New Pictures!

So last spring I picked up a backdrop stand to use with my photography and it's been the best thing! I didn't manage to get the kids out doors for their photos this year so I set up the back drop and used our extra room as a studio to snap some birthday/Christmas pictures of the kids.

It wasn't as extensive of a photo session as my clients get but then my kids are so used to having the camera in their faces that they object quite a bit when I try to convince them to model for me. Sadie, though, if promised make-up, will be quite the model.

I don't have a ton to share- still finishing up client work for the holidays- but I had to post these so my mom could see them :-)

finding balance when illness happens

i love my kids. i really, really, deep down in my soul, do-anything-for-them, love my kids. that said, there are moments where i don't know how to do that best or show it equally and that's something that i'm finding so hard.

i think it's more difficult when you have a kid with special needs and i'm still trying to get used to thinking about Caleb in that way. i always find myself trying to minimize and downplay his struggles, not that they are huge struggles but that almost if i accept them it makes his diagnosis more real. i still have difficulty accepting that he's on the spectrum and that he's going to struggle with things and i still forget that struggles aren't always bad for us.

anyways...

Caleb and Sadie each demand a lot of attention and for very different reasons. Caleb struggles with social situations and managing his tantrums and outbursts. Each week he spends 8 hours with his TSS and a couple of hours with his BSC and now we're adding occupational therapy to the mix. all of these things help him a great deal but it's a lot of attention that i think he would prefer not to have. on the other hand, Sadie will not be ignored. she almost seems to crave attention, at least most of the time and when big brother seems to be getting a lot of attention, it can be very difficult for a little girl.

a few weeks ago (Saturday), Sadie came down with a fever. not super high but significant enough to slow her down. we didn't see anything else wrong with her and so we administered ibuprofen and figured it would clear up in a day or two. Monday came and the fever was still there and still making her uncomfortable. we'd give her medicine in the morning, about lunch she would perk up for a bit and then by the afternoon she would be miserable. Tuesday morning was originally supposed to be her 4 yr checkup but instead became a sick visit when they saw the fever. the doctor looked her over and i still thought we were going to be sent home, convinced that she had the flu and kicking myself for not getting her the vaccine weeks ago at her brother's appointment. our doctor instead had a very serious tone and said that he wanted tests done. he mentioned mono, TB and the need for a chest x-ray and then the possibility of this Kawasaki syndrome, a very serious concern that would require a stay in the hospital. he pointed out Sadie's swollen lymph node on her neck- "her hurt neck" that i thought was code for a sore throat. then it was off to Children's for her tests.

for the rest of the week, Sadie became my focus. trying to take care of her fever, keep an eye out for other symptoms and generally be there for her. at the same time, trying to keep things as normal as possible for Caleb. Wednesday afternoon was the most difficult and the most conflicting moment for me. i noticed a red rash on the back of Sadie's shoulder and after reading up on the symptoms of Kawasaki (thank you webMD), knew that i needed to call the doctor. i filled him in on the change in her condition and he promised to call back with directions for us. Caleb was working with his TSS, a usual Wednesday afternoon but at the same time a lighter schedule then usual. at 3:15 the doctor's office called asking us to be there for 3:45. from the new house it takes us a good 20-30 min to get into Shadyside but i said we'd be there. i went upstairs and told Caleb we needed to go to the doctor's office for Sadie. he immediately said no and then the struggle began.

my little guy had no understanding of Sadie's need to get to the doctor's not because he didn't care but simply because he was focused on this unexpected change in his day. when he gets hit with these changes, sometimes he just says no and that's when i don't always know what to do. thankfully, i had his TSS there. she worked with him, talking to him, explaining to him, and coaxing him when i just didn't have the time or the patience to. i went back downstairs and gathered up Sadie. i took her down to the garage. Caleb still was refusing to come. i put her in the car and felt so bad leaving her sick and miserable even for the few moments it would take to go back upstairs to get her brother. again, thankfully, Caleb continued to refuse to go but he didn't tantrum. he's had trouble lately with tantrums and has had a few recently that lasted a good 20 minutes- time i didn't have in this instant. he let me carry him to the car, no shoes and no jacket. he also let me put him in and buckle him up. this would not have happened if he had been mid-tantrum. have you ever tried to buckle a 5 yr old in a seatbelt? it doesn't work well. i was so thankful that it went as smoothly as it did.

however, it still frustrated me that at this moment when i really needed to focus just on Sadie, i couldn't. i don't know, maybe i'm naive to think that parenting can be balanced that easily, maybe it's always going to be a give and take with my two. it did make me worry that Sadie might feel that she never gets the spotlight completely- that maybe she will continue to "demand" our attention to balance out all that we need to give her brother. it's a very frustrating situation to be in.

we made it to the doctor's relatively on time. her doctor was pretty confident that it was Kawasaki and got in contact with Children's. then he sent us home to wait one more day. Thursday morning we got the go ahead to take her to the hospital and get her admitted. fortunately, Caleb's preschool is fairly close to the hospital so he got to go to preschool, and we got to get Sadie set up in the hospital.

she was very brave getting an IV and numerous temp and blood pressure checks. they did an echo-cardiogram and finally started her treatment, an immuno-globulin drip. she bounced back pretty quick and enjoyed getting to watch a bunch of movies and cartoons, not to mention all the get well presents that appeared.

Friday afternoon, Caleb came to visit and he was able to see that Sadie was okay and that the hospital wasn't as scary as he thought it would be. they even spent a couple hours playing in the playroom together.

after a day of observation, Sadie was released to go home and we were all thankful to have her back.

she's expected to make a complete recovery. she has a follow-up echo-cardiogram in January and until then, she's enjoying a baby aspirin a day to prevent clotting and keep her heart in good shape in case there was any damage to it. we're so thankful that everything went so well.

and now things are back to normal... or as normal as they get here :-)

Out with the trash

This morning was a difficult morning. No, this morning was an almost impossible morning- a feverish 4 yr old, a tantrum-ing 5 yr old, and a mommy quickly learning that her quiet morning to herself was going poof. For extra fun, add poop on the floor, a naked tantrum-ing 5 yr old, and the added drama that illness needs when your 4 yr old is a diva in the making. It was not fun.

The real parenting moment though, was when Caleb, finally bathed, calmed and in fresh pjs, looked at me with watery eyes and a pout-y mouth and asked if I was going to put him out with the trash. It was heartbreaking to hear and immediately my eyes teared up too. I told him that I would never do that and that no matter what, he will always be my favorite boy. Then he asked why and again my heart just melted as I hugged him and, looking him in the eye, assured him that I love him so very much.

It made me think that no matter how much people tell us that they love us sometimes, in some moments, we still need that reassurance that their love will always be there.

Halloween 2010

Just needed to post that the boy was Superman for the third year in a row and yes, the costume still fit and may still fit next year. I'm just happy that he's willing to dress-up and go trick or treating.

So here's a little time line :-)







And you can't ignore Miss Cinderella!

Ballet Class

So I had to get these pics up for my family who aren't on facebook. This week Sadie's ballet class invited parents to sit in and watch the class. Of course, I was so excited to be able to be in the room instead of sneaking peeks through the tiny little window in the door and I made sure to bring my camera. I dream of one day being able to photograph Sadie dancing on toe maybe it's all those years of studying Degas and his ballerinas, maybe it's my envy for how graceful ballerinas are... I don't know but I'm holding on to that dream.

In the meantime, I thoroughly enjoyed snapping a few pics of my little 'rina

Happy 4th Birthday Sadie-girl!

Little girl growing up... Sadie is now 4 going on at least 14 or 15. It's frightening. Somehow this child has managed to have all the confidence, boldness and outgoing-ness that her daddy, brother and I have never had. What she lacks in knowledge, she makes up for with enthusiasm. That's our Sadie.

Over the past year, we've had some pretty big milestones. Sadie mastered the potty in just under a week (a huge relief after the battle of potty-training her brother). She got to go to her first birthday party (non-relative). She went ice skating for the first time and attended her first ballet class.

She also invented her first imaginary friend- the first of many... but more about that later.

Sadie is my little ball of energy and joy. Yep, I can't think to describe it any other way. First thing in the morning, she wakes up with a big smile on her face and asks "What are we going to do today, Mom?" Something as simple as getting clean clothes from the dryer, she gushes over "Oh, thank you Mommy for my clean pjs" and she takes them and dances into her bedroom to put them away. Every gift for birthdays or Christmas's or for no reason at all is accepted with such enthusiasm that you might be tempted to think that she's acting for someone but the feeling is real, even if it is given with a dramatic flare. She never fails to remind me that anything can be good or exciting if you just look at it from the right perspective.

Now, don't get me wrong, the princess is certainly capable of showing the world her less desirable moods. She can be one whiny-cranky mess when the world aligns against her. Even while trick or treating the other night... it was our first time in the new neighborhood. Everyone was out. It was cold and the princess didn't want her jacket to cover her beautiful Cinderella costume. (Yes, we're a bit of a diva at times) We made it out and over to the next door neighbor's. Then we hit the house after that. After the third house, we had to walk around the corner and down the next street a little ways. Little Cinderella starts dragging her feet, "but I waannna trick or treat" "well, Sadie, that's what we're doing" We could only figure that 1. she was cold and 2. the house here are much farther apart than in Oakland, requiring her little feet to do a lot more walking. She perked up after getting her jacket on but in the end, they only made it down one street before they were done for the night.

She also can hold her own with a tantrum but fortunately those don't happen very often and when they do, it's usually because she is just too exhausted.

Sadie is our social butterfly. She loves being the center of attention. Often we believe that the world is her stage and we're just the audience. This is a lot of fun (most of the time). You never know when she's going to start a song or a dance or talk with a weird accent and poses or take a dive. She continues to be our physical comedienne. In fact, as I'm typing this, she struts down the hall with a blanket on her head and in her most elegant voice asks "how do i look?"

Preschool started a couple months ago and she's in the class Caleb had last year. She goes 3 mornings a week and on Wednesdays, she gets to stay for lunch. And apparently, Sadie already is developing quite the entourage. She has a best friend, Samantha, and judging by pictures in the classroom, they are inseparable, well, until the teachers have to separate them for talking too much during circle time. Recently, there's also been a boy in the picture. Now, Sadie has always managed to get the boys to follow her around but in the past few weeks, we've been hearing about Nathan and how he likes to hold her hand. I was not expecting this and I'm still not sure what I think of this. I think Daddy is even more unsure. But at any rate, she is a friendly, out going girl and I'm thrilled to see her making friends.

In addition to preschool, Sadie started taking ballet lessons. She's been obsessed with it since we were first introduced to Angelina Ballerina and if you ask what she wants to be when she grows up, she'll tell you "a real ballerina one day" (a line from Angelina Ballerina). When Caleb started working with his TSS, we thought it might be good to give Sadie a special activity and so over the summer we tried out a 5 week class through The Pittsburgh Ballet Theater School. Needless to say, she loved it and surprising to us, she really learned things. She would "teach" us how to do curtsies and use phrases that we know she learned from class. After that success, we decided to sign her up for the year. So every Thursday morning, we scramble to get Caleb to preschool and get her to ballet and she's loving it. To top it all off, we're attending The Nutcracker Ballet for the first time this year and she absolutely can't wait to go.

Sadie is very smart but doesn't always use it for good, like her brother. She's learned manipulation and tries very hard to "cute" her way out of trouble, i.e. shrugging her shoulders and grinning when she's caught doing something wrong. I swear sometimes I think I'm living on a sitcom with the antics she comes up with.

Sadie has added more people to our family over this past year... Margot, Sal and Ziggy. Just look back at past posts and you can read all about them. In short, they're her friends from Mexico and they make frequent visits. She also has a Mexico Mom, a Mexico Grandma and a Mexico Grandpa. So far they've been harmless and quite entertaining. For example, her Mexico mom likes to eat ketchup on pancakes.

Sadie loves to play pretend and for a while, we never knew what name to call her. Some days she was Cinderella, some days, Clara, and my favorite, Spider-man Sadie. She's been really great with getting her brother to play along with her and that's one of the special things that we thank God for about her.

She also very much loves her books- almost as much as her big brother. She loves to sing and dance and dress-up and play soccer and ride bikes. She's my active child. We've noticed that she's the kind of kid that gets more spastic the more tired she gets. It's funny to watch but not always funny to put up with.

And surprisingly she manages to have this grace about her despite being a complete clutz. I really have trouble understanding it.

Sadie's our special girl and we've had so much fun with her this year and we look forward to watching her grow over the coming year.

Afternoon Funnies!

Overheard this afternoon with Caleb's TSS...

TSS- Can you say blow? (emphasizing the sounds)
Caleb- No. I just say Bwow


TSS- If you go to the movie theater, you buy...
Sadie- Popcorn!!

the cast of characters keeps growing...

So Mexico is quite a crowded place, at least in Sadie's Mexico... we'll set aside the fact that my daughter's imaginary world happens to be in the news constantly for drug violence. i swear, we rarely have the TV on in this house

Anyways, so recent additions to Mexico-

Sadie's Mexico Grandma. This one has been talked about off and on over the past few months. Apparently her Mexico Grandma and Grandpa teach her things- best i can tell is that they are Mexican dancing instructors because she's usually doing some kind of little dance after which she says "my Mexico Grandma taught me that" and adds a little hand on her hip, flip of the hair for effect.

Well, just a couple weeks ago, we learned Mexico Grandma's name. Sadie informed me that her name was Terri and that her friends call her Aunt Terri. i can't help but wonder if she's basing her Mexico grandma off of my Aunt Terri. it's given all the Mattocks a giggle.

The other addition is Dotty-

i learned about Dotty last night while driving out to Derry to visit family. Sadie informed me of her Mexico cat named Dotty. Dotty is pink and apparently has taught herself to talk. when i asked Sadie if she spoke Spanish or English, Sadie replied that she "talks like me" which meant English. then we got distracted trying to figure out how to say hug and cuddle in Spanish so i didn't get to hear any more about Dotty.

And expect a call Aunt Betsy and be prepared to know how to say cuddle and hug in Spanish. :-)

Saving the planet... or not

in the new house, we have multiple bathrooms. This was eagerly awaited by everyone in our family. From a mom's point of view, the idea of getting to use a bathroom when one needs to and in private is a glorious idea.

Now, the kids get to use their bathroom (at the top of the stairs) and the half bath (at the bottom of the stairs) and this has worked out pretty well. They're enjoying their new independence, being able to reach the light switch and the water for hand washing. There is one downside- they are quite happy to turn the light on but somehow forget to turn the light off. So after I hear a monkey use the bathroom, I immediately ask the 3 most important questions...

Did you flush?
Did you wash your hands?
Did you turn off the light?

And of course, the monkey always replies "no" to all 3.

Now, if I should miss hearing a trip to the bathroom and forget to ask the 3 questions, I later hear the other monkey (the informant) announce to the house that the bathroom light is on. The announcement is always made and the informant monkey continues on their way- not touching the light switch. I guess there has been too much emphasis on the discussion of lights being on and not enough emphasis on the fact that we don't want the bathroom lights left on!!!

Sorry Al Gore, we're trying.

Caleb turns 5!

Another September and another year older for the boy. I was feeling even more nostalgic about it this year. Since he missed the birthday cut-off for kindergarten, this will be his last year spending most of his time with me. I can't believe he's five! I look at his baby pictures and think, is that really him with those big serious eyes taking everything in and that quick smile and of course, how ticklish and quick to giggle. My baby boy is really not a baby any more. He's a full blown little boy complete with fascinations for matchbox cars, legos, dinosaurs and super heroes.

This year has been full of some huge changes and the boy has come through them with flying colors. Grammie M lost her battle with cancer last fall. It was devastating for our family but we were able to make some great memories in those last weeks. In the midst of losing Grammie, Caleb managed to master the potty. This was huge considering that we were spending lots of time driving to and from Latrobe/Derry without any real schedule. Part of me likes to think that God showed a little mercy on me by having Caleb finally get it. It made a horrible time just a tiny bit easier.

There were questions about Grammie and lots of talk of heaven and God. Caleb was my little sunshine through it all- quick to offer a hug and always surprising me with an unprompted "I wuv you, Mommy."

Preschool was another change for him- 3 mornings a week and with new teachers. This year he was able to read and once the teachers were able to print up a schedule for him, the transitions went more smoothly. It also helped that he had a couple of buddies in his class. Andrew and Brandon were visiting from Canada and spent the fall semester in class with Caleb and on many, many outside play-dates.

Caleb continues to love reading and we're up to beginning chapter books. Mercy Watson is still a favorite but we've expanded to The Magic Treehouse books and beginning Marvel comics. Caleb loves Captain America and Ironman but Superman and Spiderman are also pretty high up on his list.

While he excels at reading, he struggles with writing and because of that struggle (I think) he resists it more. His poor teachers had quite the fight to get him to participate in the morning art activity and we have a very incomplete alphabet book but he's trying little by little. I'm not going to ask more of him 'cause this is only preschool.

At preschool, he continues to love music and movement and story time. This year also brought classroom jobs. He seemed to really like passing out napkins and door holder is always a popular job. The jobs have carried over home a bit too. He loves to be given "jobs" to do. If asked to pick up toys, whining will begin but if I simply say "I have a job for you" there's no whining and the task usually gets completed.

Caleb is still our policeman but we've also seen him improve with playing too. He spent one afternoon pretending to be a conductor for a train and taking us all over the country. Sadie is pretty successful in getting him to go along with her adventures. We've even had some issues with Margot (Sadie's imaginary friend) playing with Caleb instead of Sadie. You never know what's going to come up this house. Most recently, there have been lots of battles with evildoers.

This spring we started getting Caleb services to deal with some of his Asperger's issues. Stephanie and Thao came to our house and began working with him in June. They worked on getting him through transitions and used to doing tasks that he doesn't really like. They were really good with him and helpful for us, figuring out how to navigate with Caleb's struggles. The move interrupted things for a bit but I still think the time was helpful. Now at the new house, we've just started with a new TSS and BSC and they're excited to work with Caleb.

Over the summer, we bought and built a new house. This was probably the best way that we could have handled moving. They broke ground at the end of April. We were able to come of out and check it out through all the stages of building. This seemed to really help Caleb get use to the idea of a new house. Once we discussed that there would be potties and that they're toys would be at the new house, they were very excited. We've been in the house for almost 2 months and Caleb has loved it. No tantrums, no sleepless nights, and we now have drive-way dump-truck luge for entertainment.

The little boy is growing up and surprising us with new things everyday. Happy Birthday Monkey-Man!



First time on a horse at Derry Ag Fair



Soccer Skills



The Big Blizzard- we finally got him to play outside with gloves and a hat



Getting Our Christmas Tree



Halloween '09

Sadie's New Friend

No, it's not herself :-)


Our first friend in our new neighborhood is a real live girl, as opposed to another one of Margot's entourage. "A" lives in the house down at the corner and turned 3 in June (they'll be in the same class when they start school in a few years, of course).

Now besides location, what makes this match perfect is that "A" has quite an entourage of imaginary friends as well. While Sadie seems to collect Mexicans, this girl has dinosaurs- apparently she's recently watched The Land Before Time and it's had quite an affect on her.

We met at the playground yesterday and the two quickly began racing around the playground trying to escape from the "hot water." Not sure what the story was there but they seemed to be in a jungle.

Sadie was not shy at all (I think we're all hoping that she'll be our ticket to meeting others in this neighborhood). She also was not bashful about forgetting the little girl's name. "Hey kid" she would yell to her and "A" would ignore her not expecting to be called "kid". I tried to remind her what her friend's name was only to get an "Oh, Mom" accompanied by the eye-roll (I thought that wasn't supposed to start until she's at least 10).

The girls played and I was able to chat a little with her mom and then potty-time signaled the end. I just have to say, I'm so glad our house is close to the playground, especially when someone suddenly has to go potty.

Drive-way, Dump-truck Luge

This is our new entertainment at the house. I should probably discourage them from doing this but they're having such a good time and I actually get a kick out of Caleb doing something reasonably dangerous. This might all change when they end up needing a trip to the ER.

All Aboard!

So I'm trying once again to post a bit more frequently about our days, instead of having to write out long posts that take forever. So here it goes... :-)

Today was huge in our world. Caleb did 2 major things-
1. He pretended that he was a train conductor and took Sadie and I on a tour of the states.
2. He tried a tiny bit of pork chop and kept it down. Plus, he decided that he liked pork chops.

Now for any other child this might not be huge. In fact, Sadie often is a different character every hour of the day and she also tried pork chops tonight. But for Caleb, these things are more challenging. Caleb has been insisting that he is Policeman Caleb since he was 2.5. No matter what the game of pretend we are playing. It took us months to get him to let us pretend to be different things (I thought I was forever going to be Ballerina Mommy). We've tried lots of things to help him with this but nothing worked.

So the boy wants to be a policeman. What's the big deal? Well, it's not really but our little man is spending more and more time interacting with other kids and we've had situations where the kids want to pretend one thing and The Policeman doesn't fit in. This is a part of play and a part of socializing that the little man needs to learn and it's huge to see him take that step today.

And the pork chop... well, everyone knows a picky kid and funny, we've learned that pickiness is contagious. Caleb has also had eating issues. Right after turning 1, he went from eating everything to only eating a handful of things. It's a little more than just being picky. Even when the boy wants to try something, he will gag and vomit either as soon as he puts it in his mouth or even after he's managed to get something down. It makes mealtimes rather stressful. And as I mentioned, it's contagious. The little princess sees that brother gets special meals and doesn't have to eat what Mommy and Daddy eat, so she throws a fit.

This week we decided to try something new- a food chart. I read this somewhere and thought it might work. The kids each have a chart with 3 columns- Foods that I like, Foods that I tried, Foods that I don't like. They can put anything in the I like columns but for the dislike column, they can only put something there if they've already tried it and marked it in the tried column. And of course there is a reward. We tried having the same reward for each kid but our kids are motivated by different things. If Sadie tries 10 different foods, she gets a trip to Bruster's for ice cream. If Caleb tries 10 things, he gets a Captain America action figure. I'm really praying that this continues to work. It would be lovely to only have to cook one meal an evening instead of 3- what andy eats, what i can eat, and what the kids can eat.

Okay, so this hasn't been a really short post but maybe I'll get better. Now, a photo from this evening. This is where we found Sadie sleeping. Too cute :-)

Ch-ch-ch-changes...

So where have I been for the past month...backpacking through Europe? a cruise in the Mediterranean? undercover, saving the world from imminent destruction? Nope. We've been moving and not even to an extravagant location. We moved from Oakland to the North Hills. Please, don't misunderstand, I absolutely LOVE our new house, it just seems like there was a whole lot of work going in to a move only 15 minutes away.

This all started back in February, right after the ridiculous snowfall. Andy and I had come to the realization that our little house in Oakland was not going to cut it forever. It was a nice little 3 bedroom place but that third bedroom was smaller than many walk-in closets around these days. It was not going to work and having a boy and a girl, they weren't going to be able to share a room forever. So we decided to start looking for a bigger place. Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of houses on the market right after record breaking snowfalls. I was looking online and found some new construction websites. I had always been curious about them. Andy agreed, so we decided to check out a couple.

I never thought we would actually do this. Of course, the model homes were gorgeous and we thought, there's no way we could afford something like this. Then we started doing some more research. Andy and I are not fix-it-up kind of people. We don't like spending weekends re-modeling. The idea of having a house already done and better yet, we pick out how it looks, this was looking better and better. Then the first week of March we got a call. There was a big sell off of lots in the community we were interested in and so if this was what we were going to do, then we needed to decide quickly.

So on Andy's 30th birthday, we bought land, or rather, our lot for our future house. They set a closing date for August 25.



And over the course of the next 3 months, our house began to come together as we got to decide cabinets and flooring and counter tops. It was very exciting and very overwhelming at times. We also had to put our house up for sale. Amazingly, it sold after only being on the market for a week and a half. And our buyer happened to be a girl who lived across the street from us. Selling the house was not the best experience but thankfully, God brought us through and worked out all the details.

Then it was time to pack. Little by little, boxes began to fill up. And we were also able to take little trips to watch the progress of our new house. I think this was so incredibly helpful for our little man who struggles with change and another reminder that God knows how to take care of us. Caleb and Sadie both were very excited by the new house but were also full of questions...

"Will our toys come to the new house?"

"Will our beds come to the new house?"

"Will our new house have a bathroom?"

The bathroom thing really seemed to have them worried. They we relieved to learn that the new house would have 3 bathrooms. This is big when you come from a house with 1 very awkwardly shaped bathroom.




May came and went. June 1st we closed on our old house (and started renting for the next 2 months). Then it was July. Then mid-July and oh my, we needed to get going. All the while, we kept visiting the house and seeing how quickly it was coming along. The second to the last week in July, we learned that it was possible that the house might be finished early. (Duh, we thought to ourselves and then scrambled to get the paperwork together for closing).







Amazingly, everything came together. We changed around movers (since we no longer needed to put our things into storage) finished packing, painted most of the old house (and hired painters to finish that) and closed on our new house July 30 almost 1 full month ahead of schedule. The moving truck dropped our things off at the new house and we went on vacation. That's right, our family vacation to NJ had been planned in 2009, way before this craziness started, and we really needed a break so we took off for Ocean Beach, NJ. We had a wonderful and relaxing week there and we were able to leave the kids with G'ma Jody and PopPop Pat for a few extra days. With the kids at G'ma's house, Andy and I were able to get beds assembled and the kitchen put together without extra helpers.

So we are well into August and enjoying the added space (and multiple bathrooms) in our new house. We're slowly unpacking and organizing. We're trying to coax our lawn to not completely die on us and slowly starting to meet neighbors. Most of all, we're enjoying the quiet that is part of living in the 'burbs- no speeding hot rods and motorcycles down our street and no helicopters circling overhead.

Usually it takes Andy and I a ridiculously long time to make purchases, even something as little as a toaster oven, we'll research for weeks (in the midst of that right now). Buying and building this house over such a short period of time was completely out of character for us. The only explanation I can find is that God has a plan for it. There was a plan for us 4 years ago when we learned we were unexpectedly expecting Sadie. There was a plan 2 years ago when Andy was looking for a job and only had offers in Pittsburgh. There was a plan for us to be in Oakland, walking distance to Magee Hospital. I know there's a plan for us to be
here.

More From Mexico

In an earlier post I discussed Sadie's new imaginary friend, Margot. She's from Mexico and apparently this is where Sadie has a second home (with lots more toys). Margot still visits frequently and is sometimes joined by her brother, Sal. They often have opinions on what Sadie will or won't do. For example...

me- "Sadie, would you like to go to the library?"
Sadie- "hmm, let me ask Margot and Sal"
she whispers to Margot and Sal, then
Sadie- "yes, we would like to go to the library"

It's cute but can also drive you crazy sometimes.

At dinner the other night, we were informed that in addition to Margot and Sal, she also has a mom and dad in Mexico (of course). We were having pancakes for supper and the little girl was trying very hard to get ketchup for her pancakes. Our children don't seem to understand ketchup as a condiment but is instead a side dish and happily eat it up with using their fingers. We said she could have ketchup if she would eat some sausage but she refused. She then explained "My Mexico mom likes to eat ketchup on her pancakes." We still didn't cave on the ketchup.

A little while later, the girl was angling for a choc. chip cookie for dessert. The rule in our house is that pancakes are so good, they're like dessert (all that maple syruppy, yumminess). So on pancake night, we don't do dessert. After reminding Sadie of this rule, she replied "well, my Mexico dad eats syrup on his choc. chip cookies."

Looks like I might have to offer some parenting advice to Sadie's Mexico mom and dad. Hmm, I wonder if they're willing to contribute to her college fund?

The Wood Book

On one of our trips to G'ma Suzie and Papa Joe's, Caleb discovered one of Papa's wood project books (aka The Wood Book). Caleb has been fascinated with instructions, which continues to baffle me because I still have difficulty reading the full direction even when cooking- I read the ingredients and then kind of just throw it all together... Anyways, the boy pours over his Lego directions with more intensity even then he actually plays with the Legos and one of his favorite set of directions is to our Wii Sports Resort video game. He even reads the directions to using the Wii remote game directions are not available.

So Caleb loves directions, of course he's going to love a book that is all directions for making things. It took a couple of trips to start remembering what he wanted when he asked for his Wood Book but would ask for it as soon as we got in the door.

Most recently, we were out there for Father's day and Caleb (while reading the Wood Book) decided that he wanted to make something from the book. Now the book contains all kinds of projects, bird houses, book shelves, tables and chairs, even toys. The boy wanted to make........... napkin rings.

Tea Party at Winnie Palmer Nature Reserve

 

 

 

 

My good friend, Kelly, invited Sadie and I to a mother/daughter tea party at the Winnie Palmer Nature Reserve. (Don't worry, there were no politics involved. This was the old fashioned, fancy-hat and dress kind of tea party)

The nature reserve is located on a strip of what used to be farmland between St. Vincent College and Rt 981(?) I'm really bad with street names but it's across from the Dairy Queen in Latrobe and I think it's a beautiful spot. There's an old barn and lots of trails and growing things to look at. And on a side note, Winnie Palmer was the wife of golfing great, Arnie Palmer and it was her idea to preserve this land from being commercially developed. She also passed away some years ago from uterine cancer (the same that Mona had) and sadly wasn't able to see the fulfillment of her idea. It's still a beautiful spot and it looks like it will be offering much more to the community.

The tea party started at 10AM so that meant we couldn't have our usual leisurely Saturday morning. We needed to be up and dressed and out the door by 9. Fortunately, the kids were up early and we made it out there in time. Sadie happily wore her Easter dress and tennis shoes (I know better than to try and put dress shoes on this girl). Unfortunately, the little princess had a very busy Friday, no nap, up until 10PM Friday night and up at 7ish the next morning. This made for a grump instead of a princess. We arrived before our friends and I thought we could walk on the trails and take some pictures. My dare-devil child strangely decided to be afraid of the walking trails including the little 6 ft path through the butterfly garden. She completely flipped out and cried any time I tried to take her away from the front of the barn.

Kelly and her daughter arrived and we went in for tea. The tables were really cute with little flower vases and bowls of sugar cubes and miss-matched tea cups and saucers. The girls were happy to sit down and begin pretending to sip their tea.

Tea was served shortly with finger sandwiches, cookies and strawberries. Sadie got to have some lemonade from her tea cup (she's not a fan of tea) and she tried her first PB and J sandwich. Yep, she's had more peanut butter sandwiches than I could count but never ventured to add jelly to that and you would have thought that I was asking her to try brussel sprouts with the resistance I got to the PB and J but somehow she managed to get down 2 sandwiches. I did have to rely on bribing her with a cookie though.

She made it through the tea without having too many tragedies. There was the incident with the ice in her lemonade. I couldn't get over the tears from the little girl for having to eat an ice cube... but all was well once the rest of the ice cubes were removed from her lemonade. Then she split her lip. Truly, it's not a successful tea party until you've got blood on your party dress... It wasn't bad and we've actually gotten used to this happening. Sadie's chipped tooth is very sharp and often does some damage when she bumps her mouth. She was walking back to our table and simply bumped into a chair. I never thought that it would result in blood but sure enough, her upper lip was cut and bleeding. We put some ice on it and she had a drink of water and we were pretty much done.

We took the girls out for a little walk and then it was time to say good bye. It was a really cute event and I hope we can do it again next year.

April Showers

Yesterday was a bit of a rainy day but the sun came out for a bit and I was able to convince Sadie to go for a walk with me (of course, I just happened to have my camera). It was fun but she was a little disappointed at doing all that walking and not getting to go to the playground. I owe her a special trip this week.

Hope you like these!



I've always wanted to get a shot of one of the kids wishing on a dandelion and finally got it yesterday :-)





This graffiti wall is sooo cool! I used it for my cousin's sr pics last year but I'm thinking of doing another shoot with both monkeys at the wall in the near future.




This face is just priceless! I couldn't get her to smile naturally at all (she was so moody all day yesterday) but I love this anyways.