doing something ...

I figured that we needed to do a little more then just **tch on facebook about the sorry state of affairs in Minnesota and how much Pawlenty irks me.   So I introduced Lucy (and myself) to some political activism right outside of the chambers, during the closing session when legislators are trying to balance our budget.  We wanted a fair approach to balancing the budget (not so much on the backs of children and folks in poverty please).  We wanted them to "do the right thing".   

A little photo essay of the evening:

Lucy on the steps of the State Capital.  She's ready to rock and roll!!!

Thankfully we ran into our friend A (not pictured) who is married to someone in the know!

He let us in the side door and brought us up to the rally. 

turns out we walked in the doors closest to Tim Pawlenty's office.  Shockingly he was not at work.

Here's Lucy handing a note requesting a meeting with our representative

Jeff Hayden.

While we waited for Rep. Hayden to come talk to us. Lucy chatted it up

with various Representatives.  Apparently she gave an Invest in Minnesota sticker

to the republican nominee for governor (i might have this fact mixed up).  She also offered a

sticker to a pretty conservative lobbyist (for the "other side"). 

We didn't have to wait long before Rep. Hayden came to chat with us, his constituents.

He was really awesome.  Lucy (with no prompting) told him that Pawlenty made it so the Southside kids couldn't go to work anymore. She also mentioned that our friend Risa couldn't go to work anymore.

Lucy asked Mr. Hayden to please get our money back, and he told her he would do his best! 

Lucy learned about making her voice heard tonight!

Here is Lucy listening to someone talking, and cheering "do the right thing"

Lucy inside the State Capital, in the hallway near Pawlenty's office and Lucy on the front steps.

my sweetie pie did really good work tonight!!! 

Thanks for speaking up baby cakes!

busy building boys (and girl)

I decided to overcome my strong urge to "make everything easier" by allowing computer/wii/nick jr to babysit for me tonight. I was glad I did. We had a pretty mellow, fun evening playing indoor basket ball with a beach ball and a puppet theater followed by building structures (or in some cases guns) with toothpics and gum drops. Unbelievably the kids were entertained by the building for about 45 minutes!

Jacob was NOT content with playdough. He needed sharp pointy toothpicks just like the big kids

by far my most serious "engineery" builder

Isaac spent a lot of time resisting the urge to eat the building materials

I was shocked that Lucy stayed involved and focused almost the whole time.

after an initial catastrophic building collapse,

Nathan revamped his design implimenting the ever strong triangle.

Some nights ...

Some nights are dreamy.  I arrive at preschool and Lucy seems chill.  Good reports on her school day all around.  Lucy walks from her room, down the steps and climbs into the car just like that (believe me I never fail to appreciate when the normal things go smoothly, usually by this time we've had at least 3 "issues"). 

Arrive at home, Lucy lets the dog out and we chill for a bit.  I lay on the sofa, feeling pretty spent, Lucy plays with Zep, chats with me and the house is still dark (it's been real rainy) and quiet (no radio, no tv).  I finally get up, cook a simple dinner and put it on the table.  Lucy walks over and sits down and STARTS EATING.  No struggles, no whining just easy like a dream.  We chat during dinner.   While I clean up dinner Lucy plays with playdough and then we make lemon poppy seed muffins together NOT ONE SINGLE STRUGGLE.

While the muffins cook Lucy changes into pj's.  We play some more.  Before I know it it's snack time and tv time.  We settle in for 1/2 hour of Idol and then it's lucy's bedtime. 

EASY EASY night.  
I do see that this blog would have died years ago if every night was like tonight.  
boring
safe
and totally appreciated (every once in awhile)

5 year old stats

Took our Lucy girl to her well child check this morning.  The girl was BOUNCING off the walls, but in a energetic (non naughty) way.  She was a hoot.  Lucy had 4 shots today, poor kid.  Well I was correct in my feelings that the kid grew a million feet over night.  Since she was about 12 months old she's been consistantly on the 25% for height 25% for weight ... suddenly now at her 5 year check she's at 50-75% for height and maintaining 25% for weight.  Her BMI is perfect. 

Weight: 37#
Height 43"

To those we left behind ...

We talked about you today (we do that a lot).  We thought about you today (we do that everyday).   We bought these roses, as we do every year so we could see, touch and smell you on Eskedar's birthday. 

Sharing her birthday

It's Lucy's birthday AND It's World AIDS Orphans Day, a grassroots campaign to draw attention to and advocate on behalf of the 20 million children orphaned by AIDS. AHOPE for Children is a non-profit organization that supports children in Ethiopia--from newborn babies to teens--orphaned because of AIDS and infected with HIV/AIDs thems...elves. Please consider supporting AHOPE by texting 85944 and type in the word "AHOPE" to make a $10 donation.For more info and other ways to donate please visit http://www.ahopeforchildren.org/. p.s. Mother's Day donation cards are available on the website (thank's BTW to whoever I stole most of this status update from).

Four no more ...

Today was Lucy's last day of being four years old.  I must admit she rocked it!   Mama had a advisory board meeting until 9pm on Wednesday night and Lucy was still awake when I picked her up at 9:30.  She went to bed when we got home at 10pm so that put her at T - 2 hours of sleep deprivation which historically ain't been pretty.   Lucy held her stuff together pretty well today considering.  Brief melt down when Zep left to go on "errands" with Jen tonight but other wise she did great which was stellar considering it was  the big KINDERGARTEN registration night at her new and huge school. 

first lucy and baileys the cat had a nice snuggle session. i think the cat helped to center lucy and emotionally prepare her to the evening ahead.  lucy sure loved that baileys wanted to sit on her lap!

lucy sat very still during face painting time

crazy fancy facepainting

lucy sitting at one of the tables in one of four kindergarten classrooms.  oh the nerves of it all.

and then they put our little tiny babies on these huge ginormous yellow tubes of death

breathe stacy breathe

she's soooooo teeeny tiny.  what if they let her get off at the wrong stop? what if she hides under the seats?

what if she falls asleep??? ...  breathe stacy breathe

miss kitty cat lucy was PISSED that the bus didn't actually go anywhere. 

it was about here where the -2 hours of sleep started rearing it's ugly head.

lucy was all sorts of teenager cool telling grandma about

her evening at her big kid school.

Can't believe that when Lucy wakes up she will be 5 years old.  Wow. More on that later.

political ranting

obviously Lucy listens to her mama's phone conversations ... must figure out how to use this to my advantage. For now I enjoy the spontaneous political rantings of a 4 year old vs Tim Pawlenty

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

A week from tomorrow ...

I can't believe that Lucy is heading into her last week as a 4-year-old. Seriously can any of your believe this??? 
Here's the sleeping 4 year old tonight

and then we have her last year at this time when she was 3 years old and recovering from her surgery

and here at 2 years old

and 1 year (almost 2)

and almost 1 (in the stripes) with her friend Bennett ...

they were room mates in Ethiopia and now go to preschool together!

Nothing like going through old photos to help take my mind and heart off of the sad endings that will begin to take place tomorrow at work.  We go in to work and open an envelop in our mailbox, we'll either get a note with the agenda for an afternoon meeting to go over our agency plans for surviving the budget cuts or we'll get a note with a mornign meeting time to talk about our full or partial lay off.  We also find out how many families and children will loose services at our agency, and this kills me the most.  Uggghhh.

Why?

Does Lucy keep calling me Mama Odie?   This morning ... over the monitor:  "Mama Odie ... Mama OOOOODDDDIEEEEE I am awake!"  

Whoa! Dat der's a boatload of kids!

nothing like being put in charge of a pack of young, active, sassy kids to take your mind off of such stressfull thinks as job security, the downfall of humanity, a backload of paperwork and other issues.  I can pretty much say that from 5pm - 8pm thoughts of non immediate stressors did not enter my brain.  I'd like to say it was a nice relaxing break but ...

for a while they all congregated on this one patch of concrete patio.

a little crowded with a high potential for catfights and injury

you see here we have Nathan blocking Morgan's path (it was HIS turn after all)

and Jacob blocking Lucy's path (for that is his job, he's a blocker)

Jacob insisted on getting involved with activities that were over his head

you know, to help keep my mind off of job insecurity and the sad state

of the world.  Thanks Jakers!

thankfully, just as things were taking a serious turn for the worse

the neighbor kids came out and agreed to a rousing game of kick ball.

I lost 4 out of 5 kids to the neighbors yard, which I think is a wonderful

way to babysit.

so cute

the giant popsicles kept them sitting and quiet for 4 minutes

I wonder what has managed to capture and captivate the kids attention???

ahhh it's the neighbor kid with his big ole machine (um nerf) gun!

the forbidden fruit ... we all want it. these kiddos are very

attracted to the GUN.

Peace out! 

Weekend ...

I started my weekend last night went to the new Twins stadium with my cousin Jen while my mom babysat Lucy.  The new stadium is soooooo amazing, I LOVE it, and the Twins won too!   Today with the help of my parents and my cousins Tyler and Luke I built this:

this was an area rendered perma-mud by our ginormous swimming pool.  So now in the off-pool season (about 10 months of the year) we can enjoy a nice clean pation

instead of constantly wiping very very muddy doggy paw prints off the floor

Lucy will miss her worm/bug hunting grounds.  I will not.

ahhhh Lucy

Lucy has mere months until she becomes a KINDERGARTENER and this momma is scared.  For one thing, how dare kids grow up this fast, how dare they.  Seriously. How is it that come 6:30 pm it seems like the minutes painfully and tantrumfully tick tock away until bedtime but at the same time the years whizz by flying maniaclly laughing at you "na na nanana"???  

a letter to Lucy (for the world to see):

Dear Lucy,

Momma is scared for you. You are about to enter the big ol' mean world of public education.  Dont' get me wrong, it's a lot of fun too.  You'll get to learn things and do things that momma couldn't teach you.  For now though I am nervous for you.  I am nervous that you are going to spend a lot of time getting into trouble for being you.  Your inability to NOT attend to every thing around you might not serve you well in a class of 28. Your need for socialization and vocalization might get you in trouble. You are such an individual, so very unique and artistic and all of these are really really awesome traits unless your teacher (and your mother at times ) just wants you to put the eyes and mouth INSIDE of the drawing of the head.  I get scared every night when I can't get you to listen to even one short book, or one chapter of a book. I know you know when grownups are unhappy with you and I know it just makes you act up even worse (you get so nervous about that) and it's breaking my heart to think of you going through hell over the next several years. 

Part of me really really hopes that you continue to prove me wrong.  That you excel at traditional learning, that you are an appropriate (not so bossy and tattle taley) peer to your fellow classmates.  I know I just have to let go and we will face these challenges together.

For now, lets enjoy this last spring and summer of your "little kidness" and be thankful for every painfully slow witching hour we have together. 

I love you,
Mom

helping plant our (now dead) tomato seedlings.  Mother Nature Gardens here we come

zep is a little OCD about these little tennis balls.

chatting with the neighbor dudes

my sleeping preschooler

Easter and then out

Easter Sunday was our last hurrah before reentering the mean ole world of work.  Please know that I'll tone down the working mother whining come September when Lucy is in kindergarden (except for class field trip days, class volunteer opportunities, and every stinking summer).  Anyways back to the joy right?   Let's tell the story of Sunday and Monday in photos shall we ...

Lucy and Great Grandma before easter dinner

sweet kisses for Jen

on the hunt

cousin tyler's haul

watching Tyler work

tossing the cauliflower in balsamic vinegar and olive oil for tonights dinner

Lucy was in charge of washing the chard*

*Carrie (MP and HG's mom) has convinced us that chard is da bomb.  Sort of bombed tonight but that was likely the fault of the cook and we are committed to trying again once it's in season here!