They're baaaack!

Seriously, if you want some, let me know and I'll cut some for you early in the morning while they're still fresh.

Katherine fine-tuning her photography skills...

Someone is very happy now that he's driving...

Memorial weekend overload

When it rains it pours, right?

We usually go through months worth of nothing to do outside of normal household maintenance activities and/or events other people have planned and graciously have invited us to. But this weekend was different. Ha! Finally! And Mr. "Realistic" (I say sarcastically) predicted a Mommy meltdown.

Friday started with a fabulous trip to the farm, followed by an unplanned trip to the car dealership to have the tires re-balanced from a routine check-up on Thursday. (Is tire balancing really that hard?) That in itself was enough to make me crash later on that night because it meant unloading two car seats and two kids into the shuttle van to take us home for lunch and lay them down for naps. Then, loading the car seats back inside the shuttle van with two sleepy kids along with all their stay-the-night paraphernalia. Unloading and loading it all back inside the newly re-balanced car to head south.

This is where I must digress . . . Have you ever seen a woman carry a car seat from one car to another with a child in it? Twice? I haven't either and I know why. They (the car seats, that is) are way too heavy, bulky, awkward and full of dead weight. The woman, with diminished arm strength compared to a man, has to hunch over, bear hug the car seat and use the top part of her thighs to help hold it all up, while annoying latch straps dangle and get caught underneath the seat after she's managed to heave it inside the car. So why would a woman do this? Ironically enough, laziness I guess. I was the hunched over woman who was frankly so sick of loading and unloading all that crap, because someone couldn't balance the tires correctly, that I was willing to take some short cuts. And boy did I look like a beauty queen in training while doing it.

Back to the story... Thankfully, the in-laws were bravely going where few choose to go on purpose, and were watching the four middle munchkins overnight and all the next day. We were on a time crunch trying to get out of the car dealership so mommy and daddy could have some big people time. So I rushed south, dropped the little angels off, rushed home and at the last minute we headed off to our most favorite restaurant of all time, The Columbia.

The Columbia has ranked extremely high on my list of all-time favorite places to eat since way before kids. Their 1905 salad was my first official pregnancy craving with Katherine and anytime we get a chance to "get out", we'll usually head to St. Augustine to sample their exquisite cuisine.

So off we went to St. Augustine. We decided to stay the night and chose a hotel on the beach just north of there. I've always loved beaches. Jim hasn't. He pretty much only goes to them because of me. Isn't that love? We had a lazy walk along the water's edge the next morning while collecting shells for the princess, made a trip to the Outlet malls nearby and ate way too much.

Later on that evening, we pick up the exhausted kids and headed home. The next day Sunday, was pretty routine until that evening. We took both kids to my grandparent's pool and Jim got to see how much of a fish Nathan is turning into (or his lack of respect for the water, whichever it is). They both swam and swam and swam. It really is tiring to watch them constantly because they both are so eager to get in and enjoy the water, but their skills aren't there to support it.

Monday morning, we woke up and headed to the lake to meet my dad and brother's family. Dad brought his boat, which I was a little apprehensive about, but much to my surprise Nathan was extremely still as long as he was "driving." Go figure. We did the usual grilling of hamburgers and hotdogs, ate too much again and got back in the water. The kids swam and swam and swam, again and were crazy-tired that evening.

One important side note: Katherine reluctantly learned how to use the bathroom while at the lake. Let's just say, no one ever says they have to go pee while at the lake, they just take care of it. (wink, wink)

And then, to top it all off, we visited some friends for some more grilling and to let our kiddos play some more.

Needless to say, we opted to not go to our usual day of school today and chose to stay home and take it easy.

I am proud to announce there was no Mommy-meltdown, but there were some seriously tired kiddos with a tad bit of 'tude. But, it was all well worth it. They are so fun right now and I so enjoy spending time with them.

A visit to the farm

We got to go visit my dad, CowPapa, at his house today.
As you can imagine, Nathan was in heaven. Not only did he get to ride and "drive" dad's lawn mower, he got to also drive the buggy, Dodge dually, boat and John Deere tractor (that just happened to match the shirt his mommy made him). Whoo hoo! Can it get any better than that?
Katherine was slightly less than impressed with the outing. Go figure. Her grip on my leg would get a little tighter when the cows got too close to the buggy, the dogs were too friendly and the bugs landed on her too much. I'm afraid she's not much of an outside kinda gal. I'm sure her non-interest in the farm had nothing to do with her tripping and falling into fresh manure, with both hands. It was hard for both of them to remember there were fresh patties all around the feed troughs, so the shoes got a good hosin' off after all was said and done. The good news is, I'm getting better about all this kids-mixing-with-cow-poop stuff, I prepared for it. (Thank you God for travel-size and convenient antibacterial wet wipes)

And look at Nathan here, I even excitedly called out the word "EXCAVATOR" to try to get him to look up. Didn't work, he could care less if the world crumbled around him. There was a tractor nearby. I think the only thing she has on her mind has to do with washing her hands with soap.

Her measure of cute-ness

We enjoyed spending time with the in-laws last Saturday night. They invited over lots of their friends for a dinner to honor devoted helpers of the Boy Scouts. Katherine and Nathan were the only kids there, so most eyes were on them.

The next day in the car Katherine declared, "Mom, I was trying to be really cute at Bamah's farm yesterday."

Me: You were? Well, you and Nathan did a really good job. You both were super cute and very well-behaved. Thank-you.

silence

K: Mom, I can get cuter. I'm getting cuter and cuter everyday.

M: I know sweetpea. I know.

His 19-month-old favorites

One advantage to having an older sibling is how much they model behaviors. Nathan has chosen lately to emulate his sister taking showers. This child LOVES taking a shower.

* * * * * * * * *

His latest fascination is with the lawn mower. He will ask to go outside and "drive" the lawn mower about 20 times a day. He reaches for the keys to the shed we have hanging in the pantry hallway area and says 'lawn mower, lawn mower, lawn mower' over and over again until I acknowledge him. Then usually after I've explained to him we are not going outside, he's very upset and ends up on the floor. Well after naps today, I needed more time to get the grocery list finished so I drove it out and parked it so I could watch him. That was all he wanted. He sat on it for 15 minutes until it was time to leave. This was my view from the kitchen window.

The Million-dollar dog

I've said it before: For some reason, God has decided to bless us with two very healthy kids.

One thing that was not in the "healthy plan" for our household was our animals. George was diagnosed last summer with lymphoma and Gracie has severe skin allergies. George was given the shortest time span of 4-6 months to live and he seems to be doing just fine; what we can see from the outside. Gracie is, well without exaggerating . . . . .

Miserable.

She has skin allergies that cause her skin to itch uncontrollably and when she constantly licks and scratches, it causes secondary problems on her skin. The summertime doesn't help, it gets much worse. We went through the entire month of April medicating her heavily. Which included antibiotics twice a day for the secondary bacterial infections forming on her skin, yeast medicine for the yeast making the itching even worse, thyroid medicine twice a day because her thyroid is low and aggravating the underlying issue, steroids to try to keep the itching and inflammation down, medicated shampoo twice a week to help the pads of her feet quit burning with itch and special cleansers followed by medicine to cool the burning and itching in her ears.
She looked and felt great after all the meds, but as soon as the antibiotics and yeast meds ran out, she was back to itching uncontrollably. So, after a sobering visit from the vet today (3 visits in 6 weeks with another one planned for next week) we are reminded that antibiotics, yeast medicine, thyroid medicine and steroids are most likely in the long-term, daily plan for her.

Sigh

It is exhausting and I am at a loss.

Monday stuff

Katherine's best bud, AC, came over yesterday and Miss Shear Genius did her hair. I had no idea she had so many pink bows.
This is what I woke up to yesterday. And no, he's not in the crib that long for him to attempt a clothing-optional mutiny. He just gets impatient or finds a string on his shirt that he doesn't like.

Summer days have begun

Now rather than get all upset that we have a blue hole in the ground located in our screened back porch that will cost over $5k to make functional again, I choose to look at the bright side.

1. Our kids aren't old enough to swim by themselves anyway and it can be rather exhausting trying to keep two of them from drowning.
2. Pools are very expensive and very time consuming to keep up.

So the next best option is a $15 pool from Wal-Mart inflated and set up in the back porch. Shoot, we got a pool. Yep, come on by. Just make sure you're not wearing sharp shoes when you get in.
We started out with the freezin' cold water from the hose and I got the bright idea to add boiling water. Nobody got hurt, but all I could do was think, "this is a disaster waiting to happen." I added about 3 gallons of boiling water and it warmed it maybe a degree. We'll have to wait for ole Mother Nature to do that warming.

Katherine got all excited about putting on her bathing suit. Nathan got down to his bare essentials (those swim diapers must be scratchy) and boy did I convince the girl to smile pretty for me. I'm sure it had nothing to do with threatening to make her get out unless she smiled for the camera. Nathan's trigger has more to do with being able to look at his picture after it's taken. Whatever works.


Here, he's saying, "I see, I see!"

...and I always thought he'd be the first one to do it

I never, not once, thought Katherine would be the first one to do it. I'd heard stories about childhood playmates that had to make special Dr. visits because of it, and I pretty much summed up, It'll be the boy, first. Most likely not her at all.

I was wrong.

On the way home from lunch today, a usually happy and talkative 4-year-old started shrieking from the back seat. One second she's babbling on about who knows what and the next second she's screaming, with shear terror in her eyes.

I turned around quickly, did the "mom stretch" from the front seat with my seat belt on and demanded to know, "What is wrong? What happened? Are you okay? What hurts?"

Her eyes were overflowing with tears and she kept pointing to her nose exclaiming, "My nose! Ouchie, it hurts! My nose!"

"What's wrong with your nose?"

"It's stuck up in there!"

"What is?"

inaudible

"Where?"

(she points to her right nostril)

By this point, I have no idea what it is, but it's scaring her to death, which is starting to scare me, and it must come out quickly.

"OK, sweet pea. I'm going to press this side of your nose and hold it tight. I want you to take a deep breath through your mouth and blow out the other side really hard. OK? Like this!" (I modeled the actions so as to make sure she didn't suck it up any further)

(she nodded eagerly)

"OK, I'm pressing this side, take a deep breath and BLOW!"







Out projected a flimsy piece of clear tape, the size of a rice krispie kernel.







She had been playing with her brother's truck book, which has been patched and taped together many times because of his destructive nature, and for some reason unknown to any mother that has ever lived --> she decided to shove a small piece of the clear packing tape up her nose.

After a hardy laugh with her father, I explained to her why we don't do that and I happened to have a true story to back up my motherly wisdom.

A boy I grew up with stuck a bean up his nose when he was little. I don't know what kind of bean or how little he was, but something tells me he was big enough to know better and nearly drive his mother insane. He stuck it up his nose and didn't tell anybody. I guess it didn't bother him that much because it stayed up there until it started smelling. Now remember, his mother had no clue the bean had already settled in its new home. It seems like it, although I might be embellishing a tad, but it seems like it took a couple of days for his mom to figure out what was smelling.

OK, so I got a visual with this one. The bean was up there long enough for it to start smelling, and then mom can't figure out what the smell is for another couple of days. I swear. I can so see myself catching a slight whiff of something not so fresh as I played with one of my kids, or gave them a bath or helped them get dressed and I shutter to think it would take days to figure it out. She eventually had to take him to the doctor. True story. I think the exaggerated length of the tweezers-like contraption used to get the bean out of his nose might be the hook in the story I used for Katherine to not try that again.

This is a PERFECT example of why Mothers temporarily lose their brains. Can you imagine the brain power sucked up by subconsciously trying to figure out for DAYS what was causing the smell emanating from your small child?

I'm convinced more and more every day that Motherhood is God's precious little reminder that we are not in control, we never have been no matter how "with-it" we were before kids, we never will be and there's joy in letting Him take the wheel. Because frankly, anything shoved up a kid's nose, after the coast is clear and no one is hurt, is funny.

Labeling our children

The in-laws and us have had fun labeling our children. Yes, the exact thing you're not supposed to do. Whatever. But they're kind of fun labels we're enjoying behind their backs, at nobody's expense. Through the years, the 4 middle grandchildren have formed these very distinct personalities and through those personalities, we've come up with these nicknames.

The oldest girl, R, has been dubbed: The NegotiatorWe can see her being sent to a foreign country, on the brink of war, with the intentions of negotiating peace and/or disarmament. Or maybe even defending a high-profile case that has gone to trial. This girl is the one you want on your side, negotiating on your behalf because she doesn't give up. There's got to be a way to work around these things called "rules".

The next girl, Katherine, has been dubbed: The JudgeYes, she has a serious streak of royalty in her, but get her in a new situation in front of new people, and I dare you to get barely a lip twitch out of her. She can pull off a stone-face better than professional poker players. And what you don't know is that she might be warming up to you. You'll never know until its too late.

The oldest boy, J, has been dubbed: Mr. Secret ServiceSimilar to his older cousin, this one here is a hard one to convince. As far as he's concerned, you are guilty until proven innocent. It takes a lot of proven, hard, cold facts for him to be convinced of your argument, even if it is as simple as "put on your shoes, we're going outside." You better bring your "A+" game to this one, he's expecting it.

The next boy, Nathan, has been dubbed: The AmbassadorLooking up the definition of ambassador has me wondering if it should really be a mixture of that plus The Politician. This kid may look too young for it, but he's ready to start shaking hands and kissing babies. Fellow restaurant patrons, he's saying 'hiyee' and 'biyee' to you all with a well-defined flip of the wrist wave and bank teller ladies watch out, he's coming straight for you with a flower off the bush outside, a hand-blown kiss and a smile that will knock your socks off.