In case you wanted to know

In case you wanted to know...

Miss Rose made up a card game for us to play, which was a mix of war and poker.  But she informed us there was no betting involved.  I asked, and still can't figure out how she knows about cards and betting.  She also asked if we had any dice or spinning wheels to incorporate into the game.  I can't make this up.  And all the holy roller pentecostals rolled in their graves.
{and just so you do know, we are not a betting or gambling family.  we don't frequent casinos.  honestly, no idea where this all game from}

And if you're interested...

Lily told Gracie tonight at dinner "no talking back."  The admonishment did not fit the situation, but we were quite amused that she's picked up that phrase.  I'm not surprised though.  Out of the mouths of babes. And there you have our number one problem in this house.  Lily also loves to tell us "one minute" when she's not ready to obey.  She also talks non-stop.  It's amazing how a child who usually strings just 3-4 words together at a time can talk incessantly.  But she can.

Oh, and by the way...

Gracie thinks I should get another wedding dress so I can get married to Daddy again.  But when I suggested that someday she'll get married and she could wear my wedding dress, that is "bisgusting" because she would have to kiss a boy.  Even though she talks about kissing boys, I'm very glad she is "bisgusted" by it.  Gracie also has never seen Glee, but lately her life resembles Glee.  Much of her imaginative play happens in original song.  The characters sing to one another.  Sometimes it gets real loud.

Friends, this life is a circus.  And often I am a poor ringmother of it.  But I sure laugh a lot.

(oh, and photos of Miss Rose's new hairdo are forthcoming.  I think I need to get them off my phone.)

one crazy hour (every night)

This blog serves partially as a record of our family life, an electronic journal if you will.  Because I type way faster than I can write with pen and paper.  I like that people enjoy reading it, and if more people want to start reading, that's super cool.

You will laugh, and you may cry at the antics I am about to recount.  I know I did a little of both.  I publish this, because many years from now, I may not remember these details and if someone else were to tell them to me, I may not believe it.  But here, published in my own words, I have to believe it.

The hour from 6:30pm to 7:30pm is the craziest, hairiest hour each day in our household.  I'm sure it's similar in many homes with young children.  Infants and young babies are often extra fussy in the evening and it's called the "witching hour."  I would propose that the "witching hour" continues to exist as children get older, just in different form.

We typically eat dinner around 5:30pm.  By 6:30 it is time to start getting kids ready for bed.  Bean typically cleans up after dinner while I start bathing children.  We like this set-up.  I would rather be with the kids and he loves cleaning the kitchen.

Sometimes I shower all three kids.  We have a removable shower head that I use for the little girls.  This is the most expedient method, but the little girls usually protest and fuss and sometimes I am just not up for that.

Before baths and showers tonight I trimmed everyone's finger and toenails.

Tonight, a joint bath sounded much easier.  I run the bath and undress Lily.  Gracie comes in and poops on the toilet, stinking up the small bathroom.  Gracie loves to lay down in the bath, putting her lady parts right in Lily's reach.  Which is starting to interest Lily.  I can't tell you how many times I tell Gracie to sit up.  And then she lays down again.  Gracie spent the first 10 minutes of tonight's bath with her ears underwater, singing her rendition of the chorus of "Firework" over and over again, quite loudly.

Miss Rose always protests getting in the shower.  It takes her way longer than necessary to undress.  Usually because she is cavorting around half dressed or naked--often in full view of our picture window in the living room.  This is rather awkward because she is a 7-year old trapped in a 10-year olds body.  Hear head almost reaches the top of my shoulder.  The kid is tall and very solid.  She's like this pre-teen running around, yet with a child's spirit.  Awkward is just the best way to describe it.

After demanding and sometimes yelling, she's finally in the shower.  Then I have to fetch the brush for her, because no matter what I do, Miss Rose's hair is terribly tangled by the end of the day and the best solution is to saturate it with conditioner and brush it while soaking in the shower.  And we still have to brush more tangles after she's out.

Miss Rose spends the last half of her shower singing made-up songs into the shower head.  She is never happy when I say it's time to get out.  I have to dry her hair enough that it's not dripping.  She tries to talk me into drying her whole body, but I usually make her do it on her own.

Back to the other bathroom where Gracie and Lily are playing and Gracie is saying "Lily's gonna bite my bottom"  Then for goodness sake SIT UP!  A quick scrub down and conditioning of hair.  (curly hair girls, we don't use shampoo usually)

Miss Rose is taking forever to dry off, and is singing again in our bathroom.  So I have to continually call to her to go get her jammies on.

Get the little girls dried off and they insist on being wrapped in their towels.  They love running to find Bean and talk about being naked and there is often mention of nipples.  Bean is usually done with the kitchen at this point and helps with the rest of the extravaganza.

Lily always runs away when it's time to get jammies on.  And lately she's been insisting on choosing her own.  She wants "pink" although I don't think she always knows what is actually pink.

Then it's time to brush out tangles.  Miss Rose thinks I'm torturing her on purpose.  I think she will get a significant haircut in May.  Her hair is long, so there is some to spare.  Gracie's hair doesn't tangle as much, but she still hates getting it brushed.

Miss Rose goes into the bathroom to brush her teeth and do her fluoride mouthwash.  When I check on her, she's making silly faces in the mirror.  She somehow gets toothpaste everywhere while brushing.  Lily tries to get in the bathroom, but this only distracts Miss Rose. I have to drag Lily out, while she tucks her legs up, and close the door.  Lily plants herself right in front of the door and screams at me.

Finally it's time for the little girls.  Gracie stands on the stool, Lily climbs on the toilet.  Both girls start out themselves, then I finish up.  Lily plays with the soap and mouthwash bottle on the counter, knocking them over.  I usually have to sing to get the girls to focus on the task at hand.  I go back and forth, telling them not to touch something, to focus, to not fall etc.  I floss Gracie's teeth, because they are close together and that's

I've been wanting to read more from our children's Bibles and so tonight I put my foot down that Mama was reading and everyone else was listening.  Miss Rose wanted to read "but Mom, you always say that it's important for me to read, so I don't know why you won't let me."  Gracie wanted to look at her own book.  And Lily had to be on my lap, and kept grabbing the Bible.

It was a comedic 8 minutes.  Gracie was sent to her room for moaning and whining and writhing on the couch.  Lily started being goofy and saying "poop" and "pee".  Miss Rose was laughing the entire time.  And then Bean started laughing.  Lily kept going to check on Gracie.  Finally Gracie returned.    I could only get five words out at a time before having to direct a child in something.  Bean thought it was all hilarious.  I told him I had no use for him.

Gracie flips through the children's Bible and comes upon an illustration of Naaman washing in the Jordan River.  She thinks he is naked and it's funny.  I tell her he has shorts on, they are just underwater. Then she starts talking about seeing his nipples.  Seriously.

Finally, bedtime.  We pray, we sing.  During which Gracie is singing her own song.  Miss Rose is trying to hold hands with all family members from the top bunk. She gets mad when Lily doesn't want to hold her hand, which is almost every night.  Lily insists on being held.  She's getting heavy these days.  I rest my foot on the bunkbed ladder so Lily is sitting on my leg instead of my hip.  Which Bean thinks is a great opportunity to tickle my leg, so I'm laughing while we are singing, and from the top bunk Miss Rose thinks she's missing something.  Sigh.

During this crazy hour, I hardly ever stop talking.  I'm always telling a child to do something, or stop doing something.

The kids finally in bed, we collapse on the couch.

And I wonder, 10 years from now, when they can do all of this on their own, what are we going to do with that hour?

It's crazy.  But I'm sure I'll miss it.

What are your nights like?

groundhog minute

It was one of those days.  Nothing particularly wrong with it.  No big catastrophe or incident.

Just one of those days that something small happens..and then something else...and then something else. Kids not listening, baby crying, kids being feisty, mama being weary, daddy longing for a day of football from the couch.  You know.

My sister-in-law put a status on Facebook the other day about every day feeling like Groundhog Day.  When you are a mom of young kids--it definitely does.  Some days, I think it's more like Groundhog Minute.

As in, how many times do I need to tell Lily to sit down in the bath?  Cause I do it once a minute.

And how many times do I need to tell Gracie to sit up in the bath instead of laying down, taking up all the space and basically sprawling her ladyparts right in front of Lily.  Yes, I went there.  Or telling her to quit sticking her booty in the air, shaking it at Lily and laughing because Lily was slapping it.  Yes, it happened.  Tonight.

I told Miss Rose to go get her jammies on after her shower.  5 minutes later she comes sliding in to the bathroom (I'm sure I was in the midst of saying one of the above things) in her underware, a terrycloth headband on her head and large thick black glasses frames.  Kinda like when Kramer is an underwear model on Seinfeld.

Sure it was funny, and I laughed.  But then she went off---not in the direction of her room--where her jammies were.  And when I called out, she got annoyed with me.  And claimed she didn't remember what she was supposed to be doing.  REALLY!?  FOR THE LOVE.

Oh, did I mention how Lily peed on the floor and then slipped in it and fell, in the 45 seconds it took me to throw her poopy diaper away?  She was going in the bath next, and usually a minute or two of nakedness doesn't have a catastrophic end.

And then...and then...and then.

Thankfully, we had the kids bathed--and then did a whole house clean up--and all the oral hygiene routines completed.  Speaking of oral hygiene routines...it's a serious production around here.  Making sure there is 2 full minutes of brushing, and the flossing and the flouride rinse.  We recently gained a second functional bathroom, which makes these routines much easier.  Because Gracie stands on a stool, while Lily tries to climb on it as well.  So the fact that Miss Rose can do her stuff in the other bathroom is amazing.

I'm really glad we are starting the week off with a relatively clean home (even the shoe basket is emptied!) and the kids laundry is clean.

We ended the night with Miss Rose reading to Bean while I played babies with Gracie.  (I was "Abuela" from Dora).  Lily flits back and forth between us.

It was a good ending to the day.

a ticket to the circus

Although sometimes I want to change my blog name again, we truly are a circus.  My sister stopped by for a short time this weekend and our circus status is never quite as glaring as when an "outsider" visits.  We get used to the chaos, but fresh eyes see it in a new way.

Here's your ticket to some recent happenings.

Remember when Lily threw her first tantrum?

She hasn't trantrumed like that since, although she's getting a bit sassy with her sisters.  Usually they are invading her space or taking a toy from her and she's starting to assert her will.  "No" is one of her most frequently used words.  Although the "o" sound is usually very faint and it's just a long "nnnnnn".

Lily also likes to give us a big "thbbbbt" (what the heck is that called, by the way??), a move she learned from her big sister Gracie.  When I say or do something she doesn't like, she'll look right at me and "thbbbt".  It's lovely.

Now that I figured out how to upload videos to the blog, here is a little more from that day.

It's actually rather cute.  You can see Gracie doing her monkey walk, and Lily is quite determined to get to her, and actually distracts her sister for a moment.  (And if you don't already know it, you can catch Gracie's first name too)

Now that Lily can walk, she's been allowed back to Tumbling.  She's pretty content to walk partway to the mat, and then will come back when called.  She walked about a week after the first Tumbling incident.  One of my friends commented that perhaps she started walking just so she could join Tumbling.

Miss Rose, well she may not be invited back.  She came with me for the first time this past week and felt the need to demonstrate her ability to do a bridge, while wearing a skirt.  A skill she also demonstrated to her aunt, in the middle of the sidewalk, while we were on a walk.  Again, wearing a skirt.

She's such a tomboy, I'm always thrilled when she decides to dress "girly."  I guess we will need to have some more lessons on modesty.  And laying down on a sidewalk covered with leaves too.

Oh, and Gracie?  She untied my dress on Sunday morning as we were leaving the Children's building.  Lily was in one hand and my other hand was full of stuff.  Luckily the tie was just for looks and not crucial to my staying clothed.  It would have been more trouble to tie it again, so I just decided to roll with it.  Gracie thought it was such fun to hang onto the strings and basically drive me like a pony.  As I walked across the front of the church entrance, as everyone was leaving.  I'm sure we were a sight to behold.

I'm telling you, it's a circus around here!

life & love

If only I could actually write all the blog post ideas that I have and write in my head.  Recently I read another bloggers idea about an app or program that would write the blog you compose in your head.  If I could remember what blogger it was, I would totally give her credit.

We've been living life.  And we've been loving one another.  It was Valentine's weekend you know.  And oh the cute posts I thought about writing about why I love each of my children and my husband.  But I was too busy loving and living to actually write about it.  Which isn't a bad thing.

We had a nice long weekend.  Miss Rose was off of school Friday and Monday.  Friday, we finally got to make the trip to see my friend's new house and let our girls run around and play together.  Six girls is a lot!  It was a wonderful visit though.  We spent a lot of time with friends and family this weekend. 

Valentine's Day was busy, but we were together.  Being Sunday, it's a workday for me.  Miss Lily had thrush, so Daddy kept her home from church.  He did bring me my favorite Starbucks drink at 6:30am as I was getting ready for church.  Awww, whattaguy!  I returned the thought, and brought him home a McDonald's Diet Coke (our favorite fountain Diet Coke...and at $1 for an extra large, you can't beat it).  That was the extent of our V-Day exchange, which was perfectly fine with me.  When we get a chance, we'll have a date night too.

I was very excited about getting the girls flowered hats from Briar.Claire.  In true form, they weren't all that excited though.  Things usually have to lose their newness before they decide they like them.  I'm hoping they'll wear them here and there.  I will not be beyond bribing them for a photo session sometime in the near future.  I got a few cute photos of Lily in her red (of course) hat.  It makes her blue eyes stand out!

Miss Rose starts T-ball this week.  Practices for a few weeks and then games begin in March.  We're excited to see how she does and she is excited to play.  She definately has some natural sports ability.  She loved her first year of soccer, but the second year didn't seem to be as thrilling for her.  So we'll see how this sport goes.

Life goes on.  Life is full.  Thankfully, there's a lot of love to go around as well.

overheard

Overheard in my bed this morning, as all three girls were having some mommy time.

For no known reason, this exchange occurs:

Miss Rose: Gracie, can you say"rectangular prism?"


Gracie: Can you smell my foot? (while sticking said foot in her sister's face)

It still makes me laugh out loud!  I love being a mom and I live for these moments.

Sometimes the funny exchanges have some sort of reasoning behind the content.  Not this one though.  Just pure kid exchange!

A little update on my current journey...

I've been enjoying me some yummy food.  For the most part I haven't over-indulged, but definately not refusing either.  My aim is for balance, not going without or going with too much.  For me, this is about a lifetime, not just a diet that will end.  I'm sure after Valentine's Day passes, I'll get back on track a bit more.  Or maybe not, as Bean's birthday is coming up as well.  Well, I'll have a few days with no excuses!

I have been able to get in some runs and workouts this week.  I could have used one or two more, but the few I got are better than none!  I've been trying to do some ab work and arm work on a daily basis.  I feel a bit sore in those areas, so I guess it's doing something.

I had one of my best runs in a long time today.  I have really been focusing on making myself run faster.  Running with the Nike+, on my known route is a big help.  I know generally where my mile markers are and the Nike+ will tell me at any time what pace I'm running.  For a few months now, I've been running sub-10 minute miles on my shorter runs. 

Today, my goal was a 45min run of all sub-10 minute miles.  It took me almost 2 miles to find my groove, which is longer than normal.  But I finally found it and just kept pushing myself.  The more I push myself, I find that my "set speed" is getting faster.  When I push, I can run at an 8:30min mile pace.

The verdict?  4.8 miles in 45 minutes.  Blew 10 minutes out of the water!!  If I remember correctly, that put my average pace around 9:25 per minute.  I'm really having to push, and a lot of the time I feel like a lumbering elephant, completely ungraceful. 

My new goal?  5 miles in 45 minutes.  That would be a flat 9 minute mile.  I think I can do it.

Something new...and someone 6

I'm trying out Disqus comments.  I like it on other blogs, so we'll see how it works here.  You don't have to register for an account if you don't want to.  But if you do, then I can comment back to you, and you'll be notified of it.  Just sayin'....

My first baby girl turns 6 tomorrow.  At 8:25am in the morning.  Want to read her birth story?  It's here.
6 is a big deal.  She's really becoming a big girl.

Hopefully I will have the time to share some birthday thoughts tomorrow.  We're taking her out for dinner, always a fun time with the kidlets!  Entertaining.  Hopefully Gracie won't start yelling out about her nipples like she did the last time we went out.  That kid is a crack up!

Tomorrow morning when we arrive at school,  I'll be loading the double jogger with a baby, a box of cupcakes and probably a toddler on the very front.  Because that's what you do when you're a mom.  She's SO worth it.

bubbles

Am I the only one considering putting my children in a bubble for the rest of the cold and flu season?  We've NEVER been hit with so many things before.  Certainly some of it could be due to Miss Rose being in school now, but she went to school 5 mornings a week last year, starting in January. 

The only thing that doesn't make me feel like a complete failure of a mom is that many other families I know, around the States, are experiencing the same indidence of illness.  In fact, I heard later this morning that my niece was home from school with a fever as well.  I can't help but wonder though, if I got more vegetables in my children, if they took their vitamins every single day (we hit about 4 days a week), if they would wash their hands more, perhaps we wouldn't have so much illness.

Unfortunately, I think it just is what it is and there isn't much that can be done. 

Except put them in a bubble. I mean, I could get an extra large bubble they all three could be in together to keep each other company.  If I could just get them stay there for a few months, we'd be out of this season of sickness.

I thought we were on the upswing today, until Miss Rose woke from an afternoon nap with a full-blown fever again.  The only other symptom she complains of is a sore throat.  I suppose it could be Strep Throat, or it could just be a virus.  If her fever is high again tomorrow, I think we'll pay a visit to the doctor. 

I'm praying that whatever this is doesn't get passed around.  Because do you know how impossible it is to not get children to contaminate one another?  Gracie has been jumping all over Miss Rose all day, and I can't stop it.  Gracie lays on her pillow no matter how many times I tell her not to.  And when a sick child joins you in bed at night, how can you not come in contact with their germs?

Can anyone find out where to purchase a bubble for my children?  I'd really appreciate it.

in the middle

I know, it's been a while since I had to posts in one day.  But after what happened tonight, I couldn't resist. And you'll be glad I didn't.  I wanted to record this moment while it was still fresh in my mind.

Tonight we had our first ever Pizza Picnic.  It was a random idea that popped into my head--getting pizza at our favorite pizza place, spreading a sheet on the living room floor and picnicing together.  It was quite fun.

My first observation of the night was my spastic almost-6-year-old.  I know for a fact Miss Rose is one of the best students in her class.  Not the smartest, that's Jimmy who was reading chapter books when he started Kinder, but the teacher said she's the most responsible and was even given two word lists this week instead of one because she's learning so quickly. 

But asking her to repeat a story, while sitting on the floor eating, was like pulling the tooth of an ant.  I know, ants probably don't have teeth--so I mean this was an impossible task.  Miss Rose loves to talk about her schoolday, right after school.  Beyond that, it seems to disappear from her mind.  So getting her to recount a few things she had told me, to her dad was impossible.  She claimed to forget or not know, or she was just being goofy and her limbs were flying everywhere.  I'm serious. She was the contortionist in the three bean circus tonight.

Several minutes later, the story was still incomplete.  I was prompting Miss Rose once again when Gracie, who was seated between us just yelled out "NIPPLE."

I must digress and tell you that over our Christmas break, Gracie discovered nipples for the first time--or noticed and questioned about them.  It started one morning when the four of us were jockeying for bed space in our bed.  I think she unzipped her jammies at some point being silly and then asked about her nipples--so I told her what they were.  Then she wanted to see Miss Rose's "nibbles."  She went out to the couch, where her auntie was sleeping and said "Mimi, I have nibbles."  Gracie came back to where I was still in bed (pretending I was still asleep), pointed to a mole on my back and asked if it was "nibble" and where the other one was.

So back to tonight.  Gracie yelled out "NIPPLE" (she's obviously learned the correct pronunciation) and we all started dying with laughter.  Once I gained my composure, I made the mistake of asking Miss Rose a question to get her to finish her story once again.  Yeah, you guessed it, Gracie yelled out "nipple" again.  And for about five minutes, anytime someone started to say something, she would say "nipple" with the goofiest look on her face.

Clearly she was needing some attention.  So I asked if she had any stories to share.  Nipple was of course one of the stories.  And when I asked what store we went to today, it was the tootie store.  Another of her favorite words. 

Apparently tootie, booty and nipple are her top words these days.  Oh, I am a proud mom.  And she loves the song "Single Ladies."

Nipple was a popular word in our house tonight.  I have the sneaking suspicion that after the response Gracie garnered tonight, we haven't seen the last of this word.  I can't wait until it comes up in a public place.  Hopefully her Sunday School teachers won't be talking to me about it.

Yes, I did tell her to stop staying it a few times.  But honestly, I'm still laughing out loud just writing this post, so I was not in much control of myself tonight. 

My sweet middle child.  Making sure she gets her dues.  How I love her and look forward to all of these moments!

still a circus

While my posts of late have focused more on myself and dealing with grief, fear not dear blog readers, there still is a three bean circus act going on at our house.

Miss Rose, well she's as dramatic and emotional as ever.  She's reached the age, where if she does something that amuses us, and it hurts her or gets her in trouble, she becomes IRATE if and when we laugh.  Which results in us trying to stifle our laughter.  Which makes her more mad. Which usually gets her sent to her room.  After which we continue to try and stifle our laughter.  And then Miss Super-Ears yells from her room, "I CAN STILL HEAR YOU LAUGHING."

Gracie, oh boy, what a wreck she is.  The longer her hair grows, the more crazy it becomes.  The other night after her bath Gracie made a comment about how crazy her hair was.  I told her to come and let me brush her hair out to which she replied, "can you brush the crazies out of my hair?"  Gracie is often sighted shaking her booty, anywhere and everywhere.  And she usually announces it too. 

Lily, is about to be one.  Which just completely shocks me and excites me and saddens me.  It's such a bittersweet time.  I absolutely love the first year of a baby's life.  All the cuddles and smiles, the nursing and bonding.  Sure, I complain about losing the baby weight and the lack of sleep, but I still love every minute of it.  Lily finally cut her first tooth after Christmas.  She is demonstrating a desire to move--sometimes she'll get from a sitting position to her belly or evetually her back.  She tries to crawl, but only ends up scooting backwards, usually until she's under the couch with just her head popping out.  Lily loves her sisters and gets so excited after her nap when she sees them.

I love this circus so much.  Yes, it drives me crazy sometimes and I need to get away for some "me" time, but these three beauties are food to my soul.

Christmas thoughts

My mind is full of many things. Many thoughts on Christmas and family and Jesus.

I am so aware this year of God's blessings on me and our family. We truly have so much. Not in that we are able to buy gifts for our family, but just the love that we share.

My heart was filled to overflowing tonight at our Christmas Eve service. At one point, the three girls were seated on the pew, sandwiched between Bean and I. The love I have for these girls, and that man, is overwhelming. And only magnified by the love I have for Jesus.

I absolutely love Christmas Eve services. I'm not exactly sure why. I think it's a combination. It's a service that is so full of anticipation, and the sole focus is Jesus and the celebration of his birth, which changed the course of history, and my life.

It's family, all together. No kids in childcare or Sunday School. Sure, they are squirrely and I don't catch every word--but having them in church with me is so special.

It's the music, the songs I love to sing. As I grow older, I learn the words to more Christmas songs, the lesser sung ones. And I'm so moved. This year, O Come, O Come Emmanuel is having an impact on me.

And other thoughts. Bean and I are both off next week. Besides church on Sunday, I have about 10 days off. Which is my first vacation since maternity leave. And maternity leave, especially when recovering from a c-section, isn't a vacation! I'm looking forward to the time with the kids and with Bean. To not having to worry about bottles for the baby. Or Gracie being sad that I have to go to work. To get together with friends and spend time with family.

I may or may not blog much over the next few weeks.

Enjoy this season with your family.

Merry Christmas, from my family, to yours.

Bean's Anatomy

I love medical shows.  I remember watching some of the first episodes of ER with my dad and I was a pretty avid fan up until the last few seasons.  I enjoy Gray's Anatomy these days, although sometimes it's more Soap Opera than medical drama.

When watching a medical drama, it's easy to disect it and think "there is no way all that would happen in such a short amount of time, to the same people."

And usually, that's true.

But, may I present to you, a brief outline of an episode of a show I'm calling "Bean's Anatomy" and believe it or not, all of this DID happen in our house this week.

Tuesday night: Small Toddler, spends the wee hours of the morning vomiting in her bed, on the floor, the bathroom, on her father, in her parents bed, etc. 

Wednesday: Mother of said toddler spends the morning at home with the sick child, watching movies and having quiet time.  Also, caring for an infant, who is mellow and doesn't have a large appetite, who has a cold.  Father of said toddler comes home for the afternoon shift.  Toddler seems like she's getting better, until right before bed, when she projectile vomits all over Mother (Father isn't home at this time).  Everyone sleeps well that night, so there is hope that the flu is gone.


Thursday: Oh no, the flu is back with a vengeance.  Toddler spends the morning vomiting any amount of liquid she consumes.  She's burning up with fever, so she's thirsty and can't understand why she can't drink.  A trip to the doctor confirms a bad flu, and although dehydration isn't yet an issue, it could be if things don't turn.  After dinner, you may not belive it, but the Father begins to show signs of the flu, which become full-fledged quickly.  Mother is banished to sleeping on the couch, while sick Toddler and Father are in the bed.  By 1am, everyone is soundly sleeping for the next few hours.

Friday, part 1: Father is weak, Toddler is mellow, Baby is even more mellow.  Kindergartener is also suffering a cold and quite reistant to school.  Mother doesn't have the energy to force the issue and concedes to a family sick day.  Because, you guessed it, Mother isn't feeling too hot herself.  Mother's flu isn't quite as severe as Father's was.  But the heartburn she begins to experience late that night certainly is severe.  Restless, fussy baby is in parents bed, but Mother is writhing in pain on the couch and poor, tired, weak Father is trying to tend her.  Fussy baby finally falls asleep for good.

Friday, part 2: What to do for Mother?  Mylanta isn't working, let's look up home remedies.  How about baking soda and water?  Not bad.  Works a bit.  Oh no, it's back.  Round 2 of baking soda water.  And yet it's back again.  Next up?  A tablespoon of brown sugar; worth a shot, right.  Well, not so much.  The combo, mixed with flu, causes major vomiting, all over the carpet of course.  And what's that mixed in the vomit?  Oh, it looks like blood.  That combined with the intense pain, calls for a trip to the ER, with a call to Super-Grammie to come stay with the sleeping children.

Friday, part 3: A few hours later and Mother is in a bed, with tests being run. The initial assumption is a broken blood vessel from vomiting, but better safe than sorry.  Father stays strong, even his flu-weakened state.  Many vials of blood, a very awful naso-gastric tube and other things not suited for television, the intial diagnosis is confirmed.  All is well and safe and IV meds have helped with the acid and heartburn.

Saturday: Father and Mother arrive back home, minutes before 5am, to Super-Grammie who hasn't slept, but has been cleaning and waiting.  Father sleeps 2 hours, then rises with the munchkins, Mother sleeps 3 hours and rises when the babe does.  Baby, is increasingly uphappy and not showing signs of improvement.  So, a sleep deprived Mother takes the Baby in, who is diagnosed with a double ear infection and eye infections on the side.  Mother feels terrible that she didn't identify this sooner, especially when she finds out Baby has lost almost a pound since her well-baby check 2 weeks prior.  Father dons his Superman cape and rents a Rug Doctor to clean the vomit up, fills prescriptions, runs errands, and cleans house.  He does get a 2hr nap while all the children nap too.  Mother takes a few short naps during the day herself.

Sunday: Things are returning to normal.  Toddler & Baby don't have much of an appetite and low energy.  Mother and Father are looking like they've been on a great diet plan.  Mother though, sounds quite gravely thanks to the damage done by the NG tube experience.  Toddler & Baby are feeling quite bony and need some fattening up!  Mother and Father don't mind this crash diet plan and hope to capitalize on the product.  Oh, and the Kindergartener?  Well, she's a trooper.  She probably does have a treatable infection, but Mother has learned that if she's not running a fever and just needing a lot of tissue, the infection will resolve itself without need of antibiotics, which Mother avoids when possible.  But we are going through a lot of tissue.

Think this would be a believable episode on a medical show?  Perhaps not, but it really happened.  More than you would believe, huh?

The plague's calling card (and photos)

Although the challenges of this week have been different than last, it's still been quite a week.

There has been a lot of this at our house for almost two weeks,

And this... (on Mama's bed of course, because it's the most comfy when you are sick)



Saturday was finally a fever-free day!  Sunday, Gracie was seeming to go downhill again.  Monday, I stayed home because Bean's mom got very sick over the weekend and was unable to watch the kids.  I didn't mind though, as Bean had been home with them the week before.  Gracie started running a fever again, which signaled to me that something else was going on.  Bean's mom went to the doctor and was told she had swine flu.  Which almost confirms my suspicion that my girls had it...since she got sick after being with the girls on Monday & Tuesday.

Tuesday morning I took a sad and sick Gracie to the doctor and sure enough she had developed a sinus infection--secondary to the flu she had the week before--thanks for the calling card.  When I can, I try to avoid antibiotics with my kids.  Often if they aren't miserable or running fevers, the infections run their course (sinuses are the usual culprit in our home) without intervention.  But with the return of the fever and how miserable she was, antibiotics were definitely needed.  After just one dose, she was already much perkier and energetic today.  I've missed my spunky girl.

However, the plague also left a calling card with me.  After balancing an intense workload last week, with sick kids and multiple nights of little sleep, my immune system took the toll.  I am now sick with a cold.  Thankful though, that it's not a flu with fever.  I've been pretty miserable though.  Which is a bummer because one of my best friends is getting married on Saturday and I head up for the wedding festivities (I'm a matron of honor) tomorrow.  Hopefully I'll be able to relax and enjoy everything and I'll start getting better.  Of course, Lily will be along!

I probably won't be blogging for most of the weekend, but you can always catch me on Twitter!

I leave you with a few random, but favorite photos taken recently.

One of the best parts of cooler weather...three cute girls in their footie jammies!  I know they don't look that much alike, but again, I think they do.

And my silly Lily.  Who loves all things silky.  When she gets bored with her toys, she'll specifically search out the ones with soft, silky tags and bring them to her mouth area and suck her fingers.  It makes me laugh when I look over and see her chilling, sucking her fingers with a short little tag near her mouth.

I do have a few funny items I'll hopefully get to blog tomorrow before I head out of town.  They are just too good to throw out randomly.  And yes, they involve Bean.  That's all I'm saying for now.

Last night

I'm sure you are SO curious as to what our night was like last night.  I'm sure you are fascinated by my stories of my sick family.  I'm sure you wait all day to see what I say.

HA!  I know none of that is true :)

But for my faithful readers (and friends!) who are great to comment on most anything, I'll entertain you with another night in the sick house.  It's a whole different kind of three bean circus.

10:15pm Change Lily's very wet diaper and lay her back down (I do this once a week with no issues)

10:30pm Bean & Beana are all tucked in

10:32pm Lily has decided having her diaper changed while sleeping is akin to some great travesty and her lungs are letting us know.

10:45pm Bean goes in to calm Lily, and it works for a bit

11ish pm Gracie is crying, and shaking from her fever that's fully set in

11:15pm Gracie is in bed with us.  Lily is screaming again.

11:20pm Gracie is miserable, Lily is screaming.  Get Lily from her bed.  Get motrin for Gracie.  Nurse Lily,  put her back to bed.

11:56pm Gracie is calmer, but spreading out in our bed.  Bean returns her to bed now that she is comfortable again.

2am        Miss Rose comes to bed with us after a bad dream, still feverish.  This is unusual, so she must have felt bad or been hallucinating. 

3am       I'm not sleeping well with Miss Rose in bed, so I get up and pump.  Which is rather unproductive thanks to the impromptu midnight nursing session.

5am        Guess who is screaming again.  After a few minutes, Bean goes in and she only gets madder.  Mom to the rescue (more like mom's parts to the rescue).  I nurse her, put her  back to bed.

6am       Gracie comes in, lays with us for a bit, but by 6:15am the girls are up and laying on the couch covered in their blankets.  Time for me to get ready for work.

The girls spent most of the day on the couch with their blankets.  At one point Bean said they both fell asleep on the couch together (SO uncharacteristic of them).  He was a wonderful stay at home dad today, managing two sick children and a baby. 

The fevers continued to come and go during the day, so Motrin was required.  By this evening, Miss Rose seemed fever free.  Since Gracie is about a day behind Miss Rose, she was at 101 before bed tonight.  Miss Rose must be fever free for 24hrs before returning to school, so she'll be home again tomorrow.  I very hopeful that the worst is over for her and she'll be at school on Friday.

Me...exhausted.  Between two very full, busy days at work, along with two very poor nights of sleep, I feel pretty brain dead.  Thankfully I was able to have someone cover my group at church tonight, and we had a very quiet night at home.

I've decided, if my children are going to pass illness to each other, we may need a bigger bed, since they end up with us.  The only problem is, our bedroom can't accomodate a larger bed.  And I don't just mean "it will be tight" I mean, we'd have bed almost wall to wall!!  So we'll continue squeezing in our queen size.


Here's to hoping I don't blog another chronicle of a sick night in our house!!  I'm sure you're bored to tears with it right now and are dying for some other topic on my blog.  Go ahead and laugh though.  These last few days and nights have been comedy...something you think you only hear about (or see on TV).

Sleep tight my friends!

It's gonna be a long week....

Yesterday [Sunday] was a long day.  At the end of it, I couldn't help but wonder if it was a sign of things to come.  So far, it was.

Sunday was church from 7:30am to 12:30pm.  Usually, I come home and crash for the afternoon.  It's amazing how much physical and emotional energy are drained for a pastor (and I'm not even ministering from the platform) on a typical Sunday.  One of my college professors taught about "Monday morning blues" that pastors experience after the emotional high of a Sunday.

But there was no crashing to be had.  My sister broke her phone and we were adding her to our plan so she could get an iPhone (I'm excited to have another in the family!).  So off to AT&T I went for the phone.  Then to Target to look for inexpensive bedding for the girls (yay, found comforters and a sham for $30 per set).  While at Target the AT&T girl called me because she had neglected to put the phone back into the box.  So I returned to AT&T, and finally headed home.

My wonderful friend was just a 30 minute drive away (instead of 60+) and she had brought my new crib bedding!  We gave the kids a quick and early dinner and headed out to see our friends briefly and exchange goods.  Bean is always amazed when we get together because I always have to stuff give her and return to her, but I still end up coming home with more!  Since my children are a year behind hers, she passes a lot on to me. 

I absolutely love the new bedding!  It's pefect and deserves a whole post of it's own later this week.  If you haven't had a sneak peak yet, check it out my recent Tweet.

By the time we got home, got the kids in bed, it was time to do lunches and prepare bottles and all that fun stuff.  A LONG day (although good).

Yeah, so today.  I was up early this morning, but still had trouble making it out of the house on time.  Which meant I forgot my lunch and decided to go back for it after dropping off Miss Rose.  When I leave the house I have to make sure we have Miss Rose's backpack (complete with lunch & folder), my purse, my pump with all necessary parts inside, my lunch AND the diaper bag complete with bottles and baby food and changes of clothes.

At lunchtime we got a call that Miss Rose had a fever at school and was being picked up by Grammie.  Bean, my amazing husband and father of my children, left work and took her home in case she was super sick and contagious.  She crashed for 90 minutes (SO unusual) and would have kept sleeping if Bean hadn't woken her.  She seems okay now and her fever hasn't returned.  But school policy says she can't go to school tomorrow.

Tonight was a typical night.  Well, the Broncos were on TV, so the whole goal of the evening was making sure Bean got to watch some of the game.  I will probably never get over the guilt that Bean was being Superdad during the 2009 Super Bowl, which was supposedly one of the best games of all time.  It was days after my c-section and the circus was in FULL effect and he got to watch very little of the game.


It was just a long full day.  And I'm expecting more of it in days to come.  I'm looking forward to the Thanksgiving weekend for a little repreive to the in and out of every day.

I'm heading to bed early tonight.  I'll be waking in the wee hours to pump and make sure my wee babe has the milk she needs.  And hopefully waking a few hours after that to get my exercise on, because my back is KILLING me and I need regular exercise to strengthen it and my core.

Yup.  It's going to be one of those weeks.

(although I am looking forward to getting a new sling in the mail to help with the clingy baby, and Gracie is peeing again after days of fighting it and having accidents!)

learning the choreography

It's a complicated dance, this business of balancing small children, elementary school and two working parents.  There have been many weeks that it gets the best of me.  I feel spent and I feel like I've failed my children.  I don't like nights that are frantic and there is no quality time with children and I'm having to hurry everyone up, no matter what we're doing.

The last few weeks though, Bean and I finally seem to be getting down this complicated dance.  We still have to improvise nightly, but things are flowing better, which means we are more calm, which spreads to the kids.

Every family dynamic is different--so what works for us won't work the same for everyone.  But here are the dance moves from our home.

Homework gets done in the afternoon, before we get home from work.  As much as I would love to be involved in doing homework with Miss Rose, there just isn't always time. 

Showers are sometimes taken BEFORE dinner.  Weird, I know.  At least for me.  Baths and showers were always at the very end of the day in my house growing up.  But, Bean has convinced me to vary from that routine.  We get home from work by 4:30.  Depending on the evening and dinner prep, if we're going to be eating dinner past 5:30 or 6pm, Miss Rose takes a shower before dinner.  Yes, she usually protests, but it works.

No more night TV!  Watching one TV show before bed has been part of Miss Rose's routine for quite a while.  She is a very active, high energy kid, so this was a great wind down time for her.  But again, there often isn't time and I got really tired of rushing through the night just so she could watch a show.  Slowly, we just began to phase it out.  It wasn't necessarily a planned thing, but a natural evolution.  A few times a week the TV may go on at night, but only if everything else is done and the night is going smoothly.  Regular reading is a must for a kindergartener--so this is a priority high above TV.

Tag team!  Bean and I tag team everything.  He often cleans the kitchen (surprise, surprise) while I do baths and jammies.  I may start dinner, but he'll finish and serve while I start feeding the baby.  After the little girls are bathed, he'll dress Gracie while I dress Lily.  That's after he catches Gracie and gets her to stop running around the house naked saying "shake yer booty."

If it can wait, it can wait.  That's my new mindset.  The kids and quality time with them are my priority.  There is undoubtedly things that I need to/could do each night.  Like cleaning and laundry.  Preparing bottle and lunches for the next day.  But it can wait.  My kids can't.  If it can be done later, then it will.

Mama's bed is best.  My kids love hanging with my on my bed.  They get up and down and move all around, but it's quality time.  I often nurse Lily on my bed in the evening and Gracie especially loves to come hang out and talk to me and bring books up to read and cuddle.  If Miss Rose isn't occupied with something else, she'll end up in there too.  These are some of my favorite moments.  Being silly, cuddling, reading.

Early bedtime.  My kids like to sleep!  They have since they were babies.  They NEED sleep.  Lately our goal has been to have the girls in bed by 7:15.  Which means that we are done with the singing, the drinks, the prayers, the silliness, the cuddling etc by 7:30pm.  Early, I know.  But they are easily asleep by 8pm and not too grumpy when they are woken up at 6:30am.  It works for us.

No night goes like clockwork. That would be boring, right?  Perhaps, but I'd like to try!  There are still moments every night when the wheels are coming off and Bean and I just laugh about the Three Bean Circus taking place.  That phrase is used at least once a night!  But I am feeling much better about how our evenings are going.  Because they are flowing much better, we've actually been able to fit in a few family exercise times (walk/run/bike) right after work.

Let's not talk about the HUGE meltdown Miss Rose had tonight that lasted a few hours and included major loss of privilege and a spanking. 

We just figure it out as we go.

fall out of falling back

Almost a week has passed now, but we parents of young children are still reeling from the fallout of falling back.  As an adult this is the favorite daylight savings event, because it means an extra hour of sleep.  Young children though, don't sleep extra.  So for parents, it's a much dreaded day.

I was hopeful, stupidly hopeful, this year that there might not be great reprocussions.  Being that daylight savings fell on the night of Halloween, perhaps schedules would already be altered enough, that they would sleep through the time difference.  Nope.  It was fall back--Bean Circus style around these parts.

Oh, it was not to be so.  In fact, little Lily decided that there was a two-hour time difference and woke at 4am not be consoled.  Nursing, rocking, soothing, nothing was doing the trick.  This was very unusual for her.  Typically I can nurse her and put her back down and she's fine.  Or if I decide to keep her up, she's happy too.  Neither option made her happy that morning.  It was well after 5am when I finally had her down and quiet and went back to bed.

Sure enough though, before the clock read 6am (new time) it started with a sneeze or two (which is how Miss Rose greets every morning) and then the pitter patter of little feet.  Eight limbs piled into our bed pretty bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.  Miss Rose seemed to find comfort cuddling in bed with her elbow IN MY BACK and then Gracie's knee pounded Bean in his man-parts...and the family bed was over.

Miss Rose and Gracie are finally back to their 6:30am wakeup.  Lily had trouble with her naps this week, and I wonder if her natural rhythms were still off.  She finally took some good naps yesterday.  Lily loves waking at 5:45am, but I pretty much refuse to get her out of bed until 6am.  That is the earliest we rise in this house.  Well, the earliest children are to rise.

I'm looking forward to Spring Forward.  Perhaps I will be able to use it to my advantage to get Lily sleeping past 6am.  Dare to dream.