Tag: kids

Mother’s Day Love

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We had such a nice Mother’s Day weekend! It kicked off with a celebration at Baylor’s school where her whole class sang and presented us with presents. They made plates (the melamine kind that they draw on and then cook), flowers in hand painted pots and a beautiful poem with her little hand print. It was stinking adorable. Any attendee would have been hard pressed not to smile at the level of cuteness going on.

My little gardener.

Guess who gets to eat off the plate the most? Thanks for the pictures Grandma!

We spent Saturday organizing the garage which is always a challenge, but makes me so happy not to trip over crap AND when I can get a roll of paper towels without unpacking an entire shelf.

Finally we enjoyed Sunday brunch with Grandma and Grandpa where they showered us with gifts – me, Bay and the baby too! My favorite part though is the card. PW said that Bay screamed “WE HAVE TO GET THE ONE WITH THE PUPPY FOR MOMMY!!!” so loud that people two aisle over were laughing. It cracks me up – exactly what an almost 3 year old would pick out. The gnome stickers are the perfect touch!

Big Helper

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Yesterday morning, Baylor emerged from her bathroom declaring that she had brushed her teeth all by herself. We all got very excited and I made a mental note to rebrush them later…

While passing by her room, I noticed a very strong smell of strawberry…upon further inspection I found that apparently in the “toothpaste on the toothbrush” portion of the morning, she had squirted about a third of the bottle of toothpaste into the sink. And now it was hard and not easily washed off. Crap. I made another mental note to deal with it later.

In the evening, PW and I were making dinner and chatting about schedules when it dawned on me I hadn’t seen or heard the munchkin in a while. My “what are you doing??” yell was answered with “ANYTHING!!” which is translated to I’m not doing anything which is always a lie. Two minutes later she came running into the kitchen announcing that she had cleaned all the toothpaste out of the sink! Awesome, I thought…and then I really thought about her cleaning skills and got a little worried. I asked her to show me her good work…which is where I discovered that apparently in two year old world, cleaning the toothpaste out of the sink means using goldfish crackers to do so.

This time I made a mental note to tell PW that this was a daddy clean up job.

 

Easter Fun

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We had a great Easter filled with fun and family. Smarty pants B, upon discovering the bunny balloon she had been eyeing for weeks at the grocery announced “the Easter Bunny shop at Safeway too!!”.

A little baffled by the chick that makes cheeping sounds when you hold it

After mass we headed to my mom’s house for brunch. It was amazing as always and included lots of running on the golf course.

Zoe and B sharing some bubbles – well, in theory anyway

Big kids, little kids and the big kids at heart playing catch

After a little spillage in her dress, she changed into one of Noni’s shirts (which she spilled on) and then enjoyed her gardening themed Easter gift from her buddy Joyce.

Working Girl

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One of the appeals of starting to work for the family business two-ish years ago was that I would be able to do it around Baylor’s schedule. And it’s worked great especially since she started preschool. 12 hours a week plus nap times is just the right amount of time to get stuff done.

Last Friday was a rare day when I had to schedule a meeting for an onsite inspection during a non school day. It also meant I had to head South to Arizona City  which would add and 2 hours + to the meeting time for commute. Thankfully Grandma had coordinated a day off of work so it would all work out brilliantly – Bay to Grandma’s house, me to AZC for a meeting with enough time on either end to get some work done around the house.

And then pneumonia.

After much discussion, PW and I figured out that with a lot of tag teaming and Grandma’s help, we could both make it to our meetings and get the munchkin healthy. I would do the x-ray as soon as the place opened at 730 while PW worked and took a meeting over the phone. I would spend the next hour prepping for my meeting and then tag PW to take B to the follow up appointment with the doctor. PW would then tag Grandma to take B home to play, eat and nap. I would return home around 2 to tag Grandma and then B and I would spend the rest of the afternoon watching Mickey Mouse in a daze of sleep deprivation and Albuterol.

It was around 1030 that morning that I realized we were going to make it. It was all going to get done and get done without being too messy. The end result was total exhaustion from the past 2 days and scrambling for the past 5 hours. I’ve always had so much respect for friends who both work AND raise awesome kids, but now that I’ve tried on their shoes, I’ve realized they should really have a super hero cape to match!

Pneumonia Sheumonia

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Phew  is the only word I can think of to describe the last 5 days.

Baylor came home crabby and running a slight fever on Wednesday last week. By Thursday afternoon, it was a full blown 104.5 fever with a cough, wheezing and labored breathing. Any one of those would mean “get to the doctor” but all four meant get there pronto.

I fully expected the doctor to say “it’s a virus, nothing we can do” and send us tired and crabbily on our way. But then he listened to her chest for a solid 5 minutes. He asked a lot more questions and then determined that her asthma might actually be pneumonia. His suggestion was a full workup of meds including a shot that makes adults cry, chest x-ray, two inhalers and oral antibiotics as well.

The good news is that her x-ray came back clear, but since it was a day behind the beginning of treatment, they moved ahead with the meds. After a few fitful hours of sleep (normally I compare sleeping with her to sleeping with a badger – this was like sleeping with a hot,  clingy badger), her fever dropped and she was able to get some real sleep. By Friday afternoon, her fever was gone and she was hungry and happy. We kept her mellow the rest of the weekend with lots of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and M&M’s to bribe her into taking the “yucky” inhaler. She was mellow to the point where she was restless and making herself and us nuts so she went happily off to school today. Fingers crossed there won’t be any calls from Teacher Jackie and we’re on the road to  really getting better this time.

What I Learned at Noni’s House

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Noni (my mom) has always been sure to point out that Grandma (Peter’s mom) is the good grandparent. Grandma is the one that takes Baylor to the park, the zoo, the library and to play dates. They read books, count rocks and lots of other educational and fun things.

Noni, by her own admittance, is the trouble maker. She’s the one to teach Baylor how to make Noni iced tea including how to shake, tear and pour the Sweet N Low. How to break into the cabinet of Mommy’s favorite, beloved and collector Barbie dolls and then convince Mommy to let her have one. How to play jokes on Pop (my step dad) by hiding his hat or his phone. And how to eat ice cream out of the container, preferably while sitting on the counter.

But their favorite pastime is collecting golf balls while out for a walk and then waiting for golfers to tee off at the hole a few hundred yards from the back gate. They then throw a few golf balls out onto the course and  hide, waiting to watch the golfers walk around and decide which ball is theirs. Then they collect the balls and do it all over again.

This explains so much when B is tip toeing around the house and announcing, in a whisper, that she’s being “sneaky”. It always concerns me as to what and why she needs to be sneaky…