Ode to My Mom

 Mom, you are awesome!  How did you do it?  How did you physically carry and birth seven children (including those big boy twins!)?  How did you raise us so well?  How did you carry it all when you felt so alone?

You are my hero!  You taught me how to be tender, gentle, kind, humble.  You put up with my grief, extreme emotions, snarky remarks, and demand for independence.  You did all of this while juggling many other life-changing situations: several children, full-time job(s), divorce, moving and unemployment (to name a few).

I pray I will be as strong as you!  I hope I will teach my children to be the finest, just as you taught us!

By word and deed you taught me honesty, virtue, integrity, humility, charity, love, hard work.  I could go on and on...

You are so very brave.  I am still impressed you took the subway from JFK to our apartment when coming to meet your newest granddaughter, Isabella.  You were so scared, but you did it!

You are determined to succeed.  No matter what life throws your way you press forward, stronger every moment.

Thank you for loving all that is beautiful and good!  You are the best mother I could ever dream of!

Motherhood is more than bearing children, though it is certainly that. It is the essence of who we are as women. It defines our very identity, our divine stature and nature, and the unique traits our Father gave us.  Sheri Dew

Right Now

Saturday + 6:00am + Central Park = Perfection

I wish I could capture the light breeze, the millions of birds
singing, and the scent of spring. It is so glorious!

Attitude of Semi-Gratitude

This post could also titled Finding the Silver Lining or Looking on the Bright Side.

I've been in a funk again.  Life feels hard.  I know I am so blessed and my life is really amazing and these challenges are all just part of the adventure.  But when I don't sleep, I have a really hard time being positive.  In the last two weeks I haven't slept. (I think it's been two weeks, but I can't really remember.) Simon's eczema has been pretty nasty.  All night he squirms out of his tight swaddles and rubs his cheeks raw with his sock covered hands.  All night I re-swaddle him again and again and hold his hands down.

In my sleepless state I tend to focus on all that is wrong.  But I am working on being grateful!!!  

So here are a few of things I'm grateful for in the midst of the challenges:

(photos not intended to correspond with text, just enjoy)

• Caring friends and family who have dealt with eczema and have offered their advice. Per their advice, I've eliminated dairy from my diet.  I haven't seen a drastic improvement in Simon's skin yet (that could take almost a month to get out of both our systems), but...
• Simon is no longer stuffed up (he snorted like a piggie most of his life), he spits up very little, and he rarely has gas pain anymore.  I attribute this to no dairy!

• Oliver's skin is looking fantastic.  He has also suffered from eczema all winter.  He is no longer eating dairy as well. 
• I'm finally loosing a bit of baby fat.  Thanks to not eating dairy!

• I slept a solid 4 hours last night.  Midnight until 4:00am was awesome.  I dozed off again and at 4:30 was pulled out of a deep dream to clean up vomit from a sick little girl.  
• Hardwood floors that really needed a good mop.  And bedding that really needed to be washed anyway.  Those dust bunnies behind the headboard were getting out of control.  Nothing like a little vomit to motivate a deep clean.  
• An absolutely amazing husband.  He wrangled three tired kids at 4:30am while I slowly cleaned.

• A clean kitchen every morning.  I'm not a very good housekeeper.  If I have a bit of free time I choose to sleep, not clean.  I got into the habit of falling asleep as soon as the kids were in bed, instead of cleaning the post dinner messes in the kitchen.  One morning a few weeks ago I was greeted by a cockroach.  That was enough to adjust my priorities (right after calling the exterminator).  It is so nice to wake up to a clean kitchen!

• A happy husband.  He is really enjoying his new job.  I rarely see him anymore because he's working so hard.  I love the little time we spend together.  He's at peace and happy.  That feels so good!

• My boys are taking awesome naps.  Lately, Simon naps 8:30am-11:30am.  Then Oliver naps 12noon-3pm.  That means we are inside until 3:30pm on these most beautiful spring days, which has been hard.  But nice naps are really, really fabulous.

Coney Island

On a recent beautiful day we headed down to Coney Island.  I learned two things: 1--No matter how warm it is in Manhattan bring a sweater; Coney Island can be chilly.  2--I can totally take a double stroller and 3 kids there all by myself.  (With subway elevators, ramps, and plenty of entertainment for the hour long ride, of course!)  A warm weekday morning trip is in our near future.

Literary Confession + Reading Outdoors

I have a bit of a confession to make: I'm not an avid reader.  I read well and I enjoy reading, but leisure reading is not a priority for me.  I was an avid reader, always had a novel in my bag, until I went to college.  I just couldn't keep up with all my school work, employment, social life, and reading for pure enjoyment.  I kept thinking I'd get back into my old habits, but life kept getting busier and busier and priorities kept changing.  Reading is still fairly low on my priority list.  I'm embarrassed to finally confess and admit this since I come from a large family of literary giants.  But enough of all this pretending.  I can still be intelligent even if I'm not "well-read".  I hope!

All the experts taught me that I should read to my children, even as infants.  I tried, I really did.  But my busy little Isabella never liked listening to a story.  Books were torn, fits thrown and all unpleasantries that I stopped trying for a season. Fortunately, seasons change.  In the past several months Isabella is very interested in books, reading and writing.  Overnight she finally recognized the letters of the alphabet and all of a sudden could spell every family members' name without any help at all.  About a month ago we were walking by the movie theater and she excitedly exclaimed, "3-D!  It says 3-D!  I can read!"

I'm still working on finding a good time, every day, when we can read together.  A time I can dedicate myself, when my children are fairly amiable to listening.  Often while my children are confined to the table eating a meal or snack they are content to listen.  Goldilocks and the Three Bears is fabulous for the mornings oatmeal is having a hard time making into the mouth.  

With the amazing weather we've had lately I've packed a few books in the stroller to be enjoyed outside.  I actually expected the kids to not be interested in reading when they could be running all around, but it has been quite the contrary!  There have been times when kids (we don't know) have stopped playing and joined us for a bit of a story.  Reading to my kids in the shade of a tree has brought me so much joy!

One of the unexpected benefits of using Before Five in a Row (B4FIAR) as a preschool curriculum is I am learning to link books and life together.   It is so much more fun that way.  The books become alive for me and the kids.  I was inspired by Let's Explore's post on It Looked Like Spilt Milk.  So we did it.

cloud gazing

painting clouds

Another fun book for outside reading is Bunny's Noisy Book.  After reading the book we listened and identified all the different noises we could hear.  (Yes, there are a lot of noises in NYC, but we usually tune them out, so it was a fun game to become aware of all those sounds.)  We often play "I spy with my little eye..." as we walk all over the city, but I think I might start playing "I hear with my little ear..."  I love those quiet little moments of piqued curiosity.

Climbing the Concrete Jungle

Isabella practicing parkour

Travel Deal!

Brian has an amazing knack for finding good deals.  Especially when it comes to travel (and technology).  Many friends and family have asked for tips on how to find great deals.  It's not so much "tips" that I can offer, but signing up for the right promotion at the right time.

So, I just want to give you a heads up about the current deal we just signed up for.  It's through British Airways (also American Airlines).  It is a credit card, so I hesitate sharing it with some of my credit dependent loved ones.  Please be wise and don't sign up for the card unless you can.  We have never had credit card debt.  We just pay off our bill every month and reap the rewards that the card offers.

This deal can earn you up to 100,000 flight miles which translates into 4 round trip domestic flights or two round trip flights to some international locations (i.e. London).  There are, obviously, some restrictions on flights.  But I'm all about free flights!!!

You can find details on the deal on this blog.  Here's the link to British Airways official page.  I believe you have to sign up by May 6.

Happy travels!

Tuckered Out

Tuckered out at Target

Why take them to Disneyland when playing at Target results in this?!

Little Explorers: Polymer Power

It's a leak-proof bag!

Here's another little science experiment for you!


Poking Plastic with Pencils

Here's what you need:

• gallon size zipper bag (Ziploc brand works best)
• water
• several freshly sharpened pencils

Fill the zipper bag about 2/3 full of water.  Zip it up.  Hold on tight and push a sharp pencil all the way through both sides of the bag.  Make sure the point of the pencil gets all the way through.  Repeat with all the pencils you have.  You might want to practice over a bucket or sink the first time. 

I repeated the experiment (with a 2nd bag) and had Isabella push the pencils in.  Twice she started to poke the bag and then wanted to put the pencil in a different spot (causing the bag to leak).  So I had her do it fast.  Spear it!

Questions to ask while experimenting:

• What will happen if I poke a hole in this bag of water?
• What if I do it again?
• Why doesn't the water leak out?
• What will happen if I take out the pencils?

What is happening:

All plastics are made out of polymers.  Polymers are long links of molecules that are usually very strong and stretchy.  When you poke the pencil into the plastic bag the polymers move and stretch (rather than tear) and then seal around the pencil; preventing any water from leaking.

Extreme experimentation:

Do it over an unsuspecting friend's head.    

Notice how Isabella quickly moved her legs because she thought she would get wet.

Right Now

Exploring our big backyard (aka Central Park).

My Little Man

Eggs in the Mail

Isabella loves to make things and she also loves to give her creations away.  (Our sweet neighbors are usually the recipients of her creativity.)  She also loves to send things in the mail, especially to her cousins.  When I saw this idea to mail easter eggs filled with goodies in the mail, I knew she would flip.  She basically did.  As soon as we gathered the supplies she wouldn't let me rest until they were in the big blue mailbox.  We sent one to each of her cousins (except the babies, sorry Kate & Marek) and almost all of them made it.  (We do feel terrible that a couple didn't ever show up or arrived broken.)

Ceci, my oldest niece, was so happy to find the surprise during her grueling week of finals.

The Great Easter Egg Hunt

The ladies from church put together a very fun Easter egg hunt today.  We loved it!

one mom made amazing "cake pops" 

so many eggs, so few hiding spots

the little kids got a head start, the big kids getting ready to storm in

her loot

he had no interest in finding eggs but played the piano instead
he was happy until right when I took this photo--another little boy touched the piano
my interpretation: "I just can't take it anymore!"

Dying Eggs

I love Isabella at 4 years old!  I feel like she really loves these little traditions.  I haven't felt much of a need to form family traditions until lately.  She finally gets it and loves it.  I actually haven't dyed Easter eggs with her until this year...which made it all the more fun for me.  I've missed it.

When I saw this simple idea on the Artful Parent I thought we'd give it a try.  Draw, with crayons, on the eggs while they are still warm and the wax will melt and create cool designs.  Then dye.  We used the dying directions on the back of the food coloring box.

Ask Mr. Bear

Last week we worked on the book Ask Mr. Bear from our Before Five in a Row (B4FIAR) curriculum.  It's about a little boy who tries to figure out what he should give his mom for her birthday.  He asks a variety of animals and then Mr. Bear gives him an idea of the best birthday present: a big bear hug.

Here are some of the activities we enjoyed with this book:

matched the sounds to the animals

compared the brown bears and the grizzly bears at the AMNH
Did you know the brown bear is the largest carnivore?
They weigh over 1600lbs!

move like the animals 

put together puzzle of mom and baby animals

had an "unbirthday" party with friends

all lap book activities found at homeschool share

Not pictured: lots and lots of big bear hugs!