Dream vacation and Boo-ghee

The cruise was everything we remembered it was. I promised myself I would only walk the stairs and I did, but I made up for that with all the eating. The food was even better this time! Julia did really well, the first couple of days she woke up at 7am, but we did have a time change on the boat so after that it was 5am, but Kurt got up with her every morning and would go and read on our Veranda (a must) while she napped. Caleb absolutely LOVED the kid's club and I think Grace should have been in the older one because she wanted to hang out with us. They have a new BIG screen TV over the Goofy pool and it played HSM1 and HSM2 what a treat! We even went to a High School Musical Dance Party, lots of fun. Probably the most exciting experience for Grace, Caleb and me was swimming with the dolphins in Cozumel. We have some great pics and a video. We definitely liked Grand Cayman better than Cozumel. In GC at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville, there was a pool and a slide in at the restaurant. Kurt took the kids on a pirate adventure and they got to sail on a pirate ship, swab the decks and walk the plank then jump in the water! We always love the last day, just hanging out and relaxing at Disney's own island in the Bahamas, Castaway Cay. We are already planning our next one and Julia will be 3!!!
Julia had a language explosion while we were away and will attempt most things you ask her to, but her most interesting word is Boo-ghee or boo-gha and she does the sign for milk with it, so that must be her rendition. Caleb called milk duhn, so who knows what is going on.
We hope everyone has a wonderful holiday! Email me if you want to see pics of the trip.

Ink for thought?

Hasn't everyone had it happen to them? The first time in three kids, I feel pretty lucky. I know a friend that I used to babysit for who was a pediatrician her daughter ingested some perfume, so it happens to the best of us right?
Two days ago, I looked down at my hand and I had a black stripe on it, then on the carpet were some black marks. I cleaned both up as much as possible and went on about my way, curious to know what it was but not investigating. TODAY Julia had been playing around while Grace and I were reading and we look down at her hand and mouth and they are black! NOW I know I need to investigate as I may be making a trip to the emergency room. All three of us become detectives and go in every open room and search on our hands and knees, finally the culprit emerges...We got a new printer and the old printer is sitting on the floor at toddler level with some black ink on the cover. After a call to the super cardiologist, he deems she will be fine and here we are. WHEW!

The love of reading, is it inate?

About two months or so ago, I couldn't get Julia to sit still for a book, I felt tremendous guilt as I certainly had not read to her nearly as much as the other two. Then suddenly there it was, now she LOVES books and wants you to read to her all the time. She will sit still for the longer board books and she wants you to read the same one over and over and over. All three of my kids have a wonderful love of books and reading, I am so thankful.

Our Thanksgiving was great! I went to my friend's house and there were lots of teenagers to entertain the older two. It took Julia awhile to get used to the dogs, one pug dog in particular, but then she warmed up and pranced around the house like she owned it. It was a wonderful celebration with great food, great company (minus the ex husband, who invited him?) and a great time.

Today is an ice skating lesson and more packing. Next week at this time we will be sailing away on the Disney Cruise and we are all so excited! I am sure I will get LOTS of exercise chasing the 18 month old on the decks!

Happy Thanksgiving Eve

I will follow my friend and also give thanks before the food clouds my thoughts.
I have a wonderful family who especially my mom and brother are wonderful listeners and that is hard to find sometimes. I am very thankful that I have a wonderful relationship with both of them.
I have just absolutely great, caring friends that I have met at every stop along the way in every place we have been. I sometimes lament that I have been so blessed to have lived so many different places and met special people that have brought a new dimension to my life.
I have the most wonderful husband, who is awesome at giving me the time I need away and supporting me in raising the kids. I truly feel that I am lucky.
I have been very lucky in life. Sometimes I think when we get married, especially in our 20s that who knows what will happen and whether you will continue to grow together or apart. So I married a great man and luckily we have continued to grow together and still have the same interests, good food, good conversation, when he is in a talkative mood, but most of all he supports me in everything I do and I sometimes have some crazy ideas.
My biggest blessings on this earth are my three beautiful, healthy, happy, very unique children. I love seeing the world through their eyes and they are such gifts to me. Sometimes I dont' feel like I have enough patience, but it is incredible how that unconditional love prevails.
As Grace heads to bed (the other two are already there) I ask her what she is thankful for and she says, her teacher, her family, her friends and your classmates.
Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday.

The TCM at its best........

So my two great skating buddies,(meaning their daughters also go to skating) and I have joked about becoming Texas Cheerleader Moms. We had no idea that we aren't even close!!!! Read on....Grace and I went to Portland for her second skating competition. She did GREAT and had fun and got FIRST place!!!!! After the results are posted you go up and she gets her picture taken with the other girls, in this case there were four total. I stood next to a mom that I had briefly talked with earlier about how to do hair, etc. She immediately turns to me and says "These judges are HORRIBLE!" and I say "WHY?" she says "Because they placed my daughter in fourth place and I personally think she skated better than YOUR daughter!" This is absolutely the time when you wish you were on your toes and could think of something great to come back with, but no being in SHOCK, I moved away from her and went to ask my seasoned friend if this was the world I was getting into. I think the our coach that was down there with us was a little apalled that I had told Grace about the situation, but you know what she said "Mommy you should have told her that her daughter skated beautifully and so did yours." Maybe we need to learn more lessons from the young. More stories to follow I am sure, but next time my skin will be thicker!!!!
I call Kurt on friday night and ask what they have been doing and he presently says "Well I read about 5000 books to your daughter." I certainly did not need to worry, but about two months ago, I couldn't get her to sit still for a book and I thought it was all my fault that she was the third kid and I had not read to her like the others. No Need To Worry!!!!
Kurt is right in his glory. He got his little computer guru. Long before we had kids, Kurt would spend hours playing a computer game called Diablo. NOW he has a perfect little boy named Caleb to play with, they are in their glory!!!
Me? Well I am finishing up addressing my Christmas Cards, the absolute only thing I can do on time. All for now! As my good friend says "Toodles!!" You know who you are!!!

First Place, I uh ooo, and potty training!

Grace's competiton was wonderful. Her coach is the best! Grace had so much fun which is the most important thing and as her coach said would happen, she is HOOKED and wants to do every competition! She skated beautifully and got FIRST place! She only skated against one other little girl. After her competition she got to go to a sleepover so just more fun!
I can't believe Julia. If I say I love you to her, she actually says "I uh ooo" I have tried it several times and it always the same! AND she has been on the potty four times in the last week. Now I have been lucky and put her on when she had to go, do I think she makes the connection? No, only that Mom and sister get very excited!
Friday night was fun for Caleb as we had a Spooktacular at school. He was a transformer and there were a couple other transformers there. He did the donut on a string, hunted for a bloody bone and other fun games. He asked if he could have a piece of pumpkin pie and I said sure, he forgot the fork and I wondered when he was going to realize. Why should I have worried, no need for a fork, just pick up the whole piece of pie!
Saturday night was mom and dad night as we went out to dinner at a very nice restaurant. Nice relaxing Adult time away. All for now!

Gog-Gog

This is Julia's word for Dog. It almost seems like every animal is a gog-gog. She is starting to talk more. She has learned "Mine!" I wonder how she learned that!
Tomorrow is the big day, Grace's first Ice Skating Competition. She is so excited, she has been counting down all week, I on the other hand am the one that is nervous and I don't know why!
Another BIG decision we made and executed this week was booking the Disney Cruise! We will be setting sail on Dec 1st! Military Discount awarded through Dec 15th and the price was too good to pass up, we will be sleeping in the Deluxe Family Veranda, it will be so much fun and we are Castaway Club Members since we have sailed before and that brings many perks. This may mean that my christmas cards might be later than usual this year as I may have to pick a picture from the cruise, we'll see.
So what does the cruise mean? Um beach, bathing suit, talk about motivation. I am finally going to start losing the baby weight, that I have been procrastinating about. How much can I lose in 5 weeks? We'll see!!
Confrences for the kids went very well and Grace is reading well above average for second grade. Caleb is also doing a great job with reading and loves to read to me. Both kids did well in behavior and both kids are just a tad irresponsible in turning in homework and/or getting all the assigned work done in class before fun stuff. I am helping in Caleb's class and am so impressed with his teacher and how structured she is and how well she handles the class. This past week there was a substitute and WOW what a difference. One little boy was crying, when I asked him what was wrong, he said I want my other teacher back! Wish us luck tomorrow!!!

Two drowned rats.....

Earlier this week it had poured all day. The older kid's bus usually comes a little after 4:00pm, so at 3:55pm I say to Julia, let's go and get in the car and get them, but I turn around and the door bell rings and I am looking at two poor little drowned rats! It was raining again the next day, but I made it up there in time to save them. Julia is amazing how she is really starting to understand. She had taken a lot of plastic cups out of the cupboard and so I handed her one and said, "Go put this back in the cupboard!" She marched right over and did it proudly. Grace has an ice skating competition at the end of October, she is so excited! Every Saturday are her lessons and she is doing wonderful. Caleb has hockey and loves to play the games, but doesn't like the practices as well. On Thurs night it is crazy because I have started playing tennis during Caleb's hockey practice and then Kurt plays hockey with a men's group after Caleb! We do feel like we live at the rink!

The lights go out on a wonderful weekend

On Saturday I got to go to Seattle to do one of my very favorite things, scrapbook for a whole day, it was great and relaxing. I loved hanging out and chatting with friends and I got 11 pages done, so that really isn't too bad. We get done scrapbooking, pack up our stuff and then go to the hotel's restaurant and get some appetizers and then head up to the room to get a couple more pages done. An old friend of mine and I talk until about 3:00am and then my other friend's phone rings in what I think is the wee hours of the morning....I ask MB what time is it? She can't really see the clock and says, 5:22am, I say what is J's husband doing calling her at 5:22 AM????? It turns out is is 9:22am. Somehow I didn't sleep well and don't feel really rested. I go home and am so excited to see the kids!!!! Julia has become a Daddy's girl in that short amount of time!!!! We hang out in the afternoon and Caleb goes to hockey, we then go out to dinner and then I head to a meeting for church. During the meeting, a girl's husband text messages her "Do you have power?" We were in the old section of town doing fine while the new section of town had the power out. I quickly call Kurt and ask if he has power and he doesn't so I go home to help out. It did send flashbacks to December of last year when we didn't have power for about four days......all for now, going to maximize napping time.

Every Mother's Dream.....

to see her daughter come into my bathroom, first thing in the morning, reading a book, not taking her eyes off the page as she somehow navigates her way....then when I ask her to go and get dressed I get "Just one more page!!!"
I went and volunteered in Caleb's classroom yesterday. His teacher is great, very structured and yet very caring, exactly what Caleb needs. They were learning reading and it was amazing to me the difference in reading levels in the class. Caleb loved having me in his class and couldn't get enough hugs. I had never met his special friend from last year, Madison, and didn't know she was in his class this year, so this little girl says to me yesterday "Does Caleb talk about me, because we know each other really well..." It didn't click to me that this was the same Madison or I would have said "Yes, definitely!"
I have a very special weekend coming up, I get to go to Seattle, spend the night and scrapbook ALL DAY, I just can't wait!!!!

Weekend at the Rink...

We had a wonderful weekend. Kurt was home all weekend and we all enjoyed his company. Saturday morning were Grace's ice skating lessons. She and her coach are preparing for her first competition at the end of Oct. She got to choose her music and now he will prepare a one minute routine for her. He comes off the ice and tells us once again how focused she is for her age, he is amazed. Saturday night, Kurt and I got to go out to dinner. We didn't have any reservations and tried The Melting Pot, they looked at us and practically laughed in our face and said, Reservations are highly recommended, but they could seat us at 930pm. We went to our favorite restaurant down the street, Indochine and unfortunately left the leftovers on the table....Sunday brought church and another afternoon at the rink with Caleb's hockey. They are playing 3 on 3 games and he does really well this way and even scored a goal tonight!!! Here it is Sunday night and Kurt going back to work tomorrow, but next weekend I have a Scrapbooking day so I am psyched! more to come.......

Helpful Handyman

Today I decided impatiently that I was going to hang my own curtain rod. I called Kurt because I could find the drill, but not the drill bits. I have never used one before and he told me to wait until he got home. Did I wait? No, I have got to learn to do these things by myself. I set up the step stool and then get on the nightstand. I am drilling and screwing in the screws and lo and behold I look over and Julia has climbed up the step stool and is standing there straight, tall, and proud. She is definitely developing a personality and I think she might be a tyrant, but we have fun all day anyway.
These are my thoughts on Washington. Today was a cool day but the sun was shining. If the sun is shining then I think I can tolerate it here. The crazy thing is that I don't want to love it here. I want to be happy here, but I am afraid if I get used to it then ultimately I will be settling to live here. I am very afraid that at the end of five years, if we even stay that long, that everyone is going to want to stay except me. So in five years I want to read this blog so I can remember why I don't want to stay here.
1. It is too far from the east coast.
2. Even when it is warm here, it is cool.
3. When it gets rainy and dreary, the sun is probably shining in NC.
4. There are many things to do here, but it isn't the easiest place to get around in.
5. Many friends are on anti-depressants, why oh why would you live in a place where you have to be medicated. I am not yet and trying to hold my own.
6. Read through again.

Trying it out......

I am on the computer so much I thought, well I can blog and friends can know what is going on in the maineiax household. Kids had a great day at school today, yesterday was the interesting one. Grace comes bounding through the door with her friend and I say "Where is Caleb?" She says she doesn't know, she didn't see him in the bus line. After a few panicing moments he jovially comes down the sidewalk, he had been talking with his friends, that social butterfly. He proceeded to tell me that he was on red which isn't great when you start on green like a stoplight. I think he had been arguing with the teacher. When Kurt gets home I say, Did you forget to leave me money on the counter? He says NO, I put a $20 on the counter! I said, I never saw it. He accuses the cleaning lady, I tell him to go and look in his wallet!!! This morning I ask both the kids individually....you know where the $20 was? In Caleb's wallet!!!! Well Julia, today her newest thing was to bang her head on the chair while in the seat eating lunch and say "Owie!" One of the kids proudly taught her that! Her other favorite thing to do is roar like a lion! All for now......