When I took this photo, Sophie had been playing under the piano bench for 20 minutes or more. 09-08-05 

Baxter and his class performed a song called "It's Hanukkah and I'll Celebrate Any Way I Want." 12-14-05 

Jon took off work and spent a day with Madeline. Their first stop (after a rousing game of chess, which Madeline won) was The Original House of Pancakes. 11/23/05

My Second Digital Scrapbook Layout!

created December 9, 2005

This is actually a digital re-creation of a paper layout I did about Venice. I wanted to enter the page in a contest, but I wasn't happy with some of the adhesive blobs and other mistakes, so I decided I'd re-do it all digitally. It was really fun, and really rewarding, but then I discovered the digital one wasn't eligible for the contest! Oh, well. I cleaned up the paper one and entered that instead.

(Those of you outside the Scrapbook Universe must be shocked to hear that there are contests for scrapbooking. The truth is, the craft has about six monthly magazines, dozens of books published yearly, huge national contests, and a variety of scrapbooking "celebrities." Who knew?)

Jon & Mary Kay Run Away From Home

Okay, maybe not run away... but we did sneak off for a 13-day trip to Europe. Jon's cousin, David, kept the kids while we went to Rome, Siena, Venice & Munich. It was wonderful, fantastic, amazing, relaxing, beautiful, fabulous... There really aren't enough superlatives to describe it.

I'm ready to move to Rome and open an American breakfast restaurant (called "Breakfast Breakfast"). You can't really get eggs for breakfast in Italy, and I can't be the only one who doesn't consider a McDonald's Big Breakfast mouth-watering fare. I'm imagining the children speaking Italian, finding & immersing ourselves in the American expatriate community, spreading the scrapbooking gospel to another corner of the globe... I tried to get Jon to look for the English-language want ads while we were there, but he resisted.

Venice was terrific, too (hey! I found another superlative, tired though it is). It rained the whole time we were there, but it was beautiful anyway. We walked all over the city, on the tourist paths and off, and it felt so... safe. One night we had dinner in a little restaurant where three moms and their 6-year-old daughters were at a nearby table. The girls were restless and asked if they could go play outside. They donned their raingear and headed out the front door; when we (and the moms) were ready to leave I asked where the girls were, and one said "who knows?" I can't imagine ANY restaurant in the US where you'd feel comfortable with that. (Or maybe it's just Americans; one of the moms was Italian, the other two British.)

Siena was MIND-BOGGLING. It's a medieval town, built on a hilltop, with streets winding up and down... We didn't realy sightsee there, so much as we just wandered around, soaking it all in. The last night we were there, there was a sort of circus in the main square, Il Campo. There were trapeze artists, fire-jugglers... It was stunning. We watched the rehearsal, which was amazing enough, and then went back at 10:00 for the performance-- in the pouring rain. Those poor women dangling beneath helium balloons on trapezes! It was cold, but it was worth staying to watch.

After practicing our rudimentary Italian on everyone we met ("Sono vegetariana!" "Prego!"), we struggled a little more in Munich. German is just so much more... difficult. (Sorry, Michelle!) I'd look up a phrase in my trusty phrasebook, then when the waiter came up, I'd choke. Funny to think English is more closely related to German than to Italian. We went to the Olympic Park, though, and saw the fairgrounds where they put on Oktoberfest. And, of course, we had a (HUGE) beer at the Hofbrauhaus.

I was ready to get home by the time we left, but now (exactly a week later) I'm ready to go back.

I drank the WHOLE THING. (So did Jon, but that's really not much of a surprise.) Hofbrauhaus, Munich. 

Jon did a LOT of map-reading on this trip. Without him, I'd still be on some side-street in Rome. (This is one of the medieval streets of Siena.)  

A tripodless shot of Jon at Trevi Fountain.  

Not a great angle, but it proves we were at the Colosseum. 

It's a little hard to see, but Jon took this photo of our reflection while we rode a vaporetto ("bus" boat) in Venice. 

We had a two-hour stop in Florence, where we caught a train to Venice. Here we are in front of some church. ; )

The kids posed with every character they saw, whether they'd ever heard of them or not!

Narrow Escape

We DID, in fact, go to Elitch's, and we managed to (narrowly) escape without useless Looney Toons merchandise.

The kids had a great time riding the kiddie rides. I didn't even realize they HAD all those kiddie rides! There was a roller coaster, swings, a "crazy bus," a little train... There was also a Batman show that everyone wanted to go to. Madeline was immediately terrified by the bad guys on stage, though, so Jon swept Madeline and Sophie out of there and left me and Baxter to watch the rest of the show. He was a little surprised by how HOT the fire was from the stage, even at our seats. Other than that, though, motorcycles and explosions are good fun in Baxter's book.

"Mini-Vacation" Thwarted by Weather

Jon took off Wednesday and Thursday this week. Our original plan was to go up to Glenwood Springs, but we decided instead to stay here and go to Elitch's (the local Six Flags park )on Thursday (Madeline won a free ticket through the library's summer reading program). Jon ran oodles of errands on Wednesday, and we were all ready to surprise the kids with a trip to Elitche's (where they've never been), but we woke up to rain. Unrelenting, cold rain.

So we went to the newly renovated Aquarium instead, which turned out to be quite the, ahem, adventure. Seems EVERYONE in the city had the same idea, and it was quite crowded. A seafood restaurant chain has purchased what used to be a not-for-profit attraction, and has kitsched it up quite a bit. They also replaced the (very nice) snack bar area with a full-service restaurant, complete with full-service prices and a mostly-seafood menu. The children were very hungry and VERY cranky when we arrived, and it seemed we might have to feed them to the sharks (in a tank bordering the entire dining area) before the food came. Finally a little bread tamed the savage beasts, though, and the day proceeded swimmingly. (Sorry. Couldn't resist.) Until, that is, Sophie was forced to choose between a purple rubber sea anemone and a foam shark hat. "Or" is not in that child's vocabulary.

Masochists that we are, we're going to try Elitch's again on Sunday. Keep your fingers crossed for us! I see useless Loony Tunes merchandies in our future...

House Cup Update

Well, the parents seem to have lost interest in the House Cup before the children did. Turns out it's kind of a lot of work to keep awarding points and tracking them, and we've gotten a little lazy. The children still make note of their own (and each other's) good behavior, though, so we need to get back on the ball. Overall it has improved their attitudes toward one another, so you gotta be grateful for that.

House Cup Awarded!

I lifted an idea from an old issue of Family Fun (that I just got around to reading), and it's going swimmingly. The woman, whose children love Harry Potter, started awarding points toward the House Cup.

Madeline and I are reading the third book, and M & B have seen the first movie, so I announced one morning that we were going to start a competition for the Seckinsteinbaugh House Cup. They earn points by being kind to each other (and us), doing chores without complaining, and that sort of thing. They can, of course, lose points for various misbehavior, and we talked about what might qualify for winning & losing points. The points are tallied all week, and on Saturday night the cup is awarded to the winner. (The "Cup" is a plastic goblet we decorated with plastic jewels.) The winner keeps the cup in his/her room for the week, and gets to decide on Sunday where we eat breakfast, what I make for dinner, what shows they watch. So far Madeline has won twice and Baxter once, and it has proven to be a great tool for rewarding good behavior. (Its power to punish negative behavior is less clear, but we'll see...) Madeline even announced, after winning the first week, that she wanted to "let Baxter win" the next week, because she didn't want to be "greedy." That's progress, believe me.

I'll keep you posted on whether it keeps working, but so far they are whining less and helping each other, and us, more. Can't argue with that!

Baxter was ringbearer. He lost his yamulke halfway down the aisle, but he just scooped it up and kept going! Madeline was the best flower girl in the history of the world. 

Madeline: "Is the flower girl the most important person at the wedding?" 

Sophie had a fine time dancing at her Uncle Carey's wedding, April 3, 2005. 

Reflections on Motherhood Thus Far

You know, I guess it’s just that we were so distracted by Baxter when Madeline was two, and by Sophie when Baxter was two, but Sophie astounds us every day. It’s amazing to have the luxury to actually watch her turn into a person. I know now why youngest children are generally more “spoiled”—you can’t help but pay more attention to them! I always thought it had something to do with people indulging the last one more because they knew they wouldn’t have another chance. Turns out it’s much more prosaic than that.

Sophie will start “camp” this summer at Temple Sinai, where the others have gone to school. That means three days a week sans children. I can’t wait!!! I am truly counting the days. I am clearly not cut out to be the 24-hour, 100%-present kind of mom. I take comfort in the fact, though, that I’m fairly certain I mother exactly like my own mother did. I played by myself a lot, and I can look back and see that it was because she needed time to herself. She used to regularly forget to pick me up from school, so engrossed was she in some craft project or organizational task (though I was always thrilled to play with my friend Heidi, whose mom was my 4th-grade teacher). I have only sort of forgotten them once, when I had an architect here talking about an addition to the house and misremembered what time I had to leave to get Baxter. But it will happen sooner or later, I’m sure. It didn’t scar me, though, so I hope my kids will be okay with it, too!

One benefit my mom didn’t have, though, is the endless fascination of watching how they are different as they grow into themselves. Madeline remains a little high strung and sensitive, wailing like a banshee if she bumps her toe and spiraling into an irrevocable fit if something hits her wrong. She’s really funny, though, making up her own jokes (which are sometimes even funny) and “getting” subtle jokes on TV or in books. She’s starting to read, though she was reluctant at first. I think she has my unfortunate desire not to do anything she can’t do well, which stressed me unbelievably when she took a little beginning soccer course last fall. She still struggles to really be happy for other people’s triumphs, focusing instead on what she doesn’t have.

Baxter is still the most laid-back person I know. His “terrible” twos passed completely unnoticed, and the Trying Threes consisted of occasionally shouting “NO!” and then relenting when I stared at him for a couple of seconds. He’s sailing into his fourth year with good cheer and a positive attitude, and occasional complete cluelessness. He couldn’t find his shoes if they were on his feet, and he dissolves into tears when asked to clean anything up. He can remember what car we rented when we went to Vermont a year and a half ago, but cannot remember something you just told him a couple of minutes ago. He is far less rule-bound than Madeline, preferring to ask for forgiveness rather than permission. He’s very determined; we recently noticed that he wasn’t using his right foot when he climbed the stairs, going left-bring-right, left-bring-right instead of alternating feet. He diligently practices “alternating” now, and has been working on his “TH” sound once we noticed it was lagging, too. He has great humor about both things, whereas Madeline would be hysterical every time we brought it up, were it her.

Sophie is another thing entirely, and we’re not sure exactly what that thing is. She is so strong-willed as to nearly self-destruct when thwarted. The very best way to get her to do something is to tell her not to, which we are aware is a dangerous precedent, but we can’t come up with a better alternative. She is also the most cuddly and loving of the three (though Baxter’s more cuddly than he used to be), giving unbelievable hugs and kissing all four of us goodnight before bed. She’s already showing a sense of humor, teasing and playing games with us. Her vocabulary, like the others’ before her, is ridiculously large, but she is NOT a trained seal. She does not name colors or letters on command, and we really don’t know what she knows, since she generally chooses not to share it. She was later with her body parts and animal noises than the others, and a little later to talk, but doesn’t seem to be behind them at all cognitively. She’s just….contrary. Her motor skills surpass either of her siblings’ by many months, so maybe there’s hope for a minor athlete in the family after all.

For some reason I felt moved to reflect on parenthood and my children’s development. Sorry to be so long winded, but I’m feeling a little philosophical, I guess. Today was my target birthday for our unrealized fourth child. Five-Five-Five. I thought it would make a nice conversation piece, but, alas, Jon feels strongly that three is the right number of children. I know he's right, since we have the right number of bedrooms, since I am about to have three days to myself each week, since they function as a tight little unit as is (and since, if I got pregnant now, there would be a much bigger gap between Sophie and Baby Four than between the others). But I still feel a little sad.

Madeline working on the portion of her homework she DOESN'T hate. 

Mary Kay's been playing with her new camera, complete with "sports" setting for action shots. "Go outside children, and play-- NOW!" 

Household Quarantined; School Canceled

We've had a coughing, aching, stuffy head so we couldn't rest kind of winter. We've been sick at least twice, with all of us coming down with the flu this last time. That's unusual; most times Jon & Madeline float through our cloud of germs unscathed, while Baxter, Sophie & Mary Kay cough up a lung. Baxter's school was actually closed for two days, after a third of the students and half the staff were home sick in one day. They went crazy with the disinfectant while they were closed, apparently.

Madeline continues to enjoy school, though she has come to despise the "fact practice" portion of her math homework. This has resulted in Mary Kay coming up with various games and tricks to ensure it's completed without a meltdown: "Four Cheerios in this bowl, plus three Cheerios from this bowl make... a delicious snack!"

Baxter has entered his Trying Threes, just as he turns four. His first answer to every request is "NO!", though if you stare him down he relents in a few seconds. Still, we're left wondering what happened to our sweet, compliant little boy.

Sophie has never been especially compliant; come to think of it, maybe that's where Baxter picked up his "No is always the answer" theory. She has a temper and has begun to do things to purposely torque us off, but the rest of the time she's the sweetest kid on the planet. She never fails to greet whoever enters the room with a "Hi, Daddy!" or "Hi, Gamma" or whomever, and her leg hugs are the best.

We're all looking forward to our first plane trip in over a year (and goodness knows THAT'S always a treat with three kids under six) when we go to Jon's brother's wedding in New Orleans in April. Madeline and Baxter are going to be flower girl and ring bearer (respectively), and Mary Kay's going to drink champagne. Woo hoo!

Madeline had January 3rd off while the other kids were in school, so we had a Mom & Mad day, complete with manicure & pedicure, lunch at Madeline's favorite restaurant, and jewelry making at the bead store! 

Are they sweet, or what?