Connor & The Singing Trees

I had to do some grocery shopping today as we were completely out of fruit. Connor insisted on coming with me, even though his teenage sister Angelica was home so he could have stayed at home. The walk to the store was 2 1/2 miles each way.

Fortunately, the sun was out. It would have been hot, but there was a strong, cool breeze that kept the temperature from feeling too warm. It was beautiful out.

Like our last walk, there were butterflies fluttering and spiraling all around us. They kept flying really close to us, so Connor exclaimed, "Mommy! The butterflies LIKE us! They like us, Mommy!"

I was surprised that we didn't see as many dogs out as usual. It was a gorgeous day and perfect for dog-walking, yet we only saw about four dogs being walked compared to the usual twenty or so we see on most walks. Connor got to pet most of the dogs we saw. He loves to pet them, and he is really gentle with them. I've taught him never to just run up to the dogs though; he is supposed to always ask the owner before he approaches the dog.

On one of our previous walks, it had been a bit breezy and Connor had heard the leaves in the trees making noise as they blew against each other and wanted to know what the sound was. I told him then that it was the trees talking to each other. He wanted to know what they were saying, so I told them they were welcoming us to the park and saying what a beautiful day it was. Ever since then, every time the wind blows in the trees and he hears the leaves as they blow against each other, he asks me what the trees are saying.

Today, the trees were especially noisy as it was a strong wind blowing. As usual, Connor wanted to know what the trees were saying. We were the only two souls in sight, so I told him that the trees were singing today, and they were singing a song asking us to come and dance with them. Then I sang him a little song (supposedly the one that the trees were singing) that went like,

"Come dance with us;
It will be so much fun.
Come dance with us
In the bright morning sun.
Come dance with us,
Every boy and girl.
Come dance with us;
Feel the joy as you twirl."

And as I sang it, he and I held hands and danced, spinning and twisting and stepping. I could see how happy he was as we danced, and it was so completely worth feeling a little bit silly.

I'll have to come up with something new for the trees to be "saying" next time.

When we got home, he was so tired that he fell asleep on the couch within minutes of sitting down.

Happy 46th Birthday, Robert!

Today is Robert's 46th birthday!



The children all made him presents. I bought a binder and Gabby, Bella & Connor drew pictures for him and of him. Cameron, using acrylic paints and a bit of help from Mommy made handprints for Daddy. Connor, Bella, Gabby, Kayla and Angelica all made lists of ten reasons they love Daddy. Kayla, Angelica and Gabby wrote poems for him, and all of this was put into the binder.

Gabriella, Isabella, Connor and Cameron all made bookmarks for him and painted them pretty colors and patterns. I added the tassles to the bookmarks today. Gabby also painted a canvas picture for him. Her painting was full of flowers with bees and a butterfly. One of the flowers was shaped like a heart.

They all also had some small store-bought gifts for him, but I'm pretty sure it's the homemade ones that will stick in his memory and his heart.

Gabby, Bella and Connor all wanted to perform some songs they made up for his birthday in front of the camcorder as an extra gift for him, so I recorded their songs.







I made him a cake and decorated it for him using my limited artistic skills, and we all sang "Happy Birthday" to him. (I only put 4 candles on his cake because I didn't have 46!)

Seeing Out 2009

With the family together on New Year's Eve, it was a nice way to say goodbye to the year. The younger children had all woken up at 3:00am this morning, so they had to go to bed at their normal time rather than staying up late for the New Year, but I snuck some photos of them asleep in their beds anyway.

So here are some of the last photos taken in our family in 2009.
















(Incidentally, the shirt I am wearing in this photo is one designed by Angelica and can be bought here in a variety of colors.)

Stories About The Old Days

Today, we all had our first visit with our dentist. We recently bought dental insurance, and we had to get registered with our new dentist by having the first visit.

On the walk over there, the children were slipping and sliding all over the place because the path was covered in ice. Kayla and I held onto Isabella’s hand to keep her from falling, and Robert held onto Gabby’s hand to keep her from slipping.

As they walked, Robert talked to Gabby about friends he had when he was a kid and things that he liked to do when he was young. She listened and asked questions and was really interested in what he had to say.

Suddenly, she said, “I can’t wait until I have children of my own! Because then I can tell them about the olden days when I was a kid too!”

Sometimes I really adore the things that my children say.

Walking With Gabby

Today, while Robert and I were walking with the girls, the ground was covered in ice and very slippery. Because of this, Gabby held her daddy's hand to keep from slipping and Isabella held mine.

While we walked, Robert chatted with Gabby, telling her about his childhood and some of the adventures he had with his brother.

After a while, I heard Gabby say, "I can't wait to have children of my own! Then I can tell them all about the old days too. You know, like when I was seven!" (She is seven now.)

These kids never stop being wonderful and making me laugh!

I Almost Passed Out!

My doctor thinks I might be anemic.

Yesterday, still not feeling well, I walked the 3/4-mile to go pick Connor up from school while pushing Cameron in the stoller. We were out of diapers and formula, so, on the way home, I had to stop at the shops. My stomach kept cramping up badly, but I was doing okay, if moving a bit slowly. I got to the shops and went to the ATM to draw some money out. That's where everything went screwy on me.

Everything started to spin and go dark on me. I felt my legs giving way under me, but I fought it. (I had both small boys with me, so I COULD NOT pass out!) I grabbed onto the ledge at the bottom of the ATM machine to hold myself up thinking I just have to get home, then I can collapse. I turned around, leaning my back on the machine and gripping onto the stroller to hold myself up, but it was a losing battle. I couldn't see anything as everything was swirling around in front of me.

Some ladies walking towards me noticed something was wrong, asked if I was okay, and I answered "no." They helped me inside (one of the shop employees came out to help too, because I could barely stand up). One of them pushed the stroller inside and made sure Connor came in with us too. The must have gotten me a chair because, just as they let go of me and I thought I was falling, I felt a chair underneath me. I could feel sweat on my face and I was breathing hard, but I didn't feel like I was having any trouble breathing.

After about ten minutes or so of sitting, everything started to clear up. By then, the paramedics had arrived. They were going to call an ambulance, but I became steady enough to get up and walk again. Robert, because he's been home sick, came to the shops and brought our teenager who was also at home sick. She took the little ones and went to pick up my other two girls from their school. Robert stayed with me.

As my condition was improving, the paramedics agreed to let me go home. They drove me home, and did some more tests while I was there. Both at the shops and at home, my blood pressure was really, really low. Other than that, everything was fine. No fever. Blood sugars were normal and so on. They called and spoke to one of the doctors at my practice, and got me an appointment to be seen at 5:00pm (an hour later). I took a taxi there and back. My blood pressure had returned to a normal range, if still a tad on the low side. The doctor thinks I'm anemic, so I have to go in for more blood tests later this month.

Because my 1 year old and 3 year old were with me, that was one of the scariest moments I've been through. And it was so sudden!

I pretty much slept from getting home from the doctor appointment until about 6:30am this morning. Other than a splitting headache and the same tummy troubles, I feel okay today.

Jack-o-lanterns

Gabriella and Isabella wanted to carve pumpkins for Halloween today. Their daddy let them draw pictures of the jack-o-lantern faces they wanted, and then he carved their drawings into the pumpkins.

Some of the pumpkin got onto their drawings making them a little messy, but I took pictures of them anyway.

Candy Corn Chocolate Chip Cookies

I had some chocolate chip cookie dough for Gabby and Bella to make cookies. Robert surprised me yesterday by buying a bag of candy corn, because until recently, there was nowhere you could buy candy corn here in our area of England. Gabby told me she wanted to make "candy corn cookies," so they each put a piece of candy corn on each of the balls of chocolate chip cookie dough today and came up with candy corn chocolate chip cookies. They cooked well, looked good and the kids loved them! It turned out to be a terrific idea for Halloween baking!

Bra

I was in the shower today, and my clothes were hanging on the inside of the bathroom door. Well, as anyone who is a mom knows, we moms rarely get to take a shower without interruptions and today was no exception.

Isabella, my four year old daughter, came into the bathroom. From the other side of the shower curtain, I could hear her talking.

"Oh! I see your underwear! And your booby-thing! But it's not a booby thing, it's a bra! I know it's a bra and not a booby-thing. Do you know how I know it's called a bra? I had a dream about seeing one, and in my dream I called it a bra. That's how I learned not to call it a booby-thing and to call it a bra." (Emphasis on the word bra is hers.)

When she left the bathroom, I allowed myself a giggle over the conversation and decided to share the new term she learned with you.

Family Theme

I was reading some mommy blogs and came across Andi's blog over at Poot & Cubby which had a recent post about her daughter's first day of school. In it, she mentioned that her daughter's school chose a theme for the school year. The theme is "Courage To Dream."

I absolutely love that theme, so I've randomly decided to make it my family's theme for the year. I'm going to have each of the children (and Robert and I) write down the things we really hope for this year, and we are going to have the courage to go for all of our hopes and dreams this year, even if it means givng each other the necessary push to do so.

Anyone else want to join us? I'll share the lists we come up with later this week.

Notes From Gabby

Robert has a little sticky note feature on the desktop of his computer where he can quickly type in a note to himself to remind himself of things. Gabby was playing games on his computer, and the browser stopped working, so she decided to let him know.

Typed onto this little note feature was written, "Daddy your conpyooter browk."

I thought it was a really cute message, especially with her phonetic spelling.

When To Potty Train

A friend came over last week with her kids. Her two year old is potty trained. Connor, my two year old, is not.

I tell myself that he is not ready yet. But is it that he is not ready, or is it that I am not ready? Potty training is very time-intensive. There will be times when I will have to make him sit on the potty when he would rather not. There will be accidents to clean up. There will be toting the portable potty training seat up the stairs to dump into the toilet, clean and bring back downstairs. There will be a lot of time involved in his potty training.

But there will also be a lot of money saved in not having to buy him diapers.

Is he ready? I'm not sure.

When Isabella was potty training last summer, Connor used to pull his pants down and sit on her portable potty training seat after she got up. His diaper was still on at the time, but nevertheless, he wanted to train too. Maybe that's enough for me to say he's ready.

Mommy, Daddy & Cameron

When Cameron was a week old (December 5th), Robert and I had Kayla take a picture of us together with him.