Noteworthy

Our years seem to be divided into very distinct seasons around here. Some are predictable: baseball season, summer, the start of a new school year. Others, less so: my schedule each semester, kids' phases and needs, other random life things. I started the fall semester this week, Jason goes back to work next week, Gehrig begins school the week after that. And so another season begins around here. We say goodbye to a summer of camping, house projects, sleeping in, visits to and from family, and hanging out just the four of us. While I'm reluctant to let go of the freedom of summer, the structure of our fall schedule is always inviting and sort of exciting. It also makes me want to buy new pens and a backpack and organize my whole life. Does that happen to anyone else?

Anyway, before we jump full-on into the busy-ness of the next few months, I need to document some noteworthy things about this season right here. Because before I know it we'll be entering winter and adding a third kid and everything will seem so very different.

Gehrig is a big kid all of a sudden. Neighbor kids ask him to play and he gladly runs out to join them. He tells made-up jokes {the punchline of which is usually something to do with eyeballs? They're never funny, but that doesn't stop him from trying}. He is still the pickiest eater I know. He asks everyday how many more days until Christmas, only because he's ready to meet "our baby." His stubbornness is frustrating and he has started to tattle on his brother a bit too much. He wants to sit and read books for hours each day. He completely took us by surprise while Jason and I were playing a board game about brands and logos and he {unprompted} read the words Gap, Luvs, and Bing. So I guess we have a budding reader on our hands. He's thoughtful and observant. I recently gave the chair in the boys' bedroom a makeover by painting the upholstery and after it was back in its usual place for a day, Gehrig ran across the house to tell me, "Mom! The couch in my room looks really nice!" Apparently "words of affirmation from a 4-year-old" is one of my love languages because it was a highlight of my week.

Milo is almost as tall as his brother, and maybe weighs more. Despite being a tank, he spends most of the day climbing up on my {shrinking} lap to cuddle. About a month ago he started calling me mommy, which neither of my kids has ever done {I've been mom, despite my protests, since Gehrig started talking}. I think Milo senses my excitement over the change because about ten times a day he snuggles into me singing "Mommy, mommy, mommy, mooommmmyyyy." We call him a cartoon character because it's The Milo Show all day around here. He makes all of us laugh constantly and as he keeps learning to string longer sentences together, he gets more entertaining. He can be such a stinker, usually instigating fights with his brother or throwing an epic pout session when he doesn't get his way. He got a time out for jumping from our ottoman to the couch after being told not to. Afterward I told him to give hugs and say he was sorry for disobeying, so he tenderly hugged the ottoman and whispered to it, "sowwy." Am I the only one who cannot keep a straight face with their 2-year-old? 

Babe 3 has been pretty good to me lately. I got all nesty a month ago and, thanks to a motivated and helpful husband, cleared out a ton of junk and rearranged our house to make it more usable. We moved all the toys downstairs into a well-organized playroom and our living room, where we spend most of our time at home, stays pretty clean for the most part {...she typed while sitting between five giant piles of laundry on the living room floor}. I have a pretty fair amount of energy these days, although I noticed myself getting out of breath while teaching the other day. Maybe I talk too much? Maybe I need more cardio in my daily routine? I'm not proud of it, but it happened and I'm calling it a pregnancy symptom and hoping it doesn't happen every day this semester. I also have crazy red, dry spots on my face and I'm not sure what to do about them. Coconut oil helps a smidge, but I'm in the market for some kind of redness-reducer/concealer/foundation for dry or sensitive skin and I know nothing about skincare products. Help a lady out with some recs.

So now we say goodbye to my daily nap and spending all day with these boys and having ample amounts of time to hang out with my husband and spontaneous trips to the zoo or park or friends' houses and slow mornings when I can sit and enjoy my cup of coffee while Jason makes us breakfast and this really awesome season of our year that I'm really really thankful for. Bye bye, Summer. You've been a good one.

All Star Game Party 2015

Last year Jason and I had a discussion about family traditions, not just those surrounding holidays and birthdays, but also the little rituals we both remember from our own childhoods. We really like the idea of adding unique traditions to our kids' lives that will add fun to the year and build memories for them to look back on when they're older. While I love holidays, I also love the idea of making a big deal out of less mainstream days: a Pi Day party on March 14, a red carpet affair for the Academy Awards {I've wanted to do this ever since college because I get oddly excited for award shows}, or a pirate-themed party for National Talk-Like-a-Pirate Day {my sister's in-laws do this every year}. Isn't there pretty much a "national" everything day now? So, I guess you can take your pick.

If you've met my husband or even just know our oldest son's name, you know that baseball is kind of a big deal around here. So on the day of the MLB All Star Game last summer, I got home from work to find the living room filled with baseball decor that the boys had made while I was gone. Gehrig got to stay up late to watch the game and we had fun making a big deal of it.

This year, since we could now call it the "2nd Annual," things got taken up a notch. We invited my sister and nephews so that more kids could partake and, rather than just celebrate during the game, we decided to make a whole day of it. {I use the term we very loosely here as this became Jason's summer obsession project. He spent so much time planning and putting everything together that I really just got to show up and enjoy it with everyone else. Don't feel bad for him. That teacher energy has to go somewhere during the summer and he loved every second of it.}

The night before, while the boys were sleeping, we decorated the house and put out little gifts for the boys {Jason dubbed it "Baseball Christmas"}. They each got a jersey and a custom book for their baseball cards. We had baseball donuts for breakfast and watched replays of the Home Run Derby from the night before. 

Jason made a mini baseball field in the backyard, complete with a fence so that we could have our own Home Run Derby {won by yours truly, thanks}. The snacks were all baseball themed {the pepperoni on the pizza was even put in the shape of seams on a ball} and there were little crafts to do in the afternoon.

Basically no detail was forgotten. Probably the coolest part was when Jason surprised the boys with their own baseball cards, complete with stats and personalized descriptions. Did I mention that he's awesome? Or that he gets a little excited about projects like this? Or that he really loves baseball? 

You know it's a successful party {at least I do} when the next day you start planning next year's festivities. As the kids get bigger, this tradition is bound to grow as well, with the boys inviting their friends over someday for a highly-competitive Derby, or filling our yard with family and friends for a barbecue before the game. It's sort of great to make up your own holidays sometimes. I highly recommend it.

Halfway

So apparently I'm 20 weeks now, which is pretty cool. Full on into that blessed second trimester and feeling a little bit more human-like, despite the stomachaches that hit every few days and the exhaustion that just keeps hanging around. I told Jason last night that I was just going to complain about always being tired and then realized that this might just be my life now. So I really shouldn't even talk about it, right? Of course right.

I must confess that I'm sort of a silently-neurotic pregnant woman. I like to keep it cool and collected on the outside, but really I worry about every little twinge and ache that comes along. Luckily {for my midwife} I'm good at talking myself down from my "what if??" scenarios before rushing to the hospital. After going through this twice, I've come to accept that this is how pregnancy after miscarriage goes. I usually ride the high of hearing baby's heartbeat for a couple weeks after each appointment and then spend the remaining two weeks quietly panicking until my next appointment. My best advice for anyone else like this {or my future self}: stay away from Google.

Despite my sometimes-tormented mental state and constant exhaustion, things have been good on the pregnancy front. So far I feel less uncomfortable than I did with Milo, who sent me to physical therapy for hip pain that drove me to tears. Staying active and doing yoga helps, though I haven't been as great at this as I should be. I'd love to be able to commit fully to either regular pants that usually still fit in the morning but are a no-go by afternoon, or maternity pants that are still just a tad too big to stay up all day. Most clothes look sort of ridiculous on me, maternity or not, so I'll be happy to be out of the 'tweener stage.

This summer has been a wonderful mixture of slow and busy, with camping trips and beach days, a little work and a lot of play. My summer class ends next week already {!!!}, which is exciting, but also a bit disappointing since it means that fall is quickly approaching. I'm not ready to let go of my endless Saturdays yet. Somehow I always am once the time comes, but this year it might mean giving up my daily nap, so a bigger protest may be in order. Anyway, as my niece used to say, "I'm walking away from that talk." Here's to the last month of summer and the last 5 months of pregnancy!

that time we went out west

Here we are at the end of July, so naturally I'm giving the people what they want: a very timely and relevant post about our Spring Break trip that we took four months ago. I aim to please. And I'm clearly right on top of my blogging game...along with every other type of game. Cleaning game, grading game, cooking game, haircut and yard work games - the person right there on top? That's me.

So, Spring Break!!! At the beginning of April we went out to Portland to visit my brother, Justin, and sister-in-law, Jamie, and had such a great time. They completely spoiled us by making tons of kid-friendly plans and making us feel so welcome, despite the fact that my sister-in-law was leaving for a month in Nicaragua the day after we left!

Before flying out, we stopped for a night in Toledo to spend time with Jason's brother and his wife. The kids were thoroughly entertained by their cat - I think Milo spent the majority of our time there either chasing her or asking where she was {hiding from Milo} - and thoroughly freaked out by the number of stairs in their house. The next day we walked down to the Mudhens Stadium and the farmers market before packing up and heading to the airport.

I don't want to brag too much, but the boys were completely awesome on our flights. I had prepared myself for the worst {meltdowns, vomit, embarrassment, and tears}, and there was literally none of it. Gehrig spent the entire first flight looking out the window exclaiming, "This is amazing!! I can't even believe this!" And Milo, while he was freaked out by take-off, just clung to me and Jason for a while before settling in with an iPad and snacks. The worst thing that happened was a spilled Sprite all over my lap, but I'm fairly sure that was my fault. You can't take me anywhere.

We arrived late the night before Easter {the boys were troopers with the time change and still woke up around 6:30 Portland time every morning, which was another pleasant surprise}. The next morning Justin & Jamie set up an egg hunt for the boys before we trekked out to see the Columbia River Gorge and Multnomah Falls. All the green was a welcome sight when everything was still so gray and leafless in Michigan.

We did a lot of walking around their neighborhood {Gehrig loved the goats in the front yard of a house down the block}, drinking delicious coffee and eating amazing food. Those food trucks?? I'm still craving more of the Hawaiian pork stir fry I had on Easter. Jason said he'd fly back to Portland just to have another Dutch turkey club sandwich on a waffle. Not to mention the free malasadas Gehrig got for finding an Easter egg outside the Hawaiian cart. Dreamy.

The next night we had dinner at Mississippi Pizza where "Mr. Ben" performed kids songs and we got to eat amidst an entire restaurant full of families with 1-6 year-olds and it was so loud and so fantastic, especially because that was our kids' crankiest night. Meltdowns are no big deal when literally everyone in the restaurant has kids with them. Other fun things included a stop at Powell's and a park {grass! green grass!}, staying up too late playing Settlers of Catan, a trip to OMSI, which had so many awesome things that captivated the adults right along with the kids, and watching Milo go crazy every time he saw a dog, which happen to be everywhere in Portland.

On our last day we headed to the Oregon coast with Voodoo Doughnuts in hand. I was so excited to see the ocean {large bodies of water calm my soul} and it did not disappoint. We had fairly rainy weather all week except for our day at the beach, which was sunny and peaceful and magical. We dug in the sand, gathered shells, played frisbee and baseball, and almost had to leave when Gehrig scream-cried over a dead crab. We left with sun-kissed cheeks, sand in our shoes, and the memory of the boys' first time at the ocean.

After a home-cooked meal that night, we packed our things and got ready to leave early the next morning. It's always a bummer saying goodbye to family, especially when we don't have a "next time" in mind. Milo especially misses Victor, their cat {notice a theme with him?} but I'm so glad we were able to take the boys on this little adventure to visit our far-away family.

Happy Spring Breaking! {If you're into that sort of thing in the dead middle of summer....}

A Third

I'm not a frequent Facebook poster, aside from my sparse blogposts and pregnancy announcements every couple years, so I forget how lovely people are when I share such happy news. In case you weren't waiting expectantly for my post and missed it, I am due with babe 3 around Christmas. We are of course thrilled to be welcoming a new baby this winter and I am so grateful for everyone's well-wishes. 

This pregnancy was a bit of a challenge for the past 3 months since I felt sicker and much more fatigued than I did with any of my others. Not to mention some heavy, uncontrollable emotions that just kept dragging me down past the point of rationality. But I really don't want to complain because it of course could be so much worse and things are definitely beginning to look up {as in, I'm not spending half the day alternating between the couch and the bathroom and I don't break into tears as much as I did for the entire month of May. Woohoo!}

I'm also ridiculously lucky that Jason is home for the whole summer, so after weathering the storm of baseball season {so long, five straight weekends of tournaments!}, I've had more chances to hide from the kids and nap than I deserve. Also, let's talk for a minute about how happy the boys are to have this guy around. Finally they have someone here who will wrestle with them, build them a fence for hitting home runs in the backyard, and buy them donuts at the grocery store. What a lucky group we are.

He's also been telling me for weeks to sit down and write a blog post because he knows that writing is one of my happy places. I'm really going to try taking his advice more often. He's a smart man and the fun parent and I can't wait to see him with another babe in arms.