My Team in Training Fund Raiser

Does it seem like maybe this blog is going a teensy bit ignored of lately?

Well, I'm sorry for that.  And if you think it is, well, I'm going to be the first to tell you that you are right.

Let me be perfectly honest and tell you all that with 3 kiddos, it is a little bit insane trying to keep up with our lives, let alone find time to blog about any of it.  Then there is the fact that I actually write and photograph for the dance studio's blog and the Acro teacher's blog, and  those take up the lion's share of my "free" time.

Oh, and also, there is the fact that I am training to run the Chicago marathon next October with Team in Training to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma society.  My training runs are already up to 6 miles (this weekend) so rest assured that come hell or high water, I will find a way to cover the distance next fall.

Where on Earth does that expression even come from?

Anyway....

So my fundraising for TNT is going well but there is still a long way to go before I reach my goal, so I wanted to post about the home made (home sewn?) items I have been making for my friends' kids as my fundraiser.

Basically, awhile ago I made my girls these matching peasant style dresses.

And then, for extra fun, I made myself this maxi skirt to coordinate.

So then a couple of friends of mine asked if I could make something similar for their children, and it occurred to me that I could make these in exchange for donations on my TNT fundraising page.

And now I find myself filling up any random free moments, sitting at my kitchen table with my sewing machine, making stuff for my fundraiser.

Here are some examples of the things I have made so far:

A Star Wars print dress and a lovely red one for a friend with a love for atypical "girl" colors for her daughter.

Matching dresses for my friend's little girls.

A dress and matching shorts for my friend's little boy and girl twins.

A long sleeve dress with matching bow ties another friend with a little girl and her 2 older brothers.

Some patriotic red, white and blue dresses for another friend with 2 little girls.

The same friend who wanted patriotic dresses wanted coordinating bow ties for her boys,
as well as some other fun colors.  

So, yeah.  If you would be interested in me making a dress or shorts or a bow tie for your children, please let me know.  I can also easily  modify the dresses to make either a "twirly" skirt or a peasant style blouse (long or short sleeve) to wear with jeans, shorts or leggings.

Also, as A.J.'s request, I made her a little "Elsa" dress.  You know, from Frozen.

Here she is, wearing it at dance class one morning.  (She has a blue leotard on underneath, which explains why the sleeves look kind of weird.)

I am working on 2 more Elsa dresses for my friend's girls now, and also an Anna one for one of the little sisters.  But, again, please let me know if you'd like me to make one of these for your girls as well.

A few others have asked what ELSE I can make.

And, honestly, that's the best way about fundraising in this way.

The sky is kind of the limit...

I can make flannel reversible baby blankets for little ones.  

These are a sample of some of these blankets I made for my own babies over the years.

I can also make tutus.  I can make hair bows or headbands.  I can make super hero or princess capes.

Do you have another idea?  Just let me know, and we'll see what we can work out.

Honestly, you kind of tell me what you want, what colors/patterns or prints you have in mind, and I go shopping at the fabric store to see what is the best way for me to create your vision for you.  

So yeah.  

Please, let me know what I can make for you.

Please contact me via email at jcbuckshaw@hotmail.com or on Private Message over on Facebook and let's get started.

Keep in mind that ALL of the money from this goes to directly to my fundraising for blood cancer treatments and research!

Thank you in advance for your support.

Now what?

Goodness.

Why do the third ones grow up so much faster than the others?

I can't even keep up!

After having just gotten started crawling properly, and then cutting a tooth last week, on Sunday evening Lucy pulled herself up to a standing position.  Forget the fact that she did it while hanging on the side of a laundry basket and randomly unfolding and flinging pairs of her Daddy's clean underwear onto the floor.

How can she be standing, even with help, already?

Like I said, this started on Sunday... that was 3 days ago.  And since then she spends every waking hour trying to pull up on everything.

Also....

This afternoon when we got home from picking up Peter from preschool, just as I was taking her out of her car seat, she said "Dada."

This from the baby, who, up until now was almost nearly always silent, except for the occasional cry or scream.  Most of these screams, mind you, were of the, "I'm trying to be silly/obnoxious/annoying" variety and not the angry type.

And now she's said a first word.

Totally, accidentally of course.  But still.

*sigh*

And also, Peter's first word, really was "Uh oh!"  Right around that same time he started saying words like "tree" and "dog" and stuff.  In his case, he definitely said "Dada" much sooner than he said "Mama."

A.J. said "Mama" first.  It was also very accidental of course, but I will take what I can get.  Also, she definitely started speaking in nearly complete sentences about 5 minutes after that (okay, maybe not quite THAT early.)  Anyway. as nice as it was that she said Mama first, I feel that since her Daddy was deployed and only existed to her as a floating blurry head on a computer screen via Skype, I had an unfair advantage.

And now little Lucy has started saying Dada first now too.  Grrrr.  Matt wins everything.  I'd be SO tempted to have another baby to see if we could even the score, except.... well, that would be a really dumb reason for creating an entire other human being.  Hahah.  Plus, Matt is on travel this week so again I think this is totally UNFAIR that she's "talking" about him.

It's like with each little "Dada" she's looking at me and asking "Mother, where is my Daddy?  I miss him...."

Any fans of A Few Good Men out there?

"PA!  Look, a mailbox!"

Hahahaha.

Nevermind.

Pictures/video to come soon.  Hopefully.

That is of course, assuming she isn't like teaching herself to drive by next week.

Team in Training Dedications

Hello Blog Friends.

If you wouldn't mind, please click HERE to read the latest post on my Marathon Fundraising page for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

And while you're add it, please say a little pray for these people.

Thanks!  

Sickness and Fires and a Baby Tooth

It's been a mad week.

Peter had an infection of strep and started antibiotics last week.  Not long after, I started to feel sick too.  So then it turns out I had strep as well.  In 35 years, I've never had it and let me just say OMG wow.  My throat and ear and head, felt AWFUL.

Then the Santa Ana winds started to blow and it got psychotically hot.

And stuff around her started catching on fire.

Wildfires in San Diego county tend to spin out of control very quickly.

Remarkably, for once, nothing burned in my immediate area.  But at one point 9 separate areas in the Northern part of San Diego were burning.  One of my best friends houses was literally a few hundred feet over from where the worst of these began, and so she and her family (and a whole lot of other people around here) were evacuated for days and days.

(Luckily, she was able to go stay with her Mom south of here, where it wasn't burning.)

Thursday and Friday they cancelled school.

Seriously, my head feels kind of swimmy trying to recall all that has gone on.

Anyway, so Friday we were with my friend, at her mom's house and our kids were all playing in the back yard and their pool and having a high time.

Lucy was crawling around in the grass chasing after their chihuahua and trying like heck to go swimming with the fish in their little pond.  Somewhere in there I noticed she'd FINALLY gotten a tooth to poke through those gums.  May 16, 2014-- baby Lucy, at 8 1/2 months old finally got a tooth.

I don't do as good a job remembering to mark down this stuff any more, so I just wanted to be sure to include something about it here.

I know Peter got his first tooth through on the day of his baptism at about 6 months old.

For A.J. I know it was in August or September, so when she was 9 or 10 months old.  Probably somewhere in this blog, back then, I wrote down the exact date.

And now Lucy.

She is starting to be able to crawl, in very short spurts, with her tummy off the ground now too.

*sigh*

Where did my tiny newborn go?

When it's the third one and you're always on the go, time just soars by.....

Mother's Day Shenanigans

I'll admit it again this year.  As Mother's Day approached, and little hints about it kept popping up around me  on TV and the internet and all over the place, I started to feel the same old sense of blah about it I get every year, even though I try not to.

To begin with, I knew nobody was going to make much of a fuss.  Nobody around here really has the time or energy for all that these days anyway, but it is still hard to hear your friends plans of trips away and fancy brunches at glamorous restaurants and not feel a bit envious.  Honestly, I think the trouble with all these holidays is the pressure to enjoy them.  It's just one more thing you know?

Sometime when you have kids and you're sort of insanely busy just living your life every day, you just kind of wish for more ordinary days.  Does that make any sense?

There's always so much pressure to be making memories and seizing the day and all that.

Pressure from myself of course.  That image I have in my head of the type of mom I want to be is relentless you know.  Especially since I'll never live up to my own expectations.

Also, inevitably, I start to feel rather bitter and sour when everyone I know gets all sentimental and mushy about their mothers and how great they were.   But enough about that.  Nobody needs or wants to hear that story again.

Moving on.

Then there was my very favorite son who for weeks ahead of time kept bringing me the Spring/Summer Toys R Us catalog and asking me to pick out which toy I'd like him to get me.  So sweet and yet so far off base son.  He kept insisting a nerf bow and arrow would be perfect for me.

Anyway, no matter how strongly my desire was to avoid the whole thing if possible, Mother's Day came up anyway.  And with it came a whole weekend and then some of fun.

First up on the timeline was Peter's "Muffins with Mom" morning at preschool.  This was the Friday before the holiday weekend for the first 45 minutes or so of his regular day at school so he got the extra bonus of not only his mom visiting, but his 2 little sisters as well.

We arrived a few minutes early as usual and the big two got right to work playing on the playground like they do every morning.

Soon enough all the other kids and their Mom's arrived and the teachers called all the kids in.  The parents were asked to wait outside for a moment and then they all came piling back out the door to us, proudly grasping their surprises for us.

And in Peter's case, squinting a lot in the morning sunlight.  

 He presented me with a card and a sweet little "about my mom" survey and a little heart pin he'd made me.

He was so proud.

 Here's a close up of the card.  Please try to overlook his terrible hand writing.  (It's usually better than that, I can't help but wonder which hand he used that day.)

"Mom, I love you"

"to pieces!  Love Peter"

 Melt my heart.

Here is his survey about me.

Um.  

Alrighty then.

I can't believe I gave birth to him when I was only 15 and nobody told me.  I also am not sure I really "like" taking him to school and tball, but I do it willingly.  I really do like it when he is good though.  (For the record that is overwhelmingly the vast majority of the time now... at least at school.... he has come very far.)  I do make good enchiladas, but usually Matt makes them most of the time anymore.  Also, I'm not sure soda and enchiladas are my ABSOLUTE favorite foods, but the are pretty darn good so props to him for that.  

As for the relaxing.... I guess I do lay down (on the couch) to relax, but um, I do other (more productive things too, like running or sewing) and what on Earth is with his use of the word "spine?"

As for the bouncy ball.... I HAVE NO IDEA.  We must have played in the back yard with one or something around the time he did his survey.  

Finally, I honestly can not remember every buying him dinosaurs, so... great.

Anyway.

I love my boy, weird answers and weird face he is making in this picture and ALL.

If you're wondering, while he gave me that stuff and I read through it, Lucy was right next to me, safely chewing on her own fingers in the stroller.  A.J. on the other hand had disappeared in the crowd.  Not to worry, she has now spent almost 2 whole school years dropping her brother off in this classroom, and every single morning she plays in the "fort" at the top of the slide outside.  And if she isn't there when Peter goes inside and we can leave or if I get distracted talking to a teacher or something, the very next place to look for her should always be by the books.  (She's does occasionally wander elsewhere in his classroom, but overwhelming, she prefers the book area the most.)

This morning was no exception.

 I sent Peter to sit with A.J. while I liberated Lucy from the stroller for a while so that I could maneuver more easily around the crowded classroom and get us all some snacks.

It was a lovely spread.

It's funny actually because that morning as we drove over I remember thinking to myself how silly it is that Moms get Muffins but Dad's get way-better doughnuts just because somebody decided alliteration is cool.  I'd certainly have been way more into a doughnut then those muffins, even though, who am I kidding?  They had chocolate muffins which my kids were ALL about.

And if the truth were to be told, I'm not much of an eater in the morning. Mimosas with Mom would be better alliteration anyway, but probably not super appropriate for preschool.  In any case, what I really want always in the morning (and sometimes all day long) is coffee.  LOTS of coffee.  So... BIG FAT BONUS to the teachers or room moms or whoever got the food for this thing because if you scroll back up you'll see in the left side of that food picture that there were, in fact, several Starbucks carryout coffee cartons.  

OMG!  This really is the best school ever guys, they got us Moms coffee!!!  

Hahah.

Anyway, so the kids ate and us Moms visited and we all giggled about the ages our kids thought we were and then the teachers gathered all their students up to sing us a few songs.

Peter was practically killing himself to get there first and sit RIGHT UP FRONT and be RIGHT NEAR HIS TEACHER.  Meanwhile, I was in the back because of the baby in my arms and also because A.J. was still sitting quietly in the book area sort of wondering what to do with herself.

She certainly didn't want to come join me, that was for sure, so I left her be and tried to get a good view of my oldest.

Meanwhile, Peter's teacher from last year, (who is the director of the preschool program and is there everyday even when she's not teaching her 2 day class) who will be A.J.'s teacher next year when she moves over to be at the same school as her brother, noticed her sitting there.

Now mind you, Peter put this lovely women through the wringer last year, but in the end it kind of seems like everything she went through was SO worth it because this year he has done SO well.  So she already has an established relationship with A.J. and they've been bonding all year over the potty training stuff and her dancing and her love of books and things and so while Peter and the other Pre-kindergarteners were doing their thing, she went to A.J. and led her through the routine too.  

Saying the prayers.

It was kind of like A.J. was getting her own sneak preview for next year.

Also, it was aslo kind of ridiculous because my daughter was being the most absolute sweetest and obedient little angel on the planet, even though these teachers regularly see her give me absolute heck (every single morning of her life.)

(A.J.'s teacher this year is thoroughly convinced A.J. just enjoys pushing my buttons and I'm really thinking she's on to something with this theory.)

Anyway, so back to Peter.  He was busy saying the pledge and singing "It's a Grand Old Flag" with his friends.

He's there in the front row, closest to the wall, and the teacher.

A.J. too.  Haha. 

Then they sang.  I video recorded their couple of songs, but they were kind of long and would take a long time to upload.  Sorry.  Just go with me here and believe me when I say they were sweet.

So that was Muffins with Mom for Peter.  Fun times.

Later that afternoon after school Peter and Lucy played matchbox cars.
This has nothing to do with anything, but I thought the picture was cute.

Saturday was busy.  I took A.J. to dance at 9 because Peter's T-Ball game was later for once and didn't conflict.  Then I took him to his T-Ball game because I am the team mom and I kind of have to be there.  Not that I mind, but sometimes it would be nice if Matt could go instead.  He stayed home with the opposite children for both dance and T-Ball because sometimes that is just easier.  After that, I noticed I was starting to feel kind of sick and achy so I slept most of the afternoon.  And honestly, after dinner, as soon as the kids were in bed, I went back to bed myself for the night.

One would think after all that sleeping I would have been feeling better but I wasn't really, so on Sunday Matt let me sleep in extra and we missed church.

One of these years I SWEAR we will go on Mother's Day again... hopefully.

Anyway, when I finally got up, I asked A.J. if I could open the gift she'd made me at preschool.  I'm not 100% sure she even realized she'd made me a gift for Mother's day at preschool, but she agreed.

There was a card with a purple flower painted with her fingerprints.

and she even signed it herself.

 Then there was little package to unwrap and inside there was this.

How sweet.  She decorated the frame all by herself.

 Then Peter and her discussed the pattern she'd made with the buttons at length.  I mostly just wondered if she'd chosen to use only red and white buttons or if those were the only options.  I must remember to ask her teacher about that....

Anyway, then Matt decided we should go out for "brunch" (even though he'd kind of just got finished feeding Peter and A.J. breakfast) and so we all got dressed and went to IHOP.  Not super fancy or elegant, but I do really enjoy their special menu items so, that was nice.

After we ate, we stopped at Target to get a few things.  And while we were there, Matt picked up this for A.J.

WAAAAAY back before Christmas, after she turned 3 when we started to try potty training again for real with her, I'd sat down with her and had a serious discussion about what she would need to learn to use the potty.  We talked about underpants and motivation and patience and all of that, and also, we discussed rewards.  Chocolates and dolls and books and everything were offered.  

After a few moments thought she declared that she would like the play doh ice cream shoppe set.

Okay I told her, when you are completely potty trained, you can have it.

That was 6 months ago now.

But.... and I'll skip the scary details, she'd finally got it for real basically last week.

She'd earned other rewards along the way of course.  Lots of them.

And it certainly hadn't been easy.  But finally we were there and so Matt felt it was important to hold true to our promise to her, and get her that toy.

She was so proud.  

So when we got home from the store, everybody played with that for awhile.

Well, not everyone.  Lucy took a nap and I sorted laundry.

But they made me an ice cream cone anyway!

By then it was mid day and quickly getting hot.  We all changed into our swim suits and jumped into the (absolutely frigid waters of our new, little backyard) swimming pool.

Our grass is all super dead anyway with still no plans to fix it, and we had something similar in our back yard when I was a kid, so a couple weeks ago when it got super hot for the first time, we set that up.  

After an hour or so of swimming, the kids were popsicles and my head and throat were feeling sore again and I still felt super tired so I laid down again for another nap to try to shake it off before the weekend was over.

Matt woke me up at dinner time because after the meal there was a special surprise....

They'd made me a cake!  

 Matt said he even tried to decorate it but the icing bags weren't cooperating.  Instead he borrowed the "Happy" portion from a "Happy Birthday" candle set that has been making the rounds here for awhile now to cheer the thing up.  As if a chocolate cake every needs more cheerfulness.

And also, before you ask, NO Brutus didn't get any and No he isn't actually allowed to put his paws up on the table like that.  He just doesn't listen is all.

Anyway, you know who DID get a small piece of cake to try for the first time?

Lucy seemed confused at first.  But then she kind of got into it and then she was happy.  

Clearly it was just a small piece though, because she barely even made a mess of herself eating it.

(Haha, and also, Matt was kind of concerned that I let her have some, but I reminded him how A.J. got kind of a lot of cake in her first year of life, but that is another story....)

So all in all, Sunday was a lovely day.

But the fun wasn't exactly over yet because this morning at A.J.'s school was her Muffin's with Mom party.

(Truth be told, they hardly had any muffins at all and there were actually quite a bit more cinnamon buns and the same doughnut sticks that they'd had for the Dads!!)

A.J. had a new dress for the occasion.  Doesn't she look lovely?

How on Earth I gave birth to a Flower Child in the year 2010 is completely beyond me.

Except that she was made in Monterey and that central California coast is pretty darn hippy so, maybe it just sort of got into her genes.  

Anyway.... the rose came from her teacher to give to me along with a sweet poem.  Here's a close up:

Makes me cry...

Also those flowers are ones she made for her class's table centerpiece.

Mother daughter selfie.

 I used to be much better at getting these of us.  I used to kind of a champ at it actually.  But then of course she made silly faces for the first 2 attempts so that when finally she looked sweetly at the camera and flashed a smile and those big blue-green eyes of hers my head had gone all funny and I sort of look decapitated.

Ugh

In any case, she enjoyed the treats we shared.

And by "shared" I mean she ate them all except for the smaller strawberry that I got.

She was mad at me for eating that one strawberry anyway.

(My children are the best diet there ever was.)

Other than that, it actually went all so well.

We'd dropped Peter at his school and then left Lucy with a friend of mine and she was super annoyed at me for leaving her baby sister (who she almost never shows any interest in anyway) behind, until right up when it started and then suddenly she was being all sweet and nice and giving me hugs and kisses and things.  

Aw.  :)

Just like for her Dad (and much like her brother's) she had made a picture of me and answered more survey questions.

Apparently, according to A.J. my name is Mommy and I am 5 years old.  She is correct that I have brown hair and I am just happy that she didn't mention the grays.  She thinks my favorite thing to do is see Ms Suzie.  (I don't now about favorite, but Suzie does happen to be a good friend of mine, so that is sweet.)  She says my favorite food is spaghetti and meatballs.  Actually, I do love me some spaghetti, but I don't usually much care for the meatballs.  Spaghetti and meatballs is her favorite food, but, at least she's close and it's almost something we have in common.  She says together we build a horse park and I suppose this is in regard to something we did with her legos and her toy horses a few times.  She also says I always tell her to go to her room.  Well, yes, I guess, I do tell her that a lot, but only really at bed time and when she'd freaking out (screaming or crying) and she needs a nap.

Oh, and she loves me because I am happy when she uses the potty.

Fair enough.

That does make me really stinking happy after the last 6 months or so.

Maybe I need to tell her that she makes me happy more often though....

Anyway, there was also this photo of her.

This just might be the cutest thing I've ever seen.  She looks like she's modeling.  Tyra Banks would be so proud, she looks FIERCE.

Anyway, all the 3 year olds sang a couple songs.  I wasn't super confident A.J. would cooperate, but she really did.  She does love to perform for an audience (any audience) when ever she can.

It was sweet.

In fact, all the Mother's Day activities wound up being really wonderful.

Turns out, I guess, that if you forget about the pressure to enjoy it and just do things with your kids that make you happy, it will be great all on it's own without very much effort at all.


(Not that you didn't put a lot of effort into the cake dear.  Thank you for making me a cake.  I love cake.  I mean.... I love you.  Hahahah.)