Lookin' sharp

For most of Sunday I was on my own with the kids. Andrew was still out of town but was on his way back. He almost—almost—chose to give up his seat in exchange for a 1st class ticket and a $500 voucher but he didn't because he thought that if he came home at 10 PM rather than 4 PM that I'd go crazy.

He might've been right. But also...free plane ticket!! Oh, well.

I am so happy to have him home. The kids are, too!

Here's Benjamin parading around on the couch wearing his Sunday attire:

Play-doh stories

Play-doh has once again become a fascination in our house. We play with it at least once a day, which means that bits of play-doh constantly need to be cleaned up. You've seen those cleaning systems, I'm sure, that claim you can "clean your house in fifteen minutes a day!" just by assigning one chore to every day of the week. Like, you'd do laundry on Monday, floors on Tuesday, bathrooms on Wednesday, and so forth. I've tried to implement a system like that multiple times but I'm thinking it's something that just won't work with kids at home.

I sweep the floor three (or more) times a day and it's always covered in bits of...stuff. Food and dirt and paper and leaves, that kind of thing. It's never just a little bit, either. It's always massive—almost inexplicable—amounts of gunk. And now we've added play-doh to the mix. Let's just say the floor has to be swept several times a day (we'll not speak of the laundry).

When Rachel was home for the break she was really into play-doh, too, and we're just continuing it, I suppose. I have so many pictures of play-doh that Rachel took. This creation was particularly difficult for her to capture:

Lego

A little while ago I found a box of 130 Duplo pieces for sale on Craigslist for $5 (what I was actually searching for was landscape brick because all the logs holding back our gardens have somewhat decomposed and need to be replaced). I didn't find any landscaping brick but I did find some Duplo bricks.

We went ahead and got them because that was a really good deal. So now our Duplo collection is bounteous and our children have been enjoying creating. They've taken more pictures than I have this year so far. They want to take pictures of everything they build. I'm hoping they'll get over that soon.

I found some blueprints (for lack of a better word) of animals online and Rachel had a fun time going through and building them:

Sleepy

Benjamin was asleep by 8:30 this evening. I even successfully put him down in his crib. And I'm almost giggling with joy. Because I am so tired. He and I? We haven't been sleeping well.

My friend Kim (who used to live down the street but who doesn't anymore (and that still makes me sad)) wrote a tribute to her daughter, who just turned one:

My dearest little one, for one year I have been at your [beck and] call. You've been on my hip or within five feet [of me and] except for when you're napping, we've been apart for like two hours in 365 days!!! Whenever you've wanted to nurse, I nursed you. Whenever!! You've refused pacifier, bottle, soy milk, cow milk, juice, and anyone that isn't me. You wake up four times a night or stay up until 11:00. I shake my head and try to squeeze in a nap the next day. My lap is the world's smallest playground made just for you to play, drool, and tantrum in. There have been many pillow punching, tears flowing, questioning sanity type moments this year. I know this won't last forever. I'm grateful you're mine.

To all the mommas with harder than usual kiddos, keep up the good work. It won't last forever. 

This is exactly why Kim and I are friends, folks! She would sometimes just know to call in the morning when Benjamin had been up all night the night before. She'd take Miriam to her house so I could get in a nap. And sometimes I'd do the same for her, taking Claire for her so that she could squeeze in a nap while her other kids were at school.

Miriam still misses Claire terribly. We can hardly walk past their cul-de-sac without Miriam falling into despondence.

Anyway, Kim was my sanity-saver and while I can't say I'm glad she's going through the same thing that I am...it's kind of nice to have someone down in the trenches with you. Someone who gets it. Someone who doesn't say "...if you'd just..." because—let me tell you—I've just.

You don't get this sleep deprived without having tried just about everything. Before you try to give me advice on the matter, just try putting this boy down for a nap. I double-dog dare you.

Non-tornado

This morning we woke up to a wet, rainy, warm day. The temperature was forecast to reach 70°F. With those conditions in place we were put on tornado watch. In the early afternoon things got a little crazy outside and we were put on a tornado warning—seek shelter immediately, the weather service advised.

I had to look up the difference between tornado warning and tornado watch because I can never remember which is worse than the other (though I had already figured it out since we were moved from a watch to a warning just as things were picking up outside). Basically, it seems that if you're under a tornado watch the conditions are such that a tornado could possibly form. If you're under a tornado warning, a tornado (or at least a funnel cloud) has been detected so you're supposed to take cover immediately, etc., etc., etc.

Wind was blasting and rain was coming down in sheets so thick we could hardly see across the street. I was already gathering the children to "have story time in the closet" (which was bound to be super fun) when Andrew called to check on us since his phone is set up to receive weather alerts and mine, for some reason, is not. He told me about the warning to "seek shelter immediately" and I told him preparations were underway.

I was a little stressed but the girls obediently got their pillow and favourite blanket and waited in the closet for me while I finished turning off the computers and got Benjamin settled. He was quite panicked by the weather—he kept fussing and running to the windows so he could see what was going on outside—but eventually I convinced him to join us in the closet for story time (he was a little confused about that, first running to the couch and plunking down right in the middle, ready for anything...except a tornado).

So, with shoes on our feet and flashlights by our side, surrounded by pillows and blankets, we hid in the closet and read stories together until the warning passed.

Birds

This morning Benjamin and I woke up to some strange sounds coming from outside. It sounded like a creaking swing and a bit like a storm was blowing through but I could also hear birds chirping. I couldn't figure out what was going on so we went outside to investigate. When we opened the door to the back deck we startled an entire flock of (some kind of black) birds. They took to the sky at once, hopping the fence to the relative safety of the neighbour's yard.

We could hear their wings beating the air. It was amazing. They kept moving around the neighbourhood, roosting in this set of trees, investigating that yard, checking out those trees, and so on. Right in the middle of it all a flock of geese flew overhead in V-formation.

Benjamin was in awe. And so was I.

Here's a video of it that I took. I tried (and failed) to cut it down to a minute or so (I meant to cut out before I said anything...but I didn't...just know that I was talking to Benjamin, who was busy pointing at the birds).



Apparently it's relatively normal for blackbirds to travel in monster flocks like this. I didn't know this. All I could think about when I woke up this morning was Hitchcock. It was kind of a creepy way to start off the day.

A cold day in Raleigh

We're experiencing a bit of a cold snap due to the 2014 North American Cold Wave. Yesterday we didn't even get above freezing, which is highly unusual for these parts ("yesterday" in 2013 we didn't drop below the freezing point). Due to the cold weather, Andrew's been taking the van to campus and while I like the thought of him arriving on campus warm and safe (and not a block of ice) it's meant that I'm stuck at home with three children who don't want to play outside because we've all morphed into southern wimps (and I say that with all love in my heart).

Today was Andrew's first day of his last semester of classes (but who's counting?) and Rachel goes back to school on Monday, so in spite of the cold weather yesterday we decided that we'd make it an adventure day and get out of the house. We'd talked about going up to Richmond earlier but heading north at a time like this sounded like torture, so instead we stayed local. We drove to Raleigh to visit three places: The North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, McDonald's, and The North Carolina Museum of Art.

Andrew wanted to go to the art museum first since it was "on the way" to the museum of natural sciences but I said we should go to the art museum last since if it's on the way to the museum of natural sciences it's also on the way back from it. My reasoning was that Benjamin would be so excited by all the animals at the museum that he'd be running around screaming and pointing and giggling and basically going berserk. After lunch he'd feel worn out, yet satisfied and cozy, and would probably be bored enough in the art museum—a location that appreciates quiet, calm children—to fall asleep, if we were lucky enough.

I certainly didn't want the reverse to happen—to have a bored, whiney Benjamin at the museum of art only to have him fall asleep at the museum of natural science because he was wiped out by the morning's outing (even if it wasn't thrilling for him).

With a sigh Andrew let me have my way and the day played out exactly as I had expected it to. It's almost as if I spend every waking (and sleeping, if we're being honest) moment with that child.

Benjamin conversing with a turtle

We're not violent at all

A couple of months ago we were all confused by the word "sock." Just yesterday we got all confused again, this time over the word "lick."

We checked out the book I Can Lick 30 Tigers Today! (and Other Stories) by Dr. Seuss, a book of his I've never read, from the library. He's fairly well known for silly stories, I think, so I figured this would be a silly story about trying to lick tigers...like...with your tongue. That's what my kids thought, too.

In fact, after we'd read the title together the girls chorused, "Yuck!" and stuck out their little tongues.

Spoiler Alert (but not really): This story has nothing to do with tongues and everything to do with beating tigers up.

Apparently we need to expand our repertoire of violent verbs.

We've got a pretty good handle on violent behavior, however, even if we have no words to describe it.

Miriam, in particular, has been turning violent lately—not out of anger or meanness, necessarily, but out of what seems to be curiosity. My mom might be able to chime in on this because I think my mom remembers going through a similar phase and actually thinking, "I wonder what would happen if..."

In the past month or so Miriam has punched Andrew in the face (hard enough to give him a fat, bloody lip), bit my big toe (I was just minding my own business when she somehow managed to get my entire toe in her mouth and clamp down before I could stop her), and just last night she gave Rachel a...uh...*cough* double purple nurple *cough* (Andrew's term, not mine; I don't know violent words) when they were supposed to be getting into their pyjamas.

She's typically gentle and quiet and calm so she has the element of surprise on her side. And she's quick, too! No one ever sees it coming!

When it's over she acts genuinely shocked that her victim is in pain and wonders why she should have to be punished when "she didn't mean to."

We've had more discussions about the phrases "on purpose" and "by accident" in the past few weeks than I'd care to detail here (or anywhere).

I'm hoping this phase will end before we're all black and blue!

That parenting thing

A lot of Benjamin's clothes are hand-me-downs from the early 2000s...and the 1990s and the 1980s and possibly even the 1970s. No stranger to hard, scratchy tags (kids these days have it so easy with their decal tags), Benjamin is our hipster baby, unabashedly reviving the trends of the past.

Miriam picked out Benjamin's clothes for him today and even tried to help get him dressed. This was not as easy of a task as she had imagined.

Happy New Year

 Our New Year celebrations were fairly mild. We went on a family walk earlier in the day so that the neighbourhood luminaria could be our last walk of the year. When Rachel was getting ready to go she tried to zip up her coat but got all confused and ended up like this, with her bottom and top zippers connected: