5 Kids for 2 Days

I remember freaking out while I was pregnant with Jarom about the huge step from one kid to two. I mean, I had a routine down with Keahi and the new arrival was going mess things up with all the feedings and naps and crying. But, 3 years later, I think I've got a handle on two kids.....but having three still freaks me out. I've heard it's the hardest step since once you've got three down, adding extra ones is a breeze. Hmmmm....not sure if I believe the breeze part. (Bettina, what did you think of going from 3 to 5?) But now I can say I know what having 5 kids would be like--specifically 2 sets of twins and a baby. It's exhausting. Especially since I forgot what having a baby was like and my arms weren't prepared for the constant weight of baby Alex--particularly compared to my lightweight boys. But, aside from the constant need to be held, Alex was very simple to care for. Eat, play, sleep. Repeat as needed. It was mostly the older kids that got wild.
The first day was great. So easy I thought I was wrong about worrying about another kid. It made a big difference to have Iz around the whole time. We took the kids to the Clinton Macomb Library that's about a 40 min. drive away but well worth the extra drive. The children's wing is full of things to play with, making the books kinda secondary. The drama stage is huge and well stocked with puppets large and small. There's an electric train circling above the entrance and a Thomas train table with lots of trains to chug around. Fire engine and bus facades and a horse and wagon to boot. And by the time we got home it was naptime for Jarom and baby Alex. And with only 3 kids and a huge basement full of toys, naptime flew by in relative peace. It was amazing what taking Jarom out of the mix fixed since it was mostly Jarom and William that bugged eachother. And pizza and a movie rounded out the evening. Bedtime was also not as bad as I'd feared. We put Alex down in our room and the Grange kids in the spare room--which was much better than my original plan to put all four big kids in the boys' room and the baby in the spare room. This way our boys went down almost immediately and the Granges followed suit after about an hour of talking and giggling. Of course, this was all after their impromptu group visit to the bathroom to get drinks and play with the faucet. But by 8:30pm all was quiet and Iz and I could relax.
The next day was not as idyllic. This time we went to Eastland Mall playscapes to burn off some energy. Iz watched them for a bit by himself while I ran some errands. And then there were multiple potty breaks in an unfamiliar mall with one very close call. And my brilliant idea to do lunchables to avoid fussing backfired since the nuggets and crackers stackers were not big Granger pleasers. I should have just stuck to pbj sandwiches. At least last night's dinner was mostly successful in that the Granges picked off the pepperonis to give to my boys who loved the extra toppings. It's funny how you can never predict kids' tastebuds. Bettina told me that she had similar pickiness problems when our boys were over there. She made homemade mac and cheese with vegetables and her kids ate all the mac and cheese and mine ate all the veggies. I still don't get how I could have kids who don't like mac and cheese. It's unnatural. Anyhow, naptime was less successful this day. I think the novelty of having friends over was wearing off quickly. But we persevered and had fun making New Year's hats and marching in a parade once the boys woke up. I felt bad sending the kids home to their parents with more noise makers but it's New Year's so it's expected, right? Anyhow, it all came to an end by dinner time and with only two kids in the house it felt almost relaxing. Nothing like five to make two seem easy. Then we put them down early and cleaned up for our grownup party to begin.
The Smiths and the Orlandis came over to eat and play games and ring in 2010 with us. With the three families we had the complete YW presidency and 2/3 the Elder's quorum presidency and the seminary instructor. Don't you just love small branches. We had quite the spread with Cyndi's applesauce porkchops with sauerkraut and several cheeses (including a baked brie I learned how to make from Damaris-thanks girl!) and sausages Iz had brought back from NY, and sweets and sparkling drinks galore. The cheesecake fudge we'd gotten from Costco was a big hit. I may have to splurge sometime and order it online. It's called FudgeWudgies. Amazing. Simply ambrosia. We got to talking and eating so much we forgot to play our games till after midnight. And we kept going for a couple more hours. See, we non-drinkers can have fun on New Year's Eve, too. We even introduced them to Nerts. Even though Iz kept dominating, I can't wait to play again sometime. Anyone interested? And we played Catchphrase men v. women. Why is it we always teamup that way? Since we were kids. You'd think the solidarity would evolve into marital unity but somehow it always ends up boys v. girls. Anyhow, I think it was a great way to end 2009 with the kids' friends and our friends, too. Let's hope 2010 is full of more friends and not 5 kids--I could maybe start thinking about 3 but not 5.

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Christmas in Grosse Pointe

This is the first year we've had Christmas without any of my family around. Or even at our own house for that matter. Leading up to Christmas was kind of stressful since we squeezed in a little ski trip for our anniversary a couple nights beforehand. We got back to GP around 7pm Christmas Eve and picked up the kids from the Grange household--which, I'm sure, was glad to be 2 kids short. We quickly dragged our luggage and the kids' luggage back into the house, flipped on the Christmas tree lights, and attempted to have a nice Christmas Eve as a family with moderate success. We sat by the glowing tree and the kids sipped hot cocoa with snowmen mint marshmallows while I read from Luke. Then we sang a few songs and that concluded the spiritual part of the evening. The kids get to open one present this night and we've started a tradition of getting them pjs to wear to bed. This time though I stuffed them into their stockings from last year marked From Chicago Santa and left them on their beds. Apparently I chose well because the boys were ecstatic over their MarioKart and Cars pjs. Keahi was thrilled that Santa had known what he would love--even if it wasn't the spaceship toy he'd requested. A little while later, Iz and I could finally relax a bit...after cleaning the house and unpacking and getting ready for Chrstimas morning, that is.

Thank all that is holy the boys still slept in on Christmas morning. We had them open their stockings. Jarom was overjoyed that he got a new Lightning Mcqueen to replace the one he lost the week before in Costco. And both kids loved their light sabers and robotic arms and helmets. Then they opened the traditional family game--Cranium Congo--and played while I made brunch. After overhearing Jarom say (as part of the game) that his favorite food was mouse-ear pancakes I made sure I made the proper shapes on the griddle.

After brunch more wrapper ripping ensued--except for the last minute ones I didn't bother to wrap--and we enjoyed a (mostly) relaxing day of toy heaven. My big present was the ski jacket and I'd already been using the lotion mom sent so not a lot of present opening for me. I did save a surprise for Iz--a present that came in the mail from an unknown person. I'd thought it was Tammy at first and then Kervin but now I know it was from Arron. Iz's eyes lit up when he slid out the dvd copy of The Last Dragon. Seriously, you can't ask for a better gift than that. An endless supply of joy. And don't forget the power of the Glow. Our other favorite thing was the box o treats from Kerv and Mary. Lup Cheong!! And the prettiest chopsticks and placemats.

The next morning we got up early and headed out to Toys R Us (first time shopping there ever) so the boys could spend their Christmas money from Ojiisan. Jarom got 4 more Cars to go on the race track we'd gotten him. And Keahi bought Super Monkey Ball. It was actually get one video game get 2nd one half off so we also got one--Wii Fit Plus. Lost of fun for everyone. Then we raced home and started prepping for Christmas dinner with the Roehls. When they got here we chatted, prepped, made rice crispy popsicles and cookies, and played video games. I didn't really get much of a look at the Lego Star Wars game they brought over but I know by the end of the night it was the dads that weren't letting go of it. Dinner was great: Lemon herb turkey with garlic smashed potatoes (I went crazy with the garlic this time instead of catering to the kids) roasted carrots and grilled asparagus. Plus that favorite salad of mine with the gorgonzola, candied pecans, green apples, dried cherries and bacon. Yum. But, alas, no papaya seed dressing. Then for the nontraditional we had rice, kalbi, kalua pig and cabbage and chocolate haupia pie. Plus, Nate got to try a couple different sushis for lunch. Soooo ono. With all the different flavors it was hard to stop. But stop we did in time to open presents before the Roehls had to drive home. All the way to Toledo. I cant' believe we live one and a half hours away and this is our first visit together. We'll have to rectify that. Oooh, can't wait to see the Toledo Zoo. And we also need to bring Paul's and Malia's gifts with us since they accidentally left them behind. Except for the glow-in-the-dark foam which they really loved. Our boys loved their Cars puzzle, dino models and we especially loved our photobook of all the cousins. Great idea, Lani!

So that was basically our Christmas in Grosse Pointe. Simple. But fun. And full of yummy leftovers. The rest of our vacation was pretty relaxed. We went ice skating a few times at our park. Keahi just had his first lesson yesterday and he's doing great. We've attempted to make snowmen but our neighbor told us it was still too fluffy. Good to know it's the snow and not our own ineptitude leading to underwhelming blobs. Last week Sunday, Keahi was very excited about going back to school. He jumped up and down exclaiming, "Yay, yay, yay. Today is the last day of Christmas vacation." It was a nice break, but I agree that it's good to be back to normal.....except for waking up early.

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