A Christmas party!

Taylor with her face painted from her party at school.

Tuesday was a wonderful, busy day. I got to take a half day off at work and go to Taylor's Christmas party at school. It was nice to see what she does at school and be able to enjoy her and her friends. I got to help with her art project, which was a Santa hat with her name on it spelled out in glue and glitter and then we also made a paper chain, which is on our Christmas tree. I got to see how she learns and how much she has learned since starting there in September. Taylor is a very private child. When I get home from work on Tuesdays and Thursdays (her school days), I make dinner and when we sit down to eat I ask her how school was. She usually (95% of the time) answers good. Then I ask her what she did and she says nothing. I know she isn't doing nothing because she says things that I know she wouldn't normally know and sings songs I have never sang to her before, but she won't let me in her secret world of preschool. Going to her school really let me in and she was excited for me to be there.

Two of her little friends sat next to me during circle time and when it was time for her to sit down, she came over, sat on my lap and told the one little boy "She's my mom!" I thought it was too funny, but I explained to her that his mom wasn't there so he just wanted to sit next to me and she was okay with that, but she did have to sit on my lap the rest of the time. I am really impressed with how far she has come. We put Taylor in preschool because she doesn't play well with kids her own age. She plays well with younger kids and kids that are older than her, but not kids her own age. She interacts very well with the kids in her class and is very polite to them even when they are not very nice to her. Case in point, there is a child in her class that likes to push, hit and take toys off the other kids. The teacher does make the child sit in time out, but she continues to do it. This particular child pushed Taylor and the mother in me wanted to grab the girl and tell her not to touch my child again, but I didn't and Taylor just let it go. A little while later the girl pushed her again and she looked back at me like she wanted me to say something to her. I just gave Taylor a look like "you handle it."

She went over to the girl and said "Abby, you just pushed me."

Abby's response, "I know. You were in my way."

Taylor calmly told her "If you would have said excuse me, I would have moved out of your way and the next time you push me I'll have to tell the teacher because that is not how we behave."

It never happened again and I couldn't have been prouder.

After I got off work Tuesday night, the girls got their hair cut. They both got it cut much shorter than the last time, but I think they both look absolutely adorable! Taylor wanted her hair short is what she told the lady, but after last time's melt down, I wasn't so sure. When she was done, she looked in the mirror and said, "Julie did it absolutely perfect!" It was so sweet.

Last night my mom, me, my sister, CJ, Casia, Taylor, and Callee all ventured out to see the light display and Santa at Kraynak's. It was wonderful, but I left my digital camera in the car and didn't realize it until we were leaving so I have no pictures.

I am so excited for this weekend. It is going to be jam packed which I'm not looking forward to but I love seeing family and watching my kids open gifts and tell people why we have Christmas. This is the first year I am actually excited about Christmas in a long time, but it was well worth the wait. I hope everyone else has a great Christmas too. I probably won't post until Tuesday because I will be that busy tomorrow and through the weekend!

Am I right?

We have been trying to get Taylor to sleep upstairs for a while now. The room the girls currently share is too small to put a real bed in and she is now too long for her toddler bed. We could put bunk beds in there, but Callee is too small for a bed yet so we couldn't take her bed out to make room for the bunk beds. Taylor has not wanted to sleep upstairs so for the past week, she has slept on the floor in her room. I have asked her every night if she would like to sleep upstairs in the bed set up for her instead, but she always politely declines. I feel bad for her, but she can't sleep in our bed so she'd rather sleep on the floor. I told Mike Sunday night that we were going to have to make room in their room for her bed even if it meant moving the dressers out into the hallway until Callee's bed could be moved out and we could move the bunk beds in.

Last night Taylor came to me about a half an hour before bed time and asked me what her choices were. I asked her choices for what? She asked where she could sleep, so I told her in her bed or upstairs in the big bed. She told me she'd like to sleep upstairs. When it was bed time, I took her upstairs, read her a book, and said her prayers and I told her not to get out of bed. I didn't hear a peep from her so I took a shower and when Mike got home I told him she was sleeping upstairs. He asked if she had gotten up and I told him no so we went up to check on her.
There my baby was, not such a baby anymore, sound asleep in her big girl bed not fearing a thing off in dream land. I'm not so sure I am ready for this and Mike definitely is not because he decided to sleep on the air mattress in the other room in case she woke up scared or needed anything. We finally got what we want and now I'm wondering, is this what I wanted? I know it is best because now she isn't sleeping on the floor and is much more comfortable, but I hate that she is on a different floor than us. Also, Callee woke Taylor up every morning so I think this will help with her grouchiness. I just hope we made the right decision.

Christmas time

Okay, I say Christmas is my least favorite season, but it's mostly because of the commercialism of Christmas and how impatient people get. If I can spend time with my family and stay away from the mall this time of year, I love it! So far, I have been able to do that. I have one more thing to get each of the girls and then I'm done.

I love the Christmas movies. I have DVR'd Charlie Brown Christmas, The Grinch (animated), and now Shrek the Halls. Did anybody else watch that? I thought it was hilarious and can't wait to watch it again. I will probably delete them after Christmas, but the girls and I enjoy watching them in the evening. I was talking to a friend of mine on the phone the other night about all the Christmas movies, including Ralphy, It's a Wonderful Life and so on, and Taylor comes out with, "Can we watch Polar Express? It's a Christmas movie." I was impressed she knew to associate it with Christmas and so now I think we may have a new tradition. I think the movie is cute and all, but we'll probably have to watch it every day from now until February because Taylor has a habit of becoming addicted to movies, especially that one.

It's funny how I really never got into Christmas too much and always thought the gift giving was such a hassle and now I've gotten into the holiday spirit this year! I guess kids have a funny way of changing you!

I have to tell you all that yesterday was my dad's birthday. I did call and wish him a happy birthday, but I meant to give him a shout out on here and never got around to it. Sorry Dad!

Today is my older sister's 30th birthday! I used to love teasing her when she was about 26, that she was getting close to 30 and I still had way more years than her to go. Not so funny anymore! Happy birthday Alissa!

I am officially the worst mother!

I was changing Callee's clothes last night into her jammies and she started to scoot off my lap. I put up my hand to catch her (I didn't want her falling) and she lunged forward at the same time. My thumb nail scratched her bottom eyelid pretty bad and she has a little bruise (aka - black eye!) What kind of mother gives their baby their very first black eye? I am terrible.

On a whole different note, the girls and I had a great evening last night, until Taylor had to go to bed and didn't want to. We were done with dinner early, because I made scrambled eggs and sausage, it didn't take too long. This is what happens when you forget to thaw anything! We colored, watched some TV, played and ran around like crazy. Callee went to bed at 8:00. Not only is she teething, but she is hitting a growth spurt too and that makes for one sleepy little baby! I tried putting Taylor to bed at 9:00, but she actually didn't get up again after 10:30 so she went to bed really late! I tried telling her last night she wasn't going to want to get up for school today, and what happened? She was a bear to wake up! I did make her go though, even though I felt bad, like I should keep her home.

I got to watch my friend Jenn's baby girl. She is the chubbiest 5 month old ever! I absolutely love chubby babies, however, I've never really had one. I told Jenn to leave her at my house because she had some running around to do and Addison was being fussy. She left her and I think she was lying about her. She was not fussy unless Callee was in her face. She just sat there so content and looking around. She is such a good baby!

That was my Monday evening followed by not getting to bed until late! Hopefully it will be an earlier night tonight. I hope everyone has a great day!

Is it Monday all ready?

Seriously, I can't believe it is Monday all ready. I feel like I have had a four day weekend, but I'm just not ready to be back at work. Maybe I'm lazy or maybe I really do hate being away from my kids, but whatever it is, I'm not ready to be back at work. It was such a great weekend with my family. My kids were pretty good, which was a little shocking, Mike and I had an evening out and my mom kept the kids over night! It was really nice although Callee won't be staying over there again for a while.

She is a child that thrives off of routine. She goes to bed within the same half an hour every night, sleeps in her own bed with her lullabies on, and is out for the remainder of the night. I forgot the lullaby tape, she didn't sleep in her own bed, although she did sleep in the crib that is at my mom's, and she went to bed a little later than normal. All of this made for one crabby little baby on Sunday. She barely napped, she screamed and sobbed for about an hour, and was pretty much just a cranky butt for a couple of hours. Then, it was like a switch flipped and all of a sudden, she's happy again! I don't think she was ready for a sleep over.

Nothing really exciting happened this weekend, unless you want to hear about teeth! Callee got 2 of her 1 year molars and two of her front bottom teeth, bringing the grand total to 10. She is starting to get her other 2 one year molars so hopefully that will be soon so the fussiness will cease or at least calm down for a while. Enough with the boring post. Maybe something exciting will happen tonight, but not in a bad way.

A Meme and quote of the weekend

I was tagged by Shana to do two meme's. 6 random facts about me and capturing the pic on my desktop. I am also going to do the middle name meme too.




My desktop pic:

It's football season and as soon as OSU plays their bowl game, it will be changed, probably something Taylor or the both of them. Shana, notice the window collapsed in the bottom?

Here are the rules:

You have to post these rules before you give the facts.

1. Players, you must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of their middle name. If you don’t have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had.
   



2. When you are tagged you need to write your own blog-post containing your own middle name game facts.
   



3. At the end of your blog-post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

My middle name is Rose. I was named after my mom's niece who passed away when she was 15 months. Her birthday was May 23 and mine is May 26. Just a side note, Callee's middle name is also Rose.

R - Rambler. Yes I am guilty of rambling. I'll bet you couldn't tell by my blog, huh?

O - Outgoing. At first, I am very quiet, but once you get to know me, I am one of the most outgoing people you'll ever meet. So watch out!

S - Sarcastic. Unfortunately, I am also extremely sarcastic, but the tone must not be all the way there because people who have known me for a long time still can't tell when I'm being serious or not.

E - Easily Excited. Two e's. I am the person that gets so excited over the dumbest things. If you have anything you need someone to get excited about and you just aren't getting the results, tell me, you won't be disappointed!

6 Random facts (holidays edition)

1. The 4th of July is my favorite holiday. I love fireworks and picnic foods so this is great for me.


2. Thanksgiving is my second favorite holiday. I love all the food and when I was pregnant with Taylor, I craved Thanksgiving dinner the entire time.


3. Christmas is my least favorite holiday. I love the meaning of it, but I hate how commercialized it is. It drives me nuts that it should be a happy time and yet people are actually fist fighting in the isles.


4. Memorial Day I find exciting for a couple of reasons. One, it's the start of the summer and two, my birthday occasionally falls on it, like 2008.


5. I barely make it till midnight on New Year's eve. Ever since I had kids, it just isn't there anymore.


6. One of my kids always wakes up about 10:30 on New Year's Eve with the flu...it never fails!

Anyone who wants to do these meme's can just let me know you did them so I can come read. My Wonderful Men, I'd love to read these meme's from you, so you're kind of tagged.

Now for the quote of the weekend and I'll explain it in tomorrow's post.

Mike says, "Days like this dear, I feel like a superhero."

My response, "You are baby."

What a night

First of all, let me address the whole couch thing. Taylor and I think it is more of a green color and Mike and my mom swear it's blue. My brother said to me last night, in the picture it looks green, but at your house it's blue. So I guess I won in pictures, but at home...who knows! I still think it's green.

Last night I was sitting there watching TV at 10:30 when I got a call from a blocked number. I only have two people who call from a blocked number and neither of them usually call that late. I answered and it sounded like my friend Jenn. I said, "Hey what are you doing?" and the voice on the other end said, "This is you sister!" Oops!

"I need you to come pick me up."

"Where are you?"

"Home, but the air is no longer in my tires and I have no way out."

"I'm on my way."

I called my little sister so I didn't have to drag my kids out of bed and I hurried over there not knowing what to expect. Just my sister, niece, and nephew were there and they were packed and ready to go. I brought them back to my house where they will stay for a while. I confess to being torn about this. I love the idea of living with my sister again. I lived with her until my nephew was 2 and I loved being around them all the time. The only problem is, I now have a husband and add 2 more kids to that mix! My house is going to be crazy for a little while and I will embrace every minute of it.

I have realized through all of this how lucky I am. Mike never asked, "Can't they go somewhere else?" or "We really don't have the room." I apologized to him and his response was, "Don't be. She is your sister and we will do what we have to for however long. Our house won't be clean for quite a while though." I think I just fell in love all over.

Josh, Joshy, or Joshua, whatever you want to call him!

So you want to hear about my brother and why not? I have nothing to write about today so it works well right now. I can't give you the long version because that would have to be broken down into parts. He has gone through a lot in his 21 years of existence and drug us through a lot of it with him. He has 3 sisters and one brother in law, 3 nieces and 1 nephew. Can you blame him for having issues and my poor nephew may have a few of the same. I love him and I'm proud of the improvement he has made.

When my brother was only a couple of days old, my older sister and I were fighting over who got to hold him. Seriously, one of us was pulling him by his feet and the other had him by his arms and my mom yelled, someone better let go NOW! So we both did. And splat on the floor he went. She wasn't happy with us and his crying began...

My brother cried for about the first 3 years of his life. I was the baby for 4 years and 358 days and then he came and all he did was cry! He had colic and then tons of ear infections. I never liked him except after we moved and I was too scared to sleep in my own bed and would beg him to let me sleep with him. I was older, he couldn't say no! So I would, almost every night!

He was always a very different child in a difficult way. Everyone knew he wasn't like most normal kids and when he was around 8 or 9, he was diagnosed bipolar. That brought on a lot of trials and tribulations for our family. He was crazy! He has tried to kill me about 5 times, my little sister a couple of times, but for some reason, it was mostly me. Josh you wanna fill in why here?

I can't even think where to begin to tell you some of the horror stories. His method of killing...choking you. One time we were home alone and he decided he didn't like what I said so the choke fest began. Luckily my older sister and her then husband walked in the house and pulled him off of me or I'm sure he wouldn't have stopped. He has always been an emotional boy too (now man).

At 16, he had scoliosis (?) so bad he had a hunch back. He had to have back surgery and now has a rod in his back to straighten him up. I forget how tall he was when he went into the surgery, maybe 5'8 and came out 6' or close to it. It was very weird to go visit someone you used to look eye to eye to and now you have to look way up. The bipolarness continued on. He threatened to throw a nurse out the window of his 8th floor room and a couple of other rude comments to other staff members.

Today, I am probably the sister that is closest to him. I love him and I am proud of the man he has become. He no longer takes his meds, for about a year, and although he still has good and bad days, he is getting much better at controlling them or saying, leave me alone for a while cuz if you don't, I'll explode. Some people don't believe in not living in the past and can't believe he's changed. I do and although I like to revisit it, I'd never want to live in that dark place again.

***As a side note, no one should ever pick on kids at school. I know most people think that is a myth or an excuse, that school shooters were teased and pushed to the brink. It's not! If my brother wouldn't have had such a good support system and been diagnosed young, that would have been him. You never know what inner demons someone is dealing with. I saw it from the "other" side and I have seen friends of mine pick on other kids. Talk to your kids and tell them to stand up for the underdog even against their own friends, because you never know what the other person will do and what they are going through. My PSA is now over so you can return to your regularly scheduled programming.

Back to single motherhood!

The weekend has come and gone. I enjoyed every second of it, but it flew by as always. I thought the extra hour from the time change would have helped slow things down, however, it didn't. During the week, I go back to being a single mother for five days. My husband goes back to being a single father and our relationship, once again, gets put on hold. This is the routine I have come to know and grow tired of.

The weekend was wonderful. We got up on Saturday and I took Taylor to dance, and Callee came along. We got to watch Taylor do her routine for the recital and it was so cute. I can hardly wait until the recital that is in June, so I guess I better put on those brakes, huh? After dance, we dropped Callee off at home for a nap and headed out to get a birthday present for one of my cousins, get some lunch and then go grocery shopping. I love spending one on one time with my kids. It really gives me an opportunity to appreciate everything about their personalities without the other child competing for the attention. Taylor and I really enjoyed our time together on Saturday. I had to drop a check off for my sister at my parent's house and Taylor wanted to stay there since she was going there in an hour anyways. I let her and headed home to get Callee ready to go after her nap.

We dropped Callee and the present off at the birthday party and as we were leaving, I realized I misplaced my keys. I know when you are pregnant and have kids you tend to lose some of your memory, but it doesn't make it any less embarrassing when you are in a houseful of people, all ready late to check out the TSO and where are your keys? Mike headed outside to see if I left them in the car while my aunts helped me look inside. We were looking in the gift bag, the diaper bag, on the table, counters, in shoes and jackets and they were no where to be found. Mike came in and said, the doors are locked but I don't see them in there. He then informed my aunt, whose house we were at, that the neighbor was outside throwing a fit about where we had parked and another one of my aunt's had parked. We all headed outside to look through the grass and my aunt was trying to clear up the misunderstanding with her (drunk) neighbor. I went in the house and thank goodness one of my cousins husband's had found my keys, bless that man. We were all ready late!

My uncle who is a retired cop had to go outside and calm the fight down between my aunt and her neighbor, that is how heated it got. We left before it escalated. While on our way to the orchestra, Mike told me it was over parking and the guy was yelling at him and said he was a disrespectful kid for parking where he did, even though it wasn't his yard! Whatever! He called my aunt a bitch and said to "F" her! Can we say maybe just maybe he is not a pleasant drunk?

We finally made it to concert about 20 minutes late due to traffic. The concert was good, but it's like when you hear a bunch of hype about a movie and then when you finally see it you think, that's it? It was good, but I kind of expected more. The major problem with the concert is now I'm ready for Christmas and it is only November 5! All that Christmas music really set the tone for the Christmas season. I can't wait!

Sunday was a lazy day and I pretty much did nothing. We got up and went to church and I made dinner and did a couple loads of laundry. Nothing else got cleaned and nothing exciting was done. I can now look forward to next weekend. I'm not sure what is going on, but I seem to be wishing my life away one week at a time. Until our arrangement changes I will continue doing that. Anything exciting for anyone else this weekend?

TGIF

I live for Friday's. I love everything about them. It is the start of the weekend and morale is up in the office because everyone is excited for the weekend. It is my last day of the week and I am going to visit my friend Angie because her mom is in town and hasn't seen the kids for a while and let me tell you, she isn't happy with me! I figure she'll get over it when she sees their beautiful smiling faces and they turn into the terrors they are, she'll be begging me to take them home...lol!

It's the start to another "too short" weekend and I love everything that surrounds this day. I feel relieved to know that I can catch up on sleep (which rarely happens) and we get to be a family again instead of trying to catch each other as we are coming and going.

This weekend is especially nice because my husband and I, along with most of his family, get to have a date afternoon. We have tickets to go to see the Trans Siberian Orchestra in concert and we chose not to take either of the girls. We were going to take Taylor and then right before we bought the tickets we decided not to. I'm sure I'll regret it because I usually do when I go back and forth, but I know I won't regret not taking Callee because I know she wouldn't sit still.

It should be an interesting weekend because we get to do that and my mom is watching the girls and they love spending time over there without Mike and I. I think they feel grown up or something because if we say you are going to grandma's, Taylor will ask with or without you guys? If the answer is without us, she gets so excited. Now that I just typed that out, it's probably because my parents let them get away with murder!

Mystery solved, but I hope everyone else has a great weekend and I also hope it doesn't go too fast. I need a nice long weekend for a change.

A post of pictures

My mother's house was raided by grand kids last night. My sister and I have always met at my mom's to take the kids trick or treating together and last night was no different. My poor mom though, her house was trashed in the first 10 minutes, but what a trooper she is. She never complains of the messes they make she just says, "Don't take pictures, I don't want people to think this is what my house looks like all the time!" So, here is the disclaimer, anywhere my kids go there will be a mess. No body's houses are usually messy, we just happen to be there.

Taylor in her Care Bear costume. She didn't like the hood on so she's trying to take it off. Callee in her monkey costume. What else was she supposed to be? She is a monkey! Callee and daddy. He was trying to get her to stand so I could get the whole costume. I wanted to get the back too cuz she had the cutest tail, but that wasn't happening.

My niece as a cheerleader. Taylor in the background trying to get her hood back on cuz I told her she better leave it on.

My nephew. There are actual pictures of him below, but he just loved this picture. Something about mysterious?

And here the agony begins. I could not get a good picture of them. My nephew does think he is a rock star though. Taylor, again, doesn't have her hood up and where is Callee?

Callee is trying to make a break for it and I think my niece was the only one ready for that picture. Oops.

Taylor eating pizza after trick or treat. Her and CJ quit early so they ate and got bathed while we waited for Casia and Callee to come back.

He is a goofy child, but I love him.

He thinks he's sexy or something. I don't think he realizes he's only 7. He was talking about his girlfriend at school. When did he grow up?




Overall it was a good night. Now I can't wait for the weekend!

Taylor's new haircut and the weekend

before

Taylor got her haircut on Saturday morning. She couldn't wait to get it done. She's been asking me to get her haircut like mine for about 6 months now and I kept telling her no. Well, her hair doesn't look like mine, but there is about 4 inches missing from it and she hates it! She cried starting about half way through and didn't stop until we got home. It is a cute little bob with layers and I think it is the layers that bothers her so much. She said, "I like it, but I don't like the sides and the top." That would be where the layers are, so I think we'll be letting those grow out. I'm not sure I like the layers either so I can completely understand where she is coming from.
after

Friday night after work, we went to my friend Angie's house. She has 2 adorable boys who are 6 and 19 months and she is pregnant with her third boy! Taylor and Christopher (6) play really well together, you wouldn't know there was a three year gap between them and they both ask for each other if we haven't seen them recently, it is too cute. Maurice (19 months) and Callee are a different story. They are cute together, but when they were just crawling, Reese didn't realize he was a lot bigger than Callee and when he would hug her, he would knock her over, unintentionally. Now, Reese is afraid of her because he kept asking her for five and after the thirtieth time of giving him five, she must have wanted him to stop asking so she slapped him across the face. Of course I told her she couldn't do that because it wasn't nice, etc while Angie laughed and as soon as I was done telling her, I excused myself to the bathroom so I could also laugh hysterically too! Here are a couple of pictures of all the kids.

Callee made herself a seat!

What a goofy face!

Saturday night, Mike, my friend Trisha, and I went to meet a couple of Mike's friends that were in town. We had a great time and still got home early which was wonderful. Mike really does have some great friends who have just kind of accepted me whether they wanted to or not, which I am grateful for. While we were out, I had a really good grilled chicken sandwich. Trisha and I were the only ones that ate though. We watched the OSU game (they won) and then we headed home. It was nice to get out.

On Sunday, we went to church as usual, but this time it was just me and Taylor because as we were getting ready to walk out the door, Callee decided to have a meltdown because she got up way too early so Mike decided to stay home with her and give her a nap. After church, we took the girls to a parade and I forgot to take my camera...I hate that! We had a lot of fun even though it was pretty chilly out and the wind blowing made it so cold. The parade lasted an hour and a half! The girls had a ton of fun and everyone was dressed in their costumes so it got the girls all psyched for trick or treating.

I hope everyone had a nice weekend too and Wednesday is the big day! I know my girls are getting so excited.

Can you tell she is mean?

The weekend and the game

Here is a picture of script Ohio. If you don't know what that is look it up!

This weekend we went to the Ohio State game. Neither Mike or I had been to an Ohio State game or a football game for that matter, so when an opportunity arose to go, we definitely were game. We left Saturday morning at 8 a.m. and didn't get back until a little after midnight. Despite the long day, we had a great time and it didn't hurt that OSU won, although at the end, I was a little nervous with one interception returned for a touchdown and one fumble returned for a touchdown also.

When you spend six hours in a car with someone, you tend to talk to make the drive not drag out and that is exactly what we did, talked, a lot! I have begun noticing lately that every time Mike and I try to talk, someone will call or stop by or one of the kids need something or are sick so I usually end the weekend with, "Oh, I forgot to tell him _____!" Not this weekend, we talked uninterrupted for five hours (he slept about an hour on the way home) and it was wonderful. I'm glad we had the chance to catch up and we have decided that we need to go out to dinner or to a movie or just get a babysitter and stay home once a month so we can catch up. Mike did make me promise however to let him know I want to talk and not drag him in a car for that long to be able to talk to him.

Mike is 6'4" so he doesn't fit comfortably in a car for too long. By the time we got home, he was like an 80 year old man with arthritis so I had to help him get out of the car. It was too funny. Overall, it was a really good time and we had lots of fun.

Sunday, we went to church and then to my grandma's to eat dinner, just like any other Sunday. Taylor went to my mom's for about an hour so Callee and I took a much needed nap. When Taylor got home, it seemed her cough was coming back from last week and sounded a little worse. By 7:00 she was just out of it and you could tell she was sick so I took her to Immediate Care. I had debated this for a while because I am always afraid I am overreacting and there is nothing wrong with them so I hate taking them to the doctor's. I ended up taking her and I am glad I did. She has had croup about 8 times in her life and pneumonia twice, I think. Callee is also prone to croup and pneumonia and she has added RSV to the list of ailments she's had. For whatever reason, my kids seem susceptible to the lung problems. Taylor now has a sinus infection and bronchitis. I have never heard of a 3 year old having bronchitis so I am glad I took her especially with her history of lung problems.

That was my weekend wrap up. It was a good one, but like all the others, it went by way too

fast! I hope everyone else's was good.

The weekend in photos

Needless to say, when I gave them a bath later, they had leaves everywhere! They did have fun though.

The ball that is floating to the left of Callee's head did bounce off of her head right after I snapped the picture. Luckily, I was not the one that kicked it...Kelly did...

but that's okay cuz she has kids too and I will get them one day!!! Lol.

Here Kelly is with her kids, sorry guys you will have to pay for your mom.

After the abuse ended we headed to the pumpkin patch. There were rows of pumpkins and then a field where you could pick your own, but we never made it back there.

Taylor with Mike's sister. Taylor ran her all over the place.

Leaving the pumpkin patch! It was a good time though.
Not the greatest pic, but whatever!

The yo-yo weekend

I forgot my camera at home today so I'll have to add the pictures tomorrow. This weekend was a yo-yo of a weekend. It went from good to bad to good. I won't post the bad part because it really was a stupid thing and I shouldn't have gotten mad, but I did and that's besides the fact. Friday night I didn't do much of anything because I am trying to get over this cold still. I didn't post it last week, but after my 10 days of headaches, I got a really bad cold. At least it explains the headaches. I didn't do much of anything in the way of house work last week and was in bed pretty early every night. Usually, I try to stay up until Mike gets home at 11:30 and then we talk for a little bit which leaves me getting to bed way too late every night. Not this week. I was in bed and asleep no later than 10:30 every night. So Friday I decided to stay up and wait for him since I hadn't seen him all week. All this did was have both of us stay up way too late! We caught up from the week and discussed our weekend plans and then went to bed. Both of the girls either have a cold or are getting over a cold so I knew noone would sleep well Friday night.

Saturday came and we didn't take Taylor to dance because I didn't want her getting all hot and sweaty and then going out in the cold to make her worse. I decided she needed to take a week off and besides that, I didn't need her getting any worse because we were going to the pumpkin patch and to visit Mike's aunt. Now some people are thinking, "If everyone was sick, why not just stay home?" and I thought of that too, but here are my reasons for going. 1)It was just a cold nothing more and I knew that. 2)Germs are festering in our house and I was hoping that getting out would do all of us some good. 3) It is supposed to be rainy and even colder next weekend so why push it back a week? Everything turned out really good. Nobody got worse and everyone had a good time. We visited with Mike's aunt for quite a while and she made us a delicious lunch. We arrived at her house at about 1:20 and didn't leave until 6:00. It was a really nice time, but it was also exhausting. We thought everyone would sleep really well from being so tired, but that's what I get for thinking. Callee woke up about 11:00 and I got her back to sleep about 12:00 and then got back up about 1:20 and didn't go back to sleep until about 3:00. It was not a great night of sleep, but nobody was any worse the next day, we just didn't make it to church.

Sunday was a lazy day. We went to my Grandmother's for lunch and while we were there, my dad took Taylor to his house. I took Callee home to put her down for a nap and left to go grocery shopping. I spent too much at the store, big surprise and when I got home, Callee was still sleeping! I couldn't believe it because she had been sleeping for 2 1/2 hours and I thought for sure I would come home to a monkey that wanted to cuddle. I put the groceries away and woke her up from her almost 3 hour nap. I had made arrangements with my sister earlier in the day to come and watch my kids for an hour or two so Mike and I could go to dinner. She came and we went, which is just what I needed. We were only gone for an hour and a half, but it was so nice to get out without the kids and have some adult conversations with the person I love. We went home to our normal routine of getting the girls to bed, folding and putting away laundry and getting ready for bed myself. Overall, it was a good weekend and next weekend we should be going to a haunted hayride with my sister and some other people. So we should have a good weekend and hopefully by then this cold will be gone.

I hope everyone else had a good weekend! Pictures tomorrow.

The weekend...finally

Callee is ready to go.

Okay so I finally get to blog about my weekend. My friend Ashley who was in the accident with me came into town to visit. I love when Ashley comes to town and so do my kids, especially Taylor. One thing you need to know is Ashley didn't always live in Pittsburgh. We met our Freshman year of college and have been friends ever since. I spent a lot of time with Ashley even after having Taylor because the girl loves kids. It was never an inconvenience that I had Taylor. She majored in early childhood education and now works as a nanny for a wonderful family, so Taylor was and still is always included in our outings. Very rarely do I leave my kids with Mike when Ashley is around because it isn't an issue with her. I love that about her. I never feel like I have to sacrifice my time with them to hang out with a friend. Also, Ashley is content hanging around my house so I never feel as if I am ignoring Mike either. She really is a great friend.

Taylor just chillin'!!!

Taylor became extremely close to Ashley in the months following the accident. As I have said before, Callee screamed for 9 1/2 months. Well, the first 4 or so months, Mike was on midnights and the child didn't care that nobody was there to walk with her, she still screamed at 12, 2, 4, and 6 a.m. It was really rough to know that she would quiet down if you would walk with her, but I could hardly walk myself and wouldn't walk with her because I fell all the time. That is where Ashley came in. I don't know if it was out of guilt (she was driving) or that she was just that good of a friend, I like to think the latter because she didn't do anything wrong and did everything to avoid the accident, but if she wasn't at school or work, she was at our house helping out. I had people who helped out beside her, but most of them were family. She is the only friend who would spend hours on end at my house helping with the baby or helping with dishes, baths, stories, playing, anything I needed. I appreciated all of that and mostly the company that she kept me. It is really hard after having a baby to feel like yourself again and when your husband is doing everything he can to support his family, he can't always be there. She helped me to not fall in too big of a funk. She would tell me to go to bed about 10 and she would either be there all night or at least until 3 or so. I would sleep that entire time. It was the greatest 5 hours of sleep ever! I knew my baby would be taken care of and yes I felt guilty letting her stay up all night with her, but I knew if I didn't get those few hours of sleep Taylor and Callee would have an irritated, crabby mother all the time and Callee would sense that and cry that much more.

She loves cookies!!!

Okay, that is not where this post was supposed to go, but apparently I needed to get it out or something. Anyways, Ashley picked up dinner on her way into town and we all had great food. My sister-in-law, who has also became friends with Ashley was there too. My sister came later. If you can't tell, Ashley is like having another sister. My mother even invited her to all our family things when she lived an hour and a half from her family. Ashley has just kinda been adopted and her mother has kinda adopted me too. Okay I digressed again. We had a great night sitting around talking and laughing. We got up Saturday morning and took Taylor to dance class. When we got home from there, it was time for Callee to take a nap. Ashley and I sat outside and watched Taylor ride her bike for a couple hours while Callee slept.

Ashley and Taylor at dinner. Gotta love the beer sign right over their heads in the background.

After Callee got up it was time to go get something to eat and say goodbye to Ashley. She had to go watch the kids she used to watch when she lived around here so her visit was short lived. We had dinner, talked, laughed, and took pictures. It was a really good visit with her, but as usual, it didn't last long enough. When you are used to having somebody around at least 5 days a week, 16 hours just seems to fly by.

Callee being rotten and getting everything out from under the sink:After Ashley left, Mike, me, Josh, CJ, Casia, Taylor, Callee, and Emma decided to go for a walk. First of all, it was like 105 degrees. We decided to take a two mile walk with 4 kids and a dog, and along the way, we picked up Kara and Makayla. Can you even imagine how much fun this walk was not? Everybody made it back alive, but only after much bickering and complaining. I was in bed by 10:00 p.m. on Saturday night and it felt great. I have been so exhausted lately, so the early bedtime was welcomed with open arms.

We went to church Sunday, as always, and I went to my Grandma's for dinner. My aunt had brought her new puppy with her. He is so cute. His name is Gizmo and here he is:

I hope everyone elses weekend and now week have been good. This post is a lot longer than I expected it to be. Sorry about that.

I almost forgot....Go Tribe....they eliminated the Yankees in game 4 last night. I hope this is their year! Maybe I'll post about my love for the Indians tomorrow, complete with pics from the game I went to last year about a month before I had Callee. Let me tell you how comfortable I was, but I still loved every minute of it.

I think I need pills

Okay, that is kind of a bad title for a post. I think I may either need an anti-depressant or sleeping pills though. Sleeping pills may not be such a good idea since the reason I am feeling so gloomy and unhappy is because my kids don't want to sleep. If I got sleeping pills, I wouldn't hear them to get up with them and I would be a really bad mom. However, anti-depressants have side effects that I don't know if I am willing to risk. Some cause weight gain and since I am still trying to lose, I don't think I want that. Also, there are sexual side effects, sleeping side effects (insomnia), and lots of other ones that I don't know which is worse the sad feeling all the time or the side effects. I think I'll probably make an appointment with the doctor and discuss my fears and anxieties and see what his suggestion is.

My children have had some odd sleeping habits lately. Last weekend, my sister watched my kids and said she put Callee to bed at 10 which is an hour and a half later than normal. I had expected her to sleep in, but at 2 a.m., she was up. I stayed up and got her back to sleep at 3, put her in her bed and went to sleep myself. At 3:40, my sister brought her in my room to me because I hadn't heard her crying. That is really weird, I must have been exhausted, but it still scared the crap out of me. Who doesn't hear their crying child? She stayed up until 6:30 and finally went back to sleep in our bed. She was up again at 10:30. Apparently sleep is over rated in her eyes. However, it is not for mommy and quite frankly, I need it.

That brings us to this weekend. I got her in bed about 9 Friday night. She was up at 7 and took a nap from 12:15 - 4:30. She was back in bed by 8:40 and got up at 7:30 on Sunday. She took a 2 hour nap and was pretty much happy the rest of the day. Mike and I put the girls to bed about 8:15 Sunday night because they were out of control bad for some unknown reason. They went to sleep fairly easy, but at 8:50 Taylor got up and you could tell she had been sleeping. A couple minutes later Callee was crying and Mike went to put Taylor back to bed. Taylor got up again about 15 minutes later and we told her we weren't tucking her in again, she needed to do it herself. You could still hear Callee whining and fussing from being woken up, but it seemed as if she may go back to sleep. About 10 minutes passed and you can hear incessant giggling emerging from their room. Mike went in there to see what was going on and both girls were still in their own beds, but were talking and giggling. We allowed them to get up for a little while because you could tell they weren't going to just go back to sleep. Callee went back to bed at 10:50 and Taylor at 11:30. They were both up by 8:15 this morning.

I had to get up for work and now I am dragging through this day. I know when I get home I will be short patienced and counting down the minutes until bedtime, praying it will be an easier night. Having two kids is a whole different ball game. I had bedtime down to a tee with Taylor and then along came Callee. Bedtime still went pretty smoothly for a while, but in the last month, everything has taken a turn for the worse with bedtime. I don't know what to do really, but I do know I need something to change.

Any suggestions?

**On a side note, Mike and I have been talking about moving our room upstairs, but I really don't want to sleep on a different floor as them. This would give them their own rooms and keep one from waking the other up.

This and That

Yesterday my sister and I took all the kids to McDonald's to play. I know, huge germ pit and really, what lives in there anyway? This McDonald's doesn't have a ball pit, only the tubes and slides and such, so in my eyes it's not quite as disgusting. The kids had a ball, except for Callee who had to sit on time out. She has such an attitude; it really is amazing how young these girls get them. I thought I had at least a few more years before this started, you know at least until puberty and hormones. Not a chance with this child. I was holding her milk for her so she wouldn't spill it, but she didn't want to take a drink that way, she wanted to hold it herself. Not a chance Callee Rose. She started throwing a fit and crying, you had to be there to really appreciate the attitude that comes out in these times. So we put her on time out. I thought she was screaming before that. She was wailing so hard and so loud it was borderline embarrassing. When her minute was up, she was all blotchy and red from screaming so I offered her the milk again (this was mean I know, but I wanted to see if what they say is true. They say if you use time out before they are 2 you are wasting your time because they don't get the concept and will keep repeating the behavior.) Well, she drank the milk nicely without having to hold it herself. Moral of the story: Callee is either a genius or these "experts" aren't so smart. I think I will keep doing things my way.

Here is another issue I have been thinking about lately: potty training. Not that I expect her to be potty trained in the next 6 months or anything, but we started sitting Taylor on the potty to get her comfortable with it when she was only 9 months. Callee is 14 months and has only sat on a potty one time. Taylor was completely potty trained one month after she turned 2 and at this rate Callee will be going to kindergarten with diapers. Ok, probably not, but I should probably start her sitting on the potty and trying to teach her the way I was teaching Taylor way before this age. The problem is I stayed home until Taylor was almost 3. I wish I could take a year off and get Callee potty trained and then go back to work. Am I doing a disservice to Callee by working? Is Taylor the one better off because I stayed home with her? I hate these guilty feelings, am I spending too much time with one and not enough with the other? Is this one going to get mad because that one got to do (fill in the blank)? I think I'm going to go scream now.

The Parade

Callee hanging out in her stroller waiting for the parade to begin.

Like I said yesterday, I took the girls to a parade on Sunday. My mom, me, my brother, CJ, Casia, Taylor, and Callee all ventured out to Lordstown for their Apple Cider Festival Parade. My nephew hates fire truck sirens, fireworks, and really any loud noises, so when the fire trucks came by, my mom had to hold his ears and he really was uninterested in the candy until they passed. We saw all kinds of cool tractors and four wheelers. There was a fire truck that had a dog mascot riding on the front which the girls really liked. They were so busy picking up the candy that they really didn't see too much of the parade. CJ saw the dog, but wasn't too impressed because of the fire truck with the loud sirens that accompanied it. I just wanted to show a few of the pictures that were a result of the day. We had a really good time and the parade lasted over an hour!

The marching band starting things off!

Casia and Taylor picking up candy and still trying to watch what's going on.

The dog on the fire truck!

He really doesn't like the sirens from the fire trucks. Doesn't he look happy?

There were so many four wheelers being driven around. This one was just so little and cute, I had to take a picture.
There were several tractors there too including one with a very pretty girl on it. My brother thought her tractor was sexy, but this was my favorite. If you click on it, you can read what it says under "Rita's Hope". I really enjoyed this tractor!

O-H...........I-O

It was a busy weekend again, but it actually felt like I had a weekend, which was nice. Friday night the girls and I hung out at Kara and Jason's house so Taylor and Makayla could play. We ended up going to the mall to get a few things and we actually found a new Mr. Bunny (which is now a green bear!) For any of you who didn't know, Taylor has had the softest stuffed bunny since she was a baby. She has had to take it everywhere with her and it started to look pretty gross over the years. She lost it about 3 weeks ago and has been devastated. We have looked for a replacement one, but nothing seems as soft or as good as Mr. Bunny. We were at JC Penney Friday night and there was a big rack of stuffed animals. I happened to see a green one (Taylor's favorite color) and went over to touch it, low and behold it felt just like Mr. Bunny used to feel before he was drug through the mud and dirt! She was so happy to have her new playmate. Here is a picture of Taylor with her new bear.She drives Mike crazy with it because even though he is a bear, she still calls him Mr. Bunny. I don't see what this is hurting, but it drives Mike absolutely insane.

Saturday was a good day. Mike slept in because he stayed up too late cleaning the toy room and kitchen counter. I got the girls up, breakfast, bathed and we headed out the door to pick up a few things from the store. On our way to the store, we picked up my brother because the girl that works at the grocery store, he has a crush on. He agreed to come home with me afterwards to keep an eye on the girls while I got the food together. I, like other bloggers I have been reading, love fall. I made two pans of lasagna (we were having company) and a crock pot full of chili. I don't like lasagna, because I don't like spaghetti sauce and wouldn't you know, it's my husbands favorite food. So the chili was for me; my brother and dad love it too so my brother took some of it home with him.

Mike's friend is in the air force and stationed in England so we don't get to see him too often. He was home when I had Taylor, he came home right before and spent about a month and a half here, and he came home with his wife in toe on 9/12. We knew we'd see them this weekend we just weren't sure which day. They ended up coming over on Saturday to watch the Ohio State game and my food I made wasn't eaten. We ended up going to eat at Cracker Barrel, they have such good food, I love it. On a whole different note, do not take a one year old when her bed time is in an hour and expect her to be happy. Callee screamed from the second I put her in the chair until I got her out. It was so embarassing because everyone kept staring at us. So if anyone was at the Cracker Barrel we were at on Saturday night, I aplolgize for my child's behavior.

I felt bad for Randy's wife Mai because Taylor kept getting in her face over dinner. She was sitting between Randy and Taylor and Randy kept asking her questions so Taylor would lean over Mai, in her face leaning, and answer his question. That was definately a challenge to try and explain to her that it was rude and you shouldn't do that. In her 3 year old mind, she was being polite by making sure Randy could hear her answer. It was overall not too bad considering the restaurant was crowded and we took three kids ages 5, 3, and 1 with us.

We went back to our house for a little more visiting and then wrapped up the evening. Saturday we are supposed to be going to the football hall of fame, but I think Mike is just going to go with them. They want to leave at 10 and Taylor starts her dance class this week which is from 10:30 - 11:10. I don't think I'll be going, but maybe we can go to the park or something afterwards. It should be another good weekend. Here are some pictures of Saturday. We took the girls to a parade on Sunday, but that will be my blog for tomorrow because it has taken me about 4 hours to do this post because there is a lot going on at work today.

This is Callee when she stole Randy's hat.

Mike, Randy, Mai, and Emma (in her OSU collar.)Callee talking on the phone.

Randy and Callee playing keep away with Callee's jacket!

I have 37,000 (an exaggeration) more pictures of this weekend, but I think I've bored you enough with the pictures.