Really? 18 months?

My sweet, beautiful princess is 18 months old today!  One whole and one half of a year!  SO BIG!  SO OLD!  Time goes even faster when you are blessed with 3 beautiful children.  I feel like Taylor's first 18 months went WAY slower than Claire's but things are just busier now.  I have enjoyed every second of Claire the past 18 months.  Even the cranky, crying, not sleeping nights.  I still loved them!  They may have sucked at the time, but I would do it over and over again.  What's our little princess up to?

 

• She is walking/running all over and into everything.  She is starting to climb too! 
• She laughs and giggles, especially at her silly brothers.
• She gives hugs and kisses (with her mouth open).
• She loves babies and puppies and giggles and smiles the whole time they are around (she does try to attack babies faces though...not so good)
• She is talking a little bit but not much:  hi, bye, eat, daddy, momma, dog, ball, yes, and that's about it folks!  Both the boys were a bit chattier at this age, but I am confident she will be talking like crazy soon, so for now, we'll enjoy one less chatter box in the house :)
• She likes to lift up her shirt and show her belly and laugh.
• She likes her baby dolls and to hug them and play with them.  She also really likes stuffed animals. 
• She doesn't really watch anything on TV-she kinda ignores it like it isn't there.  But that could be also because her brothers dominate the programming.
• She loves her food, her chunky monkey legs, belly and cheeks will prove it!
•  

Claire, you are such a wonderful baby and you are always a joy to be around.  Love you lots and lots baby girl!  Love, Mommy

I made a dress and it actually looks like a dress!

This post is designed strictly to toot my own horn.  Yep, brag about myself.  And, I am so amazed that I was able to do this, that I don't even care that I am bragging about myself.  Last week my mom taught me how to hem pants on a sewing machine.  Then my stepmom gave me her sewing machine.  (props to both!) So, I decided that sewing a hem would be a nice transition to make a dress for Claire.  Right?  It was actually a sorta easy thing to do for a beginner-well...sorta.  It isn't perfect, but I LOVE it!  I also made a tank top out of leftover material from the dress and an old blanket.  That turned out not so good.  Apparently you have to be careful with stretchy material AND you actually have to measure...woops, eyeballing it did not work out for me :)  I made a matching bow for Claire's dress and a flower....but sewed the flower on the tank top.  Now I want to rip it off and make another bow.  We shall see.  By the way, if I can do this people, ANYONE can, because I am not a domestic queen.  I just have this thing that if I really want to do something, I will NOT give up until I accomplish it!  Well, I have to REALLY want it :)  Enjoy pics of my projects below!

ArizonYA (as Connor calls it)

Last week we traveled (by PLANE) to Phoenix, AZ to see Spring Training (baseball ya'll) and to visit husbands family (aunt, uncle and cousins) that live out there.  Connor & Claire's first time on a plane and Taylor's first time that he remembers.  We went to Disney when he was almost 3 but he doesn't remember much..  I don't do planes well.  I require drugs. But I popped my drugs and was on my merry way.  Kids dif FAB!  Connor was so excited and Claire didn't cry at all.  Makes me want to travel on planes more often-nope, not really, but almost. Oh ya, and there is that small detail of we were traveling with 4 adults (Todd's parents) and 3 kids.  They were outnumbered so we adults RULED! Anyway,  we caught a Cubs game, boys caught practice and a Rangers/White Sox game also.  We spent a couple of nights in Tuscon and got to meet a new family member and catch up with others.  The weather was awesome and we enjoyed some down time from the daily wind and grind.  Yes, I took my son out of school for two days.  GASP!  I KNOW!  WORST.PARENT.EVER.  I am sure he is totally going to fail 1st grade now! 

Enjoy a few pics from our trip!

One of many big brother annoyances in Claire's young life

1) um cutest thing ever 2) to the left of Claire is Kerry Wood's wife and daughter-he just came out to talk to them.  Does that make me cool?

Ball signing

Desert Museum in Tuscon

Game called: Put Random Things on Your Head and See Who Can Keep it There the Longest

Snuggle Bugs!

Rangers Manager (have NO idea what his name is)

Um, a baseball player for the Rangers-again, no idea who

Scentsy

I have numerous candles laying around my house because I do like to have a nice smelling house but I am always fearful of forgetting to blow out the candle and burning down the house.  I am also more worried now that I have children that they will get into it and hurt themselves.  Especially since I have a monkey child that climbs and likes to get into things.  Therefore, most of my candles have remained unused in cabinets.  However, my friend Jennifer/Jiffy (link to her blog) recently started selling Scentsy.  I had never heard of it until she mentioned it and I love it!  It is a candle warmer that operates on a low wattage light bulb and wickless candle "bricks".  There are so many scents to choose from it is almost overwhelming, but that obviously also means there is something for everyone.  If you are interested or know all about Scentsy but need refills, check out her website:  https://jennifermitchen.scentsy.us/Home  And don't be surprise if I host a party and invite you :)  Here is a picture of the warmer I just bought: 

Happy 4th Birthday Sweet Connor!

Yes, he really is sweet sometimes!  I promise!  Connor turned 4 this past weekend and we had two parties to celebrate.  We had family over for lunch and cake on Saturday and then he invited his friends and their siblings to a birthday party at Gymnastics Unlimited.  He had such a fun time.  His new word is "Cool" with a big smile.  Which is what he said when I made his lion cake and when he got his BIG birthday gift from all the grandparents and us.  At 4, Connor is:

• Tall for his age!  And skinny-man the chicken legs on that boy.  With his shaved head now, he could easily pass for 5.
• Mischievious-since half my blog posts are about his antics (okay, not half, but enough) you have probably already guessed about the mischievious part. 
• He is inquisitive.  That's a postivie way to say he likes to push EVERY button he encounters-I mean this literally and figuratively because he definitely likes to push mommy & daddy's "buttons". 
• He likes to climb, get into and question everything. 
• He has no fear.  He would probably jump into oncoming traffic if I let him anywhere near the street.  Which is FUN for us!
• I will not be surprised if he is at some point diagnosed with ADHD.  I hope that he is just full of energy like lots of 4-year-old boys but since just this week he has cut his own hair, locked himself in a bathroom and peed in a cup and stuck foreign objects up his nose at naptime, I'm not so sure. 
• He really is a sweet boy.  He spontaneously tells me all the time that he loves me.  He wants me to put him to bed every night and brush his teeth and he will not accept any substitutes. 
• We play a game of "kisses" every night and at naptime where we do different styles of kisses.  Butterfly, eskimo, hand kisses, finger kisses (we just bump our parts and make a kissing sound-it is cute).
• He is smart!  He already knows all of his letters (capital and lower case) and we have started to work on sounds and words.  Right now just recognizing peoples names that he knows.
• He worships Taylor.  He copies everything he does.  The other day Taylor was throwing a fit at the store so I jokingly asked him if he wanted me to drop him of somewhere on the way home.  Connor started crying and said "NO, don't leave him Mommy!"  He always wants to play with him.
• Even though it appears that he is trying to strangle Claire, he really is trying to hug and kiss her-his way.
• He loves playing with his daddy every night and gets so upset when he can't.  He calls him big man and runs to the door to greet him when he comes home from work everyday.

Time goes by so quickly with these little people.  Four years.  Love my baby boy!  Happy Birthday Connor! 

His Lion cake that I made him! I don't know why, but when I asked him what kind of cake he wanted, he said Lion.

This is a water slide, his big present from grandparents and us.  We blew it up so he could see what it is.

 

Yes, Big Baby sat at the table with us.

Look at that sweet face!

Jumping in foam blocks!

Connor is the one turned around at the left side with his face buried b/c he didn't want to stop playing so he was having no part of the picture.  Fabulous.

 

Claire and Hospital visit #2

Poor Claire has had bronchiolitis (what is bronchiolitis? info) for a couple of weeks now.  We were at the ER and doctor last week and we thought we had it under control with treatment.  However, Saturday she started to get bad again and Friday night I had her sleep with me (well, we didn't really sleep) and she struggled to breathe all night.  We gave her three breathing treatments but they weren't doing any good.  I took her into the doctor Saturday morning and they gave her one extra-strength treatment with "added" ingredients and then another regular treatment back to back and she didn't sound any better and her stomach was still retracting.  However, her oxygen levels rose so the doc sent us home to try to keep her stable with breathing treatments.  This was of course right before Connor's b-day party.  So we went home, tried to have a birthday party (which looking back now I don't remember much of it b/c I was in a panic about Claire's condition-it was like a series of automatic motions).   When Claire woke up from her nap, her breathing was rapid, her stomach was retracting and she was really working to breathe.  She also was very lethargic and as we gave her a treatment and usually she screams and squirms.  We called doc, who had us admit her to the hospital. 

We had an AMAZING Dr. in the hospital.  She plopped herself up on the counter, sat criss cross applesauce, gave her pager to the nurse and closed the door to giver us her full attention.  She took Claire out to the desk area to help her "work" and answer phone calls from the ER that she was getting.  She was simply amazing.  As soon as Claire's steroid and breathing treatments kicked in, they were prepared to send us home but she wasn't able to make it long enough between treatments to they decided to keep her overnight to monitor her oxygen levels and deliver more frequent breathing treatments (every 3 hours).  She was a CRAZY girl on steroids...it was so freaky. But, I am not complaining because she slowly got better, increasing her time to 4 hours between treatments.  We were released Sunday afternoon. Although I had to have my mom come up there with her because Connor had another birthday party I had to be at!  The nurses, doctors and respiratory therapists were amazing!  I am so thankful that Claire was sick with something that required a small amount of time in the hospital.  There were many sick children there when we were and I can't imagine what their parents were going through.  My heart goes out to them all and I pray for them to get better. 

Apparently God thought that the circus and two birthday parties were not all I could handle in one weekend, so He decided to throw in a hospital visit, just to keep me grounded.  :)

OH ya, almost forgot, I had to sleep IN the crib with Claire. Yes, I said IN, not next to. I tried to rock her to sleep and put her in there but she was not having it.  So, finally, exhausted from no sleep the night before, I just climbed in and pulled the other side up and was in for the long run.  Comfy?  NO way!  But my baby girl slept and she needed it, so whatever it takes as a momma to take care of my babies!  So happy to have her home.  She is doing TONS better! So thankful!  Thank you to all my friends and family who either helped us out or offered to help us out this weekend.  We really appreciate you all!

This is not Bear, this is a picture of a little guy that had the same sickness as Claire, this is just to show you the bed that we slept in together. 

Poor Bear right before we took her to the hospital

Connor and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Haircut!

If you are my friend on facebook you already know about our haircut disaster!  I keep getting comments about other peoples children who have done the same thing, so I am feeling a little better about that!  Connor decided to give himself a haircut last week.  While I was vacuuming the house, he climbed up on the kitchen counter, snuck the scissors upstairs and chopped off a huge pieces of hair in the front, middle of his head-down to the scalp!  In other words, it was not salvageable.  So, we buzzed it.  And I do NOT like it!  He looks older (he is not allowed to look older, he is still my baby boy) and he somehow looks meaner.  I know that sounds silly, but he looks kinda mean, where as before he always had a very "sweet" look to him.  Which was definitely to his advantage since he likes to get in mischief.  As you notice his look in the first picture where he cut his hair-it is hard to stay mad at that cute little sad face. 

He broke the news to me but coming downstairs and saying, "mommy, look what I did".  He had a hat on, so he took it off and said "Ta-da!"  I immediately started freaking out b/c it looked like he had done it with clippers or a razor of some sort so I made him show me what he used.  There were the scissors laying on the bathroom sink and all of his hair in the toilet.  When punishing him, I tried to focus on the fact that he got into the scissors without asking because he knows he is not supposed to have scissors.  I know he was just curious and didn't know what he was doing (or maybe he did, but I choose to go the innocent route). 

Todd and I decided to have a little fun while cutting his hair.  It was too hard to resist. 

party in the back

 too bad it wasn't long enough for "Locks of Love"

After shot! 

Marshmallows and Pee

That pretty much sums up my day!  I don't know why I found this hilarious enough to take a picture of, but Claire got into some marshmallows in the pantry today and took one bite of a bunch of them and left them on the floor and walked away.....in a matter of the few minutes I was getting laundry upstairs.  We usually keep the pantry shut with a bungee cord but some 3-year-old I know must have been rootin' around in there and left it open...so goes my day.

That little bit a dirt you see ont he floor is the ONLY spot in the whole kitchen that is dirty and it somehow got in the picture.....

Speaking of that soon to be 4-year-old, he was found locked in the bathroom with 2 other little boys, peeing in the drinking cup while the others cheered him on.  Okay, maybe not cheered out loud like clapping and yelling but for sure not preventing it-and I definitely heard giggling.  I thought it would be better not to include a picture :)

I totally wouldn't trade these moments for anything though!