Nothin' new

I keep hoping that spring will show up soon. The afternoons are getting sunnier, but the weather is still cool, and the wind just keeps blowing.

Although it is pretty cute to hear Aiden yelling up at the sky, "Mother Nature, can you puh-lease make the wind go away????"

Yeah, May soccer should definitely NOT look like this:

The rest of the week was dedicated to mundane tasks. Finishing up washing clothes. Yes, they still all need to be put away. But hey, halfway done is better than not at all! We mopped the floor, Chris did some vacuuming and fan cleaning. And we all helped to clean out the garage. Yes, nine boxes of stuff and two bags of clothes later, our garage is a little cleaner and the Youth Ranch has more things to shelve.

Next up: painting the craft room. Hopefully I'll get to it sometime next week.

Have a Happy Mother's Day!!!

Spring, oh spring.... Where are you????

It's the first of May. Happy May Day!!!!

One would think that by the first of May, the weather wold be at least starting to warm up. After all, summer clothes have been in the stores for 2 months, soccer has been underway for 3 weeks, the trees have bloomed as well as some of the flowers. The world is looking green again.

So, why then was I seeing my own breath this morning, at 9am nonetheless, at soccer???? Wearing two layers of clothing and wrapped in a quilt???? Chris had to take Finn to the car halfway through the first game because his little hands were like popsicles! And I swear it just got colder as the morning progressed!!!

Don't get me wrong- I'm not begging for 106 degree weather... I'd just like to see the mid- 70s. On a regular basis.....

Thank god someone else in the house knows computers....

Okay. My plan tonight was to write a quick little note on the coming of Spring (finally), and post some pretty cute pics of the kids and their first ever homemade hop-scotch board. These pics included Paige in her nightgown, sparkly black Mary Janes, and pink corduroy vest, and Aiden in his pjs, a hoodie, and his Spider Man snowboots. Yes, my children are obviously on the cutting edge of fashion.......

Because I am a multi-tasker extraordinaire, I was going to tackle this little blog on my very portable mini- laptop in the wee hours of the morning at work. Hey.... All my patients are sleeping, and I don't have any meds due for an hour. Come on.

However, in an attempt to foil my 3am plans, my oh-so-cute laptop with its built in wireless card thingie simply refuses to connect to the wireless network here. I've "repaired the connection", turned my firewall on and off, searched for new connections, and basically pulled my hair out at the roots trying to figure out why it won't work tonight. Well, everything short of turning the computer off and turning it back on. I am listening to Breaking Benjamin right now, and I don't really want to interrupt that.

So, my loving, IT savvy husband is hopefully going to read this in the morning and tell me what I'm doing wrong. Pity he actually IS asleep right now.

So those pics of the kids playing hop scotch, and the video of Finn walking will just have to wait.

Oh; how did I post this blog, you ask, if I couldn't connect to the network??? The patient laptops were open for business. Luckily, at almost 4am, no one else needed one.

A childhood rite of passage???

Kids do gross things. It's just a fact of life.

When I woke up today, Chris greeted me with our childrens' accomplishments for the day. This is a fairly normal thing. I love hearing what the kids have done during the day, exciting or mundane.

Well, this overcast Friday, one of our children learned the fine art of swallowing air to make oneself burp. Apparently, this talented child can also make the air come out the other end. On demand. And of course, this newfound talent is hilarious to said child.

Who is it, you ask??? Could it be the almost 7 year old kindergartener? He is a boy, after all.....

Amazingly, no.

The baby??? Isn't he too young to engage in such activities???

Surprisingly, he's not too young. But more on that later.

No, the burping, farting, laughing monster of a child is none other than our precious (precocious) daughter Paige. Just imagine this long-haired little sprite running around in one of her signature princess dresses.... She skids to a stop in front of you and offers not a kiss, but a huge swallow of air followed by a burp her brother (or father) would be proud of.

*sigh*

Back to Finn for a moment. Most babies learn to fake cough for attention at a pretty early age, right? Finn did it for awhile, and then it passed. Chris and I noticed something at dinner the other night. After finishing his dinner, our sweet little toddler ripped his bib off, pushed his uneaten portion off the side of the tray onto the floor, and burped- no belched with gusto.

What makes the scenario even more entertaining...... The belch was not of the natural variety. The kid was totally faking it!!!! We have since then noticed him making the same said burp/ growling noise on many occasions.

Seriously, what is going on in our house???

Going to the movies

I love going to the movies. I've loved it since I was little. We don't make it to the movies very often. You know, three kids and babysitters and all of that. But when we do, it's a treat.

Yesterday, we took the big kids to see "How to Train Your Dragon". This is not the first movie we've taken the kids to see. Aiden's first movie at the theater was "Cars", when he was three. And I think Paige's first movie was Kung Fu Panda. Most recently, they saw "The Princess and the Frog".

The kids actually do really well at the theater. They still cover their ears when the previews start, and Paige still has a hard time sitting still the entire time. But overall they are great. And the experience is worth it. We always buy them the awful movie popcorn and a drink, but smuggle in Junior Mints or Gummies for an extra treat. Okay, the Junior Mints are for me..... but Paige really likes them, too!

How to Train Your Dragon was great. Adventure, excitement, Vikings, dragons, and scottish accents (yeah, I'm not sure why the viking sounded like a scot.....). It was funny, breath-taking in parts, full of fantasy, and very family friendly. Aiden loved it, and Paige thought it was pretty okay. However, she insisted on "going to the bathroom" one time too many.....

This may be the only time I say this line...... Thankfully, the current Happy Meal toys are dragon figures from the movie. Now that Aide thinks he's a dragon expert, he has action figures to help him act out all his favorite scenes. And for once, we got the "main character"!!! We usually only get the supporting players.....

For those of you who are following my liver saga: I've been on vitamin D replacement therapy for nearly 5 weeks now. I had my labs drawn over the weekend, and I'm happy to report that they are significantly down!!! Woo hoo!!! Hopefully this whole Vit D debacle will be the key to having a happy liver again.

Let's play catch up!!!!

Life is just never-endingly busy. If I'm not working a million days in a row, then it seems like I'm doing a million things on my days off.

So, now we need to catch up on our vacation to Bend, Easter at my folks', and the beginning of soccer season. Just to name a few.

It was great to finally get out to my parents' place again. the kids love "going visiting"..... Whether it's on a long trip, or just to a friend's house down the street. While we were away, Aiden and Paige had great fun playing "dress up" and "store" in Nana's closet.

Paige was introduced to her very first mini tea set while we were there, and Aiden and Finn became defenders of the Galaxy with a new "ray gun" and alien spaceship.

We colored eggs, and had a visit from the Easter Bunny. One of the best things, was being able to see Gigi and Grasshopper for awhile. It was great seeing them enjoy the kids. Finn loved my cousin (okay, my cousin's puppy), and refused to sleep in the pack-n-play unless coerced. As it was, he was up at 4-530 every morning. Ugh. So not great.

I think springtime may actually be here. I hope so! Finn's discovered that playing on the back patio is great fun, and I'm happy to let him cruise around out there. The Easter Bunny brought the kids a huge box of sidewalk chalk, and Paige has had a great time with that. Aiden and Paige both have just about exhausted their bubbles (also a gift from the EB), and will soon need more.

Another great thing about Spring??? Soccer season starts again!!! I love watching the kids play soccer. Even if Paige's team regularly get their heinies kicked. And even though Aiden has figured out that, playing goalie, he doesn't have to run the whole time. They have so much fun, and they're so cute in their uniforms! Though Aiden certainly isn't a star player, his team usually wins; until Paige gets on a different team, I'm not sure that she'll ever win. But they both make goals, and the having fun is the important part.

Ahhhhh... rambling. See what happens when I blog at 3am???

Toddlerhood passages

Toddlerhood holds certain rites of passage: Walking, first words, first public temper tantrum. And one of the most important ones of all..... The meeting of coffee table with face.

Mr. Finn and the coffee table were introduced quite abruptly one afternoon early this last week. Chris was in the kitchen, and I was upstairs sleeping. There was the tale tell "thunk", then a moment of silence, and then incensed shrieking.

And rightfully so.... After seeing the goose egg that developed over Finn's left eye, Chris and I were shocked that he could even open it!

Over the next few days, the resultant black eye was pretty impressive.

Come to think of it, Finn's the first of our kids to end up with a black eye.

***Sorry for the ideways picture. I've tried to flip it and load it about 5 times, but blogger is not cooperating!!!

And yes, the yellow color is the bruise, and not a trick of the light......