My Girl

Henni is a force with which to be reckoned.  She has been this way since the moment I found out I was pregnant (and even a few days before).  Henni dances to her own band - and I swear the girl has a a full on band playing in her head at all times.  I envision this because of the number of times each day Henni stops what she is doing, dances, sings a little song, and then goes right back to what she was doing previously.

Henni was late to talking, so much so that I was worried and engaged Early Intervention.  A couple weeks into Early Intervention Henni decided to start talking.  While she doesn't yet talk a blue streak, Henni is now talking, and surprising me with the words she knows.

Armed with her strong personality and words Henni makes sure she gets her point across.  She is darn stubborn and also likes things in their place.  Shoes must come off when one enters the house and they must go on the stairs to the basement so Charlie doesn't eat them.  Clothes should be sorted into their right bins or drawers, toys should be put away, the table should be cleared, and outfits should be changed at least 5 times a day - just for the heck of it.

Henni is seldom without a crazy outfit and without a baby.  I understand the "need" for many trucks - each truck has a different duty and therefore it is clear to me why one may need an excavator, dump truck, bulldozer, combine harvester... The need for multiple babies, however, baffles me.  Henni cares for the babies and spends much of her day - and night - making sure the babies are swaddled, changed, rocked, playing games, or whatever.  Henni has six babies - two are key (and the world may collapse if something happens to Lucky or Bulldozer), the others rotate in and out of the mix.  Now I think Lucky and Bulldozer are almost identical (yes, one has teeth and one doesn't, and the shape of the head is slightly different...), but Henni would beg to differ.  It is essential both Bulldozer and Lucky are in the bedroom at night.  Henni will scream out "baby!" in the middle of the night and immediately go back to sleep if the baby is coaxed back to her arms.  However, if the wrong baby (when I say wrong, I mean the one that she envisioned in her head, but didn't voice out loud) is placed in her arms she will sit bolt upright, throw the baby across the room and refuse to go back to sleep.  The whole middle of the night baby thing really is quite stressful.  There are nights when there is a full night of sleep, others when the awake bit is 5 seconds (when the right baby is chosen), and other nights when there is little sleep as the wrong baby is selected.  Why not just offer both babies for good measure - don't go there, that makes Henni mad.  And the wrath of Henni...yikes

The opposite of baby-crazy Henni her thoughtful towards others.  Whenever she gets a snack out she gets one for Oliver too.  If Oliver is upset, she gets really worried and does whatever she can to make him happier.  She also chooses his clothes every morning (her selections are now always approved by Oliver, but hey - there is the thought).

Henni is still the only person I know whose eyes truly sparkle.  She also makes me laugh so hard and is my helper.

Parade

On our walk this morning a woman pulled her car over to make the comment "I love watching your family go for walks - it is like a parade."  A parade.  Well now, that is not the first thing that comes to mind when I think of our walks.  I would go for something more like wrangling or herding cats or, some days, like being placed in the wrong side of the batting cage.  Our walks start and stop.  They involve snacks, poop, naps, collisions, piles of toys, piles of bikes, piles of bikes, kids and toys - all on top of a stroller.  Our walks are like when the Cat and the Hat tries to balance everything and then - plop.  Ah yes, our walks involve backtracking so as to pick up the pieces we have left behind.  Our walks also involve cat hunts -- Henni is obsessed with cats and so we comb the neighborhood, looking for cats for Henni to spot.  And singing...so much singing.  Anyway, I had never considered a parade, but I like it.  It sounds as though it could be beautiful.  My little cherubs are often dressed as though they are in a parade.  And Charlie, he seems like parade material.  Perhaps tomorrow I will get us some horns and we can make our parade a bit more magical.

We've had some pretty fun times together lately.  We've been getting in as much beach time as we possibly can.

And we explored a castle in Gloucester.  The castle was very neat, but it did not have a moat.  Oliver rightly pointed out - "How come the guy spent so much money building his house to look like a castle - even making a drawbridge - but didn't dig a moat?  I would have made a moat."  Good point.

And Henni has been practicing riding her bike now that she has figured out that she can bring her baby with her.

The other afternoon Oliver and Henni decided we  should play winter.  So we did.

And then they slept.  Winter is tiring.

And then on Wednesday the kids had a special day.  Due to the great nanny debacle of 2012 Davis got to spend the whole day with Oliver and Henni.  I had to work, but got updates throughout the day.

Kitty pictures!

Bulldozer needed some surgery so Davis did some sewing (some pretty damn amazing sewing actually) and then put a band aid on Bulldozer and asked Henni to take care of him.  She took great care of him and, thankfully, Bulldozer is feeling 100% now.

I got a good laugh at of these last two.  Davis took the kids to the Y to go swimming.  Note Oliver's snake.  I received the pictures just before I was about to leave work.  I showed a co-worker and told her that I thought I should get home.  Now my thinking was - they are having so much fun, I want to be a part of their fun.  However, my co-worker took one look at the pictures and said I should get home fast - that things looked a bit out of control.  Ah, she has no idea (she also has no kids)...maybe I should invite her on a walk with us.

The glass

The last couple weeks have been either really wonderful or really horrible - depending upon how one looks at said weeks.  I have been running a lot as I am training for my first half marathon (which seems really long since before I started my training I had never run more than 3 miles) and I find my long runs full of ups and downs - and I am not talking of the hills.  Alone with my thoughts and without the need to keep up the "things are fantastically awesome facade" I find myself ruminating about the thunderhead which seems to be looming and about the clouds that have found us.  However, just as I begin to get super glum, I start to think about everything that is going well for us - and really, when one gets down to it, things aren't super cloudy and the thunderhead isn't here.  In fact, much of the time things are downright sunny.  The reality is that right now I think our glass of life is filled just to the middle - half full or half empty, depending on the view.

What I find quite is amazing is that while I am exhausted, the kids are wonderful.  Their resilience is astounding.  They continue to dance their way through the day, continue to spend their day pretending to be tamarind monkeys, and continue to welcome new friends and new faces into our lives.  And they do this with smiles.

And, as I said, there are many things we have to smile about.  We have been spending as much time as possible at the beach - even heading there after work to have picnic dinners.

And we have been revisiting fun places, like the zoo in York, Maine.  The zoo really is a great zoo.  My favorite part is the deer.  Davis liked the bear cubs.  Henni the ducks and Oliver - the scorpions.

We've also been doing a lot of exploring and hiking.  Charlie, now a solid 85 pounds, is a formidable addition to our excursions - we are thinking we may need a bigger car and perhaps saddlebags.  The bigger car so as to fit Charlie and all of our gear, and the saddlebags so Charlie can help carry all of our snacks -- Henni has become a crazy eater - I think she must have two wooden legs, and a couple wooden arms.

And another wonderful thing...Oliver AND Henni have both slept through the night 4 nights in a row.  What this amounts to is that, for the first time since June 30, 2008, I have slept through the night - actually, slept through 4 nights.  Furthermore, we are now on day 4 of Henni not nursing.  This is another milestone as I began breastfeeding on July 1, 2008  and with the exception of four months (and I was pregnant during said four months), I have been breastfeeding.  Sleep.  Getting my body back.

Things are good.  They really are.

Hollie

Last December I posted an ad on Care.com: "Wonderful nanny needed."  I got more than 60 applicants in just a few days.  The last person to apply was Hollie.  One of the references Hollie gave told me that Hollie was incredible with children and with families and was just an amazing person.  Her reference also told me that we would be very lucky if she decided to work with us.  Within a day of Hollie joining our crazy brood I knew that she was the "wonderful nanny" we needed and I knew that we were lucky to have her.

Last week Hollie left for Italy - to pursue her career interests and to make me jealous (ok, not the latter, but I am super jealous of Hollie spending 3 1/2 months in Italy).  Eight months with Hollie as our nanny and one week without Hollie - I have to say Hollie's reference was spot on - we were so lucky that she chose to work with our family.  Not only did Oliver and Henni fall in love with Hollie, but also Hollie taught me about me and about being a mom.

Davis and I have a hard time leaving the kids; we could probably count on two hands the number of date nights we've had since having children.  Much of this is just us - our way of parenting - but another piece is that we had a few people who weren't totally awesome with the kids.  The people we tried weren't horrible, the kids just didn't like them and I would get calls asking me to come home from the grocery store, from a meeting, from wherever I was because Henni was crying and because Oliver was beside himself that Henni was so sad.  Then along came Hollie...Hollie does incredible crafts, she sings,  she takes care of large puppies, she does dishes, she does and folds laundry...Did I mention the kids love Hollie and that I love spending time with her as well?

Hollie gave me a feeling of freedom.  Being away from the kids for the day - with Hollie being at home with them - I could breathe because I knew they would not only be okay, but they would also be having fun and they would be happy.  I knew they would be playing cheetah and gazelle tag, finding wonderful books at the library, riding bikes, or creating pictures that would adorn our walls.

To be totally honest I took advantage of the freedom afforded by Hollie, but I didn't realize this until Hollie left.  The kids loved being with Hollie so much that I took the time I needed to get stuff done, plus some.  I was able to have some just me time with Hollie with the kids because I knew they were having so much fun.  Hollie showed me that the kids can be happy with someone other than me (that sounds a little obvious and narcissistic, but hopefully I am getting my point across).

Although we appreciated every day Hollie spent with us and we appreciated all she did, I don't think we fully comprehended how much she had become a part of our family and how much she did for us.  Davis and I got on the topic of people being worth their weight in gold - of course Davis did the calculation and determined he is worth more than $5.4 million.  I would just put forth that Hollie is invaluable and we are eagerly awaiting her return.

New tricks

The little ones have a few new tricks up their sleeves and paws.

On Monday Oliver had his first skating lesson.  New places and new people are generally tough.  Oliver usually wants me right with him, attached by hand, hip, full body vice grip...I was therefore pleasantly surprised when Oliver donned the helmet and skates and headed off onto the ice without even a glance back.  Throughout the hour session I kept trying to take pictures and wave to him, but he never looked my way - instead he was intent on skating.

Or perhaps he was intent on the helmet.  My boy likes his shoes - he also likes helmets.  There are days when Oliver will put his bike helmet on at 8:00 in the morning and not take it off until bath time.  The hockey helmet, therefore, got some serious lovin'.  Oliver's post hockey snack required some creativity.

Henni has mastered the balance bike and is now out cruising the street with the neighborhood kids.  Oliver has been cheering her on and keeps telling her to practice because if she does, "Mommy will get you a fancy new bike."  Where he got this, I have no idea, but the girl is committed and is doing amazingly well.

Our little 81 pound puppy has decided to become a hole digger and has also decided that the pest fencing I had put up to protect one gardens is just a mere inconvenience.  Charlie has in fact taken our backyard to an entirely new level - and not one that Better Homes and Gardens would profile.

 I am quite excited about Henni and Oliver's new tricks.  Charlie's, not so much.