some recent stories to share

Alright, I know I'm posting a lot. This story was more relevant Sunday night or Monday morning, but I think it worth telling:

It is Sunday evening, 5:50 - dinner is in the oven... Mario is out digging in the yard with MJ, Joey is off playing somewhere (I'm not sure where b/c I'm a lazy mother and let him roam freely), I'm trying to comfort Sheila who still has a cold and cough and wasn't sure if she wanted to nurse or not. I was just putting her in the swing when I hear Mario shout "Tricia, we have visitors" The tone in his voice made me realize this might be someone whom I should be worried about seeing the mess...otherwise he would have said visitors in a happy way... such as, the Kazas have arrived unexpectadly! And our house was TRASHED. Do you know what a house looks like after 4 days and nights of coughs in which the mother plays musical beds with the sickest child? Add to that our feeble attempts to get house projects started over the weekend such as yardwork and crown molding which usually involves sending the children off somewhere to play while messes accumlate around us.

Yes, well, our unexpected guests were our sweet older neighbor who goes to our church and the orinigal owner of our house. I was absolutlely mortified. I don't think there was one foot of the house that was clean enough to look at. And the poor woman was just trying to recall happy memories of the house. It turns out she lives nearby and is going through a divorce. She only went in our main floor and then the basement, but I think then realized it would be worse if she continued her tour (and the timer for dinner was going off). On her way out she tried to say something about wishing us many happy memories in our house, but was probably crying on the inside to see her beautiful former home in ruins. I want to invite her back... but in some way so as she thinks it was a suprise for me, and that she can see my house is always immaculate... the pain is slowly going away... i kind of wish I could have this memory removed.

Meanwhile, I'm sure our nice neighbor who knows MJ and Joey better than I as I always let my children play alone outside, unsupervised, while Joey eats dirt and MJ works up his excitement til he is foaming at the mouth...and now that she sees how messy the house is on the inside, I'm sure I'll be getting a call from CPS soon.

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I also should share MJs comments about God from bedtime tonight. Our library has some new Christian books, which was rather exciting. So I grabbed one about Easter and one about how God is our creator. They were innocent enough, nothing against the Catholic faith. And MJ really loves hearing about God and Jesus. Joey repeats everything now so he just kept saying "God" and "Jesus" in his cute Joey voice. After the book we talked about how God is real and MJ said, "Yes, but I cannot see him" pause "God is busy working in heaven. But when I talk to God, he stops working and listens." God is so good like that. Does this mean I should stop typing away on the computer when MJ calls for me to help him get juice for the 10th time?

St. Patrick's Day - more pics

Going Green

Here are a few more pictures from our celebration of St. Patrick's Day. Since everyone can be Irish on St. Patrick's Day, and since our family is Irish, we felt we should make an effort. So here we are decked in green, with green shamrock jello, green shamrock sugar cookies, sprite that has been dyed green, corned beef and cabbage, mashed potatoes, and Irish soda bread (compliments of our friend Kristin). The evening of fun continued with some Irish music and dancing on the coffee table.

Birthday Fun

Here are a few pictures from Mario's birthday on Saturday. He insisted that no one make a big deal about his birthday, and yet with the gorgeous weather we enjoyed a lovely morning with Tommy, Peter, and Catherine at the park. Tabitha and Babu arrived to pick up the kids, but we made them stay and talk with us out on our deck for awhile. Then we made a massive cleaning of the house in 5 hours before my friends from college arrived. (One is expecting her first baby, and I didn't want to scare her with the messes that kids make). However, they could not avoid a sick and coughing MJ and Joey who put his hands in his stinky pants and made a mess by the table after dinner.

Mario had some crazy birthday presents some of which were: a big level for upcoming projects and a fire extinguisher (in case those projects turn out badly). Though they weren't wrapped, he also got a mitre saw and nail gun. Some more thoughtful presents included: a photo book about him and Joey and a frame for an ND poster he has had since college. The Kaza kids made some cards for him, and MJ made a card that had 2 dozen WALL-E robots and some other intricate drawings.






Me, Andrea (and baby), Kelly
Here are some pictures from Sunday. Joey gave Sheila his blanket.

This is MJ and some of his WALL-E robot drawings.
Our new favorite place to hang out in nice weather.

Happy Birthday Mario!

Man, my husband is old! :-) Here's a little tribute to the birthday guy!

We can't be outdown by Tabitha & Babu or Mary & Ryan.

I wonder which day was a better day for you:

This one?

Or this one?

Actually, you don't have to answer. :-)

Smile!

I was just checking the closet to see what I have for Miss Sheila to wear before the spring Catholic Consignement sale in a few weeks. I learned two things: 1) Baby girl clothes are kinda cute (see example outfit below) and 2) I have a LOT of them already... in fact, I don't think I have to go shopping for her, which is sad. Well, at least MJ is getting bigger, so I know I could get some stuff for him.

Sheila is very spoiled that Daddy works from home most days.

This big brother loves to hold Sheila.

And this big brother loves to play with her.

Many "Starts"

Joey realized he is two years old and started throwing more tantrums. Monday he had at least 6 major tantrums, and since then he's been having fewer. I forgot about this stage in a child's development and had hoped that our sweet, joyful Joey would simply skip over all of this. He actually seems to be handling them quite well. He is growing up in so many ways. I think we should officially start toilet training for Joey as for the last month he's been occasionally using it. The last 2 weeks he has been consistent just before his bath but likes to stand up like MJ does. This is just going to be so different from toilet training MJ...we'll see how it goes.

Sheila has started being awake more during the day and we've all enjoyed making her smile. It's cute when MJ makes up his own songs to sing to her. I believe Joey and Sheila understand each other in a way we cannot see. Here is Joey sharing his favorite cars with Sheila (this reminds me of MJ's first encounter with baby Joey).

As MJ is now 4 years old, I thought we should start trying pre-school with him for a bit. We've only had 2 days of it, but I really love teaching him. It's been fun going through the many materials that I saved from my teaching days (which Mario always felt accumulated way too many boxes). But I really enjoy seeing how MJ thinks and seeing him as a big kid like the ones I taught 5 years ago. Our first day he decided to call me Teacher when we were doing school, and thought it was pretty funny that when school was finished and I made lunch for him I became Mommy again. We've been doing school in the morning, and today as I was finished with all I wanted to get through, MJ was still asking for more. And then around dinner time, MJ asked if we could do more school. Now, I know this is not a compliment to me as that kids his age just love to learn. I fondly remember the comment of one of my kindergarten student's on her first day of school, "I've been waiting for this my whole life!"

Here are a few pictures from our visit to St. Louis 2 weeks ago... I realize I never posted them, and I was out of cute pictures of the kids.

Big Girl bath tub!
In the same bassinet that I had as a kid.
This onesie was made at a baby shower when I was pregnant with MJ. We've gotten a lot of use out of it!