THE GREEN(wald) HOUSE … (growing rosemary & raising a little wolf)

…..FORTUNE!!!!

I am so excited! I am going to be a contestant on WHEEL OF FORTUNE!

For those that know me, I have said for a long time that I needed to go on WOF because I knew I would be so good and I would win lots of money. Though I was kind of half-joking when I talked about it in the past, my wonderful husband cut out a notice in the local paper when the “Wheelmobile” was coming to town around Mother’s Day this year. I knew I HAD to show up to at least see about becoming a contestant. It was a wet and rainy day, and I stood in line outside (with Sammy in a sling) for 3 hours while Joe and Rosie waited in the car and ran errands.

There were about 200 people in the auditorium once I finally got inside for the auditions (and this was the third round that day), and they were randomly drawing names out of a barrel to see who would make it up on stage to play a practice game. After about an hour, my name was drawn and Sammy and I went up on stage to play. We got our picture taken, and did a short interview with the fake Pat Sajak before taking turns calling letters and trying to solve a puzzle. I didn’t solve a puzzle, but I think I made a good impression. I was enthusiastic and loud when calling letters (as they instructed) and after my turn ended and I collected my swag (WOF fanny pack, duffel bag, t-shirt, baseball hat, and a talking Vanna keychain) I went home to wait and see if I would be invited to a final round of auditions to be held in Detroit in the near future.

After returning home from our France vacation, I was excited to check my email and see that I was indeed invited to the final round of auditions - 2 days after we got home (thank god our trip wasn’t longer). This time I went solo - and there was only about 60-70 people in the room. One at a time, we were randomly called and had a chance to call a letter to try to solve a puzzle. The first time, I called a letter that was the first one revealed in the puzzle, but then my second letter was not there so I lost my turn. The second time I was called, I solved the puzzle - a “same name” puzzle that was “Mickey and wireless mouse” - I won another WOF t-shirt. After everyone had been called at least once - we took a written “test”. We had 5 minutes to solve as many puzzles as we could - each puzzle had only a couple letters filled in. I think I got about 60% filled in and I was a little disappointed in myself, until I saw the guy next to me had not completed a single one.

We then waited for our “tests” to be scored, and then they made a final cut, and about 25 of us were kept for a final practice round. Yes, I made the cut. We were called up to the front of the room in groups of 5 - we had to introduce ourselves (like we would on the show) and we had to pretend to spin the wheel before calling out letters this time. We were told the wheel is really heavy, like 1000 lbs, and were instructed to lean over and really give it a good pull. Since there was no real wheel there, one of the audition coordinators was spinning a small fake wheel on our behalf, and she would purposely make it land on “bankrupt” or “lose a turn” occasionally to keep the game moving and give everyone a chance to play. On my turns, I called great letters, bought a few vowels, and then my spin would land on “lose a turn” before I could solve the puzzle - I think they knew I was pretty good. After we were all on stage at least once, the day was over and we were told that within 2-3 weeks we would receive a letter in the mail if we were chosen to be a contestant. The whole day lasted about 3 hours, and my hands were so sore from clapping basically the entire time.

I got my letter a couple weeks ago! I don’t know what day I will be on the show yet, as they said it could be anytime in the next 18 months. But I am definitely going to be on the show - I am so excited! They have a $1,000,000 prize on the wheel this year, and I am planning on winning it!

I have nightmares about ending up like one of these poor people though…

check out Pat’s face, he can’t believe it - “Seriously? You couldn’t get that, you idiot?”

I have to remember to take my time and speak slowly and carefully and not add in any extra letters and make sure I know the answer before I solve….

Wish me luck!!!!

Well, it’s been busy around here, what with all the birthdays and weddings and travel and all, but things have finally settled down and I can’t believe we are halfway done with a new month already! Here are some photos from the birthday celebration - and some news on what’s up with my 13 month old and my 37 month old.

We had a mellow get-together at the house for their birthdays - just some family and close friends, we rented a bouncey house for the backyard and had a pinata filled with dollar store goodies and fruit leather that seemed to be a big hit (pun intended). I made homemade cupcakes (with the help of organic cake mixes) and a small individual bundt cake/cupcake for each kid . Rosie’s was strawberry with strawberry cream cheese icing (as requested) and Sammy got chocolate with vanilla icing.

They got a TON of presents and I have actually hidden some away, to dole out at a later date.

Rosie has been quite a handful, alternating between being super sweet and smart and helpful and funny, and then bursting into tears and being bratty and whiny and defiant. The things she has been saying a lot lately are “I just need a little attention”, “I just need to cry a little”, “I just don’t want you to talk”, “I just don’t want you to smile”, “I just don’t want Sammy to look at me”, “I just don’t want to go to sleep”. Her imagination has been on overdrive - she likes to pretend to be a kitty, she loves making up games and songs and dances. She wants to control EVERYTHING, I have been calling her Mary, Mary quite contrary as she always wants to do the opposite of what we say or suggest.

Sam has started to talk a lot more, saying mama and dada, along with: up, all done (uhn), dropping things and saying uh-oh (said in a really deep grunting way), waving and saying hi (in a high sing-songy way), signing and saying nurse “nuh-nuh” (not sure this really means nurse or night-night or both), pointing to diaper and saying something like “dida” or “umpa”. He has started to throw a mild kind of tantrum when he is cranky and tired. He will be whining and crying over something (usually when I take something from him like Rosie’s scissors or take a crayon or pennies out of his mouth) and he will scream and cry and lie down on his side on the floor and give me a look like “see how sad you made me”. I don’t know if the lying down part is because of his being tired, or if that is just to demonstrate how distraught he is - but it is pretty cute.

He is attempting to eat a lot more, but still chews and spits out most of what goes in his mouth (making mealtimes a HUGE mess). He has been practicing and is getting really good at using a fork and spoon. He loves giving kisses- if I purse my lips and make a kissing noise, he comes up and plants his open mouth right on top of mine. He has been climbing EVERYTHING. He climbs up on Rosie’s chair and then onto the kitchen table, he climbs every toy, he climbs up on the back of the couch, he climbs the playstructure in the backyard and knows how to go down the slide (on his belly), he climbs up and down the stairs (he knows to turn around and climb backwards). He is fearless and would climb right off the edge of the big playstructures at the park if I didn’t re-direct him.

The sleeping situations have changed yet again. Rosie is back to wanting nothing to do with sleep, protesting both naptime and bedtime. Sammy seems like he is getting ready to lose his morning nap, as it is increasingly harder to get him down in the morning, even when he is obviously tired. Though he is sleeping much longer and better at night, going down around 7:30-8pm and waking to nurse usually only once, anytime between midnight and 4am.

Rosie and Sam are playing together much more now. Rosie still gets irritated with her little brother and goes through periods where she doesn’t want to share, but for the most part - they get along pretty well. I love hearing them chase each other and play and laugh. It makes all the chaos and stress so worthwhile.

We will be making one more trip at the end of this month, down to Florida to visit GiGi (and for Joe and I to celebrate our anniversary). Then, hopefully we can be homebodies for a while and just relax as we head into the fall.

So, a family vacation to France with 2 toddlers is quite a bit different than what you would expect from a childless vacation. We had a great time and made a lot of memories, but it was a lot less fancy dinners and museums and sightseeing and a lot more sandwiches and parks and slides.

Here - is a photo essay of France - the playgrounds… Starring Sam and Rosie:

First - Parc de Monceau in Paris (and a playdate with a mommy friend that I met via the internet)

Then - the Carousel de la Tour Eiffel:

Then - the playground in the Jardin des Tuleries, outside the Louvre in Paris:

Then, off to Vendome and the electric carousel:

And the Parc Ronsard, also in Vendome:

We also played on the old swingset at our Hotel/Inn/B&B place, Moulin de la Plaine (with an audience of donkeys):

And we found a really cool little playground right along the river in the tiny town of Troo, France:

And lastly, the awesome playground at the Jardin du Luxembourg on our last day in Paris before flying home:

Did ya notice how awesome all the parks were? They were not the usual big plastic monstrosity things we have around here. They were a little old school - mostly metal and wood still - but really unique and so much fun!

And there you have it - France: A tour of Playgrounds. Stay tuned for our next vacation…

We got back last week from an 11 day - 2 wedding - 2 continent trip, and we are all still recovering from the fun, stress and jetlag.

First was NYC and cousin Jeffrey’s wedding.

NY was HOT - we didn’t do much sightseeing there as stepping outside the hotel resulted in us all being drenched with sweat. We did walk all the way to Central Park on the first day and had fun playing in the water sprinkler playscape.

Rosie was fighting some sort of bug and was running a bit of a fever on Saturday and Sunday. So we spent a lot of time just hanging out in the hotel room with GiGi (my mom - who came to town especially to hang out with the kids while we went to the adults-only wedding) and playing with GiGi and ordering room service was just as fun (probably moreso) for the kids anyway.

Then, off to France with Bubby (Joe’s mom) for cousin Neil’s wedding in the Loire valley - and sightseeing in Paris on the way there. That leg of the trip started off on a sour note when we got to the airport (at 7pm) and found out that our 10pm flight was delayed until 11:30pm - ugh! We were not happy about it - but resigned to the fact and settled down for a long wait. The wait became a lot longer as the flight continually got delayed later and later, and we ended up not leaving JFK until 3 in the morning. With 2 EXTREMELY tired and cranky and screaming and crying children and having waited at the airport for 8 hours - it was not a fun way to start the trip. We arrived in Amsterdam tired and hungry and of course missed our connecting flight - but hopped on the next flight out to Paris - and got a second wind and renewed energy once we finally arrived.

We spent 3 days exploring Paris - the parks and playgrounds mostly - though we did do some typical touristy stuff like take a trip down the Seine River and we went to the top of the Eiffel Tower (only to the 2nd level - the 3rd was closed for some reason when we were there).

Joe and I went to the top of the Arc de Triomphe during naptime one day, saw great views of the city, the Eiffel Tower and Champs Elysses.


Joe and his mom also got to go to the Musee d’Orsay on the first morning there - while I met up with a mommy friend that I met via the internet for a park playdate with her 2 adorable kids.


Our last night in Paris, we walked down and had a picnic along the Seine as the sun set, and it was so relaxing and unbelievable, like something out of a movie, with a group of guys playing guitar to add more ambiance to the scene.

After Paris, we took the TGV (high speed train) to Vendome in the Loire Valley for cousin Neil’s wedding.

We rented a car and drove with Uncle Bob and Aunt Judy to the small town of Troo (known for its caves and troglodyte dwellings).

We explored around the Loire Valley for a couple days, went to Vendome - which was one of the larger towns in the area - and saw a really beautiful church and went to a couple restaurants there.

We went to the small town of Montoire for a couple meals and grocery shopping - and we drove to Amboise and saw the royal castle where Leonardo da Vinci is buried -

and Rosie got a princess crown

Neil and Annabelle’s wedding was beautiful and fun. The ceremony was in a field of wildflowers outside Annabelle’s family home, and the reception was in a castle (moat and all).

There were a lot of other kids at the wedding, so Rosie and Sammy had lots of playmates, and everyone and everything was so well thought out and accommodating and family oriented. It was great, there was so much love evident everywhere!

It was a lot of work with the kids, and I joked to Joe (more than once) that it wasn’t fair that he actually got a vacation from his job, but I had to work overtime on my job for the length of the trip. Aside from a few episodes of extreme tiredness and crankiness resulting in both kids screaming at once, I think both Rosie and Sammy did really well, considering all the traveling and moving around and changes to the schedule they had to endure. We tried to make time each day to cater to the kids and find a park or someplace fun for them to play and run around and just relax and be kids (thus most of the photos of the trip are of playgrounds).

We are blessed and lucky to have been able to have that experience and share it with our kids. There were probably a lot more practical ways we could have spent our tax return this year, but how often do you get a chance to go to a wedding in the countryside in France? The photos and memories are priceless, and I hope that these early trips will foster a love of travel and adventure in both Rosie and Sammy. Even if the best part about traveling sometimes is coming home and sleeping in your own bed.

While shopping at the new Nordstrom store near my house a few weeks ago - I was pleasantly surprised to discover this sign in the ladies room:

This was the result of a contest sponsored by Mothering.com not too long ago to try to find a universal symbol for breastfeeding mothers. Frustrated by the fact that most mother’s rooms are designated by a bottle - as seen below (also at the same Nordstrom) - Mothering magazine (and the website) wanted a symbol that would promote and encourage breastfeeding and have a universally recognizable symbol to signify an area for mothers and their children.

I was familiar with the contest and loved the winning design, but this is the first time I have seen the image used in real life. The winner has signed this symbol over to public domain - so hopefully more and more businesses and public areas will be posting this icon and we will be seeing the symbol used more often than the bottle symbol to represent the feeding of a baby.

Speaking of breastfeeding - as I continue to extoll the benefits of breastfeeding in my daily life (to anyone who will listen), and in the interest of putting my money where my mouth is (so to speak - actually it is where Sammy’s mouth is) I have decided to become a breastmilk donor. Since Sam is starting to eat more solids, and I have an abundant milk supply and I am lucky enough that breastfeeding came easily to me, I am going to be sharing that goodness with premature babies and other critically ill babies in desperate need of the best nutrition, the nutrition that only breastmilk can provide.

I would encourage other lactating mommies out there to do the same - the company I am using is Milkin’ Mamas - but you can go to www.milkbanking.net to see how you can become a donor.

Breast is best!

Wow - Three years ago today - I became a mommy. Well, not really. I was always a mommy - I was just waiting for my kids to arrive. I never imagined that motherhood would be so great, so fulfilling, so exciting, yet so boring, so frustrating, so challenging and so unbelievably tiring all at the same time…

Rosie has been a bit of a handful lately (to put it mildly). She is definitely asserting her independence. She wants to make her own decisions, and we usually give her the freedom to choose her clothes, shoes, meals, what the activities of the day are (within limits), etc. Somehow, that is not enough anymore. Most of my questions, comments, and instructions are met with a bratty “NO!” these days.

Oh the patience it takes to stay sane. 8am Mama is a completely different person from 8pm Mama.

8am Mama starts the day off so patient and waits for Rosie’s slow-as-molasses walking, takes time to make sure she is engaged in whatever activity she wants - especially when traveling in the car, picking up whatever toys she has dropped (repeatedly), reads the same books over and over, doesn’t complain when she gets 10 different cups out of the cabinet and fills each one up with an inch of water and spills water all over the ground, patiently cleans up the spilled water along with the microscopic bits of paper from when she uses her scissors to cut up her coloring book, then calmly takes the scissors out of Sammy’s mouth while gently reminding her that I didn’t want her to use scissors when Sammy was awake.

On the other hand - 8pm Mama tends to say “come ON Rosie - hurry up” when we are walking somewhere, brusquely tosses toys her way with instructions to stop dropping them, refuses to read books more than once (and has been known to skip several pages to expedite the process), exasperatedly sighs “aaaargh” when cleaning up the mess from several cups half filled with water, yells “I TOLD you no cutting right now” while grumbling about cleaning up paper and how dangerous scissors are.

On more than one occasion, I know I have muttered something about “driving me crazy” which I didn’t realize Rosie heard until she repeated her version of that phrase to me last weekend. I think Rosie was trying to listen to music in the car and Joe and I were having a conversation and laughing - and Rosie instructed us to “stop laughing” and we said “why do you want us to stop laughing?” and Rosie replied “Because you are making me drive crazy”.

She just got her first “official” haircut last Friday - just to trim and even things up (as all I ever really did was trim her bangs and the back to eliminate her mullet look) and her curls are even more evident now. Everywhere we go, people comment on her hair - calling her “curly girl” “goldilocks” etc. The barista at the Starbucks drive-thru said “her hair is so gorgeous - those curls - is it natural?”. I wanted to say - “Nah - I gave her a perm”….

She loves to laugh, sing, dance, play with bubbles, splash in the kiddie pool, play on the swingset, play in the sandbox, go for walks, go to the park, go to the zoo, go to the library. She is a non-stop bundle of energy. She loves to get her fingernails and toenails painted and she is very good at staying “still like a statue” until they dry. She loves to put lotion on and will go through a whole tub of lotion, greasing up her entire body if I would let her. She still wants to wear dresses every day - the fancier the better. Usually I have to convince her to wear shorts underneath, or “park pants” as we are frequently at parks - sliding or doing activities that require some sort of leg/bottom covering.

I watched her sleep the other morning, and I was amazed by her long legs, splayed out across her big bed, looking at her long, lean body - and thinking “wow - that body, that little person grew inside me”. I can hardly remember how it felt to hold her newborn body in my arms. When did she become a child? I can’t believe she is already 3 years old. It seems like just yesterday that she was born, yet I feel like she has always been in my life. It is that weird motherhood time warp where time seems to go by so quickly, yet slowly at the same time.

Happy Birthday my precious, sweet Rosemary. I love you so much!

Samuel Arthur Wolf is one year old. I can’t believe it. My sweet baby came into this world- on the floor of my bathroom - with a loud grunt/scream and a HUUUUUUUUGE push - in the wee hours of the morning - one year ago today.

He has changed so much just in the last few weeks. When I look at him, I can see flashes of what he will look like as a young boy, as a teenager, as an adult, and I have almost cried several times in the past week just thinking about his future and how fast he is growing up.

Aside from walking all the time, he is now consistently saying “mama”. He really is a mama’s boy (and has the shirt to prove it). Sometimes it drives me crazy though, when he screams at the top of his lungs if I dare take 2 steps away from him, or go in the other room. He is not talking much other than Dada, Mama, and Dat - everything else is “dat”. I have still been trying sign language with him, though my efforts are sporadic. I know a lot of his fussiness is from his inability to communicate, so hopefully he will catch on to the signs, or start really talking soon so he (and I) can be less frustrated.

He is such a stereotypical boy. He loves to bang things together, open and close doors, scoot cars across the floor, and fit things into other things. He is constantly trying to figure out how things work and he gets so excited and laughs and squeals and claps when he is in the midst of another discovery. He also loves to climb stairs, and he makes a bee-line to any stairs he sees. When we are home, as soon as he hears the gate we have on our stairs open or close, he runs over and grabs onto the bars like a prisoner and screams and whines until we open the gate for him and let him climb up and down the stairs for a bit. He’s actually very good at climbing up and going down. He knows that he has to go down on his belly - feet first.

His body has changed a lot just in the last month. Now that he is walking he has slimmed down a ton. He is no longer my super chunky babe - though he still has enough chubbiness to squeeze and cuddle. His body is longer and leaner and his face is less round.

I have to admit, when I first looked down between his legs a few minutes after he was born (what is that squishy thing?) I was unsure of what to do with a boy. A girl is easy - I know girl parts, I know how girls think and what girls want and need. But a boy is so … weird, so unfamiliar, so foreign. I was really kind of thinking that I couldn’t bond with and love a boy the way I could a girl. That seems so silly to me now.

Sammy is such a different baby from how Rosie was. He seems more cuddly, more needy, less independent, more emotional. He is also into everything - all the time - he is non-stop moving and grabbing and pulling. I am constantly saying “uh-uh - not for Sammy” as he reaches for Rosie’s scissors, or a plant, or the (now broken) DVD player. Rosie seemed easier to entertain, or maybe I am just having selective memory - or maybe it is the combination of Rosie and Sammy that is the hard thing.

I can barely remember how little he was at birth. I hold him now in my arms, all 25 lbs of him, legs hanging over the edge of the glider when we nurse, struggling to keep his big, squirmy body on my lap, and I really miss the tiny, fragile baby. But, I love the toddler, the little boy he has become and is becoming on a daily basis. His laughter brings me such joy. His smile, his neediness, his mischieviousness, it all makes me so proud to be his mama.

I love you my sweet boy. Happy, happy birthday.

For most of my teenage years, the weekends and after school hours from April to October were spent at the lake or in someone’s backyard - trying to achieve a perfect tan. This was a serious task. One could not make alternate plans during the hours of 10 and 2 (prime tanning hours) and there was a specific method of rotation to ensure even sides. My entire plans for a weekend could be nothing but “laying out”. My friend Holly (hey Sis H!) and I would actually climb up to her black shingled rooftop and bake our bodies with baby oil. The thinking was, that we would get tan faster if we could be even closer to the sun. My peachy complexion would always, always turn pink and burn before I could achieve a golden glow. I remember comparing my shade of “tan” to that of a fire-engine or lobster on more than one occasion. Luckily, I was also blessed (?) with oily skin, so the sun damage and sunburns usually would heal up pretty quickly with the extra oil and moisture my skin would produce.

Even today, I have very sensitive skin, even moreso than my kids. We can all be at a playdate at a park for a couple hours, sans sunscreen, and I am the only one who goes home with red shoulders and pink cheeks. Needless to say, my days of just lying in the sun for hours is over. So are my days of comparing tan lines with my girlfriends. That is, unless you count my feet.

In my new mommy life, I now have a sweet farmer tan. Or to be more precise, a mommy-playgroup tan. My face, shoulders, and arms are nice and brown, as are my feet - except for the lovely flip flop tan lines. My legs and mid-section are lily-white. If you looked at me naked in the dark and squinted - I am sure it would look like I was wearing a white tank top jumpsuit - capri length. Am I hot or what?
Hmm - maybe I need to branch out and wear something other than flip-flops on my feet one of these days…

Oh, and Happy Fourth of July y’all!

When the kids are playing together quietly and nicely - I am always worried it is going to result in a big mess for me to clean up…
The other day - I found this:

Sam didn’t seem to mind being covered with stickers - and Rosie had a great time decorating her brother!