Kitty

They say that kids don't really understand the idea of permanence, which is why when we lost [left accidentally] Mae's beloved Kitty on the shuttle after parking our car on the way to the airport in December to LA, I figured she would soon forget about it and develop a fondness for another stuffed animal. I think I said to myself, "She is only 3 years old and stuffed animals are ONLY stuffed animals, she will get over this tomorrow and when we get to Disneyland this will all be forgotten." To even further seal the deal, we bought her a new stuffed animal [Minnie Mouse] at Disney to replace the one lost.

Which is why I am in shock when Mae keeps talking about Kitty and has repeatedly talked about her since December. She talks about how much she misses her and she wants to get her back. She also talks about how sad she is that she no longer has her. Last night after being in bed for about 10 minutes Mae came to the top of the steps. She looked out the window at the top of stairs and talked about the moon and how big and beautiful it was (I love how much she appreciates the beauty of it). Then she went into a five minute diatribe about Kitty. She said she couldn't believe that we left her on the bus. That the next time we go to the airport we will try to find her in "the seat that we left her in." That we must get her back. That she was very sad about leaving Kitty and that "we can't believe we forgot her."

It broke my heart.

I will say it was not intentional that Kitty got left. Traveling with two kids is stressful and my only desire when traveling is to make sure that I actually still have my two kids before getting on the plane - stuffed animals, games, books, food, and other things be damned. I am just trying to get my kids and myself from point A to point B.

I knew Mae had intense emotions but this just reflects how deeply she remembers and cares for the things and people she loves. I don't know what this means in the bigger picture of saying goodbyes, moving, death, missing people and such but I know that my girl is sweet, loving, and dedicated. All things that I am blessed to have in a daughter. 

Photos - Last Week

Finally getting around to adding photos from last week. The first few are just of Whitaker playing cars. The second set is from our adventure to NWTrek with our friends Kelly and Eloise. (The group pictures of us are really dark because Whitaker played with my camera features and I forgot to switch them back). The last set of photos were taken on an unexpectedly beautiful day last week, where the kids and I headed to the new soccer field in Madison Valley. It was a pretty glorious few hours that we had together. 

Parent-Teacher Conference

Today, I had my first ever parent teacher conference for Mae. If the following 12 plus years of school have the same outcome as this conference we will be very lucky and fortunate parents. Teacher Debbie and Teacher Traci said the most wonderful things about Mae. Although I guess they almost have to since we are paying them a grip. Just kidding. They did tell me that I was not like the other parents who wanted to hear that their child was amazing the entire time. Why you might ask? You see I already know she is amazing (and smart). I wanted an honest assessment of how she was doing. Even though I might want to think she is perfect, there are things we can all work on. Thankfully for me they think she is pretty perfect too.

I typed in the report (see below) so that we would be able to look back and remember all the things that she loved at her school this year. Even though this isn't written in the report I was shocked to hear that Mae is pretty diplomatic in class when it comes to sharing toys and things. Something I don't see when we are together. In fact, they said, Mae never goes and takes a toy out of someone's hands and if she ever wants something she uses her words. I almost had to clear my ears because I couldn't believe what I was hearing. So I guess she saves all her best behavior for school, I should be thankful for that I suppose. Better to be a model student then be a model kid at home.

Name: Mae
Teachers: Debbie and Traci
Class: Squirrels
School: The Secret Garden
Date: February 2013

My Favorite Thing About Morning Free Play Time Is: 
Mae loves art! She will often make several projects for different family members. Once art is done, Mae moves to the pretend play happening in the doll area, or tent area. She loves books too. We love that she likes to tell stories. Mae is a good cleaner at clean up time.

What I Like About Dance Class: 
Mae is really strong in our dance class. She follows directions and is a really good listener. She loves the scarf dance and the imaginative stories Teacher Emily often has them dance to. 

What I Like About Music Class: 
Mae loves music class and is an active participant. Mae loves to be the mouse when we sing the "Cat and Mouse" song. She always participates and shows great focus. 

My Favorite Thing About Outdoor Playtime: 
Mae loves to play on the geo-climber and play on our see-saw with Lucy. Mae also enjoys playing with Payton. Mae likes to ride on the bike and the cars with Lucy. They like to chase each other. She loves to go outside.

Interest in Art, Circle Time Activities, Themes: 
Mae loves our circle time and listening to the books. Mae has great communication skills and always helps out with the leading questions the teachers ask. She has a definite idea of how her projects should look. 

Things That I Am Working On At School: 
Mae is doing very well at school this year! Physically and verbally her skills are strong. We love that she has strong opinions and shares them. 

Sweet Dreams

I have taken to creeping into the kids rooms at night and watching them sleep - there is nothing more beautiful, peaceful, and make me think that I want to have another baby (just kidding but really)! 

These kids wear me out during the day, they push my patience to the breaking point and on some days they push it all the way, they henpeck me with their many questions, screams, needs, wants, and demands, they make me think of creative ways to entertain them, and they are so physical that my body is starting to fail me. But at night after their baths when they sit in my lap to read bedtime stories there is nothing else I want to do or nowhere else I want to be. 

Sweet dreams all. Or if you are like me, I generally don't dream, I just crash into bed. 

Oh What A Trek!

Today my friend Kelly and I took our kids on a trek to Northwest Trek, a wildlife park that is home to animals indigenous to the Northwest. It is like a safari but with Northwest animals including moose, mountain goats, big horn sheep, bison, cougar, bobcats, lynx, wolverines, bear, and elk to name a few. Some of the animals are in cages, the ones [bears, lynx] that obviously would take down the other animals [big horn sheep, mountain goats]. The other animals that are herbevores you get to see while riding on a tram through the park. Pretty cool.

The experience was an experience to say the least. Although anytime I take my kids any where I feel like I could dub it as "an experience." With the three young ones, it seemed like someone was crying every 5 minutes or all were crying simultaneously. Someone was always hungry. Someone didn't want to walk or wanted to walk. Someone was cold. Someone wanted to be carried. Someone didn't want to go somewhere. Someone wanted to go somewhere. You know the drill.

I got to give it to my friend Kelly, she is such a trooper and such an awesome gal. I am truly blessed to have met her here in Seattle and can call her my friend. You know that feeling when you just meet someone and you instantly click as friends. Well that is how I feel with her. I can only hope she feels the same. Not only is she  smart, offers very sage advice (despite being many years younger then me), is easy to talk with, has a wicked sense of humor, and is genuinely lovingly to both of my children but she is also an adventure gal. I am glad to have met her randomly at Volunteer Park wading pool one summer day. Oh and also another testament after spending from 9 am to 4 pm with her, I wasn't sick of her or her kid!

***I planned on adding photos to this post but for some unknown reason my camera and/or computer is acting up. I will add them when I get a chance.***

And yet again...

Someone is sick in this house. I am so over it. Whitaker has a terrible cold with a cough and Mae has a runny nose. I feel like we just can't catch a break this year with the bouts of illnesses. 

This weekend was happier times and pretty fantastic. I went and saw two movies. On Friday night, I saw Silver Lining Playbook with my friend, Sarah, and on Saturday Pearson and I hired a sitter and went on a proper date night - dinner, movie [Argo], and beers after. Then on Sunday we took the kids up to the mountain. Pearson took Mae skiing and I took Whitaker tubing. He and I had a great time and it sure beat listening to him crying that he wasn't able to ski. 

Here is a photo of my favorite little guy in the tube. 

The Lord Works in Mysterious Ways

I don't mean to be blasphemous by the title of the post but I really can't explain the small miracle that happened today other then God having a hand in it.

When I posted last week about gymnastics I thought that was going to be the last chapter. Well I was wrong. A few days ago I got an email saying that Coach Megan had to leave unexpectedly and that they were hoping to find permanent replacements for all her classes but if not they would have subs week to week. I read the email, cursed to myself silently, hoped for a female replacement, and told myself if we didn't get a female we would just cut our losses.

As our luck would go, which is pretty bad, when we showed up this afternoon I was told that Mae's coach would be Kevin. "Uh oh," is what I said. I immediately said that my daughter doesn't do well with male coaches and can we just call it a wash. She said that they would try to find me a female class but currently they didn't have time to figure it out then but would call me later that evening. I then went over to Mae to explain the situation. I told Mae that Megan wasn't going to be her coach anymore and that she would now have a male coach. I told her not a big deal and we could either go home or we could go over and meet the new boy coach and see if she wanted to take a class with him.

As I said the Lord works in mysterious ways. I couldn't believe what I heard when she said, "I will try it." We walked over sat down and met him and I don't know if he was a snake charmer but Mae seemed ok. She did ask me to go the first obstacle with her, which I did (with Whitaker in tow). I left her right after getting there. I thought that I would be hearing her cries shortly thereafter. But nope, the Lord works in mysterious ways. She stayed the whole class and left with a big smile.

I don't know what happened. I don't know if it is because I gave up the power struggle and told her it was ok to go home or this coach did things different or if she got over her fear but I think it might be better to give credit to the Lord. 

Birds and Bees, Part 2

Tonight while in the bath (why do all these conversations seem to happen in the bath?!), Mae tried to wash Whitaker, including down there. Pearson immediately intervened and said, "Mae those are his private parts and only he is allowed to touch them." 

Pearson for some reason doesn't want to refer to our kids "private" parts as the words that they are but I insist we refer to them as penis and vagina. Anyways, I intervened and said, "Yes Mae we don't wash Whitaker's penis." Mae then look to Pearson and said, "Daddy I have a bagina [vagina] and you have nutcrackers."

Pearson had to leave the bathroom he was laughing too hard to compose himself. Awww, can my babies stay this sweet and innocent forever.

I really don't understand...

How someone in our house is sick again. And this time it is me. I have had a soar throat since Friday and haven't lost my voice completely but I might as well have because it is hoarse and for the first couple of days I have had a hard time talking. Pearson's dream came true with this one but it hasn't been  so great when you have to attend a dinner party, which I did on Saturday, or yell at your kids, which I always need to!  

20 Months

Some times I feel that I might have short changed Whitaker on this blog since I wrote Mae a monthly letter from the time she was about 7 months to two years. These letters detailed all the little and BIG changes in this window of her life. I hoped to capture her personality at that moment and what she was doing and into at the time. 

I realized the other day that Whitaker is the same age now that Mae was when we brought him home. I remember thinking at that time that Mae was so big and old compared to the newborn that we carried through the door. She seemed so grownup and mature but now I realize she was just a baby. Every time, I look at Whitaker he seems so young and little with his cubby toddler-ness and lovable laugh. Now I realized I short changed Mae (just a little). Trust me, I don't hold too much guilt about it because she loves him, although, I think she would be happier with a sister. 

By the way, Whitaker if you ever read these ramblings, even though you might have entered our lives a little earlier then we (or Mae) would have wanted, you better believe we wouldn't ever change it. Your smile is infectious, your hugs are contagious, your energy is insane, (so far) you are a great sharer, you are sympathetic and caring of others, and you are an amazing cuddle bugs. 

xoxo, Mom

Whitaker is a happy, lovable, enthusiastic,squishable, funny little dude.  

He also loves to eat. 

He is tenacious and can be dramatic when he wants to get his way. 

He might be all boy and only love trucks, trains, and cars if he didn't have a sister who was only into princesses and purple. 

He is mischievous and never seems to stop moving.