All Bubba Wants for Christmas...

is his one front tooth.....

My Heart

Things this week that have made my heart swell with pride, joy, love and/or happiness:

• Bubba reading a chapter book in his bed, begging to keep the light on for just a few more minutes to finish the chapter.



• Huck's smile that lights up his face when he sees me first thing in the morning.



• Duchess helping me clean up saying she wanted to go slowly so she could spend more time with me.



• The Hubby talking about his hard work to straighten out the finances at work.



• Me "catching" a duplicate order that would have had a patient catheterized needlessly.



• Bubba participating in Cub Scouts even when he doesn't know many of the other kids yet.



• Huck learning to play "How big is Baby?" and throwing his hands up over his head with a great big smile.



• Duchess sharing a Christmas treat from school with Bubba without being asked.

I am blessed!

4 going on 14

A conversation in the car on the way to school:

Duchess: Mom, I have two boyfriends. And Chloe has one, too.
Mom: Really?
Duch: Chloe's boyfriend is Joe.
Mom: Who are your boyfriends?
Duch: Well, I had two boyfriends but then I broke up with one so now I only have one. Chloe has to be at school today. Because when we are on the playground Chloe and I have to play together so we can go find Ariff and I can get him back.

-pause while I envision my future-

Mom: What does it mean when you break up with a boyfriend?
Duch: I don't want to talk about that.
Mom: What does it mean to have a boyfriend?
Duch: I don't want to talk about that.

I think we are going to cancel the Disney Channel and only allow Backyardigans and Max and Ruby to be watched. Or just throw out the TV altogether...

Hucks Big Day!

Huck had a big day! First he had a visit with Santa. He thought about crying, but held it together in order to get a cute picture with Big Brother and Big Sis. It was his second visit- the first was earlier this week at The hubby's work. More on that later.

Huck has been crawling for awhile now, but he Army crawls on his tummy instead of up on his knees. He is pretty quick about it. While making diner tonight (does heating food up in the microwave count as "making dinner?") he came crawling into the kitchen up on his knees just like he has been doing it that way all along. And then he continued to crawl that way the rest of the night! Then after dinner he cruised his way down the coffee table! One of his favorite activities is to pull everything off the table and throw it on the floor. Big fun when you are almost 9 months!

Earlier this week Santa came to Daddy's work. And he brought his reindeer. If you brought a toy to donate you got your picture taken with Santa and the Reindeer.

The kids thought it was great. But in the car on the way home the conversation took an interesting turn.

Duchess: Mommy, I think Santa looked kinda like (Daddy's boss) Mr Al.

Bubba: Yeah, where did Mr Al go when Santa got there?

Duch: Because his skin was kinda dark and Mr Al's skin is kinda dark.

Bubba: Mr Al left and then like 10 minutes later Santa came.

Duch: And I don't think Santa has dark skin.

I just let them talk between the two of them and didn't say much. Bubba knew the Santa today wasn't the real Santa, but he told me that this Santa was one of Santa's helpers because the real Santa is busy making toys. It's a fine line to walk. I don't want to outright lie, but also don't want to kill the fun...

Duchess had her Christmas Sing-A-Long at school. Very sweet angels and shepards.



















And some tree decorating pics.

Bad Days and Good Days

I stole the title from Bubba. That is the title of his journal and the story of our lives...

So to recap the past few weeks...

Bad:
Huck ate ant poison. Yup. He found a small square of cardboard with Tarro behind the oven that I had placed there at least a year ago. At least. Fortunately, the main ingredient in Tarro Ant Killer is Borax. According to Poison Control, the worst effects would most likely be an upset stomach but seeing as it was not fresh he would probably be fine. He was.

Good:
I saw the new Twilight movie with a friend. We went to Studio Movie Grill and had dinner while watching it. I enjoyed it. Yes it is unrealistic, no the acting is not great, but it was a night out with a good friend, so I'll take it!

Bad:
Bubba threw up at school the Monday before Thanksgiving. Fortunately it was not in the middle of the classroom or he may have died of embarrassment. It did cause him to miss both the Thanksgiving Feast that afternoon and the Turkey Trot the following day. (Not the annual Dallas marathon, a "trot" around the neighborhood to collect can goods with the whole school.) He was fine after that one incident.

Good:
I got to meet the sweet newborn of a close friend the next day! I didn't get to snuggle due to aforementioned vomiting...

Bad: We had an emergency visit to the dentist for Duch. She did some type of spinning maneuver that resulted in a face plant on the kitchen floor. Lots of blood. She fractured the tooth root of her "bad" front tooth (the one she hit when she was two and was already grey) The other was loose but should firm back up.

Good:
The tooth did not need to be pulled.

Good:
We left for my mom's in Indiana on Thanksgiving day and the trip was uneventful. The Hubby stayed home for work. And to go to the Cowboys-Dolphins game.

Bad:
The Dolphins lost.

Bad:
Early Saturday morning Duch threw up. All over the carpet in the bedroom. Thanks, Mom, for cleaning up after her!

Good:
She only got sick once.

Good:
Hanging with 2 out of 3 of my brothers, sister-in-law and nephews. Watching the kids play together!

Bad:
Late Sat night Bubba had mysterious stomach pain. No vomiting, no constipation, no opposite of constipation, just severe pain around his belly button and on his right side. I was convinced he had appendicitis. I was seriously considering taking him to the hospital in the middle of the night. I called the Hubby at 2:30 AM to see if I was crazy. But he fell asleep so I hovered near him on the couch until morning when he woke up fine as ever.

Good:
He did not, apparently, have appendicitis.

Good:
My mom made a yummy turkey dinner and we managed to get everyone seated at the table at the same time. 5 adults, 3 kids and 2 babies. Wonderful!

Good:
No one else got sick or hurt! We made it home safely! The two big kids slept on the plane ride home! Everyone is back to school and back into routine.

Good:
We are staying home for Christmas!

Parent-Teacher conferences

We've had parent-teacher conferences for both the kiddos in the past weeks. Both got great reports. Monday we met with Duchess's teachers. They said she is a great kid, behaves well in class, gets along well with the other children, takes turns, shares, etc. She did well on her "academic" testing- identifying letters, numbers, shapes, letter sounds, etc. She had some trouble with rhyming words because she wants to use words that have the same beginning sounds instead of ending sounds. We also discussed her speech. She has an extensive vocabulary and has no problems with receptive or expressive language, but she does have some trouble forming some of the letter sounds- in particular blends. "Chr" sounds more like "k" so Christmas = kissmas, "or" sounds like "er" so horse sounds like herse, "th" sounds like"f" so think sounds like fink. So I went ahead and called the school system to see about getting her evaluated by a speech therapist. I think she'll pick it up quickly, but that it would help to have someone who knows more about speech teach her how to form those sounds. She really enjoys school so we are happy about that. As far as I am concerned, the most important part of preschool is socialization and she seems to have that down.


Last night we met with Bubba's teacher. She also gave a great report. She said he is "very smart" and doing well. He got straight As on his report card again. She said she is going to start giving him more independent work, like a research-type project so that he can work at his own pace. He is in the "target group" for Targeted Instruction (TI) which means he is working on advanced work with other first graders who are at a similar level. His ability to keep calm when frustrated has improved and she really has not seen any difficulties lately. When he gets frustrated, she gave him the freedom to stop what he is doing, go get a drink of water, take a minute and then try again. I was so glad to hear that. We've been working on increasing his self-coping skills at home as well. We usually see the frustration peek either when he is not "perfect" in his view or when he is tired. There were two things to work on. One is making a greater distinction in capital and lower case letters- he makes them the same height often. The other is letting other kids have a chance to answer questions and recognizing that he won't always get to share his thoughts with the class. She loves that he is so enthusiastic though.

So overall, great reports we felt. We are happy that they are doing well academically, but more pleased that they are good kids who display good character.

In other news, Huck pulled himself to a stand! He is crawling all over, pushes himself from his tummy to a sitting position, pulls up onto his knees and once up to his feet. He LOVES to stand and grins from ear to ear when you help him do so.

I got a promotion at work. I am now a Senior Child Life Specialist. It is a newly created position that I had to apply for. They leadership team is not really sure what the job all will entail, but I will remain mostly clinical.

We are headed to MomMom's for Thanksgiving next week. I'm taking all 3 kiddos on my own because the Hubby needs to work and is going to the Dolphins- Cowboys game on Thanksgiving. All my brothers, sister-in-law and my nephews will be there as well so lots of family fun!

Fall Fun

We had a nice visit from Grandma with the Spiky Hair. We did some some fun fall activities like visit the pumpkin patch, go to a Trunk-or-Treat event and the real deal trick-or-treating. She played lots of board games with the Duchess and read Jack and Annie books with Bubba. She also tried her best at calming Huck but found that he really is a Mamas boy and that the Hubby is right- it's not that easy :-) Huck did show off his crawling skills and she couldn't believe how he has grown since she saw him in May. Unfortunately, I had to work quite a bit because Halloween was my assigned "minor holiday" to work at Children's.

















We attempted to get the required pumpkin patch pictures with moderate success. The hay on the ground was much more interesting that looking at the camera... On our way out the lady told us that the hay was treated with chemicals to keep the bugs away. Thanks.


























We went to the Trunk-or-Treat event at a near-by church again this year. It was a fun, easy hour. We saw lots of little lions and lots of ninjas, but Duch was the one and only Strawberry Shortcake (although her best friend Lemon Merange was there.)



















Halloween was fun. We started the night at a friends house for dinner and then headed back home for trick-or-treating. Our street was pretty active- lots of lights on and lots of kids out and about. The first house we went to was a bit traumatic for one member of the party. A little friend, Zoe, lives 2 doors down and her dad answered the door with a scary mask...

















Luckily, she recovered after about 5 minutes of sobbing and soldered on to collect some good treats. I am impressed with our neighbors. No junk candy on Estate Lane! Lots peanut butter cups, chocolate and Skittles. Banana Daddy was a big hit. Everyone commented on it. Grandma with the Spiky Hair stayed home to pass out treats.



















Late that night I was called out to the birth of a doula client. It was a long, hard one (22 hours for me, 27 hours for the mom) but a beautiful baby boy joined us in the world. And a few nights latter I got to snuggle that sweet little one and marvel at the miracle all over again.

What Happens When Mom is Sick...

What happens when Mom is sick?
Day 0
She wakes up in the middle of the night because her feet are freezing and can't figure out why the three layers of covers are not warming them up. It finally dawns on her that she must have a fever and that the sore throat she had yesterday is probably not from post-nasal drip as she had thought. So the Hubby helps her find the thermometer, rounds up some more covers, gets her some ice water and goes to sleep on the couch.

Day 1
In the morning the Hubby takes the daughter to school on his way to work leaving the two boys at home with Mom. The oldest boy is staying home from school because he has a doctor's appointment because he has a rash. The mom is pretty sure she has strep throat, so she spends probably 30 minutes trying to figure out the name of the doctor she saw 2 1/2 years ago when she had pneumonia, the only doctor she has seen (other than her OB) in maybe 10 years. When she finally figures it out after an extensive Google search, she learns she can not get into see that doctor until 3:00 PM. She decides this is unacceptable so she loads the oldest son/, the baby son and herself into the car and heads to the Minute Clinic at the CVS. They only wait for a few minutes and a nurse practitioner tests and determines is in fact strep throat. An antibiotic is prescribed and the gang is off to the son's appointment. When that is over, they hit the drive through because the idea of even making a sandwich is overwhelming to the mom. For good measure, she grabs a RedBox movie for the oldest son. Son watches movie while Mom and Baby sleep on the couch. Mom goes to pick up Daughter at school because Dad is stuck at work. Dad comes home, Mom goes back to bed, Dad makes dinner and puts big kids to bed.

Day 2
Mom rolls out of bed, feeds oldest son and drives him to school in her pajamas. Dad takes daughter to school on his way to work. Mom puts dishes in the dishwasher and puts diapers in the washer. She crashes on the couch while Baby plays with giant bin of Duplo Blocks. Mom and Baby take a nap on the couch. Mom goes to get Daughter from school and takes her to ballet. She sits in the car with Baby so as not to infect all the moms and siblings in the waiting room. Dad gets Big Brother from school. They order pizza for dinner, which does not feel that great on the throat...

Day 3
Mom is starting to feel better. Until she looks around the house.

The kitchen looks like this:












The laundry looks like this:












The playroom looks like this:












I think I'm going back to bed.

Highs and Lows

Let's do the Lows first...

- We had some sickies last weekend. Bubba and Duchess were a bit under the weather, low grade fevers and sore throats. Bubba stayed home from school last Friday and camped out on the coach for the better part of two days. Duchess really only had one afternoon/evening that she was affected. I guesss how healthy they really are should be counted as a high- each have only had one antibiotic course in his/her lifetime.

- The lost cell phone! We went to see the Lion King in 3-D at Studio Movie Grill. The movie itself was a high, but my cell phone must have fallen out of the diaper bag in the theater. I realized it by the time we got to the car so we turned around and went right back in. Gone. In less than 5 minutes. And we were one of the last ones to leave the theater so I know it was an employee who took it. By the time we got home it was turned off and never to be seen by me again. I did have insurance so it was replaced quickly, but all the pictures and videos are gone. So many pictures gone!

- The dryer went on the fritz... I had to call the appliance repairman and it cost $250 to repair...

- It is TX vs OU weekend here in Dallas which means The Hubby left for work about 7 PM Friday night and got home about 6 AM Sunday morning. He said he slept for about 30 minutes sometime Friday night/ Saturday morning. Good for the bar, but hard for the Hubs...

But onto the Highs!

- I had a doula client deliver on Tuesday. This is the second child of her's that I have been privledged to help welcome to the world. And it was a beautiful birth. Mom did a wonderful job, it was calm, nothing unexpected happened, mom held her precious girl the moment she was born... Perfect!

- That same night the kids and I went to our neighborhood's National Night Out. It was so fun- they had bounce houses, a train, hotdogs, sno cones, a balloon artist, a petting zoo... We saw lots of friends and the kids ran around and around and around.

- My oldest brother is going to be published! He submitted a short story and heard this week that the publisher is planning to place it in an anthology! He has always enjoyed writing, but this was the first time he had actually submitted anything. The publisher told him it is extremely rare to get something accepted so quickly. No word yet on when it may be published as the publisher is still collecting stories. I'm so proud!

- Bubba got his first report card of the year. They use a number system instead of letters and he got all 4s, which is the equivilent of all As. We are very proud of him for that, but more proud of his character. Each child in class is supossed to keep a reading log of the time read at home. They have a little chart with clocks on it that is in their take home folder. One of his tablemates had no clocks colored and Bubba asked him why. He replied that he has no books at home. So Bubba came home and asked if he could give his friend some of his books because he has so many. He wanted to give his friend some of his Magic Tree House books since those are his favorite, but we are going to check with his teacher to see if maybe he should chose some lower reading level books. He has a generous heaart- earlier this year he gave away his pencil box to a classmate saying he couls use his from last year.

-Huck and Bubba had check-ups and both are healthy. Huck is trying more new foods- some he likes, some not so much. He is 20 pounds and 29 inches at 7 months! Bubba was embarresed about having to urinate in a cup. He said it was worse than a shot!

- We are looking forward to a visit from Grandma with the Spikey Hair. She is coming Halloween weekend to get a visit in before our house is torn apart!

Watch Out World!

We are entering a whole new phase around here! Huck is on the verge of crawling! He rolls all over the place, is doing the inchworm scoot on his tummy and pushes himself backwards with his feet while on his back. He is pushing up onto his knees and pushes up on his hands, but has not coordinated doing them both at the same time. The plan is to place a gate across the entrance to the playroom to keep him away from the big kids toys. He can also sit up like a champ!





So far we have given him bananas, sweet potatoes and cereal. Sweet potatoes is by far his favorite.





When we sit down to eat a meal he starts hollering to join us. He loves things that make crinkly noises, especially paper. Which is challenging since Duch goes through approximately 75,000 pieces of paper a day writing "cards" and "books" and leaves them all over the house. AH! As I type this he has found a piece of paper and will scream when I take it away from him... Yup, can you hear the screams from where you are now?
A sweet, not screaming baby...





We are about to turn our whole house upside down to add an addition. Probably not the best timing to tear apart our house just as Huck is about to start adventuring, but is there ever really a good time to tear apart your house? We will be deciding soon just exactly what we are going to do but mostly likely it will be adding a master suite to the back of the house. I'm excited but not looking forward to being without a bedroom and the playroom for 3 months. The Hubby and I are going to move our bed into the living/dining room area. But having a nice big closet and brand new bathroom will make it all worth it!
We took a tree down from in front of our house. It makes our house look so different! I was sad to see the tree go, but the drought this summer was just too much for it to take. It was a Bradford Pear tree that had grown much bigger than they are supposed to. It was losing limbs left and right. The final straw was when a limb fell into our neighbors driveway and almost made her late for an appointment before we could get it out of the way. We are hoping to redo all the landscaping next Spring anyway...





I saw a baby squirrel the other day. I'm pretty sure I have seen thousands of squirrels in my life, but don't ever remember seeing a baby squirrel. I was walking home from dropping Bubba off at school and heard a rustling in the grass. A baby squirrel jumped onto the tree trunk, trembling so badly it could hardly crawl up the tree. It climbed around the back and let out a big squeak. His mom heard him and popped out of a hallow in the tree, jumped over to him, picked him up in her mouth, carried him back and dropped him in the hallow. Then she popped her head back out and gave me the evil eye. I almost started crying. It was so beautiful.

6 months!

Huck is 6 months-old tomorrow! He is so fun these days and is settling into more of a routine. He has learned a lot lately. He rolls all over the place and does not stay where you put him anymore. While I was putting away laundry this morning he rolled himself under the bed! He reaches and grabs for toys, transfers them from hand to hand, and puts everything straight into his mouth. He is starting to sit unsupported but still falls over pretty quickly. He is growing great- he is probably 18 pounds by now. He had some mashed bananas for the first time last week. He didn't hate them but didn't love them either. We'll try some cereal or sweet potatoes this week and see what he thinks about that. He is enjoying his "only child" time while the big kids are both in school...

Duchess is enjoying school. She is loving writing letters, meaning both letters like A,B,C and actual letters like "Dear Mom" type letters. I think it is mostly because big brother is doing it, but they also have a handwriting program at school. One of the teachers spends about 30 minutes a day doing a program called Handwriting Without Tears. I went to a meeting about it today and it sounds interesting. She is always asking us how to spell things. We've had to talk about where she can practice her letters, like NOT in library books and NOT on the furniture...

Bubba is thinking about joining Cub Scouts. There is a meeting tomorrow to learn more about it. He is doing great at school. He has his first test, a math one, tomorrow. He is reading so well. He seems to really enjoy school.

We are thinking about putting an addition on to our house. Most likely we will add a master suite but it is possible that instead we will enlarge our current bathroom and closet instead. The idea is exciting and scary all at the same time. We have found a contractor that we feel like we can trust. He lives in the neighborhood and his kids go to the same school. We are meeting with him today to get the low down on what to really expect with the process.

Football season has begun so that means our time with the Hubby is greatly reduced. It's tough on Bubba, especially, because Daddy is not home much on the weekends. I'm going to the Lamaze conference next weekend. It is just in Fort Worth so I'll be driving back and forth each day.

End of Summer

We recently got back from our trip to Gulf Shores with my side of the family. My mom, brothers, sister-in-law, 2 nephews and our family shared a beach front house. We had`a really good time. The first exciting thing happened before we even left the house- the Hubby shaved- clean!





We left early Friday morning and stopped at a gator farm in Louisiana. Fun, but HOT, HOT, HOT.






Then we drove on to Gulfport, Mississippi and stopped for the night. After a very disappointing breakfast at Cracker Barrel, we made it to the Mobile Bay Ferry by lunch. And then we were there! This year we stayed in the same house as last year but on the other side of the duplex. It was nice and had everything we needed.





Bubba loved swimming in the ocean. He and Uncle Scott had a great time looking at all the underwater creatures through goggles. He got to drive his own go-cart and ride along on a big go-cart with Uncle Scott. He did awesome in the pool, too. He was a big help with all the younger kiddos.











Duchess also loved swimming, although her preference was for the pool. She did enjoy the beach and building sand castles with Aunt Sara and was not bothered by the sand like last year. I put sunblock on her every time we went outside, but she still got more tan every time. She definitely has her daddy's skin! We also celebrated her 4th birthday!












Huck did very well. He handled the long car ride pretty well- he was fussier on the way home but overall did well considering. He went to the beach, played in sand (ate some, of course), went in the ocean, went in the pool, played with Cousin Dillon, and got held by uncles, an aunt and Mom Mom. It sure was nice for Mommy to have all those extra hands around to help out - I went through withdrawal for the first few days home!













Last week was the first day of school for Bubba. Nothing but excitement from Bubba! Can't wait to hear about 1st grade!









And Duchess started today! What a quiet house I have!