Ode to Dane

This is how Dane feels about being able to pull himself to stand:

This is how Dane feels about each and every time he is forced into clothing:





































I think you should know that there are currently three children in my house all sleeping in the same room. Wonders never cease.

Format

Just so you know, the post below was so cute and well put together before I actually posted it. Now it's a mess. Anyone know how to make these things look good without swearing?

If you're happy and you know it say something absurd

Dane is a crawling contradiction. He is skinny. He loves to eat. And eat. And eat. He loves to move. And move. And move. He loves to barf. And barf. And, you get the idea. He is also ridiculously cute and loving and snuggly.





Nathan loves to give running hugs and intertwine his fingers with yours, like 5th grade lovers at Skateland. He is so proud of his ability to be two and to eat apples whole. (My boy eats them straight to the core.) He also has requested to be called my "Big Man" instead of "Little Man."





Aubrey is the fairest of cows. She was certain she wanted to be a cow for Halloween. That was until we went costume hunting yesterday and she laid her eyes on this beauty. She fell in love. You may call her bride, Cinderella, or Tinkerbell. I call her awesome. She has seen a lot of brides lately and told me she thought Aunt Lianna and Aunt KayLynn would love her dress.







There are other Jones happenings. Greg's company has been putting on a User's Conference, a big, swanky, schmoozing event for prospective clients. These clients include the likes of Apple, UPS, and Continental Airlines, among others. He is presenting to three groups today on his portion of the product. He essentially rocks. Send prayers via God to him today at 3:00 p.m.

We also dined with the lovely Megan and Geoff this week. It's always too long between visits but we enjoyed every minute. Geoff and Greg orchestrated an economic strategy for our sputtering country and Megan and I talked of class reunions and vacations. (Just so you know, Megan and I are both articulate and informed on current economic happenings but chose to converse on lighter topics than possible Depressions.) Speaking of $$, Lianna and Matt, are you still with Wa Mu? How's that treating you?

Lastly, say prayers for our nephew Jonny. He is going in for bilateral hip surgery on Tuesday. This is going to be tough on him and his mommy and daddy. Pray for a successful safe surgery, good pain meds, encouragement for Julie and Jason, and a hearty dose of sleep for everyone.

2:00 p.m.

There is a house, a napping house, where everyone is sleeping.

Decadant

In blinding contrast to a post of not long ago, we have experienced a weekend of sheer genuine family splendor. It is not over stated to say we have drown ourselves in unstructured, no expectations FUN and really loved being a family. Seriously. The superlatives I'm using will make most think of an over enthusiastic sports announcer but we have really lived it up this weekend.

An early trip to Greenbluff set the tone. Good heavens, why didn't someone tell us 10 years ago that it is SO MUCH BETTER to go there in September than October?? Last year the farms more closely resembled Mardi Gras than down home living. Yesterday the kids could run around, chase chickens, flop onto hay bales and pumpkins and eat kettle corn, all without threat of being consumed by a tidal wave of people. We then got lost on the way home (left the compass at back at the farm I guess), pretended it was intentional, and went on an hour drive while the kids slept in the car. Greg and I reminisced about our first kiss, our first apartment, and our first good week of sleep in years, laughing all the way (ha ha ha ha! Bells on bobtails ring...)

Last night was finished with a visit to G&G Jones where we ate up succulent vittles and good conversation. Greg's aunt and uncle and cousin were in town so we were quite the crowd. There were moments of economic conversation, Dane puking repeatedly on their freshly cleaned carpet, more stinking good food, dancing to "The Cat Came Back" and appreciation of fine music. Every child fell asleep in the car on the way home.

This morning at church we had Dane dedicated. Baby dedications are more about the parents than the baby (or child) in our church. Parents stand up in front of the church with their babies and make a public declaration to raise them in God centered homes. We don't believe in baptism until a person is able to make their own personal faith statement and commitment to Christ, whenever that might be, so this sort of takes its place. Dane was charming, chewing on a pen I forgot to set down in my seat and puking ever so delicately on the floor. We stood where we had twice before and promised to take responsibility for our child's eternal soul. Nothing like a hearty dose of terror to kill the morning coffee buzz!

What more can I say about the glory that is this weekend?? After church Greg and I made a brunch feast and even Dane participated, eating his first small bites of pancake. While Greg read I then rolled around on the ground with the kids, tickling and screaming and laughing, only thinking of my precious "DRY CLEAN ONLY" white pants once. Naps are in the works now but we have big plans for a Barnes and Noble run this afternoon.

We planned on shopping for a microwave this weekend, mowing the lawn, getting a new BBQ, and working on bills. None of that happened. We couldn't have planned it better.





A post church, rip your heart out we're so cute, family picture.
Our little Danish Doodle, ready for his baby dedication.
The mama and her ducklings. (ONCE AGAIN I feel compelled to explain that this picture was taken after church and that Aubrey's hair was in controlled ringlets before church but quickly wilted during the above mentioned rolling on the ground play fest. )
Friday night Aubrey woke up crying because her legs hurt. She had her four year shots earlier that day so after some delicious medicine she curled up with me and watched "My Big Fat Greek Wedding". I love that girl.
Nathan is so easy to love on. He requires nothing more than tickles, body slamming, and a few nuzzles to thrive. His laugh is awesome. I love that boy!
Dane goes everywhere, doing whatever he pleases. He is working hard on his F major chord. He loves being like one of the big kids and already has that naughty twinkle in his eye. I love that boy!
Thanks Jen, once again, for inspiring a photo shoot. Behold, a trio of Jones booties!

NieNie Dialogues

Have you heard for Stephanie and Christian Nielsen? Maybe, being as their family has been on the Today show and their story is international at this point. Stephanie has kept a blog called the NieNie Dialogues (www.nieniedialogues.blogspot.com) for several years, detailing her motherhood experience to her four young children. This blog had quite a following so many people were devastated to learn that Stephanie and her husband had been in a private plane crash the middle of August. Christian Nielsen has 3rd degree burns on 35% of his body and Stephanie Neilsen has them over 80% of her body. Bloggers around the world have raised through on line auctions over $100,000 for them. If you want to be inspired by a couple and their family check out her blog. There is link off to the right to her sister's blog, who is currently providing the updates on the couple. It is a powerful testament to the beauty and endurance of family, hope, and faith.

HALLELUJAH!!!!

As part of our master plan to get our family sleeping, Greg and I decided we had to let Dane get used to sleeping in his crib in the kid's room. So, the last three nights we moved Aubrey and Nathan into our room (they think they are getting a grande treat sleeping on our floor) and getting Dane to sleep in his own bed in his own room. Last night Dane went to bed at about 7:45 and at 5 a.m. I woke up thinking, what's wrong!?!?!??! Nothing wrong, just a sleeping baby. He woke up at 6 to eat and slept until 7:30. The other two slept all night and woke up at 7. I AM A NEW WOMAN!!!!!!! My kids are cute!!! I have energy!!! I might go running!!!! I probably won't go running!!!! HOORAY!!!!!!!!

Oh, the places you'll go!

Dane, as his crawling adventures lead him under the kitchen table.Yummy, who needs to sweep when I'm willing to anything off the floor?
Like this chair, it's delicious!
Aubrey, writing her name with "curly cues".
After Dane's under the table photo shoot Nathan stuck out his lip and said, "What about me?" Who can resist a face like that?

How low can you go

WARNING: The following post is a long long diatribe on the difficulties of being a parent in the Jones house these days. Let go of guilt and skip reading it if you frankly aren't interested. I'll never know.


It is SO HARD being a parent in our house these days. Although the symptoms are varied the primary disease is one thing: utter, unrelenting, merciless, exhaustion.

As of November I will have been pregnant or nursing, without a day's reprieve, for the past five years. These are years of interrupted sleep at best, head pounding, I haven't slept in weeks exhaustion at the bottom. We are at the bottom these days and not only are Greg and I losing the battle, I think we both feel like we are losing the war.

Dane is obviously the primary culprit. We cannot seem to get him out of our room. He is not a good sleeper and so inconsistent that it makes putting him in with Aubrey and Nathan impractical. Yet, he's big enough that when he is in our room with us he cries and wails, knowing that we are lying inches away, wanting to scream ourselves. So, Greg and I have been sleeping on a futon mattress on the floor of the play room on a semi-permanent basis until Dane sleeps well enough that he can join his siblings. There is no sign of this happening any time soon. To further the indignity of our sleeping arrangement, when Nathan ran downstairs naked tonight to get his blankies he took the liberty of first standing on our bed and peeing all over it. I won't lie, I actually cried.

The other sleep issue relates to us just having three little kids. Imagine if you will one little kid waking up once at night needing a drink of water. No big deal, right? Now imagine that both older kids do that in conjunction with the baby who is rarely up less than twice. We now have four opportunities for mommy and daddy to drag themselves out of bed. It is RARE that we get more than two hours of uninterrupted sleep. Can you see why after months (really, years) of this we are close to insanity?

As anyone knows, exhaustion clouds everything. I am impatient. I am short. I am easily frustrated and not able to see past the small things. I am not the mom or wife I want to be. Greg and I spend our evening snuggled together in front of the t.v., too stinking tired to do something more interesting. As a mom who is often motivated by guilt this is a recipe for one big guilt pie. I'm not present and engaged with my kids, I'm not thinking of interesting crafts, I dream of whole days spent with the kids parked in front of movies while I never move from a horizontal position, and I am so frustrated because I know I can be so much better than this. DO you want to know what exhaustion plus guilt equals? Resentment.

It is a bad bad feeling to resent your kids. It doesn't happen very often but it's been happening lately. Both Nathan and Dane have colds that compound the situation. And I feel resentful. I had a long dentist appointment yesterday morning and my teeth pounded all day. Yet, I continued to nurse babies and feed kids, and settle fights (I just spelled fight "fite". That is what tired does to you.), and read books and try to be interesting and supportive and sing songs and remember how many servings of vegetables the kids had and how much exercise they got and deal with Aubrey's UNENDING ARGUING ABOUT EVERYTHING, and clean up all the puke Dane gets on the floor and make dinner and still be patient patient patient. By the end of yesterday and today I wanted to scream. I am so so so so so stinking tired. Oh, and in case you were wondering, resentment just breeds more guilt.

Yep, more guilt because I have pictures of kids who are being treated at St. Jude's Hospital on my fridge and I'm so blessed that my kids are healthy. We got new family pictures and I look at that picture and think that I would DIE if one thing happened to any of them. And my Grandma had eight kids and lived in a house the size of my garage, literally, and brought her wash to a laundry mat and grew and harvested and cooked and canned all their food. My other grandmother lived snowed in half the year with her five small kids and no sanity breaks and no Starbucks. Something tells me that they weren't getting a solid eight hours of sleep a night either. Besides, what do we want from these babies of ours? They are little little children and they just do the things that little children do. They are the most precious, worthwhile, amazing endeavors we have ever taken on. But the unending work of it all tends to take the shine off. And have I mentioned the exhaustion?

This blog is such good therapy for me. I suppose I shouldn't need to vent my frustrations in a public forum but I hope that there are some other parents out there that can relate to this feeling. Parenting is awesome. Kids are a gift from God. I will never have another job that is of greater consequence than the one I am doing now. And is it hard hard hard hard work, the hardest I have ever done.

Oh, and if you're wondering why I'm typing this rather than sleeping, it's because Dane has been up and crying. Crying because his nose is plugged and he's cutting six teeth and because he's a baby. Trust me, in this house, there is no rest for the weary.

Final note. I did not have it in me to spell check this thing. If you have made it to this far I will assume that you overlooked the typos.

A body in motion stays in motion...

...unless an outside force acts upon it. Thank you Newton for perfectly describing the Jones children. The only things that seem to slow them down are food, forced naps, and time outs. Enjoy!

p.s. I must credit Jenny with inspiring me to post pictures of Dane crawling. Her Anna is a crawler now and I loved the video of her showing off her new moves. Also, while I know you have seen jumping pictures of Aubrey and Nathan before, you haven't seen these, and you haven't seen ones of Aubrey wearing her adorable new birthday outfit. Thanks Baerlocher Family!

The world as kids see it

Here are some cute just because pictures.Dane, thinking he is awesome because he can sit and get to crawling and terrorize his sibling's territory. Note the obligatory puke on his shirt that is a constant part of him.
Dane rocking out with G&G Montgomery. He is so musically inclined.
The best of friends until they are swinging bats at each other and pinching one another under the table.


If you are sick of funny stories about the things my kids say that I find hilarious and brilliant stop now.

I was taking Aubrey to gymnastics and her and Nathan were in the far back of the van. Aubrey was explaining the difference between little and big people to Nathan.

"I AM BIG!"

"No Nathan, you're not big. You're little."

"Oh, I'm little." (Nathan thinks every word Aubrey utters is gospel truth.)

"Yes. And Mommy is big."

"Oh-tay, Mommy is big."

"Yes, very big. Mommy is humongous. Nathan, she is humongous."

"Humongous? OH, Mommy is a giant!"

"A giant? No, Mommy is not a giant. DADDY IS A GIANT!"

Nathan, sounding sincerely tearful, "No, Daddy is not a giant. Daddy is my daddy."

"Okay. Daddy is not a giant. But he is VERY HUMONGOUS!"

Oh, the things they say

Some history on this story. Aubrey has lately been telling us little lies, like, "No, I did not hit Nathan", as I see the red mark on his arm and the guilt on her face. We have been discussing what lies are, what truth is, and why telling the truth is important. That brings us to today.

Aubrey did not want to nap. She told me she would be scared even though she has napped in our bedroom since she was two. She told me that she was scared of the fan so I turned it off and covered it with a towel. She told me that she would be so lonely. I proceeded to explain to her why she didn't need to be scared, why the fan wasn't scary and why I frankly didn't care if she was lonely. Aubrey was in a huff now and said with her most serious voice, "MOM, I am telling you the truth, you are telling me LIES!" I couldn't help myself, I laughed out loud. She was ticked that I laughed at her, which I agree stinks, so I pulled myself together and restated my case. She continued to frown at me and said, "Hmm, more lies." Man, I had to leave the room, I was shaking from trying not to laugh out loud. Stinking hilarious kids.

Word to Your Mother

So, if you have kids, you know how they completely take you for granted?  They live under the constant assumption that you enter each day delighted with the prospect of fulfilling their every want and need and that you require no sort of thanks (be that verbal or in chocolate) to continue doing this for the next twenty years.  You have to actually teach children empathy, sympathy, and  kindness towards others because it just doesn't come naturally.  And even then they still don't really get how much you do for them until they become parents themselves.

Now skip forward 25 years.

I STILL seem to expect my mother to do all of the above things with nary a nod of gratitude.  After reflecting back on this weekend I couldn't help but think of all the things my mom did to make my life easier.  I think I threw in a couple of, oh yeah, thanks, in there but nothing that really summarizes all she did this weekend.  So Mom, this is for you!

1.  For lunch on Saturday afternoon, before the party, Mom brought over homemade bread and all the fixings for sandwiches so that I didn't have to worry about feeding everyone.  She then got everything out and ready and cleaned up.

2.  Thinking in advance, she brought over an extra frying pan to help make millions of pancakes in.  She also brought over a box of peaches to cut up and put on the pancakes.

3.  She then proceeded to peel all the peaches (thank you David for chopping!) and stand over the stove and make every last pancake.

4.  I went upstairs to throw some dirty dish towels in my hamper only to find it missing.  My mom over the course of the weekend did ALL OF MY WASH.  It was clean and folded and ready to put away when I went downstairs last night.

5.  On Sunday my parents watched the kids for us while Greg and I got a rare date.  While I was out they bought pizza for everyone.  Add to this the fact that Greg and I didn't think once about leaving our kids with them because they are so competent.  That is a gift itself.

6.  Mom and Dad let Aubrey spend not only the night with them on Saturday night but sleep in between them in their bed.  That is until Mom finally moved to the air mattress on the floor that was supposed to be for Aubrey.  I figure sacrifice on behalf of grandchildren is a sacrifice on my behalf as well.

7.  I would find mom just picking up.  I saw her clean up all the blocks Nathan had spewed over the toy room.  She did dishes, swept, and any other little chore that she saw.  

8.  Oh, and she brought over all the paper plates and utensils that we used over the weekend.

9.  She fed Dane, held Dane, wiped faces, changed diapers, cleaned up puke (thank you Dane for always adding that special treat to any occasion), and snuggled grandkids.

Honestly, I know I a forgetting probably half of what she did but those are the highlights.  Please remember too that she did all of this without once being asked.  I mean really, if I'm half the mom she is than I'll be setting my kids up for life!

p.s.  Lest you think I don't love my dad, he pretty much rocks too.  He is the first person to move you to the sixth floor apartment, build you a printer stand, spend hours looking for the right ethernet card, spend an hour outside with your kids when they are driving you nuts, offer to clean their hands with Comet Bleach cleaner (sorry, I couldn't resist but that is actually true.  I declined.), call you from the hotel that is 2 minutes from your house to let you know they got their safely since they have your baby girl with them, fill your car up with gas, get you a Starbucks when you just look like you have to have one, and obviously many other things.  I had to give a round of thanks to my mommy this time though because she made my whole weekend easier.  Thanks Mom and Dad!

How to turn four years old

To properly turn four you need the following things in varying doses:  your favorite heart dress, french braids in your hair, a purple star cake with your name on it (the description of her cake was VERY specific), nearly 20 family members, pancakes with whip cream and fruit, chocolate milk, an obscene pile of presents, your diva "I'm the Birthday Girl" personality, tearing through said presents with feverish haste as though your brother could jump in at any moment and open them for you, basking in the glow of the attention as everyone sings to JUST YOU, blowing out the candles, not touching your cake or ice cream because you are stuffed with pancakes, spending the night by yourself with Grandma Julie and Grandpa Wayne in their hotel room, going swimming at the hotel, eating a doughnut for breakfast, watching way too many movies, watching just one more movie because "It's still my birthday", playing with new presents, screaming at Nathan for touching the new presents, asking when you will turn five, throwing just one tantrum about tags being too scratchy on your new dress, sleeping like a rock because you aren't napping and are exhausted, and saying over and over again, "Aren't birthdays fun?"  Yes my dear Aubrey, they are so much fun.  

Happy Birthday honey, we love you!

The queen bee herself
Grandma Marian and Grandpa Jones with 3/4 of their grandkids
Grandma Julie and Grandpa Wayne holding 1/2 of their grandkids.
My grandparents meeting their newest great-granddaughter Claire
The excitement of birthday morning

What's so funny KayLynn?

Uncle David, may I eat your food off your plate with my hands?
Uncle Matt is jealous that he didn't get any presents.  Aunt Lianna is consoling him.
The curly haired girls
I am the third child and always along for the ride
My first Barbie doll.  Aunt Hannah played with it the most.
It only took three tries to blow them out.
Uncle David said the cake looked like it should be at a Bat Mitzvah, being as it looks suspiciously like the star of David.  
I ROCK!
Being four is awesome!
When do I get my piece of cake??