I Needed a Laugh

I am sick. And I personally don't think it is fair to be sick when you are pregnant, because you are already kinda sick to begin with. Needless to say, I keep coughing and I haven't been able to really breathe for over a week. I think I would make a terrible cancer patient because I always hear about how stoic they are and how they don't complain. Um...that is not me at the moment. I am complaining. I am sick and tired of being sick and tired.

Phew...now that that is out of my system. I am still doing the mom thing regardless; chasing babies, making lunches, reading stories, cleaning up messes, etc.

Tonight I was doing spelling words with June. She wrote them all down on separate pieces of paper. Then we organized them by sound, then alphabetically. Finally I have her put them in the order that she likes them (just 'cuz it is fun to see which words are her favorites). She had them all lined up and I read them down in order. The last four words put together made me laugh out loud and June burst into giggles too. These were the words:

bad
fat
rat
but

We laughed until June peed a little. Dad came in and gave a slight frown and told me that I should not be laughing at such things, but come on...I needed a good laugh right now.

If Suffocation Were Funny

You may have read a warning such as this before:

Warning: Keep this bag away from babies and children. Do not use in cribs, beds, carriages or playpens. The thin film may cling to nose and mouth and prevent breathing.

I'm not sure if I ever really took them seriously. Of course there are children that suffocate each year from plastic bags (I think I read on one site that there are 25 reports annually). But still, it didn't really register until Daisy found this fun new game.



Yep, she would put the bag over her head, run away, and give her biggest smile as I took the bag off her head. At first I just put the bag down, but she was thrilled with the game, so I had to eventually hide the bag. I think I may need to pay more attention to consumer warnings with this child.

Cutting More Apron Strings

Robyn started Kindergarten yesterday. This was much easier to handle. Like I said, I like Kindergarten. June picked this day to be "sick" so I went over to the school just to make the transition easier for Robyn. I don't think she really needed me though. She loved everything; the bus, the friends, the teacher, the whole day.

I didn't feel much freedom since June was still home bugging her sisters since she wasn't that ill, but today has been much quieter. Ivory, Daisy and I went to the library this morning. Look at me, running errands with only TWO kids. I might be able to get used to this whole school thing, although I still miss them. I think I need to work out some deal with the schools. How 'bout I take them during the day, and then you can have them at night when I am all tuckered out. Don't forget to read them a story and have them brush their teeth. Sounds good to me.

p.s. I love Robyn's little fake smile in that picture and the fact that the backpack is almost as tall as she is.

Deconstruction Zone — Hard Hat Required

Let's talk about why I am not blogging so much recently.



Nuf sed?

Don't be fooled by the cuteness. She is one busy sucker. Her day usually consists of...

* pulling clothing out of any drawer she can open.
*playing in the toilet if someone leaves the lid up.
*rummaging through the ribbon drawer and dragging said ribbon throughout the house.
*pulling books or videos off the shelves.
*putting random items in the garbage.
*taking random objects out of the garbage.
*pulling over furniture that is not cemented down (my floor lamp was a casualty this week).
*climbing anything and everything.
*unrolling a whole roll of toilet paper or taking out tissues one by one from the box.
*finding fun small objects to stick in her mouth.
*taking dirt out of my plants (my first child to do this).
*etc, etc.



Wow, I am having a hard time keeping up. I realize this is normal for any toddler, but I think the pregnancy or my thirties (heaven forbid) are slowing me down. There is still nap time, but I spend that either sleeping or cleaning up something.

I feel bad because this affects my time with other kids to some degree. Take for instance today, while I tried to read a book to Robyn (Sam and the Firefly—one of our favorites). It went something like this:

Read five pages, handed book to Robyn, took baby off a chair where she had climbed up and was taking crayons one by one and throwing them on the floor.

Read five pages, handed book to Robyn, took baby off the stool where she was standing, shaking the Caladryl vigorously (thank goodness it was still closed). Hid stool once again and cursed whoever got it out.

Read five pages, handed book to Robyn, took baby off the dining room table where she had managed to climb despite my best efforts to push all the chairs in and block her.

We finally resorted to putting cheerios on the ground next to us hoping to distract her long enough to finish the book.

She really is a darling good baby with a mischievous smile that makes you laugh, but I am finding out quickly enough that my house is hardly baby-proof.

It's a Love Hate Thing

There are all these things I should be posting about, but instead I saw this hat and I think it is incredible.



I want one. Kinda. You see, I think that I would have to wear it myself because I would freak out every time I saw it, if I put in on my child's head. But it is so Halloweeny/ Octobery. Just so cool. Sadly, it is probably not $43 cool. Still, I totally love it. There is definitely something wrong with me. If you can't resist yourself or want to see it from different angles, check it out here.

And the Prestigious Coveted Award Belongs to...

IVORY!!

She gets the proud honor of being the first child in the family to need stitches. June may have needed stitches at one point but her parents thought they could just bandage her up and so she has a neato scar on her forehead.

I haven't even had stitches myself although I did have my head stapled together at one point. Tyler, well he is well acquainted with stitches, so after Ivory split her chin on the edge of the counter, I let him take her in. She only needed three little stitches. I hear she was quite the trooper.



In other Ivory news, the girls have treat boxes that house whatever candy comes their way. It tends to overflow around Halloween and Easter, but after a whole summer, Ivory finally finished the last piece in her box. Tyler didn't know this, so one evening when June asked for a treat out of her box, he asked Ivory if she wanted one as well. June piped up with, "Dad, Ivory doesn't have any treats left."
Ivory ran ahead and yelled back, "I'm going to go get my treat box and show you what's not in there." So here is a picture of what's NOT in there.



I thought about getting her some more treats for her box, but Halloween seems right around the corner.

My First is in First

I kept reading on people's blogs that school was starting. So early?? But I should not scoff because we were not far behind.

I got June up a little earlier than usual (7:30) because she would normally sleep in another half hour and I wanted to make sure she had time to get ready. Well...she ate breakfast, did a morning chore, studied scriptures with us, had a righteous bloody nose, had her hair done, got dressed, monitored Mom making lunch, packed her bag and still had twenty extra minutes before the bus came. She went out to ride her bike but came back to the door every few minutes to ask if it was time for school. I don't think she was excited at all.

I got her to relax for a minute to grab a candid shot.



I can't even believe how big she has gotten. And by big I mean grown up because it is no secret that she is still a petite thing. In most groups she still is the shortest one (at least they stopped taking class pictures by height—I was always the shortest one at the end in the front row—you can always find me though).



She was my first baby...you know, the one who gets experimented on—forever. I had so many mixed emotions today. I thought about her constantly. I missed her, a LOT. I watched the clock way too much. I went out to meet the bus ten minutes early. I wasn't excited at all.

I officially move to make all school days the length of Kindergarten. I liked Kindergarten. She played, learned, made friends, but she wasn't gone ALL DAY. Stupid First grade. I was all ready to pull her out of school entirely, but unfortunately she loved it. So I guess I will just have to get used to it.