Sleepover update

Apparently they had a harder time sleeping then I realized. I was told that at 1 o’clock in the morning we decided to go into their own beds and sleep so they could sleep better. I found this out when Claire woke me up with the sound of puke rolling all over my bathroom floor at 5:30 AM this morning. Awesome

I guess it’s a good thing they separated. Maybe Max will be spared the spread. Who knows. Currently we are awaiting who falls downhill next.

Clair seems to be holding some white food and drink down now. When I Woke max and Ellie around 930 and told them to keep their distance from Clairs room because she had the stomach bug they both reacted. Max had more sympathy for clair. Ellie was gripped with fear (somewhat like me.)

Two minutes later I hear max yelling at Ellie to stop spraying stuff in his room. 

I thought she was irritating him by spraying her lavender spray. I tell her to bring it to me now. She shows up with a can of Lysol I didn't even know we had. She had gone on a Lysol spree straight away. 

Sibling sleepovers

The kids used to ask to sleep over together in the same room all the time. It hasn’t happened much recently. Tonight, Clair approached me and asked if her and Max could have a sleepover using their new sleeping bags they got for Christmas. I said yes pretty quickly. These are the things that Christmas break is meant for. I’m proud of them for going to sleep without much fuss. I love that they get along so well and enjoy spending so much time with each other.

Thoughtful Christmas notes

This year I managed to convince Clair to limit her Christmas gift making to four gifts or less per person. I think she still very much enjoyed Christmas preparations. Her gifts were very thoughtful. The most amazing part was the thoughtful card she gave every person on one of their gifts. She truly wrote out kind words of what made them special to her. Here’s a picture of mine. I wish I could get a picture of all of them because they were just so sweet.

Christmas preparation By the Mom

I started preparing for Christmas earlier than normal this year, thanks to Vicki. We started discussing Christmas gifts and October. This really preparation helped make Christmas Eve more relaxing for me. I haven’t found time for a game with Clair during the afternoon.

As is typical of the past few years, I took a week before Christmas off work so that I will have time to be prepared and not be up until 4 AM on Christmas Eve. I don’t think I was ever up till 4 AM, but they were definitely a few years in the early days where I was up past midnight and tired in the morning. I don’t like being tired in the morning because I’m grumpy and I want to enjoy Christmas with my kids.

Earlier this week despite Max being home sick from school, I managed to get most of the wrapping done. I counted the number of gifts I wrapped the day I did the most. I spent a good six hours wrapping and wrapped about 100 presents that day. I had to wrap more two separate occasions. I think I wrapped her 150 presents this year. My children are spoiled. I am blessed to have the resources to spoil them. I also hope it’s not damaging them. I know that they get so much. I’m not sure if they know they get so much.

Thankfully Max and Claire, who have both been sick over the past week, have recovered. Sadly, David was sick today. He was running a fever. He had to get tested for Covid and the flu. I’m grateful that he was negative. And I’m hopeful that tomorrow he will feel better to enjoy Christmas with our kiddos. 

We managed to have all of the traditional Christmas eve activities completed. After breakfast we start by The kids decorating their gingerbread houses with loads of candies. Then we enjoy the afternoon lost the people who are not quite ready for Christmas finish Christmas preparation‘s. Then, we have a check could you reboard dinner before going to church. After church we come home and have cookies after giving the reindeer their food and setting cookies out for Santa. Finally after everyone is in their Christmas pajamas, stockings are hung in the living room with care. Tonight we ended with family prayer before sending the children off to their beds.

It was a relaxing Christmas Eve for me. Thankfully I’ve had the week off to prepare. I’m looking forward to tomorrow with my kids and hopefully my parents over for dinner.

I’m also thankful of the kids are at an age where I was able to get some decent pictures easily.

Christmas Eve teeth

Christmas 2022, Claire was missing her two front teeth. She enjoyed being able to connect the song. Fast forward to Christmas 2021 and Clair has two loose teeth on either side of her front teeth. She suddenly becomes determined to lose them on Christmas Eve so that the tooth fairy and Santa clause come on the same night. 

I honestly did not believe she would pull that off and ignored it. There’s two side wiggly teeth stayed in there for a while. Fast forward to Christmas Eve. She wakes me up by telling me that she got her two side teeth out one at 6:45 AM in the other 7:15 AM. She was so proud of herself. This is surely a girl who knows how to execute a plan that she has made.

Kittens and kiddos

In the beginning of October 2 kittens found us. Rachelle‘s sister-in-law had rescued them and she was convinced they were the ones for us. I should’ve known that when I agreed to meet them we would be bringing them home.

It has been a journey. They came with fleas and mites and worms and a hair problem. Sunshine even had a little heart murmur at her first visit.

For the first few weeks they had to stay in a bathroom and we had to do a lot of cleaning to keep the house from getting fleas all kinds of stuff.

But we have nursed them to full health. They are lovely little kittens that run around our home. They absolutely love spending time with Max in his room. Clair has a doll house that’s been converted into a sleeping condo which they enjoyed greatly. Eli has made them a special soft bed under her couch. These kids love these cats. And I will admit I’m quite smitten with the girl, sunshine. She’s starting to be quite chatty and I like chatty kitties.

M

Sharing my sink

Ever since we moved into the new house, five years ago, I have been sharing my sink, my bathroom counter, and our master bath with Clair Vonita. This happened because Max‘s bathroom that she was supposed to share was just so nasty I could not keep it clean and I could not have her use it. This has stuck.

Every week and there’s extra toothpaste and yuck around my sink I have to take a deep breath. I think I wish she had her own bathroom. And then I quickly think, soon enough she’ll be out of my house and I’ll be wishing for these days back. She is such a sweet girl. The conversations we’ve had while sharing a bathroom or countless. She is so open with me and she tries so hard to clean up and to make good choices. She is a wonderful wonderful little person. And I am lucky to share the bathroom with her. 

I keep asking David when he’s going to build her very own bathroom, but honestly, as long as this is working and she’s happy, I’m happy.

Fourteen years of parenting

14 years of parenting started 14 years ago today. It has been a wonderful journey and it has surely changed my life. This morning I sit here having woken up at seven as the first one in the house the week and I’m downstairs heating the oven to cook cinnamon rolls for Eli‘s birthday because that is her tradition as she calls it. The girl likes her traditions especially when they’re associated with sugar.

Each year and Eli‘s birthday I reflect on the night before she was born. David and I went out for a nice dinner because I knew it be the last table to go out like that without a babysitter for a long time. It was a nice meal and I enjoyed at the time and ended up regretting after the C-section. The day Ellie was born what is a exciting and terrifying day. I had no idea how that baby was coming out. I knew I was ready to meet her though.

14 years later that baby has turned into an independent, smart, caring, thoughtful, self thinking, artistic, artistic person. She’s still my baby but surely is not a baby anymore.  

Over the past 14 years of things that I have cared about and worried about have changed dramatically. The personal adventure of the world has subsided greatly, and the adventure of parenting has taken me on journeys of caring about things like ounces of milk consumed and pumped, number of wet diapers, schools to pick and choose, number of calories to eat a day, bones to have x-rayed, physical therapy to do, how to teach a child to be on time, how to learn how to healthfully feed a vegetarian, How to help a child through without having a friendship she needs (when I myself don’t have them), Coaching sports (instead of playing them), A lot less happy hours with colleagues and a lot more home to cook dinner, learning how to be a better cook, trying to cook things like tofu and beans and lentils, trying to balance a vegetarian who loves cheese and has been who hates cheese, how to plan the perfect family vacation instead of self adventure, had a balance my vacation days for meeting all the children’s needs instead of the most traveling I can do, how many vials of sunblock and how many layers of protective clothing to five people need to spend a week at the beach instead of the right alcohol to bring, are the children reading the right books instead of am I reading write books, trying to teach my children how to enjoy boardgames which I love so much, focusing on their friendships instead of my own (probably a parent failure quite honestly but I’m trying). All of these things represent a huge shift that you go through when you become a parent, and I honestly believe my life would never have been complete without these wonderful changes.

They say the days can be long but the years fly by. I know this is true. It wasn’t that long ago that I remember celebrating the birthdays of the Perrotta boys and thinking they had grown up fast. It’s amazing how much of a blur the parenting years and life as a whole can be. 

So, the decorations are up. The signs have been hung, the balloons have been blown up, presents are wrapped and placed under the birthday tree which is standing erect in the family room. The plans for the day have been made. The birthday meal has been ordered. We will celebrate and we will try to make it a wonderful day for Ellie. 

I hope as she ages she has fond memories of her childhood. I hope the same for all of my children.

The oven has beeped and I’m off to put the cinnamon buns into the oven so my daughter wakes up to the smell that makes her happy. I’ll probably wake her with the kittens in my arms.

Here’s to a happy 14th my dear darling daughter Ellie! 

Love you always and forever!

Mommy

Fall soccer tournament closes the season

Today Max and David soccer team finished up their season is a tough tournament showing. It was a very cool risk for a morning on a wet field in Frederick. They were three games. The boys battled hard, but it wasn’t hard enough to make it into the final game tomorrow. No Matter, I think they had fun this season and that’s what matters. Max is like going to have his daddy coaching him. This Reckley struggles to find coaches so we help we can. We are also going to coach Josh stepped up to help David this year and I could take a backseat and focus on softball.

Throughout the free games today Max had some time on office defense and even in goalie. I manage to snap only a few pictures. I got one of his cheering section.

I enjoy watching Max play soccer.

Happy Halloween

The kids really look forward to all holidays. They like the traditions. For Halloween they especially like the candy.

Halloween on a Sunday is not ideal, but they enjoyed it very much.

Clair is a superhero. She titled herself collision Clair. This is inspired by the book Mia Mayham. She really enjoyed the persona as well as the costume.

Max decided to be something scary this year instead of a superhero. He was a Grim Reaper. He didn’t wear the mask with the eyes much. I guess they get in the way of running around and grabbing candy.

Ellie was a fictitious character that has something to do with Minecraft. I’m not really sure. She is good with make up and she’s very creative with putting costumes together. She’s cute and she had a good time. She walked around with some friends.

Although it was a busy day and a busy weekend, they still managed to carve the pumpkins. I need to get pictures of Ellie‘s and Max’s Still from David. 

David and I walked around with Max and Clair. Henry and Jon joined us. Max was happy for that tradition to continue. Clair was determined to go to the whole neighborhood. But because her candy basket was so full I managed to persuade her against it. They came home with way too much candy. Now to figure out how to sneak it out of the house…

After counting the candy Clair proclaimed that she had over 250 pieces. Wow

Ellie and Max were also very happy with their takes.

Tomorrow they have school. They got to bed at a decent time and I’m happy for that.

Fall sports come to an end

Another sport season is coming to an end. Ellie was in 15 u rec softball, Clair was in eight you rec softball. Max played 12 U rec soccer.

David coached soccer and I helped him a little bit. I was the head coach for Ellie‘s team. I was an assistant for Clair‘s team. It’s been a busy fall.

What’s important is that I think each of the kids had fun. 

I think Ellie was enjoying her teammates more as she gets older. She continues to be our primary picture. I miss seeing her at first base. Her hitting is coming along nicely. It’s a shame her body is a mess with hurt knees, hurt ankles, and now her wrists. I’m not quite sure what to do with her. She is quite athletic, and she seems to hurt herself a lot. 

Max had a whole new team of boys, except for two. His team did quite well this year. He played goalie some at the beginning. But that feed it off. I think he did all right school. He also scored a few calls throughout the season. He’s been working on his passing and he’s been working on just being aware of his teammates and working hard.Max had a whole new team of boys, except for two. His team did quite well this year. He played goalie some at the beginning. But that feed it off. I think he did all right as Gooley. He also scored a few goals throughout the season. He’s been working on his passing and he’s been working on just being aware of his teammates and working hard. He does work hard at soccer. It’s fun watching him play.

Clair went back to softball after two years away. She started her head above the other girls in terms of her preparedness for catching throwing and hitting. (at least that is my biased assessment as her mother.) she had much better focus this year now that she is eight instead of six. She really has a knack for the game. She keeps track of the outs in the score in her head. It seems she’s always right. I can’t keep track of these games in my head. I’m Impressed by that. She still enjoys soccer also. We will keep switching back-and-forth between soccer and softball for a while. She’s quite athletic and I don’t want to focus her on just one sport yet. Who knows what her sport will be and I think it’s great for kids to want to pay more than one sport.

Max has one practice and a tournament this weekend. Clair has one final game. Ellie was done today.

Rest In Peace Lady Grey

Today was a hard day. The last 48 hours have been hard. I noticed Lady Grey was struggling to walk and I feared it might be the end. My fear was right.

I took her to the vet on Monday afternoon. The vet said she thought her kidneys might be shutting down. But we decided to give her fluids and antibiotics like we did last time. Those had gotten her a good 2 to 2 1/2 months. We hope that might happen again. When I took her home, she couldn’t settle. Monday night she walked around the house meowing and off a lot. She was struggling to walk and could barely get herself up and down the stairs. I’m not sure if she slept monday night or not. I was unable to settle her.

Tuesday I got everybody after school. I tried to start work. When I checked on Lady Grey I found her just sitting in the hallway between the office in the bedroom. She couldn’t walk with me to the bathroom like she normally does. I knew that was a bad sign. I tried to take her to drink. She wasn’t interested. Given Lady Grey loves water, that was another bad sign. I had a sense this was going downhill fast. I called the vet to get it Bass because by 3 o’clock she was barely moving. I didn’t think it was worth torturing her by giving her the anabiotic‘s because I figured she was probably dying. They asked me to make an appointment to bring her in Wednesday morning, and it was a good thing they did. By the time we got her there Wednesday morning she was barely alive. Tuesday night was really rough. Getting the kids to bed and then after school Wednesday morning was also very hard. They love Lady Grey very much. 

I warn the kids that things weren’t looking good. And they came in to see her Wednesday morning they could tell she felt really bad. They could see that she was struggling. The degree wasn’t moving, her tongue was sticking out, her eyes were glassy, she was laboring in breath. They are somehow managed to say their goodbyes and go off to school. I’m so proud of them for that I know that was really hard.

I laid on the bed with Lady Grey for about 45 minutes before getting her ready to go to the vet. I couldn’t go by myself, I needed David to come with me. I’m thankful that he took the day off work to take care of his family and what we needed. He was a wonderful man. By the time we got very grateful that we weren’t sure if she was even alive. Ashley listen to her and said her heart still beating. She said she was really weak and confirmed what we wanted to do with her. We agreed to put her to sleep and put her out of her misery. Ashley says that sometimes animals, especially cats, can go on like this for days or even weeks. I did not wish that for her, none of us wish that for Lady Grey. 

I held her and hugged her and kissed her and told her that we all loved her and that I loved her very much. She passed peacefully around 10:30 AM. Before we could even get home with her body, Ellie was texting me from school telling me that she couldn’t stop crying and she really needed to come home. Although I do not want to set a kind of precedent that you can skip school and work when things get tough, we decided to give her this one day. I went ahead and picked her up from school. She spent the afternoon laying beside Lady Grey. She made a lovely tribute video. She just couldn’t leave lady graveside until we finally had her funeral.

David made her a casket, but very nice casket. The kids and I decorated it with lovely messages and images for lady gray. We placed her in it with a super soft blanket, one of our softest, it reminded us of her super soft fur. Lady Grey had the softest for of any cat I have ever known. I think it’s because she was so clean. For most of her life she kept her self so very clean. It made her first so very soft.

We buried her at the top of the garden. David made her a lovely cross as a headstone. He said a prayer at the gravesite. There were a lot of tears shed today by all of us a different points in time. We love that cat. We still love her. She was with David and I for 16 1/2 years. She was one of our first babies and one of our first investments together. She has kept me company through so many sicknesses and sadness is in so many work from home days. I am going to miss her so much every time I am in my office. The house will be so lonely without her following me to the Bathroom between every conference calls all day long. I love the way she kept me company in the office for the past few years while I worked. She seems so content to just be with me. And she gave me so much peace when I looked at her under my desk, especially during tough meetings. She provided so much happiness and joy to this family. Lady Grey you will be so missed.

I really love this picture of her. This was taken one year ago today. She would come up to me at my desk and she wanted to get on my lap and put her paws up on me and asked me to pick her up just like a little baby. She is the sweetest thing. 

Some pictures of everybody working hard to get ready for Lady Greys funeral today.













David diligently dug her 3 foot deep grave in pouring down rain. He never complained once.

A few pictures of the kids give them final cuddles last 24 hours.