Life, as I know it

This week, Norah is making me insane. I know, I say that every week, but this week she’s super whiny. That means that in addition to the naughtiness, the mischief, the messes, and the general tantrum-ish behavior, almost every single thing that comes out of her mouth is in whine form. Anything anybody says to her is cause for whining. She also has this charming little bit where she lays on the floor and says “ever ever EVER” (sort of like a teenager saying ‘you never ever let me…’) It’s enough to make someone who is already borderline crazy cross the line right into plain old crazy. I have noticed that my cookie consumption has skyrocketed in the last couple of weeks from none to… well, a lot of cookies. My need for cookies apparently correlates with Norah’s behavior (?). She has a lot of personality, and when she is sweet I love her to death. A couple of times now, she has just wanted to stand still, holding my hand. Right in the middle of the living room or kitchen, she just asks to hold my hand for a few minutes, and then is off to the next adventure. And the other night, I saw her dancing with Tom in the kitchen to the same song he and I danced to at our wedding. I love sweet moments like that. Unfortunately, sometimes it feels like they are vastly outnumbered by things like excessive whining, or stealing a bottle of Hershey’s syrup out of the fridge and drinking half of it (that was this morning.)


On a side note, I don’t even usually buy things like cookies and ice cream. We hardly ever eat junk food at our house. We eat it other places, just not at home. And I don’t think I’ve had a bottle of chocolate syrup in my house since a two-year-old Jacob stole one out of the fridge and got it all over the couch. But it’s possible that a scene at the grocery store made me think that the cookies were not going to be enough this week… Oh, wait. I know what it was. They don’t have Shamrock Shakes here in TX so I had a plan to make my own, only there was no crème de menthe syrup at the grocery store so I just bought the Hershey’s instead. Mystery solved.

Adding to my crazy is Wyatt’s apparent realization that he can get by on about eight hours of sleep a day. I seem to remember my other kids taking both morning and afternoon naps at this age, and while I’m aware that I have been gifted with some very good nappers, Wyatt is being a bit ridiculous. Sometimes I can get either a good morning or afternoon nap out of him. Never both, and sometimes neither.

The last few weeks have been so full of stuff… my friend and her three kids (and two dogs ) came for a visit… my parents came for a visit… soccer has been trying to happen… I say trying because the otherwise brilliant idea of outdoor soccer in January/February has been derailed by bad weather. We’ve got about five games to make up. After sitting through freezing cold practices and games in the rain, I am pretty sure I will not be signing the kids up for any more wintertime sports. You know, like city soccer.

Some FB posts from the last couple of weeks:

It's snowing, a heavy, big flake, lovely snow. I mean, if you're going to have snow in TX at the end of February, it's lovely. Also, Jacob used the word "scurried" correctly in a sentence this morning. I got $110 in the mail for editing services rendered, plus someone else's Netflix. It's a typical kind of day :)

By typical, I think I just mean ‘typically weird’. I don’t usually get money in the mail. And believe me, I earned that $110 and if I had any sense I’d have charged more! I did the editing for a very nice lady who I like very much and am happy to work for. However, she flies by the seat of her pants and likes to wait until the last minute to put together her projects (she’s a college professor and involved in a zillion things that seem to require writing various projects). There were some very close deadlines and some very tough projects. I really enjoyed the opportunity to flex my brain-muscle for the first time in what felt like forever and do something I really enjoy (and get paid for it, no less). I look forward to the chance to work for her again.



From the "Norah will eat anything" files: Glycerin suppositories. I don't think she swallowed the whole thing, since I found one chewed up in the hallway. Still, I'm afraid of the next few diaper changes. I don't know how many were in there to begin with, but there's only three left...

Not kidding, that girl licks everything and will eat some of the most terrible things. She’s just gross.



Enjoyed the kids' long delayed 1st soccer games, although it rained almost the whole time. In a few minutes we're off to a birthday party at the roller rink, where I'm sure I will completely embarrass myself! Good times.

I had a ton of fun skating, and even had success teaching Jacob to skate on his own. Although I spent the majority of the time going three miles an hour around the rink with him holding on to my back pockets, I really enjoy skating and liked doing it on a nice flat surface and not being pulled by an insane dog trying to catch and eat critters (ala my last few skating expeditions). However, I have to note that when I was growing up, my friends and I all had skates/blades and used to skate all the time around the neighborhood. We went to the rink sometimes, but not very often—but when we did, we all brought our own skates. Renting roller skates was really uncommon. At this rink, I think I was one of like three people who wore their own skates. Anyway, short story long, I just thought that was weird.

Friday night, I'm tired, and I want to curl up in my bed watching a movie. Instead, I have four crabby kids really needing baths, I overflowed the washing machine and haven't had time to clean it up while making/supervising/cleaning up dinner, I need to run to the store tonight because a very full day starts at 8:30 tomorrow… and my husband is not home, meaning he’s probably out having a beer with the guys. Blerg.

Nicole Pogatchnik Beattie Oh-- and I didn't even mention all the other awesome things that went on today, like Jacob telling me he had a tummyache and then sharting in his pants, or having to Furminate Wyatt after I Furminated the cat because he went rolling through the pile of cat hair as I was trying to clean it up, or the fact that my whole body hurts like a mofo because I thought I could do two hours of WiiFit yesterday. The rest of my week really went quite smoothly, so I suppose everything that could go wrong had to be smooshed into one day!

I just don’t know if there’s anything else to say.

Happy eight-year first-date anniversary Tom!

Whaaat? Eight years already? Jeez, feels like just yesterday we met at Concordia… nope, scratch that. It feels like a million years, and not all of them perfect. But what a wonderful family we have, and what a perfect husband I got. Valentine’s Day is always very special to me (oh, I guess there’s no date on these… Feb 14th is the anniversary of our first date.)



I love it when speed skaters crash... it's my favorite part of the Olympics.But not Apolo, I love Apolo!

May I just say that NBC’s coverage of the Olympics has been absolutely disgusting and after the first two days, we pretty much quit watching. But in those first two days, I got to see short track speed skating, which I love. And Apolo Ohno, who I love. I do love it when they crash—it’s awesome (for me, not so much for them.)



I'm not sure why explaining the Olympics to Jacob led to a conversation about why everyone has to die, even Chinese people. It was easier to trace the origins of the tangent about how Native Americans go to the grocery store just like everyone else.February 12 at 8:56pm

Kathy Haddad Do you believe in reincarnation? Perhaps Jacob is a former official in the PROC... :-)


February 12 at 9:05pm • Katie Dohman OMG. OMG.


February 12 at 9:24pm • Nicole Pogatchnik Beattie Hm, his favorite color is red. Should I worry?


February 12 at 10:03pm • Tanna T Hahaha!


February 13 at 5:28am • Nicole Pogatchnik Beattie I figured it out this morning... Jacob was telling me about how Monday is President's Day... then, Bob Costas mentioned Barack Obama's name... which logically prompted my son to ask, "when is Orock Obama going to die?" Maybe I should be worried that he is a budding Republican.


February 13 at 8:14am • Lorie Haddad It would be the ultimate rebellion for him. Maybe you have a little Alex P Keaton on your hands. BTW - were you old enough to remember Family Ties?


February 13 at 8:28am • Erin Gross I love your kid stories!

I enjoyed the commentary on this one. Weird friends and relatives make a weird conversation something that can be shared over many miles. I also had one about the extreme ugliness of the Eastern European peoples, and how I sometimes check the mirror to make sure I am not beginning to resemble an old Slovenian crone in any way… but it was kind of mean so I’ll just let it fade into obscurity.



I just heard the ultimate insult: Norah was pestering Brynn about something, and Brynn couldn't get rid of her, and very sweetly said, "Hey Norah, why don't you go touch the spinning wheel?" Gotta love my Disney princesses... next time I'm sure she'll be offering her a nice shiny apple.