Disney Vacation Day One & Two : Travel

The day started out like any other day of travel... last minute packing, kids running crazy-excited around the house, reading and rereading to-do and to-pack lists.  This morning was crazy!  On top of the crazy-excitedness, we got about ten inches of new snow!  I hadn't planned on spending an hour outside shoveling, but we had to be able to get the cars out of the driveway and I needed to get the snow off of the sidewalks (city policy).  Even with the shoveling, my mom got off on time with Skogen and Klaasen, and Maida, Torsten and I headed to the airport one minute before I had planned on leaving.  Perfect!  We quick grabbed lunch in the drive through of McDonalds and then gassed up the car.  We made it to the airport right on time.

We left the car in long term parking and the plan was for Erik to pick up the car when he flew into airport the next morning.  The only difficult part of this plan was the unexpected ten inches of snow that filled the unplowed parking lot and walkways, making it fairly difficult to get into the airport pushing a stroller!  However, we made it and our plane took off right on time.  When we landied in Minneapolis, we had 25 minutes to make it to our next plane.  Luckily for us, the next plane was only a couple gates away.  I celebrated by sending texts to family that we had made our next plane and five minutes later found out that our plane was delayed because we were waiting on the flight crew, who were on a flight that was delayed because of some mechanical problems.

We took off an hour and half after our scheduled time.  When we landed in New York City, we had ten minutes to make it to our next flight.  However, we were sitting in the very back row of the plane and had no chance on getting out of the plane anytime soon.  It was 8pm and we were exhausted.  The last thing I wanted to do is be stuck in New York City overnight with a baby and five-year-old who was anxious about getting to Disney World.  They tried to get us on another flight with a different airlines that night, but couldn't do it.  They promised me a flight out right away in the morning.  I was glad that we were going to eventually make it (and the rest of our family wasn't coming in until the next day, anyway), but I wanted to cry.  What was I going to do?!

Luckily, the lady helping me was very nice and understood my concerns about getting around the city, finding a place to stay, and getting enough diapers to last me all night (we didn't have any luggage because our luggage continued on without us).  She made a few phone calls and after a couple sweet smiles from baby T, Delta decided to pay for our hotel, transportation, food, and diapers!  The Delta lady made reservations for us at the Double Tree Hotel and gave me vouchers to pay for our food and taxi to the hotel.  They also brought me out a mini-pack of diapers and wipes!  I found our way out of the hotel and got a taxi.  As we approached the taxi to get in, I remembered I didn't have any car seats!  The taxi driver assured me that they were not required in a taxi in the state of New York.  I was a little hesitant to get in, but the Delta lady told me that the hotel was only minutes from the airport, so I assured myself that it would only be a few minutes and we got in.  Maida sat in the middle and I held Torsten on my lap.  We flew around the back of the taxi (Maida screaming in complete joy and me screaming in complete terror!).  With only a few horn honks, about ten minutes later, we arrived at our hotel.  After checking into our room, we went downstairs to the cafe and ordered dinner.  We had a great time playing Bible Trivia while we shared a house salad and chicken wrap.  Then we went right to bed since we had to be up at about 3:30am to make it to the shuttle by four. 

We actually missed the 4am shuttle, but it ran every 15 minutes, so we caught the next one.  We took it to terminal two and then had to go through checking in and security all over again.  Finally we were in the air again and on our way to Disney World!  We landed ten minutes early and had time to go locate our luggage that was there waiting for us and also find the place where we received our bus vouchers to ride the Disney's Magical Express to the Disney's Pop Century Hotel.  My cousins and their girls arrived about a half hour later, so we waited for them and all rode the shuttle to the Pop Century together.

After lunch in the resort hotel, we let the girls go swimming.  They had a blast swimming all over the pool!  Then we ventured to Disney for dinner.  My cousin Melody had made cute little shirts for the girls to wear and it was fun to see them all dressed alike!  We ate at Planet Hollywood and then went home to get some sleep before a big day the next day!

Girls' Weekend!!!

If you want to know where Maida and I'll be this weekend...

A Quick Picture Review of Our Week

T's first time in the big stroller!  We were shoe shopping at the mall. He loved it! Skogen thought he needed to be right beside him the entire time, so he wouldn't get scared.  :)  Love Skogen's sweet heart.

Playing the skateboard game on the Playstation - something they beg to do everyday, but have to earn with the new points system we've implemented (more to come on that later...).

This mess is a daily occurrence.   I think the boys are trying to cure Erik of his OCD tendencies toward having all the movies organized.  :)

The kids are just getting over colds.  Skogen was extra sleepy last week and passed out in the car on the way home from picking Maida up from school, which hasn't happened in a while.  (Yes, he's wearing shorts and it wasn't even 20 degrees! It was a battle not worth fighting.)

Someone finally got his toes to his mouth - his new favorite pastime.

Haircut to get cleaned up a little.  He loved making faces at himself in the mirror and yelled, "THANK YOU!" at the girl after she was done.

Skogen was excited to watch Sponge Bob while getting his hair cut (we don't watch that show at our house!)

All ready to go to Great-Grandma's 90th birthday party!

Picking out movies to watch on the way to Great Grandma's 90th birthday party (but of course the only one they actually watched was Cars I - it's their favorite, but I bet you wouldn't have guessed that!).

I love Maida's freshly washed hair - her curls are still there after all!

New shoes and a new carrier for a trip we're planning (more on that later...)!

Maida's artwork

Torsten pulled up (with mom's help) and stood alone for four minutes! Wow! He's growing up way too fast.

He thinks he's hott-stuff!

Klaasen made a race car out of a milk carton

Skogen's race car out of a milk carton

Torsten helped me pick out new carpet (which will be installed soon!!! Bye-bye pet and kid stains!)

New hat and sunglasses for our trip south next weekend!

Klaasen and Skogen ate 16 of these one morning while I was out of the room for only a few minutes. I had to call poison control and they assured me I could expect some explosive diarrhea!

Torsten learned how to shake his head YES and NO.  He doesn't know what they mean, but when he does it, it's so cute!  Here's a little video of him shaking his head...

Valentine's Day 2013 Recap

I woke up on Valentines Day to a dozen red roses and some chocolates from Erik!  They were a nice surprise since he didn't get home from work until 4am that morning and I was still awake with a sick baby when he walked in the door.  I saw him come in and go to bed and somehow he got these flowers out on the counter before the morning without me seeing.  I'm so thankful that even though he was coming home from working all night and very sleepy, he still took the time to stop and get the flowers I've been begging for for years!  :)

The flowers were a bright start to a very loooooong day.  The night before, Torsten was having some breathing problems and sounded like a barking seal whenever he tried to breathe or cry or cough.  It was very scary and with Erik working nights, I had no idea what to do.  Another resident physician who lives close (and is very super nice) came over around 10:30pm to check him out and make sure everything was okay.  He diagnosed it as Croup (which we've never experienced with any of the other kids) and assured me it'd be alright.  I spent most of the night either outside in the cold night air or laying on the floor in the mist from the humidifier.  By morning Torsten sounded better, but had a few more scary breathing attacks during the late morning, so I decided to head into the pediatrician to get a steroid to give him some relief.

Of course the only appointment of the day the clinic had open was at 3:40, which meant I had to take Maida out of school a little early.  I was nervous that Maida was going to be upset about missing some of her Valentine party, but luckily she was happy and felt privileged to be called out of class early.  

The appointment went as most appointments go with four kids.  Out. Of. Control.  We weren't seeing our normal pediatrician and I'm sure this doctor (who happened to be a resident) wasn't prepared for what she walked into when she entered our room.  When my kids are hyped up on sugar, plus excited to be in a new place, they play off of each other a little more than normal and have a way of turning a quiet, sterile exam room, into a very loud and crazy circus act.  My kids were laughing, screaming, climbing on the exam table, jumping, spinning around on the doctor's stool, unrolling the exam table paper, and throwing the complementary crayons from the waiting room up into the air like confetti.  It's a miracle that the doctor was even able to do an exam with all the commotion.  Even though the stethoscope was right in her ears, I can imagine that it was hard to hear anything with the background noise.  Luckily Croup is pretty easy to diagnose and it was hard to mistake Torsten's seal barking breathing for anything else.  I was happy to hear that she was prescribing us a steroid, but very confused when she told me it would come in pill form.  When I asked how I was supposed to get him to take a pill, she said, "Just put it in ibuprophen or pudding," neither of which Torsten can have, yet!  When I questioned giving him things meant for a six-month-old or older, she said, "Well, just give him something he regularly eats."  Ha!  Torsten doesn't eat food, yet.  I left, leaving it hanging as to how I was going to get Torsten to take a pill.  At that point, I figured it was the least of my worries.

We arrived at the Target about dinner time, so before stopping at the pharmacy, I decided to get the kids some food at the Target Pizza Hut.  We took our time eating as we talked about their Valentine parties and let Torsten have a good nap in the cart in his car seat.  A half hour later we made our way to the pharmacy where they told me it would be another half hour before the prescription would be done.  Normally when a doctor calls in a prescription, they fill it immediately, however, Torsten has never had a prescription before, so I had to do some paperwork before they would fill it.

An hour later, after several trips to the bathroom, a couple panic attacks after kids went missing (only to be found hiding under clothes racks), and one small injury after I hit one of the kids with the cart, we picked up our pill.  Since it had been so long, it was time to feed Torsten again (which I did the first time in the parking ramp of the clinic after the appointment).  So, I bought some Valentine donuts to keep the kids busy while I fed him in the Pizza Hut area.  It was a long day and when we finally got home, I was so ready to get the kids in bed and sleep myself.  After wrestling the kids in bed,  I decided I'd try to crush the pill and put it in some Tylenol.  It was easy to crush, which made me happy!  My happiness was soon shattered when I made the poor decision to pour the pill powder into the syringe before the Tylenol, without covering the hole in the tip of the syringe first.  I didn't notice that the pill powder was going out onto the floor through the hole until I was done pouring.  When I finally realized what had happened, I wanted to stomp my feet, cry, and say bad words.  The whole day seemed wasted... taking Maida out of school early, all the fighting with the kids to sit still at the doctor, an un-enjoyable three hours at Target.. and all for nothing.

Luckily I just happen to be married to a doctor and not only did he surprise me with beautiful flowers on Valentine morning, he surprised me with another steroid pill for Torsten on Valentine night.  What a sweetie.

We actually found the time to make our own Valentines this year.  We decided to go the non-sugar route because I figured everyone else would be giving candy and the kids would have plenty!  I bought a couple packs of 15 glowsticks for $1.00 at Hobby Lobby and we used paper we already had laying around the house.

Here are the Valentines Skogen made for his classmates:

"Yoda one for me."

 Here are the Valentines Maida made for her classmates:

"You make my heart glow."
The glowsticks also turned into bracelets!

 We continued our family's Valentine tradition sitting together and taking turns telling things we love about each other.  This is one of the only times during the year that Maida professes her love for her brothers, which makes the time extra-special sweet.  Here is what we love about each other this year...

Mommy love...

- "I love that Mommy takes care of me and loves me and takes care of my three brothers." (Maida)

- "I love that Mommy takes me to fun places and that she loves me.  And what I love the most of Mommy is she takes me to REALLY fun and cool places. I like that Mommy draws little words [as he glanced down at me writing down what we were saying]."  (Skogen)

- "I love when Mommy colors and when I eat with her."  (Klaasen)

Daddy love...

-  "I love how Daddy works so hard for us."  (Mommy)

-  "I love how he works really hard for us and makes money and buys us birthday presents and loves us and really really really likes working so that he doesn't quit his job.  He only quits if he gets a broken arm or leg.  He is the best dad in the whole world!"  (Maida)

- "I love how he loves me the most.  He brings me to REALLY SUPER FUN and cool places.  He takeS me on rides at the Mall of America.  He takes care of me.  He loves me the most when he's home with with me."  (Skogen)

Maida love...

-  "I love her curly hair, how she helps me be a good mom, and when she takes care of her brothers for me."  (Mommy)

-  "I love how she loves me the best and plays spies with me and when she asks me to play with her."  (Skogen)

Skogen love...

- "I love his curly hair and that he's a great skier!" (Mommy)

- "I like that he lets me play cars with him, that he loves me, and he takes care of me when I need him." (Maida)

Klaasen love...

- "I like that he is a good eater and has a great imagination."  (Mommy)

- "I like that he shares a room with Skogen and I like his imagination."  (Maida)

- "I love him the most because he loves me the most.  He plays with me a lot and plays a lot downstairs or anywhere."  (Skogen)

Torsten love...

- "I love how happy he is."  (Mommy)

- "I love that he is my baby brother, he's healthy, and he sleeps with me." (Maida)

- "I love that he loves me the most because he plays with me the most." (Skogen)

5.5 Months, My Baby

Erik pointed out the other day that I really have no interest in anything right now, other than my baby.

He's right!

And just like my other three babies, I'm obsessed.

I know it only lasts so long, though, and pretty soon they are out the door to Kindergarten.  

I'm savoring my time with T.

Some pictures of Baby from the past week...

Sitting in the chalet with Daddy during Mommy's ski race

An explosion all over Mommy's freshly shampooed carpet

Playing babies with Maida - he just learned how to give kisses

Chunky Monkey

Happy happy happy!

Enjoying some apples in his mesh feeder.  Lately he's been eating apples and frozen peaches in his feeder while we eat dinner.  He even sat in his highchair for the first time the other day.  He thinks he's hot stuff!

Every morning at 6:30, T gets in bed with me.  He snuggles up and goes right to sleep. I usually don't like my kids sleeping with me, but this is just too sweet to say no to.  

Torsten takes a bath in my ktichen sink.  Up until yesterday he did fine just sitting there and playing, but now he's learned he can spin in a circle.  While spinning yesterday, he slipped back and ended up like this!  He laughed.  I love this kid!

Just Another Saturday Afternoon

Awww, I can finally relax for the night.  The kids are asleep, Erik has fallen asleep on the couch after a long day at drill, and I feel the need to sleep, even though getting up off the floor of the living room (where I'm curled up in front of the heater) and going into the bedroom seems like too much work!  Oh!  And I need to finish my coffee - decaf, of course since it's so late, which I absolutely hate the taste of.  But, it's a bit chilly in the house after 7pm when the temperature starts falling and coffee sounded good after a day outside.

This afternoon the kids had ski lessons!  Although I love taking them to do something they really enjoy and I love to see them embrace winter (and most of all, embrace skiing) - It. Is. So. Hard...
I can hardly make it out the door with four kids to take Maida to school everyday.  Half the time, Klaasen goes in just his underwear, Skogen goes barefoot (Yes! I know it's winter!), and the baby hardly ever goes in a dry diaper, and we still barely make it on time...
Today, though, we were running on time and I felt pretty on top of things.  That is, until I had to park four blocks away from the ski lodge and try to manage carrying ski boots, skies, snow pants, hats, mittens, extra sweatshirts, a packed lunch, the diaper bag, an infant seat with a 22 pound infant, all while I tried to keep Skogen from Spider-Man jumping from fence post to fence post (it was slowing me up and I was about to drop the whole load) and chasing Klaasen around the parking lot (He doesn't quite understand staying close to me unless he's holding my hand and I did not have one single finger to spare!).  There really was no need for my merino wool sweater and snow pants today, nor was there a need for a workout later.  I was sweating walking into the lodge!

(Skogen in the orange hood, Maida in the front)

The kids did a great job skiing and really enjoyed their lesson.  I wish I would not have forgotten the big camera so that I could have taken some good pictures of them.  Ha!  Now that I think about it, though, the hour they spent on the slope, I spent nursing a baby, changing the baby's diaper and clothes after an explosion out of his diaper, and taking Klaasen poop TWICE (he never quite pushes it all out in the first shot).  I'm lucky that I even got the pictures and videos that I did.  Not only because of being extremely pre-occupied while they were skiing, but because I let Klaasen play on my phone to keep him in one place while I attended to the baby and when I needed the phone back to take some pictures, the battery was at 4%!

Immediately after skiing, the kids and I drove the hour back home for an ice fest downtown.  We actually didn't have time to stop at our house first, so I pulled over at a McDonalds to nurse the baby while the kids watched Cars and ate yogurt parfaits off the Dollar Menu.  Then we spend the evening looking at beautiful ice carvings placed all around the outside of the clinic and the surrounding restaurants.  It was a wee-bit chilly with the wind and they hadn't lit the outdoor heaters, yet, so I was glad that Torsten fell alseep and I could keep him bundled in his carseat, which I was able to push in the stroller (thanks to nicely shoveled sidewalks!).  The other three, although cold, didn't complain much as we explored and investigated all the ice sculptures downtown.  We were in awe of the talent of ice carving!  The friends we met there decided to stay for some hot chocolate, but we opted to come home and pop in a movie while we snuggled under warm blankets on the couch.  

 I absolutely love days like today.  I feel so blessed with our four babies and I'm honored to get to show them the world.  I indulge in their little laughs and beam with happiness when they smile.  Although it is so hard to get out of the house with four kids in tow, I never want that to be a reason that we stay home or that they are held back from doing something they really want to do.  

I appreciated my husband's sweet text message this morning as I was stressing out about the day ahead.  He wrote:

"You're an awesome mom!  Thanks for all you do!  I would lose my mind if I had to take them [to ski lessons] all by myself!  We both know that!" 

 It's always great to have encouragement, especially from Erik.  His text is what got me up and going today and what kept me going.  I know that all too soon, I'm going to miss Saturdays like today.  Not only will I miss the special, fun times with my kids, but I bet that I'm even going to miss the chaos and the stress of just getting out of the house with four kids, too.