More Proof I Have Kids

After how crazy life continues to be, with another trip and busy work week last week, am very much appreciating today's holiday to have some time to slow down, and catch up on, well, life.

This morning, Matthew and I woke up together first, and made blueberry muffins, a common occurrence around here most weekends, aka, Matthew demands it. And to lick the beaters.

In between parenting and muffin-related activities, I used the morning to catch up on digital photos n junk. Which put me in the vague vicinity of doing a blog post, so with Matthew and Mike showering, and Rachel hopefully down for morning nap, thought I'd strike while the laptop was hot.

Speaking of Rachel (and this ties to nothing I'm talking about, but then hey! Neither does this post overall!) is this photo not hilarious? Wearing her new little fake fur coat for Christmas from Aunt Rosanne, and Matthew's old baby sunglasses. No autographs, please, for my little diva.

Think we took this on the way to Aunt Rosanne and Uncle Don's last weekend, they babysat while we enjoyed a nice adults only night at Jones family cabin.

Well I guess that's it for this random post. But I am trying, people, just takes a while to get back in the saddle, apparently.

Did the first week back make you sick?

It did us. Or specifically Rachel, who started throwing up around 7pm Thursday evening and didn't stop until 2am Friday morning.

Luckily the fates were in our favor to make a yucky (and I do mean GROSS) situation better, at least. Mike experienced a rare snow day Thursday AND Friday. The Friday one came none too soon. Just as we were starting to turn on each other in the, can you stay with her tomorrow? No I really can't but I will if you can't, debated, Libby our sitter texted us that school was off Friday too. She is an avid watcher of such reports.

So Daddy volunteered for night time, snuggling her on the couch duty. We didn't want to put her back in the crib again and change the sheets all night as we had already done it twice before we wised up and kept her with us and out of bed.

We think it was just a stomach bug. She was fine by morning. Nursed along by sippy cuts of watered down Orange Gatorade and a LOT of Daddy love. He really earned some sort of hall of famer badge.

I too earned a badge though maybe a bit sad but equally impressive for the ultimate career/family juggling: finishing up a powerpoint for work, while intermittently jumping up to hold her bowl and brush her hair back.

Add in the fact that it panicks me a bit in general because it's unfamiliar to us. Matthew's only gotten really sick once (on vacation, and it was a stomach flu that had ripped through the condo). Rachel just once did one of those quick ones, "whoops I ate too much BLAHHH" but not due to illness.

So here this tiny tiny girl who can't even talk, steadily removing fluids from her body for 7 hours, and even though I know from good counsel that can go on up to 12 hours before we need to start to worry. But you still worry. And then, it's just so sad.

It must be such a exhausting and frustrating experience for a toddler: having bad tasting stuff come out of your mouth repeatedly, your tummy hurts and churns, you don't even have the benefit to know why it's happening, and you feel sooo tired and worn out by the time it's midnight, and it's not stopping, that you just tip your head right on over your Daddy's arm, into your own puke bowl.

Now she is running around, seemingly rejuvenated (certainly LOUD :), with that energy you get back when your stomach flu mysteriously disappears as mysteriously and quickly as it hit you upside your little gut. So it's over! Crisis, extended flu and even doctor visit, averted.

But boy, does our front room still smell like vomit.

New Year, Funny Kids

Nothing to shake me out of my blogging slumber like some funny, must-be-documented funny kid stuff. Two tonight prompted this real live actual post.

First, I am putting stuff back in Matthew's toy box. His empty and seemingly unused (and very bulky) Matchbox car holder "suitcase" was there. I ask Mike, "Does he really use this?" Mike says no.

Matthew chimes in, "Yes I do! I do use it!" I say, "Really, what do you use it for?" He looks at me like I'm dumb and says, "For cars!" I chuckle and start walking out and then I hear him mutter, "of course."

Second, Rachel is walking around feeding us imaginary food off her plastic spoon and plate. Bite for her, bite for me, toddle to Matthew, bite for him. She was very persistent and made a few rounds to each of us.

Matthew finally looks at me, a little incredulous smile and his famous big eyes, and says, "Wow, she's weally weally serious."

Wish I could remember more. Being off with the kids the last two weeks, I probably have a lot more I should share. I sure have been laughing at them and loving them up a lot this break.

And with this, I'll keep it short, but hopefully kick off a nice, prolific 2010 full of documenting my kids lives again. Because I really have missed doing so and after all, it is resolution time. And I'm not sure I can say "diet" again or not and "exercise" is laughable, so looks like it's blogging or bust.

Nostalgia, and Something Else

Tonight I took a spin through the blogosphere, catching up on friends' blogs. It used to be a regular habit (as you all probably know) but lately died off (again, you probably know). No more Aimee comments, or already knowing your news when I see you.

Anyway, I enjoyed it so much, it made me miss it and wonder, what happened?

I think part is the FaceBook / Twitter factor. Why type or read 3 grafs when 47 characters can tell me your latest and greatest?

I think clearly, part is my time. Post Rachel, unless work is unseasonably slow ... even on a regular week, I just truly feel that I. Have. No. Time.

Or rather, none for blogging, that I wouldn't rather put into something else. The 30 - 60 minutes I used to put to blogging, then get my TV time / extra sleep time in, too, has gone POOF with the moment I walked that baby girl through our front door in August last year.

Now, it's a precious 30 minutes to myself at the end of the night, maybe, and I'm just finding I'd rather spend it reading in bed, watching TV or go to bed at 9:30. Just anything totally mindless(trust me, the reading's mindless) non-participatory activity.

And then it ties in to ME just not feeling the blogging bug right now. I hate that I'm not, but it's true. But sad. Because one reason I did it was to document what the kids are up to, for posterity, and for family.

Okay, really I documented Matthew ... Rachel's life has never quite gotten to that status and hell, we know that is just normal second kid syndrome ("hmm, where is YOUR baby book, Rachel? well it must be in the attic, HMMmm, go ask Daddy..." "quick, fill out her blank, dusty baby book!"). I try not to feel too guilty. But I liked having those pieces of their lives down. And I imagined that someday, so would they.

Another part of what's going on is that because we are all SO much more connected - sometimes it's feeling, in a NOT so great way. Just more and more feel that nothing's personal. So, my FaceBook connects so someone's whose connects to their blog to mine ... basically, I consider anything on the ol' interweb to be so public that sharing my real, true thoughts with you now becomes ... for various reasons ... impossible.

And I'm not good at the random trivia. I'm not a "did you ever notice ..." kinda blogger. I'm more a "this happened, CRAP, let me ruminate here about it ..." and when I don't feel I can say what I want, then what is there to say?

Soooo ... for a long time that just left me with happy, inocuous posts. Kid milestones. New photos. Birthday party updates. Which are great and important and I want to make time for those too.

But my point of view feels gone, and I think with it, my motivation.

Oh well, at least I choked this whiny one out right?

Advice? Feeling the blogging burn, ladies?

Concession Post

So, hmm, I do not seem to be blogging much. Sad. Just ... absorbed in work, life, and other things, I guess. Hey - I've actually been reading! Stupid stupid Twilight series sucking me in (save the commentary, non-fans - it's dorky, I know).

And yes, I even missed commemorating my baby girl's birthday, birthday party, Bridget's and much more. Unforgivable!

Recognizing, however, I still don't have it in me to scoop it all up in some witty posts just yet, but not wanting to deprive you of my beautiful girl's birthday shots any longer, I'm hoping this will tie you over.

This one's on my screen saver at work every day and just really makes me happy.

This is probably my favorite of the bunch. Grama Claudia and her baby Rachel.

Of course, then there's Daddy tending to his cake-faced one year old daughter (sigh :)

And the artsy black and white - Rachel with her most favorite toy, my old (OLD) doll from when I was a baby. These are all taken by Uncle Mark Jones at her party. He posted them to Picasa for me before I even had thought about downloading mine, which didn't compared at all. Mark was like a photojournalist, all OVER this party. Thank you Mark, what a gift.

Why I Like Taking Him to School

Even though it adds to an already rushed pre-work morning routine, I have claimed the job to take Matthew to school Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Even though Mike literally works about 200 feet from his school.

THIS face is a nice way to start the day.

Granted, this was from his first day of school. Not getting this joyful reaction every day. Some days, it's more like giant amounts of "I don't want to go - I want today to be a home day!"

Which is fine, because (a) he's adjusting to not having his Libby everyday and that's a tough one, and (b) he only got to bring that Lightning McQueen backpack on day 1, since it was all for show. Nothing in it. How could he ever get THIS excited again then?

But I like to think he feels a BIT of that excitement when he walks in each day to his big boy school, even if he won't admit it. I sure feel it for him.

Happy Crawler, circa 9 1/2 months

Had a few minutes, so I'm looking for photos to print. Even though it's dated, how cute is this? It was take in early June - just after Memorial Day weekend when she learned to crawl.

See that face? She was OVERJOYED by her new capacity for movement, escaping us, and finding trouble unaided all over the house. My girl.