Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Gobble Gobble

Happy Thanksgiving to all! I am thankful for funny children. When I was putting Kate to bed tonight, this is the conversation that took place:

Kate: Good night, Mom! Tommorrow is Thanksgiving, right?

Maggie: Yup! Thanksgiving! We are going to celebrate with Nia and Gramps, won't that be great?!

Kate: It is the day when we eat Turkey That Used to be Alive, right? We eat dead cooked Turkey tomorrow, right?

Maggie: (pretty tongue tied and not knowing exactly what to say). Yes, we eat turkey and lots of other delicious things, too! Now off to bed!

I cannot believe she thinks of things like that!!!

Gobble gobble! For you meat-eaters, enjoy your dead cooked turkey! For my veggie friends - dig into that Tofurkey! At the rate that Kate is going, I may be calling you for T-giving veggie recipes before you know it!

Kate the Great

Kate is growing SO fast. I can hardly find pants for her that are long enough for her super long legs but will stay put on her teeny tiny waist (oh to have such problems, myself!). She is bright and sweet and funny. She is reading up a STORM, plowing through books with us and on her own. I love listening to her in her room at bedtime practicing reading out loud. She is a 5-year-old darling and we adore her. Here are some pics!





Kind of Crazy Date Night

Nick and I have been fans of the music of NIN for a very long time - it served us well during the angsty, "no one understands me" teenage years and as adults we appreciate the talent and innovation that goes into Mr. Reznor's production. It is not for everyone, but we enjoy it and Nick has never seen them in concert despite 20 years of being a fan. Until last night! We got to go to the concert and it was great! Granted, we were probably the preppiest people there, but so what?! There were an awful lot of piercings, tattoos and multicolored spiked hairstyles to behold but luckily a lip piercing and shredded clothing was not required for admission. It was a great crowd, actually, with kids as young as 15 and adults into their 50s. Having been around for so long, NIN appeals to many and always manages to be more than current - they stay pretty cutting edge. I would never venture to say it was wholesome fun for the whole family, but it WAS fun and a GREAT show. It is not like we had seats in the mosh pit! ;-)



Finding Humor in a Less Than Ideal Situation

Liam has been keeping us up nights. Nick and I did not expect to lose this much sleep over our children until perhaps they reached the teenage years, but here we are, wandering slightly dazed through our days clutching enormous cups of very strong coffee. Several nights I have found myself actually falling asleep as soon as I put the kiddos to bed which, if you know me at all, is at least 4 hours before my usual night-owl bedtime. Why all the sleep loss you ask? It is because of our son, Liam (also known as "Thunder",) and the sounds that he is now emitting as he snores and snores away. Such noise should not be able to be produced from such a small individual and has resulted in the following:

a. he wakes all of us up and no one gets a good night of sleep - this makes for terrific interpersonal dynamics the following day
b. he wakes himself up - tossing and turning all night long, he is not getting good sleep and will, accordingly, fall asleep the next day truly in mid-sentence. Example: "Mommy, I love playing with this car. It....is...so........(snore snore snore)"
c. I lie awake listening to every breath because, in a new twist on the snoring, he is now also suffering from sleep apnea where he will be snoring away and then all of a sudden stop for a few seconds and wake up coughing and gasping and sputtering for air. My heart also stops in these moments and there have been times when I think I may have managed to teleport myself, not really remembering how and not understanding how quickly, I suddenly find myself in his room over his bed checking on him.

SO....our pediatrician checked out his tonsils - which apparently are alarmingly huge - and referred us immediately to an ENT specialist. The ENT took one look at Liam's throat and declared that the tonsils and adenoids have to go. He said that the tonsils are graded on size on a scale of 1-4, 4 being the largest and Liam's are "4s....if I could give them a 5 I would". Super duper. Poor little guy! Nick and I have also noticed with great affection that Liam often sounds like a muppet (check earlier video post of Liam eating a popsicle for an example). The doc said this was because of his tonsils being so large that talking around and through them causes a funny voice which will change when the surgery is done. He also said Liam's propensity to only want to eat things like yogurt and applesauce (soft foods) may have a lot to do with the fact that it is tough to actually pass food through the tonsils. Oh my goodness!!!

So there is no doubt, the tonsils and adenoids must come out. It should solve the snoring, breathing, eating , voice issues and more. His surgery is December 12 and he will have to be admitted and stay overnight in the hospital because he is so young. I am sad to think of him being scared in the hospital and being uncomfortable during the recovery but know that this is the absolute best thing for him - and for us all! It is "routine" and no big deal ultimately. He will be a-ok. He is stubborn enough to give us hell while he is going through it, but that same attitude will help him recover quickly

NOW FOR THE HUMOR!

The nurse gave us a "comic book" at the appointment to go over with the kids and introduce them to the procedure. I have to credit her for the absolute unflappable attitude with which she presented the book to us. I looked at her closely to see if she was masking the obvious or if she really was naive enough to not see the bawdy humor and inappropriate undertones of what she was actually showing to me (hint - it is the title). I could not read her at all. SO below is a picture of the book that was given to us. If you are so pure-hearted and unscathed as to not know what it means, God Bless you (and email me if you want to know, or ask someone - though innocence such as that should really remain intact). If you get the joke, laugh along with me. And, REALLY, can you believe that this title got by a publisher somewhere? Do they know the joke and think it is funny? Maybe this is just what the procedure is called in the medical world - - - though I would think it more pertinent for a plastic surgeon's office.

Sunday, November 23, 2008

I know, I know...

I am a slacker! I have been terrible at posting compared to my old posting habits. The juggling of school with everything else has really thrown me off my blog game! :) Just a heads up that, especially since I have the week of of school, some fun posts will be heading this way - and some particularly hilarious ones, if I may say so. Sooooo....keep an eye out! More Harris antics and news coming right up.......

Sunday, November 02, 2008

Causing a Commotion - and other such things....

Here are a few fun tales of Kate from recent days.....

  • Kate called me into her bathroom the other day, very frustrated as she was getting ready for bed. It seems that the bathroom light switch had accidentally been set to the "motion detector" status and, timing out, the lights kept going out on Kate in the bathroom since it was not detecting motion from her short self as she brushed her teeth. "Moooo-oooooommmmmm! The COMMOTION DETECTOR is MAKING me NUTS!!!!!!"
  • Yesterday, Kate was very interested in the story of Thanksgiving. She had been asking what November had in store for her (since October had Halloween and she is at the age where she judges months based on what fun event happens during it's time....don't we all?!).  I began to explain Thanksgiving. I told her about the Mayflower, which prompted this response from Kate: "Mom! Do you know that flour is a food but flower is also a flower? It is the same word, but different meanings! Isn't that funny?"  After enthusiastic discussion over other words that sound the same but are different (pear-pare-pair, bear-bare etc.), back to the tale of the pilgrims et al I turned.  When I was done sharing all I could recall from elementary school about the thanksgiving meal, Kate asked me "So, when the pilgrims and the native americans were done eating their big dinner, did they all go into the living room and play the Wii?" She was very sad when I told her "no" and even more shocked and sad when I told her they did not even have electricity or televisions and certainly no "wii".  She said that maybe they would enjoy putting on plays for each other instead.  I told her I thought that sounded just great.
  • Kate has taken to asking me a lot of questions about her food. She wants to know if things are organic, how they are grown, where they are grown and how we obtained it.  When it comes to meat in particular, she has made a point of asking me "Was this alive? Did this come from an animal? Did it have eyes?"  I answer her pretty frankly in saying "Yes it was, but it is our food."  She has yet to refuse it, but I wonder if I have a little veggie baby in the making.  
  • Spelling is out. You know....that fantastic way that adults have of communicating with each other  in the presence of children when they do not want the children to understand the conversation and to avoid probing questions about adult topics from teeny people ("Well, they are getting a d-i-v-o-r-c-e", or "The guy was a huge j-e-r-k", or "The k-i-d-s are making me c-r-a-z-y").  I did not realize the extent of Kate's spelling talent until the other day when I was talking to my friend on the phone and said "I have to limit the c-a-n-d-y or there will never be b-e-d for the k-i-d-s and I have so much homework to do". i just did not feel like getting into a conversation about candy with Kate when Halloween candy was all that she thought about.  Kate, sitting playing with her toy puppy on the floor looks at me and says "Mom! But I WANT Candy! I will go to bed at a normal time!"  At least I was not spelling something naughty! 

New Names

My children have given themselves new names. I am not kidding. They are calling each other - and responding to each other when using the names as easily as if they were their birth names - "Lily" and "Sam". Should I be concerned? It is only when they are playing pretend, such as playing house, or zoo, or (my personal favorite and most quiet imaginary play) Library. Right now, though, they are playing construction and "Sam" just said "Lily can you please pass me the hammer? I need to fix this table". Cute names, though, right?!

Saturday, November 01, 2008

Best Halloween Candy Passing Moment

A gaggle of giggly girls, about 8 or 9 years old, rings the bell. Nick answers, passing candy out while kindly exclaiming over their costumes. “Here you go, Cowgirl! Here you go, Cat. Here you go, Pumpkin. Here you go, uh, um, are you a princess?” He assumes this based on the pink dress and the pink sparkly feather boa that is criss-cross wrapped around the girl’s neck and dangling down in front. The girl, frankly but somewhat in an exasperated tone, says “NO. I am a breast-cancer-awareness-ribbon!!!!!!” Then the 8 year old she turns on her heels and flounces off with her candy.

Nick is left speechless. Me too.