Leave It To The Princess

As you all know I have three boys.  With three boys comes the usual wrestling, fighting, chaos, mess, dirt, poop and fart jokes, and all sorts of other craziness.  You know, typical boys stuff.  But they are still good boys and we have managed to escape a lot of unfortunate side affects of boys that I've heard other people talk about.   Stuff like;

pooping in the bathtub,

climbing out of the crib, or

sticking Legos up a nose.

My boys have never done any of that.  All of that was left to this one:

(Thank you Auntie Sarah for the wonderful princess apparel.  You really are like her fairy godmother!)

She may look like a princess but she certainly knows how to keep us on our toes.  I told the story of the bathtub incident.  Easy enough mistake to make when you are little.  And she is the only one of my littles to even entertain the idea of climbing out of the crib, much less actually do it.  And this evening she did what I hoped would NEVER happen in my house.   She stuck a Lego up her nose.

Now, normally she isn't even allowed in the library when the boys are playing with Legos.  They are supposed to close the door and not let her or the dog in when the Legos are out.  Somehow, Grace got in there, and even though it was only for a a very brief moment she managed to find a teeny, tiny, bright orange, round Lego light and stick it up her nose.  The minute I found her in the room (which was probably about 30 seconds after she entered the room) I ushered her out.  Her nose sounded stuffy so I asked her to blow it.  When she blew it she said, "OUCH!!!  OWWIEEE!!!"  That seemed rather odd to me.  When I asked her to blow again she started bawling.  I got a terrible feeling.  I took a flashlight and checked and sure enough there was a Lego lodged waaaaayyyyy  up there.

A quick call to Todd and he was on his way home.  Another quick call to the peds office and Grace and I were on our way.  Unfortunately, the on-call peds doctor was unable to suction it, or blow it (don't ask) out.  Then they called an ENT specialist to come in but there was some fight about who was actually on call and NO ONE came.  I was then told to drive an hour to Milwaukee's Children's Hospital and they could remove it there.  ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME??

I decided to head over to the ER at our normal hospital even though I know that the ENT schedule is the same there and no one would show up.  I was hoping the ER doc would be able to something for us.  Nope.  No such luck there either.  Apparently, none of the doctors I saw wanted to attempt to remove the Lego and then have it slide even further up her nose, or even worse, have her take a deep breath during the removal process and have it get into her lungs.  Both the ER doc and ER nurse said that if it was them they would probably just leave it there and go to the ENT doctor in the morning.  Good grief. 

I was so miffed. We have two large hospitals in my city and NO ENTs that can help us after 5?  It is a crazy world. 

So, after three hours of torturing Grace (and probably two big doctor's bills for nothing) and no help dislodging the Lego, I packed Grace back in the car and we went home.  I was so frustrated and upset and concerned.  I just couldn't give up on it.  Todd thought that maybe he could get it out but it was pretty far up her nose at this point and I could barely see it.  I just kept having visions of the Lego getting stuffed farther up there and her breathing it in and it going in her lungs (thank you, doctors, for that worry). 

I decided to try suctioning the Lego out a bit again (with one of those baby snot suckers) and I got it down further than it was before.  Finally I thought I could possibly try and take it out with a tweezers.  The first couple of times I don't think I went in far enough.  It was so scary trying because I couldn't see anything.  I just had to guess approximately where it would be.  The next thing I know I felt the Lego in between the tweezers and I pulled the little bugger out. 

What a relief!!!!  I felt like I had just performed successful brain surgery or something.  We all jumped around, screaming and shouting and dancing, and Grace got a few cookies to help with the ordeal.  So glad my little lady would have a safe and peaceful nights sleep.  What an ordeal.   

Yes, she may look like a princess, but don't let her fool ya.  She has a few tricks up her nose her sleeve.

I Heart Faces- Beautiful Eyes

I heart faces

This is my first time playing along with I Heart Faces.  When I found out that the theme this week was Beautiful Eyes I just couldn't resist.

My boys have the most gorgeous blue eyes. They almost look electric.  When I first saw this pic it was almost shocking how bright blue they are.  I have always wanted blue eyes like theirs but I have grown to love my "change color with my mood" hazel eyes over the years.  I love how Grace's dark hazel eyes are such a contrast to the boys shocking blue.  Here they look kinda sad.  But still beautiful.  I love my kids' gorgeous eyes.

TWO

I'm not even sure I believed in soul mates before you came along.

The more I watch you, the more I learn about you, the more I'm convinced we have known each other before. 

Our souls have always been connected.  Soul mates.

You, my daughter.

My ray of light.

My little angel.

Lover of:

All things girlie (pink, princesses, fairies, dresses, babies, shoes)

Swimming

Playing outside

Finding sticks and rocks

Your big brothers

Animals

Singing

Sweet

Silly

Strong willed

Patient

Loving

Gentle

Smart

Feisty

Tough

Fun

Spunky

Today you are two.  Very few traces of your babyhood remain.  There are no more diapers.  Your crib is gone.  Bottles and baby food have long been gone.  You can tell me exactly what is on your mind and what you need. 

Still.  You are my baby.  You will always be my baby.  I will not mourn your babyhood.  I am too busy soaking up the wonderfulness of you as you are right now.  And I look forward to watching you grow and learning more about you each day.

Thank you, Grace, for being my daughter.  I am so honored to have you in my life.  I love you, my sweet girl. 

Happy Birthday!

If You Need Me This Is Where I'll Be...

In the bathroom.  Waiting.  And waiting.  And waiting.  (please notice the books I have for whilst I wait)

There is always much waiting around when we begin potty training.  The little tyke is not allowed to get off the toilet until it has been used (when I know for sure they have to go).  This, of course, does not go over well with them but I have figured out how to make my little ham go from this,

this,

and this,

to this.

 Apparently she likes to have her picture taken and when I asked her, "Can I get a picture of you going potty?"  she was more than happy to oblige and finally used the toilet.  Haha!  Success!

Now I don't even need the camera anymore.  We had a few, tiny accidents the first day and none since.  We are on day three.  Yippee! 

I'm sure there will be more waiting around (and probably a few accidents too) as this process is still so new but I'm so proud of my lil chic.  Wish us luck!  And if you need me you know where I'll be.

What's A Mama To Do?

Hosted by Cecily and Lolli

Summers today are not like the summers of my childhood.

When I was a kid the neighbor boy and I would scoot out of our houses early in the morning and head over to the park all day long. Sometimes we would stop back at home for a little lunch and other times we would pack a lunch and take them with us. Either way, we would be gone all day until I heard my dad's loud whistle coming from across the street signaling dinner time.

At the ripe old age of 6 that same neighbor boy (who was the same age as me) and I would jump on our bikes and ride two and a half miles through the city to the quarry where we would spend the entire day swimming. Yes, there were lifeguards there, but essentially, we were on our own.

Never in my wildest dreams (or nightmares) would I allow my young children to do the things that my parents allowed me to do. Never. Ever. And it wasn't just my parents. Todd was riding a dirt bike (as in, a motorcycle) when he was 8 years old. He and his neighborhood friends would ride around in the woods by his house all day long. I don't even let my kids play out in the front yard without me for fear they will ride out into the street (there are no sidewalks in my neighborhood) without looking for cars for the 100th time, or turn around on their bikes and not watch where they are going. The ONE time I ran in the house while they were playing on their bikes Tommy wasn't watching where he was going and ran into the neighbor's mailbox. Ouch. I was surprised he didn't break his collarbone. And of course, it was the one time a car happened to be driving down our street (it is a VERY quiet culdesac) and stopped to help Tommy when they saw what happened. I came back out of the house (I was just putting the dog back in the house for a SECOND), saw Tommy lying in the road with a car parked right behind him and thought he had been hit by a car. So scary. And then of course I felt like the biggest neglectful mother ever for not watching him more closely. And to think at his age I was biking 2 and a half miles by myself.

Sometimes I don't like where society has gone. Sometimes I think it was much better to just let your kids go explore without a parent's ever watchful eye. Sometimes I feel like I am taking away my kids' ability to think on their own. Learn from mistakes. Learn common sense. Other times I come out of my house and find Tommy has collided with the neighbor's mailbox (or that the boys have dug HUGE holes in the neighbor's yard, or are raking up my newly seeded grass) and realize they need my watchful eye.

The kids do get some unsupervised play in our backyard. They can go out and play on the playset and muck around doing whatever they like, but this summer the backyard has been off limits while we try to grow some grass back there after our construction project had destroyed the grass we previously had. So, one more thing that has made my job a little more difficult this summer.

So what's a mom to do?

Well, we are outside pretty much everyday. My kids aren't happy unless they are outside. It doesn't matter if it is 30 degrees or 100 degrees. They want to be outside. And I like that. But it does get a little tough trying to give the kids enough to do in summer when the backyard is off limits and, because of their age, they can't do too much without me. So, we go to parks. We go swimming at the lakes. We ride bikes. Play in the front yard. We take walks. And we repeat and recycle these options over and over and over again.  It is nice when I can throw something different in there once in a while.  You know, a festival, a zoo, a museum.

Yesterday the weather finally cooperated and we were able to go to the farmer's market.  Yes, we've done this before, but it had been a while.

The farmer's market is located at one of our city's oldest parks and it has plenty of room to run, explore, and play. The kids love it there.

There is so much to see and do that the kids didn't know what to hit first. Should we check out the food? The crafts? Should we jump in the fountain? Should we run around like maniacs? Hmmmm. Decisions, decisions.

It was close to lunch so they decided on food.  Surprise, surprise.  (can you hear the sarcasm?  my kids are gonna eat us out of house and home)  I ordered four egg rolls, fried rice, and a couple of waters. 

Minutes later their food was gone and they needed dessert.  Funnel cake it is!   All the fresh fruit and veggies that are sold at the market and we settled on fried rice and funnel cake.  Oh my.  In my defence I also bought two pounds of sugar snap peas and we ate half of that while at the park too. 

After the dessert the kids burned off some energy while I munched on the peas.

I tried not to watch too much and gave them a bit of that unsupervised play that they so need. 

 I think they had fun.

I wish times were a little different and that I could let my kids "just be" a bit more.  Maybe it's me.  Maybe I'm being overprotective.  I don't know.  What do you think?  Have times changed, or is it just me?  How do your kids play in summer?  Do you watch their every move or let them have at it?  Are we more overprotective and cautious than our parents were?  Are we just paranoid or have times really changed?

You Capture: White

I love white. Pure, clean, soft white.  In trying to capture white this week I realized I don't have a whole lot of white around my house.  With four kids a whole lot of white just isn't smart.  Still, I love white.

To me, white is:

Poofy clouds

One of my favorite childhood stuffed animals that is now one of my kids' favorites

For some reason white makes me think of Grace

Beautiful flowers

 I find white flowers to be especially gorgeous this time of year

 But my favorite white around the house these days is my Molly.  Good dog.

So, tell me.  What does white mean to you?

A Picture May (Or May Not) Be Worth A Thousand Words

A picture may be worth a thousand words, but sometimes it paints an inaccurate story. 

We went up north this past weekend to celebrate Todd's 40th birthday.  Judging by this picture it would appear that we had a calm, serene start to the weekend.  This picture does not show the whining and crying and fighting and nonsleeping children for the three hour ride to the cabin.  It also does not show the absolute downpour of rain that occured minutes after this picture was taken. 

This picture shows my lovely boys amusing themselves.

This picture shows the boys finding me behind them and yelling at me for sneaking up on them.  And no, Tommy is not flicking me off as it appears.  He is shaking his fist at me. 

It would appear the boys amused themselves for hours with their binoculars.  It was actually only a few minutes.  Shortly after I took this picture the boys went back to whining about when they would get to take a boat ride and go fishing while Todd frantically tried to get the stupid 30 year old boat motor to work. 

Cut to the next day.  I tried to keep the boys occupied with things like catching tiny frogs, and finding large sticks while Todd continued to try and fix the old crappy motor so that he could finally start to enjoy his birthday weekend. 

The frogs were cute, but not cute enough to keep the boys from pestering Todd about when they will finally be able to go fishing.

Ben wasn't able to keep a frog on his hand long enough for a picture.  According to this picture it looks like he was fine with that.  He wasn't.

Here it looks like the stoic kids are being forced into helping grandma make a fruit salad.  They actually begged to help, ate more than they contributed, and had a blast.

Here it looks like they are having even more fun splashing their feet in the water with grandma and grandpa.  They are.

However, what these two photos don't show is the bawlfest that took place moments before when the boys started telling us how they don't want grandpa to have Alzheimer's anymore.  They cried and cried saying that they don't like Alzheimer's and don't want grandpa to die and then "have no more grandpas left". 

This picture appears to be taken in fall instead of the middle of summer.  The sunny 85 degree weather we were supposed to have never showed up.  It was about 70 and cool in the morning, then it got up to about 84 but would rain all afternoon.  Then in the evening it cooled off again.  Crazy weather.

All of these pictures make it look like it was a great and fun weekend. 

 But in all actuality it was difficult.  Probably one of the hardest weekends we've ever had up north.

Perhaps if the boat's motor hadn't taken a crap on us and Todd and the boys were able to fish all weekend like they planned we would have had more fun.  If Todd hadn't had to spend 5 hours every morning trying to fix the motor I think it would have been more relaxing.  If the boys hadn't been as whiny and sassy and spoiled the weekend would have been easier.  Maybe if the weather would have cooperated a bit more we could have enjoyed our time outdoors.  I don't know.  The whole weekend seemed like a struggle.  A constant struggle.

But there was cake.  And family.  And lovely sunsets.  So I guess it wasn't all bad.

In the end I just wish my dear hubby had the relaxing, wonderful birthday weekend he deserved.  Instead he spent the whole time trying to make everyone else happy and trying to fix everything.  I'm afraid he was more drained when the weekend was over then when it started.

Oh my dear husband.  Happy 40th Birthday.  It was not what we planned, but I hope you at least know just how much you are loved and appreciated.  Thank you for being a man of faith.  Thank you for how hard you work.  Thank you for always being there.  For taking care of those who need you.  For always being everyone's go-to-guy.  For being such a wonderful husband, father, son, brother, friend.  For always keeping your amazing sense of humor even in the toughest situations, and making me laugh when I need it most.  For being such an amazing example of a strong, loving, compassionate, and caring man for our boys.   For giving Grace such a good example of the type of quality man to look for someday.  For always trying, trying, trying to do better.  Be better.  For constantly striving to be a Godly man.  For being my best friend.  I love you so much. 

P.S.  You were right to stop at 4.  ;)