Sleep log 2

I'm too tired to go into too much detail about our sleep last night. It always seems to hit me two days after a bad nights sleep.

Last night Tom and I went to bed at 10 and Drew was in our room at 3 o'clock and we dealt with him until 4.

Then Lily was up at 6 asking to watch TV and our morning routine began soon after that.

This weekend my parents have invited the kids over for a full 24 hour period. It's the first time in months...I'm not sure how many, but a lot. So, I'm really looking forward to that! :)

Sleep log

This weekend my brother-in-law, David, who has no children, was asking me about how much the children affect my sleep. These days we do not have a baby in the house and I know that that is typically the most sleep deprived a parent gets, but Tom and I are still losing sleep to our children's night lives so I thought I would log it for a week on here. I'm not actually good at daily logs, but I thought I would at least give it a try.

Night One

The children were in bed and asleep by 8 PM, or a little after. We are recovering from a holiday weekend, so it was a bit hard for them to settle down. Tom and I went to bed a little after 10 PM, but since I have a hard time shutting down my brain to sleep, I know that I saw 11:00 at least.

Lily had a bad dream around 3 o'clock in the morning. She did not get out of bed, but instead she yelled from her bed "Mom! Mommy! Moooom!" Lily calling for me did not wake me up, but Tom was stirring, and started to sit up in bed, and that's when I woke up. I went up to check on her and got her settled down. We talked about how dreams aren't real and that the house wasn't on fire. We talked about what we would do if the smoke detectors went off and that there was no way that anyone could sleep through their beeping.

About 15 or 20 minutes after I crawled back in bed, the "Mom! Mom! Mom!" started again. I waited Tom out and tried to ignore her for as long as possible. I won. Tom finally rolled out of bed and took care of her. I think he got her a drink of water and tucked her back into bed. It was some time around 3:45 when he went to her and about 4:15 when he came back to bed.

I managed to go back to sleep and my alarm went off at 5:20 so that I could go to the Y to work out. I managed to drag myself out of bed by 5:30. When I arrived home from working out, Drew was awake and in our bed. It was around 6:45, but I have no idea what time he crawled in bed with Tom.

This is a typical night. The characters change, the excuse change, but the amount of sleep we get is generally the same.

Pink Princess Fluff

Pink Princess Fluff

Lily

1 little teaspoon of pink food coloring

6 marshmallows

16 cherries

1 teaspoon milk

1 stick butter

Mix everything in a bowl. Cook in the microwave for 6 minutes. It will look gooey and squishy when it is done. Serve it to everybody! Serve with orange juice and pancakes.

Serves 21

huntin' guys

Tom and Drew went on their first ever hunting trip together this morning. They both had a great time and I know that Tom has been looking forward to this day since the sonogram tech told us, 'It's a boy!'. haha

Last night Tom went out and got Drew his very own pair of coveralls and they bundled up this morning to hide in the bushes so they could shoot a duck. Wow! Sounds like such fun to me....

They got one bird, but Tom said that if they'd gotten their before sunrise they would have gotten a truckload of ducks. Yummy.

When they got home Drew brought the dead duck in the house to show me. I tried to keep my cool; really I did, but it was too much and I went squealing to Lily's bedroom.

Just now, as I began to type this, Drew came over and said, "Hey, hunting Mom. I'm a huntin' guy." (in a Southern accent, of course.)

I'd call their little trip to the lake a success. I hope that Drew continues to enjoy this activity with Tom. I know that experiences like this are such a cool part of raising kids and can really keep fathers and sons close. Well, I assume that it can keep fathers and daughters close, too; but I wouldn't call Lily interested in hunting...only the dead animals.

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

Last night I told Drew that in the morning we were going to bake cinnamon rolls and watch the parade. He later told Tom that we were going to "have crescent rolls and watch the band."

I love that kid.

updates

Lily is doing pretty good lately. We've had a lot of good days in a row. It's so fun to hear her talk about stuff. So much of what she is learning at school comes out of her mouth without having me ask her. She has learned a lot about the Pilgrims. They came on a boat and a lot of them got sick. They met the Native Americans and they became friends. There was one really nice Indian and he helped them grow food. Then they had a big feast together. She came home yesterday with a Pilgrim hat and collar made of construction paper. Today she wore it to the Y when I went to go workout. Oh, and she also recently dressed Drew in Pilgrim garb to go to Walmart. He was wearing his soccer socks (tights) pulled up to his thighs, navy pants with elastic around the ankle pulled up to the top of the tights. Then he wore a brown shirt inside out. He looked like a neglected child, but when you give the kids lots of room to express themselves through fashion, it's hard to rein them in when they make such outrageous choices.

Drew. Oh, Drew. He's definitely all boy these days. He's  pushing everyone's buttons just to see what will happen. If he's engaging in negative behavior and you give him attention for it, he amps it up by 1000 times. As hard as it is I've been ignoring some pretty annoying behavior lately; when I can muster the patience, that is.  One story I keep forgetting to share about Drew is the time a couple of weeks ago when it was rainy and cold. Lily had gone out to play in the light rain (with my permission) and Drew yelled at me that Lily was outside in the rain. I told him it was okay to go out and he says to me, "I'm going outside to play on this cold, cold wet day." Which is a line straight from his favorite book, The Cat in the Hat. It still makes me laugh when I think about it.

Julianna seems to be recovering from her surgery just fine. She's a few spikes in fever, but it's usually when I've not given her the dose of Motrin soon enough to keep the swelling and fever down. They said that she'd have a lot of drainage from the nose that should stop spontaneously within a couple of weeks. Today I have only had to wipe her nose about a dozen times, which is about a 150% drop since the weekend, so at least we're moving in the right direction. They also warned us that she also might have bad breath after surgery. Well, they weren't kidding. Oh. My. Lord. She can knock me over with one breath. There have been several times that I have accused her of having dirty pants and it's turned out to be just her breath. Tom said that when he went into her room to get her this morning her whole room stunk. Julianna has also become spoiled over the last few weeks. She has been sick or recovering from surgery for nearly a month now and since I tend to let the kids get away with stuff when they aren't feeling well, she's developed some pretty great habits that are going to be hard to break. In the evenings she will not eat her dinner unless she is sitting on my lap. At night she won't go to bed unless she's kissed everyone in the house at least twice, had 3 drinks of water and I've come into her room at least 2 times to snuggle her.  One of these days I'm going to break her of the habits, but that is a hard time of day to follow through with something that you know will cause a temper tantrum. Dinner and bedtime for me is about getting food in their bellies and getting them in bed. I don't have energy by that point in the day to argue with something like sitting on my lap or a few extra kisses. Someday soon we'll stop the behavior, but probably not tonight.

the power of kindness

Lily had a bad day at school the other day. There is a little girl named E that she often butts heads with,  but on this particular day it involved a fight over a chair at reading group. There were tears and shoving and serious frustration. Lily is forever learning how to manage frustration and it didn't go well that day. This was not the first time that Lily and E have had conflict, but it happened to be the straw that broke the camel's back for me. On that day I decided to contact E's parents. I didn't want her family to think that Tom and I were just allowing our daughter to run a muck and hurt children at school. I wanted to share that we were working hard to help Lily achieve success in all areas, including her social life. And I wanted to open the communication lines with E's parents so that we could work together to help our girls overcome their conflicts.

At first, I was going to call her parents up on the phone. However, I thought about it and decided to email them instead. I felt like an email would give me a better chance to explain everything; and give them a chance to process what I was saying without me hanging on the other end of the phone line.

First and foremost, I apologized for Lily's behavior. I shared that I am heartbroken when things like this happen, but that we're working hard to overcome the social struggles. I also explained that I felt like Lily actually wanted to be friends with E, but didn't know how to go about involving herself in group situations. I told them if they had questions or concerns, or if they had something they felt like I needed to know about, to call me and I left my phone number.

I'm not sure what I expected in response, but I know I wasn't expecting what actually happened. E's mom emailed me right back. She shared that maybe it wasn't entirely Lily's fault, and that E was good at pushing people's buttons. Then she extended Lily and I an invitation to come to their house to play. She said that she'd make a pot of coffee and we could chit chat while we supervise the girl's play. I was shocked and totally overwhelmed by the gesture. What a great idea! This would give us all a chance to get to know each other and also provide an opportunity for the girls to create some positive experiences with each other outside of school.

The kindness of E's mom, J, caught me totally off guard. I can't say that I would have been able to do what she did for me, if the roles were reversed. When I emailed, I simply had in mind that we would have all the drama between the girls out in the open, and allow for easy communication. And also maybe to give E's family a better understanding of where Lily was coming from. However, I didn't expect to be welcomed into their life so fully. By inviting us over, J allowed me to feel excepted as a mother. She also made me feel better about Lily's struggles. She was willing to welcome Lily into their home, despite hearing the story of her pushing, shoving, meltdown. Such acceptance isn't always the case and it makes me feel so great about, well, people in general, really.

It turns out that Lily and E have way more in common than not. They both prefer to play by themselves. They both come home from school and "do art". They both have some of the same struggles. If J and I keep getting the girls together they could turn what was a negative relationship, into a really great friendship. Maybe they won't turn out to be the best of friends, but they will have a much better chance of having a positive relationship for here on out.

Interestingly enough, despite the struggles they have at school, the girls played beautifully yesterday afternoon. There wasn't even one tiniest bit of a hitch. And E's mom is pretty great, too. This little experience has reminded me of the power of kindness. I hope that I can take from this experience the strength reach out in kindness to someone I don't know every well in the future. You never know what a small, or large, act of kindness can do for someone else.

tubes

 Have I mentioned that Julianna's an active child? She is much like her sister in that department. She's busy and doesn't have time for sitting in waiting rooms. This lack of patience was a problem this morning. She had an appointment with the Ear, Nose and Throat specialist, Dr. Epp, this morning at 9:15 and we were in the waiting room for over 45 minutes. Drew, on the other hand, is pretty laid back, calm and generally easy in the waiting room. Except for when he is with one of his sisters. He tends to feed on their activity. It's like, if he were a more rebellious child, he would have already tried all the shenanigans that his sisters get into in public...but, he's not that brave. However, when he witnesses the shenanigans, he thinks to himself that maybe climbing on the back of that chair, running around in circles, climbing all over Mom, throwing magazines on the floor and talking louder than necessary might be fun. So, he joins right in. Awesome. Really, really awesome.

The above paragraph is not the point of the post. I did need to get it out though. The waiting room experience with a toddler is not an activity for the faint of heart.

The reason I'm actually posting is to update you on Julianna. I have told you that she has been having some trouble with her ears. It turns out that she's actually having enough trouble with ear infections to warrant having tubes put in her ears. I wasn't surprised. I knew that's what they would say.

When Dr. Epp (who, by the way, is the doctor that preformed Drew's lure removal surgery.) came in to see us, he immediately began explaining how they decide to put tubes in a child's ears. He said that if the child has had more than four ear infections in a year, then it's a recommended procedure. He wasn't specific on how many infections Julianna has had, but he said that she's well over four. Without even looking in her ears, he started explaining the surgery he will be preforming to place the tubes in Julianna's ears.

Then, he looks in her ears and nose. He notices that she's pretty congested. He asks if she's always this congested. I said that I wasn't sure, she had been getting over her most recent sinus infection for so long that I could remember the last time she didn't have a runny nose.

He then tells me that we may be looking at possibly removing her adenoids, as well. He said that there are three things that look for when deciding about removing the adenoids. They look for chronic ear infections coupled with either snoring or chronic sinus infections. I told him that I didn't know how many sinus infections she'd had, but I did know that this wasn't her first one. He said he would go check her chart and see.

Turns out the girl has had about eight sinus infections. I'd say that that's chronic. So, obviously she's going to have two procedures done. Dr. Epp said that it is likely that she might avoid the doctor's office this winter.
Julianna is now scheduled for surgery for next Friday to put tubes in her ears and remove her adenoids. I'm hoping that this will limit our visits to the doctor's office this winter. I'd ideally like to avoid the waiting room with the children completely. We'll see about that...

funnies from the week

"I'm almost grownd-up enough to carry sharp stuff," said Drew.

Drew: *toot*
Me: Drew, do you need to go poop?
Drew: No, Mommy. Do you need to go poop?

Me: I think the solution to not finishing your dinner so that you can play computer sooner is to not have computer time after dinner anymore. We should probably finish computer time before it's time to eat.
Lily: Yeah, that sounds good. Tonight was the last night I will do that until I'm 14. Does that sound good, Mommy? Maaaaybe 15. That will be a long time away.

Lily: Mimi has had lots of ouchies because she's reeeeeaaaallllly old. She gets hurt a lot. (My mom uses her past injuries as examples to encourage Lily to make safe choices. Instead, Lily just thinks that Mimi is always injured and clumsy.)

Julianna and I took Lily and Drew to the dentist this week. Julianna wanted a part of the action; so, when the kids were done I put Julianna in the dentist chair. First she said, "brush teeth" so I gave her her new toothbrush. She sat there for a bit studying the toothbrush looking for the switch to turn it on. Then she handed it to me and said, "turn it on!" She wanted the whole dentist treatment. Polish and all.

the never ending fever

A few weeks ago, Julianna developed some congestion and runny nose. She acted like she didn't feel well and sometimes said that her ears hurt. After about nine days of that and a spike in her fever, I took her to the doctor to check her out. Her doctor did an exam and said that I had used good judgement when I decided to bring her in at that point. She has a slight ear infection and "cloudy" mucus. The doctor said that she had the baby equivalent of a sinus infection. He put her on an antibiotic to help clear it up. He said that if she wasn't better by Friday (this was Tuesday) then to give him a call.

Things seemed okay. But, on Thursday she spiked a fever in the late afternoon. I decided that it was close enough to Friday and since we were heading into the weekend, I made another appointment for her to see the doctor. By Friday morning there was no fever, but the doctor saw fluid behind her ears and said that the ear infection had not cleared up. He switched her to a stronger antibiotic to see if we could get it cleared up.

By Saturday afternoon she had another fever. I decided to just wait and see since she had only had one dose of the new meds. However, this morning, (Tuesday) her nose is running on high and she has another fever. This is day five of the super drugs. How is it that she could still have an infection? This worries me. I have a call into the doctor and am waiting for the nurse to call me back.

Today is not a good day for illness. Poor Julianna is going to be drug all over this afternoon and evening. It will be one more stop if the doctor wants to see her. Lily and Drew and dentist appointments and Lily has a swimming lesson. I have no idea how I am going to juggle all of this with a spunky little toddler that's not feeling well. Oh, and Drew doesn't nap, so he's perpetually tired. For him, this means lots of hanging on Mommy and whining at full throttle. His loveliness will be a nice addition to our hurried evening. Yay!

I will be sure to update later on how Julianna is, what the doctor says, and let you know how we all survive our packed after school schedule.

howdy!

Sometimes Drew starts talking in a Southern accent for no reason. There is really no explanation for this phenomenon. But I do want to remember that it happens.

$50

What I got for $50 at the Goodwill today:

1 Jayhawk jacket
1 Jayhawk t-shirt
1 Hannah Montana t-shirt
1 lime green fleece jacket
1 pair of leggings
1 velvet skirt
1 leotard tutu
5 pair of athletic pants
2 pair of athletic shorts
1 plaid skirt
6 stylish t-shirts (short and long sleeves)
1 western style button up girl's shirt

I say it was a good day.

love letters

I found a two page handwritten letter from Tom today. The coolest part about the letter is that he'd written it 10 years ago. He was at KU and I was at Emporia State. We were best friends and it had never occurred to me to see him any other way. Silly, silly girl.

It's a lovely letter that talks about the weather, his homework and about how one of our friends was trying to find someone to set him up with. But, the best part is when he talks about what he's considering getting me for my birthday (two months late). Apparently he was going to get me a giant poster to hang on my wall. And since he was discussing birthday presents, he wanted to give me some ideas for what to get him for his upcoming birthday. He'd cut out a picture of a fancy Rolex watch and pasted it at the bottom of the page with the comment, "I think the bezel on this one would look particularly nice with a KU sweatshirt. Don't you?"

He and I have come a long way since then. We've been married five years this year and things just keep getting better. What he has given me over these years is way better than a poster. I'm hoping he feels the same way about me and the Rolex.

that's what he said.

Drew is one of the nicest people I know. It's maybe weird to say that about a 3 almost 4 year old, but it's true. He is very attentive and generous. He will bend over backwards to make sure his sisters are happy. His sweetness is the reason I thought I might avoid the typical boy behavior. I thought surely he was sensitive enough that we would skip right over it.

Wrong.

The other day I was cleaning up the house getting ready for the babysitter to come over. Drew was standing around me and I was trying to encourage him to help. I said, "Drew, Mommy is cleaning up for Miss Caitlyn. It's such a mess! What would Miss Caitlyn say if she saw this mess?" You'll never guess what he did.

Wait for it.

He tooted really loud! Like a man! Then he said, "That's what she would say!"

Yes he did.

I am not kidding.

Boys just do these things. Naturally. With no training at all.

So, for future reference: even the sweetest guys use gas as a form of communication.

24 pounds of dynamite

Julianna is suddenly a dramatic girl. Okay, so she's always been a bit sassy; but, now she's amped it up a bit.

Today she is 22 months old and weighs an even 24 pounds. She had a doctor's appointment today because she's had some congestion that hasn't gone away and had been complaining of her ears hurting. Turns out she does have a sinus infection, or the baby equivalent.

As this series of photos demonstrates, Julianna is her own person. She's getting down to the business of testing her parents. She is wondering exactly what she can get away with. We will not be tricked, however. She may have caught us off guard, but we are ready now. We are armed and open for business. I doubt she can pull off anything her sister hasn't tried before her. Let's just hope Lily's not coaching her behind the scenes.

Oh, and a word of advice: don't let anyone tell you that raising boys and raising girls is just the same. Wrong. On so many levels. I will be posting soon about just how "boy" my boy has become. Beware! Drama Ahead!

Halloween?

We did something not so Halloween last night. After stopping by a few family member's houses, we came home to hang out. Everyone was tired. Drew and Julianna had not had naps and were asleep on their feet. I don't know if it makes me a bad mom or not, but we didn't pass out candy last night either. Instead all the kids had a nice warm bath and got snuggled into their jammies. We made pigs in a blanket, munched on candy and watched The Sound of Music. Drew and Lily loved it. Loved it like they couldn't tear their eyes from the screen. I know it's not very festive of us, but sometimes, you gotta do what you can do.

I am trying not to feel guilty about the fact that we didn't do any outrageous fun Halloween activities. But, then again, on Friday the kids got all dressed up for the whole day. They had parades at their school, Lily had a Halloween party, and then we got to go to Tom's office and collect candy. And then that evening we celebrated Tom's birthday with my family. The week before that, we spent all day with extended family. Lily bedazzled her costume, the kids painted pumpkins and then carved more pumpkins and then we had breakfast for dinner. I'm hoping that that is enough. I am hoping that they will forgive me for not going all out on the actual 31st.

I heard Tom ask Lily if she liked the movie and she said, "I loved it!" And then this morning I asked her about Halloween and she said that she preferred to get candy at Daddy's office because when we went to people's house we had to stay and talk to them. I guess she can forgive me for not taking her from house to house this year. Next year I will do better.