Really

I am constantly harping to olivia about shutting off lights, tv, etc. I have tried endlessly to explain to her that we have to pay for using those things and like any other normal person, I figured it was going in one ear and out the other. Check out this conversation before we left for the store.

Mom: "Just leave your tv on for your kitty to keep her company while we are gone"

Olivia: "Well that would be wasting electricity. I can't believe you were going to let me waste electricity on the cat!"

I have turned her tv off so many times when she left the room and said that very thing to her well over 100 times, who would have thought it actually stuck! Yes, she kept a kitty from the bunch we had. Yes, I have rocks in my head and at this point, they rattle too!

Thoughts

In between steaming my beans and laundry, I decided to sit down and share some thoughts. We were at a yard sale on Monday, because Logan has grown way more than I anticipated a couple months ago when I carefully shopped and planned his summer wardrobe. Now I am afraid by the middle of summer he's not going to be able to wear anything. My point to the yard sale was, there was a 6mos. little girl there. She was 6weeks premature and she was tiny. Tiny face and dare I say skinny arms and legs, very tiny featured. Well when we compared the two, Logan looked like a mini sumo wrestler up against her. At that point i realized that he was indeed huge. I have always had a feeling he is bigger than Olivia at this age, although she too got as round as a tomato at some point. We have them small here to start out and then we make them big and round!!
I am slowly learning around here that what you "only" make for supper she will eat. Olivia is my picky eater. I have fought for a long time about the junk food before supper and only eating mac & cheese and chicken nuggets. If you have never seen the show on TLC called Jon & Kate plus 8, you have to watch. Brief summary, they had twins to start off and then had 6 at one time, so all totaled 8 kids. She only cooks organic and her kids eat what she makes, or she'll see them at breakfast. I love this woman. At first you think, "oh my, she is cut throat", but mind you she does have 8 kids and 6 are the same age. She runs a pretty tight ship. So, I thought about this and tried it with Olivia and when she wouldn't eat what I made, i simply said "see ya at breakfast", and guess what, she sat down and ate what was on her plate. So she was just playing games with me to see if I would make her something else and I would! As Kate would say "I'm not a short order cook". Yesterday she ate a hamburger (on a bun), corn and a piece of pie. This was all at once and she was so proud of herself. It may help that Logan eats everything you put in front of him and she sees it. Here is the recipe for the pie, believe me, it's very good and easy.
1 Choc. (Oreo) crust
1 package instant vanilla pudding
bananas
choc. cool whip
Simply line the bottom with bananas, then pudding(just follow pudding instructions on package), then your cool whip. Let stand in fridge for 3hrs. to set. You can also add some more bananas on top. ENJOY
I got him to show his teeth.

Looking Back

It's almost the end of school and wow, has time flown by. I remember the first days and the crying, hanging on to me, me thinking, how horrible I was to "make" her go to school and cry. The frustration Olivia had with how long school was and it would never end. Now I have this excellent reader, more patient person, whose is very proud of herself. There is nothing more pleasing than driving down the road and your 6yr. old says, "We are going east" and asking the obvious,"How do you know", "I read the sign"..........nothing will put a smile on your face more than that. So kindergarten will be over and there are no more "she's still a baby" school. These shirts really made me think how much she is growing and you can't stop it. Their program was very nice and you could see how much the kids had grown since their Christmas program. They had a slide show and it made you cry from the beginning to end. Oh, First Grade here she comes, ready and willing, but I don't know if mama is ready for that already. Seems like yesterday we headed off to Preschool and I was so worried those 2hrs. a day.

I have been making my own baby food and can't almost believe how simple it is to make and how wonderful it is not to have to buy all that at the store all the time. I"m actually having fun with it. I have also been making fruit roll ups. Unbelievable how easy that is too. Puree your fruit and spread it very thin on a greased cooking sheet, put in oven at 175 degrees and leave door cracked open. You will be able to tell when it's done. Better dryer than not, it will keep longer. Olivia loves it and can't believe mom can make Fruit Roll ups!!!

Time to Reflect

No, I haven't forgot that I'm suppose to keep you all up to date and blog in my free time!!, it's just been really busy and I'm trying to go to bed earlier, which used to be my time to get stuff done. I'm much happier with a extra hour sleep. Anyway, let's go back to last week. Monday i had to have Logan at Children's again(don't get me started) for a ultrasound on his spine. The one Doc thought he felt something in Logan's spine he did not like. Sometimes kids can have tethered spines and they can be fixed easy. Check, got that done and out of the way. The ultrasound came back normal check check. Tuesday was the zoo field trip that I was wondering how we were going to fair all day. I have to say, it went really well. Logan is very easy to take places. (now he can't walk yet either!). The kids had fun, Logan loved the fountains. We ended up having very nice weather, which had promised rain in the morning. check check. Wednesday was another fun day. Olivia woke up late Tues. night with another ear infection. Very sleepy again Check. I had to take her to the docs and get the usual meds. for it.check check. Thursday had to be normal, can't remember, so i think it was! Yeah! Friday was great, knowing the weather was going to be wonderful and most everyone had a three day weekend. check check check. Saturday was our street yard sale, so we threw some stuff together and had one too. Didn't do too bad either. I did sale my bassinet, Liv's toddler bed and some other small baby items.........There goes my babies! So all in all it was a crazy week. Olivia had a End of the Year program on Friday also and I will tell you about that next time.

All in all it's been very nice. Logan is getting so big and just doing "big boy" stuff. Doesn't want to sit yet, but whatever! He's perfect. Olivia is growing up and you can tell. She wants to make new friends around the neighborhood and that worries me. She is only 6 and I know when she's 12 I will say the same. It's funny how they get older and relate more to you on a "grown up" level, which I'm seeing more in her. Funny, when Rich is driving and she corrects what he's doing and warns him of a cop sitting somewhere and how he doesn't wear his seat belt like everyone else in the car, gosh, I have really created a minnie me and for anyone who thinks your kids are not listening, they say and act just like you do cause they learn from the best.

Cute

He looked like such a big boy today in these clothes. Zoo trip tommorrow , think of me often!!

Logan is catching on to the camera and now squints when you take his picture! PERFECT

Logan trying to figure out what his mother put on his feet.

Socks pretty much mostly end up in the mouth these days.

Urgh!!

It really needs to stop raining and being cloudy here almost everyday. My energy is so low and my staying on top of things and routines are all in chaos. Logan has come down with some virus. Now come on, nobody knows how bad I want to quit having somebody sick in this house every other week. It's wearing me down. I have so many "projects" started in this house and I need to complete some of them so I can sleep at night! Speaking of sleeping at night, do ya think i could get a FULL nights sleep around here? I asked Logan today in my most serious voice, ha ha, if he was going to keep getting up at night until he's, say 2? This is getting ridiculous. If it's not him, it's Olivia, needing something to drink! Urgh, I need a vacation. Maybe I just need some good sleep!

It's almost the end of school and they are tying loose ends up at school, so a lot has been going on there. Papers coming home everyday to be returned, decisions to make, and the zoo field trip, that I'm still trying to figure out how we are going to survive with Logan!!

I forgot to mention that Olivia (my future artist) won the town's Bicentennial drawing and it will be in the newspaper and she will be announced before they cut the cake in August!! All those times she drew on our walls, house,table, and anything else you can think of......there really was something behind all of that.

I leave you with, GO PENS! GO CAVS!!

Mother's Day

Alot of "first" happen at Grandma & Grandpa's house, which they should. This first was Logan's first taste of mashed potatoes and he loved them! In fact I pretty much had to stop eating to feed him cause every time the spoon would come to close to my mouth he opened his! Another first, not really but it's getting worse, is Olivia breaking down and crying on the way home and after we get home about not wanting leave Pa. She loves it there and it breaks my heart, cause I know what that feeling feels like.

Logan & Uncle Jimmy. I wish his blue eyes would show up like they do in a blown up size pic.

Another Mother's Day and I love it as much as the first. I have come to the conclusion that my occupation in life was to be "mom". I swear I was just meant to be a mother. Every time I tried to plan a career path, I found out I was pregnant. Point taken. So I thought about this and being a stay-at-home and how many "occupations" i do have in a day, week, month etc. Mother's wear a lot of "hats" in a day. After all, we are chefs, hairstylist, fashion designers, chauffeurs, dish washers, cleaning maids, we are the laundry mat, teachers, nurses, we are our kids biggest cheerleaders, see, we wear a lot of hats in one day and that's just one day. It is hectic and crazy and a lot of days you just simply want to pull your hair out, but all in all I wouldn't have it any other way. So at the end, I wouldn't turn in any of those hats, although there is a lot of them. So I truly have a occupation that I go to work everyday and love, it's called being MOM!

Right Place, Right Time

Once in awhile I'm in the right place and actually have my camera in hand. This was one of them. I laugh out loud every time I look at this pic. Olivia & Rich were planting some seeds and along came this gigantic wind and the rest of the story is simply told by the look on their faces!! LOL I think we will have some vege. plants growing in the patio cracks this year.

Finally, some new clothes! Drives me nuts, he gives the same look, every single time.

Looks Can't Be Decieving

I took these pics yesterday and took one look at them and laughed. Can you see what I see? Cuteness of course! And, I can see the look of, "mom, you are going to have your hands full in about one more year". They just sort of have that look about them together. Olivia can't wait till he can walk, cause in her words, she has no friends to play with and that's why she wanted a brother!! Funny stuff they say.

I Couldn't Resist

He has finally found his feet and loves just laying on the floor and grabbing his feet and talking to whoever will listen. Funny, I never thought his arms would be long enough to grab his feet! I got looking at him today and I think he is much bigger than Olivia was at this age. Yes, Olivia got chunky, but she wasn't this big. Olivia was always the petite one and he definitely is not. Ol' Mr. Serious when the camera comes out, maybe he will make a good politician or president some day!! LOL

Funny Conversation

I had this conversation with Olivia tonight and found it to be funny and I thought I would share what goes through a 6yr. old mind. This was as we were reading Junie B. books.

Olivia: "Oh mom, she said the "d" word and that's a bad word and when you say bad words it brings bad luck, like you know ,when you put a umbrella up in the house"(light bulb came on right after words, moms going to use the bad luck idea every time a word comes up that is not suppose to be said. Besides, do you know how many times I have preached about putting umbrellas up in the house. Repetition, Repetition, Repetition, must have paid off after all. Oh, "d" word is dummy)

Mom: "Oh, that's what happens"

Olivia: "Yes, and this kid Austin in my class he says bad words all the time, like the "F" word and "L" word. (Dare I say I hesitated before I asked what the F word was, cause after all they couldn't possibly mean the F word. The word was fat. Which is good, I don't think they need to call anyone fat and the L word was lady. Only the teacher is aloud to call someone lady. Could you imagine the kids calling the teach "hey lady".)

So as we kept reading about how Junie B's grandpa was watching her and he pretty much let her to alot that grandma doesn't let her, she precedes to tell me about the time when "you and grandma were at wal mart and I was with pappy and pappy let me drink all the ice tea riiiiight out of the container, you know that biiiig jug!! Pappy he doesn't know grandma's rules either........I couldn't contain my laughter, so she told on you pappy nesbit!!!!!!

Mission Complete

The catheter is out! Yea! I think i saw Logan breath a sigh of relief when it was out, or maybe that was the look of, "what the heck are they doing to me now". Now I can sleep at night, and not worry about poop! Olivia would love these blogs cause her favorite word is "poop". That little boy never even let out a peep when the dr. did it. He's so strong. I thought tonight that he probably won't want to go anywhere with me to long from now, thinking "every time I go somewhere with my mom, it hurts".
Thanks to everyone that emailed about him, we love you!

Happy Birthday to my cousin Kim!! I love ya!