tiffany's spot

I've been teasing Steven about having multiples. I give him all these reasons why I know that I must be having twins. For example: I was nauseous this time. I never ever was before. This time, the whole first trimester and still on and off now. I was nauseous mere days after we would have conceived. I could feel my uterus when baby center said it should only be " thisbig ". The early weight gain. I'm sure it's not from cream-cheese iced cinnamon buns or epicure dip. I'm so tired. I'm always tired in the first trimester, but I still can't shake it. I'm sure it has nothing to do with early rising kids and not being able to sleep. Those are just a few. The best part is that when I talk like this Steven tries to be cool and shrug it off and act like I'm kidding, but seriously, his face turns a slightly darker shade of red. He's petrified. To be honest - I've always thought it would be cool to have twins. That being said, I've always

Update: I restarted the computer. It works now. Guess I have to get healthy. Sheesh. ______________________ Alright, so I have this plan. Believe it or not, it's not really to gain the expected 25-35 pounds in the next few weeks. Tell that to the snack cupboard. It's oddly emptier every day. I made this nice little chart with some daily goals. Easy stuff, like drinking eight glasses of water, taking a vitamin, and maybe just maybe not engorging myself on chips and dip every night. I can't print it off. Don't know why. The printer is refusing to print it. You'd think that the printer Steven bought that was cheaper than buying a new ink cartridge would do the job. Apparently not. Guess I'll just have to forgo the daily chart thing and just wing it. Ketchup chips, here I come.

Remember this post , where I mentioned that I was going to pull the sleigh across town with the kids in it to have a fun morning walk? Remember how chipper I sounded when writing about it? You wanna know why I sounded so eager and happy about the sleigh-pulling walk? Because I wrote it before it happened. The kids have a beautiful new wagon/sleigh that they got for Christmas. It's a wagon with wheels that you can take off and replace with skis. Great idea right? Ha! I was so pissed by the time I got to diaper gym. Reasons? The kids are freakin ' heavy. I made Tennyson get out of the wagon and walk before we even made it off our street. Skis? Would work better if there was any snow or ice on the sidewalk. Imagine dragging it over concrete. For a mile and a half. One way. Did I mention that the two older kids walked? Every time we got to an intersection I'd have to holler at one or both of them to wait for me. Tennyson falls a lot. He's such a klutz . You should see his

Seems so unfair! I suppose there isn't really anything "unfair" about it. I just know I'm going to get fat now. Whatever. Have I ever mentioned I hate being pregnant? I especially hate the getting fat part. Steven thinks it's all cute, and when the belly "pops out" he can't keep his hands off it. I for one would love to forgo the bump for a nice pair of jeans. I love the new babies. And the old babies. Too bad I could just grow them in a vat of amniotic fluid in my house somewhere for nine months. Then I could sit and drink rye and coke and watch my baby float and change. They'll probably come out with this technology mere months after I'm done having this baby. To be honest, I find it going pretty quickly. This is especially odd since this is the only pregnancy of four that I've had any symptoms with. The first three months I felt pretty pukey . Never actually happened, but I sure felt like it a lot of the time. I think it's fast bec

I'm sitting here at the computer desk and Jordan comes by for a hug. Then she takes some paper clips out of the dish. I tell her not to take things off the desk. They're not toys. Two seconds later she reaches in again, this time for a length of chain that's been fashioned into a loop. They think it's a necklace. I assume that it's on the desk because Steven took it from them for whipping it around or hitting things (or each other) with it. "Jordan, put it back." "But it's a necklace." "If Daddy took it from you, you have to ask Daddy for it back. I'm not going to give it to you." Big sigh and then she stomps off upstairs. Tennyson looks to see what it was. He reaches for it. "Tennyson, no. You need to ask Daddy." "But it's a necklace!" "Well, it's not. And if Daddy took it from you then you need to ask Daddy if you can have it back." Then he gets mad and kicks a few toys around. "But D

Sometimes I forget things that I really shouldn't forget. Little things. The other day I wanted to open up a spreadsheet that I look at daily. I sat here for a minute, drawing a complete blank as to how to access it. All I have to do it hit "start", "recent documents" and "spreadsheet" and voila, there it is. I stared at the screen. I could chalk it up to continuous multitasking, chasing three kids, growing a fourth, sleeping very little, etc. I'm sure to many that would make sense. The other option is early onset Alzheimer's . Ever read "Still Alice"? That's how it starts. Stupid little forgetty things. Knowing me as you do, which do you think I worry about?

when I used to lay in bed all night to finish a good book, and then sleep in until noon. when I used to decide at 8pm that I wanted to rent a movie, so I grabbed my keys and left. when I used to have a full-time job and money! when I wrote, and journalled , and emailed like crazy. when I could talk on the phone for hours without interruption. when I went out with friends and didn't have to hire a sitter. when I had sleepovers and we did ridiculous things. I'll always remember how three little sticky faces run to the door for hugs and kisses when I come home. how every shakily drawn picture is a present for someone. how fascinating it is that noodles are made out of dough, even though they don't have crust. how much fun every new thing is, even the things I've taken for granted my entire life. how cool it is to learn to do something, like buckle oneself into the van. how scary the nights can be when the stars on the sheets look like bugs in the dark. how comforting it i

My kids have actually gotten into a routine of going to bed pretty dang well. There were years of fighting with Jordan. I tried everything - the supernanny thing where you sit there forever, spanking her, threatening her, time-outs, etc. It was hopeless. For a while now, they've been going to bed really well. Jordan will sometimes make up some sort of excuse to come out once: a hug, another trip to the potty, to tell me just one more thing. Usually I give her a hug and firmly tell her to go back to bed and that's the end of it. Every once in a while they're a little goofy and I can tell they're going to fool around in their room the minute I'm out of it. Tonight was one of those nights. I tucked them all in and told them to go to bed. They were bouncy and giggly and I kind of figured it wouldn't be quite as smooth as that. Two minutes later they both came bursting out of their room and said they needed to pee. I told them to go. They tried really hard and both m

The kids are going down the stairs headfirst. You know they are because of all the grunting and thumping on the walls and because if you look over the railing you can see them do it. They know they're not supposed to. Remember when stuff like that was fun? My brother and I used to sit on an open sleeping bag, slippery side down, and fly down our stairs too. Okay, to be honest we went down on our stomachs head first a lot. I think our parents just ignored it. We weren't bugging them any! Steven hollers down: "Hey! If you guys don't stop doing that I'm going to spank your bum!" "Spank my bum?" asks Tennyson, in this little, sweet, cherubic, incredulous voice. "Yes, your bum." Down they go the proper way - until next time.

I have this baby ticker. It's way off. I'm 15 weeks today, which means it should say I'm so many months and weeks, but 0 days. I'm thinking of deleting it, as cute as it is. It drives me nuts that it's wrong. How stupid is that? UPDATE : I just added 5 months, 3 weeks, and 3 days and it does come to July 8th. I guess I just go by the weeks and that makes it even right now. Huh. ***** I exercised today. I walked four laps around the block for a total of two miles. Jordan did the first two laps with me. I walked fast enough that she had to run the entire thing. That's right. My four year old ran a mile tonight. I'm pretty proud of her. My dream is that she'll take to running when she's a little older and some day my daughter and I will do runs together. How awesome would that be?! After running I went to aquasize with a friend. Not 100% sure of my opinion of aquasize . I almost think I'd get more of a workout from a nice fast walk. I may do it ag

I took Jordan to a preschool party today at the school where she'll be attending Kindergarten next year. The principal read a story to them, another teacher lead them in making dinosaurs out of play- doh and then the phys. ed. teacher read them another story. It was nice for the kids to be in the school and see some of the faces that will be there in the fall. I'm so mixed about it! I know every parent has the same concerns I'm sure, but still. It's a first for me. What if she's her high energy, somewhat stubborn self at school and the teacher doesn't like her? What if she gets bullied? What if she hates it and she still has to go everyday? What if she makes friends with a nasty little child and learns all sorts of bad habits? She's really really going to miss her nursery school teacher. She says she's excited to go to school, but she's going to miss Mrs. Carpenter. What if she's sad at school and she never tells me and I can never help her? I

I've always said I wanted three or four kids. After I had Mitchell I was pretty sure I still wanted that fourth. People's reactions are varied. When did four kids become such an enormous family? Two kids seems to be more or less the norm. When you have the third people say "wow, you'll be busy!" The fourth? Many think I'm nuts. I think I'm lucky. My kids are such great friends. They scrap some, but I figure that when you're 2 and 4 (and 1) and you spend every minute of the day with another little person you're bound to. They get over it quickly and are back to playing. I imagine camping trips with our van load of kids someday. Jordan and the youngest will only be five years apart. I love that they're so close together. I'm hoping the closeness in age will lead to them being on the same page. I want them to enjoy growing up in our family, and enjoy each other. I want them to have each others backs. I think they will. I really hope that when

Remember how when we were kids and nothing was scary? How we'd go to the snow hill and actually aim for the biggest bump on the hill, how we'd ride our bikes up and down anything, how we'd climb any old tree? I think we sort of get smart and grow out of that. Either that or we sort of lose our sense of adventure. I'm like that. Now I worry more about hurting something than I do about looking brave. My kids, however, are still fearless. We took them to the dump hill on the weekend to toboggan. I went down once, on an inner tube, after seeing that it didn't really slide all that fast. I took the baby. There's no way God would let me tip out of the tube with a baby on board - would he? I figured I was safe. It's the same reasoning I use when I huck a bean bag (hypothetically) at Steven and then quickly hold the baby on my lap blocking as much of me as I can. He wouldn't risk the baby - would he? There was no way I was going down that hill on that dinky litt

My not-so-secret fantasy is that I'll be one of those women for whom labour comes on so quickly that I have my baby either in my bathtub or in the car on the way to the hospital. I think my friends think I'm kidding. I can assure you I'm not. I've actually been disappointed each time it hasn't happened. Cross your fingers for me.

Because last year's list is so last year ... 100 60 Things About Me in 2009: I had the stomach flu over Christmas. I wasn't able to eat nearly as much as I wanted. I still managed to gain a few pounds. Go figure. My babies turned 1, 2 and 4 My babies don't think they're babies anymore, and they won't hesitate to tell you! Except Mitchell. He revels in being a baby. He'll still let me spoon food into his mouth, carry him around, snuggle his head on my shoulder. He's quite happy with his status. I'm going to miss my babies. Even though I love my "big kids." I went camping 4 times last summer with my 1, 2 and 4 year old. It's not really that hard. If you know how to look after your kids, you can look after them in a camp ground. I'm not saying that it's not busier! I had a blast camping. Not nearly enough hammock time, due to the eager and excited offspring. A good friend of mine had her first baby! He's cute, definitely a kee

I'm working on my 100 list. Should be done tonight!

My kids aren't the best cleaners. Okay, so maybe their average age is 2.5. Still, anytime we want them to clean the basement or their room, or pick up the playing cards or the game pieces that they throw all over it's a big deal. I don't want to make us sound like normal, easily irritated (at times) parents, but it's kind of irritating!! I don't want to make Steven out to be an Ogre, but when he oversees their cleaning of the rec room in the basement, his growls could out-Ogre Shrek any day. Okay, to be fair to him I was sort of in the next room playing FreeCell while he bickered with the kids to clean. And I may have teased him just a little when he became short with them. It's kind of cute when he comes in here to glare at me and he's trying not to smile. Then he left. I think he's teaching me a lesson. Ha. I'll show him. I'm in the next room, blogging for your personal enjoyment while the kids are cleaning up their mountains of toys. My sec