A Man Cub For All Seasons…

Our little Man Cub turned two today!  The poor little guy has been pretty sick, so it was a low key birthday, but we still did a couple fun things to celebrate in our own little way.

Seth went nuts over the cute “vintage” Little People school bus Grandma Kaye and Grandpa Ben Sent.  He was dropping people off and picking people up all day. :)

He finally perked up enough to have his favorite birthday smoothie.  He loves smoothies.  Sometimes he’ll bring me a cup and say, “mooth, Mommy.”

We picked up this bed a couple weeks ago for Seth as an early birthday present, but he is just lately warming up to it at night.  He love to play on it.  We’re hoping he gets use to the idea soon so the baby won’t have to sleep in the laundry basket for too long. :)

We had a birthday dinner of shepherd’s pie and enjoyed a yummy Blueberry-Banana Filled Meringue Coffee Cake.  (With 3 birthdays right in a row, we like to get creative with the cake. :) (I thought I should mention that I totally shattered the mug Seth is holding.  I was reaching to refill it and it went flying.  I have just not had much luck with glass lately!  I hope it’s not a sign!)

Yes… the girls wrapped up their little treasure jars and filled them with pipe-cleaner creations.  Seth wasn’t sure how to take it, but he seems happy. :)

Amberlee wrote Seth the cutest book called “I love you because…” and it had all the reasons she loves Seth.  He was really cute.  And yes… Seth is totally picking his nose.  He was kind of out of it. :)

I was glad Seth was happy with his one little gift from us- We got him “Horton Hears a Who”.  I was a bit skimpy- this birthday snuck up on me.  But luckily he is young enough, and sick enough not to care. :)

Seth got a fun kite and two cute pairs of shoes from G & G Stewart.  He was thrilled, and insisted on immediately putting on the shoes- he loves shoes!  It is a battle to get him to take them off for bed.  Just feeding the fetish. :)  He’s happy!  We also played Duck Duck Goose, London Bridges, Ring Around the Rosies, and his favorite: Flashlight Hide and Seek.  I’m glad that little guy was born!  We love him so much- he brings so much joy into our family- I don’t know what we would do without him!  He is a special little spirit, and I feel lucky we get to be his family!

Sick of Sick (Warning: A Sad Post with a bit of Ranting and Raving...)

We are sick of being sick!!! (Or more like, I AM SICK OF EVERYONE BEING SICK!) I have been the nurse to four invalids this last week, and it is starting to take it’s toll on me. They’ve all be coughing, dripping, complaining, throwing up, etc, and I’m weary! Poor Seth has been the worst- he’s got some kind of bad infection and a wheezy cough, and then his two year old molars coming in. He’s been quite miserable with little or no appetite. Also little or no sleep… which means little or no sleep for me. He seems to be getting better by the end of today, so hopefully we’re on the up and up.

I do have to share a crazy story in the peak of all this. I was giving Amberlee her antibiotic, and after she swallowed it, she said, “Mommy, that tasted funny.” I looked at the bottle, and sure enough, I had given her Seth’s steroids for his cough. I tried to show her how to throw it up, and while she was doing that, I was calling poison control, just to be safe. They wanted all kind of information, so I was focused on that, while Seth, just below me grabbed our one little Corelle plate and shattered it into LITERALLY 200 pieces on my feet. Amberlee was trying to hold the screaming boy back away from the broken glass, while I was trying to wrap up the poison control phone call. AND, as if this wasn’t enough to stress me out, Autumn was throwing up in the other room. I didn’t know who to take care of first. I just thought it was uncanny that it all happened within the same 5 minutes. I had to laugh in the end, but it sure got my heart racing. Those are the moments, huh?

Amberlee has been lucky not to be too sick- just a bad cough. But she did add this nice shiner to the list- the picture doesn’t show very well. She and Autumn were spinning in the hall (of all things) and she spun full force into the edge of the wall. She kept ice on it for a while, but she’s got a big old bruise there. She also just about lost her tooth- is it bad to almost hope it would come out that way. We just had such drawn out trauma last time… it would be quite handy to have it over and done with. :) (I think I am feeling a little heatless, a lack of compassion right now.)

Even poor Doug is dealing with it too, and I think our lack of sleep is making us twice as susceptible. Rough life! But we’ll pull through!

Fit as a Fiddle and Ready for Love…

Amberlee is so motivated! I wish I could tap into her energy source sometimes! She is frequently suggesting that we do Pilates or an exercise video (which I am usually not very excited about) and she sticks with it the whole way through. The other day she did three in a row- it was over an hours worth. She is quite the “fit” inspiration around here… and Seth isn’t far behind. He really likes the Pilates girl. :) It’s not every day you see an almost 2 year old in camouflage, doing Pilates. :)

I took a couple pictures at Autumn’s Preschool. They were doing salt painting. She loves it there! (Although for some reason she looks a little complacent in these pictures. :)

While You Were Sleeping…

I have been so tired lately- this little baby inside me is wearing me out! Apparently, he’s working hard too, because he pretty much doesn’t stop moving…ever! He is SO active. I don’t remember the other ones moving this much—particularly around 10-11pm. I hope he gets most of it out of his system before he comes so he isn’t this wild, moving baby. :)

Anyhow, as I was saying, I have been pretty exhausted—I just kind of hit a wall, and there is no putting the sleep off. I put Seth down for a nap and these precious girls have been left quite to their own devices. Personally, I think they love it. I handed them 20 or 30 pipe cleaners and some scissors and suggested they make letters or flowers or something, and about an hour and a half later, I walked it to them wrapping “pipe-cleaner presents” for Seth’s birthday. They made rings, necklaces, letters… you name it! It kept them quite busy, and I was grateful for the rest. :)

…And then once again the following day, that wall hit me, and I woke up to a “Fully Functioning Store” in my living room. Amberlee and Autumn had hauled out nearly every book on their shelf and shoe in their closet. I tried to remember my mother's patience with me as I did this same thing, only ten times worse, so I bit my tongue and played along, trading things for cheerios and beef jerky, and then putting them away as I went. They were quite thrilled with the trade and it gave them a boost when it did come time for clean up. :) Oh my, I guess I brought this all on myself. That is what I get for checking out… got to love creative kids. And I better love these naps. I am starting to wonder if they are worth it.

The Golden Arches…

Doug and I got to spend our honeymoon in London and Paris, and I remember that in Paris in particular, the food was quite expensive, so Doug and I were thrilled to find an affordable McDonalds near our hotel.  W3e basically ate there just about every meal for a week.  Needless to say, we were so burned out on McDonalds, that we both vowed we would never eat there again!  We have just about held true to that.  We maybe go once a year for the kids, so I think in their book, it is right up there with Disneyland, which is pretty sad. :)  I’ve been trying a new “Chore Chart” system where the girls and I figure out what jobs they can help with that week and they help me design it and put princess pictures all over it to color, and they put an “X” in the box if they have done the job that day.  We also have “Happy and Sad Points”, so when they do what I ask the first time or I see them doing something good, I give them a happy point, and if I have to ask them too many times etc, they get a sad point.  By the end of the week, if they have all but one box filled in on each day, or if they have more happy points than sad point, they get to pick out a “coupon”.  Since our budget it limited, they helped me come up with the coupons, and they include things like:

• a slumber party with mom
• you pick dessert
• pick out a prize at the dollar store
• family movie night and you pick the movie (I’ll pop popcorn)
• stay up a little later to read
• you pick what we’re having for dinner
• play a game with dad
• mommy or daddy daughter date

Things like that.  I’m sure I’m reinventing the wheel, but so far, it has been working really well.  This little trip to McDonalds was their first real prize and they were thrilled.  It was funny though, we got home and both of them said, “Ok, now it’s time for lunch.”  So they didn’t remember a bit about that hamburger they ate. :)  I think they burned of all the calories really fast running around in the tubes.

The kids have been really into babies lately, and they were pretending Seth was their baby.  The poor kid, I think he ended up with about 20 grapes stuffed into his mouth.  He was quite patient about it. (Frankly, I think he loves the attention- and he loves to pretend to cry like a baby.)

Why do I love it when the kids play with my hair?  I think I must be like my dad- he would sit for hours and let had play with his thick head of hair.  Autumn sits by me during movies and twirls it through her fingers the whole time, but this “bow creation” was Amberlee’s doing.  She was determined to get as many in as she could, and she insisted on taking a picture. :)

I am A Robot…

The kids got invited to such a fun little Robot Birthday Party for a friend. His mom is so clever! They each made little robot puppets and ate pizza. It was a blast! I might just have to snatch the idea for Seth down the road. :)

This is my new favorite picture of Seth. :) He just got his hair cut... finally!

Play-Time…

The kids helped me made a big batch of play-dough.  They love making snakes, nests, and snowmen.  I think this is one of their favorite things… and one of Doug’s least favorite things.  :)

Autumn’s pre-school has a little Story-Time program once a month, where they read together and the kids get to take home a book.  They had so much fun singing and reading together.  I think we’ll have to go next time! :)  Seth hung in there right with them.

Welcome to the World, My New Nephew Ezra Jonathon…

Isn’t this little guy PERFECT!!!  He just seems like the sweetest thing!  It’s killing me that I can’t give him a squeeze and run my fingers through that thick mane.  Can you believe all this hair?!  If my little guy ends up being hairless, we’re really going to feel left out!  Maybe we’ll invest in a wig.   So happy for my little sis!  This little dude is just precious!!!  Now it’s my turn coming up… CRAZY!!!

E is for Earthworm, An A to Z Guide...

What a fun day we have had! Amberlee has been looking forward to it for a long time! Her kindergarten did an expedition a while back focusing on earthworms- particularly the Palouse Prairie Earthworm that is huge, nearly extinct, and found in this area. Her teacher had the idea of having the students create an ABC book compiling all the things they learned during the expedition. Such a fun portfolio! It turned out so cute, and they have actually published this fun collage-style book and you can buy it on LuLu if you are interested. The price is a little high, but much of the cost goes towards future class expeditions. (Cool fundraiser idea, I thought!)

So…. today the students met at a local book store and did a book reading and signing. It was so cute and there was a great turn-out! I was so proud of Amberlee. She was one of the best readers in her class. She said she felt quite famous, and she had so much fun taking her book around for her class-mates to sign. We were quite proud of our little kindergartener!

I volunteered to make worm dirt-cups to serve as refreshments. The kids had a lot of fun helping, but of course time was running a bit short as a result, and Doug was sweet to step and make things happen- he is my Superman!

Hooray for Amberlee and earthworms!