Oops, They did it again

Once again the boys have gone into the kiddie pool fully clothed. I had just changed them and I put the cat outside because since we've been watching my sister's dog she has hardly left our room and is find not so desirable places to use the bathroom in Mommy and Daddy's room. I was trying to make sure we didn't have one of these accidents again. Well, Sidney really wanted to pet the cat and opened the door and the boys went out in a flash and headed straight for the pool. It actually wasn't too hot this morning. Mommy got to do such fun things as weed the flower beds..........Daddy is supposed to mow the lawn tomorrow. We'll see if it happens as we have a lot to do tomorrow. (Sidney and I are going to Costco, to lunch, get her hair cut - Mommy got one today- and then to get our toes done, while Daddy needs to take some stuff to the dump and get the oil changed in both cars. We need to trim the boys hair too...............all these preparations to look marvelous for our trip. We haven't seen Grandpa Jo in a year, so we need to look our best!) We were all out there for awhile, Denver included. He and Missy got some time to check each other out, although Missy kept hissing at him and was hovering by the door, just waiting for her opportunity to jet back inside and hide under our bed.

Missy and Sidney, can you tell that the cat is not too happy to be outside? (for one, she's actually sitting still and letting Sidney pet her.)

Denver doesn't get away without some attention from Sidney either. He thinks it's too hot and is just waiting for the door to open and go back inside also.

YEAH!!!!!!!!! We just love water!

We don't care if we don't have our swimsuits on (or sunscreen, or our hats)

Carter is checking out the giraffe (you can hook the hose up into his neck and he sprays water out onto the slide (that's really hard to climb up - it's not sturdy enough)

This next one is kind of all over the place, so those that get motion sickness beware............it's really cute though, Sidney has the camera and is narrating.

I tried to upload this like three times..........I'm not sure why it's so pixley.

Sidney and Ryan's Play Date

Yesterday after playgroup one of Sidney's friends, Ryan, decided to stay and have a play date. They both had a great time and really enjoyed playing with each other. Carter and Cameron took quite a long nap too, so with Sidney otherwise occupied Mommy actually got quite a bit done.....................such exciting things as mopping the kitchen...........twice! (let's just say with the the sliding door right there and the sand table, three small kids and a dog it gets VERY dirty). I even mopped the dreaded loooooooong hallway...........and got some laundry done, picked up all the toys scattered about, talked to my sis for awhile to coordinate some things for our upcoming trip and talked to my Aunt for awhile, trying to set up a date we could all get together...........Ryan had such a good time, he didn't want to go home at the end of the day so, we took him to dinner with us................ Let's just say two excited, hyper toddlers makes for a very "active" dinner. And since Sidney had such a great time (and was occupied for hours), we hope to have another play date next week so Mommy can pack us all for our trip to WA to visit with Grandpa Jo and Uncle Zach. (We overlap for a couple of weeks while Auntie and crew are up there too.)

At one point Sidney and Ryan decided that taking the booster seats off of the kitchen chairs and wearing them around the house would be pretty darn fun............... who needs lots of expensive toys? (that's what Daddy is always saying anyway)

Here Sidney is pulling Ryan's strings.....

Sitting so nicely........................ready for something?????

Ok, back to the movie..........It's Mommy's favorite Disney movie, "The Little Mermaid"

Ok Sidney, I'll tie this here and then we'll hook this there.......................

and there off..................again

Well, not really..............just turning around to get a better view

this gives new meaning to the phrase "baby got back"

I got the camera out just a little too late..................they were giggling so hard, just , going up and down the stairs, walking around................at one point Sidney was coming down the stairs and came around the corner on the landing and grabbed the railing and was hanging from it, with the booster seat hanging from her and she shouted something, I forget what, but it was sooooo cute!

Monsoon Season

Monsoon season has started.....................it will be clear skies all day and then in the early evening the clouds come in and the storm starts..................wind, rain, thunder, lightning. The one we had yesterday was short-lived, but man, it was coming down hard. Sidney was soooo excited. She was like "Mommy, get my umbrella!" This child just loves any kind of water. So much so, I couldn't even get her bathing suit off of her until it was time for dinner.

Kudos to Daddy

Mommy knows she's on Daddy's case a lot to do things around the house.................Roman would say A LOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But she just wanted to say that she appreciates it when you do get around to doing things...............especially today, when I opened the slider and the pin that goes in the bottom of the door was in the track and Mommy didn't realize it. The pin got stuck under the door and it wouldn't open. Well, I tried to fix it on my own, but I only made it worse. When Roman came home it took some doing, but he was finally able to fix it. (I was afraid we were going to have to go get the neighbor, Mr. Mark, to come help - poor guy, Mommy is always knocking on his door when she needs help with something right away and Daddy's not home. We really appreciate it Mark!) YEAH!!!!!!! We especially needed it fixed right away as we have playgroup here tomorrow and will be going through that door often!
Thanks Daddy!.................Now, Mommy has a few other things on her list for you to do............

The Big Sister

Carter and Cameron are starting to interact with Sidney more and more.....................Well, sometimes she kind of forces them to..............but they play around her too when she goes into the play room

not here, they LOVE to play with the computer and now Sidney can navigate games on the playhouse disney and teletubbies sites and Carter wanted to "watch"

Here she goes again........................Sidney needs someone to play dress up with her and since her cousins are gone right now, then her brothers will have to do. I must say, Cameron puts up with this quite well.

Playing with Denver

We are watching my sister's dog, Denver, this week while they are up in WA................the boys are just fascinated by him, and Sidney just LOVES playing with him............

Carter and Cameron go in for a closer look

Carter says "nice doggie"

Can't you just tell that Denver is loving all the attention?

Cameron is getting a kick out of Denver..

Fun with Water

It's officially summer here and the heat has settled in.....................we are trying to stay cool, playing with water always seems to help...........we went to the pool at the gym after Sidney's swim lesson this morning as they have the zero depth entry the boys just love playing in. It's hard to keep an eye on all three of them, but there's a life guard there and if I can keep the boys together then we are in pretty good shape. Yesterday I took Sidney over to the community pool by our house while the boys were napping. It's literally right by our house and the monitor signal goes over to the pool, so with them safe in their cribs I can hear when they wake up. When we got back and the boys woke up I got them ready to go outside (all except the swim diaper) and was going to feed them a late lunch as they went down pretty early yesterday, but Sidney opened the sliding door before I could get them in their highchairs and get them to eat, so they followed her outside. After that, forget reining them back in to be strapped in a highchair, so I walked around shoving food in their mouths periodically while Sidney once again got the water everywhere.................she took the hose out of the pool and filled the sand and water table (the sand side too), the play house and was hosing off herself and her brothers. I just went with it...

The red side of the table is supposed to be for sand......................there's some sand under there somewhere................the blue side is supposed to be water, but it looks a little dirty....

Cameron is playing in the water in the play house

Carter thinks it looks like fun, so he's coming to join him........

splash, splash, splash

Peek-a-boo Mommy

We had the sprinkler hooked up too

All I needed to do was put their swim diapers on, but I forgot once they started playing.......

A Little Retail Therapy

Mommy has a confession to make...............................she has been a little down lately..........ok, a lot down lately when it comes to post-baby, or make that post-twin-baby body image. I try not to make comments in front of Sidney, as I'm sure body issues will come into play all too soon for her, but it's been very difficult for me to lose these last 14lbs and very depressing as I still can't get my old clothes back on. The boys are 17 months old now and Sidney was only 4 months old when I could get my pre-baby clothes on. Some things have changed permanently, like my rib cage is now bigger. I can deal with that I guess, it just means a lot of my old shirts don't fit anymore. Some things are smaller now..............not necessarily desirable in the parts I'm talking about..........................I have tried to lose the weight and sometimes I swear that last year at this time my clothes felt like they fit better than they do now........................Jenn and I had been working out with a wonderful trainer twice a week for a year. It was great, a real motivator to get to the gym (if you're paying for it) and lots of great cheering when we were there during times other than training sessions, but something had to go in the budget and that was the first thing. As many of you know, it's been very difficult for me to get to the gym since then. We used to go on Tuesdays & Thursdays, but now I watch my sister's girls on those days and almost every morning Sidney has a class of some sort (sometimes on the days when she doesn't it's nice not to have to frantically run around the house in the morning just to try and get out the door) and in the afternoons it's just been hard with the boys schedule...........some days they take one nap, some days two. They are just now walking and at a point where I would feel comfortable with them not in the infant area - which has been another challenge - trying to get two babies in there and in the afternoon they have 2:30pm or 4:00pm appointments and nothing in-between, which makes it either too early or too late (in the mornings the child area is complete chaos........ not a place for babies and very overwhelming for them)...................anyway, from my rough morning post you can tell that I want to work out, but haven't been able to lately.........excuses, excuses I know......Anyway, I have been trying not to buy too many "in-between clothes" as I like to call them, but I don't have a lot to wear to cover up my post-baby bump you could say. I have a long torso, so trying to find something long enough isn't always that easy. And picking up two babies at once always seems to show off my not so toned tummy..........Luckily the style is going that way, with longer tops, but trying to find one that is flattering (and doesn't look like a maternity top) has proven a challenge. I did finally break down and got some new bottoms recently, but was trying to stick it out with all of the tops I have. I finally decided enough is enough and got some tops the other day. Although, I'm not sure if shopping with a toddler can exactly be considered therapeutic, but she was certainly having fun .............she found this new dress (aka - a shirt of mommies) that she LOVED! "Can we take it home Mommy?" she kept asking me. And she wanted to show it off to everyone in the dressing room while Mommy was trying to change tops too..............well, today I decided to go back (child free - my Mom was watching the kids for a while so that I could go to an appt.) and try a few more things.......................well, I was there a bit longer than planned. I was trying to hurry and thought that Grandma might be wondering if I was ever coming back, but I found a few things that I can feel comfortable in! If I can't lose the weight, at least I can try and hide it!
Don't worry Daddy, Mommy says she saved us lots of money as this "therapy" took place at the good old standby, Tar-je (that's Target for the rest of you.) Just think about the old saying that rings VERY true............................................If Momma ain't happy, ain't nobody happy! Don't you just feel better already?

Large Twins

HOLY COW!!!!!!
Check out this article on these large twins................................. the smaller one weighed more than Carter and Cameron combined!!!! I couldn't imagine carrying babies that large...........it doesn't say how long she carried them, but I'm guessing to full term.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080620/ap_on_fe_st/odd_big_twins

Our Exciting Afternoon

Mommy was going a bit stir crazy this afternoon with the kids in the house, as we didn't have playgroup this morning, so we'd been inside all day. So this afternoon I decided to fill the kiddie pool (and Sidney decided to fill the both sides of the sand and water table............and the playhouse..................and to dowse her brothers and herself........ with all of their clothes on while I was upstairs getting their swim diapers and suits................................Well, I brought them in one at a time to change their diapers and put their bathing suits on and put sunscreen on them (the boys really did not want to stop playing even for a second, so they put up a big fuss), ........then when I went to change Sidney, when I was laying her down to change her diaper (she still goes back and forth from panties to a diaper when she has to go #2) and she started screaming and crying "It hurts, it hurts Mommy!" She was putting her hands by her ears................I looked in her left ear and couldn't see anything and then behind her right ear I found a black earwig (a long, thin bug, with pincher-like things on it's tail end). I tried to flick it off, but it went in her hair...... I kept swatting at it until I saw it crawling on the changing pad and got some tissue and killed it and threw it in the garbage..................crisis averted...........or so I thought......................I went to continue changing her and she started again, this time on the other ear......"Mommy, Mommy it hurts, it hurts!" She started crying this time........I tried to look in her ear, but I couldn't see anything, so I grabbed a flashlight and tried to look in her ear..................I still couldn't see anything..................then she would be ok for a minute, and then start crying again. I thought "there is definitely something wrong with this child", so I called the pediatrician. I didn't want to wait this one out................They didn't have any openings, so we were referred to another location within the same practice. The appt. was an hour away, but I changed all three kids back into regular diapers and their clothes and made the boys a milk cup and headed out the door. I didn't care if I was early, I just wanted someone to help my baby as soon as possible.
Man, it's such a helpless feeling when your child is hurting and you can't do anything to help them. I just kept telling her that I was sorry and that we were almost there. Sidney kept the flashlight up to her ear the whole way to the Dr's office and started crying again a couple of times on the way there. I started crying too. I was worried for her.............................Then, to top it off, when we got to the Dr's office I go to get the stroller out of the back of the van and no stroller......................OH CRAP!!!!!!!! I had taken it out last night to put my scrapbook cart in there as we were supposed to scrap at my Mother of Multiples meeting (the CM rep. just talked about the different ways of keeping your pictures, and some people looked at the boys first year albums I had brought with me to work on), and I thought I put it back in the car last night. "What do I do?" I thought I don't really have a choice, I'm not going back home now........................so I get the keys and my purse and the diaper bag strapped on and let Sidney out of her car seat and then unbuckle one baby and pick him up, then run around to the other side of the car and try to unbuckle the other one and take him out of his car seat with one hand. (It's a good thing the van has automatic sliding doors.) I told Sidney to hold her brothers leg, but she grabbed onto the diaper bag. Luckily the parking spot was pretty close to the office and it wasn't a busy parking lot. Someone just happened to be walking out the door too as we were walking in, so that was VERY helpful. We only waited a couple of minutes (good thing, because Cameron was wanting to walk all over the place and Sidney wanted me to hold her. Luckily Carter was just sitting there.) The nurse called us into the first room and took Cameron's hand. The boys were kind of fussy, but I gave them their milk, which calmed them down a little and I sat on the Dr's stool with Sidney on my lap, still holding the flashlight up to her ear while Cameron was walking around checking everything out. (Apparently, the bug wouldn't move as much when the light was shinning in her ear.) The Dr came in right away and I told her the scenario and then she looked in her right ear................... everything was ok.................then she looked in her left ear........ a little longer and yep, Mommy was right (unfortunately), there was a bug in there. I jumped and gasped when she said that. I was just hoping that it wasn't going to burrow up into her brain or something. It gives me the heebie jeebies just thinking about it. Then the nurse came in with a modified spray bottle and a cup and flushed it out while I hugged Sidney and held the cup. She was wiggling a little and it took a couple of times, but the bug came out. I shivered again. Poor thing. At least this one was a little smaller, but it was red. (I haven't ever seen a red one.) All they said was that this was the first time they had actually seen a bug in a child's ear. Great, can't someone else set the record?....................They gave us some drops to give Sidney in her ear for a couple of days and Sidney was good as new. She kept asking me why there was a "little" bug in her ear. I was thinking "little?", "that's not exactly what I would consider little."
I was on my way home, just disgusted thinking about it, and glad that I listened to my gut and didn't wait to take her in, and decided that she was such a brave girl and did so well that we were going to go to McD's and get ice cream and actually go in ! (I stopped by the house first to pick up the stroller.) The kids loved that........who says you can't have dessert first? It took me a while, but once the kids started playing, after their ice cream was gone, I started to feel a little better. I was just sick to my stomach........Man, let's hope we NEVER have to go through that again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So, there is our 5th trip to the Dr's office in like 3 weeks!!!!! (They might start to think that I'm one of those people who do stuff intentionally to their kids to get attention - I can't think of the name of what it's called right now, but just know that is NOT the case!!!!!! I would be more than happy to stay out of a Dr's office forever after all this!)
Everyone is saying "Wow, I've never actually known someone who's had that really happen to them".....................well, now you do - not necessarily a good thing......

Hot, hot, hot

The kids were playing outside this afternoon in the little pool and with the sprinkler as it's HOT! It's 100-110+ all week........Ugh (Here's Madeline with Carter)

Carter was fascinated by the sprinkler............... he's got the plumber behind going as they are between sizes

Cameron was trying to turn the water off

Momma, I mean Sidney's got a new bag

I finally got a new purse, as the one I had, albeit very cute and sassy, is getting very worn, and those that know me, know I don't pack lightly, so things are always falling out of it. I brought it downstairs to transfer everything over and Sidney saw it and immediately took it into the play room and started filling it up. That's one of her new things, taking her purses, or whatever container she can find, and filling it up with all of her little animals, figurines, jewelry, whatever will fit. It takes Mommy quite a while at the end of the day to find it all and put it all back where it goes..........notice how full she filled it.........

I could hardly snap it shut and she was having a hard time lifting it.........

But it must go everywhere she goes...................and heaven forbid if she's not playing with it that Mommy try to take it back to put her stuff in it!

The Girls

The girls actually getting along and sharing the chair for the picture. Sidney was pretty mellow this day, she wasn't feeling so good, but mananged to play here and there.

Cameron

Cameron is in a chocolate comma.

The boys have had their taste of M&M's and they loved them!

Hi Mommy (Big Sister Sidney put this lovely dance skirt on him and he actually didn't seem to mind)

Carter is walking now too

Carter is practicing his walking

The Boys playing before bed

Carter is playing and loving on Daddy and Cameron is soooo cute reading his book!

Cameron has the "pick ups" as Sidney calls them (aka = hiccups)

VERY Early Morning

Well, after all the sleeping Sidney did yesterday afternoon, she woke up at 2:30am! Roman went in and tried to lay down with her, but she was awake and not going back to sleep so I went in and laid down with her. She wanted to watch a video, so at this point, I was like, OK. I went and got the portable DVD player and plugged it in in her room and we watched the Lion King. I was trying to go back to sleep, but with the noise and Sidney asking me questions and being uncomfortable in her small bed that was nearly impossible. After the movie I tried to get her to go back to sleep and told her, "Mommy is going back to bed. I need to get some sleep." I haven't been sleeping well the past few weeks anyway, so this does not help. She wanted to come back and lay in our bed.....................we've tried this before and it usually never works. She talks and wants to play and doesn't go to sleep. Luckily it was still dark out, so of course, she has to share my pillow (she doesn't like Roman's down pillow), and is hogging most of that and most of my side of the bed and has her head almost on top of mine. Needless to say, I was not very comfortable. But at least she went back to sleep and I got to rest - if you can call it that. Now she's "helping" mommy mop the kitchen (aka - just spraying the mopping fluid all over the place.) Hopefully I can get her into a quiet time here soon, if not a nap and I can shower.......... or maybe just take a nap..............................
Oh, we called the Dr's office this morning and talked to the nurse...........Sidney seems ok today so far, no fever and is her usual mischievous self. No throwing up, yet...............She was picking up her brothers and carrying them around all over this morning (which they were not really appreciating her for.)

And on..............

Well, it looks like we will be heading to the Dr. yet again tomorrow. Sidney has a fever again (her 4th day on her antibiotic), slept almost all afternoon and threw up again tonight. Yes, that's 5 times in the past 2 1/2 weeks. When I took Sidney in earlier in the week they said they were going to reserve us our own room.............our insurance company must think I am a horrible Mom with my kids getting so sick all the time. It looks like we're going to reach our max out of pocket again this year. Hopefully we can get rid of these germs once and for all. I have washed almost everything I can find, sprayed the toys with Lysol, washed a bunch of stuffed animals. I'm not even sure where they are getting all this junk, as they don't go to daycare and lord knows I haven't been going to the gym hardly at all lately...................Sidney does have her classes with parks and rec.
I am feeling a little better. Still tired and kind of queasy stomach and head ache off and on, but better than yesterday.
Carter and Cameron are walking all over now. I will try to get some video of them and post it this weekend.

It's happened

I was hoping and praying that I wouldn't get sick, but I'm pretty sure I have it now too. I am just sooooooooo exhausted. This morning I could hardly stand up I was so tired and now my stomach is upset too, a headache off and on, I can't even think straight (worse than normal since having the boys), and a tickle in my throat. Roman says that his throat feels kind of scratchy too. What perfect timing...............my sister is watching my kids tomorrow to give me a break. Roman is actually taking them over there right now. So much for all the stuff I was going to get done around the house. I desperately need to go to the grocery store though, so I will probably try to do that in the morning before it gets blazing hot out. Maybe I'll try to schedule a massage in the afternoon, and that will probably be about it for the day. Hopefully the boys won't get it again as I was asking Roman today and I don't think Cameron got his last dose of antibiotics on Saturday.............and now Carter has tiny red dots all over his body? They don't seem to be bothering him.......................I am crossing my fingers it's not what I think it might be...................so some soup and off to bed for me!

And the sickness goes on.......and on.......and on

Surprise, surprise................Sidney felt VERY warm today after her nap (that should have tipped me off right there, she hasn't taken naps since she was 2 - but I know she was up late in the evenings quite a bit lately and the girls - my nieces were here this weekend - got up at 4:30am on Sunday morning, so I figured she was just a little sleep deprived) so I took temperature......102.5, so I call the Dr's office and I took her in this afternoon. Yep, strep throat! Part of me is like, "I can't believe it" and part of me is like "we were just waiting for it to happen." I'm not sure what's worse.......... having like 3 weeks of sick kids, one at a time, or if they were just all three sick at once? At least if they were all sick at the same time we'd be over it by now. She's lethargic and not eating...............those of you who are around Sidney a lot know she doesn't sit still for long usually. She is so sick she doesn't even want to watch a video...................that is a total shocker. This child lives for videos! Then we have the nice additional symptom that her brothers did not have, of throwing up...........Sidney decided this afternoon that Mommy had gone too long today wearing half-way clean clothes and helped me dirty them all the way! On top of that, Cameron grabbed Sidney's juice cup this morning and was drinking from it and then this afternoon Carter put Cameron's pacifier in his mouth for some unknown reason. As the Dr. said, and I pray, "hopefully she won't give it back to them!" Yes, four trips to the Dr's in less than two weeks is more than enough.
I am REALLY hoping not to get it.................Sidney is always taking sips of my drinks and eating my food. I think I over did it this weekend too, going out too much. It just happened that we had a lot of things going on. I am more tired than usual (if that's even possible) and I feel like I could just drop over at any moment.......

On a brighter note, Carter is starting to walk more independently like Cameron now. Cameron is loving walking and walks all over the house. They are almost walking as much as they are crawling now. It won't be long and my little boys won't be babies any more.........sigh. Now it's just getting them off of the bottle............... they do take sippy cups with juice or water in them, but I tried to give them milk in a cup the other morning, as they have milk first thing when they wake up, and Carter smacked it out of my hand, almost saying "Get that sippy cup away from me! Where's my bottle?"

Early Mornings

Good morning....................it's another early one for me. Not because my kids are up..........I'm just up. The smoke detector was beeping this morning because the battery was low.............I thought it was the carbon monoxide sensors, as they beep when the battery is low (we have gas heat and some gas appliances, so I bought some detectors in case we ever have a leak). I pulled the one out of the wall upstairs by our room and took the battery out then tried to lay back down...............still beeping. I was like, what the heck? I pulled the battery out..............so I went downstairs and pulled the other one out of the wall and took the battery out.......................still beeping. I finally figured out that it was the smoke detector just outside our room. Now forget about going back to sleep, even though it was after 11:00pm again before I went to sleep the night before. O'well.................I will enjoy the golden silence...................and pick up the play room. My nieces were here yesterday afternoon for a while and you can't even see the floor the in the play room. I was going to just go sit outside and enjoy the cool air, if you call in the 60's cool.......... it is to us! But, I'm a little OCD and can't stand the mess...................plus, I will be gone today at a convention for Mother of Multiples and I don't want the boys to choke on any of Sidney's little toys!
Have a great weekend everyone.

Little Miss Attitude

It was another early morning. Sidney woke up around 5:30am (I must have had a premonition that she was going to do this, as last night when I was trying to go to sleep, after 11:00pm I swear I heard Sidney say Mom twice...............I sat up and said "What honey? Come over here..." Nothing............Roman was snoozing away..................WEIRD!!!!) and comes into our room. Roman hadn't even gotten up for work yet, as we were up a little late last night - we went out and watched the NBA Finals. (I used to love watching basket ball, but haven't really gotten to in years. I thought it would be nice to see a game.) We tried to get her to lay down with us, but once she's up, she's up. So Roman got up to get ready and took her downstairs and turned on the Disney Channel for her and get her settled while he got ready. Well, as soon as he left for work she came back upstairs to get me.............she climbed on the bed, grabbed the comforter and sheet and pulled it back to the bottom of the bed. "Mom, you HAVE to get up! You have to take me to the park. Get up, get up, get up...Mom, get up and take me to the park!" "I want to change my clothes and I want a skirt." It wasn't even 6:30am yet........ she is talking about the little park in our development that is close to our house. She always wants to go there after dinner when her cousins are here, but it usually is close to bath time and the evening time is very hot here now.
That is her new saying "You have to do..........." When she wants me to play with her it's, "You have to say....." "Now Mom, you have to say....."
She dictates everything I must say and do during play................... kind of like her older cousin does to her (whom Grandma loving refers to as Hector the director.) And lately it's "Mom, get me this....."
"Pardon me?" I say.........
"Mom, can I please have ........"
"That's much better. Thank you for using your manners" I say........................ she is really getting an attitude and becoming quite demanding. Of course Mommy and Daddy don't stand for being ordered around by a toddler, but boy does she try..................... I don't even want to think of the attitude she will have when she is a teenager!!!!!!!

STREP

Well, it's official now, Cameron has strep throat too. It only took like 2 minutes for the nurse to come back after swabbing his throat............. no, it's still negative, or we think it's this or that. It's definitely Strep! I thought we were out of the woods since it had been so long since Carter's symptoms, but lucky us...........................let's just hope that Sidney does not get it (or Mommy for that matter!)
I was only supposed to have my younger niece today until later when I picked up my older niece, but she said she wasn't feeling well and didn't want to go to the camp her Mom thought that she would be so excited to go to. Well, as soon as her Daddy left, she miraculously was up, feeling better, jumping on the bed that he had laid her on. They are eating now and then Kendall will be laying down too. I already laid the boys down. Cameron was out in a flash, but now Carter is a bundle of energy and they usually go down around 10-10:30am. I just walked out and he should go to sleep. Kendall was up early and should sleep for a while and Maddie and Sidney are going to watch a nice, long movie................................and I am hoping for some golden silence. A little rest and then I need to wash and spray EVERYTHING!!!!!

Sickies

Things here in S family aren't getting much better..................everyone seems to be sharing so well ...........................and spreading around all the germs. Well, I think Cameron did have pink eye, but his must have been viral, because it's gotten much better. He had green, gunky, kind of puffy eyes for over a week, but they were never bloodshot. And after Roman spent all weekend in bed, he finally went to the Dr. yesterday after his co-workers said he should go get his eye checked out (never mind that his nurse-wife told him to go on Saturday when he had stabbing pain in his eye.......... but it seems that it has to come from someone else for him to believe it............tell me, is this just a male trait? Or is my husband just extremely stubborn?) Yep, he definitely has pink eye and has antibiotics now.
Carter is feeling much better now on his second antibiotic, back to his smiling self and was walking around quite a bit at Auntie's house after Sunday dinner.
Now, the really bad news...................... I think now Cameron has strep throat. He has a temp, is very fussy and lethargic.......................and we are going back to the Dr's office (for the third time in the past week!) They are starting to know us by name there..................they had just called again yesterday to check on Carter and make sure we knew that he had strep...........Grandma called it on Sunday when she said that Cameron looked pale and not well....... my nieces will be here later today, lets hope they (and Sidney) can manage to avoid getting sick.

I am just about to go crazy (I think I've been here before............actually, quite a bit lately)

Sick kids, hanging on me, a sick husband, a trashed house that if it ever does get cleaned only lasts for about 5 seconds, with sweltering heat.................it feels like a giant germ experiment bubble gone terribly wrong, that's about to explode! Should we just throw everything away and move? Preferably to somewhere where there is still a lot of sunshine, but I can live without the sweltering heat.............

Can you tell we are having our own pity party here this morning??????????