Amen

It was ET's turn to say the prayer tonight.

My favorite part:

"Please bless that sometime Mom and Dad will be able to go on a date."

Amen, little man. Amen.

Get It Together

I am having a hard time getting it together lately. My couch has once again disappeared under Mount Washmore. My dining room table has been swallowed by my craft projects. And I can't remember the last time I cleaned the bathroom. Thank goodness hubby does the dishes or we'd be eating straight off the counter tops. I feel like such a hypocrite telling the kids they can't play until their chores are done when I am so far behind on mine. And my exercise bike sits mocking me from the corner.

But there are a few things I am doing right. Today I:

*fed the children 2 meals and 2 snacks. (hubby took care of the other meal.)
*nursed my baby.
*played soccer in the backyard with my son.
*let my kids run through the sprinkler and watered the yard at the same time.
*ran the dirty clothes through the washer and dryer.
*swept the kitchen and dining room.
*picked up the living room and very nearly vacuumed.
*FINALLY took around thank you cards for meals and gifts from when Squirt was born.

Tomorrow I'll tackle my list...now I go to bed.

Notes to Self

*Just plan on missing Sunday School until you stop nursing. After taking Munchkin and Thumbelina potty, and Squirt taking at least 30 minutes to eat--just plan on spending that class time in the Mother's Lounge.

*Really think about what you decide to wear to church and if it will be nursing friendly. I wore a wrap shirt today with a tank top underneath and had to totally untie the shirt to feed Squirt.

*Sew Munchkin's dress closed. It's a little jean dress with snaps all down the front. She took it off three times before we left the house. Thank goodness she fell asleep in Nursery or we probably would have had a repeat.

*Make sure Munchkin enters the bench area unassisted, and exits the drinking fountain with much assistance. Hubby ran her into the bench in front of ours as he was trying to guide her in. Then, she stumbled down the steps at the drinking fountain because I let go of her hand.

*Hide church bags so the kids can't lose all the crayons

Next Sunday should be a breeze!

Seriously...

Squirt is the best baby sleeper in the whole world! She shares a room with Munchkin. She goes to bed by 10 and wakes up around 6...with no noise in between.

Normally, Munchkin falls asleep within minutes of laying down (around 8) and we don't hear from her again until around 6:30 or 7...Unless she is sick.

Last night, it was anything but quiet in their room. Squirt didn't make a peep all night. She slept through:

5 "cover me up, please"s
3 "I can't find my water cup"s
2 "I need help"s
3 "I need to go pee pee in the potty"s
and countless "Mommy"s and "Daddy"s.

Too bad I can't sleep like that.

First of all, I'm Crazy!

Here's what I did this weekend:

Bum-ruffle onesies for Squirt. Here is her 4th of July one.
Thumbelina is very into Fancy Nancy and requests the book every night and several times during the day. So we decided to "fancy" up her room a little...since she has to share it with a boy. Now she has her very own fancy curtain on her bed.

Munchkin's 4th of July outfit. I made the skirt and painted the shirt.

Here is ET's slightly more manly version. Thumbelina's shirt is done but I have yet to do her skirt.

Everytime a project turns out like the vision, I think I can do anything! I am trying to alter a pattern to make me a dress...well, a jumper really because sleeves still scare the junk out of me.

Birth Announcements

First off, I want to thank everyone for all the well-wishes and support during this pregnancy. If you would like a birth announcement for Squirt, please leave me your email address so I can send you one.


PS--They have her real name if you are dying to know :)

Handmade Holiday

For Father's Day this year, we went homemade. There are so many tutorials online you can figure out how to do anything yourself. I worked with the kids and this is what we came up with:

What would Father's Day be without a tie of some sort. Here is our tie banner, modified from this tutorial. We used clothespins glued on the back so we can reuse it.

A scratch off card from this tutorial.

A wordle for Dad to hang at his office with pictures of the kids. I can't find where I saw it. Sorry whoever came up with the idea.

Since the kids have their own aprons, they decided Dad needed his own apron. Now, I am the only one without an apron. Totally my own design and idea.

And of course, for the grill master, burgers and fries for dessert, tutorial and template here.

I have gotten so much sewing and crafting done this weekend. I will post those projects tomorrow. For today, Happy Father's Day.

Smiling Squirt

The Rest of the Story

I never did fill in the gaps of Squirt's birth story. The short version: she was born, she's fine. I am really writing this since she is my 4th and I probably won't remember in a year or two.

You will remember that I was a week past my due date. The doctor's agreed to induce me and told me the hospital would call me in the morning when they were ready for me to come in. Hubby and I got up at 5 am to shower and get ready. The hospital called at 5:15 and asked if we could be there at 6. My brother came and stayed with us the night before so he could watch the kids.

When we got to the hospital, the nurse checked me and I was exactly the same as I had been at 37 weeks. She started my IV and went to call the Doctor about starting pitocin.

They started pitocin and the doctor came in to break my water. The nurse put a fetal monitor on the baby's head so I didn't have to wear the one on my belly anymore. When she came back the next time to check me, she knocked the monitor off. She tried another one but couldn't get it to work. So the belly one came back on.

Hours of waiting...

I asked for an epidural and the guy couldn't get the needle through my spine. I just couldn't curve my back enough over my huge belly. After three sticks, he said he'd try one more time then he would have to move to a different spot. So hubby grabbed my arms and pulled me down and the guy finally got it in. It was great!

...Until a few hours later when I started feeling everything! We kept pushing the button as often as it would let us but the guy had to come and give me another shot. Less than an hour later we were ready to push.

During all of this, I had the fetal monitor that you wear on your belly. A new nurse came on shift and asked if she could try to put the one on the baby's head again. She tried and then brought in another nurse. This nurse tried to take off the old one, but couldn't get it off. So she just put a new one on and left the old one attached too.

The doctor finally came in and said let's have a baby. The baby's heart rate went down quite a bit so they had me wear an oxygen mask. And I was so numb from that shot that I was pretty sure I was pushing as hard as I could but couldn't feel a darn thing.

Push, push, push...blah, blah, blah---YAY! WE HAVE A BABY!!

As they were taking her to the baby bed/station thingy, I could see the fetal monitor hanging from her head. Turns out, as our first baby with hair, the monitor got tangled in her hair and as the nurse was twisting it to get it off, she was actually ripping out Squirt's hair.

**That's right! I finally get a baby with hair and the nurses give her a bald spot! She also got her first haircut right then, too, so they could get the monitor off.**

She was having some wheezy/ gaggy problems so they needed to take her to the NICU to help open her lungs all the way. Hubby went with her. Then I was all alone in my room.

The nurse brought me some orange juice and crackers, and then left again. Since I hadn't eaten anything since the night before, I started chugging the juice. Big mistake! I started feeling queasy. Now, remember, I was super numb from the waist down. I looked around for anything I could use to contain the mess. Nothing. I couldn't move. I didn't want to throw up on the floor so someone would have to clean it up. So I had to use my arms to pull myself up in the bed, gathered my blankets and let loose. It is so weird to vomit and not be able to feel any of the muscles involved. And, every time I let go, I would bob and weave like a newborn's head. It was so funny!

Squirt had to be on the CPAP for an hour, and then get checked out by the pediatrician. When they finally brought her to me, I had to laugh. The nurses in the nursery had put a bow in her hair, and a little mohawk to try and hide the bald spot.
But she was still perfect...and finally OUT!

Anonymous

While at my cousin's wedding yesterday, my aunt told me she has been reading my blog.



When I started this blog, I didn't tell anyone about it. After about a month, I told my sister. (She is my best friend after all.) A month or two after that, hubby's sister found out I had a blog. I wasn't actively trying to keep it a secret, but it was kind of nice when the only people reading your blog are random strangers. You can write whatever you want about whoever you want without any fear of repercussion. So for a while, my audience consisted of just a few family members and people I'd never met.

Then hubby told his co-workers about my blog. Once we had three kids, my trips to visit him at work significantly declined and the girls at work wanted to see picture of the kids. So instead of emailing himself some pictures, he let everyone at work know the inner workings of my mind.
(---Note to self--do not mention on blog if hubby calls in sick when he is not actually sick. Not that he would ever do that, but, you know, just in case...)

I adjusted to that. All of the girls at his work had kids and laughed with (or possibly at) me through my struggles. Then more people kept finding out. Some were offended I hadn't told them. Some stopped reading when I switched to nicknames for the kids and a new blog address.

Then I found some of the people in our ward had blogs. And they found mine. (PS-Esther, I would love to read your blog--I forget to ask you when I see you.)

When Squirt was born, hubby sent out a mass email to his whole list proclaiming the glad news...with a link to my blog for a picture.
(---Note to self--our ward is the greatest ward ever, we live in the best neighborhood, everyone is great!)

So let's recap. I have told exactly one person that I have a blog. My husband has told the rest of the world.

Every time I find out that someone new is reading my blog, there is that moment of panic as I try to remember everything I have ever written and if anything might offend them.

And then I remember this is my blog. I try to only write about my family. My kids may hate me for it later, but I figure as long as I am the one cleaning up any bodily fluids they may excrete, it's pretty much my right. So read on world. I think I have covered myself.

One more thing...if all these people are reading my blog, I am thinking my comment count is pretty low. I'm just saying...

New Rules

ET is 6. He finished Kindergarten and will be in 1st grade in the Fall. I don't know how much freedom to give him. So basically, I looked to the other kids that graduated kindergarten with him and decided what I could live with. Basically his rules were: I had to know where he was, he had to come home and check in every hour, and don't ride your bike in the street. Turns out, it was way too much freedom, and too many broken rules. This resulted in him throwing fits everytime I told him it was time to come home or took anything away from him because he broke the rules. Yesterday's fit was a doozy and I decided I'd had enough. So I had a long talk with him and told him to sit down and write out some rules that he though were fair, and his dad and I would sit down with him today to decide on our new rules.

This is what he came up with:

1. No riding bikes in the road—stay on the sidewalk.
2. Only cross the road after checking for cars.
3. Don’t play in the road
4. Don’t listen to kids who aren’t following the rules.
5. Don’t freak out.
6. Don’t go to friends houses alone.
7. Don’t go inside anyone’s house without asking first.
8. Don’t cross the road without a grown up.
The cars can kill you.
9. stay out of the road even when you look both ways
10. Do you like to get killed
13 I need a new bike.
14 Do you like to die?
15 No I do not like to die.
16 I knew it.
17super man can save us

(Seriously--just copied and pasted.)

If only I could get superman to be his bodyguard, we'd be fine!

Differences

When I was pregnant, the kids woke up around 7:30. I slept until 8 and then made breakfast.

NOW Squirt wakes up at 6 to eat. I have to remember to open Munchkin's door as she follows close behind at 6:30. Thumbelina joins us around 6:45 and ET is my only trooper sleeping until 7:30 or even 8 some days.

Before, I was barely conscious at 8:30--wondering when I could sneak back to bed for a nap.

NOW by 8:30 we have been up for so long and completed so many things that it regularly shocks me when I look at the clock and see it's only 8:30.

Before, I could maybe have all the kids bathed and dressed by 10 so I could jump in the shower and be done by 11.

NOW I can get all the kids (plus the baby) fed and bathed by 8 am so I can shower by 8:30

Before I would fall asleep before 9 pm and still have to drag myself out of bed at 8 am, and crash at naptime.

NOW I go to bed around 10:30 after Squirt is in bed, and wake up with her at 6. And most days I am fine without a nap.

***Last night I had to get up three times--none of which were for the baby. How sad is that?!

Brand New Yellow Belt

DONE!

We started potty training Munchkin last Tuesday. Exactly one week later, we are done!

She got #1 down within three days. Saturday, she had one accident. Sunday, she stayed in the same pair of underwear all day. Then, she didn't poop for three days. We were worried she was holding it and going to explode. I was just hoping it would happen when hubby was home. :)

Last night, Munchkin came out of the bathroom and said, "Mom, I went poo-poo in the potty!" So we went to see. We dumped and flushed. And Munchkin danced out of the bathroom singing, "Now I get 5 candies."

Today was a repeat. #1 and #2 in the potty all day long. I told her she can have her new stroller on Friday. She has been dry every day for naps this week and even dry one time (at least) at night.

Now I just have to find somewhere to store 2 packages of size 5 diapers until Squirt is ready for them in about 2 years.

Here is a little video of her motivation: