Thing To Do at 3am

So let's say your up at 3am and can't get back to sleep from some killer back pain. Cause it happens. What do you do?

First you...

Stay in bed. Maybe you can sleep through it. Hmmm...no.

Take all medications available. Maybe you can wait it out. Fast acting right? Should be good in 30 minutes. Hmmmm...no.

Read the next chapter in a book. Luckily, I have the next Twilight installment (Eclipse) and set out to read another chapter. But...no, I could not focus past 3 pages. Must get up.

Mess around on Facebook. I'll whine to the world about my hard luck and late night. Crap...no one is on.

Go back to bed. Might as well hang out in my room on the off chance I fall asleep or pass out or get hit on the head with a falling light fixture - either way I'm out of my misery. Alas, no falling fixtures or sleep to be had.

Catch up on some prayers. I got lots of friends with lots of prayer requests. Shamefully, I don't get to them as much as I should. I've nothing better to do, might as well get to it.

Sometime after that my pain reliever kicked in and the pain was quiet enough to fall asleep.

I awaken multiple times to Mark's repeated snoozing of his alarm - BAH!

So, what I've learned? Long night + pain + reading + drugs + Facebook = Melissa prays more.

Airing Out

Check out my babies "toofers". You may have to click on the picture, but I assure you, they can be seen.

Corbin has refused all proper teething methods, and will only chew on wooden blocks, the tail of his stuffed dog, or random tags or plastic. ACK! We compromised on a wet washcloth with a tag.

Somehow, I think letting my 9 month old chew on plastic bags would be frowned upon in most circles.

I cannot believe he's gotten all these teeth in one week. He's also gotten a lot more vocal. Random grunts, Aaaagh, and dat dat dat are heard all ... day ... long.

We leave for KY in a week, and I'm starting to get nervous. Visions of Hayden running through security and being tackled by airport personnel are invading my mind. Although, from what I've seen today, I find it unlikely they will catch him.

When I announced it was nap time, he scurried out the back door (pantless of course, cause that's just how we roll) and made me chase him around the yard to catch him. This is going to get interesting, if I'm gonna need to do this whenever I want him to do something.

We've instituted the "no special meals" policy for Hayden. In other words, he is served the same dinner that we eat, no special "Nug nugs" or any thing else. In fact, I haven't bought chicken nuggets in 2 weeks. We are still working through it, there have been a few nights where he's not eaten what's been served, but we're holding firm. I'm extremely happy that he's not living on chicken nuggets anymore. Even if we did buy the "good" ones, it's still processed crap.

The weather is gorgeous today, so I have both doors open so I can air out the house. I also get all the great outdoor noises - chimes, birds, okay yes and a truck driving by.

Today Hayden had a reaction to some bread I had bought (it had sesame seeds on it). Since I had planned on serving that bread all week, it looks like I'll have to bake some bread. And soon. Toast is apart of Hayden's breakfast. He gets toast and fruit. It's also frustrating to find yet another allergen. That brings the total to 3 - peanuts, sesame seeds, and poppy seeds. Luckily I had Benadryl on hand for these kinds of situations.

Kitchen is still going. We have tile on the walls now. But still need doors and drawers + a few other things.

Sunday Shopping

Sorry for the lack of posting. Corbin has decided to finally get some teeth, and he's an overachiever so he'd like to get all 4, right now. Two on top have broken through, the bottom two are still coming.

If you have kids with teeth, you know teething is no fun. So last week my primary goal was to survive the day, not blog about it. HA!

Hayden's speech pathologist was here last friday, I told her about the change in hearing loss and she was pleased. She explained that 10 dB loss translated into Hayden might have some articulation problems and may need to sit at the front of the class or pay closer attention to whoever was speaking so he could "tune out" ambient/background noises.

We will probably meet with the school district the end of May. His current program only lasts until his third birthday. After that the school district takes over. They have a meeting with the parents 150 days before their 3rd birthday. Since school is letting out, we'll need to get that meeting done sooner. From here, if he qualifies, he can possibly get preschool classes once he turns three. But it depends on how they think he's developing.

Today is Sunday! So that means grocery shopping. I'm really taking this budget thing to heart and have really started to enjoy saving money and getting deals!! Well, I'm not even "getting deals", I'm just shopping smarter.

This week's total was 77.36. My budget was $80. BUT...this was no typical week. We're throwing a little party for a family birthday on Saturday, so I bought all that we'd need ahead of time. Most of these items were not cheap, and not something we'd typically buy: Pre-seasoned chicken and beef fajitas and sausage links alone were $21. Plus $5 for chips and salsa.

That brings my total down to around $52. AND...I bought a bulk item that will last me for a couple months. A large bottle of olive oil for $15. And a large bottle of vinegar for $1. And a special spice that will last years for $4

So that means there was really $32 of food. EXCEPT...I wanted to make a cake for the birthday, which was another $5.

So now we're looking at $27. YET AGAIN...we're going to a dinner party on Friday where I wanted to bring a special dessert, so that added $6.

Which gives us $21.

HA! But yes, I spent $77. I spent $77 and will still be able to throw a nice birthday party with good food. I can still buy bulk items and not break the budget. I can buy special ingredients for desserts and new recipes I'd like to try, and still make it work.

And no, we're not eating bread and water for dinner.

Monday: Ground turkey, potatoes with cole slaw (I had cabbage left over from our soup this week and carrots to use)
Tuesday: Tacos (need to finish off our tomatoes and lettuce) I buy the 3 lbs of turkey in bulk this week to make 3 separate meals.
Wednesday: Leftovers
Thursday: Chicken Fried Rice
Friday: Dinner Party
Saturday: Birthday Shindig
Sunday: Pizza (my dough recipe makes 2 pizzas, so I froze half after pizza this past friday) for toppings I'm making ground turkey with taco seasoning and cheddar cheese for a "taco" pizza.

Anywho, I was REALLY pysched that I came in under budget with such pricey items.

Having a budget really lets me splurge for special occasions with out feeling guilty AT ALL.

I love it.

A Good Day

Corbin continues to amazing me. Today he mastered the concept of rolling a ball back and forth between me and him.

Having an "out of the box" thinker like Hayden as a first child, I am continually amazed by the little things Corbin does.

Hayden was not, let's say, a "team" player. He's always done his own thing. If it happened to be what you wanted it was just coincidence. HA! If you rolled a ball to Hayden, he'd grab it and just keep it. Even now, he still grabs and runs off.

To have a child who enjoys "copying" Mamma and playing her games is fun.

Hayden had another ENT appointment today. He cried a little bit for the exam, but did great for the hearing test and ear drum test. Previously, he would scream during the ear drum test and they could never get results.

His hearing has improved from 40 decibels of loss to only 10! For those unfamiliar, levels of up to 15 are normal. Anything higher is hearing loss. 40 is considered mild to moderate hearing loss. So we've made progress!! Yay!

His language is picking up well. No phrases yet, but lots of words. Sometimes we get interesting results:

Pointing at my failed attempt at pumpkin bread:

Poo Poo?

Now pointing at anything he doesn't like or want to eat:

Poo Poo?

Words uttered whenever he wants to divert attention from his brother and get us to change his diaper:

Poo Poo Pee Pee!

Whenever he gets in trouble and wants to get out of trouble quick:

Sorry (while also signing "Sorry")

When eating something he likes:

Mmmm...That's goooood (all one word)

He also thinks that if he says and signs Please he can get whatever it is he wants.

New words include Fries, Track (like train tracks), Nug Nugs (chicken nuggets), Wall-E, and EeeeevAH!

Easter...in an Eggshell

1. I got no pictures from today. :( If anyone got any with my kids in them, I'd love to get them.

2. Morning started with a downpour of rain. The egg hunt area was a mud pit and having anything outside seemed impossible.

3. God makes the impossible possible. By the time church was over not only was the sun shining, but ALL of the ground was dry.

4. Today was busy, but good. It began early at 7am with getting the kids changed, dressed, and fed. Then came making over a dozen breakfast tacos for our hardworking church setup crew. They are truly hardworking since we have to set up and tear down our church every week with no building.

5. Ye of little faith. That was me today. It's not going to stop raining. Even if it does stop raining it will be all muddy. I should have just trusted.

6. We had soooooooooooooo many eggs to hide. Wow. Our community groups went above and beyond with the eggs. We had so many, by the end we were just dumping them all over. It ended up being at least an hour job. Wow.

7. Secretly, I had hoped to sit in service since I haven't gotten a full church service in about a month. But I heard it was completely full!! Wow. It must have been, because children's ministry was hopping.

8. We had over 70 kids back in children's. I held babies until my arms ached. I hopped fences and scurried and scrambled to plug in teachers and get this and that. I hope I served my teachers well today.

9. My friend (who I will leave nameless so I don't embarrass her) was a life saver today. Between helping me with the thousands of eggs to serving in children's ministry, she went above and beyond today. I think I would have had a stroke without her. My lifesaver!

10. Every kid had overflowing baskets/bags of eggs. So even though we didn't get to hide ALL of them, there was an abundance.

11. Rudy's BBQ was good.

12. Hayden picked up eggs this year, not sticks and rocks. But I missed it. Corbin was exhausted and had passed out in my arms. I had to stick close to the shade and hold my baby. No sunshine for Corbin!

13. Unlike last year where Hayden wouldn't stay out of the Easter Bunny's lap, this year he ran away from him. He pointed out the "Bunny" and smiled at him, but didn't want to get too close.

14. Hayden loved the bouncy houses and survived the other kids. Apparently, they were getting a little wild on the slide and Mark had to "supervise" and control the situation.

15. Kids did NOT want to nap when we got home finally. Grumbling and whining from both. Then suddenly both fell asleep...at 5pm. Exhausted Mom and Dad decided to take a nap too. We all woke up at 7:30pm. Oops.

16. I still had shopping to do, hit the store at 8:30pm, got back at 10pm and kids are still up!!

17. Almost midnight and although it's been a LONG day, it's also been a miraculous day and that is worth every ounce of effort I put it and shames me for every comment or complaint I may have made about all the work.

Fun With Food

Another successful shopping trip under my belt.

This weeks total: $58.15

Menu:

Monday: Chicken, rice, and cabbage soup

Tuesday: Meatballs with cream sauce and potatoes (we didn't end up making this last week)

Wednesday: Leftovers

Thursday: Chicken, broccoli, and steamed rice and salad

Friday: Homemade chicken BBQ pizza with artichoke hearts and onions

Saturday: Eat dinner out

Sunday: Chicken enchiladas

I was pretty please with the total I spent considering at least half of the items were fresh fruits or vegetables. Strawberries, bananas, grapes, artichoke, broccoli, carrots, celery, tomatoes and lettuce. I even got a few organic items - bread, milk, yogurt, chicken stock, eggs. As well as stocked up the baking goods - sugar. And a few "extras" for Hayden whole wheat goldfish and string cheese.

This total also included food for the kids this week. We're still eating from the bulk baby food jars, so no expense there. Canned fruit in water for Hayden. Formula is still lasting from the last Costco run. I skipped the chicken nuggets for Hayden - I'm trying to "wean" him off these. Real food this week. Hopefully the poor kid doesn't try to hold out for "Nug Nugs" cause we don't have any.

I was pretty pleased with myself last week, we only ate out twice and both were cheap and planned. Wendy's on Thursday when I met up with friends at the mall for a playdate. Saturday the whole family enjoyed the IKEA restaurant. Eating out on Saturday is a nice break that I think I'm going to put into our routine. A woman can only cook so much!

Peekaboo Revisited

So we all know how much Corbin loves Peekaboo, but today was just a moment of mother bliss. While I was feeding Corbin in the high chair, Hayden wandered over, looking for something to do.

All of a sudden an impromptu game of Peekaboo broke out between the brothers.

Hayden would squat down under the high chair tray so Corbin couldn't see him, then POP up! And I would say Peekaboo, while Corbin giggled and did that awesome belly laugh you only get when he's really happy.

Then Hayden would crack up, and start it all over again.

The boys so rarely interact - Hayden's just not interested in a kid that can't walk - that it's so wonderful to see them play together, and without any prompting from me.

In other news, my baby is no longer toothless!! It only too 9 1/2 months, but it's here! Yay Corbin.