Snippets

Random snippets of life:

I found the lost red diaper! To clarify, the soiled red diaper that had been unaccounted for for at least 5 days. Found it and my sanity. In the lid of the diaper pail:)

The girls and I went to the post office the other day. As I drove up I realized it was my FIRST time going to the post office in this town...and we have lived here for 2 years! Briefly I wondered why I avoid this place, then our 12 minute but felt-like-a-lifetime wait reminded me. Only so much fun can be had by the toddler/preschool crowd when forced to look at but NOT touch an entire card display and stand quietly in line! I thought we were going to make it out of there completely unscathed, but then as I was paying to mail my package I noticed Hannah was almost out the door! I wish I was exaggerating.  

 

The other night while completely exasperated with Isaiah beckoning me into his room after bedtime for the 100th time (for NO good reason!), I jokingly asked him if he had called me in just so he could gaze upon my beauty and tell me I am the prettiest girl in the world. He got a big grin on his face and informed me that I am the second prettiest girl in the world. I told him GOOD NIGHT!

 

Our washer and/or dryer is eating our clothes! And I am beyond frustrated. It seems that with every wash at least one article of clothing comes out with a dozen tiny bite marks (i.e. holes). I then spend waaaaay too much time sewing all the holes closed. While I love sewing, mending is not my forte. But replacing the clothes isn't in the budget. Someday I will be able toss torn and worn clothes. Someday. Until then I will mend and make do. 

mended & adorable!

 

Tonight Charlotte asked daddy why he was wearing his "doctor pants" (aka scrubs). I love all the random references she makes about medical school. She is constantly talking about daddy "learning to doctor" and practicing "doctor stuff". He's in "doctor school" don't ya know?!

the mug cracks me up.

Speaking of doctor school, this week Joe started pediatrics. So far so good. Currently he is doing inpatient newborns. (Sounds like a blast to me!) I laughed at his story about counseling a patient's (brand new) mom about breastfeeding. The man knows a thing or two about breastfeeding:) He even impressed the residents he is working with. They are all in awe of him because he has THREE kids! That's like pediatric gold. Next he will do two weeks of peds clinic and then three weeks inpatient. If I were a betting person, I would bet he will be bored in the clinic but like inpatient. I personally think he would make a fabulous pediatrician. But I don't get to choose his specialty! Darn. 

Lastly, I made myself a camera case. Wait. That is worth repeating. I MADE MYSELF A CAMERA CASE!! As in I took some fabric and foam and sewed a camera case from scratch. And yes I am ridiculously proud of myself. Just might type up a little how-to so I can ramble on about it some more. Stay tuned...or not:) I will never know.

 

Snippets? Ha! More like a novella. Oops. 

And then she peed on the floor.

I sent this braggy text to Joe this morning...

...and then a freshly bathed Hannah peed ALL OVER my newly cleaned bathroom!

And that is life with kids. Or at least it is my life with kids. 

The work is never really done. 

(Do I have to admit to the fact that I didn't immediately put a diaper on Hannah?! Instead I let her bare bottom roam while I cleaned the bathroom floor (again). I mean she had just peed! Moments into my bathroom cleaning, Chatlotte informed me Hannah had peed on her pillow. Apparently she had not emptied her bladder completely because Charlotte's favorite pillow was indeed urine soaked!)

my five {current} favorites

In no particular order here are my current five favorite "things". Ok. They are in a particular order. The order in which I photographed them. But that order has no significance. Speaking of significance, this post has very little as well. It is frivolous and silly. But my first edition was so popular (and I enjoy looking back at it) that I thought it was time to do it again!

 

 

[#1]

 

I love this stuff! My mom gave it to me for Christmas and it seriously was one of my favorite gifts. Basically it is a concentrated dish soap that is dispensed in a foam. Why do I love it so much? Because I am lazy with a capital L and pretty much never wash an entire sink full of dishes. I just wash a few at a time and this stuff works perfect for that. Be warned, it smells a tad funny. Chemical-ish. But it works wonderfully.

[#2]

 

Detangler. My sister introduced me to this stuff right before we had family pictures taken. Which were scheduled for immediately post-nap. And that is not exactly an ideal time in the hair department for little girls. Major wild bed head! I was attempting to tame Charlotte's hair with water when my sister offered me a squirt of her detangler.  It worked like a charm and I have been a believer ever since! So much so I was willing to buy the $1.99 bottle at the grocery store (vs waiting to buy the cheaper but equally effective dollar store version). We use it daily if not multiple times a day. But it is not a good substitute for washing hair...eventually it just doesn't do the trick anymore and a bath is necessary to tame those wild hairs:)

The wild bed head in the above picture was a result of the nap Charlotte took while helping daddy study! A NAP! All she needed was a good snuggle and a little back rub and this girl is back to napping!!!!! Which means she is no longer a terror in the evenings. And I am napping most afternoons with her. Win-win! However that means I have spent far less time around here:(

 

 

[#3]

 

Chores & this kid. This past week Isaiah has decided he wants to earn and save money for a Lego set. Which Lego set? I don't know and I don't really care. What I do care about is the fact that for a QUARTER I get a clean floor or a clean bathroom. Can't beat that! Much to his chagrin, he does not get paid for his regular chores...making his bed, putting away his clean clothes, getting the mail and bringing the recycling out. 

 

 

  [#4]

 

  Peanut butter popcorn! It's AMAZING. I don't have a recipe exactly. But this is what I do to make it.  First I take a big glob of peanut butter (1/4-1/2 cup) and a bit of honey (1-2 Tablespoons) and I microwave them in a big bowl until soft (30ish seconds) and mix them together. Then I pop my popcorn directly into the bowl with the peanut butter-honey mixture (with my air popper). Finally I mix the popcorn into the peanut butter & honey and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. And then I try not to eat the entire bowl in one sitting. 

 

 

  [#5]

 

I created this completely unnecessary, but equally fun picture using my new favorite and FREE picture editing program picmonkey. I am a bit obsessed with this program. It is super easy and fast to use and you don't have to download anything. Just upload the pictures you want to edit onto their website. Like I said its fast, unless of course you spend all afternoon editing a bunch of pictures for no good reason...then of course it takes a lot of time:) Or so I have heard. But seriously, so fun! It's how {the archives} got a little face lift last weekend. 

Hannah's speech update

Hannah has started speech therapy so I thought I would give a little update (as my title so creatively implies). Mostly, this is for my own record so that *hopefully* I can look back at her progress with happiness and satisfaction because it is slooooow going and (if I am being completely honest) kinda frustrating (for both of us). But before I get to the update, OH MY GOODNESS...test time is definitely imminent. Like just a little over 48 hours away. How do I know?

Because, as Joe likes to say, the wheels have come off! We are falling apart right before my eyes. It started last night at about 10pm (as I was getting into bed), Charlotte woke burning up with a fever. At the same time Joe was in bed with a stomach ache so Charlotte and I camped out on the couch (and watched a lovely PBS documentary about the Amish) until midnight. Then I put Charlotte to bed (or so I thought). The night went a little something like this...12:30 AM Charlotte wakes up crying. I stumble into her room and settle her back to sleep. 1 AM Charlotte wakes up crying. I stumble into her room and settle her back to sleep. 1:30 AM Charlotte wakes up crying. I stumble into her room and settle her back to sleep. That nasty cycle continued until 3 AM when I brought her into our bed. She slept great. Joe and I hardly slept. No surprise there. So I brought her back to her bed. More crying and comforting. At 5 AM I finally realized I could (and SHOULD) give the poor child more Tylenol. Medicine administered and I stumble back to my bed and I foolishly tell Joe that I am SO thankful that Hannah has not woken once during this hub bub. Famous last words! Five minutes later, Charlotte has a potty accident, Isaiah wakes up from a bad dream and Hannah is crying in her crib from all the commotion. Eventually we got the girls settled (Isaiah was up for the day!) and crawl back into bed just as Joe's alarm was going off. GOOD MORNING to us! We chose to ignore it. It was a snooze button kind of morning. At 6 AM Charlotte (who was snugly between us in our bed) asks for her water bottle, I stumbled into her room waking Hannah in the process, only to remember the water bottle is in MY bed with Charlotte! Isaiah chose this moment to run into our room announcing he saw a snake under his bed which causes Hannah to cry louder! There was NO snake. It's at this point we give up on sleep and the boys head out to shovel the driveway because as luck would have it we got dumped on during the night. Good morning indeed.

our snowy abode today

my sick girl

 

So speech? It's happening. 

Once a week for an hour a speech therapist comes to our home (which I LOVE) and works with Hannah. It's play therapy. So mostly it's fun. Or at least Hannah thinks so for the first 15-20 minutes. Then she gets frustrated because Ms. Julie makes her use her words before she gets to play. And Hannah is a girl of few words. She's much more accustomed to loudly repeating "eeh, eeh, eeh" and getting what she wants/needs. A lot of times she will just outright ignore Ms. Julie when frustrated. Sometimes she looks to me for support. She gives me this look like "This lady is crazy mom. Can you help me?"  Cracks me up every time! Lastly, when she is very frustrated she will pull at her hair (or her sister's if she is within reach). 

But progress has been made. And for documentation purposes, here are Hannah's current words:

Signing (with prompting):

Please

More

Thank you

Help

Go

Open

Speaking:

Mama

Dada

Yaya (for Isaiah & Charlotte)

Ba or ba-ba (for ball, bear, bye and baby)

Yea (for yes)

Uh oh

Aye (for eye)

Hi

Papa

She also now barks like a dog and meows like a cat when asked about animal noises. 

So that's 8 more words than when she was referred to speech. Which in some ways feels like a HUGE improvement and at the same time feels like nothing at all. Charlotte has been Hannah's biggest cheerleader, role model and teacher...

 

At the end of her last session Ms. Julie told me she thinks Hannah is doing great. But she hasn't yet made the association between making sounds/words and communication. Basically Hannah sees no point in learning to talk because she doesn't need to. She already knows how to get what she wants/needs by screaming or grunting. Which of course means, I have been/am her biggest enabler in not learning to talk. Oops! 

So I have been trying to ignore the grunts and screams and only respond to signing or attempts at talking. But it's so hard. It's hard for me and its hard for Hannah. But we keep trying. Baby steps.

 

 

As promised (though no one actually asked for it) here is my little "how the kids and I learned embroidery together" post.  It all started with the book "See & Sew" by Tina Davis....a sewing book for children. My friend found the book at Goodwill. And I was intrigued. So I did what I always do...I requested a copy from the library! Less than a week later I had it in my hands. Isaiah immediately looked through the entire book. My boy loves crafts:) Just like his mama! After some deliberation, he chose embroidery as his first project.

 

Now admittedly, Isaiah has a lot of "projects" he wants to create with my help. Most of these projects never come to fruition because....well...because I am lazy. But as luck would have it, I knew Monday was going to be yet another snow day so this time I was motivated to find a way to occupy our time inside. The kids and I zipped right on over to our nearest craft supply store and bought our supplies (before the cold front hit).

 

 

Here's the breakdown of what we purchased:

Two - 4" embroidery hoops - $1.49/each

36 pack of embroidery floss - $4.99

 

The fabric is scraps I already owned (from an old duvet cover) and the needles I owned as well. They were part of a multi-needle pack and handily enough were labeled "embroidery". Basically I think any large needle with a large eye will work. But what do I know? I thought the small hoops would be good for the kids. Later my mom informed me bigger would have been better, easier to handle with more work space. So maybe splurge and get the 8" hoop for $1.99! Oh and if the pack of floss is too much for the ole' budget, individual packs of floss are CHEAP. Like forty cents cheap. I went crazy this time and jumped in with both feet and I don't regret it one bit. The kids LOVE having so many colors to choose from.

 

 

That is the what. Moving right along to the how. Not much to say here. Basically the kids and I looked at the illustrations in the book and gave it a whirl. Isaiah picked it up after I showed him two stitches (stem stitches to be exact). While Charlotte....well she got the concept but couldn't execute it quite as precisely. Regardless, they both had a blast! Seriously they sat quietly working on their embroidery for most of the morning! It was wonderful!! I got some dishes done and was only interrupted to re-thread their needles from time to time. The book is excellent. Easy illustrations to follow.

 

 

Hannah also liked embroidery because it meant she got free reign of the entire house without her brother or sister bossing her around!

In the end Charlotte created a chick, albeit unintentionally. She was a free-style embroiderer while Isaiah had a plan and executed it. As is obvious in the finished product pictures, I helped Charlotte with her creation. She needed a little guidance:) Isaiah on the other hand, only needed me to do the first stitch or two of each kind and then he was able to take off. His scene was created using the following stitches: stem, cross, chain, and blanket. Nearly all the stitches in the book!

Both finished products are now framed and proudly displayed in the kids' rooms.

 

Who knew my kids would enjoy embroidery so much? Certainly not I. But that was a pleasant surprise! We will definitely be doing more embroidery around here.