I Love Being a Parent

...most days. Do you ever have those days where you're tired of being a parent? I'm having one of those today. It usually follows a sleepless night (Mia was up until 2:30am with a stomach ache) or a day where I'm not feeling well (I'd like to thank my offspring for the lovely RSV nastiness. I feel like crap!) So, when these two things are combined together, I'm almost guaranteed a "tired of being a parent day". The day is almost half over! Only 8 hours to go. Do I sound optimistic? :)

I think Mike and I need to get away together. The last time we got away was in August for his Washington DC business trip, so it's been 7 months. I wouldn't even mind staying here at home. (After all, I'm totally freaked out about getting bed bugs from a hotel.) We'll have to kick the kids out of the house for a weekend. The nice thing is that we have two very capable sets of grandparents to take over for a couple of days. Imagine staying up as late as we want, sleeping in as late as we want, and going out to a nice quiet dinner and maybe even a movie. Of course, I'd probably make a dozen phone calls to check on my little ones! And the house may seem too quiet, but we definitely need a little vacation.

Mike will be in Phoenix until Saturday. He said it's 70 degrees there. I told him I didn't want to hear anything about it. I do have to say that it's really nice here today. It's 40 degrees, the sun is shining, and the wind is hardly blowing. The kids and I spent a good 45 minutes outside. We even trudged to the back yard and played on the swing set.

My mom and I are going to Minneapolis on Saturday for Jenna's engagement party. Mike's parents are going to watch the kids on Saturday until he comes back that night. It'll be a nice little trip. My mom got a hotel. I had her research out the bed bug database to see if it had any bed bug infestations. I am seriously paranoid about bed bugs.

On the Mend

I was able to stay home on Sunday night to help out with the kids. Mike had a rough weekend with them. But I'm happy to report that they are finally feeling better. I'm hoping to send Ethan and Mia to preschool tomorrow. They've missed a couple of days in the past week.

Mike is leaving for a business trip tomorrow. He goes to Phoenix a couple of times per year. He'll be gone until Saturday. I can't say I'm too excited about him being gone! It'll be interesting, that's for sure. I can't leave because of preschool, otherwise I'd go stay with my parents. Wish me luck!

Follow-Up

Riley was wheezing this morning, so I was able to get her squeezed in to see the doctor when I took Mia. Mia sounds much better but is still really sick. The breathing treatments are doing their job, thankfully. She still hasn't eaten anything but the doctor isn't concerned. His main concern is whether or not she's drinking. He told us to push liquids. It's easier said than done!

He didn't test Riley for RSV because he was 100% positive she had it (along with Ethan.) He listened to her and basically said her lungs sounded like crap. They did a chest x-ray on her and thankfully, it showed no obvious signs of pneumonia. We are to start breathing treatments on her as well. And since we have enough xopenex, we will start Ethan too.

I called in to get work off tonight. Three crabby kids all on breathing treatments every 4 hours is too much for one person. Plus, the girls have been throwing up. It's been miserable around here!

Acute Care

Mia continued to get worse and just looked awful, so I took her to acute care on Thursday. They did a chest x-ray, cbc, and a breathing treatment because she was wheezing. It turns out she has RSV and pneumonia. Apparently, the RSV caused the pneumonia, so it's different than bacterial pneumonia. Since Ethan and Riley both have fevers, cough, runny noses, it's safe to assume that they have it too.

We picked up a nebulizer, xopenex, and augmentin (an antibiotic) for her. She's beyond crabby. I feel so bad for her. She hasn't eaten anything in a couple of days. She is drinking some, so I guess that's the important thing.

It took about three hours to go through acute care and wait for our stuff in the pharmacy. Mia was pretty good the entire time. Though, she kept saying, "let's go, let's go" the entire time we were there.

I need to bring her back on Friday for a follow-up appointment to make sure she is still doing okay.

Just Plugging Along

I can't wait for spring! The kids are all sick again with fevers, runny noses, and coughs. I knew that they would get sick more because of preschool and daycare, but this is getting ridiculous! I think we've been sick almost the entire winter. I hope they get better soon. The only good thing about them being sick is that they are extremely cuddly.

Riley was awake almost the entire night on Tuesday night. She was running a fever and was so restless. Mia also crawled in bed with us at 5am. I got Mia some tylenol (because she felt warm) and a drink of milk. She then puked all over the place while in bed with us. I caught most of it with her blanket. There's nothing like being puked on when half-asleep! It was not a good night! Last night was a little better. Riley woke up and Mia crawled in bed with us again at 5am. Poor kids! And now Ethan is running a fever.

I'm almost done with my cabinet project. I'm debating whether or not I want to put the glaze on the frames of the cabinets and I have some holes to fill in. I'll probably finish it after I work this weekend and will post some pictures. I'm ready to be done with it. I'm very motivated the first few days, and then I start getting really sick of it. My inspiration is Paula Deen's kitchen. It didn't turn out as well as I wanted it to, but I'm liking it more each day. I've figured out that I'm quite a perfectionist when doing these types of things. I've also noticed that I get really crabby when things don't go the way I want them to. :)

Ethan is currently obsessed with spiderman. It's funny how most little boys go through that stage. He really hadn't seen any cartoons of spiderman, but one day, he wanted everything spiderman. He even does the little wrist thing and pretends to shoot webs out. It's really cute. We run around the house doing that. Even Mia and Riley get in on it. He also really likes superman right now. He pretends that he can fly. Ethan jumped on me a few times "pretending" to fly. Ouch.

Mia is currently obsessed with a frog game on my Ipad. She is constantly wanting to play it. You make the frogs jump around the lily pond and you can make little baby frogs. Riley also likes to play it, and Riley is always saying, "my turn, my turn, my turn." A fight usually follows because Mia doesn't want to give it up. Mia also really likes a horse movie. It's called something like "Spirit Horse of the Cimarron Tribe" or something confusing like that. She and Ethan fight over what to watch. Mia will say, "horse movie" and Ethan screams, "mimerman." I usually put the horse movie on for Mia and let Ethan watch spiderman on my Ipad.

Riley is still obsessed with her baby dolls. She notices if we forget one when she takes a nap and will throw a huge fit if we don't get it for her. She has recently learned how to open doors so that has been loads of fun. :) I still can't believe she'll be 2 in a month! She seems so much older than that to me. I guess it's because she copies everything the twins do, so she seems more like a 3 year old. Riley is talking a lot more so it's fun hearing all the things she comes up with.

Preschool is still going well. Both kids are flourishing. I've seen such a big improvement in their speech. Ethan has started counting better. He'll say, "one, two, three, ake, nine, ten, eweven." He is so proud of himself! Mia still says, "two, two, two" and so on until she's done. It's a work in progress.

These are the two girls Riley was bullying at the SuperBowl Party. Lillian is on the left and London is on the right.

He was chucking snowballs at me. I'm pretty sure Mike taught him that.

The girls stay pretty close to each other when they're outside.

I tell her about 15 times a day to leave my dishwasher alone. She also likes to turn my garbage disposal on and off too.

I was trying to get one of those cute pictures of our toe nails painted. Ethan wanted his done as well. I didn't think anyone would see it, but he takes his socks off as soon as he gets to daycare. Elizabeth asked me about his painted toe nails. Haha

Bucky, Potty Training, Really?

Mike decided to put Riley on the potty chair this last weekend. She actually peed. I honestly thought it was a fluke. I thought she was too young to start potty training, considering she isn't two yet.

I was letting her run around naked yesterday and put her on the potty chair. She went! We clapped, sang, and did the potty dance. She was so proud of herself. She peed 6 times in the potty chair yesterday. She's gone a few times today all ready. She doesn't really tell me she has to go. I have to ask her if she needs to go, and she always says, "yets."

I would be amazed if she were potty trained this early. I wasn't planning on starting her until she was closer to 2 1/2. I just figured she wouldn't be ready until then. I suppose she sees Ethan and Mia going and she wants to join in.

What to do this weekend...We have a spare bedroom downstairs that I've wanted painted since we've moved in. The previous owners painted it a metallic gold color and it's hideous. I think we might start that this weekend. (And we means Mike.) Of course, I am still deciding on paint colors.

I also want to finish the rest of my kitchen project. I painted my island and two hutches a green color and then antiqued over it. I'm planning on keeping my cabinets white and then antiquing over them. I have new knobs, pulls, and hinges to put on. It's such a big project that I'm dragging my feet a little bit.

Tonight, we're going over to my sister's house for pizza. Yum! I'm saving up some Weight Watchers points for that! Sarah and I are hoping to sneak out and run to the mall. The guys want to run to the fish store. Those are our plans for the night!

Desperate Times Call for Desperate Measures

So, I'm getting pretty selfish about quiet time. I say it's for the kids, but lets be honest here, it's quiet time for me. It's my "sanity time." I want at least an hour in the afternoon to do what I want to do, watch what I want to watch, and drink pop without the kids harassing me for drinks.

The little boogers have figured out how to open both types of childproof door handle locks. I've put duct tape and clear tape on them. I've tried wrapping cardboard around the door handle. I went to Target to get a baby gate only to realize that the twins know how to unlatch the one they carry. I've thought about putting a lock on the outside of their door, but I don't know if that'd look very good.

This has been happening for over a week now. My "sanity time" consists of me telling them to go back to their room and them laughing their little butts off. What's funny is when they come out of their room (and I can hear everything, by the way), they think they're being really quiet and they tell each other to "shhhhh" and then peek around the corner. I am staring at them, of course, and they both start giggling.

I got really desperate today. I decided to move my console table in front of their door.

Ethan thinks it's a big game.

Look at that smile. I was thinking that it might actually work. It's really heavy, so I didn't think they'd be able to move it.

Huh. I didn't realize that they'd be able to climb over the top of it. Even little Mia could climb over it. I then put suit cases on top of the console table. They just pushed the suit cases off and climbed over the top and came into the living room.

Then I came up with a marvelous idea. What if I took the door handle off? I got my screwdriver out and had it off in less than a minute.

Hahahahahahahaha. You two can't outsmart your mom! (This SO sounds like something my dad would say.)

Ethan's little eye peeking through the door. I'm still laughing by the way!