A Beautiful Day At The Park

My sister, Aubrey, and I took our boys to the park. Left to right: Cutesome, Gage (I babysit him), Asher, Dynamite and Josh.

Gage, Asher, Dynamite, Josh.

Cutesome, Aubrey, Gage, Dynamite, Josh, Asher.

Josh working the 'digger'.

Cutesome - being cute!

Dynamite pushing Gage on the swing. Josh in the background too.

Dynamite and Josh were very interested in the skateboarder doing his tricks.

Asher, Cutesome and Aubrey.

Asher loves sand! Although I wasn't fast enough with the camera to catch it, he was laying in the sand on two occasions.

Dynamite's Kindergarten Program

A couple of weeks ago the kindergarteners performed their spring program for their parents. It was about springtime and how things grow with water and sunlight, etc. Each child had a speaking part and there were lots of songs, including 'Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree' and '5 Green and Speckled Frogs'.

Grandma Miller came to support Dynamite; the program was on her day off!

Dynamite doing his speaking part (which he remembered perfectly).

Dreamer and Cutesome. Poor Dreamer got the job of video-taping during the program.

Dynamite and Cutesome, after the program.

Memorial Day Hike

What did the kids want to do for Memorial Day this year? A hike! Why not? Although Rob and I were tired and would have preferred naps, we took the kids and went on a mild hike. We did the same hike last year, but I was carrying the baby (not yet born).

Sunday Night Dinner

About once a month we have dinner at my mom's house. Here are a few pictures from this week. Cutesome was really enjoying playing with Grandpa (my dad).

My niece, Madi, has gotten attached to my mom. Madi and her parents and sister are moving to South Carolina soon. :(

Adam (12), Vivacious (8) and Confidence (10) playing games. Naughty Confidence was tipping on her chair!

Nephews Josh(6) & Noah (10) playing chess.

My little sister, Aubrey, me, Dynamite, my mom, Madi, Josh, Justin, Krista.

I Love To Take Pictures Of My Baby

Is there anything better? My idea of paradise.

Cutesome helping Confidence practice the piano.

This week Cutesome ate his first Cheerios. Pretty close to the first solid food we've given him.

Sleeping babies practically force me to take pictures of them. Here he is in his new car seat.

Could you have resisted taking a picture? Be honest!

Recovering from being sick.

This is what he looks like during "tummy time". We know it's good for him, but it breaks our hearts to make him endure what he must interpret as pointless torture.

When he drinks his bottle, Cutesome plays with his favorite blanket. For several months now he has rubbed the silky edges on his left cheek while drinking his milk. When he's not doing that, he just plays with his blanket and sometimes tries to put part of it in his mouth at the same time as his bottle. It's adorable.

Cutesome and Vivacious at Smith's. He's big enough to sit in the cart! Sad, but cute.

Now he rolls all over his crib in his sleep. He almost always ends up sleeping on his side now that he can move himself around easily.

I took this one while we waited at the doctor's office when he had the flu and wasn't eating or sleeping. He finally fell asleep (after being awake almost all night long) right before the nurse came in to give him Pedialyte to rehydrate him. She gave him a teaspoon every 10 minutes for 70 minutes and he fell asleep as soon as she left the room each and every time. It was shocking after he hadn't slept for so long that he could zonk out so fast over and over. It was completely peaceful in the room there by ourselves with just a small light on between doses (thanks to my sister and brother-in-law for watching the other kids for 2 and a half hours!).

Asthma Treatments

This is Cutesome getting his Albuterol treatment via the nebulizer. This is how he looks for the first 15 minutes. The next 15 minutes he really doesn't like it and gets really whiny and sometimes cries. We're supposed to do it every 4 hours until he starts breathing properly again. His doctor (Kara Burnett, who I LOVE) said he sounded like "Wheezy" on Toy Story. Wheezy is the penguin with its squeaker broken.

Biting on the hose helps him stay happy for a while. Luckily he has no teeth yet.

My poor little Dynamite got something in his eye last night (Friday) while at IHOP with his grandparents. His grandma tried to flush it out and did all she could, but nothing seemed to help. When Dreamer and I arrived to pick them up he was crying in pain; it was so sad. He was obviously tired, so we tried to pacify him (and the others) and just get them home to bed. When we got home I looked up how to properly flush out an eye, gave eye drops and flushed his eye again, all to no avail. One of the instructions online was to rest your eye, with it closed for 5 minutes. Because it came from the all-knowing Internet, he was willing to follow along and before 5 minutes were over he had zonked out. I thought whatever the problem was would work itself out by morning, but it didn't take long before he woke up and was crying again. Dreamer went up and started a movie for him and helped him calm down, but within a couple of hours he was crying again. I gave him some Tylenol and soothed him unti he was asleep again. 30 minutes later he woke up crying again. Repeat all night long. I slept on the couch and he slept on the recliner. Poor little guy.

After going to 2 eye doctors and finding they were closed because it was Saturday, we tried Shopko's optical department. After numbing his eye with "magic" eye drops, the doctor eventually found a green "fiber" in his upper eyelid - said it looked sort of like fishing line. It had been scratching his eyeball every time he blinked, so by the time the doctor looked at it, he had a "substantial abrasion" on his eye. Long story short, the doctor put some drops in his eye to help prevent infection, dilated his eye, and sent us home with a prescription for a steroid/antibiotic ointment to be put in his eye 3 times a day for 5 days. We go back Tuesday for a follow-up and he gave us his cell number in case it gets worse. I really liked the doctor (Shawn Murray) and will definitely go there again. He was wonderful with Dynamite! Within a few minutes of leaving the optical department, Dynamite was his old self. He still complained of pain, but he no longer required being guided as if completely blind and was no longer on the verge of tears with his hand clasped tightly over one eye. Before we got in the car, he hugged me and told me thanks for caring about him in that super-cute tone I only hear when my kids are humbled with sickness and I'm able to help them. As soon as we got in the van to go get the other kids, he fell asleep.

Throughout the day today he has continued to be in some pain, so we're continuing with Tylenol, but other than that he seems completely back to normal.

The pictures above were taken tonight. He fell asleep again right after I put his medicine in his eye - very unusual for him! Of course, he's awake again now and probably will be for hours because of his little cat-nap. Right now I can hear him in the baby monitor singing (between yawns) Hush Little Baby to Cutesome who is wimpering in his crib. How precious is that? I am thoroughly exhausted and have terrible headache but am grateful that I could help my favorite little 5-year-old.

Annoying, Yet Memorable Advertising

The other day Vivacious was counting her money and had a stack of dollar bills. She left them sitting on the floor and Dynamite (age 5) said, "Vivacious, you should put some eyeballs on that money and say, 'This is the money you could be saving with Geico'."

This got me thinking. Just imagine all the good things we could fill children's heads with if instead of commercial advertising we had positive messages or something like that. What if those highly-paid marketers spent their time figuring out how to get children to really believe positive messages about themselves or others rather than working so hard to design commercials that sell the products they are paid to promote. Now that would be time well spent.

Life Gets In The Way

Have you ever noticed how life gets in the way? I haven't posted on this blog for 19 days - not for a lack of wanting, but because I have been really busy.

Cutesome got sick again with some kind of flu bug, then his asthma flared up again and now he has a cold along with the wheezing and rattling in his chest. There's just nothing like a sick baby to keep you from doing other things. The I went a little bit overboard on an Activity Days activity and spent a TON of time making a game to teach the kids about money and life. (Thanks to my sister, Jenny, it turned out great and the kids had fun too!) I'm also babysitting Gage a few days a week this month and Rob has been working lots of late nights and Saturdays and the girls have extra dance practices to prepare for the recital. And then there's all the usual stuff: yard work and 4-days-a-week baseball and t-ball and laundry and feeding the family and housework and 2 dentist appointments and some doctor appointments and book group and school programs and helping kids with homework and I still house clean for another family and trying to find time for each kid to get enough attention.....you know, just the usual for a mom. I seriously don't know how my mom did it with 6 kids so close in age. And I only remember once when she left the house and I wondered if she was ever coming back. Of course, she did - and on the very same day, too! (You're my hero, mom!)

Since the beginning of May I've been waking up at 6:30 a.m. (way too early) so I could have a shower and get dressed before waking up the kids at 7:15 to get ready for school and I've been trying to make breakfast most mornings so they get less sugar and more protein. And there is SO much more I want to be doing to be a better person and a better mother and a better sister and friend and daughter and.... So if I seem distracted or if I don't notice something you need help with please be patient with me!

Today my visiting teachers came (both mothers of 2 children not yet in school or other activities) and talked about how we should get together more often and I honestly could not figure out how I would work that into my life right now. How do you convey to someone that you honestly would love to spend time with them, but that you just don't have time right now? It sounds lame and fake. And in just 2 short weeks the kids will be out of school and I'll have all 4 home.

The other day when Dreamer left to work I told him there are days I really miss just going to work and only having to worry about my job for 8 hours and have a nice quiet drive to and from to just think. He, of course, envies me being able to stay home and have more time with the kids. Don't get me wrong - this is EXACTLY the life I signed up for and I love it; I'm just ready for things to slow down a bit. Hopefully summer will provide some much-needed rest for all of us. And we won't be doing 4 days a week of baseball ever again. Maybe soccer, though, because Olivia and Alex both want to try soccer next. I guess I do it to myself, but hopefully it will benefit the kids in the long run.

I think I hear Avery. Break time is over.

Funny Dynamite

As I was sitting here checking email, I wasn't really listening to what Dynamite was rambling on and on about. The next thing I heard caught my attention. He said, in an exaggerated, movie-star voice, "Listen to me, Darling!!"