Seeing Santa

We waited 3 1/2 hours only to get to the front of the line and learn that no personal pictures were allowed. This is absolutely the most expensive picture with Santa that ever existed, but gosh my babies with that old man are just irresistible so no further thought went to the matter! I love the magical innocence that glows in their eyes this time of year. Being a kid is beautiful, and I hope that I'm giving them every opportunity to enjoy it.

Ever's Sleepover with Corduroy

Ever Knight has been waiting for his turn to bring Corduroy home for a sleepover since the very first day of Pre-K. Of course when it was finally our turn Quinny was sick so we had to mostly hang-out indoors with the sweet little bear, but Everett wasn't bothered in the least. We made cookies with Corduroy, we ate bacon with corduroy, we played games with Corduroy, and we cried big crocodile tears when three days later we had to return Corduroy back to Ms. Ana.  

Such a feeler, that Everett. Wish we could've kept Corduroy forever!

A Surprise Wiglet, Coming Right Up

I'm having another baby.

 If that news is at all surprising to you, just imagine how I felt the day after Quinny's first birthday when I learned that my moodiness and nausea were the result of her sibling growing wildly in my belly!!! Honestly, to say I was shocked is the understatement of the century. I guess to explain my reaction, I should mention that getting pregnant for us usually means months and months of planning, charting, temping and worrying. I'd never even considered I'd have a "wow! what a surprise!" pregnancy because frankly, history has never shown me that that was a possibility. Well, it's a possibility my friends. No, it's now my reality! Wow! What a surprise! I'm having a baby next year the first week of June! T will have just turned 7, Ever Knight will still be four, Quinny will be 20 months old and bam! I'll be the mother of four in a two bedroom apartment! (Enter Jim Gaffigan's monologue on how responsible that is. "We thought it through!")

The fog of shock was thick for a good month after I saw those two little lines. The majority of my time was spent worrying that this new baby would be more than any of us could handle so I held the news close to my chest, not trusting my own reaction to our surprise announcement, let alone the reaction of others. Not to mention I continued the tradition of horrible morning sickness--less throwing up this time but more food aversions and random gagging attacks and with debilitating exhaustion to boot. It was in this frame of mind that I found myself in my OB's office for my 8 week ultrasound. I don't know what I was expecting, but when I looked at the monitor and saw my newest little love waving and dancing and bobbing it's head up and down to the sound of a strong heartbeat I started sobbing and was filled with more love than I knew possible. It was as if that baby knew the worries of my soul and was telling me, "It's OK Mom! Don't worry. I'm a party-friend just like you and I can't wait to join your circus--er, family!" I can't say that all my anxieties are now suddenly gone, but I will say that I love that baby something fierce already and after that appointment I felt much more peace and joy about the whole situation and am definitely more excited!

Telling the boys made me even more thrilled, and reminded me how lucky I am to have such stellar children. Sure, Ever was mostly only interested in the Baby Ruth's that were in their "surprise" and Quinn was running around the temple grounds like a wild woman, but Talmage studied that ultrasound photo and once he realized what it all meant he laughed himself straight to tears and thanked us for giving him another sibling! That moment will definitely go down in history as one of the more special conversations of my life and reminded me of a quote my friend once told me, "The greatest gift you can give your child is another sibling." 

 So, there you go! One last Wiglet, coming at us in June! Can't wait to meet this new darling!

 My party-baby!

T finding out he was getting another baby!!!

It's beginning to look a lot like, well you know the rest!

Our mail-order tree arrived the week after Thanksgiving and it's a good thing I didn't trust myself to cut one down this year because no one was in the health to do it! Set-up took a lot longer than we hoped it would but a week later and this baby is looking just as lovely as can be (which is a relief because on first glance I was sure I had never met one uglier). I love to turn on a cheesy Christmas movie, curl up on the couch with a warmy blanket and cup of cocoa and bask in the beauty of my tree and the season. I love Christmastime so much.

UCLA vs. Kentucky

When a partner at the firm sends you an email offering three $400 seats to the UCLA vs. Kentucky basketball game there should never be even a slight hesitation as to whether or not it's a good idea to take them. And there wasn't. Because free-to-us seats at a college ball game is like heaven to me. A last minute babysitter was found for the younger two and Talmage got a special date with both of his parents. On the way to the game we were trying to figure out the last time T had a real date alone with BOTH of us, and you know what, we're pretty sure it was before Everett was born! We definitely won't wait that long again because it was so much fun and he was such a great date! Alone time with kids is such a rarity and it's so interesting to get to know them as separate entities from their siblings. What I learned on this date? T's favorite snack bar food is a salted pretzel, he's kind of a Sprite-hog when you share a fountain soda and he loves basketball almost as much as I did. Oh, and he's fiercely loyal to the home team, booing bad calls and waiving his pom-pom wildly over UCLA 3-pointers. 

 James and T and about every food option the concession stand had to offer. I mean, the seats were free...we had to make up for it somehow, right?!

We also lucked out by going on free shirt night. They're adult t-shirts, but that didn't keep T from wearing his for the whole game and begging to wear it to school everyday. It's a bed shirt for now, but I don't know how much longer I'm going to win this war!

UCLA beat Kentucky (who WAS ranked #1) so as you can imagine the game was intense, the crowd was wild and the energy in that arena could have lit the Empire State Building. We saw quite a few celebrities including Shaq and Jaleel White and it made me feel just a little old when T had no idea who either of them were (really kid? Stephan Urkel?!)

As if we hadn't had enough treats, we decided to go out for frozen yogurt at Big Chill. We came home with a tired T to a clean house (thanks babysitter!) that felt so much more welcoming after a fun night out. I can't wait until the next time we can go to a Bruins game!

Thanksgiving 2015

When Talmage went back to school the Monday after Thanksgiving they were asked to write a report about what they did over the break. He wrote, "Thanksgiving this year was not as I expected because my brother and sister were really sick. Even though we couldn't go to Sacramento, I still thought it was awesome." I was so worried that we were all going to think it was the worst holiday of our lives (not because we haven't spent them alone before because we have and they were great, just because we hadn't prepared and had different expectations) so his report made me smile both inside and out. Thanksgiving 2015 was definitely not what we expected, but it's now officially in the books and take it from T, it was pretty awesome! I'm grateful for a lot of things, but my three little Wiglets and their daddy definitely top my list. 

The day after Thanksgiving the kids were still infectious but we (I!!!) desperately needed out of the house! My all-time favorite tradition is taking a trip to Apple Hill the day after Thanksgiving, but since that wasn't a possibility we did our research and escaped for some fresh air in the SoCal mountains that also housed an apple orchard. We drank apple cider and ate caramel apples and ate apple donuts and bought homemade goodies and freshly-picked Pink Ladies and even though we weren't with all of my family (the thing that really makes Apple Hill wonderful) this place was a Grand Slam. James and I decided that we will definitely go back here and make it into our new LA tradition. (I'm convinced the reason James liked it so much is because it snowed. It snowed! He definitely tricked us warm weather lovers to get us there!)

Until next year Thanksgiving....

The Plague, I mean Hand Foot Mouth

The moment I realized our Thanksgiving trip to Sacramento would be cancelled due to sickness was not one of my finest. 

We had been sick for nearly a month by that point--starting with the stomach flu and cycling through colds, pink eye, ear aches and anything other plague Ev decided to bring home from preschool--and I was trying so hard to be optimistic about our circumstances but to be honest the kid-induced house arrest was making me want to explode. "At least we're getting it all out of our system before Thanksgiving!" I would say with a smirk, and maybe some "Rah! Rah! Rah's!" for good measure because what I needed more than anything was a trip to Sac to visit with family and take a long, deep, these-are-my-people breath. But everyone had to be well in order to make that possible. 

Quinny spiked a fever on the Sunday night before Thanksgiving that couldn't be brought down, and then refused to eat or drink anything all day on Monday so I knew our trip would be delayed but still hoped a quick antibiotic would clear whatever infection was brewing in her baby body. But there was no infection, said our sweet doctor. It was a virus. A highly contagious virus. A yucky, horrible, "there are hundreds of blisters in your baby's throat, no wonder she won't eat" kind of virus. Quinn had hand, foot, mouth disease and we were not going to Sacramento.   

Quinn and I spent the rest of the day Monday and all day Tuesday crying in unison--her from a sore throat and me from a sore heart. By Tuesday night I was ordering a turkey and stuffing to be delivered to the LA Wiggy five and feeling so. darn. sad. But like my mom always says--take a deep breath, have a short cry and get to work. My short cry may have lasted a few days but then it was time to make Thanksgiving as magical as possible for my boys who were devastated that Sacramento was no longer on the table. More on our Thanksgiving week in another post, but by Wednesday night Everett had also broken out in blisters so it was a good thing we didn't go and spread the wealth with family. Even though it was lame!

Anyway, this was just a little post to explain my blog absence the past few weeks and to remind myself someday that mothering was/is the hardest job in the world and I should pat myself on the back. We are once again a healthy household and I'm just crossing my fingers and saying my prayers that it stays that way for a long, long time...at least through our Christmas trip to Sac. If you happen to have an extra finger to spare or if your knees aren't already too swollen from extended Heavenly talks a little mention of the Wigs would be greatly appreciated!

My first clue that something was really wrong was that she refused to sleep in her crib, instead insisting that I wrap her up like a burrito and cuddle her to my chest. She wasn't even a snuggler as a bitty baby so this was so novel and sweet but also a blaring siren that something was not right! On Monday right before I took her to the doctor she was so weak that I picked her up and she immediately fell asleep on my shoulder--that poor, poor little girl.

Other than those cuddles, our house mostly looked like this:

She was miserable, meaning the boys were miserable and basically the whole house felt pretty darn miserable. It took two whole weeks (plus a little) of house arrest before both kids were hand, foot, mouth free and I can't tell you how glad we are to get back to everyday life.

This silly smile is definitely something we missed and we are so, so glad our Quinny is back to herself again. Ridiculous blog catch-up is about to ensue, you've been warned!