Cold

 
 
 
Poor Anthony is getting a cold. I hate it - I wish that he never got sick, I feel that he deals with enough. He is off of school this week, so say a prayer for us!

Throwing a Ball

 
 
In an outfit from my Aunt Karen - she sent very cute things for all three of the kids.

Last Day of School

 
 
Today was Anthony's last day of school. He is now bugging me for a video so that's all I'll say about it right now.

Long week, already

 
 

UPDATE: He is fine, thank God. He whacked his head on the door of the garage but the swelling went down right away, he let me put some ice on it for two seconds, and then a band aid. Poor Anthony.

Pool

 

Hoo boy, this day! I edited my last entry so that I am not swearing in it, so that my Aunt Joan doesn't get mad at me! :) It's just been rough. Maria was up at 5:30 and took two CRAPPY naps. She is in a shrieking mode, where she just yells and yells and screams for no reason. Anthony is noisy anyway, and the two of them are a) driving us mad and b) waking up the baby, who really likes to sleep. We tried to let them go outside and play in the pool but man - Anthony is very drawn to bare skin, so he keeps hugging Maria really hard against him, and knocking her down. Maria got sunscreen in her eye, and she spends most of her time outside letting all the water out of the pool. I went inside the house for TWO seconds because I was patting down Maria's eye and I came out and Anthony had put the cloth diaper pail (FULL of dirty diapers), a bag of garbage, and three balls in the pool. There was seriously not even room for him. We have to keep our kitchen chairs under the table so that Maria doesn't climb up on them and then to the desk, or her high chair, or to her death. It's a pain because if we dare take one out to sit in it, she RACES to the chair to try and get in it before you do. We are seriously losing our minds. Then, to top it off, I went out at the end of the day to bring in the diapers that I washed and Anthony and I were playing a rousing game of "Where's Anthony?" where I pretend I don't see him and then he jumps out and I say "There he is!". I went in to bring the diapers in and came out and was playing the game, so I was pretending I didn't see him, so it took me a minute to see, that he was covered in POOP. Ugh. It's like the day was determined to stink right up until the very end. Then we cleaned him up and got him in the tub and I gave him a bath and washed his hair and got him in bed. We said his prayers and I gave him a little rub down and we got his pajamas on and I covered him up and sang to him and zoom, he was asleep in five minutes and looking so teensy and sweet and calm in his bed, that he made me cry, singing "Baby Mine" to him. It is murder to go through this gamut of emotions every day with this kid! Oy! Here's to hoping tomorrow is better. And I'm sorry, Aunt Joan. :)

Dirty

 
We are having some kind of BAD day around here, I'll tell you that much.

Holland

Has everyone already seen this? I read it here and there and it's really beautiful, I think. And smart.

Holland, Written by Emily Perl Kingsley

When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip – to Italy. You buy a bunch of guidebooks and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum, the Michelangelo David, the gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."

"Holland?!" you say. "What do you mean, Holland?" I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy.

But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.

The important thing is that they haven't taken you to some horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.

So you must go out and buy a new guidebook. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.

It's just a different place. It's slower paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around, and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills, Holland has tulips, Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy, and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life you will say, "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."

The pain of that will never, ever, go away, because the loss of that dream is a very significant loss.

But if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things about Holland.

John

 
He looks like my brother John to me, here.

Watching some Video

 
Oh that hair. I cannot believe I have a kid with hair this long but I LOVE it.

Lollipop

 
 
 
That first picture was cracking Mike and me UP.

Back

 
from school. He had a good night and a good day.

Right Before

...I left for the hospital. Forgive the red eye, I don't have my photo program.

Baby Day

 
I guess everyone was excited about the baby. I woke up before 4:00, Anthony shortly after that, and Maria at 5:30. Here they are, the last shot of them as just two. :)

Hair

 
Sigh. I know we have to cut it sometime but sometimes I think it is so cute this length. My mom thinks it is like how my little brother John used to have his hair when he was Anthony's age. A tribute, maybe!

Giant

 
 
 
Doesn't he look so big? He went to the zoo today with Mike, on a field trip with school. So it was their first time on a bus! Mike said it went fine, of course there was a lot of waiting, which Anthony hates but Mike said he just got a little antsy. He loved the penguins, which he always does, and seemed to see the zebra, and giraffe, because he said 'zebra' and 'giraffe'. All in all, I think it went much better than we thought it might, so that's good! He is in his new twin bed tonight, I'll take a picture tomorrow but he has a new 11 pound blanket and Star Wars sheets. He honestly didn't seem to notice but he looked like a teensy thing in that bed when I left him tonight.

Poor Anthony

 
He looks really put upon here, but he is not the one suffering, believe me. Not today!

Swing

 
 
 

Outside

 
 
Anthony has been sleeping wonderfully for like a week. We got him a twin bed but we are waiting for his new blanket (11 pounds!) until we put it in his room, hopefully tomorrow. I'll take pictures once we get it set up.

Mother's Day

 
 
 
"Nice to Meet You", I was telling him. He loves this Nice to Meet You Signing Time thing that we do. He goes crazy for it!