Wednesday, March 27, 2013

A Story about Story Time

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I decided yesterday that we were definitely going to story time this morning. It’s been awhile since we’ve been able to go but we didn’t have anything else planned for the day so I thought why not?

Our library isn’t running story time this month, but another library about 15 minutes away is so we went there. We got there about 10 minutes early because I figured that would give Harper a little time to play before story time began. What I didn’t know was that there was no play area. Oops. Luckily, Harper is always happy to look at books, so we just did that until I heard an announcement that story time was starting. We were making our way back to the meeting room when I thought I smelled something yucky. Upon further inspection I knew that Dakota was in need of a diaper change.

Once we finished up in the bathroom (I was SOOOO thankful it didn’t require an entire outfit change!) we headed into the reading area. Harper was ahead of me and since he wasn’t sure where to go he stopped just inside the doorway and sat down ready to hear some stories. Literally right in the doorway which meant that I couldn’t push my huge stroller into the room without running the risk of rolling right over top him or some other unlucky toddler. After asking Harper to move 50 times, he finally did and as everyone stared at the moron mom with her three kids (Landon had to suffer with me this morning) we found a spot to sit and fade into the wall.

Story time went off without a hitch and both the littles were very good. Landon sat behind us like he didn’t know us and played on his iPod. I don’t blame him.

Once we got home things went berserk for a little bit and then there was a nice calm before lunch and nap time. It was like the calm before the storm. Or calm after the storm. The storm which included a tornado, hurricane and volcano eruption.

I did learn something though. I learned that after a crazy, stressful morning the last thing I want to do is take them all to do something “fun” like bowling.

Nope, not today.

Today, as soon as Tony gets here, I’m going shopping. 

Bowling

After the insanity yesterday morning, I thought it might be good if we all went out and did something fun. We decided on bowling. Bowling is easy, near by and kid friendly. Win. Win. Win. I invited my mother-in-law along too, she always loves hanging out with us…yet I have no idea why most of the time.

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Harper was wishy washy about the whole idea from the get go. First he wanted to bowl, then he didn’t, they he did; it was terribly confusing. He finally did bowl with us, but only for about 7 frames.

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After his last turn, he hid in a little spot near the doorway and proceeded to fill his diaper. Right there in the middle of the bowling alley. That boy has no shame.

Dakota was crazy nearly the whole time we were there. No one could hold her without her flinging herself around and squirming. I tried everything I could think of to get her to settle down, but nothing worked, so we just passed her from person to person and kept on bowling. She did sit down for about 4 seconds when we gave her a cup of water to play with.

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Landon was excited to go bowling until he bowled the first frame and got a total of 3 points. He was a grump the rest of the time. There is just little in life more annoying than a sulking pre-teen. He too quit bowling after the 7th frame…luckily he didn’t hide in a corner and poop his pants like his little bro. His attitude sure stunk though.

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Here he is being grouchy.

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He was so mad at me for taking this picture. I mean, he didn’t care about all the people who were looking at him like he was a brat, but seriously he did NOT want me to take his picture while he was throwing his tantrum!!!

Bowling didn’t turn out nearly as fun as I’d hoped.

I should have known it wouldn’t.

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Saved by a Service Dog

Our morning began kind of rough, and seemed to just fall to pieces by noon. I’m usually ready for naptime when it rolls around every day, but today I was damn near ready to change the clocks and pretend it was 1pm. It just couldn’t get here quick enough.

Dakota woke up at 5:45am. 5:45 is just too darn early. Seriously. But, I’ll tell you what, her smile makes up for the serious sleep deprivation. She is so incredibly happy to see me when I come in her room that I just can’t be upset with her. It takes me a few minutes, but she just keeps giving me her award winning grin and I’m mush. She ate a bottle, played for a bit and then crashed at 8:30am for a nap. Stinker.

Harper asked for fruit this morning. I asked what kinds he wanted and he said strawberries, apples and grapes. Score! We had all of the requested items which meant he’d be happy as a lark, right? Wrong. Silly me, I put them all in a single bowl. Like, fruit salad. Big mistake. This only induced a tiny tantrum but was quickly remedied by allowing him to sort his fruit into separate dishes. Phew.

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I decided today was haircut day for Dakota. I’ve just had it with the wispy stuff in her eyes, so it was time to get a trim. I figured she’d cry as she isn’t too fond of strangers at this age, but all in all, she did pretty good. I held her on my lap facing me and kept her as still as I could while the beautician worked as fast as possible without taking out anyone’s eye.

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Since we were already there I thought I may as well get Harper’s hair trimmed as well. The past couple times he’s gone he’s done great. Sitting by himself, happy and cooperative. Today, not even close. He threw the mother of all tantrums until, by some stroke of luck, a woman walked in with her service dog. Her dog was a tall black standard poodle, not something you see every day, especially in a beauty shop. Just the dogs presence immediately calmed Harper down enough that the haircut was able to get finished.

Thankfully Landon was there to help me through all the trauma. He did his best to occupy whichever baby wasn’t in the hot seat. After the haircuts I thought, hey, today’s already sucking, lets go to Wal-Mart!

Oh yes, I did.

Wal-Mart wasn’t too awful. Actually, let me rephrase that. My kids weren’t too awful in Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart was as awful as usual. We scrambled through there as fast as we could getting only what was on the list, and made it out unscathed for the most part. Out of 30 registers I think maybe 10 were open and each line was about 5 deep. I really hate shopping there.

I figured the meltdowns of the morning were over and going home would be easy peasy. But then, we got home and things were more like hell.

The second Harper got out of the van, he took off running in the snow. I figured what the hell, I’ll give him a few minutes of glory while I unload the van. Dakota wanted out of her car seat the very instant I opened the door to the house, and screamed about it until I solicited Landon’s help in getting her out while I chased Harper down. He got her out and gave her a toy and started unpacking bags while I spent the next few minutes outside coaxing Harper indoors. I told him I’d let him bring in some snow in a bucket to play with and that finally did it. Unfortunately, he was super excited about it and as he ran into the kitchen, he fell face first on the ceramic tile in the kitchen. Those wet tennis shoes just went staight out from under him and he fell flat on his nose. That’s when more screaming began. Harper because he was hurt, Dakota because she decided she’d had enough of the bs. At least I guess that’s why Dakota was crying. It’s why I wanted to cry.

I got them both calmed down, gave some kisses and then went to get some wooden spoons and such for Harper to use to play in the snow. Well, that stupid idea cost me another tantrum. He yelled through more tears “I. DON’T. WANT. SPOONS. IN. MY. SNOW!!!” and I promptly picked up the bucket, tossed it outside on the deck (spoons and all), picked him up and placed him in time out, picked up Dakota and walked into the kitchen and reminded myself that there were only about 20 minutes until nap time. I made a quick lunch for the babies, fed them, changed diapers, read two books and got them both in bed.

Thankfully they both slept and I had a little time to regroup and relax. Unfortunately, I had the entire afternoon to figure out.

Woo.

Hoo.

Monday, March 25, 2013

Spring Break?

Today was the first day of Landon’s spring break. This is what we saw out our windows this morning:

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Harper couldn’t wait to get out in it. Tony was here and he had Harper dressed and out in the snow by 9am. I was thankful he was here to take him out because I don’t think Dakota would have liked being out there too much. They were out there for about thirty minutes before Landon joined them.

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They built a snowman. They threw snowballs. They built a little sledding hill. Then, Harper got cold, and they all came in. Harper was pooped out from all the fun and asked if he could watch a show with his blankies. How could I say no to that?

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We spent the rest of the morning playing inside. Once nap time rolled around, Harper and Dakota both went right to sleep and Landon and Tony played a round of Stratego.

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I took the opportunity to work on a scrapbook page that I’ve been meaning to finish for weeks now. I still haven’t finished, but I’m getting somewhere finally. Hopefully I’ll be able to post it sometime later this week…

Fab 4

While Zoe was home she mentioned that we didn’t have many pictures of just the kids since Dakota’s been born. It’s awful, but true. It’s a bit harder to get pictures of the four of them all together since they are rarely all together, but I made sure to get a few pictures of my crew before Zoe headed back to school. 

Harper’s face in this one is too funny!

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Dada was trying to get some smiles so that’s what the two babies are looking at in this one.

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Oops, Zoe’s falling asleep…

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I like this one even though Harper was trying to make a run for it.

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The second Harper took off, Landon did too. They don’t love having their pictures taken, but they were good sports. Zoe, on the other hand, doesn’t mind being in front of the camera at all, probably because she grew up with me taking pictures of her all the time. So, when the boys took off, I got this picture of Zoe and Kota. Beautiful girls…

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Sunday, March 24, 2013

Sunday, Funday

I woke up wanting to get the heck out of the house for the morning. That doesn’t happen often, but when it does, get outta my way! I didn’t have a plan really, just wanted to do something…anything. Tony suggested we take the kids to Dave and Busters, and that was all it took. We packed up and went.

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After spending way too much money there we went to  Chevy’s for lunch. And, after all that craziness, I couldn’t wait to get back home. So much for wanting to get out and do something…it’s just way too much work! :)

We ended up getting home too late for Harper to take a nap, but Koko passed out in the car on the way home. While she napped we (Harps, Tony and I) had some quiet time up on my bed; it was nice. Once she woke up, she was ready to play.

She loves to sit in front of the dresser and pull out the drawers.

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Harper was playing a new game on the iPad and wasn’t ready to get up and get going yet.

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After pulling the drawers out a few times, Koko got a ride in the laundry basket.

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It wasn’t too long that she was awake before she started to get fussy again. Her nap hadn’t been long enough so she needed just one more little snooze to help her get through the afternoon.

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While I was upstairs rocking Kota to sleep, Zoe was downstairs preparing to head back to school. She was just walking out to her car when I came down the steps.

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I’m really going to miss her being here. I’ll miss her helping out with the babies. I’ll miss her helping out around the house. But, what I’ll miss most of all, is just having her around to talk to. There was one day that the babies were napping, Tony was at work and Landon at school and we just spent the entire hour and a half talking. Not about anything major, just life stuff. It’s nice to not always have to be the “mom” even when I’m the mom. It’s nice to chat like we’re friends sometimes…the way I talk with my mom.

Well, that sums up the day for us. Hoping to have a little fun with Landon this week since it’s now his turn for Spring break!

Things

  • The squirrels helped themselves to our bird feeders and one by one they all fell to the ground. I did see some birds nibbling on them though, so I was happy the squirrels didn’t hog it all!
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  • Dakota loves to play with this activity cube these days. She likes to open and close the little doors, and play with the beads on the top part.
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  • Zoe and I took the two babies to the mall one day last week. We mostly went just to get out of the house and to let Harper blow off some steam in the play area.

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  • Zoe is a ton of help with the babies when she’s here. I think her favorite thing to do is read to Harper before nap time…and it sure make nap time easier for me when I only have to deal with one baby at a time! (And, Harper LOVES the attention from his big sister!)

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  • We had some decent weather this week. Not exactly warm, but not freezing either. Spring is somewhere out there…

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  • Zoe had two papers to write and one book to read while on break. She still reads while listening to music. My brain just isn’t able to do that.

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  • One day last week we were sitting in the library when I saw Tony’s car pull up. Both babies were watching him walk up to the house, but when he took too long, Dakota found Harper more interesting.

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  • Since the weather was decent, Landon was sweet and took Harper out to jump on the trampoline a little bit.

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  • Every time I tell Harper I’m going to make something to eat, he drags a chair over to the stove area to help. He loves to watch me crack the eggs and he always says “Hey! The eggs are yellow!” Every time.

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  • Zoe and Brandon needed something to keep them busy so I suggested they make cookies. They did, and they were delicious. I love having the two of them around.

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  • Harper and Dakota playing one morning. I love when they play together like that.

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  • I love when this big brother reads to this little brother too. Landon doesn’t love to read the way Harper and Zoe do, so it’s really something when he’ll stop what he’s doing when Harper asks him to read to him.

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  • Harper sitting at the table having lunch. He looks like such a little baby to me in this photo. He is a baby really, just don’t tell him that. He says he’s a big boy.

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  • Zoe helped me feed Dakota her lunch. Dakota wasn’t sure what to think about it.

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Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Pinecone Bird Feeders

When we went to the park on Saturday afternoon, I had the boys choose some pinecones to bring home so that we could make bird feeders.

Sunday afternoon, we sat down to smear peanut butter on the pinecones, then cover them in bird seed. Landon really liked doing the project and Harper was very excited to get them hung up outside.

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April Fools Pranks

The two little kids made me laugh yesterday morning.  I was upstairs getting things ready for school when I heard them talking about how ...