winter fun

As time gets closer to Christmas it makes it fun to have the kids getting older so that we can do fun stuff with them and have them enjoy it. We have Rylee for a week until Christmas eve, and so we have been trying to find fun "holiday" type stuff for them to do. On Sunday they really wanted to go in the backyard and play in the snow. This is perfect for us since it is fenced in we could watch from the warmth of the kitchen and they could run around like crazies outside. We let Mia out there and she loved chasing Zach all over the backyard. They started building a fort around their clubhouse, and helped by shovling the patio too.

They had a nice cup of hot chocolate, and we are going to make some glittery snow flakes for the front door as well. Yesterday Gary took them shopping with him to get my Christmas present. I told him that was a big mistake with the two kids that couldn't keep a secret to save their life. They are really trying hard not to tell me, but the best I can tell is that it is jewelry of some sort so that is A OK by me. You can never go wrong with jewelry.

I am almost done wrapping the kids "Santa" gifts. I tried to do a last minute exchange of one of Rylee's presents. I had bought her the day after Thanksgiving a Princess and the Frog doll, but they recently came out with a new one that lights up that she really wants. They had it at WalMart when I was there last week, and of course now they are all out. Hopefully I can track it down at Toys R Us.

zach's christmas show

Today Zach had his Holiday singing show. All the kids have been practing their Christmas songs for a few weeks now, and today they performed them for all their families. It was so extremely cute, and Zach was very excited to see me and Brienna when we came in the door.

My camera that I brought was not that great, and makes a lot of noise while focusing and zooming. I was going to bring the video camera but of course the battery was dead. So I only took one small video of one of the songs. Of course it was one in which Zach was not that interested in singing!

mall of america

A while back Gary and I decided we wanted to take a trip to Minnesota to visit the Mall of America during the Christmas season. I had never been before, but he said that he went many years ago and the trip was a disaster so he was looking forward to enjoying himself this time around. We found a really inexpesive hotel right across the street. We drove up Friday morning, and other then a little crabby spurt as we got close Brienna was great. This was surprising since she is not a huge fan of riding in the car for long periods of time. I did climb in the back and play a game with her to finish the trip and she was great.

The first night we just went over to the mall and walked around. We walked through the Nickelodeon theme park, met Sponge Bob which Brienna loved. Had dinner, and went back to the hotel to lay Brienna down. The next day we got up early and had breakfast and went over to the mall to do our shopping. We started on the top level and worked our way down. Gary pretty much kept the stroller with Brienna and I did most of the shopping. The most fun was the Crocs store where I got Zach some Buzz Lightyear crocs. It was fun to see all the different styles and pick out some Jibbitz for the kids.

Brienna really was a trooper. She took her naps in the stroller, and was just real content to walk around and people watch with her Daddy. She slept next to our bed in the pack n play. We tried to put her in the corner of the room, but did not like being there when she could see us in the room, so we moved her and the first night she spent an hour poking me while I pretended to be asleep. Finally she gave up and went to sleep herself.

I love taking close little trips like this. It feels like a mini vacation, and doesn't cost too much money. Not to mention it is nice to pull away from the stress of home life!

10 months old

Last weekend Brienna hit 10 months old. I know that I keep saying that I have no idea how the time has gone so quickly, but I truly am amazed every month. Every week that passes she turns more and more into a toddler and less and less a baby. Her hair is out of control and is beginning to look like a mullet!!! The sides and back are growing much faster then the top. I have begun to put little rubber bands in her hair to make it look a little better, but I suppose a hair cut will soon be in order.

She will be walking very soon, and has begun letting go of the furniture to test her balance for a few seconds. She has started doing this very weird reverse crab walk. I took a very short video because I have never seen a baby do this before.

We have booked the date for her first birthday which we are going to do with my nephew Liam who was born the week after her is making more and more milestones everyday. Recently she has started giving big open mouth baby kisses. She acknowledges when people leave. The other day we went to have lunch with Gary and he had to leave to go to an appointment and after he left she waived her hand and said "Da Da Ba Ba". It was the cutest thing I have seen yet!

Her new favorite activity is teasing Mia, and Mia is so great about letting her explore. Here she is going to take the dog toy, and she loves to grab dog food from the dish while Mia is eating as well. It was when she went to put some in her mouth that I had to intervene! YUK!!

our new doggie

For the last couple weeks we have really been missing having a dog. In June of 2008 we purchased a Dalmatian from a breeder in Florida and she came to us middle of the month via O'Hare airport. Lucy was a very smart dog, and took to basic commands and potty training really well. As she reached a year and grew to be 50lbs or so she was very hyper and a tad aggressive. She ate so many of the kid's toys I lost track, and she was constantly running and jumping on them. Zach got bitten twice to where she broke skin, and when she charged at the Brienna when she was 3-4 months old I knew she was not a good fit for our family. I had taken her to several different training classes, and to Gary and I she was great but just did not respect or listen to the kids which caused a lot of problems. I listed her in the newspaper and had a ton of calls. I warned everyone that called why we had to give her up, and recommended her to people with older kids. She ended up going to a couple, and the husband had had a one blue eye one brown eye dalmatian as a kid and had been looking for one for a while. Last I heard she was even bigger and still as crazy as ever.

When we approached the topic again about getting a new dog I said that I wanted to adopt because I didn't want a puppy. I wanted a calm tempered family pet. I started looking a month ago checking all the shelters in the area. Early last week I saw a cutie at the animal shelter in Huntley. On Thursday I picked up Zach from school and took him and Brienna over there to check out the pups. The one I had seen was gone, but I told the girl what I was looking for and on the third time they totally got it right. They brought me in Mia, who was named Dee Dee by the shelter, and we spent about 45 minutes with her. She was great with hyper Zach, and hair pulling Brienna. I knew I had to get Gary to come back and meet her. On Friday after he got back from getting Rylee from school we went over to the shelter. He totally agreed with her being a perfect fit and so we took her home.

We changed her name because it was obvious that she had no idea what her name was at the shelter. She has adjusted well with the kids. The picture of her with Rylee is a true testement of how great she is. Rylee would never have anything to do with Lucy because she was so crazy. We really wanted the kids to have a dog they could play with and grow up with and we feel really confident that we found that in her!

my first pissed off moment as a mother

As a mother you have many protective moments in life. It could be when you are at a playground and some over zealous kid pushes your kid to the ground, or another kid says something mean to yours. However when it is another parent that has something to say about your child that will for sure send you into a not nice place.

Zach has been playing, or I should say learning how to play, basketball for a month now. He has made some really good progress. I don't put him into sports to make him into the next Michael Jordan, I do it to teach him the importance of being on a team and learning the fundamentals of sports. The first couple practices Zach did was learning that it was not every person for himself and that he had to pass the ball and not steal it away from his team mates. He also was learning that Basketball is not a full contact sport. The first game he was asked to sit out because he was going after the ball too aggressively. He was very upset and came to me crying because he didn't understand what he did. Let me remind all those reading this that these are FOUR year olds playing basketball. His coach, who I adore, spent the next practice working with the kids about rebounding and keeping their hands in the air instead of going after the ball. The next couple games he did really good. This weekend they played after a week off for Thanksgiving and he was super amped up to play. He was really good but did get a little over excited at times. The coach from the other team (who by the way is a mom of one of the kids in Zach's class) was after him every time he was on the court and he was really not doing anything that I thought was that bad, and trust me I am Zach's biggest critic. Half way through the second quarter he got elbowed in the eye by a kid from the other team and he got blamed. Now mind you he has a bruise on his check right where he was hit. After the game the sports coordinator for Hampshire came up to Gary to tell him that Zach was being accused of biting another child by surprise surprise the coach from the other team. Gary asked if she saw him do it and she said no but the kid had a bite mark and said Zach was the one who gave it to him. I asked Zach if he bit someone, and instantly he adamantly said that it was not him. Typically if I ask Zach if he is guilty of something, or what he is in trouble for he will be quick to tell me what he did. When he thought I didn't believe him he started crying saying. "Mommy I swear I didn't bite anyone I didn't." I really believe him. We spend a lot of time with the kids about the importance of not lying and as far as I can tell both of them are really good about telling the truth. The coordinator said that Zach would have to sit out next game while they "investigated" the situation and possibly be removed from the program!! Are you FUCKING kidding me...this is four year old basketball. It's not like he brought a knife to the game a stabbed a kid. So the other coach says, "How would you feel if it were your child that got bit?" Honestly I would think it was most likely an accident, make Zach feel better and GET OVER IT!!!

It took everything I had to walk out the gym with out creating a scene. I know that this is Zach getting picked on because he is a hyper active child. He can be a lot of things, crazy, out of control, too rough, and noisy but a biter NO WAY. He has never ever bitten another kid in his entire four years. I spend a lot of time being an advocate for Zach because he doesn't process busy exciting situations very well. It is part of the sensory integration disorder he has that we work with the therapist for. All his teachers are aware of it, and next year when he goes to Kindergarten it is classified as a learning disorder.

I called his coach this afternoon and let them know there would be no point in sitting Zach this weekend because I was going to pull him from the program. I will not put him through a punishment for something I truly believe he did not do. I thanked him for the wonderful job that he did with Zach and wished him the best for the rest of the season.

This is a point that I never thought that I would get to in protecting my child. You always think that with boys they can handle their own battles, but when they are a defenseless four year old I had to step in.

one smart cookie

Yesterday we took the kids to the mall to see Santa. This year they had a different guy as Santa for Spring Hill Mall. Every year since Zach's first Christmas I have gone to that mall for Santa, and it has always been the same guy. He was very genunine looking and that is what made for a great experience. Unfortunately the guy they have this year in my opinion was a little creepy looking. As soon as we walked up, Rylee immediately kept asking why this Santa looked different. We just told her that he got older, just like she was taller and older then last year when she saw him. That seemed to satisfy her curiosity for the time being until after she talked to him, and then she kept insisting that he couldn't be Santa. I distracted her thought process by taking her to Claires to find some new earrings, and she quickly forgot. Next year we will begin the talk that it is not the real Santa that comes and visits, but these are his helpers that take the kid's lists back to Santa. At this rate she won't be believing in Santa for very long...she is too smart for her own good sometimes :)

Zach spent the first minute or so telling Santa that he will be at his Dad's house this year so could he please bring his presents early so that he can get them before he goes. We did that with the kids not last Christmas, but the year before when we didn't have them on Christmas morning. However, last year we decided that we would always have Santa come Christmas morning so as not to ruin the fantasy for them. We knew as they got older they would figure out that Santa isn't going to make a special trip for just them. I am still trying to work out details for Christmas with Joey, but of course this is the individual that does not make plans until last minute. Last time we spoke he said he wanted to go to WI Dells with his girlfriend and it sounded like he was not wanting to bring Zach...I know class act of a father right!! Anyway, that is totally fine with me. He did say that his mom was giving him a hard time about Christmas so I imagine that he will pick him up on Christmas Eve and then drop him off during the day on Christmas day on his way to WI. I am very excited for Zach for Christmas this year. There were a couple very specific things that he really really wants and I was able to get all of them for him.

Brienna met Santa for the first time and at first she was okay, but she looked up to see who was holding her and instantly began to freak out. Gary was able to get the good shot with his cell phone, but the girl taking the pictures was too distracted texting so the picture we took home was of her freaking out.