A downward spiral.

Who knows why I thought it would be a good idea to pack in 3 things after 4:30 pm (blatantly breaking a parenting rule of thumb, and thus deterring any sympathy from other parents after this story is over). But I did. I thought it would be a good idea on a night when Jeremy was off at work and I was flying solo.

It started with the cast removal appointment at 4:30 in the afternoon. I brought a very happy daughter (castoffday!) and a very cranky son, and a patient grandma for backup. Everything went as planned - daughter was happy, son was cranky and whiny, and patient grandma documented with photos. Towards the end, cranky son got to be too much for everyone (in the entire office, I'm sure), so patient grandma took him to get hamburgers and fries for our (castoffday!) dinner treat while happy daughter and I finished her appointment. The abandonment of our previous plan to actually go to dinner, rather than take home a bag of dinner from a drive-thru should have been clue number one.

But I'm not one who's usually deterred by a little change in plans, so I went full steam ahead on the rest of the evening. Even despite the fact that we left the cast removal appointment an hour later than planned because they re-casted it in a short cast, waited for it to dry, cut it off and sent it home to use as a splint after hearing all of Everly's plans now that she didn't have a cast up to her shoulder anymore (swimming! gymnastics! skiing! sledding! somersaults! dancing! roughhousing!). The doctor looked at me, I nodded a confirmation, and he said "Let's re-cast it".

We head home, the happy daughter eats and itches her sore arm, and cranky boy is even crankier. Patient grandma gives them a bath and I take care of the last thing on our agenda. Friends of ours stopped by to get Everly's crib because Jeremy also took down her crib and my dad put up the new big girl bed that morning. Things go smoothly, we load the crib into their car, and I start putting kids to bed about an hour and a half past their bedtime. Parks lays in his bed with the lights out while I put Everly to bed. And on the upside, it's pretty easy to get Everly to wind down in her new bed because she's so tired. Things are looking up.

While I'm laying with Everly and talking to her about how to sleep in a big bed, I hear all sorts of thumping around outside her door. Upstairs, downstairs, in the hallway, up and down. I finally leave her, say goodnight, and walk out. ALL of the lights are on. ALL of the doors are open upstairs. And then Parks pokes his head out of the bathroom door. He's wearing one sock, a jammy top that is way to small and holding a plunger in one hand. Before I can say anything he says "Mom. It's totally ok now. I think I took care of it." Um, excuse me, dear?

I walk into the bathroom and the toilet is TO THE BRIM. Parks explains that (in his own words) he had an "issue". He saw the toilet overflowing and ran downstairs to get the plunger. He plunged, it didn't work, it went to the brim, he got scared, then he turned the water off. Proud. I'm standing their proud of Parks and his poop-inducing problem solving skills. Then Everly hears the commotion, decides she has to go potty again, and I spend the next ten minutes plunging it while Everly lays in weeping heap outside the door because she refuses to use another bathroom and Parker lays in a weeping heap inside the door saying over and over "You can't do this! Call daddy to come home! Get grandpa! Girls don't plunge!".

In the end, I plunged. Both kids went to bed approximately 3 hours after their bedtime. And I think that my life is comical. Because all that happened in about 5 hours.

This boy.

When I got up after snuggling with Parker in his bed tonight, I noticed something sticking out from underneath his blanket way at the bottom of his bed. I thought it was one of his stuffed animals and when I reached out to pick it up, by the glow of his nightlight I realized it was actually his foot. HIS FOOT! This little boy who was a tiny baby in my arms what seems like just yesterday is long enough that near the end of his bed, his foot can stick out of the end of the blankets. This little boy who still asks me to pick him up (I must look ridiculous), who still wants to snuggle with me every night, who still wants to read books on my lap, this little boy is growing. And all those moments are fleeting, evidenced by this foot sticking out of the end of the blankets.


This little boy also ends everyday with a conversation that usually goes a little something like this:

me: "Goodnight. I love you."

parks: "Goodnight and I love you too. I love you like the stars."

me: "I love you like the world!"

parks: "I love you all over the world and in the clouds!"

me: "I love you around the world a million times."

parks: "I love you 96 hundred thousands!"

me: "Oh, that is a lot of love. Thank you!"

parks: "Yup. I love you lots."

This boy can grow and change and get older, but I want to end every day like that. Forever.

Sick Days

Another beautiful family weekend of skiing.

It started out with A LOT of wind at the top. We thought we might be going on a Mt. Everest expedition with two kids in tow, but after skiing down several hundred yards off the top, we found ourselves safely back on our family mountain.

Everly very much enjoys demanding treats on every chair ride and dictating who will be riding the chair with her. She also skis without her harness (virtually life-changing for Jeremy!) most of the time (ok, somewhat life-changing for Jeremy!) and she'll even let me take her for half the runs (back on track for Jeremy!).

Snack breaks and a rest time at the bottom.

And then our day ended with an exhausted boy with a fever over 101 and a two year old without a nap who seemed to just be invigorated by nearly four hours of skiing on a sub-degree sunny day with 40 mph sustained winds. Who knew?

A day of rest.

This past Sunday turned out to be one of those glorious days where everything seemed restful, relaxing and right with the world. Jeremy headed back for a 24 hour shift in the wee hours of the morning and when the kids wandered down just before 8am, they snuggled with me before we turned into a whirlwind of getting ready for church, scarfing breakfast and jumping into the car. At church they sat in their chairs, read their bibles and listened intently to the beautiful Ugandan Children's Choir sing as guests. I got teary eyed at the beauty of it all - the children singing, my kids so contentedly reading, and a couple of my favorite hymns in the lineup that morning. After a smooth Sunday School drop-off, I decided that we'd head to the store on the way home and make this a full day of festive treats for us. I told them they could choose their lunch and dinner and the kids picked out oatmeal, apples, mac 'n cheese and veggie sausages for their lunch and dinner. What a combo. And then (the creme de la creme), they got to choose a special toy or craft to share with each other and play with for the day. Parker chose a little toy motorcycle and race car (Everly could hardly contain her excitement, I'm sure) and Evie chose modeling clay. Good choice, Ev. The gift that keeps on giving and never dries out. After that, we enjoyed approximately 5.75 hours of continuous play with said items. Well worth it. :)

These are some of their artistic renderings in clay. From left to right, they are a seal, a cat, a nest with a bird in it, and an elephant. Obviously.

Snow Awesome!

One of the major things we do as a family is ski together. Every weekend. All weekend. All winter long.

Parker turned 5 in January and this is his 4th year skiing. He started when he was a little under two. Everly, in an effort to keep up with big brother, started skiing when she was 18 months old. This is her second year skiing at the age of two and a half. Jeremy and I are unbelievably proud of both of them. They ski in rain, snow or sun without complaint. They take some major falls, try some big turns, and sometimes end up having to go down some pretty steep slopes, all without complaint. Parker added using poles this year to his repertoire in addition to skiing anything and everything. I mostly hear him yelling "LOOK AT ME!" while he shoots past me on a black diamond run. This kid has some passion. And bravery.


And God bless Jer for snowplowing Everly down almost every run we take while she's still on the harness. This sweet little girl who is so full of life is all about two things on the hill: dad and going fast. She's still on the harness because when we try to get her to practice stopping (which she is fully capable of) she yells "NO! ONLY WHEN I GET TO THE BOTTOM!".


We self imposed the Dad Only rule after we had a few incidents when I tried to take her harness straps for a few runs and let Jeremy ski with his boy. Everly told me she only wanted dad, but we figured it wasn't a big deal. Then, from top to bottom, while skiing under the chairlift with a few hundred people on it she yelled "SOMEBODY help me! PLEASE! Someone come help me! PLEASE! Can anyone hear me? COME HELP ME!" over and over. And over. It's unlikely that anyone is going to kidnap this little gal and force her to ski some runs with them, but the situation still doesn't look quite right to the bystanders. So, dad it is. Over and over. And over.

The mice will play...

I had the pleasure of some time (ohmygosh.areyoukiddingme?!) to myself the past weekend. It was, in a word, LOVELY. I hung out with my mom and perused some discount stores for cheap frames and a plastic soap dish the kids can't break. We tried on silly hats and nearly wet our pants laughing at how funny we both are. We went out to lunch and ran a couple errands. We also finished our sentences, had complete thoughts and caught up more in a few kid free hours than we can over the course of a month of visits. I then fit in two girlie birthday parties, one filled with wine, cheese and laughter and the other filled with dancing, cupcakes, and laughter. I took the rest of the weekend and started and/or finished up 1.3 million projects that I've been meaning to get to for the last year (I'm rounding down by 2 years. Some of those projects have been laying around half finished for at least 730 days). Some were glamorous (I FINALLY COVERED OUR UGLY STOOLS!) and some were necessary (NO MORE RUBBERMAIDS OF TOO SMALL KID CLOTHES IN THE HALLWAY!). I wrapped up some of my freelance design work and I started painting some frames. I feel contentedly exhausted from the fun, frivolity and sheer amount of stuff I was able to get done in nearly 2 days. Why didn't I appreciate time more before I had kids? :)

My newly covered stools and in the background, the kids' artwork frame I made.

Snowmageddon

Yesterday, Jeremy had the kids for the third snow-day in a row while I caught up at work this week. I think the days have teetered between having a blast in the snow and feeling cooped up and stuck at home for these three. Yesterday was made better with a neighborhood sledding extravaganza. The big kids made jumps. :)