Merry Thanksmas

This year we had Christmas with Chad's family over Thanksgiving.

It was a weekend full of:

a fun aunt,

cousins, 

dancing, 

games, 

a grandma, 

a grandpa, 

hugs, 

Legos, 

presents, 

sharing, 

more sharing, 

and even more sharing, 

sleeping, 

and snuggles with an uncle. 

It was a great weekend full of family and fun!

Christmas - the tree

Now that the New Year is nearly upon us, I thought I should start posting Christmas pictures. If I wait any longer, I'll have to start each post with "Last year...".

So, we'll start back at the end of November when we put up our tree.

The kids got to decorate the tree this year. Chad handed out the ornaments, and the kids got free reign on where to hang them. If they wanted something on a higher branch than they could reach, I helped. I also grabbed a few ornaments to hang on the back of the tree so it wouldn't look completely bare from outside.

Since the kids were so busy decorating, Chad and I took the opportunity to take a picture of ourselves in front of the tree ... though you can't see the tree.

Laura got the job of putting the angel on top of the tree (because Laura's the lightest one to lift up there). She got a little worried for a while, but she got it done.

Once it was all done, the kids took a moment to admire their work. And I took a moment to admire them admiring their work. 

Wow, that was a spectacularly boring post. I'll try to step it up a notch in future posts about Christmas. Sheesh.

8 years

I've long wondered when I would be able to write this post, and it seems like now is finally the time.

So today, on the 8th anniversary of when it all started, I'd like to report that I'm done being pregnant and/or nursing.

Yes, after 8 consecutive, non-stop years of being pregnant and/or nursing, I'm finally done.

What? You're wondering how you make 3 closely-born children last 8 years? Here, I'll share the timeline:

December 28-ish, 2003: I get pregnant with Evan.

September 2004: Evan is born and I start nursing him. We call breastfeeding, the breast milk, and my breasts all "milky stuff"; we had no idea how long the term would last.

July 2005: I get pregnant with Kendra and am still nursing Evan.

March 2006: Kendra is born. My file at the hospital has a sticky note for the nurses saying I'm still nursing Evan and not to be alarmed if they walk in to see me nursing a child other than the baby I just birthed. Evan can talk up a storm but can't say "milky stuff" so he asks for "tuss" when he comes to the hospital to see us.

August 2006: Evan decides he no longer needs to nurse at bedtime, his one remaining time to nurse.
September 2006 (exactly a month after the previous date): Evan asks if he can have "milky stuff" at bedtime one night and resumes bedtime nursing.

April 2007: I find out I'm pregnant with Laura, while still nursing Evan and Kendra. I decide sustaining 3 little bodies plus my own may be a bit much so 2 1/2 year old Evan is weaned immediately.

June/July 2007: In a spectacular battle of wills* between 15-month-old Kendra and me, Kendra is more or less weaned in a single moment of defiance on both of our parts.

December 2007: Laura is born. The nurses ask me if I'm still nursing Evan and Kendra so they can make a note in my file. I laugh because I think it's so nice that they asked.

Late spring/early summer 2011: Laura decides a book at bedtime is better than milky stuff.

Summer/fall 2011: Laura occasionally still asks for milky stuff (usually when she walks in while I'm getting dressed in the morning), but less and less often, and always with a report of "that one has milk, that one doesn't" or "I didn't get anything from that one, but I got a little from that one".

Winter 2011: Laura will go nearly a month at a time without asking for milky stuff. Laura turns 4. My last baby is officially weaned.

December 27, 2011: I finally dare to buy a smaller size of a non-nursing bra.

*It really was a spectacular battle of wills. I wish I could forget that week ever happened, but I also wish I could have recorded it and watch it again now. Kendra, the non-sleeper, decided she no longer needed to sleep at all. She went that entire week without sleeping at all. In the middle of one of those long nights, in an attempt to salvage what little sanity Chad and I had left, we strapped her in her carseat on the living room floor and turned on Veggie Tales. She sat quietly for 48 minutes until the end credits started and she resumed crying; we slept wonderful, glorious sleep for 48 minutes. During that week, I never gave up trying to get Kendra to sleep. One day during a nap attempt, I sat down to nurse her. She must have realized it would put her to sleep because, as soon as I unclipped my nursing bra, she sat up from her reclined position in my lap and yanked my shirt back down. She refused to nurse if it would make her sleep, and I, in my very sleep-deprived state, refused to try and nurse her again after two more failed attempts the next day.

Messages from between the lines: If anyone ever tells you that you can't get pregnant while nursing, they're wrong. If anyone ever tells you that you can't nurse while pregnant, they're wrong. If anyone ever tells you that you can't nurse multiple non-twin children, they're wrong too. Take it from this wise ol' cow; it's all possible!

Super kids!

Thank you, Andrea at The Pinkadink, for making such a great product! Our kids love the capes they got for Christmas! The only question they had about them was, "are there three or only these two?"

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!
I hope your day was filled with as much love and happiness
as fills these two girls everyday!

Letter to Santa

Earlier this week, Evan had to write a letter to Santa in school. Here is his letter:

And here's what it says, in case you can't click the picture to view it larger:
Dear Santa,
How do you fit down the chimny?
I have been...Good! Can I have vixon?
How do 8 rain deer pull such a hevy sligh?
Can I have azteca toreteeas!
Your friend
Evan!!!!

I laughed at the part about wanting Vixen.
And I loved my little guy a little more when I saw that he asked Santa for Azteca Tortillas.

Christmas-y homework

Now that Christmas break has started, I find it completely acceptable (or really odd) to post about homework.

A few days ago, Kendra came home from school with this super cute elf hat. She wore it while working on her homework that night. The project was to write a book about a little Christmas tree.

This was the thinking position for her hat:

Once she got started though, the jingle bell moved back behind her head and away she went: 

And so you don't hurt your eyes trying to read what her story says (ahem, Chad's mom, I'm talking to you), the first page says: My little Christmas tree has yellow and blue ornaments and a yellow star on top.

Fun side story: Kendra says "ordaments" instead of "ornaments". I have no idea why. My best guess is that when she learned the word from me, I had a stuffy nose.

Books in triplicate

This is what happens when a great grandma buys all of her great grandkids the same book for Christmas:

Ok, fine, she probably didn't expect the books to be lined up in a row, all open to the same page. But what else was Laura going to do when she wanted to look at her new book but there were three of them together on the bookshelf?

While we're on the topic

Since my last couple of posts have been about jammies and sleeping anyway, we'll stay there for one more day.

Here's a picture of my jammied stairstepped lovebugs:

To be or not to be (left alone)

So, when you check on your 4-year-old (did I forget to post about Laura turning 4?!) before you go to bed and you find her sleeping like this, do you let her be or do you fix it?

I chose to fix it ... right after taking pictures.

Jammie day ... visions of things to come

On Saturday, the kids and I all had a jammie day (Chad got dressed and went to the office to see patients and responsible things like that).

I think we're now in good practice for Christmas break and lots of jammie days!

Plant sitting

This post is purely so my father-in-law knows that I haven't killed his African Violet yet.

I would like to leave the "yet" off of there, but I'm not that confident in my plant-rearing skills ... yet.

For reference, this is what his African Violet looks like:

Failing at success

I just made a batch of puppy chow that actually turned out -- my first! (Yes, it is embarrassing to admit you can't make puppy chow, but I've come to terms with it. Mine, until today, was destined to never have powdered sugar visible on it.) Success!

Unfortunately, no one will see this success because Laura and I will have consumed the entire batch before anyone else gets home. Failure.

Yummy, yummy failure.

I'm dreaming of a warm Christmas

Actually, I'm not dreaming of a warm Christmas. I love snow. But we don't have any yet this year. And today it was 54 degrees here, a mere week before Christmas. So, instead of sipping hot chocolate or watching Christmas movies or going sledding, we offered the kids a "surprise afternoon". They agreed, and off we went.

After grabbing lunch at McDonald's (because it make the kids happy, and the adults can get coffee drinks), we headed to a nearby wildlife refuge to look around in their center, to go on a trail, and to drive around looking for bison (but I usually call them buffalo).

As we walked in the center, a ranger asked me if we were there to go on the family hike. Uhh...no, but that sounds fun. She said we were welcome to go along. So we got a guided tour on one of the trails, and the kids got to do a craft with the ranger afterwards using the things they gathered on our walk.

After the kids were done with their craft, the guy working at the front desk started the prairie movie in their small theater just for us. And Chad spotted a whole herd of bison out the windows of the learning center. So after potty breaks and grabbing our coats, we headed on a drive to see the bison closer. We saw 53 of them that were close enough to count!

I may be feeling a bit snow deprived, but we sure enjoyed our day outside in the middle of December with no boots, no hats, and no mittens!

Christmas card

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Perspective

Limiting yourself to two pieces of fudge is a good display of willpower ... unless you do it every half hour.

I felt I could post this tonight since I haven't had any fudge yet today.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go have my 2 pieces of fudge.

4 years ago

4 years ago, we had a new baby in our house and winter outside of our house.

Outside...

Inside...

Outside...

Inside...

Outside... 

Outside... 

Inside...

It was a good time to be thankful for the electricity we normally have, for the stash of sleepsacks  and cozy jammies we had and could put on overtop of the kids' other layers, and for being able to stay inside instead of outside.

Note: No, we did not give newborn Laura a bath while we were out of electricity. Nor was she sleeping on the floor in a single layer of clothes while we were without electricity. The pictures of the kids (and the ice) were taken over the span of a few days.

Note: Yes, the first 2 weeks of Laura's life included multiple ice storms. The first was on Saturday morning; we left for the hospital to have her on Sunday night. The second was when she was 9 days old, during which we lost power for a while (thankfully for only a few hours). I don't remember after that one; I just remember thinking, "There should not an ice storm and a lack of electricity when you have a 9-day old baby!"

Note: I do remember calling the doctor's office while we were on our way to every single newborn and post-op appointment to say, "We left home plenty early to allow for the roads, but we're still not going to make it on time. Hopefully, we'll be there in 20 minutes or so."

Love coupon

This is today's solution to our "horrible mealtime dilemma". Ok, so it's not really a dilemma. It's a very lovey, wonderful situation, but one we haven't figured out how to handle. The kids like hugs and kisses and snuggles and rubbing noses and any other form of affection. Especially during mealtimes when they can use that as an excuse to get out of their chairs.

The problem comes in the frequency/quantity of the love. If Chad reaches over and gives Laura a hug, since he can reach her from his chair, then Evan and Kendra both jump up and run over to his chair to get a hug also.

Similarly, if I'm out of my chair to get something for someone, I'll often kiss someone on the head on the way past. But the other two kids then get out of their chair to come get a kiss or hug also.

Like I said, it's a very lovey problem. The real problem is that the kids (specifically Evan and kind of Laura) need to work on staying in their chairs during mealtimes. So this one innocent display of affection towards one child brings forth the immediate end of all sitting for all three kids.

And the bigger, more important problem is that Chad and I feel like complete jerks if someone asks for a hug during a meal and we tell them no. Complete jerks.

So, tonight I decided to make Love Coupons. The kids will each get one at the beginning of each meal. They may use it at any point during the meal, or not use it at all. But, once they have used their coupon for that meal, they then have to stay in their chair for the remainder of the meal.

Really, I promise we're not that strict of parents about mealtime behavior. There's way more burping than should ever be necessary. There's a disturbing amount of "bathroom talk". And it's not uncommon to see a foot try to sneak up on top of the table. But we do try to keep some control and enforce common courtesies and basic manners ... and reduce the likelihood of a glass getting knocked off the table.

So, starting tomorrow, my solution is Love Coupons. It's either a genius idea that's going to revolutionize mealtimes in our house (kidding, but I like to dream big), or I just wasted a half-hour making cute little coupons.

Are you sure she's only turning 4?

While Chad was showering this morning, his little chatterbox was standing beside the shower saying, "Tomorrow is my birthday party. Then the day after that is my birthday. One plus one is two. Two plus one is three. Two plus two is four."

From there the math went downhill drastically, but I'm going to be really impressed anyway.

You wish you could say things like that

"Laura, please go under the table, get Baby Jesus and his friends out of there, and put them back in their box."

In threes

I spilled pink milk into the buttons of the phone, I'm almost positive I found a worm in my bowl of soup tonight, and ...

Well, there's no "and" yet, but it sure seems like there should be an "and".

It's ok; she's almost 4

Laura just rang the doorbell, yelling, "Coffee! Coffee! Coffee!"
She'll be 4 in a few days, so I'm sure that makes it perfectly acceptable.

Not dead

No, I'm not dead. No, I'm not quitting blogging. We've just been busy. See?