Adam's Birthday

I'm having photo issues, so I haven't posted on some things that have happened.  But I realized that on Adam's actual birthday, not to be confused with his party, I didn't take any.

His birthday was on a Monday.  We planned on going to let Adam pick out a gift and go to dinner.  Todd had an eye doctor's appointment and had said "What, that's his birthday?"  Yes, dear :)  We went up to the Granby Wal-Mart and planned on me taking Adam over to the toys to pick something out while he kept his appointment.  Turns out it was in the middle of all that crazy weather with warnings to stay in (though it really wasn't that bad), so the place was pretty empty.  Actually, it was the first time I'd gone to that Wal-mart.  Wasn't really impressed.

Holly had gotten Adam this castle and dragon for his birthday that we joked we could not compete with.  He was in love and it's pretty cool.  There's an ogre that goes with it we thought we'd pick up, but then decided to continue our tradition of letting him pick something out.  I got him out the cart and he walked right over to the Imaginext section and went for a dinosaur he's had his eye on.  Then he saw the Ogre...which was printed on the castle box he'd been staring at.  "This one!".  I asked him if he was sure.  "This one Mommy!"  Then to make sure I didn't change my mind, he put it in the cart and wanted to get in with it.  He still loves that whole set.  A lot.

We decided to let Abbey pick something out.  She had handled all his new stuff REALLY well and she literally has one tenth of the stuff he does it seems.  She went nuts for some over dressed Barbies.  I explained to her that she could only have one.  I thought I'd have to explain it to her several times.  Nope.  She carefully looked at the three in front of her and eliminated two, settling on some brown haired Barbie with a microphone, crown and big purple dress.  She loves that thing.  It sings when you bring a button and she does it all the time, wanting me to dance with her.  Sleeps with it.

When Todd was finally done, we went over to Mama Gina's for dinner because it was late and windy, so we didn't want to drive to Clay.  It worked out, because it was pretty empty and the kids were tired.  Food was OK.  It was official.  Our baby boy is FOUR!

Glimpse of an Old Lady

It was like the scene out of a movie.  I take my shirt off to take a shower yesterday morning, hunched over because my left shoulder is in horrible pain and my right wrist is swollen and hurting, my hair wild and the dark circles under my eyes huge because of even less sleep than usual and as I do this, I catch my face in the mirror over the sink.  I genuinely get a glimpse of how I will look as an old lady.  Not in a funny, my hair is messy and I look tired way.  But in a wow, I see my future as an old Italian lady way.  I got a true look.  

It's an image I can't get out of my head.  I am not afraid of aging or even looking older, but lately, my body feels old and I just plain looked tired and used up.  I never dreamed how much pregnancy changes your body...ages it...despite how many times I heard my mother say it.  She said one by one we drained the life out of her.  I thought she was just being dramatic...! ha.  I can't blame the endocrine issues on the pregnancies, though things did seem to escalate.  Back problems, skin problems, hair issues, tingling limbs and spine misalignment.  Back pain.  Eye issues.  Headaches, joint aches and stomach aches.  A lot of feeling "old".  

And, of course, being pregnant you have all these things and more.  My ligaments are softer, so I get injured easier.  The nausea doesn't make me feel old, but how tired I am sure does!

I have sleep issues when I'm not pregnant, dreaming vividly all the time and waking up every three hours or so.  Now, it's about every two hours.  So tired.

(I will say, the one place I don't have aches and pains (knock on wood) are my legs.  Thanks to a year of  using the exercise bike, I think!  Tells me that I have to keep exercise in my life.)

Time is flying by since I met Todd and "started" my life.  Another kid, I think will add to that.  But once that kid, in six years, goes to school, will I be ready for a retirement home??  I will be 42.  How old does that sound?

Turning 36 Part 2

Let me start with the fact that blogger isn't letting me post photos right now.  Not sure what I'm going to do.  And there's no one you can email for help.  Apparently I've run out of my quota.  I don't know if it resets January 1 or not.  If it doesn't, I will probably have to find another place to write this.

Right now, I'm in my room and it's still dark out but I know Abbey is up early because I can hear the sound of the song her Pop Star Barbie sings when you press her necklace.  Abbey LOVES this doll she picked out at Walmart a few months ago.  When did she grow up??

So on my birthday, last Sunday, I woke up and got the kids going and checked my email.  I had an email from Rochester Visiting Broadway Artists.  Which I couldn't open with my Mac.  So I pull out Todd's Dell and try to read it again.  Wasn't I surprised to find out that my husband had gotten us a four show subscription to touring Broadway shows in Rochester!  "Memphis" is the first show, this weekend, "The Addams Family" in February, "The Book of Mormon" in March and "Les Miserables" in March.  I was pretty excited!  I teased Todd that I sucked him into theatre.  He admitted that maybe I have...:)  What makes this gift so nice isn't just that he bought me something he knew I'd enjoy, but that he is doing it with me.  He is getting involved with one of my biggest (pre-kid anyhow ha) interests.  I appreciate it a lot.

Todd started explaining to Adam it was my birthday and got him to sing to me.  Wasn't sure if he got it until he went into the kitchen and got out the Darth Vadar candle that was on his cake.  How cute is that??

Todd asked me what I wanted to do.  I was pretty sick to my stomach.  I tossed back and forth about going to a zoo or something and finally I told him it sounded lame, but I just wanted to go to Syracuse to get my favorite Italian pastries.  So we did.

I had said I was too sick to go out to a fancy dinner or to Delmonico's, traditionally our "special place".  But as we wandered around Syracuse, Todd talked me into.  "It's tradition!" he said.  (Despite the fact that when we passed Chuck E. Cheese and Adam got really excited, I almost took them there.)

Sauce doesn't appeal to me at all right now (shocking, I know), so I ordered shrimp cocktail and tortellini in a butter sauce.  It was pretty good.  Kids were kind of wild, so I was thankful it was 2:30 and we were in an empty corner.  When the waiter came out and asked us if we needed anything and he kind of smiled and said how about a babysitter?  I said do you have one in the kitchen.  He said I WISH!  Guess we had stressed parent face.  It was just one of those meals were keeping them together was  A LOT of work.  But it was nice.  I'm glad we went.

When my mother was 36, it sounded kind of old.

First Snow

I took the kids to Uncle Bobby's house for french toast this morning.  When we got there, snow had dusted the yard.  The kids were thrilled, so Uncle Bobby turned off the food and took them out.  Adam used the ramp off the deck to "slide" down the snow :)

They ran around like crazy, Adam throwing snow and Abbey trying to eat.  Adam came running back to me to "wash his hands" of snow.  We showed him how to shake it off :)

It even snowed for a couple of minutes and the kids couldn't get enough.  When it was time to come in, noses were red and kids were content.  Wish I'd had my camera... I didn't even have my phone on me.

And I'm 36/Part 1

Somehow I didn't take a single photo last weekend, not even on my phone.

My birthday weekend.  I turned 36.

That's two times 18. Which mean if you HALVED my age, I still would a legal adult.  This getting older stuff I'm not crazy about.  Strike that.  I actually don't care that much about being older, even if I don't have my youth.  I enjoy the wisdom life experience has given me.  I don't like how time seems to be flying by as I get older.

Saturday was Tammy's birthday.  After some wrangling, we were about to go to lunch together as Bobby could babysit at one.  We even stopped at a store and did some quick Christmas shopping because Tammy is behind and I'm...always behind shopping with two toddlers.  Then we went over to the Red Brick Oven to try something new.  Why not?

The food wasn't bad.  The pizza I ordered came with such strong basil (something I usually like), I wanted to vomit.  And we both commented on how loud the music was. THAT is a sign of 36!  Too soon, our time was up and my babysitter turned into a pumpkin.

But wait, I was packing in my entire yearly social life in one day!  In the evening, after the kids went to bed, I had a date with Pam, rearranged from the morning.  We were going to dinner, but then I realized she had just had a big Thanksgiving dinner with her family.  Todd suggested a movie and the only one I wanted to see, kind of embarrassed to admit, was the Twilight movie.  Pam agreed to give it a go and we headed over to get tickets before grabbing some coffee.  We found a line to wait to get in (not to be confused with the line to buy a ticket, which there was none).  OK, so we were going to be standing there for nearly an hour.  It actually flew by and gave us some talk time and when we got into the theatre, we had to get the special Team Edward popcorn bucket.  Seriously.  And I decided I HAD to have Skittles.  I got a little obsessive, ate most of them while we waited for the movie to start and had to work to keep them in.

I warned Pam that the Twilight movies aren't actually good and that the writing is teen driven and the romance cheesy (there were sparks next to Bella's head when her and Edward were ...romantic), but there was something about it that made you want to see more.  It wasn't bad...a little slow at first, but the end was kind of interesting.  Afterwards, Pam and I laughed at the plot (I mean, the WHOLE WORLD revolves around Bella and now her spawn, too?), but then she went home and rented the first one with her family.  I TOLD HER!

I had laughed at myself in line.  It was my 36th birthday and I was standing there with teenagers waiting to see a TWILGHT movie.  Made me seem older, not younger.

It was 12:30 when I got home.  Beat.  Fall asleep on the lap of my sleeping husband on the couch.

Pain

On Monday around 5pm, I felt a pain in the right side of my abdomen that was mind boggling.  I tried to push through it because I had one kid in the tub and another going nuts and figured it had to subside. But it didn't.  I got the kids out of the tub and had to stop moving.  I tried every position I could think of, all the while convincing myself that this was not a miscarriage.

I finally called Todd and asked him to come home, something I've only done twice before ever.  I decided it must be some type of muscle or ligament pain since it was inconsistent with miscarriage, though it's a fear that's hard to completely erase.

Todd came home and told me to sit, he'd take care of things.  The best position was sitting with my back straight and my legs down.  After an hour or so, I could move without wanting to cry.  I spent the night sleeping on a recliner and by the morning, it was sore but OK.  I took it easy yesterday, but had to go to the grocery store last night, and now my abdomen and back are both sore.  I feel 7 months pregnant, not 13 weeks.  I haven't gained a pound, but my belly is getting bigger every day, stealing weight from the rest of my body....guess my muscles haven't caught up.

Adam knew I didn't feel well yesterday and tried to help me and cuddle me, telling me to "feel better, Mommy."  Bright spot in a crappy day.

Rarely have had had that kind of pain.  Maybe when my gall bladder went nuts.  I do NOT want to feel that again. I can't stand being helpless, either.

Our Third Anniversary

Way back on October 4, we celebrated our third anniversary.  With everything going on, I told Todd not to worry about it, but as I mentioned, he's taking me to Wicked on December 5.  Pretty excited (though nothing fits even though I haven't gained a pound....I already look prego!)  And we went to Delmonico's for our anniversary dinner  Love that place on a weekday because it's not packed like on the weekend.  We asked for a corner table with the kids and got the same waitress as when we went for Bobby's birthday.  Abbey was in a good mood and looking cute :)

 Sigh.  Holding Daddy's hand.  Love this picture.

 Coloring and doing puzzles with Daddy.  He had the most fun looking for letters in the crossword.

 What a smile!!  Pretty girl.

 Still looking for letters!  We ordered then Penne, but what we've found is that if there's regular spaghetti on the table, they'll try to steal that instead.

 Todd's cocktail :)  Of course, no wine for me.  Sigh.  It was a nice night out at our favorite special occasion place.  Time is flying by, especially being married to my soul mate.  An amazing father, great husband,

This is what I posted on FB:
Happy Anniversary to my wonderful husband Todd. It's amazing to be married to the person who takes your life from "waiting" to "happening". (And somehow being with him turned me into one of those romantic girls I spent thirty years rolling my eyes at :) Lucky to be in love.

He got phone calls telling him about that...I thought Holly or Bobby would show him!  Love this guy and love our life.

Children's Museum of Play

A couple weekends ago, on a whim, we decided to head to Rochester for the Strong National Museum of Play.  We weren't sure what to expect, but thought it would be a nice change.  (Though is was pretty expensive).  I don't have to tell you...the kids loved it.  And this was Abbey's place.  She loves the zoo of course, but this was her thing.  She could run around, try and touch stuff and just have fun.  Above, these cars were in the first room.  Abbey dived right in.  If you look at her face, you can see she's making driving noises :)

She loved opening these doors which had sea related letters of the alphabet.  SURPRISE she'd say.  In the same room, Adam just loved this contraption in which you threw a ball in and it went through some crazy loops up on the ceiling.

Sesame Street!  I thought this was so neat...the kids weren't that into the stoop once they realized the door wouldn't open.

But the Elmo's World room was a hit!  Abbey loved the Elmo sized bed :)

Hard to tell, but Adam is on the screen with the COUNT.  It was pretty neat, if they stood behind the wall, it put them in the show.  Adam just grinned from ear to ear.

Big Bird's nest!  Abbey loved it.  Adam liked it, but I'd thought he'd get more excited since he loves to imitate Big Bird in his nest.  You never know with kids!

Adam in the Muppets taxi.  He was pretty excited about this.

Adam is always drawn to chess pieces and boards.  Future hobby?  I like that they are "playing" it together.  We had to drag him away.  And while I did that, Abbey took off past her father and RAN,  Yeah, we even had to get the workers to help us find her ...YIKES.  It was pretty scary.  This is going to be the rest of our lives with Miss A.

I put the camera away for a while to focus on keeping Abbey in sight.  There was a Dora room and a huge "literature" themed room.  Todd took Adam down the superhero side while I followed Abbey up into the pirate ship...into this "sandbox".  Not real sand, but little silicon beads.  She LOVED it.  I had to eventually pull her out of it!

So hard at work filling those buckets.

We went upstairs to the hall of fame area, but Mommy and Daddy were BEAT!  Abbey even took a rest back downstairs, flopping down in the movie area.  There's a carousel in the front lobby that we tried to walk past, but the kids really wanted to go on it.  So they did.  Adam loves sitting on the benches of carousels.  Seriously.  (Though at first he went for the only row of "little" horses a bunch of big kids started taking them so we moved on).  Abbey climbed right on a big horse and I stood next to her.  She was grinning from ear to ear.  LOVED IT.  As we left, I expected a fight from Abbey, but Adam had a hard time leaving.  I'm so used to Abbey giving a fit, I kind of have it down to a science.  With Adam we were unprepared!  He did NOT want to leave.  And he was half obnoxious all the way home because he was ticked we did!  We had fun, though it wasn't quite we expected.  A once or twice    a year thing.

Veteran's Day Weekend

This is a holiday weekend for many, though not for Todd.  Adam doesn't have school today, though, again.  I remember when I was student teaching last fall, they called it no-teach November because there were so many days off and half-days.

On Saturday, the kids and I picked Todd up from work around 3pm and we drove up to the cottage.  When we get to the road, Abbey starts to coo "school, school, school" which somehow has become her word for the cottage and the lake in general.  We have no water, but we let the kids run around while we inspected the wind damage.  Mostly just small branches everywhere with one really big one having broken off a tree in the garage and lodged itself.  More of a limb, really.  Todd pulled it down so it didn't suddenly fall off and kill anyone.

I had been sick to my stomach and with a headache all afternoon.  As we got in the car to drive to Watertown for dinner, it got so bad I wanted to cry.  I couldn't do a sit down restaurant, so we went to Five Guys and then home.  I couldn't get the kids to bed fast enough while my head pounded.  I laid in the shower then  on the couch, going in and out of sleep.  The half Tylenol you can take when knocked up doesn't do crap for something like that.  I would wake up all night, sometimes still in pain and other times OK.

On Sunday, it was so nice, we knew we had to do something outdoors.  We finally rode over to Chuckie and Missie's horse barn since Abbey is VERY into horses right now.  They weren't there, but the kids ran up and down the aisles looking at the horses, Abbey saying "sorsey" in her little coo and "neigh, neigh" the whole time.  She wasn't shy, of course, about touching them, until Adam, who remembered feeding them last spring, starting taking pieces of food and chucking them into the stalls and they started getting jumpy.  Such a thing for boy to do, especially one who is little more reluctant to touch them then his sister.

We ate at Ruby Tuesday after, actually letting Abbey sit in the booth instead of a high chair.  She did well, better than Adam who is in a rebel streak.

Next Chapter

A couple months ago I wrote about starting a new phase in my life.  And I was going to kick it off by painting my kitchen.

Then I found out I was expecting Baby Butler #3.  It's been a whirlwind of nauseousness and exhaustion since, peppered with helping Adam adjust to school and working on Abbey's strong will.

I won't be painting this fall after all.  The paint chips are taped to the wall and I had it narrowed down.  Nothing exciting; some shade of beige really.  Stuck with the awful baby blue, cock wallpaper border and stained ceiling for now.  But this chapter started with something other than a paintbrush...it is starting with another member of our family.  And this time next year, my life will be full with two kids in some type of school and a new baby.

We saw this baby yesterday on an ultrasound.  Checking on me because I'm of ADVANCED MATERNAL AGE and my thyroid issues (and I am currently on a dosage of hormone replacement that would kill me sans baby inside!). I didn't expect it to be so active at just under 12 weeks.  But it was dancing.  Really just having the time of it's 7.7cm life.  I felt a bit of a weight life.  All my worries about handling three kids, helping Adam and Abbey and wondering if something was wrong with this child...well they didn't just go away but they found more of a proper place.

People have asked me if we are going to move now.  Well, we just bought this cottage.  So we are saving up again.  We figure we have over a year.  Baby will bunk with us.  The kids' rooms are tiny and Abbey is such a bad sleeper we could never put her in with Adam.  Sometimes I stress about it but mostly I remind myself that if this is the biggest issue in my life, I'm doing pretty well.

I will admit when I wrote a couple of months ago about moving forward, I had kind of started to write off having another kid.  I'm tired and old.  But this was meant to be, just like our Adam and Abbey.  And if this baby can dance a happy jig already, then it's clear it will only bring amazing things to this family.

But this is it.  Momma shop is closed.

Lorax

We spent Monday night, October 23 at the cottage because we had someone closing out the water lines the next morning morning.  We had gone the Saturday evening before.  We didn't spend the night, though once we got there, we wish we had brought the stuff out.  Todd said let's rough it...until he remembered he didn't have his computer.  That would be TOO rustic :)

Adam loves the Lorax tree out there, so we ordered a little Lorax and decided to stick it in the tree :)  He was really into the movie for a couple of months and still likes it.

This is him when he noticed it in the tree.  The grin was priceless....especially since Adam isn't a "grinner".  (See Abbey running to the yonder in the background?)

 You can see how much he likes it!  It was just one of those cute little moments that makes being a parent so great.

This week, though, to be honest, Abbey has hijacked the Lorax and is sleeping with it.  We let her because Adam has stolen plenty of her stuff!  He said she can borrow it.

Halloween Trick or Treating

I had been building up trick or treating all day and the kids were really excited.  Abbey didn't quite get it, but she knew something good was up.  They were hyper and running around.  So we decided to put their costumes on at 5:30.  That's when I realized I had forgotten to do the pumpkin that Adam had gotten at his trip to the pumpkin patch.  So, we did a quick crayon face :)  By them, Abbey was so worked up, she was yelling at the back door and it took her ten minutes to come down from her Abbey temper and go out the front door with me.  As they ran out the door, I took these.  I forgot a jacket and ran to the door and asked Todd to get me one.  Poor Abbey started to cry.  She wanted to GO!

So we started by going to Brenda's across the street.  Poor Abbey tried to go into her house and cried when she couldn't figure out what was going on.  It was clear she was in a mood and was a little overwhelmed.

Then we headed to Erin's house.  She had a special treat for them.  Abbey ran into there and across the house and up the stairs.  Sigh.  Was going to be a long night.  I took Abbey's hand as we left and leaned down and tried to explain to her and was as encouraging as possible.  By the time we got to the next house, she was calm.  She held out her bucket and said thank you when they put candy into it.

As we went around the block, she only yelled once.  When an older woman opened her door, something about the house scared her.  I know this because she tried to protect Adam from the lady.  When we got to the other side of the block, there were quite a few houses and Abbey had relaxed and was having fun.  She got the hang of things.  Adam couldn't wait to get to this house....!  He wanted to look at everything.  One decoration scared him, the witch on the left side, so he was done.

Mostly.  He kept looking over his shoulder to check it out.

On our way down the block.

Abbey having a good time, laughing and getting excited.

But we rounded the last corner and as she saw our house on the far end, she got upset.  She stated yelling when we stopped at the house next door as we ran into Holly and her grandkids.  She wasn't happy when Adam went up there to see Teddy, though she eventually went up herself.  We rounded the corner and she started running past our door.  I got them inside.  Abbey was done.

Adam immediately started showing Daddy his candy and was happy to keep going when I asked him.  Him and I wondered the neighborhood for a bit, hitting some houses.  He LOVED it.

Look how HAPPY he is!!!  When he done though, he was done.  "Let's GO Home" he said.  He wasn't even interested in trick or treating at the houses on the way.  He wanted to check out his stash.

They ate way too much candy.  Abbey was already in a candy coma when we got back.  They made room for pizza though and by bedtime, they were very full and half passed out.  It was cute to see Abbey start to get it and how much Adam loved it.

A Trinity Halloween Celebration

I was a little surprised at how into Halloween Trinity got into.  After all, it's a Catholic school, though they've never been as hard on the day as Protestant churches.  Adam has been talking about it ALL month.  It's clear, he loves Halloween.

(And can I saw, the morning after Halloween, I feel like I partied hard??  Like I went to real parties last night?  Aches and pains and so tired!  I feel old!)

Halloween morning, he had a parade and party at school.  Adam was a lion because we got Abbey a lion outfit that he went nuts over.  And because he did NOT like the Lorax hat we got him (it's funny, he doesn't even like to look at it), we asked him if he wanted to be a lion, too.  YES, Mom!

Parents came in at 10 am to get their kids ready.  (Well, I got there at 9:58 and Adam was waiting patiently for me while the other kids where almost done...I wasn't late, I swear!!)

 Here's Adam refusing to give me a before photo.

 He has struggled with being in a line and walking the right pace.  Yesterday, he did great.  One of the other Moms went the opposite way to get photos instead of following the kids.  I followed.  Was a good idea.  Here they are walking through the main hallway.

 A teacher "straightening" the line.  Two bumblebees by the way.

 LOVE this picture.

 Walking around the gym.  The kids kind of lost line formation a bit here :)

 This is Issac and I just loved his costume.  He is a sweet boy and will often say hi to Adam.

 Halloween story time!  Adam LOVES story time.

 I love how miserable all the kids look.

 Miss Elizabeth in her cowgirl outfit.  That room was FULL of parents and kids.  I was going to try Abbey, but I'm glad I didn't.  She wouldn't have liked the crowd.

 Group photo time.  I couldn't get all the kids with the lens I was using.  They were told to say Happy Halloween!  Afterwards, the kids did three crafts: Halloween bookmarks, sucker ghosts and witch hands with their parent's help.  The little girl in front of Adam is Grace and she is very sweet to him.  He's the youngest and not quite as good as a lot of the other kids at socializing and she tries to help him.  Yesterday, she gave him a hug on his way out the door.  :)

 Back to their seats for food!  Adam is sitting next to Nicholas and they are seat buddies.  Adam is admiring his ghost sucker.  Adam ate the pizza and I ate his veggies.  At 11:10 am, we left.  Adam said he had fun and kept asking about trick or treating.  I couldn't believe how tired I was already!