Christmas Eve:

Nolan on the Piano from Colleen Rummel on Vimeo.

Christmas Day:

Christmas Morning 2010 from Colleen Rummel on Vimeo.

A few weeks ago…Nolan in all his chubby cuteness:

Nolan Laughs from Colleen Rummel on Vimeo.

Gavin sledding last Thursday:

Gavin sledding from Colleen Rummel on Vimeo.

More sledding:

Gavin and Cooper race on sleds from Colleen Rummel on Vimeo.

and even more sledding (and where I make the baby cry):

Nolan’s first sled ride from Colleen Rummel on Vimeo.

less snow at the time of this pic then there was when I woke up 90 minutes prior

9:00am – After dropping Cooper and Nolan off at daycare, stopped at the grocery store to get a Starbucks coffee and to load up on yogurt. Not bread, milk, or toilet paper (though those aisles were looking a little thin already). Just yogurt because my family eats it by the gallon and neglected to tell me that we were completely out, so you can imagine my morning when my six-year old and three-year old addicts couldn’t get their cultured-dairy fix. I’d dare to compare their behavior to that of crack-heads. Oh, and more rechargeable batteries for the Wii remotes (and Cooper’s flashlight). All items were on sale. Go me.

10:25am – even the rain has stopped. The temperature is still hovering above freezing. Streets are merely a little wet, and I saw a salt truck driver sitting on the shoulder eating a breakfast sandwich and playing with his smartphone.

11:40am – get this weather alert:
“Weather Alert: National Weather Service: ‘Dangerous’ travel conditions during rush hour
January 26, 2011 11:27:43 AM
The National Weather Service (NWS) is warning drivers that a winter storm could create “dangerous” driving conditions during the evening rush hour.
The NWS says the heavy snow will reduce visibilities below a quarter mile and snow could accumulate at times at a rate of 2 inches per hour. The Post’s Capital Weather Gang believes the heaviest snow will fall between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. tonight. Accumulations could top 8 inches in northern and western suburbs.”

Also? Forgot that Gavin chose an obnoxious squeaky ball for the dogs while at the store, until he gave it to them just now. The ball was NOT on sale.

1:05pm – nothing is coming out of the sky yet and it’s still only 34 degrees and doesn’t even smell like snow outside anymore. If the school system had simply called for an early dismissal for the Middle and Elementary schools (high schools were already scheduled to get out early due to exams), they would all be either getting home or getting ready to come home now. Instead, I have this six-year old who is eating me out of house and home, and a dog that keeps losing her obnoxious squeaky ball under the china cabinet behind me and is growling at me to retrieve it for her. Trying to gauge if I can talk Gavin into doing both addition AND subtraction flash cards to at least say he did something constructive instead of letting his brain rot in front of the TV. The crazy part is that they keep repeating over and over that we may get upwards of 6-10 inches of snow by tomorrow morning. I suspect the sky is constipated: it wants to snow but it can’t.

Courtesy of Weatherbug.com

1:45pm – I get a birthday present delivered from my sister-in-law:

only redeeming quality is that this dude looks kinda cute

how ya like them apples?

2:15pm – think I hear the cat chewing on his back nails.

2:20pm – think to myself, “man, that cat is really gnawing on his nails!” then realize that I’m hearing sleet. Or frozen rain. Or hail. Or lets just go with “wintry mix”.

3:15pm – snow has finally begun…nice, big, fat flakes. Wonder if we’ll actually get the obnoxious totals they’ve been putting up on the tv graphics. Guess time will tell.

4:15pm – Snow is maybe at an inch. Wonder if the neighbors who share my driveway bought shovels since their only one broke while digging out one of their cars during last winter’s blizzard. I suspect I will be digging out their cars again, and I should probably clear the rest of my evening to take periodic drives in my truck up and down the drive so that they don’t get stuck and block me in. That’s not to say that I suspect we’ll get more snow than any of their sedans can handle, but it took me and a different neighbor to get them out of the drive because they don’t know how to drive in the snow, period. In fact, they only seem capable of getting stuck in the snow. Although, if one of them gets stuck again, I will definitely take pictures because I can sense it will be comedy gold.

5:25pm – Two to three inches on the ground. I picked up kids, plopped them in front of the TV and shoveled. and shoveled. and shoveled some more. Cleared out a path a little wider than my wheelbase and over 40 yards long down my pipestem driveway, bitches! Know how I know it’s about 40 yards? Did ye olde 8-to-5 marching step. Thank you, band camp.
Photos to follow.

6:32pm – our county announces school will be closed tomorrow. First time all school year I’ve agreed with them. I also see an email from Gavin’s elementary school, time stamp of 5:25pm where they’re announcing school is closed TODAY. Feel free to mock.

7:04pm – lights start flickering so I plug in my cell phone in case I need it. I warn kids about the chance of power outage, which prompts Gavin to ask, “so then no TV?” I explain again how there will be no TV, lights, music, heat, “or anything” if the power goes out. Cooper gets all serious and asks, “no plates, either?” It’s always about food with that boy.

8:35pm – About four or five inches of incredibly wet snow on the ground. Kids are finally in bed and turned off most lights and powered items since the lights are still occasionally dimming and flickering. Contemplating shoveling again since it appears we still have a few hours of snow left in the system. I’m not certain that I want to re-shovel the 40-yard pipestem, but maybe I’ll at least re-shovel the deck and potty-spot for the dogs, and my immediate driveway.

10:05pm – hear a lot of yelling outside and suspect our neighbor is stuck. I’m kind of right. Instead of the inexperienced-with-snow neighbors, it’s the jerks whose dog craps on my lawn & attacks my dogs, and they park on my pipestem like they own it without offering to help clear the snow, even when they saw me shoveling alone.
Ten minutes later he’s still trying to get his pickup truck un-stuck from the snow I piled up in “his” parking spot while shoveling earlier. I admit I am full of all sorts of glee.

Scene: At his new daycare it’s naptime, but he doesn’t sleep so he usually has a book to look at while resting on his cot.

Cooper: Ms. Andrea!
Ms. Andrea: shhh Cooper! You need to be quiet. It’s naptime.
Cooper: you need to come see this elephant!
Ms. Andrea: Cooper, I asked you to be quiet!
Cooper: and I asked you to come see this elephant!

Scene: our bathroom, where Cooper is crumpled on the floor throwing a fit about brushing his teeth.

Me: Cooper, stand up and brush your teeth.
Cooper: (screaming and crying) No!
Me: brush your teeth or else I will brush your teeth.
Cooper: No! I don’t want to brush my teeth!
Me: okay. Then I will brush your teeth.
I stand him up and start brushing his teeth. He howls and cries and drools, and screams and spits toothpaste everywhere.
Me: that’s enough! Stop crying or I’ll give you something to cry about!
Cooper: (shrieking hysterically) No! I don’t wanna stop and I don’t want you to give me something to cry about!

Something tells me I’m gonna be in a lot of trouble in ten or twelve years.

While I lied misspoke overcommitted myself to posting more often while coming into the holiday season, I can at least vouch for my whereabouts. Besides being in my car a lot longer than usual (I totally forgot all the folks who leave work a little early, or maybe on-time, and go shopping or do family stuff), and having some late-night work again, I’ve been busy creating Christmas gifts and getting more creative with my shopping. In past years, I will admit, if it’s not at Target, they’re not getting anything. But in an attempt to scale back on spending despite an enlarged pool of giftees, I wanted gifts that were maybe a bit more meaningful (not that I didn’t put a lot of thought into past ones, but you know…now they’re extra meaningful) and I often had to hunt around a lot more to find what I wanted, or the price I wanted it at. I also had to make up for the fact that a certain baby made it hard to tend to my garden and even harder to find time to make jam this past summer. In fact, this fall was the first time in over two years that we actually had to buy a jar of jam/jelly for our PB&J sandwiches! So since we have fourteen children (including my three) to buy for, and I didn’t want to leave anyone out because well, it’s Christmas, each child will be getting a small, picked-out-especially-for-them purchased gift and a small, made-especially-for-them handmade gift. Except my kids, who will not be getting the handmade gifts since I ran out of time prior to Christmas. Thankfully Gavin and Cooper were quite understanding and were more than willing to wait for their handmade items until after Christmas. Well, actually, it will be after all their grandparents get their late-for-Christmas handmade gifts (sorry guys! no jam this year!). Don’t get me started on Christmas cookies…I have all the ingredients, just haven’t been able to start them yet. Maybe I’ll make New Year’s cookies instead…

So. I have a valid excuse. Maybe if I got some voice-activated equipment that would transcribe my blog for me, that would make it easier. I definitely would not do a VLOG because I’m now past the age where I still look cute and adorable with messy hair and without make-up , and by the time I got myself VLOG camera-worthy, I could’ve just written my post.

After the first of the year, I expect to have more time on my hands (well, after getting those New Year’s gifts out of the way). There have been some recent changes going on with work that I don’t quite feel at liberty to discuss here yet, but will give me back some time so that I can start spending a little more time with my family, and allow me to turn this jalopy into a rebuilt, humming dream machine.

So here I am. I’m trying to come back because I miss this. I miss the writing, the reading of other blogs, the friendships, the commiserating with others about kids and husbands and household chores. I’ve actually been lonely because once the kids are in bed, I’ve no one to talk to, but haven’t had time to try besides spitting out a few sentences on Facebook. I have even fallen off the Twitter-sphere.

I’m still busy as all get-out at work. We got a short reprieve from working late nights, but then things changed and we’re back to doing late nights (on top of daytime work). Juggling the hours with my other responsibilities (like these tiny humans in my house) can be frustrating at times, but it’s a good job in a great team that I enjoy, and I’m grateful to have it. The commute, however, has gotten out of control. Even with coming into the office on the tail-end of rush hour, I’m still in my car a total of three hours a day, which is making me crazy because it keeps me from everything I want to be with: my kids, my husband (when he’s in town), my house (I’m waiting for the county to condemn it), and my hobbies (blogging, reading, knitting, and couch-potato-ing).

So now that Nolan is six months old (and more willing to be ignored while he plays in his exersaucer), and Justin is in town for more than three nights, I figured I would take a stab at getting back in the habit of writing, particularly since I’ve got a plethora of junk just waiting to work its way out of my head and onto your computer screens. Consider yourselves warned.

But I digress.

My little monkey pumpkin is now five months old and I can’t believe that it’s been that long.  His little personality is really starting blossom.  He has the most delightful smile an exhausted mother could ever want, and besides starting to sit, he has begun growling at me when he’s hungry, which I find hysterical.  It just never gets old, though I’m sure it’s his way of telling me to sit down and feed him.

He flirts with women, ignores little girls, but loves other babies of either gender.  He makes noises to get his daddy’s attention, is fascinated with all of the animals in the house, and has an extra special smile for his brothers, who are completely smitten with him as well.

Despite my struggles with the older boys when Justin leaves town, Nolan remains quite constant:  happy, curious, and surprisingly patient for a baby.  Either that, or he is too busy watching the circus going on around him to get overly worked up when his needs aren’t being met immediately.

They say parents don’t have favorites, but I’m not afraid to admit that Nolan is probably my favorite infant.  Don’t get me wrong, I adore all my kids, but Gavin, while also easygoing, was our first and we fretted so much about every little thing.  Cooper was our colicky Dr. Jeckyl/Mr. Hyde, who tested our limits.  So maybe a lot of the infant bliss is our level of parenting experience, or maybe it’s just our ultrasweet baby.

And besides a few times where we thought we just might sell the older two because of their whining, the trip went well: the baby slept, Cooper maintained a good hold on his new potty training, and Gavin managed to not kick Cooper off the hide-a-bed they shared all week (Gavin is a wild sleeper).  Even the dogs seemed to enjoy the stay!  However, as much fun as we had with the kids, Justin and I have decided that someday we will come down without them.  That may not be till they’re all out of the house, but we’ll just ignore that little detail.

I grabbed a few pictures with my phone, though please check out Justin’s Flickr page as he has a lot more and they turned out better since he used a real camera.

As most parents say, hard to believe three months has already flown by, and I’m no exception.  However, I think I have missed being home with Nolan this past month even more than I did when I went back to work after Gavin and Cooper were born, and I think it is because Nolan will most likely be our last child.  Seems I’m trying to savor every little bit of baby goodness while it lasts.  The fact that we are more experienced as parents and he is such a mellow baby, only makes this journey more bittersweet.

Uh yeah, can I get a coffee flavored coffee?