Life's A Dance

The song goes:

Life's a dance you learn as you go
Sometimes you lead, sometimes you follow
Don't worry 'bout what you don't know
Life's a dance you learn as you go

Pretty much sums up my life right now. I find that the more I think I know, the more I have to learn.

I think I shall hiatus for a bit, as I'm learning and growing as a parent. This life-with-two-thing is difficult for me right now. I'm learning who Ruby is and how she is different than Ira. And I'm learning that it's okay for her to be different than Ira. Ira was an easy baby, Ruby is not. I'm trying to embrace that.

I wish I was the type who could document my thoughts/feelings as I go, but I've found that I can't. Some can, and I wish I was that type, because I think it's incredibly helpful to read back over to see how one has changed and grown. But this "public" forum is not the place for me to do that. I'm too self-conscious of a person for that. You see, I read all you other moms' blogs and I feel like I never measure up. I play the comparison game - and that is just. not. healthy. And I feel like people read my blog and judge me by what I say or do. And I know that it's just my self-doubt and insecurities, but still - it's my perception -and it's not what I need right now. It's driving me crazy, quite honestly.

So this is farewell for now. Hopefully I'll return to the blogging world someday. Until then - God be with you!

Furlough

On September 17, Andy found out from his employer that he would be on temporary furlough again due to lack of work (He'd been furloughed for 3 weeks in January as well.) As I'm writing this (on Oct. 19) he is still at home. This isn't something we ever thought we'd face, but we are trusting that God has a plan for us. I really don't know what else to say, other than just keep us in your prayers. Thanks!

If you pick a peck of peppers...

If you pick a peck of peppers, there sure are a lot of peppers to pickle! Our pepper plants have been insanely successful this year, so to date, we have put up 24 pints of pickled peppers (which is actually a peck and half, for those nerds who know that a peck is 8 quarts.)

The canner and I are becoming better friends now, and I really feel like I'm getting the hang of it all. We certainly have used it a lot this year! 24 pints of pickled peppers, 10 half pints of pepper jelly, 5 pints of bread and butter pickles, and 8 quarts of applesauce have all been through the canner this year!

Here are some canning and produce pictures for your visual pleasure!

Getting everything ready for pickling peppers

Our knife-skills have definitely gotten lots of practice lately!

We capped and froze these babies to make stuffed green peppers at a later date, when we have more time!

Fall Fest

Our little town had their Fall Festival the weekend of September 25th. We attended with Andy's parents and his brother's girlfriend and their 2 kids.

After the parade passed us, we all went to the playground to play. One minute, Ira was on the equipment, the next minute, he was nowhere to be seen. Andy, Marilyn and I calmly started looking around, knowing that he couldn't have gone too far because we had all just seen him. But we COULD NOT find him. We yelled his name several times and got no response. At that point my heart started pounding and I got really scared. There weren't very many people in the park yet, but there were enough people there, and enough tents set up with crafts and such, that you couldn't see very far, and we certainly couldn't see Ira. Finally, (after what seemed like forever, but I think it was only a minute or two at the most) I heard Andy yelling that he had found him.

Here's what happened. Ira was playing on this 4 person bouncy thing with 3 other kids and one of the kids' mom. She asked her daughter if she wanted to go see the caboose, and Ira tagged along with them. The caboose is across the sidewalk where all the vendors were lined up with their tents, so obviously we couldn't see him. Luckily when Andy found him, the mom was still with him and said that she realized that he was "lost" so she was going to stay with him until he found his parents. God bless her! We took Ira right home to figure out what to do.

Right or wrong, here is how we handled the situation: on the walk home, Ira just kept saying, "but mom I was on the caboose" - you could tell he didn't get what he'd done or how serious it was. So I asked Ira (about a block from our house) if he could see our mailbox (which is around the corner from our house and where we were walking) He said he could (right!) So I said, let me go to the mailbox, and you see if you can see me. So Ruby and I ran ahead to the mailbox, while Andy stayed with Ira. The whole way to the mailbox, Andy was asking Ira where I was "at the mailbox" was his response. Well, much to his surprise, when they got within sight of the mailbox, Ruby and I were nowhere to be seen. According to Andy, he could feel Ira's grip on his hand tighten and see his face get scared when he couldn't see me. We told him that that was just like how we thought he was at the playground, but when we looked, he wasn't there. And we got scared too.

Then we went inside and sent Ira to his room to think about what he did and why it was wrong. He stayed in there for a good while (and missed making pirate hats - which he'd really been looking forward to, and riding some rides in the meantime.) Finally, Andy and I went in and talked to him about it all. From my perspective, it seems like he understood the gravity of the situation as much as you could expect a 4 year old to. He decided that staying close to us for the rest of the day would be a good idea.

Something like that happening definitely knocks your confidence as a parent down to NOTHING, let me tell you!

When we finally met up with Andy's family at the park, Ira had missed a good hour and a half of fun, which Andy and I felt like was entirely appropriate for the situation.

We ate lunch, then I went home to put Ruby down for a nap while the kids rode the rides, so Andy took lots of pictures for me. Ira and Hayden had a blast riding the carnival rides. Much to all of our surprise, Ira was the daredevil on the "big kid" rides and Hayden was scared. (To give you some perspective, Hayden was the kid who at 1, thought it would be a good idea to jump off of Grandma Orpha's porch pillar- a good 7-8 feet off the ground.) So yeah, it was a surprise for all of us!

Ira and Hayden

Sara was nice enough to ride the "big kid" rides with the boys.

Andy even rode the Sizzler with Ira. (I had an opportunity to later in the day, but was afraid I would puke!)

Notice how trim Andy is getting! He has lost 25 pounds over the last 4 months! I am SO proud of him!

Ira and Hayden got their faces painted. Ira wanted a checkered flag, but the lady told him that she only knew how to make hearts, so he requested a red heart with a pink middle and an orange heart with a brown middle. Hayden got red and blue hearts.

Ira, Andy and I on the Tilt-a-Whirl

I know it's blurry (the camera focused on the bar) but it's the only picture of all three of us on the Tilt-a-Whirl. Have you ever tried taking picture of people on carnival rides? It is NOT EASY!

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner

Every Thursday at noon, Andy's Grandma Gladys makes a fried chicken dinner for any kids, grandkids, and great grandkids that can make it. Mind you she has 8 children, 43 grandchildren, and 62 great grandchildren (with another one on the way, no not us.) Typically, there are "only" 20-25 people there to eat fried chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, peas (which you must put on top of your mashed potatoes), homemade bread with homemade sandplum jelly, lettuce salad, and homemade dessert with ice cream.

Grandma Gladys is an AMAZING woman who will be 88 years young in November. We have been blessed to get to attend "Chicken Dinners" for over four years now. It really is an establishment. So on 9/16, I decided to take some pictures. I didn't get any of the actual meal, but I do hope to take more in future weeks. You have to be kind of sneaky though as Grandma Gladys doesn't really like having her picture taken.

Grandma with great grandbaby #58 or 59

4 of the 7 great grandbabies born this year

Again the four babies, this time with their in-utero cousin, Noah (who was actually born 6 days after this picture)

Ah Hail...

We had a CrAzY hail storm on 9/15. Fortunately it did not hail in our small town. Unfortunately, we were not home when it happened. We were at my parents' house right smackedy smack in the middle of it! I have honestly never seen ANYTHING like that. The hail was softball size. It hit the ground so hard that it left craters and sent mud splashing up onto the windows of the house. That being the case, imagine what it did to our car! It was bad, but it could have been much worse. There was no glass broken on our car and no one was injured, so really we were very fortunate. Here are some pictures of the damage.

Slightly Unconventional

I had to laugh when I looked out the dining room window to see Ira playing with his soccer goal like this:


And because I thought the screen was slightly distracting in the previous photo, I removed it so that I could snap another shot. You may whistle at my clean windows if you wish. Before you get all in awe or anything though, you should know that I think that's only the 3rd time I've cleaned them since we moved in.

Getting there!

As predicted in a previous post about Ruby, she is getting awfully close to pulling up in these pictures taken on 9/14!

Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall

Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who's the fairest of them all?




I'm pretty sure it's our little Ruby Roo, that's who!

A moment of silence please...

On Sunday, September 12, the Catholic School that Ira will be going to had an open house after Mass. We decided to go over to see the school (Andy went there, I'd never seen it though) and let Ira see his classroom and meet his teacher for next year.

I love the little school and think that it'll be a great place for Ira. The kindergarten teacher seemed really nice, and I asked her what times kindergarten was (we were still unsure about whether to send Ira to morning or afternoon kindergarten.) I'm not sure if it was entirely visible to everyone else in the room, but I'm pretty sure that my heart shattered on the floor when she said, "Oh we go all day now!"

A moment of silence for me while I pick up the pieces of my broken heart please...

Now, I understand in my head (and as a former teacher) the "reasoning" behind all day kindergarten. There are not enough hours in the day (especially in half-day kdg.) to cover all of the topics that students are required by the state to know. However, I vehemently disagree that the solution is making kids (especially 5 year olds) go to school for longer. The state needs to loosen up their requirements for one thing. And throwing money and additional time at our schools has done nothing to improve the quality of education that our children are getting. I would argue that kids today are dumber than ever because of the "quality education" the state supposedly provides (and forces all who want to be accredited to provide as well.) I just think that it is totally unnecessary and quite frankly unhealthy for 5 year-olds to be in formal schooling for 8 hours every day. And I think that the reason it is so common for schools to have it is mainly to provide daycare, which is just ridiculous. A good portion of the population is being punished so that another portion of the population can have free daycare for their 5 year-olds. It's just wrong!

I have given some thought to home schooling Ira, but right now, I really don't think it's God's will for us to do that next year. So slowly but surely, I am trying to come to terms with Ira being gone all day next year. Again, trying to let go and let God...

Our State Fair is a Great State Fair!

On Saturday, September 11, our family went to the State Fair. It really never occurred to me (living only an hour or so away from where it's held) how lucky we are to be able to attend our State Fair. I guess I never thought about the fact that for some people it's 3-4 hours away - something they might never make the drive for... I don't really know what made me think about it, but it made me grateful for the times that we've gotten to go. I LOVE going to the fair!

It was really exciting (and a little nerve wracking) for the 4 of us to get to go. It was a beautiful day, so the Fair was absolutely PACKED! We talked with Ira about what to do if he got lost (not something I even wanted to think about, but something I figured it would be smart to talk about nonetheless.) We also put a piece of paper in his pocket with our names and my cell phone number and told him that if he couldn't find us, that he should give that to an adult at one of the booths. Again, scary to think about, but you can never be too careful!

Luckily, he did a very good job of staying close to the stroller, and we had an AWESOME day. We got to see my friend's band play four songs in one of the arenas. Ira was positively enamored with the whole band set-up. And Ruby, well, I think we have a music lover on our hands. She spent the entire time we were there jumping on my lap. I was afraid the loudness of it all would scare her! Not a CHANCE, she absolutely LOVED it!!! We often joke that Ira and Ruby are going to have a band when they're older. Now wouldn't that be cute?

After seeing the band, we went to see the exhibits. The buildings were really crowded, but we went through enough of them to get Ira loaded up on tattoos, pencils, and bookmarks. (That was always my FAVORITE part of the fair when I was a kid.) After the exhibits, Ira got to get inside a real Army tank. He thought that was pretty cool, for sure!




Then we saw that the National Guard had a FREE Jousting Moonwalk thing where 2 people could joust each other while standing on pedestals. Ira really wanted to do it, but of course, he didn't really have anyone to do it with. Being the goofball that I am, I told him that I would joust him. I think the National Guardsman thought I was a little crazy when he asked who Ira was going to fight and I said "is it alright if I fight him?" It was a loads of fun and I'm sure hilarious to anyone watching to see a 6'1" woman fighting a 40" little boy. Oh well!

This was Ruby's face while Ira and I were jousting

We ate some yummy gyros, then decided we'd let Ira pick one ride to go on. He picked the "Fun Slide" Seriously... who, with all those awesome rides at the Fair, picks the fun slide?!! My son does, that's who. So we let him do that. He slid down once, then just picked up his rug and started walking back up the stairs. He was halfway up the stairs before the ride-operator told us that you only get to go down once. He (the ride dude) was nice about it and said, "he got me!" And let him go down one more time.


After the slide, Ira kept telling us he wanted to go in the haunted house. We told him how scary it was, but he continued to tell us that he wasn't scared (rrrriiiiiight...) Well, as we were walking past it (to go to some more exhibits.) We saw two guys in costumes standing outside the haunted house "greeting" people. So I carried Ira over to tell them hi. He was okay with the dude in the scream mask, but then he saw the guy in the ogre mask. At first he just looked at him, then (as if it took a second to process) he got terrified and started crying. I was definitely glad that I was holding him! And you know, as hard as it was too see Ira so scared, I'm kind of glad that he had that experience. He's been a little cocky lately and I think this was a good, hard lesson to learn about being too big for your britches.

Ira was really good the rest of the afternoon and evening, so we surprised him by letting him pick one more ride to go on. This time he picked the hot air balloons. He thought it was pretty cool stuff to get to go on a ride all by himself.




Ruby did an awesome job just catnapping in the Ergo carrier throughout the day, and when we finally left the fair at like 10 o'clock, she and Ira were both asleep within a few blocks of the fairgrounds.

It's hard to believe that when we (hopefully) go to the fair next year that Ruby will be 18 months old! (I remember going last year with her in my tummy!) Time just flies by so quickly!

Story Hour II

On September 9th, Ira started his second year of story hour. A little town nearby has a really awesome Story Hour program that I talked about last year here.

Ira couldn't wait for Story Hour to start back up again, and especially with him reading now, I was really excited for him to get to check out new library books each week. He checked out "Hop on Pop" and was able to read every word to me.

I don't even want to think about the fact that next year these front door pictures will be for his first day of kindergarten!!

I thought the first one was too funny not to share. Andy says that we'll pull it out for the Senior Slideshow here in about 14 years. We seem to have a lot of those kind of pictures in this house... (I smell a blog post!)

Movin' & Groovin'

So holy cow - the day after her 6 month birthday, Ruby decides that the Kleenex on the floor next to the trash can is worth CRAWLING to! Aaaagh! I cannot believe that my 6 month old is CRAWLING! She definitely seems to be running on the early end of all those gross motor skills! Let me guess... she'll be pulling up by 7 months...

I know that a lot of parents aren't too excited to have their little ones mobile (especially that early) but you know what, I'm excited about it. And I'm excited for her. It warms my heart to see her crawl over to Ira and start playing with him and whatever he's playing with (and he is such a good sport about it too!) It also amazes me to watch her spot something and try to crawl for it. We had tried to keep things pretty baby-proof when we moved in (hoping that we would have another little one) so there hasn't been a ton of adjusting in that sense. Mainly, we just have to be better about putting things away and not leaving them on the floor (shoes, plastic bags, crayons, etc.)

So in case you hadn't put it all together, the week surrounding Ruby's 6 mo. birthday was a big one. In that week, she managed to: learn how to go from laying down to sitting, took a bath in the big tub without her bath chair, wore pigtails for the first time, ate solid foods for the first time, and crawled. Wowza! What a week!

She eats!

On her 6 month birthday, Ruby got to try eating solids for the first time. We started her on rice cereal and boy did she take right to it! I think she probably ate several tablespoonfuls her very first go at it! Ira is thrilled that she's eating baby food now. He loves to help feed her and LOVES having her sit in the highchair next to him at mealtimes. It is just so precious to see their sibling love growing and growing!

In her first week of eating, she's already up to eating rice cereal in the morning and in the evening. On 9/10 she even "refused" to nurse at lunch time (even though I knew she was hungry) so I thought I'd put her in her high chair and see if she wanted to eat. Sure enough... she just wanted rice cereal... Ah girls... why do I not remember Ira being this opinionated at such an early age. It is really amazing to see the differences in their personalities already! She is still nursing well too. I can't imagine what her growth will be like over the next month! Now if she'd just start sleeping through the night...

Piggies

Little Miss wore her first pigtails on 9/4/10. I managed to not get a picture of them that day though, so I put them in again on her 6 month birthday. Thought you'd enjoy the cuteness!

Ruby 6 month stats

I absolutely can't believe that my little girl is 6 MONTHS OLD!! Where has the time gone?!

Anyway, here are her stats:

Height: 26"
Weight: 17 lbs. 3 oz.

At 6 months, Ruby:
-is insanely close to crawling (She'll move her hand one stride forward but then she falls down)
-despite not being able to "crawl" she is crazy fast at scooting/army crawling to things that she wants
-can sit herself up from laying down on her tummy
-sticks her tongue out
-chews on her gums
-wakes up 2-3 times during the night to nurse
-sleeps about 12 hours at night
-takes 2 (sometimes 3) naps during the day
-is ready for bed around 7:30
-has found her pterodactyl voice (she must have inherited it from her brother!)
-babbles "d", "n", "da", and "eh"
-does not like to lay still for diaper changes
-gets upset if you take something that she was playing with (shoes, newspaper, underwear...)
-still likes to be swaddled for naps and bedtime
-blows raspberries when she is tired (crazy, but true!)