Touche'

I have no real update for you but since you're willing to read this blog I thought I would give an update on the Sloth home.

Demand is turning a lot of new corners. She's proving to be rather intelligent, however she is still three and has her quirks. For example. When we came home from our trip she asked if she could sleep in underwear not nighttime diapers. We decided to support her decision even though we knew what the outcome would be. It's a 50/50 chance every time she goes to sleep.

Well one morning she quietly snuck into our room (as is usual) and we were pleased that she had stayed dried all night. She then climbed into the family bed, soon Mr. Sloth and Happy headed down for breakfast while she and I slept in. An hour later I was dressing Demand and realized that she was all wet. The following conversation occured.

"Did you go tinkles?"

"yes"

"You went tinkles!?"

"yes"

"When??"

"In your bed."

(Mr. Sloth and I in unison) "Demand we told you, you needed to keep the bed dry."

"You said I needed to keep MY bed dry"


So disturbing. Ok, feast on that for a while.

Europe and Stuff

Well, Mr. Sloth still needs to get me OUR pictures but I do have Obscure's pictures so how about we start there.

Here's a link to some of our pictures. Hopefully the captions are self-explanatory.

http://picasaweb.google.com/overtheline/SlothsInEurope?authkey=Gv1sRgCNeh27nSxdvORw&feat=directlink

If I haven't said before. Our trip was great. Don't get me wrong, traveling with two small children is just as hard as I thought it was going to be, but all the challenges traveling with children bring are worth the family experience. The look on Demands face when she saw the Eiffel Tower was priceless. She was jumping up and down. Nothing can take that away from us. She now points out everything she saw on her trip that she sees in pictures, etc now. She remembers EVERYTHING, even minute details we barely remember. Tonight at dinner she recounted how Mr. Sloth and Obscure played chess in the lobby of our hotel in Florence while I put Happy to bed.

Would Mr. Sloth and I loved to have gone alone. Yes!! But what a family experience. I hope it's the first of many to come. Enjoy the pictures. I'll try and keep them coming. More stories too!!

A Teaser

My apologies.

Various family 'issues' have occupied my time since we've been home. It looks as though we might be getting back into a routine soon though so I hope to update you on our big trip!

To satisfy your appetite for a few days how about "Things to do/not do while traveling Europe with children"??

1. Do not decide to climb to the top of the "Duomo" with a baby who hates to be carried and 3 year old who aspires to be a paraplegic. 483 steps. Once you're up you still have to come down.

2. Don't buy a luggage carrier from Target hoping to have it help with the load only to have it break your first day into the trip and then have to carry it all through Europe in order to get your money back. (I DID get my money back by the way.)


3. Don't forget to repack your husbands emergency change of clothes for the long flight overseas lest the baby vomit on him mid flight. (Baby's clothes still have mold stains from this incident.)


4. Do research on hotels more than one day before you are scheduled to arrive so that you don't have to walk through a cemetery in Paris two days before Halloween dragging all of your luggage and pushing two strollers in order to get to your hotel.


More when we have some pictures!

Home

Where to start.

It took over 30days, two 10 hour plane rides, two half hour plane rides, dozens of trains, countless metro rides and bus rides, two six hour car rides,a hand full of taxi rides, a seven hour time difference, and three days of jet-lag, but Demand is finally taking a nap.

Totally worth it.

Saturday night around 7pm Mr. Sloth and I walked into our home after about six weeks and declared to ourselves, "We have a beautiful home".

That comment may lead you to believe we didn't have a great trip, but that's not true. We had a wonderful trip. We had a lot of fun, learned a lot and spent exactly enough time away. No matter how much I love to travel, home is home. It's always nice to get back into routines and after living 4 (sometimes 5) people to one room for six weeks a 1,500 square foot home doesn't look so bad.

And when the CLEANEST place your baby can crawl is the floor of a Paris Hotel room our living room carpet doesn't look too bad either.

I can bath my kids at night if I want to, as opposed to thinking up some contraption or device to bath them in a shower. I know where our next meal is coming from even if it is processed or deep fried. I don't have to have five people showered, dressed with bags packed and heading towards a metro before we eat breakfast or find coffee.

I don't have to pay to use a toilet or change a diaper. Although if "I" got paid to use the toilet or change a diaper I would be rather wealthy by now.


Again, I'm not complaining about our trip I've just increased my gratitude for the things of home be them fine or ordinary. Unfortunately that is where I leave you now. Wondering how our trip actually went. By and "Early-Thanksgiving Week Miracle" both children are sleeping so it is my once chance to get anything done around the house. I shall now gladly fold CLEAN laundry that hasn't been worn five days in a row and I will wash dishes that I cooked on and my family ate on.

God, Bless America and thank you for my home!

This is my...

Before I forget and posterity loses out on the memory....


The other day Happy held a cheerio with both hands over his head, looked at, and then ate it.


"Take this all of you and eat it. This is my cheerio."


Just had to share.

Even more pictures....

Man I am ontop of things today! First a clean house, now three posts!!

First picture Demand is showing off the cute outfit she picked out that day. The next two pictures are a rare find. Demand fell asleep ON OUR LIVING ROOM FLOOR. Never, ever EVER has such a thing happend around here. Happy? Yes. Demand. NO! She was sick of course, guess that's what it takes. The last picture is of our SECOND snow fall of the year. Thankfully everything has melted and it looks like Autumn around her again. In the last picture note my snow covered tomato plant in the center.


Ok, I should go pack for our big trip!

 

 

 

 

More fall pics

Here are a few more pictures. The first on is of Demand at the park, always coy for the camera. The next picture is strictly for my mother, she always wants to know how I decorate for seasons. Here are the placemats and center piece I made this fall. The next picture Demand....demanded. She posed and said, "Take our picture,Momma!". The last picture is actually of Happy attacking Demand. It was a full blown attack and absolutely hilarious.

Enjoy! More pictures to come if the kids don't wake up from their naps! (Yes they are BOTH sleeping)

 

 

 

 

Fall with the Sloths

Here are some "recent" photos of Happy and Demand.

The first one is of Happy lounging in his highchair. I thought it was hilarious. The rest are of the kids at the park, it turned out to be the ONE day of fall we had. Fun day!

 

 

 

 

My Saturday

Today was my morning off. My morning off is slightly different than Mr. Sloths. When I woke up it was only Happy and I in bed. The little guy has gotten used to nursing privileges this week as he was teething so he's out of the habit of sleeping through the night. Just as he was waking up Mr. Sloth was getting in the shower which of course meant I was in charge of the kiddos. (So much for sleeping in on my morning off). Within the hour Mr. Sloth had the kids dressed, and on their way to grandmas. After brewing a pot of coffee and wishing my mother a happy birthday I headed for a nice long bath. I took my sweet old time getting ready for the day and then did various tasks around the house I find hard to do with kids around. (They always seem to want attention.) I worked on Demand's Europe scrapbook, read, cleaned, taped numerous pages of books that Demand had tore and fixed a broken wooden rosary....twice.

I had missed the phone call from Mr. Sloth telling me that Demands stomach bug hadn't gone away and she had thrown up all over his parents couch, and himself. He had called on his way to Target to buy some new clothes (yes it was that bad) For the last 48 hours Demand has seemed fine, but has three times just...thrown up. Her best friend has the same mystery disease right now. When Mr. Sloth got home he came in to tell me both kids were asleep in the car so I jumped in and we drove around for a bit so they could both get really good naps in.

Afterwards, Mr. Sloth and I had a quick bite to eat and then I played with the kids and did housework while Mr. Sloth grabbed some ingredient for dinner. He came home just in time for me to head to confession. Since we have to split Mass because we don't want to bring Demand I was heading to Confession AND Mass. It wasn't until Mass had started that I realized I was going to be gone a whole two hours. Yikes! I came home and helped Mr. Sloth put the kids to bed. Neither child was happy about the situation so as Mr. Sloth finally started to cook our dinner we could hear both children screaming. Very pleasant. We were having dinner late because Demand keeps asking for food but we're only letting her eat the BRAT diet and we didn't want to tease her with food. Happy ate his dinner separately.

Hopefully we're done with the Sloths being sick soon as we fly next week!! Oh, and did I mention that it snowed today???

Good Night

Today was a long day. Neither children took an afternoon nap which ended up sending me over the edge. I finally called Mr. Sloth at 4pm and asked him to come home a bit early as I was in no condition to watch the children. He was scheduled to head to his parents to hang out with his dad at 5pm.

One lighthearted moment during the day was when Demand announced to me that she had to use the restroom, she then declared, "Poop, you need to get out! Right Momma?"

Ummm.....right!

I'm also in peek Sports-widow form. This was the third night in a row of "Big Games" and of course all of my Sundays are gone from now until January. Mr. Sloth and I have joked about his baseball team heading to the world series just in time for us to fly to Europe. Sorry Mr. Sloth. To be really ironic it will be a blizzard too.

I don't feel like writing anymore. Good night.

What was that?

The other night Demand was taking a bath and I heard the distinct sound of a VERY loud, VERY long, underwater fart.

I said: "Was that you?"

Demand: "No!"

Me: "What was that?"

Demand: "My butt!"

Quick Update

Quick update.

Happy walked across the room the other night via walker. Big boy!

Demand is three and has been acting like it....I don't wish to expand on that.

Mr. Sloth....who?? I don't know, he's been working non-stop and sleeping on the couch due to illness. He shows up for meals though.

Me. I've started to get a better grip on things. CCD and Bible Study have leveled out,and I'm done with book club for two months because of our "big trip". This week I discovered my FAVORITE show "18 and Counting" had finally added some full episodes online so I can get my fix and once again speak under my breath, "If Michelle Duggar can do it I can do it."

Life is getting better.... and we're heading to Europe this month...with or without money. ;)

Life Happens

It's been a while. What can I say, life happens. Lots of life has been happening.

In the last few weeks we've been extremely busy around here. I've had only two free mornings in the past few weeks and that's the only time I have to get anything done. Over the past few weeks we've restarted CCD and Bible Study, and book club which has meant countless hours of reading. Happy had a double ear infection which was one doctors appointment, and he has another one tomorrow. (unrelated) Demand has had a steady flow of play dates. It's ridiculous, it's getting to the point where she's double booking now.

I can't remember the last time I bought groceries and what's worse I can't remember the last time I cleaned out our refrigerator. Today I yelled at Demand to get out of our bedroom because all the piles of laundry made it dangerous to navigate. (She did end up hurting herself) Mr. Sloth is sick now and the kids seem to be on the threshold of "something" as well. Just keeping our dishes clean has been a battle (and we often lose) Tonight was the first time in a few weeks I've had the upstairs cleaned enough to vacuum. Yikes! ...let's move on to another subject.

And the bombshell amidst all of this surprisingly unexpected chaos is that we found out my mom has cancer. Maybe all my spinning plates have helped me deal with the blow. Not that I'm trying to stay busy, it's just happening. I was just thinking how I didn't have anything to do tomorrow and then I remembered that Happy has a meeting with a neurologist tomorrow to double check his "birth abnormality". We spent most of today at an apple orchid (cold and wicked windy, by the way), tomorrow we have the appointment/groceries/library, Wednesday we have CCD, Thursday Bible Study, and Friday a playdate and maybe a Rosary procession in the evening. PLUS, Thurs/Fri/Sat Mr. Sloth has a Republican Convention so he'll be MIA. By the end of the week we'll be two weeks away from our big Europe trip.

Man, life is happening, and it's happening fast.

The sick Mr. Sloth has requested I get off his "bed" (the couch since he is sick) so I will wrap this up. If you hear from me again this week, our life has slowed down just a bit.

Ship in a Bottle

We made some home decorating decisions this weekend. After seeing a neighbors fireplace (more about me talking to neighbors in a bit) I gave Mr. Sloth the suggestion of stoning our fireplace rather than repainting it, he loved the idea. Then we decided to recarpet the living room rather than laminate it as we were planning. We of course don't know how we are paying for any of this but we are sick of looking at this carpet and we need a change of pace with the fireplace. In addition I would like to repaint the downstairs bathroom a more neutral tone and replace the upstairs bathroom rug (also in a neutral tone). The biggest decision though was to move Happy's crib into our closet until we can put up the walls necessary to make the playroom into Demands bedroom, then move Happy into the nursery. Got that??

Trust me it's more chaotic than it sounds.

Moving the crib was like building a ship in a bottle. Scratch that, it's like taking down a ship in one bottle and moving it to another bottle and reassembling it, but not before removing and relocating half the contents of your closet, including a dresser, when you've run out of storage around the house as it is. The crib fits into the closet with a half an inch on either side to spare. During the very last step of assembling the crib I thought I might not have enough room to put the screw into the side and fit the allen wrench in as well. It was close. Our closet is very large which is a blessing. The front part of the closet now houses "some" of our clothes, but the better part of the closet is for the baby. Crib, humidifier, monitor.

Why did we move him, you ask. Well the last week Mr. Sloth and I have found ourselves on the couch most of the night, every night. Happy wakes up (not happy) and will continue to scream at us from the short distance of 6 inches. Nights like last night, I was up every hour either tending to the child, checking on the other child, heading upstairs, heading downstairs.....ugh, I'm tired just thinking about it.

The other night I headed upstairs at 3am to relieve Mr. Sloth only to find him "hiding" in the bathroom so Happy couldn't see him and would therefore fall back asleep. I'm not making this up people.


In the unfortunate event of us being in the house for more than another year our plan is to have him in the closet until we can move him to the nursery and move Demand to a newly constructed bedroom. Then once "another one" comes along Happy can join his sister in her room and the new baby can have the nursery as soon as we choose.

(Disclaimer: There is NOT another Sloth on the way as of yet...at least that we are aware of.)

Anyway, that's what has happened here this weekend. I have yet to find a place to store my wedding dress but I love an organizing challenge I guess.

Wish me luck!

Some Recent Photos

 

My two angels before Sunday Mass.

 

At my godson's Baptism.

 

My boy can stand!!

 

Poor kid's first fat lip!

Food

It's Mr. Sloths morning off but things are going smoothly so I have time to write today. The only rough part so far this morning was when Happy pooped up to his eyeballs and had to be hosed down. Mr. Sloth was still sleeping and since it was his morning off I didn't want to wake him for help. He insists I could have woke him up but I insisted that no one should have to smell that first thing in the morning.

Where to start? I have a lot of food themed adventures. We went to the State Fair last Tuesday. It was great fun but of course we walked away asking, "Did I eat that or wipe it on my face?" (Jim Gaffigan, anyone?) Happy started to eat puffs the other day which he is more than excited about. He unfortunately lacks the ability to pick them up on his own, fun to watch though. Demand had fantastic fine motor skills at an early age so it's fun to watch him struggle, I mean learn.

I've been in a cooking mood recently which brings about mixed feelings from Mr. Sloth. He said while he usually likes the bi-product he doesn't like the messy kitchen or increased grocery bill. Hey, at least I'm not making cakes Mr. Sloth! He LOTHS it when I make cakes. Why, you ask? Because I am a non-perfect perfectionist which inevitably leads to frustration which leads to me on the verge of tears pouting on the couch the night before a cake is due. Mr. Sloth then has to pick up the pieces and on a really bad day try and fix the cake himself. That's what usually gets me out of my slump. Hands off Sugar Feet!

After months of making the same meals I decided to try and seek out some new and exciting ones. Again, Mr. Sloth is just happy we don't have cable right now because I would be making everything I saw on the food network. As it is I am making everything I can find on kraftfoods.com Last night we made eclairs (not from kraftfoods) It was a recipe I'd had for years but never got around to making. Mr. Sloth loves Eclairs so I thought it would be fun and make up for a letdown of a date the night before (more on that in a bit). They were super easy to make and of course really yummy.

So, our date. One month and two days after our 6th wedding anniversary we finally got a chance to go out. Obscure took the lead at home and became the first person to put both children to sleep. (Way to go Obscure!) Mr. Sloth and I first headed to a Republican cocktail party. Because nothing says Happy Anniversary like a Republican cocktail party! The only reason we went was because Mr. Sloth found out about it at the last minute and since he's a delegate to vote in the fall he needed to hear from some candidates. At first it was a yawn fest but after a while I found it interesting but it might have just been the beer and free snacks kicking in.

Afterwards we headed to our old neighborhood for dinner. Due to a miscommunication, I thought we would head LATER in the evening for happy hour with $4 glasses of wine and $5 appetizers on the best patio in town. Mr. Sloth wanted to go for dinner instead and we were greeted with a 45 minutes wait. So we walked across the street to our old watering hole and opened up a tab. Once we were finally seated at dinner it was a letdown. Another forty-five minute wait until we got our appetizers and then another long wait until dinner. Mr. Sloth ordered the most expensive steak and was loving it until he realized the center wasn't steak ti was potatoes shaped like steak so he only got a third of the steak he thought he was getting. My meal was far from exciting. In the end we spent the same amount we would have if we had gone to The Melting Pot like I've been dreaming about. We had a nice time talking to each other and being without children for a while.

Happy is up from his nap now and I've run out of memories from the past week. I'll post some pictures though.

Big Week

Happy's big week just got bigger. While at my inlaws for dinner this evening Mr. Sloth discovered that Happy cut a tooth!! An hour earlier I had mentioned how odd it was to have a crawling/standing baby with no teeth, but Mr. Sloth did point out it helped with all the falls. The crazy part is, his tooth isn't anywhere near where we thought it was going to be. He's been chewing on his left side since he could hold an object and his first tooth is front,right and center. Pretty exciting, huh? He also was trying to cruise some furniture today but that's more scary than exciting.

Demand has been having a good week as well. I started a sticker/chore chart. I had been wanting to do it for a while now but Demand didn't take well to potty training with stickers so I dropped the idea. One day I just sat down at her table with her new paper and pens and drew up a chart. I decided to try my best at drawing pictures to illustrate chores instead of avoiding the chart due to my lack of artistic ability. (Somehow the artistic gene completely passed by me, everyone else in my family can draw.)

Well Demand LOVES her chart. She checks it multiple times a day to make sure she's doing everything. And (here's the best part) she's even starting to nap more because of it. She desperately wants all of the stickers she can get napping is one of her chores. Plus if she gets all of her stickers for one day she gets a special prize. The first time she did it she got a quarter for her "princess" piggy bank. She loves getting money for her piggy bank. The second time I let her have a piece of candy.

If you're wondering, her chores are make your bed, brush your teeth (morning), clear your plate (breakfast/lunch/dinner), help with laundry, brush your teeth (evening), and nap. Most are self explanatory but clearing your plate means taking your plate/silverware/glass to the counter after a meal. Helping with laundry means a number of things; helping me switch loads, taking clothes to her room, or taking dirty clothes to the laundry room. If she does at least one she gets a sticker. Napping she needs to sleep. I will give her a sticker for staying in her bed though even if she doesn't sleep but she can't watch TV. Usually she has no privileges if she doesn't nap. No snacks, no TV and early to bed.

Just a little more insight to the workings of the Sloth family these past few weeks.

Seek and Destroy

I've been MIA for about a week due to the new way of life around here. Happy has a much different approach to life than Demand did. Just as we suspected the day after learning to crawl he started pulling up on things. Now he's trying to cruise furniture.

Good grief.

He's not timid about anything and no creative re-arrangement of furniture will keep him from his objective. We remember how even after Demand learned to crawl she wouldn't enter the bathroom. Well Happy just lets himself and practically starts the bath himself. He's already tried to rewire the fireplace and ANY wire he sees becomes his first objective. (Sigh) Demand was not like this. He has another favorite item to seek and destory. Magazines. Specifically my IKEA magazine. Objective: eat magazine. I haven't been able to read it all week because of him. When he tried to grab it from me I put it on the couch, he practically laughed at me as he pulled himself up and tried to climb onto the couch using me as a step stool.

Demand is slowly becoming annoyed by him. She's learning anything in his reach is fair game and she was NOT happy when he tried to grab her Barbie. He adores her though. He's bored when she's not around and when she leaves the room he tries to follow her. It's so cute!

He's also very fond of the vacuum cleaner as many babies are. I borrowed Sidekicks Dyson the other day, it was the first time he was on the floor with the vacuum since he learned to crawl. Mr. Sloth was home and I told him, watch he's going to follow me. Sure enough starting it up didn't startle him a bit. He dropped what he was doing and followed the vacuum. Objective: crawl to vacuum, eat cord. I eventually had to put the vacuum on the porch so he would leave it alone. I'm sure Sidekick was disturbed to find his $300+ vacuum on the porch and the Sloths not home, but he was polite about it.

Consequently having two movers has made me exhausted. There are some days when I think I'd be ready to get pregnant again in a few months, but then I remember how tired I get when pregnant and I can't fathom how I could chase Happy around and function as a responsible adult. I'm barely passing now. With Demand I could just put on a TV show and she'd be fine, I could sleep on the couch until she brought me the remote to start another show, but Happy...lets not think about what he would do unsupervised.

Well it's a rare day when both kiddos are asleep and as it stands I'm sitting on the bedroom floor because Happy is asleep in our bed. He goes from waking to sitting and moving in less than a second so he can't be left alone. EVER. Good thing I have entertainment.

Six Months and Priceless

Today Happy is six months old. Crazy, huh? Want to know something crazier? He crawled OFFICIALLY for the first time today. We knew it was coming but, wow, six months???

He's been crawling in the tub for a few days and making some crawling movements on the floor but today was the day. Obscure and Sidekick were over briefly killing time before leaving on a camping trip this afternoon. You could tell that Happy was capable of doing it, he just needed the motivation. I convinced Sidekick to put his iphone on the floor to tempt Happy but just as he did Happy looked away and Sidekick wisely changed his mind about letting a six month old near his phone.

As soon as they left I put my phone on the floor and not only did Happy crawl, he dashed across the living room to get it. I mean this was an alligator like movement. Mr. Sloth knew that Happy had a surprise for him when he got home. I handed Happy over to Mr. Sloth and then set the computer on the floor. (This confused Mr. Sloth greatly) I then grabbed the video camera and told Mr. Sloth to put him on the floor. Before I could even press record he had dashed across the floor and started playing with the computer. Mr. Sloth was impressed and surprised (and that's hard to do).

In addition to crawling he also pinned his sister today which was pretty funny. She has no idea what he's going to do to her in the near future.

Here's a great Demand story for you. (Sorry future Demand this is embarrassing)

Two days ago I spontaneously decided to take the kids to the park. It was a nice day, sunny but not too hot. We were at the park for about 10 minutes when Demand declared she had to go potty and her dance indicated immediately. I had no choice. The park is secluded and no one else was there. Demand got her first outdoor lesson. In fact, so did I. I brought her behind a tree, took off her underwear and shorts and told her to squat. She surprisingly obliged and proceeded to pee down the hill. I think she thought it was fun.

Around 4:30pm I was at my "done" point with the kids so I headed outside with a blanket and the kids for some yard time and waited for Mr. Sloth to pull in the driveway. I was laying on my side resting and simultaneously playing with Happy and Demand was landscaping with her scissors. At one point I rolled over and there at the base of the hill was Demand, completely pantless, peeing on the lawn.

Laughing out loud I grabbed her clothes and swept her into the house. As I helped her dress I tried to explain that peeing in the grass was only something to be done in emergencies. I think she was so excited at the playground because she learned a way to stay dry and still have fun.

Priceless.

My Cup Overfloweth

I barely had enough sugar for my coffee this morning. I mean I was collecting bits of sugar from random places in my cupboard and pantry just to make a good cup of coffee. And as I sipped the loverly brew Mr. Sloth and I had the following conversation.

LW: God's grace is abundant, right?

MS: Yes.

LW: And endless?

MS: Yes

Good. I'm going to need that today.

So imagine yesterday, just add a sick Demand with a cold and diarrhea.

Yep. I tell you no lies.

Today I have tapped into that wonderful well of graces. As I type both children sleep. I have bathed them both at least once, steamed cleaned diarrhea out of Demands bedroom carpet, vacuumed upstairs, cleaned most of the house, ate lunch, showered AND DRIED MY HAIR. I have even taken a cat nap. I don't feel like the world is coming to an end, I haven't research putting children up for sale on Ebay and I haven't pondered as to whether or not Guardian Angels count as babysitters, and even when Mr. Sloth came home just as sick as the children instead of being my relief pitcher for an hour and informed me that in addition to him being sick our babysitter for tonight (so that we could finally celebrate our Anniversary) was also sick, I still didn't feel overwhelmed.

I can only assume it was either the fabulous cup of coffee or God's grace.

An hour from now both children will be up, I'll probably have bathed them both again and most likely one of them will be crying, and I'll be putting pizzas in the oven for dinner not getting ready to go on a long awaited date. But for now I sit in peace.

Maybe I'll lay down in peace.

Pain in the Butt

Poor Happy.

He's going to have to have surgery again. It's the other side this time. We knew this might happen but they can't operate on both sides at the same time since they go through muscle. We don't know when the surgery will be but it's at least 2-3 weeks away. Hopefully it's as easy as last time.

PLUS, the pediatric sugeon took a picture of Happy's loverly birth abnormality (which is now a bald patch on his head) and sent it to his pediatric nurologist friend who thinks we should have some images taken. I really wish we would have had that done when the MRI was done on his corresponding dimple.

(Sigh) Sorry, Buddy.

On a positive side, we paid his entire deductible for the year months ago so all this is "free". At least we can feel like the giant insurance payment we make each month is actually going somewhere. So this is the year for Happy to be sick/have injuries. Do it now or forever stay healthy!

NOTE: Skip the following paragraph if you don't want to hear the details of Happy's wounds.

We discovered his "injury" had come back on Saturday. Mr. Sloth came to me and said every time he puts Happy down he screams. I checked his diaper and sure enough he had pooped and the abscess was so big you couldn't even see his rectum. Can you imagine?? I'd scream too if I had an abscess the size of a walnut near my rectum. PLUS he came down with a pretty bad cold on Sunday (the very congested type) and he's teething pretty bad.

Yet he still finds reason to smile 90% of the time. This kid is indestructible! So now every time he goes to the bathroom I give him a bath, plus the one bath a day recommend for the rest of this week from the last surgery. Last night after a grand trip to Sam's Club, Happy screamed the whole way home. Very unusual for him. I gave him his bath and he was back to his normal self...until he bumped his head in the tub. Ugh. This kid has enough reason to cry lets not add to the problem. So after his bath I got him all ready for bed, and nursed him but he didn't sleep in fact he was energized. Grrrr.

I played with him for a half an hour to help get the energy out and then it happened.

Poop face.

Every parent knows the face their child makes as they are pooping. So there we went again. I had to give him another bath which only gave him more energy. I ended up getting him to sleep in the Moby Wrap (his favorite way to sleep these days) and then just held him on the couch until he woke up again. At 11:30am I decided it was time for both of us to go to bed. After spending four hours at the zoo in the morning and then having a 3 yr old and 5 month old NOT SLEEP all day, plus carrying Happy around most of the day (he's 19+ pounds now) I was beyond exhausted. Since he had spit up all over our sheets during the day there were no sheets on the bed. He and I just sprawled out and he nursed to sleep. I woke up to find that Mr. Sloth wasn't in the room. He came home from work around 12:30am took one look at us and set up came on the couch. I don't know if it was the lack of sheets on the bed, the two people hogging the bed or the fact that I was covered in my own milk (Attractive aren't I??) I don't blame him. In fact I envy him. He got a full nights sleep AND showered first thing this morning.

I didn't feel quite as rested as Mr. Sloth but I pushed on (and pushed the button on the coffee maker). Today was equally exhausting and equally unproductive. Happy has just napped for the first time sine the half an hour car trip to the surgeons office and it took a long walk in the very hot sun to get him asleep. Demand is back to her usual antics of not sleeping and then spending her afternoon as Miss Crabby-Disobedient pants.

Bedtime can't come soon enough, but I have little hope of actually getting any rest.
Sorry if I sound like Debbie Downer. I'm truly not having bad days, I'm just exhausted.

Ok, I should go wash something. Dishes, laundry, myself, a child's bottom, who knows what exciting adventures await me.

Hot Dog!

Yesterday...was...interesting. Our morning started earlier than expected. For example; at exactly 7am Demand was sobbing because I wasn't going to serve her a hot dog for breakfast. Please note that we usually aren't even up at 7am let alone crying about hot dogs.

Do you laugh or cry?? I mean, I haven't showered in over 24 hours and after being woken up by both children simultaneously at 6:30am, I haven't even had time to make coffee, and must I remind you that's it is not even 7am and we are crying because hot dogs are not on the menu.

The only way I was able to get Happy to sleep was to nurse him, holding him on the couch around 4pm. Well *just* as I'm getting him to sleep who comes trouncing downstairs out of her locked bedroom. She said, "I have something for you Momma", and then handed me the "childproof" lock off her door. Let's just refer to that as a road block from this point forward. I tried desperately to keep her quiet seeing as I had just gotten Happy to sleep so Demand decided to take advantage of the situation and not only make as much noise as possible, but do everything she shouldn't be doing knowing that I couldn't do anything about it holding a sleeping baby. Happy finally woke up when I heard Demand crying upstairs and feared her injured (she was not). In the one hour I was stuck on the couch with a sleeping baby Demand managed to dump all her new crayons and markers out on the floor.

Speaking of which. I heard, through my homeschooling group about a bunch of great deals in town. I bought folders and wooden rulers for $0.01 a piece. Paper for $0.10 a package, spiral notebooks for $0.20 a piece and a box of 64 count Crayola Crayons for $2, plus some new marker, $0.10 for a box pencils, a pencil box, and dry-erase markers. It was a fun trip and made me get more excited about homeschooling even though I have my doubts that my three year old will be journalism in a spiral notebook with her new pencils anytime soon. Maybe next year.

So that was yesterday. We had hot dogs for dinner, in case you were wondering.

Today was a bit rough. Happy had his check-up from surgery last week. He had a decent nap in the morning but I knew he was tired so we left early hoping to get a good nap in the car. He slept for a good hour before we had to wake him at his appointment. He slept on the way home too, but that was it. Neither of my children napped today, and can I just say that napping is a defense mechanism beautifully designed by God. If a child doesn't nap, they risk injury from themselves or from their rest depraved parents. Naptime for Demand consisted of me reprimanding her for getting out of bed, Demand peeing in her potty and on the chair in her room and then afterward peeing on the kitchen floor. (That one sent me over the edge.) Happy's afternoon consisted of him needing to be held or entertained perpetually. It was rough. After Demand peed her pants the second time I decided to give her a bath and thought with her hair being wet it would be a good time to cut her hair. So Happy whimpered in the highchair while I attempted to trim Demands hair and counted the minutes until Mr. Sloth came home.

I managed to pull myself together and spend a few enjoyable minutes with the children on the lawn in order to present a happy family life for Mr. Sloth. You wouldn't want to give him a reason to leave while he's still behind the wheel. After a very sad excuse for dinner. Our little lazy family prayed a decade of the rosary, and danced to some music before Happy finally threw in the towel. Turns out he was teething all day which explains his unusual behavior. He fell asleep in record time which is how I have time to write right now.

And with that, I'll now spend some time with my spouse. Six years ago today we were drinking rum on a secluded beach in St. Lucia. My how things have changed!

Maybe next week we'll actually go out for our anniversary...

WikiPedia

After a short discussion, Mr. Sloth and I have decided to rename Obscure and Sidekick "Wiki" and "Pedia" due to their abnormal range of knowledge.

I will now sit back and wait for the wrath.

6 years

Today is our 6th Wedding Anniversary. We had planned on going out tonight but since we didn't know how Happy's surgery was going to go we tried to go earlier. We didn't go on Wednesday as planned because Tuesday had been a bad night with Happy and everyone was exhausted. So some day soon we shall go out as planned. We intend to go to "Melting Pot", a fondue restaurant. Our friends went there for their anniversary in June and loved it. I can't wait!! While tonight seems like an ordinary Saturday it's actually been pretty nice. While getting my organizing fix on earlier today I stumbled across some old "love letters" and decided to open the infamous 'wedding trunk' which now serves as our living room coffee table. (Let's be honest, beer table.) It was a good idea indeed as it brought back some great memories and I think Mr. Sloth might have enjoyed it as well. (Very rare)

In the words of Obscure, "God smited our children" because they both napped for a long time today. What a great anniversary gift! In fact Demand is still sleeping.
We rarely exchange material gifts, but we had some quality time alone together which was fantastic. Best gift of all, actually.


Happy is doing fantastic after his surgery. A thousand times better than expected. In fact, it's the best case senario, he's better than he was before his surgery. He didn't complain once about the required fast, in fact he charmed the pants off of everyone. The surgery was very quick, and aside from a little anticipated crankiness as the anesthesia wore off, he was back to normal. The surgeon had first told me his 'wound' would look like a granade went off near his bottom, then after discovering his fistula was much deeper and much larger than expected told me it would look like a mortar went off near his bottom. So I held my breath as I opened his diaper for the first time to discover that it actually looked better than before. Can you imagine having a surgeon slice open your nether region and have it be an aesthetically improvement? And not only does the incision not bother him, but it's helped him feel better already. Whether or not you want to know this, I had long wondered if his difficulty in passing gas was related to the unfortunate location of his abscesses. Well this kid has had no problems passing gas since the surgery. AND this morning went to the bathroom all on his own which he hadn't done in weeks.
We are more than happy with how things turned out.

Demand is doing well. While I rummaged through my wedding trunk today she scored a few new toys; the veils given to me at my bachlorette party and a spare Barbie dress (there used to be a wedding day Barbie in the trunk), so she was pretty happy.

I should leave it at that before I get distracted.

Holy Moses!

First I would like to take a moment to express my gratitude for having such nice brothers. Even though I was the youngest in the family I never felt threatened or that my life was in danger from my older brothers.

And with that, I begin my story.

Sunday was a gorgeous day. We went to 10am Mass at the Cathedral and brought the stroller to walk around with the kids in our old neighborhood. We walked to a park and let Demand play for a bit before heading home. Mr. Sloth was going to brew and grill at the same time. Brewing is the only thing he wanted to do for his birthday (which was Saturday) so he was kind of anxious to get going. Like every Sunday, I was itching to clean and organize. I never do because it's Sunday, but I decided that if I really WANT to do it and thoroughly enjoy it, why not? I do not regret my decision. It was so relaxing to get all the cleaning done. I set up Demand's tent in her room and she was highly entertained for a few hours. Happy just did his thing using his new 'sitting up' trick. It's all he wants to do these days. (I never thought I would have a four month old who could sit up independently. Crazy!)

Anyway the day passed, there were naps and dinner. It was still beautiful outside so we took the kids for a walk. There's a huge open field/park in our subdivision that runs along side the road and a nature preserve. In an effort to burn some energy we had Demand run to one of the two large rocks that serve as benches there. Our family sat at the rock and looked out at the nature preserve. It's quite beautiful. A long, very high ravine with trees and small lake at the bottom. You can't tell how steep the ravine is because they let the weeks and such grow free, it's about waist high with grass and wild flowers.

Well Demand decided she want to push Happy in the stroller so we pointed her towards the large open area. (Really large, like three football fields end to end. She started on her trek and Mr. Sloth and I started discussing the time. He wanted me to guess the time. I guessed 5:47pm. He said I was close. 6:02pm. And it was at 6:02pm that I heard Demand yelp. Like Miriam and Moses, Demand pushed her little brother through the reeds towards the water.

We're guessing that Demand tried to turn the heavy stroller but was walking too close to the hill and lost control and lacking the strength to hold on, let go. They were about 20-30 feet away but I made it there in three steps. Happy rolled about five feet down the ravine before the high grass stopped the stroller. Mr. Sloth said he had never seen me run that fast. Although it did not seem slow to me. I asked Mr. Sloth why he just sat there and he said that by the time he processed what was happening I was already there. As I picked thistles out of my toes from diving into the brush he asked if I had enough adrenaline in me to lift a car. On the contrary, I could barely stand. As I drug Happy and the stroller back up the hill Demand informed me that "Happy" wanted to see the river. They write horror movies about things like this I thought.

With very few words I just started pushing my baby home. Demand and Mr. Sloth followed, but first Demand asked me to pick her up. It was then I informed her that she was not one of my top children right now and she could ride in the stroller.


So, like I said before. I'm grateful for the non-life threatening siblings I was given and I'm also grateful that I always buckle the boy into the stroller, otherwise I would have been pulling thistles out of his face. I would also like to give a shout out to the Guardian Angels apparently they work on Sundays too.

Out of My Element

I recently joined a Catholic homeschooling group and a book club for Conservative Catholic Women. Both are out of my element. Last night was a moms night out event for the homeschool group. Nursing babies were welcome but I opted for a full break from children, besides by 7pm Happy is hankering to be put to bed. There were other nursing babies there however, two six month olds, two nine month olds, and two, two week olds. Lots of babies. Lots of fun.

As it turns out I already knew a number of the women in the group already. It's a brand new group geared towards whole families not just a moms group. One woman Mr. Sloth grew up with, another woman knew my brother in law and taught Mr. Sloth in high school. (Get that JWD?) Three women were from Bible Study (but one invited me to the group so she doesn't count) and one women I met at a Catholic Woman's gathering last year. Everyone else was nice of course.

Since we're not actively homeschooling yet we'll mostly just be going on outings and bouncing off ideas and questions at this point.

The book club. I told Mr. Sloth at dinner last night that this was completely out of my element and expressed my concern for barely being literate. Then I came up with the idea of "Book on Tape Club". Mr. Sloth called it a Lazywife's guide to literacy.

Other than that we're just waiting for Tiger to have her baby. I'm on the entertainment commitee this weekend. Today she is two days past due. I have fun planned for the evening if she hasn't gone yet. It's Mr. Sloth's morning off so it's just like any other day for me at least until about noon. (It's the first official week of the "mornings off" schedule since Happy was born).

Hopefully I've done some more reading next time you hear from me!

Learning

That's funny, I thought we got rid of cable, yet the TV is always on...hmmm. See I knew we wouldn't miss cable. We have enough DVDs to keep us busy for months. How's my Italian coming you say?? Yeah, I'll get right on that. Demand's French is coming along though. Planning is half the fun. The Sloths plus Obscure have been having a blast planning our European adventure. We've been teaching Demand some French phrases as well and she knows her heritage, the girl is flawless in her pronunciation.

Yesterday I came up with the idea to make a scrapbook/treasure hunt for her. I'll put together pages with things we plan on seeing for her to study ahead of time so she'll recognize people/places/things as we go and there will be space for her to add to the book as we go via post cards, coloring, stickers, etc. Think North American Dora meets Europe. Over the weekend she watched "Ratatouille" for the ump-teenth time, and turned to me and asked, "I'm going to see the Eiffel Tower!?".

As you can guess our Europe trip is taking up a good amount of our time. Just prior to the fourth of July fireworks we were talking to Demand about the things she was going to see; Eiffel Tower, Vatican, lots of Churches...Well she had some reservations about the fireworks. As soon as they started she started screaming and clinging to Mr. Sloth. In the midst of screaming she declared "I want to see churches". Sanctuary anyone??

In case anyone is curious this trip is more than a vacation. In the past few years whenever we've discussed the education of our children we've always mentioned traveling. Not only have we learned a lot from traveling but many of the smartest people we know grew up exposed various cultures. The more cultural experiences we can expose our children to (under our supervision) the better. Mr. Sloth and I both love to travel and have new experiences and we love sharing that with our children. That has brought us to our next conclusion. Homeschooling.

Our plan is to homeschool at least preschool and kindergarten and then see where we want to go. And as I jokingly mentioned to Mr. Sloth, "Well we're homeschooling her now, because this trip to Europe is tuition money." Homeschooling will allow us to travel at will and in fact make travel a part of our lessons. How fantastic would it have been if you just drove to Gettysburg in the middle of studying the Civil War? I think it would have been awesome.

Arrivederci!! (See I'm learning something)

Milestones

Some big things have been happening in the Sloth home. Happy REALLY wants to crawl after perfecting rolling over this past weekend. Demand turned the big three and we're finally going to get Mr. Sloth to Rome! (more on that later)

Demand's birthday party was so much fun. Even though I had a blast putting it all together, it was a lot of work and I'm still exhausted. It took over a week to make the cardboard castle, but it was a blast to make. Plus it made giving up cable that week a bit easier. Her castle cake was also fun to make, just a little time consuming. Every cake should be that much fun to make. By far her favorite part of the party was having all her friends there. She keeps talking about how much fun she had with her friends. However, in true Sloth fashion, amidst friends, sweets, fun and laughter, Demand asked if she could watch a show. Next year, no party. ;)

Happy has ridiculous strength, well some of him is strong. He was born with wicked strong neck and legs, and how has outrageously strong abs. His arms however,not so much. The poor kid can roll over and get his legs under him but just face plants. And THAT does not make him happy. Speaking of which, yes, Happy is still happy. When he's in a good mood he'll charm your socks off. However when that kid is mad you better watch out. Ear piercing screams; and he turns bright red which is appropriate since he'll also raise a good 80 degrees in temperature. Moral of the story is keep the kid happy.

Ok, now onto the fun stuff. The Sloth family has decided to head to Europe for a month this coming fall. It was kind of a quick decision but not one made in haste. We currently have college friend who have been living over there for three years. Every summer they come back to the states for a few months and every year they encourage us to come for a visit and every year we say we'll try. Well no time like the present. The money is "there", (looks like we won't be getting a van this month after all) I'm not pregnant and prices to fly are ridiculously low. We're also bringing Obscure to help with the kiddos. Our plan is to fly into Munich and spend a day there before heading to France for ten days. I've been to France and actually been in Paris four time but I haven't actually seen anything. Then we're heading to Austria for about a week. We'll stay with our friends and visit some my old stomping grounds from when I spent a semester there. Then we're joining our friends on a Rome/Assisi pilgrimage that they organize every semester. They have two young kids the same age as ours so it should be fun. Oh, and the price we'll pay for the Rome/Assisi trip is also ridiculous. Then we'll head back to Austria for a day or two before flying home.

See Mr. Sloth flew to Europe once for the purpose of going to Rome but I had "issues" and refused to leave Austria. So he gave up Rome for me. Every since then we've been looking for an opportunity to go there, and it looks like our ship has come in, or in this case, plane.

(more pictures of the family below)




Demand after blowing out her candles.




Happy's first feeding.



Our astute son.



The kids after a delightful afternoon of "German Festing"

Some more birthday pics...

 

 

 

 

Things we did yesterday

1-baked four boxes of cake

2-folded two baskets of laundry

3-changed at least 20 diapers

4-bought groceries

5-went to the post office

6-bought four plane tickets to Europe

7-ordered new checks at the bank

8-bought two birthday balloons and a tablecloth at the dollar store

9-cleaned the kitchen (three times)

10-canceled cable

11-and Mr. Sloth kegged beer


Busy day. And expensive, I think the trip to the Dollar Tree is what really set us over the edge.

Nature's Cable

I called to cancel cable two days ago. We still have it until we drop off the box which is Mr. Sloths job, I had the joy of calling to cancel. I was so busy just prior to calling that it wasn't until I was dialing the phone that I realized what run-around I was about to encounter. First off I had to press 1 for upgrades, 2 for downgrades. (Jeepers,creepers they have a whole department for this??) Sure enough the guy answers the phone, I tell him I would like to cancel my cable. With words covered in butter he asks, "Now why would you want to do a thing like that?" I wasn't about to play his game so I didn't say a word. The awkward silence worked because he moved on. At one point he asked if I was going to "the darkside" (meaning satellite), I said no we're getting rid of it altogether. He was shocked.

Anyway, as soon as Mr. Sloth drops off the box we'll be completely without TV as we don't get a signal here without it. We only plan on giving it up for the summer so we'll survive and while it's true that a lot off shows are online now, my favorites are not. (Oh, Duggars, how I will miss thee!!)

However, pre-empitve of being cable free last night we had some good old fashion fun. The four of us (Mr. Sloth, Sidekick, Obscure and I) lined our lawn chairs up on the sidewalk and watched the most amazing lighting storm as it swept towards us. Honestly it was one of the most beautiful things I'd ever seen. Constant lighting, somtimes even blinding and it was so far away we never heard thunder. It was great, except for, well....we knew the sprinklers would go off at sometime, but we usually hear a clicking sound (think Princess Bride) before they go off. Well we heard a clicking sound at the East end of the yard, but before we could move, a sprinkler right in front of us went off that was pointed directly at Mr. Sloth's.... lap. (Ahh, that was funny)

Nature's Cable. Fantastic.

Rearranging Things

In an attempt to pretend like we have more space we've been rearranging furniture (and we aren't done yet). As mentioned before, Happy is ginormous. He's growing out of his mini-pack'n'play much faster than anticipated. Our had always assumed he could be in that bed until around seven months just like Demand had done. We assumed we'd have a new house by then. So our deliema was that Happy is too young to share a room with Demand and our room is too crowded to have the crib in there (like we did with Demand).

After praying for a week that Happy finds a room God finally provided me with an answer. He's always more creative than me so I find his answers fascinating. What is the answer, you ask? Well Mr. Sloth is finally furnishing his office after a year of living out of paper bags. So I realized if he takes the buffet from the dining room we can move my armoire desk down from the bedroom giving us room for a crib in our room. How did I not think of this before? I've always wanted my desk downstairs anyway and he was thinking about taking the buffet for months. Plus, he was going to to get one of the same bookshelves that we have in the playroom. I realized that if he got the bigger version of the shelf that could go in our playroom and he could take smaller version of the shelves from the playroom. He doesn't need that much storage at the office anyway. This would actually give us even more storage in the playroom.


So while I only asked God for Happy to have a room His answer gave us 1. a safe place for Happy to sleep 2. me an actual functioning office. 3. Mr. Sloth more storage and 4. more storage for the playroom (which we desperately needed)

Pretty cool, huh? Sometimes God gives us what we want and need.

So I guess we can squeeze a few more months out of this place afterall. We're trying really hard to be patient about buying a new house and just waiting for God's cue. Looks like fall might be a better time to buy anyway so we'll just make the summer work and concentrate on saving for a possible move in the fall. Speaking of which I believe we'll be canceling cable at the end of the month. It's going to hurt, but it IS summertime and we'll save a lot of money over the next few months. Besides, I need a break from TLC. I need to stop watching people live their lives and maybe live one myself. Maybe mine will be more exciting...

Big Day

I'm 99% sure Happy rolled over (on a flat, hard surface) for the first time today. I put him on a blanket while I brushed my teeth (big day for me too). He was on his belly, then he was on his side playing with Demand. Next time I looked at him he was on his back. I asked Demand if he rolled over and she said yes, a part of me wonders if she "helped" him along but I'm going with --HE ROLLED OVER!!!

Joys of Summer

We've been having so much fun I haven't had time to blog. Hopefully I remember everything I've been meaning to share.

First off some quotes from Demand this week.

I was reading a book to her at titled "Little Brothers Are..." The following exchange happened.

"Little brothers are happy. Little brothers are wiggly. Little brothers are bright..."

Demand interrupts and says, "(Happys) not bright."

Too funny.

That night Demand wanted to read Corduroy but neither she nor Mr. Sloth could find it. He asked her if she wanted to read something else she said, "Hmm, well we have Cinderella."

When did she grow up? Demand seems to be throwing out great quotes everyday now.

The rest of our week was spent doing fantastic summer things. This is truly our favorite time of year. Mr. Sloth grills almost nightly (he got a new grill as a sort of gift from a broker of his.) The kids and I go for a walk almost daily. My new stroller is one of the best investments we've made. Perfect for our needs and both kids love it. Plus it DOES fit into our car which we didn't think it would. Memorial Day we discovered a set of walking trails and parks really close to us so we've been out on a family walk twice now.

My absolute favorite part of the week was Saturday. While I didn't wake up as early as planned I still made pancakes and bacon as I had planned. (Mr. Sloth doubted me and I don't blame him.) After a nice leisurely breakfast with the family Mr. Sloth ran to the hardware store while the kids and I got ready. Happy watched from the stroller as Demand and I played outside. I taught her some jump rope games I learned in grade school and we played with chalk in the driveway. Mr. Sloth came home with a new organizing system for the garage. Happy fell asleep in his swing without complaint then the rest of the Sloths spent the morning in the garage. While Mr. Sloth started assembly I sat on a blanket in the sun at the edge of the garage and began sorting screws, nails, washers, etc into their new homes. (Sortings what I do best) When Demand wasn't "helping" me sort she was measuring everything with the measuring tape she had just discovered in Mr. Sloth's new tool box. Every once in a while we'd hear her say "Mary Poppins" as she extended the tape. Too cute.

We rummaged through left overs for lunch and pieced things together. I made Demand a sort of pig in a blanket. I wrapped a hot dog in cheese and then in a tortilla we happened to have and then cut it up and made a smiley face. I delievered it outside only to have Mr. Sloth peak his head into the kitchen seconds later asking for one himself. Then we headed off to an organizing store for more ideas for our garage. It was a good day.

Today was just as lovely. After Mass we at a nice lunch outside and then headed for a walk on the trails. Afterward the rest of the Sloth family slept while I nursed a (sleeping) Happy on the couch. It was killing me being stuck on a couch indoors on such a nice day, but the kids gotta sleep. I'm outside now though, waiting for Demand to wake up from her long nap.

Oh, before I forget, one more great quote for Demand. Before Mass today she was asking Mr. Sloth a series of questions and discovered that Happy doesn't have a bedroom. So we told her to pray that he gets one while she was at Mass. We get home from Church and I over heard Mr. Sloth ask Demand if he prayed that Happy can get his own room. She said, "No. I just laid down."

Well, at least she's honest.

Grateful

Last night I was on the internet for a brief while and a blog was brought to my attention. The blog was about a 23 year old single pregnant mother who found out while she was expecting that her baby basically had no brain. It was no choice for her she loved her baby and would keep it. Her baby lived 93 days, the best days of her life she said, dying this past Friday. In reading the blog I did the math and realized that her baby was born the day before our Happy.

Needless to say, when he woke up in the middle of the night with my eyes burning to go back to sleep,even through the projectile poo and Mr. Sloth getting urinated on in bed, there was no complaining. I cuddled my baby and fell gratefully back asleep.


http://babyfaithhope.blogspot.com/

Happy

Well you know how disorganized my life is when I stop blogging. Finally today, I mustered up the courage to get up before everyone else. With the boy in the room I can't really use an alarm clock so I had to rely on my Guardian Angel. He woke me up promptly at 7am as I had asked but I asked for 10 more minutes. Sure enough the boy wanted to nurse and I resigned to not being able to get up early then right as the clock struck 7:10am the boy unlatched himself.

Nice work Angel.

I got a nice early start to the day. I was able to get my prayers in and some cleaning done (I even got dressed) before everyone else woke up. It makes such a difference. The day has been like clockwork since with a nice even balance of work, play, and rest. Beautiful! (Actually I'm still rather exhausted)

Not to change the subject but I've decided to name "the boy". Yes, he has a real name, I mean for the blog. My first idea was to name him "Beloved". If you know his real name and have any knowledge of the Bible you should know why. We thought that down the road his other siblings may read this blog and become offended so while I loved the idea I had to find another name.

Happy. Happy is his name. It suits him perfectly . He's the happiest child I've ever encountered. Yesterday he literally spent the whole day laughing, cooing, chatting. Nothing could make him unhappy. Not only is he happy but he makes others happy as well. He slept most of the night in his crib last night. I woke up twice to change his diaper (which he slept through) then he woke up at 4:30am to feed. Actually he didn't wake up fully, but he was fussing enough that I knew where we were headed. He's always been a good sleeper but I'm sure all of his sleeping last night really helped me get up early today.

Mr. Sloth took Demand to the fitness center this evening and Happy slept in the swing so I got even more cleaning and organizing done so I should be starting tomorrow off on a good foot.

Speaking of walking. I got my double stroller last night. It's fantabulous!! I told Demand I had a surprise after breakfast. She guessed it was a stroller. That's how much she loves a stroller. We gave her a water/sand table as an early birthday gift and she was hoping it was a stroller. Poor thing! Well today was her day and she loved it. It's a side by side jogging stroller so Happy can lay next to her while she sits up straight. There's a fabric median between them so they aren't ontop of each other. There's even built in speakers for an MP3 player. So Demand was rocking out to the Christian music station as we walked around. It pushes like a dream too. It was a lot of money but since we're just getting started in the baby department I figured it was an investment.

Here's the link to the stroller.

And I might as well post some new pictures since Happy has gotten ginormous in the last few week. BTW, he's 12 weeks old, 14 lbs and 27 1/2 inches (weighed and measured yesterday)

My baby is going to be huge!!

Doh!

Yikes! It's almost been a month since I've posted. Life has obviously been a bit crazy, but I have time to type out a quick story.

Yesterday the kids and I had a chiropractor appointment in the morning. Afterwards I stopped by the bank and then on our way home, since we were ahead of schedule I thought we should stop at adoration for a few minutes. I went to turn my phone off only to realize I didn't have it. Having made a quick call at the chiropractors, I had it before. I instantly knew what had happened.

Roof of the car.

Yep. Bonehead I know, but just the same. So my dilemma was do I stay at adoration and hope God repaid me by returning the phone or do I head back immediately to try and find it.

The answer??

After 20 minutes of distracted adoration filled with diaper changes and "No, don't do that!" and "Please God, find my phone!", and "God, I know I'm not really *here* but please count this as a visit". I headed back to retrace our steps. No phone, but I wasn't stressed. When I got home, Mr. Sloth greeted me at the door to tell me my phone had been found.

Turns out it I drove a few blocks before it finally flew off the car. (The boy was screaming so I wouldn't have heard it).

Moral of the story; Make time for God and he will repay you. Then again, I already knew that.

A quick update

Thanks for being patient.

The boy is doing better. He's still draining his abscess and has three tiny pustules on the other side but apparently it's nothing to be concerned about yet. If it keeps up for a few more weeks it might mean he has underlying cysts and will have to have them removed surgically. Which of course we do not want. He seems much happier but when it flares up it obviously bothers him.

He's seven weeks old now and has discovered his hands. He acted like such a big shot when he figured them out. So cute. While he's learning about his body I am also learning. Twice last week I learned that poop can be projectile and the second time I learned the hard way. I have the unfortunate duty of having to squeeze his abscess to help with the draining and it's location, well aids in the farting/pooping department. Glad I could help buddy.

One more quick bit before I call it a night. A funny quote from Demand came during our morning time. Demand was on the floor playing with the boy. All of a sudden she said, "Thank you Momma. Thank you for my brother."

I hope you all had a joyous Easter Sunday!

Ouch!

Sorry I've been MIA. It was an interesting week to say the least.

First, to make a long story short, around Monday at noon I discovered and abscess on the boy's rectum. *sigh* I knew this meant the doctors. Our doctor called and out of two options suggested we just take him to the ER and have it lanced to get it over with. Well that is not exactly what happened. Again, long story short...someone dropped the ball at the Children's Hospital and instead of just lancing it they admitted him for the night tortured him with IVs and no eating after 5am only for us to be told by the surgeon at noon that he wouldn't need surgery and that he could do the procedure right then and it should have been done in the ER.

We were not please.

Even after we thought it was over we were being pushed to stay the night again. We pushed back and wanted out. I was going crazy as it was. I had spent 18 of the last 24 hours by myself in a small room with a screaming baby whom I couldn't nurse.

By the way, the procedure itself took all of two seconds and there was very little crying, as opposed to the twenty four previous hours.

There is an upside. I appreciate the fact that we don't deal with medical issues like this on a regular basis as many parents do and of our two children I imagine it was easier doing it with the boy as opposed to Demand. While we can't really communicate with the boy, Demand can communicate with us and hearing "all done" would have broken my heart. Plus, the boy isn't as attached to nursing as Demand was. Telling her we couldn't nurse after 5am would have just been awful.

Again, that was the short story. The boy is home now, doing fantastic. (He was doing fantastic all along minus the pains imposed on him at the hospital.)

That was our Monday and Tuesday. The rest of the week was basically us just getting back on track and into our normal routines. Demand has been working hard again on using the potty. All her idea too! I've started into more of the purging we've been dreaming of. Today I threw away a bunch of magazines and old medicines and tossed a few more clothes into the donation back. I also spent some time in the pantry reorganizing and tossing at will.

I love springtime!

Make-Up Day

I'm taking a bit of a break right now because the boy just spent the good part of an hour screaming at the top of his lungs at me. NOTHING would make him stop crying. Finally my nerves had had it and I swaddled him, put him in his swing and walked away. With my ears still ringing I could faintly hear him crying downstairs for about 5 minutes. Finally it was quiet so I snuck downstairs...he's finally asleep. He's been a bit needy today. He has a bit of a cold, plus he's overtired. Hopefully it's quiet until Mr. Sloth gets home from the store with Demand.

It was an interesting week. I never got a chance to mention it but last week I lost my diaper bag with my wallet in it. My BELOVED diaper bag that is. It was in a very public place outside the Children's Museum. We realized we lost it within minutes and immediately started asking different securitys but it was no where to be found. Immediately I prayed to my Guardian Angel then St. Anothony, after a few days I started adding saints to my list. I knew someone had it, I just didn't know if someone honest had it or someone found it didn't find my wallet and then tossed the bag. (None of my credit cards had been used.)

Well yesterday I was having a crappy day. I woke up in a bad mood which wore off onto both children making matters even worse. Mr. Sloth called around 1pm to say he had some good news. I wanted to guess that he had found my diaper bag but I didn't want to get my hopes up. Well he DID find it or rather the police had it. Mr. Sloth got a call from the police saying they had my diaper bag and had been looking for me for days. Apparently three days ago a man turned it into one of the building securities and asked them to take care of it, they then gave it to the police. Instead of turning the bag directly over to lost and found like they are supposed to, they took time...days, to hunt me down. The found Mr. Sloth's cell phone number by calling our fitness center since I had my entrance card in my wallet. How awesome is that?? I'm so happy and so is Mr. Sloth. Nothing was missing and I had two gift certificates in the bag as well. I mean it was great that no credit card had been used and I accepted that as a blessing in itself but we still would have had to replace the diaper bag and I would have had to get a new license, credit cards, library card, fitness card, insurance cards... you get the idea. I asked Mr. Sloth later what he thought when the police called him about me. Did he finally think I lost my mind? Had I tried to sell the children on Ebay?

The moral of the story is if you don't have a relationship with your Guardian Angel...get one!! And thank your Guardian Angel today and pray to them often! My angel rocks!

Today made up for yesterday, well right up until the boy started screaming at me. We all got up a little early to day which is weird for a Saturday. I was awake at 7am so I decided to shower. Of course a mother can eat or shower without her children knowing about it and after I started the shower water, I heard Demand yell "Hey!" happily from her doorway. Then she told me "I gots lots of sleep today!" She was in a good mood, but she also knew we were headed to the baby store today. (BabiesRUs)

We were headed to "the baby store" to finally get me a glider and pick out a double stroller. (We can't buy the stroller yet as it won't fit in our car, we'll have to wait until we get a van...hopefully soon...) I was super excited because my coupons had been in my diaper bag so we got 15% off the chair and then we went to Michael's where I had another coupon for 20% off. At Michael's I bought the kit to make a castle cake for Demand's birthday. She was so excited I let her "decorate" a cake we had sitting on the counter. Pictures will be posted soon. Needless to say I will be decorating her actual birthday cake.

When we got home Mr. Sloth and Demand took a nap while I cleaned and watched the boy. Mr. Sloth and I are in pretty big purging moods right now. I love to purge! Besides as it stands our bedroom is officially FULL of furniture. We have a queen bed, two night stands, an exercise bike, and armoire desk, a long dresser, a travel crib and now an upolstered glider. I'm thinking of moving the armoire somewhere else in the house...maybe the laundry room.

I shall leave you now and either clean my re-arranged bedroom or take a bath.

Pictures

Here are some recent pictures. I don't have a chance to update right now. The Boy is asleep in his sling as I write and he'll be wanting movement again soon. Enjoy! (click on any picture you want to enlarge)





One of the cutest things I've ever seen.




Those handsome eyes.




Note the onesie. Demand wore it too.




What a great team!



Springtime Princess!

A Brief Update

A brief update until the boy wakes up.

Sunday morning was interesting. By the time I came downstairs Mr. Sloth had Demand dressed and ready for Church, which was fantastic until she spilled orange juice on the floor and LAID IN IT. I have no words. She not only needed a new outfit by that point but she needed her hair washed.

Monday: My day started off alright, but I had to sit in the living room for four hours with the boy which lead to a horrible stress headache. After playing outside withe Demand, bathing her, and putting her to bed Mr. Sloth headed to the drugstore to get something to help his headcold. He looked terrible, but I was just convinced he hated me and was "going out for medicine". There he goes I thought. He'll never come back. (I have these thoughts a lot). My stress headache didn't go away with sleep, in fact it started to become a migraine. I found the courage to stumble downstairs for motrin and then I asked Mr. Sloth if he would massage my neck. He's such a trooper. Still sick himself he didn't complain about massaging me. It really helped and it was greatly appreciated.

Today was a better day. My headache was bad enough last night that I felt FANTASTIC today. I cleaned all morning and then after lunch the kids and I went to the library and the grocery store. At the library I took a chance and asked if they had any passes to the Children's Museum. They did!! Score!! It was on our list to do again with Demand but the tickets are pricey and free 3rd Sundays are crazy. I can't believe they had tickets, they are so hard to come by!

At the grocery store Demand really wanted a car cart. You know the grocery carts that have cars on the front for toddlers? Well I couldn't find one so I asked. The two workers there were so accommodating. They looked for ten minutes for us; outside, inside, on the side of the building... I couldn't believe how helpful they were. Plus, they said if they found one they would bring it to us. Demand was heartbroken and started to cry. Luckily I only had to carry her and push the cart (with baby carrier) a few feet to the container full of free apples for kids. Demand compromised with a free apple and sat in the main part of the cart. By the way I later saw the ONE car cart the store owns and it was with a mom who had at least four little ones; she totally deserved the cart. The boy slept the whole time we were out and about. He also slept most of the morning and nursed while Mr. Sloth served me lunch. (It was good too!) On the way home the boy woke up hungry (I knew it was coming) Demand and I started singing to make him happy. It worked for a while but then he started crying again. Demand insists that he was singing too. (I've heard nicer singing)

Since I failed to buy corned beef ahead of time I decided just to make Irish breakfast for dinner, especially since I had most of the ingredients on hand. In fact I pretty much dropped the ball on the whole St. Patrick's day thing. I never did find something for Demand to wear and she doesn't own anything green. She briefly had a shamrock in her hair but she took it out. I dug out my work shirt to barely pass as St. Patty's Day apparel but the boy was well dressed for the day.

Dinner turned out well. We had eggs, fried potatoes, bacon, ham, bread,baked beans, and tomatoes fried in bacon grease...actually everything was fried in bacon grease. It was delicious.

It took a while to get the boy asleep tonight so I should go before he wakes up again.