The Joy of Love

I recently took the Joy of Love photography class that I mentioned a while back.  I really enjoyed it.  And best of all it was free!  For this class, the teacher (Willette) said that we could pick any subject we wanted – spouse, kids, pets, family, etc. – and that we didn’t have to use the same subject for the entire class.  During the class, we got a daily e-mail lesson, with recommend photos to take for each class.  That’s 28 days of e-mails with lessons! 

I almost always take photos of my kids, so this time I decided to take photos of Gary.  And it was about the Joy of Love, after all!  BUT I didn’t want to tell Gary that I was taking photos of him, so I sort of snuck them in. . . .  Unfortunately, I don’t have photos for every single day of classes, but here are the ones I do have:

day 01 {what they do} ~ Gary works.  A lot.  But each morning he sees the kids before he leaves for work, then comes home for dinner.  And then he works some more. 

day 05 {what you LOVE to hate} ~ Rosemary gets her photo issues from Gary.  Turn a camera on them, and they’ll make some crazy face.  I was trying to do this whole Joy of Love project on the sly, and Gary made it almost impossible to get a decent photo.  So, I love to hate that he made this surprise so freaking difficult!

day 06 {who THEY love} ~ The whole family (except for me) is in this photo.  It’s not a great photo, but it is everyone, so that has to count for something.

day 08 {love from the heart} ~ For Valentine’s Day, Gary gave me some charms for my Pandora bracelet.  Love it!  I mentioned one day a while back about how much I was enjoying my bracelet (from Mom for Christmas two years ago), and he remembered and totally surprised me!

day 10 {space} ~ Today’s topic was about where our photographic target is comfortable.  Gary is very comfortable on the couch.  He loves that space, as you can see.

day 13 {routines} ~ In the mornings, sometimes Penelope gets up early while I’m getting ready.  Gary usually gets her out of her crib and they hang out and play until I’m ready to take over and nurse her while Gary gets ready.

day 14 {wedding band/jewelry}

day 17 {staying in} ~ We’ve had a lot of sicknesses and injuries lately, which have led to some weekend days where we just stayed in.  One recent weekend day Gary had to work, but at least he was able to do some work outside with the rest of us!

day 22 {face – portrait} ~ Again.  The funny face.  Sorry, Gary.  You should have cooperated.  I know you didn’t know what I was doing.  But seriously, just cooperate next time, okay?

day 25 {when you love them the most} ~ Okay, here are the before photos.  Gary took THIS and cleaned it all up!  We now have a nicely organized garage!  Here is what it looked like before (“after” photos to come soon):

day 27 {what they say} ~ Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh, open up!

day 28 {the future} ~ Us.  Our kids.  Teaching them things.  Having fun.  Enjoying life.

 

I just love this last photo.  This is Gary in his element, hanging out with the kids.  As you can see, they all love it.  And I love my family, whether or not Gary cooperated with my Joy of Love project!  Happy (belated) Valentine’s Day, Gary!

P.S.  If you’re interested, Willette is having another free class coming up next week – the Joy of Luck!  Please sign up if you’re interested! 

Busy Day

Today was a very busy day. I've been playing catch-up with work, plus today was a big day on the "personal" front. . . .

Penelope had her 6 month photo session with Heather Swanner this morning (even though she will be 7 months on Thursday). Miss Sally, our nanny, and Auntie Ann went with us to the photo session. We started out with the kids there, just to get a few shots of all four kids. That went way better than could reasonably be expected. Then Miss Sally and Auntie Ann took the kids to the zoo, while Penelope and I stayed behind to finish the photo shoot. Well, it wasn't quite that simple. Rosemary wouldn't leave until Heather took a few shots of just her. I don't think that Heather understood what was happening when everyone was leaving and Rosemary was positioning herself strategically between Penelope and the camera. I finally said, "Oh Rosemary, do you need to have some photos taken of you?" Then Heather obligingly took a few photos of Rosemary, who then left.

Hilarious. That kid cracks me up.

Penelope and I got home, and I had time to eat lunch and check e-mail when it was time to go to a meeting for the kids' speech therapy. Once the kids turn three at the end of June, they are no longer eligible for speech therapy through Early Intervention. Instead, that service goes through the local school district. Our development specialist had set up our initial meeting with the local school district several months ago, and that meeting was this afternoon. The meeting was mostly informational. We provided proof that the kids were ours (thus the need for the birth certificates), blue forms, and proof that we lived in the school district. We went though each of the kids and gave some background information, plus discussed their strengths and weaknesses, as well as our areas of concern. The next step is to go back to have each of the kids assessed by a speech therapist, then we have a meeting again to discuss whether the kids qualify for speech therapy through the school district and to discuss those details. If the kids qualify, they will continue speech therapy through June with Early Intervention, and will get a break before they start with the school district in August when school starts back.

When we discussed the strengths and weaknesses for the kids, our biggest strength that we could list for Rosemary was self-confidence. For instance, some mornings she will walk up to me and announce: "I look pretty." Just in case we didn't know already. She never seems to be the least bit unsure of herself. I wish I had a little more of that quality myself! Hopefully we will raise her in a way to maintain that self-confidence.

I'll post sneak peaks of the photos as soon as I get them!

Hungry!

Lately, Piper has been really hungry. About 30 minutes after a meal or snack, she starts asking for another "nack" (meaning "snack" -- which is what they call all their meals). Yesterday right after I finished cleaning up from breakfast, Piper started asking for a snack, and this is the conversation that followed:

Piper: I need a nack.
Me: Didn't you just eat breakfast?
Piper: Nooooo.
Me: Daddy didn't feed you breakfast?
Piper: Nooooo.
Me: Why not?
Piper: {hands out wide} I don't know!

Gary said that the same conversation happened today, except it was about the teacher at playschool not giving them lunch. After playschool, the three kids together ate an entire bag of grapes, and after nap they ate apples followed right after that by dinner. They keep asking us for fruit, which is good, but I hope they don't want too much fruit tomorrow because we are almost out of fruit!

Worn Out

On weekday mornings, I get up and take a shower and get ready.  Then, Gary takes a shower and gets ready while I get Penelope up, nurse her, and pump before the kids wake up.  While I pump, I lay Penelope on the floor on a blanket with some toys to play.  It looks like I’m not the only one tired from all of these recent middle of the night nursing sessions.  Here is a photo I took of Penelope this past Friday after I finished pumping:

She did sleep through the night last night, but the night before we got up twice.  Now I think she’s in the middle of a growth spurt – she nursed twice more today than she normally does on weekend days.  I guess that time will tell.  Penelope is as happy as she can be, though, which is the most important thing! 

Rainy Garage Cleaning Weekend

One thing that I've learned since having kids is that things don't get done the way they did before we had kids. Not that our house was ever completely organized or anything, but it was usually somewhat in order. And, all in all, I think we do a pretty good job of keeping things straightened up now, all things considered. But, we have a few dumping grounds. For instance, we dump things in our bedroom. Every 2 weeks we clean up the bedroom for the housekeeper to clean. I really can't imagine how horrible it would look if we didn't have to clean it at least that often.

Another dumping ground is the garage. We used to both park in the garage, now we have the minivan for the nanny in there, and strollers on the other side. Gary and I park in the driveway. Anyway, since we have a little more room in there, we seem to dump a ton of things in there. It has been getting a little out of control. So, Gary and I decided that I would assume total kid patrol this weekend while he cleans out the garage. Unfortunately it was really rainy today, but Gary didn't let that stop him. It's done! And Gary even fixed the garage door opener on the wall of the garage that hasn't worked in years. Gary still has to make a trip to donate some things, a trip to the storage building, and put some things in the attic, but the garage looks SO much better. I took some before photos to post, but honestly it was so embarrassing that I'm not sure I can bring myself to post them.

We also made some room for another deepfreeze. We bought a small one not long after the kids were born to store frozen breastmilk. However, we'd gone through what I have frozen by the time the kids were 4 months old, and then used the deepfreeze for the kids' baby food that I had made, and after that used it for normal frozen food, etc. Now I'm still freezing breastmilk, and I've filled up our little deepfreeze. So, we're going to buy a larger deepfreeze for the breastmilk and go back to using the smaller deepfreeze for food (and especially Penelope's baby food). After we are through with the breastmilk and baby food stage, we are somewhat considering buying a "half a cow" and using the deepfreeze for that. If not that, then I can use it to freeze meat that I buy on sale to try to save a little money (and to keep some meat on hand). Regardless, I'm sure the new deepfreeze will not go to waste.

As a note on yesterday's blog post, Mom read it and called me first thing this morning. She had several things to say: (1) she is really and truly shocked that now you can just go down to the county health department and pick up a birth certificate (years ago the only option was to obtain a copy from Montgomery using snail mail); (2) she absolutely would have freaked out on me if I had turned the kids loose with their own birth certificates in front of her; and (3) she would not have been sleeping at night had she known that I didn't already have the kids' birth certificates.

I've made it five days of daily blog posting! I do have some photos to share soon. . . .

Birth Certificates

My oldest kids are 2 years and 8 months old, and until today I didn't have a birth certificate for any of my kids. Apparently at some hospitals the paperwork is done so that the birth certificate is automatically mailed sometime after the baby is born. I guess that doesn't happen at my hospital. I did go home with paperwork telling me how to get the birth certificates, but I just never did. I had put it off for so long that I was actually worried that I may have missed the window to get the birth certificate.

When we were growing up, my mother treated our birth certificates like they might spontaneously combust at any minute. I don't remember ever being allowed to actually touch mine. I think she whispered "birth certificate" when she referred to them. And she was constantly inferring that really bad things would happen if we ever lost our birth certificates. I'm sure that my mom still has my birth certificate put up in some place very safe and that, most likely, no one but my mom has actually touched them.

So, you can imagine my surprise when I learned that you can just go down to the county health department and get a birth certificate. I assumed that this must be some inferior copy of a birth certificate and perhaps not something that was accepted for schools and other important things where birth certificates were required. So, I called down to the state vital records department and made a few inquiries. After cross-examining the lady on the phone and determining that one may indeed get as many original certified copies of a birth certificate as one wants to pay for, which are not copies or inferior, I finally just asked her why my mom always acted like it would be the end of the world if we lost ours. She laughed and said she didn't know but her mom was the same way.

So this afternoon I made the trip to the county health department to pick up the kids' birth certificates. To my surprise, I was in and out in about 15 minutes. It was overall a really pleasant experience.

I was a little surprised at the wave of emotions that rolled over me as I stood there holding my four kids' birth certificates. It felt official. It was as if I can really say now that I have four kids and that they are actually mine, because now I am a mom with birth certificates. I still haven't decided whether I will let them touch them or not, or if I'll brainwash them into thinking that very bad things, whatever those things may be, will happen if they lose their birth certificates. Or maybe I can wait until one day when my mom comes over and let the kids loose with their birth certificates, which would inevitably end up destroyed. That may be too much for my mom to handle, but it'd be pretty funny to watch.