Mommy's Reluctant Birthday

With childbirth just twenty days behind me, and a Trans-Atlantic voyage/husband's deployment three days ahead of me, the birthday seemed like it should be overlooked this year. Nonetheless, Mom, Husb and the kiddies ensured it wasn't so. Here we are blowing out the candles on the special order cake I put in (brownie star in the midst of homemade orange cake and icing, with dark chocolate shavings). It is good to have Mom in town. Looking forward to another great year.

Newest Catholic in Germany

Clark William was baptized during our Thanksgiving Mass at the Chapel on our Army Airfield here today. The ceremony was small and lovely, our new priest/Army chaplain was touched to be performing the ceremony and I couldn't help but be reminded of the Army chapel in which E and I were married just over six years ago. What a gift, what an ultimate Thanksgiving.

3!

It is sinking in

Pure Contentment

Insta-Middle Child

The Setherade is settling into his role as the middle child/ big(ger) brother. He likes "Baby Carlk" alright, but he doesn't want to have to slow down too much in order to spend time with him. It is sort of like, "ok, I am down here on the floor playing cars, put that baby in my lap. Oh, wait, I got side-tracked by something and left the baby laying on the carpet." We are working on it, day by day. In spite of it all, I definitely see some intense brotherly love on our horizon.

Velvet Vivian

When Vivian refuses to wear anything but a red velvet dress for three days in a row, you know that... it is the softest garment she owns and thereby, suited for holding her newest baby brother!Clark William joined the family at 20:25, Central European Time, on the 8th of November. He weighed in at 8lbs. 14 oz., 21 in. long. The labor was "robust", the German hospital experience was superb, and we are all happy to be at home adjusting to the new rhythms of family life today. Thanks to everyone for your thoughts and prayers.

Great Grandmother Recommends

My maternal grandmother has seven children, whom she birthed healthily. Yesterday in an e-mail, she recommended that I "get down on my hands and knees and scrub the kitchen floor."

Done and done. Still no labor, what 'ya got now, Grannysan?

Wide Load

So, today I am one week overdue. My stomach is large. Our dining room is small. We have had to actually switch my "assigned seat" to the opposite side of the table because I can no longer scoot in far enough for other family members to fit between our kitchen counter and the back of my chair. I am officially a wide load. I need to be off the road. This fact was confirmed this evening, when I was attempting to pilot our family minivan through a narrow section of the, perpetually under-construction, German autobahn near our house and I managed to get too close to a traffic cone type thing on the driver side and took out our side mirror. Totally shattered the glass and caused it to pop out of the shattered plastic housing and dangle alongside the vehicle. The sound was loud and frightening and I had both of my children as well as my mother along to be scared as well.

All I could think, ridiculous as it sounds, is "I shouldn't even be out here running errands, I should be at home, with my infant son in my arms, on a babymoon. If he had arrived on time, this never would have happened." Very rational. Clearly this was the 41 week-old fetus's doing. I think this was officially my first twinge of self-pity. Tomorrow I will attempt to reinfuse my life with optimism. I will attend a baptismal class for the newborn, followed by First Friday Mass and then, hopefully, a romantic datenight with my husband. We will dine on spicy Thai food bookended with a healthy walk both to and from the restaurant - thereby incorporating two of the wives' tales about labor inducing behaviors.

The German approach

This afternoon I had my last appointment with my OB/GYN before she starts the induction of birth on Monday. She assures me that New Guy is not larger than 7.5 lbs and that his heartbeat is "happy" --- her words. I will go in to the hospital on Saturday just for twenty minutes of fetal monitoring, and then if nothing has happened naturally by Monday morning I will take an oral dosage of Cytotec to try and induce labor. They will not resort to Pitocin until several days later, for which I am grateful. Nonetheless, I am not looking forward to this chemical kick-off to my first attempted natural labor and delivery, so please send your prayers for a natural start to labor within the next few days.

Ha Ha

(Less funny when you are the one inside the shirt)

Still in Utero

This guy does not want to be the one to break familial tradition and arrive on our before his due date. Still comfortably nested inside, hoping to go trick or treating within the warm amniotic fluid instead of outside. I am now getting desperate enough to put credence in internet factoids like this:

You're 14 percent more likely to give birth on a Tuesday than on any other day of the week — and least likely to deliver on the weekend.

Due Date

I am so tired of due dates and their anticlimactic roles in our family's history. Vivian had to be induced at 42 full weeks of gestation and Seth made his appearance five days late. So, what was I thinking when we circled this arbitrary date on our family calendars? Nonetheless, I am attempting to focus on the positives here, namely these two:

Uh huh

I could pretend that this picture is a result of Halloween preparations, but, let's be honest, this is par for the course on any old day around here.

Playing Hooky

Place: Viv's bed
Time: 1407 Central European Time.

Shh, don't tell his boss.

Loving a Pumpkin

This October, my family has been loving a human pumpkin:

Our Eldest

Is AWOL Daddy, who turned 30 today, but this post is not about him, but rather our eldest child ---Vivian the 5 year old. As we wait on the brink of welcoming our fifth family member, I often pause to think how different life would have been with a different first child. Ours is as close to a perfect fit as I can possibly imagine. Vivian is excited about life, helpful at all turns, in love with her mischievous brother and even eager to meet the challenge of the next one. She is the consummate big sister.

This little lady has been a part of our marriage almost as long as it has been in existence. She has lived in more houses than she has years under her belt, yet handles each transition with grace and acceptance. Viv has so much of her father in her that to watch them together is magic. Spending time alone with her reminds me of so much that I love about him.

Five is the age of a kindergartner - while this should be daunting or frightening to a young mother, with Viv it seems so natural. She is stepping into her schoolwork and household responsibilities with aplomb, as if it is all only natural. On this birthday, I truly thank God that He blessed us with such a role model for all our forthcoming children to follow... at least as best they can as boys! We love you, Viv.

Grandma Goodness

A big part of my childhood was the ritual of our parents shouting, "package for Daddy/Mommy" when Brendan and I would be fresh from the bathtub. Then we would get delivered into the expectant parent's arms and they would unwrap us ceremoniously and exclaim various ridiculous things.

Well, here we are 20+ years later and Grandma has two new happy, wet packages.

Dedicated School Room?

In a 3-bedroom Army apartment, the chances of having a room which can be devoted solely to schooling are slim. So this is the way we roll -- early morning chocolate chip cookies and _The Three Billy Goats Gruff_ on the kitchen floor. Geeze, I hope I know what I am doing...

For All Those Who Have Said

that I don't look 38 weeks pregnant:

Jenga Block Children

I wonder how high our tower will get?

Brothers

Enjoying his last few days as the youngest one in the house.

The Two Sides of Our Little Man

He was playing sweetly with this little plastic baby, and then, the next thing I knew.... the baby was on a train track! Hmm..

Homeschool Math with Army Dad

My mathematics goal for our first six weeks of homeschooling has been to focus on shapes and patterns. She demonstrated rather complete mastery of the basic shapes and isn't even too shabby at drawing them, so we have been elevating the difficulty level with the patterns we do with her. Today was a super special treat because I had planned to do potato stamping, and then, bonus, Daddy got the afternoon off and he and schoolgirl got to enjoy the activity together. So, seriously, homeschooling totally freaks me out and overwhelms me, but it is days like this that make every other schooling option pale in comparison

Comfortable in His Masculinity

He throws a ball with the best of them, rolls trucks and trains around all day, gets dirty, climbs, bangs, and rough-houses, so why can't a little man enjoy a quality pair of plastic heels every once in awhile? Besides, he is better at walking in these things than I am in the adult-scale version.

Bathed and P.J.'ed

Just the way every mother loves 'em.

Our Biggest Homeschooling Challenge

First Day of Homeschooling

I have decided that it is rather contrived to try and pinpoint "the day we began homeschooling." Simply because the way I intend on administering the home education of our chickadees is in a casual life-is-learning manner with an emphasis on reading and living the faith. In that vein, we have already been engaging in "home education" for several years. Nonetheless, all of the neighborhood buddies headed back to school while we were in Mallorca, so I chose to take advantage of the momentum to introduce Viv to the notion of a predictable hour or so of seated instruction in the morning after our breakfast clean-up.

I chose today as our "official start date" and was blessed that it coincided with a wonderful feast day in the Roman Catholic Faith - the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross. It is basically a day to celebrate the centrality of the cross and the power of the sacrifice and suffering which Christ took on for our salvation. We learned about Saint Helena - Emperor Constantine's bad a#$ mother who went on a lengthy exploration and recovered several pieces of the true cross. Then we made homemade sun-dried tomato basil foccacia bread. Note to self for next year - don't allow the dough to rise for way too long, it will go flat again.

Running Home

We were not this:






excited to be leaving Mallorca, but what a beautiful week was had by all.

Beach Montage

Same Squinty-Eyed Grin, sorry Little Man
"oooohhhh"
the real exploradora

Inflatable Balls

Very helpful when traveling with a 19-month-old boy.

Ostrich

Loving one's children causes one to add items to a vacation itinerary that would never make the "must-see" list otherwise.

Like, for example, Mallorca's famed Wild Animal Safari park.

Sunblock

is very important.
Daddy was even kind enough to provide our family with painful scientific proof of said importance.

* *What a happy place and time to spend our 6th wedding anniversary today* *

Beach Babes

I am a child of the beach. I have met very few people in life who can spend as many continuous hours on the beach as I can. Motherhood, naturally, limits beachtime. However, this vacation revealed that we have two beach babies. What a gift. I am proud to say that there were several days when they outlasted me!

Beautiful British Apartment

We stayed in a one-bedroom apartment in Cala Egos - a quiet town on the southeastern coast of the island. The pool in the courtyard was totally rad.

Mallorca

In the vein of "hurry-there-is-another-baby-coming-we-must-get-the-traveling-out-of-our-system", we recently returned from a weeklong trip to the Spanish island of Mallorca. It has been a dream of mine to visit the Balearic Islands, and my husband allowed me to make it happen! I am going to keep this mainly photographic, and limit myself to seven pictures, one for each day of the trip. Ok, maybe eight.

DAY 1- parking spot inside an old bombproof German bunker in the long-term parking lot at the discount airport from which we departed

Sweet Butterfly Milk

Today Viv and her best friend are having a dress rehearsal of their dance performance entitled "sweet butterfly milk." Here is a video of the creator herself describing the main characters and then performing the title song herself.

Bruges Continued

We enjoyed rich Belgian chocolates

an unforgettable horse-and-buggy tour
and sites with fascinating history like the Basilica of the Holy Blood