Per request

Dane on his four month birthday
Greg on his 31st birthday, getting some help with the candles.
Two of my boys
Dane playing.  His coordination gets better every day.
Trying out the exersaucer for the first time.
Exersaucers seem to be fun for everyone...

Aubrey and I dressed up for Lianna's graduation dinner.

Jen has requested more pictures and I am never one to disappoint.  Here are some recent ones of my little lovelies.

Speaking of lovelies, Dane is four months old today and rolled from his back to his stomach for the first time!  He has been rolling the other way for a while but pulled this new trick out twice today.  He has to work for it but I already admire his persistence.  He grunted his way to his tummy and then looked so proud.  Already so big!

City girl humiliation

A little background.  In case any of you don't know, my dad grew up VERY rural.  Miles down a dirt road, snowed in months out of the year, trapped between a mama moose and her calf in his yard, one room school house, etc.  He is a man's man.  And he has raised some ridiculously citified girls.  Now for my story...

Remember the reindeer living down the road from us?  Lianna was visiting yesterday and I asked if she wanted to take a drive and go see them.  The kids were all excited, they love to go see the reindeer.  We pile in the car and take off.

When we get to the ranch, there they are, about 30 reindeer, eating, growing huge racks (their antlers), and shedding heavy winter coats.  Up ahead I spy a man and decide to go ask if they are his animals.  I have been very curious as to how these animals ended up in this part of the world.  This is how the conversation played out.

"Um, excuse me, are these your animals?"

"Yes, they are."

"Now, they are reindeer, right?"

(In true excitement): "REINDEER?  Where??" (Very bad sign.)

"Um...."

"THOSE??  (Snicker to self.) Those aren't reindeer, those are elk.  You're not from around here, are you.

(Stammer, stutter):  "Oh, ha, um, I thought elk had thinner horns.

Lianna, whispering in the seat next to me, "Antlers Sara, antlers."

"I mean antlers."

What followed was a very kind story about how antlers grow and how we were welcome to drive past the animals any time.  I had really wanted to know how he came by owning the animals but was far to humiliated to ask.  We sped off, probably never to return.  I assure you we were the talk of his dinner table that night.  Honestly though, is it my fault that they look so much like reindeer??

Later that night when I told the story to my dad I asked him why on earth he had gone along with my reindeer theory.  He said he was sure I knew what an elk looked like and trusted me when I said they weren't elk.  I started to describe the animals.  Do elk have white butts?  Yep.  Do they have thick ANTLERS?  Of course.  Are they smaller than moose?  Certainly.  I blame my father for not saving me from city girl embarrassment.  

The most distressing part of the story for my dad is that I can't get Nathan to now say they are elk.  After we got home Nathan said something about liking the reindeer and Lianna said, "You know, you can also call them elk."  Nathan scowled at her and said, "NO, reindeer."  My dad told me that I have to have Nathan calling them elk by Lianna's wedding.  We will be seeing his brother, my uncle then, and that man is an outfitter for heaven's sake.  His son's first word was elk.  It's all so embarrassing.

Nathan

Sometime this weekend the terrible two's fairy snuck into my son's room and whispered in his ear, "Hey there sonny, did you know that you'll be two in a month and it's time to become a grand daddy turd?" Nathan, ever dutiful, obeyed.

Nathan is very articulate and the most common things I have heard the past two days are, "NO WAY!", "Mommy, I no pee pee in the potty", and "No Aubee, I have first!!!!" even though he most certainly did not have it first. These phrases have been interspersed with hitting, time out, kicking, time out, dead weight fits, time out until your dead, and flailing of limbs. I kid you not, the two year old possession hit him over night and it is not pretty.

Aubrey, ever self righteous, spent most of her time today saying, "Wow Mommy, is Nathan really in a lot of trouble? Is he not obeying? Look, I am listening. Look, I am obeying. Can I have an M&M for obeying?" Dane got in on the fun by spitting up at least a guzillion times.

Oh, and I'm still sticking with the red until the hilarious comments quit.

Comments?

What do you think about the new background? Too red?

Mama Bear

If you are a paid child care worker, there are two things I believe are essential. First, you must agree to take good care of the children you are watching. Second, you must recognize your limits and know when you are no longer able to do this. Which brings me to my rant.

I attend MOPS a few times a month and the church provides childcare. Nathan has struggled all year with this. He is upset when I leave and antisocial and sad the whole time I'm gone. I have been called out more than once to come and get him he was so upset. It has been tough leaving him knowing how unhappy he is. The last several times though I have seen progress. No more crying when I leave and happier when I pick him up. Today was a revolutionary. When I dropped him off he walked right in, waved happily good-bye, and went in his class. SUCCESS I thought.

Two hours later I picked him up. The worker in his classroom is always there but usually in a different age group. When she saw me she looked down, presumably at the short person behind the door and said, rudely, "Nathan, your mom is here." Out walks my Nathan, a bawling, snotty little guy. Horrified, I picked up him up and said, "Has he been like this the whole time?!" This was the response:

"YES, as a matter of fact he has. And he has refused to play with any of the kids. All he does is sit in a chair and howl if anyone looks at him. And when we were outside he was so out of control that I had to bring him in. And then he just sat in here and cried some more. And blah blah blah blah blah........." Imagine this tirade of hers in the snottiest, shortest voice you can imagine. The tone of her voice was saying, "Your kid is a brat and you are responsible for his behavior in here." This went on but I tuned her out because I was consoling my poor kid as he continued to cry.

For anyone that actually knows Nathan, he is the happiest kid on the block. Greg always says he has the gift of joy and he never acts like this except at MOPS. I was so upset by the situation for two reasons. One, Nathan had been unnecessarily sad and miserable for two and a half hours while I was 30 feet away. Second, THEY SHOULD HAVE PAGED ME! When I check the kids in I am given a pager and I am one page and about 30 seconds away from being there. He clearly had frustrated the heck out of this woman and all I could think to tell her was, "You should have paged me before it got to this point." I get that he wasn't making any friends but it kills me to think that not only was he so sad but that he was being treated meanly too. Before you get this ticked off at a not yet two year old, CALL HIS MOM! That's the point of the pager, to relieve these workers when they don't know what else to do.

Then, when I picked Aubrey up I asked her what she did. She said, "I helped take care of Nathan." Apparently their classes were outside at the same time and all that separates the play areas is a chain link fence so they obviously hung out together at the fence. Aubrey told me, "I told Nathan, 'Nathan, don't be sad, Mommy will come back.' " My little angel care taker, looking out for her brother. The whole situation made me so upset. Nobody loves your kids the way you do and to think that anyone would intentionally be unkind or mean to one of them kills me. Which brings me back to my second point. If you are being unkind and mean to a two year old, CALL HIS MOM. She will love the heck out of him anyways.

If I had a million dollars

I'd buy a lot of clothes. After hoarding gift certificates for almost a year, I went on a shopping bonanza. It was my reward for losing my baby weight and surviving the first three months with three kids. Outside of all my gift certificates and gift money I only spent $21 of my own money. I walked away with five tops, a dress, a skirt, a pair of pants, and a pair of shorts from Ann Taylor and a skirt, two tank tops, and a pair of jeans from Banana Republic. For a person who hasn't bought new clothes for herself in a long long time, this was well over due. I can't wait to get dressed tomorrow!

After an afternoon of shopping with Greg and Dane (Greg's parents took Aubrey and Nathan while Dane went with us since he thinks bottles are poisonous), Greg and I got a dinner to ourselves. We went back to Greg's parents place, I fed Dane, and we fled to dinner. Greg's parents even treated us! We ordered big people food like Ahi Tuna and Chicken stuffed with crab, held hands across the table, had a drink, and talked. Uninterrupted. It was glorious. And when we brought the kids home tonight we were refreshed and ready to parent out precious babies again. THANK YOU DOUG AND MARIAN!!!!!!!

Time for pictures

The kids getting love from their Great Grandparents in Montana
My little Dane at three months old
Nathan, showing off his potty training skills in ADORABLE big boy underwear
...and more underwear
Two of my men, ready to go for a walk
The cutest little Aubrey girl you've ever seen

You know you don't live in the city...

...when you go for a drive, not more than ten minutes from your house, and you come across someone raising six bison and another someone raising a herd (literally) of caribou/reindeer. We have known about the bison for a long time and take the kids for a drive to see them from time to time. Yesterday we extended our drive a bit further and stumbled upon 30 or more reindeer. They were right up against the fence, eating, and we couldn't decide what they were. Smaller than an elk and thicker, shorter than a standard deer, but big furry antlers (my dad informed me they were furry because they were immature and that it was called their "velvet" antlers) and white butts. It was Greg who first suggested they might be reindeer and I essentially called him crazy. Reindeer only live on the Alaska tundra and Siberian plains. right?

The next step was consulting my dad, a person who grew up in the wilderness and knows about such things. After describing them he said they sounded like caribou. We looked caribou up on Wikipedia and it said caribou is the term for wild, North American reindeer. And the picture looked just like our local animals. Oh, and in case you are wondering, they are not native to Liberty Lake, they are native to areas much further north. I hope to talk to the owners someday and find out how on earth they came to have them. In the meantime we are enjoying our own private zoo, just down the road.

You're invited to my pity party

Between illness and Greg being out of town, sleep for mama has been in short supply.  I have reached crisis levels of sleep deprivation and judging from my meltdown last night I knew I had to make getting some rest a priority.  Today, it seemed as though the heavens were shining down upon me.  After a busy morning, ALL THREE KIDS were ready to sleep around 1:30.  I got everyone down, it was 1:45.  I literally ran, grabbed the softest blanket ever (thanks mom) and curled up on the couch.  Laundry and clean bathrooms be damned, I was going to sleep.  The next hour transpire as such:

*Nathan crying for his binky.  Me, out from underneath lovely blanket, upstairs, retrieve binky.  Back to nappy time.

*Dane, crying for no reason.  Me, up, feverishly searching for his binky and proceeding to pat him for five minutes until he went back to sleep.  Back to lovely blanket.  Almost asleep when...

*Aubrey, up to pee and "just check on you."

*Nathan, hack hack hack, crying for water.  Back up I go.

*Aubrey, wanting to sleep somewhere else because Nathan's coughing it waking her up.  I put her in our room where Dane is sleeping.

*Jingle jangle, jingle jangle.  Aubrey has found my cool metal belt which she is rattling.  

*Dane: WWWAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!  More patting to get him back to sleep.

*Aubrey:  "Mommy, will you sleep with me?"  I try, leaving lovely blanket behind and exchanging it for my precious daughter pulling my hair and waving puppy in my face to see if it would make me open my eyes.  It did.

*I try to rest on couch one more time, when, seriously, I hear Dane crying.  AGAIN.

This continued until about 10 minutes ago when I got Dane up (who promptly fell back asleep in my arms) and decided to just do the laundry and clean the bathrooms.  Except now it's time for Aubrey to get up and I hear Nathan calling my name.  Honestly, it was like the meanest cosmic joke ever.  Greg is so bringing dinner home tonight.

Single Mothers and other Saints

God never intended people to parent alone, of this I'm sure. Greg is out of town for most of this week for work and I'm here. ALONE. To be honest, I think the anticipation of his departure was worse than the reality. I have been stewing over this since I found out the middle of last week. And guess what? Today was fine. We played, did errands, did chores, and all the other things that we do in a day. But here it is, 10:30 p.m., and I'm taking a break from paying bills and folding clothes to do a little blogging. For any single mother out there, it is true that their work must never be done. My days are always busy but in the evening when Greg is home things get done. One of us can manage the kids while the other one whips the house into shape, cleans dinner dishes, puts away four loads of laundry, and takes out the trash. Without my dear partner all that stuff had to happen after the kids were in bed. So here I am, 10:30, without a bedtime in sight.

Having said that, Greg is mostly missed because we miss his company. I love it when he comes home and we talk about our days and take care of our family together and fall asleep snuggled in each others arms. The kids miss their giant jungle gym, the best reader of "Where the Wild Things Are" and the best bedtime prayer guy around. So, even though he's handy to have around the house, we'll be glad to have our main guy home just because he's so nice to have around.

p.s. Who would have though Kansas would win it all? Not me, I had NC beating UCLA in the finals. Just this week I was telling Greg how annoying I find it that these guys can't seem to shoot free throws. Then the coach of Memphis said during an interview that he didn't really worry about free throws and trusted his guys to make them when it counted. And then Memphis lost because they can't hit free throws. HA! I tell you what, if my kids play basketball they WILL learn to make free throws. They are FREE for heaven's sake.