Last night at bedtime...

I tucked all the girls into bed. As usual Yaya came out two minutes later. I told her she needed to go back to bed. She explained to me, "I can't go to bed because I am not tired. That is the truth and I tell the truth!"

Clearly I have a problem

So today at the store I was in line checking out. Naomi was with me and Heidi was sitting in the front of the cart. She started wiggling around and then stood up. I had a tight grip on her shirt and I wasn't worried because the kid has great balance. She's been walking for a full month now. Anyway, I was running my card through the machine (and still holding on to Heidi) when I heard two ladies yelling. I'm used to hearing little people yelling so my natural instinct is to tune it out. But it is also my natural instinct to tune back in when I hear someone yell "mom!" And the next thing I heard was one of them yelling, "Mom!! You're baby is going to fall out of your cart!!!" I looked around for some poor child who must be dangling from the cart by his toenails, or some tragedy that would solicit such a reaction from these women. Nope. They were yelling and pointing at me and my baby who was standing very safely in my cart. Unfortunately my defensive instincts took over at that point and I shot them a dirty look and said, "I have it under control." I finished my transaction and exited the store.

Here's my problem. Rather than assuming that these women, although completely spazy and overreacting, had my best interest at heart, I assumed they thought I was completely incompetent and couldn't figure out how to take care of my own kid. In their defense, they probably couldn't see my iron fisted grip on the back of her shirt. And yes, I was probably rude and could have thanked them for very obviously bringing this perceived safety hazard to my attention...but I just got mad. Is this just a primal motherly instinct? Am I the only one with this problem? Am I just amazingly insecure? What would you have done?

Growing up is hard to do

Leah got to spend a week in Hillsboro at her Grandma Ingrid's house. After a day I was missing her and made the mistake of calling her to say so. Apparently she had been happy and just fine until I called. I'm sure it didn't help that her sisters wanted to talk and broke into tears, sobbing that they missed her and wanted her to come home. Leah lost it after that and it took an hour of consolation, and an additional tear filled phone call from her later that night to convince her that she would be just fine and we could come get her anytime she wanted.

After that I didn't call again :) Leah ended up having a great time and got lots of practice riding a two wheeler which she has now mastered and is very proud of! And once she got home, Leah wasted no time re-establishing the pecking order...with her on top.

True...

A conversation between Yaya and myself

Yaya-Can we go to our friend's house?
Me-After your dad gets back.
Yaya-Why can't we go now?
Me-Because Heidi is asleep and we can't leave her home alone.
Yaya-She's not home alone.
Me-Oh really?
Yaya-Uh uh. God.

Bloggers Block

I am experiencing Bloggers Block. I have a million things to write about and for some reason every time I sit down I draw a blank. B-L-A-N-K

city mouse/country mouse

Sunday evening Lars got another random impulse to go camping on the beach. This time I didn't fight the urge, I just went with it. We had learned from the last time and bought a tent and sleeping bags so at least we were well equipped...or so we thought! As we were packing, I asked Lars if he had checked the weather. He said No, It's so hot here I'm sure it's the same there. Wrong. The closer we got to the beach, the thicker the cloud cover and the stronger the wind. When we got out of the car at the camp ground, we could see our breath. Of course we didn't pack for this type of weather, so everyone just layered all the clothes we had brought and wrapped up in blankets.

Lars and Becca got the tent up with Leah's help while I hung out in the car with the rest of the girls. We blew up the air mattress and got Heidi's bed set up while Lars started a fire and boiled some water for some hot apple cider. Inside the tent Becca, Naomi and Leah slept like sardines on the air mattress. Lars had one sleeping bag, Yaya and I shared the other, and the Heidi baby slept in her port-a-crib. The girls all laid down and fell asleep quickly but I can't say I got much sleep myself. It was so amazing to hear the water swell, the wave crash on the shore, the wind blow through the trees and then feel the tent shake. It was this cycle over and over throughout the night. It was really neat but also a little bit scary to know that it would just take one giant wave and we would all be carried out to sea. I suppose it reminded me just how small we are in this great big world.

Lars setting up the tent, Leah helping and Yaya dodging flying tent poles

The next morning, thanks to the cloud covering, the girls slept until eight o'clock. I was anticipating a five thirty awakening with the birds, so I was pleasantly surprised! We took down camp, walked the beach and then loaded up. Lars drove us by a yurt on the way out so now I officially know what a yurt looks like in real life. We drove up the coast to Tillamook and took Becca through the cheese factory. Of course we had to sample the ice cream as well! Then we continued north to Cannon Beach. We went to a couple shops and to "Mo's" for some world famous clam chowder. After some time on the beach we got back in the car and drove to Hillsboro where we stayed Monday night.

Me and Becca at the Tillamook Cheese factory

Heidi and Yaya at "Mo's" eating world famous clam chowder

Becca, Me and Heidi at Cannon Beach, Haystack Rock

Heidi's little hand in the sand

Heidi getting a full sensory beach experience

Yaya next to her sand art

Naomi making a sand angel

Tuesday we met our cousin for lunch at the most spectacular Greek restaurant and then took Becca to 23rd street in Portland. It's a whole street filled with great little shops and fun places to eat. We walked and shopped until the girls were ready to pass out then had dinner back in Hillsboro and took Becca to the airport. It was a fun trip! We are so glad she came!

Becca, Yaya and Naomi on giant pigs. What else?

Becca Naomi and Yaya. Posers.

(If you are wondering why Leah isn't in any of the pictures, it's mostly because now she gets embarrassed and doesn't want to be in them unless she is well groomed. Apparently, most of the time she doesn't feel she is quite up the those standards. Who knew it would start so soon?)

4th of July

Leah



Becca, Leah, Heidi, Naomi and Yaya at the parade. It was HOT!

Yaya and Leah. Fire trucks. 'nuf said

A very hot and grouchy miss Heidi

The 4th of July was a fun day! We went to the park and looked around at the booths and listened to some music. Then we watched the parade. Yaya wore her "party" dress. She just sat on the side of the road under her little umbrella and charmed people into giving her candy. She didn't have to run around and fight other kids for it. People literally just walked up to her and handed her hand fulls of candy, balloons, and little toys. She's such a little ham.

In the afternoon Lars stayed inside with the girls to keep cool, and Becca and I went down to the waterfront park with the Heidi baby and listened to the band that played at my party. We also walked around to all the booths. We were pansies and watched fireworks from a distance rather than fighting crowds. All in all, another wonderful birthday.

Discombobulated

We put the girls to bed tonight. After about an hour I heard Yaya whimpering. I came out of the kitchen to see Yaya walking down the hallway with her shorts around her ankles and bare buns to the wind. I asked her if she needed to potty. She said "no" and I pulled her little shorts up and brought her back to bed. She started whimpering so I asked her again if she had to use the potty. This time she said yes, got out of bed but started walking into the computer room instead of the bathroom. I had to lead her there by the hand, put her on the toilet and help her back to her room. I'm pretty sure she wasn't awake and I'm glad I heard her before she gave the computer chair a new function.

silver falls

Lars and myself in front of one of the waterfalls

Becca and Me

Heidi and me under the waterfall

Naomi-notice the shoes...this is important later

Leah

Yaya being "Pink Girl" and yes, those are goulashes

Naomi and Leah hand in hand

This waterfall we decided to hike under was one of the easier trails. Since we had three adults we brought three strollers assuming this would make the hike back up easier. You know, hikes are always a good idea on the way down...Anyway, we made it down and under the water fall. It is such a beautiful area. At the bottom Lars wanted to continue on to the next water fall that was half a mile ahead. I was a bit apprehensive, but we all pressed on for about 1/10th of a mile as the paved walk way gradually turned into dirt with rocks jutting up all over. Eventually our caravan came to a halt as pushing the strollers became nearly impossible and was causing mild whiplash for those who were riding in them. Becca and I decided that we would just start back up with the girls and Lars could go on to the other waterfall and catch up with us on his way back. So Lars went on and we turned around, Me in the front pushing Heidi, Naomi walking behind, Leah pushing the empty stroller and Becca pulling up the rear with Yaya in her stroller.

After about two minutes I glanced back behind me to see Leah had quickly abandoned the idea of pushing the stroller over the rocks and was lounging, eating pretzels. Becca had folded the stroller and was trying to push Yaya and pull the stroller which wasn't really working either. By this time Naomi was nearly in tears because her shoes that she just HAD to wear (because they matched her outfit) were hurting her feet. No kidding, they were a full size too small, but I guess in her book fashion beat out function. So I ended up putting the folded stroller on the top of my stroller, Naomi on my back and continued pushing Heidi up the trail.

One minute later I hear a sigh from Naomi as she said wistfully, "I wish I was a pioneer. Their clothes are so much better than ours." Yeah. No thanks. One haul up the mountain pushing a stroller and carrying a 45 pound kid on my back was enough for me. I would make a lousy pioneer.

After we made it back up to the top we picnicked next to a nice little stream that we played in to cool down. It was such a lovely afternoon.

Leah, Me, Heidi, Becca, Yaya and Naomi

Me and the Heidi baby

my birthday party

My sister Becca and Myself

Me with my traditional flag birthday cake

the kiddos sitting in front of the band, clapping

Lars with his mom, Ingrid and the Heidi baby

Becca rockin' to the music, Lars and me

The "Band of Brothers"

the flag pinata Naomi made

My sister Becca flew out to Oregon to help be celebrate my fabulous 30th birthday. She got in Wednesday night and my party was Thursday. We spent the day pulling the last minute details together. My friend so graciously let me take over her yard with chairs, tables, a tent, people, pinatas, games and a band. I only had to beg, bribe, coerce, manipulate and plead "The Band of Brothers" to play at my party for about three months. They finally agreed to do it for a marion berry pie-each. Easy enough. (The two brothers are my friend's husbands.) Anyway, tons of my friends were there and Lars's mom, sister + 2 of her kids and brother, wife and their kids showed up. I felt so loved and supported. It was a great way to send off my twenties!

Life Lessons

Lesson 1: Babies and cherries...bad.
Lesson 2: A three year old and gobs of toilet paper...bad. Lesson 3: The phone always rings at the least convenient moment

Last week I went cherry picking with my friend. I spread out a blanket and put miss Heidi baby on the ground while I was picking cherries. I filled one bowl and put it down while I filled another. Well, miss Heidi sampled a cherry and decided it was probably the best thing she had ever eaten. I came back to check on her and discovered that she had eaten half of my bowl of cherries, pits and all. It was probably close to a pound. Now, when you consider she weighs 20 lbs, that's a lot of cherries! No kid need that much roughage.

The next day my friend stopped by and we were standing on my front step chatting when the cherries completed their course through Heidi's digestive system. There are some things a diaper just doesn't stand a chance against. At the same moment Yaya came out of the house crying, "I spilled some water in the bathroom." I told her to grab a towel and wipe it up. She started crying harder and through her tears tried to explain the severity of the situation. "I spilled water from the toilet." So I asked Leah to help her in the bathroom and I would be there in a minute. Leah came running back out holding a wash cloth and yelled, "The toilet is spilling out and it's going to get the carpet wet!"

So my friend left and I ran to the bathroom, threw every bath towel in the closet down on the floor to stop the stream of water from the toilet before it could soak the carpet. I put the Heidi baby in the bathtub because there are just some things wipes don't stand a chance against either. She stood there and screamed while I dug out a plunger I didn't even know we had and plunged a half roll of t.p. down the toilet. I'm not sure why, with buns as small as hers, that Yaya feels the need to use so much toilet paper...but she does. And at that most inopportune moment, while I was plunging, mopping, bathing and changing a baby...the phone rang. How does that always happen?