Birthday madness and being lazy

Once again, we have had an eventful week or so. The kids and I tried to stay busy while Vince was out of town to make the time pass faster. He got home last Friday and we put Sam's birthday party plans into action. We invited our neighbors and some friends of ours to come over on Sunday for some cake. We all spent the weekend cleaning, mowing, baking, cleaning...Vince got the yard, screen porch, and garage back into order and I worked on getting the house presentable for public consumption. Never an easy task. The end result was really nice, but short-lived! The yard and porch still look nice though. That's something. It even got kinda hot here!!!!!! People started complaining about the heat. You won't hear me complaining at all. Well, not yet at least.

Sam's party went well. The cake turned out cute and so did the shirt I made for him. We did a jungle theme. It was short, but nice. He dug into the cake, but didn't make too huge a mess. We enjoyed being able to visit with friends for a couple hours. Then, Monday went horribly wrong. Sam woke up that morning sooo sick. Think of all the explosive diapers I have ever been subjected to. Then think of them hitting all at once! He was covered. His bed was covered. Everything was covered. He spent that day and the next pooping and puking. It was terrible. He ran such a high fever too. He would wake up at night, just burning up. I couldn't keep it down. I took him to the doctor, who suspected rotavirus since it seems to be going around this area. We didn't test him for it, but we didn't need to. The symptoms were the same and would be treated the same way regardless. Sam did nothing but sleep and explode. He would lay on my chest and just moan. Poor thing. Poor me. At one point I was cleaning up both fluids out of my carpet simultaneously. ACK! He seems to be feeling better today, but he still is sleeping more than usual. I have been spraying everything very liberally with Lysol, hoping no one else gets sick. I can't deal. My house definitely reflects my inability to get anything done while he was sick.

Yesterday, Audrey had a field trip to the Roo Ranch up by Deadwood. She said it was neat and they got to pet some kangaroos and see the joeys. We should go back sometime so that we can all see it. I was going to drive for this trip, but I was scheduled to have a root canal instead. YAY! So I got nothing done yesterday either. Today is my birthday and I refuse to do anything more than absolutely required to care for 3 kids. Which is a lot. But they are being cooperative today and playing nicely together. I don't even want to see what kind of a mess they are making. I will definitely pay for my inaction today! I don't care. I have spent the last several weeks doing nothing but taking care of everyone else. I WILL be selfish today if it kills me. Maybe I can watch my very own copy of the Twilight movie that my mom sent me. That's probably asking too much. I just hope no one rings my doorbell.

During Sam's sickness I noticed some distinct differences in the way that Vince and I handle things. For instance: When someone throws up, a mother's instinct is to cup her hands in the shape of a bowl. Perfect for catching the vomit before it hits the carpet. Dad's instinct is to hold the child as far away from his person as possible so that the puke lands on the carpet and not anywhere near him. Also, when dealing with diarrhea, a mother never thinks twice about picking up the filthy child and carrying him or her lovingly to the tub. Dad, on the other hand may leave the child wallowing while gathering the necessary tools--rubber gloves, air freshener, towels, and possibly a mask. Only then will he approach said child with the intent to transfer it to the tub making as little contact as possible, all the while exclaiming, "Wow! Gross! Nasty! *gag, gag* Disgusting!" And Dad's approach to cleaning the carpet is markedly different from Mom's. After bargaining with Mom in an attempt to get out of any type of cleaning, especially as it relates to bodily functions, Dad will loudly sigh and begin the questions.
Dad: "Fine. Where is the carpet cleaning stuff?"
Mom: "Under the sink. Blue bottle. No, not that blue bottle. The other one. The one that says 'carpet cleaner'."
Dad: "Where is the towel?"
Mom: "Just use paper towels. Less mess. Then you'll need to vacuum the spot too."
Dad: "Where's the vacuum?"
Mom: "Never mind. Just give the stuff to me and I'll do it."
Dad, looking relieved, throws the stuff and quickly retreats, knowing that he narrowly avoided having to actually clean something. Dad is also more content to just lay back and let a kiddo sleep on his chest, while Mom feels the need to do something while holding a sleeping child, like one-handed dishes or putting laundry away, which she loathes but does anyway.

There are many, many more difference in the way we handle things around here, but I won't bore you with them all...today. And just remember that I have a flair for the dramatic and have been told that I sometimes exaggerate. Who knew?

Well, my lazy day is going all to Hell because Sam is unhappy about something and is requiring my assistance. Off to the rescue--and not a rubber glove in sight!

Not a baby anymore

*SIGH* It was bound to happen. My baby is growing up so fast. He turns one next week and I really can't believe that it's already been a year since he came home to be a big part of our family. This week was a milestone week for me because he is officially off the boob. He had been losing interest in nursing for a few days so I decided that it was time to stop the final feeding. Usually I wake him up before I go to bed and nurse him so that he doesn't wake me up at 4:30 AM to eat. The past several nights, he would nip and then fall asleep again and not really eat anything, so a couple nights ago I just went to bed without feeding him. He woke up and fussed (barely) for a few minutes and then drifted off again. Then he slept all night until his usual 6:30 time. Last night he didn't even wake up to fuss. I'm kinda sad and kinda happy all at the same time. It's hard to imagine that I will never be pregnant again or have a little baby in the house. Definitely bittersweet! Now, everyone knock on some wood so that last sentence doesn't come back to bite me in the tail-end.

Sam is feeling a lot better than he was last week. The doctor has stopped calling me to see how he's doing. He's still a little fussy, but that's to be expected when you cut 8 teeth at once!! Yes, 8! I thought it was 6, but I was getting a good look this morning while holding him upside down and tickling him and noticed that his top molars are coming too. I really need to get moving to plan his birthday party. I'm thinking that I can do a jungle theme. I made him that lion shirt--so cute!!--and he growls at everyone all the time. Works for me. It will be a small affair, but he won't care. I'm posting a picture of the shirt that I made. He wore it the other day and people kept asking me where I got it. I should make some more to sell. It was really easy once I got rolling on it. I made one for my nephew Jameson too. Still need to get that in the mail. Sorry Ashley!

I have so many more ideas for shirts. They will probably never get done, but oh well. I have some material that I thought would look good for an owl design. Before that gets done, Audrey and I have been baking. She had the snack bucket for her class today so we made cupcake bites. A friend of ours made them for her daughter's birthday and they were so cute and yummy that we decided to make some for school. You can find the recipe here: http://bakerella.blogspot.com/ She is amazing! There is so much cute stuff here. These were harder to make than it sounds, so be aware. In theory they were easy, but in reality they took a while. To top it off, I was dealing with 2 small girls that wanted to help, but ended up eating more than necessary. Ours didn't turn out as cute as the ones on the website, but that's okay. They tasted soooo good! I'm thinking the kids didn't care what they looked like! Audrey came home with only a few left out of over 40 that we made. There are only 10 kids in her class, including her. Her teacher liked them too. She asked me about them after class. I'm sure the parents are going to want to thank me too, since these treats probably put them WAAAAY over the daily sugar allowance of a normal kid. My baby was happy though and that was the point.

Bakerella's version are a lot cuter, but that's okay. I'm not looking at my food for very long before it disappears! These were supposed to be heart and star shapes. Can you tell? These are what is left after school and Katie! Oh, and Mommy too.

I'm breaking all my own rules about posting pictures on here, aren't I?

Vince comes home tonight! Happy, happy, joy, joy. (Anyone remember Ren and Stimpy?) Anyway, he will only be home for a day before he leaves again, but at least he'll be home long enough for me to leave for a while! Haha.

It has been warming up here finally. It's been rainy for a few days, but the sun comes out in between. We hit the petting farm yesterday with some friends. It was nice because we were the only ones there. I think because it was kinda raining on and off. I've never lived in a place where you carry coats in the car year-round. Good thing though because we have needed them more than once. The kids had a blast because they got to do everything by themselves. When it's busy, they have to take turns bottle-feeding and stuff, but yesterday they did it all themselves. And the animals are all so small yet. By the end of the season, it's hard to bottle feed them because they are so big. As usual, we spent most of the time in the poultry house handling the baby chicks. I don't know what it is about the baby chicks, but my kids would stay in there the entire time if I would let them. We even watched one hatch. So cute!

Sam is up from his nap now and my phone keeps ringing so I better get off of this machine. Happy Mother's Day, everyone!

Long week

It's been a very long week! Vince left early Monday, so I'm left to handle everything by myself 24/7. You don't realize how nice it is to have someone else around to help out until they are gone. On top of that Sam has been pretty sick with some kind of nasty stuff. He's been wheezing, coughing, draining green stuff, etc. My man has impeccable timing, I tell ya. Whenever he leaves, someone gets sick. It's like he knows. I took Sam to the doctor on Wed. because I was giving him breathing treatments and he was still wheezing really badly. They tested him for any kind of virus and it came back negative, but they have been calling me almost everyday to make sure that he's improving. Sam's still in a good mood most of the time, but we have been trapped in the house a lot. We did go for a marathon playdate at a new friend's house on Tuesday. Michelle and I had met briefly at the park one day and our 5 year-olds really seemed to hit it off, so she Facebooked me and asked if we wanted to come over. We did and ended up staying for 4 hours! I also think we ate the entire time. She has great snacks. I guess she didn't mind that we wore out our welcome because we have gotten together a couple of times since then. We both went to bootcamp this morning. He's trying to kill us! A couple weeks ago, we started a new routine that he made up. Our goal is to be able to do 10 sets of 10. Hah! This week we were up to 6 sets of 10. We do 10 burpees (standing, then lean over, put your hands on the floor, push your feet out behind you, do a push-up, feet back in, jump with hands above your head), 10 sit-ups, 10 over head presses with weights, 10 squats with weights, 10 back extensions on the floor. Then run 2 laps and start your next set. It doesn't sound so hard, but seriously, by the last couple of sets, I am praying for a natural disaster so that we have to evacuate the building or something! And he times us. We are trying to beat our best time. We did this in 18 minutes today. Anyhoo. That was the first time that I have worked out this week. Since V is gone and Sam has been sick I have no one to watch the kids while I go to the Y. Today I thought that Sam was well enough to go. They never mentioned that he was sick in the nursery, so I didn't either.

So, since he's been sick and sleeping more I have been on this Twilight kick. I finally got my books in. The 3rd one came in first. Torture! I stayed up waaaay too late last night trying to finish the third book and then of course, Sam woke up early. So, I am running on less than 6 hours of sleep, which is many hours short of what I need. My house is trashed because I have been ignoring it in favor of Bella and Edward. Oh, sweet Edward! (insert dreamy sigh here)

I think my little one has yet another poopy diaper. I tell ya, some days I dream about never changing another poopy diaper as long as I live. This kid must have some kind of metabolism. He gives me AT LEAST 4 poopy ones a day. His room has a permanent stink. I can't keep up. No one else around here seems to mind that this is an insane amount of poop per day. I am the only one bothered by it.

The swim lessons are going well. The girls got some goggles and it seems to have helped them. Katie has even stopped whining about going. She made a mention this afternoon about being a ballerina. I wanted to scream!

I am in the process of making Sam a shirt with a lion on it. I just cut some pieces out of scrap fabric and am looping some ribbon for the mane. I have it all put together, now I just need to sew it on the shirt. It looks really cute! I will have to post a picture when I'm done.

Well, that diaper isn't smelling any better, so I guess I'll go change it. It's almost time for bed anyway. I should go to bed early, but will probably stay up reading the last book in the series. I want it to go slowly so I can savor it, but I'm sure that I will devour it the same way as the others.