Feeling a little stressed

But I guess that's how it goes when you are a mom. I've had a lot on my mind and on my plate lately. The latest? Millie will be going in for surgery tomorrow. I know this surgery is not life threatening in any way but I always get uneasy when one of my babies goes under anesthesia. She will be fine. I will be fine. In the meantime I need to take care of all the logistics like babysitting for Owen and taking the day off and getting everyone to school. I also had to shuffle Dr. appointments and get prescriptions filled. Tomorrow is also Owen's first day of preschool. Hopefully I'll be able to drop him off. There are some good things happening at our house though! I haven't dared post about this in fear of jinxing myself but Ian is 90% potty trained! He still has the occasional pee accident but we have not had a poop accident in a very long time. This is fabulous news for us and we hope that it continues! He seems to be doing really well at his new school too! His behavior has improved as well although we still see breakthroughs in the screaming and tantrums. I'll take any improvement we get. I'm still trying to pull myself together and get my life organized again. I honestly feel like a chicken with my head cut off. I don't know which direction I am going in. Before the kids went back to school I had Adam give me a blessing. I was promised that I would be able to regain control (not in those words exactly) and I know I will. Baby steps. For now I'm going to pop open a diet coke and take 5 minutes for myself before everyone gets home.

Proud mommy moments

Seriously, how big is he?? Without any warning or practicing or having mom run along side him on the road, Owen announced this morning he can ride a bike. I was wondering what was in store for me as I came out to watch him. "Maybe he'll push off and coast" I think, "maybe he'll Flinstone it" I think. Nope. He hopped on and peddled away. I am a very proud mommy!

Can you say "trip to the emergency room"

I think this has that written all over it!

Birthday Bash 2010

This post is kinda late. I had it all typed out and all the pictures loaded and I don't know where it disappeared to. So, here is the story. I had an opportunity to borrow some of those big, blow up water slides for Millie's birthday. She had originally wanted to go roller skating but I talked her into a water party instead. With Owen's birthday only days after hers I couldn't let her have a party and not him so I decided to combined party. I made invitations and put them in water balloons so the kids had to pop them to get the invitation. It was lots of fun. Two days before the party I watched the news and much to my dismay the forecast was for rain. Great. It was suppose to rain all day Wednesday and Thursday but Wednesday wasn't too bad so I crossed my fingers. Early Thursday Becca and Amanda came and set up the water slides. The kids were so excited and couldn't wait until 1:00 when the party would begin. At 12:30 this was the sight...

Dark clouds, wind, thunder, lightening, and rain. Time to come up with plan B. I had 20 kids invited ages 4-8, both boys and girls. What could we do to entertain them all for 2 hours? I quickly got on the computer and came up with a scavenger hunt.

It was a little stressful having that many bodies running through my tiny house but the kids seemed to have a good time.
We did cake and ice cream and opened presents.

And then, HALLELUJAH! The sun came out so I sent them all out for some water fun!

I think they all had a lot of fun! Here is the whole load of them, minus a few who refused to get in the picture

Happy Birthday Emilia and Owen, I hope your day was wonderful!

Totally Forgot...Please don't tell Owen!

My baby, my BABY turned four on Saturday! We were so busy having so much fun I forgot to wish him a happy birthday on my blog!

Man I love this kid!

Some of Owens favorites

food: Pizza

Color: green

Toys: Thomas the Tank Engine

LOVES preschool!

Owen and build-a-bear

We received a coupon in the mail for a free animal at build-a-bear. Since all the other kids have gone and because his birthday is next Saturday I decided to let him use it.

He got a dog and named it Iron Man. Weird but whatever. He wanted to name it Owen but I said no. He also threw a fit because I wouldn't buy him candy that cost $3.50. Remind me to never take him to the mall again.

Or if Candy wall art is not your thing...

I may have another option for you...

What can I say...I have very artistic kids!!! And it wasn't even Ian, although, they did try to blame it on him!

Don't worry, I made them clean it up

Omnicef

So it turns out that Owen is most likely allergic to Omnicef. The Doctor said that the pattern of the hives indicate that he is allergic to something he has eaten rather than something external. And, I guess it's not unusual to be on an antibiotic for days before the allergy manifests. The hives continued to get worse as the day went on until it finally hit me to give him some Benadryl. Duh!! By time he went to bed all were gone except for a few on his legs and bum. Poor little guy! They didn't seem to bother him but he sure looked funny all day!

Mysterious case of hives

I think hives are the worst because it's hard to figure out the cause of them. It's not like they are life threatening or cause too much discomfort but I hate knowing that something you've eaten or touched has had a reaction with your body. Owen woke up with a mysterious cas of hives this morning. I first noticed them on his face but when I unzipped his jammies they were all over the rest of his body as well. Was it something he ate? Something he touched? I'm using the same detergent I always use. He ate mac and cheese and PB & J for dinner. He is on an antibiotic but this is day 7. I guess we'll never know unless it happens again. Here is my cute boy in his BVD's and his hives.

Here we go again!

Remember how last summer Owen couldn't play in the sandbox unless he was undressed? Well, he's started it again...

My little streaker...I thought he would have outgrown this over the winter....

Waiting for a knock on the door...

I've been worried lately what the neighbors think about all of Ian's little tantrums. Any given day at any given time, there are blood curdling screams coming from our house. Add to that Owen the escape artist and I'm sure that DCFS will be knocking on the door any day now.

Monday Ian and Owen were playing in the backyard. I had made sure all the gates were locked and I had the back door open so I could see them and hear them. I was busy in the kitchen when I noticed Ian hit Owen across the face. I marched him inside and up to his room to "time-out". I held the door closed for about five minutes until the door bell ring. I answered the door to see a stranger holding Owen. He had climbed the fence and was playing in the very busy road. To top it off, he was covered in marker and Ian was SCREAMING upstairs. I'm sure I looked like a fabulous mom.

Wednesday I am sitting in my front room busy working on FHE kits for the service auction. The kids were downstairs watching Igor. I look out the window and I watch as a neighbor slowly drives by my house, flips around and drives by again and then finally pulls into my driveway. "I'm being a nosy neighbor" she says, "but Owen is in the road" WHAT??? The doors were all locked but apparently he can escape from that too.

Thursday, I'm in my room folding clothes and Ian and Owen are HAPPILY playing in their room next door. I emphasize happily because Ian was laughing and playing instead of screaming and crying which has become his norm. I was thinking to myself how wonderful it felt to hear laughter coming from him. I went in to get them in their jammies when I notice Ian's hair is bright red. Crap! I think... Ian found the koolaid powder! I look around for the mess I'm sure I have to clean up when I notice bloody hand prints on the wall...Ian is bleeding. I look over his head for the wound but can't find it because there is so much blood. Long story short, I end up taking Ian to the same after hours office that I took Owen to in January. The receptions asks "weren't you just in here for this same thing not too long ago?" And imagin their surprise when I said "I have no idea how or when it happened". Ian did not cry. Not a single peep. I don't have a clue although there was a patch of blood on the edge of the door about his height up. But still...did he fall, did Owen slam the door, how the crap did it happen? No staples this time. Although he needed them, he put up a fight and the doctor decided he'd be ok without them.

So, yes, crown me bad mother of the year already! Just be sure to vouch for me when someone calls the state on me!

Mama's got a new pair of shoes

Can I just say that I LOVE my new running shoes? Seriously, I love these shoes. I wouldn't even know I was wearing anything except I can see a red glow coming from my feet. I do wish they were pink like the Saucony's I tried and liked and not red. But, I'll trade style for comfort any day, especially when it comes to running shoes.

On a side note, I took Owen shoe shopping with me to buy these. If you've ever bought running shoes you know this was my first mistake. Each time I tried on a new shoe I had to haul Owen outside, sit him in the car and run around in the parking lot to see if I like the shoe. For those of you who don't know, when you are trying on running shoes they generally put one brand/style on one foot and another on the other foot and have you run outside to see which you prefer. After my 10th or so shoe I put Owen in car and ran down the parking lot a few yards when I heard the "beep" of the car door being locked by remote. I didn't worry too much since the door was open but I picked up the pace back to the car to prevent an imminent disaster. I was too late. As soon as he saw me heading toward the car, he reached out and shut the door. I barely reached the door but it had already latched and so there sat my baby, keys in hand and the door locked. I wasn't quite sure what to do. My phone was in my purse inside the store and I couldn't just leave him in the car while I went in. Surely they would wonder where I had gone with two different shoes and come looking for me. So, I tapped on the window and told Owen to unlock the door. He laughed and smiled and tried to unlock the door but he couldn't do it. Ten or so minutes passed and no one came looking for me but I still didn't dare leave Owen in the car. Finally a cute little Australian women and her parents came to my rescue. They grabbed a phone book from a nearby store and the older lady talked to Owen while I looked up Orem City police. As luck would have it, Owen unlocked the door with the remote just as I was dialing the police. The funny thing is that no one from the store came looking for me. Guess they thought if I was nutty enough to steal two different shoes they wouldn't mess with me.