This isn't farewell

It is just a little change. I am converging blogs so i don't have to maintain three of them now that we are expecting another arrival. You can stay abreast of all the latest happenings on our new family blog. Hopefully this will make it easier for me and more coherent for you. Now if only I could keep it up to date...but alas that is a story for another time.

Special moments

Not a vacation, or holiday or anything earth shattering. Just some amazing moments with my soon to be middle child. He came home with a fever on Thursday of last week. We spent 4 days together with nobody else. We read books, fed the animals together, made our lunch, giggled and snuggled on the couch when we felt horrid and basically just bonded over nothing. School has been hard for him this week. After spending all that time with me and at home, he didn't want to go back to pre-school. Add to that the fact that Ethan is not going there anymore, and you have one stressed out child. He has been clingy at drop-off and Jeff has been spending a lot of time with him at the center.

Tonight, Mom kept Ethan overnight since she is his childcare this week. That left us having some quality alone time with the child that never really had any. We ate dinner, played Hungry Hippo, took a bath, watched Caillou, did a puzzle and then played Wii. He loves the bowling and the golf and has such fun. We called Ethan to tell him good night and Jason told him how much he missed him and loved him. "He's my best friend", he tells me as he hands me the phone.

I then go upstairs to get him ready for bed. After we brush our teeth and get a drink, he goes to the potty and announces that his pee pee is getting a LOT bigger and soon would be "this big" and has his arms as wide as his body. I mentioned that was probably a little too big for convenience and he was perfect the way he was. He then mentioned his ears had boogers in them. I assumed it was a stall tactic and told him we would clean them tomorrow. He agreed that when we brushed his teeth in the morning, this would be our plan. "You can squeeze the toothpaste and then clean them with the white fuzzy things", he says. I nod and explain those are called Q-tips. He tries...cube - its, cleaning tips, and decides it is just too hard to say. "I can't just say new things all the time, Mommy." I know the feeling. New things daunt me too at times.

We climb into bed and get comfy. He tells me how much he loves to cuddle, that I am his best girl and tells me over and over how much he loves me. "I think I told you 25 times, Mommy." Well, I love it. So I tell him, "you can never tell someone you love them too many times." He agrees. He plays with my hair and asks me to tickle his back. We sing songs, talk about putt putt golf and our day apart. I ask about school and he tells me how much he loves naps, and circle time, crafts and when they do special projects. But that at free play time, he gets sad and would rather just be home with me. Yep, same thing happens to me when I am not kept really busy.

I get ready to leave and he asks me to tuck him in and fix his covers and to hold him one more time. His arm is tight around my neck. We give Eskimo kisses and he tells me, "I had a REALLY good time with you tonight, Mommy." My heart is so full it is going to explode.

Family Vacation

Jean and Russ came East this summer and we decided to do a summer beach trip and celebrate all the summer birthdays together. Jean was turning 40 so we really wanted to do it up big. Ethan celebrated his 5th birthday and his first lost tooth. Always a great experience. The house was amazing and we really had a great time for the most part.

Unfortunately, Russ got very sick for most of his stay and our oldest was a brooding nightmare. Luckily. I can remember not being too easy myself and we tried to hold it together.

Birthdays and baking, presents and family. What more could you ask for? Oh yeah, the nightly poker games rocked too and so did having catered dinners delivered or going out to eat. I say it all the time...if I have to cook dinner every night it isn't a vacation for me. I do brekafast and lunch and then it is my turn to be waited on.










For Jason, the best parts were putt putt (he is an addict) and the pool where he finally learned how to let go and kick on his own a bit. We will take a moment to thank his flotation device and the patience of all family members involved. The pool was on the upper deck so you could sit it in and watch the people and the waves. Amazing.

We took a great day trip to Myrtle Beach and ate hotdogs on the boardwalk and played games in the many arcades. We rode some of the rides at Broadway on the Beach and did the Ripley's aquarium which was amazing although very crowded.

It is so hard to pick just a few pics to post given all the fun we had but here we go.












Beach fun. We were wary of the ocean but loved the sand and snacks on the beach. We lived for the Italian ice cart to come up the beach each morning. The boys got cream-sickle and I had mango.

We would go back to the sand in the evenings when the wind picked up to fly our kites, chat and relax, and look for shells. It was great fun and tired the boys out.










We could walk to the ice cream store and the miniature golf from the house so we took advantage of that a lot to keep the kids occupied.

Social calendars

We had a great day today but spent a lot of it shuffling kid schedules. What are we going to do when we have one more? Zone defense apparently since man to man is not going to cut it. We started at Nicholas's birthday, hit Uncle Mikey's pool and then Jeff took Ethan to Joshua's 5th Birthday party in the evening at Bounce U. My day planner needs more lines. :-)

Jason has really started getting brave with his swimming and will jump in and even dunk his head and try to take a few strokes himself. He is a bit like lead so we need to work on floating and buoyancy.

It is also my birthday tomorrow so Michael and his parents were nice enough to have an ice cream cake for me. My favorite boys helped me make my wish. Jason wished for a baby sister and a dump truck. I wished for patience, more time with my kids and a healthy baby. Could I be so bold as to ask for that much?

Simon

Jason has a best friend at pre-school that means everything to him. They have been together since the baby room and are born only a week apart. It was his birthday this weekend and Jason was more excited to buy him presents that to get any himself. The relationship is very love and hate oriented with them arguing one minute and loving each other the next. Some of the funnier stories come from school regarding Simon being Jason's muscle and protecting him from the other kids. Now why is this of interest? Check out the size difference

Jason's 3rd Birthday

Birthdays in our house seem to go on and on. We do a family event on the day and a friend party on a weekend close to the event. This year was no exception. We had a small cookout with my parents, Susan, Aunt Rosie and Uncle Roy. Maw Maw and Paw Paw couldn't come since they were sick and we missed them terribly but they came the next weekend and kept the festivities going. We also had to celebrate early with the Zanchelli clan since they made plans to be away for his birthday.

My mother and I made homemade cakes and my Dad decorated them all with amazing artistic ability I never knew he had. It was easier than I thought with the cool forms she borrowed from a friend. For fun activities, we set up a little pool and the kids had a blast splashing and running wild. All Jason had asked for were green race cars and Legos and Aunt Jean took the cake with the best green race car of the day! Mom and Dad got him and Ethan some retro Big Wheels like what we had when we were kids.

Some of my favorite moments were watching him open presents. He shared each one with Ethan and said it was more fun to open them together. They also had a huge amount of fun with the cards...especially the ones that sang. They were perfecting their dance moves all morning. Of course Jason needed little persuasion to blow out his candles....as soon as we got to the last sentence of the song he was blowing. And telling us how old he will be next year.

Roy actually predicted that I am having a girl. We will stay tuned on that one but I am still thinking boy. Everything feels the same as my other pregnancies except for all the pimples. Now the boys agree with Roy and had already been telling everyone that Mommy has a baby sister in her tummy. Jason already wants it to come out. Imagine how impatient he will be by October!

To finish the day we played the new Monkey Ball game on the Wii. I don't think I ever laughed so hard. The three main men in my life spent their evening pumping their arms up and down to get hot air balloons over the birds that might pop them. The kids loved it and Susan, my parents and I just couldn't get over it. I loved the bob sled runs myself but I am also a bit of a child at heart.

NY bound

I need my head examined. We drove with my parents and kids to NY on Friday and back on Sunday to attend my cousin's first communion. We are so isolated from most of the family here so when we have an opportunity for the boys to see their cousins and to have a little flavor for where I grew up and the type of family festivities we had, I jump. I think I had the heardest time with the trip being pregnant and needing frequent stops to stretch and use the rest room. It also appeared that I was at the height of my nausea and Wheat Thins were my best friend.

The kids on the other hand were so good in the car! We watched DVDs, played Leapfrog games, stopped for food and even took some naps. We first visited Aunt Marge and took the boys to a cute neighborhood pub in Queens. We ordered grown up food for them and fruity drinks with cherries so we could enjoy the feel. I think they liked watching the Yankee game the best. They did amazingly well in the retirement home being squeezed and kissed and were so wonderful to my Aunt. I know it breaks Mom's heart to be reminded of Grandma and aging and it wears on me too since it seems an entire generation is coming to a close.

Next, we headed to Westchester to the hotel and had the communion the next day. The boys were so charming and just loved seeing everyone. They danced with all the beautifully dressed little girls and were so social at the restaurant, we barely saw them!

After the luncheon, we went back to Danielle's house and the kids played in the yard. Jason slept most of the time in the car with Jeff sitting in there with him keeping watch. Ethan was being driven around by his cousin. He tried to drive the car as well but that didn't end well as he nearly went over an embankment. I never saw Shawn and Danielle run so fast and was so grateful they were able to get there and stop him. No more motorized vehicles for my kids! I think bubble wrap is in order.