ten on tuesday

1. We enjoyed a very nice visit with one of Jason's best friends, Leith. He was in town on business and was able to come over for dinner. The kids adore Mr. Leith and climb on him like he's a jungle gym. Thankfully Leith has three kids of his own and while I'm sure he was looking forward to a night of relaxation, he was Super Leith and entertained the kids for hours. They love him, we love him and wish the Army stationed us all in the same city for once.

2. Kindergarten registration is this week. Do I really have someone old enough to be in kindergarten? A certain five and a half year old assures me that I do. I'm a little in shock that it's considered necessary here to take the deed to my HOUSE to register for kindergarten. Whatever happened to just a utility bill?!

3. We've lived here four years and I don't think I'll ever get used to the crazy drivers. It is legal to make a u-turn at a red light here and it drives me absolutely insane. Here I sit ready to make a right turn on red and some crazy person whips a uturn at a the stop light into the far right hand lane that I'm turning into, almost hits me and stares at me like I don't know how to drive. It's absurd.

4. Will's favorite song to sing right now is "5 little Monkey's Jumping on the Bed" It's so cute and I love hearing him speak so clearly. I don't think it's so cute that the last little monkey jumping on the bed, usually at nap time when he's supposed to be sleeping, is Will.

5. Drew has decided he no longer wants to eat bottles and now prefers jar food only. I am happy to report he has finally branched out from foods containing only bananas.

6. We spent Saturday inside waiting out the terrible weather. The entire city shut down and the storm shelters opened up in preparation for the tornadoes. Thankfully, they didn't hit us. This time. I would also like to look up the assignment officer who pumped the climate up to us with his stellar meteorology knowledge a few years ago. We are clearly on a tornado belt. And for the record, it ALSO snows.

7. The girls told me Sunday they wished just once I could go on a business trip and their Daddy could stay home. They love me but he always has to leave and I always have to stay. I think I have some extended business in Hawaii or Europe that must be attended to.

8. Huge potty training success this week with Will. He chose to receive a tattoo every time he uses the potty and it's WORKING!! If you see him out and he's fully "sleeved" that's why. I know it's a weird way to reward him but he needed something better than a sticker. He even has them on his feet and tomorrow we're going to try the big boy underwear...

9. NeNe and Poppy arrive in eleven days. We're counting down on the calendar and that seems to be the only thing that have temporarily stopped the tears lately. I hope they're prepared for all the fun activities the girls have planned while they're in town.

10. Tonight we went to dinner at our good friends house. It is now a unanimous decision that Miss Kathleen is a better cook than Mama. Isabella said on the way home "that was the best macaroni I ever had" and Amelia, "I loved her chicken. It was so much better than yours." Will, "Uh-huh. Yummy". I'm so thankful for good food and even better friends to get us through the long days ahead.

school's out

for the summer..well not really but almost. I bet y'all have that really annoying song stuck in your heads now. You can thank me later. We have FOUR weeks left of school here...Four weeks and then it's summer. Did I mention I'm living the life of a single parent for the entire four weeks? Good times ahead I assure you. We did have Isabella's end of the year party yesterday to celebrate the completion of preschool. She was excited to play with her friends and wasn't really that sad. Yet. I don't really think it's hit her yet that in four weeks she won't be going back to school. We love our preschool and teachers. Right now she's pretty excited about attending kindergarten in the fall and going to the big school. Even though we've talked about it, I don't think she fully understands that Ms. Jeana won't be her teacher. She tells me every single time we drive by the school and we live right across the street so we are driving by frequently, "look Mama, there's my new school." She might be ready for kindergarten but I'm not sure I am. The school looks so big and to me, she sometimes looks so little still.

9 months

Drew turned 9 months old a few weeks ago and I am finally getting around to posting something about it. Sadly, the typical fourth child time crunch has hit and I seem to take less pictures and log less activities than I did. There are less pictures of all three children combined in three years of life than there are in Isabella's first year of life. But then I was trying to document an entire year on film for Jason who was missing everything while he was overseas. I really have no excuse other than I'm just to busy or always seem to be holding a baby and forget to actually take the picture. Drew weighed in at a healthy 22 pounds. He's crawling all over the place and is now crawling up the stairs. He's pulling up and is attempting to cruise along the couch. Jason thinks he'll walk fast. We'll see. As far as our other kids went, he was slow on sitting up and average for crawling. Amelia started walking at 9.5 months, Will at 10.5 and Bella at 1.
Everyone is always asking me who Drew favors and I think he looks like himself. He resembles each of the other kids in a different way but doesn't look exactly like any of them. He is definitely getting curly hair so that will bring our family total to two and two. Isabella is ecstatic, Jason is not. I was hoping for another blue-eyed baby but it looks like he's going to have brown eyes like his sisters

ten on tuesday - medical version

1. The virus lived on last week. Bella was put on augmentin and still carried a 102 fever for three days. We had to take her in to the pediatrician twice. Thankfully we are blessed (and I'm talking miracle in itself) that we have an actual intelligent, civilian doctor in an off-post office, when we live by a military post, caring for my children. He is amazing and so kind and caring to my children. Even when a certain five year old is less than pleasant to him. He checked her lungs, pulse/ox, gave her two antibiotic shots (after the actual meds weren't working) and sent her in for full labs, swabs and chest xrays.

2. My daughter, who weighs 32 pounds soaking weight, was dehydrated from the vomit ting and became overly exhausted walking from the couch to the car turned into the Incredible Hulk as soon as she saw the shots enter the room. It took four of us to hold her down and keep her on the table.

3. This same daughter, sat calmly and watched them stick her a total of three times, never saying a word through five viles of blood.

4. All chest xrays and blood work came back clear and she is expected to recover in a few days.

5. Drew was diagnosed with asthma on the day he turned 9 months old. He is now on daily nebulizer. We'll see in the next year or two how his lungs respond. We live in a horrible allergy zone and are just preparing and educating ourselves and those around us.

6. Who needs Tony Horton when I have to administer two separate breathing treatments a day to Hercules?

7. Will and Amelia were very patient and calm during all of this. Very un-Will and Amelia-like. They understood that we couldn't go outside even though it was beautiful outside. They sat quietly and patiently during all our doctor's appointments. I was really proud of them since the bulk of the attention was focused elsewhere.

8. I took the girls for their very first mani-pedis to celebrate and relax after the difficult week. They loved it and are already asking when we can go again.

9. I've been walking the greenway with Drew most mornings after preschool drop off with a few of my friends. I took Bella and Drew last Thursday and on the way back from the 4 mile hike, I see in the middle of the path a lovely black, three foot snake waiting for me. Yuck. I have the heebie jeebies just typing it. I calmly stop and back away from the area just as the snake turns and hisses at me. I'm not big on snake identification and I wasn't taking any chances. I also don't want to pass my fears onto my children so I very calmly say, "Oh look at the little snake. We'll just wait for him to cross back here." Bella looks pulls back her canopy and replies, "little?! that snake is SUPER DUPER BIG. Get us out of here."

10. I ended the week with a severe allergy attack. I went to the doctor and have an ear and sinus infection and am being referred to an allergist and asthma doctor. Thankfully the steroids kicked in pretty quickly and all the other medications seem to be helping. The worst part, my hernia is completely back from all the coughing and I don't think there's any way around surgery now. Sigh.

I hope everyone has a fantastic week! I just hope we are all on the road to a healthier place.

Ten on Tuesday

1. We got hit with the EXACT same virus we had last week again this week. The only thing worse than four kids being sick once is four kids being sick TWICE. It's been a miserable, miserable two weeks that have literally brought me to tears more than once. I begged Jason to switch "jobs" with me but he would not.

2. Trying to contain four kids in the house as much as possible, watching movies on the couch is an nearly impossible feat. I've emptied my bag of tricks. They're tired of me and sadly, I'm tired of them. The whining, the crying, the fighting. It's enough to drive a person mad. We've been fever free for 20-22 hours and ventured outside (it's been in the 80s here) and sure enough as soon as we come inside Bella is running a 102 again.

3. Drew is wheezing and sounds like a freight train. He spent the night with Jason and I last night and no one slept. I will say once he did fall asleep, he did have happy dreams because we heard him giggling in his sleep. He's back on his breathing treatments and the decongestant so hopefully that will help.

4. Drew is crawling all over the place like he's been doing it for weeks. I am getting used to him being so mobile and following me around the house now :) We had to purchase a baby gate this weekend to keep him off the stairs. Will is now climbing up the side of the stairs and over the gate.

5. Adventures in potty-training with Will continue. The girls potty trained start to finish in three days. Sadly, this is not the case with little brother. He is trying my patience for sure. Yesterday he sat on the toilet for 20 minutes two different times. He got up from the toilet, went to his usual "spot" did his business and then proceeded to go back to the toilet and take off his diaper by himself while sitting on the girls' brand new bathroom rug. I thought Isabella was going to die.

6. Speaking of potty talk, this one's for my Dad. I was changing Drew's diaper the other night and Isabella starts complaining about the site and smell of the contents. I'm not a big diaper fan myself - surprising since I've probably changed around 12,337 between my four and all the kids I've watched over the years. Anyways, here I am changing the diaper and here complains my five year old from the couch. I tell her to leave the area, she can't she's watching Super Why and wants me to hurry up. Really. She continues to complain and starts gagging. I tell her to Evacuate the area NOW. She tries but throws up in the process. I have no idea where she gets the weak stomach from.

7. Our neighbors are all avid gardeners and brought us a beautiful strawberry plant yesterday from their garden. Isabella is ecstatic. Any guesses on how long it takes for me to kill it? I do not have an ounce of "green" in my body and I will not remember to water it. Guaranteed. The only plant I can keep alive is a cactus.

8. The girls are supposed to be practicing their dances at home. I'm a little (a lot out of practice for this) and can't seem to keep stage left straight from stage right and explain this to a five and three year old. Hopefully we'll all get it figured out before the end of May.

9. It's a well-known fact that I do all my shopping online. I have to buy the girls both slim sizes and taking four kids to the mall, is not my idea of a good time. Every time the doorbell rings, Amelia announces "Mama the QPS is here". Regardless of how often I hear this or correct her, it makes me laugh every time.

10. We have always worried about Amelia being stuck in the middle. She's always trying to keep up with her big sister and always trying to outrun her little brother. This week when Isabella was trying to tell her what to do we heard her say "Isabella I have a great idea, you're not the boss of me."

egg hunt at the garden

I totally forgot to post pictures of the egg hunt we went to at the Botanical Garden. It was a little rainy the morning that we went but the kids were so excited that they didn't seem to mind. They had music, juice and cookies, the Easter Bunny and over 9000 eggs. More than enough for everyone. The divided the kids by age group and each of ours were in a different group, time and location. It wasn't really crowded, probably because of the rain, and the kids came home with baskets overflowing with eggs. They were SO excited.

Easter

The Easter Bunny brought a lot of candy in the baskets this year. Probably because he didn't know that it was going to be close to 90 degrees and we weren't going to be able to do our egg hunt outside. The kids were all smiles when they saw all the chocolate goodness bright and early Sunday morning. And I mean bright and early. We have one of those high tech alarm clocks that resets itself if the power goes off. Easter Sunday it had reset to Daylight Savings time even though it wasn't actually Daylight Savings time. The alarm went off at 6 and it was really 5AM.



I tried to get a few pictures of the kids before church. I wanted to get one good picture of them in their outfits. I could not for the life of me get a single one of my children to look at the camera and smile at the same time for one single picture. Please. Ridiculous. So we have cheesy grins, and Shrek DVDs to play with etc.




We went to church and then spent the day with our friends Paige and Robbie and their wonderful family. Bella goes to school with Kennedy and was so excited to eat lunch at Kennedy's Nana's house and have an egg hunt there. She told me all day that Kennedy's Nana sounds just like her Granny that lives in Ohio. We had a great day and it was honestly the first holiday I spent away from "home" that I wasn't homesick.

Ten on Tuesday

A few of the blogs I read do a Ten on Tuesday post. It lists ten random things that happened throughout the week that may not be worthy of receiving an actual blog post. I thought I'd give it a try :)

1. We've been in our new house a month now. Love, love, love it here. Someone asked me if we miss our old house? I surveyed the family and only Jason does. His reasoning.. the yard there was finally complete and this yard needs a little TLC.

what-ever.

2. We had a horrible virus last week that lasted until this week. 102 fevers around and a ear infection for Will. We missed a day of school and took a few days after the fevers broke to get back to feeling better. It was exhausting. The above mentioned virus is still going around school so we may or may not have seen the last of it.

3. The weather has been beautiful. Sunny and in the high 70s, low 80's. We've been spending A LOT of time outside. I love this time of year before the horrifying humidity hits. The increased heat however, is increasing hair volume in our house. Bella had a meltdown Thursday because "her hair is huge and always all over the place and in her face". And so it begins. (I also think Drew is getting curly hair but Jason says we're not going to talk about that yet.)

4. We had a new family move in up the street. The first thing that went up in their backyard was a trampoline. I am not a fan of trampolines and do not allow the kids to jump on them unless they are the "in-ground" versions in the gyms. Too many risks for broken bones, paralysis, etc. I look out my window and what do I see? The eight year old boy jumping ON a pogo ball (yes, I'm talking the pogo ball I had in the 80's) ON the trampoline. Great.. Just the kind of "mentors" I need around for Will.

5. I was changing Drew in the parking lot of the gym this week when I feel a tap on my shoulder. It's a 40s something man and he's letting me know he's going to be setting his car alarm - three spaces down. O-kay. Weird. Car alarms have been around for years now and I've never had anyone warn me that they're setting one. I'm more concerned about being "sprayed" by my now non-diaper wearing 8 month old and having to walk around wearing urine on my clothing than a car alarm. Still the man keeps talking and pointing. I finally look and see, a BRIGHT orange corvette. I couldn't decide if he was fishing for a compliment on the car or he was taking the worst ever gamble and trying to hit on a frazzled mother of four. Either way a lose/lose situation for him.

6. Speaking of Andrew, he had the worst diaper rash I have ever seen this week. We had tried everything and I finally, desperately begged for advice on facebook. (thank you to all my friends who responded). Our kids are all allergic to Zinc and I sat in the drugstore aisle literally reading every single label looking for a suitable cream. I finally found A&D and it has been a miracle. Did you know to treat diaper rash you can use: Monistat, Maalox, Aquaphor and Maalox?

7. Drew is now crawling.

8. Will is finally showing some interest in using the potty. I need to work on calling his underwear, big boy underwear and not big boy panties. We had three success stories today.

9. The kids are participating in a cancer walk at preschool next week. I'm proud of their school for getting them involved at such and early age. Cancer is everywhere and I think it's important that they are aware of what they're walking for and who they're honoring.

10. I babysat two of the neighbor children yesterday. Wow is all I can say about that. Six kids is a lot of little people to keep happy at the same time. I had two little babies following me around crawling and crying at the same time. I was totally not used to that.

So there it is my first totally random ten on Tuesday post. We'll try it out and see how it goes. I hope everyone has a great week.

7 month pictures

Here are a few of Drew's seven month pictures. I have to thank our amazing photographer Simplicity by Christy for allowing me to post these. Christy's the best and if you need a photographer I highly recommend her.