Family Update

Pip, our beautiful little Boston Terrier!

Awww...

Seth is thinking, "Wait...is she dead or just playing?"

"Hmm...what do you have now?"

Yes, I know what this looks like! It's Seth favorite way to give Pip a hug though.

Ben's like, "That last picture makes me want to throw up!"

Ok, so here's the BIG update on everyone!!!!

PIP: We'll start with her first since I don't think I fully went into what a pain in the ass this dog can be. We've had a real problem with her and the kids and biting at their shoes and pant legs. Normally what happens is when we're outside, the dog is inside and vice versa. It seemed the easiest way to keep the peace, but at the same time, not at all what we got the dog for. Lately we've been thinking it was the absolute WRONG TIME for a dog and we should have waited 5 more years!! I know, right? Determined not to let this go down like some other pets I've owned (Sorry Stewie the rabbit for the ear mites and your untimely death!), we enlisted the help of a dog trainer who came to the house today. In my gut I knew she was going to tell me we weren't spending enough time with the dog and bing! bing! bing! I was right! (Should've played the lotto today!) She asked me how often I walk the dog. My reply, "Well, never." She was like, YOU DON'T WALK THE DOG? Umm, no...I thought we had a pretty large yard and it's a small dog and even the books said you don't have to walk it! AHHHHH...I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!!! Will start walking routine - pronto! Apparently our problem is that Pip is bored. She's craving people time and isn't getting enough exercise so that's why she's literally all over us any time we're near. Makes sense, probably didn't need to pay an expert to tell me that, but it did SINK IN a little more. She went over a few other training techniques with me but the big lesson of the day was, "You cannot just look at the dog. MUST PLAY". Oops, sorry Pippy, we really do love you.


CAL: He's totally into kindergarten. The kid loves it! On the first day, after prompting himself to yawn so that he might get TV after school, he told me, "That didn't seem like such a long day!" And then proceeded to tell me that he likes kindergarten better than preschool and he likes his teacher better too! Ok, well...SWEET! Yesterday was a "late start" day. Instead of a half-day where they release the kids early, they start them two hours later. Guess it makes sense in the winter when you might start late anyways but kind of sucks since you can't tell a 5-year-old to sleep late! When I told him he wasn't going to school until later, he panicked. He told me he "didn't want to miss any learning"! I assured him everyone was going later, not just him, and he was happy. The first couple days he came home and played with Ben like they hadn't seen each other in years. By Thursday and Friday of that first week though Cal was TIRED but refused to admit it. We had a couple meltdowns and it continues to be touch and go as he builds up his stamina for the "not so long day". He'll say to me, "Stop it Mommy, I just got home from school." Ok, doesn't mean you can be a maniac though.

Cal just started town soccer. It's the first time he's done this where they actually try to play a 6 v 6 game and let me just tell you, I was in hysterics. It is SO funny to watch them running in a little dust cluster to get the ball. LOVE IT!


BEN: Contrary to what I thought, he doesn't miss Cal all that much. Ben has actually been VERY good with Seth which was a big fear since toward the end of the summer they were NOT the best of friends. Spending more time with Ben without Cal around has been fun and funny! Benny's little personality has been shining through these last couple weeks and he really is a riot. Did I mention things are quieter? Without Cal dominating the conversation, no one has to speak up any more and in fact, I have to ask Ben to YELL in the car since he's taken to talk so softly now I can't hear him all the way in the front! We just had orientation for Ben's preschool today. He starts on Monday! I think it's going to be fun for him to do something all on his own without either brother!! He seems excited and ready to get back into that routine.


SETH: The child is still a constant terror. Although he's funny and cute too, actually that's probably what keeps him alive, he's a constant challenge. Meals times have now become a friggin' battle zone. The other night I had to rush dinner after getting home late from Cal's soccer and needing to leave in less than an hour for a preschool meeting. I get home, throw some food together, and get them all at the table to eat. In a matter of minutes, Seth has thrown cottage cheese EVERYWHERE, the bowl is flipped over onto the floor and the spoon is on the other side of the table. His milk sippy cup is under the table, now leaking, and he's dumped the rest of whatever food was on his plate on top of his head. I had no time to force him to eat so up he went and into PJs. I couldn't pick up the dining room either so when the sitter came I just warned her not to go in the dining room, it might scare her.

On the bright side, despite not much food entering his mouth these days, Seth somehow managed to gain FOUR WHOLE POUNDS since his last visit to the doctor 6 months ago. This is a miracle for us. I'm always semi-anxious for these visits. I'm kind of waiting for them to say, "We're sorry but we think your child is malnourished and we're diagnosing him with XYZ." I know this a fairly irrational train of thought but he is so scrawny looking! He also grew 2.5 inches and continues to be in the 10th percentile for height and now even made the 3rd percentile for weight!! Good news all around.

Seth just started his own playgroup for 2 year olds at the Richie McFarland Center. This is the facility where Ben got his speech therapy and mostly the children Seth plays with have some sort of delay (speech, etc) or are on the autism spectrum. They also like to have what they call "community kids" like Seth, that are just your everyday, run-of-the-mill kids. Seth LOVES it. Parents stay and watch the kids play, interact, eat snack, and do projects through a one-way mirror and it's so cute to watch! He played happily for the whole hour and didn't even care that I wasn't there.

Happy 2nd Birthday Little Ball O' Fire!!

Five boxes of cake mix, 15 eggs, 15 sticks of butter, and 6 pounds of sugar later (not to mention it's 3 day construction) this masterpiece was born!! Seth, if you are reading this years later in a nicely printed blog album, you can thank me now!!

His button says, "Main Attraction" and has lights that blink. Very cute but he didn't wear it very long!

Miss Sharon from Music Together came and sang with us!

SOOOOOO MUCH FUN!!!

The birthday party was so much fun! Seth had a blast playing with his friends and singing, dancing and playing instruments with Miss Sharon!!

First Day of Kindergarten!!!!!!!!!!!

Here's the first day of kindergarten photo shoot! For Cal, today was no biggie but I was feeling a little sad. Truthfully, I've been feeling a little sad about today for awhile now. They gear up the kids by doing all these "activities" in the weeks preceding - a playdate at the playground, a popsicle party, a 45 min orientation with a few other kids and the teacher, a half day of kindergarten....I mean really COME ON. I think even Cal was wondering when the real thing was going to start. For me it was like slowly cutting off my arm...if you're going to lose the arm anyway, you might as well just hack it off as quickly as possible right? The more I thought about it the more I wondering what I was going to do without my chatterbox. He IS like my sidekick all day...constantly yelling down from the playroom, "MOM where are you? When are you coming up?" every five minutes. What will I do when I don't need to stop for pee breaks every 20 mins? Then it lead to thoughts like what will Ben do without his best friend in the world. Those boys are thick as thieves. They do everything together, including going to school together last year.

So today came as we all knew it would...and luckily it was busy this morning and no times for thoughts other than LET'S GET TO SCHOOL ON TIME! We got there a few mintues later than I'd hoped but it worked out to my advantage since we weren't sure if they were waiting at the door to all walk down together or not. A kind, old woman asked what we needed since I walked through door saying to Cal, "I don't know" and offered to take him down to the classroom herself. I thought this is was best for me since I knew standing around would start to make me weepy. So I gave a little hug and a "Have a good day" and tore out there before a tear could roll down.

Cal, on the other hand, was totally fine. Even for the first trial day when they only went a couple hours he told me he wanted to walk down to his classroom by himself. I figured this was ok but then got all anxious when the other mothers were standing and WAITING with their children. Cal promptly told me to leave, he'd just wait with his friends...okay! So I did but then felt horrible for not staying with him. All the other parents assured me he was fine and proud of himself for doing it himself but I felt sad for me mostly!!

He came out of school today and gave what I think was a FAKE yawn. He knows he's supposed to be tired after a "long day" and I'm sure he was thinking he'd get TV if he needed to rest after school since he heard of the neighbor girls doing this! Very funny. I obliged since this was a special first day. The first thing he said to me was, "That didn't seem like a long day at all! It only felt like an hour!" I can only take that to mean that today was a success! He told me he sat next to a VERY funny boy named Blink at lunch. I'm assuming his name is Blake but who knows. He told me they were so busy his teacher forgot recess. (On the half day she forgot snack and Cal was STARVING). I guess to her credit she used to teach first grade so she's just learning the schedule but come on! Who forgets recess and snack! SERIOUSLY?

The rest of us had a quiet day...I've found it hard to get things ready for school and get ready to take the boys out on errands right after dropoff. This will probably get easier once Ben is already at school. Ben will start at 8am and dropoff for Cal starts at 8:45. We got home from errands around 10am and I found myself unable to really do anything. I kept looking at my watch and felt like I needed to just wait around until it was time to pick up Cal. I remember having the same weird sense of feeling lost when he started preschool too. I mean, it's not like I didn't have the other boys or have 100 things I could be doing. I just felt nervous and like I was going to forget him if I did anything though! Around 11:30 Ben asked me when we were going to pick up Cal. He seemed fine with waiting until after nap. It WAS eerily quiet around here. I wonder if it's only a matter of time until the other boys notice that HEY they can talk and be heard now!! Of course, day 1 and both boys are sleeping at 2:45. I woke them both up, threw them in the car with no shoes on and raced to the school to get there before Cal got out. Ok, I didn't really need to race there, the school is a half mile away. I've got some teenagers and another mom who just offered to help me with pickup since the other boys will most likely be napping so we'll have to put a plan into place!

So far so good...more to come I'm sure...

Summer Bonaza!

The new house color!



New stairs below

It's been a crazy summer! I can't even believe it's back to school time. I wish I could say I'm happy to have the routine again, everyone knows I LOVE a routine, but the fall is never an easygoing time either so I guess I should be rooting for winter! haha...The summer was filled with trips, fun activities, house projects, and attacks by non-rabid bats! The first house project was decided for us after a serious wind storm battered our disgusting brick front stairs and busted up the railing. Wasn't so sorry to see those go. We chose to go with some concrete steps that have field stones that match our stone walls. It took them 3 attempts, meaning they left and came back 3 times, before they got the stairs level. When I complained the first time, the driver that had to come the 2nd time told me, "This ain't my first rodeo" after I continued to complain and tell him his solution wasn't going to do it for me. He claimed there wasn't another way, you know, according to his expertise. The 3rd time he had to come back with the boss-man and let me tell you, he didn't even look at me then!

In August the house was painted! A nice fresh coat of paint was desperately needed...after choosing and then RE-choosing colors we came up with this brown and olive green (edamame says Sherwin Williams) combo. We like it, but then again, anything was better than that tired, dirty yellow. Next up AC and a finished basement!

QUICK GETAWAYS

We were very fortunate to be able to get away a TON this summer. It started on Mother's Day weekend when Eric and I went to Foxwoods for a weekend to see Jerry Seinfeld perform. Later in June, we partied it up in Baltimore where we got to see some old friends from back in the day. I have to say, I miss Baltimore a little bit, but mostly I think I just miss being so close to the C-I-T-Y. In the picture above, Eric and I are in Montreal. We took a roadtrip there with my best pal Amy and her husband Scott. Lots of walking, food, drink, strippers, er I mean...good shopping, yeah. I can shamefully admit I've never been to Canada before so it was a neat trip for me although I could have done without the 8 hour car ride home :) Rounding out our alone trips was a one night excursion to a fabulous mansion in Kennebunkport where again, alcohol was not my best friend.

We also had a fun time enjoying the arts around here. I was lucky enough to take in 5 plays at the Seacoast Rep and see some incredible talents. RENT was so awe-inspiring I had to see it twice. I promptly came home and added the RENT music to the boys' ipod. After a morning of nothing but RENT, I came home from golfing to hear the boys belting out Seasons of Love, couldn't be more proud. I was also happy to finally knock Lady Gaga from her top spot of "most played" on Cal and Ben's ipod. Anyway, we saw the movie City Island which is by far one of the funniest movies I've ever seen and quickly made it to my top five in an instant! And we heard a pot-loving, smelly posse guy bang out some good music in Maine. All and all just confirming that we need to get out and see, do, hear more in the future!

NO FAIRIES ALLOWED!

On Sunday, August 29th during a time out at the neighborhood pool Cal yanked out his first loose tooth! He was so excited he told everyone! I was totally prepared...on advice from my cousin Cassie I had preordered a "tooth fairy pillow" so that the tooth would be secure in the pocket of this pillow that hangs on a bedpost or doorknob and NOT tooling around under a head and a pillow somewhere. When nightfall came, it was apparent that this was NOT going to go down well. It was clear the tooth fairy was going to be a failure - should she leave the tooth, keep the tooth to add to her magic, should she even come AT ALL?! The answer was decidely NO! After a little fussing and then some all out fussing, this mother went in Cal's room, snatched the tooth out of the pillow, and said, "When you're ready for the tooth fairy to come, let me know!". And that was the end of that. My almost-6-year-old is afraid of a tiny, twinkly, magical fairy who comes to give him money. This after he effectively ripped the damn tooth from his own mouth. Who knew? It's since been decided that he doesn't want the tooth. He's going to hold out for a bigger one to keep (I think). And that I should put the tooth in his pillow (where it's been actually) one day this week while he's at kindergarten so he doesn't know and then the tooth fairy can just come (oh what fun).

PIP UPDATE

I thought I should add a little blurb about the dog for all those interested. Cal has now nicknamed her "the shredding boston terrier" because each day she grabs something out of the recycle bin to shred or if not that then the welcome mat or a toy or really whatever she can find. It all happens out of doors so I'm not too irrate about it, but you do get that sinking feeling every time you open the door to go to the car and there upon the doorstep is a pile of shredding. It's just messy is all.

She's grown to about 10 pounds now and although she's gotten better at some things (potty training) she's still a pain around the kids. She wants to run, bite, play all the time so it's hard to have everyone outside playing at once. For example, if we want to play soccer, she does too, and she'll run after the ball and get it in her mouth and then run away with it. Nice. I'll admit, I've become attached to the silly dog though.

Our family trip to North Conway

It was a goal to do some "hiking" this year. We borrowed a pack from my friend Molly and did a little "practice" trial nearby. It was hot, someone had to poop, Seth didn't want to stay in the pack, you know, fun times. We'll wait until they're older is essentially the message. Plus since the pack and Seth literally weigh more than a quarter of my weight it would be difficult for me to keep him on my back in any even minorly difficult terrain, say uphill even?!

We did get to take a little quarter mile hike up to this place called Diana's Bath in North Conway when we went for our annual Storyland trip. The kids loved the waterfall and wading in the water and climbing on the rocks so we'll make a repeat trip there next year!

SETH

I'll cut to the chase with this kid...he's a devil, plain and simple. It was never the plan to give me three nice, law-abiding children. There's always one in the family - the "different" one. I should have had a clue he was going to be a handful when at 18 months he was already climbing the ladder to the top of the clubhouse on the swingset. The child will climb on, hang on, jump on, ANYTHING. It's not unheard of to have him hurl himself off the couch superman style onto a mere blanket or most recently to climb out of a pack n' play and then subsequently a crib. Luckily, the pack n' play and crib were at my mom's and so far he has been unable to hoist himself over his crib at home but really it's only a matter of time. He's fearless and ruthless. I guess we'll be ordering a bed soon. Sometime during the month of August, he also had a word explosion. He just started talking in sentences, "I want CHEESE!" or "I pet puppy, mommy". It's great but it adds to the already noisy house. Mostly we just close our eyes and pray when it comes to Seth. He's the last in the line and I find myself just quietly telling myself, "It's just a phase, we'll get to another fun one REAL soon". I do wish we could've skipped the throwing food phase but no such luck. Seth seems to be the worst amongst the three in this area.

Below in the picture with Cal is Seth's signature look. He rolls his eyes up and to the side like he's possessed. He likes to do this while singing, while demonically throwing food at the dinner table, or just because.

BENNY

Ben has won himself a new nickname this summer - "Benfus" for his talent to fuss about anything AND everything. He even fusses when you call him Benfus - "Stop calling me that!!". Well....he's caught in the middle, what can I say. Cal talks the most, Seth is actively almost killing himself the most, and Ben fusses the most. It's just the nature of things apparently. Ben still takes his sweet time in deciding to do almost anything. He finally ok'd the bike which was monumental here! I think it happened at my mom's when we were away for a trip and she told him he couldn't go on a "bike ride" unless he "rode his bike". He wanted to push it, you see. So he took the plunge and rode it! After that he started peddaling the one mile around our neighborhood. Hallelujah! Ben also has a passion for soccer and out-singing his brother.