Wordless Wednesday

Daddy's wake-up call.

(Side note: I am humbled by and thankful for all our service men and women who miss out on moments like these so my family can experience them in peace and freedom)

Chinese New Year

Happy Year of the Ox! Yesterday was the Chinese New Year, and in an attempt to be festive, I prepared some chicken fried rice. Chris, a tiger, looked up each of our animal signs while I cooked. I am a dragon. Chase is a snake, and Noel is, no surprise here, a pig. We got a real kick out of that, but Chase was a little concerned because snakes should avoid pigs. When we sat down to eat, Chris made some comment about them being lucky I was so cultural.
I am not sure that Chicken Fried Rice qualifies as cultural, but I'll take it. I said that if I had time I would have made dumplings as that is the traditional meal for the new year. Chase said, " I bet Grandma and Papa had dumplings...chicken and dumplings." Maybe so, but I somehow don't think it is quite the same.

Noel's newest accomplishment

After a few weeks of Chris and I feeling relieved Noel was not a climber like his older brother, look what Mr. No accomplished last night. He has long been fascinated with the dishwasher, but he finally got that chubby little leg hiked high enough to climb on in. He promptly grabbed a clean spoon out. Within seconds he realized this also gave him access to the microwave, which he promptly began to whack with the spoon. I then picked him up from his hard earned perch and got whacked with the spoon myself. Thus loading and unloading the dishwasher will be added to the long list of chores that cannot be accomplished while baby Destructor is awake.

New guy at the office.

I brought Noel by work after his check up on Friday. He got to meet my coworkers giant purple tiger named Petunia and , of course, got his picture made. Happily he was healthy enough to recieve his vaccinations. He had lost some weight, but condsidering he had six sick visits in a month, neither the doctor nor I were too concerned. She felt like he will have caught back up by his 15 month check-up. And the way he is eating lately, I tend to agree.

Two Bears in the bed...

and the baby bear said, "does this thing have a weight limit?" Lately if Chase is dispatched to entertain Noel when he is still in him crib, Chase takes it upon himself to climb on in. This is the scene from a few mornings ago. I am not sure this is what Noel wanted to wake up to.
In Noel news, we are now on our third antibiotic in a little less than a month. And when we go tomorrow for what I hope will be his one year well visit, that will make the third office visit in 3 weeks. Don't even get me started about the number of times we were there in December. Anyways, three weeks ago it was ears and sinus infection that had never cleared up. After a week on antibiotic he was still running a high fever at night and I just felt like something wasn't quite right, so in we went. They ran several tests including a strep test which the doctor assured me would be negative because kids his age don't get strep and he was already on antibiotic. Well, Mr. Exceptional proved her wrong.
As I post, I am thinking we are on the road to recovery, but to be honest, I am quite afraid to speak ( or type) those words. I guess we will see tomorrow.

Ten pounds of Me

Chase's newest catch phrase is "Did someone order ten pounds of me?" He usually says this after running into a room. Last night he ran into the kitchen and asked if someone ordered ten pounds of handsome? I have no idea where he came up with this one, and since he obviously weighs more than 10 pounds I don't know if you only get a part of him if you say yes. He cracks me up.
There has been an ongoing debate at our house about whether or not Chase will play soccer this spring or try some other venture like scouting or karate. Chase finally made the difficult choice of karate, but then began to waffle when Chris explained karate wasn't something that ended like a sport did. He would have to make a commitment and stick with it. This really bothered Chase. He wanted to have an end date. Chris kept trying to explain that that martial arts were something that you could always practice and constantly improve upon. (I personally thought this concept was a little over Chase's head but kept my mouth shut.)
Finally, yesterday while Chase was eating breakfast the ultimate decision had to be made would it be soccer or karate? Chase said, " I am going to take Karate, but I quitting after I get my black belt and that is final." Fair enough. So look forward to exciting updates regarding Chasey-san.

Worthwhile Wednesday

Ever since coming back to work from the holidays, I have felt inadequate on the home front. Call it working mom guilt, stress, frustration at my inability to "get it all done", or all of the above. Whatever it is, I have had a bad case of it. To be perfectly candid, sometimes I just feel like I suck at life. Maybe not life in general, I mean I am not a mass murderer, but I suck at my life. I often feel like one of those circus performers who tries to keep all those plates spinning on the sticks, but mostly I have broken plates. Yesterday, however, all my "plate-spinning" was affirmed.
It was pajama day at Chase's school, and way back in August when we signed up for our classroom days, this seemed like an ideal time for me to volunteer. In reality, the second week after students return to class was probably not the ideal volunteer day. Alas, all that was required of me was to bring in a special snack. I brought in muffins still warm from the oven and read the class "If You Give a Moose a Muffin". This put me at my office around ten and sent my day into a tailspin, so when I arrived home after 7 I was exhausted.
Before putting Chase to bed, I asked him if the class had liked their snack. He said, "Sure, everyone loves muffins." "Well, good, " I said and turned back to whatever I was working on. Then Chase ran up to me and gave me a huge hug and said, "I love you, Mom. I am glad you're my mom." I told him I was glad to be his mom and thought to myself, 'now that is what makes it all worthwhile." And it is.