Saturday, December 19, 2009

Punkin Chocolate

First you take some punkin and add some chocolate and stir it all up.

Den you add some oil and stir that up.

Den you add some crackers that you smashed up with the smasher and stir it up really well for a long time.

Den you add one more chocolate chip.

Den you bake it in the oven so it all squishes together.

That's how you make punkin chocolate.

Recipe by Mess 1 age 3

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Improving

Hubby took Mess 2 to Children's a few days ago to see the ophthalmologist for her six month checkup. It was a long appointment for them since they dilated her eyes and did a number of tests. Plus my poor girl was very sick; she and I had been in the ER the night before because she was having such a hard time breathing (thankfully her O2 levels were good), so she was low on sleep.

But the good news is her eyes are improving and the odds of her vision correcting by the time she is a tween/teen keep getting better. We also found out the lazy eye part is not due to weak muscles (so not patching her was the right thing to do), but a result of her trying so hard to focus. Her vision is still as bad as mine is so I have some idea of what it's like for her without her glasses, and I can see how she'd go cross eyed trying to focus. I don't even try, it just gives me a headache.

So the optometrist here in town is getting her new glasses, which is good since her old ones aren't working well at all. They are way too small, and the earpieces broke during the move (yes eight weeks ago). They were replaced once with earpieces from a pair that didn't quite match or fit, but one broke again within a week. We tried various types of tape, but then finally gave up and let the half earpiece do its best. They really are pretty pathetic.

Once we get the new ones in I'll post pictures, both of her current pitiful pair, and her fun new, purple, pair.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Road Trippin'

Mess 1 and I went on our first long road trip together a few weeks ago. My grandfather (Pepaw) had just come home after a stay in the hospital and a rehab center, so we went to help out for a few days while my father was out of town.

Mess 1 was a real trooper, handling the two 10 hour days in the car like the seasoned traveler he is. Of course, getting to watch movies for the whole trip helps. :0)

It was a fun trip, with some very memorable moments:

  • My boy did get tired of the movies toward the end of each day, so I'd start the praise and worship playlist on my iPod. Whenever Toby Mac's "Lose My Soul" would start he would perk up, and then he'd ask me to play it again and again. He loves that song, and I love listening to him sing "I don't wanna gain the whole world and lose my soooouuuul."
  • We also heard Audio A's "Big House." I don't think he's ever heard it, but he perked up when they mentioned football, so we listened to it a few times. Days later he asked for the "Big song." And then proceeded to sing most of the chorus. The child's memory for music continues to amaze me.
  • At one point, after asking him repeatedly to be quiet for a few minutes so I could deal with the traffic, I finally had to call his name in my mean mama voice. His response: "Aw man!" but then he was quiet. It was too funny.
  • While Mess 1 was talking to Hubby on the phone, Hubby handed the phone to Mess 2. My sweet boy said "Hey sweetie-girl." I hope he calls her that forever.
  • Two days later while talking to Hubby he said "Can I talk to my sister?" I hope he always wants to talk to her.
  • Mess 1 fed Pepaw popcorn while they read the Sunday comics
  • Pepaw was sitting in the recliner with his feet up at one point when he wasn't feeling well, and Mess 1 kept walking over to him and patting his arm and asking "Are you OK, Pepaw?"
  • Mess 1 told both the PT and OT that came to my grandparent's house "That's not Mr. John, that's Pepaw!"
  • We stayed with some friends the last night of our trip to help break up the drive home, and he shared the bed with me. I accidentally woke him up at 2:30 in the morning trying to get him to stop digging his knees into the middle of my back; he then chatted to me about who knows what until almost 5. I did at least get one nice hug/"I love you, Mom" out of it, but man the drive home was rough
  • And just for the record, the boy watched Aladdin five times, Mickey's Three Musketeers six times, and Monsters Inc. twice. I tried to tell him I had other movies (at least 10), but he wasn't interested.

I can't wait to see what future car trips hold...

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

She can see now

We think. But I'm still having a hard time with them....


Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Confirmed

I always suspected what would be my least favorite part of parenting. Monday night it was confirmed.

Vomit.

Specifically, having to be the person to clean up the vomit. I don't deal well with vomit. I end up needing to vomit myself. So when Mess 1 got sick Monday night, it wasn't good

Because of course Hubby was out of town Monday night. My children have some sort of "Daddy's out of town, let's get sick" radar. So I got to be the clean up crew.

I think I did pretty well; I only gagged four times.

Anyway, Monday night he woke crying about 9:00 pm. He told me he banged his knee on the wall and it hurt. I should have know then something was up, normally that wouldn't have even fazed him.

A few minutes later he started crying again and told me he had to go to the bathroom. So off he went and used the bathroom, and then he headed back to bed.

Thirty minutes later, he started crying again. When I went in that time he told me his tummy hurt.

Lesson learned: when the three year old says his tummy hurts?

Get Him. To. The Bathroom!

Do not go to get medicine or a splatter bucket. Get the sick child near the toilet, then go get those things.

While I was in the bathroom getting the medicine, I heard it. When I got to the door I smelled it. And by the time I got to him he started again.

It was bad. He got the bottom sheet, the pillowcase, the actual pillow inside the pillow case, and Turtle and Puppy Dog. So I got him to the bathroom, cleaned him off and I settled him next to the toilet. Poor baby, when I got him settled down and got his "soft blanket" to keep him warm, he looked at me and asked "What happened to me?" He'd never thrown up before, and had no idea what had just happened.

Next I went to deal with the bed. I got the sheets off the bed and in the washing machine, and then did what anyone dealing with their child throwing up for the first time would do.

I called my parents.

My mom's a nurse, so I called to ask what, if any, meds I should give him. Then I asked how to get vomit off stuffed animals. Things you only learn from experience.

I got all of the vomit off Turtle and most off Puppy Dog, but Hubby gets to finish that project. It will involve lots of Febreeze.

Once that was done I got my poor boy settled in my bed, with the splatter bucket close by. We watched one episode of Little Bill on Noggin to help him calm down, and finally he fell asleep around 11:30.

He had one more episode about 3:00 am, but we managed to hit the bucket that time, so clean up only took a few minutes.

Tuesday morning he woke up and wanted to make muffins.

I called Hubby and told him he owed me, big time.

I hate vomit.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

L.I.O.N.

In my ongoing attempts to occupy Mess 1 while Hubby writes his dissertation, we are taking advantage of every cheap children's outing I can come up with.

Sunday I took the children to the zoo with Sunny and Sam (and most of Columbia) since it was sunny and in the mid-70s.

Last night Hubby took Mess 2 home and Mess 1 and I went to the children's museum with Scott, Sunny, and Sam for family night. Admission would have normally been $16.00 for the boy and me, but family night is sponsored by Food Lion so admission is only $1.00 per person. Also as part of their sponsorship, Food Lion was giving out little 3-D wooden puzzles of a lion.

About 6:00, the adults decided we were getting hungry, so off we went to get pizza. While we were sitting at the table, Sunny put the boys' lions together so they would have something to play with while waited on dinner.

After she unwrapped the package, Mess 1 picked up the paper that had that instructions on the back and was looking at the picture of the lion on the front. As I watched he took his finger and pointed at the letters.

The next thing I hear is "L. I. O. N. Lion." Sunny, the reading recovery teacher, wasn't fazed by this at all, she just said that's good. Meanwhile I'm thinking "Is he supposed to be able to do that?"

Either way I bet he's going to start reading sometime this year. What is the child going to learn in kindergarten?

In one other interesting moment, Scott told me my money smells nice. I had given him some change to get Sam a bottle of juice, and it apparently smelled nice.

There's really no reason I told you that. I just felt it should be documented that I can make money smell nice.

Although, I wonder if there's a way to turn that into a marketable skill? We could use some extra income...

Friday, February 6, 2009

Music People

The other members of my family are music freaks nuts people. My husband is a musician by trade, working on his doctorate in beating on things (he is a percussionist, or, as my father refers to him, "that drummer who married my daughter").

Mess 1 seems to be following in his father's musical footsteps. He loves to play the drums that are scattered around our house, the keyboard gets daily use, and he wants music playing whenever possible. If there isn't any music playing, he's singing something he heard sometime or another. He only has to hear a song once to be able to repeat it, melody, rhythm, and words. The scary part is he's three.

Even Mess 2, at eight months old, is developing a reputation in the music department where my husband is both student and faculty. The early childhood music students that see her at her daycare, who go back and report to their teacher, who is a colleague of my husband, say she is the only baby they've ever seen who can sing and eat at the same time. Talented, that one is. Unfortunately for me it means feeding her takes four forevers.

Meanwhile I needed help getting my headphones to work while trying to listen to the new Dave BarnesEP on iTunes. Apparently plugging them into the microphone jack doesn't cut it. Who knew...

Three

From this:



to this:




in one short year.