Our Weekend

We had a great weekend at the cabin. The weather was very hot but we were able to cool things off for the most part with some AC and splashing in the lake.

Lily was a little unsure of the water to start with, but she loved the sand! She liked rubbing it all over her legs. On Sunday I was able to finally put her in a floaty and let her kick herself around in the shallows. She loved it! What a little fish she is once she gets over the scaredy-catness! Addie really enjoyed splashing in the shallows. She and Adam raced up and down the beach splashing water everywhere.

Adam made a fort out of some cushions, a table and some blankets. The girls loved hiding in there.
Addie helped me make "pupcakes" for Grandma's birthday. She was very excited because they were "worm pupcakes with dirt!" We used strawberry cake mix and chocolate frosting. I had Addie dip each cupcake into crushed chocolate cookies and put gummy worms on top. (all were safe for Lily by the way!) It really did look kind of gross! She thought it was the coolest thing ever, especially since she got to help. We almost blew the surprise when Addie told Grandma over the phone that she had made cupcakes for Grandma's birthday. Luckily Grandma didn't think Addie could possibly be talking about real dirt cupcakes! When Grandma, Grandpa and Auntie Rachel showed up on Saturday morning and saw us there, Grandma was very surprised.

Addie has discovered a new favorite - Candyland. Actually she likes playing all games right now. (Hint, hint, games would be a great birthday gift!) She doesn't really follow the rules, but that's ok, she's getting the general idea.

Saturday night Addie went home with Grandma and Grandpa to get some special time alone with them. They took her to church (one of her favorite places) the next morning and then to breakfast before coming back to the cabin.


Grandpa broke out the guitar on Sunday afternoon and Addie just loved it! She stared at Grandpa for the longest time, then got up on his lap and helped him play.

It was a great weekend - lots of sun, sand and family.

An Open Letter

Momma, maybe you don't get it. These pants you put me in today? They're 9 month pants. You see how they sag in the back? You see how they show my diaper like I'm a slutty teenager showing off my thong? Well guess what Momma, I'm 16 months old. I'm a big girl, I'm no baby. Someone obviously isn't feeding me enough.
















What's that? Oh, you can see that I have my mouth jammed with food and I'm not stopping to chew? Oh well, I guess you are feeding me. I did eat an entire chicken breast for supper tonight along with broccoli, some bread, and dessert.

Never mind! I love you Momma!

Nonchiladas

I made this up this week and it was a HUGE hit at our house. Addie said it was too "picy" but only after she had eaten half her plate. Lily has had leftovers twice for lunch since. I had planned on making enchiladas, but we were out of tortillas and I didn't want to put cheese on it because of Lily. Hence, it became "Nonchiladas."

1 lb. ground beef
1 can black beans
1 4 oz can tomato sauce
1 15 oz can diced tomatoes
1 packet enchilada seasoning
onion, diced
green pepper, diced
celery, diced

Cook and drain ground beef in skillet. Add onions and saute until just transparent. Add green pepper and celery. Stir. Add tomatoes, sauce and enchilada packet. Stir it all together. If you wanted, you could transfer it into a casserole and bake it with some cheese on top. However, part of the appeal for me was that the green peppers and celery didn't get overcooked so they were still a little crunchy. Otherwise, serve it with a nice big green salad and maybe some tortilla chips. Yummy!

The other bonus of this recipe is that it is super fast. If you chop the vegetables while the beef is cooking it goes together in no time. Very important when you have 2 children clinging to your pant legs telling you they are hungry!

Whee!

Lily has added two new words to her vocabulary. "Bubba" and "Whee." She found a bottle of bubbles outside yesterday and insisted that I blow bubbles for her. As soon as she saw the bubbles she started saying, "Whee!" I'm also pretty convinced that she said "boppa" when she saw grandpa today, but she refused to say it again when Ray was inside.

See here for why I don't have any pictures to show you. I took darn cute picture of Lily in her farmer overalls yesterday and more today, chasing after bubbles.

Momma's Taking Us to the Zoo Tomorrow...

Some pictures from our recent trip to the Lake Superior Zoo.


Addie and Tyler watch the Polar Bears eat watermelon.

Addie and Em look for the tigers. There was supposed to be something called Tiger Enrichment, but nothing seemed to be happening. I don't suppose that the tigers were learning to read...

Poor Lily was wiped out! She slept for a while in the stroller, then went home to take a 2 hour nap! Poor kid.

Big Girl Bed

Yeah Addie! Addie's in a big girl bed!

She spent her first night in a big girl bed last night. She did very well, only falling out once. This morning Lily woke her up at 5:20 which was a little early (2 1/2 hours earlier than normal!) However, she is extremely excited about her "new" bed. She doesn't realize that it's actually her crib with one side removed. :)

Poop Everywhere

WARNING** This may be too much information for some people. If so, look at the cute picture of Lily with Grandpa and move on.

For those of you still with me it was a morning to remember. It started out much like any other day. Addie still hasn't pooped, so we moved on to slightly more advanced maneuvers. I gave Addie her peanut butter with mineral oil mixed in and a bagel to dunk, a cup of yogurt with mineral oil and some juice. I convinced her that Dr. Shar told me Addie should have some cream on her butt to make it feel better. While Addie "assumed the position," I inserted a suppository. Not as traumatic as Dr. Shar had lead me to believe it would be. It should take about 15 minutes or so to soften up whatever is blocking the plumbing.

But then.... the trauma started. Addie started crying and moaning and whining for Daddy. Daddy was outside working on the siding. Daddy had to come in to periodically comfort Addie. Finally (55 minutes later) I had to get ready for work so I asked Addie if she would like to come take a bath. Normally she loves taking a bath. Not. Today. She screamed; she cried. She ran from the bathroom screaming (nakey) and slammed the door shut. While I was in the shower I hear her start screaming again, "I poop, I poop." So I opened the bathroom door and she raced to the potty. Yes, she did poop, all over the hallway. Of course I had to calm her down because she was traumatized by pooping on the hall floor. The poor kid felt so bad about it.

Honestly, I have no idea how that kid didn't block up the toilet. We must have fantastic plumbing! She was on the potty, she'd say she was done; two seconds later she was back on again. I'd just clean out the potty and she'd be back on again. Not to mention the mess on the floor! Mineral oil is bad. Very bad. Like eating too much Olestra as Adam would say.

Meanwhile, downstairs Lily got into the peanut butter laced with mineral oil. There was peanut butter all over the floor, over the rocking horse, all over her. So what do I do? I take both kids to daycare and let the teachers deal with the aftermath. Momma needs a drink!

Obvious Genetic Link

It is obvious to me that there is a gene responsible both for the love of shoes and for wanting to talk on the phone. Here Lily talks to all of her Peeps while walking around the living room. She says, "Hiiii..." "Uh huh" "ohhhh" and "Buh bye" She looks like a mini-me!

As for the shoe gene, well I realized that both my girls have it. Lily loves nothing more than to try on Addie's and my shoes. She even gets excited about putting her own shoes on. I had assumed this was learned behavior. However, I was reminded of Crazy Uncle Matty's shoe "habit" while we were in Chicago. He's got more shoes than I do. So I believe that my girls come by this love of shoes quite naturally from both sides. It is obvious to me that Adam just has a recessive shoe gene.

See, it's not her fault that Imelda Marcos had so many shoes! Adam, pay no attention to the letters DSW with the dollar amount after it on our Discover Card bill. It clearly is not my fault either.

Poop

This will not be a pretty post. Do not read it if you are offended by words such as poop, or descriptions of such words.

Day 4 of Big Girl Undies/Day 2 of Mineral Oil
Our pediatrician recommended 2 tbs of mineral oil per day to help Addie become more regular. Right now she poops once a week. You can almost set your watch by it - seriously, it's always Saturday afternoon just after nap time.

Day One:
Addie woke up at 11pm with a yell. I went in to find her standing up in her bed saying, "I pooping." Thanking God and several other deities that I managed to put a Pull Up on her before bed, I ran her to the bathroom. Success!

Day Two:
No poop. Well, not really. There was much yelling, grabbing of stomach and whining. There was also very thin oily poop that dribbled out of her. Some accompanied by gas, some not. Some dropping on my carpet. None of it making its way into the potty. Addie absolutely refused to sit on the potty to see if that would help her stomach feel better. In the battle of wills between toddler and momma, this toddler will win. I even tried a warm bath to see if that would do the trick. Again, much screaming and yelling - no poop.

Day Three:
This morning was ugly. Run away from home ugly. All Addie wanted to do was lay with her head in my lap. If that was not possible, then she wanted to be superglued to my side. Both kids were exhausted from the late night the night before so that didn't help. Normally I would love to just cuddle up on the couch with Addie and Lily and watch TV, knit and "nuggle." However, when I have to get ready for work, it is really difficult to have both of them attached to the same leg. I just want a shower in peace. I want a shower with no one screaming, no one throwing toys into the tub with me, no one stealing toys from their sister, no one picking on their sister, no one saying, "momma, I hungry." I want a gate at the base of my steps that will prevent them from coming upstairs after me if I disappear for 2 seconds. I want to shower without worrying that Lily will fall down the steps.

Great News All Around

I forget how hard it is to get 4 people smiling at once, especially when 2 of them are under 3~
Sharon took this picture of us at Darla's wedding. Speaking of....


We had a great time at Darla's wedding. I have nothing good to say about the Americinn in Wisconsin Rapids or the hotel situation in general in that town, however that is neither here nor there and will perhaps be a post for a different day. Darla was radiant in her dress - and a good time was had by all.

Now, on to the news of the week. Drumroll please............ Lily now weighs 19 lbs, 9 oz! Yes, she put on over a pound in the last 3 weeks. Thank goodness for calorie supplements! She's now in the 7% and her doctor isn't worried about her anymore. Her height was questionable, but I think that was a measuring inaccuracy more than anything. If she can continue gaining weight, even a slow weight gain, I will be happy.

Next drumroll....... Addie has gone all day in big girl underwear for 3 days now! She is doing incredibly well. I was really concerned yesterday when we had to leave the bookstore because she needed to pee and absolutely refused to use a "big potty." Only the training potty will do for this girl. However, Addie made it all the way home without an accident. I went back to the bookstore today and got a book for her as a reward. The Kiss That Missed
I also had to appologize to the clerk because we left the kids section a little messy when we literally ran from the store. I also picked up Magyk and Flyte ~ Book 1 and 2 of the Septimus Heap series. We listened to Magyk on our roadtrip and I think it will be a good bedtime story to read to the girls when they are a little bigger. I'll wait to get Book 3 when it comes out in paperback.

We have big excitement this weekend, Mona and Boppa Dude, Auntie Reen, and Auntie Em & her family are all coming to our house. Hopefully I'll have good pictures to show from the zoo.

What we've been up to....

We spent part of Father's Day at the lake in Siren. Addie loved playing with her cousins, but didn't want to go too far into the water. She'd let the waves splash her toes.

Lily hung out on the dock with Auntie Reen. She wanted nothing to do with the lake. Too scary (and not because of her near death experience either).


Lily decided that she was going to feed herself soy yogurt this morning. Messy, but fun.

Long Morning

It's been a rather long morning. It should have been such a good one, it started off so well. I got up right after Adam and jumped in the shower so I didn't have to worry about the girls being downstairs alone while I was upstairs showering. I'm half convinced Addie is going to smother Lily one of these days while I am showering. Adam got Addie up, I got Lily when she woke up. I gave the girls yogurt for breakfast (Silk soy yogurt for Lily of course). Then it was bathtime...

Fill up the tub
Dump in toys
Dump in 2 year old
Keep 1 year old from jumping in herself while fully dressed
Grab towels
Gently put 1 year old in tub
"Sit down Lily" Lily sits
"Sit down Lily" Lily sits
"Lily, SIT DOWN" Lily sits
Then everything went into slow motion... Lily slips and falls under the water. I can see her little eyes are wide open and her mouth is doing that, "ohh ohh" thing like a fish. She's trying to push herself up, but can't quite get it. I grab her, bring her up out of the water and pat her on the back. She seems to be breathing just fine. Oh man, I think she scared 5 years off my life. I never knew how long it takes to get from one end of my tiny bathroom to the other. Lily was obviously scared because it caused her to empty her bowels into the bathtub.

Take Addie out of tub
Take toys out of tub
Place toys in bleach solution
"No Addie, you can't play with the spoon, it's being cleaned."
Remove Addie's hand from bleach solution
Try to calm Addie down while spraying out the tub
Scrub Tub
Place Addie back in tub to wash her hair.

So Lily is semi-clean. I figure the dunking was enough to wash her hair, I wasn't going to put her back in again.

As I'm getting Addie dressed, she spys the "Big Girl Underwear" with princesses on them and insists that she must wear that. I explain that those underwear are only for girls who go on the potty every time. That underwear doesn't catch the pee like diapers do. Can you sit on the potty every time? So we put on the underwear. I grab 3 more pairs and 3 more pairs of shorts to go to daycare. At this point I am resigned to cleaning the upholstery in the carseat.

I am in the kitchen getting Lily's lunch ready when I hear Addie say, "look, I made a puddle." Of course you did, because we need to be leaving the house right now and we are nowhere near ready. Lily then crawls through the puddle. No Lily, sit right there and wait for Momma. Addie then walks through the puddle. Stop, everyone stop! At least I had a change of outfits ready for her. Addie says, "This no catch pee." Yep, that's what I said kiddo.

She made it to daycare without another accident. I fully expect that there will be a full load of Addie laundry by tonight.

I Walk the Line

Lily is walking! She started walking on Saturday at Mom and Dad's. She's been standing on her own for quite a while now. Saturday we set her down and Dad held out his arms to her. Lily took 3 steps on her own! Three steps is about her max, but I know it won't be long before she's moving all over the place.

In other news, when Mom & Syren asked Addie what her favorite part of daycare was, she said "AJ." My daughters favorite part about daycare is a little boy. *sigh* And so it begins......

Things I've Been Asked

"Where did the alphabet come from?"
Wow, how do you answer that one? I finally told Addie that some guys made up the alphabet a really long time ago so that Mommy's could read their kids stories. That seemed to work.

While we were playing with the glass pebbles you put in fishbowls, Addie said, "Momma, we use this money at church?" This kid loves church! She wants to go to church every day. She corrects Adam if he doesn't hold his hands correctly while praying. She corrects us if we forget to say prayers. Somehow I'm not sure the church office would find it cute that we're putting glass pebbles in the collection basket. We'd better attach a note!

Lily

After running a mysterious temperature for 36 hours with no other real noticable symptoms (other than sleeping about 30 of those hours) I took Lily into the doctor's office. The doctor keyed in on Lily's eyes, both had big bags under them, but one looked like she had been stung by a bee (or punched by someone). I didn't even really notice it until he pointed it out, I thought it was just the sick, red, puffy eyes that kids get.

The doc called in another physician to consult. They both agreed it is periorbital cellulitis.

Basically she has a bacterial infection of the tissue surrounding her eye. We're happy they caught it extremely early as this could lead to eye/nerve/bone damage if left untreated. At my request, they are treating this pretty agressively. Lily was given 2 shots of antibiotic in her thigh in the clinic and was sent home with oral antibiotics. She also has another appointment on Friday to see if there's been improvement.

The other thing we found out at the clinic is that Lily weighs 17 lbs, 13 oz. Basically the same as she did 2 months ago, and less than she did at 9 months. The kid eats and eats. She eats more than Addie at most meals! The doctor put her on a calorie supplement and wants to see how she does on that for 1 month before they do anything further. We're also going to be giving her more concentrated formula so she gets more calories per serving. The doc gave us a few other ideas to try. Basically I'm very scared. At our 12 month appt. the doctor told us that if she doesn't start gaining weight by her 15 month appointment (at the end of June) we would test her for metabolic disorders. It might be related to the dairy allergy, but it might be something additional. The words failure to thrive just keeps running through my head.

I Addie, I 2

Adam and I are blown away by our social butterfly. Addie will walk right up to kids roughly the same age as her (give or take a few years) and say, "I Addie, I 2" and wait for a response. Most kids have no idea what she's saying. That or they're just too shy to say something, even to another kid.

Yesterday we went to see the new lambs at Bob and Pam's house. The lambs were adorable and the girls were excited as all get out. Addie almost immediately (after scarfing down the top of a cupcake, some fruit, large amounts of cheese and half a hot dog) made friends with another little boy and girl that were there. The boy was a year or so older than Addie and the girl was a year or so younger. Still, Addie made friends. She ran and fake falled with the boy, she blew bubbles in the little girl's face, she traded (and even gave away at one point) her bubbles. At one point Addie even demonstrated the chicken dance for her new friends. I swear, I have no idea where the kid gets this from!

Lily on the other hand, charmed the older ladies and practiced her new walking skills.

Have you seen Dumpr? The have a sketch feature that allows you to bring in a picture and convert it into a line drawing. I find this oddly addicting.

I've Got Skillz!

Look out world, it's me Lily! I'm a big girl now. My Momma calls me her baby, but I'm really not. I can get everywhere I want to go - I crawl, I climb and now I walk around holding onto people's fingers. I've been very demanding lately that everyone walk me around wherever I go. This crawling stuff will soon be for the birds. I can even stand up all by myself (I practice at daycare all the time.)

My Momma thinks that she puts me to bed at night, but really I put myself to bed. Sure, she gives me some milk before bed and rubs my hair, but I crawl up the steps all by myself. Momma turns on the music and then I launch myself out of her arms and into the crib. Rocking is for babies.

I'll be taking my drivers license test to drive my hot little red car soon. Beep, Beep, look out, blonde driver coming through!

Foggy Day

I've tried to find a picture that shows you just how beautiful the fog is today. It's blowing off the lake so you get these strange gusts of fog billowing around. However, everything I find looks like ths... http://www.earthcam.com/cams/minnesota/duluth/ Which will look much different tomorrow than it does today. Today, that picture is just a sheet of grey.

So, instead of a picture, here's some fog info: Between late spring and late fall the (Lake Superior) shore can be shrouded in fog when the land surrounding Lake Superior heats up much warmer than the water. This warm season fog occurs when when moisture in the warm air condenses as it flows over the cold lake. Duluth, Minnesota has an average of 52 days of heavy fog each year.

Wordless Wednesday

Point Taken

I'm missing the sun... It's been rainy, foggy and nasty all week. So here's a picture of my no-nap kid. She has decided that it is too much fun at daycare and she doesn't want to waste a moment of it sleeping. Who would want to sleep when you have little Reese's (other baby her age) chubby toes to tickle? So Lily sleeps in the car on the way to daycare (30 min) and on the way home (30 min). If I run her right upstairs, she'll stay asleep through the night. However, this means that she misses supper. If I keep her awake and feed her supper, she's banging her head on the floor in exhaustion by 7pm. What's a mom to do?