My Grandpa Loren died

Sad news.  My dad's father, Loren Hardinger, died on Tuesday evening.  Last week he suffered a stroke at his home in Arizona, my grandma Rowena found him laying on the bathroom floor.  He was transported to the hospital, and they found out he had suffered two types of strokes (one blockage and one burst artery), each treated differently.  He declined quickly, and was transported to hospice so he could be as comfortable as possible.  Our family is not going to the funeral, but we will attend an Iowa memorial service later.  I am going to miss him so much!  I will miss his positive "yes!" and "whoop whoop!".  I shared with him a love for coffee.  The last time I talked to him he called us up to muse over how Calix stock was performing.  I'm so glad my kids got a chance to know him.  He (Rowena too! they were always together!!) was a very dedicated grandfather, and made an effort to come to many of my activites through my life; band concerts, diving meets, track meets, gymnastics shows and competitions, school graduations, birthday parties, visited us many times on the way to and from having their teeth cleaned in Mason City, and hosted us many times at their place in Albia.  He and Mama Rowena supported us in many ways after our house flooded in 2008.  He was very dedicated to his family and loved spending time with us.  I pray he repented of his sins to receive forgiveness from God for his salvation before his death.  I also pray for Mama Rowena to have a smooth start over to life now with out her husband.

A few pics:

Daddy's 35th birthday

Today is a lot of things.  Good Friday and Earth Day, but more importantly, Daddy's 35th birthday!  He is coming home from a trip (he was gone Sunday through today at sales meetings in California) on his special day.  The kids are very excited to know its daddy's birthday, and we are all excited to see him when he gets home.  Will write later about the weekend, its going to be fun!

"Morning red"

This morning I woke up before all the kids woke up and took a shower, got ready for the day, and went down to get some breakfast.  Calvin is always the first to wake up, he started crying because he couldn't find me in bed (which is pretty typical of him, he usually wakes up at 6:45....but this morning he slept in til 7:30).  I told him I was downstairs so he came right down and asked for some cereal.  As he and I ate our cereal together at the table, we had a conversation about the color red.  His pajama sleeves were red, my shirt was red, and the dishrag I was using to wipe up his milk spills was red.  He took note on the red colors and said "Wook mom! Da colors are all red! My weeb (sleeve) is red, the dikrag (dishrag) is red, and your kirt (shirt) is red!"  I made a comment that my shirt was sort of dark red, and he said "yeah, mine is a morning red".  Silly boy.

Weird weather

We had a "thunder-snow-storm" this morning.  Freezing rain turned to tiny beads of hail, thunder was crashing, then the precipitation turned to wet snow.  Ick!  There was one very loud crack of thunder that freaked the kids out this morning.  It happened while I was trying to get the 3 kids out the door to Bible study.  I was putting Vanessa in her car seat in the garage, and the other two kids were screaming their heads off scared mostly because of the loud thunder crack (it shook the house! It even startled me!) and the fact that they couldn't find me.  I knew they'd be terrified so I bolted in the house ASAP and heard frantic wailing immediately.  They both grabbed their baby blankets and needed a snuggle on the couch before we left.  The discussion in the van on the way to BBC was all about the weather.

Vanessa - 10 1/2 months

Since Vanessa's top two teeth have come in, she's discovered her new ability to grind them.  Ohhhh its like nails on a chalkboard, soo annoying!  She clicks and rubs her teeth together and it is very hard to listen to.  Dave heard it for the first time the other day while he was holding her and he had to put her down and walk away!
Thankfully she doesn't do it all the time, just moments.

She also consistently crawls with her right hand in a fist and left hand open.  She likes to be in the middle of the action with the other two kids, and they frequently interact with her.  Calvin has to be watched carefully around her - he mindlessly drops things on her and sits on her.  Violet is very careful, safely picking her up and relocating her if she is in danger.  She's a great helper! 
They both enjoy making her laugh!

St. Louis last weekend

The highlight of my trip to the ICAN Conference in St. Louis was going downtown Saturday night with a friend and seeing the arch at nighttime.  It was so pretty!  Otherwise, the weekend was sort of draining emotionally, but chock-full of great information, and allowed me to make some really important connections with others.  Vanessa came with me, and was a challenge for the entire time.  Now that she is crawling and pulling up to stand on everything, her preference was to be OFF my lap and on the floor moving around.  Kept me busy for sure!

Vanessa's top teeth

Vanessa's top two teeth are starting to poke through her gums today.  I sure hope once they poke through completely she will stop being so fussy!

Quote of the day - Violet

while waiting for her painted nails to dry today, Violet said this...

"I really wish my hand wasn't connected to my body, that way I could just leave it on the table and let it dry."

I think she inherited mommy's impatient gene.

Beautiful day today

I think its time I blogged about something other than bodily fluids. 

It was so nice outside today!!  I think the high temp in Cedar Falls was 77.  Dave and I took the kids out to the river house to check it out - a week or so ago there was a significant flood and we were unable to drive up to the house because the water was too deep going across Cottage Row Rd.  It didn't touch the house though, thankfully!  The kids mostly enjoyed sitting near the water's edge with us and throwing stick in the water.  Violet ended up with major attitude about some tiny thing that blew up out of proportion (doesn't everything seem out of proportion when you're 5?) so we left and decided to put them in bed for naps.  They all slept, but the problem was they didn't sleep til 4 pm - so we had to wake them up to get to Cubbies and Puggles.  They were NOT happy to be woken up.  V and C grudgingly got out of bed (Calvin pretty much screamed for a long time), got shoes on, and buckled in the car....both with grumpy faces.  It took them awhile to cheer up but by the time it was over, both were running around giggling and smiling. 

I took a walk outside with Vanessa and Silas (Selena's baby) for about a half hour, and the wind picked up so I headed inside.  The heat felt so nice.

On another note, Dave and I both were asked to sing during the music today at Bethany.  We practiced with the band Saturday morning.  It went well and we both enjoyed it, and we learned a new song.  Oh Glorious Day by Casting Crowns.  Great song!

Calvin is throwing up

Fun....this sickness is flowing through our whole family.  I was in the wrong spot at the wrong time.  I knew it was going to happen too, because Calvin has been complaining that his tummy hurt all day and didn't have much of an appetite all day (very uncommon for him).  I picked him up to give him a hug, and he immediately started throwing up.  His tummy emptied all over the tile floor (and convenient timing...Dave had walked up the stairs just 5 seconds before I picked him up to give him a hug).  Dave saw the whole thing...I had to leave immediately to get my gross clothes off and Dave helped wipe down Calvin and clean up the puke.  Thank you Dave!  I wonder if it was a stomach bug ... since he threw up, he's acted all happy and cheerful. 

I feel indoctrinated again...this "mom" world can sure be messy and gross!

Feeling sick

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

Yuck

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

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

Grand Harbor Resort/SS Swim Party ~ March 2011

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We just arrived, must jump on bed!

 and climb on the window sills!

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

 Having breakfast Saturday morning

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

 daddy holding a very tired Nessie

The luggage cart was the "train" 

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

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

Violet's fourth jump off the board

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

Wet weekend...

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

Going away Friday night

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

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

Finding a balance with Calvin...

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

Vanessa - 9 months

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

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

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

Violet's writing

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

A few of her first attempts:

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

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

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

Outside...finally

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

Vanessa is changing so much

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