1 year ago today...

I'm pretty sure it was one year ago today that I discovered I was preggers. My how time has flown! I remember bawling and bawling that day, and being reassured by those I love that things would be okay. (I think one of my favorite of those was Tara saying "I'm trying REALLY hard to be sad for you, but I'm actually kind of excited!") And here we are a year later, and things, although tough at times, are definitely more than okay! Liam is a little ray of sunlight and we're honestly thrilled to have him. And if it weren't for that pregnancy, I don't think I would've started blogging... so you have Liam to thank (or curse) for that.

I can't believe tomorrow is already October. And then next month November, and then - you guessed it, DECEMBER!!! That just seems impossible. Wasn't it just January? Yikes.

At any rate, it's a pretty nice day here, and aside from rain tomorrow, looks like we're in for a steady stream of cool, crisp yet sunny autumn days. I can dig it.

Snap, Crackle, Pop...

Well, not exactly Rice Krispies... but another rice cereal!!!

Yes, a big milestone for Liam today. He'd been expressing SO much interest in eating that we figured at just a couple days shy of 4 months, we'd try starting him on solids. He took RIGHT to it! Well, actually the first try he ate 3 bites, then cried, had a teeny bit of a bottle and sacked out in his new little highchair. But then he awoke later and we finished the meal, and he seemed to love it! See for yourself, I love how his crooked little smile seems to tilt back and forth across his face like a little teeter totter!!

PS - if you need a password to view, it's photos

Here we go again....

Oh my achin' head. Yet another reason on my list of why I hate the Fall. Crisper air, while great for sleeping, is not so great for the rest of me. My lousy circulation starts acting up, and right around now my feet go into a continuous deep freeze until April. And as if that isn't enough of a drag, once the cold tootsies begin, so do my migraines. While I do have migraines year-round, they are mostly concentrated in the Fall/Winter. And last year I finally put a correlation between the two. So, it makes sense that considering my feet started going numb last week, the migraines were on their way. While standing and waiting for Riley's bus today, all the little black spots started all over my field of vision, and I knew the headache was soon to follow. Now it has arrived. Not full blown yet, but getting worse by the minute. The thing about my headaches is that sometimes they last for only a few hours, and sometimes they last for upwards of a month.

Oh well, it'll be Spring again soon, right?

Another pregnancy injustice...

NO I'm NOT pregnant again. Let's just clear that up from the get go.

However, having been pregnant during September twice and having horrific morning sickness, my body has come to associate this weather with feeling queasy. So, every September since 2002, whenever it starts turning to Fall (although I guess technically it IS Fall now and I need to change my graphic) I feel like I'm going to throw up. Fun, huh? I wonder when my brain will get the message that it doesn't need to make me feel sick anymore. Not fair, I tell you!!

Well, not much going on here. My dad returned from Cali safe and sound last night. It appears he has gotten his California dreamin' out of his system for the time being. But he did have some fun stories to tell - my favorite being that as he was finishing his ascent/descent of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, he got to the bottom to find a family with a father dressed tip to toe as a pirate. You read that right. A pirate. Ruffled shirt, vest, hat, boots, even a (let's hope it was plastic) sword. So I said: "Gosh, I hope you greeted him with an 'Ahoy!'" To which my dad replied: "No, as I walked past I said to him 'Looks like someone lost a bet.'" Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't mind running into Jack Sparrow in Yosemite, or anywhere for that matter. But this dude sounds like a piece of work matey!! And so goes the legend of El Capitan Hook.

That's it for now, I'll try and take some photos of Riley's recent Kindergarten stuff. They're currently working on the letter "T" and writing lowercase letters. Riley writes his name quite well now and is really starting to READ! It is SO exciting.

Liam is snoozing and the boys are getting along peacefully for the moment so I'm going to try and put my feet up. Talk soon!!

Is it soup yet?

Well, not yet. I mean, it could be done at this point, but I want to take it to a higher plane. At this point, it's kind of like italian chicken vegetable soup. With some noodles. But I think I might just make it into a pseudo-stracciatella. Stir in some beaten egg/cheese, and possibly even a little spinach at the end. It'll have so much good stuff in it - I just might call it "Pot of Gold" soup.

Don't say I didn't warn you that I LOVE soup!!

Three's company...

Well, three of us are now sick. Namely Riley, Elliot, and me. Riley stayed home from school yesterday and today. I really hope he's well enough to go back tomorrow. It's such a shame to miss 2 days right off the bat, especially since he gets Occupational Therapy twice a week as well, so I'm sure he's missed one of his sessions now. :(

In the meantime, both boys are in my bed, mushed out watching tv. Riley had a little juice and a little tiny serving of chicken soup this morning. Elliot had juice and is currently snacking on a little rolled up sliced turkey breast. Liam is snoozing away in his room - thank goodness!! I'm going to try and make a giant pot of chicken vegetable noodle soup today. I'm trying to drop a few pounds, and soup always works well for that - plus with us sick, it's good for what ails ya. Mom is coming for dinner tonight, and she's providing fixins for garlic bread. I'm really looking forward to a steaming bowl of fresh soup and some golden, crusty garlic bread. The one thing about the colder weather that I like is that I get to eat LOTS of soup, my favorite food. I'm looking forward to making a nice big pot of spinach stracciatella one of these days. Sounds so yummy.

Well, even though I'm feeling lousy, I'm going to go take advantage of having the kids down for the count and try and get some housework done. Talk soon!

Good grief...

So Elliot has turned into Linus. He is constantly dragging some kind of blanket, big or small, behind him wherever he goes. And it's REALLY irritating. Mainly because my home is always strewn about with giant blankets. Ah well.

Poor Riley is sick with his first Kindergarten bug. He started getting sick two nights ago, and has been running a 100-101 temp ever since. I feel bad, but he'll have to miss tomorrow in order to stay home and rest. Plus, if their temp is over 99.5 they're supposed to stay home. Poor kid is gonna be really bummed in the morning when the school bus passes and he's not on it.

That's about it. Heard from my Dad tonight who is nearly done with the Yosemite portion of his California trip. I believe that he heads to San Francisco on Tuesday morning.

Oh, and my mom taught Nick how to make her deeelicious spaghetti sauce tonight. She has tried to show me in the past, but to no avail. It was a tasty batch, and we filmed it... so hopefully we can recreate it! My Nan was up to visit as well, so we all had some nice time together.

Other than that it appears I've been hit over the head with a writer's block... so I'll wrap up for now. Have a great rest of your weekend!!

Leavin' on a jet plane...

So my Pops took off this morning for the Golden State - he'll be gone for 10 days. But he has a fun trip planned and I'm jealous!! I count myself lucky to make it out to the grocery store for a little while. And a trip to the mall by myself? Perish the thought. Anyway, I miss him already - but I know he'll be back before I know it.

Riley got on the bus this morning, marking the end of his first full week of school! And he is LOVING it. Loves telling us about his day, bringing home important papers, etc. He already forgot his lunch pail at school one day, but thankfully it was marked with his name and so it was waiting for him the next day. So far I've lucked out with him willingly taking healthy snacks... my mom always used to pack me really healthy snacks/lunches - and only now do I appreciate it. At the time I was just bummed that I didn't have the junk food the other kids did. At least some of the other kids took pity on me and would bring in extra junk from home. Noone would actually TRADE with me, but at least I got the sympathy vote and scored snacks that way. I can't wait for all 3 of my boys to be in school and I get to pack their lunches. I'm such a food freak that it makes sense, I guess. Even from when I was young and I thought forward to possibly having kids, I always pictured a scene of me in the morning in a bathrobe lining up paper lunch sacks on a peninsula counter - with each of my kids grabbing one as they zipped out the door. Of course I don't have a peninsula, and I used to envision 2 sets of boy/girl twins... but other than that - the picture is starting to unfold.

Hoping to have a low-key weekend. This Monday marks my first PTA meeting, and the night after that is Parents as Partners night and Nick and I go in for a curriculum meeting. I can't even imagine how busy it will be once all 3 are in school. I'm already trying to keep a handle on all the kids Riley talks about in his class. I can't even keep my own kids' names straight for cryin' out loud!!!

That's it for now, I'll try and post a picture of some of Riley's Kindergarten art projects that he's brought home a little later.

Life imitates art...

Here's Liam relaxing with George from a few days ago. Okay, so it might not be "The Creation of Man", but it is sweet, right? If nothing else, I think this might be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

And can't you tell from Liam's expression that he was thrilled to find out I'd be posting his photos online?

"And they called it puppy love..."

Man, what a stinky song that is. Of all the great songs the 1960s brought us, that was NOT one of them. Did you know that
it was written by Paul Anka in 1960 for Annette Funicello, with whom he was having an affair at the time? (Kinda takes the innocence out of the "puppy love" concept, eh?) His version reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.

Twelve years later it was revived by Donny Osmond who took it to #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 for five weeks in July 1972. I guess it all makes sense - if there is any artist I can't stand more than Paul Anka (I mean, he wrote "She's a Lady" for Tom Jones, need I say more?) it's Donny Osmond. If you have 3 or so minutes to kill and some brain cells to sacrifice, you can catch Donny singing it here...

Anyway, "puppy" is the wrong animal in this case anyway. Looks like Elliot has a little (cartoon) crush. We were sitting together watching a LeapFrog movie, and Elliot says:

"Mommy, I wuv Wiwwy."

"You love Willy?"

"No, I wuv Wiwwy."

"You love Lily? Oh, you love LILY." (one of the characters in the LeapFrog movies - see photo)

"Yeeeah. She's pwitty."

"Yes, she is pretty. What do you think is pretty on her?"

"I wike heh bow. It's pink."

"That is nice."

"Yayuh. She's byoooootifuw."

You should've seen the little twinkle in this kid's eye when he was going on and on about his amorous affection for animated amphibians. Some of his looks were downright sheepish, and I was glancing over at him after he said all this, and he would get all embarrassed when she would come on the screen. Little cutie.

When did September get here?

Man. It just kind of hit me today that it's September. And that next month is October. I don't like it one bit. Winter is getting closer by the day, and that's bad news for me. Oh well, one day at a time.

It also hit me today that it's been one month since my Grandmother died. And yet it still hasn't totally sunk in. I wonder if it ever will.

On a lighter note, we had our bookstudy picnic tonight. It was great to be all together, share a meal and some laughs. The boys had a great time playing badminton and croquet, and Liam was even cooperative for long enough to be held by a few people.

Tomorrow is Riley's first whole week of school, we'll see how that goes!! I'm still getting used to waking up that early. 6:30am doesn't exactly agree with me. Welcome to the next 18 years for me, I suppose!! Hopefully by 2026 I'll have finally adjusted.

That's it for today, hope you all had a great weekend!!

Serenity now!!!

Oh boy. He did it. WE did it. He's on the bus. Well actually by now he should be in his classroom. There's another kindergarten boy on our street as it turns out, so they rode up front together. He actually got right on the bus and sat in his seat, and as I looked in, he was buckling his belt. He got buckled and looked over at me - I gave him a wave, and was expecting a big grin... but got kind of a deer in headlights look instead. *gulp* Oh well, too late now!! He should be arriving home around noon today, I'll try to snap a photo of that.

Photos from the first day!

Here's the link to the album: Riley's First Day

password is: photos

The first few are of this morning - Daddy was home for the morning and built one killer train track for the boys to play with!

I'll also get some of Liam up soon. Enjoy!!

I'm still standin'....

...yeah, yeah, yeah. (Sorry for 2 Elton John lyric references in a week, I know it's a bit much)

But, I am still standing after a big day! It actually went not quite as smoothly as I'd anticipated. I figured since Riley had attended 1 1/2 years of preschool that it would be a smoother transition than this. Once we got into the classroom, he kind of clammed up. Started losing confidence and getting really miserable. There were several crafts to do and he was mostly concerned with the fact that his hands were getting dirty from markers and such. Then he went potty and was afraid to flush because he anticipated it being very loud in a very small bathroom. He finally finished his crafts and had a fish cookie (fish was the theme of the day) - and we heard that it was time to get on the school bus for a trial. This was actually good news to me - a good way to try out the bus before his first actual bus ride to school. I asked if he wanted to go on alone, he said yes but quickly changed his mind once he climbed the stairs and looked down an aisle full of kids. We got him situated about halfway back, he was seeming uncertain but still okay. After about 5 minutes of just sitting I figured that maybe there was no ride after all, and considering it was about 150 degrees in there, I said - okay, let's make room for some other kids to try it out. But as we were just about to get off, the driver said 2 more minutes till we get going. So I told Riley, let's get you buckled back into a new seat (right behind the driver). He got all fastened and his breathing got strained and rapid. You could sense his blood pressure going up. He gave me a look that said "Whatever you do, DON'T leave me." So I did what I had to do. I left him. I told him he was going to be okay (despite looks from other parents to me that seemed to say "Is he going to be okay??") and that I'd be waiting for him when he got back. It would only be a 2 minute drive around the parking lot. The bus started, then the doors opened - I assumed it was Riley who was going to be escorted off in hysterics. But it was another little girl who'd broken down in sobs and was being brought to her mother instead. The doors closed back up, and off they went - with Riley presumably still in one piece. Around the parking lot rolled the bus, and back to it's starting point. The doors opened, I saw a pink shirt (what Riley was wearing) come my way, and I hesitatingly looked at his face for his reaction. Boy was I ever pleased when I saw a HUGE grin and heard him exclaim "Mommy, I RODE on the BUS!!!" He was really psyched, and it was then that I decided I will put him on the bus to school tomorrow morning. It's now or never.

I got a bunch of photos, I'm in the process of resizing them right now. In the meantime, here's my favorite. Enjoy. :)

Oh - and everyone was wrong on the poll!!! Neither of us cried, although if anyone came close, it was Mr. Riles.

Time flies like an arrow...

...fruit flies like a banana.

Yes, today Liam turns 3 months old. Holy cow. 3 months. Where did THAT go? And speaking of where did the time go...

It seems like just yesterday that Nick and I were in the hospital holding our firstborn, saying "Before you know it, it'll be September 2008 and he'll be starting Kindergarten." And truer words could not have been spoken. It really has happened before we knew it - here we are on Kindergarten Eve, staring the beginning of an era in the face.

Tomorrow is transition day, meaning parents bring the children directly to the classroom and stay with them for 1 1/2 hours. Normally the day goes from 8:50 to 11:30, but tomorrow it'll go from 10:00 to 11:30. Parents bring the children home as well. The following day is when the bus will start coming, and honestly, I'm not sure yet if I'm putting him on the bus that day. Part of me says bite the bullet, part of me says both he and I need just a teeny bit more transition time. So we'll see what happens.

At any rate, stay tuned for pictures of the first day - I'll try to have them up by tomorrow evening. And here's hoping I, oh, er, I mean HE makes it through the first day!!

Whatchoo talkin' 'bout Willis??

You know, there are ways to say things, and there are ways to say things. Granted, we all have different ways of talking and speaking to get the same point across. But sometimes things just come out funny. Kind of like when foreign languages get put into subtitles. Juuuust doesn't come out quite right. Or then there's the church billboards you pass sometimes with their corny (if clever) sayings... "It wasn't the apple, it was the pair.", or my personal favorite "Moses was a basket case too." I even once saw a restaurant (which was presumably failing) with a signboard saying "Eat here or we'll both starve." I kid you not.

But I passed a really dumb sign today. REALLY dumb. It was outside our local fire department and it said:

"Kids hate going back to school.
But what they hate even more is being hit by a car.
Drive safely, school is in session."

For real. It actually said that. First of all, it took so long to read such a daggone long sign that by the time I finished reading it, my eyes were off the road long enough that I could've hit something. Second of all - that's REALLY the best they can do? Come on, you're the fire department, just put "SCHOOL IS IN SESSION - DRIVE SAFELY" on the sign. And actually, aren't there more kids out playing and walking when school ISN'T in session? Hmmmm.

At any rate, enough blabbing about the mediocre signage around here. Today is a splendidly beautiful day and right now 3 out of 4 of my guys in the house are outdoors playing. It's a bit sad - I feel like Labor Day is the unofficial end of summer (much as Memorial Day is the unofficial beginning)... and with Riley starting school on Wednesday it just feels like one whole season/era is ending and another is beginning. Which I suppose is true. At least I have one more day to try and make sense of it all!