A Camping We Will Go

A camping we will go, heigh ho the derry o, a camping we will go!

Sick of Sick: Part III

WOW!!  It has been a very long time since I have run a fever.  Yesterday I woke up with a low-grade fever , was sick to my stomach & very weak.  My hubby had to stay home because it was the last day of school and I had kids (or I should say kid because Sean was still sick too) to deliver and gifts to deliver and such.  I spent most of the day in bed.  I only have one word for that . . . BLAH!!!  That has only happened one other time since I have had kids (5 years now).  I feel like I lost a week of my life.  Does that say that I cram too much into my days?  Hmm, something to ponder.

So the positive side to this is that I haven't eaten anything but a couple of popsicles and a few bites of soup in the past 38-40 hrs.  So, ladies you know what this mean . . . looser fitting clothing!!  Always have to find the bright side.

So, now I forge ahead today doing today's work as well as yesterday's.  That would be okay except now Laura is sick.  Luckily this seems to be a silly little virus that causes only fever for about 24 hours.  Let's just hope Julia doesn't get it too . . .

 

Little Bits about my Little Bits

Thought I would just list a few things my little bits are doing these days.
1.  Laura has started going "AHHH" after she takes a drink.
2.  Julia rolls her eyes at me.
3.  Sean gives me multiple hugs while I am getting him dressed.
4.  Julia likes to push her brother & sister on the swing.
5.  Laura has started speaking in full sentences.
6.  Sean tells me often that he is going to "spank my bottom" if I don't stop whatever he doesn't like that I'm doing.
7.  Julia just lost her first tooth.
8.  Sean likes to tell me, "Mommy, your hair is lovely".
9.  Laura always says bless you when anyone sneezes.
10.  All 3 of them make a point to share with each other.
11.  Laura pretends to burp and says "Cuse me".
12.  Julia is into Barbies.
13.  Sean is into pirates.
14.  Laura loves when we all do something together and names us all off, multiple times.  "It's Daddy.  It's Mommy.  It's Julia.  It's Sean.  It's Laura."
15.  Laura is having separation anxiety right now.
16.  Sean likes to play tackle in the backyard & he will tackle you whether you have the ball or not.
17.  Julia is starting to get a little big for her britches & has to be reminded that she is still a little girl.
18.  They all 3 scream with excitement when Daddy gets home from work.
19.  Julia will eat just about anything, Laura & Sean are much pickier eaters.
20.  They all love fish & chicken but are not big red meat eaters.
21.  None of them will eat mac 'n cheese (weird), but they like asparagus.
22.  Julia loves to draw and cut paper.
23.  Sean likes to cut paper, but has recently cut 2 pairs of shorts.
24.  Sean can not say lemonade, he says "nemolade".
25.  Julia can't say probably, she says "problaly".  

It's Gone

My first born has lost her first tooth.  *Sigh*  I missed it, though.  It happened at school.  Her teacher sent me a text message to let me know she lost it, but they found it.  Apparently she was showing someone and pulled it out herself.  She didn't cry, but just let the teacher know.  Her sweet teacher then went about the mission of finding it.  Thankfully they did, but don't know how because it's so tiny.

So, I guess the Tooth Fairy is going to have to visit us while we are all together camping.  That should be interesting!

Camping

Some of my fondest memories from childhood are of our family camping trips.  Scott and I both want to make those same memories with our kids.  We camped a couple of times when Julia was a baby, but have been a little afraid of taking 3 little ones.  However, that fear has to be pushed aside now.  Julia has an Indian Princess family campout this weekend and we are all going.  Not sure if the tent will be big enough for a pack n play, 2 sleeping bags, an air mattress, all our stuff & us.  We will take an extra one just in case.

I will post again after we get back . . . if we survive, that is!!??

Loose Tooth

So I have noticed over the past few weeks that Julia's bottom teeth have been shifting around and now she has some big spaces.  I asked a friend of mine whose son has just started losing his teeth if this could be a sign and she told me to see if I could see another tooth.  Duh!  I hadn't even done that!!  So, at dinner last night I was telling Scott the story and we looked . . . sure enough she has a permanent tooth through the gums.

So, now she is walking around talking funny because she is pushing on that tooth.  I explained to her that she needed to be careful and just watch for the tooth when eating hard things like apples, etc.  She said, "Like carrots too?"  Then a few minutes later she asked if she needed to be careful while eating pasta.  Guess she didn't really get it.

And since I am on the subject of Julia, she is really excited about reading right now.  She wanted to read a book last night and chose a leveled reader that she is familiar with, which was good since it was a Level 1. She is still only in Pre-K.  We made it through one page and she was ready to move on, but Mommy had to take a break.  I am just glad she is excited about it!

Mother's Day

Had a nice Mother's Day weekend and managed to see almost all of the Moms in my family.  Thanks to my wonderful hubby for making the most delicious barbecued chicken & ribs last night and grilled swordfish steaks today.  Made some yummy brownies today & had 2 of them!  My baby has now pee peed in the potty 3 times!!

So, all in all I would say that this weekend has been a success!

Potty Time . . . Again

My youngest has been sitting on the potty for a few months now . . .  fully clothed, that is.  Lately she has been doing it more and more and I have gotten her on there sans diaper a few times before bath time.  However, last night we had our first success . . .  pee pee in the potty!!!!  You know my husband and I made a huge deal out of it when our first used the potty for the first time, but with each successive child the celebration gets bigger.  Yesterday there were 4 people running around cheering.

Maybe a bigger celebration will equal faster success??

Buried

Okay so I feel like I have been buried for the past month!!  Think that I overcommitted myself this year & will have to not make that mistake again.

So, now I am resurfacing and need to get back to the things I enjoy, my family, cooking, baking, trying to be creative & making my house a home.  Somewhere in the last month of craziness my baby girl finally started stringing words together.  I believe the first I noticed was "Sean go bye bye".  She has also become a little (I stress the word little) bit of a cuddler;  but, you know she is just a move & a shaker and doesn't have time to slow down.  She and her big brother (only by about 16 months) have started playing together and it is so cute to watch.  The other day I was in my room getting ready and I heard copious amounts of giggling and bare feet slapping the floor.  The were simply chasing each other around the house and she found it terribly funny.  It made my heart smile.

My son is also settling into the age of 3.  He is very stubborn and hard-headed and short-tempered, but we are finally having some success with getting him to use his words and hold his temper.  I am wondering how long this will last before the next phase begins??!!

Until then I will enjoy every moment!

Sassy but Sweet

I have always known that my oldest was going to be sassy and she is!!  However, my son has really been trying to assert himself these days and sass is all I get from him.  He likes to repeat back to me whatever I say to him.  Remember doing that when you were a kid??  Yeah, well it was annoying enough then, but when your 3-year-old is doing it to you while you are trying to be serious and scold him . . .  it's way more annoying.  Yesterday he was starting to get uppity and I (in true parent fashion) say firmly "Sean Willard  . . . (you know how it goes)" and he turns around and looks right at me and repeats in the same tone, "Mommy Willard . . . "

You know someone should just slap us internally when we laugh at our kids when they do something like that!  My husband and I luckily were not looking at each other because I am not sure we would have been able to hold it in at that point.

It's not right to call a boy sassy, though, right?

New Favorite

Ever since I became passionate about cooking, I have been a hard core homemade girl who likes to make all things from scratch.  I don't even like using boxed cake, because I have always felt that cake from scratch is better and really pretty easy to make.  With 3 kids under the age of 5, though, I have begun to take many shortcuts in the kitchen and don't cook as often as I like.  However, I have still always tried to make my cakes from scratch (with a few exceptions).  Today, though, I may be a new woman (or baker, as it were) because I have found a great cake recipe that may just be my new favorite!  And, scandal of all scandals . . . it starts with a boxed cake mix!???!!!!?  I am using and playing with the recipe for my daughters birthday cake and cupcakes.  I will have to post later if it's really the hit I think it will be.  So, stay tuned . . .

Cakes

So I figured I would post a picture of my last decorating adventure as I am preparing to embark on another.  These were for my son's birthday recently.  Now it is time for my oldest to turn the big 5 and I will start working on her cake this week.  I will post pictures when (if) I finish hers.  His were Jake & the Neverland Pirates, the new big hit show at our house.  We are doing putt putt for my daughters birthday party, but she has also asked for a princess cake.  So, we will see if I can combine those 2 into something decent looking.   

This is just a hobby of mine and right now I am having fun making them for special occasions.  Hopefully, I won't tire of this hobby like I do all my others!!  

Sick of Sick: Part II

Well I thought I had saved my oldest from the crud, but she has now fallen sick too.  I will say that a sick almost 5 year old is easier than either of the other 2.  She would come into our room holler for me and then run back to throw up.  Scott finally told her that she didn't have to run into our room because we had her on the monitor.

There is part of me now that wishes they had all had it at the same time so we could have gotten it over with quicker.  Instead we are now going on week 3 of this stuff.  I am also worried that it's been long enough since S had it he may be susceptible again.  ARRGGGHH!!!

Sick of Sick

So, this past weekend my baby girl got the stomach bug.  I must say that it is considerably more difficult to control the throw up of a very strong-willed 20-month-old than that of an OCD 3 year old, i.e. scrubbing the couch and chairs & my new living room rug.  Also, my son's sickness was really a 24 hour thing and he was back to normal within 48.  Poor little L had a relapse last night that was miserable.  She went through 3 sheet changes, a bath & 4 wardrobe changes in about an hour.

It really stinks when your kids are sick, but it really REALLY stinks when your little babies who can't communicate are sick like that.  She kept trying to tell her Daddy & I something, but of course it all just came out as garble to us.  I do have a few thoughts on what she might have been saying because I know what I would have been saying.  However, Mickey Mouse did the trick to calm her and she just laid on her Daddy's chest until we were finally able to put her back down without everything coming back up.

Wonder what today will hold for us??

Sick

Around here today we had some major sick for the little birthday boy.  He woke up around 3:30 a.m. crying and coughing.  My hubby headed in to check on him and I could tell from his words that my little boy was puking.  BLAH!!  Never really had the stomach bug since he was old enough to realize what was happening.  So, I get in the bathroom in time to see hubby cleaning him up and that meant only one thing: I got bed clean up.  Did you know that if you put the sheet straight into the washer you WILL have to clean the chunks out later?  I know that, but at 3:30 A.M. I didn't really care.  Of course, at that point my little man was running around his room jumping up and down saying he felt great and wanted to eat something . . . at 3:30 A.M. (if I hadn't already mentioned that)!!  This of course woke up my oldest daughter who wanted to check to see if everyone was okay.  Then neither one of them could go back to sleep.

An hour later at 4:30 A.M. I heard thumping on the other side of the wall, where my girls' room is.  I walk in and my oldest has her little lamp on over her bed and is reading.  In my mind I am like, "Really?".  So then I tell her to shut it down for the night (or morning, which ever is more appropriate) only to have the puker doing it again about 30 minutes later.  So, we skip church, shut the sick one in his room (gotta keep it contained), set up a mini movie theater in there, give him Ipad & toys galore and tell him he can't come out.  That sounds so mean, but do we really want the other 2 kids to go through this and lose the whole week, which is Spring Break BTW?!  He actually did really well and Daddy and I traded off going in and keeping him entertained.  He definitely wins the award for most times watching Aladdin in one day.  He seriously watched it over and over, nothing else.  In fact, I believe I am still listening to it now.

Girls played together all day, outside and in.  They played all real girly things like baby dolls and tea party.  They were so good!  

And now all three angels (and they truly were today) are sound asleep.  My little man is still running fever, but sleeping.  Oh, and did I mention that my baby girl has croup?  Hey, all in a day's work . . . right????

A Day in the Life

My son's birthday is on Thursday.  I can't believe he is going to be 3 cause it sure seems like he should be 15 by now.  He is a little ring-tailed tooter, probably much more like his father than his mother.  We went in this morning for his check-up and he's in the 25th-50th percentile for his weight at 30 lbs & in the 75th for height at 3'3".  However, he acted mostly like a neanderthal while in the office.  Both of my girls had to have follow ups for ear infections and he insisted that they go first.  He was very concerned about getting a shot, which he didn't.  Finally when it was his turn he screamed "no" and threw a play head of lettuce.  It was like watching one of those bad kid movies where you sit and say, "Wow that kid is terrible".  That was my baby today.  Other than that he is progressing at a completely normal rate.  My pediatrician thinks my kids are hilarious and perfect.  She tells me that she loves a strong will in a child.  However, she admits that she is glad she is not the one raising them.

Now my baby girl, on the other hand is just crazy.  We went in for her 18-month check up a couple of weeks ago.  She is in the 90th percentile at 29 lbs. 5oz. & 50th percentile for her height.  She is also "perfect", per the pediatrician.  Today, though, she decided she didn't want to leave the house and threw a temper tantrum when I turned Mickey Mouse off.  She threw her head back and clocked herself on the wooden arm of the couch.  I picked her up and took her to the car only to find blood on my hands.  She had cut her head open.  Luckily we were already on our way to see the Dr. and she said it didn't need stitches.  Whew!!  She, the little darlin, takes after her Mommy.  Poor child.  She is finally talking more.  My other 2 children talked very early so this has been difficult for me with her not being able to communicate.  In the past week, she has added a dozen or more words to her vocabulary.  So she is finally starting to use the words instead of babbling.  A little bit ago she walked in with a small football and said "throw ball".  Yeah baby girl!!

Tidbits

My son does this new little thing where when we ask him something he pauses, puts his finger on his chin and says "Hmm".  I guess he is really starting to have some deep thoughts.  Either that or he is super influenced by his indecisive mother or developing a politician's way early in life.  Maybe it is a 3-year-old thing and he is just getting ready to be 3.  Whatever the reason I can't help but smile when he does it.  Problem is that he does it a lot when he is getting in trouble.  Now tell me how I'm supposed to keep a straight face for that one!

My 19-month-old on the other hand continues to babble like she is talking.  However, not one of us can understand what she is saying.  I think that she is probably doing the Hmm thing in her head lots.  I took her to the Dr. the other day and she is in the 90th percentile for her weight.  It's funny to me how different my children are.  My first 2 were small, always a size or two behind their age.  In fact, my oldest still wears shoes that are 2-3 sizes smaller than her classmates.  My baby on the other hand is wearing a 3T.  She is killing my back!!  

Kindle

So, I went to my wonderful hubby before V-Day and told him that I decided I wanted a Kindle.  I wanted to catch him before he bought me something sparkly.  He said we weren't going to spend a lot on Valentine's this year, but if I wanted a Kindle he would get me one.  So we go out and buy one, pick out a light & a case and there you go!  Then I got home and start playing with it and soon realized something, I had NO IDEA what I wanted to read.  Now I love to read (not quite as much as my sister, though), I mean I am a librarian for heaven's sake.  When I started thinking about what I wanted to read though, I was lost. Then it occurred to me . . .  I hadn't really been reading for myself for the past 8 years or so.

In my former life I was an elementary school teacher.  Back in 2004 I changed professions.  I got emergency certified as a school librarian and started back to school to get my Masters of Library Science.  I was also engaged that year, planned a wedding & married.  At that point, I scrapped all personal reading for school books, youth literature and wedding guides/planners.

*Side note*  I LOVE children's & young adult literature.  There are so many great kids books that adults can enjoy.  So the next time you're in a library check out the children's section.

Anyway, I was busy reading for my profession and for grad school.  Then I got pregnant in 2005, only adding baby books to my repertoire.  2006 rolls along and I changed professions again, becoming a stay-at-home mom, thus adding only child-rearing & children's books.

Since then, I have thrown a "me" book in there occasionally, a couple of bible studies & a few self-help titles.  That brings me up to last week again being totally lost in the land of the literature.  Luckily after some late night searching I bought a few books that came out during my adult reading hiatus that I wanted to read, but never did.

Now I have a new problem!  I have so many books I want to read.  And, I have to work on staying awake at night long enough to read more than a few sentences!!  

Smoothie Heaven

A few weeks ago I decided to start having smoothies for breakfast.  Everyone always raves about them & I had just never made them at home.  Well it's a new year and I am inspired to try new things.  So I started lugging my blender out every morning and got hooked on them.  However, I don't have room on my countertops to leave it out all the time.  Enter the Magic Bullet!  Someone who works for my hubby had given him one for Christmas, but we hadn't made the time to get it out and play with it.  Now some background on this little piece of machinery must be inserted here.  For a few years my hubby and I, in order to save money living only on one income, had foregone cable.  So, we often found ourselves watching informercials.  He fell in love with the Magic Bullet at first sight.  I was always going to get him one for Christmas, but just never did.  Now back to a week ago.  Instead of complaining, which is usually my way, about dragging the big blender out every morning I finally decided to try out the MB.  This is what brings me to "Smoothie Heaven".  It really is so easy to use and . . .

Okay, I refuse to subject the few of you who read my blog to my own personal informercial.  However, if you want to join me in Smoothie Heaven you are probably just going to have to get a Magic Bullet for yourself.  

Potty Time

Recently I was inspired by an article about saving money (http://moneywatch.bnet.com/saving-money/article/parents-how-to-save-3000-a-year/492910/).  The money saving thing was nice, but it was the stats on potty training that got me.  Now I have gone through potty training with 2 of my 3 kids so far and both experiences have been very different.  Both times I said that I was going to take the slow route and just wait until they were ready.  However, my type A personality did not allow me to do that with my daughter & the whole experience was quite stressful for us both.  So, I really stuck to my guns with my son on just being patient and waiting.  See, here's the thing, the waiting until they are ready sounds so much more enjoyable to me that the pushing and fighting and forcing; and I am usually a person of force.  For the past month my son had been resisting, so I just continued to be patient until I read this article.  I don't know if I was looking for something to get me out of my slump or just ready to NOT have 2 in diapers, but I was going to get this potty thing moving come hell or high pee.

So last Monday morning I decided that my almost 3-year-old son will be potty trained and I must report that he has done wonderfully!  I am so proud of him.  All the mistakes that I made with my poor first child I made sure and didn't repeat.  For instance, I remember reading that you must let them empty the child potty into the big potty.  I never let poor J do that.  I was terrified that she would dump it all over the bathroom.  Anyway, it took him less than a day to master this task without ever spilling a drop.  I also never let poor J go by herself, I was always there to watch and make sure everything went alright.  It took 2 days before S could do it totally by himself (and he even washes his hands afterwards).  Here is my question then, was it all the little mistakes with J that made it so difficult or was it that I waited longer with S?  Guess I can truly make a determination when I potty train my 3rd.