Worn Out

What do you get when you spend one day outside all day with no nap, followed by a rainy day with a short nap?
Looks comfy doesn't it?

Potty Training, Revisited

Yesterday was a family day. We don't get those very often so we took advantage of the rain yesterday. After church we headed to town to get some fish for our new fish tank. Then we headed to dinner. Pat had to make a trip to the bathroom and Cole wanted to go with. Pat made him stay with me, but when he returned Cole kept saying "I gotta go. I gotta go." So Pat took him to the bathroom, and he actually sat on the potty. No potty seat and in a strange place. Granted he didn't actually go, but still! He usually fights sitting on the potty, so what a change! I'm hoping that once school is out of the summer, in 2 weeks, I can get him to potty train. I'm trying to catch him in the mornings when he first gets up, but so far I haven't had any luck.

That Summery Feeling

I meant to write this on Thursday, but didn't get it done, so here you go!
This was our high on Thursday...
90 degrees!!! Can you believe that!?! Unfortunately it was incredibly windy and we didn't get to be out much. I did get the kids in shorts though.

Now if that isn't a perfect ad pic for Welch's grape pop I don't know what is. Now Cole thinks that every time we go sit on the porch that we have to have a grape pop. That was taken a week ago on another gorgeous day.

Aren't they the cutest kids ever?

Bits and Pieces

It's been a very busy and random week. Saturday night we had a house warming party. I had been wanting to do this for a while, but at the same time not wanting to do it at all. See, I love having people over, but if you throw a house warming party, people think they need to bring gifts. I didn't want any gifts. It was a good time with neighbors and friends, and yes we got a few gifts. We got some very nice picture frames, a couple of plants, and some money, which was used to buy a new apple tree and some strawberries. We also got a very nice bird feeder that Coley and I hung out today. He stood underneath it saying "Birdies, here birdies." Funny they didn't come flying in. Anywho, the party went well. Just as Pat and I were heading to bed, we heard an awful lot of bellaring, from the cows. Sure enough, one comes running past our window. So out we went to chase cows back in the barn. It's an experience to stand in the dark and hear a heard of cattle running towards you and not being able to see a thing. It didn't take long, but it was still almost 1 AM by the time we got to bed. Sunday was a day for napping.

Today Tate had his 9 month check. He weighed in at 16 lb 15 oz, 5%. He is 28 inches, 43%, which is as close to 50% as either or the boys have ever been. His head circumference was 44 cm, which is up to 16%, much better than barely on the chart. He's doing pretty well. He has had a little bit of a runny nose and was running a little fever this morning. It's not an ear infection though, so that's good. Either it's a virus or it's teeth. I'm hoping it's teeth. I made him cry himself back to sleep last night and surprisingly, he stayed asleep until 7 this morning. He was an absolute bear last night. I know, hard to imagine. He's such a happy guy when others are around that no one seems to believe me. Other than that, nothing terribly new with him. We are still awaiting the results from his physical therapy eval. I'd love to get him moving, but if Coley taught me anything, it's that he'll move when he's good and ready to move.

Cole is doing well too. He helped me plant strawberries. He is loving his new yard. He can go in and out the door by himself, so he spends a lot of time outside playing. His new favorite thing is feeding his brother. Unfortunately, it isn't usually baby approved food. The other night I went out to grill steaks and when I came back in Tate was screaming and he had half a recipe card in his hand. The other half wound up in his stomach. Apparently Cole thought he wanted to bake. Coley also tried to share his banana the other day by shoving a chunk in Tate's mouth. Needless to say, we now have to watch him like a hawk. Pat took Cole to school last night. He thought maybe the separation anxiety was because of me. It wasn't. Cole did fine though. He still cries as soon as snack time is announced.

As for me, school is winding down. A week and a half left of class and then my finals. I'm looking forward to being done, but not ready for the end of the semester yet. I am also trying to find a part time job for the summer. The milk checks just aren't enough to make ends meet, so we'll see what happens. I'm hoping to find something part time at a garden center, but I may be over qualified. I guess all I can do is try. If that doesn't pan out, I guess we'll just have to keep pinching even further and hope milk prices go up.

Today is also my dad's 60th birthday! Happy Birthday Dad!

Training Pants

Since Cole has no interest in potty training, I thought I'd try to help things along a little bit. I bought some training pants the other day. I thought maybe if he could feel himself pee, he'd start to get it. I tried to get him to wear them, but when I put them on I started laughing so hard he didn't want to wear them.
Yes, he's trying to take them off. The company, which will remain nameless, claims they have been caring for babies for over 80 years. Maybe they should've worked on a restyle of their training pants in that time.

Fun in the Sun

It has been a beautiful week, weather wise. I've been trying to get the kids out to enjoy it as much as I can. I've been trying to work on building a landing and stairs so we can use the back door we put in last fall. It's kind of complicated when the only help I get is from an infant and toddler who would much rather do anything else. So I get about an hour a day to attempt to get anything done. Needless to say, I'm not very far. I had high hopes for today, but Tate only slept for about an hour and I wasted time checking my email before I headed outside.

Cole has been enjoying his yard. We are short a gate and having trouble finding that particular size gate in stock anywhere, so I can't leave him out there alone quite yet. It would be nice if he could get to the back door too. Anywho, he's really been having fun in the sandbox. The other day he carried a worm, that he found in it, around for a good hour. When it was time to come inside he put it back in the sand to go to sleep (it was already eternally sleeping at this point.) The next day he wanted his worm back, only it was dried up and he broke it in half. He spent quite a while looking for a new one, without much luck.

Big News! Tate was only up once last night. It was amazing to get more than 4 hours of sleep in one stretch! He also turned 9 months yesterday. Still no rolling. Still no teeth, but he's sitting pretty well and "talking" to me as I write.

Happy Easter!

He is risen! He is risen indeed!

Here are a few picks from our Easter egg hunt at church yesterday.

Karma

I don't really believe in that, but it's been an interesting week. It doesn't seem like it's been a horrible week, just very busy, and not great medically. Tuesday, we were in the ER with Cole. Thursday, Pat was there with his eye. Friday, my FIL found out he fractured his knee a month and a half ago and has to have his knees replaced this summer. He needed to have it done anyway. He's just been delaying it. Today, I was headed to a baby shower only to find an ambulance in their driveway as I drove past. I found out later it was the baby's great-grandmother that had a fainting spell. I hear she's fine, but was taken to the hospital. Needless to say, I didn't go to the shower. I'm hoping we manage to steer clear of the hospital for a while.

This afternoon we had an Easter egg hunt at church. It was a gorgeous day. We had a pretty good turn out and the kids had a blast. I'll try to post some pictures later, but for right now, I'm exhausted and if the past few nights have any indication, I'll be up at least 3 times before 2 AM.

Have a happy Easter!

A Trip to the ER, Again

This time it was Pat, not Cole, who made a late afternoon trip to the ER today. (A different ER than Tuesday night). Pat was working up in the silo and caught the metal end of a bungee strap between his eyelid and eye. Luckily he didn't damage anything in his eye, but his eyelid is bruised and swollen. He did make it back in time for swimming, although he just sat on the sidelines with Tate. He says it doesn't hurt too bad. I think the worst part is the screwed up vision. He got dizzy riding in the car, so that will take some getting used to. It should heal up and be fine. The biggest worry is infection since the metal end was rusty and dirty from being in the silo. He's on 2 antibiotics, one oral and one an eye drop. He doesn't have glasses or contacts, so he's not used to touching his eye and has trouble with the eye drops. I'm just sooo glad he didn't damage anything.

Cole had his final swimming lesson tonight. He pulled some attitude tonight and didn't want to do anything. He did go down the slide with me a couple of times. We sat at the top and watched for quite a while before he decided we could go down. The first time went fine so we went again, but the second time I lost my balance and ended up going down on my back instead of sitting, so that freaked him out a little. He's doing much better as far as the fever is concerned. I kept him drugged up all day so we could make it to swimming, but he hasn't had anything since about 4. I'm really looking forward to a day when we are all completely healthy!

Spring IS Coming!

Know how I know? Baby kittens!

The barn cat, Odie, has 3 little kittens. Yesterday I finally took the boys down there. Cole loves to "hold" them. Tate just likes to watch, especially when big brother is holding them.

A Trip to the ER

It's been a loooong week and it's only Wednesday. I'm exhausted. Tate still isn't sleeping any better at night. Last night I bottled him water when he woke up and that seemed to work. Cole had a pretty rotten night last night. Yesterday he woke up at 6:30 very whiny. I checked and sure enough he had a little fever. I gave him some ibuprofen and he was fine the rest of the day. About 5 last night he started in with the whining and crying again, and sure enough, the fever made a comeback. More meds and he was back running. He ate a good supper and was off to bed by 8. At about 10 I heard some whimpering from upstairs, so I went to check. Cole had a temp of 105! Aaack! Grandma came to stay with Tate and Pat and I headed to the ER with Cole. I know, some of you are thinking that was an overreaction, and maybe it was, but keep in mind we have never had a kid with a fever that high and Cole has only ever been sick a handful of times in his entire life. We are new at this sick thing. Anywho, so we get to the ER and the first thing they do is... nothing. They hooked him up to a pulse oximeter, but didn't turn it on. It was about 10 minutes later, after they gave him some Tylenol that they finally checked his temp, which was down to 103. We heard the nurse giving the Dr. the run down on patients and heard this "There is a 2 and a half year old with a high fever and they haven't bothered to give him anything since 5." Excuse me?!? It pretty clearly states on the label that ibuprofen is given every 6 hours. I wasn't aware you could mix Tylenol and Motrin and when we left the house it had only be 5 hours since he'd had anything. So yes, my bad, but don't you dare accuse me of not bothering with my child. Grrr. The hospital will be receiving a complaint about that nurse in the very near future. Go ahead and make snide remarks, but do it out of earshot of the patient please. I understand that nursing is a pretty high stress job, but so is being a mom and when my child is sick, the last thing I need is someone making snotty comments on my ability as a parent.

Anywhoozzle, Cole is doing much better today. He's been getting meds every 3 hours and so far the fever has been kept at bay. I'm hoping he'll be fine by tomorrow and we can actually make it to the last swimming lesson. Then he gets to go down the slide, and Daddy is planning on coming! Tate has thus far remained healthy. He can be a bear the way it is. I can't imagine what he'd be like if he wasn't feeling good.

Monday I was super productive. I got the house mostly cleaned. I put trim up in the play room, and got the boys coat hooks hung, that Pat made. Cole very proudly points to his and says "spells Coley's." Close enough.

Monday night we had an Easter egg hunt at school. Cole was still pretty interested in the gym equipment, but he did manage to pick up a few eggs.

I took a little nap this afternoon instead of accomplishing some of the 50 billion things I need to do this week. It wasn't a terribly restful nap. We are having Easter here on Sunday with Pat's parents and grandparents. We also have an Easter egg hunt at church on Saturday that I have to make cookies for and help with. Well, I better go. I need to drug my oldest again and find some new clothes for my youngest since he managed to leak through his clothes during nap time. Lovely.

A New Attitude

We've officially hit the terrible twos. I know. We were about due. Cole has been such an easy child, up until about 3 days ago. Suddenly, "no" "I do it" and "That's Coley's" can be heard way too often. Where did my easy child go? We've made it so far today without a time out *knock on wood*. The past few days he's had more time outs than he's had in his entire life. My favorite is when he asks "Mommy help!" Then when I try to help I get "No! Coley do it." He was an absolute bear at swimming on Thursday. He refused to jump in. He just wanted to go in the big pool or down the slide. Thank goodness they only last a half an hour.

Tate has decided he wants to be a pain too, so he is refusing to sleep by himself. I made him cry himself to sleep this afternoon and I'm not sure what to do with him tonight. The problem is that he is right next to Cole and Cole will cry if Tate is crying. Hopefully he'll sleep tonight because I am tired! The other problem I am having with him is odd, I think. He poops so hard he makes himself puke. He's been doing this the past 4 days. He's not constipated. He poops at least once daily. It's not incredibly hard poop either. Has anyone had a kid do this? I'm not sure if there is something I can do for him or not.


It's impossible to be mad at that face! He has such big smiles. He's so easy to make smile and laugh. He's so not like his brother at all! This is the face you get when you are trying to feed a baby squash and he's trying to feed himself cheerios!

Dairy Expo

I don't even know where to start. I am exhausted. Tuesday morning we left for the Dairy Expo. We had to make a quick stop at the lawyer's office to close on our house. Yes, we are now officially homeowners! When we got checked in to our hotel for the Expo, we headed down to the pool. It was Tate's first time swimming. He was unimpressed. The water was a little cold so he wasn't terribly happy to be there. After swimming we headed to the banquet. It was a long wait for food, so the kids were crabby and I ended up leaving with Tate shortly after the speaker started, which is why we went to the banquet. We wanted to hear Baxter Black. He's a cowboy humorist/poet. They also had a silent auction at the banquet and Pat was trying to win an AMPI semi for the boys. Unfortunately, someone else wanted it worse. We later found out it was probably a good thing since you can apparently buy them for about $35 and it went on the auction for $125. Wednesday was spent touring the trade show. Pat took in a couple of sessions and I tried to take in one, but Tate only lasted about 10 minutes before he decided it was time to go. Thursday morning we took a quick swim, then back to the trade show one last time. Then it was off to Menards.

I've been searching for fencing on craigslist, and found some a while ago. We were waiting to hear back from a local guy that had some, but it turns out he didn't have much and he wanted a lot for it. So of course the stuff on craigslist was gone by the time we decided to go that route. Anywho, we ended up buying new at Menards, along with a little storage shed for all the boys outside toys. I don't usually do store credit cards, but with milk prices so low we don't have an extra $1000 lying around this month, or ever, so we got a Big Card and have the rest of the year to pay off the fence, interest free. Pat is working on installing the fence as I type.

Tate and I were supposed to head to Nebraska this weekend for a baby shower, but with the forecast calling for a blizzard on Sunday, we decided to not risk it. I'm bummed. I was really looking forward to it. It's probably a good thing though. Tate had an awful night last night. I wish I could blame it on teething, but there are no signs of the little devils getting even remotely close to poking through. He went to bed at 8:30, was up at 9, up again at midnight until almost 1:30, then up again at 3:50, when I finally brought him into bed with me. I'm exhausted. I'm also crabby. Pat and I don't do projects well together. He thinks that if something is my idea, I must do ALL the work for it. I have no problem helping, but I don't think I should be responsible for anything that does not go according to plan. It was the same with the stove. Since I picked it out and it didn't work correctly, it must be my fault. Grrr. Anyway, I suppose I should go do something productive, like fold laundry, so he doesn't think I'm wasting the day on a nap. I wish.