Let Them Be Little

This week, I've been thinking about New Year's resolutions. I've made a few, and voiced a couple to the kids that I'd like to instill for the family.

#1 - once a week, exact day is still TBD, we will go sugar-free, except for fruits and vegetables. 

#2 - this one was Tyler's idea, once a week, we will go screen-free. Again, exact day, TBD, but probably different than the sugar-free day.

Personal resolutions:

#1 - in bed, lights out, by 10pm, 6 days a week. 

#2 - less late night snacking (yes, totally guilty of this bad habit). I think #1 should help with this.

Lastly, as the title of this blog says, LET THEM BE LITTLE.

I like this sentence. I got it from my friend, Kami, who has been working with some of her friends on a collaborative photo blog, capturing the daily lives of their kids. It is titled 'let them be little.' It is truly so sweet to see their photos of their children being just who they are. 

This past week, this sentence really hit me, and it made me think about how I feel as if I am sometimes rushing my children to be bigger than they are. Mostly Vincent, and sometimes Tyler. Not really with Crosby, though, I'm sure I've done it. What reminded me of this was over this weekend, when Tyler and I went to get a birthday gift for his buddy. Tyler excitedly picked out this bubble making set. Personally, I loved it, too, but I questioned his choice, thinking it was too childish or little for Max. Tyler was positive that it was THE gift. It said on the box 'Age 5+.' Max turned 5 years old, so, clearly, age appropriate. Nonetheless, I thought what I thought, and even text messaged his mom to say that I will include a gift receipt.

Guess what? Max LOVED the gift. And, his older brother (almost 7 years old), and little brother loved it, too. 

This reminded me that I need to embrace my children's littleness. How will I incorporate this into my 2014 resolutions? I don't know. Maybe just being mindful of this, and trying to live in my children's moments as much as I can will do the trick.

Happy 7th Birthday, Vincent!

I can't believe I have a 7 year old kid. Before I talk about what kind of kid Vincent is at this age, let me tell about his day.

First of all, we were all set to have a birthday party for him this afternoon. It was probably going to be his best one yet. We have been planning it for about a month, maybe longer now. Vincent asked to have a Beyblade party, where he and his friends can battle Beyblades. Maybe you recognize these people.

We let Vincent choose 8 friends to invite. We decided we would do it tournament-style, with brackets. We got each kid their own Beyblade, purchased 2 battle arenas, and a Beyblade cake. It was going to be pretty epic. Last night, we showed the kids the stuff we bought, let them each pick out a new Beyblade, and even did a few practice battles. 

We sent the kids off the bed, and were going finish getting ready for the big day, when we heard Tyler coughing badly upstairs. I went to check on him, and found Vincent by his side, trying to calm and help him. Then, he threw up. Ugh. David was also not feeling well yesterday, and Vincent had a cough, too. It was a major bummer, but we decided to postpone the party a couple of weeks. 

Fast forward to today...

Vincent got up around his usual time, and we soon let him open his gifts. He received a new mystery Bey-booster from Japan, and a Bey-locker from me, $7 from his Aunt Tiffany, a science kit from his Uncle Michael and Aunt Naomi, and a skate board with safety gear from David.

Money!

Japanese Beyblade

Examining the Beyblade info.

"What? I got a heater?"

"Cool skateboard, Vincent."

Vincent asked for breakfast from McDonald's, so Tyler and I went to the drive-thru and picked stuff up for us all, except Crosby, of course. After breakfast, the boys did some battling, then Crosby took a nap. I let the boys watch an episode of Beyblades and an episode of Rescue Bots. Then, Vincent picked "Super Buddies" to watch. After some lunch, I took him to the mall to pick up his cake, and let him do a little shopping with his birthday money. Guess what he picked out? Another Beyblade. I kept trying to convince him to see what he gets for Christmas, but finally came to my senses that it's his birthday. It's his money. He can choose what he wants. Unfortunately, the place where we got it from was overpriced, but it's a local small business.

When we got home, he tested out his new toy with Tyler, then it was time for his birthday dinner choice: Pagliacci pizza. Oh, we did a little FaceTime with his grandparents, too. After pizza was cake. After cake, all the boys got bathed. We ended the day by watching a DVD of old family videos from David's childhood, which cracked the boys up a bunch.

Fingers crossed for a healthier family tomorrow. 

And, now, a little about our 7 year old, Vincent. Vincent is:
-Curious. He asks tons of questions about all sorts of stuff. But, what he really likes to ask is, "What if...(insert random, weird, makes little sense scenario)?"
-Kind. Most of the time. 
-Sensitive. In good ways, and not so good ways.
-A reader. Yup. About a couple of months ago, he suddenly seemed to turn a corner. Sort of out of the blue. He still struggles, as expected, since he's only in 1st grade, but he's definitely reading. He needs tons of encouragement and reassurance, as he thinks he can't really read. Um, yes, boy, you can.
-Decent at math. This seems to be his strength. What is challenging in this subject are the word problems, but he's coming along. As far as the basic arithmetic part, he's pretty good.

-A good buddy with Enzo from school, and our Tyler. He loves to play with Tyler at home, even if they bicker.
-Into Beyblades, Skylanders, Legos, & Star Wars.
-A really good big brother to his baby brother, Crosby.
-Compassionate. Most of the time.
-Soon to be joining the black belt training program at his karate dojo. 
-Spirited, sweet, smart, funny, silly, outgoing, friendly, good looking, fun, loving, caring, hot headed, patient, impatient, and wonderful.

For Crosby

Dear Crosby,

Today, you turned a little corner in your development. Just a little, but it's still a big deal to us. For the past 2-3 months, you have been very content to sit and play, or watch your brothers play. You have always enjoyed standing, with us holding you on our laps, too. Gradually, you have been showing less interest in sitting and more in standing. This week, however, you have especially showed preference for standing up. You make your legs very stiff when we try to sit you down, and sometimes complain once someone gets you into a sitting position.

The little corner you turned today was when you were sitting, you leaned forward and was able to keep yourself up better than you had in the past. In addition, tonight, when we were all down in the basement getting ready for Vincent's Beyblade party tomorrow, I stood you up next to the train table to see if you liked it. You did. When I sat you back down, since you were losing balance, you grabbed on to the side of the table, and started to work on pulling yourself up. Two times you were able to get yourself into a standing position on your own! You didn't stay up long, and the second time you actually fell over and got a little hurt, but you did it! When you got hurt, it looked like you might have bumped your eye. I put a cold pack on you for the first time, and that was a confusing experience for you. You did let me hold it against your eye for a while, but you really wanted to hold the cold pack and put it in your mouth.

Seeing you make this little advancement tonight was bittersweet. Although I am happy to have you stay put in one place, and I want to keep you little forever, it is still so fun to watch you grow and learn.

I love you, my sweet boy.

Mama

Outnumbered And In The Weeds

Okay, I will admit it. We are totally outnumbered by small creatures in our house. Yes, and in the weeds, as they say in restaurant lingo. Even one of our cats, Stella, feels it, and she's one of the contributors to the madness.

Creature #1, the oldest of the bunch. She feels so crazy, she got herself a new hair do.

It is non-stop here. Right now, we are in the weeds with: sick kids, laundry hampers that magically refill themselves with dirty clothes after they have just been emptied, little plastic water cups that multiply when they get wet, hungry cats, hungry kids, homework, karate lessons, piano lessons, ugh! sick kids again, dirty floors, pee on the floor, puke, cutting little fingernails, eczema, Christmas, a birthday 3 days before Christmas, junk mail piling up, dentist appointments, and the cats' flea meds were supposed to be given last week...All being done on way too little sleep.

It's all pretty trivial, aside from the sick kids. All families are busy with this or that. I don't know how other families with 3, or more, children keep it together. There is always someone who needs us for something. 

I'm not complaining, per se. It's more that I am stating the facts of our life now. Friends who are in a different place in their lives at this time will ask if we want to do this or that. I can't help but feel lame when I decline because I need to put the baby to bed at a specific time each night, since he doesn't take a bottle, and we haven't insisted on him doing so. I know my friends aren't judging me, and they probably understand. 

The truth is, David and I have sort of allowed ourselves to be where we're at, and it's not a bad thing. I know that I will only breastfeed Crosby for about a year, maybe 18 months. In the grand scheme of things, it's not very long. With the first two, before I knew it, they were ready to ween, whether I was or not. So, for now, I don't go to ladies night, unless it ends by 6pm. Or, we put the kids to bed, then we head out for a late night snack (the kids have someone with them). We also made the decision for our 2nd boy to only go to preschool 3 days a week, which allows him to bond with #3, and to try out other activities. We also recently fired our house cleaner, and I am crazy enough to think that we'll be fine without one. It's been okay, but it's definitely contributed to the extra work here. 

But, as I sat down to compose this blog post, with all these thoughts of what to say, the quickly fade when I look through my photos of ones to post. I thought I could find some photos of them doing something ridiculous recently, but the only ridiculous thing about them is how freakin' cute they all are. That picture of Stella, above, was the most crazy I could find. Well, I guess I could have whipped out my camera at the pizza place tonight while Tyler was puking up his who meal and David was trying to catch it into napkins so it wouldn't get all over the floor. That wouldn't have gone over too well with David, though. Or, when Crosby threw up on him a few days ago. Yes, two different kids have puked in the last week. 

I have very little time for myself. What little I have, I fill it with silly games on my iPad, since they can be turned off quickly, or squeeze in some Christmas shopping (almost done!). Some of our standards have been lowered drastically. I like to say that we are on survival mode at this point. I wish I could make a batch of cookies for the teachers at Vincent's school for teacher appreciation, but just thinking about it stresses me out. I'm not even sure if Santa will get homemade cookies this year. We are lucky that most nights I can put out a fresh, home cooked dinner. Um, that's IF I have gone shopping for food.

There is this part of me that says, "Hey, you, get it together! Plenty of people have 3 kids and get way more done than you do. Their kids are top of their class, with tons of extra curricular activities. They travel the world with all their kids in tow. They go to work (outside the home). They bake cookies, make their own baby food (okay, I do that sometimes, too), they are starting their own businesses..." The list goes on. And, then I just tell that little voice in my head to SHUT UP!

I love my kids. I love to love on my kids. I live to love to love on my kids. I feel outnumbered, in the weeds, overwhelmed, crazy, and so so so blessed.

Nutcracker 2013

David's mom was supposed to see Nutcracker with Vincent, Tyler and I today at the Pacific Northwest Ballet. Unfortunately, she caught a stomach bug and had to postpone her trip to Seattle (with my father-in-law). We were bummed, but we'll see them in a couple of weeks. I took Vincent last year, and he had a good time. Tyler said he wanted to go with us this year, too. Our friends, the Hildebrandts, offered to watch Crosby for us to that David could go in Nana's place. Vincent seemed to enjoy it even more this year. Tyler was scared to start, and then just wanted to talk the whole time. Sigh. Oh well. Nonetheless, it was a good time.

When we picked Crosby up, he cried when he saw me. They said he pretty much slept most of the time we were gone. 

 

(Belated) 6 Month Stats And Life With Crosby At This Age

Yes, yes, Crosby will be 7 months old next week, and I am just now posting his stats from his 6 month check up. Part of the problem was that David accidentally left the paperwork they give us at the appointment in the exam room, and they shredded it after we left. I had them mail a copy of it, and then never got around to posting about it. 

The other part of the problem is that at 6 months old, Crosby's naps have only been about 30 minutes long. That only gives me enough time in the afternoon to make sure Tyler is okay in his room resting, and think about what I need to get done, but not really getting anything done. Sigh.

The past few days, his napping has been longer, but I think because he has a little cold. Unfortunately, things are worse at night. Last night, he cried off and on from about midnight until 1:30am. We kept going in to comfort him, but as soon as we walked out, he'd cry again. Double sigh.

But, I digress. 

At his 6 month check up, Crosby weighed in at 19lbs 4oz, 50-75%. I'm actually surprised that his percentile wasn't higher. He was 27.5 inches long, which is around 75% as well. 

Crosby is such a sweet, happy baby. He has started to get some mild separation anxiety. Not particularly to me, but to anyone he is familiar with. For example, if I walk away from him, he will fuss until someone else he knows comes to comfort him. It's not too bad, but, I imagine this is just the beginning.

Food has been a fun area to explore with Crosby. We started him around 5 months, and have gone pretty slow with it. Unless we are in a bind and need to give him something quick, such as a piece of pizza crust to gnaw on, he pretty much eats a single food at a time. We are still cycling through a few familiar foods, and slowly adding new ones here and there. He has had peas, carrots, sweet potato, acorn squash, prunes, pears, bananas, apples, and mango. There aren't too many baby foods out there that don't mix a couple of ingredients together. I've been trying to make my own when possible, but it's tough.

As for activity, Crosby enjoys the Jumperoo for exercise. He can roll from front to back and back to front, but he does not prefer to do it. He is sitting on his own now, which he has been working on since about 5.5 months old. When on his tummy, he can swivel from side to side to reach an object, such as Stella, our cat. She is actually one of the only things that can get that boy moving. He really gets a kick out of her.

On the sleep front, as I mentioned earlier, it's not so good. He does go to bed awake and falls asleep on his own, but he needs help getting back to sleep at least once or twice a night. It's hard. He likes a pacifier for napping, but doesn't need it to fall asleep at night. We may give it to him in the middle of the night if we are having a hard time calming him. He doesn't suck on his thumb to sleep, but will chew on it throughout the day, probably because of teething.

We are a very busy family. More than ever. I have help 2 afternoons a week, which I spend most of that time running around picking up this kid, then that kid, then taking this one here, or that one there. There is little down time, but it is helpful to mostly deal with one child at a time. I feel like it's not much help, but adding more almost seems unnecessary. I don't know. We make it work for us as much as we can. I try to think to myself that, aside from Vincent going to school, all the things we do can be missed from time to time if needed. Yeah, we spent the money on it, but if we get there late, or can't make it altogether, it's not the end of the world. 

It's Halloween, Baby!!

The boys were so excited this morning for Halloween. I truly think it's more than just the candy. It was really good day, but I'm going to skip the details and just get to the pictures.

Vincent and a couple of his buddies.

 Montlake's P.E. teacher loves to teach the kids dance moves. Here they are all lined up and ready to show off their "Thriller" dance.

 Obi-wan Kanobi and Muscle Ninja

 My whole entourage.

 One of Vincent's classmates do a Halloween open house each year. We went there first, then headed out to trick or treat. Enzo and his mom came with us!

 One of the things we love about our neighborhood is that it really is a tight little community. While on "Trick Or Treat Street", more friends joined us for the haunt.

 Just a sample of some of the houses on this street we went to.

#1 - The Hot Buttered Rum house

 #2 - The Trick Or Treat House, the house that started it all here on this street.

 #3 - The Disney Movie house. This year was Alice In Wonderland, complete with Mad Hatter, The Queen of Hearts, and some of her cards.

 Happy Halloween!!

Photos

So much has happened in the last month. Here are some photo highlights:

September 30 - Crosby can get his pacifier into his mouth on his own.

October 2 - Crosby fell asleep while jumping.

October 9 - The big boys checked their own luggage for the first time, and got to remove them from the conveyor belt themselves.

October 11 - Our sweet 6 month old baby.

 

October 16 - First shopping cart ride.

October 17 - Fell asleep during the last part of our "dance" class, while being rocked inside this lycra "swing." I wish I had a picture of him inside, as he looked like he was underwater.

October 18 - Big brother wanted to get a picture while kissing baby brother. So sweet. These boys love each other so much.

Someone got his first rice cracker!

October 19 - Vincent and his soccer team.

Oh my goodness! We need Tyler, too!! October 17 - My leaves loving 2nd child. Only having to take one kid to karate is so much easier. We actually have time to do fun things like run through the piles of leaves on the side walk, and grab a bunch and throw them in the air.

October 18 - I walked downstairs one morning to find Tyler sitting on the counter, mixing eggs. He has been really into cooking eggs for breakfast recently.

Good Eats

Friday night, Tyler went to Parents' Night Out at his preschool. For us, this means, parents and other kids' night out. David and I took Vincent and Crosby out to dinner. We were going to go to Target, but there was so much traffic on the freeway that we just went to dinner. 

We all had a tough time picking a place. Vincent's first suggestion was Burger King. Um, sorry, Kiddo, we don't know where one is. We tried a couple of places in Capitol Hill, near our old house. We ended up with a table at a semi-nice place called Rione XIII. It has pizza, which is what Vincent wanted after all. It was a winner, because Vincent ate pretty well. Yeah, he had a cheese pizza, but he also enjoyed David's pasta carbonara. Crosby was pretty fussy, but we managed to calm him with some pizza crust.

We've noticed that he does get pretty overwhelmed around dinner time when we are in a loud place. Of course, he's a baby. Babies are easily overstimulated. Plus, around 5p-7p is hit or miss on calm vs. fussy for him, even at home.

On Saturday, we hit some good eats, again. This time at Gourmet Noodle Bowl in the International District. I wanted to go there for lunch on Friday, but could not find parking. We got a good spot this time. This place makes good Taiwanese noodle food. A huge bowl of beef noodle soup. Mmmmm. Popcorn chicken. Steamed pork buns, aka soup dumplings. And, so much more. Our kids both ate well, but especially Vincent.

Today, we just ate at home. David and Vincent went out for lunch, actually. Vincent to a birthday party, and David had chips and guacamole at a friends while watching football. Tyler and I had leftover ramen from our lunch at Samurai Noodle on Friday - another good eats! We also shared a slice of leftover meatloaf that I made Thursday night. I think this was my best meatloaf. It was topped with bacon. And, finally, dinner tonight was leftovers. Meatloaf sliders, the last 3 flautas from our Costco pack, and Friday night's pizza. I made a side of cabbage that was not well liked by anyone but myself.

Party In My Kitchen

For those of you who have been to our house, you've got to admit, our kitchen isn't fancy, nor very spacious. It especially does not have good storage or counter space. What it does have are a decent gas stove, a good dishwasher, a brand new fancy refrigerator, and me. While I'm no star chef, or gourmet chef, or even a chef at all, I do cook a lot in my kitchen.

This afternoon, I had my work cut out for me. 

We host a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) drop site on our front porch each week. We've been doing this for about 3 years now. It's a pretty sweet deal for me. We've been getting our CSA box from Oxbow Farm for about 7 years now. A few years back, the farmers invited CSA members the opportunity to host drop site at their house. I jumped at this because it means I don't have to drag my kids out (sometimes in the rain) to a farmers market or other drop site, find parking, etc., etc. My box, along with several others (I think we're up to 14 this year!), come right to my door. 

Sometimes members forget to pick up their boxes. When this happens, I try to contact them, if possible, and find out what's up. Sometimes they are out of town, and forgot to get someone else to pick it up for them. Sometimes they are running late. And, sometimes, I can't get a hold of the member(s). This happens about once a week or so. I usually give them a day or two to come pick up, even though the farm tells them it's on a specific day of the week, at a specific time. This is the advantage of picking up a someone's house. Especially a do-gooder like me. *smile* When I finally decide that the box(es) are not going to be claimed this week, I try to find homes for the vegetables, and sometimes fruits.

Today, their home is my home. 

Although this is part of the sweetness of being the host, it does make for challenges. 1) Where to store all these veggies. 2) Now I have 3 bunches of parsley to use up, or something the like. 3) It takes some work to use up all this organic produce. 

That's how the party in my kitchen happened to day. I went through the box and picked out the stuff that I know I'll use for sure. I set aside the rest. Then, I set out to make things fit in my fridge. To do this, I have to take the parts off the veggies that I know won't get used, such as carrot tops and put them to compost. I also have to take some of the older stuff out from previous weeks and do something with them. Today, I cleaned baby carrots, parsnips, and baby beets. The beets went into the oven an hour ago, and will get pureed later. The carrots and parsnips will get roasted for dinner tonight. I also peeled, cut and cored 4 over-ripe pears, and I'm in the process of making pureed pear for Crosby and pear butter. In addition, I prepared chicken wings for tonight's dinner: Chinese-style salt and pepper fried chicken. Mmm-mmm.

Thank goodness the kids are happily playing together upstairs, Crosby is napping, David is doing some work stuff, and it's raining outside. It's the perfect afternoon to party in my kitchen.

8 Years

I can't believe David and I have already been married 8 years, and we have 3 children! Not to mention 2 cats. And, in these 8 years, we have moved 3 times, owned 2 houses, and sold 1 house. We've had a few bumps along the way, but it's mostly been fantastic. I feel like the luckiest gal in the world.

I also feel pretty darn lucky that David and I can take all three boys out to dinner at Lark, have a good time, and not lose our tempers. We ate tons of delicious food to boot!

Some of my favorite photos from our wedding day.

 Me with our awesome photographer, and my only glass of wine the whole evening, which someone bumped me and spilled a little on my dress.

 My parents are so cute.