What a week we had! Tuesday morning the 22nd we woke up early and piled in the car to drive to Tampa. By lunchtime, we knew that it was unlikely we'd be able to finish the (supposed to be) 11 hour drive. In fact, if we would have finished that day, it would have taken us at least 15 hours. I had been feeling sick the few days prior to the trip, so I was unable to help with hardly any of the driving. We had to stop 3 times in the first 3 hours to change Evan's dirty diapers. So, we stopped at a hotel for the night, and in the middle of the night as Andy was rocking Evan, he realized why he felt so tired that day. He got sick. And he stayed sick almost the entire time we were in Florida. At least we were with family to help us take care of the kids! We finally made it around 11 AM the next day, Noelle's birthday.

Noelle's birthday party, Christmas Eve, Christmas, a trip to the Tampa Zoo, and my mother-in-law's birthday filled our week with lots of fun times and good memories. I'll add the pictures to our Picasa Web Albums soon (all taken with my new camera!) and they will be available under the pictures tab up there. Our trip home was fortunately SO MUCH BETTER! We made it in 12.5 hours, with minimal stops, and both kids were sleeping when we pulled in to town. Now for a short work week and we get daddy back again on Friday! So, this is where I have been. I'm still up for blogging, but my holiday week did not lend itself to much computer time!

We had such a great day for Noelle's first friend birthday party! The day started at Hooprama, a local hula hoop fitness center, where we had 10 kids and their parents learn how to hula hoop. Did you know that you aren't supposed to move your hips in a circular motion? I sure didn't. Instead you stand with your feet apart and move your torso side to side. I actually kept the hoop up for a good while! Andy got in on the action, too.



Evan loved the wall of mirrors, crawling all over the hula hoops, and went back and forth through the tunnel they set out.



Noelle tried hooping, but kind of gave up after a while. She got more into it when they set up the obstacle course later on. The kids walked on a balance beam, hopped through hoops on the floor, raced through a row of hoops the parents held up, crawled through a tunnel, then somersaulted, crawled like caterpillars, or rolled on a mat. Then they started it all over again.





After Hooprama, everyone headed back to our house for cake, presents, and lots of little girls changing their clothes over and over again into dress up clothes. The parents enjoyed getting to know one another while the kids ran all over the house having a great time.



I think that hosting is one of Noelle's gifts, she absolutely loves to have people over and show them around her room. She's still working on the sharing part, but based on how many kids I saw coming in and out of her room with her dresses, shopping cart, dolls, dishes, and other toys, I'd say she did a really good job.

Overall, I don't think the party could have gone any better. We're so glad we could give this day to Noelle for her 4th Birthday!

I'm getting ready for Noelle's birthday party tomorrow. It's the first friend birthday party she's ever had. We are always in Chicago or Tampa on her actual birthday, so it's just never happened before. Now she is old enough to care, and has been talking about her party for at least 6 months. She has wanted a beach party, a princess party, a dance party, and so many other variations I can't remember. We've decided on a hula hoop party, details will come tomorrow after it's over!

Cleaning is honestly one of my favorite things to do. It gives me a sense of control and accomplishment to have a room look just like I want, to get rid of a big pile of clutter, to wipe down a messy counter. When I was in high school, I remember many parties where I maybe felt slighted by a boy or a friend (most likely a boy) and headed to the host's kitchen and started washing dishes. I'd go around and collect all the plastic cups and empty plates in a trash bag, put away the game pieces in their respective boxes, and start putting food away. That was my way of gaining back some control, bringing order to what I saw as a messy situation.

Maybe it's not good that I use cleaning to override feelings of neglect. I suppose there are probably better ways to deal with those feelings, but I know there are plenty of worse ways, too! I still use this method a lot, but it's much more difficult with kids under foot messing everything up right after you've cleaned it. Which is why yesterday I started with the office to get ready for the party. The kids are never in there to play. So, no one go in there until Saturday afternoon!

December 15, 2009

Had lots of things to show us today - a necklace, 2 hair clips, and a spiderman watch?! Very proud to give the gift cards to Ms. Boo and Ms. Jill! You can get hot chocolate, she said - THANKS! She had us show them to the other teachers. One of her jobs is to turn out the lamp when we leave the room to go to snack.

Behavior: Wow! Generous
Uh-oh! Spitting at lunch

***When I asked Noelle why she was spitting, she said it was to make the kids laugh. I reiterated that it wasn't okay, then asked if it did make them laugh and she said yes.


December 17, 2009

Great listening during story - Noelle knew all about the birth of Jesus. Noelle did a fantastic job kneading her bread dough today - would've made more if I had more dough! Showed us a doll, but said it didn't have a name. We sang Jingle Bells - Noelle likes to sing that one, preferably be herself for us!

Last night I went to bed at 10:30, but when Andy came to bed at 11:45 I was still awake, just laying in the dark. My mind had been full of random thoughts. Noelle's party on Saturday. Evan's health. Christmas presents. I'm cold. Remnants of conversation from a night with my Bible Study girls. None of it was very important, but when Andy realized I was awake I confessed that I had felt cast off by him before bed. I came home from girls night ready to talk, just talking to meet my "word quota" for the day, but he was busy doing work. He listened for a while, but then jumped back into his computer screen while I tried to ramble on. It was hard for me to wind down after that, with words still floating around in my head. Finally I drifted off to sleep, after Andy put 3 blankets over me to remedy the coldness, but one thing that stayed on my mind was this blog.

This had become for me something that I was doing for other people. Grandparents want updates on the kids. Friends are interested in meal plans. Other bloggers do this or that, so maybe I should, too. I've often been told that my best blog posts are the ones that reflect my heart, but if I'm honest, I would say I feel like those moments have been few and far between. There's no time for me to reflect on my heart, I have small kids to raise, a house to clean, work to do! So I was left feeling like maybe there was nothing very valuable to share from my heart. Maybe that's true, but it's also faulty thinking. We heard a speaker at Bible Study last week who made the point that we don't expect our babies to wait until they have something important to say to talk to us, we want to hear every single babble and coo from the first moment! Evan's voice is one of the sweetest sounds I have ever heard, I love hearing him talk to me, and yet he doesn't really say any words. The speaker compared this to how God sees us. He wants to hear from us, even if it's something we don't think is important or even coherent.

So, I'm putting this up here to say that I want to commit to sharing my heart, or my silly thoughts, or maybe something that seems like babbles and coos, and I want to do it for me. I hope that whatever readers I have enjoy it as well, of course! The plan is that I'll be back again tomorrow, and the day after that. Hopefully I will see you again soon!