Ruben's Reading

Ruben is addicted to reading. Seriously. He's like a little drug addict that just needs a fix or he just may die. He'll grab the nearest book, come up to you, hold out the book and grunt with much enthusiasm until you let him sit on your lap and read the book.  If for some reason you make any kind of movement away from the book, then you are in trouble.

Other Ruben-isms of late are the new found love of sitting in kid-sized seats particularly this little rocking chair in his room.  He'll find a chair and sit in it for 5 minutes at a stretch just sitting there and looking so proud to be sitting in a chair. He also wants to be part of the crowd at the table and not sitting at his own high chair. We borrowed a little clamp on chair for our table so he will stop spending meals standing on the seat of his high chair leaning back and forth as the conversation at the table allows. 

He and June are really starting to fight over toys. This mostly occurs when June realizes that Ruben has a cool toy and she wants it. It used to work to distract Ruben with another toy, but he's caught on to that rouse and refuses the boring toy that June offers and does not relinquish his hold on the "cool" toy. Just a note, the fads in coolness make absolutely no sense to this mom.

Do not try to put pants on Ruben. Diaper changes and getting dressed are two of the most stressful parts of my day, and are also the reason the waistband of my jeans isn't fitting more snugly after all those cookies. It is a workout to hold this kid down while you try to diaper him.  Most of the time I break it into two workout session.  First the diaper then 20 minutes later the pants. It is awful cold in the house to be running around without pants, but he just doesn't like them. Socks only stay on if the shoes are on to hold them.

Ruben's vocabulary is also growing probably due to the copious number of books he ingests each day. He can now say Mama (mostly when I show up after having been gone), Dada (only used at church to yell across the sanctuary when Dad is leading worship), dog, Baa Baa (did you know that sheep are not the only animals to say baa baa - according to Ruben most farm animals say baa, except cows who say mmmmaaaa, pigs who say (silent) oooiii, and ducks who make a tongue clicking sound), Buh (that means bye), Papa (actually he doesn't vocalize the sound yet but he makes the p sound with his lips), Baby (amazingly this sounds exactly like baby and he knows what it means too), and he knows the sign language for more, milk, water, banana, and please (but he doesn't do it). 

Did I mention that Ruben has the most genuine and beautiful smile that any 14 month old child can possess. Seriously. This kid is a looker and if you catch his eye and make him smile it will be sure to give your entire day a huge lift.

Oops...I did it again

I overcommitted myself. I survived but this blog has suffered along with many other things (including the house and cooking). I don't often write blog entries about myself but there were so many things going on these last few weeks I didn't get a chance to jot down all the cool things that happened with the kids.  This blog post is written to justify my lack of blogging. I seriously just didn't have the time. I'll try to keep a running tab of the hours spent on each of the following commitments

For starters, we're down one car as the van is currently in the shop getting its transmission rebuilt. This has meant extra work for Karl and myself as we schedule PT Cruiser time and shuffle carseats as needed. I've also borrowed Jan's car on occasion when she's over to babysit the kids. Between the time spent scheduling, having the van at two different shops, and time spent researching the issue...let's say 18 hours.

I accompanied the middle school praise choir at Trinity for three different performances and attended rehearsals for the last four weeks or so. Jan would come over to babysit each time I went to rehearsal. We'lll say 18 hours again unless you include practice time which kicks it up another 2 hours simply because the kids always help me practice which means it takes extra long to actually make it through a song.

I also accompanied the preschool program a couple weeks back. Only 7 hours of investment there, but most of it was the same day.

I led Go Fish worship on December 4 and then played piano today with the big choir and band. Probably 18 hours again including practice. (remember these 'hours' I speak of are during regular mom work hours so almost all of these hours or spent multitasking.)

I sang in the Messiah with the Handel Oratorio Society and Paul's choir at Augustana. We've been rehearsing since October on Monday nights but then last weekend we had two performances. In the last month I've spent about 12 hours on this. (well worth it to share the stage with my little brother - even if we shared it with 230 other people)

Arts and crafts.  I've been insane with crafting projects lately due in large part to my increasing interest in Pinterest. There are too many good ideas out there.  Besides the Advent calendar (which has been a huge success), I've also made a felt Christmas tree, a button wreath ornament with June, nine knotted scarves for my guests at Advent by Candlelight (Prepare for Jesus), circle skirts for June and Hallie, dinosaur tails for June, Sam, Lucy, and Kye (Cara don't read this outloud to the kids if you haven't opened our presents yet), wool dryer balls for a family christmas gift, a brag book for Jan's Christmas gift, and I've started another Advent calendar for a wedding gift later this year. I'm not going to add up the hours spent on these projects because I'd be embarrassed.

Trying to get Ruben to sleep. Again I'm not going to add up the hours here either because it would be depressing.

Christmas cards. 5 hours

Thrivent financial director responsibilities. 4 hours

That's enough for now. Writing it all down makes me wonder how many hours were in each day for the last month. With all these things I still managed to play with the kids, read Ruben stories (he needs books like he's addicted to them and needs a fix), get some semblance of dinner on the table, and even spend time talking with Karl at the end of each day. If you would have asked me last week if I thought I'd survive, I would have said, "heck no!" but now that I'm on the other side, I'm realizing how blessed I am to be able to volunteer in so many different capacities. Without the support of a loving husband, easy kids, and an awesome neighbor/babysitter (Jan), this would not have been possible. Have a great Christmas week.  I know I will now that my plate is clear I can slow down and enjoy the season!

Merry Christmas!

Maturing

June has really matured in the last few weeks. Here are  few snippets of what she's doing.

While at Nana's house she started asking "Why?" about everything. And I mean everything. It is fun and we're having really great conversations but sometimes I wish Nana weren't such a good therapy provider.

This week she stopped wearing a diaper at night.  No accidents so far. In fact, one night she held it from before bed until 10:30 the next morning. Yikes. I can't doing that!

She also has made great strides in playing pretend. She loves to play with her dollhouse in her room and have the dolls make food and go to sleep and go on walks. When Jan was over to babysit, they spent the entire hour driving a car going to Hyvee, Sams, Daddy's church, and the Y.

Whenever I play pretend with June I also introduce my doll with a random name (I particularly gravitate toward names of Schmeymers because then the doll can take on a true character). I always ask her what her doll is named as well.  For the longest time all dolls were either "I don't know" or "Sammy" which I'm pretty sure Nana introduced as a name.  On Thursday I asked her what her baby doll was named and she looked at me, thought about it and said, "Roofa." I'm pretty sure this is a combination of Ruben, Ruthie, and Retha (one of the grandmas who babysits at mom's group). This poor baby was named "Roofa" all day long. Thankfully, the next day she was renamed Hallie. Roofa is a tough name to grow up with.  Maybe we won't ask for June's help when it comes time to name future siblings...

The Eye of the Storm

It has been nearly two weeks since I've sat down to document anything of our lives because we just haven't stopped moving. Along the way there were of course large portions of time that were spent in inactivity (unfortunately not many of those were through the night), but all in all we've been going.  It started two weekends ago with a visit from Great Grandpa Pinter and Great Grandma Dottie. The other Fay cousins came over for a day that same weekend, plus Nana and Papa had come to town to drop Paul off and pick up June. Talk about a lot of people in a little house.  It was a really nice weekend to catch up with Joe and Dottie and let them experience the joys (and sorrows) of five of his great grandkids.  We even managed a picture.

This photoshoot yielded about five good pictures (I just clicked the shutter continuously for about 5 minutes). Kye spent most of the time screaming but in this picture his look is fairly ambiguous - maybe he's laughing. Lucy looks great in just about every picture, and June wouldn't keep her fingers out of her mouth.  Ruben mostly looks bored.  Sam started out slightly behind Joe's arm and ended up hiding nearly all the way behind him by the end.  I call it a success!

On Sunday we shipped June off to stay with Nana and Papa for nine full days.  As we tucked her into the Camry and said our good byes, I thought we were being terribly naive.  How could we possibly be away from her for that length of time? I was going to miss her sooooo much and she was going to a strange place (Kansas) and was going to be surrounded by new people and new activities with only Nana and Papa as anchors. What if she hated it and cried the whole time? 

Thankfully, a good time was had by all. June was homesick just enough to make me feel needed but didn't give Nana and Papa too hard a time. My favorite story from the week was a conversation I had with Papa on the phone on Monday afternoon. One of the first things he said was, "have you talked to your mother yet?" I hadn't because Nana wasn't answering her phone. Dad proceeded to tell me that in an earlier conversation that afternoon Nana had lamented that "the dishes from breakfast and lunch were piled on the counter, toys were all over the living room floor, laundry was piling up, and she was exhausted." It's refreshing to know that someone else has to deal with all of that for just a little while. I should mention that Nana was exhausted because she took June to every single preschool appropriate place in Topeka which includes a kids science museum, library story time (with crafts included), the zoo (with Grandpa and Grandma Fay), and Bonkers - June's favorite - an indoor play play made out of loading straps and slides. June also had fun playing with Aunt Betty, Blake, Sarah, and the Schmeymers. What a week!

 When your Nana is a therapist, you end up spending part of every vacation in therapy.  Thankfully, June loves music time especially when there are coins to play with as well as an awesome aunt and uncle

 At the zoo with the Grandparents Fay

Poor Ruben was left home all by himself.  I had really worried that he was the one who would struggle with the separation the most.  However, as soon as June left, he took full advantage of the quiet and started making his own noise.  The decibel level at our house did not change whatsoever when June left. Ruben managed to fill the space surprisingly well on his own.

All of a sudden, it was time to go.  I usually like to have the house clean and everything packed the night before but since we weren't leaving until afternoon I overestimated the time I had.  Thankfully, I got stuff packed but didn't get the house as clean as I would have liked.  Ruben enjoyed playing at the Des Moines airport.  Dad had crumpled up a business card and they played ball for nearly an hour.  He also kept walking up to complete strangers and handing them his sippy cup for them to hold while he wandered around.  

Ruben did great on the flight. He loved looking out the window while we taxied and then he nursed and fell asleep for nearly the entire flight.  That was the formula for each of our four flights (we had a layover in Denver both directions) which was good since instead of serving peanuts, Frontier airlines serves warm chocolate chip cookies.  I'm glad he was asleep so I didn't have to share. Karl and I spent most of the flights there simultaneously reading the Steve Jobs biography. I love technology.  I had the kindle and he had his iphone. 

It was finally time to see Katy and Eric - we gained two hours on the flight so even though they picked us up shortly before midnight Pacific time, I was feeling extremely tired. However, good friends and a baby who wakes up and thinks it is time to play made for an extremely late night.  

The reason we went to San Francisco was so that Karl and Eric could go to a conference and hear one of their "man-crushes" speak.  It all started with an email from Eric letting Karl know that N.T. Wright would be speaking at a small conference in San Francisco and that registration was fairly cheap (just over $100 for a two day conference). The email was meant to be a joke I think, but we had been looking for an excuse to go see the Robinsons and this was the ticket. What started as a two day conference for Karl ended up being a 5 day vacation for 3/4 of our family.  I hope Katy and Eric didn't mind us inviting ourselves over. 

The LOOONNNGG weekend was great.  Katy and I explored shops around the area, started some crafts, and even managed to fit in a long walk. I was especially proud to make an advent calendar with Katy. When I say I made it, I do mean that Katy made it but that I am currently finishing it by sewing on over 300 buttons.  

Karl and Eric enjoyed the first day of the conference but took the second day off because Eric was still recovering from pneumonia. The best part about hanging out with old friends is that we don't even have to do anything to have a good time.  We spent a lot of time just sitting around with a drink in hand, watching videos or just talking while watching Ruben interact with Sake and Scotch (their cats).  We did however get out of the house enough to make it up to Muir Woods, a redwood forest nearby. The winding road through the hills did a number on my stomach but the trees were so worth it.

N.T. Wright - it looks like he's giving us the finger but he's not

Golden Gate Bridge

Muir Woods

Suddenly it was time to leave California - hadn't we just arrived? Flights back were uneventful, but by the time we hit Des Moines, Ruben was fed up with sitting still and ready to move.  It was not a pleasant 2 and half hour trip from the airport to our house, but eventually we made it. 

The next day was Tuesday, November 22 - hey guess what, my birthday! So like all people love to do on their birthdays I spent the day shopping for Thanksgiving food, cleaning the house for all our Thanksgiving guests, and unpacking suitcases. Actually it was a very pleasant day to spend with Ruben and Karl and we topped it off by going to Noodles and Co. for a birthday dinner (free food since I'm on their email list). Nana and Papa and June rolled into town late that evening and it was so great to see June and thankfully she reacted like a little girl should who has been away from her parents for a week.  She squealed and screamed as she and Papa walked up the front yard to the door.  She just couldn't move fast enough! So great to finally snuggle her again!

Wednesday brought Kory, Cara, Sam, Lucy, and Kye (who turned 1 on Tuesday - birthday buddies). We spent the day just enjoying time together and making a lot of really good food (and eating that food). Nana and Papa decided to spend some time away from the kids since they haven't been empty-nesters for nearly 3 weeks and it was getting to them (not really, but I like to kid), so four brave parents loaded the vans with kids and we headed to Thanksgiving service at church.  Thankfully, Karl wasn't involved in the service so we had a four on five defense mounted. I can't say I heard much of the sermon, but there were no major outbursts that I can remember. 

And then, Thanksgiving. Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry relish, gravy, rolls, pies (pumpkin pie sans sugar so that one wasn't a huge hit), apple cake, relish tray, veggies. Need I say more? After a much needed nap we traipsed over to the hotel where Nana and Papa were staying and looked to shed some of those calories in a healthy swim. But the water was COLD!! Five kids, six adults and for the longest time no one dared immerse themselves in the water. We were about to call it quits, but there was energy that needed wasted so finally Mom, Paul, Karl and I took turns with the older kids in the whirlpool portion of the pool playing tag and generally screaming our heads off.  The more we screamed the more we realized how overchlorinated the pool was and nearly everyone was experiencing asthma like symptoms when we decided to get out of the pool and get cleaned up. Whew...what a day, but still time for cards even after wrestling five kids into bed (and I do mean wrestle...) 

Friday morning was beautiful with cinnamon rolls and scrambled eggs but slowly people headed back to their own homes and we were left alone with only two kids and two adults and a whole weekend in front of us. It was like we didn't know what to do with so much time on our hands.  Karl had to spend some time preparing for church on Sunday but other than that we were totally free to just hang out.  And we did. It was the eye of the storm. 

When I started this blog post I didn't know that the eye was going to be so small.  I assumed that life would catch up with us on Monday or Tuesday but on Sunday morning at 5 a.m. Karl started throwing up. Welcome back storm! We're ready to jump into the Advent Season.