Say Cheese!

Tonight we had to take a trip to Sears because Ben needed to get a tool for work. Then we walked to Fudruckers to have dinner. While there Zak decided to take my camera and have a little photo shoot of his own. He would point it at each of us and then say "Daddy...cheese". Of course, he has not quite figured out how to properly use the camera...he thinks the lens is where you put your eye to look through! The camera was not turned on, but he eventually figured that out and was not too happy.

I was able to grab the camera from Zak long enough to snap a picture of each of the boys...

On to a different topic...the boys now have a favorite food! As soon as they wake up from their nap (when they nap, otherwise sometime in the afternoon) they will walk over to the food cabinet and Zak will say "Butter! Butter!"...this means they want a peanut butter sandwich. We are really happy that they have decided to like peanut butter because that is a good source of fat since their milk has been lowered to 1% or fat-free!

Just Nasty!

The boys did finally go to sleep this afternoon for a nap, but my good luck stopped there. I heard Ryder wake up, but before I went to their bedroom I took the dogs outside. Once I got to the boys' bedroom I realized Zak was still asleep. And then I saw Ryder.....


They have done this before, but usually open the bottom drawers and climb them to get up further. That is why we put locks on the bottom two drawers, but that doesn't seem to be working anymore. He some how got up to the drawer without climbing the others. As I walked up to the dresser I was horrified by what I saw...

It is hard to tell in the picture, but he peed in the drawer!! I didn't realize he had no diaper on until I saw that and then lifted up his shirt. (Side Note: How do you clean pee out of a wooden drawer?!) I picked him up and took him to the playroom to put a diaper on him. When I laid him down he kept telling me "poo poo" which he usually says even he is only peed. Well, when I went to put the diaper on him I noticed he had poop on his butt! So he took off a dirty diaper and it was some where in their bedroom. Once I got him cleaned up and put a diaper on I went back to the bedroom to look for the dirty diaper. I had to go and pick up each diaper until I found the dirty one...gross. Through all of this Zak was sound asleep...

Day in Annapolis

Today the boys and I spent the day in Annapolis with Josephine and Jamison because they had no school, but Colleen and Chris has to work. The boys love spending time with both Joey and Jay as they call them. First, we watched some TV inside and they played with lots of toys..mainly Legos. Then we walked downtown to get some lunch...sushi for Joey and I and Subway for the 3 boys. It was so nice outside so we walked to the water and ate lunch outside.


After lunch we walked to the playground, but realized it was a school day and there were tons of kids so we went home and played in the front yard instead. But when we got to the house we realized the spare key was not in the normal place...so we were locked out! I posted that to Facebook and a little while later Colleen called to tell me where the key was. Even after getting into the house we stayed outside and played for a while.


Ryder started to get very cranky so Joey thought he was tired (which he was). She brought out a blanket for him to lay on and another to cover up with.


We left Annapolis around 4pm and the boys fell asleep on the ride home because they were so tired. We ate dinner and then Ben gave the boys a bath. They re-discovered the bath crayons and had a blast!

During the bath Ben realized Zak was actually pointing out the colors that Ben was asking for. He did this for a while, but by the time I got up there to take a video everything had turned into orange. So this is a video of Ben getting Zak to repeat the names of some colors...Ryder tried to chime in once and a while...

Tomorrow I plan to do some cleaning and picking up since we were not home all day today. I also have a good amount of laundry to do as always! At 6pm Robin has a vet appointment to get a booster shot. I also need to call Ryder's therapists to set up his sessions since we seem to be on the mend from illness. They are trying to be extremely cautious since they go from house to house working with babies and toddlers so Ryder has not had a session for a few weeks now.

Madelyn's 1st Birthday Party

This afternoon we went into Annapolis to celebrate Madelyn's 1st Birthday which was on November 3. At her 12 month appointment she was 17lb 11oz and 29.25inches tall. She is on the smaller side just as Zak, Ryder, and Piper have been. We started with opening gifts...


Then it was time for cake. We were all curious to see how Madelyn would do with her own cake since she is just getting the hang of eating. She was a very graceful little girl...

For some reason the sound on my camera is all messed up so there is really no sound in the videos...

Bad Day

Today has been a horribly emotionally tiring day for me. Unfortunately, I think I have lost my closest friend...a sister of sorts due to a falling out. I will leave it at that because I don't want to put my "dirty laundry" all over the Internet. I am so ready for Ben to be home from CA!

So I have tried to do many mindless things to keep my mind off of the bad. After I dropped the boys off with Rich I drove into Annapolis and bought myself some yummy sushi (crunchy spicy tuna rolls to be exact!). Then I came home and took a nice long nap. I then ate the last of my sushi for dinner and took a shower. After that I decided to drive down the street to make a trip to Friendly's for a banana split. It was SO good!

Tonight I got a call from my mom asking if I had a broom...what a weird question. She then proceeded to tell me to go get it and try to stand it up in the middle of the room. Much to my surprise it stayed when I let go of it! Apparently, there is something going on with the gravitationally pull making it possible for brooms to stand up on their own. My broom has now been standing up in the middle of the kitchen for over an hour and counting. I have pictures...the first is my broom and the next 2 are from my mom's house in FL...

Now, if it is still standing up when Ben gets home from the airport I am sure it will freak him out! We shall see what happens.

Tomorrow we will go pick up the boys probably around lunchtime. After that we plan to go into Annapolis to Chelley's apartment to have a mini birthday party for Madelyn since everybody ended up sick on Halloween. Not sure what else we have planned for tomorrow, but probably not much. I do want to look at some cameras if we have a chance since that is what I am interested in for Christmas this year. I am also looking into prices for Photoshop software so that I can make my own blog designs and get into digital scrapbooking...

A Home For the Holidays (Week 1)

A friend of mine posted this blog to our chat group so I went to take a look. I have decided to try and follow it as closely as I can because I could use some help trying to clean and organize this house! She is going to put up "assignments" daily (6 days a week) to help guide you through cleaning and organizing your house (and yourself). I did not start it the day she started, but over the last week I have been working towards catching up with her blog. I think I will make a weekly post about the progress I have made instead of making daily updates (too boring for everyone to read I am sure!). Here is what I have done so far....

Pre-Assignment 1: I didn't write anything down, but made a mental list which is just as good in my book.

Pre-Assignment 2: I didn't take pictures because I actually didn't see this assignment before I started with some of the other ones. But I know what my house looks like so you will just have to believe me when I say there has been progress!

Pre-Assignment 3: I decided to skip this one...well kind of. I do keep a journal...my blog!

Pre-Assignment 4: Recently I have been getting rid of lots of things, but I have never counted. I don't think the number is what really matters though.

Day 1: I had already gone through the fridge, freezer, and pantry before Ben went away on Monday. We got rid of a ton of stuff and tried to organize all of it the best we could so that everything got used before it went bad. I also worked on cleaning off the kitchen table which always turns into a collect all place. The other day I even found the time and energy to clean the sliding glass door!

Day 2: Once again, I had recently just gone through all of my clothes and tired them on to see what I could/should keep or get rid of. I ended up with a large trash bag full of clothes to get rid of and now all of my clothes fit into my dresser and the closet! I am sure I could still get rid of some more, but I am happy with what I have done for now. It is not all nice and organized, but I hope to get in there soon and organize it all...hang certain things up and what not.

Day 3: This is something I try to do every year. I have not had a chance to get to it yet, but it is on the agenda for the next few days. Remember...our whole household has been sick with H1N1 and Ben has been away all week so I have not had a ton of time!

Day 4: This assignment will be done tomorrow! The boys are going to spend some time with Rich during the day and then spend the night so I will have some "me" time.

Day 5: I have slowly been collecting a bunch of stuff that we need to get rid of whether that means donating and taking to the dump. I have a few toys to give to Chelley for Madelyn, I have 2 big bags of clothes to get rid of (some mine, but most are from the boys), we have an old chest that we are getting rid of among other things. I also have tons of recycling to get rid of! This morning I went through most of the rooms in the house to pick up random trash and get rid of it.

So far I think I have been very productive given the current condition of everybody in the house along with Ben being away this whole week. It looks like I need to complete assignments for Day 3 and Day 4 and then I will be caught up with the whole thing.

Clean Playroom

After posting the previous pictures of the playroom completely destroyed I became motivated to clean it up a bit. I have not picked up that room in the last week or so because if how I have been feeling so it was definitely time. It took me about an hour or so to pick it up and vacuum so I didn't really actually "clean" anything, but plan to disinfect all of the toys over the next few days. I am sure the boys will have it torn apart by bedtime, but at least I try to pick it up. If only I could clean it up as quick as they can destroy it!

Fun ceiling fan

We are really looking forward to painting it blue and getting rid of the dreaded purple, but it will have to wait a while. Although Ben keeps saying we just need to have a daughter and then it doesn't need to be painted....hmm....Ben seems to be playing favorites already and we don't even have a girl yet!

Angels?

As everybody knows our household has been full of illness recently. Today is Day 2 of Ben being in CA which has left me to handle the boys alone which can be very tiring during a time of illnesses! The result of all of this would be the following....


Yes, these two angels were able to destroy their playroom in 2 minutes flat! They did take a few minutes here and there to stop and watch Barney though. Can you believe these two adorable angels could do this much damage?!?!

PS- I promise their playroom doesn't always look like this!

Question of the Week

It's time for another Question of the Week by Multiples and More. I read their question every Sunday, but usually only answer the ones that I don't have to think too much about (I know, cheating). This week's question is:

What is your policy on giving kids candy? What age do you think it is appropriate? And.. be honest.. do you eat your kids Halloween candy?:)

Before having kids (and just after having kids) I felt that candy wasn't for young children. I really thought you should wait until they were around 4 or 5 years old at least. This quickly changed as many family members started to give the boys candy at holidays and family get togethers. I always made sure it was age-appropriate candy for them and also made sure we didn't give them candy on a daily basis. Recently, we have been giving the boys some dairy-free candy (candy corn and skittles mainly) as dessert and special treats.

As for Halloween candy...last year we definitely did eat the boys' since we felt they were too young for most of the candy they received trick-or-treating. This year we did not get to go trick-or-treating because of illness running through our household along with the fact that it was raining. If we had gone then we would have once again eaten most of their candy since they can't have anything with dairy in it. We wouldn't want to waste candy, right?!?!

Swine of '09

Last night Zak was coughing pretty badly so we brought him into our bedroom to give him a breathing treatment. After he finished I got up to clean out the nebulizer medicine cup and when I got back Zak had taken over my spot in bed and my monkey!

This morning when the boys woke up Zak was burning up. I took his temperature and he had a fever right around 102, his cough was worse, and he was lethargic so I called the pediatrician. We went in at 10:30am and as soon as the nurse took us into the back she did a flu test (swab up his nose which he disliked). She came back to the room within about 3 minutes and said it came back positive for Influenza A which means H1N1. The pediatrician came into the room and looked him over along with checking his lungs. She said his flu test came back positive quicker than any other tests she has seen. She said he was wheezing a good amount and his lungs did not sound great, but she felt he didn't need to go to the hospital at the moment. She prescribed him Tamiflu along with giving me a prescription for Ryder since he has a bad cough and asthma as well. She also told me to watch Zak's breathing very closely and if it worsens to go straight to the hospital. Other things that we need to watch for that would result in a trip to the hospital include a fever of 104 or if he stops drinking fluids.

I know I posted earlier that the pediatrician thought the boys were at the tail end of H1N1 on Monday, but today the pediatrician said that wasn't the case. They probably just had their first cold of the season 2.5 weeks ago and not the flu. This time we know 100% that Zak has Type A flu which is being called H1N1 since almost 100% of all Type A flu is coming back as H1N1. Zak is MUCH sicker now than he was 2.5 weeks ago so we are seeing that last time it was just a cold.

To make things even more chaotic Ben woke up with a fever as well. Since Zak had a positive flu test Ben and I decided to get seen by a doctor as well. This resulted in all four of us being given Tamiflu (nobody else was tested for flu, but given the prescription due to symptoms and/or precaution). We don't know if Ben, Ryder, or myself actually have the flu or H1N1 but this way we will be covered if we do have it or it could help prevent us from getting it. Along with the Tamiflu I was also given a medication to help with my hacking cough that I need to take 3 times a day. I am hoping it won't make me to drowsy since I will be home alone with the boys for the next week. Ben asked the doctor about his flight to CA for work next week and was told he was fine to go since the doctor doesn't think Ben actually has the flu and he will have gotten a few doses of the Tamiflu by then.

So at the moment Zak is by far the sickest. Ben is not feeling all that good. I am coughing horribly and not feeling great. Ryder is coughing on and off and running around like a mad man since he seems to be feeling fine.