Alma's World

 Writing her name on everything and constantly wearing (or finding) her pile of necklaces

 Doing crafts at the dining room table (while James reads close by)

 Wearing her new Cinderella sunglasses (a gift from Grandma Chisholm, who is wonderfully and equally as bonkers about Cinderella)

 Dancing with James and making anything into a "beautiful gown" for dancing with James (James is usually multi-tasking and either reading or playing ball while he dances)

 Eating peanut butter sandwiches with so much peanut butter that she eats it off with a spoon

 Posing like a ballerina

Seemingly endless breakfasts as we try to get her to eat before leaving for school

These days Alma is a sweet but challenging little girl.  Her independence brings us so much joy and brings me a good number of headaches as well.  There is so much work to raising a three year old.  The dual feelings of being thrilled when Joshua comes home at the end of the day so that I can get a break from the negotiating and whining but then after she is in bed I wish we could play some more. 

Having her in school five half-days a week is difficult for me.  I seem to only experience the transitioning, maxed-out, hungry and tired version of my lovely child.  And I'm working through these maxed-out times while also trying to entertain and nourish a one year old.

Things are the worst when we are with other families and I am also trying to parent James.  I'm sure that I am not being as present to her -- trying to talk to another parent and watch after James obviously impedes me from giving her even half of my attention -- and she reacts by acting out (crying, whining and yelling).   I'm grateful that Joshua encourages us to have "girl time" on the weekends which we gladly take to do something fun together.  And she is an angel during these times with just the two of us. 

 I strongly believe that soon enough we will enjoy the fruits of her intense Montessori education, these occasional but traumatic "thinking times" (a.k.a. time outs) and all the other bumps.  I'm trying to enjoy our days, not have the bumps take me away from the joy of raising two lovely children and have the children grow to love and respect each other in the process.

Party Hardy

This past weekend, James attended his first birthday party at a Little Gym location for his friend who just turned one.

14 months

James is so unbelievably cute that I feel as if I spend my days cooing at him.  I love this age. 

I love every ...
* facial expression,
* task he tries to accomplish with his cute chubby hands,
* little waddle walk,
* the way his clothes make him look like a square little man,
* his attempts to communicate with signs and words (lots of barking these days as he is excited about dogs),
* the way he finds cozy spots to read his books (the dogs bed, behind the server, etc),
* hugs (hundreds a day),
* excitement about balloons, music, seeing family members, pretzels and books

 A pretzel rod after swim class

 Sitting in Simon's bed and reading

 Signing "bird" while out for a walk (his sign for bird and water are the same = one finger in the mouth)

 Reading in the bookshelf

Playing dress up, even when Alma is taking her afternoon nap

As a special bonus, a silly video:
 

Our Scheduled Lives

I've always delighted in being a little go-by-the-seat-of-my-pants in how I plan my days.  When I can, I like to let inspiration and serendipity take the reins in general.  However, I'm finding that with parenthood, I am super structured and regimented. 

7:10am Alma gets out of bed (because it's bunny wake up time), uses the bathroom, gets dressed and then wakes and hangs out with Joshua and me for a bit
7:30 James is wake and done playing with the books and toys I hide in his crib activity holder; we all go down for breakfast as a family
8:15 Alma and Joshua leave for school and work; I nurse James while I write a list of things to get done for work and then he plays while I clean up from breakfast
9:30 James goes down for his nap, I put the necessary ingredients in the bread maker for a loaf of honey whole wheat, do laundry (usually the cloth diapers), empty the cat litter, take out the recycling, run the dishwasher, take a shower
10:15 I sit down at the computer to read the news, blogs and email
10:30 Begin my Penn work
11:25 James wakes up from his nap and we leave the house to pick up Alma from school
11:55 James and I pick up Alma from school
12:30pm arrive home and eat lunch
1:30 go up for Alma's naptime; nurse James
2:00 leave Alma's room; James and I play
2:45 put James down for his afternoon nap
3:00 start dinner (usually put rice in the rice maker, put some beans on the stove and cut up veggies) and finish up the housework started in the morning (empty dishwasher, move laundry, etc.)
3:30 Alma comes down from her nap and we cuddle, chat and read a book together
4:00 James wakes from his nap; we get bundled up and head out for a walk
5:00 come home from our walk; the kids play while I finish prepping dinner
5:30 Joshua comes home and we eat dinner
6:15 the kids dance and act out The Nutcracker or some Disney record or CD (i.e. Cinderella, Snow White)
6:30 head upstairs for bath time andpajamas
6:50 play in James room on the futon mattress that is on the floor (Alma's favorite: wrestling)
7:00 I put James to bed while Joshua reads to Alma; I hop on the computer to work
7:30 Alma goes to sleep; Joshua hops on his laptop to do a little work and watch a movie through Netflix
8:30 I head to the gym or up to my attic sewing room
9:30 Joshua and I watch something on Netflix together (recently: old Workaholics episodes)
10:00 I head to bed to read before falling asleep; Joshua goes out to the garage to work out
11:30pm Joshua heads to bed
4:30am James wakes up and I nurse him back to sleep

Of course, this schedule deviates slightly: Joshua's work schedule often includes night meetings, James has swimming on Tuesday mornings (he naps in the car outside of Alma's school), I play racquetball at 8pm on Thursdays, some nights Joshua and I just sit around talking after the kids go to bed, etc....  However, meals and naptimes are non-negotiable and the kids seem to love the structure.  I know I do because I can count on that time to tend to the house and work.

It will be interesting to see how this schedule evolves.  It will be fun to show this to Alma and James when they are older, especially if they become parents themselves.

Racquetball

I've begun playing racquetball every Thursday night as part of a team tournament at my gym.  This week was my sixth match (ever).  I'm still losing every week but I'm get closer and closer to winning.  Last night's score -- against the best player at my D-rating level, I might brag -- was 15-8, 11-15, 15-12.  I might add that nearly everyone in the league is over 55 years old.  Most spend the breaks between matches talking about their grandchildren.

What a fun sport!  I'm so happy that I found it as I seem to need some level of community and competition as part of my work out regime.  Even if it consists of being beating by grannies.

By the way, these are totally pictures of my fierce playing -- ha!

Happy Birthday, Grandpa!

 My dad, even though he is supposed to be at home recovering from pneumonia, couldn't help but come over yesterday.  He took James to the library and out for lunch.  When they came home, Alma and I had a pan of brownies ready to celebrate his birthday, which had happened while he was in the hospital. 

Happy birthday, Dad! 

You missed some!

Heads up frequent blog readers: I posted a bunch of past photos and back-dated them to the date that they actually occurred.  This means you may have missed some posts.  So you don't have to slog through everything, I'll tell you that the earliest one was THIS ONE from November.  If you skim through everything from that post until the present post, you will be caught up on everything that has ever happened in our lives ... or something close to that. 

Princess and the Pirate

The cuties this morning ....

Still a reader

Some things never change.... this is how Alma spends a chunk of the day after new books make their way to our house.  Look familiar? 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Alma had a great Valentine's Day at preschool.  Each of the students made chocolates for their parents and exchanged cards with each other.  Alma's card had a maze and read "You A-MAZE me, Valentine."  I snagged it from a blog I read.  Even though she can write her entire name, she signed each of them with multiple "A"s. 

Milestone: Walking Around the Block

James can walk around the block twice, at a very quick pace, without any assistance.  He refuses to hold my hand, even when the sidewalk is extremely choppy.  Unlike Alma when she was this age, who would always go down into a crawl whenever there was any unevenness in the path, James stands fully erect and takes little steps until he is past the obstruction.  Then it's back to full speed ahead!  The only thing stopping him these days is the cold weather.  After two times around the block, his cheeks are little ice cubes and I have to bring him into the house kicking and screaming.

38 Months

Lessons

Alma and James before their Saturday morning lessons -- ballet and swimming.

Alma and her friend before their first ballet class last Saturday.  Her friend had to grab her hand to bring her to the classroom with the group at the beginning of class.  Then when we saw them at the end of class, they both announced (Alma with no shame but her friend with some shock) that Alma just watched.  Alma has told me since that she is really excited to go back and, when asked, tells me that she will probably just watch again. 

As Aunt Kate said, "Was she really a wallflower? I mean with all the practice at home I am just surprised! Ha!"  With time, I'm sure she will be joining in the fun.  No worries about that one!

Piled On

Life has been piling it on us recently. 

As many of you know, my father was very sick.  He is still in the hospital recovering from a very bad case of pneumonia.  He was in the ICU for over a week, which was more than a little scary.  He is coming through it like a champ and I'm sure he will be up to no good soon enough.  Thank you to everyone for their love and support during that trying ordeal.

Then in the last week. we had a little gas leak, a back door that keeps flying open with the wind (James even escaped momentarily, which gave me a huge fright), a minor car accident that resulted in an upsettingly high repair bill and two kiddos with colds.  We are slowly working on repairing all of these troubling issues and trying not freak out about the financial impact.  Not super fun. 

But in all things we are blessed: healthy Pop, money/time and energy to address all of these issues in a timely manner, no one hurt in the car accident, etc., etc. 

Let's blow some happy sunshine around with a photo catch up session!

My loves on the way to Mass the other week.

 Alma watching a Dora episode when home sick from school last week.

 And later that same day painting a picture ... or 70.