Ballerina Baby

I'm gong to wax poetic about the B. Well, I'm going to show you pictures and that is probably enough. : ) This is our first ballet class. We did toddler gym when she was 1 1/2 to have some special time together before Fifi arrived. And we do 'toddler bootcamp' at the library (more fun that it sounds, honestly!) Excited for our first dance class! Thanks for the hand me down ballet baby clothes to my good friend Beth!!!!

The warm up.

Plie. (I don't have time to find the french accent thingy on keyboard. You get the picture.)

Barre work.

The Patch

Free range pumpkins fed only Crystal Geyser water. They are happier that way.

As I said the other day, we hit the pumpkin patch. We did it out of nostalgia's sake; this patch has rumored to have been bought out by Target so this is the LAST YEAR! Don't miss this once in a life time opportunity! So we bit the marketing bullet and went. After forking out some big ol' coins on a gaggle of pumpkins we exited the parking lot only to read the sign on the way out exclaiming 'SEE YOU IN 2009!' What suckers we are.

But we did it mainly so the B could pick out her very own pumpkin, in the pumpkin forest. You know, these SoCal kids forget that milk doesn't actually come from a container. Chicken has feathers. Hamburger used to moo. The patch is kind of like going into nature to shoot and skin your first deer, but with less blood and more seeds. It's all about the satisfaction of picking your very own pumpkin.

But really, look how excited she was to find out that pumpkins really do grow on trees. Well, vines. You see my point. It was fun.

Now, don't go taking pumpkins from babies.

Sophie gave us her opinion on many pumpkins, too.

The happy hunters.

Great greasy gobs...

Do you remember that poem from childhood?

Great green gobs of
greasy, grimy gopher guts
marinated monkey meat
itsy bitsy birdie feet
french fried eyeballs
drowned in a pool of blood
and I forgot my spoon.

... but I found a straw! (big slurping sound follows)

My boys have NOTHING over me.

I'm just excited I found my brain gelatin mold in order to use it one more time and really, really get my money's worth.

Today, with only four days left, we FINALLY went to the pumpkin patch. Spent a ridiculous amount of money on pumpkins when at the grocery store just down the street I could get a blue ribbon 500 pound pumpkin on sale for about $3.00. But it's the ambience, you know? What's halloween without going to the patch and yelling every five minutes: "no, you can't go in the bouncy house." "no, you can't go on the ATV." "no, we're not here to ride ponies." "did everyone forget? We're here to get PUMPKINS." Then get your foot run over by the wheel barrow your eldest son is jockeying down the aisleways of pumpkins, praying he doesn't ram into the side of the display meaning you have to pay for 40 pumpkins instead of the four the kids have taken ten hours to pick out and you need to get a loan to afford, but there's a financial crisis, so here, take my youngest child, I have more.

Then home. No wait. We have to eat, so cruise into the grocery store to buy some cooked chickens. (don't want to delay the pumpkin carving frenzy any more than necessary) Get in the car to four whining voices coming from the back of the SUV asking what's for dinner. Answer big old chicken to invoke the chorus of "I call a leg!" To which I answer - "Relax - there's enough for everybody!" To which they respond - " YOU BOUGHT A FOUR LEGGED CHICKEN?"

OMGosh. No, boys, I bought TWO TWO LEGGED CHICKENS. Do the math.

It's A Bump, Not a Fork

Well, I'll be honest. I find I'm having a tough time and lacking some faith. I don't know what it is. I'm feeling rather unholy these days. I've never completely tripped off the stairway to heaven, but I've had my setbacks; it's the journey, not the destination, right? Can I possibly be any more corny?

In all seriousness, I kind of thought I was a little old for this kind of thinking and behavior. But handling five kids, house, a job, and all that goes with them in this day and age makes me feel worn out and spent at the end of every single day, for the past elevenish months. I don't think I'm postpartum, incredibly hormonal, yes.

I know life isn't supposed to be easy, but I'm really craving some down time. Believe me. Moving to Indonesia? I spent a good month reconsidering everything we were doing when we had to figure out the entire move ourselves, ship a dog safely to the tip of that tropical island, find out that hubby's job was going to be very, very tough, fight like crazy to keep my job, buy $3000.00 worth of anti malaria profilactics,.. Maybe I'm just FINISHED with having the feeling that everything I do I must put on cement boots to do it. How wonderful it is to stretch out both my arms at once and not have to heft a baby or two up and down stairs to run errands. You know that feeling, right?

So, I was listening to AM radio since it's so incredibly entertaining this close to an election, and it must have been the Hugh Hewitt show where a caller said, "it's important to remember it's just a bump in the road, not a fork." or something like that. How appropriate for me. (Especially as we are on the way to the Church trunk or treat and I get mad at the car at the stop sign in front of us who isn't letting a group of boys cross the road. "Let the children go, you freak!" Was that me yelling? When in the world did I get so angry? Did Jesus' mother ever have days like that? Or for that matter, my adopted patron saint, Monica - whose son Constantine she prayed for for more than 30 years before it all came to fruition? At least I meant well, right?)

So anyway, we have some very cute pictures that we'll post soon - right now hubby is 'putting the baby to bed' which is daddy talk for 'I'm checking out early - lock up the house! 'night!"

A bit of britghtness in my day is my friend Jerry's facebook quote that I am stealing and making my own too - "I'm a princess, you're a princess,... so who's going to milk the goats?" - Old Egyptian Proverb. Amazing that women have felt this way all through the ages,...

Busy

So this little 16 lb. bundle has been keeping me a little busy for the last two days. Meet Miles, the latest addition to our ever growing 'litter.' He is great. HE sleeps through the night (Sophia, are you listening???) HE goes poop every day without a whimper in the right spot. (B, are you there???)

The girls and I drove to Laguna Hills just to 'look' - you know how that goes - on Monday. Coastal German Shepherd Rescue knows us and still seems to think we are decent human beings, so they decided we could go ahead and take him that day, instead of waiting until he reached 8 weeks, which would have been Thursday, anyway. He was born on Aug 28 - the same day as Hubby and my anniversary. How sweet - we can share a bottle of Champagne and a slice fo cheese with candles in it for the years to come!

The foster dog Jane wasn't really too excited with him, but she's warming up. The boys are over the moon.

So, I'm settling in. The migraine's gone for the most part - I'm handling my new stress level of having to look after two babies constantly throughout the day.

You know when you are a real adult when you look at your calendar and sigh in relief that there is indeed ONE MORE weekend before the holiday. Whew. We did get the costumes all figured out, but we have yet to obtain or carve any pumpkins.

We are winding down the football season - and gearing up for basketball. Last weekend was wonderful and traumatic all at the same time - Saturday we had one game more than an hour away, Zach had basketball tryouts, Rob had to watch the tryouts, Zach had a birthday party to attend, and we had to get to the new Church for the dedication ceremony/Mass at 3:30. We made it! Three hours of Churchiness later, we went to the big Italian dinner hosted by the Parish. It was very awesome. We were honored to carry the gifts to the altar with another family and the boys from both families carried flowers up. They did it without a hitch (I had sweaty visions of Zach at preschool graduation as he processed down the aisle in his cap and gown. He got half way put his little five year old hands in the air in the shape of two 'L's and screamed 'ROCK ON LOSERS!' I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried. Trust me.)

Sunday Hubby served breakfast after one of the Masses, Kyle had a baseball game and we had a few families come over for a little get together - one family lives in Las Vegas and came over for the dedication Mass and to visit long lost California friends. It was really fun, but I was EXHAUSTED by the end of the weekend and actually looking forward to a more routine and orderly week.

This weekend? Two football games, the Trunk or Treat at Church. Baseball and more basketball tryouts on Sunday, including for Jared. Maybe score a pumpkin at the pumpkin patch. Perhaps sneak to Walmart, toss the cheap pumpkins on the lawn and exclaim that the Halloween fairy has smiled upon us. We'll see.

What can't I wait for? When someone asks me how my weekend was, I'll actually be able to respond with 'Very relaxing,...'

p.s. Mom, I love you very much and I PROMISE to call you soon!

Bring It ON!

What we lack in preparedness, we make up for in pure excitement. A lot of excitement. Really. Trust me. In this time of financial crisis, I will be bottling it and sending it out for Christmas presents this year. But I get ahead of myself. Happy Halloween!

Happy 10 Month Birthday, Sophia!

Yep, it's true. I simply can not believe she is ten months old! Only a while longer and she won't be an infant any longer.

Highlights:

* I think we've outgrown the GERD issue. Thank God. She's been off her medication for about a week now with no spit ups, no ultra fussiness,.. yay.
*She can do a 'dead leg' crawl, but prefers to army crawl everywhere. And she's quick. A lot quicker than you'd think.
*She plays peek-a-boo by covering her,.. ears.
*She loves, loves, loves music and will start to bop up and down, clap and squeal
*She loves, loves, loves Yo Gabba Gabba
* She can pull herself up to a standing position!
*Also she can go from laying to sitting, obviously
*She is great in her bassinet - the first kid to acutally play in it and have fun doing so
*She loves toys. Probably more than any other baby I've had
*She isn't excited to eat much baby food. She's way too sophisticated for that.

Happy Birthday little girl!