Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Wishful Wednesday

I wish I could sew.

I wish those dumb Kardashians didn't suck me into their drama.  I've heard the "real housewives" are the worst for sucking you in... I'm staying away!

I wish we didn't have to wait until the thaw is over in a few weeks before we can re-gravel our driveway... it's bad.

I wish Spencer was good at handyman stuff.

I wish for REAL Spring!

I wish for all of us to have an amazing week!!!

Your turn! What are you wishing for today?

Monday, March 28, 2011

Little Man's Second Birthday!

March 13th was Little Man's second birthday!  We had his party that day and his Grandma's and Grandpa's, Auntie Allie, soon-to-be-uncle Chris, Auntie Makenzie, and her boyfriend all celebrated with us!  Great Grandma Evie couldn't make it that day but she stopped by the next day with a present for our little two year old!

 He started the morning off with some playtime with Thomas.  Look at those toes! Off topic here, but I can't wait to dress the kids in their shorts and T-shirts/tanktops this summer!

Before his nap he opened one of his presents, a Mr. Potato Head, and used the pieces to help me decorate his cake!  I love how this turned out, and it was SO simple!

I made Funfetti box cake with funfetti frosting.  For the potato head body I mixed a milk chocolate frosting with a vanilla to make a lighter chocolate, then piped it on in the shape of a potato head toy, and smoothed it out carefully with a rubber spatula.

 After lunch it was down for a nap so he could be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for his party!  Guests had already arrived by the time he woke up, so I got him changed but he was too excited to sit any longer for me to comb his hair.  Oh well :o)

 We ate an appetizer meal, chatted, played, and opened presents!

When it comes to opening presents, 2nd birthdays are so much more fun than first birthdays.  For their first birthday it is pretty much "confused baby happily plays with tissuepaper and boxes while mom opens the presents and tries to convince baby how cute his/her new outfit is." Second birthdays they get into it more!  I liked that he wanted to take his time with his presents, excited to play with each one for a few minutes before moving on to the next one.  His sisters, however, wanted him to immediately open the next gift because they were so impatient excited.

Big sister taking a minute to play tools with little brother

Cool Tonka truck that makes sounds and drives with a push of the button

 Little Man got a ZhuZhu pet for his birthday.  He got some for Christmas too.  They are hamsters (I believe) that make little noises and run around in all sorts of directions.  If they bump into something it pushes their nose sensor and they back up, turn around, and go another way.  He loves them!  

What is it about these toy fads that makes certain toys an enormous hit for about 2 seconds, long enough to get a bunch of them and their accesories (if you're lucky), only to find the kid interested in something totally different 2 seconds later?  Christmas = Zhu Zhu Pets.... a week later = Squinkies.  What's next guys? Because I want to be ahead of the game on this one!
 Cake time!  This is the one area where first birthdays are always the most fun.  He didn't get his own enormous chunk of cake this year, but he still got plenty!    It was yummy!

He had a great birthday party, but he can stop getting older any day now... just keep being little Little Man!

One Year Old....
      
Two Years Old

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Moms Need Eachother

My dear friend Jeni

Plus my favorite beverage
Equals a delightful evening out.

Moms need eachother.  We need eachother so we can feel normal.  So we can hear that our kids aren't the only one's who can drive us crazy with their constant chatter. So we can feel like we're not alone in this crazy wonderful life that is motherhood. At the same time we need eachother so we can remember there's more to us than "mommy" and "wife", that we are also an individual, woman, friend. 

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Moving On Up

After 3 weeks of barely blogging, I have a lot to catch you up on.  I'm not going to bore you with the complete goings-on of the last three weeks, but I'll definately hit a few of the bigger points! 

One Huge highlight of the month was Little Man's SECOND birthday!  I'll get back to that event tomorrow probably, but tonight I wanted to tell you about what he did a couple days before his birthday...
he got a big boy bed!!

One morning one of my awesome daycare parents came in and asked if we by any chance wanted a toddler bed.  Seeing as Little Man was about ready to move up to a bed, we were either going to need to buy a mattress for the bed parts we already have, or find a toddler bed.  So, yeah! We were interested!  A few days before his birthday I drove over there to take a look at the bed and was pleased as punch at what great shape it was in.  My daycare kiddo took great care of that bed during the time he had it! 

My baby, and yes he is still my baby, was really excited when we surprised him with it an hour or so before his bedtime.  He was having so much fun playing on it I was a little worried he'd never sleep in it.  I worried about this with each of my kids, but really they all did a pretty great job sleeping in their beds, including LM!


I was even more skeptical when I put him to bed and he was doing this (look up at the last picture and down at the next two).  I started thinking the only way he'd stay in that bed was with duct tape... FYI: duct tape is a frowned upon method for child-rearing, though it makes a great craft item!


LM's room is really dark at night, which helped us out because though he was sitting up when I walked to the door, when I turned off the light and shut the door his room was instantly very dark.  With only a faint nightlight in the room, he stayed in bed either from fear of walking around in the dark, or because he got teh clear idea that it was bedtime. 


One of the common things I've noticed when we've moved our kids to real beds was that usually it doesn't dawn on them to get up and play once they've been put to bed because they are so used to being stuck in their bed!  This isn't the case for every child, and I'm not sure how much age has to do with it, but it is what happened with our kids.  Eventually they give us some trouble but at first they've done pretty well.

I know I'm jinxing myself here but so far LM's been in his big boy bed for almost 2 weeks and I'm pretty sure the only time he's gotten out of bed was during his first naptime in it! There might have been another nap where he got up, but it has gone extremely well!

It was a lot bitter sweet taking apart his crib.  I was putting a crib away for the last time. No more sleepy babies to snuggle into a crib at night.  No more crib toys attached to the bars.  No more tiny newborn babies in a giant crib.

You know what though? Beds are nice too.  It's easier to read them a bedtime story in their bed, easier to get in and out of, easier to snuggle them when they are waking up but not quite ready to get up, easier to kiss them goodnight.




Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Wishful Wednesday

I'm back!  See, I told you you wouldn't miss me! Unless you're not a facebook fan... because then you wouldn't have received that little memo. :o)

I wish we had done our taxes a month ago, it wasn't  nearly as bad as I thought it would go.

I wish Spencer would run and get us a treat... I'm hungry for something other than oranges and popcorn.

I hope the flooding this year will somehow not be as bad as they are predicting here in MN.

I'm still wishing for that magic wand... who's with me!?

I wish everyone a happy Wednesday!!

Your turn! What are you wishing for?

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Pancakes for Lots of Kids

I like pancakes.

The end.

Just kidding:o)

I like pancakes, and the kids all like pancakes, but they are kind of a pain in the butt to make for many children and then cut up for many children.

Recently I tried something different to make the process more efficient so everyone could eat at the same time and I didn't spend forever-and-a-day cutting up the little kids' pancakes.  Here's what I did...

Pull out the big skillet!

pour your batter into a rectangularish shape, and don't beat yourself up about the irregular shap.

It was at this point that I realized flipping the dang thing would be impossible, so I used the spatula to cut it into 3 flipable chunks

Flip!

but watch the edge!

when done cooking move them to a large cutting board, take out your pizza cutter (it's good for everything!) and cut it into strips that they can pick up with their fingers and dip into a little syrup!

serve with some syrup and fruit

and enjoy!
There's a way to make pancakes like an actual cake, in a cake pan, which makes things even easier, but with the pancake mix I've been buying it just doesn't turn out right.  Also I don't really know how hot to cook it at or for how long :o) 

I hope to return to regular blogging after our taxes get done (should happen next week) and can once again devote some of my brain power to blogging!

Friday, March 11, 2011

I'm a Proud Momma!

I am so proud! Sweet Pea sang "Tomorrow" in her school's talent show today!  She is also singing in a larger local talent show in a few weeks, and I'm sure I'll post a video of that too. :o)

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

The Reason We Walked - Spencer's Diagnosis

Last weekend we participated in something special. Spence, the kids (except Little Man), his parents, his sister, her fiance, and I arrived at the Mall of America for the JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes.


When Spencer was just 2 years old, he came down with what appeared to be a bad flu.  High fever, wouldn't eat, felt crappy.  His mom took him in to the doctor, who told her he had the flu and told her how to handle it, then sent her home.  Meanwhile for a week or two they hadn't been able to keep him away from drinking fountains or gallons of juice, he wouldn't eat food, and he was peeing constantly.  Two days after the doctor appointment she took him back because his fever was back up and she was concerned about his symptoms.  She wanted the doctor to test him for diabetes, but he told her that she was being over protective and kids his age don't get diabetes... it's the flu. 

She went home, called someone from the diabetes association and asked them about his symptoms.  The person at the association told her to go back and demand a blood test.  So she did.  She went back and told that doctor that she wasn't leaving until they did a blood test to check him for diabetes.  They drew the blood and sent them home.  On the way out the door Spencer and his mom passed the nurses station where the doctor got everyone's attention and announced, "Everyone, look at that woman.  Her kid is going to grow up with so many psychological problems because she is overprotective and worries about every little thing."

Humiliated I'm sure, they left the building and went home, where she put Spencer down for his afternoon nap. 


At noon the doctor called her and, without introducing himself, told her that he was sorry, Spencer has diabetes, you need to get him to the hospital immediately there are people there waiting for him.



Upon arriving at the ER three people came and immediately took them to a room. 

Normal blood sugar for a diabetic is between 80 and 120, Spencer feels pretty crappy if his blood sugar gets up in the 300s.  His blood sugar when he got to the hospital was 983!  They were amazed he wasn't yet in a coma.  His body was shutting down, his veins were collapsing,  they couldn't get an IV in him, and for about 24 hours they didn't think he'd survive.  Remember, he was two years old.


Obviously he survived, and has been extremely lucky to have had no complications after 27 years of the disease, he isn't even needing glasses yet.  And although I want to strangle him from time to time, I don't even want to imagine a world where he hadn't made it through that time. 


So while I've been wanting to do some kind of walk for the cure for a long time, my dear hubby has dragged his feet, and I haven't had the stamina to push it, so we haven't done one since we've been together.  When his sister signed us up for the Mall of America walk I whined a little about the time of day we'd have to have everyone up and ready to leave the house, but I'm so glad she did it because it was a great experience!


We left Little Man with my parents, knowing we'd most likely stay to go on rides and he'd miss his nap, but the turnout was great!  There were so many people there, and it was touching to see all the teams of people walking to raise money to cure type 1 diabetes.  About 18,000 walked that morning to reach their goal of raising $2 Million to find a cure and keep making advancements in care and treatment for diabetics.  The advancements already made since he was diagnosed are enormous.  There are pumps that will inject the correct amount of insulin into the wearer's body based on the food info they enter into it.  My aunt trains service dogs to detect high and low blood sugars in their owners and alert them even before a glucose monitor would detect it!  The progress made is reassuring and exciting!


Not only was it a rewarding morning, we enjoyed a delicious brunch and a few rides, and some quality family time.  Next year Little Man will come too and we'll have more time to raise a bunch more money for the cure, because I want to keep this guy around for a LONG time!

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Wishful Wednesday

I wish I could play games on Spence's evo all day... but then again I'd play Angry Birds and get frustrated by that one pig on every level that just wont die!

I wish Sweet Pea didn't now have an ear infection, yep, both my girls have ear infections, as does one of my daycare kids, and my dog. Poor little ears. :o(

I wish someone would go make me some toast (that's a hint Spencer ;)

The JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes was a lot of fun, I wish we had done that sooner!

I hope all the little people in my life feel all better soon! At least more than half of them are either fine or on the mend!

What are you wishing for today?
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