Some pics

Yes, I got crafty. I painted these two pots for my original plant, and I got an African Violet, so it definitely needed a cute pot: We had fun getting our feet wet and making foot prints. :) We didn't know this tree turned a beautiful pink until last week!

Beat the rain today

I spent most of the morning today out of the house with a friend, Kim and her 3 yr. daughter Katie. We went to work out, then to the library for story time, the grabbed McDonalds and ate lunch at the park under the shelter. The girls were so goofy, running out into the sun to "get warmed up" and running back to their food and taking bites. We played at the park for an hour, then left when they started melting down because they were exhausted and tired. Kim and I gave the girls double "under-ducks" on the swing - they laughed so hard. It wore the kids out, big time. Violet and Calvin were exhausted by the time we got home, and easily went down for long naps. As soon as I got them down for naps and took a shower, I heard the thunder start rolling and random bouts of rain would down pour and stop. Spring is SO here! Yay! The flowers are blooming, the tree on the front side of our house is completely bright pink (so pretty!), and the bushes and trees are filling in.

Calvin - 16 months - I think we have another singer

At his 15 mo appointment he was an ounce shy of 25 pounds. No wonder he's a lug to carry around places. He might not have words to sing, but the kid can hum on tune. I just got done putting him to bed, and before I lay him down in his crib, we always snuggle and rock in place while I sing Jesus Loves Me. He knows the tune to this song in little spurts. I put him in his crib tonight, and he rolled over and looked up at me, and started humming it. He has also picked up a few tunes from a couple songs we always listen to in the car when we're driving. Violet recognizes that he hums the tune and picks up on it with the words. He loves it also when I "play" with his food and do the airplane trick. Zooooooom around goes his food in the air and eventually into his mouth. He giggles every time I do it. And he picks up his own food pieces and goes "Oooooohhhh!" and throws the food to copy the effect. Its too cute. He doesn't say a whole lot, but I know he understands plenty. He is beginning to understand simple commands and obeying them, like "Pick this up and bring it to me." or "Go get your blanket". And that blanket...he's got an addiction problem. There are times when he is left with people who baby sit for him, and when I come back to pick up the kids, he is so excited to see me and runs up to me, but he stops short and realizes he doesn't have his special blankie and pacifier to snuggle with. He stops in his tracks, looks around frantically for his blanket and paci before I can pick him up and greet him. The blanket is already looking rather dingy, and I have to be strategic about taking it away so I can wash it in the washer.

I forgot to mention

That last week was Dave's 33rd birthday on April 22nd. He was traveling out of state, so he couldn't be with us, but I told Violet that it was daddy's birthday, and she made sure to sing him the happy birthday song a few times through out the day. I remember (sort of) my dad's 32nd, or 33rd, or 34th birthday party. He had a cake, blew out the candles, and the rest is history. I was around 4 or 5 years old, so those memories are pretty flighty and not very connected. Mom put a big 32 (or whatever year it was) on the cake. I doubt Violet will remember this year's birthday for Dave, as she's just nearing 3 1/2. I made Dave a birthday cake today (yeah, we're celebrating a week and a half late!) that neither of us will forget, it was so fun. I found instructions online for making this crazy rainbow cake making white cake and dividing up the batter into 6 separate bowls, and dying each one a different color of the rainbow, and plopping the batter in the pan one color on top of another. So I tried it...and I'm stick in a pic on the post just because we had so much fun seeing what the final product was. Violet Oohed and Aaahed as the cakes came out of the oven. She said "Mommmy made you a colorful cake, daddy!" It came out of the oven past her bedtime, so she didn't have time to have any tonight...I'm sure the first words out of her mouth in the morning are going to be asking for a piece of it. Most of the morning and afternoon was spent searching for another vehicle. Two reasons we want to get a second vehicle: 1) Its a pain just having one, and 2) We don't have anything to tow the boat with (I asked Dave if our old Honda Odyssey could tow it, apparently not, its a wimpy van, lol). The boat is a permanent fixture in the garage until we can move it, or even use it for boating this summer. We didn't buy anything, but we searched a few dealers and are getting a better idea of which we are considering. Violet also got a new summer toy to play with, and she's CRAZY about it. She begs me to go outside and play with it all the time now, which is a good thing. She got a trike with three rubber wheels, its from Scheels, called the Trek Trikester. I am not sure I spelled that right. The seat is pushed as far forward as it can go, and her feet barely, and I mean BARELY touch the wheels. The seat goes back 5 more notches, so she'll get tons and tons of use out of it. One day this past week we took a walk...she rode her trike down the sidewalk and I pushed Calvin in the stroller. She goes ahead of me, and we went probably a mile. Up and down hills. But the time we got back from that walk she was exhausted. Another favorite thing for her to do is go with me to the Orchard Hill Church parking lot north of the building and use the big, open space to ride it as fast as she can. Usually when we go, the lot is completely empty, or has just a couple cars in it. Its just a couple blocks one direction and a couple blocks another direction, so it takes just minutes to get to. It gets her some good exercise too!! We got a good deal on buying two trikes at the same time, so she has a pink one, and Calvin has a blue one, but he won't be able to ride it for about 2 more years. Yeah, its a long time to wait, but we figure its good to have a spare if Violet has a friend over or something, they can both use them outside. Her cousin Austin would have a blast on the blue one - Josh and Carrie are coming to visit for Memorial Day weekend so we'll see how he takes to it then. So now for pics. And yes, I put pink sprinkles on my husband's birthday cake.

Its a pretty busy week for me

But I feel so blessed at the same time. I really love living in Cedar Falls. I feel like I have a huge support system right beside me in this stage of life while mothering with little kids. I know moms who are in the same boat as me, some who are a little further ahead with some or all of them in school, and some who have college age kids AND little ones at the same time, its so neat. Even though I had to miss the first half of Bible study this morning, the last half was encouraging to me. We are reading this book about Life Management, and the lessons seems so simple, yet hard. I really need to work at creating more fun in my kids' lives and stopping what I'm doing (because there is ALWAYS something else do to!) and give them my attention and time. Today I spent 2 hours outside with both of them on the neighbor's swingset. Calvin didn't mind the swing today, he sat there and smiled each time he saw my shadow get near him. I gave Violet a few underdogs and she laughed so hard I thought she was going to fall off the swing. She kept saying "Do that same game with me mom, run under me!" over and over and over. I met one of the neighbors 2 houses down. Her name is Cindy - she has three older children, one in college. She told me (and I feel like I hear this ALL the time, apparently its true! LOL) that the time just flies by with little kids and all of a sudden they are grown up. How do I sllllow it down? How do I really ENJOY my kids when they are this little and sometimes make me feel like all they do is annoy me and drag me down? I'm still learning, and I fear that I'll learn it too late. I have a lot of help this week lined up, I praise God for him working it all out. A friend of mine brought her two older daughters over tonight and played with my kids (and even bathed Calvin and got Violet all ready for bed!) so I could spend a couple devoted hours in the kitchen baking cookies for the bake sale this weekend. That was so sweet of her to do that, she asked how she could help, so I put her to work! Tomorrow I have a babysitter coming by for 3 1/2 hours, and Friday another friend of mine so graciously agreed to babysit for my kids during the time I am working at the sale, and my mom is coming late Fri night staying most of the day Saturday. Dave's work trip couldn't have been timed any worse, but God knew what he was doing when he sent Dave away during one of my busiest weeks. He wanted me to learn that He could work things out in a way that I couldn't have planned myself. I have a weird tummy ache, I hope it goes away. Last night when I crawled in bed (too late, of course), I fell asleep almost instantly. I NEVER sleep on my back, I can't sleep on my back. But last night I did. I got into bed, turned off the lamp, and I must not have even taken the time to roll over on my side and get all comfy, I just konked out face up, and woke up face up. I surprised myself when my eyes opened to the sunlight pouring in my room, my eyes settled on the ceiling fan, of all things. Usually I see my closet door first. I just couldn't believe I slept that way all night long. This morning Calvin went to his 15 month well-baby check at the doctor (a month late, but oh well). He is doing just fine, he weighs an ounce short of 25 pounds, 31" tall, and she says he's coming along just fine. He got his LAST round of shots until he is 5 and has to go to school. He got 3 shots in his legs, poor guy, he screamed so loud, and kicked his legs so forcefully after the first one that the nurses had to grab his legs and reposition him to give him the 2nd shot. I had to hold his arms, not a fun thing to do. I wonder what he was thinking. He had a dose of tylenol before the injections, and another dose tonight before bed. He took a really long nap today and I'm guessing he'll sleep in longer than usual in the morning. But the good thing is, he won't remember them. A funny thing before I wrap up for the night. Last night when I was getting Violet ready for bed (and she has this thing now where she has to collect ALL her bedtime stuff and crawl into my lap and we sing songs), we were singing "Do, a deer, a female deer, Re, a drop of golden sun..." and so on and so forth. You know the song. We got through the whole thing once, sang it again, and after singing "Re, a drop of golden sun"...Violet stopped singing, got a very confused look on her face, and let out a HUGE laugh, and said "Mooooom, we don't drop the sun!! Silly mommy!!"

Pics from the dairy farm and wallabies

You might have to click on each individual pic, I can't get the whole thing to show up.

Went on a farm tour this morning

I took the kids (well, Violet could appreciate it) to a local dairy farm (Hansen's Dairy) in Hudson this morning at 9:30. It was pretty chilly, but we bundled up. Violet was really excited to see the cows before we got there. The lady who owns the place with her husband was our tour guide. I pushed Calvin in a stroller, and Violet walked with me. We went with a few other moms that I know from MOPS. There were only 4 of us moms, but lots of little kids trailing behind. They showed us the equipment that processes the milk, where the cream goes, the machine that makes the cheese curds, and then we toured the whole farm. They had a whole row of pregnant cows, a field where the cows who are about to be impregnated, a barn with newborn cows, cows who weren't old enough yet, and those who were too old. It was crazy how many different buildings there were for the different ages of cows. There was also a cage full of wallabies!! I didn't even know what they were. I knew they looked like mini kangaroos. The lady gave all the kids little pieces of carrots and let the kids feed the wallabies. They were nice. Violet was scared at first, but after she felt more comfortable and watched others feed them, she got brave and walked right up to one and held out her hand. She giggled and said "It took the carrot from me!" We sampled some ice cream the dairy made and then left. They were pretty tired by the time we were done, but my morning hadn't ended yet. I had to run out to Sam's Club and pick up an order I made online - stuff for the concession stand (pop, bottled water, hot dogs, buns, etc). V was confused why we didn't get a shopping cart and walk around. Both were hungry, so they split a pretzel on the way home and had banana before naps.

The Rumplestiltskin book got booted and No More Wet Kisses, daddy!

I should have taken it out of her bookshelf long ago; its not exactly a good book and I don't want to be teaching her that girls held hostage can spin straw into gold. Anyway, tonight at bedtime she pulled the book off her shelf and turned it over to see the back cover. It has pictures of other books in the same series on it. One of them pictured is Beauty and the Beast with a picture of a pretty girl next to a scary black creature. She points to the scary looking creature and says "Mommy, what is that?" I said "Its a scary guy." She said "Sometimes he makes me wake up and cry." So I said "Ok, well, that's not good, lets take it out of your room so you can sleep better." She seemed extremely happy to see the book go, so I threw it away. Problem solved. As daddy and I were giving her goodnight kisses and hugs, she got kisses and wiped them off with the back of her hand, saying "Daddy, those are juicy. Don't make the juice, ok?" HA! Dave also took Violet out to get some ice cream tonight after Puggles, just the two of them. She didn't really eat any of it (apparently ice cream is just too cold for her), but when she got home she was very excited to tell me that she spilled "the funny ice cream all over her funny arm". The ice cream was funny because it was a blizzard with peanut butter cups in it - not "normal" like smooth ice cream with nothing in it. So funny!

Another beautiful day!

I spent most of the morning at a park with a friend and her kids, we packed lunches and stayed as late as we could before the kids melted down and wanted naps. It was beautiful outside, and my friend brought trikes and ride-on toys for them to use in the outdoor shelter that had a huge cement play area. Violet and Calvin loved being outside today. Violet only napped for an hour and a half (she's been cutting them WAY too short lately! agh!), but Calvin is taking a nice long 3+ hour one (he went down at 12:30 pm and is still sleeping now at almost 4 pm). Violet is itching to go back outside, but we have to wait until Calvin wakes up. We'll take a short walk then come back in and grill brats for dinner. I think, anyway, that can always change at the last minute. We're setting up tables tonight at the location where the MOPS garage sale is going to be from 5-7 tonight, so most likely Dave will make/have supper with the kids while I'm doing that.

So funny

This isn't a conversation, but totally funny. Earlier today Violet was playing with a big box of those foamy stickers that you have to peel the back off. She stuck about 10 of them on her shirt and left them there all day. Well, after a long afternoon of playing outside, I plopped them both in front of a video and Calvin came RUNNING up to me 15 minutes into the video screaming. His head was covered with those stickers!! Silly Violet!

Spring is here, I think! Random kid stuff.

Besides a four inch snow fall last week (it has all melted, thankfully!) I think spring is here to stay (horray!!). We have a forecast ahead of us that seems ok, 50s and 60s. I took the kids to a park yesterday but they didn't like it as much as I thought they would. They were both really shy to walk up to any equipment and sort of clung to my leg the first 15 minutes. I almost packed up and left, but then they started playing with stuff. Calvin hated the swing, Violet just wanted to go down slides, and Calvin wasn't really enthused with stuff to climb on...I dunno, maybe it was just bad timing, but the weather was nice. Its hard to take them to the park together because they both want to do different things and both need help with whatever they're doing. I saw someone I knew with her 3 kids there, it was nice to talk to her. I really feel like part of the community when I go places and recognize people almost everywhere I go! The other day I went to Walmart and saw three people I knew. Maybe I should stop wearing my grubby sweatpants and brush my hair before I run quick errands! LOL Calvin is becoming a one-step expert lately. He loves to climb up one step at the bottom of the stairs, turn around the face the floor, and step down to the floor. He claps enthusiastically for himself when he doesn't fall, and expects applause from all who are watching. He has learned some sign language - he knows milk, more, hungry and all done. Sometimes he uses it, sometimes he doesn't. He can say mama, bye bye, ee-ya (see ya), nana (for banana), mah (for milk), and I think that's it. He loves to run and crash onto soft things, lay on his special blue blanket with his paci on the floor in random places when he needs a break, and he also is beginning to pick on his sister in a physical way. He knows how to annoy her by pulling her hair or pinching her skin. There are moments when the kids play together well, even separately when engaged with different toys, but those moments are few and far between. Most of the time, they want to do EVERYTHING the other is doing, and it starts a big screaming fight. Cups is the latest. If one has a sippy cup, the other has to have the same one, not anything different. This has been hard for the last couple weeks, because they've taken turns being sick. Calvin is finally over his raspy croup cough, and Violet got a bad fever for 5 days, and today is finally over it and back to her normal self. She has a bladder of steel lately. She went to the bathroom around 6:15 pm last night, and didn't go before bed, woke up dry, and this morning said she didn't have any pee. She eventually went (A LOT), but I don't get why she wouldn't go before bed or when she woke up? Dave and I have started exercising outside. I've been going to the step class but I am getting kind of tired of it, feeling like the one hour work out wasn't pushing me like I wanted it to. So we decided to trade off going running each morning, we take turns. I listen to the streaming music stations on Dave's phone, and it makes running more tolerable. Dave said he wanted to start exercising, so if we're both doing it, we can push each other to keep it up. Just being OUTSIDE is relieving to me...after such a frigid cold winter.

What goons children can be!

today was relaxing

We spent most of today relaxing. My dad stayed over at our house last night. He came to BBC's Good Friday worship to go to the program and also hear me play my flute during the service. It was nice to see him for awhile. He got up earlier than we did and had Violet entertained most of the morning. She came into our bedroom, all dressed, and said "oh! you're still sleeping? I'm going downstairs with Grandpa Jon, you guys go back to sleep, Ok?" After he left, Dave went to an appointment with the accountant who is filing our taxes for us, then came home and helped me get the kids to bed. They EACH took a FOUR hour nap. We didn't even know what to do with all that "free" time! It was great though, it was nice to relax. I went to the grocery store to get some things for tomorrow's meal, I baked 2 dozen muffin's for BBC's breakfast in the morning, we let the kids play around the church's playground equipment after I dropped the muffins off, then we went out to eat at Applebee's. The kids were well behaved (amazingly) and then when we got home, they turned on the crazy switch. Calvin was darting all over from room to room, we could barely keep up with him. They fell asleep pretty good. Violet is a little sick, I took her temp and it was 99-100, she hasn't eaten or drank much, but she bounces back and forth all day between being down and out, and lively and perfectly fine, so I don't really know what to do. My contacts are so dry, I need new ones. It affects me most when I'm up looking at the computer screen past 8 pm.

Sold the flood boat today

We found a buyer for the flood boat. A friend of theirs came to pick it up this afternoon, so now our garage has much more space in it. Still organizing - making progress - but now we have room to breathe in there.

Violet in typical female form

She wakes up from her nap, comes downstairs, gives me a cuddly hug, and then says "Hey! Do you want to come to the bathroom and go pee with me?" I say "sure!" And then she makes absolutely sure that we can't pee at the same time, so she babbles "Mom, but, we can't go pee together. Only one person. Not two, because we can't go on the potty seat together. just one, not two, so we have to take turns, ok? I'll go first, THEN you can go."

Silly conversation

Violet and Calvin were both playing upstairs in Calvin's room. His crib, changing table, and bookshelf are all smashed together in the middle of the room because we're working on repairing the walls after peeling wallpaper off. When things are all out of sorts in one room, they're attracted to it for some reason. So they played in there, walking in circles and messing around. Violet plopped on my lap and said "Mom, can I have a biiiig strawberry hug?" I said "what is THAT?" She about fell over laughing. Then she said "Can I have a biiiig teeth hug?" I exaggerated even more and said "What is THAT??" I thought she wasn't going to catch her breath she was laughing so hard. She thinks she is just so funny sometimes. She gave Calvin a big hug and said "Aw, buddy, I love you." and then gave me a big hug and said "Aw mommy, I love you too."

Garage organization is under way, barely

The garage sale that I plan to sell some stuff in is quickly approaching at the end of April. When we first moved into this house, we sorted through all the boxes that were piled in the garage and only brought INTO the house what we wanted to keep. Everything else was sell or get rid of. Well, this "sell" pile got bigger, and bigger, and bigger!! It is taking over the garage. The van squeezes in between two boats and the rest of this stuff was surrounding the sides of the boats. And all this stuff was piled onto flooded machinery that needed to be cleaned up and fixed. The garage has been something on our minds that absolutely needed attention. Well, somehow we found the motivation to start organizing it while the kids slept during nap time. Dave moved all the dirty flooded machinery out to the shed for later clean up. This left us some room to move things around. I used the ShopVac to vacuum up the whole garage floor so we could start sorting. The log splitter is enormous - that thing needs to be cleaned up, too, since it was completely under water last year, but we haven't had the room to wheel it out of the garage yet, it is behind a huge pile of stuff and a boat. We hope some day to get it cleaned up and working again so we can sell it. We have a potential buyer for the small boat, he just hasn't picked it up yet. So once that boat is out of the garage, we'll really have the space to spread out and label things for sale. We made some small progress. And just starting is the hardest part. Going through all that stuff is tough. Most of it still smells like the flooded house. In our minds, its absolutely unmistakable. We get one whiff of something that sat in that house for a few months after it was all wet and it takes you right back to the dirty mess. After labeling one large plastic tub worth of stuff, both kids had woken up, and having them awake makes progress nearly impossible, so we quit working. I feel like the amount of things to get done is so huge, with so little time to work on it.

We went bowling on Saturday

We took our first ever family trip to the bowling alley yesterday after and early supper. Calvin sat in the stroller and munched on cereal, and Violet, Dave and I rotated turns through 2 games. The bowling alley put up the bumpers on the lanes and gave Violet a light 6 pound ball and a metal ramp for her to set the ball up on. She pushed it down the ramp and it would roll...veryyy...sloowwly to the end of the lane and knock down some pins. At first she thought we were going swimming because she didn't recognize the word "bowling" so when we got there she was confused why there wasn't any water. And as we were bowling, she said "We're going to go bowling soon!" She got pretty into it the first few times, but towards the end of our second game, she was losing interest and wandered away from the lane a few times getting into trouble. It was still a fun time, though, and I'm glad we made the effort and went. At one point we let Calvin out of the stroller because he was getting pretty fussy, but it was crazy - he was just running every direction possible and impossible to contain, so back in the stroller he went. Violet let him push the ball down the ramp once, which he seemed to like.

This week flew by so fast

I don't know where it went! It seems like it was just Sunday evening, Dave and I were both sort of dreading the beginning of another long week. Work for him lately has been really, really crazy busy. And now its Friday. We did have a busy week with stuff in the middle of it - I guess those are the things that make the time fly. Monday night Violet was sick, Tuesday I was supposed to be at MOPS but I didn't take Violet (even though she was ok), Wednesday morning I had Bible Study, Wednesday night Dave watched the kids while I went to help a friend move, Thursday afternoon I was babysitting my friend's kids while she got her house more in order and the beds set up, and now its Friday! Its not exactly gorgeous outside, either. Its sunny though, which I'm thankful for. Violet kept walking out onto the deck going "Is it nice outside yet?" and saying "Oh! The cold makes my hands freeeezing!" and coming back in and saying "This house makes me all cozy and warm." Awww. She's just dying to go out and take a walk with her stroller. I got distracted by deciding to post a blog entry. I was just in the middle of printing out our bank statements from online banking when my printer ran out of paper. I don't really feel like going downstairs and getting more paper. If I had a desk, I might have some storage for extra paper. I really, really would like a desk. I'm using a card table right now, which isn't comfy. I don't have a chair, either...I'm sitting on a dining room chair. This room I'm sitting in could use a little color and some decor. Violet's room is starting to look really cute. My mom came down this week with a big truck (she was on her way to Cedar Rapids to take Jay a desk) and dropped off some furniture for Violet's room that used to be in my room when I was a child living at my parent's house. It matches the headboard and dresser that she currently has in her room. She got a desk with a matching hutch and another dresser with a mirror on top of it. We rearranged the room and moved her bed to the opposite wall, and put the desk with the hutch on the wall right when you walk in the door, and moved the bookshelf/lampstand right next to her bed in the corner. I just need to put some other things on the wall...I'm getting there. She was crazy excited to get the furniture. She said "Oh my room looks so cute!" and loves to climb up in the chair and pretend to do things on the desk even though its bare and empty. Calvin's room still needs the wallpaper taken off. Since we got the steamer it works so much better than the DIF stuff. Its hard to find time to work on that wallpaper removal project, since when we have down time, he's sleeping in that room. Maybe we'll have to temporarily move him somewhere else. I don't know.

Not the best night (do not read while eating!)

Dave said last night marked the worst night for him ever since having kids. It may be because he got puked on twice. Poor little Violet came walking into our room at 2 am heaving. She said "I have to throw up!" Dave sprung out of bed so fast and grabbed her and took her to the toilet before I could barely sit up. She got some on him but mostly it all went in the toilet. It was all carrots that came up. Last night we shared some of the carrots that we cooked in a foil packet with potatoes and steaks on the grill, they must have been bad. We bathed her at 2 am and changed her pajamas and brushed her teeth. Dave coaxed her into drinking a mix of baking soda, salt and water to see if it would do either of two things: settle her tummy, or cause her to throw up the rest of whatever was in there. She let that hit her stomach, and more came up, landing on part of Dave's leg and the toilet. She was such a little trooper though. She cried for a little while, but most the time, she sat still and wanted to cuddle. She said "I need to throw up" and would throw up, and then say "I fink I'm all done now." She wanted to sleep in our bed last night. We caught another bout of puke in a plastic bucket near the bed. The three of us didn't sleep very well. She slept for maybe a few hours towards the end of the night. She woke up pretty cheerful, and has continued to act like her normal self all morning, having a big helping of oatmeal for breakfast as usual. She was showing her lack of sleep, with extra whining and fighting with Calvin. They both had little for lunch (neither of them showed any appetite except for some probiotic yogurt), and went down EASILY for naps. Calvin always goes down first (he's so easy, I just lay him in bed with a paci and his blanket and he's out), and I get V ready next. She laid in bed cheerfully and we prayed that she would sleep well and feel much better. I had originally planned to go to MOPS this morning, but those plans were canceled after we discovered Violet was feeling sick. I knew it was probably just bad food and she is OK now, but I didn't want to take her, and I'm glad I didn't, because she had diarrhea all morning. I had signed up to contribute a coffeecake to the morning's brunch, so I drove the coffeecake that I made the night before to the church and put it on the buffet table in the meeting room with a note that I wouldn't be there. I ran that errand around 8:15 with my sweatpants and glasses on. I made a trip through the Starbucks drive-thru and brought home two extra hot mochas, one for Dave, which he was happy to sit back and enjoy before the day started. Neither of us do particularly well on little sleep, especially Dave, so I am praying for him today that he would push through the tiredness and be able to focus on his work duties and be productive.

The weekend

The weather was perfect (70s, no wind, sunny). I was surrounded with family and had a very relaxing day taking walks, shopping, and ending the day with a yummy steak grilled outside. Friday night Dave and I hosted my parents, Jay and Molly, and Rachel overnight. We got babysitters and went out to eat Friday night with the family to celebrate three March birthdays (Molly - March 7th, Rachel - March 3rd, and my dad, March 28th). We ate at Red River Steaks and BBQ. Most of us got beef brisket. Today isn't so nice weather-wise, but I got a nap, which is a rarity. Violet and Dave are at AWANA and I have Calvin here. I started the first of approximately 6 loads of laundry, so I know what I'll be doing all night. We bought a steamer to take off the wallpaper in the living room, and it works so amazing. The wallpaper peels off as easy as a piece of cheese from the plastic wrapper. I can't wait to get the wallpaper off in Calvin's room!

Craziness

Calvin woke up again full of puke and poop. Poor kid. He must have eaten too much spaghetti last night and too soon before going to bed. He and I got a shower together while Violet occupied herself with painting downstairs. After getting all cleaned up (stripping down all his crib bedding and 5 blankets), I gave Calvin a few cheerios to munch on with some milk. He didn't seem to have much of an appetite so that is all he had to eat. His two pacifiers that were in his crib got puked on, so I boiled them on the stove for 5 minutes hoping to sanitize them. I discovered all the puke grime was stuck in the nub part of it (that you hold onto). That just grossed me out. I pitched them ALL in the garbage and vowed to get new ones. That meant a trip to Walmart if he was going to get a nap today. I dislike being victim to this pacifier. I have a love/hate relationship with that thing. He loves it, it calms him down, allows him to sleep, and that is why I love it. I hate always having to find it and keep them clean. Violet never took a paci so this whole paci thing is new to me...and if I had it my way, he wouldn't have had it in the first place, but he wouldn't sleep as a newborn with out it, and sleep was more important to me at that point! We took a trip to Walmart to get a few things (yes, more pacifiers). It was like Walmart-social hour. I saw 4 people I knew. Amy Knox, Mary Burton, Barb Swieter, and Toni Rundall. It is so neat to know so many people in Cedar Falls that I recognize people around town. That cheered me up a little bit. Plus, its 71 degrees outside!! Gorgeous! I can hear the birds chirping and feel the wind blowing through the house. The fighting doesn't seem to end sometimes with V and C. He's at the age where he'll get into something oh...for about 5 seconds. He wanted to push Violet's stroller around the patio today, but he only pushed it for about 5 seconds, then walked away. Violet FREAKS out if he even gets close to it, so the moment his hands hit the handles, she runs up to him and snatches it away. I know its just the beginning, but after such a gross and harried morning, I just wanted a little time to breathe and all they did was nit pick at each other. She pushes his buttons just to annoy him. She knows exactly what he wants. Sippy cups are the worst. If one is taking a drink, the other just HAS to have the SAME sippy. Not a different one with the same thing in it, the SAME one. Taking turns just doesn't work. I'm going to start marketing invisible sippies. At one point, I snipped Violet's cheek because she disobeyed and she said "Mom, don't snip my cheek. Cheeks are for hugs." So I said "Ok, I'll snip your hand then." and she said "No, mom, hands are for holding things. Use my butt next time." LOL

Quote of the day

She says to me as she tries to itch a scratch (or is it scratch an itch?) "Mommy, something is bugging me. I think its a caterpillar." Today was another really beautiful day. We all took a walk around the neighborhood when Dave was done working. Violet pushed her stroller in front of me and kept stopping at random times. I hit her with Calvin's stroller more than once. She didn't randomly stop anymore for fear of her heal getting clipped. She said "Mom, if you hit my foot I'll just do this." *she stands there and shakes her leg* Towards the tail end of our walk, we saw our old (new?) neighbor Dale Geerdes. He's the guy who used to live next door to us on the river. He is our neighbor on Briarwood Drive also, down about 6 or 7 houses. He was sweeping his driveway and we walked by. It was sort of comforting to talk to him. Not that he had anything comforting to say, but talking to him was like standing in our old driveway saying hi to him like we used to and jabber about the weather and other things. As we said goodbye and walked away, we were like "Ahh! That felt familiar!" There's just something settling about comforting things. We were so used to living at the river house. Things still seem really new about this house and I feel like each season brings a whole new learning experience. I'm just wanting things to be familiar like they always were. Once we go through a whole year in this house I might feel better.

Calvin - 14 month update

He's picking up on so many things lately! Today everybody was outside for a few hours enjoying the beautiful weather after naps. Dave was edging the grass by the sidewalk, and Violet was picking up all the leftover clumps of grass and putting them in the yard waste bin for him. Calvin joined in. He grabbed a clump, walked over to Violet, handed her a piece so she would put in the container, and he would go back for more pieces, and hand them to her. She would say "Oh look! Calvin is helping! THANK you, Calvin!" and go right along with it. When we load the kids up in the car and open the garage door, the moment it opens up the whole garage floods with light. He consistently says "Wowww!!" when the garage door opens. He sits rear-facing in his car seat still, so he can see the door open right out of his window. He also likes to flap his arms against his body many times over and over and say "YA!" when his arms hit his body. He also loves to respond to people when they say "hi" to him. Especially Dave. He says "Haaaa!" very enthusiastically and will repeat it if Dave says hi to him again. He likes to randomly lie down on the floor and rest with his head to the side, just observing what is going on. He has also gotten a thing about putting stuff on his head and letting it fall off. He gets a kick out of watching us copy him. He seems to love music as much as his sister. As soon as he hears the alphabet song come out of the word whammer on the refrigerator, he stops what he is doing, grins from ear to ear, and starts bouncing to the beat. He hums along what he knows...its so adorable. Along with all this fun and exciting progress comes a little temper. When he's not happy, he's not happy. And nothing is going to change it. He has started to throw little tantrums. If I direct him to walk somewhere else, or tell him "no", he runs away screaming and throws himself on the ground. I try to ignore it. He gets over these little fits very quickly and is usually up and running off to do something else with in a matter of moments, but its starting. His worst behavior is always when he's tired or hungry, which is easily remedied. He's an excellent sleeper who always takes a nice 2 1/2 or 3 hour nap in the afternoon and goes to bed between 7:15-7:30 and sleeps in til around 8 am. Otherwise, he's a VERY happy little kid who loves to climb stairs and interact with his big sister in a new way every day. His favorite little thing to do (and I think he KNOWS it annoys me) is to go up into our bathroom and take my glasses case out of the drawer, throw the glasses on the ground, and run around with the case. He likes to open and close it repeatedly and carry this little black case around the house with him.

She loves to read books her own way

This morning Violet was reading a book to me. She comes up with the most random lines. She turns the page, says "Okay! And....be thou my vision." then turns the page and says "So! The neighbors said...let's go!" and then turns the page, and says "Ok! So...its time to go! He needs to pick up his room!" so on and so forth. We need to video tape it...it makes us laugh so much.

Portrait session

It went amazing! I really like that studio. I took them to Portrait Innovations in Waterloo. The place is open, bright, and not dark and scary like JcPenney's little tiny studio. They were a little unsure at first, but I had told Violet we were going to get pictures taken a few days in advance, and she kept telling me that she would be happy, smile big, say cheese, and not cry. I was so proud of her. The photos turned out GREAT. I couldn't make up my mind. The photographers took 120 shots (all digital) and I narrowed the choices down to just 12. I know I spent more money on them than I wanted to, and probably got too many pictures, but oh well. I love them, it was worth it to me. It was a little crazy...I was by myself, and each kid was doing a photo shoot while I was changing clothes on the other, so I was surprised to see the end result of all the pictures because I missed "seeing" the pictures being taken. They print the pictures right in their photo lab so you can take them home right after your photo session, I really liked that - since the place is so far away. No extra trips. I will probably just take them there once a year - I won't be able to afford doing it very often!

And another one...

It was actually worse. Violet puked twice during the night time last night. She made it to the toilet the second time. Calvin woke up with so much poop in his diaper that there was poop smeared down his pajama leg into the footie. GROSS! They both went straight to the tub for a good scrubbing, and my washing machine got a good work out cleaning tons of bedding. It was a smelly morning! I think Calvin said a different word today other than "MA!" I was using the camera to do something, and he must have heard Violet say "Cheese!" over and over. He sat on the steps with Violet and said "Eeeeessh" over and over. It was so cute. He smiled all proudly after he would say it - he knew what he was saying. Maybe that will come in handy tomorrow. I'm taking them to a different portrait studio to get their 3 and 1 yr pictures taken (yeahhh I'm late) finally. I hope it goes well.

Poopy/Pukey morning

I had intentions of going to work out class this morning, but they didn't happen. The kids slept in til 8:45-9 am. This time change keeps the morning nice and dark, I think that is why. Violet ate eggs and toast with us for breakfast while we waited for Calvin to wake up. *warning, do not read while eating!* I think Calvin ate too much last night. When I heard him wake up, I went into his room and the smell was overwhelmingly gross. I looked in his crib and he was covered with poop and puke. I grabbed him, undressed him and stuck him right in the tub to clean him up. After he was cleaned up I dressed him in clean clothes and left him in Violet's room. Of course, he screamed through the whole clean-up process, and to be ditched to go clean up his bedding just made him even more mad. Violet was annoying me because all she wanted to do was SEE everything and TOUCH everything. I was shooing her out of my way almost the whole time. I rinsed off chunks of stuff before throwing everything in the washer on the "sanitary" cycle - this makes the water extra hot and runs for almost 2 hours. I spent most of the morning cleaning up after this mess - using a disinfectant cleaner in his room, on his crib, and on the bathroom floor and tub where he was. We made a trip to Walmart to get out of the house and got some basic stuff like bananas, bread, and other random things like light bulbs and vinegar. We got home, I fed them mac and cheese, and then got Calvin's bed re-made and put them to MUCH needed naps. They were so tired. Violet WANTED to go to bed...for the first time in a long time. She picked out her own pajamas for nap time, climbed in, and told me to pray.

She did my hair

Violet found a little mini claw on the floor. She grabbed it and came over to me, saying "Mommy, your hair is all messy. Can I fix it?" So I sit on the floor, and she starts messing with my hair and clipped some hair back with the claw. Then she says "Do mine!" So she took it out and let me do her hair. We took turns doing hair for a little bit. When it was her turn, she gathered all my hair like she was going to make a ponytail, pulled a little and said "Mommy, say OW! I know it hurts, but I'll be done in a liiiiitle bit. Almost done!"

Prayer for sippy cups

Violet started her morning by having oatmeal like usual, but this time, she prayed for the food, her sippy cup, and the handles on her sippy cup.

What a B-E-A-utiful day!!

Today was such a breath of fresh air. And I know its just a teaser of a day, because I peeked at the forecast for next week and the high is around 30. Oh well, I'll take what I can get. The little temperature thing in the kitchen window said it hit 67 today. Dave and I aired out the house, opening up the doors and a few windows. The garage was actually colder than outside! I went to work out class this morning and when I came back (it was the demonstration day of the new Pilates class they're adding to Tues. mornings), Dave told me how nice it was outside. After the kids' naps, we got to walk around outside for almost three hours. The breeze felt so nice. Violet woke up first from her nap (like always) and wanted to watch something on TV, but I distracted her my letting her walk outside on the deck for a little bit. She said immediately "Oh! Its so nice outside!" I was loving the irony as she stood there in the gorgeous weather, wearing her footed snowman pajamas. We played outside for awhile. We walked all around the house a few times, saying Hi to Daddy through his open basement window and playing on the little table and chairs in the gazebo. We waited to go on a walk until Calvin got up. He woke up sort of crabby and wanted to snuggle. But when we took a step outside, he wriggled out of my arms and just wanted to get on the grass. He said "ooh! and ahh!" pointing to things. Violet brought her pink stroller outside and we took a long walk around the block. She picked up garbage along the way storing it in the little storage compartment in the stroller. Random plastic things, paper, garbage. She would notice something by the sidewalk and say "there's something else mommy! We can throw it away at our house!" Calvin was really aimless and annoying me with his wandering, so I just held him the whole time. He was Ok for a little bit, tearing down a length of sidewalk for a good distance, but if he got distracted and wanted to go a different way and I corrected his path, he would throw fits because he couldn't go where he wanted. I could tell he was just really anxious to explore the world, but walking in a straight line just isn't the way to do it. He seemed Ok with me holding him the rest of the walk following Violet. He was enjoying the fresh air and the breeze and probably listening to the random conversations that Violet and I were having. When we got inside, they went straight to the tub because they were both muddy and dirty. They are really starting to interact. Calvin is initiating interaction with Violet, which is a first for him. He would say "MA!" and throw his hands down hard in the water making a big splash, and expecting Violet to copy him. If she did, he would let out the happiest belly laugh. He kept doing it, expecting her to play in return, which she did. She seemed to love it too. I just sat there and smiled at them playing together. Sweet times.

my "Love" pants

Those pants I got that spell "love" on them have been quite the conversation piece for Violet lately. I wore them today, and a few times, she said "L, O, V, E, spells PANTS!" but today she said "L, O, V, E, spells Computer Girl!" I was sitting on the computer at the time checking e-mail. haha!!

V's special yellow pillow

She's been missing it lately. Last week she wet the bed and somehow her pillow was right underneath her, so it got soaked. Its a down pillow, so I wasn't exactly sure how to clean it. I took it to the dry cleaner's on Saturday and today we get to go pick it up. She's going to be SO excited to see it. Its a little down pillow that either Dave or I got on the Lufthansa airplane on our honeymoon trip to Greece, neither of us can remember, but it made it home in our luggage somehow. I let her start using it when she was about 2 yrs old. It says "Lufthansa" on the edge. I love that she is attached to our "honeymoon pillow". I had a fun morning at Bible Study. Lots of laughter, learning, and encouragement.

Happy Birthday to Rachel today!

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Raaaachellllll, Happy Birthday to you!

Violet got a tummy bug

Poor girl has been on the toilet most of the day. She is really good about making it. She sometimes walks around saying "Mommy, my tummy hurts." She knows she isn't allowed to watch any TV in the mornings, only after her nap time. But she tries her hardest to get me to turn something on. She was sitting on the toilet earlier trying to convince me to turn on a baby video so it would make her rear end feel better. I took the kids to indoor park again this morning. It was only 9-11. We didn't make it there until 10, so they only got an hour of play, but that seemed to be enough. V had to take potty breaks (I didn't know she was sick until we got there!) and Calvin was a mess. He was just too tired, I guess. Maybe next time will be better. I did see someone I knew that I hadn't seen in a couple years, it was nice to catch up for a little bit, between one of us having to run off to deal with a kid which broke up the conversation. I saw Dorice Stickfort walking up on the track above the gym. She said HI from up above. This week is a busy week for us. Dave had Monday full with men's group, tonight is a work night at the chapel, Wed is small group, Thurs I'm going to a tupperware party, and Friday night we're going out to eat with some friends. Saturday we might go with the Costellos to the last women's basketball game at 3 pm, not sure yet.

Calvin's first time swimming - misc stuff

This little guy is having a tough time lately. He is cutting another tooth, that brings the total to 4 right now that are pushing up further and further. He is constantly chewing on his finger or shoving the corner of his blanket in his mouth. He bites his pacifier a lot trying to relieve the pain. He got to go swimming for the first time tonight. I went out to eat at Godfather's Pizza with some other moms that I know from MOPS, and later we all went to Holmes Elementary to use their pool from 7 to 8:30. Violet went to Puggles and Dave taught his Awana class, so they were together and Calvin and I went together. A friend of mine picked me up in her van since Dave needed our vehicle. It really stinks not having 2 vehicles sometimes. He wore a swim diaper and his swim trunks. He looked SO cute with his little bowed legs and big ol' baby belly sticking out. In he water he was hesitant at first, but it helped a lot that the kiddie pool was bath-water warm. I got in with him and he splashed a bit, then decided he would play on the steps the rest of the time. He went up and down, almost too fast and quick, I had to keep a hawk eye on him the whole time, he thought he could just keep doing down deeper as the steps went down. I looked away for 2 seconds, looked back at him, and he was just sitting on a deeper step calmly looking around under the water. I picked him up quick and he caught his breath, and giggled and started splashing again. Crazy kid. He's even more of a water baby than Violet was. She can't handle splashing in her face, he seems to love it. Dave picked Calvin and I up from the pool after Puggles was over. As we drove home, we drove South on Hudson Street. Violet caught a glimpse of the UNI-Dome as we drove past it, and she said "Look! There's something in the air! Its a big hat!" That had us laughing for a long time. She wasn't sure what was so funny, but nonetheless, she joined in laughing with us. We're starting to crack down on her throwing fits and whining at bedtime. Dave was struggling with her in her room to put on her PJs. I walked in the room and picked her up, took her to the spare room and sat her down. I said, "Violet, we won't tolerate this whining and throwing fits anymore. I am going to give you a spanking because you know you are not supposed to whine and throw fits." So I spanked her hard. She screamed (of course) and needed to cry and calm down for awhile, but after that episode, she was happy. A switch flipped, and she seemed OK. I am hoping this is the start of a happier girl at bedtime. I'm sick of the fight going to bed. As we prayed with her at bedtime, Dave prayed first and toward the end of his prayer, he said something about Violet becoming saved at a young age. She freaked out and said "Daddy, DON'T call me young age."

Saturday morning

Violet is the most conversational and excited right when she wakes up in the morning. Dave and Calvin are still sleeping as I'm writing this, its 8:32 am. Violet got up at 7:30 like usual, came bounding into our bedroom and announced, "I woke up dry!" I got up with her and made some oatmeal for her. She stood on a chair next to the kitchen island and ate, and while it was getting ready, she stood there and started madly stomping her feet on the chair. "I'm slapping my foots!" I said "you're slapping your foots?" She responded, "Yeah, I sink so. Cuz my legs are cold." She is really attached to the tune that Mama Rowena taught her ("This is the way the lady rides, the lady rides, the lady rides, this is the way the lady rides, so early in the morning." riding on her legs swaying side to side gently. The next verse says "This is the way the farmer rides, the farmer rides, etc." a little more bumpy, and the next verse "This is the way the cowboy rides" REALLY bumpy.) It always makes her laugh. At least I think those are the verse, I don't remember. Anyway- she wants everything to that tune. "This is the way we eat our oatmeal, eat our oatmeal, eat our oatmeal, etc" and "This is the way we use our spoon, use our spoon, etc." She kept wanting me to sing that song with all sorts of things. I must have sounded audibly sick of singing that song, because she said after the 50th verse of something random, she said "Mom, are you getting tired of that song?" LOL and after she said that, she said "Mommy, you are funny. Want a bite of oatmeal??" I said "No, thanks, its for Violet." V: "Yes, you do!" I've really been enjoying her crazy random 3 yr old brain lately. I can't keep up capturing the goofy things she says! oh, and another thing yesterday or the day before. She was propped up on the couch watching something on TV with a bunch of pillows behind her. The pillows knocked over and she had nothing to lean back on. She panicked and said "Mom! I lost it! I lost the spot for my head!"

figuring out English

V got a pack of fruit snacks today. When it was all gone, she said to me "I want a few more fews." Me: What are "fews"? She thought for a moment, then said "I want a few more fews foot snacks. Just a few."

She's so cuddly after a nap

V woke up after her nap today and wanted to cuddle. She grabbed my cheeks and said "Mom, I love your cheekies. Do it to me!" so I grabbed her cheeks with my hands and said, "Violet, I love your cheekies!" which made her giggle uncontrollably.

Friday!

I am making a lazy morning out of today. It feels nice! I've gone to work out three times this week, I felt like taking today off. My hamstring muscles are screaming, they're so sore. I can't bend over with out pain today, so I'm takin' a break. Violet woke up at 7:30 this morning and came bounding into my bedroom with red stickers all over her face and pajamas. I was barely coherent, she continued to put red heart stickers all over the bedroom wall while I spent 15 minutes waking up just laying there. She put stickers on my face, too, and I didn't notice until I got a glimpse of my face in the mirror. ha! Calvin woke up at 8, and they each had a big bowl of oatmeal. I had granola. Dave met a friend for coffee this morning so he got home from that around 8. Yesterday was a crazy day. It was fun, though! I worked out, then picked up Kim and Katie to come with us to indoor park at the rec center. Selena met us there with her kids, and they played for awhile, then at lunch, and played more. When we got home they were SO tired and whiny. I put them in bed and took a shower. I had a doctor appointment to go to, so I left while they were sleeping (Dave is home working downstairs) and got to the doctor's office RIGHT before a storm blew through and dumped hail and freezing rain in a big whoosh. It got amazingly dark for 2 pm and it blew through with in 30 minutes. I got to catch up with my midwife who took care of me with both pregnancies. She was glad to see me. I got home after running a couple errands (post office, HyVee pharmacy) and walked in the door to a tearful Violet. She couldn't find me. She had woken up from her nap early and Dave didn't notice, and was walking around the house in tears because she couldn't find me. She gave me a big hug and clutched me tightly and said "I thought you were around here somewhere. I couldn't find you, mommy." I spent the next 15 minutes calming her down. She needed to snuggle. Then she was hungry. Calvin didn't wake up until nearly 4:30. We have been working on finishing up leftovers, so I didn't have to cook anything for supper. Wednesday night we went to the crossroads mall so Dave could get some shopping done for some new pants. He knew of some great deals and discounts going on at Dillards, so I let the kids play at the crossroads kid play area all night. Violet and Calvin both loved climbing the stairs to the slide, and going down and up the whole time. Two other girls showed up and V had a blast playing with them. One of the girls was obviously older (maybe 4 1/2) and was faster than the other two. The other girl did not speak english...her mom was there speaking to her in I'm guessing Russian or something middle eastern. I didn't recognize the language, but the girls played like it wasn't an issue. The language was laughter, chasing, falling, tripping, and doing a good job taking turns. I was entertained by them! Calvin kept trying to escape the play area so he kept me on my toes! They both got to ride the carousel. Calvin screamed - he was so scared! Violet loved every moment of it. Tuesday was fun, too. Our friends' kids came over so they could get a date night from about 6-8:30. The night went smoothly and V and her friend had a blast upstairs. They kept busy with all sorts of mundane things - and the boys and the baby were downstairs individually busy with toys. They all scarfed down fruit and grilled cheese for supper. Tonight we're having some friends over that used to live in CF - Jeanne, Scott, Annemarie and Bennett Hansen. They live in Charles City now. Dave said he's going to make supper. He planned meatballs and marinara sauce over spaghetti with cheesy garlic bread. Jeanne is bringing some dip and a dessert. We used to hang out a lot before they moved. I'm glad they aren't too far away, but we miss seeing them more often. I've gotten interrupted about a million times while writing this. Calvin is on the stairs crying, Violet is trying to comfort him at the moment with more toy balls. He keeps going upstairs and playing with his fan. She has a pile of blocks on the carpet and makes a tower or something, and he just HAS to come over and knock down what she's doing, which sets her off into a tizzy of crying. She tries to give him a pile of blocks to play with, but he doesn't get that concept, so he does whatever he wants and makes her mad. I got out a granola bar to eat and they both wanted bites....this is sort of a random account of random things, but its just what is happening at this very moment. She is upset right now because she saw a pack of markers on the bookshelf in the front room, and wants to color with them. I told her no because they are permanent. (why would someone give a kid permanent markers?) She just brought me a big fat black permanent marker asking if she could write with it. NO! I said. I should probably get off the computer - I gotta give these kids a bath this morning before naps and lunch, and its already 11:15 so I should probably get moving.

"funny things"

"Funny things" (which sounds like "funny sings") is the name Violet came up with for what she does when we hook up the digital camera to the TV so she can see herself live on TV. It totally cracks her up and she turns into the biggest ham, throwing herself all over the floor giggling, dancing, and making faces. She always wants to do "funny things". I got a pair of pants that have the word "LOVE" on the left leg. The O is in the shape of a heart. After lunch before naptime, she looked at my pants, and pointed to each letter saying "E, V, heart, and L. It says PANTS!" As we tucked her into bed, Dave tried climbing into her bed. She says "Daddy, don't sleep in my bed! That is my bed! You are driving me CRAZY!"

The latest

I guess its just been a busy week, with not a whole lot to write about! Most mornings this week I've been out of the house doing something, which has been good, but it makes me get behind on housework. Monday I spent trying to recover from the crazy sleepless wedding weekend, Tuesday morning I went to indoor park at the rec center to let the kids play, Wednesday morning was Bible Study, Thursday morning I was out of the house running errands, and Friday morning my mom and I took the kids out and about doing stuff all morning, running a few errands, etc. I have done a little shopping for myself and ended up returning half of what I bought. Sometimes I really hate shopping and sometimes I really love it. I hate it because it takes so much time and effort to find stuff that I like and that fits right (and I'm not exactly the most patient person in the world), and I love it because when I get stuff I really like it is so rewarding. Thursday this week was the last night that our small group is meeting - we're changing to a different night and meeting with different people. I will miss our old group, but I'm also looking forward to seeing what God has in mind for our new group of people. I wonder what we'll study? Dave is in charge of leading the small group, I am praying he will get a direction for our group. Violet is really loving to rock and sing songs at night. One night when I was rocking, the song Be Thou My Vision came to my head because I heard it at Jay's wedding and really loved it. I sang the first verse by memory, and Violet asked me to sing it again. She especially likes to hear the words "best" in the 3rd line, and hearing "waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light" and talks about presents, like presents that you get at birthday time, LOL. I got out the Hymn book and left it in her room so I can sing songs to her at bedtime. She drinks up songs and tunes, she can learn a song very quickly, and sings on tune very well. Even if she doesn't turn out to be a singer, she's very musical and I would love to find a musical outlet for her. Last night Dave rocked with her and sang some random hymns from the book - and I don't remember what the songs were, but one of them had the words "vile" and "Calvary" in the lyrics. When she heard the word "vile" she piped up "Not Violet!" and when she heard the lyric "Calvary" she said "not Calvin!" and laughed at herself I think in disbelief that her and Calvin's names were actually in the songs. haha! She also proved to me that she's gaining strength and dexterity. The other night when we were at Dave and Karen's for small group, she hauled up a kid size plastic table up the entire flight of stairs by herself. She first brought me a little play bowl, 2 spoons, mixers, and an egg, pretending to bring me a snack. I told her to eat more food at the play table downstairs but she interpreted that as bringing the table to me. I couldn't believe she hauled up that table by herself. When she helps me pack up my stuff after work out class, she carries my 5 pound weights back to the rack my herself. Yesterday morning I made a pot of coffee. I must have been mumbly and tired at the moment I was making it. She said "mom, what are you doing?" as I poured the water into the coffee maker. I said "I'm putting water in the coffee maker." and said said "oh! you're making comfy? You're going to be all warm and cozy?" It made me laugh. We took the gate down that blocks the stair case. Calvin now has free range to the whole house. He's proved his ability to handle going up and down the stairs with no help or supervision lately, so we took it down. Even though I still worry about him falling down the stairs (and he has!) I think it will just take a few more tumbles for him to be more sturdy and secure. He seems to LOVE the freedom. He goes upstairs, and immediately goes to his room and starts playing with the black fan that sits on the floor in his room. He pushes it to make it rotate. I can always tell that is what he goes for first because of the familiar clicking sounds it makes as it moves up and down. Sometimes he wanders into Violet's room and pulls all the books off her bookshelf. Yesterday, I found the two of them together in the guest room. Violet had moved her pink step stool next to the bed so she could climb up on it and jump on the bed. Calvin was giggling at her jumping and pulling the dresser drawers open and shut. His teeth have been bothering him a lot. After his nap today he woke up screaming. I went into his room and he was sobbing, chewing on his fingers hard and had a mouth full of drool. I gave him a dose of motrin and about 15 min later felt better. He seems really chill and relaxed after the ibuprofen hits his system. He went to bed at 7 pm tonight, and I hear him wake up and cry about every hour, poor kid.

Jay and Molly's wedding recap

Jay got married on Saturday!! My little brother got married. I'm so happy for him! I think the highlight of the weekend for me was seeing the expression on Jay's face as he watched Molly come down the aisle, seeing her all dressed up in her wedding gown for the first time. She looked beautiful! Grandma and Grandpa Hardinger came to stay with us on Thursday evening. They arrived in time for dinner. I had lasagna ready with spinach salads and garlic bread, and I baked an upside down pecan cake with butter pecan ice cream for dessert. I haven't cooked a meal like that in a looong time, so it was nice to finally do it and have guests over! Everyone went to bed pretty early - G and G were tired from a long day at the doctor (treating Grandpa's eye) and traveling in the car. The next morning I made blueberry muffins, scrambled eggs with cheese, cut up oranges, and toast. G & G left around noon to head down to the airport to pick up Lucy who flew in from Arkansas. I spent all morning packing up and getting ready for Jay's wedding. I know I packed too much stuff, but its hard to know what extra stuff you'll need, anticipating needs here and there, and of course, wet clothes. We drove to Cedar Rapids on Friday afternoon right around the kid's nap time. They both slept in the car almost the whole drive. We had to stop at Prince Albert's Tux Shop to get Dave's tux and shoes before heading to the hotel. We got to the Marriott and found my parents in the lobby. The hotel was nice, and had recently been remodeled. The whole hotel has exterior hotel rooms - with a big restaurant/atrium thing in the middle. V and C got to run around for about an hour as friends and family trickled in to the hotel that afternoon. Rachel had been delayed overnight in Denver, so she took a shuttle to the hotel from the airport. Joe and Dee came, then Lucy Abraham came (Row and Loren picked her up from the airport). The rehearsal started at 5 pm - but we were 20 minutes late by our mistake of not anticipating the roads being really bad from the fresh 2 inches of snow that fell quickly and rush hour. The rehearsal was interesting and challenging, trying to keep track of our 2 kids running around. Dave was tied up doing the part of the groom's best man. Violet did a good job with the rehearsal. The more challenging part of the evening was at the rehearsal dinner. Neither kid had a great nap, so both were extra tired from lack of sleep and expending lots of energy. The rehearsal dinner was at Biaggi's - a reeeally good italian restaurant with great food. It was really enjoyable to be around lots of family and friends that I hadn't seen in a long time. G & G Pavicic from Fargo, Ruth and Michael, Lucy, G & G Hardinger from Arizona, Charlotte Narjes, Rachel from OK, just to name a few. I had a hard time engaging in any long conversations because my attention was always needed somewhere between V and C. Calvin got really whiney and tired at the dinner. I couldn't find his paci or his blanket, and I knew his teeth were hurting him - he's got 3 coming in still. I ran out with the van to Walmart to get some motrin and a paci but they didn't carry any more of the pacis that he likes. I resorted to a different kind but in the end, he didn't like it. Everybody was waiting for me to come pick them up afterwards at the restaurant. Once we got our two screaming kids back to the hotel, we got them to bed as soon as we could, and then tried our best to relax and hang out with family. Calvin went down to bed EASY - he always looks forward to laying down with his paci and special blanket (I found one of his pacis in his bag at the hotel) and Violet was a little apprehensive of about sleeping in "a huge bed". After getting her settled down, she slept for a little bit, but once we got back in the room and went to sleep, she whined, cried in her sleep, was too hot, it was always something. It seemed like every 15 minutes during the night she was awake whining about something. Then Calvin started to cough incessantly and she woke up and screamed at him to stop. He stopped coughing, she fell asleep, then woke up an hour later and wet the bed. She whined that she was cold, I changed her into different clothes (i only packed 1 pair of pajamas, what was i thinking??), got her back to sleep, then Calvin started coughing again. It was just one kid making noise allll night...we barely slept and felt foggy and woozy by morning. Ugh. We got out of bed at 6:30 to shower and get dressed. Rachel drove with us in the morning. We dropped off Calvin with Aunt Mary Kay at her house. She was happy to take care of him while I took care of Violet during the schedule picture-taking time at the church. She did pretty good for those three hours of waiting time and getting pictures taken. She loved all the attention - saying "cheese!" for almost every picture shot. She was crazy about her "clippy shoes." Her friend Katie let her borrow a pair of white dressy shoes and they were comfy and fit perfect! She wanted to walk in the hallway where it was hard flooring so she could hear her shoes clip-clop. The time rolled around quickly and guests started arriving, so I got Violet in place with the rest of the wedding party in the back of the church and took my place. As I walked down the side aisle, I caught a glimpse of Mary Kay holding a happy Calvin. He did great through the whole wedding! Violet walked down the aisle and dropped her flower petals, one by one, most of them got caught on her puffy dress fabric because of the strong static cling. The photographer brushed them off her dress at the end of the aisle. I called her name and she lit up and came running to me. She did great! I had two packages of fruit snacks ready for her to eat during he wedding ceremony. It worked like a charm! She did great and sat still for most of it. The ceremony was really nice. Jay and Molly looked SO happy!!! The wedding reception was also fun. It was at A Touch of Class. J & M sat at the head table with each of their parents. I liked that idea instead of the whole wedding party. Calvin stuffed his face with bread, bread and more bread. He eventually fell asleep on Uncle Michael's shoulder for about 45 minutes. We laid him to sleep on the floor and later I found him walking around. Violet ran around with Devin for a lot of the reception. The music was really great, too. They hired a guitarist who had a really nice voice. We sat at a table with Gary and Sami Pace and Rachel. Violet really started to get tired and whiny during the reception. At one point she came up to me and said "Mom! I'm too hot!" I picked her up and she was sweating. I changed her into a different outfit, and she seemed happier. Dave gave a really great speech at the party as the best man, said some really great things about Jay. His punch line was "Molly, you look stunning! And Jay, you just look stunned!" Next step was to get the kids some rest. We went over to Dave and Mary Kay's house and let Violet take a nap in Calvin's pack and play (I guess she felt safer in there being in a strange house) and he stayed awake. They hosted the family at their house for an evening of games, fun and appetizers. Calvin played most of the night ON the pool table, putting balls in pockets and pushing them around. He ate a ton of crackers, too. It was the day of carbs, apparently. We left around 8 pm and by the time we got home, Calvin was out like a light. I could have tossed him around and I think he would have kept sleeping. I stuck him in his crib with his clothes on and he slept until morning just like that. V was more of a challenge. She was soo overtired, she was a screaming mess. We got her ready for bed downstairs so she wouldn't wake up C. Sunday morning I stayed home. Dave took both kids with him to Bethany. I just needed alone time to recuperate and get the house back in shape. I'm more of an introvert who gets a little weary and tired from socializing for 2 days straight. I've had a nice day to relax, so I'm recharged and much better now. eta: public link to the pictures on facebook http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=219777&id=517210532&l=b5338

dad, I finished the project. ;)

Today

It was a rough start to the morning. Violet woke up on the WRONG side of the bed...started whining immediately about being hungry, got upset that I didn't race downstairs that moment to get her food, she got mad that I made it downstairs before she did, she got mad that I wasn't wearing the right pants, she got mad that she couldn't slide backwards down the stairs, she got upset that she couldn't sit in what chair she wanted...I swear...it was EVERYTHING. Then I made the mistake of asking her to finish a 1/2 of a banana before she got pancakes (I knew she wasn't really crazy about bananas, but I asked her to anyway for some reason), she didn't finish the banana, so she got nothing to eat. She's either on, or off. She's got 2 extreme sides...really whiney, controlling, irritating, and enough to make me want to put her in her room and shut the door and leave for awhile, and the other is extremely sweet, fun, kind, thoughtful, sharing, and considerate. I don't know what makes her tick sometimes. Carrie had the impression that Violet was such a sweetie all the time, but after living with us for a week she realize she is just a normal kid who throws tantrums because she's three years old. I didn't have plans to work out today, but after that horrible breakfast episode, I just had to go and drop her off for an hour to burn off some steam. She was happy to go. She just loves leaving the house. That seemed to "reset" her for the day, because the rest of the day was much better. Maybe she didn't get enough sleep, or had a kink in her neck, or SOMETHING. Man...it was just a bad morning. I'm glad it didn't continue on the rest of the day. Calvin was super tired by 6:45 pm so I put him to bed a little earlier than usual. That gave Violet and I some time together with out distractions. I was waiting for just the time like that to get out one of her birthday presents - a paint set and a notebook. She LOVED painting. She sat there, focused, breathing steadily, and painted almost every page in that book. She kept saying "this is fun! I'm so excited!" So I'm glad we got to wrap up the day on a nice note. I am praying tomorrow is a little better in the morning. She has this new thing she says. Its sort of placed randomly throughout the day, but she runs around, pauses for a moment, shakes her hands and her head together, and says "freak out! I'm freaking out!" I have no idea where she got that! Calvin is such a little delight. I think I'm really enjoying the stage he is in right now because I know it won't last long. He's so happy (if he's fed and not tired). He is gleeful about just everything he discovers. He likes to point at things and say "ooh!! ooh!" and when I start singing a tune, he jumps right in and starts humming. I think he can hum some tunes. Call me crazy. But when I start the "abc" song, he almost gets the tune right on, and if I start humming the tune to "this old man, he played one, he played knick knack on my thumb..." he hums right along and finishes the stanza. We'll see if that develops. Dave has been gone all day. I am pretty tired. He met a friend for coffee this morning at 6:45, came home, and let me have a break to take a shower. He went to work, and I called him up for lunch (I made pizza) so he could eat together with the family. That was a nice time. He worked until 5:15 and then left for Cedar Rapids to have dinner with Jay. He called a few minutes ago and said he would be home around 10:15.

Enjoyed the weather today

I went to MOPS this morning (thankfully Violet is feeling much better! She was too sick to go to Sunday School so she didn't go) and it was really nice. Thanks to all who prayed for my devotion-leading, it went well. When I got home it was just too beautiful to pull in the garage and shut the garage door. I got the kids out of the car and let them walk around outside, up and down the sidewalks, down a few houses and back to our yard to tromp around some more. Dave came outside and walked around the yard with us. Calvin fell a lot in the muddy mushy wet grass - and Violet happily splashed in the water and ran around the yard. Calvin enjoyed himself a lot, I could tell. He was acting like a kid in a candy store - looking every direction possible not really knowing what to be fascinated with first. He picked up rocks, put them in his mouth, spit them out with a look of disgust on his face, picked up red berries that dropped the tree in the front yard, stuck those in his mouth too, and spit them out with an even more disgusted look on his face, LOL. He saw a car go by and said "Oohh!" while pointing. He climbed up cement landscaping blocks, up the stairs on the gazebo, he was just all over. If I picked him up for a second to redirect him, he would get so mad that he couldn't go on his own. It was just so refreshing to breathe the outside air and actually enjoy it.

I had a really enjoyable night with the kids

Dave is off with a bunch of guys and Jay for his bachelor party tonight. They all piled into our van, so we stayed home the rest of the day. Earlier in the day I took the kids to McDonalds for lunch just to get out of the house for awhile. They did great there. They sat well, ate well, and didn't put up any fusses. I did have to take V to the bathroom and hold Calvin at the same time which was difficult and awkward, trying to keep him from touching anything and wiping her at the same time. Violet had 3 chicken nuggets, Calvin just ate french fries. She worked a deal with me that if she finished all her food, she could have some ice cream. I figured, sure, why not, so she ate all her nuggets (I say 3 because the 4th one fell on the floor, that went in the garbage). I got them a little cup of ice cream to split. Violet got to hold the ice cream cone with the ice cream on it - Calvin ate from a spoon. She seems so sensitive to cold stuff. She can't eat it fast, and took tiny little licks. As soon as we got home from there, I got the kids in bed (this was around 2 pm, so they were both super duper tired and welcomed the naps). They both slept for a couple hours, V got up before C. She wanted to rock, and rock, and rock...she didn't want to get off my lap. I think she's starting to feel a little sick. Her little body felt really hot, so I gave her a tsp of motrin to try bring it down. She complained about her eyes burning. I got them supper around 6:30. Calvin just took a couple bites. Violet didn't want a thing and said she would eat later. She never did eat though...so I suppose in the morning she'll be super hungry. They just played really well together. I sat on the couch and watched them play. She watches out for him all the time. If he's trying to climb up onto the little ride-on car, she will notice if he's struggling and run over to him and say "Aw, its ok buddy. I will help you." She is always finding something that will make him laugh. Part of the day was spent with her camera hooked up to the TV. I point it in their direction and follow them around...and the kids just LOVED seeing themselves on the screen. Calvin woke up in time to play with that. He sat on the couch, got one glimpse of his own face and body, and screeched and pointed to the screen. Violet ran around and giggled and danced, fell on the floor on purpose, being a total ham. She came to me and snuggled under my blanket a few times. I brought down a pile of books and we read lots of books together. Calvin was interested in story time, but he just wanted to rip the books from my hand. She got annoyed with him doing that a little, but he moved on to play with the pig that he drops the plastic coins into for 15 minutes. He was so focused. We got to read books for a long time. She seemed to love the attention. I was focused on her all night, almost every single moment. Not every day is like that. She helped me put Calvin to bed first. She picked out his pajamas, got his diaper out of the drawer, arranged all his blankets in his crib, put his toothpaste on his tooth brush, and climbed in his bed with him to give him a kiss and a hug goodnight. It was just so sweet. She went to bed with no fighting, either. I think some of her behavior is due to the fact that she's feeling sick. She has a cough, is slightly feverish, and she must have body aches. She complained about her eyes burning a lot, her legs being sore, and today when she was in her car seat for about an hour straight, she was screaming about her back hurting. That could have just been a tactic to get out of her car seat though, I don't know. We rocked in her room and sang as many songs as I could come up with from memory. I would finish a song, and she'd say "I want a different song now." and I sang "I'm so happy and here's the reason why, Jesus took my burden all away" (an old sunday school song that I love) and she said "mom, can you teach that song to me?" so I sang it over and over, and I said I could teach it to her tomorrow, too. She went to bed well, got up an hour later to go potty, and she's back in bed. eta: I just re-read this post and realized I mentioned her feeling sick two times...can you tell I started this post, got distracted by something, and finished the last half of it an hour later? ughhh.

I'm such a good helper

After her nap today, Violet was on the potty taking care of #2, and she said to me "mom! come in here! I need to tell you a secret!" so I go in there, lean over to hear her secret, and she whispers: "Mom, can you be a good helper and turn on the fan for me? Its kind of stinky in here."

Violet - some recent pics

her dress up stuff: sporting green frosting from a cupcake on the day of her birthday. "Okay, baby, its time to brush your teeth now!" Spit, baby! Swish, baby! She's SUCH a little mommy right now!

Calvin stuff

I forgot to mention Calvin's teeth! I was brushing his teeth last night and stuck my finger in his mouth between his gums in the back of his mouth so I could hold his mouth open to brush. My finger hit something pokey! One of his lower molars is all the way through - so I did some more digging and noticed the 2nd set of his lower front teeth are starting to poke their way through. He won't look like a baby anymore with just 2 little front rabbit teeth. Things that make him happy are: putting a blanket over his head and taking off walking in any random direction. He giggles with delight when the blanket covers his face and he starts walking. I think he anticipates running into something and falling over for fun. He ran into the wall once and sat down hard, laughed even harder, and rolled over, grabbed the blanket, and tried again. He likes to laugh at Violet when she jumps around. He loves food. He ate a ton of that mexican-inspired pasta dish (aka: mexi ziti). He likes to randomly cuddle if he's sucking on his paci and leaning against me with his favorite blankie between me and his cheeks. When he notices Dave comes up for lunch or he's done working, he'll run over to him with delight - let Dave hug him while he leans his head on Dave's shoulder - and then wriggles to get down. Like he's saying a quick "hi!" and then "bye!" He has been bringing me things - random items, and saying "hah!" I'm guessing he means to say "here!" and he fakes putting the phone to his hear and blabbing, sometimes. He's just such a happy little toddling thing. He really only gets upset if he's hungry or overtired. He doesn't do well overtired. Today I had a moment where I knew he was tired, but I couldn't put him in bed because I thought we were getting in the car with in the next 20 minutes. I got him all snuggled on the couch, propped up by a pillow and wrapped his blue blankie around his legs in his lap, gave him his paci, and let him watch a baby video. He sat there mesmerized for 20 minutes - sinking into the couch even deeper like he was in a trance. I think he enjoyed the relaxing time. I sneaked over to try prop him up a little better, but that disturbed his peace. He popped up like he was ready for a marathon and proceeded to ignore the TV and wiggle around, roll off the couch, and take off to do something else. Little booger.

Well, we got out of the house

but we never made it to work out class. It was just a craaaazy morning and it was 9 am before we were even ready to put the kid's shoes on. So...we scrapped that idea since we didn't want to walk in 20 minutes late and not get in a good work out. It had to be worth it for that much effort! Its nuts how a 1 minute car ride to the gym takes SO much longer with 4 kids in tow. Anyway...we made a purposeful detour to Cup of Joe, grabbed some mochas to help us wake up, and took the kids to indoor park at the rec center again and let them run around and play for almost 2 hours. I sat and talked with a bunch of ladies that I knew from MOPS group - it was fun to see them there and talk. Calvin mostly climbed over soft blocks and roamed around. He wasn't scared to walk across the entire length of the gym and get involved in something with out having to be near me, it was nice. But hard to keep track of the little guy. He's quick! He got pretty tired at the end, just wanting to sit with me and wiggle around, but for the most part, he was crawling up and over all sorts of things. He liked to sit on a little red car with 4 wheels and push it back and forth. Violet liked to sit on the rollercoaster toy and share with the other kids - she is so good with sharing and letting other kids take their turns. She also roamed around in the toy cars and climbed up a castle wall and went down lots of slides. Austin wanted to throw a basketball into the hoop but never made it in. Renee was all over the place...doing everything. Its crazy. Need I use the word crazy again?! ha! We fed them a little snack of crackers/raisins/juice, took potty breaks for the older two, and then let them play even more. By 11:30 we were ready to go, so we got them home, fed them lunch (grilled cheese and tomato soup), and Carrie got herself showered and packed up her vehicle. I helped her vacuum out her van and reinstall her car seats. Somehow Renee's car seat harness straps were all twisted so I took the seat apart and rerouted the belt and made it straight and reinstalled it. She left by 2 pm. I got an exhausted Violet to bed at 2:30, but just then Calvin woke up screaming. I couldn't do much to help him get back to sleep, so I reluctantly got him up and let him sit in his chair hooked onto the counter and eat a snack while I prepared a casserole for Joan and Wendell. I cooked bacon, chicken, and noodles, while chopping an onion, celery and green pepper all at the same time. Calvin munched on shredded cheese and raisins (probably a good combination of food, they balance each other out comin' out the other end, lol). He got all fussy so I tried putting him back in bed, but he wanted nothing to do with it. I finally got sick of dealing with him because I knew we had to pack up the car and take the casserole to the Ferguson's soon - so I plopped him on the couch propped up with pillows, his favorite blankie, pacifier, and a baby movie, and he happily lounged on the couch and watched his video for 20 minutes. That was a needed break. I was just hustling around the house, cleaning up after my cooking mess, picking up toys, getting the house somewhat in order - and then I got a call from Dave saying he got a call from someone asking if we could host small group at our house. I just figured - why not - the house isn't clean anyway - go for it. So - it was just fun, but more craziness to add to the day. The NICE part of having small group at our house was being able to put Calvin to bed at his normal time - 7:15 pm. And he was READY. When I got his PJs on and put him in bed, he snuggled right into his blanket, made his happy cooing noises as I laid him in bed and he was out in 2 seconds. Violet had SO much fun running around the house with all her friends, so it was a fun night. Need I say how crazy the day was? I'm ready for a little down time, some silence, and mayyybe a glass of wine. Ahhh. Oh - another thing. I got asked to prepare a 10 minute little devotion to share with the girls at the MOPS meeting next week. Something immediately popped into my head - and it was to encourage the moms to start their day with prayer for help with the day. I think I will be speaking to myself more than anybody else in the room. Its hard to establish new routines, especially for myself because I'm not very schedule oriented. I plan to tell the story of my frustrating Walmart trip and how even though if I had prayed at the beginning of the day, maybe the same frustrating things might have happened, but I would have probably handled them in a better way knowing that God was helping me through it and giving me grace for each moment, rather than me huffing and puffing through the store complaining, not giving my kids a good example to follow. So I hope that goes well - if you think - pray for the time that I share that devotion that the Spirit would speak through me and the words I speak might hit home with another another mom and encourage them a little. Yes, parenting is VERY hard! There are awesome times of blessing mixed with tough stuff. God knew it was going to be tough, so he promises to give us enough grace for each moment of those times. Thanks mom and dad for making it through the tough stuff with me!

LaMarche cousins visited again

This week I've barely had a minute to sit on the computer. Josh is traveling for work, so Carrie came to visit for a few days, Monday through tomorrow. Its crazy around here! Monday night they got here around 6:30 and I had creamy chicken and wild rice soup ready on the stove - I had gotten Panera bread bowls ahead of time, so I served that up in the bread bowls - yum! Austin and Renee are sharing Calvin's room and Calvin is sleeping in a pack and play in my closet. He's been comfy and slept well there so its working great! Austin and Violet play really well together. They're working on taking turns with everything and doing pretty well. So far anyway. There are definitely spats when either of them think the other is doing something wrong, but hey, they're both 3. We realized that this is one of the short times in their lives when our kids are both technically 1 and 3 years of age. Violet just turned 3, Austin will be 4 soon. Calvin just turned 1, Renee will be 2 very soon. They're all about exactly 9 months apart. Tuesday we took the kids to the rec center for indoor park from 10:30-12. It was my first time there and I don't know why I haven't gone earlier - the kids had SO much fun! One 1/2 of the gym was full of ride-on toys, little cars, and scooters. The other 1/2 of the gym had climb-on toys, play castles, a little baby rollercoaster-car type of thing, horsie, big blocks, etc. They got all pooped out and we brought them home, fed them lunch, and got them down for naps. Even though it was a crazy morning I'm glad we did it. Carrie and I took advantage of the fact that Dave was home working, so we took off to do some shopping while he stayed home while the kids were sleeping. We went to the mall, I returned some stuff, got some new work out shoes, got some shirts, etc. Violet and Austin love to play the song "I like to move it move it" from the movie Madagascar over and over and over and dance. The "thing" to do is push play to start the song over. They came up with rolling their bodies on the big exercise ball off the couch and doing a somersault onto the floor and took turns doing that. We took the kids with us to my Bible study this morning and from what I heard, they all did great in the child care area. We packed a lunch and ate there since its always a tough time to bring them home all hungry and fix something fast to eat. We have plans to go to work out tomorrow morning and then take them to indoor park again until lunch time.