Fiasco

Thanksgiving is just a whirlwind. We cant even begin to tell you all of the adventures of Marvelous Maeve and the Web. Here is a brief synopsis of the adventures.

Wednesday (day before Thanksgiving) - Grammy and Pappa leave from their visit. We drive to VT to see Nanny and Grampa.


Thursday (Thanksgiving) - Dad ate too much turkey. Three plates is two plates too many. And the pie and icecream afterwords? Not necessary. Glutten is a sin isnt it?
Friday (day after Thanksgiving) - Liam and Chase arrive in Vermont. Grampa and dad get Christmas tree for the house. Kids play. Turkey dinner number two is cooked. Dad only has 1 plate this time.


Saturday (day after the day after Thanksgiving) - Mom and dad cut down ginormous Christmas tree that they will eventually realize is almost two feet too big for the house. Kids create a cookie Christmas tree. More playing. Charlotte celebrates her birthday
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Sunday (Sunday needs no explanation) - Pack up from Vermont. Drive home. Unpack. Set up tree and then decorate. Build snowman outside in first snow of the season.

The day of doing nothing

If you have to work the day before Thanksgiving, chances are you are doing a lot of nothing. So as a treat we figured we would update the blog for you. So happy holiday's early and have a great Thanksgiving.



Over a week without a post is very very unlike us, but hey, sometimes life is crazy and is virtually impossible to find the time to update.

Grammy and Pappa came for a visit from South Carolina on Saturday. The girls were very excited to see them and have had a ball with the extra attention that only grandparents know how to give. Of course bribery with gifts work wonders as well. Maeve LOVED her sock monkey. Thank you Aunt Colleen and Aunt Sharon for the beautiful blankets, sock monkey, and Belle Doll.





Grammy enjoying her time with the girls.



Its been a busy week and dad is dreaming of Thanksgiving. Stuffing himself on turkey then falling asleep in front of the tv watching football. But he knows it is only a dream as the chances of him getting away with that are slim to none. But he can still dream and is going to do everything in his power to pull it off. Have a great Thanksgiving!

Moments

It's easy to make everyone think parening is easy. You through up some posts about how wonderful everything is. Put on some smiling pictures of kids and parents and Viola! Happy Parenting. Piece of cake right? Lets be honest folks. This isn't easy.

Parenting is made up of fleeting moments. Some of them you can catch on video. Some you can catch in photos. But in general, most of them are for only those present at that particular snapshot in time. Some moments are great, others, not so much. Hence the rollercoaster ride of being a parent.

Dad's rollercoaster ride hit some all time highs and lows over the past 24 hours. Clickety clack up the hill seeing Charlotte playing at school, listening intently, he was so proud of her. Seeing Maeve experience the joy of eating grilled asparagus made him smile wide. Then crashing down the hill as Charlotte behind closed doors refused to nap and proceeded to strip down, remove her dirty diaper, and then proceed to step in it and Maeve waking up consistently throughout the night and bright eyed at 5am.

Dad can only say he is sorry. Sorry he yelled at Charlotte for the mess. Sorry he yelled at mom when he went to get the box of wipes to clean it up and realized it was empty then threw the box accross the room. Sorry he swore at the top of his lungs like an irate trucker. There is no excuse, just a realization of what a jerk he was. Lack of sleep and frustration let his anger get to him and he is sorry. Im sorry Shelby. And I am sorry Charlotte.

Just when you think you have this parenting thing down, you realize that the little things like finess in how you express your anger and frustration is really important. Its also important for Charlotte to one day read this to understand that its difficult being a parent. It takes work. Constant work and constant understanding of what you did wrong so you can hopefully avoid the same mistakes. There is no book I have ever read that said, "Beware that one day you will become so frustrated, so tired, and so angry that you too will act like a 3 year old." It would have been nice to read somewhere.

Luckily no one took pictures of dad ranting and throwing things. However, we did take some pictures of the good moments. Marvelous Maeve devouring pizza crust. The toothless wonder has amazing technique. Soaking it in her mouth, softening the crust so she can gum it into little squishy morsels.


Ahh the fresh grilled asparagus. A Ronan family favorite. Mom, dad, and Charlotte have races to see who can eat a stick of asparagus fastest. By the looks of Maeve she will be the one beating all of us!





There is nothing better than warm cozy socks. Charlotte seems to enjoy wearing them with her wonderfully coordinated clothes. The socks really complete the outfit.

And the hits keep coming

You have to know something is up when you don't see a post for a WEEK! Well this was literally the week from hell. Dad spent Sunday night, Monday, and Monday night working on a large proposal at work. Meanwhile Mom was the lucky winner of Mycoplasma Infection aka Walking Pneumonia. Yes it seems that is what Charlotte had, which spread to dad, and low and behold has spread to mom. Oh and did I forget baby Maeve? Yeah, she also potentially has it too so she is also loaded up on antibiotics. Fun stuff. Unlike the typical cold, it spreads rather slowly, usually 15 to 25 days after exposure. Hence the reason why it took dad over a week to catch Charlottes, and mom over a week to catch dads. The good news? Its pretty hard to catch unless you happen to sleep next to someone who is spreading their mycoplasma infected droplets from their nose and throat through coughing and sneezing.

I wont get into the details of the drama that ensued this week, but I will say there was some frantic driving at 2am, and infant and a mother with high fevers, and complete and utter lack of sleep. The good news is the week is now behind us and we are looking forward to a fresh start. Complements of a giant can of Lysol disinfectant spray.

Let us not dwell on only the negative of the week. There were some positives that happened. Maeve began sleeping completely unswaddled. Her sleeping position of choice? On her side with one hand holding her stuffed bunny.



And the girls seem to think that diapers make great hiding spots. Lots of diapers. They think that burying each other in diapers is fun. Crazy kids.

Six Months Old

Maeve, it's hard to believe you are six months old today. The clock is ticking and you are growing every day in front of our eyes. You sit up now, love to eat, and scream and laugh at every chance you get, especially at your sister. You love her so much.


We don't want you to grow up. You are such an awesome baby. You sleep great, you are happy, and you love being held. Did we mention you love to eat? Last night dad snuck you some pizza crust and you gnawed away until it was soft enough for you to bite off with your gums and eat. You got so mad when I took it away from you so I just let you hold it yourself.

Tonight at dinner you took your cup and spoon and tried to feed yourself. You made a mess, but you had so much fun trying that we just let it go.




Today we went shopping at the Asian Market. Everyone kept remarking how beautiful you are. And they kept asking if you were part Asian. You arent, but from now on we are going to call you Lucky Panda. Well Lucky Panda, Happy 6 months birthday. We love you!

Trick or Treat

Living in a small town is nice. However, come Halloween our town is completely overrun by kids and families from the surrounding areas. It begins at the Halloween Parade and Costume Contest held locally at the central school. Kids everywhere in costume running around. Screaming, trying to scare each other, and show off their latest creations. Dad was excited to attend this year to take advantage of the $2.50hot dog dinner. He made Charlotte sit and eat with him while mom chatted with her mom friends.

After our dogs, the coveted costume contest began. First group, kids 3 and under. We paraded. Dressed as a "pirate princess" Charlotte smiled and waived her sword. The massive group of kids lined up in front of the judges. While the other kids sat patiently waiting to see if they won, Charlotte ran back and forth around the gym, laughing as dad was trying to catch her to wrangle her in front of the judges.


Then it happend. They pointed to Charlotte as winner of the Most Original Costume category!! WOO HOOOO. She won a trophy!!! She was so proud of herself.

Charlotte with the winners of Scariest & Cutest Costume.


Charlotte as a princess pirate!



After the contest, it was back to the house to get ready for the hundreds of trick-or-treaters. The Slosbergs and the Reeves joined up with us to help hand to out candy and of course to trick-or-treat. Despite a record number of trick or treaters, we did not run out of candy this year. Although it was close. 25 LARGE bags of candy and all that was left over is some dum-dums. Crazy.

Mason (I mean SpiderMan) handing out candy to trick or treaters.


Marin the cat. Meow!


Lets not forget about our little lamb Maeve. She loved watching everyone in their costumes and really enjoyed eating all the Reeses Peanut Butter Cups and Snickers.

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?