See You Sucker!

I never in a million years thought I would put a video of me singing for anyone besides my children to see, but it's not about me, it's about Ella. It's so funny to me how much she loves music and singing. And watching herself on the video camera! Noah is not into any of those things. I also love Ella's Stevie Wonder impersonation when she's "singing".

Pomp and Circumstance

Noah and his teacher
Graduation cake and everything!

I can't believe my baby has graduated from preschool!!! I'm a little behind with getting these pictures on here, but better late than never, right?

I have been extremely busy with my photography business. I've had 6 photo shoots in the last 3 weeks. I'm still having so much fun, so I'm glad the business side of it all is going so well. It definitely keeps me busy.

Today was our mediation meeting at work with the upset parent. It was a loooooooong meeting, but we did manage to come to a suitable agreement. Basically, the school just kind of caved and gave in to some of the parent's ridiculous demands, which is very frustrating, but we managed to avoid a lawsuit, which is a very good thing.

So, NOW I am on summer vacation. The kids are starting to feel better (and, consequently, act better), and I went to the doctor today and got put on an antibiotic, so hopefully will be on the mend soon as well.

Summertime....

And the living is NOT easy!! Last Friday was my last day of work and Noah's last day of preschool. We had a very fun Memorial Day week-end- the kids got to go swimming two days in a row, the weather was beautiful, and Seth was home!!! On Tuesday Seth went out of town for three days and the kids and I all proceeded to get sick with terrible colds.

I love my children, but MAN, when I am sick and they are whining and crabbing and hitting and just plain being oppositional, I really wonder how we're going to make it through the summer. Then I feel terribly guilty that I am not enjoying my children, and I think that I should feel so lucky and blessed that I have the summers off to spend with them instead of waking up in the morning dreading the day ahead.

I think that one of the hardest parts of motherhood is the guilt. Guilt that I'm not doing things right, guilt that I'm not being a good mom, guilt that I'm not loving every second of being a mom, the guilt goes on and on. And the hardest part of it all is that we mothers don't feel like we can talk about those feelings to other people because we are so afraid that then others will think we are terrible mothers, too.

I know that this is just one of many bumps in the road and that we will get over our colds and get into a routine and, hopefully, start enjoying our time off. And then, like every year, when the middle of August comes around, I will be dreading having to go back to work and lamenting how quickly the summer flew by.

Oh For the Love

Apparently I must say "Oh, for the love" quite often, because now Noah says it. Sometimes, if he's feeling extra wordy, he will say "Oh for the love of Pete's stinky feet". Not quite sure who loves those...

It's been really interesting to me to watch the kids' language development. Ella has a totally different vocabulary at this age than Noah ever did. While Noah was talking about animals, dinosaurs, and the solar system at age two, the bulk of Ella's vocabulary consists of the following: 'mine', 'my turn', 'Ella do it', 'me too', 'Ella too', 'Ella some' (Ella wants some), and about 54 variations on the word 'no'. All words that Noah did not have a need for when he was that age, as he was the only child and didn't quite know the meaning of the word "share" like Ella does.

It's also funny to see how Ella mimics her big brother. Noah loves to watch the cartoon station Boomerang and will ask for it if he gets to watch t.v. This morning, I turned on the t.v for a second and couldn't quite understand what Ella was screaming over and over. I finally realized that she was saying "boomang" and asking for Boomerang. Silly girl doesn't even know what that is, but she know's that that's what you say when the t.v. gets turned on.

In exciting news, Ella has successfully gone #2 in the potty a few times recently. She's gone #1 for awhile now, though not consistently, so we just need to get into a good routine and I think she'll get it. She's very excited about wearing big girl panties, so I suppose I should probably go get her some. Preferrably in her favorite color, which she adamantly declares is pink. That's my girl!!

I still haven't received the crib tent I bought, and she hasn't really attempted to get out of her crib again, maybe once since that first day when she figured out she could do it. I think I may return the crib tent (it was NOT cheap!) and try to make it as long as we can, and then just put her in a big girl bed. While I'd rather cage her in her crib, letting her move to a bed is probably the more humane thing to do.

Noah has been obsessed with God, Jesus, Heaven, angels, etc. lately. He draws pictures of Jesus's birth and choirs of angels. The way he talks about God and Jesus, people who didn't know us would think we were a deeply religious family, but we're not. Mildly, yes- deeply, no. Yesterday while we were in the car Noah said "Mom, I finally figured out why God made people. It 's so he could put decorations on the earth that can walk and talk."

I cannot believe that this is the last week of school/ work for the year. Normally I would be more excited at this point, but we just got involved with a potential lawsuit with a parent at school, which means I will have to work some this summer. Even though I knew it would happen eventually, my lifelong professional goal was to avoid being involved in a lawsuit. Oh well, the school is right on this one, so the parent will have a hard time winning- but I'm hoping we can get things resolved during the mediation process and not have to go to an actual lawsuit. Needless to say, not a fun way to start the summer :(

Ella's going camping....

in her crib! Today I laid her down for a nap and went in to my bathroom. A couple seconds later she was standing in front of me and our conversation went like this:

Me: Ella! What are you doing?
Ella: Ella Up!!!
Me: Did Daddy get you up?
Ella: No, Ella do it.

I then had her show me and was horrified to see her basically do full splits to stick her foot up on her railing and then heave herself over the side. I laid her down again and told her NOT to get out of bed. After 3 more escapes, she finally fell asleep.

I then promptly went onto Walmart.com and purchased a crib tent which will be delivered in 3-5 days (they didn't have any in the store, or I would have been in the car pronto).

She is just way too small to be in a big girl bed, there is no way in heck that she would ever stay in one, and she is such a good sleeper I hate to mess that up!! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the crib cage- I mean tent- works!!

One year ago today I got my Nikon D60 (my third child as I lovingly call it) and had no idea how to use it, and no real knowledge of photography in general. That's why it's amazing to me that, today, I have a crazy busy business doing something that I absolutely love! If anyone had asked me last Mother's Day, I never would have thought that I would be where I am now with my business. I know that I still have a long way to go and much to improve on.... I can't wait to see where I am next year at this time.

We had a great Mother's Day. We woke up and had cinnamon rolls and then went to church. After lunch I got to take a much needed nap, and then got to go play tennis with my Dad. I was nervous, because I haven't played since January 1st, but I did much better than I expected to. Which is good, because my West Omaha Women's Tennis League starts the middle of May. Which is now, I guess.... yikes!!

After tennis we went to my parents for dinner, and it was a really fun time. The kids were really well behaved, and we all had a fun, relaxing day.

Which we all desperately needed. Especially poor Noah. The poor kid just has had one misfortune after another lately. It started 10 days ago on a Wednesday. We were getting him ready for soccer and he and I were playing around in his room and he fell and hit his head on the corner of his dresser. He got a HUGE goose egg on his forehead and then had to go to his soccer game. I debated having him stay home, but he seemed okay and he really wanted to go to the game since the one before he had scored a goal. He didn't play too well, and generally seemed miserable the rest of the night.

At around 3:00 in the morning, I woke up hearing "I threw up" and went into his room to find that he had thrown up in his bed. I was very concerned that he had a head injury, but he didn't have any other symptoms, and the stomach flu had been at his babysitter's the previous week. For the next 4 days, he had horrible diarrhea. On the 5th day, he developed a fever that lasted until the next Monday. I took him into the doctor and they did an X-Ray of his sinuses because she thought he may have another sinus infection- which he did- and also a blood test to see if he had pneumonia or numerous other diseases- which he didn't.

He was then put on an antibiotic for the sinus infection, and I was sent home with supplies to collect a stool sample if his diarrhea hadn't gone away by the next Wednesday. Luckily, by Wednesday that part of his illness was gone. He still is not feeling all that great, and he still has a bonk on his head, but all seems to be slowly mending. Poor little man.

Here's hoping the next few weeks see us all remaining healthy and without incident so we can enjoy our summer!!

10 second update

I haven't 'blogged' in awhile, so I thought I would just mention a few things that have been going on in the Christensen household:

1- Noah has been very sick since Wednesday with, what we thought was a stomach bug, but which is not going away and is getting worse. If his diarrhea is not gone by the Wednesday, the doctor sent me home with some things so that I can take a stool sample. Lord, please let Noah's diarrhea go away by Wednesday.

2- Speaking of praying, on Wednesday night, after he woke up throwing up in his bed, I told Noah that I hoped and prayed that he was done throwing up. He looked at me with concern and asked "Why did God make me throw up?"

3- Thinking that it was just a 24 hour bug, I sent Noah to Kindergarten Round Up at Abbott last Friday morning. He had a great time, and was so excited when he was finished. He saw two boys from his soccer team there, and was loving the arts and crafts projects they did.

4- Seth and I had a really fun time on Saturday night going out with some neighbor friends while the kiddos stayed the night at grandma and grandpa's. It was nice to go out with friends together- it's been a long while since we've done that.

5- My photography business is getting crazy busy now that the weather's nice. I'm supposed to be working on some editing right now instead of typing on here, so I better get back to it.


More to come soon....