Peace

To say that the past few weeks have been stressful for Shelby and I is an understatement. Charlotte being sick, dad being sick, the economy in the tank. Constant worry about our measly 401k losing half of it value, concern about how much it is going to cost to heat our house this winter, the Presidential race and being bombarded with negative ads. Stress of work, taking care of the kids, then the baths, picking up the house, waking up in the middle of the night to feed Maeve.

Tonight was no different than any other night. After dinner dad started cleaning up until Charlotte started causing a ruckus in the other room. He grabbed her, bathed her, brushed her teeth while mom finished the dishes, put away the leftovers, picked up the house, kept Maeve occupied and started a bottle. Exhausting, but that is the nightly routine.

Dad carried Charlotte up to her bed. He turned on a light, laid in the bed with her and read her a story. She then did her prayers and dad turned out the light. She curled up next to him and grabbed his hand. Her soft little hands grabbing his tightly against her chest. She snuggled in under his chin and whispered, "I love you dadda" as she drifted off to sleep.

At that very moment, all the stresses of the world dissolved into nothing but a quiet peace. Nothing but warmth, love, and happiness. A warm child in the protective arms of a parent. Safe, secure, quiet, and loving. At that moment, the feeling of God and his love was overwhelming. Peace in it's purest form.

Slowly the thoughts came back of chores remaining, work, and then it was over. Time to get up, slowly sneak away without waking her up, to head downstairs to finish the responsibilities of the night. To be a parent and the roller coaster ride that it is.


Now a few pictures that are completely unrelated to the story above.

Fridge Artwork Titled: Face to Eat the Leftover Squash by Charlotte Ronan.


Charlotte Ronan napping. Really she is asleep in this picture. She is her mother the bed hogs daughter.



Yes Maeve has a pony tail.


Can you believe the hair?

Diapers and Disco

Babies. Parties. Parties. Babies. They are completely interchangeable and we have the weekend to prove it. Saturday we opened our home to the "Jasmine and Michael's Baby Shower Committee" (Kathy and Nicole). They swooped in and in no time set up a fiesta including food, drinks, decorations, and favors. What did we have to do? Nothing. Nothing at all except provide the space. Hosting a party where you really don't have to do anything is highly recommended. I'm not sure why all parties aren't like this. Makes the whole process stress free.


The 'ol guess the candy bar in the diaper game...

Yes, it is pretty funny.


Yes dear, these are diapers. Get used to them.


We arent sure where this face came from.


Sunday came the much anticipated Baby Loves Disco party in Boston. There is nothing better than taking your kids to a dance club for an afternoon of disco lights, cocktails, and kids snacks. It actually makes you feel like you are not just a parent but a "cool" parent. Where else can you have a drink at the bar while your kid is grooving on the dance floor and NOT feel like someone is going to call child protective servcies on you? And not to mention face painting and tattoos for the kids, eyebrow waxing for the women, and plasma tvs tuned to sports for the guys. Charlotte loved dancing and had to "take some breaks" as she said from all of the running around. We are looking forward to the next party in November.

Kids grooving on the dance floor.

Dance babies, dance.

Downstairs at the Revolution Rock Bar

Mom getting a cocktail in hands free.

Bubble machine, disco lights, and a real DJ? WOO HOO

Upstairs in the chill out lounge at Baby Loves Disco

Charlotte getting a sparkly tattoo

At the bar with a 5 month old? Its ALLOWED!

I cant wait until next month!!!

We are so lucky

We are so lucky to have a hidden artist living somewhere in our house. This artist only draws when we aren't looking, but leaves lots of little artworks throughout our house, all for free! Yes, our resident artist does not charge us for the artwork. Just leaves it for us to enjoy. On the walls, windows, shelves, anywhere the artist feels moved to create. Amazing how lucky we are.

This one is called "Suppressed Bald Man Watching Laughter"



Followed with "Pink Crown in Desperation Deep in Closet Shelves"




And last in the series is "Translucent E Fish Without Judgment"



Oh how our family loves fine art.

Maeve has been getting some lessons on riding the car. Not just any car but the coveted Pink Princess car complete with twirling princesses, flashing lights, and music only a 3 year old princess could love.

"Get up Maeve! I'm going to show you my princess wheels!"



"Maeve, this is Ariel, Snow White, and Sleeping Beauty. And this is where I pretend to put my key in."


Maeve enjoying the twirling princesses.



"Drive it like you stole it Maeve!" Only you should be facing the other way Charlotte.

Fieldtrips and X-Rays dont go together

Chocolate cake and fish. Washing machines and bowling balls. Field trips and X-Rays. These are all things that don't go together. Charlotte joined her class on Friday for a field trip to Trombly Farms in Milford to pick pumpkins, run around in the corn maze, and ride the tractor. Of course, the cold air made her cough only get worse. Add to that running around in the cold air and you have a recipe for one coughing kid.

Unfortunately Charlotte still has a cough. Her doctor had told us to call her if she wasn't better by Friday. So on the way to the field trip, mom called and was told to bring her in for a chest x-ray. Great. Nothing better than a field trip followed up by a chest-xray. So Charlotte enjoyed her time at the farm. Getting lost in the maze. Counting all the pumpkins in Spanish. And going on the hay ride through the fields.

Charlottes class:


Ohh the dreaded corn maze!


Which way to go?


Pumpkins in the pumpkins:


Maeve bundled up:

Enter the x-ray department at the pediatrics office. The technician came out to the waiting room where mom, dad, Charlotte, and Maeve were waiting. We all got up to go with her and she said, "Dad it's pretty small in there, why don't you stay here". Luckily mom spoke up and said, "Charlotte, who do you want to be with you for your X-ray?" Her answer, "Dadda." So there Ms. X-Ray technician. Don't always assume that Dad's should stay back in the waiting rooms. You know fathers should make their children feel safe and secure. Don't underestimate our super powers.

Charlotte did great. She listened intently and followed all the instructions. It literally took less than 5 minutes and we were on our way home.

When we arrived home the doc had reviewed the images and said Charlotte was negative for pneumonia. However, she should start a course of steroids to help reduce any inflammation. Dad is excited thinking she will be the most jacked 3 year old in her school. He is fairly certain her ballet skills will blossom and her soccer ability is going to boom.

Sitting

When dogs sit, we give them treats and clap and praise them and say how wonderfully trained they are. However, when babies sit we sort of say, wow, the baby is sitting, then refocus on efforts to get the baby to crawl and stand and eventually walk. Well I am not going to be that person who merely skims over the fact that his daughter achieved a milestone this week with sitting up, all on her own. Nope. Instead I am going to take thousands of pictures of her sitting. Sitting here. Sitting there. Sitting with items. Sitting without items. Sitting outside. Sitting inside. In fact I am even going to write a letter to her...right now....

Dear Maeve,
On Monday October 13th at the ripe old age of 5 months, you sat up on your own. Yes, you sat with your father on the couch in the evening and watched Cops with him. He didn't have to hold you up from falling. You just sat there unassisted, smiling, watching the boys in blue cuff and stuff some creepy crack head who tried to steal some poor ladies purse, then ran through the woods only to get thrown to the ground and tasered. Oh how we laughed. You and I, sitting together, on the couch. Sitting.

I love you my little magical sitting child. Keep up the great sitting.

Dad

When to call the doctor

One of the hardest parts of being a parent is figuring out what to do when your children are sick. It is so easy to over react to every little thing. Normally by the time your 2nd one comes around you, parents have pretty much seen it all and done it all. Gone are the days of calling the pediatricians office for every sneeze, every bump, every cough.

So it made perfect sense that when Charlotte came down with a cold we did nothing. Virtually everyone we know with kids have colds. Its fall. Kids are back in school. Spreading germs by touching their little grubby hands on things then picking noses, eating food, rubbing eyes. You know how it goes.

Fast forward a week later and Charlotte still has a cold. Coughing like a 90 year old asthmatic. Oh and along the way she had a fever one night. Nothing too bad. Like 100 degrees or something. So what do we do? We give her some children's cold medicine. What happens? She wakes up covered in hives. Great an allergic reaction. So now we call the doctors. What do they tell us? Give her some Benadryl. Hives go away. The cold does not.

Obviously someone is not feeling well.


Knowing we are going away for the weekend, dad puts the request in to mom to calls the doctors, just to get her checked out. She is still coughing horribly (although he assumes a productive cough), but is also coughing so bad at night she makes herself puke. So much fun. So we visit the doctors and she tells us Charlotte has a "touch of pneumonia". A touch of it? What the hell does that mean? Charlotte lucks out and gets her own two week supply of pink antibiotics plus her own inhaler and face mask. Boy is she a lucky girl.

She is still hacking away and will not be going to school tomorrow. And to top things off she has shared her little "gift" with her 5 month old sister. She has her own aspirator to suck the snots out of her head. Such lucky girls.

Pneumonia and all we went away to Vermont for the weekend with Kelly & Dave and the kids. Destination. Oktoberfest at Mt. Snow. Lots of German beer, German Music, and the longest line in the history of the world for German food. What a great thing to do with kids with colds.




Dad had the brilliant idea to take Charlotte on a scenic chairlift ride to the top of the mountain. Seemed like a great thing to do on a beautiful sunny fall day. However, average age of those riding the lift 75. Therefore the lift was moving at about the same pace as a 75 year old with a walker. Time to the top...35 minutes. With a 2 year old coughing and calling for her mother it felt like 2 hours. Oh, then the return ride DOWN the mountain. Yet another 35 minutes. I should have asked for my $15 back.


Going up.
Coming down.


Brodie and Charlotte playing.


But the beer was cold.

Day two we were to visit the corn maze, pumpkin slingshot, and giant pumpkin eating dinosaur at the Apple Barn. The kids were all so excited to see these things. We get there and there is no corn maze. No giant pumpkin eating dinosaur. No pumpkin slingshot. There is however a giant tour bus with loads of leaf peepers visiting the store. Ugh.

So we did redeem the day with a visit to Park McCullough and the now famous "Mile Walk Around the Woods". We were smart and brought some apples and lettuce for the horses.

Dave, having some trouble with the stroller? It must be the very outdoorsy RedSox backpack.







Look kids, a REAL UNICORN!!!!!

Walk in the Woods Part II

Can you guess which picture was taken October 5th 2008 and October 22nd 2006? We will come back to that later.


Exhausted is the only way to explain how mom and dad feel. We have had two horrible nights of children sleeping (see, it is not all perfect people). Charlotte has a cold. Maeve is close behind. Needless to say, both have been very restless sleepers all weekend. Charlotte waking up at 5:30am coughing. Maeve just never really getting the long stretches of sleep we have grown accustomed to. To make matters worse mom was out late Friday night, and we were both out late Saturday night at the annual Reeves Burn Fest.

Also mixed in there were two full days of yard work, gate building, hedge trimming, leave raking, and dinner cooking. Oh and did I mention we have two children with colds who suddenly are needy and sensitive to every little thing? Yeah, that is just icing on the cake.

The Reeve's Burn Fest was even better than last year. The kids had a blast playing and snacking. They were very patient waiting for the fire to get going.



While the older kids were eating cheese and crackers, Maeve decided to have a little snack on Brendan.

We were a little disappointed to learn there wasn't a dried up Christmas tree to burn,but there was plenty of old furniture that Dave wanted to get rid of to free up some room in his garage.
Yes that is an entertainment center.



Thank you Reeves for another great night.

And that brings us back to the woods. A perfect fall day for a hike. We are very lucky to have Conservation land and trails 50 yards away from our house. We hiked, hiked some more, and hiked until we were exhausted.

Yes, Maeve was exhausted from all the hiking.


And Charlotte, well she found a bear eating leaves in the woods. Oh, I mean Charlotte was a bear eating leaves in the woods.


Mom, the dogs, and Charlotte enjoying the fresh fall air.


Dad turned over a log. What did he find? He isn't sure. At first he thought it was a baby snake. But I might just be a legless newt.



And now the answer you were all waiting for. Yes the first picture was Dad and Maeve from today. The 2nd picture was Dad and Charlotte from 2006.