Category Archives: family

5 Years

Well, 5 years ago today Josh and I were married in probably one of the shortest ceremonies ever (that’s just how we roll). It’s been an interesting 5 years, to the say the least. We’ve moved twice (which is actually an improvement considering how many times we’ve moved together since meeting), and our family has doubled in size. Its cliché, but the whole roller coaster analogy is an accurate one. We’ve had ups and downs, but that’s to be expected – marriage and parenting can take a lot of work at times. It’s always easier getting through the down times when I consider the up times, though. I suppose it’s only fitting that Josh and I will be spending our anniversary acting like kids and riding all the rides at Valley Fair if the weather cooperates… if not, we will still attempt to do something fun.

If we were going to be more mature, however, the interwebs tells me that the traditional 5 year gift is Wood (insert inappropriate jokes here) or the modern gift is… silverware. Seriously? Apparently the colors associated with 5 years are blue, pink or turquoise and the flower is a daisy, so do with that what you will.

If we were tremendously cheesy and sappy we would plant a tree together this year such as an oak to represent solidity or a pine tree to represent “the evergreen character of our love for one another” while toasting one another “with hope that our love continues to grow and prosper like the trees around you.” Excuse me while I snort into my coffee. No offense to those who actually think this is a good idea.

As for gift suggestions, I already know he’s going to like what I got, but apparently I was way off the mark. I should have gotten something like a magazine subscription or wooden baskets or a curio cabinet (well, perhaps for his action figures this could be okay) or better yet a “framed share of stock in a major company that has meaning to the both of you.” Well, I suppose we could buy stock in Lego or Playstation…

In any event, despite our differences and the everyday stresses that being really awesome brings, I think we’re a good team. We’re not a perfect one, but we work well together and our differences often create a necessary balance when it comes to raising two very opinionated, very strong-willed, very awesome kids. In order not to be overthrown by our tiny dictators, we have learned a lot about ourselves and each other and I’m glad I have my current partner. He puts up with my stress induced craziness and I put up with his really bad memory and snoring.

In all seriousness, though – I look forward to the years to come and what adventures lie ahead for our nerdy family.

The Chaos of Four…

While watching 4 kids at once can be a tad chaotic, I can also see how some people get to a certain point and decide they might as well have more kids because adding one more doesn’t change things that much. That being said, we have no plans to have more children, but we did trade babysitting with my sister-in-law and her husband about a month ago and got to experience a bit of the craziness parents with larger families do on a regular basis.

I think the key to having so many kids is to not have too many under the age of 3. Once they’re over 3 they aren’t as reliant on naps and don’t turn into terrors if they miss said nap, also they basically just take care of themselves so you can keep a closer eye on the smaller ones.

Also, you’d think that with more kids you would need more toys, but in the fact the opposite is true. If you think one or two kids can destroy a room fast, you should see what four can do in half that time. Before you know it you have tiny cars imbedded in your feet and even the children are stuck in limbo afraid to move because each step brings pain.

Thankfully children are easily amused, and watching a neighbor mow the lawn can be called entertainment. With luck, the children will also play nicely together in which case you’ve found the golden ticket because you don’t need to spend half your time refereeing. Phoebe still got a little jealous at times, but she’s pretty easily distracted.

It also helps that if she’s tired enough she won’t fight it and will just crash. I cannot even express just how much of a gift this is. Sure, it has its downside like when you’re trying to get her to stay up just a little longer so her afternoon nap isn’t completely shot and she collapses on the stairs or in her chair, but for the most part it’s magical. With Enzo, the stars have to align and angels need to sing for him to take a nap anywhere out of the norm. Hey, you can’t luck out with every kid, right?

Truly, though, it was nice for the kids to fully wear themselves out with their cousins. They were all go-go-go and had a lot of fun (we did too). Granted, it’s always nice to settle everyone down for a movie and quiet time too. Ha ha!

Especially that big kid in the back… he’s a trouble maker.

Ziggy Fluff

I almost said there’s nothing worse than being sick on a weekend, but that’s not true. We could have gotten sick while on vacation, which would be much worse. Now we just have to hope everyone makes a full recovery before we leave so we can completely enjoy our time away. And as much as the cats love us, I have a feeling they’re looking to some quiet time as well, and lots of undivided attention since their best buddy Dave is coming to stay with them.

Surprisingly, though, Ziggy really is mellowing and is very slowly becoming more bold. She actually went outside on the deck and rolled around in front of the door; then the other night she walked all the way to the other side! This may not seem like much, but we’ve lived here two years and she’s been too afraid to hang out on the deck because it’s not secluded enough for her liking. Okay, it also doesn’t help that we’re surrounded by dog lovers either. 😉

More importantly, though, while she still prefers the kids to keep their distance, there have been a few moments where she has stayed in the same room as them and even sniffed them and allowed them to briefly touch her before scampering off. Both kids are pretty cautious with her, probably because they don’t know if they should be scared of her too. In the meantime, the fact that all of us can sleep on the same bed is pretty impressive… crowded, but at least there are 2 happy cats and 2 happy kids, and 2 very tired parents. Ha!

Sunshine, Stress and Wellness

I have to remind myself that Enzo has only been 3 for a little over a month. Typically it feels like time is flying by, so it’s somewhat surprising to me that it’s really not going that quickly at all. I definitely need to slow down and be more present. I’ve also found myself shifting my priorities and goals and trying not to fit so much into so little time so I don’t feel as overwhelmed. I’ve been getting a lot of reading done, which has been awesome and don’t feel bad about putting off little projects I wanted to get done.

The aromatherapy studying is still happening, just at a slower pace. We had so much going on over the past few months and now I finally feel like I can just breathe and take my time with blends. I’ve come up with a few really good ones, and a few that need work, but more importantly I don’t feel as rushed and when I feel rushed, my blends aren’t as good. I think that’s the case with everything, though. You need to be able to give things the proper amount of time they deserve, but you also have to enjoy what you’re doing or the outcome won’t be as good as it could be.

There was a point a few months ago (maybe more, maybe less) where I felt so overwhelmed that if the kids weren’t in bed by 8:00 and kept getting up and wouldn’t stay down I would feel almost angry and put out because they were encroaching on my time and I needed my time to do things. Now, I feel differently. Sure, right before our trip I have things I need to do so the past couple of nights with fussy children not wanting to go to sleep has been frustrating, but at one point I finally just realized that it is what it is. No, I may not finish a few things, but that’s life. Were they really that imperative? No. So, instead I went upstairs, picked up Phoebe (for the umpteenth time because she wouldn’t let us put her down in her crib without crying big crocodile tears) and I carried her to our bed and held her and eventually fell asleep with her on my chest. Last night Josh and I took turns with the kiddos and eventually they slept – just not on time. Oh well.

I’m even at a point where I really felt like we needed to get the kids to stay in their rooms all night and it was hard and stressful, and now that we’ve kind of just caved and let the kids crawl in bed with us in the middle of the night Enzo has started getting better about staying in his room after we put him down and he’s stopped asking to sleep on the floor. We don’t always get a good night’s sleep, but I think I’ve actually been sleeping better now that we’ve just decided to let Enzo crawl into bed and if Phoebe starts crying in her crib to just bring her in. They won’t always bed share, just like Enzo will one day be fully potty trained and they’ll both give up their nuks. Working full time means we don’t see them as often as we’d like to, so I think at times they just need/want that extra time to cuddle and feel safe.

A very long post to really just say that I’m trying not to sweat the small stuff. It’s a work in progress, but I know that we’re all so much happier when we can manage our stress and just take life one day at a time and make the best of everything. I didn’t realize just how anal I could be about little things until this past weekend when we were gardening and then decided to fill the water table. Normally I would have been more careful about the kids not getting their clothes really dirty and would have tried to contain the messes more, but it doesn’t bother me as much anymore. I kind of like that I’m able to just shrug my shoulders at possibly ruined clothes and not care if they get completely soaked while not in their swimwear. Who cares! I want to be just as carefree as my munchkins.

Anyhoo…

I had my first acupuncture appointment on Monday and I’m feeling hopeful. I have an herb blend I’m taking now and didn’t have any negative reaction so the needles, so with a little work I’m hoping the whole hives issue can be resolved. As expected, I need to make some dietary changes, and so I’m doing that slowly. I haven’t dropped everything cold turkey, but I’m trying to cut back a lot on things like dairy and gluten and processed items and eat more proteins and greens. Actually, as he gave examples it sounded a lot like a paleo diet, so perhaps I should look into doing a Whole 30. I don’t know if I have the willpower, though… I haven’t given up my chocolate and last night I confess I may have stress eaten one too many rolls… whoops. Tomorrow is another day and I can try again. I already switched to gluten free oatmeal and coconut milk yogurt, so there’s that! As our friend Daniel Tiger would say, “Try, try, try, try, try it again!” 😉

Garage Sale Time!

Getting ready for another late night and a busy weekend because of the crazy decision to have a garage sale. So much stuff. Mostly baby clothes and baby items, but a surprising amount of other things as well. Now let’s hope that our somewhat remote location and other cities having city wide sales this weekend doesn’t affect our turnout. On the plus side, thanks to garage sale groups online we can pretty much advertise for free and will hopefully get more traffic because of that. The weather should also be good tomorrow and Saturday, but we’re thinking Sunday we may have to pack it in early or be shut down entirely due to the forecast of severe thunderstorms. I’m just hoping we can get rid of most of our stuff.

So that’s our exciting weekend! I almost hope we do have to shut down on Sunday and then maybe we can do another indoor picnic with the kids and just hang out and watch a movie. They really liked it when we did that a few weeks ago on a Friday night. Phoebe got a little bored about halfway through Big Hero 6, but she just amused herself by bouncing around on the couch. Enzo seemed to enjoy it and we’re talking about taking him to his first movie theater show soon. We’ll just need to find someone to hang out with Phoebe and hope she doesn’t get too jealous that she can’t come to. Both kids seem to do better when we can make separate one-on-one time for each of them, though, outside of the house. If anything, I’ll take one of them shopping with me. I may forget a lot and it’s definitely not as relaxing, but to them it’s special time, so that works for me.

Have a good weekend everyone!

Dino and Bunnies

Every day adventures