Cribs are over-rated anyway, right?

Trying to keep up with a baby who jumps out of her crib is enough to drive anyone insane. Dave switched one of the locks out on the bathroom door and put it on Livvy's door. When I went in to check on her, I found her asleep under the crib. I felt bad that she couldn't get back into her crib after she jumped out and realized she was locked in. She found the closest place to it, poor little thing!

And so, about two weeks ago we helped Olivia say goodbye to her crib by taking it down. I was afraid she was going to break a bone with all the jumping out she was doing. She walked into the room while Dave was pulling it apart and burst into tears.

Then she decided to take matters into her own hands. She went over, lifted up a rail, and hauled it out of the bedroom. It was quite funny watching her haul that thing- she was grunting and breathing heavily- quite the work out for her little self.

We have temporarily put her crib mattress down on the floor. She is totally fine with it- just glad to have a place that belongs to her.

As you may have guessed, she won't stay put on this bed either. I can hear her walk over to the door, try to open it, occasionally she lets out a wail or two, and then she makes her way back to her bed- or Sara's bed- whatever she is in the mood for. After she has fallen asleep, I unlock her door so she can happily come and greet me in my bed in the morning. She really is a good baby girl, just so busy!

Notes to self...

1. Don't change the laundry right after washing dishes. Fingernails can and will bend backwards (shudder).
2. Don't try discipling children in front of their dad. Dad will laugh resulting in laughter from naughty child and nothing has been accomplished but annoying me.
3. Cleaning the shower in my underwear (and a t-shirt- I was wearing a t-shirt) is a great idea until the neighbor kid walks in...
4. Nothing, and I mean nothing, can be kept from the clutches of Olivia. Nothing is safe. Must bubblewrap house.
Just in case you are wondering what I am referring to- items include vaseline, fingernail polish, lipstick, hi-liters, pencils, pens, Vicks vapo rub (this item has a toddler self-protectant thing going on- one swipe of that on her face and in her mouth and she came running to me with her tongue hanging out, panting like a dog), chapstick, gluesticks, mascara, lotion, crayons, the bathroom sink, Dave's electric toothbrush, the junk drawer (which I have now completely emptied out), bathtub, table, opening and slamming shutters, opening front door- and these are just a few of her favorites. Oh, and this is all just one day. ONE DAY. Okay, maybe two.
5. Don't assume a handle-heavy whisk will stay put in a small tupperware bowl. While moving the bowl from point A to point B, the whisk will fall out, splattering chocolate pudding all over you, the floor, the shutters, the wall, and the window.
6. Kids need to be in bed by 8:00. And yes, it's 9:30 and they are still awake.

Out with the old- In with the new!

Things are ch-ch-ch-changin' around here- we have been getting ourselves a good night's sleep on our BRAND NEW BED. Say that just like they would on the Price is Right. It's much more exciting that way.

A couple weeks ago UPS dropped off our new bed on the front porch in a bazillion boxes. We were quite perplexed as to how a king-sized bed could possibly fit into boxes of this size. We just sprinkled around a little pixie dust and wouldn't you know it, a king size bed popped out of all these boxes. Truly amazing.



Before I go any further, my main motivation for this post is to display our old bed. There isn't anything wrong with the bed itself- it's just that a few parts of its decor are worse for wear after nearly 8 years of marriage and it makes me laugh.

The bed skirt (given to me back in Cleveland by my friend Debbie who was about to toss it- I aim really high) started ripping. And you know how those things go- once they start, there is no stopping them- especially not me because I don't have a sewing machine OR the motivation to lift off the mattress to gain access to fixing the skirt. The last couple months it has looked rather pathetic and I've just figured "eh, nobody sees it but me". You can also see the orange and blue stickers on the bed frame from different moves we have made. The quilt is from our wedding- made with love by the Relief Society in my parent's ward. My kids took dry-erase marker to our sheets (also a wedding gift) a couple years back and it never came out. Usually we have 4 pillows on the bed and none of the pillowcases match. Oh, and the fitted sheet- didn't fit so well, always popping off. I just have to laugh. Mostly because it's gone now!



Here is the bed under construction (so I lied about the pixie dust...). I cheered Dave on and did my best to stop the kids from destroying all the foam parts before we could get the bed together.



And the finished product. Dave is looking rather fierce.



We have sheets for it but I have yet to get a bedding set- that's opening a can of worms because I have to decide on paint color for the room. And we need bedroom furniture which I have a feeling won't be happening any time soon. That's alright, I'm just happy to have a big fat bed.

And so is Dave.

A little too happy if you ask me.

I don't see anything wrong with me draping myself over him while he is trying to sleep. Sheesh. But now with eons of space between us- he feels liberated from me and my claustrophobic infringement of his personal sleeping space.

The other night Taylor slept on our bed. Taylor didn't touch me- I didn't touch him- nobody touched Dave. Three people on a bed and nobody kicked anybody in the face! It was amazing and made us feel that our purchase was well worth every penny.

Too much of a good thing

I guess I blogged too soon with my last post- I have yet one more Olivia/head incident to parade around for all to see. While daddy was napping and mommy was making dinner, Livvy emptied a can of aerosol hairspray on her head. It was dripping off her head and hands when I found her. But once it hardened- the child had a helmet on her head. She is soaking in the bath now. How long do you think she will need to soak to rid her head of an entire can of hairspray? I'll be sure to let you know. You have to give her credit though, hairspray actually does go on hair. Maybe she's headed in the right direction...





I don't know if you can see it, but she also has pink glue stick on her face. She is really into chapstick right now and can't quite tell the difference between the two. I don't know about this one- her level of curiosity surpasses anything I have ever dealt with before. It's brutal and funny all at the same time. Thanks for keeping it real Livs!

Did I mention she was brushing her teeth with hydrocortisone cream tonight? Yah.

Just when I thought we were making progress...

The other day Dave walked in the door from work- I was at the kitchen sink washing dishes (my back to the kids, of course). He said to me, "Why are you letting her color on herself?" I turned around and before I could get my "What are you talking about?" out, I saw her.



We took the positive approach- at least she didn't color on her head (unless you consider the mustache her head) and it was washable marker. No big deal. It appears we may be raising a tattoo artist of sorts. Great.

So I thought she was moving on from putting everything on her head.

Until the other night...





Taylor and Sara were painting in their coloring books, and Livvy, well, she was painting her head. Classic Olivia.

Easter

I'm ready to spread some Easter joy now. Saturday the kids dyed their Easter eggs. I got this brilliant idea to buy fancy tie-dyed and gold Easter egg coloring stuff. Hello! My kids are 5,3,&1. Not a good idea. I need to stick with the basics. Will someone please remind me of that next year? I ended up making dye from food coloring and it worked out just great.

Sara dyed every single one of her eggs red (well, pink). She is painting this egg gold.


Taylor was a little more daring and did green, yellow, and blue. He wouldn't touch the red dye though- something about it being pink and girly...


Daddy is helping Livvy to dye her egg. She only colored one before a total meltdown occured. I guess 20 month old babies don't understand that they can't hold, love, and thus crack the eggs. Lesson learned (by me, not her).


That night after we finally got the kids to bed (threatening that the Easter Bunny was going to hop right on by our house), the Easter bunny paid us a visit. I took a picture of their baskets before the Easter Bunny hid them. Livvy's basket got hidden in the pantry, Sara's was under the kitchen sink, and Taylor's was in the coat closet. Ahh that tricky Easter Bunny...


Here are the kids after church on Easter Sunday. This is the best picture I could get. Taylor started crying and pulling his tie off and the girls were just high on easter candy. Look at Livvy- that is one energized sugar baby.


We went to grandpa and grandma's house for Easter dinner. It was ham-a-rific. The kids went on an Easter Egg Hunt in the backyard with their cousins. I went outside with Aunt Nat to hide the eggs and we realized there was really nowhere to hide them. Spring is just barely beginning to do its thing which left us with a lot of dirt and grass. The kids didn't care though. They had a great time.


For dessert I made Strawberry Cheesecake. It's really more like a pie thing. Name doesn't matter-must. eat. food. It is so good. I lalalalove it. It's always what I request on my birthday. And because I love all of you, I will post the recipe. I didn't take a picture of it though. Sorry about that- just use your imagination.

CHEESE CAKE

This cheesecake should be made the day before in order for it to solidify. The topping should be made and added just a few hours prior to eating.

To make the graham cracker crust, combine:
20 finely crushed graham cracker squares
1/3 cup melted butter
¼ cup sugar
Put the crust in the refrigerator while you are making the cheesecake filling. If using a 9X13 pan, double the crust.

Cheesecake filling:
1 8oz cream cheese
1 cup or ½ pint whipping cream
½ cup powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
Double the ingredients for a 9X13 pan.

Cream the cream cheese, add sugar, vanilla, and whipping cream whipped. Pour into graham cracker crust. Chill.

Topping:
Prepare 1 package strawberry Junket, Danish Dessert (at the grocery store in the Jello isle), following pie glaze directions. Make sure it cools enough so that it doesn’t soggy your strawberries.
Cut up strawberries (I usually use about 2 lbs for the 9X13 recipe) and add to the slightly cooled Danish Dessert. Spread over the top of cheesecake. Refrigerate for a few hours.

So easy and so good!

Consider this my therapy

This post is full of too much information- proceed with caution:

My life as of last Friday:

1. Waking up in a puddle of drool most nights (it's times like these that I feel happy Dave is sound asleep)
2. Start sleeping upright to avoid said drool and finding that my head doesn't feel quite so explosive while sitting up.
3. Teeth hurt from breathing through my mouth
4. I guess I haven't mentioned my cough yet, or my bladder control issue... We'll just leave it at that.
5. Can't taste or smell- this has both positives and negatives.
Positives- Cleaning moldy tuna fish out of the fridge- didn't smell a thing, can't smell dirty diapers, can't smell Sara's pee. Oh, listen to this (or maybe not if you get grossed out easily)- this morning I had to take my glucose test where you drink the orange drink, wait an hour, and then have your blood drawn. I couldn't taste that drink- downed it in 2 minutes. But then when I was coughing so hard some of it came back up- I swallowed it and didn't taste a thing. I think that falls under "too much information" and "what is grosser than gross" but I feel I have to dig deep to find the positives when I am being faced with so many negatives. And really, if you have ever been lucky enough to drink the orange drink and take the glucose test, you will understand that one will stop at next to nothing to avoid doing it again.
Negatives- Livvy's "fire bum" because I can't smell her poop, my house probably stinks like pee because I can't smell it, and darn it- I can't taste food (but my taster didn't go away until after Easter dinner- YES!)
6. Did I mention that I'm tired? Because I am.
7. I cannot medicate myself. Speaking of medication, I said to Dave the other day in reference to Livvy, "Can we medicate her for her own safety?" And I don't mean to keep her safe from herself, but to keep her safe from me. It made for a good laugh at the time, for me anyway- I just have to laugh or I will roll into the fetal position, cry, and rock myself to sleep. It's true, sort of, okay, not really but you get what I am saying.
8. So in case you haven't caught on by now, I've been a tad bit sick.

So those are my problems. Well, some of them anyway. The worst part about being sick is that I still have to take care of other people (sigh...) Livvy doesn't seem to have a "mommy's sick and so I should stop climbing out of my crib and just go to sleep" radar. I guess she didn't come equipped with one of those. The other night I put her back in her bed about 30, yes 30, times before she went to bed around midnight. She worked up a sweat with all that jumping- her little face was bright red. She even jumped out when I turned out the light and it was pitch black in her room. Needless to say, we are going to need to buy a lock and put her in the toddler bed.

My kids ate Little Caesars $5 pepperoni pizza for lunch. How is it that I am too tired to whip up a box of mac n cheese and yet here I sit, blogging away. I should be asleep... or cleaning this pig sty we call home. eh...

Life doesn't seem to stop. All my obligations and commitments don't go away just because I'm sick. In fact, I think more things come up. But I guess that's what life is all about- sucking it up, doing my part, and then somehow I am a better person for it? And yes, I ask that as a question.

I am on the mend and feeling quite better. Sometimes it's just nice to complain- because I can.