The husband took the five big kids to our homeschool group ice skating trip. The kids were abuzz about it all week. SO excited.
How Anita feels about ice skating before going ice skating:
How Anita feels about ice skating while ice skating:
In case you love her hat, I made it out of fleece, using this tutorial. Then I made two long tubes of fleece, stuffed them, wound them into buns, and sewed them to the hat. I also added a little gather for the part.
Of course, you could always get
someone on etsy to make it for you!
Five kids off ice skating left me trapped in 2004 with an infant:
and NO big kids to help. Whew. I had forgotten how hard that is. Or maybe I had blocked it out.
It was 9am and I had a sleeping baby in one arm and was standing in my closet in my pajamas deciding whether I shouldn’t just wear my maternity jeans because I thought I could probably get those on one handed. But then, I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. So I opted for regular jeans, not buttoned. Reeeeel classy.
It was a good reminder for me of how things are for you gals in the all-little-kid trenches. Also, I’m thinking I shouldn’t let my big kids do stuff any more.
Adding to the challenge was the fact that Frankie wasn’t quite 100%. And I’m not even talking about that shiner.
You may recall
this post in which I mentioned that we had a bit of a stomach thing over Thanksgiving weekend. Well, just about every day since then, we’ve had “the barf of the day.”
Seriously. Nearly every day. Usually in the wee hours of the morning. One kid barfs. But then, they usually feel better by mid morning and we carry on with the day. One day it was me. Never have we had a day in which two kids barfed.
I have no idea what’s going on. Who will barf tomorrow? Will it ever end? What does it all mean?
And we’re supposed to start school again on Monday. After six weeks off. I have no memory of how we do school at all, let alone how we do it with a baby. I’m sure Monday will come and we’ll manage it somehow.
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| here’s how we did it when it was baby Frankie |
But then sometimes I think, hey, what about unschooling? I could put some books out for them and shut them outside for “nature time” and, ya know, if they want to learn stuff, maybe they will.
Have have seen this Argentinean Coke ad? It was making the rounds on Facebook, but I didn’t click on it because I assumed that it was just another: “Hey, being a parent is hard! Kids are a lot of trouble! They make messes!”
But it totally wasn’t. It is so sweet. It makes me sad that I have to wonder if most people in America would even get it. That feeling of being so overwhelmed and still so happy to do it all again.
Kathryn from Through a Glass Brightly points out that the mom’s expression indicates that she doesn’t know what to think. She’s waiting for her husband to react. And unlike the husbands I discussed in
this post, he reacts beautifully. He gives her permission to be happy. Even though.
I love it.
Southern California problem: baby Louise is named for our dear neighbor, who passed away last spring. When people at Mass ask me what her name is, I say “Louise” and they say “Luis?” All of them. They all say “Luis?” Some of them say, “You named a girl LUIS?”
I have to admit, I did not foresee this problem.
So now I have to say “Lou-EEZE” very carefully, but even that doesn’t always work. I hope I haven’t doomed this poor girl to a life of having to spell her name for everyone. I hope she likes her nickname.
More Southern California problems: IT IS SO HOT!
We did not go to the football game, which is just as well, since Stanford lost.
Aw, that video! I love it. His face is just perfect.
Thank you for your inspiring blog. I am just writing to say that I LOVE the name Louise! Our 6th is Elizabeth Louise, but that got nicknamed down to Lizzie, and I have had the thought that I'd just assume her go by her middle name, Louise, since it's so close and is the same as Grandma, which would have been so special…but it's a little hard to switch midstream! I also knew a Louise who went by Lulie, which I thought was adorable…so many cute possibilities for that name.
I really enjoy your blog and was wondering for a while now if you would do a post on how your night/morning wake-up routine looks now with an infant in the house again. I just had my third baby a few weeks ago and am struggling with getting enough sleep due to the varying routines of my 3 and 1.5 year old. I just like hearing how other people finagle problems. Thanks for sharing your wisdom!
I can't believe this Louise problem! There's a Louise Ave going through their neighborhood, have they been calling it "Luis" Ave this whole time?!?! I'm a little sensitive to the plight of those who have to repeat and spell their name a multiple times to every person they meet…
The dad's reaction in that video is the best. Terror and then joy. Isn't that how it goes for every parent?
I had the same reaction to the Coke ad. Both my husband and I ignored it for several weeks because -yawn- this has been done before right? But eventually we were worn down by the sheer number of times it was posted and we watched it together with tears in our eyes. I think Through a Glass Brightly had a great take on it.
I'm born and raised in Lansing MI, so super excited about the Spartans in the Rose Bowl. But we didn't watch the parade. I'm not much into boycotting either but to me this seemed different. I'm not concerned with what various companies do with their money. Their money is not my responsibility and it's too much trouble keeping track of these things. But what I show my child on TV is my resposibilty and I don't need them seeing something objectionable like that. Maybe it was fine, but I just didn't know what it was going to be like, so we passed on it. Parades on TV aren't too much fun for the kids anyway, and we really try to limit the amount, so there's that as well.
I grew up with name confusion. Anna seems like a simple name, but it's actually pronounced AH-na. You learn to deal with it. Louise (have I told you how much I love that name) will learn to politely correct people at an early age. It's a good skill to have.
We actually figured we were better off live at the parade than we would have been watching on TV. We were towards the end of the route, not in the grandstand, so we knew we wouldn't be witnessing the actual event.
My kids won't sit through a parade on TV either, but I figured we would have had to TiVo it and be ready to fast forward. My understanding is that the two major networks that broadcast the parade didn't show that float, just our local LA station, which frankly I find really surprising.
Anyway, besides the heat, it was fun in real life. And the Spartan fans couldn't have been nicer.
If I'd known they weren't broadcasting the float I probably would have turned it on. I had imagined them really playing the whole thing up. Oh well. Glad to hear the fans were pleasant.
I don't usually envy heat. I don't. But today is -32C and I am refusing to go out, and I am also envying your heat.
We had four children all throwing up the weekend before Christmas. Our oldest had to go to the hospital, and as soon as he and my husband left all our other kids started. At one point I had the three-year-old and the twin toddlers all in the bathtub, just letting the water out and replacing it every few minutes. Couldn't figure out a better way logistically, and we were running out of clean towels for them to puke on. It was a pretty horrible night- three small vomiting children and no husband at home.
And then a day and a half later we had an ice storm and 400 000 people, including us, lost power for a few days.
It was a pretty epic and memorable Christmas.
Love the coke ad. I've been showing it to anyone who will watch it. Which is awkward because I basically shove my phone in their faces and then I cry. every. single. time.
Okay, now I have to share the Princess Leia hat my sister crocheted because yes, Princess Leia hats on adorable little girls!!!
My sister took my older kids ice skating a couple days ago and it was amazing how much more peaceful things are around here with JUST one-year-old twins… But I think once my older two are older than 2 and 4, things have to be a little easier, right???
When my children have randomly vomited in the morning, but seemed perfectly fine the rest of the day, they have had ear infections. I hope everyone is healthy soon.
What is with kids throwing up in the early morning hours?? My kids go through that too and it seems counterintuitive since its been so long since they last ate. But I hope you kick that bug soon-stomach illness is the worst illness of all!
Ha – love #2. I've got a 2yo and one on the way (in 5 weeks), and it sure is somethin' to think that you actually *forget* (or like you said, block out…) some stuff a few down the road. Enjoyed this =)
I was homeschooled, and as I was the low maintenance one out of all my siblings, my mom pretty much let me do my own thing. I went to college and everything. Unschooling FTW!
Ok. Coke ad made me snort sob.
That video is awesome. Describe in detail what it is to be too hot….winter came early to the Midwest and I've forgotten! 🙂