Peeling Apples...

Isn't it funny how certain things evoke the same memory over and over? The boys have been insisting on "Apple, no skin" lately. So as I sit over the sink, peeling the apple, I always think of my grandfather.

My Grandpa Usher used to organize these "getaway weekends" for the family. So my father, brother, mother, and I used to load up in the car (with the dogs) and head to Janesville, Wisconsin for a weekend at the Best Western Midway Motor Lodge. Doesn't sound like much to you, I'm sure, but it was ever so exciting when I was a child. My father was one of THIRTEEN children, so there were aunts, uncles, and cousins aplenty.

I would have been perfectly content to swim in the pool all day, but my grandpa had all these activities and contests organized. There were ping pong tournaments, talent shows, puzzles, and some crazy contests I'll never forget. One time he had 20 styrafoam cups, each numbered and filled with little pieces of Life Savers he had crushed up. You had to go through the line and sample each one and guess the flavor. A trophy went to the person who guessed the most correctly.

Oh yeah, the apples. There was a contest once to make the longest single apple peel. He had a pile of apples and apple peelers. I was young, I think the longest single piece of peel I came up with was 2 inches long. But I remember my mom and my aunts could peel an entire apple into one long corkscrew piece of peel. Then my grandpa carefully stretched out all these ridiculously long apple peels and declared a winner (with a trophy awarded, of course). It's taken me only 30 or so years of practice, but I'm a real pro peeler now. So when I stand at my sink peeling an entire apple in one smooth motion, I kind of wish there was a Grandpa contest to show off my skills.

Lucky Seven...

Juliette is now officially 7 months old. It was a big milestone day in our house. We've had a lot of fingers in the mouth lately...

But today, we actually had the first tooth pop through those poor sore gums. There's just a hint of a very sharp tooth in the lower left side of her mouth. Yay! They say the first one is the hardest and she didn't even fuss about it. Sweet girl.

So as if turning seven months old and getting a tooth wasn't enough of a milestone, Miss J. also decided to say "MaMa" for the first time today. There's been a whole lot of "BaBaBaBaBa" lately and somehow it morphed into a "MaMa" this afternoon. Just in case you're counting, that's two for me and one for Sean. Hayden said "DaDa" for a long time before he ever said my name, but Trevor and Juliette were all me.

And just to clear up any misunderstanding, Juliette is not bald. If you look below, you'll see that she's really starting to develop a nice head of hair. It's just really fine, really blonde hair. Enough to hold a bow even. If she had any bows...hmmm...maybe I should go shopping...

Here's a link to a slideshow of her pictures if you're desperate for more.

Sitting pretty...

Well, sitting is still taking a little effort for little Miss J, so she can't sit and smile at the same time, too much focus...She's about to get herself into trouble around the house. Not crawling yet, but leave her on the floor and you'll find her 5 ft. away a few minutes later. Lots of rolling right now. Doesn't stop irresponsible mom from leaving her unattended. I like to wait until they hurt themselves before I think about babyproofing. It was easier in the old house...with three floors we could keep all the really dangerous stuff (like all the computer wires) away from the floor where the baby played. Plus we had baby gates everywhere to keep anyone from tumbling down a flight of stairs. Here, it's all one level and everything is accesible. Yikes.

The boys actually were fighting over who got to hold Juliette for a picture. Small miracles. Would be nice if Trevor actually was more focused on holding up Juliette instead of working so hard to lean back into Hayden and trying to knock him down.

But Juliette once again had her fill of mommy and her camera and let loose with a scream...

And I kid you not, Trevor showed up from the next room in seconds, without any prompting from me, and found a pacifier and popped it into her mouth. Is there a more definitive display of brotherly love?

And do you need to see his mouth to know he's smiling here? He's trying to cover his face so I can't take his picture, but he can't help but laugh at my antics to try to get him to look at me.

All is well despite my blogging absence. I read somewhere once that the most common fear people have is that others will discover they're not as (fill in the blank) as people think. The blank can be anything: smart, thin, rich, good mother, together. Do you live in fear that your weakness will be discovered?

I know I don't have my act together and am shocked to hear people say they think I do. I have no illusions of being a super-mom: juggling kids, husband, job, dogs, home. I have no real furniture in my living room, maybe I never will. Juliette is lucky to get a bath twice a week. Chick-Fil-A is a relatively healthy meal for my kids.

What's with the revelations? Only this...It's been a struggle to balance things since I went back to work. And I'm only working part time right now. So something is going to get neglected. If you look at the pictures above, it's obvious those kids are far too sweet to neglect. So it's you, loyal blog readers, who will be neglected. Kindnesses that will go unreturned, emails unsent, thank-you notes unwritten. So there it is...can't do it all. I'm not quitting the blog, just letting you know I'm struggling to post these days. I sit here at 1 am and can't remember the clever thought I wanted to write last week. Trust me, it was really clever. Can't have you thinking I'm not as clever as you thought I was, now can I?

By the way, total digression, but our dearest friends came to visit from Budapest for two weeks and they contributed to the blogging hiatus by distracting us with fun activities away from the keyboard. They're gone now, but I dragged Katie and VJ out for an 8 am photo session one Saturday, in case you want to take a look. And here's a shot of my god-daughter Katie and Miss J. It was a nice break for Juliette from all the usual rough and tumble testosterone crowd...

More on Brianna...


OK, she's not my baby, but I just adore this baby girl so I had to share a slideshow of pictures of the new little angel.

Just fine, thanks for asking...



The family seems to be functioning OK since my return to work. I'm trying to keep it together, but Erika and the kids seem to be adjusting perfectly. The boys continue to dote on their little playmate...

Hard to believe this little lady is already six months old. I'm starting to feel like I should start planning her first birthday party since it will be here in the blink of an eye...

With no time to spare, I decided to whip out the old high chair and start Juliette on cereal the day before I went back to work. First of all, who puts the high chair away all crusted over with nasty food remnants? So the first meal was delayed by a good scrubbing with bleach, but Juliette seemed anxious to get started once she was in the chair...

Clearly, this child was ready and waiting to move on from a milk-only diet. But it was so hard on me. It's like I've given up a piece of her babyhood and I'll never get it back. And of course I resent my job because I feel like I could have delayed it longer if I hadn't gone back to work sooner than expected. But even the La Leche League women told me "Well, they all have to eat solids eventually..." as if I was a little freakish for hesitating to start.

Well, on the bright side, baby J-bird loves her cereal and is taking her bottles just fine in my absence. And Erika seems to manage all three better than I do, so all is well.

Just wait till they send me to Europe for two weeks in September...

No answers...


Hayden has been reading the sports and weather in the newspaper for quite a while now. He started with the weather before he could actually read, just checking out the temperatures and the symbols to tell him whether it would be hot, rainy, etc. It's progressed to a full-blown obsession, where he reads every sports score, and insists on informing me about the inning by inning scores of the latest Cubs' game and who pitched how many innings, who got on base, blah, blah, blah. I want to encourage his love of reading, but at the same time, I'd read the classifieds myself before I'd read the sports section.


So you'll understand that I didn't notice him branching out beyond the sports and weather. But clearly, the boy needs some supervision, because just as there are things on TV you don't want your 5-year old to see, there are things in the paper just as bad or even worse. What do you do when your child asks you "why did the girl stuff toilet paper in her newborn baby's mouth and try to flush it down the toilet?" I gave him the only answer I could "It's an awful thing baby, and Mommy doesn't know why anyone would do something so awful."


From here on out, I'm only handing him the weather and sports. There are enough horrible things in the world to give us all nightmares, I'm not ready for my son to be sickened by them too.

Welcome to the world Brianna...
Our dear friends Traci and Pat welcomed this precious baby girl into the world Thursday morning and I was overjoyed to finally meet her today. Couldn't you just eat her up?

Goodbye Two...
Hello three. Hard to believe that I've fallen so far behind, but it's been 3 weeks since Trevor turned three. The day belonged to him, waking up in his brand new bunk beds...

Unwrapping gifts...

Playing in his new backyard swimming pool...

Cake (the boy is a cake fiend, just like mommy)...

We even let him have his pick of anywhere he wanted to go for a family outing. Which of course meant we ended up at Chuck E. Cheese. Oh well.

I must take a moment to reminisce about the last year for this little man. It was a big year, really, and he took most of it in stride...turning two, the big trip to Yankee Stadium, moving to a new house, surviving Mommy's bed rest, going from sleeping in a closet to sharing a room with big brother, giving up the pacifier (bobo), welcoming a baby sister, going from baby of the family to middle child, potty training, and finally out of the toddler bed.

We certainly had our moments, and my boy certainly can be stubborn as a mule sometimes (where does he get that from???). He'll pitch a fit with the best of them. But his precious sing-songy voice, the constant "why?"s, the squinty eye when he's mad, the contagious joy when he's happy, the sweet loving cuddles when he patters down to our bed in a thunderstorm with his "lankies" (blankies) and 'nother doggie...I wish I could put it all in a bottle marked "two" and preserve it like a fragrance. My Trevie Trevario, I love you to Jupiter.

Very tiny update...

Today was the first day back to work. I'm very behind on blogging, but must say that although Juliette has consistently slept through the night (10-12 hours) since she was 4 weeks old, she chooses to start waking at midnight and being fussy/restless all night two days in a row. I'm not appreciating the irony.

Adding to my list...

Of things I adore about my sweet baby girl.

1) The way she holds her ears when she naps. It cracks me up and makes me melt at the same time.
2) The sweet belly button that forever reminds me of where we were once connected.
3) That crooked smile and sassy tongue.
4) The way she laughs at my feeble attempts at self-portraiture (in the bathroom mirror)
5) The sweetness she brings out in her big brother.
6) And her daddy...

7) The big blue eyes.

That's not nearly all, but in case I forget sometime when you're two years old and impossible, I wanted to remind myself.

Speaking of two, Trevor will only THREE on Sunday. Shocking, isn't it? Erika took him to the mall today to make his own teddy bear and he's spending the night at her house. I keep thinking they'll show up at the door any second now, but sadly, I think he's fine without us. Not even a phone call. I gave him several chances to change his mind before they left, but he was steadfast. Sniff, sniff.

In other news, it seems that I'll be returning to work in the not-so-distant future. My boss called me this week and said that someone is leaving my group and they'd really like me to take over his responsibilities if I'd consider coming back sooner than planned. So I've agreed to work 2 days per week starting in early July. I'm hoping that still gives me some quality time at home with the kids this summer. I'm scared though. So many people tell me that part-time work takes over your life and you get full time work for part-time pay. And it appears that my benefits as a part-time employee are worse than being on completely unpaid leave of absence. How's that for screwy? But seeing as I only worked for my company 6 months before I took off 18 weeks of paid disability, 4 weeks of vacation, and another 16 weeks of unpaid leave (if I go back in July), it probably isn't unreasonable of them to ask me to consider helping out a little.

But waking up early? Showering? Not being able to hold and smell that sweet girl all day? OK, I'm not talking about it. It's making me sad already. I know, I know, I'm lucky to have six solid months with her, but it's still just a little heartbreaking.

5 months...

And loving this baby girl more each and every day. She's such a very good baby. People say she has to be because she's the third child and wouldn't get any attention even if she did fuss. But I don't think that's it. Her disposition is just very mellow and sweet.

She's still refluxing up a storm. So we get to change outfits 4 times while trying to take a few pictures. But even though I get frustrated when she ruins and outfit I've just pulled over her head, I really think that makes her an even better baby. Would you be sweet and happy if you were throwing up 20-30 times a day? She just grins through it all.

I think she's teething. I'm hesitant to say that, because I think I though each of the boys were teething for about two months before any teeth actually appeared. But she has her hands in her mouth constantly and has a nice rash around her mouth from the fire hydrant-like drooling. You won't see the rash in pictures, thanks to Photoshop, just like you missed her baby acne as a newborn.

In other news, Hayden will finish preschool next week. I'm just now starting to think about it. They have a little graduation ceremony where they pass their apple to someone in the younger class (the younger kids are Acorns, the older ones are Apples). I'm hoping to take pictures if I'm not too busy bawling my eyes out.

Anyway, here's a slideshow of pictures from today...

The Police

On my way home from my second Police concert in the last 12 months. Who gets to fulfill their lifelong dream twice in one year? Concert was great, I think better than the last mostly because it was outdoors on a lovely evening.

Two observations...1) My head has a lot of useless information buried deep down. Like the words to "Demolition Man". I can't remember my office phone number, but I know the words to a song I probably last heard almost 20 yrs ago? 2) I've said that seeing the Police was my lifelong concert dream. I really got into them when I was a little too young for concert-going. Once I had a driver's license, they had broken up. But I had every song they ever made, even some obscure movie soundtrack ("Brimstone and Treacle" if I recall). And a few were on 8-track. But after having said all this and fulfilled this dream, I must say I would pay almost anything to go see Wham! Live if they reunited. It's socially acceptable to love the Police still, but does anyone other than me long for George Michael and Andrew Ridgely to get back together?

Well, I've probably said too much, but there it is. Maybe this post won't work since I'm typing in the car on my Blackberry.

Tired...

Can't muster the energy to type. Must go to bed earlier.

Trevor was sick today. Crawled into bed with me as usual when he woke up this morning. Then proceeded to throw up on me. Nice.

The past week was comprised of replacing 3 toilets (managed 2 on our own, had to call in the plumber on the last one), a t-ball party (our little man was named MVP, but I'm more annoyed with the coach than anything), t-ball game, and a birthday party. Tomorrow night we're seeing The Police and Elvis Costello. Here's hoping I stay awake...

A video from the backyard the other day. Might want to turn your sound down or off, since there I couldn't get the song inserted that I was trying to use and you'll have to listen to an annoying barking contest between Malik and the dogs next door...

Mother's Day, Rounds 1 & 2:

The last few years, we've gone to Lake Charles, LA (Sean's hometown) to visit with his mother for Mother's Day. It's always a nice visit, but the local cuisine really leaves something to be desired if you're a vegetarian like me. All I want for Mother's Day is a big luxurious brunch. Which is hard to come by in Lake Charles. So we decided to visit Grandma Carole on Saturday this year. We had a nice visit and the boys got soaking wet at the new Prien Lake Park. Note to the couple getting married in the little pavillion there: Sorry you had to see my naked children getting dried off in the minivan just next to your ceremony. We parked there long before we saw any signs of a wedding party. But I did wrap Trevor in a blanket and take him into the bathroom rather than letting him pee on the lawn like he wanted too. So I kept you from having that precious memory.

Anyways, here's our L.C. pic from this year:
Back in Houston, Sean tried to accomodate my desire for the big brunch. Unfortunately, they mislead him a little at the Hilton Americas in downtown Houston and pretty much had the regular old low-key breakfast buffet instead of the desired luxurious brunch. I thought I could just suck it up, but after I threw an omlette on the table (Hey omlette guy, when I say lots of melted cheese inside, don't forget the cheese altogether. And when I point out that it has no cheese, don't just throw some grated cheese on top of the now cold omlette), Sean decided that we'd better go Plan B. So we left the Hilton in a huff and walked over to the Four Seasons where all my wildest dreams for the decadent brunch were fulfilled. The children behaved (mostly) and I gorged on yummy salads, fantastic cheeses, grilled vegetables, proper omlettes, and a dessert selection which defies description. And Sean was polite enough not to fall over when the check came. So here's me and my crew doing some Mother's Day bonding.

Hope your day was as lovely as ours...I'll leave you with a quote shared by my brother, the true sentimentalist in the family:

"Whatever else is unsure in this stinking dunghill of a world a mother's love is not."
-- James Joyce

Home Stretch...

We're in what has to be the home stretch of Sean's turnaround work schedule. I say has to be, because either they start that plant up or I'm telling him to quit because the kids and I are really missing his presence at the casa McLaughlin.

His absence for the past month has helped me discover a higher degree of competence juggling all three kiddos at once. Erika was sick with the stomach flu this week and I actually handled four at once, since I had arranged a playdate for Hayden before she got sick. Picture me, all alone, with Hayden, Trevor, Juliette, and another 5-year old at the bowling alley. I was remarkably calm. I've found they function much better when I actually take them somewhere fun instead of telling them to entertain themselves while I do laundry, feed the baby, etc.

Today, they said they wanted to go to the fire engine park. No problem, says SuperMom. So I proceeded to dress them all, pack up our lunches, pack up the diaper bag, redress Juliette (there's at least one spitting up episode before any outing). Then the boys tell me they want to ride their bikes to the park. SuperMom says "SURE!". We get the bikes, helmets, stroller, lather up with sunscreen, and head out. It's only 6 blocks, how bad could it be? We get to the house 2 doors down from us, and the sidewalk is all chewed up from the street construction. So Trevor is off his trike, asking me to push it. Juliette is SCREAMING, red face, big tears. And all of a sudden, 6 blocks (each way) is looking like a marathon. SuperMom becomes SurvivalMom and we turn around, head home, load our gear in the minivan and head to the park. We still had our picnic and played, but really, you know me and the outdoors, there's only so much I can handle.

Sean got home around 7 pm. He said the towers are up, reactors running, and they should be in the good tanks tomorrow morning. For those of you who haven't spent any time in a chemical plant, this means there's a light at then end of the tunnel. Yay!

Preschool Politics...

Hayden's preschool uses a storytelling program teach early literacy skills to the kids. Each morning, one child dictates a story to the teacher who writes it down. Later in the day, a cast of the children act out the story. I'm in the process of compiling (typing) an anthology of stories from the year to send home with each "graduating" student. Most of the stories are about princesses and knights, but this one was too funny not to share. From the lips of W.T., age 4:

"Once upon a time George Bush sent some soldiers to do a war. Obama won and he stopped the war. John McCain said the war would still go on. Obama stopped the war again. Hillary called the police and put John McCain in jail because he put the war still on.
A giant dragon came and it ate the jail and it ate John McCain who was in the jail. The End."

Every time I read it, I want to fall on the floor laughing. I think it's the jail-eating dragon that's really the icing on the cake.

Worth the wait...

Juliette is 4 months old today. It seems like forever ago that I spent 65 days in bed waiting for her to be ready to be born. Then again, I think I waited my whole lifetime for this baby girl. And if I had to wait forever, it would have been worth it for this sweet bottom in ruffled panties...
These perfect toes...

And perfect little fingers...

And the sweet angel face that I love more every minute...

Happy 4-month birthday baby girl! More pictures here.

Attached Garage...

This house has an attached garage (only one-car, sorry Sean). At the old house, I thought the attached garage was handy for when I was in pajamas or half undressed and needed to retrieve something. Now I like it for another reason. When your sweet-looking, but horrid-acting 2 1/2 year old chucks a really hard toy at your head in the car, you can just leave him strapped in his car seat in the garage until he calms down and decides to behave himself and join the rest of us inside. Don't worry, it isn't hot in there and I leave the van doors and the door between the garage and the house open. So if you're selling a house with an attached garage, you might want to list that as a bonus feature for parents of toddlers.

Impish Charm...

Trevor has this impish grin he uses when he wants to proceed with something he knows he's not supposed to be doing. I know I'm supposed to be firm and consistent, but this look usually just doubles me over in laughter. Oh, and the sing-songy voice he uses doesn't help me stand firm either. He plays me like a puppet.
In other news, we got a bubble machine at Target today and had loads of fun with it. Why did I go to Target for a bubble machine? Because the kids got bubble guns as the give-away at a birthday party today. They wanted to play with them right away, but I said they could only play with them after naps and only if they went to bed quietly and immediately. They were so great about the naps and then when they woke up we discovered that we couldn't open up the f&(*@&ing bubble guns to put batteries in. So off I went with all 3 kids in tow to buy a bubble thing at Target.

You can't blame the party mom. Don't we all give away useless crap at our kids' parties? Who started this tradition anyways? When I was getting stuff for Hayden's birthday, I was grumbling about spending $100 on junk that would be 99% in trash cans within 24-hours. But who can break with tradition? Anyways, here are the boys and their bubbles:

Delicious...

Don't you just want to eat these up?


These are my new gallery wrapped canvas prints of the kids that I bought with my birthday money (Thanks Art!!!!!) I'm just in heaven and can't wait to hang them. They're larger than life. I inserted Juliette so you could compare the size.
I've been told that I've been delinquent in my blogging (there was some exaggeration, it hasn't been 3 weeks). I have about a thousand legitimate reasons, but mostly I've been trying to go to bed before 2 or 3 am. It's great to have a baby who sleeps through the night, but if I don't get her down till midnight and then try to catch up on laundry, photos, e-mail, then I'm not in bed till 2:30. Which makes me a little cranky when Trevor wakes me in the morning.

Sean's plant has a maintenance turnaround that started on Monday. So he's gone 14 hours a day including weekends. I'm trying to be disciplined about getting things done while the boys are napping so our evenings aren't a total nightmare. But I think the next three days will be challenging with Sean working and Hayden having t-ball, 2 bday parties, and me shooting a wedding on Saturday. Yikes! Only another 3 weeks or so of this.

I went to a parent social for Hayden's school last weekend. Sean stayed home with the kids, too much hassle to find a sitter. I was talking to two of the other moms who I only know casually from the playground and they were remarking about how mellow I am. I could only laugh. They actually think I seem very calm and cool all the time. That I seem to be able to juggle all 3 kids and everything else with ease. How far from the truth is that? Vito has to be laughing at the thought. Me? Mellow? Ha! Oh well, it's nice that I can come across that way. Not everyone has to see the dark side.

Trevor and I went to a book signing last weekend. Mo Willems was in town to sign the brand new pigeon book. Here's Trevor with the new book while we waited to meet the author:

And here's the pigeon-man in the flesh, signing Trevor's copy of the book:

Very exciting stuff for an almost 3-year-old. Can you believe? Almost THREE? I made his 3-year doctor's appointment yesterday and it was a wake-up call. Even with Juliette here, he's still my baby in so many ways. But in 4 months he'll be in preschool. Time flies...

Switching gears, our friend Ben is in our thoughts much these days since we heard news of his stroke. Very shocking for an active, healthy, brilliant 37-year-old. You can keep up with him on Mama T's blog, but please remember him in your prayers as we wish him a full recovery.


I'll try to post more frequently. A comment or two once in a while wouldn't hurt as a means of encouragement!