Jammie Days

We spend alot of time in Jammies in this house. My jammies tend to be a bit more fashionable- though they look very much like regular p.j.'s- they have trendy names like "Yoga Suits" and "Loungewear Sets". We are usually dressed after everyone's big nap. Somedays though, not! In our own little nest, does it matter? All those buttons, metal zippers, awkwardly placed clips and pretty ruffles just don't look comfortable to me. However, if we are going somewhere...

Well, I have had this idea... the one thing thats really difficult for me in taking all the kids to those little fast food places with indoor playgrounds is trying to get everyone dressed and out the door in a timely manor by myself. Some days I end up changing them twice as it seems like as soon as I mention "Go!" two of them (who shall remain nameless in case they would rather I not disclose intimate details about their potty habits) seem to want to go poopie... in fact, this happened last night when I said "Want to GO for a walk?" ARGH! But, lets veer away from diaper detail and back to "I had this idea"... With two sets of twins, I am always on the lookout for time saving approaches to what should be pretty routine and normal activities with only one or two toddlers. But we have four toddlers. My current time saving idea being that once autumn came around, I would dress them all AT BEDTIME. There are some nice looking children's "Loungewear" out there now, and we have purchased a few sets. The girl sets are leggings with a cotton top, and the boys sets are fashioned like fleece sweatsuits, but minus the hoods and elastic pant cuffs. They are perfect for sleeping, or playing! So, I told this novel time saving idea to Duane, and he stared at me for sometime (I thought I was "brilliant" as they would say at Guinness Beer) then said "You would change their diapers, right?".

This made me question how absurd the whole idea must be if he thought I was wanting to also cut corners by not changing nappies. :-\

And of course, now that Lucas and Tilly are two, we are being attacked by the early potty training mothers. The ones whose babies began using a potty before they were 5 months old. "Little Rodney would roll over to the potty all by himself". We have been given pottys, we have been given books on pottys, and even underpants. *furrows brow*. I am not getting any indication they are ready to use a potty. Not from Lucas *at all*, and only vaguely is Tilly aware. Some days she will come to me and say "I stinky poo poo nasty" (lovely!), but like last night when I asked her if she had "potty" she said "I no stinky poo poo, yet". Hmpfh. She was quite "stinky poo poo" Thank You!

What is the reply to the early potty training moms? I have been sticking with "They aren't ready yet" which is the truth. But, that seems to only satisfy half of them. The other half say "YOU are the one whose not ready!" or "They will never be 'ready' if you aren't training them". *scrunches nose*

And if anyone has figured it out, why are moms so interested in when we potty train? Is there a competition I forgot to enter? :-P

P.S.- if anyone knows how to get spaghetti sauce stains off of light purple fleece sleepers without bleach, please inform.

My secretary

This is my new secretary.



My secretary now makes all my phone calls for me. I hand her the phone and tell her what numbers to dial, and at only 2 years of age, she does. !!! And, she takes dictation. In the form of repeating what Lucas says and does. I know some of you would call this *tattling* (ahem), but, for the sake of peace in my home, we are going to call it *informing*.

The phone dialing thing was pretty shocking. I didn't know she knew her numbers. Maybe if I gave her a typewriter, she could also take letters for me.

Pumpkin Bread

I know its a wee bit early for autumn baking, but I have been looking for the pumpkin spice latte at Starbucks since mid August. :-) I finally decided to research pumpkin bread recipes, and come up with one with good fall flavor. Here is what I ended up with.



Its more than the flavor... its really what Autumn represents for me. Its a time of introspection. A time to reflect on the seasons prior, and to contemplate winter. To contemplate growth and change. To take things a little more slowly, *coolly* and savour the seasons passing and the seasons to come. Of Life. Of Nature. The colors, the textures and the very air out of doors seem to all encourage this solitude within me. And I suppose I am craving that, as well. I have taken up journaling to the babies on the weekends, and its been the nicest way to connect myself with their milestones and "big events". The nicest way to celebrate what they have been, and the little independent children they are becoming.

I served my slice of pumpkin bread with a light caramel sauce and whipped cream sprinkled with cinnamon. Yum!



Here is the recipe I used (I never use anyone's recipe "as is", I take one and change four of five things and end up with my own):

Lizzie's Pumpkin Bread

* 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
* 3 extra large eggs
* 1 cup vegetable oil
* 2/3 cup milk
* 1.5 cups white sugar
* 1.5 cups packed brown sugar
* 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
* 2 teaspoons baking powder
* 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
* 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

Mix wet ingredients, sift together dry, then combine slowly. Bake in a bundt pan at 350 degrees until a toothpick in the center comes out clean- for me this was 1 hour and ten minutes.

This is heavy on the cinnamon. I may have even used *three* teaspoons of cinnamon. I really like a nice cinnamon flavor, so if you don't, start with one teaspoon in the batter and sample.

I know its not Low Fat. This is my weakness my dear readers. I can not go without a sweet cake in this house. Its my only fault. I can't have caffeine, we aren't drinkers, we aren't smokers. BUT I MUST HAVE CAKE!!! :-)

I hope everyone gets to enjoy some "autumn" in their home soon, too.

My dad and Lucas

***

Isn't this adorable? My dad playing with Lucas in early July.

birthdays

So, its been an entire year since I first "met" Ewan and Rowan. They turned 1 years old this month, and Lucas and Tilly turned 2. I took a couple pictures- the one of Duane and Ewan and Rowan was at their kiddie party. The one of Lucas and Tilly was taken at home before we went to their party. We rented one of those "inflatable play centers" and invited toddler and pre-school friends to share in our day. There were ten children there! We had a strawberry cake with "Winnie The Pooh" decor, and it had buttercream frosting with a piped chocolate buttercream on the edge as I wanted a taste of chocolate! :-)




Ewan and Rowan are walking... barely. They take 3-4 steps, then decide to crawl, stand up, take 3-4 more steps, then decide again that crawling is faster. Ewan is walking more than Rowan- who still feels safer cruising with one hand. I think by the end of the month Ewan will be going all over the place, and by mid-September Rowan will, too. They say a few words, but not predictably. They say "Hi", "Bye, Bye", "Mama" and "Dada". The other day Rowan was saying "Eat". I couldn't decide if he was parroting me or actually asking for a meal. Rowan LOVES mealtimes and takes them very seriously. He curls forward over his food tray and concentrates very hard on what bites he chooses. His favorite is macaroni and cheese. Ewan would prefer to be fed from a jar, but he will eat crackers and some macaroni and cheese... I so want the freedom of finger foods, but we are still primarily feeding from a jar.

Here is Rowan's birthday picture:



Here is Ewan's birthday picture:



Lucas is now talking up a storm. He is very sensitive and asks where I am, or where Dada is, or Tilly, anytime we start out of the room. He is fascinated with airplanes and speaks of them all the time! Matilda talks in full sentences now, but they are baby sentences. For instance, last night when we passed Ewan and Rowans nursery, she said "Little babies go night night with puppies and pacis!". Cute! Her hair is getting so long, too!

This isn't from Lucas and Tilly's party, but it illustrates how much Lucas enjoys parties in general:



Matilda twirling in her new dress from her aunt Pat. I love this picture! Matilda is such a "girlie girl":



We received a ton of packages from my family for the kids birthdays- so many that we have reserved a few (Like the Little People villages) for a rainy day. We have a stack in our closet from my parents, aunt and from my sister that we will let them open over time. The "Little People" villages are so cute! We have a Thanksgiving one and a Christmas one put back, too. I ordered those from the Fisher Price website.

I am going through books like crazy. I haven't watched television in about a... year! Ha, ha. At the end of the evening once everyone is down for the night, I just want quiet. So, I have been reading "cozy mysteries". The one I am working on now is by Susan Witting Albert and features the sleuth of... Beatrix Potter! Assisted by her animal friends, too. This is the first of her books I have read, and the first in the Beatrix Potter series. I am also enjoying Maggie Sefton's knitting mysteries, and Emily Brightwell's "Mrs. Jeffries" mysteries about a Victorian housekeeper who helps her Scotland Yard Inspector employer solve murders. These are such a lovely light escape for me at the end of the day... reading about Victorian England, or a homecraft I would enjoy learning set in the midwest, etc. Its so peaceful! Reading definitely keeps me feeling as if I am still active, even if its only my imagination.

I had a terrible computer crash and its taken me a few weeks to get back into the swing of posting. Also, I posted a few months back about how I needed to find a way to deal with friends and family who insist on telling me negative and hurtful things? I finally took care of that after hearing a particularly hurtful piece of information from the primary person who was relaying that stuff. It had the effect I was worried and previously journaled about. The weekly calls about ugly information have stopped and I feel ten times better. I hate that I may have lost that friendship, but if it was rooted in gossip, it wasn't a healthy friendship for either of us. Having removed myself from that situation... I am sleeping better, I am happier, and I feel like I lost ten pounds- all of which were anger, frustration, and bitterness. I do not know if any of you are struggling with this sort of problem, but I recommend telling the person that you don't want to participate as a listener or share negative gossip any longer.

Matilda can be vain

I bought this little playschool vanity at a yard sale last year for 2.00. It is Lucas and Matilda's favorite piece of kiddie "furniture" although Tilly appreciates it the most. She visits it and practices her facial expressions, has conversations with herself, pretends to be "momma" and barks orders at her brother, and grooms in front of it. I thought I would share these pictures I took in sequences a couple weeks ago.







Of course Lucas can be a ham, too- but he is usually darting from the camera. Here is Lucas wearing his monkey beads.



And sometimes Matilda can be serious. She has such a pretty little face!



Everything with us and the kids is wonderful. They are all good children, and even when they are cranky they are easily soothed and quickly return to joy. They certainly have some limitations that other children don't have, and their patience through this has been astounding. While we make an effort to take them places every weekend and be sure they get to socialize and be out of doors, during the week this is very difficult for me and we still spend most of our time in the playroom. I just don't know how to juggle four children so close in age with such different needs by myself. Lucas and Matilda are very independent and they run, climb and play. Ewan and Rowan are cruising and crawling. We were invited to a party of a friends twins two weeks ago, and the only way I could manage it was the moms of older kids there helped me. Two of them were holding Ewan and Rowan at all times, and I chased after Lucas and Tilly- following them in and out of "bounce houses" and carrying them up the slide. Matilda in particular was shy and wouldn't investigate the play area at first without me holding her hand. Eventually she was more comfortable which was just in time for me to save a friend from Rowan's screams. He was having social anxiety and missing his momma who he could see ut not reach from someone elses arms. The kids all had a good time, but I felt completely wiped out. So worth it to see them have such fun, and so worth it to get a good nights rest for all of us that evening, but without any help, it leaves me at a loss to regularly let them have adventures like this. We have invited my husbands mother to the park with us several weekends and she has refused to go. The last time we went to the park, we went to one with a fence and I chased Lucas and Tilly and tried to get them to stay together, and Duane sat on a blanket and entertained Ewan and Rowan.

All the women I know in situations like we are either have an au pair, a mothers helper, or good quality family help. We live 7 hours from my family. I won't go into my husbands family just yet... I just grieve a bit for my kids... I know that as they age they will love having siblings in such close proximity and our holidays will be fun. But I think their memories of their early childhood will be the playroom walls. At least it won't be television. We do limit their television viewing!

I am sorry if I am being a little down today. We just canceled a vacation we had been looking forward to for months. I am very sad about it, but more sad about the state of my husbands relationships as well as mine with his family. To be honest, there isn't a relationship. We live inside a hornets nest.

The only safe way to be inside a hornets nest is to lay perfectly still while the bees buzz around you and try to keep even your breath slow and methodical. I haven't done a very good job at this. I find I hold my breath as long as I can, and then I sigh loudly, or inhale sharply and am stung again.

All I can do is my best. I am tired of bee stings. From now on, we are going to be on our own. We've been on our own for sometime anyhow, but now this is a declaration of it.

I hope the rest of you are well and happy and enjoying summer!

Keep a good thought for us!

Markers, haircuts, and fathers

I promised to upload pictures of Lucas and Tilly caught "Red handed" (literally) with their markers on the playroom wall. Here is Matilda when I entered the room (with camera!) and said "What are you doing?"



Here is Lucas the next day when I joined in and colored with them (see my flower?). I am a brave woman indeed coloring with washable markers on the walls. Ever try it? Its quite liberating.



I was thinking this weekend about my father. I think the trait I love best about my father is that he is in constant observation of people and the situations transpiring around them. These observations become stories that he tells to those he loves. I think I inherited this quality from him.

Growing up I could remember my father relating stories about people he encountered in immense detail. He would regale us over dinner with tales about people he worked with, men he was friends with and funny antidotes about their experiences, and women he met or knew personally. He often became so caught up with his memories of the event as he related it that he would pause and laugh to himself before he was able to verbally express what he was thinking of- Looking up in the air and silently musing with a barely audible snicker- my father often laughs through his nose, so to someone who doesn't know him, this may sound like he has allergies. :-) This tried my mothers patience- the fact that my father is in on a joke he hasn't shared. Knowing that his stories annoyed her made me try extra hard to be an active listener because I can not bare for anyones voice to fall upon deaf ears. And, I don't believe my father has ever met an ugly woman. Its the latter that impressed endearment of my father upon me. When my father describes a woman, she is not ugly unless she is somehow a sour or sullen person. Otherwise, he manages to see a quality of beauty in all of us. He will describe a womans eyes, a personality he thought was especially becoming, etc. But, what he doesn't mention is age, weight, or color. If you want to know these things you have to ask. And with age he is particularly funny- he will generalize with entire decades at once. He often tells me "Oh, she is around your age" and this could mean she is 25-45 years old! Having a father like this made me especially aware of the charming physical attributes of everyone I met, and allowed me to be able to appreciate beauty. Obvious, and hidden.

I went to Starbucks again this past weekend- for Mother's Day. First, I don't expect gifts for Mother's Day. The great thing in my life is my children and I don't need to be honored for what is a daily gift to me on one particular holiday a year. However, Duane gave me the cutest card with scribbles from all the kids on it (he wrote underneath each in parenthesis who was the author of the scribble sentiments). He also gave me a starbucks gift card. Which I used in spite of my contrary feelings on the subject of receiving gifts on Mother's Day. :-)

My corner was vacant and I had the comfy chair again! And while the background noise of the baristas was kept to a minimum in this far corner of the coffee house, there were two women seated at the table closest to the comfy chairs having an excited conversation. While I was there to read, I couldn't help but make practice of my father's observation skills. One of the women had apparently traveled some distance to see the other friend. I gathered this because her companion was talking of the changes to the area since she had last visited. Both women were Christian- and not in a southern way (everyone here is "Christian") but in active faith way. Conversation was peppered with expressions like "God will provide" and "I trust God to...". I really like people who are attached to their faith and speak of it as if its ingrained in their being, not something second hand which has been passed on by coincidence, not understanding. The local woman was very striking. She had sensual eyes. Dark almond eyes which were framed by an out of date hairstyle- a "bob"- but, it was a perfect way to showcase her eyes and seemed very stylish framing her face. It was rather odd to see a middle aged woman with bedroom eyes in a coffee house on a Sunday afternoon. I envied her that she could be an attractive woman without even trying. Mae West had bedroom eyes. I once read that in her 70's she worked with a 20 year old Rachel Welch and West had asked the director who was more attractive. Thats the sort of self confidence I believe all women should possess! Back to Starbucks- the lady with the lovely eyes faced me so I was able to see her clearly. Her traveling friend had her back to me, so my observations of her was kept to her personality. Which I liked very much because she was a gracious listener and an empathetic friend. Had they not been so animated and expressive I am sure my book would of sustained my interest and kept me from eavesdropping! However, instead I was privy to their lunch break and it gave me an interesting bird's eye view of their friendship. What impressed me was how after only five minutes of awkward pauses and required "catch-ups" they resumed their obviously long enduring friendship and engaged in support to one another and encouragement. They switched back and forth from subjects in a lyrical manor, leaning in or waving a hand to punctuate poignant moments, voices rising and falling constantly, but, keeping in harmony with one another. As if they were singing in a choir. It made me miss having girlfriend's locally, or being able to visit my childhood friends. Surely there is a song I sing with my friends. I wonder what it sounds like.

Once they left I draped myself over the chair in a familiar fashion and immersed myself into a new book for 2 hours.

That evening we went to a local park and then out to dinner. This park was fabulous!!! It had four toddler swings so we were able to let all the babies play at the same time and each of us pushed two at once back and forth.

Ewan is now crawling as fast as Rowan. But Rowan is pulling up and trying to cruise. Silly wee one! He hasn't the balance for cruising so after a few moments he teeters backward and then sticks his lower lip out for effect. He also chases his older siblings around the room wishing to play. Lucas and Tilly have become patient with their siblings and good playmates. Matilda enjoys smooching them. Lucas likes to pretend to feed them with play food bowls and empty spoons (Ewan thinks this is horrible and will screetch if his spoon is empty).

Rowan had to have a haircut. Here is the before:



Here is the little fellow now. Duane has taken to calling him "Frodo Baggins".



Here is Ewan looking very determined in crawling. Duane calls him "BigButt Baggins".



Ta-ta for today!