Hedge Family Blog

Pictures Soon!

Chris is fixing the computer tonight, so very soon you will once again get fun images of the kiddos and our adventures. Hmmm - maybe this will encourage me to remember to take pictures!!

A Surprisingly Good Day

Hehehe - I am watching a show called “Born Country” - kind of where city clickers confess to friends and family that they are turning country and line dance. Funny. Where was I? So I had two crankpots this morning - so I decided to finally take Tyler to the Austin airport’s family viewing area to watch planese take off. Well, I was dissapointed as I thought we would be much closer to the planes where we could see the full take-off. Tyler still thought it was fairly cool. We hung out there for about 40 minutes. It was 9:30am - what to do? So we drove around the airport and I thought - what the hell? Let’s go in!

It was great! There were very few people, but enough to satisfy people-watching desires. We rode escalators, elevators and watched the baggage claim conveyors. We have a snack at a cafe and then did it all over again. At the end we headed out and gave our special ticket to the parking lady. It was really fun! It isn’t something I would do regularly, but given that we will be taking Tyler on his 1st plane ride in less than two weeks, it was nice to talk to him about it while at the airport.

He is getting really excited. I was telling him that he would have his own backpack to hold his toys and snacks. He told my Mom today that “I wonder if I could have bag to hold all my luggage, toys, snacks and it would go down [the belt] and round and round. And I will go on plane with my Daddy” It was so cute!

This afternoon we went over to my folks and played and swam. We got home at 6pm and Chris was home, so it was a nice, fast day. Given how it started out with two very fussy children - it went great and I handled the stress pretty good if I do say so myself.

Oh and i got a ton of laundry done and the house cleaned up a bit.  Oh, and not just laundry done, but put away people!!  Ask any Mom…and they will know why that is so damn nice!  After a while clean laundry just lives in the laundry basket some weeks.  So I had a nice day and got stuff done.

Oh, but then I put cream of tartar in the stir-fry sauce instead of arrowroot powder - yuck!  It was so salty and so gross.  My sweet son didn’t like it but was eating some.  And then mimicking what I had just said - “what did you put in the food, mama?”.  Even thogh he was repeating me - it sounded so cute coming from him.

My New Goals

So I have a few new goals I am working on for my time with the kids: be more spontaneous, be silly, be flexible, have a good attitude, use my imagination, be prepared and do more storytelling. I am trying to be more present and in the moment and to enjoy it more. It is hard because this is a job and there are always choices - like when to do the laundry, when to start dinner, when to make this phone call, when to run that errand. There is a balance. So if Tyler is getting engrossed in play, I can folk laundry nearby. It allows to complete my chores while being near my children without being too intrusive in their play. And I am trying to take situations thay would typically end up with my being angry, frustrated, or cranky and turn ‘em around. Make lemonade from lemons (which we have been doing actually - yum!).

Reality Slapping me in the Face

There is so much I want to do and for a while there I think I had it in my head that these things were possible, but now I wonder. I still have a one year-old who isn’t even in the thick of teething yet. My point is that I am tired a lot of the time and if she has worse nights with teething it won’t get better. When I am tired, things move slowly and I have no motivation to be productive. I am more or less a zombie trying to get the bare minimum taken care of. I don’t know if I can start my certificate program in October or not.

I have not yet been able to run consistently. Mornings for me are very unpredictable. The kids wake-up times are all over the place and that makes it difficult. So, if Quinn is up and Tyler is asleep - should I go ahead and catch that much needed shower or see if he wakes up in 10 minutes so I will be able to run before we go to the park? The afternoons are hot as hell and I am not going to run then. I don’t know. Oddly, I am slighly annoyed, but not uber frustrated. I guess I figure I am pretty much moving in some capacity all day - not like working in an office.

At this time, I am just going with the flow. I just decided to paint my kitchen blue. See - another thing I am SURE about. So all of the sudden I have two months of painting projects in front of me. I still want to redo the upstairs, but I haven’t a clear vision for that room yet, so I am not rushing it. I act on what I feel sure about! Now it is just finding the energy to paint at night. I need to take before pictures, I have been bad about that.

Thinking, Thinking, Thinking

Lord, my brain has been working overtime lately. I bought a spiral notebook so I can start to write more down. There was a week or two where it would take my brain forever to wind down - I would go to bed at 10 and at 11 was still up thinking about stuff. Will all the sugar I ingested today - I will probably be a mess tonight. Let’s see - brownies, banan cake (many pieces), a glass of chocolate milk and a milk chocolate ghiradelly bar. Ick! I am going to be feeling sick later.

Ending the Day

Another random thought, here. You would think that after a long day rocking my baby girl to sleep would be so nice. And it would be if I could only SIT DOWN!! She can’t get comfortable in the chair these days. Or she will notice the fabric and start playing with that and then see the curtain and grab that and play peek-a-boo with the outside world. Which of course at 7pm these days is bathed in bright sunlight which doesn’t help the “it is nigh-night time” mood. She will then notice the cool red numbers on the clock and head over to climb on the nightstand.

With all that craziness, I simply stand up, hold her in cradle position to nurse, and rock her back and forth until she is asleep. Most nights it is about 10 minutes although that number is starting to creep up a bit to 15 and 25.

Another big difference between her and Tyler. I could always have him in the rocking chair - of course, it took me 45 minutes to get him to sleep. Even when Chris was putting him to sleep at 15 months, it was in the rocking chair - and this kid was much bigger than Quinn.

Anyway, some nights I am just wanting her to crash so I can sit down and rest my feet and back. I even notice nights that I try to keep moving, my body wants a break. I can feel that ache in my feet. I need to get some Dr. Sholl’s (however you spell that) or something!! I always wanted to waitress for a while - now I have a sense of how they feel at the end of their shift!

With that, I should really go to bed - I need the rest!