June Ramblings...

I looked at the calendar the other day to schedule a dentist appointment (otherwise, why look at a calendar during the summer??) and realized that we are passed the half-way point in June.

What??!!

June half-gone already.

Where did it go?

Here...

• Morning walks are a must.  Luckily there have been only one or two of those early summer rainy days that we haven't got our walk in.  Sometimes it takes some convincing bribing ignoring the whines and cries to keep the girls happy for the duration of our 2 mile quest.  But it gets done.  

• Jackie is in full-on whine-about-everything mode.  I think I say the words "tell me that again without whining" more than any other phrase.  "Stop doing that" and "Be nice" run a close second and third.  

• Speaking of Jackie.  We put her in her very first structured class at the beginning of June.  "Just 3's Gymnastics."  Yeah...Jackie doesn't like structure.  More on that class coming soon...

• Katerina has figured things out.  Things such as "mine" and how to tattle.  We may not understand every single word, but the body language and facial expressions tell us everything we need to know.  Sometimes her complaints are justified.  Sometimes their not.  She is quickly learning that growing up means things don't always go your way.  She doesn't like it.

• Jackie had her first trip to the dentist.  Since we have REALLY been struggling with strangers and doing what she's told, I was prepared for an ultra-toddler-meltdown.  Turns out, she did great!  She has even told me that her teeth hurt and she needs to go back to the dentist.

• Parks and Pools.  We seek one out everyday.  I don't know how stay-at-home-moms and daycare providers survive winter months when you can't get out of the house.  Getting out makes the day for us.

• Everything in the summer is based on time and clean-up.  How much time will that activity keep the girls busy and how much mess will I have to clean up when their done?  Can I live with the mess for moments where kids aren't pulling my pants down.  (Seriously...that and the swim suit top.  For.The.Love.  DON'T GRAB MY CLOTHES).

• I am beginning to have a serious love-hate relationship with my Garmin Fit-Bit.  I love that I reach my goal everyday.  But I am super tired by 8:00 and that stupid thing keeps raising the bar.  It's going to think I've gone into shock when school starts up again.  (And I'm a teacher who is up off her feet most of the day).  Whew!

• Speaking of exercising...  Found out our bathroom scale was 10 lbs. off.  Dammit.

• Ethan discovered BBC's "Planet Earth" on Netflix earlier this month. Cool stuff!  We loved it and now Jackie LOVES coming to rest in our bed after we put Katerina to sleep to watch "animals" on TV.  

• Speaking of TV.  I have instituted a "no TV before dinner" rule this summer.  Very smart of me. The girls play together so much nicer and find ways to keep each other busy without it on.  I am getting more accomplished throughout the day...and my pedometer shows it.

• Ok...I have given in on the "no TV" rule on a couple of occasions.  1) Rainy days that we can't get outside. 2) To make Jackie feel better when she got whacked in the head with the car door and then not 20 minutes later pulled some heavy objects off a shelf right onto her head. She got 20 minutes of Shrek to make her feel better.   Poor thing. (But I did warn her about both...

So far, that's it.  I have found a few afternoon nap times to work on some school stuff.  I enjoy working on it and it gives me something else to do besides pick up the same shoes and blankets for the 10th time that day.  I find myself enjoying each day (some more than others...) and yet marveling in the speed of the months.  Before long it will be back to daycare and back to work.  

How Sports Prepared Me for Parenthood...

It's a funny thing, when I was playing sports in high school and college my coaches always used to say that it was preparing me for life.  The lessons I learned on the court would be applied to adulthood.

As a coach I said, and believe the same things.

I always pictured working hard at my job, at times failing, but digging deep and pulling out a victory the next time around.

It never occurred to me that, I would see my athletic training showing up at home, as a mommy...

For example...

I never boxed out on the basketball court near as well as I can box out two toddlers from getting the hot oven as I pull out a batch of cookies.  Seriously... No one would get that ball but me now!

Man-to-man and Zone defense.  With one child, it was easy.  Zone all the time.  We got to sit back in our areas and cover what was needed at the time.  With the addition of another player (AKA baby #2) things changed.  We now either run a man-to-man or zone with one defender having to cover two in his/her area.  It is exhausting.

How to treat sore muscles.  I thought I was sore after the first week of practice.  HA.  Nothing like the day-to-day squats, stairs, up-downs (picking up toys under the bed, couch, table...), and lifting of two 25-30 lb. potato bags children.  That move.  A lot.

Early practice.  Thank you coaches for making me get up at 5:00 AM to come in to practice and then have to make it through an entire day of school and sometimes even practice again.  Totally helped with this "going to work with no sleep" part of the working-parent lifestyle.

Using my peripheral vision.  I can effectively watch "The Middle" and see my children playing in the kitchen at the same time!

Scheduling and organization.  One of the biggest advantages to being a student athlete was that it taught me to prioritize and organize.  If it was Wednesday and I had a math assignment due on Friday, but a game on Thursday, that meant I needed to do my homework Wednesday.  The same holds true for work and daycare schedules.  I have to go to the store, but need to be at daycare early on Tuesday, I better go on Monday or we'll eating cereal for dinner!

Losing and failure.  Let's be honest.  In sports, both of those things happen.  It's important to fail and then pick yourself up and try again.  Learning from mistakes.  I fail daily.  I learn a new trick or strategy all the time.  I am constantly trying to improve my parenting game.  I hope to make it to the "big leagues" (not even sure what that would be for parent-hood...kids graduating high school???)

Staying active. In between seasons athletes need rest, but they can't forgo all training or they lose everything, and it's very painful when training starts up again.  Now.  I am NOT as active as I was or wish I had time for, but I do try to make sure my kids are.  Playing outside, swimming, climbing, or even just chasing each other (or me) through the house.

Hydrating.  Water. Water. Water.  And Wine. (only as Mom, never as student-athlete)  :-)

Now, I'm not saying that these can only be taught through sports, I have just recently started to enjoy the comparison of the things I did on the court and the things I do as a mom!

Boobies

Yep.  You read that title right.  This post is about boobies.

My three-year-old's obsession with boobies.

I'm not exactly sure what caused the normal, toddler interest in my nursing Katerina (over A YEAR AGO) to balloon into non-stop booby-talk.

But within the last couple weeks each one of these statements have exited her mouth in her loudest toddler voice.

She asks me "why do you have big boobies mommy?  So you can feed Kit Kat?  I don't have big boobies."

She asks grandma "Why do you have big boobies?"

She stares in a very creepy way at our cousin while she nurses her baby.

And the best one so far, she told to daddy on the way to daycare today "I can't go to school yet because I don't have big boobies."

So if you see us out and about and stop to say hi she may ask you why you have big boobies (if your a girl) or why you don't have big boobies (boy), or tell you she doesn't have big boobies, or even just say boobies.

I'll be red-faced and trying to hide.

The ABC's of Weber Haus

A - Anniversary. Number 5 is approaching.  Seriously...FIVE?!?! Time flies when you have fun with the one you love!

B - Baby Joe!  The poor little dolly came to us so squeaky clean.  Now he's covered with love.  Just in case you were wondering "love" is a dirt-like film that WILL NOT COME OFF.  Jackie couldn't love him any more.

C - Crib.  We are done with the crib for now.  MUCH sooner than I had planned since Katerina is only 16 months old and still not sleeping completely through the night.  She usually wants a bottle once.  Our little risk-taker decided to fall out of the crib one morning.  Now it's to the big girl bed she goes.  So far she is doing OK with it.  We shall see.

D - Dresses. We have finally hit the "dress" stage with Jackie.  She wants to put on a pretty dress everyday. I'm sure to have stocked up on summer play dresses!

E - Ethan and Jill.  Jackie now knows our first names.  This is fun...

F - Fairy God Mother.  Thanks to Jackie's love of "Shrek 2" she has dubbed a little stuffed dog her "Barry-God-Mudder" and no one is allowed to touch it.  Ever.

G - Gewurztraminer.  My husband's new favorite type of wine.   Give it a try...kinda sweet, but not too sweet.  White.

H - House of Cards.  My love of politics (and hate...) plus watching my cousin as "Meechum" makes for an obsessive week when I can binge watch as many episodes at a time as I can stay awake for!

I - "It's about time!"  Katerina is finally, finally starting to let go of mommy and play.  Play with sissy, watch Shrek, or just chill with daddy.  It has been a VERY LONG process and it's not completely finished yet, she still has her clingy days, but it looks like she may give me a break!  After having two very different children, the clingy "gotta have mommy and only mommy" one drove me bananas!

J - Jack-Attack!  Our almost-three-year-old who thinks she owns the world.  Each day she is reminded that she is not the boss.  She takes after her mama right down to those brown eyes and long legs.  Her favorite new phrase is "Come on! Get it for me."  Patience is a process...  She loves, LOVES babies and asks constantly for a baby brother.  If she tells you she is going to have a new brother, make sure you check the source before you believe her.  I am not pregnant.

K -  "Kit-Kat." Our little nickname for Katerina.  She is a risk-taker, people pleaser, and chowing down food like she's in a growth spurt.  She definitely has her mother's sweet tooth, but everything else seems to be just like daddy, right down to those baby blue eyes and curls in her hair!

L - Lake house.  My brother John recently bought a lake house in Missouri.  We are looking forward to our first trip out there to visit.  Can't wait to enjoy some quality family time swimming, boating, and getting some sun.

M - Mommy Bottle.  One day Ethan took Jackie with him to run some errands.  One of those errands happened to be stopping by the liquor store to pick up some wine.  He mentioned to Jackie that they were there to pick up a "Mommy Bottle."  It has stuck with her.  Anytime she sees a wine bottle it is "Mommy Bottle."  Nice...

N - New car.  We have hopefully made the last big purchase that we will need to for quite some time.  Ethan decided that he was tired of cramming his 6'4" frame into the little Honda.  It was time for a change.  We traded in the boat and the Honda for a Chrysler 200.  Bright Royal Blue.  It fits him perfectly!  Someday I will drive it... :)

O - "Ohhhhh" followed by surprised eyes and hands that cover her mouth.  Katerina's new favorite gesture.  She will randomly turn and look at us with this expression.  Of course she is wanting a reaction so she can giggle and continue with whatever she was doing before.

P -  Princess Fiona.  This is the only princess we care about at this point.  I'm OK with it because I happen to think she is the coolest of all the princesses.  We have not attempted "Frozen" yet.  I don't plan on it for a while.

Q - Quarters.  "These are for church." Or any other type of coin.  Jackie loves to put coins in the collection basket at church.  She even took a handful to church herself in her purse. She only put in a couple pennies, saving the rest for next week.  :)

R - Rah Rah.  (Or Ruff Ruff)  Katerina is a puppy nut!  She LOVES dogs.  Anytime she sees a picture of a dog she gets all excited and yells "rah rah."  And if she happens to see a real doggy.  She is in love.

S - Spring!  Bring on warmer weather, open windows, and outside play!

T - Time Change.  Speaking of "Spring."  I am hoping Spring Forward will help the girls stay in bed just a little longer...mommy needs to get some things done!

U - Underdogs.  The Rockies this year.  Hoping for a Cinderella season... At least we can root for the Shockers!

V - Voice.  I lost mine this weekend. Do you know how hard it is to be a mother of two children under the age of 3 and not have a voice?  I'm really hoping I don't have to find out what it is like to teach a classroom full of middle-schoolers without a voice.  Maybe wine will help...

W - Where the Wild Things Are.  I went digging through my old tubs of "stuff I thought I needed to keep" from my childhood.  Found that book.  I forgot I had it and I promptly took it out and read it to Jackie.  I have two copies of the book, it was always my plan to cut out the pages, frame, them and hang them around a nursery.  Hmmm...maybe next time.

X - ShoX!  Bring on March Madness!

Y - YMCA.  The pool to be exact.  I have never seen bigger smiles on my girls than when they are playing, splashing and jumping in the water.  Will make for a fun summer!

Z - Zoo.  Jackie keeps asking to go to the zoo.  We went one of those beautiful days this winter and she took to it.  I can't wait for summer so we can go more often.

The Great Orange Meltdown of 2015

We are a little over a month away from having a 3 year old in our house.  Which means only one thing.

We are smack-dab in the middle of the so-called "terrible twos." 

I say "so-called" because she hasn't been consistently "terrible."

But she has her moments.

Each and every day Jackie learns the hard lesson that she is not the center of the universe.  This lesson apparently needs to be learned over and over and over until it finally starts to sink in.  It still hasn't sunk in.

Which was made abundantly clear on one cold Saturday morning in January.

For weeks, Jackie and Kat have been devouring those little Halo/Cutie oranges.  I can't peal them fast enough.  Luckily they are easy to peal :)

It was a normal Saturday morning.  Jackie was up at 6 AM and ready for a snack. Never-mind that the previous morning saw me trying to drag a sleepy, cranky child out of bed at 7 AM so we could make it out the door on time.   Everyone else was enjoying the fact that it was Saturday and were sleeping.

Anyway, as per her normal request, Jackie asked for an orange.  Rarely do I refuse this request, because...it's fruit!

I did what I always do.  Pealed the orange while those little brown eyes watched and she sucked on her little thumb.

After throwing the peal away, I broke it in half so she can pick off the individual sections herself.  

Again, this is the way we always did it.  I pealed it, broke in half and she enjoyed the citrus-y goodness.  

Oh no.  Not today. Because sometime between Friday night (her last orange) and Saturday morning at 6 AM, Jackie decided that she did NOT want me to break the orange in half.  

That was now to be her job.  

I had no prior knowledge of this change.  No memo.  No warning.  No previous reason to think I might be making a GIANT mistake.

But mistake it was...

She proceeded to scream and cry like I had just cut her baby doll in half and fed it to the dogs.  She REFUSED to eat that orange, and just sat in her chair and cried, screamed for me to get her another one.

You know what doesn't mix well with a screaming, drama-filled toddler?  

A stubborn mommy.

She did not get a new orange.  I put the "inedible orange" in a baggie for her sister to eat later and she learned the all-to-common lesson that "Jackie is not the center of the universe." Again.   

Although, now I had received the memo; oranges are NOT to be broken in half from this point forward.  I gladly shared the news with Ethan as he poked his sleepy head out of the bedroom to see what horrible thing could have possibly caused Jackie to become such a sobbing "hot mess."

"Seriously, an orange??"

Getting Them in the Kitchen...

I like to consider myself a pretty balanced mom when it comes to the food my kids eat.  We try, most times, to make healthy choices, but are open to the occasional stop along the drive-through.  Sometimes the meal I make is all from scratch and includes only clean prepared ingredients.

And sometimes it's a cheesy, can of cream of mushroom, smothered casserole that my mom made when I was little.

Sometimes it's fruit and Greek yogurt.  Sometimes it's ice cream.

Who am I kidding...it's usually ice cream :)

Our kids do well most of the time at meal time.  We have our moments of baby teething and toddler "I'm DONE's."  But for the most part we have been pretty lucky in that our girls will usually eat whatever I put in front of them.  I attribute this to two things...

1.  They have what we are having, and always have.  I don't make two or three separate dinners.  Everyone has tator-tot-casserole or the baked talapia.  Most times they eat it, sometimes they don't.

2.  I try to get Jackie in the kitchen "helping" me whenever I can.

I saw this a long time ago, while I was in college (way before Ethan or kids) and watching Rachel Ray's 30 minute meals.  She talked all the time about how cooking dinner was a family event.  Everyone was involved and it resulted in children who weren't picky.  I thought...that is cool!  THAT is what I'm going to do.

And it has stuck with me.  I try to involve Jackie in the kitchen as much as possible.  Katerina is just getting to the age where she is curious, but her jobs are limited to watching from her high chair and eating while Jackie and I work.

Tonight was baked ziti, cheesy garlic bread, and salad.

Jackie got to help with each part.  Ethan took advantage of the moment and snapped a few great photos of our evening.

Here she is helping mix the salad.  I chopped everything and she put it all together...while sampling peppers, romaine lettuce, and grape tomatoes.

Katerina tried to help...

but ended up snacking on a banana and bell pepper instead.

Jackie stirred the cheese mixture for the ziti..

poured the spices and cheese for the cheesy bread...

and helped lay the cheese layer in the casserole dish.

Don't forget to taste it first!

Oh...and a little something for mommy and daddy :)

Every single time I have her help in the kitchen it results in a great dinner experience for everyone.  Yes, there is a bigger mess and everything takes longer than it should, but results speak for themselves...

And I would be lying if I said that there wasn't some future planning in all of this...someday I'm going to ask my girls to cook dinner, and I want them to be comfortable in the kitchen and know how to make a yummy ziti!  I'm hoping for sooner rather than later... :-)

It's All Because of You

Something amazing hit me smack dab in the face the other day, last week, earlier this summer. 

Probably when my face was covered with pureed sweet potatoes thanks to the fun new trick our 6 month old (now almost 1-year-old) discovered of spitting her lips together just after getting a mouth full, and my ears could only hear the screaming of our two-year-old because I wouldn't let her color with the sidewalk chalk inside on our wood floors.

I was probably still in PJs... at lunch.

And hadn't showered.

Or redone the messy bun on top of my head from how it looked when I rolled out of bed before 6 AM on my summer "break."

I have everything I have ever prayed for.

Everything.

Wow.

That kind of realization takes time to process.  Weeks, even months, before I can fully grasp how awesome it is.  

I say it over and over in my head...  I have everything I have ever prayed for. 

And it's all because of you.

You. 

7 years ago you came in to my life.  

I know now, God had planned on this.  He knew when I prayed for someone to love, to want a family and build a home, that you would be the one.

And as I sit here tonight on the couch with you and our stubborn, independent, and beautiful little toddler as our almost one-year-old sleeps quietly in her crib, I can't help but think again.

I have everything I've ever prayed for.

And it's all because of you.

Happy Birthday You.