Firsts...

I never, ever, ever imagined before becoming a parent that "firsts" would be such monumental happenings in the Harlow home. All of you moms out there know what I mean...the first smile,the first step, first tooth, first time riding a bike without training wheels, the first glorious night that a baby sleeps through the night, the first airplane trip, the first word...I believe you are all with me on this one. My life is surrounded by "firsts." Sweet, heavenly, "firsts." "Firsts" that make you smile...take your breath away, make you laugh, cringe, cry, hug. I. LOVE. FIRSTS.

Dylan lost his first tooth...


And he started playing t-ball...


Emma got her first brand new big girl bike...


Carly got her first all day lazy day with her daddy napping on him the WHOLE time...




Me? I feel like every day is a series of "firsts" and "repeats." I got my haircut yesterday for the "first" time since Carly was born. (Yes, she's three months old now.) I got my nails done on Mother's Day for the first time since Carly was born. (Yes, she is still three months old). Thank goodness the lady doing my nails, and my friends for that matter, have had pity on my as they have watched the cute little white hearts painted on my big toenails along with the pretty pink polish diminish into indescribable shapes---as I have neglected myself over the last three months. My "firsts" aren't nearly as exciting as my children's...but they are pretty dang exciting to me. Another thing I didn't know before becoming a parent...that my "repeats" would be just as exciting and rewarding with each child. Each time any of my kids reaches a milestone it is equally exhilarating. And each time I manage to get away for a haircut or pedicure....OH SUCH JOY!!! It's the little things my friends. The "firsts."

Life is Like Riding a Bike....

Life is all about learning. Learning to stand on your own. Learning to pedal fast when life throws it all at you at once; learning to coast and enjoy the breeze and calmness and take in the surroundings. Life is about learning to fall--sometimes gracefully, sometimes not. And life is about getting back on that bike and trying again. Life is about changing courses and destinations. We don't always end up riding where we originally thought we would end up. We ride in different directions. Life is about learning to ride with someoone. In perfect sync. Life is sometimes about riding by ourselves and finding ourselves through each pedal, each uphill battle, each turn. Life is about feeling the burn of pedaling that extra mile but also about feeling the accomplishment of making it through that final mile--and knowing what we are capable of. Life is about being scared. Scared to ride that far--scared of going down "that road"--scared of the hill that passes us by too fast. Life is like riding a bike.

Here are my kids riding their bikes and enjoying each pedal of the ride!

My heart...

This is what makes my heart pitter patter every day. Every hour. Every minute. These children. They are my heart. They are amazing. Carly melts my heart. Every day. Every time she looks at me. Holds on to me. Smiles at me. Coos at me. Laughs at me. She has to be touching my skin at all times that I am holding her. I love that. I love her little fingers. Her smile will melt your heart too...take a look.

Christmas in April

Okay, so I'm a little behind. Christmas was hard for me this year. I was SO TIRED. I was SO PREGNANT. Seriously though---I was exhausted. I was shipping gifts late. I was shopping last minute. So not like me. My house was under construction the whole month of December. Then, carpet was installed the day after Christmas. Yep. That's how we operate around here. Life isn't crazy enough for us...so we go and make it just a little more crazy. Why the heck not? Let's work full time, be 8 months pregnant, have a major renovation going on, ship gifts to everyone in other states, send out 75+ Christmas cards, pick out carpet on the 23rd of December, and have it installed on the 26th. We really know how to have a good time around here. Seriously. I don't know what we are thinking sometimes. It all seems well and fine at the time, but looking back on it--we really need to get a grip around here.

The saving grace of it all--Ryan was home the entire week of Christmas. On furlough. Again. No paycheck. Again. But heck--we love having him home because he works so much so the little detail of a paycheck is no biggie (until it arrives in the account and is only half as much :-). No seriously. We had a great time. The pics below prove it. Lots of sweets--decorating gingerbread houses, frosting cookies, Dylan ice skated for the first time, the kids had their Christmas sing a long, and we enjoyed it all. I just couldn't get it together to get these pics loaded up earlier. I didn't blog much. I didn't communicate with others much. I just kept telling everyone how tired I was. So, here I am now, enjoying the pics of a holiday I actually don't remember a whole lot about to be honest. I know the kids had fun. I know I slept alot. I know I cooked a ton of food (of course I did because then I ate a ton of food. I was pregnant remember? Calories don't count for those nine months dontcha know?). I complained a lot. I cuddled alot. We watched dang near ever Christmas movie/cartoon known to man. We decorated cookies three or four times at three or four different locations. Oh yeah--and Santa came. Boy is that a good story. Santa was a little "witty" this year in his comments while he was leaving gifts. I was hiding upstairs with the kids and got to hear Santa talking to daddy downstairs. Santa told daddy what a good daddy he in fact was and how proud he was of how daddy was raising this family. What? How daddy is raising this family? What about a shout out to mommy? I think next year mommy might have to help Santa put gifts out while D and E hide up stairs "pretending" to be asleep. Just sayin!

Enjoy the pics. And yes. I cooked all that food for just the four of us. I was pregnant, remember? :-)

Good times...or not

Oh my. Let the fun begin. Yesterday was a little "trying" shall we say around here. Ryan was gone all day until a little after midnight last night. The good news is--we survived. We always do. I even managed to stay calm all day. This surprised even me. I think the kids expected me to lose it a few times during the day after they committed a crime against another Harlow (i.e. me or one of their siblings). When I in fact told them calmly to go to their room or sit on the step, and continued to repeat myself against their continued arguing as they pleaded their "not guilty" case...they were in disbelief I think that I was not raising my voice or making threats about future sentencing.

In reality, their infractions weren't horrible...but were definitely things that "no child of mine would ever do" --or so I thought/said prior to my little perfect bundles of joy entering this world. Let's see...after treating said children to an ice cream cone at McDonald's and driving home with them we had catastrophe number one. (Note: I did in fact lick both ice cream cones down to a better size for both of them before handing them over. That's the kind of mom I am. Stealing food from my children so I don't feel guilty eating an entire cone for myself.) As we were driving home eating our ice cream cones, I could feel it coming. I knew the kids were going to be a mess or ice cream was going to be all over their car seats. Stupid mom decision #1 of the day. Sure enough, Emma wanted to take the wrapper off the bottom of the cone and in doing so dropped the entire cone on the floor of the car. She is sitting in the third row so of course I can't reach her. And of course, Carly has decided to scream bloody murder in the car. Nice. So relaxing. Enjoying a nice treat and ride in the car. NOT.

Okay. Ice cream cleaned up. Children napping. All children napping at the same time. Wow. Some time to actually think. Except I had so many things I wanted to do during this "child free time" that all of my thoughts overwhelmed me and I didn't know where to start. Ugh. Okay. Organized some clothes, folded laundry, ya know--my usual free time activities. So exciting. Emma wakes up. Seriously? She didn't even sleep and obviously needed to based on her actions prior to nap. Okay. It's okay I told myself. Reinforcements are on the way. Enter Auntie Julie, Zachy, and Matty.

Life is good. All kids are happy. Emma and Matty playing together nicely. Dylan and Zach playing Wii nicely. Julie and I actually get to chat. Wow. Nice evening. The Daniels' need to go home now and Em and D need a shower and to get to bed. Dylan "pauses" the Wii. This should have been my first clue. Dumb mom move #2 of the day. (Note: There were probably numerous dumb mom moves but these were the doozies.) I turn off the television. I am in the kitchen helping Julie get her things together and I see Dylan walking towards the shelf with the television remote on it. As if this were happening in slow motion...I could see the meltdown coming. Dylan reaching for the remote. Me: "Dylan, don't even think about touching that remote." I turn to tell Julie something. I hear a loud smack. Yes. My little angel. My perfect boy. My "son that would never do that." He threw the remote onto the kids' table in the family room out of anger/frustration. I sent him upstairs. Calmly. Me calm, him not so much. After nicely saying goodnight to my best friend and her children, while my five year old was hyperventilating and sobbing all at once (you know, the ugly cry, right?) I helped Emma pick up downstairs and we ventured up to the land of nothing-good-can-come-from-this-situation.

Dylan was a wreck. Me, still calm. Shocking right? Well, I told him to take a shower. He was still so ticked at me. Now he was mad that he didn't get to give his friend Zach a hug before he left. Seriously? You are going to lay that one on me now too? In the shower, he decides to hit the shower door. A few times. A few times more. Really? So sorry that my dear husband has to miss all of this fun we have while he is gone. Boy, does he miss out.

I tell Dylan to get out of the shower. Again, he is ticked at me. He gets dressed and climbs into bed. Emma is now in the shower. Carly has been sitting in the baby chair in my bathroom minding her own business, mind you quietly, this whole time. I tell Dylan that I love him no matter what and always will. As I am leaving his room, he says, "Mommy?" "Yes Dylan?" " I just want you to know that I am the maddest at you that I have ever been." "Okay. Good night Dylan, I love you."

I guess it could have been worse. He could have said he hated me or didn't want me for a mommy anymore. Yeah, yeah, I know. That is coming in the future. I shower Emma. Put her to bed. Check on Dylan again. "Mommy?" "Yes Dylan?" "Can I have a hug?" After hugging him and then standing at the door. "Mommy I am really sorry that I said I was the maddest at you ever." "That's okay Dylan. I love you sweetie." Dylan is usually such a good boy. It melted my heart when he apologized for his words. That is the Dylan that I know and love so very much. Sweet boy.

The ending? Carly enjoyed a nice peaceful bath by herself in my bathroom. :-) Actually not the ending so much. The ending of that day. This morning seemed pretty good. Ryan was going to work again. Can you believe all the good times he misses out on around here? On the way home from lunch with the kids, Emma (now sitting behind me in the 2nd row) decided to be ticked at me for god knows what. She preceded to kick my seat the ENTIRE way home. So nice. Carly just stared at her. Emma was so entertaining to her baby sister that said sister did not even cry once on the way home. She ALWAYS cries in the car. So instead of the screaming baby, I got a very awful back massage on the way home. Seriously? Can all the Harlow children just be mad at me on the same day, then happy with me the next? That would make my life so much easier.

Here we are again. All children napping. Reinforcements on the way. Daddy will be home for dinner. Mommy is going to take a time out! Oh wait--dinner? I guess my time out will have to wait. :-)

Our "Fancy" Emma

Emma LOVES the storybook character Fancy Nancy. She loves that Nancy wants to be fancy all the time just like Emma does. Emma loves, loves, loves to play dress up. She loves to dress up anybody that comes over to play too. She even convinces all the boys that are always playing at our house to dress up with her. We don't know how she is so convincing but she is (wonder who she gets that from....????). Emma loves, loves, loves to help in the kitchen too. She wants to cook with me and help get dinner ready all the time. I love her to pieces for wanting to help and for wanting to be so "fancy." The local library had a Fancy Nancy party on Monday. I spared Dylan on this one and let him go play at his buddy Rocco's house. He was VERY thankful for that! :-)

Emma picked her red Disney dress to wear to the party. We listened to the librarian read a book, we made "fancy" crafts, and ate "fancy" cupcakes with "fancy" lemonade. She was grinning ear to ear the whole time. She was so excited to go with just the girls (a.k.a. mom, Emma, and Carly). It meant so much to me to have this time with her and have her enjoy and eat up every minute of it as much as she did!





My sweet little Carly slept through the whole thing!


This is Emma cooking with me. She is so proud that her Grandma Sheehan (great grandma that is :-) taught her how to crack an egg. We were making our favorite egg dish, 24-hour omlette. Of course Emma wanted to help! She cracked all 10 eggs by herself without getting any shell in the bowl at all! Amazing! When can she start cooking dinner for us? That would definitely be a perk for me. Hmmmmm....

Goofy Golf

Goofy Golf--aka Miniature Golf. We took the kids golfing last Friday at Boomers in Irvine. Dylan and Ryan loved it! Emma lost interest after the third or fourth hole. Mostly becuase her club was way too big for her. Of course we tried to convince her to use a club her size like the rest of the kids, but her size didn't come in purple. Alas, my Emma HAD to have a purple club and she thus ended up with an adult size purple golf club. (Lucky for us she was free so it wasn't really worth putting up an argument over...trust me I have enough arguments with my sweet girl that this one was not worth the three or four rounds it would have taken...).

We went with some great friends...the Daniels', and met some other friends there...the Shones. We also went for free! For those that aren't aware...I am a little--well shall we say, cheap? Thrifty? Kids five and under golf for free (Dylan and Emma), I found a coupon on the web for 10 off, so Ryan was free. I couldn't golf with Carly in the baby carrier, so I took pictures. A fun, and free morning. By the way, I have absolutely NO quarms with being "thrifty." It gives me a small thrill to save money and get things for free or next to nothing. Maybe I have an obsession? :-)

We topped it off with lunch at In-n-Out where all the kids had funning eating and talking together. Enjoy all the fun pics! Oh yeah--Ryan and Mike had the MOST fun and of course had to start by making a wager before the first hole. Boys! :-)