Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Robert

This is evidently my catch up blog day. And frankly I forgot Mary's stocking and there really isn't much going on yet and all the other stuff is done so I thought I'd catch up!

I really don't have as much to say about Robert. Except that this week has been really great. He says he doesn't want to do x-y-z but will do them. 1-2-3 has been working well for him-I almost never get to 3. I've given him more freedom and he's listening pretty well so it feels pretty good there. He's still not really napping any more-I actually didn't even send him for rest time today-he was being great and helpful and we just worked on the house together. He helped put his toys away, put clothes in the laundry basket and shoes on the rack. He is really doing well counting-he'll look a a parking lot and say "look mommy-3 buses". Um, yeah. Today we counted that he had 5 grapes! It's really neat to see him growing and changing every day. Especially when I very clearly remember him at Mary's age and how he was pretty much the same. Except he was shyer. Mary will go up to a perfect stranger and start a conversation. Robert, not so much! He's certainly warmed up to social situations; he'll talk with people he knows, he'll shake hands at church, he'll tell the people at kids klub hi and bye. But he is still my seperation adverse child. Mary doesn't really care but Robert holds on to my leg at every parting. He's fine when I leave but he doesn't like it.

One of the things that was so funny today was that he was pooping this evening and I looked in and he was "reading" Reader's digest on the potty. I thought I would die laughing. It was too funny. He loves magazines (mostly catalogs) and carries them around endlessly. I don't know how many times we've read the target catalog. And yes he's making a list and checking it twice.

I've got to get this kid into preschool. I really think he'll blossom. I wish I had more gumption to do more pre-K stuff with him-more consistant coloring, writing, puzzles etc. But I think I'm going to have to accept that while I love teaching adults I'm just not good at getting my kids motivated to do stuff. And really I guess if I had wanted to teach pre-K I wouldn't have been a nurse!

Robert, you are such a cool little boy. I love you absolutely to pieces. You are growing up every day and I know you can't wait until you can ride the bus and go to school. In some ways I think it will be great when the kids go to school-I'll have more down time, less child care issues. But in another way it's scary! Oh so scary!

Mary Elizabeth!

What can I say about my little girl? I mean the little one with pigtails (when I can torture her into staying still long enough to put them in), the one that is talking like a blue streak. And singing! The one that threw an absolute fit over doll bottles friday (she wanted 3 we bought 1!). The one that is a total "bez" (pez) addict. This girl is a nut. All the time into everything. Lets see here are some of the recent ones and the explanation to why we spend so much time calling her "Mary Elizabeth!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Gone is the fuzzy, Mary Bug, here is Mary Elizabeth!

-she dipped a cabbage patch doll in the toilet
-she then went and played in the other toilet while we were cleaning up the first mess-so 2 shirt changes in 2 minutes. And yes the doll had a bath.
-always in the trash can-she seems to be able to sense if I have thrown away something chocolate related-like a pudding cup top...
-opens and shuts the CD ROM drive on my computer
-re-boots Wesley's computer
-climbs up on the table
-reaches things on the counter that I don't think she can reach
-pulls DVDs off the rack
-pulls coins and all sorts of stuff off of Wesley's desk


But really she is the cutest thing. I mean really. If I could just keep up with the baby cyclone... she says "tank do mommy" when I give her anything. Yesterday she got Wesley's dog tape dispenser off of his desk and brought it to me and said "look mommy, dog, I LIKE THIS". I like this? Where did she pick this up from? She loves her "buppies" (puppies) and babies. And her me-maw and bampa (she can say grandma and grandpa for my parents-and loves them too but has clearly renamed Roger and Peggy and me-maw and bampa). I guess she told them.

She runs for me, snuggles, hugs and loves to read books. Especially lift the flap books. Her favorite (besides the 2 dog books) is "where's baby's belly button" she bring it to me "beyey button, beye button". She loves to look at pictures. And she's really good at finding the dog in all the pictures of Robert's Thomas book. "There's puppy, there's puppy!!!!!!! See, there he is". She loves the pugs and even mimics how R+P call them "Sam! and Ru-ey" She's learned how to block Sam.

But really my saving grace is that she still naps and naps well despite whatever else is going on in the house. Thank heavens.

How I adore you my (not so) baby girl! I can't wait to see you develop over the next years. I think naming you for Granny was meant to be-you certainly are spunky and I hope you face any adversity in your life with the same fortitude as I gather Granny did based on the stories I heard. God bless you sweetie-I really do love you soooooooo much!

10 things I'm thankful for

1) Salvation-I mean duh!
2) My Sweet Wesley. Thanks for putting up with me!
3) My sweet and crazy kids.
4) My friends and family at FWC and elswhere
5) Great family! Can't wait to see you guys soon!
6) A great babysitter
7) Gym with babysitting and food network (= bliss!)
8) Chocolate
9) A job that grows, changes and evolves. I love working here in all my various capacities. And I love being able to work with so many great people!
10) Being done with PALS, ACLS, tele class AND my portfolio! I feel so free!

Monday, November 16, 2009

Not me Monday

I did certainly not ignore yesterday that while we were standing in line at Arby's Robert dumped his cup of goldfish, then put them all back in and then proceed to eat a few more and share a few with his sister. Nope, not me

I did not sit enjoying my roast beef gyro and watch Robert wiggle all over the bench seat of the table pretending to take a nap instead of eating his food. Nope, not me

And I certainly didn't then sit next to him and call him a baby bird and get him to eat worm bites of sandwich and then cricket french fries until I knew he had enough food in him not to be a complete meltdown later. Nope, not me!

And I certainly did not sit in my office last night in the last hour at work and put a few minutes into working on my portfolio instead of dragging myself around the hospital again to round-even though I had only made one full set of rounds. Nope, not me!

And I certainly did not tear an old lady's skin while taking off a tourniquet-TWICE. Nope, not me. Because between that and getting supplies and filling out the incident form and the skin care form it took a full 1/2 hour just to draw a lab. Hence why I only had an hour left to round.... nope not me

Monday, November 09, 2009

morning bliss

I just had to post about how much I'm loving mornings recently. Even though the kids have been getting up earlier now that it's light outside (err) they wake up and make their way into our bed (Wesley lets them out!) with books and toys. And generally we spend 30 min or so together just chilling out, reading, playing, talking, singing, tickling. It is so much fun! It gives me a chance to just hang out and wake up slowly before getting breakfast made, getting us all dressed (and usually dragging us all to the gym!) It's just fabulous! And it seems to start the day off on a much better note-the kids are awake and ready to eat when it's over (no forcing Robert to leave his toys!), they've had some mommy time. I'm actually awake-because I work evenings so I'm not normally ready to go get 'em at 7:30-I don't get to bed until at least midnight several days a week.

Today after we got home from the gym Robert decided that we should take our PB+J lunch outside for a picnic. He's so smart. So we did. And then he decided he needed to poop so we went in and got ready for nap. I was able to get some cleaning up done and worked on laundry. And did devotions.

I'm actually working until 3 am tonight for a sick coworker which is really funny because we have 1 patient on peds (I'm a peds nurse tonight-my first love). We did have 2 treatment center patients that I had for a while. Other than that I've been hitting refresh on McMamma's (mycharmingkids) blog while waiting to hear if Stellan survived his surgery (yeah he did and it was a complete success!) and making a ton of discharge phone calls-2 solid hours of calling! Then I caught up on inservices and e-mails, and now really need to study for ACLS.

But I'm tired. I did 4 miles at the gym today :) I feel fabulous-strong and healthy-between running and 30 day shred. The last pounds are comming off steadily and I feel good. On friday I did manage the 5K straight running-30 min at 6 mph of running! Sat and Sun I did the shred. Today I did intervals of walking and then running 6.5 mph (I can do 10 min of that) and 2 min intervals of 7.2 mph. Lets just say that my heart rate goes to 178 at 7.2 mph. I think I'll need to work up to that! I'm going to alternate the shred and running and see how that goes. I've actually exercised every day since last sun!

The weekend was a much needed break. We just vegged. Had family for supper Friday but otherwise we just were. Sat I took Mary for her (H1N1) flu shot and then we ate out and got groceries. Sunday I had women's meeting after church and left it excited and hopeful for the future of this church-I think we'll make it :) Both of my nursery people showed up and Mary wore a dress and tights that was absolutely adorable. Oh so cute. And she wouldn't let me take it off! Little princess! Her incisors are in and she seems less cranky. Robert has flu mist (H1N1) scheduled for this sat so then they'll both have had at least one dose. I've had the H1NI shot but not the seasonal shot-now RMH isn't sure they'll get them at all. oops. The kids and Wesley have both had theirs. Wesley hasn't had the H1N1 shot though. So I guess if someone gets sick we at least won't pass it around as bad?

Robert has been trying to correct me recently "no mommy you don't talk to Robert like that" little stinker. Mary talks and sings and plays "tappe" non stop. She seems to think that it's a grandma game and tries to play it with Peggy too-poor Peggy! So I've been working on teaching it to her. They are starting to play together. Mary's new thing is books. Morning, noon and night. Books. And she's really learning the names of animals and trucks. She's something. She even knows zebra "zee-ba, see zee-ba".

Tuesday, November 03, 2009

circles

Do you ever feel like you just go around in circles? Each day the same, each week the same, each moment the same, just an endless rotation of sameness? That's how this week has felt. Endless picking up, endless loading/unloading dishwasher, endless meals, endless work, endless kid wrangling. Every day is the same with slight variations. I pick up the mess. The kids re-create the mess. I pick up the mess. I unload the dishwasher, it fills back up. I change the diaper, Mary poops, I change another diaper. I fix a meal, I clean it up, I fix another meal. I buy more groceries, I fix another meal, I clean it up. I do laundry and put it away, we create more laundry, the dog pukes, Robert wets through the bed, I track poop in-more laundry. I go to work, I come home, I go back to work in between fixing meals, washing clothes, picking up. Reading, holding, disciplining, listening to whining. It just never ends. Usually this doesn't bother me but for some reason this week I am so freaking TIRED of it all. Of the non stop work. Of never actually accomplishing anything lasting. I guess that is the real issue. Nothing lasts more than 5 min-even laundry which I really only do once a week-on weeks like this I started Sun afternoon doing laundry and I still have a load in the washing machine (the 6th maybe? or 7th? somewhere between snoopy puking and Robert's bed-how did he pee on his pillow? I'm still puzzled on that one).

The kids seem better but Robert has been SO emotional today. He cries at ANYTHING. I swear you look at him and he falls appart. And Mary is in a testing phase-she's hitting and trying all sort of stuff, and snoopy has been eating food off her tray so has to spend all meals outside barking her fool head off. And has been peeing on the floor by the fridge. I have no idea what is going on.

I took the kids to costco today. Wesley went with some coworkers to an oyster dinner and didn't think he would get to costco since he was comming home early so we could vote before work/nanny night so since we were out of milk (1/2 gallon of skim-no whole) we had to go-so it was just the kids and me. So I became that mother. You know the one that starts out, "Robert you need to sit down. Robert that's 1-2-3. Get back in your seat. (spank). Robert 1-2-3..." By the time we had survived lunch (of course they were more interested in my salad than the pizza and hotdog I had gotten for them and they both managed to spill their cups of soda even in straw cups), made it through to get milk, salad, oranges and I had bought some mini european chocolates (trust me I NEEDED chocolate must be that time of the month) and made it through the line. Robert was trying to stand up in the cart so I asked him nicely twice to sit on his bottom and finally pulled the ticked mom tight hard voice-you know the only voice that gets ANY response. "Robert SIT DOWN NOW!" the cashier and the bagging assistant exchanged glances but you know--he sat.

They did nap but Robert woke up in a mood. The rest of the afternoon was similar. Just add folding 4 loads of clothes to the mix. Highly pleasant.

Robert "I want to watch XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX. NOOOOOOOOOOOO I want YYYYYYYYYYYY. wahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh." 30 sec later he's enthralled with x. Until x is over and x is on and he wants y. argh. Then Mary hits him with HIS dump truck. waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah Can you gather I wasn't too sad to go to work? The first part was busy but the rest has been OK so far. I got my inbox cleared out and dealt with some procedure questions that I've been putting off and now and attempting to study for ACLS. Ohy.

I'm looking forward to sleeping tomorrow :) And cleaning and it staying that way for 10 min. Didn't sleep well mon night what with working 3-11 and getting to bed around 12:30 and snoopy puking at 2:30 and the kids up at 7:30. No wonder I'm cranky.

The weekend was busy too, with apple butter and trick or treating on Sat (the kids make really cute pirates!) and then sick kids and working extra Sun. I'm looking forward to this weekend. We were thinking about camping but it's going to be cold and I just can't do it. I can't keep up with the house so I really can't add a camping trip to it. And I need to be able to go to church. Oh how I missed being able to be there Sun!