Mother's Day

I've been horribly absent from blogging in recent weeks.  And there's no good excuse.  But it's time to get back on track, especially with a whole lot of exciting things going on here lately.

I'm sorry to say that it took us until after tub time when these two little munchkins were all cleaned up and in their pajamas until we got our annual Mother's Day photo this year.  But I had a very special Mother's Day- complete with church, a visit from Nana and Pap that the kids loved, and a whole bunch of love from the kids.  Joshua was especially sweet, hiding his special Mother's Day present that he worked on at school under his bed from Friday until Sunday morning.  He only told me about it 200 times between Friday and Sunday morning, but insisted that we keep it a secret.  He did proudly remember on his own on Sunday morning to bring it to me when he woke up. 

Suffice it to say that, although I have a full time job, there is no responsibility I have ever had that I love more than being Mommy to these two precious kids.  But I know I'm not alone in feeling that way.  Every Mom I've ever met feels exactly the same way.  And that, my friends, is the beauty of Motherhood.

Happy Mother's Day everyone.

Happy Easter!

I hope you had a wonderful Easter holiday.  Our holiday has spread over the past two weeks, which works out well in a lot of ways.  We celebrated Easter with Grandma and Grandpa last Sunday with a yummy dinner at our house and an egg hunt for the kids.  I learned how to make Grandma's famous scalloped potatoes and learned a hard lesson about the dangers of the kitchen gadget called a mandolin.  I'm still missing the piece of my finger that got in the way of the blade.  But we ate a whole lot of yummy food, braved the gale force winds to hunt eggs in the yard, and just enjoyed some time together with them.  The kids loved it, and so did we.

 Lauren "assisting" Grandma with the potatoes.

 Assessing the loot from the egg hunt.  Holy cow do we ever have a lot of candy!

This week was an absolute whirlwind of Easter activities.  Joshua's Easter party at preschool was on Wednesday morning, and I was lucky enough to be there.  The kids painted some adorable Easter eggs, retold the Easter story that they had been learning over the past week, sang some fantastic songs, and baked resurrection buns (crescent rolls with cinnamon sugar marshmallows baked inside them that disappear...the tomb is empty, get it?)  Given the plethora of peanut products and peanut contaminated candies that show up at Easter, I preferred to be there to monitor the situation and give Mrs. Deitrick one less major issue to remember in the midst of the party.

Thursday I saved a little time in the evening to go to the Maundy Thursday service at our church.  I had gone last year and had been immensely blessed by it.  This year was much the same.  It was a beautifully haunting service that gave me the time to really reflect on the crucifixion.  So often I find myself spending my time and energy thinking about the resurrection part of Easter- because it's a whole lot more joyful.  But the Thursday and Friday parts of Easter are just as important.  And I love that this service brings our church together to do the hard stuff as a church family.

Friday afternoon, amidst the hustle of packing and preparing for our trip to Lewistown, I had an opportunity to participate in the prayer vigil.  Our church divides the Easter weekend into half hour time slots.  Church members sign up for slots to go to the church and pray.  I wasn't sure what to expect.  But when I got there, I found prayer requests that had been presubmitted and a sanctuary that had been beautifully decorated like a garden.  And that 30 minutes passed faster than any other 30 minute period I can recall.  What a blessing to be a part of something so special.

Jason and the munchkins met me in the parking lot when my prayer vigil spot was finished.  And we were off for a great weekend at Nana and Pap's house.  Libby was still recuperating from her wisdom teeth surgery on Thursday, but she was there too, ready for fun with her favorite niece and nephew.  There was much giggling, much running and chasing, many Easter eggs to be hunted and a whole bunch of food to be enjoyed.  It was awesome.

The kids' table at our Easter dinner on Saturday evening.  (Aunt Libby sat at the 4th chair!)

These are slightly out of order, but I'm done fighting with Blogger this evening. Don't the kids all look adorable in their fancy Easter clothes?

We had a little sing along at Club Bob on Saturday afternoon.  The kids loved it!

And a quick shot of the kiddos ready to head downstairs to hunt for eggs.

It really was a great weekend.  We were all happy to have spent a great weekend with our family in Lewistown.  Being there makes me miss them even more.  Joshua has started really having a hard time when it's time for us to leave to come home.  Today there were quite a few tears when it came time for goodbyes.  Poor buddy seems to have inherited my emotional tendencies--- wears his heart on his sleeve and can't hold it back when the tears start coming.  Broke my heart to see him sad to come home.  Once we got here, though, he was happy to be back in his routine and seemed to get back in the swing of things just fine.

Our sugar high has officially worn off in the past two hours, so both kids crashed hard tonight.  Will be more to come this week!

Not exactly what I had in mind.

On Thursday afternoon, I got to spend some one on one time with Lauren.  As you might guess this treat centered around her 18 month doctor's appointment.  We had fun, though (all except for the shots).  We even squeezed in a trip for some groceries together and I loved watching her say hello and wave to every single person we passed.

 

Then we got home.  I was expecting a quiet night to get a few things done.  After all, I had some special plans over the weekend and I needed to get a jump on the laundry and a few other little jobs that I didn't want looming over my fun.  And that's when I realized I was NOT in control.

Joshua was sick.  His nose was running like a spigot.  He threw up.  He was burning hot.  He cried and cried and cried in my arms until he fell asleep.  At 4:00.  We were in for it.  The night was bad, and he needed to stay home from school.  I stayed with him because the fever was a little scary for me at least and I somehow felt better knowing that I was at least looking at him and feeling his head every 15 minutes.

It became apparent that my Saturday plans weren't looking good.  Mom, Libby and I had planned a shopping day about 2 months ago to go to the outlets at Hershey to have some girl time (without kids) together and do some spring/summer shopping for the kids' wardrobes.  Although Jason was perfectly willing to deal with the illness related duties on Saturday, I didn't think it was fair to leave him with a weepy miserable Joshua and a ticking time bomb Lauren, because we all know it's only a matter of time before your healthy children pick up whatever the sick one has.  I find it incredible that these children can't share a toy to save their lives, but as soon as one of them has a germ, they're all of a sudden blessed with generosity for one another.  It's like a sick joke.  No pun intended.

All plans of getting out of the house on Saturday failed miserably.  The only bright spot in the afternoon was that Lauren (after refusing her nap, God help me) and I got to go to the grocery store.  The high point of the day was a half hour spell outside that ended in tears on the part of both children.  Remember....weepy and sharing of the germs.  I knew Lauren was doomed.  Then Jason cooked a delicious steak dinner on the grill that, looking back on it, was truly the highlight of the weekend.  (It really tasted good!)

I was hopeful that we could make it to church.  That is until I felt Lauren's head upon her waking in the morning.  She was the next victim.  And so we stayed in our PJ's and cuddled on the couch for hours and tried to make the best of it.  Joshua was coming out of the fog, so at least there was only one crying at a time.

I was looking forward to work on Monday morning.  I had an opportunity to go to a big conference in Harrisburg with United Way to talk about Early Childhood Education and business investment into it.  The Governor was supposed to speak, as was the CEO of Sesame Street.  I was really looking forward to it.  And then the phone rang and we learned of the bug's third victim......Grandma.  And all plans to go to Harrisburg or even to the office today were shot right to you-know-where.  Jason's work day was more important than mine and so I decided to stay home again today.  This house arrest is starting to work on  my nerves, I have to tell you.

So, suffice it to say that the last few days haven't worked out anything like I had hoped.  Nope, this isn't at all what I had in mind.

Despite Lauren feeling SUPER crummy today and crying more than not, here was our only photo opp today.  Poor baby is sick.  I'm only thrilled that my #1 baby is much much better today.

Things that made me happy today...

The full service gas station I filled up at this morning.  Such a treat not to smell like gas when you get to the office.

A phone call from a friend this morning.

These pictures that caught my attention as I was scanning My Documents for an electrical box photo for a client.  Oldies but goodies.

Scrapping my "packed" lunch for a salad with tuna on it from the Weis salad bar.  And imagine my smile when it ended up being a 5 point lunch.  And I was stuffed.

Thinking about how Lauren is 18 months old today.  Goodness, that time has gone by awfully quickly.  She makes my heart smile.

A few pics from the weekend!

 It was a bit of a crazy weekend.  Not crazy by the standards of having more fun than should be allowed, but more like running around like chickens with our heads cut off.  Saturday was the annual United Way Board retreat, and since I'm the president of that board, it was sort of important for me to be there.  So I trucked off at 7:30 am to spend a day with our board.  Jason was on duty on the homefront, and by all accounts, they had a great time.

The retreat ended at 1 (I actually left at 1:30) and raced home to get Joshua picked up.  We had to be to a birthday party at 2.  And for anyone doing the math, add my 22 minute drive to the 1:30 departure time, and factor back in the carseat buckling and present loading time plus the 10 minute ride back to Milton.  We were late.  Not a prayer of being there on time.  But when we did finally arrive, it was totally worth it.  Joshua had a great time playing with his friends.  This mom, in my opinion, is on to something in the realm of birthday party rules.  It was a party for his family, but he was allowed to choose two friends from school to invite.  So the birthday boy felt like he had friends there to play with, and the family wasn't totally overwhelmed with 20 kids and their parents.  Smart thinking.

Sunday we all made it to church, and thank goodness for that.  In another moment of small miracles, Lauren behaved herself so well during church that I got to stay in the service all the way to the beginning of the sermon.  I was amazed.  We had reached the end of her shelf life when she dug a Sesame Street coloring book out of the diaper bag and began to scream, "ELMO!"  At which point we had to make our exit.  But it was a good run for sure.  I spent the rest of the day in the kitchen cooking dinner for Sunday night and Monday night, as well as getting a few other things put together. 

And before we knew it, it was Monday.

The End.

 Lauren's new favorite spot at the island.  And whatever you do, don't try to stand by her so she won't fall.  If Joshua can do it, so can she.  In her opinion, at least.

And here they were before church on Sunday.  Joshua willingly cooperated in a picture with his sister.  And you can tell by the look on Lauren's face that this is not a frequent experience.

Leave it to the professionals.

I only needed one second to look at these pictures that my cousin, Stacie, took of the kids last weekend to realize that some things are best left to the pros.

Like managing photo opportunities of two kiddos.

And editing what little cooperation she got from Lauren and turning it into art.

My heart is about to burst with how much I love these photos.  Stacie, you have a gift.

Welcome Spring! (Eh hem!)

It's not looking much like Spring around here...with the mix of snow and ice yesterday morning and today's flying flakes, I'm beginning to think it was a mistake to break out my green Vera Bradley spring purse!  But I will truck on, pretending that we WILL actually be able to enjoy some beautiful spring weather at some point soon.  I can tell you that I am fresh out of any good ideas to keep the kids occupied indoors after the seemingly long, extra cold winter we've had.  Suffice it to say that we're all more than ready to be outside.

We made a trip home to Lewistown last weekend to give Daddy some quiet time at home to prep for his exam that he's taking tomorrow morning.  So the kids and I packed up on Friday afternoon and arrived at Nana and Pap's mid-afternoon.  There was a rumor that Mom was going to make a yummy pot-pie supper, and I have to tell you that it was EXCELLENT!  The kids gobbled up their plates full as well, and they aren't doing much gobbling these days unless it's something like Oreo cookies.  I decided not to even attempt to enter the pot pie supper into my Weight Watchers calculator because let's face it...sometimes ignorance is bliss.  Joshua and Lauren enjoyed some play time with Brooke and some visiting time with the gang for sure.

Saturday morning we got up and went to Stacie's house to let her experiment with the kids as she enters into a photography business.  Joshua should have won a prize for his compliance because he literally did everything Stacie asked him to do.  And then there was Lauren.  I declared to Stacie that if she can get a good picture of an 18 month old, then she had found her true calling because they're tough!  The attention span is all of a second at a time, and they're not likely to listen to what you're asking them to do.  But remarkably, Stacie got some beautiful pictures.  She has shared a few on Facebook, but I'll upload a few here as well once I get the CD with the pictures on it.  Her work with a mirror is stunning.  I'm sure I'm not the slightest bit biased about the subjects, either.  Sure.

Saturday afternoon was a party for Grandma Shirley's birthday, so lots of Richards descended upon Mom and Dad's house for food and fun.  The kids had fun playing with Nana's new kitchen and I don't believe there were more than a few squabbles that needed refereeing.  That's saying something.  Dad made a delicious batch of homemade ice cream that we all loved.  I paid the piper on the scale for my weigh in this morning, so we won't talk about it, but I will say that it was 100% worth it!

We returned home on Sunday morning.  I had grand ideas of leaving Lewistown in enough time to get home for church at First Baptist, but quickly realized that I was lacking the motivation to make that happen.  Instead, we got home in time to eat some lunch, start some laundry, unpack the bags and then go outside to enjoy the pretty day.  We met a few more neighbors and everyone is sooooo nice.  It's been a long inside spell, so we were beginning to think everyone just kind of keeps to themselves, but it appears not to be the case now that we're starting to warm up a little.  Joshua made friends with the two boys who live behind us.  They're 10 and 8 and were pretty patient with him.  They rode bikes and played a very boy-ish game of chasing each other with guns and swords for about 2 hours.  During this time I realized that I am going to have my work cut out for me with Lauren outside this summer.  She has no sense of boundaries, roads or property lines.  Both of our outside experiences have ended with her throwing herself down in the middle of the street screaming bloody murder.  Now there's a great first impression with the neighborhood.  Geesh.

Hope you enjoy a few pictures until next time!

Lauren mixing up some food in Nana's new toy kitchen!  The kids adored this!

Lauren and Brooke scheming about something.  Lauren has no idea that she isn't as old as Brooke and Joshua, so she was always RIGHT with the big kids all weekend. 

Joshua taking his turn with the guys churning the homemade ice cream.

It's hard work, but the payoff is totally worth it!  He ate two bowls.  And had a great conversation with Pap in the process I think.

 

We attempted to take the kids out to blow off some steam with a walk around the neighborhood.  A little fresh air didn't hurt anyone.

And my noodle-faced girl to round out the set.

Them

I love everything about them.  And I love having had the opportunity to spend our surprise snow day with them yesterday.

I love how, by 11:00, Joshua had pretended to be every Disney character he could think of.  And he had convinced me to be Cruella DeVille.

I love how Joshua creeps down the stairs in the morning and, with a huge grin on his face, asked "Mommy, is it a SNOW DAY today?"  Somehow I get the feeling he won't always be so thrilled to spend a day with me although my heart hopes he is.

I love how Lauren has learned to say "all done" and is so greatly enjoying her ability to exert her independence with her words.

I love that she wears Joshua's underpants on her head as a hat and socks as gloves and is the happiest when doing so.

I love how Joshua sings, all the time.  He reminds me of Pappy Fred in that way.  He makes up songs.  Sings songs from his super hero shows.  Sings songs from church and school.  Sings songs from commercials.

I love how he's so grown up these days, watching more Spider-Man and Incredible Hulk than anything else.  But when he doesn't know you're looking, he's totally engrossed in Handy Manny like he was yesterday when I snapped this picture.

And I love that he was riding his sister's pink car while doing so.

I love that Lauren has learned to feed herself in the past couple of months.  And I love the look of concentration on her face as she tries to keep her Noodle O's on the spoon instead of in her lap.

I love that, by the end of lunch, Lauren's pants contained a whole road map of her morning activities.  She had blue crayon, Kix, Noodle Soup and red jello on her white pants.  And she didn't mind one bit.

I love that I still get to cuddle Lauren to sleep.  And I love that her purple blanket still smells of her baby-ness.  And that I can still soak up every single ounce that's left of her being little before she grows even more than she already has. 

Time is going by so quickly.  But I love every single thing about them.

A few little things...

I get the feeling as I sit looking out the window at the mess of ice and snow that fell last night, that winter is mocking me.  Just this weekend, we decided to officially embrace spring and take the snowman off of the front door and put away all of his friends who had been decorating the rest of the house.  And now this.  I can't say I'm heartbroken about a day to spend at home in my sweats with the kiddos, but I would love it even more if it had been a declared hooky day that we were spending at the park enjoying the sunshine and warm spring air.  I know it's coming, but I can only say, "Spring......stick a nickel in it!"



If I were the artistic type, I would title this piece of photographic art "Little Girl.  Big Chair."  Really I was just taking a picture because I loved Lauren's pajamas.  And at the rate she's growing lately, she might only wear them once before they're too small.

On Saturday night, we were so excited to get together with the Bingamans for some fun.  I'm embarrassed to tell you that the last time the eight of us were together was pre-Lauren and Daphney.  And if anyone's keeping track, they're now 17 months old.  I did spend a small amount of time with them at the Harvest Festival parade in September.  September.  Ridiculous.  So, we had a very fancy pizza party and got the chance to visit and enjoy the kids on Saturday evening.  I had to catch a few pictures of the chaos.  Since Joshua and Sydney are only 5 months apart, and the little girls only 3 weeks, we decided this was what it would be like to have two sets of twins.  And then we said a prayer and thanked the Good Lord for not making that be so for either of us. 



Joshua and Sydney graced us with a puppet show.  Although I would use the term loosely since the puppets really only bounced around behind the "stage".  At one point Sydney announced that the puppets were  broken because they didn't talk.  Cracked us right up.  With these malfunctioning puppets, Joshua decided to break the ice by doing a few magic tricks.  For his grand finale he said he would make Jeremy disappear.  Sadly, he had reached the end of his magical skills because Jeremy did not go any further than the step he was sitting on for the show.

Here are the little girls doing some coloring.  Daphney got one good bite of crayon, and I think that explains the look on her face.  Lauren wasn't sure what to think about another little one her own size, but she warmed up pretty well and seemed to like the commotion of having 4 kids around the house.  Lauren is a definite observer, but she seemed to open up about half way through the evening and played with Daphney and danced with the big kids a little bit.

Here were Joshua and Sydney playing a game of "Go Spidey"...his favorite.  It boggles my mind that it seems like just yesterday that Darla and I were hauling our pregnant selves around Rolling Ridge just hoping to finish our walk before someone had to go to the bathroom.  And now here we are with 4 year olds....and 1 year olds.  I felt like I was in a time warp.t

Before long, just about all four of the kids were beginning to melt.  It was probably a bad combination of pizza, the sugar high from the "special" Sprite we let them have since it was a special occasion, running around for 2 hours straight, the Oreo cookie dessert that we rounded out our low calorie meal with and the spirited game of Duck, Duck, Goose that ended our fun.  Well that and the fact that it was 9 pm and Lauren had no nap.  I bet you wish you could have been here to see it, huh?   We did speed baths before a total calamity ensued and tried to get the kids into bed before they spontaneously combusted.

Sunday was a good day.  We finally made it back to church after being gone for two weeks.  Somehow that felt like an eternity and proves to me just how much I love our church and all of the people there.  Two weeks was too long to be gone.  It's a good thing we went, too, because it turns out that we were on nursery duty.  I got to hold a little baby for a while, which Lauren protested to the extent that her little lungs would yell.  Reinforcements were quickly called in to prevent a coup.  But we had fun anyway.  And yes, holding a baby made me want another one.  That's an issue I'm really working hard to push from my mind these days.  :o)

We spent the afternoon at home working in the kitchen to make supper for Sunday and Monday (with hopeful leftovers on Tuesday).  It was a mess, but a blessing that I don't have to fight with cooking before leaving for the office for a few days this week.  While all of this was going on, the kids actually curled up on the couch together and watched a movie.  I was so proud of Joshua for being patient with Lauren.  He let her share his blanket and was just generally a great kid all afternoon.  Don't you especially love the way they both smiled nicely for me when I asked to take their picture?

I hope that, if you are home today because of the snow, you enjoy your day.  I know that I am looking forward to getting done with this March nonsense.  But if it has, in fact, come in like a lion, can we now get onto the going out like a lamb part?

A waaaaaay delayed posting.

I had really good intentions about actually getting back to a regular posting habit.  I'll not offer excuses (mostly because I don't have any) and instead give you a quick rundown of the past week.

What I had intended to post about originally was the beautiful day that I had for my ride along Rt 522 to Lewistown on Tuesday to be in town for my Dad's 20th anniversary celebration at his office.  The ride there was glorious--- not a cloud in the sky, no kid DVD's playing in the backseat, and I could turn my music up and sing as loud as I wanted.  It was an hour and 15 minutes that was good for my soul!  It was so wonderful to be there for a couple of hours to watch as people came in to offer their congratulations and to share a whole bunch of memories with Dad.  My Pap was there too, making it a pretty special 3 generation State Farm gathering.  But mostly it was a day about my Dad and how special he is to so many people.  I also snuck in a little bit of one on one Brooke time, which truly made my day.  So often, when we have a chance to be together, I'm juggling Joshua and Lauren and I feel like I don't get to just sit on the floor and play with Brooke.  But on Tuesday, I did.  And if I could have put her in my purse and brought her back home with me I would have.  What a sweet little girl she is.  I'm so lucky to be her Aunt Meg.

In other news, I can say with confidence that Lauren is no longer a horrible sleeper.  Amen and hallelujah to that, right?  I'm sure you all are as sick of hearing about as I am of talking about the all nighters with my sweet baby girl in my arms.  But, after 2+ weeks of letting her cry it out, we're now down to pretty much only a few minutes of fussing before she lays down and closes her eyes.  She usually wakes once during the night and cries for a few minutes, but then settles back down.  I have slept more in the past almost three weeks than I have in years.  And it's amazing what that will do for your mood, energy level and ability to construct a coherent sentence.  It's been a beautiful transformation around here.  Naps are still a little tricky, but let's face it...if you're getting a full night's sleep, naps aren't really that big of a deal.  Yesterday she fought her nap and after 45 minutes was still awake and crying upstairs.  So we bagged the idea of a nap altogether and packed up for a trip to Target.  She caught about 10 minutes of a power nap on the way home, and that was enough to hold her over.

More to come...