Birthdays are for Baking

Being one of the only "old" married couples in law school I feel compelled to take care of as many of those young whippersnappers my darling husband pals around with as I can--you know, offering home cooked meals and such since there's no telling what they're eating when they're left to their own devices.  This is especially true when it comes to birthdays....after all, if they don't have mothers or wives around to bake for them and make them feel special on their big day then who will?  Hopefully none of these young men feel annoyed that my mothering instincts extend well beyond my own precious brood.

Well, today we had yet another birthday and while I didn't go kitty cupcake crazy, I did manage to whip up a batch of our favorite cookies--with the boys help of course......

We also squeezed in a round of our new favorite game--the Catch Me! Tin Game.  The boys love this.....okay, Chris and I love it too and have played a few rounds without them.  There's a dice with five colors (corresponding to each wooden mouse color)--the "cat" rolls the dice and if your color comes up the "cat" tries to "catch" your mouse with the tin that the game comes in as you try to pull your mouse off of the felt circle.  It's especially fun if you also make cat noises :)

And for your viewing enjoyment....here is what happens when your son doesn't listen to you when you tell him that hot sauce is in fact hot and he probably shouldn't lick it.

Don't worry....after I stopped to take his picture I did eventually give him some milk to ease his torture.....or should I say natural consequences........

The Incident

David has something he wants to show you.....

He's been telling everyone he sees about his "boo boo" and how brave he was when we bandaged it up.

It happened like this...the pieces of a cheap travel coffee mug that had fallen apart after one washing were sitting on the counter.  David picks up the metal part and walks towards me blowing through it as if it were a trumpet. I tell him to put it back (mistake one) because it was sharp (mistake two).  He looks at me and then at the cup and then slides his finger across the edge--you know, just to see if mom was telling the truth.  He then calmly sets the cup on the counter looks at the blood now pouring from his precious little finger and falls to the floor in hysterics.  I then scoop him up holding a wipe around the cut to stem the flow of blood and run around the house with my screaming preschooler in my arms looking frantically for the first aid kit which (of course) was not where it belonged.  I finally find the kit (in an upstairs drawer?) run them both back downstairs and try to take a look at the damage but it's bleeding too much to see anything.  I then proceed to call Chris who doesn't answer, followed by Kate who does answer and recommends a trip to the ER.  Chris calls back and rushes home from school to help where he finds me, sitting on the floor with David in my lap--both of us crying and both of us with blood dripping down our arms.

In my defense I was fairly calm and collected until he looked up at me with tears in his eyes and said, "Mommy, I don't feel good....please make me feel better" in the saddest little trembling voice you've ever heard.

We ended up not going to the ER and David's finger is healing up nicely.

On another note, our dog is a wildabeast so we took him to the groomers today which is one of the boys' favorite spots.  They can't decide which type of animal is their favorite--fish, cats, birds, hamsters, chinchillas.....

See the sad band-aid....we're down to just two to cover the cut up as opposed to the original giant gauze pad/tape/band-aid combo we had going before.....

They would have stayed here all day if they had it their way.  I promised we'd come back and look at all the animals again when it was time to pick Raleigh up so there's that to look forward to.  These grooming trips are the only time you get the inkling that David really does love our poor abused dog.  As soon as we got into the car the tears started because he didn't want to leave him behind and "he missed his dog."  If he would just stop terrorizing poor said dog maybe Raleigh would actually miss David someday too.......as it is he's probably glad to be somewhere where no one will chase him with a dump truck--even if he does have to brave the clippers to be there........

A Sewing Lesson and Some Kitty Cupcakes

Our cat loving friend, affectionately known to the boys as "Mr. Leroy," had a birthday today so the boys and I have been working on some extra special projects.  We invited Mr. Leroy over to dinner to celebrate and I had the last minute inspiration to cross stitch him a little cat which I knew he would find hilarious--not to mention the fact that he really appreciates home made gifts :)  I've been working like crazy trying to get the little fella finished and David (seeing how much fun I was having?) decided that he also wanted to sew something.  My son......wanting to craft?  I got right to work gathering supplies!

David cuddled up next to me and started working on his masterpiece.  He got the hang of it right away and especially loved sewing on the buttons and beads.

Here's his finished piece....he found those letters and insisted I sew his name on for him but other than that it's pretty much all his original work.  I thought he was done about three dog beads before he thought he was finished......oh well, he's the creative genius........

And my finished masterpiece....not nearly as colorful.......(I used this Martha Stewart pattern)

I braved TJ Maxx this morning to grab a frame.  David picked this one out....I do think Mr. Leroy liked it.  I don't think he fully understood the process of taking the boys into an aisle full of glass chotchkies and attempting to pick one frame out of hundreds while trying to maintain David's focus on the task at hand and away from the random Precious Moments figurines that he felt the need to gently cradle in his arms......

We also got ambitious and made some kitty cupcakes from the book:  Hello, Cupcake!: Irresistibly Playful Creations Anyone Can Make.  David and I whipped up the chocolate cupcakes yesterday...with the inevitable cloud of cocoa powder when we turned the mixer on.  David was covered  but he didn't mind too much.  I intended on turning all our cupcakes into kitties but I lost momentum after just three....well really after two but I had already mixed up the orange icing so I figured I'd do one of each....

When David came down this morning to see the finished products he said "cats!"  I didn't love how they turned out but if they were recognizable as cats to a three year old I figured they couldn't be too bad right?

The rest we just iced the old fashioned way and they made a much better base for birthday candles.  Of course David was on hand to help out Mr. Leroy with such an arduous task.....he also offered his cupcake licking services as well.  Apparently he only likes the icing......I'm not sure where he gets that from, certainly not me :)

Happy Birthday Mr. Leroy!

Daddy Takes Charge and Mommy Takes a Break

As the final year of law school wraps up (and Chris' incredible hard work to finish all his final papers early) he's been home early this week and spending lots of time playing with the boys.

Take a look at how brown that mud water is....yum :)

Chris' help has allowed me some time to do things I want to do....like make delicious chocolate granola.....Granted, half of the other jar disappeared when I left Chris alone with it.....

My wonderful husband also watched the boys so that I could go to my favorite shop in the world...Canaday's Book Barn--and yes it is exactly what it sounds like--a giant barn in the middle of farm country full to the cross beams with beautiful old books.  I might have gotten a little carried away, especially since this pile doesn't include all of the children's books I've tucked away for Henry's birthday.  David loved this 1963 Peter Pan picture book.  After I read it to him, he turned to me and said, "Thank you mommy for buying me this present!"

If you think about it, all the books I got are presents for the boys...what better present could you give your children than a well stocked library...right?  Well, that argument probably won't convince Chris to take the grown up books from the boys spending money instead of mine  :)   Oh well, I've had a recent uptick in my own ability to save up my spending money by simply not buying anything that isn't on my list.  Well, up until I went into the book barn--I hadn't been planning on buying these books per say.....Mostly I've been going back and forth between this nightgown or this one, this apron and this set of tea cups.  I just can't decide which I want the most so apparently I just buy books instead.

Speaking of budgeting, Chris and I have been saving tons of money each month by deciding that any fast food we bought would no longer come from our "dining out" money but from our own spending money.  It's funny how much less you want to buy a hamburger when you know you're giving up vintage Peter Pan books for the short lived pleasure.  I almost gave in to my fast food fast the other day as I was hungrily passing a Taco Bell.   I had almost convinced myself that tacos aren't that bad for you--it's really just a shell, some meat, lettuce and cheese right?  I was about to pull in when I looked up at their window display and it literally said--"Your taco's a Dorito!"  I veered off, there was no way of telling myself that those tacos were real food after that......it was probably for the best :)

Sundays are for Sailing...and Sinking

It's becoming a Sunday tradition to take a picnic and our little boats and look for adventures after mass.  Well this Sunday Henry found an adventure.

Here he's getting deeper....

and a little deeper.....

.....too deep!  Too deep!

Which led to a dumping of the water from the boots and this.....

Which was followed by a forward slide, face-first, down the boat ramp.....

Which led to this....

....because of course mommy still hasn't learned my lesson about bringing extra outfits when adventuring.....

Chocolate Milk Makes Me Sad (And Other Eastertide Musings)

(my first finished cross stitch in years....here's the pattern)

The days leading up to Easter were very difficult for me this year.  It's easy to mourn the loss of a child during Lent--it's a season of sacrifice and penance and reflection; but Easter, that's supposed to be a joyful celebration of new life and how can I be joyful when the new life within me has so suddenly ended?  I felt as if I was being forcibly dragged through Holy Week at an ever quickening pace until I was face to face with the Easter Vigil.  As Chris and I arrived I realized I had forgotten the tissues I meant to bring.  He commented that the Easter Vigil mass isn't exactly a somber occasion.  He doesn't understand that I tear up whenever I'm alone with my thoughts and that a mass without the children in a candlelit church was a recipe for a public, tearful disaster.  Somehow transitioning into the Easter season feels like leaving Katharine behind.  To me, the Lenten calendar we had on the fridge marking down the days toward Easter, was really marking the days since she left us and now the calendar is gone and Easter is here, and I should be rejoicing but I just can't seem to bring myself to do it.


To help distract me from all of this sadness I've taken to reading the Anne of Green Gables books.  I just recently realized that although I'd seen the movies and the television shows as a girl, I had never actually read the books.  It's a shame too because I've gained a lot of wisdom from reading these little children's books as an adult. However I apparently just can't escape my solemn meditations.....

***spoiler alert*** 

As I began Anne's House of Dreams, I got to the point where Anne was about to have her first child and realized with much trepidation that the title of the chapter was Dawn and Dusk.  That certainly didn't bode well...

"At sunset the little soul that had come with the dawning went away, leaving heartbreak behind it.  Miss Cornelia took the wee, white lady from the kindly but stranger hands of the nurse, and dressed the tiny waxen form in the beautiful dress Leslie had made for it.  Leslie had asked her to do that.  Then she took it back and laid it beside the poor, broken, tear-blinded little mother.


'The Lord has given and the Lord has taken away, dearie,' she said through her own tears.  'Blessed be the name of the Lord.'...


Anne's convalescence was long, and made bitter for her by many things.  The bloom and sunshine of the Four Winds world grated harshly on her; and yet, when the rain fell heavily, she pictured it beating so mercilessly down on that little grave across the harbour...


'It doesn't seem fair,' said Anne rebelliously.  'Babies are born and live where they are not wanted--where they will be neglected--where they will have no chance.  I would have loved my baby so--and cared for it so tenderly--and tried to give her every chance for good.  And yet I wasn't allowed to keep her.'


'It was God's will, Anne,' said Marilla, helpless before the riddle of the universe--the why of undeserved pain.  'And little Joy is better off.'


'I can't believe that,' cried Anne bitterly.  Then, seeing that Marilla looked shocked, she added passionately, 'Why should she be born at all--why should anyone be born at all--if she's better off dead?  I don't believe it is better for a child to die at birth than to live its life out--and love and be loved--and enjoy and suffer--and do its work--and develop a character that would give it a personality in eternity.  And how do you know if it was God's will?  Perhaps it was just a thwarting of His purpose by the Power of Evil.  We can't be expected to be resigned to that.' 


'Oh, Anne, don't talk so,' said Marilla, genuinely alarmed lest Anne were drifting into deep and dangerous waters.  'We can't understand--but we must have faith--we must believe that all is for the best.  I know you find it hard to think so, just now...It won't hurt so much always, Anne.'


'The thought that it may stop hurting sometimes hurts me worse than all else..."



I wasn't prepared to read yet another account of a mother's grief but I think it speaks to the universal pain we all feel at the loss of a child.  I know she's just a fictional character but she did help me to feel not quite so alone in my pain.

So many kind women have reached out to me throughout these past weeks to share their own stories of loss and healing and the one thing that seems to bind them all together is the fact that our little ones are never far from our thoughts no matter how much time has passed.

...

On another note, I need to throw out our chocolate milk.  I haven't been able to drink it since Katharine left us.  I used to have it first thing every morning to keep the nausea at bay--I suppose I really should have known she was a girl by the fact that she needed so much chocolate milk....Now chocolate milk just makes me sad and so the carton sits alone in the bottom of the refrigerator.  David however still insists that he needs chocolate milk to make him feel better....probably because I always told him it was just for the baby to make him (turns out her) feel better.  Oh well, maybe one day it will make me feel better again too.....in the mean time I've go these three fellows to brighten my spirit.....

On another other note, does this helmet look too small?  I can't tell if the way it seems to be sitting ridiculously high on his head is part of the universal look of goofiness of helmet wearing in general or the product of an ill fitting helmet.  This one is 5+ surely he can't need an 8+ already?

Easter (And a Boating Adventure)

Chris and I got a sitter so that we could go to the Easter vigil mass, my very first one!  So this morning we opted not to take the boys to mass this morning--I know, you couldn't possibly understand why we wouldn't want to sit through an additional mass with those two angels.....

That left our morning free to enjoy the Easter festivities at home.  Our kindness beans transformed into jelly beans and there were of course Easter baskets for the boys.  David got a new pair of rain boots and Henry got a new to him  pair of rain boots--cleaned up of course :)  They both got a little wooden sailing boat, some chocolate lambs, bubbles, and new crucifixes for above their beds.  They also got a set of Catholic Children's Treasure Box books and some new sidewalk chalk.

 David liked the boats and the boots......

Once the sun officially came up we set off for our favorite wooded spot, complete with bubbling brook which was perfect for boat sailing.  Chris made some minor adjustments to our new boats so that the boys could keep hold of them with some kite strings.

After a fun filled morning and much needed naps we were ready to celebrate with our friends and an Easter egg hunt!

You can see the use I put to all of those blown out eggs here:

And here--I filled some with Fruity Pebbles and glitter and the adults had a fun time smashing them on each others' heads.......

Henry spent the entire egg hunt here, trying to unwrap and eat two pieces of chocolate......

David swept the whole event and had to get extra buckets to carry his haul in.  Of course he was up against two almost two year olds and one baby......

It was some pretty stiff competition.......

Happy Easter!