A Paone Thing

All those disney cartoons about prince charming, marriage, etc. put thoughts in my little girls head that should not be there yet. Violet told me today who she plans to marry. Nic and Sherry’s little guy, Daren, apparently “looks very nice and is a very good friend.” She went on to say she wants to marry him when she’s older.” I told her she’s too young to even think about such things, but she told me “Don’t worry, mommy. I won’t get married now. I want to marry him when I get older.” Heh.  They sure laugh and giggle a lot. Ah, well…

I had to tell Violet today that Windy, a dear friend who helps me with the kids part time, is leaving Monday. Here is a sneak peak at Violet’s thought process.

Me: Violet, did you know Windy’s leaving in a few days to go live with her mommy and daddy?

Violet: Mommy, what about Windy’s lipgloss?

Me: Violet, I don’t know about her lipgloss, but I’m going to miss her.

Violet: Mommy, who’s going to watch us when Windy leaves?

– There you go. Took a little while for that to kick in. Glad she finally came around.

We will miss you, Windy (and your lipgloss). Thank you for all your help with the kids. Safe journeys in sunny Florida.

As I’m brushing Violet’s teeth the other night I asked her she liked her “Ariel” teeth — what the dentist told her was happening as she drilled/filled her cavities. Violet told me,  “Oh, yes. I like them. I still need to get my “Cinderella” teeth. After that I want some “Jasmine” teeth.” Heh. I guess she’s planning on a few more cavities. Ugh! Thanks, Dr. Layla.

Justin and Jude are both October boys and we’ve been having fun celebrating in anticipation of each of their big days. We celebrated Jude’s birthday at Oma’s Pumpkin Patch with a bunch of his little friends. The kids loved the hay maze, the cotton seed slide. Jude was in Heaven getting to ride on all the big farm equipment. He was a little horror on the hayride, but that was my fault for not following my instincts that he was still a little too young for that. Violet is a pro at milking cows and Jude’s good at terrorizing the baby cows in the petting zoo. For Justin’s birthday celebration, we teamed up birthdays with Maria of Sam (Doehler) and enjoyed beer and sausages (and real beer floats) at the Stone Ale Brewery Gardens and Bistro in Escondido. I fell in love with that place and can’t wait to go back. I haven’t seen anything quite like it, the mix of modern architecture, beer and gardens. If you’re ever in Escondido, ask me to take you there. I’d be happy to oblige.

Tomorrow is Justin’s big day. He’s been a little sick with sinus problems, but hopefully he’ll be up and around tomorrow enough to party just a little.  Jude, meanwhile, yep… he’s still teething. Another molar just broke through, poor baby. Violet is a happy little clam…. er, mermaid these days. She’s just being her princessy little self. I scored a few princess dresses and a some cute outfits for her at the annual Parent Connection swap meet. So, be on the lookout for Belle or Snow White (with a real red bow) walking around our home next time you’re over.  You’ll score extra brownie points if you can name the princess right and comment on her dress when she looks down and pats it timidly.  Jude, meanwhile, is busy practicing with his dragon gear. Apparently he’s got a knight or two to take out with some firey breathing in a couple weeks at the kids dress up party.

Here are a few pictures at the Pumpkin Patch

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To keep this from being my absolute worst posting month, I’m sneaking in one last September post. — just a small update. I can’t give any major excuses for my absence from the blog, except maybe really bad internet.  The two constants in my life these days — bad internet and Jude teething. Heh. He just got his first molar this past week. He walks, talks, reads… okay, fine — he just walks and shrieks all throughout the house all day. Other than that, he’s about the naughtiest kid on the block at the moment. We were joking about needing to make him a special play box with plugs, a fan, some extra electric sockets, sprinkler heads, small rocks, a spoon to bang on things, a cell phone and IPOD to throw in the garbage or flush down the toilet the second you’re not looking. He rushes out the door every time it opens and God forbid you try to sneak out of the room without him. He will walk up and bite you on your toes and feet if you’re not paying attention — or give you a nice bear hug followed by a little bite on the shoulder. Ahem. He turns one on October 24th and will celebrate his first birthday (weather permitting) at Oma’s Pumpkin Patch with a few friends. So… that’s the 411 on Jude the Terrible.

Violet is my fairy princess. She’s going to her first official fairy party this coming weekend. Her friend, Carly, is turning 4, so that’s the occasion. She’s decided to be the Christmas Tree fairy. She has also decided that I can be no other than Poppy and Jude must be “little white clover.” Hmmm… We should have a few pictures to post in  a few short days. Violet is still learning to speak clearly, but her vocabulary is quite extensive. -She made her first real trip to the dentist last week and I was so proud of her.  I was nervous of having her sedated unless it was absolutely necessary and she ended up doing fine with the laughing gas. She was so brave and didn’t make a peep. She goes back in in few weeks to get her other two cavities filled — yep, she had 4. The dentist said it was from not flossing.

Justin and I celebrated our 5th anniversary by getting to go have a nice dinner sans two little ruffians. We enjoyed a few hours to dress up and go out to a fancy restaurant for some grown up time. That was fun! It’s been an exciting 5 years. I feel bad I didn’t do a anniversary post this year, but the good news is we BOTH remembered our anniversary in plenty of time to plan something nice together. Progress!

Well, that’s the midnight report. I’m tired and off to bed to wake up tomorrow morning in October, the month of birthday boys, time changes  and holloween parties.   Good night!

Dr. Chris Mlot hosted a special summer barbeque this past weekend. Justin and Violet decided there was no place like home, but Jude and I got to enjoy great company, gourmet food and be pool party animals for a few wonderful hours. I was feeling lazy on the photography front,  but you can blame it on Amy who found me sipping margaritas and chilling with friends and actually teased me about all the photo ops I was missing.  Heh.  The party was really was nice though. You could tell a lot of love and hard work had gone into making it just perfect. Thank you for a great time!

I am now the proud mother of a 10 month old. He’s such a little charmer, calls me “Mama,” waves, claps, sings. And then, a few days ago, Jude up and starts walking. He’s so proud of himself. He’s been balancing and taking a step here and there, but I haven’t been encouraging him much as I’m a firm believer in the crawling phase being very important. Well, that, and I’ve had this selfish desire to keep him a baby just a little bit longer. Then, last weekend Jude and I visited a family who has a toddler about Jude’s size who was walking all around. I could tell he was processing the fact that if this kid can do it, he probably could too. Anyways, we got home and immediately he started working on walking, turning, standing up and now he’s real getting the whole walking thing down. He’s also doing pretty good on the multi-tasking part of it. He can grab something, clap, carry a ball, waves his arms — all while walking (with just “a few” falls on his bottom). I was discussing his walking with Violet and that now he’s not so much of a baby anymore. She immediately pipes up, “Mommy, you need to have another baby now.” Ahem.

These little guys are growing so fast. Violet had her first sleepover last week in our guest room with her little 3 year old friend, Elena. I was worried that Violet would wake up and miss us, but apparently that didn’t happen. She woke up the next morning and bounced into the room to grab a few toys. I tried to say good morning and hug her, but she was so worried about getting back to play with her friend… grrr… Apparently, she also did not cry for us at all. She just played till midnight with Elena and then crashed on her own bed. I’m going to miss these days.

If you’re a Christian parent and have never been to a CHEA (Christian Home Educator’s Assoc.) Convention (like me till this past weekend), you don’t know what you’re missing! It’s a blast! I didn’t know what to expect and thought it was a very bad idea to try and attend something like this with a small… er, very large, baby in tow. But Activated Ministries is sponsoring the entrance fees for missionary parents this year and ALL my friends were going and insisted that I at least try. It turned out to be just what I needed at this point in my parenting life. I’ve been feeling so guilty about feeling like I just don’t have a grasp on where to start with educating my little ones. Oh, I know they’re just 3 and under 1 years old… and, yes, I know all parents probably feel guilty no matter what they do, but I’m talking more about that nagging feeling that there IS something you can do and you’re just not focusing on it enough to find out where square one is.  I don’t want early readers or child prodigy’s, but I want to feel like I have a plan for my kids and that they’re at least getting some quality focus and the right foundation both academically, spiritually and in their character building.

The CHEA helped set some things in motion that will help me with that and I feel like I’ve gotten a little bit of a jump start now. They had amazing classes on so many different topics. Well, to be honest, tugging around an 8 month old who only wants to flirt with all the other girl babies in the class and discuss his opinions as loudly as the designated speaker, got me kicked out of at least one class. I got about 5 classes (out of maybe a hundred). My favorites were one given by David Hazell of My Father’s World on the topic of Occupying your preschooler while you’re doing other stuff. To be honest, I was trying to get tips on how to keep Violet happier while I’m doing email, but instead I feel he totally renewed my vision for home schooling at a time when I was losing that vision. He made it seem so doable and like something I could probably still do even if I have other work and responsibilities. I mean, here’s a dad who homeschooled his six children while his wife had to go back to work, one of them a nursing baby. I have it easy, right?

Then, the other speaker that really caught me was named Andrew Kudrow, or something along those lines. He gave an amazing lecture about the ways boys learn differently than girls. He recommended a book called Why Gender Matters, by Leonard Sax that explains the scientific differences between the sexes, such as… girls actually hear and see better or differently than boys do. There’s a whole lot to the lecture, but it sounds like a very interesting

I’m just starting to grasp some of that home schooler lingo now, but I did get to go to a convention and it’s definitely worth it. I recommend going if you want to get any help with parenting. These are pros… Christian pros.

Anyway, Jude and I had fun. We sneaked out of the hotel room on the last day to let the other girls we went with sleep in. We were just going to walk around Long Beach and kill time, but… heheh, I came across a really cool aquarium that I couldn’t resist. So we ended up hanging out with a bunch of fish, jelly fish and an awesome octopus for a couple hours. My favorite was the Sea Otter though.

Yeah, so… we didn’t make that 6:45 flight to Indiana after all. I learned a thing or two, like, don’t be shy about asking them to hold the plane for 5 minutes if you’re almost there and stuck in the security line but oh, well, lesson learned. We were so close, but missed our flight by minutes. Thankfully, after much desperate prayer, we were re-routed to Kansas City, Missouri on standby with only 3 seats open. I had to fight for those. They kept holding out on me, but hey, they said they’d give them to us 10 minutes before the flight if they weren’t claimed. We’d waited for 4 hours for that flight.

It was looking pretty bleak — a choice between not going at all or a day from hell (up at 4:00 a.m. and getting in at midnight if we made standby on all 3 full flights), but after much prayer for miracles, an angel was at the counter in Kansas City.  He got us a free hotel at the Hilton and meal coupons without us even asking. Thank God for Southwest Airlines employees with a heart. Can’t say the same for the San Diego staff, but Kansas City has a really nice guy named “Burt” who realized what was going on and made a few calls to get us taken care of.  I think he told everyone what had happened to us, because even the shuttle and Hilton staff were very helpful and too excellent care of us. The kids loved the hotel room, we got showered and rested up, and best of all, Maya, my sister, just happened to be in town for the weekend. I thought that was just one of those special little things the Lord does to encourage you after an especially rough time. We had dinner with her and then made it to Indiana the next morning in time for the reunion.

We had a blast with all the Bennington/Bruni/Paones. Grandpa Bennington is a blast. He’s so alert for his age and is very smart and funny. I love meeting relatives and getting to know them. It’s so interesting to see how many traits get passed on to younger generations. For instance, Justin’s grandpa is quite the engineer and I see a lot of that in Justin and even in Jude. You just see him always trying to figure out how things work, even at his young age. Then, Grandma Marty was very fun to talk to. Talking to our grandparents helps put thing in perspective for me. Seeing what they’ve come through and the issues they’ve faced and how they dealt with it gives me so much respect and admiration for them and somehow helps you feel like you’re not alone in the issues you face.  Of course, getting to see Clara, Claire, Rosie and all my very cool relatives was also a real treat. Thanks, Sandy and Marty, for pulling this all off. The kids did so well, all things considered. Violet was thrilled with every plane trip and would still be on one if she had her way.

We’re home now and the kids are recovering from their coughs and colds. We just got back from a 4th of July picnic, followed by a 4th of July bbq. No fireworks, but hey, you can’t do everything (yet).