Tiny Mouse and Big Congestion

It's not a very poetic title, but it sums up my last two weeks pretty well. Hubby and I are just getting everything in place. After a week without a compuer or a washing machine, I'm back in business. However, this morning he discovered a mouse in our new laundry room!!!! Yikes!!! No laundry for me until Mickey has moved on. Hubby says, "maybe it went out the dryer vent." I'm not buying it. Until I see it on it's way out the door, it's still here to me. BTW, I'm a catch and release girl, so I had to call around for the right kind of trap.

Superman has been very congested. I ended up taking him to the doctor Friday. He has had diarhea most of the week from teething. It has been a challenge to keep his hiney from getting raw. Then mid-week he developed a chest cold. Tonight, he threw up all over me and himself right after his bath.

Rosy is well, but III is coming down with a chest cold!!!!!

If I remember correctly, the natural order of things is to tend toward chaos...we are really following that law at our house right now!!!!

You've Got the Cutest Little Baby Face!

Superman was fascinated with everything at Rosy's party yesterday! Hubby got a little distracted with the camera and we ended up with more baby pictures than 8 year-old pictures.

Party Hearty last night!

Superman at his Valentine's Banquet last night. One of the other mommies is holding him. They are doing the Hokey-Pokey.

Rosy at her "Baby Shower" Birthday Party. She loved it!

Math Joke

We're packing, and I'm stressing.

In the midst of it all, III has been doing some pretty advanced stuff in math and I have been writing the tests for it. So, my brain is math-fried. I saw this joke online today and I think it is hilarious.

Rosy's b'day is tomorrow and we are having a small, babyshower theme party for her tomorrow after church. I know that III and Hubby will be thrilled, but I do know that she will love it. I'll post pics soon.

Cage Match

Our new playyard, aka "The Cage", is perfect for our family. It has a ton of uses for us. Today, the big kids wanted to go outside to ride bikes, rollerblade, ride scooters, etc. Because our street is kind of busy and I haven't been able to consistantly notice them getting out of the way of traffic, I have to go out when they go out. This has been hard because Superman is only interested in being in his stroller for a little while.

Today we moved the cage outside. We stayed out there for several hours. I could lay on the blanket and read. Superman was in his cage and the big kids were up and down the street. It was one of our better afternoons since Superman has been born.

I'm guessing that it's a sign of the Apocolypse, but we've had two really good school days in a row. We've been completely done around noon both days and have been able to enjoy going out.

And, yes, to Alma and Gram Sam - I did put a hat on that baby right after these pictures. It was very windy outside today and I wanted to take care of his little ears.

School time for Baby Boy

For Christmas my parents gave Superman a set of these differently textured balls. At the time, he had zero interest in them. Now, they fascinate him. He rolls them, chews them, and bangs them. We got 30 minutes of school done this morning while he sat in his walker banging these two balls on each other and everything else he could reach.

Notice his turtle face in the top photo. For some reason he pulls his top lip down to a point and stares at us sometimes. We all think it makes him look like a turtle.

Does that thing come with a lid?

We got all three kids in the new playyard Saturday night, and the first thought I had was, "Does that thing come with a lid?" I'm pretty sure it would be illegal to cage them up in the living room, but there are days when I sure think about it!!!! Either way, I think they are adorable all playing together. Twenty years from now they are going to wonder how big that playyard was if they could all fit in it. They won't believe that they were just that small.

Happy Blogiversary to Me!

Today is my first Blogiversary!!! One year ago, I started my blog. Thanks to Cinda for suggesting it to me, and thanks to everyone who reads it.

I'm not much of a phone talker, so it has been a great way to share Superman's progress without being tied up on the phone for hours. I keep odd hours (stay up late and get up late), and blogging lets me type on my schedule. I'm usually adding to the blog around midnight and it was even later than that during the terrible indigestion of my pregnancy.

Yeah, Papa Deet!

My dad (known as Papa Deet by all the grandkids) and my mom (aka Gram Sam) got us a play-yard! We were at their house a few week-ends ago and little man was all over the place. My mom called this week and told me that she and Daddy had been talking and they had decided that Superman really needed a play-yard. She volunteered to go to Wal-mart and pick one up for him if I wanted her to.

We were up there this week and he really enjoyed it at their house. I set it up first thing this morning, and he is loving it. I've had so much more flexibility now that I can contain him. For the first time in over a month, our couch has cushions. Once he started crawling we had to use the cushions to block the hearth, the television armoire, and the legs of the end tables.

I can't wait until school Monday morning. I think we are going to be able to get a lot more done with him in "Sing-Sing" as my dad calls it.

My Big Boy

Superman had a busy January. He learned to crawl forwards and he learned to pull up. Of course, we immediately tried to baby proof. However, I missed some things. You can't see it in the picture, but I have the outlets covered. It never occured to me that he could pull over the ironing board. I made it just in time to stop him.

He went for a nine month check-up this week. He is 22 1/2 pounds, 30 inches tall, and his head is 47.8cm around. He's about the size of the average 13 month old according to his doctor.

Charley Skedaddle

III's school curriculum is all online. It is a good curriculum for the most part, but sometimes the assignments are extreme. Last week they suggested that he visited the Linneaus' Museum in London to better understand the assignment on animal classification. Obviously, we skipped that one.

He is supposed to read through his work and make a judgement call each day on which parts of the assignment he should complete. He makes a list of things he thinks he should skip because they are too diffiuclt or too involved. (Examples would be trips to London, science experiments that involve live electricity, assignments that involve reading a whole book for one day's work, and things like that.) We are trying to work on his ability to understand what is reasonable and what is extreme.

Earlier this fall, he started "hiding" assignments from us. If he didn't want to do it, he would "forget" to put it on the list. Of course, we check behind him each day, so it NEVER worked. We ALWAYS caught it. Then, if possible, we had to assign him the extra work because it became an integrity issue.

One of his lessons on Nov. 11 assigned him to read a historical fiction book about the Civil War and write tons of stuff about it. It was a HORRIBLE, lenghty, useless assignment and I never would have made him do it, but he chose to "forget" to put it on his list the day after we had sworn that if he ever did that again, he would have to do the assignment "no matter what."

He turned in one messy, misspelled, poorly punctuated version of the book report in December, and got told to do the whole thing over. I am glad to say that after almost 4 months of drudgery, the book report is finished.

Unless you also home school a mule, you can't know how exciting this is to us!!!! What a dark cloud has lifted at our house!

Shouldn't Have Tried It

I was determined to make sure our whole family was at church together this morning. I shouldn't have tried it. Superman is ill and feverish. Any sane mother would have kept him home. Finally, halfway through Sunday School, I gave up and headed home. I've never been so miserable or seen him so miserable. Thankfully, the Tylenol finally kicked in and he is sacked out on the bed now.

What a Day!

My sweet mother came down this week to help me clean the new rental house. She got here on Wednesdaymorning, but we had complications and we didn't make it over there Wednesday. We decided that we would get up early Thursday morning and tackle it.

Thursday morning started very early...too early! Hubby accidentally woke me up at 4:21 AM and I couldn't go back to sleep. I got up and started doing laundry which disturbed my mom. So, by 5:30, she and I were both up but Hubby and the baby were still asleep. We puttered around for a while and then when Hubby got up, I went and laid back down with Superman. I got up and Sam and I were going to head on over to the other house. Then 5 or 10 other things came up (feed us, feed the baby, change the baby, pack baby toys, pack cleaning supplies, etc.)

When we finally got ready to leave around noon, we loaded up the Jeep and backed out of the driveway. CRUNK, CLUNK, CRUNK, CLUNK I looked at my mom and asked her if it sounded right to her. We got out and looked - at a flat rear tire. I called Hubby who canceled a lunch appt. and came home and fixed it.

We loaded up again and as I was shutting the door, the rear passenger window fell down into the door. Now, my Jeep is not brand new, but it is a 2004. It shouldn't be doing all these things.

We decided to go ahead to the house and work anyway, so my poor mom had to ride with her hands bracing the window up. We had to have the baby in the rear facing car seat, so she had to ride back there and keep the wind off him.

We got to the house and it turned out that none of my cleaning products were what we needed. The kitchen has greasy build-up on the cabinets, and we needed a "de-greaser". I was armed with germ killers. I had all the Clorox and such that we could possibly use. We cloroxed all the light switches and the door knobs and decided to wait on the rest. We came home and started packing up china. Fourteen boxes later, we had the china cabinet completed unloaded!

Superman, Rosy, and I are all sick. We feel rotten, but we are going to church in the morning if at all possible. It's been a while since we were all in the same service and could worship together.

Sweet Moments

Most school days we take a small break around 10:30 or 11:00 to put Superman down for a nap. Rosy loves this time because she is usually the one who rocks him to sleep. She gets to go to the nursery and climb up in the big white rocker with him. We wrap them up in his special blanket that Mrs. Jana made for him. We turn our lullaby music on and they rock. She loves when he does "baby doll" things like taking a bottle or nap.

I know these days are fleeting - I wish that we could just double each day!

Best of Days

My Mommying Mentor who writes the Pigtails and Pacifiers blog had a great idea in one of her posts last week. She recently had a baby girl and now has three little girls aged three and under. Her pediatrician recommended that they make sure there's a "fun" time each day. Maybe something as small as dancing for 5 minutes a day would be enough.

The doctor's advice reminded me of one of my favorite things we've done in HomeSchool this year. We have kept a chart all year chronicling our favorite thing from each day. It hangs in the hallway between the kids bedrooms and I update it each week to showcase their accomplishments. It covers everything - our cooking lessons, science experiments, stories we've read, poetry lessons, art projects, good grades, and good behavior.

It also serves as a great countdown for us. We have a 170 day school year. The kids' bio mom and I split the year in half and each teach 85 days. We each choose our own holidays and stuff so that the school calendar fits our family calendars. Our schedule is pretty flexible, so it's hard to keep track of just when the school year will end. I hate to say it, but it is really exciting to me each time we finish a row on the poster because I know we are that much closer to being done for the year.

Crawl Videos

I finally managed to catch him crawling and not mugging for the camera. I have a dozen videos of Superman crawling half a step and noticing the camera. As soon as he notices it, he flops onto his heiney and starts grinning and waiting on the flash to go off. Rosy and I were on the love seat having Reading Class and Twinkle was on the back of the love seat. He was desperate to get to us.

This is a nearly averted disaster. I was so busy filming this cool side view of the crawl that I didn't notice what he was aiming for. Now, the cat toys have been relocated to higher ground. He actually screamed at me when I took them away.

Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep

Sleep has eluded me lately. Hubby and I are both night owls, but lately it has gotten out of control. During the work week, we usually go to bed around midnight On Friday nights, we are likely to stay up until 1 or 2 AM. This Friday night when we laid down at 2 AM, I wasn't sleepy. Then it was 3 AM and I wasn't sleepy. Then I remembered that I had to write a Math test for III to take on Monday. Then it was 4 AM and I still wasn't asleep. Finally I got up and wrote the test. I finally went to sleep at 6:30 AM Saturday morning. Thankfully, Superman is a late sleeper, so I got to sleep until 9:30 AM. I took a short nap Sat. afternoon, but I still couldn't sleep Saturday night. It was 2 AM before I dozed off. I feel like a baby whose schedule is off.

My mom says that she quit sleeping well in her early 40s. I'm not far from there. I'm hoping that this insomnia is just temporary. Of course, I am able to get a lot more done when I only sleep 3 hours a day. I am not a nicer person, but I do get lots done.

Vinegar and Salt

Hubby is off work today and is spending a little extra time with Superman. They were enjoying a snack of vinegar and salt potato chips!

Sorry about the continued sideways video. I'm really trying not to do it so much.

Mazurek...Missouri

Blended families are funny creations. Unless you belong in one, you can't imagine what it's like to co-ordinate your entire life with someone else's family. Dentist appts, PTA meetings, television guidelines, bedtimes, allergies, car seats, and everything else you can imagine are dealt with on a daily basis. And, then there are the biggies for us...insulin, home schooling, holidays, etc.

Here's a great story about living in a blended family.

Hubby and I are currently living in a small garden home that we rented when our house sold last year. It had been on the market for about 2 years, but when it sold we had very little time to pack up and move. We needed a house close to the church and reasonably close to where III was attending school last year. This house is small and we've never really been able to get all the way unpacked this year. There's just not enough room. Lots of our things are in a storage building that we have to visit several times each month to get things out that we need and to put other stuff back up.

Our lease is up in February, and so I looked for a bigger house. We found a house really similar to our old house in a neighborhood called Mazurek. It is a little farther from the church, but is much closer to the hospitals. (Hubby starts a lot of work days at the hospitals visiting folks or sitting with families during surgeries.) All of our stuff will fit in it, so we can give up our storage building.

I was on the phone with III and Rosy's Bio Mom the other night and mentioned that our lease is up in February and we will be moving to Mazurek. I assumed she would know where I was talking about because she and I had talked about that neighborhood before. She was very tired that night, and she thought I said that we were moving to Missouri. Talk about panic!!! There's nothing like thinking that the person you share custody of your children with is about to move to Missouri without really discussing it with you.

Of course, I immediately corrected that misunderstanding and we got a laugh out of it.

Orange You Glad...

Orange you glad this didn't happen at your house?

I was in the den playing with the baby and I heard Rosy bellowing for III from the hallway outside her room. I saw him go to her and heard her ask him to "take this to the trash for me, real quick." Of course, that piqued my curiosity. Then he saunters through the den calmly carrying a green and gray orange!!!

Now, the rest of the story...

I bribe our kids in school. We keep a giant bowl of candy with a sign on it that says, "A Sweet Treat for A Great Job". They are allowed one piece of candy for an A on a test or a quiz and two pieces for 100s. Rosy has Type 1 Diabetes, so candy that she can earn and then KNOWS that she is going to get to eat at lunch is a huge treat to her. III likes it because I let him take it to his room and snack while he studies.

Sometimes they end up with more candy than they can eat. Halloween, Valentine's Day, and Christmas always bring more candy. So, they each have a Halloween bag in that hallway between their rooms and we store surplus candy in it. Well, apparently Rosy had also stored the fruit from her Christmas stocking. I guess I should have noticed that it didn't go into the fridge, but we had other fruit in there and frankly, I'm just very busy this year. She was checking out her candy stash yesterday when she noticed the incredibly rotten orange.

I gave a mini-lecture to both the kids on fruit storage! (You other parents know how this sort of lecture sounds. "Have you ever seen me store fruit in the hallway?" "Aren't the other oranges in the fridge?" "Did you think this was a free range orange?") As I was winding done, III looked at me and said, "Well, I guess I'd better get the fruit out of my bag, too."

All in all, it was a good day, but I always recommend that you check on it when your kids are working on something and one says, "Take this to the trash for me, really quickly!"