McGrath Moments

Why do I have such an issue with my children calling me "Mom"? I want to be called Mommy or Mama. I feel like they are growing up too fast and "Mom" seems like such a grown-up way to address me. I call my Mom, "Mom" but I am thirty years-old, so that seems okay to me. Believe it or not, but I correct them whenever they call me "Mom". I tell them, "it is either Mommy or Mama, not Mom." They just laugh at me and say, "sorry Mama." I heard Brenna call Ed "Dad" yesterday and I was shocked it didn't bother him. Doesn't he want to be their Daddy? Yes, I do admit I am probably going to be labeled a crazy person for writing about this, but I can't help how I feel. My poor kiddos!! :)

At Braeden's 5-year well visit, our Pediatrician suggested that we get Braeden's blood drawn to check for high cholesterol. My family and Ed's family both suffer from high cholesterol and heart/blood pressure issues. First of all, let me say that I adore our Pediatrician! I have referred all of my friends and family with children to her and they love her too, but I thought this was a little aggressive. I did not want to make Braeden go through getting his blood drawn for something that I felt was certainly not going to be a problem. High cholesterol? HE IS 5 YEARS OLD! Well, I am sure you know how the results came out. Braeden's cholesterol was high. How did this happen?

When I called the office for his results, the nurse told me that it was time for a lifestyle change. I was kind of in shock when I was talking to her on the phone, so I just sort of agreed with what she was saying and hung up the phone. I felt like the most horrible Mom in the world. How did I let this happen? But the more I thought about everything, I realized that maybe there wasn't much I could have done differently. I cook dinner at home almost every night and never fry anything. We have fast food once or twice a month. I don't think that is excessive at all. Perhaps the nurse should have asked about our "lifestyle" before asking me to change it. Maybe there is something genetic going on. Anyone who has seen Braeden knows he is definitely not obese. He is a thin, active 5 year old boy. Every Mom wants their children to be as healthy as possible, so I guess this will be something we will need to keep an eye on.

I have a friend, Rachel, visiting from Phoenix. She is staying with us this week and it has been an adjustment for the kids. Braeden is sleeping, dressing, playing, etc. in Brenna's room and they are taking baths in our bathroom. For kids, a small change in their routine can be quite confusing. This morning Braeden was still trying to "figure out" who Rachel is. The last time she was here, he was only 6 months old. This conversation happened in the car on the way to school:

Braeden: Miss Rachel is your friend?

Me: Yes.

Braeden: Did you used to play with her on the playground?

I think Braeden equates friends and playing together at school. That's where he sees his friends!

Brenna's conversation on the way to school: (I should first say, my sister's son was Baptised last Saturday at St. Pat's)

Brenna: There's church! (We pass St. Pat's on the way to school)

Me: We were there last weekend, weren't we?

Brenna: Carson's in there.

Brenna: He took a bath.

Brenna: They washed his hair!

She is talking about how they held him over the Holy Water and placed water and oil on his forehead. She is so funny!

A couple of weeks ago, Ed's sister Katie and her family came to visit from Toledo. We were able to get an updated "cousins picture". Everyone is getting so big! *Please don't judge me for Brenna's socks...she wanted to dress herself that day! :)



The weekend before Easter, we went to The Grand Court, where Ed's Grandma lives. The grandchildren enjoyed an Easter Egg Hunt and were able to meet The Easter Bunny.



This is Braeden and his cousin Helen. They were born only two months apart and are great friends. They always have so much fun together and love to have sleepovers at each other's houses.



Easter weekend was CRAZY! It started on Friday morning...

7am- went to Price Chopper for weekly groceries and Easter dinner

8am- baked cookies and brownies for the Ronald McDonald House

9am- my sister's baby, Carson, arrived (I watch him every Friday)

10am- stuffing Easter Eggs, cleaning house, laundry, and then the mini-tornado passed through the neighborhood

*I know there is no such thing as a mini-tornado, but if you were at my house, you would understand. I was so afraid for the trash men's lives that I invited two strangers into my house until the storm passed. Stupid to do in the world we live in?...probably, but they were perfectly nice men and very grateful. Guess who's trashcans were placed next to their garage doors yesterday? Mine! Everyone else's trashcans were thrown in their yards or driveway. I took their gesture as a little "Thank You."

Okay, on with my day...10am-12pm- no electricity!

2pm- started boiling 4 dozen eggs- 2 dozen for the kids to dye, 2 dozen to make into deviled eggs

3pm- Mom arrived to start making dinner for the Ronald McDonald House

3:30pm- Ed calls to tell me that we will be taking one of his clients out for dinner. What??? I haven't showered all day! I still need to drive downtown to drop off the food to the Ronald McDonald House! I was still watching Carson! He wants me to find a babysitter for tonight! OMG!!

4pm- Ed's Mom arrived to help too and agreed to watch the kids!

*We made Greek Chicken Pasta Salad, Corn and Potato Chowder, Loaves of French Bread, cookies and brownies. We hope that all of the families staying at the Ronald McDonald House enjoyed the dinner. It was a great experience to provide for families going through so much with ill children.

5:30pm- dropped food off

6pm- jumped in the shower and we left to go pick up Ed's client for dinner

10pm- BEDTIME!!!


Saturday we dyed Easter Eggs, finished cleaning the house, cut the grass...everything that needed to be done to prepare our home for Easter with my Mom's side of the family.



This is Brenna after my sister put curlers in her hair. She was supposed to sleep in them, but 5 minutes after Lindsey finish, Brenna came down from the toy room with all of them taken out of her hair!

Easter morning pictures before church!

My Mom and I spent Easter Sunday in the Nursery. This is a picture of Braeden, Brenna, and Baby Carson! I think it is a great picture!

We had an Easter egg hunt at our house with all of the family!

Today I am taking Braeden to the pediatrician's office for his 5 year well visit. I can't believe we are going to complete health forms/assessments for him to enroll in Kindergarten this fall. Where does the time go? I remember when Braeden was born and Ed and I weren't sure that we wanted our children going to the Bonner Springs schools. I told Ed, Braeden is just a baby and we have 5 years to decide to move. At the time 5 years seemed so far off. It has gone by in the blink of an eye and here we are, preparing for Kindergarten. Delaware Ridge and the Bonner Springs schools are still planning on a full-day Kindergarten. I called them in a panic last week when I heard Piper was going to half-day Kindergarten due to State budget cuts (which is a whole different blog).

Tots and Tales provides a private Kindergarten class. While having both kids still at one place would be nice and I have been told the Kindergarten class is excellent, I want Braeden to start Kindergarten with the children he will continue to be in class with the following years. At Delaware Ridge the children keep the same teacher for 2 years. Braeden has actually been moved to the Kindergarten class at Tots and Tales and we are really proud of him. He is learning so much and seems to be ready for Kindergarten. Tots and Tales has been great for him!

This week was Spring Break at Tots and Tales. Each day the kids participated in a different activity or dressed in a special way. Monday was Hat Day in Brenna's class and Braeden's class went bowling and had Crazy Sock Day. Brenna's cute matching hat/vest outfit was courtesy of Ava Ingram. Thanks so much!!

Wednesday was St. Patrick's Day and I decided to surprise the kids with Green mac n' cheese. To say the least, they were freaked out. "Mama, WHAT IS THAT?" Brenna decided it wasn't too bad and she ate it up. Braeden, on the other hand, wanted nothing to do with it.

...and of course, we had to have GREEN BEANS too!

Thursday we all gathered to watch the KU game. We are already training Lindsey's baby on which is the only team to cheer for!

Saturday, we decided that the toy room needed to be picked up. Right now we use our fourth bedroom as the toy room and it is way too easy to shut the door and forget about what it looks like. Therefore, it can become a HUGE mess. When we told Braeden that he needed to start putting his toys away, he asked how much we were going to pay him. We told him that we would not be paying him anything, but that he just needed to do it. After thinking about it for a few minutes, we decided that if he wanted to make keeping the toy room clean his ongoing chore, then we could pay him $5 a week. He looked at us like we were crazy and said we needed to pay him $20 a week! Excuse me? After we explained to him that would NOT be happening, he decided $5 was not worth it. I hope he understand that he will now be doing it for FREE, just because we said so and as parents, we can do that!!

Wow! KU lost tonight. I am still numb. Each year we invest so much time into watching games and into being such huge fans and with one game, it is ALL OVER! Such a disappointment!

With that, I guess I will have more time to catch up on our blog. Ed and I went to Puerto Rico last week. We had a fun time enjoying each other's company and enjoyed a little time away from the daily routine. I'm sure everyone read my whiny blogs about the trip, but overall we had a great time.

This was our hotel.

This was the view from our hotel room.

A rainy day, but still trying to enjoy the beach.

We were actually able to sit in First Class on the flight home. We were so excited!

I know this is a silly picture, but the meal in First Class absolutely beats the bag of peanuts you get in Coach. We even got FREE BOOZE! See my glass of wine! I had THREE!!

Puerto Rico was a beautiful place to visit and I am so glad we had the chance to go. It really makes us look forward to the nice weather that we will soon experience...I hope!!