under the weather

on the hottest day of the year, my darling daughter caught a cold.

as weird as that seems it just goes to show that germs are everywhere. rain or shine. all you parents out there who tell your kids to put a coat on so they won't catch a cold, don't bother! coats are not magical screens shielding us from germy harm.

boo to germs.

on the bright side, nat's been cuddling a lot, which is sweet. in fact, we've been taking shifts holding her throughout the night, because she can't lay down. and when i say holding her throughout the night i mean, joe takes shift #1 and i sleep from 8-12 and i take shift #2 while joe sleeps from 12-6. during the weekend i would then go back to bed at 6 and sleep until 8. and IF she napped during the day, it was vertically and in our arms, as well.

5 days and nights of that...? not so sweet.  

tonight is night 6 of this horrid cold. so far nat has been in her crib for her longest stretch of sleep since wednesday. we are at 90 minutes right now. i just finished the lesson planning i didn't get to do while i was home with her on thursday afternoon and friday. there has been coughing, but no crying. i am going to bed now and i am hoping and praying i actually get to sleep more than 4 hours in my own bed tonight.

i am hoping and praying sweet nattie gets a good night of sleep, too.

and joe--he's sick now, also.

goodnight :)

she wrote what?!

last week i was writing some math vocabulary on the board when i realized i made a spelling error. i quickly erased it.

this is when i sigh with relief that not too many first graders are reading or paying much attention to me at this point in the year.

but i start giggling. and i can't stop.

i look over my shoulder and see 23 wide-eyed 6 year olds staring at me. "did you see what i wrote?" i asked.

nothing.

then i see the 24th student in my class with a big smile on his face. "yeah... addition fart" he says.

there's an uproar of laughter for about three minutes, before we i finally regain composure and continue with the lesson.

not my best first grade story, but definitely in the top 3.

if you leave me funny comments today, maybe i'll tell you my top 2 stories.

twinkle, twinkle a little star is born

natalie loves to sing.


she's really tired in this video, but the show must go on!



now isn't that the cutest rendition of twinkle twinkle little star you've ever seen?

who is that boy?

on a saturday in september, the events unfolded like this:

me: ben, do you want your hair cut?
ben: yes!


before the hair cut


mom and dad posing with ben and his "benny fro" for the last time


look at the length!


he can fly!


ready, set...


go! the first snip




that was a big chunk






it's clipper time!






bye bye "benny fro"


almost done...


just a few finishing touches


and wa-la!


look at all that hair


(he wanted to make a beard like taylor)


after the hair cut


it's a whole new benjamin!

as a sidenote, i purposely didn't tell my mom about the big haircut knowing she would pick him up from school on monday and not recognize him. i thought it would be funny. i had no idea just how funny her reaction would be. after she asked the teachers where ben was and then took a good look at the only kid left in the room, she apparently screamed very loudly and fell back against a table. ha ha!

sorry, mom. but not really :) 

do you think he looks more like a parker now?

i'm a school boy now!

for as long as he has known that his big brothers leave for school each weekday morning and he doesn't, ben has wanted to go to school.

we told him he'd get to go when he was 4. big mistake. ben turned 4 in february and school started in august. that was 6 months of him not understanding why he couldn't go to school when he was 4. poor guy.

so when august finally rolled around and we told ben he was really going to start school, he wasn't all that excited. he was probably thinking, "you said that when i turned 4."

but the big day did come and ben was ready.


he styled his own hair



all the boys wore their tie-dye shirts in honor of ben's first day--they were excited for him

in the car and ready to go


once at school, ben had to wait a little while before preschool actually started. luckily dad, taylor, and zachary were there to keep him company.



they posed for more pictures

they walked around the track


and acted a little silly, of course

finally it was time to say goodbye to mom and the brothers and walk over to the preschool classroom. ben was getting really excited now.






not even a rock in his shoe could take away from his special day


taking a sneak peek through the window


yep, still excited


let's do this thing!


signing in


laying on the carpet (ben has a lot to learn!)


there we go!

ben had a great, but tiring  first day.



he has been in school now for 4 weeks. he loves being a school boy so much. he's had to sit in the "thinking chair" a few times, but he always tells us about it and seems to understand why. he loves his teachers and we are grateful for that. it's hard to believe i have three kids in school now.

did you go to preschool?

do you remember it?

the only things i remember about preschool are a girl who bit her lip and swinging on some swings. weird!

date night

last night was date night. remember how i have a goal to go on a date with my husband at least once a month until my next birthday?

we went here.



i had never been. i thought i would only see old people inside, but there were people of all ages. surprise! i don't know why i thought that.

there was a baby who kept crying out, but it didn't really sound like a baby. joe asked "was that a baby?" i said "either that or a really nasty sounding fart." ha ha!

going out without kids is always nice, but no matter how hard i try not to talk about them, our conversations always end up about a kid. or two or three or four.

joe got a salad with his meal. he said it was the best salad. then he shared. i love that guy.


see, two forks!

i ordered chicken and joe ordered a steak kabob. he even swapped rice for mashed potatoes, because that's what i wanted. then he took my picture.


awkward!

take two is better. you can't really see it very well, but i am wearing a necklace i ordered with a gift certificate i got for my birthday. one charm says "joe" the other "julie." so sweet! the necklace is from here.



after dinner we went to see contagion. it was an okay movie--not bad, not WOW. the best part was after the movie was over though. no one in the theater wanted to touch anything. people were walking without holding onto the rail, keeping their distances from surfaces and other people. some were joking about needing to cough. i know that i stopped touching my face about halfway through and trying to scratch an itch with your elbow is hard work.

looking forward to our next date!


not sure what i'm looking at? maybe that baby made another noise?

do you make time for date nights?

what do you do on date nights?

one decade

today's post has something to do with a baby. but not just any baby, my baby. my first baby.

he was born one decade ago on august 20, 2001.



there are so many details i remember about that first pregnancy. the nausea. hanging my head over the toilet, but never getting sick. wishing desperately that i would with the hope that i'd feel better. the countless OB appointments, just to make sure things were ok. the cravings--cheetos, black licorice, ice cream, strawberries, more cheetos. we nicknamed my bump "baby cheeto." i ate so many cheetos! i also ate a lot of strawberries, so many that i broke out in a rash one day. and yep, i went to the OB for that, too. the weight-gain. oh, the weight-gain! 85 pounds. that's the equivalent of a 5th grader, in case you were wondering.



i vividly remember the day we found out he was a boy. our little exam room was packed with family, eager to see an image of the first baby, grand-baby, great-grand-baby, niece/nephew. afterwards, we went out to celebrate finding out that it was a BOY... with food and a giant cake, of course. i remember pulling over and parking in the target parking lot to call someone and share my exciting news. i think of that moment every single time i drive by that target.



i walked a lot during the end of that pregnancy. long walks with my hubby, enjoying our last weeks together alone, secretly hoping to induce labor. the day we put the stroller together, we took it with us on our walk. we put a teddy bear where our soon-to-be baby would sit. ha ha!



on august 19th, the night before taylor was born, i recall sitting in the driveway and whining to the neighbors "this baby is never going to come out." a few hours later, while i was settling into bed, i felt a pop and found a quarter-sized wet spot on the sheet. i thought "this is it!!" i was so excited i couldn't sleep. i tried to read a book, but i was too excited to concentrate. i watched some tv, but not even that could distract me. nothing was happening and that frustrated me. so i got up and ran laps around the coffee table. i did jumping jacks, too. all the while timing contractions and checking for signs of ruptured membranes. nothing. i finally went to bed at 3 am. i got up with joe at 6 the next morning. "should i call the doctor or should i wait and see what happens?" the only reason i hesitated to call was because i had been there the week before thinking my water was leaking and they told me i would definitely know. but here i was and i didn't know anything! those weeks/days before your due date are so exciting and nerve-wracking at the same time.



i called L&D for some advice and the not-so-nice nurse on the other end of the line basically said to come in if i wanted to waste everyone's time. i decided to go back to bed and sleep to L&D and get checked out and then joe and i would go out for breakfast after they sent us home again. i was so hungry too, because i could hardly eat anything at night due to heartburn. my tummy grumbled the whole way to the hospital. we parked and walked leisurely into L&D. then we sat and waited. and waited and waited and waited. it was over an hour before someone talked with us and took us to a room. then we waited some more. another hour passed before a doctor came in to examine me. i was ready to just go and get my breakfast. hungry preggo = grouchy patient.

when the OB finally came in, i immediately apologized for wasting her time. i told her how i thought my water had been leaking in small amounts randomly for a week and that i was told i was just peeing myself. (loved that). i also told her i was very hungry and that we were going to go get breakfast after we left. this very nice OB didn't make me feel like i was wasting her time though or that i shouldn't have come in, which made me not so grouchy anymore (but still hungry). within 5 seconds of looking at me, she said "OH YEAH your water is leaking. go put this on while i get the nurses to start your paperwork. you are having a baby TODAY!"  the floodgates of emotion opened and the ball started rolling. mommyhood was right around the corner.



9 hours and 9 minutes later i was holding and pink, flat-eared, cone-headed, wailing bundle of joy. i was sooo happy and sooo hungry (never got that breakfast or anything else for that matter). i scarfed down something (??) and then snuggled my new baby. my first born son. the little boy who made me a mama.



it's been 10 years (and a few weeks) since that day. being his mama is an honor. it's not always easy. in fact, it's the hardest job i've ever had. but i love being a mom--i love being his mom.

happy (belated) birthday to my boy taylor!


new baby


coming home!


then: party of 3


now: party of 6


birthday boy with birthday breakfast


birthday sign and birthday mini-nerf gun


birthday cake


birthday lunch with a friend and ben


birthday dessert (yes, that was all his)


my 10 year old :)

man, i feel old!