Mac and cheese...cake

Sort of a pun on words there.

:)

Over the weekend, our Mac Mini arrved. There was great excitement when FedEx delivered the package. However, Peter and Natalie were a slightly disappointed with the "apple" delivery as it turned out not to be food.

The big reveal:

Sam has been working hard to get it integrated into our tv theater system. Despite a couple road bumps, he is so dedicated and persistent. Reminds me of the time when we tried working on our physics problems together back in college! I, unfortunately, was not as persistent and just wanted to skip to the next problem. It's nice to know some good things never change!

I took on the family challenge to make a cheesecake. The kids (and Daddy) asked me to make one so I set out to please them even though I had never made one before. Oh, the things a Mommy will do for her family! I settled on a recipe in my "Friends of Pharmacy" cookbook (for those who might also have this book) called Chocolate and Peanut Butter Cheesecake bars. Instead of bars, I made a circular cake with my spring form pan. It turned out prety well for my first time. I might suggest baking a little longer than the recipe says (if you make a circular one) as the center wasn't as firm as it should be. Nevertheless, I was proud of the fruits of my labor!

And, it was pretty good!

Things I hear from Peter and Natalie - Part 2

The kids have been saying pretty funny and cute things lately. Again, wanting to document and share them, here they are!

Natalie sayings:

"[I wanna go downstairs] for a little while" she adds "for a little while" to a lot of her sentences.

"Mommy, what's you're doin?" while calling on the phone

"Him put him put hand in him mouth" (while really referring to Elaine) just an example of her ubiquitous use of "him" regardless of gender.

"Hey everybody!" her way to get our attention

"I looooooooooove [pizza, stickers, Kai Lan, cake]" she loooooooves everything

"That's too bad!" showing real concern when things go bad

"Let me twry"

Natalie making soup (that's very hot) with strawberries, berries and grapes.

I was trying to get video of her saying the ABCs ("Super Why" Alpha Pig's version), but Natalie had her own version - HIJKLMNO...Pig!

Peter sayings:

"You make the best dinner, Mommy!" what a way to melt my heart!

"Not bad...not bad at all" when trying new foods

"When I was a baby, I got bathtized too"

"Baby wants to drink milk from your nipples" yes, he's learned about the anatomy of breastfeeding

"No....TRIcycle" always correcting me when I call his trike a bicycle.

"I thought you were having [a boy/two babies]" he has said both phrases. I'm just glad the latter wasn't true!

"Is he down to good?" in response to me saying someone was up to no good...ah, the innocence!

Finally, just some lunch time fun, Natalie was doing a little "peri-pocus ocus crocus" on her quesadilla. She obviously doesn't appreciate Peter's interruptions

A lot can happen in 51 hours alone with 3 kids!

Sam left Friday morning at 9:30am for Georgia. Our friend Tommy was getting married, and Sam was one of two groomsmen.

(Turns out that the other groomsman's wife went into labor Friday morning.
Congratulations to Jack and Bettina and best wishes to your new baby boy, Matthew!)

With Sam gone, I was alone to hold down the fort at our "peapod" and here's how it went:

At lunch, Julie and her 9-month old son Graeme came over for a playdate. It was nice to have some adult conversation and kid interaction. It was also interesting to watch what Graeme was doing as he'd grown so much since last I saw him. He also reminded me what I have to look forward to with Elaine.

Afterwards, all seemed to be going really well and smoothly until...

During Sam's call to me that he'd made it safely to Atlanta, I get a call on call waiting. It's our neighbor Mark. There could only be one reason Mark would be calling me in the middle of the day: his wife was in labor! As planned and as they did the same for us with Peter and Natalie when Elaine was born, I watched their daughter Lily while they were in labor/delivery. However, "the plan" was for Donna not to go into labor this weekend as Sam would be out of town! So much for trying to keep those legs crossed, Donna! :) I guess babies have their own plans (and a sick sense of humor!).

We all had a good time with snacks, art projects (thanks to Donna's gifts for the kids) and playtime. I have no pictures to show for it - didn't really have the extra hand to snap any photos. Trust me, it was a fun time for all. Lily was only here for about 5 hours when her grandparents from Chicago came to pick her up. At this point it was 8pm, and I was beat! Never thought 4 kids ages 3 and under would be that tiring - then again, it obviously sounds tiring!

By the way, they had a baby girl named Abigail Grace, 7lbs 6oz!
Congratulations!

Saturday morning came and I was refreshed as Elaine graced me with another easy night falling asleep at 10:30pm, waking up to feed at 3am, and waking again around 7am. God bless that girl! I got ambitious and took all 3 kids to the library downtown. Elaine was a little fussy as we parked the car, but fell asleep by the time we hit the sidewalk in the stroller. An hour quickly went by and we left in one piece and 8 books and 3 video heavier.

With Elaine still fast asleep, another surge of energy came over me. I took my chances and went to Hobby Lobby (which historically has been bad karma with babies in car seats). I had some art projects for the kids in mind and also wanted to look for material to make more burp cloths for Elaine and other baby things. Yes, ambitious, I tell you! Well, the bad karma was broken, and another hour later, we left with yards of material and foam stickers, a boat, and a princess crown.
This is Peter's ark, where lions can walk upside down! Peter did really well, placing all the animals where they are by himself - he even thought to hang the monkeys from the top! He needed a little guidance with his name, especially since our letter set only had 2 of each letter. Notice his full name has 3 E's and R's?!? That's where the crafty mom in me comes handy!
Natalie did a great job with her name too - she made sure each letter was right next to each other and needed little/no help from me. Peter kindly reminds me that he helped put the "I" in Natalie's name. I only wish I bought a crown she could actually wear. She's been trying to with no success! :(

Tanner joined us for some McD's for lunch. He also helped me absorb a lot of Peter's afternoon energy and read Horton Hears a Who (Peter's favorite of our library books). It was a cute moment and I wish I had a picture but I was so tired at that moment.

Saturday evening got a little hairy - my patience was wearing thin and Elaine was crying during key moments when I needed my hands free (ie: cooking and getting the kids ready for bed). After Peter and Natalie were off to bed, with perfect timing, our other next door neighbor Rita stopped by for a visit. As she held Elaine and learned I had also watched Lily along with my own kids by myself, she offered to keep holding Elaine to let me get a shower. Feeling quite gross and sweaty from the past 36 hours without one (yes, gross), a shower sounded heavenly. I jumped at the offer and within minutes I was refreshed and renewed! Thank you, Rita!

The rest of my evening was quite relaxing with Elaine asleep by 11pm, some TV and a bowl of Ben and Jerry's ice cream (thanks to Sam for getting that surprise for me).

This morning was an early morning with Natalie calling from her room at 7am, "Mommy! We wa-wake!" (Actually, Peter was still sleeping) Natalie proceeded to be a little model for me in the morning sun and the "rainbows" from the glass.
Peter soon followed suit...
...with Sydney crashing his photo shoot with a pedicure.

It's T-minus 1 hour before Sam should be walking through the kitchen door, and I will be SO HAPPY! Nothing can happen now to make me lose it - especially with Elaine like this:
So, if I may, I pat myself on the back and rest assured that I can do it by myself - with a little adult conversation every now and then!

Elaine's holy baptism

On July 13th, Elaine got baptized at our church, St. Wenceslaus Catholic Church in Iowa City. It was a simple, yet meaningful ceremony. We opted to have a private baptism after the 10am mass. We felt that it would be more comfortable and less stressful than to have it during mass, especially with no one to keep watch over Peter and Natalie. Before the ceremony started, this is how Peter and Natalie spent their time waiting:

When it did start, it was difficult to concentrate on the moment and to keep Peter and Natalie from running all around the church and the altar. Here is one rare moment they did manage to stay around the baptismal fountain:

More importantly, we finally did manage to get a picture of Elaine's big moment, her baptism. Elaine was so great the whole morning; she slept through the entire mass and baptismal ceremony. She barely opened her eyes when Father Mike poured the holy water over her head. It must have felt good to her!

And our family picture with Father Michael Phillips after the ceremony even turned out quite nice!
(Despite the fact I wish I stood sideways to slim my 'rotund' figure!)

Afterwards, we picked up some special lunch items from the Bread Garden and we had a lemon-raspberry cake from DeLuxe Bakery all ready to celebrate Elaine's baptism at home. The cake was so pretty and delicious - enjoyed by all, except Elaine, of course.

We all thanked Elaine for being born and getting baptized as we ate our piece of cake!

A wonderful day

What started as a not so great day turned out to be a great day. Elaine and I had gone to the hospital to get her blood drawn for her thyroid check. She had the unfortunate luck to get a big guy who didn't do as gentle as a job than I've seen done before for blood draws. :(

I continued onto the grocery store, where Elaine decided to start crying in Aisle 2. I spent the remaining 50 minutes holding her in one arm while pulling the cart with the other. Thank GOODNESS Sam offered to watch Peter and Natalie at home (while I had said I would attempt to shop with all three)!

The day started to turn up when I got the call from Elaine's endocrinology doctor. Turns out Elaine's thyroid levels are good and she was taken off her thyroid medication! YAY! Next week we have to go in for another blood draw (darn sure I'm not going back to big guy vampire). If Elaine's levels remain good, it looks like she'll be done with this hyperthyroid deal! YAY YAY!

Next, I got a delivery of BEAUTIFUL flowers from "Dan, Beth and the kidlets". THANK YOU GUYS! The arrangement was enormous and wonderful! They have my favorite favorite flower - asiatic lily. They smell SO GOOD! Love them!

Right behind that delivery (literally, FedEx lady was walking up behind florist delivery), I got my Old Navy/Gap order of post-partum/summer clothes. I was so excited to get those flowers AND clothes that weren't maternity and fit me nicely! Sad to know, I've been wearing the same two pairs of goucho pants for months. Now, you know my sad secret.

Finally, Elaine's baby swing order came into the store! After Elaine's diagnosis of hyperthyroidism, I was overwhelmed with guilt that I bought all these cute baby girl stuff for her, including this butterfly baby papasan swing. I'm not even sure if she'll love it or not, but I was willing to get it to try! I have to say, she looks totally cute in it!

And Peter was VERY interested in it too!

Right now, all three kids are sound asleep, allowing me to update this blog of mine.

Like I said, it's been a wonderful day!

Let us not forget Uncle Jim's visit!

June 12-16th - Father's Day weekend:

Amidst last month's flooding, Uncle Jim (Sam's brother) paid us a visit. It probably was not the easiest time to travel to Iowa since the flooding closed several bridges and roads between Iowa City and Quad Cities airport. Jim's travel time into Iowa took 6 extra hours due to airplane mechanical problems, tornado warnings in the Quad Cities, and closed flooded bridges/roads on I-80. I just hope it was all worth it for Jim!

Peter and Natalie loved having him here,

horsing around the yard...

eating Airliner pizza together...

telling Knock Knock jokes...

(Transcript to Natalie's one-woman joke:

"Knock Knock...Who's there... Boo... Boo who...don't cry it's just a joke...ha ha ha ha")

watching Burer brothers be Burer brothers...

giving Uncle Jim lots of love...

...but were sad to see him go.

Three-week old Elaine update

It's been an interesting and fun adjustment period for us all. It's still work in progress (I would imagine it'll be a lifelong adjustment) but we're doing great. Elaine is sleeping more at night. Her "typical" night would be to fall asleep around 10-11pm, wake around 2-3am for feeding, then again around 7am. I can't say that this is every night, but it's been a repeating pattern that I think I could live with! She's more alert during the days, looking around at her surroundings, especially Peter and Natalie:

Her nap schedule during the days is a little unknown to me. She doesn't nap well other than in my arms or on my chest. That's why I'll be reading my "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" book again. Until she's 6 weeks or so, I can't help but spoil her by holding her all the time.

Here is a rare daytime moment of Elaine sleeping like an angel...

...apparently, having a nice dream (or a warm diaper feeling).

Being more alert, Elaine opened her eyes enough for me to snap a picture of them:

Not sure if you can see it, but she does have Sam's blue eyes!