Easter Sunday

What a blast. The Easter weekend was so much fun for the kids - and the parents! I must say however, that I have forgotten how much candy is involved with Easter. It was worse than Halloween! Cole is a candy fanatic and ate candy ALL.DAY.LONG. He was sneaking candy out of every and any basket he could find and mastered the art of unwrapping chocolate eggs and kisses very quickly.


Both boys were really into the Easter bunny - we left carrots and eggs out for the bunny and low and behold, he ate them! They were so excited to run downstairs and see their loot in the morning - and were hard pressed to get ready for church when the time came.

We had our first fight about the outfit - can you believe at 2.5 they are already giving me a hard time about dressing up? We made it to church on time and lasted about 30 minutes. I started to get the stink eye from "Daddy" so we left early to head over to Mimi's for the egg hunt.


Cole loved hunting for eggs - and got lots of loot in his basket. JD on the other hand, would find an egg, open it, check out the contents, maybe eat a few, and resume his hunt. Needless to say, by the time he did this, all of the eggs were found and he ended up with about 3 eggs. He didn't care.


After Mimi's brunch, we headed home for much needed naps and then left for Gramma's for the 2nd round. More candy, more food, more cousins and more fun. All in all it was a wonderful day. I actually took time to reflect on how lucky we are as a family and how blessed we are to have two wonderful children. There is nothing more heart warming than spending the holidays together, with our families and watching the kids enjoy the special time. They are so surrounded with love from their family. So wonderful to watch.

Hope everyone had a special Easter season. Spring has sprung!

Easter Week

We've had quite a fun week this week. The kids had their Easter party at school, complete with Easter bunny, easter egg hunt, bag-o-candy etc. Yesterday we colored eggs for the first time. To my surprise, only 2 egg casualties - however we did have 20 stained fingers and 1 stained counter top. They really got into it and loved showing Daddy the finished project when he got home. It's the little things in life, right?

We've got a fun filled weekend coming up with more egg hunts, parties and lots of family around. Happy Easter and may you enjoy what this Easter season really is all about.

Surprise, Surprise

On a random mall outing yesterday, we got to see the Easter bunny. Low and behold, the boys were enamored with him (might have had something to do with the large basket of candy he was holding) and they were not scared at all. I was shocked, considering that they were scared to death of Santa Claus. Tell me, how can they be scared of Santa, a jolly, warm looking character, but not of an eight foot bunny? These toddlers keep me guessing every day, you never know what you're gonna get!

High fives all around with the big bunny!

R.I.P.

one down, three to go - rest in peace little hermie....

We've moved them to their new abode - $50+ later for a HERMIT CRAB HOUSE. Shame on me for worrying about these silly critters - I can't just let them die! They do seem much happier now - see all of the hermit crab tracks in the sand? I think they like it here...

Happy St. Patricks Day!

Hope you guys didn't drink too much green beer tonight! We had a fun day - but just green milk, no green beer.

4 more little mouths to feed

I now know why my Mom always said "no, we're not going to get any hermit crabs". Daddy came home from his long golf getaway with 4 new hermit crabs for the kids. They were in a tiny little plastic box, which C. thought was their "forever" home. I think he forgot that they needed to grow, eat and actually be living things.

After doing a little research, I learned that they actually need a real habitat, require lots of people like food & special water, they need baths regularly, and they need a special humidified environment. Hmmm, this will certainly be interesting. I wonder how long they will live with us?
The kids really are too young to understand the "pet" thing - although JD is somewhat curious about the little guys. Cole would just rather shake up the container and watch them flail around trying to get right side up again. They really want to hold the crabs but I'm afraid they will get pinched - maybe that would be an OK thing so that they don't want to hold them any longer. The poor crabs - they must be very sorry they ever got uprooted from Myrtle Beach and relocated into our home.

So, our excursion for tomorrow is to the pet store to get a "house" for the hermits. I'm sure it will be the Ritz, for hermit crabs. And I guess we'll have to name them too...the boys first pets - and many to come, I'm sure!

On the bright side?

I've been contemplating writing all week - and for lack of better words, I have nothing positive to say at the moment so have held back. It's not generally my nature to be negative and a complainer (at least in public) so although my head is full of things to say, I'm not sure how to let it all out without being a total whiner...

It's been a rough week. But in retrospect, for me personally, I'm much better off than some of the co-workers I was surrounded by before they got let go. We had to terminate 4 people this week. Their lives turned upside down. I can hardly complain because that wouldn't be fair - in comparison to what THEY are dealing with. This "poor me" thing that I keep falling into is total b/s because these people just lost their jobs! Along with millions of other Americans. At least I still have my job, my family, my health, and a generally great life.

To say that the economic situation in this country sucks is an extreme understatement - and really, it's hard to imagine how bad it really is until it directly affects YOU in some way. I learned that the hard way - this week. I have a few friends who have felt the crunch for many months now - and it's been so hard watching them go through the uncertainty of what could be of their jobs. Not knowing the status of your job is one of the most stressful things anyone can go through. Your livelihood can be taken away from you at any moment - and it's out of your control.

I've been working at our family business for 16 years now. Over those years, we've been through our share of ups and downs - and we've ridden them all out and continued to be successful. Business has been good and we've survived the economic glitches along the way. Today, we're not so certain. It's the first time in the existence of our business that we have had to cut back to the point of losing employees - that, to me, is so scary. We're all taking pay cuts. We've cut back the extra's and trimmed all of the fat. And if in 30 days the economy doesn't improve to some extent, we're going to have to cut deeper. That means even less salary, more people lose their jobs - and the company gets smaller.

We made a decision this week to cancel our family vacation trip in April. I'm really sad. But we know it was the right decision for now. We couldn't justify spending the money on a lavish vacation, all things considered. It will wait - we'll go another time. Nonetheless, I'm still really sad about it. I must say, I'm glad the kids are still too little to understand what they are missing - that would make it even harder to explain why we had to cancel it.

I will say that despite the stress of my "real job", going home to my little guys makes it all ok. And I'm more thankful than ever now that I actually have 2 days at home with them during the week. Although my mind is totally preoccupied with work during the days I'm not in the office, I still get to spend time with my boys - something I treasure more than life itself. Playing with them, hearing their laughter and getting endless hugs and kisses is the best gift I could ask for. They keep me grounded and keep life in perspective on the toughest of days.

I miss my Mom, whose been gone all week on retreat. It's amazing how much I rely on that 5 minute phone call each day to check in. Love you Mom.

Thank God for the little people in my life, my husband (who has been on a golf vacation for the last 3 days) and for the gym. For those are my sanity for now. When Sunday rolls around and my right hand man is back, it will get yet a little bit easier again....until then, we're just trying to keep it as fun as we can, despite the bad parts. And I don't dare turn on the news any more - although tired of Diego, at least he smiles a lot and it's better than what the media has to offer these days....

Great-Grandpa Fred, aka "Pops"

The kids one and only living GREAT grandfather passed away yesterday. I consider them lucky that they were able to meet their Great-Grandfather, Pops, before he died. We all celebrated his 92nd Birthday last November at his nursing home and there were some photos taken with he and all of the grands and great grands. Those photos will be great memories for all of us. Although we're not sure if he really understood why we were there, he enjoyed being surrounded by his family and a few bites of birthday cake. The little kids probably won't remember him - but they have pictures to remind them who he was. He was so proud that he had 7 great grandchildren.

I knew I was lucky to still have a Grandparent living at my age. Pops led a fun life over his 92 years. He was lonely in his later years - but insisted on staying in Florida for as long as he possibly could. He entered a nursing home about two years ago in Florida and was perfectly content there for a while. He then started to become more and more dependent on others and eventually moved up to Maryland to be closer to our family. His only Son, my Uncle R, lived closeby and visited him most often.

I have fond memories of visiting my Grandparents down in Florida as a kid. Pops taught us all that we know about fishing. We loved going out on his boat "Thanks Mac". He loved having his grandchildren around. We took annual trips to Marco Island for visits and we loved being there. He paraded us around and showed us off like we were celebrities. Being a realtor on Marco Island for many years, he knew lots of people - and lots of people knew him! He truly was a piece of work, as some of you who knew him can attest to. He never did know how to spell my name correctly - it always had a "y" at the end - but it never really mattered. He thought the world of us kids.

He was always extremely fit and healthy - an avid tennis player, and tennis watcher. I remember always having to watch tennis on tv as a kid with him. No fun as a kid, but something I can appreciate now. And he ate slender with bran flakes and grapefruit for breakfast every morning. Occassionally, he would slip in one of those skinny pieces of toast - dry. He always ate lots of vitamins and fell for any investment gimick that came his way.

In his later years, it was hard to see him become more frail. The man we always knew as very in shape and active was not able to get around on his own as well any more. His false teeth didn't fit quite right any more because he had lost some weight and body fat. They chattered when he talked - and sometimes even flew out of his mouth (rest assured, I'm laughing out loud as I write this).

One of my funniest memories that I share with C. and our best friends is the day that he had his teeth in his pants pocket (yes, you read that right) and when he stood up to go upstairs, he did not realize that they had fallen out. There they were, just sitting right in the middle of the couch. I looked over and we all saw them at the same time - I've never seen a group of people laugh so hard in my life. He was totally oblivious and had no idea what he had left behind. Had it been anyone but him, it would have been embarrassing. But he never cared about that stuff - he just lived his life as if he was the only on in it.

Ah, there are so many more fun and funny memories. Those of you who knew Fred, you know what a character he was. He was a fun loving, carefree, happy guy. I hated to see him suffering in his later years so knowing he's out of pain and happy again is comforting. You can bet that he's in a much happier place. Rest in peace Pops.

Has it been 2 weeks?

I can't believe it's been 2 weeks since I've written - I really do miss blogging so much. I think about it all of the time and whenever I have the time to get to it, it's usually 10pm at night and I'm beat. That said, there's lots to catch up on.


We've just come through another sickness fog - this winter has been BRUTAL! JD so nicely threw up all over my car on Thursday on our way home from school and it went downhill from there. Needless to say, it was a LOOOONNNNGGGG weekend and we're happy that everyone seems to be healthy again. Today was our first normal day in a week. Phew.


That is, aside from the fact that JD is now calling me "HON" after every request. As in "I need some more milk HON" or "Please scoot me in on my chair HON". Is that a hoot or what? As if MOM wasn't bad enough a few weeks ago? For those of you who know what a HON is (Baltimore lingo), it's not a flattering term and the only thing I can think of is that he picked it up from one of his teachers at school? Either way, I laughed the first time he said it and promptly reminded him that I am "MOMMY", he said it again the very next sentence.


We're working through some serious teasing between the boys now days. JD is relentless with Cole - he's pushing all of his buttons, all of the time. Cole is slowly learning how to dish it back (with my help of course) and although he's the smaller of the two, not long from now he's going to haul off and club JD, which hopefully will let him know he isn't going to be pushed around.



We're starting to potty train a bit - I'll spare the details but suffice to say that there was a giant note on the kids cubby at school today announcing that "JD went #2 on the potty - hooray". So when I arrived, the kid was covered in stickers and dragged me into the bathroom to check out where he did his business. Toilets and the like have never been high on my discussion list so this is new territory for me. Living with 3 boys, something tells me my modest days are over.


We got the kids first "report cards" today. I must admit, I was a nervous wreck opening them up - having no idea what I would find. I had forgotten that they were coming out last week or I probably would have been nervous going to school today. They both got great reports, I'm proud to say. It seems that they are coming along very well - Cole is still coming out of his shell at school and they are working on that. JD is the life of the place and they find him very entertaining (as do we). I'm such a proud Mamma!


We're in temper tantrum hell with Cole at the moment. Holy cow - I always heard about these jekyl and hyde moments but never imagined what it would really be like. YIKES. All I can say is I hope this is a short phase!


I'm in desperate need of spring - this cold, wet weather is not doing much for my spirit. Once Feb hits - those doldrums kick in full force. We're headed South in April but that just isn't soon enough. Old man winter needs to take a hiatus and let some fresh spring air in - we need these germs out of the house!


On a sad note, I just connected with a friend of a friend tonight who lost a triplet - at the same gestation as Calvin was when I lost him. She lost baby Lindsey Kate - my heart goes out to S. and her family - keep them in your thoughts as they get through this loss and continue the hope for their surviving preemie babies.


Also wanted to share the latest singing skills - apparently they get that ability (or lack there of)from their mother.

Is it him?

Kinda cool story - a couple of days ago, as I was putting away the kids laundry, JD found the yellow memory box in his closet. It's the memory box with all of Calvin's memoirs in it - hospital bracelets, photos, cards, poems, etc. He came running over and said "what's this Mommy" and at first I said, "oh, it's just a yellow box of Mommy's". Then I thought, well, what better time than now to look inside with them. So we did.

Inside the box is a mini beanie baby that was in Calvin's bassinet when he was brought to us after delivery. It's a little grey and white bear type of thing - and just a few inches long. At our hospital, all preemie babies are given a beanie baby which stays with them for their whole hospital stay - both JD and Cole had them too. But Calvin's was a mini one.

When we opened the box, Cole immediately grabbed the little beanie baby and called it "Baby Calvin". For the rest of the morning, Cole would not put this little guy down. He talked to it, carried it and hugged it. My first thought was that it had to go back into the box because I needed to preserve it. But when Cole would not give it up as I pleaded for him to do, I reconsidered and figured, why not let him have it and let it be loved; right? He really liked the little guy and just seemed right to let him run with it.

We left on a roadtrip later that day and he had to bring it with us. He slept with it that night and clenched it all the way home the next day. This morning he had it with him all the way to school. And when he got back in the car after school, it was in his car seat waiting for him. He couldn't wait to get to the car. He tried to bring him into the tub with him too - and we had a hard time explaining that he couldn't get wet.

I dunno - it's probably more of the novelty of a new little stuffed thing for him to carry around. But I would like to think of it as some sort of symbolism of his love for his identical twin brother. I'll never know. But it sure warms my heart to believe that somehow Calvin is smiling down and giving us a reminder that he's always with us. And Cole feels it too.