Poor Guy

So this afternoon the kids were wanting to go outside to play. I opened our sliding glass door to let them out. Guy put his hand on the door frame, as he walked through the door. I waited till I thought he had moved his hand, and then shut the door. As soon as I had shut the door I knew I hadn't waited long enough. I had pinched his poor fingers.

I opened the door, and examined his fingers. Thankfully they were just sore and not bruised. I let him back out and went back to cleaning the kitchen. A moment later I looked out at the kids for some reason. I'm not sure why. I don't know if I heard him crying or what. But there he was sitting on the step (one of his favorite places to sit), surrounded by hornets. I opened the door and ushered him inside. Sure enough he had been stung right on his knuckle.
So we have been looking at where the hornets came from. There is a crack at the bottom of the step, where it meets the concrete. (If you look really closely you might see a hornet.) That is where they are coming in and out. We can't see the actual nest, and aren't sure how to take care of them. We are going to try dousing the area with Raid, and see if that does any good. Let me know if you have any other suggestions.

We had a lion in our house today

So last week I started assigning the kids jobs, making a job chart. It worked OK, but as time went on it lost its novelty, and Cinderella particularly didn't want to do her chores.

This morning Guy was telling me there was a lion in Cinderella's bed, and I got an idea. I told the kids that there was a lion in Cinderella's bed, and we needed to go take care of it. We went in there, and I pulled the blankets down with a roar. Then I turned to them, asked them if they were scared, and told them I was. Then I said the lion wasn't in the bed anymore, and we better hurry and make the bed before the lion comes back. Cinderella asked if the lion would eat us. I told her it wouldn't, it just wanted to sleep, and when it saw that her bed was made it would go away again. So we hurried and made her bed, then we went and found the lion in Guy's bed. We got rid of it, and hurried and made the bed. Then we noticed that the lion was reading the books that were scattered all over the floor. So we hurried and picked them up.

Then we went back to Cinderella's room to make sure there wasn't anything in there the lion might get into. The we did Mama's room. Then we went into the bathroom, and found the lion playing with the toys in the bathtub. Cinderella pulled him out, and we hurried and picked up the toys and straitened the bathroom.

Then Cinderella saw him in the living room, so we had to pick that room up as well. And then he was in the library. Well our library was a really big mess. It hadn't ever had everything put away since we moved in. So that room took a while, and once we (or maybe I should say I on that one. The kids were looking at books.) were done, the lion had disappeared, and we had somehow gotten most of the jobs done.

Isn't it amazing what a little imagination, can accomplish?

Eating troubles

This is a question for advice about breast feeding. If the subject of breast feeding makes you uncomfortable you may want to stop reading here.

So Sleeping Beauty is my baby who has nursed the best out of how any of my children did when they were infants, but I still have some problems. I use a nipple shield on one side, due to that nipple being larger than my baby's mouth. I developed a major crack in that side, and have sense been using the shield, plus some ointment to help it heal.

The other side however, I didn't have that problem on. But now I have another problem. Sleeping Beauty likes to yo-yo. On then off, on then off. And her constant pulling on and off is making me really sore. I don't know why she does this. We start out, most of the time, with a really good latch, but by the time we are done, I don't kn0w that it is that great.

Tell me, if you have ever had a problem with a baby yo-yoing was there any way you got them to eat better?

Any suggestions?

I want some in my hand

So lately when we are eating and Guy wants something particular, he asks for you to put it in his hand.

"I want some cheese in my hand." or "I want some meat in my hand."

The other day we were having pork chops for dinner, and my husband had some BBQ sauce on the table as a condiment. Well Guy pointed to the bottle and said, "I want some of that in my hand", and held out his hand.

No AC

So we have had a hot week. I think every day has been in the 90's. I know it could be hotter, but having recently moved from an area where the average summer temperature is 78 degrees 98 is hot! Thankfully we bought a house with a central air conditioner so I haven't really been feeling it that much.

But last night was hot. We got home from the library, and I was just sweating. I kept wondering why it was so hot in here. Then when I was putting the kids to bed, I was standing over one of the vents, and realized that the air blowing through wasn't that cold. I then checked the thermostat and it told me it was 83 degrees in the house, and I had it set to be 77.

So I told my husband that I thought we had a problem with the AC. He went out and looked, and sure enough our unit wasn't running. Just the fan in the house. We checked the circuit breakers, and they seemed to be fine.

So this morning I called my dad to see what he would advise us to do. He suggested we call someone to come take a look at it. He recommended a company, and I called later this morning. Thankfully they were able to have someone come and take a look at it today.

I learned something, I hadn't known before. When you have central air, how clean your furnace filter is, affects how well your AC works. Ours hadn't been changed since we moved in, and it was dirty then. I don't know if that is what caused the problem though. He said it could make the AC unit work harder, so it could have made the part that was broken wear out earlier. Anyway it turned out to be a broken connector. Which cost me about $80 to replace. Thankfully it wasn't something worse.

Isn't it amazing that a convenience like AC can become a necessity if we let it?

The Wizard of Oz

Last night our library had a group of children performers come and preform an abbreviated version of The Wizard of Oz.

We found out about it yesterday morning when we went to the library for story time. Cinderella heard it announced, and wanted to go. I was hesitant because it didn't start until 7, and we have been working on starting to get our kids ready for bed at 7. But we decided that we would make an exception, and we went to the library.

I'm glad we went. It was crowded, but Cinderella loved it. And Guy enjoyed it too. I'm glad for opportunities to culture our children and give them experiences like this.

The Walrus

So while we were camping, one morning Guy woke up came over to me, and told me that the walrus has a nose.

"The walrus has a nose?" I asked.

Then Guy lay down on his stomach on the tent floor and flopped around like a walrus. He then came back over to me and told me he was a walrus.

"You are a walrus?" I asked

"And I have two," he paused pointing at his teeth, "noses."

Goodbye little penguin

When we were staying with my family, while looking for a house, my children developed an interesting tradition at bedtime. Before we would put them to bed, we would have them go around and give everyone a hug and tell them good night. Well for some reason Cinderella started calling everyone little penguin. She would go up to them, give them a hug and say "goodnight little penguin". Then Guy would emulate his sister and do the same.

After we had moved into our house, it became the way to say good bye to the people at Grandma's house when we went to visit, and it was time to go home. "Goodbye little penguin"

So one time when we were at my parents house getting ready to go, I bent to help Guy put on his shoes, and he gave me a hug and said, "goodbye little sea monster."

Do you like my bouqet?

Cinderella loves flowers. She loves to see and smell flowers, but most of all she loves to pick flowers, and make bouquets for me.

So you can imagine how much fun she had when we went camping amidst a million wild flowers.

One day Daddy took the kids on a hike, with Grandma and Grandpa, and a few aunts. Cinderella was NOT happy, because it was different than what she was expecting, and she wanted to pick flowers for Mama. They did let her pick some, and she came back with a bouquet for me.

The next day my brother, his wife, a couple of my sisters, my husband, Cinderella, Guy and me all went on a hike. We hiked up to a meadow filled with wild flowers. So of course Cinderella had to pick a bouquet. The others went on ahead while I stayed with Cinderella. She was making up a song as she went singing, and slowly walking along picking the flowers. And the way she would pick the flowers was, when she saw a flower she wanted to pick, she would grab the plant and pull really hard, and however much came off she would put into her bouquet. One time she even pulled up the roots. And there it went into her bouquet. So she would walk along singing her song, picking her flowers, and every now and then she would stop singing and yell at the others who were quite a ways in front of us, "You guys are getting ahead of us!" then she would go back to singing and picking her flowers.

So what do you do with a bouquet from your little girl, when you are camping?

My little narrator

So lately Cinderella has been doing this thing where she narrates at least half of what she does.
Here is an example:

"Mom!, she said, Can you help me find my shoe?"

Or, "Guy laughed, Cinderella didn't."

Or she screams in frustration, and then in a calm voice says "she said".

I find it hilarious.

My favorite June Pics

I wanted to post my favorite pictures I took this last month. There are a few repeats from other blog posts, but most aren't.

"I have a star today!"

We can learn so much from children if we let ourselves.
My kids love to take their vitamins. I don't give them the gummies, I think they look too much like candy. I wouldn't want the kids to find them and down a whole bunch thinking they are candy. I just use the standard chewable ones.

I have however had a hard time finding the chewable ones in a dose for a 2 year old, with out it being cutting a larger dose in half. And come on, what 2 year old wants half of a dinosaur? In our last location, one of the grocery stores that I would shop at had some. These were stars. I stocked up before we moved, because I wasn't sure how easy it would be to find them in our new location.

Cinderella's vitamins have been circus animals, and now she had dinosaurs. Guy could be upset that all he gets are stars when his sister gets a variety. However this is how the conversation usually goes at our breakfast table.

"I have a purple lion today!"
"I have a star today, Dad! I have a star today!"

Every day, no matter what his sister has, Guy is thrilled that he has a star. I am so glad he can be happy with what he has instead of wishing for what others have.

Unfortunately, the stars are almost all gone, and so it is time to try to find what I can around here. Hopefully he doesn't have to settle for half a dinosaur.

Good Morning

So Cinderella is not much of a morning person, if anything wakes her up instead of waking up on her own. If she wakes up on her own she could be up at 6 and be as happy as can be.

Well this morning I woke her up about 7:30, which is not early for our house. Her response, in a ornery voice was, "Why do we always have to get up so early?" I responded that it wasn't early. We went down to the kitchen, and I had her sit in her chair at the table. Guy was also at the table. I turned to put Sleeping Beauty in her swing, and overheard this conversation.
Big long whine- Cinderella

"Don't scream Cinderella"- Guy

"I'm not screaming, I'm talking with words so you have to believe me."

"You sad, Cinderella?"

Now said in an ornery voice, "I'm not sad. I'm happy."

"Sorry, Cinderella."

I had to try really hard to not laugh. It was obvious that Guy sensed the tension in his sister, and was trying to make her feel better, but she was not wanting to admit she had a problem. At least after she proclaimed she was happy, she started acting like it. Mornings can be quite interesting in our house.