17!

That's how many people have come to my blog today and ignored my desperate pleas for help with my little poll. Apparently, not as many people like chocolate as I thought.

STOP!

Do not move on to another blog. Do not pass Go. Do not read and think you'll respond later but never come back.

Help a poor girl out. I'm in charge of a baby shower. I know many of you, having been in my shoes, will take pity on me and help me. Those of you who haven't, will put your imaginations to work.......and help me. Those who lack imagination, will see me groveling and begging and feel sorry for me.....and help me.

So we're doing games at the shower. I know, I know....I hear complaints about games all the time. But I like baby shower games! And the other gal in charge with me likes them as well. So we're having games! One such game will be Baby Fued, taken after Family Fued. So I need your answers to the following. Please....pretty pretty please....with a cherry on top? A cherry dipped in chocolate? Aha, I knew I'd get some of you with the chocolate!

Name the best things about having 3 children ages 2 and under...(we're asking this because...well, she is doing just that, and needs some warm fuzzies to think about! lol)

Name something you love about babies

Name something you pack in your birth bag

Name an activity you WON"T be doing right after you have a baby

Name a must-have baby item

Name a common item in a diaper bag

How many times does a baby wake a night?

How many diapers will a new mom go through each day?

Name a baby item that starts with B

What time of day will Jennica's baby come? (such as afternoon, dawn, middle of the night)

How old will baby be when he gets his first tooth?

Cleaning Power!

Do you have Cleaning Power in your house? We do! It comes in the form of Betty Crocker's Rich and Creamy Chocolate Frosting. The house was a complete disaster, 99% of that mess being from my three lovely children. I needed chocolate, and I needed it bad! So as I raided the house for chocolate and came upon a half eaten tub of frosting, a thought began creaping into my oh so tired brain.
I gathered the children around me, and told them that I had some Magic Cleaning Power. I explained to them that I would give them each a spoonful and if it worked really well and helped them clean up quickly, I would give them some more when it "wore off" and they needed a boost to start a new job. The first spoonfuls went down the hatch and the kids scurried off to show me how well the Cleaning Power was working, because remember, if it doesn't work there's no need for me to give them any more. They raced back and forth time and time again with requests of "I need more Cleaning Power; what can I do next!?!?!"

Within about 15 minutes, and 5 or 6 shots of Cleaning Power, my house was clean. Ahhhhh....blessed, teeth-rotting, bribery.

The organized mayhem....

So my friend watched my children this afternoon for two hours so I could get some work done around the house. I had these fantasies of cleaning the entire house and getting my to do list all crossed off. Of course I snapped to my senses, and realized that I should make a more obtainable goal and set out to clean my bedroom. In two hours? Who was I kidding.

First of all, you have to realize that my bedroom also houses my computer desk and filing cabinet. A computer junkie can not, and I repeat, can NOT work in an environment with her biggest temptation humming right beside her. Of course I had to get on a few times to check email, read a blog or two, etc (and by a "few" I mean 59).

Anyhoo, back to my cleaning. I started with one simple pile on the top of my filing cabinet. But as I started separating the loose paperwork into catagories such as Primary papers, doula papers, Modbe papers, papers for Emilee, papers for Megan, financial papers, catalogs I haven't looked at for a year but might need some day, etc, I realized that separating them all out wouldn't do me much good unless I had somewhere to actually put them, aside from shoving them back on top of the filing cabinet which is what got me into this mess in the first place. So of course I needed to start clearing out some drawers in the filing cabinet to make room. Then of course there were items in the filing cabinet that didn't actually belong there, and would be better to put in the large closet in the hallway. So of course I had to start clearing out THAT closet to make room for the stuff in the filing cabinet to make room for the stuff on TOP of the filing cabinet. You see where I'm going with this?

2 1/2 hours later, I have 3 wonderfully empty cabinets. I also have 10 piles of crap to go through instead of the 3 I started with. I've thrown away an entire bag of old paperwork and yet my house does not resemble the neat and organized haven I had imagined when I dropped my kids off. Who was I kidding? Next time I ask someone to babysit, I'm going to be honest with myself and ask for 2 weeks, not two hours.

More on Megan

So this will be a little brag thread on Megan, becasue she's just growing up so fast right now! I think age 4 is so amazing because they just really start to mature into little children at this point.

I was standing at the counter with Megan, and she emphaitically informs me that she knows Heavenly Father loves her. My heart melts...can you truly hear any sweeter words come out of your child's mouth? She tells me that she knows that because she had a dream about Heaven and Heaven was wonderful. "Yes, Mom. It was so wonderful and Daddy was there! But you weren't!"

You know those moments in a movie when the music comes screeching to a halt? Yeah, it happens in real life too...I think I actually heard it. But her conversation marches on as she tells me about Heaven and how her swing set had banana seats.

Do you remember my post about how Megan taught herself to read? Well apparently she taught herself to tie her shoes as well. She was at tap class and needed to put on her tap shoes and we went through the quite common conversation of "I want to do it" "Ok, try it" "Ok, I can't do it, I need help", only THIS time, she did it!! Perfectly! Both feet! I asked her where the heck she learned it and she informed me all by herself. I didn't teach her. My husband didn't teach her. I asked her sister and she told me about the time she tried to teach her and she didn't understand (and I remember that time about 4 months ago). At some moment it clicked though...and again without my knowledge.

It makes me sad. I was there for every single one of Emilee's "first" moments. But Megan is just charging forward, full steam ahead wether I am there or not!

So anyway, she was tying her shoes for tap class. Megan is at Itty Bitty Dance Camp this week. I let the kids pick a camp to attend at the YMCA this year. It's for 2 hours a day for a week. Emilee took tap the last 6 months and while she enjoyed it, I vowed that my kids weren't going to take Dance anymore. While the actual classes at the YMCA were not expensive, the costumes, shoes, recital fees, tickets and videos of the production are outgrageous!!! It's just more expensive than I think is worth it. So I made a firm decision that the girls will have to stick with Gymnastics (which is completely free at the Y). Of course, then Megan's instructor pulls me aside privately after class on Wednesday to tell me that Megan is quite the littletapper, was the best in the class and that she has picked up very quickly and really seems to have a knack for it. I just about plugged my ears and start singing right there in front of him. I do not need to hear about how my child has a talent that needs to be developed. Well, I want to hear that, but I need to hear about a talent that doesn't cost so much money! Now, of course, against my better judgement, I REALLY want to put her in Tap classes this fall.

Besides being a little Tap Prodigy, my little Megan is the biggest sweetie you'll ever meet. She loves to cuddle and to do nice things. This morning she brought me breakfast in bed (prompting this little ode to Megan today). Cinnamon toast with actual butter (I didn't get any butter on Mother's Day!) and a cookie on the plate, with a nice cup of apple juice. The cookie was in about 4 pieces which she informed be was "becasue the cookie kept falling on the floor", but unfortunately I didn't get to try that cookie because I offered the kids some and there just wasn't any left! And when she cuddles, she doesn't just sit on your lap, she wraps her little arms around your neck and can stay that way for a long time. In fact, I have a hard time if I have to sleep in the same bed with her because she likes to sleep that way, completley plastered to the side of my body with her arms around my neck and her hot breath by my face. It melts your heart, but doesn't help you sleep!

I'm insanely in love with my little Megan, absolutely positively crazy head over heels for her.

And just for fun, some common Meganisms (I'll let YOU figure out what she means!)

"Moooom, I can't find the hooker!"

"Look, I flipped off the fly!"

Speaking of kids growing up...

My oldest last night asked me why guys smelled better than girls. Then she proceeded (in her most dramatic tone) to say, "Guys smell SOOoooooooooo good and girls just don't have a smell. But guys smell.....oh....SOOOO good" *insert a died-and-gone-to-heaven facial expression on her face here.


I swear...we don't even have cable. I don't know where she gets this stuff! I was going to wait to lock her in her room when she was closer to the teenage years, but now I'm thinking six might be the right age to start.

When did she learn to read?

Megan came up to me the other day and said, "Look Mom! I wrote apple!" There are the paper were three perfect little letters.....A P L. Oh my goodness, she actually sounded that out? But wait...Emilee is the reader in the family, Megan's just a little preschooler, she doesn't read, right?

Ha! Boy, what an unobvservant mommy I have been. I sat down with a few books to spend some quality time with Megan. That girl can READ...no thanks to Mommy. I certainly haven't been aware. She read things like "Pam has a hat." and "Spot is black", although she said Spot is Blask, but hey, I don't blame her...stupid English language and it's changing sounds.


It always amazes me how different children are. I've always been aware of that, but sometimes something comes along that just really drives home the point. I guess Emilee was about this same age when she started reading but do you ever notice that your oldest is always older? Even when a younger sibling becomes the same age the oldest once was, they're not as old as the oldest one was at that age somehow. Was that even English? Did that make sense?

When did Megan become old enough to read? I was so busy trying to teach Emilee how to read and become a little more "fluent" at it, that I completely neglected the fact that Megan is now old enough to begin. When we read together she never asked to read and I always assumed she wasn't ready. Anyway, back to how kids are different.

Emilee learned all of her letters and the sounds they make pretty early on. She knew them all extremely well and she knew most of them before she even turned 4. However, it took us quite a bit of practice to learn how to blend words together. A sample reading session would go something like this:

Emilee: C = Cuh A = Aaaaa T = Tuh Which obviously spells "Cuhahtuh!!!"

We worked a lot of figuring out how to blend those sounds. Megan on the other hand, seems to have no problem blending sounds (seeing as she figured it out on her own). Perhaps part of the reason I didn't realize she was ready though was the fact that she doesn't even know all of her sounds yet (maybe half?). So what she can read is quite limited, but man, if she knows those sounds she doesn't even seem to have to sound all of them out. We were reading the word "kids" and she started by making the "r" sound. I corrected her and told her it was a K. She immediately shouted "KIDS!" No need to individually sound them all out and figure out how they go together. She's just amazing me right now. I love this age when they are figuring things out and learning these new skills that prepare them for school. I'd just spent so much time watching Emilee do them, that I forgot that Megan was entering that phase. And by the way, when did I get old enough to have TWO readers in the family?

Which brings me to another thought. I've always classified my children to a degree. I mean, I don't have favorites or "good" children vs. "bad", but we've had some stereotypes. Emilee was the "thinker"....she asks 100 questions a day or more and analyzes everything. She was the one who loved to learn how to write and do her "schoolwork", etc. Megan, on the other hand, always seemed to be more physical and rough and tumble. She had little desire to sit around for long periods doing "work" and more desire to be doing, doing, doing. I guess more focus was placed on her physical feats. The thought occurred to me that perhaps I don't tell her how smart she is as often as I tell Emilee. So yesterday, when we were cuddling and reading I told her how incredibly smart she was. She beamed at me, and said, "And Brave! Don't forget Brave!"

She may be smart, but she's still rough and tumble too!

Overheard in the bathtub...

So my two oldest children are taking a bath and I'm just around the corner putting the leftover dinner in the fridge.

I hear, "Emilee Erin DeZort, will you marry me?" Her reply? "Well, I would like to, but you're supposed to have a ring and you don't have one."

A minute later I walked into the bathroom to see Megan sliding a toothpaste lid onto the tip of Emilee's finger for her "gagement ring". Emilee then annonced she was having a baby and proceeded to have a beautiful water birth.

ROFL....is that a daughter of a doula or what?

Ah, the memories...

Today I had the wonderful opportunity to get together with an old childhood friend. Her mother and my mother were good friends and we played together all of the time. I moved away when I was eight, and her family moved several states away soon after that. I've only seen her two or three times since then. I'm now married, with 3 small children and she is married with an adorable little girl!

It turns out that she only lives an hour or two away from me now. Her mother was up visiting and so we all got together....the "original" mothers and the "little-girls-all-grown-up" mothers.

She looked so wonderful and it was a joy to see her (despite the fact that she is cute and skinny...something I can only aspire to!) It was so much fun reliving old memories and sharing new things in our lives. I have more memories of spending the night at her house than I do of just about anything else in tnat period of my childhood. We watched Smurfs and She-Ra together. We built forts and hunted for BB's on the streets we roamed (remember the days when little kids could actually roam the neighborhood?) We would force our little brother and sister to sit still and play school with us, or we'd try to get them to kiss each other...that is, when we weren't trying to get away from them! I think about her often when I see my daughters making "best friends" with children they are growing up with in the neighborhood. I often wonder if they will look back with the same memories.

We're all grown up now. She has a beautiful little girl that has this crazy, huge grin she shares very easily. She looked just like her Mama. It was a nice reunion....certainly not something I get to do everyday. As soon as they left I had to go look through my old pictures. I didn't ask her if I could post pictures of her in the internet world, but well, our history will allow her to forgive me. lol



Here we are doing I have no idea what. I'm the blonde with the horrible haircut! But look at our feet! Certainly the best part of this picture is the Jellies! Man how I thought Jellies were cool!



Here we are in the back row. The girl I have my hand on is her little sister. The other two...well, I have no idea who they are. But I'm pretty sure the outfits we're wearing were made by my friend's mother. I could be wrong though...afterall, it has been 20 years.

When your lessons to your children come back to bite you in the butt.

So we have a rule in our house.

Put your stuff away! Not that it gets followed very often. My children area always leaving their things out. I've had almost every single toy taken away before and it didn't seem to help a whole lot. Not that I can blame them; I'm not the best at picking up either.

Anyway, to drive home the point that they need to take care of their stuff, if they leave it out, it's anyone's game. Emilee will get upset because Megan is playing with some special toy/project/gift of hers and if it wasn't put away then I tell her that it's not my problem. Basically, if she leaves it out then the other kids can do what they want with it.

So tonight I took some money out of my jeans pocket before sticking them in the washer and just left it on the counter. Do you see where I'm going with this? When I told her it was mine, she asked the question....the question she really had every right to ask. "How come I have to give stuff back to you when you leave it out, but Megan doesn't have to give stuff back to me?"

Good point. My daughter is now $7 richer.

Happy Birthday Dear Melia

Wow. Two years already? I felt like taking a trip down memory lane today.
I realize it's long, but indulge me.

It was a Sunday night. I was due the next day, although I use the term “due” very loosely. When I was first pregnant, and I went in for my first appointment with my midwife, I informed her that I had been late with my previous two, and I was pretty sure I ovulated close to a week later than the average woman. So we changed my due date from the 2nd of June, to the 7th. No real reason to say the 7th, it was just later and sounded like a good date.

So I was “due” the next day. I had a final scheduled for Tuesday in my online college course I was taking. The instructor emailed us Sunday afternoon informing us we could take it anytime we wanted. I hadn’t studied, but not wanting to push my luck on the baby front, I decided to sit down and just take it and get it over with. I started the test around 10:30 that night. About half way through the test, I was just really uncomfortable sitting there. You know how it is when you’re 9 months pregnant. Is there really a comfortable way to sit? Then I began to notice that the insane urge to stand up seemed to be happening every 5 minutes or so. Hmmmmmm….

By the time I was near the end of the test I could hardly concentrate. I just wanted to be done and to walk around. I quickly finished the last question (I got at A by the way!) and began to walk around the house.

Nothing.

Worried that I would be calling my birth team to my home in the middle of the night, I did what any sane pregnant woman about to go in labor would do at midnight. I did the dishes so they wouldn’t think I was a slob! While doing the dishes I definitely felt a little bit crampy, but I couldn’t classify anything as a contraction really, since I couldn’t really feel a beginning and an end. I could just feel a little bit of a peak now and then. I decided I really should go try to get some sleep in case I was going to be getting up in a few hours. I laid my head down on the pillow and boy, it felt nice. I was tired so I instantly began to drift.


YEEEEEEEEOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWW! A contraction came and it did NOT feel good. My body screamed to get up, but I really just wanted to sleep. Knowing that often times when you change a position, the next one is stronger, I kept laying there thinking they would alleviate. YEEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOW. Ok, Ok….they’ll settle down.
YEEEEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOW! I literally jumped out of bed because basically every cell in my body told me that that was not ok to be laying like that! I got back up and walked out into the living room.

Nothing.

Well, not nothing, but certainly not much. A light bit of cramping every 5 minutes or so and that was it. I remember feeling silly just walking around, at 1am, with hardly any labor going. But I knew I couldn’t lay down. For some reason, when I laid down they hurt like crazy! So I walked around for a little bit and they slowly became stronger and more defined.
Around 2:30 I woke my husband and asked him if we should start filling the birth pool. With my last birth, once things got cooking, they really sped along. So I was in this weird in between stage, where I wasn’t positive this labor was going to stick, but I couldn’t wait too long or things would get rolling to fast to do the things I wanted. We decided to start filling. At 3am I called my midwife and told her I didn’t know if she should come, I didn’t want her to waste her time….but it might be it, etc, etc. She decided to come.

Meanwhile we ran out of hot water with the tub half filled. By now I was really starting to feel uncomfortable and I was tired (because it was 3:30am!) and really wanted to relax in the water. My mother arrived and we suddenly had a brilliant plan! The next door apartment was unrented at the moment and when no one lived there, the managers always left it unlocked! My mom and my husband took pots and pans and went over and stole their hot water, one pan at a time, and brought it back to my tub! They single handedly filled the rest of my huge birth tub that way. Aren’t they great!?!

My midwife and her assistant showed up around 4am. I told her I did not want to be checked because if I wasn’t very far along I was going to be discouraged. So I spent the next 15 minutes or so leaning against a wall and saying, “Freak Freak Freak Freak Freak Freak Freak Freak” during the entire surge. I don’t know why. It certainly wasn’t planned and not something I did with my other two, but it sure felt good! The rhythm and the noise really helped to relieve any tension I had. I was having a lot of discomfort in my back, so I was really using anything I could to keep myself loose.

My doulas arrived around 4:30 when I was getting into the tub. Boy, that tub felt good. It was pretty hot though, so one of my doulas spent almost the rest of my labor bringing cold washcloths and putting them on my face, my back and my neck. My dear wonderful husband spent the entire time pushing on my aching back to relieve some of the pressure I felt. My other doula sat in front of me with a pillow on her lap, and I leaned over the edge of the tub and laid on her lap while she played with my hair.

Around 5:30, I asked to be checked. I was ready to hear the news. 6cm! Not too bad, I had hoped for more, but wasn’t too disappointed with that. I went back to work at relaxing and moaning through my birthing. My oldest daughter (who was 4 ½ at the time) woke up around this time. She was a little anxious since she woke up early to all of these people in her house and didn’t get the build up of early labor to adjust to. Grandma took her out in the living room and put the Lion King and watched the movie with her. They would come in and peak in the room ever so often.

Around 6:00 I told everyone that I felt complete and could probably start pushing. However, I remembered the pushing as very overwhelming with my second. The urge had been so strong that I hadn’t felt very in control and I was really nervous about starting that again. So I continued to labor for a bit longer (probably 15-20 minutes) until I realized I really wasn’t going to get anywhere just doing that. So I started pushing. I told the midwife something didn’t feel right and she checked my cervix and found a little lip left. During the next surge she simply popped the lip up over the babies head and then things felt much better to push. Shortly after I started pushing, I felt a pop and knew that my water had finally broken. Pushing in the water felt so much better than it had pushing on my back in bed with my second! I could “feel” more, as in I could tell what my body was doing and where the baby was, but it didn’t feel nearly as overwhelming. I could feel my body doing it’s thing, but I didn’t feel like I was on a runaway train like last time. I had the oddest sensation when I felt the baby’s head slip into the birth canal. It didn’t hurt a bit, but I felt so full. I could feel my body stretch and I knew when to back off so I didn’t tear. At one point when I was pushing, I could hear the Lion King in the background. It was playing that scene when Scar is singing all evil like, and I heard him sing, "Powers of Contention!". I remember yelling at someone to turn it off because my baby was NOT going to be born to a song about contention!

I was pushing on my hands and knees and when she was born, and the midwife just somersaulted her between my legs and she floated in front of my. I picked her up and out of the water, held her to my chest and just became overwhelmed with so many emotions. She was finally here! She didn’t breathe at first, but she was pink and healthy looking. She held her head up on her own and looked at me, and at a few other people in the room. Then she laid back on my chest and the midwife tickled her feet and she slowly started to breathe….a little bit at a time with just a little meow here or there. It was so wonderful.
Later, Emilee helped Daddy to cut the cord. Megan came in about an hour later and met her new little sister and we gave the girls their Big Sister gifts becasue it is so special to become a big sister and we knew they would be wonderful big sisters.

It took us two days to name her Melia (Muh – Leah). We had picked out Olivia, Alyssa, and Allison, but none of them seemed right! On day two, Emilee said she thought she looked like a Melia. It fit immediately. Even Daddy agreed (and Daddy does NOT like unique names) so we knew it was meant to be.

My little Melia is such a personality. She has this insane screech/giggle she lets out every time she sees a balloon. And I mean EVERY time. We hear it several times a day. She notices them in the horizon when they are miles away at a car dealership, or in a grocery store 6 aisles over. I hear the screech, and I immediately begin looking for balloons. She has the curliest little hair. She is slow to give people a smile sometimes (you can always see the wheels turning behind those eyes and she’s figuring people out) but when she does, it’s magic. She’s a Daddy’s girl too and if she hears his car after work will run out the door giving him the “balloon” screech!

She’s my little Melia and she’s Two!



Surrounded by my husband and my two doula's support



Pictures of me holding my baby for the first time (as well as the people who held my hands the entire time)



And here she is today, trying to be big like Daddy and eat her dinner while leaning against the kitchen counter.

How cute is that?

About 18 hours after our first dental floss experiement, Emilee lost yet another tooth! We'd discussed pulling it that night, but since it wasn't ready to pull the night before when we got the first one, I figured it wasn't ready to pull less than 24 hours later. But while playing in the back yard and chewing gum, it popped out all on it's own! I think the first one was helping to hold it in or something! lol

She is also sporting the haircut she recieved right after school. I had to drag her in (since the last 30 days consisted of conversations along the lines of "If you keep crying, we're cutting it all off", etc, etc, etc.) I made her go in and she was sad. But the cut is so cute on her, even SHE could see that! She ran her hands through her hair all day commenting on how wonderfully tangle free it was and how she was going to keep it like this for a while. It is awfully cute on her. Growing up I said I'd never cut my children's hair short. I thought little kids and long hair were inseparable! But Emilee just looks cute cute cute with short hair. Her hair is so thin and straight and short hair just complimetns her face. We had it cut in an inverted bob and slightly stacked in the back. It's a bit shorter than we asked for, but still adorable on her. Yes, that was pride you heard in my voice....I'm a sinner.

I've always thought kids with their teeth missing were cute. But something about it being on my own "baby" just makes my heart melt. I love that look!

Two graduations in one night!

My baby....my oldest baby, graduated into the toothless club tonight! She's had a loose tooth for months now, but it was hanging on strong. Actually, now both of the bottom ones are really loose. Today I noticed you could see her adult tooth coming through right behind the back edge of her loose tooth. She's quite the scaredy cat, but I convinced her it would be fun to pull it. So we sat down and I tried very unsuccessfuly to grab a hold of that tooth. Baby teeth are incredibly tiny when you think about it. Yeah, yeah, I know, stating the obvious. Anyway, we attempted the old tried and true dental floss method, but I had the hardest time getting the dental floss around her tooth! It just wouldn't stay on. It didn't help that she was a little stressed out and her bottom lip would tighten up and get in the way. I finally grabbed the tweezers to help hold the back side of the floss in place. Bingo! I know she was really nervous, but I honestly think that I was more nervous than she was. I knew that if I failed to pull that tooth out, it would 1) hurt her and 2) increase her paranoia about loosing a tooth. So after I made her a giggle a bit I yanked with all of my might. It actually came out quite easily. She had this look of shock on her face, and then I dangled the tooth in front of her. She was all grins! She started this uncontrollable, excited giggle and started chanting, "it's out! it's out! it's out"...but that excitement slowly morphed into a full blown panic attack.
"It's out! It's out...........oh no...It's out! Aaahhhh, I'm scared, I'm scared (imagine her now running around in circles petrified) I'm scared." I should have video taped it. I probably could have won some money on America's Funniest Home Video because the extreme emotions she bounced to in that 5 seconds was quite funny!

I guess she'd seen the blood on the end of the tooth and was really worried. So of course, I couldn't let her look in the mirror for about 5 minutes because she actually bled quite a bit. I was grateful Megan didn't say anything to her.

So now my baby is toothless and she is loving it. Most of her friends have all lost teeth already so she was feeling left out. Now I just have to remember not to go to bed before doing my part!



The second graduation was my precious Megan! She had her preschool graduation today. They had cute little graduation caps and everything. They called the kids' names and they would walk down the aisle gingerly, most of them acting shy. Then Megan came bounding out when it was her turn and skipped and twirled her way down the aisle! I'm so bummed I didn't get a picture. She was moving so much and so fast that the only two pictures I snapped were way to fuzzy to even post.

My little girls are growing up.

A French Kiss

When my oldest daughter was younger (around 3), she would ask for a "turn kiss", which meant a kiss where your heads turned, like at the end of the fairytale. She also knew that the mouth was slightly open. Man, kids are really observant, even of cartoons! She would try to "turn kiss" us all of the time.

So today, when she asked for a French Kiss, I assumed she had renamed the Turn Kiss and wondered where she had even learned that term in the first place. What is a kindergartner doing learning about French kissing? I began to giver her a speach about how some kisses are for Mommy's and Daddy's and other kisses are for kids when she lamented, "But I just REALLY want to kiss you on both cheeks".

Ahhhh......a French kiss. Ok, I get it. Sure Emilee, French kiss all you want.

Birthday on a Birthday!

So Monday was my birthday! Happy Birthday to me! I had a pretty fun one! Since becoming a mother, Birthdays are pretty much a regular day most years, but this one was fun! My husband took the day off of work and my MIL and GMIL were staying with us and they watched the kids while James and I went out. They baked me a birthday cake, helped the girls wrap presents and then MIL took us out to dinner as a family that night! It was really a great day!

I also got to go to a birth on my birthday! I had a client who was due in the middle of June but had been having a lot of health issues. She decided to have a C-section (her first had been C-section, her second a VBAC homebirth) because of some liver issues and her baby boy was born Monday morning at 37weeks, 1 day weighing 9lbs 9oz!!!!!!!!! That's right! 9 1/2 pounds and 3 weeks early! Wowsers! He was absolutely adorable and my client was happy. It was fun to get to go to a birth on my birthday! What better way to celebrate than that?

My talents lie in other places.

I love to do my girls' hair up in cute little hair styles. I'm pretty good at it too. Now, don't mistake that to mean that I actually DO it very often, because really, who has time to get three little girls all spiffy every morning? And even if I did have the time, who would want the fight? I don't feel like listening to the shrieks of horror every morning. I get enough of that just brushing their hair. Especially when it will be all messed up by the time lunch rolls around. But when we buckle down and do it, it's cute! However, there is one aspect of hair care that I just can not get the hang of.

Parting.

I can not part my children's hair for the life of me. I try, I really do. But it's not uncommon for me to have to redo a part 4 or 5 times before I get it to where it is even enough to call it good. Not great, just good enough that people won't be able to notice how bad it is from a distance of more than 20 ft. Perhaps that's why I don't do their hair more often.

Megan wanted her hair is "two braids, mom, two braids" the other day. I eyed her head, looked from the front, from the back, from every angle I thought would be helpful. I parted a little, rechecked, parted some more. I had done a pretty good job for my first part of the day. I felt good about my part. It was even! I had mastered it, finally! I hate to say it, but I was......proud! That is, until I got both sides braided and took a step back.
*sigh*

Childhood memories

So sorry for the terribly dim picture, but it was super sunny outside, they were sitting in the shade and well, I'm not a photographer! And I realize only one has a "normal" smile, but if you've ever tried to take a picture of 3 children, you probably know this is the best out of 30.

Here they are, enjoying a favorite memory of mine from childhood! Dipping fresh strawberries in powdered sugar! No summer in childhood is complete without it!

So what are your favorite childhood summer memories?

On another note, day 12 and still struggling with a voice. The good news, is that while horrible sounding, there IS noise coming out now. So I can talk and be understood which is truly a blessing. So, improvement at least!

6 days and still counting....

So, small update....voice went away again. Didn't make it to the Dr.'s today because I had some issues scheduling issues. So I'll go tomorrow. My good friend around the corner offered to come and sit with my kids during naptime (the only time I could get an appointment).


And no, Stacy, I wouldn't call. Although you can; It might give you a good laugh. I can't promise you'll be able to hear me though. :)


Oh, and just because saying it once in my last entry isn't enough, Do you know how hard it is to parent without a voice?!?!?!?!?!

Let's just say there are 4 garbage bags full of toys, shoes, DVD's, etc out by my back door right now because the kid's must not have thought I was serious when I told them to pick them up or they'd get thrown away. Since I am NOT going to say it twice on a day when each word takes great effort, they now are going to be missing a lot of things. I'm trying to contemplate if I'm going to be mean enough to make Emilee go to school with just socks on because her shoes are gone. With how cranky I'm feeling right now, I just might....although I'm sure I'll get a good night's rest and feel sorry for her in the morning.

6 days....

That is how long I've been without a voice. I started getting sick last Friday night. I woke up on Saturday, started loosing my voice and got a horrible flu!!!! Man, I was really sick. Sunday was a little better, but the cold had really moved to my chest/thoat area, my voice became worse and I started a really bad cough. That night I was short of breath and my poor husband was really started to worry. Each day, I would wake up feeling better, but my voice would be worse. Yesterday I really couldn't speak much. This morning, I couldn't speak at all. As in, just air came out. I was literally louder if I whispered.

It was quite frustrating, at that point, trying to call my husband and communicate to him that I needed him to call the Dr's and set up an appointment. I literally shouted into the phone, with my mouth right at the reciever. I shouted one word at a time....often 2 or 3 times until he could understand. It was really pathetic.

So now I have an appointment at 3pm. Guess what just happened?

Yeah, you guessed it....I just got part of my voice back. it's certianly still "gone"....but at least noise comes out now.

So, does that mean I'm getting better? It will be just my luck that by the time I go to the Dr. it will be all better and I'll look like an idiot. But maybe it won't. It went in and out a lot yesterday. I guess only time will tell.

One thing I can say, It SUCKS to try to parent three small children when you can't talk!

Don't bother me unless the house is burning down....

You all remember comments like that from your parents, right? Well, they don't work with young children. It sure didn't work when I used it in the desperate attempt at 10 minutes alone in the shower this morning. 10 minutes is all I wanted. 10 minutes with no one else touching me, snotting on me or talking to me. My kids didn't listen.

However, that was actually a good thing. But, next time I make that statement, it will need to have some amendments made to it.


"Don't bother me unless the house is burning down, the 4 year old is about to pee her pants if she doesn't get into the bathroom right now, the toddler has found the paints and is attempting to decorate the couch, or the neighbor boy has walked into our house."


I'm sure I'll have to add more next time.