Oh-Bla-Di

I mentioned before that we brought home a bunch of Matt’s childhood train stuff in the load we carted back from Texas.  Since we unpacked and settled back in so quickly, we had time to play with it as soon as we got home.  Matt & Ava got it all set up in the front room and spent a couple of hours watching the choo-choo go!

I see lots of train time in our future!

I get all teary-eyed on my way to work.  It’s decidedly NOT good for the makeup and puffy eye situation I have most days.  But, our XM radio (Channel 10, The Pulse) insists on using the same playlist for weeks on end.  And, so, I hear the song “Perfect” by P!nk at about 0730 every morning.

For my fellow parents, have you ever really listened to the chorus of that song??  Here’s the video (probably not for kiddos, and it’s not the “clean” version.  Hadn’t seen the video before…oh my).  But, anyway, the lyrics to the chorus are:

Pretty, pretty please, don’t you ever ever feel

Like you’re less than perfect

Pretty, pretty please, if you ever ever feel like you’re nothing

You are perfect to me

You know those days…and especially those mornings?  The ones when you didn’t use all of your nice words and all of your patience?  The ones where you know your kid is amazing, but can’t seem to focus on that through all the whining and arguing?  Those are the days when this song gets me to tears.   For all the sweetness Ava usually is, she can get under my skin like none other.   But, I’m the mom and I’m supposed to be the grown-up, right?  Lately, I’ve been clinging to a mantra I discovered on my mommy-blog wanderings.

If you can’t have grace in the moment,

Have grace in the turnaround.

I don’t ever want to be the voice in her world that makes her think she’s less than perfect.  Even with all of her flaws and foibles, she is perfect, to me.

In what can only be described as a fit of awesomeness, when we arrived home from our roadtrip to San Antonio on May 1, I downloaded all the photos and videos and selected winners for this blog post.  Monday morning, I had them uploaded.  Now, more than a week later (in what can only be described as a fit of not-awesomeness), I’m finally getting around to posting them.  Since I’m long on photos and short on words and time, here’s a list of ten great things about our trip!  (Brace yourself, this may be the longest blog post EVER.)

1.  Roadtrip!  We chose to drive to San Antonio this time, so got to take Noah on his first-ever roadtrip.  Considering how hard we pushed the mileage per day, both kiddos did great.  Ava watched a TON of movies (Incredibles, Peter Pan & Little Mermaid were big winners) and Noah was either eating, sleeping or fussing the whole way.  We crashed in El Paso for the night on the way there and got to go for a quick swim before going to Chili’s to eat dinner.  We were all exhausted at the end of the first day, but still got up crazy early on Day 2 to hit the road.  You know that any driving before the sun comes up doesn’t count, right?

2.  We got to San Antonio early on Good Friday afternoon and settled right into playing with heirloom toys and a few we brought along.  By the end of the day, we’d already played in the kiddie pool and had an amazing dinner.  When we woke up on Saturday, Auntie Moe had joined us and we could hardly believe we’d only been there for about 12 hours!

3.  The weekend was packed with church and cooking and Easter celebrations.  We dyed Easter eggs on Saturday afternoon while dinner was cooking…and just in time for the adults to clean up and rush out the door to Easter vigil.  To say we were packing in the memory-making would be an understatement!  Sadly, I don’t have any pictures of the grown ups dressed up to go to church.  Since I had a great dress, I consider this to be quite sad.

(Matt’s great idea for keeping Noah occupied.  Trap the sippy between the table and tray.  Dude has some serious perseverance.)

4.  Easter morning was fun.  We were up turbo early with the kiddos (have I mentioned yet that Noah was sick and running a low grade fever up to this point?) and watched some TV while we waited for grandparents to come play Easter baskets/eggs with us.  Turns out Grampa was sick, so we didn’t see him at all that day.  We did get around to hunting Easter baskets though, and Ava was pretty excited with what she found in hers (a ladybug watch!).

5.  Easter afternoon was a party at the White’s house.  It was supposed to be at Caspers’ but had to move since we were passing around the sickies.  We even made sure to get photos of the kids in their Easter best!  Just for fun, here’s last year.  And the one before that.

The kids had a great time at the party and were officially wiped out by the end of it!

6.  Our kiddos are so lucky to have two sets of their great-grandparents around.  And we’re so lucky to get to take them to visit.  We got to see Mahgie & Poppie at the Easter party and again at their house while we were in Texas.  Such a treat to get to see your babies loved on by their great-grandparents.  Noah met them for the first time at the Easter party.

And then more visiting at Air Force Village.

7.  We did two “special activities” with the whole family while we were visiting.  On Thursday, we went to the San Antonio Zoo.  Special highlights were the elephant demonstration, the reptile house, making a toy with the mold-a-rama, and popsicle treats.

That same night, we got to go see a Missions baseball game.  It was Noah’s first ever!

8.  Speaking of firsts, we had two this trip.  Noah spiked a fever on Monday so we got our first “see the doc while traveling” experience.  Ear infection…boo.  Not the most fun of firsts.  But, by Tuesday afternoon, it was like we had a whole different baby.  So much less fussy and so much more fun!

But, Matt and I had a fun first in that we got to go spend a night downtown on the Riverwalk.  It was our first time leaving the kiddos overnight.  We had a great time watching crappy cable TV (with no one asking us for anything!), going out to dinner, and sleeping for eight blissful hours in a row.  We only got one picture of such a momentous occasion…in the mirror of the elevator of our hotel.

9.  In our down time this visit, we just did a lot of eating, drinking and hanging out.  Ava played in the back yard a TON, which was great because she doesn’t get to do that much here.  Mostly, she played Ladybug Girl with her trusty sidekick, “Bingo.”

We got to share a meal with Ken, too, which was a total treat.  Ken married Matt and I, and we love to see him; but, he usually travels in the summer and we’ve missed him the last few years.  So many years, in fact, that he hadn’t met our kids yet!  There’s something special about a meeting like this, I think.

10.  Our return trip was pretty smooth sailing and we learned lessons from the first leg.  We left more pool time at the hotel and landed in a smaller town to spend the night.  So much less stressful!  We got home on Sunday at 12:15pm and were completely unpacked with kids down for naps by 2pm.  Matt and Ava even ran the train we hauled home for a while that night!

Thanks, Caspers, for a great trip!  We’re already resting up for another one!

Dear Noah,

It’s so (so, so, so) hard to believe it, but you celebrated your eight month birthday last week (April 27).  Cannot believe time has flown by so quickly.  You’ve changed so much already that your teeny, tiny baby days are already fuzzy in memory and you’re on the verge of so many new, big baby things that it feels like you’re sitting at a fork in the road of your life – just glancing back to give us a little wave before you run on ahead.

I’ll admit that I’m terribly torn about your growing up.  I love to see my kiddos learn new things and forge ahead.  It’s exciting and fun to see all of your a-ha moments.  But, you, Noah, are the baby – probably the last baby in our family – and so that means that every first for you is also a last first.  We cheered big cheers when you started rolling around, but had to be extra sure to soak it up.  Now, you’re pulling up your top half to get into baskets, opening drawers, and rolling anywhere you want to go.  We can see crawling right around the corner and we’re so excited to see you go!

I know that we’re busy during these precious baby days of yours, buddy, but I want you to know that we’re noticing all the special things you do and are.  We know that you love sweet potatoes, carrots, spaghetti squash, avocado, and oatmeal, but we’ll have to work to get you to eat any fruit and sometimes asparagus.  We know that you prefer to play with the Noah in your Fisher-Price set over any of the other animals in there.  We see you starting to dance and bob…most often to the music only you can hear.

We hear you trying to use words, even.  I think it means that your big sister is an extra kind of special to you that you call “Aya” anytime you see her across the room.

You’ve given us a run for our money in the sickness department, though, dude.  Thank goodness we’re second time parents for you or I think I’d be done in by all the respiratory infections you’ve battled this winter.  And, you get the honor of a parenting first for us, a trip to the doctor while on vacation!  Thanks for helping us learn more about Tricare.  Even though you’re teething on everything you can get your hands on and we keep trying to blame your congestion on the forthcoming chompers, you don’t have any teeth yet and our latest round at the doctor was for an ear infection (your fourth).  We’re keeping our fingers crossed for a super-healthy summer for you.

Noah, you’re growing!  Now that we bottle feed you, we’re getting a better idea of how much you eat.  Since you’ve recovered from your last ear infection, you’ve started guzzling your milk.  The last two days you’ve put away 36 oz. each day.  I think you’re making up for lost time after a slower start this winter.  No matter what, when your tummy is full, you’re one of the happiest babies ever.

I’m so excited to get to see you learn and grow, buddy.  I just know it’s going to be amazing.  Just don’t be in too big a hurry, ok?

Love,

Mama

I think someday Matt & I might look back on this part of our lives and wonder just how we managed to do it.  Sleepless nights, two people working outside the home, and two little kiddos makes for busy days.  We’ve also started to add exercise and more eating at home into that mix, so that adds a little more complexity to the “get home from work” routine.  In an effort to make more time at the end of the day to hang out as a family, we’ve created a routine that seems to be working for us.

We started counting our Weight Watchers points six weeks ago and so we’ve been carefully monitoring how much we eat.  That means that home cooked is easiest and healthiest.  It also means no lunches out while at work.  But, since evening time is limited, we do most of our prep on the weekend.  Dinner is cooked fresh every night, but can be on the table 15 minutes after we walk in the door.

Each weekend, I cook a big batch of oatmeal for my breakfast all week, a big batch of brown rice or whole wheat rotini pasta, and Noah’s oatmeal cereal for the week.  Then, I spend some time slicing up veggies for the dinners and for my lunches and making Noah’s vegetable purees. Finally, I slice up either chicken breast or pork tenderloin into 1 oz. chunks and dump some marinade over it (it gets stashed in the fridge and doled out over the week).

Dinner prep is as easy as cooking a measured portion of meat in the skillet, cooking a vegetable (fresh or frozen) in the same skillet, and warming rice or noodles in the microwave.  Whoever isn’t cooking feeds Noah dinner and then he gets to sit with us at the table while we all eat.  Dinner this way is yummy, it’s easy and, maybe the best part, Ava eats every bite.  No more dinner time squabbles and everyone is eating a super healthy meal.

To make the rest of the work week evenings go more smoothly, lunches are packed every Sunday and go to work on Monday morning for the whole week.  I also carry a thing of little yogurts, a bunch of apples, a bag of baby carrots and a bag of string cheese.  It sometimes looks like I’ve got the whole grocery store with me on the way in on Monday, but this way I only have to remember my lunch once a week.  Since sleep deprivation is such a powerful thing, only having to remember once a week is key here.

I also prepare Noah’s breakfast and lunch for the whole week on Sunday.  They get labeled with dates and then stacked in the fridge in order.  Then, when I do bottles each night, I only have to grab one dish off of each stack of food to add to his bag.  One less thing to think about in the hurry of the evening.

As far as exercise goes, we don’t have time to get to a gym so we’re making workout time family time whenever we can.  Since we added a double jogger to our stroller arsenal in October, we can all go together when the schedule doesn’t allow time for Matt & I to run separately.  I’m in week six of the Couch to 5K running program and, while it wouldn’t be challenging enough for Matt on its own, it’s tough enough when he’s pushing two kiddos in a stroller to make it possible to go together.

Of course, all this healthy living can get a bit tiresome and we like to break from routine on weekends.  We usually just cook a more involved meal from the Weight Watchers cookbook, but Sundays nights will often see us gathered around a non-supper at the coffee table rather than seated at the dining room table. (Twizzlers were a very special treat for a finicky Mommy this weekend…and most of the bag is still hidden in the pantry.  A major feat for this sugar shover!)

And, this weekend, Matt and I had date night right here at home.  In spite of a pukey pre-schooler and a baby with a cough, we managed to get two kids to bed at the same time and then made ourselves a fancy steak dinner.  Loaded baked potatoes, sourdough bread, a nice bottle of wine and some yummy asparagus made our place the place to be on Saturday night.  We even broke out the fancy dishes!

The company was pretty good too.

So, we’re six weeks in and things are going pretty well.  I can see this being a plan that we stick with long term.  But, Matt & I agree on two very important keys to success – we all do the same thing together (no prepping multiple meals for different groups of family members) and it’s ok to take breaks if we need them.  We keep each other on track and either of us can step in to get the family gathered ’round the table at dinner time.

I hope that when we look back on these days the bustle of it all fades a bit and what we remember is the time we made for sitting down, sharing a meal, chatting about our days.  I think that will make for pretty good memories.