Life Lately

Ah, yes.

The old 'completely stop blogging after a month of daily posting' trick. Whoops.

Seriously, life is just moving by at a frightening pace and I'm not sure why I feel panicked when I think about all of these memories not making the blog. I certainly hope I can remember the details of a particularly good or bad day, something sweet Truman said to his sister, or a fun weekend with friends. But something tells me I'll never recall all of life no matter how frequently I document it here. That's ok, too, since one's brain can only handle so many details.

And yet, I feel the need to catch up with a few things in this hodge podge post.

Last weekend my college roomie/long-distance bestie Hannah came to visit us from St. Louis, bringing along her husband and two precious girls. I haven't seen them since April, when Cecelia and I went to MO for Kim's baby shower. Since then Hannah found out she is pregnant with their third and due in December, so I have a feeling it's going to be my turn to make the trek down south in order to squish on that newborn baby as soon as he/she arrives. I cannot wait. Babies!

Hannah and I have been through lots of ups and downs in the past (OMG) fourteen years of our friendship. We were practically babies ourselves when we met and now look at us---all married, with kids, all grown up and stuff. It's awesome to have friends that have seen you at your worst and still love you for it, and it's even better when your husbands get along like besties themselves. Double bonus when both of your kids get along with each other's offspring, too.

It was a fabulous visit that went by way too quickly of course. We hung out and had pizza Friday night, watching the kids warm up to each other in record time. Also, Cecelia and Lucy have very similar tastes in jammies. Not planned, seriously.




Saturday the boys golfed while us mom and kids went to the playground then walked to Qdoba and Starbucks.








We had a little informal get together at our house that night so that Dizzy (and fam) and Erin (and fam) could finally meet Hannah (and fam). And it was awesome--one of my favorite 'parties' we've had here just because it was so cool to see our MO and WI worlds collide like that. Everyone got along, had lots in common, and there were s'mores by fire pit in our backyard. Yes.
















When everyone left, I was high on life (and sugar) because we have the most amazing friends.

The only downer of the weekend was that starting on Friday night, Cecelia's diapers were just not right. She was pretty clingy and fussy Friday night but I figured she was just tired and out of sorts from having visitors. But when I changed her diaper I was highly offended and her butt was really red, too. Saturday she pooped way too frequently and again, it was not normal and she had some majorly fussy moments. Sunday morning she woke up at 5:30 am and as soon as I walked into her room I knew it wasn't good. I have finally been initiated into the club of moms that have given an early morning bath because of disgusting bodily fluids strewn across the baby and the bed. Lots of laundry this day, along with lots of (gross) diapers. So tired, so worn out from all of the poop that Nate and I didn't even run our long 9 miles over the weekend. Again, a first---we are rule followers when it comes to long runs and half-marathon training but apparently we just couldn't muster up the strength this time around. With good reason, I'd say.

Sunday didn't include a run, but it did include these adorable pictures of our offspring being total hams and heartbreakingly cute. Why are they so big? And how can they be this adorable?









I was hoping CC would be done with that nonsense for work on Monday and all was well Monday morning. Until I got out of the shower and Nate informed me that it happened again. Ugh. Truman was in our bed half of the night so of course he slept until 7:30 or something nuts so it just wasn't mean to be for daycare that day. Lori said a few of the other kids had upset tummies, too, and she also got hit a bit with it. I can't ever complain about an extra day at home with my kiddos but it still really does suck to have that responsibility of a job hanging over your head when you are at home instead of working. It's not a huge deal because obviously my kids come first, but it does mean added stress throughout the rest of the week to make up for lost time. Oh well. Monday was a nice day with the kiddos. Even if it was a freaking war zone here with each of them getting (minorly) injured at least twice. Very weird how those things happen in clusters (ie CC fell out of T's bed onto her forehead, Truman slipped on monkey and hurt his toe pretty badly, and CC's hand somehow got shut into ANOTHER door by big brother). Sigh. It was also really cold and our evening stroll in 55 degree weather was a little uncomfortable but necessary. Also, Cecelia likes to say 'cheeeeeese' for pictures. And I found a butt-load of new clothes consignment shopping for them.













Today (Tuesday) was a day CC seemed to turn a corner, getting back to her old self. Of course, Truman got a touch of the bug and didn't feel himself but we all pushed through somehow. It looks like Nate will stay home in the morning tomorrow and if all goes well he can take them to Lori's for the afternoon so mommy can work. I truly despise sickness in my kids, man. One of the worst parts of parenting, for sure.

But I wanted to share a really sweet moment from this morning, in case you don't follow me on IG (mrsjuliagoolia).

Nate is still home on Tuesday mornings until about 8:45 because of his summer schedule when he was golfing in the evenings. That will change back to the normal start time fairly soon but for now we are all loving that extra daddy time. I usually use that Tuesday morning slot for running and told Nate I would go at 6am and he could go at 7am, then get ready for work with plenty of time to spare.

Well, CC woke up crying at 4:40 am today. Shoot me now, it's getting earlier and earlier. I let her cry a bit and I *know* I have to stop nursing her back down but poor bug has been sick and I don't have the heart to be a hard ass just yet. So I nursed her back down and went to sleep until 5:45 when she woke again. I asked Nate if he would rock her a bit since I needed to get out on my run and he obliged through a sleepy haze of grunting. I got ready and hit the road for a beautiful sunrise run of 5 miles, and it was one of those times when I spent the run thinking about how blessed I am to have legs that work. To have the ability to run at all. To have a healthy body, to have time on my side (for the most part), and to have more blessings than most of my patients could even fathom. I think a lot about my very sick patients when I'm running and know that sure, back in their 30s maybe they were physically fit and able to enjoy life a bit more. But right now a lot of them are really struggling physically and it helps me not to take anything for granted. I've had many patients tell me 'Don't wait to enjoy life once you retire, do it now. Life is short and life can change in an instant.' You better believe I take advice like that to heart. One of the reasons I love my job so much is feeling like I can actually help someone with my profession. I also love my job because it puts things in perspective for me on the regular.

Anyway, back to the morning run. I got back home right before 7 and figured Nate was probably up with both kids by then. But the house was eerily quiet, so I took Henry out for a little walk. When we got back it was still really quiet. I looked into the family room and saw my husband and daughter passed out on the couch together like this.





I held my breath for a second because it was such a sweet sight that I didn't want it to vanish before my eyes. Especially not before I could snap a hundred pictures, sneak-attack style.



Cecelia looked so peaceful and content laying on her daddy's chest and Nate looked like the best daddy that I've ever laid eyes upon. Tired, obviously, but snuggling with his girl that needed him. Oh, the sacrifices we make for our children. And oh, what an amazing man I married. Not just because he was asleep on the couch with an overtired baby. But because he later said this: "I'm not going to run anymore, it's a little too late for that. But that's ok. It was worth it. Snuggling with Cecelia was totally worth it."

He's lucky I didn't make out with him right then and there. That's practically pillow talk for a mom---proving what a devoted daddy he is to his kids. ;)

The rest of our day went a little something like this: library for 'Rhyme Time', Target, and REI for some new sandals for Truman.













Life lately is a blur, as always, but it's good. Really good.

Truman's first day of Sunday School

Today was Truman's first 'school-type experience' and I'm so proud of how he handled it, that I want to blog to remember.

Obviously, T goes to daycare three days per week but besides that he really hasn't done activities without mom or dad present. Even all of his babysitters have been family or close friends, so I was worried that he would be really scared to attend Sunday School alone.

We got the letter in the mail saying that three year old Sunday School started this Sunday and his teachers would be ready to welcome Truman in room 103. Miss Heather and Miss Kristin are their names and it would be one hour between church services, from 9:45-10:45. As I read the letter I felt very strongly about trying Sunday School right from the start. Prior to age three the kids can attend the nursery both during the service and in between services while parents go to adult Bible study. But I'll admit that we have been majorly slacking in going to church ever since Cecelia was born.

In the handful of times we've tried to wrangle two kids in the pews, we always leave feeling like we didn't absorb any of the message and instead had to focus on occupying the kids the entire time. Sometimes failing miserably. Multiple trips to the hallway, water fountains, etc were always had. We've also tried using the church nursery both for Truman by himself and for Cecelia along with her brother. One of those attempts comes to mind and it includes walking down to the nursery at the end of church to see BOTH of my children wailing at the top of their lungs, being rocked by two nursery workers, while all of the other kids played quietly. Ugh. The staff said that Truman had just started to cry a few minutes ago, and when Cecelia saw him crying she lost it herself. They are supposed to page parents if there is a royal freak out but I guess they just waited since church was almost over anyway. Fun times for all. That was a few months ago, though, and it might be different going forward.

Because today we kept both kids in 'big church' with us. But I came armed with two goodie bags filled to the brim with dollar store junk and snacks.










Truman was totally into his little cheapy cars and some of the stickers but Cecelia could really care less. She just wanted graham crackers and to yell at inappropriate times, prompting me to be outside of the sanctuary more than I was inside of it. Truman also wandered around with me a bit in search of water fountains, and eventually I took him down to see where his Sunday School room would be. There was still about thirty minutes to go before SS actually started, since the service was still going on upstairs. I thought the 3 year old door was freaking adorable with each name written out, and inside there were little tables and chair with markers and books.



Truman immediately said, 'There are no toys in that room.' Uh-oh. I told him that Sunday School is more like preschool in that he wouldn't be playing with toys the entire time. He was a little skeptical at that point and requested to play in the nursery with all of the toys until SS started. So I left him in there and went back up to church for a bit. He did great and told me that next time he would play in that room the entire time during 'big church'. Sweet. I think Cecelia could do it, too. She found a few of the girliest toys in the room and was in heaven so I bet I could sneak out next time and leave them for that hour during church.





Then it was time for Sunday School, so I took Truman next door while C played in the nursery with Nate. T was pretty quiet and standing extremely close to me, but his teachers introduced themselves and he lit up with a big grin for them. They told him about all of the fun activities they would do today, but had to get back to the doors because it was getting pretty chaotic with new kids entering.

I brought him over to a table where the other kids were coloring and he asked two of the girls, 'What's your name?' Neither responded which made me a little sad for Truman, but I kept talking to him and tried to pump him up for the class. I asked the girls their names and they didn't respond to me either, so I guess they really didn't feel like talking (and were probably just as nervous as Truman!) Then I said, 'Okay, buddy. I'm going to go now and you can tell me all about it when I come back in a little bit.' I gave him a kiss and walked out the door. It was incredibly difficult for me to resist the urge to look back and him numerous times to make sure he wasn't upset, but somehow we made it out of there in one piece. Nate and Cecelia and I all walked to the car and Nate asked, 'So will they call you if it's a total disaster?' I wanted to turn right back around in that moment, scoop him up, and tell the teachers we'd try some other day. But I knew we had to go for it and that this was a great experience for him.

After all, I have so many fun memories of my days in Sunday School. I want Truman to be involved at church, to learn about God and Jesus outside of what we can teach him in our home, and I want him to see that we spend some of our precious weekend time at church. It's hard to stay motivated to go and it's not easy to juggle the kids in the service or worry about them in the nursery. But I want to put forth the effort again, even if it's just the 'every other week' routine we used to do when it was just Truman. Going to church makes me feel more centered and focused, like I'm showing God (and myself) that I'm incredibly grateful for this awesome life. Giving my time back to God for one hour in a week isn't too much to ask. Even if it's hectic and busy and there are a million other things we could be doing away from church---I want to *try* to go more often. Because sacrificing part of our weekend is the least we can do to say 'Thanks, God. We're pretty blessed.' I do believe people can worship and give thanks outside of church walls, too, for sure. But for me it helps to compartmentalize that gratitude into 'church time'. Even if I admit I never hear the message when our kids are with us in the pews. So yeah, nursery next time;)

We have the choice of doing an adult Bible study class during that hour of Sunday School, in which case we'd put Cecelia back into the nursery. But today the three of us went back home, meal planned, and then Nate took CC grocery shopping and I went back to church to get Truman. That hour was the fastest hour of the day, man!

I got there and lined up in the hall with the other parents. Miss Kristin saw me and asked me to remind her which kid was mine. When I said, 'Truman,' she said 'Oh, Truman! He was such a brave little soldier today.' I made eye contact with him and he looked like he was enjoying himself with his juice box and graham cracker, and gave me a huge smile and waved. This boy has my heart in a way I cannot describe. Kristin continued to say that Truman got a little nervous and fought back a tear successfully and was 'so brave.' Then she told Truman to come on over and handed him his paper project of stickers they must have done in class. I thanked her and hugged my boy, telling him I was SO proud of him. First he asked where Nate was, and then he said, 'We are leaving already?' Whew. Big exhale.

We walked over to the neighboring school's playground to play a bit, since Nate and CC were shopping anyway. He was pretty talkative and told me that 'I tried the juice and I liked it!' and 'there was a little girl who cried because she didn't want to be left alone. But I didn't cry, mommy. I'm really brave.' OMG. I can't. He also told me they sang a song called 'God loves yoooouuuuuuu' and they read him a story from a book, but he didn't remember what it was about. Truman was very adamant that I take care of my two papers he had given me and he said, 'I really liked my teachers.' I asked if he wanted to go back sometime and he said, 'Yeah!' He couldn't tell me much about the other kids in the class aside from the girl who was sad, but later he said, 'Sunday School was awesome.'

I let him play on the playground for some time and got some cute pictures of my boy who suddenly looks about five years old. When we got back home he proudly told Nate and then Tony about his day at church. 'Miss Heather has some light brown hair and some of it is pink. I like her.' And now that I think about it, I do think her hair had some pink streaks. My Truman and his love for older women.









I'm so glad it went well today. Now naps and Packers---can't go wrong;)

Truman at 3.5

Truman,

You are three-and-a-half today, which seems about right since it seems like forever ago we celebrated your third birthday. I read back over your three year blog post and not a TON has changed in the past six months but I'm going to write you a blog post anyway. Aren't you so lucky?

One thing I love about you? How outgoing, social, and interactive you are with other kids. Did I ever tell you that your daddy was painfully shy as a little kid? We are really happy to see you are more like me in this way, because you do not hesitate to walk up to a group of kids you don't know at the playground and ask them, 'Can I help you build that?' Or sometimes you will ask me, 'Mommy, can I go and play with those kids there?' You seem to love older kids and especially girls in the 10+ year range. It's fun for me to see you interact and share and converse with other kids and most of the time they respond well to 'the new kid who just barged into our game'. Never lose that social aspect of your personality, Truman. You have a charisma that I hope sticks with you throughout childhood and beyond.



At the same time, you can be a little bit shy at times. You will usually ask me to 'Tell them my name, mommy,' if I'm talking to someone you don't know. And if someone asks you how old you are, you will hold up your fingers but you don't like to speak on command too often. At least not to strangers, which I suppose is a good thing. You really don't like to be 'forced' into giving a goodbye hug to a friend, and if we are Face-timing with GoGo and PoPo you usually clam up and won't talk much. But if someone isn't paying attention to you, you will take initiative to strike up a conversation all on your own. Kind of interesting, and maybe that has something to do with you not liking to be 'on the spot' or having to perform? Who knows.

You are pretty athletic already, though, so I have a feeling we will be watching you perform for years to come. Daddy bought you a real golf club and apparently you swing the club and baseball bats as a leftie! You can make awesome contact with golf balls, baseballs, soccer balls, etc and you love to run around and race whoever will oblige your wishes. Sometimes you will ask me, 'Wanna see how fast I am, mommy?' inside the house and you will sprint away from me with a determined look on your sweet face. Your dad and I are really excited to see you play sports but we promise not to push them on you, since we were both high-school (has been) athletes. I just think you are going to like the concept of competing in team sports so I hope I get my mini-van soon to complete the persona of a soccer mom;)



In other 'motor skill' news, you can get yourself dressed and undressed except for your tops. I don't know what it is about shirts but you still get so frustrated with all of those holes. But pants and undies and shoes are no problem anymore so I know the upper body dressing will come soon enough (love that therapy talk, my fellow PT/OTs?)

Now you are brave enough to climb up some of the biggest ladders and biggest slides on the playground---something you weren't doing at the beginning of the summer. You will climb in and out of the bath tub for me too, and when I tell you to be careful, you tell me,' I'm always careful, mommy.' And often you will tell me, 'I have great balance, you know.' Ha! True, except for the times you totally bite it on our driveway and then every teeny scrape is a catastrophe that requires a bandaid and a kiss from mommy. You also like to tell me, 'I almost fell but I catched myself, mommy.' I try to correct your mixed-up verb tenses but mostly I find it very amusing how certain words get interchanged.

Like 'Colorado' is 'avocado' to you. A 'raisin' is a 'raspberry' nearly every time. Your 'L' and 'R' sounds are a little wonky, because the word 'little' is still coming out like 'yittle' and your friend Charlotte is 'Char-yit' and Lori is 'Yor-wi'. Henry is 'Hen-wee' but not every R is weird, because Erin is Erin...so who knows. It's just one of those quirks about how you talk that I'm sure will straighten out over time.



But back to the motor stuff: one place you will NOT climb? You have never once climbed out of your bed and wandered around our house. This is shocking to me when I really think about it and I know most readers will never believe this, sort of like how you have never once worn a pull up because when we put on your big boy undies last year we never once looked back. Shocking and NOT normal, I know! But if you have to pee in the middle of the night or if you want to wake up for the day you will always call me or your dad into your room. Then we will either lift you out of bed or tell you that it's okay to do it alone. I hope this never changes and although sometimes I'm lazy and wish you would just get yourself out of bed in the mornings, I don't want to start 'allowing' you to do that because then you could be anywhere at anytime! And at least now when you want to sleep in bed with us, you call for us and ask first. Totally different ball game when you just decide to get up on your own!

I feel like this aspect of your personality really highlights the fact that you are well-behaved and like to follow the rules most of the time. You are still pretty cautious, an observer, and sometimes you like to tattle on your sister or on other kids at daycare. My little brown-noser/rule-follower. ;) Wherever did you get that?




You are sleeping in your bed again after a few weird months of sleeping on your rug at night. Half of the time you will sleep all the way through from 9pm until 6:15am when your Tot Clock turns yellow, but the other half of the time in the past few months you've been waking up at least once in the night. Most times you will call out for daddy to tuck you in, sometimes you will ask me to sing you a song, and other times you just say you are too scared to sleep in your room and you beg us to take you to ours. Sigh. We are giving you FOUR rocks if you make it through the night now. Hoping we get back to that being our norm each and every night. Why is sleep such an issue in this house always?

You are still napping and will go 3+ hours if we let you. I tend to need that break in the day and with our busy summer days I usually do let you nap from about 1-4pm when we are home. That means you could easily stay up until 10pm or later but we usually have you in bed by 9pm. I bet you could go without a nap and then have an earlier bedtime (and maybe sleep better at night?) but you really do wear out by 1pm, especially since you are ALWAYS up about 6am. You still need that rest time for sure and since you are falling asleep and staying there for 3 hours, I feel like your body needs that. There were a few times this summer when you woke up in the middle of the night, got to sleep with us, and then you slept until nearly 8am. This always happened on a work day, of course;) Otherwise you are still a 6am riser.




You are tall as can be, usually matching up to a lot of the four year olds we will see at the pool or playgrounds. I haven't measured you lately but I know you must have grown in the past six months because you just look longer to me. Still wearing mostly 4T bottoms and 5T tops, which is crazy because your diet is pretty pathetic.

Food is basically the biggest battle we have with you right now, Truman. You used to be a stellar eater at home but especially at Lori's, and now? It's your 'thing' to give Lori trouble about nearly every item she serves and we are struggling to get you eating more than about four kinds of foods here, too. We are working on it, and hopefully the worst is behind us now that you know you have to at least TRY everything on your plate. If you don't like it, fine, but claiming that you dislike foods before they ever touch your mouth? No. I don't want to create a lifelong food issue for you but you cannot survive on granola bars alone, my child. You are even stubborn enough that when we say 'you eat this for dinner or nothing else until breakfast' you will just not eat anything. I worry about you withering away to nothing, so we are teaching you to try new foods and you aren't even gagging on most of them;) Progress, but I hope you really improve even more in this area by your next birthday, buddy.





Disciplining you really isn't too awful most days because you do listen to us most of the time;) Time outs work well, as does a stern mention of consequences. 'Truman, if you do not sit down at the table right now then there will be no TV before bed.' Not really 'bribery' per se, but removing a privilege definitely does work for you. We reserve time outs for more serious offenses like knocking your sister down or pouring water on her head for no reason--which are two of the time-outs you just received tonight. I suppose most of your time-outs stem from interactions with your sister but you are gentle and patient with her 95% of the time.

Watching you with your little sister is one of the best parts of these little kid years, T. You are so helpful with Cecelia, grabbing me a diaper, or reaching into her crib to give her a pacifier (against the 'rules' but still cute to see you want to soothe her), or offering her a toy that you think she would like....all of these sweet little details in your day as a big brother do not go unnoticed, buddy. Your sister asks for you whenever you are sleeping and she is awake and I can tell she just adores you. You do NOT like it when sissy gets hurt or if she is fussing. You don't mind if she wants to play with you and your friends right now but you do get pretty annoyed when she tears up a train track or tries to steal your food. Thank you for being her protector and being patient with her. Your personality is the perfect match for hers and I truly believe you two will be great friends in life.



Even though you won't start 4K until next year, you are already learning so much. You love books and can recite a few from memory: Train Trip and Brown Bear, Brown Bear are two that come to mind. You can count to twenty including number 'eleven-teen' which is always seventeen;) You can correctly identify all of the letters in the alphabet, sometimes mixing up letters G and J but you nail the others. I didn't know you could do this until the other night, when we read an alphabet animals book and I feel like this must be a new thing for you. You can write your first name as long as I model all of the letters except for 'T'--that one has always been your favorite. But you really aren't into practicing letters much and usually last about 2 minutes before moving onto something else.



You still love to play with your trains but it's nowhere near the obsession you had last year at this time. But it's interesting to see you 'play trains' alone now because you are so good at imaginative play. I love to hear the complex stories of each train and their challenges in life (i.e. Gordon and his inability to help his friends, or Percy and his pesky slow pistons). You taught me something new this month about trains, by the way. When describing the train you wanted me to bring up to your bedroom, you told me 'any metal train that has a tender'. 'WTF is a tender?' I wanted to ask. You were pretty annoyed with me for not knowing this, and apparently your daddy knew what a tender was---a little cart that carries coal for the train, I think. Sometimes you latch onto a new word or concept like that and I'm always amazed at how much information you soak in each day.





I have to watch what I say because you are getting to that 'sponge' phase, and will repeat us on things we never knew you heard. 'Do my feet reek?' you asked me the other day. Which, yes, they sometimes do. But I guess I use the word 'reek' more than I thought---had never heard you say that one before.

I'm sure you learn a lot of random facts from TV, which is fine because you really only watch educational shows right now and so I don't think it's rotting your brain yet. Some of your fave shows right now include: The Magic School Bus, Peep and the Big Wide World, Super Why, Color Crew, Dinosaur Train, Daniel Tiger, Sesame Street and still mister Thomas the Train. We don't have cable anymore so Netflix and PBS Kids are the ways you get your screen time, hence the rather odd combo of shows up there. Oh, and this month you saw your first movie in the theatre! You and your dad saw Despicable Me 2 after riding a city bus to the mall for this adventure....which means you filled up your rock jar again, buddy! You were a little scared of the dark theatre at first but after sitting on daddy's lap and devouring an entire popcorn container by yourself (you didn't want to share one with daddy and told him you each needed your own), you ended up loving it. 'That was a VERY long movie, mommy,' you inform me frequently. Although you love your TV you really don't focus on it for more than a few minutes at a time.



Wow, I guess I had a lot to say in an attempt to capture the essence of my T-man, buddy. Still not sure I really caught all of the amazing things about you. But the bottom line is that you are one special little dude and we love watching you become even more of Truman each day.

We love you so much, Truman. At 3.5 and always.

(photo by Andrea)