Things That Made Me Smile Today

A routine Monday at home means lots of cleaning and planning/strategizing for the week. It also means lots of time and conversation with the littlest Nielsons. In which they say all kinds of things that make me smile.

In regards to our local historical museum being closed on Monday, my two year old may say:

"Jesus is opening the museum so we can go pet the baby sheep because they are SOOOO cute!!!"

My four year old Sweetest P may demand my attention so I can watch her newest talent:

"MOM, watch me hip-scotch!" (Hop scotch? That looks an awful lot like skipping?) Either way, I may have asked her a dozen times what it was she was doing just so I could hear her say "hip-scotch" one more time!

Car Conversations

C: "HONK-shoo, HONK-shoo, HONK-shoo." (Great snoring impressions for a just two year old, I might add. I wish you had the audio…)

Mom: "Oh, are you taking a nice little rest until we get home?"

C: "No. I honk-shooing."

P: "Oh, I thought you were snore-shooing."

"On a Line"

A conversation with my 8 year old in the car on the way home might go something like this.

I was explaining to her how my school, a Montessori school, works, and what the environment is like. I was telling her that very rarely are all the kids in the classroom doing exactly the same thing at the same time.

She asks, "So if it were a line, like 10-1, what would it be?"

I missed the "line" part of the question, and am thinking she means something about time, from 10am to 1 pm. But I'm still lost, so I dig deeper to understand her question.

"You know, if it were a line. Like 10-1, would it be like a 9?"

I hear the line part of the question this time. And her example- a 9. And it all makes sense. She's asking, in her 8 year old way, if it were a 1-10 scale, would it be at a 9 (with all the kids doing different things)?

Love the way her mind works!

Carseats. It's about time.

With your first kid, you are oh so eager for each milestone. Including carseats. (Who knew that was a milestone?) You begrudgingly pay for the convertible carseat after what seems such a short time in the infant carseat just because you are eager to turn that kid around and see what it is they do in the car all the time.

The second kid isn't in quite such a rush because that means the purchase of yet another carseat. But alas, you can only squeeze them into that infant carseat for so long.

By the time the third kid comes around, the first infant carseat is kind of trashed and the whole carseat system has been overhauled since your first baby. (Turns out carseats are updated and outdated about as fast as computers these days.) So you find yourself buying a whole spanking new carseat for this third baby who you are determined deserves some new things of their very own. And that new and improved carseat lasts longer than previous models. So this kid gets almost double the time in infant carseat. But, inevitably, the older kids are beginning to outgrow their seats and move into boosters, so you buy some more, spare yourself from totaling how many carseats you've purchased at this point, and shift everyone around.

The fourth kid? Yikes. More than two years later, you find yourself in the midst of this mess:

If you count carefully, that's four carseats in various stages of disassembly and disarray. And by now, shifting everyone around, cleaning, reassembly and installation ends up being an all day affair!

After a week of temps reminiscent of our days in the frozen tundra, resulting heavy bulky coats that make it nearly impossible to buckle a kid in a carseat, our 8th carseat of our parenting career finally arrived on our doorstep. Which means, at 2 years, 1 month and 3 days, it's finally time to move this cutie out of her "baby seat" and turn her around!

And just in time to make room for that puffy coat!

The Most Wonderful Time of Year

(Except for Summer. Let that be clear!)

Baby, it's cold outside! No joke.

And I am doing my best to not complain about it. No one likes a complainer. And you can only read so many Facebook posts about the weather before it gets old. AND, I'm from Minnesota. And proud of it. And therefore immune to cold because after all, no one knows cold like Minnesotans, right? As natives of the frozen tundra, we scoff at the top news stories proclaiming record breaking temps of -13 degrees. Coloradans still don't know real cold.

But as I keep reminding people, there is a reason I left Minnie.

But truth be told, there was something good for my soul in shoveling the driveway this morning in the magical winter wonderland. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! The light snow, cool air, the monotony of the shovel motions and the clang of the metal blade on the concrete, followed by hot chocolate and Christmas carols invigorated me, gave me cause to believe Christmas really is just around the corner, and most importantly transported me across decades and nearly a thousand miles like none other.

LOVE living in Colorado, but my heart still calls Minnesota home!

Things I Never Thought I'd Say

#4572:
"Did you just wipe your toothbrush on her bottom?"

So thankful the answer to that one was no. I don't always get so lucky.

Toilet Paper. Like it. Awesome!!!

Potty training MUST be easier by the 4th time around, right? I would like to say I am an expert at this subject by now, but the truth is that I suck at potty training. Thankfully, my kids have all learned to use the bathroom in spite of me.

It appears the 4th one will be no different. I think she's teaching herself, actually. I pulled the little potty out several months ago, just so she could warm up to it. But I've never been so presumptuous (ambitious) as to say, "We're potty training." And yet, several times a day she tells me, "Go potty. BADLY!" Usually as I'm herding all the cats kids out the door. Or when we're in the middle of the grocery store. And when she's first learning, I can't tell her no, can I? Even if I know there's only about a 10% chance she'll actually go?

In any case, she loves to sit on the potty. Whether it produces results or not. And her motivation to go? Toilet paper. And washing her hands. Really, I thought all kids were motivated by candy or other treats. Not this one. She just really wants the toilet paper. Ranking right near the top of "Things I Never Thought I'd Say" is my latest mantra: "You can have the toilet paper as soon as you go potty. No toilet paper until you go pee or poop." To which my little OCD hygienist responds, "WANT IT!! Toilet paper. Like it. AWESOME!! Wash hands!!!" In varying decibel levels.

Good thing she's cute!

A Cabin in the Woods with No Parents

Tonight's dinner time conversation went a little something like this:

Little Man: "I wish on Halloween, we were in a cabin in the woods with no parents."
Mom: "What if you were in a cabin in the woods with no parents and you woke up in the middle of the night with a bad dream? What would you do?"
Little Man: "Eat some Halloween candy." Pause. "And then go back to bed and dream about Ninja Turtles. Or something that fights."

So. Much. Hair!!!

I never imagined myself with a house full of little girls.

And I've discovered this is might be why; there is so. much. hair. to be done in this house!!! Which might be a little like the Lord's sense of humor- I don't have a clue what to do with hair. As if that wasn't painfully apparent before I had kids, now it shows up on my 3 little lovelies. Every day. Just yesterday, the man of the house, who also happens to be a client of Nielson's Boutique, commented to a friend that sometimes I spend 40 minutes doing hair in the mornings. Now that's a bit of an exaggeration. (Except for about 4 times a year on holidays and other picture worthy days). Let's maybe average it out to about 20 minutes a day. Unless you factor in the super special days when I actually comb do something with my own hair.

SO MUCH HAIR!!!!

I don't know how women did it before youtube.

(If you look closely, you'll understand why I take only partial credit for this hairstyle:)

Life Lately

If these shots don't spell summer for you, I don't know what does.  I think I'd be happy if the carefree laid back days of summer never ended.  I think I appreciate the freedom, flexibility and relaxed days of summer even more than my kids do.  What's better than the pool in the morning, afternoons reading together, popsicles before bed, and hours of family fun?  No wonder summer is my favorite season.  And we've been soaking it up this summer.  Every.Little.Minute.

My favorite little hipster playing at the park in her birthday outfit from her cousins.

Sophia Waterskiing!!!

If Sophia can do it, Noah can too!

We.LOVE.Summer!

First summer of Tball for Noah.  He loves it beyond belief.  After his first day (in 90+ heat), he said, "I could play for 40 more hours!"  He is his father's son!

Too many hours in the car!  This must have been somewhere around Lincoln, NE.

The Music Truck

We live in an absolutely prime kid-friendly neighborhood.  For our stage of life, you couldn't ask for a better place to be.  We have a park right across the street.  The kind that takes up one full square block.  Complete with tennis courts, playground, baseball field, and a huge wide expanse of lush green.  On the other side of the park is a library.  Complete with the best children's section in town.  And across from both of those things is a totally free Historical Museum.  (Think Little House on the Prairie.)

All things considered, it's no surprise that there is an ice cream truck that makes the daily rounds from April all the way through September more religiously than a monk trying to earn his way to heaven.

Years ago, I had heard this meaningless tidbit from a friend, and it had always stuck with me.  This comment was an afterthought to a conversation, rather than the focal point.  But she said something about how the only good thing her ex-daughter-in-law did as a mom was tell her kids the ice cream truck was a "music truck".  I am pretty sure I heard that before we even had kids of our own.

But for whatever reason, it stayed with me.  (Maybe even more note-worthy since I didn't grow up with ice cream trucks or music trucks and had no idea that they actually existed and weren't just something out of the movies.)

I think it might have been an act of God.  Who had the big picture in mind and knew that one day, we would be moving into this prime time kid zone.  Music truck and all.

So from the time my kids were able to talk, I taught them that that truck was the Music Truck.  We have lived in our house for five and a half years, and the kids run to the doors, windows, curbs whatever is closest, on a daily basis throughout the summer to greet the music truck.

Last summer, I found us in a couple of precarious situations when I thought the gig was up.  There were people around us who would mention the "Ice Cream Truck," and I would quickly respond with something about "Oh, yeah, we're big fans of the music truck at our house.  We love the songs!!!"

Then there was one point when the neighbor grandkids were visiting last summer and bought something from the Music Truck.  Thankfully, we were on our way out and were loading into the car, so I thought there might have been a chance that my kids missed the transaction that took place between the Music Man and the neighbors.

And then we heard those first annoyingly famous chimes of the Music Truck sometime in April 2012.  And an era came screeching to a halt, crashing and burning just as violently as the Hindenburg.  The kids ran to the door, ready to greet the ever faithful neighborhood mascot.

But this time, these pounding footsteps and squeals were accompanied by requests of "Can we get something?"

And a part of me died inside.

And not just because I was doing mental gymnastics figuring the math of at least one time past our house (sometimes two) daily x April-September x at least two kids asking = a whole lot of "No, you may not get something from the Music Truck" conversations.

More because it was symbolic of the end of the innocence.  The days when my kids know of and believe nothing but what I tell them.  The days of Mama's always right and Mama always knows best.  The days when anyone who contradicted that was absolutely crazy and also has three heads.

So this summer begins a whole new era in our house.  One that includes the Music Truck (which the kids still call it) as well as the Ice Cream Truck (for now they know what is inside that crazy truck).

Sad day.

Christmas 2011

Maybe I'll just set aside lofty aspirations of writing for the moment.  Or the next several years, anyway.  I'd be doing great if I could just post some current pictures every now and then!  I don't think I've posted any pictures of my little Charli's angel since she was born, so I'll back up 'til Christmas and try and catch up!!

Ring those bells, Bud!!  

That's my little Lamb!!

She finally lost her first tooth!

Augh, LOVE 'EM!!!  (Even more than they love those Christmas jammies, which is hard to imagine.)

First Christmas:)

We debated long and hard about where to find the best sledding hill.  And then we decided the street right in front of our house would work just fine!  The dumping we got just as my family was coming into town made for great sledding weather with the the uncles.

Just because I forced my almost two year old to sled, when she was convinced she wanted no part in that, does not make me a parent.  Really.  I was trying to teach her to find the fun in life! 

Pretty much, forget having the "perfect picture" with 4 little kids.  At least the perfect "posed" picture.  Because this one is pretty much perfect in the sense that it did a pretty good job of capturing personalities of each one of them.

She's not convinced if his motives are really to help her get into her present, or if he just wants to play himself.

Probably my favorite picture from this Christmas.

What this boy doesn't realize is that he is opening the gift that will change is life.  PGA Tour, get ready!

Six Venches

As we were on our way to church yesterday, we somehow found ourselves in the midst of a conversation about walking to church.  Our church isn't exactly the neighborhood church; it's somewhere around 7 miles away and takes an average of about 25 minutes to get there.  Not my favorite thing at 8:30 on Sunday morning as a single parent with 4 small children, striving to get to church on time.  But that's another story.

More often than not, I do not have the radio on in the car while we are driving, because I find that this time is usually when I have the very best conversations with my kids.  I guess there's the blessing in the story, and that rather than bemoan how long it takes us to get to church, I should be thankful for that time when I have my children's usually undivided attention.

Anyway, back to the story at hand.  We were driving. The radio was off.  We were having one of our typical drive time conversations.  This day it happened to be about walking to church.  I was asking the kids if they thought they could do it.

Noah's answer?  "Uh.  I'd have to stop at SIX venches."

(That's Nielson speak for benches, FYI!  Both Sophia and Noah say venches.  Sophia started saying it years ago, and Noah learned it from her.  I used to not bother correcting them because I thought it was so cute.  And then I decided that someday someone else would think my kids were crazy, talking about venches and what-not.  So I tried to correct them.  Really.  I explained up and down that the word was really bench.  Apparently, my kids think I lie to them about word pronunciation on a regular basis.  So I quit trying.  And we still sit on venches in this house.)

Some Things Just Aren't Learned

My "baby" started school last week.  Not sure how that happened.  And no surprise to anyone, she loves school.  It's me that's having a hard time adjusting to this school every day thing.  At the end of each day, I think ahead that at least we'll get a breather tomorrow, but then realize that's not the case.  She goes every day now, and we'll just go through the same thing again tomorrow.  And school nights.  Don't get me started on how they cramp our life style!  :)

Noah is devastated that he hasn't started yet, and daily stands at the door and cries as Tim takes Sophia off for another day of adventure without him.

Anyway, the start of school sure has sparked interesting conversations around here.  And proven to me that there are some things that the kids just don't learn: they're born with these ideas.

On Monday this week, we got into a conversation about Gym/PE.  I wasn't sure if Sophia knew that these terms were interchangeable until I heard her talking about PE.  I asked if she had any idea what PE meant, and it was no surprise that she was clueless.  The conversation went something like this:
Me: "Well, P is for physical, so it's your body and moving, and E is for education, which is learning.  So instead of learning about reading or writing, your learning about exercise."
Noah: "Oh, I'm gonna be good at PE!"

The next day I asked, "Noah, what is going to be the best part about school this year?"
Noah's answer: "Gym."
(Don't forget: he's just starting preschool.  He has never had gym.  Preschool doesn't have gym.)
Boys will be boys!

Sophia also brought home her first homework this week.  (I won't even start my rant about a kindergartner coming home with homework on the fourth day of school.)  I pulled it out of her backpack and exclaimed, "Wow!  You have homework!"

I am not sure either Sophia or Noah has ever heard that word before in their lives, much less have any idea what it is.  But would you believe they BOTH responded with, "Aw, homework!  I don't like homework!"

On an unrelated note, this would be an ironic time to mention that we have been working on whining/arguing/complaining lately, and have spent a lot of time repeating the verse from Philippians 2:14, "Do everything without arguing or complaining."  (Including homework!  :)

Classic Noah

Noah's had a few great Noahisms the last couple of days that are worthy of preserving for the archives.

On Monday, we were discussing what it would be like to find out if our newest baby is a boy or a girl.  I asked him what he would say if he found out it was a boy.  His answer, "Thank you GOD that our baby is a BOY."  Followed a few minutes later with, "We already have enough girls."

He started VBS at church on Monday, and as he was getting ready to leave with Tim, I had this flash forward to him in his class with his best buddies and all the trouble he could potentially cause, all in the name of fun and silliness.  It was almost a moment of panic.  On Tuesday, after his second day, I asked him if he was good that day.  He answered, "Yeah.  I didn't bite anyone.  And I didn't lick anyone."  (As if that isn't enough of a good story, it's important to note that he commented on not licking anyone b/c the day before, he did lick one of his junior high aged teachers while pretending to be a lion.)

Last night, he was playing with one of his very best buddies with a Noah's Ark toy.  I overheard him tell Carter, "And I'M going to drive the boat because I'M Noah!!!!"

Christmas

We had my WHOLE family in our house for Christmas.  Every single one of them.  And it was fabulous.  A ton of work, but so worth every minute.  And as they were leaving, I had the bittersweet realization that that will most likely be the last time we will all fit under one roof again.  How sad!!!

But we sure did have fun while they were here.  So much fun that I didn't take hardly any pictures.  I sure wish I would have gotten more, especially of my sweet niece and nephew while they were here, but there simply wasn't time to grab the camera.

My sweetheart playing Mary in the preschool Christmas program

Very messy gingerbread houses at our birthday party for Jesus

Boys and their toys.  Playing toolbench.

Cousin Mackenzie.

Matching jammies from Oma.  And kids who didn't cooperate for a picture.

Love 'em.  To pieces.

Halloween

Whew, as always, I am so behind.  Halloween was already a lifetime ago, but I can't resist a chance to share these pictures of my favorite little people in the world!!  They were so excited for Halloween this year!  This was the first time that they really got the idea of dressing up.  Sophia talked for months about what she wanted to be.  She was convinced for several months that she wanted to be a frog, and I was all about it and the non-traditional girl "princess" costume.  But then just a few weeks before Halloween, she changed her mind.  Only to come up with yet another non-traditional girl costume.

Poor Noah had his heart set on being a cow.  And then an airplane.  He got neither.  Both of these ideas would have been just fine, had I not had a perfectly great chicken costume in just his size.  And even though he was insistent that he was going to be an airplane (all the way up until we left the house on Halloween night in the chicken costume), he actually loved the chicken get-up, and wore it well, I should say!

Phoebs?  Well, let's just say she's the 3rd in the family to "Moo" for her first Halloween!

Borrowing Big Sis's Halloween Costume

We braved "Boo at the Zoo" the day before Halloween.  I figured it wasn't necessary to roast Phoebe that day and torture her with a full day as a cow.  Poor Noah had to have been dying, it was mid-70's that day.

What can we say?  Nielson blood must be part bovine.

Waiting their turns.

And there they are.  I think I decided that after this year, I am going to make a day of dressing them up in their costumes to get the pictures, and then leave the camera behind for actual Halloween events.  I'd rather enjoy the fun than waste the entire night behind the camera trying to capture the perfect shots.  (Either that, or I just need to get better with the camera so the "perfect shots" come more naturally rather than seeming like so much work.)

Fall Fun

Every year, we venture across the street for the annual Harvest Festival.  It's tons of fun for the kids, and tons of fun for the wannabe photographer in me.  After all, what's cuter than sweet kids and lots of pumpkins?  By the end of every year, I always feel like some of our best pictures of the year come from the Harvest Festival.  I learned this year, though, that it gets harder each year.  As the number of kids grow, it becomes more and more impossible to get all three to cooperate simultaneously AND to actually be excited about smiling for a camera!  I'm all about candids, but everyone would like at least one good picture with everyone looking at the lens and smiling.  Here are some of my best efforts from this year.

PS-  You may or may not notice the change of clothing from last year's event.  As it turns out, probably not since it seems I never posted those pictures.  Oops.  Last year, 20 degrees, snow flurries, hats, mittens, snowpants, and all things winter.

And here are just a few others from things we've done this month that fall into the category of "It's definitely October":

Happy Halloween, Friends!