Is This Normal?
The chaos that is the KerbersSpring fever in January
It’s been unseasonably warm the last few days, and this afternoon we took full advantage of the 45° temperature and sunshine. After school Ben asked if I would throw the “whistle ball” to him. He has a Nerf football that whistles if you throw it right. And it has a tail, so it’s really hard to not throw it right. It’s pretty cool. He and I threw that thing back and forth a million times, while Emma ran around playing with branches from the willow tree, mostly. As a side note, he’s getting so much better at throwing and even more impressively he didn’t really seem very scared of the ball anymore. Sure, he missed every one I threw him, but at least he wasn’t backing away in fear. It was a huge improvement.
Suddenly he said we had reached a new level, and he went into the garage to find a new activity. Out he comes with the sidewalk chalk, asking me what he should draw. I told him I wanted to see a superhero, so, he got right to work. Emma joined us as soon as she saw the chalk, too. Those kids do love to draw. Ben decided that his drawing was of me as a superhero, which I have to admit, I kind of liked.
By the time they were both done drawing we had been outside for over an hour and my hands were beginning to get seriously cold. I had to do some serious talking to get them inside. It was a very fun afternoon. Sadly, I think we’re all looking forward to spring and we haven’t even had any snow yet!
A lost weekend
I’m not sure how to describe this weekend other than it being full of bad luck. I had a killer headache on Friday, and by the end of the school day I was absolutely miserable. Of course that would be the night that we were hosting Aunt Theresa’s birthday party at our house. I tried (although not very well, I know) to be a good host, but was dragging pretty badly by the time the party ended and the kids were in bed. I was in bed not long after them, but even then I had a difficult time falling asleep because my head was pounding so. I really hoped that I would feel better in the morning.
Unfortunately, I felt worse. In fact, I kind of felt like I had been run over by a Mac truck. I rolled over to Dave and said, “I don’t think I can get out of bed.” And I didn’t, until almost 3:00 that afternoon. I literally slept for like 17 hours. And I had so looked forward to that day for many reasons. I had a million things I wanted to get done, we had gotten our new dining room light fixture delivered and I just knew that Dave would get it installed so we’d finally have light in the dining room, and we were getting our new appliances delivered that morning, too. Instead, none of my chores got done at all, one of the globes on our new light was broken, and even tough our range was awesome, the dishwasher was defective. Dave couldn’t even push the top rack in, and when he did finally get it in, it wouldn’t stay in. He had to refuse delivery of it. So as I lay in bed pretty much comatose, the bad luck day went on. Every once in a while Dave would check in on me…just to find me still sleeping or pretty much incoherent. I finally did get up and shower, but by that time it was almost getting dark. I stayed up for a while, and even ate some pizza, but I still didn’t feel very well.
In retrospect, eating pizza as your only meal when you’re not feeling very well is not a good idea. You may want to write that little tip down, because I was up twice in the night swearing at myself for doing just that. Needless to say, I wasn’t feeling much better when Sunday morning hit. Again, I was still in bed well past the morning and into the afternoon. I finally got up mid afternoon today and I did feel a bit better, but still not great. Thankfully Dave was going to his sister’s to help her take her Christmas tree down. He decided that he and the kids would just order Chinese there, which gave me a couple of hours of quiet. Even though I had barely seen the kids all weekend I was kind of happy to have the time alone. Now they’re in bed, and I’m just about to head there, myself. I’m sooooo hoping that I feel better tomorrow morning, because I’m pretty sick of feeling sick. And to be honest, I can’t afford to have another lost day. One weekend is enough.
Back to school meltdowns
I knew that it was going to be difficult for all of us to get used to getting up early again. We all had a great time sleeping in over break; quite often the kids were not out of bed until after 8:00, which is pretty astounding. However, I was pleasantly surprised yesterday when it was time to wake them up at 6:15 am. Both of them woke up pretty quickly and in relatively good moods. They seemed excited to get back to their routine of school or daycare. It was a good start, and I was pleased.
Then came the afternoon. When I picked Ben up from school he looked exhausted. He gave me a hug, but then when I asked how his day was he yelled, ”Not good!” Oh man. I kind of left him alone on the ride over to Danielle’s to get Emma. When I came out with her, Ben was just about fit to be tied. “What took so long? I’m so hungry and so thirsty!” he yelled. “Ok”, I said, “I know it’s been a long day, but you can’t talk to us like that. We’ll get you a snack and some juice when we get home.” There were other moans, whines, and yelling during the 2 minute drive home, and by the time we got there I was walking on eggshells. Then he flipped out because I suggested he turn on the TV in the playroom and lay down to relax a little bit. “I don’t WANT to lay down…I’m NOT tired!” Wow. I had definitely underestimated how tough it was really going to be to get back into our routine. I finally got him pacified enough with a snack and juice and some TV, and I let him pick whatever he wanted for dinner. I was literally walking on eggshells trying to avoid another blow up. Thankfully bedtime came pretty quickly and we survived the night.
This afternoon it was pretty much the same thing with Emma, although her tiredness manifested itself in the form of crying. We stepped into the house and she dripped some juice on a drawing she had done this morning, and she burst into tears. Then she spilled her Cheerios in the play room and she burst into tears. Then she asked what we were having for dinner and when I told her she burst into tears. Geez. Thankfully with some snuggling and playing she was able to get over it pretty quickly.
Thankfully we all survived and I’m hoping that we’ve seen the worst of it. Thank goodness tomorrow is Friday and they can sleep in again on Saturday.
Good-bye 2011
New Year’s Eve is such a different animal than it used to be. While we used to plan for parties centered around whooping it up, we now plan parties centered around kid-friendly activities. Four couples decided to get together at one house tonight. We had 8 adults and 7 kids and a basement with a door. Perfect combination. We fed the kids before we went, because it’s no fun to get the kids to eat at these things; they just want to play with their friends. So we all brought “heavy appetizers” and basically we snacked and drank all night long. The kids’ activities were as follows:
there was coloring…
…movie watching…well, kind of…
…and precisely at the stroke of midnight (which was really about 10:25) we counted down from 10 to one and all shouted, “Happy New Year” and gave our family members kisses.
The kids were toast by then, so basically after our fake new year, we all packed up and headed for home. The kids were in bed and we were plunked in front of Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve by 11:20. Now here it is the cusp of the new year and everything is quiet around the house. In fact, Dave’s having a bit of trouble staying awake until the big event! My how things have changed.
Happy New Year, everyone. May 2012 bring you good health, great happiness, and much prosperity.
Here’s to good friends…
Tonight we had a grown-up get-together with some friends, which is rare. 
Our friends the Myrvolds and Chaons came over to our house for a couple of drinks before we all headed to Alexander’s Steakhouse for dinner. Alexander’s is one of those places that you don’t go to very often. It’s pricey, and you have to cook your own steaks. Many people hate this about the place, but it’s one of the things Dave loves best. He loves the camaraderie around the grill as the men drink beer and grill. They have thick Texas toast and potatoes to grill with your meat, and it’s always delicious. Meanwhile the women get to stay at the table and have our men bring our dinner to us. Not a bad deal at all.
It was a great night of adult conversation, good food and drink, and a lot of laughs. It may be better to move this tradition to January, since our friends the Inces couldn’t make it. It seems so difficult to get friends together at Christmas time. But it was a really great night. Times like this make me so grateful to have such great friends. And even though most of our time with them involves our kids, it’s really nice to have some grown-up time, too. We’re very lucky.
Christmas II
Our Christmas celebration continued today with my family’s party. Everyone came to Bloomington, which was great for us. We simply had to get up, play with new toys, and wait for all of our family to get here! Loved that. Again, I’m going to let my pictures tell the story.
Ben made cards for each person at the party. They were actually very sweet…he wrote all of the names himself by sounding them out, so Ryan’s said “Rin” (rrrr+i+nnnn) and Grandma’s said “grnmu” (Grr+nn+muh). Each one had a Christmas picture on it, too. They were awesome and everyone made an appropriate fuss over them.
Then we took some family pictures. I think ours turned out pretty well, actually. I love how Emma is holding Ben’s arm.
It was finally time for presents! Our two little elves passed everything out for us.
We always take turns opening in my family, so it took some time to get everything open, but it was worth it. The Swartzies brought down their gifts to each other, too, which was fun to watch.
We look like we’re surrounded by gifts, but a lot of them were things that we opened yesterday. The really nice thing about opening one at a time is that the kids have a chance to play with each gift a little bit before they’re distracted by another one.
Grandma & Grandpa got Emma this Fur Real puppy who walks, barks, whines, and pants. I guess they know that it’s as close to real as she’ll get for awhile.
These swords were a big hit. Everyone kept telling the kids not to hit each other with them. Yeah, right.
Somehow I didn’t get any pictures of dinner or of the many games that were played that day. Guess I was too busy having fun! It was a wonderful day with my family, and I’m so glad that we could host. We even got to have some peanut butter pie in celebration of Rod’s birthday, which was also today. Even though he never wants to make much of his birthday we like to acknowledge it so it’s not just ignored. I’m sure that anyone who has a birthday near Christmas has dealt with that their entire life.
The only remotely bad part of the day…Grandma & Grandpa are spending the night here and leaving for Florida in the morning. It’s inevitable each year, but never fun to say good-bye to them. I think we’re all going to say our good-byes tonight so we don’t have to be sad all day tomorrow. Emma especially has a difficult time seeing them go. But, I guess that just means we need to start the countdown to Spring Break!
Christmas I
Christmas Day was full of fun, family, and food. And let’s not forget the presents!! I think the pictures tell the story of our day very well.
The kids slept in a little bit. At least my alarm clock started with a 7 instead of a 6…I’ll take it! I of course made them stop on the stairs for a “Christmas morning” picture. They were so patient with me.
This was the booty waiting for us when we got downstairs. Thankfully Santa was good to us again.
The kids tore into their gifts, and just like their personalities, their approach was completely different. Ben started with the small things in his stocking while Emma tore into her big packages.
They were so excited by all their new things that they asked me to take their picture together. How’s that for a role reversal?
After we got cleaned up we went to Uncle Steve & Aunt Mary’s. Dave and I opened our gifts early because Scott & Margie, who had our names, had to leave early. Dave decided that his new clamps worked pretty well. I asked if he could figure out a way to clamp her mouth shut when we need it!!
After everyone arrived we passed out all of the presents. As always, the kids had way more than they needed!
It’s always interesting there, because everyone just dives in and you never really know what anyone gets. It’s kind of like controlled chaos, but somehow it all works.
After a great turkey dinner at Steve & Mary’s, we packed up all of our new things and came home. Emma was thrilled that we had time to try out her new Easy Bake Oven that Santa brought. We decided to make cupcakes for the next day’s Christmas party. She loved every minute of it, and did really well pretty much on her own.
It was a great day. I think the best part is that we have another day of celebrating tomorrow with my family. You can’t beat two full Christmases in a row!
A Christmas Eve movie
We still had a lot to do today to get ready for tomorrow and Monday’s Christmas parties, but we wanted to make sure that we had some family time, too. Dave took the kids shopping in the morning, which gave me some great time to focus and finish up the chores. We had told the kids that if they were good we could go to see “Chipwrecked” the latest in the Alvin and the Chipmunks series. They were both motivated big time because they’ve looked forward to its release for months. Dave said that a couple of times while they were shopping Ben reminded Emma, “Make sure you’re good so we can go see Chipwrecked!!”
Of course they were angels, so we got to go. Seeing a movie on Christmas Eve is certainly not a traditional activity, but we had no family obligations, so for us it was the perfect thing. The movie, however, was not. Everything started fine…it was silly and fun and the kids were totally into it. Then of course it had to become an action-adventure movie where the Chipmunks and Chipettes were in danger of death because of a volcano that was going to erupt on the island the were stranded on. It was a little too much for both kids. At one point Ben had a horrified look on his face and frantically said, “I have to go to the bathroom!” Dave obliged, even though we both knew that he was just scared. Meanwhile, Emma was basically whimpering and saying, “I don’t like this…” It would have been comical if they weren’t completely panicking.
Thankfully everything worked out ok and everyone escaped the island. Shew. I guess overall the kids liked it, but there was definitely a time during the climax that they truly wanted to leave. Not really the fun family event we thought it would be, but hopefully no one was scarred. At least it was a nice time together.
Break?
Even though school’s been out for two days, I hardly feel like I’m on a break. The last two days have been full of last-minute shopping, grocery shopping, wrapping presents, cleaning house and making food for the next four days. Although I love doing most of this last-minute stuff, I feel a bit overwhelmed this year. I usually start making treats and cookies earlier in December, but this year it just didn’t get done. Now I have just two more days to knock out this big-time list before the big guy comes on the 24th. I think I can, I think I can, I think I can…
Snow!
Much to our delight, Sycamore got an inch or two of snow late Friday night/early Saturday morning, so we packed up our snow gear when we headed north. The kids were so excited to get outside since we’ve barely had a flake in Central Illinois. Of course Grandma Judy and Grandpa Scott went out with them, and they had a blast. I wasn’t there to get any pictures that time, but of course they wanted to go back out Sunday morning, so Grandma graciously agreed to go out again. A lot had melted by then, but there was still enough for them to play around. This time I caught some of the action.
Ben began by hitting Grandma with a handful of snow.
But of course Grandma would get back at him.
And then nail him a good one. Good ol’ Grandma will never be outdone. 
They walked down to the “creek” (which is really not much more than a drainage ditch) and it was iced over. Both of the kids found giant chunks of ice to bring back to show me. Ben was calling his a slice of pizza.
Everyone had a lot of fun in the tiny amount of snow that was there. Let’s hope we get some soon!
