Pancake morning

Some times I wonder if my kids are bottomless pits when it comes to eating. Its Saturday, I got in the mood to make pancakes. I always make them from scratch, I don't like the taste of box mix pancakes. My recipe is very simple, it comes from Betty Crocker's basic pancake recipe using flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, eggs, oil and milk. Violet got REALLY excited when I told her I was going to make pancakes, and she decided she was going to help. She dug out her apron and pulled a chair up to the counter top before I could say anything! So, we went for it. I doubled the recipe knowing how quickly the pancakes get eaten. She searched for her pink measuring cups in the drawer and proudly pulled them out, saying she was going to use each one. I let her scoop the flour, salt, baking powder, and sugar (I leveled all the ingredients off) an she poured everything into the bowls. She mixed the dry stuff, then we moved onto the wet stuff. I let her crack all the eggs and she did perfect, she was really proud of herself for not getting any shells in the bowl. She knows how to crack them once on the counter top and look for a long crack, and pull the egg apart gently. Once we had the milk and oil in with the eggs, it was time to mix them. I decided to let her do it, and she did an OK job. The batter can't get over mixed and needs to stay slightly lumpy so I took over when it started to look like she needed help. The pan was preheating the whole time we prepared the batter, but I poured the pancake batter onto the hot griddle. I set Calvin up in his high chair next to Violet who was still standing on the chair up by the counter top, and just let them eat together. She loves eating right next to Calvin, she kept yanking his high chair closer to her. And they ate pancakes like they were starving children. Before I could get the first 4 off the griddle, I was plating 2 pancakes for each kid, and they had polished them off before the next 4 were done. I think I lost count how many they ate. Calvin had 4 or 5 pancakes (all covered with peanut butter and syrup!) and Violet probably ate 5. She said she didn't want peanut butter until the third pancake. Ohh-kay. So she had peanut butter on pancake number three. They eventually slowed down, but it was a pancake feeding frenzy for the first 10 or so pancakes that came off the grill. I didn't get to eat any until they had finished. :)

I need help finding my brain

because I've lost it and can't find it. Seriously, I feel so absent-minded this pregnancy. I can't remember a thing and do things I don't normally do. On Monday I was driving the van home from taking the babysitter home and Violet came along for the ride. She was in the back seat looking at a class picture that her teacher had given her and asked me to turn the light on so she could see better. I turned the van light on and let her look at the pic while I drove home. After we pulled in the driveway and shut the garage door, I forgot to turn off the light. So the next morning when I went to take Violet to preschool, the van battery was dead. Thankfully we have the truck and it was running fine so I took that. Dave tried to use our battery charger to charge the van battery, but it didn't take the charge. Apparently it was just "too dead" to be charged. *sigh* So, Dave had to go buy a new battery, $90 later, it was fixed. And this morning, I completely forgot about going to Bible Study. My google calendar that I organize my life with wasn't updated since we moved the Wednesdays we meet back a week. I didn't update it, so never got notified to go. I have to trust the calendar because it always emails me when I have an appointment or something, but this time it wasn't updated. But I did end up remembering to go to a playdate that was scheduled through one of my friends from MOPS. I got a phone call while at this playdate from Dave, he told me a friend called from Bible study wondering where I was. I was so upset I forgot, I would have much rather gone to Bible study than a play date. Oh well. I forget so easily when things are going on. Some times Dave will tell me that he's going to the garage to work on something and once he shuts the door, five minutes will pass and I'll walk around the house calling for him because I have no idea where he went. I feel like I'm going crazy!

Our first parent/teacher conference

Dave and I went to our first-ever parent-teacher conference last night for Violet's preschool review. Dakota came over to babysit for a couple hours, and we turned the night into a small date night. Violet's main teacher, Miss Stephens, took the full half hour time slot to review Violet's school work, stuff she has worked on, things they love to do, and things they say. We left pretty happy, as Miss Stephens had a glowing report. She is really impressed by Violet's ability to speak and communicate how she is feeling, her ability to draw and trace things, and noted her improvement in writing her name in a few months. She said she gets along well with everyone in the class (there are 11 boys and a total of 5 girls, including her), and she said her favorite friend is a girl named Maddie. Her teacher gave us a copy of a picture of their whole class. Violet didn't make it in the picture though, the day they took the picture Violet was in TX with Dave. But she was happy to see the pic when I showed her at home. She could tell me every kid's name. The only thing we need to work on with Violet is trying to help her remember the number 15 in sequence with the other numbers. She can count up to 26 but she consistently skips the number 15, breezing right over it saying 13,14,16, 17. This reminds me of when I was in kindergarten. I remember learning the months of the year in order but always forgetting to say October. September, November, December. haha! The next hour we spent at Los Cabos munching on my favorite chips and salsa, we both also ordered a small meal. Dave got a latte from Cup of Joe and we headed home.

Mo

That is what Calvin says for "no". It usually sounds very sad and drawn out. His way of communication is improving, but he still yells a lot. He can say even more words, but he doesn't know effective ways of communicating yet. His favorites are "bubble, apple, and dooo for juice".

Carrie had her baby last night

I got a call from Josh last night around 7:40 pm. He said Carrie had just given birth to their third baby, Wesley David. He was 10 lbs, 11 oz and 22 in long. What a chunk!!

Violet got the goonies last night

She and Calvin were up way past their bed time. The whole family made a trip to the grocery store and we left our house at 7:40 pm, I should have known better. They actually did alright while we were at the store. Dave pushed the little car cart and had fun with them while I focused on knocking things off my shopping list. Before we left for shopping, she told daddy that even if she got bigger, she would still always be daddy's little girl. Dave is always saying things to her like that. "Don't grow up on me! I want you to stay my little girl!" and she made him tear up a little when she came up with that on her own. She even gave him a kiss and a hug. Of course they had their whiny moments while getting ready for bed at 9:30 pm, but once Calvin goes to bed, Violet has the attention of both mom and dad while we try to get her to bed. She just started saying the goofiest things, talking about what her and her friends and her were talking about (not sure when the friends conversation occurred, must have been days ago). She was having a hard time explaining something, Dave and I kind of gave up trying to understand. She could tell we didn't get what she was trying to say, so she gave us a smile, threw her hands up in the air like a frustrated teenager, and said "Oh, just forget it!" and then collapsed on the ground in laughter. We had to laugh at that, it was hysterical. Then as we tucked her in bed, she got all silly saying "ooh-aah" over and over again which for some reason we don't understand, set her off into a heap of uncontrollable giggles. She could barely breathe was laughing so hard. It was a funny night.

Calvin reached an unfortunate milestone

He climbed out of his crib the other day. I don't think he even knew he could do it. Violet climbed in his crib to play with him, I lifted him in. I thought they'd be there for awhile, but Violet climbed out herself and Calvin just followed her. I was shocked when I walked back in his room and they were both on the floor. I said "Violet! Did Calvin climb out of the crib by himself?" and she proudly said "yes! he did!" Great. But, I'm thankful he hasn't tried to do it any other time. I've known he was CAPABLE of doing it for a long time now, but he hasn't tried until this one successful attempt. It has been a few days and every morning I still find him sitting his crib just waiting for me to come get him. His first priority when waking up is locating his paci and blanket, so once he has those items he is usually content. I have no plans to switch him to a bed any time soon, he's perfectly happy sleeping in his crib, he just loves it. Sooo...I guess we'll figure it out once baby #3 shows up. Its a borrowed crib anyway, we are using a friend's crib. She said we can use it as long as we need to, but part of me just wants to get our own.

Got it removed today

It was really no big deal. My mole is gone! I could barely feel the numbing shot, it was so teeny tiny. The doc had it off in 2 seconds, bandaged me up and I was out of there in 5 minutes. Violet saw my band-aid and of course, asked a hundred questions about it. "Can I see it? Did it hurt? Did you cry? Where did it go?" She is sensitive to getting shots lately. She hasn't had to get one, but she watched Calvin get a flu shot and she took it worse than he did. She screamed, got very upset, and cried and hid behind the curtain in the doctor's exam room when Calvin reacted to the needle. When I picked him up he got over it quicker than she did, I had to hold both of them before she calmed down enough to walk out of the exam room. Just shows me that she was really concerned about her little brother and the small amount of pain he went through. It was really sad and sweet at the same time.

13 week belly

Silliness

Violet must be in a goofy mood today because she's made me laugh a lot today. What she just said: "Mom, I like butterflies. And I really like bugs too. I am liking bugs more and more because I'm going to be four, like this (and holds up four fingers)." And another conversation: V: Mom, do you like my shirt? Me: yes, I like it! V: Would you like to wear it some time? Me: But it would be too small because I'm bigger than you. V: Oh! But when you grow small, THEN you can wear it! I am happy to share! Me: Ok, thanks! Then I coughed, and she said "Remember mom, cough in your ARM!" That must be a preschool thing.

Airplane

You can bet that if there is an airplane flying overhead, Calvin will hear it and find it before anybody else in the house! That skill was useful today when we were outside on a walk. Dave had just left for the airport, so Violet, Calvin and I went outside. Violet rode her trike and I followed her with Calvin in the stroller. It was such a beautiful day, it topped 70 degrees I think. Violet was wearing shorts even. We left on our walk as a distraction from daddy leaving. He flew to Florida today for Calix's user group conference. I'm not sure what all that means, but he is there to meet a lot of their customers. As we were just heading home on the last part of our walk (and we had gone a long way! About 2 miles), Calvin heard an airplane. It was really close, too. I thought to myself "Could that be the plane that Dave is in right now?" So I pretended it was. Violet saw it, and said "bye dad!!!" as loud as she could muster. Calvin excitedly pointed and said "ay-pane!" Dave called me about an hour later when he landed in Minneapolis. He said "I could tell we were flying over our neighborhood, I was looking out the window for you guys but I couldn't see you." So it was! I asked him if the plane he flew in was silver, he said it was. So it was true, we saw the same airplane that Dave was in fly right over our house! It would have been even cooler if he had spotted us. The plane was still flying pretty low. Every time we see an airplane in the sky, Violet tells me that that is about how high she was when she went on the airplane with daddy. I think she is going to remember that time with daddy in the airplane for a long, long time!

No go

The dermatologist thought the area was too infected to remove the mole, so I was sent home with a topical antibiotic, and re-scheduled the surgery for next Thursday. I am feeling better, though. I pretty much feel back to normal except for a slightly stuffy nose. I hope this is it for awhile!

Got an appointment Thurs

So I called the dermatologist this morning. They had an opening at 1:15 on Thursday so I am scheduled to have it removed then. I can only guess that the pregnancy is related...its grown bigger since being pregnant with Violet and Calvin, just this time its really swollen and painful. Be gone, mole! I'm not at ALL tempted to eat the leftover halloween candy. The thought of extra sugar making my throat hurt is enough to turn me away, I haven't eaten any of it. We bundled up and went to the park for an hour this morning. The kids had a blast, I know they enjoyed being outside. I kept my coat zipped all the way over my mouth, the cold air made my throat worse. When we got in the car to head home, Violet said she was ready to go home, I knew she was tired. They're both sleeping right now and I anticipate long naps today. I really hope she's back to 100% so she can go back to preschool tomorrow. She's still coughing and sniffling a little.

Well, now I'm the sick one

I must have caught the cough that Violet had. I have a sore throat and a cough that makes the inside of my throat feel like its on fire. Its sooo painful. I took some tylenol to reduce the pain, that is about all I'm allowed to take right now. My body feels really tired, but no muscle aches or fever. There is also one more medical thing that is really concerning to me. I've had a little mole on the side of my face near my right eye my entire life...and over the years it has grown very very slowly. Its always been light brown. Just in the last day or so, the tissue underneath the mole has become extremely tender and sore, almost like there's an enormous pimple underneath it, but I know that's not it. The mole has turned pinkish, and I can't wait to get it removed. I took a nap this afternoon and found the pressure of the mole against my pillow was even too much pain to tolerate. I had an appointment to have it removed last year some time (per a dermatologist's recommendation, sort of a preventative thing) but that was scheduled pre-flood, and once the flood hit we went into survival mode, so I canceled the appointment thinking I would reschedule soon. That never happened, life got busy, and I forgot about it. Now I'm really wishing I had gotten it taken care of. I'm going call the dermatologist as soon as I can tomorrow and find the first appointment to go get it taken off.