10 Hours

I have been begging the kids to clean up the playroom for 10 days.

"No dessert until the playroom is clean!"

"No friends over until the playroom is clean!"

"Flu shots everyday until the playroom is clean!"

Then the last three days have been more like this:
"I just need to vacuum! Throw everything behind the couch so I can vacuum the floor!"

Today, with my trusty husband backup, I put my foot down...right on a piece of popcorn.
"Don't leave this playroom until everything is put away!!!"

(There may have been some screaming involved.)

(From most parties involved.)

So they started this morning at 8:30. Around 11:45, they decided the best course of action was to dump all of the toys out of the totes onto the floor. At 2 pm I gave them a 20 minute lunch break, then back to "work." At 6 pm, hubby and I went down with big, black garbage bags and sent all the kids to their rooms. (An idea he'd suggested at 1 pm.) By 6:20 pm, every toy was picked up and the floor was vacuumed and the playroom door was locked.

Then we sent them outside to pick up the outside toys so Hubby could mow the grass. Each one of them (separately) came back in to tell me that I hadn't taken away all of their toys: "We still have toys outside!"

We didn't, however, tell them that their toys did not actually go in the garbage. But we sure did let them assume.

Super Reader

We love the library. We go, without fail, at least every three weeks. Mostly for this guy. He picks all different types of books. Most of the ones he picks are chapter books now. This time he got a nonfiction Space book with hardly any pictures...and was super excited about it. But the cutest part of it was how he took all of "his" books and sat on my bed reading them. He had every single book open. He would read a bit from one, put it down opened to his spot and start another one.

A Little Early?

Isn't it a bit early for going goth?

On the other hand...thank goodness for washable markers that are really washable.

Sleeping In

Hubby gets up early for work. Like butt-crack of dawn early. He leaves the house at 5:30 am. But he gets up before then...you know if he wants to get ready or eat breakfast or anything. He usually gets out of bed around 5:15...which gives him time to look through Mount Washmore for clothes, brush his teeth and get out the door. So Saturday is his only day to sleep in. I generously let him sleep until the kids wake up.

Today he got to sleep in for a whole hour until the 6 am potty party the kids have every morning turned into a party in my bed wherein they all kicked me out.

I guess I did have to get up and pump anyway but seriously! If my baby is sleeping, should I be able to sleep?!

Forget It

ET came home from school yesterday without his lunchbox, his homework, papers from his teacher to me that I specifically told him to bring home, and anything else he could have possibly forgotten. Of course I didn't find out about all of the stuff at the same time so I stayed frustrated with him for most of the evening.

He did remember his scooter and his sister, so I guess I can't be too mad at him.

The Final First

Today marked the last time I will feed one of my babies their first bite of rice cereal.
And again and again with the same bite about 50 times.

4 Months

Weight: 14 pounds (61%)
Height: 24.75 inches (71%)
Head: 16.3 inches (64%)

I love my pediatrician--well, she's not really a pediatrician she is a Nurse something but we love her.

We had another first today. ET was the first in everything but things were pretty routine with him when he was a baby. He was our first experience with RSV. Thumbelina was our first experience with an inhaler and spacer at 6 months. Munchkin has had a lot of firsts. First neck yeast infection. First bum strep infection. First pneumonia. But Squirt had a first today. Squirt has ringworm on her arm.

Learn something new everyday.

Tomorrow I would like to learn that hot fudge sauce is a natural remedy for everything

Relentless

You know the cough that ET had? The one he passed to Munchkin? The one that gave her pneumonia? And brought 3 medications into my life for 5 days? Yeah, that one.


Well, now it has hold of me. And this darn sucker just won't let go! I have been hacking and coughing for 6 days. To say my throat is sore would be a gross understatement. I cannot remember a time in my life that drinking water burned my throat. But now, everytime, it does.


Hubby said, "Just stop drinking water."

Really?! Did you forget about the part where I am the sole source of nutrition for your young daughter? Cause I am and that requires liquids.

So hubby says, "Why don't you just take some cough medicine?"

Really?! See reason above...except replace need liquids with cannot take certain medicines--you know, like the ones that will actually make me feel better!

So I sit and cough and wish for hubby's immune system. (He coughed for 2 days and is pretty much done!)

Why 2 Year-Olds Should Dress the World

Why not? If I could get away with it, I might pick a leotard and cowboy boots too.

Fabulous!!!

My daughters (the ones who can walk anyway) have become fabulous. We were ahead of schedule on bedtimes last night and the girls disappeared into the playroom while ET did his reading. We called them up for Family Prayer, and the girls emerged all decked out. Munchkin was wearing Thumbelina's old tap costume with both of her legs through one leg hole and the rest of the costume flapping behind her like peacock feathers, only red. She had accessorized with a plastic Princess necklace, a neon green sparkly hair scrunchy, and plastic shoes. Thumbelina was also dressed to the nines with much accessorizing. We told them they looked pretty but could they go back and change. Munchkin replied, "But we want to be fabulous!" As they were walking through the kitchen on their way to the playroom, Thumbelina said, "Come on. Tomorrow when we wake up we can be fashionable," complete with hip thrust and everything.

(Munchkin wore her fabulousness to take ET to school this morning. The problem with putting both legs through one leg hole is it scrunches up her shorts and makes it look like she is wearing hot pants.)

For Rhonda

She loves stuff from Grandmas. Yesterday she wore her Watermelon shirt and today she is wearing her 'floaty dress.' Not quite sure what that face is. Today is Blue Day in kindergarten and I pulled out this cute striped blue polo shirt. She kinda had a melt down because "it looks like a boy shirt." So we found the floaty dress instead. Now this girl loves her brother but any other boy--no thank you. She sits next to a boy at school and two weeks into it still doesn't know his name.

*Side note: ET has two classmates that are boyfriend/girlfriend. And (hip hip hooray) he thinks it's totally gross. These kids hold hands and kiss! In first grade!!! YUCK! and thankfully ET and Thumbelina agree with me.

The Best Sound in the World

My Girl(s)

Squirt is growing so fast. When we were at the doctor's office for Munchkin, I snuck Squirt onto the scale and she is just barely over 14 pounds. She is still losing hair and what hair she has left sticks straight up with a little mohawk in the front. But don't worry--she is still rocking the mullet hard! She hates tummy time--but not enough to roll over yet. But she sleeps on her sides or like this:
She is very good at just falling asleep on the floor when she gets tired. I wonder who she takes after in that regard?

Since we are still a one-car family, with 2 kids in school, we needed a new stroller. (Also a new carseat since the carrier base broke on our trip.) I didn't want a double because I knew Munchkin would just whine the whole time if I tried to put her in it. So we got a Sit-N-Stand and I love it! It isn't as long or bulky as a double stroller and it just has a little bench seat in the back for Munchkin, or she can turn around and stand and ride. And the front seat reclines just enough for Squirt to not fold over on herself. Check her out in her new clothes from Aunt Rachel and cousin Ru.

Here are my other girls. Rachel--recognize that fabric? I took a shirt and made it into a dress for Thumbelina. At first she didn't want to put it on but then she wore it all day Sunday, took a shower Sunday night and put it back on as pajamas. I had to talk her out of it the next day. She just "loves it so much!" And Munchkin has to get in on every picture.

Speaking of Munchkin, she is doing much better. Coughing but not too much. She is starting to hate sitting still for the "cloud" medicine--but thankfully today is the last day for everything.

Learning

We learned a lot of things yesterday.

1. Having a baby will wipe out your flex card account--bye bye tax free money!

2. What was a cold on a 6 year old, can become pneumonia in a 2 and a half year old.

3. You can keep 4 kids generally happy and distracted for 2 hours at the doctor's office.

4. Promising them stickers and dinner at Costco isn't always enough.

5. 6 year old, 5 year old and 2.5 year old knock-knock jokes rarely make sense.

6. Only my 6 year old gets Simon Says.

7. The nebulizer medicine can whack out a 2 year old.

8. The nebulizer makes "clouds" of medicine.

9. Having insurance is such a blessing.

10. There is a man who will drop off a nebulizer machine to your house.

11. X-rays still take forever.

(Munchkin has pneumonia. Not very severe. Antibiotics and steroids for 5 days and nebulizer breathing treatments. She is very close to her old crazy self today.)

Generosity

We got to spend quite a bit of time with my parents during our Oregon trip adventure. My parents lived in California--where I went to high school--but recently moved to a small town in Idaho. We have been to their Idaho house 4 times now. The first two times we went, they still lived in California so we were able to see the inside of their garage and the cement slab that would become their addition. The other two times were on this last trip.

The kids had a blast with their aunt and uncle and grandparents. Their dog was not a big fan of the kids however. And when we drove away from their house on our way back to Utah, it was like we had won the lottery. This is what they gave us--in no particular order:

Teeny tiny potatoes
A big sack of normal sized potatoes
A brand new microwave
A fantastic John Deere wagon for the kids

It is so nice to be able to see them more often now that they live closer.

Thumbelina's New Digs

I would say she's thrilled to be going to Kindergarten, but really, I think she is more excited about wearing her new clothes.

Definitely her mother's daughter. She got that backpack as her Potty Training reward when she was 2 and it was fine until 2 months ago when Munchkin chewed on the zipper and broke it. So I ordered the kids new backpacks from LLBean and ghetto-rigged her old one until her new one comes. Poor ET's backpack is in sorry condition too. The front pocket is falling off, there is a kink in the zipper so it only unzips about 3/4 of the way. But he's getting a new one too. I talked them into plaid because I think they will still like plaid in 5 years--and those backpacks have a 100% satisfaction guarantee.