Thankful

THANK FULL.  Truly.  We drove away from Nana and Papa's house at 4:33pm, and here I sit, at 10:49pm (CT - Chicago Time), freshly showered, completely unpacked, laundry running, children nestled all snug in their beds, husband scarfing down pasta because the trip went so well he didn't even get grumpy with me that he missed dinner because I took too long getting mine. 

Here I sit, freshly showered (airport germs - eek!!) while my pictures upload, mentally recounting our first trip back to Massachusetts since we started calling Naperville 'home'.  Five days, four nights which included two flights, one hour change in time, one really LARGE rental car, two Thanksgivings, an impromptu meeting with old neighbors, a pottery painting excursion, multiple hours swinging in Nana's backyard, one sleepover, a trip to the beach, and two dinners out with friends...with the negatives of only TWO toddler meltdowns and one missing cell phone (that was thankfully found quickly).

That is about as flawless a trip as we could ever hope to get.  In fact, I must admit, it was even MORE flawless than we could ever hope to get.  We just don't *do* flawless around here!  So you can bet there was some fist pumping, high fiving and butt slapping going on in celebration of our success before loading the minivan for the ride home from O'Hare.

Pictures are uploading.  And we are FULL of THANKS.

Okay!  Got 'em!

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Tree Trimming at the Zoo!

Today we went to the Brookfield Zoo to decorate a Christmas Tree with Jack's Cub Scout Pack. 

I've never seen anything like it - there had to be two or three hundred trees set up around the zoo, with each designated to be decorated by a group, be it the Cub Scouts, Girls Scouts, Church groups, etc. 

Jack's den had it's very own tree, and the boys did a great job of making cub-scout-logo-colored paper chains, out of foam, to help make them weather-friendly.

 
The ornaments were a bit of a bust - this is what happens when you put a bunch of guys in charge of making ornaments.  I think I may have found something to volunteer my talents to next year!  There were too many cute trees for us not to raise our game up a notch (or twelve).  See?

But the boys worked together, over the course of about ten minutes, and had the tree done, which is a miraculous feat in and of itself. 

Particularly when some of them chose to do other things like test the wind resistance of their jackets...

And practice their climbing skills on the Zoo's light poles.

There were a bazillion kids there, but the place is so enormous that it didn't feel crowded.  Except for the zoo playground that is.  Marc  feared for Molly and Ben's lives when they first got there, but eventually the crowd lightened up.  By the time Jack and I finished the tree trimming, Ben was an absolute pro at climbing the rock wall and sliding down the slide. 

We didn't see any actual animals, unless you count these...

Or these...

Or maybe this little critter, who was so excited about the Carousel that he ran out and hugged the first "Daddy-ish" looking legs he saw...

The guy must have been a dad, because didn't even flinch!

He still didn't quite get it until we found the*right* Daddy-ish legs...

Yep, those are juuuust right!

It was a great day all around - Jack was a little sulky at times as is his tendency during the most 'wonderful' time of the year.  But I told him there was no place I'd rather be than at the zoo with him.

Captain Binky and Super Lion

Being the shutterbug I am, I sometimes have a vision of a shot I need to capture.  And if it gnaws at me long enough, I have to make it happen.  I've driven by a certain footbridge nearly every day since we moved here and I've seen in my head that I would take Ben's birthday pictures on it.  But I put it off and put it off.  It was serendipity then, when my friend Stef unveiled some new, gorgeous family pictures on a footbridge exactly like my footbridge!!  It was a sign from the universe that I needed to get moving. 

There was this giant yellow tree in all it's fall glory behind the bridge, and the other day a gale tore through Naperville that not only froze us to our bones, but started blowing the leaves off my yellow tree!!!  The time was NOW.

I wanted these pictures to be gorgeous, like in my vision, but most importantly, I wanted them to reflect Ben as he is now.  There was no doubt then, that his two most prized posessions had to be visible - his Binky and his Lion.  We don't leave home without them, though he knows they usually have to stay in the car so that we don't lose them.  And of course he had to wear his new birthday cape, because it says so much about his personality and his current love: superheroes and action guys! 

When I'm scolding one of his siblings, Ben comes right behind them and scolds me right back with "Don't you be mean to my brudder!"  or "Leave my sister alone, you big stupid!" (he's convinced himself that stupid means 'a person who pushes buttons' and is not a bad word...he's pretty persuasive with his argument too - it's quite hilarious to hear him carry on about it).  Half the day he's talking in his Superhero Voice, whenever he's playing with toys or imagining something, it's narrated very dramatically.

Maybe it's a third child complex, that you need to be a superhero to have the power because your the low man on the totem pole?  Whatever it is, I think it's positively DARLING that my youngest is the one who sticks up for the underdog and wants to make sure everyone is okay.  He probably wouldnt' want to be Captain Darling though, so we'll settle for Captain Binky. 

And here he is in all his glory...

And after a long afternoon of fighting crime in freezing temperatures, our hero heads back to his chariot, for a snack and a nap (and a lollipop bribe...did I mention that he'd just had his flu shot too?).

Any Given Sunday

If you were to come to our house on a Sunday, or a Saturday for that matter...you would be horrified.  Aghast, even. I know I am!  The complete and utter annihilation of any sense of order or cleanliness is simply astounding to behold.  Based on prior experience, I know it's going to happen, but it still catches me by surprise every time - the destruction that is caused by five people hanging out and no one cleaning up the mess. 

Technically, Marc and I *do* pick up.  In fact, just yesterday, Marc kicked the laundry's behind - I came home from shopping and my heart skipped a beat at all he'd done in my absence!  But both of us work really hard all week at our respective jobs, and on the weekends, we like to relax a little bit, slack off if you will.  And frankly, I've tried keeping up appearances on weekends and it's proven to be a futile and exhausting pastime that only ends up in grumpiness. 

So we let it slide on weekends.  A lot. 

Toys everywhere, couch cushions missing....





Aha!  There are those missing cushions! Apparently a fort-building mission is underway.

You can bet your bippy the beds are not made.  And the laundry (while folded!) will not be put away until Monday.

Seriously.   Not one bed made.  Nope!

Breakfast dishes may be left on the table until lunch is served, and lunch dishes until dinnertime.  You don't even want to see what the kitchen sink looks like!

We might actually venture out to do some hunting and gathering, but usually only under duress. 
These bags are on account of a certain 8 year old bringing the same four books to 'free reading time' for the last two months.  (He's read them nine times each at last count)
It was time for reinforcements.
(Nate the Great, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Lemony Snicket, and Beverly Cleary to the rescue!)

You can bet that all SORTS of projects will be started.  Few, if any, will be finished.   Art for example.  Crafts of all sorts. 

Paper Airplane building (inside a reinforced bunker made of, you guessed it, couch cushions!)



And what else to do with all those empty couches, but turn THEM into forts too!



And the random snacking will not be curtailed either.  Children ripping through cabinets, shoveling in their mouths whatever they can find, with parents who are just taking a small break from having to say NO all day long.
(this particular concoction was dark chocolate peanut butter spread on potato chips)

Because, you know, it's HARD WORK all this No-Saying and Home-Keeping and Mouth-Feeding.  Neverending!  Exhausting!  And who could blame us for taking a break? 

Eventually though, usually around the time that Sunday supper needs to be prepared, we take a look around and GASP at the sheer spread of the disaster zone.  Our house is twice as big now, and the mess knows no bounds because it doesn't end until there's a wall to stop it.

It's embarrassing, really - I would be horrified if anyone came to visit.  Even the thought of a visitor is usually enough to make my stomach do flip flops...

....but not enough to get up off the deconstructed couch where I'm sitting in my jammies with my Parade Magazine and coupon circulars and cup of coffee!

Birthday Boy

Today, at his suggestion, we've been playing "Birthday" by putting his gifts in a gift bag and letting him open them over and over again. It's hilarious how he acts surprised each and every time! He's still in his birthday pajamas - Batman themed, with a cape no less - and I don't know when I'll be able to talk him out of them.  But he's so cute, I don't mind!

Happy real birthday, birthday boy!  Even with the green boogers from ear to ear courtesy of the cold we've both got, three is already pretty fabulous!

Happy Birthday Benny!!

Three years ago today, my water broke.  Followed shortly therafter by the water heater breaking it's own water.  I spent the morning calling the plumber in between contractions, while Marc used the shop-vac to suck up the water that was flooding the basement. 

We headed into the hospital around lunchtime, and I was still thinking I had a ways to go with this labor thing, it just didn't hurt as much as labor with Molly.  Turns out all that "optimal fetal positioning" stuff I'd been practicing (lying, sitting and standing a certain way to promote the baby being in a good 'exit' position) had worked!  From walking in the front door of the hospital to a baby boy in my arms took less than 90 minutes, even though he was a full pound and a half bigger than his sister.

I got to pull him right up on my chest and he was wet and slippery and screaming like a banshee and without consciously thinking about it I started singing to him.    These days, he still screams like a banshee (especially when he hears the word NO, no matter how you sugar coat it!) and he still loves to snuggle and be sung to.  Every now and then he'll wake up in the middle of the night and call for me.  When I come into his room he asks "Mama, can we snuggle?"  No amount of sleep is worth missing those moments with my little buddy!

Three year old Ben is the cutest, sweetest, snuggliest most adorable little superhero-loving, Buzz Lightyear wannabe...except when he's not!  The TWOs have been challenging because Ben (like his brother before him) lives to not just test limits, but to steamroll right over them, kicking and screaming the whole way.  Reigning in fire like that is HARD, particularly if you like your eardrums intact.  Ben's war cry has been known to set off the glass breaks on our house alarm, it's so ear-peircingly shrill.

He is incredibly verbal, beyond either of his siblings at this age.  And he naps better than either of them ever did - two to three hours every afternoon!  He still lives for his binky and Lion, and suggestions that he might want to ease up on the binky use have been met with complete and total resistance.  He's peed on the potty precisely ONCE, and is still sleeping in his crib with the tent zipped up so that he can't escape.

I know a lot of that (if not ALL of that) will change this next year, but for now, I'm enjoying the last bits of his babyhood.

Yesterday was Veteran's Day and with everyone off from school and work, we decided to celebrate early.  We went to the Arboretum and had cake and presents and loads of birthday fun thanks to all the gifts that had been sent from Massachusetts for his special day.

The LOOT!

The spherical gift is a giant Bakugan ball - now he won't have to steal Jack's!

Every SuperKid needs his own cape!  This one came courtesy of the cape making skills of Kid Kapers on Etsy. 

I'd ripped out a catalog page with this rocketship on it and Molly showed it to Ben.  When he wrestled it out of her screaming hands and hid under the table with it, refusing to give it back, I knew we had a winner!

Ben found this Transformer toy in the basement of one of our neighbors that was open for the kids during a neighborhood party.  I had to pry it out of his clenched fists to give it back!  Another gift idea score!

The Morton Arboretum - still beautiful even with the leaves mostly gone.

A push pop and a tree fort to climb - what more could a boy need!

It was so warm outside that the kids could take their shoes off and do a little wading in the pool at the Adventure Woods exhibit.  Except for Jack, who decided to fall in wearing his brand new notonsale Sketchers.  Oy!

This moment was so perfect I think I took a hundred pictures!

Nannie sent an Elmo cupcake from Massachusetts.

I'm sorry to report that Elmo did not survive the trip.  : (

But the presents did!!

And so did the gifts from Aunti Trecie...

...and Nana and Papa too!

Out of necessity, the cake was a grocery store confection, with plastic-tasting frosting and a level of food dye that my kids have not experienced in a very long time.  So much for no processed foods!  Sometimes sanity trumps idealism.

A rare specimen: Toothless Tricera-Jack!

The obligatory cake and candle shot.  Sadly, my camera goofed on the blowing out the candles shot, so this is all we've got!

Pictures or not, it made one three year old birthday boy VERY happy!