Sadie's World

It is fitting that this is Labor Day Weekend! Today, I am recovering from a birth hangover and waiting for another friend to have her baby. She's been in early labor since yesterday. Yesterday was my first time leaving Violet with someone other than Michael or my Mom. She stayed with Angela all day while I was at my client's birth and she did great! She wasn't even all that excited to see me when I arrived. I guess my little girl is growing up!

We had to cancel Ice Cream Saturdae today. One, because nobody else was going to be able to come and two, because I thought I would be called away to my friend's birth. So we went to Dairy Queen and had Blizzards instead! Yum! Also, I didn't have to clean up my house or go to the store.

While we were at DQ, Sadie told us that on Friday at school, she went on a balloon ride. She had a whole elaborate story filled with details about this excursion. I asked her what her teacher Ms. Molly would say if I asked her about this balloon ride next time I saw her. She thought for a minute, then said very seriously, "She'd say, 'The kids had a great time!'"

Her imagination has kicked into high gear lately. She's been going on trips to "her world" a lot lately. She travels there on a pink and purple Pegasus. It's called DisneyWorldLand Place (I think). When she travels to this place, she makes a fake Sadie so that no one misses her when she's gone. Oh to be 5 again! I asked her to take me with her next time.

Update

The first week of school was a very welcome event in our house – for everyone! The kids had a great time seeing their old friends and meeting some new ones. It was great to be back on the Waldorf campus. It feels like home.

Violet finally started crawling!!! It's about time. She went from rolling everywhere to Army crawling to twirling (sitting, putting her hands on the ground and then rolling over in the air back to sitting). Now she is crawling on all-fours about 90% of the time. Hopefully, she will be walking before we know it. She's getting too heavy for me to carry everywhere!

I'm getting ready to start a new class series tomorrow. Today will be filled with making copies, putting together my binders and getting the house ready. I have two former couples in this class which is always fun. One is my cousin and his wife. They were pregnant when I was pregnant with Violet. Their son is 3 weeks younger than Vi and they're having another one already! I think I would poke my eyes out with a fork, but this is how they wanted it and I am thrilled for them!!! I only have 5 couples in this class. It will be my smallest class in 4 1/2 years. I hope it's not a trend!

I also started my period for the first time since Violet was born. :-( Oh well, it was a good run. Twenty-five months without one, I guess I can't complain. I'm very bloated and pimply (by the way, when does THAT go away, I'm 35 years old for crying out loud?)! Not looking forward to weighing in today at Weight Watchers!

Today is also Ice Cream Sundae Saturday (Ice Cream Saturdae for short). Lots to do! See you next time.

Back to School!!!

Today was the first day of school!!!!!!!!! (Can you tell I'm excited)? The kids were so happy! They were starting to get very bored these last few weeks. Michael woke them up on his way out the door, so they were up at 6:45 this morning. By the time I got up, they were dressed, had eaten breakfast, brushed their teeth and Jonah had packed his lunch!

I have enjoyed a quiet morning with Violet. It feels strange not to have them in the house. I think Violet misses them, although she will probably enjoy having Mommy and the house to herself for awhile. She loves watching them, but they pester the living crap out of her sometimes.

I can't believe Jonah is in the 3rd grade already and Sadie is in her last year of Kindergarten. Next year she will be off to 1st grade. It just doesn't seem possible. Time sure does fly when you have kids. It's bittersweet. I'm glad to have some time to myself but a little sad at how fast they are growing up. At least I know they are well-cared for at Waldorf and they love school. There has never been a day yet since they started there that they didn't want to go. In fact, the one day that Jonah missed last year for being sick, he begged me to let him go to school. And most days, Sadie cried when I came to pick her up because she wanted to stay longer. We'll see if that continues this year. I hope they always love school as much as they do now.

I think I will take them to get a treat after school to celebrate their first day back!

Warning: You may never look at blueberries the same after reading this!

This afternoon, Violet was playing on the floor with some of Jonah and Sadie's toys. I was sitting in the chair flipping through a magazine. I looked up and said, "What is all over Violet's leg?" She was covered in what appeared to be chocolate. I noticed a clump of something next to her. I was getting ready to yell at the kids for leaving food on the floor (even though I knew they didn't have chocolate today) when Jonah walked over to her and ran away screaming, "OOH. IT'S POOP!!!"

I went over to get a closer look, and sure enough, it was poop. It was not only all over her legs, but her arms, hands, feet, onesie, floor and the kids' toys! I picked her up and there were a few of the cards that she had been playing with poop-glued to her leg. It was awful! I asked Jonah to run a bath. While he did that, I did my best to get as much of it off of her as possible. It was a 10+ wipe situation. And the smell...oh my goodness!

The diaper was literally completely filled and oozing out all over. It was black and gooey with chunks of something that looked like raisins (which she has never had). After I carefully got her out of the onesie without depositing any more poop on her, I carried her to the bathtub and began the HazMat removal process. As I was doing so, I wondered out loud what on earth she could have eaten to have caused such an explosion and why it was so black. Jonah said, "Chocolate?" No. "Fig Newtons?" No. "Yogurt?" Definitely not. "Blueberries?" Of course!!! She ate a ton of blueberries yesterday! If I had known blueberries would cause this kind of reaction, she wouldn't have been constipated for the last 6 months! I have found a cure!

After getting her cleaned up, I went into the living room to survey the damage. It was worse than I thought! There was black/blue poop everywhere. Big pieces, little pieces, smeared pieces, poop hand prints, toys covered in poop, you name it. (Believe me, the picture does not even begin to do this situation justice)! I know you're thinking, good grief woman, how long was this child sitting in her own feces? But I swear, I had just put her down on the floor not 5 minutes before and she was completely poop-free.

Jonah and I built a fence around the 'accident scene' with dining room chairs so that I could figure out how to remove it. I called my mom and she did a search and came up with vinegar and boiling water. Needless to say, my house no longer smells like a hazardous waste dump, but it does smell like vinegar! I'm not sure which is worse – but at least it worked.

The funniest part was when the kids tried to help me clean up. Jonah came in wearing a snorkel and giant clothes-pin on his nose and Sadie was wearing goggles!

Oh, the joy of motherhood!

Home Sweet Home

We're back! We arrived home on Monday afternoon from a wonderful vacation in Panama City. It's always so nice to come back home, although the unpacking and the week's worth of laundry I could live without! I think we are finally starting to settle back into our rhythm. Now we have to get ready to head back to school next week!

The weather was perfect. The kids had a great time. The hotel was very family-friendly. My mom and dad came down on Thursday and spent the last few days with us which was so nice. I actually got to relax a bit. I forgot how much work it is to go on vacation (especially with 3 kids in tow)! I guess that's why we haven't gone to the beach in 7 years.

Gramps and Jonah built some really amazing sand castles. They were the hit of the beach! (See the picture below).

Violet hated the sand but loved the pool. She was SO happy to be home. She was a totally different kid being back in her own environment. She even learned a few new tricks while we were away (dancing, pointing and opening drawers)!








Here are some of the highlights:
Jonah and Sadie's first look at the ocean!







The hotel pool.









The view from our balcony.









One of Gramps' materpieces!









Our visit to Shell Island.









Jonah's first ride on a jet ski.









It's great to be back! I hope it won't take us another 7 years to get back to the beach!

Florida, Here We Come!

We are leaving tomorrow!!! You probably won't see much of me next week, although I may try to post a few pictures of all of us frolicking on the beach! The kids are beside themselves! Poor Sadie has had the worst time falling asleep the last few nights. In fact, she's still in there now tossing and turning (and it's after 9 p.m.).

I already have the car locked and loaded! All that's left to do is get up tomorrow, clean the house, teach my class, load the last minute items and we are off!!! Someone gave me a brilliant idea about giving each of the kids a roll of quarters before we leave. Whenever they ask, "Are we there yet?" or "How much further?" or any derivation of that sentiment, they lose a quarter. Whatever they have left when we get there is what they get to spend! I'll let you know how it works.

My mom and dad brought over a portable DVD player for us to borrow. My mom showed the kids how to use it. They were happy as could be and just sat there for about 20 minutes with the headphones on watching the previews on "The Incredibles" DVD. They kept trying to ask questions and were screaming because they couldn't hear themselves. Sadie also likes to talk out loud during movies. So she's sitting there watching the movie and yelling her own little commentary to no one in particular. That won't get annoying! They are sound-deadening headphones so they can't really hear anything when they are wearing them. I kept testing them out by saying things like, "We're not really going to Florida, we're just going to drive until you fall asleep and go to the nearest hotel." Nothing! I figure they will come in especially handy when the kids start fighting or whining. Michael and I can just put them on and not have to listen to it! I'm only (half) kidding. Come to think about it, I may never give them back!

Before I go, I have to tell you about a funny conversation that Sadie and I had this morning. I was lying on the chair trying to take a nap while the kids were watching a movie and Violet was playing on the floor. Violet was very fussy for some reason this morning and apparently did not want me to nap, so I picked her up.

Sadie: "I'm sorry you didn't get to sleep much Mama. It's hard work having a baby. I pretty much only want to have one kid. But I don't want it to come out of my belly because that would hurt."

Me: "Where do you want it to come from?" (I wasn't sure if she was saying she didn't want to have the baby herself or didn't want to have a c-section).

Sadie: (Pointing to her bottom) "The normal spot!"

As a childbirth educator, that was music to my ears! Plus, I thought that was a very sapient comment for a 5 year old! (Can you tell that I finally started getting my word of the day email again?)!

Until next time...

Bakin' Fools

To pass the time today, we have been baking. First we made chocolate chunk peanut butter cookies. Sounds good, right? Well I used a recipe from "Super Baby Food" and it called for bananas. They turned out OK but tasted more like banana cookies than peanut butter. I'm glad I decided to add the chocolate chunks (that were not called for, by the way) because they definitely cut down on the banana flavor.

Then, we tried the recipe without chocolate and with sugar instead of banana. Way awful in my opinion, although the kids seem to like them. I thought they tasted like peanut butter flavored cardboard.

We also made some very yummy peanut butter/honey balls with oats. They turned out very well. And they are super easy. If you're interested, here is the recipe:

1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 cup nonfat milk powder
1 cup ground rolled oats

Mix everything together and form into balls. Enjoy. No cooking involved and they're good for you. My kind of recipe!

That's it! I have also made this recipe with sesame seeds instead of oats. Also very tasty.

Now I have to go clean up the mess!