Sleep anyone?

Last night (7/18) Audrey went to bed with a fever. Not all that unusual since she is cutting teeth. Around 11:30pm she was crying, by 1:30am she was in bed with me. (Mind you that Thursday night was spent driving to Utah all night. So no sleep that night either. I felt like warmed over death by the end of this night) If you know my kids, then you know that they don't wake up during the night. I've trained the to be good little sleepers and sleep is the one thing that I'm very careful to protect. I'm out of town visiting my family in Utah and Bjorn is home working really hard on a trial, hence the reason there was room in my bed for her. And as an aside, I don't ever let the kids "sleep" with us. It's not any fun for anyone and I value my sleep way too much. Anyway, back to the story. Audrey ran an extremely high fever all night so I called my SIL who is a nurse and she said to take her in. I was going to wait till morning, but around 4:30am she started to convulse. It scared me so bad that I scooped her up, ran to get into the car and was at the hospital 30 min. later. They just needed to observe her and run a few tests and wait for her fever to drop a little before letting us go home. It was just a virus and therefore nothing could be done for her. Poor little thing, she was such a good little sick baby. She just lay there and would moan, but not cry and she had the most sad eyes you have ever seen. She fevered for the next 24 hours, but thanks to Tylenol and Motrin every three hours around the clock she recovered fine. By the following day she was getting back to her normal self. What a trooper.

It's neck and neck

I always think of race horses as I put the girls on the stairs to climb up before naps and bedtime. It's always a race to get to the top, and one that Lydia usually wins. You see, Audrey could go fast, and does when she is trying to get away from me. The problem is that when they are both going to the top she gets distracted by other things and is always the slower of the pair to reach the top. Not that it's always a race, but Myles gets great pleasure in yelling "go, go, go." It's fun to watch their progression side by side.

In other news the kids all had a first this week. I took them to the park myself the other day. (usually we go with a big group of moms, but this day I was on my own) There were not a lot of kids at the park, so we got to all use the swings at the same time. They only have two "baby" swings and two "big kid" swings. Myles usually used the "baby" swing, but he agreed to try the "big kid" swing so that the girls could swing too. It was their first time swinging, and Myles' first time on the "big kid" swing.

All the kids love the new fountain at the new Library. It's especially nice on a hot day. Myles thinks it's great to stick his arms into the cold water. He would climb all the way in if I let him.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle...

This week on one of my three trips to Costco(don't ask!) I purchased 25 lbs. of sugar. It comes in this nice big pink and white bag made of woven plastic. I brought it home and put all the sugar into other containers as you can't store it in the bag for fear of ants. I was going to put the big pink bag into the Recycle bin, but got an IDEA! I *Heart* all my shopping totes, but I always wish that I had a smaller one for taking lunch to the park or the zoo or for snacks in the car on road trips. Ta-dah, it came to me. I could use this old sugar bag to sew a new snack bag. This is what I whipped up today while all the kids were sleeping. All materials were reclaimed items. What do you think? And cute too! Pink handles would have been even better, but hey, what are you going to do?

Casualties

The kids are just at the ages when casualties happen often. Yesterday Lydia was found in the middle of the floor crying. No one around her and blood pouring from her lips. She aparently bit her lips as she crashed to the floor. She is starting to stand and she isn't so stable, thus, the casualty. She is completely unfazed by it today.

Later that day we were walking home from the park when Myles, who is quite clumsy, ran right into the corner of a building. The hit was so hard it knocked him back and he instantly had a large goose egg and bruise over his left eye.

It's a good thing kids are so pliable. Otherwise they wouldn't make it out of childhood. Let's just hope that the rest of our injuries are this small and don't require the E.R.

Happiest place on earth

In a word: Disneyland!

Memorial day we decided to go to Disneyland to get our season passes. We knew that it would either be a great day or a horrible day. It would either be really crowded or empty. It would either be really hot or it would be a great mild spring day. The kids would either be really great, or grouchy because of missed naps. I'm happy to say that they LOVED Disneyland.

Audrey and Lydia were playing at the water park in Bug land @ California Adventure Park.

They were great the entire day. It was a day of the great mild weather, few people in the parks, and great behavior on the kids part. We made our way through the lines quickly, got to ride a ton of rides, some Myles really liked(Dumbo, the train, merry go round...), others he cried through(Pinoccio, Matterhorn). The girls got to ride several things too. They could ride on most things in Fantasy land. We even got to have our picture taken with Mickey Mouse in Toon Town.

It was a great day! We started the day thinking we would leave the park by 3 pm. but we didn't leave the park till 8:30 pm. The kids just kept going, and going, and going. They loved all of it. It's such a difference from a year ago when we took the kids. Myles can now successfully wait in lines, he LOVES the rides and even stays close by most of the time. He walks and rides through the park with ease. He loves getting to ride things twice, thanks to the great idea of the "Parent Swap"( One parent waits in line with a kid, then the other parent waits with the other children. Parent "A" rides the ride with the child then when the ride is over they get off and the other parent gets right on). It's really great! The kid gets to ride twice for the wait of one line!

We are now proud owners of Season Disneyland passes. Anyone want to come to So Cal and go?!

Decisions, decisions

I tried to get a shower today. It's always a toss up when the kids are awake. Either ignore them for a while and get a shower, or wait and hope that all THREE kids will SLEEP at the SAME time at SOME point during the day. Today I brave it and take the shower I most desperately needed. Not just because I'm dirty, but for my sanity. I just needed 5 min where no one was pulling, kicking, pinching, sitting, walking or otherwise abusing me. Myles was already in bed and I thought the girls could just play downstairs while I ran and took a 5 min. shower. Lydia, who is now crawling quite well, will follow me up the stairs so I remember to put up the gate to stop her dead in her tracks. Then I open the toy bins and pull a few favorite toys out. This ought to be enough for my short shower.

The shower part went well, without incident.

I come walking down the hall and make a stop to put Myles back into bed. He was just opening his door to come out as I walked by. I peer over the railing to see the girls playing quite well on the floor down below. Okay, not bad. Shower accomplished.

I walked down the stairs and saw Audrey sitting right next to the TV cabinet. Odd, but okay. I walk outside to water the grass and the plants and come back in. I find Audrey now lying on her belly in the middle of the rug with the entire bottom half of her shirt covered in POOP! AHHHHHHHH...where do I even begin... FIRST, get Lydia out of the way. She comes over to investigate and "help" as soon as she sees me interested. I put her into the high chair so she is contained. Then I go get a plastic bag and some wipes, about a box full, and the poop mat. Then I start peeling off the clothes. At this point you know she is just going to need a bath. It's REALLY bad. I think I'm almost done when I look over at the TV where she was sitting when I first came down. Well there is poop all over the front of the cabinet. I'm talking everywhere. Upon further investigation it's all over the rug and the toys they have been playing with too. I'm now in for some major cleaning and disinfecting. Where to start! SECOND, get the dog into the garage. Poop is right up his alley and he would be all too happy to "help" clean it up. I get the girls into the tub, then down for a nap. Then it's on to the cleaning. THIRD, gather up all the toys and get them into the bleach. Then hit the rug with carpet cleaner and get all the poop out of the crevice' on the TV cabinet. All in all it's about a 45 min. which doesn't include soaking and washing the clothes of two very dirty little girls. Man... who knew that ONE little girl could produce SO MUCH POOP!

The worst part of the whole thing, no camera, Bjorn took it to work today so he could show a friend some pictures of the kids. Bummer. Oh well, sometimes your imagination works just as well. Just picture mustard yellow poop all over said children, the TV cabinet, rug, toys, etc.

Isn't being a mommy a GLAMOUROUS job! I need a RAISE is all I have to say.

Backyard makeover

This is what our backyard looked like when we moved in several months ago. I'm proud to say that we now have green living things in our backyard. It's still a "postage stamp" size lawn( thanks to my brother Ryan for naming it this), but we love the green look and it does make it look a million times better than it did when we moved in. Take a look, see what you think.