The Wiggles

The Wiggles make my panties go crazy!

Part One

Dear diary, we are on our way to MI for our first family vaca with the 5 of us. The first 11 hours actually went well, only 40 minutes of crying. But last night was rough, neither Jr nor MZ could sleep and they punished us for it. I was close to tears a few times myself. We did get 4.5 hours of sleep at the hotel, bonus! We are on the road again today, hoping to arrive at Nana and Grandpa's by 8pm.

Bring out your dead!

Well, not dead, just sick kids.

 

Surgery updates:

Gwendolyn had her ear tubes put in and adenoids out 6/5.  Surgery went fine and she was a trooper at the hospital.  Her recover was easy except for having some trouble sleeping.  It must have just been some soreness, a little Tylenol seemed to be enough to get her back to normal.  She had her follow up last week and is ear infection free!  Hoozah!

 

The babies got their tubes 6/12.  They were running behind schedule so Jack didn’t go back until about 8am, Madeline 8:45.  Jack was pretty annoyed by waiting around without having eaten sine 6:30pm the night before.  Both babies got rides in the hospital wagons and were entertained by pacing around and looking at all the other kids going in for surgery.  Jack went first and they assured us he would be back in 15 minutes.  After about 30 minutes we were getting worried.  Madeline had fallen asleep in my arms so I could no longer feel anything on my left side.  Finally, the nurse came out, first thing she said was “He’s Fine!”  Apparently he gave the staff quite a scare.  He still had an ear infection and was very congested.  After putting the tubes in the Doctor sucked as much gunk out of his ears, nose and throat as he could.  But Jack got something caught in his throat and they had to put a tube in to make sure he could breath and put an IV in, in case there was something more wrong.  I got the feeling he freaked everybody out pretty bad, but they downplayed it to us.  He was very grumpy with everyone after that.

 

Madeline did great though and had no infection, so she is all set.

 

Once Jack is done with his antibiotics we’ll see how long we can stay medicine free. Hopefully, more than a month.

The Kids: 9 Month Update & 3 Year Update

 

I just returned from Jack & Madeline’s 9 month checkup up.  Here are the stats:

Jack-Jack:

19lbs, 8oz weight 85%

28.5 inches tall 50%

46.8cm head circumference 90%

 

Jack is crawling, he does the worm to get around.  He really only crawls when he needs to, mostly to get toys or his bottle.  Jack loves to eat.  He will eat anything except squash.  Every time he starts a meal, he makes a face to taste the food and then decides he wants more – now!  He will even finish Madeline’s bottle if he can get it.  He is picking up puffs and feeding himself and had turkey meatloaf last night.  His favorite food is still avocado, but also loves strawberry apple sauce.  Jack loves the ladies.  Whenever we take him out alone he attracts lots of attention with his flirty smile.  Jack starting saying “Dada” last weekend and talks whenever his sisters aren’t talking, which isn’t often.  He still likes when John puts him in the front carrier, and he tries to kick his Dad in a sensitive region.

 

Madeline

18lbs 4oz weight 40%

26.5 inches tall 20%

44.7cm head circumference 75%

 

Madeline is a busy baby.  She is crawling all over, fast.  John put up a gate at the top of the stairs this week, mostly because Madeline is a flight risk.  She tries to chase Gwendolyn and gets frustrated when Gwen gets away at the last moment.  She is so busy she won’t sit still to have her diaper changed, drink her bottle or eat her dinner.  This week she started trying to pull up and can get onto her knees but hasn’t quite gotten to standing.  She enjoys taking toys away from Jack, and he usually lets her.  It seems like no matter how many toys there are and how far apart we put them on the floor, the babies always end up together trying to play with the same thing.  Sometimes Madeline is literally climbing over or onto Jack, which they both think is funny.  Madeline is saying “Dada”,”Baba”,”Lala” – but no “Mama”!  Madeline is also feeding herself and seems to prefer doing it on her own. 

 

The babies are doing great.  We are enjoying watching them develop and grow.  They are back to sharing a room again and haven’t had any problems sleeping through the night, though they sometimes wake up too early.  They both like being outside and being around new people, sometimes I think they get bored with us. 

 

Gwen is 1 month shy of her 3^rd birthday.  The big THREE!  She is very excited about her birthday and throws herself parties with her stuffed animals.  I told her that she cannot turn 3 until she’s potty trained but I think she knows I’m bluffing.  She is potty trained at school, but we aren’t allowed to discuss it at home.  She “Doesn’t want to talk about it!”  Other than the potty battle she is doing great.  She talks all the time and is getting into storytelling, regaling us with how her day was or telling imaginative stories about being from Mars and eating bugs.  Gwendolyn does expect to get what she wants, when she wants it, in the manner she is accustomed to.  If her banana is peeled when placed on her breakfast plate she may flip out, tears streaming down her little face and then be fine 30 seconds later.  She does love her brother and sister though.  She talks to them, watches out for them and brings them toys.  She is concerned about their mobility, but hasn’t realized the full ramifications of Madeline being able to crawl over and munch on her toys.  Gwendolyn still LOVES Dora and Diego.  She likes riding in Mommy’s minivan with the DVD player so she can watch Bolt and Cars.  Unfortunately, for me, she is also a big fan of play dough.

 

After our rounds of spring ear infections, Gwendolyn had surgery last Friday to have her adenoids removed and tubes put into her ears again.  Next Friday Jack and Madeline are having tubes put into their ears.  After 4 rounds of antibiotics without being able to fully clear up their ears we decided to do the surgeries and hopefully stop the cycle.  Gwendolyn did great and Jack and Madeline should be back to normal within a day. 

 

Her first shot of tequilla

Gwendolyn had her surgery today. She and I left at 6am and got to the surgery center. She was in an excellent mood, which was a relief. She got a little something to ease the transition back to the O.R. that made her loopy. The nurse said "aren't you proud? Her first shot of tequilla." It was a little entertaining to watch her eyes glaze over and hands flop lazily as she watched TV. John met us after dropping off the babies. I'm glad he came since we were there for 3.5 hours. Gwendolyn came out of surgery sleeping and woke up a little freaked out. She was out of it for 30 minutes or so until she got a lollipop. The doctor put tubes in both ears and removed her adenoids. She still had an ear infection, after 4 (5?) rounds of antibiotics. I really hope that this keeps her healthy for awhile.

Right now she is up in her bed, not sleeping, singing to herself. Oh... please nap... please please please!

Next Friday it's the babies turn!

22. Read 2 Oprah's book club books

DONE. I finished The Reader by Bernhard Schlink. It was surprising. I expected it to be sad, and it was, but not the way I thought. This was way better than Anna Karenina, the other Oprah book I read. They are in different genres, but at least after finishing The Reader I wasn't angry for having wasted 3 years trying to read it.

Thoughts on Abortion

This is worth reading Posted by my friend Amy on her blog.

Have a backyard to live in

This is in progress, but no thanks to me.  John has spent some time the past few weeks cleaning up our back porch.  He bought a nice storage container for the kids toys, hung sun shades, put up a fan, planted flowers, power washed and bought a kid sized picnic table.  With all that and the outdoor speakers it is really pleasant out there.  Now we just need some 10 year old trees to provide shade and we’ll be all set.  Ha!  Good luck finding trees in Pa-flugerville!

 

 

 

 

I will not die a slow death

I’m getting a Blackberry.  John found me one on eBay and I will be joining the technology enabled people of this world.  Why am I getting a Blackberry? 

1.       The past few months I have found that with doctors appointments and other kid related tasks I am not always at my desk and able to check my email.  I would feel a little less guilty about taking time off for my family life if I can at least read my email and take care of any urgent issues.

2.       I rarely check my personal email anymore.  Getting on the home computer is the last thing on my to-do list in the evening.  If I can check it during the day I can respond to emails from family and friends more often. 

3.       I am… almost… 30.  Let me try to explain why this is a reason.  I don’t normally like new technology.  I expect to throw this new phone in violent rage more than once and to get mad at John for not magically making it do what I want.  But, I don’t want to be one of the old people in the Jitterbug commercials using the huge phones with only 3 buttons.  There will come a time when everyone is mobily connected and I don’t want my kids to be teaching me to use my phone, snickering at my stupidity, when they are 10.  I know they will do it when they’re 14, but I’d like to delay that day as long as possible. 

So, I will update on the joys and hardships of my new phone when I get it.