Little Renaisance Man

I just noticed I don't have many (any?) pictures of James this month. It's not because he's not adorable or not doing amazing things--he is. But he's definitely NOT a squeaky wheel or a camera hog, so I have to try harder to remember to take pictures of him and the sweet things he does/ makes. Like this:

I told him a couple of weeks ago that he could/should practice numbers games or sentence writing when the girls had homework. So this is the first sentence he wrote during said "homework time." I find it terribly cute (and hey, it starts with a capital and ends with a period!). He's so bookish and sweet, sometimes I am surprised at what an avid hunter and fisherman he is turning out to be. I think he'd rather go to Cabela's than Disneyland. This may have made me cringe or cry out, "Where did we go wrong?!" ten years ago, but somehow (I'm turning Montanan, turning Montanan, I really think so) it's okay with me because James is such a thoughtful, spiritually-minded, well-rounded kid, I'm not too worried about him becoming a killing machine or anything. He loves deer and elk, so it's pretty cool that they like to hang out at the ranch all winter long.

His parent-teacher conference was a glowing report last week. His teacher reiterated that she's never seen a kid do so well academically AND socially--usually if they're strong in one, they're weaker in the other, but James is strong in both (yay). She was also SHOCKED when I told her I was really glad I decided to send him to school even though he didn't turn five until a week into the year. "I thought he turned SIX!" Nope, he was four when he started kindergarten (you will never catch me "redshirting"--don't get me started, and don't start quoting Gladwell to me because I've seen him admit that most cumulative advantage disappears by middle school) and I knew he was ready. Now he's getting obsessed with music theory. I did flashcards with him twice and now he can name all the natural notes on the keyboard or the staff. And nothing seems hard for him. He is pleasant and happy 97% of the time. He's an anomaly, but he's MY anomaly. I am super grateful to be his mother.


UPDATE : Okay, here's a good one. This is my very favorite photo of my kids, snapped with my phone on the second day of 2012. We were in Billings having frozen yogurt and they were genuinely happy and I just love looking at it. I can't believe they're MINE!

The Wildest West Show Ever (0224-25)

Addie's School (3rd-5th grades) did a theater workshop and show last week. It was really fun! Here is some of the documentation, courtesy of Aunt Laura...

Rehearsal

Addie singing with the other Canexican Bandits 02.23

(Canadian-Mexican Bandits, "it's a multi-national enterprise")

SHOW TIME! Director Dewey Kemp on Opening Night

The Bandits (Addie in the middle making a funny face)

These are the Tumblin' Tumbleweeds, the fiercest gang in the west.

More Bandits, singing their anthem, "O, Canada/La Cucaracha"

Main villain Snoodly and his minions

The finale.

We loved the show (more importantly, so did Addie) and are so grateful to have a program like Crazy Mountain's Outreach to give our kids these fun experiences!

Valentine's Day 2012, Melin Style

This is not an update, I don't have time for catching up right now, but here is TODAY. Happy love day to everyone!Valentine's Breakfast by Daddy this year...

banana-nutella and strawberry-cream crepes!

Heidi, Addie, Mommy, James

My baby-with-m&m-eyes in Rich's old walker from Germany.
He's like a crash test dummy in that thing, running all over the upstairs like a hurricane!

Daddy with the kids before school this morning
Heidi, Addie, Daddy, James

"Stained-Glass" cookies for my lovies to eat at lunch time

***

When the kids left at 8am, I fed Niles and cleaned the kitchen up. At 8:40am, I put Niles back to bed and ripped open 2 cake mixes and started baking 48 mini cupcakes and 24 regular cupcakes, racing to finish before the baby woke up.


Chocolate mini cakes for James' class


Awesome secret weapons: A cereal box repurposed as bakery box (tape it closed, cut open one side) and aerosol frosting. OMGoodness, that frosting in a can makes cupcakes SO MUCH EASIER!






Red Velvet cupcakes for Heidi's class



(Addie also got 2 dozen regular size cupcakes for her class)

*I don't mean this as a brag because, let's keep it real, I'm no super mom--I'm often grumpy, ungroomed, scatterbrained, my house is a mess, and my kids don't do extracurricuar things mostly because I'm unorganized and broke and impatient--so please dont think this is THAT kind of blog*

I took a picture of the clock to prove that I made 72 cupcakes--from box to icing--in less than an hour! WOO HOO!

Earlier this month for Family Night we made a garland of "Things the make our hearts happy" cut from magazines. I really love it--there's even a heart from Gram on there!

Oh, PS, back on the 4th we got a free piano (more on that later). Here is is holding our valentines.

Happy Valentine's Day!

P.S: A poem for today

[say what you want about this sonnet from Shakespeare being over-used...it's beautiful because it's true, and I come to know it's truth more every year as what little beauty and health I started with fade away and yet the love between me and my sweetheart grows--it doesn't alter when it alteration finds--and for that I am deeply humbled and grateful and happy this day!]

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

PPS: Scriptures for today

"A new commandment I give unto you that ye love one another as I have loved you."

-Jesus in John 13:34

Light at the End of the Sleep Deprivation Tunnel

If you even try to talk to me right now, I will yammer incoherently about whatever, and the convo will eventually meander around to SLEEP, or more specifically, my lack thereof. Between whacked elbow, crazy leg, sick/teething baby, and bed-sneaker-inner kindergartener, I am losing my mind. And whatever trace of immune system and hormonal balance I had achieved post-partum. Frick.

And so, dear reader, it is from this state of delirium that I now present to you The Best Post I've Read All Year, courtesy of Kacy.

I am [knock on wood] doing great. I don't feel depressed, mad, tired, overwhelmed, and out of it like I did the first ten years of having kids. I am sure this has everything to do with getting more sleep. If you are in the thick of sleep deprivation it might make you cry to think about other people getting a good night's sleep. I am not saying this to make you feel worse. I just want you to know that there is hope. Sure--it's many, many years away (depending on how many babies you have) but it exists. You might think you are inept at things, can't get it together, don't understand how other people actually do things. It's not you, it's sleep. Just know that you are not functioning on full capacity and you won't for a while. I wrote this two years ago:


I’m lucky because my youngest child, now almost 2, has always slept perfectly and easily. Before you decide to hate me like we hate those people who just can’t seem to gain weight, know that I have 3 other kids who have put me through the ringer. Christian and I are so over staying up all night with kids. We can’t take it. It’s as if little Ellen came to us knowing that one more round of crawling away from the crib on our hands and knees while holding our breath would kill us.

That said, Ellen is going through a phase. I refuse to think of it as anything else (like a permanent change–Don’t even SAY that). She’s napping irregularly and waking up all night. I blame daylight savings. And diaper rash. And a growth spurt. And, in a moment of desperation last night with a flashlight, pin worms. I also blame the devil. It really sucks. The crying, the numbness of arms, the obsessive adding and subtracting to figure out the hours of sleep you will or will not get, letting her cry for too long, giving in and regretting giving in but wishing you would have just given in and put on Super Why 5 hours ago. As awful as it is, it does make me appreciate that it is not always like that anymore. It used to ALWAYS be like that. With little non-sleeping kids, you live like a zombie and you don’t even know it until you come out of the haze 11 years later feeling refreshed. And suddenly you have the time and stamina to foster dogs, sew dresses, and blog like a mother.

I’m sure I’ll miss my babies when they are grown (people always say you do). But here’s some food for thought: What if I don’t? I have an 11-year-old and while I occasionally feel pangs as he grows, I don’t miss him as a baby. Now he’s fun to talk to, has good taste in books and movies, can carry stuff, and knows how to make quesadillas. What’s to miss?I just want to say that I get even more sleep now because I regularly take a nap while Ellen watches a show in the afternoon. I do have to stay up late in order to pick up my son--now 14--from games and activities but for the most part life is getting better. And I still don't miss having a baby. I mean, I like babies and I appreciate them and remember my babies as being cute but I don't miss it. So if I can spare you the guilt you feel when old ladies tell you to "Enjoy this time" I would like to do that. You should enjoy it if you can but if you don't--don't feel bad.

[I remember reading this last year before I was pregnant and thinking, "AMEN! I am fersher not a baby person. I wish I could tell moms of babies that it gets SOOOOO much better! Don't get homicidal/suicidal just yet because it really is just a year or two and then--VOILA!--all better!" Aye, aye, aye...I'm just so bloody TARD. And imbalanced. And appreciative of my husband who is the reason anything around here still functions AT ALL.]

Help, I've Fallen Off the Blog Wagon & I Can't Get Up

I am having the hardest time blogging with my angry baby lately. Everything has slid to the back burner for a full month while he has battled his ear infections, allergic reactions, teething, general hyperactivity, and the bonks and owies that go along with new found mobility. Oh, yes, he started crawling over a week ago, and it wasn't but a few days later he was standing and scooting around furniture. My world crumbled and I am scrambling to baby proof everything again in light of Niles' overachievement (WHY does my last baby have to be the one who does everything earliest when I want him to stay a baby the longest? WHY?!). I have lived in a sleep-deprived daze this whole month, so these photos are a hodge-podge of weird times I remembered to pick up the camera. Here goes... On New Year's Eve (which I still need to blog, hello), Niles slept in the corner of the upstairs king room like this. It was awesome.



Niles tried Ramen Noodles and loved them. Actually, it's a love-hate relationship because he loves them, but it's so hard to get them in his mouth that he usually ends up literally SCREAMING AT those noodles.




Nom, nom.
***
Back on the 12th, I was cleaning house BIG TIME getting ready from Grandma Lyn to come back and stay with us. I put Niles in his walker so he could scoot around and follow me, to his delight. But then when I started dinner, he disappeared for a few minutes. He had made his way into the back bathroom, and this is what I found:
flower bucket dumped? CHECK.
toilet paper unrolled? CHECK.
towels pulled off racks (not pictured)? CHECK.
These antics earned him the much-deserved title of HEIDI JUNIOR!
Same day, James and a free banana from Albertson's
***

Friday, January 13th we drove down to Utah to pick up Grandma Lyn at my mom's house. On Saturday, my sibs and cousins came over to celebrate her birthday EARLY with a surprise party.

Here's my cutie hubs with Gram after a yummy enchilada dinner and a delicious Costco cake.


pretty cake for pretty gram

Addie & Niles at Nana's back door.

sweet little chappy cheeks!

Cousin Brent taking pictures of James & Niles on my lap at Nana's house

Owen and James had fun trying to make Gavin (not pictured) and Niles laugh.
(my bro Sam is in the background there)

Here's Heidi with my cousin she calls Uncle Brent, and my sis Abby. They are showing off their black chucks (they all have the same shoes). Brent's amazing wife, Autumn, is hiding behind Heidi there, which is a shame because she is radiantly lovely and 7+ months pregnant with dear baby Ruby. Autumn had seen me earlier that day and worked her Massage Dimensions magic on my broken arm ("It's your thumb," she said confidently as she proceeded to chase the pain right up my arm and out my chin and scapula. "The thumb is a part of a large system, and when it gets out of whack, it hurts all the way up to your neck--are your neck and sternum bothering you, too?" I was stunned, as I'd been having a hard time swallowing the past 2 days. And it was all because of MY THUMB?) She is A. MAZE. ZIIING! If you hurt and it's not going away, she's your fixer, I swear. Plus she has this cute husband and son, and soon, a daughter!

Nana gave James some soap crayons, so he had fun in her tub that night.

Drawing Dinos (of course)

***

We had planned to stay in Utah until Monday afternoon, but the weather reports had a huge winter SNOWPOCALYPSE passing through our path Sunday night and we didn't want to travel through that storm nor its aftermath. So we SADLY packed up our stuff and left early Sunday morning. We got home in the evening in time for dinner, just as it started snowing again in Livingston, and enjoyed a quiet MLK Day at home watching the snow. When I took the kids to school on Tuesday, it was so windy, the snow was blowing off the mountains making all the air so sparkly like this:

That white mist is actually blowing snow and it was magical.

***

Heidi Junior/ NILES learned to stand up in his crib. Here he is yelling at me while I laid and read with James on James' bed--jealous much, stinker?

Such a cutie punk

Speaking of cutie punk, sometimes he makes a huge mess at dinner and goes right into the sink with the dishes.

It's fun in 'ere.

Addie with Niles

Finally captured ANGRY BABY FACE...love it.

Look at all the yum we got for $15 from Bountiful Baskets this week. We are quite enjoying that program, but I miss the bread this week!

Last but never least, here are my two boys snugglin'. So sweet.

***

I will FINALLY post some New Years pix later this week, as well as a few shots of Gram's Birthday celebration on Monday. She really appreciated the calls and cards you sent--THANK YOU for making her day special. See ya!