Let's talk Costumes

Halloween - you either love it or hate it. For the girls I like it. For me, I hate it. I don't have a good time trying to dress up as something else. By far, my best costume was also my worst. Two years ago when I was pregnant with Addison, I went as a pregnant nun. It was great in the fact that I was fairly comfortable in a long flowy gown. But I was miserably hot in the hat thing. Would Father John at St. Joseph be proud? No way. Would he be shocked? Most likely no. At least I was married, right?

For the girls, it is difficult every year it seems. You find the cute costume. You dress them up. 90% of the time, they don't want to wear the head piece. Which is most of the time the cutest part. You plan for nice weather, then it is cold. You are searching Target for a pair of white tights like every other mom because Halloween night it decides to be 50 degrees with wind. The next year, you plan on cool weather and it's so stinking hot that the kid ends up in a onesie or a tank top and shorts with wings. So this year I will plan for both options.

I have seriously thought at just putting them in one of the 20 dress up outfits laying around here. I don't know that I could find all of the correct parts to make one great Disney princess outfit. Could Reece be part Snow White with a Cinderella crown. I think Addison would make a terrific Tinkerbell with the Barbie Mariposa wings, right? Who says the wings have to be green? I think purple and hot pink would be great.

So I guess this weeks project will be to find new princess outfits. I don't think I need to buy shoes though. I can find at least 2 matching pair from the 10 here and build the costumes from there.

Here's some photos from the past.

Could you do it?

For those of you that don't know, my parents live about an hour and a half north of Houston. They came to the metroplex last Thursday for a planned visit. It just also happened to be the weekend that Ike came to town. We watched the weather channel all weekend and talked about the what ifs of possible damage to their house. Thankfully, they did not have any damage to the house. But their surroundings have changed.

So many people have evacuated from Houston and Galveston to their area. All of the shelters are full. Mom said that everyone looks totally beaten down. They drove home last Sunday and stopped at Walmart to grab a few things. There was nothing to be had. Literally. The produce and dairy departments were completely bare. This 24 hour store was announcing that they were going to close at 10 pm so that they could restock. Mom says that thing have not improved much this week. The surrounding small towns to the east and south so not have any power. They are being told it will be mid October before they will have power. Without power, they can not get gas in their cars. So they fill up "in town". Kids can not go to school. They can't go to work to make any money to pay for the bills that are still accumulating.

How long can you live without power? I not talking about not having a/c, cable, internet, refrigeration. I am talking about literally camping in your house. Cooking what ever non-perishables you have on a gas grill in the back yard. If there is even anything to cook. Best case scenario, you have running water. You can bathe. But you can't dry your hair. You can pee by the light of a candle.

These are just the random thoughts in my head this week. I've always told Chad that I can't camp unless there is a flushing toilet. I guess I would learn right. I've been looking around the house to see what we could use and how we would manage. If nothing else, we have enough diet bars and peanut butter crackers to last a least a week.

I'm in Denial

I am in denial about a lot of things . But the one that hits me in the face multiple times a day is the fact that Addison is ready to be potty trained. Bless her heart. She comes up to me and tells me that she popped no less than 4 times a day. In reality, it is just a little pee and once a day she is correct about it being poop. Sometimes she takes her diaper off, sometimes just her pants. She knows where all of the diapers are in the house. She likes to sit on the potty. She knows how to wipe.

So what is the issue? MEEEEE!!! It is all me. I am the one at fault here. I accept 100% of the blame. I know that it is work. I need to go buy a couple little potties. I need to just let her run around naked. I need to move some carpet cleaner upstairs and just do it.

We have come to the little freedom stage in our lives. We don't have to pack a million things to run to the store. I don't even carry a diaper bag. And after 4 years I have finally gotten smart and just left a half pack of diapers and a whole wipe container in the car. I still pack 1 or 2 and the small wipes in my purse. But it's not the bottles, aspirator, burp cloth, change of clothes, bib, jar food, snacks.

But it is a whole different world in potty training days. For starters - you don't leave the house. It is like you are in sick kids mode, lock down. You are doing and saying the same thing every 45-60 minutes. "Let's go potty! Did you go tee-tee? Are you dirty? Where did you get that dirt? That's not dirt!" You are doing laundry multiple times a day. A couple weeks into it, you can leave. But you pack 1-2 changes of clothes - head to toe. This includes shoes. You pack towels and cleaner because you know that they will pee in the car seat.

This is something you do when it is raining for 5 days. Snowing outside. 40 degrees is the high. This isn't something that you try to do when it is a perfect 78 degrees outside. When you just want to sit outside a read a book. This is a winter project.

Don't call CPS just yet. I will potty train her. It will happen soon. Maybe before I have to run down to Costco for some more diapers. My denial will end. I will move into the acceptance stage. Just give me time. You see, I am loosing my baby. She is turning into a little girl and the diapers are the final stage. Maybe I'll be crazy mom and move her into the twin bed at the same time. Can you just imagine?

Happy Birthday Honey

That's right, Chad has celebrated another birthday and for the next couple of months he is 2 years older than me. My lovely sister took care of the sick sisters last night so Chad and I could have a nice dinner out. Just the two of us. We went to what should be called a meat buffet but instead is called a Brazilian Steak House. Basically, we didn't eat all day so that we would be starving when we arrived to sample the 20 different kinds of meat. It wasn't that many but it was a lot.

I am happy to report that I turned my disk over after not quite one round. I will keep Chad's behavior out of this post. Overall it was a nice quite dinner.

I picked Reece up from school and was telling her the today was Daddy's birthday. She asked where the balloons were. I said that Daddy didn't want any. She kept insisting that we MUST have balloons...it was a long conversation. She then asked who was all coming over this evening. I said just Sabrina. She wanted to know who else was coming to his birthday party. I said no one, we weren't having a party. "Why not?" "Daddy didn't want to have anyone over." Then her next question was when were we going to eat cake. I said that Daddy didn't want any cake so Mommy did not have any. This was very sad. And thank goodness, that is when Chad walked in the door. We turned the attention away from no cake, no one coming over, and no balloons to opening a gift. She soon let the rest of it go. It was like it really wasn't his birthday because none of the other things were happening.

I did want to share what I will call my Jerry Seinfeld moments from the evening. You know the little things that are every day but seem funny to you. And you hope that someone else will think that they are funny. Any whoo, these two late 20s guys walk into the restaurant last night. Both very casually dressed. (I guess there isn't any kind of dress code from the what I saw the rest of the evening). I look at this guy wearing a t-shirt and basketball shorts. You know the kind, kind of mesh material. I then I notice that his white shorts and on inside out. He has these HUGE pockets on the outside of his shorts kind of flapping in the wind. Two things - why in the world did the other idiot with him not tell him that his shorts were on inside out? And just what are you doing that you have to get dressed so fast that you can't take 3 seconds to see if your pants are on the right way. He did notice at some point during the evening because after he returned from one of his 10 trips to the salad bar, the shorts were turned right side out.

My other moment was a personal one and I'm not quite ready to talk about my rolling underwear. Maybe tomorrow when I don't feel like I just gained 15 pounds.

Happy Birthday Chad! You are an awesome dad, husband and friend. I am glad that you choose for us to spend the night out alone. It was a great evening. x

Ding, Ding - Round 2

My lovely Addison - my child with a stomach of steel, got a stomach virus on Friday evening. (week one of MDO - runny nose and a stomach virus, nice) We were up all night long, "resting" about every 20-30 minutes. Our pediatrician has sick appointments on Saturday so I ran her in. All I really wanted was some phenergan and a IV bag so that the child could sleep. Much to my surprise, they don't do phen any more for children under 2. She did write us a script for Zofran. She also gave us dosing guidelines for the rest of the family as this virus is vary contagiuos. She also told me that if the medicine did not work, she would directly admit to the hospital because she is so little and would dehydrate so quickly.

I am happy to report that we did not need to go. She recovered just fine. I had a girls over night in Dallas and had a whole back-up plan if she needed to go. But Addison knew that I needed this night away and she was great for Chad.

When I returned on Sunday, the family was happy and eating okay. I ran to the store for the weekly goods. As I was returning to the house, Chad was calling my phone. Reece was now sick. She continued until about 9 pm and slept through the night without incident, with the help of the medicine. She has taken the day off from school. I am hoping that we have a day without any incidents, and both girls will be well enough for school tomorrow.

Last night, I made a sink full of Lysol cleaner and wiped down every hard surface I could. All of the soft surfaces and more were sprayed with Lysol. All of the sheets have been changed. I will do as much laundry today as I can. It is fairly difficult to keep the girls away from each other. But I have assigned the spots to sit in the living room and upstairs. We are on a movie marathon today. There will not be a round three. We will be over all of this by this evening.

Now, if we can all lay down and take a 3 hour nap this afternoon, I will do a little happy dance.

Did the kids cause my ADD?

I am starting to think that I have some kind of ADD or ADHD. I never thought I had it before I had the girls but I do believe that they have brought it out in me. Now don't get me wrong. I can sit on my butt and do nothing. I think that it comes from exhaustion though, not out of laziness.

I am having are hard time sitting down today and working. See, I am even on the computer blogging because I sat down to work for an hour and thought I was going a little crazy.

But when you have children it like you are in constant motion. You are always on look out and listen mode. Making your 10th meal for the day, while unloading the dishwasher, finding and blanket, and fielding a snack request. I by no means think that I am super mom and wife. I am reminded frequently about my failed attempts at the half year goals.

All I am saying is that being in this constant state of "multitasking" for so long has made it more difficult to do only one task. I am sure I will find my lazy bone again one day. But right now, I need to get back to work while I have no one talking to me.

A great day

Yesterday was Addison first day of MDO. And she did great. She did not cry one time. The teachers even said that they wished that all 7 kids were just like Addison. And to think this is the same child that has been sssssooooooo much fun for 3 weeks now. I think she just needed a break from me. We have been together almost every day for 2 years. Let's face it. I need the break too. So I will gladly take this break every Tuesday and Thursday for 9-2. For a while at least.