Well as anyone of you knows that keeps up with my life, I am home because we have no au pair for a month. You also know then that I was looking forward to this despite the fact that I am running the business during nap and in the evenings, which is not so great, because the house is messier and the business is a trainwreck. Take our shippig department.
Mostly when you order something you assume they have a shipping department with efficient people working an efficient plan. Our shipping department is run by 3 three year olds an a screaming mom. So our shipping department today was very cranky one of our staff bit another one and then there was the peeing on the floor of the shipping room, a lost shoe and much running around chasing eachother while alternating between laughing and crying.
Now I don't care how crazy the shipping department looks at your job, but ours is really an emotional, high energy place where snacks and apple juice and potties are in constant demand, at least they don't expect a salary!
Oh an just so I never ever forget, Matthew asked me yesterday " how do you find the person you marry?" He has been concerned about this since he was three. Back then he was only open to marrying someone in the house so we could all remain here. At first he was going to marry Delila, but then he realized she was a grown up already and was opting for Cara. I told him that he could find someone outside of the house and we would make her live in our house. Honestly he will probably find the right girl before he finishes kindergaten, he likes Anglea but my preference is for Karina.
Our family
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Night-night just got a whole lot easier
I am enjoying a fantastic lull between au pairs. I am mostly home with the kids for three straight weeks, and I am over the moon about it. One of the toughest times to deal with the kids is homework and night night (and usually the only time that I see the kids at all during the week.)
And though homework is still tough because the triplets do not want to entertain themselves for the hour that the homework takes, night night has gotten much easier.
Steve has been telling me for a few weeks now, that the big boys help him do night night routine with the babies. It just did not sound like a good plan to me. But monday night they talked me into letting them help. So they each helped brush the babies teeth. Then during reading time, I read to one baby and each boy read to a baby. It was like a scene from "a perfect preschool setting" Chris was reading to Mikie a book about the earth and with each interesting fact, would say isn't that awesome? I mean how inspriring can a reading session get? While Matthew was showing Cara a shapes book and asking her to point ot several shapes and when she would get them right he would say" nice work Cara" Okay What?????Honestly I don't know who these people are! It gets better. I tell them to leave it is time for me to shut the lights and rock each triplet. "No. we wait here" they tell me. okay lets try it. The boys go to the corner sit as quiet as mice while I rock the others. Then we leave and they tip toe quietly all the way up the stairs.
Honestly that is what happened. I was so impressed. And overall my anxiety was lower because I didn't have to rock the babies while listening to things crash and fights breaking out from the boys room upstairs where they usually wait for me!
This three weeks will be topped off by the Myrtle Beach trip so it is a great spring for me, and hopefully the babies are enjoying themselves also!
And though homework is still tough because the triplets do not want to entertain themselves for the hour that the homework takes, night night has gotten much easier.
Steve has been telling me for a few weeks now, that the big boys help him do night night routine with the babies. It just did not sound like a good plan to me. But monday night they talked me into letting them help. So they each helped brush the babies teeth. Then during reading time, I read to one baby and each boy read to a baby. It was like a scene from "a perfect preschool setting" Chris was reading to Mikie a book about the earth and with each interesting fact, would say isn't that awesome? I mean how inspriring can a reading session get? While Matthew was showing Cara a shapes book and asking her to point ot several shapes and when she would get them right he would say" nice work Cara" Okay What?????Honestly I don't know who these people are! It gets better. I tell them to leave it is time for me to shut the lights and rock each triplet. "No. we wait here" they tell me. okay lets try it. The boys go to the corner sit as quiet as mice while I rock the others. Then we leave and they tip toe quietly all the way up the stairs.
Honestly that is what happened. I was so impressed. And overall my anxiety was lower because I didn't have to rock the babies while listening to things crash and fights breaking out from the boys room upstairs where they usually wait for me!
This three weeks will be topped off by the Myrtle Beach trip so it is a great spring for me, and hopefully the babies are enjoying themselves also!
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Sunday
This Sunday starts out like usual, Steve and I get up at 6:30 to prepare for the day. We make French toast most weekend mornings and bacon Yum! The only catch is that our kids wake up starving, so we have to get a jump on the cooking action. Matthew is up early which is no suprise so he cooks with his dad and I take a few pictures for his star of the week poster. Matthew is an exceptional student in that he hands in everything on time and pays careful attention to all the details of his school. He knows all of the janitors by name, what his teacher's husband, mother and sister all do for a living.
When Cara enters the kitchen she greets each one of us "good morning dad, good morning mom, good morning Matt." She loves greetings. All of the babies do like to greet, when we pick up the boys from school there are hugs from each baby to each big boy, who in turn act like they are just tolerating it, but their tiny smiles betray their appreication of the gesture.
After breakfast, we dress everyone for church, digging out dress shoes and clean socks. Church is a landfield to us, but the kids have gotten better. I bring a bag of books and small quiet toys. Today I get to sit next to Chris, who prefers to sit away from the other kids so he can read the miselet. I tell him that the priest will be reading thhose specific words soon. The priest gets started and Chris follows along word for word, right through the easter story. I explain to him what is happening in the story. He is really into it.
We make it through with only one incident. On a bathroom trip there is a brief wait. This is not Mark's forte and he drops his pants in the lobby as he waits his turn for the bathroom. Well at least Mikey didn't request to sit as he can't say s and always replaces it with sh. So when he goes to the bathroom now, he will say I have to sit! But it comes out a bit different then that.
After church we stop for bagels and head home.
We spend the rest of the day doing nothing but playing board games, watching movies, hitting the internet, and reading. Steve shows the kids how to make crosses out of the palms, nonni stops by with some new clothes, Cara is demonstraing her exceptional verbal skills with endless detailed complaints about her brothers and Handro is flying through the air with the greatest of ease from any mount he can find. Another good Sunday.
When Cara enters the kitchen she greets each one of us "good morning dad, good morning mom, good morning Matt." She loves greetings. All of the babies do like to greet, when we pick up the boys from school there are hugs from each baby to each big boy, who in turn act like they are just tolerating it, but their tiny smiles betray their appreication of the gesture.
After breakfast, we dress everyone for church, digging out dress shoes and clean socks. Church is a landfield to us, but the kids have gotten better. I bring a bag of books and small quiet toys. Today I get to sit next to Chris, who prefers to sit away from the other kids so he can read the miselet. I tell him that the priest will be reading thhose specific words soon. The priest gets started and Chris follows along word for word, right through the easter story. I explain to him what is happening in the story. He is really into it.
We make it through with only one incident. On a bathroom trip there is a brief wait. This is not Mark's forte and he drops his pants in the lobby as he waits his turn for the bathroom. Well at least Mikey didn't request to sit as he can't say s and always replaces it with sh. So when he goes to the bathroom now, he will say I have to sit! But it comes out a bit different then that.
After church we stop for bagels and head home.
We spend the rest of the day doing nothing but playing board games, watching movies, hitting the internet, and reading. Steve shows the kids how to make crosses out of the palms, nonni stops by with some new clothes, Cara is demonstraing her exceptional verbal skills with endless detailed complaints about her brothers and Handro is flying through the air with the greatest of ease from any mount he can find. Another good Sunday.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Winter Weekend
These are just a few pictures of a great, but oh too short weekend away with the kids. It was really beautiful and fun. The kids were fantastic, and as in the words of today's pop-psychology, a great chance to re-connect. I could have stayed a week but real life could not be kept at bay.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Katie
Here I rarely post about my professional life I have my Accent Master blog for that. However today was a cool day. I went to a business Woman's luncheon and Katie Couric spoke! What a fantastic event. I have been a huge fan of hers since the beginning of her national career. Mostly it was light topics, one thing she did say in response to a question was this "Making time for me, means spending time helping others and interacting with them, that is when I am the happiest."
I feel so relieved to hear this. Not that my "me" time is necessarily helping others, but it is not a mecentric hour in a "personal sanctuary" that I created in my home for this purpose, or journaling each night. No. i don't have time for that. The pressure to make time for that seems big right now. Not in my head, but in every "woman/mom" geared magazine that exists, from Oprah to redbook. They preach the virtue of alone time and if you don't make time for it your health, family and marriage will surely suffer irreversible damage.
I don't particularly enjoy forced me time, especially when tomorrow's lunch is not packed for the boys, or content needs to be written for my DVD releases deadline yesterday. My so-called me time is playing duck duck goose with the kids, or ushering them to an unhealthy and cold germ infested McDonald's' then I feel the most relaxed. That feeling of I am where I am supposed to be feeling. It was good to hear someone else say that the me time is just not sitting around overpriced aroma therapy candles, but actually being involved in an action that brings you peace.
On a wholly different note: Matthew went to sleep with the map of our Myrtle beach campground clutched in his hands tonight. So we have begun officially waiting for Spring break. Oh Matthew also had a brilliant idea. We should get two dogs and name them Myrtle and Beach so when they run away we can yell "myrtle Beach!"
I feel so relieved to hear this. Not that my "me" time is necessarily helping others, but it is not a mecentric hour in a "personal sanctuary" that I created in my home for this purpose, or journaling each night. No. i don't have time for that. The pressure to make time for that seems big right now. Not in my head, but in every "woman/mom" geared magazine that exists, from Oprah to redbook. They preach the virtue of alone time and if you don't make time for it your health, family and marriage will surely suffer irreversible damage.
I don't particularly enjoy forced me time, especially when tomorrow's lunch is not packed for the boys, or content needs to be written for my DVD releases deadline yesterday. My so-called me time is playing duck duck goose with the kids, or ushering them to an unhealthy and cold germ infested McDonald's' then I feel the most relaxed. That feeling of I am where I am supposed to be feeling. It was good to hear someone else say that the me time is just not sitting around overpriced aroma therapy candles, but actually being involved in an action that brings you peace.
On a wholly different note: Matthew went to sleep with the map of our Myrtle beach campground clutched in his hands tonight. So we have begun officially waiting for Spring break. Oh Matthew also had a brilliant idea. We should get two dogs and name them Myrtle and Beach so when they run away we can yell "myrtle Beach!"
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Why I work early and late
Why do I see clients at 7 Am and 8PM? So that I can take off precious daytime hours to catch fantastic moments like this.
Cara is walking up the stairs with her arms out making "monster noises". Mark, who likes to my known as Handro (this is a derivitive of his middle name Alessandro, which was changed to Alejondro by our endless parade of Latin nannies,who then Cara shortened to Handro) yells "monster Cara"
When she arrives Mark pushes her in play, but hard. Down Cara goes right on her little bottom. The look on her face was of complete insult and hurt.
I go give her a hug and ask her if she is okay. She nods her sullen head yes and goes to the couch to sulk.
I look up and Handro is whispering something to Cara, she nods her head yes and he puts a blanket on her, and get this, he leans in and kisses her cheek!
Is that the sweetest thing ever!
So not working 9-5 is great for me. I run around a lot but I squeeze the most out of every day.
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