Momma to 3

Changes

2010-09-09T22:44:00.000-04:00

Yet again it's been way too long since I've posted. A lot has been going on around here. This summer was full of projects on the house (one is still going on and it's loud and dirty). We've had another round of birthday week. I am now the proud parent of two four year olds and one three year old (their birthdays are all 3 days apart). I can't help but to think of Sweet and Sugar's birthmoms on their birthdays and wonder how they are doing. I am sad when I think about all that they are missing, but so thankful that Sweet and Sugar are a part of our family. They bring so much joy and laughter to our lives. I can't believe it's been almost 4 years since I saw the first pictures and videos of them. We've come along way, but each year brings new challenges and achievements.

Sweet and Sugar have begun their first year of preschool. They go 4 days a week for a little over 3 hours a day. They were so excited about school. Sugar absolutely hands down loves it and everything about it. I thought he would and am re-leaved to be right. So far there haven't been any issues with fights or challenging authority, which were my only concerns.
Sweet is not so sure. She was very excited, but ran out of the classroom at pickup time the first day calling for me and saying that she was very worried about me during school. She also had an extra drawing in her backpack for me. Every night she tells me she doesn't want to go back to school. She wants to stay home with me. (This breaks my heart.) I always remind her that she's a big girl now and that big kids go to school and learn all kinds of new things and make new friends, etc. Thankfully she's always excited the next day when it's time to go to school. I kind of figured that she was going to have more of an issue than Sugar. She's more of a mommy's girl. She's very independent in so many ways (she's always enjoyed doing things for herself) and yet clingy to me at times. I think that she really needs this time away from me and that it will be good for her in the end.
I was also scared that she would cling to Sugar since I was not there, but that doesn't seem to be the case. I am thankful that they have different instructors assigned to them, even though they are in the same class their kindergarten prep time is with different people. During the picnic the week prior to class starting the kids were read a story and then told to get into boy and girl groups to wash hands. The kids did this, except Sweet who ran to me asking were Sugar was. Thankfully I arrived early to pick them up on the first day just as they were heading on to the playground and witnessed them run to opposite sides of the playground to play.

Bam had another round of allergy testing this summer. We got good and bad results. He did get cleared for most nuts, but still no peanut or pistachios. Peanuts cross-contaminate most popular commercial nuts (aka Planters). It is nice that he's allowed to have coconut now since coconut oil is in virtually every product it seems. But then there's the question of do we even introduce nuts when as it is he knows not to go near them. I did break down the other day and let him have cereal with almonds in it (a scary moment for me). It was purchased on accident and he found the box and asked for it so we had a trial run with one flake and no reaction after a few minutes so I let him have a piece of almond and again no reaction so I let him have it and he loves it. I think it's still more scary for me than him.
We did lots of playing in the water this summer. My parents filled in their pool last summer. It was too much work, money and too many problems. I have to be honest and say that I even though I totally understand why they did it, I was sad that my kids didn't have a chance to learn how to swim in it. To replace the pool, my parents purchased a water slide, which proved to be a huge hit with the kids and parents (as it is much less nerve-racking to sit and watch them play on a water slide than run around and play in a pool which requires you to be in contact with them at every minute. We also spent several days playing at our local splash park (free water park for small children is a wonderful invention).

We also made several trips to the zoos in the area, one has a wonderful jelly fish exhibit and the other has an amazing dinosaur exhibit every year (we're looking forward to the completing of the elephant renovation and return of the elephants next year). We actually took the kids for a quick trip to the zoo after school today so that they could see the dinosaurs one last time this summer.

(I love this picture of the kids walking with my parents and Chuck. Note: my mom has lost almost 60lbs since this photo and I couldn't be more proud of her!)

That along with lots of trips to the local parks hiking, biking, and playing on the playgrounds. Plus a trip to a local museum that has a dinosaur exhibit. I think that about sums up what we did this summer.

I never thought I'd say

2010-04-26T20:46:00.000-04:00

I think I need to start a list of things that I never thought that I'd say since there are so many of these things that come out of my mouth now that I have three little ones. I should have started a long time ago. And no they were not said the same child.

1. Don't chew on your toenails.
2. Don't eat my hair.

Love PBS

2010-04-10T22:24:00.000-04:00

I am a big fan of PBS. My kids don't watch much tv, but what they do watch is PBS or the Discovery Channel's Life Series. They used to watch Noggin, which is now Nick Jr. Most of the shows are not very educational and often they are highly annoying. PBS shows on the other hand do problem solving, spelling, reading, science, etc. Sugar's favorite show at the moment is probably their least (practically speaking, although my kids can tell you just about anything about dinosaurs) educational Dinosaur Train.

Today Buddy from Dinosaur Train was at a local mall, along with the woman who introduces all of the shows. They had a program with the woman (Rosa) reading stories, singing and dancing. Plus they had a meet and greet set up (unfortunately for which the line was far too long for my kids) with Buddy. They also had lots of other organizations with kids activities and info. It was a really nice program and the kids had a blast.

One of the groups had animals for the kids to touch. They all loved the tourtise. Sweet and Sugar liked the snake. Bam was not about to touch it. Bam did love the frog, but I didn't let him touch it for fear of him hurting it.

80s child

2010-04-10T22:07:00.000-04:00

You have to love her fashion sense. The pants had to be pulled up along with the socks to complete the outfit.

Socks had to be pulled up all the way to go to bed tonight, but she just HAD to wear shorts. She should have been an 80s child.

LOTS of Pictures and Cathing Up

2010-04-08T21:38:00.001-04:00

Let me start off saying sorry for the sideways pics, too lazy to fix them now, too long of a post and I just up loaded too many photos.
Wow it's been a long time since I posted. Kinda sad that I didn't document any of it. I've pretty much given up on scrap-booking, the idea of hauling everything out when the kids are sleeping to work on it and then clean it all up before the kids wake up again just isn't very appealing.

Sugar loves the paints that Santa left in his stocking. Bam and Sweet like the play doh more. Sugar would paint all day everyday. The kids also love the swords that Grandma and Papa got them and I think Dad does too. Sweet loves the guitar that Sugar got, then again she's rarely not singing.

We did have a lot of fun in the snow this year. Snow men and sledding were big hits. Bam's favorite part was eating the snow. Sweet liked sledding until we went down a bumpy hill.

I started potty training Bam in February. We're still working on it. He doesn't initiate it on his own, but he does stay dry, that is until the last two days. We're still working on the rest of it though. I was not a pull-up fan with Sweet and Sugar. I think they're too close to diapers and they're weren't effective so I just used underwear on them, but we've ditched the underwear for now with Bam and gone to pull-ups. Sweet potty trained in a day, Sugar in about two weeks, and I'm on two months with Bam so pull-ups it is. To be fair he had started doing better at it about two weeks into it and then we all came down with RSV, which kicked all of our booties and ended up causing a set back.

We finally got some nice weather, which I was so desperately wanting. We were all tired of being cooped up in the house. Our yard, which manages to stay wet forever has even dried out which has made it very nice to get out. We spent almost everyday at the park until it dried out.

We are in the hunt for an affordable power wheels for Bam. We have two, but it would be nice to have another and it would cut down on the fights. Everyone seems to have mastered steering them this year, at least when they're paying attention. Sweet ran right into the septic the other night so hard that her head bounced off of the steering wheel. I hope it's not an indication of what her driving skills will be in the future. She's very easily distracted.

Easter was fun this year. We died eggs the day before Easter, which was an event, just like most new things are with three little ones, but they had fun. Easter eve was not. It appears that Bam did not like the idea of the Easter Bunny coming in the house while we were asleep. He would not go to sleep. I finally asked if he wanted me to tell the Easter Bunny not to come to which he replied yes, much to Sugar's dismay. Everyone did enjoy looking for eggs at our house and again at Grandma and Papa A's house. Sugar was definitely the king of egg finding at our house. We had to step in and help the other two find some before he got them all. They were very happy to find that the Easter Bunny also put change and stickers in the eggs at our house and change and candy at Grandma and Papa's house.
We're currently in the middle of growth spurts which means lots of eating, sleeping, and bad attitudes. It amazes me how they can be such sweet smart caring children until they hit a growth spurt and then they become little monsters. I told Chuck that I think their brain takes a little while to catch up after a growth spurt because they don't use it as often then.

Bam is totally into Sweet's every whim. She loves to play mommy. As soon as she tells him he's a baby, he's on all fours crawling around cooing. It's kind of funny and kind of scary that he'll already do anything to make his sister happy. They usually play so well together. Sweet and Sugar usually play well together too, it's just the boys who usually don't play well together. But at times it's like they're best friends, usually when they're getting into trouble. They do do that very well together. Recently Bam has returned to wanting to give Sugar and occasionally Sweet hugs and kisses at nap and bed time. It is very cute.
We signed Sweet and Sugar up for preschool this fall. They're not going to my favorite program, because it was thirty minutes away when the weather is good. But I think they'll do well and really like the program we chose. They are so excited to go. The program places the children based on the school district age requirements. Apparently our school district just changed theirs from 5 by Sept 30 to August 1, which means they wouldn't go to kindergarten until almost 6. I talked the preschool into letting them into the pre-k class, but I'll probably have to open enroll them in a neighboring school district for kindergarten, which stinks and I'll have to do the same thing for Bam too.

I started my garden the other day. The kids helped me plant some seeds, until they started fighting over them and dumping them. I'm doubling the size of our garden this year. I'm also going to compost again too. I decided to plant the seeds in egg cartons since the egg cartons will break down in the soil and I won't have to disrupt the roots at much when I transplant them.

Last but not least, my beautiful tree is flowering. It always flowers right before bad weather, which knocks off all of the pretty flowers so I have to show you how pretty it is before the wind and rain.

2009-12-14T15:25:00.003-05:00

This is why we don't have a dog. Instead, we had a third child, who is probably worse than a dog is some ways. But we still love him.

I'm not sure if it's the fact that Santa is coming soon or if it's a result of kids suddenly deciding that sleeping in might actually be a good thing, but behavior has been pretty much on the up and up lately. Which makes mommy and Santa very happy. Look we even look like we like each other here.

Here's a few pictures I took in addition to taking our Christmas card picture. I absolutely love them.

A Month Later

2009-12-02T22:02:00.004-05:00

Almost a month since I've posted last. That's pretty bad and it makes me a little sad to think about all of the cute moments that I didn't post an probably will/ have forgotten.

The kids are finally starting to adjust to being inside more. We have fewer fights and breakdowns, which I am so thankful for. It's not perfect, but they're 2 and 3, what do you expect? I felt a little guilty today when I realized that Sweet and Sugar are cutting molars again. Maybe that's been part of the reason for all of the fits, drama, and attitude. Maybe they're grumpy because their mouths hurt, not just because they're three and trying to rule the world. They never mentioned it, I only noticed it because Sugar's gums bled when he brushed his teeth tonight.

We had Sugar's nose cauterized a couple of weeks ago. The poor kid just couldn't stop getting nose bleeds and they lasted forever. They usually ran 30 minutes +. And once he got one, he would get them at night so when I went in to get him in the morning everything was covered in blood. Plus every time that he got upset, he would start again, so enough was enough. He did much better than I expected. He didn't cry at all on the first side. He cried as the Dr was finishing up the second side. He was handsomely rewarded with french fries (something my kids rarely get) and then we went to a pottery place to decorate Christmas ornaments. The only problem was that the stuff that they used had dripped when he cried so this is how he looked for a few days. He had a few mild nosebleeds in the days after wards, but nothing since.

We had a wonderful thanksgiving. We spent the first part of the day at my parent's house and then went to Chuck's grandparent's house for the second part, before going back to my parent's house again. There was no way that I was going to take the kids home before bed time when they had a busy day and didn't get naps. Chuck's sister and her family were in from out of state, so it was nice to get to spend some time with them.

I was one of those crazy shoppers that was up and shopping way before anyone should be on black Friday. Mostly I went out to be with the other women in my family. I didn't buy much for Christmas, most of the stuff I bought was for the kids for next year pjs, etc. It was however eventful when I locked the keys in the trunk and had to call a tow truck to open the car, but they couldn't open the trunk. So two truck #2 eventually came and took it into the shop where it took over 4 hours to make a new key. Needless to say, it wasn't quite what I had planned for the day.

We have our tree up. Actually I put the tree up the day before thanksgiving. Chuck put garland on it the day after thanksgiving and we (kids and I) decorated it two days ago. I decided to do it in stages this year to hopefully acclimatize them to it. I think it has helped some. They didn't bother it at all until it was fully decorated and really it hasn't been that much. Bam did however love the tree skirt and decided that it was a perfect place to lay. They got to help decorate and absolutely loved it. It was a little over decorated at the bottom with all of the ornaments hanging below the tree, so I did go back through later and relocate some before the cat did.

We did a trial run of Santa pictures the other day. We had to go to the store and there just happened to be a very bored Santa there so we did pictures even though the kids were not dressed up. We will probably do more pictures in nicer clothes since theses went so well. When we asked if they wanted to do it, Sweet and Bam weren't so sure, but Sugar announced that he wasn't' afraid of Santa and walked right up, which gave the other two courage or maybe that was the candy cane incentive.

We've had our first round of colds of the season. Bam got it first and hardest. Sweet and Sugar really only had it for a day. Bam's still got it, but getting better. Sweet and Sugar finally get flu shots tomorrow. I had apts scheduled for them a while ago, but the Dr ran out so we've been waiting. We're not doing the h1n1 shots. Something so new makes me a little nervous, even if it is made the same way. I think we'll just practice flu prevention instead.

Blah!

2009-11-05T15:53:00.003-05:00

Sometimes I don't like where we live. I love snow at Christmas, but I don't like that it's harder to get the kids out when it's cold. I don't like how grumpy my kids get when we're cooped up because it's cold and we're not going outside much or to as many indoor public spots anymore (due to my fears of the dreadful flu). Nor do I like how much meaner my older two have turned now that they are 3 compared to a few short months ago when my beloved Sweet rarely gave me any problems. I really hope everyone adjusts to the cold weather/more indoor playtime soon.

Happy Halloween and Then Some

2009-10-31T14:08:00.004-04:00

Happy Halloween! Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays. I love haunted houses and scary movies. I loved getting to dress up as a kid. You can be anything you want to be, even if it's just for one night.

Two out of three of the kids love the Halloween stuff. One likes most of it, but is a little more skittish about masks and loud animated decorations. We've been trick or treating twice so far, once at a local grocery store and once at an outlet mall. The grocery store was a quick little fun thing for them. The outlet mall was very crowded and a good intro for the Sugar to get used to masks and scary costumes at night. They didn't get many goodies since the lines were really long but they did get to ride the train again.

Tonight is trick or treating with family and friends. We always meet up at a family members house for dinner, trick or treating, and handing out some candy too. Trick or Treating is definitely more scary now that I have a little one with food allergies. He can't have most of the candy that he'll probably receive tonight. I bought a bad of stuff that he can have so that I can trade him.

We carved pumpkins the other night. Sweet is still the only one who enjoys it. The boys wanted nothing to do with cleaning out the pumpkin. Sweet on the other hand didn't want any help. Bam is a huge fan of the toasted pumpkin seeds. Sugar loves to look at his pumpkin at night.

We've been busy this month trying to get things ready for winter. I got the basement cleaned so that the kids can start using it as extra play space again. I got some of the smaller gym set and some of the outdoor toys cleaned up and brought them in. We've also had quite a few family(extended) illnesses or surgeries. I hope everyone recovers soon.

We had a dry spell long enough for us to get some of the leaves in a pile. Sweet loves to be burried in them. Sugar enjoys playing in them and running through them. Bam would rather use the rake.

A Little of Vacation

2009-09-25T14:30:00.004-04:00

We were on vacation last week. We enjoyed a week of beautiful weather at Surfside Beach. This was our house. It is rather large. We went with other family. The whole idea of the first vacation with three toddlers is a little intimidating so we jumped at the opportunity to have some back up.

We left at 2am and arrived at 4:30pm. It was a long drive that involved lots of potty breaks (made me wonder why I potty trained them early) and a stop that lasted over an hour to clean up from a car sick little boy. The directions that we got from AAA were awful. They sent us through a bunch of little towns and through an area that I definitely didn't want to break down in for fear of having to hike 20 miles before finding another human. Thus we got internet directions for the way home and will probably get a GPS for the next trip.

Sweet slept great the while time, but they boys were a different story. This was Bam's first time out of a crib. We tried putting him on a mattress on the floor next to Sugar's bed but that was a no go. The boys ended up sleeping (if you want to call it that) together. I think they discussed whose turn it was to keep mom up that night. I think I got more sleep the first 2 nights home than I did the entire week. Thankfully they fell right back into their regular sleep paterns the first night home. The only sad thing is that Sugar stayed dry all night there and hasn't been able to keep it up here.

The kids absolutely loved the beach. Sweet and Bam had no fear of the water. Sugar was a little more cautious, but loved the little pools of water farther in on the beach. They had a great time playing in the sand and water, chasing the birds, running on the beach, looking for shells, and playing in the pool under the house (who puts a pool where it doesn't ever get sun, only the breese from the beach?).

The trip home went pretty well. I got some meds to keep Sugar healthy, but gave them to all of the kids after the other 2 started puking about an hour into the trip. Thankfully they hadn't eaten yet so it didn't take an hour to clean up. I also had a bucket in reach for such things on the way home. They were awake most of the trip and actually pretty content most of it. They traveled much beter than I thought they would. It was definately easy to tell when we needed to take a break to let them get out and run, but who doesn't want a break after awhile.

I'm sure that I'll post more stories in the next couple of days.

Cakes are Finally Done

2009-09-06T23:14:00.003-04:00

Well it's been awhile since I've done a cake, but I think they turned out ok. I thought barbie would be the easiest, boy was I wrong. First off, barbie is way too tall for the skirt so I had to bake brownies and put the skirt on it. She's still too tall so I just built up icing around her to cover her. Plus by the end the icing was too soft. I think if it's too hot tomorrow the barbie cake may be a little obscene. I hope they like them.

Harvest Time

2009-09-05T21:05:00.003-04:00

I've been very busy lately harvesting from my garden and my mom's garden and pear tree. I had not had a garden since we had kids and then it wasn't the best garden. We decided to give it a try again this year now that I'm a SAHM. It has been great. I have approximately 100 bags of tomatoes frozen, a little over 20 bags of zucchini and yellow squash, around 10 (so far) of shredded squash (I add it to recipes to increase the veggie content), 8 jars of salsa, 4 bags of acorn squash (so far), 3 jars of pear jelly, 22 bowls of pear sauce (like apple sauce), plus pear juice. This week I plan to start making some tomato sauce. Next year I plan on increasing the size of my garden and growing a few more varieties of squash and some cauliflower and broccoli. I would also like to get a few more fruit trees (we have two apple, but one is dying) and some berry plants. I have already let my family know that I would love some fruit trees and berry plants for my birthday next year. The only problem is that I think my excitement over being able to cut some of our grocery costs is going to be more than our freezers can handle. I'll have to learn to can, it's just so much more work than freezing. It's also done wonders for the kids eating too. Sweet and Sugar do pretty good with most veggies, but have never liked beans of any kind. Now that they've had fresh green beans they love them, even out of the can. Bam ate an entire can of green beans by himself with dinner the other night. Sweet is not a huge fan of tomatoes. She tolerates them, but certainly won't go out her way for them, that is unless they're fresh from mom's garden. They're excited to see what we're growing and want to eat it.

Other than that, we've had a good birthday week. The kids have to love this week because they rarely get sweets, but everyone gets a special sweet made in honor of their day so I've already baked a cake, hot fudge cake, and iced brownines this week. Plus we have a birthday party with family on monday in which they will each get their own cake. One cake would probably cut it and that's what we've done in the past, but every other kid gets their own cake. I want them to like their birthday and not feel as if they get short changed because their birthdays are so close together. So tonight I baked Sweet's cake, which will be a princess. Tomorrow I will bake the boys cakes; a tractor and a dinosaur. I would say which is which, but Sugar can't make up his mind which one is for him. I'll have to decorate all of them tomorrow too. It's been a long time since I've done much cake decorating so we'll se how it goes. I hope they atleast come out presentable.

I am also looking forward to some time with my hubby. He has some time off of work coming up and I look forward to having him around more. It's so much easier when it's two on three rather than one on three. It's so much easier to get things done when he can take them out to play while I work on something rather than me having to get things done during nap time and after bed time or with kids under my feet. I also know how much the kids enjoy spending time with their dad. He took them out to play this morning while I finished up the pearsauce and cleaning so tonight when I asked Sweet what her favorite part of the day was, her responce was playing outside with daddy. That makes my heart melt.

I also got to go to a presentation earlier this week on food alergies. It was very well put together. It was aimed more at awareness for those who don't know anyone with an allergy. The woman who presented has worked with several of the school districts in our area to put food allergy plans in place. I was very disapointed that the school system that my kids will be going to does not currently have one, but I was relieved when I takled to her afterwards and she said that she's working with the school nurse to put one in place. It's funny that a couple of years ago I was one of those that kind of scoffed at having to make special arangements for just one or two kids and now I've learned how truely important it is. I am very selective about who watches our kids and who they are around with food for fear that Bam may come into contact with something he's not supposed to have. People don't think to read every single label (we had an incident at Easter with a jelly bean that was processed on equipment with peanuts). Just 1/1000 of a peanut can cause a serious, deadly reaction. Food allergies are a big deal. They can kill.

Now on a lighter note. Bam doesn't like vegetables. He never has, other than a select few. He has grown to tolerate most of them now. He ususally needs some encouragement and or help to eat them but no longer screams and cries about it. But for the mear mention of cake, he will eat them without any help or need of encouragement. It may not be pretty (note picture). He may gag on every bite, but he will put bite after bite in until they are all gone to get his beloved treat. Did I mention that my kids love birthday week?

Happy Birthday Sugar!

2009-09-04T08:43:00.003-04:00

Last but certainly not least of the birthdays for the week. You are a very energetic intelligent little man. You are mechanically inclined and so so incredibly athletically gifted already. You like to push the limits and challenge authority. Sometimes your energy is overwhelming. You love to run and run and run. You often squeal and shriek when you run. You are so flexible and contort your body into odd positions to get a laugh. Your smile is contagious. Tickle Me is a common request from you. You love to be the center of attention. Yet you are a very sensitive and emotional little boy, a little dramatic at times. You are sweet as sugar and love your one on one time. I am so thankful that you are in my life and that I get to be your mommy.

Happy Birthday Sweet!

2009-09-01T16:00:00.002-04:00

Happy Birthday Baby Doll. I can't believe that you're three already. You are growing so fast. You are such a sweet loving little girl. You mother your brothers and sometimes us. You make me smile when you talk to me in the tone that I talk to you ex. are you ok honey?. You love to do everything mom is doing. Your laugh could make the grumpiest person smile. At one point I thought you would never talk, but now you don't stop. You want to do everything yourself, little miss independent. You potty trained in one day, something that I will forever be grateful for. You love horses, princesses, and butterflies, but don't want to play with any of them, just wear them. You are already picky about what you wear and how your hear is done. Your favorite color is pink. You will often go off and play by yourself when you're brothers are getting into mischief, smart little one. I could not imagine my life without you and am so thankful that I get to be your mom.

Happy Birthday to My Baby Boy

2009-08-29T15:12:00.003-04:00

I can't believe you're two already. I still remember the day that I found out you were you and that I was going to be a momma to three. How lucky am I? I would not change a single thing. I love watching you grow teaching you and learning from you. Watching your personality develop, you are a very stubborn, very loving, rough and tumble kind of little boy, who is very quick to figure things out when I hope you don't, and yet you take your time on other things. Often you don't seem to know your own strength. You're pain tolerance is something else, which is good since you have no fear and love to climb, jump, run, etc. You are already starting to use the potty (yeah!), working on brushing your teeth, and mimicking everything your daddy and I do (kissing your own booboos has to be my favorite). You take a few minutes to become yourself after waking (you get that from your dad). You are definitely in a mommy stage as you tend to scream momma when I leave your sight and no one can make you feel better as quickly as I can (yes I am reveling in it while it lasts). I love your cuddles and your sweet kisses. You are one of the greatest loves of my life. Happy Birthday Buddy!

2 twos and 1 one

2009-08-28T21:45:00.004-04:00

Today was my last day of having two two year olds and one one year old. Tomorrow I will have three two year olds. My babies are growing too fast. This is birthday week. Bam's second b-day is tomorrow. Sweet's third b-day is Tuesday. Sugar's third b-day is Friday.
Three years ago, I was praying for two women that I will never meet, but have given me the best gifts I could ever receive. I am so thankful that I get to be mom to Sweet and Sugar. They are truly amazing little people. I hope that their birth moms found peace with their decision and know that Sweet and Sugar are so dearly loved and spoiled.
Two years ago today I was so scared and upset. I was scheduled to be induced for Bam's birth due to complications, aka he decided that he didn't need to grow. I knew that he was fine and was sad that they were making me have him instead of letting him decide when he was ready. To this day he's still stubborn and refuses to do anything before he's good and ready to.
Life has sure changed a lot in the last couple of years. This isn't where I thought that I would be at this point, but I'm sure glad that this is where I've ended up. I could not imagine my life without any of them.

Dinosaurs!

2009-08-27T22:18:00.006-04:00

Yesterday we went back to the zoo again. My grandparents get us a membership for Christmas every year. It's a great present. The kids love the zoo and it's a cheap day out for us. We never get to see everything I'd like to, before the kids could walk we could do the entire zoo in 3 hours. Now we take 3 hours to see a third of it, but the kids get to wonder around some and they have a blast. The really important thing, was to see the dinosaurs again, it was the whole reason we went back to this zoo for like the fifth time this year instead of going to another zoo in the area (which we will be going to soon since they have their jelly fish exhibit again). Our zoo has had a dinosaur exhibit several times. This is the first year that we've seen it and the kids love it. They would go daily if I would take them. The dinosaurs are animated and make noises. Bam was a little nervous about them this time. He would go up to them and then when they started roaring, he would take a few steps back. Last time it was busy so we kept them in the stroller, this time they got to roam which was nice. There's one dinosaur for pictures. I tried to get Sugar to put his head in the mouth for a picture, but he didn't like the idea of that. They also got to play on the play ground but Bam just wanted to check out the statues.

STRESS

2009-08-20T21:31:00.005-04:00

Life has been a bit stressful lately. We've completed a few projects this summer, yeah! Trying to do big projects with 3 little ones around can get a bit hairy at times. Projects tend to take a little longer, especially when one of us works third shift. Hopefully things will start to calm down a little, really I doubt it though. We have managed to finally get all of our new trim up, tear down a chimney, fill hole from chimney, replace roof where chimney was, dig out play set area, fill with gravel, build play set, these are in addition to the normal things that everyone does like put in a garden, mulch, etc.

Sweet and Sugar may need new nicknames for this coming year. They turn three at the beginning of next month and it's been trying, incredibly trying, lately. Prior to children, we wanted children more than anything in the world. If not we wouldn't have made it through the adoption process. At that time, hearing someone complain about something dealing with their children drove me up a wall. I had a million evil thoughts come through my head every time like I'll trade you, I'll take them off of your hands, I wish I had that problem, etc. I didn't think I would do that, but enter the threes.

Sugar likes to get into trouble just to test the limits which are not budging which results in massive fits over and over again. He breaks a rule, gets in trouble, throws fit, is sent to time out, continues to throw fit, finally gets calm and gets out of chair, then when I ask why he did x, he mumbles because I wanted to do x. He will acknowledge that he knows that he's not allowed to do x and that x is not nice and could hurt himself or someone else, but he doesn't seem to care. He continues to get in trouble for stupid things over and over again. Yes, I know that he's three (almost) but it is rather frustrating all the same. This picture is just to remind me that he really does get along with his siblings sometimes.

Sweet has developed massive attidute. She doesn't break the rules too often, but gives attitude about everything. She doesn't want to do anything that's asked of her, she stomps and sulks around the house like a teenager. Yeah, let me tell you how excited I am about the idea of three teenagers in the house. I a will have gray hair by then, or b will have no hair by then. Tonight she didn't like the choices that I gave for their bedtime snack so she threw herself onto the floor, so I said that's fine you don't need a snack to which she got up and said I need a snack! Too bad you made your choice. When it was time to brush her teeth (this is something that they've always run to the bathroom to do), it was I don't want to, too bad. So after she was ready, she was awarded the privilege of waiting in her bed for everyone else to get ready for bed instead of being able to play.

I know they are three and asserting themselves but really it's like talking to a wall sometimes. I miss work at times just because it was a break from being just mommy. I got to use my brain for other things and acomplished things. Yes, being mommy is rewarding, but it can be very stressing at times. Then again there have been three shootings within blocks of my old work this week, unfortunately one resulted in the death of a teenager (I hated the sad situations that surrounded my job). So maybe being stressed and getting attitude and fits all day isn't so bad. Thank God my kids are cute is something that I remind myself and them over and over again.

Bam has been pretty good lately. Don't get me wrong, he's no angel, he's just as stubborn as he's always been, but he hasn't developed anymore attitude or affininty for pushing the limits. He does however love the gravel around the play set. He lies in it and tries to burry himself as if it's sand. He digs and halls it all over the place. He also has suddenly decided that reading is the best thing in the world. He has enjoyed books for some time now, but suddenly wants to be read to every minute of the day. He wakes up asking for a book and read and continues non stop all day. I'm glad that he loves books, but at the same time I think I've read every children's book we own plus the ones from the liabrary at least a dozen times, and his favorites probably 50 times this week. At this point I could
probably recite all of them by heart. He also has a thing for babies real or fake. He loves Sweet's dolls and will carry them all over, pretending to change their diapers, feed them, and put them to bed. He is very posessive of them, heaven forbid you to touch one of them unless he says it's ok.

This is what you can do if you're in the country and really bored. The kids love it.

Birthday Present is Finally Complete!

2009-08-10T21:10:00.005-04:00

It's been a little busy and crazy around here. We had a skunk spray our house one night while the windows were open and fans were going. Lovely, I know. We finally got the smell out. It was strong enough to make you feel sick. I hate skunks!

As for good news, Bam has suddenly decided that he would like to use the potty before naps and bedtime. He comes in and pulls the little potty out strips and almost always does his business. I am shocked and very pleased, but not ready to start potty training again. I'll let him lead for now, maybe this fall or winter I'll work with him. For now, I'm happy with him using it when he chooses. He's still young so I'm not pushing it. I can't believe that he'll be two this month or that my other kiddos will be 3 next month. Time really does fly after kids and they do grow way too fast.

My sister in law had her baby over the weekend. It was her third and was her second biggest at 11#2oz, born one day prior to his due date. Yes that's correct, not a typo. My other nephew was a whopping 11#5oz born on his due date. Thank god I did not get that big bay gene. I think I might have fallen over if Bam had been that big, although I would have loved for him to grow a little more since they made me go through all kinds of extra tests and then induced me because the little bugger wasn't growing.

We found a play set for the kids for their combined birthday present. It was marked way down so we went for it. We finally got it all together this morning. This has been a huge project. Digging out the area, filling it with gravel and then the construction. I now know why they charge so much to assemble them, the huge slide that has 96 bolts in it, and the directions are less than perfect. You think you might want to mention that the last section needs to be rotated in the opposite direction of every other one? Plus there was the issue of missing screws, you think QC might notice that it's 150 screws short and that one of the boards is shattered? Nah looks good. We'll have to have some of the kids friends over to play now that we have something for multiple kids to play on.

It's been dreadfully hot here lately. The kids have enjoyed their time in the water. I gave them some cups to play in the water with and they think that it's the coolest thing ever.

Tonight it rained, which was lovely since I was trying to get the grass cut when it decided to let loose. So we ended up spending a night playing inside. They wanted to color and then practice writing their names so we worked on that for awhile. They still get bored with the idea of having to take turns. So I ended up getting some funny faces while they waited. My response is suck it up you will never be an only child so get used to it.

Good Visit

2009-07-19T14:17:00.003-04:00

I had an incredible time with my friends from Grad School. I've definitely missed them. I hadn't seen them since a mutual friend's wedding about 5 years ago. They hadn't changed at all and that's why I love them. We had some fun talking about some of the things we did then and since. With them only being here for such a short time (they're doing a baseball park tour, 6 parks in 7 days) we ended up staying up way too late so I was a little sluggish the next day.

Bam still continues to get worse. I even looked up any other treatments I could find on the internet and tried the only thing recommended that I hadn't already done, but he has 3 more patches starting and looks as if one is getting infected. Oh joy. We'll have to at least get him into the pediatrician this week. We talked to our pharmacist to see if there was anything else for over the counter treatments. He recommended on product so we bought it, but I read the label on the way home it's it's not intended to use on anyone under 18 so I guess that will be going back. From what I read on the internet, we may need to have him tested for more allergies. At this point I just want to know what's causing it so we can get him better.

We have my nephew's birthday party tonight. Hopefully this week will be a little quieter and calmer.

Really? That's the best you can do?

2009-07-17T21:54:00.003-04:00

I hate scheduling appointments with new doctors, especially dermatologists. Bam has eczema. He always has. I make sure he gets his omega 3 from food, lotion him often, feed him good food, etc. Usually his outbreaks clear up with a little hydrocortisone cream after a few days. Not this time. It's been like 2 months. Our pediatrician prescribed a steroid for it, which I am not keen on, especially after reading the side effects, but after talking to our pharmasist, I tried it for a few days. He screamed when I put it on and cried for atleast 30 minutes everytime plus it continued to get worse, so I'm done with that. We're waiting to get into a dermatologist that our pediatrician recommended, but our appointment is still another month away and no I didn't just make the appointment. I hope he doesn't get an infection before then. I feel bad for the kid and now he isn't sleeping good because of it, which means that no one is sleeping good. I'm crossing my fingers that we get a call because someone cancelled. I'm gonna see if our pediatrician can pull any strings to get us in any earlier, but I'm not holding my breath. Oh and that isn't all of his eczema, it's all over. My poor little one.

Not a Preschool Teacher

2009-07-16T21:19:00.002-04:00

This week has taught me or rather reinforced my love of my career, which I have put aside for now to raise my beautiful children. I worked with high school kids in an urban area that happened to be a little rough, but not by any means the worst. Most people give me funny looks when I tell them where I worked and how much I loved it. I truly enjoyed working with these kids. For the most part they were good kids, some just needed a little structure and discipline and to have a good influence in their life. Every kid needs someone who is not afraid to say what needs to be said to remind them when they're going astray.
This week I have spent my mornings volunteering for our church's bible school. I did this so that my kids could attend, even though their not 3 yet, they said that sweet and sugar could join the class since they are potty trained if I helped out. Hah. Almost no one in the class is 3. I would love to have a few hours of quiet time in the morning to go to the store or liabrary or do yard work with out worrying about waking a child, etc. But I'm spending it with a group of children, who are wonderful, but they are making that little voice in my head say and this is why you're not a teacher or a preschool teacher. Don't ever consider it as a career option.
Don't get me wrong. I love working with my kids, and teaching them. The older two know their ABCs capitals, and lowercase, phonics, counting to 20, colors, shapes, right from left, etc. I lovw working with them and teaching them new things. It's amazing how fast they learn. But trying to get a group of preschoolers to sit together and focus on a bible story or anything else for that matter is not what I love to do. That is for sure. One more day left. I can make it.
I would so like to not have to go tomorrow. Friends of mine from graduate school are coming in tonight and will be staying tonight and tomorrow night. It would be nice to be home with them instead, but I'm sure they'll need their sleep anyway since they're coming in late.

NO we are not a circus

2009-07-09T16:16:00.002-04:00

Yes, I do realize that our family is not the average family. I do realize that having three children within a year is a little different. But really people, we are not a circus or a freak show. No it is not ok for you to point and comment loudly. It is not ok for you to try to take a picture of me pushing my triple stroller through the park, because you are amused by the idea of having three small children. People talk about not teaching manners anymore. My children say many I please and thankyou. They even say bless you when someone sneezes. Maybe it's the adults that need a refesher course.

MINE!

2009-07-08T15:27:00.004-04:00

So while I'm glad that Bam is finally talking, I'm not always so happy about what he has to say. He often tells me NO when I ask or tell him to do something. He has also decided that everything is now his and often declares MINE. I think those would have to be his two favorite words right now. He took a spill this weekend (I know huge shock) and lost some skin. His poor little face. He tore the big scab lose before nap so I had to cover it, but I'll have to uncover it, or it too will cause another sore on his face.

All of the kids loved the fireworks are were extremely well behaved, especially considering it was way past their bedtime. We had a very busy weekend, went to the park, three parties, fireworks, and church. It was a busy tiring weekend in which nap times weren't always met to their fullest and bed times were definitely delayed, but they were so good. There were some breakdowns (note the picture of sugar), fits and attitude, but not nearly as many as I expected.

no pics, or not

2009-06-30T21:17:00.003-04:00

Sometimes I hate my Kodak software. It doesn't always want to work. I was ready to give up when it finally opened. Or maybe it's my old computer. I got my computer when I was in college. I'd love to have a new laptop, but that's not in the budget right now. There's a lot of things I'd like to have that aren't in the budget.

We're considering getting the kids a big play set for their birthday this year. That's definitely stretching the budget some. My parents said that if we do, they'd give us money towards it instead of buying the kids clothes. That would help, we'll see. I want something that they can grow into and get several years of use out of, but at the same time it kind of scares me to have a playground that's fun for a ten year old in the back yard when I have what will be 2 three year olds and a 2 year old, especially since Bam is rough and tough and fearless. For example, something like this would be great, something like this would be a dream, but too expensive. I couldn't believe how much some of them cost when we went to look at them the first time. Some of them are over 10,000. I find that a bit absurd.

We we have two power wheels up and running and a third will be ready in the next few weeks, we had to order a recal item for it. They love them. Sugar is the best at driving, Sweet is getting better, and Bam is Bam. He's just happy to be driving and doesn't care what he runs into.
The first night, we only had one going, and it's an old pink one. Bam was not happy that it was pink and wanted the red or white ones working. He hauled the red one out to sit in and wouldn't ride the pink one. When the other two ran into his red one, he wasn't too pleased, so I had to get a pic. Bam is much happier now that the red one is up and running. Sweet refers the the pink one as her princess jeep.

Touch a Truck

2009-06-26T20:42:00.005-04:00

Today we went to a local event, Touch a Truck. They had firetrucks, police cars, police motorcycles, army trucks, big rig tow trucks, tree trimmers, professional mowers, etc. The kids loved it. Sweet was a little unsure of some of it, big trucks, lots of people, and they were letting kids blow the horns so it was loud. I hope they're never in the back of a police car once they grow up. It's cute now, it won't be then. Afterwords we spent some time with our family member who just got out of the hospital. After dinner we played outside and had some fun. Bam is still incredibly jealous that he doesn't have a bike yet. Overall it was a pretty good day.

I need to start teaching the kids about strangers. Sweet definitely tends to be leery of new people anyway and Bam's in a shy stage right now. I'm not sure of how to go about it since I don't want to make them afraid of new people that we introduce them to. Trying to teach a 2 year old how to distinguish between a good new person and a bad new person should be interesting. I guess I'm just not sure of how to go about it other than don't talk to anyone that you don't already know unless known adult says it's ok. I'm thinking about it lately because there's been 4 atempted abductions recently about an hour away from us. People are really sick and cruel. Thankfully they haven't been successful yet. I hope they can catch the guys before they're able to take kids.

Healthy Family Please?

2009-06-25T16:08:00.002-04:00

So our extended families haven't been healthy in awhile. One relative just got out of the hospital for an infection which was a complication of surgery and now has to have a PIC line for quite some time. One relative just went back to the hospital yesterday for an infection. This relative is also undergoing experimental treatments for the dreaded C. Plus another relative found out yesterday that last year's surgery didn't take and needs to have it redone, oh and this time it will be more invasive. It seems that everyone around us is falling apart. While I'm thankful that it's not my children that are ill, it still stinks.

The weather here is too hot. It's in the nineties and horribly humid. I hate being cooped up in the house with the kids, but it's miserable outside. So we go out to play in the pool in the evening. Today it's storming on top of the heat and humidity. Maybe we'll run errands tonight since we can't go out and play.

The good news lately is that one of our friends who we met up with at the zoo gave us their old power wheels and Chuck found one today at a garage sale. We need to get a battery for one and a charger for the other, but that's a lot more affordable than a new power wheel. We also have a little motorcycle that my parents gave us, it doesn't have enough traction/power to drive in the grass, but they have fun with it on the driveway. We had another power wheel that a family member had gotten used for us, but it shorted out, we'll have to see, maybe we'll rewire it if it's not to complicated. I'm not sure that I'm ready for multiple motorized vehicles going in different directions, bicycles are bad enough.

The Wonderful World of Sleep

2009-06-24T15:00:00.002-04:00

My kids are good sleepers. They are in bed at 8 and sleep through the night. Plus they take a 2-3 hour nap a day. The only problem is that no matter what time they go to bed (on rare occasions they are up later) they always wake up at the same time or earlier and don't take a longer nap to catch up. That is until recently.
The last couple of days have been wonderful. I know I'm probably jinxing myself by writing this. The boys have been sleeping in past 7. Sweet's slept past 9 the last two days. This means that I get to wake up when I'm ready to, instead of getting a wake up call from a child before 6. It makes a huge difference.
Yes, nap times are shortening some, but really I'm ok with it if I get to sleep longer. Anyone who has ever been deprived of sleep for any length of time (let me remind you that Bam didn't sleep for a whole night until 5 months) will tell you that sleep makes the world a better place.

Weekend in Review

2009-06-23T21:13:00.006-04:00

Who decided that it was a good idea to have a children's dance recital last like four hours? Who ever it is, is an idiot. We left after the intermission (an hour and forty minutes into it). Lets say that my kids were very well behaved for their ages, there weren't any fits or tears, but they definitely were not going to sit still for that long. Thus we were all more than ready to leave at intermission. Sorry that we didn't get to see my nephew dance in the second half.

The weather was awful on Saturday and our bake sale was a bust. At least someone benefited from it. We donate the left overs to project MUNCH. So baking in the heat was not in vane.

Sunday was sad. Our pastor's last sermon was good, as always and hit home. We started going to our church when we were looking for a church to get married in. We fell in love with our church and the pastor. He hasn't been a pastor his whole life. He held a "normal" job before that. I think it gives him a little different approach to his sermons and people. Plus he knows us and our story. He baptized the kids and myself. He talked about changes in his sermon and part of why he thinks that they're so hard is that we have to start over and tell our story to someone else. He's right. He knew us before we were married, before we had kids, through the adoption, through the pregnancy, and all the other challenges. It's hard to start over.
That said I do welcome the new pastor. I hope that I enjoy listening to him as much as Steve. I hope that he brings a new perspective and style. I hope he fits well in our church.

Monday was wonderful. I very much enjoyed getting to see my college roommate and her family and one of Chuck's college buddies and his family. We had a great time at the zoo, Columbus did just get ranked #1. It was nice to go somewhere other than Akron or Cleveland. The weather was beautiful, but hot. The kids loved it and were so good that it was unbelievable. We got our first taste of having the kids in the car for a long stretch and they did very good. They didn't nap much though, especially Sweet so after dinner we went out to play in the water.

Sugar has also entered that "why?" stage. He has a why for everything. It doesn't matter how many times you answer the question why. There's always a why for your response. Tonight I finally said I don't know. He said oh hmmm why mommy? I ended it with a laugh and you're a goofy child, which made him giggle.

Marty

2009-06-23T21:08:00.002-04:00

This deserves it's own post.
Saturday I found out that a family friend had passed away. He was ill and is in a much better place right now, but I am still deeply saddened by his passing. I am deeply saddened for his family also. He was ready and it was expected, but somehow it just doesn't seem to matter. It doesn't make it any easier. Today was the funeral so I hope that it brought some closure, but I know that there's still a long road of healing ahead and I wish his family the best.

Week in Review

2009-06-18T21:39:00.004-04:00

Hmm lets see. We went to the zoo on Monday and it was awful. The traffic trying to get into the zoo was atrocious. They had record attendance. We normally let the kids walk around at the zoo, but not with that many people, so no it wasn't as fun as normal for anyone. Didn't think about the fact that monday is free the the residents of the county, just thought it might be a fun day at the zoo. Why didn't we turn around or go to a neighboring zoo? Dinosaurs. We had already told the kids that they would be seeing them and to not see them would have been devistating to them. So at least we got to see the Dinosaurs and it wasn't packed there. The kids absolutely loved them too.
Upon leaving the zoo we did have a rather unpleasant experience. I've gotten lots of questions, comments, and looks since bringing the kids home. It comes with the territory. I'm used to it and most of the time I'm happy to educate and answer questions. But I had never been stared down by someone of Latino/Hispanic ethnicity. A group of people were sitting in the parking lot glaring at us while we loaded the kids and stroller in the car. Talk about infururating. Get over it. Yes some of our kids are different ethnicities. Yes our kids are loved more than anything. Yes our kids are very well cared for. I'm sure it's just the first of many times that it will happen, just like the rude comments.
I will never forget the first rude comment. I was obviously pregnant with Bam and checking out with Sugar and Sweet at Walmart. The cashier looked at me and said I guess you should have waited a little longer huh. At the time I was so taken aback that I didn't reply. Currently I could think of probably 20 quick reponses. Like yeah I guess the other line are longer for a reason like if you want an intelligent cashier. Or how dare you comment on my family when you don't know me. Or I wouldn't have it any other way or I couldn't imagine my life without any of MY children. Ignorance.
Back to the kids. Sugar is in this phase of putting things in his mouth again. It drives me nuts. He's old enough to know what should not go in his mouth. He hasn't put things in his mouth (until recently) for a really long time. It really grosses me out and he's really determined to do it no amount of time outs, lost privlages, etc seem to persuade him to stop putting things in his mouth.
Bam is doing pretty well trying to get more words all the time. I'm not sure why I was so excited about him learning to talk, since he's already learned how to talk back and fight with mom. Not really so excited about his verbal skills anymore. He's also suddenly become emotional. Telling him no suddenly breaks his heart and leads to sobs. This is new and not really something that I'm fond of, although it is amusing at times.
Sweet is starting to occasionally resist bed time. This is something I've been dreading. They've always gone to bed willingly. They've even asked for bed before. Now on occasion she tries to dely bed time with extra potty trips, or longer talks, or trying to lenghten the bed time routine in anyway. She's beginning to sleep less at night. I'm not ready for this yet and I hate having her wake up before six, regardless of if she's up late or not.
Tomorrow we have my nephew's dance recietal to go to. Saturday I have a bake sale for the group I volunteer for. Sunday is our pastor's last sunday with us so we have a pot luck after service and then of course father's day festivities at my parents' house. Monday I am very much looking forward to. We are going to meet up with my college roommate and her family, and one of Chuck's college buddies and his family at a zoo we've never been too. It should be a wonderful day. I'm hoping for good weather.

Long Time

2009-06-11T21:11:00.017-04:00

It's been a long time since I posted and a lot has changed.
Sweet is now in a big girl bed and loves it. The transition could not have gone any better. She likes to crawl in and pull her blankets on, most of the time. Occasionally she wants mommy to still put her in bed. She still wants picked up out of bed when she wakes. She still waits in her bed for me to come get her when she wakes up too. I sleep in a big girl bed is now the first thing that she tells new people. It went so well and everyone was so jealous of her big girl bed that Sugar transitioned to one a few days later.
I was more nervous about Sugar making the transition, but it also went flawlessly. He also still cries or calls for me to come get him when he wakes. The biggest issue with him has been he doesn't know if he want to be put in bed or climb in bed which has led to a few breakdowns, what decisions! Mom has instituted the rule that he has to climb into bed and then I will give him another kiss and hug after he's in. That seems to have rectified the situation for now.
Bam loves the big kid beds, but I am no where near ready for him to have one even though I did catch him trying to climb out of his bed the other day. Lovely. Sweet and Sugar only tried to climb in their cribs, not out of them.
We have also gotten rid of the high chairs. Everyone's now in a booster seat at one table. It really kind of nice to have a family dinner. Plus the extra space is wonderful. Our house looks so much bigger.
Bam is finally starting to talk a little more. I'm relieved that he's finally starting to talk, but at the same time, I'm not completely looking forward to having another mouth constantly running. Speaking of, Sweet never stops talking or singing. When she runs out of things to say, she narates by pointing out everything in the room or who everyone is or what everyone is doing. It's gotten to the point that Bam now covers his ears at times to block her out. Her new question is what time it is? Sometimes she does read the numbers off of the clock to me, which I am very impressed with.
Bam is in a bit of a shy stage and suddenly doesn't want to play at the playground (indoor, outdoor is never a problem) half of the time. He's very cuddly and reserved around new people, which is very different for him.
Sugar is rather ornery lately. I think it's the 3s that everyone keeps talking about. He just is getting there a little early. I hope it disapears fast. He's back to throwing huge dramatic fit, taking, instigating, talking back, etc. I miss my sweet little boy and hope he returns soon.
Sweet has also mastered her bike. She does pretty well. She struggles every once in awhile on our driveway since it slopes, but does great on grandma's. I do think that if just may be her favorite thing to do.
Sugar hasn't mastered it yet. I'm not sure if he's strong enough to push up our driveway.
Bam wishes that he was big enough to reach to peddles. He loves to sit on Sugar's bike and be pushed around.

Sweet is also really into dressing up. She's always loved to put extra things on so it should come as no supprise. Grandma has costumes and Sweet likes Cinderella (she's suddenly into princesses even though she doesn't watch the movies) but the clown is by far her favorite and is what she's almost always in at Grandma's house.

And now here are some cute pictures.

What a Day

2009-03-20T22:20:00.005-04:00

So today my SIL called and said that she could come give Bam his first hair cut. So today was supposed to be about Bam getting his hair cut. Yes, he did get it cut and he looks like a totally different child. Yes, I do love it, but I am sad that there are no more curls. Thankfully, my SIL was wonderful enough to set some aside for me to save.

During his hair cut, the other kids (mine and my niece and nephew) were running around playing, when we heard a thud and Sugar started screaming. He had fell and hit the back of his head on the corner of a toy box. Let me say that in my former employed life, I loved blood and guts. That's what I worked with, it was exciting. When it's your child that's bloody and crying it's not fun. Thus today was more about Sugar's first trip to the ER to get staples. Poor little guy. Thankfully he is ok, sore, but ok. Chuck was recording Bam's hair cut when it happened and you can actually see the whole thing unfold on it. We have another home study visit on Monday so it should be interesting to show up with him with staples in his head.

So thank you to my SIL who not only cut Bam's hair today, but also stayed with Sweet and Bam while we went to the ER. We are very grateful.

A Hint of Spring

2009-03-18T21:22:00.007-04:00

I haven't posted in awhile and I haven't posted pictures in a long while. I finally uploaded some photos tonight. This post may end up being picture heavy. If not, I'll have some new pics for the next few posts.

The weather has been unbelievable lately. It has been absolutely gorgeous for the last few days. I'm very sad that it's going to get cold and yucky tonight. It's been very nice to get the kids out lately. We even went to the zoo this week. A lot of the animals still aren't out and the heat was still on in the buildings which made it unbearably hot, but it was a very nice day.

Sugar I believe is officially potty trained it's been awhile since we've had an accident. He even remembers to stop and go when we're at story time, the zoo, stores, or with family. He happens to love public bathrooms. Gross I know. We tend to visit lots of them and half the time you get him in there and on the potty and he looks around and says done. I know I should be thankful that he's not having accidents. He's definitely working on out growing his naps. The last two days have only been an hour. I love that we get more one on one time, but I will miss my free time to get dinner together, cleaning, laundry, etc. but all of that can wait.

Sweet is finally getting her last tooth in, yeah! This of course makes her whiny. At least she showed improvement today. She has also been very spoiled by the warm weather. She woke from her nap today asking to go play outside. As for potty training she's a done deal. However she is opposite (in just another way) of Sugar. She hates public bathrooms and refuses to go. She will hold it all day. She didn't go once during our trip to the zoo. Oh well, as long as she doesn't have accidents. It's amazing to think of how fast they are changing and becomeing more independent. She love to dress herself now, along with putting our clothes on too as in the picture.

This is definitely my favorite picture of the post. This was during his breather he was taking from his inconsolable crying. He's now wearing a shirt because he was supposed to be eating a rather messy lunch, but that never happened. Bam is getting his last three teeth. He's not happy about it either. He's been rather miseable lately. Lots and lots of crying inconsolably. Oh and did I mention that I've been able to open up some windows in the nice weather, which means the first thing the neighbors heard from us this year is Bam's inconsolable crying. Yeah, they have to be getting my mom of the year trophy ready. He's also become rather attached to this doll. It's a rather ugly doll. It was one of my dolls as a child. I didn't like dolls and it shows, but he loves it and plays with it quite a bit latey. He carries it over his shoulder with one arm like he's carrying lumber. It's rather funny to see him dote over it so much and then trow it up on his shoulder and walk around. He's also taken a fascination with birds. He runs to the nearest window when he hears them and stares in amazement.

Taking A Step Back And Running

2009-03-10T20:20:00.002-04:00

So I haven't written much lately. Things have been kind of hectic lately. Sugar is definitely not taking to potty training like sweet did, which I expected, but it's still very frustrating none the less. Lots changed for us financially in 07 like change in jobs, going to part time, and adding three kids, so guess what we're being audited. Oh the joy. We've been taking the kids to a local story time lately. I had some CEU stuff lately ( I don't know that I'll ever go back to my previous occupation, but I'm afraid to let it go). I've also joined a group to help those in need in our community and I'm really looking forward to working with the group.

Sugar has definitely challenged my patience and understanding with potty training. I finally wet to completely ignoring accidents two days ago. I didn't even say anything to him about trying to go on the potty or asking him to tell me, etc. Guess what. He finally started telling me when he had to go yesterday. Today he told me quite a few times and the only accident we had was when he didn't get there fast enough, but it wasn't bad. We had gotten more potty books and some potty movies from the library last week. He loves them and while I was putting him down for his nap yesterday he said mommy proud (they talk about the kids being proud of themselves and the parents being proud of the kids for using the potty). I said yes mommy and daddy are very proud and happy when you use the potty. It's a very big boy thing to do. Since then it's suddenly gotten better. I guess he needed to hear that we were proud of him and not just the cheering and letting him know that we were happy that he used the potty. Tonight they had ice cream and pretzels for a snack before bed to celebrate him doing so well.

We also ran tonight. Sugar loves to run and Sweet has been running quite a bit lately too. Bam gets frustrated that he can't quite keep up yet. Sugar and I used to run quite a bit, but haven't lately. I usually tell Sugar and Sweet to run together. Tonight, we all ran. Bam usually wants to be carried since he can't keep up, but instead I got him to hold my hand, which made Sweet want to hold my other hand while we tried (failed, but that was ok) to keep up with Sugar. At one point it was Sugar pulling me, while I pulled Bam, who was pulling Sweet. We all had lots of laughs. We then danced in the kitchen to musical toys and pretended to be polar bears (Sugar's really into pretending to be animals). It was definately a good night.

I don't want you to think that we haven't had any fun lately, tonight just was very enjoyable for whatever reason. We had a really fun night last week too when we turned on one of the music channels and danced for most of the night. I guess these nights were more enjoyable because there was lots of interaction, everyone wanted to play, and there wasn't much fighting. Fighting and tantrums are inevitable with three little ones so close in age so when you don't have any pretty much all night it's an amazing thing.

Sweet had developed quite the attitude lately. I know that she's two, but she's always been my calm one. So when she throws herself on the floor or turns away and won't acknowledge me or just flat out refuses to do what's asked of her, yes it is very frustrating. Yes I know it could be worse. I should be thankful that all of her fits are incredibly quiet. I know she's testing boundaries and asserting herself, but I miss my easy going little girl.

Bam had his check up last week. Dr said that he's skinny and not to worry that he gets mad that I only make him one adult serving of meat and that he'll eat several (like 4) servings of the side when I don't have any more meat for him. Dr said to feed him all he wants. The problem is that we'll go broke doing this. Other than that he's doing well.

Getter Better

2009-03-02T14:28:00.002-05:00

Well we decided to take the plunge with Sugar on Friday. Notice I haven't posted since before then. It was a rough couple of days. Yes I do believe he was ready. He was asking to use the potty more at home and while we were out, and asking about undies.

Friday was a really rough day. We had 9 accidents. A lot of success too, but still frustrating. Saturday things got a little better and we had 5 accidents. Sunday 3 accidents. Today 1 so far and I'm pretty confident that it will be the only one. He has only had them prior to nap time for the last couple of days. He's also woken up dry from every nap! Something that Sweet has also done. We're going longer times in between potty trips now, we're up to an hour, and he's still improving every day. Yeah!

I wasn't sure that we would make it through it right now. The first couple of days were really rough. I knew it would be more difficult than it was with Sweet, but wow. We were completely exhausted after the first day, but everyone is doing much better now.

Plus now that Sugar is using the potty and making as he calls it turtles and snakes on the potty, Sweet is starting to do better with going poo on the potty. She hasn't had an accident in probably a week.

Success

2009-02-23T14:28:00.003-05:00

Sweet did it. No accidents yesterday. We had special treats last night for being successful in our last battle with the potty. We celebrated and cheered for her. During which Sugar decided that he had enough of hearing how wonderful Sweet is doing. Every time I said something good about Sweet he would reply with Good Job Sugar (ok fill in his real name for those of you who know)! Too funny. He's starting to ask to use the potty more, but is just sitting for now. I'll take it though. It is a step in the right direction. Sweet also got to pick out what big girl panties she was going to wear today instead of the training panties that she's been in thus far. It took a few minutes for her to decide between Elmo and My Little Pony. In the end Elmo won out, but she's already requested Pony panties for tomorrow. Too cute my sweet little girl.

We also went shopping today at a store we don't often venture to. It about 30 minutes from home, but not near any of the other stores we normally shop at. Anyways about half way home Sweet requested potty. Ok Sweet we'll be home in a few minutes, can you hold it honey? Wait till we get home and then we'll sit on the potty ok? Guess what! She made it! I'm very excited that potty training has gone so smoothly for her, but I think I'm going to have a long dificult road ahead of me with the boys. Only time will tell.

My Kids are Eaters

2009-02-22T14:59:00.003-05:00

I'm almost afraid of the teen years. They already out eat us on a regular basis. This morning I had to make three adult helpings of oatmeal(the real stuff) and raisins. Then at lunch Sweet ate half a tuna sandwich and two helpings of baked mac and cheese, Sugar ate half a tuna sandwich half a chicken breast and a helping of baked mac and cheese, Bam only ate mac and cheese. He normally is a big eater, but has been refusing lunch for the past week. At least he ate today. I think it's his teeth. He just got a new one this week. He's only one behind Sweet. I think he may get all of his before she does. They routinely out eat me at dinner too. I'd be worried, but Sugar is way underweight, Bam is underweight, and Sweet is average. We may need to buy a farm.

Hope in Sight?

2009-02-21T22:01:00.003-05:00

Well Sweet seems to have developed a dislike for pooing in the potty. I know this is common, but knowing this doesn't make it any less frustrating. She now lets me know when she needs to pee. I occasionally ask, but she usually says no when I ask and goes when she wants. I keep reminding her that big girls poo on the potty and she's a big girl now. I took her to the potty several times today and asked/told her to try to poo, but she refused. She did it within in a few minutes of me taking her, while I was changing someone's diaper.

Sugar decided that he would return to trying to go on the potty again today. I'm relieved. I talked to him about starting to be a big boy and wearing undies and using the potty all the time starting tomorrow (and he was excited), but then I realized that we're having company tomorrow. Maybe Monday. We'll see what he thinks of that.

He truly is fascinated by the potty. He wants to flush whenever Sweet goes. He's usually in the bathroom when she's going. He wants to wash his hands, because she gets to after she goes. The fact that she has a piece of paper covered in stickers (rewards) on the refrigerator kills him, he admires it several times a day.

Bam's new fascination is getting up in the face of his brother and sister and yelling/screaming at them. It's this really odd AHHH! It's kind of amusing, I know I shouldn't encourage it. It is rather upsetting to them. Sugar often starts whining and telling him no and Sweet starts to whimper and tell him no. Not the best behavior, but atleast he's not biting and hitting as much. I guess it's a step in the right direction. I keep hoping that he'll be easier once he can communicate, unfortunately for him, he's the only one that speaks caveman around here.

As for us, we're getting a new refrigerator. Our old(I mean old, it came with the house) one just doesn't seem to be big enough for our family anymore. By the time we fill it with the groceries, there's no room to put leftovers in it. Plus it's bad when you're at the store and opting not to buy something because you don't think it will fit in the frig. We will keep the old one in the garage for extras. We were able to get a really good deal. We went to a Sears Outlet and found one that we liked (not what we had origionally hoped for but it's a huge step up from what we have) and to top it off, it was mispriced, but they agreed to give it to us for the mismarked price. The bad news is that our opening is a 1/16 of an inch too short so Chuck had to pull down the cabinet and is going to try to plane it down tomorrow and then stain it. Fun Fun.

Another plus is I finally got out and got a new hair cut. I love the woman I go to. She does a great job, goes off of the little information I give her when I want a new style and always comes up with something I love. Plus she had triplets (a few years behind me in school) so he can understand and relate to what my life is like, which is a very rare quality.

So Far So Good

2009-02-19T15:03:00.016-05:00

So this was my house or rather my kitchen and foyer yesterday. But it was all worth it. No accidents yesterday, even dry at nap time. No accidents today, and we even went out. She's telling us when she has to go!

I decided to try with Sugar this morning. That was a no go. We'll try again in a few weeks. We got another puzzle yesterday. Sugar got to go out with Dad for some one on one time so he got to pick it out. Imagine that, he picked a train. The one on one time definitely helped his disposition.

Now that Bam has realized what the pieces are for (aka not for teething) he loves them. They've been playing with them a lot lately. Bam's starting to enjoy coloring too. He still has to be supervised so that he doesn't eat the crayons, but he's getting better about it.

Some Success

2009-02-17T14:35:00.006-05:00

So today we did it. We moved Sweet to panties. She's wearing a sweatshirt and panties today and has to stay on hard surfaces. I talked to her about it last night and this morning before we started with the panties. I told her that if she didn't go on the potty then she was going to get all wet when she went peepee. To which she replied YUK! We had two accidents in the five and a half hours that she was up this morning. This has me feeling much more optimistic. Last time we tried panties she was wet at least ever half hour and never went on the potty. This time she has sat on the potty without protest every time I told her that she needed to and she has gone a few times. She even told me that she had to go at one point. Hopefully we'll keep going in the right direction so that I can start working with Sugar.

Sugar doesn't seem to be too happy about his sister getting so much attention today. He has decided that he doesn't want to use the potty at all because of it. I know he'll come back around. He just doesn't like when someone else is being doted over.

In the mean time I'm trying to give him as much attention as possible and his imagination is still running wild. For the last couple of weeks he's been pretending to be animals, mostly a cat. He also turns into a frog and a dinosaur. I think I discovered the reason for the reimergence of waking up crying. Yesterday we were playing under a blanket and we ended up having a discussion about a big mean dinosaur that bites his foot. We worked it out that we could feed the dinosaur something else and give him a hug to make him happy and nice. Since then we've had no crying.

Bam is not so sure why most of the toys have moved (to hard surface areas), but he does enjoy that fact that the potties are out in the middle of the house, instead of in the bathroom. They are nice to sit on afterall.

Kids Update

2009-02-16T14:56:00.011-05:00

Everyone coloring while watching Sesame Street. We had to stagger high chairs so that everyone could see and no one could steal crayons from anyone else.

Sweet's imagination is totally blooming. Lately she has been treating stuffed animals and this large rather unattractive doll as her baby. She will feed, nap, bathe, and diaper her "baby". She will also pretend to diaper herself now, which is rather amusing. She is learning and advancing so much. She knows her ABC, can identify uppercase letters, we're working on lowercase, knows her colors, can count to 10 and actually understands the concept, we're working on 11-20 now. While I don't know that she'll ever pocess the athleticism that Sugar does, she is able to do more gross motor things now, like catch a ball.

We are working on starting to PT her. So far not so good. They've both Sweet and Sugar been interested in the potty for awhile and usually sit on it at least once a day, but aren't willing to make the transition. Girls are supposed to be easier right? If that's true of our family, it's not looking so good. We started with pull ups yesterday. She was ushered to the potty several times and did produce once. I called the pull ups her special panties, but in the end she calls them her princess diapers and thus uses them as a diaper. I think I'm going to just have to bite the bullet and put her in panties tomorrow and keep her on hard surfaces. I know it won't be fun, quick, or easy, but I don't think the pull ups are going to work with her.

Sugar is returning to himself again. He was really good while we were all sick even though he wasn't getting all of the attention that he wanted, but I think it caught up with him. He was rotten for a couple of days, but happily he has returned to being his normal sweet self.

He did however go on the potty a few times yesterday. I think he's a little jealous that his sister is PTing first. I just don't know if I can handle trying to do two at once. Especially two with totally different personalities.

He used to be the one that was always quick to answer questions about numbers or letters. Sweet has become more dominate lately. While I'm happy that she's advancing, I'm sad that he's not as forthcoming with it anymore. I'm trying to work with him independently at least a couple of times a week to hopefully get his confidence in it back.

Bam has really taken to books and loves story time. I'm thankful for that and am hoping that it will help his language skills, which aren't much to speak of. He's so curious and adventurous. We've had to put cabinet and drawer locks on every one in the house because he gets into everything. It's not that he's a bad kid, but he's rough (I don't think he realizes it), curious, and determined. He's a very strong willed child, but he's also a happy child.

He gets upset sometimes that he can not do the things that the other two do. He's very interested in the potty since the others have been using it more. Often times I have to sit him on the potty too. If he's in the bathroom when we are going, he sits on a potty and watches us.

He's been very clingy lately. We got to go out for V day on Saturday, thanks to my aunt offering to watch them. We didn't do anything spectacular, lunch (to a place we had a gift card) and then to a book store to people watch, look around, and have coffee. Nothing fancy, but totally us and very enjoyable. Anyway, he screamed bloody murder for quite awhile after we left. He wants to be held or playing near me quite a bit lately, which makes it rather difficult to function. If I don't hold him when he wants he lets the whole neighborhood know. So we're still working on the self control.

Bam also broke out with another mysterious skin aliment for two days. He would wake with it, I would give him a dose of benadryl and it would go away after about an hour and then he had it again the next day, but not as bad. Nothing has changed as far as food, lotions, soaps, etc. Who knows. I guess I should just be happy that it's gone.

Vent

2009-02-16T14:42:00.002-05:00

I am so tired of hearing about the mortgage crisis. I feel bad for the people that have lost their jobs and are now struggling to make their house payments. I don't feel sorry for people who didn't make intelligent decisions when buying their house. Why should tax dollars go to them? Why do they get a break for making a bad decision?

We took out a loan that would be easy to pay on. Is it our dream house? NO. Would I love a bigger, newer, nicer, fancier house? Yes. But we chose to make a safe purchase, a smart purchase. So how about all of the people who made smart decisions get a break for once?

Kind of like the commercials talking about negotiating your tax debt. What? If I didn't pay my taxes I'm sure that they would come after me. How do these people get away without paying huge amounts of taxes and why do they have a right to negotiate a lower amount? How is that fair or right or just?

Guess I'm just tired of the people who play by the rules always getting shafted.

Rough Couple of Days

2009-02-04T14:55:00.002-05:00

The illness has spread. I'm not even sure of the order at this point. Sugar had it first. I got it Sunday evening. Chuck got it Monday morning. Sweet got it today. I'm not sure if Bam got it before or after us. I don't know what it is, but it's bad. Chuck and I are starting to come around. The boys don't have much appetite and will do good for quite awhile (sometimes more than 24 hrs) and then be sick again. I'm tired of cleaning. Tired of laundry. Very ready for a healthy family.

Once Again.

2009-02-01T14:35:00.002-05:00

So Sugar did pretty well last night. He ate most of his dinner and had a snack before bed without anything resurfacing. He slept well last night and seemed ok this morning. He didn't eat much breakfast, but I chalked that up to a rough day yesterday. I should have thought more of it because his breakfast made a second debut on my couch this morning. So no it wasn't a fun morning. I got to clean couch cushions, pillows, and a child in addition to my normal Sunday house cleaning and laundry (ok so laundry's pretty much a daily thing).

He seems to be doing better now though. He ate and ate at lunch, which did make me a bit nervous, but every time I asked how his belly was he responded with belly all better. Lunch has stayed put and he is acting like himself so we'll see. I don't think I'll hold my breath though.

Still crossing my fingers that the rest of us don't end up with it too.

Chuck has a cough and is losing his voice and I heard Bam coughing after I put him down for a nap, so maybe it's on to round 4 and 5 of illness. I can't wait for spring.

We haven't been albe to build a snow man with the kids since it hasn't been good packing snow. Today it's warmer out so the snow would probably be great, but we're stuck inside due to illness. Blah!

Can I Please Catch a Break?

2009-01-31T15:33:00.011-05:00

So it's been a little crazy around here lately. Sweet had roseola. The boys had it last month so he apparently didn't want to miss out on the fun. She got rid of the rash a lot faster than the boys did, which was nice.

When she broke out in the rash, Bam decided he needed some more of the attention and got a fever. It lasted a couple of days and finally broke today.

Sugar couldn't be left out. Today I should have known that something was amiss when he didn't devour all of his breakfast (fruit and cereal). Add to that yesterday and today he kept saying I'm freezing. I had taken his temp earlier and it was normal so I figured that he was just playing. Not so much. As I was cleaning up from lunch I hear him wailing. I found him in my room covered in puke. Apparently mom's bed seemed like the optimal spot. So poor little one has a stomach bug. Hopefully this will pass quickly without spreading.

I miss how healthy the kids were last year. I think they each had one illness last winter. Now, it's once a month. I know it's normal and it's building their immune system, but come on. They eat great, sleep great, and play hard. Doesn't that count for something?

I finally got some pictures uploaded, it hadn't worked the last few times I had tried. So here are a bunch of random pictures. Enjoy.

He's starting to enjoy the snow most of the time.

No, she's not reaching for help. She's trying to make a snow angel on our snow blown drive way. The snow was way too deep to make one in the yard.

See how high the snow is in the background? And it was still snowing.

She loves to accessorize with anything and everything.

Too cute.

Bam thinks that every toy should be a riding toy.

Which in turn make Sugar want to do it too.

Maybe his father is right. I might have to break down and get his hair cut soon since I can put it in a pony tail.

Lately this has been the hot spot for looking at books. The big kids are starting to make up their own stories as they go now.

I love this picture. It totally shows how much Bam wants to be just like his big brother.

Been Awhile

2009-01-25T15:13:00.002-05:00

Haven't said much in awhile. I wasn't feeling so well for awhile and I just seem to have been short on time.

Sweet and Sugar are starting to ask to use the potty a little more, but not always successfully. At least they have some interest. I tried putting Sweet in panties the other day since she asks everyday. I told her she could wear them as long as she let me know when she had to go because Elmo doesn't like to get wet. So much for that, it lasted about 5 minutes. Baby steps.

Sweet has had a fever the last couple of days. It is a lot lower today so hopefully it's on it's last leg. I'm still keeping my fingers crossed that no one else gets it. We'll see. Other than being hot she seems to be normal.

We took the kids to the playground at the mall the other day. They had a good time, but it made me very aware of how much they need that. We have a good amount of toys of all types here and they have each other to play with, but other than occasionally playing with their cousins, they don't interact with other kids. They were all shy at first. They didn't know how to react to the bigger kids pushing people around. I wanted to step in, but sat back and watched instead. I don't want my kids to fight, but I don't want them to let others walk all over them and shove them around either. We'll definitely have to start going out to play a little more and see if they start to stand up for themselves a little.

Yesterday I was sure that someone had taken my kids during the night and replaced them with children that I didn't know or like. Children that liked to be mean, hit, kick, instigate fights with each other, take, not listen, and throw lots and lots of tantrums. I was very relieved to find that my children had been returned this morning. I really missed them.

Snow Pics

2009-01-15T15:11:00.012-05:00

Yesterday was another poopy nap day and was a poopy night too. So far nap time has gone ok. They'll probably wake up screaming any second because I typed that.

Here's some cute snow pics.

Memories

2009-01-14T16:35:00.003-05:00

I love that Sweet and Sugar are getting to the stage that they can recall what they did during the day or week. When I put them to bed at night I tell them that I love them and if it was a good day I thank them for being good and tell them that I had fun with them. Sometimes I tell them what we're going to do the next day.

Sweet has started to tell me her favorite parts of the day while I'm putting her to bed. Last night after I told her that I had fun playing with her she said yeah fun frog and running. We had played downstairs and I found a frog puppet. Sugar was a little taken aback by it at first, but then the frog (on my hand) started talking to him and chasing the kids around the basement and tickling them when they got caught. It made me smile to hear her say that she had fun with it too.

Sweet has finally gotten brave enough to go down the slides like a normal person. Up until recently she went down on her belly feet first. She started going down on her back but lying down about a month ago, but after several head bumps at the bottom has finally realized that mommy is right, it's much better to sit up and go down. Sugar is still to afraid to go down sitting and still prefers to go down on his belly. Bam who always went down the right way now thinks that it's cool to go down on your belly because that's what Sweet and Sugar do.

Bam is starting to use some sign language, which has helped the communication gap. He's also trying to pronounce words, but can't get a whole word out yet. He just gets the beginning of it. Like the other night he had pjs on that had dogs on them. He kept pointing to them and saying do but couldn't get the g sound.

Children are stirring and dinner needs to be cooked. I'm currently uploading some pics onto my computer so maybe some pics tomorrow.

Summary

2009-01-13T15:38:00.005-05:00

The last few days have been well, hard. I am not getting the sleep that I should. I haven't been for quite some time. I stay up after the kids are in bed. It's my time. I can get done whatever I need too. I can work out, which has taken up most of my me time lately. I can watch TV and veg if I want. I stay up to wake Chuck for work.

Bam is teething. He's working on his last molar, it's FINALLY coming through. Bam does not do well with teething. He doesn't like to sleep much when teething. This means that I'm up late and up early. A tired momma with three kids who are fussy from being coped up and two are teething is not a pretty picture.

We've also been working on getting rid of Bam's passy. Let me add that I never intended for him to use a passy. He was so inconsolable the second night in the hospital that the nurses took him from me and returned him the next morning with a passy, which was definitely not what I wanted since I was nursing him. We tried to get rid of it after he came home, but it ended up being the only thing that could calm him. He's a very oral child. He chews on everything. That's a whole other story though.

Now back to the passy. This has been a long slow process over about two months and no it's still not gone. First I didn't attach it to his clothes anymore. Then I cut the tip. Then I cut more from the tip. This seems to be where teething kicked up a notch and all **** broke out. He has now decided that he will not sleep in his room for a nap. He will sleep on the couch if someone (me) lays by him till he falls asleep.

You might say, well at least he's sleeping. The problem is that if he's sleeping on the couch and the kids and Chuck are asleep in the bedrooms I can't get anything done during nap time (laundry, dinner, cleaning, etc). Lucas also takes the longest nap when he sleeps on the couch which leaves me with two two year olds who I need to keep quiet in the middle of two sleeping people (one at each end of the house).

So yesterday I finally had enough and let him cry it out. This didn't go so well. He cried the entire time he was in there. I felt bad for Sweet and Sugar. So today I broke and gave him a full passy when I put him down for his nap. Guess what! He went to sleep in his room without a protest. I guess I can live with a child who needs a passy to sleep for a little while longer. At least he doesn't walk around with it.

Today Sweet asked to get out of her bath to sit on the potty and she actually went potty! Yeah Sweet. So now she's developing awareness, we just have to get the desire to want to use the potty like a big girl. The other day I showed her the Elmo panties that I have for her. She was incredibly excited about them. I'm hoping that they will be the motivation that she needs. She wanted to wear them today, but when I asked if she was going to use the potty instead of her diaper today she said no. I told her that Elmo doesn't want to get dirty so she can't wear him until she decides to use the potty. We'll see how this goes.

Sweet has entered terrible twos. She has so much attitude at times it's crazy. She is a very opinionated little girl and she also does not like to let the boys near her pink things. If one of the boys tries to put on her hat or slippers, she has a fit. We are definitely developing selective hearing too. She has learned how to ignore already.

Sugar is definitely in terrible twos. He's into taking. He'll walk up to one of his siblings and rip what ever toy they are playing with out of their hands or their hat off of their head and run with it. We also like to tell mom when we disagree with what she has to say. A little bossy at times. I know that it could be a lot worse and I am very thankful that it isn't. He gets lots of praise when he's being good.

We've spent lots of time playing in the snow the last couple of days. It's been very good to get outside and play. Bam didn't take so well to it the first day, but had a blast the second day, and then decided it really wasn't that fun the third day. Sweet loved it the first two days before having lots of attitude the third day and not wanting to play. Sugar was just ok with it the first two days and loved it the third day. Too bad it wasn't good packing snow. We didn't make it outside this morning (which is sad because it was a little warmer so the snow probably would have been perfect for a snowman) and I think it's going to be too cold for the next couple of days, we'll see.

Weekend in a Nutshell

2009-01-05T15:42:00.004-05:00

Well me put our cat down on Friday. It was very hard on both of us. My aunt (she manages the vet hospital) called after it was done to let me know that she was gone and she didn't fight. I had kept myself busy after Chuck left with her, but after the phone call I lost it. I haven't cried like that in a long time. We miss her. We haven't brought it up to the kids. I wasn't sure what to say to them. I don't know that they'd understand yet. They haven't brought her up yet. Our other cat is definitely missing her too. He's been very needy since she's been gone. He's always been the quiet cat and he's gotten a little more vocal. He normally doesn't come around the kids all that much and he's been loved on by the kids quite a bit during the last couple of days. I feel bad for him too. He lost his companion, as temperamental as she was during the last couple of months.

Saturday I drove to southern Ohio to see my college roommate. It had been too long since we had seen each other and it was her baby shower. It was very nice to get to see her again. I still miss seeing my college and grad school friends. I wish her an easy delivery to a happy healthy baby. She's due this month!

Well, we decided to try another money saver. I cut Chuck's and Sugar's hair this weekend. Sugar's turned out great. Chuck's isn't bad, but it isn't good either. I need to play around with it a little more next time. I was definitely nervous about Chuck's, since he went first. I have never cut anyone's hair, other than Sweet's bangs. I'll have to post some pictures of Sugar soon.

Good and Bad

2008-12-30T16:05:00.004-05:00

Well the good is that Bam finally started a nap in his bed today. He hasn't done this in two days. It was very nice to have some kid free time to get something done. We got the Christmas decorations and tree down. Yeah! I'm normally sad about taking the tree down, but I was very ready this year. I can't keep Lucas away from it and he's been braking more and more ornaments lately.

The bad. It's rater incredibly sad. We're going to have to put one of our cats down this week. She hasn't been herself for months. It's even worse because most of the time she seems fine. She's great with the kids and us and is as lovey as can be. But she decided a couple of months ago that she no longer likes our other cat that we've had for four years. She growls as soon as he walks in the room and attacks him if he comes close. The poor guy has scratches and bites all over him. She's also gone to spraying anytime she gets upset or peeing on the floor in front on the litter box. Nothing we've done seems to make her happy. So needless to say we are very sad that we are going to lose our first baby. She was our first pet together. She's definitely had her share of health problems (this behavior started after her last problem was treated) but she's been a good cat until recently. She will be dearly missed. It's going to be hard to explain it to the kids as they are very attached to her also.

Pictures Pictures Pictures

2008-12-28T16:03:00.011-05:00

Sorry about the random order. Enjoy.

Mother Letters Recieved

2008-12-28T15:55:00.004-05:00

True to his word, the man behind the mother letter project sent out a copy of all of the letters that he had received on Christmas eve. He will be sending another email with the letters he received on Christmas eve and Christmas day. I've been reading them, a couple a day when I have a moment. They are absolutely incredible. I've cried every day that I've read letters. It's a wonderful gift. All of the insight, advice, and just stories from other mothers.

Today was one of those days. Bam decided he didn't want to nap. I was not happy. Nap time is my time to get things done. I had dinner to make, floors to clean, and I was hoping to get to use the fit for awhile, but no not today. I was feeling very selfish during this time. I let him fuss for a few minutes while I got dinner to a place where I was able to stop and go back to it and then I went and got him. It took about 40 minutes of cuddling on the couch to get him to fall asleep. Afterwords, I didn't want to go finish dinner, I wanted to keep holding him.

Reading the letters really brings everything back into perspective. So thank you to Seth for giving your gift to all of us who contributed.

Christmas Joys

2008-12-27T15:09:00.004-05:00

Well our camera has been recovered so I'll have to try to get some pictures uploaded soon, but sorry, don't feel like it right now. I got a fun new work out tool for Christmas and I can't seem to get enough of it. I've done over two hours since I got it. I need to run again tonight. Getting sick last week and then the holiday really hurt my routine. Maybe I'll run tonight and then treat myself to some more fun workouts.

I was really disappointed yesterday when Chuck went to load some songs on his mp3 player I got him and it was boxed with the wrong usb and ac cords. So now all it is, is a overpriced radio until we get it straightened out. No one answered at the company yesterday so we sent an email. We'll see how long it takes to get a response.

I've been really impressed with Sugar since Christmas. Santa brought him a GeoTrax, since the child is absolutely head over heals for trains. Sugar normally has a hissy anytime anything that he is play with is disturbed. Yes, I do realize that he is two, but he can also be very dramatic. He has been so calm with the GeoTrax that it's disturbing. There have been times that Bam or Sweet have caused trains to derail or taken the train or taken the track apart. Sugar just calmly and quietly waits for us to discover what has happened and patiently waits for us the rectify the situation. I'm not sure where this calm and collected child came from but I'm very pleasantly surprised with him. We'll see how long it lasts.

Sweet on the other hand is normally pretty easy going. Santa brought her a doll with a high chair and bed. Grandma also got her a stroller, bottles, and a carrier for her baby. The doll is definitley a hit. Everyone loves it. This is quite distressing to Sweet. She would prefer that no one touches her baby or any of it's things.

Bam has been well, Bam. He's into everything and has destroyed a few things already. Hopefully he outgrows this destructive phase sometime soon. I hope that he outgrows hitting and biting sometime soon too.

2008-12-26T16:26:00.003-05:00

I hope that everyone had a very Merry Christmas. We had a wonderful day with lots of family and food. The kids had a good time playing with their cousins and the adults too. We did our two stops, my parents and Chuck's grandparents. We visited Chuck's other grandparents on Christmas eve. I'd post some pictures, but we left our camera at one of our stops, at least it was the last one. All in all we had a fabulous day. The kids did very well considering they were very sleep deprived. We didn't have any problems until we got home about an hour before bed time and Sugar was beyond tired, but that's totally expected and understandable. The kids received some clothes, books, toys, and movies. Santa brought them bikes and a cozy coupe.Bam was quite distressed that Santa didn't think that he was ready for a bike, but he seems to be coping pretty well today. My dad also made them some absolutely beautiful rocking horses, defiantly heirloom items. One of my favortie presents was a picture colage from Chuck with a saying about family being created by love. A prefect present.

Special Delivery

2008-12-23T15:03:00.003-05:00

I received my packets back from Homeland Security. I got Sweet's on Friday and Sugar's on Monday. Not too bad, about 5 weeks. Most of the paperwork is stuff that we've seen. I was really hoping to get more info or pictures. Well at least now I know what was in the sealed envelope.

Week in review

2008-12-21T15:12:00.004-05:00

Blah! That's exactly how I feel. Bam got sick again this week and was kind enough to spread it around again. Sweet and Sugar fought it off in a day, but Sweet has a runny nose again Sugar has a fever again so apparently it's trying to make a come back. Chuck and I started to get it a couple of days ago so hopefully it won't last too much longer. I think our family has a curse on it. The kids always seem to get sick for every holiday. They were sick on or during the week of Halloween, Thanksgiving, and now Christmas. Hopefully we'll be healthy for Christmas or maybe New Years.

Our new bed came last Monday and we got it together on Tuesday. It is absolutely wonderful. As an added bonus, it has features that we wanted, but the salesman said were not included in this model. Apparently he was mistaken. It's so comfy and going from a full to a queen makes a huge difference.

Friday I got to go to my former employer's Christmas party. It was really nice. The party was nice, it always is. But it was also wonderful to get to see all of my former coworkers. I really do miss the people that I worked with and the kids that I worked with. I stopped in at my old office on the way to the party and got to see a few extra people. I love being able to stay home and raise the kids (and the kids are excelling and doing wonderfully because of it), but I definitely miss parts of my former life at times. I can always to back to a job in my field, but the time I have with the kids now is irreplaceable.

Tomorrow we go to court. Chuck filed to have his birth certificate changed. His step mother will now legally be his mother. Definitely a huge step. After we readopted Sweet and Sugar, he decided it was something that he wanted to do and he realized how much it would mean to his step mom.

I can't believe Christmas is this week. I probably won't post much this week either since Chuck will be off work for a few days and we'll be doing family things. I hope you have a Merry Christmas!

Rambling

2008-12-15T15:22:00.003-05:00

Well Sweet and Sugar had their Dr apts last week. I do believe that Sugar and Bam now weigh the same. I say believe because Bam was weighed naked on the baby scale and Sugar got to keep his clothes on and stand on the big kid scale. Sugar also moved up on the height scale, Yeah! He's up to the 20th percentile! He's still not on the chart as far as weight is concerned, but he's made progress. Sweet has managed to maintain her status of being right around the midline on everything. I am so thankful the have three happy healthy beautiful children.

I think we're ready for Christmas with the kids. Wrapping is done and gifts are assembled. Yeah! I still have to pick up a couple gift certificates this week and get a couple odds and ends, but nothing big.

Chuck's birthday was this weekend. We didn't really do anything special for it. We did have a family dinner on Sunday to celebrate with my side of the family, which is always nice. The kids had fun and everyone ate too much. Bam had a bad napping day and was miserable last night, but is back to himself today. He's getting more molars in and I'll be happy when he's done cutting teeth. My kids definitely love the family get togethers. Bam loves to ham it up and make everyone laugh. Sugar loves playing with his cousin who's about a year older than him (they are too cute together). Sweet loves all the people to love on.

Sugar and Sweet, but more Sugar is into singing Christmas carols now. They especially love jingle bells. Sugar knows all the words and will sing it everytime he hears the melody. It's very cute. The kids love Christmas decorations. Sugar loves to point out Christmas lights. We were doing an errand the other night and he was looking at lights. We got to a stretch of the road where no one had lights. Sugar starts calling out "Christmas (where) are you?" It was too cute.

I wish the weather would decide what it wanted to do. It will snow one day and rain the next. We haven't gotten enough snow to really take the kids out to play in it. The grounds not even frozen. Definitely a strange December here. Of course since I have time to play in it and don't have to drive much in it this year we won't get much.

Lots of Pictures

2008-12-11T15:51:00.012-05:00

How can you not love that hair? It's too cute. Chuck keeps saying that it's too long and needs cut, but I'm having a hard time with cutting the curls. What do you think?

Don't worry guys, I'll just help myself to the book I want.

This is a welcome sight, sort of. I'm so glad that he's finally getting interested enough in books to sit down and look at them and occasionally sit and listen to a story. Now if only he would stop tearing and eating them.

What a basket full of cuteness. They love the laundry basket, too bad it always leads to fights over it.

What can I get for ya?

Chuck says that he looks like the robber from home alone in his new hat. I just think it's cute.

Could he be a little more relaxed watching tv.

Bam hasn't been able to make it through the morning without falling asleep lately due to his desire to wake up earlier. If he doesn't get to sleep for 30 minutes before lunch this is what happens.

Kinda funny that I normally don't get many pictures of Bam and most of them are of him this month. I'll have to get more of Sweet next time.

Bad to Good or at least Better

2008-12-10T15:42:00.005-05:00

Yesterday morning was one of those days. A day when mom can't make anyone happy, or at least not everyone at the same time. A morning filled with hitting, biting, pushing, taking, throwing, crying, and pure unhappiness (is that even a word). Sometimes being a mother of three little ones can be very overwhelming. The good news Daddy came home from work and mommy got a few minutes to go fold laundry by herself in the basement (yes, it was that bad that folding laundry was a good time), everyone took good naps, everyone woke up happy.

Today is a much better day. Maybe it's that I got a few errands done this morning and only took one child with me for them. Everyone seems to be in a better mood even though two are teething and one yet again for like the trillionth time this year has diaper rash so bad that he's blistering and bleeding (poor little guy, and yes I did tell the Dr about it at his last check up). I'm trying a new diaper cream on him so lets hope that it helps. The Dr also recommended that I increase his fat intake when he gets it (I admit it, they don't get a lot of fat) so Lilly and Emerson should thank him for having diaper rash since lunch consisted of several foods that they don't often get, fried fish, chips, and ice cream. That said, they also had corn and apples, because I can't stand for them to just eat junk and the portions of ice cream and chips were very limited.

Speaking of Dr apt. Bam had his check up last week. It seems that he has fallen below the 50th percentile for everything. Should I be surprised considering our size? Probably not, but I am. I had it in my head that he's going to be big. Maybe it's because of how fast he grew after he was born that is, or how freakishly strong he is for a one year old. I'm kind of wondering if part of it (his decline in the growth chart) is due to his lack of vit D consumption. He's not a fan of milk. He nursed well and then did well with the switch to formula, but is not a fan of milk. He would much rather drink water than milk. If I can get 10oz of milk in him it's a really good day. The Dr didn't seem to concerned since he eats other dairy, but we've put him on a vitamin regardless. If nothing else I feel better about it. I've also started making the yogurt with whole milk for the kids again. He is a fan of that and I've tweaked the recipe a little to get it to a better consistency. Who knows. Only time will tell. Maybe he's meant to be a small powerhouse. Sweet and Sugar have their check ups later this week, what fun that should be.

Holidays

2008-12-08T15:11:00.004-05:00

So I think we're just about done Christmas shopping! Yeah! I still have to pick up a few more things for my family, but I already know what they will be. I want to get one more thing for Bam, but it's out of stock on line so I'm hoping that it either comes in stock soon or that I can find it locally. Plus we did it all without charging it. Now, if everything would just arrive before Christmas. I still have all of the wrapping to do. A lot of the stuff that we got the kids is bigger items that will have to be put together, thus no wrapping involved so it shouldn't be too bad. I'll probably do it one night after I work out. I got my Christmas cards mailed out today too (except for the couple that I don't have addresses for).

Right now I'm about ready to take the Christmas decorations down. The kids won't leave the tree alone, or I should say the boys mainly Bam. Sweet doesn't bother it too often. I say again that Sweet is my saving grace, for the time being, I'm sure that will change in about 10 years. Not only do they like to touch, Bam likes to pull off the ornaments, and Bam and Sugar like to sneak behind the chair to get to the outlet where the tree is plugged in and plug and unplug the tree. I don't know what to do to get them to leave it alone other than not plug it in and leave the outlet protector in, but if you're never going to turn your tree on, what's the point of having it up (I know, that was a serious run on). I'm at my whits end. It totally freaks me out. Plus we have this giant snowman (it's seriously about 4 1/2 feet tall) that sings and dances. The kids love it and play with it nonstop. The problem, other than the fact that it's extremely annoying the 1000 time it goes of in a day) is that the new fun thing is to push it over. Ah, the joy of the holidays.

Yesterday, we had a great nap time. Sugar slept 2 hours in his bed and Bam took his whole nap in his bed. You see as I've said before the boys have a horrible habit of not wanting to sleep in their cribs long at nap time. They sleep great in them at night and will go to sleep in them during the day, but wake up usually about an hour into nap and then I have to bring them out on the couches and they finish their naps their. Today was not a good day. Sugar started calling for me about 20 minutes after I put him down. I don't think he ever went to sleep and he hasn't fallen asleep on the couch either, which I'm sure will lead to a bad evening with him. Oh well, at least he is laying on the couch amusing himself.

Pretty Good Day

2008-12-06T22:11:00.005-05:00

Yesterday was a great day. Well ok good. Bam had his check up in the morning, which made Sweet and Sugar happy since they got to spend the morning at Grandma and Papa's house. Bam was not so happy with the morning. He gave us dirty looks the whole way to the Dr's (25 minutes) when Sweet and Sugar got to get out at their house and he got left in the car. He definitely remembers the exam tables at the Drs too and doesn't like them at all. Too funny considering that Sweet and Sugar don't seem to make the connection.

Chuck and I got to go out to dinner without kids, thanks again to my parents who I love dearly, last night. It was nice to get out by ourselves for awhile. It was a very much needed outing. It had been way too long since we had been out without kids.

After dinner we went to the mall to pick up a present for one of the kids and ended up buying a bed too. I'm still in a little bit of shock. We've been wanting a sleep number forever and they started a special yesterday. It's very similiar to the bed we've been wanting, but it was half the price. Chuck's been saving money for his dream bed and has enough to pay for it so we did it. I look forward to sleeping in a bed together that doesn't make us both hurt, but I think I'm still in a little bit of shock about spending that kind of money right now.

We also decorated our tree yesterday before we went out. We definately don't have all of the ornaments that I would like to on the tree, but I don't trust the kids, or rather I really don't trust Bam. He can't keep his little hands off of the tree. Sometimes I just don't know what to do with him.

Today was a productive day, so hopefully tomorrow will be good too.

Teething and Cuteness

2008-12-02T15:02:00.008-05:00

What was God thinking when he thought of teething? Sugar was great. I say this because he was a really incredibly nasty child when he was teething, but he did it very quickly. At one point he cut five teeth at the same time! And No, I don't blame him for being nasty during the process I can only imagine how that felt.

Sweet and Bam don't seem to be in a rush for teeth. They are definitely dragging their feet. Sweet is about 27 months now and still doesn't have all of her teeth. She's still got three to go. Lately she's been waking up sobbing, which I can only guess is from the teeth since Sweet rarely cries. The poor child breaks my heart. I've tried hylands, IB profin, and tylenol, but none seem to help much. I imagine it's like taking tylenol for a migrane.

Bam just got his first molar in at 15 months. He's a mean child right now. He is constantly biting and I can't seem to break him of it. I hope that it's just because he's teething at it will go away on it's own, because nothing that I seem to do to try to discourage it is helping. I hope the other three molars come is quicker than the first one or we're going to look like purple people eaters by the time he's done. I guess I should look on the bright side, he's leaving bruises, but at least he's not breaking the skin.

I haven't posted much cuteness lately so I thought that I'd post a few pictures. We took pictures for Christmas cards the other day. Trying to get two two year olds and a one year old to sit still, smile, and be nice to one another is not an each task. While I'm not going to post the one that we picked I will post some of the duds and runner ups. Sugar is sad in some of them because he now wants to be behind the camera watching the screen to see what you're taking a picture of instead of getting his picture taken. This led to tears. Sweet was willing the cheese it up. Bam had no idea what was going on, the first picture totally should have a caption of "Hey Sugar, why are we dressed up and sitting on a blanket on the couch?" While the last one says "This is stupid, I'm out of here."

Mother Letters

2008-12-01T21:24:00.003-05:00

This is an incredible thing to be a part of. It is called The Mother Letter Project. What an amazing gift it would be. Some woman out there is truly blessed to have a husband that loves her enough to think of and then pull off something like this. Please stop by and contribute, it doesn't cost anything but a little time. It took me awhile, but I did. Help make this the best Christmas gift ever for this lucky lady.

Please Say Thank You

2008-11-28T16:01:00.002-05:00

I found this today and I think it is not only a wonderful thing, no matter how you feel about the war, but something that everyone should take a few seconds to do. Those men and women are risking their lives to fight for our country. Thank you cards are the least we should be doing for them. Please take a few seconds to participate.

Happy Thanksgiving

2008-11-26T22:23:00.002-05:00

Today was one of those days. You know, one that made me want to scream and pull my hair out. A day full of tantrums, kids that didn't want to listen or do what they're supposed to, kids that woke up way too early, kids that are sick and or teething, kids that don't want to eat what they're given. Yes it was one of those days for all three kids.

The good thing is that today is over. The kids are in bed and asleep. I hope they sleep until around 7 which is their normal wake up time, instead of 5:45. I hope they wake up healthy and happy.

Tomorrow is a new day. A fresh start. Hopefully it will be a better day after all it is Thanksgiving. It should be a much better day. We'll be out of the house and around lots of family and lots of food. (Distractions and changes of scenery can be a wonderful thing for toddlers.) Tomorrow is a day to think of all of the things that we have to be thankful for. Some things at the top of my list are my wonderful husband and my 3 incredible children (who even after a rough day, I wouldn't trade a second of it for the world because I got to spend it with them), my parents who do so so much for everyone, my family that always has fun together, my friends, and the ability to stay at home with my kids.

I hope that everyone has a day full of family, friends, good food, and things that make wonderful memories. Happy Thanksgiving.

Quiet Lately

2008-11-25T16:30:00.014-05:00

I've been pretty quiet on here lately. Not much on my mind I guess. Just battling sick kids. Sugar did finally get better, but woke with a fever yesterday, fever's gone today. Sweet has a cough and runny nose today. Bam has a bit of a runny nose. It amazes me that three kids who eat well, get lots of physical activity, get lots of sleep, and aren't in day care or school get sick this much. Who knows. I just want healthy kids for Thanksgiving. I don't know that we'll get to partake in the festivities if the kids are sick. I would hate to get our grandparents or anyone else sick for that matter.

I did get a letter back yesterday in regards to my info requests for Sweet and Sugar. I was pleasantly surprised to get a response that quickly. I was not happy when it said that it could take 120 days to get the info. Seriously? I know of people recently getting it in about four weeks so I'll keep my fingers crossed.

My arthritis (yes I'm in my 20s and have arthritis, apparently due to pregnancy, they never mention that do they?) has been doing better lately. I'm not sure if it's due to me being off of work; not using my hands like I did at work/less stress, or if it's the stuff I've been taking. I stopped taking the rx awhile ago. (I'm NOT recommending that anyone just stop their meds!) The idea of starting daily meds in my 20s doesn't sound like a good idea to me, regardless of how safe the Dr said it was even though he wanted to monitor my blood work to make sure. So instead I'm taking the over the counter Osteo Bi Flex and eating turmeric every day. Turmeric is aweful. I mix a little (and I do mean a little) in with my oatmeal in the morning. I hate the smell and the taste of it, but maybe it's helping.

I've even been able to start doing some of my old work outs. I've been able to start lifting a couple of times a week and I'm using my treadmill again. The arthritis is in my hands and my feet, which made those things difficult. I'm definately happy to be working out again. I feel so much better when I am.

Sweet and Sugar's new favorite thing is to argue. They will sit in their high chairs or be in the play room together and just start yelling NO! at each other for no apparent reason. It's highly annoying. I really hope that this faze doesn't last too long.

Here's some cuteness to put a smile on your face.

Sweet in my robe from when I was little.

Sugar screeching in delight at his brother after their naps.

Bam post nap. Looks fine from the front, but the hair is pretty rough in the back. Pictures just don't do it justice.

National Adoption Month

2008-11-22T14:28:00.010-05:00

This month is national adoption month. I think that it's fitting that it's November, the month of Thanksgiving. Everyday I am thankful for all of my children. I couldn't imagine life without them. All three of them are so incredibly different, yet all are amazing in their own ways. Each of them has their own unique personality. It's funny to see three children within a year of each other in age, raised by the same people,yet they are so different. I love to look back and see how they've grown, changed, and learned. They truly are amazing little people.

Recently I brought out Sweet and Sugar's life books to show them. They were enthralled with their pictures. Looking at the books brings back a lot of memories for me. I wonder what they remember about their foster moms, if anything. I hope that they'll treasure those pictures and the information that we have about their life before they came home. I'm trying to collect as much information as possible for them. Recently I sent away for some of the information that we had to give to customs. I also learned this week that there is another form that I can fill out to collect the rest of the information the government may have on the kids. I plan on making that request also.

I know that being a blended (or whatever to want to call it) family won't always be easy, but I hope that they always know that they were always wanted and loved. I hope that we can instill the knowledge that adoption is a choice of love on all sides.

People still ask how the three get along or what it's like to have all three. As you can see from the pictures they are all just normal brothers and their sister. They have their fights, but they love each other. They kiss each other before bed, they give hugs, they hold hands in the car, they're concerned when another is upset, they don't know life without each other. I hope that close bond that they currently share will always be there. For now, they are best friends. Even though they're getting bigger every day, they'll always be my babies.

1-2-3-4-5 Sick

2008-11-20T21:00:00.004-05:00

Sugar started us off with a cold over the weekend. It has officially spread through the house. Poor Emerson got it the worst and seems to be having a hard time kicking it. Finally today we did see some improvement. Hopefully his attitude will improve with his illness.
Thankfully Chuck did clean and bring in the rest of the outdoor toys that I wanted in the basement for the winter. Wow did they have fun with them the first night. We've spent most of our time between dinner and bedtime in the basement playing since. I need to move a few more toys down from upstairs. It's going to be very nice to have two play rooms this year. A change of scenery can make a world of difference in the attitudes of three toddlers.

Enjoying the playset in the basement.

Maintenance

2008-11-18T13:50:00.004-05:00

Quality non kid time is a hard thing to come by sometimes after you have those precious bundles of joy at home. With Chuck working night and needing to sleep during the day or evenings, it becomes a challenge to see each other let alone have quality time together. It is an effort to keep our relationship up. Relationships aren't easy, they do require maintenance to run smoothly. The relationship that you had with your spouse before the kids came along is the reason that you and your spouse decided to have children in the first place. Make sure to put the needed effort into your relationship. Make time together even if it is just staying up to watch a movie or talk (we watched Strangers last week, very creepy).
Don't forget that your friendships also need maintenance. Once kids come along friendships can change. Friends that aren't married or don't have kids may drift away. Maybe they or you think that there's nothing in common to talk about or maybe they don't know when a good time to call is (sometimes there isn't a good time, but you need to make time). Don't forget to put effort into your friendships. Everyone needs a few really good friends to connect with.

What 3 Toddlers Can Do

2008-11-13T20:35:00.005-05:00

This is what three toddlers can do for or rather to a house, more specifically my toddlers in my house.

These are just two of the rooms that had toys scattered through them the other day, after a fun day of playing. What you need to remember is that toddlers can also help undo this. My children know that picking up their toys is something that needs to be done, not something that magically happens or is mom or dad's job. They help pick up their toys before nap time and bed time. (Yes there were this many toys brought out between nap time and bedtime.) The lesson is that even young children can help. It's much easier to start with good habits than to try and correct bad habits, not that my children don't have any of those (my sons are napping on the couches at the moment instead of in their beds). Even my 1 year old is catching on. Some days he helps without prompting, other days I may hand him a magnet or two and ask him to please put them on the frig. The point is that he's already learning that it's his responsibility along with all of the rest of us.

A Shot at PT

2008-11-13T20:12:00.006-05:00

Well I decided to give potty training a shot earlier this week. We've had the potties and undies for months for months and let me tell you that it's not easy to find undies for a kid as small as Sugar. I only found one brand that's small enough for him. They occasionally sit on the potties and have seen the undies, but not worn them yet. Once in awhile they will ask to sit on the potty and actually produce (TMI I know). Most mornings I ask them if they want to wear big kid undies today. The usual reply is no, but this week they said yes. So we put the potties in a central location for the day and got out the undies and had the discussion that we need to pee and poo in the potty if we're going to wear the undies. I set a timer for 20 minutes and every 20 minutes we sat on the potties. Sounds good right? Not so much.

Sweet doesn't like wet panties. She knows that you're not supposed to pee in your panties, but she hasn't gotten to the point where she knows when she's going to pee. Instead, she would wet herself and then say sorry to let me know that she needed new panties. Five wet panties later, we were back in a diaper for lunch.
Sugar doesn't care if he's wet or not. I was hopeful since he wasn't going through the undies like his sister, but that's just because he didn't pee as often. He didn't even acknowledge that he had gone. So he also was back in a diaper for lunch.

A little disappointing? Yes. But they are young. They will eventually get it. And yes, I do realize that there will be many many many a pair of wet undies to come. After all accidents do happen.
Potty training is really no fun at all. It definitely makes a parent feel totally and completely incompetent. So we'll give it a rest. We'll only sit on the potties when they ask to (Sweet did get up from her nap asking to sit on the potty but to no avail). Hopefully they'll be ready to try again in a few more weeks. In the mean time, they do love their potty book have you seen my potty.

I'd add a few cute pics, but my photo software seems to be on the fritz which equals one unhappy momma.
I finally got it working so here we go. Pictures of my little ones eating some freshly baked cookies the other night as a rare treat. Did they ever so enjoy them.

Prize Giveaway I Would Love To Win

2008-11-10T22:14:00.003-05:00

blissfully domestic is giving away an Epson Artisan 800.
I would love to win this! Wouldn't it be great not to have to drag three small children to Staples when I need to make copies, speaking of I still need to make copies for the G-884. I could actually print some of my photos at home instead of hauling three small children to whatever store I end up sending my pics to. Maybe if I had one of these beautiful machines I would have the motivation to finish Sweet and Sugar's life books and maybe start Bam' baby book. Hmm what a novel idea. For now I'll just dream of winning and keep my fingers crossed.

Cutting Back

2008-11-10T21:38:00.006-05:00

Now that I'm a SAHM we've had to find ways to save money/cut expenses. Here's a few things that we've done. We've managed to cut over $800 from our monthly budget. Every little penny helps right now, especially when staying at home. I'd love more ideas. Feel free to leave ideas as comments.

We had an extra vehicle for Chuck to pick up the kids in (my mom provided most of the childcare while I was a work. I love my family!) This was because his car is not big enough for three car seats. We bought an old used van to do the trick. It wansn't great on gas but it worked. With me at home we don't need it. We put it out at the road for sale and had two people interested. It sold within a week for what we paid for it. Yeah!
One less car = cheaper car insurance.
Me not driving 20+ miles(one way) to work six days a week saves a lot of gas money and allows my car to be listed as for pleasure on our car insurance, which lowers it again.
This may be old fashioned and more work, but I've gone to hanging our laundry to dry. We have a nice basement that allows me to do this.
Unplugging appliances and miscelaneous items that you don't use on a regular basis, like our TV and stereo in the basement. Unplug your cell phone charger when not using it too!
Our light bulbs are energy saving bulbs. Most of ours were already. If they burn out let the manufacturer know and they will replace them. Note, our generic bulbs were much easier to get replaced than our name brand ones.
Shop for sales. If something is on sale for a really good price and is either non perishable or can be frozen, buy up! We got canned veggies for 25 cents a can. That's a good price around here. We bought enough to last a few months since the store didn't have a limit.
Shop at the cheapest store. I used to shop at a local grocery store that I grew up shopping at. Lately the produce is getting worse and the prices are getting higher. Now I do most of my shopping at Super Walmart (one stop for everything is much easier when you have three kids). I do go to other stores for items that are on really good sales.
Turn off what you're not using. Lights and TVs don't need to be on in empty rooms. Remember to turn off your computer, printer, and monitor when not in use.
Open the blinds and let some natural light in!
Eat at home. It really is cheaper and healthier. Plus cooking usually yields left overs.
Get creative with what you can make at home. Like this recipe.
Consider transfering loans to credit unions if possible. They usually have cheaper rates and typically do not charge early termination fees.
Review your cell phone policy. We've gone to one now that I'm at home since Chuck needs it at night and I need it during the day.
Programable thermostat. Keep it cooler at night (you sleep better when it's cooler) and when you're not at home.
Turn down your thermostat. A couple of degrees can make a big difference. Plus why do you need it to be almost 70 when you're wearing winter clothes?
Make a grocery list and stick to it as much as possible and don't shop when you're hungry.
Buy generic when possible. Try generic. It doesn't hurt to try it once. Not all generic items are as good, you have to try them to find out.
Use coupons when buying name brand items. There are a lot of coupon sites out there. Some people love them, but I'm not a huge fan. Plus not all stores accept them (check ahead of time). We get most of our coupons from the Sunday paper, which we don't subscribe to. We get them from relatives or Chuck's work since no one else uses them.
Watch for free after rebate or bogo items. Even if you don't need it right now, wouldn't it be nice not to have to run out and buy a tube of toothpaste next time you run out or some cold medicine next time you need it? Coupons are also great for bogo items. Rite Aid tends to do a lot of free after rebate and bogo items.
Grow your own veggies and fruit if possible. We haven't had much of a garden in two years, but plan on giving it another try next year. I hope to grow some fresh veggies and enough tomatoes that I can freeze most of what we'll need for the year. I would love to have some more fruit trees. We have two apple trees, one is sadly dying, and the other isn't big enough to produce yet. My mother has some pear trees and gave us some pears, pearsauce, and pear jelly this year.

Off My Horse

2008-11-06T20:48:00.003-05:00

I will say one more thing before I dismount. I definitely recommend reading the left behind series.

Back to normal stuff. Today was a pretty good day. Chuck was able to accomplish a few things off of his to do list. Plus he actually wrote out a list of things he wants to get done, so maybe I can help with a few things when kids are sleeping. One of the things he did today was turn Bam's car seat around to forward facing, which makes the fact that I no longer have babies, only toddlers final. Bam definitely enjoyed the new view on the way to and from the Dr office tonight. He actually stayed awake, which has never happened. He normally is asleep within about 2 minutes of leaving the driveway. If only I could have afforded to pay someone to drive him around all night when he was a baby, maybe he would have slept through a night before 5 months. But that's another story.

We also got to take the kids to the park today. I wanted to take them for a walk through the woods before the weather got cold and wet again. It was definitely fun. We walked a couple miles though the woods and around the park and then they got to play on the play ground for awhile. Sweet and Bam were pretty pooped by that time so they didn't play that long and definitely not long enough for Sugar's liking and yes, he let us and everyone else within a 20 mile radius know what his opinion was.

It's Done

2008-11-05T14:33:00.005-05:00

Well the future of our country has been decided. Now that Democrats are in control of the White House and Congress, lets see if they can actually fix everything that they claim they can. I hope that the transition goes as smoothly as possible and that this doesn't turn out to be a big mistake. I'm afraid of Obama's lack of experience. I'm afraid of other countries taking advantage of that, or how they may challenge him. I'm afraid that we may have another attack here on our own soil. I'm afraid that his health care plan will get implemented and drive this country that much farther into debt (Hawaii tried a similar one and had to shut it down after a few months because it was way too costly). I'm afraid of his take to the rich to give to the poor (robin hood want to be) ideas that make me think of socialism. Last I knew America was a great nation because it was a democracy and people could have hopes and dreams of achieving great things, and getting to hold on to what they earned. I hope that my fears are not realized. Just my opinion, please don't send hate mail.

On a lighter note. We got out and went shopping today, just to get out. The thought of having another day like yesterday was too much. We went to the outlet malls to walk around and so we could ride the train (they are Sugar's favorite thing in the world right now). The train was down for maintance, which was a huge bummer, but Sugar took it really well. I think he was just happy to be somewhere different.

Election Day

2008-11-04T14:32:00.004-05:00

Hopefully after today all of the hype and constant talk about the election will be over. I'm tired of all of the commercials and bickering. I'm tired of media who tells what they want to tell. I would love to hear an honest newscast that doesn't contain anyone's opinion, just the truth. Too bad I don't think that will ever happen.

No pictures today. Today is one of those days that makes me want to pull my hair out. I have 3 very ornery kids today. Lots of fits, getting into things that they're not supposed to touch, yelling, taking, etc. I think these days are just to remind me of how good they normally are.

We're still trying to adjust to the time change here. My kids are very schedule oriented. With 3 this close in age you kind of have to have a set schedule to help control the chaos. The time change always messes with their schedule. I think the boys are starting to adjust, I hope. Sweet is still struggling bad. She's waking before 6, wanting to sleep during lunch, and asking for jamies and night night during dinner. Hopefully she'll figure it out soon.

I did cart wheels in front of the kids the other day. Or at least my lame attempt at them. Watching the 3 of them try to figure it out was hilarious. Sugar gives up after a minute and just starts rolling around. Sweet will try and try and try. Bam is even trying to figure it out. Too funny. Today I stood on one leg. It's amazing to see how much or rather how little balance a two year old has. I was jumping on one leg too. That totally stumped them.

Hopefully tomorrow will be better. I normally look forward to Wednesday and Thursday because Chuck has them off, but he has to go to Columbus for a test tomorrow, which means no daddy to help out and I'm taking the kids for flu shots on Thursday. That doesn't sound like fun either.

More Beautiful Weather!

2008-11-03T14:45:00.007-05:00

It is gorgeous here today! I took the kids out to play this morning, which made them and myself very happy. I miss being able to take them out whenever they need to blow off some steam. They say that it's supposed to be nice all week. I hope that they are right. Hopefully we'll all have some fun in the snow this year once it shows up. Last year we didn't get to enjoy it too much.She decided to pick every dandelion that she could find. She was running around the yard squealing trying to find more.

I'm not sure what this tree did to deserve kisses, but it got quite a few this morning. Silly girl.

My little athlete.

The swing always seems to make this little guy extra sleepy.

It's really amazing to see how much the kids have changed since last year. At this time last year, no one was walking let alone talking much. Now all three are running, climbing, jumping, etc. Sweet and Sugar can say their ABCs and count to 10. They learn so much so fast. Last year I taught Sweet and Sugar some sign language and it really helped before they could talk. Now they love signing and will sign while they talk or they'll sign to us or each other for fun. I'm starting to try to get Bam to sign, but he's defiantely not as interested in it as they were. He's not nearly as interested in book either. Sometimes I'm glad that I only have two gabber gaws talking and other times I think it would be so much easier if Bam could communticate a little better.

Well, the yogurt turned out ok. It's definately yobaby consistancy, which is a little runny. After you add fruit it's really runny, but the kids like it. I think I'll add some gellitin the next time I make it though.

2 Days Until It's All Over

2008-11-02T14:02:00.003-05:00

I'm so tired of all of the election garbage. I don't care who you're voting for, I think that we can all agree that we're tired of the name calling, commercials (tv and radio), junk mail, and phone calls. The today show had something on this morning talking about election withdrawal. Are you kidding? At this point I'm not thrilled with either candidate, I'm going to vote for who I think is the lesser of two evils.

This is a good website to find information on the issues on your ballot.

On another note. We went out to dinner last night with my parents, grandparents, and one of my aunts. We tried somewhere different with the kids. Sugar was a little ornery in the beginning, which is very unusual for my kids to be ornery in public (thank God). But all in the the food was good, prices were good, and I think everyone had a good time. We haven't gone out to eat much since the kids came along, so it's always nice when things go well at a different restaurant.

Today I'm trying something new. I use the crock pot a lot. It was the easiest way to make sure that there would be something good for the kids and Chuck to eat when I was working. Now I'm not using it as much, but still like it because it's easy and I have a lot of recipes for it. I've tried some of the recipes from this site, but haven't been a huge fan of most of them. A lot of them call for special ingredients, which honestly just isn't in the budget right now. But I saw one yesterday that I decided to try. I'm making the kids yogurt today. Kids yogurt is so expensive, and this seems cheap and easy so I hope it turns out well.

Halloween

2008-11-01T15:03:00.010-04:00

The fever broke and we got to go to the party and trick or treating. Yeah! I think they had fun. I'm not sure they understood at first, but after they got candy, it was all good. They didn't make it very long before calling it quits and heading back to the party. Sugar enjoyed handing out candy to the other trick or treaters once we got back. Bam was still grumpy and it continued all night. Sweet was definitely stuck to mommy last night. All in all it was a pretty good night and the weather was beautiful. Here's a few pics.

Halloween has definitely made me think more about Bam and his nut allergy. I really hope that he's one of the lucky few that out grow it. Not only does he not get to have the easy go to lunch of PB&J, but NUTS ARE IN EVERYTHING! Just look at some candy wrappers, most say processed in a facility or on equipment that processes nuts, or may contain nuts. Even stuff that you would never guess to have nuts. We're going to have to buy some nut free candy when he's older to trade him for what he gets trick or treating or have him trade with Sweet and Sugar. If he doesn't outgrow it Halloween definitely isn't going to be as fun. We'll always have to inspect for safety and read labels.

Grandma A got the kids new shirts for Halloween. They are wearing them today and look too cute in them.
Can you tell that she didn't want her picture taken? She has fallen in love with everything pink and Elmo. So a pink Elmo shirt could not be any more perfect.

My little monkey. Too cute. And yes his pants are rolled at the top. I haven't taken in this years pants yet. The poor kid is too skinny to hold them up. Even the adjustable waist pants fall down and I can't find a belt small enough to fit him. Plus we're going to try potty training soon and a belt won't make that any easier. At least he smiled for me. He loves to have his picture taken. Every time the camera comes out he starts saying CHEESE.

My little Charlie Brown. I guess we should have named him after his father. Too funny. Definitely a perfect shirt for him.

This and That

2008-10-30T20:47:00.007-04:00

So Bam still has a fever. It's now Thursday night and it's still here. So we ended up at the Dr's today. I can handle it for awhile, but after awhile, it's old and I want an explanation. They ended up testing him for strep (-) and then came to the conclusion that it's roseola. We're hoping that this is it and that he will drop the fever tomorrow. I'd really like to take the kids trick or treating in their awesome costumes that Grandma A made them, but I also don't want to infect anyone at the party if it's something else. At least no one else in the house has gotten sick yet.

His fever seems to go away with meds and he acts like himself when he's on the meds, until today. Today we decided that we were really tired. We fell asleep on Dad shortly after breadkfast. Dad loved it, but wasn't as excited about it when he realized that this was Ban's game plan for the day. We ended up waking him up after 2 1/2 hours (he normally doesn't take a morning nap). He also slept on the way to and home from the Dr. and then acted like he wanted a nap when we got home, but that got vetoed. Poor little guy, hopefully the sleep will help kick whatever it is.

So we finally carved a pumpkin tonight and the one child that I didn't think would go near it, was the only child that wanted anything to do with it. She absolutely loved it. She played in the gook for probably 45 minutes.
So I had planned on attempting to potty train Sugar soon.Sweet had shown interest in it a few months ago and then suddenly decided it was no good. Sugar has been having fun sitting on the potty lately, but Sweet was still timid, until last night. Last night she announced potty and took off for the bathroom. She pooed on the potty (very exciting, you'll understand when you have to potty train a child). So we cheered and she got a Dib (they are great little individual treats) which have become the special treat for pooing on the potty. Today she asked to sit on the potty about 4 times but no results. Then tonight, she comes over to me and says potty, but has already done her business. I explain that it's too late for the potty because she already went in her diaper. This was traumatizing. We demanded a treat in tears for atleast 30 minutes. I guess it's going to take awhile to figure out the whole treat is for using the potty and not just for pooing. Hmm This should be lots of fun.

A picture of Sugar from earlier this month, just because I can't leave anyone out. Plus I love this picture. He was watching leaves fall from the trees.

Lastly I had to include a picture of Bam in his coat. It's a hand me down from Sugar. Somehow I didn't think to look for a winter coat for Bam. I must have just been planning on him fitting into Sugar's old stuff, but that's certainly not going to work. This coat won't fit him for long, but it's cute while it lasts.

Good Day, Long Night, Yucky Morning

2008-10-28T11:21:00.008-04:00

This is what I woke up to this morning. I am in no way ready for this kind of weather.

Yesterday I took the kids to my former places of employment. The clinic had said that they wanted to have the kids and I for lunch. It was very nice. The kids behaved well, which I am very thankful for. Three small children running around a physical therapy office could have been ugly. Afterward we went to the high school that I worked at. It was good to see everyone one more time and get to show off the kids. The kids had a blast in the AD office. Plus they were worn out be the time we left and conked out on the way home. Only problem was Bam woke up from his nap with a fever of 104, which didn't make for a fun night. Now I'm hoping that no one is sick for Trick or Treat.

Here's a few pictures for the day. They were from earlier this week.

Sweet loves to dress up. She's constantly putting on anything and everything that she can find.

Aren't they cute together?

They can be so sweet together. The boys are definitely starting to get closer. Sugar is such a sweety at times. This morning Sugar and Sweet were kissing in the bath tub. Too cute. Sugar also has to give everyone a kiss before he goes to bed at night. I am so lucky to have these little ones.

Trying again

2008-10-26T15:33:00.010-04:00

I haven't posted in a LONG time. Things get kind of crazy around here and posting is not at the top of the list. I'm going to try to be better about it. For now here are some cute pics I took. We still new to get new professional pictures taken. Hopefully it will happen soon, now that I'm a stay at home mom.

I'll try to refrain from posting a million pictures and just post a few of my favorites. I love taking pictures of them. They are soo cute after all. These are all from this month.

Isn't she a doll? She loves hats.

This is definitely one of my favorites of him. We had so much fun in the leaves that day.

My goofy strong willed child up close. How can you not love that face?

We went to boo at the zoo Friday to meet some other Guatemalan adoptive families. I think it would have been a lot of fun, but the weather was horrible, cold and rainy. It was nice to get out and meet some other families. Maybe we'll do another function with more success. Here are some previews of Halloween costumes.

Pink Poodle. Very fitting since pink is her favorite color.

My little rooster. Too cute.

My little monkey. Need I say more?

This and That

2008-05-08T11:12:00.002-04:00

Gotta love teething biscuits.

Well Bam mastered the stairs and is off. It's kind of nice that he can go where he wants and amuse himself now. But of course there's a downside. He gets into everything. I don't remember having this much trouble teaching Sweet and Sugar what they were not allowed to touch. Using his full name usually makes his stop for a moment, but he just stops turns and smiles at you and then goes back to whatever he was getting in trouble for.My little ham.

On the other hand Sugar has returned. I have desperately missed the sweet fun loving little boy who was replaced by a whiny, ornery child during the teething process. I'm happy to say that his last tooth is about 1/2 way in. Yeah! Emerson also got stung for the first time this week. Poor little guy swelled so bad, scared me.

Sweet's hair almost all up in one band.

Unfortunately Sweet is starting to get another tooth again and is whiny. She doesn't get so ornery like Sugar, but everything makes her cry. Sweet rarely cries. When she's teething, there are days when she rarely isn't crying. Chuck decided to take Sweet for a haircut last night while I was at work. They ended up cutting quite a bit off which made me a little sad since her hair was finally getting long enough to put all of it up together. Oh well it will grow back.

Playing nice together.

Sweet and Sugar have both begun to talk a little more. They're still not initiating is so much, but can repeat some words if you ask them. It is a start.

Sweet has found that she can stick her head through the whole, but has problems getting it out.

week of change

2008-04-30T11:23:00.003-04:00

Transmission fixed. We are no longer stuck in reverse.Saturday Bam finally figured out forward motion. Since then we are off and moving. Monday we started pulling up on everything. We are no longer happy it seems unless we are standing. We have also attempted to crawl up the stairs several times now.

Sugar has been quite the challenge lately. Poor child always seems to be my challenge. Lately I think we've spent just as much time in time out as playing. Hitting, throwing, kicking, biting, hair pulling, yelling, etc all have become some of his favorite things. I'm not sure what is up. If it's teething, I'm thankful that he's working on his last tooth. If it's because the weather took a downward spiral so we haven't been out playing the last couple of days, I'm happy that summer's coming and dreading next fall all at the same time. Whatever it is, I hope it remedies itself soon.

Tomorrow is also our anniversary. We've been married 4 years now and together for 10. If someone had told that a blind date was going to turn into this in 10 years I would have said they were crazy. Now I think we're going crazy. We've decided not to do gifts this year. Chuck did stop and get us a strawberry casada cake from Rito's on his way home, but we've decided to try to get away for a night or two this summer. We'll see if it happens, it's a good goal, even though I'm not sure I can imagine a night without the kids, I might have a breakdown.

What you cost me

2008-04-30T11:10:00.003-04:00

There was a post on adoption.com about a little girl asking her mom "how much did I cost?" It got me thinking.

Sweet and Sugar cost me (some of these are also from Bam)
Lots of sleepless nights praying for women thousands of miles away who were having to make the hardest decision of their lives
Lots of sleepless nights praying that you would be home soon
Lots and Lots of brain cells
Our spare money (I'm not sure what that was, but I know it was there before kids)
Our spare time (same as above)
My ability to do things last minute
My ability to pick up and leave the house quickly
My ability to go shopping with only one cart
My clean house

They have cost us this and thousands of other things, but I wouldn't trade them for the world. I wouldn't change anything, because they have given us a million more wonderful things.

Family Day!

2008-04-22T07:51:00.005-04:00

One year ago today these two little ones were placed in our arms forever.A lot can change in one year.

It has been a hectic year, but I wouldn't change any of it. I get to wake up to having an incredible family every day. Watching them grow and learn is truly amazing.

Odds and Ends

2008-04-09T11:12:00.006-04:00

This weekend was wonderful. Saturday night Chuck and I got to go out to the Brew Kettle. Grandma and Grandpa M took the kids to the mall and to Great Grandma G's. It is so nice to have a date night once in awhile. Sunday wasn't as exciting, taxes, but they're almost done and we're getting enough back to do our windows and doors. Yeah.

The weather has been nice enough that the kids have gotten to play outside a decent amount lately. Unfortunately it looks like Sugar has come down with a virus that causes hives, lovely. At first we thought that he was allergic to the sunscreen from Monday, but now it's weds and it's spreading.

Sweet's really starting to talk now. She's doing good at mimicking words you say, but isn't using any on her own yet.

Some cute pics to share.

My Mayan Princess in her Guatemala dress.

All dressed up and ready for church.

My thumb sucker.

pigtails

2008-04-04T11:09:00.007-04:00

I called our social worker today to try to set up our 12 month visit. We've had these guys home for almost a year now. Sometimes it seems like we were in Guatemala yesterday, but it also seems like they've always been a part of our family. We were very lucky to have our adoption go fairly smoothly. We are also very lucky to get them home before all of the politicians decided to get involved with something that is way bigger than they realize. Maybe all of the slow downs will help adoptions in the future, but right now it's hurting the children waiting for their families. Too bad politicians don't think ahead enough to figure out what's best for them.
In the meantime here's some pics from today. Sweet should be able to sport pigtails this year, if she'll leave them in.

Not too sure about these pigtails.

I guess they are pretty cute.

Getting into mischief together.

Really he's not in this that much, it just seems to be where we get our pics taken. If you look close enough you can see his hair.

Something to think about

2008-04-01T21:32:00.002-04:00

Adoption.com had a link to a great article the other day on racism. It's something that every parent of a child of a different race thinks about and hopefully addresses. I don't always think about it, you often forget that there's any difference. They are your children and you love them. Unfortunately not everyone will see it that way. It's incredibly sad to me that even in today's world racism is so prevalent.
We live in a rural area that is very predominately white and full of rednecks so I'm sure that it will be an issue at some point. Thus begins the train of thought of how do even begin to explain racism to a child and when. Think about having to tell your child that someone may say aweful hurtful things to them or do hurtful things to them because of the color of their skin. People may, no will judge them and decide that they don't like them because of the color of their skin before they ever talk to them let alone get to know them.
Think about it next time you hear someone make a racist comment and decide not to say anything. Not confronting the person only helps to reinforce that person's belief that it is ok. What would you do if they were using derogatory terms to describe your child? I hope that you would say something, point out how ignorant, uneducated, hurtful, hateful, and just plain stupid racism is. I hope that you'll say something when the comment is directed at a stranger too.

A Glimpse of Spring

2008-03-31T21:25:00.007-04:00

Today I'm sure was just that, a glimpse. Unfortunately I had to work, but thankfully Chuck had the day of and took the kids outside to play for awhile after naps. He's such a good Daddy that he even thought to put their old jackets on encase someone wiped out. Lucas was the only one that got to wear his new spring jacket that Grandma A got him for Valentines (thanks Grandma!). Daddy was also good enough to take some pics and video so I didn't totally miss out. Here are some of my favorites.

This would be Sweet's excited face. She also has an excited sound that I can't do justice in trying to describe. It's kid of a mix between a laugh and a yell.

Sugar was so happy to be out and running at full speed. He ran for almost the entire 40 minutes that he was outside at full speed.

He was however a very good boy and always came running back when he was told that he was far enough down the driveway.

Bam joined the group, but stayed in his seat. He got to enjoy the change in scenery and the fresh air. It won't be long before he's crawling in the grass, that is if it ever dries out.

I hate going to work and missing out on things like this. There are times that I hate my job because of it and a thousand other reasons, but there's always a flip side. I'm glad that I can financially contribute to our family, I like working with the kids (most of the time), I'm glad that we're able to save for college for 3, sometimes a break (even if it's going to a job) makes me a better mommy, I love how they all want mommy when I come home, and I get to have all summer off with them. I can't wait till summer!

A few pics

2008-03-30T15:17:00.009-04:00

I haven't been good about keeping up with the blog with work and all so here are a few cute pics to share.

I brought the ergos back out to see if they would like them. They both love being on the back. Sugar warmed up to the front after awhile. I was able to carry all 3 like this. Nothing like having about 45# strapped to you and holding another 19#. Hmm maybe I should wear them while doing housework and lose some more weight.

Sweet and Sugar got shades in their Easter Baskets. Sweet wasn't so sure of them.

Sugar loved his shades.

We need a bigger chair for this!

Easter outfits

Tired out

My sleeping beauty

I think Sugar has now cut all of his top teeth. Bam had his first tooth pop through on Easter. Sweet still only has four. Bam is going to pass Sugar up in weight soon and Sweet in teeth. Bam is now pulling up to standing. He's also working on trying to figure out how to move forward on his hands and knees, so far he can only find reverse. Sweet and Sugar are amazing big brother and sister,bringing Bam toys when he's upset and giving kisses. Truly lucky to have such wonderful kids.

On the move

2008-02-12T11:33:00.002-05:00

Yesterday Bam starting scooting/army crawling. I can't believe that he's already on the move!

We often have problems fitting Bam's chunky legs into this chair, but Sugar sits in it with ease.

This morning Sweet figured out that blocks are also for building, not just knocking down. Maybe she'll be able to knock down her own towers now.

Earlier this morning Sweet decided that it was so cold that her polar bear hat needed a hat.

what a weekend

2008-02-11T11:09:00.001-05:00

This was definitely and eventful weekend. It started with Chuck not being numb for some work that he had done Friday and him being sore all weekend. Of course the kids were ornery Friday afternoon and evening. Saturday afternoon the power went off. We hung around for a couple of hours and then they said it wouldn't be on till 8 so we took off to his parents. We loaded the kids up and got home around 7:45 to find out that the keys had been removed from my car and the power wasn't supposed to be on until after 10. We ended up having to break into the house which was quite the site since neither of us have had to break into a door and all of our windows are locked. It probably took us at least 20 minutes. After words we went in and lit candles since the house had only dropped 2 degrees. We brought the kids and and bundled them up for the night and I started to get them ready to go to bed and Chuck went out to move the car in, the power came back on. Sunday I went to a baby shower for a good friend of mine. I'm so happy for her and her husband. This is their first and she's been threw a lot with this little one, she's due next month and the morning sickness hasn't let up at all. She's not a girly girl and not into showers, but a good time was had by all.
As for the kids, Sweet's fourth tooth is coming in pretty good and I bet she'll get her next two pretty soon. Sugar's working on his second set of molars. Sweet and Sugar have learned a few new signs. We got a potty chair and we're trying to encourage their interest. Both have learned the sign for potty and are starting to use it when they have a messy diaper so there is hope. Bam is doing well sitting independently and he's been laying on his belly kicking and reaching so crawling may be in his near future.

A little Bam cuteness.

Sweet always happy to chill in a chair that's her size.

Sugar has decided that wrestling is his sport. He loves to take Sweet down and hold her there. She's not such a big fan of it.

Sugar has decided that Wheel of Fortune is the coolest show ever. He gets all excited and claps for the contestants.

Sweet and Sugar chilling together.

All 3 of my kiddos.

Growth Spurt

2008-02-07T11:06:00.001-05:00

Looks like Bam is going threw another growth spurt. He hasn't been sleeping well the last few nights, even with the formula. The little bugger is growing too fast. I told Chuck last night that even though I really miss sleep, I really going to miss being able to cuddle with him whenever I want. That's one of my favorite things about babies they always want to cuddle or sleep in your arms. Sweet and Sugar are too busy to do that anymore.
Susan watched the kids yesterday. All went well with Sweet and Sugar, but Bam was trying. He threw one of his tantrums. Poor Susan called to make sure it was still ok for her to watch them next week. Of course. As long as she's willing. He was just ornery. The tantrum continued for Chuck till he took a short nap and then all was better.
I get to have adult conversation again tonight. We have a LCATS meeting after work tonight. I always enjoy them and they're free CEUs.

Rotten Eggs

2008-02-05T14:33:00.000-05:00

That's what life is throwing right now. FIL couldn't watch the kids yesterday and Chuck couldn't sleep in the morning so Chuck was sleep deprived and I was on my own with the kids last night. Top it off with kids who were really rotten. I do really look forward to the evenings when Chuck can help with child care. It's nice to have another adult around to help and talk to.
Not such a big deal until we have more rotten eggs today, really rotten at that. I love my children. I always have and always will but today is one of those days where I'm not real fond of them. Today is lets team up and do everything we're not supposed to do day. A lets see how far we can push mom before she snaps day. Top it off with there will be no help from Chuck today and I didn't get much sleep last night.
Chuck had to stay after work to vote on stuff today and then stop to get his hair cut on the way home. When he got home he discovered that the spring on our garage door broke, keep in mind that we replaced our nice light hollow garage door with a nice big heavy solid wood one. So now we can't get my car out and we have to have someone come fix it tomorrow. Hmm last month the stove dies, this month the garage door, can't wait to see what next month will bring.
Now I'm off to finish laundry. Oh joy. And figure out something to make for dinner. I know, you're thinking how do I handle all of this excitement. All the while I will hope that all of my children take nice long naps and wake up happier well behaved individuals.

Sports are a hit.

2008-02-03T14:15:00.001-05:00

The kids did well last night. Sugar and Bam were enthralled with the basketball game. Sweet occasionally watched. I think Sweet's mouth was hurting last night. Everyone doted over the kids. More of the people that I work with got to meet them. Sugar and Sweet weren't themselves. Sugar was the shy guy, even with the ladies. Sweet on the other hand warmed up to everyone pretty quickly.
It was wonderful to see John again. He lost some weight again, he says 40#, but I don't think he's as skinny as he was last time he came back. I think he was a little overwhelmed by everyone showing up to see him. They were going out after the game, I hope all had fun and were careful.

Cute smile, but wild hair.

Dad says that we look like thugs here.

Brotherly Love

Home Coming

2008-02-02T14:34:00.001-05:00

Tonight we're going to go see my friend from work that just got back from his second tour in Iraq. I haven't seen him since Dec of 06. At that time we had just gotten back from our visit trip so he got to see pics of Sweet and Sugar. He was sad that they would old enough to walk by the time he came home, and they are. He didn't even know about Bam at that time since we had just found out. This will be the first time that the kids have attended a high school sporting event. It should be interesting. Hopefully our BIL will be home soon too.

Things are going well with my FIL watching the kids. Everyone seems to be adjusting pretty good. He watched them for us on Friday so that we could go see Cirque de Soleil Saltimbanco. It was truly incredible. The things that the performers can do are amazing. I definitely recommend the show.

Sugar and Sweet are starting to mimic more. Lately it has been animal sounds. They are definitely enthralled with them. It's nice to see some progress in the speech department. While I'd love to have them start using a few words, I'm definitely not worried about it. I know once they start talking, they'll never stop.

A few pics to make you smile.

I love this one.

Bam showing off his sitting abilities.

Sugar and his smile.

Sweet smiling, but always closing her eyes for the pics.

Sleep revisited.

2008-01-31T11:08:00.001-05:00

Formula has turned out to be a wonderful thing. Last night he only woke one time and the night before that, twice. Mixing isn't so bad, I nurse during the day, and we're both sleeping at night.

The kids had a play date the other day. My friend that I grew up with and lived with frosh year brought her little girl over, who is 5 months older than Sweet and Sugar. Sweet definitely wasn't at her best and didn't play much, but Sugar had a blast. They were so cute, holding hands and playing.

Sweet seems to be becoming more aware of going to the bathroom. I think we're going to get a potty chair and start working with her. I looked up the sign for potty yesterday and am starting to try to get her to use it. We'll see how it goes. I don't expect it to be a smooth quick journey.