Today I'm thankful for...

1. A new toot!  It looks like Liam is getting his first tooth!!  He's been drooling buckets and gnawing on everything within reach, which explains things.  He was all smiles today, so it must not be bothering him too much.  Hopefully it will be as painless as possible for him- his poor big sister Sydney took forever to grow in her teeth and it was a loong, miserable process.  But Syd didn't get her first tooth until she was 11 months old.  Lillian got her first one around 7 months (similar to Liam- he'll be 7 months in a few days!!) and her teeth growing was pretty easy- hopefully Liam will follow after his biggest big sister instead. :)

2. The treadmill.  I hate admitting it, but I'm so glad I can run on a treadmill.  I would much rather run outside, except 1) it's so stinkin' hot and humid out and 2) it would require me to push two kids in a big stroller- running is hard enough for me by itself so when pushing a large piece of equipment on wheels is involved I'm absolutely hopeless.  Dropping my kiddies off at the kid watch at the YMCA and hitting the treadmill this morning was great.  Even when I got off and my legs felt all jell-o-ey- classic case of "treadmill legs."  Heck, it's worth it. :)

3. Ice cream cones!!!

4. Falling asleep on the floor...with no pants on.  This is what happens when Mommy is too busy feeding Liam to help Sydney put her pants back on while she's having a meltdown because she's too tired to get them on herself.  And Daddy isn't home because he's on call.  Oh well- All's well that ends well, right? :)  She fell asleep at 6:15 pm and didn't wake up until 7 am the next morning.  The girl needed her sleep- with or without pants and undies (which I did put back on her after I took the picture, just for the record).  While Sydney snoozed, Lillian and I played some games and had a lovely tea party together.

Today I'm thankful for...

1. 6 months and applesauce.  Liam turned 6 months last week and he started "solid" (not really so solid, if you ask me) food on Friday.  I don't think you can really call it eating, though- he just makes funny faces when he tastes the food, gags a little, then spits most of it back out.  We're still working on the whole swallow thing.  Either way, it's fun to see his big sisters try to feed him, too.  I have to keep a watchful eye out and remind them (Sydney especially) not to shove the spoon in his mouth.  Bless them and their enthusiasm to help.  :)  Here's a little video I took for Grandpa during Liam's first feeding.

 

My 6-month little guy!

2. Sydney's afternoon nap.  Sydney used to take 2-3 hour naps like a champ every day.  Now that we've exiled her baboo, however, she refuses to take them.  She pitched a huge fit this afternoon when I put my foot down like a good mom and insisted that she take a nap.  It took about half an hour to calm her down and get her to sleep.  Liam happened to be napping at the same time, so I laid down with Sydney to take a nap, too.  Lucky me!  About 10 minutes later, though, Liam woke up and my nap went out the window.  Then I realized that I had to leave in about 15 minutes to get Lillian from school.  That meant I would have to wake Sydney up from her nap (the one that I worked so hard to get her to take), and she would probably be totally cranky from waking up too soon.  I was not looking forward to this when Bobby called and said he could pick Lillian up from school so Sydney could finish her nap.  Hallelujah!  Thank you, thank you, Bobby.  Sydney slept until 4pm just like the good ole' days with the baboo.  Of course, it came back to bite me tonight when she was a nightmare to get to bed because she wasn't tired.  Oh, well.  You take what you get, when you get it.

3. Bed time.  It was a painful process to get all three kids to bed tonight.  I was grumpy, so they were grumpy, which made me grumpier...and thus went 'round the vicious cycle.  Liam was cranky and needed attention.  Sydney wasn't tired and she decided to refine her stubborn disobedience by not listening to a dang thing I told her.  And Lillian just had an emotional breakdown.  After nearly two and a half hours of getting in and out of bed, multiple trips to the bathroom, requests for medicine for varying ailments, bed-hopping, crying, baboo-back-in-mouth, holding, bouncing, mobile on, mobile off, complaining, fears calmed, comforting, night lights on....anyways, they all finally fell asleep.  Phew!  After a therapeutic pep talk from Bobby over the phone I am feeling much better.  The only other thing that will help me feel even better is getting a decent night's sleep, so I'm signing off for now.  Buenas noches!  Que te duermes con los angelitos!

Today I'm thankful for...

1. Camping with my family.  The view of the lake we camped next to.  The fishing pier where the girls threw rocks into the water and caught fish in a net.  Using a spoon-fork-knife-in-one to eat with.  Sleeping in a tent.  Keeping warm by a fire.   Eating s'mores for breakfast.  Seeing a million clear stars in the sky.  Paddle boating.   Hearing Lillian and Sydney say, "This is SO much FUN!" over and over!

2. The trike-a-thon with Lillian's preschool class.  This week was Bike Safety Week.  Lillian learned all about wearing a helmet, riding on the sidewalk, crossing driveways carefully, and watching out for others.  On Friday her class held a trike-a-thon to raise money for St. Jude's.  Scooters were allowed, too, so Lillian brought her pink Razor (from Aunt Aimee and Uncle Alan) and her Dora helmet.  She zoomed around the track like a scooter-riding star for an hour, with ponytail and scooter tassels flying!  Liam rode around in the stroller and Sydney tried to join the big kids on a tricycle, but her little legs couldn't reach the pedals. :(  So she stuck with her ride-on-top car instead.

3. My messy house.  It's hard to look around from my couch where I'm sitting and see the mess around me- a laundry basket full of clothes that need to be folded and put away, a bucket overflowing with winter coats and hats that needs to be sorted and brought down to the basement, piles of papers and random junk on the dining table, dirty dishes in the sink and clean dishes drying in the rack and on top of the stove, more bags on the floor with who-knows-what inside that need to be put away...and there's more but I'll spare you.  When I look at the mess too much I start to get depressed and overwhelmed about it.  I ask myself, "Why is my house such a mess?"  And the answer is this- because instead of folding laundry I was visiting with a friend and watching my kids run around in the grass with their friends.  Instead of doing my dishes, I was reading bedtime stories with my kids and helping Lillian learn how to read a new book. Instead of cleaning my house from top to bottom this weekend, I went camping with my family and made some unforgettable memories.  My house is a disaster zone, but that's ok.  I have a wonderful family who I love spending time with, and I'll take a messy house with my loving family over a clean pristine house without them any day.

Today I'm thankful for...

1. Olive Garden lunch with my sister.  Soup and salad- yum!  Sydney and Liam joined us.  Audrey rocked Liam to sleep in his car seat like a pro-mama and Sydney ate all the "crunchies" (aka croutons) out of the salad.  We were going to get a giant piece of Italian chocolate cake for dessert but the service was a little slow so we went next door to Acme and bought Haagen Dazs and Ben & Jerry's ice cream instead.  I'm grateful for my sister who gets me out of the house for some good sister-sister time (even when the little ones tag along, too).

2. The Book Fair at Lilly's school!  I remember when the book fair came to my elementary school.  I LOVED it!  We went to scope it out tonight and everything was buy one get one free!  Lil and Syd each picked 2 books (a buy book and a free book), but it all ended up being free for us because Grandpa was with us and he said Grandma gave him Book Fair money. ;-)  Thanks, Gma and Gpa! The girls read their new books on the way home.

3. Waitress Lillian.  Here she is listing off the 127 specials at her little restaurant to Sydney who is a most wonderful customer.  They decorated the little white table with all the roses that Grandpa brought all the way from his garden in Maryland.  You can only sort of see it, but Lillian is wearing a little pink apron and holding a pad of paper under her arm to take Sydney's order.  And yes, that is a plastic cake sitting on the table.  That was for dessert. :-)

4. Cross-generational male bonding time.  Grandpa spent the evening with us- picnic dinner on the floor (Daddy is on call), Book Fair, stopping to visit Daddy at the hospital, pj's and brushing teeth back at home, and bedtime.  Most of the time he had Liam in his arms, either entertaining him or rocking him to sleep.  My dad calls him "Willem" or "man child"- "Let me hold that man child," he'll say. :)  It always makes me laugh a little. 

5. Cards from Grandma.  Lillian and Sydney both got mail from Grandma yesterday.  They ripped open their cards and I read the nice little personalized note she wrote to each of them.  I know she misses them, and I know we miss her, too.  

Today I'm thankful for...

1. The questions that Sydney asks.  Tonight at dinner she asked, "Mommy, do T-Rex eat cheese?"  One of life's important questions, no doubt.

2. The Wii.  Last night we acquired our very first Wii from some friends who were getting rid of theirs.  Lillian and Sydney have already mastered Wii baseball.  They played their first 3-inning game against each other today, taking turns pitching and batting.  The game ended with a 0-0 tie.  There were lots of foul balls, a few good hits, and plenty of strike-outs.  The girls loved it.  It was fun to watch them and to help with their hitting and pitching.  Most of the Wii players were girls- maybe it'll help Lillian warm up to playing real T-ball?

3. Anesthesia.  Although it would be nice to receive some anesthetic meds to knock me out once in a while (j/k!), that's not what I mean by anesthesia.  I'm so grateful that Bobby is on his anesthesia rotation and that it's at the "close hospital" as the girls call it- really close to Lillian's school and close to home.  The schedule is awesome.  I don't understand why he doesn't want to switch his specialty to anesthesia.  ;-)  He doesn't have to leave the house until 8 am, which has allowed him to bring Lillian to school a few times (and I've even slept in- wahoo!).  He gets done early in the afternoons, which has allowed him to pick Lillian up from school, too!  I'm getting spoiled.  We've seen him a lot more and he's been getting much more sleep than he did last month.  It's been a blessing to have this rotation immediately following his general surgery rotation- such a tender mercy to have the time to recover and recuperate after a horrible schedule last month.

4. Catching up.  I have a ton of stuff that I want to post from the past week, but now is not the time to do it.  I need to go to bed.  I'm making the executive decision to ignore the dishes in the sink, the toys on the floor, and the 3 laundry baskets that are stacked in the hallway filled with clean clothes waiting to be put away.  Who knows- maybe the housecleaning fairy will come while I sleep and wave it all away with her magic wand.