Now A Family of *gulp* Six.

In direct opposite-ness of the last post, let me tell you the many reasons why I could win that award today. 1. Made a pot roast in the slow cooker with potatoes, carrots, & onion. Everyone knows kids won't eat it! 2. Gave Charlie a gummy bear. Listened to his chant of "more candy" on the way home in the car. Seriously, he can say about 3 two-word phrases and that's one of them. Found said gummy bear stuck to the side of his car seat when we got home. 3. Wouldn't let Roman play with his friend. Wouldn't commit to playing tomorrow, either. Can you believe I want our family to spend time together having fun with each other? 4. Yesterday, dared to take a picture of Roman. 5. Wouldn't simultaneously hold Charlie while I'm standing up, and grade papers. 6. Did not get up to soothe Charlie when he yelled at 3am. 7. Roman was accidentally poked in the eye by MY glasses when he was screwing around. Never mind that he grabbed them & was trying to play k...

Being that I have intense moments with my oldest, & the youngest has officially reached "terrible two" age, I realized that this year wasn't the year for resolutions. It was the year for reshifting & remaking priorities. My biggest need - a feeling of calmness. Serenity. Being centered. Content. Balanced. I could go on like a thesaurus, but I'm sure you know what I'm getting at. This actually started last Fall, I guess. At least, it's when I started noticing that I was getting more content. The housing market, or lack of, made me realize that we are here in this house for quite a while yet. And I didn't want to keep thinking stuck here . I just wanted to be here . To get to that point, I had to start looking at the good things about this area. And a funny thing happens... you do it long enough, and you start seeing even the smallest things that are good. Next I realized that since the holidays, I have been going to bed each night feeling very conte...

Stating that Charlie will be two years old tomorrow doesn't sum up all the wonder the thought brings me. Having a second child has brought us so much more fun memories & happiness than we imagined. It's wonderful to see Roman interact with Charlie too, and how Charlie imitates everything Ro does. In fact, he doesn't play with his own toys a lot because he always wants whatever Roman has! Charlie is the opposite of Roman in every way, both good & bad. Which has made life interesting at times! But the best part about Charlie is his joy. He is almost always in a good mood (unless you are denying him something). He loves to smile, to be tickled, to make silly sounds, and shout out people's names. In fact, that's his favorite game - to call out our name & wait for us to call his back. He has been spicing it up by doing it in different voices or lengths, and we have to respond in the same way. (Example: "Mahhhmeee!" I respond "Chahhhhrleeee!...

So sayeth Roman, when he wanted to play Wii after 7pm tonight & was trying to convince Daddy (with fists clenched and raised voice) that he would be okay. Nice try, bud. We have lots of new terms that we use now like dysregulated , and phrases such as "shrink his world." Our work with a therapist is yielding good results - we're digging deeper with each meeting and Roman is now willing to show where his buttons are. Here's how Tuesday went in our house: We arrange for Roman to stay in after-school care because I have to take Charlie to the doctor. Doug calls school and arranges it. I pick up Roman and the teacher makes an offhand comment, "he was beginning to get worried." The bells begin to ding a little in my head but I ignore them. We get home and Roman has a laundry list of impossible things he wants to do - go to Target, play with a friend, have a large snack just before dinner, the list goes on. I continuously have to say no. Roman gets so angry (...

I did it! I took a picture every day for a whole year. 365 days. Well, to be honest, there are 3 days that are missing pictures, and some days I took more than one to fill in the gaps… but really, I documented our life every day for a year. And it was good. Strangely, the year seems to have flown by. It feels like I just started Project 365 a couple months ago, and as Doug said “it feels like I was just laid off a month ago!” Funny how at times I can’t remember what last Spring was like, but yet it feels like a few days ago. That’s the trick of time, I suppose. I don’t have a great retrospective in pictures or anything. It would take too much time and the kids are getting along for now , but who knows when that will blow up. I’ve scrapped my P-365 pictures for the first 26 weeks but was getting bored with the elements & layout, so I spent the last couple nights making new templates with my own papers & stuff I downloaded from Shabby Princess . I also found a local picture deve...

The holidays were slightly different this year. With my grandma in heaven, it adjusted where families decided to be and who they spent it with. My brother's family and mine went to my parents' for Christmas Eve, first time I think since we both got married. It was great fun to have the cousins together. Santa was good to us, bringing a shopping cart for Charlie, clone blaster for Roman, and Doug & I knew what to get the family. We stopped at my aunt's on the way through Kalamazoo and had a short visit with extended family. Then home for the night to unpack, take baths, and repack to head to Doug's family! We arrived there Saturday for more visiting and another round of presents. A good time seeing those cousins as well, though the visit was too short. We got home Sunday evening ready to crash. I spent the day today getting the house back in order, all the piles put in their proper places, and taking Christmas decorations down. Have friends coming Thursday for New Y...

Sunday afternoon after Charlie's nap we ventured to the next-door town to see Santa. He has a little house in the park downtown. We had to wait almost an hour outside, and toes were getting mighty cold! The cool part was that each family got their own private time in Santa's house with him. Charlie was afraid at first, so he and Doug sat in a chair next to Santa while Roman made his requests. Then Santa pulled out a teddy bear to play with Charlie and C. just lit up! By the end of our visit he was willing to sit on Santa's lap. Roman did a lot of Santa-hand-holding. Roman asked for a clone commander blaster or dual-action lightsaber, and requested SpongeBob's 100 episode DVD for Charlie. We encouraged Santa that Charlie would like a toy instead!