Quick update

Ashley is finally better. Just a bit snotty but that is totally expected this time of year regardless of having a double ear infection.
Caleb missed a day this week from a sore throat. At 8am, he was pretty convinced it was going to be the death of him but by 10am, he was claiming to be bored. When Jamie got home from work at 5 and caught him on his DS it was all over with. We do not allow any electronics when you stay home from school. If you're too sick to miss school, you're too sick to play. So you sleep, lay in bed and read. With the rule broken and a stern talk from dad, he decided to go back to school the next day.
So I woke up this morning pretty sure I would never be able to swallow again. So not fair for Moms to get sick. It should be a rule that makes that impossible.
Jamie graciously stayed home so I could go to the doctor and find out how much longer I had to live. Turns out its just a sinus infection and after 5 days of meds, I should be 100%. Thank God.

Jamie did so awesome with the girls today. The house was destroyed with toys but they are both happy. Neither of them were dressed today, but they both had fun. Faith decorated Halloween cookies and has eaten icing all day long. With a huge smile on her face.
Jamie did put child locks on the kitchen cabinet that holds the garbage can. After Ashley pulled out some eggs, toast and coffee grounds, he decided it was time. She too is happy though.

It wasn't until after I woke from a really long nap that the screams began. And that was only after I closed Ashley's poor little finger in the pantry door. Sigh.

They're a mess and everything else is a mess but the kids are not hurt and they are happy. Thanks to Dad. I'm going back to bed.

Sick baby... again

I feel like I just wrote this same post. Luckily, this time, there is no vomiting. I can handle almost all illnesses but the puking.
This time, Ashley has double ear infections. She is quite pathetic too. Bless her heart. Shes got snot oozing from all parts of her face and its so gross, but so so sad. We just gave her the 2nd dose of her antibiotic so she should be feeling better soon. I have a feeling there will be tubes in this baby's future.

I'm tired and covered in snot so the conversation we had with Caleb after dinner gave me the laugh I really needed.
It all started because our garbage disposal has decided its done working. Jamie was tinkering with it trying to figure out if he could get anymore life out of it. Once he decided it was a goner, he called it. And then he announces for no one to put food in the sink. Caleb turns around and says (rather panicked!) "But if the garbage disposal isn't working, how will we do the dishes!?"
So we cleared that up for him and all had a little laugh.

(except for him. I might need to explain that to him again later.)

Then he comes out and says "Did you know the microwave was invented in 1947? Dad, weren't you born in 1947?"
We cleared that up too.

Then Jamie and I went on talking about microwaves from when we were kids. I told him how I remembered getting our first microwave and how it was huge. And that we had a lot of neighbors who still didn't have one and they thought it was pretty neat to use ours. I also told him about some good friends of ours who just got their first microwave about 10 years ago.

He got a horrified look on his face.
Then he says "If they didn't have a microwave, how did they cook their food?"

We cleared that up too.

And for the record, I do not use our microwave to cook many foods. I have sat here tonight trying to think of all I use it for and while I do use it quite a bit, I could totally do with out it. Its more of a convenience factor than a necessity. I do not feed my family microwave meals. The only problem I would encounter by not having a microwave is the microwave popcorn I'm addicted to. Not sure I could do with out that.

Anyway, Caleb had a bit of a history lesson. And I feel a bit older than I did just a few short hours ago. Pretty funny to think that one day all the appliances we use will be so out dated and he'll share with his family about the stone age way we did things.

The girls are sleeping. I hope the shortest one sleeps all night and wakes up with that beautiful smiling face! The boys are at Boy Scouts.....
time for some popcorn!

Pumpkin Patch trip

What a perfect weekend.
Lots of amazing weather, lots of great out door playtime, a really fabulous soccer game with some great blocks by my favorite defense player, a fun trip to the pumpkin patch and some over decorating for Halloween. Perfection.
This pumpkin patch was super cute! This was our first trip to this particular one. Thanks to our friends, The Keelers, we have found our new favorite.
Caleb found the most perfect pumpkin.

Okay. This wasn't the one we choose. But it sure was slim pickings. We haven't had much rain and I knew our grass was showing the effects but this poor pumpkin patch really suffered. Faith was on a mission to find Cinderella's pumpkin. Her, Jamie and Caleb scoured the entire patch until they finally found the perfect one. Then she decided it wasn't in fact Cinderella's pumpkin. After many tears and many decision changes, she finally settled on one. I'm still not sure she is convinced its the "right" one but I'm hoping after some glitter paint and some beautifying materials, it will be the most perfect pumpkin.
Caleb got an awesome golden pumpkin. I'm pretty sure it was purchased at the grocery store and then placed in this patch. But whatever. The kids are happy.
And it was fun!!

Of course, the pumpkin patch stayed true to most pumpkin patches and had lots of those wooden cut outs to stick your face through. Those always make us laugh. This one made us crack up. But not until we actually saw the picture later...

And, Jamie and I actually had a photo take together! A huge rarity! Thank you, Heather!!!

She even got TWO shots!!!


After the pumpkin patch, we stopped at a buffet and stuffed ourselves silly. I'm not a fan of buffets. I have issues with germs. Lately, even more so since I watched a quite revealing tv show that detailed exactly what could be found in fast food playlands, shopping carts and bathrooms. Oh. My. Gosh.
I've been extremely careful to only go to places that are germ free since this show. And I like living in the bubble I've created...
Anyway, we ate at this germ free buffet. And it was good.
So when dinner time rolled around, no one was really hungry. Faith had a bowl of cocoa puffs, Caleb had chips and salsa, I had left over Chinese and Jamie watched this disgusting dinner unfold. Faith would take a bite of her cereal and then have a chip with salsa. Then more cereal. So gross.
Just before she went to bed, she said her tummy hurt. We told her it was probably what she ate at dinner and told her it just wasn't really healthy. She got furious and corrected Jamie saying "I had milk in my cereal and milk is healthy!"

Wow. I see chocolate cake for breakfast in her kids future!

A little too much education for our 4 year old

So we are extremely honest with our children. We believe in telling them the truth, no matter how ugly it might be. We had "the talk" with Caleb last year. We started by giving little bits of information. And correcting his theory of his baby sister getting in my belly via my ear.
Then we slowly gave him more and more information. As much as we thought he could handle at a time. A year later, our 10 year old has all the information he needs to know. Until he marries and his wife fills him in on the rest.
Today, Jamie discovered and incredibly awesome video. It shows conception from the very beginning to birth. Very amazing. I suggested we show Caleb. So we all sat and watched this incredible video together. We used all the correct words. Sperm. Eggs. Ovaries. Womb. Uterus. I'm sure he was silently vomitting in his mouth, but he stuck with it and watched the video.

It wasn't until his soccer game, two hours later, that we realized something. Our 4 year old was peering over our shoulder watching this video.

Oops.

As our sweet little angelic 4 year old played in the grass on the soccer field, questions began spewing from her sweet little mouth.

She says "Mom, what is that stuff that goes inside the egg called?"

Since I'm half listening to her, I could only assume she was talking about Easter eggs. So I responded "Candy, Faith. You know that."
Then she says... "No, mommy. Its squirmy and has no head or legs."

Not a clue what she was talking about. So I ignored her. Isn't that what you're supposed to do. When in doubt, ignore??

About ten minutes later, she was snuggled up on Jamie's lap when I see him laughing and looking at my with a bit of a panicked look. I listen in and hear "What is that thing called, dad? It goes in the egg in the mommy's belly?"
Jamie quickly starts talking about Pumpkin Patches and rainbows. Anything but the thing that has no head or legs and goes inside the egg in mommy's belly.

Sigh.

Sorry, kid. You're a few years away from "that talk". So for now, we will distract and ignore you. And make sure you are never around for another educational talk or video again. And please stop talking about it. Please. And please please please do not bring it up on the soccer field ever again.

My funny and a little paranoid husband. How I love thee....

I have to start this by saying how much I love Jamie. He is an amazing father, an amazing husband and the very best friend ever. I could not have asked for a better spouse and am thankful every single day that he choose me to spend the rest of his life with. I am incredibly lucky.
Okay... that being said. This man is crazy. And the older he gets, the worse it is. He will not go to bed unless he checks that the oven is off and makes sure every single door is locked. Thank goodness for him doing this though, because I sure don't!

So it got cold last night. Really cold. I turned the heater on and set panic into the house. You know how the heater smells when you first turn it on after a long Summers break? Both Jamie and Caleb went running through the house investigating the "burning" smell.
Jamie turned the heater off and then set to work. He changed the filter and did a thorough investigation of the situation. Once he was comfortable, he turned the heater back on. All was good. So I thought.

He and I went to bed a few hours later. All three kids were already fast asleep in their respective rooms. Just as I started to doze, my husband says "Okay. Here's the plan. When (NOT IF but WHEN!) the smoke detectors go off, you get Ashley, I'll get Faith. I'll jump out the master bedroom window with Faith and you drop Ashley to me. Then you jump out too."
I said "What in the hell, Jamie!?!? Why would the smoke detector go off? What is going on?!" He then gets agitated with me and said "Just do it! And don't act like a girl about it. Jump out the damn window. And hurry up about it."
And now he is yelling at me. Sounding a tad more crazy than even I ever imagined.
I say, "But what is going on? Should we be worried about something?"
He says, "I'm worried. I'm not going to be able to sleep tonight. I know you say that smell is normal but I don't like it and yes, I'm worried. I'll lay here awake all night long worried."
And then he says, (very sternly) "Just get Ashley, throw her to me, and jump out the damn window, Krissy. And you have to be quick about it because I am then going around to the front to get Caleb."
"But Jamie, why can't we go out the front door."

"If we can, we will. But plan on going out the window. And I'm serious. (Now he is yelling!) JUMP. Do not act like a girl. JUMP. I can't leave the girls alone and I have to hurry back in to get Caleb."

"Okay. Sounds like a plan. Maybe we should have a fire drill this weekend?"

"Sure. But this is what we are doing tonight. Do you understand?"

"Yes."

"Is your cell phone next to you?"

"Yes"

"Grab it before you jump."

"Okay"

And now I am wide awake with my heart beating so loud I can actually hear it. And I'm seriously considering getting dressed so I'm ready to move and jump out that window. And then I start to visualize where Ashley's warmest blanket is that I can grab to wrap her in and trying to remember what pajamas I dressed Faith in wondering if she will be warm enough as she jumps from the second story window in her fathers arms.

Then I hear a noise.

It's Jamie snoring.

And just like that. our conversation was over. And I laid awake for the next two hours sniffing the air and listening very intently to every. single. noise. Even his snores.

Thanks, honey. Love you. And yes, we are having a fire drill this weekend.

Ashley Marie is 9 months!

Its so hard to believe this sweet baby is 9 months old. She weighs in at 22 lbs and 28 1/2 inches long. She is the first baby to be below 90% for height and over 90% for weight! It's safe to say her nickname "Chunk" fits her.
She has changed so much over the past 9 months....

She is trying so hard to walk. She can stand unassisted for short periods of time. She can out run her big sister on all fours. She can find the smallest piece of dust or food on the floor and cram it into a corner of her mouth nearly impossible to find. She belly laughs at Buster licking her hands clean. She smiles at everyone and she eats everything.

Her favorite person is anyone who talks to her and her favorite food is anything she can feed herself. She loves to empty the cabinets in the kitchen and loves to climb the stairs. Taking walks is always a fun thing to do but crawling in the grass and eating mulch are even better.
Ashley is so easy going. She sits for long periods of time for Caleb's Lacrosse games and soccer games and patiently plays during Faith's dance classes. She just goes with the flow and smiles cheerfully where ever we drag her to.

I'm still in awe that I'm the mother of three. After all the years of fertility issues, all the miscarriages, all the tears and heart ache, we are a family of five. And this sweet baby girl is truly the perfect completion.

Happy nine months, sweet sweet Ashley Marie. We all love you more than you'll ever realize!

Renaissance Festival and the Wench

I love that I can call someone a Wench at the Renaissance and get away with it. We had an amazing time at the festival! A huge thank you to Carol for those tickets. So awesome.
Caleb tried on every single piece of armor that he could.

And Faith got to be a Princess.

She even met a few...

It was a great day!

Except for the one Wench who attempted to mess with us. She gladly took my $20 for Faith's $2 swing ride, didn't give me change and insisted she did. No worries. We left with our $20 full refund and the business card of the Director of Renaissance Marketing who promised us tickets to next years festival. Take that Wench.
We aren't taking the tickets though. That wasn't the point. Customer service just seems to be a thing of the past and it really ticks me off. All we wanted was our change. And being able to call her a Wench with my money in hand makes it all good.

Library time

So Faith and I go to one of our many local libraries on Wednesday for story time. This particular library has an amazing librarian, Mrs. Jeannie. She is fun, patient, full of energy and patient. Oh wait... I already said patient. Can't really say that enough though.
Anyway, each week we learn a new letter. We read a book having to do with the letter of the week and then do a craft with this letter. This past week, the letter was F. Faith was over the moon that we were doing storytime all around her. Sigh.

We get to the library and to add to the excitement, they have a huge lifelike Thing 1, Thing 2 and the Cat and the Hat out front.

Faith was beside herself.

Once inside, this incredibly vocal child was telling every person she made eye contact with that her name was Faith and it started with the letter F and ended with the letter H. We were met with smiles and "ooohhh... isn't she cute" looks but I knew that this was leading up to a very disruptive story time.
I explained to Faith that she needed to be quiet during story time.

Mrs. Jeannie began story time and right away Faith's hand pops up. The first five times, Mrs. Jeannie was incredibly patient with her and entertained every comment. Faith repeated over and over that her name started with F. And then started in about how her name ended with H. She also wanted to sit on the letter F on the alphabet rug but it just so happened the F was at Mrs. Jeannies feet. Again, that woman has so much patience.

Finally, Mrs. Jeannie had to ask faith to "please wait until story time is over and we can talk afterwards". Once it was over she apologized to me and said she just "didn't know how to make her stop". And neither do I, Mrs. Jeannie. Neither do I.

But we made it through the letter F. Of course, there was the moment of pure fear when Mrs. Jeannie asked the kids if they could think of other F words. I gasped and then realized it was a louder noise than intended but soon realized other parents were holding their breath praying for kid appropriate F words to be heard. Luckily, Mrs. Jeannie realized the fear and quickly moved on to another game.

After story time, we played for a while. Ashley discovered this adorable baby and would not stop staring. And she even kissed the baby over and over again. Can't say I blame her.

And Faith read Ashley a little book.

Overall, F day at the library was a success. At least now everyone knows Faith's name.

A conversation with Caleb...

On the way home from Lacrosse, Caleb and I had a conversation. Rather, Caleb talked and I tried to not crack up.
Here is the breakdown.

"Mom. So, a blackhole is the size of a quarter. Or maybe the size of a car. One of those. Do you think that when you get sucked into a blackhole its like being sucked into a vaccum? What happens when you get sucked in? Do you think its like a porthole? Do you think its a porthole to another galaxy? Hey... wouldn't it be funny if my name was "Flower"? Then people can say 'Hey, isn't that flower pretty' and I can say 'Thanks!'. Why is the sky dark? Hey... was gas a penny back then? When you were a kid? What year were you born in?"

No kidding.... this was the first time I said a single word. I responded by letting him know that I don't believe I ever saw gas for a penny and that I was born in 1976 and I'm glad his name isn't Flower. And I let him know that once the sun goes down, the sky gets dark.

And when we got home, I took some Tylenol for my headache.

Granola Bars give dogs stomach issues

Just wanted to throw out this Public Service Announcement.
On Sunday, I made a ton of Granola bars. Very healthy snack choice for the kids and for Jamie. I packaged some of to send with Caleb to school, some for Jamie to work and put the rest in a make shift bowl I made with aluminum foil.
Yesterday, I came home and the stupid dog had gotten the aluminum foil off the counter and ate through it. That in itself makes my stomach turn. Have you ever put aluminum foil in your mouth? Yuck. Don't ask how I know that.
Anyway, the dog ate every one of those granola bars. And left a hefty mess on the kitchen floor. I was furious.

Then today happened. After being locked up all morning, the girls and I came home to a dog who very eagerly wanted to go outside. I then got to watch this dog have horrendous diahrrea and then got to clean him up before allowing him back in the house. I was so mad at this dog.
AND then....... I hear him struggling to get through the cat door that leads to our sub basement. A cat door. It's small. The fat beagle is not small.
I opened the door and he and I came face to face. He was on the stairs heading back up with something in his mouth. I yelled for him to drop it and out came a granola bar. Turns out this dog didn't eat ALL the granola bars. He carried them one by one to the basement and stashed them in the corner of the room. I was in shock that this dog was smart enough to do this. And amused that he made so many trips and I just ruined his late night snacking opportunity.

And mad that I'm sure I will be dealing with diahrrea from the dog for a few days yet. Gross.

Early Childhood Evaluation

We decided to go ahead and get Faith screened through our school district. We live in an outstanding district that provides all sort of fabulous services for the families. This screening is one of them. It's primarily for kiddos with health or development issues and enables the district to establish an IEP (Individual Education Plan) for the child. Since early on, we have been told by doctor after doctor that Faith would have issues and would be a child who needed an IEP. The closer we get to Kindergarten, I have felt that these doctors were full of hot air. Keeping in mind, some of these doctors were also the ones who said she most likely had cerebral palsy, would probably never walk or not walk normally and would most like always have fine motor issues. A bunch of hooey.
Anyway, Faith and I went to her evaluation today. Have I told you how proud I am of this little girl? One of the questions on the 500 forms I had to fill out was "Can your child dress/undress themself?". As we walked into the room with Faith wearing purple leggings, a pink shirt with ruffles and her blue and pink Smurf socks, I had to laugh to myself. Yes. Yes, my child does dress herself.
Once the evaluation got underway, it was evident early on that there were no issues. But after the vision screening and the hearing screening, we went into a large playroom type area with tons of toys and lots of therapists waiting to analyze her every move.
She joined a few of them on the floor and they started playing with farm animals. They had a large container with horses, pigs and cows. One of the therapists asks Faith if she sees any "horsies". She says "Yes. I see a bunch of horses." Then pulls out every one of them, lines them up by size and then pulls out and sorts the cows and pigs. She then looks at the therapist and says "There are 6 cows, 4 pigs and 2 cows." Then she takes one of the pigs and puts it on top of this brown area on the rug we were sitting on. She looks at the therapist, smiles, and says "This pig is in the mud". 
I love this kid.
So... no IEP for Faith. We will have a Health Plan on file with all her medical conditions and restrictions, but no IEP.
And I think I might write those doctors a letter. Right now the only thing I can think of to say is "Eat Faith's dust."