Random Tidbits for the Day

I didn't realize that boys could be as picky about what to wear as girls. Patrick insisted on wearing his football uniform to the zoo today and I suspect he will be wearing it a lot from now on. Better than the girls' old cheerleading outfit! He is having a really hard time adjusting to wearing pants and jackets though, just can't understand the concept and wants his old stained tshirts and shorts.

In good news for those with breast implants, Sean saw an x-ray the other night where a bullet was stopped from going into the heart by the implant. Seriously. I don't think this is a HIPAA violation because he reads studies for many many hospitals so good luck figuring out what state this even happened in!

At lunch today Patrick insisted (sensing a theme here?) on having a bite of my chicken sandwich which was very spicy. I kept trying to explain that to him but he just had to try it for himself. Next time I will put the video camera on. He had no idea how to react, it was so funny. I kept trying to get him to drink milk but he refused. He finally finished his own PBJ sandwich and hopefully learned a good lesson. Now to convince him that my desserts are spicy...

What do his patients think?

We went out for my birthday dinner on Thursday and Sean actually got carded when he ordered a drink. I was tempted to order one to see if I could pass for a pregnant teenager but I was afraid to find out that I do indeed look 35. I'm sure Sean's patients don't think he is old enough to be a doctor and instead assume he is fresh out of radiology tech school, which takes a few less years. Nope, he is only 3 weeks younger than me...

So Behind...

My friend Melissa from high school was in town last week, so I am still catching up on stuff around here. Will post the most important thing first, the link to some gorgeous photos of our new nephew, Mr. Mohawk! I keep up with quite a few photography blogs so it was a little startling to go to this one and actually recognize the people in the photos. If the link doesn't work as usual, just cut and paste... sorry.

http://littlemoonphotography.com/blog/

So Innocent

You'd never guess that his favorite game is grabbing his sisters' favorites things and running away. Or that he has huge kicking tantrums when we won't let him play with Megan's piggy bank. He doesn't appreciate when I give him suggestions on what to do next in his hissy fit (oh, now lay on the floor and kick faster!). Hard to be the 3rd child when nothing phases the parents anymore...

I hope she wasn't induced on Wednesday...

Monica and Dennis had a baby girl late last night and named her Diana Joan after the grandmothers. Hopefully it wasn't a 2 day labor, otherwise I am sure this is their last baby! Big brother Sean has no idea what is moving in... I think I am the next one due now, 9 weeks to go is seeming long.

New Nephew!

Sean's sister Caroline and her husband Andy had their little boy today, Nicholas Charles. I won't post photos until she approves them but I assure you, he is a cutie! Thanks to various iphones we had immediate updates and a picture. I showed Patrick his new cousin and he said, "kick baby?". I think this is just a running joke with him... he is constantly asking us if he is allowed to kick certain people, will list off everyone in the family and then end with "kick ball?" Yes, he can kick a ball, through the goal posts, please!

Our dear friend Monica from college was supposed to be induced today, also in DC, but I haven't gotten any news yet. No iphone? Can't wait to hear if it is a boy or a girl!

Are these my kids??

This is the 2nd year Sean has taken the kids to the Reptile Expo that is held at a hotel down the road from us. (Side note: if I ever show up to a hotel for the night and find out the reptile expo is there, I assure you I will not be staying). I am actually surprised that Sean took the kids again this year because when he made them leave last year Anna kicked his leg really hard. As you can tell from the photos, she has no fear and would love nothing more than a pet turtle, snack, lizard, even apparently a pet chicken (good thing the girls didn't notice the sign on them, haha!).

2009 Football Pictures

I'll add more next week once the cheerleading outfits arrive for the girls. Next year we will take these on campus!

10 More Weeks!

Trying not to wish away this last pregnancy but those will be 10 rather uncomfortable weeks. I am at least still able to go for walks this time which wasn't really possible with Patrick towards the end. I usually run errands by myself on the morning I have a sitter so people at stores and such assume this is my first baby (always shocked to hear it is my 4th, don't worry I spaced them out!). And mothers with small children in tow just look at me like, just you wait... I'm no rookie, why do you think I am alone at the store?! Before we got a regular sitter I used to swap babysitting with friends or would wait until Sean was home. Hard enough getting everything on my list without dealing with whining and crying children....

Thanks Notre Dame Haters!

Yes, thanks to the Notre Dame haters, we have the one thing they hate us most for... our NBC contract. In case there is some confusion about how a television network operates, let me help you out. They are a business, they make decisions based on money, and in television, money is tied to advertisers which is tied to ratings. Must be a good business decision to show Notre Dame home games on a Saturday afternoon instead of an informercial. It's not like they are bumping their Thursday night primetime line up to show a game, let's not get ridiculous here.

But back to my point, there aren't that many alumni out there since only about 2,000 graduate each year (including grad school and law school), but there are a lot of fans who have other connections to the school, even if it's just a grandparent who came from Ireland. And then also tuning in to watch Notre Dame... why it's the haters! Because what is more fun to watch than to see ND lose?! Oh my, and we are good at that. We can play up or down to any level school and even if we are ahead quite a bit, you never know what will happen! Oh the excitement!

So yes, we do get to see our team play no matter where the Army moves us, but there is a downside to alumni being spread out all over the country. We rarely get to see our college friends and there is no place we could live and be near to more than a couple of them. Even the ones in Chicago live so far apart from each other so they aren't hanging out together all the time. We have moved every 5 years since graduation so haven't even made it to the official reunions and trying to coordinate a weekend to meet up with a lot of friends for a football game is nearly impossible now that so many have small children. I am sitting out this season too, far too uncomfortable to travel. Hoping those direct flights from Manhattan to Chicago work out though, that would be great for next year!

Anyway, special thanks to the haters this weekend.... we get to watch an away game on ABC! ND/Michigan weekend... must be time to update my facebook photo since the last one was from the game last year. Here's hoping to the same outcome! (sorry Ryan)

I got a car, I got a car!

Patrick spent most of the day saying "I two" until he opened his presents tonight. Then he just danced around singing, "I got a car, I got a car!", his longest sentence yet. Sean told him to enjoy it now because in 16 years that is not the song he will be singing. Anyway, since he is only 2 and has no idea what birthdays should be, we just had cake with the family and opened presents and he was thrilled. I am too tired to do much more than that.

Apparently he will not have a cousin with the same birthday though, sorry Caroline! Still wondering if we will get word from Monica as she is also due soon. Carrie and Kevin, our good friends from med school, did have their daughter yesterday, Avery Claire, so that was close. After two boys you know there is an pink explosion going on at their house!

ELMO

Well, I made it 7 school days alone with Patrick before having to introduce him to Elmo. He had never seen a TV show aimed at his age group before, he was in shock. He has been playing in the room plenty of times during boring old Arthur or Cyberchase, but a puppet that talks to him... why, it's almost like skype with the grandparents! So I can now get a small break during the school day and unload the dishwasher by myself and get makeup on without someone turning on the bathtub every 2 seconds.

I have decided to only save one episode on the DVR so far and just let him watch the same one every day, no need to start that annoying stage where they whine and beg for particular episodes. He is so excited by it, dances during the songs, tries to count along (he's up to 2, does that count?), and says bye-bye to Elmo. He also imitates the skit at other times of the day (it is about not sharing and saying "mine mine" over and over) and thinks he is hilarious.

Well, last night he was having a meltdown after his bath, no idea why, so we let him watch a little Elmo before bed, but only half as it's a whole hour. He did not think this was a good idea but I told him he could finish it in the morning. Wasn't sure if he understood, but yes he did! Up extra early and ready for Elmo. Learned my Sesame Street lesson for the day!

All Geared Up

Patrick is being forced into cheering for Sean's teams... Bills gear courtesy of Uncle Mark!
ps ignore my filthy oven

Sunday Post

After Sean spending the night reading studies of angry OU fans trying to forget their loss, we are trying to have a quiet morning here so he can sleep. The girls got up and were being very nice and helpful, so I told them if they kept it up they could skip church. Mainly I did not want to deal with getting all 3 ready by myself and then wrangling them for an hour while toting around the big belly. Nor did I want to hear the whining and complaining, things are going so nicely. It is cool and foggy here this morning so I let them have hot cocoa and pumpkin muffins on the porch (really embracing this early fall).

Anna was so sweet and went and got them all blankets to wrap up in. I would like to take credit for this move since I work constantly with the girls on lessons they would learn in church if they paid attention; namely, treat others as you want to be treated. It is surprising how many adults have missed this lesson so that is really my main goal as a mom, to make sure my kids don't end up that way. However, I think they are being so good this morning because we spent yesterday with some great friends who have daughters who are a bit older than mine and they are just the nicest girls. So respectful of their parents and each other, no sass at all. All in all, they set a great example and my girls are at the age where seeing that is more effective than me trying to explain the concept to them.

Meanwhile Patrick is hitting Megan on the head because he thinks her reaction is funny. Good times ahead with the baby arriving! I will have to keep her protected at all times.... and get some parenting lessons from my friends.

We're ready for some football!

Wish we were on campus, it is gorgeous there, although perhaps a bit warm to be wearing a leprechaun costume... that is looking pretty sweaty. Nice and cool in our basement and feeling like fall outside here. Not sure if we believe the hype about this season but so far not much swearing from Sean so that's good. Anna recognized the Fight Song, saying that is the song that Daddy's pen sings.

Patrick is taking his nap in his uniform but we are taping the game for him so he can understand what he is training for.... kicker, and not just kicking mommy! We're not pushing him for the scholarship... it's a historically weak position, it is time for ND to get serious and that means Uncle Andy's Kicking Training Camp starting at age 3. Go Irish!

Glamourous Life

As most people know, staying home with the kids is a life filled with glamour, leisure, and daily showers. Or maybe it's the opposite? I made the effort last week to wash all the bathroom rugs, in addition to the usual 6-12 loads of laundry, since guests were coming. Well, Sean paid the price first. He was up playing some video game Monday night and Anna came staggering out of her room, deliriously doing the potty dance. So he managed to steer her in there but she ended up peeing on the rug. So he did that load of laundry for me in the middle of the night.

Then yesterday Patrick was having a huge meltdown after his nap because he wanted to sit on the potty. I am the worst potty trainer ever, the girls never had any interest and I had to force it well after age 3 for Anna. So for Patrick to even know the word potty at his age is bizarre. I was so confident that he would have no success that I just let him sit on it for a while in the bathroom while I was running around doing other stuff. I would check on him, find that he had pulled out the catcher thing under it, figure it was no big deal, and just let him play there. Well, one time when I went to put the catcher back in I got a whiff of what I assumed was success on the way, only to then see that he had "successed" on the rug. Oh boy!

Hard to be excited for him when I knew a big clean up process was next. So, there goes another load of rug laundry, ding. I still have no intention of even mentioning potty to him since he would just regress once the baby arrives anyway. But, he may have other plans. It may be the born in Kansas thing since all the long time Kansans here have children who potty train freakishly young. I thought some of the moms were just being modest when they said their kids wanted to potty train and did it mostly on their own. Were they telling the truth?! Is there hope for me yet?!

As for rug #3, Patrick scrambled out of the bathtub last night just in time to pee on the rug in my bathroom, so that was another load of rug laundry. Let's not forget how long it takes to try those suckers too. Not to be outdone, I get a call from the school nurse today about Megan.... (no, not what you think thankfully). She stepped in "dog dirt" as our old neighbor at the lake called it. I'm not sure why it was on the playground or how she managed to get it on the bottom of her shoe AND all over the top of her shoe including the laces. I don't even know how to clean this, so it is currently soaking in a bucket of water outside. I am considering buying new shoes... Cringe at the thought of putting it in the washer, I don't need that stuff floating around in there. I had to drop off new shoes for her to wear of course and that's when I realized that she only has a pair of dress shoes and a pair of crocs, both of which are a bit small for her. So, I need to probably order her a back up pair of shoes anyway. Meanwhile, Anna has about 52 pairs that she can wear, perk to being the 2nd child.

I hope no one read this while eating, if so, my apologies. At least I didn't post photos....