Nighty Night

Sigh...It seems like only a few bedtime kisses ago we used to all curl up on the couch and watch a Baby Einstein video, change a few diapers, read Goodnight Moon and Tumble Bumble and send the kids off to sweet dreams.

The tv now holds "just one more Mario Kart race" and while we are cleaning up the kitchen, preparing snacks for tomorrow's lunches and organizing backpacks and classroom folders, (oh wait that's all me........ ha ha Don, if you ever read this) we shout up the stairs "Rory get out of the tub" "Don't forget your teeeeeeeeeth!" "I WILL look for your library book" and so on..... the kids continue on their race towards independence. Once I get to the kids hallway, I usually hear all sorts of bleeps and tweets, and usually some high energy music playing. Certainly very different from carrying 3 sleepy babies upstairs, sitting quietly and tucking them into cribs and car beds. Tonight the scene was truly very typical of the kids as of late- lifestyle, personality and all. Delaney is almost always the last man standing. She is a stubborn little firecracker, and throughly enjoys anything that is "not for babies". She received a Nintendo DS for her birthday on 12/9 and plays it before bed. Rory has always been our best sleeper. She never has to be told twice to come cuddle, or just hang and relax. One funny story of her was when she was about 3 and we were at an interactive museum. Don went to sit on a bench and watch the kids, and she sat next to him, hands behind her head and said "AHH, this is the life!" Brady who has always been the organizer, spends more time on his collections then figuring out how to keep them somewhere neatly. Tonight when I went to tuck him in, he was all the way at the end of his bed, because he had knocked over a cup of water. He decided that instead of getting a towel and drying it off, he would remove his lamp from the area and lay the lamp on his bed. He then scooted down so that he could still lay down and use the lamp to read. I did manage to praise his smarts in not leaving the lamp near water, but we discussed the best option, which would have been drying the shelf, returning the lamp, and THEN continuing to read. He was blown away by my intelligence and thanked me profusely for this insight. We then curled on the couch and watched Baby Einstein followed by a reading of Tumble Bumble.....OR he grumbled, got out of bed reluctantly, dried the shelf and put his lamp back. You decide the ending, I am busy with very important things to do.... Tumble bumble up the stairs, open doors and check for bears.......
We continue to make wonderful nighttime memories~

day 2

Well, you know what they say...."you can't make this stuff up". In true fashion of making the "ordinary, extraordinary' I will tell you about 1/2/10 Sedgley style.

I had the fortune of getting up and heading to the Y to take a cycle class at 8:15 this morning, I LOVE to take classes, and because I teach so much, don't always get the chance to, but am going to attempt to add that to my daily routine. Anyway, I love the Y, and even if I stopped working there, (which may happen when I am like, uh, 99 ) I would still go there EVERDAY.

Took a brillant class, and managed to sweat out close to 600 calories. Great way to start a Saturday! Don had the task of bringing all 3 kids to Brady's 9am basketball practice, and we all gathered back home around 10. I was sitting at the table savoring some high fiber oatmeal when they got home. I noticed immediately that it sounded like only one of the 4 loves of my life was walking into the house. When it was Don, I was taken aback, and thought, "what have you done with the kids?" They were all still in the car playing on their respective Nintendo DS's.....not sure exactly when they even realized that they were home, or that they were sitting in a car outside in 32 degree weather.... it was one of those funny and sad moments. As much as I was laughing at the fact that I have kids in that phase of life, I was thinking how sad it is to have kids in that phase on life....

So, the "vide-its" finally realized that they were home and freezing their asses off, and came inside. Now usually I am the "Queen of Christmas Past" come Dec 26th. However, since it takes so much time to decorate our house in N.C, I do enjoy keeping the spirit going. In NY, I used to have the tree at the curb arounnd lunchtime on 12/26, so for me, to still have decor up after the new year is something else.

Once the DS's were turned off, Don addressed the kids with his famous PLAN FOR THE DAY. (he loves those) He explained that we were going to have a Christmas scavenger hunt, after lunch, and that they were to find anything that was Christmas decor related and bring it into the dining room. Well, the kids could not do this fast enough. They immediately started to gather things as if they were squirrels hoarding nuts for the winter!

Within 30 minutes, all non fragile, "yes you can touch that" Christmas decor was in the dining room. We usually put up a main tree, and then two trees just for fun in our family room, and one on the outdoor dining room. This year, since we are in the process of screening in the whole back of the house, we only did the family room tree and the main tree. As per our good friend Richard's recommendation, we did the main tree in our foyer, so that has remained in tact, and we hope to work on that and the scavengar hunt results this week.

I had to bring Rory to basketball at 1pm, and we stopped at the grocery store afterwards. Somehow, (neither one of us is taking responsibility) as we walked past a display of juice, an entire bottle of cranberry juice spilled and emptied out all over the floor. I took a picture with my cell phone, but have yet figured out the mobile upload feature. So for now, that is my mental pic of the day....

We then had some neighborhood play dates, and since we felt like some diningroom table dancing may be in the future, we had no choice but to have Chris and AnnMarie over, since they will not be hosting any dance-a-thons anytime soon.

I prepared two Hungry Girl recipes. The boneless buffalo chicken and the onion rings. They were great, however, the name of the cookbook should be called "Starvin Marvin" because it took about 2 hrs to cut and prep the onion rings!

We played a few games and shared some laughs, and here I am. Happy and ready for another brewsky....

See ya tomorrow!