Convenience

I am so tired of people expecting kids to be convenient. The other night, while watching the news, there was story about how MN is trying to get a law passed that kids have to be in a booster seat until the age of 8. 44 other states already have this law, and last year when MN tried to pass it, it failed because it might hinder carpooling. Seriously!?! They are more worried about carpooling than they are about he safety of our children? Are people really that stupid? I know the answer to that. My own husband doesn't get it. He never has. He was all about turning Cole around at age 1, even though he wasn't 20 pounds. Cole sat rear facing until a year and a half when I couldn't buckle him in anymore due to snow pants and boots. Tate will sit rear facing until he can't any more. Since when did convenience become more important than safety? News flash: KIDS AREN'T CONVENIENT! The only time it's convenient to have a kid is when you go to one of the few stores that has family parking. That's it. Don't' get me wrong, I love my kids and wouldn't trade them for the world, but they aren't cheap. They aren't easy, and they most certainly aren't convenient.

I wish that lesson would get through. I may get some backlash on posting this, but I don't' care anymore. Pat's cousin, A~, has a little girl, J~, who is Cole's age. A and his ex-girlfriend have a lot in common, mainly drugs and alcohol. The mom ditched J with A's mom this past summer because she couldn't do it anymore. She is in her mid 20's with 4 kids. J is the youngest. She dropped the oldest with her parents, and kept the little boy, probably because she doesn't know who the father is. Anyway, not mother of the year by any standard. A got out of jail shortly before Christmas and had J living with him at his dad's house. Well, he's back in jail. He and a buddy decided to go drink and use while in the car with J, who was not in a car seat. The cop didn't call DCFS. Why, I have no idea. Anyway, so Grandpa came to get J, tried to pawn her off on Grandma who wouldn't take her and now J is with mom. I honestly have no idea who has legal custody of the little girl, but I do know that the best home for this child is not with her parents. Frankly, she's been pawned off on anyone that would take her because she's not convenient for anyone. No one seems to care what it's doing to this little girl. It's just really sad that it's not convenient for anyone to care about her.

Preschool

Already?!? Since we didn't make it to swimming last night, I did make it to 3's preschool registration. Crazy. Is he really old enough for school? I signed him up for 2 mornings. I knew most of the parents there, so I should know most of the kids in his class. I think he'll do ok and once he gets over the separation anxiety, I think he'll really like school.

Cole is doing much better today. Besides driving me crazy with the whining, he's been his normal self. Wait, guess the whining is normal. He hasn't had a fever except for early this morning. I'm still waiting on Tate. He's had snotty nose, but no fever. He took a decent nap this afternoon, so hopefully he'll get by without getting what Cole had.

It's Thursday!

Do you know what that means? Yep, swimming lessons tonight! Only, it seems we are not meant to do swimming lessons this session. First it was the snow storm, then it was a migraine, then we finally made it a week, and had a week off for spring break. Now we are back and guess what? A Fever! Cole has had a cold for the past week, but nothing major. This morning he was up at 6, didn't eat breakfast, and starting heaving just in time to get me out of chores this morning. I would rather have done the chores. The poor guy is miserable. He fell asleep on the couch this morning. After that he refused to nap and wanted to sit in his chair. Only this is how he ended up.
Now he's finally up in his bed for his normal nap. I hope this doesn't last long. The good news is that this has given me time to study for my test tomorrow. Only instead I've been finding everything else to do, like laundry, cleaning the house, and blogging. I think now I'm off to nap myself!

When It Rains, It Pours

Have you ever had one of those days where nothing goes right? Unfortunately, for me it was last night. Tate decided he wasn't going to sleep last night so I was up with him until about 12:30 when I finally drugged him with Ibuprofen. When I finally came down to go to bed I heard some dripping. I discovered water running in over the door. Apparently the wind hit just right and the rain found a way in. Upon discovering that I tripped over a lovely musical toy and set that off. It was not a good night.

Fortunately the day went ok. It was back to school after our nice spring break. After class I managed to get a little nap. Sadly, I think those days are coming to a close. Cole used to nap for 3 hours. Lately, if he naps at all, it's only about an hour and a half, at most. I don't know if it's the weather or what. In one way it's nice because we can spend part of our afternoon outside playing, but on the other hand, I like naps! I did manage a little productivity today. I got all the laundry folded from yesterday. I had the boys clothes folded and in the basket ready to go upstairs. We keep their jammies in a cupboard in the dining room (less trips up and down stairs). I went to put the jammies away, came back and discovered this.
Yes, that's Tate poking his head out from underneath the pile of freshly folded clothes. He wasn't crying. He actually thought it was kind of funny when I started to pull the clothes off of him. Seriously, how do you punish a kid while you are trying not to laugh?

Cole and I also started an ECFE class tonight. It's a separating class, and Cole made it the whole time. They had 2 teachers stay with the kids and a lot of new kids tonight, so he wasn't the only crier. They all made it through. Hopefully he can keep it up.

Other than that, nothing terribly exciting. Tomorrow Juno goes in to get fixed, which means an early morning for me.

The Color of the Day

Today's post is brought to you by the color orange...

Financial Woes

I don't usually like to write about financial stuff. Mostly, it's nobody's business. Also, someone always has it worse or someone was smarter about it. That being said, I'm not looking for sympathy or handouts, just an outlet for some financial frustration.

Milk prices have tanked (get it!?!). Anywho, so it's been tough making ends meet the last couple of months. Our income has decreased by about 80% this month. In January, it was tight. February we had to pull a little out of savings to make it. This month we could basically drain our account. I spent 3 years building that up to watch it disappear in 3 months. It's just depressing. Pat still has some corn to sell, but he too has bills that need to be paid. We've got money. It just wasn't intended to pay bills. We've set money aside for buying our house from Pat's parents, which we will start paying on this month. The other money I set aside was for improvements. It paid for our new flooring, our refrigerator, and dining room set. I just hate to see it disappear with no notion of when we'll be able to build it back up again. We've made our share of stupid financial decisions. We probably shouldn't have bought the snowmobile, or even the dining room set, but at the time we could do it. I probably shouldn't have bought a Kettler trike for the boys this week. But it retails for $260 and I bought it for $80! Sometimes you have to spend money on a little fun. Regardless, Pat suggested I put my name on the sub list at some local schools. I'd been thinking about it, but wasn't going to say anything. The thought of being away from my boys all day makes me want to cry. I have a hard enough time keeping up at home the way it is. I did send some emails out today so we will see if anything comes of it. I can only be used as a last resort since I do not have a teaching license. Ugh. I hope milk prices turn around soon. Until then, I guess I need to budget a little better...

Spring Break

I can't believe my spring break is over! I'm not ready to go back. I still have to much to do. Since my nephew, Ethan, and I have the same spring break, we all met at my parents' house for the week. Tuesday we headed up to Como Zoo. When we left my parents' the weather was gorgeous. Not so much at the zoo. I felt like a pretty awful mother, since my two small children were dressed only in sweatshirts. Thankfully, much of the zoo is inside so it wasn't too horrible. After that we headed out for some delicious Davani's Pizza. The rest of the week was spent playing with cousins Coley had a blast running with the big boys, and wasn't too terrified of Tova either. Fortunately, Tova was content to play with Tate which left Cole free to play with Ethan and Gavin. We did some walking and a little shopping. We found the kids coordinating outfits for Jenn's wedding. Cole managed to catch a little cold, and a little attitude from Krissy's kids ;-) There is nothing quite like hearing yourself talk in a two-year old voice, "Child!". Apparently I say that a little too often, although, I don't think I say it quite as annoyed as Cole makes it out to be. Anyway, here are a couple of pictures for you. Sorry I don't have more, but I left my camera in the van while we were at the zoo.

Tova helping Cole undo his jammies.

Tova and Tate watching PBS.

8 months

Ok, so here's an update from the past few days. Cole and I actually made it to swimming lessons this week, finally. The first week we were snowed in, the second week I had a migraine, but this week we made it. It was a blast. He is a totally different kid in the water. He isn't scared and he doesn't care what the other kids are doing or if they might touch him. He just had fun blowing bubbles and jumping in the water.

Tate turned 8 months yesterday. He still refuses to roll, but he never sits still. He's sleeping through the night, about 10-12 hours. He's just getting more and more personality all the time.

The Case of The Missing Blankie

It was a beautiful day outside, but inside rain clouds were about to erupt. It was nap time for Coley and Blankie was no where to be found. A nap without Blankie! Impossible! Coley and his mommy searched high and low for the lost Blankie but to no avail. It seemed he had simply vanished. Luckily a spare was found down the road at Grandma's house and nap time was restored, but where was Blankie? When nap time had ended the search began again. Finally, Mommy noticed something amiss. The lid on the potty seat wasn't closed quite right. Low and Behold!...

Laughing Tate

Big brother, Cole, making Tate laugh.

It Never Ends

Is it really March? It still feels like January, and I'm not just talking about the weather. Seriously, where did the time go? The past week has been very busy.

Last week Thursday, Cole started his IFSP with Mrs. M from school. He spent all morning farming with Daddy since the weather was the exact opposite of today. They came in for dinner. Cole got a quick hair cut. Pat and I moved the new oven into the kitchen. Mrs. M came. Some people came to buy our old dining room table. That all happened within about 15 minutes.

Cole's first visit went pretty well. He was excited to have someone new to show off for. There was a lot going on so he had a hard time focusing on the task at hand, but hey, he's only 2.

Pat got the oven installed. I spent all afternoon adjusting it only to find later that evening that flames shoot up the sides of the oven. I don't think that's supposed to happen. Pat didn't' get a chance to look at it until the weekend and after being disconnected from Sears 3 times we finally got an appointment with a repair man, for next week! Seriously?!? I haven't been able to use the oven at all. You don't realize how much you need it until it's gone. We've been having a lot of roasts and hamburger helper. No pizza. I guess that's a bonus since that is usually my fall back option.

Cole and I were supposed to start swimming lessons Thursday night after the week before we had been snowed in. Only I ended up with a migraine, due to the weather or oven, no one knows. I was really upset about it. The weather better clear up by Thursday or I am going to be down right mad! I am really excited to do lessons with him. He loves the water.

We also managed to sell our old dining room table. I had put it in the Hy Vee Trader and I figured I would let it run a week. If it didn't sell, I was going to take it to Goodwill. I can't believe we actually sold it! It was worth nothing to me. I just wanted it out of my house. The buyers seemed to think they were getting a heck of a deal, and I am rid of it. Everybody wins!

This past weekend wasn't much slower. Pat and I had a dinner with the Elevator Saturday night, so we hired a babysitter. This is the first time we've had a non-relative or friend babysit. It was kind of nice. We didn't feel the need to rush home. Cole was thrilled to have someone new to play with and she said Tate didn't fuss at all. It worked out so well we had her back to babysit Monday morning while I went to class since she didn't have school. Unfortunately, she's a senior so we won't have her around long.

Our night out was nice. Normally the elevator does a meeting/party combo, which never ends well. This year they just had a nice meal at a local restaurant and gave away a few prizes. The food was good and no one was upset from having to sit in a meeting. After dinner Pat and I headed to the bar for a couple of drinks (I don't recommend Smirnoff Passion Fruit).

I think that about sums it up. The boys are doing great. Tate was up to 16 lb 4 oz last week when he had his RSV shot. He comes up to Cole's shoulder already. I had to dig out 12 month pants for him since everything else is too short. I think he has about 4 pairs that actually fit. Cole has been busy singing his ABCs. He's speech has improved greatly. He's been answering yes or no questions and I can finally have a conversation with him. Well, I better run. He's begging for some red juice.

Kiss the Cat