RED: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

This past week has definitely been full of eye-openers.

The Good:  We got a van!  It's a red Honda Odyssey and we're pretty thrilled about it.  After doing TONS of researching and craigslist/car dealership stalking for a good while, our patience paid off and we got a pretty killer deal on this little gem.  So we are on the road to being ready to have #3 now.  The best part of the van?  While driving, the kiddos get to see something besides trees and power lines for the first time in their entire lives.  The seats are too low in the Camry and the windows too high.  They have literally never been able to see anything outside before.  When we drove them around in the van they were pretty thrilled.  And I'm pretty thrilled to have a method of transportation during the day.  

The Bad:  Remember the marker incident not too long ago?  Which FYI the kiddos did indeed get on some clothes, too.  Ben and I were tired of the kids drawing on our walls (pretty much every room in our house has been graffitied), and so when the marker incident happened (which was by far the worst of them all), we said enough was enough.  We took away all desserts, blankies, and picnics for a week.  And they got spanked for the 2nd time in their lives.  We thought we were really laying down the law.  I even made sure that they knew that their artwork isn't ever pretty when it's not on paper.  That was like a knife in Lily's sweet little heart.  So over that weekend, the kids kept mentioning how drawing on the walls was a bad thing to do.  I was just starting to get a little pleased with how well things were working when I caught Skyler with a bottle of pink (which is sort of red) nail polish, painting the wall and carpet in the toy room.  I wanted to die.  And I thought to myself, "It can't get any worse."

HAHAHAHA!  Haha.  ha. ha. ha..... *ahem*  Yeaaaahhh... I was wrong.

The Ugly: I showered.  Because I prefer smelling smellable.  I came downstairs and there they were: 5 bottles of red acrylic paint emptied onto the carpet in the toy room.   Skyler had pulled a kitchen chair up to the counter and broke into my personal art stash.  Ben then told me over the phone that I'm never allowed to shower again.  Don't worry, I have.  Now, I'm not much of a cryer (not anymore, anyway) and I'm lucky if I cry once every other month, but after the marker, the nail polish, and the paint that is never going to get out of my carpet (I have heard PLENTY of carpet remedies people, but let's be realistic. 5 bottles of paint seeping down to the roots of the carpet is an unfixable problem), I cried.  Really, really hard.  So hard that my mom and sister, Becca, (who heard me sobbing over the phone) were wondering if #3 had died, so when I said, "Skyler *sob, sob, sob* got *sob, sob, sob* paint all over *sob, sob, sob* the carpet!!!!!" *sob, gasp, sob, gasp* I realized that there are worse things in life.  But this was pretty ugly, too.  We're planning on getting one of those play road rugs to cover up the scene. 

Part of the damage:

Being a parent has helped me to see a whole new side of life.  Maybe now I understand what my mom felt when 5ish year-old me got into her entire Merle Norman makeup stash and played "water color" in the sink, bathtub, and toilet. 

Sometimes I think that my kids are going to scar me for life.  But then I remind myself that scar tissue is the strongest, so get over it. 

May your week be less colorful than ours was.

Magic Show

Now you see it....

And now you don't!

That's how each of my pregnancies has been.  My tummy is 100% in front.  That is normal me + 10 pounds.  I'm just 26 weeks.  I have one more week of this trimester and I plan to spend my 3rd eating like a Capitol citizen of Panem.

This pregnancy has by far been my easiest.  Only 3 weeks of sickness in the begining.  No heartburn (I wonder if the old wives' tale will come true and this baby will be my first baldy!).  No charlie horses in my sleep.  No weird cravings.  Well, really, no real cravings at all.  No RH- problems with my blood.  If it weren't for the lovely kicks I get every time I wiggle into a comfortable sleeping position, I'd wonder if I was even pregnant at all.  But then I look in a mirror and think, "Holy guacamole.  There's something growing in there."

The only tough part about this pregnancy is my low blood pressure.  It's always been low, but it likes to drop as soon as I get pregnant and continue to spiral downward until I deliver.  When I was in labor with Skyler my blood pressure was 67/17.  Most people say, "Oh you're so lucky that you have low blood pressure.  It's so much healthier."  But that's not what I'm thinking when doing dishes for 30 minutes = collapsing onto the floor from exhaustion.  Every time I stand up I have to bend over to recover from a blackout and then I pant as if I've just sprinted 5 miles.  It gets really really old.  So housework has to be done in spurts.  I have to take lots of breaks.  And I end up becoming very familiar with episodes of Curious George and SuperWhy.

But last night I had a hard time falling asleep because I'm just so overwhelmingly excited!  I've been putting so much focus on mentally preparing myself for all the night feedings, the exhaustion, the recovery, the adjustment for Lily and Skyler, etc. that I haven't even taken the time to get excited.  So as I've been slowly (but surely) working on decorating this nursery (which is going to be the epitome of girliness.... yay!) it has started clicking that I am going to have another baby girl.  Last night I just wanted to roll over in bed, shake Ben awake, and say, "We're going to have a little girl!"  But I knew he'd just roll his eyes at me and go back to sleep (Not that he's not excited.  Just maybe not at 11:30 PM). 

We think we have a name.  But, until it's set in stone, it will be left off the blog.  Here's to only 14 more weeks until I get to snuggle a little 8 pounder in my arms.  I'm way too excited.

Ummm.... Never Mind

Remember my last post?  About how awesome this weekend was going to be?  About how the kids were going to go camping in the back yard?

Ummm... yeah.... we threw that out the window after all.

Because we found this ginormous mural over our bed.  We sort of cancelled anything fun/yummy/covered in warm fuzzies after that.

Oh, and on the bed.  And on my scriptures.

And in our closet.

As you can see, my children are absolute gems.

Looks like it's time for us to finish painting the downstairs so we can finally choose a paint color for our room.  A semi-gloss paint color.  I'm getting tired of this whole flat paint deal....

The only thing I can say that was lucky about this whole discovery was that I was in the middle of planning my sharing time lesson.  It's topic is "I Feel My Savior's Love When I Try To Be Like Jesus Christ."  Oh, children.  You are lucky for that tender mercy.

And just for clarification, I am posting this simply to prove to my children that they weren't perfect growing up.  So when my grandbabies do this exact same thing, I'll just sit back and chuckle and think to myself, "Aaahhh.... karma."



Throw It Out The Window

My favorite days are the ones when we throw everything we're supposed to do out the window and spend time as a family instead.  That's exactly what we did this past Saturday. 

One of the perks about our neighborhood is that it's across the street from a city park.  The Neuse River runs through it and anyone with a fishing license is allowed to fish there.  So we packed up the car, drove the whole 60 seconds to this location, and spent a few hours in the sun by the river.  We could have walked down the river a little bit so that we weren't right next to the overpass, but I think Ben took pity on me in my pregnant condition and we stationed ourselves right next to the parking lot.  

The reason for our fishing trip?  Ben's new reel.  That he got a killer deal on.  That he is ridiculously in love with.  That he happened to "forget" to tell me he bought it even though we tell each other every time we spend more than $10 on something.  *ahem*  Oh well.  I'm still his biggest fan.

Catching fish = no luck. 

Making kids happy = lots of luck.

I thought they'd get bored after a while but oh no no, I was wrong.  We let the kids wade into the water and get their clothes wet.  They got to squish their toes around in the mud and watch sticks float down the river.  Sometimes it's worth the extra laundry to let them make memories like this (key word is "sometimes").  They were in heaven finding butterflies and splashing water at each other.

The kids got soaked.  Ben played with his new toy.  And I sat in a camping chair watching my ankles swell up in the extreme 75 degree heat.  :)  We ate our subs and gummy bears and then once I started blacking out and losing my hearing (thank you low blood pressure), we stripped down Skyler (thank goodness no one else was around) and drove home.  We crawled into our beds and took very long naps.  When we woke up we went to the kids' favorite restaurant: Costco.  Oh those $1.50 hot dog meals.  We're obviously such big spenders.  By the end of the day the kids felt like they had just gone to an amusement park.  Oh how I love that about this age. 

This weekend we're not going to throw our plans out the window though.  Ben's camping with the kids in the back yard.  :)

Bark Bark

After we finished eating dinner the other night:Ben - Lily, you need to say thank you to Mommy for dinner.
Lily - No.
Ben - What would happen if Mommy didn't make us dinner? We'd be really hungry.
Lily - No we wouldn't. Jesus would help us.


When I came downstairs first thing in the morning the other day:
Skyler - Where are we going today?
Me - We aren't going anywhere.
Skyler - We are going to Nanni's house.
Me - No we aren't.
Skyler - We are going to the doctor.
Me - No we aren't.
Skyler - We are going to Jesus.
Me - Uuuuuuuuh, hopefully not today.


Lily wearing my Rainbows around the house:
Me - Can I have my flip flops back?
Lily - No. 
Me - Well, when can I have them back?
Lily - When you're bigger.
Me - Ummm... how much bigger do I have to be?
Lily - When you're as big as Daddy. 
(I now know how she feels when I tell her she can't do certain things until she's bigger)

My parents are out of town so we've been keeping Mia (aka Bark Bark according to the kiddos) at my house.  Mia and I have a special bond.  Well, what can I say, she is my dog after all..... she just lives with my parents. 

When I was 14 I was trapped in a pretty dark place.  My parents, seeing how rough life was for me at that point, decided that I needed a little extra light in my life.  Since I had dreamed and dreamed of having a dog my whole life, they surprised me with Mia as a Valentines Day present.  My reaction was overly dramatic, but I was soooo excited.  I can remember visiting her at the breeder's, and how they told us that we couldn't take her home until she weighed 1 pound.  When she finally gained enough weight I held her in my two flat hands all the way home.  My mom even let me skip school the next day so that I could have special bonding with her.  We've been tight ever since. 

Mia was my first baby.  So it's awfully nice for me that Lily and Skyler completely eat her up.  They have been helping me feed her dinner each day and they enjoy giving her treats as well.  And even though I often hear them saying, "No, Bark Bark!" when she begs for food at the table, I still see them secretly slipping veggies onto their chairs so she can grab them.  I have even caught Skyler feeding her cereal out of his spoon.  Won't his future girlfriends just love this little tidbit?  I think I just found my way to prevent Skyler from being a major kisser.

The other day I caught Lily, Skyler, and Mia huddled in a triangle while holding hands/paws.  Lily and Skyler were saying things like, "'Dear Heavenly Father,' now you say it, Bark Bark."  They proceeded to give her a whole lesson on how to pray.  Mia just sat there on her hind legs, patiently letting them hold her paws. 

Oh how I love my babies.  I can't wait until we get a dog of our own.  But that won't be for a long while.  My rule for now is no doggies in the house while I have children napping.  But someday, someday.....  I don't know if we'll ever have a maltipoo like Mia or if we'll get a Great Dane to make Ben happy.  Either way, I can't wait. 

Our Life

6-6:45:  Kids wake up at some point in that space of time.  Ben gets up with them.  Every.  Single.  Day.  I'm pretty sure he deserves the Husband of the Year Award.  I couldn't ask for anything better.

7: Ben brings the kids in to our room to wake me up.  Ben gets back in bed with me and the kids bounce all over the bed (aka us) until I'm up and going.  It's the best way to wake up.

7:30:  Ben leaves for work.

8:  Kids eat breakfast.  I take advantage of the time that they're distracted by breakfast and do dishes so that I don't have to get after them for stealing clean spatulas.  Ben starts work.  He does all that lovely Supply Chain Analyst stuff for CarQuest.

8:30:  Kids play in the toy room or upstairs in the castle.  I finish cleaning up whatever needs cleaning or tidying. 

9:  SuperWhy comes on.  The one show my kids won't allow themselves to miss.  They watch.  I eat breakfast whilst I indulge in my top guilty pleasure: pinterest.  I create menu ideas and plan out crafting ideas for the week (and I actually do them).  Ben still thinks pinterest is sort of a joke, though.  I think otherwise.  We'll see who's laughing now that I've finally discovered a laundry system I can get used to.

9:45:  Kids fizzle out of Dinosaur Train and go back to playing in the toy room or castle.  I get laundry started.

11:  Kids want to do something with me.  We read books.  Or play in the back yard.  Or bake/cook something.  Or play with toys.  Or clean up the mess that they made that morning.  Or work on writing our letters.  Or play a game.  Or color.  Or go for a walk.  Or have a dance-a-thon.  Or jump on the couches.

12:  Kids eat lunch.  I tackle some other chore (like cleaning a bathroom) that I don't want the kids near. 

12:30:  Kids play.  I eat.  Whislt I pinterest/pay bills online/blog/answer emails. 

1:  Nap time.  Oh, sweet sweet nap time.  Kiddos pass out.  And sometimes I pass out, too.  It depends on whether I'm exhausted or if I want to get things done. 

3-5:  Kiddos discover monsters in their rooms and call for me to come get them.  Yes.  My kids sleep that long every day.  Lily is always 2+ hours.  Skyler is anything from 2-4 hours. 

4:30:  Get dinner started (if it's not already in a crockpot). 

5:30:  Ben gets greeted at the garage door with two toddler voices yelling, "Daddy, you're home!" and, "I missed you!" and, "Skyler wasn't very good today...but I, I was good."  He has playtime with them until....

5:45-6:  Dinner time.  Once everyone's down from the table we have family play time. 

6:30:  SuperWhy (I told you, they're obsessed) and milk.

7:  Prayers and bed.  Ben and I watch Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune while I (sometimes) fold clothes.  Yes, we're so cool like that.

8:  Whatever time.  I typically read, or blog, or craft, or write, or shower, or finish up loading the dishes from dinner.  Ben usually reads or works on a project like his motorcycle or something that he's helping someone else with.  A lot of the time we just end up gabbing on the couch.

9:30-10:30:  We go upstairs.  Check on both babies as they sleep so adorably.  Kiss them goodnight again.  Read our scriptures.  Say prayers.  Lights out. 

Every Monday morning I sit down and write out a lengthy to-do list for the entire week.  It always includes the laundry I have to do, writing out a menu for the whole week, writing down a shopping list for that menu, duties for my calling (i.e. planning sharing time), and other household chores.  Since my kids are such good playmates it's easy for me to become so consumed by what needs to be done around the house.  So I add things to my to-do list that involve the kids like, "Work on the letter C," or we'll have a spur of the moment movie day with popcorn on the couch.  Now that the weather's warmed up my kids' newest obsession is picnicking.  I just throw a blanket out on the back lawn, bring out their normal lunches, and they're happy as clams (except for when flies come around or a drink is tipped over).

We have been a one car family ever since we moved to NC in December of 2009.  I thought it would be really hard to be trapped at home every day, but with a little creativity it's not bad.  When I think of all those moms who go to work all day and only get to see their kids first thing in the morning and then for an hour or two in the evening, my heart breaks.  I'll take the laundry and the kids' arguments any day to witness them grow up.  It's such a blessing.

Tighty Whities

He's showing you his tighty whities.  And his honey button*.

I have 3 things that are on my pre-baby to-do list.

1. Paint the entire downstairs.  Semi-check.
2. Get kiddos to sleep in the same room.  In bunk beds.  And still sleep. Without them having a party. Uncheck.  (Putting that one off as loooooooong as possible).
3. Potty train Skyler.  BIG FAT RED CHECK.  WOOT!

If I've learned anything since becoming a parent of 2 it is that you have to do things differently with each kid.  Skyler and Lily are polar opposites and so I just assumed that since Lily's potty training experience was so dang easy, Skyler's would be horrifying.  So I prepared for the worst. 

With Lily, we pumped her full of watered-down soda.  This presented a problem with Skyler since he is the only kid in the universe who hates both soda and juice.  He's a water kind of guy (he's definitely my child).  There was absolutely no way to turn his bladder into a water balloon ready to burst. 

So I had to do some thinking.  And I came up with this very scientific formula:

tickle time = tinkle time

Yep.  You read that right.  Study hard future potty trainers.  Make sure this is done while the trainee is on the potty.  Otherwise you're in trouble.

And if you have a boy make sure to hold down the fire hose because tickle time will equal shower time in less than a second...

So after our first completely unsuccessful day (which put so much pee on my floors I wanted to put potty training off for a few months), I started sitting him on the toilet and tickling him.  Wabam.  He magically started peeing.  And then got candy for it.  After a couple of days I didn't have to tickle him and he even started pooping in the potty. 

Now I'm not going to pretend that Skyler is perfect.  We only started 2 weeks ago.  I'd say that half the time poop still ends up in his undies.  But we are thrilled to have both of our kids out of diapers before #3 gets here.  Yay Skyler!

*We used to call our kids' bums honey buns.  Which then turned into honey bunnies.  Which then turned into honeys for short.  Skyler is so obsessed with his own honey buns (sigh) that he started calling his belly button a honey button.