star Wars. He’s an awesome brother. He’ll earn his green belt in Tae Kwan Do this week. He wears his heart on his sleeve – he’s not afraid to tell you how much he likes you, how pretty you are, or how glad he is to be spending time with you (watch out, ladies!). When we’re sitting at bedtime reading a story, he likes to run his little fingers through my hair.  And the things that come out of his mouth are priceless. Just today:

“My 3 favorite things are God, Jesus, and Legos.” (That’s the trinity, right? Father, Son, and Holy Bricks?)

He came home today wearing a paper “Happy Birthday” crown that his teacher made for him, and all the kids in his kindergarten class signed. Love that. Instead of a birthday party with friends, the whole family went out to see The Muppets at the Studio Movie Grill – it’s a restaurant-movie theater, where every seat is at a table facing the screen, and waiters come to take your order. There’s a full menu, complete with strawberry lemonade, chicken nachos, milkshakes… Between the movie and the experience of dinner at the ‘theatre’ it was an awesome day.

Little Man went to bed tonight with only a little regret. “Tomorrow it won’t be my birthday anymore.” But he sure did have a great day today.

Star Wars Theology

When I get to heaven, I’m gonna ask God if I can be C3-P0.

–Little Man (nearly 6)

Right after that, he made this Lego sculpture of C3-P0:

Note: If you came in search of actual Star Wars theology, I’m sorry to disappoint. But please check out this article that does discuss Star Wars Theology.

3 things

1. My girl saw the dentist for the first time. Verdict? She’s a cavity-free 7 year old who loves the dentist. Her only complaint was that visits to the dentist are messy.
2. All 3 of my children ate their dinner tonight. All of it. And 2 of them asked for seconds. (Recipe below, but no picture – the kids ate it faster than I could photograph)
3. I got a new client today, which means we have a little more wiggle room at Christmas (a.k.a., Super-fun-trip-to-grandparents-and-Legoland)

Recipe for Mudlark’s Chicken & Yellow Rice  (Mudlark’s mom’s chicken and yellow rice is far better, but I couldn’t be bothered today to search for the recipe – but this was a big hit with the kids)
1 TBS butter
1 medium onion
1 medium carrot
1-2 cooked chicken breast halves
1 small pkg of yellow rice with saffron seasoning
1 can of chicken broth
3/4 c. raisins

Chop the onion and carrot, and saute in butter till onion starts to brown and carrots are soft. Add rice and broth, reduce heat and cover, and cook about 20 minutes or until rice is cooked. Remove from heat and stir in raisins. Cover and let sit 5 minutes. Voila! (And give kids extra raisins…)

DIY Spider costume!

Little Man wanted to be a ghost. Talk about a happy mama! All I needed was a sheet, scissors, a black marker, and about 10 minutes. But as 5-yr olds tend to do, he changed his mind. About a gazillion times. Until he settled on being a spider for Halloween. It was a little more advanced than a ghost, but still doable. Here’s my little spider:

Let’s take a minute to note that (a) I am no seamstress, (b) I plugged in my sewing machine for the first time this week, and (c) I am far from being detail-oriented.

Given my novice sewing skills, this was a stretch. But, here’s how I did it:

I bought a black sweatshirt, black sweatpants, and a long sleeve black t-shirt at the thrift store.

I cut the arms off the long sleeve t-shirt and used them as a template to cut another set of arms out of the body of the shirt.

Seamed the new sleeves, and turned them all inside out to close the ‘hand’ ends. Sewed the top half of the top opening in place where I wanted the new arms to be.

Stuffed all the arms (except the original sweatshirt arms) with old socks and scrap fabric, then finished sewing them in place. Used jewelry beading clear thread to connect the arms so that when Little Man raises his arms, the other arms come up too.

When all that was done, I used puffy glow-in-dark fabric paint to create a web on the front, and then coated that with silver glitter. Finally, I sewed some white and black felt eyes onto an old black hat, and voila!

Update: The beading floss used to attach his arms broke more than once. In the end, I realized that the stress on it is lower and the overall costume effect is greater if I attach it at the ‘hand’ end of the arms rather than the elbow area. That way the artificial arms mimic his real arms, and stress on the floss is unidirectional. Seems to help.

DIY Halloween costume: Kitty Cat

Bean wanted to be a cheerleader for Halloween and that was fantastic – we had the cheerleader outfit collecting dust in the dress-up box. Easy. Perfect. Till I checked the weather. Silly me – first halloween since moving from Florida and I realized that weather is actually a concern. I found a cute kitty cat costume online, but since it was last minute and all, Bean’s size was sold out.

A trip to the thrift store landed me a winter white sweater and a fuzzy black long sleeve, long legged unitard (jumpsuit?). With scissors and my brand spankin new sewing machine, I turned all of that (plus felt for ears) into this:

Ignore the white fuzzies on the floor… The sweater sheds…

Ignore the non-photogenic furniture – I needed the light for the shot.

Isn’t she cute??? The whole costume, felt included, cost $7. And I have the satisfaction of knowing I made it myself. And the sleep deprivation from deadlines stacked on top of each other to make my eye twitch. It’s hard to sew when your eye is twitching.

Milestones!

Bean can ride a bike! She saw a few kids riding their bikes without training wheels and asked us to remove them from her bike. The last time this happened she had a quick change of heart, so this time we didn’t waste any time. After a push from hubbs, she was on her way.

Go Bean!

Look at her, beaming with pride! She couldn’t wait to go to school and tell her friends about it!

And how can this be 4 years ago when it seems like just yesterday?

3? Really?

Yesterday this little treasure turned 3. Can you believe it? I can’t. Bruiser was just learning to walk yesterday! Or so it seems…

Today was a different story though. Today we took him and Little Man to the neurologist. Today we started Bruiser on anti-seizure meds.  The same anti-seizure meds that caused Little Man to stop talking, stop smiling, and stop laughing for more than 5 months. I’m looking forward to see what tomorrow brings. We have Bruiser scheduled for an EEG, and both boys are up for MRIs of the brain. Bruiser has no idea what’s coming, but Little Man listened carefully to the conversation with the neurologist and pumped me with questions on the way home. What’s an EEG? What’s an MRI? Why do we have to go the hospital? Will I get a shot? (I gracefully side-stepped that one, not wanting to burden his already anxious mind with images of the IV.) What’s a neurologist and why do I have to see him? Why doesn’t Bean have to see him?

Fun conversations, and just the tip of the iceberg today. Here’s Little Man, monkeying around to entertain everyone on Bruiser’s birthday:

Back on the roller coaster

Until last night, Bruiser had been seizure free (or nearly so) for a year and half. His seizures were so bad when we lived overseas that we had to move back to the US just to find him proper medical care. Funny that almost immediately after relocating state-side his seizures stopped.

In January he had 1 seizure-like episode that I brushed under the rug – it wasn’t severe enough for me to be convinced that he was having seizure activity again. But last night there were 2. The first was minor, but the second was intense. It ended before the critical 3-minute mark, so we didn’t need to call paramedics. But today we start again – trips to the pediatrician and neurologist, which will be followed with MRI and EEG, and then we’ll see…

There’s a temptation to fall into the ‘woe is me’ attitude. But I’m reminded that God is faithful. He’s been faithful to us before, and He’ll be faithful to us again.  While the return of the seizures may come as a shock to me, it doesn’t surprise God in the least. He is aware, He knew it was coming, and He relocated us to Atlanta – where our favorite pediatric neurologist is – just in time for this.

Progress Update

Hubbs is loving the new job – in fact, right now he’s at a conference in Nashville meeting with lots of other people who do what he does at similar organizations. He’s learning lots and really digging in.

Before he left for Nashville he found us a house! We’re moving in the weekend of March 18th, which gives me less than 3 weeks to pack (while working and studying full-time).

And I got Bruiser fully potty trained! That means we’re pretty much out of diapers – for the first time in about 7 years. Bruiser still wears a diaper at night – but that’s more because I don’t want the hassle of getting out of bed to take him to the potty. My laziness = night time diapers for him. It’s ok though. We’ll break that habit before he goes to college.

And, I’m doing pretty darn well with my 13 credit hour course load towards my BSN. I’m finishing up one class this week with a high A, and right now I’m at a 4.0 across the board. I’m pretty confident that’s going to droop just a bit after I take my first closed-book Anatomy & Physiology test, but hopefully not too much.

The kids are excited about the move – they miss their dad and are looking forward to moving on from our transitional stage. Bean will be 7 in a month and wishes we could stay here for her birthday. She’s made really good friends here and she isn’t thrilled about leaving, but she is excited about going back to Georgia (and getting her own room).

Oh. And I signed up to run a 5K. You may remember that I’ve been doing the Couch to 5K plan, and one of my new years resolutions was to actually stick to the plan. Well, I haven’t. And I get winded after running for a whole 90 seconds. So I should only need about 8 more weeks to train for the 5K I signed up for. Too bad it’s actually in 2 weeks.

So that’s it. I’m not drowning – yet – but I just might in another week and half. Check back for signs of life.