"Sis" and "ter"

LOL! That's how Big Sister learned to say "sister" instead of "sTister!"

My sister totally made my day (week?!) last week. She sent me one of those cute square hallmark cards.... it has kids with raincoats on, holding hands and carrying lunch boxes. I tried to find it, but this pic gives you the gist....

Anyway, on the inside, it says something super appropriate to the humor my sis and I have:

We'll be fine as long as we've got each other --

and plenty of snacks!

And in it, she said some sweet, encouraging things and included a giftcard to Sonic (man, I have an addiction to vanilla diet cokes during happy hour! It's a serious problem... Hi, I'm Elaine and I love sonic.)

Isn't that the best? Funny thing is.... my shit hit the fan on Sunday, so she sent that on Monday.... and hers hit the fan on Tuesday and I emailed her, telling her I wanted to help and what could I do? Send a sonic gift card? And funny, one was on the way to me.

And that's why I hope Big Sister gets a little sister someday... (oh, and I ended up sending her a piece of cheesecake from The Factory!!)

Why don't Grandmas get it?

That we don't need any more toys!!!!!! That when I say, why don't you buy the kiddos some clothes for Valentine's day, they don't need more toys.... that I mean it!
Instead, Big Sister comes home from a trip to the store with Magaw, and she's got this:

Agh! Too bad Big Sister will soon have to play with it nekkid!

The Reader

Okay, so when you only go to the movies 2-3 times a year, there's all this pressure for the movie to be really good. And for us, that usually means an Oscar-nominated is a big, fat waste of time. Case in point:

So, my parents were in town from OK for the weekend, and we got the rare opportunity for a free babysitter! (We're in a recession, remember, people?) So, off we head to the movies... instead of going to the one near us, we had to go to the one in the mall, because we had cashed in credit card rewards for AMC movie tickets (again, the effects of the damn recession). The mall is annoying because the traffic is bad and I get really scared about Big Sister ever becoming a teenager.... the girls wear THE shortest skirts and I can't describe to you the teenage makeout sessions. Ewww....

We were going to see Taken, a thriller/mystery about a kidnapping with that girl Shannon from "Lost".... but we couldn't use our 'reward' tickets on it, so we had to pick a movie starting at the same time that was available to us.... We'd both heard of The Reader, it's about the war in Germany, concentration camps, etc... it's nominated for awards, I like Kate Winslet.... I FELL ASLEEP, if that tells you anything. Granted, I'm beyond exhausted lately, but 30 min in, I was already fighting a nap. It was okay.... I'm just saying.... it made me contemplate just snoozing for 2 (un-interrupted!) hours... The last movie we saw was Madagascar 2 with Big Sister, and I liked it better. What has happened to me?

I'll be back later to show you the semi-homemade Valentine's I'm going to whip up for Big Sister and G-man's classes at school...

'Roid Rage!

And that's how G-man rolls on steriods.... :(
He's 6 months old and has been up since 4:45am!
RSV stinks - Send help!

Semi-Homemade Birthday Party

So, I told you that I like to throw really fun, creative parties. And I've been fairly capable of that in the short years I've been a mom. But... then came this year, with the big family Christmas at OUR house, the run of illness including RSV, the still-adjusting-to-2-kiddos-plus-2-full-time-careers... the list goes on. Long story short, we got to January without a party planned for Big Sister.... and her birthday was Dec 29. Damnit.

Don't get me wrong, we did the family thing while everyone was here for Christmas... but it wasn't the creative kind of party I like to throw. It was a BBQ dinner after G-man's baptism, with balloons and a Tink cake (eek - a character! How did this happen?!) Oh, and some rock band with Mr. Fix-It and Uncle Frank:

But, in my mind, a party isn't a party unless there's some type of theme and everything - invites, cake, food, decor, everything! - ties back to it. I felt like I'd run out of time and I can't describe to you the sadness I felt that I'd let down my precious 3 year old (okay, so I don't think she even noticed, but that's the kind of irrationality that comes with being a mom, right?)

I tossed around the idea of doing what everyone else in her preschool class was doing - gym/bounce house-type parties.... the ease of it all was very tempting... but it was going to be hard to be as creative as I wanted. In the end, Mrs. Everything had the brilliant idea that the 4 of us and the 3 of them would load up and go to Great Wolf Lodge - a mini vacation.

I immediately got started on a safari/camping theme... Okay, so I only needed one invite, BUT.... in my mind, the invite would make it a 'real' party, so I whipped one up quickly late on a Fri night. Here it is:

Instead of a cake, I made cupcakes with oreo 'dirt' and gummy worms crawling out.... (Believe it or not, it was entirely dairy-free! Duncan Hines cake mixes are dairy free. But even more unbelieveable is that frosting can be dairy free and so are oreos!! Let's just not think about how or why that's possible...

We had so much fun! We got there on Fri, had dinner, got in the pool and did the baby slides... they kiddos played until 9pm, then time for storytime at the bell tower, and then the infamous cupcakes at 10pm!! Troopers! The next morning, we headed back to the waterpark and Big Sister rode all the rides (even some she wasn't tall enough for!), did the lazy river, and ate way more Oreos than a kiddo ever should. Unless it's their birthday. Super fun!

And that's how I did just enough to give her a creative, but not entirely time consuming, bday party.... semi-homemade.

And people, bare with me as my pics aren't in the order I wish they were... this damn blogging, I knew I didn't have time to figure it out....

RSV Outbreak!!

Man, I just got off the phone with Mrs. Everything and their daughter P has RSV! Poor baby (and poor momma!!) I just hate that for them.... and they can't even borrow our nebulizer because G-man will be using it for the next 5wks to 6 months! I pray that they just need it for a few days!

Here's a pic of little G-man at Christmas, during his first run with nasty RSV....

Hope this is the last of it and all our kiddos can stay healthy!

Fun give away!!

Okay, I've never done this, as I'm so new to the blogging world... but I just love, love personalized, customized, creative stuff! I like to come up with an idea and find someone to help make it happen (that makes it semi-homemade, right?!) Check this out for some super cute stuff!

http://magnoliasmarriageandmanhattan.blogspot.com/

The umbrella

I'm breathing easier today! Our umbrella (aka Mawgaw to Big Sister, mom to Mr. Fix-It, and my amazing mom-in-law!) has arrived. It's amazing how much better I felt last night, just knowing she was on her way from OK.

So... to catch you up from yesterday's post (sorry to leave you hanging!), everyone's health had gone downhill last week and we'd ended up with the following diagnosis, after Mr. Fix-It took the kids to the ped:

Mr. Fix-It: the flu! Poor guy, he was so miserable!

G-man: bronchiolitis (RSV) and perhaps the beginning of asthma. Poor baby! He's back to 4 breathing treatments a day and a steriod (which we're only going to give him in the morning to attempt to skip out on the sleepless weeks and 'roid rages we experienced last round!) He can go back to school if/when daycare can administer the breathing treatments!

Big Sister: she just tagged along with her fever... and it's a good thing she did! She has strep and one of her ear tubes appears to be blocked. She wins a ticket to the ENT with me this afternoon.

But my mom-in-law is here, which means Mr. Fix-It and I can both be at work and I'm guessing we'll come home to something yummy for dinner. Thank God for family - we're truly blessed....

Some relief!

Well, after 40 days and 40 nights, it's still raining.... but we just got handed an umbrella!

What am I talking about that's of Biblical measure? Kids and their sickies! Ugh!!! Literally, the you-know-what hit the fan 40 days ago.... and our life (and sleep patterns!) haven't been the same since!

The baby, little G-man, first got sick on Christmas Eve.... spent his first Christmas just miserable. (Did I mention we had 10 house guests?? And some great memories, but today they're overshadowed by all the illness memories. I'll have to try to post about the 'good Christmas' later.) By the day after Christmas, he was wheezing and it was RSV, the most feared 'super-bug' of all daycare bugs by all moms I know. Two rounds of meds and 4 breathing treatments a day and he almost had it shaken... he was put on a steriod to finish it off, and bam! Just like that, no sleep - night OR day! - for 2 wks. For any of us. Even Big Sister.

About an hour after he got over that, we had him put in a helmet to fix the flat spot on his big noggin (he has plagiocephaly - flat noggin syndrome)! It took him 5 long, painful nights to adjust to sleeping in that thing, and I really don't blame the poor guy.

Meanwhile, Big Sister takes a nasty fall (running to time out at daycare, I might add) and bites THRU her lip. As in you can see daylight thru the nasty gash. Poor baby, it appears she got my grace. And this on the night before we celebrate her 3rd birthday at Great Wolf Lodge with the Friends-We-Do-Everything-With (the Everythings) and their precious daughter P.

I would fast forward to now, but I'm exhausted with that account... I'll get on later with an update of the current state of affairs.... and God, if you're listening.... thanks for the umbrella. (I'm imagining that it's that really cute Coach one I saw a girl carrying the other day....)

There's no denying it now.... I'm in my 30's

And I'm not just now getting to the party either! So, I'm 31... okay, let's move on.

But really, I had the. sweetest. birthday yesterday. Especially considering I had a super sick husband and baby and Big Sister had strep. The weekend before, sweet husband (he's a builder... let's call him Mr. Fix-It and when I come up with something clever we'll change it).... took me to the mall where he had me pick out a super cute outfit from Gap. Now, this outfit suggested I'd be spending time at a spa.... but never in my wildest dreams would I have come up with this!

My sweet friend Mrs. Everything (who helped plan this whole thing - lucky me to have such a dear friend!) picked me up Sat morning with a soy vanilla latte (that's a whole other topic in itself... that I've gone dairy-free while nursing my sweet baby boy G-man. Anyway, that's my current fave at the 'Bucks... As we're discussing how nice it will be to get some grown-up girly time without wiping up spit up or feeding someone or even hearing the word "mommy," she drives us there.... to Cooper Spa! This is a super nice, we-can't-afford-it-in-this-recession spa.

OMG, it was amazing... I was pampered for hours! First a massage. Usually, I don't have the attention span for massages and I don't relax well.... that doesn't make me a very good massage participant. But I didn't want this one to end! Love.ly. Then on to a facial - my first one! (I'm sure the tech could tell!) Then manis and pedis and lots of good girly talk. We left and had lunch and both kiddos were up from naps when I got home. Heaven. Just the best. I love you, Mr. Fix-It and Mrs. Everything!