Yummy Yummy CHOCOLATE!

Aaron got the girls donuts this morning! Usually Meg just gets a glazed donut in order to avoid a mess. She has always longed for a chocolate donut and Daddy was extra sweet this morning!

It's a Miracle!

If you have been around Megan for any length of time, you know that she is a serious thumb sucker. She could efficiently get her thumb in her mouth the day she was born. We pushed the pacifier with all our might and lost the battle. She would suck her thumb through socks or mitts . . . it didn't matter . . . she was bound and determined!

We have tried to at least confine the thumb sucking to bedtime. No luck there. She will be three in July, and her teeth are a mess. Her bottom teeth are pushed in, her top ones are pushed out. We decided that, without intervention, she would soon be able to put her thumb in her mouth without even opening her jaw (I'm not kidding!) Our plan was to attack that this summer. Julie is still a little on the edge from giving up her paci, so I really wasn't interested in taking on something else.

Since Julie gave up her paci, she has had her thumb in her mouth a lot. Not sucking it . . . more just playing with her teeth. I REALLY didn't want her to go from the paci to the thumb, so I decided to put a band-aid on each thumb. I thought that might just be enough to keep her from thumb-sucking until she's over the hump. Well, as I was putting Julie's band-aids on Meg came to me saying that she wanted a band-aid too. I decided to do it . . . at the same time thinking, "there is no way that this is going to even slow her down . . . she will peel it off, suck over it . . . she'll find a way . . . she always has."

The miracle is that those stupid band-aids are actually working!! She wore them for 2 days before it ever dawned on her to take them off, and when she finally did she cried and cried b/c she knew she shouldn't have done it. She hasn't taken them off again. I haven't seen her put her thumb in her mouth even once (it's been 4 or 5 days!) At naptime and bedtime she is taking forever to fall asleep and crying a lot, which is a bummer, but to be expected. If this actually ends up kicking the habit I will be shocked! Ali ended up having to get a habit device to stop her (to the tune of $600!) - a box of band-aids is certainly easier on the budget!

Cutting the Cord . . .

Well, we did it! No more paci for Julie! After I posted my comment about her bottle I called Aaron at work to ask him if he was okay with me taking the paci away, and we did it. This picture is of Emily the Elephant. Julie got her for Christmas and I attached her paci with a ribbon. That way she could find it easily if she woke up in the middle of the night and it didn't fall between her crib slats.

Well, the first thing I did for her nap on Friday was to cut the cord . . . When I handed Emily to her at naptime she kept pulling on what is left of the ribbon and looking very confused. I closed the door and she proceeded to scream for an hour and a half! I drank some coffee and tried to enjoy some Pride and Prejudice since my headache wouldn't allow me to do much more than that! She did eventually take a very short nap, and at bedtime she was so tired that she only whimpered for a minute or two and went right to sleep. I was concerned that she would wake up in the night, or wake up crying very early in the morning . . . but she didn't. She slept great and woke up happy.

On Saturday she took 2 good naps and only cried a little each time. Then she went down fine that night but woke up at about 1:00 and was up most of the night. Finally I thought that maybe she hadn't had enough to eat in the evening (she doesn't drink as much out of the sippy cup as she did out of her bottle) and I got a bottle for her. She drank 8 ounces and went to sleep for the rest of the night.

The next day I was very careful to make sure that she was getting enough so we wouldn't have a repeat of the previous night . . . well, that didn't matter b/c once again she was awake most of the night. I tried another bottle and she drank about half of it. Finally she cried herself back to sleep, but I was miserable, assuming that this was all pacifier related.

Yesterday afternoon I noticed that she had tons of dried goop in her ear, which means ear infection! I've never been so glad for an ear infection in my life! We started her ear drops (she doesn't need oral antibiotics since she has tubes in her ears), gave her some Motrin at bedtime and she slept last night without any problems!

So, to make a short story long . . . the paci is officially history. Now if we could just cut off Meg's thumbs we'd be done with the "sucky things" for good!

Skinny Little Girl

Poor Meg! This is kind of the story of her life right now. She's always pulling her pants up, but there isn't much there to hold them up. Here lately I feel like I'm always looking at her bare bottom!

More of the Same . . .

Yep . . . Now Emma has bronchitis. Thankfully we were able to get her in to the Dr. before the weekend started and she has started her antibiotics. I'm ready for a healthy spring . . . hopefully this will be the last of it for a while!

No More Bottles!

What a wonderful milestone! It happened a little sooner than I expected, but you'll hear no complaints from me. Really, she has just suddenly lost interest in the bottle and would rather have a sippy cup. I was hoping to do away with it by her first birthday and this is just a few weeks early. Now our next milestone will be to get rid of the Paci!! Part of me wants to take it away tonight and part of me wants to wait until June (School will be out, plus we are going on vacation at the end of May and it might be nice to have it for the car ride.) I'll let you know once the battle is over - and it WILL be a battle! She loves that stupid thing!

Bronchitis!

I know you'll all be shocked to hear that our family is sick, once again. Aaron hasn't gotten anything yet, but the kids have all had pretty nasty colds for a while now. Ali, Emma and Meg all seem to be on the mend, but Julie has just been getting worse. This morning I finally got her in to the Doctor's office and she has bronchitis . . . poor kid! The good news is that now she's on antibiotics (once again!) and should be feeling better soon. I just started with the stuffy nose yesterday and am having some nasty sinus pain/headaches. Fun!

Princesses on Ice

This past Saturday we went to see Disney's Princesses on Ice. It was something that we told the girls we would do ages ago and then forgot about it. So, this trip was pretty impromptu . . . We quick called my mom to see if she could keep Meg & Julie and called about tickets - having no idea if there would be any left. When Aaron called the Scott Trade Center and asked them, they laughed at him . . . and once we got there we understood why! The girls got all dressed up as Cinderella and Belle and we headed out.

We got there pretty early since we had to buy tickets at the window. We bought the cheapest tickets they had ($13 per adult, $9 per child) and then made our way to our seats . . . we were literally 5 rows from the very top of the Scott Trade Center! And we were all by ourselves! As time passed a few more people sat near us, but the place certainly was NOT packed out! About 10 minutes before the show started and usher came up to where we were sitting and told us that we could go down to the floor and take any seats that were open! So, we probably ended up with $30 seats in the end. We sat behind a rail so there were no heads to look over. It was great!

The show was wonderful! There were a few times that I found myself getting teary eyed watching the girls. They were so excited . . . it was all very magical for them. They did segments on Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Mulan, Sleeping Beauty, and Cinderella. Ali was so cute when Cinderella came out. She quick took off her coat (which she had been wearing the whole time - it was pretty chilly in there!) and stood up waving as if to say "Hey look at me! I'm dressed like you!" It was so sweet! It was very funny to see the difference between the way each of them reacted. Emma was just dancing and having a grand old time. Ali kept her seat most of her time and grilled me with questions. "Did he REALLY kiss her?!" "Mom is Ariel just wearing that skirt so she can be modest?" (Said at the part of the movie where Ariel gets her legs but doesn't have clothes yet). There were loads more and she was hilarious.

By the time we picked up the little ones and got everyone home and in bed in was 10:30. It was a long night, but one they'll never forget!

Fun with the Camera

Sweet Sisters

Meg is such a riot. It seems that in 9 out of 10 pictures that we take of her she has her mouth hanging open!


This one doesn't really capture the moment like I hoped it would . . . We recently got a little stool from Aaron's aunt and uncle. It's one of those old fashioned ones where you can flip the back down to use it as a stool or flip it up to use it as a seat. Well, the girls are quite fascinated with this little thing and it has been the source of many arguments. But this morning Meg was sitting on it and wanted Emma to sit with her . . . the seat is very small, but Emma came and squeezed herself in so they could enjoy a little Dragon Tales together.

Sugar Baby

Nothing special to say about this one . . . she's just too cute!

A Taste of Spring

The warm weather has finally arrived. In fact, today we came close to breaking record high temps! I'm so ready for spring to be here!! We are trying to enjoy it while it lasts . . . this weekend we're supposed to be back down in the 40's. That will be hard to face after this teaser of a few days in the 70's! It was nice to let the girls get out and dig in the dirt, play with pinecones, play soccer and run off some energy. For me spring time means the beginning of picture time. I love taking outdoor pictures!

We got a blanket out for Julie to play on. For all of our kids at this age a blanket was as good as a playpen when it was on the grass . . . they all hated the feel of the grass on their feet, so they refused to venture off of the blanket. Apparently Julie is an adventurous one . . . I was on the grass taking some pictures of her and I guess she decided that she was willing to brave a few feet of grass to get to me. When I backed away further she got pretty mad! Later while I was taking some other pictures she crawled over to me again, pulled up on my leg and looked at me with pleading eyes as if to say "Mommy, I crawled through that horrible grass again . . . PLEASE pick me up!" How could I resist such a face?

Moving Right Along

Isn't she cute? I can't believe that in a month and 5 days she'll be one! She is now signing "more" very proficiently and is catching on to "all done." We're also working on "drink" - she lights up when we sign it to her, but hasn't done it on her own yet.

She is crawling at the speed of light (as evidenced by her trip down the stairs) and is now walking along the furniture. She has gotten more brave in the past few days and is actually letting go of things and standing on her own a bit. Before I know it she'll be walking and then I'll have to cry!

As far as physical development goes, she is right about 20 lbs (I'm not sure about height). She has 4 teeth on the bottom and three on the top, with one more working it's way through. She is quite slobbery right now and constantly has her finger in her mouth, so I'm wondering if she's working on some back teeth as well. Her hair is quite a sight! Though you can't really see it in this picture, it sticks up pretty severely right on top of her head . . . thankfully she's a girl and we can put barrettes in her hair when necessary!

Cranberry Goon?

This is our latest Emma-ism. I didn't even correct her . . . it was just too cute and I've decided to enjoy it while I can!

Dirty Laundry?

It's actually a basket of clean clothes . . . but apparently they make a nice lounge for a 2 yr old. The added bonus is that with the extra weight in the basket, Julie can actually pull up on it without pulling it over on top of herself!

One Down, Four to Go!

The couch project is coming along slowly but surely. I just finished the first section and am wondering what on earth I got myself into! The arm, seat cushion and footrest were all pretty straight forward, but the seat back just about did me in. The problem being that once I took the old cushion apart I couldn't figure out how to get the new one back together. So after 3 evenings and 2 naptimes worth of work, here I am at midnight feeling the need to officially document my progress. My poor husband crashed about an hour ago. I say poor b/c he's been hovering around willing to help, but unable - and certainly sensing my despair. It feels good to be at a stopping point now . . . so I can leave it for a week or so and tend to other things. This first section took me 10 days . . . I still have two sections of couch to do, plus the loveseat (which has two sections) . . . hopefully it will be done by summer : )

The Worst Mom in the Whole World!

Yes, that would be me! Yesterday, for the first time ever, one of my children tumbled down a full flight of stairs. I wish I could blame it on the kids and say that they left the basement door open, but this one was all my fault. I ran down to the basement to get Meg's sippy cup and Julie followed . . . head over heals, landing at the bottom with a loud thud! Thankfully the stairs are carpeted and she came away with only a scrape on her forehead. She was pretty groggy and cuddly for the rest of the day, but is fine this morning. What a nightmare!