Ahhhhh Pari . . . C’est la vie

For the first time ever, I wrote a bunch down and added to my blog from this morning and I lost everything that I added. That does not make me happy. But what does make me happy is that Chris called a couple hours ago and informed me that he earned his company’s trip to Paris this August. A week in the wonderful glorious city of Paris paid for by Takeda Pharmaceuticals – a dream come true! So we immediately called the Domestics down in Southern California and told them that we won a trip to Paris and they won a trip to Northern California to watch all of our kids! They wanted to switch prizes but se la vie.

This morning I was thinking about how most people are sad when Monday rolls around and the weekend fun is over, but not me. I celebrate when I wake up on Monday mornings because that means I get my nanny back. Weekends in our house are busy, messy, crazy, sometimes boring if you can believe that. Weekends are good family time, but when the weekdays roll around I can actually have a few hours to myself here and there and my nanny’s are so great at helping with housework.

My kids are eating me out of house and home – whatever that old saying is supposed to mean I don’t know. But I buy so many groceries at the store and there isn’t any food that goes wasted in this house. At this point I think each of the babies eat more than Ava, which isn’t saying too much, but is still worth noting. Every night I fix dinner and cut whatever we are eating up into small pieces for the babies and they love it! They eat pretty much anything, but their favorite are pizza and pasta with meat sauce. I love cooking for people who appreciate my food! Every time I put dinner down on the table for Ava she says, and I quote, “Ewwwww, I don’t like this! I don’t want to eat this. Can you make me something else?” It actually kind of amuses me at this point. I don’t know what I would do if Ava didn’t find my meals so offensive and disgusting.

My little Violet hit a developmental milestone over the weekend and I was so proud of her. After determining that Violet may never walk, she decided to get up from the ground and stand on her feet and take six steps. I was blown away. How it happened is Elsa and Preston were walking back and forth and we were cheering and clapping and there was poor little Violet on the sidelines curiously watching as her brother and sister got all the accolades. All of a sudden it is like she just said “hey, I can do that!” and she went from sitting and got up on those little feet and walked. Then she proceeded to do it over and over and over again about 50 times because she decided it was a new skill that was quite fun.

So now it is like night of the living dead at my house. I’ll say “Violet, stand up and walk over here” and next thing I know all three babies have stopped whatever they were doing and are teetering toward me with their arms out, stiff legs and swaying all over the place. It is such a funny scene. Preston definitely looks like Frankenstein when he walks. They still use crawling as their major mode of transportation but this weekend I saw both Elsa and Preston walking to get from one place to another which was precious.

Ava has now had two swim races. I debated about whether to put Ava on the Shark’s Swim Team this year since she is only 4 years old and I was not sure if she would be able to emotionally handle going to swim practice every day and swim meets all day on Saturdays (not to mention if our family could handle it). I must say Ava has impressed me with her enthusiasm and her winning spirit so far. She got out there on both race days with a big smile on her face, ready to win! By the way, she still thinks she has won all the races she is in. Last Saturday the coaches put Ava in the backstroke for one of her races. Ava just learned how to do backstroke and it is shaky at best. She was nervous to do this stroke mainly because she thought that she may hit her head on the side of the pool. I remember worrying about that when I was a kid also. I asked that one of the coaches get in the pool with her and verbally guide her along and get her down to the other end of the pool to touch the side. All the other backstrokers were done a good minute before Ava but I was so proud of her because she stayed on her back and moved those little arms and made her way to the end all by herself. When she touched the wall the crowd cheered so loudly for her and I felt emotional because she tried her best and she did not give up or cry or complain. What more could I ever ask for? When she got out she literally thought that she had won that race and she commented how no one was even in the pool which she translated into a win for herself.

Along with the actual races, I also really think the process of race day is special for us. A lot of our neighbor friends are Sharks and so everyone sets up tents all around the outside of thle pool and I mooch off all my friends tents and the kids draw sharks all over their bodies, paint their nails the team colors, play games and just have fun all day in between races. I am so clueless about the process that luckily I have about four different friends who come running up to me when Ava is about to race. Phew.

So last night we went to a barbecue at the Kott’s house across the street and enjoyed their super delux awesome new outdoor kitchen and we brought all the kids. Luckily, the only way it works is all our friends who step in and help hold babies and watch babies. Bob Kott, Bob Gerstle and Ed Smith spent a good portion of their evening holding Elsa and Preston instead of relaxing and drinking their Sangria. Angela took Violet for me so I could eat in peace for a few minutes while Kathy and Heidi made sure my Sangria was close by and filled my plate up with more food. People I didn’t even know were holding Elsa at certain points in the evening because otherwise she would be trying to take a swim on her own in the pool. It takes a whole neighborhood to help the Woolseys go to a barbecue / pool party. We love you friends!

Lastly, I want to thank my husband for doing all of our dreaded household chores this weekend while helping so much with the kids. Oh, and thanks for winning us a week in Paris! You are the best.

Until next time, the mothership is signing off.