Play Ball!

If you're a baseball family, then you know that yesterday was the official beginning of baseball season. Since we're a baseball family, we are READY!


Traditionally, the president of the US throws out the 1st pitch of the season. This is Woodrow Wilson in 1916 doing just that. Yesterday, Prez. GW did not disappoint. The new stadium of the Washington Nationals opened for biz and good 'ol GW threw out one of hte best pitches a president has ever thrown. Okay, so he got ONE thing right. But I digress...

This year, both of the big boys are playing ball. Jackson is in his 2nd year of AA (although we are trying to get him on the AAA team). Blake begins T-ball. With both boys having 1-2 pratices EACH a week plus 1-2 games a week - well, do the math and you know that I'm going to be getting some serious outdoor time with Chase in tow at some baseball fields. Not to worry. I fully knew this when we moved here and signed them up, but did I really know?? Grandma and Grandpa Deshazer have already sent a few baby baseball uniforms for Chase so he will feel a part of the game. (thanks Gma!!) Baseball season - here we come. PLAY BALL!

This picture shows both of my boys plus one of Blake's best friends outfitted in an uniform. If you hang out with us, you get into the spirit.

You be the judge

Think they look like brothers? Spittin' images.....

Yo Shorty, It's my Birthday, Gonna Party, like it's my Birthday

Another year, another birthday. This year I turned 32 on March 27 and I wanted to reflect on my life right now. Being in my 30's has been great. I spent most of my 20's worrying about how I appeared on the outside. Am I thin enough? Am I smart enough? Does my husband make enough money? Are my kids good enough? Do I live in the right house, the right neighborhood, the right city? Am I educated enough? Do I need a job to make me look more important? Am I a good Christian? Do people like me? Do I have enough friends? Mainly - AM I IMPORTANT?
Entering my 30's, I found myself absolutely exhausted from worrying about how I appeared and almost overnight, cold turkey, started caring about what was going on inside of me. I won't say I don't think about the things I used to worry about, but I find that the older I get, the less I am concerned about it. That is why I look forward to each birthday; I find I get to know ME better and more comfortable in my skin. At 32, it turns out that I LIKE being "just a mom"; I absolutely adore my family. At 32, I have a handful of REALLY GOOD FRIENDS that have stayed with me for 10+ years and I can count on when needed. At 32, I don't have to be super skinny to be super happy. At 32, I am confident that I have the best SOUL MATE ever; I really love and like my husband. At 32, I am solid in my relationship with God; it's like footprints in the sand. At 32, I have let go of the things that don't count (meaningless committments and friends) and focus on thing that do count (my family -extended family included - and my health). At 32, I am confident in the decisions I make. At 32, I know I'll get to go back to get more education in the future; it's not the right time right now.
This past year I did so many things for the first time and survived them all that I KNOW I can get through it again. We put a house on the market and sold it. I lived by myself for 3 months while my husband started his new job in a different city. We packed up our entire house and moved it. We celebrated 10 years of marriage. I had another baby - going from 2 children to 3. I settled into a new city. I got to know a part of my extended family I had not invested in before. We made financial decisions that made us more secure in our future instead of making decisions to make us look better. These are all things that I'm really proud of.

Moving on.....

This year, the boys decided to do something for my birthday that was really super spectacular.
See this murky cess pool?

It was a quaint little water feature next to our front door. Apparently you have to winterize and maintain it which is something, we, ummmm, didn't do. And man, was it an eyesore!

So my two boys helped dig it out. It left a HUGE gaping hole in the planting bed, so they dug up a bunch of unsightly bark from the backyard and hauled it to the front yard.

I don't have an "after" shot yet, but it looks incredible out there. I will take that as a present anyday!

Another amazing and fantastic present this year was that my mom flew in for a few days. She made the most incredible stuffed pork chops and spinach salad for my birthday dinner. She took Chase every morning starting at 5am so I could sleep in (that was more precious than gold!) and helped keep my house sparkling clean. I am so lucky!

Nose to the Grindstone

Jer went back to work today. This is after a 3 1/2 week paternity leave. I can't tell if I'm happy or sad that he's gone. A part of me is glad because lots and lots of video games, basketball games, and baseball games were watched (I felt like our TV never went off during hte day). I had FOUR boys to clean up after constantly. And my routine was a sad shambles day after day because he is not a schedule or list person. I am. He is not.
A part of me is sad because a handful of necessary projects were done in his leave. I could leave the house at any time by myself because I knew he was there. He stayed up late with Chase. And it was fun having someone to hang out with everyday.
It's a toss up.
What I do know is that I had the baby all to myself last night and - YOW-SAH - I'm tired. That newborn fog is going to hit real fast. Plus the boys have been off school for week now and will be off for another five days. So wendy whiney on me today.
PS - Give me a little shoutout today if you are able to - I need some encouraging words :)

TV Time

Two past times that seem to agree with my life right now - watching TV and reading books. Both activities are compatible with nursing so I find that I'm doing both of these past times 8-10/X a day. So today, I have some confessions about some of these past times.

Is anyone out there watching this?

I admit that I haven't watched AI since Carrie Underwood was a contestant, but because of the blessed writers' strike and that we have been home bound this year, we kind of got into American Idol. It turned out to be a blessing because 1) our whole family could watch it, 2) it was a upbeat show which I needed in my postpartum hormonal crashdown phase, 3) it is a long show, and 4) comes on two nights a week - Tues and Wed. nights.

I find myself throughout the week completely looking forward to Tues night (yeah, it's tonight!). I find myself completely invested in the contestants. I think I may purchase tickets for the upcoming AI tour this summer. All behaviours I did not think possible of me.

I really like Brooke. I did not like her at all during Hollywood week with her sweet doe eyes and innocence, but her sound has grown on me. I even, gulp, downloaded her "Let It Be" single off iTunes. (I can't believe it, but I did - it's so good)
Another guy I'm beginning to really like is David Cook - he sounds a lot like the lead singer of one of my favorite Christian bands - Third Day - and I look forward to his performances although he is trying these smug, sexy looks at the camera that come off as super lame and cheesy. David, don't try to look sexy, it doesn't work for you.


This guy is so goofy that you just can't help but make fun of him but like him as well. I think he looks like a girl with his feminine eyes and skinny body (but then, I think men should be big and muscularly, so I'm completely biased). Jeremy and I often find ourselves listening to the radio in the car and a song will come on and we'll say, "this song would be perfect for dreadlocked Jason". I mean, how pathetic are we? Scouting out songs for AI contestants?
Last, but not least, who does not L-O-V-E David Archuleta? My best bud here in Salem - a SAHM herself - and I both vote faithfully every week for our favorite teeny bopper. Do you think that all middle age moms are David A. fans - or is it everyone? Because I adore him. Even if he forgets some measly lyrics. (and I downloaded his song too)



This is the book I'm reading currently. It's from a new favorite 'chick lit' author I've discovered. The story is about a girl who is turning 30 who falls in love with a man her father's age (53).

Imagine my surprise when I turned on Oprah yesterday and Billy Joel, the pianoman himself, and his new child bride, Katie Joel were on. Okay, he is 59, she is 27. There was a segment where she is cooking meatloaf in her kitchen and I gasped because she has dieted herself down to looking like a little girl with no womanly curves - it seriously looks like she is a adolescent. No lie.

Billy was kind of quiet through the interview - do you think he was embarrassed by how young his "wife" is? Billy - could you have a bigger midlife crisis?

I also am one of those people who loves this show - Jon and Kate plus 8. They are mine and Jeremy's age bracket and every time I feel even a tad sorry for myself I think of them with their 8 kids (a set of twins and a set of sextuplets) and I instantly sober up. Kate's naggy negativity doesn't bother me - that is what she needs to do to get it done.

She's Back!

And I'm not necessarily talking about being back to the blogs - I'm back to my life. Break over. Baby is 3 weeks old and since my family is slowing falling apart, mom is lacing up her shoes and pulling up the trousers because she is needed. Badly. I'm back to making all 3 meals for the family, doing the household chores (with the boys' help), and back in the gym. But before I make myself sound too puffed up, I will say that my great husband hangs out with Chase A LOT, puts both kids to bed at night, stays up late with Chase so I can go to bed early and sleep 4-5 straight hours. He goes back to work on Wednesday - thus why I need to get my act back together. It's been a lovely time and I'll remember it fondly.


My biggest sacrifice of this past week came when I got on the scale for Chase. Those who have read my blog know that I hate scales, namely seeing my weight in numbers. But since I needed to know if Chase had regained his birth weight this week, the easiest way was to get on the scale with him and then by myself and just subtract. Yeah that he is now 9lbs (birth weight 8lbs)! Boo that I still have 18 lbs of stubborn fat left to lose. This is why you won't see any pictures of me from Easter (in a total self-centered mode I deleted any pics of me and the family, call me selfish I know) but you will see lots of pics of my gorgeous boys.

Thanks Nana for the great preppy argyle outfit for Chase!

If you know our boys, then you know that they pretty much have a shaved head year round. I've tried to do the longer hair thing and then take them to a Kid's Cut place every month, but frankly, blame it on my laziness, it is just too much work. And since I'm absolutely terrible at home hair cuts, the buzz cut wins. Additionally, if you know my boys, you know that jackson is the super serious one of the bunch and does not like to appear goofy or funny. Which is why it was really funny when Jeremy was shaving Jackson's head this weekend and left a Mohawk. I managed to get a shot of it before he barricaded himself in the bathroom and refused to come out until we had shaved the whole head.

I'm also happy to report that somehow, magically, Chase has now evolved to CALMLY TOLERATING his bath. He doesn't splash or giggle just yet, but at least he does not scream his head off. Jackson helped capture Chase's bath this weekend in order to show his dramatic progress. Thank you JulieAnne for the wonderful and fantastic trick of draping washcloths on him - it worked wonders!!

Another surprising development is that I think Chase has perhaps adopted his two "lovies" - his blanket and his paci. Both of his older brothers had blankets (and don't tell them I told you this, but they both still sleep with them) and both had pacis (which were mailed out to the 'babies' on their 2nd birthday). The blanket selection is, naturally, the boy's final decision and usually they had it picked out by 4 or 5 months of age, so maybe it is too early to tell for chase, but he does like this one. (Jeremy can't stand that it had a silky side - he thinks it is too feminine - to which I retort, "But it's brown!!")

Last, but not least, we're happy to report that the middle child has calmed down a bit and has subtly allowed Chase to mold into the family. In fact, he asks to hold Chase quite often and I'll catch him giving his soft kisses on his forehead.

So how's that for a SuperNanny happy ending? For this week anyway.

Quick Break

Happy to report that chubby cheeks are on their way... now if I can just get my postpartum hormones under control, we'll be good.

Blogging Sabbatical

A typical sabbatical would involve someone taking some time off from their chosen profession to catch up on reading, do a little research, relax, and basically take a breath. Since I sometimes consider my blog a part of my daily "job", I've found that I need to take a brief sabbatical to catch up on my reading. Every time I have a baby, I like to read these two books since developmental psychology is one of my favorite topics -

Plus, yesterday Chase had his two-week Dr's appointment and he wasn't up to his birth weight yet so I plan on spending the next two days getting his weight up. See ya laters!

One of the better things I've done as a parent

A little over a year ago, after visiting one of my favorite 'musical' friends, I got this bee in my bonnet that the boys needed to start taking piano lessons. Jackson was in the middle of first grade at the time and Blake was in his first year of preschool. Jeremy immediately got on the bandwagon for piano lessons and off we went in search of a piano for the little darlings. Upon visiting several showrooms, we quickly discerned that a NEW piano was not in the budget (starting at $5000), so we moved to the least expensive option - Craig's List.

I found a couple of great options on CL, but upon visiting the various homes of the piano owners we realized that people who list their pianos on CL kind of have junky, neglected pianos. And they were still asking $770-1000 for them. So off we went in search of Option #3 - the secondhand piano store. The propieters of these stores are interesting and unique individuals - Jeremy and I spent many an amusing afternoon conversing with them. I wanted to get an Everett piano - mostly because that is what my Grandma had in her house and it gave me sentimental thoughts to have my kids play on the same brand. Couldn't find it. Then we wanted a Baldwell, but couldn't buy one fast enough. At one of the last stops at a on-site shop in Redmond, WA, we found our piano - a well preserved Wurlitzer, circa 1976 (the birthyear of both me and Jer)

If you are starting your young children on piano, I do recommend the used piano, you don't freak out as much when they pound on the keys or "accidently" put a drink on top of it thus leaving a ring mark.

Up in Seattle, we enlisted the services of a Suzuki piano teacher - which is basically a method where you train the ear and play on strict repetition and master pieces before you continue. Jackson didn't do so well with this method.

Then we moved here to Salem and we found a piano teacher through our school. She teaches traditional piano with this series:

Our piano teacher - Dawn - comes to our house every Wednesday and teaches Jackson theory, techic, performance, and piano. I love Dawn. In fact, I asked Dawn if she would be willing to be our part-time nanny this summer and she agreed! Dawn brings huge bags of candy from Walmart and lets Jackson AND Blake choose from each bag at the end of the lesson. She lets chili sit at her feet and listen to the music. Blake always loafs around and at the end of Jackson's lesson, he climbs up on the bench and plays his own composition for Dawn - usually a series of plinky notes that he makes up titles for like "Black Assasin" or "The Krackin" or "Angel Music". He is begging for his lessons to start and Dawn and I have come up with a simplistic program that he can start in the fall.

The funny part is that Jackson LOVES his piano lessons. He willingly pratices - we keep it to 10 minutes four days a week - and he will randomly break out in piano whenever he passes it. Usually, not always, but usually I can threaten to take away his lessons if he is being sassy and then he straightens right up. I think the mental exercise of learning piano is perfect for his logical brain. He picks it up way faster than I thought he would. The deal was that he had to take two solid years of piano and then he gets to move on to whatever instrument he wants. Because of guitar hero, you can imagine what he wants to move on to.....

But mostly, I feel so good about having my kids take music lessons. It really makes me happy. I feel like a good parent. And that has to count for something, right?

Transitions

I'm finding myself in a - what could best be described - as "transition". Not where I was, yet not quite where I want to be. Stuck in the middle.

For instance, I went into my closet. This used to be what I could pick from for my wardrobe choices.

Now, this is what I am limited to wearing and maybe two pairs of shoes (I'm a-praying that my feet won't go up yet another size!) Boring, boring, boring.

I went from reading this gem...

To reading this one....

Quick funny story about these two books. First - BabyCatcher - I enjoyed this memoir of a home birth midwife. Super super lucky for me, my water broke right before I got to the end of the book where she describes two stillbirth deaths. I read them AFTER chase was born - THANK GOD because that would have terrified me. Second book - Babywise - is the somewhat controversial method of scheduling and sleep training your baby. I did it with both my kids and planned on doing it with chase. I took this book to the hospital with me and stupidly left it out next to me in bed. When Mrs. Lactation Consultant came to "help" me with my breastfeeding, she seriously (I'm not kidding here) chastised me for a good five minutes on this book. She admitted she has "never read the book", but it was truly evil in her mind. Note to self and other mothers - hide scheduling book and pacifier before LC comes in.

Getting back to my transitions...

I went from this enormous bump in the front.

To these......
Christina A. has nothing on me - well except for the hooker makeup and bizarre wardrobe and inadequate bra that doesn't hold her breasts right.

Last, but not least, is the best part of my transition phase. I went from being the mother of these two fun, funny, active, interesting, spontaneous, willful, bright, and fantastic two little boys...

To being the mother of these three...
God help me :)

Alarm Clock

I have the best alarm clock for any of you who find it difficult to get out of bed. Yeah, yeah, I know you're going to say, "screaming baby", as my idea for alarm clock and indeed, that WOULD be a good one, but not quite original enough. Because a crying baby doesn't necessarily cause you to leap out of bed. You kind of sleepily shimmy your way out while grumbling.

No, dear friends, the quickest and most efficient way to ensure that you will LEAP out of bed - fully awake and alert - is the sound of a child retching in the other room in the early hours of the morn. I go from deep coma sleep of a newborn mom to crazy lady screaming from my bedroom "GET IN THE BATHROOM! GET IN THE BATHROOM! NOT ON THE CARPET!!"
Luckily, he aimed for his comforter and that is an easier cleanup than carpet. I want hardwood floors.

PS - can newborns get the throw-ups?

I'm not going down without a fight

Pssst....hey mom.....as long as your "new" son is writing you letters of intent, I thought I would add my own two cents too, not that they count for anything or whatever.
Okay, I know I was the baby of the family for five long years. FIVE YEARS. And now, with one fell swoop, I have been graciously demoted to the dreaded 'middle child' role. And now that I have played this role for a little over a week now, I'm ready to go back to being the baby of the family. So in order for this to happen, I think I'm going to do several things.

• First, I am going to start ignoring you- especially when you ask me to do something.
• Second, when the new baby cries, I'm going to imitate the sounds - only louder and more annoying - because I know that it may cause you to pay more attention to me.
• Third, I'm going to start destroying my room every time you reprimend me.
• Fourth (oh, I'm still going strong here), I'm going to refuse any playdates you set up for me. I would rather be at home doing regressive annoying things to compete with Chase for your attention.
• Fifth, just to throw you even further off your game, I'm going to be nice to you, then nasty, then nice, then nasty - and probably cycle through this process several times a day.
• Last, but certainly not least, if you ignore all of these attempts and keep your head on straight and you kneel down to my level and look me in the eye and sincerely tell me that you still love me and that I'm really special to you, I will let you hug me and I will melt in your arms. Because, frankly, that is what I really want anyway.

Love, your middle child and de-throned baby of the family,

Blake Deshazer

Why I hate my Bath....by Chase Deshazer

People....I am only one week old. Why must you always undress me, wipe me with cold coldy wipes, and then redress me again? Can you not tell from my screams, no my high pitched shrieks, that I HATE it??? Now, I know I poop a lot and I sort of intellectually understand that it is wise to clean me up, but is there any other way?

And now, Mother, you have introduced me to the newborn baby torture chamber of hell...the bath. I asked my brother and my Nana to document my ordeal for future guilt trips I may play on you.

First, you take off my clothes. I hate this. I try to warn you with my crying. You seem to not get the clue.

Then you dunk me in the bath. I know that you tried to get the right warm temparture to keep me happy, but it does not keep me happy. I do not understand why you do this to me.

Mom, I really hate this. I am turning into a lobster. Not from hot water, but because I have sufficiently whipped myself into a frenzy. At this point, I am considering calling CPS on you.

Okay, flip me over. I feel a little better. Maybe it isn't so bad.

Still not too sure about this, it seems better, though.

Ya right, try to distract me. It will work only for a second.

Now here I am all bundled up in my towel. Much better. See, this is what I like.

Not this. Avoid doing this.


I will be a much sweeter baby to you if you do not give me a bath. And my brothers tell me they will like me more too.

Love, your third born child,

Chase Deshazer