HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME

Want to know about my birthday? Read this.

Want to know about the night before my birthday? Read this, and replace "car" with "Mommy's bedroom".

MOMENT OF TERROR

I had one of those moments of Mommy Terror yesterday.

I'm sure everyone who has kids has occasionally had kid un-friendly items wander into their house. Yes? No? Well, we have. Someone will come in with a styrofoam coffee cup, a pocket knife, or one of these:

(Thanks to Sweet Services for the picture.)

This peppermint candy found its way into Bean's hands, and then into Bean's mouth, where it became lodged in Bean's throat.

So, there I was, watching Grammy play Scramble on Facebook, when a red-faced, not breathing Bean ran into the kitchen, clutching her throat. Ignoring my sheer panic, I immediately and calmly flipped her upside-down and began pounding her on the back. After a few seconds that seemed to last hours, Bean made a gagging sound and coughed up the peppermint.

I gathered a surprisingly composed Bean into my arms as my dog began to eat the coughed-up peppermint off the floor, and carried her into living room so I could sit down (because I wasn't very confident in my shaking legs).

"Did you choke a little bit?" I asked Bean.

"Yeah," she replied.

"Are you okay now?"

"I'm fine."

Bean cuddled up to me for a minute. Then, she sat up and said, "Mom?"

"Yes?"

"I want another one."

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY - COUNTRY GIRLS

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TRY IT OUT TUESDAY - DAVIS QUEAZ AWAY TRAVELER'S WRISTBAND

So, I'm about 5-7 weeks pregnant. I'm not sure exactly how far along I am, because I wasn't keeping track of anything when the plus sign appeared in the stick. So, my best estimate is 5-7 weeks.

And, boy, am I nauseous!!!! The other day, I stood over a sinkful of dishes, gagging while I tried to load the dishwasher. I have to hold my breath in certain sections of the supermarket. I should invest in any company that makes ginger snap cookies.

Now, I didn't want to resort to prescription medication, but I didn't want to dry-heave my way through the next eight weeks or so, either. So, I tried Davis Queaz Away Traveler's Wristband. It's designed to control nausea through pressure points on the wrist. Now, I'm not going to say that the wristbands are some miracle cure that has me doing cartwheels on the front lawn; but, I will say that they have made quite a dent in my morning (afternoon, evening) sickness. I have a faint sensation of nausea, but I can do dishes and shop and take care of my cherubs without the constant fear of throwing up (and, let me tell you, I would rather lose my left arm than throw up - I hate throwing up!).


I take them off when I sleep or shower, but other than that, I wear them constantly. They have been a life-saver!

For more Try It Out Tuesday ideas, check out Muthering Heights.

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY - DRUMS

I know this is supposed to be wordless, but I want to point out that the thing on Bean's head is called a strainer. It hooks on the bottom of a snare drum to give it its unique sound. It also, apparently, works well as headgear.

For more Wordless Wednesday, check out 5 Minutes for Mom.

WHY BEAN WON'T BE NAMING OUR NEXT CHILD

I love when kids get to the age where they start naming their dolls and not just calling them "Baby." Bean is very creative when it comes to naming her babies. Here are some of her favorites.


This one is Curly. Appropriate, because her hair is curly. Pretty good, right?




This one is Noddy. Okay, that's a little different, but cute.




This one is Bobka. Bobka? Um ... okay ....



This one is Sellamo. Well, it's definitely creative ...



This one is not a doll, I know. It's a pillow. But, it is carried around and tended like a baby. Bean was lying in bed, cradling the pillow one night, and she said to me, dreamily, "This pillow has a beautiful name."

I said, "Really? What is it?"

Bean took a dramatic pause and declared, "Ambelo. Ambelo Cracker."

SURPRISE!

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY - THE CHERUBS DISCOVER WATER COLOR

For more Wordless Wednesday, check out 5 Minutes for Mom.

PUDDLE JUMPIN'

I can't think of too many things that my cherubs love more than playing in water. So, after a much-needed rain the other day, they donned their scruffy clothes and their Crocs and headed out for an afternoon in the puddles (this immediately preceded the "tub turd" incident).

A great place to find puddles is behind the pool.



The girls jumped and splashed.




Cakes sat down a few times, resulting in an extremely saggy diaper and muddy bottom.



But this was an unexpected occurrence ...



Crocs - slippery when wet.

CAKES' FRAYED NERVES

Last year, we got Bean and Cakes the Fisher Price Twin Time Loving Family dollhouse for Christmas.


It's in their playroom and it gets a lot of use. The girls will spend hours sitting behind the dollhouse, hidden from view, playing house with the little dolls. It's a great and surefire way to keep them from fighting for a significant period of time.

Last night, the girls were thoroughly engrossed in playing house. I usually watch them from the bonus room (they get irritable when I interject in their personal playtime, but nervous if they're upstairs by themselves), but I had to run downstairs for something. So, I sent Big Daddy upstairs to keep an eye on them. The cherubs were so involved in their play, that they didn't see Big Daddy come into the room. Big Daddy took this opportunity to get a little closer and enjoy watching his offspring at play. So, he crawled over to the dollhouse and peeked at them through the door.

The girls continued to play together, oblivious to his presence, until Cakes looked up and saw this ...

And this is how Cakes responded ...

(Thank you, YouTube, for this family-friendly parody for this family-friendly blog).

I think my youngest may be a bit on the high-strung side ...

MORE ON POO

Do the poo stories ever end when you have toddlers?

Bean did a great job on the potty the other day. She let me know she had to go, and she performed well (and quickly) with no stagefright or tantrums. It's yet another milestone in the Poo Chronicles. I keep hoping we've finally turned that corner, where poopy on the potty becomes a normal part of her everyday existence and not some torture that she must endure on a regular basis.

And on to Cakes. She and Bean did some puddle jumping yesterday. Needless to say, they were quite muddy when they were done. So, I stripped them down on the back porch, and shuttled them into the bathtub. Then, I settled down in the living room where I could keep an eye on them and get some knitting done.

About ten minutes into the bath, Bean calmly called, "Hey, Mom! Poopy!"

I got up and walked toward the bathroom, thinking that she wanted some help getting settled on the potty so she could have a go. That was not the case. Bean was standing at one end of the tub, and Cakes was standing in the middle of the tub, dropping ... um ... little gifts into the bath water. I was surprised at the calmness of the whole scene.

So, after suggesting to Cakes that the potty was a better place to go poopy than the bath tub, I got the kids out and dressed. And spent the rest of the day listening to my giggling cherubs discuss what happened during their bath that day.

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY - THIS YEAR'S COUNTRY HAM FESTIVAL

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MY BIG BROTHER, McGYVER

You have to understand about my older brother. He's very smart. I mean very smart. Well into the genius IQ smart. As a result of his extreme brilliance, he is very logical. Let me give you an example:

Big Bro is sitting in a chair in the living room, watching television. He begins to feel thirsty. Now, at this point, most of us get up and get something to drink. Big Bro weighs his options, logically. Is his thirst so great that it mandates him getting up to get a drink with all that entails, or is his thirst tolerable enough to continue relaxing in front of the television? He ponders this for anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes, before ultimately reaching his extremely logical conclusion and making his extremely logical decision.

This genius and logic also makes Big Bro very calm. It's very hard to ruffle his feathers. And, believe me, I really put him through the wringer sometimes when we were kids. He's pretty unflappable. Rarely flapped.

Big Bro's wife just recently gave birth to their first child. We all know how those first babies are supposed to be. Labor is supposed to start slow, build to a crescendo followed by blissful painkillers, and twelve hours later a baby is brought into the world. Things started out that way. We got a phone call at 10:00 p.m. saying Big Bro and his wife were on their way to the hospital with contractions. We figured it would probably be about twelve hours before we heard anything, so we went to bed. And woke to the following story, that would only happen to my calm, genius brother:

Big Bro and his wife arrived at the hospital and spent the following five hours walking around, trying to progress labor. His wife was having regular contractions, but they weren't doing anything. The doctor finally decided to give her a muscle relaxer to take the edge off, and sent her home with instructions to return once her labor had progressed a little further.

So, home went the frustrated couple, with his wife still having quite painful and very regular contractions. Apparently, the muscle relaxer didn't do much for the pain. It did, however, relax the muscle that was holding the baby in her uterus. She went from 0 cm to 10 cm in three hours. Ouch!

Somewhere between 5:00 and 6:00 a.m., her water suddenly broke. Big Bro heard her calling, "I can't hold him in!"

"Well," said Big Bro, matter-of-factly, "let him out."

Within one minute of his wife's water breaking, Big Bro had delivered his own child! When I asked him about it later, he said, "Well, I caught the baby, cleared his mouth out so he could breathe, tied off his cord with a shoelace, and called 911."

Wow!

His wife's hospital charts now say, "Watch for fast delivery."

THINGS THAT AMUSE MY CHERUBS

Like any mom, I love giving toys to my girls for Christmas and their birthday. I love going through the stores, thinking about their unique personalities, and picking out toys that I think will suit them best. I love getting educational toys, and books, and stuff that is just plain fun. And, my girls like playing with their toys. But, those toys aren't necessary for a good time. The cherubs also enjoy:



I knitted a toy elephant for my niece for Christmas. It turned out very well, I think.


My kids didn't care too much for the finished product, however. They were more interested in it when it looked like this:

See?

SINCERELY 'FRO ME TO YOU - CAN YOU TELL WHICH EYE GOT POKED?

After about a week, my eye recovered from the poking. A day after the incident, I decided to document it for posterity (but not for any photo albums or scrapbooks). See if you can guess which eye got poked?

I must say, I especially love the glassy-eyed effect caused by the antibiotic ointment.

For more fun photos, check out We Are THAT Family.

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY - BEST BUDDIES

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