Happy Anniversary 6-1-10

Happy Anniversary 6-1-10

Hope's 9th Birthday

Hope's 9th Birthday

Johanna Joy's first month

Johanna Joy's first month

Malia Jane Hanson 6 years old

Malia Jane Hanson 6 years old

Today our baby girl turned 6. It's amazing how fast these years have flown by. She is a delight in every sense. Our Malia is bright, joyfilled, strong, enthusiastic, driven, outgoing, friendly, tender hearted, compassionate, and whimsical. She is such a fun kid to have around. What a blessing she has been in our life. Happy Birthday sweet girl! We love you!!

I LOVE toys!!

I love toys.  I admit it.  I pour over toy catalogs, love to visit a toy store as much as my kids do, and take painstaking efforts to care for toys.  There is actually a time in my history when I rubber banded Barbie shoes onto Barbie feet so as to not lose the shoes.  To qualify, I only love quality toys.  Toys that have lasting value, that encourage imaginative or creative play.  Toys that are well made and time tested.  Just a walk down the Target toy isle does not make me happy, but playmoblie, lego, train sets, American girl dolls, blocks, construction sets, puppets, cars and trucks, cooking sets, dress-up...well, you get the idea.  I love those things.

The problem is that I live in an 1100 sq foot house with 4 other people already (and 3 fish, 2 cats and a dog).  Another little person is about to make an appearance.  The girls share a room, Erik and I share a room (of course) and Reese currently is king in his own bedroom.  The baby and Reese are scheduled to share space.  However, the current spot for a crib is occupied by a large train table.  A table I love!  Admittedly, I love it more than Reese does.  I'm not sure where to put the train table to accommodate the baby.  

You see, there is no play room , family room, bonus room, or other space to put this table.  It could go in the garage, but that is where toys go to die.  It would never be played with again.  It could go there for a time until the two kids in the room were big enough for bunk beds, but then Reese's window of Train Table Play Time might be closed.  I'm currently negotiating with Erik about the possibility of getting rid of the coffee table and slamming that train table into the living room...but really?  I'm not sure that's the best solution either.

I have friends who are so great about being ruthless with the culling of their family items.  Bags and bags go out each month to Goodwill or consignment stores.  Clutter is managed, space is saved.  I just can't do it.  Ultimately, when the kids go through and choose things to give away, I go back through and choose things to keep.  This is a total problem!

So, any suggestions, tips, helps in making more space and on what to do with the train table...I welcome your comments!  Confessions of an admitted toyaholic voiced here!

Advanced Maternal Age

This is a picture of Hope and me.  She's just a few days old in the NICU and I'm sleep deprived and a bit shell shocked.  Malia and I were looking through old pictures of the babies in our home and I was struck by this one.  Though tired and bedraggled, I look so YOUNG!!!!  So very, very, very young!!!!!  And I was~26.

The first time I entered this parenting adventure I had been married for 5 years, out of college for 5 years, and was in my mid-twenties.  This time...I'm nearly 10 years older, will have been married for 14 years this summer and college is a slur of distant memories!!!  I'm feeling so very old to be a mommy again.  I know that there are many out there that think their 30's are the perfect time to enter motherhood.  I'm not so sure...I just keep thinking about how tired I already am, how spent my body already feels, how many kids I already have, how much more "high risk" I am now.

When this baby goes to kindergarten I'll be 40.  I'll have a 4th grader, a 6th grader and a high school freshman all on this first day of school.  I was once the young kindergarten mom.  Now I'll be that "older, experienced mom" that people slip side glances at and whisper about.  Now I have friends in their 40's and they truly rock them.  They are strong, fit, confident, beautiful, grounded and fabulous women.  I'm thankful to know them and to be counted among their friends.  I just think that might not be my fate.  I think my experience might be more of a beaten down, haggard, dazed and confused person looking for scraps of adult communication and unable to complete sentences.  

Why do I think that?  I will have spent the last 14 years of my life at this point at home with a dependent preschooler hanging around my ankles.  I will be a member of an elementary school PTA for 15 years.  I will have a child at every school at one point...college, high school, middle school and elementary school-thankfully there will be no preschooler at that point!  Yikes.

So here I am diving into the world of sleepless nights, 'round the clock nursing, strollers, car seats on the arm, and sleep training.  The first time I anticipated all of this with wide eyed wonder and unbridled excitement.  Now I know too much.  I'm still excited to meet this little person that will round out and complete our family, but the sense of awe and wonder is missing a bit.  Really, ignorance was such bliss.

A Weekend Alone...

Today, 30 minutes ago, I packed my 3 kids and husband into the mini van with 6 sleds, a duffle bag of snow gear, meals for 2 days, and an arsenal of games, books and DVD's.  They're off to Tahoe with our dear friends the VN's.  A trip that I was supposed to accompany everyone on, but due to pre-term labor symptoms, I was left behind.

I don't really know what to do with myself.  We currently only have one working vehicle.  That would be the mini van that is headed to the mountains.  Our old Jetta is in the driveway, awaiting repairs.  I can't walk anywhere because of the contractions that are caused, so I'm basically homebound.

At this stage in my pregnancy, I have a huge list of things that I want to get done, but I also can't do things like lift, vacuum, or scrub, so my list of projects I can actually tackle is small.  The rare opportunity of having my entire home to myself and no children underfoot is something that I don't want to let pass me by, but I'm wondering what should be done with my time.  Folding mountains of laundry, organizing the paperwork on the desk, becoming and expert on all of the events in the 2010 Winter Olympics, watching back episodes of Glee, reading all of those parenting books I keep meaning to read...I just don't know where to begin.

Here's to hoping this is good time!!!  Maybe I'll train the dog to do something spectacular :)