Turdtastrophe

Yup, pretty much exactly what it sounds like. Good times - they went something like this

This weekend after feeding the twins lunch, Amelia tells me she's "poopy". I pull her out of the high chair and start to move her toward the floor, when I realize that she hasn't spilled juice or chocolate milk all over her pants. 'Great' I think to myself, and we head upstairs for a bath. I got her all cleaned up, and we headed downstairs thinking that was the last of the messes to clean up.

I set her down, and notice the kitchen and sunroom smell funny. I look at Truman and notice he has a toy and what appears to be poop smeared all over it. "James!" I say in disbelief, "There's poop all over the place!". James scoops up Truman and heads to the bath. I survey the damage.

In no less than 2 minutes, Truman managed to poop on the floor, smear it all over his toys, step in it, and leave about 40 poopy footprints all over our area rug. We had a showing scheduled for the house the following day, and I decided that the only way to take care of this mess quickly and decisively is to roll up the area rug and throw it out. That's exactly what we did, and even though we're down an area rug, I don't regret it one bit.

I know Truman didn't feel bad about this one. Somehow he managed to keep a clean diaper, and his pants were still on. I know he was thinking 'You guys think you're so smart with your backwards pj's. I'll show you.' He's like the poop Houdini.

Really, I'm Working

So I'm sitting at my desk doing work right now, and this song from our iTunes collection comes on



It's hard to focus or take anything seriously with this type of music in the background, but these guys are funny. I have a Go To Meeting - gotta run

Other Parents' Struggles

Sometimes as a parent it's reassuring to hear about other parents' struggles because you feel like at least there's other people out there who know the ups and downs of parenthood. Every parent struggles with different things, and we all have our work cut out for us. Every now and then, you hear about someone else's parenting woes, and it makes you glad that you're not in their shoes.

James told me his cousin had started a blog, and I went over there to check it out tonight. I read this story and thought it was hilarious. Sorry Tarah, I don't mean to make a mockery of your parenting struggles. I really do hope you find something that helps. In the interim, here's all I could think about while I was reading about your little sleepwalker.

My Kids Are Funny

We're never at a loss for a good laugh around here with all the crazy things our kids do. I should be doing work, but I wanted to get a few of these written down, so one day they can laugh at themselves too.

Jameson
My brother came over to visit last week with his daughter. He and JJ have a playfully antagonistic relationship, so I was surprised when after an evening of their usual shenanigans Jameson asked Betito (as JJ calls him) if he could give him a kiss before he left. Betito, of course said yes, and as he bends over for a kiss, Jameson kicked him in the shins. I was just as shocked as my brother, but we could not help but laugh.


Truman
I heard Amelia crying in the twins room tonight, so I went in to check on her and see if she needed her blanket or something. I went in, put her back on her pillow and covered her again with her blanket. When she settled and went back to sleep, I look over at Truman to make sure he is okay. I laugh as I catch sight of a belly-side down, bare-butt-against-the-crib-rails naked Truman asleep and, apparently, very comfortable. He has nicely scrunched up his pj's and diaper against the crib rails. What's funnier. . . this is the 2nd night in a row that we have to re-dress him in the middle of the night.

Amelia
What amazes me about Amelia is her ability to learn and repeat new words and phrases shortly after first being introduced to them. Not long after Darwin's birth, one of her new favorite phrases was 'chocolate milk', which really sounded more like "yacolat mook". She, in particular, seemed to take interest in what I was doing when I would nurse Darwin. I don't recall exactly how I tried explaining it to them, but I had to laugh when one day as I'm nursing Darwin, Amelia comes over to see what I'm doing and knowingly declares it "yacolat mook".

I can never wait to find out what they'll do or say next to make us laugh!

Jameson Turns Four

On the day you were born, I had no idea how much you would change my life.

When you become a parent, you give up a lot of things but you gain far more. As I think back now about how it feels to become a parent, I would say it's as if you have suddenly gained a part of yourself that you never knew you were missing. From that day forward, you cannot imagine living without that piece of you, and sometimes you hardly remember your life without it.

We had a doula attend Darwin's birth, and during a conversation with her, we talked about having children. She was telling me about her five girls and how they ended up with five. She told me that after they had their 3rd, her husband was ready to stop, but she really felt that she wanted another. I asked her how she convinced him to have another, and she told me how she described to him how she had already envisioned her next daughter. She told him what she was going to be like, and about how much she would miss her if she was never born.

What struck me about this conversation was how she said she would miss her yet unborn daughter. Strangely enough, I knew exactly what she meant. People ask how we have the time or energy to have/make more children, and I struggle more with 'how could I refuse them?'. Today, Jameson, you turn four, and I can say with certainty, that my life would not be complete without you.

In the years since you were born, we have watched you learn and discover so many things about life, about your Mom and Dad, your family, and about yourself. You have become a big brother 3 times over, and I know this is your proudest accomplishment. This year, you gained a "sitting buddy" and proved you were absolutely right when you told us 'Baby Bob the Boy' was in Mom's belly.

This year you started "working on your patience", and I am so proud that you're learning to eat your vegetables. You told us that you were ready for school, so you Dad started your "lessons" at home. He's doing a wonderful job, and I love seeing some of your experiments (He's been working on his photography.).

You surprise me nearly every day with everything that you know and say. Some days you are so mature and grown-up that it's hard to believe you're only 3 (four now). Other days, we have to remind ourselves since we expect so much of you.

You are so much fun that conversations with you are truly an adventure. Some days I wonder and laugh about how you must come up with your stories and explanations about how or why things happen. One of Mom and Dad's favorite is your explanation of falling in love and getting married.

There is no question you are afraid to ask, and sometimes Mom and Dad have to be careful and creative about how we answer. We believe in always telling you the truth, so when you asked how Baby Bob was going to get out of my belly, I had to pause for a moment to figure out how to answer you. Lucky for me, you were satisfied with my honest, but not too graphic answer.

In the years since you came into our crazy family, you have taught me a lot about myself. Through you and in you, I have seen my greatest strengths and weaknesses. As you grow into a boy and someday into a man, my hope is that you remain that caring, thoughtful, sensitive, beautiful person that you are. You are a wonderful son and an amazing brother. I pray for many more happy, healthy years for you and our family, and I cherish all the years we have already shared. Truman, Amelia, and Baby Bob (Darwin) are so lucky that you are their role model, and they are already learning so much from you.

We all love you, and I hope you have a happy 4th birthday!

Honest Scrap

I think they only call this an award, so you feel compelled to participate. Either way, I'll be a good sport and play along. I can handle the writing portion of the assignment, but I'm pretty sure I don't even read 7 other blogs.

1) If I have any extended family in the states, then I've never met them. To my knowledge, my entire extended family lives in Mexico.


2) I nearly failed high school Pre-Calculus, and I never liked math growing up. These days I run an accounting department and, oddly enough, I like it. Even stranger, I'm pretty good at it.


3) I'm dyslexic, so learning to read and write was pretty frustrating. Learning to write was especially difficult because b's and d's and p's and q's looked like the same letters to me. With a bit of work, they got me straightened out, but I can still read upside down almost without pause. Unfortunately, I still cannot visualize things in 3 dimensions.


4) I rarely say anything because I think that is what someone wants to hear. I really struggle to tell people anything other than what I actually think. Not surprisingly, I think this quality turns a lot of people off, but I've always felt this is a part of myself I am not willing to comprise.


5) I really struggle to keep my living spaces orderly. James always likes to tell me why I struggle, but I am not convinced that I can actually attribute this quality to any one specific habit.


6) I don't like to read fiction, but I love to read non-fiction. Growing up, my favorite books to read were non-fiction books about medical conditions and cases. I could read medical encyclopedias as if they were novels. I think my kids' pediatrician probably thinks I'm a bit weird when I talk about my kids' petechiae or a swollen occipital lymph node. Not surprisingly, after years of reading medical books, I'm a bit of a hypochondriac.


7) I never believed in Santa Claus . . . or the Easter Bunny


8) I studied abroad in Madrid, Spain for a semester of my junior year in college. During our 3-week spring break, I traveled with a friend to several places in southern Europe, but one particular train ride sticks out in my memory - crossing the border from Italy to France along the French Riviera or the Cote d'Azur. Everyone should see this amazing landscape someday, and I hope one day to take all my children.


9) I've never had better tacos than at the Safari (in Mexico, of course).

10) I hate to go grocery shopping, but I like to have my kitchen fully stocked. James has taken over most of our grocery shopping lately, and despite missing some of my favorite things to eat, I am happy not to have to go to the grocery store every week.

Now, off to bed . . .

Chiquita Reunion

There a large part of me that I have not written about much on the blog, but I must admit that it dominated a large part of my childhood, teenage, and college years - soccer.


To say I grew up playing soccer is an understatement. It was my first passion, and for years, I spent most of my "free" time playing soccer. When I wasn't at practice or playing a game, I was outside playing in my backyard. In my mind, I could not get enough of it, and lucky for me, I had some talent, which helped fuel my interest. I was a sucker for competition, so the better the team or the competitor, the happier I was.


My dad, who grew up playing soccer in Mexico, coached me and the teams I played with for the first 8 or 9 years. Shortly before I entered high school, I got involved in the Olympic Development Program (ODP), which is the feeder program used to identify and develop olympic hopefuls. Try-outs are held on district, state, regional, and national levels. To try-out at any level other than district, you have to make the team for the preceding level. I never really cared much about recognition, so the draw of making the cut in and of itself was not enough to keep my interest. However, I did know that I wanted to play in college, and I knew this might be a great way to get noticed for a Division I soccer program.


Up until this point, I had played for some fairly good teams in Dayton, but we never competed well against larger club teams from Cincinnati and Columbus. Overall, the talent in Dayton was just not as well-developed. At ODP tryouts, the girls that played for these larger Cincy & Columbus teams were shoe-ins. Being one of the few Dayton oddballs that made the state team several years in a row, I got to know some of the better players from the Cincinnati and Columbus areas. Although I did not realize it at the time, it was this "networking" that brought my name to the attention of a Cincinnati team, looking to recruit new players. That team was Cincinnati Chiquita (Yes, we were sponsored by Chiquita Brands International). I was invited to play an indoor season with them so we could "try each other out", and if we both agreed we were a good match, I would be invited to join the team for the regular (Spring/Summer) season.


When I joined Chiquita, I had never played for a team that was really competitive on a state-wide level. I had played with other good players, but there were always enough complacent players on the team that didn't take the sport seriously enough to make the team highly competitive. When I played for Chiquita, it was the only team where I truly felt we were all working toward the same objective, and we were willing to put forth the effort to make it happen.


In the years I played with Chiquita, we won several State Cup titles, competed in our Regional Cup twice, and had an impressive winning record. More importantly, I loved playing for this team because I didn't feel like an overachiever for working hard. We just expected it from one another, and we were successful in making each other better players.


In retrospect, I have never played for or coached a team with better team chemistry. We traveled quite a bit together to compete in tournaments, so I have a lot of great memories about our trips and our tournaments. When I graduated high school and knew our playing years together were over, I was sad to see it end.


Fast forward 12 or 13 years, and here I am with 3 little ones and one more on the way. Out of the blue, I got an email from one of my Chiquita teammates saying that she wanted to organize a team reunion. She found most of us on Facebook, and most people were available for a reunion on August 8th. We planned to bring our families and meet at a park in Cincinnati, so I organized a small babysitting support group to help me with the kids - to take them with me, that is. Unfortunately, James had a bachelor party to attend, so he was not available, which means I needed more hands than usual. My parents were happy to come along, and I invited Maria to come since she loves to hang out with the kids.


Being super pregnant, I was a little worried about how I would manage with the heat and keeping up with the kids, even with help. Nonetheless, I was anxious to see everyone, so I braved the heat and made the trip. It was, of course, the hottest day we've had all summer, and the kids were mostly high maintenance. Truman wanted to throw mulch on himself and anything else he saw. Jameson wanted to climb the 10 foot playground equipment and told me he "threw up" in an undisclosed location that I never found. He also made 2 back-to-back trips to the bathroom, and thankfully, my mom volunteered to take him on trip #2. Miss Amelia was on her best behavior but was more than ready to go when we finally decided it was time to take everyone home.


Despite all the commotion going on with the kids, I had a great time catching up with everyone. It was fun to see how everyone's lives had changed and meet husbands and children. I'm not gonna lie though - it made me feel old. Most of our soccer days are long over (although I'm sure there's a few diehards), so I felt like I was acknowledging having closed that chapter of my life. I don't think I've ever really admitted that to myself until right now, but I think I knew it long ago. Sure, I may go back to playing again in some old women's league, but I won't pretend it's anything like it was competing in my teenage and college years.


Here's a few pictures that offer a glimpse into my high school & college years competing in soccer.

Pack on about 50 lbs, some swelling in the feet and hands and a huge pregnant belly and that's what I look like in the current chapter of my life. I miss being a competitive athlete, but I would not trade in this chapter of my life for any chapter of my past. I love being a wife & mom and hanging with my kiddos. There's always time for athletic competition and vanity later. In the next chapter, I'll be training for my Tae Kwon Do black belt and taking James up on that marathon training. After all, I have done a little running in my past.