Since the kids are home all day during the week with either me or the sitter, we decided they needed more play options with the (hopeful) warm weather.  Conveniently enough, the Easter Bunny went shopping at Toys R Us one day and bought a swingset, which unfortunately cannot be purchased pre-assembled like some of their items.

Jamie profusely apologized to his father after attempting to build something with small children present.  Tools wandered off, screws and bolts dumped in the grass, boxes drug to the far ends of the grass.  It really was quite entertaining. 

The kids are enjoying it.  Katie went down the slide numerous times after it was put together but now something has her hesitant to go down again (it could possibly be the 2-3 times Aidan decided she needed a push-start down the slide that has deterred her…) and Aidan likes to stand at the top of the slide and sing  yell his ABCs and other songs.  Now if only the weather would stay nice so we can continue to enjoy the backyard.

Don’t worry, it had more “accessories” when we were finished!

p.s. Our grass looks a million times more green/healthy than these pics…I swear.

Where to start? 

What a year it has been.  It’s hard to believe that this baby from one year ago is more of a little girl now.

A little girl who insists on dressing up (in every piece of dress-up clothing/accessories she has) to go to bed.

A little girl whose smile is contagious.

A little girl with a strong sense of independence.

A little girl who, despite her diva tantrums, is still so angelic when she sleeps.

A little girl who is fearless, but will still hold your hand.

A little girl who adores her big brother.

A little girl who’s personality and sense of style is all her own…and we wouldn’t want it any other way.

Looking forward to seeing what the next year brings…

Happy Birthday Katie Bee!  We love you!

Things that are bad:

1. Stress.  No bueno.  I think the closer I get to being done with school (and being employed again!) the worse it gets.

2. Anxiety attacks.  Yup, to the point that my chest hurts (or maybe that was heartburn from lunch?).  It’s like a little reminder that I can’t always be a superhero…though I try very hard.

3.  Gas prices.  Seriously?!  It’s sad when I’m telling the young ‘uns (babysitter that is 8 years younger than me) about the time I was in St. George in ’99 with Ashley and she was pissed that gas was $1.00/gallon.  Yeah…that really chaps my hide.

4. Groundhogs that seem to be bad with their season-predicting.  Next year I’m suggesting we listen to a stoat.  (Yeah, totally random mammal I know, but it’s in one of Aidan’s current favorite books and I thought I’d share my newfound stoat knowledge with y’all.

Things that are good:

1. Sledding! (and seeing the sheer joy on their faces over something so simple)

2. Watching this guy play the Wii (or “rectangle” as he likes to call it).  I think he’s better at “Super Brothers Cars” than I am.

3. Her sense of style…need I say more?

4.  Cheesy smiles.

5. Aidan taking his Mario and Luigi (Weegee) cars to bed and putting them face to face so they could “snuggle”.

6. Her personality (and that sense of style…again).

7. A sunny day spent at the park.

8. A glass of wine after a crazy day.

9. Realizing the good always outweighs the bad.

It is hard to believe it has been 4 years already, yet I have a hard time remembering life before Aidan was in it.

In the past year we have watched him grow and change so much.  He started preschool which also meant riding the school bus (more nerve wracking for mama the first day than for him!), grew about 2 feet (well, maybe not quite 2 feet, but he pretty much went straight from size 3T shirts to 5T almost overnight…seriously, only ever purchased two size 4T shirts!), mastered both the uppercase and lowercase alphabet and ALL the letter sounds (in about 2 days after watching a Leap Frog video) and between his stubborn determination and his Tag reader will most likely be reading before we know it!

Aidan is a very timid, gentle soul; sometimes soft-spoken, sometimes not.  He loves anything electronic and can figure out said electronic devices probably more quickly than his mama.  He loves “chicken and fries”, Super Mario, Donkey Kong, anything Disney, his new scooter and Tom and Jerry.  Katie Bee is his best friend and the two of them play wonderfully together and antagonize one another as well.  It melts my heart to watch them chase one another and belly laugh so hard.  When she cries he is quick to tell me she needs a “tissue” and although he is a boy of few words he chooses them carefully and often prefers to use the most sophisticated ones.

It’s hard to find just the right words to describe what an amazing little boy we have been blessed with.  Lately he loves to snuggle with me on the couch during the afternoons while Bee is napping and is content to just cuddle and watch TV while I study.  He loves to help cook (especially when making cookies…he’s my official dough-taster) and asks tons of questions.  Aidan is hesitant in new situations, but once he finds himself comfortable, look out.

Happy Birthday Aidan, we love you so much and look forward to watching you grow even more this year.

I’m not sure if she’s watching her flocks or if she’s baby Jesus’ security guard.  Oh Katie Bee, Mama’s nativity is not your personal dollhouse.

This morning after Aidan got on the bus for preschool Katie and I headed off to run some errands.  After stopping at Kohl’s, Bed Bath & Beyond and Michaels we made our final stop at Costco.  Upon returning to the car, I completely forgot about having thrown the other bags through the window in the back and hit the button on my keys to open the back hatch to the car.  My large bag of towels and bag of craft supplies promptly fell out the back, the frame I just purchased breaking.  (Not the glass, just one corner smushed and split apart.)  Some idiotic, rude customers walked by on their way in to Costco and laughed.  They LAUGHED.  I muttered a very impolite comment under my breath loud enough so that they most likely heard and fumed all the way home.  A random thought about my day feeling like Murphy’s law popped in to my head but I pushed it aside.

Mistake number 1.

Once home, I can’t recall if it was in the hour Katie and I were home before the bus returned or if it was after Aidan got home, Katie found joy in spinning in circles in the living room until she was dizzy.  She kept doing it over and over again and at one point when she narrowly missed the corner of the end table with the back of her head I had a random thought of, “Well, that would have definitely been a trip to urgent care for stitches.” 

Mistake number 2.

Sometime after lunch, about the time I was thinking about putting Katie down for a nap she came out from the den (here’s where I kick myself for leaving the door open when I had been in there cleaning earlier), fell and started crying.  She came over to me and had blood on her lip.  I assumed she bit her lip or her tongue until all of a sudden there was blood everywhere and I realized it was from her sticking her thumb in her mouth. 

A quick assessment revealed copious amounts of blood from the crease on the inside of her thumb.  I calmly sprung in to action (seriously, if I don’t get anything else out of nursing school I at least don’t freak out when things like this happen) and got some gauze and tape.  She was more than happy to rinse her thumb out in the kitchen sink (at which point I got an idea of the depth of the cut) but wasn’t really fond of getting gauze taped on.  After about 30 minutes I decided to check again and as soon as the gauze was off it started bleeding like crazy.

At this point I decided a trip to some medical professional (other than myself) was necessary.  I knew there was no way I could wrangle two children at urgent care on my own, especially not one who was most likely NOT going to be pleasant during the visit, so I started calling Jamie.  FINALLY, I got in touch with him and told him to call me when he was leaving.  At this point Katie was asleep on the couch so I figured a quick nap at least might help her spirits.

After about 45 minutes of napping Katie woke up and said, “Ow” so I loaded the kids up and headed out.  I started second-guessing myself until we pulled into the parking lot and I reassessed Katie’s gauze dressing only to find it was pretty saturated.  A 30 or so minute wait (I was a smart mommy and packed a bag with fruit snacks, toys, books…) and we were being seen.  The doctor assessed the cut and at first thought maybe “the glue” would work.  Wrong.  We were also told that if she couldn’t stay still enough that they’d have to send us to the main ER so they could sedate her while they stitched her up.  Fun.

Jamie so graciously volunteered to hold her (good thing too because he seriously worked up a sweat holding her) while Aidan and I sat there and listened to her cry.  After a shot of lidocaine the doctor did one stitch and thought she was done until Jamie pointed out that it was STILL bleeding, so a second stitch and we were done. 

On the way home she complained a bit to Winnie the Pooh, and throughout the evening she’d stop a couple times to look at her finger and say, “Ow.”  Poor girl is quite the trooper though.  She doesn’t like having her finger bandaged and the doctor said tomorrow we could air it out but I think my fear of her pulling at the stitches will lead me to keep it covered the next 10 days.  Merry Christmas.

Oh, and the injury was caused by a very tiny, thin, metal engineering stencil.  Seriously not the type of object I would assume would send us to urgent care for stitches.  Then again for more than a year I’ve been saying that Katie would be our first urgent care/ER visit.

Mistake number 3?

Next time random thoughts find their way into my head I think I’ll just put everyone straight to bed no matter the time.  It will at least save us in medical bills.

*****************Warning….finger thumb picture below.  Stop reading if you are easily grossed out….Dad.

I love to bake.  I hate to clean up.

I woke up today feeling refreshed.  The kids slept in (7:00 a.m.  WOO!) and not only did Aidan not have school today, neither did I (double WOO!).  Aidan has been begging for days to make cookies, but considering we had less than a cup of sugar in the house, a trip to the store was warranted.  So, $70 worth of baking supplies later (I had to stock up for all my holiday baking needs!) we were headed home.

I thought maybe the cookies would be temporarily forgotten after our grocery store adventure but we weren’t even inside the house when Aidan said, “Make chocolate cookies Mama!”  Well, how could I say no?

Both kids promptly pushed over chairs so they could join in on the mixing goodness.  Katie Bee doesn’t even care if the mixer is actively running, she’ll stick her hand in to get a taste.  (I try to warn her as I had a freak mixer accident Thanksgiving morning, but thankfully she’s still mixer injury-free.)  In an attempt to “help”, Katie continued to scoop flour into the measuring cup with her fingers to pour on the mixer stand while Aidan felt he should do his part by disposing of cookie dough in his mouth.

The evidence…(mind you, Aidan is camera-shy so the one picture I got of him looking at the camer is a miracle in itself)

Just as I’m about to pull my hair out over the mess (flour EVERYWHERE, double chocolate cookie dough EVERYWHERE (especially on Bee)) Aidan runs over to get a freshly cooled cookie off the rack.  But, instead of scarfing the cookie then and there (he has eaten about 6 of them now) he takes it over to Katie and says, “Here Bee Bee, have a cookie.”  I melted.  He gave her a cookie before he even got one for himself.  As he returns for his cookie I said, “Thank you for giving Bee a cookie.  That was sweet.”  His response, “I know, Mama.  He’s {Katie} sooo cute!”

And even though I am STILL cleaning up cookie mess, it’s all worth it.

Because I have 5 unfinished and unpublished posts that have somehow never been finished…

Because I have been swamped/stressed/insane over the past few weeks…

Because I was stuck at home all day yesterday with a demanding, feverish boy and clingy teething girl…

Because I need an outlet…

Because I have big plans in my head…

I vow to be a little less of a perfectionist and post more.  Post about the random, mundane everyday things.  I vow to spend a little more time being crafty and stressing a little less. 

And in the spirit of things, a glimpse into my household yesterday.  And yes, that is a phone Katie fell asleep with next to her ear.  (As Jamie said, a glimpse into her teenage years?)

Yikes.  2 1/2 months since I posted last!  Thought I’d give  a recap of the past 2 1/2 months and beg for forgiveness.  In my defense however, being a mother of two, wife of one and a full time student in nursing school doesn’t leave much time for blogging, let alone sanity!

So, in as close to chronological order as I can get…

The first two weeks of August were busy for me with finals.  But as soon as I was done we loaded up the trailer and headed up to Oregon.  I thought it was very fitting that Aidan had scarlet fever the week before we left…isn’t that what all the pioneers died of (along with dysentery) on the Oregon Trail?  Thankfully some antibiotics did the trick and he was back to his old, stubborn self by the time we left. 

The trip was AMAZING and as is the norm when traveling with young children, there was never a dull moment.  We woke up bright and early the second morning there to Aidan with the stomach flu. (Have you ever tried to quarantine a 3 1/2 year old onto a queen bed in a trailer?  Have you ever tried to sanitize said trailer so that none of the other 3 family members in that small quarters get sick?)  The next day brought a 5 mile hike with small children strapped to our backs.  It seemed like a good idea when we started out, but after about 4 miles Jamie’s shoulders were a little  a lot sore from hauling Aidan up and down slippery Oregon-forest trails.  We enjoyed more than our fair share of sunny days at the beach, a day-trip to Bandon which turned out to be perfect for kite-flying (translated, WINDY!), a day-trip up to Florence and a few more (albeit much shorter) hikes.  Aidan was very accident-prone skinning up both knees, his nose and his chin and our second to last day Jamie got struck with the stomach flu as well.  All in all it was a successful trip that I know we were all sad to see end.

I may/may not have told Jamie I wanted half a dozen more kids after watching this.  They truly have grown to be such good friends and this picture melted my heart.

Aidan and his skinned nose…

I swear this one was born knowing how to play with sand toys.  The first day we set her down in the sand with the shovel and bucket she immediately started scooping sand and filling the bucket up.  She’s a natural beach baby!

More to come….I promise.

We’re in so much trouble….

I just can’t get over Aidan’s expression in the first picture…he just looks so devilish!

And seriously, I have no idea where Bee learned about microphones, but she’s on her way to being the next American Idol.  She’s quite the crooner!

These two are trouble together lately.  They find the pool.  They fill it up.  They make mud.  They dance in it.  They antagonize one another and then cry when someone gets hurt.  I’ve actually found myself uttering the phrase, “It’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt.”  All those things I swore I’d never say to my children…all very necessary phrases in the daily life of raising them.

What can I say?  Life is good.