Weekend visitors

Sharing some great pictures from the Frozen Half Marathon this weekend (This was after we thawed out)

Birthday and Anniversaries!

Happy Birthday Andie!!

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!!

We love you guys - we miss you tons and wish we were there. Thinking of you on your special days!

Seamus the pirate says, "AAArgh...mateys...Shiver me timbers...happy birthday and anniversary to youaargh..."

Finn the pirate/motorcycle kid/baby/soon to be older cousin says, "ba....ba.....ba....ju...aargh"

PS - It's the ten year anniversary of the night Anne and I met - Thanks, Conn and Maria!

And the big boys continue...

Well, my thoughts that Finn's foray into the big boy bed was one night trick has proven to be false. He's loving the new set up and as fun as it is - it is a little sad to have such a clear symbol that he's no longer a baby.

Seamus is also loving preschool. It's amazing what just a few weeks will do. Much to my surprise he (or a furry penguin) sang the whole alphabet song during the puppet show this weekend - it was the first time he'd done the whole thing without error all by himself. Clear as a bell.

We had some friends visiting from California this weekend and the boys loved all the attention - I'll post some pictures when I get them.

James, Charlie and Andrea all ran in the Securian Frozen Half marathon with great success - they finished pretty fast and nobody froze or got injured. James is a constant inspiration to me. The most he's run recently has been about 6 miles, the last time he ran 13 miles was 10 years ago, and he has the determination and strength to just head out run 13.1 miles at just over 8 minutes a mile and feel fine afterwards. Almost not even human. He's a rockstar. Paula brought Seamus downtown to cheer them on (Finn and I held down the fort - as it was FREAKING cold on Saturday).

I'll add some pictures later - too many chores to do now before the WWF champs wake up.

The Big Boy Bed...

We had a big milestone last night...FINN slept in his new "big boy" bed. When I put the boys to bed last night we all read stories on Seamus's bed and I asked Finn if he wanted to try out his big boy bed - with no intention that he would stay in the bed, I let him snuggle up under the covers. Well, Seamus got up twice, but Finn never moved and slept until almost 8 this morning. Wild. Like I said yesterday it's terrifying how fast things change.

This morning Finn came down the stairs and I gave him a big hug- he looked more sleepy than proud until Seamus wrapped his arms around him and said: "I'm so proud of you Finn." I almost died.

Here are our sleeping beauties...

Almost spoke too soon...

So after I was waxing nostalgic about parenting...I went upstairs to get Finn from his nap and he was mostly nude and had ALMOST gotten his very stinky diaper off...which goes to show that as soon as you think you've got it all figured out, you're minutes away from walking into a stinky load of...


These pictures are from tonight...

WWF (and a bit more...)

So Seamus started back to music class this morning and it was a fun reunion for all of us. It was a little strange to see how much he and Finn have changed in the last few months. Seamus ran in, took off his coat and shoes, lined them up by the door and gave the teacher a hug. Not a beat missed. Finn, who used to hang on my lap and have a bottle during class, now brought a bag of dinosaurs to play with (you should hear his ROAR...). He's talking a bit now and seems so much bigger - they both do. It gives me this odd sense, this feeling that we're in a story and can't see the pages turning around us, but surely and steadily we close chapters and begin new ones. So when the new baby is born Finn will be almost exactly the same age as Seamus was when he was born, and very recently I was thinking that Seamus seemed older, bigger at almost 2 years old. But what I'm realizing now is that these few months are a windfall of change 17-21 months is a big jump. It's strange to me to realize that the highchair, bottle and (almost) the crib are pretty much out of Finn's world now....

I started this entry with the title "WWF"and here's why...

So the boys other new favorite thing is to play "puppet show" in the crib upstairs. Seamus hangs a blanket over the side of the crib and the boys use it as a stage. This is a WONDERFUL activity as I can sit in the rocker and read while offering bits of puppet commentary..."Can the leopard roar, Finn? Is the penguin singing, Seamus..." And so on. But today, puppet mania turned into full-scale WWF style mania. For a VERY long time the boys wrestled and rolled around the crib laughing so hard I thought they both might burst. At first I just thought thy were playing with the puppets behind the blanket and then the blanket slipped off and I could see Finn sitting on Seamus and bouncing. Seamus (for the most part) was a good keeper of playing without killing, let's just hope that Finn understands how to be gentle with a new baby, fingers are definitely crossed on that one.

I go back to the doctor tomorrow - we're officially starting the third trimester this week. Very strange this pregnancy has gone so fast. So a little less than three months and we'll be a family of 5. At preschool the other day someone said, "wow, three kids in three years, you're busy." At first I started to say," well the kids are all about two years apart" and then I realized that it was pointless to try and explain and all I could say was "Ya think?" Busy isn't quite the right word. When I listen to my siblings talk about running kids all over the globe for games and practices, or to working friends or to families who have kids with disabilities and their doctors and therapy appointments, I think that sounds busy.

Having small, healthy children and being at home full time can be kind of quiet, sometimes kind of lonely, sometimes even peaceful. I don't feel busy as much as I feel challenged, like everything it's not 100% of anything, sometimes its crazy (like yesterday when the basement filled with water) sometimes its wonderful (like watching the boys enjoy each other so much) sometimes it boring (like reading one of their favorite books for the 30th time that day). It's not about being busy as much as it is about struggling for balance. Helping everyone get enough sleep, do enough good, say yes enough as well as no enough, having enough fun while still leaving room for learning to live with the quiet.

The challenge isn't being busy - sometimes the hardest parts are about being home all day long are figuring out how to show your children how to be comfortable with playing with nothing more than their imaginations, to remember that teaching your kids to read is also about finding the time and energy to let them see YOU reading quietly. That raising children to be good siblings means being a good sibling myself. That being busy is nothing compared to the weight of trying to raise compassionate, loving and faith filled human beings. Now THAT feels overwhelming.

But I do think a lot (I bet you can't tell). And what seems to be coming up a lot in my thoughts and my plans is that I want to live a very deliberate life - to be a very deliberate parent. In that I don't expect to be perfect (or anywhere close), but I expect to make my own choices and live with them opposed to just letting life happen. When you have these days when you wonder where all the time has gone, I want to think that I intentionally put it to good use. I'm 31 years old and I swear it was last Spring when Sarah and I were 9 years old and exploring the Wachtler farm fields hoping that there would be water in the stream. I remember how it felt to "play house" and yet now I'm a parent with children who are discovering the joy of their own pretend play. Sometimes it all too strange. Maybe it would be less strange if I wasn't surrounded by so many of the same people of my own childhood - but somehow I don't think it would be as meaningful to me now.

A deliberate life is something I think that my mother did a pretty good job of - every parent does things they don't want to - it's part of being a good parent (reading the boring story for the 30th time everyday). But I think my mom did a good job of doing what you have to and at the same time doing what you want to. I think she enjoyed raising her kids- even the l last one- at 42 . and I think that she worked hard a making clear choices about what she wanted for herself and also for her family. Ultimately, I think for many women you can't be happy if you're unhappy about your family choices. And now I've got a visitor. Seamus is up from his nap and I'm sure Finn isn't far behind. So much for my rambling - I think I've got dinosaur stories in my very near future. I'm going to take some photos once Finn is up too. More later.