Hump Day 3/31/10

A beautiful sunny day!! Kids spent the afternoon outside playing and running around the backyard with Harley, the dog. I love watching Aly and Addy interact. Aly has been teaching Addy how to play hopscotch...her little feet never really leave the ground, but she thinks they do. She uses a gumball from our trees in the backyard as her stone, and tosses it on the board that Aly drew with sidwalk chalk...and "hops" away. It is hilarious! The giggles are contagious.

While they were playing I was able to go inside and fix dinner, uninterrupted. It was nice. After a little while I heard a tiny knock on the back door. Addy was there with a pretty yellow tulip for me. She had picked it out of the yard. So sweet. My first little flower from her. It's in the kitchen drying...plan on saving it.

Love these kind of days. :)

Terrific Tuesday 3/30/10

What a great day! Got up early to get all the kiddos ready to leave. I took Addy and Max to their sitter's house today. Addy was so excited to visit her Ms. Dana! She was even more excited that Max got to go with her. Ms. Dana was Addy's sitter when I was working. She still has a great bond with her even after being gone from there for the last 8-9mos. It is so nice to be able to drop them off there and not feel guilty because Addy is so comfortable with her. She's great, not many sitters would let an old client just do drop-ins every now and then, but Dana is great about this. We are very lucky to have her!

I dropped Max and Addy off and then headed to Aly's school. It was my day to volunteer for popcorn day...now this sounds like an easy day...I assure you, it is not! LOL I had no idea how much work it was to pop and bag and handout 900 bags of popcorn to elementary students!! The kids are like vultures! They practically push each other down trying to get to the popcorn. You'd never know that these kids just got done eating lunch. If they have a stamp under the bag they get a prize...a plastic top or eraser, nothing major, but they lie about having the stamp, or try to peek and grab a bag with a stamp to win. It's crazy! I'd like to hope that my child doesn't act like this when I am not there. Some of these parents would be really embarrassed. We even had one little boy not have his quarter for the popcorn, so he snuck around the back of the table and stole one out of our money bag to use. He was caught, but it was just amazing. He was in the second grade. What will he be stealing in the future???

So anyway, when I got finished at the school I went and picked up Addy and Max. Both were fast asleep in Dana's lap when I got there. Very content. What a relief to be able to know that they had a great time. Addy couldn't stop talking about Dana all night. She had a blast.

Aly had some neighborhood kids over to play when she got home. Addy was like their little puppy. Followed them everywhere. They decided to leave and go play in the parking lot of a nearby church, with one of the girls' dad supervising. Addy was furious! She told me that she wanted to go bye-bye with her "fends." LOL She had a 20min. temper tantrum because she was too little to leave with her sissy and her friends. This summer is going to be fun with her, especially since Aly is getting older and wanting to leave more often with her friends. Addy just doesn't understand. Aly is her best friend. I guess we will just have to find a playgroup here in town for her to join.

Today was a good day. Kids were good(well, as good as can be expected), and there were no major catastrophes. I had a good time visiting with the other moms at popcorn, and it was good for Addy and Max to get out of the house and socialize with other kids. A beautiful day.

Another Manic Monday 3/29/10

Today started out pretty well. It was Aly's first day back to school after a week of spring break. I'm not sure who was more excited about her going back to school, me or her.

Addy missed her all day, and used her time to get into absolutely everything!! She used her little chair from her play kitchen as a step stool in the bathroom. You can only imagine the mess I found in there. Water was everywhere!! When I asked her what she was doing, she told me her hands were "durty." This happened like three different times throughout the day. I'm not sure where she got the idea, but once she got it, she couldn't get it out of her head!! She'd wait for me to get into a project, and then off she'd go.

I made her promise to stay out of the bathroom and she finally did, but then she decided to use the chair to reach the cabinets in the hallway. The cabinets that hold the towels and extra shampoo, deodorant, etc. If there was a mess to be made today, Addy made it. I definitely see tons of school visits in my future with her!! She is like having Dennis the Menace and Curious George all wrapped into one cute little person.

When Aly got home I was dealing with a very fussy Max. He didn't get his nap today because Addy kept waking him up. Aly saw that I was busy and took it upon herself to clean the living room and kitchen. She picked up and organized all of her sister's toys in the toyroom and swept and mopped the kitchen floor, all on her own. When I came out of Max's room, where I had been rocking him, she had everything clean and was playing with her sister. I can't even tell you how proud I was of her. She really is an amazing little girl. She made my day. So...she got an extra dollar added to her allowance this week, and I'm thinking about saying yes to that sleepover she's been bugging me for.

And Addy...well, she gave me kisses and told me she loved me all evening, who couldn't forgive that sweet little face? And Max...well, he has started babbling," Mama." Need I say more? I must be doing something right.

3/28/09 Sunday

Today was a busy day for us. We had church this morning, Aly was supposed to have softball practice, and then Ryan and I had our financial peace class this afternoon.

The kids were still exhausted from their zoo trip yesterday so getting everyone up and ready to go this morning was a little difficult. It was a typical fight with Aly over what she was going to wear to church. The usual...everything is dirty or doesn't fit, even though the dirty clothes hamper is empty-all her laundry was clean and put away, and we'd already pulled out clothes that didn't fit a month ago. So this was NOT an argument!! We had tears over her shoes..."they don't fit" and tears over the dress..."too short." And all this before 7:30am, and I hadn't even started getting the other two kids ready yet!!

Finally, at 8am we were out the door. How??? God intervened! He had to, I have no idea how we were all ready by 8am if it wasn't by one of God's miracles. LOL He must have really thought that our family needed to get to church on time!!

Church went well. Aly sang with the children's choir, and looked beautiful in the dress that was "too short." Addy had fun playing with her Daddy in the pew. She has discovered that she really likes stickers. She stuck them all over Daddy's face. It's amazing what he will let her do. Daddy's girl. Anyway, it worked, it kept her occupied for most of the service without any mishaps. Of course, she had to go to the back with Daddy during the sermon...an hour during morning naptime is just too much for her right now. It's not very often that she can make it through the whole service in the pew with us. Daddy usually ends up in the cry room with her. (I think he kinda likes it that way!) Max was his usual happy go lucky self. He really is an easy baby.

We got home from church and had to leave right away for our class. Aly didn't end up going to practice because of the rain. My mom and sister stayed and kept the kids for us.

This class actually isn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. We've gotten alot of great information from it, and have even already seen a huge difference in our marriage. I highly recommend it to all married couples or anyone thinking about getting married. It is a Christian based program that helps you gain financial peace by giving you the tools to get out of and stay out of debt and to set up a family budget. It's great. If you are interested in more info...let me know.

After class we came home and spent time with the kids. The dog, Harley, was in rare form. He was jumping and biting everything and everyone. The girls were screaming and running through the house like crazy people. Max was sitting in his jumperoo and the dog was pulling his socks off of his feet. He didn't chew on them...just took them off and hid them. Max just smiled and kept letting him do it. He didn't cry or kick...Nothing. Just sat there playing. After an hour of the screaming and chaos, I had enough...bedtime came a little early. Sometimes Mommy needs a timeout, so they went to bed a half hour early.

I guess it could have been worse...overall, not a good or bad day...just another blah day. Kinda glad I don't have anything exciting to write about today. Too tired for exciting. LOL

The Zoo -3/27/10 Saturday

Today was a beautiful day here in Evansville, sunny and in the high 50's...a great day to be outdoors.

Got up early to get the kids dressed and ready. Decided that we would do the mall first and take pics with the Easter bunny and then head to the zoo. My sister was in town today so we met her there with my 3mos old nephew, Hunter. Aly and Addy were super excited. We got in line(Thank goodness it was early and we didn't have to wait too long!)and waited our turn. I could tell by the look on Addy's face that she was NOT feeling it. The girl taking the pic orders was fantastic, I told her that I didn't think Addy was going to do it, and she suggested letting her hold one of the Easter eggs...YES! A great idea!!! Max sat on the bunny's lap and Aly sat next to him holding Addy...and Addy held the egg. No smile...but no tears, either. Perfect!! Until we had to leave...lol Addy didn't want to give the egg back to the lady. She wanted to stay and play ball with the Easter Bunny. (Addy loves to play ball, probably because she's been watching her sister play softball since the day she was born.) And now I have a full blown tantrum taking place. Addy finally gives in and puts the egg back and gets back into her stroller. I think that we are all good. I am SO wrong. As I am paying and picking the pics up at the register, Addy was stealing another egg! We are walking away, and Aly notices a bright yellow Easter egg sticking out of the basket under the stroller. Addy had stolen it and hidden it away. Talk about embarrassing. My kid had just thrown a huge tantrum and they had just finally gotten rid of us, and now I had to go back and give the egg back and apologize to the bunny.Damn my luck! I love the comments, "boy, you sure have your hands full with all of them." Really? You think I don't know that??? I need someone to point it out everytime I am pushing around 2 kids in strollers and trying to keep track of my 8yr old who gets sidetracked everytime a cute boy or something cute in a window catches her eye??? Really, is it only me that hates these unsolicited comments? So anyway, the mall is done, so we decide to head to the zoo.

We had a fantastic time at Mesker Zoo. Aly pushed Addy in her stroller and I had Max in a separate stroller. This was the first time we'd ever really attempted this. I usually have the little ones in a double stroller, but it's just so hard to get through doorways that way. Aly did a fantastic job. She pushed Addy everywhere. She stopped and showed her every exhibit, making sure she could see before she moved on. She read all of the educational info to her, and told her every name of every animal. It was amazing to watch. They both had a blast looking at all the animals together. She had so much patience. When did my little girl grow up to be such a caring, mature little lady?

Addy and Aly both loved the giraffes and zebras...Addy covered her nose at the zebras and told them that they were dirty and needed a bath. It was pretty funny. She even petted some goats, even though she kept calling them dogs! She thought they needed baths, too. LOL

Max had a blast as well. He loved being outside. He laughed and babbled the entire time. I think he just liked the wind in his hair.

Overall it was a pretty good day, all the kids had fun, and I got to spend a day with my baby sis, who I never really get to see. The little ones were so wore out from all the sunshine that they both fell asleep as soon as we pulled out of the zoo parking lot. And what mom doesn't love that? The smiles on their faces when they were telling Daddy about their day made it all worth it. Even having to return the yellow Easter egg!

My first post-3/26/09 Friday

So today began like many others, everyone up at 6am. Well...everyone but Daddy. This is how it goes in my house. I get up with the alarm, let the dog out to potty, and then fix a bottle for little Max(7mos), a sippy of milk for Addy(22mos), and then proceed to change Addy and Max's diapers and get them dressed for the day. Then we head to the kitchen for breakfast. All of this while my husband, Ryan, is still sleeping. He doesn't have to be at work until 9am, so he feels it unnecessary to get up before 7 or 7:30am...NOT NECESSARY??!! 3 KIDS ISN'T ENOUGH OF A REASON??? Apparently, not.

Today was a little different because my 8yr old was not home this morning. She just got home this afternoon from a week long visit with my parents. I didn't realize how much I relied on her until she was gone. With two little ones just 15mos apart, I lean on Aly to help out ALOT. Aly can change diapers, make bottles, and she is a great sitter when I need a shower. Does this make me a bad mom, that I use my 8yr old for slave labor?

So the day went pretty smoothly. I narrowly missed disaster with Addy, but I caught her just in time...Addy has a new hobby...playing in her poopy diaper and smearing it all over her bed. Yes, it is gross, and yes, I have tried everything to stop it, but it KEEPS happening. Today, I walked into her bedroom to put away laundry while she and her brother were napping, and I caught her red-handed...well, poop-handed. Luckily, it hadn't made it anywhere else yet. Immediately, she tells me that she needs a bath. What can I do? I give her a bath. This is how it goes everytime. She poops, plays in it, and then has a blast getting to take a bath in the middle of the day. Have I mentioned that she is really a mermaid???LOL The kid LOVES bathtime!! So it's like I am rewarding her for playing in her poop. If anyone has any ideas on how to stop this behavior, I am all ears! I am trying to start potty training, but she is so stubborn. Won't even try.

So, tonight when Ryan got home we decided to be good parents and take the kiddos to the dreaded McDonald's. Figured we'd let them play in the playland...now, let it be known that I am a complete germ freak. These places make me have nervous breakdowns! They are full of dirty, nasty kids who only bathe once a week. Snot nosed, coughing, germ factories. YUCK! But we went... Aly and Addy ran around and played. Well, Aly played and Addy watched from the bottom yelling, "Hi, Sissy!" We were all done eating and ready to leave, and yep, Addy did it...puked on the steps of the playland. Now MY kid is the germ factory. I ran to clean it up, but the damage was done. I saw the looks on the other moms' faces..."who is that kid's mom and why did she let that happen???" I quickly had my husband get Max's coat on and told Aly to grab the diaper bag and we were out of there!! No more playland for me! Think we will try the zoo tomorrow...