First time with piggy tails

Talk about making a baby girl look like a big girl in a matter of minutes. "Moooom, I'm by the high chair... what do you think that means?"
"Ok, mom I'm done with pictures. Time for food." I wanted one more shot though, and this is what I got. The wrath of Amelia. She started coming at me with her hand, and I knew I was done for. Talk about growing up too fast.

I took her in for her 15 month check up today, she's doing good! She weighs 24 1/2 lbs (72%). She is 31 inches tall (62%). And her head is still big! Her head circumference is 19 inches (96%).

I find it interesting how her weight percentiles have changed. They started high, gradually decreased, and now that she's drinking cow's milk she's gone back up. I'm a paranoid mom, it makes me worry that she wasn't getting enough when I was nursing her.
Her weight percentiles are as follows:
2 weeks old 92%
2 months old 79%
4 months old 54%
6 months old 44%
9 months old 21%
inbetween 9 and 12 months she got down to 8%
12 months old 24%
15 months old 72%

My Dr. is a putz. He is nice, but he doesn't talk very much. He doesn't explain things. I have to really pry him to explain anything. It's a good thing Amelia is my second or else I would be a little upset. He didn't say ANYTHING about her growth pattern today. I'm not worried, it just reassures me that she's got a good appetite. Do you think my Dr. should have at least taken note of the change and said anything to me?

What do I get for crying?

Something worse to cry about!

I got the stomach bug that has been going around the townhouses like the plague. It hit me yesterday at noon. Conrad was hit around 4 pm.

The good news is hopefully Josh won't get it b/c he wasn't home for any of this.

Talk about miserable. Me and Conrad took turns every half hour throwing up. It was agony for him, b/c he was so thirsty and hungry. But everytime I gave him a sip or a saltine he'd throw it up shortly after.

Today our tummies have finally settled down. It was a rotten 18 hours, though.

Hello laundry and Lysol Wipes!

I need a vacation

Nuf said.

Only 2 more days/afternoons.

And only 1 more night.

Josh I know you're planning a trip to Vegas for me and you upon your arrival. I'll pack my bags.

I need a vacation so bad I could cry.

I gave Amelia a haircut and this is how cute she still is

Ok, I just trimmed her bangs. Her eyes were covered. (see 2 posts down) It was time. This is her 2nd official haircut. The first time was when I cut her baby hairs off the top of her head that didn't fall out.
Can you guess what she was saying?

"Uh.....OOOOhhhhh." This was the OH part of the word.

Yesterday Luke came and played b/c his parents were out of commission with the stomach bug that's been going around. Amelia caught it, but she only threw up twice and had a touch of diarhea. WHOO HOO, DON'T YOU LOVE READING MY BLOG???!!! hahaha

Anyway, Luke built this house all by himself. I was so impressed I had to take a picture. Then Conrad was trying to "blow the house down." I got mad at him! Then I laughed when he said he was a wolf. I connected the dots.

Fun times!

I am your candy girl

I've mentioned before how I possibly have this gene that makes me get addicted to things more easily. Like blogging, checking facebook, e-mails. I have a new addiction that's helped (and hurt) me get through this last month.

cue the music

Sugar! dun dun dun dun dun dun... Aw sugar sugar! You are my candy girl! (what is the next line? 25 points goes to who knows it)

I read an article that may help me get back on track towards better eating. Thank you MSNBC news. The first step in battling addiction is recognizing it.

Ever since I quit nursing Amelia I have been steadily gaining weight. It is freakin' annoying. And it may be that bag of chocolate chips in my pantry that gets replenished every shopping trip to the grocery store.

Whenever I have a "moment" with Conrad I go grab a handful of chocolate chips. It is insta-therapy. Insta-Happy. Insta-Endorphins released. It's wonderful! But it totally counters all my other healthy eating I do throughout the day.

Bran flakes for breakfast--- should've just had some Marshmallow Mateys.
Tuna sandwich and spinach salad at lunch--- forget that, how about some Mickey D's?
Half a plate of greens at dinnertime--- I should've saved the calories and just eaten some dessert!

I hear of people quitting sugar cold turkey, except for honey and sugars found naturally in fruit. I don't know if I can do it! I know I can, I know I can! But do I want to??? That's a big fat Heck no!

I love you sugar. I love your quick fix.

Does anyone know if there is an AA for sugar addicts?

Argh, I hate getting older and having no excuse for weight gain. I wish I could say I was pregnant ONLY for that excuse. Nope, just lost my self-control!!!

excuse me while I go have some ice-cream to feed the need.

It was the best of times...

this morning as Conrad was entertained by floating feathers.

and also when Amelia escaped to the upstairs -- we found her reading the book, Dad Mine. She is obsessed with dogs lately, and was on the page with the Daddy dog and the baby dog.
She says this whenever she sees a dog.

crap, do all kids love dogs this much??? (This video doesn't really show the amount of love she has for dogs... but you get a clue).

a small taste of my sadness

Dear Josh,
Dear Josh,
Dear Josh,

I miss you.
I read this post this morning from CJane and it put me in a melancholy mood. I am not dying here though, thanks to the adrenaline going through my veins to help me push through this month.

I latch onto others that say "Hello" to me at the park. I tell them all and more of what happened in my day. I am acting like a lonely lady in the old folks home. Desperate for conversation.

Sure our 10 minute conversations are nice, but neither you or I are phone people. So it doesn't really fill my quota of adult people conversation.

Little Einstein's is my saving grace. Conrad watches probably 5 episodes in the morning. Then another 2 (hopefully that's the limit) in the afternoon. Speaking of which, it just ended. Gotta go.

I love you.

40 Inspirational Speeches in 2 minutes

Holy cow this made me smile. Dad, I posted this especially for you. I know how you love to figure out who that was and what that movie was called. It is good for sentimental purposes!

Thanks to Tara!!! I loved this, and I loved "hanging out" with you and your blog!

Blackmail

Oh how I love these girls.
The purpose of this post is soley so they can blackmail one another sometime. :D

Here is who I hosted the baby shower for, Maddie, on the right. She is such a little darling.

(She already had her baby) We all drooled over the little boy. They named him Henry. I love it how older names are becoming used again.

Becca (above) is 17 weeks pregnant, though she is still skinnier than me.

I just love all of these girls!

What troopers for putting up with this invasion of space!!!

I did Lyndee's diaper, bib and bonnet. It's the epitome of anti-functional. We just wanted to win the prize for being done first. hahaha.

Great idea for a baby shower game! Use toilet paper and make a diaper, bib and bonnet on one another.

Ooh la la!!!

Not a great picture, but these little creations were very great. I hosted a baby shower tonight, and wanted to serve something I could do in advance, and not have to worry about serving. I thought and I thought and I couldn't think of anything except cookies!!! I didn't want to serve cookies for a baby shower!!! So, I called my right-hand girl, Kim-the-girl. Of course she solved my problem!!!

I have no idea what these are called. These are some of the names I said out loud to my guests tonight, "Brownie Creations," "Brownie bowls," and one I just thought of, "Brownie bucket of Heaven, " or, if you are 2 or 3 years old and you snuck one out of the kitchen you might call it a "cupcake." But cupcake doesn't do it justice. No thank you.

They are actually pretty simple to make.

Basically, you bake [cake-like] brownies from a box [I used Duncan Hines] in a muffin pan, let them cool for 10-15 minutes. Get a skinny cup (like a sippy cup or something) and smoosh them down so they are kind of bowl-shaped. Let them cool more, so when you remove them you don't have any casualties. (PRODUCT ENDORSEMENT: unless you use Baker's Joy, which is AWESOME and I only had 1 minor casualty).

Fill the "cupcakes" with this cream cheese filling:
1/4 cup white chocolate chips
8 oz. cream cheese
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 cup whipped topping

Mix together the cream cheese and powdered sugar. Melt the chocolate chips, then gradually add them to the cream cheese mixture. Fold in the whipped topping.

I piped the filling into my brownie bowls. Put sliced strawberries on the top. Make sure you do this before you put the buckets into the fridge, because the cream-cheese filling gets stiff. Drizzle melted chocolate chips over the top. Voila! Yummy!

LOST binky and FOUND blessing

THIS, my friend, is not where a binky normally belongs.
Yeah, it's hers. But how did it get there?

Oh ya know. Someone about 3 feet tall whose name starts with C and ends with onrad.

He sure likes to throw things lately. What a boy.
Speaking of boys... BOYd was here for a couple of nights. One word: HUGE BLESSING. Or perhaps: RAY OF SUNSHINE.

He read books to my kids, asked Conrad lots of questions, built block towers and did not mind even a half a bit that Conrad would knock it down with all his energy (and perhaps be an inflicted innocent bystander casualty. [what? that doesn't make sense? aw, you know what I mean]). He took us out to eat to Conrad's favorite place: Cici's. It's a pizza buffet place.

By the time bedtime came around my kids were SO ready!!! Boyd was amazing to entertain them! I mentioned to Josh how my Uncle Boyd has been a huge blessing because he is giving my kids the mental stimulation their minds need at a time when I just can't. OH, did I mention I had about 5 hours notice that he was coming?!? Hahaha. You gotta love it! Luckily I had cleaned my house earlier in the day, so all I had to do was blow up an air mattress. Anyway...Thanks Uncle Boyd for coming and playing with my kids!!! That was just what the kids and I needed.

I asked Boyd how come he has more patience than I do and he said, "I've worked with Scouts my whole life!" thank heavens I don't work with the scouts.

And thank you Boyd, for helping me MAKE PEACH JAM!!! Mom and Mom-in-love, you would've been proud of my peaches. I bought them hard from the grocery store, but brought them home and placed them in brown paper sacks and let them get ripe, and oh my heck they were as good as the ones off your trees. (or maybe it's just been so long since I've had one off your trees that any peach that is not hard is good.)

Ladies and gentlemen, he even wore the apron my Grandma Woodbury made for all of her grandaughters one year for Christmas. It's got pleats. And flowers allll over it. I honored Boyd's request and did not take any pictures of him wearing it. He hates to have his picture taken regardless of ANYTHING (for example, I had to sneak the above picture, and he still gave me a hard time about it). But, he was just awesome.

Only 2 more days to go and we're halfway through this stinky month! Thanks Boyd, for being the ray of sunshine I needed!

So Punny! hahaha

Amelia drags stuff out of my kitchen gadget drawer to all over the house. I was brushing my teeth getting ready for bed, saw this and laughed as I ran to get the camera.
Get it?
fine print: you may not really care to enlarge this photo. I see more in the picture than I did when I was cleaning.

Welcome to my now private blog

I had to do it. Just had to. I will sleep much more peacefully now.

What should I do with this kid?

I learned from the whole #2 incident with Conrad that I may just need to give him more play-dough to play with, and I've also been trying to get him to do other fine motor skill activities. We play with wooden blocks, color with markers, play with legos... etc... but he loves to pull stuff apart and DESTROY. Today he pulled apart the remote control. (Not a big deal.)
But what frustrated me most was when he came running into the kitchen (while I had been cleaning up breakfast) and said, "Mom, I broke the computer!"

Yes, ladies and gentleman. That is our laptop. The one that I use everyday. (We have a desktop computer for Josh. I use the laptop.)

I was pretty upset. Though, I didn't beat him. I wanted to. He cowered underneath my glare, ready to run from me. I sent him to his room. He went obligingly and kept saying "I'm sorry mommy." He knew he was in trouble.

I asked him why he did this and he replied, "I did it on purpose."

Always his answer. He has no clue. I think he was daydreaming while he was watching TV, not thinking about what he was doing. (Though the laptop was closed. Now I know he can open it, he couldn't before.) Oh brother.

Anyone care to donate any junk so Conrad can rip it apart and not have me yell at him? I think that's what I should do.

Wish you were here!

We went to the KC Zoo yesterday for park day, and had a TON of fun. It was their $2 theme day. Tickets into the zoo were 2 bucks. Hot dogs were 2 bucks. And train rides were 2 bucks.

We ended up hanging out with Beatrice (Mama Victor, as she is normally called by her friends and loved ones, it's part of Kenyan culture), Victor, and Nathan. We had an interesting time trying to find the zoo. Normally I have a GPS, but since Josh took it so he could find his way to do his RURAL rotation, I was lost! hahaha. I took 1 wrong turn. But I almost took a whole bunch of others. ANYWAY, we made it there, and these are our pictures.

We took a $2 train ride. This was a repeat episode of our last train ride. (Conrad was scared at first, but calmed down the second it started. Then, Amelia went bizerk trying to climb to the top of my head. I don't know where she got that idea, she just didn't want to be on the train!)

Here we were in an aviary. That bird (I think it started with an I, maybe an Ibis??? I don't know...) shortly after the picture was taken took flight downward. Scared the bazonkers out of Nathan and Conrad! It was funny. They both ended up falling down, Conrad scraped his knees. Then he bawled. But how cool for that close of an encounter with a bird!!!

We saw some Kangaroo's. Victor speculated which Kangaroo was the oldest one. I asked him where he got his conclusion and he said by it's size. Pretty smart kid. He's only 10, but he's almost as tall as me.

This little sheep smelled our lunch, I had to shoo him away. Nathan was terrified of the sheep. I think the bird incident scarred him. Conrad was running amok all through the sheep. He was acting like a little shepherd. Or maybe a sheepherder dog. That's probably more like it!

On the far left side of the picture is an elephant ear. Kim, I thought about you and your spanish-speaking friends from your mission down in Arkansas (or whereabouts) who fed us elephant ears for dinner 6 years ago. (not really)

Gazing at a bird.

The bird we were gazing at up close. Have you evah?!?! What a crazy looking bird. I bet I could do my hair like that now!

Checking out a crocodile. When we first arrived to see them, they were "giving piggy back rides to each other."

Amelia looked like this the whole time. Yup. (Minus the frantic train ride part).

This is bon voyage. Amelia was saying "eeeeeee," I wondered if she was already trying to say "cheese!" It was so cute.

Wahoo! Conrad is smiling! Can you believe it?!? What a handsome little boy. He was beat, though.

As evidenced by this picture, taken 1.5 minutes later. (I took that picture at a stoplight, don't worry, I am talented!)

miss y'all.

Should I? Or should I not?

This picture was taken on a Saturday at a Fair Preview by the "You have been spotted by the KC Star." We went and listened to fiddlers and bands for free, it was fun.

After reading Christa's blog post about the blogger mom who's son's picture was taken off her blog and used in an adoption scam, I wonder if I might go back to being private. I love having an open blog, because
1-I get more comments
2-Easier to sign in
3-Helps old friends reconnect!!!
But a small part of me doesn't like to be open. It's my fear of those unknown people visiting my blog. Who are you Canada visiting my blog? And who are you Leavenworth, Kansas? Today there is someone from Louisiana. Don't know anybody there. If you're anything like me, I drop in on some blogs only for a second just to see if I know them. Just another day feeling a little vulnerable, I guess.
btw, me and the kids are doing well!!! They've been behaving exceptionally well. Or maybe I just am feeling the power of heaven blessing me to have more patience. I am grateful for that. The instant Josh left I felt a sort of shelter come to our house. (nothing against Josh, just sayin'.) We've gone swimming, today we went to the zoo (I'll post some pictures), and have been enjoying eating breakfast for dinner and leftovers. Easy peasy.

Sorry, I kind of get off the subject on my blog posts.

I'll give you a deadline if I DO decide to go private.

Dear Josh,

While you are away, I wanted to fill you in on some of the small things.

Today Conrad asked where you were at the most ideal times, first thing in the morning, at dinnertime, and at bedtime.

Amelia pointed to the trees today and said, "deeessh, deeeessh!!!"

She also pointed to the Charmin Bear on the toilet paper display at Wal-Mart and said, "Doggy!"

Conrad is slowly potty training himself. And regretfully, slowly weening himself from the afternoon nap. It's OK, though. He isn't grumpy. But he is pretty delirious.

I really wish you could have seen how hot I was today. Let me tell you, I wore those one droopy jeans that you swore you'd burn if I wore them again b/c you are so sick of them. They were extra-droopy from playing in the sprinkler with Conrad. I plan on wearing them tomorrow.

I hope your hide-a-bed in the front room with the TV works out for you. Don't let the other 2 guys tell you what to watch. Refer them to the wrath of Ali post below so they get an idea of what they're up against.

Also, here is a funny for you. Just a little of what I go through when I explain to people that you are away on a Rural Rotation. I really wanted to get the skit from the picture below, but I couldn't find it!

1 hundred million points to who can guess the title of this skit!!!

eta: I found a video of this skit off Hulu.com, sorry for not posting it. It's rated PG-13, and my blog is only rated PG, so I decided not to post it. If you want to find out what your blog is rated, go to THIS LINK.