The mom of the year award goes to.....

So Erik got into trouble today because he went into Ian's room and woke him up. I scolded him and told him he is never ever allowed to go into Ian's room when he's asleep. Erik covered his eyes and face with his little hands and proceeded to perform his one man act, "I'm embarrassed because I know I did something wrong but I'm going to do my best to make you feel guilty" cry.

I walked back downstairs and a few minutes later Erik came down too. He walked over to me and said, "I don't have time for this!"


Wonder where he heard THAT before?

Random thoughts

Someone recently posed the question: How did we know our family was done?

So this is something I've been thinking a lot about over the last couple of days and I was reminded of my own personal experience. While I was pregnant with Erik, I was perfectly content with him being our last. Throughout the whole pregnancy I thought things like, "This is the last time I have to get this huge," or "This is the last time my back will kill me every day" or "This is the last time I have to lose my lunch on a daily basis for nine months." And I was completely fine with that! Then the day came when Erik was born. That afternoon as I was holding him and resting, I heard a very distinct and clear voice say to me, "Don't get too comfortable because you aren't done yet." It was so loud that it startled me enough to look around and see who was in the room. No one else was around except for me and my little baby. I remember saying out loud, "You've GOT to be kidding me!" and wondering why couldn't that "feeling" wait at least until I got out of the hospital after just having had a baby! Or at the very least until the morphine wore off!


I was nervous and worried since it was a long and emotional year of charting and fertility drugs to get Erik here. I had what is called a "Luteal Phase Defect". But, I trusted that if it was what we were supposed to do then it would happen for us again. After six months of charting and finding that I had the same LPD as before then suffering through a chemical pregnancy, I decided I needed to start my first round of progesterone before moving on to the fertility drugs again. To my surprise, that was all it took! About three weeks later, I had spotting and started to get negative pregnancy test results after days of positive ones. When I went in for my blood test my number was only at 14. In order to register on a pregnancy test that I was using it needed to be at least 24. I thought for sure I was miscarrying again. I went in a couple of days later for another blood test to make sure my numbers were doubling like they were supposed to and my number was over 250! To this day, I'm not sure why I was getting positive tests one week and then nothing as well as the spotting. The only explanation I could come up with is that maybe I had double ovulated that month and the earlier egg that implanted didn't stick.

As the pregnancy progressed, we were anxious for the ultrasound appointment. Shortly after Lauren was born, I had a very profound dream of a girl with pretty long, blond hair that flowed at her waist. She was about five years old and in my dream she was skipping away from me. I started to call for her by name, Eden. She stopped then turned her head to look behind her towards me, smiled then skipped away. I caught a glimpse of what she looked like. I took a mental picture and embedded the image in my mind thinking I would recognize her again someday. Seeing what my own daughter Lauren looks like now, Eden was very similar, but different. Eden had a long, narrow face and a similar smile. The rest of her features were uniquely different. I had a feeling that I had just gotten a glimpse of a future daughter. So, to our astonishment of having subsequent boy after boy after boy, I began to question who this little girl was and why she wasn't coming to our family like I had thought she would. Since Ian was born, I have felt very sure that our family was complete. So I struggled with who was Eden and why do I have such a strong connection to her?

After some inner searching for answers, I felt at peace knowing she does belong to us and was our first child that we had sadly lost at eight weeks. My feelings were confirmed when I looked up the word Eden in the thesaurus. I read the synonyms Heaven, Next World, Perfection, Paradise. With each word, I felt confirmation that my dream was not just any dream and that her name was not just any name. I know that she will be ours to raise someday and I feel honored to have been able to meet her in this life, if only in my dream. I humbly recognize that not many are blessed with the same privilege.

What I also know for sure is that all of my children were meant to be here and that they will grow to do big and important things. I have a lot of peace in knowing that our family feels complete now.

Ian's ONE!

Ok so it was a week ago and I'm just now getting around to blogging about it. Which, if you think about it, actually isn't so bad considering I have four tubs filled with pictures and mementos sitting under my bed, one for each child, still waiting to be scrapbooked.....someday. We didn't even do his "party" until Sunday the 23rd because I was worn out from our family Disneyland trip. And honestly, after three previous "first birthday extravaganzas" I'm feeling a little burned out...... poor kid. That last child syndrome is a big bummer.

I'll give you the Cliff's Notes version of his year in a nutshell.

March:
21st: Born weighing 7 pounds 15 ounces
Didn't have a name until our last day in the hospital
Spent first six weeks with jaundice and getting fun needle pokes.

April:
Ate. Slept. Pooped. Slept. Ate. Pooped. Ate. Slept.

May:
Saw first smiles and belly giggles
Ate. Slept. Pooped.

June:
Cut four teeth

July:
Got in to a noticeable eat/sleep pattern

August:
Turned over front to back and back to front

September:
Able to sit up on his own

October:
Survived a plane trip and week at DisneyWorld
Had fun celebrating Halloween as a puppy dog

November:
Lucky for mom and dad, started to crawl right after we returned from DisneyWorld
Got RSV

December:
Had no idea what Christmas was but sure loved the wrapping paper

January:
Easily entertained by big sister and brothers

February:
SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT!
Had first of two back to back ear infections and bronchitis

March:
Survived a slightly more difficult trip on mom and dad to Disneyland
Had second of two back to back ear infections minus bronchitis
Pretty close to walking all of the time which has not been encouraged by mom and dad. That last child syndrome thing again.
Turned ONE!

I'm too EXCITED to sleep......

Not because we'll be spending the day at Disneyland tomorrow, but because......

the new IPO will start trading!!!

And I will be ready with laptop in hand to place my order as soon as I can. Splash Mountain and the Dumbo ride will just have to wait...... sorry kids.

Didn't realize I was such a geek, eh?

A mom of a two year old should know by now

That if he doesn't want his pop tart broken in half

to make it easier to dunk in milk.....

HE DOESN'T WANT HIS

POP TART BROKEN IN HALF!

This is not to be confused with other days when he does want them broken in half, just on certain days when he feels like it and as the mom,

you're supposed to know whether it is a "break in half" day or not.

And the only way to make it all better is to tape it back together again.

Lesson learned.

And yes, that is colored marker stains all over his hands.

I didn't EVEN want to go there. Although, maybe they should have been my first clue how my morning was going to go.

And the winner is ...................

ME!

For the "Most Creative" cake!

And the prize isn't a seven day cruise for two. Something about "not being in their budget" blah blah blah. Instead, I won a $20 gift card to Charlestons.

I'll take it.

This is family award number two for being the "Most Creative". The last one was for my son's scarecrow competition in the fall.

If only I could be creative when it comes to meal planning and organization.

A new meaning of "Brokeback"

Jack brought home a flier earlier in the week about a Cake Decorating contest his school is having at a Rodeo fundraising something or other tomorrow. At first, I was tempted to enter but then realized we wouldn't even be able to go so I decided to forget about it. That is until my husband encouraged me to do it.

So I cowgirl'd up and did it.

There are supposed to be prizes for the best Rodeo theme, Best school spirit, Most creative etc. I tried to make something that would put us in as many categories as possible in order to hopefully win something. So, I went with a cowboy boot and a Rattler ( school mascot and school colors ) coming out of it.

Two days, seven cakes, two batches of frosting, a gazillion toothpicks, and a huge disaster of a neglected house later.......

Unless the prize is a seven day cruise for two........

I'm left wondering if it was really worth it.

Like was the time it took to do this:

Really worth this:

Or was working on this:

Worth the mess like this:

Or was I doing this:

Instead of preventing this: ( that is pieces of fondant that the two year old left on the oven for the baby to spend a hour picking off and eating )

Was two days of my life doing this:

Worth neglecting two days worth of doing this:

Jury is still out by the way. All I feel like I have to show for all of the effort is a hand still stained with red food coloring, a weekends worth of house cleaning and an aching back.

"Don't worry about bitin' off more than you can chew. Your mouth is probably a whole lot bigger'n you think. " Texas Bix Bender

Redneck Pool table

Don't you wish there was an alternative to not only a less expensive option but also not having to have a pool table that takes up a whole room?

Well look no further! If a seven year old can build it.....so can you!

The only supplies required are cups ( Styrofoam or plastic work best as opposed to mom's nice glass glasses ), masking tape and a small plastic ball.

Then enjoy hours of fun!

Birthday Party Etiquette 101

1. If you are throwing your child a party, don't expect the parents to drive 20 minutes each way to drop their child off in a skeevy part of town at say, Skateland, then make the parent "hang around" the skeevy part of town for 2 1/2 hours to pick their child up. Either have the party at your house, or drive the kids yourself.

2. If you are throwing your child a party, be sure to order enough pizza for everyone to at least have one slice.

4. If you are throwing your child a party and the invitation says it is from 10am until 12:30pm, a parent should expect that the party is ending at 12:30pm. Not earlier.

3. If you are throwing your child a party at a hypothetical place possibly mentioned above, it is important to stay until all of the parents have arrived to pick their child up. It's not proper etiquette to leave a seven year old by herself at a place like Skateland located in a skeevy part of town. It is irresponsible and unacceptable.

4. Don't allow your child to go to any more parties that don't take place at the host's home.