A very Merry Christmas to you!

This was our first year of living near family at the holidays, and I really enjoyed being able to have more time around Thanksgiving and Christmas this year. Cutting out 10+ hours of driving round trip is a wonderful bonus! We even got a white Christmas for our first one in our new house, which was amazing. Unfortunately the weather resulted in lots of ice, wind gusts of 60 mph and church being cancelled all over town on Christmas Eve. We had a lovely family night at home with Matt's parents and Kelli, Kiley and Cooper, so I have no complaints!

I invited everyone over for dinner and we had lasagne, salad, garlic bread and baked Alaska for dessert. (Yep, homemade!) Matt let me take a nap that afternoon (God Bless him!) and when I came out he had set the table, used the fancy silverware, folded cloth napkins, and made the salad. I love my husband! Everyone fought their way over through the weather and we had a nice evening. The kids got to open their Christmas pj's, and slacker mama forgot to get a picture! My sister in law took a few, so I will post hers later. We laid out cookies for Santa, hung stockings and tucked the kids into bed with no problems.

Christmas morning I heard the kids about 7:00, so I got Matt up and we started the video camera. I am surprised every single year at the lack of enthusiasm Meredith shows on Christmas morning. I don't know if it is just because she is not a morning person, or if she just doesn't get it yet or what, but she was so excited leading up to Christmas that we thought surely she would run over to her Santa presents. Nope, for the 2nd year in a row she walked sleepily out, looked around, and didn't dig into her stocking until we pointed it out to her! I have it all on video, as anticlimactic as it was! Kids will surprise you every time I guess! I remember fighting at the top of the stairs as we waited to be allowed down, running through the house elbowing for space as we dashed into the family room and pounced on our Christmas presents when I was a kid. Maybe next year she will care!

We did the Santa thing, and then sorted out all the other presents and opened those in rotation. Meredith was thrilled to get my old American Girls doll, Samantha, and Nathan loves his vacuum cleaner with a passion. We finished after about an hour and a half or so, and I started making brunch because we were having the family over again. Within 5 minutes of finishing with the presents the leg had fallen off of Meredith's doll, and while I was trying to re-attach it, Nathan's vacuum cleaner stopped making noise and he started crying and trying to hand it to me. While all of this was happening, Matt was digging our van out so he could go pick up his parents and Kelli, since they were stranded a mile down the road at their house! I might be the only one who finds this scenario hilarious, but it seemed like vintage Donovan family to me! Matt asked "Why do we bother to try and make Christmas special?" and I responded over the crying children "To make happy family memories like these!" Call us sarcastic or cynical, but we find that having a sense of humor makes parenting much more enjoyable!

Everyone finally made it here for brunch, we went to the in-laws house that afternoon for dinner, and played in the snow. I really missed getting to attend church, but other than that we had a terrific Christmas. I got a new camera from Matt, and he surprised me with the Nativity scene from Willow Tree, which I LOVE. Matt liked his golf club drink dispenser, and I think everyone had a good time, which makes our first Christmas living in Oklahoma a rousing success!

Cancun

Matt and I took a trip to Cancun this year with our friends Jenny and John. We all turned 30 this year, so we decided a celebration was in order. It was the first vacation we have taken since our honeymoon nearly 8 years ago, and it was wonderful! We did a whole lot of nothing for the whole week. We left on the Saturday after Thanksgiving and came back the following Saturday. We stayed at an all-inclusive resort, which was phenomenal. I'm going to let the pictures show most of the vacation, because it was too wonderful to describe with words!

The only other item of note is that the our resort was on is in a bay, so it was not a "real" beach in my mind. Matt took me to one of the public beaches on Friday of our trip, and it was amazing. There was nobody else around, the waves were crashing loudly, the sand was beautiful and it was my favorite beach experience of my life. The beach holds some mysterious pull for me, and I feel like even if I were to get to walk on the shore every day for the rest of my life, I would never tire of hearing the waves and feeling the sand and surf. My husband is wonderful for making the effort to find a real beach for me on our vacation, and I love him so much for it!

Meredith's Kindergarten Thanksgiving

Meredith's class had 2 Thanksgiving celebrations. The first one was a program where the kids sang, danced, wore turkey hats and said what they are thankful for. It was really cute, and Meredith said "I am thankful for the angels that watch over me." Sweet, and I am not sure where she comes up with some of the things she says! My favorite part of the performance was watching the kids do the turkey trot. They were a riot!A few days later they had their Thanksgiving feast. The menu was peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, carrots with ranch dressing, chex mix and lemonade. I helped get the feast prepared (unwisely choosing the pb and j table....sticky 5 year old hands everywhere!) The kids went into the hall for a story and the other parents and I pushed the tables together and set the plates around. The kids were excited when they came in, and it was fun to watch them find their seats and chatter with their friends. The pictures are of Meredith with Mrs. Gregg, and her class at their programs.

Thanksgiving 2009

Thanksgiving this year was very nice. It is the first year we have not had a long drive on either end of the weekend, which made all the difference in the world to me! We did a low-key morning, the kids and I actually went to Matt's office with him and helped him get caught up on filing while he finished a few things. We came back home, napped, then headed to the in-laws house for dinner. It was nice to just hang out, have some wine, and play games with the family. Kelli and I are both very into the idea of making holidays and time together special by doing something all together. This year we played Scattergories, which was hilarious, and a lot of fun. Kiley and JoAnn both forgot the way to play about 4 rounds in, and started writing down words that didn't begin with the letter we were supposed to be using. Matt and Kelli both get really competetive and Matt eggs her on something fierce. JoAnn doesn't like fighting, so she tries valiantly to change the subject (her go to line it "Particularly nice weather, isn't it?"), Kiley sits back and watches and makes an occaisional wisecrack, Mike chimes in and stirs things up every once in a while, the kids play happily in the background, and I sip my wine contentedly and enjoy the show!

The Flagstaff Visit - It's not the destination, it's the journey...

Matt surprised me with tickets to fly to Flagstaff for a quick visit in the middle of November, so the kids and I trekked through 2 airports 3 weeks post knee surgery and hung out with the family for a while! It was a good visit for the most part, and even the travelling went well. Since my blog seems to have morphed into a journal entry rather than the profound insights of motherhood I felt sure it was going to be, I am going to embrace it and try to update it for the last month so I can remember what we were up to!

The flight to Arizona was first thing in the morning, so we tucked the kids into bed early and in their clothes for the next day so they were ready to go at 6 when we dragged them out of bed. There had been some debate about my ability to limp through the airport with 2 children and all the items necessary to bring with us to entertain and feed 2 children on the plane. Up until we were pulling into the airport I was still debating about needing to ask for a wheelchair. The Oklahoma City airport is not tough to navigate, so I decided I would try it on my own, since I didn't think my in a wheelchair was going to be easier when bringing the kids with me. We got through security and I was once again impressed with how thoughtful everyone here is! The guy 2 people in back of me in the security line set up the stroller for me after the x-ray machine while I was getting the kids shoes back on, and even checked to make sure it was locked. (Side note: Oklahoma City is the nicest city I have ever lived in, people here seem to go out of their way to offer help and smile and greet eachother. Maybe it's a southern thing and it happens in the true south too, but it amazes me every single day!)

We got to the gate and lucked out that the fight was not completely full, so the people at the desk said I could go ahead and just take an extra seat for Nathan, even when they made an announcement saying it was a full flight. The kids were wonderful for the flight, Nathan crawled all over our little area and played peekaboo with the people behind us, Meredith enjoyed looking out the window, and both kids colored for a long time, so I even got to read my magazine for a little while! Nathan wanted to look out the window too, and Meredith was in stellar big sis mode so she held him on her lap and was pointing things out to him as they gazed out together. It was one of those touching moments where I am so grateful to have such amazing children!

We landed and met my dad and Brina at the little waiting area past security, and I was able to relax and turn the kids over to them. They helped get the bags, load the car, take Mere to the bathroom etc., and even tracked down 2 little rubber planes for them that were the hit of the vacation. (The more useless and tiny an object is, and the more annoying I find it, the more my children love it.) We went to see Brina's townhouse, which looks amazing (It was falling apart and a mess when they bought it, and my dad has worked his magic on it so now it is one of the nicest places a college student could live!) and they watched the kids for me while I iced my knee. It's fun for me to see Brina and Meredith together because Meredith worships Brina the way Brina used to worship me. And Brina is always very sweet and kind and patient to Mere, which I really appreciate, because I am certain that even Brina does not REALLY want to spend 3 hours listening to Meredith "play" her various instruments, analyze fingernail polish, chatter constantly about everything from dinosaurs to God and Angels and dictate what she should say!After feeding the kids a little snack (Meredith actually about ate Brina out of house and home! We must have been on her eating day that day, since she normally only eats about every 4th day) and hanging out for a while so they could burn off some energy we headed to Swensens for lunch and then made the drive up to Flagstaff.

I am always happy to see the Peaks, and as always, it was good to get to see everyone and be "home" for a while. At some point in the last few years I have made the transition to adulthood, so going back to the place that I thought would always be home now feels like I am just visiting. It's nice that I have my true home with my husband and kids in OKC now, but it's bittersweet to visit Flagstaff and realize that it is no longer home.

The kids and I had a nice visit, we got in lots of family time. We were able to hang out with my nephew Caden, and he is now old enough that it is fun to watch him crawl around and interact with Meredith and Nathan. Everyone got some one on one time with the kids, and I really appreciated how helpful everyone was with the kids so I could stay off my knee for the most part. The visit was really very positive until the last night we were in town, when for some reason Blake and his wife Gwen were in a mood. They changed Caden into a pair of Nathan's jeans (he only had 4 pairs of pants at the time, so I was irritated that they were trying to take 25% of my son's wardrobe!) and when I mentioned it Gwen was really weird and defensive about it. I was assuming that it was a mistake, but her reaction was very short and rude, and turned the entire ordeal into a much bigger deal than it needed to be. The end result was that they stormed out without saying good-bye, and Blake asked my mom to tell me that I am not welcome at his house. Sometimes I wonder why my family loves to have drama, and I wonder what it would be like to live in a family where everyone is respectful, helpful and drama free!

The drama sort of left a black cloud over the house, so we were all pretty introspective for the rest of the visit. Brina and my dad and I hung out for a while after everyone else went to bed, and I was reminded again how fantastic it is to have people who really get me! We joked and laughed and analyzed life until late that night, and then Brina drove us back down to the airport the next morning so we could fly back home. It was good to get back to Oklahoma and see Matt again. There is a song that Meredith is crazy about that Matt put on a cd for us called "If I ever get back to Oklahoma, gonna nail my feet to the ground" (yep, it's as cheesy and country as it sounds!) and that song kept playing in my head as we were driving home. Life never fails to surprise and amaze me, I really enjoy the ironies and challenges on the journey, and I can't believe that Oklahoma ended up being the true home for me.

Me time!

As I write this post I am sitting outside our hotel room on the patio in Cancun, watching the palm trees blow in the wind, the ocean move in the distance, and enjoying the beautiful green grass! I am finally getting some me time and I am loving it! It is helping me to re-prioritize and relax,and I think Matt and I are feeling more connected too! I am re-confirming my new lease on life with this trip, and I am so proud of myself for finally figuring out how to be healthy and centered. I feel confidant in myself these days most of the time, which is a new feeling for me. I am not feeing guilty about taking care of myself, which is another tremendous improvement.

Before we left for vacation I think we got everything in the best shape we possibly could, which helps me to be able to relax. The entire house was clean, the instructions were typed up and neatly organized in a notebook for my in-laws, and I even managed to do the super-mom thing and leave little post-it notes around the house for the kids, telling them I love them and left a few little treats for them. (Hugs and Kisses from Hersheys, a heart shaped necklace for Meredith from us, some silly putty to remind them of their silly mommy...)

Well, I didn't get this finished in Mexico, I took a nap instead! We have been home for a week now and as I started to update my blog again (being a full month behind now) I found this one. Immediately I felt relaxed and happy as I pictured our beautiful vacation. So, I will post this when I get there chronolgically and smile as I remember how nice it is to do just what I want to do when I want to do it!

Update: 26 days later, I am once again attacking the blog and getting things posted. Me time is few and far between these days, but I am hoping that after Mere heads back to school in January I can make myself a priority again. Hey, a girl can dream, right?

Perhaps it was expecting too much!

Okay, so less than a week into writing my thankful thoughts for the day each day on my blog I am giving up. Not because I am not grateful, in fact I have a list in my head of all the things that I give thanks for and I think that I don't want to spend my blog time writing them down one at a time. I will post them all together soon when I have a moment, but the kids and life are going by so fast that I would rather record moments about them, and I only have so much time I can spend on the computer!

So, my final thankful thoughts for this previous idea are:
I am thankful for my mom for her strength and ability to think things all the way through, and the way she makes me laugh. I am thankful for my husband, who is very thoughtful and loving (sometimes even in front of people!) and whom I miss while I am visiting in Arizona. And I am thankful for my family at large, from my best friend of a sister to my in-laws to my little nephews who can't even walk yet. Life is good and I love and appreciate all of the blessings that God has given me.

Wednesday and Thursday thanks

I was travelling to Arizona for a quick visit on Wednesday so I am behind on my internet activities! On Wednesday I was thankful for nice and helpful people at the airport, and well-behaved children on the flight.

Today I am thankful for my dad and his un-ending supply of patience with my children. He continues to amaze me with what an outstanding Grandpa he is; even in the midst of a screaming, temper-tantrum throwing, hungry and over-tired 18 month old he still kissed him and said "I love you Nathan!"

November 10 - Thankful thought for the day

Today I am thankful for nice and helpful people at the doctor's offices and pharmacy we use in Oklahoma. People here are so willing to help and friendly, it makes it so much easier to sacrifice naptime to take care of phone calls!

Things for which I am Thankful...

One of my facebook friends posted something challenging us to each think of one thing to give thanks for every day between now and Thanksgiving. I accept the challenge and embrace it gladly, although I will post my thoughts in my blog instead of on facebook just to be different! (And so I can look back through them later!)

So, today I am thankful for my thoughtful, terrific, generous family members. I feel so blessed that I have parents and in-laws who take care of me when I am down for the count, and who shower us with their love and support every day!

Knee update and the honesty of 5 year olds...

Things have been busy around here as I try to recover from knee surgery. My dad is out and helping tremendously with the kids, I don't know how I would have managed without him. 6 days after surgery I still can't walk across the room without significant pain unless I use the crutches. My knee is still really swollen, and I am not up and around as quickly as I hoped I would be. They did quite bit more than they thought they would, but Istarted physical therapy today so now I have a plan to get mobile! One of the major downfalls of having me out of commission is that the house is far below it's normal standard of clean. Matt and my dad are doing their best to keep things picked up and the kids happy, but the deep cleaning I normally do each week has been neglected for almost a month now, and it's driving me crazy!


On Monday I couldn't handle it any more so I pushed myself to come out of my room and start a whirlwind cleaning mission. I picked up the playroom, threw out trash from all over, then headed into Meredith's room, unprepared for the disaster I would find in there. Stuff was strewn about EVERYWHERE, junk under the bed, cracker wrappers and old cups lying around. I lost it and started piling everything together and sorting through it. After about 10 minutes of frantic cleaning, Mere came in and I started handing her things to throw away, put back in the playroom etc. She sighed and said "Actually, I just came in here to watch you clean, not to help." Gotta love the brutal honesty of a 5 year old! I got the house back into liveable conditions, my dad and Matt helped clean the counters and table etc. and I hope I can get back into my regular routine again soon.


Meredith's parent teacher conference was yesterday afternoon and Mrs. Gregg said that she is doing very well. She is at the more advanced end of the class, and is very sweet and a good friend to everyone. Apparently she is the little mother of the class. She worries about everyone in the class having what they need, and won't start her project until everyone has glue, crayons etc. She is always willing to help Mrs. Gregg and reminds her what is going on during the day. I can totally see this, and I was happy to hear that she is helpful and respectful, not pushy and bossy, which we sometimes see at home. She is friends with everyone and the only problem she has is completing assignments on time. Sometimes Mrs. Gregg will let her choose to spend an additional 5 minutes completing a project instead of starting centers when everyone else does, and most of the time the perfectionist in Meredith chooses to finish, even though her work is already far more detailed than most of her classmates. It was nice to hear what she has been doing in class, and I think Matt was surprised to hear that Meredith is perfect at school and not a challenge at all.

Happy Halloween 2009!

Halloween was not quite as eventful as it would have been if I had not been recovering from knee surgery. Matt chose to go to the OSU/Texas game on Halloween instead of helping the kids celebrate, and I am still not able to move after surgery, so once again my wonderful Daddy swooped in to the rescue. He helped me get the kids dressed and I drove them to Mike and JoAnn's neighborhood, where they hit a couple of blocks.

Nathan wasn't sure what to think at first, he was very upset that I stayed in the car and Grandpa took him up to the door. When he realized they were giving out candy, he was super cute about holding his bag out, knocking on doors with Meredith and then helping people shut the door after they gave him candy.

When we got home I had to get straight to bed and ice my knee because I pushed it too much yesterday. The kids hung out in our bed with me and ate some of their candy and snuggled, and it was the highlight of my week. Mere kept saying "Thank you for letting us eat so much candy. Thank you for taking us trick or treating. You are the best mommy in the universe!" it was so sweet. Nathan went nuts over the suckers, he couldn't even wait until the wrapper was off before he was eating them! It was fun to watch their excitement, and their costumes were a hit with the nieghbors. I am so grateful to my dad for helping to make Halloween a success.

Nathan at almost 18 months

Nathan is 17 1/2 months right now, and I can tell that his little brain is in overdrive as he figures things out and starts talking, pretending, exploring etc. I am so impressed with what kids can do at this age, they just floor me! It is my favorite age group to teach at Gymboree, and I am making a point to try and capture as much of Nathan at this age as I can, since we are not planning to have any more children.

Nathan is a happy little soul, and I am pretty sure that he just walks around thinking "Life is GREAT! Life is GREAT!" He loves Mere and Toby (our dog) with total abandonment, and the highlight of his day is when "meh meh" gets home from school. He runs to her, shouting her name and hugs her as hard as his little arms can! He is all about being Mommy's helper, he loves to be involved in anything I do, from fixing dinner to changing Coop's diaper. He will even hand me one of his diapers and the wipes, then lay down on the floor with his legs in the air! (Usually right after I have changed him, occaisionally when he is dirty, and he still runs laughing in the other direction when I try to change him unless it was his idea.)

It's not always stuff that should be funny or cute. Yesterday Nathan made a bee-line for the street while I was getting the kids out the door to run Meredith to school. I ran after him (with my injured knee, which made it horrible for the rest of the day.) and scooped him up and told him in my most serious and scary Mommy voice "That is bad! We don't run to the street, it is dangerous. You could get hurt." He flashed me a big, cheesy, tooth-baring grin. When I didn't smile back, he looked serious for a second, then grinned again. He did this several times all the way up the driveway, and he started laughing as he flashed these goofy grins. I didn't laugh, but man I wanted to!

Here are a few of the things that he is up to these days. I am still so smitten with my little boy I can't believe it!

Playing peekaboo through the cabinets with Meredith.

So stinkin' CUTE!

Oh geez, I am in trouble with my kiddos! They are so stinkin' cute that I almost can't stand it! Yesterday Nathan seemed to have doubled in cuteness. He is saying more words, hamming it up all the time, giving huge hugs out of the blue to everyone and pushing his boundaries and finding it delightful when I say no. Meredith is so smart and her little mind puts things together and remembers things that astonish me. She continues to pull paleontologist lingo out of thin air at random times, and I can't believe she remembers things like that! I had to keep asking her what it was she said at breakfast throughout the day, because I couldn't remember for more than a minute!

So, to show off my kids in all their glory, here are some video clips highlighting what they are doing these days. I spend most of my days cracking up because I can't get over how funny they can be at times!

Date night! And a few cute happenings from the kids.

God Bless my mother-in-law and sister-in-law! They are braving the Chesapeake Fall Festival with Meredith, Nathan and Cooper this afternoon. There is going to be a pumpkin patch, hay maze, hayride, face painting etc. at Kelli's office this afternoon, and they offered to take our kiddos too. I originally thought about going with them, but I am still gimpy and having a lot of knee pain. I have been using crutches, but now my left wrist is exceptionally painful andmy shoulders both hurt, so I am back to limping.

Since the kiddos are out having fun, Matty and I are going to get to see a movie! It's probably a little sad how excited I am about it, but we are off to see Couple's Retreat this afternoon before we get the kids. It should be a nice break from sitting on the couch with my knee wrapped and iced!

Mere has been hilarious lately, JoAnn was telling me that last Sunday Mere was obsessed with a grasshopper and spent an hour watching him. She said "I have a hypothesis about the grasshopper. I think he must be hurt, and that's why he isn't hopping away from me." They had to leave to go to Kelli's game, and Mere had Gigi put the grasshopper in a cup with holes poked in foil on the top. She left strict instructions for them to "Keep and eye on the grasshopper to make sure he is okay." When she got back from the game, the first thing she did was ask where the grasshopper was, but the cup and blown over and her little friend had hopped away. She said "Oh, I was afraid that would happen. I guess next time I know I just can't go to the game, I will have to stay home to make sure my grasshopper is okay."

We were driving the other day after a few days at home sick, and Meredith noticed that the trees were all changing colors. She pointed it out, then told me "When we see something different, like the leaves changing colors, that's called being observant. You were observing them, and so was I!" Funny little thing.

Nathan is now saying "bite" whenever he gets hungry, and he has added "shoe" and "zoo" to his vocabulary this week. We also think he is saying "side" for outside. He was singing along with the little people cd we have to a song called "Daddy's taking us to the zoo tomorrow", they say "Zoo, zoo, zoo, how about you, you,you" and he was jammin out with the cd! My kids crack me up!

Today is the day

Today is the day I get some answers about my knee! I think Meredith will be able to go to school today, she has been fever free for over 24 hours now. I am trying to shift my attitude back to positive mode, so on that note, here is a list of things I am grateful for this morning.

• I have a fresh brewed pot of coffee eagerly awaiting me in the kitchen.
• My house was picked up when I woke up because we did it last night.
• Meredith and Nathan are so sweet to eachother and I am a very blessed mom.
• Matt and I get to go on vacation in 30-something days! Cancun here we come!
• We have a beautiful house which I thouroughly love.
• The laundry is all put away.
• I am getting to quietly sit and enjoy the bats flickering on the wall from one of my Halloween candle holders.
• I get to see my family in a few weeks.

So, there it is. Life is good, and I just need to remember to focus on that instead of some of the other little daily annoyances. Have a wonderful day, I am off to drink my coffee!

Bummer of a week!

Well, this week is not my favorite week ever. Last Wednesday I was doing my step aerobics at night and my left knee locked up and starting hurting a lot. It has been hurting a lot since then, and on Monday it got worse. I was carrying Nathan and when I stepped on my left leg, my knee gave out and started having stabbing pains whenever I stepped on my left leg. I screamed and scared Nathan to bits, so he screamed and cried. Mommy guilt issue number 1.

Monday night when I was tucking Meredith in, I kissed her forehead after praying over her and she was burning up! I took her temperature and sure enough, she had a fever of 103.4. I gave her some ibuprofen and got her more water, and started thinking if there had been any signs that she was sick. She didn't eat lunch or dinner, but some days that isn't unusual. She kept saying her legs hurt, but I thought she was just wanting to be like me. (Also not unusual.) When she got home from school, she said her eyes hurt, but I didn't know what to think about that. She has had a slight cough and some congestion, but that had been happening since she got her flu mist 2 weeks ago and I didn't think it was anything serious. So, poor Mer has a fever and feels horrible and I didn't take her seriously when she mentioned the little things that add up to be the swine flu! Mommy guilt issue number 2.

We took Meredith in on Tuesday morning to get tested, and sure enough, she has the swine flu. Awesome. The doctor assured me that this will pass just like everything else, just keep pushing fluids and have Meredith rest. Oh, and in all likelyhood, Nathan will get it too. And probably me. Goody! Something to look forward to! She also said that the Tamaflu they are prescribing for this is bad news bears and she doesn't recommend it unless the child has asthma or is in a high risk category. Fortunately both my kids are pretty sturdy stock and very resiliant. Thankfully, my father in law was willing to run to the store and stock up on Gatorade and OJ for us, and also grabbed a knee bandage for me. (The one I had been using was from 8th grade, and I weighed 130 when I used it last. Not quite there yet!) I am hoping that we didn't infect Cooper on Monday, or anyone else at Meredith's school. Mommy guilt number 3.

I am feeling very stressed out right now, and spent most of yesterday grazing, which is horribly counter-productive to the diet, especially since I can't do much to work out right now. I even persuaded Matt to order chinese food last night, which is 100% not good for us. Mommy guilt issue number 4. I am going to see an orthopedic surgeon on Thursday about my knee, and in typical Blythe fashion I am figuring out our contingency plan for whatever he might say. Surgery next week? Okay, I will do things this way...Can't fix it until December? Okay, I will have to get some crutches...and pain meds! This is stressing me out a lot, and I am trying to remember that mantra of "Can you do anything about it? No? Then stop worrying about it!" that my dad tells me (sometimes a few times a day) but it is hard to do when I feel like things are completely up in the air.

So, today we are just trying to hang in there. Meredith feels fine after the ibuprofen kicks in, other than her cough, so I am trying to convince her that she really is sick. It's hard to be cooped up in the house for several days, so we will probably road trip it to the drive through at the bank. Wahoo, how my life has changed! I never thought I would be excited to run errands as a big day out...Ahh, life in my 30s! Well, I am off to ice my knee, do 100 crunches and shower so I can sit around the house again today and wallow in my mommy guilt!

Grow up already!

Okay, so I try very hard to tune out most of the politics in the world, largely because I feel that neither party has all the answers and it really bothers me that BOTH parties persist in clinging to some of the ideas that I see as clearly outdated. I actually would consider myself a republicrat if there was such a thing, because I am very middle of the road in my theories. I care about people and feel that as a Christian, it is my duty to help others, be it through government action or not. I am strongly apposed to abortion, but I don't think that the general population necessarily needs to have a limitless supply of guns around either. I don't support war or violent actions, but I also support defending ourselves and understand that at times, war is a necessity.

The state of our nation concerns me, and I just read an article about the "feud" between Fox News and the White House. Seriously? Give it a break people. Grow up. I am saddened to think that the people running our country and ulimately making decisions that can affect my children's future are bickering about someone's opinion on a White House administration. The phrase "I'm rubber and you're glue" was ACTUALLY USED in this article! Good golly Miss Molly, could I please give detention to all of the involved parties? Take away their recess? Something? When did running our country become such a joke that a news station showed Zero respect to the President? When did the Nobel Peace prize committee throw out all the previous requirements and nominate someone for having a "good idea" without taking steps to execute it at all?

To all the leaders, news stations, reporters, political analysts and politicians in the world: Get over yourselves. Get back to trying to accomplish something, get over your stupid party boundaries and think about the right thing to do as a human being. Let's go back to living by the golden rule, instead of playground antics! To make the world a better place, everyone should just try to do the right thing, regardless of all the other crap that is out there. I challenge each of you to try to stick to doing what you know is right, and hopefully we can be positive enough to make a difference in the world. If it is left up to the powers that be in either party, we are all screwed!

Orr Family Farm Pumpkin time!

We went to the Orr family farm way down south and had a blast this morning! We jumped on some "Jumping Pillows" which were super fun, rode go-kart type bikes, saw the animals, took a train ride around the farm, rode the carousel, took pictures with the fall stuff, and took a hayride out to the pumpkin patch to pick pumpkins. I think Matt and I liked the jumping pillows the best, if my knee hadn't been hurting I could have jumped on them for hours! We looked them up when we got home just to see, and the smallest one they have is for 20 people and costs $12,000 plus installation. Perhaps it won't get to happen this year...

The whole farm was a lot of fun. Nathan loved the pig statue, he kept kissing it, hugging it and talking to it. Meredith had fun seeing the horses and riding the carousel. It was a lot of fun, and we have pictures for our fall scrapbook pages, which makes my little scrappers soul happy! Here are some of them!

Pirates, Safaris and Aces...Oh my!

Just a few thoughts about our activities and behavior lately. Seriously, sometimes this blog probably sounds completely random, but I really enjoy getting all of these thoughts out of my head every few days, so thanks for reading if you are keeping up with me! Enjoy your glimpse into the inner workings of my mind. Enter at your own risk!


So, the phsycologist that we were going to go see fizzled out. She had a funeral the day of our appointment, and rescheduling childcare became a nightmare. Matt's efforts with Meredith seem to be making a big difference, so we are putting it off for a while unless things get really bad again. Matt and I have decided that we need to start being nicer, because we are pretty hard on her sometimes, and we are amazed at how mature she is when we see her with other kids her age...I forget sometimes that kids aren't supposed to always listen and follow directions, and that many children are allowed to get away with MUCH more than we let our kids get away with. We both really want kids who are well liked by everyone, and we don't want our kids to be the one in the class that people don't want to invite over because they are such hellions!


So, in our efforts to continue to improve life at the Donovan house, we attended a speaker at Meredith's school on Positive Behavior Intervention Systems (PBIS), which is what they do at her school to encourage the children to behave. It was wonderful, and I feel like we got lots of good information. For example, for every negative thing that a person (children and adults alike) hears, it takes 8 positive things to make them feel positive again. We are going to start implementing the reward system for positive behavior at home too, with our own version of the Aces that her school hands out. (Pieces of paper identifying what they were doing that was being respectful, responsible and ready to learn. They can "buy" special things, like getting to have their shoes off for one whole day in the classroom, or renting the principals chair for the day.) We are excited about getting the details worked out this weekend and starting next week, Mer will earn Aces here at home too. I will report how it works later!

The other thing I have been doing is going back to being a more "off the wall" mom. Every week or every other week I am planning to start having something new set up when the kids wake up. Not every day, so that it is still exciting to them when I do it, but this week I started this with playing pirates. We set up a long folding table and draped a sheet over it, pretending it was our ship. I had Meredith draw a map (at her insistence, really. I had a plan, but she wanted to draw it, so I let her take the lead!) and we did a series of treasure hunts, pretended to be shipwrecked and talked to our imaginary parrots. Nathan thought it was hilarious, and Meredith was on her best behavior the rest of the day! I have tons of other ideas, like a safari, zookeeper, beach day, circus day, Firefighter day etc., and I think that I can run with the themes and do art projects, immaginary play, dress up, and hopefully a story with each one. (yep, that education degree is paying off!) I think it will be fun for all of us, because I love to plan, the kids love surprises, Meredith does much better from a behavior standpoint if I keep her very busy, and Nathan is really into imaginary play right now. Everyone wins!

So, that is what we are up to in the land of Donovan. If you have any ideas about themes we could do, please let me know! And of course, I will post pictures as I start the themes each time. It's nice to be tapping into my creative parenting side again, sometimes I lose it in the daily routine.

The marshmellow pancake adventure

Meredith's school is closed today and tomorrow for Fall Break, so I have been racking my brain trying to think of something to do with her that will make the 4 day weekend go a little faster. We invited her friend Abbey to spend the night on Wednesday night and then stay and play in the morning for a few hours before her mom picks her up. The girls are so sweet together and really fun, but very high-energy. Abbey is a little firecracker, which Meredith finds delightful, and I am sure that there will be many stories in the years to come of scrapes our crazy girls will get themselves into! Oh well, birds of a feather...

Last night was the first night that Abbey has spent the night away from family, so we had a couple of rough patches. Finally at 11:00 the girls were settled into bed (we started bedtime at 8:30) and sleeping the with bedside lamp on and the portable dvd player playing Little Einsteins. They both looked like zombies and had dark circles under their eyes, but Abbey was fighting sleep with every fiber of her being! Matt finally went in and used his patented parenting skills to gently calm the girls down, but tell them in a serious tone of voice that it was bedtime and they HAD to sleep now. His technique is much more effective than mine is, I bribed them, bargained with them, pleaded with them, ordered them, scratched their backs, patted heads, prayed over them, read 2 stories etc. I should have had him handle it from the beginning, he is much better and not getting suckered in!

One of the bargaining chips I tried using was promising that we could make pancakes in the morning. Meredith asked if they could have chocolate chips, because Matt did that for her a few weeks ago for dinner. I said we were out of them, so she said "How about marshmellows?" and I said, okay, go to sleep now and when you wake up we can put marshmellows on our pancakes. We ended up mixing some in, and decorating the top with more marshmellows a little bit of chocolate syrup "hair" for the marshmellow faces.

It was not the healthiest breakfast my children have ever eaten, but I am sure they have had worse too! It never would have occured to me to put marshmellows on pancakes, but it was something different to do, and I am all about trying to keep things interesting around here!

Nothin' special

We just got back from a family morning of flu shots and shopping - yeah! After a day like today, I always think of the movie Old School. "We have a busy day tomorrow. Gonna hit Home Depot, maybe Bed Bath and Beyond if there is time." It's true! Meredith finally has several outfits that she swears up and down she likes and will wear, and a pair of brown boots so that we can replace the rain-boots that our little fashionista prefers to wear with EVERYTHING. We found great deals and actually spent $30 less on clothes than we had budgeted, which is always wonderful!

Nathan was cute this morning, I got him up a little after 8, and the house was still dark. He asked "Night night?" and I said yes, Daddy and Toby are still night night, and Mer-Bear is night night too. His little head whipped around and he lunged for Meredith's room. He pointed and said "Mer in der?" (I understood him, it wasn't this clear to the average listener I am certain.) I asked "Should we go wake her up?" and he laughed and lunged for her room again. When we went in, he flung himself on top of her and patted her head and kissed her. She is the best toy ever as far as her little brother is concerned!

That's it for today's report. Just a nice fall day. Matt is watching the OSU game, Mer is watching a movie in her room, Bear is napping. And I have every intention of burying myself in bed with a book and reading/napping for the next couple of hours. Life is good!

Must be doing something right

Another chapter in our Meredith story...I have heard from Meredith's teacher that she is very sweet, always willing to help, a good friend to everyone in the class and is very considerate. She does struggle with getting her work done on time, but Mrs. Gregg has been working with her on that and Meredith is improving greatly in that area as well. Yesterday I got to see Meredith's journal, and I felt like we are clearly doing something right, and perhaps our struggles with her are not as bad to her as they seem to me. She has drawn several pictures of me in her journal, wearing a tiara and a pretty dress, which is sweet. (And totally accurate of course. What mother doesn't clean house in her tiara?) There was one assignment where the kids had to complete the sentance "My family likes to___" and Meredith's picture (see below) said "My family likes to love."

I am happy to hear that she knows she is loved. Sometimes I feel like all I do is battle the children all day long about getting them to eat, get dressed, be conscious of their surroundings, be nice, be gentle, be kind etc., so I feel validated seeing how she does know that we love her and we are very proud of her.

Meredith is also starting to think about others in a much more noticible way. Yesterday it was pouring and we drove by someone holding a sign by the highway. She asked a ton of questions about homeless people, how we can help them, food/shelters etc. and was really feeling sorry for the people who don't have as many blessings as we do. She also asked yesterday if she could bring extra money to school today so that 2 of her friends could dress up even though their parents can't send money in. (They do a dress up day 2 Fridays a month to raise money for various charities and everyone brings a dollar.) I don't know if there are actually 2 kids who truly need the help, but I jumped on it! I am so proud of her for being aware of others, and I feel like some of my hard work is finally paying off! I have worked with her for years on being aware of others and being empathetic, so it's nice to hear it come from her now.

Matt and Meredith

My blogs about Meredith lately have expressed some of the frustration we have been facing lately, and I am happy and relieved to write a positive report now! But before the good stuff, I will fill you in on how we have arrived here...On Monday, Meredith had another total meltdown. She was tired from the weekend, and once again didn't want to get dressed, even with my help, or brush teeth, or pick up the books she threw all over the floor, and she was so hysterical that she couldn't seem to calm down and stop whimpering and crying. I tried for 55 inutes to gently joke her into a better mood, remaining calm the whole time (Go me!) and when I was at the point where I was about to lose it, I picked her up and set her outside and told her that screaming is an outside activity and we were not going to tolerate it in the house anymore. She was welcome to come back inside when she could calm down. She was out there for 10 minutes, and still wouldn't calm down, and Matt called to see how things were going. He talked to her on the phone for a minute and got her to calm down, and when he got home on Monday night, they had a long heart to heart about what we expect from her.


That night at dinner, he asked what they had talked about, and Meredith (after some prodding and pretend forgetfulness) said "I should be sweet, catch flies with honey. Be respectful, be a good listener and be responsible." On Tuesday morning, he asked if she would please call him when she got up, and she was excited to talk to him. They reviewed her goals for the day, chatted for a minute and Tuesday was great! Same deal on Wednesday and Thursday. When Matt gets home now he asks her how the day was and she has been excited to give him a good report each day. I am AMAZED at the difference this change has made in her, and so thrilled that Matt thought of it and is taking the lead on it. I think she really likes feeling a close bond with him, and I am proud of him for making the effort to be more patient and listen to her more now than he ever has. I hope that their relationship will continue to blossom from this new dimension, it seems to have made all the difference in the world!

Just melts my heart...

So, the little Boodle-Bear has been amazing me daily and I felt that it was time to write a blog about my amazing son. I think I had forgotten how sweet and fun 17 months old can be, but every single day Nathan does something new that is very sweet, perceptive or just downright clever if I do say so myself! This week we have had 2 days of him just bring so caring and sweet to Cooper and watching them together just melts my heart! (I start to get a southern drawl when I say this, just so you can picture it in your head!)

Over the past 2 weeks we have been working on letting Nathan make more choices. He is revelling in his new-found freedom! He now is willing to have his diaper changed without a major fit most of the time, since he chooses where he will lay down. On Monday, he grabbed a diaper and brought it to me when he had a dirty diaper, then laid down on the floor and stuck his legs up in the air! About an hour later, he grabbed a diaper again, unfolded it, pulled the tabs out and stood up to look at it. He bent down, rearranged it, then with his little tounge stuck out to one side and his face very serious, walked over to me. I said "Oh, do you need me to change your diaper again?" and he shook his head. He walked around to stand in front of me, then crouched down so he was looking at Cooper, who was sitting on my lap. He reached out with both hands and tried to lift him up! He wanted to change Cooper's diaper! I laughed so loudly and suddenly that I scared him, but I was very impressed with him.

The next day we were right at the end of our lunchtime rush. (I feed 3 children, try to do the dishes, change the boys diapers, we pick up toys, get Meredith's school stuff on and head out the door to drop her off at 12:15 each day, so it is a hectic time!) Cooper was sitting in the exersaucer as I was finishing up the dishes and he started to scream. Nathan ran over, grabbed Coop's bottle and ran to the exersaucer. He gently moved Coop's head back and tried to put the bottle in his mouth, then made pretend eating noises! I was astonished at his ability to figure out so many steps and even make the pretend noises for the bottle.

I am loving the fact that Nathan is learning how to be sweet and gentle with babies too, because I feel like that was a tremendous advantage Meredith had since I was doing daycare when she was little. I think it is so good for them to learn to take care of other people and take turns, and I am thrilled that Nathan is picking up on those lessons at such an early age! He also is very gentle with baby dolls, and right after we started watching Cooper, in July, would pretend to burp them and kiss their heads before laying them down in the cradle. From a developmental standpoint, I am going to be one of "those" moms for a minute, so bear with me! He is really advanced for his age, the ability to understand the concept of imaginary play generally doesn't start to form until around 22 months, and he has been taking leaps and bounds into the world of imaginary play from about 14 months old. Okay, there, I am finished bragging about how smart my child is!

Bearsie is also saying lots of things these days, my current favorites are "Boo. Aaah!" always said together, and the way he cracks up when I say the words "Ew!" or "Blankie". I would love to know what makes these 2 especially funny to him! My other random Bear thought for the day is that I adore how he immediately scoots over to the very edge of his crib when you put him down to sleep, he curls up and sticks a little hand out through the bars and waves his fingers, then drifts to sleep with his face pressed up against the bars...I will try to get a picture, he is so stinkin' cute!

Now that I am a grown up...

In May I celebrated my 30th birthday. I know that some people (both men and women) dread this milestone, or feel that they will miss their 20's. However, I was not one of thoese people. Hitting the big 3-oh simply made me a bit more reflective, and I started to feel that I was making that giant leap into adulthood. This might sound silly, given that I have been married for 7 years, have 2 children, and we are on our 3rd house.

The truth of the matter is that until this year, I have spent most of my life making big changes to try to put off dealing with my own issues. I have presented a happy facade to the world, embraced multitudes of people closely, but not ever truly let them get too close to me. Over the past year my life has been changing, and my attitude has been changing with it. I am more at peace with myself now than I have ever been. I am struggling to remember that I can't control everything, or really anything, other than my own actions and reactions. I am giving thanks daily for my family and all the blessings we have. By now I have seen so many things that seemed like the end of the road work out to be better than I could have imagined, and I am learning to have faith and trust that God has a plan and that I don't have to know what it is.

Perhaps because of all these revelations in the past year, I also took a new approach to life in my 30's. I had a nice little chat with myself, and decided that it is time to grow up. Matt and I have been working together on improving everything in our lives, so here is the list of things I have been doing as a responsible adult now that I am 30.

• Flossing my teeth regularly
• Making time to work out several times a week
• Keeping on top of the housework all the time
• Trying to seriously pay down debt instead of running it up
• Getting annual check-ups, eye exams and dental exams
• Not eating out just because I don't really want to cook
• Making and sticking to (for the most part) a monthly menu
• Making a conscious effort to take stock of my blessings and truly enjoy my husband and children
• Suck it up! Everyone has bad times in their lives, everyone has struggles, and I am vowing to be more positive and not dwell on the struggles.

So, since May I have been doing a fairly good job of keeping these "new decade" resolutions. We have also been focused on getting ourselves in much better shape, so I am happy to report that I am down 61 pounds since we moved to OKC on March 1st! Bring on the next 30 years, I welcome them with open arms and look forward to continuing to improve myself and living my life to the fullest. And hey, getting older certainly beats the alternative!

The weekend whirlwind

Phew! We survived the super busy 36 hour stay in Kansas City! We have been wanting to visit everyone for a while now, and there was finally a weekend without anything extra or an OSU game, so we thought "Why not add a road trip with 2 kids!" Don't worry, the people from the mental hospital came and measured us for our straitjackets already!

We arrived at 10:30 Friday night to spend the night with our friends Kristen and Jay, and put the kids to bed first thing. The schedule for Saturday went something like this:

7:15 - wake up and hustle 4 sleepy Donovans to get ready for a jam-packed day
8:15 - pick up our old neighbor, Joey, so she and Meredith could see each other
8:30 - reflect on how random 5 year old girls are as they giggle in the back seat, saying things like "Did you know I have a raccoon on my pants?" "No, did you know I am doing gymnastics?" and "I wanted to name my little brother Aiden when he was still in my mom's tummy, but my mom and daddy said no because that is your brother's name"
8:45 - meet the Lilak family for breakfast so that Meredith can see her best friend from preschool (We wanted to try to see some of the other friends as well, but they were out of town this weekend...That's you Suzanne!)
9:45 - Matt nearly has a meltdown after having to deal with Nathan at breakfast while I chat with the adults. (A nice and infrequent occurrence for me.) We decide we better move on to the next stop on the KC tour.

10:15 - Arrive at Deanna Rose, wander around looking at everything and wishing OKC had a place like it! Bear gets a kick out of feeding the goats and the girls keep making dinosaur sounds at the animals until I am getting dirty looks from nearby parents. We try to quiet them down with a trip to the playground, where Nathan discovers the joys of the tunnel slide.

Nicole and girls meet us at the playground, Joey's dad picks her up and we do our best to wear out the children, with great success!

12:30- lunchtime at Maloney's, we leave Matt there so that he can meet up with his ERAC friends and head out to try to get the kids to nap.

2:30- Bear discovers that he can jump in the crib at Kristen's house and spends the next 45 minutes testing this new-found skill and laughing. I give up on resting and go outside to help set-up for Kyle's birthday party.

3:30 - party begins, children arrive in droves. Bear spends the whole time pretending to vacuum the floors and moving things around outside. Mere has fun with the other kids, party is deemed a success.

5:00 - head to Maloney's to pick up (drunk and happy) Matty. Get there about 10 minutes late, then stop to make him get me caffeine, since my nap was a no go.

5:45 until we leave town Sunday morning...reach our final destination, relax and have a TERRIFIC time hanging out with my very best friends! I love watching our husbands complete the male ritual of gathering around the grill drinking beer, I love watching our kids play together, and I LOVE LOVE LOVE (!) seeing the girls. Nathan and Lily were so cute together, and Natalia, Dylan and Meredith just jumped right into playing as though they all get together every day.

Sunday morning we had a few more wonderful hours of visiting before we loaded up the car and headed back down to OKC again. The kids were excellent on the drive back down, everyone is tired and we all had a great time. We are looking forward to the possibility of people visiting us and I am once again impressed with how blessed I am in my life to have a wonderful husband, beautiful, healthy, funny children, incredible friends who know me inside and out and love me anyway, and this lovely home in OKC. And, the newly discovered "grown-up" in me (more about her emergence in a future post) has now completely unpacked everything, laundry is underway and the kids are clean and in bed at 7:30 at night.

My Super-Mom moment

The 5 o'clock rush hit me hard last night. I was trying to fix dinner, help Meredith with her homework, hold Nathan off on eating for another 15 minutes so I could fix dinner, answering the phone twice in the midst of all of this, and trying to get myself ready so that I could be at a PTA meeting right after dinner. I had the thought of just texting Matt to pick up a pizza and then sitting down on the floor crying. (If you can't beat 'em, join 'em, right?) You know that every mother in the world feels this way at some point. (If not, I need to hear your secret! Either that or clearly you have a nanny and a cook.)

So, I picked Nathan up for a snuggle, told Meredith the homework would have to wait for a while and dug deep into my bag of Mommy Tricks. I set them both on the couch and told them I had a surprise for them if they would sit there and be quiet for a minute while I get it ready. They did (thankfully!) and I ran to gather my supplies for my ingenious idea. I grabbed the ironing board and a bucket of cars. I propped one end up on the edge of the hearth and got out 2 cars, then showed the kids how to race them down. They happily entertained themselves for a whole 10 minutes so I could work on dinner.

The ironing board then turned into a stretcher so they could play hospital, a surfboard (cracked me up that they were BOTH pretending to surf!), and an aerobic step so they could work out. It was most definitely one of my finer Super-Mom moments! And let's face it, the ironing board was getting lonely in the laundry room all by itself, and when would I ever use it for it's intended purpose?

The Human Connection

Okay, so here is my sappy moment for the day. I have been reflecting quite a bit lately on the marvel that is connecting with other people. As I get older and more comfortable in my own skin I realize more and more that humans are amazing and wonderful creatures. It astounds me to look at all of the wonderful people in my life who have influenced who I am today, and to watch people drift in and out of my life and the lives around me. I have joked frequently that I "collect" people, because I crave that excitement when you find something in common with someone. I am blessed with many close friends, some of whom I talk with daily, and some of whom I have not talked to in years, but still rely heavily on in thought and spirit. It amazes me how we can form instant connections with people over mutual interests : children, hobbies, people we know, sports, where we went to school etc. Since becoming a mom I have felt and sometimes almost seen that invisible bond that threads mothers everywhere together. That bond is what started me on this thought, actually!

Since we moved to Oklahoma, I have been longing for girlfriends. I miss the mothers at Meredith's old preschool, my neighbor from across the street, old college friends who are now mothers themselves, and my friends from Gymboree. However, today I am writing this because I am thinking of the mom connection that is formed when your children first enter the big world of school. One of my friends from Meredith's school is a performer. (Krista "Funky Mama" Eyler - she rocks!) Her son was in Meredith's class, and used to be the first one to greet Meredith each morning. She was raised in a house right around the corner from where we lived. Each morning as we would rush the kids into school, we would smile and wave to eachother, and occaisionally have a chance for a hurried visit as we rushed off to the events we had planned for that brief 2 1/2 hour period during school. We joked about how we would be in-laws someday, because the kids should get married. In July, 4 months after moving away from the wonderful commeraderie of the Village Preschool moms, Krista was playing at the library in OKC. I had the date on my calendar for months in advance, and as soon as we entered the room, Krista said "MEREDITH!" loudly into the microphone and rushed over for hugs. Meredith gave her a picture she had drawn for Joseph, we rocked out to the concert, and got to talk briefly for a moment while she packed up.

As we left the library that day, amid promises to write and keep in touch (which I still intend to keep, but clearly I am a procrastinator. I have been wanting to write this since July!) I was struck by how special it was to me to see a familiar face. That connection happens in an instant; over a brief joke told by your 4 year old, the memory of a slumber party for a friend in elementary school, having to share a locker with a stranger, or even just knowing that you were at one point living in the same town. These are the ties that bind us to the human race. I am eternally grateful for the knowledge that I have connections to people in this world. I love that facebook, blogs, texting and e-mail can help keep us connected. I truly care about everyone I have had these connecting moments with in my life, and I love getting to hear about what is happening in their day. So thank you to all of my friends, from my very best college friends who know my deepest and darkest thoughts and love me anyway, to the friends I have had in my life since elementary school but for some reason just drifted apart from.Your friendships make me feel valued and loved and I appreciate that we share that human connection! Thanks for making a difference in my life.

Grandpa's visit!

My dad was able to come out and visit for a few days to see the new digs and the kiddos, and we kept him busy! It was great to get to see him, he is such an awesome, terrific, fantastic grandpa. He was always on the floor playing with the kids, making Nathan laugh, listening to Meredith and just generally making everyone feel special. I love my dad!

Since our new house is perfect in every way except for the lack of a guest bedroom, my dad slept in the twin bed in Nathan's room. Unfortunately Nathan is cutting 7 new teeth right now. (Ouch!) He was up all night long the second night my dad was here, screaming bloody murder. We tried all the tricks I have up my sleeve all night long, and eventually little Bear fell asleep on top of me in our bed. Because of the screaming child, nobody slept very well on Thursday night, but my dad was wonderful about helping me survive on Friday.

Saturday we went to the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial. It is really well done, and we explained it to Meredith as we went through it. She did very well and asked many wonderful questions. I was impressed with how respectful she was of it, and glad that they have a kids area with rescue workers clothing, computers, pictures etc. to help children understand what happened. I'll post more about this later, it was a moving experience. Saturday evening we went ot Stillwater for the OSU/Grambling game and we had a lot of fun there. My dad wore orange and enjoyed being at a college game, and the Grambling band was fun to watch. The football games are better in my opinion when the teams are more evenly matched, it was not very exciting to watch since Grambling is not anywhere close to the Big 12 quality of football. But we all had fun, and Mere and Bear really liked walking around in the stadium. The whole way home my dad and Meredith hung out in the back talking and playing, it was so sweet to listen to them together. Meredith wrote my dad's name, address and phone number down for him, which was funny because until he pointed it out we couldn't tell what it was. She is in the stage of not spacing her words accurately, which is cute to watch!

Sunday morning we got up and headed to the state fair. We watched Matt and Meredith climb the rock wall, ride the ferris wheel, do the fun house, bumper cars and throw darts, and had a great time. There were animals (Nathan sniffs every time he sees any animal, he isn't quite into the sounds they make even though we try! I think it's hilarious because really, when a dog sees him, they do sniff instead of bark!), rides, fried foods (yep, my dad fulfilled his lifelong dream of trying a deep fried twinkie. Nothing special, by the way.) and lots of people watching. We headed home so everyone could nap, and then had a nice family evening at home. My dad is now on his way back to Arizona, and I miss him already.