Still Busy, Sick, and Uninspired in General

So, we finally kicked RSV (yay!), but I still have some adult form of kennel-cough that just won't let up. So, here's the latest recap for what all you've missed. Jody and I ran off to Vegas last weekend. Instead of our plan to strike it rich, we only wound up paying the neon light bills and hiking drunkenly up and down the strip. Either way, we were accompanied by my hetero-life mate, Stacy, and her husband Frank. All I'm going to say is that it got hella ridiculous at times, but it was an insanely fun trip. Thanks again to the Herefords for joining us, it wouldn't have been anywhere near as fun without y'all.

Riding in style from the airport to the hotel. Again, the Herefords know how to do Vegas properly. Thanks again guys!

In Taylor news, Big Turd is learning how to dress herself. Yesterday while I was getting Ava fed, she wanders up to the kitchen with a pair of Ava's pants hitched up over the top of her pants, and said, "Ava's pants, too small!" I was impressed not only because she got them on by herself, but because she knew they were too small. I've seen grown women in San Antonio that didn't realize that fact, and here she is, not even three years old and she knows her own size limitations. Kudos!

Taylor, sock warrior, managed to get Jody's socks on all by herself. Note the fierce determination on her face.

Also in Taylor news, we have been struggling a bit at daycare lately. Taylor has suddenly become the class bully, and has taken to hitting, kicking, and even spitting at the other kids in her class along with the teachers. Oy. We've tried talking with her about this, but so far nothing is working. One suggestion from her morning teacher is that she's acting out because she's wanting attention from us. So, now we are trying to be very conscientious of giving our undivided attention to Munkie every night as opposed to getting wrapped up in the daily grind of cooking dinner and whatnot. Hopefully this will work, because I really like our daycare and would hate to switch because Ms. Thang got herself kicked out :(

She put them on all by herself!

Ava is quickly approaching the seven month mark. Tonight she surprised us both by crawling across her changing pad! She's been a wiggle-worm for weeks now, and prefers to be on her belly at all times, but this new movement forward was a shock to us all. Wow, my baby is getting big way faster than I wanted. It makes me sad to think I'll never cuddle one of my babies when they're this small again. Also in related news, my mom gave me a mild lecture this morning, because she doesn't feel that our crib is safe enough for our little wiggle-worm to be sleeping in. Yes, she does tend to get an arm or a leg stuck now and then, but typically its a 2 minute ordeal, ended by Jody or myself coming to fix her situation, and then she goes to sleep. Tonight I snuck into her room to get my slippers, and saw this:

So much for my arguments that the crib is 100% safe, and she is in absolutely no danger of getting stuck.

Seriously though, I get it. I like to sleep with my feet hanging off the mattress too.

Six Months and RSV

Well, just when I thought we were going to get off light this cold season, both of our girls turned up positive for RSV. Thankfully, we have been able to stay on top of it, and the only real inconvenience has been that no one is sleeping and we've had to change out a few cough-induced pukey sheets in the last week. I know RSV sounds hella scary because a lot of folks wind up in the hospital with their kids with this junk, but again, thankfully we've dodged that bullett thus far.



So, breathing treatments have become our day to day. Neither kid particularly likes it (despite the awesome mask painted like a dog's face), and we may or may not have had to wrap Taylor up straight-jacket style in a towel to get the job done. Also, I may or may not have gotten a swift kick to the right eye the one and only time I tried giving Taylor a treatment without restraining her first.


What do responsible parents of kids with RSV do? Take them out in public for donuts! In my defense, at this point in time we were still being led to believe that they had swabbed negative. It wasn't until about an hour after this picture that our doctor called with the, "Um, yeah. I screwed up, the test was actually positive," phone call.

The upside is, that since our failed doc-in-a-box diagnosis last Tuesday (they didn't swab Taylor for anything), the kids were greenlighted to go back today. Taylor went back to school with flying colors, while I had to call and beg my mom to come and stay with Ava one extra day. She's still a little crackly, but not terrible, and I think she'll manage come tomorrow.

Anyhoo, moving along from the depressing, my baby is six months old! How in the hell did that happen so fast? She is still weighing in around 18 lbs. (starting to taper off a bit on the growth charts) and is 26 1/2" long. Looks like we're gonna have another sturdy baby on our hands. And as a double shocker, guess who is now sitting up?


Yeah, yeah. I realize she looks like Rosita the migrant farmer in that hat, but I have some hella Caucasian kids that burn just looking at the sun.

Ava is also finally holding her bottle by herself about half of the time, she's been able to do it for several months now, just never had a whole lot of want-to. She's also reaching for faces, hands, HAIR. Anything she can get a grab on. Sometimes though, this is a sweet moment. Last night she was sleeping with us due to the coughing spells, and every time I moved I felt a little hand reach out to make sure I was still there. There is something to being needed that will always melt a mama's heart.

Now that she's starting to get the hang of sitting up, I've also unearthed the playpen so that she can sit up safely, and if she topples over I at least won't be spending an evening at the ER.

Ta-da!

Also, since we're catching up, Miss Taylor is once again going through a "strong-willed" phase. We have been told by her teachers at school that she doesn't listen, something that wasn't news to us. So, we've been trying like hell to get her to listen when she's being corrected, and to do things the first time we tell her. So far we're batting around 50%.


Nice, eh? This is what you get when you tell Taylor, "Don't play in Daddy's boots, you can get hurt." Obviously our chiding sunk in......

Still Sick :(

I mean, really? We have been to the doctor/urgent care an honest to god five times in the last two weeks. Seems my kids have some sort of respiratory bug (or just respiratory junk from allergies) that they can't seem to shake. Oh, and Ava has another ear infection too. Super. On the upside, Jody and I are mostly on the mend, and I'm feeling rather confident that we will live.

This was taken Tuesday night at urgent care after Ms. Thang was running a 103 degree fever. The look on her face sums up my feelings too in regards to our 3 1/2 hour wait.

Fortunately, they are both acting healthy-ish for the most part. Ava's still my happy little camper, see?

Pretty sure she's forgotten what its like to feel 100%, at least she knows how to adapt.

Taylor's pretty whiney and needy, especially toward the end of the day. I'm hoping that a nice relaxed weekend at home will get everyone back where they need to be. Seriously, Jody and I both are getting sick of having to take off work/leave work early.

Sick

The last week we've all been a little bit under the weather. We kicked off Saturday evening (New Year's Eve) with me having a raging migraine that dragged on through Sunday. It was during this hellish weekend that I noticed Ava running a low-grade temp off and on. Seeing as how it kept going away on its own, I chalked it up to teething and didn't worry about it. Lo and behold, Monday we get "the call" from daycare, she won't stop coughing and can't get to sleep. Dammit. After six blissful months, my baby has finally gotten her first ear infection, and it was a doozy. She seems to be on the mend now, but unfortunately, I think Jody and I have caught the crud from her and either have ear infections ourselves, or some sort of sinus junk. Then to top it all off, Wednesday night when I did my nightly rounds to check on the girls before I go to bed I discovered that Taylor had apparently thrown up in her sleep :( No wonder she wouldn't eat dinner. So, at 11:00 instead of sleeping, Jody and I were changing sheets and bathing a cranky kiddo. Fortunately, the kids seem to be doing much better, but we're still a little puny. Isn't that about par for the course?

*Gratuitous baby pic. I know that's the only real reason anyone looks at this blog anyway ;)

Crimmas 2011

We survived yet another Christmas as parents (Whew!), and I'm finally past my mental constipation. The outcome? Blogging diarrhea! Sorry for the crudeness, but that's just about how I feel right now. So, forgive the epically long post, but for the first time in weeks I finally feel like sharing.

This year we decided that we were going to do the Holiday Tour as follows: Christmas Eve - presents at home in the morning, followed by Christmas in White Deer. Christmas Day - Leave at the buttcrack of dawn and do Christmas in Gruver. December 26th - Burn the house down and start all over, because it was such a tornado-scene the thought of ever cleaning again caused me to hyperventilate.

Phase One - Christmas at Home

I had it all planned out, we were going to let the kids wake up on their own, and then walk into the surprise of presents under the tree. Mind you, we have had gifts stashed since Thanksgiving. But, since Taylor now knows that presents are for opening, we decided to keep them hidden until the big day. Then comes the monkey-wrench. Jody can never remember the plans I lay out, even though I remind him frequently. I know, I need to get him some Ginkoba for his birthday. So, he schedules an appointment at 8:00 a.m. on Christmas Eve to get new tires. So, like any good mother, I adapt. We drag our asses out of bed at 7:00, and proceed to the living room. Taylor was not happy about being up and functional at such an early hour. So, it took some mega coaxing on our part, but we were finally able to lure her into the living room. And again, it took more coaxing to get her to open her presents (She kept tearfully saying, "Breffus!" for about 3-4 minutes before we could get her to even give half a rat's ass about the presents.). Then she finally realized the big Mahomba-Jamba. Her very own (to share with Ava of course) little princess table!

Still a little drowsy, but finally getting the fact that something big is going on.

It's highly likely that someone in this picture is exhausted and mildly hung-over. I keep telling Ava to go easy on the sauce.....

After the realization that Santa brings fun and awesomeness, Taylor finally started to rip at the wrapping paper. Her first gift?

Wait for it........

A BARBIE DOLL!!!!! About 2 seconds after this picture, we learned that Taylor has absolutely no interest in Barbies whatsoever. So much for me reliving my childhood through her.

Ava really got into the whole thing too. After studying Taylor's every move she was making spastic efforts to unwrap and eat every one of her presents :)

What? I totally wasn't eating this paper. Look the other way.......

Taylor and Daddy enjoying a nice picnic in the living room. She was very disappointed that he wouldn't sit in the tiny pink chair like her.

Phase Two - Christmas in White Deer

Early that afternoon, we loaded up and headed to my dad's for our annual "no way in hell am I eating turkey or ham again" dinner. In case that last sentence piqued your curiosity, we had ribs. And they were amazing. The evening went off without a hitch (as long as you don't count the raging bonfire in the living room that caused some major sweating from everyone). The kids all had a blast, and Dad and Taylor had entirely too much fun with her new Pingu doll.

As usual, Taylor finally crashes out just before we hit the WD city limits. For a kid with no nap, she fared rather well.

Uncle Jered was the life of the party. The girls all had a blast being "dropped" from mid-air. Ava was looking on eagerly, you could tell she can't wait to join in on that party.

"Uncle Jewed! Sit down! Taylor's turn!"

Two seconds prior to this, they were both sitting contentedly in the chair, a total Kodak moment. Good job getting the iron-grip, Kadey, otherwise T would have gotten away.

Gigi did a fantastic job wrapping the kids' presents. So fantastic in fact, that most of them required a knife-weilding adult to open.

God bless Aunt Lisa for keeping my Lil' Bit occupied as I made sure Taylor didn't go leaping straight toward the fireplace.

Anyhoo, WD Christmas went off smoothly. Until we got home, that is. My plan was to leave around 7:00ish so that the girls could get a decent night's sleep in their own beds before embarking on what I knew would be another napless day in Gruver. We left on time, and everything was status-quo until we pulled into our driveway. That's when I couldn't find our house keys. "Jody, where did you hide the keys?" He's a notorious ferrett, and usually hides things in goofy places, but it never takes more than a couple of minutes to find them. Well, usually. After much searching, we finally realized that he had accidentally left our house keys inside the house when he made a last minute trip back in the house for his sunglasses. Thankfully, our property management's on-call dude actually returned our call and met us with a spare key (Unfortunately though, this happened after Jody destroyed drivers' licenses from both of us trying to jimmy his way into our house. At least we now know its kinda hard to break in if you're an amateur like us.).

Phase Three - On to Gruver!

The next morning's plan was to leave at the butt-crack of dawn, spend all day in Gruver, and hit the road around the girls' bed time. We left on time, but had to visit three different gas stations on our way out before we could find one that was turned on and working properly. It was a great, albeit short, visit. What cut it short was the late-breaking information that Amarillo got doused in snow during our absence, and the storm was moving toward us in Gruver. And guess who didn't pack enough stuff for overnight? This is where I have to concede, Jody did try and coax me into packing overnight stuff, just in case. But I was so hellbent on leaving out on time that he lost the battle. Yeah, there are times when we should listen to our spouses......

Taylor giving Collins a hug after cracking him in the head with a ball. In hers and my defense, I didn't realize there was a hard plastic part on it until it thwonked him on the head.

Ava borrowing a Santa hat from the bigger kids. Grammy got her a super cute "My First Christmas" hat, but due to the ginormous noggins my kids have inherited from me, it didn't fit :(

Taylor getting her Santa on, while Mary Jo was pretty much "Pshaw-ing" the rest of us off.

Taylor and her tractor that her departed Great-grandpa John got for her. She was so excited about it, we had to really convince her to open the rest of her presents.

Sweetie.....

The annual picture session on Mary Jo's couch. Something about the lighting in this room gives the kids uncorrectable red-eye.

Taylor not only crashed the picture, but decided that Aunt Peggy was in need of a candy cane at the last minute. Well done, Taylor.

So that's it. I'm done with my blogging overload session, and now that I'm past the hump, I promise to get back to regular, short, posts. Merry Crimmas everyone, and thank God its over!

The Hookah Hut

For Taylor's birthday this year, Poppy and Lovie bought her a nifty little play tent that she still likes to drag out from under her bed on occasion. What makes this great is that she has recently decided that Jody is her newest and most favorite playmate. "Daddy! Sit in tent!" And like any good Daddy, Jody always obliges her, no matter how ridiculous her request.

One night last week, our little Munkie had a serious case of gas though. Unfortunately for us, she has inherited her Papa Val's gastric abilities and can run you out of a room in New York minute. So, what's a farty preschooler to do? You guessed it, drag her poor Daddy into a small confined area to "share the love."

The tent is so small there's barely room for Jody in there at all, lol! I had to lift the tent over them after he sat down.

He was a little disheartened at the prospect of entering what he dubbed "The Hookah Hut" considering the smog that was already thick in her room, but he powered thru nicely.

Aaah! Fresh air!

Blah

Yeah, so it's been around 2 weeks since I've posted anything new. My usual excuse is that we're so busy with work and two kids, yadda-yadda. But I've totally sat down several times in the last two weeks with every intention of making a new post, and I keep coming up uninspired. Maybe its the holidays. Everyone close to me knows just how badly I despise this time of year. Not that I hate it because of all the commercialism bullshit (even though I do), but the main thing that irks me about Christmas is how people go completely insane. Totally normal people will fistfight in Wal-Mart over some hellacious trinket, or blow their life savings so that Aunt Margaret in Wisconsin (whom no one has seen in person in over a decade) can have a matching socks and pajama set. Irritates the hell out of me. So instead of a real post, here's some random photos with captions. Enjoy, and I'll be out of my funk soon, I promise.


Even though I loathe Christmas, I'm trying to do the Santa thing every year. If nothing else, it's something fun for the girls to have later. Taylor totally wasn't into it, but that's part of the fun.



Ava is still my happy girl, and loves hanging out in her bouncer.



Taylor shows off her tonsils while eating a sucker. Seriously, this is how she ate almost the whole thing. I guess that's one way to savor it......


What? You don't watch TV with a blanket over your head? Taylor totally does. Note the hobo-toes peeping out.


Seriously, even though this kid drives me to drink some days, she is definitely a cute little stinker. This is another one of those "pony moments," where she was so damn cute, if she'd asked for a pony I totally would have caved.