What's your favorite part of the day?

Well I can tell you right off that my least favorite time is the morning. I seem to be raising 2 1/2 non-morning people. When combined with a non-morning person spouse it makes being out of the house before 8am a wee bit stressful. As in I'd probably rather go have teeth pulled sans Novocaine.

And I tend to hate dinner time. I try to be good and do the sit down family dinner thing. Sort of hard when your oldest is done eating and asking for seconds before you've been able to finish plating your own food. Of course that is on evenings when we are actually serving something that doesn't bring about complaints. But sometimes it all comes together. The food is served and still hot. The kids have their butts planted in their seats and their knees under the table. And I can at least get a few bites in before the calls for seconds.

But bedtime...I try to be the good mom and follow a bedtime routine. But with three kids sometimes its a bit rushed. Bathroom time tends to cause the most trouble. Despite being told it's teeth brushing time EVERY NIGHT for nearly 5 years I still get "I don't wanna brush my teeth". Now they are old enough to understand that the tooth fairy doesn't collect rotten teeth. Sometimes I can sweet talk (ok...really bribe) the oldest into reading to them. That's a good deal for all around - I get help and she gets in some extra reading time.

I think it's the anticipation to the end of the day that makes this my favorite time. If it's been a particularly trying day I'm nearly giddy with excitement and I have to stop myself from saying "hurry, hurry, hurry". Just thinking that thought makes me think of Alice in Wonderland, a movie I haven't seen in forever.

Bedtime means I can sort of put the house back together. Tackle the dishes, the laundry, maybe get dinner put away finally. Maybe try to sort what I can for tomorrow. And if I am really lazy I forget all the above and bury myself in a book...or online. One thing I don't typically think about - is how insane the next morning is really going to be trying to get 4 people out the door by 8am. Cause if I had to remember that every day, well it would just steal some of the bedtime joy. ;)

onto 2012

In an attempt to keep myself "up-to-date" I took a minute to review last year's "goals" for myself.

Um...I think I managed to do a few of them at least a few times. Of course moving and going to work full time didn't really help matters.

So what about this year...well I think I will have to get back to myself, and you on that one. I'd say probably they will look a lot like 2011's. Only I will get to add kindergarten prep into that. Because kindergarten is only 7.5 months away (not that I'm counting).

Winter holidays

Here it is...the third week in January?! I think I can say we have successfully survived the end of 2011.

We spent Christmas morning at home as a family. The kids were very excited the night before to have gotten video messages from Santa. Not to so excited to have them discover they were on the naughty list. But thanks to time and technology they were back on the nice list after playing nicely and cleaning their rooms in a record amount of time. This year Alexa read the traditional "T'was the Night Before Christmas" to the twins. They then put out a note and pictures, along with some whoopie pies and milk.

I have to say that this year was even more fun than last. With the twins now being 4 they understand so much more. And seeing their faces as the fact that "Santa" had arrived dawned on them was fun to watch. They tore into their stockings and seemed to actually take the time to enjoy what they found in them. Then it was onto gifts followed by a giant breakfast.

We woke up to snow Christmas morning. Our first decent storm this winter season. It made for tricky driving to my mom's for dinner. But thankfully we don't have as far to drive anymore! My panic attack quickly passed once we were safely inside the house. (and the roads don't have to be that bad to induce a panic attack - I am a wussy Maine driver.) We had a wonderful dinner with my mom, brother, sister-in-law and nephew.

Then it was back home again to snuggle into beds. And a long vacation week. Well...not really all that long for me because I had to work at the daycare and then the Superintendent's Office. So it was long for Chris who watched Alexa instead of making her go to daycare. By Thursday Jake had enough of daycare and refused to go. Can you really blame him? Of course I discovered when I got home that all they did was play Wii and DSi.

We spent New Year's Eve with our oldest friends and their kids. It had been since July since we were all able to get together and I had been sick with strep so I didn't really get to see much of them. Everyone had a fun time. The kids didn't get to stay up to watch the ball drop but we did let them have a little sparkling grape juice and blow horns before they went off to bed.

Our gift giving and celebrations were finalized last week after a wonderful Sunday at my sister-in-law and hopefully future brother-in-law's. It was hard dragging the kids out of there to go home! I'm not sure if it's because they didn't want to leave K & S...or because they didn't want to leave the dog behind...

first time for everything...

This weekend Elizabeth and I got to experience a first in our house - head lice. I started checking heads on Friday after a kid at daycare went home with them. And I only knew about this fact because I've been working at the daycare in the mornings. Apparently the child that had them has been having an issue for quite some time and goes home once a week with them.

Ugh. But I am trying to stay as optimistic as I can. A ratio of 2 to 5 isn't bad. And the little miss looks clean. As for myself...I am sort of hoping and praying I am doing a good enough job checking my own head. Which is NOT easy to do. But when you have a spouse that thinks it's icky...well, let's just say if I wouldn't risk everyone getting them I'd wish them on him!

Today I washed my hair twice with coconut scented shampoo after reading that scent supposedly helps deter them. Yet I still smell like a strange combination of vinegar and rubbing alcohol.

And I've learned a lot about them. I always knew it was best not to share hats. But I never thought about the fact that they crawl from one head to another. And that having hair down creates a sort of "bridge" for them. So you are more likely to see all of us with our hair up, or short. And I won't be putting my head too close to any kids just in case. Cause I've skeeved myself out and am hoping we've seen the last of these critters at our house. And so is my washer and dryer, cause they were put through their paces!

8 is great

For our family the holiday season is a little extra busy thanks to arrival of Alexa the week after Thanksgiving. Given that her original due date was the 18th I guess I'd rather have it closer to Thanksgiving than Christmas, as does she.

The festivities started off with a surprise trip to Portland. Granted, once we headed in that direction some of the surprise was gone. But they didn't know what we'd be doing there! And it was a busy one...

We attend Christmas at Hadlock Field first. The kids got to decorate baseballs, see Santa arrive via helicopter on the field, make a smore and stand in line for Santa. I say stand in line because it was crazy long and we knew that he'd be making a visit closer to home with much shorter wait times.

After that we hit the mall for a little shopping and some lunch. Then tried to fool the kids into thinking we weren't going to Chuck E Cheese even though we were walking right by it. It sort of worked. But what they didn't know is that they'd be getting to see their aunts, the significant others, and Grammy K. Everyone had fun playing games, although there was a little grumbling among the adults about another adult at CEC (not with us) that kept scoring loads of tickets. Jealous grumbling I say.

Then it was off to the hotel. The twins and I stayed behind to eat pizza and watch loads of tv. Chris and Alexa went to see the Red Claws in action, up close thanks to a pair of courtside tickets Chris won. Alexa had a good time - especially the fact that there was no waiting in line for food, the waitress came to you.

We got home in time the next day to dump our luggage and packages, and grab the party supplies before heading over to the Samoset for her actual party. Which was at the pool and included lots of kids! They burned off loads of energy swimming, jumping, and splashing before having some snacks, cake and presents.

Given that Alexa repeated to me for at least another week how great it was - I'd say it was a success.

Now how do I feel about my "baby" turning 8? I can tell you that in a lot of ways she's more mature than I was at 8. But I think that is how all kids seem to be these days. I know I didn't sass quite so much...or at least not until I was older.

She continues to be an excellent reader, up to nearly 4th grade. Her favorite books to read are Junie B Jones, Magic Tree House, Misty of Chiconteague, and Ramona. She's also been delving into the Little House on the Prairie series - books I loved myself as a kid. She's a wonderful writer - with imagination, good spelling, and neat penmanship. She's also a much better artist than I will ever be. She likes to learn and is good at math and science also. She's a good friend to just about everyone she knows and does her best to be nice to them even when they might be mean. Now if that could just carry over at home...where she tends to be a little mouthy. I suppose I could say she's independent. And she's thoughtful. She was so excited to have used some of her own birthday money to buy gifts for her brother and sister for Christmas. If only she'd realize she could possibly earn an allowance by doing her chores without being told...

All in all I think she's one pretty special and unique child. Even when she's driving me crazy...making me scream and pull my hair out.