Saturday, February 11, 2012

....exceptions to the rule.....

.....by the time this post is published, Stefan will be home.....he is on his last night away after four consecutive weeks of traveling.....I am always conscientious to write that he has been gone, rather than he is gone, as my mother in law always wants to make sure that I don't share too much information on the internet.....and I love her for that, by the way.....so as I write this, Stefan is still away......but as you read, he is home.....you get it....two shouts out to blogger for the fact I can schedule my posts after they are written.....moving on.....

....Stefan and I have always had the pact that our bed would remain a marital bed and not a family bed.....we don't judge others who choose to do it differently, but for us; it works out best that our bed stays reserved for the two of us....we are four years and three months into having babies and besides the newborns co-habitating in our bed or the sick child who needed some comfort or a really bad dream that brought us a visitor (and quite honestly, I was probably too tired to make the 10 foot walk back to the toddler bed on those occasions), we have done a pretty good job at keeping our little nest reserved and sticking to our pact.....well, I must admit that I broke down after week four of sleeping alone (and for the record, this last trip included a weekend, so I felt a little vulnerable).....I declared a girls' slumber party last night and we rocked it......


....when I confessed to Stefan, he actually told me he was jealous.....as our girls have changed from babies, to toddlers, to preschoolers; it's so apparent that we only have a few years left of them depending on us for everything.....I see 5 and 6 year olds that have slipped away and are full fledged kids that are so independent.....so when the girls were fired up about camping out with Momma, I was too.....multiplied by 1000......we watched The Lion King in bed, said our prayers, I rubbed two backs for our nightly song and then I retreated for some alone time only to crawl back in bed hours later to find my spot between my girls still vacant.....


....and it was divine....

.....I totally get the family bed thing.....I really do.....

......and it was sweet that the first thing Elsie said when she woke up was that we needed Brody in bed with us too.....I agreed, but that lasted about 2 seconds....he is all boy, doesn't like to lie still for a second and had breakfast on his mind......so he inhaled a banana, 3 mini pancakes and about 100 blueberries......


....I can't look at him without smiling and my heart fluttering a million miles a minute......he has me head over heels.....and if you look closely, you can see some new hair coming in.....Stefan and I have only produced bald babies who really don't get hair until they turn one........and as we approach that big milestone, he's got some new sprouts blooming.......I can't wait to see what he looks like with hair.....

...but back to last night....

....I snuggled in bed with the girls during our full on movie night, listened to Brody breathe through the baby monitor, had the remote in hand to fast forward through the part when Mufassa dies and acknowledged in my mind that The Lion King has one of the most incredible sound tracks.....ever......I checked the weather to plan our here's what we are going to do tomorrow speech before lights out, just as I always do......when I saw sleety, wintery mix in the forecast, here is what I declared....

.....wake up, breakfast, play with Buddy, put him down for a nap and then we need to wear our aprons to make some oatmeal cookies.....we need to practice baking because someone has a birthday party next week and we are going to be baking lots of cupcakes over the next few days.....laugh, giggle, give Callie a ton of attention about her birthday.....eat lunch, play with Brody some more, deliver cookies to the neighbors, put Brody down for another nap and then get all of our Valentine's cards ready for our friends.......gasp, squeal, laugh.......we love a good plan in this house.....

.....although at the time, I didn't know I would be adding to the day: a play date with two friends, a dinner party with 5 children under 5 years old, cleaning up two accidents off the bathroom rug, having to start a spontaneous load of laundry, giving my oldest three time outs for disobeying, having a head butt accident during our play date that caused two girls to scream loudly.....all while Brody was also hollering for his bottle.....it was three pitches of crying in stereo, while the other two girls repeatedly asked me over the screaming if I could give them do-overs for a chip in their new manicures.....right now, please.....I am always amused about how children are never affected by chaos......it didn't even dawn on little Callie and her friend that there might be a lot going on at that moment and that nail polish wasn't on the forefront of my mind.....

......but when I declared 20 seconds after reading the weather last night that we were going to have an inside day, I knew it was going to be awesome.....and it was......despite the unexpecteds that are to be expected.....



....and I have to say that our oatmeal raisin cookies were spectacular.....the recipe can be found here, but it was our special ingredient used in rare occasions that made this batch stand out.....

......minutes after giving birth to Brody, I told Stefan I had to have a vanilla milkshake.....he thought the cravings only happened during pregnancy, but I told him after giving birth to a child, I was entitled to request whatever I wanted......he delivered, I enjoyed; but the craving for vanilla milkshakes prevailed into the initial weeks and months with Brody at home......Stefan researched recipes and continued to hand me the most amazing milk shakes I have ever tasted.....all homemade.....the secret, he finally revealed was Uncle Tobie's vanilla extract from Honduras.......so when I remembered that my recipe for oatmeal cookies called for vanilla, I opened the spice cabinet with the mindset of every day is a special occasion day......and the sacred vanilla delivered.....it turned my cookies from excellent to fabulous and I ate oatmeal raisin cookies for breakfast, lunch and dinner today.....and so did Callie.....


.....and Elsie has been enjoying the first born attention for her ability to write and sound out letters over the past few months......



....she's got all of her best friend's names memorized by heart and a day doesn't pass without writing one of her friends a letter.....


.....Callie stepped it up a few levels today.....we practiced writing her name 12 times for her classmates' Valentine's cards and she is almost at the point she can spell her name all by herself.....




....oh, the fleeting moments that are left with our girls....I seem to be more aware of them as the days pass.....

.....that's not to say the task didn't have its small moments....both girls jump started at the Valentine's Day card project.....Elsie was bouncing in her chair as I taught her the steps of folding the card, signing her name, inserting the Hello Kitty magnet and signed card, sealing the envelope and so on.....midway through, she exclaimed it was hot in the apartment, I needed to open a window and that writing cards was a lot of work......


.....I caught her in the act of telling me how hard Valentines cards are as she asked for a rubber band to get the hair off her skin......and a few hours later, it was sister declaring that she was too tired of writing notes......oh, it's a hard life....


.....Elsie is getting pretty spectacular with the camera, by the way.....obviously, it's not Stefan taking any pictures of me, so the ones that I make an appearance are a result of, Momma, I'll take some pictures now.....and frankly, she might know how to work the camera better than I do......

....but we did not quit.....we knocked out two 16 packs of pink and red cards and Callie is probably dreaming of C A L L I E in her sleep.....

....so in the spirit of Valentines Day, here is a little sneak peak before I unveil all of our pictures on the day of love......




.....Brody got to spend time with sweet Olivia yesterday.....she is two days older than him.....her Momma, Vanessa, was Elsie's teacher last year and is Callie's teacher this year......Vanessa and I got to watch our bellies grow together and share in the joy of our baby blessings last year.....she impacts my girls with every interaction she has with them and her sweet Olivia is lucky to have her as a Momma.....I think Brody caught on to the love we have for Olivia's Momma and may have declared Olivia his Valentine this past Friday at the school book fair.....he was diggin' this chick.....



.....and I am also diggin' these chicks.....





.....ready to roll into this week of love.....


.....I love to love......

.....Happy rest of your weekending.....