So.. snow

So we got snow.

I don't necessarily like snow.

It is cold and wet and you have to bundle up to go in it and stay somewhat frostbite free.. so needless to say, if you have to pee... you better catch it quick.. how uncomfortable.

Well.. that was the first thing G wanted to do.. "MAMA PEE IN SNOW!!".. and I let him. He got a kick out of it. Moving on...

I was not going to get up in all the drama that surrounded Memphians with kids yesterday who were all "OMG IT IS SNOW... LETS GO SLEDDING/PLAYING/GETTINGCOLDANDWET".

I figured, my kids didn't need to get sick.. that was my excuse and I was sticking with it.

Until it hit about 2 and the snow was really starting to disappear and I started feeling guilty.

Then the boys woke from their nap.

Yea.. we ended up outside.

Them bundled in layers and me in my crocs and windbreaker.

I am officially sick today.

They are fine.



Except for in the head because all they would do was eat the snow...

Oops.. forgot to mention

This weekend my parents kept the kiddos again while J and I worked on painting the house. The Realtor came and picked out color schemes and all that on Thursday, so on Friday, we dropped off the kiddos headed to Lowe's.

And since we had to change the color of the trim, we had to change out every outlet and every light switch.... about 33 of each. Nice.. We got the contractors bulk package. lol.

Everyday the boys are away, I call first thing the morning just to see how the night or morning went and see if G put himself on the brink of tragedy. He didn't this weekend thank goodness.

Unfortunately I realized the first day that I didn't prep mom enough.

Mom: "G started something new... since he knows I have a key to the bathroom he now pulls out the drawer to block the door from opening."
Me: "Oops.. I forgot to mention that... we have ended up taking the drawer out... Sorry"

Mom: "Oh, and I caught him in there eating all the toothpaste"
Me: "Ooops... sorry.. forgot to tell you he has gone to great lengths to get to the toothpaste.. sorry"

It's sad when the crazy things your kids do slip your mind to mention because nothing shocks you anymore.

The Good Nite Lite

My review...
3 stars


It has done exactly what it preaches... it is teaching G to stay in his room until the sun comes up... for the most part.

G loves it! He HAS to see the moon going to bed and he gets so worked up about it. He loves it. Good sign #1.

I set the timer just as the directions said and have been following the "up the timer 15 minutes every day until a desired wake up time". I have skewed from that a bit setting it up 15 minutes after a 100% successful night that he doesn't leave his room until the sun is up. We started at 4:30 and we are now at 6:15. Good sign #2.

If he gets out before the 'sun comes up' I make him stay in his room... continually put him back in until the sun comes up. When it does, he gets so excited to see it and he has to show me it and we do the whole "we are so proud of you.. you waited to see the sun come up!!!" It does make him so proud of himself. And we are dealing with every other night issues now instead of every night. Good sign #3.

Now, it runs on batteries and on electricity... I naively assumed that this meant it was interchangeable to your needs... I was wrong. I really wanted this to be like a battery powered clock on the wall... something out of reach. It is not. One ray on the sun is missing already. Bad sign #1.

You know how frustrating it is when the power goes out and your alarm clock resets and so you have to make sure you have batteries in it for a backup.. THIS doesn't work that way. It would be fine if the power went out, but if the unit itself gets turned off, the timers get reset and the sun comes on automatically until the unit is turned back on.... G has turned of the unit and come to be beaming at 4:30 am claiming he saw the sun.. I told him he was crazy and he proved to me that I was. Bad sign #2.

Now the last two things, we have gotten past, for now. He adores this thing so much that we told him if he touched it again, he would break it, so he doesn't need to play with it... he hasn't touched it since... for that we are thankful.

Of course, we now have to take it out of the outlet every day... but we don't reset it... so the timers stay programmed.

So, it gives us more hassle than we thought it would/should... BUT BUT BUT... it is doing what it was designed to do.

Also, the real test is when I go back to sleeping in my room... right now I am on the couch to catch him... because for some reason, the alarm at the top of the door is mysteriously getting turned off at night...
yes it is on the outside of the door and at the top of the door frame.
I blame the cats.

5 stars for doing what it says it will do
1 star for durability
2 stars for ease of use
4 stars for child likability

Life

Life is crazy. So many ups and downs, excitements and disappointments.



Tat is my brother. He has had his shares of ups and downs, and excitements and disappointments... He has also handed them out, but who hasn't, you know.
He has made great strides for himself over the past 10 years... he has taken steps back and there were times where I thought I would never want to speak to him again.. and never thought I would.
Then we start talking again and it is fine.

One thing about Tat that never fails though... his love for his 4 legged babies. He loves them unconditionally and they love him too. He life revolves around his two cats and his dog, just like your life would revolved around your children. Unfortunately, he doesn't have a wife, nor children, both of which he longs for deeply. So, needless to say, his animals are his world.. his family unit.

Obviously, our entire extended family loves animals.. I have 4 of my own, Tat has 3, Nana and granddaddy have 4, there are too many to count with aunts and uncles... it just goes on and on. They all get Christmas presents people.


About 11 days ago, Shadow, Tat's 5 year old cat and only male bonding partner decided to sneak out of the house. No sign of him since. Tat is devastated. There are nights he has slept out in his truck hoping to get a glimpse of a 30 lb black cat roaming the streets looking for his home. He checked every shelter in the county and city. He put out flyers with "reward". He has walked to every neighbor giving out flyers and asking for leads. He walks the neighborhood everyday. He checks the sewer outlets everyday. We have searched Craiglist, petfinder... all of them.
Unfortunately he can't drive around to look for him because about 5 days ago, his alternator went out on his car.
His prayers were that he would give up anything to have Shadow back.


Then about 3 days ago, Maggie, his beloved and most prized possession, his 11 year old Aussie/Border Collie mix, his first baby girl, the one he attributes "saving his life and making him straighten up" started screeching and whining, and her legs stiffed up and she began shaking uncontrollably. Once she could walk again, she started to walk backwards.... less than 12 hours later, she did it again... the whites of her eyes turn an awkward shady gray color and she just sits as if she wants help.. when there is nothing no one knows what to do.
Tat rushed her to the vet where the doctor immediately took some blood which we are awaiting the results for.

Tat is beyond devastated... he keeps saying "that is not what I meant when I said I would give up anything for Shadow"..

I worry about Tat anyways... whether we are talking or not. I am hurting for him right now and wish there was anything I could do to help/fix/take the burden off of him right now.

Even if you are not a 'dog or cat person' please pray that everything works in the way God has planned.

Random

The boys wanted to show off their skills... total white boy/no dancin' skills... but overall, their skills.

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Anyone who knows my family well enough knows, our animals/pets are like our children. We hurt when they hurt and we mourn them. And when one decides to run away from home, it hurts us all.
Please pray that Shadow, my brother's little buddy, decides to come back home. He has been missing for 10 days now and my brother is absolutely heartbroken. He has visited shelters, every neighbor around the neighborhood, handed our flyers, offered rewards... he is at a loss.
I am honestly surprise no one has seen a 30 lb black cat running around the neighborhood. I think someone has taken him in and won't give him up. I hope he comes back.

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See.. no one can doubt we spoil our 4 legged babies too.


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OH, and the boys totally dug my strawberry cream cheese on wheat Ritz crackers...



I plan to address the new night light and sleepign with G in the next couple of days.

Movie Friday

Every Friday we have movie Friday where the boys can watch movies all day long... they don't get to during the week, so we leave the "learning" for Monday thru Thursday and being lazy and watching movies on Friday..
Of course it keeps them occupied, so I get to get some stuff done... Playing with my juicer has taken up most of the morning as I made Strawberry Balsamico and Strawberry cream cheese.
I have never seen so many mason jars in my fridge.


Of course, every now and then D will come look at me with the look, and I have to say "Everyone knows who you are..." and he says "woooooo-deeee". THANK YOU very much Toy Story 2.

J worked from home all day yesterday... he is official now, and it went surprisingly well. The boys really are doing ok with it.
This is what his new lunch break looks like on Fridays...


Enjoy your weekend..
I am going back to being lazy for the day... or making some more stuff.. haven't decided.

Juicy

So I got THIS for Christmas and love.it!
If you know me well enough, you know that my kids get very very limited amounts of sugar. Like, birthday parties only and they have to share a piece limited amount.

'So do you not give them juice'

Before the juicer, nope... they get milk and water only! But now, I will make them a glass of freshly prepared juice with the juicer a few times a week. (ATTENTION GRANDPARENTS: Don't take this as all clear to give them juice... only juice that comes straight out of a juicer is allowed). Put fresh fruit in and get fresh juice with absolutely nothing added out and serve.. period.
And they love it.
One of G's many nights rummaging through the house here lately, I found 2 packs of raspberries, 2 packs of strawberries, and 2 packs of blueberries on the counter and he was trying to figure it out.. when I caught him, he said "Make juice".
Loves it!

Now, the 2nd part of this.. anyone who knows me knows it bugs the poop out of me that the "pulp" left over might go to waste.

So I have been keeping it frozen and in the freezer and dated. I have used all the pulp I have created now!
from Orange juice, all the orange pulp went into 1) frozen orange pops (just froze the pulp into pops) for the boys and 2) orange vinaigrette dressing (add vinegar and a small amount of the fresh juice).
from the grape/blueberry juice, I mixed the pulp with peanut butter and made it into a sandwich for the boys lunch yesterday... they loved it!!
from the apple juice, I made apple/Cinnamon pancakes for breakfast by simply mixing the pulp into the batter.

I am going to make some raspberry juice today and use the pulp for raspberry vinaigrette. J loves vinaigrette dressing.

I am still waiting to make carrot muffins from the carrot pulp.

Thanks momma for this present.. I love it...

Wow, what a week

Internet for me has been off and on all week long. We are getting J's digital phone and all of that installed upstairs (aka. his new office) and it has been screwing with the wireless internet in the house. Comcast has been out twice and will be out here a third time Monday night.

Long way to say, "sorry for the lack of posting".

OH, I wanted to publically respond to the comments on the last post... please, keep the ideas coming.. I need them.

Emmilu said...
I assume it is stupid to ask if he can climb over a very tall baby gate?? We still have 4 super tall gates (with walk through doors) strategically placed throughout our house to trap our boy in/out of places... but he recently was injured trying to climb one of them. I honestly think the first thing I would do is call the pediatrician and tell him he needs to find out why he is not sleeping... 5+ times every night is a lot of night waking.... He is never hitting REM if he's doing that. I'm surprised he's not a walking zombie during the day. Hang in there, I know that is so scary.
He has proven that he can climb over anything. Unfortunately, we had to give up the baby gates for G a long time ago. The one we have is exactly what you are talking about, extra tall with a walk through door. He has got some monkey toes or something because he climbs by hanging on with his toes to places you can believe. But thank you, thank you, thank you about the idea of his night waking.. I guess we have been so "OMG how can we get him to stop" that we didn't see the whole "why isn't he sleeping."
I am starting to chart his waking and all of his sleep habits for ammo when I do call his doc.

Amanda and Michelle said...
is enrolling him in the CIA black-ops program an option? Holy Cow! Bless your heart, and thank God he is ok. the only thing I can think of is the crib and bed nets for caging in karate-kid-little-ones.
I wish it were because I would love to have the extra green comin' into the house. He was out of a crib at 16 months when he started climbing out... we just put him a toddler bed then so he wouldn't hurt himself... We use to have one of those nets... intially bought so the cats wouldn't get in the crib, but of course, we couldn't get it to fit our cribs. Thank you so much though.. keep those ideas coming.

Jessica said...
Oh my gosh! Your kid is amazing! I'm sorry this has gotten so out of hand for you. Does the alarm stop him at all, or is it just making it so you can catch him every time?
It just makes us catch him before he gets too far rummaging through the house alone. It has made him wait at the door until we tell him it is ok to come out. We have also just ordered this...

The objective of the "Good Nite Lite" is to educate children to stay in bed until it is morning. Children between the ages of 3 and 5 years of age are just starting to grasp the concept of day and night and how it relates to regularly scheduled rest. The Good Nite Lite can assist children with better differentiating the concept of nighttime and daytime and reinforce the benefits of appropriate sleep patterns. The Good Nite Lite device itself is an innovative combination of a traditional night light and a built in timer that changes the visual display characteristics to reinforce a regular sleep pattern.
Believe me, when it comes in and I put it to work, I will defintely let you know if it works.

Now, for the week.
Most of the week, Uncle Berek and Jenny were in town to visit and spend time with the boys... We had a blast and they fixed us breakfast Friday morning... which was so good.
Plus, I think D might be trying to steal Uncle "Bear"'s girlfriend... he was a little taken to say the least.




THEN
This weekend, we helped friends celebrate a birthday. A man who I have known and been close to their family for over 18 years turned 60 and he had a surprise party. Then I hung out with some buds afterwards and had a great time.
One thing I did learn from looking back on the pics...
My big butt needs to start wearing makeup.. I look like I haven't sleep in years...

Poison Control and late night jitters

So, Thursday morning, 4:00am, I woke to a very familiar noise... someone going thru the fridge and as I slowly, with a groan, got out of bed, I heard a not very comforting noise of glass breaking...
damn... I said to myself as I hurried my pace to the kitchen...
What I saw was quite disturbing...

"G, put it down slowly... do not walk" (then I remembered how the Early intervention people displayed to me that G does not understand 'not')
"No move feet G, take the knife out of your mouth and lay it down"

Before I could really get the words out, I got the large butcher (not the square kind) knife out of his mouth. He was surrounded in a mass of broken glass from a jelly jar. He had taken this knife and was scrapping jelly off the glass and eating it.

I ripped him up, calmly took him back to his room and explain to him why his spanking was coming and that he in NO WAY needs to be playing in the kitchen and how bad bad bad it is and how he can hurt himself.
Then I cleaned up the kitchen and thought that was it.
As I was putting him back in bed for the 2nd time, I saw the destruction in the living room.
water bottle on the couch with uncle Berek's iPod touch (thankfully the top still on the water bottle)
birth control pills... one is missing... call poison control.
change jar emptied and scattered.

When I returned to the living room from the 3rd time putting him back into bed, I broke down... J was there to comfort and say "he is fine... he isn't hurt".

I responded through the sobs "we are going to wake up one of these mornings and he won't be ok".

This has past the point of funny and "OMG HE IS A NINJA"
He is putting himself in real danger and it has to stop.

So, we put a alarm system on his door... a siren goes off through the house if his door become ajar.
It wakes the whole house.
Last night we discovered just how much he is getting up.
5 times I counted... J may have a different number since he got up every time but the last.

Anyone else have any ideas??
We keep the door unlocked because he needs access to the bathroom and we don't want to move the urinal into his room...
So???

**Also, we do have drawer locks where the knives are.. he knows how to unlock him... we also have a fridge lock and a dishwasher lock... he had ripped the fridge lock apart.

8 mouths to feed

You know people, I adore every living creature in this house. The four legged babies I have are still my babies, even after little humans. Sometimes though, the day gets hard making sure the 2 cats get fed once a day, the 2 dogs get fed 2 times a day, the 2 itty bitty humans get fed 3 square and 2 snacks, then us big ones get at least 3 good meals. There are some days when I feel like all I am doing is feeding, watering.. whatever.
I use to have it harder when G was into his whole "lets eat the dogs food and drink their water stage."

Unfortunately too, that is when Sasha was going through the whole "I have diagnosed Giardia stage" too. But that is another post for another day.

But now.. oh now, I have a precious baby that is willing to help...

Thank you sweet boy.. I am sure Pluto appreciates you as much as you do me.

Hey

I know, posts have been slacking lately...
sorry.. we are busy trying to get the house sell ready before we put it on the market on the first of February, plus, we are trying to plan a The Jungle Book party for D's 2nd birthday and have discovered that absolutely nothing exist partywise pertaining to the Jungle Book... so most stuff, we are having to make ourselves. Great.

Plus, I got a new camera with my birthday money and I haven't put it to use yet.. I want to read up on everything on it first. Sorry.

Also.. the other day, I had a girls day with my momma... I took some of my Christmas money and took it to Southland Greyhound Park (we went to the Casino part), and turned my Christmas money $400.00 richer. Of course, I spent most of it on the house to get it sell ready, but he part I saved for myself..
I got a new 300 series dremel, with a mini saw horse and the flex shaft accessory and cross cut blade accessory.. plus more bits to do more stuff.

I love it.. and yes, I know, I am weird.. oh well.

Hugs