I Say a Little Prayer For You....

Carter's new obsession: prayers. Seth started doing bedtime prayers with him, and he loves it. He starts with the basics - God bless Mommy, Daddy, Carter, Maggie, and Ella (the dog). Then you don't know where it's headed after that. He seems to have a couple of favorite additional people to ask God to bless. Uncle Scott in particular is a recurring character at prayer time. Also, Ms. Angie, Mr. Brandon, Hunter, and Brynna, our friends who also happen to be his Sunday School teachers at present. When he first started prayers, he ended them with, "In Your name I pray, come in." Seth finally convinced him that the word was "amen" rather than "come in", but then he decided to end with "God amen", I guess for extra oomph.

Now, for the next part, I have to confess that before kids, we were not diligent with our mealtime blessings at our house. As Carter started talking, we started trying to remember, but we were still irregular at best. Well, Carter entering the two year old preschool class has solved that issue for us. We were working on the typical "God is great. God is good. Let us thank him for our food." Seth had a few issues with this one. He wanted to say "God is good. God is great." Then it didn't rhyme, which drove me nuts. At preschool, they get fancier. It starts with "Bow your head and close your eyes. Now it's time to talk to God." Then it moves on into the prayer: (sung to the tune of Frere Jacque) God our Father, God our Father, we thank you, we thank you. For our many blessings, for our many blessings. Amen, amen." Cute, right? Well, we can't just leave it at that. Carter wants to close his eyes to pray, but he doesn't want to miss anything. So he does this fluttery little thing with his eyes so that he has the best of both worlds. Then he sways to the music. So the result is what looks like a bad impression of Stevie Wonder singing the blessing. The funny thing is that he sings the blessing all of the time. I gave him a graham cracker the other day while he was riding in the back of the shopping cart at Target. I looked down and saw the eyes start to flutter and the body start to sway, and I knew it was coming. Yep, the blessing at the top of his lungs as he rode through Target. I'm sure everyone in that store thought I was a fanatic, making my kid say the blessing for a graham cracker!

Sometimes I have a really hard time keeping a straight face through Carter's prayers. But then I figure God is getting a little chuckle, too. Anyone who created two year olds is bound to have a good sense of humor.

Ahhh, Saturday

I remember leisurely Saturday mornings of sleeping in, followed by watching t.v. in bed. Then we'd get up and have a relaxing breakfast. Ahhh, the good old days. Now I am watching my second Saturday morning sunrise in a row. This week I'm watching with Carter, and Maggie and Seth are sleeping. I'm so envious of people who can put their kids to bed later than usual and have them sleep late the next day. We ran late at dinner last night and didn't get our incredibly tired children in bed until 8:45, so we had high hopes of sleeping in a little today. Ha.

Maggie woke first at 10:30 pm, needing a little love. Then she woke again at 3:00 am. She nursed, then drank 8 oz of formula before settling back down. This truly gave me false hope of sleeping late (and I mean past 6:30 when I say late). But alas, it was not meant to be. At 10 till 6, here came Carter climbing in bed with us. After some pathetic moans and groans from a cold-suffering Seth, I finally gave in and brought Carter in the living room so he could sleep.

Not to say it's all bad. I am being hand fed goldfish like a queen while I type. And Dr. Carter is checking me out, so I'll know that my health is perfect, too. I might even get a shot and a band aid. I'm also getting the best pretend haircut of my life. I was greeted by Maggie calling for Mamamama and standing up in her crib looking around at 6:30. How can you not enjoy that?

So, the good new is that I've definitely got a jump start on my day. The bad news is that I could already use a nap. Ahhhh, Saturday.

A Little Update on Us

Wow! Time really gets away from you, doesn't it? I can't believe that summer is ending and school has started back. Of course, the temperatures are still over 100 degrees here every day, but my poor sister who is due any day with baby number four, is holding out hope that this heat wave will end any moment now. I'm predicting that she'll have a girl on August 26th, so she'd better start having some contractions so she can have this baby tomorrow!

Maggie has decided that 5:45 is a wonderful time to wake in the mornings, no matter what time she goes to bed the night before. She and I are having some quality time watching the sunrise each morning these days. Personally, I'd rather sleep now and bond later, but hey, you take what you get. At least she sleeps all the way through the night.

Miss Maggie is crawling, quite speedily all over the house now. She'll be 8 months old on Tuesday, and she's already pulling up to stand on whatever she can get her hands on. She's so good natured, though. Sometimes I'll realize that she's crawled out of the room, and I'll go looking for her only to find her in another room playing quietly by herself. We've been working on table foods, and so far she really likes diced bananas, diced carrots, peas, refried beans, and mashed potatoes.

Carter has assigned himself as Maggie's personal mind reader. All day I hear, "No Momma! Maggie doesn't want to come in here! No! Maggie doesn't want my toy! No! Maggie doesn't want to be held!" Yes, I realize that Carter is not clairvoyant, that this is merely a grammatical snafu, but it's funny nevertheless.

And Carter, ahhh Carter. I am never bored. He definitely keeps us entertained. One day, he came up to me and said, "Hey Momma, Beethoven says, 'Da Da Da Daaaaaa!'" I laughed hysterically, so of course, we hear it all of the time now. His favorite activity (other than torturing his sister) is having us spell things. He'll bring me a notebook and crayon and list off word after word that he wants me to write for him. You'd think I'd get a break in the car. No. I was silly enough to ressurect a little game my mom played with us growing up. She sang 'Bingo' and used our names instead of Bingo. Now Mom didn't limit her spellings to five letter words that actually fit the song, so neither do I. I seem to remember only getting Mom to spell people's names when she sang the song, but Carter has taken it to a new extreme. Not only do we do every name he can think of, but we also do every inanimate object he spots as we drive along. Oh, the things I've spelled to the tune of 'Bingo' - Carter, Maggie, Mommy, Daddy, Van Goat (one of Carter's favorite Baby Einstein puppets), stop sign, garage, mailbox - you get the picture. Oh well, at least he's learning something.

Carter has started back to preschool, and he's loving every minute of it. The first day of school he insisted that we go to lunch at Chick-fil-A afterwards and that his teacher, Ms. Wendy, go with us. In his new minivan. Luckily, Miss Wendy and Sue-Suz obliged and went along with us to lunch. Then when we got there, his other teacher, Ms. Laura, was already there eating. He said, "Look who's here! It's Ms. Laura!" He was so excited!

One last funny Carter story, and I have to wrap this up. The men in the family have now woken and joined the early bird ladies. Anyway, we were at the grocery store the other day, and I was buying some little individual container of diced carrots for Maggie. I asked Carter if he was going to eat any carrots, and he said, "No, I not a baby." I told him that carrots are not just for babies, they're for big boys, too. I said, "Aren't you a big boy?" He looked at me and said, "No, I not a big boy. I'm just Carter." What can you say to that? Well, that's about it for us right now. We'll update again soon.

New Pictures

Here are the pictures of the kids that we had done this weekend. Getting a picture of both kids looking at the camera and smiling at the same time has proved to be my own personal Mission: Impossible. I still dream that someday it will happen! Until then, we're getting some funny ones that I'll treasure anyway. So without further ado.....the kids. Sorry, I couldn't figure out how to flip a couple of the pictures!

Eeeek!

I went for a haircut today, which included the obligatory eyebrow waxing. A necessary, but painful evil. I noticed that she got a little wax on my eyebrow, but I thought she just wiped it off. I didn't notice the problem until a couple of hours later when I was standing next to Carter in the bathroom while he was washing his hands. I looked in the mirror and thought, "Hmm. Something looks funny." Well, of course, you would look funny too if a big chunk of your left eyebrow was missing. Oh yes. The stray wax apparently took part of my eyebrow with it. At least my hair typically covers the bare spot. We'll just keep our fingers crossed that it grows back. The odd part is that she didn't tell me what she did. Did she think I just wouldn't notice the deviant eyebrow? I just don't know. Oh well. You win some, you lose some. Eyebrows, that is.

We took Carter and Maggie to the Lion's Club Kiddie Carnival tonight. Aunt Birdie went with us. Obviously, Maggie doesn't ride rides, but her big brother makes up for it. He'll ride anything we'll let him on. Then he waves at everyone while he's riding. He doesn't care if he knows you or not, he's going to wave. And if the Lion's Club worker was close enough, he'd give them a high five on each and every revolution of the ride. Tonight he rode the swings, the cars, the rockets, the parachutes, and the roller coaster. At fifty cents a ride, I'd say that was $2.50 wisely spent for a night of entertainment.

Ashes

Last night we had some friends over to eat dinner. The great thing about my husband is that if you let him grill out, he will handle the entire meal. And we're not talking simple burgers. If you tell him he can experiment, you often get steaks and seafood with gourmet sauces. So for Father's Day, I got Seth some cedar planks so he could make cedar plank salmon. Last night, that's what he was going to make. He soaked the planks for a couple of hours like he was supposed to. Then it called for him to preheat the planks on the grill for a few minutes before he put the meat on. Well, the planks had been on the grill no more than five minutes when our friend came running in to grab a cup of water. Apparently, the planks were on fire and flaming nicely. Seth thought that they might still be salvageable until they threw the water on them and they disintegrated. Guess you can't cook salmon on ashes!

Anyway, the salmon still turned out wonderfully. It had a garlic lime sauce that was delicious. Then he did a grilled asparagus with a red wine vinaigrette sauce. For dessert, we had grilled pineapple skewers. Yummy! And the best part is that when Seth grills out, he cleans up, too! I put the dishes in the dishwasher, and he did the rest. What a great night! Good food, good company, and a clean kitchen! The only thing I'd change is that we'll soak the cedar planks a little better next time!

I Know, I'm Slacking on the Blog!

Long time no blog, huh? I have to admit that lately, by the time I get the kids settled into bed, I just don't have much energy left to write. I've been doing some knitting, but I learned the hard way that I shouldn't knit past 9:00 or I start making big mistakes. I had to take out a huge section of a dress that I was making for Maggie. I think my brain just shuts down at night.

Anyway, enough about me. Onto the kids. We're going to Vacation Bible School at church this week. I'm the snack hostess, so Maggie stays with me and helps me replenish the snacks. Carter spends most of the morning playing in his classroom, but I take him to opening and closing assembly for singing and dancing. And boy does he dance. He flaps his arms like a bird and runs up and down the aisle laughing and shrieking. The child is a dancing fool. I've had several people tell me I should bring a video camera to record him. Maybe I will tomorrow.

Carter's latest thing is wanting to know the name and everyone and everything that he comes across. It's constantly, "Who's dat, Mommy? What's dat, Mommy?" I'm glad he's curious, but it's really embarrassing when he asks who someone is, and I can't think of their name. I try to cover it up with a "Why don't you ask him/her?" Like I think it will just be fun for him to get to ask. You think people are onto me? Probably so.

Maggie is doing great. She's sleeping from about 8:00 p.m. until between 5:00 and 6:00 the next morning. She's starting to get pretty good at sitting up. In the Boppy pillow, she can sit and play for quite a while, and she's getting better and better at keeping her balance without it. She's eating solid food now and loving it. She actually attacks the spoon to get the food. She kind of starts chewing on her way to the spoon like she's trying to get ready for the food. It's really cute.

Well, it's 9:00, and I've already established that my brain shuts down at about this time, so I better quit for now. No telling what I'll type if I don't. I'll try to update more often and post some new pictures soon.

Yuk!

I had to reach into the bottom of the toilet yesterday. I had just put Carter on the potty. He insists on sitting backwards on the potty these days. He was holding a toy car in each hand, and I said, "Carter, be careful not to drop your car....." plop...."in the potty." Awww, not in the potty! The look on his little face was pitiful. "Yellow car in potty, Momma." And there it was, way down in the bottom of the potty - the yellow toy car.

Of course, Seth had magically disappeared as soon as this happened. How do they know to do that? So, I went to the kitchen to look for something to use in my fishing expedition, all the while yelling, "Don't flush the potty, Carter!!" Luckily, the shock of dropping a much-loved toy down the toilet was enough to quell his typically insatiable desire to flush. I came back with a long handled plastic spoon, but unfortunately, it didn't work. I never realized how sharp the angle is at the bottom of a commode. I could have lived without learning that one. Anyway, there was nothing that would do the trick in helping me retrieve the deviant car, so I had to bite the bullet and reach in. Once the car was safe and sound, Seth reappeared. When I told him that I had just had to reach into the toilet, his answer was that research shows that toilet water is cleaner than sink water. "Had a 2-year-old peed in it in this study?" I asked. Hmmm. Probably not. "Urine is sterile, you know," he tells me. Fine. I'll be sure to let him reach into the potty next time.

Carter's newest thing is announcing that he wants to go to a party. In Carter-speak, this sounds like, "I want to potty." So I have to ask him, "Do you need to tee-tee or do you want to go to a party?" Usually, it's a party. And he's decided that Julie's house is the place to party. He's also decided that there must always be cake at Julie's house, since he's had it there once. He makes plans for his parties. He says there will be cake, cookies, singing, dancing, and that we'll play trains. Sounds like fun to me.

Maggie is eating cereal now and loving every bite. She actually attacks the spoon. I have to try to hold her hands back so she doesn't pull the spoon away from me. Then she lunges at it with her mouth and gnaws on the spoon until I can wiggle it out. She's such a cutie pie!

Well, that's it for tonight. Hope you all have a good Memorial Day tomorrow.

A New Kind of Cool

I was driving down the road today with the kids in the car. Carter has a new obsession with having the wind in his face as we ride, so we had the sunroof open, the windows down, and the radio blaring - to the Blue's Clues soundtrack. Oh yes, I'm driving through town singing at the top of my lungs, "You've got to find the first paw print. That's the first clue. You put it in your notebook, cause it's whose clues - Blue's Clues!" It was at this point that I realized that I am now longer cool (if I ever was to begin with!). Then I looked back at Carter's face. He was smiling and laughing and singing along with me. To him, it's cool to drive down the street serenading passersby with music about a blue cartoon dog. Funny, the things that would have been embarrassing a few years ago are cool now, just because they make my kids smile.

Anyway, it's been a while since I've blogged. Things have been busy around here. Carter's out of preschool for the summer, so we've been having fun at home together. He loves to paint, glue, color - anything artistic. He's also grown quite fond of the park. He requests to go almost daily. Usually when Seth gets home from work, he takes Carter out to the swing set in the back yard to play. Last night I looked out the window, and Seth was working diligently on the slide. I yelled out to him, "Dear, it looks like you're waxing the slide. You're not, are you?" He looked up with a gleam in his eye, "Oh yeah, I am." Apparently, it had gotten a bit to slow for his taste, so he waxed it. Two coats. Now Carter goes flying down the slide, off the end of it, and straight into the grass. He, of course, loves it. Seth says he's putting another coat of wax on. At least Seth can sew him up when he needs stitches.

Carter continues to keep us entertained. He has a toy truck that he has decided is Birdie and Kevin's truck (these are two very good friends of ours). Not only does he have their truck, but he puts two crayons in the back of it - they're named Birdie and Kevin. He drives the truck all around the house announcing, "Birdie and Kevin are going to work. Birdie and Kevin are shopping. Birdie and Kevin are home." It's really cute. This morning, Carter was playing in his room and I kept thinking that I was hearing him say applesauce. This didn't make any sense to me. Then I looked down and realized what he was playing with - an abacus! Seth teaches him the oddest words! He also loves to talk about terrariums.

Maggie is doing great. She's rolling all over the place now. She gets her eye on something across the room, and off she goes, rolling until she gets to it and grabs it. She LOVES her big brother. Her face just lights up every time he talks to her. And she's a wonderful sleeper! Last night I put her to bed at 8:30 and she didn't wake up until 6:00 the next morning! We're so lucky! Well, that's about it for us. I'm going to finish watching the Dancing With the Stars finale. I'll try to do better with updating!

Who Needs a Pacifier?

Miss Maggie has found something even better - her toes!!

This is one of my absolute favorite stages of babyhood. She will just lay there and eat her toes forever! And she's gotten so active! I sitting here watching her play in her play gym. She reaches for toys, then kicks toys, then rolls to get to a new toy - all the while stopping to munch on her toes every few minutes, of course. She's a very happy, busy girl.

We got a new addition to our kitchen this week - the Learning Tower. It's a wooden platform that Carter can stand on to do things at the kitchen counter. He's been standing on it painting with water for most of the day.

When he got tired of painting, I let him "cook." I gave him some dry pasta and some bowls and spoons, which was good for another hour of entertainment. I'm thinking this was a good investment.

In other Carter news, last week was his last week of mother's day out for the summer. He's really going to miss it - he loved going to play, and he loved his teachers. We're organizing a weekly playgroup for the summer, though. The first week will be at our house. We're doing bubbles and sprinklers this Friday.

Carter has also started this fantastic run that he does around the house when he has no shirt on. He runs full speed around the house, slapping his belly and laughing hysterically. We've got to catch it on video - it is really, really funny. Also, Carter has a new found love for Maggie's exersaucer. He climbs into it and sits and plays, referring to himself as Baby Carter. "Baby Carter's playing exersaucer, Mommy!" Then he points at things across the room and asks me to bring them to him in the exersaucer. I'm thinking, "Hmm. At least I know where he is and what he's up to for a while." The funny thing is that his little legs probably fit in the holes better now than they did when he was a baby. He was such a chunk, and he's thinned down so much! Leaving you tonight with a sweet picture of Carter and Daddy that I took right before bedtime tonight. You think Daddy's crazy about his little buddy? Carter's pretty wild about Daddy, too!

Plotting

I'm pretty sure that Carter and Maggie are plotting against us when we leave the room. How else could my two wonderful sleepers have coordinated such a sleepless night last night? Here's how I think it went down:

Carter: Hey Mags, don't you think it would be funny to wake Mommy up a couple of times tonight?
Maggie: Mmm-hmm. Mommy's getting a little too comfortable with this sleeping through the night thing. Do you want me to just scream a lot?
Carter: No, that's too obvious. Let's make the theme pee-pee. I'll start.

And he did. At a little past midnight, we heard Carter come out of his room, crying, saying that he needed to potty. We put him on the potty, and we went and went and went. Then he actually fell asleep mid-stream. The kid fell asleep on the potty. Now that takes talent. Seth just scooped him up and carried him back to bed when the flow stopped.

So, back to the plotting:
Maggie: So, what do you want me to do?
Carter: Drink a lot tonight before bed so that you can leak out of your diaper later on. Then start fussing because you're uncomfortable.
Maggie: Not a problem. Do you want me to add in a little "I've flipped onto my tummy and I'm frustrated that I can't flip back over" so she knows I'm really upset?
Carter: Oooh! That's good!
Maggie: And of course, I'll have to nurse for at least 30 minutes once she gets me changed and dry.
Carter: Wow, I've trained you well. You're a quick learner.
Maggie: I'm learning from the pro.

So Maggie did her part of the plot starting at about 3:30am. I've been watching the two of them today, looking for signs of a plot for tonight. I didn't see any communication going on, but they're quite sneaky - you never know. I'm hoping for a peaceful night, because we have a really busy day tomorrow. The kids and I are going to meet my sister and her kids at the park in the morning. Then I'm going to try to get Carter to take a quick nap before we go to a Kentucky Derby party tomorrow afternoon. I'd like to squeeze in a little sewing time for my newest project - my first quilt - if at all possible. I've got it cut out, and I've pieced my squares together. Now I'm ready to get sewing. It's a little after 10:00 now, so I'm going to head off to bed. You never know when you're kids are plotting a sleepless night - I'm going to sleep while I can!

Mmmmm Cake!

After a crazy day yesterday, we decided to spend the day at home today. We did lots of laundry and played a lot. I was hanging a jacket in the coat closet this morning, when I discovered two stuffed animals that I had bought the kids for Easter, but forgotten to give them. They were the Sandra Boynton pig and chicken. I brought them out, and told Carter that he had to choose one for himself and then Maggie would get the other. At first, he said that he wanted both, but I told him he could only have one. So he chose the chicken and put the pig in the swing with Maggie. A few minutes later, he said that he wanted to play with the pig, so I told him he had to ask Maggie if it was okay. She, of course, said yes, so he took the pig out of the swing, and I went into the other room. When I came back, I found that Carter had put his chicken in the swing with Maggie. Then later he put both the pig and chicken in the swing with her. Awww, what a sweet boy! I was so proud that he shared without me making him!

We finally got out of the house this evening. The children's choir at our church had a musical tonight (Whoo-hoo! Great job with the solo Lindsey!), and there was a dinner afterwards. We all thought that the food was good, but no one enjoyed it more than Carter. He ate all of his chicken nuggets, doused in pepper, of course. Then he was ready for the cake. It was yellow cake with chocolate icing. He started with the icing. It got everywhere - his face, his neck, his arms, his clothes, his eyebrows - you name it, Carter had frosting on it. Then he proceeded to drop the fork, pick a piece of cake up in each fist, and go to town. By the time he finished, he had become quite a spectacle. I was so glad that other people had their cameras with them. I don't remember the last time I laughed so hard, so tonight I'm going to just post a couple of pictures of Carter and the cake. I hope it makes you smile, too.

Rolling, Rolling, Rolling

Yesterday, Seth and I were sitting in the living room watching t.v., and Maggie was laying in the floor playing. Next thing we knew, she sounded muffled, and we looked down to find her flipped over on her tummy! I can't believe she's getting mobile already! Wasn't she just born? She's such a smiley little thing now - she loves it when you tickle her feet. We were looking back at the pictures from our trip to Gatlinburg when Carter was 4 months old today. It is amazing how much the two kids look alike! Then we pulled up some video of my niece Rebecca from when she was about 18 months old. We couldn't believe how similar she and Carter were at that age! They looked alike and their mannerisms were so similar - they are still a lot alike, I think.

Carter is still recovering from vacation. He was so tired when we got home from church today. He actually requested to go to bed to take a nap, but he wanted me to lay down with him. I climbed into his bed with him and fell asleep. Apparently, he did not. I woke up with Carter and Seth staring at me, and toys piled all over me. Carter must have piled toys on me for a while and then he went to hang with Daddy. Seth said he asked Carter where Mommy was, and he said, "I don't know." So they came back and found me asleep in his bed. The kid didn't know what he was missing. That was a good nap. That's about it for tonight. I have to go put the dishwasher going, or no one in this house will have anything clean to drink out of tomorrow!

Home Again

For those of you who didn't know, we've been in the Smokies since Sunday. We rented a cabin way up on a mountain for the week. It was beautiful, the weather was gorgeous, and we had a fabulous time. Once we got through the first night, things went smoothly. But let me tell you about the first night.

Seth put Carter to bed in his own room upstairs. We were so pleased with how well he went down in a strange bed. We went downstairs to watch some t.v. and put Maggie to bed. Our bedroom was downstairs, so once we got Mags to sleep, we went to bed, too. The fun started about 1:30, when the light came on and Seth said, "Do you hear that?" How could I not? It was the world's loudest cricket. I was still half asleep when I felt the THUD! "Did you kill it?" I asked. Nope, but he had killed a wasp that was on his pillow. I was awake now. The cricket sounded like it was on the wall above our heads, specifically in this heart-shaped wall decoration made of twigs. Next thing I knew, Seth is standing up in the bed with a book in his hand, telling the invisible cricket, "You're going down!!" The problem was, the cricket wouldn't show himself. But I'm telling you, he was the loudest bug I've ever heard. This went on for a while before Seth looked at me and said, "You're going to blog about this, aren't you?" Oh yeah.

The cricket got quiet for a few minutes, but then Carter woke up crying around 2:00. Seth headed upstairs to check on him and ended up sleeping with him the rest of the night. And I use the term sleeping loosely. Apparently Carter flops around the bed like a fish when he sleeps. Meanwhile, I was still downstairs battling the cricket. He was a tricky little fellow. He would get quiet until I got settled down in bed, and then he'd start up again. As soon as I would turn the light on and get out of bed again, he would be quiet again. I guess he finally got tired of the game and let me sleep after a while. But then at 5:30, Maggie decided that not only did she want to eat, but she wanted to play, too. Finally, about 6:30, I turned on the t.v., and that seemed to lull both of us back to sleep.

Even after a crazy first night (and no, the cricket never made another appearance the entire trip), we had a great time the next day. We went to Dollywood and discovered that Carter is a little daredevil at a theme park. He rode everything that he was tall enough to get on and loved every minute of it - even the little roller coaster and the big ferris wheel!

The rest of the week was fun, too. We went to the aquarium, the Dixie Stampede dinner show, a science museum, and a petting zoo. Carter loooved the goats. Literally. He ran around the pen until he had hugged almost every goat.

By today, I think we were all tired and ready to come home. I like to get away for a while, but I love to come back home even more.

Dog Day

This morning started out great. Carter came in this morning and climbed in bed with me while Seth took a shower. There is nothing better than a good Carter snuggle when you first wake up. Seth usually takes Carter to Mother's Day Out on Thursday mornings, so I was going to take my time, get him ready to go, feed Maggie, and then go get my shower. Ella had a 9:10 appointment at the vet for her annual exam, so we had plenty of time. Until I found out that Seth had been called in to do surgery and would not be able to take Carter to school. Then I kicked it into overdrive. I took a quick shower, got Carter dressed, put the kids in the car, took Carter to school, and ran back home so I'd have time to feed Maggie before we had to leave for the vet.

I really hate taking the dog to the vet. I hate it on many different levels. For one, Ella is horrible on a leash. She likes to run around your legs so that the leash catches you from behind and almost knocks you over. It is difficult enough to walk with Ella alone, but let's add a 3 month old baby in a car seat to the mix. Do you see my dilemma? Mmm-hmm. Also, now that I have the kids in the back seat of the car, Ella has to ride in the hatchback part of the car, and she refuses to jump up there on her own. I have to push, prod, and eventually manhandle the dog into the vehicle. Then we actually get to the vet and the exam starts. Ella has never had a completely normal exam. The good news today - she has lost 10 pounds and is down to 75 pounds. I thought we were doing great until the doctor told me that now she only needs to lose 10 more pounds to be at her ideal weight. Then the news got worse. Ella has a severe food allergy which has made her ears so inflamed that only 10 percent of the canal is open. So now she's on prednisone, antibiotics, two ear drops, and the most expensive hypoallergenic dog food I've ever seen. To top it all off, I have to take her back in two weeks for a recheck - on a day that I will have both kids in tow. I actually asked the receptionist if it would be okay if I called them from the car when I get there next time so they can send someone out to help me bring Ella inside. And I was quite serious. Luckily, they said they would help out.

When we got home, I pulled the car in the garage, closed the door, and opened the hatchback of the car. I thought Ella, who plowed me down jumping out of the car at the vet's office, would really be excited to get back to her house. Uh-uh. The stupid dog refused to get out of the car. I asked sweetly. I begged. I tried the aloof, "Well, Maggie and I are going inside. You just come on in when you're ready." approach. Nothing. She was bound and determined to stay in that car. I left the car door open and the door leading into the house open thinking that she would follow us, but after I had changed Maggie's diaper and clothes, I realized she wasn't coming. I had other places to go, so I really needed to get the dog out of my car. I put Maggie down inside and went back out to work on Ella. I tried threats, but I'm pretty sure she knew I was bluffing when I told her that I was going to take her back to the vet's for more shots. Then I tried pulling her out by the collar, but the collar was too loose and it came off. Then I nothing to pull her with. I finally had to climb into the car, wrap my arms around her, and drag the crazy fur ball out the car, the whole time growling, "Do you know how much money I spent on you today?" Ingrate. Well, I better run now. I would tell you some of the cute things the kids did today (Maggie can almost get her toes in her mouth now!), but I have to go force feed my dog expensive medications. I must really love this dog.

A Rainbow in the Dryer

"What could this be?" you ask. Well, let me tell you. Crayons in the dryer. Yep, crayons. A red one and an orange one to be precise. They were left in one artistic little 2-year-old's pocket. I opened the dryer today to take out a load of the kids' laundry, and was greeted by a rainbow. The inside of the dryer looked like someone tie-dyed it. The crayon was actually melted into the metal. It doesn't show up as well as I'd like, but here's an idea of what it looked like.

Of course, the entire load of laundry was covered in crayon, too. I really didn't think that any of it would come out, since it was dried in. Lucky for me, if you google Crayons in the Dryer, you come up with this wonderful page of people who have posted ways they have gotten crayons out of clothes and off of their dryer. For the dryer, I used ceramic cook top cleaner. It took about an hour, but it did get it all off. I put the clothes back in the washer, filled it with hot water, detergent, OxyClean, and Goo-Gone and let them soak for about 2 hours before I put it going. Amazingly, the crayon came out of everything except for a couple of socks and the mattress pad for the crib! I can tell you that I will check Carter's pockets religiously from here on out!

As I was scrubbing my dryer, which is not an easy task, I was thinking to myself, "This is not funny. I can't believe I'm having to do this." Sometimes I can find humor in situations like this quickly, but today I had a hard time. Before I started cleaning the dryer, I asked Seth if this was a sufficient reason to ditch our current washer and dryer and splurge for the awesome front load, enormous capacity washer and dryer that I covet so much. He said it was not. This did not help me find the humor. Then he had to leave for a meeting while I was left scrubbing and taking care of two kids, and on top of that, all three of us have colds. Still no humor. Then I started scrubbing the dryer, and Carter took my roll of paper towels and tossed it in the washer full of water and clothes to "help" me. This was getting less and less funny by the minute. But as I continued to clean, I had to lean further and further into the dryer. It was at this point, I felt two little hands, drumming on my rear end. That's when I realized how funny this must look, and I had a little chuckle. Not a belly laugh. Just a chuckle. Some days you're doing good to just find the chuckle.

New Pictures of the Kids

I took the kids (with some assistance from Sue-Suz) to have their pictures taken today. We got some really good ones of each of them individually, but together just wasn't happening today. That's okay. I really only meant to have Maggie's done, but since Carter was going to be with me anyway, I figured I might as well get a few in his Easter outfit. I wanted some good ones of Maggie in her baptism gown, and I think they turned out great. So, without further ado, here are the pictures.

A Rainy Day Can't Get Us Down

Does anyone else remember that commercial from the 80's? "A rainy day can't get me down, with Care Bear shoes from Buster Brown. Spread a little sunshine all around, with Care Bear shoes from Buster Brown." Okay, maybe I'm the only one who remembers that commercial so vividly. I guess I really wanted those shoes as a kid! Anyway, I guess you've figured out that it rained a lot today. We always have to work to entertain ourselves when we're stuck in the house all day.

We started out the day with a little cooking. Carter helped me make pigs in a blanket. He was quite the little chef! I thought he would lose interest quickly, but he stuck with me the whole time. He actually wanted to cook some more after we finished. We may have a budding chef on our hands. Now I just have to talk Seth into that kitchen set!

Later, we set up a tent in the living room. We read under the tent. We colored under the tent. We sang under the tent. Tents are good for hours of fun.

Maggie did a little rolling practice on the floor before settling down in her crib for a good rainy afternoon nap.

The sun finally came out late this afternoon, and we escaped to church for Wednesday night dinner. I'm not sure who was happier to get out of the house - Carter or me. After church, it was back home for baths and bedtime. It's supposed to be sunny and warm tomorrow. Don't look for us to be in the house much tomorrow!

Sleep, Glorious Sleep!

Whoo-hoo! Maggie has decided to sleep through the night for the past 4 nights! We're talking 8 or 9 hours at a time! Carter didn't sleep this well until he was 7 or 8 months old, so this is a pleasant surprise. She's staying awake more during the day now that she's sleeping more at night. She smiles and laughs, especially at Carter. We're going to go have some new pictures made on Friday morning. If any of you know my lack of self-control with buying pictures of the kids, you will be prepared for the onslaught of pictures!

On a completely different topic, I know that those of you with kids have experienced the complete lack of bathroom privacy that occurs once your children become mobile. Since we started potty training with Carter, this has been taken to a new level. I now have my own bathroom cheering section. First, Carter likes to announce, "Mommy's going to the potty!" Then, there's the praise, "Yea!! Mommy tee-teed in the potty!" Finally, there's the farewell as we flush, "Bye Mommy's tee-tee!" How can you not feel special when someone is cheering for you just because you went to the potty?

That's about it for us tonight I guess. Maggie's crying...I better run!

Hippity Hoppity

Well, the Easter festivities are officially over around here. We had egg hunts Friday afternoon and Saturday morning. Carter got the concept a little bit better this year. Instead of picking up one egg and wanting to sit down and play with it, he actually ran around and picked up quite a few eggs this time. We had a cold front come through this week, so I had to bundle up the kids to go to both egg hunts. I believe it was in the 30s for the Saturday morning hunt! I had the worst time getting us out of the house Saturday morning, so we didn't get to the hunt until after almost all of the eggs had been found. Luckily, I was rescued by a kind parent who had some extra eggs. He hid them specially for Carter, so everyone was happy. Of course, once the egg hunt was over, someone looked at Carter's feet and said, "Carter must have put his own shoes on today!" I looked down, realized his shoes were on the wrong feet, and thought, "Hmm. I should really just let her think that Carter did this to himself." Then I decided that you don't get much lower than blaming your mistakes on a two-year-old, and I admitted, that I was the one who can't put shoes on correctly.

Carter was fun with his Easter basket this morning. He doesn't get the whole Easter bunny concept yet, but he was excited about the basket of goodies. He ran to his basket and started digging through it. Then he looked up and said, "Oh cool!! I like it!!" Hmm. I guess Carter hears me saying, "Oh cool!" a lot. Sue-Suz gave the kids Charlotte's Web for Easter. Carter insisted on watching part of it before church this morning. His eyes got so wide when the animals started talking. He turned to Seth and said, "Daddy! Animals are talking!!!!"

After church, I had high hopes of getting some good pictures of the kids in their Easter outfits. This was not to be. Maggie decided that this was a good time to cry inconsolably. Carter decided that he might have to poo-poo in the next hour or so, and had to have both his pants and underwear off just in case. After about an hour of holding out hope, Seth and I gave up and decided that we'll just dress them up in their Easter outfits again another day and take some pictures. So, Easter is over, but I still have plastic grass all in my carpet as a reminder of the festivities. That, and a two-year-old who crashed hard tonight when he came down from his Easter candy sugar high. Think I'll go crash next.