Do you not know what causes that?

For all the griping I do...

This morning I was working in bed while the kids were up running around.  And Kevin made them breakfast and the appeared with this for me:

That would be homemade vegan banana waffles with maple syrup topped with fresh bananas!  Yum!

Ada & a Joke

Today we celebrated Ada's fourth birthday!  The day got rearranged a bit because of causes out of our control, but we had the inflatable up and the little girls jumped all day.  Lilah and Isaac even had some time in there.  

As is tradition, the birthday girl got to go out to dinner and she picked Red Robin's.  Now on the kid's menus they have jokes.  The joke read:

If a fish gets sick, what vitamin do you give him?

Vitamin Sea

So Owen, tells this joke at the table.  A few minutes later, Clara, tries to tell the joke to Kevin, like this:

Clara: If a fish gets sick, what vitamin do you give him?

Kevin: I know this one, Viatmin Sea.

Clara: No!  IbuproFIN.

Kevin didn't get her joke at first, and then he was really proud of her. 

After dinner we had more jumping, some confetti cake with strawberry icing and fun.  For presents I had been saving up and purchased nearly a whole new dress up wardrobe from Sarah's Silks from my friend Stacie.  I've saved them for months!  And tonight it paid off - boy was Ada surprised.  She quickly striped her clothes off and was changing her clothes to her heart's desire!  The crown even has two colors to choose form - she was thrilled.  

No fighting at bed time tonight - everyone was too, too tired.

Behavior

Ada was whining and crying in the car today.  I told her, "If you don't stop that behavior we will not go out to dinner tonight."  To which she replied, "Crying is not a behavior."

It's so quiet here...

I and L are away at camp and have been for a few days.  Today O and C went away to camp for two nights as well.  That leaves, if you're counting, A (3), N (9m), H (17) and B (16) at home.  We fit in ONE car when we went to dinner tonight!  Bedtime was soooo easy.  The house is so quiet.  It's pretty amazing.

But I do miss my babies.  I survive by knowing that they are having a blast and will tell me all about it when they come home.

We went to Cake Flour for Father's Day.  Kevin enjoyed vegan scones.  The kids also gave him a vegan cook book.  He said he liked it, even though he wasn't surprised.

Hilary in Japan!

She made it!  She sounds like she's having fun from her emails.  I'm really excited for her.

If Ada submitted a flight plan...

So you know my love of flying (NOT), well I'm tracking Hilary's flight to Japan.  One sight says, "Sorry. We are unable to determine the current location of this flight. It may be that the flight is temporarily beyond the range of our tracking network or over a large body of water."  So I looked elsewhere and got this flight path, looks like Ada submitted it to the FAA.  Last real info was that she was over the Bering Sea with about 2 hours left in the air...

Nine Months

This is the view from nine months...

My baby can barely be contained in a stroller and will definitely NOT sit still for photo shoots.  Kevin turned her stroller seat around today, and she loved it!  He told me that she is starting to realize she sleeps differently.  He feels like she sleeps more soundly, and as he put it, "more like a toddler."  I told him to bite his tongue. 

She weighed about 13.5 lbs at the doctor's a few days ago.  She's crawling everywhere, eating everything and talking our heads off.  She loves to be tickled and play peek-a-boo.

Nine months is a special time to me.  Up until this point, I've reigned supreme as her mother.  I have held her longer than anyone else, during pregnancy.  But now, now the world is in charge.  Her days outside of my body are now fewer than those in the open air of life.  She is truly a baby of the world.  I miss the days when it was just the two of us, wrapped in a silent cocoon and able to shut everyone else out...

In the ER

So Kevin is in the ER for some respiratory thing. (NOT the flu.)  We just spent about 4.5 hours in the waiting room.  I was glad when they told us we'd be coming to the back to see the doctors.  Then as I rounded the corners, I had the sudden flash of coming back to see Grandma.  In my mind, the beginning of the end started here.

Kevin will be seeing the same man who told me it was carcinomatosis and that Grandma had but weeks to months to live...  That was September 26th.  She died 78 days later on December 12th.  I remember walking into this very ER to tell her the news.  I snuck a quick text to many of my friends with the news before I even told Grandma.  I know that they would be thinking of me as I told her.

I know Kevin's news won't be of this nature.  But I am sad nonetheless and missing Grandma...

Get a job!

Benjamin, now that he's 16 and all, wants a job.  He walked up to Skyline and got an application last week and has been busy filling it out.  For those of you who know Benjamin, know what a huge deal it is...  So he walked up today.  They told him that they were not currently hiring but that they would keep his resume on file. I was so proud of him for doing that!  It was really cool.  He also stopped and got an application at McD's on the way home for filling out.

Sweet sixteen!

(Is that what you call a 16th birthday for a boy?)

Today Benjamin turned 16.  We started the day by trying to let him sleep in, to the point of taking the little girls out to breakfast.  Benjamin called right away asking where we went.  He was fine not to coming with us.  Then we went to Kraft and Kvetch.  He got to play with Isaac and Justin. We came home and Kevin and I went out to lunch with him at Yang Kee Noodle - his favorite.

Tonight we met up with some friends at Skyline Chili.  We had cupcakes and then off to Graeter's for ice cream!  What could be better.  He loved the puzzle we gave him and the magazines (National Geographic and Cook's Illustrated) and the DS case. Hard to believe my teeny tiny baby is bigger than I am now...