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May 29, 2008
But what do you do with all the papers and crafts that come home at the end the school year? Forrest just finished his third year of schooling. Each year I seem to have to deal with more papers and projects every year. At first I was trying to keep everything in a binder, but I then had a picture in my mind of Forrest having to have a U-haul to take all of his school stuff when he moves out. Last year I came up with the art wall.
Anytime he has a new picture we hang it on his art wall. At the end of the school year I take a picture with Forrest and all of his pictures. Another idea is to lay at all of his art on the floor and also take a picture. This way I am not trying to save every picture he has ever made. At the end of the school year I try to keep at least one art project and maybe one piece of work that shows his personality, like a story or a question and answer worksheet. This year I have been faced with a dilemma. Forrest has numerous items that don't fit nicely into a binder, but I would still like to keep. I stumbled upon this idea in Family Fun to use Priority Mail boxes to store art projects in. The best thing about these boxes is they are free. You can order them at usps.com or pick them up at your local post office. Being the lazy person I am I had them shipped to me, also free of charge. Other things I like to do is video tape Forrest on his last day of school talking about his friends, his school work and his teacher. Hopefully one day I will put these all on a DVD for him. This isn't a perfect system, but hopefully it will hold until I figure out a more permanent system. My goals is for Forrest to only have one or two binders filled with his school work. That way he will treasure what I have worked so hard to save and not consider it just junk that needs to be thrown away.
May 20, 2008
Last week I called my brother to talk about somethings. I called him about 8:45 in the morning and teased him that my kids had just woken up. I teased him about how nice it is to sleep in and that one day when his kids are teenagers he might be able to enjoy the same thing. I really should learn. The next day Eliza was up at 5:45am and wouldn't go back to sleep. For the next three morning she was up at 6:00. I really should just keep my mouth shut. Anytime I say anything about how well they have been sleeping lately, they seem to sense my bragging and feel the need to take me down a peg or two. So if you hear me telling everyone how rotten my kids are it is just self preservation. I really enjoy my sleep.
May 16, 2008
Forrest: Mommy how do the baby puppies get out of the mommy dog?
Me: WHAT!!! I mean what did you say?
Forrest: How do the baby puppies get out of the mommy dogs?
Me: (Thinking frantically) Do I tell him the truth? How much detail do I go into? Can I use the same answer that I did when he asked how Eliza got out of my tummy? No. No. Dogs really don't have C-sections. I can just see him telling everyone that you have to slice the dog open to get the puppies out. Maybe I can.....
Forrest: Mom.
Me: Oh sorry Yes well the puppies get out......
I won't bore you with the details. Actually I don't remember the details or I should say I am trying to block the memory of the whole thing. Whatever I said was good enough that he seemed satisfied with the answer and hopefully I won't hear from Forrest's teacher that Forrest is telling everyone that one minute the puppies are in the mommies tummy and the next they are not. It is like magic. Because that is what I really wanted to say.
May 14, 2008
Last Friday as my mother-in-law was driving Eliza home, Eliza became sick. She managed to throw-up all over herself, the car and my mother-in-law's purse. Eliza was sick the rest of the night Friday and was running a fever most of Saturday. By Sunday she was perking up. On Monday morning I thought everything was back to normal, that is until Forrest started throwing up. By Tuesday Forrest was feeling better, but Eliza was complaining that her throat hurt. When I took a peek I saw big ugly ulcers on the back of her throat. Fearing that it was the horrible Herpes virus again I called the doctor and made an appointment. When I arrived at the doctors office the waiting room only had one other person in it. I was feeling pretty good that we would be in and out. I was horribly wrong. Eliza and I waited for about 15 minutes before we were called back to the room. This is when the real waiting began. I don't know why they call you back so quickly. At least in the waiting room there is toys and room for the kids to run around. In the exam room all the have are books. We exhausted them pretty quickly. I was soon pushing Eliza around on a chair and making water balloons out of gloves. After 45 minutes of waiting the doctor finally came in. The conclusion was she had a virus, not the herpes virus, but a virus that will go away on its own. We just have to be patient. After an hour and a half we finally left. To say I was frustrated was mild. I really hate waiting around forever only to be told there is nothing you can do. I don't understand why we even make an appointment if it is going to take them an hour to get to you. I also wish they would let you know the doctor is running behind and give you the option of waiting in the waiting room or in the exam room. Sorry about the rant, but it seems that lately every appointment we go to we are waiting for at least an hour before we can be seen. It is starting to get really old. Eliza is feeling better about 50% of the time. The rest of the time she is screaming hysterically for no reason. I really can't tell if the sores are hurting her or if she is just being a typical 2-year-old and throwing a temper tantrum. Hopefully this the last of the illnesses before summer. If not I am sure you can find me in the Insane Asylum.
May 11, 2008
I don't know about you, but Mother's Day is one of my least favorite holidays. I feel very inadequate as a mother most of the time. The other day I had a really interesting experience. One of the ladies in my ward had a really fun summer last year. Her and her family were gone all the time doing this and that. Feeling that I was failing as a mother I figured I needed to ramp it up this year. I outlined some activities to do this summer and made a goal of doing more fun things with my kids. I happened to mention to a friend that I was worried about the upcoming summer and doing enough fun things with my kids.
My friend and the lady in the ward got to talking the other day. My friend mentioned to the lady how I was nervous for summer and not having enough fun things for my kids to do. The lady from the ward stated how she is always amazed at all the fun things I am doing with my kids and she wished she could be more like me. When my friend told me this it really floored me. Here I was trying to be more like this lady in the ward and in turn she was trying to be more like me. It really showed me that even though I may feel like I am not doing a good job being a mother other people think I am doing a great job. I really need to learn to relax and enjoy the moment more. My kids are growing up so fast and I really don't want to miss anything. Soon this will all be a distant memory and I don't want my memory of my kids childhood to be of me feeling all the time that I wasn't good enough to be their mother.
May 3, 2008
Yesterday started out like any other day. My alarm went off at 5:33 am and I of course bounced out of bed excited to get to the gym. While I was brushing my teeth I noticed that the faucet didn't seem to have that much water pressure. Being that it was 5:30 in the morning I just passed it off and continued getting ready. As I was sitting on the stairs tying my shoes I kept hearing a strange noise. After listening for a couple of minutes I decided it must be coming from outside. Realizing I was running late I grabbed me keys and was out the door. That is when I noticed the pond in our front yard. I ran back inside and woke up Greg. It seems our main water line for our sprinklers blew a clamp off. There was water everywhere. The grass even had big mounds where the water had pushed up the grass. I left Greg to deal with the mess and headed off to the gym feeling guilty the entire time. Luckily all the water went into the street and we didn't get any into the house. When I got home I hurried around trying to get the kids and myself ready for a 9:00 am appointment. While Forrest was getting ready he asked me why the rugs in the bathroom were all wet. When I checked it out it seemed as if the toilet overflowed, but I couldn't tell why. Since we were late I quickly cleaned up the mess and we headed out the door. We made it to our appointment right on time. This appointment was pretty important. We finally found out what the plan will be for Eliza's future Speech Therapy. Since she still is not talking she will be attending the district preschool four days a week. She will also probably still need Speech Therapy outside of the school setting. Hopefully something will start turning around soon.
After the meeting we came home and worked on cleaning up the house for our big sleepover. Forrest has been so excited to have his cousins come sleepover. After lunch I took Forrest to school, dropped Eliza off with Shirley and then tried to quickly do my grocery shopping before I had to go volunteer. I didn't count on the traffic being so bad and I finished up with grocery shopping with only enough time to go home and throw all the perishable's items in to the fridge. I then ran off to the school. After school Forrest and I headed home and that is when I found the ice cream. I had managed to get everything else put away but the ice cream. Hoping that it could be salvaged I threw it into the freezer. Forrest was of course mad that his cousins were not there right when we got home.
At about 4:00 all the cousins were dropped off. Pretty soon we had kids running and screaming through the house. Everyone was having a blast. At about 8 it was time to put the baby down. I laid her down and figured I would put Eliza and her cousin down at 8:30. When I checked on the baby at 8:30 she was still wide awake. Not wanting to disturb her I put on a movie and gave all the kids popcorn.
At 9:00 the baby was asleep so we could put Eliza and her cousin down. Forrest and his cousin kept watching the show. Everything seemed to be winding down. At 9:30 I heard the baby crying. My sister had told me to let her sooth herself, but I couldn't help it I went in to make sure everything was okay. She was stinky so it was a good thing I checked on her. I quickly got her changed, but her brother had shut his hand in the door and wanted to sit up with the big boys for a little while until his hand felt better. Figuring it would help the baby go to sleep faster I agreed. At about ten the movie was over and everyone was bedded down. Greg and I crawled into bed exhausted from the busy day. As we were laying in bed we could hear Forrest and his cousin talking and Eliza playing in her room. The only one I know for sure was asleep was the baby. Greg and I ended up falling asleep before the kids. Oh to have that kinda of energy. Everyone had a great time. Forrest can't wait to go to Ben's house and sleepover next.
May 1, 2008
Yesterday after Greg came home from work we were all sitting around talking about our day. Suddenly someone farted. Thinking that it was Forrest, I asked who it was so I could remind Forrest to say excuse me. Everyone immediately denied any knowledge of this heinous act, but Eliza. She pointed at Greg's bum and plugged her nose. Even though she can't talk she can still rat people out.
Of course within an hour all the kids looked like they hadn't seen the inside of a tub for at least a week. We were really close the the river which made me very nervous. 
Luckily when we got closer to the water's edge there was quiet a bit of area that was very calm water. This was great for us. We always had an adult watching the kids by the river, but you never had to worry too much about them being swept away by the current. The kids spent most of the night throwing rocks in the river and pretending to fish. 
The highlight of the whole trip was when we found this little guy. I have racked my brain all day and I can't remember what it is called. Maybe one of you guys can help me out. I want to say it is a Woolly caterpillar, but that just doesn't sound right. 
Everyone had a chance to hold it. Forrest was first and then after a little time Eliza worked up the courage to hold it herself. 
Of course after she held it once she wasn't afraid of it anymore and kept picking it up and handing it to me. The poor caterpillar was even picked up by a little five month old baby. Luckily it survived. 
We released it back into the wild and hopefully it doesn't die later from internal injuries caused by all the man handling it had to endure. Everyone had a great time roasting marshmallows and getting as dirty as possibly. We are hoping we can come back really soon. It was a great start to our summer.
