Freaky Internet Ads....II

Seriously, what the heck?

Small Updates...

Home: My house is clean. Don't know how long that will last. I'm kind of sad about the snow melting because it just uncovers all of the mess outside that I've got to think about taking care of. We got our tax refund which is immediately gone to paying off debt incurred last year. We had to replace our basement floors and we had a credit card we paid off. We do have a little extra that we are putting towards going on vacation to PA in June. But mostly, it's just debt repaid. Ugh...I always say that "maybe next year we'll get to keep it.." but at least it's less debt to worry about.

Work: Mega changes at work. Most not for the better. It's really the economy. For both our jobs we're getting a lot of extra work and in my case, no extra compensation (no raises this year). Businesses do it because they can in a bad economy because they know their employees can't quit. For people who work for companies who both stress the importance of "work / life balance" we just aren't feeling it. Our jobs are not easy right now...we're both feeling it.

Joanne: Has been completely off of all meats for a few months now (beef for over a year and a half). We've discovered many versions of Kung Pao Tofu and we make it once or twice a week. Even the boys really like it. And to be honest, I like it better than the chicken version. She works her long days on Mondays and the early shift on the days I go to work in the afternoon. Since I work a lot of weekends, we don't get a lot of days off together but we try to make the most of the days when we do get one.

Arthur: Is way too big for his britches most days. It has it's advantages though. He does a lot of stuff on his own and he's fairly self sufficient. I'm surprised that he does so much without prodding. But when he doesn't get his way, he reverts back to typical, normal "I'm nearly four" behavior which leaves us ready to pull our hair out sometimes. I don't like scolding him but he can be a little shit and he knows it. He likes Yellow Submarine a lot and is getting a lot better at singing full verses of "big" songs. He's doing really well with phonics (naming words that start with certain letters and knowing what sounds the letters make). He did a really great job coloring a duck picture this week. He's getting ridiculously tall. I don't know how that happened. He's starting to actually fit in the clothes that match the size of his age (well, not pants so much..he has short legs).

Robin: Had this weird rash last week which turned out to be an allergy. (So no catchies). It looked like someone poured light koolaid on him and threw in clusters of mosquito bites. Benadryl took care of it and it only lasted a day. He's starting to piece more strings of words together and yesterday I caught him singing "Winnie the Pooh" (Innie da Poo). We think he might be afraid of snakes and the dark. I have no idea where he got that from. He calls people by their names more often now and he can say both "Grammy" and "Gido" properly. I thought he was behind in his speech quite a bit but one of his teachers told Joanne that he speaks very well. So who knows on that one. He's still peeing on the potty nearly every night. A few times he's "asked" to use it (and has done so after). No poops yet. My sister in law told me tonight that her second child trained faster because of observing the first. So maybe that's the case, although it really would surprise me if he did.

Maggie: Is still fairly content with life. Since she's getting over that cold she had for a couple of days, she's back to sleeping better again. She's eating more like Arthur was at her age. She really really likes pears. She's getting very tall and is just about done with her infant car seat. We were hoping she wouldn't have to switch until the weather was warmer because once we move her, she's going to be a "carry baby" and no more putting her seat directly in the shopping cart nice and warm when I shop with all three kids. I'm going to have to get one of those mega carts where she can sit with Robin side by side.

Me: I feel like I do so much every day but at the end of the day nothing seems really done. It's getting easier to take the kids out all together. I managed to get them all too and from my parent's house 90 minutes away on Tuesday. I'm really looking forward to getting them out of the house in the warmer weather. I've had some health issues I'm resolving and have just been playing the waiting game on. (I'm fine, I just need minor surgery to remove a couple of cysts). And mainly, I'm trying to figure out why I keep trying and failing to lose weight. Robin is 21 months old...I shouldn't be hanging onto this extra weight. I'm hoping getting out with some spring exercise will help things. I think getting more sleep would help too but we'll see...

Two things...

I've stumbled upon another great website that provides much entertainment. It's specifically geared towards families with three children. I'll link it left but in the meantime, I really loved this column: http://www.havingthreekids.com/oohbaby.html

Second,

Congratulations Nicola, Peter, and Zoe on the arrival of Ayden Jeffrey! We're all very excited for you!

Some humorous internet photo finds from this past week.

A Post that Touched My Heart...

February 27th Post by Alabaster Mom linked here <--

Believe me I get it...

As most of you know, my wife and I have three children. Which means that I have three children. Most of you also know that I was adopted by my father.

It's amazing to me how people in this day and age still skirt around the issue of adoption and non-biological children in general. Of course, no harm is ever meant from innocent questions. But there are definitely times when I just wish others would think a little more.

From people who ask about my "real father". And my answer is always the same..."His name is Joe, he lives with my mom in Salem. He's my real father." Ask me about my biological father if you are curious. But my real father is the man who did the work and earned it. We don't always agree and see eye to eye. But we were meant to be together.

There's innocent medical programs that automatically flood in the number of children you have based on the number of "live births" you report. My recent mammogram had me listing the number of children I had and then the amount of times I had given birth. The receptionist questioned me as if I had made an error. I had completely forgotten about it until I read my mama-friend's post.

Then there's the nurse when Maggie was born who said to me "Well, I'll have to check with her mother...." Are you kidding me?! Wrong thing to say. Just wrong. I'll accept no excuse for that because there isn't a valid one.

And subtler, not even realized things like when people automatically check with me about issues pertaining to Robin and automatically check with Joanne about issues pertaining to Arthur. It's not meant with harm, but it's noticeable.

The one that really gets under my skin is a headline "Nicole Kidman's adopted children." Is that really necessary? They are her children. Do we refer to anyone esle's children as "Gwenyth Paltrow's squeezed through her privates children?"

There are really wonderful things too....when people "get it". Like my former employer throwing me a small party when we were expecting Arthur. Like the fact that we live in a state when we both are automatically on the birth certificate (we never had to adopt our children...it was automatic). Like Arthur's teachers having him make two mother's day cards. Like random strangers telling Joanne how much Robin looks like her.

In support of my very much respected mom-friend and her adorable daughter, in solidarity I'm sharing her post because it touches me in so many ways.

We have three children. They all call us "mom". They are our real children in every way regardless of which child passed through which body. And all any parent of non-biological children asks is that all of their children are treated as any other child of any other parent.

Thanks mama for sharing your very common, and quietly heart twinging story. We get it.

I think it really is time for a diet...

...considering that Arthur asked me this morning "Mom, why are you bigger than other mom?"

Lovely...just lovely.

I'm Not Convinced Robin is Going to Be This Easy.

I've still been haphazardly putting Robin on the potty seat every couple of days for kicks. No big drama...no big announcements. Tonight he was sitting on the couch with me and I asked him if he wanted to sit on the potty (since he was in just a diaper anyway..it's just easier during dinner sometimes, trust me).

He scratched a little at the front part of his diaper (which he sometimes does if I ask him if he needs a diaper change). His hair was feeling a little "crustier" than it should so I figured I'd toss him in the bath too.

Off we went to the bathroom and I stripped off his diaper and put him on the potty seat and told him to go pee.

And he did! Full stream.

He got yays and cheers and a tiny piece of chocolate that Joanne was nibbling on anyway. And he had his bath and got to try on his new bathrobe that our friend Joan got him for Christmas.

I'm a skeptic that it's really going to be this easy. I know he's not ready to tell us when he has to go so I imagine it's going to sort of be haphazard like this for a while. Arthur was a lot older (2.5) and much more mature about it. When he trained, he fully trained. 2.5 day and night and no going back to diapers. It was so quick and shocking. I envision Robin as a bit of a slower process...he's younger.

Robin is so much less of a communicator about things in general. It's not that I don't have faith in his toddler brilliance (ha ha) but I guess I just can't venture to believe that his crotchal scratching at the word "pee" or "diaper" and his piddling on command is anything more than dumb luck at this point. I'm super sensitive to the fact that pottying is a very low pressure thing in our house. We don't "push" it and we don't force it and we don't get frustrated at the whole diapering aspect. Diapers just "are". The come with the turf of having kids. And they don't particularly frustrate me either way.

Heck if I won't keep presenting the potty though. I'm curious to see where this is going to go.

Seven weeks of ear infections....

..have officially ended. The verdict today at the doctor was "a little red but I wouldn't call them infected anymore." We'll watch and see how it goes.

14 lbs 10 oz and not even a single peep during her Polio vaccine (which the doctor was waiting on because of the above mentioned weeks of ear infections).

Now if we could just do something about these horrible smelly farts all day! So not a lady, Maggie!

Pancake Tuesday!

Which was celebrated by us this morning at IHOP. Free pancake day! Even Robin got his own personal short stack...which he thoroughly enjoyed (as you can tell by my cell phone photo).

Don't ignore a saggy pumpkin

Some time in the fall, back when most people were buying pumpkins Joanne took the kids pumpkin picking. They came home with a beautiful, round specimen that weighed about the same as Robin at the time.

It sat on our kitchen counter by the window for months and we remarked at how nice it looked and how well pumpkins seem to keep.

Some time around the start of the year we needed the space and moved the beast to the corner of our dining room by the slider...which of course is rarely used this time of year because it's too cold to go on the porch.

We knew it was there, and from the top it still looked great. We figured we'd have to get rid of it eventually before it rotted.

The other day we were having dinner and Joanne and I both remarked that the pumpkin was looking a little "flat" on the bottom. Was it our imaginations? Last night it was decidedly more so and we both had an "uh oh" look on our faces. I asked if I should go get a shovel from outside. Joanne decided that the flat part of a cardboard box would do.

Public service announcement: Throw away pumpkins before they become sort of flat on the bottom. It's not fun at that point. Also, flat-bottomed pumpkins smell kind of like rotten leaves, but more like rotten fish. Yuck.

What's worse than finding a big dead mouse on your carpet when you get home?

Finding two halves of a big dead mouse.

Good kitties...


.....but eww!

....and then you'll throw up (Arthur Humor)

In the drive thru ATM at the bank:

Arthur: Mom that man is smoking in his car.
Me: Yup, he is.
Arthur: Smoking is bad. It can make you sick.
Me: Yes it can.
Arthur: Hey everyone! Stop smoking. It's dangerous and then you'll throw up!

Arthur at home going "poopy":

Arthur singing: "I like to move it move it. I like to move it move it."

(as heard from the living room)

Some new, fun blog links

I'll admit it. I check "Cake Wrecks" every single day. It's like an addiction. It took me about a week to read through the entire blog history when I first discovered it but it was worth every second. One of my new favorite blogs of the year.

The other day, they had featured a really excellent "Lost" cake complete with little fondant characters and Dharma Initiative beer. (And the tiny luggage tags and stickers are truly awesome). In viewing this amazingly done cake, I discovered another little joy. Cake Wrecks linked to the original photos on Jorge Garcia's blog. Which is immensely funny in it's own right, exclusive of watching "Lost". In fact, reading the blog you kind of forget he's even on a show until he mentions it.

Good stuff. So now you have two new blog links to provide you with laughs and help you procrastinate at work or home.

<-- check left...have fun!

Wally Chunka

As told by Arthur to Maggie.

See, there's this guy who owns a factory that's full of chocolate. He lets kids come to the factory with their gold tickets and they get to eat all of the candy and fly in an elevator. And his name? Why, it's Wally Chunka of course....

Maggie's 6 Month Appointment

I can't believe how quickly these appointments seem to come together. I went in today thinking it was just another follow-up for her ear infection and I completely forgot she was having a full physical.

Because I had all of the kids with me, we got a downstairs room and got to see our first pediatrician. She's due any day and I was eager for baby news. Not yet!

Maggie still has this ear infection. She went through 10 days of penicillin which did nothing. Then 10 days of augmentin which gave her a rash the very last day. And the ear infection is still here. I hate loading her up on antibiotics because that also can have side effects. But the infection was really bad and it's been so long and the poor thing really isn't sleeping well. So we're going to try the zythromax and check in again with them in two weeks.

It's not like our kids haven't had ear infections but Arthur really only ever had one. And Robin had 2 or 3 that were diagnosed. But theirs both went away on their own or with an antibiotic. Maggie has been really persistent with hers. If it's still not clearing up we might check in with an ear specialist but we'll just have to wait and see. The pediatrician thinks she's teething too so that could be aggravating things.

Developmentally the Dr. said she's doing awesome. She can sit on her own for long period of time and she can reach and grab things to play when she is sitting. She's making appropriate sounds and her movement is good. She's still got that weird fat pad under her neck and a little bit of rigidness but otherwise her range of motion is good and we just keep doing little exercises with her neck.

Her size is good and she's growing as she should still.

Height: 26.50 inches (A: 26.50 R: 25.75)

Weight: 14 lbs 3 oz (A: 17 lbs R: 12 lbs 6 oz)

Three kids at six months

Drip drip drop little April showers...

I sat Robin on the potty for the first time tonight. First of all, I have to mention that he is so tiny that his itty bitty bum is teetering on the verge of sucking him into the toilet completely. He didn't seem to know what to do about his balance. But after a couple of minutes he chilled out.

He sat on the potty seat on the toilet while I sat on Arthur's stool in front of him and read him a book. After a few minutes of just letting him get used to the feel of it I picked him up to get him ready for bed.

And there they were. The two smallest drops of pee on his leg.

We know that since Arthur trained so quickly and fairly young, we shouldn't expect to be so lucky this time around too. So I figure it's going to be a long slow process of just introducing him. But the first potty attempt is kind of charming and cute anyway.

Arthur loves his musicals...

...and in return for his love of musicals, we get an occassional song that we can all sing to. Please ignore my messy desk top.

Early January 2009

Late December 2008