I can do it myself!

All three of my children are going through phases that seem to revolve around the attitude of “I can do it myself!”  There are pros and cons to all of these phases.  Bianca has always been the independent type.  She recently decided she no longer wants help getting dressed or doing simple hygiene like brushing her teeth and washing her hands.  If you try to assister she will respond with “no, no, no, no ,no, I can do, I can do it”  It’s nice that she has the ability to complete these skills on her own.  She is just growing up so quickly.

Then there is paisley who is two years younger than Bianca but wants to be just like her big sister and also brush her teeth on her own and get herself dressed.  Unfortunately she still lacks some of the dexterity and physical strength required for these tasks, which is the perfect equation for conflict.  The most common occurrence is bed time when she wants to undress herself.  She pulls her shirt behind her head with her arms still in the sleeves and when you offer to help she waves you off crying telling you “no hop” which means no help.  I watch her struggle and get frustrated for about 5 minutes before I just move in and remove her shirt at which point the tears will subside and we can get on with our bed time routine. 

Last is Gage.  He practically refuses to be spoon fed anymore.  He wants to do it himself.  It’s SO nice when your kids can feed themselves, yet at the same time the practice required to obtain that skill is SO messy…sometimes funny but work to clean it up when the meal is over.  He is also learning to walk.  He LOVES to stand up and have freedom to roam.  I joke that he is my little vacuum, because if he is on the floor even if I JUST vacuumed he will find something he is not supposed to have to put into his mouth.  He has started to cruise along furniture and that is hard for me because I know I need to let him learn and develop the muscle tone so he can walk but I can’t help but hover to make sure he doesn’t fall into something that could cause injury.

Frankly I know I need to be thankful that my children are healthy and grateful that they can do things for themselves…just wish it wasn’t happening so fast.  Part of me wishes they could grow out of certain phases, but the other part of me hates to see them grow up.  I know that soon enough they will be slamming doors in my face and asking me to drop them off at the corner so they don’t have to be seen with me so I will just relish every moment I have with my babies J

Deja vu

If you are a mom you can relate to the feeling of Sleep deprivation!  It’s bound to happen to anyone with kids…especially my kids at least.  Bianca is my early riser; she is up by 6 almost every morning.  Then there is Paisley my night owl; who if I let her would be happy to stay up till midnight playing with her Barbie and my little pony collection.  If that weren’t enough the cherry on top it Gage.  All in all he is a great sleeper but he still gets hungry about 2 am.  All the different sleep patterns leave me stretched a little thin some days.  It might not be so bad if I could get a nap in every now and again.  Unfortunately the girls are getting to the age where naps are no longer a daily occurrence and NEVER at the same time that Gage takes his nap.

My kids are busy…and by busy I mean ALWAYS into SOMETHING!  This is why cleaning the house is such a hard task.  Example:  I’m in the kitchen doing dishes (for some reason we always have dishes) Paisley is in the bathroom unrolling a new roll of toilet paper, Bianca just dumped out all the coloring books and colored pencils and Gage is throwing his snacks on the floor from his highchair.  When I’m done with dishes I find the toilet paper and have to pick it up and replace the roll.  While cleaning that mess Paisley has moved onto to her room where the contents of the Barbie box are now littered across the floor and she is in Bianca’s bunk bed with 1 Barbie!  Gage is tired of being in his highchair so I move him to the playpen until I can pick up the coloring books and pencils.  Bianca joins Paisley in her room but wants to play with Babies and not Barbies so another box is emptied while I put the coloring books and pencils back. 

I know what you are thinking, have them help pick up.  I do most days but when I say lets pick up somehow the message is discombobulated between my mouth and their ears.  I literally have to break it down for them in order for things to get done “pick up the red pencil.  Put the pencil in the pencil box.  Good job.  Pick up the blue pencil.  Put the pencil in the box.  Good job.” which in turn takes 4 times as long and if you have two children clean it can get chaotic with all the directions. Regardless, it’s like shoveling snow in a blizzard at my house most days!

I’m digressing.  Needless to say I’m exhausted and last week when the planets and stars aligned for all three of my children to take a nap after a trip to Wal-Mart at the same time I was thrilled.  So many things could be done without interruption and distraction for the short hour I had.  So instead of finishing laundry or putting the last couple bags of groceries away or working on a sewing project I chose to lay on the couch and close my eyes for a few moments; and that was my mistake.

If you read my blog you know that things happen when I sleep.  You can catch up on some good laughs if you read this one!  http://goincrazyinkansas.blogspot.com/2010/12/is-it-just-me.html  I should have known that it was too good to be true that all kids would nap a full hour.  After resting my eyes for 20 or 30 minutes I realize that Paisley has curled up next to me on the couch.  I decided rather than send her back to her bed I would relish the moment and enjoy her company.  As I wrap my arm around her Déjà vu took over.  She is sticky…why would she be sticky.  My mind jumps back to the time Bianca got into a jar of Desitin and slathered herself my bed and the carpet in it.  As the rush of adrenalin hits my blood stream I practically push her off the couch to quickly survey the predicament I have once again found myself in. 

My worst fears are coming true as I process what my eyes are taking in.  Paisley face is white from the nose down as if she had a white 5 o’clock shadow, her arms look as though she is wearing white opera gloves and her pants and feet are also covered in the white substance.  The couch (which is black leather) also has large smears of this white cream and my pants where she had been laying next to me had also fallen victim to this incident.  As the rest of my senses took in the horrific reality that history was repeating itself I recognized the smell of sunscreen.  I had gotten a brand new bottle of sunscreen at Wal-Mart and it was one of the items I had left to put away from our trip that morning. 

Next I needed to find the scene of the crime.  As I stood up from the couch I was praying that she had stayed in the kitchen where we have tile floor and clean up would be bearable…no such luck.  As I continued down the hall I looked in her room.  Sure enough just as Bianca had two years previously Paisley had emptied the contents of a bottle of sunscreen into her carpet in a 2 foot by 3 foot area.  Bianca was still sleeping so I went back to Paisley to strip her of her clothes and start cleaning her up.  After Bianca woke up I began the two and a half hour long scrub job.  Used 3 bottles of rubbing alcohol to break up the oily base, a bottle of hairspray to disperse the lotion, shampoo to help lift the cream out and toped it off with a bottle of shout and a bottle of carpet cleaner to remove the stain.  I am happy to report that unlike the desitin it did all come out. 

Paisley on the left in Sunscreen; Bianca on the right in Desitin

I did take pictures for a good laugh in the future and will not be napping anytime soon J

Blessed to be a Mom!

As mother's day approaches I enjoy reflecting on my journey into motherhood and where it has taken me thus far. I have always known I wanted to be a mother. I probably knew that because of the great examples I had in my life. My mother is such an amazing woman and it’s because of her that I have gotten to where I am today. She was and still is a great mother and I hope I can be half the mother she was. I know how blessed I am to have had such a wonderful role model to look to for advise and lean on in times of need.

I will be the first to admit how hard it is to be a mother but I also know how blessed I am to have three gifts from God and they do remind daily. I started my journey into being a mother as one sick puppy. Morning sickness all day everyday for almost the whole pregnancy! Then if that were not bad enough I had to labor and then push a baby through a small opening in my body. I look back and laugh now because I had no idea I had even gone into labor. My water broke but i thought I had just peed my pants, as that happens more often than anyone would like to admit. I do count my blessings as my labor with Bianca start to finish was only 7 hours and I only had to push three times before she slipped out but it was still a difficult task. All the pain and sleepless nights were so worth it as I grabbed that little slippery body as she came out and put her onto my chest and saw my baby for the first time. Those emotions are so indescribable, but the happiest I've ever been in my whole life, maybe part of that is because you know you are done :)



I remember taking our first picture after she was born. I had gotten up early that day like around 5 am and didn’t go into labor until 7 pm and gave birth at 2 am the following am so I was tired. I remember feeling like I was grinning ear to ear but after reviewing the pictures...not sure you could even call it a smile... Since that day sleep has never been the same. With a new born you are up every 2 hours to feed and change them and even when they do start to sleep longer you start to worry that they have slept that long and you are still not sleeping. I still wake up one to three times a night to go and check on all of my children. I do the classic head tilt to watch their chest or back rise and fall with rhythmic breathing. If I can’t tell I stick my finger next to their nose to feel the warm air.


As Bianca gets closer and closer to going to school my fears become increasingly more frequent in my mind. Up to this point I have been able to "control" the things that happen. I'm the one driving the car, I'm the one taking her to the zoo, and I’m the one who is teaching her right and wrong. Once she goes to school this will no longer be the case. All the “what if’s” begin to creep up in my mind, because just like my mother I'm a worry wart. I blame the TV for part of my issues there because I watch all the terrible stories of kidnappings and ER stories, but raising children is still a scary thing.

I have just begun my journey as I'm only 4 years into it but the truth is that I am having a blast and can’t wait to see what is around the corner. We experience new things everyday and to watch them learn and grow is so satisfying. I'm so thankful that I have been given the opportunity to partake in my children’s lives and that I will forever be a mother :)

say AH!

Sorry it’s been so long since I posted last.  Somehow I managed to stay busy :)  A lot has happened since January, but with three kids that should be no surprise.

 

Paisley had a wonderful Birthday at the end of January and I still can’t believe she is already 2.  She made out with lots of great gifts since we have such an amazing family.  She is talking more and more every day and our current favorite fraise is "chicken butt"....bet you can’t guess who taught her that....daddy!

We had a great valentine’s day and were so blessed to have BJ's mom come out and visit us at the end of February.  We love when she visits because we have so much fun and it reminds us on how blessed we are to have such an amazing family.  We took her to the zoo, one of our favorite places to go, and got "snurfed on" by elephants which we are told is good luck.  While Nana was here we celebrated all the Birthdays with a dinner at Olive Garden which was so good!  Sadly the visit came to an end but we can’t wait to see her again soon!

Bianca celebrated her Golden Birthday.  She turned 4 on March 4th.  We celebrated with a Minnie mouse cake, requested by the birthday girl herself.  Again we have an amazing family and Bianca was so blessed with wonderful gifts.

  Gage is growing like a weed and doing new things every day.  He teases us with crawling.  He got up on his knees and made forward movement once and i got all excited....and he hasn’t done it since...he prefers the army crawl, and boy is he good at it!  I can set him down and less than 30 seconds later he has made his way from the living room through the dining room and kitchen down the hall and into the girl's room :)  He is eating some foods on his own and had learned how to gurgle his spit, a lovely talent :)  He now has a single bottom tooth!  It’s still hard to see but I can feel the little sharp points if I dare to stick my finger in his mouth. 

Last month we splurged on a groupon to go to a private zoo here in Wichita that prides itself on its interactive exhibits.  I have to say it was a blast!  We got to feed giraffes lettuce, pet blue tongued lizards, let lorikeets drink nectar from our hands and play with a pin full of turtles.  They had an exhibit where you could walk around and pet kangaroos, which are incredibly soft!  They also had a camel that we got to pet, a gorgeous white tiger, cute little penguins, and lots of other cool exhibits.  The highlight for BJ and I was feeding the ring tailed monkeys!  You walk into a grassy area with large rocks to sit on and the lemurs just jump into your lap.  They weigh like 2 pounds and are so cute.  you have to pay 2 bucks to feed them and they give you a single crasin :)  what a rip off but it was so much fun and a great memory.  The highlight for the girls was Clifford the Big Red Dog was there for a visit :)  Can't wait to go back!

BJ's dad also came out to visit us during Easter weekend.  The boys went fishing almost every night yet didn’t catch anything we could  keep and eat.  We took BJ's dad to the zoo as well and had a blast.  We took the girls fishing and didn’t catch a thing but got some great pictures.  BJ and I were brave and decided to attempt a trip to the movie theater with all three kids while BJ's dad tried to rest.  We took the kids to see Rio.  It was a cute movie.  Paisley had the hardest time sitting still.  Gage also had a hard time as he wanted to talk through the whole movie.  Even though Bianca did well we may wait a few more years before we try that again.

Easter was fabulous!  The bunny was very generous this year.  Lots of goodies and toys.  the favorite was toy hamster that have since been broken due to abusive play :)  We went to church and then came home to do an Easter egg hunt.  The girls had a blast and screamed with excitement for each egg that was found.  BJ then made BBQ ribs and we dined like royalty.  Later we enjoyed golf in the front yard and tending to our newly planted garden.

Last but not least...Paisley's foreign object.  The Monday after Easter the girls are rough housing on the couch and i scolded them and told them to stop.  No later than 3 seconds after that I hear a metal sound hit Paisley's back teeth and then she began to chock.  I can’t tell you the horrifying feeling of your child choking.  Luckily she didn’t choke for long and she ended us swallowing whatever it was that was in her mouth.  Due to the metal sound of the object I had assumed it was a coin, most likely a penny.  I waited to see of it would pass but no such luck.  Took her into the doctor on Friday and after several x-rays we are not sure what it is.  On the films it looks like a kitchen knob, but all of ours are accounted for so I am at a complete loss.  The doctor wants us to wait another week to let it pass on its own before we discuss other options.  If it doesn’t pass by this Friday we will most likely have to put her under and send a scope down her throat and see if we can retrieve it that way. 

None the less we are all fine "relatively" and just enjoying all our many blessings