Zoo day - Horray!!!

It was one of those days when we felt like doing something cool ... and the zoo sounded just like the thing for that day. This was the first time we took the children - I know it is embarrassing, but somehow we always had excuses to just say 'oh, maybe next year' (mostly made up by me). It is just simple ... zoos make me sad. I just can't stomach to have fun and fully enjoy looking at animals that are pulled away from their natural environment and put in a fake one for the enjoyment of humans. I just can't.

So I worked hard on not letting these feelings spoil the day. The kids were super excited and of course talking about the zoo created sweet anticipation in them. When we stepped into the gate, I could already sense that they wanted to spot something 'look mommy, it's a bird'. 'Oh, would you look at that, a sparrow'. I had to fight off smiling, it was so funny that we are standing right front of a huge giraffe and the kids are looking at sparrows. I love them so much!!! They have no idea how much.

The rest of our zoo experience was similar - Vidor was only interested in feeling the water that the penguins were swimming in, but did not even take a second glance at the animals; Lutza kept finding spiders and spider webs, ants and all kinds of bugs just so all three of them can drop on their tummies and watch them crawl away. Forget the animals, the highlight of the day was the carousel ... that just brought smiles and excitement to all of their faces.

And my feelings about the zoo did not change ... a female orangutan put her hand on the inside of the glass where I put mine on the outside. She knew that I knew how she feelt .... she saw tears coming out of my eyes and she signed on her own face to show tears coming of her eyes ... broke my heart.

So zoo visit may be even more painful in the future .... next time I think I will wait until the kids ask to go.

It takes a cul-de-sac

How many babies does it take to fill up a tiny pool??? Four dressed ones and one naked boy (of course he is mine, that Vidor)!!

I don't think I have yelled it out in cyberspace yet how happy I am with our choice of moving into this neighborhood. So here it goes "I LOVE MY NEIGHBORHOOD". I would have never expected this little community to be so warm and welcoming ... and it is even more ... because of all the real people who live in it.

Our small cul-de-sac is fully of lively and happy kids. We never feel alone or bored here ... we can just knock on one of our friend's door and soon there are 5-6 children running and riding around. Playdates, afternoon snacks, picnics on the driveway, bubble blowing, playing in the sprinklers, blue berry eating, sidewalk drawing .... laughing and crying ... we share it all. My sweet neighbors would take my children for a couple of hours so I can work on my paper ... they care for scraped knees, thirsty throats and hungry tummies ... it's like having 5 mommies and 5 daddies for each child. I love it!!!

I appreciate all of these special people tremendously!!!

Happy Birthday America!!

We love celebrations and for the most part they spread out evenly throughout the year. But for a while there was a big gap between an early summer and a late summer birthday that left us with no official excuses for streamers and cake. So last year Lutza and I came up with the idea that instead of celebrating Independence Day, we are going to call it America's birthday.

So this year 4th of July became an official birthday. The kids have been talking about our little party for weeks: they invited their friends, chose the cake and when the day came, they were busy decorating the house with streamers.

Oh, what fun we had. With 9 kids running around it was a party. We put candles on one of the cakes and sang the Star Spangled Banner ... it was so cute.

Between 4 families we had a bunch of fireworks ..... some were received with joy - mostly by the boys - and others were watched from a distance with covered ears. My sweet Vidor got hooked from sparkler one and moved onto some bigger stuff (excuse my ignorance for not knowing what they were) and I think he officially graduated as the Assistant Firework Lighter for his Daddy. Lutza was pretty bold too, but Bendeguz was 'All-Done' after the first loud one ... surprisingly by the time we ran out, he began to like it.

We did it

Well, it is done ... actually almost done since I still have a 50-page culminating paper to write ... but what is that compared to the past six years.
I graduated!!!! And I can say that I closed a chapter of my life as of Sunday, but after deeply thinking about it, this is just the beginning.
I was lucky to enjoy the support of my wonderful husband who pushed me through the hard times ('the I'm going to fail' phases usually before finals) who lifted me up to be proud and shared all my accomplishments and put up with me when I was a crabby sleepless student. And my little children who understood that after the lights go off at night, they really need to go to sleep so momma can study. Lutza has been a wonderful support and inspiration for me ... she loves school herself and one of her favorite game is to put on her heels and purse, kiss everybody goodbye and go to school just so she can come home and we can all cheer "Mommy is home from school!"

At the graduation ceremony, speeches kept echoing what a huge accomplishment is to call yourself a college graduate. And yes, it is but this is really just the first step before we can really accomplish something in life ... the real work is just coming.
"Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil." -C. S. Lewis. Education gave me more than knowledge ... it gave me better understanding of the world and awareness about all the great and not so great things going on in our society. Education gave me a heightened level of moral responsibility to make a change and turn this past six years of brain-expansion exercises to the benefit of others. This past six years was not for me - even though it helped to keep me sane by separating 'me' from 'mommy' and gave me goals for my life. But the real hard part is just coming now. I have a big job ahead of me and I hope I find ways to make the best of what I have.

So good bye school ..... for a while ..... I'll be back!!!!

Sibiling Bonding

When we found out we were having three children I knew that life will be filled with fun .... somehow my higher power knew that I can't just have two babies. I knew that the three of them will share lots of special moments together that must happen in a 'gang' and not in a pair. Lutza and Vidor were always the best buddies, joined at the hip, friends in crime or fun. But when Guzer arrived, I realized that he might be left out of the team. So I have been working hard on making all three of them a team, to share games, learn to comfort and take care of each other.

Parental efforts are good .... but nothing is better than a little natural bonding. I have been taking time and effort to separate the children and take them out by two's so they have a chance to focus on only one brother or sis.

Yesterday I took Lutza and Guzer to the doctor's office for shots. Not a good experience - while motherhood fills my life with joy, I have some pretty hard tasks to do that break my heart over and over. Lutza knew what was going to happen and she was determined to not to get those 'pokes' - it took two nurses and me to hold her down. Guzer surrendered a bit easier, but it was still traumatic for both of them. As I held the two, trying to comfort them they looked at each other with tears in their eyes and just hugged. They were 'poke-buddies' now. All the way home they were holding hands in the car and when one said 'auuie' they both started to cry and rubbed their legs.
They were inseparable for the rest of the day!!!!

When Nance Babies help

What would I do without my children? Seriously, how could I get anything done without their help? Some may say that it is easier to do it yourself ... its faster ... but it is no fun. Lately I have been setting up three chairs for baking and we have to have three shovels for gardening ....how cool is that? The end results are always spectacular because they were made with love.

Just me and my boys

In the last month I had a chance to spend some quality time with my boys while Lutza was at school. It must have been the weather that got us out more often ... or just my recent craziness of not wanting to waste a single day without doing something special with my children ... thinking that they are this old only today. So truck and bus spotting, animals, and parks, here we come...

While Vidor adores anything with fur or feathers, Bendeguz thinks twice, if not more, before getting close to any vicious animals (like ducks)... he rather eats the week old bread than feed it to those odd looking waddling creatures. On the other hand, my youngest son makes friends with humans faster than I have every seen anybody do. He can set up games without saying a word and can get the older kids to follow him. He has endless energy and I mean endless ... sunny days mean sleeping well in our house because we literally spend most awake hours outside until our feet hurt and we are all dirty (I love scrubbing dirty babies clean ;o).

I don't know where it came from but one afternoon Vidor runs home from the community park ... he was determined and I knew he had something on his mind. He got his bucket and filled it up with rocks, then explained that we need to go the beach and give these rocks to the whales. Our recent boat ride must have had a deep impression on him. So next day we went to the 'beach' ... instead of the real beach we went to Kirkland. But it was nothing he expected ... no boats to get on and 'only ducks, mommy, no whales'. Broke my heart but somehow he understood the situation ... my smart little boy.

I love every moment I spend with my precious treasures, they make me so grateful.