I have been all abuzz lately, in preparation for getting the famiy to CA next week. So mnay details, from finances to clothing! Darin and I met and shopped together on my lunch hour today for the kids' dress up clothes, since today was the only day we had available together between now and when we leave. I can't wait. It will be nice to have a break from the normal grind for a little while. Although I have no illusions that it will be relaxing. I'll probably relax when I'm back at work.
Quinn is so close to standing up and walking. He is just all over the place lately. Pulling up on everything. Also he is eating a lot of table food already. Hates the baby food mush, wants anything he can grab on his own. All in a hurry to grow up!! He has started giving me big face hugs (grabs two handfuls of cheek and pulls), along with a big sloppy kiss when he sees me at the end of the day. He smiles and laughs and keeps patting me on the shoulder, touching his forehead to my chest.
It is my favorite part of the day.
After I pick him up from "the baby room" as Mia calls it, we head down to Mia's big kid playground to get her. We step out onto the playground and all the little girlfriends come running towards me, all vying for my attention, full of urgent news about their day. I make a point of getting to know the girls, asking good questions, noticing new clothes or hairdos. And they all call "KEENEY" (Quinn's nickname) and give him hugs when I crouch down to talk to them.
That is a close second.
What a rock star you can be as a mommy, if only until you get out to the car.
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Spring is coming
My boss finally asked me when I plan to go to the doctor, as the entire staff has had enough of my coughing up lung tissue all day long, thank you very much. (that last part was implied...)
(that is Auntie Casie with really LONG ARMS)
So I have an ear infection and a touch o the bronchitis. Yay! Thank heaven for the z pack.
Who gets ear infections at my age?
Two weeks from today the DeSilvas will be in sunny California. Occasion: to see my oldest friend Matt get married. I am really looking forward to the trip and to seeing the Maffei family again. They are the best and I am really happy for Matt. You know, today is his birthday. He is 31 years old. I can remember him calling me an old lady for a week when I turned 19. 19!! Wow, we are old friends.
Colleen, here is Mia's chalk portrayal of Darin, as promised. Please note the two-toned pants and the violent yellow chunks he is blowing.
(that is Auntie Casie with really LONG ARMS)Saturday, March 10, 2007
Necessary Counterpoint (or, things I am glad Springfield HAS)
1. Panera
2. Dickerson Zoo
3. affordable housing
4. great (but affordable? not so much) daycare for the kids
5. my family
6. green things that grow
7. Frozen custard, yes. Good call Stephanie. :)
8. Proximity to Memphis, a place I plan to go to again
9. Extremely lax fireworks laws
10. Conservation Nature Center
11. a very cool downtown
12. Hammonds Field
2. Dickerson Zoo
3. affordable housing
4. great (but affordable? not so much) daycare for the kids
5. my family
6. green things that grow
7. Frozen custard, yes. Good call Stephanie. :)
8. Proximity to Memphis, a place I plan to go to again
9. Extremely lax fireworks laws
10. Conservation Nature Center
11. a very cool downtown
12. Hammonds Field
Things I wish we had in Springfield
1. more vaguely un-religious people like myself
2. more diversity, duh
3. roads with SHOULDERS, not 1cm of pavement between you and a huge cavernous ditch
4. more than one mall
5. more than one Target
6. stucco instead of siding on standard houses
7. the ocean
8. a good farmer's market
9. non-religious programming on local stations on Sunday am (where are all my news shows?)
10. Good Mexican food
11. No tornadoes
12. Colleen and Phil (good call Colleen)
13. Hippies! Feminists! You've put your finger on it, Casie. Where ARE all these people?
2. more diversity, duh
3. roads with SHOULDERS, not 1cm of pavement between you and a huge cavernous ditch
4. more than one mall
5. more than one Target
6. stucco instead of siding on standard houses
7. the ocean
8. a good farmer's market
9. non-religious programming on local stations on Sunday am (where are all my news shows?)
10. Good Mexican food
11. No tornadoes
12. Colleen and Phil (good call Colleen)
13. Hippies! Feminists! You've put your finger on it, Casie. Where ARE all these people?
Monday, March 5, 2007
Party like a four year old
Saturday it was about 34 degrees and snowing. Eleven a.m. found us at another princess-a-licious fourth birthday party, this time going down at a community center indoor pool, and this time with boys and girls.
A sign of where my life is right now: the chit chat with my fellow moms poolside was the most social fun I've had outside the family in months. I want to hug them all as we leave with our tantrumy toddlers.
One mom (mother of 4 year old gorgeous big sister to another beautiful 14 month old girl), tells me her husband passed away right before her baby was born last January. I've been thinking of her ever since. I've known her casually for 2 years and that I did not know this fact makes me ashamed of myself. In my memory I can still see her husband's car pulling up outside the daycare to drop off their daughter, one of the first little girls Mia met when she started daycare. We just went to their princess birthday party a month and a half ago. Daddy wasn't there and I just glossed right over that fact.
I spend a lot of time alone with my kids. Darin works a lot and sleeps a lot and perhaps just because I'm Mom, they are my only company for long periods of time. I love being with them, Mia's conversation and Quinn's drooly kisses / boogers left on my work shirts. There is no point in whining about the exhaustion. It is unrelenting and irrelevant. It goes without saying that the kids are worth it, they need me, and from me they will learn how to handle hard moments. I know one day I'll look back and this will all have gone by in a flash and that will make me sad. So when I get only two hours sleep because Quinn has a cough and Mia comes in loudly requesting a drink when he finally drifts off at 5am, I get mad at Darin for not being home or life in general and sometimes cry and I wonder when am I ever going to have time TO JUST CHILL OUT A SECOND. But I try not to wish any time away, and just go have a cup of coffee.
This is another reason I am ashamed when I think of my mommy friend from the princess party. She gets to do all that too, plus mourn for her future with her husband and her girls' future with their father. Every once in a while Darin and I get to share a laugh or a tear over the kids. The moments occur without warning and are gone in a flash. My mommy friend doesn't have anyone to share those flashes with.
Another mom, this one of a four year old sibling-less boy, was telling me about her decision to quit her job this year and stay at home. Her husband works six days a week for the postal service, swing shift. She was very talkative and all with the TMI, (like I imagine I always am!) and mentioned in midstream that it is lonely "but it will all be worth it one day."
Another mom told me that her husband had spent the day before fishing and that morning putting together some furniture. After a pause she says, totally in a cheery voice with a smile on her face: "yeah, he needs some alone time with that furniture. So he didn't come to the birthday party."
Are we all lonely? Darin spent most of that party with Mia in one arm, big sister whose dad is gone in the other, lifting their little faces out of the water and doing laps from one end of the pool to the other while they kicked and laughed.
What do you say?
Like I said, I wanted to give them all hugs when the swimming was over and our duties swung back into rhythm.
Of course the kids fell asleep on the way home.
Next weekend: Parker's 4th birthday party at the Discovery Center. see you there, ladies.
A sign of where my life is right now: the chit chat with my fellow moms poolside was the most social fun I've had outside the family in months. I want to hug them all as we leave with our tantrumy toddlers.
One mom (mother of 4 year old gorgeous big sister to another beautiful 14 month old girl), tells me her husband passed away right before her baby was born last January. I've been thinking of her ever since. I've known her casually for 2 years and that I did not know this fact makes me ashamed of myself. In my memory I can still see her husband's car pulling up outside the daycare to drop off their daughter, one of the first little girls Mia met when she started daycare. We just went to their princess birthday party a month and a half ago. Daddy wasn't there and I just glossed right over that fact.
I spend a lot of time alone with my kids. Darin works a lot and sleeps a lot and perhaps just because I'm Mom, they are my only company for long periods of time. I love being with them, Mia's conversation and Quinn's drooly kisses / boogers left on my work shirts. There is no point in whining about the exhaustion. It is unrelenting and irrelevant. It goes without saying that the kids are worth it, they need me, and from me they will learn how to handle hard moments. I know one day I'll look back and this will all have gone by in a flash and that will make me sad. So when I get only two hours sleep because Quinn has a cough and Mia comes in loudly requesting a drink when he finally drifts off at 5am, I get mad at Darin for not being home or life in general and sometimes cry and I wonder when am I ever going to have time TO JUST CHILL OUT A SECOND. But I try not to wish any time away, and just go have a cup of coffee.
This is another reason I am ashamed when I think of my mommy friend from the princess party. She gets to do all that too, plus mourn for her future with her husband and her girls' future with their father. Every once in a while Darin and I get to share a laugh or a tear over the kids. The moments occur without warning and are gone in a flash. My mommy friend doesn't have anyone to share those flashes with.
Another mom, this one of a four year old sibling-less boy, was telling me about her decision to quit her job this year and stay at home. Her husband works six days a week for the postal service, swing shift. She was very talkative and all with the TMI, (like I imagine I always am!) and mentioned in midstream that it is lonely "but it will all be worth it one day."
Another mom told me that her husband had spent the day before fishing and that morning putting together some furniture. After a pause she says, totally in a cheery voice with a smile on her face: "yeah, he needs some alone time with that furniture. So he didn't come to the birthday party."
Are we all lonely? Darin spent most of that party with Mia in one arm, big sister whose dad is gone in the other, lifting their little faces out of the water and doing laps from one end of the pool to the other while they kicked and laughed.
What do you say?
Like I said, I wanted to give them all hugs when the swimming was over and our duties swung back into rhythm.
Of course the kids fell asleep on the way home.
Next weekend: Parker's 4th birthday party at the Discovery Center. see you there, ladies.
Thursday, March 1, 2007
Monday, February 26, 2007
Shotguns in Winter?
As we all know, about a month and a half ago there was a nasty ice storm here in Springfield. The ice began to fall in the evening on a Friday in January. Colleen and Phil were in town. My parents came over that night, along with Joe and Casie and Colleen and Phil. We were all having dinner together, as we try to do when the siblings are all present in one metropolitan area.
Darin had to work that night at the plant, from 7pm to 7am, so he was out of there about 6pm, and my parents cut out early too. When the lights went out I was home with the kids and all the younger sibling folk. After a long while with no electricity, siblings all decided to go home before the roads got any worse.
Did I mention that the weather here in MO is insane? I arrived here three years ago (yipes!) in March and still, I do not pay attention. When Ted Keller, weatherman of my dreams, says get thee to a shelter, when offices empty at 3pm and people are either hunkered down at home or at the store buying spam, I don't even have clean pj's for my children or an accurate idea of where the flashlights are. So it is going to storm. It can't be a tornado since this is January. I have great fear of tornadoes, but not ice storms.
So I am alone with the kids in a very dark house for the night. No idea when the power will come back on. I think the biggest thing that struck me was the total silence from all of my household things. Not even the air in the vents moving. Outside it was extremely cold. I thought it might get chilly in the house by the time the power came back on, so I got Mia from her bed and tucked her in mine, along with Quinn.
The view from my bedroom windows looks out over most of Republic. We can see tons of houses rolling out to our south; to our southwest we can see the lights of both grocery stores in town. Before going to bed, I took a look out. Blackness. I could see the outlines of my neighbors' houses, with no light in any window. No sign of life or warmth in the whole scene. The sky looked huge and black and kept dumping sheets of ice down onto everything. I could hear it on the roof and on the walls. The houses of my neighborhood looked tiny. All this crazy weather comes rolling above it and it just blows my mind. Up till then it had been tornadoes I felt at the mercy of. Now immense coatings of ice covering everything. Our little vinyl clad boxes and strings of power lines. No match at all.
I laid there with a tiny kid on each side and stared at the ceiling. So quiet. Dark as a sack, as I like to say! Sounds of icy rain hitting the surfaces of the house and sticking there.
At some point I realized I was hearing periodic gunshots sounds outside. What the heck are these people doing? How could you go outside in this weather to cause a ruckus? Firecrackers? Shotguns? I just don't get these people. Get inside and bundle up! Yes, the cops probably can't come get you but aren't you FREEZING?
What I was listening to was all the trees splitting and cracking apart, for miles and miles around.
Darin had to work that night at the plant, from 7pm to 7am, so he was out of there about 6pm, and my parents cut out early too. When the lights went out I was home with the kids and all the younger sibling folk. After a long while with no electricity, siblings all decided to go home before the roads got any worse.
Did I mention that the weather here in MO is insane? I arrived here three years ago (yipes!) in March and still, I do not pay attention. When Ted Keller, weatherman of my dreams, says get thee to a shelter, when offices empty at 3pm and people are either hunkered down at home or at the store buying spam, I don't even have clean pj's for my children or an accurate idea of where the flashlights are. So it is going to storm. It can't be a tornado since this is January. I have great fear of tornadoes, but not ice storms.
So I am alone with the kids in a very dark house for the night. No idea when the power will come back on. I think the biggest thing that struck me was the total silence from all of my household things. Not even the air in the vents moving. Outside it was extremely cold. I thought it might get chilly in the house by the time the power came back on, so I got Mia from her bed and tucked her in mine, along with Quinn.
The view from my bedroom windows looks out over most of Republic. We can see tons of houses rolling out to our south; to our southwest we can see the lights of both grocery stores in town. Before going to bed, I took a look out. Blackness. I could see the outlines of my neighbors' houses, with no light in any window. No sign of life or warmth in the whole scene. The sky looked huge and black and kept dumping sheets of ice down onto everything. I could hear it on the roof and on the walls. The houses of my neighborhood looked tiny. All this crazy weather comes rolling above it and it just blows my mind. Up till then it had been tornadoes I felt at the mercy of. Now immense coatings of ice covering everything. Our little vinyl clad boxes and strings of power lines. No match at all.
I laid there with a tiny kid on each side and stared at the ceiling. So quiet. Dark as a sack, as I like to say! Sounds of icy rain hitting the surfaces of the house and sticking there.
At some point I realized I was hearing periodic gunshots sounds outside. What the heck are these people doing? How could you go outside in this weather to cause a ruckus? Firecrackers? Shotguns? I just don't get these people. Get inside and bundle up! Yes, the cops probably can't come get you but aren't you FREEZING?
What I was listening to was all the trees splitting and cracking apart, for miles and miles around.
There was no power at our house until sometime Monday afternoon. By the time the men of the family had cobbled together a generator situation and was able to turn on some heat for brief, glorious stints in our house, you could see your breath in my living room.
I am SO READY FOR SPRING. Except that it is almost March, which since I've been in MO means tornadoes.
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