What I've been doing

The school year is winding down so I'm making plans for the summer and for the fall.  This summer, I plan to do a home summer camp with day trips for the babies.  I got the idea from Pinterest but I haven't full mapped out my plan. I need to sit down and give it some focus. I also plan to get my business off the ground. 
Yes, business.  I'm a Thirty One consultant.  Check out my website.  Go ahead, take a peek. 
I am also thinking about the fall, whether full time is the way to go. Lots up in the air so I probably won't post much over the weekend.  Sugar baby turned one   I'll post pics ASAP.

Happy Halloween!

Somewhere in the blur of work, grocery shopping, and weekly doctor appointments for Squirrel, a holiday snuck in.

Halloween.

I have a tumultuous relationship with All Hallow's Eve. Some years I go all out with homemade, entire family themed costumes. Other years I sequester myself in with my porch light off and eat the candy my kids got from school. Unfortunately for the kids, this year leaned towards the latter.  I blame it on a midweek holiday and a stressful health situation. Poor Princess was so psyched.

At the very last minute though, I decided to take the kids out. Last minute costumes were the order du jour.

Popcorn was a panda, of course. I say of course bc it's the official baby costume. And of course the head disappeared. What else would it do? I put a black hat on her and kept it moving.
Side Salad was Lettuce. He *thinks* he wad a cowboy. I implore you to look at the pic and decide for yourself. He was supposed to be Venom but refused to wear his costume. I gave him a 'stache with eyeliner
Squirrel was a vampire. This is very good because she initially didn't want to be anything. She waz all eyeliner and fangs.
Princess was a "Hollywood Starlet," complete with fancy make up, a fur boa, and my club wig. Don't judge me.
Astronaut was a homicidal maniac. They look just like everyone else.

Okay, it is picture time for you and bed time for me.
Toodles!

My Squirrel is going NUTS , and it's not funny

My sweet girl

So my sweet six year old Squirrel's eczema is currently flaring with a rampage, the likes of which we haven't seen since she was a little baby and had to be wrapped in gauze like an infant mummy.  We've been to the doctors multiple times this summer.  She's also had cellulitis and a fungal infection as a result of it.  We've been to the pediatrician, the ER, and the dermatologist, and have another dermatologist and allergist visit coming up.  At the beginning of summer she was on two antibiotics (Keflex and Bactrim, I think), Cutivate, Atarax (to control the itching), desonide, and DermaSoothe. The antibiotics were just for 10 days.  The derm took her off everything and prescribe griseofluvin, fluocinolone acetonide, and prednisone.

My baby is going bonkers.

She is literally out of her mind right now and I am at my wit's end. Prednisone has some funky side effects on your head-mood swings, irritability, depression, difficulty sleeping, chills-and she's feeling all of them.  The stuff in her head is the worst.  You can't say boo to the poor baby with out her bursting into tears.  Case in point, This is a conversation that took place yesterday.

Me: Those socks don't match. Take them off and I'll find you some matching ones. (SN: one sock was yellow with "Monday" in magenta and the other was white with an aqua toe and heel and lime green polka dots.  And they belonged to Princess)Squirrel:  >bursts into tears<
Me: Why are you crying?
Squirrel: Because you told me to take of the sooooooooccccckkkkkksssssss

I'm not exaggerating. That's verbatim. Here's another example from today.

Me:  Come on, sweetie. Let met me do your hair. You can bring your [philly] ice with you. (SN: normally, I do not allow them to eat outside the kitchen. I was letting her eat in my room)
Squirrel: >bursts into tears<
Me: Why are you crying?
Squirrel: I don't knnnnnoooooowwwwww
Me: Okay, well, I'm not mad at you. Try to calm down.  Here, give me a hug.
Squirrel: >still crying< I don't want to hug yoooooooouuuuuuuuu
Me: Uh, that's okay. You don't have to hug me.  It's okay.
Squirrel: >sniff, sniff< Okay >bursts into fresh tears<
Me: Wait,why are you crying again?
Squirrel: Because I coughed on you earlieeeeerrrrrrrrrr!
Me, in my Pooh voice: Oh, bother.

I don't know how much more of this I can take. She is literally crying for everything, and I mean everything.  Eating, drinking, sitting, standing, laying down, getting dressed, taking baths, putting on jammies, putting on socks, taking off socks, getting in the car, being hugged, not being hugged, because it's hot, because it's cold, because there are gnats/flies, etc.  She is so....hypersensitive and it's making me edgy.  I can barely sleep.  On top of that, school starts soon and I barely have any milk pumped. I only pump 4-6 oz at a time and I can't see to get on a pump schedule.  The only thing that relaxes me is nursing Popcorn.

I'm getting off topic a bit.  The point is, prednisone is not going well for us and we still have 3 another day of it. Her skin still looks bad.  Plus, it suppress your immune system and I think she has cellulitis again.

I'll update you on her later. Oh, and Side Salad needed a breathing treatment last week. He may have allergic asthma, probably to ragweed. Last year, he ended up in the hospital for about 3 days. This time, I recognized the symptoms (wheezing, retraction, breathing around his words) and took him for treatment immediately. We were home in less than 2 hours. Bully for us.

In happy news, Popcorn is 4 months old and rolling like a wheel. She's getting efficient at it, understanding the need to build up momentum by rocking back and forth first.  She's also sitting some.

Day 42: She's Part of the Family

Today, I called Popcorn the wrong name. I called her Side Salad. Well, actually I called her his real name, not literally "side salad." I was holding her and talking to her while she was in a happy attentive phase. He wasn't even in the room. I looked at her sweet face and said, "what are you thinking about, side salad?"

"What did you call me?"

I swear she looked a little taken aback. But she should be happy. In my family, we always call children by the wrong names. This went in to the extent that I was eventually called by all of my siblings' names. I was known as "DexterStevieSamRegina" in my youth. I found this to be exceedingly insulting as I am the only girl. I decided I would be different. I'd never call my kids by the wrong names. I was better than that. Until I had kids. Sometimes, I don't have time to remember their names. Sometimes, I call them by their gender or by their size (bigs and littles) or by their numbers. Yes, they are each assigned a number. But rest assured. Each of their little faces is engraved on my heart. They are my little bunnies and I move them immensely. So Popcorn is now officially part of the brood. She is #5.

Looking forward to the Summer

This is a totally un-baby post. I was just thinking about the fact that the kids have about a month and a half left of school before they are home the summer.  I want the kids to have some enriching experiences and a lot of fun.  I've been looking into unschooling and it sounds like a great way to help them learn and explore without making things so structured that they have no summer. My good friend R is such an inspiration to me in this area. She is a like minded mama of 3 who unschools her handsome boys.

I think that I'd like to explore two themes this summer and have the kids interact with them in a variety of ways.  The first theme would be dinosaurs and I haven't determined the second theme yet. I have all these ideas for how we can learn about dinosaurs in a cross curricular way.  Here are a couple of my current ideas:

• Pangaea maps
• Making fossils
• Zoo trips to learn about the descendants of and modern day relatives of dinosaurs
• Maybe a dinosaur skeleton puzzle, if I could find one
• Museum trips to touch dino stuff
• Music and whatnot
• Dinosaur life cycle tableau replete with dramatic music [I can see my kids doing this with mock seriousness]
• All culminating with a journal of a cavekid. Yes, I know that humans and dinos didn't coexist, but think of the creative writing combined with the practical knowledge. Even Side Salad could do it, albeit a pictorial journal.

Maybe we could even do a joint theme.......hmmmm.....

Any suggestions for the second theme?

Camping

I want to take the kids camping this summer.

It's one of those things I've never done before. I didn't grow up in a family where people went camping and few of my friends ever did it. But it seems like a cool experience. It would give us an opportunity to just spend time together away from the TVs and computers and Kindles and video games.

I think it'd even be cool, baby in tow. I mean we could use prefolds or gDipes to make it easy. Or we could temporarily switch to sposies.

The problem is, I don't know how to plan a trip. How do I know where to go? Should we get a tent or look for places with cabins? What do we need to take? How will we cook?  Can we fish (by we I mean everyone but me)?  I need like a "Camping for Dummies" which I am absolutely certain exists.  Also, I have to somehow get the hubby on board.  The fishing should take care of that.

Have you ever been camping?  Got any advice for me?

Here's who'd be going:

• Me, the mama
• Lettuce, the papa
• Astronaut, 11 year old boy
• Princess, 9 year old girl
• Squirrel, 6 year old girl
• Side Salad, 4 year old boy
• Popcorn, tiny bundle of joy

Help us out-how do we plan our first family camping trip?

Foto Friday, or should that be Photo Phriday....maybe Foto Phriday?

Monday, which was President's Day, was a great day to spend with the kids at the zoo. I live at ground zero for schizo weather.  It's been in the 30s in for the lows and the 80s for the highs over the past week. Anywho, I took the kids to the zoo because we are supposed to have a maternity/family photo session but a scheduling issue arose.  I just wanted to share some pics of the kiddos. 

Crossing the bridge 

My girls

My sons

Squirrel

The squirrel in the mulberry

Giant chair

El Mariachi

My hatchlings

Penguin staring match

Kinda like Sonic, only not so blue.

Side Salad and the hedgehog

Time to go home

Which is your favorite?

Picture time!

It's been a while since I've been on.  Several things have happened-I've gotten much bigger.

Me about to get my Valentine's Day massage and pedi! <3

Popcorn is still breech and I've been doing all sorts of fun things to get the kid turned. I'll try to make a  post about that later tonight.

I got a new camera, a Kodak PlaySport-super easy to use and waterproof. If only it had a flash, it'd be perfect.

Oh and my iron is up-yay for liver, collards, blood builder and vitamin C!

So, like I said, I got this new camera and I want to have some fun with it so I'm considering a trip to our local zoo and botanical gardens so I can give it a good work out. I'll post more pics later.  Til then, please be satisfied with these shots of my gorgeous babies!

Side Salad

Squirrel

Princess

Astronaut, a self portrait

Hush-A-Bye, Baby...

I was on The Stir the other day and read an article called the “The 7 People Who Hate Your Kid” by Sascha Brown-Worscham. Let me state for the record that anytime I read a blog on here, I can tell when she wrote it. I can tell because we never, ever agree. Ever. It’s amazing to see the words of someone whose ideals run exactly counter to your own.  But that is a different blog for a different day.

Anyways, she wrote about the seven people who “hate” your kid. Among them are:

• The Childless Facebook Friend
• The Stroller Eye Roller
• Old Ladies in Public

And my favorite: The “Adults Only” Bridezilla.

I find that last one particularly hilarious because I guess that’s me. I was 28 when Lettuce and I tied the knot, and the kids were 9, 7, 4 and 2. Had I not birthed them, they would not have been invited.

Honestly, they still barely made the guest list.  My MIL was instructed to take my kids out immediately if they became disruptive.  

We paid for our own wedding, no money from the families and it cost us a pretty penny (I still wish we’d eloped!).  But honestly, I don’t care how much it cost. Weddings are not kid friendly events. They are serious, one-time formal events. That being said, there were exactly 7 kids at our wedding, my four and my niece (she was 11) and nephews (ages 9 and 8). That’s it. And they all had a job to justify their attendance. The girls were my flower girls, the boys ring bearers, and my niece and nephews handed out programs. I let people know in advance and I was not offended if people couldn’t make it. 

 The Princess and the Squirrel

And the Astronaut.

Notice how Side Salad isn't in the pics? Yeah, he went to sleep. Because he was two.

>There were more kids at the reception, which was far less formal  and I was fine with that, though it meant I had to feed the little urchins.< 

I’m getting away from my point a bit. There are places kids belong, and places kids don’t belong. I avoid taking my kids, especially the littles, to doctor appointments and parent-teacher conferences unless they are the subject of the appointment. I don’t take my kids to funerals at all. I wouldn’t unless it was immediate family. I don’t mind taking them shopping, but if I am seriously shopping to restock the house, I don’t take them. I also don’t take them to classes, conferences, or meetings. I don’t take them to speeches.  If I do take them, I try to bring things to keep them amused and sit near an exit, JIC. I also feed them and take them to the bathroom beforehand. I do these things so that I can enjoy/participate and so that my children do not disturb others.  

The Precipitating Event (PE):  Earlier this week, I attended a workshop for pregnant women. I go monthly and, while I don’t take my children, I understand why others might bring theirs.  At this particular workshop, the topic was domestic violence. The speaker was a survivor of DV who is also the sister of a local woman killed by her boyfriend (he also shot their child prior to killing himself) 6 months ago.  All the while, there was a child shrieking at the top of its lungs. The woman was moved to tears, of course, but I could barely hear her because of the shrieking minion. And I was about 5 or 6 feet away from her.  I thought it was very disrespectful to the speaker and the memory of her sister and her 2 year old niece that she is now raising.

{So of course I make a little Facebook status about it and one of my friends starts saying how she didn’t care if her baby cried uncontrollably-she didn’t feel obligated to remove him.  Mind you, this is the same friend that said she is offended when people NIP.  Iiiiiiirrrrrooonnnnnnyyyyyyyy!  You can look away and not see a mother breastfeed.  You can’t ignore someone’s crying child. But that’s not the point.}

My stance on children is this: your child is your responsibility. Take care of them.  Yes, kids cry. It is their form of communication. But parental responsibility is more than just making sure you meet your child(ren)’s needs and comforting them. You also prepare them to function in society, with other people.  And while they are the center of your world, that is only true for you and no one else.  Part of good citizenship is respect for others. Allowing your kiddo(s) to inconvenience others is not a part of that. It is not what is best for your kid.   If your baby is crying or your kid is fussing, just take them out. 

What’s your stance on kid-free weddings?  What about crying babies?

Preschooler Logic

Last night I went to the depths of hell [Walmart] with my best friend and her little ones who just happen to be my godchildren. My god son is 7 and my goddaughter is 8 months younger than Side Salad so she just turned 3 last month. I have been trying to explain to her that I'm preggers but she doesn't seem to get or to care.  Case in point:

I took her to go to the restroom at our church's Christmas program. She looked up at me with her sweet doe eyes and said:

           "Your stomach is getting really big."

Wow, I thought. A teachable moment. A time for us to connect and for me to share the joy of a new life with her! I answered her. "Yes, sweetie! My stomach is getting bigger! That's because there is a baby inside! Isn't that cool?!"
My precious poppet looked at me and said:

           "I have to pee."

Clearly, she was less enthralled than I.

So last night, we're at the Wally and I say to her, "My tummy sure is getting big.  And look-it's moving! I wonder what's inside. What do you think?"
She turned slowly towards me, looked at my face, my belly, then my face again and said:

           "You have popcorn in your stomach. It's popping. You ate too much."

All this time, I've been thinking I was pregnant. Turns out, I'm just full of popcorn.

Take that, midwives.

The Decision to Cloth

I never thought about cloth diapering in a serious way until after the birth of my fourth child. I used disposable for all the rest. However, when he was a few months old, I decided to give it a go.  Part of it was financial-the hubs and I aren't rich people.  Part was the gradual greening of me.  Anyways, he was on board and we gave it a go.

And never looked back again. Side Salad was my most natural baby in terms of the products that touched and entered his body.  There's a lot more concerning this journey on my old blog, you know the one I can't use anymore SMH

As we prepare to welcome Cinco into our family, I find myself most excited about breastfeeding and cloth diapering. Breastfeeding is free but cloth can evolve into a full blown addiction. I'll admit it-I have a chocolate goodMama  and four custom ScuttleButts aka Orange Diaper Co dipes.  But there's nothing I love more than fresh cloth.  Plus aren't they beyond cute?!

Anywho, Kebbie's Diaper Bag is looking for bloggers to review cloth diapering products. If you are interested, here's the link!

Me Time

My life tends to be busy.  In the course of ten years, I completed my bachelors (cum laude), almost all of my masters (3 classes away), had 4 children, and got married-not necessarily in that order. People are always asking me how I do it, because apparently I make it look easy. When you work, you can take a sick day, AKA a mental health day.  When you are a part-time SAHM, it's a little harder.

The answer is that I carve out time for myself. I'm not rich by any means but I do make little splurges.  They are little in that the most expensive one is $25, the least expensive, free.  Here are a few of my Sanity Savers:

• a pedicure-manicures are a waste of time for me. I work a lot with my hands and I also wash them a lot. The polish will chip by the end of the day.  I can't stand fake nails.  But a nice pedi will last weeks.
• Movies!  I love, Love, LOVE going to the movies.  They always make me happy!  This year alone, I saw: The Immortals, Breaking Dawn, HP and the Deathly Hallows, Real Steel, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Super 8, Cars 2, The Hangover 2, Bridesmaids, Fast 5, X-Men: First Class, Bad Teacher, Transformers: The Dark Side of the Moon, Columbiana, and The Help. You'd think this movie habit costs me a lot but AMC near me has $5 matinees.   And the drive in is 2 moves for $7 for adults, $3 for kids AND you can bring a cooler.
• Coldstone Creamery!!!  Can you say Like It, Love It, Gotta Have It?  Worth. Every. Penny.
• Reality TV. There's nothing like watching Phaedra, Kandi, Cynthia, Kim, Nene and their friends cut up. That's what very rich people do.  Then there's Chrissy, Em,Somaya and nem, the ones who don't even pretend to be wives because they aren't.  I actually just watch Baseball Wives for the first time and whew those chicks are wild, too.  Clearly, Biggie was right. Mo' money, mo' problems.
• And my favorite, early bedtimes.  My kids go to bed at 8, no later than 9. This is to ensure that I have some time to myself every single day.

What do you do to keep your sanity? 

Welcome Back!

Well, it has been about 18 months since I last blogged and I've mangaged to not only lock myself out of my account, forget my password, and forget the account that I used to create it. So I made a new blog. It'll be similar to the first.

Let me get you up to speed.  Salad and I are man and wife.  Yay for us!

The kids have gotten big.  The Astronaut is 11, the Princess is almost 9, the Squirrel is 6, and the Side Salad is 3 1/2.

I graduated and I'm nearly done with my M. Ed.  I taught last year but my position wasn't in this year's budget so now I am a SAHM and a sub.

We got a kitten, Curious.

And we have another litttle one on the way.  19 weeks from now, I'll be a grand multipara.