Crabby Mama

What a whirlwind this month has been! With being sick, visiting family, the last few weeks of gymnastics and karate, we were on the go nonstop! Here are some of the highlights.

Cooking at Young Chef’s Academy with the girls…

Erin helped make these cookies

Leah made bacon foccacia and French toast cupcakes

Going to Busch Gardens with my sisters, Grammy & Pops for the day…

Having brunch with my mom & sisters…

Going to see “snow” at Safety Harbor’s Snow Fest with PawPaw…

Our attempt at snow angels in dirty snow

Checking out Japanese cuisine at Arigato’s…

We went to a Japanese Steakhouse as research for Leah's Japan project

Celebrating Grammy’s birthday…

We sang to Grammy with a birthday banana!

Finding our Elf on the Shelf, Jingle, every morning and seeing what trouble he got himself into…

Jingle TP'd our tree!

Lighting the menorahs every night and opening just ONE present…

The first night of channukah

Visiting Winter from A Dolphin Tail…

With Winter's tail at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium

Erin LOVED petting the stingrays!

Watching the magic of Christmas unfold in our house…

Merry Christmas eve in new jammies!

Playing one of our new games Christmas day

It has been AMAZING this year as all three are very much a part of every tradition now. It can’t get any better then this. Merry Christmas all!

Yesterday was a fun day all around. First I took the girls to Young Chef’s Academy for a cooking class. Erin and I made cookies together while Leah made bacon foccacia and French toast cupcakes with bacon in her own big girl class. It was a long drive to get there so we won’t be doing it too often, but I used a Groupon so we got a good deal.

In the afternoon, I stayed home with Adam while he napped and Mike took the girls to Celebration Station to play mini-golf and batting cages and other stuff. They had a blast. Leah was sad she couldn’t hit in the batting cage, but she has never played any kind of ball! Mike said Erin got some natural 3’s on the golf course too.

We took the kids and my mom to Arigato Japanese Steakhouse for dinner (with another Groupon). Leah is doing a project on Japan for her gifted class so we wanted her to experience Japanese food. Well, as we researched it, it is really westernized Japanese but still fun. The kids did pretty well and they told us after that is was lots of fun.

After dinner, we put up our Christmas tree. Adam was just as good at taking off ornaments as putting them on. They all loved the train around the bottom and the lights. Adam said, “Christmas is at our house!” He also told us how cute all the ornaments were. That kid! I love him!

We finished the day off with one last viewing of The Elf on the Shelf, which is the current favorite on our house. We are getting our own elf today so that they can enjoy it even more.

Just wanted to record and remember a fun day in December 2011.

I wanted to talk about Adam’s transition to a big boy bed (Thanks, PawPaw and Mimi!). One night, when I was in Adam’s room to read stories, I watched him put a book into the slats of the crib, climb INTO the crib to throw it out, then climb back OUT to give it to me. I thought at that moment that we needed to move to a big boy bed ASAP. He had NEVER climbed out in the morning that I saw, he was always in the crib when I went to get him. I was nervous about him getting out of bed to play once I transitioned him, but honestly, if he wasn’t getting out of the crib to play, was it that much different?

A day or two later found me at Babies R Us buying a (you guessed it) Toy Story toddler bed. It was pretty cheap and I am not ready to decide what kind of bed to get him for good, so toddler bed it was. I had to go to Target to get the Toy Story sheets, but it was worth it to watch him carry that sheet set home on his lap, chatting about it the whole way.

The next day (the first day of Thanksgiving break), we set up the bed. Adam showed it to EVERYONE who came into our house that week. And still today, every once in a while, he will ask, “Wanna see my new big boy bed?” and he will lead you all the way to his room to show it off. Priceless! That night we did our whole regular nighttime routine and he laid right down in bed. Seemed to go right to sleep, no getting out of bed.

The next morning found him SHOUTING, “Mommy, aw you (where are you)?” over and over til I went to get him. We had not put a door knob cover on yet, so I had been nervous about him getting out in the night and wandering around. Come to find out that he had not left the bed ALL night. He was still in bed when I entered the room.

Since then we have put that door knob cover on, but you know what? He has never, not once, left his bed when we was supposed to be sleeping. I ALWAYS find him in bed, even when he is crying for me. Yesterday he was in bed for an hour and never fell asleep. But he was still in bed when I went to let him out.

This transition has been SO easy, even easier than both of the girls. Adam is SO grown up for his age. It is crazy that he would still be in a one year old class if he were in regular preschool. He is not old enough for the 2’s. It is so true about the baby of the family, they always stay your baby no matter how big they are.

We had such a wonderful Thanksgiving over here. I admit I was stressed out early in the week. On Wednesday morning, Mike took Leah and Adam out and “Mystery Girl” (MG) stayed home and helped me clean house.

*Side note: Erin decided this week that when she put on sunglasses, she became Mystery Girl. MG came to visit periodically throughout the week. We were not allowed to call her Erin. She would say “MG’s mommy taped that show for her too” when I said MG probably had not seen it before. It was pretty hysterical.

MG and I did a GREAT job on the house and by afternoon I was ready to put together some dishes for the next day. I prepared sweet potato casserole (from actual sweet potatoes for the first time, not canned yams), corn pudding (a staple now thanks to Laurie), and green bean casserole. I baked the double layer pumpkin cheesecake. Nothing left that day but the turkey.

Stacy & the kids and Ronni & Steve arrived that evening in time for a taco dinner. Stacy actually fell asleep when the kids went to bed and Ronni & Steve got a hotel room (lucky!) so I went to hang out at my mom’s for the evening. My sister Lauren was in town briefly and I wanted to spend as much time with her as I could.

Arriving home at 11:30pm, I had to prepare the turkey. Salted and peppered outside and in, stuffed it with apples, celery, and onion. Injected cajun butter all over and roasted breast side down at 325 for 2 hours, then 275 for an additional 9 hours. PERFECT bird!!

Thursday morning I did my virtual Turkey Trot with Lauren and Stacy. We did a pleasant 4 mile run and chatted the whole time. It was so nice to have company. When we were done, I was shocked to find that we were running 12 min miles! This was the first time I was able to run that speed and still keep enough breath to talk. I love seeing improvement.

Back at home, I worked on setting the table and getting myself ready. About an hour and a half prior to dinner, I put the prepped sided in the oven. I made mashed potatoes and gravy just before serving. Stacy made the apple crumble and put that in the oven as we sat down to dinner. Carly made fabulous cranberry sauce and Lauren and Mom did some asparagus and brussel sprouts (delicious!).

We had 10 adults and 5 kids for dinner, my biggest Thanksgiving yet. I loved every minute of that day. Everything was so low stress and relaxed. Already can’t wait until next year!

For the week of Thanksgiving break, I have been letting Leah stay up later. I told her at the beginning of the week that after I read with her, she is allowed to stay up and read in bed until she is tired. She gets to decide her own bedtime. We talked about how if you wake up early one day, it is probably not a good idea to stay up late that night. We talked about being responsible and not staying up too late on other nights. She seemed to get it and we have had no problems with this system. It’s strange how quickly they grow up and can handle new responsibilities.

I don’t know what Erin’s deal is lately but she is crying over EVERYTHING. Yesterday morning she cried 5 times before breakfast. I don’t know if it is little girl PMS or what. I always attribute it to lack of sleep but I don’t really know what it is. I hope it ends soon though because she is a mess.

Erin continues to have a great school year. Her teachers brag about her all the time. It makes me so happy.

Karate is going SO well. Every fourth class, you earn a stripe on your belt. After 5-8 stripes, the Sensei will tell you if you can test for a new belt. When Erin got her first stripe, her face LIT up! It was precious.

Listening so well to Sensei

I have been awful about blogging lately. So I will try to do a few catch up posts today to keep you posted on what is going on here in the Gallers’ house.

Leah is having a great school year. She is exploding as a reader and is not happy unless her work is perfect. The other day, she had to color something for homework. When she turned her back, Adam scribbled on the paper. She lost it. Good thing I had made a copy of the sheet before she started so she could start over. That is not a common occurrence here, but it was coloring a turkey so I made a copy for Erin to color too.

We are halfway through the Little House on the Prairie series together. I love reading this with her. There are so many things we get to talk about! She rereads the ones we have already finished to herself. She also is now a fan of Junie B Jones because her class went on a field trip to see a Junie B play. Ideas for Christmas!

Gymnastics continues to go well. I am not sure if she wants to start competing in the spring or not. She keeps claiming it is because she doesn’t want to practice 3 days a week, but I know it is really because she is afraid of competition. We have talked about it MANY times and she is still afraid of losing. I feel like she should do it so she can learn about being a team and how to win AND lose. But I don’t know if I will convince her.

Leah had been to a few trapeze classes now. I am a little disappointed in them. Leah is capable of so much more than they are letting her do. She is in the 5-7 yr old class and NONE of those kids are on her level. But if I bump her up to the 7-10 yr old class, the session is 1.5 hours instead of 1 and I will have to pay more. I feel like she gets more out of gymnastics so I am not really excited about spending more of my Saturday morning at a place that I don’t feel like she benefits from. Oh well.

Leah has been to a few playdates at friends’ houses lately. I love the stage where someone just calls you up and says, “Drop your kid off!” and you do! I can’t wait til they are all that big! Wait a minute, yes I can.

I LOVE this photo of Adam!

This photo is one of my absolute favorites of him right now. Is he saying, “I am so embarrassed right now”? Ha ha!

These are a few things he said to us on his birthday day:
“Please hep me turn the wight on”
“I wanna build bocks in the wiving room”

He did this all by himself at the corn maze and cracked me up!!

Loved his Buzz Wightyear costume this year!

I can’t even explain how much this boy adds to our life and our family. THIS is why it is hard to stop having kids. You never know what is in store for you until you have it. Our boy makes us laugh every day. We get to learn about the testosterone side of the world. He is SO different from the girls.

We are having quite a time with I guess it is defiance? Adam will want a cup of juice. I will make him said juice. When I hand it to him, he will say NO and pout. So I will put it on the counter. Then he will lose it, crying, “I want juice!” Sometimes it seems like there is no pleasing him.

No potty training here. An occasional potty break occurs, but on no regular schedule. I was also thinking about moving him to a big boy bed. His sisters both moved when they were his age. But this morning he woke up at 5:40 and talked and played. I guess eventually he fell back asleep because I didn’t hear from him until 8:30. I doubt that would have happened if he was not still in a crib. So there is that.

It’s funny. I worried when Erin was little about how what I felt for her was so overwhelming. I thought maybe I loved her more than Leah and that worried me. But I feel the same way about Adam that I used to about Erin. And I am assuming that what I felt for Leah when she was little was the same, I just had nothing to compare it to. So I have come to the conclusion that as your kids grow, what you feel for them shifts. It is not less, just very different. And that makes me feel better.

Leah 6.5 yrs, Erin 4 yrs, Adam almost 2 yrs

Leah at 5.5, Erin at 3 yrs, Adam at 1 yr

Leah at 4.5, Erin at 26 months

Leah at 3.5, Erin at 14 months

Leah at 2.5, Erin at 2 months

Leah at 17 months

Leah at 5 months

This cold or sinus thing or whatever it is has kicked our butts. Mike has had it for 2 weeks and he is taking antibiotics for a sinus infection. Adam had it before that but it has completely cleared up with him, thank goodness. I got it after Mike and I am still feeling sinus headaches and a runny nose in the morning. Leah has it now and woke up last night with her ear hurting. We may be visiting the doctor today to see if she has an ear infection. GO AWAY big green monster, and don’t come back!