Rough Day

So yesterday morning was just fine but by afternoon things went a bit downhill for a bit.

Dalton, as I'd mentioned, was in an awful mood and I put him down for his nap a bit early. Well, he wasn't any better when he woke up. I actually tried to get him back to sleep after awhile. He was calm and happy while we rocked then Easton came in and well, Dalton wasn't tired anymore after that. But Mommy was!

So then Easton, knowing this, told me I should go crawl in my bed and they'd take care of me. So that's what we did. I laid on the bed and the boys jumped and played around in my room until Easton fell on the elliptical and came up gushing blood from his nose and mouth. Great.


After about 15 straight minutes of him screaming and me trying to get the bleeding under control and figure out just where in the heck it was coming from we finally cleaned him up and moved over to the bed. But he was still crying, and asking, "Mommy can you please help me feel better?" A popsicle and ice cream were both refused. But finally he took me up on a the idea of a bubble bath.

I had wanted to keep Dalton out of the bubbles but it was useless to even try. After he'd soaked his clothes and the floor with Bubba's bath water I just had to give up and stick him in too. Eczema schmeczema.


Easton decided putting on jammies at 3:30 would also help him feel better so both boys got p.j.'ed and I decided I couldn't go shopping to get anything for dinner. Jason and Dalton ate cereal. I ate leftovers. Easton had nada.

Today Jason is on a work ski trip. They pay for a bus for the group, lift tickets, and pizza and beer on the way home. Sounds like a nice day, doesn't it? Jason's been looking forward to it for awhile. Spouses can go if there's room on the bus, but I can't anyway being preggo and all. Oh well. It's gonna be a LONG day for J. He had to be at the bus at 6:45 this morning and they're not planning to be back till at least 7:00 tonight...and you can't forget his commute to and from the bus itself. LONG day. But at least it's one more day I don't have to cook.

I'm here with basement dudes again. And another carpet guy. I'm not looking forward to packing everything up and watching someone move that elliptical to carpet upstairs. The installers will move the big furniture but not all the odds and ends on the bookshelves or bedding or electronics and whatnot. *groan*

When will it end??? It was gonna take 3-4 weeks. I remember that was part of why we picked this guy. However, this is the end of the 6th week...and I know we were gone for a bit. But, people, it was only 3 business days.

My favorite of the basement dudes (Toby the Electrician) just left. We made fun of other basement dude that can't go anywhere without his dog (still 3 turds in my backyard after he "cleaned up"). Then he showed me some stuff in the basement that he did, like how to change the batteries in the smoke detector. I noticed some things on the wall I didn't like (drips of white paint on the blue wall, what appears to be a crack in the ceiling, unfilled nail holes...all the painters fault) so Toby (who pointed out the nail holes to me) showed me how to mark it with painters tape so that Contractor man knows I have "issues" with it. Gotta love Toby. Actually I made the mistake of asking him about his hat and bumper stickers of one of the high schools in the semi-area and he spent half an hour bragging about his overachieving children to me. If they were my kids, I'd be bragging too, though.

Anyway...time to go eat some Nilla wafers and read my book while Easton watches Little Bear. Have a good weekend, everyone!

Aloha!

Today was another school day for E...still National Lutheran Schools Week and today was "Hawaiian Day". Perfect for our little Easton Kai. I sometimes like to pretend he is our little souvenir from our Maui wedding and honeymoon even though he's not. I always love for him to have a Hawaiian shirt every summer but he didn't have one for this year yet...however, I didn't see the harm in buying one a bit early. It wasn't just for today and it was only $5 at the second hand store. He looked like a total stud, complete with shell lei and "hang loose" hand:


Had to get the token picture of Diddles too:


Diddles and I then met Jason at Lowe's to pick out our carpet...we're having the whole house done, not just the basement. Woo hooooooooo! Jason then left for work and Dalton and I did our usual breakfast, Roo, and shopping when who did we see but Baby Carson! I recognized the baby but not who he was with so I had to stop her and say, "You must be Shannon's mom" and introduce myself. She gave me a hug and told me what a blessing it's been to have me watching Carson too. That felt nice coming from a grandma. :) Warm fuzzies.

We then went to pick up Eastie-boy who was wearing different pants than I sent him in. Only I didn't notice till I asked what he'd had for snack and he got sad and told me he'd spilled the snack. Turns out it sounds like it was just the water from one of the "works" in the room, not snack, but I also don't know for sure. He's kinda embarassed and won't completely talk about it with me but from what I gather he wasn't being silly, he was trying to put a work away and spilled his work and another work and he cried but then Mrs. L (the assistant) came to help and made him feel happy again. Then he demonstrated how he'd changed his pants by taking me through each step including removing imaginary shoes. What a goober. It's hard that the teachers don't say anything to me. Like, what if Easton was too upset to tell me at all. I'd be left to check out the pants to see if he'd had an accident or what. Oh well. That's what happens when you have to let your kid be away from you sometimes, huh? You gotta let some of that go.

We came home and Easton immediately sat to color the party favor one of the kids sent everyone home with today:

It only came with those two marker colors but I think he did a pretty good job.

Dalton was being so super duper cranky that I decided he had to go to bed without any offical lunch. I stuck a plate in front of Easton and then headed upstairs with Dalton. When I got back from rocking and putting Dalton down, Easton was just sitting there quietly, plate untouched and he said, "Are you ready to say our prayers?" Awwwwwwwwwwwww! What a good boy! Of course, normally we all eat together and say our prayers all together and I didn't think anything of blessing the meal when I left him. Sweetie poo. I was so proud of him and told him so, then we thanked God for the food and my sweet boys and he dug in:


I then engaged him in an interview that's been going around on Facebook. I'm going to put it up there too, but here it is for the rest of you:
1. What is something Mom always says to you?
"Ummm, hugga."
Easton, please don't talk like a baby, use your big boy voice.

2. What makes Mom happy?
"Hugs" (but in his big boy voice now)

3. What makes Mom sad?
"No hugs" (well, this is an exciting interview)

4. How does Mom make you laugh?
"Be silly."

5. What was Mom like as a kid?
"You had Wonder Woman underpants."

6. How old is Mommy?
"I don't know. 4?"
You think I'm 4?
"5? You are 700 so you're 17!!!"

7. How tall is Mommy?
*runs his hands from my toes to my head and says* "Um, 14 ways a go."

8. What is Mom's favorite thing to do?
"Work on your computer."

9. What does Mom do when you're not around?
"With Dad?"
What does Mom do when you're not around?
"You come see me!"

10. If Mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
"Going to church"

11. What is Mom really good at?
"Cleani...um, cooking"

12. What is Mom not very good at?
*looks around* "Um, you're not good at hanging up Percy."

13. What is Mom's job?
"Work at the hospital"

14. What is Mom's favorite food?
"Chicken"

15. What makes you proud of Mom?
"When you go pee-pee in the potty"

16. If Mom was a cartoon character, who would she be?
"Elmo"

17. What do you and Mom do together?
"Cook together. Isn't that fun? Now I'd better get a move on."

18. How are you and Mom the same?
"Because we like each other. If we are the same then we will be happy."

19. How are you and Mom different?
"Because you're wearing a black shirt and I'm wearing a Hawaiian shirt. My ball just bounced on your head."

20. How do you know Mom loves you?
"Because you're my best friend."

21. What does Mom love most about Dad?
"How about playing muuuuuuuusic?"

22. Where is Mom's favorite place to go?
"To church"

23. Do you want to ask me some questions now?
"How do you love me the most?" Then he wanted to measure me:


Wasn't that fun?

You know what else is fun? When Jason took me on a surprise date this weekend. Well, it wasn't a total surprise...I knew we were still due to celebrate Valentine's Day and Saturday night seemed like it might be "the night". Sure enough, Gramoo rang the doorbell just before 5 p.m. The boys were soooooo excited and Easton couldn't wait for us to leave. Seriously he was like, "Um, can you guys go now?" Needless to say, both boys did great for Gramoo. It's so nice to have someone who really knows the boys and how to take care of them just the way they like.

Jason and I went to the Boulder Dinner Theatre for um, dinner, and um, theatre. We saw "The Producers" and really enjoyed it. It was a much much later night than Jason was expecting (my poor Mom!) and my tummy got angry with me later, probably from the cheesecake but it was otherwise a really really nice night. We had great seats, the food was decent enough, and the play was great. We shared a table with another expectant couple which was fun. I'd love to go again sometime.

Apparently while we were gone Easton started asking my mom about her dad who she had to explain he'd died. He then got a little fixated on death and asked when Gramoo would die and even the next day told me, "When we die and go to be with Jesus we won't have to go to church anymore." Yes, son, I guess technically that's right. Goob.

As I mentioned we had some really nice weather this week. Yesterday we did some playing in the backyard in the afternoon:


I made smoothies:


This picture is mid-fit. He was mad I wouldn't let him take that monkey outside but when I whipped out the camera and said, "Smile!" he was able to stop his fit-throwing and pose like the ham he is:


Monkey in a tree:

It was at this point I noticed all the dog poop in the backyard. No, we don't have a dog. My least favorite basement guy always used to bring his, though. He'd told me he'd clean up after it.

He lied.

There is lots and lots o' poop back there. I came in to call Jason to tell him (so we could call the contractor to ask that it be picked up) and while I was doing that Dalton walked over to me with a handful. Great.

I was so mad (at basement dude, not my curious 2 year old) and we came inside. Easton said, "I have an idea! How 'bout I go slap that poop with a log?" What?!?!

But speaking of the basement we're just waiting on some clean up (tape and scraps and massive amounts of dust on the floor) as well as backyard clean up, then it'll be ready for carpet.

Here is Jason's new studio, the paint is white everywhere else but in that room. Jason wanted something more exciting and inspiring and studio-esque:


So, it's sounding like Dalton is up from his nap...earlier than normal because he went down earlier than normal. He's got a cough and it keeps waking him up. Darn.

Till next time...

Kids Say the Darnest Things...

It's time for another round. I had big plans for a nap while Easton watched TV next to me today but the world had other plans: carpet guys coming over, mostly. So, a nap didn't happen and nor did a regular blog. But I've been sitting on this one for a tiny bit so here we go:

- Easton stubbed his toe on a door jamb the other night and screamed at the top of his lungs, "I am really really disappointed!!!"

- We "recycle" pajamas 'round here meaning the kids will usually wear them for a few nights before we throw them in the wash. But one night after bath Easton spotted some of his least favorites (apparently) and whined loudly, "Moooooom, why do you keep giving me THESE JAMMIES!?!? I've been wearing them for, like, five weeks!"

- Easton thinks we should call Fin "Wabie" (rhymes with baby). If it comes out a boy, it should then be called, "Woy" and if it's a girl, you guessed it: "Wirl"

- Easton has asked several times just who put the baby in my tummy? My answer is always "God".

- Easton was climbing a tree when he told me, "Mom, I broke a branch and it made me fall, but the tree caught me. Thank you, Tree!"

- The boys were uber-cranky during lunchtime recently when Dalton threw his milk on the ground and shouted, "I mad! Mad! MAD! MAD!"

- Dalton has been waking up too early for our taste and so we've taken to ignoring him for awhile when he starts calling. The other morning he quickly figured out Mommy and Daddy weren't coming right away so he moved on to calling for "Ee-din!"

- At Easton's recent doctor visit everyone kept looking at the 4 year old correctly assuming, "Are you Easton?" to which Easton would nod. Then Dalton would interject with, "An' I Dah-din. I two." He did this several times. So cute.

- And one last Diddle anecdote, in the form of a video:

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

He Can Smell!!!

So yesterday late afternoon Dr. Y called. She was the ENT we saw last week and she said she'd been talking to many many people about Easton since then (he's famous!). She'd called the Rocky Mountain Taste and Smell Center and said she'd met with her partners that day (Monday) and he was discussed as well.

Basically they came up with the plan for us to do another blind smell test and she suggested kid-friendly smells for me: banana, peanut butter, and orange and then said if he still seemed like he couldn't smell those then they'd do a CT or MRI to look for brain abnormalities--you know, like tumors! So, I was like, darn it, he's got a cold right now but I'm trying again. Jason wasn't home and I had Easton hold a towel over his eyes. He still tried to cheat a little but he correctly identified banana and "peanuts"!!! (it was a jar of peanut butter and if he'd been cheating he would know the difference in the containers) When Jason got home I had him hold the towel tightly over E's eyes just to make sure and he did banana and peaunts again. I s'pose they could've been lucky guesses since he'd "smelled" them earlier and I wasn't certain he couldn't see. But then I held up a container full of sliced lemon and he called it orange. Pretty close. I don't know that he'd yet know one citrus over another, you know?

So, now I feel kinda stuipd...seriously, though, you guys have seen the videos before. He never convinced us he could smell. Even now, he's learned to say things like, "Something smells good" just because people say it...not because something actually smells good. Like, he said that on Dalton's birthday, "Something smells good, I think it's Dalton's cookies" BUT I think all he'd heard was the oven and knew cookies were on the menu. The cookies weren't even in the oven yet...there was nothing to smell, you know?

However, last night's test convinced me and I guess we'll just work on exploring and talking about the senses some more...rolling down the window at the gas station, a burned match..

It surprises me that since, apparently he can smell, he doesn't bring up, "something stinks" like other kids seem to. But whatever, I guess I prefer it over him telling some stranger, "Your breath stinks!" or making his little brother feel bad for pooping his diaper. Or throwing me under the bus when pregnancy later causes me to accidentally break wind in the canned food aisle at Wal-Mart.

But anyway, what a load off my mind and what a way to make me feel like a total moron for taking my child to a specialist claiming he doesn't seem to be able to smell when, in fact, he can. Maybe Dalton's poopy diapers just don't affect him anymore...D does poop a lot. :) Or maybe he really does think vinegar smells good? Well, whatever the reason, he can smell. Hooray!

On to other things. Yesterday continued to be a fairly good day for me until later in the afternoon, at least. Around 4 I was feeling pretty gross and it just gets worse until I go to bed. I made pizza for everyone else and I ate nearly $7 worth of fruit for my dinner.

Today has been okay but I did take my meds with breakfast so who knows? Diddles and I dropped E off at school and came home for a bit:


But it's an absolutely gorgeous 73 degrees here right now so we made plans to be outside once we picked up Bubs. First D and I went to Target, then a stop at the Second Hand Kids store...they also have maternity clothes and I was going to look for a few summer things but they don't have that stash out just yet. Then we headed to get Easton. It is "National Lutheran Schools Week" so they're having "spirit days" and today was "favorite sports team" day. Easton only has two sports team shirts to choose from, I think hats weren't allowed. So out of his Broncos or LSU jerseys he made his father proud and chose his "Go Tigers!" shirt.

He had a good day at school and we went to the cool park after I picked him up:








We left when Easton had to go potty. It was lunch time anyway. I'd love to head back out again later but we've got errands to run as well...I need to pick up a few things for dinner. Ack...dinner!!! I need to speed-thaw some chicken too apparently. Must run!

A Smattering of Subjects

FIRST TRIMESTER?
It seems not many agree on when the first trimester starts...some say 12 weeks, some 13 and some 14. I guess if you're truly dividing the pregnancy into 3 parts then the first trimester would end around 13 weeks and about 2.5 days. With Dalton's pregnancy I said the end was 12 weeks because I was feeling better by then. With E's, about 14 weeks. This one? Who knows? I'll go with 13. I'm actually not feeling like crap yet today and here it is already 1:00!!! Yesterday at this time I had to go lay down because of the constant pukey feeling. We'll see what the rest of the day and even tomorrow brings.

So yeah, I'm 13 weeks today. Wow. And I'm pretty sure my belly is a poppin'. I haven't gained any weight yet...in fact, as of this morning, I was down 2 whole pounds from where I started. But Fin is definitely growing in there. Why do we show earlier each time? Why? Although I wouldn't necessarily say it's earlier than with D. I had a small belly for my 10 year high school reunion and I was 13 weeks that day. So far not a single person has asked when I'm due simply by looking at me. That's good, right? I'm still just passing for fat? :)

I got a phone call this morning with some of the results of my first trimester screen. They'll draw more blood and check things again (mainly open neural tube stuff) at about 16 weeks. But for Down's Syndrome our chances came back as 1/1000. Just based on my age my risk would normally be 1/490. They "worry" if it comes back 1/50 or less. For Trisomy 18 (which you really do not want as it is "incompatible with life") my risk is 1/10,000. Simply based on other 30 year olds the risk would normally be 1/1700 and they'd worry when gets down to 1/100. So, for both of those my numbers are looking great, even better than just my chances as a 30 year old lass. Granted, not all cases are caught with these tests but can't do anything about that anyway, can you?

ART EXHIBITION
It seems I haven't been showing off as much of the boys artwork lately. With church and school plus stuff at home Easton often has stuff to show off. And even little D does stuff at church. Let's take a look...

Dalton came home from church yesterday with these two things:




However, he's colored that same one before only it was better before because they put an "owie" on the sick guy:


I might wager a guess that either they don't have a large crayon selection or that turquoisey blue is Diddle's favorite color.

Easton did this at church yesterday:


And this was waiting for me in his school folder on Thursday:

Easton says it is Daddy lifting him up in the air and me "as a robot". Huh? And how come I'm the only one with a body, hmmmm?

This is hanging in the hall at school:


The kids are learning about all kinds of different artists in school and then doing projects "in the style of ___". Of course the kids don't get that so much and they still just paint whatever the heck they want. I think that one above is supposed to be from the "in the style of Gaugin" week. The week before was Van Gogh. One kid did hers of "Van Gogh's house". The next one is supposed to be "in the style of Monet" where they just did a fingertip in paint. Easton told me he did a bridge and lilypads and something else. Can't wait to see it if it's true. Monet is my favorite.

Then there's this one E painted at home. The paint brushes are kinda fat so I'm still impressed he was able to do Wonder Woman so well:


And we made this while Diddles and Daddy went to Roo this weekend:


PICTURE CATCH-UP
Somehow I'm all behind with the pics once again. Last Wednesday after Carson left we went "exploring". However, Croc shoes and exploring don't mix. Especially for Dalton whose Crocs are still way too big. But we set out anyway:


He'd lose his shoe about every 6th step:


See, something in E's Croc:


I called an end to the exploring after that and carried D home on my shoulders. We went to get Diddles' free "birthday scoop" instead:




Followed by a car wash:


That night Spidey helped me crush my cracker crumbs for dinner:


I have no idea why I took this but it's from Thursday:


On the way home from Easton's ENT appointment he fell asleep. I let him snooze in the car for a few and then went to get him. I could not wake him up! So I just enjoyed holding my sleeping 4 year old on my chest since that is something I NEVER get to do anymore and just listened to his snores while D and I watched some Toy Story. I tried to wake him up after that and he still wouldn't! So he slept on the couch:


And Dalton attached himself to my leg while I fixed dinner:


And would try really hard to reattach the few times I could get loose:


The next morning:


Random lunchtime pictures from Friday:






Friday evening:




Saturday morning found Jason taking Dalton to the Roo class we'd missed this week. Easton and I did that above hibiscus magnet project:


Then we played Moon Sand since it's something we rarely do anymore, especially with Dalton around:


This is how I feel much of the time lately...it must be contagious:


Sunday was church, the boys did okay. Easton made friends with some man that I assume is part of the children's chuch. He said the man was holding him. I'm a little freaked by it, honestly.

Sunday afternoon we opened up the game Gramoo gave Dalton for his birthday, "Honeybee Hop" where you jump over this bee that spins around. E rocks it, of course:


Dalton, not so much:


But he's having fun anyway:


Today we were supposed to have a play date. We've been planning it for months, actually. It's a kid from Easton's class at school and his younger sister who is a bit younger than Dalton but one day they'll probably both be in Mrs. M's class together. Well, the oldest kid in that family had to stay home sick from school today so they had to cancel. Bummer. Instead I decided it was time to tackle the laundry. Normally, when I feel like myself, my goal is a load per weekday and two on Fridays. I can stay fairly on top of things that way and we've always got clean stuff to wear. However, I'm lucky if I'm even doing two loads a week lately. It's been awful. Somehow I can keep the basics clean and available but oy...just check this out:


My helpers helped me carry it all downstairs and helped me sort it into piles. I haven't made a ton of progress yet because Dalton's eczema requires me to run an extra rinse cycle on all the clothes because our shirts and sheets and towels and stuff still come in frequent contact with him. So, I've folded a load, have some stuff hanging to dry and I've got a load in both the washer and dryer right now. Gotta get a move on, though. In fact...I best get going so I can make a dent in that pile!

Adios!