Friday

Oh these weeks are long! I work on Monday Thursday and Friday and every day of the week I have to drive like a bat out of hell almost everywhere I go and it's wearing, to say the least.  Tomorrow we are going to Anthony's party at his school but that's our only Christmasy thing we are doing.  Last week I took the three girls to see A Christmas Carol at IRT, we had a good time and by that I mean we didn't get kicked out.  Maria and Veronica were much, much better this year than last year and Felicity was - not great, but she did better than anyone else would have at her age.  She was kind of loud and she asked a lot of questions, but mostly she was okay.  She is driving me crazy lately, wants to be carried everywhere, mostly into school when I am already carrying her bags and Veronica's bag, ugh.  She still loves preschool and her teacher.  She has been waking up a LOT in the night, I wish so much that she wasn't taking a nap anymore because it makes the nights that she does awful.

Anyway, here are some pictures:

December

Last Saturday, I guess maybe it was two Saturdays ago now, I had to take Felicity to the ER.  She was up all night Friday coughing and burning with fever so around 7:00 I took her.  She had an ear infection and maybe pneumonia.  The doctor (who remembered me from my broken wrist in March, not to brag) said he didn't want to do a chest xray but maybe she had pneumonia but the antibiotics should cover everything.  I am hoping she will stop napping at preschool here soon because right now she naps every day there and tortures the girls at night, last night she told Mike that she was 'scared' and she wanted him to lie down with her, ugh.  The night before last she was up at 12;30 and came in because there were "ants" in her room, UGH!  But she's overall doing great, she is so funny and talks a blue streak.  I thought Maria talked a lot but she is nothing compared to Felicity.

Catching up with Felicity

Felicity is doing great.  She is doing GREAT, if you ask her preschool teacher.  Her teacher loves her so much and she must save all her goodness for her because she is terrible at home lately.  I suppose it's better for her to be good there and not here but wouldn't it be nice if she could be good both places?  Anyway here are some pictures-

Moira Rose and Felicity Rose.

One day this week she wanted to go to preschool as a Frozen fairy, so she did.  Generally she says it and we do it, ha!

School picture.  I wish she'd let me put her hair up but she won't hear one word about it.  "I'll just push it out of my face!", she always tells me.

Nerd Felicity.

She was teaching me how to make a smile face.  How's it look?

A few weekends ago, she was sick and I was worried it was an ear infection but it was just a normal cold, to our relief!

That's it!  Tune in next month!

Number Four

She is something else, this Felicity.  The other day we were at school, when I pick them up as 'walkers', they can play in the playground for a while and they were playing until Felicity came over to me and said OK, Mommy, I am ready to wrap it up!  Ha!  What four year old talks like that?  She is so funny, so cute and sweet.  I went in to her preschool Friday because I had off from work for Fall Break and I went to volunteer.  When I went in she was standing at the table, playing with play dough and her teacher said, Joanne! She is always like this, just playing and perfect!  Don't come to her conference!  She is perfect and you know it! Mike and I took her and the girls to the little Halloween party at her preschool and the teachers were going crazy over Felicity and her costume.  So even if she drives me bananas sometimes, mostly, she is a real joy.  Mostly, we all love her like crazy and so does everybody else.  So that's good, right?  I can't believe she's four!

Pre School

Felicity is doing really, really great in preschool.  One day a few weeks ago, her teacher yelled at me down the hall, Joanne! Joanne! I thought oh what could it be?  Is she getting kicked out?  Did she bite someone?  She said Joanne, she is just wonderful! Wonderful and we all love her so much already! I mean, maybe the teacher is given to hyperbole but still, it was a great relief.  And I can see her point, she said how Felicity will play with anything, she likes the other kids, she is funny, and all those things are true! She is so glad to be with people her own age, and she is funny, she is a grown up three year old, for sure.  I just hope she keeps using her power for good and not evil.

She's so funny, the words she says are hilarious.  She tells me all the time "I'm a NOW girl, Mama, I'm not a WAIT girl".  She and Anthony are getting along better, she loves our dog Maggie, and she has been going to my friend Marta's house on Thursday and Friday after school and she really, REALLY loves that.

She takes a nap at preschool which makes our nights kind of late but I'm okay with it.  She goes every day from 8-3 so I figure she will settle into a schedule some day soon.  Last night Mike went in to check on her and he couldn't find her anywhere, finally he realized she was curled up in a ball under the dresser, the weirdo.  I took this picture later right before I moved her.

Swimmer

Felicity is no swimmer, that is for sure.  We just finished three weeks of swim lessons and she never even got her face wet.  She would demand that she was "swimming in Chinese" and she would do some sort of prancercising, skipping along in the water and never ever having both feet up at the same time.  I told her one day if you put one tenth of the effort into learning to swim that you did avoiding learning to swim, you could be an Olympian.  She said "I no want to be an Olympian!  I scared to be an Olympian!".  Poor baby, she would get really upset.  But yesterday she let me take her all over the pool, her feet never touched, so maybe the lessons were good after all.

She had been waking up in the night a lot, around 3:00 or 4:00, sometimes wide awake, sometimes right back to sleep, but it is a pain.  It makes me sick tired to have any of them come in and sleep with us but if she is going to be awake, I have to take her in with me so she doesn't wake the girls.

She loves to make faces, she makes a sad face, a happy face, a gross face, a mad face and a silly face.  She loves to look at her picture or the mirror, just like her mother, ha!

At the Pool

Yesterday we went to a church picnic which was held at the local K of C, and I do mean local, it's not even one mile away, super close!  The girls had such a good time and saw so many friends that today I went and joined the K of C pool and we went back.  We might go every damned day this summer, they had such a great time.  I was worried about Felicity back at a pool after her mishap over spring break (and I do mean break, ha ha ha) but she's fine.  She's not the best SHARER in the world and she is a little inept, socially, but it was really fun overall and I am bullish for the future.  And I never am!

Summer Break

Isn't she cute?  Isn't that lucky?  Here she is yesterday, at a local park which has a creek.  She is holding a tiny seashell.  She kept picking them up and then dropping them and then we had to wade through the creek to get to where there were more shells.  She was crying over losing some and I said, come over here there are millions.  She was so confused, she kept saying "I want the millions! Where are the millions!"  Then she changed it to communion and she was wailing, "I want communion! Take me to communion!".  We collected a lot of shells and I put them in my coffee cup, where they will stay until I throw them away later.  The good thing about Felicity is that she won't remember.  Maria would ask me for them like one month later, but so far, with Felicity, it's out of sight, out of mind.  

She is going to summer camp at her preschool on Wednesdays.  I did a computer job that paid $160 and for her to go for seven Wednesdays this summer it cost $160 so, perfect!  Whatever it takes to keep her busy, boy she does not like to be here with just me.  Maria and Veronica have Vacation Bible School next week and so next Wednesday I'll have like three hours of freedom or something, ha!  But she really seems to be enjoying it, she asks every night if she is going the next day.  

Maria had a  friend sleepover on Saturday night so all the girls were up until 10:30 and awake yesterday by 7:00 so I thought we'd keep them busy so we could not have too many breakdowns.  We went to church and then to lunch with some friends, went home and changed and then went to this creek for three hours.  They all slept well last night, thank God, so we can start the week.  We are starting the Summer Reading thing at the library and going to a friends' house for lunch.  Tomorrow we are going to the pool and Wednesday strawberry picking.  I cant believe it's summer again and we are doing all this running around but Felicity starts preschool 8/20 and goes five days a week so I am trying to enjoy each day, as my grandmother would say.  

No more school

Oh it's awful to have this child home all the time! I'm sure it will get better once her sisters are home but man.  MAN.  Today we went to the bank, the post office, and the store and it was horrible.  The bank was okay but then there was one million people there - holy moly, I couldn't believe it! There were like eight people getting passports, even.  I mean - here I am in my stupid yoga pants, and life just marches on for everyone else, traveling, living their lives, getting passports, mailing stuff.  Anyway, it took forever because I had to mail something to Canada so I had to get a customs form, etc.  So we did that and then we went to the grocery store and then I had to fly home and stow the groceries before going to my friend Marta's house, as she was watching Felicity while I went to stupid physical therapy for my stupid wrist (which is actually doing well).

Then I went to physical therapy and then I went back to Marta's to get Felicity.  I was just going to stay there until Maria and Veronica were done with school, as Marta lives right near there but Felicity was freaking out because Marta's son wouldn't share a ball with her.  I am OUT OF PATIENCE for dealing with such nonsense, so I chose to drive across town back to our house and then 15 minutes later go back to get the girls.  Also I was hungry.

The problem started on the drive home.  Felicity, as is her ANNOYING WONT, got out of her seat and I said FELICITY.  GET BACK IN YOUR SEAT.  IF I GET HIT YOU WILL FLY THROUGH THE WINDSHIELD AND POSSIBLY DIE!  GET IN YOUR SEAT!  So she did, but she screamed and screamed and screamed AND SCREAMED for the whole ride home.  She was sitting right behind me and she HOWLED through the head rest and LORD LORD it was awful.  I am saying my one year long novena so I SHOUTED the prayers, which are mostly about the Passion of our Lord, which was GOOD because it made me sort of keep my eyes on the prize.  We came in the house and she said WATAH BOTTAHL! and I gave her her stupid water bottle and then she screamed BLANKET! and I threw a blanket on her and then she passed out.

I mean really.  REALLY.  She was up at 4:00 this morning, she is all messed up.  She's taking antibiotics and feeling so much better, which is good.  But it's so, so hard for it to be just me and her.  I feel like I have so much to do and she SEEMS willing to do stuff but she's not, really.  I told her tonight, after next week the girls will be home too and things will be better.  I said now close your eyes and say a little prayer that you can sleep all night and she said, really loudly, I HOPE I CAN SLEEP TONIGHT!  Ha!  She also says DUCK! at the end of every song she sings.  I don't know where she got it, but like where some songstresses might say "ohhh yeah!", she shouts DUCK!  Whackjob.

End of Preschool

Felicity has been sick today, yesterday too but today we decided to take her to the doctor because she had such a bad night, such coughing!  It makes me think of my dearly departed friend Lebron who used to always say to me, when I had a cold, You MUST dance the red shoes, Victoria, you simply must! Oh, does she cough!  I took her to the clinic today, at the grocery store.  "This where the doctah is?, she said, doubtfully.  But we get gas points for going there and an NP there is as good as anywhere, I figure.  I really like the woman who is the NP there, she remembers us when we are in the store, and she really likes Felicity.  And she should!  She is the best patient I have ever seen!  She had a fever, woke up at 5:00, she has been coughing and coughing and she asked for the "happy face chart", as she calls it, and pointed right to the happiest.  "The happy one?", the NP said, and Felicity said YES!  I think she was just happy to be there!  She is so funny.  She had a double ear infection and the NP looked at her ears and said "they really don't hurt?" and Fifi said NOPE! She is ridiculous.  She has been driving me CRAZY today, but she has also been really cute.  Same as it ever was.

April 2015

I have been a wreck since I broke my wrist, it is horrible.  My wrist doesn't actually hurt and almost never has but it gets a little sore by the end of the day and my spirit is absolutely broken by then, too, ha!  Felicity is the worst of everyone because she keeps saying in a very serious tone, you wrist is broken, Mommy! but, like, this morning - it is colder here than it has been and she made me carry her into preschool (because she can't walk in the cold, or something).  But she is doing great at preschool, terrible at toilet training, not so great at sleeping and pretty good at everything else.  She has started to play a little bit with our neighbor who is also three and that's super cute.  Her hair is getting so long!  Here's a cute picture:

Day 22 of Lent

I thought Felicity was going to miss two weeks of preschool, because we are going to Florida for the girls' spring break and then hers in the next week, but Mike reminded me today that she can go on Monday, so that's good!  Last night we went to Monarch Madness, the girls' cheerleading thing at school and I took with Felicity with me so we could hang out with Marta and her kids.  Felicity kept going outside to the playground, I mean, she kept ending up outside and I was thinking HOW is she getting out there?  Who is opening the door for her?  So I followed her at one point (it was freezing cold and I kept begging her to go back in) and she just ... pushed the door open, just used all of her 37 pounds or whatever to open this door which is NOT supposed to open if you don't push the rail.  She likes fresh air and she is determined, is what I am saying.  Oh!  And today, she was playing out in the driveway and I went to check on her and she was just toodling along there on her bike!  Very exciting!  If riding on her bike is happening, can toilet training be far behind?

Day 18

Felicity has started to dress herself and except for a very few incidents where she has tried to put her sleeve over her giant head, it's going pretty well.  This morning she told me she wanted to 'get dressed up' so we went upstairs (I actually had a lot of folded laundry downstairs but all those clothes were 'too big', she said) and she took off her nightgown and then went in the closet and closed to the door to get dressed.  So shy and private for someone who regularly thrusts her body at me and says 'I have poop, change me!.  I said I had to go to my room, was she okay? and she said YES! I FINE!  So I went into my room and she came in two minutes later with a skirt and shirt on, not bad!

She also identified the following shapes at the library story hour yesterday:  circle, square, rectangle, oval, diamond and octagon.  Not bad!

Day 13 of Lent

Felicity's cough is better, but she is still sort of runny and gross.  I wonder if she'll ever just be better, but maybe not.  Maybe she has allergies or something?  I don't know, at this stage I'm just hoping she doesn't have to have her tonsils out on my time.

She was kind of rough this morning, she wants to do exactly what she wants to do exactly when she wants to do it and sometimes that just isn't reasonable.  If I start to say no to her she starts crying and screaming immediately and I can't stand it so I just DO what she is asking if I can and I am aware that I am creating a monster but also?  I am so tired and so sick of screaming, and she knows it.  This morning Mike took her to preschool, and when they were walking out she said she wanted to go in the car, so he tok her out to the car and moved the car seat and then she said she wanted to go in the van, ugh!  Mike said you just said you wanted to go in the car and she folded her arms and grunted in this very low tone, VAAAAAANNNN.  So he took her in the van, I mean, what else can you do?  I just hope she outgrows it, this personality flaw, because I don't know what we'll do otherwise.

BUT I want to say something nice about Felicity.  Um.  Oh she is a great dancer!  Last night we were listening to Taylor Swift's Shake it Off before bed and she was dancing around, singing, it was super cute and adorable.

Day 9 of Lent

Felicity has a terrible cough.  TERRIBLE.  She has a tiny runny nose but she doesn't seem to be sick in any other way.  But last night and the night before she has awoken and demanded to first come into our room and then to go downstairs.  Mike was up with her until 5:30 Sunday morning and I was up with her from last night at midnight, ugh.  But last night she slept a lot better, I think maybe she is more comfortable down here, it's airier and she can sit up better.  Isn't she smart?

She is plucky as can be, especially considering how sickly she has been for most of her short time on earth.  She definitely hasn't been SICK, for which I am grateful, but the ear infections and fevers and runny noses, oh my!

Today Mike said to her "are you going to see Miss Judy?", and then he blanched.  She calls preschool Miss Judy's House but her teacher is Miss Sara, Miss Judy was her teacher when she was two and she still misses her.  But we have told her enough that she was able to parrot back to Mike, "No, Daddy! Miss Judy's room is for little kids, I a big kid!  I go see Miss Sara!".  We were both relieved.

She has a great memory, she sings every single song she's learned in preschool.  I don't think anyone else has done that and I find it charming.

Day 5 of Lent

It's not really Day 5 of Lent but there are really like 46 days of Lent and I am only doing 40 days of this so I am confident I can get it done.  I don't really know why the thing about the 40/46 days, although some people say that Sundays are not really days of Lent.  One Episcopalian priest I knew told me that technically, every Sunday is a feast day, so you shouldn't really not celebrate them, I don't know.  Mike and I have given up sweets for lent but we are not having sweets on Sundays, because Mike says and I agree, it's easier to give up sweets the longer you've given them up, so why mess with yourself every week?  Anyway.  What's So Great About Felicity?

• One thing that's really great about Felicity is that she is great about going to school.  She loves her preschool, which I think speaks to how great her preschool is but also how great and flexible she is.  She went last year to the Twos Class and she was good in there, took a nap every day, never one time cried when I left her, and now this year in the Young Threes she never cries, eats all of her lunch, has friends, and sometimes naps and sometimes doesn't, just like every other kid in there.  
• Later this year, she will go to St. Joan of Arc preschool, but she's going five days a week.  The hours are from 8-3 and now she goes 9-2, but only three days a week, so it will be a different.  I'm guessing she'll be fine, I think she'll love it, it's a great program.  Plus Veronica and Maria will be there too, and sometimes they go downstairs and they will just bump into each other in the hall and I think that will be super fun for them.  Everyone keeps asking me what will I do with my time while everyone is in school and I always answer the same way, I guess I'll get a job to pay for their damned school but honestly I don't know what I'll do.  
• Felicity is very good at trying to fit in and acting more like the older kids in a group.  This summer, she was all about keeping up with the older girls, Maria and Veronica and also Carlotta and Maddelena, she came to the pool with us, creek stomping, to get ice cream, to the movies, all kinds of things I wouldn't have taken any other 2.5 year old to do.  But it made her kind of bored with me this fall once the girls went back to school, so I think that it will be good for her to go to preschool every day.  BUT it doesn't mean that I'm not sad that we can't have time together like I did with the other kids, because I am, a little.  I'm not sad that she is growing up or getting older or whatever, but I feel kind of bad that she can't have the same kind of young childhood that Maria or Veronica did.  But I guess that's birth order, right?  She is definitely a little tougher than the other ones, I know she'll be fine, and I'm grateful that we can be so confident that she'll be happy.  

Day 1 of Lent

Today I was in church for Ash Wednesday, which, by the way, is NOT a holy day of obligation but which Mike was saying today he bets is the third most widely attended day in the Catholic church, after Easter and Christmas.  He's probably right but why?  Why do people go on Ash Wednesday and not another day all during Lent until Easter, or not on Sundays?  Is it to get ashes?  Or do people honestly think they are going to give it a go and try to get back to the Sacraments?  I don't know, I am trying to think better of people so I will reluctantly say yes, that's it.

Another thing I was thinking of doing for Lent is what I started to say up there, which is that I was in church today and I thought maybe I'll write a blog post about one of the kids every day.  I used to do a feature on their blogs called What's So Great About _________ and maybe I'll bring it back for Lent.  Because it's so easy to get bogged down in the awfulness of life, when, like today it is 14 degrees out and tomorrow the HIGH is ZERO degrees, and Anthony comes home and takes off his pants and poops on the floor, I thought maybe I should concentrate on how great they are, at least for Lent.  Who knows, maybe it will renew my faith in my vocation.

Anyway, I thought I would start with Felicity because she is the hardest to like all the time.  Today at preschool she fell asleep for naptime, but late, so she was still sleeping when Mike went to get her and she screamed like she was on FIRE when Mike brought her home without stopping at Dairy Queen.  So.  Without further adieu or talking MORE bad stuff about her, I present, What's So Great About Felicity.

• She is super cute.  Her hair is getting really long and she is the only one out of the four who has any kind of curl to her hair.  
• She loves to play games, especially hide and seek.  It's easy to play with her, you just have to count to 10 and yell here I come! and then she will bring herself to you.  
• She loves to sing songs and she has a great memory.  The other night she sang a "crying version" of Itsy Bitsy Spider where she cried all the way through it, kind of big boo-hooing, ig was hilarious.  She loves to make faces, sad, mad, funny, silly, happy.  
• Her preschool teachers love her, especially her main teacher.  She's always asking if she can do an extra day per week.  
• She is the only one who has ever slept in and even though she hardly does anymore, I know she is at least capable of it.  
• She loves to cuddle and 'take a hug' as she calls it.  
• She seems super smart, she has an excellent memory.
• She's polite, she is always about the thank you (fanks!) and please (puh-wease!) 

Back at It

Felicity is back at preschool, thanks GOD.  She definitely had the hardest break, Lord, she was sick every other day, it seemed like.  The problem with someone being sick so much when they are just three years old is that anything can become a bad habit so quickly.  Like she has been fine for days in a row but last night at 2:30, 2:30 this morning, she was up screaming and wanted something to drink.  We ran in there so she didn't wake up too much and thank God she went back to sleep but then of course Anthony's school district called at FIVE THIRTY to say that he had a delay, he of course will not be attending his school today as it's a Little Star day so it ended up that we slept like we had a newborn or something.  A not very good sleeping newborn, ha!

Anyway, back to Felicity.  She is better, she is happy to be back at school.  She didn't even say goodbye today, she just bossed me around and took off into her classroom.  "Put my lunch they-ah!", she said, and took off.  Ha, she is funny.  It snowed a lot last night and when I opened the door this morning, she said "would you LOOK at all the SNOW!  Would you LOOK AT IT!".  I keep forgtting how little she is because it seems like we have been hanging out since I was in KINDERGARTEN or something, but she is in fact only three years old and everything is new to her all the time, she doesn't remember from last year.

She doesn't eat much.  She eats all her lunch at preschool but she is terrible about eating breakfast and dinner.  Yesterday she had chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream and a pancake for breakfast and I don't even know what for dinner.  Oh, she ate pasta-YELLOW pasta.  I remember now because I made one pot spaghetti, which is delicious and tomato-ey and Felicity demanded YELLOW pasta, which meant I had to make some farfalle separate and put butter and cheese on it for her and then she ate it.  I wish she would eat a meatball or something but what can you do.

Here's a cute picture of her napping the other day.  Mike says if he sees her napping again during the day he's going to slap her awake, but of course he is kidding.  It is just a NIGHTMARE when she naps because then she stays awake hours after they go upstairs, keeping Maria and Veronica awake.