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Thursday, July 31, 2008

Stupid Is As Stupid Does


Last night after church, Hubby and I loaded up Superman and we headed to the Wal-Mart across town. We have decided that Superman is ready for an ExerSaucer / Jumperoo and I had shopped around and decided on the Fisher Price Rainforest Jumperoo. He has the Rainforest Swing and the Rainforest Mobile and he is very attached to the characters that are repeated on each item. When we were in the store Tuesday looking at the jumpers, he got very excited when he saw the little toad and toucan on the Rainforest Jumperoo.


After we came home, I did a price comparison online, and found out that Wal-Mart sells it for $70 and Target sells it for $76. I then used Walmart.com to see which Wal-Mart store had it in stock. Thus, we head across town last night to get our Jumperoo. When we get there, the price is $87! We use Hubby's phone which has internet access to confirm the online price and to confirm that we can get free shipping to the store of our choice. Then we approach the Customer Service Manager to see if they can match their price in the store to the online with free shipping price. They can't! I ask him if he understands that it is going to cost Wal-Mart a lot more to ship one of these across the country to me for free rather than to just let me pick one up off the shelves. He says that he understands it clearly and wishes that someone who makes those policies understood it. We then call Target and their in-store price is $89. So, even though I wish I was strong enough to boycott Wal-Mart, I came home and immediately ordered a Jumperoo online.

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

The Lion Sleeps Tonight! Psyche!




When I sat down to type this blog entry, it was a great night at our house. Superman had his bath around 10 and followed that up with a bottle. By 11PM he was passed out and in his Pack N Play ready for a good night's rest. Hubby and I were each sitting at our computers working on our projects and had decided to be in bed by 12:30. And, then, for no reason that we can determine, Superman woke up and begin screaming. Now it is 12:05 and Hubby is feeding Superman yet another bottle and we are going to try to get him back to sleep. So much for an early night for us.


Superman has really gotten more active lately. He can sit up when you prop him on pillows. He has found his tongue and is really excited to stick it out at people. It's like a little lizardy "hello".


Anyway, we think he is particularly cute in hooded towels after his bath, so we are sharing his lion photos tonight. I was telling him to wave at Gram Sam when we were taking the pictures. He lifted his hands, but I'm pretty sure it's because he thought he was falling. But, I'm just going to pretend he was waving at Gram Sam.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Wall-E


III has really surprised me this summer!


For years he has bumfuzzled me with his style of play. We would buy him a building toy. He would build the toy that was shown on the box and he would done with it. This applied to Legos, Lincoln Logs, Gearz, Magnetix, Tinker Toys, and anything else we could get. This summer he has been creating really cool things with his Tinker Toys. His latest creation was Wall-E. When he showed it to us, Rosy asked him to make her a little sister for Wall-E. So, the pic is of Wall-E and Moll-E.


I think this new creativity was sparked by two things. After we moved to our smaller house this spring, we purchased a twin bed for III. He always had a queen bed at the other house and it took up most of his room. (His dad wanted it so that people who came to speak at the church could stay with us and not cost the church a hotel room.) Now, even though his room is smaller, his play area is much larger. We have also reduced our TV this summer. Now, TV is an earned privelage rather than an automatic passtime that might be taken away for poor behavior. Our new system has reduced their dependance on TV and has really increased the traditional play that I see the two of them involved in.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Snuggle Time




Because Hubby and I were both teens in the late '80s and still somewhat aware of pop culture in the early '90s, the song Hammer Time by MC Hammer is ingrained in our conscience. Almost anytime I hear someone say that it's time for something by saying, "It's ____ time," I automatically sing it to the tune of Hammer Time in my head. This works for "shower time", "supper time", and pretty much any two syllable word that needs to fit in there. My favorite of these is "snuggle time."


Rosy is the snuggliest kid ever. She would probably explode if she had to go an entire day without hugs. She gets twitchy if you don't sit down and hold her by lunchtime each day. Lately her favorite snuggle buddy is Superman. Thankfully, he loves it also.


The photos are of him helping us tuck her in one night this week. He was actually wiggling and trying to get closer to her as the lay there.

Ice, Ice Baby


I think that Superman is teething! He refuses to sleep, drools everywhere, whimpers if no one is holding him, and has started "urping" stuff up on us. We got the bright idea yesterday to give him a teething ring. He loved it, but he doesn't have the hand coordination yet to bring it to his mouth. This means that you have to stand there and hold it for him.


To solve this problem, I froze all of his pacifiers! He loves it! Each frozen pacifier gets me about 20 minutes of peace before it loses its coldness and he starts crying again.


I weighed him this week and he is over 15 lbs now! He is 23.75" long. I am really glad that he did this extreme growing AFTER he was born. I am beginning to think that he is going to be built like my brother. Right now, he looks like you took my husband's face and pasted it onto my brother's head. His eyes and mouth are duplicates of Hubby, but the shape of his head and the hairline are straight from my brother. He's quite the combo. I just hope that eventually a little bit of me shows up.


I took this photo this morning to show how tall he's getting. When we first tried to put him in the swing, he was so little that you couldn't get the straps small enough to fit him. Now, with his legs extended, his feet hang off the edge!

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Welcome to the Jungle!



Superman took his first nap in his crib yesterday!!! Hubby is out of town so Gram Sam came to stay with me and help with the kids. She had noticed that he didn't have a mobile, so one of our projects for yesterday was to go select one for him. He really likes the Fisher Price Jungle Swing which has a little mobile on it, so she got him the big crib mobile that matches it. He loves it! He stayed in his crib for about 45 minutes playing with it and talking to it!! Then, for the first time ever, he fell asleep in his crib! This is a big help for me because our video monitor is hooked up now and I can go to other parts of the house and see him when he's in his crib.
III's big weekend trip to St. Stephens is coming up. He and Gram Sam are leaving tomorrow. Hopefully everything will go well, but we are prepared to go and get him if he gets homesick. Homesick is a pretty awful feeling. Of course, we suspect that he will be so relieved to be away from Rosy that he won't miss us at all.
Rosy has really turned into an amazing baby sitter. She has learned to give bottles and to comfortably hold Superman. I was finally able to finish my thank you notes this week because she could sit on the love seat and hold Superman while I sat on the sofa and wrote. That baby loves his big sister sooo much. I usually take him with me to their rooms in the mornings to wake them up and she is always ready to scoot over and make room for him to snuggle for a minute. (Of course, I watch them and don't let her squish him!)

Thursday, July 3, 2008

Psycho

Superman had his two month check-up this week. He is now 23" long and he weights 11lb. 2oz. He was in the 5th percentile for weight when he was born. (No one told me that until this week.) He is now right on target for height and weight in the 50th percentile.

We are heading to St. Stephens this weekend. We plan to leave Thursday afternoon and stay with my parents Thursday night. We'll do 4th of July with them (Superman has a new outfit!) and head back home Friday night.

The big kids are at the beach with their mom this week.

Next week is a crazy week for us, so keep us in your prayers. The big kids will be with us until Wednesday afternoon and then they go to their mom. She has something that weekend, so they will come back to me on Thursday night. Hubby is leaving Wednesday morning to go on a business trip. My mom is coming Thursday to help out with all the kids. Then Friday, my mom and III are leaving to go to her house and leaving me with Rosy and Superman. Hubby should be home late Friday night. Then we will go pick III up at Gram Sam's on Sunday or Monday! I may be a PSYCHO by the time it's all over!

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Miracle on Portobella Place

As most of you know, when Hubby and I decided for me to be a stay-at-home mom and homeschooler, we made a conscience decision that we would have less income and would have to change our lifestyle. Sometimes this is easy (when the children are playing harmoniously and seem to be thriving in their learning) and sometimes it is difficult (when others seem to have more "stuff" than our kids).



Well, it turns out that having a baby is one of those times when it is tough. I expected my big bill to come from the hospital where you can finance it over a year, but my doctor's office filed on the insurance first so I owe them the big bill. I went in their office last week and found out that we owe them $2200 and they will only finance it over 3 months!!!! Everybody has an extra $733.33 sitting around to pay on a bill each month, don't they? Then, we went to the pediatrician's office yesterday and discovered that they had our address wrong and had not been able to bill us correctly. We owed them $230 from previous visits and $310 for the shots that Superman got that day. Needless to say, these sorts of things are extremely stressful.



Hubby has an attitude concerning these things that amazes me. He told me to do the best I could and not to worry because "What are they going to do? Come and eat us?" Certainly we plan to pay our obligations on time, but news like that out of the blue is discouraging.



Last night I sat down to balance the checkbook and to sort through the stack of mail that had accumulated. In our mail was an envelope from our insurance provider. When I opened it, it contained the escrow refund from our home owner's insurance. We sold our house a few months ago as part of our sizing down initiative, and I had no idea that there would be a refund. It doesn't cover all of the medical bills, but it helps out a ton. Even though we don't have to tithe on it because it is not income, we decided to give the Lord the 10% he asks for as a Praise Offering.



It's amazing to me just how good God is! Everytime He throws a miracle my way, I am surprised by it. You would think that I would remember how much He loves me and would understand that He will provide for me if I am faithful to Him.