It's occurred to me that I have seriously neglected this blog lately. Something I tend to do cyclically, as my life gets busier. I went back to work in April, so now I juggle my full-time career and motherhood, which doesn't leave room for much else. By the end of the day I'm too tired to care about doing anything. And on weekends we're trying to cram in all the housework and family time we can before Monday rolls around and routines start all over again. So that's my excuse for not updating in a while.
And yet, my brother's blog
http://deathofmonopoly.blogspot.com/ is continuously updated... and he's in the throes of his Master's Thesis. I guess it's all about priorities... do I want to sit and spend an hour waiting for photos to upload to my blog, or do I want to fold the endless mountain of laundry while I enjoy the quiet that is my post-bedtime living room? Do I want to thoughtfully compose updates about my family to the few people that read them, or do I want to log on to Facebook and whip off one-liner status updates? Do I want to post photos of my kids being "oh so adorable" to people that probably think their own are cuter, or should I go scrapbook them for my own enjoyment, instead?
Tonight, I feel like blogging. Probably as a way of putting off the things that really need to be done, the supper dishes, the laundry, the floors... the endless chore list that is constantly renewing itself...
So, what's new with us???
My 4 (almost 5) year old!
Alex has a loose tooth. Really loose. Like, "hanging by a thread" loose. The dentist pointed it out to us last month, when it was just a tiny bit wiggleable. I had no idea how long those suckers take to fall out. I remember hurrying mine along... I couldn't help it, I would wiggle and twist it until it popped out. Fast forward 25 years and I don't have the stomach to even consider pulling it for him. I've been avoiding serving him crunchy foods and tonight he drank his milk from a straw because he didn't want to put any undue pressure on it. We're hoping it hangs in until he's 12...
He seems rather upset by the entire process. I didn't realize why until we had a conversation about it. I told him how proud I was that he was getting to be such a big boy (who am I kidding, he's not even 5 yet, I don't want him to grow up and assume the jack o'lantern look that signals the end of his babyhood). He said that he didn't want his teeth to fall out. I told him that everyone's teeth fall out, that's an exciting part of growing up. He started to cry... then I told him that my teeth all fell out and it wasn't scary or painful at all. He said (incredulously) "But YOU have teeth!"
Oops... forgot to tell him that he will grow more! That explains his anxiety! :)
My 14 month old TODDLER baby!
Kirstin is walking all the time now. For about a week now, she seems to have completely given up crawling for something a bit slower, but more satisfying. I love watching her with her Frankenstein gait. It's soooo cute! She's also a climber. She'd go up the steps all day if we let her, but down isn't something she's terribly interested in doing properly, so the baby gate is out of storage once again. She's officially getting her share of bruises. The other night she climbed on top of the piano (aargh!) and upon her dismount, ended up flat on her back with the bench landing on her nose. I believe that was her first ever fat lip, but not her first nose bleed, we've been down that road already.
My two and a half year old hooligan
Connor has finally started to master English. He's much more understandable now than he was just a couple of months ago. We can actually have wonderful conversations with him. I've even heard him use the word "me" a couple of times. I'm going to miss his third person way of speaking about himself ("Connor hungry, Connor go pee, Connor do it!").
Yesterday I commented on what a big boy he was getting to be as I strained to lift him up. What followed was, in my opinion, a brilliant conversation (of course, being his Mom, I'm highly biased):
C- "Connor as big as Alex?"
Me - "Not yet, but I bet you'll be as big as Alex soon!"
C- "As big as Daddy?"
Me - "Maybe when you're an adult like Daddy"
C- "As big as Mama?"
Me - "Maybe soon"
C- "As big as Kirstin?"
Me - "umm, I don't think so"
C - "Nooooo, Kirstin tiny! (laughs hysterically at his sister's plight)"
Cory and I just celebrated our 11th Anniversary. We left the kids with grandparents, something I always have a hard time doing. Cory thought I was being a bit over-protective (as I'm sure did his Mom) because I didn't want to leave all three kids with one Grandparent. Grandpa was in town and due back any minute, so I wanted to wait there until she wasn't outnumbered, even though it meant we might miss the beginning of our movie. She assured me that they'd be fine, so we left. Before we'd even got out to the driveway, I could hear Connor howling and Grandma saying "It'll stop in a minute sweetie"... so of course I had to go back and investigate. Cory (the heartless) sat in the car and revved the engine. My boy was covered in blood (as was his Grandma) from a spill on their deck. Alex was rushing for the Kleenex and Grandma was trying to calm Connor down so his nose would stop bleeding. I don't know who I felt more sorry for, my baby or his Grandma. Well, okay, my baby... but I'm sure Grandma was thinking "why couldn't you have waited until they'd driven off before spilling your blood?" The rest of the baby-sitting went without incident (or at least that's what they tell me) and Cory and I enjoyed a movie, Japanese dinner, and 37 minutes at the Casino (that's how long it took us to each blow through our $20 limit). It was actually really nice. I ate my dinner still steaming, and realized that eating food hot is a guilty pleasure that I haven't really experienced in the last 5 years.
Next week we're on vacation and we're looking forward to a mixture of staying home and enjoying our family, and camping (and hopefully still enjoying our family). We're keeping it low-key i.e. inexpensive. I have a million plans to get this place sparkling clean before I go back to work, but who am I kidding? I couldn't do it in the year I had off, so I'm sure not going to be able to do it in 2 weeks.
I can try. Or maybe I won't. It's all about priorities!
My priorities
