I know why the caged bird whistles.......

And its mostly to annoy her mother in the car, and her sister and brother. Because neither of them can whistle, and there is a special kind of joy and pride being the middle child when you find something your older sister can't do. :) She is so serious about this whistling, she does it all day the same exact note. Her father gave her this idea, he told her to practice. (He and I will be speaking about this later). She is getting quite good, although I think she is hitting notes that only dogs can hear sometimes.

Theater District Open House

They had FanTAStic face painters there, for FREE!!! We had SUCH a blast, we saw the ballet, and the broadway shows. The kids loved it, and secretly deep inside I was singing an allelulia chorus. I have been WAITING for them to be old enough to enjoy it, or at the least behave enough to let me enjoy it :)

RIP Shaggy and that other hamster we never got around to naming...

There was an accident, a horrible, horrible accident that almost ended in carnage. Brian woke up to find two of our hamsters dead in their cages. Brian suspects it might have been a biblical plague that took our two firstborn hamsters. We forgot to put the lambs blood on the doorposts, and I do recall a wailing last night. There was no reason for them to die, they had food and water... I guess we will never know.

Or WILL we???? That same morning Brian caught the cat looking like she was up to no good at 5am and he decided to follow her on her prowl into our closet. Where he discovered our only remaining hamster holed up in the corner trying to dodge the cat. Apparently all of the cat's cool aloofness when we had the hamsters out of their cages was a evil ploy to get us comfortable with her being around them. BAD KITTY!

Brian rescued FiFi the momma hamster, and we lost Shaggy and the other hamster who we never got around to naming, maybe we should just call him hamster X. Take a good look at this puss, if you see her prowling around your hamster cages, BEWARE!!!!!

Does her husband really exist....??

I could jump on the opportunity to go all existentialist here, but I will pass. (Yeah, its okay you can let out that deep sigh of relief :). Poor Brian and his job, sometimes it seems like he is just the ghost that sometimes haunts our manor. It has caused people to wonder if Im really married, or just a little crazy.... Hey guess what?? BOTH!

Frankly, I think I picked a pretty good one. Now sometimes he comes off as a little crusty and grouchy (um, especially on the phone, I apologize in advance if you call), but don't be fooled by it, its just a throwback to his Kurmudgeny bachelor days (his family was convinced that he would never marry..). There never is any feeling behind it, its all just bluster (I may have to reread this on my hormonal days, even I tend to forget). My husband, like all good chocolates has a crunchy, hard exterior crust that only belies the warm mushy goodness in the center...... he really is quite the sweetie pie.

Goodbye Juan Valdez, My dear sweet friend.........

I have officially given up coffee. (That should be followed by a huge gasp from anyone who knows me). I have loved coffee for years, I have a special coffee pot that I drop the beans into, then it grinds them for me fresh that morning, drops them into the hopper and brews me sweet nectar of the gods every morning on demand. I have special mugs, favorite coffee travel mugs so I never have to miss it. I travel with that pot on vacation, it is the one constant in my life, its always there every morning waiting to jolt me back to life like a morning defibrillator.... and then I met this guy named Dr. Feingold....

I read his book, about how additives in our food (colors, flavors, and preservatives) are made from crude oil (okay yuck) and how some people are just "sensitive" to them. (oh BTW, I will update on the kids diet in another forthcoming blog.) But then he talked about salicylates, and people who are sensitive to them, and coffee is one of the strongest salicylates... so I decided to try to go without it and OMG!!! I feel so much better... I sleep easily, I have a much higher frustration threshold, anxiety is WAY down, plus I haven't had any joint pain, migraine headaches or congestion since I quit at all. Now to be fair I have also been doing the rest of the Feingold diet, but WOW. Weirdly enough, I feel more awake all the time.

Call me a doubting Thomas, but I always wonder if its a placebo effect, or am I just seeing what I want to see. So I had asked Brian if he noticed a difference and he had said yes. Then, this morning we were talking on the phone and he asked what I was doing, and I said, "oh nothing just having my coffee" out of habit, I was really drinking tea and he was sooo funny! He was like no, no coffee for you!!!!! Sooooo, I'm guessing he really has seen the same difference I have and wasn't just saying it to make me feel better.

Whats sad is, I feel like such an addict... LOL. The SMELL of coffee makes me want to drink it. I actually watched a friend of ours drink coffee, and I think I had a little drool puddle on the table. I'm wondering if there is a Folgers Anonymous Support Group (not that I ever drank folger's, I had a MUCh more expensive habit)? Now that I have admitted I have a problem, is it time to turn it over to my Higher Power?

a metaphor for my life

I really like this picture..... not because I look so fabulous in it, because while I am rocking the glasses and no makeup look, and Im comfortable with that, usually I don't neccessarily want to memorialze it for all time. Its because of how the picture is set up. I am overrun with children!! literally. You have no idea how much squirming, giggling, and wiggling was going on in that picture. You can barely see me, except for my face and even that is being squished from all sides. We even fit grandpa in the picture.

I supose this could be interpreted in that negative way people write about when they talk about a woman "losing herself" during motherhood. Uselessly devoting herself to her family and children in that passe, anachronistic way. Its written about as though it were a waste, something criminal that was stolen or trashed.... I don't really see it that way....

When I look at this picture I see that boistorous, wild kind of love, I see my kids really happy, but more than that I see ME happy, but not in the way I used to experience happy. Okay So that morning we had someone peeing on the bathroom floor, two spilled drinks and three children to bathe and wash, and then two additional changes of clothes because they didn't fit, and im pretty sure someone drew on the wall, and so mommy didn't get to put on contacts or makeup.... BUT WE HAD FUN!! We laughed more at that lunch with our grandma and grandpa, and hey, there was ICECREAM at the end!! I mean, come on, ICECREAM.

And yes, my home is not really decorated to my taste, there are stains on the furniture and carpet, some of the walls get colored on, orginaiztion is out of my grasp, and probably its "cluttered", and its possible walking thru my living room you could be crippled by stepping on one of those tiny legos. I haven't found the time to paint everything. But as a family: me, the husband, and kiddos we kinda dig that wild abandon (until it overwhelms me and the grown up voice inside my head starts fussing at the 10 year old me to clean it up). We fingerpaint wildly and go all jackson pollock, and probably you can see the reamins of it (and one small handprint) on our walls, but we have that giggly memory in our heads forever.

i think I have traded off some parts of my own individuality and my own "needs" to do what I think is the best for our family, BUT, I get something in that trade that is worth way more to me than what I am giving away. There is nothing that would ever feel as good as the hugs and kisses I get. The time for myself that I give up, I am spending with the three little people (and one big person) that I love the most in the whole wide world. I can't think of anything better.

Ted Kazinski, the hamster

So word is out that I am a sucker for any animal in trouble, and we wound up taking four hamsters home from Petco that had been abandoned. Brian tells me im no longer allowed to go to PetCO, especially not on adoption day! We didn't get any takers who wanted to "share the hamster wealth" and at first I was a little overwhelemed. But they are a SCREAM. We are loving them. We spent over an hour the other day just playing with them. if you have never seen a hamster eat a triscuit, well you are just missing out. These pictures are of our Shaggy. (an homage to that fabulous great dane scooby doo and his hairy friend!) I swear this hamster looks just like a dust mop! If it weren't for the random hamster poop I would put him to work swiffering my furniture.