Nicest sister in the world

Giving her own coat. Ruth has the biggest heart.

Girl's Trip/Half Marathon

In the Fall, a group of us tossed around the idea of staying with one of our friends who moved to Paramus, NJ and running a half marathon together in NYC. When the registration was discounted for Black Friday, we all took the leap and registered. It was such a good motivation to keep running all Winter!

After all of Dan's traveling, it was SO wonderful to have a weekend where I got to travel. Dan took Friday off and kept the kids for 3 days by himself. Unfortunately, James was sick so they didn't get to do much exciting!

We drove down Friday and made a stop at IKEA. Rebecca and her family were nice enough to open up their homes to seven extra people! They even had little gift bundles ready for us when we arrived with our race bibs and shirts. 

Me, Lyndee, Katie, Jaeme, Rebecca, MaryAnne, Jenna, Abby

I have a bad track record with feel good on race day with half marathons. This time I wore my fuel belt and chewed on energy gummy things starting around mile 4. It made such a huge difference! I also made sure to do negative splits, which I struggle to do usually. Within a few seconds, each mile got faster and faster! My last two miles were 8:45 and 8:42 which is really fast for me. My average as 9:08 for 13.25 miles for a final time of 2:00:52. It didn't beat my PR of 2:00:00, but it was my first time performing BETTER than my training, so I was thrilled. 

Usually I don't even have the energy to smile at the finish line!

 Everyone finished! Two girls were running half marathons for the first time and four set new PRs!

 

After some interesting maneuvering to change and "bathe" in the minivan, we drove over the city and hit the town with a list of places to eat.

Bouchon Bakery.

 Between the changing, the drive, Abby feeling sick for awhile, and the walk to get here, it was 5 hours after I finished the race before I had anything "real" to eat! A hamburger never tasted so good! Shake Shack! I didn't get a picture, but I also met up with my friend and former roommate, Danielle. I was excited to meet her husband for the first time too!

 LeVain Bakery. Yummmmm.

 By 7pm ,we were ready to head back and hang out in our pajamas. We had some delicious pizza and some cupcakes made by Anthony and the kids while we were gone. The next morning, we went to church and then headed home. 

 It was SO fun and made me home sick for Whipple Park all over again. I love these girls!!

Lego Club

The kids' school has one month of clubs. Hundreds of students participate and each can be in one club that meets once a week for the month of March. I signed up to lead Lego Club so my kids got their first choice clubs (science for James, My Little Pony for Ruth) and they also got to attend my Lego Club, along with Claire and Rosemary. I have to say that after trying to do anything organized with 26 K-2 students, I have a new found respect for Kindergarten teachers!! Unfortunately, my kids were sick 2 out of the 4 weeks so I only got to lead it twice! Better luck next year! 

Babbling

Either she misses Dan or he did some coaching while I was out of town! I love this stage of speech development!

Ready for guests!

There's nothing like frequent stays in hotels to underscore how poorly Dan sleeps in our crappy bed at home. After recently experiencing some health problems exacerbated by his poor sleep (mostly because he works too much, but the bed contributes significantly too), we decided to splurge and finally get a good bed.

James now has our queen bed and Ruth and Claire are in the bunks. When we have guests they'll get James' bed and he'll get the air mattress!

Fashionista

Cleaning Challenge

Our house was nearing the tipping point with clutter. Knowing it wasn't a battle I could win alone and with Dan out of town for 8 days, I recruited the kids.

We made a daily schedule of rooms to pick up each day and who would be in charge of maintaining the room on a daily basis for the rest of the week. Then they could choose a big reward at the end.

The kids did really well cleaning up, even clutter on and under furniture. I did my best to sweep and clean each room after we'd picked up, so the house is looking much better!

Tonight we are at McDonalds Play Place enjoying Happy Meals AND ice cream. These kids dream big!

Musical Score

Whenever James plays this song, I feel like I am in a movie with a musical score playing in the background. It seems like I should be experiencing something dramatic or developing significantly as a character. Instead, I am usually packing lunches. It is quite the soundtrack for making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches!


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Lucidity

Last night, James had a fever. Because of a terrifying story I'd read on FB earlier that day, I had him sleep in bed with me (Dan is in Germany) so I could check on him throughout the night without getting out of bed. At one point he groggily mentioned something about his book. I panicked that he was delirious, so I asked him if he knew where he was (I know, this is all dumb, since he is always out of it if we wake him in the middle of the night). He started going on and on about Harry Potter details. I finally realized he was telling me where he was in his book. Then I asked if he knew whose bed he was in. "Oh, yeah. Yours."

Six Months: keepin' it real

A favorite "rose" onesie for Rosemary, her binky, and no bow. This is real life, except that she usually has more layers over her onesie! She met the 6 month milestone for sitting up, just barely. My kids tend to just barely hit the milestones, mostly because I am crazy and start practicing with them as the arbitrary milestone approaches.

Snow pile

What cul de sacs look like after months of plowing!

Potty Training #3: Greatest Hits

They say cloth diaper babies potty train earlier. From my limited sample size, that is true. She started off MUCH better at knowing when she needed to go and being able to go all at once. It also helped that I told her she could either wear undies or cloth diapers. She chose undies every time because she hated cloth diapers by the end!

Here are some of the most memorable moments from Claire's potty training:

1. Claire pooping on the floor, picking it up, and bringing it to me saying, "Uh-oh".

2. Claire pooping in her underwear WAY too many times and every time while I cleaned it up, yelling impatiently, "Put the poop in the POTTY, Mommy!" as if I am the one who neglected this step initially!

3. Taking 10 trips to the potty every Sunday at church. The panacea for boredom and the best way to spend lots of time with Daddy at church. One time in nursery another kid got a toy she wanted, so Claire sighed, turned to the teacher and said, "I need to go potty".

4. Being extremely motivated by treats, which she demands after every trip to the bathroom. One day I was congratulating Claire for staying clean and dry ALL day and without waiting for me to finish my sentence she chimed in, "I WANT A COOKIE!".

5. Dropping everything and taking all the kids to McDonald's for ice cream once Claire finally pooped in the potty. Can you tell pooping in the potty was an issue for her? The other kids got that down first.

6. Daniel Tiger on loop, "When you have to go potty, stop and go right away. Flush and wash and be on your way!"

7. Being cheered for while I go potty. I guess that's what we do in the bathroom.

8. My older kids running down the aisle of the grocery store announcing that,  "CLAIRE WENT PEE PEE IN THE POTTY!!"

9. When Claire simultaneously won the best and worst answer to my call for kids to get their shoes and coats on for church, "I did put my shoes on....I went poopoo in my undies!".

10. All the times Claire was taking too long to go potty and I found her "cleaning" the bathroom. That is, dipping toilet paper in the toilet and then using it to wash the toilet seat and, sometimes, the floor. Ewwww.

Gymnastics

My little gymnasts!

Reading pairs

The Harry Potter readers outlasted the American Girl readers yet again.