Two Happy Little Kiddos

This is what happens when you go to Walmart and Target in search of end cap clearance. Birthdays after Christmas ROCK for mom's and dad's! Should have paid $240 but paid $117.00 and they were both things the kids wanted. :)

Little Girl, Big Baby.

This month I have not been able to supply Sophia with all the milk she needs. First, she cleaned out 15 bottles worth of pumped milk in the freezer. Now I'm giving her about 4-8 oz of formula a day just to get her by. I have her on me or pump all the time but it's not enough obviously! Yesterday I pumped early am and then had her on me all day until we went to church at 7:30. I gave her formula at church, 8 oz in 1 hour. Then she drank 4 oz breastmilk before bed at 10. She's drinking a ton. That's 12 oz she had in 3 hours and she's 3 months, 1 week old.

This is definitely a problem as in 3 hours I only have an output of maybe 4-5 oz. There's no way I could do 12!! She is a hefty baby, I'm guessing atleast 14 maybe 15 lbs now. At her 2 month visit she was at the 88%ile. She may be thriving a bit too much!

SO I went ahead and took Reglan last night another this morning. This is the script I had from Mia to build my milk back up after my pancreatitis ordeal. I've never tried Fenugreek and gatorade that I hear so much about but think I'm going to have to try it. I think now that she's over 3 months I'm going to try cereal a few times a day with her as well and see if that slows her down some!! I really hoped I could feed her longer than I did with Damien. I kept with it till he was almost 4 months old.

Size comparison Mia and Sophia. Sophia's tummy is just about as wide as Mia's!!

She's 2!

Miss Mia's birthday is today. She is 2! Yesterday for fun I got out some old videos of Alex at right at 23-24 mths old. Wow. They look just a smidge different but acted the same way except I know Alex wasn't a bully like Mia is. lol When Alex came home I said you need to watch this so we watched again and she laughed and I laughed with her. I told her she had to be the only child that we would help line up couch cushions on the floor for her to jump onto. lol Her speech was just so awesome for that age, makes me worry about Mia some. I hoped with her we wouldn't be going down this road for a 3rd time but we may. I just can't believe what a different child Alex is now from how crazy and full of energy she was back then. Mia seemed a bit confused, laughing but almost like she wondered if that was her on the TV. Today I will be making a cake for our little girl. Her birthday party will be at the end of the month when we do her joint party with Dominic.


Now at 2 you can really see what kind of little girl she's going to be. Mia's love for horses is getting stronger. She loves My Little Ponies, Dora and Diego are going on the backburner. lol She likes Hotwheels and Dinosaurs. Wonder why? lol! Her favorite foods are bananas, strawberry applesauce, mac n cheese, toaster strudels, and cinnamon toast. Her favorite thing to say is "oh man" and "holy cow!" She hates socks but loves hats. Her favorite thing to do when she throws a fit is to fall down and act hurt and see what our reaction is even if it's 10 times in a row. She loves to be "kickeled" (tickled) She'll point to any body part you tell her to, even her boobies and butt. She loves to pinch mommy's nose so I'll talk like nasally Spongebob. She will run off in parking lots unless you hold her hand and jump on your back to ride you as a horse if you lay on the floor. She's a crazy, spunky little child.

I hope for a few year old changes with Mia. She really needs to give up the binkie. Hopefully potty training will be something she wants to do rather than a joke.

I hope she realizes that hitting like her brothers is not lady like. That biting is not that friendly either. That writing on the walls, appliances, and other objects is bad! I hope she continues to grace us all with her pretty smiles, hugs and comedy acts throughout the day.

Free Beer!

I am offering anyone who comes to my house to participate in a painting party as much beer as you want while helping as long as you can still stay on the walls with the paint brush. In the meantime I am taking every pen, pencil, crayon, and marker in this house to my burn barrel in the backyard for a bonfire. Mia is my first child attempting to be an artist and I am not about to let her keep "expressing herself" on everything. If I see her grab a pen and she sees me eye her, she takes off running 90 mph screaming "no no no!!" over and over running to a wall then whips out a few scribbles as fast as she can and throws the writing tool at me and runs off to her room. I've tried giving her girlie coloring books but she will have no part in coloring in a book and will throw it at me. She's driving me bonkers! This is just a select FEW of her canvas' around the house.

Ramblings

Well Echo's butt is not pretty (draining and looks nasty!!) but she seems to be doing well and still just limping on it. Dave learned quickly how to do muscular injections from our vet the day it happened and for 4 days has been doing them although we both hate it!!! Imagine Pulp Fiction where they stab the big boss' wife in the chest when she overdoses although the needle is not that long. I believe this is a 18 gauge with a 2o needle??

So soon after this mess happened Dave announced that they were sending him for sure on Monday to Missouri. It was so hard yesterday letting him leave but I have to just thank the school district for starting a bit early this year. lol If it was summer he would probably come home to 4 kids, mommy hanging from the basement rafters. We tried to have as normal of a day before he left as we could. We went to church and both worked in the nursery then we raced home and I prepared some mini sandwiches for my kids and Brownie Girl Scouts as we had a bigday planned before finding out that Dave was leaving. Around 1:30 a few moms and I took the girls to the mall for a shopping spree. I used our troop fund buying them all Webkinz and letting them pick out $10 in merchandise at Claire's. Just a girl's day out! I'm going to guess they had blast. I spent $360 total. Ventured home around 3ish and Daddy left us at about 5. I had tried desperately this weekend to find someone to help give Echo her shots since I would never be able to stick a living being. My neighbor jogging by this morning has a horse and steer and said he would be happy to help while Dave is gone. I was so happy when he gave her that shot (in the butt cheek!!!) without flinching this morning! He even washed the wound with peroxide for me. We have been doing it in the neck which is a better area for us not to end up dead. She didn't like it in the ass though. lol It was a bit crazy but we made it through.

School is going GREAT for all 3 kids. The kids live for school I swear. Mia and I are having a ball just the 2 of us. Today we went to playgroup where she continuously yelled "no" at me running all over the place refusing to come to me telling me "bye" when I said we were leaving. Everyone in playgroup has come to know her favorite words with her arm drawn out like Swiper the Fox from Dora. They are "no!" "go!" "stop and "uh-uh!" She is so darn stubborn. She seems completely fine with the fact that Damien is gone half the day. Probably cherishing it really! lol She watches him get on the bus and then runs off doing her own thing. We went shopping one day and I felt guilty for being so happy I had just 1 kid with me because the trip went so well. Damien and Dominic make shopping miserable running everywhere but having just Mia along for the ride it was actually fun! lol It's been so much easier doing housework without having to separate kids as well. Damien and Mia (although they love each other to death) torment each other over and over when they find something that gets under the other's skin. "Ha Ha" is something they both say to piss each other off. lol

This rain over the summer has been awesome. I think we are up to 10 pumpkins now in the patch! I've got tomatoes, Serrano and Jalapeno peppers up to my eyeballs. I've been making the kids fetch all the Dwarf apples falling to feed to Echo and I made pico de gallo this weekend for Dave using some of the tomatoes. For some reason I have a heat sensitivity to Jalapenos and forgetting to wear gloves my hands were on fire Saturday and finally quit by Sunday evening. I felt like I had frost bite so you can imagine how much that sucked.

So is anyone else feeling just a tad bit guilty for being happy their kids are back in school?

WaterPark

We have 2 free sprinkler parks in town and I took Mia for the first time to play the other day. She loved it! I was shocked. She kept running through the tunnels, under the spraying daisies, and infront of the fire hoses just laughing a way! Damien, still not enjoying it so much (how he was last summer too)

This little puddle drains to a waterfall and then into the creek in the above picture.
Walking around hoping to get sprayed by the flowers.
Playing in the water
Damien stayed completely dry as usual.
Chatting with her friend Belle from our church Playgroup.

All wet.

Mia: 18 Months

Favorite show: Dora The Explorer (go figure!)

Favorite Words: "No!" "Go" "Stop!"(holding hand out) "Aww Man!"

Favorite Animal to Act as: Monkey

Favorite Toy: Dog she's holding in this picture, she carries everywhere, kisses it in bed. Much different child than Alex and only kid I've had that loves stuffed animals.

Favorite Foods: Velvetta Mac and Cheese, applesauce, raisins, Cookie Crisp Cereal, Steak, Hamburgers, ice cream

Favorite Drink: Chocolate Milk

Favorite Activity: Bath, drawing, dancing, working on jumping (looks like a skip currently)

Favorite Way To Act Naughty: Play with Xbox shoving the tray in and out with her hand

Favorite Fast Food: McDonald's Fries. Starts screaming for them as soon as the bag comes through the drive thru window.

Favorite Grown Up Thing To Do: Sweep the floor

Favorite Gross Thing: Farting on purpose and laughing about it pointing where it came from.

Favorite Real Animal: Echo by far. Loves to hug her face and kiss her huge nose.

First's For This Summer

Damien had his first day of Speech Playgroup today.........

Alex had her first ballgame this season and they won 15 to 14!!! Here she's hit.....

And then she runs!!
This is Mia's first summer to play outside and she is soooooo enjoying it. She loves trying to keep up with all the big kids.
Another first this summer, my BIL left the road as a PO and became a detective not too long ago and helped crack this case. Click here to read! I knew last week he said they were pretty sure they had an idea who the sick-o was and then they announced yesterday they found him.

Mia Speaks

"Hi everyone. Mia here. I won a basket at an Easter Egg hunt and one thing I got was these cool new little Crayola animals that are markers. Have you seen them?""See??? They're supposed to be baby friendly, which I think is cool. See the tip between the dog ears? For some reason I seem to grab the head instead of the butt getting marker all over me."
" I reeeeeeaaally hate getting crap on me too dang it."

Big Girl Now

I just finally switched Mia around to forward facing since I was cleaning the van yesterday and well she's coming up on 16 mths! I usually delay just a bit but she has been backwards the longest. She was pretty excited the first drive around pointing at everything and laughing at daddy because now she can see him! I can't believe how much roomier the van feels now in that 2nd row. I can unbuckle the on her side and Damien can walk across instead of me having to get one kid out on each side. Here she's holding her favorite little toy in this picture...her pink cell phone. It stays in the van and she jabbers and chats with herself on it.

Mia at 15 months!

Mia turned 15 months on the 9th and wow I can't even believe she is getting to be such a big girl. Her speech/language skills increase it seems by the week which you can imagine is strange to see since Alex was the last one I had that actually talked when she was supposed to and that would have been 7 yrs ago! Here's a list of what she says on a regular basis now.

• Mamma, Dadda, uh-uh, yes, yum, boo, yay!, yeah!, uh oh, wheeee!!, cheese, please, Dee-Dee (we think that means baby since she points at them) She makes a horse noise, a monkey noise, car engine noise, honking horn

She plays with all sorts of toys (trying to be older), loves cars, interested a bit in watching Dora the Explorer on TV, likes to do things that she sees her brothers doing which is not good! She has started pulling couch cushions/pillows off and hiding in them and getting into cabinets that Damien knows he should not be in but since he's doing it she thinks it's ok. She still has major temper tantrums but I just take her away from the situation and let her sit in the crib when she's too out of control. I think alot is just how she sees her siblings act, she seems to understan so much!! At lunch or dinner when mad she'll throw her food everywhere on purpose to prove a point.

When she does eat, her favorite foods are Mac and Cheese, hamburger, applesauce, cottage cheese, diced hard boiled egg white, scrambled eggs, rice, noodles, banana, raisins, mashed or fried potatoes, refried beans, chicken nuggets, grilled cheese, yogurt, any type of cereal, malt o meal, oatmeal, pancakes, waffles, and french toast sticks. She seems to eat quite a bit!

She has a majority of her teeth now. She has all 4 molars, her four front tops teeth, four front bottom teeth. I think her Canines are still missing though. When she was about 9-10 months I moved her to one nap a day which she continues to do. She'll nap from 1-5 if we let her but I try to wake her around 4:30. If you wake her she is usually a grump though tossin herself in her crib or she'll headbutt you when you pick her up!!!

Her sense of understanding cracks me up. She knows what farts are and where they come from, same with burps. She knows Damien has a weenie and tries to grab it as soon as I take off his diaper she's right there to try. She understands when she's in the entertainment center and she sees us coming, she better run because she's in trouble, she understands so much of what I say to her. Shoes, Eat, Outside, Diaper, Hungry, Drink, etc.

The biggest part is she is officially a walker. I thought it would never come but to get around she is 75% walking and 25% walking on her knees. She definitely momma's girl but when Dave comes home from work she crawls to him saying "dadda dadda!" over and over with her little hands opening and closing with her arms in the air for him to pick her up. She loves trying to dogpile daddy with the other 3 when he's laying on the floor and trying to get all daddy's attention in the evening when he tries to lay down and nap.

Meet Mia Again At Her Finest

You may remember a few of my posts about Mia and her fits. Well it gets better! lol Lil Miss Mia has learned to throw some of the most enormous fits I have ever seen for a little girl! Alexzandra was such an easy kid. She is and was always quite little, never threw fits, she still never argues, never acts up! When I watch Supernanny and see some of the girls on there I think "I've never had to deal with that with my girl!" Mia however seems to me like she will be a classic Supernanny contestant. In fact if I sent in some videos of her throwing sippy cups at me and pulling my hair when I'm holding her, they may just want to come over. For almost 15 months old, she's seems to have mastered her fits to perfection, but there's always room for improvement.

Take for instance when she's really mad at me and pulling my hair doesn't work, she now claws me with her nails in the face. That'll get a person's attention! She squeals/screams "uh uh" nearly 90% of the time when I tell her something. Correcting her by removing her from a situation usually sends her legs a flying and her head bucking. Daddy has been wracked a time or two. Of course she's probably learned all this good behavior from her brothers over the past year of watching them. Hopefully though, as they say, it's all just a phase.

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.

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.

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.

These Shoes Were Made For Walking

As soon as someone kicks off their shoes Mia's putting them on her hands and walking around the house. She seems to enjoy seeing how fast she can crawl with them actually walking on her feet.