Emma, 4; Logan, 19 mos; Jami, 35

Emma at 4 is
curious--
One entire morning car ride comprised of Emma asking me 1.2 billion questions about how viruses are formed, how they are spread, what they look like, etc. That child NEVER stops asking questions. Once I asked her to just stop for a bit, and she cried, "But I WANT to know, Mama!" And she truly does. The only two real problems with this are 1. it is constant and 2. I don't know the answers to half her questions, and she doesn't believe me when I tell her I don't know. I guess it is good that she has such confidence in me, but I really don't know what a virus looks like and if it has a mouth. Maybe it does?

whiny--
AAAAAAAAAAh! This morning Emma crawled in bed with me for a morning cuddle. At first it was kind of nice, warm, and cozy. AND then, the whining started. She didn't have enough pillow. She wanted my arm just right above her head. She needed more covers for her feet. My leg needed to be on top of her feet, but not like that. It seems I cannot do anything right. I am trying to be patient with this. I know it is just a stage, but man, sometimes. . . I just want to scream (and sometimes I do :-)). We have a deal, though. If she will try not to whine, I'll try not to get frustrated and yell. It works 75% of the time.

helpful--
Emma loves to help. She throws things away for me, wipes down the kitchen table, does the dishes, puts her clean clothes away, and puts her dirty clothes in the dirty clothes bin. She really is eager to please. Every morning she brushes her teeth and dresses herself. And she is so proud of herself. She'll run into the kitchen when she's ready and present herself to me. It is such an adorable sight. Hair and collar askew, face beaming, she announces, "I'm ready!"

artistic--
That child loves to draw. Right now, she can draw a cat that looks like a cat, a spiny sea creature of some sort, her family with faces, arms, legs, hair, and sometimes hands and feet, a spider, a lady bug, a house, flowers, and rainbows. She adores painting and playing with play doh, and she will draw and do "school work" for hours.

spongy--
She absorbs everything and her memory is 500x better than mine. She knows when everyone's birthday in her class is! And she knows this from the cupcake bulletin board in her classroom. She is obsessed with the calendar, and we must mark off the days just like they do in her classroom. When we are approaching the last day of the month, she excited prepares for it, and the second she wakes up on the first day of the next month, she is so excited.

Logan at 19 mos is
delightful--
Oh my goodness, this child is CUTE! His eyes are big and blue, he has eye lashes that go on forever, he has two adorable teeth on the bottom of his mouth and four on the top, and his feet are FAT and scrumptious. He walks on his tippy-toes, and although, we might have to work on changing that later, now it gives him a springy gait that brings a smile to my face. He runs everywhere, especially everywhere Emma does. He is quiet, but energetic and will play for a long time by himself. He loves to throw a ball, put together and take apart things, and color on the upholstery.

flirty and cuddly--
He will put his arms out and go to anyone. He truly has not met a person he does not love, and if you are willing to cuddle with him, he is delighted to cuddle with you. He knows how to get his way by being adorable. He just looks up at you with his big blue eyes and grins. He will go from me to Brad, from Brad to me, flirting with us, trying to get his way. When you are holding him, he clings to you, scratches your neck, and buries his head occasionally in your chest.

bruised--
He has a black eye, a bump on his nose, and his legs no longer are the pristine, white chubby legs of an infant. He is definitely a toddler, on the run, bumping into things, falling down, and fearless. When he hurts himself, he cries for maybe 10 seconds and then he is ready to go again. He moves with reckless abandon, sliding down the slide head first, and jumping off of and on the couch. The only thing he is tentative about is walking in our master bath. There was water on the floor one day and he took quite a tumble and so now he will stand on the carpet before the linoleum and survey the floor before he slowly steps onto it.

SLEEPING, mostly--
He is sleeping mostly through the night, which for Logan who was waking up every hour is quite an accomplishment. He now sleeps until at least 3, and if he wakes up at 3, he usually puts himself back to sleep in about 15 minutes and sleeps until 5. We are working on getting him to sleep until at least 6, but he has come a long way from where he was. I have learned some things about him--1. If he cries during the night, it is usually because he is mad to be awake, not because he is sick. 2. If you tell him to stop crying and go to sleep, he usually will before 5, after 5, he's up :-). Getting him to sleep has been a parenting adventure.

Talking, some--
Logan is taking his time talking. He usually gets his way without talking (see paragraph about flirting), so his parents are having to make him ask for things rather than just batting his eye lashes to get his way. He can now say "please," "thank you," "juice," "bottle," "apple," "moo," "peek a boo," "more," "mama," "dada," "drink," "that," "this," "no," "bye," "hello," "Mimi," "eieio," "uh oh," "night night," and "weeee." He love the song "Old MacDonald's Farm," and he loves to sing and clap.

Jami at 35 is
tired-- That is obvious. But I am feeling a little bit bored. My day is filled to the brim, but it is actually filled with a lot of mindless activity. I do a lot of things, but I am not thinking much. Before kids, I was in graduate school classes, reading education philosophy books, watching movies, and talking to my brilliant husband. I was also creating curriculum and figuring out this teaching thing. Teaching is, of course, every evolving, but I have tons of resources to use now, and I know kind of what I am doing. It is not as challenging as it once was. The newness of raising children has worn off, and we are in a bit of a routine. And although, it is always challenging, it is a different challenge then I am used to. I need a hobby :-)

chubbier than I would like--this is self-explanatory, but for some reason I can't get a hold of it. After Emma, I lost weight relatively quickly, but the Logan weight is trickling off (mostly because I am still eating like I am pregnant).

happy--Even though, I am a bit bored and fat, I am happy. I truly do love my life more than I ever have. Being a parent gives me more fulfillment than I ever expected or could have ever imagined. Every day has moments of intense joy, whether I am listening to Emma tell a story or rocking Logan to sleep. Life is good.

I am not proofreading these. I don't really care :-) Don't judge, just enjoy (I think this may be the motto of my life :-)

The Infrequent Blogger

Here I am reading other people's blogs, clandestinely, in the shadows. Sometimes I post a comment, but most of the time I lurk and laugh. I connect from a far.

Friendships in this new millennium are an interesting thing. I feel connected to people who I really don't "know" all that well through Facebook and from reading blogs. I truly do like reading other people's statuses and their blogs. I like writing my own status updates. I have to admit that sometimes I spend far to much of my limited emotional energy trying to come up with pithy Facebook status updates. I think I participate in reading blogs and Facebook because otherwise this motherhood/teacher/wife business would be incredibly lonely. It's hard to connect with people via the phone or the drop by visit because at any minute my life could potentially explode. When I come home, I put on my supermom cape and soothe kids, cook supper, wash dishes, and put kids to bed until I collapse into a puddle of mush at around 9:00. And my day MIGHT be finished then, but it also might be pausing. Emma might wake up with a nightmare, Logan might wake up with an ear infection, Emma might wet the bed, Logan might poop in his sleep (who knew that was possible?) and then wake up screaming to be changed. I barely have time to talk to my own husband who is right there beside me, wearing his own cape, bathing children, being a human camel, and bringing incredibly boring children's books about turtles to life.

So thank God for Facebook and blogs. I am able to get support from mom's like me who are dealing with ear infections, throw-up, and temper-tantrums, read about the fabulous exploits of my single friends who jaunt off to Las Vegas and meet Tim Gunn, and form powerful connections that I otherwise would have a hard time keeping up with. I can post a status update at 4 AM while I am cleaning a mess of astronomical proportions and find out that there is another mom across town who is up as well soothing a teething baby.

I wish I had the emotional energy to blog as well. But alas, this meta-blog is all I have today. This was supposed to be either a blog about motherhood guilt or about how cute my kids are right now, but, alas, this is what I have.

Love my Facebook and blog friends, even if you don't know your my friends. :-)