Weekend Wrap-Up: The Full Moon Edition

To say this weekend was challenging would be an understatement.  But probably not in the way you are expecting me to talk about challenging things.  Though the usual challenging things these days probably didn't help MY reaction to what WAS challenging.

I don't think I'm making any sense, so I'll just lay it all out there.

THIS WEEKEND MY KIDS WENT FREAKING NUTS AND I BLAME IT ON THE FULL MOON.

I know what you're thinking.  Awww...she looks adorable.  Trust me.  This was 8am Saturday morning, and at this time she was adorable.  And it lasted until about 8:05am and then the full moon tides hit (or whatever happens) and she turned into a tutu-wearing-baseball bat-wielding crazy child.

Maya also put on a good façade for awhile, like when our friends Emily, Vera and Baby Hattie came over Saturday morning.

But then during dance class, while Callie was pretending that she actually listens to adults, Maya proved that she ignores adults by continually running away from me (out the door, up the stairs and outside into the parking lot), except for the one second pictured that I was able to keep her sort of on my lap.

Shortly thereafter she fought nap time by standing up, shouting, giggling, and doing pretty much anything she could think of to avoid actually falling asleep.

Later we spent time downtown where both girls had ups and downs, ultimately leading us to pack it in early and head home due to twin tantrums.

I should probably mention at this point that Chris had a super busy work weekend, so he wasn't around at all on Friday and most of Saturday. 

I may or may not have texted him that he owed me a giant margarita for all that the crazy children had put me through. 

In between working and reserve duty, he picked up margarita ingredients and made this for me before leaving again.

Needless to say I was in my pjs and in bed binge-watching Project Runway on the iPad by 7:45pm.

Today we had Sunday School where they both made Superhero Capes with stickers that (ironically) said "I Am a Delight."

Here you see them both completely ignoring my directions, and in fact running away from me as fast as they can.  How "delight"ful.

On the way to church I had googled "Full Moon September 2015" and found out it is a full moon, a super crazy different kind of blood moon eclipse full moon.

And then today at MOA while in line I mentioned to someone I ran into that it was a "Full Moon Weekend."  At least two other moms in line (who I did not know) said something like "OMG YES!  It was for us too!"  So that made me feel a little bit better that it wasn't just my children. 

And it gave me hope that after this stupid full moon I may get my regular children back.

You all know how much I love my little LoveBugs, and most of this blog post is all in jest.  But this weekend they really were TOTAL StinkBombs. 

Tonight Callie hand-delivered my margarita, and it grew in size from last night's drink.

And it came with a side of major attitude just for me. :)

Maya and Callie QOTD + Pictures

Now that Maya is super verbal, it can be very entertaining to listen to the girls interact with each other.  Our ride ride home today, for example.

Callie: Maya, that is inappropriate.

Maya: No YOU are a poo-poo head!

And later...

Callie: I hope Maya doesn't cut the cheese.

Maya: I DO cut my cheese!

As I said on Wesnesday, that little one is a riot.

I had some up close and personal

time with MN sports teams this week. We used some of my dad's Twins tickets on Wednesday for the first time this season. The seats are in the first row by 1st base. It was pretty rainy that night, but fun. Then my mom and I went to the first Lynx Western Conference playoff game on Thursday night.

Both teams won!

Chris had to work late tonight so I took

the girls to dinner again. By Friday we don't have much for food at our house...

Auntie Cat came over tonight to play. It was a lovely night.

Happy Flashback Friday!

Have a good weekend!

26-Months-Old!!!!

It's the 23rd and this one is another month older.

I wish I could take a 24/7 video of her because she is so entertaining.

Two-year-olds rock.

World Gratitude Day

I heard that today is World Gratitude Day. I saw this from one of my favorite authors, Glennon Melton.

Gratitude has been a guiding word for us these past four-and-a-half months.

But sometimes it is easy to forget. It was good to get a reminder today.

Weekend Wrap-Up

Happy Sunday!

It was a pretty...um...it was a weekend.  It is hard to describe things as good or bad; or easy or hard; or happy or sad; or any one word anymore, because it is always both things.  Together. 

I guess the two words I'd use for this weekend were good and hard.  Both.  Together.

So let's just get into it.

Saturday

As I mentioned on Thursday, I have been missing my morning sunray runs.  So I left the house around 6:45am, but I was still a little too early to see the sunrise at my normal running spot.  Thankfully, I got pretty much blinded by the sun on my way back home.  I even took a video, because I could tell it was coming, just around the bend...


IMG_0297 from Baby Goose on Vimeo.

Chris had to work as usual, so it was me and the girls most of the day.  We ran errands and went to the park in the morning. 

Notice the separation in the Target cart?  You'll see why at the end of this post, if you can't guess already.

Callie had her first TAP class!!!  Tap was always my favorite (being a percussionist and all) so I'm so excited that she has started up dance again and gets to take tap AND ballet this year.

As you can see, Maya came with and made herself known during the class.  But mostly everyone just thought she was
adorable and then I was able to distract her with one of her favorite things- books.

Here is Cal learning to shuffle hop:


IMG_0334 from Baby Goose on Vimeo.

Callie got to have some good one-on-one time with Auntie Cat and G-ma and Pa on Saturday night.  It was much needed for her, and them too probably.  She doesn't get to see everyone as often now that she has full day kindergarten every day.

On Saturday evening, my mom, Mari and I went to the cemetery where my dad is buried for a Lantern Lighting celebration.  We decorated lanterns, ate a picnic dinner by a beautiful lagoon, and at sunset released the lanterns into the water.

It was a beautiful, meaningful, and difficult evening.

There were lots of other people there, and it was a little jarring watching people walk around holding their lanterns with their loved ones' names on them.  It was also a reminder that loss is part of the human experience, and that we are not alone.

Sunday

We had a busy morning.  Chris had to do a training early at MOA, so the girls and I went along.  There also happened to be an event going on for something.  We were still on the early side, so as we were walking around a corner we saw a very, um, interesting rag-tag group of Disney characters just chilling in one corner of the mall.  We must have been the first kids they saw, and they DESCENDED on us.  ALL OF THEM did.  Callie was totally overwhelmed, but Maya went right to Elsa.  They were all very excited and offered to pose for a picture with us.  ALL OF THEM.



We ultimately had to go up a few floors because there were other different kinds of characters walking around and Callie was LOSING it.  So it looks like a Disney vacation is still gonna be a few years away...

We had a little time before heading to church, so we stopped at a park for a little bit.



And then Sunday School- Maya is definitely more outgoing than Callie was.  She had no trouble telling people her name and participating in the activity.  I was in the room with her the whole time, but was able to hang back and watch her instead of sit right with her.

Tonight Mary packed a delicious picnic and she and I went to Centennial Lakes, just the two of us.  We got rained on, but managed to find a dry spot to enjoy the picnic anyway.  As usual, there was beautiful sunshine later, after the storm.

Right before bed, I had both girls on my lap.  And when both girls are anywhere near each other these days, chaos ensues.

They certainly make life more exciting!  I'll leave you with a video that shows our 2-year-old prefers pop songs over the classics like the ABCs.  Oops.


IMG_0427 from Baby Goose on Vimeo.

A Picture Update

So it is a stormy Friday night and I have about 1% left in my tank.

Luckily I did some picture work yesterday so I can share the pics from the week with you without too much effort.  :)

Here goes...

On Monday night we went bridesmaid dress shopping for Mari's wedding.
Obviously, neither of these dresses were chosen.  But we did find one,
so that was exciting!

On Tuesday night Jim and Coco were in town, so we got to see them for a nice dinner in Uptown.

Maya still enjoying her one-on-one time with G-ma, Pa and Boom.

A girls dinner out, some afternoon reading, and "Nakey" time.

Today: Maya playing at Boom's, a carnival (with bounce house the teachers enjoyed!) at my school, an unexpected and
sweet gift in the mail from my friend Emily, and some sweet sister time.

I'll end with a Flashback Friday of silly Ms. Maya and her tongue.

Have a great weekend.

A Grief Update

It has been awhile since I've done a grief post.  So today seemed like an appropriate day for a couple of reasons. 

One reason being that it was one year ago today we lost my Grandma, or Gi-Gi as she liked the girls to call her.

My grandma was 91 and lived a long, full life. She taught us a lot about tenacity in her last couple days, because she held on as hard as she could while her body slowly shut down. She was a tenacious lady her whole life, actually.

Our grief over her loss rather quickly turned to gratitude, as we were thankful for her long life and also thankful her suffering was over.

None of us could have imagined our journey with grief starting again so suddenly 7 months later.

Which brings me to my second reason for posting about grief.  It has been a mind boggling 20 weeks since we lost my dad.

And really, the longer it gets, the more unreal it seems.

I haven't had much time the past few weeks to do much of anything besides putting one foot in front of the other and surviving another life transition back into full time work and being a parent of a kindergartener and busy 2-year-old.  I haven't really let myself think about much of anything because I couldn't really afford to lose it.

But tonight I'm sitting in it and thinking about it.

It is really hard to think about my dad's mom living to 91 and my dad's dad living to 79, and my dad only living to 59.

I know I should feel thankful for having 33 years with an awesome dad, but I just can't get past the feeling that we were cheated in the worst possible way for not getting another 30 years.

And I can't read the news because I hear about all these horrible people in the world who are still here, but my dad- one of the best people I knew- isn't.

I just don't understand.  I don't know how to make sense of it all. 

One thing I do know is that I can't believe how much I miss being able to go for my sunrise runs.  I desperately miss the sunrays.

Thankfully tonight, on a day that was dark and stormy, the sun prevailed and I got a little taste of what I have been missing.

And you can bet I'll be out the door at 6:30am on Saturday morning to see some more.

Weekend Wrap-Up

Happy Sunday.

Since I was too wiped out on Friday to do a picture update, I'll try and catch up today.

Maya is getting into the groove of having the adults to herself everyday, and I think she likes it.

Callie loves kindergarten and has even had a little reading homework to do. She brought home a low level book and said "Mom, it isn't very exciting, but I can read the whole thing by myself!" I love that she is already a little literary critic. When she gets picked up from school, there is always a snack waiting in the car because she is HUNGRY!

As for the weekend, there were two big events. One was a birthday party for my mom and Uncle Peter, who also turned 60 on Friday (they are "twin" 1st cousins, born on the exact same day)! We had a lovely dinner party at the Suurmeyers.

As you can see on the bottom right, there was even a party game- little mazes. Thanks to the Suurmeyers for hosting a wonderful evening, and to G-ma and Pa for babysitting so we could be kid free.

This morning was Maya's first day of 2-year-old Sunday School!

I stayed with her while Chris was with Callie, teaching her class for the 4th year in a row. There was a magician that came to perform for all the Sunday school kids, who Cal thought was hilarious. The girls did a little coloring together at the end of the morning.

Because I'm sappy, I dressed Maya in the same dress Callie wore for her first day of Sunday school three years ago. Can you tell who is who? :)

I think Maya's serious face gives her away...

We are heading into our first full time 5-day school week, with something going on for all or at least one of us every night to boot. It is going to be busy and exhausting. 

Hope your week is less crazy and more calm than ours will be.

Happy Birthday Boom!

All I have in me tonight is a birthday post.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BOOM!!!! We love you!!!!

Weekend Wrap-Up: The Labor Day Edition

Happy Labor Day.

It wasn't really too fancy of a weekend for us.  Callie and I had Friday off too, so it was extra long.  Chris had to work on Saturday and today...bummer. But we managed to have some fun.

Saturday

The girls and I played at home on Saturday.  It was hot, so we got the pool and sprinkler out- probably for the last time this summer.

The girls had fun running around and getting wet!


IMG 0096 from Baby Goose on Vimeo.

Boom came over later in the afternoon.  We took her to Callie's kindergarten playground, and then she babysat the girls so Chris and I could go out for a little date night.

Sunday

We took the girls to the big indoor park on Sunday morning.  It is always a good option when they need to get a lot of energy out.

IMG 0133 from Baby Goose on Vimeo.

I have no idea what the "Poopy Butt" comment was about, but it comes out of their mouths multiple times a day, so I'm not surprised.

On Sunday night we went over to play and have dinner at the Helds'.  With the children all big and crazy now, taking good pictures is much more difficult.  I got a couple pictures of the girls (minus Baby Sylvia).

And then we attempted to recreate a picture from 5 years ago with our kindergarteners.

As you can see, five-year-olds are much less cooperative than little babies. :)

Monday

The girls and I headed downtown for the morning.  We played with Boom and Auntie Yoda, and I went for a run.  It was only the 2nd run since the half marathon, and the first one where I got to see some sunrays.

After we got home, I got a cute video of Maya (sort of) singing one of her favorite songs.


IMG 0177 from Baby Goose on Vimeo.

I love toddlers. Speaking of toddlers, she knows what to call herself. You can also see how she ignores what I say pretty much all the time.


IMG 0193 from Baby Goose on Vimeo.

I'll leave you with  KINDERGARTEN PAST and KINDERGARTEN PRESENT.