princess party

So the kids woke up the other day with the thought stuck in their brains that they were going to have a Princess Party that day. I decided to turn it into a Royalty party due to the fact that boys were present. Although no matter how hard I tried to tell them they were queens and kings they decided to overrule me and declare "No mommy we're princesses and princes" OK I stand corrected. Anywho this is the result of our party. My son is a ham and wouldn't stand still for the photo because he was dancing and posing.

And yes the court jester

My little girl

had her school orientation today. HOLY COW!! My baby is off to school. sniff. Actually I am so glad they had this because I am so cool with her going to school now. I was nervous before but hey my daughter went in there grabbed the scissors and started cutting the little papers they had there for her to do. Scooping and sorting.... she had a wonderful time and actually said "OK bye mom." after 5 minutes. I had to explain to her that no she was not staying yet. She was a bit disappointed about having to leave. Anywhoo. She decided to wear her boots today. so she was wearing shorts, tee shirt and boots. Yep that's my girl. :-)

back rubs

So Spencer just crawled up behind me on the computer chair. I turned to him and said "scratch my back while you're back there". Megan overheard me and said "scratch your back? what's this nonsense mommy's talking?" Me? Nonesense? Where do they get this stuff?

sniff

So it broke. It, being the very nice, huge platter that went along with my china pictured in the back of the picts of my kids in the previous post. If you noticed in that picture by wall is now green. Yes, we spent the weekend painting our wall green. It looks really nice especially with the paintings I have up. I've been bugging Kevin to paint for a couple of months now and he's been telling me that "no way man". Because he'd end up doing a lot of it (Hey I can't help it if I don't reach the cealing). But they in-laws are coming the in-laws are coming so I got my wall painted. :-) Thanks mom and dad! hee hee. Anyway in the effort to move the china hutch the platter came tumbling down and has a huge crack in it. sniff. I bought it in Mexico. Who knows when or how, or where I'll be able to buy another one. Alas that's the price for a very nice looking wall. I'm not too heart broken about it but I will be come thanksgiving and such.

you know you're a mom when...

you forgo your breakfast because your child wants it. Doing a swap you steal their yogurt that is not being eaten because they "don't like it" (especially if it was yoplait that was on sale that you normally can't buy but did because it was on sale) You forgo that said yogurt because another child comes in and "doesn't like his strawberry yogurt" and wants the stolen item instead (which is also strawberry yogurt but hey it's not HIS strawberry yogurt so it must taste better). You sit at the computer with no breakfast while your daughter eats your vanilla yogurt and your son gloats and eats 2 strawberry yogurts while you go hungry. yeah. sad. pathetic. I guess I'm going to have cereal seeing as how my on sale yogurt is being consumed by other little beings that live in this household.

splurge money

So in case you don't remember the money I earn from babysitting Caroline is to be used to buy goodies for me. Not the family.... according to Jeanie, retail therapy. Anyway so I took that to heart and took Megan back to the fair and Ms. Judy's booth to buy another accesory. At the same time Megan, sweet thing was looking at the "pretty" ones, she didn't like the one I picked out. She saw one she liked and said "This one is Megan's?". Asking in an Oh so innocent voice. Ms. Judy's daughter laughed and said "yes it is" and gave Megan the braclet of her choice (it's a pink lady bug one). Ms Judy then came along and gave my daughter her first set of fresh water pearls (gasp, yes to a 3 year old). That's my daughter. She does me proud. She very gracefully wore her booty the rest of the day. And no she did not have to take one things off. ;-)

the fair

So I got the pictures of the fair. The kids REFUSED to ride the pony at first. They raised a protest. Jeanie got a great pict of Megan and Caroline planning their sit in. Finally when we were about to leave they decided to ride. There is a pict also of my misuse of my double stroller. We call it the strollersuv for self explanitory purposes.

Mom and Dad

My parents are coming! My parents are coming! My parents are coming! My parents are coming! Can you tell I am excited! I've been waiting for them to see our place and the kiddos. My parents are coming my parents are coming!!!!! We are going to introduce Dad to Charlie and "guitar room". Charlie's Guitar room includes a drum set and recording equipment. Jeanie said that she's going to get Charlie and my dad to cut a cd while they are here! Hee hee! So dad practice up! Choose your songs and get ready! Charlie can accompany on bass and drums. My parents are coming! My parents are coming! Mom hold onto your sewing room! It might be a guitar room soon! My parents are coming! I am stoked! Megan wants them to come tomorrow. Spencer wants to get on a plane and meet them half way. Yep my kids are excited too.

A favor

So yesterday I babysat my dear Caroline, Jeanie's daughter. Jeanie went to go help another friend set up for the county fair. Ms. Judy makes the most gorgeous jewlery. She actually gets all her stones and stuff from whole sale stone jewlers (aka where the jewlery stores get them). Well because Ms. Judy really needed the help and because I was able to watch Caroline she gave me a necklace as a thank you for freeing up Jeanie (because Jeanie helped her). OH MY GOODNESS!!! She gave me the most gorgeous necklace. The pictures I'm posting do not do it justice. These are black pearls and they are swirled with purples, blues and greens. The white on the necklaces are fresh water pearls. They are exquisite. I soooooo want to buy another one of her necklaces. They go with everything. Jeanie has a set of copper pearls that Ms. Judy made. They are incredible. Anywho here are my new set of pearls. I also bought a set of earings that went with the necklace (with the babysitting money I had just earned **thanks Jeanie!). The pictures do not do them justice in any way shape or form. The flash throws off the color so I'm posting a couple of picts. One to show how it looks and a couple to show the coloring. I LOVE JEWLERY!!! Accesories, accesories, accesories. I LOVE IT!

"Band-aids"

So my aunt Kimi sent us some Dora Band-aids, which I only let the kids have if they get a scrape. Megan made a "band-aid" out of playdough the other day. She came up with this long story of how she had jumped off the couch and hurt her toe. She then wrapped the play dough around her toe for a "band-aid". As I was exclaiming about her toe I saw out of the corner of my eye a little boy take off for the couch and launch (he literally flew 5-6 feet) himself off the couch "hurting his toe". He then "needed" a band-aid too. Interesting things happen for the thought of a Dora band-aid. He is sitting on my lap right now saying he wants to write a story about himself too.

Did you know that

The Neuro rotation starts at 7am every morning? That the first bus going to Georgetown is at 7:15 every morning? That parking on campus for a neuro rotation every morning would cost $6 A DAY!? That wives and children can get up early to take husbands to school and an obsurdly early hour? Up side. Ummm I'm still think on that one...... Oh yeah! I get to talk to hubby in the morning!

Why do they have to be so darn cute?

"Let's go mommy! Let's go! Hurry mommy hurry!" "OK sorry Cher, duty calls. Bye" "Mommy, Hurry Hurry. Gotta go potty!" run run run, gallop, skip, push push push and finally push the door to the bathroom open. "Ummm 'dis one. No 'dis one. No 'dis one." Finally deciding on a stall we decide on the second one. Strip from the waist down well because you can't do it any other way. "Hurry mommy hurry! Gotta go to 'ursery!" "Hands" "Um... ok de white one!" We wash hands, mirror, mom and everything else within shot of the water. Dry hands. Open the door.Bam I run out to see a 2 year old bolting down the hallway to 'ursery. "Hurry hurry!" I discover when I finally get to nursery (he's been there for a good bit before I get there) that he had to go potty before snack time. He got back just in time to sit and munch some grapes. His timing was perfect. FOR 3 WEEKS IN A ROW!

panic

So have any of you ever had a couple of quasi panic attacks. I think the kind I'm talking about are the "during an emergency you are more than calm, you are efficient, excellent.. yadayada" but when you have a chance to realize what happened you start shaking and almost crying you are so panicky. I have only had this experience twice in my life. The first time was when Spencer was about 3 1/2 months old and we had just moved here. I had company over (our neighbors from above us) and Megan and their little girl were running around screaming. Spencer was sleeping in his crib in the back. He was a sound sleeper so I wasn't worried about him. I don't know why I decided to check on him for some reason (I had just put him down about 10 mintues before so this was unusual). I walked in to find my little guy on his stomach. The first time the kid decided to flip over on his stomach was when he was swaddled and couldn't hold himself up... of course he didn't do again for 5 more months but that's another matter. I went to pick him up and realized that his lips and face were blue. Luckily I had just gone through the whole child cpr thing that I knew what to do. He immediately started breathing and I held him up so we could get air moving again. OUr visitors immediately left. I was able to handle the situation, the kiddo pinked up immediately and we had no more worries. It was only after Kevin came home that I lost it. My baby was blue. The second time was yesterday. Lately we've had some of the drivers from the Toyota dealership right here tearing up our street. We live on a street labeled "no outlet" although there really is one. Anyway the drivers/porters have decided it's fun to peal out on the hill right here and zoom down our street. Ummm did I mention that I have 4 toddlers during the day. No no one ran out into the street. We were walking back from the library... up a huge hill and I tuckered out (I'll bet you would too pushing over 100lbs worth of baby in a 30lbs stroller). So on our usually quiet little street I had all the kids hold hands and we were walking literally the last 20 feet when a nice vehicle from the dealership came up the hill. Did I mention that we were crossing the street and the oldest child was 3? The guy stopped as I was attempting to usser the last 2 children onto our neighbor's yard BUT HE DIDN'T EVEN WAIT FOR US TO GET OUT OF THE MIDDLE OF THE STREET. This jerk of a guy started weaving, yes weaving his car to try to get around the kids... in the middle of the street. Um lets just say 2 1/2 feet from a moving car is TOO LITTLE with 2 1/2 year olds. To make matters worse as soon as his back wheel got even with the last one in line the guy gunned the car and zoomed off. Toyota sure had one hot mamma on their hands. I was not happy. I called them and left a message. The lady though who called me back was equally as upset at what happened. I guess they've been telling them to stay off our road but have not had anything specific to tell them. Now she does. She may have been just molifying me but you know what I'm ok with that if it stops. Hopefully there won't be any more traffic on our street.

My artistic genes

So I've loved art my whole life. Not very good but I love it. I must have passed it on is all I can say. This is Spencer and his "orange school". This is what he calls Georgetown when we go drop his daddy off. Notice the chapel off the side. Here's the real deal. Later he came up to me saying "Mommy, here this is for you mommy!" He was holding up a lego flower he had made. He refused to take a good picture. It was so cute though!

c-sections

Megan was born 1/2/03. On Dec.31 I went in for an ultra sound to see how big she was because she was measuring huge. The doc said he wanted to see how long he was going to let me go to see if I was ever going to go into labor. Well the ultrasound place forgot to sent the weight to the doc. He didn't get the weight until 2 days later. I went in for the results and he said "If you tried to have this baby vaginally it'd tear you to shreads..." yep she had a huge head too. So in I went for a c-section.... this is after talking about it and praying about it and wondering if I should wait for natural labor. We felt good about going in.... good thing too. I went in that day for a 2:30 check in time. I was pretty calm after Kevin gave me a blessing. I started getting really nervous though after several nurses failed to be able to start an iv on me. Really nervous. I was also really tired. I hadn't slept the night before. Finally, my hero, my anethesiologist, Dr. Maras came in pushed the nurses aside, put the iv in and started doing mothering sounds to me. I don't remember her nationality all I remember is she had an accent. She rubbed my feet shooshing me and the nurses. She then wheeled me into the OR. She was right there with me the whole time. After scrubbing in she administered a spinal block. She was good, really good, I didn't even feel the needle. When I asked if it was going to hurt she laughed and said the needle was already in. Ummm OK I was good with that. Kev, came in all scrubbed and ready and the surgery began. The doc was amazing and fast. Out came the big blob of a child with absolutely no chin to speak of. She scored a 2 on the apgar test. I know, she was laid back. Aparently the nurse said that Megan knew what the nurse was doing but was refusing to respond (meaning deliberatly, not because she couldn't, she just didn't want to cry)..... ahhhh telling for the future. 9lbs 7oz. After that surgery I was tired and sore and the meds weren't working for me. When I asked for more they looked at me and gave me some Advil. Ahhhhh Advil the wonder drug. Seriously, I was on percocet, tylenol, nothing doing. They gave me a bit of Advil and I was just fine. I didn't need percocet after that, just the advil. Getting up and walking was a bear and I was sore for a bit after the c-section. Then came my second. Hee hee. If only I knew with my first what I know now after my second. 1. Stay up on your meds, even if you're not hurting for the first bit. 2. Get a girdle. 3. Walk as soon as your block wears off. Do those three things it will help more than anything else in the world. With Spencer born 4/28/04 It snowed on the day he was born. Ahhh the difference. I actually tanked in the OR before Kevin went in. I had a reaction to the medication and started vomiting uncontrollably. They had this hippy anethesiologist come in and he immediately made things go better. He said that I didn't react to the medicine it's just that my heart rate plumeted. Ummm.Ok good thing it came back up... is all I remember thinking at that time. Hee hee. I was pretty drugged. The anethesiologist was really nice. He kept stroking my head and arm and gave my happy medicine. I like him. :-) So they opened me up for Spencer and well if you havent' had a c-setion you wouldn't know this but the baby doesn't just pop out. They have to lean on the top of your abdemon and on your ribs to squeeze the little kiddos out. So yes you definitely have people literally jumping up and down on your ribs trying to get the babies out. Makes it hard to breath but knowing the drill I wasn't fazed with Spencer's birth. But then the nurse (I think she was little) actully was lying on my ribs pressing down as hard as she could. Then you heard the ob kind of chuckling saying.. "Um get me the foreceps". ON a c-section? OH yeah baby. We were having bets in the OR before it started on how big Spenc was going to be. I was calling it over 8lbs. He was a week early too. Because of the measurements the doc was saying he'd be lucky if he was 7lbs. I told him. Nope Spencer was all up under my ribs. literally. Guess I was right. Hee hee. 8lbs 4oz. That's my boy! This time as soon as the block wore off (meaning I could move my legs, if not yet feel them totally) I was up and moving. Hey I figured I'd get all the walking done while I was still drugged. The nurses came in and were like, ummm maybe you should sit down. OK but I need to get up again. So they helped. I was walking the hall that afternoon. WITH MY GIRDLE ON! Seriously the difference of with and without is immense. Without it, I felt like I was sore and achy... (which is a whole different thing after a c-section vs. normal sore and achy). With the girdle on it felt like a big relief... like hopping into the pool while in preggo status... it's the "ahhhhhh" feeling. I guess it was a good thing I was up and walking because Spence decided to stop breathing that evening (a constant theme in our house... another story, another time). I held him and went tearing down the hall to the nurses station. The took him. Checked him out, sucked out his nose and gave him back. They did come in more often after that but he was ok. They did look at me like I was crazy though. Not because of Spence but because I was going down the hall.... fast. Hee hee. Yea! for girdles and Advil. Seriously. After that the whole "you can't lift anything for 6 weeks other than your newborn" went right out the window. I had a 16 month old who needed me too. And we lived on the second story. And I had to go up and down the stairs about 2 weeks later. Without my girdle, not happening, with I was super woman. Hee hee. Seriously I could carry my 16 month old and the baby in his carrier up the flight and a 1/2 of stairs. I'd have to rest of 30 min after to be on the safe side but hey there it is. (I tried going down the stairs without once. I made it down 5 stairs then had to turn around. Not good) I was on Advil for about a month after the c-section but I never needed to take anything heavier once I got home. Now that I know what to do I am totally like "bring it on, I can take you down! grrrrr!" Not that we're preggo. But whenever we do have another I'm ready.

Arlington Alert!

So after reading MoMommy's post on 9/11 and reminicing about that I went to check my email. Now if you don't know what an Arlington Alert is... it's the email equivelant of the public broadcast system. Also the DC area sometimes is at a higher alert leve than the most of the country. This was somehow distressing today.... I have to stop thinking about 9/11. eek! "The United States Government has raised the nation’s threat level to Severe, or Red, forcommercial flights originating in the United Kingdom bound for the United States. Thisadjustment reflects the Critical, or highest, alert level that has been implemented in theUnited Kingdom. To defend further against any remaining threat from this plot, the Department ofHomkeland Security has raised the threat level to High, or Orange, for all commercial aviationoperating in or destined for the United States."

How far have people sunk?

So I was falling asleep last night. Kevin was on the computer when I heard him exclaim "What?! Stupid people!". Curious, mostly because Kevin usually doesn't talk aloud to himself I asked what was wrong. He told me he was reading this article that well.... Here are some exerpts. Seriously, how disgusting have people become. Is the need to win worth this? Are people just blinded and caulous? Apparently the answer is yes. Sick is all I can say. ERRRRRR! THIS MAKES ME MAD. ESPECIALLY SINCE I'VE GOT KIDS. ERRRRRR. Warning this article is not gross in the icky sort of way but it will make you mad and disgusted at some people's drive to win and relive thier fantasies by coaching little league. I'm posting the hook here. You can link to the rest of the article if you'd like. You make the call Is it good baseball strategy or a weak attempt to win? by Rick Reilly This actually happened. Your job is to decide whether it should have. In a nine- and 10-year-old PONY league championship game in Bountiful, Utah, the Yankees lead the Red Sox by one run. The Sox are up in the bottom of the last inning, two outs, a runner on third. At the plate is the Sox' best hitter, a kid named Jordan. On deck is the Sox' worst hitter, a kid named Romney. He's a scrawny cancer survivor who has to take human growth hormone and has a shunt in his brain. So, you're the coach: Do you intentionally walk the star hitter so you can face the kid who can barely swing? Wait! Before you answer.... This is a league where everybody gets to bat, there's a four-runs-per-inning max, and no stealing until the ball crosses the plate. On the other hand, the stands are packed and it is the title game. So ... do you pitch to the star or do you lay it all on the kid who's been through hell already? Here's the rest of the article.

fun day

Can I just say how much I love my job. I mean who else can get paid for playing with toddlers? Seriously. Who? I have 4 toddlers during the day. We have so much fun. My little E and S are the cutest little things (We are now through most of potty training so I can say that :-) ). We had an A day today. We talked about the a sound and colored alligators, made anntennaes and drank apple juice. We then had apple jacks for a snack. What a great job.

Thought this was interesting

I read this post a couple of weeks ago from MoMommy. I'm posting it here to make for easier reading. I then read from Jon's post the following. I recommend reading and watching the linked video. It's pretty interesting. MoMommy said: Mommy brain Let's say you have a small child, 3-5ish in age. What happens if they want something and you say no? Sometimes they throw a fit, right? When your child starts throwing a fit, do you give in just to make them be quiet, or keep them happy. Most likely not, because that leads to much bigger problems down the road. So let's just say that you tell your child no, they start having a hissy fit, and then decide to throw things at you. THEN are you going to give them what they want, just to get them to calm down? Uh, no. In fact, that leads to a much harsher punishment in our house than just pitching a fit would get. Does anyone here really think that giving in just to keep someone happy (appeasement) really works? Cause I have a 4 year old that leads me to believe it doesn't.And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how my mommy-life brain thinks of the current Israel/Lebanon conflict. I find that most things in the world can be compared to parenthood on some level, and this is no different. Except that the people involved here aren't 4, and they all know better. posted by Mo Mommy Jon posted this: Propaganda: Sifting the Truth from the Lies by J. Max Wilson I am not going to editorialize much here, but I did want to draw your attention to some disturbing material concerning manipulation of information coming out of the Middle East in the mainstream media. Of course every side in a conflict tries to spin the story in their own favor. But there is a point when spin crosses the line into outright lies. And often both sides lie as much as they think they can get away with. All of us have probably relatively innocently propagated falsehoods from the side we are more likely to trust. The larger problem, as I see it, is when the mainstream media is complicit in propagating information that they know is either incomplete, exaggerated, or outright false. First, read: Qana The Director’s Cut (WARNING: Contains Images of Dead Children) Then, watch the following disturbing video from The Second Draft entitled “Pallywood” (18 minutes long) : Now, with so many people lying, it is difficult to sift the truth. Perhaps the items above are themselves manipulations of the facts. If you have information that contradicts them, please let me know. But at first exposure, they appear pretty damning. UPDATE: Add the photoshopped photo from Reuters to the picture.

crop circles

So I'm telling you they're crop circles. I always knew there were little green men who like little green veggies. You know they might even be baby aliens practicing for when they are big. :-) Yes this is the actual zucchini (look! I learned how to spell zucchini too!)

Beam me up zuccini?

My zuccinis are doing crop circles. No really. My last zuccini had fun little spirals around it. I've loaned out my camera so just use your imagination. No really I have crop circles in my 5ft by 6 ft garden. cool huh?

The thinking of a 3 year old

So this happened to the end of the day and I HAD to share it. Enjoy the thinking of a three year old. Watch the video to the end. Princess Megan Yes she was screaming when I ran for the camera and stopped when I started filming.

mommy rave

New favorite thing. Mine, Kev's and Spencer's. Costco's taquitos. YUUUUUMMMMY!!! Spencer's doing a happy dance right now because he's getting a taquito.

barefoot

So I had to take off my shoes before getting in the van today. Why? you may ask. Well we have tried very hard to keep our very first big purchase in stellar condition. We bought our van a year and a half ago Feb27 to be exact. Since then we still do not eat in the van (shocker I know, but lovely). We clean it out EVERY time we get out and still only have 6700 miles on it. But, I digress. So I had to take my shoes off before getting in the van today. My shoe melted, yes melted to the asphalt today. It's 103 degrees with a major heat index. ugh. sadly I must retire my favorite flip flops now. *sigh* Kevin will secretly, or maybe not so secretly be rejoicing in having to retire a set of shoes, but that is a story for another time.

what?!

"Megan, I'm going to make you a special treat? Want to help?" "Yep! I want to stir." "OK, here we go!" "What's that?" "We are making Jello!" "Jello? What's that?" Silence. Stunned silence. Where did I go wrong? Laugher from the other room. "Please tell me I didn't hear that!" OH shut up Kev. I'm already feeling guilty for failing my child. Not knowing what Jello is. Isn't it instinctive?