Do I Dare Say it Outloud?

I am not sure if I should jinx things by saying it outloud but it appears that Miss Lila Phillips is on somewhat of a schedule. The last three nights she has gone all night without being fed. Each night she woke up several times but got herself back to sleep. This morning it was 5:40 a.m. when I got up with her and she had gone to bed at 7:00 p.m.! Since I am a morning person I don't mind getting up at 5:40. The problem was only when I was waking up at 5:40, and 3:00, and 1:00 with a baby who should have been beyond that. In addition, she is taking pretty regular naps and has responded well to being put in her bed while still slightly awake. It was just in time; I was about to go insane from continued interupted sleep combined with a serious lack of sleep in general. Now if we can just get Carson so stay in his bed at night too; he wakes up scared and comes running down the hall to our room. He is like a big puppy; he doesn't realize how big he is so he lumbers into our bed and splays his body all over the place. I don't mind too much because I like a good snuggle but Kevin gets Carson's feet and Carson's feet like to kick. I think it's kind of a sleeping Oedipal kind of thing; Carson would just as soon Kevin get out of the bed and go sleep in the bottom bunk. It is nice to be so loved that everyone wants to sleep in my bed and that Lila loves me so much she wakes up to spend extra time with me ;)

Readers

I am so proud that my boys are both readers. I am lucky so far that both of them love reading and are good at it. It is slow-going but Cullen is over 70% done with the fourth book of the Harry Potter series. Carson jumps around a lot but is reading the first Harry Potter book and the Magic School Bus series. Honestly, as long as they are reading I'm happy! Even if Lila ends up being a book burner or something awful like that at least 2/3 of my children read. I will shoot for 3/3 since I really don't condone book burning or playing with fire in any shape or form.

Lila's Little Playdate

Unless you count going to the nursery at the gym or being oohed and ahhed over while shopping, Lila hasn't really spent much time around non-relatives. Today we popped by my friend Cathy's house to say hello to Cathy and her three little girls. Lily is 5, Eme is 3, and Cate is 3.5 months old. Cathy's girls have always been very sweet and adorable and were true to form today! Cate was bright-eyed and curious just like her sisters. Here are some of our pictures from today.

Making King Cakes

Ta da! Carson's cake is done.

I really don't know what he's looking at but he loved the sprinkles!

Cullen was careful about doing his sprinkles.

Mission accomplished!

Today we made two King Cakes; one for each of the boys to bring to school since they both got the babies in their class King Cakes last week. I thought it would be a fun family activity but for most of this "family activity" I was in the kitchen trying to make King Cakes and tend to a fussy teething baby while the boys jumped on the trampoline. However, when it came time for the icing and the sprinkles the boys were ready to help! They had to help in stages since I only made enough dough for one cake the first time. When Carson iced his cake and got to lick the spoon when done he declared the icing "Just right; I wouldn't change a thing" (it was confectioners sugar and a small bit of milk; how can you go wrong with basically straight sugar?). We just put a standard little plastic baby in Carson's cake. Cullen loved doing his cake too. I actually put a gold coin (from a pirate birthday party) in Cullen's class cake. Originally beans or gold coins were put into King Cakes; the plastic baby tradition didn't start until the 1900's. I thought a gold coin was more fun than a bean. Cullen's cake was the second one and looked a lot more like a normal King Cake. I knew the first one was the worst one so I made that for Carson's class. First graders are much less judgemental about things than third graders. As they get older they are a much tougher crowd! Next time I will spend $5 and buy a King Cake from Wal-Mart when I just need one for their classes.

Throw Me a New Catalog, Mister!*

I am excited to announce that I have decided to have a new catalog party after all! I wasn't going to until I saw the catalog and knew people would be as excited about it as I am! I am having a Mardi Gras themed open house to introduce the awesome new Stampin' Up! catalog and also to show off our new Decor Elements line of products. Whether you are an experienced stamper or someone who just wants to find out more about Stampin' Up! this is the perfect chance! Here are the specifics:

• Thursday, February 5, 2009
• 3:00-8:00 p.m. (come and go as you please!)
• Cost: nothing!
• Project: make a Valentine's Day card for free
• There will be multiple door prizes. The grand prize will be 20% off your entire order placed within two days of the open house. The grand prize winner will be determined by who gets the baby in the King Cake! Catalogs will be available for all hostess club members and those who pre-ordered them. I will also have a limited number of extra catalogs on hand for purchase for those who did not pre-order them.
• Please r.s.v.p. as soon as you can so that I know how much food to prepare and how many projects I will need to get ready!
• A note about children: teens and pre-teens are always welcome but I have a one project per family rule at my free events. If you have issues attending without your smaller children please let me know and we will see what we can work out!

*No new catalogs will actually be thrown; they will be handed gently to the recipient

Facebook

I joined the social networking group Facebook in June. I did it simply so that I could see my cousin Sally's pictures that she posted on her own Facebook page. Little did I know that so many people I know or have known would also be on Facebook six months later. For the most part, I really enjoy it. People post little snippets in the form of status updates and I like to see what other people are doing. For the most part it's reassuring to see that most other people's lives are as ordinary as mine. I also really like looking at everybody's kids. Even though some of my Facebook friends are people I haven't hung out with since Girl Scouts in the fifth grade it's still neat checking out their offspring. The only difficult issue I have had is when people ask to be my Facebook friend and I either have no clue who they are or no interest in being their friend. As of now when as Facebook friend request is sent to a person they have two choices... you can either "confirm" or "ignore" that request. If you ignore it the person you are ignoring doesn't know it and may send another request. And another. And another. There is no "deny" option; I guess the people at Facebook are too nice to do that. I propose the following additions to the choices when presented with a friend request.

• confirm
• confirm although I never really was friends with you in the first place I am interested to see how you're doing and maybe look at some pictures of your kids and pets and maybe of you scuba diving or something
• confirm although I only remembered you when I looked you up in the high school yearbook
• deny; I have no flipping clue who you are even when I look carefully at your picture. Either you got really fat or I never knew you.
• deny; I hated you in college so why would I be friends with you now?
  

I doubt these changes will be made but it would be nice to be able to be more specific when posed with a difficult friendship request. On a side note, the photo above is my Facebook picture. Notice that it looks like me and I follow my own photo tips by holding a baby to distact from my negative features.

Difficult Conversation

I actually had one of my toughest conversations with Cullen today. It started yesterday when we drove by our church. In front there were over one hundred small white crosses and a sign that said "Abortion Kills". Cullen asked "What's abortion?" and then "Can we catch it?" (if it kills, it must be a disease). I knew Carson, in his infinite sensitivity, was not ready for this discussion so I told Cullen we would talk about it later. Later was today, when he asked again. I closed the door to Lila's room, where we were playing with her on the floor. I told Cullen that sometimes God gives people babies and they aren't ready for them and don't want them. I said that these people go to a special clinic and a medical person (I didn't want to say doctor) does something to kill the baby while it's still in the mom's belly. He was solemn but not upset. I asked him why the Catholic church and other churches would be against abortion. It took him just a second to say "Because there won't be as many Catholics?" I snickered but said no, not because of that. As we watched Lila play on the floor I reminded him that being alive and healthy is a great gift and to hurt that life goes against God's wishes. I reminded a former student of mine who is about to have her first baby that babies are the single greatest gift humans get. However, just like all gifts you don't always get to choose what you get and when you get it. I did not tell him that often people don't expect babies and still get them (Lila) or take many extra steps to try to get babies (Cullen and Carson). I tried to remember to only give as much information as they ask for. I guess talking about sex will be harder but I will do like my mom did and take him to a busy restaurant where the tables are close together and tell him all about it while he cringes with embarrassment.