Peanut's progress

Well, Peanut is almost 3 months old. I think she has officially reached 12 weeks old, but she isn't 3 months old until next week. It is hard to believe how fast the time has gone. It is like she has been a part of my life forever, not just three months.

Peanut has two favorite things - her fingers and ceiling fans. She loves to munch on her fingers. They are in her mouth all the time. She doesn't suck on them, she munches and gums them. She also LOVES to watch ceiling fans go round and round. How great life is when munching on your fingers and watching a rotating fan makes you happy.

Peanut has been in the terrible twos (months that is). No, it isn't really terrible, but she can and does throw tantrums. This morning, I had her laying on the couch and I was sitting right there next to her. I was folding laundry and chatting with Peanut when she started to fuss. She had had enough of laying down. Of course, it doesn't matter to her that I have been holding her non-stop for 2 hours, and I set her down so I could do some much needed folding. Well, as I was saying, she was done and wanted to be picked up. I didn't and she got madder and madder until I had finished and stood up to put away dish towels. That was it for her. She was furious I had left her and she screamed. What was really funny is that she had just stuck her fist in her mouth. She is screaming at me now, even though I'm holding her. She is throwing a 1st class tantrum.

How fast they grow.

Regrets

We all have things we regret. I certainly have my share. There are many from my life BC (Before Children)that I have regrets over and many more since. Most of the time my regrets are over big things like I regret not going for a Masters degree before having kids. Today, however, I regret something on a much smaller scale. I regret taking a shower.

All I wanted was a few kid free minutes to shower, clean, think clearly and enjoy some needed peace. When I came out of the shower and in the process of dressing, I get a knock at the bedroom door. "Mom, Toddler pooped on the floor!" I groan, "I'll be right there!" I come out of my room to see poop on the floor just at the top of the stairs, I look in his room and poop is on the bed, the floor, a blanket. I gather up the dirty things and start cleaning the floors. I go down stairs and I see huge smears of poop on the floor. Peanut is laying within 2 feet of the stinky stuff. I move her, and look at the damage. Someone had taken a dry dish towel to the poo and had tried to clean it. It didn't work and poo got all over the towel and smeared into the carpet more. I look at Toddler. My mind is in a fury. I yell, "Go upstairs now and get in the tub!" He covers his ears and runs off into the family room. "NO!!!" I run and grab him, his shirt is covered in poo as well as his hands. I grab him and carry him up the stairs. I throw him into the tub, turn on the water and leave to gather more cleaning supplies. After turning off the water I told him not to get out of the tub and I ran back down stairs to clean up the floor.

Ug, I hate the smell, I hate the sight. It is gross. After getting the floor cleaned, I washed my hands and started a load of poo laundry. I wash my hands again and run back upstairs to clean Toddler who is sitting patiently in the tub. By the time he is clean and I'm back downstairs, Peanut was screaming. She had been ignored quite long enough. I cuddled her and smelled her sweetness and sat down to feed her. I sat there wishing I had never gone upstairs to shower. How dare I think I could have a few minutes of peace. I should know better than that by now. I should know that whenever I try to do something for myself the kids make me regret it.

A view of the world from a 4 year old's eyes

My daughter loves to take pictures with my cell phone camera. Luckily it holds a lot of pictures. Most of the pictures are very fuzzy and most are close up of things that are silly, like a close up of the play button on the DVD player or a doorknob. Some of her pictures are interesting and I get to see the world through her eyes. I wanted to share some of her pictures, my budding photographer.
Eye level with the trampoline

Eye level with the kitchen counter

An interesting picture of her foot and teddy bear on the stairs. Is this abstract art?

Out on our walk, she was taking pictures. I like this one, even though it is sideways, it shows these signs from an interesting perspective.

The Yelling Printer

We have a printer. It yells at me. For whatever strange reason, the people who developed the printer decided a voice should tell me when the printer is beginning, when the printer is finished and when the printer needs more paper. The printer's manly voice comes out of the speakers. This is a problem when I'm listening to music on the computer and then need to print something. Because the speakers are on and turned up for the music's sake, I hear the printer yell at me, "PRINTING STARTED!" If I don't turn down the speakers while the printer is printing so I can continue to listen to music, when it is all done, I hear it yell, "PRINTING COMPLETE!"

The worst is when I don't have any music on, I'm holding a sleeping baby, I need to print something, and the speakers are on and turned up and I'm not aware of the speakers being on. When the printer yells at me to tell me that it is getting ready to print, it makes me jump and wakes the baby. Then, if the printer is out of paper and I haven't turned the speakers down yet it yells, "PLEASE LOAD PAPER IN AUTO SHEET FEEDER!"

My kids and I laugh a lot about the yelling printer and they get a kick out of me imitating the printer when it yells. I make it sound like a Drill Sergent. Still, who ever decided that the printer needs to talk to me was obviously some absent minded computer nerd with no children.

our outing

This morning I wanted to run a few errands. The problem is, I don't have a car. There is a Lowes, Farm Fresh and Big Lots with in easy (relatively) walking distance. The walk isn't far and I enjoy long walks, but it is on a very busy, noisy street with cars going 45 mph along the road. It makes me a bit nervous to walk, but the walk itself is pleasant and easy. Anyway... I had a few things at Lowes to look at and I'm out of dish washing detergent. I put Toddler in the front of the double stroller, Princess in the back part of the stroller and wrapped Peanut to me with our wrap. With a bag of water bottles hanging from the stroller and my cell phone with an ear piece so I could listen to music, we headed out.

The day is warm and sunny, in the low 80s. My ear piece keeps falling out of my ear. My ear is just way to tiny for normal sized ear pieces. We make it to Lowes just fine, but Peanut started to slip down in the wrap. Instead of being wrapped around my chest, she slid down to my stomach. Once inside Lowes, I readjusted the wrap and made it tighter. That worked. We did our errands and came back home. It was pleasant. I should do that more often, but I hate the traffic noise and I have to cross two busy streets to get there. Complain, complain....

The dentist office called me today and told me my kids and myself are really over due for cleanings. I explained I can't set up appointments because I have no transportation at all. I don't think they believe me. I mean really, who is a one car family these days? Us. I had to cancel a follow up appointment for Peanut for the same reason. It is really a pain, but you know at the same time, I don't mind. Dentist and doctors don't really need us to come in as often as they want us too. They just want our money. So not having a car is a great excuse to not go.

We are still doing the cloth diapers with Peanut. I stopped doing them for a while, not because I didn't want to do the CD, but because we were given so many size 1 diapers for gifts after Peanut was born, I wanted to use them. They are suppose to go up to 12 lbs and Peanut is over 12 lbs now. I've used most of them now. I just have one package left and I use them at night or at church or on these long outings. The rest of the time I use cloth and that is going very well. I love using the Snappi instead of pins. A couple of times Peanut will fall asleep and take a long, long nap in her cloth diaper and wake up with wet clothes because she finally leaked, but that's alright. I just change her and put the wet clothes in the washing machine. It is going well.

I'm potty training Toddler. He is young at 2 1/2, but he is doing quite well. He has his good days and his not so good days. When he makes it to the potty, he gets 4 M&Ms and he loves getting those treats. When he wears his underwear, he is more likely to have an accident because he seems to think it is like a diaper. So, I let him run naked most of the time in the house and he is more likely to make it to the potty. It's not a pretty sight, but it works.

OK, I think that's all for now. Hubby wants me to pickle the green beans that we have harvested from our garden. I was planning on doing that today, but I don't have enough vinegar. I'll have to run out tonight I guess and pick some up, then I can pickle stuff tomorrow.

Conversation:

8 Year old: Mom, what's this word? (He is working on his summer math sheets)
Me: Survey
8 Year old: What's a survey?
Me: It is when you ask lots of people a question and find out their answer, like asking everyone what their favorite cookie is.

8 Year old walks away, 10 year old having hear the conversation from the kitchen comes in.

10 Year old son: I've experienced lots of surveys, at least 2.
Me: (suppress giggle) Really? Two?

Smokey Air

We've had some icky air lately. Thanks to a brush fire in the Great Dismal Swamp located in the state south of us, we have had smokey air for about a week. It is stinky! The air is just smokey, you can see the haze in the air that is smoke floating north. Saturday was really bad, and we spent a good part of the day outside. The boys went fishing. Every time the doors were opened and closed, a wave of smoke smell came into the house. Saturday night or early Sunday morning, we had rain. It washed away the smoke and Sunday was pleasant. Monday morning was good too. The air was clear and I was hanging laundry out. A little after lunch, I hung out some laundry and was sweaty from the hot, humid, summer air. I ran upstairs to shower. When I came back down, the air was hazy again. I thought it must be just humidity hanging thick in the air. My hubby called me from work and asked if it was as smokey here as it was at his work. I opened the door and was knocked over by the smokey smell. I ran out to the back yard and quickly pulled the laundry off the line. Luckily, it didn't smell too bad as the smoke had only just rolled in.

Last night I woke up around midnight to a most magnificent storm. The wind was blowing so hard that the trees were all bending to the side. Rain pounded at our doors and window and the lightning storm was fantastic. I opened the window curtains so I could watch the storm. I thought how great the air will be in the morning after the storm passes. This wind and air are just going to blow that smoke away.

The sun lights the sky at 5:30. I woke up and held Peanut as the sun rose. Looking out at the window I realized the smoke was still hanging in the air. I can smell the smoke in my kitchen. Ug. I had hoped the storm would take care of it, but it didn't. More smoke blew in with the storm.

I'm trying to keep the kids in the house, especially Peanut. I don't need her developing asthma or some other respiratory illness due to all this smokey air. She has a cough and congested chest already. Poor baby, only two months old and she has had several colds and now this flemmy cough. Also, it isn't easy keeping the 5 kids happy in the house all day. There is school work to do in the morning and chores, but after lunch, they feel the cabin fever and my nerves start to twitch as they run through the house in the afternoon, chasing each other with dart guns. I sure hope (they) get this fire taken care of so we can have clean air again and I can send the older kids out to play - for my sanity....

Watch out, I've added music!

I added a music play list to my blog. Don't worry, it starts with a quiet song. I can't stand when I'm surfing blogs at night or when I'm holding my sleeping baby and suddenly rock music blasts out at me. So, I'm warning you now, there is music, but it is peaceful and quiet. Nothing I added has words either, just instrumental music. Well, enjoy and if it is really annoying, I'll get rid of it.

our growing garden

I just wrote this great post about our garden and I accidentally lost it. AHHHH!

OK, so, our garden is growing. First is the dill. I had no idea how tall dill can grow. It is as tall as my toddler!

Next are some beans we are growing. Some of them are ready to be harvested, so I went out today and picked the first "fruits" of our veggie garden. Aren't they pretty?


What are they and what do I do with them now? Do I just eat them as is? Am I suppose to open them and get the little seeds out?

We also have carrots. They aren't suppose to be picked for another month or two, but I had to see one, so I picked one of the smaller plants and pulled out a carrot! It is tiny, but it is really a real carrot!


We are also growing cucumbers (to combine with the dill and make pickles), tomatoes, onions and pumpkins. I'm so excited to see it all grow. Now only if I liked to eat vegetables....

to blog or not to blog...

I've been debating lately whether to keep this blog or not. I sure enjoy writing in it and that should be reason enough, but when no one reads it, is it worth the time taken to write?

Nothing really has been going on. School is still in session for three more days and then the kids are finally out for the summer break. I look forward to it. It has been hard to get the kids to go to bed when it is still light out and twilight is streaming through the windows. It is nice for me. I like to get up when the sun rises and the days being so long, I can stay out later in the evenings if I wish. I'm not comfortable getting out alone or with kids once it is dark. That is tough in the winter time when it is dark by 4:30pm. We don't live in the greatest of neighborhoods and I don't like going out once the sun is down.

Last week on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, it was warm to hot, in the high 80's, low 90's, then on Thursday summer hit and hit hard! It is in the low 100s until about 5 in the evening now. I want to line dry my clothes, but I don't like going out in the super high temps and humidity. When I was a teen, our girls camp was in July - one of the hottest months in Texas. Yet, I camped all week, slept in a hot, muggy tent and was just fine. I guess I'm a wimp now.

Well, for not being sure if I want to continue doing this blog, I sure did type a lot didn't I?

Boy forks and Girl forks

In our house, we have boy forks and girl forks, according to my 4 year old daughter. She really doesn't like to eat with a boy fork.

What is a boy fork and a girl fork? I'll show you:

Do you see the difference? The fork on the left is a girl fork - it has decorations on the handle. The fork on the right is a boy fork - it is plain.

This goes for other silverware and dishes. Some of my Correll dishes have purple flowers on them and some are plain white. My daughter prefers to eat on the purple flowered plates or bowls - the girl dishes. So, now for her, we have to coordinate her place setting. Girl plate, girl fork, girl bowl, girl spoon.

Luckily for me, the boys in the house don't care what kind of place setting they get, as long as they get to eat!

chatter box

My daughter has been talking non stop to me for probably 45 minutes. She is still going. It doesn't matter what I'm doing, she has just been by my side chatting. She requires very little response, which makes it nice. It's a lot like Anne in Anne of Green Gables, but my four year old isn't quite so creative.

Although, in a creative moment,she was telling me "my heart is thinking of beauty" while she was beading a bracelet.