Kid Torture

They all got in there on their own accord, I promise. ;-)

Baby and Doe

 

This morning we woke up to a baby deer curled up under the kid's slide.  He is sooo tiny!  We didn't see Mama until a few minutes later when she came wondering out of the woods, but she didn't seem too concerned that baby was napping undisturbed under the slide.  After we came home from mass they were still out back, and at one point baby decided to get up and walk around the play structure a bit.  His little legs were so wobbly!  Mama came by again and baby got up and chased her down to nurse.  Sounds about right. ;-)  They wondered off into the empty lot next door, I'm certain that's where they still are because there's no other empty lots nearby.  Needless to say we've kept Finley very close today!

An afternoon outside

Pretty Little Princess

 

It's almost time for Beth's ballet production!  This costume is so cute, I know she's going to have so much fun playing in it after the production is over!  This year's production is called Antshillvania, and it's an excerpt about the parable of the prodigal son.  Beth's class is so cute, she's actually in a younger class this year than she was last year, so she's now one of the older girls in the class. 

We're not positive if she'll be doing ballet again in the fall.  The past several months she's fussed about going to class, but once she gets there she always enjoys it.  I'm not sure what I'll be up for, the studio we attend is a 30-minute drive and it's quite a bit of work to get us there with everything we need, chase the boys around for 45 minutes (although it'd be 60 minutes next year), then make it home right before dinner time.  I love this studio though and didn't like the one closer to our home, so if she does choose ballet then we'd most likely stay there.  But I don't know what else she'd do in the fall if she chooses not to do ballet!

Where I've Been..

I've been working hard, not hardly working. ;-)

I haven't posted too much recently for a few reasons.  Reason one is that we've ditched our cable and our computer is now our television!  We don't watch a lot of tv to begin with but when we do want to watch a show in the evening, we use the computer- which means I don't have access to my blog account.

Reason number two is I've been trying to cut back on my internet time.  I've stopped reading a lot of the "mommy blogs" what I used to read because they were making me feel inferior about being a good mother and good housekeeper, despite the fact that these blogs are meant to make you feel like a better mom and housekeeper!  Not me, I guess I'm odd like that.

Reason number three is because I now have another blog to maintain!  My business as a doula is up and running, and I have another blog for that business.  I try to post there a couple of times a week so it takes time away from this blog.  I plan to keep that blog completely separate from this one though, so if you would like to know the address of that blog please email me privately.  Also, if you are in the area and are in need of or know someone in need of a doula, please contact me!

Reason number four is because I am just SO busy.  I don't know why but recently I've just felt like I do nothing but run around all day, serving and giving my every last ounce of energy to my family members.  I've never run my own daycare but I sort of imagine it would feel like this!

This blog means so much to me because it's a detailed chronicle of our life.  I haven't been great about keeping up baby books but my kids will pretty much have their life stories detailed in this blog!  I definitely won't give this up!  

Dirt Pictures

 

Seasonal Firsts

This past weekend we had our first snowcones of the season!  Kind of. We don't have a gluten-free syrup yet so they ate shaved ice, Beth's plain and Luke's with some Crystal Light lemonade.  They loved them just as much as they loved them last year, except Luke can hold his cup a bit better this year!  Yay!  Last year Beth was never a big fan of the syrup anyways, she usually just had plain shaved ice.  I don't know what flavor to order for her, I want to be sure she'll like it since the bottles of the gluten-free syrup Ryan found online are $15 each!

We've also started working out in the yard again, quite a bit.  I haven't gotten a picture yet but last weekend Ryan picked up some rocks and we laid out two new beds in the front lawn for more trees.  (We had a grand total of 5 trees in our actual yard before we moved in!)  I don't know when we'll plant them but we do intend on getting a few more quick-growing varieties.

Our backyard construction has begun, and quite by accident!  We've had workers on our street for about two weeks now, replacing out water pipes.  Needless to say, there's been a lot of extra dirt.  And, guess what, we needed dirt!  So we asked them to start dumping it into our backyard, thinking even though it's not the best, cleanest dirt in the world, it's FREE!

Both boys liked watching the dirt get dumped in the backyard!  Have I mentioned that Jack is making car sounds?  Pretty incredible.  Anyways, we had a total of 7 dump truck loads over the course of two days dumped into the back of our property, the lowest part (also previously known as our swamp, if it would ever rain this year).

Then, this morning I got an offer I couldn't refuse.  Thinking we were going to have to spend the next three months spreading out all of this dirt, I was starting to figure out ways how to clear up my weekends.  But, a worker (el jefe, I assume) came and asked if I wanted him to spread it all out for a little bit of moolah. Um, heck YEAH!  We had been quoted over $800 for a guy to dump 4 or 5 loads of dirt plus spend time smoothing it out.  Compared to that, plus all the images dancing around in my head of Ryan throwing out his back, all of this was looking pretty good.

We left the house for a book club meeting and when we came back our yard looked like this:

Done!  And pretty smooth too, not perfect but I think he and I can handle this in a single weekend!  I was kind of sad the offer didn't come another day though, I had wanted to invite all of my friend's kids over for a party in the dirt!  The kids got one good romp in the dirt the day before yesterday, I have a lot of pictures I'll put up in a different post. :-)

climbing stinker

Our first child growing up in a house with stairs.  I didn't know 10-month-olds could climb stairs, but this guy's been doing it for a couple of weeks now!  Pretty much every change he gets he darts off toward the stairs and can make it up before I even get there, he's quick.  AND, to boot, he'll open up the gate it we've left it unlocked and start going for the very top.  He's determined!

A bunch of sickies

Jack Jack still has his rash. :-(  I don't know what's going on with this boy, but I feel so helpless.  It still doesn't seem to bother him but this has been going on for almost 5 weeks now.  The pediatrician said to give him some allergy medicine (Allegra) to see if it helped, which it didn't.  This made him prompt us to contact a dermatologist for an appointment next week.  I still feel like we should probably see an allergist but I just don't know.  During the past 5 weeks, we have used various detergents, bath soaps, lotions, and foods, so I just don't know what it could be. 

On a slightly related note, I'm becoming more uncomfortable with the fact that he hasn't gained any weigh in the past several months.  He's been 20 lbs for about 2-3 months now, and while this makes his weight more like his siblings, it's still a big drop on the growth chart. 

Beth's still been having tummy aches so I took her for another x-ray on Good Friday.  It showed she wasn't completely "cleaned out" so we've had to up her dose of Miralax some more, hoping to get everything out and eliminate the tummy aches.  In the mean time, she's becoming more and more selective about what she eats, so it's becoming more difficult for me to figure out how to pump her up with fiber and protein when all she wants to eat is Chex.

Luke seems to be doing pretty well right now (knock on wood!), he's fully potty trained now so yay for that!

I'm dealing with my own health issues, trying to pinpoint what's going on with my cycles and my moods.

I'm just so tired of all of these health issues, I'm ready for everyone to be healthy and happy again!!!

Almost...

You will not even believe what happened today. 

It almost happened again.  IT.

We got in the car to go to ballet and GUESS WHAT I FOUND IN BETH'S CAR SEAT? 

Yup, a gallon of milk!

Luckily the weather was only in the 90's today, and the milk was in the car for only 17 hours.

There are no words for that, only simply, Thank You GOD!

(If you're not sure what I'm referring to, you might want to read this post if you'd like to relive my horror.)

Out back

We've been spending a lot of time out in the backyard since the weather has been so nice, Jack is content crawling around in the grass and Beth and Luke find something to do. Swinging, drawing with sidewalk chalk, playing with the sand table, "cooking" in the little play house, finding sticks and bugs, and now playing with the bat and ball Ryan got for them.  Beth's become pretty good, Ryan's taught her to yell, "Throw it in my wheelhouse!" at the pitcher.  It's never too early to start the trash talk, right?