Been married 11 years today

We are on the last leg of our 9 hour odyssey from vegas to Sunnyvale. The kids and are there for quite some time while Krismon goes back to work. I am looking forward to a break from the heat so the kids can play outside like they should in the summer. Seeing friends and family that we don't get to see often enough. Travel on our anniversary? Sure! Our commitment is to each other but also to our family. This is a great present to ourselves and our kids. Let's just hope my on laws think so too.

Another milestone

My lazy days are over. So I used to be able to let him go into the living room on his own. He likes our 'library' as Maggie calls our book case. He likes to pull out the books and look at them and if they are paper, of course, try to rip them. But now, now.... hmmm he can climb on the low couches in the room. ugh and our coffee table is marble. So maybe I should just move the table.... but where?

He was so pleased with himself when he got up on the couch and then when he went over the arm of the couch and was even more pleased. This means that I am going to have reposition pictures and move more stuff out of reach.

Secretly. I am glad for him. It's so nice to capture these moments and have this blog as my memory keeper.

Same story different Kid

So when I weaned Maggie 3 years ago, she started getting these diaper rashes. They were pretty bad. We even used nystatin to try and get rid of them. Nothing until we determined that she had an intolerance to citrus and strawberries. And unfortunately, her little bum still isn't too happy with those fruits.

Fast forward to last week, Maggie's first recital was Wednesday. Harry fell asleep in my arms at the auditorium and that was that. No more breastfeeding since that day. Yes to some degree I am happy for the freedom and I know I explored this in another post. I guess I was hoping that we wouldn't be where we are right now. His little bum is on fire. He has woken up the past 3 or more days with a dirty diaper and just crying pitifully. And if his diaper isn't dirty, his leg will be stuck. It is tough to push the slats apart so I can get his leg out.

So that is two things I need to solve. I feel terrible that his diaper rash has gotten so bad since we stopped breastfeeding so now I have to solve that and most likely figure out what food is causing that problem.  I may just start the whole potty learning thing so we can try and ward off some of the rash. And then it will be finding something to bumper the crib so his legs won't get stuck.

Wish me luck.

Maggie's first Dance Recital

Yes that is 3 costume changes. And she did awesome both nights. They did 'The Little Mermaid' story and then Seasons of the Year. And yes it was wayyyyy toooo loooong, like one hour tooo long. The show was 3 hours and Maggie had to be there an hour earlier than that. Oy! She did fantastic though. And she had great fun with her dance friends. It was fun to see her so excited and have such a great time.

Tired oh so tired

Yesterday was a long day. Oh boy. Maggie's first dance recital is tonight and tomorrow night. Last night was the dress rehearsal, 4 hours long! Yes that's right. She was there for at least 4 hours.  I took her, stayed an hour, drove to the store, shopped, drove home. Then 20 minutes later, I took my mom there. Got home at 6:30. I had hoped that the men people could feed themselves from the stuff I bought but no. We finished dinner, were cleaning up when my Lia Sophia person came for the party. Got house mostly picked up and then Harry down for the night. Friends showed up, we had a great time. The kids had fun with their friends but were up wayyyyyy tooo late. Oy.

Maggie napping, I was hoping Max would nap but I think that is a no go. And tonight we get to see the fun of Maggie recital. And then I am going straight to bed because it is past my bed time.

Polar Exhibit

Friday the kids and I went to the mall for an exhibit housed in an unused store.  Max was pretty independent while Maggie had lots of questions that she wanted answered. Harry just got to sit in the stroller and come along for the ride.

Maggie's hand in the Polar Bear foot print. And yes she suckered me into painting her nails.

Max's hand in the other foot print.

The two of the them together learning. Or at least I hope that is what I was capturing. :)

Max as a penguin.

Maggie as a penguin. And yes my camera just didn't want to capture the whole slide.

The kids getting weighed like a polar bear would in the wild.

Max didn't want to leave but I knew the other two were pretty well done. We braved the mall a little longer and went to Chevys for lunch. I sometimes can't believe that I am actually willing to take 3 kids to a restaurant by myself. Harry enjoyed the tableside guac. That was pretty much his lunch besides having a little of my rice and beans and a few bites of chicken. Does anyone else think it is weird that a mexican restaurant, okay, americanized mexican restaurant serves fries with the kids meals?

A Hard Day

In my head, I am envisioning Signing Times where some little boy says that in the back ground and then they show signs for emotions like sad and crying. It was a tough day.  Krismon ended up having to work a lot of it, luckily from home but still hard. The kids were up at their usual 6am. Because Krismon ended up working, I slept in til 7. And yes if I had the coffee maker in my room, I would have stayed in there longer and hid out.  This was one of those seen but not heard days so most of the day was spent trying to keep the noise level down for work purposes and nap times.  It was my tough day. We didn't leave the house and I was tired of the effect that tv has on the kids so we kept it off most of the afternoon. Now that is a good thing and a bad thing. It means the kids do other things than just sit and watch. But it's important to find them things that aren't destructive. We tried games but Maggie is still learning to play and how to play nicely. I swear Max didn't truly learn how to play board games until this year. I am hoping that by the end of Summer that will be mastered so that we can keep the tv off more.

Krismon has decided to take a hand in Maggie's word learning which will help me out. That girl likes to pretend she won't know a word that she said without even looking at it barely  two pages before. OMmmmmmm Namaste. Yes that is what I need to do more of drink wine and meditate.

Chicken said Cluck!

I can officially say that is Maggie's first book. It took over an hour to read with lots of hair pulling (me pulling mine that is, it's a wonder that I have any left) before she read the whole book. I wore her down and decided to be more stubborn than her. Yes it was possible. This is one time where I would like to shake my fist at phonics. Yes, it does help for sounding out words but then it becomes a crutch or a way to pretend that she needs to continuously sound out words. ARGH me mateys!

At least she did like the word Grasshopper....

Annoyed and sad this morning

I woke up on the wrong side of the bed. We had our middle of the night visitor AGAIN. Maggie has been fighting a cold and it seems to be causing her to wake up the last few nights. Last night I couldn't even open my eyes when she came in. And then she had the audacity to wake up at 5:40 and try to get us up as well. And then when that didn't happen she went into her room to wake Max up. UGH!

I was just not on my game this morning. I am hoping to get my game back at some point. I decided that we would go to a polar exhibit. It's at the mall so who knows maybe I will find myself something. lol.

SAD..... We have been slowly weaning for a month now. I had decided yesterday to move down to just one feeding a day. I really thought about which feeding to drop. I decided to drop the morning feeding. Well last night we had a little bbq with friends. Harry didn't get down until almost 7:30. He didn't want to nurse. I knew the time was coming and I know I could keep it going but I want the freedom too. It's such a mixed feeling. He is our last baby and that relationship is so special.  I am sure I will have a good cry and then a good smile. I am ready for some alone time with Krismon without worrying about Harry. And that time is drawing near. That's the smile.

Grad school

So life has to move on and on and I am happy to report that my parents seem to be accepting everything a little better today. It's not like it is new so the shock wears off a little quicker even if it doesn't mean everything is truly better.

Maggie had goopy eyes yesterday but that seems to be gone today. Today, her ear hurts. I will probably take her in tomorrow if she continues to complain but here is hoping the tylenol helps soon.

Yesterday was spent proving to school that I live and have lived in Nevada at least a year.  Today I got to take the kids with me and get shots. Good times!

UNLV requires current shots of Tetnus/Diptheria and MMR. The MMR is two doses. So the kids got to be there and see my face. Maggie held my hand when I got the first shot. I don't think the doctor was really that thrilled that I brought the kids but oh well. It took just moments and then he gave us all a little chocolate. Ahhhh he became the kids favorite person.

4th of July

I hope everyone had a great day and weekend. It was a long weekend of fun with the kids. This year seems so different from last year. Yes Harry is a year older and can walk and my boobs aren't going to fall off but that isn't it. The older two are well older. They can do so much more and appreciate so much more. They are had their normal Saturday activities, dance and violin. Sunday, we were lucky to have good plans. Our friend, John, had a cd release party/bbq.

Okay so this was supposed to be a good post about the fun of the weekend and the joyful times with the kids.

Unfortunately, this afternoon a phone call took the wind out of my sails. My Dad called. They found cancer in my Mom again. It's been again and again and again and again. She has fought breast cancer and ovarian cancer. She got rid of her breasts avoiding chemo and radiation. She was diagnosed like 10 years later with ovarian cancer. She went through chemo as well as surgery. And then she was gone through neuro endrocrine cancer. The last time nearly killed her, the surgery and recovery were so bad. And now, and now, and now. Now they found more cancer behind her stomach. There is no such thing as simple surgery for her anymore when it comes to her belly so she is unwilling to go through what she went through last time. She wants to get radiation. It seemed like if it was going to rain that it would pour. The kids kept hurting themselves. Maggie's eyes are all goopy. So I think at one point most of us were crying for various reasons.

It's just how, how, how. I mean really. And it sucks for me but for her and for my dad. It just leaves me speechless.

I survived 3 days

I am still somewhat scared about the next month but.... so far so good. The kids are, of course, fighting somewhat but I think Harry helps kind of alleviate certain problems. He does a good job of crawling all over them and getting them to giggle. I will need to capture it at some point.  But it is nice to hear them so happy. 

Today the kids watched The Lion King while Harry napped. Afterwards, we watched a show on the travel channel called secret something. It was a pretty cool show. The one we watched was about Cambodia. It was really cool how the guy really showed history. Max was fascinated by it. Maggie liked it but was a little bored off and on. 

There was a show on NBC two summers ago, I believe. It was a competition of families and it was a treasure hunter show. It was really cool because it taught US history during the course of the show while giving a real picture of our history through the travel. It was fun to watch and I remember feeling sad that Max wasn't old enough to be able to really watch or appreciate. It hasn't been done again, unfortunately. 

We did watch the Lisa Kudrow show that showed stars genealogy. That was pretty cool too. I really love these type of shows that bring history to life. History detectives is another show that we have enjoyed watching in the past.

I am almost weirdly and oh so nerdily looking forward to Summer Vacations where we can travel and see and experience places with them. I want to do an East Coast trip. They want to go to Germany to see their Aunts. We want to go to China. And who knows where else? 

Seeing The Lion King with them and kind of through their eyes just brings so much joy. I can still feel it several days later. 

Wanderlust and an appreciation for our World would be the best present that I feel like I could give them.

Summer rules

So with the kids all home for the Summer meaning the next month or so, I worried about the behavior I saw last summer with Max. We let Max and Maggie stay up a half or so later last Summer to disastrous effects. Maggie not so much but Max had some wild kid moments. He lashed out when we tried to get him off the computer kicking and hitting. I didn't realize until a month later that it was probably because he needed to be in bed sooner. This Summer, so far, their bedtime hasn't changed, instead we are just being a little more flexible on a day by day basis.  Also, I feel like this Summer Max needs a break from school.  He worked hard this year.

Hmm I guess I should get to the rule. If the kids want to watch tv or play on the computer, they have to do something to earn it. They are still taking violin lessons so practice time is earning time. It's easy for Max to practice and he is enjoying it now. Maggie not so much. But Max was the same way at her age. I figure once she gets a few songs under her belt she will feel better about the violin.

If not violin, then Max has books to read this Summer.  And Maggie gets to practice her letters and numbers and words.  This is all exciting for me because then it means I get to watch tv. Shhhh so it is my reward too.

And guess what? Harry can now stand up on his own without pulling up on something. AMAZING! I saw him do it this morning so I mark this day Harry Stand Up Day! Yay!

First day of Summer AND The Lion King

Yesterday both kids were out of school. I have been looking forward to and dreading this at the same time. The kids had their second set of swim lessons.  They enjoyed them. We came home, they played, they fought. They played, they fought. And so on and so forth. I tried to get them to rest for the big night.

Oh and we decided that the kids need to earn their tv time at this point. So they both practiced violin buying an hour. Ahhh a glorious hour of quiet.

We didn't tell the kids what we were doing. We had Allison come and watch Harry. We took the kids to Mandalay Bay. We got a cookie and some ice cream. We kept them guessing the whole time. It wasn't until we had walked up to the theater doors that they figured it out! It was so fantastic to keep it a secret. And thank you locals appreciation deals! Okay so one thing. If you have kids my age and my height don't get the first row in the balcony. They couldn't completely see over the low wall that wasn't quite low enough. That meant they sat in my and Krismon's lap for pretty much the entire performance. While it got a bit old and heavy holding them, it was still great to get the hugs and kisses throughout the performance. And I know it won't last. I will keep those moments in my heart. To hear those gasps because they were right next to my ear. During the break, Maggie was a chatter box to anyone and everyone within hearing. She was so happy to be surprised and wanted everyone to know. They helped dish out more smiles.

The performance itself. FAN FREAKING TASTIC! It was so much fun to see. The music was awesome, the dancing was sooooooooooo good. And I hope Maggie really took something away from it and understands that what she is doing in ballet is connected to what they did on stage.  I just can't say enough. I loved that it was the kids first musical and that we had not seen it either. Great experience.

And we all looked pretty darn dapper. I am just sorry that I didn't take pictures of us.