And to all a Good Night

Merry Christmas! Santa was good to us this year. Here's our flurry of holiday activity in pictures.











Whew.....we are EXHAUSTED :)

Lost, Lost and MORE Lost

I HATE winter. Sorry, just had to say it. I didn't use to mind it so much. The problem is that because it's so cold and there's so much snow, the amount of time it takes to bundle 3 kids up properly and get them out of the house to go anywhere is hardly worth the effort. And I actually wouldn't mind this part of it either if one child in particular (who shall remain nameless) wouldn't come home everyday from school missing a new item (or 2). Today, this child was seen running up the street from the bus stop without a hat, coat unzippered, throwing snowballs at the neighbors. If this wasn't ridiculous enough, when Chris yelled at him to get in the house, he decided to dive head first (NO hat) into the snow bank. When this lovely child got into the house, I noticed he was wearing TENNIS SHOES!!!! Now, his tennis shoes are sent to school everyday in his backpack and are to be worn only in the classroom or for gym. The boots are supposed to be on his feet for outdoor recess and coming home. Anyways, you get the idea I'm sure. So when I inquired about the whereabouts of his nice warm boots, I was informed that they were in his backpack. Well, that was only half true, as there was ONE snow covered boot in there that had gotten all of his papers he brought home soaking wet- yuck! This prompted my 4:30 trip to the ever enjoyable Lost and Found. Where I would like to mention (and I am NOT exaggerating) there was at least 20 boxes full of "found" items. Luckily, the stray boot was right on top of one of them so I quickly grabbed that and then began the search for the missing hat. I should mention that since school has started we have lost 2 lunch boxes, 4 hats, 3 pairs of mittens, 1 sweatshirt, 1 scarf and I don't even know how many spoons. (in case you are wondering: I did try buying plastic spoons for him but he kept insisting they were breaking and did I REALLY want him to choke to death on a broken piece of plastic???). Anyways, I did not find his hat, but I did find one that was close enough. I know, I know, not a good example to steal from the lost and found. But, I felt better knowing that it was all going to the Goodwill tomorrow anyways and I'm sure the other items we "donated" so far this year made up for the one measly little Transformers hat that I "found".

In other Lost sort of news, Alex lost his second tooth tonight. He was a little less excited about this one because it bled a lot more and he hates the sight of blood. He did get up all excited this morning though since the tooth fairy left him a dollar last night.

All I know is that between the cost of lunches, the daily lost teeth and the winterwear, we could have probably sent the kid to private school. (well, not really, but man I'm sick of buying new hats and gloves!). Happy Winter!

The Wonderful World of Teeth

Lately, there has been a lot of talk about teeth at our house. Sarah has been "teething" for the past 2 weeks. Actually, she just hasn't been sleeping independently very well and the pediatrician is blaming it on teething. Personally, I think she is just spoiled and does not want to sleep by herself. Oh well, you only get to be a baby once. So, while we've been paying close attention to her cute little gums, Alex has been having teeth issues of his own. About 2 months ago (maybe even more- I lose track of time) he started complaining about having loose teeth (the bottom front 2). Every night he asks us to wiggle them and see if we can get them out. Meanwhile, his "adult" teeth (this is Alex's term- he seems to think once he gets adult teeth he can just do whatever he wants) have come in behind the wigglers. Anyways, tonight we finally got his first tooth out. Of course, the other loose one is barely in there as well but after he realized that pulling it out actually hurt and made his gums bleed, there was no way we were getting in to get that second one out. Oh well, probably better to spread out the tooth fairy's obligations anyways. I'm hoping they don't come out like they came in- 4 or 5 at a time- because the whole $1 per tooth could get a little bit pricey. Here are some pictures of Alex and his missing tooth.

The Holiday Season and Other Fun Tricks

Well, we're officially in the Christmas season. We took the kids to see Santa and his reindeer today. For the first time in 6 years, Alex actually talked to Santa- he didn't sit on his lap but he did stand next to him and tell him what he wanted (Star Wars Clone Trooper Helmet and Video Game- in case you're wondering). Anna requested another doll (because the 18 that we trip over on a daily basis apparently are not enough). Sarah sat on his lap and didn't make a peep. The reindeer were pretty cute as well. Alex, however, kept informing Anna that reindeer really can't fly and that those could not possibly be Santa's reindeer because one was a female and one was a male and we all know that Santa's reindeer are all males. It took a bit of story telling to clear up some of the questions that came up regarding that whole situation.

In other news, Sarah has discovered that her tongue is quite the funny little toy. She constantly has it hanging out of her mouth and is usually grabbing at it with her hands- just thought I'd include some pictures of that as well.

Tis the Season

The holiday season is here- can't believe it! We put up our Christmas tree yesterday (a big thanks to Jackie for scoring this awesome tree for us on Black Friday while Marie and I were in the neverending Walmart line!). Anyways, I let the kids put out the nativity scene as well. Last year, my sister in law bought them non-breakable figurines for this so they aren't constantly clanking together my ceramic ones- what a great idea! Don't they look cute playing with baby Jesus? Before you think they are just the perfect little Catholic children......these pictures were taken just minutes before the sultan (one of the kings) turned into a Jedi and began lightsaber fighting the sheperd and it became an all out war. Anna was yelling "Mom- Alex thinks baby Jesus is on the dark side and I told him that he can't be because he's Jesus!" Alex: "Anna- the emperor TURNED him to the dark side!!" More screaming, fighting, hitting and finally the sweet Catholic children were banned from playing with the nativity for the night. At least the tree is still standing! I'm still watching Alex like a hawk with it though because last year I bought him a set of 12 star wars character ornaments and I keep waiting for some kind of galactic war to break out in my new tree.

The Girls

Here are some pictures of my new niece, Alexis. Alexis weighs about 6 lbs, 3 ounces right now. I'm not sure what Sarah weighs (she has her 4 month checkup tomorrow) but these pictures make her look HUGE! Can't believe it's only been 4 months. They sure grow fast.

To all the girls....

Another young love story. Alex brought home the cutest love letters today, I had to share them. They are from 2 different girls- Alice and Alexis. I thought the best part was how the girls drew pictures of themselves with Alex. Too cute.

Anyways, along those same lines, Anna was playing "hairdresser" with me today (as she often does) and she was chatting away about her "life". She likes to pretend that she doesn't really know me, that I'm just coming to her "salon"- anyways, she said "Well, you know, I'm 7 now and I'm in high school." To which I said, "So, how is high school?" She said "Well, the problem is that I can't have a boyfriend because there are just too many girls and they are taking them all. I guess I'll have to wait until one of them is sick of their boyfriend and then I can have him." Talk about high standards. Gotta love the things that come out of their mouths!

She's got the look....

Ok, no real big news to report at all, but I was thinking today as we had our family portrait done for the first time in like 3 years, that Sarah has the funniest looks that she likes to give. If you haven't seen her lately, she has gotten ginormous (is that a word???). Anyways, she has started eating some rice cereal and seems to be a bit happier. She's a little chub though. Part of me is wondering if we overfed her at some point just to stop the crying. Damn....hope she doesn't end up on Dr. Phil someday with "food is love" issues. Anyways, the most famous of her looks is this first picture. She always tilts her head down and looks up at you-it makes her forehead look extra wrinkly. She also likes to give you the "what the hell is wrong with you people look".



Then, there is the "I cannot believe you are actually letting him hold me....I'm sooo offended" look.



Ok...that's all for now :)

Young Love

Ok...so I thought I'd share a cute Alex story. Earlier this week Alex was very proud to unpack his backpack and pull out several "love" letters he had gotten. Since then he has brought home at least one each day- I have quite the collection going. They are all from different girls, although as I've been informed, Alexis is his "girlfriend" and Alice is his"ex-girlfriend" and the others just want to be his "girlfriends".......man are we in trouble! Chris is feeling like quite the loser now since his son has I think officially gotten more love letters than him. Must be those baby blue eyes. Anyways, Thursday night Alex asked me if I would tell him how to spell "I love you Alexis"....so at least he's learning early that you have to somehow reciprocate the romantic gestures.....what a little Casanova :) Here's a small sampling of what I'm carefully putting away for my little heartthrob:

The Newest Baby

Jenny (my sister for those of you who don't know) had her baby yesterday. She weighs 6 lbs, 1 ounce, and was 20 inches long. Still no name yet, true to my sister's personality she is not a planner like I am. She did say it will most likely be Alexis, but that wasn't final yet. Anyways, we went to see her today and she is super cute and very tiny, she has a lot of hair and looks a lot like Madison (her oldest) when she was a baby. Can't believe Sarah was ever this small, time just goes way too fast. Sarah looked huge compared to her!

Trick or Treat

Happy Halloween! We had a very successful Halloween this year. Some of you may recall that Halloween is not Alex's favorite holiday at all. In fact, last Saturday we tried to take the kids to this trick or treat at the mall thing and he threw a fit about what costume he was going to wear and after about a 10 minute temper tantrum it was decided that I would just take Anna (who by the way had a great time). The picture of Anna with the scarecrow was taken at the mall. Anyways, by Wednesday night when it was the annual trick or treat at the nursing home, he was on his best behavior. I think this had a lot to do with the fact that Anna got to keep all of her candy she got at the mall and we didn't make her share any of it. For the last couple of years, Alex has refused to trick or treat and then Anna would just end up sharing her candy with him when she got home. So anyways, this year Alex was very motivated and actually didn't even want to come home from trick or treating. Anna, as usual, had a great time. She loves scary things so this was a great night for her. She couldn't make up her mind on what she wanted to be this year so last weekend she wore the clown costume, the race car driver outfit on Wednesday night and by the end of the week she had moved onto the princess costume- as Chris says, typical woman, can't make up her mind!
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3 Little Pumpkins

Alright....I'm catching grief for not updating the blog often enough. As most of you know, I went back to work 2 weeks ago. We are slowly settling into yet another new routine. Work is pretty much the same, after the first day it feels like I never really left! Anyways, we did the pumpkin thing this weekend. We let the kids draw the faces on their pumpkins and then Chris helped them cut them. Here's Alex with his "creepy" pumpkin as he called it .

Anna decided to draw a pretty girl pumpkin (with hair and everything)- she must think her dad is a whiz with the carving knife. Here's what it ended up as: (not bad I guess)

Sarah just had to look cute- she did a good job at it I think :)





Here they all are (even the dog- there was food involved if you are wondering how we got him to sit still :)






Up next: Cute Halloween Pictures (we hope)

Smiles and Stuff

Just a brief update on Anna. Her VCUG went well, she was super cooperative, the tech said she was the best 4 year old she'd ever done one of these on- didn't even attempt to kick her once. I'm not sure if that was the whole truth or not, but I was happy that Anna was so cooperative. Kudos to the Child Life staff at Woodwinds because they really helped a lot. The radiologist who did the test said everything looked normal, but that he would have to review the films closer and then send the final report to our pediatrician. Still haven't heard the final report, but I'm assuming no news is good news.

Onto more fun things....Sarah has been quite the smiler lately and I finally caught some really cute smiles on camera that I thought I'd share. Enjoy!

Another boring, medical type update :)

Ok....so I feel like the blog has turned into some kind of medical journal. I really wish that I had other excitement in my life besides my frequent trips to the Pediatrician's office. Although, he is expecting his first baby any day now so it has been kind of "fun" to count down the weeks and now days with him. Ok, maybe not fun, but when you see the guy 2-3 times per week you have to have something to talk about (well, besides our sick kids that is). Anyways, I am grateful that he is as on top of everything as he is and it has been really nice to have someone that we trust so completely answer all of our questions. He has been our Pediatrician for as long as we have needed such a specialty. He actually saw Alex the day he was born and we've been with him ever since. So, if anybody is looking for a Pediatrician, just let me know!

Ok....onto the update. Anna is 200% better than she was a few days ago. Turns out she had the lovely e.coli growing in places it shouldn't have been. Luckily she has responded well to the antibiotics and is finally eating and drinking again. Because this is her second infection of this type and because of our family history of kidney problems, she gets to have a VCUG done on Thursday of this week. (for those of you unfamiliar with this test, just google it and you'll get more info than you ever wanted about bladders and catheters, etc). Chris is quite thankful that we were able to schedule this before I return to work next week. I don't think he was too excited to take Anna for this fun event. We are hoping the test will be normal and that her infection was just bad luck. It will be good to know though, if there is a problem, as we want to catch it early on. I'll let everyone know how it turns out. We should know by Friday.

In other (sadly) medical news...Sarah has her first official cold. Poor kid can hardly breathe. We're doing the warm mist humidifier/baby vaporub treatment. Seems to have done nothing but fog up the windows and make the dog extremely interested in licking her chest, but there aren't any cold medications she can take so I guess it's what we can do for now. I'm hopeful today was the worst day of it and she'll improve tomorrow. Although, I mean, only 2 visits (not counting the ER visit this weekend of course) to the Pediatrician in 1 week might be dangerously below our new quota. I'm hoping to get my own chair in the waiting room soon :)

Onto other news....NOT medical this time. Chris and I went to Alex's first official school conference tonight. We are absolutely so proud of that kid. His teacher actually said that she wishes she had 22 Alex's in her class because he is always respectful, always listens and pays attention. She said she uses him as an example for the other kids and said that he exceeds her expectations of what a kindergartner should be doing. This is great news, of course! However, it seems that Alex has a bit of the jekkyl and hyde (ok....pretty sure I spelled that wrong but I'm way past caring about spelling and grammar on this blog) syndrome as he's really really good at school, but really really bad at home lately. He has just been testing us with everything. I guess he's used to so much independence at school that he doesn't want us controlling him at home. I don't know. Oh well, I'd rather have him be an angel at school and a devil at home than vice versa. Hopefully he'll adjust soon and start behaving at home again.

Ok..that's all for now. Here are some recent pictures of the kids.