Mommathon

We went to WonderEve today at Wonderscope and we were there ALL DAY! We got there at 9:45 and didn't leave until 5:15 and the boys enjoyed EVERY minute. Mr. Stinky Feet was there, a musician, a juggler, they got out the StarLab and they have a brand new underwater Lego exhibit...not to mention all the other things they have to do. They even served us lunch and passed out snacks in the afternoon. I definitely got my moneys worth.


Liam in his underwater gear. He also has on a scuba pack which you can't see. Throughout the course of the day, he probably played in the Lego area for at least two hours with whatever child/ren he could find that were close to his age...and they played HARD! Their imaginations were at work. Of course, Colm was right there with them...playing with the big kids and holding his own.






Colm's favorite room...the ball room.


Pizza break!




The magician was awesome! Seriously!

I got this book for Christmas and I must say, she has some pretty good ideas about how to get extra nutrition into the foods kids already like to eat. Garbanzo bean puree in mac and cheese, sweet potato puree in mac and cheese and grilled cheese, dollops of pureed spinach hidden in pizza, cauliflower puree in noodles with butter, sweet potato donuts and pancakes, etc. Her basic philosophy is to hide the veggies or match the colors with foods they are already eating so they don't even notice it's there. I tried the sweet potato mac and cheese today. Liam said it tasted okay it just smelled funny. I am going to try it with beans next to pump up the protein. We'll see if it works. She stole my spinach and carrot juice in the brownies recipe though!

This is a conversation I had with Colm at church tonight:

C: Mom, what's that?

Me: That's the Bible. Father Rich is going to read a story from the Bible. It has stories in it that Jesus wants us to know.

C: Yeah, he's dead. He doesn't need it anymore.

Something like that

Liam and Colm are all set to see The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything. After listening to snippets of the soundtrack and seeing that they clearly enjoyed it, I bought the DVD for them. They have been singing Jolly Joes all day...changing the words...using their best pirate voices..oh, they think they are so funny! AND if you buy the DVD, they include a ticket to go see the movie.

Have you ever seen someone out in public without their makeup and not recognized them? Well, I had the opposite thing happen to me recently. I had met someone over the summer at swim lessons and she never had her makeup on since it was early and she was going to work out. That was how I was used to seeing her. Flash forward a few months and we met again in another situation only this time she had her makeup on. I would have NEVER recognized her if her children had not been with her. How embarrassing would that have been?!

This book read like a memoir which is why I probably liked it. I have been reading a lot of books lately about troubled Catholic teens and their families...not on purpose...it just seems to be the case. Anyways, I liked this book. The ending was a little weird, but the rest of it was definitely worth reading.

Liam LOVES our water machine. (Our water machine is the water/ice dispenser in the frig.) He thinks it is pretty high tech and quite a treat to get ice cold water in an instant. He had some friends over the other day and one of them said he was thirsty. Liam piped up that he could get some water from our water machine. They both looked at him like he was a little wacky when they realized what he was talking about. In our previous two houses we had a frig that had a "water machine". Liam was too young in the first house to appreciate it and in the second house we never had it hooked up because the ice maker made rusty ice. Yuck! So, in this house we got a new frig and had it hooked up...tasty water at the push of a button.

Liam throwing a snowball.


Yummy snow

This was one of the best Christmases I can remember. The boys got what they wanted, but there wasn't a gluttony of presents. We had several parties to go to, but none of them overlapped, so we could go to all of them and enjoy ourselves instead of worrying about where we needed to go next and when we would need to leave to get there on time. It was just calm and peaceful. It was a nice change of pace.

Scroll down for some holiday outing pics and some early Christmas celebration pics. Merry Christmas!

Knocked Up - Sean and I watched the uncut version, which I think means we got the raunchier version. (It's sort of the same type of humor as American Pie.) It was funny though. Just pretend like you're not an adult and that you are still in college and you won't feel guilty for watching it. I cried it was so funny.

My Life as a Dog - This is a sort of coming of age tale. It is Swedish, so you have to read it. I thought it was okay, but it won and/or was nominated for several awards, so somebody out there must think it is really good.

Leila - SUCH A GOOD MOVIE!!! Again, you have to read it, it is Iranian. It is such a good story. A young married couple who is deeply in love come to find out that they can't have children. The husband is the only son and if they don't reproduce, the family line will end. His mother takes drastic measures to make sure the family line continues. It is a great movie for discussion and a real eye-opener as far as cultural differences.

I found another memoir to read. This is the story of a girl growing up in a large Catholic family, her push for independence during her early teenage years and the trouble it gets her into.

We started Christmas a few days early this year since my SIL had to be at work on the 26th. It has been great, though. The boys have had time to play with the things they got before being bombarded with more toys. Colm's favorites are his Spiderman jammies and his remote control car. Liam's faves are his Star Wars T-shirt and his Lego sets.

The boys didn't have school today, so we headed out to enjoy the Christmas party at the American Jazz Museum. We then went to Union Station to look at the train display and ride the Spirit Train. We ended up running into my sister-in-law, her kids and my MIL when we were headed to lunch, so we got to have lunch with them. Quite a treat, since my nieces and my SIL live in Colorado and were only in town for a short while.

This book takes place in a small town in the south and is the story of two unlikely friends, how they meet and the adventures they share.

Colm and I did some Christmas baking today. We made spiced pretzels, chocolate-covered cranberries and chocolate chip cookies with an almond extract twist. The pretzels are my favorite. I can't eat them...if I get started I will eat them all and they are meant to be gifts for our neighbors. We also found some cute little snowman tins at The Dollar Store to put them in.

Every year, we sort of embrace a few books that we read over and over at Christmastime. This year we are reading Santasaurus, Christmas Trolls and Mrs. Wishy Washy's Christmas as well as our oldies, but goodies, Santa's Stuck, Are You Grumpy, Santa? and Who's That Knocking on Christmas Eve?

Yesterday after Colm's naptime, that did not involve napping, I noticed he had something in his mouth. It was gum, but I hadn't given him any. When I asked him about it he said it was old gum. Where did he get it? He told me he got it from a book in his room. (Please, dear God, don't let it be a library book.) I asked him if it was a library book and he said it wasn't. (Heavy sigh of relief.) I asked him to spit the gum out in the trash...I am still not exactly sure where the gum came from.

Since we were STUCK inside today, AGAIN, we had game day. I didn't plan it...it just happened. Before lunch we played dungeon for forever. Basically, it consists of getting "thrown" in the dungeon. Then you get out and put someone else in the dungeon. It also helps to lock the door and dramatically throw away the key. The dungeon can be in the hallway, on my bed, in the closet or just about anywhere. After lunch, one of Liam's friends and his older brother came over and they played Star Wars on the PS3 for a long while. After they left, we played dungeon again and then I taught the boys how to play Crazy Eights, Old Maid and Rummy. It was fun playing cards with the boys. It was especially funny playing Old Maid with Colm, he didn't even try to trick us when he had the Old Maid card. He would get all giggly and start pointing at it in a sneaky way. Too funny.

Lots of opportunities for fun...click here.

It's all done and he loves it! My mom is making him a rescue vehicle quilt and she got him a firetruck clock for Christmas. It will look super great once it is all put together. Oh, and I got him a print of a dalmatian to hang on the wall above his dresser...now I just need the right kind of nails to hang it with.






(Notice how the firehose spells his name)

Thanks to some inspiration from Candy, we had some craft time today. It was icy and icky outside today, the boys were getting restless and we needed something to do! Luckily, we had everything we needed. We used googly eyes, paper sacks, button stickers, bow stickers and I cut out winter caps, boots and mittens. Liam used a silver gel pen to add details to the hats. The boys had a BLAST and they did a great job. I love how Liam made his into cyclops. Boys!

Liam's room is finally done...

He knew exactly what he wanted-from the types of dinosaurs, to where they should be placed in the mural, to the little stream running through the middle of it. It turned out great and he loves it!

Colm's room isn't done yet, but here's a sneak peek...

I should have known better. I knew, based on how things were going at home, that the trip to the grocery store was not going to be the best, but we had to go to the grocery store. Really, it wasn't bad at all; the boys did great. There was one point in the trip, however, where I started to get a little irritated. There was some spilled powdery dishwasher detergent on the floor, so Colm decided to use his hands to spread it all over the floor. So, in my moment of irritation I said something like, "Come on now, Colm, use your head". As soon as it was out of my mouth, actually I think while it was coming out of my mouth, I knew exactly what he would do. He bent over, with his hiney in the air, and rubbed his head around in it. When he was done he looked like he had the worse case of lice EVER!

Finnegan Michael was born yesterday morning weighing in at a little over six pounds. Mom and baby are doing great. I'll post a picture soon!

I went to a self-defense class tonight. It was so empowering. We got to simulate kicking the crap out of an attacker. I don't know if I would remember ANYTHING we were taught tonight in the event of a real attack, but I hope that I would. If you have not taken a class like this I highly recommend it. He taught us how to attack in a way that will throw the attacker off since most of them aren't expecting someone to fight back. He also taught us when to play along with the attacker and do what they say and when to fight like crazy. Reader's Digest version: go for the groin and poke out their eyeballs. If they want your purse, jewelry, etc.-give it to them and walk/run away.

Liam really, really, really wants me to write a note to his teacher so that she will use one of her special magnets and put it up on the doorframe. See, if you write her a note saying that someone else is going to pick your child up after school or you are going to be taking one of your child's classmates home with you after school (for, let's say, a playdate), she puts it by the door so she has it at the end of the day when they are walking out the door. Liam REALLY wants one of these notes! So, today as we are pulling into the school parking lot he asks me if I have some paper. No, I don't, I tell him, but I know where this is going. (This is not the first time he has asked about this.) He wants to me to quickly find a piece of paper and write her a note telling her that we are going to pick Carson up after school. I explain to Liam that I would have to call Carson's mom and make sure that is okay with her before I can write a note. I also explain to him that I probably wouldn't have to pick Carson up since he lives right behind us and he could probably just walk over after school. By the silence coming from the back of the car I could tell that he realized his plan was foiled, for today....

Another thing I love about Liam's school is that they don't get grades on their grade cards until they are in fourth grade. Their grade cards are various continuums with certain skill levels within a discipline on each continuum. The child's ability level on each continuum is marked. This is a good way to show progress. As the year progresses, the continuum stays the same, but the mark on the continuum should gradually move down the continuum to more advanced skills as the year goes on. If a child gets letter grades that does not tell the parent what their child can/can't do it just gives them a letter.

Colm can't get enough Curious George, Clifford or Arthur. If you go to the library and you are looking for one of those books and it's not there, that's because it is at our house. He does occassionaly let us read a different book to him. His current fave is Midsummer Knight. I think what he likes about it is that there aren't any words, so every time we "read" the story to him it is a little bit different. He can also make up his own story to go along with the pics.

I was thinking yesterday about my ramblings last week about other people's decisions about family size, housekeepers and schooling and I know I have jinxed myself. I am going to get pregnant, which will bring us up to three. The child will be born in the summer, which will mean we will probably decide to hold him/her back a year so they can have a "growth year" since everyone else is. Then, since I will have three kids and won't have time to clean the house, I will have to hire a housekeeper. I should learn to keep my mouth shut, or in this case, my fingers still.

I miss my old grocery store. :( I have had to find a new grocery store. It has taken me several weeks, but I think I have found one. It's hard though. You have to figure out where everything is, which means it takes longer to actually shop. They also may not have the same brands which can be a bit difficult for the children to deal with. (Thank goodness they carry Liam's cottage cheese or I would have a mutiny on my hands.) What I like about my new grocery store is that it seems that everyone I know or have ever known seems to shop there. In the two times I have been there I have run into several people from church, the parents of my roommate from freshman year, one of Liam's former preschool teachers and a former coworker who I haven't seen in about three years. Not only can I grocery shop, but I can be social and have a variety of different reunions all at the same time. Oh, yeah, and the food selection isn't so bad either. :)

Along the same lines...I was at the grocery store near my grandma's house, which is in a small town in Missouri, last week buying some ice cream for her birthday. Wow! Small town grocery stores suck. Seriously. Not only do they have zero selection and are on the small side...when I was walking around trying to find the ice cream, I walked past the meat section where the butcher was mopping the floor talking about how good squirrel meat is. Uh, huh. I will say, however, the lady at the checkout counter was exceptionally nice.

We went to go see this movie today. I think I liked it. It was great for the kids...there was no cussing, name calling, sex, etc. I think the worse thing that was said is that a child calls another child "weird". The thing that was kind of weird about this movie is that it is being billed as a movie for kids, which I guess it kind of is since it is about a toy store. However, there are some pretty serious parts of the movie, too. It was not as light-hearted and whimsical as I thought it was going to be. The boys seemed to like it though, however, I think some of the seriousness went over their heads. So, I am not recommending that you run out and see this movie, but if you need something to do and have an hour and a half to spare...

The next movie Liam wants to see is The Water Horse and then there is the Veggie Tales movie which comes out in January.

I rarely just pick a book off the library shelf...a book I have never heard of written by an author I have never heard of...but I did and it paid off. This was a great coming of age story. I am going to definitely try out some of this author's other books.

Two nights...three dinners...very full stomachs.

*Thanksgiving, Family, Friends (Irish Gaelic)

I am SO excited that d'Bronx has opened a location closer to our house! It is so good and makes you feel like you are in a real deli. The other two locations require a day trip or a special occasion, this one is comparatively just down the street AND happens to be on the way to violin lessons! :)
I have not been to the new location yet, but the pizzas are super yummy as are the sandwiches and the apple pie. You can't go wrong.

My grandma is 90-years old today! Quite an accomplishment!

I have made room in my life for another show. If you are not watching Heroes you are missing out. Quite frankly, if you haven't been watching it, you are too late. The story line is very complex and Sean had to give me the Cliff's Notes version so I could catch up. It is so good though. Very smart writing...too bad they're on strike.

1. I don't understand why everyone seems to be holding their kids (especially boys) back a year in school if they were born anytime after April 30. I have had moms say they are holding their child back because they can't read yet. What?! You aren't supposed to be able to read before kinder. It is definitely not a prerequisite to kinder. There are kids who are turning seven in kindergarten. When I was seven I was in second grade. I also don't understand (along the same lines) the parents who put their kids in public school for kinder (because they aren't ready for kinder) and then put them in parochial school for kinder again. If they aren't ready for kinder why are you putting them in kinder at all? That said, with everything I am typing or about to type, I have never been in this situation, so I am not passing judgement. I truly don't understand. I know that some people have some legit reasons for holding their kids back, but at some point I think some people are doing it just because everyone else is. Any insight?

2. The whole three kids thing. This is another trend in parenting I don't get. Purses and jeans should be trendy, not humans. I especially don't get why it is trendy to have them all as close together as humanly possible. If you can have all three before the oldest is four, that is super trendy. I had a mom tell me once that she was having a third because the second one was going to school and she was going to be lonely. What?! Get a dog or get a job or get a hobby. Babies are not companions, they are people that will grow up. You can't keep having kids because you are lonely. Again, not passing judgement (okay, maybe a little) but I truly don't understand how the number of kids you have can be trendy. I just don't see people as objects or notches in a belt. There was a whole article in Time magazine a while back about this trend, so I know I am not making it up. Let me also say, that doesn't mean that we won't ever have another child. I certainly wouldn't have one because everyone else was doing it though.

3. One more thing...housekeepers. I don't understand why seemingly everyone has a housekeeper nowadays. I totally understand it if you work outside the home. If you work full-time, the last thing you want to do is come home and clean. There are also a million special circumstances that would warrant a housekeeper. I have had one before. Shortly after Colm was born my dear, dear, MIL paid to have someone come clean our house before Colm's baptism party which was being held at our house. With a newborn and a two-year old I just didn't have it in me to do the amount of cleaning that needed to be done for company. What I don't understand is when SAHMs have a housekeeper on a regular basis. I see it as kind of part of the job description. I also kind of think it sends a bad message to the kids. We can get it messy, but we don't have to clean it up. We can just pay someone to clean up after us. Lastly, who knows how many other people's houses they have cleaned before yours. If they are using the same mops, sponges, rags, etc. to clean your house as they did the five other people before you...YUCK!

Now that I have managed to piss off a large segment of the population, especially those with three kids, who have a housekeeper and held their kid back a year...enlighten me. Help me to understand.

Sean got a Wii for his birthday. I think Colm thinks it is his. He loves the golfing. It's too cute.

Okay, I have one more class left until I am finished with the degree I have been working on, but I MUST have this degree. Around 1999, I started looking for a children's lit degree. There was one that was available somewhere in the east or south and it was only during the summer and you had to live there during the summer. Sean was not real hip on the idea of his new wife being gone for the entire summer for two or three summers in a row. I looked into a librarian degree...I figured that would be close but it's not. You have to take all kinds of classes to be a librarian that were not relevant to what I wanted to do. I wanted to be a school librarian, but there are many different types of librarians (like a law librarian, for example) so you have to take classes so that you can be any type of librarian when you graduate. I guess that is how I got into the reading specialist program. It had to do with reading and kids, but it still wasn't exactly what I was looking for. This program, is, however. I am going to call them on Monday and see how it works and if I could do it from home or with a minimal amount of driving. I looked on their website and it isn't part of their distance learning program (not a good sign). Maybe I could even use some of the classes I took for the first master's degree and apply them to this one. That would be nice. (Oh, by the way, I haven't talked to Sean about this yet. So, honey, if you are reading this and we haven't talked about it yet, we have something to talk about.)

I read this book in three days! It was SO good. The laundry was neglected and the house was not cleaned, but I got the book read. It was one of those books that you can not put down because you have to know what it going to happen. The main character kills her mother (I didn't give anything away, it is the first sentence of the book). The story goes back and forth from the past (giving the reader background and the motive for the murder) to the present. This is the part that makes you keep reading. Is she going to get caught is she not? Will they arrest someone else? It is definitely not a happy book (obviously, she kills her mom...there are clearly some issues) but it is a good one.

Also, I have read two of this authors other books. She is such a good writer, but she always writes about some fairly serious topics. I would highly recommend The Lovely Bones and Lucky, also.

The boys had a real babysitter last night. We have always had the grandparents watch the kids, but we decided the kids were old enough and we felt comfortable leaving them with a teenager. I must also say that said teenager is also a relative and the daughter of Colm's godfather. She did a great job and the boys had a great time. We will definitely have her back again. The only downside is that we have to pay this babysitter. Grandparents are willing to do it for free...teenagers are not.

New season started tonight. This is just about the only show I make time to watch besides the 10 o'clock news, so I am glad it is back.

Another book that took me forever to read...This book was recommended to me by a friend. It is a collection of autobiographical short stories where the writers relate some aspect to their life to one of Judy Blume's many novels, including: Are You There God, It's Me, Margaret, Superfuge, Deenie, Forever...etc. I have another book on hold from the library. It is about Sassy magazine. If you never read this magazine as a high school/college student you missed out. If was Seventeen magazine only a zillion times better. So good, in fact, that my mom wouldn't let me read it. I think there might have been a lot of moms like mine because the zine didn't last more than maybe six or seven years...but it was a good run.

Sean's parents gave us a very nice (and big) bottle of beer about two years ago. They got it while traveling somewhere and Sean and I decided we would save it for something special. So, we have sold our house, settled into this one and everyone is finally healthy again. (Knock on wood.) So we decided to break it open tonight. We shouldn't have waited. This beer has been sitting around for so long, we had put so much pressure on this beer to be really good, that we were a bit disappointed. It was okay, but it was REALLY bubbly and was a bit like beer mixed with a wine cooler...not necessarily a good combo.

Sean's parents gave us a very nice (and big) bottle of beer about two years ago. They got it while traveling somewhere and Sean and I decided we would save it for something special. So, we have sold our house, settled into this one and everyone is finally healthy again. (Knock on wood.) So we decided to break it open tonight. We shouldn't have waited. This beer has been sitting around for so long, we had put so much pressure on this beer to be really good, that we were a bit disappointed. It was okay, but it was REALLY bubbly and was a bit like beer mixed with a wine cooler...not necessarily a good combo.

Liam has discovered Pokemon. Need I say more? I just hope and pray that this is not his next phase. I can handle Star Wars. I even made it through his long and drawn out (and rather intense) love of Thomas and Friends, but I don't know if I can handle Pokemon. Really. He got two Pokemon books at the book fair this week and the whole Pokemon thing just seems mind numbing. Ugh.

Liam has discovered Pokemon. Need I say more? I just hope and pray that this is not his next phase. I can handle Star Wars. I even made it through his long and drawn out (and rather intense) love of Thomas and Friends, but I don't know if I can handle Pokemon. Really. He got two Pokemon books at the book fair this week and the whole Pokemon thing just seems mind numbing. Ugh.

We have birthdays aplenty around here this weekend. It is Shannon's birthday (Sean's sister), Sean's birthday, Sean's grandma's birthday and Liam has a friend's birthday party to go to, also. On top of all of that, my sister-in-law (also on Sean's side of the family) had her baby shower today. The shower was great and a lot of people were able to make it. We had a yummy lunch and Holley got a lot of essentials for little Finnegan.

We have birthdays aplenty around here this weekend. It is Shannon's birthday (Sean's sister), Sean's birthday, Sean's grandma's birthday and Liam has a friend's birthday party to go to, also. On top of all of that, my sister-in-law (also on Sean's side of the family) had her baby shower today. The shower was great and a lot of people were able to make it. We had a yummy lunch and Holley got a lot of essentials for little Finnegan.

Liam asked us today if he could have a personal watercraft when he gets a little bit older.

Where did this come from? He was reading his Spanish/English dictionary in the car and I guess that was one of the words. I think our response was to say sure. There is no point in having the conversation at this point. We'll just say yes and hope he forgets, which he won't, but , again, there is no point in arguing about it right now either.

Another interesting thing he asked me recently while I was driving and he was reading in the back was if he could do marital arts. My first reaction was to see what in the world he was reading and to try and figure out what marital arts were. It turned out he wanted to do tae kwon do...martial arts....much better.

Liam's Class Pic




Dividing up the loot

We went to the park today and there was another boy there that was in between Liam and Colm's age. These three boys had a heyday. The height of their fun was when they discovered someone's skateboard that had been left behind and decided, in all of their wisdom, to ride it down the slide while sitting on it-two at a time. It sounds kind of dangerous, I know, but really it was fairly tame other than that they went down the slide a little bit faster. It was so much fun to watch though. They were just having SO much fun. There is nothing better than watching kids play when they are having fun. There is nothing like it.

This was supposed to be pumpkin bowling, but many of the kids found kicking the ball a much more efficient way of knocking over the pumpkins.


Making a spoooky craft

Liam had his fall concert today. This was the first concert he has had with his new teacher. He did such a great job. We were all so proud.


Getting his violin tuned before the concert.


Photo opp with his teacher after the program.

Colm at the pumpkin patch with his preschool friends.


The neighborhood party


My little Jedi fighter


Even Spidey likes to color.


Getting crafty at the church Halloween party.

The boys both still have parties at school, we still need to decorate our pumpkins, we have a violin Halloween party, plus a party at Sean's work (which I don't think we will make it to, but we shall see). So many parties...so little time. :)