Author Archives: carrievoris

Small Miracle

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I know God has better things to do than worry about my kids’ sleeping problems. But that hasn’t stopped me from offering up prayers to him many times over the past month(s)…I just needed some divine intervention.

I’m not saying all the problems have been solved, but last night was a “normal” night’s sleep.

7:15pm – both girls in bed (Em in mine, and Addie in her crib)
9pm – Mommy in bed
Sleep
Sleep
Kick Smokey off the bed
Sleep
Again with Smokey
Sleep
6:30am – Addie wakes up
6:50am – Em wakes up

Quick calculation = Mommy had 9 (count ’em!) hours of sleep. More than I had the previous 3 nights combined.

Niiiicccee! Life is good around here this morning. We might make it til Friday when J. comes home…

A Moment Like This

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This is what gets me through the long, long days.

The Girls

How can you get mad when you have sweet, sweet little girls like this?

We are working very hard to get back on track and back into our routine. We had quite a hellish travel day on Sunday – delays, lost luggage, no sleep for Mommy the night before. But it sure did feel amazing to be walk into our house.

Unfortunately, we are still in a sleep funk with little Addie. I cannot figure out what her problem is. Ear infection, teething, just out-of-sorts?

I’m going to bed now. I figure if I cannot sleep through the night – I should at least go to bed early and get my sleep where I can take it.

(Yes, I’m watching American Idol – hence the title of this post. Every year I say I’m through with this show, and I continually get sucked back in. Sleep? Crappy singers? Tune in to find out who wins out!)

R.I.P. Tuck the Turtle

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Under a tree in our backyard lies our beloved Tuck the Turtle. In our house lies a sad little girl who can’t figure out how the animals actually get to heaven – and I have no idea how to explain it to her.

When we returned home last night I thought Tuck looked a little, um…”stiffer” than usual. But I changed his water and hoped for the best – he has pulled that trick before and I thought maybe he really was just sleeping. When we got up this morning and Emma tried to convince me that he was in fact sleeping, I knew that poor little Tuck was gone.

So I proceeded to tell her that he had died and was up in heaven with other pets like Nana & Papa’s puppy, Brandie. We had a similar discussion a few months ago when Brandie had died. She nodded very solemnly and said, “Yeah, Tuck got dead.” And she continued on her morning. I thought I had gotten off easy, she really didn’t seem too upset over it.

So I wrapped Tuck up and put him into the garbage. And about 10 minutes later Emma came out and asked where he was.

Me: “Uh, um….he is up in heaven, remember?”
Em: “Yeah, but where is his cage?”
Me: “Well, I put him aside and we will go out and bury him during Addie’s nap. That way Jesus can come take him up to heaven. (Yes, totally pulling that out of my you-know-what! I just didn’t want her to see that I had tossed him in the trash, so I had to go back and dig him out!)

Again, she was pacified and seemed ok about it all.

Then we had the actual Turtle funeral. I took a spoon outside, dug a little hole, said a few words about Tuck and buried him. Emma picked out the tree to bury him under and chose a nice big one in the middle of the lawn because it was in a very sunny spot and “Tuck liked to sit in the sun in our kitchen”.

Then we were just kind of sitting there – enjoying the sun, thawing out a little from our wintery wonderland vacation and Emma says –

Em: “How many seconds does it take?”
Me: “Does what take?”
Em: “How many seconds until Jesus comes to take Tuck?”
Me: (Ack!) “Um, well. Jesus is kind of like Santa…(I know, blasphemy! I don’t think God will strike me down for the comparison, though. I mean, really how do you explain this to a 3-year old!!)…he is magic. We don’t know when he’ll come down, but he will.
Em: “I miss Tuck, Mama.”
Me: “I know, Em.”

Meanwhile, my heart is breaking for her. Not really about Tuck so much – she seems to be doing pretty well with the whole thing, or maybe she is just kind of oblivious and doesn’t understand it all. But I just got very emotional and sad thinking of the many times she is going to miss someone, or lose someone and there isn’t anything I can do about it, and nothing I can do to take her hurt away.

That breaks my heart. That realization that no matter how hard you try you just can’t protect your children from everything.

Still On Vacation

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Emma’s favorite saying this weekend, “It’s OK, Mama – we’re on vacation!” Here is our “vacation” picture at the hotel in Chicago where we attempted to rest up for the remainder of our “vacation.”

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It has been a little bit whirlwind – Detroit to Leslie to Meesh’s to Chicago to Leslie to Meesh’s…and soon back to Leslie and on to Detroit – and then…HOME!

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Em told me that she misses her house and her kitties and her turtle. I kinda do too, but I know that our time with family is a precious commodity these days and I don’t want to waste a minute of it. But I also know the saying, “fish and company both go bad after three days…” and I kind of feel like Mich and DJ are going to want to kick us out before the end of the week comes rolling around.

Addie is having (I know, I know – I’m always saying it…) serious teething issues. We spend most of last night pacing and just trying to get her to stop crying hysterically. Things like that don’t seem like a big deal when we are at home, but it is just harder in somebody else’s house, especially when that somebody else has to get up to go to work in the morning.

I am working on the new pics of my adorable new godson, Will and our cutie little Lauren. It was so fun to see them for a little bit of time this weekend and hang out with them. Of course, it only makes us miss them more. Hopefully tomorrow I can get them up.

Now I am going to go burrow into bed with Emma (we are on vacation, remember, so she gets to sleep with Mama!) and try to sleep before Addie decides to bless me with her screeching presence. By the way it is currently four degrees, not 4-0, just plain 4!! Definitely California dreamin’ tonight!

Four Quarters Make a Whole

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We are missing a piece of our sweet, little family pie. Addie is staying with my parents this weekend while we go to Chicago for my godson Will’s baptism. Originally it was just going to be the girls and I, and since I will be sitting up with Will – and that would probably not go over well with Addie – I asked Nana and Papa if they would keep her.

Then, Jamie was able to switch his schedule around and meet Em and I in Chicago. So we are staying at a really nice hotel having a little vacation before we go out to Kim and Brian’s. Emma is so excited and keeps saying, “Mama, we are on vacation!” – but it just feel strange without Addikins here.
Don’t get me wrong…it was a WONDERFUL night. We got to lounge around, order room service and meet Aunt Vicki and Uncle Dick for coffee. And Emma and I took a long soak in the tub and used every smelly spa soap, shampoo and lotion the hotel provides and, most importantly, we all had a loooong nice, uninterrupted sleep.

Now we are lounging getting ready to go grab some breakfast, it is all very luxurious and leisurely and reminiscent of when we were just a family of three. But as much as I can appreciate a relaxing evening now, it just isn’t right. Emma also said to me last night, “Mama, I miss my Addie.”

I do, too.

Pudding face

City Girls Hit the Country

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This was our view a few mornings ago. Michelle made fun of me for being so excited and grabbing my camera, but it isn’t everyday that we see a deer just wandering through the backyard. The freshly fallen snow…it was just really pretty and peaceful.

Deer in the snow

The new snow also meant that Emma had to go out and play in it. So Michelle outfitted Madey, Em and Addie. It took us a total of 20 minutes to get all of them dressed. Addie lasted 2 minutes. The older girls, maybe…15 minutes longer.

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I think Em got her snow quota for the year. She told me she was excited to go back to California and ride her new bike, “because we don’t have any snow!”

Happy 16-months, Addikins

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Um, normally this would be a lengthy write-up about all of the amazing things you are doing or can do this month. But really the most important thing is something you are NOT doing. Which is sleeping.

I must get some sleep.

Maybe tomorrow I will write about your never-ending cuteness, put up all the Rose Bowl pics, and show off our new beautiful niece/cousin.

But. Now. Must. Sleep.

Cheeeese!

Movies, Candy and All Things Good.

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So, here’s a tip: Dora the Explorer, lollipops, and M&Ms are all Mommy’s best friends on a cross-country plane ride and 2-hour car trip.

I never thought I would bribe my children with candy or some sort of electronic viewing pleasure….until I attempted to travel by myself with a 3 1/2 year old and a (nearly) 16-month old, waking them up from their nice, warm beds at 4:30am, making it to the airport and barely getting all of our baggage onto a plane by 6:25am, flying from Los Angeles to Chicago, refereeing a minor lunchtime meltdown and fight over a stroller at Midway airport, and then sitting on a tarmac for 45 minutes…waiting to take the 32 minute flight to Detroit.  That is about the point I pulled out the M&Ms.

Yes, we are interested – we have even stopped screaming long enough to shove some sweet, sweet chocolate into our mouths.

And, thankfully, at this point we have taken off and reached the magical altitude when you can turn on approved electronic devices. So the laptop came out and both girls settled into a sugar-induced, Dora coma.  Addie even let herself fall asleep.

Success! Ah, Dora – Gracias from the bottom of mi corazon! I may not be winning any mother-of-the-year awards with my tactics, but it sure was a peaceful 29 minutes.

Already a bit behind in the resolution department

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I have been meaning to put up my resolutions for the past few days – one of them was to become more organized and efficient with my time, thus giving me more time to blog, scrapbook and do fun stuff with the girls. Ha! Obviously I have not managed to be very successful with that one these first three days of the New Year.

Of course I have the requisite, lose 15 pounds, eat healthier, get the girls to eat healthier, work out more resolution, too. These I really don’t seem to be having too much of a problem with lately. The gym, and the wonderful “kids klub” have totally been saving my sanity. I’ve gotten some quality workouts in lately, and managed to eat my way through the holidays and even lose weight! So, I think that I can’t, or won’t, count that as a real resolution.

My REAL resolution, the one thing I’m going to work on the hardest is becoming a more “mindful” mommy. I am constantly reminded how quickly life is just passing me by. Every day goes by more quickly than the last, and the girls are determined to leave their babyhood in the dust, whether I like it or not. I just feel like I can’t keep up, and I want to just freeze so many moments. But instead I find myself feverishly trying to get work done in time for a deadline or clean a house, that is really only going to be messy in a few hours, anyhow.

It isn’t until I am sitting enjoying a quiet moment with the girls – or more than likely, a not so quiet moment – or listening to them really truly laugh when I realize this is what I need the most in my life. To live more of those moments, hold on to more of those moments and let go of some of the “dirty laundry” that fills my days.

What about you? Any good resolutions? Any broken ones already?

A year of promise and hope

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Although our Michigan football team didn’t hold up any promises or offer even a glimmer of hope that we could win today, I am still certain that 2007 is going to be a great year!

We had the full Pasadena/Rose Bowl New Year’s experience today. Last night at midnight we wandered downtown and gaped at all of the crazy, poor people camping out on the street for the parade this morning. I mean, sleeping bags in the gutter, on the asphalt – staking out their spot for a glimpse of the floats and bands. It was insane. I have been to a lot of New Year’s Eve celebrations in a lot of big cities, and have never experienced anything like that. I forgot my camera, so I don’t have any pictures, but trust me it was c-r-a-z-y!

After a stop off at a pub for a New Year’s drink and the walk back, it was pretty close to 2am by the time we went to bed. Three short hours later, I woke up thinking that my neighbors were being extremely rude and loud (like we can talk, I’m sure they hate us and our screaming girlies!) and realized it was the PA system for the parade. The parade runs right down our street, literally through our front yard. So not only was it a little inconvenient to have the street closed for portions of yesterday and today, but apparently the parade provides a free “wake-up call” as well. At any rate, we can’t complain, they did give us free bleacher tickets for the parade, and it was worth every little hassle!

The parade was amazing, the girls were so very excited about it all. Emma loved the bands, Addie loved the horses, and they both loved the floats. They were pretty stunning! So that was a great way to start off the year. I’ll try to post pictures tomorrow, between the parade and game today, Jamie and I took 525 pictures between the two of us. So, yeah, I’ll have to do a little paring down and editing of some of them!

The game, well, that did not have as good of results – but it was fun just to get to go to a Rose Bowl game, and hopefully when/if we make it next year we’ll have better luck.

So the first day of January 2007 was pretty good, all-in-all.

Two little sidenotes, for any of you following the J. and his job interviewing that we haven’t talked to in the past week, J. is officially leaving Playboy in a few weeks and will be taking the job of…wait for it…it’s a good one…

CTO of Digital Media for the NFL.

Yes, the NFL, as in National Football League. How crazy is that?? It is an amazing opportunity for him, and I am certain he is going to rise up to the challenge and be absolutely great at the job. He is the first CTO of the NFL, ever! I am so very proud of him, I can’t even describe it. Like I said though, I am certain that this is going to be a great year.

The other sidenote has to do with the new year, in a round about way, I guess. For those of our friends and family who are used to getting a Emma/Addie calendar for Christmas – they are on their way. It hasn’t been lost in the mail. It is just stuck on my hard drive, unable to print and collate themselves, apparently. So, I am working on them feverishly and hopefully I’ll have a stack of them to bring to Michigan when we leave (ack!) this Friday. Can that be right, in 4 short days??

Already the year is flying by…I hope you all had a very safe and fun first day of January. Wishing you lots of love and happiness in the New Year.