First Trip to the Pool

We've had such a busy day today! This morning was "bus orientation" for summer school. So, I loaded up Ethan, his friend Leyton and Abby to go and learn all about riding the bus. We learned about bus safety, watched a video and then they told us we got to go on an actual bus ride. I thought this sounded like fun. Apparently Ethan had other thoughts. We were in a room full of parents, siblings and future kindergarteners headed out to get on the bus when he threw one huge hissy fit. I'm not talking a little fit - I'm talking about screaming, crying, clinging to my leg fit. He kept yelling "I'm not going on the bus. I'm not going to school. I'm going to stay home with you for the rest of my life". He was THE ONLY one throwing a fit. To top it all off, children younger than school age aren't allowed to be transported on the bus, so I was trying to get him on the bus while I stayed in the parking lot with Abby. I really wish they would have told us this ahead of time and I would have left Abby with a friend. But anyway, there I was with a screaming, crying 5-yr-old and his friend who kept plugging his ears asking "jeesh, what's wrong with him?" and Abby saying "It OK Ethan, it only a school bus. It not hurt you". Finally some very nice lady who worked at the bus building took pity on me and offered to keep Abby so I could ride on the bus with Ethan. I felt like a terrible Mom leaving my daughter with this woman I didn't know, but I really wanted to get Ethan on the bus. So, I left my 2-yr-old in the arms of a stranger (she did great - they bribed her with animal crackers) and got on the bus with Ethan and Leyton. Ethan did eventually calm down and we practiced getting off the bus and getting picked up at the bus stop. Who knew this could all be so complex! It will be interesting to see how the first day of summer school goes....... He has such a hard time with transitions - he cried everyday for 3 months when we moved to Liberty and he went to daycare. I have visions of dragging him into a dorm room in about 13 years and having to remove a future college freshman clinging to my leg so I can leave him with his new roommate.



Then we headed over to our friend Lucy's house for a BBQ. The kids had a great time and I was able to leave them at Lucy's while I snuck away to attend my weight watchers meeting in peace (only 1 more week until I make lifetime - yeah!!). I got back to Lucy's and found she was planning to go to the pool, so I decided to keep Abby up from her nap and head down to the pool. Today was the first day it's been warm enough with no rain to go to the pool, so I figured we should take advantage of it. The kids had fun, but Ethan was done after about 45 minutes. Abby would have stayed until the pool closed at 10pm if she had a choice;) So, we came home and Ethan passed out on the couch. I guess all that screaming, crying, playing and swimming exhausted him. Abby is watching Calliou and I'm enjoying a little peace and quiet! You'll notice Abby actually has pig tails in her hair in the above pics - this morning while we were getting ready to head to the bus orientation she told me "I want pretties - you make me horsey tails?" It was too cute:)

Snow Cones and Sidewalk Paint

This week we've been struggling with getting Ethan to eat and drink and we've also exhausted most of our "quiet" activities. So what's a Mom to do? Go shopping of course! I love Target - you can find just about anything there:) I'm there often enough that I'm on a first name basis with the woman at the snack counter (can't go shopping without diet coke). So, off to Target we went in attempts to find anything that might tempt Ethan to eat/drink and activities to keep him entertained but quiet. This is how we ended up with a snow cone maker (and every flavor of syrup Target carries). Both of the kids like the process of making the snow cones, but only Abby actually eats the snow cones. Maybe once Ethan feels better he'll be just as excited about the snow cones as his sister.

As for activities, sidewalk paint seemed like a good idea. They loved it, although it kind of became "all over body paint" as you can see by the pictures. It did keep them both busy for about 2 hours - and we probably would have headed out to paint again today if it hadn't been pouring down rain.

One more reason I'm not a nurse

There are lots of reasons I never went to nursing or medical school. I have friends who are nurses and I have always admired what they do, but I just don't have the personality for it. This week has reinforced my desire to stay as far away from the medical field as possible (atleast the patient care aspect). I don't deal well with whiny sick people - I have absolutely no bedside manner. It has taken every bit of patience I have to deal with Ethan since he had his tonsils out. Now don't get me wrong, I love him more than I can express and I know that he's hurting. I wish there was something in my power I could do to make the pain stop, but short of giving him his medicine and attempting to soothe him I'm pretty much out of luck. We were doing really well until today. The Dr. warned us the worst days pain-wise would be days 4-5-6 post-op. Today is day 4 and indeed the Dr. was correct. Ethan has been in considerable pain and refuses to take his pain meds. His stomach is nauseated due to the meds and the fact that he won't eat and is barely drinking. Tonight I finally resorted to the anti-nausea medicine in hopes that his stomach wouldn't be so upset and he might eat or drink something. This might seem like a simple task and you might ask why we hadn't tried the anti-nausea meds earlier. One word - suppository. Yes, this is the form the anti-nausea medicine comes in. So, I got out the latex gloves and petroleum jelly and gave him the medicine. He wasn't very happy, but his stomach is feeling better and he did take his pain medicine. I did have to laugh - once I was done Ed told him to "squeeze his cheeks" so the medicine wouldn't come out. I looked up to find Ethan diligently making "fish lips" by squeezing his cheeks together. He was squeezing the wrong cheeks;)

Why I love my husband

There are many, many reasons I love my husband. He is one of the most patient people I know (a good thing since he lives with me;), he lets me sleep in on the weekends, he is a wonderful father and husband. I can't possibly list all of the things I love about him, but I can tell you he added one more reason to my list this morning. I was attempting to shower while Abby was systematically dismantling the bathroom. He came in and they disappeared. I got out of the shower to find them in our room and he was painting her fingernails! He even painted her toenails once he finished the fingernails. I have to tell you it pretty much melted my heart to see the two of them - especially seeing her watch him so intently while he gave her a little manicure and pedicure. I was curious, so I did ask what possesed him to break out the fingernail polish. His response: "I've been stuck in the house way too long":) You see, he took off Wednesday, Thursday and Friday due to Ethan's surgery. So, we have had lots of family bonding time........

Ethan is doing very well, but he's starting to go a little stir-crazy. Pops and Grandma Jane stopped by this afternoon and brought cookies, ice cream and the Hungry Hungry Hippos game. We've played LOTS of Hungry Hungry Hippos tonight! If it's not raining tomorrow we may venture out to the zoo. I really hope it's not raining, because Ethan isn't the only one going stir-crazy around here!

It's 5am - Time for Ice Cream!

I haven't posted for a few days for a couple of reasons. The primary reason is that Ethan had his surgery on Wednesday and I haven't had much time on the computer. The other reason is that the battery went out on my computer and I found out just how spoiled I really am. I love my laptop and the fact that I can just sit on the couch and work on the computer. It's amazing how much motivation it takes me to actually plug the computer in to work in the living room. A couple of times the last few days I've thought "I should sit and work on the computer". Then I looked at the cords and decided I wasn't motivated enough to move everything around. Thankfully my new battery arrived today and once it charges I will once again have my mobility back!

Ethan did amazing during and after his surgery. After it was all said and done, the Dr. said he atleast tripled Ethan's airway by removing his monster tonsils! He also removed quite a bit of fluid from both ears, so his hearing should improve dramatically. Ethan is pretty much a tired little version of his normal self. He does really well as long as he takes the pain meds. The worst part is the early morning - he's really sore when he wakes up because the meds have worn off. Yesterday he was up at 5am and was clearly in a lot of pain. He took the medicine and I asked him if there was anything he wanted to make his throat feel better. So there we were, 5:00 in the morning, sitting at the table while he ate ice cream and watched his new Hot Wheels movie.

Despite the pain, I'm pretty sure he would go through surgery again in a heartbeat. He has really enjoyed all the attention and things he doesn't usually get to do. He gets free access to ice cream, Popsicles and chocolate milk. Grandma Merri came and brought a new Lite Brite and Hot Wheels Movie, our friend Lucy stopped by and brought Popsicles, ice cream, balloons and suckers, our friend Sarah came over and brought more ice cream and of course Mom and Dad had a few presents for him also. His new favorite past time is making creations with Moon Sand. There are very few "messy" activities that will entertain Ethan for longer than it takes me to clean them up, and while Moon Sand is messy, it is well worth the mess. He spent over an hour playing with it this morning!! Of course Abby is loving all of this also - by default she's getting presents and ice cream at every meal:)

One of Ethan's requests when he had his tonsils out was that he wanted to keep his tonsils. We have to wait until pathology is done with them, but will be making a trip to the hospital next week to pick them up. We'll be sure to post a picture once we get them back!!

"Ackles"

You may wonder exactly what the title of this post means. Let me enlighten you. There are some things I know as a parent I must do and one of those required elements is teaching my children to speak correctly. I have made quite an effort - doing all the things recommended in the books. No baby talk. Instead of "correcting" I repeat what they have said in the correct way. In general, both of the kids speak very well. For those of you who have engaged in conversation with my daughter, you know she speaks very well for a 2-yr-old (and she talks A LOT - she must get that from Ed;) Anyhow, her latest word is "mines" as in "mine". Today she said "you are mines Mommy". If you take a toy away from her she adamantly says "it's mines". I know I should show her the error of her ways - repeating back to her "it's mine" when she says "mines", but I honestly find this new word very cute. I'm pretty sure she'll grow out of it since she is after all only 2. But this brings me to my title. Ethan has always refered to apples as "ackles". This is another one of those things I found adorable when he was 2, and I have to admit I still find it endearing now that he's 5. We were waiting at the hospital today during his pre-op appointment and were making a list of all the things we should get at the store for later this week after he has his tonsils out. I said "how about applesauce?" He looked at me and said "no way, I hate acklesauce". I just smiled and thought about how cute it is that he still says "ackles". Then I had another thought. I am probably instilling in him a trait that will drive his future wife INSANE. Ed still to this day pronounces "pumpkins" as "punkins". This drives me CRAZY - there is no "n" in the middle of the word pumpkin, and those of you who know me well know how serious I am about my pumpkins - especially around October. So I suppose sadly I should start correcting Ethan and teaching him to pronounce "apples" correctly to save his future wife a lot of frustration.

Stinky Feet and Smelly Flowers

What a busy weekend we had! The weather was beautiful, so we were able to spend a lot of time outside. Saturday we went to the Liberty Heritage Festival where we ate WAY too much food, walked around to look at all the fun craft booths and saw a reenactment of Jesse James robbing a bank in historic downtown Liberty. Then we headed over to watch a concert by Jim Cosgrove, aka Mr. Stinky Feet. The kids love Mr. Stinky Feet - we've seen him in concert a few times and he visited Ethan's school earlier in the year. So, you can imagine how excited Ethan was when he was chosen to be in the "Stinky Feet Band" during one of the songs (in the pic above, he's 4th from the left in the orange shirt). I have a video of his performance, and if I have the time one of these days I'll try to figure out how to post it on the blog.

Today Ethan and I went shopping for some flowers to plant out front. He was supposed to help me plant them, but was too busy playing with his friends to help me tonight. So, Abby decided she would get in on the action. She loved playing in the dirt - and I'm pretty sure more of it ended up on her than in the flower pot, but she had a great time:)

Bubbles!

Abby LOVES bubbles. She plays with them almost everyday when the weather permits. Last month we actually went to the dollar store and bought 6 one gallon bottles of bubbles!! This has to be one of my favorite pictures of her with bubbles - I love the expression on her face. We went to my Dad's house on Mother's Day and they had a brand new bubble gun - Abby was thrilled once she figured out how it worked!

Things I am missing

1. The bottle of contact solution I'm sure I bought at the store last week.

2. The box of whole wheat spaghetti I was going to make for dinner tonight, but can't find.

3. Half a bottle of olive oil that spilled on the floor when it fell out of the cabinet during my search for the spaghetti.

So, either I'm losing my mind or there is a little leprechaun running around with clean contacts having spaghetti for dinner. I just wish he would have taken the olive oil with the spaghetti so it wouldn't have spilled on the floor.

The Graduate

Last night was Ethan's pre-K recognition ceremony. It was a very cute little program and at the end he received a certificate showing he had completed the program. I know many, many times I have said I've been counting down the days until he goes to kindergarten, and most days I am. However, I did get a little teary-eyed last night thinking of him going off to kindergarten. Of course this was when he was up on stage and the sappy music was playing. Once we got home and he started being a pest I once again started counting down!

Lucky Charms

Today is Mother's Day. I absolutely love to sleep in, so you would think on today of all days I would have gotten the chance to sleep in a bit. However, this was not in the cards for me today. My niece Caylie spent the night last night and when she stays she sleeps in Abby's room. She didn't know that Abby doesn't normally get up at 5:45am, so when Abby awoke this morning crying (she's working on 2-yr-molars), Caylie got to her before I did and they decided in was time to get up and play. Of course "playing" meant waking up Ethan and then making a bunch of noise so that no one could sleep. I was about to nudge Ed out of bed so he could deal with the children when he got paged for work. So, I decided to pop in a video for Abby in hopes of staying in bed just a little longer. This was my first mistake. Why is it children can make tons of noise at 5:45am, but not a peep when they sneak off to do something ornery? I was laying in bed with the pillow over my head listening to the muffled version of "Fuzzy and Blue" by Grover and thinking to myself "wow, she's being really quiet, she must really like this video". We recently picked it up at the library and she hadn't watched it yet, so I was really happy at how well it was keeping her attention. Or so I thought. Ed came into the living room and I heard "oh man, Ethan - stay out of the way". This is never a good phrase when coming from my very calm husband. I resigned myself once again to getting out of bed and went to see what the commotion was about. Apparently Abby decided she was hungry and dumped the remainder of the Lucky Charms (about half a box) out on the kitchen floor - put the empty box back on the table and proceeded to pick out all the marshmallows. I looked around for Caylie only to find her sleeping on the couch through all of this - she later told me she was "very tired from getting up so early with Abby". Although I wasn't too happy about finding half a box of marshmallowless Lucky Charms on the floor (given our ant problem), I had to laugh when Abby looked at Ethan, grabbed a handful of cereal off the floor and offered it to him saying "here Ethan, want some? It REALLY good". Guess it's a good thing I had swept and mopped the floor before going to bed last night so atleast she was eating off a clean floor:)

"I saw it on TV"

Ethan was in my room for a while watching TV. He came in after I put Abby down for a nap and I happened to see something by his belly button when he was playing with his T-shirt. I asked him to lift up his shirt. He got his "Eddie Haskel" look on his face and said "why Mom?" I told him I thought I saw something on his stomach and he said "I Love You" then raised up his shirt so I could see the big smiley face he'd drawn on his stomach. I really just had to laugh - it was pretty cute. I asked why he did that and his response was simply "I saw it on TV". I have no idea what he was watching, but apparently it involved naked bellies and a ball point pen!

In other news, Ethan is a completely different child this week thanks to the antibiotics. I was so frustrated with him last week, and in hindsight I see his behavior was mostly because he didn't feel well. So, he may indeed live to see kindergarten, but the verdict is still out!

Thank You!

Ethan and I wanted to say "Thank You" to everyone who supported us in WalkAmerica. Unfortunately the walk was cancelled due to thunderstorms, so we were unable to participate in the actual walk. It was supposed to be held rain or shine, but I don't think they anticipated pouring rain with thunder and lightening. We did drive all the way over to Shawnee Mission, KS in the thunderstorms in hopes that the rain would let up, but it was still storming when we arrived. With your help, Ethan and I raised $230.00 for March of Dimes and our team from the MOMS Club raised $1615.00!! Ethan was very upset that we weren't able to "walk for the babies", but did understand that the money we raised went to help buy supplies and medicine for "babies born too early". Of course the March of Dimes does so much more than just provide supplies and medicine, but it's hard to explain to a 5-yr-old. So, thank you for supporting such a wonderful cause!!

He never takes pictures......

I've been looking through my pictures lately planning small scrapbooks for each of the kids. I realized how few pictures I have of myself, mostly because I'm the one who always has the camera. I pick it up atleast once a day to take pictures of the kids. Ed very rarely picks up the camera, and when he does it's usually to take pictures of a car part. Monday night after the kids went to bed, I decided to indulge in a nice bubble bath. I took out my contacts, slathered on a face mask and hopped in with a good book. I looked up to see Ed just in time to snap my picture. I'd actually forgotten about it until I downloaded some pictures I took at the park today and saw it on the camera. I wasn't going to post it, but it made me laugh to think that these are the types of pictures my children and future grandchildren will have to remember me by.

Weight Watchers for dogs?

I had to take Hero to the vet today. To make a very long story short he has a nasty bacterial infection on his tail due to all the humidity and rain we've had lately. So, today I spent $250.00 on him, now before you go into shock keep in mind that included his vaccinations. However, it doesn't include the additional $100.00 it's going to cost me tomorrow to get all his hair shaved off and the $ I'm going shell out for heartworm meds and Frontline. And something tells me we may be signing him up for weight watchers. It's never a good sign when the vet comes in and says "so, what exactly does Hero eat at home?" I really like this vet, but she looked at me like I was lying through my teeth when I told her he only gets fed once a day and gets no table food. Then she asked "exactly how much are you feeding him once a day?". Like I put out a buffet for him or something. Anyway, I wasn't sure exactly how much Ed feeds him, so I was sent home with strict instructions to measure how much food he's getting at night. I measured it tonight - 5 cups. That doesn't seem like much for a dog his size (he weighs 110 lbs), but I'll report back after I chat with the vet tomorrow.

To top off the day, my husband is in a mood tonight (love you honey, but you are) and I don't think he's happy about the money I'm shelling out for the dog. You see, Ed grew up around a farm where all the money you invest in an animal is in the bullet to put them down when they are sick. This is one of the very few things we disagree on as I am very fond of my animals. I have faith I will one day win him over to my side though - especially after the $ we spent on having my rabbit's eye removed. Yes, we used to have a one-eyed bunny. It's another long story, but Baxter lived a long happy life (8 years) after we had his diseased eye removed and to me that was worth the expense. I think Ed was just humoring me, but whatever works:)
OK, sorry for the rambling post. I think I'm a little tired!

Holy Mini Spooners!!

We went to the grocery store for ketchup today. It might sound strange to go to the store just for ketchup, but around here it's one of our major food groups and we are out! I also hadn't been out of the house yet today and had no outings planned, so I was in desperate need of fountain diet coke, which they conveniently have at HyVee. So I guess I should say we went to the grocery store for ketchup and liquid sanity for me. Anyhow, enough with the rambling. Ed has eaten the same cereal almost ever since I've known him (almost 12 yrs!). Frosted Mini Spooners (the generic of Frosted Mini wheats) are his breakfast of choice. Anyhow, imagine my surprise when we walked down the cereal aisle and found large boxes of Frosted Mini Spooners on sale for $0.99 a box!! Like a dutiful wife and mother, I checked the expiration date and they don't expire until sometime in 2008, so I figured it was safe to stock up. We bought all they had - I think about 15 boxes with a few CoCo Roos and Cinnamon Toasters thrown in for good measure. I even stopped a very nice man who was kind enough to get the boxes I couldn't reach off the top shelves. He looked at me like I was nuts, but he gave me the rest of the boxes on the shelf! We loaded up our cereal and came home. The kids loved stacking up the boxes - so far they have made a castle, a boat and a swimming pool (hence the pic of them in their undergarments). The swimming pool creation happened while I disappeared to switch the laundry - I came in and found them both naked in the middle of the boxes. I asked why they took off their clothes and was told "This is a swimming pool and Mom, you know you can't swim in your clothes". Hummmm, I suppose I can't argue with that logic, and it's keeping them busy since it's once again raining outside. I should probably stop typing now and go find somewhere to put all of the cereal before Ed comes home!

Rocks!

Ed has been working to make a "rock pit" in our back yard. The kids love to dig and sand makes such as mess that we decided to build and area around all the play equipment in the backyard and fill it in with rocks. Ed has been putting landscaping bricks in for about a month (the weather hasn't cooperated much) and finally today we had the rocks delivered. We spent all day transporting rocks from the driveway to the backyard (and when I say "we" I mean Ed, but I did rake them out after he dumped them). The result is a huge rocky area where the kids can dig and move rocks around until their little hearts are content. The pic of Abby has nothing to do with the rocks, but she LOVES Hero and most times he won't tolerate her laying on him. He was so exhausted tonight from following Ed around all day that he let Abby crawl over him! Hero isn't the only one who is tired, it's 9:15 and everyone but me is already in bed asleep. I'm headed there soon myself - need a good night sleep for WalkAmerica tomorrow:)

So that explains it........

Ethan had his follow-up ENT appointment today. To make a long story short, we went for his 5-yr check-up in November and found that Ethan is having hearing loss because his tonsils and adenoids are so large they are pushing on his Eustachian tubes. We went to the same ENT who put in Abby's tubes about 6 weeks ago and he recommended taking out Ethan's tonsils and adenoids and putting tubes in his ears. Since it wasn't life-threatening, we decided to wait another 6 weeks and see if anything changed before committing to surgery. Well, when we went today we found his ears are still filled with fluid and he has a sinus infection. As the Dr. put it, Ethan is basically hearing like he's submerged in the deep end of a swimming pool. Combined with the sinus infection I think this might explain the mood he's been in all week. So, we scheduled his surgery for May 23rd and I decided to try and be easier on Ethan - atleast until the antibiotic kicks in and takes care of his sinus infection.

I had a meeting over lunch today, so Ethan went to work with Ed for a while to give us both a break. Of course he was very well behaved while at work with Daddy. On my way to pick him up after my meeting Abby fell asleep in the van, so I knew I would never get her to take a nap when we got home. I resigned myself to not having my "mommy time" today and instead took them both to Target to pick up Ethan's antibiotic. We got there at 1:30 only to find the pharmacy closed from 1:30-2:00 for lunch. Ugh. I just can't catch a break this week. I did need a few other things, so decided to go ahead and do our shopping. One of the things on my list was a pair of shorts to wear for Walk America on Sunday. So, I picked out a couple and made the mistake of taking both children into the dressing room with me. I took off my pants to try on the shorts only to hear Ethan chanting "I see your underwear, I see your underwear". Not to be outdone by her brother, Abby started exclaiming in her very loud 2-yr-old voice "I see your underwear, I see your underwear". So I made yet another mistake and took off my shirt to try on a T-shirt with the shorts, at which point Ethan started chanting "I see your boobies, I see your boobies" - and of course Abby joined right in. I actually heard the dressing room attendant laugh out loud. I promptly got dressed and hauled them out of the dressing room. I offered to give her both children for the weekend, but sadly she declined. So, we finished our shopping and came home.

After Ed got home we went to dinner and then to Sam's where both kids talked me into cherry icees. We got home and I was just about done with both of them, and was trying to remind myself that Ethan doesn't feel well and I should be more understanding. So, I started the bath water and told them it was bath time. They were excited, both stripped out of their clothes quickly and started running towards the bathroom. In his rush to the tub, Ethan decided to give Abby a big shove right into the corner on the wall. She hit her head pretty hard, and given that she'd had basically no nap and it was almost bedtime, she completely melted down. I mean screaming, crying inconsolable melt down. Have I mentioned that she has a very sensitive gag reflex? Remember the cherry icee? Yep, you guessed it. All the crying and screaming caused her to gag and throw up cherry icee all over the floor. All of my attempts to remind myself that Ethan didn't feel well went right out the window. He took a bath and went to bed with no snack, no movie and no books. Of course we had to run the steam cleaner first to remove the very red cherry icee from the carpet, but as soon as that was done we put him in bed. All I can say is the antibiotics better start working very soon.

Last Chance!!

Ethan and I are walking in the March of Dimes WalkAmerica on behalf of the MOMS Club of KC on Sunday. I thought this would be a great way to earn money for a good cause and teach Ethan about helping others. If you'd like to sponsor us, please click here. It's easy and tax deductible, so donate away!! Ethan is very excited about earning money to "help the babies"!

Rainy Day

There are children who play by themselves and are able to entertain themselves for at least short periods of time. I know they exist, my nephew Dalton is one of them. Ethan is not. Today was a very long day. He was up at the crack of dawn and turned on the TV at full volume. I could hear it even with the pillow over my head. Finally Ed got up and made him turn it down, which is a good thing because it would not have been good if I had to venture out into the living room that early in the morning. However, my reprieve was short-lived. Once Ed left for work Ethan started harassing me. "Mom, when are you going to get up?", "Mom, what are we going to do today?", "Mom, it's raining outside", "Mom, can I have some cereal". So, finally I got up and fed the little critter some cereal then escaped to the shower before Abby woke up. Keep in mind our shower is clear glass on 2 sides. I hate it - it's like showering in a fish tank. When we bought the house I was so enamoured with the big jetted tub that I didn't even notice the all-glass shower. Next time we are house shopping I will check out the shower. Anyhow, I was enjoying my nice, quiet shower until I opened my eyes after washing my hair to find Ethan standing on the tub with his hands cupped around his face, nose stuck all the way up against the glass staring at me. He scared me to death. He can be quiet when he wants to, I didn't even hear him come in. Then it started again "Mom, when are you going to be done in the shower", "Mom, what are we going to do today?", "Mom, it's raining outside". Good Lord. I wasn't sure exactly what we were going to do yet, but an X-Large diet coke from McDonald's was going to be our first stop!

We were supposed to go to a children's farm with the MOMS Club, but due to the weather that was out. So we headed to the library for story time only to find story time is over until summer. I love the library, but I hate searching for books with 2 kids. Abby's favorite past time at the library is pulling every book she sees off the shelf. That's a lot of books! So, we got some books, made a mess and then headed to McDonalds. I gorged myself on diet coke while they played in the play place. When we got home, it started again. "Mom, what are we going to do now?", "Mom, it's raining outside", etc. etc. The kid should be a freakin weatherman. Anyway, I put Abby down for a nap at which time I declared it "Mommy time". I try to do this each day when Ethan is home because if I don't one of us will not make it until Ed gets home in the evening. I told Ethan I was going to watch my "Mommy show" (General Hospital) and he needed to leave me alone until it was over (an hour - yeah, right). So, every 5 minutes he proceeded to come in and ask when "Mommy time" was over. Then, miraculously he disappeared for about 15 minutes. When I was done with "Mommy time", I walked into the kitchen and found what you see in the picture on the left above. He had dumped a bunch of rocks all over paper plates and in cups. Hummmm.

Then it started again. "Mom, Mom, Mom, Mom........." So, we made blueberry muffins (pic above on the right). Then he pestered me until Ed got home and I left for aerobics. I feel better now that I've worked out, but I'm not sure how many more rainy days I can handle. Luckily he has school tomorrow and I'll get a break. I'm counting down the days until summer school starts in June:)

Kidsongs

Last year for Christmas Ethan and Abby's cousins sent them a Kidsongs DVD. When they opened it they were thrilled and let me tell you we've watched it OVER and OVER. It has to be the cheesiest movie - kind of a Barney knockoff, but the kids love it. I'm pretty good about tuning out what they are watching on TV, so it doesn't bother me too much. Today we were at WalMart and guess what we found in the $1.00 DVD section? 2 other Kidsongs videos - I Love Dogs and I Love Trucks. Since it is supposed to rain for the foreseeable future, I decided it would be worth the $2.00 investment in attempts to save my sanity. Abby insisted we watch them as soon as we got home. She pulled up her box, got in and sat there for the entire 30 minutes! I managed to start laundry, put away groceries and load the dishwasher!! So, as cheesy as they are, I have to say they were worth the $2.00.

I picked Ethan up from school and he came home, got in the same box and watched both videos start to finish. Who needs furniture when when you have moving boxes??