A cleaning weekend, before and after

We spent most of our at-home time over the weekend cleaning and organizing, and it has made a great difference!  Clear surfaces make my days with the kids so much easier.  The one thing we didn't clean up is the kids' mess.  Their toys are still strewn all over the living room.  They drag them right back out the minute the place is clean, so there was no point.  Here are a few before-and-after shots of what we did clean.

BEFORE:  Dining room, and this is on a good day!

AFTER:

BEFORE:  Front table, which catches all the junk we haul in from the van

AFTER:

BEFORE:  End table next to my office (the recliner where I nurse Robert/get online)

AFTER:

BEFORE:  Other side of the recliner

AFTER:

BEFORE:  Kitchen, with a Jordy who thinks these pictures are silly

 AFTER:  Oh, he likes it.

I realized after putting out my few little Halloween decorations that I need lots more of them.  There are at least a couple more things in the attic.  Other than that, maybe I'll see what I can make or find at thrift shops before hitting Party City or Halloween Express!

Let the Halloween decorating begin!

There is so much to do right now, and it's hard to get anything extra done during the day with the kids.  Usually I'm doing well just to keep up with laundry OR dishes, and keep the kids clean, fed, and homeschooled.  If Robert is giving me a break by napping, eating in his highchair, or playing in the jumperoo, I am probably fixing lunch or planning a homeschool lesson.  Not cleaning or decorating.  Saturdays are my big day to get things done, because while the kids are still here, Jordan is home too and we can help each other.

We are having a Halloween party in a couple of weeks--my favorite kind of party to have, and I can't wait!  Before I have a party, I like to make a countdown checklist with tasks specific to the days leading up to the party, and finally an hourly countdown checklist for the day of the event.  I'm not certain, but I think I saw this idea on the Reluctant Entertainer and it's been a lifesaver for events of all types.  It makes me feel so much better to see that I do have time to get it all done if I do a little each day and stick to the schedule.

Today my goal is to clean a few of our clutter hot spots and decorate them for fall.  I thought if I decorated a little at a time, when it's time for the party I'll just need to put up a few last-minute, tacky, over-the-top Halloween props and I'll be done!  So I'm getting started today.  I might even take before-and-after pics.  It drives Jordan nuts but I love them.  Update soon!

Mama when she was a little girl, by Suzi

Suzi made this and I helped her with the hair.  It is me.  I love it.

My Mosa

Four random things for the fourth:

1)  Suzi picked up some seed pods in my parents' yard and took them to my mom, wanting to know what they were.  My mom told her, in her southern accent, "those are mimosa seeds."  While we were over at their house yesterday, Suzi came running up to me with a little bucket of seed pods, and proudly told me "these are Grandma's mosa seeds!"  Because, see, they weren't mimosa seeds.  They were my mosa seeds. Giggle.

2)  Kids' Halloween costumes.  I have it all figured out.  Now I just need to get started sewing.  Suzi wants to be a bat.  Easy enough, that's just a black outfit with awesome wings on the arms and a hat with bat ears.  I asked Ivey if she wanted to be Ponyo and she said yes.  I'm a little unsure about sewing a red Ponyo dress.  Might have to get some help on that one.  Then I plan to use orange hair chalk to make her hair look like Ponyo's.  She is going to be adorable!  And then yesterday it hit me that with his hair short, Robert looks a lot like Harold of "Harold's Purple Crayon."  So, basically, I'll just need to hand him a purple crayon on Halloween and he'll be all set!  I might try to find a little blue outfit for him if we don't have one already.  Also, Jordan said we should probably just make him a pretend crayon out of cardboard.  He's probably right.  Otherwise little Harold will be coloring things purple wherever we go.

3)  Life is so much easier when the dining room table is clear.  It's usually buried, but today it's clean and we've been homeschooling at it.  I think I'm going to start clearing it several times a day, even if I have to dump the stuff somewhere (anywhere!) else.

4)  Bike riding has finally clicked for Suzi.  She's still using training wheels and probably will be for a while, but she has such a good time and I'm sure she'll progress to two wheels quickly now.  I'm not sure which she is fonder of, the bike itself or the Buzz Lightyear bell we got for her.  She rings it at cars, and also calls out greetings such as "hello, friendly cat!"  Have I mentioned she wears black Converse All-Stars while all this is going on?  I can hardly take the cuteness.  Seeing her ride her bike makes me so happy.

Day #3

Today my dad watched Suzi and Ivey while my mom and I took Robert shopping at our favorite slightly-out-of-town thrift shop.  They always have treasures, and they support a great program.  It was wonderful to shop undistracted for a little while, and when I got to the checkout my total was lower than I thought!

Then there was sewing with my mom while the kids played.  We are working on a scarecrow nativity for church.  We ate my friend's amazing chili for dinner at our church's First Wednesday night.  The kids were whiny and uncooperative by the time we left for home.  Actually, that is an understatement.  There was screaming.  They finally went to sleep, though, and now Jordan and I are watching Dr. Who together.  And I remembered to post!

Lovely day, overall.

Just eat, child. Pleeeease.

Ivey has decided she hates to eat dinner.  It doesn't really matter what it is.  Jordan makes various kid-friendly, reasonable dinners, and the only ones she'll consistently eat a halfway decent amount of are things like macaroni and cheese.  Obviously we can't have that every night!  Some nights, like tonight, we have to beg her to take every bite.  And then beg her to chew and swallow.  It's exhausting.

I don't believe in forcing a kid to be a "plate cleaner."  I don't think children should be forced to eat foods they hate, and I'd be completely willing to make a sandwich for her on nights when we're having something she truly dislikes.  But it's almost every night, and there are already plenty of foods Jordan and I like but don't even bother to make because they aren't kid-friendly.  We are being reasonable!

I am also not above saying "fine, go on to bed then" if she refuses to eat.  Sometimes kids just aren't that hungry, for whatever reason.  But here is the terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad part:  If Ivey goes to bed without eating enough, she'll wake up at 4 am vomiting.  I don't have to tell you how miserable that is.  Ivey suffers, obviously.  We have to leap out of bed, take care of her, change her clothes, move Suzi to another bed, change the sheets, and wash any stuffed animals or other casualties.  It's an instant Mount Washmore.  We all start our day tired and out of sorts, and we have to be careful what we feed Ivey for a few hours or the whole thing will happen again.

I worry about her teeth.  It's not good to so frequently expose them to stomach acid this way.  However, if we cave and give her candy bars for dinner every other night in a desperate bid to get calories into her, we are compromising her dental health and general health!

It's a really crappy situation, and we are working to find the answer(s).  I think the most likely cause is hypoglycemia, which she could get from either side of the family.  I used to wake up sick so often at slumber parties and overnight trips that for a while, my mom picked me up from events before bedtime.  I needed late night snacks so I wouldn't wake up nauseous with low blood sugar.  We are also trying to give her a longer stretch of time between dinner and bedtime, in case it's a digestion issue.  This is not easy to do, because it takes her 45 minutes to eat five bites of food.  Finally, I read online that reflux sometimes presents in a similar way, so we are propping her pillow up a bit to help with that.

Tonight after dinner--she ate maybe five bites of shrimp and rice--I gave her yogurt for dessert.  I'm hoping this easily digested, easily absorbed food with protein will get her through the night.  And I'm also praying this is just a temporary phase she's going through and not a serious problem!

NAK: A Robert update

I've had this blog since 2007 and have never done a write-every-day-for-a-month thing, so I thought maybe I'd do it now.  Also, this blog has been rather neglected as I've tried to also post somewhat regularly on my homeschool and derby blogs.  I'm going to try this and see how it goes.  Not exactly sure what I'll write about every day for a month!

Today, I'll start with Robert.  I've been meaning to post about him.  He'll be 18 months old next week--one of my favorite, yet one of the most challenging ages.  His haircut has really grown on me.  Now, instead of a bunch of curls and wispy hair in his eyes, the first thing you notice is his big, sweet eyes.  It also looks very blonde since the big haircut.

Bouncing at a friend's house

He's using more and more words and phrases now.  The ones I can think of right now are Mama, Daddy, shoes, cookie ("cook-cook"), water ("wa"), "I want," yeah, no, and outside.  And then there are my two favorites:  "thank you" and "ruff-ruff!"  If he hears a dog barking, he barks back.  I love it.  Oh, and he also says "boo-boo."  That's when he wants to nurse.  He was nursing while I typed a lot of this.

Since it's been warm anyway, I've hardly put shoes on the boy until recently.  He loves to wear them and holds his little feet up for me to put them on him.  With his cute little Skidders shoes on, he spends a lot more time running around with the big kids.  When we go to the church for our homeschool co-op, I take him out of his car seat and just put him down to let him follow his sisters inside.  On the playground, he runs around and climbs the structures.  He looks so proud when he gets to the top of something.  We took the kids to the zoo yesterday and he had a great time looking and pointing at all the animals, and then playing on the playground.

He loves Daddy.  On Friday he stood on our love seat looking out the front window, asking me questions like "Daddy?  Is Daddy?  Daddy ha?"  Poor little guy.  I totally understand.  I miss Daddy when he's at work too!

He can be a pain in the butt as well.  He pours drinks in the floor, pulls out items from drawers and cabinets I really wanted him to leave alone, and doesn't do much napping except for when he's nursing or being held.  Jordan has the golden touch for putting him down so he stays asleep, and getting him right back to sleep once he wakes up.

He doesn't watch movies like the other kids (and the dog).  He much prefers climbing on things and just generally wreaking havoc.

Oh, little troublemaker Bob.  He's my constant companion.  The girls go to Grandma and Grandpa's house regularly, but Robert runs them ragged and they can't handle it.  Except for once or twice a month when they keep him for just a couple of hours for me to do something like take the girls to a Tri-Art show that is only for ages three and up, it's me and Bobber.  Together.  All the time.  It's not always easy.

He's so sweet, though.  I love him and am still so happy he was our big surprise.  I think about nine months or so in the future, when he will be a little more predictable and will probably be learning to use the potty, and my life just might be evening out a bit.  It helps get me through the tough days of nonstop messes and having to be on constantly, watching and intervening and never getting very much done.  It lets me enjoy the sweet toddler cuddles and cuteness of now, knowing it's all a season.  A wonderful, messy season.

I'll try to post every day this month.  Sometimes it's hard to find a minute to concentrate.  There may be a few days I write two sentences about how tired I am and hit publish.  Oh well.  Doing the best I can!