I'm married!

Today we had a busy day,  gymnastics in the morning which we barely made. Then a trip to the store and a play date with one of William's friends which went fairly well all before noon!  After the playdate we came home for lunch and didn't have enough time for nap time before seeing daddy's arrival from Hawaii. So I did what any good parent would do and let the kids watch a movie :).

The kids had a blast picking him up from the airport and seeing daddy arrive. After seeing J we raced off to the library for another play date with a different friend of William's.  As we were in the car I found Evelyn's goodie bag from a friends party.

Evelyn: Mommy what's that?
Me: that's the gift bag from N's party.
Evelyn: Can I have it?
(hands it to evelyn)
(Evelyn takes out ring and puts it on her finger)
Evelyn: singing "I'm married, I'm married, I'm married".  See mommy I just wanted my ring.  I'm wearing a ring does that mean I'm married?

Bath time memories

Really having two kids makes bath time so much fun though I wish William were a little more cautious in the tub.  his latest favorite activity is jumping in the tub.  I can't seem to diswaid him even when i take him out after doing it.  he screams his head off then does it again the next night. he also likes to sit on the back ledge of the tub and slide down the side of the tub.

Tonight was actually a great bath time.  I sat back on their stool and watched the kids play nicely.  Evelyn sang whatever came to her mind for half of the bath.  and as a bonus I didn't get soaking wet from William's splashes.  After bath time I read Williams current favorite books Dazzling Diggers and Silly Sally and he didn't do to bad going down.  Evelyn got two of her favorite books from the big purple book for beginners.  She was exceptionally patient with me as I seem to be coming down with something - again.  She is such a sweet girl.  I love it when she randomly pipes up with an mommy I love you - I'm not even going to call the cops to arrest you (Idon't know where this one came from) and my personal favorite from when she was a little younger mommy I love you so much.  I'm going to have to through you in the garbage"  You may be able to guess she was fond of Oscar at the time :).

So tonight I am reflecting and thinking of all the memories that I have left out of this blog by not following through with it and will now make sure to take a few minutes to recap my favorite parts of the day.  Because once a memory is gone it is gone forever.

It is finally here - AKA Happy Halloween

Today the kids had a blast.  William was a skeleton - He didn't wear the wings trick or treating.  and Evelyn was a cow again.  After school we had a quick dinner and Grandpa showed up with christmas cookies from panera for the kids and gave them to them for their treat buckets.  William had another idea and I had to take it away (crying) I finally gave him a small piece so he would calm down and go trick or treating.  J and dad took teh kids and I stayed behind in case there were more trick or treators after evelyn's friends came by (there were not).  Dad ended up going with Evelyn so that Evelyn could catch up the the group of neighborhood kids.  William stuck with dad and William did indeed say trick or treat tonight! the kid learns fast with proper motivation.

After trick or treating they watched Dora's Halloween at ate the well deserved cookie, bedtime was something else.

Buisy day = Breakdown

Today was a great day for the most part.  We started out with swimming lessons and since Grandma and Grandpa are in South Carolina J came out to the lessons with me and the kids.  Evelyn and William had a great time swimming around with daddy.  It is truly amazing how far they have come in such a short time.

After swimming we ran strait to Zoe's 4th birthday party at the Jump Club. The kids had a great time jumping around on the bounce houses.  Though William had some trouble getting into the bounce house and fell hitting his head it was not a bad injury and he was soon over it.  I did watch him closer from then on.  Evelyn had a blast and is now even more excited to have her party there whenever it may be.

After the party we played for a little while before dropping Jason off at home and heading to the library.    Evelyn had a great time playing on the computer and with Ms. Lori who was nice enough to walk over and meet us there and help us into the car - she really is gifted with kids!

Once we got home we walked over to david's house down the street and played with all of the leaves that they had raked up during the day it was quite the pile.  Evelyn and William went crazy as only they can and even David got into it a little bit.

After dinner we all needed a break so we watched Dora's Halloween adventure.  This is where things started to get fussy.  The movie had one episode left and it was to late to watch making the tired kids cranky.  Evelyn had a series of bad decisions leading to a meltdown.  She decided that she didn't want to bath with her brother however once his bath was done she wanted him there.  I couldn't get her into the tub without counting. then she refused to clean off.  it was a fun scream fest.  but we did get her calmed down eventually.

It is safe to say we all were ready for bed tonight!

Stroke Farms

Today was Evelyn's first field trip which included quite a few firsts.  She was so excited we got to school early.  Then it was off to her first bus ride which she loved...

 

At Stoke Farms they had a ton of great activities including a mini farm where the kids could feed the animals.

 

They also had a train ride, hay pile, big slides and of course pumpkins!

 

 

 And the end of the trip Evelyn had her first Bee sting.  She handled it well and didn't have a big reaction thankfully (Ok I had William's Epi Pen on me) It doesn't hurt to have it just in case and the school where he was had one for him.  I gave her some benadryl when we got back to the school and she had a great nap.

A Chipped Tooth

William was running in daycare and fell.  Then a friend fell on top of him.  The combination fall caused a bump on the head and a chip on the tooth. he chip of the tooth went unnoticed until I brushed his teeth at night.  So Today I had to find a dentist (which was long overdue).  and I brought him in.  they filed the tooth.  a fun experience let me tell you.  and we scheduled a follow up to get him and his sister cleaned. 

Evelyn's friends

Evelyn has some friends in the neighborhood that she loves to play with.  at first I called them the girls because I didn't know their names.  luckily for me they seem to like writing their names in chalk on the driveway as that is how I learned their names. Now Evelyn refers to them as "my friends, the girls C, M, and A". Tonight she saw them outside and we went looking for them after I started dinner but they had gone in.  I told Evelyn that if we hurried home and ate dinner maybe they would come back outside after we were done eating.  I finally convinced her to go in and we were eating dinner when the doorbell went off.   I went to see who it was and it was two of her friends.  She was so excited that her friends had come to see her but thankfully she sat back down to finish dinner with out a problem.  unfortunately by the time that her and J got back outside they were inside and J didn't want to go to their doors and see if they could come back out.  but they walked down to a different friend's house and she got to play there. Unfortunately she was sad that she missed her friends and started to cry in the bath.  Se was saying how she missed her friends and that she was afraid that she was never going to see them again - it was very sad.  (this is when dad pops in telling her not to cry (I hate it when he tells her that).  I finally got her calmed down by telling her that she could make them all I miss you cards. 

In other news my neck still hurts any time I am even a minute late in taking the IBU and the flexeral that I am taking at night.  I have been fairly successful in minimizing my picking up the kids however I had to pick up William and carry him down the street twice tonight.  so I should feel great tomorrow...

Memories - When are we going camping?

When we were 4 years old mom and dad decided to take us to stony brook (which is still a family favorite) for a camping trip with Grandma and Grandpa G. As good parents always do they tried to prepare us for the coming trip explaining that we were going to go camping and have lots of fun. We enthusiastically jumped on the band wagon and occasionally asking "when are we going camping?" Finally the big day came and mom and dad packed us into the car and we were off.  At the campsite we found Grandma and Grandpa waiting for us ready to play and do outdoorsy arts and crafts.  As we were playing Sarah pipped up and asked "When are we going camping?"

Every night I say I am going to blog...

Then every night I am either too tired or just blank on what to write.  tonight is no exception.  after listening to Evelyn and William cry and fuss all evening and Evelyn not cooperating with her bed time routine I just don't seem to have much left.  This past Sunday William jumped for the first time with both feet getting off of the ground.  Yesterday he went to the doctors for a well visit and had two ear infections.  He is now 33 1/4 inches and 27 lbs what a big boy.  he is such a love too.  He gives tons of kisses and likes to play the kissing game.  His favorite book is Go Dog Go!  ever since we went to see the play!

Ok that's enough random facts and disjointed thoughts for the night

April Showers Bring May Flowers...

Some how when we had our unseasonably warm weather in March I convinced myself that winter, mild as it was, is over.  Sure it got a little chilly  but it was not so bad.  yesterday my father told me that it was going to snow and I didn't believe him and promptly forgot about the forecast of snow.  when I woke up this morning what do I see on the ground but snow. Yuck!

Evelyn was of course excited to see the snow and wanted to go play so we had a hard time getting her into the car.  After school however she got to make a snowman with daddy because unfortunately the snow had not melted yet (sadly I did not get a picture of the snowman). 

Evelyn is patiently waiting for Uncle Pat's birthday cake at the empty table until everyone was ready.  She didn't want to miss it.  She enjoyed every bite then after her shower she tried to convince me that she hadn't really wanted it so she should be entitled to another treat - a chocolate treat.

The Musium

Today was a great day to go to the museum. They ended up doing a reading of Evelyn and William's favorite book "Go Dog Go" See William below sitting mesmerized on my lap (I just need to figure out how to turn the photo)...

The two dogs that did the reading

Even mom got into the spirit of the museum of play! Go Mom Go!

I sat out the merry go round this time how everyone else had a great time even if they got dizzy!

The car adventure

Today driving home from work I was driving away and my car decided to just stop working.  The engine just decided to turn itself off and I could not convince it to start again.  I eventually gave up and coasted to a stop - thankfully I had already gotten off of 490 and was pretty close to home when it happened.  we pulled over to the side of the road and I called J to come and get us.  Evelyn was in the back getting a little panicky and wanted to get out of the car, though she calmed down a little bit after talking (and me convincing her that the car was not in fact going to catch on fire).  She still was a little nervous and was re-leaved and excited to be in daddy's new car.  William on the meanwhile was getting very cranky and hungry thankfully that waited until I put him in daddy's car.

After J pulled up and was getting Evelyn's car seat in his car a nice gentleman pulled over to see if we needed help.  (he was an off duty law enforcement official - which explains why he stopped).  He asked me a few questions which i deferred to J and told him I really just wanted to get the kids home.  Still I wish I had gotten his name...

After getting home it was a rough evening of Evelyn being a little wound up and William being a little cranky.  I was just getting William down when Grandpa showed up to help.  He thought she was on a sugar high until i told him that she was on a Grandpa high.  it took her some time to calm down though she did enjoy Grandpa reading to her.  her first book was "Go Dog Go" he was three pages in when she said "Wait, I want to show you something".  She searched the book until she found this page

pointed to the broken car and said "this is mommy's car"!

Yup that makes the day almost worth it...

So begins an obsession

Mom had the great idea of going to the play "Go Dog Go" at the JCC.  The kids had not been exposed to the book and since we were there I went ahead and got it for them.  Mom read the book to Evelyn to keep her occupied while we waited for the play to start as I chased William around the theater.

William is ready to go complete with snack.  After running around I kept him still and in his seat with a snack.  After the play started he didn't need the snack to sit still.

Evelyn and her favorite dog the "Princess dog"

William however did not want his picture taken with a dog...

We all enjoyed the play and have already read go dog go 10 times!

Evelyn's songs "Thomas My Bed" and "The Easter Bunny Song"

Climbing

William is getting more advanced and daring in his climbing.  Today he pushed a chair up to tthe counter top, climb up said chair, stand on said chair, climb up onto the counter top, army crawl across the counter, grab a banana, reverse crawl back to the edge, down to the chair where he sat and proceeded to peel and eat the whole banana.  Boy am I glad that dad was there to watch.  and yet I wish he had stopped him from climbing on the counter...

day three

Today did not go as well as Monday or Tuesday but I guess I was due especially after the crying fit William had in the middle of the night last night. he woke up at 9:30 and I managed to get him back to sleep he woke up again at midnight and I didn't have as easy of a time getting him back down.

The allergist.

today was the day that William had his allergist appointment.  We left the house about 7:45 and arrived one minute late.  Not to bad since we were aiming to leave at 7:30.  I have to be thankful for mom and dad letting us sleep over and for dad taking Evelyn to school as there would have been no other way for us to have made the appointment.

The appointment went about as I thought it would, including a lot of history and talking about what was going on.  After talking to one of Evelyn's friend who had gone through the testing I had an idea of what the testing was going to be like and it was not as bad as I thought.

I was worried about how William was going to take it but he did a great job sitting still in my lap and putting his head on my shoulder.  The end results were that he has a peanut allergy, they really didn't test him for a lot.  We are still not to give William strawberries until after our followup. To be sure that there really is no issue though she thinks that maybe it was the antibiotics that caused it. I am hoping that we will challenge it in the office at the next visit.  She mentioned a skin test but not a challenge specifically.

fter the appointment we went to the clinic at work to have his blood drawn (a real blood draw) not a finger stick.  William cried a lot as one would expect but he did a great job after taking a lot of blood for such a little guy.  We walked around the clinic to say hi to a few people but William was very tired.  So we dropped him off at school (luckily) he did not fall asleep in the car.

Meeting Mr Carter.

Today I got back to the gym for the first time in four weeks.  It was pretty sad and though my weight set was not to bad.  My run lasted only a mile at a 10 minute pace but I did things backwards by doing the weights first so I am hoping that that is what kept me from running more.  We will see next week as I will go back to running first.

After the workout we went to spend some time in the play gym.  This is my favorite part of the day as with Grandma there I usually get to play with each of the kids individually, giving them my full attention. At least for a little while.

After nap time we went up to see Mrs. Amber and Mr Seth and meet Mr carter.  the whole way up there J was telling Evelyn how fragile Carter is and how she needed to be careful around him.  She did great and even got to hold him for a little while, about 10 seconds before she got that scared panicked look on her face and I took him away.  It was nice to hold a baby again and makes me wish for that 3rd baby that we always say that we want but just can't do yet, despite the difficulties that we had with William i guess i have baby fever yet again.  Evelyn loved being around Carter and had a great time.  William loved feeding Kyra (the dog) and just playing around. 

Another saturday.

Today was another saturday and I was greatfull to have a little bit of a pajama day as we let Jason sleep in to feel better. Evelyn was also happy about spending some quality time in her PJ's and with the family, any mention of her getting dressed for Robotics was met with resistance.  Despite her being super excited to see daddy's robot.  Jason got up and was doing well enough to head in so we went in.  Evelyn got to the door and didn't make it 5 feet in to the arena before turning around and walking out because it was too noisy.  I tried the other door just in case but had no luck getting her in.  We walked back to the original door and sat on the bench just inside the door hoping that she would acclimate, I was just trying to get her to the end of the bench when jason swooped in and got her into the competition.  He took her back to the robot pits where it was quieter and William and I watched the competition which he thouraly enjoyed.  He was not bothered by the noise at all.  when Jason came back I was hoping Evelyn could watch the robots in action however the noise was just too much and she wanted to leave to go to Wegmans.

On our way to grandma and grandpa's house we stopped home for some food (evelyn wanted breakfast for lunch) and I wanted to check that the baby books that I ordered had come in.  I got our stuff and was so excited to see teh baby books on teh front porch.  I have all the info on them in evelyn's blog and on facebook.  I just need to cull through it to fill out the book.  I do like the books that I chose however they do have a few downsides.  I got the binder which is a great idea and came with extra pages, what i didn't realise is that the pages are blank white not blank in theam so I will have to decide what to do with it to jazz it up a little.  It should be fun to do I am certently excited to get the info in there.

William fell asleep on the way to grandma and grandpa's house - I have no idea how long he was asleep for but I had to wake him up to make lunch.  After lunch at wich Evelyn ate 2 eggs and 1/2 of a soynut butter and jelly, we played a little bit to get william sleepy enough for another nap.  at one they both went down.  William was up 45 minutes after i put him down - assuming he slept the entire time not to bad. After a quick trip to wegman's we went to Anna's birthday party.

The kids had a great time playing with all of the toys and other kids.  Evelyn asked where Kensington was and didn't quite understand that she was not invited to the party.  After cake William was exhausted and we took off.  he of course fell asleep in the car on teh way home.  luckly for us he didn't have too much trouble going to sleep.  Evelyn was a bit hyper going to bed tonight but she did come up with a new lulliby...

Evelyn's lulliby (head song?):

I don't like you hitting me,
I don't like you scratching me,
I don't like you kicking me,
I don't like you biting me

(from me)
But I do love your kisses
(Evelyn)
and hugs and snuggles!

Down with the sickness.

William has had a cough all week which has been getting wetter and progressed to a runny nose.  Tonight after bath time seeing that his nose was clogged with snott I decided to suction out his nose, which he thought was funny last night.  however he had changed his mind and went bolistic on me.  I got one nose clear  and started on  he other one but must have cleared just enought out that he started snorting the snot that I hadn't managed to get out.  I gave up and picked him off the floor as he coughed up the snott.  Good times.  I thought he was calming down when he puked.  not to much but he was clearly not pleased - poor kid.  I think this is the first time he actually puked. and of course when I picked up the kids from school both of them had notes posted outside their door stating that they had been exposed to strep. ugh I can't wait till it ends.

Evelyn was a ball of fire tonight and told mommy all about playing with her baby dolls at school today...

Wait one minute!

Tonight while Jason was trying to put William to bed and read him books William escaped and ran to his door.  apparently he made the wait one minute sign to the door before grabbing a blanket then running to the door and knocking on it.  of course at that point Evelyn had heard him "playing" and wanted to play with him too so we went in to say good night.

Baby books

ok so it's a little late in the game but I finally got baby books for the kids.  Evelyn's info is in her blog unfortunately I've been terrible with keeping up with this stuff for William but I hope some of the info is around in Facebook updates, photos and this blog - limited as it is.  I will be glad to get the info together as limited as it may be. 

Bath time.

Tonight with Jason at robots Evelyn had to come and play in the bathroom as I gave William his bath.  after William got settled in Evelyn watched him and thought that his bath looked like fun so she stripped and announced that she was going to join him!  She got in the tub and they had a blast, splashing each other of all things (neither of them usually like to get splashed though since William discovered how fun it was the other day he is getting better.)  they both ended up giggling like crazy and soaked and for the most part the water was miraculously kept off of their faces.  of course it was inevitable that Evelyn was going to get splashed in her eyes (the biggest no no).  She did not like that and asked William to stop splashing, unfortunately William had learned how much fun splashing was and was hard to diswaid i have to admit i got soaked in the process.  after i kept him from splashing William quickly got tired of his bath and since it was past his bed time he was tired in general and quickly went down hill.  I had to rush Evelyn out of the tub to get william to bed well past his usual bed time but daddy came home just in time to save the day (and distract Evelyn while I put William down).

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today we celebrated thanksgiving as a family and for the first time ever this did not include grandparents.  I have to say I fell short but think with some practice I will get better though maybe not in the league of my mom or mother in law!  This morning started at 7 (already something to be thankful for William not only slept through the night but slept in until 7 - thanks buddy!).  I brought William down to play and Evelyn must have heard the gate because she was at the top of the stairs within 1 minute of me and William going down. We must have been too loud because Jason came down shortly after so neither of us got to really sleep in.

We had a breakfast of eggs, even William got some today though not to much as I want to see what his reaction is before giving him a ton, then I took the kids to the store so that J could have a nap since his time is off.   We had fun at the grocery store with Evelyn in one of the brown cars she loves so much.  Let me tell you I am a terrible driver when it comes to those cars and I'm glad the store was not too crowded though I'm sure there were plenty of people annoyed with me and my car as it was.

We got home and put everything away and William was getting fussy.  I managed to hold him off until 1045 which I deemed close enough and gave him some lunch.  Evelyn said she didn't want lunch yet but was nice enough to sit at the table and color only occasionally snitching broccoli and chicken off of her brothers plate.  William went down for his nap crying quite a bit (the nuk seems to be missed more at nap time than at bed time) but he did fall asleep and Evelyn and I ate some lunch of our own. 

Aunt Sarah called looking for something to do between running and going to her inlaws so we decided that she should head over :)  I got Evelyn down to bed as quickly as I could after that call knowing that she would not sleep once Sarah got here.  Aunt Sarah arrived and I saw her walking up so I got the door before she knocked but it didn't help as Evelyn heard her voice and yelled down "Is Aunt Sarah here?"  and that ended that quiet time!  Aunt Sarah and Evelyn had a great time while I got things ready for my cooking frenzy.

At this point I am so thankful for Sarah coming over as J went outside to work on the leaves and get firewood in leaving Sarah with the kiddos and me cooking.  Though as always it goes in bits and spurts and I will definitely have to work on my timing with the dishes.  The turkey was finished early (though I knew it would be as a 3 Lb breast does not take as long to cook as  a 5 lber but with everything else I was all over the place.  My mashed potatoes were awful I set the timer for 10 hours instead of 10 minutes and didn't notice it until they were overcooked.  Instant mashed potatoes would have been better!  Everything else actually  turned out well and though we did not have everything (Jason said he had stuffing but we could not find it)  we did have the most important dishes that we are used to having around on thanksgiving.

After dinner we went for a walk.  It was a little chilly but nice to get out and let the kids really run a bit.  Evelyn and daddy played at the rock pile for a little while but I thought it was a little too cold for William so I brought him back right away.  All in all it was a good day.

The peanutbutter fiasco

I decided in my infinite wisdom to give William a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  He had taken some of Evelyn crust with peanut butter twice and had been ok so I thought we were safe.  He ate the sandwich and seemed to love it.  As he waited for me to clean him up he seemed a bit more impatient than usual - it must have had something to do with his face... Nothing seemed to be wrong until I washed off the residual peanut butter and Jelly.  This is when I discovered that his face (at least where the peanut butter was) was completely red and he had two pimple like bumps on his face. once the red calmed down a little bit he had a little bit of a splotchy hive like rash, no swelling or trouble breathing but I called the doctor just to be on the safe side.  by the time the nurse had called back the signs of the reaction had disappeared (much like it did with the yogurt).  the nurse instructed me to give him benadryl which I did then after talking to the doctor she sent us to the ED.

Jason had to leave robots to come see how he was doing and grandma and grandpa bless them came to pick up Evelyn so that she didn't have to hang out with us in the ED.  He didn't have any further reaction but we stayed put for 5 hours just to be safe.  we were discharged with the advice to give him benadryl for a few days and follow up with our doctor.  the first doctor we saw said much of what I had read on allergies that there is no way to predict the outcome of the next exposure - it could be worse, it could be nothing.  the second doctor seemed to stress the reaction could disappear and we could have no more problems in the future minimizing the fact that the next one could be much worse. 

I left feeling not so confident and very worried then at the end of the night when I gave him his benadryl I accidentally gave him ibuprofen - not a good mistake to make.  But I caught it 2 hours later and gave him his dose.  having him go the extra time between doses with out incident gave us a little more confidence but Jason still slept in William's room to keep an eye on him.

Trying it alone again

Well Jason is out of town again but we had a pretty good day.  Jason was around in the morning to help me get the kids dressed and give them hugs and kisses good bye.  When I got them from school they were both very happy william ran up to me and gave me a huge hug and Evelyn hid under a table for us to find her.  She was a little upset in the car saying that she didn't want daddy to go but she seemed to calm down pretty quick when I explained that he would be home Friday.  Lets hope it works for the rest of the week.

During bath time William pooped in the tub again making this evening more interesting that I normally would like.  At least both kids were great and Evelyn went to bed early even if she did get up at 845 to go potty.  It allowed me to get some extra cleaning done.