Supermom Chronicles

Today we drove to Rain Creek to visit John's parents and leave the kids for a couple of days while John & I celebrate our 11th wedding anniversary. We are child-free for the next 2 days, and I plan on sleeping through the night for the first time in, oh, about 8-9 months.

On the way there, I could hear Faith in the back of the van talking with Cole about China. Every few words I heard "China" or "Chinese". John & I were wondering what in the world she was talking about. He & I had not had any conversations about China with her. We figured maybe she was learning about different cultures in her preschool or maybe on Noggin. So finally I turned and asked, "Faith, what is China?"

"I don't know."

"Where did you hear about China?"

"I don't know....(long pause)...Nanny likes Chinese girls."

I immediately burst out laughing. A little over a week ago, Faith had her 1st dance recital (I'll post pictures later). I had to put her hair up in a bun and used at least 20 bobby pins, a ton of hair gel and hairspray to make it happen. My sister, Cara, was visiting for the weekend to go to the recital, and was watching me get Faith ready. While I was fixing Faith's bun, Cara & I were reminiscing about our childhood, when Mom ("Nanny" to Faith) would put my hair up in a bun, let it dry, then take it down and it would be very full & curly. She would always pull my hair up so tight that I swear it felt like my eyes would slant back. I told Cara that Mom would make me look like a Chinese girl, to which Cara replied, "I guess she likes Chinese girls."

Hence, over 1 week after that conversation was overheard and internalized, Faith makes the aforementioned announcement. Pretty funny.

I love decorating our home. I wish I just had about $20,000 to really do it right! For the things I really want right now, we would need about $6000. We have borrowed some couches from John's parents just to fill some necessary spaces. For those of you who have been to our house, you know our color scheme is gold/red/green. These couches happen to be BLUE. Yes, I'm definitely grateful for the furniture, but I am annoyed on a daily basis looking at the clash of colors.

So in my little tiny bit of spare time, I have drug the kids to a couple of furniture stores "just to look". Our want list includes a good media couch (with a family of 5 to seat, it could get pretty expensive), a loveseat/chair combo for our front living room, and a master bedroom set for us (we are currently using my parents' old set - nearly 30 years old with a bit of a medieval very dark wood look). Priority-wise, the media couch and front living couch are neck-and-neck.

So we're walking around Lack's on Tuesday when I come across a fantastic, perfect-sized table for our entryway. I've been looking for a small table to put there since we moved in 2 years ago, but never found the right size or look. When I came across this one, I knew it was perfect. So we bought it. It really does look great in that space. HOWEVER, being so close to our dining room, we have realized that the dining room furniture has to go. We haven't really liked it for some time (we bought it 5 years ago when our tastes were different). But now that the entry table offsets it so, we REALLY want a new dining set NOW. So our $300 purchase has turned into a furniture tangent. It's easy for me to start shopping for one thing, then get off on a suddenly high-priority tangent, especially when it comes to furniture. I think we'll Craig's list the dining set and see how it goes...

First of all, I have to brag on my beautiful baby boy. He had his 6 month pictures taken at Kiddie Kandids last week, and they turned out awesome! He was in a great mood. Just about every shot taken by the photographer (who was really good) turned out great the first time. We did his photo shoot in just minutes. This is the easy age. I think after 6 months, it gets harder and harder to take kid pictures. They either won't cooperate (usually Cole's M.O.) or they won't smile (Faith's M.O.).


Here he is sitting up. We put him on this bench and he assumed this pose on his own. I think it's just precious! Yes, I'm biased. His development is taking me by surprise. On the day he turned 6 months he started crawling. Then 2 days later he was able to sit up on his own. One week later, he was pulling himself up to a stand on furniture. As of now he is 1 week away from turning 7 months, and he can already stand himself up easily (holding on to furniture) and take a few steps on his own (again, holding onto whatever he pulled up by). I guess he feels the need to keep up with big brother and sister. I'm just amazed. Actually, I'm a little sad. He is our last baby and he is just growing up a little too fast!

Last weekend we had Front Porch Days in Plum Creek. This is a 2 day weekend event held annually that is very social - come out and meet the neighbors, eat, listen to live music all day long, play on the playscapes, shop at local vendors. It's pretty cool -- one more reason I'm convinced we live in the best neighborhood ever. I really love this place. And, we have awesome neighbors. There are 4 houses right around ours that have kids all the same age - it's really great. Anyway, here is my limber son taking his turn down the giant inflatable slide. Gives a whole new meaning to the term "rubbernecking"!


We enrolled Faith in dance class this spring starting in January. She has been learning the basics of point and tap. I think tap is her favorite, but I'd be surprised if tap wasn't everybody's favorite at this age. Who wouldn't like to walk around making clicking sounds when you're 4? She has her very first dance recital 1 week from today. I had the privilege of watching her class perform during their 1st official dress rehearsal this past week. It's so funny, the youngest girl in the class (I'm guessing 3yrs old) did the best job. Mostly they all bounce around looking cute, watching their dance teacher for cues. Both times they did their routine, Faith barely kept up. But then when we got home, she did the entire routine by herself almost perfectly. So she has proven she knows the routine and can do it; it's the performing in front of others that is the challenge. I'm anxious to see how they all do once they're on a big stage with lights and a big audience. When she came home from her dress rehearsal, apparently Cole thought she looked pretty funny. Nutmeg, as always, gave her the sniff-down.

As you can see, my "free time" revolves around the kids. I like it that way. Yes, that means I might go a whole month without blogging :), but I have had some really great quality time with the kids. I'm really enjoying this time in our lives. Today we went out for lunch, went to the park, then painted when we got home. I just pray that all this special time leaves a mark on each of them so that they never feel the need to seek out negativity to fill any void in their lives. I hope that a strong, close family will overcome all temptations. Hopefully those temptations won't come around until they are at least teenagers, but now is the time to lay the foundation.

Aside from being a mom, my life as a vet has been tremendously rewarding. I love my job! It is so much fun going to work these days. I've had some interesting, challenging cases over the past month, and I have learned so much. That's what is so exciting about being a vet - there is always more to learn, and work is rarely monotonous. I did have an unexpected emergency arise this past Wednesday - a very special case, indeed. I was hanging around the clinic over lunch (which I often do to catch up on medical records, lab work, phone calls, etc) when I got a call from Faith's daycare. There was an emergency: Faith was crying during naptime. When her teachers asked what was wrong, she finally admitted she had stuffed a rock WAY up her nose. So they called me. Have no fear, Vet Mom was on the way! I stuffed a pair of alligator forceps, hemostats and ophthalmoscope (for light) into my pocket and arrived on the scene within 5 minutes. Immediately I could tell which nostril the rock was lodged in - it was quite noticeably larger than the other. I took Faith to a secluded area of the facility so she wasn't embarrassed in front of all her classmates. I spent the next 10 minutes convincing her that nothing I stuck up her nose was going to hurt. She finally relaxed and let me go fishing. The rock was actually too big to grab with the alligator forceps, so out came the hemostats. On the 2nd try, a pretty decent sized rock was retrieved from her right nostril. If I remember correctly, her first words were, "Wow, that rock has a lot of snot on it." Mission accomplished. Thank you very much - it's all in a day's work!

Yes, I'm alive. Barely. Actually, I feel very alive, just very fatigued most of the time. I am posting only to say that blogging is officially on my To Do list for this Saturday...stay tuned:)