This is the “big room,” which was the main reason we wanted to do the project. We need the space (more on that later). This will be Portman’s permanent office and a guest bedroom for the occasional overnight guest (Ya Ya, mainly). It’s a huge room, way too big to be just an office, so it has plenty of room for a “bedroom side” and “office side.” We also put in a big closet to house all of Portman’s computer equipment, and anything that doesn’t fit in there will go in the remaining unfinished space. We were unsure of how to market this room should we ever sell the house, so Portman had the idea to wire it for a “home theater.” The room and closet are completely wired for surround sound and big stereo/theater equipment. Portman did the wiring one night after the framing went up, and it turned out great! This is what it looked like before. And now:

This used to be a wet bar. It reeked of the early 80′s and we just didn’t care for it. Portman ripped it out one night last week, and the “work mans,” as Roman calls them, are going to seal off all the plumbing for us. As you can tell, the carpet is going to have to come out too – between the construction and everything we ripped out, there was no saving it!

This is what we are calling the “playroom extension.” The playroom side was long and narrow like a bowling alley, and we wanted to open it up a bit. Now it will be L-shaped with this little extension piece leading to the laundry. We had to put in the bench thing to house the sump pump, which was in a really awkward location. My plan is to cover the lid with foam and a washable fabric, lock it, and let the kids use it as a reading bench or whatever they deem “fun.” The big double doors lead to the furnace and remaining unfinished space.

And, TA-DA, Mommy’s sanctuary: the laundry room! Remember my Home Alone-esque “laundry room” from before? It doesn’t look like much now, but we have big plans for it. I spend so much time doing laundry, and I am so thrilled to have a real, clean laundry space. I have a Pinterest gallery going with all of my ideas for the space – eventually it will be awesome, but for now I’m just happy to have a clean floor to dump everything on! By Friday they should have the new sink and floor installed, then we get to paint. I’m over the painting, but at least the room is small. Also, there are now hookups for a second washer and dryer, which I am super excited about. We always had two washers and dryers growing up, and now I know why. Ours are running all day long, and it would save me a ton of time to be able to put in two loads at once. Especially since one load is usually dedicated to diapers!

This is what the playroom has been like for the past month. The kids are DYING to get back in there, and so am I! Since they have had very few toys during the project and for the most part have been fine without them, I’m planning to do another purge before I let them back down there. They don’t remember what is down there, and probably won’t miss anything that I get rid of!

This one is of Ada riding a scooter back in December (at 20 months). This is a testament to how awesome and crazy she is, and that she is indeed the third kid. She watches Harper and Roman on their bikes and scooters, and she wants to keep up! The scooter is almost taller than she is, but she gets the job done.

And finally, Ada talking. This is from the end of December, and she is now talking in sentences. But nevertheless, this is super cute.

In case you haven’t heard my ruminations before, my grandma is amazing. She was raised on mission stations in Congo (yes, my white grandma is from Africa!) with her 3 brothers and sisters, raised her 4 kids on mission stations in Congo and Zambia, and has lived to tell some incredible stories. Abie brought all of her scrapbooks with her to the weekend celebration, and we all spent hours pouring over them. I just hope that my kids live such rich and fascinating lives – it is truly inspiring.

For her 90th, we all wrote letters to Abie honoring her role in our lives, and my Aunt Carolyn put together a beautiful scrapbook for her.

Ada on her (my) iPhone (she is addicted) and engaging in some friendly wrassling with Pop Pop and Uncle Kevin (she won, hands down):

The extended Crane Clan (Well, most of us):

Harper drew a birthday picture for Abie. She said “I think Abie will really like some angels.”

I used this recipe and Wilton gel food coloring (they picked red for Valentine’s Day). The end result was a generous bowl of warm play doh that smelled and felt exactly like the stuff my mom used to make. It was all very nostalgic.

The kids LOVED the homemade version, and within minutes Harper declared “let’s never buy it again!” I have to say, a pile of play doh that big was way more fun for them than a bunch of little jars (that ultimately get all mixed up). The homemade version was also a lot more pliable, and they were able to make much cooler creations out of it. Harper made an awesome turtle, and Roman made a platter of cookies and cupcakes. Even Ada was able to play with it, whereas the store-bought play doh ends up crumbled in her little hands.

I was determined to make this stuff last more than a day, and by the time the kids finished playing with it, it was definitely getting a little dry and crusty. I added a few tablespoons of water and kneaded it on the counter for several minutes, then put it in a big zip loc (squeezing out all the air) and stuck it in the fridge. Wouldn’t you know, 4 days later and it’s just as good as the day we made it! The kids didn’t like the fact that it was cold, so I microwaved it for 30 seconds, but other than that it was perfect. I didn’t need to add water after today’s session, so we will see how long it lasts. One thing is for sure, we definitely won’t be buying our play doh anymore – not only was this more fun, but it was way, way easier to clean up!

Quiche Lorraine

This is my mom’s recipe, and damn is it good! It has bacon in it, and I didn’t leave it out (it would have ruined the recipe.) We definitely count ourselves as not-so-strict vegetarians. A little bacon never hurt anyone, right ya’ll?

Spinach Lasagna

Since Portman gets home from work so late, I’ve been trying to make some meals that reheat well. After a few trial-and-error sessions, I came up with this lasagna recipe and we really like it. I like lasagna because you can change it up every time – there’s no reason to be exact!

1 box no-cook lasagna noodles
1 15 oz container ricotta cheese
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup (roughly) parmesan
1-2 garlic cloves, minced
1 16 oz package frozen chopped spinach, thawed & squeezed dry(2 10oz boxes would work as well)
1 can artichoke hearts, chopped (optional)
Tomato sauce
Bechamel sauce
Shredded mozzarella

Bechamel sauce – melt half a stick of butter until bubbly, stir in 1/4 cup flour and 1 teaspoon dijon mustard and cook for 1 minute or until fragrant. Slowly stir in 2 cups of warmed milk and cook until bubbly and thick. Stir in 1 teaspoon nutmeg, salt and pepper. The recipe makes more than you need, so I just keep it in the fridge. It’s really good spread on bread for grilled cheese!

Lasagna – Mix together ricotta through artichokes (these are totally optional – we don’t always have them on hand). Spread a thin layer of bechamel sauce on the bottom of a 9×9 square pan. Put 2 lasagna noodles on top. Put a layer of the ricotta mixture on top of that, then spread more bechamel sauce on top of ricotta mixture. Put another two lasagna noodles on top, and repeat the layers until you are out of ricotta. End with two lasagna noodles, topped with tomato sauce, then sprinkled generously with mozzarella. If you keep tomato sauce in the freezer like I do, it takes three 2-ounce cubes. Bottled would be fine. You could include the mozarella in your cheese layers as well, but I don’t find that you need it. Cover with foil and bake at 375 for 30 min, then remove the foil and bake for another 15 min or so until brown and bubbly.

Tilapia with Toasted Couscous and Ginger-Orange Sauce

This is hands-down one of my favorite recipes ever. I made it several years ago when we were either kid-less or had just Harper, and it was instantly a favorite. However, cooking the shrimp is time-intensive and I’ve since shied away from it because I don’t have the time. A few nights ago I changed it up and used tilapia fillets instead of shrimp, and it was insanely delicious and very easy. I did all the prep work in about 15 minutes in the afternoon, then quickly assembled everything at dinnertime.

The recipe is from Cooking Light, and the only thing I changed was to use 1 pound of tilapia fillets instead of shrimp. The fillets require more breading, so you have to double the panko portion of the recipe. Also it’s easier if the ginger is minced instead of grated, just for the breading (grated ginger tends to clump together). You will LOVE this, I promise!

Zucchini Fritters

The kids really like these, and they are an easy way to use up extra zucchini before it goes bad. The “recipe,” if you can call it that, changes literally every time I make them, so this might not be very helpful. Basically you grate a whole zucchini, scramble and egg (or two, if it is a big zucchini), mix it with grated parmesan, bread crumbs, salt and pepper until it is a thick, batter-ey consistency (they just have to roughly stick together). You could also mix in some chopped parsley, or a little bit of nutmeg for extra flavor. For this particular batch, my “batter” looked like this:

Fry them in a little olive oil until they are brown and crispy, then keep in the oven or if the kids are really hungry, feed them straight out of the pan like I do!

Roman, showing us a voluptuous picture of Wonder Woman in a book he picked out at the library today: “and this, yup, this is absolutely my favorite page ever.”

Harper: “Mom, Ada got into something and she put it on your toothbrush!”

Roman, sucking on his “favorite finger” with drool coming out of his mouth: “Mom, help! I’m leaking!”

Harper: “Mom, I can’t play Candyland ever again because it makes me wanna eat candy.”

Like father, like daughter… Harper: “Can I just eat at the computer? I really need some privacy.”

Harper, glaring skeptically at the brown paint that she just asked me to mix: “mom, is that really the best you can do?”

Harper, finishing up dinner: “It would make me really happy to follow the rules and not wear my boots in the house, so can you please clear my plate for me? And also dinner was delicious, thank you for making it for me!” … My work here is done.

We got one, pitiful snow. It was clear when it started that it wouldn’t last through the next day, so I let the kids go out in the dark and play in it before bedtime. This made for some pretty terrible photos, but I had to document it since it might be our only snow this year (if we’re lucky!) They were so excited because the “big kids” in the neighborhood convened in our yard, since apparently we had the “best snow.” We are in kind of a flood plain, so maybe it all drifted our direction? Who knows.

I’m taking a photography class with a friend on Sunday afternoons. We’re learning how to actually use our cameras, rather that just put it on “auto” all the time! This is one of the better pictures I’ve taken since learning some of the settings. My beautiful baby girl:

Santa brought Harper a fish tank, and after we got back from our holiday extravaganza, Daddy took the big kids to pick out fish – our first pets! Harper picked out an orange goldfish which she named “Cheddar,” and Roman picked out a black goldfish named “Underpants.” We’re just thankful he didn’t name him “Poop,” because that was one name he was tossing around! Portman did a ton of research before we brought the fish home, and so far so good. We are testing the water a few times a week, we have live plants in the tank, and water conditioners in case of emergency. We have had a few water emergencies, but so far Cheddar and Underpants are alive and well:

Basement – we spent Martin Luther King Day weekend (all three days of it) hauling loads of stuff out of the basement. Aunt Cammie came over at one point and said “remind me never to buy anything, ever, because this is what happens!” We had an embarrassing amount of useless stuff down there, but we were diligent about donating it and only keeping the essentials. Some of the more fun things we tossed: approximately 1,200 software CDs dating back to the late 90′s. Encarta 98 anyone? We are adding a large bedroom/office, a finished laundry room with hook-ups for two washers and two dryers, and we are adding a little extension onto the playroom. Photos from during the cleanup and the framing:

Since the basement is out of commission for at least a month, we brought a few toys upstairs. We also brought all of the trains down from Roman’s room, where they have just been collecting dust. It turns out playing trains on the floor is much more fun than the train table – they have been having a blast making some huge tracks through the family room! Roman built a “house” for Harper out of magna tiles:

Finally, we have been blessed with the mildest winter ever, and I am in heaven! The kids and I have had some really good days lately, and I have to think it’s because we’ve been outside so much. Harper whined the other day “when am I EVER going to build a snowman?” My response was: you’re riding your bike outside in January without a coat on. Don’t complain! The kids obviously don’t appreciate it, but I sure do.

Harper loves to pose for the camera. She reminds me so much of Cammie at that age! Roman yells at me when I try to take his picture.

I don’t normally believe in New Year’s Resolutions because I think statements like “Eat less desert” and “Lose 10 pounds” are stupid, but this year I quietly made a resolution to myself (although I guess it’s not so “quiet” anymore since I’m typing it up for the world to read). One thing I am not good at, as a mom, is slowing down. I’m sure this is completely normal for someone who spends all day trying to keep it under control with a house full of preschoolers, but it bothers me. I’m constantly thinking two, three or four steps ahead, as in “okay they are eating lunch now, so I should go ahead and prep the sponges and the dust buster, make sure there is room in the dishwasher, get clean diapers ready for nap time, and if I get at least two of them down for naps together then maybe I can finish some laundry so that I don’t have to do it tonight.” Like I said, probably normal, but it bothers me that I can’t just sit down and relax while they eat. So I’m trying to change that and just let things go a little bit. A few crumbs won’t hurt anyone, and they make that exterminator bill seem worthwhile.

One way I decided to force myself to slow down is to focus on reading. I am so embarrassed to admit it, but reading often slips under the radar because I’m worried about getting that next load of laundry in, cleaning up a meal, or dealing with some other “crisis.” Odds are, it’s not a real crisis. For the past month or so, we’ve been reading a ton. I make sure that each kid gets to sit on my lap and read for at least 30 minutes a day. They can do it in pairs or threes, or by themselves, but I make sure it gets done. It’s a lot of time, but it’s important. And the funny thing? I’m loving it. I feel more relaxed, I love getting the special quiet time with the kids, and oddly enough I’m not really worried about what else I could be doing. Often our reading sessions coincide with bedtime, but sometimes we just plop down in the middle of the day and read a stack of books.

So, like I said, we started our family reading marathon about a month ago. Here’s the amazing thing (and my motivation to keep going): it turns out that Roman can read (oh yeah, he’s 3 1/2). We had no idea! He must have been picking up on us teaching Harper, but he can consistently read 3 and 4-letter words. Moreover, in just a few short weeks Harper has gone from what I call “frustrated reading” where she could sound out the words, but got so flustered after a few minutes that she would just throw in the towel, to reading “real, actual books” (as Roman would say). Today she sat with Portman and read the “Frog and Toad” anthology for an hour and a half! She’s slow, but she is reading. It is so exciting to watch it “click” for her, and we are so proud of her.

But I digress.

Growing up. The best way to describe it, for me at least, is that the past five years have beaten out any last bit of selfishness that I was clinging to. Yeah, sometimes I think it might be nice to kick back and watch that trashy TV show without having to fold laundry and do dishes at the same time. But you know what? I can do that in 10 years when the kids are more helpful around the house. I’m still young enough to handle staying up late to clean, so while they are awake I’m trying hard to enjoy their company, because they really are the best company I can ask for… most of the time

I cannot, cannot, cannot believe that my very first baby is FIVE! Harper’s 5th birthday was two weeks ago. Since we had her birthday party in December, on her actual birthday we just had a low-key celebration at home. In previous years we haven’t done anything on her real birthday, since she was fully convinced that her birthday was the day of her party. That didn’t fly this year. She was well aware that her birthday is January 2nd and would not let us forget it! We explained that she already had her party, but we could do a little celebration at home. In the morning she opened her gifts from Grandpa and Grammy, then Harper invited her friends (and neighbors) Laura and Grayson over for some quick after-dinner ice cream sundaes, which she picked instead of cake.

Opening presents and playing with her new chalkboard/dry erase board:

Ice cream sundaes with Laura:

Post ice-cream bath:

The days following Harper’s birthday were absolutely crazy for us, which is why I am just getting to this post! The next day was supposed to be the big kids’ first day back to school, but at 8AM we got an email saying that due to a water main break, school would be cancelled for the week. I quickly bundled all three of them up and loaded my bag with activities so that I could take them to my dentist appointment (pretty much the worst-case scenario in my book). While we were at the dentist (they were perfect angels, by the way!), Daddy was supposed to be leaving for work, but his car wouldn’t start so he ended up working from home – thank god, it turns out. The kids and I stopped for bagels on the way home, and just as we sat down to eat, Harper grabbed her stomach and doubled over screaming. She was screaming like someone was stabbing her and wouldn’t stop, so I had to pack everyone up, get back in the car and rush home. Once home, Harper curled up on the couch in the fetal position, and drifted in and out of sleep, waking up every 10 minutes screaming in pain. On top of that, she started to run a very high fever, which quickly climbed to almost 103.

I wasn’t able to get a doctor’s appointment until almost 4pm, so by the time we go there, she was very, very sick. The doctor sent us immediately to the ER. He later told me that she was the sickest kid he saw that week. By the time we got to the ER, the Motrin had kicked in and she was starting to feel a lot better. She actually asked me to get her Chick Fil-A at one point. Ha! They did an ultrasound of her tummy and some other tests, and it turns out she had a bad bladder infection. We got home around 8:30 pm, and she was up most of the night with a high fever, but once the antibiotics kicked in the next day, she was back to her old self. Like I said, thank god Daddy’s car wouldn’t start, otherwise that would have been an interesting situation for me!

Last week I took Harper in for her 5-year check-up. She weighed 37 pounds (30th percentile) and was 42 inches tall (40th percentile). She has gained 2 pounds and grew 3 inches since last year. Out of curiosity, I had Roman step on the scale, and he weighed a whopping 40 pounds! Harper had to get 4 booster shots, which luckily I knew about ahead of time and was able to warn her. We talked about being brave before we even got there, and boy was she brave! She barely whimpered, even though I know how much it hurt her. I was so proud of her. On top of that, because I had all three kids with me, Harper had to do all of her vision and hearing tests by herself with the nurse. She was such a big girl about it and the nurse said she followed instructions perfectly. They also had her draw several shapes and a person, and both the nurse and the doctor commented that she must like to draw. Yes, she does!

Harper has grown up so much in the past few months. Just a few months ago, I could barely make it through the day with her. She was whiny and demanding and her favorite word was “NO!” Now, I can honestly say that 90% of the time she is such a joy to have around. She is cooperative, helpful, and extremely affectionate. She is very loving and attached to me right now, and does not hesitate to give me a big hug and an “I love you!” She is still my independent girl, likes to take the lead on things, and is constantly cooking up plans for her and Roman to do. But, she genuinely loves to just hang out with me, and not in an annoying way. I’ve really enjoyed the past few months with her.

Harper has also just recently taken a huge interest in Ada. I think it started around the time we moved Ada into her room. Harper loves to play with her, read to her, cuddle her and help her. Ada loves the attention, and showers Harper with love in return. It’s not unusual for me to find the two of them trading kisses with each other, or just playing together in their room. Harper is always the first one to volunteer to help Ada with things like putting on her shoes or unbuckling her car seat. Also, I think Roman is glad that some of her sisterly attention has turned elsewhere!

Harper lifting Ada up so that she can taste the muffin batter. I’ve taught them well!

Some more sisterly moments. Eating breakfast in front of the fire, watching a show together, and some kisses:

Other things that Harper enjoys right now include art (in a major way), ballet (I’m convinced she likes it only because she gets to be on stage), acting (she is in a theater program, again in it for the stage) and biking. We cannot keep this girl off her bike! She still has training wheels, but she can cruise on that thing. She goes on rides around the neighborhood with Daddy and has been constantly asking me when she will be allowed to ride by herself. It has been interesting vetting out Harper’s likes and dislikes in terms of activities. It is very clear to us that she loves performing, and we encourage it. She recently told me (I kid you not) “Mommy, I want to be an actor when I grow up because being in the audience is no fun at all!” Apparently two days ago at preschool, she put on her entire ballet routine for her class while the other 21 kids sat quietly and watched. The girl loves a good audience. She just started a theater program at the Adventure Theater at Glen Echo, and I hope to find more things like this for her to try.

Our next big adventure with Harper will be getting ready for Kindergarten – I might just have a nervous breakdown!