Same old, same old - Happy New Year!

I was looking back to my 2009 New Year post and thought it was funny to read about my "resolutions" and my overview of 2008. Good for posterity. Not sure how much I accomplished in 2009 but I'm just glad I survived it. We knew going into it that it was NOT going to be the best year ever. By January 2009, the "honeymoon" as I like to call the first 3-4 months of a baby's life was over. No more sleeping wherever you please, it was getting down to business time. Plus it was winter....plus I was entering a new decade in my young life- 30...and I'm not going to lie to you, I was feeling, well, trapped. A little bit of baby blues mixed with a panic attack on the direction of my life was not really what this mother of three needed in the dead of winter but luckily I survived :) In April, I decided it was time to get in shape FOR REAL this time and hired a trainer. Unfortunately, I didn't get as in shape as I was hoping for and really the trainer was a waste in the fitness aspect but I think getting out of the house 3 nights a week and getting into a different routine was just what I needed to shake the horrible winter off. So in that respect, it was totally worth every cent. By summer, work woes and "the recession" were looking up. Eric made a comeback after a few slower months and we finally got rid of all the bad baggage at the office (ie business partner and all other shadiness associated with that). We made a deal that was better than we could have hoped for and decided to....add another addition to our house and thus the 3-season porch and patio out back was begun. We got to use it for Seth's first birthday but other than that we anxiously await this spring, summer, and fall. I think it will easily become my favorite room!

We had a fun summer and each one gets easier as the boys get a little older. Cal learned to ride his bike on two wheels, the pool wasn't such a pain in my rear, and we all enjoyed a very mild summer. Summer turned to fall and Ben got to go to preschool. Hallelujah! The child was overjoyed and I was happy to be able to get a little time with Seth and time to get things done around the house. We got a few more upgrades done on the house - painted most of the first floor trim white and got wood floors in our family room. Now we're back to winter - Ben just turned 3 and Cal turned 5. We had a good Thanksgiving and a fun Hanukkah. I'm looking forward to 2010 and being able to do more things with the boys and as a family. Now that Seth is a little older it not have to be so much "divide and conquer" this year.

We're starting the year off with a bang with a trip to Coco Key indoor water park Jan 1! The boys are so excited. This is their treat for a job well done in swimming lessons. Cal is going to try his hand at skiing this winter. We're all looking forward to some getaways this summer and maybe a puppy in the spring!! Cal will even start full-day kindergarten in 2010 - we're hoping for a great transition year for all. Happy New Year!

Let It Snow!

It snowed last Saturday night for the first time so the boys had a blast getting all geared up and playing in it! Even Seth had fun eating it!!

It's been awhile since I've updated on the boys so here goes:

CAL: He's just the crazy, comic of the house. Everything has to be done in a way in which to garner attention. That being said, he just completed his first session of an acting class in November. He loves it so we'll continue on and hope that he can maybe audition for a play in 2010! He's started to read which is exciting news!! We've also been doing swimming lessons even though I dread it, they dread, and it leads to tears and frustration. For some reason my children THINK they don't want to go to swimming lessons and this produces all out hysterics while getting ready to go. Just the mere mention of those two words even on a non-swimming lesson day is enough to make Ben start screaming....but I digress. The end of a long story is that when they get there, they're fine, they have fun, and most of freakin' all they are learning to swim!! FINALLY!! HOORAY! We have found an instructor that actually knows how to teach a child to swim - utterly amazing. After one lesson he was floating on his back, lesson 2- jumping in and getting the noodle, lesson 3- jumping in and doggy paddling a little ways to the noodle, lesson 4- actually swimming correctly a pretty far way to the noodle!!! It's shocking! Other things Cal is into right now - card games and coloring.

BEN: No one would guess that this little critter was saying no more than 3 words at 18 months old. The kid has definitely caught up! Now he's just trying to outsmart his brother! As expected, Ben is getting crazier and stranger the older he gets...he's like the sideshow to Cal's circus for now. Make no mistake, Cal IS the ring leader. Ben has his own special talent for being stubborn. If this child has not made up his mind to do something, it's pretty clear no one is convincing him otherwise. So let's take swim lessons for example. Now as I've said, this is hell for me. I'll put it akin to potty training or teaching your kid to ride a bike - NOT FUN. But every parent wants their kid to poop in the toilet, ride a bike, and swim! So I do what I must and take them even though, at times, it feels like I'm just torturing myself and them! Ben is progressing - by this I mean, he's no longer crying in the water. He'll get in the pool by his own volition and actually has fun. This is a big step for us. I'm just hoping by summer he can have his floaties on and splash and play and not need me right by his side anything else would be a bonus! Last fall Ben was still refusing to get on a bike...tricycle even. But he was his own little soccer phenom, dribbling around with the best of them. Cal's coach saw him when they were just playing around after practice one day and told me to sign him up. Unfortunately, the indoor soccer place sucks when it comes to times for Ben and Cal's age groups so we haven't been able to get Ben in any soccer yet and Cal is always asking me when he gets to go again. Ben's favorite phrases - "I don't know" and "I don't like that mommy". Ben's latest craze - puzzles!

SETH: Oh I how I love the little babes before they can talk! I try to eat up every cute little moment of his since he's my last one :( He adores his brothers and I think he was the fastest to just get right in there and play with them. He doesn't seem to notice or care that he's way smaller or can't do what they're doing - he tries anyway. If Cal and Ben are wrestling, he'll go right over and pig pile on top!! Cute but scary sometimes. Seth started walking at 13 months and he's starting to add to his vocabulary now at 15 months. He says bye, nah, yeah, and the other day went up to the door, knocked on it and said, "naw naw". He's following commands and will give hugs or kisses or sit on his bum to put on shoes when asked. Unfortunately, he's still not following a normal growth pattern. He has his checkup next week but I know he likely doesn't weigh more than 18.5 lbs. My little pipsqueak!

As luck might have it, I've found that Seth is extremely lucky when it comes to games of chance. Like for instance, when playing with the phone he is able to randomly dial 911. Yup, that's right!! A couple weeks ago, I go downstairs to pee and get a snack. I absent-mindedly left the phone on the table. A few minutes go by and Cal yells to me that Seth has climbed up on a chair. Ok, ok, I say, as I trudge back up to the playroom. I notice that the phone is off the hook, not a big deal, I hang it up and actually think to myself, "Whoever it was he called will probably just call later and tell me about it". As soon as I hit off though, the phone rings and the caller ID says "City of Portsmouth". I answer and she says "Portsmouth Police Dept" and I somehow instantly know Seth must have dialed 911. I quickly explain that my son must have accidentally called and everything is ok. Much to my horror and utter embarassment she tells me ok, but an officer will be sent out anyway! Ugh! I mean I get it...I could be under duress and being forced to say things are ok but what a moron I felt like when the officer came to the door! I brought Seth with me so I could say, "See - ha ha - just him!" Although looking back on it now I probably should have brought Cal or Ben with me, that might have been more believable since Seth looks like he's 6 months old!! Cal's comment was, "Mom, are they going to put Seth in jail!?!" Classic.

Swine flu, Thanksgiving, Ben's Birthday 3!

I know what you're thinking...the last time I posted it was HALLOWEEN and in between now and then Ben had a birthday...WHERE are the pictures?!?! Well, here they are and I DO have a good excuse. In fact, during Halloween the boys had a cold. Not bad I thought, first cold of the season. Normally the cold season begins at Labor Day in my household, maybe the delay in sickness was the fact that my kids didn't even start preschool until almost October for god's sake! Really I shouldn't tease myself with thinking this winter is going to be any better than any other. What was I THINKING with all that H1N1 talk. A week or so after Halloween is when it hit - the dreaded swine flu. Of course, we can't confirm or deny that that's what we had but it was pretty brutal. I got it too and it definitely took a toll. I was sick until Thanksgiving, no joke. So there wasn't a whole lot of stuff getting done around here. Not to mention we were supposed to be prepping a room for wood floors. I needed to paint it and get all the shit out. The shit got moved to any old place leading to what looked like a bomb going off in my house - every counter was filled, floors were unwalkable, that kind of thing. The room only got primed and remains that way....still waiting for that coat of paint. The floors got put in the Friday and Saturday after turkey day. We couldn't go into the playroom because we'd have to cross the room that was being worked on so we had to also bring toys down into the mess which just created more havoc. All in all we got through it, the house has since been cleaned and the new wood floor looks great! The layer of dust was cleaned off of everything, things eventually got put back in their place, and we're ALMOST back to normal living space (still waiting on some office furniture...and that coat of paint).

So anyway, HAPPY BIRTHDAY BEN! With being 3 comes all the wonderful defiance...what a blast. Did I mention this is a stressful time of year? I hate that things are all jammed packed together. It kind of makes the holidays not so fun. It doesn't help that 2 of my children have birthdays now too. But be that as it may, I still feel the need to make them the best birthday cakes ever and this year Ben wanted a Thomas cake. By the way, yes I know Thomas is #1 but I thought since he was 3 that I'd just take the artist liberty to put a 3 on him so leave me alone!

Even with a house project, Thanksgiving, and a birthday boy I still managed to host the 2nd annual gingerbread house making night with my friends, get my holiday cards out the first week of December, decorate for hanukkah, and be done buying gifts and actually have some wrapped!!! Seriously, that takes organization. Can there just be a job for the SUPER organized? Is there one? Can we just organize stuff all day and make it fun? Anyway, hanukkah starts this Friday night and I'm ready! Bring it on plus Cal's birthday at the end of December!!

So Seth loves hats...he found this turkey hat that one of the boys made at preschool and put it on all by himself. I ran to get the camera and snap this. Isn't he so freakin' cute?!

All the cousins at Thanksgiving. That's Ben's new smile by the way. You say "smile" and he makes that weird blank stare face?!

Happy Halloween!

Despite illness the boys managed to rally, be happy, and go trick or treating!!

Halloween continued...

Fall Fun!

Halloween pictures coming shortly...

Playing in the leaves

School trip to Coppal House Farm...he did pat the lamb.

More Pumpkins

Pumpkin Fun

Yum, eating the pumpkin carvings...
Playing in the goop.

Scooping out the goop.

First cut

Trampoline

There it is, I knew I had one! He's mad here.

I love this thing merely for the fact that it is SO funny to watch them bounce before they can walk. Seth is obsessed with the trampoline and HAS to have the music on. In fact I've seen him arch his back and yell in protest when he accidentally shuts it off.

Faith Restored

Planet project - finished!!!

Oops I don't know how to erase a picture after I put it in here.

So awhile back I posted about how much there was "to-do" and how it never gets done. Well, I'm happy to say that after a few bumps in the road I'm well on my way to happily crossing things off that list! Here's my story:

After giving up on finding the Shrinky Dink paper I went out and bought some more. Silly me, I bought the UNfrosted kind and therefore it was no good. I was determined to finish this damn project though...so next time I'm at Michael's I find some of the right kind and bring it home. We trace, color, punch holes, cut, and shrink those damn things to a third of their size! Cal was excited. I was excited....almost home free! Well, I string up the planets on the already finished black board with glow-in-the-dark stickers, get a hook and screw it into his ceiling, put it up and wait for darkness....wouldn't you know the stupid thing didn't even GLOW?! Errr...I'm hoping it's due to a lack of light on the stickers and have them basking in some warm glow now. We'll see.

Also on my list was that gargantuan pile of paper to shred...you know, to protect against identity theft...well, let me give you a little aside if I might...concerning things being stolen...we've had a bout of bad, VERY BAD, what shall I call them? People for hire? I don't know...it doesn't matter who they are or what they do but lately SERVICE JUST SUCKS around here. Again, if it's such a bad ecomony then why do I get such horrible service???? When I call you...call me back! Not 10 DAYS later...how about the same day?! If you come to my home and install something, or fix something, or clean something, be FRIENDLY, CAREFUL, and KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING?!!!!! I can't tell you how many idiots we've had around here lately. Anyway to get back to the subject at hand, our last cleaning crew stole the ipod from the playroom. I called and told them and was assured I'd get my money back. To make a long story short, they were actually going to show up at my house on the next scheduled day to clean!! I got a message that they were running late and thought WHOA?! They're coming here?! I had just gotten out of the shower so I ran to my phone and dialed back dripping wet to say, ummm...I don't think so. You haven't paid me for something you've stolen and how do I know you didn't steal a piece of information that will then lead to credit card charges or something like that?! The shocking part is that she then proceeded to BEG me to let them come and clean the house. She told me she really needed the business...hmmm, she might have wanted to think about that before she hired the girl that stole! She also told me that the last girl I had clean (who admittedly I did like) was a drug addict (NOT a shocker) and was stealing pills from clients. Actually, when I checked my medicine cabinet I did find bottles missing and an empty one left behind so yup, pills stolen too. I've yet to see the "check in the mail" which she promised me since I did pay for that one and only cleaning when they stole the ipod! I'm toying with the idea of a letter to the BBB or the threat of a police report...and in the meantime watching my credits cards and bank account carefully...

So back to the shredding...I was in shredding bliss...it was euphoria to finally see that pile of paper be made into scraps when suddenly my phones rings. I can't find the dumb thing so the machine gets it and it's my hair salon calling to tell me that my stylist Allie no longer works for them. Pop! goes my perfectly good mood. Allie is THE BEST hairdresser I've ever had. Never before have I had my hair cut every 6 weeks, I ONLY do now because I like Allie so much. If I don't feel like talking, she doesn't talk...she's an artist, a guitarist/pianist, AND a damn good hairdresser so I'm terribly distraught. You know how I was just ranting about bad service, well when I find those few diamonds in the rough, I like to hold onto them FOREVER. I don't even have the heart to call back the salon and find out what happened to her because I know if she went somewhere else that they aren't going to tell me. I want to kick myself because at our last appointment she told me her last name, the name of her band, and probably a dozen other things I could have used to identify her, look her up on Facebook, SOMETHING but I can't remember anything. I think this is some kind of cosmic joke - like someone's trying to say to me WAKE UP, PAY ATTENTION, LISTEN WHEN PEOPLE TALK, you idiot! When I do call I get the "I wish I knew what happened to Allie" speech and they're all acting like she just disappeared from the face of the earth. Given her personality I know this is not possible. Sadly, I agree to change stylists for 25% off (this is the second time this has happened to me at this salon) but I'm still wondering what the hell happened to my girl. A few days later I had my answer. I get a call that comes up at NH cell phone on caller ID. I answer and hurray! it's Allie. She did move salons and she took ALL her clients info with her. Yikes, must have been a pretty bad salon to work at if she actually did that...I can't see that being kosher. But I was glad she did it, otherwise I'd never have seen her again!

What I'm really trying to say is that I've been up to a whole lot of nothing lately...life isn't as exciting as the missing boy thought to be in the balloon!

1st Day of School

We're now halfway into the 2nd week of preschool and I'm just getting around to posting these pics. The first day went off without a hitch. Ben was SO excited. He woke up at 6:10 and wanted to know when we could go. He wanted to get dressed and put on his back immediately and go. I drove the boys the first day, a task that usually falls to Eric, with thoughts of Cal's very first day in mind. I knew I wouldn't be welling up with tears or nervous to leave Ben but I was certainly SO proud that he's growing up to be such a big boy. He hung up his backpack, found his name to put up on the board and went off to play in the sandbox without even as much as a glance back at me. I was standing around talking with one of the administrators when Ben realized I was still there and said, "When are you GOING, mom?!" Too funny.

They continue to love it and Seth seems to be a little sad that there's no more hustle and bustle in the house. The first two days Ben actually told me HE missed Seth which is saying alot! Seth tends to think I'm boring and even goes so far as to crawl over to other moms with more kids during his music class. He just sidles up to other brothers and sits in close to enjoy the class!

Seth continues to be a tiny little terror. He's sweet but he's moving and crawling and climbing faster than I can keep up. He crawls up the stairs, he climbs on chairs and STANDS up waving his arms in the air like look at me! I even found him on a chair trying to climb up on the table in the playroom the other day. The kid is crazy. Today he finally took more than just a step. He did 3 or 4 steps a couple of times so we're almost there!! I wish I had taped it because he was so excited that he was walking that he was giggling and just plain giddy. He'd fall and then clap like crazy because he knew he had accomplished something. It was very cute. He's also babbling and I swear saying words but I can't be sure. Every time he does I think, "Did he just say that or am I imagining it?". He definitely attempts to repeat words. I'll give him that much.

More Seth...

Seth's 1 year photos