Archives for 2008

You would think that since I have successfuly potty trained one human being, I would have a little confidence in my ability to potty train a second. Wrong! I feel like I’m walking around with two left feet, stumbling over myself to figure out what on earth to do with poor Tia. To train or not to train…that really is the question. On the one hand, I think that she’s fairly ready, though I think she may still be a little young. And the youth factor is what’s getting me. Well, that and the fact that I am gulumping around the house like a moose trying to take her to the bathroom but not timing it right at all. I think this is just poor timing for me, not necessarily her. With Sloan still in school and it still be kind of cold out, a lot more is required of me. She gets cold without pants on, or she wants to go outside and play so I have to bundle her up, which makes accidents even more of a hassle. Plus, my mom is out of town for two weeks which means I have no help. I really need a couple of days alone with Tia. We need Potty Boot Camp! So, my thought was that I would just put her in pull ups but really talk them up like they’re underwear and still take her to the bathroom but not have to deal with the mess if our timing’s off. I guess that’s fine for now, but it’s not very effective training. Oh well. My one solice is that it will not be like this forever right? Right?
I have come to the conclusion, however, that I will likely never get a good night’s sleep again. Apparently, our bedroom has a revolving door and it appears our children like to come through it at all hours of the night (or cry out for us to come to them). A typical night for us usually includes Landon getting up once to eat, Sloan getting up once for any plethora of reasons (from being scared to needing more light to his toe hurting…that’s right his toe hurting. This is actually one of his more frequent middle of the night complaints.), and Tia generally waking up at the crack of dawn and waking up at least one of her brothers in the process. Last night we even got the joy off a tumble out of bed. We heard this crash about 10:00 and it scared us both. We went running into the nursery and found Tia standing in a daze next to her bed. Now she has a toddler bed so I’m not sure how she managed to fall such a short distance and make such a loud noise. Luckily she’s like super sleeper and went right back to bed. And Landon didn’t wake up, which was a huge praise. So if you see me and I look tired…it’s because I am. But, on a happier note, it’s beginning to look a lot like spring! The trees are budding, the grass is green and my eyes are running! Woohoo! I can’t wait for warmer weather!!!

I decided to try and start potty training Tia today. I’m seriously questioning that decision now, though. The problem is not that she is not ready, but that I’m not. It’s much more difficult to do when I’m dealing with two others. Sloan was so easy but I was able to focus on that and nothing else for as long as it took to get it done. He was also significantly older than she is right now. But, she seems pretty ready. And she’s so dang independent that I’m tired of fighting her to put her diaper on. At least with underwear she can dress herself. Tia was a baby when I potty trained Sloan and she slept all the time. So I could focus on him and stay home and really be alert and ready all the time. I don’t have that luxury with Tia. I think she’s only peed in the toilet once today. Every other time it’s been on the floor. This is overwhelming. I’ll give it a few more days, then we may have to go back to pull ups for a little while longer. Blah.

So this weekend was “Rendezvous.” This is a time for me and four of my dearest friends from college to get together and play, reminisce, and get away from everything for awhile. We have tried to do this once a year since we graduated college, and for the most part, have managed to pull it off. Of course, there are life issues that come up that have made it hard some years for everyone to make it, but we have stayed in touch and stayed close, and when we get together it’s as if we’ve never been apart. I thought I would share a few photos of us, back then, and now, just for fun! The five of us are: me, Melissa, Joy, Rachel and Jillian. We all met our freshman year at Baylor and clicked pretty much right away. At one time or another, I think we all either lived together, or spent so much time at one another’s places that we might as well have lived together. We were all volunteers for K-Life, a youth discipleship organization. And we had many, many crazy, silly times together. The first picture is of Melissa, me and Joy. I have no explanation for it as I have absolutely no idea why we were dressed up like that. We were freshman in this picture, and sadly, we probably left our dorm looking that way.

This picture is of Melissa, me, Joy and Rachel our senior year in Mel and Rachel’s apartment. I’m pretty sure this is the night that we decided to try and meet once a year after graduation. We celebrated that decision with wine coolers apparently…
Here is one of our random, silly pictures. Honestly, I have so many fun, goofy photos of us all that it could have taken me hours to look through them all. Even though the five of us were involved in several different organizations, we still spent so much time together. From late night “swims” in the lake, where we trespassed on someone’s property (and got caught), to ski trips, to midnight excursions to the David Koresh compound (one of the more foolish things we did), we always seemed to gravitate toward one another. I cherish each one of these girls deeply and still feel grateful to be a part of their lives.
Here we are at my wedding. In the past eight years since we graduated we have seen each other through many wonderful times, as well as many terrible times. Since these photos were taken we have had 11 children, with three more on the way this summer! That is wild.
And here we are this weekend in San Antonio where Jillian (bottom right) lives. What a fun time away it was. Because Jilly had to start a new job this week, she wasn’t able to join us in Waco where we met up with Joy for the day. Joy is pregnant with baby number 5! She is seriously upping the baby production of our group. Last weekend was Joy’s husband’s 30th birthday so she wasn’t able to meet up with us for the whole weekend, so we spent the day walking around Baylor campus, reminicsing. We even got to visit our old dorm, which sadly hasn’t changed a single bit in twelve years. It even smelled the same. Gross…
As you can see, I am the only one not pregnant in this photo. I wish I could have captured the looks on the faces of the people we passed as we walked campus. It was hysterical. Everywhere we went, people stared at us with their mouths half open. They didn’t even try to hide their shock. Some even pointed. It was as if we had descended from some alter universe. It confirmed to me that though I feel like I still look quite young (I have three more months to relish my 20’s!), I don’t fit in with college students any more. Especially when I’m surrounded by pregnant people! Anyway, to my dear friends, thank you for all the years of memories! I look forward to so many more. How blessed I am to have you all be a part of my life!

I think I may go crazy today. It’s a good thing I’m leaving town. Cats and Dogs have nothing on my kids. They’ve been at each other all morning. Can you put kids up for sale on ebay? Just curious.

I went all Hollywood today and decided it was time for a major hair change. Well, in actuality, I wasn’t looking for this major, but the stylist told me I had enough hair to donate to locks of love and I thought that might be a fun little thing to do, so off went my ponytail! She cut 12 inches off! EEK! Well, at that point, I figured we might as well just keep going, so I told her to put in some fun layers. Ummm…she took me rather to the extreme. She kind of stacked it in the back. Not my favorite, but whatever, it’ll grow back. Then, I decided to have her color it a little blonder, only something happened and it ended up turning kind of a strawberry color. I’m going to give it the weekend to see if I like it and if not, I’ll go back next week and have her fix it. I’m going to San Antonio this weekend with some girlfriends for college so I’m sure I’ll get a couple of pics and I’ll post one. We do this every year. We call it rendezvous, although this year I am lovingly referring to it as my “absence makes the heart grow fonder” trip. There’s nothing like a few days away to make you really miss your kids, ya know?

We pulled the trigger last night and put Landon in the room with Tia. The kids did great. I, however, did not fair so well. I woke up at 3:30 and laid awake all tense, just waiting for Landon to wake up. He slept until 4:50 though, so I laid awake awhile. I’ll have to get used to this. But I don’t think Tia even woke up when he did. I rushed in there and got him out before he could make too much noise. I didn’t quite have the courage to put him back in her room after feeding him so I just put him in the pack n play in our room. I’ll try that later when I am feeling braver, and when I haven’t been up half the night. Sheesh. But, this is just one more hurdle that we had to get over on the road back to normalcy. YAY!

Miss Sassy Pants

Landon in his life vest on the boat
Tossing sand at the beach
Sloan at the world’s shortest St. Patty’s Day Parade
All three kids at the condo

1.) When a four year old shoves a two year old so hard that her feet leave the ground and she thumps onto her back, it doesn’t hurt…as long as they are standing in the sand. When she hits the tile floor, however, it does seem to sting a bit.
2.) When said two year old is pushed, she is quick to seek revenge, generally in the form of hitting or pinching.
3.) A day at the beach when the winds are whipping up to 40 miles per hour is not a lot of fun.
4.) A restaurant located right on the beach so the kids can play in the sand while you wait for your food is pure genius!
5.) Kids do get sick in Florida. Rachel Hyser, you were right! But, I think Sloan brought his illness with him to St. Louis, so I’m still holding out some hope that perhaps Florida is a sick free zone. Which brings me to my next point…
6.)Kids still get scarlet fever. Are you kidding me? Scarlet fever? The image conjured up in my mind when I first heard scarlet fever was Doc Baker from Little House on the Prairie packing Half-Pint in a tub of ice to bring down her fever. I truly had no idea people still got scarlet fever. But guess what? My kid got it! Which brings me to my next point…
7.) It really is a small world after all. This was evident when the doctor at the Pediatric Urgent Care center we visited in the middle of nowhere told us he moved to FL from Chesterfield three years ago and he lived just down the road from my parents. Weird.
8.) Travelling on an airplane with three kids is stressful no matter how good they are.
9.) Florida on a bad March day is still waaaay better than St. Louis on a decent March day. I mean, seriously, no matter what you get to go to the beach. Is their really any comparison?
10.) A neon pink swimsuit, though designed to be immersed in water, still fades. It will indeed turn her skin so vibrant pink that you will think she was sunburned severely, but no, it’s just dye…in her skin. Nice.

We had such a wonderful and fun trip. The kids did great, but we are glad to be home. I’m thrilled to see some of my plants starting to bud and the grass looking a little greener. It’s made coming home a little less depressing. I’ll post pictures later.

So we are three days into our Florida vacation and I thought I’d just document how much I love this state. I was born here, so I honestly think my blood is just a little salty. Too much time away from the beach and I think my ph balance gets all out of wac (wack?). That’s just a hypothesis, it’s not scientific or anything. Every other year growing up my parents would rent a condo in Florida for a month and we would come down here and live. All of our family would visit us at the condo, so most of my fondest memories with aunts, uncles and cousins are playing at the beach and swimming in the pool. I get a little emotional when I look at my own kids now and realize that they are forming some of the same memories that I have as a kid. I think we are going to come down here for a month in July and hopefully my cousins and their kids will come over and play with us. What fun!
I love that my kids are totally into the beach. Sloan absolutely loves being down here. He made his first trip when he was 10 weeks old. Tia was four months the first time she came and Landon is three months. This is their second home and that warms my heart.
I love being on a boat. My parents recently bought a boat down here and we spent the day on it yesterday. What a wonderful way to spend time as a family. There is nothing more relaxing than being on the water, even with three kids. Oh, and I must brag on how awesome my kids have been down here. The airport and plane ride were down right relaxing. All three kids were angels and travelled so well. Sloan has been fighting off some kind of fever and sore throat (*update…he actually has scarlet fever/strep throat, which I know because we just returned from the Urgent Care Center – awesome), yet he’s been a joy to be around(seriously, he’s been so awesome despite being so sick!). Tia, who is our wild child, has been very sweet and adaptable and has just done amazing. And I swear that Landon is teething early, but despite his obvious discomfort he’s been so sweet and fun. He slept the whole boat ride and has just adapted to whatever crazy situation we put him in. My kids rock! Anyway, despite the fact that the weather hasn’t been ideal, we’re having a wonderful trip so far. This is one of my favorite places in the world!