Celebrating Birthdays With Family in the 21st Century

Today we got on Skype and video chatted with my mom and dad so that they could watch Christian and Michaela open up their birthday presents from them.  I think it is so cool that the kids can see them, especially Eliana since she's so little, and talk with them regularly even though they are far away.

Christian opened his card first and read it out loud for everyone.

And he was very excited when he peeked at his present...

K'nex!  He said he knew it.

Michaela also had a card to open along with a gift from them.

Some sweet heart earrings for a sweetheart girl.

Grandma and Grandpa wouldn't think of leaving Eliana out of the mix...

She got a precious little bedtime book...and after tonight's bedtime I pray she does have sweet dreams.  My goodness.

This technology is so fun!  We love being able to see them several times a week.  And as soon as we all gather around our computer Eliana starts chanting,"Bam-pa, Bam-pa."  She knows what's going on!

Thank you, Grandma and Grandpa, for a special day.  We also enjoyed some Valentine goodies that came in the same package.  Cupidy M&M's...yum.  Oh, and you wouldn't believe how much fun the two big kids (and because of their silliness, Eliana as well) had with the family planner/message board/message recorder (also in the package-Mom, keep trying to get me organized and maybe one day it will happen).  Here's Michaela recording a message: 

     Hark, the herald angels sing, glory to the newborn king!     

Here's Christian:

     Hello, poopypants (hysterical laughter).

He did eventually sing Joy to the World, so it's not all about, you know...

Blips

I thought I would share some of the fun and/or sweet moments of our day...

Christian and I played a bunch of card games during Eliana's nap today.  We used some "Tonka" cards, and played things like "Go Fish", "Crazy Eights", and finally "War".  During our game of "War" we flipped over a card that was the same, and played out the "I declare WAR" cards and flipped over another card-and it was the same.  This happened four times in a row!  We would flip our third cards and look at each other and giggle.  It was worthy of a photo...

He finally won all the cards with a "9".  Pretty weird, though, isn't it? 

While I was making dinner, Eliana came around the corner into the kitchen with a (decrepit) little stroller we have.  It is missing its seat, but she was strolling around her little baby anyway.  It was so sweet.  And she was so into it...

I just missed a little kiss.  She picked up the baby and gave it a sweet smooch on the top of her head, then put her back down in the stroller.   A few minutes later I walked into the kids' bedroom and she had put the baby into the carseat. 

And it's a bummer I'm not faster, because I missed another little kiss!  It's precious to watch her with baby dolls.  Michaela was the same way.  Now she helps me take care of our baby! 

 The day went from fun and sweet to just plain weird.

The evening went on and after dinner and baths I was trying to get Eliana to sleep (which has been a bit of a strange experience lately).  She was going to sleep fine until recently; all of a sudden she started to cling to me like a little monkey and cried when I put her in her bed at night.  So I started sitting in the room with her until she fell asleep.  Sometimes I'll think,"I could be doing the dishes, or checking my email, or cleaning the bathroom..." (you know, fun and productive stuff!), but then she'll pop her head up over the side of the pack 'n' play she sleeps in at the foot of our bed (I'm usually lying down on the end of our bed) and she'll say,"Mommy?"  I'll say,"Yes?"  And she'll lean her little face forward with her mouth ready to give me a little kiss.  And I wouldn't want to miss that for all the dirty dishes and toilets in the world.  Someone else can clean them!  Well, back to tonight, she was just screaming...while I'm sitting there.  I'm wondering if some teeth are coming in or something because she was acting so weird.  Although if I picked her up she was fine...  At any rate, I finally brought her out of the bedroom because it was getting so late and I was about to lose my mind.  I decided I would do the dishes with her in the exersaucer in our kitchen (I still put her in there, in emergencies!); she hung out just fine, talking to the different things on the exersaucer.  I got the dishes done and then sat down at the computer for a minute; she was with me on my lap.  This is at 9:38.  P.M.  What is up with that?

 

A storm came up and the alarm/warning message was playing throughout the neighborhood.  It was so sudden that I wanted to see if I could see anything out of the front window.  I could hear hail and it sounded like it was in the house!  So I went into our living room and noticed the lights were dimmed.  I turned them up a little, and faintly heard a funny noise behind me.  It was a little whirring noise, or sort of a soft whistley noise.  I faced back toward the room, and jumped.  Here's what I saw:

and...

Well, I don't know what you would have done, but I thought they had gotten into their beds an hour earlier and gone on to sleep. 

I laughed a little at my very crazy children.  What in the world got into them tonight.  They are all tucked in now but I can't wait to ask them what they were up to when we get up in the morning.  Does anyone have a guess?  We could make it a game!

I'm hoping for the rest of the evening to be very quiet.  And very not weird. 

Changing Patterns

Sleeping patterns change a lot around here.  Something or someone is always shifting...this week, it is Eliana.  She has been taking two hour naps.  Do you hear me?  Two hours.  Straight.  Asleep in her bed. 

I have been standing beside her bed until she's sleeping, which doesn't take too long.  It's a sweet time, and often she will want me to hold her (she says,"Hous-shoo, hous-shoo,"-hold you, in this quiet, asking little voice.  Who can resist?) but will still lean back into her bed to actually fall asleep. 

My time with her, however, means that my other two kids are working on things by themselves quietly.  Sometimes I give them options, sometimes they are already engaged in an activity (separate or together). 

Today, I "discovered" Christian in our schoolroom/playroom with our pattern blocks.  The kids love these colorful, versatile math manipulatives.  And Christian, who is quite engineerish, can come up with amazing designs. 

This particular time, he not only designed rocketships, he was actually playing with them, moving them around, making the boosters blast off and other things rockety.  Look, around here it is rocket science. 

Christian's creativity will never stop amazing me.   He's very good at putting things together symmetrically.

I love watching him think, seeing him figure out where his game is going next...

watching him concentrate on the pieces, carefully arranging them...

Michaela is just as drawn to them...their lure is powerful!

It is also interesting to watch how their designs unfold in such different ways.  Hers are often delicate, like flowers; rockety flowers, but flowers nonetheless (I don't have a photo this time!).  And she gives them her undivided attention. 

It is great to know they take pride in their work...I found this when I imported the pictures from the camera...

This, however, I have no real explanation for.  It's just funny.  And kind of cool.  Just like my kiddos.

We Are Really Moving...

We were able to go see our new house yesterday, walk through, check out closets, start figuring out where to put what furniture as well as people.  It was exciting to take a tour; it's quite large and we should have plenty of space for our "stuff."  Boy, do we have some stuff.  Because of our moves in the last few years, I think there are some things that we haven't even seen since Princeton. 

Speaking of Princeton, I was feeling very nostalgic about our time there today.  I wonder if it's because we are about to pack up and relocate again?  Hmmm.  The years we spent there and the friendships we made are treasured.  I was missing folks today.  Folks, if you're reading this, I was missing you today!

I hope to get some pictures of the inside of the house soon, to share with you guys.  Maybe I can this weekend. 

The kids loved racing through the house as well.  It has a cool double stariway that connects in a small landing and then continues up to the second floor.  They thought that was amazing.  And of course Christian zeroed in on the "platform" at the top of the stairs, but opposite from the top step (that makes no sense, does it?).  It is this little, well, platform (I can't come up with a better word) that you can see from the top step if you turn around and face as if you were going downstairs.  Mike said that was off limits...we could just see the wheels spinning in his head.  Michaela and Christian decided which closet was going to be their fort.  Eliana walked around stomping her foot and squealing; it was her attempt to jump like the other two.  There is a great closet in the master bedroom, a fantastic library/study, a good front closet, and-you are not going to believe this-five bathrooms.  Um, I can't even keep two bathrooms clean.  Five?  But I have a plan.  I will clean one each night, take the weekends off, each gets cleaned once a week (plus whatever accidents/weirdo stuff that needs a midday go), and the weekends I take off.  Sounds great, doesn't it.  Yes!  And I'm gonna do it.  You betcha.  (Please stop laughing, I really need your encouragement here.)

I have also recruited Michaela to help me with cleaning, and Christian is on my list.  He's good with a Swiffer.  Ah, those are great tools, no?

So, that certainly made it seem more real, considering I haven't packed up much, or been motivated to do so.  It's just around the corner, and I don't know if that makes it harder or easier, to tell you the truth.  One thing I do know...it is a blessing beyond my understanding that we are able to be where we are, with Mike doing what he's doing, and get to live in such a wonderful house.  (The house we've been living in is nice too, but this new one is so much bigger.)  I always come back to that verse in Luke 12 about to whom much is given much is expected.  May we be a family that meets those expectations.

An Early Christmas

We are celebrating Christmas in Florida this year, with Mike's family. Before we left home we opened some gifts with the kids from my parents and a few from us as well. Michaela helped get everything ready for our special time together. And then the kids waited with great excitement for Mike to get home so we could begin.

The kids began together, and they really loved everything, from their new books to the Star Wars Lego projects.

Mike got us a new flash (he said it was for me, and I stuck the paper back on it and handed it to him and said,"Merry Christmas!" I think that's a good "for the both of us" present!) so we will have to learn how to use it. We'll see where that takes our photos! Eliana got into opening gifts much more than I thought she would. She had fun tearing the paper and seeing what was inside the wrapping. It was very cute to watch. And I loved that she was especially drawn to her own presents-my mom likes to wrap each person's presents all in the same paper. Eliana wanted to hold and carry around the ones that were actually for her. So sweet.

Once she got her gift out of the paper (it was a little dress), she tried to put it back in there. Then she checked to see if there was anything else down in it.

We were reminded that Grandma and Grandpa are tricky...Michaela said,“A hair dryer!”

But we opened the box and discovered a mini-digital camera.

Christian opened a gift that was a “Totes” brand key locator, which whistles when you make a loud noise so that you can...well, locate your keys. My parents have one of these and the kids think it is hilarious, so I thought mom and dad had gotten them one.

We opened the package and found...

a sweet ornament for our family. When Eliana opened up this...

we were all onto them! We knew something else was in that box! You can’t fool us three times!

We had such a good time. There were plenty of kisses...

and zherberts...

It was a wonderful way to spend our afternoon! Thanks, Grandma and Grandpa, for helping make it such a special day.