Happy Birthday to Me

It was my birthday last weekend. Another year older, most definitely grayer, hopefully (but I doubt it) wiser. I know I am loved, and that is a great feeling, there may be plenty of things that we do not have, but I am blessed.
I was brought breakfast in bed (a little earlier than would have been my preference) and hand-made candles and cards and decorations.

Children provide such a wonderful perspective on life. It is so easy as we get older to forgo things, such as parties (which inevitably I would end up doing all the work for anyway) but Arran was determined that we should do something to celebrate my day. Well a month or so back I had bought tickets for Six Flags on one of those online deals, the kids have never been, the weather was going to be great so it seemed like it would be a fun way to spend our day. Between animals and rides the kids had a blast. It was hot and sweaty and exhausting but it was fun. Just watching my children enjoying themselves, brings me so much joy.

On entering the park, maps had to be scrutinized and decisions made. Arran especially. loves this job.

The kids loved the seal and sea lion show. They actually thought they were talking and did not quite connect that there were people behind the scenes talking into the microphones. So cute!

Up close and personal with the stingrays.

Walrus.

As Arran and Bryttain prepared for this ride, Asia was absolutely devastated to not be able to go on. She was truly confused, heart-broken, and finally a little mad!

To distract her, I took her over to another ride. I had not realized that adults could not go on with their children on this one, so I wondered if she would change her mind. This little girl is fearless though, she got right on, sat next to a little boy she had never met before and held on for dear life. She never ceases to amaze me.

Then she forlornly watched as the other two finished up on their ride. She was pretty sad. Good news was though, that man behind her seeing how sad she was, filled us in that she could in fact go on with an adult, just not on her own, because of her size.

I love this shot James captured...just a tiny bit out of focus, but I like that it captures the motion. She was SO happy to get to ride the giant swing.

She is such a mommy's girl right now. We took photos of each other as we waited very patiently (for a VERY long time) as James stood in line to get cold drinks for us. Yes, she really took this picture! I helped with some of the weight, but she put it up to her eye and composed and pressed the button. That's my two year old!

There were many rides.

It really was a pretty hot day, so the water sprinkler areas were a huge hit.

After cooling off, we heading to the warm and humid butterfly house.

There were many animals, not all of which I got pictures of. It has been so long since we have been to the zoo, so this made up for it a little.

Fun times all around.

Pure Mischief

Saturday morning started off innocently enough. Arran's soccer practice was at 9am and James took him, with Bryttain joining the excursion, to hang out with daddy and watch her big brother. I finished my breakfast and decided I should tackle the mountain of clean laundry that needed folding, I had, after all, procrastinated long enough. Asia was busy playing, but had transferred the play stable with some other toys to our bedroom floor so that she could play and be with me at the same time.

She is such a sweet, chubby-cheeked nugget of love. As the piles of folded clothes grew larger on our bed I remember her saying

"Mommy, I found a bead!"

I did not think too much of it, she is after all my third child and we have never had any untoward incidents with beads. Of course, all of that was about to change. I have no idea what went through that little girl's head, or why. It would maybe have made sense if she had snuck it into her mouth, would a pink bead taste like strawberry, or some other tasty pink morsel? But no! The next thing I hear is her crying and it was then that she informed me that the bead was stuck up her nose!

I felt so bad for her, she was obviously in pain, but I could not see it. I spent the next half an hour trying to get her to blow her nose, no, not sniff, blow (two years old, remember), sneeze, cough...anything. I wanted to see if I could gently massage it down from the outside, but she complained that it hurt. The tears were increasing.

I went online and found it to be quite a common problem, although it seems raisins and peanuts are equally as popular with young children for sticking up noses. Several pages I found suggested a simple CPR type maneuver where you press on the empty nostril and gently blow in the mouth to see if that will dislodge the blockage. That did not work either and she was none too impressed. Soccer practice was due to be over so I called James; I needed fresh ideas.

We tried all the previous suggestions again, with one of us (trying) to hold her still this time. By now we could see the evil bead, as daddy had brought his flashlight in from his truck, but that thing was not budging. With the flashlight we could clearly see the hole in the bead, so her airway was not being badly obstructed and James thought that with a thin enough piece of wire he could maybe hook it out, but she was pretty freaked out and very much over the whole ordeal. She did not want anything else going up her nose.

I finally decided that we were probably going to need some professionals, so got on the phone with an advice nurse to see if we could get her in to the Saturday pediatric clinic. I had no desire whatsoever to head to an ER where we would be kept waiting for goodness knows how long and (this is America after all) end up paying who knows how much? There was an appointment available for later that afternoon, so I took it, but I was still reluctant to declare defeat. I knew it would be way more traumatic for her to have some stranger poking around her nose and to be honest it was not exactly how I had envisioned spending our Saturday afternoon together.

As James made the kiddos lunch I had the bright idea to hunt around for one of our bulb syringes. We had used them when the children were smaller to suck out mucus or snot when they had colds and were too young to know how to blow. But could I find one? No! Of course we have not needed to use one in years.

Some good friends live nearby and I figured I would try them as a last resort - they had one, and more importantly knew where it was in their house (amazing)! I jumped in the car and drove over there immediately. They also offered a saline rinse, which sounded like it would be an ordeal to try on a reluctant child, but anything would be worth a try. Their 'grandma' mentioned a sheet wrap if we needed help keeping her still.

I tried sucking the wretched bead out, but she was pretty nervous and would either try to bat it away, or turn her head at the last moment, even with one of us holding her, it was not happening. We both tried. Finally I decided we needed to use a swaddle. I had a piece of stretchy fleece which I lay down on the floor and told her to lay on top of. What a fun game! I put her little arms down by her sides and wrapped her up tight, then as James held her head still and I blocked her legs, her arms contained, four good suctions and that sucker came out! Her panic turned to relief and the ordeal was over.

Lots of hugs and kisses later, the doctor's appointment canceled, we think a lesson was learned. I asked her later that afternoon if she will ever put another bead up her nose and she was very emphatic with her

"NO!"

There's a ball to be kicked

Today was Arran's first meet-up and practice with his little team, as part of the Petaluma Youth Soccer League.

When he was much younger, two or three (I cannot exactly recall) we had signed him up for Lil' Kickers, but that was a long time ago. It is still sad to me that there is so little physical activity in schools over here and that sports really have to be done in your own time, but it is what it is.

He had really been looking forward to it, which I am sure was aided by his recent watching of bits of games in the recent World Cup. He certainly looked the part in his new shinguard covered, knee-high socks and his soccer cleats.

Our little boy did so great, none of my fears of him being nervous or reticent at meeting a bunch of new kids, were realized. He jumped right in. There is a lot to learn, but I think it is going to be a fun, growing experience for him. Next practice is on Saturday morning.

The girls watched from the sidelines whilst chomping on pretzels, they played on the playground a bit too.

I have no idea how we will manage our schedules when we have three kids doing different activities, I think life is going to get very busy.

My other problem is that before this I wanted  a 70-200mm lens, now I know I NEED one!!!

What a big girl

Asia's potty training has been very self-paced. We had the usual incentive (one M & M for a wee, two for something more substantial!) but other than that, have not pushed it. She was never very interested in the little potty and went for the regular toilet, which was more than fine by me. One less thing to empty and clean!

It is so different than when Arran was a baby. Of course at that point it was me and him at home and I could give him my undivided attention, but I think the truth is that although he did great, it was more a case of me staying on top of it, I would set the timer at 30 minute intervals and ask him to try, we had stickers and rewards, we went from nappies to pull-ups and finally when several MONTHS later he was there, underwear. It was a lot of work.

I was WAY more relaxed by the time Bryttain came around and waited for her to be pretty interested.

Now Asia is finally there. I have known for a while that she got it. She could produce every time she went to the bathroom, half the time she was taking herself, but I had just left her in nappies (diapers), and occasionally tried a pull-up. She knows the difference though and would just get lazy.

She could run around naked though, for hours, with no accidents, so today I decided, out of curiosity more than anything else, to just put her in regular underwear. Not one accident! She told us each time she needed the bathroom and even fell asleep in her bed at nap time, before we registered that she was not in a pull-up...and stayed dry the whole time. You could have picked up my jaw from the floor at that point (we will not be trying to repeat that one for a while though).

Anyway, I am INCREDIBLY proud of her...and here she can tell you the news for herself.

Another one bites the dust

Last Saturday the kids were running around being totally crazy, when all of a sudden Arran came rushing in, completely devastated. His top tooth, which had been hanging precariously for days, had finally in the midst of the chasing and wrestling, been knocked out. He did NOT want to show us, but Bryttain excitedly showed off the booty, as proud as could be. She is so funny, it was not even her tooth.

Try as hard as I might, Arran did not want to let me take a photo, and James scolded me for trying to catch the moment as my little boy cried (I was not completely heartless, daddy was cuddling him at the time already). Finally after some tickling we got half a reluctant smile. My little boy looks so different now.

Time for a haircut

It has been just over a year since Arran's last haircut. For the last couple of months he has been saying that he wanted to get it cut on the first day of summer and that was yesterday. There was too much going on, so today was the day.

Now, I have no clue how to cut hair and have been making it up as I go along, so it can be a little stressful. Arran was determined that he did not want a buzz cut this year, which last year made things a lot easier, but had pretty precise ideas, which unfortunately he did not do a great job of explaining to me, added to that the fact that he seem to think that I do, in fact, know what I am doing...so it is what it is.

It is so nice to see BOTH his eyes again. Maybe this will be just stage one or a few stages, we shall see.

Three Wise Monkeys

I am very behind in my blogging. I have photos from the last day of school and Uncle Ephraim and Aunty Faith's visit over the past couple of weeks, but those aren't for today. James has been down in Mexico all week on his yearly mission trip, building a home for a needy family, so it has been me and the monkeys.

They're not really wise, but they are good kids and even agreed, for a few moments, to let me take photographs of them as they knew I wanted a nice one for Father's Day.

Here is one, just for fun.

Hear, See and Speak no evil :)

Last day of school

It was officially his last day as a kindergartner, I seriously cannot believe it has been a year already. OK, so a school year is not quite, technically, a whole year, but it is pretty darn close. He has grown and changed SO much, no longer a timid little boy, he is really quite a big boy now, confident and self-assured.

For the last day, Ms. Lewis had a little ice-cream social at the end of the day, uh-huh, fill them with sugar then send them home!

There was no room on Arran's table, so Bryttain quite happily sat with the 1st grade boys!

Fun in the creek

Warm weather is here! We are so happy, for so many reasons and last Sunday we got to enjoy another, the first for us this year, creek-side picnic at the Burtts. It is such a fun way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

The kids could not be happier; splashing and playing in the creek ranks pretty high in their simple little lives. Sun, friends, water, food...what's not to like? Sitting in the shade, chatting with friends, watching children playing in the water, hearing the joy and laughter, is all good for the adults too. I am sure there will be many more over the summer, each as eagerly anticipated as the first.

I am grateful to this family for opening up their home to help us all build wonderful memories of fun times.

Bryttain ballerina

On Tuesday evening Bryttain had another little ballet recital. I love that she finds so much joy in her dancing, she lights up as she talks about it and as she does it. Asia cannot wait until it is her turn and every week asks me

"When can my do ballet mommy?" (I love the way she talks).

Last night she watched me put Brtyttain's hair into a bun and then insisted that I do hers too, it was SO tiny, about the size of a grape, but we did it. She was so happy and proud. That little girl has music in her. Ever since she was a baby she would shimmy along to the music in stores, a big grin plastered across her face. All my kids love music, but I think it runs a little deeper in Asia, she is always singing.

Bryttain is front row, second from the right.

Bryttain with her Tuesday morning, 10:30am classmates.

I am sure that to an outsider, these little recitals, with three and four year olds must seem a little disjointed and far from perfect. For the parents and family members and friends who fill the room, though, those are the cutest little, most adorable girls in the whole world. We are as proud as could be as they dance in their tutus and I do not know who is beaming wider at the end of it all.

Proud daddy with his girl, and Bryttain with one of her best friends.

Open House

It is hard for me to believe that Arran is finishing up his first year at school. Kindergarten is almost over and it has flown by unbelievably fast. When I think back to his first day and how nervous he was and how hard it was for him to let me leave, and then I think of the big boy he is today, it is astounding. He has grown and changed so much, he is more confident and self-assured, he is reading like a pro, he is taller and minus a couple of teeth and there is his long hair, of his choosing. He is such a little boy, full of energy he loves to be silly but he still has his sensitive caring side.

Last week they had an Open House and so off we went to check out some of his recent work. Somehow in the craziness of trying to get the family out of the house in time to get there for the start and leave enough time before James had to leave for music practice, I managed to forget to bring a camera!!!!!!!! Oh well - thank goodness for camera phones, FAR from perfect, but better than nothing for sure. Mental not to self, a camera should be attached to one's body at all times so as not to miss perfect picture moments, or just those moments that you know you will always treasure.

He is so proud of all of his hard work, as are we and he loved being our little paleontologist guide (hence the costume). Bryttain cried when we had to leave, she cannot wait for it to be her turn.

Happy Mother's Day

In many ways I am only six and a quarter years old, for that is when I was born as a mother, when my beautiful son came into this world. Before then, a different person existed, a shadow of the me I am today. I did not know that I would never be the same again.

By far the best, the hardest job I will ever have. Joy and laughter, frustration and squabbles; no two days are the same. I love my children with my whole heart, yet I often make mistakes and have to ask their forgiveness.

I am grateful for this time I have with them, that is fleeing far too quickly. Yes, I will always be their mother, but a day will come when they do not need me in the way they do now. Bryttain tells me that when she is grown up and has children of her own, we will be neighbors. She cannot imagine, at her tender age, a time when she would want space from me, but I fear the inevitable. Arran says that he will always live with us, but I know his future wife may well have other plans. The joy and heartache of being a mother.

I love my children more than I ever knew I would or could. How could we know what we would become, how we would feel?

To all those mothers out there...Happy Mother's Day

To my beautiful, sweet, loving children, thank you for accepting me and loving me. You are my treasure and my heart is forever yours. I love you!