One step backwards ... two steps forward

I can only hope so. This week I am back to work full time. Its so hard. I miss the extra time I had with the babes. And they are really all babes at this point. They need so much nurturing. I do feel confident that others can nurture them too. Samantha has a wonderful kindergarten teacher and I know she doesn't let her get away with anything (getting her to focus and complete her work is the challenge right now). Andrew has two very sweet, loving teachers who I always learn a thing or two from (they have an amazing way of dealing with whining...yes, are you surprised my 4 year old likes to whine ;)). And Matthew, well, he may not realize it but his caretakers are so loving. They are very laid back and yet very encouraging and contentious of his needs (and his mommy's).

These wake up times are the last time I got up (because we all know with infants there are those night time feedings).
Work day 1. Up at 6:30am (no thanks to some crazy weather and an hour spent in the closet from 1am-2am with the kids). To work by 8:50.

Work day 2. Up at 6am. To work at 8:50. Hummm.

Work day 3. Up at 4:45. To work by 8:30.

Why is it that I can get up over and hour earlier and still get to work only 20 minutes earlier...tomorrow I have a conference call to the east coast at 8am CST. Do I have to get up at 3am? I hope not!

MLK, Jr.

Yesterday we observed Martin Luther King's birthday. A few years ago I might have been concerned or, well, honestly nervous nervous that if I talked to my kids about what MLK represented I couldn't do a good job, or worse, I'd introduce my innocent kids to the idea of racism. They like so many their ages refer to people descriptively as peach and brown, or light brown or dark peach. Using the terms black and white to describe the color of our skin doesn't make sense. Nor should it.

Now that the kids are a lil older. I have talked to them and read a book (written for kids) about MLK. yesterday I made the point of talking with Samantha about why she was off school. She told me simply to celebrate Martin Luther King. When I asked her who he is, she said he was a President (?) and that he led 6 thousand people on a walk because they weren't happy with where they were allowed to eat or go to school. She also told me his house was bombed. Not 100% accurate, but it's a start. We then talked about why he was 'protesting' and why the restrictions based on race were unfair and unchristian.

To my surprise, AJ also had talked about MLK at school. Riding home he told me. "mommy a long time ago a man lived whose name was Martin Luther King, Jr. He wanted us to all get together and to not be mean to each other. He died before my teacher was born. Mommy, did you know that?!"

Talking with my kids about MLK and the history of our country has become an emotional experience for me. I cannot keep dry eyes discussing the oppression of people because they were different. May there be peace on earth.

You can call me....

Samantha has always been very particular about what others call her. When she had no verbal say she seemed to tolerate " Mantha-moo" from her caretakers (I hated it though). Most of the time she corrects people if they call her anything but Samantha.

This was our conversation this afternoon.

Me, "Matthew, are you looking at your sissy?" I cringed waiting for her to correct me, and quickly added, "Samantha, do you want Matthew to call you Sissy?"

Samantha, "he can call me whatever he wants because I love him so much. He can call me Samantha, Sissy, or SamE, or even Sugarpop."

Me, "Sugarpop?"

Samantha, "Yeah, Daddy calls me that sometimes."

I had no idea.

i.m.p.r.e.s.s.e.d.

Driving into work the other day (my first partial day back without Matthew) here was the conversation.

Andrew, "Mommy, how do you spell impressed?"

Me, "i, m, p, r, e, s, s, e, d" (I thought I misheard him) "Andrew, do you know what 'impressed' means?"

Andrew, "Well, mommy, when your iPad reads Toy Story to me it says, 'All of the toys except Woody were impressed' when Buzz pushes a button on his space suit."

Me, "yes, but what does that mean? Could you use a different word?"

Andrew, "They think what he can do is cool."

So, there you have it. The iPad may not be all bad if AJ can gain some interest in new vocabulary. Maybe I shouldn't fight them so much when they want to borrow it?

*and so begins my attempt to shorten the blog posts, but increase their frequency.

Fast as lightening or thunder or a cheetah...

"Fast as lightening or thunder or a cheetah..." This is how Andrew likes to describe himself or his cars. This is how I describe time!


I *think* these are in somewhat chronological order. Let me state the obvious. Matthew has changed so much. The kids have adjusted very well to his presence. Its been an interesting month with the holidays here at the same time as maternity leave. It was fantastic to be home for an extended time over Christmas especially with Samantha off from school. I will admit I think it made my leave go much faster (which isn't a good thing). This time at home has really given us some time to feel like our house is really our home now. David took about 4 extra days off and it was great to have the extra help here. The kids are more comfortable in the house- Samantha is no longer afraid to go upstairs by herself! Andrew and Samantha also had more time to play with each other than they ever had before (yes, there was more bickering too). Andrew now realizes how much he loves his friends at school especially the boys who play cars and football with him everyday. This time at the house leaves me thinking long term about changes to make cosmetically to the space- well, sort of, leaves me thinking I need my sisters help to actually put the ideas together.


We didn't travel since Matthew was so young and still waking every 3 hours for feeding, but we've had some visitors and expect even more in the coming months.

Above, Matthew at 2 weeks meets his new friend Ashton (7 weeks).
Christmas Eve's eve. Some pictures of the kids.
Both kids love to hold Matthew. Below are the days of old...cradle hold. Now they have to hold him like Samantha is above. A reverse hug. Yesterday, Samantha held him while I read the kids a LONG book- probably for about 10 minutes. She was so proud. The new competition is who can make him smile :).
Daddy of the Year. At least we like to think so. He was also Manager of the Year at Permobil where they had a record sales year with 100K in sales. Its been an exciting year for him and this coming year is starting to look just as busy!
Samantha's photography skills...(above)

My boys cuddling during a Saints game.

We've had a pretty mild winter so far. Of course the yo-yoing temperatures make it difficult to keep these colds at bay. The picture below was taken on Andrew's 4th birthday. He was so proud that he was wearing a 4 year old shirt (despite the fact that we have to roll the sleeves about 2-3 inches). Matthew doing the "O" as the kids like to say.

Samantha working on her collection :). She has a collection of nature goods- rocks, sticks, pinecones, acorns, sand, dirt...My challenge is keeping it out of the house. She has a bucket now that she leaves in the garage, but I did find about 6 small rocks in her book bag yesterday.

Happy New Year, everyone. We love you.

Where are we living these days?

I go back to work gradually over the next two weeks and one of the items on my to do list is to give you all an update on the family, the new house, and probably a few other things. Who knows maybe this will lead to a blogging storm. Somehow I doubt it.

First for some pics of the house. (this is for you Grandma, Heather and Amy...) I had to dig a picture of the outside out from the summer when we made an offer on the house.

The 'grand' entrance into the home (taken at night). If you know me well, I am not a fan of this space. Its wasteful and way to grand for me. Oh, and the way sound carries in this house with 3 kids can be a little rough, yet it truly is music to my ears because I know I am blessed.
Here is the great room which we have dubbed the 'rugby' room because of the paint job on the walls. Its definitely late 80s. One day the 9 ft mirror will come down and we will paint the room.
You can see the catwalk that is upstairs in the mirror's reflection.
Below if you go back to the foyer and look right, you see the future office/ sitting room. For a while we were using this as a play room, but we've now moved the kids toys to the bonus room above the garage (no pic yet, getting new carpet, ect, so maybe later).
Opposite the future office is the dining room. Its a great size and we look forward to updating the chandelier sometime soon. You can see the laundry room through the opening in the far doorway. Its massive and ugly.

Here is our kitchen. This is a dream kitchen for me after navigating in our one person kitchen at the old house. Here the kids can both be helping me bake and we've really enjoyed alot of that these past few weeks. We made ginger snaps, lots of banana bread, decorated gingerbread men, and made animal cutout sugar cookies. They love to help in the kitchen!

Please if there is a mess in a room, ignore it. We're lacking sleep here these days and cleaning isn't always on the top of our list of things to do. (similar to blogging in importance these days) Actually, in the kids room cleaning was a priority the day I took this picture and AJ's sheets are hanging because they weren't quite dry coming out of the dryer. AJ and Samantha share the room below b/c Samantha is afraid to sleep by herself. There is a Jack and Jill bath between this room and the nursery.
Here is Matthew's nursery. I decorated differently this time. Primary colors, Paddington Bear and some antique rustic trains, an abacus, ect. The "M" on the wall is made of crayola crayons. The squares you see are the kids hand prints.
This is "Samantha's" room which is really a guest bedroom at this point. We were lucky Grandmommy and Granddaddy donate a nice antique full bed for the room and a dresser. Grandma and Grandpa also got us some furniture (a really beautiful cabinet for the 1/2 bath off the great room).
This is obviously the back of the house. Just beyond our Accord is a small porch. There is a sliding door to the great room and our bedroom off the porch. We have about 1.8 acres here! I thought we might loose our beautiful sunsets when we left our home in Franklin. Do you think I was wrong? Very wrong.