Name that Offspring...1/31/08

Yeaah for the masses! Last week was indeed Atlee. But, so many folks were correct, I started to think maybe I wasn't challenging you enough. Everone loves a bit of a challenge. So, this week name that offspring over there on the right, but then...then... post a comment letting me know where we are and what we're doing! Thanks as always for keeping me entertained. If I didn't have this, why I might have to wash Rich's socks...ewwwww.

Works for Me Wednesday...

So, another Works for Me Wednesday, by Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer ....


When your guests have had one too many cocktails, it's nice to be able to offer a bed. But what about when the guest room is already taken? Ah.... the air mattress on the pull-out couch in the family room. But, hey- where's the air mattress? Or compressor? Do we have sheets? This is my laundry hamper of air mattress goodies. It holds the air mattress and compressor, as well as a plastic bag of sheets and blankets. No more hunting around for the compressor or sheets. You could use a much more attractive basket, but this one was free.... that makes it very attractive to me. I even put a dryer sheet in the blanket bag to keep the bedding smelling oh so mountainy air fresh. It works for me.

Greeley Photos

The post below this only had one photo and that was of Shea's shoes. Do friends and family want pictures of Shea's new shoes? No....they want baby pictures.

Greeley throwing herself forward in her swing.

Greeley just being cute.

Grocery Shopping...

On Sunday, we gathered up all of our troops to head out to the grocery store. Red peppers are on sale this week for $1.99 a pound. A price like that was hard to refuse. Rich asked if I wanted to go to the store alone or did I want him to come with me and the kids. For some reason I chose option B. I must have been so excited about the peppers that I stopped thinking clearly. I guess a trip with three kids wasn't quite challenging enough for us. We decided to up the ante by putting Shea into a new pair of Heelys. Rich wants a pair. Rich is very, very jealous.




Anyhoo, shopping. Shea was getting the hang of the shoes. He'd occasionally cling to the side of the cart for a free ride. Rich and the kids went out into the store to gather stuff and bring it back to the shopping cart. As we finished up the trip, Atlee, Greeley and I went to hunt for cranberry juice while Shea and Rich went to look for coffee.

While I was pondering the many varieties of cranberry juice, Atlee decided she HAD TO FIND SHEA. She does this some times. She suddenly realizes Shea MIGHT be doing something fun without her and she MUST know if this is true. So, she yells over her shoulder while running down the aisle, "I'm off to find Shea!" and she's gone.

I start going into paranoid Mommy state... I am in the grocery store, and I cannot see my child. I start steering Greeley and the shopping cart down the aisle, following after Atlee. She's probably just around the corner in coffee. I'm calmly calling her name, "Hey- Atlee...". The cart has Greeley perched on top in her car seat, so I'm afraid to go too fast. As I round the corner, I see a little pink boot going around another corner. "Atlee!" It's more of a bark and a few people look. "Squeal, Giggle, Squeal" was her response, or something like that. And she keeps going!

Customers are looking now at the showdown between mom and daughter. Another corner and I'm gaining on her. But she sees me and speeds up. I have no other choice now. "Atlee, One!" She stops. But she's not looking at me. "Atlee, Two!" She looks at me and begins to drag herself towards me. The outraged whimper starts and grows into a howl. Non-parents look at me as though I've just tripped her for sport of something. I know they were nonparents because they were looking at us. Parents just look the other way, having been through it before.

We start to walk to the cash register as I reiterate all the evil things that can happen to little children who run away from their parents in crowded grocery stores. I'm a big fan of scare tactics sometimes. The howling continues. But, wait! What's that up ahead! It's Shea. The crying starts to slow down. It stops shortly after we reunite with Rich and Shea. Shea reattaches to the grocery cart and we get in line to check-out.

We're now in impulse alley. My normally well behaved children suddenly suffered the worst cases of the Can I's and Gimmee's? Feeling generous, I say they can split one item. They must agree on what it will be and they must share it. I hear some negotiating and then agreement. They have decided on some sort of chocolate kiss something and up on the belt it goes. So, the cashier is scanning and Rich and I are bagging.

As I'm starting to fill out the check, the cashier says, "And the Zagnut for the little girl." "Huh?" It takes me a moment to realize Shea has snuck a candybar onto the belt and the cashier is handing it to him. I looked at him and he looked so smug. I don't like that word really, but that's what it was. "Ha ha... I got my way because I was sneaky and now I don't have to share with my little sister because I was sneaky. Did I mention I was sneaky? Ha Ha Ha." He didn't say it out loud, but it was all there on his face. I looked into the future of when he is a teenager, sneakily pulling one over on mom and dad. And I ripped that candy bar out of his hands, handed it back to the cashier and said, "No, I don't think so.... he didn't ask for that so he may not have it. Please take it off." There were quiet tears, silence and anger. Him, not me. Well, anger. Yes, that was me.

The next night we had to run to a different grocery store and were standing in line again. We seem to spend a lot of time in line at grocery stores. Shea asked for a small bag of cheesy puffs, and I was happy to fork over the .25, because he asked. He didn't try to be sneaky, he asked.

The next time Rich asks if I want to go to the store alone or have everybody come along, I'll remember to choose Option A.

Bloggy Giveaway Carnival...

I am so very excited to participate in the Bloggy Giveaway Carnival! If you aren't familiar with it, please visit Shannon at Rocks In My Dryer. Gettysburg Family is happy to offer eight postcards of Gettysburg, PA. These could be useful for a Civil War buff or homeschool family learning about the Battle of Gettysburg. Somebody much craftier than myself could probably do something pretty snazzy with them.

The postcards include: a cannon at sunset, a plethora of monuments, Eisenhower National Historic Site, the Irish Brigade Monument, the Jennie Wade House, more monuments (we have an awful lot of monuments around here...), the G. Weikert House, and Friend to Friend.

So, leave a comment to be entered into the Gettysburg Family Postcard Giveaway. We welcome international comments, too! (Jana, I'm talking to you!) And, oh- before you go, please click on home down at the bottom and browse around Gettysburg Family a bit. Get to know the cast of children and vote in Name That Offspring over on the right. Thanks for visiting!

And please excuse all of the exclamation points, but I'm very excited!

Our Kids Today...and Yesterday, too...

I offer a few different pictures of our household...

Atlee and Mommy

SSSShhhhh...don't tell LeLeche League, but I sometimes slip Greeley a bottle of formula to keep her on her toes....






This is a picture of our kitty-cat, Zoe.... her full volume looking fur is just realllllly snarled....Atlee isn't the only one who hates to get brushed....



And I offer the bike series: Shea decides to help Atlee go for a bike ride. Why? We don't know how these ideas really come to fruition...

He maneuvers her bike out of the shop in the garage and up the stairs to the landing...

Only to realize there's not enough room for both his scooter and her bike and the door...

So, he takes the scooter out...

Gets the bike out....

Bike and scooter are out to the street. Both kids were back in the house asking for hot cocoa five minutes later.....What's that? Other mothers would have helped instead of taking pictures??? Interesting Point.

Name that Offspring...1/24/08

Perhaps so few people voted last week because the answer was obvious...yes, it was Shea. This week is a Shea, Atlee or Greeley picture...I've added the poll to the right to simplify voting. Thanks for voting and keeping me entertained!

Works for Me Wednesday...

Another Works for Me Wednesday, hosted by Rocks In My Dryer...and what works for me involves chicken and the freezer. When we purchase the super large packages of chicken, we split it into smaller packages for freezing. Then, we also put some sort of marinade into the freezer bag with the chicken. When we take the chicken out of the freezer to thaw, it already has the marinade in the bag. It slowly thaws in the fridge...in the marinade. We use this a lot in the summer when we are grilling. Just a small way to save some time.

Please Don't Club the Baby Seal...

Although she's not quite crawling yet, she's doing a bang-up job of dragging herself around by the flippers.

Friday Night Firsts...

On Friday evening, I headed out into the thriving metropolis of downtown Gettysburg with friends. We left behind six kids: one seven year old boy, four girls about four years old and the baby. We left them with the men. How many times in the last twelve hours had I asked Rich, "You won't shake my baby, right? No matter how frustrated you are...right?"
Over cocktails, we joked about when the first call would come...and what silly question it would be. But the call never came. It reminded me of many years ago, when Shea was just a baby, some friends and I went out, leaving Rich and Shea at home. I nervously fussed with a cell phone, making sure it was on and working. My friend Gretchen laughed and wisely said, "Sometimes it's even harder when they don't call. It's tough to realize they are getting along just fine without you."
So it was on Friday. They were all just fine without us. While Rich suggested ice cream at 10:00 at night, his friend vetoed the idea, showing some restraint. The kids stayed up much, much, much later than any of the mommies would have approved. I'm sure it wasn't the only thing we wouldn't have approved of if we had been in charge. It was a night of firsts: The first night I went out with friends since moving to Gettysburg, Atlee's first time having friends sleep over, Rich's first time watching six kids at once, Greeley's first time taking a bottle(!!). It was hard when they didn't call, but I'm sure it will get easier with practice.

Work, Work, Work...

Those of you looking for the Name That Offspring Poll (because you SHOULD be looking for it) may need to scroll down a bit. Here I offer a record of how I spend my days...it feels like I did nothing and yet yesterday, I...

I made homemade soup, which made me feel oh so domestic. The soup was just OK, which underscores why folks buy soup in a can. I also changed Acorn's bedding. OK, so Atlee helped some. But the big time consumer was....

Brushing Atlee's hair.

This is what I started with.

First, I have to lure her into the bathtub. For bait, I used Greeley's new Christmas toy, the muddy little pigs. Greeley didn't seem to mind sharing. Well, OK so she didn't know about it.

Then we watched some Atlee movies while I brushed her hair for over one hour. It seemed like eternity. It will look this nice for perhaps fifteen minutes this morning. If we show up to a function for friends or family, and Atlee's hair looks like this... please know it is a sign of how much we love you. Or fear your judgment... whichever.

This is a bonus shot of Shea not playing his Gameboy. It's like getting a picture of some rare underwater critter tap dancing while riding an elephant. You just don't see it that often.

Another Round of Name that Offspring...

Another round of Name that Offspring...Poll-Style.

Works for Me Wednesday...

So, this is my first time participating in Works for Me Wednesday, hosted by Rocks in My Dryer. Friends and Family who aren't interested in this may look at it as an opportunity to admire my stunning blue fixtures in the upstairs bathroom... I've no doubt mentioned them to you. What works for me is stashing all of Atlee's bathtime toys in a strainer. When she's done with her bath, I can toss them all into the strainer and leave it in the bathtub. All of the residual water in the toys can slowly drain out, eliminating the puddle of icky-water we used to get at the bottom of other containers.

The Kids Today 1.15.08

This evening I offer pictures of the girls. (Shea's playing his Gameboy right now, and we've all seen just about enough of that...) The first photo shows Greeley sitting up all big and tall. The second shows Atlee in bed. Please do not call social services, as we do not make her sleep on the floor. This is where she chooses to sleep. I've given up on making her bunkbeds; she just pulls all of the covers down onto the floor.

It's Atlee...

Many years ago, when Atlee was a few months old, Rich went to pick the kids up from Gloria's, our daycare provider. Rich looked at Atlee and asked, "Did she get hurt today? What's that bruise on her face?" Gloria answered, "Rich, that's her birth mark."

8-Tracks and Such...

So our friend's teenage niece gets into his 20-something brother's car, looks around, and says, "You use CD's?! Oh my God, you are so old!"

Name that Offspring...

Everyone always seems to mention how all of our children look alike...so I introduce a new Gettysburg Family game- name that Offspring. Please post any guesses in the comments section- I'll even give you a hint, it's not Greeley... so Shea or Atlee?

The Kids Today 1.13.08

Atlee is enjoying her Christmas Dump Truck from Uncle John R.. I've also included bonus Atlee from Friday morning enjoying our lake front property. Greeley is sitting up in her swing, which means she can't be left unattended, or she throws herself sideways and gets stuck. Someday I'll see if I can get a shot of Shea NOT playing his gameboy.

Need a Smile?

Atlee's Hobbies...

Did you know that bunny bedding comes in pink?














When you love mud as much as Atlee does, you need to have some serious mud boots...

The Upside of Global Warming...

So the polar bears may not make it, but Atlee got to take her Christmas bike out for a spin in January....

Why the City-House is Better...

In no particular order, I offer some reasons why living in the Gettysburg House is better than living in the Mountain House...

1- I no longer drive 4 miles a day to get my son to and from the school bus stop

2- I haven't pulled a tick off any of my children in monthes

3- It's January, and I haven't had to put chains on my car to get home AT ALL this winter

4- It's no longer a twenty-minute one way drive to a gallon of milk

5- I have finally stopped looking for Copperhead Snakes in the kitchen

Acorn and Atlee

Acorn loves Atlee's pony barn.

The Kids Today...

Rich has left town again for the week... and Shea is at school. So, while the boys' club works and works... the girls are playing. We went to two birthday parties this weekend... and Atlee made me ever so proud each day because she stopped playing to tell me she had to pee. Atlee also discovered her inner artist on Saturday night... if you look at her colorful thighs in the photo, you might think she's wearing tights... oh no... just supposedly "washable" marker.

Comments Welcome...

This weekend a friend mentioned she enjoyed reading about the kids on this site...but she tried to leave a comment and was unable to because she didn't have a google account. My apologies to anyone who tried to leave a comment... it has been corrected I think. Comments about how beautiful our kids are are certainly welcomed!

And Acorn Makes Seven...

When you're making rash promises to a three year old about how you'll do ANYTHING if she'll just go on the potty- you need to be prepared to buy a rabbit...

What Rich taught Shea...

Shea is going to take part in an elementary school knowledge-a-thon and has four pages of questions to study in preparation.

"Which is a mammal- whale or shark?" "Whale"
"What's the smallest bird?" "Hummingbird"
"What is the state nickname for Pennsylvania?" "Pennsyltucky"
Hmmm......

Girls' Club...

Atlee is putting an ad in the Gettysburg Times: Monster Slayer Available. All Monsters Must Be Imaginary and Able to be Destroyed in One Swipe of Light-Up Sword




Greeley can't wait to get a hold of the big kids' video game system... I guess the exersaucer isn't entertaining enough anymore....

Breaking News....

Before I ever had any kids, I remember hearing parents squeal with joy when a child was potty-trained... and I thought eh? I didn't quite understand how it changed EVERYTHING... I didn't understand how amazing it was... so, my apologies to anyone without kids... but other parents will surely understand how excited we are when I say that Atlee has mastered the potty!!!

In other news today, Shea has returned to school after an 11-day break. It was not with joy that he went out the door. The horror ahead must have made his step especially heavy and slow, so slow that he missed the bus this morning. So, Shea would rather be home watching a movie or watching Greeley play with her toys....

But mostly, Shea would rather be flying his helicopter... thank you to Uncle John & Aunt Monique...

Happy 2008!!!

Happy New Year to our friends and family. Our family braved the cold (all of our friends in upstate New York are laughing at that...) and went to the New Year's Eve celebration at the Gettysburg Square last night. Great moments include Rich, Shea and Atlee chicken-dancing on the Square with 250 other people at 11:00 at night, the looks of pure bliss on Shea and Atlee's faces when Rich bought them crazy light-up swords, and my favorite quote of the night... Rich asks Atlee how she's doing and Atlee says, "It's freeking cold and let's go home." They managed to endure a half-hour of fireworks before heading home. I've never seen two kids so happy to go to bed.