Innocent

Isn't it supposed to be terrible twos? We'll right now with Caleb we are going through terrible 3! It is much worse than 2s. Caleb has really been trying to push his limits lately. He has stepped up the whining and rebellion. The problem is that he looks so darn cute and innocent, but his cuteness hasn't been helping keep him out of trouble any longer.

I thought that it was during the teenage years that your children were supposed to tell you how much that they didn't like you, but my children have started early. A day doesn't go by that Caleb doesn't tell me multiple times that he either, doesn't like me, doesn't want to play with me any more, or that he doesn't want to be with me any more. He isn't using the word hate only because that word isn't part of his vocabulary yet. I know that he is just trying to hurt me because he his mad. I told Rod that I am pretty sure that the whole response is hereditary since he is all about getting revenge. I actually think that it's a boy thing in general, but Leah never said these things to me. Generally when Caleb tells me that he doesn't like me, Leah will say, "I like you Mommy".

This all changed yesterday. I guess Leah saw what Caleb was doing and decided to give it a try. She told me, "I don't like you because you have ruined my life". My mouth dropped and then I just started laughing. I couldn't believe that she even knew that phrase. Rod was there and was trying to explain how she shouldn't talk to Mommy like that, but when I was laughing he couldn't keep a straight face either. What even made the whole thing more comical was that after things settled down, Caleb said, "I like you".

Didn't someone say that you aren't a good parent unless your children don't like you? We'll if this is a true statement, then I think that I must be a great parent!

What a mess.

We have been very busy trying to finish the kid's play room. We worked on it this weekend and I have been working like crazy this week too. I am hoping to paint soon. I have been trying to finish the new part of the ceiling. I have decided that doing that should be considered a form of torture. Who decided that a plain flat ceiling wasn't good enough? Why is it necessary to put a bunch of putty up there and brush a design on it? Someone apparently had way too much time on their hands when they decided that was a good idea. I figure that the people who do that for a living probably have a more efficient way. Since I only have a small area to do, I figure that I'll keep doing it they hard way. After finishing less than half of it yesterday, I was convinced that my shoulders, arms and neck may never recover from this. I hope to finish the rest of the ceiling today. I hope I can make it!

Today was crazy hair day at Leah's school. The teacher has been really talking it up and all the kids have been excited for weeks. Leah wanted pink hair. I didn't want to spray her hair, although when we got to school several girls did have their hair sprayed pink or purple. What I did was put pink yarn in her hair. I still thought it turned out pretty cute. She was excited about it.

I also put a ponytail right on top of her head and put a bunch of ponytail holders in it to make it stand up. I thought it was pretty crazy, but when she looked in the mirror she was less than happy. She ended up pushing it down. I took out the extra ponytail holders and it made her happier. Before she pushed it down, it reminded me of her "fountain" hair that she had when she was a toddler.

I have become a person that cannot function without my morning coffee. This morning with everything going on including getting Leah’s hair done in time for school, I didn’t have time to get my coffee down, so I took it to go. After Caleb and I got home, I had to carry some stuff in since I had stopped at the grocery store so I just threw my coffee cup in my purse. The travel mugs I have never leak so I often throw them in my purse so that I don’t have to carry it separate. Just a friendly reminder, that even the best travel mugs will leak if you don’t close the lid. Well, I didn’t realize that I had split a 1/2 mug of coffee into my purse until I lifted up my purse to find a very large puddle of coffee under it. Wow, what a mess. I really needed to clean out my purse, so now I have been forced to do that. The worse and best (depending on how I feel like looking at it) part was that my coupons took the worse of the spillage. They pretty much soaked up the coffee like a sponge. I didn’t want to throw away all my precious coupons, I save a lot using coupons and it’s great since most of the stores around here double them. To me, throwing them away would be like throwing away money. So, I separated them all out and I am hoping that they dry and are usable. We’ll see.

I laid them out on the table to dry. It was a good time to go through and throw away expired ones.

I ran out of room on the table so I had to lay some on the counter too.

On a completely different note, here are a few updates. We are now down to only one fish, John Deere. Rod noted that “nothing runs like a Deere” so that must explain why he’s the only one that’s made it through. He’s doing well, but he’s probably getting lonely so we’ll have to go fish shopping soon. The other morning Caleb woke up and said is John Deere dead yet, when I said no, he sounded almost disappointed. I think that he feels a little left out that his fish didn’t die yet. Something is not quite right about that.

Also, Alissa has added another word to her vocabulary. It’s “no”. I knew it would come, but this soon? She can say no, but she prefers to shake her head at us. Although we don’t necessarily want to encourage her telling us no, when she shakes her head it’s so darn cute that we can’t help but smile.

Two Fish Down

It was bound to happen and yesterday it did. I had to look at my blog to figure out exactly how long we had the fish. I knew it wasn't very long. Yesterday morning when I went to feed the fish, I notice Aeriel floating and Bob was not swimming very well. Rod and I knew that Aeriel would be the first to die since she never ate. It figures that Leah would pick the one that has a death wish. We knew that Leah would be the most upset if her fish died so it was pretty much a given that hers would be the first to go. I was glad that Bob was dying too so that way when I explained it all to Leah she would see that Mommy's fish died too. Telling her went much better than I anticipated. When I told Leah, she did get sad, but she didn't flip too bad and I told her that she and Mommy would go pick new ones. I think this really made her feel okay about the whole thing. We still have yet to go get new fish, but she says that she wants to name the next fish Princess Aurora. That's also the name of her cat so this could get confusing! I am beginning to realize that getting fish may not have been the best idea if we can't keep them alive for more than a few weeks. We'll end up spending a small fortune in replacement fish!

Happy Birthday Barbie (and tractor too?)

For those of you who didn’t know, Wednesday was Barbie’s 50th birthday. We went to story time at the Library on Wednesday and Leah had picked out a couple of Barbie books and a Barbie movie. She always has to have several Scooby Doo and Barbie books at home for bedtime reading. Seeing the Barbie books that Leah handed to her, the librarian told Leah that today is Barbie’s birthday.

As soon as we got in the van, Leah asked me if we were going to Barbie’s birthday party. I explained that Barbie lived too far away for us to go to her birthday party, hoping to move past that subject. Leah was quick to respond that she had very many Barbies at home and they needed to have a birthday party. I told her that we could have a little party with her Barbies. Caleb listening to this conversation must have felt as though he was being left out of the fun. He told me that it was also tractor birthday. I don't know when tractor birthday is, but no harm in celebrating it a little early.

I really wasn’t in the mood for a cake, so I made brownies and quickly decorated them. I put a small toy tractor and a small Barbie on it and two candles, one green and one pink. On Wednesday evening, we had a birthday party of Barbie and tractors!

Yes, many tractors and Barbie's did attend. I had to remind Leah that all Barbies that would go to a Birthday party would have to be dressed! She informed me that the Barbies would need some help blowing out the candles! We all sang happy birthday and the kids blew out the candles! Rod's response to the whole event was, "We're weird!".

The kids had a great time and even though none of Alissa's toys attended, she really enjoyed her brownie!

Hint of Spring

This weekend the weather was so beautiful. It was near 80 degrees out on Saturday! The kids had a great time playing outside. Rod and I did some work outside too. Although this year has gone by so fast, I am starting to get really tired of the winter months. It was so refreshing to have a nice warm day and was a nice reminder of the weather to come.All the kids played outside even Alissa. However, Alissa isn’t so sure that she likes the grass! She doesn’t mind sitting in it, but she doesn’t want to touch it with her hands, therefore, she refuses to crawl. The nice thing about the kids being able to play more outside is that when nap time comes everyone is very tired!
Alissa didn't even make it through lunch! Unfortunately it didn’t 80 degrees, but it’s nice to know that it won’t be long and warm weather will be the norm.

Alissa is better

Alissa is finally feeling better and life is getting back to normal. I am still not sure what Alissa had, but she didn’t have a UTI which is good. I am sure it was some kind of infection because of how miserable she was and the fact that no one else in our house got sick. We were really worried about her for several days even after we started the antibiotics. She I now back to eating and playing and actually last night she slept through the night. Before she got sick we had finally moved her out of the cradle in our room and put her in the crib in the bedroom with Leah. Leah was very excited about this.

Alissa's first night sleeping in the cradle.

Leah is very happy to have a roommate for now. She probably won't find this very exciting for long!

After Alissa got sick and was waking up several times throughout the night, we moved her back into the cradle in our room. Now that things are back to normal, we can move her back into Leah’s room. Alissa still isn’t sleeping through the night every night, but at least we are moving in the right direction. Alissa has definitely grown out of the cradle and now she is sitting up and pulling up in it. It’s not very safe for her in there anymore. Although I am trying to keep her a baby it isn’t exactly working. It’s hard to believe that I have to start planning for her first birthday. I have to keep reminding myself that she really is almost a year old. It really doesn’t seem possible.

We are so happy that she is feeling better! She is back to her old happy, chatty self!

Three is enough

This has been a very busy week and I am glad that things are finally beginning to calm down and get back what I call normal. On Tuesday morning, my SIL asked me to watch two of her kids for a couple of days while my other nephew had some medical tests. I knew that I would have the kids from Tuesday morning until Wednesday evening. Rachel and Nathaniel are 4 and 17 months, so this gave me 5 kids age 4 and under. I figured that it wouldn’t be any problem but wow, did it wear me out. Rachel and Nathaniel were well behaved, although I think that they were both afraid of me after seeing me punish Leah and Caleb. The hard part was that all the kids were so excited to see each other and everyone was out of routine.

Two more children added a lot more toys all over the floor, a lot more food to cook and spills to clean up. By the end of the first evening, I was very eager to tell Rod that I definitely don’t want 5 children! I am still getting used to having 3! I think that the hardest part both days was nap time. I didn’t have any good place to lay 5 kids down for a nap and nap time is a very important time of day for my sanity.

Rachel and Nathaniel hanging out at the Windle's

To makes things even more difficult, Alissa has been sick since Monday. She has been trying to convince Rod and I that due to her sickness she needs to be held all the time! She does this by screaming! She has been refusing to sleep by herself at night or for naps. She has been running a terrible fever. At first I figured that it was just a viral thing, but today I decided to take Alissa to the doctor. The appointment was over an hour and not very fun. Alissa had to have multiple tests. The doctor thinks that she might have a UTI. They put her on antibiotics and are sending her urine out for a culture. I guess that if it is a UTI that she will have to give another urine sample which was not an enjoyable experience for her and then she’ll have to have an ultrasound to make sure that her kidney’s aren’t infected. They said it would take 24-48 hours to determine the results and let us know what’s next.

Tomorrow I hope that the craziness level will be lower since I will not have any extra children nor will I be running to the doctor and the store. I am very happy about this, however, not everyone in our family is happy about it. Leah has been asking for Rachel and asking why she had to leave multiple times since she left and now Leah is ready to go to Rachel's house.

Welcome New Pets

Yesterday we welcomed 4 new pet fish into our home. The kids love to look at fish when we go to the store. Meijer sells fish and every time we go there the kids have to make multiple stops to visit them. I decided this weekend that we would get some fish. I dug out my old small fish tank that I’ve had since I was a kid and yes it is still in one piece and it still works. I did a bit of cleaning and set it up while the kids were sleeping Sunday night. Rod had taken Monday off to work on his car which included getting a couple new tires. I decided that we could all go with him and stop at the store to let each of the kids pick out a fish. When I told Rod my bright idea on Sunday night, he didn’t think it was very bright. I am pretty sure that he thinks I am crazy for giving myself more work, but he didn’t care either way, and told me that I spoil the kids. This may be true, but for him it doesn’t really mean much work. At most he may have to help the kids feed the fish, but I am sure it’s me who will do most of the care.

The kids were so excited to pick out the fish. The fish at the pet store just happened to be buy on get on free. I had only planned on getting 3, but now we have 4 so one of the fish is mine. Leah felt sorry for Daddy that he didn’t have a fish, but since he didn’t want them to begin with I felt it only fitting. Leah named her fish, Aerial and also calls her little mermaid. Caleb named his fish John Deere and also calls him tractor. Alissa’s fish is named Bell, we let Leah name it and I named my fish Bob.

Last night Caleb made sure to tell his fish good night and this morning Leah ran to the fish tank to make sure the fish were awake. These poor fish are already loved. I have already warned the kids that they may die. Hopefully, the one that is mine dies first.

Meet our fish: