The 21st Century

March 2, 2013March 3, 2013 ~ hunt2005 ~ 1 Comment

So in today’s age of computers, technology, cell phones, cars, and everything else, I wonder what gets lost in translation. There is this amazing resource called…

The INTERNET.

Heck, our kids are learning how to use it from an early age!

And it is absolutely amazing. Imagine anything you want to make, create, do, decorate, or DIY. Go online, type it in, and you’ll likely find thousands of resources on how to do it in one hundred different ways.

But sometimes we just need to get outside.

Even if we’re still in pajamas.

And explore. Learn. Play. Create.

Try something new.

Because while you can see the whole world online, you can’t experience it.

Phones

February 28, 2013 ~ hunt2005 ~ Leave a comment

While it’s nice that we have phones to take pictures of things quickly, sometimes, you also don’t realize just how many photos you’ve taken on there that never get sorted in with the rest.

So here is a small assortment of what you may have missed.

Whack a baby:

It’s like Whack-a-mole, only a baby and a laundry basket instead. This was all purely voluntary, for the record, there were no babies harmed in this process and they chose to do it to themselves.

And here is one of our more recent visits to the park. Thank goodness for fenced in playgrounds with gates that shut. And for playsets that aren’t too high up when they decide to try and head dive off.

Such big kids! Jaina enjoys going down the slide herself. Unfortunately, she’s so light she just flies off the end! Jacen enjoys the slide, but doesn’t like having to go around and climb back up each time. And Valerie likes laughing at them while they do it.

Birthday Party!

February 21, 2013 ~ hunt2005 ~ Leave a comment

I’m still working on getting photos uploaded and edited, but let’s just say it was a complete success. We had a few of our closest friends at the party, and it couldn’t have been more perfect!

Big brother very much enjoyed having his best friend there, and keeping it small was perfect. I’m not sure what we were thinking last year inviting 20+ kids, with only about 10 this year (including all siblings) it was amazing. We were able to talk to everyone, enjoy the play area, and then sit around and eat cupcakes/open presents without the kids getting tired of watching someone else open them. I mean, really, what 5 year old wants to stare at another kid open 30 presents for forever?!

Until I get the birthday photos loaded, I’ll leave you with one of the last pictures we have of him as a 4 year old. Can you believe my baby boy is 5?! Seems like just yesterday he looked like this…

Taking a break…

February 11, 2013 ~ hunt2005 ~ Leave a comment

From the children.

We all need it, even those wonderful-amazing-homeschooling-attachment parenting-child loving-martyrs of moms need it.

Who doesn’t?!

I haven’t really talked about my training or running lately, and frankly I probably should more. Keeps me accountable, is fun to share something other than children/diapers/messes/war stories, and gives you a break (though, I know, you’d really just prefer to see their smiling faces. I might oblige at the end!)

Two and a half years ago I got together with a trainer in WA with a goal of improving fitness and speeding up my running. Back then, she gave me a spreadsheet with running paces on a treadmill (after having seen me run), and completely believed that I could do it. Um, yeah, she was a nut case. I couldn’t make it through one interval, much less the two additional repeats of it. Now, I say that in the nicest way, because I know she really just had more faith in me than I did myself (than I DO myself, most days).

A couple weeks into the program (which I was failing miserably at), I found out I was pregnant. No biggie, I’ll keep running and just slow it down. I remember trying a run in Coronado during our crazy cross-country drive, and thinking, “This is HARD.” Yeah. Found out a few weeks later it was triplets. There went the running!

Fast forward two years. I’ve gotten back into it, suffered through a half-marathon (wow, is it different after a triplet pregnancy, my hips are still not back in the right spot, I think!), and done a triathlon. But I want more. I want to get faster. And I (stupidly) signed up for an olympic triathlon in 3 short months which may just kill me.

So I tried that training plan once more. And didn’t die this time. Yeah, it still sucks. But not quite as much as it used to. And I did start to get faster. I finally could run faster than an 11 minute mile on a regular basis. And I can almost do the intervals without stopping for water. Insert a 5k this weekend, and I was shooting for my first sub-30 minute yet. Low and behold, I pulled off a 30:32! Not too shabby. I wouldn’t be as upset about it if I hadn’t walked a few times. Went out too fast, too much wine the night before (never thought I’d say that phrase!), and a stomach cramp or two later, I found a sweet old man, white beard and all, and followed him along the way to the finish line. We kept each other going, and it wasn’t as rough with him beside me (I mean, really, if he can do it, I have nothing to complain about!).

So the journey begins. Less than 12 weeks until I swim almost 1.5km (0.97mi), bike 40k (25 miles), and run 10k (6.2m). Lord help me…

At least these little munchkins will be at the finish line!

Getting caught up

February 4, 2013 ~ hunt2005 ~ 4 Comments

Have I told you lately how amazing almost-5-year-olds (don’t remind me… I have 2 more weeks to feign ignorance that his birthday is approaching) are?

No?

Well they can be hilarious. Seriously hilarious. First off, they are imaginative (sometimes to a fault). He can run around the house for hours playing “submersible” and fixing broken pipes and underwater walls, and driving around. With absolutely nothing in hand. No box, no tangible item at all. Well, except penguin and baby kitty cat that go everywhere.

Then, they are loving and emotional (often to a fault). But it means that kisses still heal boo-boos. Hugs fix hurt feelings. And no matter what happens, saying, “I’m so sorry” makes it all better.

And then you have the fun stuff. The smart stuff.

Like when they are asked at school to draw a picture of a whale and then measure it with their feet, write how big it is, and their name. This is Aiden’s whale. His school is absolutely amazing. First off, they teach him the coolest things. And they’re kind, patient, and wonderful. But even more than that, they take pictures for us. Because if you ask a still-4-for-2-more-weeks year old what they did today? Nothing. or I played. or We went to the big playground. Nothing about whales and measuring and what the number of the day is.

You know what else is cool? When an I-swear-he’s-always-going-to-be-4 year old has three babies. Because then everyone in the world should have more than one baby at a time. When baby kitty cat had babies in her tummy yesterday, she had three of them. And when penguin laid eggs? Yup, three. And clearly anything less than that would be BOOOOOORRRRRING (according to him. That’s his favorite word.)

With four kids in the house, it’s not always puppies and sunshine. Hardly ever do we get a picture of them all smiling and laughing. Not because it doesn’t happen, but because when they are all playing happily the last thing I want to do is make any noise or sound to distract from it, which includes going to get a camera.

They’re learning. Most often from big brother. And most often it’s the annoying stuff (like shoving a stuffed penguin in your face and squealing). But they’re learning. And imitating. And growing older. Don’t remind me…

Toddlers versus Teens

February 2, 2013 ~ hunt2005 ~ Leave a comment

Whoever says that “It’ll get better” to a mom of a toddler (or multiple toddlers) must be delusional. Or lying (to themselves as well). Or possibly just forgetful. Okay, so they learn to talk and do things for themselves. But don’t they also learn to talk back? And be purposefully defiant?

So yeah, while I haven’t had the pleasure of being a mom to a teenager yet (Lord help me when I am), I have decided that I’m definitely not cut out to being a mom to a preschooler. Mainly for this reason: You can’t take things away from them. Or, more accurately, you’d have to stick them in a padded room with nothing in it for punishment, and even then they’d learn they could just run around and bounce off the wall and it’d be fun.

I mean, seriously. They aren’t listening, so you threaten them with timeout. Except for they have this AMAZING thing called an imagination now. So where time-out when they were three was a perfect consequence, now it’s filled with the really cool things that an almost-5-year-old can think of while sitting on a mat. And sending to their room? Forget it. The room has books. Toys. And should they actually listen to the rules and sit on their bed? Guess what? A bed bounces. And they can fall back onto it and that’s a LOT of fun. Oh, and don’t forget that should you take away the toy they just hit their brother over with, along with EVERY OTHER TOY THEY OWN, they will surely find a box. Or a shoe. Or a piece of paper. And all of a sudden they have a new amazing toy which is just as good as the ones that you actually spent money on (in their mind). It DOES. NO. GOOD.

At least you can take the keys to the surly teenager’s car, turn off their cell phone, and unplug the computer. You just then have to deal with the consequences…

Birthday planning

January 22, 2013 ~ hunt2005 ~ Leave a comment

Well, after our trip to Disneyland, Aiden is obsessed with Buzz Lightyear. Who knows why, considering he was over and done with Buzz about two years ago, but who am I to argue? At least he has a favorite thing picked right now!

That said, he has no interest in watching the movie. Maybe it’s because Buzz isn’t actually running around fighting aliens in the movie like he is in the ride at Disney.

As such, he has decided this year he wants a Buzz Lightyear party. Works for me!

Now, I love my kids. I love decorating. I love party planning and snacks and goodies. But dude, not for a 5 year old’s party where the biggest hit of the day is the cake and they have no real concern for any other food served, much less what the decorations look like or how long mommy spent getting it ready.

Likewise, I keep my house pretty clean, it’s small but it’s as tidy as it can be for having four kids running around all day. And I love my friends. But bringing lots of kids and friends and parents over here for a party would get cramped.

So while all the other moms in the world (or at least that’s what it feels like) are Pinterest-ing and cricket-ing and craft-ing (yes, I know that one’s actually a real word, but I like the hyphen to continue the theme), I’m letting others do most of the hard work.

This awesome shop made the party decorations and cupcake toppers for me.

(Thought I did actually make his invitations, so I did SOMEthing at least!)

And MyMuseum will be doing the decorating and providing the play space.

I imagine it will be an entirely different world when the triplets turn 5, as they’ll have three best friends, and likely many more people to invite. But a 5 year old boy? He’s easy. Couple of best friends, couple of family friends, and a couple of hours just to hang out and play. We’ll keep it simple as long as we can!

19 and 59 months…

January 20, 2013 ~ hunt2005 ~ Leave a comment

Wow, how did that happen?

One month from yesterday, big brother will turn 5. FIVE. FIIIIIVEEE. Holy goodness. It’s funny looking back – when he turned one, it was cute and adorable, and a celebration of fewer sleepless nights, more interaction, and the toddler years to come. When he turned two, it was a fun party, still mostly for the adults, but he actually enjoyed ripping paper off of toys. Turning 3 he started to get it – he knew he’d get cake, and that birthdays were fun. Four was his first “real” party – he looked forward to it for weeks, actually blew out his own candles, and fully enjoyed himself.

But 5??? 5 makes me realize he’s not a baby anymore. He’s a kid. A big kid. I mean, he’ll be in school here in just a few short months. And he asks profound questions (ranging from the simplistic “why” with a deeper meaning than just waiting for mommy to say “because” to full out requests for the mechanics of a given object or the biological/chemical process behind something – just not in such terms). He is smart (too smart), funny (or at least he thinks he’s funny), emotional (sometimes to a fault, but also has an abundance of love and care and empathy), kind (or at least not intentionally mean), and has fully developed his own personality. He doesn’t do things for the sake of being like mommy anymore. How did this happen?!?! We joke about where my baby boy went, and then joke that Aiden ate him.

And on top of that, I have three 19 month olds in the house. 18 months didn’t seem like a big deal. Sure, they could walk, and they started saying things. And they definitely had opinions (with the shaking of the head as “no” being their favorite). But they were cute and tiny back then. You know. 30 days ago. But now? You do something or say something and can see the look on their face while they contemplate whether or not they like that idea. They look at you and laugh. Jacen will drag a pot or pan down the hall and hide in the room, peaking out to see if you caught him. Jaina will run away from you laughing (cute in the yard, not so much in a parking lot). Valerie will run up for a hug and after 40 milliseconds then squirm and throw a fit until you put her down. They gauge reactions. They plan their temper tantrums. I can almost read their thoughts:
“If I throw myself on the ground, right here, will I hit anything? Are there sharp toys in the way? Yes, yes there are. SO Now I’m going to turn 20 degrees to the right and then do it. *throws self on floor* Hmm, is she looking? *stops crying and looks up to gauge reaction* No?? Why in the world is she not taking pity on me?!”

They sometimes team up. Sometimes gang up. Sometimes play separately. Sometimes want nothing to do with each other. Other times throw a fit if one isn’t where they’re supposed to be. They talk to each other, play with their brother, run from their brother. They’ve got this “toddler” thing figured out. Lord help me when they realize what the terrible twos are and how to most efficiently use it to their advantage.

The Happiest Place on Earth!

January 16, 2013January 16, 2013 ~ hunt2005 ~ Leave a comment

So I’m finally getting around to the Disneyland post. Sorry for the delay! Honestly? It was an absolutely amazing 3 days. A bit crazy at times, and far different from the Disney experiences of teenage and college years, but worth every minute of it!

We made amazing time headed down there. Boy do car trips go better when you have toddlers who don’t require a bottle every 3 hours! There were a couple of monkey-related issues, but otherwise it was a issue-free trip. We might need to get one of those grabber things for Aiden so he can retrieve toys for us (like this) in the future!

We got there in such good time, in fact, that we arrived before the room was ready. You know, the big giant room where they had to move a small table so that we could fit three cribs. That room. It was pretty awesome, though, and now I’m kicking myself for not taking a picture. There was a curtain to seperate a lowered area of the room where we put the cribs, so we were actually able to put them down early and not have to sleep ourselves quite yet (though we did anyways).

We waited around a little bit, got into the room, unpacked, loaded up the stroller, and off we went!

Once in the park we were off! One of our good friends from Washington was actually in town at the same time so we lucked out and got to spend a lot of the first two days with them, which was wonderful!

We, of course, had to find the Star Wars area. Aiden said that he wanted to do that ride first, and daddy didn’t object. I think I saw a beam of pride as well. The Storm Troopers were out and found his R2D2 sweatshirt immediately and took to him!

In past trips to theme parks, it’s always been ride after ride with nothing in between except waiting in line. With four kids? You start to enjoy more of the magic of it. The parades were a big hit (Jaina wanted to take off after them). And the kids really enjoyed the music and lights!

Of course, there were rides as well.

There was actually only one ride that Aiden wasn’t able to do, but that was okay because the line was over 2 hours long for it anyways! We had a lot of fun enjoying the kids rides with short waits, and took turns taking him on rides while the other person hung out with the kids.

Part of the fun going was that it was still decorated with all the holiday goodness. There were lights, decorations, and the cars in CarsLand were wearing Santa Hats. How much cooler could it get?!

Day 2 began nice and early and we had to rock the princess dresses and mickey tights. The first day we didn’t do too well with the napping in the stroller, but by day 2 even Jacen gave in and decided some sleep would be worth it!

There were a lot more rides, some more time spent with our friends, and a lot of fun to be had that day. The benefits of the park hopper pass and Disneyland is that you can actually go back and forth between the parks all day, so Aiden got to ride the Buzz lightyear ride ~~umpteen~~ nine times while still enjoying our fastpasses in California Adventures.

Back track to how we told the kids about the trip – we had Aiden open up a package with some Mickey and Minnie shirts that a friend had made us. It wasn’t as effective as they make it look on TV (no jumping up and down, no screams, no real excitement at all actually until we explained it), but they were adorable for our last and final day there!

We even managed to get a family picture or two, which is pretty unheard of. It was quite nice to have all of us in a photo!

Overall, the magic of Disneyland still exists. It was there for the children in the music and rides and parades. For us in watching their faces light up as they tried to comprehend why the characters from that magic box at home that makes noise and shows movies were full size and standing in front of them. It was there for the newly engaged girl who had just been proposed to in front of the castle (in the group of people behind Aiden’s head in the picture). It’s so much better this way than just running ride to ride. While you are more frustrated by tourists and crazy people in the mobs of people at the park, it’s also refreshing to see all of the laughs and smiles from kids and adults alike. I mean, it’s the happiest place on earth, right? I can’t wait to take them back in a few years and see how much it (and they) have changed!

Two years ago (yesterday)

January 8, 2013 ~ hunt2005 ~ 2 Comments

Life changed. And not in that simple way of “Oh, look, we got a puppy dog!” or “Oh wow, we got a new car!” But in that completely insanely way where you go from thinking, “WOW, we might have two kids!” to “Holy S&@*! How did that happen!?”

This is what we saw:

And by “we,” I mean me, the doctor, two nurses, and Aiden.

Steven got to hear about it from the submarine captain.

In the Navy, there are people who will come and go in and out of your lives. There are the coworkers who you remember fondly. The shipmates who you are glad transferred quickly. The shipmates you’re glad to transfer away from. Some bosses you like, others not so much. Just like in the civilian world. But, just like any major news-worth event, you will always remember certain people for something that happened while they were on watch or held a certain position. I will never, ever, ever, forget our ombudsman and CO’s wife.

Normally, when one finds out they’re pregnant, the first person to find out (other than them), is a best girl friend or husband or mom/mother in law. In the Navy? The first phone call was to the Ombudsman. They are a wife’s best friend during a deployment – they have the contact info for the boat, they are your liason, your lifeline to your husband while he’s gone. When her phone went to voicemail, I left a hurried message that I’m pretty sure sounded like ~~someone had died~~ ~~been shot~~ ~~been run over by a car~~ ~~gotten lost~~ something really bad had happened. The next call? CO’s wife. For if there was ANYONE that the CO would call should they be able to, other than the ombudsman, I figured it’d be her. Or at the very least maybe she was with the Ombudsman and could have her call me. Or call the powers that be. Or ANYTHING. In this case? They were my lifeline to make sure my husband found out quickly and didn’t have to read it in that night’s email (which likely would have been screened and blocked anyways).

Now? Thousands of miles separate us; weeks go without talking/face-booking/emailing. But never, ever, will I forget those ladies. Or January 7, 2011.