A poopy morning

Ethan has now learned to open doorknobs (the round kind). Actually, he learned a while ago, but has now perfected his skills. So yesterday morning, rather than hearing him on the monitor talking and playing in his room in the morning, I was surprised by both of my kids at 6:30 when they entered my room. Apparently Ethan got up, went straight to Blythe's room, woke her, then they woke me. Yay.

This morning, I'm not quite sure what happened....whether Ethan tried to wake Blythe first or not, but he came to my room at 6:25am by himself. He said nothing, just crawled into bed and lay beside me. Being as tired as I was, I half tried to go back to sleep, half just lay there. I did smell that he had pooped (as has been his routine most mornings recently). I felt the top back of his diaper to make sure there was no leakage before he would spread it all over my bed. All good. So I just lay next to my stinky son for a while. About 20 minutes later, Blythe came into the room. She too said nothing. Just gave me a fist pump then walked back out. Whatever. Again, I went back to my half-sleep. About 7:15 I got up, wobbled to the bathroom, put my contacts in, and briefly considered showering wondering if the kids would allow me to. Ethan came in the bathroom and then I noticed his jammies were dark along the bottom outskirts of his diaper. So there WAS leakage. Yay. I left my room to go grab him another diaper.

On the way, I looked into the kids bathroom where Blythe was standing...with poop everywhere. Some on the first rug in the bathroom. Some on the floor. Some on Blythe. Some on her jammies. But most in a pile, with her underwear full of poop, on the rug by the toilet. And there was pee all next to the rug as well. And apparently she had spent the last 30 minutes trying to "clean up", which of course did more harm than good....in getting everything else dirty. She had actually managed to get most of it off of herself using toilet paper...at the expense of clogging the toilet (which I would find later). I told her to stand in the bathtub at which time I removed her jammies and threw them in the wash (luckily she had chosen a nightgown and not jammies with pants). Before Ethan could step in anything, I cleaned most of the bathroom floor that wasn't by the toilet. Fortunately the toilet area has it's own door, so I closed it and got Ethan so I could clean him up from his mess and toss him in the tub too. Bathtime went fine except I could still smell the mess in the toilet area and it was making me gag.

Anyway, got the kids bathed and into their robes and out of the bathroom so I could clean the really nasty part. I found a plastic bag and discarded the poopy underwear. I had 3 paper towels left upstairs, so I picked up as much of a mass of poop as I could and threw it in the plastic bag. I tossed the rug into the wash (along with the other rug), thinking if the stain doesn't come out, I'm throwing it away rather than continue trying to clean and then stain-treat this nasty rug. Then I got the pee cleaned up from the floor and then finally I opened the toilet and saw quite a bit of toilet paper. Tried to flush it to no avail, so went downstairs to fetch the plunger. Finally I had the bathroom cleaned and we could get dressed and ready for church.

And I thought, "what if I also had a hungry, screaming newborn to throw into the mix?"

When I grow up...

The other day Blythe told me that one of her classmates said she wants to be a monster when she grows up. So I asked Blythe what she wanted to be when she grows up. She said, "a mommy". Awww.

Then today she asked me, "If I'm a Mommy when I grow up, will I have to change the baby's diaper?" So I said yes, and she said, "I don't want to do that". I ensured her it wouldn't be anytime soon, so she'd get over it. Though I can't wait for that day several years from now when I no longer have to change diapers either.

Spilled milk

Apparently today at day care, Ethan got milk spilled on his head (likely by his lunch neighbor). Poor guy was embarrassed and then wanted to wear his hat, which he didn't take off before nap.

Also notice the little dog stuffed animal next to him. He never woke up, but check out the dog now after the teacher turned around for a second.

Glucose test

This morning I had my glucose test at the doctor, which meant I couldn't eat past midnight (like I'd be up that late anyway). Braden headed out yesterday to the Men's ACC Championships, which meant I needed to leave a little early to take the kids to day care in order to make it to my 9 o'clock appointment. Also, yesterday I called to make an appointment for Bogie to be groomed. Normally they book about a week in advance, so they said they could take him on the 24th, and I said "sure!". Didn't realize the 24th was today. Which meant leaving the house even earlier.

Of course I wake up starving. Just knowing I couldn't eat made me even hungrier. And of course this has to be the one morning Blythe wants to sleep in. I tried to wake the sleeping beauty, but apparently I was on the wrong side of the bed because she was NOT HAPPY about anything. And not happy = slower moving. We somehow managed to get out of the house on time and remember the hard-boiled egg Blythe needed for school (they are learning about oral hygiene and are practicing brushing the drawn-on teeth on the egg and comparing it to yesterday when they brushed jellybeans which turn sticky when they get their "teeth" brushed). I actually even made it to the doctor 10 minutes early. How about that?

They were out of the gross orange drink, so I had to drink the even grosser fruit punch flavored drink. Hopefully all goes well and I don't have to repeat with a 3 hour test instead of the 1 hour test. As it was, I was completely starving by the time I left. The fact that I've gained 5.2 pounds in the last 4 weeks didn't stop me from going through the drive-thru at Hardee's and getting a cinnamon-raisin biscuit and a bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit. And the bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit was buy one, get one free so I figured I'd save that second one for later. Which I didn't. Mmmm mmmm.

Everything else with baby #3 was looking good. I'm measuring right where I should be (except I'm sure my ass is measuring a little larger than it should be). Heartbeat was fine and my blood pressure was fine. I did have a protein in my urine, which they'll keep an eye on as it could be an indicator of preeclampsia (hopefully not). Next appointment is in 3 weeks and then I start going every 2 weeks after that.

A bit of warm sunshine

What a GREAT weekend! Amazing how a little warm weather and sunshine can make everything so much better (even if today is cold and rainy....which is better than cold and snowy).

The kids and I headed to Durham again last Thursday and spent Friday and Saturday there. The Women's ACC Swimming Championship was in Chapel Hill, only about 15 minutes from Doug's house, so I was able to check out lots of swimming action and see Braden a bit while he was coaching.

Friday morning I took the kids with me to the meet. We walked slowly from the car to the pool to take in the nice, warmer weather. At the meet, the kids were kind of a pain. They just wanted to climb up and down the stairs (which was fine except I kept feeling like any moment Blythe might push Ethan down the stairs). Blythe asked me about 10 times if it was time to go yet and then complained she was hot. So, once the candy in my purse ran out, we left and walked slowly back to the car and let Ethan play in the leaves (since there are no leaves we can play with, or see, at our house).

My mom and sister came in on Friday too. They were coming in to babysit Ada while Doug and Lynette headed to Dominican Republic (SO jealous!). Since they were babysitting 1, they might as well babysit 3, right? They were gracious to do that and let me watch Friday night, Saturday morning, and Saturday night meet sessions without my kids there. Which was GREAT!

On Saturday afternoon, we took the 3 kids to a nearby playground where my kids were able to play OUTSIDE! Yay! With no coats on even.

Then Sunday morning we left and drove back to Blacksburg, where it was nice to see we had some good melting over the weekend. You can even see grass in a few spots where the sun shines a lot. There's a glimmer of hope this stuff might actually melt before April (well, not the giant mountains of snow in parking lots, but at least the other stuff). We even played outside without coats here in Blacksburg AND I got my girl scout cookies!

I took no pics all weekend, but here is a shot I saw on my friend's facebook. Not sure where exactly it's from, but I like it!

I'll wash. You dry.

So how young is TOO young to start doing dishes?

Okay, so really they were just playing with water, but I bet they could be taught...

And Ethan insists on wearing that ridiculous hat at all times in the house the past 2 days. It's actually Blythe's hat, though I doubt it would fit her anymore.

And in other exciting news....Ethan pooped on the potty this morning! We've had lots of pee on the potty, but this is the first #2.

A nice relaxing evening

Why is it that when Daddy leaves, my kids turn into little monsters? They listen to NOTHING I say, so I just end up yelling all the time, and it drives me insane. After several attempts to put on Ethan's jammies last night (I'd get his shirt on and then he'd take it off...many times), I had had enough. I said, "That's it! I've had enough!" and I went in my room, locked the door and lay on my bed for about 25 minutes.

After about 10 minutes, they realized I was gone and came looking for me. They discovered they couldn't open my door and so Blythe tried to beat down the door, but stopped after several threats back to her to stop. Ethan said something like, "Mommy come out" once and then never asked again. Eventually they realized I wasn't coming out and so they went back to Blythe's room to play. At one point Blythe made Ethan cry and he came crying down the hall, but quickly realized he couldn't come crying to me so instantly he stopped.

Overall, they didn't seem to care too much that I wasn't available. Maybe I will try this more often. Seems to bring them closer and temporarily stop them from fighting with each other.

When I finally came out and went to Blythe's room, all of her dresser drawers were open with a few things taken out of each. Ethan was wearing just a diaper and a winter hat of Blythe's. Blythe was making "beds" on the floor with various blankets she had pulled out of the linen closet. And Ethan still pitched a fit when I tried to put on his jammies. But at least I was a bit more relaxed.

Seriously, it's like a human dust mop

With earrings. And a purse.

My floors have never been so clean!

In other news, the big story in Blacksburg is that the roof of the Blacksburg High School gym collapsed on Saturday.

Fortunately no one was in the building and no one was hurt. Unfortunately, they've been out of school for 2 weeks due to weather and now the end of that streak is no where in sight. Yet again, I'm glad I don't have high school aged kids now but definitely feel for the people that do.

But let this be a lesson for us all. If you are ever in a building and notice a crack that looks like this:

You should get out immediately.

They still have not determined if the weight of the snow on the roof was the cause, but I'm sure it's at least a contributing factor. And guess what? It's snowing again right now.

VT Swimming

I post mostly about the kids, but sometimes about Braden and his swimmers. Here's a feature on VT Swimming that shows you more of what Braden does. Go Hokies!

Blythe the mermaid

For Blythe's birthday, my parents and got Blythe a Belle dress-up outfit and a Tinkerbell outfit. The Belle dress was a big hit, but the Tinkerbell...not so much. Leave it up to a 4 year old to tell you exactly what she thinks of your gift. Basically, it was unacceptable and she preferred to have an Ariel dress instead of Tinkerbell. Maybe because the Tinkerbell one was so short and made or feel uncomfortable....or not. So anyway, when we saw my mom at Ada's birthday last weekend, she gave Blythe the Ariel dress. This one she loves.

She can barely walk in the thing, but that doesn't appear to phase her. And as usual in this pic, Ethan appears to be absolutely miserable. One of these days I will teach him to smile for pictures.

Still cold as ever here (duh), so a good indoor activity is bowling! The town of Christiansburg has a big bowling alley, but we've always preferred to go to the 8 lane bowling alley on VT's campus. Mostly because it's cheaper and because it's smoke-free (though now that restaurants are smoke-free, I wonder if the other bowling alley is too?). Of course, I guess I shouldn't be surprised that the rates at VT's bowling went up. Not surprising because it's a state university and like every public institution in the country, it's struggling on funds right now. So shoe rentals used to be $1 and now they are $2. Games used to be $2 and now are $2.50. Oh well. It takes the 4 of us so long to play, that 1 game is all we need. I usually beat Braden, but today he killed me. I'm blaming it on the pregnancy which has thrown my equilibrium off. Even Blythe beat me (though she used one of those ramps). We had a good time though and as usual, I was glad to get out of the house and go do something with Braden and the kids!

Yay for daycare

Boy am I glad I do not have any school-aged children this year! I am SO grateful that the daycare has been open just about every day throughout all of this snowy non-sense. The public schools, however, have only been open 1 day in February so far (and it was a short day due to delayed opening). They didn't go at all this week and they have a holiday on Monday. I hate to be the pessimist, but we have a 70% chance of accumulating snow on Monday, which will likely mean bad news for parents of school-aged children come Tuesday. What a nightmare! I couldn't imagine trying to get my work done day after day with my kids at home with me!

I bought the kids some warm weather clothes today, which I'm hoping will bring on the warm weather sooner. Likely it will have the opposite effect. What I really need to do is go buy a better snow shovel. Maybe if I go buy a snow shovel, we won't get any more snow.

Anyhoo, an update on the pregnancy...I am now 25 weeks along. Have gained about 23 pounds, so barely holding on for the under 40 pound goal. Unfortunately I have really felt an increase in appetite this week. Like no amount of food can make me full. That's not good news. I still love my fruits and veggies (Braden will laugh because I still don't really eat veggies), but carbs are starting to taste better now too.

The Jeep stands alone

Nothing like getting a really cool gift from Santa Claus and not being able to use it for at least 2 months to teach some kids the value of patience.

Every now and then they go down to the basement and they just sit in the Jeep and pretend to drive it. Well, at least Ethan's legs might be long enough to reach the pedal by the time we can actually take it outside.

Laundry Mishap

In case you were dying to know what happens when a disposable diaper (a clean one..thank goodness!) accidentally gets thrown in with a full load of clothes, I now have the answer for you. When you take your clothes out of the washer, they will be COVERED with small globets of clear gel and then you will be thinking, "what the hell did Blythe put in her pockets that got all over everything?" and then you will realize when you get to the bottom of the washer that there is a Pampers diaper sitting there. And then you will think, "now what"? Do I re-wash them? Or will it all come off in the dryer? The good news - pretty much all of it comes off in the dryer.

In other news, we had another 4 inches of snow this morning and I think there is a bit more to come later today. I am SO excited about it (note heavy sarcasm).

Snow Storm #3 and Ada's birthday

Another weekend. Another snowstorm. What.The.Hell. I'm thinking of making shirts that say, "I'd rather live in Forks".

Anyway, we were going to drive to Durham on Friday for Ada's 1st birthday party, but since the weather was supposed to be bad, we decided to leave Thursday night. Good idea, since the interstate was closed for about 5 hours Friday morning. Driving at night with the kids was actually really easy. Good to know. Will probably do that more in the future.

While Blacksburg was getting beat up with another snowstorm of another foot or so of snow, Durham was just getting rain. Lots of rain. So on Friday we headed to the Durham Life and Science museum. A good rainy day activity (though also would be a good nice day activity...will have to go back to enjoy the outdoor stuff some time).

The kids enjoyed seeing and feeling clouds in the weather area, looking at owls and fish and snakes and turtles, and playing with music and light. We even ventured out into the pouring rain to see the butterfly house and the say hello to a few of the barn animals. Here are a few pics:

Although Friday was Ada's real birthday, Saturday was her birthday party. Luckily it was just rain in Durham (and a few snow flakes) and not ice, so everyone was able to make it to the party. Lynette had done an amazing job decorating for the party (making just about everything herself!) and baking yummy cupcakes! I think I ate pretty much non-stop. Ada got lots of cool gifts and I think she enjoyed her party quite a bit. Here she is with her Mommy. Notice the super-cute "1" shirt she's wearing!

By Sunday the snow in Blacksburg had finally subsided and the roads were cleared so it was time for us to head on home. Braden had to stay in Durham because he was coaching some kids at a meet that went until Sunday night. So, fortunately I had thought ahead and had offered my 7 year old next door neighbor 20 bucks to shovel my driveway. Hey - just because he's only 7 doesn't mean he can't be put to work. Besides, he didn't do the whole thing. The kid across the street helped. Okay, so he's only 5, but whatever - my driveway was cleared and it was the best 20 bucks I could have spent!

We unloaded and then the kids wanted to go play in the snow. So 20 minutes later of finding their gear and loading them up, they were out in the snow.

But because our house looks like this now:

It's hard for the kids to play in the snow (since they can't even walk in the snow because it's higher than them). So, only about 10 minutes in the snow and they were ready to go in. I made them some hot chocolate (which was Ethan's first experience with it) and then set out to shovel some of our back deck. It's always suspicious when the kids are too quiet when you leave the room. I came back in and they had hot chocolate all over the table, the floor, and themselves.

Nice. Okay, so now it's bath time. I get them undressed mostly before we head upstairs. Before we go up, I tell them I have to run next door for just a second to pay our neighbor and I'll be right back. 2 minutes later I come in and Ethan's crying and I see blood on the floor. I mean, seriously, 2 minutes? I can't be gone 2 minutes? Apparently Blythe had made a make shift slide with the couch cushion and Ethan had done a face plant causing his nose to gush blood. Geez.

A bath, some dinner, bedtime, and I was able to watch about 20 minutes of the super bowl before falling asleep on the couch.

Oh, and another snowfall forecast for tomorrow. Yay.

Ugh

Mary and Winter 09/10 do not go well together. This is because I hate snow and cold weather. Before today, we'd had 33 inches of snow this winter. Today another 2-3 inches. More forecast for this weekend. Will.it.ever.stop???? Seriously, I don't think I'm all that demanding in my request for a sunny day over 40 degrees. On a weekend. Preferably.

The 10 day forecast is depressing.

It would be nice if I were nesting. Then my house might be really clean and organized. But I guess I'm not there yet and I have no interest in getting organized. My basement looks like Santa's sleigh tipped over. Don't even get me started on Blythe's room. Ethan, my little picker-upper, has a clean room however.

Sigh. And when will the girl scout cookies get here?

Snow storm #2 and circus

A week or two ago I saw that the circus was coming to town (well, to Roanoke, but close enough). Unfortunately the tickets were way expensive for 2 adults and 2 kids because they charge you all those damn fees with each ticket. So I was on craigslist and saw someone was selling 2 adult and 2 kid general admission tickets (meaning you can use them at any of the 4 days of shows), so I offered her $30 less than I would have had to pay and was able to buy them from her. Score!

So they were in town Thursday night through Sunday. Blythe had gymnastics Thursday night and then Braden was away at a swim meet Friday night through Saturday night, so our only option was to go on Sunday, which was fine.

Enter horrible snow storm #2 of the season. Our snow started late Friday night and kept snowing all the way through Saturday. When most of it was done Saturday afternoon (during Ethan's nap time), I headed outside to do some shoveling. We had about 11.5 inches at that point and I felt pretty good being outside and getting a bit of a workout. NOTE - it did not feel so good yesterday when my whole upper body was sore (guess carrying Ethan around everywhere isn't as much of an upper body workout as I thought).

My motivation for getting it all done on Saturday was so we could make it to the circus on Sunday and not waste the money we had spent on the tickets!

While I was outside for a couple of hours and Ethan was napping, Blythe made herself busy inside. Unfortunately, our snow was powdery and fluffy and no good for sledding or making snowmen. You couldn't even make a snowball. And it was 11 degrees outside, so I don't blame Blythe for wanting to stay inside! She was quite proud of her accomplishment indoors. I thought it was quite creative too, until I came in from shoveling and just wanted to lay on the couch.

It didn't come as much of a surprise, but the swim team had to stay Saturday night in West Virginia due to the snow and bad road conditions. So this meant Braden wouldn't get home until later in the day on Sunday. Bummer.

Glad I did the shoveling on Saturday when I did though. I was still dead set on getting out of the house Sunday morning and making it to the circus though. So we invited the Freels (Amy, Ashley, and Luke) to join us. The roads weren't too bad, especially once you got on the highway and we didn't have any trouble making it there. It was certainly worth it. No trapeze artists, but otherwise they had everything I would expect at a circus. Blythe and Ashley seemed to enjoy everything. Ethan and Luke were more interested in the tigers, elephants, dogs, and horses (oh, and motorcycles) than the tight rope walkers and others doing death-defying stunts.

They had a really long intermission where some wealthy, young kids got to ride elephants and ponies (or they at least had really cool parents who were willing to pay $10 a pop to ride an elephant for 2 minutes). Meanwhile my kids spent the whole intermission begging to. "I wanna ride da horsey". "Mom, how come they get to ride the elephants?" I just explained it was too expensive. Later when Braden got home, that's the first thing Blythe said about the circus. "We wanted to ride the elephants, but Mommy said No because it was too esspensive."

We did splurge on cotton candy and popcorn, which most of the kids loved. Ethan wasn't fond of the cotton candy and even when looking at pictures later, he said "I don like dat duff".

Anyway, I'm certainly glad we were able to get out of the house and get the kids to the circus. Wish that Braden had been able to join us though, but was glad he and the team went the safe route and didn't drive through the snow.