Some spring fun

Our swings need some oil or something as they are just a little noisy!

Spring Break!

Yesterday at 3:15 Spring Break officially started. I'm sitting here trying to plan the week so the kids don't go beserk with boredom. Here is what I have come up with so far:

Games:
Go fish (Katie, Marie and I play)
Looney Toons board game - Marie loves it so it keeps her calm
Operation - you all remember that one I'm sure!
Life - it's a little old for Marie but it's easier for her than Monopoly at this point so...

Outside:
Swing set
Slide
Sit and Spin with water
Slip and Slide

Movie time: once a day we all sit down together and watch a nice Disney movie.

Walks: Marie pushes Ryan in the stroller while Mommy pushes Katie and Logan in the double stroller or pulls them in the wagon. (I can get some exercise this way!!)

Thursday is Mommy and Daddy "Date Night". We are going to go see a movie and then have an early dinner. It's going to be a lot of fun for us and I know the kids will have lots of fun with Ann and Charlie. Marie has been working with the younger kids (except for Logan) having them dance and sing for a show that they will perform for us and then for Ann and Charlie. Logan loves to watch them dance and depending on his mood, sometimes gets upset when they stop! I'm going to try to get a little video of this next week so I can post it on here for you.

All of these fun things with the therapies for both boys should keep us pretty busy all week. I still have to do the normal cleaning which will be twice as hard with them home but then again I will have Marie's help keeping them occupied.

Hoping to have lots of fun and still keep my sanity!!

Pics

Logan hates having his picture taken. As I tried to get a shot of him just now he ran away from me and then proceeded to close his eyes each time the flash went off.

Here is Mommy's little angel sound asleep in Daddy's arms.

While I was cooking dinner last night, Katie and Ryan played Dora the Explorer. Katie was Dora and Ryan was Boots the monkey.

How 'bout a little kiss for my baby brother?!

Say cheese!

Friday updates

We've been lucky this week as Logan and Ryan have pretty much slept through the night in their own "corners". Logan has slept on his favorite couch every night except for one this week. Ryan, once he goes down for the night has slept through the entire night. Now getting Ryan to get tired enough to go to sleep has been the issue this week. We've been up to at least midnight every night so far this week. (Since the Astros have been playing in San Diego that's no big deal as we were trying to stay awake to watch the games)



Wednesday night we didn't get to bed before midnight and Logan came in to join us around 3:45 so Curtis didn't get a very good rest. Yesterday afternoon he took a small nap while Katie and Ryan watched Dora or Teletubbies. I thought Ryan was watching it while sitting with Daddy but when I glanced over to them I noticed he had turned to face me and had fallen asleep. I couldn't resist and grabbed a picture of that. (Of course, Daddy insisted that I not publish his picture which I promised I wouldn't so I have a picture to post of just Ryan sleeping like the little angel he is with only Daddy's arm showing. ) Please note that they were in my recliner at the time.



Later last night after two of the four were asleep, I was trying to get comfortable and put my feet up in said recliner when it broke. Curtis spent almost two hours trying to find a nut and bolt to fix it as one had sheared off and was useless. By 11:30 we had to give it up as a lost cause so he took the other bolt to work with him today so he could find a replacement. At one point he looked at me after I apologized for the broken chair and said, "you know, if you were going to break the chair, you could have at least done it earlier in the evening" and proceeded to chuckle at me. I didn't break the chair on purpose but I felt so bad for having him working those two hours when he could have been relaxing or sleeping. While he was fixing the chair I was chasing Ryan around trying to keep him out of the tools and away from Logan who had finally fell asleep.



Anyone with kids knows there really is no point in getting nice furniture. They all at one point end up in our chairs eating something. They get caught and are told we only eat at the table. (Yeah right Mom! You so funny!) While pulling the back of the chair (thankfully it has velcro all along the bottom) we were bombarded with toys and food crumbs. Hey, there's Ryan's favorite toy; I wonder how it got in there?!?! He had to look at his chair to figure out how to pull it apart and guess what?!?! Yes, more food and toys came out and I do believe that he had a whole lot more toys then food. I also found a few of his vitamins that had dropped down in and he couldn't reach them. I guess I need to go through the chairs every night after the kids go to bed and get rid of all the food/toys and anything else that ends up in the cracks of the chairs. I now need to clean up the mess from the chairs and find all his tools he left laying around and put them up so they don't get snatched and end up in a toy box or behind the couch.



I've put off the dishes, cleaning and laundry as much as I can today. We got up, got the kids ready for school and on the bus and headed out to the local farmers market for some fresh veggies. What a zoo that place turned out to be today! There was some kind of art show that was going to be going on so they had the booths set up but no one in them. Lots of parking was blocked but no one there yet! I had to drive around the block a couple of times before I finally got smart and went to park along AIA. Not too sure how smart that was as I then had to push the stroller through the damp sand as it rained a lot last night. A couple of times I thought I was going to get it stuck. That was a nice work out but kids weren't too happy with me as they wanted a longer walk! They loved looking at the ocean and Katie was flapping her arms like a bird all the way back to the car as they both said "Aweeeeeeeee!"

Easter

Easter is over again for another year and yes it snuck up on me again. Why is it that it always gets here way before I'm ready for it? We have a few decorations that I always mean to get out and never do get around to it. This year was no different than the previous ones.

We don't give the kids candy as all of it is too full of sugar not to mention the nasty food dyes. We had to scramble around Sunday morning (Yes, I did say Easter morning!) to find little toys and things to put in their baskets. I then had to sit down and stuff eggs full of GF/CF food that Logan could have just in case the eggs got moved from one basket to another. Who am I fooling? You know the eggs were moved around so many times that we would have never remembered who had which egg no matter what. Marie commented on the fritos and cashews in everyones eggs so I told her the Easter Bunny didn't want Logan to get something he shouldn't have so he gave everyone the same thing. Not to mention the fact that they all love to eat what he has sitting in his bowl anyways.

I made chili with corn bread for our "different Easter dinner" and then boiled some eggs so Marie and I could color them. Once the eggs were dry, we grabbed them and all the other stuffed eggs and sent Daddy outside to hide them so we could have an Easter egg hunt. They had fun; but the one who really enjoyed the hunt was Katie. She was running everywhere trying to grab all the eggs. Her eyes were so big and her grin was from ear to ear! I had Logan and Curtis had Ryan trying to help them find eggs and keep them from running off. Logan would find and egg and hand it to me so I could put it in his basket which he was holding. He was more interested in the airplanes flying around and the swing so his hunt was over pretty quickly. Once he was on the swing he was totally happy to be pushed and sit there doing nothing.

We put Ryan's swing on so we could get him on there too. He didn't seem to like it at first. What a terrified face! I'd say that lasted two seconds then the biggest smile came across his face and he didn't want to get down; not even for the bubbles! The boys had a ball on the swing set with Mommy pushing them while the girls ran around playing with the eggs then having a race. After that got boring Daddy grabbed the bubbles and proceeded to blow them so they could chase them down. I think Marie had the most fun chasing the bubbles. At one point she was trying to kick them out of the air and almost connected with my hand as I had taken over the bubble duties from Daddy. She's such a funny girl!

Talking

Today we spent the day with Daddy and everyone loved it. Okay, maybe not everyone as Logan and Marie had to go to school but the little ones loved it. We try to get down to see Daddy once or twice a month and meet him for lunch and they love it. Today, we went shopping and hit a Cracker Barrel for breakfast in between stops. As we were getting back into the car after breakfast, Katie says to Daddy, "Thank you for meeting Daddy for lunch, you have to go back to work now." What a funny little girl! Daddy will call us from the road when he's on his way home or on his way back to work from lunch and I will let Katie talk to him. She cracked me up yesterday when she asked him, "Are you coming home Daddy?" Daddy said something to her and she looked at me and said, "Daddy come home later." When she's ready to end the conversation she will say, "I love you Daddy, be careful!" and then proceed to give the phone a big kiss. Mmuuwwaaa!

Ryan has been repeating a lot of what we say lately and I didn't realize just how much he's taken in until today. I went into the kitchen to make him some fruit and cereal for lunch, as I was telling him what I was putting into the bowl he said, "Awesome!" He loves to watch Go Diego Go! and Dora the Explorer whenever he can and when Swiper comes on both he and Logan will say "oh man!" For those of you who haven't seen Dora, when Swiper the fox comes along he tries to take whatever they have so they say (three times) "Swiper, no swiping!" and after the third time Swiper says, "Oh man!"

It was funny to hear Ryan say that today but it was especially funny to hear Logan say it. He came up and tried to take something I had in my hands so I said the Swiper no swiping to him and he looked at me and said (no joke, he really said it!) "Oh man!" That boy is such a card. Imagine what he will be like when everyone can fully understand what he's saying. I still have a hard time understanding most of what he says but there are a few things that come out so clear. Last night he was playing when all of a sudden and clear as a bell he sang out, "Now I know my ABC's next time won't you sing with me!" We knew exactly what he was saying and it was just the funniest because we didn't hear him singing or saying any of the ABC's just that one part.

Ok, this last isn't about them talking but it's a cute little something that I hope to be able to get a picture of someday. The little ones will fall asleep in the car whenever we go for a ride of at least 30 minutes especially if it's after a meal. Today, on the way back from our little shopping trip they both fell asleep. Ryan sits behind the driver's seat and Katie behind the front passenger seat. 99.9% of the time when they fall asleep they do it with their heads tilted toward the other. Somehow they both fall out with their heads tilted into the middle of the car. It looks like they are trying to lean on each other's shoulder. One day when I'm not driving I will be sure to take the digital camera with me so I can get a cute shot of this.

They are best buddies as they are with each other most of the time. Of course, there are times when they fight over toys. It seems like in the afternoon when one or both are ready for a nap they both want what whatever the other is playing with and start to scream. Ryan has learned how to get what he wants (even from his big brother Logan) all he has to do is scream at the top of his lungs, stomp his little feet and flap his arms up and down. Most times this will get Logan to give him whatever it was he wanted. Katie has learned this trick and will just turn her back on him which will sometimes start WWIII. For the most part, they adore each other and will even give hugs and kisses but they are siblings so yes we do get the fights.

The cold bug from Hell!!

We've been fighting this cold bug for weeks and it's never really left. This past weekend we opened up the windows as it was nice and crisp during the day. We were hoping to get rid of all the germs so we could start over but of course, that didn't happen. Ryan has had a cough for about a week now but it was finally becoming really productive. I guess with his gag reflex a really productive cough isn't so good. He had his bananas and wanted a bottle so I gave it to him and let him lay propped up on the pillows on the playroom floor. I had made dinner and served everyone and went to sit down. About half way done with my dinner I hear a cough, then Ryan crying and Marie screaming (at the top of her lungs) "MOMMY, HE HURLED!"

Poor little guy must have rolled in it, by the time I ran from the living room to the playroom he was covered. Now I can laugh at how he looked but last night, not so funny. I grabbed him up and headed for the bathroom. Started the bath, wiped him up with towels then stripped him to find he had left me a nice gift in his diaper. Lovely; it never rains, it poors! I had to wipe that up and then get him into the tub and scrub the poor guy's body. I hate the smell of formula/milk after it comes back up. It's totally disgusting so I scrubbed and scrubbed and he splashed and had a merry old time. Logan wanted to join him so I grabbed him up to add him to the mix and low and behold he had also left me a lovely gift. After wiping him up , he jumped in to splash. I had Marie stand in the bathroom while I took Ryan out to dry off. I do this right outside the bathroom door so I can keep an eye on whomever is still left in the bathtub. I had let Logan use the cup we used to soak them with and all of a sudden I heard it. Yup, you guessed it. He took the cup, filled it and proceeded to dump it outside the tub. He was aiming for Katie's potty that makes the music when something gets into the pot. Most of the water hit the bathroom floor and poor Marie was just scrambling to get the cup from him and grab towels to throw down on the floor. Today all of this is very funny but last night I wasn't a happy camper.

After all that, Ryan and Logan are still having issues with the time change. Ryan was still moving around and talking in his crib after midnight and Logan came in to join us around 1:30 so I didn't get a restful night sleep. I'm hoping the boys adjust to the time change soon because I'm just a wee bit tired.

Poor Ms. Katie woke up with a nasty cough and a pretty good temperature this morning so we cancelled all therapies, put the two eldest on the bus and proceeded to cuddle and watch cartoons for most of the day. Ryan was much better today so he wanted to color and play. Katie was pretty well shot for the day being very whiney and clingy. She's now feeling a little better and watching Marie play her game. Keep fingers and toes crossed that they start feeling better tonight so we can all get some sleep.

Tag - borrowed from Meari

1. Where is your cell phone? In my purse where I always keep it. Afraid I will forget it when I walk out the door.
2. Your significant other? Curtis, my wonderful husband.
3. Your hair? Very dark brown with gray; time to color again.
4. Your mother? Very stubborn
5. Your father? Deceased but also very stubborn
6. Your favorite thing? My family, cross stitch and my coffee
7. Your dream last night? Didn't get much sleep between one sick child and two cranky ones so not sure that I did dream.
8. Your favorite drink? Coffee
9. Your dream/goal? To be able to have my husband stay home too.
10. The room you’re in? Living room
11. Your ex? Ex what??
12. Your fear? heights, snakes and bees
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? More money and my husband a stay-at-home Dad (while I'm a stay-at-home Mom).
14. Where were you last night? at home like always
15. What you’re not? patient - never have been and doesn't look like I ever will be.
16. Muffins? Blueberry or banana
17. One of your wish list items? to have all the children sleeping in their own beds and in their own rooms this year!!!!
18. Where you grew up? In a small town in Connecticut
19. The last thing you did? changed a diaper and made a bottle.
20. What are you wearing? Sweatpants, t-shirt and socks; I'm cold!
21. Your TV? which one?
22. Your pet? none
23. Your computer? HP desktop
24. Your life? Full of therapies for the boys and lots of fun times with all.
25. Your mood? Very groggy but happy
26. Missing someone? My dad
27 Your car? Blue Dodge Caravan
28. Something you’re not wearing? Shoes
29. Favorite Store? Target or Dillard's
30. Your summer? Spent with all of the kids while they are on summer break; maybe a trip to Houston to visit family. I sure hope so!!!!!
31. Like someone? In love with my wonderful husband
32. Your favorite colour? Purple
33. When is the last time you laughed? this morning
34. Last time you cried? Sunday night; I always cry when I watch a sad movie.
35. Who will/would re-post this? I dunno, but I want to know if you do so please leave me a comment!

Cole Family Artwork

A week ago Monday, the kids were off school for President's Day, so when Ryan's O.T. came for his scheduled visit they all got to work with him for his session. Since it was raining, we couldn't go outside so she decided to try some finger painting. I have to admit I've never tried this with the kids. I know, bad Mommy! For the most part Ryan enjoyed playing in it and Katie and Marie had a ball. Logan ran up a couple of times saying, "Paint!" and then would run back off. He even stuck his finger in some purple paint and made one little swipe at the paper but wouldn't do more than that. This picture is the end result of Katie, Marie and Ryan fingerpainting that day. I believe I will have to invest in some washable paints so that the kids can do this more often. They all loved it and didn't give me that much of a fuss when they were done and heading in to a nice warm bubble bath. Why didn't I think of this before? Katie hates to get into the bath and then hates to get out. After the painting session she was almost ready for her bath and didn't fight like normal. She still didn't want to get out of the tub but I can live with that!!

I think I'm going to put this up on the wall in the playroom to show off their combined efforts at fingerpainting and add more pictures to it as they do them. I can make a finger painting wall of pictures and I know they will love looking at their beautiful artwork!

Kid Fun Time Saturday

Saturday mornings are spent cleaning up before Ryan's 10:30 S.T. session. I have to block the rest of the kids on the other side while Ryan is in therapy or they will distract him too much. This Saturday Logan and Katie were not happy with being blocked. Once Ms. Kathy left, Ryan fell asleep in my arms and I put him down for a nap. I let the others out of their "cage" so they could have the run of the house to calm them down. This made Katie and Logan very happy as they like to run up and down the hallway or ride one of the push/pull toys up and down.

Once Ryan awoke from his nap we played in the living room and some how started playing hide-n-seek. I would grab Ryan and hide under his blanket while Marie counted. It was so much fun but hard to keep him calm enough until she'd rip the blanket off our heads and he'd scream with laughter. We then had him count to 10 while we hid under a big blanket and every time he'd coming running over and say "Mommy!" and grab the blanket off while Katie and Marie giggled. Logan watched this for a little while then decided he would help Ryan or whomever was counting. Once I threw the blanket over our heads I would feel Logan grabbing at my head and he'd giggle. We even got him to get under the blanket to hide a couple of times. He was having a great time right along with the rest of them. We decided to let Mommy count while the rest of them hid and I think they enjoyed that even more. I found them the first time because I could hear Katie saying, "I want to go see Mommy" so I came around the corner and yelled "Gotcha!" They all screamed and laughed and of course I had to keep doing that until everyone got way to hyper and we had to all take a time out.

Ryan had his O.T. yesterday afternoon outside in the front yard. She brought a storage bin that was really long but not too deep and it had a ton of rice and dried beans. She had hid some small plastic animals, some shells, some loose change and some small balls. He had to sit in the bin with his socks and shoes off and search for these things and put them in little bowls. He sat there the entire session and only threw things a couple of times. He seemed to like running his hands through all the stuff and didn't mind his feet being in it either. Although, he did have his toes curled at one point like he wasn't too sure if he wanted to be in there but after that he was fine. We will be making a trip to Wal-mart for a bin that size to put our 15 lb. bag of rice in and to buy some dried beans to add as well. I know that Logan likes to run his hands through stuff like this because he has a smaller version in his classroom or did the first year. We had planned on making one of these but couldn't find a bin with a lid so we didn't complete it. Now that I see what she used I'm heading out to purchase one today (or better yet, will have Daddy pick one up on the way home!)

Pics

Katie playing while Ryan was napping

Ryan and the nasal spray

Birthday and other stuff

Ryan turned two years old this past Saturday. Poor little guy was so under the weather we didn't celebrate until Sunday. Since he wasn't the only one not feeling well, we didn't do much other than to bring out his presents and let him play. He's afraid of Tickle Me Ernie, didn't care about the Happy Birthday Diego and his Elmo Knows My Name wouldn't work. He lay in my arms and let Logan and Katie press the button every time Diego stopped singing. Logan loved the Ernie and promptly took him in the other room to play which didn't bother Ryan in the least. We will be doing something more this weekend to really celebrate his birthday now that everyone is on the mend.

I think Ryan's napping patterns are back to normal or at least they were Wednesday. After his physical therapy, he climbed into my lap and fell fast asleep, snoring loudly. I was able to lay him down on his pillows and he slept for almost two hours. What a nice break it was, even though Katie did try several times to wake him up. She was successful the last time she tried but at least he had slept for almost two hours. Yesterday we spent the day with Daddy and he slept the entire time we were in Target and a little bit of the ride after that. He even took another nap when we got home, of course, he had to be in my arms to do that but at least he slept. Katie took a tiny nap on the way home; we had a 30 minute drive and she slept for the last 15 minutes but at least she did sleep.

Last night we had a good laugh when Ryan picked up my nasal spray bottle (cap tightly shut, of course) and put it to his nose and made a sniffing sound. I've been using it because I've been so stuffed up due to the cold and allergies. Apparently the little guy has been watching Mommy this week and decided he wanted to try it too. I was in the other room tucking Katie and Marie into bed when I heard Curtis bust out laughing. I came around the corner to see him doing it and promptly grabbed the camera to get a few shots. (pictures to follow)

Gone but never forgotten

A little dedication to my Dad who may have left us on February 5, 2006 but who is never far from our thoughts and hearts.

He was friends with my grandparents before Mom brought us back from California. It took them a long time to begin dating but he'd been in my life as long as I could remember.
Before they got married, he was always there for us even though he had to support a son from his first marriage he still made sure that we had everything we needed.

Three generations of West men; Bernie, Virgil or "Pap" as I always knew him, and Gary. Later when all of us kids started families Bernie became "Pap" to all the grandkids.

One of my favorite pictures; we would always spend a day snapping green beans and any other veggie we could to can for the winter. He would get up at the crack of dawn and head out to a farm to get all the fresh produce and bring it home for canning. It seems that it always ended up that he and I would be the ones in the kitchen getting the veggies ready and then Mom would start canning them. They were always up until after midnight finishing up. Oh those green beans were soooooo good!!

In Florida a couple of years after we moved down for the warmer climate.

Mom and him at my house at Christmas one year.

This picture still shocks me; I asked him if he wanted to hold his grand daughter while feeding her and he said sure. I didn't think he would but he did hand her back as soon as she messed her diaper and said that was Mom's job to clean up. Always a smart remark that made me laugh.

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Some of his favorite lines; take a short walk off a long dock (for when we were driving him nuts) I hid some green jellybeans outside for you; why don't you go look for them (if there wasn't snow at Easter) or I hid some white jellybeans outside (when there was still snow on the ground) The always funny (to me and him at least) Go play in traffic. The classics: Here's a kiss for ya or I think someone stepped on a frog.

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The time Don tore his engine up while studying engine mechanics at the local VoTech school. He yelled and then spent the day with Don putting it all back together. Don't think Don got grounded for that one.

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The time he, mom and some friends went to the Daytona 500 in the infield to watch the race. He came home with a very irritated look on his face and said "where's the beef?!" Apparently Mom had packed everything in the cooler for the race but forgot the hamburgers and hot dogs. They had ketchup and onions on hot dog buns. That was hysterical! He laughed about it when he got home but I don't think he was too happy at the time. He NEVER let her forget about that either. I think it was one of his favorite stories to tell.

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We were moving into the house in Ormond after being in a rental for a few months (after first moving down here) and there was a HUGE palmetto bug in my dresser drawer. I thought nothing of trying to swat at it until it flew at me! I started screaming, Mom ran in to see what the problem was she swatted at it while telling me there was no reason to scream and when it jumped on her she screamed bloody murder. Bernie ran in mumbling something about damn silly woman and took care of the bug. Our hero!!

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The time I was laying outside in the back yard and my husband (at the time) was across the street visiting with him. A HUGE rat snake fell out of the tree, I ran screaming out of the house and across the street and he laughed so hard I thought he was going to wet himself when he found out why I was acting like a moron. They calmly walked over to see just how big that snake really was so they could tease me about it for years to come.

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It's still hard to deal with but if we remember the fun/funny times then we can laugh through our tears.

Disney Pictures - Katie's Birthday

The Tree of Life

The battery started acting up and I couldn't get any more pics of Goofy but I do have where they took some for us. Once I figure out how to get them I will e-mail you all pictures. I got a hug from Goofy too!!

As you can see; Logan adores Mickey! (So does Ryan; the only way to keep him calm while waiting in line was to pick him up and show him Mickey!!)

The Birthday girl!

Ryan; the Super Fussy BOY!

I was trying to get a picture of the deer but it was nice to catch something else in the frame!

This is supposed to be a picture of Mount Everest but as you can see I didn't do a good job!

Slow updates

Sorry it's been a while since I've posted but as usual it's crazy here! Katie turned three today and we celebrated by taking the kids to Disney. I was prepared early yesterday; packed all three bags and everything else in the morning after making my list (and yes, checking it twice). I remembered everything but forgot to charge the portable DVD player and the camera. Luckily the camera had enough juice to get most of the shots I wanted so it wasn't a total bust. (I don't feel so bad, Curtis forgot his cell phone so had to use mine to check in at work!)

I have to say, this trip was the most non-stressed trip with the kids that we've had in a very long time. I just decided I would make sure to take pictures so that we would have something to show and to not stress when the kids started to scream as all the kids do it. Good thing I decided that ahead of time; Ryan screamed for the first hour or so every time we stopped the stroller to look at something. We had to stop to change diapers so Curtis let him out to run and once that happened there was no putting him back in a stroller. It was quite funny and it sure helped with the nap later when we left! I love the camera I received for Christmas; I was able to push a stroller and take pictures at the same time. (Although, a few did turn out a little fuzzy most of them were super!)

On the way home, Katie, Ryan and Marie (YES the nine year old actually fell asleep too!) while Logan watched Boo Bahs on the DVD player. Lord, but I can't stand those stupid things!! They are more annoying then the other pink, purple, yellow and red "blobs" that came out before them. Of course, now Logan has decided he really REALLY wants to watch that DVD and listen to them sing so it's on continuously!! What in the world was I thinking?!?!?!?!

Tons of fun!

Wow, what a week we've had! Marie got off the bus last Friday with a note from the school clinic. It just said that she had a stomach ache but no fever and she had rested and then went back to class. If I had only known what I was in for.....

She didn't want to eat at all Friday which is very very unusual. Saturday more of the same and complaining of a stomach ache still. She then admitted that she had vomited on the way back from P.E. but didn't tell the nurse. We did finally get her to tell us that she had eaten a gummy worm off the floor in the classroom YUCK! She ate some ramien noodles with broth and a few saltine crackers on Saturday but that was it. On Sunday, only wanted water but I made her eat some crackers so she'd have something in her stomach but by lunch time the yucky stuff started.

She would vomit two to three hours after eating something. She could keep some water down but not much else so by Monday when it didn't improve we made a trip to the doctor. She gave us something for vomiting and nausea and warned me that she could continue to vomit for another 24 hours. If she didn't improve her liquid intake we would be making a trip to the E.R. for some IV fluids. Those stupid pills they gave her cost over $10.00 each. The first one came back up but by the time she took the 2nd one she was able to keep enough food and liquid down to start improving. On Wednesday morning she woke in the best of moods to announce that her stomach didn't hurt anymore and that she was ready for school. Of course, I couldn't let her go in so she stayed home trying to get caught up on homework all day.

We skipped all of Ryan's therapy because I couldn't bring Marie into the hospital while vomiting or while her immune system was a little low. (Lord knows what she would have "brought" home after one visit!) We made a trip (between vomiting episodes) to the school on Tuesday to get some work for her to do once she was feeling better. By the time Thursday rolled around, I was so looking forward to taking Logan to therapy it wasn't even funny! Usually by that day I'm dead tired and still have another day to get through before the week is over.

Lesson learned this week: Marie will NEVER EVER pick up food off the ground and put it anywhere near her mouth no MATTER WHAT! If she does it again; we go directly to the E.R. to get her stomach pumped (or at least that is what she thinks. We went into great detail about how they do it and what it's like so that maybe JUST MAYBE she will never do it again!)

The kids are home from school today as it's a teacher duty day and off again on Monday at it's Martin Luther King's birthday. That should give Marie plenty of time to get all of her homework caught up. (She's already starting the "Mom, Ms. O'Donnell said I didn't have to do all that reading work". First it was because "it's the beginning of a four day weekend so I don't have to do it." then it became, "it's the end of the grading period and she said I don't/can't make it up" My how the stories change!!)

A little something about Ryan

Ryan has been progressing with leaps and bounds lately. The other day we were at the hospital waiting for the therapist and I was trying to distract him from getting irate. Katie and I started counting on our hands. Ryan decided to join in by moving his fingers around and counting from one to ten. He is now saying all the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse characters too. (Mind you, Daisy sounds like Sissy and Micky sounds like boogie but we all know what he's saying)

Yesterday we were relaxing and playing waiting for Marie and Logan to get home when he did something that surprised me. He put his hands over his eyes and started counting. "1, 2,3, 4, 5; ready or not here I come." Of course it's not as clear as that but it was so close I knew what he was saying. I had him repeat it several times then I thought to go grab the camera to try to get it on video. Needless to say I lost that opportunity because when he saw the camera he started saying "cheese!" as he thought I was trying to take his picture. I will do my best to get him on tape and post so you can laugh with me.

I tried again to get him on "tape" doing this but he sat there and said cheese and proceeded to run over to Katie and steal her toy. Katie is now allowing him to play with her little "computer". She's such a good and loving big sister. Now if we can work on her attitude about eating.....

Katie and Ryan napping

Mommy's little angel all tired out.

He was playing hard and then decided to lay down to watch Mickey Mouse. Next thing you know.......

Back to school day

Well it was back to the old grind today as the older two were off to school first thing this morning. I had made lunches last night and done a few things so I wouldn't be so crazy this morning. I'd really like to continue doing these things in the evening so I can relax a little in the morning. This morning Ms. Katie was very clingy and I know it's because she knew Marie and Logan were going back to school.

Ryan went back for therapy and did okay. It had been two weeks since he'd seen his Occupational Therapist and I thought he was going to be a little cranky. He was so ready for her; he said Hi and when I asked if he was ready to go see her he said a very loud YES! Katie was very happy to see Ms. Cheryl; as soon as she came out of her office Katie dropped her dolls and went over and put her hands up in the air to be picked up. These kids adore Ms. Cheryl.

Ryan fell asleep on the floor with his butt up in the air about an hour ago. I set Katie up in the highchair so she could have a sandwich but it wasn't enough so she demanded some chips. She's asleep with her head on her hands. I want to get her down but I'm thinking I should just let her be. If I try to get her down she will wake up very cranky. I have a picture of each and will post in a minute or two. I'm enjoying the quiet time since it will only last about another 20 minutes until Logan and Marie hit the door. It will then be time to make some bread and bake Logan some cookies and start bugging Marie to do her homework.

I have now become my Mom; I now know why she (and all the other Mom's) looked forward to school starting back up!

Holidays are over

Well, the holidays are over and the kids are ready to go back to school. Okay, not really but I am ready for them to go back to school so does that count?? I made it past midnight on New Year's Eve which for me is a miracle. Don't think I've done that since.....since....I really can't remember! I actually stayed up until after 1:00 as I had found a funny show on TLC around 11:00. It's called Jon and Kate plus 8. It's hysterical! It's about this family that had twins through invitro and then decided they wanted one more. Well instead of one they got six; three boys and three girls. We don't have to deal with anything compared to what this family does which makes our crazy life seem almost normal. Curtis watched the episode that came on after midnight and we laughed and decided we will make it a must see for Monday nights.

We got up at a respectable 8:00 on New Year's Day and decided to go ahead and take the decorations down. I was getting really tired of tripping over all the stuff we had to remove in order to get the decorations up inside. We stored it all in our room which was a little annoying as we had finally gotten that room organized. (We will be organizing it again sometime this week.) It took us all day to get everything down and organized in boxes. Curtis called himself the "pack master" as he was able to get all our decorations plus the couple of bags he purchased on Sunday into all the same boxes and still managed to have one empty box left over. Yes, I did say one empty box left over. I couldn't believe it either; let's just hope that it's worth it come next Christmas. I'd really like to have all the tree decorations to be in one or two boxes instead of scattered through out all of them again.

On top of all that I made us breakfast and got some blackeyed peas on the stove to cook for New Year's lunch. I had to stop in the middle of packing to throw some corn bread in the oven because what is BEP without cornbread??!! It was a very good lunch break and I even took about a 10 minute nap while he talked on the phone with friends and his Dad. I was very thankful for the interruption as with all that it still took us until almost 6:30 last night to get everything down, in boxes and put back up in the attic. I still had to vacuum up, do dishes from breakfast and lunch and make dinner. (I did take the easy way out on that meal; sandwiches with chips) We had good meals for two of the three meals so what the heck right?!

I was so tired that I made the BIG mistake of making coffee around 7:00. I took my last sip around 8:30 and it wasn't until Logan finally fell asleep at 11:00 that the stupid caffeine kicked me. I went to bed as my body was protesting it needed sleep. I tossed and turned until Logan came in to get me at 1:00. He was able to fall asleep rather quickly but I was still awake at 1:30 when Ryan woke up. I think I finally settled into a nice deep sleep sometime after 3:00 and I was up around 8:00 with the kids. Next time I decide I want coffee after 7:00 p.m. I'm going to just go to bed and say the heck with that! Yes, I'm drinking a cup of coffee right now as I'm having trouble staying awake and that's with all four children running around and making noise.