The Best Medicine, Sometimes

Ashley is sick today. She is the last one to get the bug the rest of us had. . .and the second one to exercise license to mope about it (while neither Joel nor I enjoy being sick, we have too many other things to do to let it affect our lives, and neither of us are great purveyors of sympathy in these cases).

Other than the fact that it makes me sad to see my children physically uncomfortable, it is a lovely feeling to have her warm little body snuggled close to me. As soon as I set her on my lap, I can feel her body relax and her breathing slow with contentment. Occasionally she perks her head up and says "Go Horse Go!" as she and Everett are watching the movie Spirit: Stallion of the Cimeron.

Then she'll lay her head back down in the curve of my neck and her bottom lip will curl out in a minor I-don't-feel-so-well pout. She might make a small whining noise and reach for her water cup, but for the most part she is quiet and calm.

Right now, I am her best medicine. Right now, it makes her feel better to just be sitting close to me. Right now, she'll even forgo her special stuffed monkey for my attention.

It makes me glad. Soon she'll be older and want nothing but a heavy dose of Tylenol and permission to go spend the next hours locked away by herself in her room. It is rewarding to have children who still need me for everything, even if I feel a little worn out sometimes.

Even Everett, in the throes of a major "No, I want to do it all by myself!" phase, wants me when he is feeling sick, sad, lonely, or happy. Sometimes if he is a little grumpy I say to him, "Everett, I think you need to snuggle, don't you?"

He always gets a sweet little smile on his face (his dimple making its requisite appearance) and sits on my lap for a while. He wraps his arms around my neck and sighs as he buries his face in my shoulder. His hair smells like boy, and I don't have much room on my lap anymore, but it is a welcome break for both of us. After a few minutes, Everett jumps up and resumes whatever activity he was absorbed in, minus the frustration. It is short-lived but it sustains both of us.

After Everett goes to preschool at 11:30 am, it is Ashley's special time. I invite her to sit on my giant bed with me and read some stories; she always looks delighted and takes great pleasure in picking out the books for the day. Ten minutes turns into thirty as we both enjoy some quiet, restful time with each other before her nap.

And, let's be honest: I don't move very well nowadays, so quiet time is about all I have to offer. Fortunately my kids don't seem to notice. This is a very good thing, because after the baby is born, I'll probably be too tired for a while to do very many active things, but my hope is that I will still carve out enough time to spend individually with my children. With the three of them so close in age, I don't want any of them to feel neglected.

Some days I feel that I give everything I have and it still isn't enough. But there are other times when I feel that the more I give, the more I have to give. Today is one of those days. Tomorrow might not be.

But I am glad for the days like today, because then I don't feel so hopeless on the hard days.

Delaying Sleep

A friend of mine posted on her blog today about how her daughter colored multiple surfaces in her room with a highlighter while she was supposed to be napping. It reminded me of a picture I took of Ashley a couple of days ago.

Lately, Ashley has enjoyed reading books in bed before her nap. I don't mind her doing this because whether she sleeps the entire time or not, she is still resting her body. Plus, sometimes she reads when she wakes up, too, which means she wants to stay in there longer. I'm not going to lie, this is a huge plus if I, too, have been attempting a nap.

On this particular day, I gave her the books she asked for without looking closely enough at them. One of these books comes with a non-washable white board-type marker, which I always (yeah, apparently) store elsewhere.

I guess she found it.

(I removed the marker from her right hand before taking the picture; you can see that her hand is still positioned to hold it.)

The interesting thing is that with the exception of a tiny spot, her clothes and blankets were free of marker. She had fun getting it on everything else, though (including her pillowcase, which is white and which I now need to bleach).

Someday when she's old enough to not color on walls and other surfaces, I'll show her this picture and we'll have a good laugh.

V-Day: Preschool Edition

Everett has spent the last week creating a multitude of brightly-colored, scribbled on, be-dazzled-to-the-point-of-being-garish valentines for many people we know. He had a great time and it was fun to see what kind of pictures he thought were appropriate to draw for a holiday celebrating love. Monsters and robots? Of course. Bananas? Why not? Pizza? Sure.

He did draw some people, too. He has the basic format down:

1) Draw a circle for the head

2) Add between 2 and 46 dots for eyes

3) triangle nose

4) Make a crooked mouth--above, below, or on top of any other facial features.

5) Place a line around the top of the head for hair

6) Stick two arms out where the ears should be

7) Don't forget to have two long legs sprouting directly from the chin

When Everett came home from preschool on Tuesday with a class list for valentines, it occurred to me that maybe, just maybe, he was supposed to bring something today to celebrate the upcoming holiday.

I was tired of cleaning up glitter, flowers, paper scraps, and broken crayons from the valentines he had already completed, so I didn't want to help him make any. I didn't want to go out and buy valentines. Plus, you know, the last month of pregnancy is supposed to equal low energy. For me, this just means I embrace my inner slacker.

Then I saw a brilliant idea online somewhere. Why not do something like this:

I'm no photographer, so it's just a low-quality 4 x 6 snapshot, but it served the purpose just fine. In Everett's hand I made two horizontal slashes and inserted three suckers.

Easy, peasy (except for some printing hiccups; thanks a lot, CVS). It takes no artistic ability. It is different, fun, and takes very little time to assemble. It could even be free if you were to use one of those promotions that are all over the photo websites.

It wasn't even that hard to get Everett to pose. All I had to do was promise him one of those suckers. (The best part about preschoolers is they don't care whether the suckers are dum-dums or tootsie roll pops. We only had dum-dums.)

When Everett came home, he was excited to show me the valentine he made for me in class. It had random glitter streaks and pieces of lace and buttons all over it. He took great pleasure in showing me where it said "Love, Everett," and gave me a giant hug. It certainly wasn't magazine worthy, but it is the first valentine I've gotten in a long time, and it is the first one I've gotten from one of my kids. It will stay on the refrigerator for a while.

Everett also loved going through his loot. He has 8 kids in his class, so the pickings were limited, but he was thrilled with all six suckers, one package of smarties, and a pixie stix dipper thing.

Fortunately he was okay with me letting him pick out only a couple of items to munch on.

I think it was a successful pre-Valentine's Day day. I'm glad I have a couple more years before we have to worry about 26 of these for each child. Maybe I'll have to recycle the photo idea a few times. . .

Cooking and Friday Nights

Often we like to have a family movie night on Friday nights. Everett gets very excited, and we enjoy showing him some movies we enjoyed as kids. There are so many to choose from, and Everett has liked all of them. Last Friday was our Stuart Little night. Everett especially loved this movie and learned what it means to be an orphan, that mice can drive toy cars and model boats, and that he would like to have a mouse in this family.

We also like to do pizza on these nights. Everett loves to help make it, and he is thrilled that I let him make his very own little pizza. He calls it his "Everett pizza" and is very careful with the assembly. I like doing pizza because everyone likes it, I can just throw the crust ingredients in the dough cycle on my bread machine, and it is a good way to use our WIC cheese.

(before toppings)

We also like to have homemade noodles. I like pasta just fine, but I love it when it is homemade. We put it in soups, have it with meatballs, or just with regular sauce. It is a nice thing for us to do because it is very cheap and easy, but the result is great. Someday I will get a pasta press and then I won't have to roll it all out by hand. I'm sure we'll have them even more often then.

Last time we made noodles, I gave Everett a pizza cutter and let him cut out his own noodles. I cooked them separately so I wouldn't have to fish them out of the main pot, and even though I wasn't watching and overcooked them, Everett scarfed them down. It is always fun to see him so very proud of his "Everett noodles".

It is fun to have a little kitchen helper. Everett is just lucky he is the oldest child. When the kids are older, there is no way that I'm going to start cooking noodles in five different pots just so everyone can have the ones they made!

Why My House is Rarely Quiet. . .

My feeling, with almost three little ones in this house, is that if the noises are loud but happy, it is a good thing. I have no problem with monsters roaring or doggies barking or children yelling out songs and dancing.

Gales of laugher? Check. Delighted yells of anticipation? Fine by me.

There are too many other things to worry about that take up my time, like whether we have enough diapers.

And, I try to enjoy the noise somehow--In 15-20 years when the kids start moving out, I know I'll miss it. Besides, in a few years a lot of the noise will be due to bickering. I'm just glad we're not there yet.


It has been a while since I've posted a video, so I took this one the other night of Joel playing with the kids. It is a movie that makes the kids giggle and giggle as they watch it, and it shows why our house is often a little on the noisy side.

(it's a bit long, but at least we still kept it under a minute.)

Password: doggies

Doggies from Elise Johnson on Vimeo.

Kitchen Helper (or, Ashley Update for Journaling Reasons)

Ashley and Everett both like to help in the kitchen. Ashley has really enjoyed being able to stand on the stool and help or observe with whatever dinner preparations I am making. I involved Everett a lot more at this age, but Ashley gets the short end of the stick because she is the younger one now.

She really loves having Everett for a playmate, though. She has learned a lot of things from Everett, most of which I like. Some things, though, she just does on her own.

When I give her a snack, she always holds her fingers up and asks for "two" of whatever it is, especially graham crackers. Fortunately she is young enough that I can break it in two pieces if I don't want her to have an extra one, and she doesn't notice.

She loves shoes. Today I bought her two pairs of shoes and she was tearful the entire way home because I didn't put them on her feet when we got into the car. As soon as we walked in the door, she took them out of the bag and wanted to put both pairs on for a few minutes each. She is always taking everyone's shoes and wearing them around the apartment, and sometimes she even gets some of Joel's shirts and wears them around her neck.

She loves to brush her teeth. It is a real treat for her to brush her teeth twice a day, and she laughs and laughs in anticipation whenever we tell her it is time to get out the toothbrush. She also doesn't mind us helping, which is nice because she mostly just likes to suck on the toothbrush.

She has wanted to sit on the toilet a couple of times after watching Everett go, but she got a little scared when I put her on there. I don't blame her; that opening is pretty big!

When she goes to bed, she will grab any and all of her stuffed animals, move them around, talk to them, play with them, and laugh at them until falling asleep. I love hearing this go on except for when she is keeping Everett up, too.

We have two kinds of pacifiers: one with a flat-ish nipple and one that is the standard shape. She refuses to take the flat one now. Yes, she still sleeps with a pacifier. No, I'm not going to worry about it until after the baby comes.

Last night at dinner, Ashley decided we were not paying enough attention to her, so she bit her own hand and feigned a very pitiful cry. After seeing that her tactic worked to get us all to look at her, she did it again and again. I tried not to let her see me laugh, but I don't know how well I did.

Ashley's favorite animal is the horse. She can spot horse pictures and figurines (even abstract ones) from surprising distances, and she never hesitates to let us know she found one by shouting "neigh! neigh!"

Ashley also loves buses. Whenever we drive somewhere or go near a window, she always looks for a bus. She isn't thrilled that Everett gets to ride a bus twice a week without her, but she does enjoy seeing it come.

Lastly, she is a movie junkie. She never watches for very long, but if you ask her whether she'd like to watch a movie, she'll shout "Movie! Movie!", shake her fists with real excitement, and laugh hysterically.

I am so glad to have Ashley. It is fun to look at her and know that she is mine.

Proof That it Happened

A couple of weeks ago, Notre Dame hosted a fancy dance for all of us in graduate family housing. Joel was so, so excited to go!

To tell you the truth, neither of us are dancers, and neither of us really enjoy dances that much. However, I do like going out and doing something different, maybe dressing up a little, and socializing. I didn't have anything to wear besides my basic black church dress, but the fact that we had free babysitting available to us made the decision to go a no-brainer.

We met up with some good friends at the dance. The four men you see are all in the same program, and I have really enjoyed getting to know everyone. The three of us women to the right are all pregnant, and we're all due within a few weeks of each other. We all got to ride from our housing to the ballroom in a stretch hummer limo, which was a fun touch. The atmosphere inside the limo was subdued, and people were talking about job prospects, graduate work, and moving plans. It made me smile because if we had been a bunch of high schoolers in there, you can bet it would have been pretty rowdy.

We enjoyed sitting and eating hors d'oeuvres. When a slow dance came on, I made Joel venture onto the dance floor with me. He only complained a little bit.

In all the time we've known each other, it has taken us this long to have even a single dance together. Between my waddling and Joel's lack of rhythm, we didn't look very good but at least we danced while we were at a dance. What a concept!

Another slow song followed this one, but I couldn't convince Joel to stay on the dance floor. That was okay, as I am over seven months pregnant and wore three inch heels. Surprisingly, I never lost my balance, but I did underestimate the difficulty of getting in and out of a hummer a) in heels, b) in a short dress, and c) being very pregnant. The limo driver was quite startled by my slide/jump to get out, but that's just the way it goes.

It was a fun night, and it was made even better because of the great friends we've found here. Oh, I guess I did like my date pretty well, too :).