Bye-bye Summer

Fall is probably my favorite season.  The trees are beautiful.  The days are cooler but still bright and sunny (usually).  About the only thing I don't like about this time of year, when the days get a little cooler, but they look warm and inviting, is that I am constantly saying...

"You can't wear that it's not summer anymore."

"No, it's too cold today to wear that."

"You need to wear socks and shoes and don't forget your sweater."

"Didn't I have that top put up and away already?"

Ugh, my girls love their summer clothes.  Sometimes I feel like I'm wrestling my 6 year old's tank tops and summer dresses from her hands (sometimes I physically am).  Reminds me of those women who race around those big wedding dress discount sales and attack each other to get the one they want.  I try and put the clothes away, tuck them in the back of the closet or place them on the high shelf in the closet.  But my sneaky fashion diva manages to find them and will sweetly imply that she found it in her drawer.  I've bought them a few new outfits for fall, which they love but certainly not the first thing they look for ("Mommy, where's my purple dress?"). 

But I agree, no outfit is more exciting for a young girl than that frilly summer dress that twirls just right.

Ah, the Birthday Party

My oldest girl will be turning 7 in about 6 weeks.  Time to start planning her birthday party.  I've told her it's not going to be a big party this year, she had her big hoopla last year.  I gave her the option of taking a couple of girlfriends to a movie or having a small gathering in our basement, she chose the basement (darn that means more work for me).

I thought this year since she's 7 then maybe she could help me with the party ideas.  I suggested a theme and asked her for ideas on activities, loot bags and such.  WOW! that girl has some imagination and ideas galore, I had to bring her down to reality a few times and steer her more into a reasonable direction.  I'm sure the party will be even more exciting for her since she has been involved in the planning details, although I couldn't imagine her more excited.

Today I was dabbling with my computer and created an invitation for her, can't wait to show her tomorrow and see if she likes it.  She wants a pinata this year so I've started looking for design ideas and will have to get started on that this week so it has time to dry.  The nice thing about the timing of her party is that it's after Hallowe'en so I can easily get small candy to fill a pinata.  I've decided to create a cupcake cake instead of an actual cake it makes it so much easier to serve and what kid doesn't love cupcakes (well, the icing at least).  We'll do snacks since I find most kids are too excited to eat anything so when you try and serve them a meal a lot of food goes to waste.  I think my biggest pitfall with every birthday has been the activities, how to keep a bunch of excited children organized.  I try to have a craft, which works but then some kids are done before others and they start running amok, while others are still busy crafting.  Or you plan on an activity lasting a certain length of time only to have it flop and then your left with a hole of time, and once again the kids are off ...amok, amok, amok, but they don't mind (it's my ears that are ready to explode).  Lots to do and tons of ideas running through my head, luckily I've given myself lots of time to get organized (I hope).

..Just think by the time my baby is turning 7 I'll be able to plan a birthday party blindfolded, hands tied behind my back, and with 2 days notice. ;)

Sniffling, Sneezing, Coughing, Mommy's heart is aching....

My kids are sick.  So far it's only two of them, hopefully my eldest will be lucky and not get this cold.  It started with me and soon my 3 year old and baby followed.  I find dealing with sickness one of the hardest mommy jobs.  Aren't mommies suppose to be able to take a child's ailments away with her magic kisses. 

When I hear my 3 year old cough that raspy, painful, dry hacking cough I just want to scoop her into my arms and take it away. She's asleep though, as awful and painful as her cough sounds she at least sleeps through it.  I've given her an herbal cough and cold tonic, since it's not recommended to give young children cold medication anymore.  It helps a little, I'm sure it soothes her throat but it doesn't take the cough away completely.  I also try to get her a drink of cold water but she is so sleepy she only takes a little bit.  So, although I get woken up frequently in the night due to her cough she seems to get a good sleep.

My baby did not fair as well, she was up more frequently.  She not only has the nasty cough but also a stuffy nose and runny yucky eyes.  Basically there is goo coming out of her everywhere.  She uses a soother to fall asleep, which is hard to do when you can't breath out of your nose.  I've pretty much nursed her every time she woken up because I find it helps drain her sinus and lets her breath a little easier (if only for a short time).  We do have a vaporizer but I hate using it since it makes a mess, soaking everything in the room.  I've played with the idea of getting a cold mist humidifier but have always put it off wondering, 'will it really make that much of a difference?'.   But two days ago, when my baby woke up from her nap coughing and sneezing, I decided that I was going to get one that day.  That night she slept so much better and didn't cough nearly as much (had one of those, why didn't I do this sooner moments).  

Last night both girls were about the same.  My 3 year old was a little better, coughing slightly while sleeping.  My baby still stuffy and coughing but still able to sleep better.  That is once I figured out one of her sisters had been playing with the dial on the new humidifier and had it turned right down. So, I'm thinking maybe I'll be able to get a better sleep? .....

My 6 year old wakes me up at 3 am, "Mommy, I had a nightmare."

Sigh, a better sleep will have to wait for yet another night.

Snack Attack

My 3 year old loves to snack, when it comes to snacks she is never full (if only dinner was the same).  I really have to try and limit her snacking to twice a day. Although she does seem to eat for a good part of the morning, but sometimes she hardly touches her breakfast so I give her one thing at a time and if she's still hungry we'll add something else, and then another thing until I finally have to say "okay, that's enough sweetie".  The one good thing is that she is great about eating healthy snacks.  If you put a bowl of strawberries and a bowl of pudding in front of her she would gobble up the strawberries in a heartbeat.  Of course when she was finished she would ask, "Now can I have the pudding?"

She takes an absolute fit when I tell her she cannot have a snack.  One day I was in the middle of preparing lunch when she asked for a snack,

"No hun, I'm making lunch right now." I reply.

She pouted and said with a whine, "I don't want any lunch, I want a snack." (huh?)

All day I hear...

"but I'm hungry"

"Can I have a snack, plllllllllllleeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaasssssseee!"

If I tell her no she cannot have a snack usually 2 minutes later she is asking for gum (word of warning; do not get one of those cute little novelty gum ball machines, it's not worth the drama.)  I've threatened on many occasions to throw the gum away if she doesn't stop asking me every 2 minutes. (maybe it was worth it...leverage!...wahaha)

So yesterday she has been asking for a snack over and over again.  It's 11:00 am and she has already had a bowl of cereal, a banana, a piece of toast (which she didn't finish), and a yogurt tube.  I mean the girl is not wasting away, but she is having a absolute fit.  So I start on lunch and decide it won't hurt to eat a little early.  

"Do you want an apple with your noodles today?" I ask

"Yes, can I have an apple and an orange?" she replies

"Okay." I can do that. So I give her half an apple and half an orange (shhh don't tell her).  She gobbles up all her food and looks up at me, she has these squinting playful eyes, and says "Can I have a snack?" 

I look at her plate and giggle, "Yes honey, go ahead."

"Yeah!" she cheers as she hops off her chair and heads into the cupboard.

I think we'll change the name of supper in our house to 'Snack Time'.

Laundry - I will defeat thee

Alas, although I continually battle laundry I am loosing hope that I will ever win the war. With five us in the household we, of course, have a lot of laundry.  With the youngest two, although their clothes are tiny they both make lots of messes and therefore where twice as many outfits.  With my 6 year old she produces extra laundry, well, because she's a girl and 1 outfit a day isn't enough, and even though it's only been on for 2 hours it still ends up crumpled on the floor or a miracle happens and it actually gets put in the hamper by someone other than me.  Now if I had all the time in the world I would probably check the clothes as I pick them up off the floor for cleanness but it seems easier just to toss them in the hamper.  That's all the clothes I need to wash then there is towels and wash cloths which make up another load a week.  And with four beds there are sheets, sheets and more sheets (but I'm embarrassed to say the beds rarely get changed weekly).  I also use cloth diapers and need to wash them every 2-3 days. 

I use to wash our clothes in the easiest way possible. I would do a load of laundry based on who's it was.  Wash everything together (all colours included) in cold water and do a medium dry.  Unfortunately I'm finding that some of the clothes coming out of storage are not usable, too worn or the elastic is shot.  I've decided that I will take a different approach to washing our clothes in order to take better care of them and hopefully lengthen their life span, especially now that I hope some will be passed down twice.  My new approach is to sort based on colours and cycle.  There is of course a lot more sorting required, especially before hand.  Now I have whites, colours, and then darks.  I still wash everything in cold, but now I have gentle cycle, regular cycle, dry on low, dry on medium, hang to dry.  I've created more work for myself but I don't think I've increased the amount of loads (at least that's what I'm going to tell myself).

So this week I was doing pretty good at keeping up with the laundry, when I noticed that my 6 year old's poison ivy seems to have made a come back.  Up I go to strip her bedding again and have successfully set myself back 2 more loads of laundry (it's okay breath, it will be okay).

I have a laundry line full of sheets and they have been enjoying the sun for about an hour, when I hear snap. I take a look outside, the line has broken and all my laundry is laying on the ground.  Did I mention that my husband was able to get the lawn mowed today, so my laundry is laying on the freshly mowed grass (my lower lip quivers as I fight the tears of despair)

The whole family comes out to help me pick up the mess.  Everybody is carrying something back up to the house.  I look down at my 3 year old's sock feet as she skips back up the house.  "sigh"  I just shake my head and smile....

"someday, I will conquer our laundry"

Curse you Poison Ivy

We have told our girls many times about the plant and they have a healthy fear of the weed.  There is a lot of it growing around our area so the girls stay on the road and don't venture into unknown territory without our go ahead. 

So I take my 6 year old across the road so she can climb the driveway of our neighbor and go play.  It's a steep, long driveway and each side is covered in poison ivy.  Stay in the middle of the driveway I remind her, "I will" she cheerfully yells as she runs up the hill.  Satisfied that she is safe I walk back home.

The next day she wakes up in the morning complaining of bug bites itching her. I'm thinking this is odd since it's late in the season and too cold for mosquitoes, but we did have a oddly warm day yesterday, okay maybe.  I ask to look at the bites and there are three small red bumps around her knee, okay put Afterbite on her marks and send her off to school.  The next day she is still complaining about the itch so I have another look and there are now more red bumps and the old ones have grown (okay not looking like mosquito bites anymore).  

My mind is in search mode .... 

poison ivy? (but it's around her knee not her ankle) 

bed bugs? (ewwww)

flea bites? (yes, her friend has a kitten)  

I hop on the computer and start my search to find out what this is. 

"Ah Ha, my girl has..er well at least I'm pretty sure, she has poison ivy."

But where the heck did she pick it up, since she swears she didn't go off the driveway at her friends.

My husband makes an oatmeal bath for her and I treat the wounds with a Burosol solution.  The next day there are more red bumps and the old wounds defiantly are resembling poison ivy (time for more Burosol).  The next day even more bumps have popped up.  She now has gone from 3 bumps near her knee to many spots around her knee, another cluster on the back of her ankle, a strip above each of her inner elbows, and finally many underneath her buttocks on her legs.  I change the treatment to a hydrocortizone cream. (Grrrr) At this point I am very frustrated that it continues to spread.  I strip the bed and blankets and anything that may have come in contact with her skin, towels you name it.  My neighbor gave me a treatment that kills the oil that could still be on her skin, so we treated her with that yesterday and so far has not seemed to spread, hopefully we are just dealing with treating the existing wounds....cross our fingers.

Well, it has now been a full week and luckily she is on the mend.  Although a few more spots have popped up on her arms she doesn't complain about any itching except for one spot on her leg.  Her old wounds are quite ugly, the poor girl, it seems, is very allergic to the cursed weed.

No Pain, No Gain

I love going for a walk with my girls.  It is a wonderful bonding experience and great exercise, at least for them.  In the spring and summer they bring new meaning to the saying 'stop to smell the roses'.  In their case it is stop at every flower, be it weed or not, and pick it (usually for mommy).  Now we live in a rural area so we are surrounded by wild flowers and the whole length of our road is riddled with flora.  Needless to say we do not walk at a very brisk pace.  So I may have to stand around a lot more than I get to walk and I may end up with stinky hands from a strange floral bouquet, but I still love it.

My 6 year old is riding very well on her bicycle and my 3 year old is really getting a handle on her tricycle.  So I'm thinking great we'll be able to get some speed in our walks if I have two girls on bikes and another in a stroller.  I head out today with my 3 year old (6 year old is in school), she's on her tricycle and I have the baby in the stroller.  We start out and she is pushing her trike better than ever, for all of 3 steps, before she stops to ask me a question.  We start out again, we get 2 more steps before she stops again to point at something she sees.  Basically the whole trip was like this walking 2 or 3 steps and stopping to chat. It was too comical to get upset at, she is such a cutie. 

...And to think I was actually worried about her speech and language skills as a baby.