Easter and a good sport

Jake went to a show Saturday afternoon. To get there we dropped him at a friend's house (about 30 minutes away) and from there they went to the subway and took the train downtown to the show. He was the come back home the same way, with us picking him back up from the friend's house.

During one of his check-in calls he asked if we would be able to give a ride home to another friend, B (in Jake's band), who also lives about 30 minutes away, but going back in the other direction. B.'s ride home had overbooked his car and would be cramming kids in without enough seatbelts. Yipe. What was to have been a hour of driving Saturday night was now going to be two. Luckily, B. was able to spend the night and so we had an extra kid for Easter morning.

We found another basket to set out and in the morning I had two sleepy teenage boys to wake up when it was time to search for the filled baskets. One thing we've always done on Easter and Christmas mornings is to have the kids line up in the hallway, smallest to tallest, while I snap a photo. I rarely share these photos as they show a gaggle of sleepy, bed-headed kids, and often more than one is blinking. I'm not mean enough to make them wait while I snap a bunch to avoid the half-closed eyes that will surely be in most of the shots when taking a photo of that many kids.

B. was a good sport and lined up right along with them. In all fairness, I think he was still partially asleep and not completely sure what he was doing. The two big boys went back to sleep after finding their baskets and munching on some chocolate so I'm sorry to say that, having slept through breakfast, we took B. home with nothing more than sweets in his stomach. He'll live.

We had an early dinner at my mother's and got to soak in all the newborn love from Baby Vita Marie (Vita Marita, according to Ben). I'm told that she does fuss at home but we only saw her eat, sleep, peek a little bit, then back to sleep.


Back home and more sweets, home made salsa and off to sleep. A good day, indeed.

oh, that niece!

Her eyes done opened and she looks like her mama.

a day in the life

We aren't, as a rule, one of those always-on-the-go-sign-the-kids-up-for-everything families. They are pretty much limited to one activity per kid, but multiplying that out can mean a lot of activities. But this past Saturday's schedule topped all others in recent memory. Here is what we were supposed to do:

9:00 am - 11:00 am Abie to baseball practice at Park A

9:30 am - 10:30 am Ben to t-ball clinic at Park B (approx. 4-5 miles from Park A)

11:30-3:00 pm check in, brunch and seminars at College Choice B for Jake (admitted students day) (30 minutes away)

12:00 pm - 2:30 pm Emma to cheerleading clinic (about 10 minutes from college)

3:30 pm Hope to birthday sleepover at her friend's house about 1/2 way between home and college

Nice, huh? We actually had a plan and it was all going to work out. Bill would take Abie (and Clara) to his practice and I would take Ben (and Lydia) to his. We would then both go home, drop off the boys and take Lydia, Jake and Emma to the college. Drop Billiam and Jake at the college, drop Emma at cheerleading. Go back to college with Lydia to meet up with Billiam and Jake. I would leave the college with Lydia in time to pick up Emma from cheerleading, go back home and get the rest of the kids, drop Hope at her friend's house, then head back to the college to pick up Billiam and Jake.

As it turned out, Emma was still tired from the fever thing the other day and chose a nap over cheerleading and poor Hope had a fever (different from Emma's of the other day--low grade, gone by the next day), so she couldn't go to her sleepover.

So that was Saturday. Sunday was much easier. Field hockey for Clara for two hours during which I dropped dinner at my sister's house and got to love on that baby. It was her due date. Today is the appointment at Children's with the orthopedic surgeon about her hip dystocia. Hopefully it will be good news.

The swelling has gone down on her face and now I see my sister in her through the eyes.

Vita Marie on her due date

Oh, and the proud parents (at Christmas)

my baby sister and her husband

Emma and Vita and Jake (oh, my!)

Emma went back to school today. No fever (yea!). The only thing we know, so far, from the urine test is that she was pretty dehydrated Wednesday morning. That didn't surprise me as I'm having a hard time getting her to drink. They threatened iv fluids and I think she's taking it seriously now, making herself take more sips.

We all went to see my sister and the babe at the hospital tonight. They are set to go home tomorrow. You know that newborn test they do to check the hip joints? The poor wee girly's hip popped right out of the joint when they did it. They will head over to Children's tomorrow to see an orthopedic surgeon for a more thorough diagnosis. Hopefully it's something that will just correct itself.

I forgot to take my camera (argh!), but with a lot of the swelling down in her face she is looking less like a clone of her daddy. Not that she wasn't adorable that way, but it was really cool walking into the room and immediately seeing something of my sister in her.

Oh, and Jake got his third college acceptance letter. This is for choice #3, so it's unlikely that he'll go there but it's fun to know he was accepted at all three. Choice #1 is looking very good as they put together a financial aid package that brings the cost to within 1k of Choice #2. It will be interesting to see what Choice #3 puts together. We should have that within the week.

sleep, peek

squeeee!

My niece was born this morning! I can barely type as I am positively twirling with happiness.

Vita Marie O., named for her mama's grandmother and her daddy's grandmother, was born sometime around 8:30 this morning. She's seven pounds, six ounces, 19 1/2 inches, has a dusting of brown hair and looks just like her daddy.

Mama and baby are doing fine after an emergency c-section that followed two days of labor, water breaking, pitocin and breech presentation. Yipe!

The camera battery is charging and I am pacing the house until Billiam gets home to be with the kids so I can race over to meet her. If you're between my house and the hospital, please stay out of my way!