The Big Storm

All day they had been predicting tornadoes. With no basement and pictures of Joplin all over the news, tornadoes were on my mind.
So around 8:00 when the trees and every animal went still and the sky turned yellow-green I started upstairs to wake the kids up. Matthew was out for the evening, so I felt I had to be really calm and give myself lots of time to get all three kids corralled. Grabbed some books, blankets, and the couch cushions and threw them in the bathroom. The kids were asleep and limp in my arms as I carried them downstairs. X was asleep and I parked him in his carseat.
Finally the four of us were huddled together in the 4ft by 4ft bathroom downstairs (that includes space for a toilet and sink!). The golfball sized hail started to hit the windows and I could hear the wind. I had turned the news on loud, so I could hear it in the bathroom.
The kids after realizing the couldn't lay down in the tiny room started getting crabby. I wisked out the the flashlight and the books. Matthew was so excited to be able to hold the flashlight that he just grinned and crowed with delight. I wedged the cushions over our heads to make a "tent" and I whispered to Sophia about our new secret clubhouse. Matthew was still thrilled to be holding the flashlight.
The newsman said that a tornado was at Love Field, a few miles away. Wait. He recanted. A spotter at Love Field saw a tornado. At the edge of Irving. Then, they looked the radar I guess because he said 'We have an area of rotation crossing Loop 12.' That's 1/4 mile away from us and we are about 3/4 mile from the edge of Irving.
The hail had stopped and I was so scared that I would hear the wind roar at any second. I asked Sophia to pray the Guardian Angel prayer with me. She did. Matthew was still excitedly flashing the light around our tent. Then the power went out. Then it was really quiet.
I felt like I was seeing my kids sweet faces for the first time. They were both so not scared, so trusting that we were just having a great time being cozy on the bathroom floor.
I knew I needed to trust God. Just as my kids were trusting me at that moment.
I asked Sophia to sing one of her songs from school. Her little voice started to treble... "Jesus we adore thee, we lay our lives before thee..."
Isn't it amazing how we are given exactly what we need in those scary moments.

---

The weather passed and we sustained hail damage on both the van and the car. Our neighbor's rear car window was broken. We found out later that a policeman was struck by lightning about 1/4 mile away (he's okay). There was rotation that never dropped.
I can't wait to move back to the midwest and have a basement.

The Great Escape

Until now, we have been very lucky. Sophia never climbed out of her crib. Matthew Jr. never showed interest in climbing out either. Until now.

Encouraged by his sister, it's a challenge they have taken on together... to bust Matt-Matt out from behind his bars.

One night we heard a suspicious amount of noise coming from their bedroom. Beyond the usual singing and bedtime chatting about sandwiches, school, and bugs (or whatever else tiptoes across a child's mind before they go to sleep). I peeked around the corner to see Sophia stacking a laundry basket and diaper box in front of the crib and Matthew working to arrange books inside the crib (that Sophia had no doubt passed to him). "Now you step there, Matt-Matt," Sophia was saying.

It's almost a shame to put an end to such a wonderful display of sibling teamwork. But, it had to be done.

A few mornings later around 6:30a.m. we heard a thud and cry from the kids' room. By the time we managed to get to the room Matthew was fully recovered and all smiles about being out of his crib. And in his bed was the telltale stack of books.

'sigh'

So in a few weeks we will be introducing Matthew to a real bed (if that's what you want to call a mattress on the floor). I'm sure this is only the beginning of the shenanigans. Let the games begin.

The Beetle Resurrection

I think I need to get back into writing about the funnies that go on around here. That way, I can look back at them when I'm having a hard time keeping my sense of humor as my grown-up world crumbles to pieces.

This one is in honor of Easter. Most of you few readers I have probably already shared this with... but just in case...

This was the first year Sophia seemed to really understand that Easter was about Christ's death and resurrection. They talked about it at school and she really liked sharing her knowledge at home too.

We were working outside and I dumped an old pot of dirt into the kids' dirt pile in the corner of the yard. In it there was a dead beetle, which Sophia immediately noticed with a girly, "EEEeew." She ran away to play somewhere else for a bit, then returned to her dirt pile.

She took a look, gasped and then ran over to me shouting "Momma! Momma! He ROSE!" Apparently, our beetle friend was not quite dead and was wiggling his legs.

A Golden Opportunity MIssed

I have been tempted to have my morning cup of coffee in our new van. It smells like new car, it's clean, and quiet. That Toyota commercial is brilliant.

With the impending arrival of #3 (gender unknown) we found ourselves FINALLY in need of another vehicle. For the last 20 months, we have crammed our double stroller, groceries, carseats, and selves - yes, all at once- into our humble Corolla. It's been a great lil car despite its lack of modern conveniences like power windows or locks.

After copious research mostly focused on reliability and trunk space I had selected the Toyota Sienna as our van of choice. Matthew was not pleased that I wasn't keen on the Suburban or the Yukon. I hope I never have to drive one because I'm just plain freaked out at their size. But, he looked at gas mileage, 5-yr cost to own, storage space, and listened to my various rational and emotional reasons for selecting the Sienna. None of which, I might add, included the commercial with the mom running out to sit in her Sienna in her bathrobe. At least that I listed to Matthew.

We started our search on craigslist and drove 45 min out to see a 2007 listed at a great price. Not having driven any new vans yet or smelled that intoxicating "new car" smell, we were really pleased with it. It was rough inside - like we found a melted crayon and toothbrush sculpture inside one of the little storage cubbies, but it ran fine and seemed like a fair price.

Then we went to a dealership that claimed online to have a dozen used Siennas. We got there and there was one. We drove it and it was nice. Overpriced with bleach stain in the trunk. But nice. The slick salesguy got us in his office and started really drilling us about whether we could see ourselves in THIS car. Trying to get us (me) emotionally invested. I said "yes" and so he ran off to fetch numbers from his bossman. I kept looking out the window at the van and by the time he got back with his overinflated interest rate numbers (he gave us a 17% sample rate, since he hadn't checked our credit. gaaahhh!) I was ready to give him and Matthew my irrational reason for not wanting this van we had just wasted an hour driving and looking at.

It was gold.

I told the menfolk. They both just kind of looked bemusedly at me. And then I told them the story of why I would never buy another gold car. When I bought my Corolla after graduation, we had to leave the lot with a car since my parents were helping finance and they were splitting town. I wanted a manual transmission new car and guess what the color was of the only manual transmission car they had. Gold. And I got it. It made the joy of my new car a bit less because I didn't like the color. Five years later, I wasn't going to "settle" again when we had options.

Matthew chuckled and starting laughing and the sales guy just looked blank. He started talking about how much it would cost to paint. But we were done. I apologized and felt very much like a woman and very pregnant. It wasn't until I realized that this van could be ours that I hated gold so much.

And there were more revelations to come....
Maybe tomorrow since naptime is over :(.

Pink vs. Blue

Every so often, I promise myself that I will take this parenting thing more seriously. In an office environment, you're encouraged or required to take continuing education courses of just an hour or two every year.
There's truth to the method. The things you read, study, or take in form you as a professional or a parent. There's a ton in parenting that is intuitive or that you learned yourself from your parents. But recently, in a quest for self-betterment and understanding kids better... I picked up this book by Dr. Leonard Sax called "Why Gender Matters." In a nutshell, he begins by demonstrating how boys and girls brains are essentially different in their composition and how that influences their choices, education style, and tendencies. Such a great book.
Lately, my friends who have multiple children of the same gender have been asking me if I can see any differences beginning to emerge in how Matthew, now 18mos, acts more "boy." I'm more attentive now to those differences, lemmie tell ya!

When we went to the pumpkin patch, every little pumpkin was a "ball" for Matthew, which he identified as such and then attempted to hurl as far as possible. Sophia just watched him with a teeny bit of girlish distain. "No. They're pun-kins Matt-Matt!"

Fearless, often dangerous behaviour, check. Matthew's favorite indoor action game is to stand on the seat of his wheeled Pooh riding toy and jump off. The most creative Sophia got with that toy was to sit on the seat backwards and ride it that way. She thought that was so novel!!
Color choices, check. One thing Sax talks about is boys tendency to draw "action" over static figures (like people and houses) that a girl might draw. Coupled with this is boys' tendency to pick colors like gray, brown, black and blue. Girls are drawn to bright colors like red, orange, purple, and yellow. This phenomenon, explains Sax, has everything to do with how their eyes are wired to their brains and what cones inside the eyes are most receptive. (I'll admit I tuned out a lot of the technical stuff in this example). So true... Sophia scribbles with vibrant colors while Matthew does opt for the others mentioned.
So cool! So much to learn!

Prelude to the Happy Post to Come

Monday... Monday...

O to go to the office. I swore I wouldn't want to go back. But some mornings, when the monkeys are howling at 5:45 (thank you daylight savings time... grrr) you just want to leave the little screamers with someone else and go tackle a flow chart or something. Tune in later when I write a sonnet about how much I love staying home from the kids. I am that fickle.

Am I Getting Old?

It's 9am and I'm still not awake. Both kids sleep through the night and I'm wiped. Starting to have trepidation about #3 and how I'm going to manage to get through the day after a long night with some semblance of charity towards my alternately chatty cranky kids. I'm not even 30. How do mommas in their 40's do this?