Finally!

Finally!  I have waited three kids and around five years of my married-mom life to be blessed with this information.  Go figure that a doctor finally decided to give me this beauty of a sheet with my third child.  I'm so glad I have it now.  It makes giving Tylenol and Motrin to my kids, less of a guesswork.  I'm so grateful for this information.  If you've been deprived from this information as well, here it is.  How to Medicate Your Child Correctly:

Momentous

I think this is totally huge.  Today after getting home from school, I was getting the kids to eat their lunch and Addison was crying so I tried to feed her.  She continued screaming and not wanting to eat so I figured I had to try something else.  I quickly prepped a bottle of 2 oz. of formula.  Mind you, Addison hasn't accepted any bottle of formula as of yet and that is why she hasn't been left with a babysitter yet.  Finally, I put it in her mouth and she ate and ate and kept at it and soon enough, she was passed out and fed with the 2 oz.  I was so excited that I could hardly contain myself.  This is such a momentous step in our lives.  This will open up so many more doors for us as far as things to do.

First Day of Kindergarten

I was super nervous going in to today about how Hayden will do now that he is expected to go to Kindergarten.  Before going to school, I fed them cinnamon rolls and we got all ready and brushed our teeth.  I also took the opportunity to take some outside pictures of Hayden since I figured it would be too chaotic to get good ones once at the school.  We then all got into the car with our backpacks (Hadley wore her princess one there because she wanted to be a part of it all too) and drove to school. 

The morning drop off seemed like a whirlwind of a process.  There were no places to park in the parking lot so I parked in a nearby neighborhood and we walked over.  We were trying to get off the sidewalk to the crosswalk strip and the ramp down wasn't there.  There was just landscape mound of dirt and plants.  The stroller didn't bode well in the soft dirt because it started to tip.  I tried to steady it while holding on to Hadley but still struggled to get it upright totally again.  A nearby Dad saw my troubles and helped me finish the job.  Great start, eh?

We got to the playground area and we set down his backpack in the line by his door and then we started taking a bunch of pictures with his friends from Church who were also in his class.  Before I knew it, the bell had run and his teacher was lining everyone up to go inside.  She had all the parents stand on one side and she told the kids to blow a kiss goodbye and tell their parents not to worry and that you'll be fine.  And without saying goodbye and I'll see you soon, or hugging him, they filed into the classroom and that was that.

Crazy!  There was a Boo Hoo Wahoo breakfast at the school for anyone who wanted to stay and chat with others, but Hadley didn't seem up for sticking around so we just ducked in briefly and then proceeded back out of the school.  As we started to leave, Hadley had a separation anxiety attack and started crying and screaming and yelling, "HAYDEN!  HAYDEN!  Where's Hayden!  Oh no!  Where's Hayden!"  

Apparently, I hadn't prepped her efficiently.  I tried to calm her down and told her that Hayden had to go to school, but we'll be back in a couple hours to get him.  She then insisted on playing on the slides in the school yard and I promised her we would go play at the park together while we waited.

We made it back to the car and we went home to grab some water, freeze pops and snacks and then headed to the library for books and movies and then to a nearby park to play.  It was lots of fun running around.  We even took a break to eat our freeze pops.  We chased each other up the climbing wall and down the big blue slide.  I think she appreciated playing with me and it got her mind off Hayden being gone even though at first, she would run around the playground and shout, "Where are you Hayden?  Come on, let's go!  Hayden?"

When we got back to the school to pick Hayden up, we waited in the car looking at library books.  I was going to feed Addison while waiting too but she had fallen asleep so I decided to wait.  I watched his class play on the playground for a little and then went on the playground to wait for them to get out of class while back inside.  

The door opened and the teacher waited at the door, asking for your kid's name before releasing them to us.  Hayden caught my eye inside the classroom as I looked in from a distance.  He had a huge grin on his face, way excited to see me, we waved at each other and he came running out to get me.  I asked him if he had fun and he said yes!  Hadley gave him a huge hug and said, "Hayden, you're here!  ohhh."

Hayden's comments about his first day are in his journal to remember.  As we walked back to the car, his friends were all shouting by to each other and see you tomorrow.  

Fusion Playtime

What do you get when you take a five year old boy and have him play with a 3 year old girl?  You get fusion and it sounds a little like this:

*sounds of fighting by making noises with his mouth*

Hadley shouting, "Go get him Cinderella!  Yeah!  You can get him!"

princesses and action figures/balls fighting each other

Hadley shouting, "You can do it Snow White!  Yeah!  Alright!"

I thought it was pretty inventive and fun to listen and watch.  See, boys can play with their toys and girls can play with theirs' and still have constructive interaction :0)

Trash Picker

I will admit that if I am going for a walk and it's trash day, I have been known to pick up big things that look nice on the side of the road.  I haven't done it too often, but I have done it.  Well, this morning, I was looking out Hadley's window while the garbage truck was out front and I caught them looking through a neighbor's trash looking at DVDs that had been chucked.  They spent about 5 minutes looking at each of them and deciding what to keep before moving on.  I found it funny and I guess it never occurred to me that the trash guys do the same thing.  Just wanted to share that fun image.

*Just for clarification, they did look at the trash once they put it in the truck and were down a house or two.  Didn't see them look through papers though which is good.  I still shred everything.

They'll Be Days Like This

Remember when you were growing up and your mom would say, "When you have kids, they're going to do what you did growing up and then it'll be pay back time."

Well, I'm here to say that it is totally true on some parts.  I don't remember all of the things I did when I was in the toddler years, but I definitely believe my kids do things I have done before which makes the saying true and thus the title, "They'll be days like this, momma said."

The first recent instance had to do with Hayden and his eating habits.  For a while now, Hayden has been a great eater.  He'd eat his food fast and good.  However, Hayden slipped into a terrible phase the passed couple of weeks.  A little while back, Hadley had a cold sore on the inside of her lip making it painful to eat.  She refused to eat anything and we tried to get her to eat some things, but more often than not, we sent her to bed hungry.  

Well, we think this triggered Hayden into a bad phase of eating because one day, he all of a sudden didn't eat as normal.  We would give him food that he liked or asked for and he would nibble like a mouse on it or not touch it at all.  Perplexed by his behavior, we asked what was wrong and he complained of a sore on the his tongue.  I saw a little sore, but really, why can't he still eat some food in a different way than normal.  It was soooo frustrating, watching him take 2+ hours to eat his normal breakfast, lunch or dinner.  He looked thinner than ever and he is already a very thin little boy.  Sandwiches went uneaten, timeouts were given that ended up super long and privileges were lost left and right.  

Finally, yesterday, the miracle happened that I had been waiting for and he ate his breakfast, lunch and dinner, super fast, normal and was happy again.  I am so glad to have the change back to normal.  It makes the mood in our house so much better because it really stinks having to not reward your child for such a long time.

The second instance was a complete disaster meltdown.  We drove over to the library like normal every week and I gave my normal speel before getting out of the car and what was expected of them.  I took out the baby, put on Hadley's teddy bear leash and we walked over to the front doors.  

My kids love to push the handicap button to open the doors and usually Hayden can push it and then Hadley can push it after him without knowing it didn't do anything new.  Well, today was different and it happened so fast that I had no clue what happened.  Hayden pushed the button and it didn't open with the first tap so he tapped it again.  Then Hadley comes over and starts trying to push it and it opens for her.  Hayden then gets furious and starts tapping the button multiple times.  Hadley rebuttals with pushing it in between him.  During their back and forth, I am trying to talk reason into them, especially Hayden, but he starts screaming and bawling and yelling "Noooo!" and Hadley responds to his emotions by starting to cry and yell, "Mommy!"  

Oh my goodness, seriously?!  It's just a button, right?  So they are really amped up now and making a huge seen while the doors are staying open for the whole inside library to hear and I all of a sudden say, "Okay, let's go to the car."

Screaming increases saying, "No!  I don't want to go to the car.  I want to go to the library.  Mommy...Mommy...Mommy!"  etc. etc.

I put them all back in the car and have them in their seats.  I tell them to be quiet and stop crying and then we'll talk.  Finally, it is calm enough for me to speak my peace about what just happened and the consequences of their actions.  I told them that because they behaved so poorly, they can only get one movie a piece, no exceptions (books are still free game).  Hayden rebuttaled with, but I want 2 movies!  I reminded him of his behavior and bad choices and said he had a choice.  He can either calm down so we can go back into the library and just pick out one movie while being good OR we can go home with nothing.  

Thankfully, he accepted my offer to go back in and we came to the agreement that Hadley could open the doors on the way in and Hayden could open the doors on the way out.  The second attempt turned out a whole lot better and I am so grateful.  I hate meltdowns so much.

So Momma said, they'll be days like this, they'll be days, they'll be days, momma said.

Ode to the Potty

I'm kind of proud of myself.  I had been putting off potty training Hadley for a while because we have had so much going on where I didn't have a good chunk of time to just go through the motions with her.  I had tried previous attempts in the same way I trained Hayden and nothing had been working.

Finally, I googled potty charts one day and came across these cute charts that I think are real winners and everyone should give them a go.  I came up with the game plan that I would introduce the potty in steps following the chart and get her to at least get to know the potty.  Then, Friday morning I dove into it totally and it was rough.  She is very strong willed and it was hard to get her to want to follow through quite a few times.  I had her do straight undies with her normal clothes on and put a pile of clothes and undies near by to get ready to go through a lot.

The chart went up and stickers were prepped.  The first day, we had 3 different accidents and then 3 successful trips to the bathroom.  I found that it was hard to figure out when to bring her because she showed no signs and then would have an accident.  I finally estimated and came a little off so I reduced the time and found more success.  I had a 30-40 minutes window each time.  I also gave her more fluids to give her a jump start and a drink or two on the potty when she was turning up nothing.  

On Saturday, we had greater success with 3 good potty breaks and just 2 accidents.  On Sunday, we took it slower because I wouldn't be able to help her at church so she wore a diaper for church and through nap time and then I put a pull-up on her for the rest of the day because we had family coming for dinner.  Surprised, she went right to the potty on her own with a dry pull-up, did everything by herself and went potty.  I was so proud of her.  We did our happy celebration of high fives, rocks, stickers and some m&ms for the win after she was done.  She went 3 trips again and did great.  Then, this morning, she went right to the potty and did her thing by herself again so I do have to say, I do see the light at the end of the tunnel when it comes to potty training and I know I am not in the clear, but we are on our way to having just one kid in diapers now.  Wahoo!!!

Sidenote:  Hadley didn't like being on the regular potty with even a smaller seat on top so we have stuck to just her little potty in the bathroom to start.  Hayden was easy and used the normal potty, but Hadley had to do it this way.

6th Anniversary

It's hard to have an enjoyable anniversary when bringing a baby with you.  We were trying to figure out what to do and I had nothing fancy to add to the decision making, but Jared finally decided for us.  We ended up going to a Wolfgang Puck restaurant for a little bit of fine dining.  We didn't realize it wasn't totally enclosed as a restaurant and so Addison had a hard time for the first half.  I wanted to try to feed her because I thought she wanted to eat, but she just couldn't fall asleep with the noise level so we took turns eating alone for the first half and then Jared finally got her asleep and then we could finally talk and spend time with each other and let me just say, the food was good and the dessert was excellent.  Everything looked so pretty.  THe crab cakes were great and my non-chocolate dessert was great too, but Jared's decadent chocolate dessert looked amazing and tasted amazing according to him.  I still can't eat chocolate thanks to Addison, so I just watched him et it and asked him questions about it.  We were truly stuffed after eating and I was glad to celebrate our 6 year mark.

Jared, you truly are my love in life.  You stole my heart eight years ago and I've never looked back.  It has been quite the journey with ups and downs and uncertainties here and there.  I appreciate all you do to ensure that we are happy and safe and looked after.  You sacrifice a lot and I realize it all the time.  I love your smile and the laughter we share.  Having 3 kids makes alone time scarce, but appreciate the talks we get to smuggle in here and there while kids are sleeping.  I love the adventures we've been on together and the time spent in the kitchen cooking as I learn to em-better myself in different ways and talents.  You are a great dad to our kids and they truly love you.  Thank you for encouraging me to try new things and work towards my goals in life.  You make me realize I can do things I thought weren't possible.  I love you so much!  So fracho nao!  Shui ge, wo ai ni!

Pool Party

Jared's co-workers had a pool party the other weekend which was a little bit away, but we still went.  We weren't sure if we were going to swim at all though since it was stormy that day.  There was however, a clearing in the weather for the second half of the party so the kids finally got to swim for the first time this summer season.  Kind of sad, but they enjoyed themselves until the were purple and blue and shivering.  I brought desserts of cheesecake, chocolate peanut butter cookies and lemon bars.  I love leftovers.  It was good to get to know the co-workers a little more and although it was a little exhausting, I'm glad we got to participate.