wish we were there

we have been back from the beach for ten days. those crazy ten days have included 2 weddings, an engagement shoot, a cancelled shoot, 3 days of preschool-one including water day, a ballet class, a work dinner, an allergic reaction and trip to the emergency room, a follow-up appointment, 2 trips to church, a ten year anniversary date, a birthday party, a mother's day family engagement, and a ballet recital. add in your regular trips to target, the grocery, a quick trip to hernando to check out an antique store, a leaking washing machine, locking myself out of the house on a preschool morning and so on. but, i haven't forgotten about the beach. oh, the beach . . . 

mr. david made up a song with really cool lyrics that everyone could remember. it goes a little something like this:

"we're going to the beach, beach, beach"

these simple words were sung by everyone all the time

it takes some of us longer to adjust after sleeping than others. carter could wake up, put on a bathing suit and hit the door, but this sweet guy needs a few minutes to welcome the day or the afternoon . . .

i find that with each kid we add to the mix, the longer it takes to do anything. by the time i slather down three kids, put on swim diapers and bathing suits, it is already noon. it is a good thing our condo is on the beach; otherwise, i don't think we would ever get there.

it never failed that this precious girl had to eat shortly after my toes hit the sand. (it didn't matter when the last time she ate was.) but, the good thing about babies, especially third babies, they can sleep anywhere . . .

especially under a tent listening to the waves hit the shore.

and when she woke up, she could always play with her friend, charlie. and, if he was sleeping, just hit him in the face until he woke up, too.

spencer had a few firsts on this trip . . . 

first time at the beach

first pair of sunglasses (not her thumb, she is an old pro at sucking her thumb)

first time to put her toes in the pool

first time to have her toes colored orange when someone got bored riding in the car

by the last day, we have it all together, but before then, we spend more time going back to the condo and trying to talk someone into staying just a few more minutes before we go to the pool. 

"my teeth are cold!" 

a response to my asking "are you cold?" to carter on a bathroom break from the pool.

ms.jennifer tells miller "it is not good for your body" for him to drink water out of the pool, to which miller replies, "but it's yummy for my mouth!"

miller's "diamond ring," as he called it:

talk about a boy-he would sit in this and kick himself around the pool. he liked it because he could be independent, but he didn't want to wear the swimmies or work on learning to swim. looks like swim lessons should be fun with him, too?!? ha!

we, of course, had to make our required outlet shopping day. luckily, it rained one day to help us make the decision easier. here, they are entertaining ourselves while spencer had a little snack . . .

carter: how old are you?

josh: 32

carter: wow, daddy, that's a lot of oldness!

we had a blast! miller is already asking to go back. 

"we're gonna miss the beach, beach, beach . . ."

10 years ago . . .

ticket to ride

let me preface this by saying that i have so many posts started and beach pictures to post, but they have taken a back burner to the craziness that began yesterday after preschool.

so, when i found out i was expecting our third bundle of joy (and joy, she is), i was told by several seasoned mommies that the thing that changes most is the amount of time you spend at the doctor. we have never been regular appointment holders at any one doctor, but miller's skin has caused us to visit quite the menagerie. we have been to two pediatricians, a dermatologist and an allergist. with each step, we have seen miller's skin improve. our visits were driven by a desire to improve his eczema, but we did eventually end up at an allergist because we feared he had food allergies due to two reactions that occurred between 6 months and 1 year. the first occurred during friday night dinner when his big sister touched his arm with her food covered hand. she was eating strawberry yogurt and a salad with ranch dressing. the reaction subsided with benedryl. the second occurred at preschool when his teachers supplemented his lunch with a townhouse cracker. once again, a trip to target for some benedryl did the trick. when we did go to the allergist, miller had a skin test that revealed allergies to peanuts (4+), wheat (4+) and corn (2). they told us he is not to eat peanuts and gave us an epipen, but said the others could stay in his diet unless his skin improved when removed (it did not and that is another story of 10 miserable days).

fast forward more than two years to yesterday afternoon, i am feeding spencer when everyone starts asking for a million things-water colors? scissors? snack? milk? yada, yada, yada. i ask for them to wait one minute until spencer is finished or josh gets home. when he arrives, he dishes out several snacks and they sit on the floor to enjoy them. while they are eating, miller makes a gagging noise, but keeps eating-not at all uncommon for miller, he LOVES to eat and very littler can deter him. at the point he starts coughing. and coughing. and coughing. he sits with me for a while and wants me to carry him around-a little clingy. josh makes dinner and miller helps while coughing. he drinks some water and some milk, but still coughs. when asked, he says he is fine. when he begins to eat dinner (salad), he says, "i want this out." he doesn't eat dinner at all. he is scratching (not uncommon after a week at the beach or a day at preschool) and coughing. i asked it he wanted something different and he replied,"no, i will eat it when i get this out," and gestured towards his neck. hmmm . . . . josh gives him some benedryl as we are beginning to think he may be having an allergic reaction. we notice his cheeks are red and he is really scratching, so i ask josh to carry him to his room so we can see him in better light. when we take his clothes off, his knees are covered in whelps and he has red dots on his thighs. all of his typical eczema areas are severely inflamed and warm to touch. i decide to call the after hours line to talk to a nurse. while we wait for her call, miller begins to wheeze but is still carrying on a conversation and appears to have no difficulty breathing or communicating. he also starts asking for medicine and climbs onto the changing table to get his topical cream from its basket. i am definitely starting to think this is more severe. josh reads the epipen instructions where we notice it has an expiration date and it is nearing it. (people we have never seen anything other than some hives and they were more that 2 years ago.) when the nurse calls back, she says we need to go to lebonheur urgent care just in case he is having a respiratory reaction. we decide it is best for josh to take him because i need to be able to feed spencer. 

josh takes him to urgent care where it is relayed to me that he is having a severe respiratory allergic reaction. he receives a shot of epinephrine. they attempt to give him oral pretizone, but he screams and "spits up" (miller's words). so, instead they give him an albuterol treatment and start an iv of pretizone, benedryl and fluids. then, they tell josh they need to keep him overnight in case of a secondary reaction. they call an ambulance to transfer him downtown. so, now, josh must call his unsuspecting wife and tell her this information. he begins with the good news/bad news question-really? all i hear is your baby boy (who is screaming bloody freaking murder in the background) has to spend the night in the hospital without his mommy (while josh comforts his shrieks of terror with "it's okay, buddy." is it??) 

he looks so tiny

they transfer him downtown in the ambulance (first picture and the second ride for our family this year). josh has to ride with him as he is terrified. they arrive and are put in an exam room. when the nurse walks in to assess him, it is our friend, jodie! what? i didn't even know she still worked occasionally (and she doesn't very often). after the doctor assessed him, he said he thought miller could go home. great news to this momma who just wanted to hold her baby boy! when jodie told josh, he said "that's great, but we don't have any way to get home." it just so happened that jodie was getting off and had a car seat in her car. so, after all the paperwork was complete, she drove them to the pharmacy and then to josh's car. josh arrived with a very sleepy boy asking for ice cream. he literally fell asleep in my arms as he finished his ice cream. we have a follow up with our pediatrician tomorrow and he is on pretizone for the next week. but all in all, God carried us through this extremely scary situation and we are thankful to have a healthy little boy today!

how many is too many??

that is the question. i have always felt it was a personal decision. 

we are currently vacationing with our vacay buddies, the tillmans. at the end of last year, we both gave birth to another baby, our third and their second. our biggest concern in traveling was entertaining the infants. would they cry, be too loud, need to nurse all the time? but no worries, people rarely even notice we have infants. they are too busy gawking at how many of us there are.

when eating at restaurants, we have heard the following:

"put them in the back." (whispered to the hostess seating us)

nice. 

photo hijacked from jennifer's blog

"do you mind eating inside? if not, i have a great place for you."

in case you were wondering, that is the bathroom door behind us. we were the only table upstairs that wasn't on the balcony. we spent the entire evening telling people they had to push harder to get the door open. seriously.

while hovering for the only large table at panera, we mommies and toddlers apparently sparked a new topic for the older ladies occupying only half of it. i overheard one say to the others while eying our children, "i mean, i want my grandchildren to come visit, but i don't want to raise them."

we aren't asking you to raise these cuties, we're asking you to get up so they will have a place to eat

another photo i hijacked from jennifer's blog

while entering banana republic, one of the people waiting for us to come through the door, "wow, did you see that party of 12?" no, lady, just 9.

while shopping at j.crew, i overheard two twentysomethings say, "this place is full of babies and strollers." nope, just two, us and them.

i always joke that my 3 kids can feel like 15 or 492, but apparently i am not the only one who feels that way . apparently, the world feels that i have reached my reproductive limit.

am i permitted to have 8 or 18 children only as long as i allow the public to ogle us like side show circus freaks?

oh, so tacky, and yet so funny

i have always loved the idea of having a big family, not in the octomom or duggar kind of way, but in the normal kind of way. i have actually read several editorials recently where people said they thought having more children was irresponsible in our current economic crisis and ecological distress. are you freaking kidding me? 

ugh. back off. and be nice. i know it is shocking but not everyone puts the priorities of the earth above the people that reside on it. not everyone sneers at the contagious laughter of children because it is too loud. not everyone's heart is two sizes too small . . .

we are here.

the beach, that is. as you can see above, it is working quite nicely. don't they look like a little old couple? you can picture them in a similar way in about 60 years! she is intently evaluating him and he is completely enthralled in something else.

we headed down on friday afternoon so josh could do this. it is complete eye candy. seriously.

because he was engaged the first two days here, i was without any memory documenting paraphernalia. if you are curious about the traveling antics of this party of 9, check this post here about our experience at dinner. it is all true, i promise. never a dull moment when we travel with the tillmans and our 492 children!

toesies

aren't these two of the most precious sets of toes you have ever seen?

by the way, pickup those bumbos and place these friends in some sand and, ta da, you have our plan to entertain these two while at the beach. disastrous?? we hope not! but, if you can offer any advice on traveling to the beach with a 4 month old and a 5 month old, please, please, please share!!

ride little pony

i've had several questions about the stick horses we made for miller's birthday party, so i thought why not do a tutorial! when i decided to make these, i searched the internet for help and then combined all the ideas i found to create this stick horse. i wanted it to be safe for the age group (mostly 2-4 year olds) and look like a horse (apparently not a prerequisite for everyone). so, to make one of these cute little guys, you will need the following:

a stick (i used a 3/4" dowel, but if you had a mop or broom handle, you could cut it down)

a tennis ball

a boat load of stuffing

a sock

seam binding, ribbon, ricrac, or the like

hot glue gun

buttons

felt

needle & thread & scissors

let's begin!

cut an X in the tennis ball and place it on the end of the stick.

this is to prevent someone from loosing an eye when the stick horses turn into swords, or when unsuspecting babies get caught in the line of fire.

fill your sock with lots o' stuffing until you reach the heel.

place stuffing around the tennis ball and shove (because you cannot do this gingerly) inside the sock. then, continue stuffing until you like the way it looks.

it should look something like this.

i cut the band of the sock off and used double sided tape to secure the sock for the next step. 

then, i hot glued seam binding (or whatever you want) around and around to secure the sock to the stick.

viola!

before the party, i sketched the mane for bullseye from the dvd case and then created a pattern. i folded a piece of felt in half and cut around the pattern to make this crazy tribal looking thing. then, i drew and cut some triangular shaped ears. (sorry there is no picture of the ears.)

at the party, each child picked a mane, 2 ears and some eyes (buttons) and i (and some crafty friends) whip stitched them to the sock. i began stitching the mane at the center of the heel and followed it down the tube. the ears were stitched about an inch away from the mane on either side. i pinched the triangle together and sewed it at the center of the heel. (warning: the phrase blood, sweat and tears may be applied here. pinching the ears together makes it a little difficult to sew through.) and, the eyes are tied on with embroidery thread.

addy is helping model her horse to show the placement of the pieces. once they were finished, we all agreed that they needed bridles. so, we grabbed the ribbon bin and started gluing.

to create the bridle, we glued two circles around the nose. then, we glued one long piece of ribbon or ricrac on the second piece of ribbon from one side to the other (see above photo.) and, finally . . .

ride 'em, cowboy (and cowgirls)!

he said

"i need a magazine."

tagged times 8

i was tagged by jennifer. so, here goes:

8 things i am looking forward to:

1. going to the beach!

2. having clean clothes

isn't she pretty?? i think she needs a name . . .

3. teaching in the fall

4. watching my girls become best friends

not a great picture, but i love the way carter is looking at spencer

5. having josh home during the week (when he is a big wig wedding photographer)

6. loosing my baby weight

7. buying another house (hopefully, in a better school district and with all our non-negotiables)

8. hanging out with my kids as adults when they are their own person 

8 things i did yesterday:

(written on thursday)

1. finally put the flowers josh bought for me in water

2. finally started to tackle the laundry heap on the counter

just keeping it real!

3. watch 2 episodes of gilmore girls on abc family (ahh, we are back to season 5, girls!)

4. cut three sets of finger nails (none of which were mine)

5. only drank one diet coke (it's an earth day miracle!)

6. ate lunch outside with my kids and my mom

7. watched bill o'reilly

8. changed a ridiculous amount of diapers (ugh!)

too bad he couldn't do them all!

8 things i wish i could do:

1. heal miller's skin

2. live in nyc 

3. play the guitar

4. have legs like this

seriously

5. wouldn't mind being able to sing like her either

6. bring back gilmore girls (or at least have it end correctly!)

oops! that's not a picture of lorelei & rory

oh, ooh! that's not either. well, at least you have some eye candy now.

7. twitch my nose like sam to do, well, just about anything

8. know my grandmother who passed away when i was two

8 shows i enjoy:

1. gilmore girls (oh, i miss you so!)

2. one tree hill (drama!)

3. gossip girl (i know, i am not in high school, but it is my soap opera)

4. how i met your mother 

5. friends (most quotable tv show ev-a!)

6. the office

7. lost 

8. american idol 

8 bloggy friends i tag:

moisan

breanne

emily

ms. molly

anne

la

jamie

kris

waiting on the world

i usually don't discuss political issues on here, but some of the things i have heard this week astound me. let me preface this by saying, josh banned me from the local news several years ago. we have never watched it regularly, but when we did catch an episode, he said i could talk about a thirty minute episode for three months. he was right. the information shocks me to the core. if you live in memphis, you know that the local news begins with the last 3 or 4 homicides from the day and then moves onto something like tennessee's ridiculous solution to correcting the problem of unpaid child support. (do you really think that people who are already breaking the law by not paying child support care if you revoke their driver's license? i don't think so!) 

then, last week, josh left me stranded on the couch nursing while bill o'reilly was on. it just so happened to be wednesday, so dennis miller was on for his weekly comedic relief of the nation's crazy antics. the biggest topic was why we (the u.s.) cannot use the term "terrorist" even to describe the worst political criminals, but we throw the term "pirate" around like peter pan and the lost boys. 

yesterday, it happened again. but this week, a few more stupid mishaps have occurred. first, the drama over miss usa. since when did your personal opinion determine whether or not you win a beauty pageant. and, what attributes qualify perez hilton as a judge in any pageant, other than maybe the drag queen of the year. this has caused a bigger uproar than watching toddlers in tiaras get spray tanned!

next, they discussed a new British study that says obesity is bad for the environment. they interviewed a girl (in her early 20s) who works to prevent childhood obesity who said that obese people who eat more than their body needs are causing others to subsidize them. they discussed how the government in all their love for the earth may choose to tax obese people or credit the physically elite. are you kidding me? how did we get here?

hundreds of years ago, the pilgrims came to america to escape religious persecution and now we are taxing the obese and requiring that you believe in same-sex marriage. really? REALLY? 

i told josh watching these channels may cause me to loose my mind. well, at least what is left after birthing 3 children in 4 years. if i watched this stuff every day, i would be huddled in the fetal position  waiting for the world to implode. am i the only momma out there who chooses not the be politically aware? 

my name's woody

over the past few months each time we have asked miller about his birthday party, he would say he wanted a woody party, so a woody party he got.

the invitation complete with stitching and bandana fabric

the birthday boy as woody
i made his shirt from a white button down, sunflower yellow rit dye and a red paint pen.
my mom made the vest and my dad spray painted a plastic badge silver.

his sister as jessie
once again, my mom used heat n bond to create jesse's shirt and chaps. and, i added the details with a red paint pen.

party activities included:

a table of army men,

a table of potato heads,

and a gold dig.

we were going to have pizza for lunch, but when the birthday boy fell the day before his party and bit through his tongue, pizza was a no go. so, we decided on hotdogs. (did i mention he woke up at 1 am wheezing with a barking cough and was diagnosed with croup minutes before people began to arrive for his party?) but, that didn't stop him from enjoying the yummy chocolate cake he requested!

and, the other activity was creating a stick horse from a sock and a dowel. i put the stick and the sock together and cut out the mane and ears in advance. then, when each child arrived, they chose the mane, ears and eyes they wanted and we whip stitched it together. we then decided no horse is complete without a bridle, so we added those as well.

so, once they were all finished, we had to see how fast they could race, right?

ride em, cowboy!

i think he had fun, whattaya think?

spotted

carter flitting through the house wearing butterfly wings and miller following after with his new binoculars.

then, carter appearing in the mirror with a straw in her mouth saying, "this is my long tongue i use to eat from flowers."