Taneal's scrapbook page

I decided to give digital scrapbooking another go and this is what I came up with. There is so much I need to learn!

Mom, look what you did!

"Mom! Look what you did!!!!! You got my shirt wet!" Spencer scolded me this morning. He spilled yogurt on his shirt so I got a wash cloth and cleaned it up. And I thought I was remedying the problem, not making it worse! And to think his shirt not being the same was my fault. I wish you could see the exasperated expression of this two-year-old. It actually made me laugh.

I've been awake for 1 hour and 15 minutes and oh, the tongue lashings I have got from my children. Camie was upset because it is picture day and I asked her, oh so nicely, to please put on a shirt that actually fit and matched. The mean looks would not go away the rest of the morning. Taneal was mad at me because I spent 15 minutes straightening her hair for school pictures and I couldn't quite get this bump out of her hair near her head (I wished she like the simple curls naturally in her hair). I begged to use spray gel and she just gave me that look of "how dare you even think that". She also asked for eggs this morning so I got up and made them especially for her and then she didn't even eat them.

Thank goodness this is not normal. So what happened this morning? My children appreciate me, they love me. I am never treated like this. And for three of them to go at me at once! What happened? Were they upset that I made three of them go to bed at 6:45 last night because of their grumpy behavior? I woke up in such a good mood.

The rules so far are working (see my last post). None of them have broken the rules (except Spencer giving me the tongue lashing this morning). They have walked a thin line, but not broken them. So maybe something positive is happening this morning. I decided I needed to vent, so thanks for listening. The Backyardigans are entertaining my little ones while I take a break. And to think it is 8am and we are already watching tv. Something needs to change today.

Let the consequences begin

As my children get older, the fighting, yelling, hitting, bickering, tattling, etc. keeps getting more and more. I have had enough. "Mom, Camie hit me", "Mom, Taneal isn't being nice." and on and on and on. So, this morning I was tired of the tattling. Time out wasn't working, serving one another wasn't working. So, I thought, why not help me with the jobs that just don't seem to be getting done? The girls sat down with me and we made a list of consequences for undesirable actions. This is what we came up with. Hopefully this will help. Within 10 minutes Camie yelled at Taneal and had to march upstairs and clean both bathroom floors. She still needs a lot of practice, and unfortunately I'm afraid she will get it. The nice part about the list was I didn't have to tell Camie the consequence. She walked over to the predecided consequences and then went and did the job. Whohoo! My bathroom floors look great and there hasn't been any fighting for two hours now!

Happy Valentines Day

I never really liked Valentines Day as a youth, probably because I never had some hunk of a guy (or any guy) head over heels for me showering me with chocolates and flowers. Then I got married and now I have a hunk of a guy head over heels but I still am not being showered with chocolates or flowers, and I am great with that. It is kind of funny holiday that I think is there just to make single people feel bad. And so in my family, I want to change what Valentines Day is and make it something positive that they can look forward to even in the years ahead that they are single.

So instead of ignoring the holiday, we decided to make Valentines Day a family occasion. We set the table pretty and make an extra yummy meal and have a candle lite dinner. The kiddos think this is great and I don't harbor any feelings of the missed chocolates because I buy them for the family. It is great fun and we get to show the ones we really love that we love them and want to spend time with them.

And, this year Evan did go above and beyond and brought home a potted flowering plant and great cards for all of us. Way to go, Evan!

Heart on the Ceiling

Camie got this sticky heart thingy that she was enjoying flinging at the wall and it would stick. Well, she threw it at the ceiling and it really stuck. She left it there while we were at church to see if it would be there when we got home, and it was. Right before it was time to go to bed, someone started jumping off the bunk bed onto the floor upstairs over and over and over. Then, they were jumping up and down and shaking the chandelier that hangs over the table. I yelled upstairs to have whomever was making all the noise stop, and after a while, they did. Then, Danielle came downstairs and Evan heard her explain to Camie that she tried to go upstairs and shake the floor so that the little sticky heart would fall down, but it just didn't work and she didn't know how they were ever going to get the thing down.

I love the creative minds of children.

I don't think he likes it

Nathan has eczema. It started about the time I introduced cereal. When I have backed off the cereal, the eczema cleared up some, but didn't completely go away. Now when I feed him the cereal, he starts throwing up after a few hours. I don't quite know what to do. I decided to give the cereal one more try, just to be sure that's what was causing the rash and throwing up, and within a few hours he was throwing up. Later that night the eczema was really bad. The pediatrician told me that if the eczema got too bad, to where the cream wasn't really helping, to give him benedryl. I know I shouldn't really give babies medicine, but I really felt like he needed it. I have given it to him once before, so I knew he didn't like the medicine. This time I decided to get it on film because his reaction is so funny. Enjoy the video.

S-P-E-N-C-E-R

Danielle has gone from learning to spell her name to full fledge reading. I took the journey with Taneal and Camie when they were this age. I really enjoy this process, it is so fun to watch them learn. So, I decided it was time to start helping Spencer learn his name. This is the beginning of a great time together that makes them feel so special and smart. At Spencer's first birthday he couldn't really talk, but he could sing "Happy Birthday." The boy has an amazing ability to remember tunes. So, I put the spelling of his name to a tune and I am trying to teach it to him. He does really well, just can't seem to remember that it starts with "s", instead says for that letter soemthing like "pess". Anyways, the song ends with "that's how you spell Spencer" and Spencer sings that part SOOO cute. I got it on the video. It is so fun to hear him sing the song. We are just in the beginning, but I couldn't pass up how cute he is trying. I hope you enjoy.

Another one of those moments

Sometimes I get overwhelmed with all that I need to do. Besides just loving my children and trying to spend time with them, there is all the cleaning, the laundry, the cooking, the errands that have to be done, reading to them, the homework, and on and on. They are all things that I really don't mind doing, and most of them I really enjoy doing. When I have a baby in arms I find doing just about anything, other then holding my baby, simply has to wait.

Recently we had gorgeous weather. I really needed to get some Primary stuff done and should have had it done days before, but life happened and it still wasn't done. Dinnertime was approaching. Nathan really likes to be held . . . a lot, to say the least. And, I love to hold him. But I have so many things to do that I feel I'll go crazy trying to get them done, so I let so many things go just to avoid going crazy mad.

All the kiddos were outside in the back playing (in their pioneer costumes that my mom made them last summer) and Nathan wasn't letting me do anything other then just hold him. He does love to be outside, so I put his baby saucer out on the back porch and put him in it to see what he would do. And, he sat in it and watched the kiddos play for about 30 minutes (until it started to cool down) and I was amazed at what I got done in that time. It was a welcomed break, the best kinds of breaks where I still get to watch and enjoy my children and can also get somethings done. To simply enjoy.

It was one of those moments.

Taneal's birthday

Friday was Taneal's birthday. My little girl isn't so little, she turned 9! She wanted an American Girl doll for her birthday, but didn't even ask because she was well aware of their price (she did a lot of Internet searching). She said clothes or whatever would be fine. Well, we splurged and got her the doll. She was very surprised and even more excited. All weekend she has been thanking me and telling me how responsible she will be and how she is just so excited to play dolls with Camie (Camie got an 18 inch doll for Christmas). The only problem is that Danielle doesn't have one. I tell you kids are beginning to get really expensive. I can't just buy one anymore, I have three girls!

Taneal and I had fun decorating her cake. I have used fondant before, once learning to use it in my cake decorating classes (10 years ago) and once on a wedding cake. The stuff is fairly easy to use, holds color really well, but isn't very tasty. Taneal doesn't like frosting, so I figured we might as well have fun with the cake because she wouldn't be eating the frosting anyways. She loved her cake and it was fun to make.

We do birthday parties every-other-year and this was the year for Taneal to have a party. She wanted a sort of "sleep-over" with the little problem that we don't do sleep-overs. So, we had a "late-night" party. She invited several girls from school and from church. Most of them came and Taneal was delighted to have 15 girls running around the house for 3 hours. We had pizza, a craft, cake and ice cream, a movie, and games. It was so much crazy fun and Taneal loved it. Afterwards, when I was crashed in bed but not yet asleep, Taneal got out of bed and came into my room and told me "thanks for a great party, it was even better then I had planned." What a sweet and wonderful girl.

Infant Torticollis

Yesterday Nathan had a trip to the doctor downtown to a pediatric cranial facial plastic surgeon. i was a little nervous. The reason Nathan needed to see the specialist is because of his head shape. He has a flat area on the back right side of his head. I have been trying to get him to lay differently and am constantly repositioning him to correct the problem, but it wasn't getting better, enough. So, the pediatrician told me to take him to the specialist. I had heard that once you go to the specialist it is a guaranteed helmet. I didn't want that. So, I took Nathan to another pediatrician and he agreed with the first.

No, Nathan does not need a helmet, yet. He has Infant Torticollis. It just means his head leans to the side. All I have to do is stretch his neck muscles throughout the day and give him a lot of tummy time. They will reevaluate him in six weeks and decide whether or not he needs physical therapy. They don't think he will need that, what I am doing should work. A helmet would be used if what I will be doing AND the physical therapy didn't work. I think that all will be well. I was just relieved that it wasn't a definite "yes, he needs an expensive helmet" simply because I saw a specialist.

I tried to get pictures of Nathan's flat head. I'm not sure how well you will be able to tell, but here they are. See how on the left side it is flatter and on the right side it bulges out pretty far?

This is just a regular picture, but see how he leans to the left? It is just slightly, but enough to make him have a flat spot.

And, as a side note. They weighed my baby boy. He is five months and weighs 19.5 pounds (he was 6 pounds 10 ounces when he was born)! Danielle was 16 pounds at a year and both Taneal and Camie were 18 pounds at a year. He has all my girls beat at 5 months! Spencer was 22 pounds at a year. I think Nathan is going to beat them all.

Balls

Last weekend we went to Troy and Becky's ranch and invited some friends along with us. Pippy, who is 18 months, kept picking up the "balls" on the ground and showing them to her mom. The little "balls" were all over the place. The ranch has many Elk and sheep. The "balls" were not balls, but poop. I got this great picture of Pippy. I asked her to show me a ball, she immediately bent down, picked one up, and showed me. Aren't kids great?

These are the moments

As I was cooking supper the other night, I noticed my home was unusually quiet. Hmmm, not good. I get worried when it is too quiet because usually that means someone is doing something they shouldn't. So, I put down my spoon and casually walked around the house, checking, making sure everything was okay. Nathan was cute and happy and all smiles.

Danielle was quietly doing her workbook and loving it.

Taneal was in the front room cuddled up on the couch reading a book! Taneal has always been a good reader but usually chooses just about anything else to do before she will sit down and read. She made me smile (and get my camera), made me happy to see her intrigued with a good book.

Camie's favorite thing to do is read, so it was no surprise to find her cuddled up with a good book.

What really made me chuckle was when I checked on Spencer. He was right outside the backdoor playing with his dump truck and happy as can be. Not a care in the world. He is recently potty-trained. I loved how his under ware was hanging outside his pants. Oh, to be two and not care about those things!

These are the moments that I want to always remember. I loved seeing my children happy and content and able to be happy all on their own. I loved seeing their own personalities bloom. And, I loved the peaceful feeling throughout my home. This time the quiet was good.