Six Weeks

Six weeks have already gone by. Six weeks have already gone by? I feel like Chloe was just born!

People keep asking who she looks like. Well, with my neapolitan kids who look so drastically different, who knows?!

So I thought I'd look up everyone's 6-week old pictures and see if I could see any resemblance that way. I once thought she didn't look anything like her siblings. Now I can see that she does!

Gary and I were laughing last night looking at these pictures. Emma's so scrawny (not so much in this picture, but definitely in others). Addie's eyes POP! Brody... that doesn't even look like him! Isn't it funny that when they're tiny babies, you think there's never been a more beautiful, perfect baby? And then years later... you look at those same baby pictures and realize that they were actually kind of, well, funny looking?

I mean, I'm sure SOME people out there think that. Not me. Nope.

So who do YOU think Chloe looks most like?

In which I ramble on and on because I'm lacking adult interaction

Hours from now I'll be starting Day 5 of Gary being away. He gets home tomorrow night. I am so glad. I am so fried. I am so tired. I am so in awe of single moms and military moms and anyone who does this regularly. This is HARD!

Earlier today I just didn't think I'd make it through another minute of the day without a little caffeine boost. So I took the last Dr. Pepper out of the fridge and poured it into a big cup full of ice. Yummy, fizzy goodness. The fizz died down and I saw a little fruit fly swimming for it's life. I scooped it out, flung it into the sink, and drank that Dr. Pepper. Oh yes I did. Desperate times, friends.

One of the hard parts is having nobody here to decompress with at the end of the day. Usually Gary is sitting over there, a few feet away from me, watching TV and nodding and saying "mm-hmm" while I ramble on and on about whatever comes to mind. I'm a think-out-loud kind of girl.

But he's not here.

Enter... MY BLOG.

I'm sitting here blogging while eating Dibs. (The Crunch variety.) Oh my gosh. Have you had them? They are so very good. But I also had some Phish Food before I had the Dibs. You know, eating like this when I was pregnant came with little guilt. But now? Yikes.

I'm also watching the season premier of Grey's Anatomy, DVRed earlier tonight. I didn't watch it all last season except for the finale. I'm so over that show. It's officially off the DVR recording schedule. Won't miss it!

Have you seen the Catalog Living website? Cracks me up. Recent ones that tickle my funny bone - September 11, 14, and 18th. But really, they're all funny. And funnier yet is that one of the "main characters" is named Gary. We've noticed that "Gary" is the name given to so many quirky characters. It drives my Gary crazy.

Another blog I'm loving lately is Mila's Daydreams. If we're friends on Facebook, you already know I love it. But you have to check it out. So adorable. Or so creepy. (I'm on Team Adorable. What do you think?)

Addie has to make a life-size cut-out of herself for preschool, and so we traced and cut her out yesterday. Then she painted it. We taped it up onto the basement door to dry, and sitting here on the couch, I can see it out of the corner of my eye. Except I think it's someone standing there. It's freaking me out and reminding me of our mannequin robot.

I finished a great book yesterday - Sarah's Key. I'm eager to discuss it with my book club. Oh boy, it was heart-wrenching to read, especially the first 50 pages or so. Have you read it? What did you think?

We're gearing up for a garage sale {hopefully} next weekend, so I've been going through my closet. It feels great to thin things out and get rid of stuff. But it's frustrating how differently things fit after you have kids. I think I probably weigh less than I did before getting pregnant with Chloe (no haters, please), but things aren't fitting right. Things really shift around, don't they?

Which reminds me... I've been following Lindsey's What I Wore Wednesday posts for the last couple of months. She takes pictures of what she wore throughout the week and posts them all each Wednesday. I'm kicking around the idea of participating because it seems fun. I've loved seeing the different outfits people put together, and it's fun to see how someone wears an item I already have. I'll do it if you do it... who's with me?

Speaking of clothes, I'm not a big shopper, but I've been keeping my eyes peeled for a pair of tall black boots. I have a few things in my closet that I think I could mix up in new ways and those boots would come in handy. But - tall black boots aren't really in the budget. And boots are pricy. I mean, hello! I don't have $1600 to spend on boots. A few years ago I was looking for tall boots and expressed that my legs are so skinny that they look ridiculous in them. (That post continues to be the #1 Google search that brings people to my blog. Weird.) Nothing has changed about my skinny legs (they all look like rain boots on me), but someone suggested that I have some custom made. Ummm... no. I'm looking for tall boots on a shoestring budget. (Except boots don't have shoe strings, so maybe that doesn't work.) So, what do you think are more versatile - tall black boots with or without heels? I like the flat riding boot style, but wonder if I'd wish they had heels... what do you think?

Alright. Bed is beckoning. Especially when Chloe is going to wake up for 2nd and 3rd dinner pretty soon. Or maybe it's 1st and 2nd breakfast? I'll have to ask her once she starts talking.

Bye!

(Gary, aren't you sad you missed all this in person? You would've fallen asleep but pretended to hear it all.)

Vote 4 Ben

Addie won a HUGE $100 bill at an arcade the other night - you know the kind, the size of a regular sheet of paper, worth close to $.00003, but the kids think it's a-ma-zing. She was studying it in the car this morning, and our conversation went something like this:

"Who is this guy anyway? Is he our mayor?"

"No, he's not our mayor. His name is Benjamin Franklin."

"Oh. Is Benjamin Franklin really old?"

"Well, he lived a really long time ago, so he's not alive anymore."

"Oh, that's very sad! Was he alive when you were little?"

"No, like a really, really long time ago."

"Like when Jesus was a baby?"

"No, after that. A long time after that."

"Is he really important and that's why he gets to be on money?"

"Well, yeah. He did a lot of important things for our country when it first started."

"And you can only be on money if you don't smile?"

"What?"

"Well, he's not smiling. Is that because he's important or because he's on money? Why is he so sad?"

"He was just posing for a serious picture."

"Well Jesus was happy and maybe that's why he's not on money. But he IS important."

"That's true..."

"I'm just really sad he died. Poor Ben."

"Well, umm..."

"And I think it's just really sad he never got to be the mayor."

Arts and snacks

Once a year I take break from apple slices and granola bars and decide to make a fun, creative snack with the kids.

Did you catch that? ONCE A YEAR. So before anyone goes all "Super Mom" on me, keep in mind that this is not the norm around here. The norm is apple slices or Goldfish crackers or string cheese. Once in awhile I might pair an apple slice with a slice of cheese to up my game. That's when my kids know I'm in a wild and crazy mood.

We signed up to supply snacks for Addie's preschool class today, so yesterday we made fun snacks for her to bring. She loved it and was so excited to bring such a fun snack to school for her friends! I found this clever idea for "crayons" on the glorious internet last week and thought they'd be a fun follow-up to last year's "pencils."

These were very easy to make, although I admit they took a little more time than I thought. It was very worth it though, because Addie loved doing this project together and they were YUMMY! The end result is worth the time. And honestly, if you don't have little hands helping you, it will go much faster.

First, break a bunch of pretzel rods in half. The more even they are, the better. If you have some really long ones and really short ones, it might mess you up later.

Melt candy pieces to dip the ends of the pretzels. I bought vanilla candy pieces that I melted in the microwave according to the directions, and then added the candy coloring. You can also buy colored candy pieces and omit a step. I might do that next time.

Dip the ends! Put them in the fridge to harden.

I made my own wrappers, although the link I posted above has a .pdf of the wrappers you can use. The reason I said earlier that it helps if the pretzels are broken into even pieces, is because if they're not, the wrappers can either be too big or too small and part of the pretzel might show. But it's really not a big deal.

They look like the real thing, huh?

The left overs! They were a hit and Addie was so proud to take them to class.

As a bonus, here's the "fun" snack of winter 2008. (You thought I was kidding about that once a year thing, huh?) Emma brought these for her preschool class. NEVER AGAIN. They had to each be assembled on their own paper plate (try balancing 20 paper plates that must lay flat and can't be stacked on the way to school...) and involved bananas. BANANAS. That means we had to do it in the morning before taking her to school. I must've been out of my mind.

And if you're wondering, it's banana slices, raisins, pretzel sticks, fruit-by-the-foot pieces, a tiny pointed carrot, half of an Oreo part (without the white stuff) and broken piece of Hershey chocolate bar. Can you say INVOLVED? Can you say NOT WORTH THE EFFORT? Can you say that my kids loved making and eating them? Okay, maybe a little bit worth the effort, but I'll never make those again. Sorry, Chloe.

If you're a TRUE friend of mine, will you remind me next time I sign up for preschool snacks that bringing in a box of Nilla Wafers is sufficient? Thanks.

Better late than never

Poor Chloe.

I suppose every "last kid" complains that they got the bottom of the barrel: fewer pictures taken of them, no "firsts" documented, hand-me-downs galore, blah blah blah (said the doted-on and spoiled first-born).

I don't want Chloe to feel that way, so I'm going to do my best to make her feel just as special as the others. But I'm failing already.

First case in point: Chloe's first bath.

The good news: We took pictures of her first bath!

The bad news: She got her first bath just three days ago. She was almost a month old. Poor neglected child.

The other bad news: I hadn't showered the day we decided to document her first bath. Or the day before. Quite possibly not the day before that either. Poor Chloe. The other kids had a cleaner mother.

Second case in point: Chloe turned a month old yesterday!

The good news: I've taken a lot of pictures of her first month of life.

The bad news: I didn't get a picture of her on her one-month birthday like I did with all the others.

The good news: I got a picture of her on her one-month-and-one-day birthday! My spin on this? I wasn't intentional about taking pictures of the others when they were one-month-and-one-day old. See? Lucky you, Chloe.

Happy one-month-and-one-day birthday, sweet Chloe. I'm so glad you're part of our family. You might be the last, but you're definitely not the least! (Well, weighing in at 8 lbs. 14 oz., maybe you are the least in some ways!)

Lotsa love - small space

Something mundane and ordinary made me really happy earlier today. It's the simple things, isn't it?

This afternoon, we were all doing our own thing when a loud rumble and *THUD* disrupted the peace in our home. Gary, Addie, Brody and I each rushed from where we were, to the stairs where we heard Emma crying. (Chloe was napping, or she would probably have accompanied me on my trip to the stairs.)

Emma had slipped coming down the stairs from her room and slid down half the staircase, hitting her head, and bruising her bum. She wasn't hurt at all; she was mostly just scared and maybe got the wind knocked out of her a little bit.

We hurried to her side, because the sound of her fall was loud enough to startle us, and we were all relieved to see that she was fine. As the others consoled her, I looked at each member of my family and was so proud of the concern and love they had for Emma. It just made my heart so happy. Within a minute or two, Emma was smiling, laughing, and had maybe even forgotten about her tumble.

And like he's teased so many times before, Gary threw his hands up in the air and complained, "we have this whole house and yet, our entire family is taking up three square feet of space!" It was true - the five of us (Chloe was still napping through all the frivolity), were spread between just two or three steps. We couldn't have been closer together. He jokes about it when we're all squeezed on to one couch cushion or snuggled up on one side of the bed or dog-piling on the floor. We all laughed and I snapped a mental picture of all of us crowded onto the third and fourth steps.

I mean, personal space? Who needs it?

I love our family.

I had a baby!

So, it turns out I had my baby!

That's good news, considering the alternative would be me being 45 weeks pregnant by now.

Meet Chloe Anne.

She was born on August 13th... one week past her due date.

She weighed 7 lbs., 11 oz. and was 19 1/2" long.

She is one loved little baby.

I wanted to introduce her to blogland before this, but other unwritten blog posts got in the way. Some of them include:

• No, Brody! Don't flush the diapers!
• Chloe, wake up... it's daytime!
• Brody, pleeeeease stay in bed.
• Chloe, go to sleep... it's 3 a.m.!
• 4:1 ratio = can't. do. it.
• Addie! Stop making Chloe "fly!"
• Wow! I showered and it's only 4 p.m.
• Emma, RUN! The bus is THERE!
• No more touching mommy today.

Another little just means more blog fodder. And it's been a month of LOTS of blogworthy material. Stay tuned!