At 26 weeks pregnant I started this blog for my son Rooney. The plan was to document feelings, body changes and eventually to share pictures of our son with friends and family. 4 years later, with the addition of Rooney's little sister, Ailbe, we are now sharing the lives of our 2 kiddos. I'm not sure how long this blog will go on for but as long as people are reading we'll keep posting.
I love when I can combine my family with my other passion of running. Most days lately it seems I am abandoning my family to get in runs or to run with clients. Monday morning I do take Ailbe and she chills out (kind of) in the jogger while I run but that is an exception more than a rule (really just a necessity) so I was glad when the whole family was able to run in the Seahawks 12k and Kids 1/2mi. Race this year. Mike and I so rarely get to run together but fortunately the last few years we have managed to be able to. It does help that Mom lives just a few blocks from the start line. Rooney has run this race twice I think but this was Ailbe's first shot. They both did great! Rooney came in like a champ and Ailbe had a good time running with Grandma Peggie and Daddy. Seems all the running I've been doing this last quarter with clients and the new bootcamp classes I have going on have paid off because Mike and I both got a PR this race. Felt good and strong! A family that runs together stays together. That's how the saying goes, right?
Ailbe and I are sitting in our car as we always do.We are waiting the last few minutes quiet moments before Rooney gets out of school for the day. I actually look forward to these few moments most days. Ailbe is contained and generally occupied while I blissfully get to sip my coffee and play Scramble With Friends. Some days Rooney's arrival to the car will set off a stream of sibling fighting, post school hunger grumpiness and fatigue from the days previous events but he is definitely missed while he is away for the day learning... especially from Ailbe. Several times throughout the day Ailbe will ask when we are going to pick up Rooney or if we are going to pick him up before a class of hers. She loves Rooney so much and wants his attention so badly but he is too young to see that yet. Hopefully one day. Hopefully one day soon.
Rooney is out and in just a few minutes the rest of the day will be determined. Oh here he comes... He is smiling...
It's been a long time since I've last written and of course many, many many things have happened. If you follow me on the Facebook then you know all the dirt and you've seen tons of pictures of the kids. But for those of you that are random strangers or just in the dark ages without much social media than the excuse would be time just got away from the me and I felt too behind to catch up. I'll try to fill you in but of course some stories may be lost forever.
Today the kids are 7-1/2 and 3-1/2 years old. This time 4 years ago I was pregnant with Ailbe and all the craziness of the 2nd half of my pregnancy was going to start soon. Rooney is in 1st grade now. He appears to be pretty mathematically minded like his father. Really it's a love hate. He is good at math and it just makes sense to him however having to prove he knows it does not make sense to him and the argument that ensues is all Howard. Rooney is still in karate and has reached the level of purple belt 1 blue stripe. Ailbe has joined her brother in the martial arts and started Little Ninjas last November. Ailbe will start preschool school this Fall at Rooney's alma matter and I may or may not be beside myself when I that happens. Those feeling kind of shift day to day. Summing the kids up in the most simplistic terms Rooney is the single most sweetest and loving kid to his momma and Ailbe is the single most fiery, frustrating and ridiculously funny girl to her momma.
Lastly, you'll probably be hearing alot about this in upcoming posts but Ttis past July I became a running coach and started my own business. Classes started in January 2013 and the business is small but I have good clients. I specialize mostly in beginners but work with experienced runners by providing group runs. My evenings have become pretty packed with running groups and trying to make it home in time to put a kid to bed. Mike of course has been great. I'll definitely need that tolerance when I really start my training for the Portland Marathon this Fall. Perfect 40th birthday gift for myself? Jury will be out on the until October 7th at least.
Fingers are still crossed for a relaxing Hawaiian vacation immediately following. The real birthday present.
Now that Rooney is in Kindergarten full day Ailbe and I can start doing our own things together. One of the things I signed her up to do is gymnastics at Aryal's (formerly known as Gym Starz). You may recall that Rooney was taking classes here and he learned alot. Even got up to a cartwheel this summer. After going to Rooney's classes her entire life and then being able to do Open Gym some days Ailbe kind of figured out what to do. Once Rooney started his school I signed her up for classes this September and she is really taking off. Today was the first day I didn't really need to assist her. She's getting really good at climbing (which I am not sure is a great idea since she is still in her crib), jumping and following directions. Pip is a little more shy than Rooney so today she did get a little upset when she realized Mom wasn't standing next to her but she was a trooper and carried on with her beloved seat drops. She talked about seat drops the whole way to class today. That was good because it took her mind off of her cat "tat" stamps she got in class on Friday. She loved them so much, and wanted to look at that so much, that Mike had to roll her pant legs so she could see/show them off on Saturday (she proceeded to talk about them Sat, Sunday, Monday and still today). She finished off class today with bubbles, a rousing rendition of Tony Chestnutt (which I definitely need to get on video) and 5 butterfly stamps. Enough to keep any girl very tired and happy!
I know! I know! I am months, possibly a year behind in posts. The kids are still alive (you were wondering weren't you?), still growing and still cute.
I used to worry when Ailbe was a baby that she might get kind of looked over compared to Rooney. He has such a huge personality and fearlessly not shy that I worried she may be some kind of shrinking violet when around other people. Well thankfully I can see that will not be the case with Pip. She is definitely her own person and it is absolutely chockful of spit fire personality.
As evidenced by this video I think Rooney may be doing a little coaching.
This past July, I blew out a tire on the freeway. I got off, and changed the tire over to the spare:
Rooney really liked the spare tire look, so he was pretty disappointed when I told him we were going to go to Costco to get new tires that very evening.
We got to the tire center, and there were a couple of customers ahead of us. 20 minutes later, we finally got called to the front of the shop.
"How can I help you?" the guy asked.
Rooney bounced up to him. "We need 3 more spare tires, please!"
There are many moments when you feel proud as a parent but one of the most rewarding (so far) is when you realize your child has learned something you tried to teach them. There are two instances of this happening in this blog post and both happened moments apart.
First moment came when Rooney and I were counting his saved allowance. Roon really wants to buy a Puffle. For awhile now in an attempt to teach Rooney about money, what things cost and what it means to earn something you want we have been giving him an allowance. To buy things he wants he can use his allowance and or add it to a Wish List for birthdays, Christmas etc. We were counting his allowance & I told him he probably needed about $10. As I was counting I told him I thought he just had a little over $5. I didn't catch it at the moment but he replied "Oh this is going to take forever to get 5 more dollars!". I knew he knew some math but I was impressed. Since he didn't have enough money I told him maybe he could earn some. Mike was mowing the lawn so I sent him outside to see if Mike had a job for him to do to earn some moolah. Mike gave him a job of raking which is what Rooney is doing in this pic.
In the meantime Renae texted me to see if Rooney could play with Felix. I figured Rooney's raking job wouldn't be too long so I said sure. When Rooney was done raking Mike said that there really wasn't enough of a job for him to do for $5 but would pay him $1. I told Rooney that Aunt Renae asked if he could play and that maybe he could earn some loot when he got home. Then he had his own great idea he was going to ask Uncle Dana if he had any jobs to earn $4 more dollars!
Last week marked another milestone for Ailbe. This is a milestone that many of us in this Wade house have never reached...our first broken bone.
I recently noticed that Ailbe was starting to throw her leg over her crib rail when I would stand next to the crib. I mentioned to Mike that we should probably drop the mattress down to its lowest level, but since Rooney never really crawled out of his crib (and certainly not at 16mo.) I didn't think too much about it. I even snapped a few pics of her with her leg over because I thought it was kind of funny. Of course it all came back to bite me (and Ailbe) in the ass when last Wednesday after Ailbe was put down for the night Mike heard her crying I don't think she was wailing and normally Mike probably would have let her cry a bit to see if she would console herself, but this time he went in and found her on the floor.
I was in the middle of supervising Rooney in the shower when Mike brought her in. Mike had hurt his forearms in a freak gym accident so when he asked me to unzip her sleep sack I thought it was too help him because he couldn't. Ailbe was kind of crying but I was flipping her around trying to get her out of Mike's arms and trying to unzip the sleep sack for him. I thought he was just going to change her diaper but as I was juggling her around he asked me to look at her elbow and then told me he found her on the floor.
I got her out of her sack and checked her arm. I noticed she was grabbing her taggie blanket and pacifier. She was holding onto me but was also grabbing her right hand with her left. I kept inspecting but it did not appear anything was broken. I was going to take her to the ER, then I wasn't, then I was, then I wasn't. I just wasn't sure. Eventually I decided to wait until the morning because she could move her hand & grab things so I thought maybe it was just sore and/or bruised. Rooney had the longest shower of his bathing career and Ailbe went down for the night.
The next morning when I noticed she was reluctant to use her right hand to help herself stand up I decided to see the MD. Pip was not crying too much and at times she would giggle. I still wasn't sure if anything was broken but I thought she might come home with a splint or the MD might say that she had a hairline fracture in her hand. It was a long afternoon at the MD's but after a couple of x-rays it turns out Pip broke both the bones in her wrist. She ended up with a cast on her right arm that extends from above her elbow to the first digit on her fingers. After the first afternoon Ailbe stop noticing the cast (and stopped walking in circles) and may have even found some benefits to it such as bopping Rooney on the head.
Cast Shmast. What broken wrist? As you can see from the video below she's adapting pretty well. Only 3 more weeks to become a permanent lefty.
What can't a little 3M Scotch tape and a 5 year olds ingenuity create? Rooney came in at 7:30am to share this little gem of an idea with us. There were doubters in the house but Rooney knew better.
I was taking a random video of Ailbe here. She does alot of cute things so sometimes I remember to get my camera and sometimes she continues to do the cute thing I got the camera for. I can't remember what she was doing for me to take this video but after rewatching it I am pretty sure she said the word "banana". I didn't catch it at the time and even correct her (which I feel like a jerk for now) but see if you can catch it.
Ailbe decided to take a little break from her hour long snack session to draw a little picture. Right now her drawings are just a series of lines but she seems to be doing a great job holding the crayon and her first impulse was not to put it in her mouth. Just her second.
Rooney is ongoing in his swimming lessons. Here he is demonstrating his fabulous backstroke. He does such a great job when he is in class. In swimming and karate I can see the difference in his maturity. Makes a Momma proud!
Last week I wrote about AMAT's Drop In Art Class. Today we went again, just me and Ailbe, to make drip paint heart garlands for Valentine's Day. Pip really loved using the little dropper we used to drip the color and she also loved trying to dip her little fingers in the color too! We did dress for a mess but thankfully we didn't have any spills. We did have a tumble however, off the chair Ailb's was standing on. She brushed it off no prob. Ailbe is battling a cold and even though she was obviously not feeling up to par no amount of snot could stop her from her beautiful craft.
Pip did a great job and now her crafts can be posted on the art wall right next to her big bro's.
Today was going to Momma and Ailbe day @ Creative Mom Toys but a resurgence of Rooney's cough kept him out of preschool and made it a family outing (almost). AMAT recently set-up a Storytime and Art/Craft drop-in with some friends and their businesses. I am excited about expanding our group into the surrounding businesses because I feel this could be a baby step into more family friendly places and giving the valuable resource of the local moms more of a voice in the community. Plus we get to do something really fun with our kids. Here Rooney, Ailbe and I are making Chinese Dragon crafts for the Chinese New Year.
This is a picture of the first time Rooney and Ailbe were swinging together. I thought it was sweet because the time is starting, although probably brief, where they can actually start playing together.
Not only was this last birthday really special for Rooney and Ailbe since they were turned 5 and 1 respectively but they also had a whole lot of grandparents out visiting. Grandma and Grandpa Wade happened to be out for their annual visit to the lake house and Great Grandma and Grandpa Morse also happened to be out to visit Grandma Peggie in her new house. We all had a lovely visit and I'm not really sure if this type of get together will ever happen again so hopefully Rooney will somewhat remember it. He still remembers his visit to Chicago about 4 years ago. This is due in most part to a solar powered butterfly Grandma and Grandpa Morse had in their backyard. He calls it a robot butterfly. He was also convinced for a long time that Grandma Peggie lived in a red house because she happened to be there during our visit. But thanks to my due diligence this picture was taken and the family trees can somewhat be explained since the start of most of our branches are in this picture.
This year we have some really special birthday milestones to celebrate. This month Rooney is turning 5 and Ailbe is turning 1. I know it has been a constant theme throughout this blog me asking where the time has gone, and still I am wondering. Rooney is becoming such a big boy and I am so proud of him. He had been through a lot the last 2 years with my pregnancy. He just rolled with it and adored his little sister once she was born. I am constantly reminded what a great kid he is by the sweet things he says and does and fully realize just how lucky we are to have him. This is our final year of buddying around and I think I'll miss the little guy when he starts school next Fall.
This birthday party at Flying Pie Pizzeria for the kids was really special for us because not only is Rooney turning 5 but we get to celebrate a whole year with Ailbe. I know a lot of people think it is silly to have a party for a 1 year old but when I think about all the trouble we had getting Ailbe here and now she's been here a whole year it is definitely worth celebrating. I can't imagine life without her anymore and she really rounded out this little family. We wanted to have a party not only to celebrate Roon and Pip's birthdays but also a little celebration for all our friends that really helped us out and made it alot easier to bring Ailbe home. I don't think I was able to convey that during the party so hopefully everyone there gets to read this.
Lastly, this celebration was really great because Rooney and Ailbe had several of their grandparents present as well. Grandma and Grandpa Wade were still here from their annual summer visit to Lake Morton and Great Grandma and Grandpa Morse were visiting from Chicago. Plus Grandma Peggie lives here now and I don't know when that will/would ever happen again. So many reasons to celebrate. We are going to have small "on the day" birthday parties for both the kids but for now I'm going off to cry about losing my babies...
Today Rooney, Ailbe and I met some friends at the new Microsoft Visitors Center. They took out the cool museum they used to have and added a visitors center where people can get hands on with video games and a few other neat features. Rooney had a great time trying to play some of the games and just being able to get his hands on some of the gadgets that Mom won't let him play with at home (like her phone!). We didn't see Daddy but we were able to get Rooney a security badge just like his Dad's.
Overall September was a pretty exciting month for us. So many visitors and several adventures. Before Grandma and Grandpa leave we wanted to do something kind of touristy and something we have not done before. So yesterday we went downtown to Ride the Ducks and had a fun family day. The tour was kind of like a booze cruise without the booze but it was enjoyable. We got to hear
alot of corny jokes from the Captain, Rooney got to wear some silly hats and we got to cruise around town in a amphibious vehicle. Ailbe entertained several of the other passengers dancing in her Ergo while we cruised around town to YMCA. She's proving to be a little ham just like her big brother.
The next day, Grandma and Grandpa watched the kiddos for Mike and I while we went with Grandma Peggie, Aunt Annie and Uncle Dana to climb a rope obstacle course. We had a great time and really got to test ourselves physically. Maybe even psychologically since we were 50ft off the ground. Having the rope course set up right outside of Redhook Brewery also help to ensure that we had a nice if you know what I'm saying. In September the weather can always be iffy here in the PNW but as you can see we really lucked out. This was a great summer and the last two days were a really nice way to wrap it up.
I love when I can combine my family with my other passion of running. Most days lately it seems I am abandoning my family to get in runs or to run with clients. Monday morning I do take Ailbe and she chills out (kind of) in the jogger while I run but that is an exception more than a rule (really just a necessity) so I was glad when the whole family was able to run in the Seahawks 12k and Kids 1/2mi. Race this year. Mike and I so rarely get to run together but fortunately the last few years we have managed to be able to. It does help that Mom lives just a few blocks from the start line. Rooney has run this race twice I think but this was Ailbe's first shot. They both did great! Rooney came in like a champ and Ailbe had a good time running with Grandma Peggie and Daddy. Seems all the running I've been doing this last quarter with clients and the new bootcamp classes I have going on have paid off because Mike and I both got a PR this race. Felt good and strong! A family that runs together stays together. That's how the saying goes, right?
