Out My Window

This post is really more for Emmaline and the kids than for the typical blog reader. Many times Emmaline has asked me what I see out of my window at my hotel. Usually it's pretty drab to look across the street. I'm usually looking at the boring facade of another building, or the rear emergency stairs or another building. This week, however, I actually have a really nice view, some 15 stories up. These shots are taken right out of my window, looking to the southeast a bit.

This is what I see in the morning:

And this is what I see in the evening:

Each night our family talks on a web cam, we do this to give everyone some semblance of normalcy while I'm away. Tonight, I showed them what I see out of my hotel window. The Empire State Building! Emmaline loved it and said "that looks like 2 stories!" Bethany and I corrected her that the highest spot someone can go is 102 stories, to which she seemed a little incredulous. Lil, in order to resolve the uncertainty, decided to attempt to manually count the windows. She got to 3 before giving up.

Liliana

Don't you love it when you snap a random photo and it turns into something gorgeous - purely on accident?  I snapped this one of  Lil today.  She was fresh out of the bathtub - her hair damp and curly with a clean shiny face and in a good mood!

AJ will be beating the boys away all too soon!

Rating:  5 Lollipops

Picnic Time

We have discovered a favorite way to eat an easy summer dinner!  After a long day, I have taken to just filling this tray full of different things, putting it on a blanket in the family room, and letting the girls just dig in while they watch a movie.  They love it and it is a great way to wind down the day!

Today it was:  Crackers, Lunch Meat, Cheese, Apple Chips, Pineapple, Sugar Snap Peas

Rating:  1 Picnic

Happy Birthday ..... to me!

I had a really great birthday this year!  I started out the day with convincing the kids I was 100.  They really believed me!  I got many wonderful gifts and hugs and kisses.  The kids made me a crown to wear and I got several hours of alone time which was great.   I was lucky that my birthday fell on a day that AJ was home from New York and he made every effort to make it really great!

Rating:  32 Lollipops

Walking

So the day after I posted that Lincoln wasn't walking, he decided to walk.  I think it embarrassed him to have all of cyberspace know he was a chicken.  So off he went.  Along with walking, he also decided climbing would be a good idea.  Here is is on the toy shelves, looking out the window. For the record, I have caught him all the way on the top:

His favorite thing to jabber right now too is "a-lacka-lacka-lacka".  It is especially funny right in the middle of church!

I snapped the great Father and Son photo too and had to share it.

Rating:  5 Lollipops

Dotty Likes to Travel

Once upon a time, there was a cute little puppy named Dotty who was loved by a little girl named Idgie. Dotty and Idgie were great friends and loved to snuggle. Idgie's Daddy was traveling to New York one week, and Idgie wanted Dotty to travel too!

So Daddy and Dotty went to New York together! The first thing they did was ride in an airplane. Then they got to ride in a taxi! Dotty tried to ride on the front, but Daddy said that wouldn't be safe!


Dotty liked seeing all of the neat ways that people travel in New York. Right by the hotel that Daddy and Dotty were staying at was a fire station! Dotty was so excited to see such a big fire truck. She wanted to ride the fire truck! Can you see here on the truck?

Dotty learned that one of the best ways to travel around New York is to walk! But sometimes, it's not the most fun way. While Daddy and Dotty were on the way to Central Park, it started to rain. A lot. Dotty and Daddy tried to find a place to wait for the rain to stop on a park bench, but they both got soaked!


After a busy week of traveling to and around New York, Dotty was ready to travel one more time. She was ready to go home and see Idgie! "See you soon, Idigie!" said Dotty.

Lily Lick a Lolly

Remember that Lick a Lolly song from The Electric Company?  AJ went to a store in New York called Dylan's Candy Bar and brought all the girls back candy - including very large lollipops.  As a result we have been singing "Lily lick a lolly" a lot to Liliana! (say that 10 times fast)



Anyway - I took pictures of all of them today and it has been so long since there have been kid pictures here!

Lincoln is now 14 months old - and still not walking!  Boy were we wrong when we said he would be before his 1st birthday!  He technically CAN do it - he just chooses not to.  We have seen him take steps - but only when he is not thinking about it.  If he thinks - then he crawls instead.  Naughty boy.  Lincoln waves, points, signs "drink/milk", blows kisses, and babbles a TON.  His favorite words are dad, mom, car, cracker, hi.   When the phone rings, he waves and says, "Hi Dad!" since we talk to AJ so much on the phone and computer now!  He loves to push any and all objects around the floor like a car.  He likes to yell and point at the Cheerios box when he is hungry.   When he is upset or tired, he like to twirl the hair on the back of his head with his finger.  It is noticably thinner where he does most of the twirling.  Sometimes he likes to lay his head down and have me twirl his hair for him.

Idgie is quickly approaching 3 years old (just a few more weeks).  Which of course means she is at the age where she feels very strongly - about everything.  She is currently taking swimming lessons twice a week that she LOVES.  She loves to follow around the older girls and fits in more and more everyday with their play.  Her favorite show is Caillou and her favorite word right now is currently, "NO". 

Liliana is thriving in her karate classes.  She goes twice a week and adores her teachers and works so hard.  I was told by one parent that her son said that Lil is "the smartest girl in the whole class" and another parent reported that her son said that Lil is "the prettiest girl in the whole class" - I'm sure you can guess the boy to girl ratio in there!   Lil has such a big heart.  She loves to snuggle and please others.  Lil also loves to sing.  She remembers lyrics and tunes and begs us to turn on music in the car.

Emmaline is really becoming a kid.  A big kid.  Her favorite current phrase is, "OH SNAP!" She loves books about horses and currently loves the movie Black Beauty.   She got straight A's on her report card this year with her favorite subjects being art and social studies.  She is still taking piano lessons and doing very well.  She is now officially on the Grand Staff and we like to play duets together.  She recently did her yearly allergy testing so we will soon have another round of food challenges coming up.  Hopefully she can actually pass milk this year! 

And one more picture just because it is cute:

Rating:  4  Lollipops!

Yoo-Ni in Little Italy

To Yoo-Ni, it seemed that some days all Daddy wanted to do was eat! (Which was mostly true because there were so many yummy places TO eat.) After work one day, Daddy wanted to go back to Little Italy. Yoo-Ni had been there before with Daddy, and knew it was a safe and fun place to go.

When Yoo-Ni and Daddy got to little Italy, they walked around a little to find a good place to eat. They wandered around for awhile and Yoo-Ni often had to look up at a street sign to see where they were.  They finally decided this looked like a good place to eat!




They had seafood ravioli and a side of mixed vegetables. It was all very, very yummy.


After dinner, Daddy told Yoo-Ni that they needed to go to a place that had some very, very yummy desserts. So they did. They decided to get the desserts "to go", and then took them back to the hotel.


They got a strawberry tart, a chocolate covered canoli and an eclair. Yoo-Ni thought that the canoli was the best, and Daddy agreed to share a bit of it.


What Daddy *didn't* know, was that Yoo-Ni also really liked the strawberry tart, and when Daddy wasn't looking, she ate it all up! After eating all of the yummy things, she felt very full and could only lay down and play Beached Whale™.


Yoo-Ni had spent a great week with Daddy, but was excited to go home.

Yoo-Ni at the Seaport

One place that Daddy had never been to was a place called the South Street Seaport. It's a place where ships used to park and unload. Now, it's a place with a lot of shops and restaurants, with a smatteringly of wholesale warehouses.

While down there, Daddy remembered that a restaurant he had heard about on TV was near there, Soul Daddy.


The food was pretty good. Daddy had some ribs, and the sauces were really good. The best part, though, were the cornbread mini-waffles. Yoo-Ni make sure to get extra to take home.


While at the South Street Seaport, Yoo-Ni wanted to walk near the water so Daddy took her to the tip of the area. From there, Yoo-Ni was able to see the Brooklyn Bridge! Another New York landmark.


Because the South Street Seaport is along the docks, Daddy and Yoo-Ni were able to see some ships up close. One of them was an old sailing ship that is now a museum.


Yoo-Ni also pointed out something she thought Emmaline would love - a taxi that goes on the water!


Being at the South Street Seaport was a lot of fun, and Yoo-Ni and Daddy enjoyed seeing all there was. While walking home, they came across a restaurant called The Fish Market. They saw a sign that said "Lobster Special - $13.95 - Mon, Tues, Wed." Yoo-Ni knew that Daddy loved to eat lobster, and suggested that they go back on Monday. And so they did! Though Yoo-Ni didn't want to get near the lobster (because she didn't want to get any on her and maybe get it on Emmaline and then have Emmaline get sick - that wouldn't be a good thing), Daddy enjoyed the lobster very much!


Hanging out with Daddy sure was a lot of fun! Yoo-Ni was glad to be on the adventure with Daddy and couldn't wait to get home to tell Emmaline all about it.

Yoo-Ni and the Fullest Day

Yoo-Ni was having a nice week with Grandma and Daddy. They were taking her to see lots of neat things, including the Statue of Liberty and Phantom of the Opera! Yoo-Ni was sure the week couldn't hold any more fun, but boy was she wrong!

While Daddy was at work, Grandma took tours around the city. On one of the tours, Grandma showed Yoo-Ni just how full the city was: there was an ocean of taxis!


When Daddy got home from work, Grandma, Daddy and Yoo-Ni went out for dinner. On the way to dinner, they passed a really strange parking lot! The city is so full of people and buildings, that they had to build the parking lot up instead of flat!


Daddy, Grandma and Yoo-Ni continued on to dinner. They went to a wonderful restaurant called, very descriptively, Turkish Cuisine. Yoo-Ni decided to try to eat a whole plate herself.


Yoo-Ni eventually couldn't eat any more! She was stuffed! (Hey - there's a double meaning in that...) This was definitely the fullest day she had ever had!

Yoo-Ni, Grandma and the Phantom

When we last talked about Yoo-Ni, she was taking care of Daddy in New York - making sure he wasn't getting into trouble. As it turns out, Daddy wasn't alone! Emmaline's Grandma had decided to come visit, too!

Daddy and Grandma decided they wanted to go find somewhere interesting to eat, so they decided to take the subway to a really interesting part of town - China Town!


They weren't really in a mood for Chinese food, though. They ended up deciding that Italitan would be better, so they went to Little Italy instead!


Yoo-Ni really liked the Italian food. She thought it was very yummy! She especially liked the meatballs. After dinner, Grandma and Daddy took Yoo-Ni to go see a play. Though, in this particular play there was also singing and dancing - it was a musical called Phantom of the Opera! It's a story about a man who wears a mask because he's afraid of what people will think of him if they see the scars on his face (and some other stuff...). Grandma had never seen it, though Daddy had.


Yoo-Ni thought the singing and dancing were both great! She also really enjoyed how decorated the stage was.


No, really! There was a stage there, with things on it! Yoo-Ni says you're silly for not being able to see the stage - "Use your imagination!" she says.

After the play it was time to go to bed, but Yoo-Ni had nice dreams of singing fields of clover and candy mountains and a friend of hers named Charlie.

Yoo-Ni and the Lady

Once upon a time, there was a very special unicorn named Yoo-Ni (YOO-nee... corn) who lived with a very special young lady, Emmaline.



Emmaline enjoyed playing lots of games with Yoo-Ni, and Yoo-Ni enjoyed taking care of Emmaline, for you see, Emmaline took after her father, and she needed a lot of taking care of.

One day, Emmaline decided that it would be nice to have Yoo-Ni take care of her father, who happened to be traveling a lot to the Big City. So Emmaline sent Yoo-Ni along with Daddy, to take care of him and make sure he didn't get into trouble. You see, Yoo-Ni has magical unicorn powers! Her horn sparkles, can she can make sure you stay out of trouble. So Daddy decided to take Yoo-Ni on a little adventure to see just how magical those powers were.

First, Daddy took Yoo-Ni to a magical tunnel - it was called the subway! Yoo-Ni was quite shocked to see a train that only traveled underground. "What a silly city," she thought. "Trains are supposed to go above the ground!"

When they came out of the subway station, they were near a ferry building!



Yoo-Ni wasn't quite sure where they were going, but she knew she had to be on the lookout, because it looked like they were going to go on a boat!



Yoo-Ni got on the boat, and tried to make sure that Daddy didn't fall off! It was a very bumpy ride, and Yoo-Ni still wasn't sure where they were going. That is, until she saw Lady Liberty!



Yoo-Ni was so excited! Emmaline had told Yoo-Ni that the Statue of Liberty was one of the famous landmarks of New York, and now she was getting to see Lady Liberty up close! The boat took Yoo-Ni and Daddy to the island where the Statue of Liberty was. They got to walk around and enjoy the wonderful views of the Statue of Liberty.



Yoo-Ni was so excited to see the Statue of Liberty she wanted her picture taken with Daddy and Lady Liberty, though Daddy wasn't too happy about all the pictures.


On the way back to New York, they passed a very interesting looking island. Yoo-Ni didn't know what it was, so she asked Daddy about it. Daddy explained that the island with the neat looking building was called Ellis Island. A long time ago, when people wanted to live in the United States, they first had to go to Ellis Island.


While their boat was getting ready to park by the dock, Yoo-Ni and Daddy were able to see the Freedom Tower again. Daddy explained this is a building that he can see from his office. Yoo-Ni thought all of the buildings at the southern tip of New York looked really neat.


It had been a long day and was time to go back home, but Yoo-Ni had had a really fun day with Daddy. She was glad to have visited Lady Liberty.

Look it's us! We're here!

It has been about 6 weeks since I last posted on here.  Life has been crazy.

My last post was on May 7.  On May 8, my grandpa passed away and we spent a week in Utah.  I was back home for just a couple weeks - in that time dealing with all the end -of-school year hecticness.  Then I went to Utah again for our annual Craft Girl's weekend with my sisters and mom.  During that time we threw my youngest sister a baby shower and I got strep throat.  I then spent two weeks (until now) being sick.  Strep Throat turned into a migraine that lasted days which then morphed into side effects of the antibiotics I was on which made me run a fever, nauseated, tremors, etc.  Finally we figured out that antibiotic was causing it and I am slowly on the mend.  So in order to catch up on the last 6 weeks, I figured the best thing to do was go back over my random facebook statuses and write them here. 

May 13:
Nice to be home after a long week in Utah. My grandpa's funeral was lovely, and it was so nice to see my family and all my extended family.


May 17:
My daughter is going on a field trip today. I bet $100 that she is the only 1st Grader still small enough to be in a carseat. Normally I don't mind, but a booster sure would be handy today to transfer between cars.

Follow-up:  Oh - and I was right - she was the only one in a carseat. Silver lining though - after watching then try to sort out whose booster belong to who, I was quite grateful for my big pink flowered carseat!

May 18:
Highlight of my day:


Went to Target to pick up a prescription in the pouring rain with baby vomit (not spit-up - full on vomit) all over me, with all four kids in tow. I know it is still early in the day - but it can't get any better than that right? The answer is of course it can't, because I'm calling it a day you see. If I'm done for the day, nothing else can happen. Take note universe. Take note.

May 21:
‎Idgie: Mommy I want a snaaaacckkkkkk

Me (opening the fridge): What do you want?
‎Idgie: I want a LEMON!
Me: No - Lemons aren't a good snack.
‎Idgie:I waaaannntttt a leeeeemmmmmoooooonnnnnn!!!!
...(Can you see where this is going?)
Me: Fine. Have this lemon to eat. That will show you.

Idgie is now currently sucking away happily on said lemon saying, "mmmmm!"
Kids: 1 Parents: 0

May 21:
Admittedly I was only buying toothbrushes, but it gives you a warm squiggly feeling inside when your final receipt says you saved 105%.


May 22:
A great day. The kids were good at church, I was actually able to listen which is amazing, and Emmaline and my students all did awesome at their piano recital this evening. I think I'm going to cap off today with a book and a bubble bath.


May 23:
I was excited for school to be out this week, until I started filling in the calendar with all our miscellaneous summer activities. Now I'm desperately trying to figure out where all that free time is supposed to be on there . . .


May 24:
Feeling jealous that my husband is at this very moment watching the Phantom of the Opera in NYC right now. *sigh*


May 25:
What to do for my status today? Do I tell about Emmaline telling me that she needs treats for school 30 mins before leaving? Or about my Liliana's trip to the fire station that got cancelled 10 mins in because the alarms went off? Or about Idgie peeing her pants at McD's? Or about Lincoln's random puking for the third time in a week?


I'm blessed to have so many status worthy things happen to me in one day!

May 26:
Celebrating Summer Vacation Eve with a pizza and popcorn picnic while watching How to Train Your Dragon.


May 29:
Enjoying the weekend with my mom and all my sisters. I did get sick, but being sick surrounded by sisters and mom who tuck you in and put warm rice bags on your feet is so much better than being sick at home with kids who still want to be taken care of and fed.


May 31:
Had a fun Girl's Weekend and came home to a sparkling house, cute kids, great husband, a basket full of my favorite bathtub items and treats, and a gift card to buy books for my Kindle. I should go away every weekend!


June 1:
Need help. Thought I could handle it but I can't. I'm ill and looking for anybody that might be willing to take one or more of my children until approximately 7:30pm (bedtime). Anything would help so no obligation to take them all. Husband is in New York until Friday night so I have no other options. I can drop off kids on the way to the doctor. Call me. I won't be on facebook to check replies.

Follow-up:  Thank you to the sweet ladies who were able to help me out. The doctor had no idea what was wrong but sent me home with quite a cocktail to take and it is already helping. I also already have help lined up for tomorrow morning and if all these meds work, I should at least be functional tomorrow.  (little did I know!)

June 2:
Emmaline: I wish we could take care of ourselves. We could get dirty when we want, choose our bathtime, go to bed at 9:00, and fight whenever we wanted!


June 3:
May have just solved the whining problem. Decided to only speak in ASL to my children for the last 45 minutes. At the very least they have given up nattering at me and my 4yo even tried to sign back. She did pretty well considering she had to make it all up.


June 10:  Headed out on an honest-to-goodness-the-baby-is-weaned-we-have-a-sitter-all-day DATE! Woohoo!


June 10:
It has been a good 24 hours after a week and a half of bad days. My husband finally figured out that I've been sick all that time due to a side effect to an antibiotic I was on. Then he took me out on a date today just like in our pre-kid days - going out to breakfast, going to see a movie (Thor), then going out to lunch, and then going to see another movie! (XMen) and still home in time to put the kids to bed.


June 12:
Six words you never want to hear in the middle of church: "Mommy, I have to throw up."


June 13:
Idgie is playing with a ball that Lil wants. After a refusal to hand it over, Lil runs over to the shelves and says, "then I get to play with your ponies!" Idgie protests and Lil responds, "What? You weren't playing with them." Idgie relinquishes the ball for the ponies and Lil happily goes off with the ball she wanted in the first place.


What does it mean if she is a master manipulator at age 4?

Rating:  A mix of Fireballs and Lollipops