it begins again.

When Claire was little, I started filling endebopes full of fun things for our advent calendar.  That was the first and only year I ever filled the envelopes early.  Now we use open envelopes and only fill them the night before (or sometimes, hurriedly before the kids wake up).  

Notice, Day 18 is missing.  I guess we'll take a break that day.  

We always do simple things for our advent calendar.  Things like make hot chocolate or watch a Christmas movie.  I'm a big believer in not adding one more thing just to add one more thing.  The calendar is something they look forward to each year, as we wait to celebrate the birth of Jesus.

a gender study.

The kids are playing house. She's the mom.  He want to be the dad.  The girls don't want him to be the dad because "We enjoy being responsible for own babies.  We don't want help."

He says: "I can be the dad if I want to."

She counters:  "Fine.  Let's eat dinner."

He responds:  "No, it's not dinner time.  I'm the dad.  I get to decide when we eat."

things i could post if i weren't so tired.

• Thoughts on Black Friday shopping.
• A lovely photo of our lovely table before we ate all the food.
• A recipe list from this year's extremely delicious meal.
• A video of Claire singing "I'm glad I'm not a turkey."

crib mattress redeux

When some people take down the crib for the last time they donate it to the Goodwill.


I am clearly not one of those people.

the view from here.

This is the view from Claire's bed.  The girls got bunkbeds and mostly Mister and Little Sister love to play up there.  It drives Claire crazy. 

There is so much more to say about that but a friend just emailed me a stuffing recipe and now I have plans for the night.

sisters.

The sisters now have a big girl room and every time I think of posting a photo of it, they are asleep. And a photo of a dark room sounds less than awesome. 

So, instead I give you these two, at swimming lessons last summer.  Ingrid spent her first lesson screaming and crying for 45 minutes before vomiting on her teacher (and into the pool). It was epic.

A short story from a short girl.

"Once upon a time there was a little girl and her name was me..."

11/23

It is possible that today is the day that I officially ran out of words.  I will try to find some tomorrow.

I almost forgot to blog today.

I woke up at 4 this morning. Read and drank coffee. Did a class at the gym, took the 2 youngers for pancakes and later had lady time with this girl. We bought matching headbands at the mall and she asked me to take this photo. It was a full day.

family vernacular

We never call any of the local parks by their true names.  We go to the horsey park, zell's park, crooked house park, brown minto and that park where she pooped on the bench that time.

Recently, Claire let me know that she would be calling the carousel by its true name.

"I like to call things by their real names now, because I'm bigger."  She said.

Grateful to have one that still calls it the horsey park.  Grateful too that pooping on benches isn't really part of our park experience any more.

in memory of.

Cutester Hamster died peacefully at home last night.  She was somewhere between 6 months and a year old.  She had spent the last six months of her life in our family.  She enjoyed running on wheels,  burrowing and climbing.  She is survived by the five of us.  She will be missed.

A private viewing was held this morning for the immediate family only.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests memorial contributions be sent to the Starbucks corporation for the purchase of gift cards for the bereaved.

3 minute meal

I love cooking, but lately I am over it.  I hope this changes before next Thursday.  In the meantime, here is my Monday night go-to meal.

3 Minute Taco Salad:

Four defrosted chicken breasts + 1/2 a jar of salsa + 1 tsp cumin + 1 tsp lemon juice placed in crockpot 4 hours on high or 8 hours on low.  Shred.

Eat with guacamole and whatever else you like for taco salad.

If you want to make it 2 minute chicken omit cumin and lemon juice.

a short story.

Once upon a time, I had a baby that was born looking like a boy.  So I called her Hunca Munca.  She was 10 1/2 pounds, had thick dark hair and looked nothing like my other babies.  I was crazy about her.

My Hunca Munca grew into a beauty.  She became a horse girl.  One night at a bedtime her big sister asked her if she was a big kid or a baby.   Hunca Munca responded, "I'm a big kid."  Big sister then asked her if she was a big kid or a grown up.  Hunca Munca responded, "I'm a little grown up."

Not yet, sister.  

during: part 2.

The girls' room needed shelves.  And a desk.  We loaded the kids into the car at 5:30 on Saturday night to take them to Ikea, because we are awesome.  We found shelves.  And a desk.  And a few other items for the house.  Claire notices other kids at the store at 9 PM and says, "I can't believe these parents have their kids out so late."  Then Ingrid found the hand dryers, which were more like full-body dryers for a two year old.

During: ikea

a before shot...

Nate set up the crib the night I went into labor.  It was a Thursday night.  She was the only one of my babes who was early.  Even with signs pointing to a baby, I still thought we had time.  When we finished setting up the girls' room it looked like this:

We promised bunk beds once Ingrid successfully potty trained at night. The crib has been down a week, the bunkbeds went up tonight.  The epic re-arrange begins tomorrow.

vices: ya literature.

I love young adult fiction.  Not classic children's literature, but current young adult fiction.  My ideal book can be read in the bath or while I wait in the pick up line at school.  The other great thing about YA fiction is many of my favorite books are part of a series so you don't have to reinvest emotionally in new characters.  You can just read a second or third book and keep on loving the characters you already love.  Being a mom is hard, there's only so much love to go around.

It's worth noting that I don't like vampires or werewolves so I won't be recommending any of those guys.  Here is my list of must-reads for the young adult in all of us:

Dystopian Future stories-

• The Divergent series by Veronica Roth.  I may have cried when I finished this series.
• Matched series by Ally Condie.  I loved these books. You will too.
• I am Number 4 Series by Pittacus Lore.  Making an exception to my anti-alien rule, I like these adventure stories.

Silly fun and magical-

• The Last Dragonslayer and Song of the Quarkbeast by Jasper Fforde.  Quirky magical characters.  Fforde is ffunny.  I prefer this YA books to his adult ones.

Young lovahs-

• John Green's books.  I love his characters.  He hits all of the teen angsty stuff just right.
• Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell.  Perfect first love misfit 1980's teen romance

Any good YA books I'm forgetting?

what i wore wednesday: i have a son edition.

Outfit details:  mustard cardigan, gap

green polka-a-bot dress, thrifted

black leggings, american apparel

boots, ashe (you can't see them but they are awesome)

necklace, baseball card on green string courtesy of my boy.

ladies' night.

Sometimes it doesn't feel like there's enough me to go around.  I brush four sets of teeth before I leave the house in the morning.  I feel weary and brittle and a less fun version of myself.  If you're my friend, I've probably flaked out on something in recent months.  Life sound fun.  10K?  Sure!  Ladies' Night?  Definitely!  But when the time rolls around, the ear infections and flu and the long list of things I "have to do" get in the way.

  Claire had asked for "lady time" for about a week and finally, after dance class we were able to sneak away to her favorite burger spot.  The girl loves beef.  She practiced her spelling words  (because of course she did) and replayed the day's events.  As always, I felt lucky to be her mama.  When there isn't enough of me to go around, the sweet ballerina slamming a cheeseburger gets the rest.

what's with all of the blogging, kari?

Several years and a few babies ago, I used to blog a lot.  My sweet spot was 11 posts a month.  Any more than that and I got really sick of my own voice.  Each year I print a hardbound book of our blog for my kids to look at when they're older.  In August, as I thought about printing the book I realized that it would be more like a magazine than a book this time around.  I haven't been posting as much since Ingrid was born.

I decided I really wanted to write her stories so that I don't forget them.  I also just really wanted to write again.

I also decided to sign up for NaBloPoMo to give myself a little bit of a push when it came to publishing every day.

Last night I saw Ben Harper and didn't get back to town until midnight, so I snapped a photo of him during this (third) encore and called it a success.

Tonight .

quotable ru.

"Bunnies don't talk.  But I love them."

-Ingrid Ruth, age 2 1/2

i am the luckiest.

I offered to take them to OMSI or the Children's Museum or for a hike.  These two chose to spend their day off of school in their jammies until 4 PM.  We used every blanket in the house to make an excellent fort.  We ate waffles for lunch and read stories nestled underneath.  It was a magical day.

eavesdropping.

Claire:  Want me to tell you the smelliest job ever?  (Pause)

Claire:  I think it's working at the dump.

Everett:  I think it's the poop factory.

plan c.

Sometimes I feel like her entire life is running from one big kid activity to another.  After drop off and parent club meeting, I gave her free reign to choose how we spent the remainder of our morning. 

She said, "I wanna ride the horsies."  The carousel was closed for decorating.  

Fat tears on her cheeks as we pulled out of the carousel parking lot.  I offered to take her to ride the blue horse at Freddie's.  The one that is a quarter.  The one we never attempt when the other kids are with us.  She was excited.  The blue horse was out of order.  

Plan C:  2 quarters into the helicopter for one very excited 2 year old.

status update: why i am (still) not on facebook.

People seem a little jealous of my "unfriendable" status, yet remain unable make the leap and unplug from the thing.  Here are my reasons for avoiding Facebook in no particular order:

• I don't want another point of contact.  I can be reached by phone, text or email.  Three points of contact feel like enough.
• I like the natural ebb and flow of relationships.  It seems like a lot of work to maintain relationships with people that I wouldn't recognize in person.  Just because we were friends in first grade, doesn't mean that we know each other.
• I'm lazy.  I don't want to learn a new thing.  Or at least not that new thing.
• I'm insecure.  Seeing your beautiful vacation photos is probably going to make me feel crappy about our vacation in a way that talking to you about your vacation wouldn't.  Sidenote:  one time I was scrolling through my instagram photos and I'm not even kidding when I say didn't recognize those beautiful pictures as my own life.  
• Being off of Facebook forces people to tell you their stories, like for real.  People sort of skip over the good parts because they've already posted the bulk of it on Facebook.  Since I'm not on there, I get the long version.  When my dear friend in Seattle had a baby girl instead of the boy that 2 ultrasounds predicted, I got a phone call because she knew I wasn't going to read about it on Facebook.  

So there you have it.  Lately being unconnected to Facebook has presented challenges that have me questioning my status.  Any opinions?  Am I missing out?

i want to remember

How she loves polkabots an animal shirts.

The way he adds an extra did to accidents (accididident).  And that for him, there are numerous reasons to use this word every single day.

That all three of them plan to be farmers when they grow up and the two bigs would like to live together on their farm, working and playing every day.

what happens when you say yes.

When he asks if he can play games on my phone.

bookish.

We are a reading family.  So when Claire was assigned her first oral book report I was excited.  The assignment included dressing as a character from the book.  

My first thought?  Ramona Quimby.  Nope.  

Anne with an E?  Nope.  (I so wanted puffed sleeves).

Something from our favorite Roald Dahl collection?  Nope.  

Claire had something fancier in mind:

We stayed up late bedazzling binoculars because this particular Nancy Clancy book was a detective story.  She was definitely the only kid in class with a wig labelled "Classic Beauty" that was neither classic nor beautiful.  

Dash , Minnie Mouse and Madeline walk into a bar...

Obviously not really a bar.  We took these three trick-or-treating last night.  Our crew included four superheroes, a baby dinosaur and my girls.  We got home later than normal and the kids were definitely hopped up on sugar.   Mister was fighting a cold and ended up with a full-blown double ear infection in the middle of the night.  

After tending to him throughout the night, Nate and I managed to sleep until 7:38.  This might not seem like a big deal, but we leave for school at 8 AM.  We leapt to action, making toast for Claire, dressing her in (a different) costume for an oral book report, calling doctors and signing folders all without getting a late slip.  It was a crazy day.  Lately, they all seem to be crazy days.  Today, I am grateful for anti-biotics, babysitters, Oma and Nater.