Days of Rest

Greetings faithful readers!

First let us be clear we went on a trip, not a vacation. Vacations are relaxing, this trip was exhausting.


We decided to surprise Demand with a trip to Disney. It was mostly a surprise because we didn't want to deal with the "are we going TODAY?" questions for a week, or even a day. So Sunday, the 5th, we woke up as usual. However, when she asked for breakfast I told her that Daddy was picking up breakfast today. (There was no way we were making a mess in the kitchen that morning. ) After breakfast we all dressed then we told Demand to get in the van. The girl of many questions of course asked, "Where are we going? Are we going on a trip? I think we should go on a trip. We should go to Disney world. Ha. Ha. That would be funny." Then we pointed out that if we were going on a trip we'd need bags and did she see any bags?

In the van we went with Sidekick along with us (to drive the van back home) Now Demand doesn't miss a thing, she has the wherewithall to be a London cab driver so it wasn't long when she realized that we were going to the airport. When she got out of the van and saw the bags already packed she was excited but didn't know where we were going.

Ok, let's talk about flying. Yes, the Sloths were brave enough to fly to Europe with a three year old and a seven month old but that was three adults vs two children (one who's more manageable while traveling) This trip however was two adults vs. three children, one of whom is an almost two year old boy. Let the challenge begin.

For whatever reason we didn't bring a stroller, (My uncle can get us free stroller rental at Disney) so this meant Mr. Sloth and I had two carry-ons, one diaper bag, one computer bag, one four year old and two 'babies' to carry.

Who's exhausted already??

I'm not going to lie. It was miserable. And let's not forget security. You basically have to unpack to get through security. Four pairs of shoes, computer out of case, DVD player out of case, camera out , video camera out, phones out belts off, and any liquids out which for us included gas medicine, children's tylenol, sippy cups, and hand sanitizer. This was all while chasing Happy or holding Pax.

I'm exhausted reliving it.

The good news is we had ideal seating for the two flights to Orlando. We had the very last row to our selves. We were right next to the bathrooms (Which were well used by the Sloth family.) and I could stand in the galley with Pax if I needed to. Our first flight brought us to Atlanta where we met up with some friends. The last time we saw them was a few weeks before both of our weddings. Between the two families six children have been born but we've never met each others children. Well two hours is just not enough time to catch up but it was great seeing them just the same!

By the time we landed in Orlando, got our rental van, made three trips back for car seats, and drove to my Aunt and Uncles house it was 10:15pm. After visiting for about forty-five minutes we went to bed. I'm sorry. Pax and I went to bed. Happy screamed at Mr. Sloth for a good hour while Demand wondered around waiting for them to go to sleep so she could sleep.

If you think that sounds exhausting try this....Being completely exhausted from a day of traveling we decided to do a half day of Disney (Remember Demand still doesn't know where she's going) We let the kids sleep in and took our time getting ready. If there's one tip we've learned with all of our travels it's that you can't push kids. There is no pay off for pushing young children. In order for us to get free admission for the parks we have to meet my Uncle at the park where he works and get in with him. So instead of heading to Magic Kingdom first, everyday we had to park, get everyone out of the van walk ten minutes to the park, get in, and then go back to the van and to whatever park we wanted. Well we were in the parking lot for Animal Kingdom when, Demand, who knows ALL About Disney World noticed "Mt. Everest" and said, "Hey, we're in Disney World." And that was that. She was very calm and collected. Then she started telling us her agenda. "I want to go on the Toy Story ride first!" I want to do this ride, I don't want to do this one because it's scary.... the girl knows what she wants. By the way, before I go on, if you are picturing us in shorts and tank tops (please don't picture Mr. Sloth in a tank top) just know that it was in the 40s-50s and windy the entire trip. We were FREEZING.

So we get to Hollywood Studios where the Toy Story ride is to find that it's a 120 minute wait and they are out of fast passes for the day. What could we do? We promised this girl she could go on this ride and the line is not going to get shorter, and remember she's the best traveler in the world. She never complained ONCE during the entire trip. Not a "I'm tired", "I don't want to", "I want this"....nothing. She just goes with the flow. So when she has her heart set on something it's hard to say no.

So we waited. For two hours. In line. Carrying Happy and Pax. Happy screamed the first half an hour until he finally fell asleep on Mr. Sloth. Don't get me wrong the ride was awesome and Demand loved it but we were exhausted. All I could think was, I cannot do this for a week. I cannot hold Pax perpetually for one week. It's rare that I TELL Mr. Sloth I'm doing something especially when it comes to making a purchase but I TOLD him, "We're buying a stroller tomorrow so I have a place to put Demand and possibly restrain Happy."

Best decision ever. Disney has an awesome stroller in it's park stores and before you think "expensive", my uncle gets 50% off. So for $25 dollars we got the best umbrella stroller ever (and I know travel strollers) It reclines, or sits up, Has a drink holder, an adjustable canopy, storage bag, great wheels, and best of all tall handles. I'm in love with this stroller.

From there the trip got much easier. Don't get me wrong we were all in bed by 8pm everyday but it was fun just the same. We spent most of our time at Magic Kingdom. 80% of the rides there are geared for Demands age and even Pax could go on them. We let Demand pick most of the rides we went on, here's what we rode for the week.

"It's a small world" 3x
"Goofy's Barnstormer" 3x (in a row while her brother's slept)
"Mickey's Philharmagic" 2x (a 4D show)
"Mad Tea Party"3x (even Happy did this)
Dumbo 1x (crazy wait for that one)
Pooh Bear ride 2x
Snow White's Scary Adventure 1x
Pirates of the Carribean 1x
Aladdin's Magic Carpet Ride 1x
Toy Story Mania 2x
Buzz's Alien Spin 1x
Muppet's 3D show 1x
Peter Pan's Flight 1x
Little Mermaid's Adventure 1x

....that's all I can remember right now. Now before you think "Ugh. It's a small world, three times" Just know that it was always around 2pm in the afternoon so it was a welcomed 10 minute break. Happy sat perfectly still the entire time and Pax usually nursed to sleep...as he did on most rides.

We got home from out trip at 5pm on Friday. Saturday morning Mr. Sloth and Demand headed out in the blizzard to get us a most beautiful Christmas tree which we promptly decorated, it being Gaudete Sunday and all. Sunday morning Mr. Sloth woke up with the flu. The house was an absolute disaster having just gotten home from a trip and the children were way out of sorts. Happy was just not himself and Pax, having been held the entire trip and nursing in bed every night didn't want the party to stop. Oh, and remember the blizzard? We woke up to snow up to our waists. Mr. Sloth's mother called and asked if we were going to 10am Mass. I just had to laugh. With Mr. Sloth sick and three little ones to take care of there was no way I was getting out of my garage by noon let alone to Mass. I spent all of Sunday either taking care of the children, shoveling snow, or doing laundry. I know Mr. Sloth was sick and all, but at one point he jokingly told me to "have fun" shoveling the snow and all I could think was, "There is 20+ inches of snow here. It will be late May before they find your body."

Later, I ended up hitching a ride with Sidekick and Demand for 5pm Mass and when I arrived home I found out that Demand too had the flu.

Lovely.

So that set the stage for the week. A messy, messy home that just seems to be getting smaller, two sick people, two high-needs people, and Christmas one week away.

And with that I bid you farewell until I can get at least a bit of my act together.

I'm posting only to let you know that I'll be posting something real soon. We surprised Demand with a trip to Disney World and after spending a week in "Sunny" Florida we have found the flu in our home. My time is spent keeping up with sick kids, being sick myself, dealing with the mess we left the house in, catching up with laundry from the trip and when I have time panicking that it's only 11 days until Christmas. Oh, and there was a blizzard.

Pictures

Over Thanksgiving my brother-in-law brought up the fact that I hadn't been blogging lately. Unfortunately while my life has been interesting enough to blog, it has been too interesting to give me time or energy to blog. How about some pictures from last month to tide you over?

My mother's birthday was 10-10-10 this year and she requested family pictures as a gift. Here are some of them. More interesting stories soon.





The Sloths







The Parents



Demand



Mr. Sloth & Happy



Happy & Demand



Me and my bros



Happy




Pax




Me and the Mr

New Digs

Mr. Sloth finally nipped it in the bud and requested a change of roommate. Not with me, with Pax of course. The grunting, snorting, gagging was keeping us up more than necessary so I spent all of last Friday converting our packed closet into a bedroom and beginning a serious home-wide purge. I had decided, excitedly, a few months ago that Pax would never move into the closet. By seven months (the time he'd need a full size crib) Demand and Happy could have a bunk bed. Plans change though.

I'm sure you remember Happy living in the closet, and my mother still has panic attacks just thinking of living in a closet, but remember we have a very large closet and this time Pax has even more space. I moved the dresser/changing pad from the 'kids' room into the closet and gave Pax a night stand as well. He even has a make-shift mobile.

This addition of space unfortunately only gives Mr. Sloth and I 1/3 use of the closet which leads me to my next topic. The house-wide purge. I know you hear of my purging every few months but this one is different. I'm reading the book "It's all too much" and finding it very inspiring. I'm accepting that even if it's in good condition, functional, a gift, or if I once loved it, it's OK to get rid of it if I don't use or love it now. Getting rid of stuff is incredibly freeing and can make even the smallest space seem livable.

So Pax is loving his new "room". I even hung a toy from the closet shelf to it's within his reach on the changing pad and he thinks it's the bees-knees. Best of all we're all sleeping a bit better. It also helps that he's eight weeks old now and starting to get over his painful gas stage.

 

 

 

 

Prayer Requests

For some reason I've been bombarded with depressing news this week. I won't go into all the details but I do have two college friends for you to pray for.

Pray for my friend "G" I don't want to go into details here.

My other friend is Emily. Emily is "G's" best friend and last December 3rd she was in a car accident with her son. Her one year old son is fine but she is not, she's been fighting in the hospital every since. She's mostly likely paralyzed from the neck down and blind. She might have more damage but she keeps getting pneumonia and every time it is life threatening. The constant battles with pneumonia keep them from finding out the real seriousness of her injuries. Please keep her and her family in your prayers as they approach the one year anniversary.

Here is her Care Pages site http://www.carepages.com/carepages/Emily_and_Max

So pray for both of my friends who are truly suffering.

All the depressing news I've heard this week have at the very least mad me realize how blessed we truly are and incredibly easy my life is compared to some....most.

No fantastic updates to share but I thought I would post a few videos and pictures. We took the kids to a corn maze yesterday as is the fall tradition here. There is a corn maze, giant slide, petting zoo, camel rides, pig races, tons of food and music, pumpkin sling-shot, hayrides but best of all is the corn pit. So much fun for kids of all ages. Happy took some time adjusting but it was hard to get him out in the end. It was a great day to go weather wise, a little windy but great temperature and best of all it hasn't rained in a while. We've been there years past pushing a stroller through a muddy corn field (no fun). If that wasn't fun enough we then drove to Grandma's for playtime with cousins and dinner. It was a long day for everyone but totally worth the effort.

Other than that the Sloths have been trying to settle into a routine. In addition to Monday ballet class and Tuesday Good Shepard class we've been homeschooling Demand. We try and read about a saint every day at breakfast and celebrate some feast days. The Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary was a really busy day for us but I found time to improv an art project that Demand loved. She received dot markers for Christmas so I covered the table in paper and we made a giant rosary using the dot markers. She loved it so much we made another one later in the week. Some days (if I'm prepared) we do "Preschool". This past week we learned about fall and read poems and books and a bunch of activities all with a fall theme. Other days we do Math and/or Reading. Demand loves math especially since the program we're using has a video for each lesson. Reading is trickier. If you tell Demand you're doing a reading lesson to tenses up and basically refuses to do anything. One day I asked her to read me a book while I nursed Pax...a book she already knew how to read and I tried to encourage her by saying "You can do it!" She said "I can do it!" and then started crying.

Gee-whiz, kid, relax a little.

So I'm learning to be creative about things. We've already bribed her saying that if she reads 10 "pink books" she can buy any book of her choice. While interested she still resists. I did manage to get her to read one of the books (5th of the 10) by telling her she'd get ice cream. She'll do anything for ice cream. 5 more books to go...


Pax is learning a routine of his own. He takes hi morning nap in the swing across from the laundry room while his siblings play about. Even though he gets very little belly time due to safety issues with over-loving siblings he can hold his up really well just like the rest of the Sloth babies. He's still a pretty good sleeper but could be better.

Happy is learning how hard it is to be one and half and Mr. Sloth and I are learning to be patient parents of boys. Happy has a totally different temperament than Demand. If you told Demand "No" she'd stop. If you tell Happy "No" he laughs and does it again. So Happy is starting to learn about time-outs and toy removal. Aside from disciple issues the new joke around the house is that Happy tries to get people to "look into his dimples" almost as a means of hypnosis. Works on me more than I care to admit. Stinkin' kid is so adorable even while causing mischief.







Pax at his first Baseball game. Isn't he cute?




I drew a cross to start the Rosary for Demand. I told her to color it and when I came back to the table she'd drawn the Corpus. Impressive, huh?







The proud artist.

Due to technical difficulties, videos will be updated later

Diving In

Today I decided to brave my first trip out of the home with all three kiddos on my own. I was debating going even as late as this morning but, as Mr. Sloth said, I have to do it sometime.

The real motivator was the underwater aquarium exhibit at the mall which is usually $18/person was only $5/person for homeschoolers and today was the last day to get in on the offer. I'd been wanting to take the kids for years but not at $18/person. So this morning I woke up around 7:30am (an hour earlier than the past week or so) and started my usual day I had decided to go and was pleasantly surprised to find out some of my homeschooling friends were going as well. I kicked it into high gear to meet them there. I must say I did an awesome job (as will be the theme this post) at getting everyone ready in record time. It was pretty easy getting the kids dressed since they got new clothes last night and were eager to try them out. Pax was up late with Mr. Sloth last night so he was all about sleeping and I managed to find clean fitting clothes and pull of a good outfit if I do say so myself. I even remembered to pack everything, diapers, change of clothes, sippy cups, baby carrier, double stroller, cameras...

Off we went. We were even there before they opened. Turns out, offering a 75% discount to homeschoolers really brings 'em in. We waited a half an hour just to buy our tickets. So instead of $18/ticket I paid $12 for all four of us (Pax didn't count). I thankfully discovered yesterday that Pax actually liked one of my baby carriers so I was able to logically manage the kiddos. Pax slept in the carrier the whole time and Demand and Happy rode in the double stroller. After doing the aquarium once we headed for lunch. Here's where I continue to get awesome. The Sloth go out for lunch almost every Saturday mainly because we are out and about running errands that day. Eating at the mall with Demand and Happy has always been difficult for me AND Mr. Sloth this time I was +1 kid, -1 husband. Yikes! I bought a piece of pizza and bread sticks for the kids to split and then sit them at a table right next to where I wanted take-out. Happy was awesome and sat in a big boy seat eating his lunch peacefully while I bought my food (Panda Express, Yummy!). Oh, and by the way, it being a feast day the Sloths were free to eat meat today which made it all the more easy for me.

The kids ate peacefully and then we packed up, had a bathroom break and headed back for another round of underwater adventure. I was more nervous this time because the clock was ticking and I was afraid of breakdowns. Would Pax wake up? Would Happy have a breakdown? It was even more fun than the first time. The kids were really into it and I even let Happy out of his restraints towards the end. He did a pretty good job too. He only ran off a few times, and much to his loss he ran in a dark room full of mirrors. (That was actually fun to see...only because he didn't get hurt of course)

Then we headed home. Pax woke up and cried the first few minutes in van but then fell back asleep. Happy was asleep by the time we got home and transferred to his crib just fine. Pax then woke up to nurse and fell back into a deep sleep.While Demand and Happy peacefully played, I spent the entire afternoon super-cleaning the house. We're talking pre-baby nesting energy. It was FANTASTIC! I even managed to improvise an awesome snack for the kids. Apples and carmel dip in honor of the Feast of St. Therese. (Demand is still wondering how carmel and Carmelites are related)

Mr. Sloth came home to a clean home, happy children, and of course and awesome wife.




Demand looking at Nemo and Dory fish.


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Happy looking at Nemo fish.




Happy admiring Nemo fish.




Shark nursery (There are baby sharks in there!!)




Happy wanted the camera back.





Umm, Happy took this picture...I'm nursing Pax.




Demand being Demand.




Happy being Happy.