Project Fail=Success!

So, how have you all been? When I posted that I failed at Nablopomo, I really didn't intend to disappear for a couple of months. I guess if you are going to do something, even fail, then go all out! :o) I even started this back in Jan, and never finished it.

Just a quick note to let you know that I am still here. Things around here have been chaotic, as usual. Does that ever change? My mom is one of 5 kids, and my dad is one of 7 kids, and I just want to scream thinking about that. Having *2* kids has made me lose my ever-lovin' mind, so I don't know what you do with that many. Though, from watching some of the show with the Duggars, I guess the older help take care of the younger kids. On a side note, Michelle Duggar makes me feel truly inadequate as a mother. I think she must be a saint because she seems so patient, and even-tempered while dealing with ALL.THOSE.KIDS. Always smiling, and laughing, and loving. Is that for real or for the tv?

Anyhoo...back in October, Mike and I celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary! Some days it doesn't seem possible that we have been married that long (and yet, there are times when it seems like centuries!). I have not yet come to grips with the fact that I am in my 30s, so the fact that we have been married for that long is just weird! I don't feel any older than 27 or so...maybe I'll stay that age for a while.

During my hiatus (ha), Allison turned 5 (!) and Kelly turns 18 months old next week. I am currently in the midst of organizing 5 years of digital pics, and hope to post some good ones soon!

Random Laughs

So, things have been somewhat bleak around here due to the germs. When I feel up to posting about the mess that is Kelly's immune system, I'll share (the info, not the germs!). In the meantime, here are some amusing thoughts from Ally.

*Ally went to her grandma's house and was playing doctor. She likes to give shots, and the location of said shots can be your arm, leg, eye, ear, anywhere. My mom told me what Ally had been doing when I called to check on her. That night, when she came home, Ally told me that grandma called her a duck. Confused, I looked at her and said, "She called you what?" And she looked me straight in the eye and said, "Yeah, a duck. Grandma said I was a quack!" Ha ha ha!!!!

*Several months ago, I was talking to my mom and said that I was losing my mind. Ally was on the phone as well and informed me that she found my mind. Not only did she find it, she told me she squished it for me! Isn't she helpful?

*We were out to dinner last Friday and there was a jazz band playing. Ally really liked the music while we were eating. Halfway through the meal, she leaned over to me and said "I wonder if they will play 'Old McDonald'?"

*This morning, I bundled the girls up to take Ally to school. I put Kelly's little hat on (I'll try and get a pic) which has doggie ears on it and a chinstrap. In the car, Ally shared her thought that Kelly looked like she was ready to go into outer space! What? She said that the hat looked like a helmet and Kelly was ready to fly in a spaceship!

Gotta love preschoolers!

Infection Collection

Sounds disgusting, eh? Disgusting is the word that I would use to describe my house the last 2 months or so. And I'm not even talking about the clutter! Forget the workers of the world, the GERMS of the world have united in my house and refuse to leave. They are staging a nasty and fierce revolution with my family!

Here is a recap of the battles:
*Went on vacation late August. Thought one or both girls might be getting sick, but it was a minor skirmish.
*Middle of September--thought I had the flu, but just sinus infection. Felt like crap, but functional.
*End of September: Kelly hit her head hard and passed out in my arms for 2-3 seconds. Went to the dr. Was told to look for vomiting as a bad side effect. The next day, she started with diarrhea. Day after that, here comes the vomiting. Took her to Childrens (that's a whole 'nother post), and it luckily had nothing to do with the injury. Unfortunately, she had a horrible stomach bug for 10 damn days! Those weak-of-heart need to skip to the next battle!!! I mean, full-on, explosive diarrhea going thru the diaper, outfit and even leaking off of the crib railing. As Mike is cleaning the crib and changing the sheets, Kelly then threw up all over me and the floor. In my almost 5 years as a parent, I have never seen that much vomit at once! Blech. Took every ounce of strength not to add to it!!
*Mid-October: Nasty stomach bug is gone, but both girls have had runny noses, coughing, etc. *End of October: Kelly is diagnosed with an ear infection.
*Early November: I still feel like crap. Diagnosed with sinus and ear infection.
*The very next week: Ally is diagnosed with sinus and ear infection, with lovely goop in her eye.
*This week: Kelly is diagnosed with another ear infection. Feverish, snotty, cranky and not eating. Kelly eats for an hour at a time, so if she's not eating, something is definitely WRONG! Off to the ear, nose and throat dr we go!!!

For those keeping count, that means 4 infections in 4 consecutive weeks. We are on a streak, people!
It just won't end. I finished my antibiotic last week and don't feel much better. This round, I feel even worse--like maybe this IS finally the flu or H1N1 or whatever. Maybe we will go 5 infections for 5 weeks! I haven't felt "good' for months. Every time we go thru this, I wonder IS IT SWINE FLU? And it doesn't seem to be. But dear God, if we haven't had it yet, I am truly terrified!

Off to the doctor (again)

Yep, once again, my house needs to be quarantined. The last 4 days have really sucked around here. I wll detail it all later. Right now, I have to get a hacking 4 year old in the shower so that I can take her to the pediatrician.

NaBloPoMo Fail

Okay, so we all knew it wasn't going to happen. I tried really, really, really hard to post, but the planets were not aligned for naps yesterday afternoon. Ally fought me, even though she had been up since 6:30. She woke up to tell me that she was hungry! I was not a happy mommy, considering she and I battled over her not eating enought dinner the night before. It is just cosmically wrong to have a 4 yr old wake up before the 1 yr old! Kelly refused to take her morning nap and then only napped for 1 hour in the middle of the day. Ugh.

Then I was up late last night cleaning the house. My in-laws were coming to visit today, so can we just blame the fail on them? Just kidding!
I had to make the house look (ahem) presentable. Or at least not as horrible as usual. After cleaning up toys, sweeping floors, and throwing out junk while the kids aren't watching, I stumbled into our room around 11:55 to fall into bed. I saw the computer and thought about posting, but we had already turned it off. I knew that I would never make the deadline if I had to wait for it to boot back up. Being the Type-A personality that I am, I was a little disappointed. However, I was so tired that my eyes rolled back immediately and I crashed! :o)

Oh well. I'll still try to post every day, considering I was using this as motivation. Right now, I am going to take some drugs and go to bed.

The LAST baby

Allison Nicole

Poor thing had jaundice!


Kelly Elizabeth



What kind of face is that?!

As you probably know, Mike and I have two beautiful girls, ages 4 and 14 months. We didn't plan for there to be 3 1/2 years between them, but Ally was/is a handful and never slept as an infant. So, we weren't even considering another one until she was 2 years old.

When I was a little girl (3rd grade or so), I wanted to be a teacher and a mommy. And I wanted 6 kids. Now, I am the oldest of 2 kids, so I think I wanted to experience a large family. Especially since my mom is one of 5, and my dad is one of 7. (And if you think that is a lot--my grandpa is one of 14!) Realistically, once I grew up and got married, I knew that 6 kids was not going to happen. Mike and I always said 2 or 3--he leaned more towards two, and I leaned more toward three!

When we decided to try for a baby, I went into it expecting fertility problems. It took my parents YEARS to conceive me, and that included all kinds of fertility treatment and shots. So Mike and I tried to conceive for a while, and then had to stop because I was having stomach problems and horrible migraines. Being overly cautious, I didn't want to take the meds on the chance that I was pregnant, and my dr was not happy with me. We focused on getting me healthy for a while, and then tried again later that year. After just a few months, we were thrilled to learn that we were expecting! I had a lot of morning (well, all-day) sickness and the hour commute did not help. But once that subsided, it was pretty easy for the next few months. The worst part of my pregnancy with Ally was the gestational diabetes--having to watch my diet like a hawk, but thankfully not having to take insulin. In the last month, I wound up with sciatica, which is excruciating pain in your lower back/hip area, so it hurt every time I took a step. However, I loved being able to talk to her while she was in my belly, and once I felt her move, it was amazing. Loved, loved, loved it! And of course, it is always totally worth the inconvenience in the end!

When we decided to try for number 2, I again expected problems, but conceived within 3 months of trying. This second pregnancy was much harder, for multiple reasons. 3 days after I took a positive pregnancy test, Ally shared the flu with me. I was sick for two months between the flu, subsequent ear and sinus infections, and I think I ultimately cracked a rib from coughing. One of the hardest things was not being able to take a nap when I needed to. All of my aches and pains started earlier as well. On the plus side, I first felt Kelly move around 3 months! She was an Olympic soccer player in the womb!

Once Kelly was here, Mike felt that our family was complete. He (his words) didn't want to put me through all that again. He also knows that I am stretched pretty thin and have a quickly diminishing supply of patience at home. So, for reasons of sanity, space, health and money, we agreed that we were done having kids. My mind understands that, but my heart doesn't. It is hard for me to accept that I will never be pregnant again, never go through the agony/amazing experience of birth again, and never see another beautiful little person that we created. Sometimes I wish that an "oops" would happen that would take it completely out of our hands. I agree that two kids is enough (and sometimes more!) than I can handle. Every time I hear that a friend or family member is expecting a baby, I am thrilled for them. I also feel a little pang of envy--I miss that fleeting newborn phase. It goes by too quickly. I guess that is why people have more babies!

The ballerina and the ladybug

Since the last two posts have been long and depressing, this will be short with cute pics!

We have had the girls' costumes for months. Ally wanted to be a ballerina, so I found a beautiful dress in a catalog and it has been hanging in her closet since. Ally helped Mike and I pick out Kelly's outfit, though she argued with us for a while! She liked the one we liked least, of course, it was more expensive.
It took forever for us to get out the door, since we wound up eating dinner later than planned. We didn't leave until almost 7 pm, and actually handed out candy to about 10-15 kids while still at the house. The outfits took forever to dry. I had to find pants and shirts to go under the costumes since it was so cold. Then I needed to "do" Ally's hair.

My beautiful ballerina! You can't see the pretty curls in back.

My ladybug all ready to go!

My girlies!

Kelly is just like her sister, in that she hates hats!

We snapped this pic as soon as we put the hat on, because we knew she would take it off immediately!

We took Kelly in her stroller and she did great. We only took her up to half of the houses, because she can't have the candy anyway. She only has two teeth, so that makes it difficult too. Of course, the main thing is the dairy allergy, so no chocolate for her. I felt bad, so I made her special "Kelly-friendly" treats. Ally wanted to come home after about 45 minutes and hand out candy. I had to tell her that we didn't usually see a lot of kids on our street, so she decided to rake in more loot! When we got home, we were all cold and the girls were TIRED! Ally didn't even want to play. She wanted to look at her candy, eat some and go to bed! So we did! :o)