Bunny Ears and Bubbles

Gigi came to visit this week and brought S some Easter surprises! Gigi and S loved wearing their bunny ears and hopping around the house like rabbits - how I wish I had that on video!! And the bubbles were great since it was kinda windy outside. S was thoroughly entertained by it all! As always, we had a fun visit:)

Jump Zone with Grandpa

This afternoon Grandpa dropped in by on his way through town for a visit with us! M was still a bit under the weather, so we met Grandpa at Jump Zone! WOW!!! It was so much fun! I had a ball watching S and Grandpa bounce and slide and climb:) S only suffered a minor bloody nose due to a head-on incident with another little kid. No worries, though, she was tough!

What a special time for everyone:) I don't know who was more exhausted by the end of it, S or Grandpa (HA... my vote is that Grandpa was!!)!

What a Week!

The week started out uneventful enough, but soon became almost laughable. If it wasn't one thing going wrong, it was another!


The problems started on Wednesday. My favorite time of the week is my Wed morning Mom to Mom bible study. I plan all things around it so that I can be there each week. This week was our last meeting until September with wonderful speakers lined up and a brunch provided by our sweet leaders. I got up with Michael at 5am because I have so much going on in my head about all that needs to be done before the baby gets here that it makes it hard to go back to sleep. So, I got up and completely ready and had a nice, quiet breakfast. S got up around 7/7:30 as usual and I proceeded to get her dressed and fed and what not. I went back into her room to get her shoes on so that we could leave and noticed for the first time that there was what appeared to be blood on her sheets in the area where her head would have been. It really made me wonder because I had brushed her teeth and wiped her nose and saw no signs of blood. I then checked her ears to see if there was anything, and nothing. Ugggg.... I knew what this meant - we were going to the peds office and I would be missing Mom to Mom. I called and got an appt for 30 minutes later (which is how long it takes me to get to the peds office) so off we go! The dr checks S and says that she has very swollen tonsils and does a strep test on her. Comes back negative thank goodness! Everything else checked out great, so we are told that she probably had a bit of congestion and is fighting a little virus and just coughed some blood up with it. Not a big deal they said but to call if it continued to happen! We had already had an appt for an ear re-check for the following day, but her ears were fine so we were able to cancel that appt and save ourselves another trip to the peds office for the week - or so we thought...


In the meantime, Wed night M starts to feel a bit under the weather and by Thurs thinks that he has the flu. He calls Thurs afternoon and says he is coming home early and going to bed. I do NOT want to get the flu (even though I did get the flu shot I didn't want to take any chances) so I go into our mangled mess of a guestroom that is in the process of being converted into S's big girl room and clean everything off the bed and get sheets and an old comforter out so that I can sleep there for the night. Whew.. no rest for the weary. Also, I do not what S to get sick so M was quarantined to our bedroom which meant that I was going to be the one getting her bathed and put to bed. This all happens to be on the night that I was going to have a girls night out with a friend. Oh well!


Friday morning I have a continuing education class scheduled in order to keep my license active. I have to be over by the mall at 8:30 and need to leave the house by 7:45 to get S dropped off and taken care of. I have slept in the guestroom and it is just not the same as my own bed. But, at least I am still well! I get up and get myself ready and go in to get S up at about 7:15. I am getting her hair done when I notice something pink in her right ear. I take a better look and, yup, there is a piece of something lodged in her ear! REALLY!?!?! Of all the days! Thank goodness I have a MIL who is willing to take her to the peds office while I am in class and get it removed (still do not have any idea where it came from but I am guessing the gym on Thurs because it was obviously no there on Wed when we were at the peds and they checked her ears!!). So concludes trip #2 to the peds office this week!



As the week comes to an end, M is still sick and I am still sleeping in the guestroom!

The life of a wife and a mom is one of love and sacrifice on so many levels!! I am continually reminded of this when weeks like this come around. However, I am also continually reminded of how wonderful it is to be a mom and wife and the blessings my husband and daughter have brought to me(like watching the S's eyes dance with excitement as we share an ice cream tonight or laughing with M as we listen to some of the things that our 2 1/2 year old comes up with)!

Hopefully this weekend will be a little more laid back and doctor-free so that we can come together and be a whole, healthy family again!!:)

Picnic at the Park

Could the weather please be just like this everyday?!?!?!

"Mom, could you please wipe my mouth before you take a picture next time?"

Happy Spring

Today was the first day of spring and it could not have been any more beautiful!!

M took S and planted part of the garden this morning (broccoli, lettuce, strawberries and tomatoes) and I had a shower here for a sweet friend expecting her first baby! What better way to celebrate spring than planting a garden and celebrating the impending arrival of a new baby:)

This afternoon we headed over to the park. It was crazy how many people were there! I was worried that the bigger kids would run S over. But, we made it unscathed and had a great time! S loved having her daddy there to push her on the swing(and so did I!).

It was a wonderful way to start spring!!

He's Getting BIG

I can't believe it has already been FIVE weeks since I posted a belly picture. The first picture is at 20 weeks and the second is this week at 25 weeks! This little guy is getting so big (well, I am at least...HAHA!)!

Our First 2010 Trip to the Zoo

YAY!

S asks to go to the zoo at least twice a week!! I've been trying to explain to her all winter that when it gets warmer, we'd go. I don't know if a 2-year-old can really understand that! I was so excited to surprise her this week with a zoo trip. We'd gotten her hair cut earlier that morning and then headed over. She walked the entire time even though I did have a stroller for her in case we needed it. She listened so well and loved every minute of being there! It was a wonderful and enjoyable morning for the both of us!

Big Girl Room

Today we began getting S's big girl room ready! We are going to move her into the guest room and put the baby in the room that she is currently in now. A couple of months ago, I cleaned out the majority of the "junk" that was in the guestroom but there is a lot of stuff that needs to be done in there that I just cannot do - paint, move furniture out, sand/paint the bed and dresser. But, today we made a step in the right direction and M painted the room! YAY!!! S kept going in to help him out. We had the windows open to get some air in the room. I don't think S has ever seen the windows actually opened before (we don't have screens) and thought it was so neat to hang her head out and have the wind blow her hair! All I could think about was her tumbling out! Maybe we'll bolt those closed before she moves into the room:) j/k!

I can't wait for her to get to use her new room. She wanted to sleep in her "white bed" as she called it tonight, but was told that she would have to wait a while longer:)

This is S helping Daddy screw the outlet covers back into the wall after he had finished painting!

Potty Training

I finally decided that I needed to potty train S! She has been very interested in the potty for a while, but I have totally not been up for it. So, I put it on my calendar and blocked off a week in hopes that it would make me just go ahead and do it. And, I am doing it...ugg!!! Several people I know used the 3daypottytraining.com website, so that is what I did too. For some of them it worked in 3 days and for others it took a bit longer. Looks like it is going to take us a bit longer for us - but we're getting there.

DAY 1:

S was so excited about wearing her panties(see picture of her on the morning of day 1)!! I had not shown them to her before I started, so she was very surprised. When I put them on her, it made me kinda sad that she is getting to be such a big girl and is no longer a baby. Taking away diapers is a huge step for her and it's also a little sad. Our first day, we had 6 accidents and 1/2 a success. What is a half success? It's where she started out going on the floor but was able to finish on the potty. She was SO proud of herself!!! The 3 Day Potty Training method insists on doing panties even at night. For kids like S, who still wake up in the morning with a 10lb diaper, the author suggests waking them up throughout the night. NO WAY!!!! We are going to do pull-ups at night and I do not feel guilty about that one bit! I'd much rather sleep! All in all it was an exhausting day for both of us but we made it through and the 1/2 success made us at least see a little light at the end of a long tunnel!

DAY 2:

The morning of day 2 started with a success!! YAY!!! I thought surely the day would be awesome and she would be potty trained completely by the end of the day. Not quite the way it worked out, but she did really well! We had 4 successes (including two small poopy ones- I know, TMI) and 5 accidents. We did not use any bribes on day 1, but I resorted to an M&M bribe about mid-way through day 2:)

DAY 3:

Today was supposedly going to be the day! She was going to be potty trained by the end of the day - again, didn't exactly happen that way! We started out the morning with a HUGE wet mess and followed it a little while later with another one, equally as large! Oh boy, I felt like things were going backwards! Also, poor S is somewhat constipated. I mentioned little poopy successes in Day 2 and we had more today but she is in pain and it is sad! We tried feeding her prunes tonight so hopefully that will help her out some. The last few days have been really wet and nasty. So, today when the clouds cleared for a while, we ventured outside for some much needed fresh air. It was kinda chilly, but I was afraid of an accident, so S went pantless. I'm sure our neighbors were debating on whether or not to call DSS on me!! Oh well, it was worth looking like a bunch of rednecks:) We ended today with 3 successes (including two small poopy ones) and 3 accidents! And, none of the accidents happened after about lunchtime!

At the end of our 3 day potty training marathon, we are all exhausted beyond words! And, although is not completely potty trained yet, we are making progress!

Sweet Friends

These girls are so sweet together(well, when they aren't fighting over something, but such is the life of two-year-olds...HA)!

Watching their friendships develop is amazing!!

Body Art

S LOVES to color with markers but usually she ends up getting as much on her as she does on the paper! We've learned to strip her down before we bring out the markers so I don't have a conniption fit about her clothes getting messed up! She totally enjoys every minute of it:)

Weekend Escape

I had the absolute BEST weekend in Charleston last weekend!! After being trapped in the house with a sick kiddo, this weekend away could not have come at a better time:) My friend, Lee, was so sweet to let me come and crash at their house. We had an ideal girls' weekend of shopping, eating, watching movies and even managed a carriage tour of the city(something I had never done before)! The whole weekend was perfect and was exactly what I needed:)

Trapped Inside

Yesterday I took S to the dr. and found out she had a double ear infection and pink eye! Fabulous!! So, we got some antibiotics and were told to keep her away from people for 24 hours. Uggg.... Neither one of us do very well staying in the house all day - especially after all of our regular events had already been cancelled this week because of snow. But, aside from a few tantrums and some testing of Mommy, we had fun playing (with some help of Dora and Elmo!). We tried to keep busy with coloring, dressing up, reading, building castles, playing with baby dolls, baking muffins and doing puzzles. Whew, I will be glad to get out tomorrow!!

PS - When they weighed S at the dr, she weighed a whopping 26lb with clothes on - what a munchkin!!!