Life At The Circus

What day is it?  We’ve been a bit out of sorts here at the circus… snow days and a power outage resulting in a fun sleepover at Nana and Pop’s… …now it is Friday, but sure feels like Monday…. we’re home and trying to play catch up on schoolwork, house work and laundry… good news is, when we are done… we’ll still have the weekend to enjoy!  And next week is Super Bowl week… and in case you missed it… Pittsburgh’s Going to the Superbowl!!   WAHOO!!!  It’ll be black and gold week at the circus house for sure next week! So, anyway, I know I haven’t blogged all week and I am sitting here on Friday afternoon, sipping my hot cocoa, at a complete blank for what to write… so instead I will just share a few pics I recently downloaded from my camera… it’ll at least make the grandparents happy and with my sparse blogging as of late, I am afraid they may be the only ones still checking out life at the circus!  I hope to get back into the swing of things and start blogging ...

My lil guy isn’t a newborn anymore.  I’ve known it for awhile.. he’s eating solids , vocalizing , and working on crawling.  But, recently, I also realized his days of simply sleeping in my arms are fleeting.  He’s working himself into a rhythm… sleeping through the night… taking 2 solid naps a day…The days of just holding my tiny, sleeping newborn in my arms are over.  So on those random Sunday afternoons when he falls asleep in my arms, I am going to stay put and savor the moment.  I’m not going to lay him down, no so much out of fear of waking him, but out of fear of missing the all too fleeting moment.  “Dusting and scrubbing can wait 'till tomorrow For babies grow fast we learn to our sorrow. So quiet down cobwebs and dust go to sleep I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.” -Author Unknown

Dishes piled in the sink, pjs on till 2:00 in the afternoon, laundry waiting to be folded, counter cluttered… But today, it doesn’t bother me.  ( ok, it doesn’t bother me too much anyway )… because… Today, I finally took the time to snuggle on the couch with my almost 5 year old and work with her on reading… and today that precious light bulb went off as she first went up and down the blend ladders and then graduated to three letter words. Today I watched her sound out h-a-t, c-a-t, m-a-t, f-a-t, r-a-t, p-o-p…  I saw her face light up as she got it.  As she read her first word and then her second and then her third.  She couldn’t get enough.  She went to quiet time with words in hand and I could hear her reading the words over and over in her room, then writing them down and reading them again.    She’s been ready and eager for this and finally, we made it happen.  And I couldn’t be more proud.  It was such a precious moment an...

Yesterday my girls had me in stitches with the things they were saying.  I had to go write them down so I wouldn’t forget. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Me:  After you eat we are going to go run some errands 3 year old:  Erin, whose Erin? Me:  no, we are going to go to some stores 3 year old:  Well, can Erin stay with us while you go to the store? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ My 3 yr old came running to me crying over a  boo boo. I kiss it 3 yr old:  That didn't help (I inwardly lament the fact that my kiss has lost its magical power when I hear my almost 5 yr old say to her, ”Sometimes when daddy kisses my boo boos it doesn't help, even though he is a good kisser.” ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The girls always have their “baby Eli’s” with them wherever they go.  Feeding them, snuggling them, they are always at their sides.  So yesterd...

I’ve never known what it was like to be part of the home town team.  Though I was born in Pa, I’ve lived in rival MD since the age of 5, not counting 3 of my 4 years of college.  I got my love of football from my dad and my dad brought me up a Steelers girl.  I now pass this legacy onto my four children.   I just love this pic of our newest Steelers fan, I had to find a reason to sneak this in. But, I gotta tell you, it isn’t easy living behind enemy lines.  I like to think it makes us stronger.  We don’t go with the flow, we stand our own.  We proudly sport our black and gold in this land of purple.  It really doesn’t bother me in the week leading up to the game.  I will gladly talk trash with my neighbor, hang our flag in front of our house and wear my jersey all over town - in fact, I kinda like it. But, once the game starts, it is a different story.  And it really hit me this year.  During the second quarter of the game...

Those of you that follow me on facebook or twitter, or have spent any time round these circus parts, know that I whine quite a bit about laundry.  Recently, however, I made a startling discovery.  Rather than being the bane of my existence as I once thought, it is in fact, the key to my happiness? Say wha?? Last May , I set out with a quest to get entirely caught up on my laundry.  Do you recall that flock of pigs, flying over the state of Maryland last spring?  Yup… I did it.  And then, shock of all shocks, I was able to keep up with it, doing a load a day, for a good solid month, before lil man made his appearance into the world and our family. And even though he is the most easy going, laid back, and sweetest of babes one could ask for, well, it has taken me 7 months to get back to the point where I am totally caught up on laundry AND MAINTAINING my quota of one, sometimes two,  (depending on how many outfits lil miss decides to wear in one day)....

As I watch my kids play together, I can’t help but think how my son has no idea how good he has it.  Growing up, it was just me and my little brother and we’d often play together.  I vividly recall playing GI Joe with him.  It pretty much went the same way every time.  I had the Princess Lea action figure and she would be married to either Shipwreck or Sgt Slaughter.  I’d let him go off on the side and fight his battles or whatever while Princess Lea would clean house and make dinner.  Then she’d call him home from war to sit at the table and eat his dinner. Yea, I pretty much turned Joes into Ken and Barbie. Lately, my oldest two have been playing GI Joe and it is a totally different game.  My daughter is Lady Jaye and she throws grenades across the toy room at the Cobra’s.  I couldn’t help but chuckle when she came looking for a sack to wear on her back for her grenades to go in.  Yea… my son totally struck gold in the sister departme...

Nothing like the holidays, to bring on some humor from the lil ones.  Here’s a few I want to record for posterity. When Scott was talking to my 4 yr old about what she wanted to get me for Christmas, she told him she wanted to get Mommy flowers and she was going to be nice.  To clarify Scott asked, “So your going to be nice as a Christmas gift for Mommy?”  When she affirmed this, he told her that she didn’t have to wait until Christmas to be nice.  She could start then.  She then answered, “Oh no Daddy, I don’t want to give away the surprise!” ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ On Christmas Eve my son came up to me and asked if we had to give Santa the “shape cookies” (meaning the ones we cut out with cutters and decorated)  I told him that Santa would be happy with any cookie they left for him.  He then whispered to me so the girls couldn’t hear, “Good, b/c since I know it’s just you and Dad that eat them, I don’t want to was...

I wasn’t aiming for some idealist, Kodak winter moment.   Just an evening of winter fun with the kids.  With the baby dropped off at my in laws, Scott and I set out for an evening on the ice with the big 3.   Scott had his reservations and voiced them a few times.  But, I was confident we’d be fine.  Once we were all laced up and approaching the rink, my confidence began to waver.  Seems when I signed us up for this evening of family fun, I forgot that I have only been ice skating 3 times in my 31 years.  And the last time I went on the ice was well over 10 yrs ago.  As we quickly grabbed scooters for the kids to hold onto, I found myself wishing they had one in my size! Everyone else seemed to be flying past me with confidence.  Meanwhile I stuck to my 3 yr old like glue, “helping” her steer her scooter in the small patch of scuffed up ice that the Zamboni missed.   10 minutes into the first hour and I was ready for...