What Little Sisters Learn from Big Brothers

Mia at 14 months has learned......

• if brother gives you something, it's probably something you shouldn't have so take it & run
  
• make loud engine noises and brake sounds with cars when playing with brothers because it's more real


• fart, laugh, and point at her butt looking at brother for approval.


• burp, laugh and point at brothers because it's better to blame them on the burps


• pick her nose and show everyone what's to be discovered up there


• when daddy is laying on the floor, follow both brothers lead and attack!!


• to push away saying "uh uh!" at any kid in the nursery who tries taking her toy or yell for brother to help her get a toy from another kid.


• take advantage of any pen or marker mommy leaves out, and again run if she sees it in your hand.
• the words boobies, butt, and weenie are always funny especially if you point to them when those words are said.


• follow suit in saying "yuck" at any food put on the table.


• an empty kleenex box is much better than a full one.

and even if they act like they hate having you around.........they really do love you to pieces because they love having a little sister.

Completely Freaked Out

I just said the other day I went to the dentist and said no to X-rays on myself since I was pregnant. Yesterday I stupidly wasn't even thinking and sat next to Dominic as he got his dental x-rays. It really hit me this morning that I probably shouldn't have even been in the room and now I'm freaked out. Dr. Google say the prime time for radiation to affect fetal cells is 8-13 week. Low birth weight, cancer, and mental retardation are not things I want to think about the next 28 weeks. I'm hoping someone can give me some positive pregnant X-ray stories......

Song of the Count

Feel like Peeing Yourself?

First I'll mention I updated the boys' blog since I hadn't done that in awhile. Have you ever been to a place where you are just so overwhelmed with things in life, you just don't think it'll ever get any better? Well I am there right now. I have fallen in this pit on alot of thing and just feel stuck. My sister came over Sunday morning to get dressed for church (we all went together) and the first thing she mentioned was how bad the house looked. We had been gone since 9 am at church for other things and came back for a minute to meet her and her and the girls change before going back. I told her we'd been gone all morning and the house is normally a mess Sunday mornings anyways since we have to leave early. I don't know what she expects. My kids are up by 7-8 am and it's not like I can just start immediately cleaning when I have to get them dressed, fed, etc.

Anyways- my house has not been amazing lately. Mainly it's just clutter. Dishes, laundry is always done, floors are picked up but it's piles of crap everywhere that is the problem. Well that and the toys. I have such a hard time doing anything right now because of Damien and Mia getting into everything. I can't even run to the basement without him harming her somehow. Damien and Dominic bring tons of toy in the front room and yes we already have a rule that toys are to stay in your room but they don't listen. The kids leave me no time clean or tidy. I feel like it's all I do all day everyday and it still looks like crap.

Our crazy schedule being gone nightly doesn't help in the housework department and Dave showing up at 6-7 pm nightly doesn't either. By 7 pm I am getting kids bathed and ready for bed at 8 pm and after that I nearly collapse on the couch. Dave helps me nightly though because he knows how stressed I am with everything. I get calls all day about Avon or Brownies. I help at church. I run constantly to the school for some reason or another. I run kids all over. I go to some sort of meeting or appointment for myself weekly. I plan meetings for our Brownie Troop weekly. And the real stresser for me lately? That it's just not possible for me to do daycare again at this time. I can't. I still plan on watching the 3 older kids this summer but I can't watch little ones till maybe towards Jan 09.

I am so tired of being treated like I am blowing money constantly. We need or I'd like several new things around here and being told time and time again that if I could do daycare again we'd buy it is just getting on my nerves. This is a cash payment household. Dave doesn't want credit card debt, car debt, etc. We have no debt except for our smaller house loan. Sure we have money to buy things NOW with savings but like any man, he doesn't want to touch it. Our $2400 check from the IRS will also be going to savings because he wants to save as much as possible. Maybe I'm just moaning and groaning but I hate having things that I'd like to upgrade like a 10 yr old fridge with a broken icemaker. Or my couch that the kids are able to throw all the cushions on the floor and jump all over them. I'm not sure if anyone else can relate but I'm sick of being so conservative.

The one thing that I'm not really overwhelmed at all about is being pregnant. I do wonder how can I volunteer so much with a clinging newborn but I'm sure I'll figure a way. I also know I've got to get into a bigger vehicle in 6 months or Alex will be crammed between a highback booster and carseat. I try to listen to our little one usually every 2-3 days to make sure he/she is hangin out in there since I never really feel pregnant. They seem to be doing fine though, strong little heartbeat in there. My 12 week appointment is next week so I'm going to be writing out our "reveal" cards in the next few days and mailing them off so everyone will receive them hopefully on April fool's Day. We'll see if I confuse them or not. At least the joke isn't going to be on me this year. lol Our kids are still oblivious but want to know who gets the cute turtle Easter basket next year that I bought.............

Easter Weekend

Like everyone else, we had an extremely busy Easter weekend. We had 2 egg hunts we attended Saturday which the kids had alot fun with those. Then after blowing out my tire, we left the kids at Dave's Aunt's house so we could get to Walmart to get my van fixed because the doughnut was so small I was freaking the little bit I did drive on it. It took 2 hours to get it fixed so I bought all my goodies for Easter at Walmart, it worked out perfectly.

Sunday I knew I had to pry my butt out of bed early because we had our church Egg hunt at 9:30 which meant by 9:15 we needed to get out the door. Around 7 am I could see shadows in the front room laying there in bed of Alex and Dominic peeking at their basket on the loveseat and then running off quickly. They are quite comical when Santa and the Easter bunny arrive. Dominic couldn't resist though, ripping the new Bionicle out of his basket and running back to our room just as I was getting up. "Mommy!!! (gasp) Look what the Easter bunny brought me!!!" He was so excited to get another Bionicle.

I usually buy the kids one small gift and a bunch of other little knick knack things, not much candy as we get loaded up horribly during any kid geared holiday. I let the kids play with their goodies for a bit but then we had to start getting ready for church.

Like usual, (lol) I bough the boys matching shirts and tried to match Mia and Alexzandra the best I could. We worked about 15 minutes trying to get some good pictures of them all together, finally giving in to candy as a last resort.

The kids had a blast hunting eggs with their friend's from church but we were having a hard time keeping track of them all. Damien kept running off which made matters worse. The one thing I hate about egg hunts is the splitting into age groups. With 4 kids I usually have to find a parent I know for Alex and Dom and ask if they can watch them while I help Damien and Mia. It gets a bit hairy. Anyways by the time it was over, 3 out of 4 were crying because they were freezing (in the 40's) so I ran them into the church for doughnuts and milk while Daddy stood with their slips of paper to get their prizes. Nothing like food to fix a bad situation. lol The service was huge. I've never seen that many people there since we started attending there last summer. Pastor had us all crying by the movie he made showing a condensed version of Mel Gibson's The Passion of Christ. lol After church we ate lunch at my Dad's, visited my mom's, and then brought the kids home to wind down after being gone nearly both all of Saturday and Sunday. I am so glad Monday has finally arrived!

How To Turn A Man On

Change a tire so they don't have to. We were super busy this weekend and it just so happened it was daddy's weekend to work and lock up the office. I took the 4 over to the neighboring town at 10 am where the kid's attend school because they were having an egg hunt. After the egg hunt we loaded up in the minivan to come home but going over the hill right near our house I ran something over causing my tire to just flatten instantly. I went ahead and just drove it the 1/8th of a mile to my house because I knew it probably wouldn't be fixable after exploding, it was not a gradual leak. After surveying the damage I told Alex she was going to have to play babysitter so mommy could fix it.

It took about a hour but I got'r done. Dave told me he'd put the spare on when he got home but there was an egg hunt at 1 pm that I wanted to just meet him at after work. There's no way we could have made it if he came home to fix it and I was too lazy to unload all the carseats and stick them in the Ram. I sent him cell phone pics as I was doing it and you could tell how excited he was that I, his wife, the mommy of his children, domestic house goddess, changed a tire on the van and he didn't have to. You can imagine how much fun bedtime was Saturday night. ;)

Religious

My son, God bless him. lol I remember when I was in high school my older cousin Sean (who's not quite all there) asked me at my Dad's house "have you been saved?" My stepmother stepped in quickly responding "yes Sean, she's been saved." He was so relieved to hear that too. I thought it was comical being 16 and having someone just come out and ask something to that nature was just funny to me.

Dominic at his young age of 5 has become the most religious (vocal) person honestly I think I know besides people from our church. Remember all the issues we have had with Dominic? The past year we have been going to church it's almost been like the rage, anger, frustration has been pulled from his little soul. He's turned into this bright bubbly little boy and it's strange but awesome to see.

I used to compare him to boys from Nanny 911. He would throw, kick, scream, yell horrible things at everyone. He still has a hard time sharing and interacting with kids but he is not the bully he once was. At the playground last week some boys came up a bit older than him in which he yelled, "hey! Come play with me guys!!" He used to call everyone stupid, dummy, crap etc. Now those are all bad words. You can not say anything negative in our house without him saying that's a bad word and God doesn't like those words.

In public, I have to wonder what people think. We were at the grocery store the other day and Dominic was so happy telling everyone that Jesus is coming!!! They would all just smile at him. He is so excited for Jesus to come! He also lets everyone know that God sent his son and Jesus loves him. He makes a point to say it daily. He loves to pray, he loves to tell everyone what God created. He is one religious little guy. I find it strange, but certainly not embarrassing.

AH HA! Evidence!

Well for about a week I have tried nearly daily for some sort of confirmation that I'm indeed pregnant. Five positive pregnancy tests, no period, and feeling like I need to eat all day or I feel sick was not enough evidence. I got it this morning. Although I didn't have a watch on me to time the heartbeat, I found a steady little quick beat with my doppler this morning slowly trying to come through the noise of the placenta. I listened for a good minute. Thank You God. I immediately called Dave working in which he said I ruined his day......he was just kidding though. ;) He says now we can tell people! We still haven't told anyone, well except I told 4 close Brownie mom friends. It finally feels somewhat real now!

Edit: I added a song to here, Blogger friend Jess, had introduced her fellow blog followers to Plumb awhile back and looking today for an updated version of God will take care of you thinking of this baby, I came across a Plumb rendition which is beautiful. I grew up listening to this old hymn at church and the past few nervewrecking weeks I've been really trying to put all my faith in God that he is going to provide for us once more and that our little bean is growing. I'm so glad today we finally got some proof that he/she is doing fine. This month has been extremely hard for me as we lost our baby 4 years ago around this time. I made it to nearly 12 weeks before I started spotting. The baby died mid March sometime yet I carried till late April. These two pregnancies are only weeks apart from each other.

I went to the dentist yesterday which is something I did 4 years ago. I didn't know I was pregnant then yet and did X-rays. Dave had been asking me to for a few days to cancel my appointment yesterday because for some reason we'll always wonder if the X-rays could have been a reason we lost that baby. It's a painful reminder. Anyways, I went, and told them NO X-Rays and got my teeth cleaned.

Spring Break

Keeping the kiddos from killing each other during Spring Break was a difficult task. Keeping the kiddos busy during Spring Break was even more of a challenge. I found oddball jobs that I didn't want to do and had the kids do them. Organization is one job kids love to do so they did alot of cleaning drawers and such. When Monday rolled around this week, I was more than happy to wake up once again at 6 am and usher them out the door to their school buses at 7. One week was enough for me.....and I'm good to go again until Summer. That's a whole 12 weeks I have to keep them entertained and that's always fun!

As the kids get older I realize how much they really do need school and how I would never be cut out to homeschool. Sure we've always done workbooks, projects and other school type things before preschool and during the summer here but to sit them down for 2-4 hours a day to school, I think I may just lose my mind, especially with the bickering!

Other things have been going well around here. Damien has started saying "bee-boo!" for peek-a-boo. They are discussing our upcoming evaluation for next year's services and where we will place him. I have made them fully aware I want him at Early Intervention his first year. His Apraxia and tongue thrust are still so bad that even the director of the center knows he'll fail his eval. He's one of the worst speech cases they've had come through. We can't figure out why he can't talk because otherwise he's a super smart guy. Alot of people will ask publicly "does he have a lisp?" It's not a lisp, it's more that he can't control his tongue and where to put it so he sounds like Sylvester the cat.

Mia has been trying to stand and walk because of how fast she takes off when she can push her weight up with her leg. She's still not walking much, just when she feels like showing off and then it's back to walking on her knees.

The kids had their first soccer game this season on Saturday and we nearly froze to death. I believe it was 30 degrees and a 20 mph wind speed. This swing shift weather is horrible. So we bundled up in blankets while our kids half freezing played their games then got into the car wiping huge loads of snot from each of their faces.

Our schedule this month has been insane. Here's a run down of every week.

• Sunday- Church (2 weeks out of 6 I'm either in the nursery or preschool)
• Monday- Church playgroup 10 am/ Avon orders by noon every other week/4H or PTO alternate every other week.
• Tuesdays- Damien SLP visits 1:30 pm/ Soccer practice at 6 pm(1 rabbit meeting a month)
• Wednesdays- Awana 7-8:30 pm
• Thursdays- Girl Scouts 6:30-7:30
• Fridays- Soccer practice 6 pm
• Saturday- Soccer games 10 am

Toby has been such a little blessing to have around. It makes me so happy to see Dominic connecting with Toby. I'm not sure if it was because he picked him out himself but he talks to him and loves on him all day. He actually has conversations with him. One day I walked in and he was saying, "what's that Toby? Nuh uh! I'm a good boy? Really? Hey momma, Toby says I'm a good boy!" It's hilarious. The 2nd or 3rd day we had him he said, "momma, Vinnie is watching from Heaven and he likes Toby and Jesus does too." Talk about melting a person's heart. We got a special little rabbit for a special little boy.

Toby

Since Alex is going to be getting a rabbit for 4H, Dominic begged for one too. We went to Orschlen's and got his today however Alex's will have to come from a 4H rabbit breeder (papered) so she won't get disqualified for anything at the fair. Isn't that crazy? She's 7 and if her rabbit isn't perfect she could get disqualifed!! Dominic named him Toby. Any guesses why?? He is a Broken Red Mini Rex with the biggest set of balls I've ever seen. LOL! We found that out when we got him out of the box at home. He is perfect in every way and as gentle as can be so I'm not sure why he was there except for maybe lack of color.
Oh and Toby is a train from Thomas and Friends. One of Dominic's favorites.

OYNO's.... A Bargain Shoppers Best Friend.

Most people believe if they have a coupon, they're getting a good deal. In most situations that can be true but even better deals come from stores that double. ;) I've explained in the past using your coupon against store sales, you'll get some really great deals. But sweetening the deal with OYNO's (Off Your Next Orders) is the best deal ever, well besides free. Nothing can top walking out of a store with free items!

This past week one local grocerry chain had a slew of OYNO's throughout the store. What are OYNO's? When you buy so much of certain products, out pops a coupon from a printer attached to the register. Some places also call them Catalina's. Call me a nutjob if you will, but I go down every isle looking for bright yellow tags on shelvees explaining specifics of the OYNO, pull out a pad of paper writing it down and then come home looking for coupons and then returning. Why? Here's an example.

Toaster Strudels SALE $1.99 each (Buy 4 or more get $4.00 OYNO) Take (4) .50 coupons in to store that doubles making my 4 coupons $1 each. TOTAL PRICE I PAID= $1.00 each Not only did I get 4 toaster studels fo $1 each box, I also recieved a $4 coupon for my next shopping trip there.

Sometimes Catalina's may be offering money off a certain product you had bought which is still not a bad deal but honestly if you find an OYNO offering "cash" off your bill, well that to me is better. So I will happily go through my fliers this week looking for more awesome deals that I can pair with my coupons to use my $8 in OYNO's on.

Could Spring Possibly Be Coming??

The weather here in Kansas this year has been a bit on the wild side. I don't know if this year will top last having snow in April or not!! It's just been crazy that's for sure. Today it's going to be 70 degrees! I have a zillion things I'd like to do outside to take advantage of it since you never know if it's going to go back to the 20's the next day. So far we've went out and had an Easter Egg hunt and Mia took rides around the yard putting eggs given to her into her basket. Mia needed her nap though so we have come back in for a bit.

So far Spring break has been going well. I've been trying to keep them all busy with different projects. Thank goodness the schools here in town do Springbreak right after the time change so they have time to adjust before going back. My little ones want to sleep in till nearly 9 o'clock daily now!! I've had to pry them out of bed with the smell of cinnamon rolls or pancakes. Even so they still want to go back to bed. This is Mia, Alex, and Damien with their blankets watching cartoons before breakfast.

It took exactly 14 months.....but she let go!

It's funny how some take off early walking and some just take forever. Alex and Dominic walked by 10 months, Damien 13. Yesterday Mia turned 14 months and decided that was the day to let go of the furniture and walk on her own. However today at playgroup and home she is back to walking on her knees. (sigh)

A few updates

My goodness. Things have been going so fast here. I have only had brief moments to even type a post. Housework has been really hard for me to keep up on and laundry we won't even go there! Our schedule this month would make a person cross-eyed. Basically we have something every day of the week going on. 4H meetings & PTO Mondays, Soccer practices T's,F's. Awana's W's, Brownies Th's, Soccer games Sat, Church Sun's. I need extra bodies to help me out but I know I'll be doing it all. D does not come home from work till 6 everyday but on Monday's he's home at 7. Not feeling pregnant at all yet. I have "waves" of nausea where I feel like I could hurl but I sit or lay still, breathing it all out and feel better and get on with my day. I do not have time for morning sickness with this crazy schedule of ours so if everything is fine in there and this is all I'm having, I can live with that.

I'm still working on this Girl Scout Cookie sale. We ended up selling 1,820 boxes total. That's $6,370 I had to collect from parents. Well I have one person who hasn't handed over their $511 so we are short and it's really freaking me out. Since I'm the leader I've had to make multiple trips to the council office picking up boxes that mom's had sold extra of and trying to keep up on transfers and paperwork. It's more stress than I thought it would be. With that, organizing meetings it's just been crazy.

I know some were wanting updates on the cloth diaper adventure and so far it's been great! Damien does not want to wear them however. He wants to stick to the cheapy generics I buy. I'm tempted to buy him some with baseballs and boy things on them to see if that makes a difference. I think I'm going to continue with AIO's or AIO2's because they are simple, easy to use and just like a normal disposable. The pockets I've bought have worked great too but I would rather do the AIO2's with the built in plus the pocket.

Mia has recently convinced her brother that he needs to walk with shoes on his hands as well you can see in this picture. The diapers I've been buying are Bumkins and Drybee's and for the novice cloth diaper momma, these work great.

Here she is saying "kiss me dadda I'm more important than that work phone call." Although CD'ing had been on my mind for a long time, I held back for a few reasons. #1- the gross factor #2- keeping them clean. So far neither has been an issue. What I don't understand is how can all the kid clothes get stained so easily yet it's simple to keep a cloth diaper white as new without using bleach. lol I've been washing a small load of dipes every day so really it's not much of a task at all.

On the neighbor ordeal, I tried using my daycare license to the max. I called the State Dept of Corrections asking for help since I'm a daycare provider. They researched him and had he moved in 3 years earlier he would have been asked to move since I'm a licensed provider so nothing can be done. I am feeling alot better about things now that I was able to let it sink in. Last week I wanted him to die, didn't want him here and although I still don't want him here, he hasn't caused us any worry or harm yet so we are just taking extra precautions. The kids know there's a "bad man" living in that house and to run and scream if he was ever to approach them. I've been keeping the doors tightly locked on our place and we're buying a new metal back door this weekend so it would be impossible for anyone to get in. We're going to most likely be putting up a privacy fence so I can feel more secure letting the kids in the back. Anytime in the front though, I will be out there.

Some amazing things happened at Damien's Speech session this week. Damien has horrible tongue thrust and Speech Apraxia so we still have only got maybe 20 words total from him, however on Tuesday in front of his therapist I got him to say "pleeeeeeassse momma!!!!" It wa a bit choppy because he's never said 2 words together, EVER. But he said it and Linda and I were jumping for joy because THIS is progress. There's a good possibility he could go to school in August still not talking but the few words he is able to say on command. His little brain is just unable to send to his mouth the words he needs to say so everything comes out as "dis" with his spitting at the end.

Dominic has had many ups and downs at school lately. I need to update the blog but we had many gagging and throwing up issues at lunch so I'm not making him lunches which seems to be going better. He was just reevaluated by Early Intervention and will be getting services again next year. His social skills have just not improved except for a few points. We'll have an IEP meeting soon about it where they will go over everything with us.

Dominic's Skating Party

We had a small party (inviting some of Dom's classmates) for Dominic's birthday at the skating rink the other day and we found Damien's passion. 2 hours, no help and only 2 years old.

Dominic skated about 5 minutes and decided he hated that feeling. He sat or played video games the whole time. Then he opened his gifts and it was so funny yet cute. He actually started to cry when he saw he got a Bionicle and that Alex made him a pillow with my sewing machine of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He said to her "I love it Alex! It's so sweet!!" while wiping his eyes. Awww...My emotional boy loves his sister. It about made me cry seeing how touched he was that his sister did that for him.

First Appointment 7.5 Weeks

First appointment went well. One nurse was almost giddy seeing me there. She asked how old the kids were now and if we were excited. I had a huge smile on my face to say yes to that! It could be the 10th kid and I'm still going to be thrilled. I forgot about the blood draw so they did it lying down since I've passed out there before once when I forgot to eat before coming. I had thrown up for the first time with this pregnancy yesterday morning so I didn't want to eat and then take the chance of throwing up there. They also got me to agree to a flu shot. I have had 2 now, I think it's pointless and don't normally subject myself and never have subjected the kids to it but about 1/3 of the kiddos school has been absent the past few weeks with the real flu (not the stomach flu) so I went ahead. Dr was happy to see me once again and we chatted quite abit. She looked over my new patient form they have us fill out yearly noticing I didn't fill out the births section and said, "did you get tired or writing??" I told her there wasn't enough room on their form for them all. There were only 3 slots.

My next appointment is March 31st where we get to hear our little one's heartbeat unless I find it before then with my own Doppler. :)

What Happens When You Aren't Paying Attention

Don't know what this is? Well it was a brand new package of Graham Crackers that Damien had ran off in the corner with, opened and ate all the layers together like corn-on-the-cob.