Memorial Day - 2

So, for the happier post. I do feel that even in the midst of terrible tragedy that it is important, maybe even more important, to celebrate life and that it is the only way to get through the hard times. I still feel really guilty posting about a great day when I know that my friends had one of their worst on the same day.

Well, this is how we celebrated the day...

Yesterday, David invited over the families that he home teaches for a Memorial BBQ. We had a lunch-time BBQ and set the time from 12-2pm. Everyone had so much fun that they were still here at 4:30! Finally we decided to dis-band so that we could eat dinner and some had other dinner-time parties to go to.

Grilling is one of David's favorite things to do. I think, mostly, because he likes what comes off the grill. He grilled up a gigantic platter of meat (sorry to all the vegetarians out there.) Then, the others brought the rest of the meal. It was pretty fantastic.
We had 5 adults and 7 kids. The kids had a ball playing in our yard that is finally a really great place to play. And, unbelievably, the weather was gorgeous except for the wind that kept blowing tree seeds onto the table. I thought it was a pretty bug-free day too, until we woke up this morning and did a count of mosquito bite welts. Grace has 10, David has as many, and Harriet and I have a few too. Oh well... can't be perfect.
Anyway, we haven't had that much time to sit and chat with adults since we moved here, I'm sure. It was unprecedented to sit on the deck and gab for 4.5 hours almost uninterrupted! I think that this is what we miss most about our friends in Salt Lake. We used to spend hours on the front porch or in the back-yard with our neighborhood friends on a weekly basis.

The rest of this is kind of un-related, but here are some more May pictures. Also, David went birding yesterday morning. He'll have to post about that sometime.

Grace and Hattie checking out a caterpillar under the deck.

Hattie in her jammies that match her baby she got for her birthday.

Grace, Daddy, and Hattie on a little bike ride.

Grace's peeper frogs... the peeper frogs sing only in the spring at night and it is Grace's favorite lullaby. She makes us open her window so she can hear them while she goes to sleep.
The video isn't important - too dark, but just listen...

Memorial Day - 1

For younger people like us, who have parents and grandparents who are still taking care of family grave sites, Memorial Day is usually mostly about BBQ's with friends. Especially that we live in a place where none of our family is buried, we don't have the opportunity to go and visit cemeteries and leave flowers.

So, we did do the BBQ with friends yesterday. It was really a great time, but the entire weekend and last week as well has been completely overshadowed for me by a tragedy that happened to some friends of ours.

My Memorial week/week-end has been spent thinking about them. Their almost 2 year old daughter (almost exactly Hattie's age) choked on an apple last week and passed away. Her funeral is today. They live in Park City, UT, or I would be at her services instead of on the computer. I don't want to tell all of the horrific details here on our blog. It is not our story to share and I feel like people should read what they have written instead. I debated about whether I should even mention it on our blog, but it is something that has significantly changed my life and I will never be the same. I'm not sure why. I have had personal loss before. I have known people who have lost their children. I have had friends die. But, this one has sunk very deep for me. Maybe it's because I am a parent and my own daughter could be a pea in a pod with theirs. I don't know, but not 15 minutes has gone by for the last week that I haven't thought about them or cried for them.

So, I'm writing this to all of you who read our blog who are parents of little ones. I know we have lots of friends with tiny kids. Just hug them a little tighter today. I feel so bad - I haven't slept much at all for the past days, so I've been really tired and cross with my kids. But, I have appreciated them so much and I have been so thankful that I have them.

I don't feel like this is the right post to show a bunch of pictures of our BBQ or of our cute kids. So, I'll make another post for that.

If you want to read the Jackson's blog, we have it linked to ours to the right in our bloglines section under Jackson Familia. It is heart-breaking, but it is also really inspiring and comforting to read the comments that have been posted on their blog. So many people who know them and who don't know them are totally gathering to support them. It is quite amazing.

if you wanna feel good about yourself

come see my kitchen right now. I was going to take a picture of it, but the picture just doesn't do justice to how deep the mess is.

Actually, when we got home from school today and I looked around my house at the piles of laundry, heaps of dishes, sticky icky bathroom, and thought of all I have to do while the kids are in the middle of fighting with each other, hungry for lunch, and I'm on the phone with the car dealership trying to figure out when to go get my pathfinder, I started freaking out.

So, I get off the phone and I say to the kids (mostly to myself), WE HAVE NO UNDERWEAR AND NO FORKS AND IF YOU DON'T START BEING NICE AND HELP ME I'M GOING TO FREAK OUT!

(our code phrase for being way behind on laundry and dishes is that "we have no underwear and no forks" because those are the things we run out of first!)

Grace very calmly looks at me and says "go ahead mom, freak out." Like, seriously, mom, what's the worst that will happen. You're already nuts anyway, we want to see what all this talk is about freaking out. So, I started laughing my head off and did a silly crazy dance in the kitchen and the kids laughed their heads off and we all feel much better.

A Mother's Day Conversation

Happy Mother's Day 2008

After getting home from church we all sat down to eat lunch together. I had to blog about this conversation that Grace had with Michelle.

Grace: Mommy, sorry about Mother's Day.
Michelle: Why? Are you sorry about being mean today?
Grace: No, I just mean sorry about Mother's Day because I love Daddy more than you.
Michelle: You do!
Grace: Yeah, but it is close. I love Mommy 100 and I love Daddy 101.
Michelle: So at least it is close. Do you sometimes love Mommy 101 and Daddy 100?
Grace: Yeah, sometimes, I guess.

Five minutes later:

Grace: Mommy, since it is your special day, you can do anything you want. It is all OK. You can play all day and Daddy has to do all the work. It will be good. That is what Daddy does on Mother's Day.

You have to love Grace's honesty.

It is OK Michelle, we know who Grace really loves!

Grandma came to see us!

Well, we have no proof that Grandma came since she isn't in one single picture we took. But, my mom did come for 4 days to celebrate Hattie's birthday with us.

Grandma got here on the red-eye on a Wednesday morning. She takes the commuter train from the airport to a nearby town so we only have to drive 10 minutes to get her. We are so grateful she does that. The kids like picking her up at the train station too. Choo Choo!! There's grandma!

We immediately put her in the car for a shopping trip to Idylwilde Farm for groceries. Then, for a treat after lunch, she got to help rake 5 cubic yards of mulch into our new playground! After having about 30 minutes of sleep in 2 days, I'm sure she was thinking her trip wasn't off to a very promising start.We just loved having her here though. And for once she came to New England and got 3 days of nice weather in a row. That never happens to visitors.
The next day, we took Grandma to Davis' Farmland. It is a really cool place where you can see, pet, and interact with baby animals. In the summer they also have a really cool itty bitty water park for kids, but it wasn't open yet.
We were going to go into Boston with Grandma, but after weighing our options, we decided we'd get more bang for our buck and happier kids if we just stayed local and went to the farm instead.

On Friday, Grandma got the dreadful job of helping me take the kids in for pictures. Well, Hattie's 2nd birthday pictures anyway. Now that Gracie is a big kid, she got her picture taken at school! This project turned into a long morning, but we were determined to do something fun in a "historical" setting, so we still took the kids into Concord for lunch and shopping. This turned bad quick. Hattie had enough by the end of lunch and her melt-down builded up through a couple of stores until we left the last one with her shoes off, bags dragging behind, and a store owner very grateful to see us go!

David and I took advantage of Grandma and free babysitting and went to dinner AND a movie that night. We have not been to both in the same night since, I really don't know. We also have not seen a non-animated film in the theatre since we moved here.Grandma's last day here was Harriet's birthday. We went to Grace's soccer first and then spent the day making Hattie's cake and getting her little party ready. We had a really simple little party with just the 5 of us at home. It was really perfect and easy and most of all, I got to enjoy it. I hate it when I am so busy doing all the work for a party that by the time I get to sit down and take in what is going on, it is time for the party to be over. This time, I just got to be with my Hattie and the rest of my family. It was great.
Harriet loved her cake. She blew out both candles all by herself after a couple of tries.

(Hattie taking her birthday phone calls.)

Hattie had an awesome time opening her birthday presents. She wanted to play with each thing after she opened it and forgot she had more work to do. Grace got impatient because she wanted to get everything opened as fast as possible. But, it was really so cute. She LOVED every single thing that was given to her. She was excited about her new clothes and shoes, her new babies, her puzzle, her books, her elephant, and her shirt with Tinkerbell on the front. She even loves opening a card with money in it. She knows she can take the money to the paper store in a purse and get something fun.

Grace says it was the funnest birthday party.

Thanks for coming to Hattie's birthday party Mo Deb! You made it perfect.
We love you and we were so sad to see you go.

Happy Birthday Hattie!

This is a few days late, but I want to write a little letter to my Hattie for her birthday:

To My Sunshine Girl,
You are an amazing little kid. I have put more work into raising you than I have put into any other project in my life (and I have done lots of big things!) You tire me out to exhaustion and at the same time make my soul smile as bright as the sun. Yes, at the exact same time! You started screaming when you were two weeks old. You turned two years old on Saturday. When will the screaming stop? Well, if it goes along with your hilarious personality and your adorable dimple, then I guess you can keep screaming.

I am in awe at how smart you are and how athletic you are and how kind you can be. You have started to say the word "sorry" when you do something that hurts someone else. You give the best kisses and hugs. You love your sister so much that it hurts her! You are a mommy's girl and a daddy's girl. You have a smile that would melt the polar ice caps - even if they weren't already melting. Everyone who meets you comments on your cute dimple and your dazzling blue eyes that are now turning a shade of green like Grace's. You have the softest honey blond curly hair that is getting to be quite long and beautiful. Mommy wishes she could put it in a pony tail or pig tails, but you don't like it to even be brushed.

When you are out with mommy, you are shy and reserved and a very good girl. You sit on Mommy's lap for 2 hours on Monday mornings during relief society meetings without complaining. When you are at home with our family, you are wild and crazy and funny. You can't go 5 minutes without begging for someone to get involved with your game or idea.

You are curious and love to learn to do anything. You want to be just like Grace and you wish you could do everything she does. You like to tease her and stand in front of her when she is watching tv. You know this will get her attention and that is what you want. You like to help Mommy make dinner. You like to climb and run and jump and play and roll on the ground and throw things. What sports will you like when you get bigger? Probably all of them.

You love animals. You love your doggies, the ponies at the barn, the birdies in the window, the kitty cat at the mailbox, and any other animal you see. You also love babies! You can't get enough baby dolls and you love each one that you have. You also love real babies and any pictures of babies that you see. You go to bed every night with at least a baby and an animal. You also love your pink blankie! It goes everywhere with us. You are like Linus from Charlie Brown.

You like to go to bed early and get up early. Mommy is the opposite. You like getting up with your daddy in the morning when he gets ready for work. You like it when we are all together and you don't like it when one of us is gone.

You hate to be in your carseat, but you constantly go to the mudroom and get your shoes and jacket and say "go!" I don't know where you want to go.
I wish I could go everywhere you want to go.

You picked out plates with suns on them for your birthday party and mommy made you a sparkly sunshine cake. You are my sunshine girl.

I could write about you all day. You are taking a nap right now and you will be up soon. So, Mommy should get something done before you give me something else to do.

Happy Second Birthday Hattie!
Love,
Mommy

I'm a soccer mom

I don't have a minivan (and I'm not going to say "yet" either), but I am officially a mom with a kid in soccer every Saturday.

Grace started munchkin soccer today. It was a perfect, beautiful day. We were actually supposed to start last week, but got rained out. She's not on a "team", but there are about 40-50 kids from town (ages 5-7) who come together and learn how to play soccer. They have a group of professional soccer players who come and help the "dad coaches."

(Grace is the one raising her hand - she always is first to raise her hand.)

The kids start with a group warm up and run around the field playing tag. Then, they separate into 7 teams in different parts of the really big field and have little skills games and scrimages. It's 1 hour 15 minutes total. I think that's a long time, but the kids didn't seem to tire and they certainly didn't run out of things to do.

I was amazed at the quality of coaching - both from the pro's and from the dads. They really taught them a lot and today was only the first day of 8 weeks. They get the whole soccer program and a real soccer ball and a soccer shirt for $50. This is the bargain of my year!
Anyway, I was really impressed and Grace had a terrific time. Harriet was even a good girl on the sidelines - running up and down and playing with an extra soccer ball. Too bad daddy missed it, but he will be taking her plenty of times without me when I work pony club. So he will be a soccer daddy too. He would probably volunteer to help coach if he didn't have to take Hattie along.

The Famous Dr. Warnick

On Saturday I had the fortunate privilege of spending time with one Dr. Bryan Warnick. Bryan is one of my oldest friends dating back to when we were in seventh grade at Bonneville Junior High. I haven't seen much of him the last 8 years as school and careers have taken us in different directions, but I still consider him to be one of my greatest friends.

So it was with much happiness that I headed into Cambridge to pick him up for a few hours of touring Boston the surrounding area. Bryan has already posted about when I picked him up. It was pretty funny listening to the admiring colleague. I have not had that experience. I am generally the one seeking out the giants in the field, annoying them, and keeping them from doing what they want. Once the praise was done, one bow-tie wearing Dr. Warnick hopped into my car and I gave him the brief auto-tour of Boston.

We had a good time seeing the sights and catching up. I didn't even mind that he was wearing a bow-tie. Despite the bow-tie, the fan club, the soon to be released book, and the PhD, I still think of Bryan as the guy who I met at 1 PM every day during the summer to play a little basketball. He has moved on to bigger and better pastures, but I still have many fond memories from Junior High, High School, and college.

Bryan did make one comment how it seemed weird that from our group of friends in high school that two of us have PhD and work for big name universities. He also made a comment disparaging himself and his degree and job. While I don't really think that I have amounted to much with my PhD, I do think that Bryan is going places. I'm not really surprised by it either. One of the things I most admired about Bryan was that not only was he smart and talented, but perhaps more importantly he had passion (something I think that I lack). While that passion was arguable misplaced in high school, he probably focused and channeled it once he got into college. I personally think that this is what led him into philosophy and an advanced degree.

I still admire Bryan. I still sense his passion and I was grateful to share a day with him. Hopefully some of that rubbed off on me. Congrats Bryan. I'm part of that aspiring fan club.

True signs of spring

Erikson's Dairy Ice Cream stand opens! Chapman family start eating lots of yummy ice cream on the few days that have been warm.

Peeper frogs start chirping at night to sing us to sleep!

Snow melts and reveals fall leaves that have not yet been raked (ugh.)

Bulbs FINALLY show their tips above ground. We might get a tulip to bloom yet!

Birds start cackling earlier and earlier in the morning. Morning comes way too early. Harriet gets up before birds.

David's bike emerges from the basement and his car starts spending more time in the driveway.

Mosquitoes in the house.

David sets up mosquito magnet. Pond is now a mosquito nursery.

Velvet gets bitten by a tick.

GRACE GETS BITTEN BY A TICK!!! YUCK!!! Can we move please? Poor little thing... she came to me a few nights ago and said "mommy, I have an owee on my ear." I pulled her ear down to look at the back of it and saw something dark and crawly. I nearly had a heart attack - I knew exactly what it was. It was a deer tick - the worst kind. Luckily, I think she told me RIGHT away when it bit her because I got all of it out and it hadn't filled up with blood yet and it is healing really really well. We have to wait the 2 weeks to be sure that she doesn't get a rash and go in for Lyme disease treatments, but it usually takes over 24 hours for ticks to transmit Lyme so we are probably safe. For now.

Tick checks every night until November.

Winter, much too cold for much too long. Spring, too wet and too buggy. Early Summer too hot and too humid. Late Summer/Early Fall - no bugs, little rain, perfect temperature - PRICELESS. I'm waiting for August.

Easter 2008

(um, any more chocolate in there??)

Well, I shouldn't feel behind about blogging for Easter. We should just be having Easter this weekend it seems! Not weeks ago!(thanks for the new jammies Grandma Barbara!)

Easter used to be a sign of spring for me. Not anymore since living in New England - especially with it being so early this year. I've been meaning to write a few things about Easter for a while, so here goes.

Our Easter was simple. The Easter Bunny did come on Easter Sunday morning. We didn't go to any egg hunts - too cold. But, the Easter Bunny did leave a little egg hunt in our house for us. He (or is it a she?) did leave a little reminder about Jesus in the Easter egg hunt. A note was left with the baskets that said there was a special egg to find. There was a picture of Jesus in it. Just enough to remind the girls that Easter is not just about spring and candy, but it is really for Jesus. Grace was really excited about it and Hattie liked the picture. I never really go over the top with these kinds of things (egg hunts or Jesus eggs for that matter), but I do like to have family traditions and things that the kids can count on and someday have good memories of doing.(the Easter Bunny decorated our playroom with all of the bunnies we had in our house - there were a lot!)(does Hattie know I just took the egg she is looking for?)

We went to church in new Easter dresses. David actually took both girls shopping and bought their Easter dresses all by himself. (Grace helped him pick them out. ) They did an excellent job. The dresses are perfect for Easter and summer.Church was very nice except for having to sit in the overflow on the back row. I guess not as nice as the Catholics make it though! After church, we went to visit Jeanne. She asked Grace if the flowers were nice at church. Grace didn't know what she was talking about. We do have fresh flowers every week in sacrament, and did have some on Easter, but no more than usual. Jeanne told us that the thing she misses the most about going to the Catholic church is walking in on Easter and smelling all of the huge flower bouquets that fill the room. She was surprised we didn't do something more than a simple arrangement at the pulpit.

Anyway, we spent the afternoon and evening just as a family. I did go way over the top and cooked a really nice fancy meal. We usually have salmon for Easter dinner instead of the traditional ham. Jesus was a fisherman, not a pig farmer! We had a few of the traditional family holiday disagreements and the stress that is caused when mom spends 4 hours cooking dinner and kids want constant attention. But what is a holiday without some family strife?

Harriet's new vocab

Not to leave Hattie out. She is way wilder than a rock star. The child who literally almost made it to her second birthday without watching a single minute of tv (her choice NOT mine!) is now addicted to the movie Shrek. She asks for it by saying "showwww, showwww" over and over and over until you just hit the play button. We try to limit her to twice a day, but, sometimes your instinct to stay sane wins over your instinct to keep her media time down. She has a lot of catching up to do anyway - she's gone 2 years without watching tv!

Her other new words include:
Mine!
Puppy!
chicks rule (sounds like schicks doool)
juice juice juice juice - this one has been going on for a while

She is definitely cruising the spectrum of the terrible twos. If she wasn't so dang cute, she would be in loads of trouble. glad she's sleeping right now...

Rock Star

ya, some day I'll get to blogging about Easter...but for now, forget American Idol - we've got a rock star in the family.

Grace wore her new cool sunglasses to pre-school on Monday (it was gray and rainy.) Her teacher asked her why she had them on - she said "I'm a rock star."

We've totally gotten into this guitar hero thing. Grace really can't play much because she's not quite quick enough with her fingers, but she loves to watch David and me play it. We're getting addicted. It's really super fun.
You know you're in trouble though, when your 5 year old's new favorite songs are:

Evenflo
Welcome to the Jungle
Slow Ride
Rock and Roll all Night

Last week, she didn't even know that Pearl Jam was a band. This week she's making me play Evenflo over and over on my ipod in the car.

She got some sweet hair color from Aunt Jess in Salt Lake and she put some cool red and blue rock star streaks in her hair tonight (don't worry Grandma - it only lasts until you wash it.)

ROCK ON!

to Utah to Utah

Yes, we went to Utah again. We like to make our seasonal trip back to see family. We have our usual routine, but we decided to do some different things this time to mix it up a bit. Lots of things about this trip were different...

First, let's not forget the AGONIZING trips there and back. Wait, yes, let's forget them so I have it in me to do it again. Grace has always been a world-class traveler. She loves the airport, taking her shoes off at security, putting her back pack through the scanner, the plane, the seat, the movie, the drink from the airline attendant, everything. Harriet HATES EVERYTHING ABOUT TRAVELING. She screamed all the way there and all the way back. Poor thing, though, she had a double ear-infection on the way there and I didn't know any different because she never gets them and I thought she was just her usual unhappy traveling self. So, yes, our trip started with a trip to urgent care - nothing changes.
We spent lots of time with grandmas, grandpas, aunts, and cousins and a few friends. (sorry if you're reading this and got skipped this time friend... we still love you...)
After all the birthday celebrations, we got out and did a few things. We spent time at some of our usual hang-outs - the zoo, mo-Deb's work, and the Training Table, but we added lots of new things. We went to the aquarium in Sandy, took Traxx with Grandma and Grandpa Chapman to the museum of Church History (spent most of our time in the Children's exhibit), and Grace and I went skiing at Alta. Grace had a rough day on the tow-line at Alta. When I say "day", I mean 30 minutes. It wasn't her happiest moment, but she and I made it up and down a few times together and then we went back to the deck at the lodge to enjoy the ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL 60 degree day. The drive up and down Little Cottonwood Canyon on that day made everything else worth it. And, she says, she will try skiing again with daddy.

A few notable things about this time spent with family was that Sean finally decided that he likes his cousins. Up 'til now, he has never enjoyed spending time with Grace and Hattie, but this time, they TOTALLY played together and had the most fun. This made things even harder to leave - to know that they could be good friends and play more often... At least he likes us now.

We also got to spend more time with Aunt Jess. Since she is living at home again for a minute, we got to see her every morning when she got ready for work and sometimes at night. We usually don't get to see much of her, so we were thankful for seeing her every day. The kids got to know her much better.

Grace went to see her dentist, Uncle Randy, to find out that she has 4 CAVITIES in her teeth! Yikes! I feel like the worst mom ever. We're getting 2 of them fixed tomorrow here in MA.We tried to do a few Easter things too. We took a few pics of the kids in their Easter outfits and did an Easter Egg hunt with Mo-Deb. Grace dyed Easter eggs with Aunt Em and mailed them home to herself. All but one were broken when they got here.

On our last day in SLC, we had a late flight, so we had time for a quick outing in the morning. We went to the Discovery Gateway Children's Museum and went to the Sesame Street exhibit. That was SO much fun, and a great way to end our trip. We said good-bye to the ALMOST 70 degree weather (I know it got colder this weekend) and came back to MA where it is only 30-40 degrees. Spring can't come soon enough for me man.

Probably the hardest and saddest good-bye though, was Grace's good-bye to Grandpa Earl. She really really really loves him. She wanted to take him home on the plane.As always, we are so thankful for everyone who took time to spend with us and made our trip so much fun. We'll be back in July for lots of Chapman Family Reunion Fun! :-)

Catching up...

Well, I meant to blog about Grace's birthday the whole time we were in Utah, but never got a minute to do it. Now, I'm behind on the whole trip and Easter too!

I will start with Grace's birthday. Turning 5 was a pretty big thing for her. She has wanted to go to school since we can remember. She has wanted to ride the school bus since we moved here and she saw the school bus picking up the kids across the street. Here, the bus comes right to your house! Turning 5 means that she is getting very close to this big fun thing. Kindergarten registration is this week!

Her 5th birthday was celebrated, um, 6 times. Celebration #1... She had a GREAT birthday party with some little friends. She invited 7 kids over from pre-school, church, and town. It was her first real birthday party with friends.
This is what they did at her "somewhere over the rainbow" party:
1- decorated their own puzzles to take home (along with a new set of crayons for each kid.)
2- had a treasure hunt to find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow
3- tried very hard to break her rainbow "5" pinata (see post below for pic), but eventually, daddy had to step in with the bat and break it to get the candy out
4- had pizza and rainbow birthday cake.

Grace was pretty funny. She insisted that I make her cake at home and buy ice cream to go with it. She helped me make it (which was why she wanted a home-made cake), but she didn't eat any of it. She didn't eat any ice cream either. Weird kid. At least she really liked her cake and her party. It was exhausting though. I thought after teaching 30-40 high school kids at a time I could handle 8 five-year-olds in my house, but I was WRONG. There is a big fat reason I never taught elementary school - I don't have those SKILLS! Still, it turned out pretty well and Grace had a blast which is all that counts. Grace's favorite present: the wii game "MaterNational" which is a Cars racing game. She's playing it right now.Celebration #2... we failed to mention that we had Grace's party on David's birthday, so after the party, we went out to celebrate with Daddy. Grace and David wanted to go candle-pin bowling so that's what we did. Then we came home to have some good soup and more presents for Daddy. Daddy turned 33. Good number.

Celebration #3... took cupcakes to pre-school so she could have a snack-time birthday party at school.

Celebration #4... went out to dinner with her friends at McDonald's after dance class on the day of her real birthday.

Celebration #5... move the party to SLC! We left the day after Grace's real birthday. Last year we went to SLC for Hattie's birthday, so we figured it was only fair to go for Grace's this year. We had our first party there with David's family. Grace and Grandma made cupcakes and they all gave her a very nice party with presents and good food. Grace requested salmon and mashed potatoes for her birthday dinner.
Celebration #6... have a party with Aunt Jessica at my parents' house. Jessica's birthday is 3 days after Grace's, so we were in town for it. We wanted Grandma Primmer to come and make it a three-some since her birthday is 2 days later, but things didn't work out for her to make it. Grace and Aunt Jess had a great little party with a Tinkerbell cake and, of course, lots more presents.

Even Grace was tired of having birthday parties after it was all over.
Well, Gracie, you're officially 5 years old! Watch out for big girl stuff!!!

A quick birthday letter to Grace

Dear Grace,
It's a crazy day that you have turned 5 years old! Five years old is pretty cool. I cannot believe that it's been 5 years since the day you were born. It seems like forever and yesterday at the same time. You are the best little girl I know. I want to make a big long blog about you, but we are busy busy packing and getting ready for our big airplane ride tomorrow. I just want you to know that your mommy loves you a hundred thousand million bajillion. So does your daddy and your little sis. I am so proud of all of the things that you do and that you know and that you are. You are so smart and beautiful and funny and nice and kind and great to be with and you look at life with the best attitude and you love the world around you. Those things make me so happy that I'm your mom.When we get to grandma's house, I will blog about your birthday party and all of the fun things you got to do this week. But, I didn't want to let the night go by without writing you a note on the blog.
Happy Birthday Grace!
Love,
Mommy

I won the battle of the sleep

At least I think I did...
Our family had not slept through the night since Christmas, literally. So at the beginning of February after one particularly terrible night, we decided we'd had enough. I read every message board on the net, looked up the super nanny web-site and watched her videos and went upstairs the next night with a half dozen different techniques to try.

Our main sleep issues were: Grace is almost 5 years old and still required a person to sit by her on her bed until she fell fast asleep. Most nights this only took a few minutes, but sometimes up to an hour. This, we decided, had to go. Then, she had been getting up multiple times a night and yelling "mommy" and waiting for someone to go to her door and tell her that she could come get in bed with us.

Hattie had an exhausting "planets aligned" routine that often fell apart after much time spent and had to start over. It was taking a good hour to put her down for a nap and for bed-time. Then, she was getting up multiple times a night too and getting in our bed and not sleeping after that.

What do you do? Well, after reading the message boards, I've decided that there are few 2 year olds in America who actually do sleep. Still, it's no consolation that other parents are walking zombies too. You still want to sleep!

So, we tried everything from sitting in Hattie's room until she fell asleep to putting her back in bed and leaving and shutting the door (sometimes 35 times a night each time she woke up before it worked.) I tried the super nanny sit by her bed and then the next night move closer to the door and then the next night to the door and then eventually out of the room. This did not work well either. We tried locking her door from the outside (THIS WAS SO MEAN!!!!! David wanted to do it and I didn't, but I got desperate enough one night to try it.) She wouldn't stay in her bed and fell asleep in front of her door on the floor. Then, I tried putting a baby gate over the door with the door open. Still wouldn't stay in bed and would bring her blankie to the gate and put her head on the gate and wait for me to come back.

All this went on and on for nights. Finally, I won the battle of wills and she would stay in her bed if I stood near the doorway. She has a bathroom connected to her bedroom that you have to walk through to get to the bedroom. Eventually I just moved into the bathroom where she couldn't see me and each time she got out of bed to find me or I could hear her sitting up, I would go in, lay her back down and say "time for bed" and walk back to the bathroom. After many many nights of this, she finally started staying in her bed, but cried when I left and wanted to sit up and wait for me, so I just kept saying from the bathroom "time for bed." After a couple of weeks, I only have to do this once from the bathroom and now I can walk out and shut the bathroom door. She still won't let me shut the bedroom door, but I can go back in later and shut it so that I can use the bathroom at night! I haven't been able to use that bathroom in the middle of the night forever.

Then, she was still getting up in the middle of the night. Same thing over and over - time for bed, time for bed. Until, yes, I can't believe it, she went to bed and slept through the night last night without one complaint! YES!!!!!!!!!!

As for Grace, she is just plain scared of the dark. David bought the girls a set of new cool LED night lights. 6 of them. Hattie has 2 in her room and one in the bathroom and Grace has 3 in her room plus a really bright night light behind her bed to light up the dark corner that scares her in the middle of the night. I finally convinced her that she could fall asleep if I turned off her light, left her door open, and walked across the hall to my room with my light on. I've been doing a lot of reading waiting for them to fall asleep. It was taking so long, but now I don't have time to read much. I walk across the hall, put my jammies on and by the time I'm done Grace is asleep and I can shut her door and move on. She's also sleeping through the night too - last night was the very first night that BOTH of them have gone to bed and SLEPT ALL NIGHT!!!! Seriously, this is the biggest victory for me.

I am also well aware that this may not and probably will not last forever. Something will mess it up. Like, say, going on a trip this week for 2 weeks and sleeping in different rooms and beds!!! I know I'm toast. But at least now I know I can win. I wasn't so sure before. I have been through these sleeping things many times before, but never felt like I really won the battle of wills. I've decided there is no easy answer or formula. Each kid is so different and has their own set of little issues that you just have to keep trying different things and be willing to not give up. It has taken 4 weeks of pretty much no sleep to solve the problem and get one complete night of sleep, and YES, it was worth it!

priceless

8 inches of new snow: FREE

New orange sled from the outdoor store: $20

A new pile of snow on top of an old snow bank on top of the already steep slope in the yard: 1 hour worth of work with the snow blower

Sledding down your own backyard: PRICELESS