Feeling sick

I woke up not feeing quite right this morning.  The back of my head was aching, and the pain seemed to shoot straight down my spine.  My head is throbbing a little and I feel chilly.  I would much rather take care of a sick kid than be sick myself.  All their sounds today are too loud for my ears to handle.  Violet keeps begging me to play tea party but I can't bring myself to do it.  When I feel sick like this I have absolutely no motivation to do anything.  I am thankful Violet took a nap though, so I was able to snooze on the couch for about a half hour.

Yuck

I have been puked on twice tonight.  Vanessa woke up from her second nap in a pile of throw up so everything attached to her crib had puke on it.  Crib bumper, mattress sheet, mattress covers, her pajamas, and my shirt (when I picked her up) all got rinsed off and put in the washing machine.  She got wiped down, diaper changed, then a bubbly bath to clean her up.  I don't know why she threw up, maybe it was her last dose of antibiotics saying "no" in her body.  I'm waiting for all her stuff to dry in the dryer before putting her in bed for the night because there is nothing for her to sleep on at the moment.  The second time I got thrown up on, she puked when I was holding her and her pajamas and my pants leg caught the majority of it. 
Between all that mess, Calvin had a little #2 accident in his undies and didn't make it to the toilet in time...uhhh...the smells coming from my laundry area were not pleasant tonight!

edited to add: Got pooped on too.  I was changing Vanessa's diaper and got majorly poo'ed on too.  She aimed right at my shirt and pants.  It has been a messy week!

Grand Harbor Resort/SS Swim Party ~ March 2011

Friday afternoon was a tough time for the kids.  Violet had gotten home from preschool (she got to bring the snack and be the leader, one of her FAVORITE days!) and the waiting began until we could leave to go to the waterpark.  I was busy packing up stuff and loading the van while trying to juggle all three kids and keep them out of trouble and stop fighting.  They asked me probably a hundred times when we were leaving, and tried helping pack but only made things go slower for me.  I don't have a lot of patience for letting them help when I'm in a hurry.  They just couldn't wait to leave, and knew that when daddy was done working we would pack up the van and start driving.  Daddy came up late, and that frustrated Miss Violet to no end.  I kept Calvin awake and didn't put him down for a nap so we could leave on time.
Once we finally left (4:30...our original goal was to leave by 3:30) all three kids fell asleep almost instantly.  It made for a relaxing drive to Dubuque, although Dave was working on his computer the whole time.  I drove and he worked.  We drove through Wendy's to get supper before arriving and once we got up to our hotel room, we ate quick and of course, changed into suits and got right down to the waterpark.  Josh and Carrie arrived only an hour after us.  We ate quickly in our room and headed for the water.

I didn't get a chance to snap any pics while in the waterpark since I was carrying Vanessa everywhere and at times, handed her off to Dave so I could go play with the older kids.  Violet was all ready to go on anything on her own with no help (she wore a life jacket the whole time) and even knew to wait for the lifeguard's signal before going down the slide.  I went down the slides with Calvin a couple times, and his third trip up he asked to go himself.  He also wore a life jacket the entire time but was never left alone.  I thought he could handle going down the slide himself, so I pushed him down and let him go.  He loved it!  I could tell he was pretty proud of himself too.   He went down again himself, and ended up turned sideways, almost backwards at the end of the slide that I think freaked him out a little...but either way...he had fun and was happy.  Once J&C arrived, all the kids were scattered everywhere and had tons of fun.  By 9 pm we decided to call it quits and head back to our room. 

Our plan for the night was to let the kids sleep together in the queen size pull out bed.  They have rarely slept in the same room together and have never shared a bed to sleep in before, so we didn't know how well it was going to go over.  They were both super hungry after swimming so I made them some instant mac and cheese using the microwave in the room and both ate it quickly.  Dave and I got the kids rinsed off and ready for bed as soon as we could.  It was quite frenzied most of the time, as they were excited to be AT a hotel, climbing on everything, gawking at things they saw out the window (we had a river view, they saw birds, trains, boats...) and jumping everywhere.  I was nursing Vanessa at times and couldn't help with the other two.  Dave got them tucked in bed, we gave them a little dose of melatonin to help get to sleep, and it seemed to help a lot.  Even though they were excited to be in the same bed, they did go to sleep pretty good after about an hour of poking and giggling.  Dave and Josh used the opportunity to hang out together downstairs in the hotel lobby for awhile.  Carrie and I chatted (via computer chat!) in our own hotel rooms and went to bed before the brothers were done talking.

I felt a little like Mama Rowena Saturday morning.  I had brought breakfast items (two kids of cereal, milk, yogurt, muffins) for our family and had enough for J&C too.  I invited them over to our room for breakfast once we were all up (kids woke up at 7!) and they came over to eat by 8 am.  Of course the waterpark was the main attraction - they suited up and went right down to the pool as soon as they could.  We all went down together, but Carrie and I went back up to the hotel rooms after an hour to put the little ones down for naps.  Vanessa fell asleep, I got a shower.  I got stories that both kids went down the slides on their own and everybody played well together. 

We went to a local pub restaurant for lunch - called the Shot Tower Inn.  We ordered a pepperoni pizza and the kids ate chicken fingers.  It was crazy in there too, very full of people, and between all of us, drinks were spilled and food was splattered.  I'm sure we just added to the chaos. 

Josh and Carrie and family decided to head back home and cut their visit short since a couple of them were just getting over the stomach flu.  We drove back home and all three kids ...again...slept the entire way.  It was an exhausting but very fun two days. 

On our way back, we talked about going to the Sunday School's Swim party that was scheduled for Saturday at 4:30.  The entire pool at Holmes middle school was reserved.  We figured...might as well...more swimming, we're already equipped, let's just do it!  So we swam for another 2 hours.  The kids were pretty excited when we found out where we were going...seemed like an extension of their water-filled weekend.  Violet got very brave and decided to go off the diving board.  At first she just stood on the end of the board and slowly walked off and let her life jacket float her to the top.  On her fourth attempt, she boldly walked up, and RAN off the board making a big splash!  The life guard then informed us that she had to pass some type of swimming test to be able to go off the boards.  Oh well....that was the end of the diving boards but she had fun.  Pizza was served, we all enjoyed that (even though we just ate it for lunch) and I liked how I didn't have to do anything for supper.  There was so much pizza left over, we took a full pepperoni pizza home with us.  We got the kids to bed as soon as possible, they got in bed at 7:30 and didn't fall asleep until around 8.  We didn't even bother bathing them, that didn't happen until Monday before lunch. :P

We just arrived, must jump on bed!

 and climb on the window sills!

 All tuckered out...and their first time ever sharing a bed.

 Having breakfast Saturday morning

 Violet gave Austin some Dr. Suess books for his 6th birthday, he was busy reading them. :)

 daddy holding a very tired Nessie

The luggage cart was the "train" 

 Calvin in the little pool at Holmes on Sat evening...he looked a little spaced out.  Probably tired!

 Violet didn't stop swimming.  She got a sore spot on her leg from the life jacket strap!

Violet's fourth jump off the board

And a nice Sunday afternoon snooze on the couch...

Wet weekend...

We went to the waterpark hotel last night.  J&C and family decided to head back home because some of them were sick, and didn't want to get everybody else sick.  We still had a blast though, and are glad we made the effort to go.  I don't have time now to write about the whole thing...I'll update later!  Kids had tons of fun.  They got very little sleep the last two days and were in bed very early tonight.

Going away Friday night

Our family is packing up for a night and heading to the Grand Harbor Resort in Dubuque, IA to meet up with Josh and Carrie and their kids.  There just so happens to be a huge indoor waterpark there!  J&C take Austin there for his birthday celebration (he turned 6 yesterday), and invited us to come.  We are only an hour or so away, so it isn't all that hard to make it happen.  Violet is extremely excited and can't stop talking about it.  She remembers when we went there last year to celebrate Austin's 5th birthday.  She remembers the tiniest details - the songs we listened to in the car on the way there and back, what she gave Austin for his present (Spiderman blanket), and parts of the waterpark. 

J&C and family are coming back to our house for Saturday and Sunday night - they figured as long as they were almost to our house they'd come for a longer time we can spend more time together.

Finding a balance with Calvin...

So this world of having a 3 yr old  boy is proving to be very challenging.  Calvin is SO many things, I don't know if I can even begin to explain his complex personality emerging.  He's incredibly sweet, loves hugs and kisses, and will snuggle for a very long time if he is "in the mood".  He also loves to impress us with his jumping skills (off anything high), and if anything goes a tiny bit wrong or he messed up in any way, he throws a huge enormous fit of embarrassment and disappointment.  He rarely walks anywhere, he jumps, runs, skips, hops, and bounces.  His head is usually going a different direction than his body and he sometimes bonks into things without realizing it was there.  Generally he is an obedient child, putting his shoes away in the closet when coming into the house with out being asked to, coming to us when asked, doing things when asked...but sometimes he just doesn't do it.  Most times it is willful disobedience, other times I think he doesn't even know if he hears us or he has really bad common sense.  I am guessing this is true of any 3 yr old child.  Violet didn't seem to do those types of things.  But she's a girl, different kid....
For example, we were walking out to the van after church on Sunday, and Dave told the kids to stay on the sidewalk.  Violet and Calvin were walking 10 steps ahead of us and didn't hear because he was "in his own little world" bouncing around, and wandered into the parking lot.  Violet heard us and stayed on the sidwalk.  Nothing dangerous happened, but we had to yell at him so he would hear and finally come.  When he did come it wasn't like he was trying to be disobedient because he did come when we called him, but he was just super distracted, bouncing around, and much more interested in walking on the curb.
He also has a very messy impulsive side.  His instinct when getting something in his hands is to throw it straight up into the air.  A bucket of legos, a bucket of beads, anything...and they always have small parts.  I put the tinkertoys and bucket of beads out of their reach a couple weeks ago because it is dangerous to have those items on the floor with Vanessa crawling around now.  He grabbed his backpack hanging on the plastic hook near the garage door and tried to "hang" his body on it...which of course broke the hook, ripped the drywall off, and he fell and hit himself which resulted in lots of screaming.  Just yesterday, Calvin was left alone in proximity with Vanessa.  She was safely strapped in her infant car seat, and I had to leave them both to go deal with Violet about something else.  I had told him to stay in one place while I was gone, which he did, but he grabbed the handle of Vanessa's car seat and rocked the seat so far that it flipped her upside down.  Really!? 
If he ends up with chapstick in his hands, it gets twisted up as far as it will go and broken off and smeared everywhere on his hands/face.  He recently ate a snack of peanut butter on toast, and peanut butter ended up in his hair, his pants, and all over the table.  He's developing and changing in so many ways lately...talking in full sentences, showing us he has a wild creative imagination and the ability to play better with Violet, and expressing an interest in learning and writing his letters...and the "other" side of Calvin is just...hard.  I'm trying to find a balance between "oh, he's just 3..." considering his actions just part of his immature age and the other side...disciplining his for disobedience.

Vanessa - 9 months

Vanessa got her 9 month well-baby check up on Monday of this week....a few weeks late, as I forgot to go to her other scheduled appointment the day she turned 9 months on March 2.  Oh well...
She has an ear infection in her right ear, which would explain the high fever a few days prior to her doctor visit.  Her temp was as high as 104, but went down to normal temp of 98 with in a day after taking two doses of tylenol.  I almost took her in but it didn't work out, I'm glad she is feeling better.  She doesn't seem to be bothered by her ear infection, she's still as happy as can be, smiles, eats and nurses fine, doesn't tug on her ear or anything.  She is not a huge fan of the antibiotics but I somehow get the 4 ml of solution down her throat 2 times a day.

She is now crawling quite fast all over the house.  She can crawl up stairs too - which I haven't personally seen yet, but daddy and Violet told me she did it one night when I was out of the house for a few hours kid-free.  She pulls up to stand on almost anything, walls, tables, and most of the time, it is my pant leg.  She's still not too excited to go to anybody but mom, especially if I'm in view.  She seems to do just fine if I leave her with a babysitter and I'm not around.

She is 18 lbs, 10 oz, 28 1/4" long, and head measured 18 1/4".  About 50-75% in everything.  She is wearing 12 month size clothes because of her length.

Violet's writing

Violet is beginning to form sentences (not just words) when she writes.  Its still terrible and most things are spelled wrong, but she is learning!  In her mind, there's no way it could be wrong because she phonetically spells things out very well. 

A few of her first attempts:

In red marker, she intended to write:   "We are going to a friend's house."

"Mrs. Knapp, nap, bed, bucket, alligator"

And my personal favorite, "No one likes skunks."

Outside...finally

Today was warm enough to go outside for a short time, finally!  After Calvin woke up from his nap, I suggested we wear sweatshirts, hats and mittens and take a walk around the neighborhood ... "walk" in the kid's world means riding their trikes all over the place.  They were SO excited!  The hustle to the door was more like a stampede.  I pushed Vanessa in the stroller while following V and C on their trikes ahead of me.  Just like "old times" Violet took off down the hill and rode with no feet on the pedals til she hit the bottom of the hill (heading south on the sidewalk past 10 houses is a big downward slope).  Calvin was concerned that she was so far ahead of us but I told him I'd stay back with him, and he seemed OK with that.  She waited for us, then we all rode further.  We noticed a house starting to be built, and Calvin got pretty excited about the big dirty digger thing next to huge piles of dirt.  We got to walk up close to the big hole the construction people were digging...which the kids thought was pretty exciting.  I started picking up scraps of garbage in my line of sight along the sidewalks and putting it in the stroller basket, so the kids decided to be my little garbage picker uppers too.  Every 20 seconds it seemed, they were both hopping off their trikes and throwing scraps of things in my stroller basket.  It occupied them so I just went with it - we collected lots of styrofoam peanuts.
It felt pretty chilly in the wind on the wide sidewalk near Greenhill Rd, so we excited and stayed on the sidewalks by the smaller streets.  Both kids seemed ready to go home so we finished up our walk (and of course, had to go back UP the big hill they floated down at the beginning of our walk).  One house away from ours Violet stopped her trike and got off, and started examining something carefully.  When I got closer, she told me she found a dead bird.  It was disgusting - it was obviously freshly dead - bright red bloody parts strewn across its feathery body and wings.  EW.  They were obsessed with staring at it, but I was quick to shoo them away.  Calvin didn't stop talking about the dead bloody bird all night.  Conversation between the kids was how the bird died. 
Anyway...we had a refreshing time outside, it felt great to get out.  Vanessa was a trooper and seemed to enjoy the walk too.  I dressed her by putting one of Violet's pull-on fleece sweatshirts on her - the long sleeves were too long but kept her hands warm and I didn't have to fight her to keep mittens on.  Worked great!  I thought she might sleep on the walk but she stayed awake the whole time, so her 2nd nap of the day was pushed back from 3 to 5 pm.  She still went to bed at 9 pm with the other two.
Great day!  I hear tomorrow is going to be warmer!

Vanessa is changing so much

It seems like just yesterday I went to get her out of bed after a nap, and she was just sitting there.  She figured out how to get to sitting by herself.  Today when I got her out of bed a few minutes ago, she was standing up holding onto the cribrail squealing and waiting for me to get her.  She was so cute standing there, like "gimme outta here!"  She's so happy to see me, I call her my little cling-on because she prefers mom to anybody else and grips my clothes if she gets pulled away from me. :)

Calvin's throat froggy

Calvin has a persistent cough right now.  Dave has him convinced that a froggy is living in his throat!  A couple days ago when I was picking Violet up from preschool, he was in the van with me and started coughing.  He said "I don't know what the proggy is doing in dere.  Maybe he is hopping around!"  He keeps asking to go to the doctor so he can feel better, but I'm not going to take him.

Visit to Mason City

(mom, you can copy/paste this and print it for your guestroom book)

It has been too long since we made a visit to "Grandma and Grandpas" house.  The kids were REALLY excited to go!  We had made appointments for myself, Violet and Calvin to get our teeth cleaned at dad's office Tuesday morning, so we made the trip up to MC Monday night.  Dave got off work at a good time, and we had the car packed and were on the road by 5:50 pm.  The drive going somewhere somehow always seems to take much longer than the drive back.  Violet and Calvin were not the best of buddies on our drive up north, and were silenced for much of the trip.  Violet asked how many minutes it would be til we got there SO many times we had to ask her to stop asking.  First it was 45 minutes, then 40, then 38, then 35, you get the idea.  When we excited the highway onto Hwy 65, we told her to stop asking because it would be about 10 minutes.  My mom had a yummy supper of baked chicken/rice and broccoli ready to for us to eat, so we at pretty quick after arriving, a later supper around 7:30.  Violet told Grandma Jo that broccoli was her bestest favoritest food in the whole wide world, and ate plenty of it.  She enjoyed the chicken too.  Calvin didn't eat all that much, but managed to have some bites, and struggled to chew/swallow his last bite of chicken.  The night ended in a spanking for him because he did not swallow when daddy told him to.  After that fiasco, the kids played well for another hour before getting settled into bed.  During dinner Vanessa ate some grapes, cheese, turkey lunch meat, and some bites of broccoli.  My mom had some neat foam building blocks which they enjoyed making towers and castles out of.  Calvin stacked up all the little short blue ones and said they were all cakes.  After they were in bed (Violet in Jay's old room, Calvin in "the office" pull-out bed, and Vanessa in the pack and play in the basement), Dave and I and mom and dad enjoyed some raspberry chocolate wine and sat and talked for awhile...covered lots of topics, one being the economic unstability of our country seeming to teeter on the edge of the dollar losing value like crazy.  We went to bed around 11.  I was woken up at 1:40 am by Calvin screaming in the upstairs hallway.  I got out of bed quickly and helped him ~ I just took him to the bathroom and tucked him back in bed.  I had to turn on his room's light to find all his "stuff".  I had packed his favorite little white kitty, dump truck, and an extra blue blanket.  His most special blue blanket was on top of the bags while I was packing and it got grabbed and played with while I was packing, so it did not make it into the van when we left Cedar Falls.  I didn't realize it til after we were well on our way so there was no turning back for it.  He seemed alright, which I was thankful for.  After he settled back into bed, I went back to sleep.  Dave got up at 6 am to get on a call with a co-worker, and I got up by 7:40.  I came downstairs and found V and C in their pajamas, playing around, mom with curlers in her hair holding Vanessa on her hip while she tried to get breakfast ready.  I got Vanessa and changed her diaper and nursed her while mom finished up breakfast.  She had sausage frying in a pan on the stove and a yummy cheesy egg bake in the oven.  Yum!
After breakfast, kiddos got dressed and we all got ready to leave the house by 9:45 to get to dad's office at 10 am for our appointments.  Violet and I were scheduled at 10 am, Calvin at 10:30.  Before we left, I put Vanessa down for her first nap, and Dave stayed home and worked.  Mom watched the kids for me at dad's office while I was getting my teeth cleaned.  Reports were all good, our teeth look great, and Nancy was surprised to find hardly anything to scrape off my teeth even though it had been a whole year since my last cleaning.  Today was Calvin's first official teeth cleaning - and he did great!  I didn't see any of it, I snapped one quick picture while I had a break.  Dad and Helen told me he wanted to grab all the instruments that went in his mouth, and gagged a little when polishing, but he didn't scream or freak out, which I was pretty happy about.  Violet was fine too, she was done before I was and came in my room to watch me a little.  She preferred to play in the waiting room with Grandma Jo though.  Everybody at the office was happy to see the kids.  We drove home after we all finished and waited an hour before eating (fluoride treatments), and had peanut butter & jelly sandwiches for lunch.  Vanessa woke up when we got home and had some lunch with us, but not PBJ, she had more grapes and cheese.  Vanessa's favorite toy at Grandma's house this time was the little table toy her size.  She pulled up to stand on it and smacked all the toys to her heart's content, and seemed surprised by all the noises she could make.  She crawled more on her hands/knees too.  Grandma Jo noted that when Vanessa sat on the floor, she spun in circles, using her legs to rotate her around and around.  Vanessa is very attentive to whatever action is going on.  She likes watching!
Doug offered to let the kids play at the gym from 1-2 pm, of course they didn't pass on that offer.  I dropped my mom and V & C at the gym and took Vanessa over to the office so the ladies could see her.  I stayed there for about 10 minutes, and went back to the gym to watch the kids play.  I let Vanessa crawl around on the floor for awhile, even though she wasn't really happy to be left all alone at times.  Violet and Calvin's favorite activity this time was digging as deep a hole as they could in the sponge pit and taking turns jumping in the big hole.  One would jump in, dig deeper, get out of the way, and let the other jump in.  This went on for about an hour, and then we headed home.  Its always hard pulling them away from the gym.  Doug was very kind to let us play there.  Violet was quick to say thank you, and Calvin was very reluctant to say thank you.  
Dave stayed up in the office working most of the day.  We weren't sure when we were going to leave, it was up to Dave's work schedule when he could get away.  He was on more conference calls, so the kids got involved with other toys, building more towers, playing with "the city", and having books read to them by whoever was sitting on the couch at the time.  I started feeling very tired, it was close to Vanessa's nap time so I laid her down, and went upstairs to take a nap.  My mom happily offered to let me sleep and I couldn't really turn down that opportunity.  I slept for about an hour and a half, and Dave woke me up saying it was 5:30 and we had to get going.  So we packed up...and headed home.  The drive home seemed like it went very quick.  Violet and Calvin were best buds again, giggling, bonking feet, holding hands, making up silly games and songs, and getting very excited whenever I would pass a truck or car on the highway.  Dave tried to work productively in the car and ended up putting in earplugs so he could concentrate.
Thanks so much mom and dad for letting our family crash on your house for two days.  We loved it, and can't wait to come back!

Vanessa doing her thing, destroying all objects with in her reach:

Calvin lost in his own world

Vanessa loving her "stand up" toy

Violet loves to color!

Calvin getting his teeth cleaned by Grandpa Jon, what a brave little guy!

Grandma Jo in the waiting room with the kids

Violet and Grandma Jo's "castle"

Back from the dungeon...

K, I'm now over the initial thrill of sewing. :) I am in the planning stage...looking at patterns, fabric, etc.  I really want to try my hand at making some simple summer dresses for my two girls to match this summer.  Can't easily find size 6 and size 12 months that match.

It has been awhile since I blogged.  I don't really know what to catch up on. 

Vanessa started up on her hands/knees crawling again today.  She has mastered the army crawl across the house, but today went for a toy in a different way.  It was fun to see her clumsily pad her hands and knees together on the floor in motion to get something. 

We had some friends over tonight, it was really fun.  The Hemmer family came over, and we fed the kids chicken nuggets and fruit before we ate our supper together.  It turned out to be a wonderful night ~ the food was yummy (Dave and Dennis BBQed chicken, I made twice-baked potato casserole, dinner rolls and cut up fruit, and the H family brought two Village Inn pies), company was even better, and all 7 kids played really well together.  Violet and Ivy changed into many dresses Violet owned including her white flowergirl dress she wore when she was 3.  It was incredible to see the dress be 5 inches off the ground instead of brushing the floor like it did when she wore it last.  Calvin and Evan played well, but not necessarily together.  Sylvie bounced around shrieking and smiling at everybody, and Vanessa and Silas even sat on the floor and "played" together.  The kids ran around every floor of the house and enjoyed themselves, we heard lots of laughter and very little screaming.  Good times catching up with good friends.

Violet has been talking a lot about God and death lately.  Her mind is spinning with thoughts and questions.  She has asked me a few times what are some things that God cannot do.  I was grateful for teaching on this subject years ago and the three things came to me right away.  God cannot sin, He cannot lie, and He cannot change.  I gave her those answers, and she said "Oh! Well that's good!"  She knows God can do anything, so she says "like what, mom? What can he do?" And every answer I give she responds with "really!? Are you serious?" and seems to be in awe.  She wants to know when she is going to die, how old she will be when she dies, how old everybody else will be when she dies, etc...all those questions are floating in her mind a lot (probably since she went with us to a visitation prior to a funeral a few months ago).

Calvin is a huge bundle of energy.  He runs almost everywhere he goes, he loves to push his trucks everywhere and at times, relax on the couch and watch a video.  His favorite latest toy is a little rocket ship which he is constantly "blasting off" into outerspace by saying "1...2...admission!" Which should be "3...2...1...ignition"...or blastoff...or something.  Full of sound effects and firing, exploding engines to complete the act.  He pretends the rocket ship's black jets on the back of the toy are burning hot and if we touch them we'll get burned.  He LOVES to roleplay and act like he's the baby.  Monday morning when I took Violet to school, Vanessa went down for a nap so it was just me and Calvin for an hour and a half.  I didn't really "play" with him, but I was talking in a play-voice the entire time.  He was all over the map, grabbing all his trucks, airplanes, etc and putting little wooden toy pigs, horses, and cows into them, acting like they wanted to do all sorts of things.  I pretended to be one of the animals and talked along with him whatever direction he wanted to go with the scenario.  I spent most of the time cleaning and loading/unloading the dishwasher and flipping laundry...the whole time pretending to be a cow in an airplane that was scared to go too high, etc.  I found it quite entertaining.

Violet is turning into a great reader.  She has a few simple books that she can read perfectly word for word.  Every day she asks what certain words and expressions mean.  She can sound out words very well and try read things that are too advanced for her.  She gets VERY frustrated if I try to help her or tell her what it is before she tries, so I'm very careful to not help her unless she asks for it.  I recently picked up a bag full of library books and both kids really enjoyed a silly book called The Baby Beebee Bird - about a little birdie who is new to the zoo and sings an annoying high pitched song only at nighttime, so all the other zoo animals can't sleep, and the next day they plot to annoy the bird while he is sleeping during the day with an annoying song so the bird stays awake, and everybody peacefully sleeps during the night when they're supposed to.  They ask me to read it to them all the time. 

This year is in full swing, I can not believe it is March of the year 2011.  Dave's job has gotten extremely busy, he is working extra hours and has traveled more lately.  Calix recently bought another company (Occam, their main competitor), so there are a lot of new employees joining his team ~ he had to make some personal connections with the new co-workers in Minneapolis this past week, and the week of the 14th, he is going to be in California for 4 days. 

Violet does not do well when Dave is gone.  She acts out more, and gets very weepy at bedtime when daddy is gone.  He always spends extra time with her at bedtime, telling silly and funny stories with her and talking about whatever shoots the breeze.  She really misses that time when he's traveling.  They talk on the phone sometimes at night but to her, its not the same.  If I can get Vanessa to bed before I put the other two kids to bed, I can do it sometimes too, but the weeks Dave is gone, I am usually looking to get them in bed as soon as humanly possible so I can get a break.  I love nighttime, and its the most relaxing part of my day...going to bed "on time" ... which would be near 10:30 is so hard.  I suppose life would be easier if I was an early-to-bed, early-to-wake-up person, but I'm just not.  I could be...if I changed my habits.  I heard somewhere it takes 21 days for something to become a habit.  I don't know if I could go to bed at 10:30 every night.  Here it is 10:47 pm and I'm wide awake wondering what I can accomplish. 

Calvin does OK when Dave is gone.  All he cares about is that daddy will come home.  He says "are you going to come home?" and is happy enough with a "yes" for an answer.  He's so goofed up with his perception of time (of course, he's just 3)...but the things he says are just too funny.  He says in all seriousness, "Mom, is it warm enough yet so I can go to the park?" I say "Not yet, we need to wait for winter to be all done, then it will be warmer outside.  I'll tell you when its warm enough, ok?" and he says " In 5 minutes, ok?"  Sure thing, Calvin. 

This spring, we hope to get the landscaping in our property majorly scaled back.  The amount of bushes/trees/flowers is just too much to keep up with.  We need to rip out a lot of stuff and replace it with grass, and only plant things that are super low maintenance.  We hope to put in some type of play equipment and a sandbox for the kids.  Playing in the sandbox was one of my favorite things to do when I was a child.  making castles, moats, etc was so fun.  Even though its super dirty play, I'm ready for it, bring it on...we have a hose.

I think that's about all I got for now...will write later!