A Few Words on Packing, and a Disney Surprise

I started packing us today for an upcoming trip, and this has reminded me how much I HATE PACKING.  Ugh!  Not everyone feels that way, some people enjoy the packing experience and feel it adds to the anticipation of their trip, (which as we are all supposed to know by now, is half the fun anyway).  Um, no.  Packing is not part of the fun for me, and you people who enjoy packing are weirdos from another planet that I will never understand.

My kids are part of "those people" who get excited about packing, but that is because they have the mental flexibility to pack only a stuffed giraffe, some colored pencils, and maybe a tutu and call it a day, with no concern for having forgotten anything.  Case in point, when we went to Missouri last summer, I asked Waylon if he wanted some help packing his suitcase but he said no, he was already finished:

In my defense, just because I do not like packing does not mean I'm not good at it.  I pride myself on packing light (or as lightly as one can, anyway, for a family of five headed to the beach with babies/young children, as the case has been for us over the last several years).  Also, the key word in my packing complaint is "us"; packing for only myself is a cakewalk.  It's the responsibility of remembering every single item that 3.5 other individuals might need that makes me run and hide.  (3.5?  I came up with that because yes, Joe helps. Neither of us has stooped to the level of having me pick out his clothing.  And yet, it is mostly my brain that is tasked with remembering all the 1,000 odd items, from toiletries, to kid medicines, to rain gear, to water bottles, to allergen-free food, or headphones, or whatever else the occasion calls for.)

This afternoon, I relied on the kids' excitement about packing to spur me into action.  No, really - Georgia had to stay home from school due to pink eye, so I told her it would be her job to force me to begin packing.  Fast forward to 3:30 p.m., me curled up on the couch somewhat exhausted, the girls employing loud music, poking/sitting on me, and walkie-talkies cranked up in my face and set to static to get me moving.  It finally worked.  I'll stop complaining about packing for now, because it's hard to garner sympathy for a task that by definition means I'm getting to travel.  We are fortunate and lucky in that regard, but c'mon, I don't have to enjoy the packing part. 

All of the dragging of my feet and required cajoling yesterday got me to thinking how amazing it is (and please forgive me for patting ourselves on the back here) that Joe and I managed to pull off a pretty cool Disney World surprise for the kids back in September.  A surprise the nature of which involved me single-handedly packing everything in total secrecy, essentially under cover of darkness, since I could only work on it after putting the kids to bed each.  (Have I mentioned that we went to Disney World?  No?  Okay, see, that's the problem with taking enormous blogging breaks.  Our Disney trip was a big deal for us, something that in my head I was definitely going to immediately report on here, I just haven't found the time for it until now.)

We decided to surprise the kids for a couple reasons.  First, it would be super fun!  I mean, how often in life do you get surprised out of nowhere with wonderfully happy news?  And how often does life present opportunities to surprise someone you love like that?  So we wanted to at least try to pull off the surprise and see what happened.  Second, we selfishly wanted to avoid the incessant questions about, "When are we going?" "How many more days?" "Is it tomorrow?"  "Is it today?"  Keep in mind, at least two of three children here still have a pretty loose grasp on the passage of time.

As luck would have it, we needed to leave for the airport at the same time that we would normally have been hopping in the car to drop Joe at the train station and the kids at school.  So that's how far we pushed the charade of this being a regular old school day.  I had secretly loaded our suitcases into the back of the van the night before, packed Georgia a lunch box that she didn't actually need, gotten everyone dressed for school with backpacks ready and into their car seats, the whole bit.  Our plan was to start driving to school but then take an intentional wrong turn to head toward the airport instead.  When the kids noticed that we were driving the wrong direction, that's when we'd tell them:  WE'RE NOT GOING TO SCHOOL, WE'RE GOING TO DISNEY WORLD!!!!

Sounds pretty rad, right?  It was, with two caveats.  First off, we were never expecting immediate screams of excitement, because our kids weren't at the time 100% aware of what Disney World really meant.  (Waylon especially - he had no clue.)  Even for someone well aware of what going to Disney World entails, it seems reasonable to expect it to take a while for the news to sink in.  The other part of the kids' reaction, which we were not so much expecting, was just how long it took them to realize that we were not driving the right direction!  Funny thing, it turns out children are very trusting of their parents to transport them from Point A to Point B with no questions or doubts.  I guess I was counting on Georgia to be the first to notice, but even she was finally tipped off not by the fact that we were aimlessly driving into the next town over, but by the fact I was holding up my phone prepared to video tape.  All of which is my roundabout way of explaining why the video you're about to see has been heavily edited for length (and it's still long - sorry, but I have no clue how to really edit videos and therefore can't waste half my day shortening this for you).  I assumed I'd have a 15 second clip that morning to easily share with my sister and the handful of friends who knew about this surprise in advance, but instead we ended up with over four minutes of boring driving video.  In the end, though, it all made for a very good story.  The kids have certainly enjoyed in the months since telling anyone who will listen about how their parents told them they were going to school but took them to Disney World instead.  That's worth it in my book.  Even with the packing.


Disney Surprise from Kate on Vimeo. (password is notrickypeopleallowed)

There you have it.  And in conclusion, school secretary Mrs. Peterson was notified of the children's absence, and we managed to have a decent time at Disney despite me having forgotten to pack Roald Dahl's "The Witches".

Just for good measure, or for anyone unwilling to spend 4+ minutes of their life on the video, here are some stills taken shortly after the news had sunk in.



Crazy in love with this plan.



Pretty pumped!


20-30 minutes later, a little freaked out and nervous.  He came around.  : )



  

  

2014 Puppet Show Video

So, given that I failed to blog most of 2014 (and may still throw 2014 events up here in perpetuity if I feel like it, thank you very much), I thought I'd start by throwing up a 5 minute video that perhaps only a mother could love.  This thing cracks me up.  It kind of captures the kids in 2014 pretty well I think.  This is them at their finest version of 6, 4, and 2: silly, happy, creative, and (mostly) cooperating with each other.  Like most siblings they argue, they annoy each other, they make up, and sometimes, they play together blissfully well (and a choir of angels hovers over our living room).

I love these goofballs.  (Password is notrickypeopleallowed)

   

We had a 4th of July party

We had a 4th of July party.  I'm sure this is not shocking news, as we'll probably continue doing this as long as we live in this house with a pool. 

So, I wasn't really planning on taking lots of pictures or blogging any, but then, you know, I got snap happy.  I turned them into a slideshow and set the whole thing to music because it was actually far easier than pasting a bunch of photos here.

The party was super fun.  But let me tell you, setting it to "Magic in the Air" also makes it look about 10x funner.  (If you don't believe me, try taking pictures of your boring day at work, yourself taking out the trash, or maybe doing laundry, and then set it to "Magic in the Air", and voila!  Super fun day.)  The song, an unofficial anthem of the World Cup 2014, is a summer favorite in our family and is particularly fitting since we rigged up an outdoor TV during the party to put on the Brazil-Colombia match.  Gotta keep our Brazilian-American/American-Brazilian friends happy! 


4th of July Party 2014 from Kate on Vimeo.


From my perspective, the biggest improvement on our party vs. last year's was that, well, we hadn't just moved in 3 weeks earlier with a one year old, a three year old, and a five year old, and a truckload full of boxes that as of the 4th of July seemed to have exploded all over the house.  Yea progress!  

Happy Groundhog Day! (A Month Later...)

Hello, little blog o' mine, and long lost blog readers!  How I've missed you!

Well, maybe that's a bit of an overstatement, but I am ready to get back on the horse.  You see, I did this screen cleanse thing in the month of February that basically meant no Internet usage.  It was a nice change of pace and taught me things about my everyday habits; nothing profound, but definitely worthwhile.  (I did the screen time fast with the encouragement of my friend Frances, who had done it once before, so for a more in-depth analysis of the experience, you should read her write-up on it.  She is a professional writer, after all.  No need for me to reinvent the wheel here.)  Or maybe I will one day add my two cents about what I learned, but for now I'm just more concerned with getting back to posting pictures and such.  : )

News flash:  This has been the worst winter weather of my life.  I think the post I wrote back in January about the fun stuff we did on our snow days while the temperatures dropped to -17 may already have earned a spot on my "Top 5 Most Regretted Posts Ever Written" list.  (All bloggers have an imaginary list like this, right?)  It's like cold and bitter Kate just wants to go back in time and smack some sense into happy little creative Kate.  How was I to know the Polar Vortex would last FOREVER?

So, it's no surprise that by Groundhog Day, we were all ready to escape to the beach, including our favorite pal, the battery operated dancing Caddyshack gopher, er, I mean, our pretend groundhog.  We brainstormed, and Georgia came up with this photo shoot idea for our annual contribution to this family tradition.  Alas, the groundhog predicted a billion more weeks of winter. 

I couldn't decide between these two photos.  One is in sharper focus, but the other more clearly shows that it was snowing during our photo op.  Really, it never ends.



(I think in that one she's saying, "Save our souls!" or maybe, "Let it go!"  We haven't seen Frozen yet, but that song has us all hooked.)

Speaking of which, have you all seen this parody version?  "Let it Go (Chicago)!"

Cue Wind Machine!

I'm working on throwing together the photos from Waylon's 2nd birthday, you know, for the never-ending Waylon week.

While you wait on that Waylon birthday post, here are the kids hanging out in the van on the evening of Georgia's birthday.  We were waiting for her birthday to be announced on satellite radio (hence, our hanging out in the van), but unfortunately, instead of running their usual programming, some kind of Kidz Bop thing was on.


Cue Wind Machine from Kate on Vimeo.


Well, anyway, I found it amusing. 

Hop It!

I took this 7 second video to thank my sister for the hand-me-down car so that she could see how much our goofballs are enjoying it. 

Then Joe and I discovered that if you watch the video like 10 times in a row it keeps getting funnier and funnier.  Or maybe not.  Maybe that only applies to their parents?


Hop It from Kate on Vimeo.

Welcome to Waylon Week

I've declared it Waylon Week here on the blog for no particular reason other than I have a bunch of catching up to do, so I thought making an announcement such as this might spur me to action.  Plus, don't you all want to get to know this little guy better?

To kick things off, here's a one minute video of him playing hallway baseball, a game he spontaneously invented yesterday.  I find it fascinating because he truly has not seen much (any?) baseball.  Neither of the girls were in tee ball this summer, and sadly, we didn't catch any games on TV, at least not with Waylon around.  I think when I last left off discussing the subject of boys vs. girls, (like a year or more ago), I still had not observed much of a difference.  [DISCLAIMER:  Before you start smugly laughing, let me clarify that I never said there are no differences between boys and girls.  I am not a clueless moron.  I merely was waiting for them to manifest themselves.]  Yeah, well, more on that later, but all of these observable behavioral differences showed up around the 18 month mark, and now he's spontaneously turning felt cookies and pointer fingers into a baseball and bat?  With a pretty good stance, if I say so myself!

By the way, thank you again to my cousin Sara for the homemade felt cookies.  They're still seeing lots of action years later.


Hallway baseball from Kate on Vimeo.

(I think of myself as trying to capture mostly candid photographs of my children, reserving the posed shots and instructions to, "Smile!" only for my personal-photography-hobby-staged-shot-experimentation, and the rare formal occasion.  Yeah, apparently not, as this video reveals Waylon to be a trained monkey saying, "Cheese!" as soon as he sees me with a camera.  Ha!)

June's 3rd Birthday (2012)

Well, June, I apologize for not getting to this post sooner, because I'm sure if I had I would have more specific details to record about all the things you did and said between age 2 and 3.  As two year olds go, you really were a delightful one.  You were always eager to give an aggressive, forceful, full body hug to any adult willing to give you the time of day.  You sure knew how to win people over.  Perhaps the addition of your little brother just 11 days before your second birthday had something to do with how crazy independent you became at such a young age.  Of course, I'm writing this less than two weeks away from your fourth birthday, but your independence is something friends and teachers have been commenting on for years now.  Everything from dressing, to potty training, to I don't know, just figuring things out for yourself whenever you can.  As is tradition in our house, I gave you a choice of what you wanted your 3rd birthday cake to have on it.  You came up with, "a rainbow cake with vanilla frosting, with Hello Kitty on the top and Big Bear on the side".  (Big Bear being the largest stuffed animal that, amongst others, you sleep with every night.)  My first attempt at the cake was a total bust and came out looking more like a stack of flat, yet colorful, pancakes.  But we forged on, and the second try was a charm.  A very, very, very TALL success of a cake.  I guess we must've done something right, because so far you've been asking for the same cake for your 4th birthday ever since your 3rd birthday ended.  (There's still time to change your mind!)  You may notice that we forgot to dial the fire starter thingie back from "blow torch" level, hence your look of abject terror in some of these pictures.  Oops, sorry sweetie.  You and Georgia took the liberty of wrapping up some existing items that we already owned and giving them to each other as presents for your birthdays, and I love how excited and surprised you looked to receive these things.  There is no greater joy than the joy you spread to all of us, June.

Here you are a few days prior to your birthday, heading off to Summer Madness, a little in-home "camp" at your preschool teacher's house, where you were the youngest one there but held your own with no problem. (Without your sister, I might add. We all reach these milestones at our own pace.) ; ) Ms. Linda was nice enough to let you celebrate with your class, since you may never get the chance to do so at school.


Cake failure.


Okay, I don't mean to brag, but um, yeah, actually I do, because I don't think I can ever top this or probably even repeat it.


Yea, stuff you already have!


Magna-tiles because you are our little builder.


The pink car you asked for.


Inheriting the responsibility for Nana's ceramic childhood tea set.


Your love affair with "Dolly" continues to this day.  Her hair has never looked so good.


A signature Junebug hug for Aunt Sara.


(The family get together for all three kids' birthdays was on June's big day in 2012.)


Ahh, communal living. Taking over our neighbor's porch.

And then...the kids worked off their six layers of cake by trying out their new finger painting set.
Non-toxic I hope?


Well, whadda ya know? I WAS THERE!!!


Keep your hands where I can see them!


I guess it was a good celebration if it ended in the tub.

(So, I know no one has time for videos, but just in case, here's one of the candles fiasco, plus one for the ages wherein June tells me that she wants to be a biting spider when she grows up.)


June blowing out the candles on her 3rd birthday from Kate on Vimeo.

June's 3rd birthday interview part II from Kate on Vimeo.

"Georgie" Ballet 2013

Did I ever post about Georgia's ballet recital from 2012?  I think not, because life and death really got in the way.  But it was a big deal to see her up on stage.  (Wow, that was like 10,000 fewer words than I would've used to describe that day had I written about it when it happened.)

Moving on... 

One year later, and again the ballet recital did not disappoint.  I've got fun pictures to share, but for now here's a video if you've got a minute.  Georgia's the one on the far right, but the best part of the video to me (and the whole point of posting it here) is hearing Waylon yell out, "Georgie!" because he spotted her on stage.  He was way more into watching the dancers than I thought he would be, shouting out, "One more!" after each little act.  Only Waylon could get away with calling her Georgie I think. 

Georgie ballet 2013 from Kate on Vimeo.

St. Pat's, etc.

My sister sent me this link to a funny blog post about bringing the holidays down a notch, and I couldn't agree more.  Really, you should read it if you have a sec. 

I'm especially on board with the author's frustration with the leprechaun mythology being dispensed at school.  At least when it comes to Santa, being that our kids attend Christian based schools, we're all on the same page about a man in a red suit coming down a chimney with presents to celebrate Jesus's birthday.  Makes perfect sense.  But last week I had Georgia coming home telling me that leprechauns are as big as your thumb, and June reporting that her class heard leprechauns stomping around upstairs only to return to their classroom to find pots of gold.  I could see the puzzled look on Georgia's face while June showed off her rather fake looking gold.  And I am supposed to reconcile all of these discrepancies as the arbiter of leprechaun facts?

By the way, I'm sorry if my mentioning "Pi Day" pressured anyone into celebrating yet another holiday.  (I'm kidding; it couldn't possibly have, right?)  I only heard of it myself for the first time last week.

I keep seeing all this fuss on the Internet about "100 Day" and am thanking my lucky stars that neither of our kids' schools (so far) make a thing out of that.  

Can we talk Valentine's for a minute?  The author describes it as "the new Halloween," and I think that's spot on.  I'm not here to pooh pooh Valentine's Day, because first of all, the kids love it, and it's fun to witness their joy.  But I think that's kind of the point - we as a family do very little to celebrate, and the kids *still* love it.  Love is all you need.  Okay, and maybe a *little* chocolate.  ; )

I have learned to grin and bear it but just do not understand how so many of the other parents aren't doing the math.  When you send a kid off to school with goodie bags as their Valentine thing to pass out, and each goodie bag contains 3-4 pieces of candy (or plastic trinkets), and there are anywhere from 13 (June's class) to 33 (Georgia's class (spread over different days)) children, then that equals....let's see...carry the nine...anywhere from 39 to 132 pieces of candy or trinkets!  I may be a sugar buster when it comes to my children, but no three year old needs 39 pieces of candy in my book, not even spread over a week.  Which is why I do two things:  (1) Take advantage of their youth and make a ton of this stuff disappear to the "circular file" overnight, and (2) Become a free rider and send my children off to school with only a sticker (yep, like, a single sticker) as their "treat" to pass out.  I've just seen how much of this stuff ends up in the trash, and seen how little my kids have any awareness of "who gave out what", to feel like it's worthwhile to do more.  I know that as they get older that will likely change, and I'll probably play along to help them fit in in this case, but for now, they are perfectly happy with this arrangement.  In fact, Georgia did not seem to care, while preparing the store-bought Barbie princess charm school Valentines that she picked out, when I told her that she had inadvertently ripped each one in half and stuck the stickers on permanently, rather than leaving them on the backing for her friends to enjoy.

My friend Sarah wrote a really interesting blog post about the pervasiveness of "cute" in our culture these days, something that I hadn't really considered but found very thought provoking.  (You should check that one out, too, if you have a sec!  See, I'm here to fulfill your pleasure reading needs.) Whether it's overblown holidays or just overdone cuteness in general, I think the overarching idea is that when special things become everyday, they cease to be special and are instead expected and ordinary.  Or you can look at it from the opposite angle:  ordinary, everyday days are crucial to making special occasions and special treats actually feel special.  Sometimes it feels like half my job as a parent is depriving my children of things (e.g,. toys offered everywhere, an abundance of sweets everyday, and screens galore (TVs, phones, iPads)), (all of which are heavily marketed toward them and put in our faces everywhere we go), in the hopes that they will not get accustomed to such a heightened level of stimulation that their senses become dulled, leaving them turning to cocaine for entertainment by the time they are out of junior high.  I'm exaggerating I guess, but only a little.  All I'm saying is that it feels that way sometimes.  I mean, I can't buy into the parenting philosophy of "Say 'yes' whenever possible!" to maximize long term happiness for all involved, but with the amount of crap being thrown our way daily, being a "no" woman can be exhausting.  And totally un-fun. 

But back to the holiday celebration thing...(sorry if this is the most disjointed thing ever written, I don't really have time to edit and am just going with it)... How do you make room for the people (both adults and their children) who actually have fun making those Pinterest worthy homemade Valentines, without letting it slowly become the standard that all other families are trying to meet (and often times feel like failures for falling short of)?  I mean, Lord knows our family went all out with our coordinated Halloween costumes.  And when I am in the mood, I have been known to enjoy taking on projects like making patriotic Fourth of July desserts, having the kids paint their own Christmas wrapping paper, or throwing themed birthday parties.  The key phrase there is "when I am in the mood."  Because one person's simplicity or frugality can be another person's pain in the rear!

I don't know.  There is no question that on a societal level, all of these celebrations and holidays just keep getting ratcheted up, up and away, and I think we've reached or surpassed the "too much of a good thing" point.  On a personal level, I try to go all out when I feel like it, and phone it in when I feel like it, and not feel bad about it either way.  Easier said than done, but at least a reasonable goal.

So, anyhoo.....St. Patrick's Day.  We had a festive one.  We all wore green.  We went to Tommy Nevin's Pub to watch our niece's/cousin's Irish dancing troupe.  Our children were too timid to join in the dancing with the crowd but were more than happy to demonstrate their footwork at home afterwards.  Can you even believe they've never had lessons?  ; )

[VIDEOS]

Georgia Irish dancing from Kate on Vimeo.

June Irish dancing from Kate on Vimeo.


P.S.  This song will always make me think of Steph the Nanny.  It was the closest thing we had on hand to accompany our tiny dancers. 
P.P.S.  Doesn't that look like the kitchen of someone who had a home showing the next day? Amazing the difference a day can make.  It truly was flawlessly clean, no joke.

[ETA:  The excerpt below is my favorite paragraph from the original linked post.  The "ordinary" ain't easy!  Especially for this lady, who by my standards is knocking it out of the park.  Everyone bathed (relatively recently?), dressed (for part of the day? maybe?) and fed = my current definition of success.]

I don’t like the feeling of disappointing my kids. But I refuse to give into this holiday overkill. I’m overwhelmed enough as it is. Today I gave all of my kids a bath. We read with each of them for the recommended 20 minutes. We reviewed our Math Facts. We practiced guitar. We sat together at the table and ate a meal that was NOT procured at a drive-thru.  We played outside. Most days, I’m struggling to achieve all these things. I can’t have these haphazard, once-monthly overblown holidays take over my life.  

Best Picture?

I would like to thank the Academy, the Hollywood Foreign Press, my agent, my lawyer, oh, and also my husband and children, without whom this film would not have been possible.

You will never get back the six minutes of your life that you spend watching it.  (I discovered there is a reason most Hollywood movies are not edited by the actors' mothers.)  But whether you watch it or not, you must tell me that you laughed, you cried, it was better than Cats, because I spent an embarrassing amount of time teaching myself how to use iMovie to make this thing.  I normally say that this blog is for myself and my family, regardless of whether anyone else reads it or leaves a comment, but this is an exception.  Further blogging shall be suspended until I have received sufficient accolades.

And to think, I have numerous friends with children Waylon's age who have not embarked on capturing those children learning to walk in the form of a nearly full length feature film.  Seriously, I am somewhat embarrassed by what I have created here, yet happy with it, too.  It is an inspirational tale of perseverance and triumph that I hope reaches those who most need lifting up this week.  (You know who you are.) 
When Life Gets You Down, Get Up Again from Kate on Vimeo.

I Survived the First Week of Summer!

Sometime around mid-winter I started to dread summer a little bit.  Summer is my favorite season in Chicago, but having three kids under five with no school had me worried.  Waylon naps twice a day which prevents us from frequently taking on very long outings.  Georgia is a handful because she needs more challenge and stimulation than I can sometimes provide.  I mean, I try, but I feel like there is so much focus on FOOD around here that it's impossible to squeeze an organized art project or whatever in between cleaning up from one meal and preparing the next.  (Georgia, when told that she could just have a lazy Sunday and rest all day because we did not have anything planned, responded in a panicked voice, "But what about meals?!") 

Never fear! Our first week of summer turned out to be great.

We had almost nowhere to be.
The kids had zero screen time.
We were finally off the road.
The weather was great.
I even took on a big adventure just in time for Father's Day weekend: taking the el with all three kids to go visit Joe at work.

(Now, mind you, I'm typing this while Waylon's napping, June is watching an episode of Sesame Street next to me, and Georgia is off at a morning nature camp at her school, so last week wasn't necessarily a routine I could keep up indefinitely, but still, it was encouraging.)

Oh! And how could I forget to mention what was probably the biggest key to making it work?  Georgia is reading.  Well, kinda sorta.  The funny thing I've noticed about learning to read is that the ability doesn't flip on like a switch, it happens gradually, with layoffs and missteps along the way, until one day you look down at your child, all cozy in the nest she made herself on the landing of the stairs three days ago (but refuses to take down - not that you'd really want her to), reading books to herself after hanging a sign on the wall for the cleaning lady, and you think to yourself, "Yep. We've got a reader here."

(Unless you are my niece Alice, in which case, yes, the ability flips on like a switch, and the child never sounds out a single word until one day she gets in the car and just starts reading an entire book out loud to her mom who nearly drives off the road as a result.  But I digress...)


{Sooooo excited and squealing as if we were on a ride at Disneyworld.}




{Going up.}

 
{Where the magic happens.}




{Happy Father's Day, Joe! They are lucky chickens, those girls.}


{The little dude abides, too.}




{Really, who doesn't bring their own sweet potatoes and corn on the cob to Corner Bakery?  Before you relentlessly mock me, um, we really needed to go to the store. Whatever - I know, there is a lot that is mock-worth in these pictures.}

{Not showing their underwear to the world was a struggle on the ride home.}




{Back to the nest.}

 


Georgia reading from Kate on Vimeo.
{I seem to have developed this habit of needing to show where each child is during any given video, as if Waylon or June might grow up one day and ask themselves, "WHERE WAS I?!", so my apologies for the shakiness of the ending of this film.}