Weekend of Firsts

This weekend was full of firsts for our family.

The first first was Hunter throwing up. . . on my bed and me. I didn't think much of it until he threw up again after I gave him some milk in his sippy cup. Then again after he ate some cereal, and again when the poor guy had nothing left in his tummy. This was the first time he was throw-up-sick in his whole life. Poor lil' bean didn't know what to think of it. Then to add sour sauce to an already extra sour situation Jim was out-of-town, which meant I was all alone in dealing with this. I knew I should probably go get some pedialyte, so I strapped both kids in the car, put a bib on Hunter, and wrapped a towel around the rest of him. Luckily I did, cause he threw-up on the way to the store. Frowny face! I packed an extra towel and bib, so I managed to clean up and re-group before heading in to Wally World. I also packed the baby sling, as I wanted Hunty to stay close to me and not touch anything. The kids and I made our way in and out without any incident.

With the pedialyte in-tow we drove back home and I tried to get Hunty to drink some. He did, and it came right back up. Make that two frowny faces! Of coarse all this happened on a Saturday, so our clinic was closed. I called anyways, and knew I would be directed to a nurse. The nurse asked me all the usual questions. Then I remembered that Hunter fell off our bed the day before while he and Tralee were wrestling around, and landed on his noggin. He didn't black out, he cried right away, and there was barely a mark on his head, but I mentioned it just to have all the bases covered. The nurse informed me that anytime a child barfs (not the medical term she used, she was much more professional than barfs) three or more times after having a "head injury" they advise a trip to the doctor. Oh Grrrr-REAT!!! This leads us to. . .

Our Second First

The second first of the day was our trip to the ER. Besides having my babies, this was the first time either child had visited the hospital. I wouldn't have gone, except that the Dr's office, and instacare places had all closed shop for the day. I also wasn't to thrilled that "head injury" was now on Hunter's hospital record, as he barley had a bump. I was also worried that they would suspect me of negligence when they saw all the other bruises on his head.

All of these occurred within the span of a week! Luckily for me, toddler boys seem to find their way into the ER more often than not. So Hunter's presence and "head injury" weren't much of a surprise. And, as things of this nature go, as soon as we got the hospital Hunter seemed his usual self again. He was chipper, he was eating some baby puffed cereal, and keeping it down. Of coarse! By the time the doctor saw us he said, "He doesn't look like he's sick!" But I'm getting ahead of myself, before we saw the doctor we experienced another first.

The Third First was. . .

Hunter had his temperature taken rectally by the nurse. YIKES!!! Poor baby looked REALLY confused when it happened. This was the first time a temperature had been taken that way in our family. Poor Hunter. Let's throw in a third frowny face for the rectal temp, shall we?

Hunter in ER room, trying to eat more puffed cereal off my lap.

The doctor saw my little man, and gave him a clean bill of health. He prescribed some tummy tablets to help with the nauseousness, but by this point Hunter seemed in fine spirits. I didn't want to jinx it though by NOT getting the tablets so, we stopped at Walgreens on our way home. I only gave Hunter one dose of medicine, cause he seemed to be doing much better, and he hasn't thrown-up since. Talk about a sigh of relief and a great big smiley face until. . .

Fourth First

The fourth first occurred when Tralee and I were cleaning up the backyard last night, as it looked like a rainstorm was heading in. She and I were laying on the bouncy house, trying to deflate it. We were laughing, having a great ol' time when her sweet little face turned to a look of shock. She popped up, and started frantically crying and grabbing at her leg. My poor baby girl got STUNG!! I'm not sure if it was by a bee or a wasp, but I had to pull the stinger out. NOT FUN!! FROWNY FACE NUMBER FOUR! I set her on the kitchen counter with a bag of frozen peas to put over the sting while I got some antihistamine spray and the bottle of children's benadryl out of our first aid area.

This was the first sting in our family. Luckily, besides swelling a little, Tralee had no side-effects. She DID, however, get LOADS of attention and kisses from me. The whole day, up to this point, seemed to be about Baby. So much so, that Tralee started telling all the doctors and nurses at the hospital, "I'm sick!" I think she saw all the attention Hunter was getting for being sick, that she thought it might not be a bad gig. As we left the hospital and were walking to our car Tralee told an EMT getting into an ambulance, "I'm sick." The nice guy asked her what was wrong, and if she would like to see the pretty lights to help her feel better. She did, of coarse, but the pretty lights didn't cure her. When we got into the car I asked Tralee, "What would help you feel better?" Her answer? "A chocolate shake." So we got a chocolate shake at a little mom and pop type venue right outside the Walgreens Hunter's prescription was being filled. And just to be clear, this was NOT Tralee's first chocolate shake. Not even close.

We made it through Saturday. I called a sub for my primary class, and the kids and I hung out at home all day Sunday. I didn't think going to church would be the best idea. Sunday was going smoothly until. . .

You guessed it! First number Five

Tralee locked herself in the bathroom and couldn't get out. I tried the bobby-pin trick, but after several minutes trying to poke at something to un-lock the door with no success, I moved onto another tactic. I tried teaching Tralee from the other side of the door how to unlock it herself. Yeah, that didn't work. So, I found a screwdriver and took apart the doorknob. Believe it or not, I've never done this. A first for me! I had NO idea what I was looking at, so I took apart another doorknob and fiddled with the lock so I knew what to do. Turns out these locks aren't the standard poke-and-unlock-ones. They require a flat-head-screwdriver-like object to unlock them from the other side. I used a butter knife. The butter knife rescued my fair maiden, and we were in the clear.

Things were going great after the door incident. Both kids seems in fine spirits until the wee hours of this morning when I heard said fair maiden coughing. The coughing turned to gagging. The gagging turned to (yep) barfing. And we've come full circle people. Although this isn't the first time Tralee has thrown-up, it is only the SECOND believe it or not. But, since this is a post about firsts, I won't go into any more detail except to say, it looks like she's on the mend. Let's just say I hope the SECOND time I go through a weekend like this, I have the second half of this marriage here for some re-enforcement. I really missed my Jim. However, I also realized that I CAN make it through a weekend of craziness on my own, it's just a heck-of-a-lot nicer with my hubby here to help.

Also, Universe, if you're listening, since you're throwing firsts at us, here's a list of other things we've never done, that we'd be MORE than happy to experience:

- Spent a week on a Caribbean beach vacation

- Traveled in a comfy RV cross-country

- Eaten at a fondue restaurant

- Traveled to Asia

- Stayed in a five-star hotel

- Had a full-body massage at a fancy spa

- Won a sweepstakes type thing

- Owned a serger or fancy-pants sewing machine

- Had anything published professionally

- Owned a DSLR camera

- Been able to turn down food that I love, but doesn't love me back (curse the day buttermilk syrup found me!!)

- Hit my goal weight after having a baby

Kay, did I give you enough ideas Universe? Only good firsts from now on. Thank you!

Some Notable Things

- Hunter sounds so cute when he says, "belly button." It sounds like "buh but-ton"

- Tralee has been super loving and obedient.

- Hunter now has a bruise on each cheek. The first one occurred on Sunday when he triped and hit the coffee table. The second happened this morning when he fell off of Tralee's bed. Poor baby looks awfully beat up with a bruise on each cheek.

- Tralee has been into "cooking." She pulls a chair up to the counter, pulls out a bowl, and finds her way to the spice cabinet. She then starts pulling out different spices and pouring them into her bowl. Sometimes she adds water, crackers, bread, bananas, pretty much whatever is in her reach. Each concoction looks as gross as Tralee is proud of it. Soooo. . . pretty gross, and pretty proud.

- I now realize why my mom got annoyed with me when I got into her make-up. I keep discovering smooshed lipstick tubes, powdery blush over everything, missing make-up brushes, and two little faces that resemble sad clowns. Although the sad clowns are cute, the rest is a pain.

- Tralee also likes finding out what every item in the bathroom is used for by asking, "What's this?" When I tell her, "That's deodorant. It helps your armpits not stink or sweat." She then says, "Oh. Can I have some?" Usually I let her test out each object. I'm beginning to think that's a mistake on my part. I keep discovering Tralee in our bathroom rubbing deodorant, powder, soap, and lotion on her and Baby. She also sprays hairspray, perfume, and air freshener all over as well. My bathroom is a very smelly place, and not for the typical reasons bathrooms smell. It's like Bath and Body Works exploded in there.

- I caught a nasty batch of food poisoning yesterday. I was out of commission for the day. I'm hoping it wasn't the egg epidemic that got me down, although it might be. So far I'm the only one in the family to be sick. I hope it stays that way. The kids kept themselves occupied while I was bed-ridden yesterday, usually by finding books and bringing them to me to read to them. It really wasn't an awful day to spend the day, except when I had to b-line it for the b-room. That part wasn't so fun. Oh. . . and feeding the babies. That wasn't fun either. The thought of food really grossed me out yesterday, unfortunately, the kid-os still liked food. That meant I had to make it for them. Gross-out city! We made it through though. I'm feeling better today. Not 100%, but close.

- I'm not sure if it's the illness, or what, but I'm feeling very out of sorts today. I don't feel like doing much, and usually I have some project or another I want to tackle. Not so much today. Hopefully I'll snap out of it.

'til next time!

Tough Sunday

Today is a Sunday that doesn't really feel like a day of rest. Jim woke up for a meeting bright and early which left me to get the kids ready all by my lonesome. When Jim was the Elders' Quorum Pres. this happened every Sunday, so this wasn't the biggest deal. However, I guess I don't manage my time very well, cause the kids and I were late for church. Late and grumpy. That's just the beginning.

During sacrament meeting Jim and I played musical chairs while passing Hunter off to each other between hallway visits. I SWEAR we hardly ever took Tralee out during sacrament when she was Hunter's age. She was perfectly content to sit with us, scribble pictures, play with puzzles, and be a good girl in general. Hunter wants to move move move!!! Sitting is NOT an option for this little man. I try busy books, flash cards, puzzles, food, toys, crayons, candy, ANYTHING to get him to sit still, but none of it works. Hunter wants out of the pew. I look at other families sitting quietly all in a row and wonder how they get their kids to sit perfectly still. Maybe it's not very nice of me but, I'm happy when I see another parent struggling with their toddler. Oh good! It's not just us, I think.

A while ago, a family member told me a story about how a certain parent NEVER took their child out in the hallway during sacrament when they cried, cause that just taught their child to cry so they could go out into the hallway. Seriously? How long should I let Hunter wail, and how long should I watch people turn around a stare at us because they can't hear the speaker before I go out in the hallway with him? I've also been told that when you leave sacrament with a screaming child, you shouldn't let them go play, but let them sit still in a classroom until they stop fussing. We try this. However, even after we're sitting back down in sacrament with the kids, it doesn't take long before Hunter is ready to leave the confines of the church pew again. We're not doing anything different with Hunter than we did with Tralee, so it leaves me to conclude that Hunter and Tralee's differing church behaviour is just a boy/girl thing. I talked to other moms out in the hallway (most of them with their sons) and all of them concluded the same: Boys can't sit still. Girls (for the most part) can. F.Y.I, it you're a parent of a boy who sits perfectly still in church, please don't comment "Oh. . . we have a boy, and he's a little darling angel during church" cause you just might make me cry.

Second hour Jim watched Hunter while I taught my Primary class (it must be said that I LOVE my primary kids), then he passed him off to me so he could teach his YM class, and while doing so Jim stated, "He's been a grump!" Jim wasn't kidding. Hunter wanted up, so I lifted him up. As soon as I did, he wanted down. So I tried to set him down, only to have him lift up his feet and cling to me. At one moment, where I attempted to sit with my nine-year-old class during sharing time, Hunter scrambled off my lap, ran to the front of the primary room (where the Bishop was teaching sharing time), found a Birthday sucker under the podium, and started doing a I'm-happy-I-found-a-sucker-dance. This made all the kids start laughing, which took the focus off the Bishop. I had to walk to the front of the room, take the sucker away from Hunter which made Hunter WAIL, then I promptly left the room . . . again.

While out in the hallway Hunter either wanted to be held, or he wanted to walk into all the rooms he shouldn't (the gym where all the men were having a lesson, the men's room, or any classroom where the door opened for a second while someone walked in or out). The third hour of church seemed to last an eternity. At least Tralee was bright and cheery when I picked her up from nursery. She's been such a good little joy to have around lately! I love that little girl!

Hunter promptly fell asleep on the way home from church, only to wake up and refuse to go back to sleep as soon as I pulled in the driveway. Jim quickly ate a sandwich before zipping off to another meeting. He's still at a meeting now, then he has another church activity to attend tonight. Poor guy has been working so hard lately, he even worked most of Saturday. He still hasn't found time to rest. I almost feel guilty thinking about the nap I'm about to attempt with the kids. I sure hope it all works out, cause it's been a dousy of a Sunday. I could really use some shut-eye. . . and some advice about how to tame a one-year-old boy enough to sit still even through HALF of sacrament meeting.

Nighty night night (I hope).

Foamer Fun

I found this fun little bubble/foaming activity in Family Fun magazine. The kids and I had a blast with it today. It's super easy to make (I guarantee all the supplies are in your house right now) and super-de-douper fun to play with.

You need:

A plastic bottle

A dish towel (we used a clean rag)

A little water

Rubber band

Dish soap

To make this fun contraption cut out the bottom of your plastic bottle. Dampen your towel. Place the damp towel over the open bottom of the bottle. Secure it with a rubber band. Dip the damp towel portion of your bottle in dish soap and blow out the other end. Foaming bubbles instantly appear.

Now go try it! Seriously, your kids (and you) will love it. Also, see how long you can get your foam. I made a really long one. Tralee said it was a bubble snake.

We started playing with our foamer outside, but moved inside to get more soap. I discovered if you dampen your towel every now and again, and then apply more dish soap, the foam is more dense. The foam thins out to bigger bubbles when the soap is used up.

The kids liked to take the foam and play with it. We made bubble hair-dos, bubble beards, bubble clothes, bubble castles, bubble snakes, bubble cakes. . . you get the idea.

The three of us had a lot of fun. . . that is until nap time. I wonder how I knew it was nap time? Look below and you'll see how I knew.

See? That's an it's-nap-time-face. No amount of bubbles could undo the fact that it was nap time.

After Hunter snoozed for a bit he was much happier. We pulled out our foamer again to show Daddy when he got home. I'm not sure who was more excited to show him, Tralee or me. I think we both said to Jim, "See! See! Look at the bubbles!" Tralee was, most likely, much cuter in her excitement to show Daddy the foamer than I was. Jim still said I was cute though. That's good.

Now go foam.

Stuff and Stuff

Here's some stuff I've made recently, or at least semi-recently.

I cut out this "T' all by myself with Jim's tool thingy. I don't know what the tool is called. I told Jim, "I need to use your thingy that does this." Then I mimicked cutting out a shape. He handed me the tool and I went to town. The rest of this was made with scrap wood from Jim's shop. Slap a little paint on, drill some holes for the ribbon, and wah-la!

I painted and decoupaged a large canvas in a bird and flower motif for Tralee's room. I LOVE the way it turned out.

This is just to show what our dinning table looks like when I'm in one of my creative frenzies.

I painted this for Tralee's friend Jovie. Jovie's favorite stuffy is her bear in a pink tutu. Also, Jovie LOVES the color green, and has a favorite green dress. I thought it might be cute to paint Jovie in her green dress, with bear, in a famous setting. I know I'm no Monet, but it was still fun to try.

I recently completed these skirts and camis for Tralee and her cousin Haylee.

I really love this canvas I made of Jim and me. It adorns our bedroom wall. I wasn't going to distress and stain in it, but then I decided to just go for it. Now I'm really glad I did. I love it. Also. . . notice my red fuzzy slippers. I love those too.

Here's a painting of Tralee and Corky wishing on a star. I made this right after we taught Tralee "Star light, star bright. . . " Not sure why this is underlined.

I took this frame below and did some different painting/sanding/staining techniques to age it. Then I framed some vintage sheet music with my daughter's namesake on it.

Before/After

I LOVE LOVE LOVE craigslist. In fact, the thought of going into any of the big name furniture stores to buy new furniture depresses me a little bit. I love re-using/re-purposing old things. I found two old chairs on craigslist for about $5 each. I took them home, sanded, painted, distressed, stained, and recovered the chairs with fabric and clear vinyl. I think they turned out pretty cute.

Before above/After below

In fact, all of our dining chairs are criagslist/garage sale finds. I've repainted them all. I was inspired by Monica's table in Friends. Our dinning table was a thrift store find. Jim refinished it for me. LOVE it!

I just had to put this next one in cause it's Tralee's first painting -- EVER! I painted, distressed, and stained the frame. I think Tralee is SO talented!

When we were first dating, Jim wrote me a love letter in my scriptures. He didn't tell me about it, I happened upon it one day while I was flipping through to find a particular verse. I decided to showcase my favorite love letter in a floating frame that I painted and stained. I used scrapbook paper for the background. Kind of fun, I think.

Here's the letter close-up, in case you feel like seeing Jim's mushy gushy side for a second. I accidentally cut the ending off. It says, ". . . for all eternity. - Your Love, Jim August 18, 2001"

Jim helped prune his mom's cherry trees this spring. I asked him to bring home some branches. I sprayed them purple, strung some Christmas lights through, and hung little fabric flowers on them. This purple tree is now Tralee's night-light.

I made the Jacobs sign a while ago, but never hung it. I finally decided to paint some canvases and do our family's silhouettes on them. I think they turned out cute. Now I have a proper place to hang our family name thing.

So, there you go. I've worked on some other crafts lately as well. I might post them eventually. I've been flirting with the idea of starting an etsy shop. Not sure I want to make that kind of commitment though. I'm very wishy-washy about the whole thing. I wasn't even sure I wanted to do this post. I get stressed when it come to sharing things I make. When Jim and I used to do craft fairs, I spent the first few minutes of the fair agonizing that nobody would like our stuff and we wouldn't sell one thing. We always sold almost everything. So, maybe I should just snap out of it and go for it. I'll sleep on it. . . again.

Smart Lil' Pooper

Hunter now lets us know when he needs a change. Once he's finished his . . . ahem. . . business, he comes up to us and says, "bum bum." I think it comes from us asking him, "Hunter, does your bum bum need a change?"

Also. . .

When Hunter and I were waiting for Tralee while she was in speech therapy, we started looking through a National Geographic magazine together. One of the pictures was a crowd of people in some African building. All the people were wearing different colored clothing so I asked Hunter, "Where is something red?" I didn't really expect an answer, but Hunter's little finger pointed to someone wearing a red shirt and he said, "red!" He then scanned the pictured again and pointed to another person wearing red and repeated the action. Such a smarty pants! I tried to show him off to his Daddy later that night, but Hunter had no interest in pointing to colors then. When I asked him, "Can you find something red?" Hunter brought me a pillow and said, "Right there." There was red on the pillow, so I guess that was good enough.

Finger Painting

I went to Michaels. Finger paint was on clearance for .50 a bottle. I bought some for the kiddlets. The rest is history. . .

I mostly like the above picture because it shows off Hunter's extra juicy tummy. It's as deliciously squishy as it looks.

I took the picture above to show just how happy I am that I decided to make finger painting an outside activity. Little finger paint footprints and handprints were everywhere.

At some point Hunter dove right in. This is when I asked myself, "Are you crazy for letting your kids do this?"

Hunter wanted up. I wanted him to not touch me until I hosed him off. The hose came out, the babies and deck were washed clean, and then the babies were put into the tub to really make them sparkle.

Tralee has been asking to finger paint ever since. We'll probably do it again sometime, when I'm feeling brave (crazy) again.

Guess Who Got a New Bike?

.

Jim took Tralee out for a daddy daughter date a few nights ago. When they got home, I was surprised to see Tralee riding around on her very own big girl bike. She LOVES going for bike rides. She can go pretty fast too and sometimes forgets how to brake, then she crashes, says, "I'm okay," and gets right back on as if nothing happened. What a brave, cute, silly, fantastic, wonderful, fun, little, superhero-fairy-princess!! I love her! She loves her new bike. I love her on her new bike. We're perfect for each other! Also, we figured we could wait and get Tralee a new bike for her birthday or Christmas, but they're both in the winter. So, how fun would that be? "Happy Birthday Tralee, here's a new princess bike you can't use until the world defrosts!" So. . . yeah, we didn't wait. Tralee got a new bike because we love her and wanted her to have one. Happy Un-Birthday to her! Hooray!!! Oh, and if you noticed, Tralee and I are both biking barefoot. We were so excited to go biking that there just wasn't any time to put on our shoes. Like mother like daughter I guess.

Words and Phrases

Some favorite phrases of Tralee's at the moment:

"It's not the moon, it's the sun!" This is said when we tell her it's time for bed. These summer days are long, and it's very difficult to convince Tralee it's bedtime when it's still light out. She fights it right up until the sun sinks below the horizon and darkness drapes the skies. She finally looks out the window, spots the glowing moon, and announces, "It's the moon. Time for bed."

"Mommy, my foe buggins." I've written about this before. She used to say foe for nose. She now knows how to say nose, but Jim and I got to used to saying foe, that whenever anyone around her needs their nose wiped the phrase of choice is, "my foe buggins."

"Me too either!" Whenever Tralee agrees or disagrees with anyone she mixes up "me too" and "me either" into one fantastic phrase, "Me too either."

I've also mentioned this next Tralee phrase before, but Jim and I love it so stinken much we use it ourselves, and even made up a song featuring it. Whenever anyone is sad around here we sing or say, "Don't make sad, make happy!" The song goes, "Don't make sad make happy. That's what we're gonna do. Don't make sad make happy. Others will love you."

Hunter's vocabulary is expanding daily. His words include, but are not limited to the following:

"Ba-bas" -- Juice box

"Waawaa" -- Want some. Sometimes "Waawaa" is accompanied by a waawaa dance. Makes me laugh every time.

"Pees" -- Please. We're working on him saying please more consistently.

"On" -- He points to our little dvd player and says, "on!"

"Up" -- Pretty self explanatory

"Dis" -- This

"Bite" -- If Hunter wants another bite of food, he'll say this. Sometimes I pretend he's one of those super trendy people who say things like, "Let's go grab a bite." Okay, not really. I just thought of that right now.

"Uh-oh" -- This was his first word

"Ba-ow" -- Ball

"Ow" -- Said when Hunter gets himself in a predicament or when he's hurt. He was teething the other night and kept waking up from sleep saying, "ow!!" Poor lil' guy.

"Mo" -- More

"Done" -- Said when he's done eating and wants out of his booster chair.

That's all I can't think of at the moment.

Now it's on to bathing my beauties. . . until next time!!!

Flying Home

When we flew home from Cleveland we had a few peaceful moments where the kids were busy watching a movie, coloring, or reading books.

We had a few moments where everyone wanted to be on Mommy's lap.

And a few moments where Mommy wanted to be anywhere except on a plane with two kids.

Loveseat Pics

Our loveseat has seen a lot of. . . well. . . love lately.

Talk about my heart melting. My two favorite men sharing a little nap together. Plus, I like this picture, even with Jim's wonky feet.

And here's the same loveseat cushioning Tralee, Hunter, Oakley, and Jovie. Audie and I got together for a sewing day, and the kids together for a playdate. Tralee adores Jovie and Oakley (or as she says it, Ho-hie and Hokey) so she was more than happy to play with them while Audie and worked on some projects. While the moms sewed, chatted, and answered the demands of whichever child needed something at any given moment, the kids ran around outside, dug holes in the dirt, mixed "chocolate milk" in buckets in our back yard with the dirt from said holes and water from our hose, sprayed each other with the hose, jumped in the bouncy house, caught rolly pollies, rode around on the bike and scooter, and enjoyed the summer heat. The picture above was the one moment all four of them were inside. Audie and I thought our kids might like to unwind and relax by watching a movie. They did. . . for a few seconds, then it was onto the next outdoor activity. I guess I can't really blame them, and I'm glad they would rather play outside than sit inside and watch movies.

So. . . I have no clever way to end this post. So there you go. Loveseat pics.

G'day.