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!

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...

The Days Go On

Well, life is actually quite good here on the ranch.  Kevin is settled in his new job (for the week) in The Netherlands.  The poor vegan finally figured out how to ask for vegetables in Dutch and to pay for them with Euros.

It's amazing how much you can do in one afternoon!  The girls and I took a walk with Noa in the stroller. They collected half the foliage from here to there.  I was amazed as they picked up the leaves and were talking about each on in depth.  Clara said something about loving to collect leaves and then I thought, "Well only until middle school biology when you'll have to have a huge project - then you'll hate leaves."  How sad, and hopefully not true in their school tract.

Noa really enjoyed the stroller and the walk. I had forgotten how fun the world is through the eyes of a little one.  She's getting so animated and vocal.  She used to talk only when people weren't around, like in the car when she thought she was alone because she couldn't see me.  Now she talks more, unless Ada is around.  She has a few words too.  Tonight I'd swear she said Hi Dad! to Kevin on the phone.

And we got Isaac's county achievement medal in the school mail:

After the walk, we cleaned a bit. Had dinner and talked to Kevin. Then we did the laundry.  Read from our read aloud book, though it was creative reading on my part as I had to rewrite it a bit as we read. I figured it had to be near bed time - nope 6:36 p.m.

Hmmm, what now? Okay some more laundry and made more teacher appreciation gifts.  Now it was bed time.  :-)

I'm alone, writing and working. Okay blogging, fbing and talking on AIM...

On no she didn't!

We were just getting ready today and Owen and I were downstairs by the hairbrush (tied to the cabinet so it doesn't get lost).  Kevin came down and started brushing his hair (Can you say male pattern baldness?).  Owen look sup and innocently says, "I didn't know you could brush your hair, daddy." To which I replied, "I'm blogging that!" Kevin just shook his head and said, "Of course you are..."

Thanksgiving Weekend Wrap Up

Excuse my jumbled thoughts, they were composed on the fly in a much more coherent way but too many have bottled in my brain like a traffic jam and now it's just not as pretty!

Ada loves Laurie Berkner, a singer for kids.  Well there is one song called Victor Vito she really likes.  I just figured out why.  Listening to the lyrics the first line is: "Victor Vito and Freddie Fasco ate a burrito, with Tabasco."  Only Ada hears: "Victor Vito and Freddie Fasco, Ada Burrito and Tabasco."

Owen and Clara have been busy this weekend. I love watching their reading and writing bloom. Clara is more interested in spelling and reading.  She's paired up with the spelling queen, Lilah. (Good choice!)  Owen prefers writing and drawing her words.  So I came downstairs to find out house labeled.  Each room has a drawing and a label as to what the room is...  Pictures later.

Lilah was inspired and did her own label for her room.  There is a paper cup, taped to a piece of paper that says: If you find money, put it in the cup, it's for tzedakah.  She also learned to make her own beaded kippot. (I have these pictures but they aren't up yet.)

The little girls all cleaned their rooms nicely because of the Jewish House Fairy. 

Benjamin had a rough weekend. Due to my error we didn't get his medication refilled. Then today he slept through the day waking up at 5:30 p.m.  It was a crazy day and both Kevin and I thought that the other had him up and that he was peacfully hanging in his room. Oops.

Grandma is much the same. And I know some of you are really sorry that she decided to die during NaBloPoMo, but the writing it out has been good for me.  Today she was only semi-lucid, but I'd never admit that to her.  I was trying to make conversation, so I said, "Grandma, it looks like you've lost some weight."  "Obsome bait?" she asked. "No, lost some weight." "Obsome bait?"  "Grandma, you must be misunderstanding me..."  She frowns, "Noooo."  I tried again, "Grandma, I must be mumbling..."  "Yes," she agreed with a big smile.

While I was sitting there holding her hand she slept.  She woke up once and said to me, "I'm not sure why I'm holding this box."  When I asked her what box, she moved her hand to indicate that she thought MY hand was a box.  I said, "That's my hand."  She smiled, "Ooooo."  I could hear the "silly me" implied in the sound.

Mom is not dealing well living with her at the nursing home, of which mom was a resident first.  Mom is calling me to say Grandma is colder, mottled, having periods of apnea. I rush over and she points to Grandma, "Can't you see why I called?"  No, I can't.  She looks exactly the same.  I just nod and tell her I'll come every time to hold HER hand if she needs it.  I let her know that I understand how hard it is on her.

You just don't know what to expect. I explained it to a nurse today:  When labor is approaching, you know it's coming. You probably know the signs.  You probably know what to look for.  You might start having contractions.  You might even think, "Ah, this is labor."  But then the contractions stop.  You know that they will start again one day, but you're not sure when.  All you know is soon.

All we know is soon.  We don't know when.  And thankfully this is no induction at this end of the life cycle.

National Day of Listening

A year ago Kevin and I were able to take part in the StoryCorps Project.  It was really, really cool.  Today is the first annual Day of Listening. They will give you all the instructions to do your own StoryCorps type of project. Go ahead, try it...

Conversations Overheard

From Kevin and Benjamin:

"Dad, I found another chest hair. That makes two."
"Oh good, Benjamin. Just one more and you can braid it..."
"I'm supposed to braid it?"

I cooked.

So, if you know me well you probably know that cooking is not my forte.  When I was a young girl my mother would make my sister promise to invite me over for Thanksgiving so that my children would know what real plates looked like.  My grandmother begged me to marry someone who could cook. Well, I did. The issue is that my husband is a vegan and a perfectionist.  He can't cook anything against his own dietary habits and it takes forever for him to cook.

I have mastered a couple of very easy dishes that keep my children from starving. One of this is a handy list of places that deliver food to my home. And I even have a sneaky back up plan that involves driving the minivan through the line at Taco Bell.

But I digress. I'm here to talk about my cooking. Everyone loved this black bean soup that my friend Eve made after Noa was born.  So I asked for the recipe.  I managed to only call Eve like twice while I cooked - with the recipe. I also admit to calling Ashley while in the grocery store for advice.  So my endeavor included, not only cooking, but can opening, chopping, sauteing, using the crock pot (brand new!) AND the blender.  It also took an inordinate amount of pots. (Surely that was wrong?)

To make things even fancier and more complex, because I love a good challenge, I attempted this soup making, while making cooked pudding for the first time. (I also consulted Ashley about the pudding.)

So the dinner gets made and I didn't lose too much to the blender or the floor.  I have to tell you, I was so proud of myself.  So Kevin came home from Tae Kwon Do and I announced that I'd made dinner. And, it was vegan. He asked me what I made and I said Black Bean Soup.

He came up with a bowl in hand, "Did you cook the onions?" "Yes."  (I should have told him that they were sauteed with olive oil and peppers.) "Are there even onions in here?" "Yes..." "Well it's all under done." *gasp* (me) He continued, "All I can taste are carrots..."

"Okay, see if I try to cook you anything again!"  That will teach me, eh?

True Story

So I take baby Noa into Kevin's office so that he can show her off. His work got really crazy during the 3 weeks he was off.  So I jokingly thanked his boss for allowing him the time off. I then explained that it actually was beneficial to the office because if I had had to be alone with all the kids that last week Kevin was off and the kids had no school because of the storm, Kevin would have needed another week for sitting Shiva because I'd be dead. His boss laughed.

Then I jokingly asked if he'd give Kevin time off for a vasectomy. He didn't waste anytime in saying, "No problem, I'll even give him comp time!"