Another week down, Six more to go!

So, in case you can't tell, I've already started the figurative paper chain here. This was my first week back "on my own." And as much as I'm trying to keep a positive outlook, I've resigned myself to the idea that I won't be getting any sleep until August.

So, let's have a brief recap of the last month or so. Since the great zoo outing, we've not really attempted anything major. Mostly because for the last 3 weeks I've been dealing with sick children. First up was Ethan who had a high fever, sore throat and cough for exactly one week. It started on a Sunday and by Saturday he was starting to feel better, so of course as soon as he was done it was Grace's turn. She had all the same plus a little throwing up thrown in the mix. She was done after a little more than a week, when wouldn't you know, this last Saturday Sophie started getting goopy eyes and a little cough. Luckily she hasn't had the fever or anything else, but you can tell she just doesn't feel great. So that sucks. I'm hoping it will run true to Ethan and Grace's course and she'll be better before the weekend is out. Because she's an even worse sleeper when she's sick.

In the midst of all the sickness, we enjoyed a visit from my mom and baby brother Jacob, who drove on up from New Orleans to pay us a visit. We had a blast and they came just as Ethan was getting better so they were able to get him out of the house while Grace was sick. Ethan was in heaven because they went to the Children's Museum 3 or 4 times, and Wendy's a few more times than that.

Here is a "photo shoot" the kids participated in. A friend of ours in the ward here is starting up his own photography studio and asked if he could take pictures of the kids to use for his portfolio, etc. and that we'd get a complimentary 8X10 in exchange. Here are a couple that Scott took with our camera. Of course, his camera was WAY nicer than ours, so I'm excited to see how the real pictures come out.



While my family was still here, we decided to celebrate Ethan's birthday a little bit early with them by going to Chuck E. Cheese. It was a hit. It made EVERYONE happy.





For Ethan's actual birthday on this Monday, I made the mistake of asking him what kind of cake he wanted. I meant what FLAVOR he wanted. Ethan took it to mean what kind of CHARACTER he wanted me to make. I guess I started a bad precedent with Grace's Elmo cake back in November. For his birthday, Ethan decided he wanted an alligator cake. A what? I have no idea what made him think that's what he wanted. Its not like he's really into alligators or anything, but feeling guilty because he doesn't really know any kids around here, and he didn't have a friends birthday party like Grace did, I figured I had to give it a try. Two cake mixes, a lot of green food coloring, and 3/4 of a day later, here is the final product:


It was a borderline nightmare trying to finish it up with Ethan "helping" me and Sophie and Grace waking up halfway through, not to mention Ethan and Grace starting a peanut M&M throwing war, but it made it ALMOST worth it when I was done and Ethan kept saying "I LOVE my alligator cake, mom."

Somebody needs to give that child a bath.

To make this long day even longer, I had scheduled my hair cut for that night at 8 o'clock thinking that for sure it wouldn't a problem to make it there on time. But of course, being directionally challenged, I made several wrong turns (both getting there and coming back) trying to find the salon that was on the other side of the city. Let's just say that on the way back I found myself in northern Kentucky for a little while before I was able to find my way back home. My hair cut is a little shorter than I would have liked, but its hair -- it grows back.

Here's one of Ethan's birthday presents that we picked up for CHEAP at Goodwill. He's anxiously awaiting tomorrow when we put on the training wheels for him.

So, to all those who care about my sleep woes, they were frustrated even further this last week. I had decided that it was finally time to try a little sleep training now that Sophie is over 4 months old. Starting with bedtime, we decided to let her cry herself back to sleep if she woke up after only an hour of being asleep. The idea was not to get her until around 10 when she would legitimately need to eat again. Well, apparently Sophie is even more persistent than Ethan was as a baby, and on Sunday after being asleep for less than an hour she woke back up and started crying/screaming and continued to do so for the next 2 hours straight. At this point we started hearing the neighbors banging on the bedroom wall every few minutes. I guess they don't like hearing her scream anymore than I do. I guess I didn't think it would be such a problem at 8:30 at night. I guess I was wrong. Sleep training is tentatively on hold until we get back to "our" house in August. Six more weeks. Six more weeks.

"The Potty-Training Treats"

I decided to complicate my life even further this week by potty-training Grace. Bribery usually works fairly well with my children, so I let Grace pick out her favorite candy (peanut M&Ms) and Ethan picked out his (Reese's peanut butter cups, which he calls "muffin treats"). Because even though Ethan has been potty-trained for a year, who doesn't need a little more incentive now and then to go to the bathroom? We didn't really start until yesterday, and let me just say that she was a million times easier than Ethan. She was basically potty-trained in a day.

How can I know that for sure you may ask? Well, picture this scene. Sophie was up pretty much all night long last night. 9:30 PM, 11 PM, Midnight, 3 AM, 4:20 AM and up for good at 5:30. I got out of bed with her around 6 and once the other kids woke up I got them their breakfast, locked the door when Scott left, and finally got Sophie down for a nap at 7. At this point I told the kids to be quiet and leave me alone so I could get a nap, too. I put in our latest Netflix pick -- Dennis the Menace -- and went back to bed. Imagine my surprise when they actually left me alone! I was able to sleep for a couple of hours before my slumber was disturbed by the sound of Grace intermittently screeching. It took me a few minutes to realize that I should probably get up and check on them. What I found was Grace going to the bathroom all by herself while Ethan was teasing or taunting her about something. I was in shock. She went all day without any accidents and was able to tell me each time she had to go!

We ended up having a really good day, and tonight we had even more fun. Grace and I had a girl's night out to the mall -- she's my new favorite shopping partner. And Ethan and Scott ordered pizza and had a game night at home. Grace is a shopper who knows her mind and in Gymboree she set her sight upon a red 4th of July dress that she thought looked just like Annie's (you know, from the musical). I ended up caving in and buying the dress and she was so happy that she wanted to put the dress on as soon as we bought it. We had a really fun time and so did the boys at home. I think I sense a tradition coming on!




And finally, due to the following, I realized today that the kids have probably watched Annie a few too many times in the last couple weeks:

1.) Ethan has started calling Grace his little pig droppings
2.) Grace burst out into song today at the lunch table singing "The Sun'll come out,Tomorrow" with Ethan immediately following it up with "Welcome to the Movies"
and 3.) Grace says that she is no longer Wish Bear, but Annie

Here's to hoping the next 6 weeks fly by!

Oh and yeah, how could I NOT buy her this ensemble when I saw it at the Gap?

The Zoo

It has come to my attention that certain family members of mine are a little concerned that all I blog about these days are my woes. So in an effort to reassure all that we are having SOME fun here, I present to you the adventure that was the Zoo today.



A few weeks ago I decided to go ahead and buy an annual zoo pass, the idea being that as long we go at least twice this summer it will have paid for itself. I went ahead and got the family "Gold" package to include free parking, free guest each time, unlimited rides on the train and the carousel, and a discount at the gift shop. The first time we went, it was a Saturday (and Memorial Day weekend) and we had Scott's sister Kristin and her daughter Hannah (who is Ethan's age) with us. We went at the worst possible time -- the middle of the day -- which meant that the kids were hungry and tired before too long but not wanting to leave. All in all, it was hot and not that fun for the grown-ups.

Since that was kind of trial run, I thought today would be a piece of cake. I packed the diaper bag with snacks so we wouldn't have to buy any of the ridiculously over-priced food at the zoo. I made sure the kids had their sippy cups and that I had water bottles for me and Amy. I double checked that I had our zoo pass and I mapquested the directions to get there.

Let me just state right here for the record that I am directionally challenged. I fought it for a long time, and I use to get really upset when my family would make fun of me for it, but you know what? I don't even care any more. I'm not good with directions. Partly because I usually don't pay attention to how we get places unless I'm the one driving. And partly, because without the mountains to guide me, I have no concept of where north, south, east or west is. And as you'll soon see, my efforts often involve a lot of wrong turns.

My first wrong turn was more of a missed turn. I was supposed to take a "slight right" onto this street according to mapquest, but the intersection was totally confusing because there were 2 streets that branched off to the right from this one major highway. So, I passed it up and as I was passing I realized the 2nd of the two streets was the one I wanted. And of course, the next exit was forever away and for some reason I though I could like catch up to where I was supposed to go and I followed this one road for probably a mile or 2 before figuring that I should turn around and backtrack to the right street. So I did, and the next wrong turn was due to construction. Followed by more and more wrong turns as I got more and more lost downtown until finally I pulled over into a gas station to call Scott and have him figure out where I was and how to get to the zoo (which we finally did). Meanwhile Sophie was freaking out in the backseat starving due to the fact that the 20 minute drive to the zoo had now taken us an HOUR.

At this point I was getting really frustrated especially thanks to Ethan in the backseat who kept asking how much longer and if we were lost. I was also wondering if I jinxed myself by setting out to do something fun today. By the time we got to the zoo, I was all ready to turn around and go home! Of course, that wasn't even an option, so I had Amy get the kids loaded into the duoglider while I sat in the backseat to feed Sophie and listened as Ethan and Grace had a screaming fight over who got to sit in the front seat of the stroller. Who knew this was such a coveted spot? Grace won, and then I listened as Ethan threw a full-on meltdown screaming fit while passers-by in the parking lot are watching the scene probably wondering if Amy was trying to kidnap them or something.

As you can see Ethan is still pouting in the backseat while Grace is triumphant in the front.

We finally got going with Amy holding Sophie in the Baby Bjorn and me pushing the kids in the stroller. My only goal for the trip was to get our permanent zoo pass and let the kids ride the train. Check and check. As an added bonus, the kids got their faces painted, I found the PERFECT haircut, and we gave in to the temptation of an Icee and cotton candy. And you know what? We had FUN! So here are the pictures to prove it:

Grace opted for "cheek butterflies"


Ethan, of course, opted for the "cheek butterflies" as well. He wanted to be like Grace, and I couldn't persuade him to choose something else, so oh well.

(Look how pleased he is)


The twinsies.

As we were waiting for the train, I saw the cutest pregnant lady with the cutest short haircut. Its exactly what I've been looking for, and since I'm new to the area and I don't know where to go and get my hair done, I went right up to her and asked who her hairstylist was. She was very nice and obliging and gave me the needed information, but I didn't want to really freak her out and ask to take her picture. So what did I do instead? Oh, I opted for the zoom-in shot from afar. 'Cause that surely wouldn't freak her out any if she knew. Haha. So here are the pilfered shots:

Cute, right?

After the train ride I dangled the bribe of cotton candy in front of the kids to convince them that we didn't need to ride again, and me and Amy got an Icee -- which was even more delicious than I remember them being. So there you have it! Our zoo trip. I'd like to say that the drive home was short, sweet and uneventful, but it wasn't. I'll just summarize by saying that I took a few more wrong turns, got lost a little more, but FINALLY (once again an hour later) I found our way home!

On the Sophie front, I took her to the doctor yet AGAIN this week, and got some new medicine for her. Although the cost of all these prescription was ASTRONOMICAL, I'm thinking it was well worth it, because for the first time since she's been born practically, her skin looks perfect! Or relatively so.

She's kind of getting to be a chunk!
At the doctor's office she was 13 lbs. 12 oz. and 24 1/2 inches long.

And finally, thanks to all of you for your sympathy and condolences on the part of our neighbor situation. As an update, Scott was able to get a hold of our manager, and she was actually really nice. She was very apologetic that she even had to send the letter and said that the neighbor who complained didn't even make that big a deal about it, but that she's required to write up a notice any time a complaint is expressed. So that's a relief! She just said to do the best we can. And I really think we've been fine this week. Amy has been awesome about taking them outside a lot, and we've definitely been getting out of the house a lot more.

Here's a picture Amy took of them while they were outside. Apparently she's turning them into tree-huggers.

And the kids would like to give a HUGE thank you to their friend Reagan for sending such a fun pool package and such encouraging words of advice! Thank you, thank you, thank you. Ethan has the lobster floatee in his room asleep with him as we speak.

Alright folks, thank YOU and goodnight!