The New Dwarfs

Snow White had seven dwarfs as roommates, but our house has five more that could easily fit in at their little cottage in the woods:

Liam's dwarf name is Wheezy. Poor little guy caught a cold and it moved into his lungs. He woke up Friday morning coughing and wheezing and his shallow little breaths had me worrying. We spent two hours at the pediatrician's office so that he could get examined and have a breathing treatment. He was not fond of that AT ALL. Holding him down reminded me of the time I tried to give my parents' cat a bath: lots of clawing and screaming. He's now on an antibiotic (since his ears didn't look all that great, either) and a steroid inhaler. We're hoping they work and he'll be back to his old self soon.

My dwarf name is Achy. Like most moms, I caught my child's germs. Sore throat, stuffy nose, achy muscles.....I've got it all. I'm tempted to take a couple of puffs of Liam's inhaler, but I guess I shouldn't steal medicine from my child. :)

Ryan's dwarf name is Drowsy (he's cousin to Snow White's Sleepy). A huge project at work kept him out late Wednesday, Thursday and Friday evenings. He even had to work this morning for a while. You can imagine how tired he is after working 14-15 hour days with very little sleep. I joked that he was apparently giving up his children as his Lenten sacrifice seeing as the kids hardly saw him for a few days.

Sydney's dwarf name is Whiny. She hasn't gotten a whole lot of attention lately due to Liam's illness and Ryan's work schedule and boy has she let us hear about it. Hopefully we'll have some time to dote on her tomorrow.

And Evan? His dwarf name is Smiley. The boy loves to smile. And after the last few days, those smiles are certainly a welcome sight in our house.

Move Over, Thomas Edison

If I were an inventor, these would be my next few projects:

* Chauffeur's windows in minivans so that when the crying/screaming/whining gets to be too much, parents can simply push a button and isolate the noise.

* Teeny-tiny garters to hold up baby socks.

* A fridge lock that a two year old can't figure out and/or break within 24 hours of installment.

* Little screens for the backs of vehicles that display messages like "Quit Tailgating Me!" and "Please Turn Your Blinker Off".

* A school bus GPS tracking/parent alert system that lets parents know exactly when they need to leave the house to get a child off the bus (and thus help them feel less guilty about leaving two napping children in the house while they wait at the corner).

* Diet, caffeine free soda that truly tastes just as good as the real thing.

* A kitchen floor that somehow repels the spills, crumbs and various vegetables that children launch from their plates and bowls.

* A magic potion to stop time so that parents can keep their children in a favorite developmental stage forever.


How about you? Anything you'd like to see invented?

Poor Middle Child

After giving both Sydney and Evan posts of their own last week, I decided that poor middle child Liam needed a post of his own as well.

He's now 27 months old and is such a little boy. He is into absolutely everything and while he is adorable about 85% of the time, the other 15% of each day is the stereotypical terrible twos. I wouldn't be surprised if his first full sentence wasn't "Go to your room" or "Get out of the fridge" seeing as those are the two phrases he hears the most.

His favorite thing to do is to open the refrigerator and either grab his milk or steal a grape or two. We finally put a lock on the fridge after he snuck a handful of raw chopped onion and green pepper that I'd prepared for dinner (boy, was he an unhappy camper after chomping on those for a few seconds). The next day, I caught him pulling his chair over to the fridge and studying the lock. The day after that? The fridge lock was magically broken. So Ryan is installing a baby gate across the kitchen entrance as I type this.

He is also talking a lot more than before. Ryan and I are still the only people who understand most of what he's saying, but he's adding one or two new words to his vocabulary each day and has finally started using the all-important two word phrases that our pediatrician was looking for at his two year appointment back in November. It's so cute to hear him ask, "Where's Daddy?" or "Where's Sydney?" He's also repeating everything Sydney says. Ryan and I find ourselves cracking up throughout dinnertime.

As for potty training.....He's interested in the whole process, but I just don't think he's ready for the all out potty training boot camp yet. So I think we'll wait until summertime to start pushing him a bit in the potty department.

I've had all sorts of fun taking his picture the last couple of months. Here are a few of my favorites:

Flair

To celebrate the 100th day of school, Sydney had to decorate a shirt with 100 pieces of flair. She chose to write 100 numbers on her shirt.

The front:




The back:




A close-up:




100 pieces of flair - take that, TGI Fridays!

Nine Months

Evan turned nine months old yesterday! He is getting to be such a big boy. Well, according to the growth charts (I can't stand those things!), he's really not all that big, but we sure think he is. He's crawling all over the place, pulling up on everything, eating Cheerios and babbling like no one's business. And here he is, all 17 pounds of him, in some pictures I took with my new camera:













It's hard to believe that he'll be one in just a few short months.

Happiness is...

...watching my boys play together and laugh.

...finally getting some much needed rain.

...helping Sydney make her valentines.

...getting an extension to turn in Liam's MDO paperwork.

...buying new clothes for myself.

...hearing Liam say some new words.

...not having to file quarterly business tax returns anymore.

...planning our family's summer vacation.

...listening to my wind chimes.

...watching Evan crawl and pull up.

...playing with my new camera. (pictures coming soon!)


How about you? What's made you happy lately?

Bound to Happen

Well, it happened. I got my first nasty anonymous comment. I got it on yesterday's post about entering the attendance at my church.

Just so you know, Mr. or Ms. Anonymous Nasty Commenter, I was simply venting and I would never ask anyone to follow my silly 8 rules because that's what they were: silly. I'm sorry you took them seriously because I sure didn't. I know that everyone is going to keep signing their name however they want. I'm certainly not stupid. And while, yes, I may be a perfectionist in certain areas of my life, I do realize that not everyone feels the same way and I don't expect them to.

This is my blog and if you don't like what I write or my personality or whatever then do everyone a favor and please stop reading.

Thank you.