One of a Kind

It was a very sad day today we we said good-bye to the Teskey Family. Sina and Ryan moved next door to us about 5 years ago and as Sina and I both say: "instantly knew we wanted to be each others friends."

As luck would have it, and as the now long-running joke goes, Sina is to my Nate as I am to her Ryan. More often than not when we would be talking/venting/laughing about something ridiculous in our lives, we would find ourselves saying that we would have totally responded like the other spouse.

Perhaps that is why it always seemed so easy, and natural and as if we had been friends forever. We both found our friend equivalent of our spouse. But with all the benefits that a really good girlfriend brings with it, that sometimes a husband just doesn't get (like when you just need a good cry, or the total understanding that our kids help distract each other).

We bonded over Packers and brats, gardening, books, cooking, kids and everything in between.

5 years and 4 kids later (each almost too perfectly spaced 11 months apart), the Teskey's are WI bound for an amazing opportunity for their family. I am so excited for them and all it will bring. Of course I am jealous at their proximity of the Badgers and Packers, but all the more reason to get together.

But oh, how I am going to miss them. Sina was my 'cup of sugar', my 'wanna walk to get the kids?', my 'its last minute but want to go for a walk at 8PM because i had a super shitty day'. The Teskey's embedded themselves into our lives like famiy. Easy. Simple. Comfortable.

The void will never be totally filled, and it will be felt by all (including Bea who already loves trying to keep up with Elena!). I have already started my countdown for the return that was promised (what 5-8 years from now? :)) and know we will easiy pick up right where we left off.

Now, to start scouting for two perfect lots to build right next to each other.....

Case of the Mondays

After a weekend that was equal parts fun, and equal parts draining as Bea was just not herself, At all, in any way---I shouldn't have been surprised that as I pulled into the General Mills parking lot, got out my phone from the trunk to see that I already had a call from Bea's daycare room.

8:28AM on a Monday. Literally did not even make it into the building.
"she has spots on her hands?"
"Hand foot and mouth is going around?"
"Yes, I will come right back and get her."

Back into the car, through rush-hour traffic, to daycare, to the doctor we go.

And it was in this moment that I was reminded of another reason why I should never be excited to see summer slip away---it brings cold, flu and apparently Hand Foot and Mouth season.

And after enduring a solid 90 minutes of crying from Bea, combined with chucking of every single thing I offered her to eat or drink (including ice cream!), I seriously questioned if I would ever survive adding a 3rd child to this mix.

Bea then took a 2.5 hour nap, allowing me to feed myself at 1:45PM(which hadn't yet happened, unless you count an apple), check email and stare at a wall. Then she woke up and screamed for another 45 minutes until I put up my white flag and texted Sina who said--load her up, let's go to the park (a bonus to having a friend whose kid also has Hand Foot and mouth).

Life looked a little sunnier again. Until we picked Tillie up from school and she says her tongue hurts, and wait a second...is that?....yes, yes it is. Tillie also has Hand Foot and Mouth.

And thus concludes my Monday. Well, that and a big bowl of the ice cream that Bea refused.

Tillie Talks

Tillie and I were recently playing hide-and-seek and she was hiding behind the curtain, and as I was doing my standard: "hmmm, where could she be?" routine, I stopped and said: "Wait a second, what is that? Are those toes?" At which point i started tickling her until she giggled and then she said:
"I want you to put socks on me so you can't find my toes"

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On a recent warm day, I plopped the girls into the car after daycare and Tillie demanded:
"Mama, turn the coolers on!"

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A recent favorite game is Tillie assigning everyone a 'role'--she is usually the Mama or Daddy, Bea is usually the puppy, and that leaves Nate and I to be the 'babies....' yes. Poor Bea.  Well in one such game, Matilda put Nate and I (the babies) 'to sleep' and then just proceeded to play. So Nate and I were laying on the ground half-covered with baby sized blankets, and started talked about our days and Tillie YELLS: "Stop Talking BABIES! I am talking first."

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Bea and Tillie like to play with the kitchen food, and are often serving us food. Matilda brings me a plastic mushroom, and tells me it is ice cream. Nate jumps in and says: "i want ice cream! What flavors do you have?" To which Matilda responds (after much thought): "I have chocolate or no chocolate ice cream."
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Matilda got to watch  movies with her cousins when we were on vacation in Hayward. We watched the Lion King and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. About a week after vacation, we were talking about them, and asked her what they were about. Here was her assessment:

(Lion King):
There was a big chase, the dad dies, and then the lion grew and grew until they sang Hakuna Matata.

(Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs):
Meatballs fall from sky, and go boom.

Lucky #3

It is time to make this news blog official: Nate and I are excited to announce that we are adding another little one to our family. Baby #3 is due January 20th, and (I believe) will complete the family.

What I have found so interesting this pregnancy is that throughout the 'becoming public' process there is some significant consistency among the responses of the people that we tell. And it starts to separate based on how many kids they have.

Telling a person with zero kids they say "congratulations?" like its a question. They aren't really sure if this is an appropriate response or not because they are most likely just confused as to why we continue to reproduce.

Telling a person with 1 kid, you get a "congrats, Wow (pause) that was fast (pause) you guys are crazy). I don't blame this person for pulling the crazy card out. I remember when I was rock/swaying/bouncing Matilda at the park and watching my friend Summer chase two boys around while she was 7 months pregnant and thinking the same exact thing (and also thinking that she was superwoman and put me to shame).

But the reality (or least the one I am learning) is that once you get through the transition, you settle into a new normal. And yes, that normal might be a little crazy to someone not acclimated, and YES there are still days where I literally think I will lose it if one more person melts down over being given the wrong sippy cup.....but Nate and I always say we are playing the long game, and once we are through the baby stage we will be so happy we have 3.

Telling a person with 2 kids, you immediately get this question: "Was it planned?" or "Were you trying?". As if they are hoping the answer is no and yes respectively so that they can ensure our sanity is in tact, because there really isn't any other explanation for it in their minds. To be fair, we are on a rapid timeline---we will have 3 kids, aged 3 or under for 6 months. That is a lot of baby, pregnancy and all that goes in between in a very short amount of time. But for those of you wondering--yes it was planned. :) After they hear our answer, it's followed up with the age-old classic: "You guys are going to be busy...."


The reality is, I don't like the baby stage. And that isn't a secret. I told Nate that if we were going to go through with this 3 business, we had to do it before I lost the courage or before 2 became 'too easy.'

So here we are, counting down to Baby 3 or should I say, Baby Clifford, as Matilda has named it. Don't be fooled by the name, we don't know what the gender is. We decided not to find out, though a little piece of me dies every time I think about it and know we could know. Who would have though that the girl who used to sneak to try to find her birthday presents, would be able to wait almost 9 months for the surprise.

Secretly, (or in my case not so secretly) we are both hoping for another girl. I think we both just envision that as our family and obviously we know girls. But, if a little boy arrives this winter, I am sure that will immediately feel right as well. Either way it will be a surprise and we will enjoy welcoming him or her to our little (and growing) family.