Hold On

You know how when you have your first baby and everyone says, "Oh it goes SOOOO fast, just enjoy her while she's little because she'll be all grown in 2 seconds." You look at them and smile. Then you think about all the days you look at the clock kind of ready for your husband to walk through the door only to see that it's 10 am. Or you wonder if it's really possible to change 4 million and 3 diapers and breastfeed 4 million and 2 times in 24 hours because you're pretty sure you haven't done anything else all day or night. Or you think about sitting watching your 1 month old baby and wondering if she's bored or if you're doing this right at all.

Well, I know it sometimes doesn't feel very fast (see the title of this blog) but the reality is what they told us is true. The days still seem long sometimes, but I can't believe my first baby is almost 10 and my youngest is 2! Looking back, it seems that it all happened while I was blinking or something because where did it go?

Yesterday I picked Nate up from swimming lessons at noon and he and Ben and I went to a little swim party. I dropped Abby off at a friend's so they could go to another friend's birthday party and Anna stayed home so she could run to Chloe's where they were going to have their 2nd book club and then go see the new "Kit" movie. The boys and I got back around 3:00 and Abby finally waltzed in around 6:00. Anna came home at 8:00. They were gone all day. Nate was busy with friends when we got back. They're already getting lives and busy and I miss them. During school the girls are rarely here and now Nate will be going to school too.

So, you see it's all true. My kids are still fairly young, but they're growing faster and faster and I know that their days are truly numbered here in our little home. I realize it's not the end of the world, it's fun too, watching them grow and our relationships change and experiencing new and older things, but I'm starting to get it now that I've got to hold on to them while I can.

Fearless and Fairies

Today was a momentous day for us here in our little world. Perhaps you recall my swimming lesson saga from last year with Nate. He refused to get out of the car and we both bawled all the way home. Good times. Well, guess who jumped right out of the car today at swimming lessons? You guessed it.... Natey! He requested I walk down to the pool with him and then happily waved goodbye as I left him for his lesson. Woo hoo! I'm so proud of him and so happy for him. Way to go, Nate!

Some of you know that Anna, our soon to be 10 yr. old, has a great imagination. We love that she's still young and innocent in so many ways and that she has a happy fantasy world she can escape to when need be. There are times I feel conflicted about how to help her balance that with reality and well, honesty. I'm not sure we've found that balance yet. The following may confirm that to you, but bear in mind it was very late and there was no one awake to consult. It's so revealing about Anna though that I decided to share it.

A few nights ago Anna had a tooth fall out. The Tooth Fairy came to Anna's pillow very late at night and discovered a sweet note from this sweet little girl.

The Tooth Fairy was more than a little surprised and more than a little tired. She was touched though by Anna's sweet interest and couldn't bear to disappoint her so she stayed up for quite a while answering Anna's questions. She also is normally left-handed, but to add a little mystery she used her right hand. She is also surprisingly not artistic for a fairy.

Anna and Abby were absolutely overjoyed upon discovering not just the crisp new dollars, but a whole new insight to this mysterious Tooth Fairy. They have all of her answers memorized and they are both anticipating losing more teeth very soon for a chance at continued correspondence. This makes the Tooth Fairy adore these girls even more and also really hope that she knows what she is doing, but really doesn't think so.

Festival Days

Yesterday was our hometown "Festival Days". We started with the parade which I LOVE. It goes down our beautiful tree-lined Main Street so we always have shade which makes the experience so much nicer. Some neighborhood friends and my sister and BIL (he rode his bike for quite a distance and met Liza and the kids there, impressive!) and their kids joined us. There were actually some amazing floats and I always love marching bands, plus two of my cute cousins were in it.

Ben not letting Brennan unplug his ears during the sirens.

gearing up for some serious candy

Anna and Belle

Abby taking Josh's bike for a spin

After the parade we went with our friends to the carnival. I always think that will be so much fun. In some ways it is, both girls climbed the climbing wall thing which was cool and Abby really wanted to be in the dunking machine which was fun, oh and we got a new tiny pet frog (which not sure if that's a good thing yet), but basically it's just really hot and exhausting to try and herd really distracted kids through crowds of people. The kids beg to spend every cent we ever made on really dumb things. Brennan and I came home kind of ornery, okay I was really ornery - hot, tired, keeping track of 4 kids going in 4 different directions in a crowd - not a good combo.

Ready...

Splash..

wet!

Anna scrambled up the wall in no time at all.
Abby did great.

However, the kids enjoyed themselves and after the carnival we went to lunch with our friends which was nice (except for the fact that Brennan got one medium drink for 6 people and Ben was lording over it mercilessly and the other kids were not amused) til Abby came within inches of getting hit by a car as she headed back to the car to check on their new frog.

All in all it really was good family fun. The parade was definitely the highlight.

Yesterday

We have a little playgroup each week with some of my aunts and cousins and all our kids. Yesterday we went to a cute new little splash park. Good times! I love the time I get to spend chatting while our kids have so much fun. Most of the kids are actually my cousins who are always so cute with and attentive to my kids.

Ben and my cousin's little boy, Brigden, playing football

Anna blissfully ignorant of her impending wetness

Blogosophy

I think probably anyone who has blogged for any length of time has probably experienced varying degrees of love and hate for this whole blogging phenomenon. Whatever your feelings are it seems to me that blogging has hit a nerve and is taking over the earth. I feel like perhaps all of us are a little starved for a sense of community and blogging is allowing us to fill that void. Instead of bemoaning the fact that our fast-paced lives, garages (we pull right inside eliminating any chance of chatting with a neighbor), fear of child molesting creeps, and so many other things are now the reality and have slowly pushed out the casual openness and sense of community as depicted in Sandlot, we have grabbed hold of a new substitute. The question is, is it filling the void or only drawing us into our homes more and away from making "real" relationships?

There are those who use their blog as a creative outlet, a journal/family history, a way to connect with family and friends and a way to make new friends. When I started mine I didn't know this entire culture existed. I had only seen group blogs that existed to support some common ideal or theme like Mormon Mommy Wars, Times and Seasons, Millennial Star, etc. I felt like a brilliant pioneer as I realized I could start my own personal blog to transition from writing a somewhat regular update/journal email to friends and family to a much more broad way to record my thoughts, my children's (and husband's) sayings and antics and photos with those who truly want to be part of it and can do it on their schedule. Then to my amazement I discovered this whole individual/family blog thing not only already existed, it was this major sub-culture that had been going strong for quite sometime. There were cute backgrounds, slide shows, background music (which still scares the tar out of me EVERY time I go to a blog with music), sidebars features galore, give-aways, tags, etc.

Plus in a few clicks you can know everything there is to know about your 2nd grade bff or your husband's ex-girlfriend. Weird. Good weird or bad weird? That's a whole other issue, what are the rules? Where are the lines of propriety? Then, just when you're pretty sure you're writing to an audience of your faithful 5 commenters and therefore feeling pretty comfortable and safe in airing your every thought someone you kind of know makes a casual reference to one of your posts. At first you're kind of flattered and then you panic and wonder what you've written that could possibly be offensive or insensitive or something to people you had no idea read your blog.

I've decided that for me I love the access I get into the lives of those I love. Even my family and friends I see regularly, in some respects I know and see way more through their blogs than I do in their presence. And for those family and friends who I never see, it's invaluable. I love that I will have this record of these days with my little family. I love that I have this outlet for my thoughts and feelings as I navigate the ups and downs of motherhood and life in general. I love the rare occasions when there are no misspelled words when I spell check. I love when I get through the word verification letters on my first try.

However, I still struggle to know where the lines are, how much time is too much time to spend posting and reading? Do I want to belong to the "blogging community"? Are comments a healthy way to get some validation or just another popularity contest? Am I endangering or humiliating my children? Am I always true to myself and my family when I post or do I sometimes play to the audience? Have any of you come any conclusions you'd care to share?

4th of July and More

cousins Noah, Jonathan, Ethan

I've got to catch up here. We had such a fun 4th of July; however, we grabbed the old broken camera (which I keep on hand for Ben to play with) and so I didn't get ANY pictures of our festivities. My cousin let me take some with hers so when she emails them I'll post them. Anyway, we got up and did our chores, packed up and went to our neighboring town's parade.


I have realized that the parade actually isn't an amazing parade in that there are really very few floats. It's mainly 1,407 emergency vehicles with sirens blaring and unsung heroes in fancy cars and local business owners in some kind of truck. There are a few marching bands and cheerleaders etc. too. They all throw candy which is always fun and then after the parade part there's about an hours worth of huge trucks with huge tanks of water that come spray everyone they possibly can and then it turns into one big huge community water fight. Good times. We just love it. The water part got cut short this year due to some poor boy who fell off one of the trucks and got his leg run over.


It's just so much fun to sit and feel part of a community and visit with great company (two of my uncles and aunts and their families and my cousin and her family) and watch our kids love every minute. They had some of that yellow caution tape up in an attempt to keep the kids from going into the street. All of the kids went right under the tape and happily scrambled for candy. I noticed that Anna was a solitary figure behind the tape reaching for the rare piece of candy that got past the wall of kids way in front of her and then if she did she would give it to one of the littler kids who she felt bad for even though they were all getting plenty. We finally convinced her to get out there, but it about killed her. We heard ourselves saying all the wrong things, "Anna, just do it, everyone else is doing it." "Quit giving all of it away". Great parenting.


After the parade we went home for a little downtime. Bren and Ben napped, the other kids played, and I watched 2 more episodes of the "John Adams" series by HBO. So good! I love Abigail Adams, she is definitely one of my heroes and why I've always loved that name. I highly recommend the mini-series which I know has been released to buy on DVD, but not sure if you can rent it yet.

After our nice mellow time we went to a nearby park with some of our extended family. We cooked burgers and hotdogs, had some yummy sides and played and chatted a very pleasant evening away. When darkness set in Brennan and my uncle Mike hosted our own firework show which got really exciting when Brennan lit a fountain type firework to distract the onlookers while he lit and then threw at them a flower type firework (you know those ones that spin and fly all over). I think one sort of singed Tavin's (one of my cousins) shorts and maybe burnt his leg a tiny bit. Always good fun with Brennan. Ben wouldn't let me get him within about 200 yards of any type of firework. We enjoyed the display from a very safe distance. They finished just in time to watch the nearby amusement park firework display. Even though poor little Ben was completely spent by the time we got him home around 10:30, it was such a fun day and night. It's just a great family holiday and it always reminds me how blessed we are to live in this country. We love America!!!

Saturday we kind of lazed around and then put the house back together. Brennan and I went out with our good friends, the Beechers who are sadly moving away soon. We'll miss them so much.

Sunday we had a nice quiet day and after Church my parents came over for dinner. We always love having them and the kids were thrilled since they think the three weeks we don't go over to Grandpa and Grandma's for Sunday dinner is the most tragic thing EVER.

Today Anna had her first book club. She invited a couple of friends and had them each read one of her favorite Nancy Drew books. After having to postpone several times they finally met today. They were so cute because there were just three of these really good friends but they were being really formal and serious about it all. They discussed the book for quite some time and then I served dessert. They felt very grown up and it was so cute.

Lize, Abe and Belle came over too and I couldn't resist taking this picture. Oh she's so cute!

The Things They Say (and do)

This morning I went out to water my garden and shortly thereafter Nate came out. When he saw me he sternly said, "Mom, you can't just go outside without asking anyone!" It's good to be missed. Also, lately he's in that letter phase where he'll just list random letters and ask me what they spell. It's so confusing and frustrating for him when often I have to explain that those letters don't really spell a word. He also says, "Mom, can I have a B-R-E?" which can mean anything from an otter pop to a friend over and if I have to ask what he means it's highly offensive to him. We love Nate.

We have a song we like to sing along which goes "cool, cool water running down your face". Today Nate sang that very phrase and Abby said, "Nate, it's not 'cool, cool water!'" Nate and I both looked at her and asked what she thought it said, she was suddenly sheepish and giggled as she sang, "cuckoo, cuckoo wah-wah". We love Abby.

Ben is still very much attached to his "beep" (binky) and we've recently lost several and are down to one which is just asking for trouble. To remedy this precarious situation I bought a couple more the other day, but couldn't find his usual kind and the new ones are significantly smaller than he's used to. Today after a fruitless search for the "one" I gave him one of the new ones. He put it in his mouth and then immediately furrowed his brow and said, "MOM, not wuhking! (working)" He noticed the difference. We love Ben.

Anna and Chloe spent an entire afternoon dressing up themselves and my other kids. They also carefully applied make up to each other and Abigail and then had a photo shoot. We love Anna. Here are the results:

The sporty look

Working it

Can you see the coaching in the reflection?

Quite a team

working it, part II

model gone wild

a little coaching

note the wardrobe change on Ben.